Episode 124. Extreme Situation (4)

“Phew.”

Elisha leaned against a solid rock, a cigarette in her mouth.

Kwaaaaaaah!

From afar, the horrific voice of a monster, presumably Behemoth, echoed.

“…It’s begun.”

The battle between the King of the Abyss Monsters and her prized student.

“My student…”

She shook her head with a bitter expression.

What kind of student is he when she hasn’t even taught him anything?

Tsk.

Professor Elisha flicked her hand lightly.

She had repeatedly warned Dale not to enter the Absolute Domain before three days had passed.

“But I can’t just sit here twiddling my thumbs.”

If her role was to rescue Dale, she at least needed to know how the situation was unfolding.

Ssshh.

A thin strand of spider silk, like a snake, slithered across the ground into Behemoth’s domain.

Through her sensory web, the faint sound of the monster’s roar became clearer.

With the ‘Insight’s Blessing’ activated…

‘Is that monster Behemoth?’

The outline and appearance of Behemoth formed in her mind.

A monster with the head of a bull, demonic horns, and a dragon’s tail.

Its head bore twelve eyes, glowing ominously.

‘A Twelve-Eyed monster…’

She had seen Ten-Eyed monsters before, but never anything beyond that.

‘A monster only recorded in the Devil God War 500 years ago…’

Professor Elisha swallowed hard and clenched her fist.

Even a Ten-Eyed monster was hard to deal with unless you were a ‘Ranker.’

But a monster with two more eyes than that…

The more eyes, the exponentially stronger the monster. Dale’s words that only someone like the Grand Archbishop of Madness could handle it were likely accurate.

‘Is Candidate Dale really fighting such a monster?’

She grimaced as she chewed on the cigarette.

No matter how strong Dale was, he couldn’t possibly defeat a monster even an Archbishop would struggle against.

But there was one reason he stepped into Behemoth’s domain.

“…An extreme situation.”

Dale said he needed to push himself to the limit to awaken the ‘Primordial Flame’ within him.

He argued that if another being like the Grand Archbishop of Madness invaded the school, they would need the power to fight back.

That’s how he convinced her.

‘But…’

Even so.

“Was it really necessary to go this far…?”

Crunch! Crack! Smash!

The horrifying sounds transmitted through the spider silk.

The sound of blood pouring, flesh being crushed, bones being shattered.

Imagining the pain Dale must be feeling sent shivers down her spine.

“…Candidate Dale.”

She wanted to scold him for his reckless attempt to grow stronger by throwing himself into the abyss.

But remembering his ‘past life,’ she couldn’t.

Even she, who had heard everything, couldn’t imagine the horrors he had lived through.

‘Please, let him achieve what he desires.’

All she could do now was pray that his grueling self-torture would be rewarded.

Professor Elisha crushed the half-smoked cigarette and sat down.

The battle scenes from within the domain continued to flow through the spider silk.

Kwaaaaaaah!

Behemoth roared and rampaged.

Crunch! Smash! Crack!

Dale, his body crushed, kept getting back up.

‘At first, he held on…’

But as soon as the flames enveloping Dale’s body extinguished, the tide of battle turned against him.

Dale’s attacks only left superficial wounds, while every strike from Behemoth tore his body apart.

“Three days like this…”

Dale had said it was nothing.

But three days is not a short time.

Especially when every minute, every second, is a life-and-death battle.

“……”

Professor Elisha closed her eyes and pulled out another cigarette.

Click.

The tip of the cigarette glowed red.

And so, one day passed.

Cough! Gasp! Aaaah!

Dale’s agonized screams came through the spider silk.

The battle remained one-sided, and Dale died and revived repeatedly, every ten seconds.

Behemoth, showing no signs of fatigue, continued to kill Dale relentlessly.

And so, two days passed.

Grrrrrr!

By now, even Behemoth seemed to be tiring, its movements slowing as it panted heavily.

But perhaps because it was a monster driven solely by destruction and slaughter…

Its relentless assault on Dale, who had died and revived hundreds of times, showed no signs of stopping.

Even though it must have realized Dale couldn’t be killed, the slaughter continued.

Over and over and over.

Dale stood up and gripped his sword.

And so, three days passed.

Behemoth’s movements had noticeably slowed compared to the beginning.

Its breathing was labored, and the number of small wounds on its black skin had surpassed a thousand.

A battle that had gone beyond fierce to downright desperate.

Behemoth, bleeding profusely, barely managed to continue its struggle with Dale.

“…I can’t tell which one is in the extreme situation now.”

Professor Elisha let out a low chuckle.

Dale had said he would fight Behemoth to push himself to the limit, but after three days, it seemed Behemoth was the one in the extreme situation.

But.

That was only what it looked like on the surface.

“Candidate Dale…”

It was transmitted.

It was felt.

Through a strand of spider silk thinner than a hair.

The endless deaths, the boundless pain, the bottomless despair Dale was experiencing.

“…You can stop now.”

Even a child would scream if they stubbed their toe.

Government agents, trained to endure pain, carry poison in case they break under torture.

“Surely… that’s enough.”

Dale had no such last resort.

Death was too frequent, pain was immeasurable, and life wouldn’t end.

That.

Was the life of the hero, Dale Han.

“Send the signal already…!”

For the past three days.

She had waited, sleepless, for Dale to send a rescue signal, but nothing had come.

“…Damn it!”

Professor Elisha bit her lip anxiously and cursed.

Who would have thought she’d be this worried over a single candidate?

Just a few months ago, she couldn’t have imagined it.

‘Dale.’

At first, it was simple curiosity.

She wondered what kind of person could defeat her cherished assistant in a single strike.

Using the ‘Insight’s Blessing,’ she saw that the candidate harbored an immense, unknown power.

So she took a liking to him.

Few women wouldn’t be drawn to a man with such a promising future.

Plus, his looks were appealing, and his personality wasn’t bad.

Yeah.

That was it.

Too good to give to someone else, but too much effort to claim for herself.

That’s what ‘Dale Han’ was to her.

But.

-“You’re pretty.”

-“Huh?”

-“You said the scar was hideous earlier. But looking at it now, it doesn’t seem hideous at all. In fact, it suits your looks.”

His cocky demeanor, acting all high and mighty for her sake.

Her heart wavered slightly.

Maybe… just maybe, putting in a little effort wouldn’t be so bad.

And then.

-“Listen to me.”

That day.

-“I’ll tell you how to solve this ‘common problem.'”

Seeing him reach out to her, who had given up on everything, another thought crossed her mind.

She wanted him. She wanted to be by his side.

Yeah.

To put it bluntly.

She fell head over heels.

Elisha Baldwin.

The Spider of the Abyss, ranked 9th in the Hero Rankings.

Had her heart stolen by a mere candidate who hadn’t even graduated yet.

“Damn it.”

Professor Elisha pushed off the rock she was leaning against.

She couldn’t just stand here waiting for Dale’s rescue signal any longer.

‘I’m going to save Candidate Dale.’

She stepped into Behemoth’s domain.

The moment she entered, the air changed, as if she had stepped into another world.

The thick smell of blood assaulted her nose.

“Ugh…”

Covering her nose, she moved towards where Dale and Behemoth were fighting.

A thick, gray smoke filled the air.

The smoke that emanated when Dale’s ‘Blessing of Resurrection’ activated.

‘For the smoke to cover this entire area…’

It meant Dale had died countless times.

Professor Elisha bit her lip and quickened her pace.

‘Hurry.’

The thought that she might have to fight a Twelve-Eyed monster was no longer in her mind.

All that filled her head was the need to save Dale from this endless cycle of death.

As she entered the thickening gray smoke.

Whoooosh!

Beyond the smoke, a fierce flame flickered.

“That’s…”

She had seen Dale create fire many times before.

But the flame burning within the gray smoke was on a completely different level.

A flame so fierce it seemed it could consume the world.

The Primordial Flame that had once burned the Tree of Creation was now burning within the gray smoke.

“Candidate Dale! Where are you, Candidate Dale!”

Professor Elisha pushed through the smoke, running towards the flames.

What she found when she arrived was.

“…Ha.”

Dale, his entire body engulfed in gray flames, and the massive corpse of a monster lying before him.

“Candidate Dale, you…”

“I told you not to come in until I sent the signal, didn’t I?”

Dale turned to Professor Elisha and smirked.

Professor Elisha looked down at the monster’s corpse with a stiff expression.

The corpse, crushed as if trampled by a giant.

The King of the Abyss Monsters was so thoroughly destroyed that its form was unrecognizable.

“…This.”

To put it simply, it looked like a pesky fly had been squashed by a hand.

“Huh.”

Professor Elisha let out a disbelieving chuckle.

How could a sword or fist create such a corpse?

Especially one of a monster over 15 meters tall.

“Did Candidate Dale do this…?”

“Who else would have done it?”

Dale shrugged and approached her.

The flames enveloping his body gradually faded, and the gray smoke dispersed.

And then, another shocking sight was revealed.

“……!”

Dale was completely naked, not a thread on him.

“D-Dale, Candidate Dale…”

Gulp.

Professor Elisha swallowed hard and slowly lowered her gaze.

As the gray smoke cleared, another ferocious monster was revealed.

Professor Elisha’s cheeks flushed red.

“Ahem! That… that’s concerning.”

“Huh? What is?”

“If I were to spend the night with Candidate Dale… I’d have to handle that monstrous thing, right?”

“……?”

Dale looked at Professor Elisha with a confused expression, then his eyes widened as he realized something.

“What the hell! What is this!”

Dale looked down at his naked body and screamed.

“Clothes! Where are my clothes? At least a piece of cloth or something…”

Click. Click.

“Hey! What are you taking pictures of?!!”