Vivienda Empire.

Aracelli, who was able to save her world from the imminent destruction, spent a leisure time with Empress Sahar. Both of them stayed in a hut they built in the forest with a good mountain view, good air, and good quality necessities like food and water. If they need firewood, they would cut firewood, and if they need food, they would simply either hunt or harvest the vegetables they had cultivated.

However, contrary to Aracelli, who is enjoying this kind of life, Empress Sahar was very dissatisfied.

“Just go out into the world and say your name right now! Everyone will look up to you,” she said.

“That is burdensome.”

“I don’t understand why!!!”

The Vivienda Empire did not know that the Archmage they always looked up to had returned. No, they didn’t even know that their world had already been destroyed once and everything had been reverted. But Aracelli did not even try to reveal the truth.

“How can you go through all that hard work and yet keep everything a secret? I don’t understand.”

“Well, this world doesn’t need me anymore.” Araceli smiled bitterly and continued. “Moreover, I also prefer to live a simple life like this.”

Empress Sahar said nothing more. She has always lived a luxurious life, but she didn’t want that life even in another dimension. Because in the first place, she had already given up on everything she had when she decided to move from her home dimension.

From that day on, the leisurely days continued. Aracelli recovered all of her circles, but she still couldn’t pin-point where Yoo Seodam was. So, when Aracelli had free time, she sat down at the little handmade table she made and fiddled with blue cubes she received from the dragon.

“That is…?”

“Ah, this is the thing the ‘dragon’ gave to me right before the world line changed.”

“Dr-dragon?” Dragons were something which were treated as mysterious beings in any dimension. It was due to the fact that only a handful of people have seen them. However, from time to time, anecdotes related to dragons were recorded. In particular, when the world is in crisis, they would always suddenly appear like a hero, save everyone, before disappearing once again.

In fact, Vivienda Academy was also visited by the dragon when they were on the brink of collapse. However, the situation had already been resolved by Aracelli and her group, and the dragon returned after tossing the gift at her.

‘By the way, what is this gift?’ No matter how much Aracelli rolled her head, she didn’t know what was its use.

“Why don’t you visit the Imperial Library? I heard that there are records related to dragons there.”

“Ummm… Yeah, there’s indeed records about dragons there. But I’ve never read it.” In the first place, Aracelli was someone who had no interest in superstition, so she had never even touched books related to dragons.

“Then, should we sneak in and check it out? I’m really curious.”

“That sounds fun.”

Sometimes, it was necessary to deviate from these small daily routines, so it would be a good memory to sneak into the top secret archive of the Imperial Library–which was said to be the most heavily secured place in the Empire–and read books about those dragons.

The plan was implemented immediately, and frankly, it wasn’t that difficult. Aracelli and Empress Sahar, who had snuck into the library, took a lamp hung on the wall with her hand and blew the dust piled up on top of the books.

To be honest, she could do anything with the flick of her finger, whether it’s light or dust removal. But she just wants to create an analog-like feeling.

“There are surprisingly a lot of books about dragons.”

“Ah, It was because there’s a record that this world was visited by dragons thousands of years ago. Well, there are quite a few people who claimed it was real, but there’s little evidence left now.”

In fact, there were quite a few statues of dragons erected throughout the Vivienda Empire. There’s also a kingdom which was said to be a descendant of dragons a few hundreds years ago. Although in modern times, it was all unified under the banner of Magic Empire Vivienda.

“Here” Empress Sahar put some papers in front of Aracelli. “These are all documents related to the object.”

“Really?” There were more dragon-related legends than Aracelli expected, and surprisingly, the answer to the ‘cube’ she had failed to understand was quickly found.

“The Dimensional Traveler’s Guide…?” Even though it could only be used once, it was said that the object Aracelli currently possessed was once used by a person who wanted to chase their loved one who was far away beyond time and space.

But it’s too early to be happy. Because it seems that the cube Aracelli has had already been used.

‘Why is this happening to me…’ Aracelli lamented.

Few minutes later, just as Empress Sahar rummaged through the book to see if there was a way to use the cube again, Aracelli suddenly dropped the cube and sprung to her feet.

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“Oh, no, that’s… uh…” Aracelli stuttered as she looked all over the place. Empress Sahar closed the book, stood up, and put her hand on Aracelli’s shoulder.

“Calm down, take it slow and look into my eyes. What’s going on?”

“Ah….” At that time, Aracelli barely spoke, cold sweat ran all over her body.

“I can’t feel it all of a sudden…”

“What do you mean you can’t feel it?”

Empress Sahar felt as if Aracelli was going to say something ominous.

“Suddenly, the professor’s energy disappeared… I can no longer feel it…”

“!!!” Sahar’s premonition turned out to be correct. What Aracelli just said was quite a shock to her; it was to the point she was speechless and didn’t know what to do.

The two of them stared blankly at each other’s eyes, not saying anything for a long, long time.

*

Pacific Ocean, near Hell Gate.

Eight Kraken-class aircraft carriers each carried 100 jet fighters on them. There are also destroyer-class battleships surrounding it on all sides. So, it wasn’t a stretch to say that one Kraken-class carrier would be able to envelop both the sky and the water.

Each aircraft carrier carried a special protection designed by Another League which enabled them to convert ether into a ‘Magic Shield’ and various other technologies such as magic radar. Not only that, thousands of hunters were also aboard on the aircraft carriers. With a force of this size, any monsters would be dead before they could even get close.

-Breaking news! The expansion of ‘Hell Gate’ had begun. Absorption of energy proceeds.

Suddenly, a huge tongue came out from inside the Hell Gate, pierced the clouds, and plunged into the sea, as if trying to take root on Earth. Thousands of eyes twitched from the tongue, and some deformed features, which looked like mouths, noses, hands and feet, gushed out.

In front of the grotesque scene, people vomited, and some people who had weak minds and bodies even passed out. Even though all the people gathered here were veterans, there were always people who just couldn’t stand to look at it.

Foosh-!! Foosh-!!

Shortly after, fighter jets far in the sky fired missiles in succession, and the tentacles exploded, scattering into the sea.

-The enemy monster’s defense is weaker than expected!

Originally, the reasons for not being able to use weapons such as missiles in a fight against monsters was because such devices could not be brought inside the dungeon where they didn’t work properly, and using them in urban cities in case of a dungeon break would destroy the buildings around it.

However, as the years passed and a new substance called ‘mana’ was discovered, the situation changed a lot. It was now possible to use modern weapons which could break the enemy’s energy shield.

‘Something is strange, isn’t it?’ Taylor Nine conjured five spheres of light and floated into the air and looked at the monster coming out of the Hell Gate. At this moment, Hell Gate was still rapidly absorbing Earth’s energy, and the monsters inside were constantly coming out. But, it looked as if the monsters were forcibly squeezed out rather than naturally coming out. It was as if the Hell Gate itself was trying to throw away all the monsters inside.

And the truth is, Taylor’s conjecture was right. However, unbeknown to Taylor, Hell Gate was trying to ‘squeeze’ out every monster inside to Earth, rather than just a few of them. Once that happened, it was doubtful whether these eight aircraft carriers would be able to block it.

“Hunter Taylor.”

While she was piercing the foreheads of the monsters approaching from the sea with her sphere of light, someone called her. It was General Robert, the commander in charge who had three stars on his shoulder.

“What happened?”

As General Robert was famous worldwide as someone who, despite his lack of superpower, had never once retreated from the battlefield, Taylor respected him a lot.

“I have heard news from inland. They told me to tell you right away. In Shanghai, China, Another League’s Guild Master Yoo Seodam and Murim Lord Seol Jungyeon had a bloody battle with the so-called ‘Monster 2’, and finally succeeded in killing it.”

“Oh… As expected.” It was good news to convey, but for some reason General Robert’s expression was not happy at all.

“…and what?”

The quick-witted Taylor asked first, and Robert said.

“…Guild Master Yoo Seodam seems to have entered the Hell Gate alone.”

“Yes? Wait… We are guarding this place, how can he?”

“I don’t know about that. But since it was the testimony of the Murim Lord, it should have been true.”

Taylor massaged her forehead arms. They had decided to enter the Hell Gate together, yet he still entered alone.

‘Why?’ Despite her confusion, General Robert continued his speech.

“Now, reinforcements are coming, they are bringing the Murim Warriors of the New Murim as well as Another League’s Hell Gate Expedition Team. it’s reassuring, but…” General Robert looked at Hell Gate with a bitter expression. “Would it be possible to rescue Hunter Yoo Seodam?”

They looked around the Hell Gate. Both of them wondered what the hell the Hell Gate was doing by pouring out monsters over and over again. However, at that moment, the answer came to them. The sea of over 200m turned into an environment similar to the inside of Hell Gate which they only see through videos. The monsters, which had just left the Hell Gate entrance began to stagger and walk over it. Some monsters were so huge that the bombardment didn’t work at all, and some just walked and killed themselves.

Kurreung…!!

Not only that, a red cloud began to form over the Hell Gate.

-Gas!

-Wear a gas mask!

Taylor silently pressed the belt attached to his wrist. Then, the etheric suit, which had been converted into a baseball jumper that she wore, instantly transformed into a black suit covering her entire body. It was the newly developed suit which was able to adapt to even the environment of Hell Gate.

‘What the hell is the situation…?’ Taylor didn’t know for sure, but if it’s true that Yoo Seodam really went to Hell Gate.

‘The exit is only this entrance anyway.’

Then…

There was nothing she could do other than wipe the exit clean so that Yoo Seodam could come back comfortably.

‘You bastard, I’ll kill you when I see you later.’