Chapter 47: Go to Hell
I never imagined I’d end up spending six whole days inside a chimera’s stomach.
If only the Laup Forest were a bit smaller.
My pouch of jerky was already halfway gone, and after starving for three days, even the disgusting environment of the chimera’s stomach couldn’t keep me from devouring the jerky.
But in Fenry’s case...
Grrrrr―
Suddenly, a loud rumbling echoed, as if someone’s stomach had caved in.
It wasn’t mine.
I blinked twice and stared at her. Her expression slowly hardened as I met her gaze.
Damn, why does this make me want to laugh?
I bit my lips tightly.
If I laughed now, she’d kill me with her own hands. If I even flashed my teeth, she might crush my heart like she did that chimera earlier.
“Do you, uh, want something to eat?”
“…….”
Trying to diffuse the situation, I handed her my pouch of jerky from my bag. It was the worst decision I could’ve made.
The moment she laid eyes on the jerky, a faint, incredulous laugh crossed her face, and her grip on her pipe began to tremble violently.
“Does it taste good? Eating it all by yourself?”
Thwack―
“Ku-eck!”
My vision turned bright yellow.
Clutching my abdomen, I writhed on the ground. The pain twisting my guts shot up to my brain like a thunderbolt. It felt less like being hit with a pipe and more like being struck by a hammer.
“You better pray Sharbadin is still alive. Unless you want to starve for the next fifteen days.”
“…Fifteen days?”
You lasted six days without food, so why am I getting a sentence of fifteen days?!
And yet, she shamelessly kept the jerky pouch for herself.
She’s black-hearted through and through, just like her skin.
While I groaned on the floor clutching my stomach, she cut off the manager’s hand and stood before an iron door.
The tightly sealed iron door had no handle. Instead, she pressed the severed hand against the door. With a loud thud, thud, the door began to tremble and slowly open.
It appeared to be a door that reacted biologically.
She must’ve noticed it when she came in here earlier.
Standing silently in front of the open door, she glanced back at me with a look that said, “What are you waiting for?”
Damn it, then just tell me to move or leave me alone.
I forced my trembling legs to move and stood next to her. She lightly tapped her pipe around my body.
A faint chant escaped her lips like a murmur.
“…….”
As I saw the blue light seep into my body, I realized she was using the same concealment magic as before.
With the magic cloaking our presence, we could avoid the chimeras’ sight. We only needed to evade the managers’ eyes.
“Guide me to the altar.”
“How would I know where it is after just getting out of that stomach?”
“Do you want me to hit you again?”
“…I’m thinking about it.”
“Think faster.”
“Isn’t navigating terrain more your specialty? You’d be better at it than I am…”
“You know my abilities?”
Of course, I know them well.
Her awakened ability, the power of shadows, allowed her to teleport instantly within the range of any shadows present.
It was the perfect ability for grasping the surrounding terrain. But I wasn’t referring to that.
I was talking about her elven specialty: spirit summoning.
As a five-star spirit mage, she should’ve formed contracts with at least one or two usable spirits.
“Wouldn’t summoning a spirit make finding the altar easy?”
“I already tried. It’s impossible.”
“What?”
Instead of explaining, Fenry walked over to the wall.
The space inside the cliff was entirely made of crimson walls, giving it a unique appearance.
When I first regained consciousness, the entire space appeared red, likely because of the walls surrounding us.
She tapped on the wall lightly, but it didn’t make a solid sound.
“These walls don’t seem to be made of stone. They feel kind of soft and squishy.”
Following her words, I touched the wall and confirmed it myself. It wasn’t a wall but more like sticky, tough skin.
It was as if…
“This feels like we’re inside the stomach of an enormous chimera.”
“Shut up.”
“…….”
Was the six-day experience inside a chimera’s stomach that traumatic for her?
In any case, she explained that the walls emitted an energy incompatible with spirits, preventing her from summoning them.
She had mentioned before that this place was filled with energy defying natural laws.
This meant we’d have to explore and investigate the altar ourselves.
After some thought, I looked at Fenry.
“How about this?”
“Say it.”
“Wha―Ah! Why are you blowing air at my neck?!”
***
After my explanation, Fenry nodded and immediately began moving.
Despite her grumbling attitude, the fact that she acted on my suggestion showed that she’d developed at least a sliver of trust in me.
Since things were proceeding smoothly, she must’ve decided to trust me for now.
Once outside, we quickly ran in the direction we’d been dragged from earlier.
We needed to confirm Sharbadin’s condition as soon as possible.
There was another reason for our haste.
‘Dominic will arrive soon.’
I had overheard one of the managers who tried to assault Fenry say this.
Dominic was returning here with his entire force.
His arrival was imminent.
We needed to find the altar and destroy “it” before that happened.
I recalled the entity residing at the altar.
It was the main event and the true source behind the outbreak of the Hundred Hearts—the very being that created the current Dominic.
‘The Crystal Mimic.’
The managers themselves seemed unaware of the altar’s secrets, but I knew them well. Although the details in the novel weren’t precise, the general information was clear.
‘Perhaps the true “owner” of this place is the Crystal Mimic.’
Knowing enough about the altar’s identity, one thing was certain:
We had to eliminate the Crystal Mimic before Dominic arrived with his chimera army.
If Dominic arrived, we wouldn’t even have the chance to try.
We’d likely end up surrounded and killed.
This was our only opportunity.
‘We can pull it off. I’m not alone, after all.’
I briefly stared at Fenry’s back.
She was my trump card to compensate for my lack of strength.
So far, everything was proceeding according to plan without major issues.
***
Clatter clatter clatter―
A series of carts rattled as they moved in one direction. About twenty carts formed a long line, each piled high with limp bodies of humans and various other species.
It looked like a scene of corpses being transported en masse.
“I don’t like any of your methods.”
“Where will you find a more reliable way than this? Besides, isn’t this better than being stuck in a stomach?”
“Shut up.”
Fenry and I were clinging tightly to the bottom of one of the rattling carts like leeches.
Having learned that most of the captured specimens were taken to the altar as offerings, I decided to hitch a ride on one of these carts.
While the cart moved, Fenry chewed on jerky, and I kept a close watch on our surroundings from the underside.
All I could see were the legs of three managers walking ahead and the lower bodies of chimeras staggering along like zombies.
For every specimen loaded onto the cart, there was a chimera accompanying it.
When I asked Fenry if we could take them in a fight, she scoffed and said it was easier to run away than to bother fighting.
That’s why I needed proof of my abilities.
This elf cared too much about efficiency and was reluctant to engage in combat.
The passage was incredibly long.
It didn’t seem like all the carts were headed for the altar.
Several iron doors were scattered throughout the passage. Occasionally, the carts would stop at these doors to leave some of their cargo before moving on.
Each time I peeked inside those iron doors, I shuddered.
‘These bastards!’
The “material rooms” mentioned by the managers were horrific slaughterhouses where the captured specimens were mutilated. The “storage rooms” held human, beast, and monster body parts preserved in jars of various sizes.
There was also a space for producing small chimeras, which was handled entirely by the managers.
From their conversations, it seemed that their “master,” Dominic, only participated in the creation of significant chimeras.
This meant the countless chimeras we’d encountered so far had all been created by these bastards.
This was information not even mentioned in the novel, reinforcing my belief that relying too heavily on the novel’s content was dangerous.
I also had a question.
Who were these so-called managers?
Why were they here in this hellish place, assisting Dominic?
Were they victims? Or perpetrators?
I found my answer just as we neared the altar, our final destination.
“Tsk, I should’ve been assigned to the material room today.”
“What are you complaining about now?”
“There were a lot of young ones in this batch, weren’t there? Cutting up the small ones is so satisfying.”
“There’s plenty of stock, so you’ll get your chance. Tomorrow, it’s our turn anyway.”
“Heh heh, that’s true. This place really is heaven. As long as we follow the master’s orders, we can kill and do whatever we want.”
“It’s definitely more fun than being a bandit. You can do anything you can imagine here—even extend your life.”
They laughed, pointing to their own bodies, and I felt so sick I could vomit.
It seemed they were once bandits who had roamed Laup Forest.
Every single one of them was a psychopath who quenched their twisted desires through murder.
The moment I realized they were nothing but perpetrators, I turned to Fenry.
“Shall we start?”
“…….”
Without a word, she summoned a terrifying crow in midair.
Ever since she saw the mutilated bodies of elves stored in jars, her words had become scarce.
“What’s the plan?”
“Kill them all.”
“For once, you’ve suggested something I like.”
Sliding out from under the cart, I slowly straightened my body.
We’d reached the entrance to the altar.
Why wait for the iron door to open?
“W-Who are you?!”
One of the managers spotted me and shouted.
I glanced at their grotesque hands, the same ones they used to open the door.
Their hands should be sufficient.
“I’m the one here to deal with you.”
The moment Fenry darted to the back of the cart, I dashed into the middle of the three managers at the front.
They were three in total.
I slipped into their ranks and stabbed my dagger with lightning speed in every direction.
Puuk. Puuk. Puuk.
Neck, heart, solar plexus.
My strikes landed precisely on their vital points.
“…Kuh!”
“You insolent…!”
Even though they should’ve died instantly from such fatal blows, the managers retaliated immediately.
So, they’re monsters after all.
Whoosh―!Whoosh!
The air howled as their terrifying swings narrowly missed my ears.
If one of those monstrous arms hit me, I’d likely end up with broken bones. Their physical abilities far exceeded those of humans, and with their intelligence, they were far stronger than a group of ordinary chimeras.
They seemed to fall somewhere between giant chimeras and smaller ones in terms of combat ability.
In the past, they might’ve been difficult opponents for me.
Taking a step back, I activated the glowing pattern on my dagger.
Flash―
“Ugh! My eyes!”
The sudden burst of light caused all three to cover their eyes and stagger, but they didn’t seem to be in much pain.
The light from the engraving didn’t work on them.
It seemed to only affect chimeras imbued with mana stones.
Calmly raising my dagger toward them, I muttered to myself.
‘Let’s see here.’
The mana surging within me began to swirl violently.
During those hellish six days, I had gained a profound understanding of the power within me while inside the chimera’s stomach. However, I hadn’t been able to test it properly for fear of killing the chimera.
Now, I unleashed that power in full.
Wuuung―!
My dagger began to radiate a brilliant light.
An enchantment to enhance weapon attributes.
The mana imbued in my dagger was denser and heavier than ever before.
After enduring relentless torment, I had consumed all the violet mana stones I’d collected. I devoured them completely.
This radiant light was the reward.
A third-star mana enchantment.
The gleaming blade slashed through the air, piercing forward like a drill.
Puuk!
“Ggaaahhh!”
“…Kuh!”
In a single blow, I impaled two of them through their torsos. Before they could even react, I slashed them apart, splitting them in two.
I was drenched in blood.
Wiping away the blood dripping from my chin, I turned my gaze toward the last one, who was fleeing in terror.
I shot forward like a bullet, grabbing his hair and thrusting my dagger into his nape.
“Guh, guh… Spare me…!”
“Bullshit.”
Crack―
With a vicious twist, I broke his neck and severed his head.
The body fell lifelessly like a headless doll.
Having dealt with all the managers, I whistled softly as I looked around.
The chimeras that had been following the cart now lay scattered like piles of meat.
Fenry, wielding her crow, was slicing through the chimeras near the cart.
Kieeek!
Kraaaah!
The moment her crow touched the chimeras, they were sliced apart like sheets of paper.
Her movements were cat-like—light and razor-sharp.
Her combat ability was overwhelming, but there were simply too many of them.
Even though we had reduced their numbers during our journey, hundreds of chimeras remained.
Taking a deep breath, I tightened my grip on my dagger and charged forward.
I barreled past her and plunged myself into the swarm of chimeras.
Claws and fangs closed in on me from all sides.
For a brief moment, our eyes met.
She frowned as if to say, “Are you insane?”
‘I’ve got insurance.’
The moment I plunged into the horde of hundreds of chimeras, they swarmed me, trapping me in a torrent of flesh and fury.
The pressure was overwhelming.
It felt as if my entire body was being torn to shreds.
Responding to that suffocating sensation, I smirked and gently raised my right hand.
“Go to hell.”
As I extended my middle finger,
Flash――――――!
A golden light flooded the passage.