TEOCH 7

When I woke up and stepped outside, something absurd was unfolding.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight. In fact, it was a scene I’d seen so often it was almost tiresome. The capital’s plaza, bustling with life and excitement for once, the chattering children and murmuring women gathered to witness the spectacle—it was all familiar to me. They had all come to see the hero’s departure with their own eyes.

But there was one problem. I hadn’t even gathered all my companions yet, so why was the departure event already happening?

“Geez, I figured it wasn’t an ordinary job since it was for the kingdom… You’re the hero, aren’t you?”

“Didn’t I tell you? If you tell others, they’ll look at you with admiration.”

“No one’s left for me to brag to anyway. But life’s a funny thing, isn’t it? A guy who used to hunt deer in a mountain cave ends up trailing behind a hero. And to think I’d be traveling with the captain of the royal guard and a wizard—I never would’ve dreamed it.”

I struggled to keep my expression neutral as I watched Rehas, who was rolling his eyes in curiosity. In front of others, I tried to act calm, but in truth, I was considerably tense.

This was an unexpected situation. I’d never imagined things would turn out this way. Normally, the Demon Realm entry event only triggered after gathering all companions. Once the conditions were met, you couldn’t delay it, but if the companions weren’t all assembled, the event wouldn’t start no matter what. That meant I could control the timing of the event as much as I wanted.

In previous playthroughs, I’d often stayed at the castle for a few extra days under the pretext of finding better companions. Spending three or four days chatting with Tristan gave me the courage to step back into that dreadful Demon Realm.

But this had never happened before. To be thrust back into the Demon Realm without having gathered all my companions? Wasn’t it enough that the difficulty was already absurd, and now bugs were tormenting me too? Wasn’t this just too much?

I wondered if Damian had given me wrong information, but seeing Rikiel and Damian’s unease about my decision suggested it wasn’t simply that.

“This is an overly hasty decision. You haven’t even gathered all five people, and you’re setting out?”

“…It’s not my choice but the will of the gods. I don’t understand it myself, but I’m merely a messenger of the gods. If the gods command it, I have no choice but to obey.”

“Why would the gods send such a revelation? Do they truly wish for our success?”

“I’m not of this world; I was merely summoned from another. I have no way of knowing the gods’ true intentions.”

I lied without so much as a change in my expression. If you think about it, it wasn’t exactly a lie. If the “gods” of this game were akin to developers, wasn’t this their revelation? Who knows, maybe this was another of the developers’ schemes to ramp up the difficulty.

“If the gods truly sent such a revelation, there’s no helping it, but I can’t help but worry. I’ve heard the Demon Realm is no easy place. Even with the maximum number of companions, it’s barely enough, and now we’re setting out with fewer than that…”

“I’m sorry, Damian. But I had no choice either. I, too, wanted to proceed with enough people…”

“No need to blame yourself too much, Rohan! Surely the gods have their own intentions.”

Damian’s cheerful consolation was at least some comfort. I tried to shake off my anxiety and focused on the entrance to the Demon Realm opening before me.

Rather than calling it the Demon Realm, it felt more like a gateway to hell. No matter how I looked at it, that black passage inspired no affection. Back when I was a novice, unaware of what lay beyond, it was the fear of the unknown that gripped me. Now, knowing what awaited, it was the dread of predetermined suffering that bound me.

That place was a bottomless abyss. Beyond it lay only trials that surpassed human limits. Of course, being afraid now was somewhat laughable…

“Blessed by the gods, our hero who has come to this earth now takes his first step on the long journey to the Demon Realm!”

I snapped back to reality. The high priest, his face pale and sickly from exhaustion, began his blessing with a resonant voice that belied his frail frame. As always, it was the same repetitive speech, a formal procedure with no proper skip option, so I listened halfheartedly as usual.

The gods had not yet abandoned the humans of this world, and the hero, their messenger, would, with the help of humanity, march into the Demon Realm to defeat the Demon King, the root of all this chaos. It was a story that stirred no emotion in me, but the fervor of the gathered crowd was extraordinary. The desperate cry that the gods had not abandoned them filled the central plaza.

When the high priest’s speech finally ended, King Tristan, who had stepped back during the address, came forward with a stern expression. Only then did my heart begin to tremble. He was the only king I could have in a nation without one.

I knew a king was to be revered, not an object of affection. I understood that the one who should truly receive his love was someone else. Yet, he was the one light I could never give up.

The light spoke.

“Hero from another world, summoned to this land by the gods’ mission, I sincerely thank you for gracing this earth for the sake of this unworthy king. I am not unaware of how arrogant it is to burden you with the sins caused by my shortcomings…”

Regret surged belatedly. Come to think of it, I hadn’t had a proper conversation with him this time before leaving like this. The blessing Tristan was giving me now had a slightly formal tone, but if I’d spent a few days building rapport with him, his words would surely have been much warmer and filled with affection.

That was the only regret I felt. The anxiety that leaving for the Demon Realm without spending enough time with him would not help me let go of my attachment but instead deepen my festering obsession gnawed at my heart.

I wanted to see him longer. If I could spend even a few more days with him, I might be able to sort out this tiresome attachment, even just a little. I suppressed the desire burning darkly in my gut and tried to calm my heart.

Yes, maybe this was for the best. Perhaps it was better to leave without seeing him. Out of sight, out of mind…

“…This nation’s hope rests solely on you, so fulfill your mission and return without fail. That is the only request this unworthy king can make.”

With those final words, the king’s blessing ended. The court wizard raised his staff high, chanting a spell, and the passage to the Demon Realm, resembling a bottomless pit, began to glow with an eerie light. I took a deep breath and approached the entrance.

One step beyond, and a world where human logic and reasoning no longer applied would unfold. I wasn’t the only one tense—Rikiel, Damian, and Rehas, who had been relatively relaxed moments ago, now stared at the entrance with noticeable apprehension.

I was the first to step toward it. As my body slipped into the passage, the others, after a brief hesitation, followed suit. The passage was filled with a gloomy purple atmosphere. It was the toxic air of the Demon Realm, which you couldn’t endure for long if you inhaled it.

Gasping in pain, I waited for all my companions to enter the passage. Once we arrived in the Demon Realm, I needed to set up a base as quickly as possible and infuse it with purification energy. Without doing so, we might die in vain before even fighting.

But.

[Not all party members have entered. You cannot move to the Demon Realm.]

I instinctively turned around. Damian, Rikiel, Rehas—all the companions I knew were in the purple passage, breathing heavily in pain.

What was going on? Wasn’t it enough that a bug reduced the number of companions, and now I couldn’t even enter the Demon Realm? Was this intentional? Did some rule pop up after entering hard mode that required gathering all companions within a day? Were they trying to drive me insane even at the companion-gathering stage?

“The passage is unstable! Something’s definitely wrong!”

“What’s happening? Did the court wizard fail?”

“No way! The court wizard surely completed the spell correctly…!”

I hurriedly looked back. Beyond the still-open passage, the court wizard was floundering in clear panic. I knew it wasn’t his fault. The problem was with the game itself, not him. I ran toward the entrance to escape the passage, but even that wasn’t easy.

[Wrong direction. Return to the original world is impossible. If you wish to return, please die.]

This was clearly a malicious message! I gritted my teeth and struck the passage’s wall. The path to the Demon Realm wouldn’t open, and the way back to the original world was completely blocked. At this rate, death was truly the only option.

My breathing grew more painful, my companions’ eyes were filled with panic and resentment, and the message “please die” repeated with malicious intent… I sank to the ground, unable to do anything.

What was this? Was the first playthrough of the second run meant to end in death? Or was the second run designed to be impossible for humans to clear?

It was at that moment. A hand reached out to me—whether it was salvation or the start of despair, I couldn’t tell.

“Rohan! Grab this hand quickly! Hold onto me with your companions and get out!”

From beyond the blocked passage, a pale hand thrust forward. It was Tristan. My companions’ faces lit up instantly, and I, too, grabbed his hand with a relieved expression.

Yes. I didn’t know what was happening, but it didn’t matter. If I could return to the palace with his help—if that was possible—I could start over as many times as needed. Maybe this itself was some kind of event.

But the next moment, my face went pale at the message that appeared before me. Only then did I realize what the “new companion” message from the game over meant, and why the event proceeded as if I’d gathered all companions when I’d only recruited three.

[All companions have entered the passage. The gate to the Demon Realm opens.]

The tightly shut gate to the Demon Realm opened in an instant. An overwhelming suction force, unbearable for unprotected bodies, pulled everyone in.

I tried to let go of Tristan’s hand in a panic, but Tristan, unaware of the situation, clung to my hand desperately.

“Tristan, no! Please let go of my hand!”

But it was already too late. Tristan, with nearly half his body already in the passage, was also affected by the suction force, and he began to be pulled into the Demon Realm’s entrance along with me.

This couldn’t happen. I couldn’t bring this man to the Demon Realm. What kind of place was this? It was no place for someone so beautiful and purely good to endure.

Please, gods, have mercy.

It felt like someone had cried out, but the situation wouldn’t reverse. In the end, every human in the passage was hurled into the Demon Realm’s entrance without the strength to resist.