While Sozukusen was caught up in its internal mess, things over at the Gate weren't looking any better.
Members of the Akuma Guild had found Sae unconscious and badly injured. They immediately brought her back for treatment.
When Naomi saw Sae's condition, panic surged through him. He tried to leave the Gate to report what had happened, but someone suddenly blocked his path.
A stranger suddenly drew a katana and charged straight at him.
He wore a white jacket and matching hakama. His pale skin and messy black hair hung over his face.
The indifferent expression in his green eyes, sharp like a cat's, made Naomi feel the danger.
In the next instant, he appeared behind him and drove his katana straight through Naomi's chest.
Naomi's vision blurred. Blood spilled from his mouth as he collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
The strange man, having finished his mission, opened a rift in the air and disappeared inside.
Meanwhile, deep in the Gate's forest, Reisou, 2B, and the Princess Trio were resting near the entrance of a cave.
Earlier, they'd stumbled upon a horde of monsters. The fight had left Yukino, Eriri, and Kei completely exhausted.
Reisou and 2B, however, had faced hordes like that before, so they weren't nearly as tired.
He had just used a quarter of his energy.
As for 2B, she was on a whole different level. A normal horde wasn't enough to stop her. Only something endless, like the one summoned by the Fallen King, could challenge her.
"Seriously... you two are monsters!" Eriri said, admiring how Reisou and his girlfriend still looked calm after fighting for a whole hour.
She, on the other hand, was already exhausted, hungry, and drenched in sweat, barely able to keep walking.
"I agree with Eriri. Do you guys have endless stamina or something?" Kei added with a helpless look on her face.
Reisou and 2B exchanged a silent glance, a quiet understanding passing between them.
Watching the two exchange that quiet look, like they were speaking in some secret couple language, made both girls sigh.
The last thing they expected inside a dangerous Gate was to be flashed with a romantic atmosphere.
Ignoring the couple, both girls suggested heading back to the camp near the forest to sort and count the monster cores.
Their bags were stuffed with low-quality ones, and they'd even managed to grab a few medium-grade cores.
A couple of low-tier elite monsters had appeared earlier, but 2B wiped them out without breaking a sweat. Watching how effortlessly she handled them only deepened Eriri and Kei's admiration for her.
Even Yukino showed a bit of admiration, along with a subtle trace of envy.
Her narrowed eyes and sharp glare made Reisou pause. The Yukino he remembered from the anime wasn't like this.
But in the end, he let it go. This world wasn't the same as the anime anyway.
The setting was different, and even the characters' backstories might have changed.
For now, all he could do was keep an eye on her, just in case.
Fortunately, Eriri and Kei seemed mostly the same as their original counterparts, with only slight changes to their personalities.
Eriri was noticeably less tsundere, and Kei came off a bit more cheerful than he remembered.
[Ding!]
[Calibration finished successfully!]
[Gate level upgraded from D-rank to B-rank]
[Loading new dimension...]
Suddenly, a system notification echoed in Reisou's mind, making him halt for a moment to read it.
When he saw the Gate level had been upgraded, his eyes widened in shock.
"Damn it! Everyone, run!" he shouted.
The girls blinked in confusion, unsure of what he meant—until the world around them began to shift.
A powerful earthquake rattled the earth beneath them. The bright sun faded, giving way to a deep blue sky, where a huge full moon slowly rose, casting an eerie glow over everything.
"W-What's happening? Why did the sky change? And what's with the earthquake? Did someone hit the boss?" Kei was the first to speak, her voice shaking with fear at the sudden chaos around them.
It was only natural for her to think the Gate boss had been hit. Sae had already explained the basics of what could happen inside a Gate back at the camp.
"Let's listen to Reisou-san and get out of here," Eriri said, her voice trembling with fear.
If the battle with the Gate boss had started, the nearby monsters would go berserk until it was defeated.
Everyone ran, forcing their way through the rough terrain as fast as they could.
Strangely, there were no monsters in sight. It was as if they had vanished into thin air.
Reisou understood why.
The monsters had been temporarily "despawned" temporarily to make way for new, stronger ones to appear.
'I didn't know the calibration would be this dangerous. If I had known, I never would've entered this Gate,' he thought, a heavy guilt settling in for putting everyone at risk.
Now that things were spiraling like this, he already knew he had to take responsibility.
While running, Reisou quickly caught up to 2B and quietly explained everything that was happening, careful not to let the others hear.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she listened, clearly understanding the situation.
"Let's escort them back to the camp. Then we'll try to fight the Gate boss by ourselves," Reisou whispered to her.
2B nodded, agreeing with his plan.
The group sprinted through the shaking forest, dodging sudden holes opening in the ground and trees crashing down around them.
When they arrived at the camp, they found a small group of students already there, being guarded by members of the Akuma Guild.
Apparently, the sudden shift had made the Akuma personnel retreat with the students, pulling them back from the forest.
"Where are Naomi-sensei and Sae-sensei? Shouldn't they be here too?" Kei asked, scanning the area with a worried look. It felt odd that neither of them was around.
"Yeah, they should be," Reisou said, his eyebrows furrowed.
There was no way Sae wouldn't be here. She was the kind of woman who took her job very seriously.
After a while with no sign of the two Sozukusen teachers, Reisou decided to ask a nearby Hunter about their whereabouts.
By chance, the Hunter he approached was Denji, who was busy arguing with his sister over some trivial matter.
"Hey, do you know where our teachers are?" Reisou asked the blond guy.
Denji stopped arguing with his sister and turned toward Reisou, his eyes brightening as he recognized him.
"Oh! You're the guy who's always hanging around that gorgeous white-haired girl, and those three beauties, right?"
He'd seen Reisou before with a group of stunning girls.
It made him a bit jealous at first, but he figured they were just friends.
Like a protagonist of a romcom anime.
"Yeah... she's my girlfriend, and the others are my teammates," Reisou replied simply, already seeing through Denji's real intention.
"Just like I thought, she's yo—wait, what? G-Girlfriend?!" Denji stammered, completely shocked by the answer. "No... it can't be... NOOO!"
He dropped to his knees, throwing his hands up to the sky in exaggerated heartbreak, like he'd just discovered he was being NTR'd.
His reaction immediately sent Power rolling on the ground, laughing at his misery.
"Hahaha! I told you, dumbass! There's no way a girl like that was single," she howled, tears forming at the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard.
"You!" Denji, already heartbroken, lunged toward Power to shut her up.
Reisou let out a deep sigh. Those two were hopelessly unreliable.
Not wasting any more time, he looked around and spotted Aki calmly directing his team and students.
He approached him and asked, "Excuse me, Hayakawa-san. Do you know where our teachers are?"
Aki turned to him, about to lie, but then hesitated and stopped himself before answering.
"Chabashira is currently receiving treatment. She was attacked by an unknown enemy. The other teacher left the Gate to inform his superiors."
Although Aki didn't want to reveal the truth, a familiar voice echoed in his ear, calm but commanding, ordering him to speak honestly.
"What? Sae-sensei was attacked?" Reisou was stunned.
He hadn't expected that at all.
Aki ignored his reaction and went back to his duties, letting the young man process the news on his own.
Right now, his focus was on getting everyone out of the Gate safely and understanding the situation as quickly as possible.
Then, without warning, the tremors stopped.
The sudden stillness made the people inside the encampment slightly less frantic.
But what came next made the veteran Hunters freeze in place, eyes wide with disbelief.
The moon, high in the sky, had turned red.