146. This Is Too Much
146. This Is Too Much
"...."
"...."
The long, drawn-out play with fire ended, and an awkward silence settled between them.
The clothes, which had been only half-shed on both sides, were now completely removed, leaving them both naked.
The garments that had been stripped off layer by layer lay scattered in disarray on the living room floor, and I was holding Emy from behind as she lay turned on her side on the bed.
From behind, I breathed in her scent and felt the soft sensation I grasped, sensing the embers still lingering in my heart.
In the awkward silence, we were both gauging who would speak first, so I opened my mouth.
"... Emy, about what happened today...."
"Hey, what's with the serious face?"
As if trying to cut off my words at the source, Emy spoke first.
"We didn't have a choice if we wanted to get out. Let's just forget this time. I think my head got a little weird too. And there's Liber..."
Without even looking at my face, still turned away, Emy hurriedly poured out her words.
Seeing that, my resolve hardened.
"Hyaang?!"
When I grasped the peak of her round breast, Emy flinched and arched her body backward in surprise.
"Wh-what are you doing...!!"
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting?"
Still holding her from behind, I pulled Emy upright.
Now we were in a position facing each other.
"Emy."
"Yes?"
Seeing my eyes filled with tension, Emy panicked.
At the very, very end, Emy got scared and tried to deceive her own heart by saying it was just a joke.
That could truly be the case.
Given the situation, words she never even thought of might have slipped out.
But I believed that Emy's confession was sincere.
I couldn't forgive her for trying to run away now.
"Push me away if you don't like it."
I stretched my upper body toward Emy.
Emy's figure in my sight drew closer and closer.
"Atlas, ju-just a moment... I'm not mentally prepared yet...."
Why did she try to run away at the last moment after revealing her feelings so honestly like that?
I interpreted that reason as her faith in me still being insufficient.
There was nothing restraining Emy.
She could have pushed me away or dodged me all she wanted, but she didn't.
In that brief moment, her expression changed many times.
Surprise, bewilderment, reaching her hand forward as if to push me away...
In the end, she lowered both hands and gently closed her eyes.
Finally, after the distance narrowed until we could feel each other's breath, our lips met.
I didn't go further than that.
The meeting of our lips was a seal confirming each other's feelings.
A few seconds later, as our lips parted, Emy bowed her head deeply and touched her own lips with one hand.
We had done many things with each other just moments before, but we hadn't kissed.
That was clearly an act carrying far more meaning than just a physical relationship.
"I'm not small enough that I can't handle just you. So don't say things like that."
"...."
As if she had broken down, Emy couldn't say anything and just blinked, staring at me.
I took her hands, which were held together demurely, and overlapped our lips once more.
This time, it didn't end with just overlapping.
Our touching lips parted and our tongues intertwined.
"!!"
Emy was startled by the unfamiliar sensation of a tongue swimming inside her mouth, but she soon surrendered her body.
As my outstretched tongue sought out Emy's tongue and began to entwine, Emy gripped my hands tightly, squeezing them hard.
As the two soft masses tangled, our lips pressed even closer together.
Then, for a long while more, we explored each other's saliva until the tangled tongues finally unraveled.
"Puh-ha... hweuh...."
Labored breathing could be heard.
As our lips separated and our tangled tongues came apart, Emy was blankly sticking her tongue out lewdly.
She seemed unable to escape the heat of the breath we had felt not even a handspan apart but completely pressed together.
The sight was so cute that I used my hand to tidy the strands of hair stuck to her face from sweat.
"Let's talk again once we're out."
"Nyehe......"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Both of us sorted out our feelings and stood before the door.
The condition written on the metal plate in the warehouse had already been met.
The firmly shut door had been open for some time.
If the method had been such that it crumbled the moment the condition was met, it would have been dizzying, but fortunately, it waited until we could sort everything out.
After all this, now that we opened it, it wouldn't be Tartarus, would it?
Beyond the door, which slid open without much noise as if it was well-oiled, another flash of light flickered.
Just like when we entered, the sensation of being thrown into the void overwhelmed my entire body.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
After spinning in the void for a long time, I saw the light that had filled my vision disappear.
The light ended, but the force of gravity seized my body.
I could still feel myself falling at a speed intense enough to make my legs tingle.
"Atlas...!!!"
"Wait there...!!"
I snapped to my senses and looked around; it wasn't darkness I saw, but colors.
Since I kept falling, I had thought maybe we were thrown into Tartarus, but that wasn't it.
I stepped toward the direction where I felt Emy's voice.
'It's working...!'
Stepping on the empty void, my body, which had been free-falling, flew toward Emy.
The Law activated.
"Atlas... This isn't the academy..!!"
"I know that just by looking!"
I grabbed Emy, who was similarly free-falling in the void, planted my two legs firmly on the empty air, and looked around.
"Oh, damn it.."
A black sky and a red earth came into view.
In the pitch-black sky, not a single common star was visible; instead, filthy cracks spread out like cobwebs, glowing faintly.
On the red earth, red rocks and sand were visible, but something even more conspicuous caught my eye.
It was the Sea of Sulfur Fire, blazing a vivid red.
Literally, a sea where flames blazed instead of water stretched beyond the horizon, and though it was small and hard to see clearly, I could feel countless souls suffering inside that inferno.
At that horrific spectacle, Emy's complexion turned pale, and she covered her mouth with her hand.
Would being thrown into Tartarus have been safer?
"... No way... Is this place...."
"It's hell..."
A place filled with human souls suffering in boiling sulfur fires and demons feasting on their pain and delighting in it.
This was not a place for living people to exist.
We had fallen into hell, the homeland of demons.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Ugh, what a fate..!!"
I brushed off the black soot clinging to my suit and descended to the ground.
While we were still in the sky, demons with wings kept approaching, so after slaughtering several of them, we landed safely on the ground.
"Ugh... it's hot...."
"... If you circulate your aura inside your body, it'll be somewhat bearable."
Though we had landed on the ground, hell was indeed not a place where people could live.
Even while floating in the sky, we had felt the stifling heat, but after coming down, a geothermal heat so intense it was suffocating rose up.
It wasn't just the blazing Sea of Sulfur Fire that was hot; this entire region was an inferno.
An ordinary person would have died the moment they came down, but fortunately, Emy had also stepped into the realm of superhumans, so she could endure it.
Even so, it would be difficult to last long in hell, but we were still far more at ease than we had been in the small world just moments ago.
"Still, if it's hell, unlike Tartarus, there's a way to escape."
".... As expected, Atlas... you knew about it too."
"I've investigated demons a lot too."
Unlike the small world where escape methods were extremely limited... unlike the room where you had to have sex to escape, the ways to escape from hell were fairly well known.
We would be able to get out soon.
From here on out, it was a race against time.
We could hold out longer than ordinary people, but we were still consuming stamina all the same.
And in hell, no means existed to replenish stamina.
In hell, only blazing sulfur fires and boiling oil existed, so we couldn't obtain drinkable water.
We couldn't eat food because every single creature wandering around was tainted with demonic energy.
In a normal environment, we could last well over a month, but in a place this hot, stamina depletion was far more severe.
We had to escape quickly.
"The way to escape hell is....."
Even the act of chatting felt like a waste of stamina, so just as I was about to move quickly, a spine-chilling presence was felt from behind.
[[[Hahahaha, that was entertaining. I never imagined that the ones I'd left alone would show me such an amusing love after so long!]]]
A voice mixed with many others rang out.
It wasn't like a Hydra speaking while rotating multiple heads; it was a voice as if several entities were speaking simultaneously.
As if we had planned it together, Emy and I turned around at the same time.
And dozens of eyes glared at us.
A massive lump bearing multiple heads squirmed.
I wanted to find another way to describe it, but no matter how much I thought about it, 'lump' seemed like the right expression.
It was not one entity.
Various creatures were entangled intricately like a puzzle.
The sight of male and female humans, roosters and cows, dogs and cats, eagles and sharks—creatures of many species entangled in male-female pairs—was like the organisms that boarded Noah's Ark fused into one.
It was a sight so nauseating it made me want to vomit, but more than that emotion, I felt awe.
Because I could sense that this massive colony wasn't just some bluff with a big body.
[[[Relax, because I'm not going to eat you or anything!]]]
Asmodeus looked at me and Emy, who were standing unharmed, and laughed.
That awe-inspiring colony of creatures was none other than the lord of hell, the Great Demon of Lust, Asmodeus.
[[[Well, that depends on what you two do.]]]
We barely escaped, and our destination was hell?
And on top of that, a Great Demon showed up in person with its main body?
It was vicious, truly living up to the name of a Great Demon.
This is just too much.