Chapter 24: The Pressure
It was a marvel.
A massive wave of relief washed over every soldier present in the sunken swamp. They finally realized the true weight of what their commander had been telling them all along. All they had needed to do was simply believe in Clame.
Now, their trust in her grew infinitely stronger, like a fortress reinforced with an impenetrable layer of solid concrete.
Yet, despite the phenomenal performance of the slimes unfolding right before their eyes, they couldn’t completely shake the heavy, lingering question in their hearts. They stood there confused, though for a vastly different reason than before.
How? How is any of this possible?
Clame smirked, stepping forward as if preparing to make a grand announcement, but Nair quietly placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh..." Clame paused, instantly catching the silent warning from her secretary, assistant, and deputy commander. She offered a slight nod. "Don’t worry, I have no intention of revealing that part."
She turned her focus back to the First Company. Behind her, a brutal, one-sided battle continued to rage. Even when a single Guard Slime couldn’t handle a massive swamp beast one-on-one, they worked together in seamless, synchronized teams to tear the monsters apart.
"Everything you see here today is the result of your relentless hard work!" Clame announced, her voice ringing clear over the swamp. "You have endured enough that the heavens..."
She raised her head toward the sickly green sky, a smile of profound relief spreading across her face. Finally, no one was going to die in this rift.
"...have heard our prayers! They sent us these slimes—beasts that require no contract—to fight directly under my command!"
The soldiers fell silent, watching their commander express a flood of raw emotions. They shared that exact same feeling. Deep down, they knew it was an unreasonable explanation, but they chose to believe her anyway.
The heavy weight on their chests vanished. A boisterous cheer erupted from the ranks, completely ignoring whether their noise would draw out more high-tier monsters. After all, they had these Guard Slimes on their side—beasts that weren’t just powerful team players, but possessed an instinctual ability for hunting down hidden threats.
However, just as everyone began to celebrate their guaranteed victory, a suffocating, heavy pressure suddenly exploded from deep within the rift.
The sheer force of it slammed into the clearing, bringing everyone to a dead stop.
Like frozen statues, every soldier froze in place. Even the hyperactive slimes ceased their bouncing, locking up instantly.
Clame’s heart hammered violently against her ribs. She turned her head slowly toward the source of the ominous pressure, her eyes widening.
’What is this?’
It felt as though a cold, sharp blade had been thrust directly through her heart.
A bead of frigid sweat traced down the nape of every soldier’s neck as goosebumps broke out across their skin. This wasn’t normal. Every veteran present recognized this exact type of crushing aura.
Clame bit her lower lip so hard it turned white, familiar memories flashing violently through her mind like a floodgate opening.
It was a decade ago.
Everyone in Nara City’s Third Company—Clame’s former squad—received an emergency alarm warning of an active rift breach in the outer sector of Suran City. It was the older settlement sector that the city was attempting to urbanize.
They had rushed to the scene after the notification officially rated the breach as an A-Rank crisis. It was a catastrophic disaster that had erupted out of nowhere, defying all standard rift patterns.
No one questioned the strange occurrence at the time. Their sole objective was to support the emergency evacuation of the civilian population trapped in the growing settlement.
When Clame arrived on the scene, the main asphalt roads connecting Suran City to the outer sector were already completely destroyed. Mutated trees were rapidly sprouting from the cracked earth, forming a dense, tangled barrier that threatened to isolate the entire sector.
The Third Company moved aggressively to clear an evacuation corridor, battling the fast-growing roots that fought against their weapons.
Panicked citizens poured through the narrow openings in a wild wave. Some were ordinary commoners fleeing on foot, while others were wealthy families riding inside armored transports.
"Clame!" her platoon leader yelled over the chaos. "Command your squad to prioritize that black sedan! That’s a member of the Lee Family!"
Clame froze mid-strike. Her sword hovered in the air, and her contracted beast stopped lifting a massive, protruding root.
"Why?" Clame demanded, her brows furrowing. "I don’t want to! They should wait their turn just like everyone else!"
"That is not an order for you to question, soldier!"
Clame straightened her back, instantly withdrawing her beast from the path. She bit her lower lip tightly, repeating the military mantra over and over in her head: A soldier obeys commands before asking questions.
Clicking her tongue in frustration, she hastily regrouped with her squad and relayed the direct order.
"Who’s even inside that sedan?" one of her squadmates grumbled while moving toward the vehicle.
"They said it’s a member of the Lee Family," Clame replied coldly.
"Really? Why don’t they have their own personal escorts? Aren’t they one of the primary families of Suran City?"
"I doubt they have the luxury right now," another soldier chimed in. "This branch operates out of the outer sector, so they’re probably less important to the main house. Still, command asked us to give them top priority."
The squad members shook their heads. They were soldiers, not private bodyguards for wealthy elites from another city. But since the command came directly from the top brass, they had no choice but to comply.
Clame marched up to the black sedan and reached for the passenger door handle. She summoned her contracted beast—an A-Rank Tyrant Golden Lion. Its majestic golden mane caught the sunlight filtering through the dark canopy of mutated foliage, gleaming like polished metal.
The beast was massive, standing at least two meters tall at the shoulder, with a sleek, powerful body stretching nearly three meters long.
Inside the sedan, two young boys stared out the window in absolute awe at the magnificent high-ranking creature.
"Come with me," Clame offered, extending her tactical-gloved hands inside the vehicle.
The two boys reached out, grabbing her hands tightly. She pulled them out of the sedan while the rest of the sector’s refugees continued to surge past them along the designated evacuation route.
"Where are we going?" one of the boys asked nervously.
"No questions," Clame instructed firmly.
The two young boys, both possessing light brown hair, climbed onto the back of the Tyrant Golden Lion. Clame mounted behind them, and with a low growl, the lion burst into a dead sprint, maneuvering through the dense, tangled foliage with expert control.
They crossed the Fringe boundary in a matter of minutes, finally reaching the safe zone.
The two boys looked up at the young female soldier who had saved them, their eyes filled with unadulterated admiration. They balled their small fists, speaking up one after the other.
"I want to have a strong beast just like yours one day!"
"Thank you! Your beast is so fast!"
Clame paused, looking down at their young faces in silence before carefully lifting them off the lion’s back. She tapped her special card, dismissing her beast back into her Pocket Sanctuary.
"You’ll have to work hard for that—"
Clame was cut off mid-sentence by a sudden, terrifying explosion of mana pressure originating from deep within the outer sector.
The pressure was so absurdly heavy that even from a considerable distance away, it slammed into the main city gates like a physical shockwave.
Clame’s knees buckled, and her hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Shit... that’s a high-ranked beast," she muttered, her face turning pale. She looked down at the two boys as city guards rushed over to escort them into the inner perimeter. "I have to go."
Summoning the Tyrant Golden Lion once more, Clame mounted the beast and rode back toward the outer sector at breakneck speed.
When she arrived, the area was a warzone. Debris composed of shattered concrete and torn metal sheets flew indiscriminately through the air. A blinding, suffocating aura pulsed at the epicenter of the sector, repelling soldiers, volunteer tamers, and private family guards alike.
Then, before a full-scale battle could even break out, the crushing pressure abruptly vanished.
Everything had happened so fast. Clame didn’t wait for orders. She darted past the stunned tamers, sprinting straight to the epicenter of the anomaly.
There, lying motionless on the cracked pavement, was a woman clad in shattered tactical armor, bathing in a pool of her own blood.
A sudden churn hit Clame’s stomach, making her feel as though she were about to throw up. "What... what just happened here?"
"A sacrifice..." a dark, heavy voice answered from behind her.
Clame didn’t turn around, her eyes locked onto the lifeless body on the ground.
"Kalisha Lee sacrificed herself to close the rift."