Space itself shattered behind us. A large crack in the middle of thin air emerged, revealing a twisted red and black dimension at the other side. From within, an ominous and demonic presence began to emerge into the dungeon's last floor.
We were all taken aback, although I kept myself calm while looking at the scene, quickly drinking an MP Potion while I was at it. Whatever was coming from within, it was surely demons. I had heard about Demon Gates opening randomly in areas that were very close to Demon Towers.
However… wasn't this a bit too much? I had not detected any sort of demonic artifact or demonic circle which invoked this, so this could only be explained as a "naturally occurring" Demon Gate, which spawned randomly anywhere, and flooded an area with Demons until the Boss of the Gate was defeated.
The Demonic Essence flooded the entire Dungeon Floor, as my entire Party seemed to panic at the scene. They had never seen a Demon Gate before after all, so they had no idea what it could truly be. However, many of them quickly recalled what was taught on classes, and they also recognized this red essence as the Demonic Energy the Demons emanated.
"T-This is Demonic Energy!" Said Elizabeth. "What's going on? Is this really a…?!"
Elizabeth couldn't really believe it.
"Yeah, this is a Demon Gate." I said. "Everyone, prepare yourselves. Don't charge towards the Gate, at our current level, we cannot enter them, we'll simply get shredded into pieces if we try. Wait until the Demons emerge!"
At my commands, everyone quickly bared their weapons and pointed their magic circles at the Demon Gate opening, the size quickly grew larger and larger, reaching up to ten meters! Whatever was coming from within was surely enormous!
"S-Something's coming!" Eric said while panicking.
"Uwaaah! W-What is that?!" Alberta panicked the same way.
From within the Demon Gate, enormous, black-scaled claws emerged, as if trying to tear apart the entire Demon Gate, it dragged the rest of its body out, revealing an insectoid monster resembling a mix between a beetle and a fly, with a monstrous size of over four meters and two big red eyes.
"Gihihihii…!" And it laughed ominously. "So this is where Master wants us to come this time?!"
The insectoid monster quickly dragged itself outside of the Demon Gate, letting out a foul smell as a black and purple aura began to spread from within its body. Several other similar-looking aberrations in the shapes of various bugs emerged one after the other, making a dozen in total.
"Fresh meat! Fresh meat!"
"Ohhh, they look so young and filled with dreams!"
"The flesh of children tastes the best!"
"Is this where Asmodeus is?! Whom of these children is he? I can't tell! They all look equally delicious!"
Everyone felt a dreadful feeling as they stared at the Insectoid Demons, Beelzebub's servants, and direct slaves of his "Swarm". Beelzebub dominates the Layer of Gluttony within hell, controlling all Insectoid Demons which form the "Swarm" an endless army of aberrant insectoid demons of all shapes and sizes.
And it was quite clear that the Archdemon of Gluttony had sent them here. Somehow, Archdemons had the authority of creating Demon Gates leading to either Hell or their own Demon Towers. He probably already held a grudge against me and decided to attack me in here, where nobody can come to help us.
"What sort of Demons are these? I had never seen something like them before…" Elizabeth said.
"They're Insectoids, a wide clade of Demons in the shape of insects." I explained. "They're vicious and gluttonous by nature."
"Why are they here?" Erika asked while feeling threatened by their monstrous shapes.
"Who knows…" I sighed. "But we have to take them down before they take us down."
"Gyehehe, that brave one… He seems unfazed by us…" The first Insectoid that entered, and the largest of the group spoke. It was clear he was an Aberrant Beetle Beelzefly, an evolution of the normal Beelzefly, a Demon comparable to a C+ Rank Monster in strength alone, if not higher.
"Kill him now to make master pleased!"
"We shall offer his head in a silver plate to master, so he might feast!"
The Boss quickly ordered the rest of the bugs to attack. We didn't had any time to prepare at all, and over half of my Familiars were already dead by the Red Orcs. My Grimoire was constantly creating new Summon Cards, but the speed rate wasn't as fast.
Elenora, Hendrick, and Saphira quickly rushed in front of us, unleashing magic attacks and throwing the Demons off their rails. Their hunger was clear as they were viciously trying to get to us. Erdrich jumped right after I did, unleashing a barrage of fists and punching the face of one of the Insectoids with the face of a mosquito.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
"GYAAAH! T-Those fists pack a punch!" Laughed the mosquito, his face distorted by Erdrich's blows. However, he wasn't dead yet nor seemed injured seriously. "It will be worth sucking your blood out!"
The Insectoid's sharp proboscis reached Erdrich, piercing through one of his arms and then viciously draining its contents. Erdrich groaned in agony as his muscular arm slowly began to get smaller and weaker.
"AAAGGGH! Y-You damn!"
Erdrich's Demonic Aura converged with his Spiritual Aura, invoking his second Spirit, the Living Armor he had created some years ago, which covered his body.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
The Mosquito rolled over the ground, as two of its legs were crushed by Erdrich's blows.
However, Erdrich fell to his knees as he felt tired, the demon had drained away a large part of his internal fluids, and above all, his strength.
"Erdrich!" Elizabeth cried, trying to get to him.
However, I had already arrived at his side by then, shielding him from the Mosquito's attack.