SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 72: Into the Unknown

The power Hiroshi possessed just a few minutes ago was so immense that he could have been one of the strongest people in the world, but right now, that power had almost left his body.

There was still some dying ember left of that power which maybe could be used for one last attack as Kenji came hard toward Hiroshi, his sword ready to cut him up. If Hiroshi wanted, he could have defended himself against that attack, but that would have taken that last ember of power from his body too. And his plan—if it could even be called a plan—would not work. It depended far too much on luck.

Hiroshi remembered the place they had found once when they were trapped. The pool, to be specific; the pool which held the hidden portal. Hiroshi needed to find that place. It was the only way for him to survive.

He willed that last dying ember of power that remained in his gut. It was small, no larger than a spark, but once Hiroshi poured his absolute will into it, that spark became a raging flame, and that raging flame turned into a screaming hurricane.

Hiroshi didn’t really know how to control that power, but being trapped inside that monster had somehow given him just enough access to tap into it. He focused, trying to sense the pool that lay somewhere deep below the rock and soil.

Kenji was almost on him, the silver light of his blade reflecting in Hiroshi’s eyes. At the last possible second, Hiroshi willed that power into one final, desperate strike. He gathered every remaining drop of energy and slammed his leg into the ground beneath him.

With the sound of a thousand bombs going off at the exact same time, the entire floor vanished. It didn’t just break; it ceased to exist. A humongous hole opened up, swallowing the light, and in the depths of that abyss, far below, was a shimmering reflection of water.

Hiroshi, Kenji, Aria, and an unconscious Marcus all began to fall.

Hiroshi’s power, before vanishing entirely, gave him one last boost in speed, driving him downward faster than the others. He hit the pool hard. At this point, the impact was so violent that some of his bones felt like they were nothing more than powder inside his skin. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. His life depended on it. He swam through the cold, dark pressure until he discovered the portal.

He dragged himself through the threshold. What greeted him was the same place they had been trapped in before, the place that existed in a loop. Hiroshi tried to stand, an act that was painful beyond measure.

He started walking slowly toward the edge of the cliff, his vision blurring. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Instinct took over. He tried to move his body, but he was too slow. A projectile, a bullet made of jagged ice, pierced through his shoulder. The sheer force behind the attack threw him backward, his body tumbling across the ground.

Aria descended slowly from the hole above, riding a ramp of ice she had formed on the way down. She stepped onto the ground without a single scratch on her body. Kenji landed behind her. They were completely fine.

Kenji looked at Hiroshi. Whatever patience he’d had left was gone. His face was a mask of cold, righteous fury. He gripped his sword and ran.

Hiroshi tried to stand again. His right leg buckled immediately. He went down, his teeth grinding together as he dragged himself up onto his knees. Kenji arrived before Hiroshi was even halfway upright.

It wasn’t a fight. Hiroshi knew that going in. There was no strength left to parry, no speed left to dodge.

Kenji’s blade came down hard. Hiroshi brought his hand up—the one still slightly coated with the faint, oily residue of void power—in a desperate cross-body block. The impact was like catching a falling tree. The force jarred his entire frame so badly that his shoulder popped out of the socket with a sickening wet thud.

Kenji didn’t pause. He followed the strike with a heavy kick to Hiroshi’s chest.

Hiroshi left the ground. He came down hard, skidding across the grit and sand until his back hit a massive, black stone structure. He slumped against it, his head lollng to the side. He couldn’t move. His breathing came in wet, ragged pulls. Every part of him was screaming in agony, and there was no void-current left to dull the pain or knit the flesh.

He watched through one swollen eye as Kenji walked toward him. Aria moved to the flank, her hands glowing with a pale, freezing blue.

There was nowhere left to go.

Hiroshi lay on the ground and dragged his left hand slowly across the ground. He shifted his weight, crawling backward inch by inch.

Once he reached the cliff.

Something jolted through him.

Text appeared in his mind. It was bright red, a shade more violent than anything the system had ever shown him before.

[WARNING: Hidden Dungeon Entrance Detected.]

[Rank: UNKNOWN]

[Status: SEALED]

[Unlock Conditions: Minimum Three (3) Sentient Entities required to breach the Threshold.]

[Scanning perimeter...]

[Entities Detected: 4. Conditions Met.]

[Would you like to initiate forced party formation and enter the Dungeon? Y/N]

Hiroshi stopped moving.

A smile cracked across his bloody face. It was a slow, gruesome expression. He coughed, and a wet splatter of red hit the ground in front of him.

Kenji stopped walking a few feet away. He raised his sword, the tip pointed directly at Hiroshi’s heart.

"You fought well, Monster," Kenji said. His voice was steady, carrying clearly around the place, filled with the absolute conviction of a man who thought he was doing the right thing. "But your corruption ends here. I won’t let you infect this world any further."

Hiroshi tilted his head back, looking up at the hero. Kenji looked perfect and completely sure of his victory. Hiroshi then looked at the red prompt floating in the center of his vision.

"You know, Kenji," Hiroshi said, his voice gurgling with blood. "You heroes really need to learn how to talk."

Kenji’s grip tightened on the hilt of his sword, his knuckles turning white. "Any last words?"

Hiroshi pressed his bloody palm flat against the cliff edge.

"Yeah," he whispered.

"Fuck you."

The ground erupted with darkness.

A deep crack tore across the grass and stone at the edge of the cliff, and from that fracture something unnatural spilled outward. The darkness was thick, dense and almost liquid. It swallowed the sunlight in seconds, turning the bright green clearing into a suffocating void.

"What did you do?" Kenji roared, charging forward to finish the kill.

But the darkness was already moving.

It poured out of the cracked ground like a tidal wave, heavy and irresistible. The sealed dungeon beneath the cliff had awakened, and the power leaking from it did not care about heroes or monsters.

The shadow surged forward and grabbed all four of them, Hiroshi, Kenji, Aria, and the unconscious Marcus.

Kenji and Aria fought against the pull, their powers flaring in desperate bursts of light and frost. Their magic blazed violently in the void.

The dungeon didn’t care.

The darkness swallowed their light.

Their screams.

Their strength.

Then it pulled them down.

The clearing went silent.

The wind moved gently through the grass as if nothing had happened at all.

As if no one had ever been there.