My Harem of Dangerous and Crazy Women as a Reincarnated Necromancer-Chapter 60: Open Sesame

"Vorax!"

And at Mark’s shout the slime shot out from inside his robe like a black, viscous projectile, straight at the demoness’s face, enveloping it completely.

"!!!???"

The slime expanded like a black, viscous mask over the demoness’s face, covering her eyes, nose, and mouth in under a second.

And then Vorax began to feed.

Mark couldn’t see exactly what was happening, but he could feel it through his connection with Vorax.

The slime was trying to absorb her magical energy, draining it the way it would with any other source of magic it had encountered until now.

But something was wrong.

Very wrong.

"It’s... too much..." was all Vorax managed to transmit to Mark before the connection cut out.

Mark understood immediately.

What Vorax was attempting was like trying to empty the ocean with a cup of water.

The amount of magical energy emanating from that woman was so absurdly vast that Vorax wasn’t absorbing it... he was drowning in it.

But miraculously, the distraction worked.

Not because Vorax could absorb her magic, but because the surprise made her release Mark for just one second.

A single second in which her hands stopped holding him and her attention shifted to the thing covering her face as she tried to pull the slime off.

And that was more than enough for him.

Mark felt the grip disappear and his body come free for the first time since she had appeared.

’Now or never,’ Mark thought as he pulled away from the demoness.

And then he saw the barrier.

That invisible wall separating Mark from his subordinates began to flicker.

Like a lightbulb about to burn out, the surface that until now had been completely solid and impenetrable trembled and became visible for an instant, a translucent purple wall.

Mark watched as the barrier disappeared, reappeared, and vanished again in an unstable pulse.

And without a second thought he screamed at the top of his lungs to his subordinates.

"Attack the barrier, NOW!"

Mark’s voice rang through the entire hall with a desperation he made no attempt to hide, and on the other side of the barrier, three pairs of eyes went wide.

Rose was the first to react.

"Master, get away from the barrier!!" the vampire shouted, raising both hands in front of her.

Mark threw himself to the side and rolled across the floor without any trace of grace, feeling his shoulder and hip protest at the impact, but he didn’t care.

Seeing Mark move clear, Rose pressed her palms together in front of her chest and then pulled them apart.

Between her hands a sphere of dark blue energy began to form, making the air around her distort as if the temperature had jumped fifty degrees all at once.

"NEGATIVE BLASTER!!" Rose screamed, and in front of her materialized what appeared to be a gigantic dog skull.

From its jaws came a beam of blue energy that hit the barrier dead on.

The sound of the impact was deafening, the barrier held for a fraction of a second, then began to crack.

The cracks spread across the entire invisible surface like a spiderweb, making it visible for the first time in its entirety, and then the barrier finally gave way.

But Rose’s attack didn’t stop there.

The beam tore through the space where the barrier had been and hit the demoness full on, sending her flying backward as if she’d been struck by a train.

The demoness crossed the entire hall and slammed into the far wall with an impact that shook the entire first floor.

The collision caused chunks of ceiling to break off and fall on top of her, but just before Rose’s attack connected, Mark saw something.

Vorax had peeled himself off the demoness’s face at the last instant and launched in the opposite direction, flying straight toward him.

Mark extended both arms and Vorax landed in them.

"Got you, buddy!"

The slime settled between his arms, trembling slightly.

"Master... that woman... her magical energy is..." Vorax didn’t finish the sentence.

But he didn’t need to.

Mark had felt it through the connection.

Whatever that woman was, she operated on a completely different level from anything they had faced until now.

"We need to go, NOW!" Mark shouted as he got to his feet with Vorax in his arms and started running toward the dungeon exit.

Yuki appeared beside him like a shadow, without making a single sound, both daggers in hand, eyes fixed on the cloud of dust at the far end of the hall.

Alice positioned herself in front of them with her fists clenched, and the five reanimated women flanked them in silence, moving into formation without anyone needing to give the order.

"Rose!" Mark shouted as he ran. "Can you get us out of here?!"

"I can," Rose replied as she began tracing runes in the air with both hands. "But I need you to buy me time..."

"How much?!"

Rose didn’t answer right away. Instead she pointed toward the far end of the room without stopping her rune-tracing.

Mark followed her finger and his stomach dropped.

The cloud of dust from the impact was slowly dissipating, like a curtain being drawn back as the debris settled and revealed what was behind it.

"Oh no..." Mark said as he saw what Rose was pointing at.

The demoness’s silhouette was slowly rising to her feet, as if she had simply tripped on something in the street and was getting back up to keep walking.

She brushed the dust off her shoulder with a casual gesture, running her fingers over the fabric of her cape as if a smudge concerned her more than the attack she had just taken.

And although Mark couldn’t see her face clearly from that distance, he was completely certain of one thing.

She was smiling.

’...What level is this woman at?’ Mark thought as something cold ran down his spine.

"Five minutes," Rose said in a tone that made clear this wasn’t an optimistic estimate but the absolute minimum she needed. "I need five minutes to prepare an emergency teleportation spell."

Hearing that, Mark swallowed and turned to look at Yuki.

Yuki said nothing, she simply nodded.

The assassin already had both daggers in her hands, her eyes fixed on the demoness now walking calmly toward them.

Alice clenched her fists and nodded as well.

Even Alice’s companions turned their heads toward Mark at the same time, waiting for orders.

"Looks like we don’t have much choice but to face her..." Mark said, looking at the demoness approaching them.