[WARNING: GATE STILL ACTIVE - SECONDARY GUARDIAN DETECTED]

[MULTIPLE THREATS REMAIN]

"We're not done, darling," Ai said urgently. "The gate is still open!"

Akira's head snapped up, shock flooding through him. "What? But I killed the guardian!"

"Look at the gate!"

She was right. Through the tear in reality, Akira could see more shapes forming. Not as large as the knight, but there were dozens of them. More Ashlings, enhanced variants, and something else… something that moved with serpentine grace, its multiple heads weaving hypnotically.

"That's not possible," Ayaka said, limping toward him. Her leg was badly burned, and she was breathing hard. "Gates only have one guardian. That's the rule. One guardian per gate, always."

"Well someone broke the rule!" Akira gestured at the portal. "Because there's definitely something else in there!"

A serpentine creature began emerging from the gate: thirty feet long, made entirely of liquid flame, with seven heads that hissed and spat fire. Each head had its own pair of burning eyes, all focused on them.

[SECONDARY GUARDIAN DETECTED: HYDRA SALAMANDER]

[RANK: B+]

[WARNING: UNPRECEDENTED DUAL-GUARDIAN CONFIGURATION]

[ANALYSIS: GATE HAS BEEN ARTIFICIALLY MODIFIED]

"The gate has been artificially modified?" Akira read the notification aloud. "What does that mean?"

"It means someone fucked with this gate on purpose," Ayaka said grimly. "Made it stronger, more dangerous. This wasn't a natural occurrence, Akira. Someone wanted this to happen."

The Hydra Salamander had fully emerged now, its massive body coiling around itself. All seven heads turned toward them, and fire began building in each mouth… not the normal orange flames, but white-hot fire that made the air itself scream.

"We can't fight another wave," Ayaka continued. "We're both running on low battery."

Akira checked his status. His essence reserves were at forty percent. His stamina was lower. And now the gate was pulsing with unstable energy, growing larger instead of smaller after the knight's defeat.

"It's feeding on the instability," Ai explained. "The knight's death released massive amounts of essence, and the gate is absorbing the remnant. If we don't close it soon, it'll tear open completely."

If that happened, the school would burn. The dormitories would burn. Hundreds of students would die in their sleep.

And the SPIU would descend on this location like a hammer.

"We have to go in. Kill the other guardian so we can close the gate."

"That's almost suicide! A guardian in its own realm will be even stronger! And we don't know what else is in there!"

The Hydra's seven heads opened in unison, and seven streams of white fire erupted toward them.

"We don't have a choice!" Akira grabbed Ayaka and pulled her aside as the fire scorched the ground where they'd been standing. "If we let it out completely and fight it here, we'll just be buying time until more come through!"

"I will need to use the Flow State," Akira said internally, making the decision.

"You sure? That's your emergency reserve, and we still have that drug test tomorrow."

"If I don't use it now, there won't be a tomorrow." He looked at the gate, at the writhing form of the Salamander, at the dozens of Ashlings gathering behind it. "Besides, ten minutes should be enough."

"So here's the plan: we go in fast, kill the guardian, and come out before the gate destabilizes."

"And if we can't?"

"Then we find out what being trapped in a fire dimension feels like."

Ayaka stared at him for a long moment, then let a sharp, slightly unhinged laugh. "You know what? Fuck it. I didn't come here and team up with you to play it safe. Let's kill a hydra."

The Salamander was advancing now, its massive body leaving trails of molten flame across the field. Behind it, the portal pulsed invitingly… or threateningly, depending on perspective.

"Flow State," Akira said. "Activate."

[FLOW STATE ACTIVATED]

[ALL STATS INCREASED TENFOLD]

[DURATION: 10:00]

[PP: 1630 + 500 → 2130 → 1130]

The world crystallised into slow motion. Each flame from the Hydra's mouths became a frozen sculpture of light. Ayaka's expression shifted from determination to surprise as Akira's power spiked visibly.

"Whoa," she said slowly, her voice sounding stretched and deep in the dilated time. "That's... impressive..."

Akira felt the power surge through every cell. His muscles felt like coiled steel springs. His mind processed information at impossible speeds. The pain from his injuries simply... disappeared, pushed aside by the overwhelming enhancement.

He had ten minutes.

"Stay close," he told Ayaka, grabbing her hand. Even in Flow State, he could feel her fast, but steady pulse. Brave. "We go through together, we come back together."

"Deal."

They ran toward the gate, and the world couldn't keep up. The Hydra's attacks came in slow motion, easy to dodge. The Ashlings trying to pour through the portal were like statues frozen mid-stride.

As they reached the threshold, Akira saw something he didn't notice before… anchors. They weren't natural formations; it looked like someone had carved sigils into the ground, ancient symbols that pulsed with stolen essence.

"Someone definitely forced this open," Ai confirmed. "Those are binding runes. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing."

"Question for later. Right now…"

They crossed through the gate.

The transition was instantaneous and nauseating. One moment, they were in the slightly cool night air of the school athletics field. The next, they were standing in a place that only one word could describe… hell.

The fire realm stretched endlessly in all directions: rivers of lava flowing beneath skies filled with ash and embers. The heat was crushing, even with essence shield and Flow State protection. The air itself seemed to burn.

"Nine minutes left," Ai announced. "Make them count, darling."

The Hydra Salamander was ahead of them, but here in its home realm, it was different: larger and more solid. Its seven heads had multiplied to nine.

[HYDRA SALAMANDER - HOME REALM ENHANCEMENT]

[RANK: A-]

[WARNING: EXTREME DANGER]

"It ranked up!" Ayaka shouted over the roar of flames. "It's A-rank now!"

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