Struggling to Survive in Hell Difficulty

Chapter 57.

Ensnared by invisible hands, rising like phantoms from the undulating purple magic circle, I was pulled down relentlessly. An unseen force continued to drag me to the ground, shrouding my vision in complete darkness. Even though I was unable to see anything, the chilling sensation of spectral hands crawling on my body was undeniably present.

I had been trying to move my body, but it felt like I was restricted by some unknown force. I tried to use some spells as well, but nothing happened no matter how much I focused.

Thinking that this might be some forced event, I had no choice but to follow through until the end.

But just when I came to that realization, I found myself falling from the sky. The hands grabbing me had disappeared and I was left alone, falling towards the flat roof on top of some building in Proteus.

The thought of destroying the building crossed my mind for a bit, but I held back as I recalled there were still NPC's hiding inside. In a hurry, I used [Telekinesis] to slow down my descent. After a few seconds, I managed to prevent myself from turning myself into a flesh pancake and gently landed on the flat surface.

"...that was nerve wracking..."

As I heaved a deep sigh, I slowly looked around the area... until my eyes landed on a unique object hovering in the air.

The peculiar object... or rather, the bizarre person was none other than Be-Li, although his form grotesquely twisted and skewed unlike the Bailey I had seen before or his initial transformation. He continued to float ethereally in the air, as if trying to become the grim representation of the essence of chaos. His horribly distorted body sent an uneasy chill down my spine as I looked at him, my mind telling me that it was not how a human body should look like.

"...well, I guess there IS something that I could do..."

With my body now freed and no longer restricted from using magic, I attempted to cast [Fireball] and direct it at (what possibly could be) Be-Li's face. But to my surprise, I could not even form a single ball of fire. I tried using other spells as well and confirmed that my Mana was dropping, but I could not see anything I cast appeared anywhere around me.

Thinking that my magic might have been blocked in a weird way, I tried to take out the Warlord's Spear from my inventory. But to my surprise once again, I could not open or even access my inventory. Feeling that something was obviously happening at the moment, I tried to open the system message... but I could not even open the system interface.

"...so, I am being isolated from everything, huh?"

I spoke with a slightly louder voice on purpose as I tried to get Be-Li's attention. But Be-Li did not react or even say anything in response. I tried to approach him physically, but there seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing me from getting closer to him.

As I slowly traced along the wall, I finally realized that I was not only restricted from using magic and isolated from the system, but also confined within the transparent barrier around the rooftop's area.

[You are now a hostage]

"...yeah, that confirmation should have appeared much earlier."

I thought the appearance of the system window might have enabled me to open my system settings, but I was still unable to do that. I could not even attempt to log out and leave the game, so I was forced to do nothing but wait in this empty space.

Left unable to do anything, I could only sit down on the roof as I watched my surroundings... until my sight fell on the frozen mayor's house in the distance.