The Transmigrated Professor

‘Pant! Pant!’

Running through the barren black sandy plains of Tartaros, a lone dishevelled man dodged as a bolt of dark red lightning barely missed him.

Flying in the sky above him were two humanoid figures with bat-like wings, cackling away as they enjoyed their hunt.

The Demons’ superiors had told the two that he was an important prisoner, so they intended to bring him back without alerting the Duke of Death of his escape. 

But considering all the trouble they had to endure because of his escape, the two Demon Guards decided to “play” with him for a bit before heading back to the castle. 

After all, he was just a weak C-Rank human, who barely had any offensive abilities.

One of the Demon Guards pointed his index finger at the figure running in the distance, and shot another bolt of red lightning. 

Sensing the danger, the man swerved right and jumped down a sand hill to dodge the attack.

‘Aahh!’ A scream wailed out from behind the large hill.

“Haha! Look at him howling like a swine. Humans really do make better prey than Elves and Dwarves.” The Demons cackled as they flew up, to see the prisoner groaning in pain.

‘Flash!’

Suddenly a dark red flare exploded in the distant sky.

Being long-time guards of the Duke’s Castle, they were already aware of the various signals that the wall guards used to communicate with those on patrols.

The flare shot in the sky indicated that the Duke would soon be arriving at the castle.

It means that it was time they had to bring the prisoner back.

Well, it had already been a week that they had been searching for and playing with him, so it was about time.

“Let’s grab him and head-” As he turned, he suddenly froze.

“A-Azron…” He called out to his friend, pointing to where the lightning had exploded.

“What happened?” Turning to where his friend was pointing, Azron’s body froze in fear.

In the location where a human prisoner should have been running for his life, all they could find was a barren sand pit.

“Shit! Where did he go?” Quickly rushing to the location, the two looked around, but there was no living creature in sight for miles.

“The sand sink around here looks too deep to be natural. Shit, you must have hit one of the underground tunnels.” Arod cursed as he checked the sand that was spiralling downwards. “I told you that we should have just taken him back when we caught him.”

“WHAT?! Don’t lie! You were even more excited than me to chase him back to the castle.”

“S-Still, it's because of you that we lost the human prisoner…”

‘Flash!’

Another flare lit up in the sky behind them, stopping them from fighting.

“Shit! Let’s just quickly find the human and go back.”Arod suggested. 

“Yeah!” Azron agreed with this plan.

They could fight about this matter later, but right now the main priority was the human. 

If they didn’t bring the prisoner back, they wouldn’t even be able to guess how they died.

Shifting the sandpit using mana, it wasn’t hard for them to find the hole in the ground that had sucked up their valuable prisoner.

With a quick flap of their wings, they swiftly entered the hole, finding themselves in a large tunnel, wide enough to fit an elephant. Weird green moss covered the rock malls, glowing in random bursts of time.

“Where’s the human?” Scanning their surroundings, Azron quickly realised that the prisoner was nowhere to be found. Even the sand that should have sunk into the tunnel through the hole seemed to have disappeared.

“The rumours…It must be true then?” Beside him, Arod muttered as he seemed to have realized something.

“What rumour?”

“The Labyrinth of Belphegor. It is a complex network of tunnels that spans the entire planet of Tartaros, magically created by that mad scientist. Some say that the Labyrinth itself is a living organism that breathes and shifts like a living creature, born through a complex mix of teleportation and spatial magic, so even if you enter through the same opening, you can end up in different parts of the Labyrinth. Some say that one can even find themselves on different planets if they knew how to navigate through it.”

“Then how the hell are we supposed to find that guy?” Not interested in the history of the place, he wanted Arod to get to the main point and help find the prisoner.

“Don’t worry. The Duke forbade unauthorised entry here long ago. That means, right now the only living thing nearby should be that human. We can just have our demonic energy target him.”

Demonic energy, by nature, was a power that wished to cause destruction and swallow life. It was the main reason why demons caused bloodshed and suffering wherever they went.

And that is why, in a place disconnected from the world, it would definitely try to seek out the only source of life and snuff it out.

“Nice idea! Now let’s find that prisoner before the Duke notices he is gone.”

*****

 

“Uhnnn…”

Ray’s entire body was aching from the fall. Usually, an Awakened won’t be hurt by such a small fall, but he had been forced to starve for the past week, all the while hiding and running away from those sadistic Demons that followed him.

He was exactly in a good condition, whether as a Hero or a decent human being.

The Demons wouldn’t directly hurt him, but they found every way under the sun to make his life hell.

Chasing all across that never-ending desert, not a morsel of food in his belly or a sip of water wetting his throat.

Slowly sitting up, he brushed the sand off his skin and clothes. Thankfully, his Awakened physique helped his body recover at a faster pace, otherwise, he was sure he would have broken a bone or two.

It still hurt a ton, but the pain was bearable.

As he massaged his body, he looked around to see where he was. 

It seemed to be some kind of underground tunnel, barely illuminated by the unknown moss on the walls on tiny sections of the wall.

Strangely enough, he couldn’t see the hole he had fallen through on the ceiling of the tunnel.

Did someone move him?

No…the sand was still here. Then the only possible explanation was the entire tunnel had been moved.

Is he trapped in some monster’s belly? No, that can’t be it. The walls are too sturdy, there is no acid to digest the food, and I can’t sense any movement, even breathing.

‘Hmm…This might be advantageous to me.’

If these tunnels were indeed constantly shifting, hiding here would be far more efficient than in the desert above, where there is barely anywhere to hide from the Demons and all he could do was dodge their attacks to survive.

‘Let’s get up and leav- Keuk!’

A sharp sensation of pain flowed over his body as Ray tried to stand up.

“Shit! It’s twisted.” Examining his leg, he could see his skin had turned blue at his ankle.

He didn’t even have any Potions on him that he could use to fix it. 

Although left to its own, it would take a couple hours to half a day for his foot to heal without any external help, thanks to his Awakened physique. But right now, he can’t afford to waste time lying here, not knowing when the Demon might find him.

‘Are there any herbs here I can use?’

Ray looked around, but in the end, the only thing that grew here was that luminescent moss.

‘Sigh!’

Since there was nothing he could do right now, he decided to at least make himself comfortable.

For the past week, he had been running non-stop with not a single moment to rest, just so that he could get away from this hellish land of Demons and those merciless guards.

‘I deserve at least this much…’

Slowly the fatigue of the past few days washed over him, as he lulled into sleep.

*

*

*

‘Clack!’

Ray woke up in shock as the noise echoed across the tunnel.