Chapter 264
Chapter 264
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 264
Chapter Title: Labyrinth
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The iron door leading to the second chamber bore an inscription.
- Turn back. Wealth, glory, honor. What you seek is not here.
But who would actually turn back just because it said to? Judah shook his head and opened the door, stepping into the second chamber. Just like the first, monsters were restrained behind bars and chains, and when he reached about the middle of the room, they broke free in the same way. After dealing with them just as easily as before, he arrived at the entrance to the third chamber. Sure enough, the iron door there also had an inscription.
- You will regret it. Discovering this labyrinth. Stepping foot in this labyrinth. Not turning back from this chamber.
The iron doors to the third, fourth, and fifth chambers each bore similar inscriptions.
- Fools. Do you think you can bear the fate that lies ahead?
- Do not grow arrogant from defeating mere monsters.
- Your existence is infinitesimally small. It is lamentable that the labyrinth, built upon countless sacrifices, has revealed itself to you.
Judah read the inscriptions on the iron doors without a care and opened them. It was ironic that the massive doors, which warned against entry, opened so easily.
'Easy.'
Judah thought it was easy once again. This labyrinth wasn't originally a place of such low difficulty. The reason it felt easy was simple. But it wasn't because he had skilled companions or prior knowledge of the route. When he'd entered the first chamber, he'd felt something was missing, but passing through the second and third made him realize what it was. The named monsters that should have been in each chamber were absent.
The ones with tricky patterns and high levels should have been guarding this place like gatekeepers, furious and ready. Yet they weren't there every time he passed through a chamber.
Someone who went ahead must have taken them down.
However, considering that other monsters were restrained, it wasn't hard to understand why the named ones had been killed instead.
They must have had the skill to bind the regular monsters in each chamber but couldn't manage the named ones. Given their levels and patterns, it was far easier to eliminate them than risk an uncertain restraint.
From the fifth chamber onward, no monsters appeared, so there was no need to worry. This area had no traps or gates connecting to the demon realm—it was a sort of safe zone. Instead, to proceed to the next chamber, one had to use a special device in the room and match a specific pattern. Fail to do so, and the thick iron door wouldn't open. But when Judah opened the door to the fifth chamber and stepped inside, the light orb from Arhil illuminated the room, revealing a highly unexpected sight.
"There's no door here?"
Arhil, who had entered the fourth chamber before and looked around, spoke up after opening the door to this one and peering about. There were no hungry roars from monsters like in the previous rooms. In the empty chamber, twelve colored stones rolled haphazardly across the floor, and what seemed to have been an altar was smashed to pieces. The iron door that should have blocked passage to the next chamber to prevent unauthorized entry was gone without a trace, as if someone had swapped it out with glue.
It had to be the work of whoever passed through ahead.
"It wasn't missing from the start."
Lime muttered as he examined the spot where the iron door had been.
"There's a faint trace of mana left... Looks like magic or a special ability. If it had been transmuted into something else, there should be remnants somewhere, but there aren't any. Did they just pick it up and carry it off?"
Lime stroked his chin, pondering something right there. The exit to the sixth chamber from the fifth was missing in the same way. Judah turned back to look at the fifth chamber.
'They smashed the labyrinth walls, so destroying an altar like that wouldn't have given them pause.'
Whoever it was, they'd bulldozed through brutally. Judah pondered the situation: the iron bars and chains that should have restrained the monsters, the massive iron doors—all gone without a trace.
Something was on the tip of his tongue, but it wouldn't come.
'Did I miss something?'
Even his <Memo>, recorded when his memory was sharpest, had no such details. So it wasn't a forgotten or overlooked fact. Something had changed.
'...If it was someone who came here to unseal Asmodeus, they wouldn't have bothered restraining monsters with bars or chains.'
They'd have killed them all or just passed through. The iron doors wouldn't have been carried off whole but smashed like the labyrinth walls. So it was definitely a third party.
Ah. Wait.
He had an idea who it might be.
There was someone who could handle metal.
Judah hurried through the fifth, sixth, and seventh chambers as if his free pass was about to expire, his mind racing, until a figure suddenly came to him. But he tilted his head and frowned.
'But... Organ? No way she'd be here.'
Iron bars, chains, vanished iron doors.
Judging solely on those three was hasty, sure. But when he thought of someone who could manipulate iron, she was the only one who came to mind. No, it couldn't be. She only appeared in the latter half of the game, on the second continent, long after significant progress. She wouldn't be in a labyrinth like this.
-Is something wrong?
Judah's eyes widened at the notepad suddenly thrust before him. Iris, who had been leading the way, turned around and walked backward while holding it out. Black pupils stared at him.
-Is something wrong?
"Ah."
He belatedly read the words on the notepad. Wrong...? Well, he couldn't say for sure yet, so he couldn't claim there was.
Lime, following behind, peeked over and read the notepad before speaking.
"Why wouldn't something be wrong? There is. Who the hell went ahead? They smashed the labyrinth walls that might collapse at any moment. And for the puzzle rooms meant to test your wits, they just took the damn iron doors. If that person's still alive, I'd love to see their face."
They had passed the eighth chamber by now. Just like before, the gimmicks in the room were all destroyed, and the iron doors were gone entirely. But at the entrance to the very last chamber—the tenth—one stood where none had been before. The inscription that hadn't been readable due to missing doors up to now was engraved there.
- This is your final chance. Turn back. Your bravery and martial prowess have been proven. But ahead lies no treasure you expect, no honor, no glory. Below is only a being that must remain eternally sealed. Wise one, brave one. Turn back.
That was the inscription. And above it was a newer one, seemingly freshly carved.
- A demon is sealed ahead. Turn back. But if you are resolved to slay that demon alongside me, blessed by the Holy King, then defeat the guardian of this labyrinth and descend. I will wait there. However. If you lack the qualifications. If you lack the strength, I will send you back.
After reading the new inscription on the iron door, Judah pressed his forehead.
'Ha! This is insane. No way it's really Organ.'
Organ.
She was dead now, but originally, she was meant to be Cain's companion. Just as Iris, bearer of the twentieth fragment Gilnuggagap, became Judah's companion, Organ, bearer of the seventeenth fragment <Starfish>, would join Cain. In the late game, you got a chance to recruit her as a companion, and it wasn't an exaggeration to say she had top-tier stats among all recruitable allies.
Players often said that fulfilling the tough conditions to get her basically meant the game was won. She surpassed even Jeanne d'Arc, the Blue Spear Knight obtainable via hidden quests, with superior vitality, physical and magical defense—and even attack power. Her traits and skills ensured she'd survive to the end, even if the entire party wiped.
Gems of traits and skills.
Plus, she synergized incredibly well with Cain. Like Cain, apostle of Gabriel, Organ was the apostle of the First Holy King. Lime was pondering just as deeply as Judah after reading the inscription. Iris and Arhil seemed fairly nonchalant, but he spoke in a troubled tone.
"I thought this labyrinth was a breeze since it was so easy, but it's way more dangerous than I imagined. They wouldn't casually claim to be blessed by the Holy King here unless it was true... What do we do?"
"Do you want to turn back?"
At Judah's question, Lime fell silent. He felt it might be risky, but as a mage, his curiosity burned. What demon was sealed here to warrant building this labyrinth and inscribing those words?
In truth, every labyrinth sealed a demon. This one wasn't much different. The difference was the claim of someone blessed by the Holy King waiting below. Lime felt embarrassed for getting cold feet from the inscription.
"No. Let's go in. Labyrinths are built to seal demons, after all. We can't turn back out of fear of one, can we?"