Chapter 631
Chapter 631
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 631
Chapter Title: Labyrinth (2)
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1.
The anomaly began with a tremor.
A deep, heavy vibration of mana.
The familiar dissonance of another world overlaying this one.
"Prepare! Get ready!"
"Kyaho! It's finally here!"
The witches, who had been idly whiling away the time amid complaints, each grabbed their wands, staves, ritual robes, and the like, gearing up for battle.
Their eyes gleamed with anticipation, like sprinters awaiting the starting gun in a 100-meter dash.
It was clear they were all determined to subjugate the homunculus first and claim its legacy.
Si-woo had picked up his Red Branch, while Eloa drew her contract sword from spatial storage.
Though Eloa had taken on the role of judge for now, this was in case any clashes broke out and she needed to intervene.
At the same moment, the labyrinth enveloped the sweltering haze over the desert sands.
In truth, records stated that the Demon of the Labyrinth wasn't particularly exceptional in raw combat power.
The reason it had survived long enough to earn a name was the extraordinarily convoluted structure of its maze.
Witches who attempted to subjugate it often got lost wandering inside and ended up abandoning the effort.
"Si-woo, don't rush. Take it slow."
Eloa, trying to offer advice to Si-woo as the hazy form of the labyrinth took shape around him, realized he had vanished like a mirage from right beside her.
"Si-woo?"
The Demon of the Labyrinth hadn't just created the maze—it had also scattered everyone swallowed inside to random positions within.
This wasn't its usual tactic.
It was clearly a step or two more advanced.
Of course, the Demon of the Labyrinth was a homunculus that appeared only once every few hundred years.
Its abilities might have evolved somewhat in the interim.
Even so, an unease surged within Eloa, and she activated her observational spell, the Eye of Truth, which pierced through all illusions and deceptions.
"No way..."
Yet the ability that could read books from dozens of kilometers away, the spell that saw through the boundaries of hidden realms, was blocked by a wall as if it were lying.
No matter which direction—up, down, left, or right—she looked, it was the same.
Not even Eloa had anticipated the demon could create a space this perfectly isolated.
"What...?"
As Eloa faltered, a chain of ominous signs followed.
She had dedicated one of her twelve contracts to Si-woo as a guardian pact.
A contract that pinpointed the user's location and, in some cases, allowed shared sight and hearing without permission.
It was the same one that had inadvertently let her glimpse his rough tryst with Perrywinkle before.
But even that failsafe had been severed without a trace.
There was no way Si-woo could have fallen in such a short time.
Nor could Eloa's contract be broken so easily.
At this point, Eloa was convinced of a third party's interference.
To unravel a 23rd Hierarchy witch's magic, the interloper would need power on par with that level.
"Tiferet Duke, the time for our reckoning has come."
As if confirming her suspicions, a witch stepped out from the shadows.
Black hair and eyes swirling with a sticky malice like oil droplets.
Even held at an angle, the massive greatsword's blade swayed down to her ankles.
The mana rippling over her shoulders was as dense as befitted her lofty 22nd Hierarchy rank.
"Samakiel."
Realizing things had gone seriously awry, Eloa tightened her grip on her sword and murmured the name softly.
The Sword Witch, Rinne Samakiel.
As her epithet suggested, she was a rare Cliport native who wielded a sword as her primary weapon, and she possessed a mindset utterly unlike a typical witch.
What she craved was overwhelming strength.
Magic and business enterprises were mere means to bolster her personal power.
She would fit right in as a shonen manga protagonist, but reality was different.
Her way of pursuing strength was to cut down foes stronger than herself.
She was little more than a serial killer carving a bloody path through knife fights across the world.
Officially confirmed victims of that blade alone numbered in the double digits.
Her personal prowess was that threatening.
Even Eloa, who had attempted to subjugate her several times in the past, had let her go without resolution.
"You were targeting me from the start?"
Paradoxically, Eloa felt a sliver of relief.
The Sword Witch was a twisted madwoman in some ways, but utterly straightforward in others.
She valued and pursued only strength.
Unlike other renegades, she didn't resort to tricks or schemes—she charged head-on.
That meant she could set aside worries like "Then what about Si-woo?" that she might have felt against others... or so she thought, until she saw the two witches appearing beside the silent Rinne.
"Whoa, check out that glare. Scary for real."
"Back off now if you know what's good for you."
"Nah, when's a chance this good gonna come again?"
They were witches who had been quietly staying at the exiles' camp until moments ago.
Their faces transformed into those of complete strangers.
They had been disguised and mixed in from the beginning.
Eloa, who had memorized the names and faces of all major renegades, identified them at a glance.
The Corpse Witch and the Silent Witch.
Both 20th Hierarchy grand witches from Cliport, who had taken part in the Gehenna raid in the past.
They had also gone into hiding for decades, making their recent whereabouts unclear.
The reason they—and the Sword Witch—were revealing themselves now was obvious.
A combined assault to eliminate Eloa.
Ever since Keter had been rendered immobile, Eloa had been filling that role.
She had taken the lead in subjugating renegades stirring trouble and quelling the chaos.
Unlike the absolute being Keter, whom they couldn't resist, Eloa had limits—and that was enough to breed their greed of "If only she weren't there..."
"Playing your hands so openly."
"......"
It was a problem she had always expected to face eventually.
But the Sword Witch joining such a scheme? That was unexpected.
For the first time in ages, she felt a true sense of crisis.
Just two 20th Hierarchy witches wouldn't threaten Eloa much.
There was an immense gulf between the 23rd and 20th Hierarchies.
But with the Sword Witch—who could check Eloa's outbursts—up front, and the other two providing rear support, it was a different story.
Even she couldn't easily claim victory.
These three alone could clear an average outpost with ease.
But Eloa was a survivor of countless battlefields.
She remained unshaken, calmly assessing the situation.
Even with the guardian contract severed, the odds of Si-woo being in danger were extremely low.
Cliport at present was no longer the solid organization it once was.
Having lost its leader and fractured by infighting, it was little more than a hollow shell.
In that light, these three were likely the best they could muster.
Even if they had spare forces to threaten Si-woo, they'd prioritize joining the strike on her.
Moreover, Eloa trusted Si-woo's abilities.
If the planners sent some half-baked witch after him, she'd just become prey.
So all that remained was to subjugate these three and return safely to Si-woo.
"I contract."
With Eloa's incantation, pink mana reflections extended from her eyes.
2.
About ten minutes had passed since the labyrinth unfolded and the guardian contract was severed, but Si-woo felt no particular sense of crisis.
In truth, Si-woo didn't know as much about "contracts" as Eloa did.
How unbreakable those bonds were.
How much advanced interference from a high-ranking witch was needed to sever one.
So even flung alone into the labyrinth with the contract broken, he felt no alarm—only thinking something like, "Guess this is just how labyrinth magic works."
The labyrinth summoned by the Demon of the Labyrinth was truly wondrous.
Hidden realms with their own rules, like an "aquarium," looked nothing like the stereotypical image evoked by the word "labyrinth."
Not dried-up plaster walls twisting like Pac-Man's maze.
Instead, it felt like being invited into a massive castle.
Rooms, corridors, and stairs intertwined in all directions, fully serving as a maze.
"This is kinda neat."
Wandering around, he spotted yet another staircase standing vertically.
Step onto it, and gravity would shift like a lie, letting you walk straight up.
The ceiling connected to the vertical stairs showed an inverted castle landscape, with rooms and corridors rearranging in real time.
In other words, not a flat layout, but a fully three-dimensional maze.
He could see why so many witches had failed to subjugate the Demon of the Labyrinth even now.
If it hid in earnest in a place like this, most magic couldn't track it.
"This thing is ridiculously huge."
Si-woo had no clever plan, so he just strolled around aimlessly.
He wouldn't lose in a straight fight, but if it turned into a treasure hunt, luck would play a role.
"Is my dream of debt repayment going to vanish like this...?"
As he hurried his search and reached a space as vast as a masquerade ballroom,
Si-woo halted, sensing something sinister.
Nothing detectable.
But the instincts honed across countless limbs screamed of unease.
"Hey, you hiding there? Come on out."
On a whim, he called out loudly, like entering an empty house alone.
"......"
No response.
Of course, even if someone was hiding, they wouldn't fall for such a sloppy provocation...
"How'd you notice? I hid super carefully."
"Must be 'cause your magic sucks, witch."
"Shut your trap, Mallisha. Alice sis, it's not like that for real."
They actually came out.
Bewildered, he quickly scanned their faces.
"Figured since you're witches, you got some tricks up your sleeves?"
Three in total.
The Mercury Witch Alice—who had spoken for the exiles to his master—plus two underlings.
They descended the stairs and approached Si-woo without hesitation.
Unlike outside, this was a perfectly isolated labyrinth.
No need to worry about prying eyes.
So their footsteps, like hunters spotting prey, weren't his imagination.
"Cute face. Sis, can I play with him later?"
"Keep your eyes down, or else. Look at her, acting cocky 'cause of her master."
The two underlings encircled Si-woo the moment they reached the first floor.
They weren't here just to shake him down, surely.
"Whew."
Si-woo sighed.