Chapter 32
Chapter 32
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Chapter 3 - 3rd Floor
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Chapter 3 - 3rd Floor]
Chapter 3 - 3rd Floor
The Great Labyrinth eroding the Labyrinth World.
The Demon God that appeared alongside it, standing in opposition to the five goddesses.
Where did the Great Labyrinth begin?
Where did the Demon God come from?
Why are they invading the Labyrinth World?
&
Aurael, Raguel, Eizel.
As the three angels fell into a deep sleep, savoring a sense of fullness they hadn't felt in ages, Lucille clung tightly to Cheon-ho's waist.
"Mm!"
Saschiell, carrying Cheon-ho and Lucille, passed through the stairs connecting the 2nd floor to the 3rd.
Flying swiftly up the spiral staircase felt just like riding an amusement ride.
"Eek."
Like most people on a roller coaster, Lucille let out a scream tinged with strange delight, hugging Cheon-ho's waist even tighter each time.
'Ahh, ahhhh.'
Cheon-ho was satisfied. He even wished this moment could last forever.
[Lewd Lv4 experience has increased.]
[Haa...]
The light window that suddenly popped up made Mitra let out a sigh laced with complex emotions. And it was right then.
"We're almost there!"
At Saschiell's shout, Cheon-ho swallowed his disappointment, and Lucille opened her tightly shut eyes. Mitra also peered ahead through Cheon-ho's eyes.
The darkness lifted, and light appeared.
But it wasn't the bright, vivid light they had seen on the 2nd floor.
Gray.
The color of a sky closer to night than day.
It was even worse than the 1st floor before its liberation.
The ground went beyond ashen to wasteland, and hot winds blew in from the distance.
"The situation has gotten worse."
Saschiell murmured in a low voice after landing on the ground.
Not a single blade of grass grew on the wasteland that was the land itself—no flowers, nothing.
But the bigger problem was the hot winds sweeping in from afar.
Cheon-ho looked up at the sky from atop Saschiell's back. It was definitely gray, yet he felt scorching sunlight. Not because of clouds, but because the sky itself was gray.
"Hero."
Lucille gazed into the distance. Cheon-ho narrowed his eyes and looked toward the horizon as well.
It wasn't just a wasteland. Beyond it lay a desert, unmistakably.
Desertification.
And it was happening at an alarming rate.
[Saschiell did say the 3rd floor was a wasteland.]
The time Saschiell had spent on the 2nd floor after leaving the 3rd was merely a few days.
Yet in those few days, the terrain of the surrounding area had changed.
There was only one cause.
[Chronicle Quest: Adversary of the Plague God #3]
[Destroy the altar and statue of the Plague God located on the 3rd floor.]
[Desertification is occurring due to the Plague God's ritual.]
[The desertification may be just the beginning.]
[Stop the Plague God's scheme before a greater catastrophe strikes.]
The 1st floor's altar and statue had been destroyed before they were even properly built.
The 2nd floor's had been wrecked just as the ritual was about to begin.
But the 3rd floor was different.
The altar and statue were already complete, and the ritual was underway.
[This won't be easy.]
Originally, it was the forces on the 3rd floor that had annihilated Saschiell's angel squad.
Breaking through their defenses to destroy the altar and statue would inevitably be far more difficult than the battle on the 2nd floor.
"Hero."
Lucille called out to Cheon-ho. In that instant, multiple light windows appeared in rapid succession before his eyes.
[Rescue Request]
[Sender: 7th Rank Combat Angel Eliel]
[Rescue Request]
[Sender: 7th Rank Combat Angel Mujiel]
[Rescue Request]
[Sender: 9th Rank Combat Angel Yujiel]
[Rescue Request]
[Sender: 9th Rank Combat Angel Rael]
[Rescue Request]
[Sender: 7th Rank Combat Angel Kajiel]
Five rescue requests in total.
Color returned to Saschiell's face.
"They're my comrades! We have to go save them!"
[Hidden Quest: Rescue Request]
[Rescue requests from combat angels have arrived.]
[Rescue the combat angels and make them your allies.]
[You will need allies to face the enemies on the 3rd floor.]
"Mm."
"Let's hurry! We'll start with the nearest rescue request!"
Saschiell immediately spread her wings. But Cheon-ho grabbed her mane and held her back.
"Wait a moment."
"What are you doing!"
"Calm down. We need to stay composed, especially now. Saschiell, it's been several days since your squad was wiped out, right?"
"Yes. But what does that—"
"The situations will all be different. And the time they have left will vary too."
Cheon-ho spoke calmly.
In his low, serene voice, Saschiell felt herself calming down as well.
The time they have left is different.
What that implied.
"We can't prioritize rescues based solely on distance. Some might be holding out okay, but others could be on the verge of death."
Like when they rescued the tower's bound spirits, each hidden quest contained individual windows.
And those windows showed different quest durations remaining for each.
"The shorter the remaining quest time, the more precarious the situation. So we need to decide the rescue order based on remaining time and the routes we'll take."
It was sound logic.
Saschiell folded her widely spread wings, and Lucille smiled and nodded. Her expression practically floated with "As expected of our Hero."
"Lucille, give me the approximate directions and distances to where the rescue requests are coming from."
"Yes, Hero."
Cheon-ho drew a map in his mind. He marked the five different points, then calculated the optimal route considering remaining times and distances.
"Alright, let's head out."
With the route decided, there was no need to delay further.
The first rescue target: 7th Rank Combat Angel Eliel.
Atop Saschiell as she took flight in haste, Mitra asked,
[Just to be sure... it's not because she's a female angel that you picked number one, is it?]
'No, it's not?'
It was purely the result of combining quest times and distances.
Really, truly.
But separately from that, he did feel a slight anticipation.
'No way there's a female lion angel, right?'
Nah, probably not.
Glancing down at Saschiell's head for a moment, Cheon-ho turned his gaze forward again.
Amid a mix of slight excitement and anxiety, he imagined Eliel's appearance.
&
The staircase connecting the Great Labyrinth's 4th underground floor to the 3rd.
A figure cloaked entirely in a black hood and mantle emerged at the bottom of the stairs.
The hood was pulled low, but it couldn't fully conceal his face.
A rat's head covered in black fur.
Stooped at the waist like a Ratman, with an extremely long tail growing from his hips.
He looked up at the sky of the 3rd floor.
The ashen sky brimmed with the Plague God's grace. The air was thick with plague energy, and the desert swallowing the surrounding area—like the Great Labyrinth eroding the world—faintly carried the aura of the deep layers, unfeelable on the upper or middle floors.
"Doruma."
At the quiet call, the one called Doruma—the Ratman who bore the title of 'Lord,' granted only to those among the Plague God's apostles who received the mark—turned his head.
He saw Lukabronde, the Plague God's apostle tasked with constructing the 3rd floor altar and conducting the ritual.
Draped in gray rags, he was a different breed from Scabronde or Doruma.
A sorcerer.
More precisely, a plague sorcerer specialized in curses and diseases.
Behind his gaunt frame stood modified Rat Ogres far larger than ordinary ones.
Strengthened by drugs and curses.
Though Doruma held the rank of Lord, it was more honorary than anything.
Moreover, Lukabronde was in charge of the 3rd floor. Their hierarchy was subtle, but for now, they were equals.
"So those are the five magic swords."
Lukabronde's gaze roamed over Doruma's body like a lick.
Two longswords and two daggers at his waist.
A greatsword slung across his back.
Lukabronde was a sorcerer, not a warrior, so he had little interest in swords. But magic swords were another story.
Doruma suddenly chuckled softly. He twitched his right hand slightly, and in that instant, something astonishing happened.
A man-sized monster resembling an ant ghost burst from the ground. It was a 3rd floor beast that hid underground and ambushed passersby by sensing their vibrations, devouring them.
It let out a bizarre screech.
A grotesque wail meant to further disorient the ambushed prey.
But Doruma didn't even glance at it. He kept looking at Lukabronde and flashed a small smile at the plague sorcerer's relatively calm face, tinged with confusion in his eyes.
If this attack was some ploy to test the magic swords' power, he had no intention of forgiving it.
But fortunately for him, it seemed to be a genuine coincidence.
Doruma flicked his hand.
It was a motion too fast for even a sorcerer like Lukabronde to follow with his eyes.
The second of the five magic swords.
The Blizzard Dagger of extreme cold.
A diagonal slash appeared on the ant ghost's body.
But no wound opened, no ichor spurted. Instead, with a cracking sound, the cut froze over.
The extreme chill stole its body heat, freezing its fluids solid.
Thud!
The lifeless ant ghost collapsed to the ground.
Lukabronde smiled as if amused, and Doruma retrieved the Blizzard Dagger.
"Lead the way."
To the 3rd floor altar.
The Hero and angel designated by the Plague God would come there.
Lukabronde shrugged and turned, with Doruma following behind.
The five magic swords swayed with their steps.
&
'Ah, wonder if an ice sword will drop somewhere.'
Then he could feed it to Mitra and make good use of it.
[O Chosen One, what are you thinking?]
[You're not plotting something lewd, are you?]
Mitra could read a bit of Cheon-ho's inner thoughts. And as a holy sword, her intuition was sharper than most.
But after several experiments, Cheon-ho knew she couldn't read everything, so he put on the most wronged face in the world and said,
"Mitra, lewd? How could you? I was just thinking about how to make our journey more comfortable for everyone."
"Hmm."
"Hero? What's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing. It's just my own shortcomings."
"Hero...?"
Lucille furrowed her brow and instinctively glanced at Mitra, who flinched unwittingly before speaking after a brief hesitation.
[Sorry. It seems I misunderstood. Forgive me.]
[You're doing well. You've been taking good care of me as promised.]
Even if he had just had to grind some fruit a moment ago.
"It's fine. Misunderstandings happen. I look forward to your continued help."
[Yes, I'll help you with all my might from now on.]
[Hmm.]
It wrapped up on a heartwarming note, but Mitra somehow felt like she'd been had.
Things hadn't been like this when traveling with Leon.
"We're almost there. I can sense the signal."
Saschiell, excluded from the three's conversation, suddenly raised her voice. Lucille snapped to attention, looked ahead, and opened a light window.
"She's right nearby! Seems like she's hiding around here!"
Desertification had progressed so rapidly that the terrain underfoot was a chaotic mess. Remnants of what could be called a forest lingered atop the desert, though bone-dry.
Saschiell landed hastily in the woods. She let out a low, wide-spreading voice like skimming the ground.
"Eliel! We've come to rescue you! It's Saschiell!"
No reply came, but Saschiell and Lucille shuddered. They had received a silent signal only angels could sense.
Cheon-ho spread out his senses widely. Sure enough, he detected a presence.
7th Rank Combat Angel Eliel.
Saschiell took the lead.
Following her near-sprinting pace, they found an angel collapsed, her wounded body sprawled out.
"You're still alive!"
"Eliel! We'll heal you right away!"
Lucille and Saschiell rushed to Eliel.
Left alone unexpectedly, Cheon-ho wore a wistful smile.
[It worked out well.]
[It really worked out.]
Was the delight in Mitra's voice an illusion or real?
With a melancholic expression, Cheon-ho looked at Eliel.
A winged pure white horse.
The beautiful heavenly steed lifted her head to gaze at Cheon-ho.
&
[Chapter 3 - 3rd Floor] End