Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Getting Out Alive (4)
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Opening my eyes in the darkness, I saw the face of a paladin who had died smiling brightly.
His face beamed as if he'd just experienced some romantic, heart-stirring event, yet the sight of his body completely severed below the neck was utterly grotesque.
"⋯"
I fought back the urge to vomit and looked away. The corpses of the other paladins and priests floated aimlessly through the gloom.
'Why is my body perfectly fine?'
My memories after being stabbed by the paladins' swords and devoured by the abomination were hazy.
From the looks of things, I'd nearly been chewed up and digested, yet my condition couldn't have been more pristine.
It was a far cry from the battered state I'd been in right before being eaten.
Suddenly, I recalled [That One] mentioning miracles.
I didn't have some healing factor ability, so maybe my recovery was the product of that miracle.
Did "no more miracles" mean there'd be no further advice from Them?
I had no idea.
The truth intrigued me greatly, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
'I need to get out of here.'
Staying long in the belly of this creepy abomination wasn't doing me any favors.
Fortunately, the axe that would serve as my key to escape was still gripped in my hand.
The sturdy handle was slightly gouged in the shape of my handprint—I'd held on with unyielding resolve right up until the brink of death.
Kiiiiing—!
With a short, sharp ignition sound, the axe glowed with pure white light.
The light from the Blessing of Radiance shone even brighter than before. Did blessings grow stronger too?
Thanks to it, my surroundings came into stark relief. I averted my gaze from the corpses, swallowing another wave of nausea.
Swimming through the bodies of the priests, I reached the wall. Probably a layer of skin.
'Not sure if this darkness-shrouded abomination even has skin.'
But stabbing away long enough inside its body ought to get some reaction.
Craaaaaack!!
[Kieeeek!!!]
I brought the axe, wrapped in radiant light, crashing down on the wall. The thing that had shrugged off fireballs convulsed wildly, rolling in agony.
Inside its body, I felt the world flip upside down from the impact.
A smile crept across my face unbidden.
"You! Fucking! Bastard!"
Crack! Craaack! Craaaaaack!!!
[Kieeeek!!]
Each time the axe pierced its hide, a thrill of satisfaction surged through me.
Every grotesque screech as the horrific abomination writhed in torment set my blood aflame.
'Pay back what you dealt me. No—tenfold.'
The sensation of slicing through darkness with light felt strangely akin to, yet distinct from, carving into a beast's flesh with the axe.
Each time the darkness tore under the light, screaming as it scattered, the light grew just a fraction brighter, as if devouring it.
The more I rent the darkness, the stronger the light became, incrementally.
How many dozens, hundreds of swings had I unleashed?
The abomination's hide was covered in countless axe scars.
Each gash was so wide now that daylight streamed through clearly.
At some point, only sporadic spasms rippled through it—no more monstrous cries.
'Not enough.'
Even that failed to satisfy me.
This boiling rage deep in my core—I wanted to spew it all out at once.
Mana gathered in Zirnier's axe.
"Enlarge."
Buuuuuumph!!
The light-wreathed axe rapidly expanded inside the abomination's gut.
The expedition members floating in its belly were shoved aside as the glowing blade cleaved its head in two and burst free.
[⋯]
A brief death rattle.
The unknown abomination—itself the essence of [Darkness] hatched from the black egg—began to evaporate into the air under the light.
Ting!
Something dropped where the massive abomination had vanished.
A monster core. A soulstone.
It resembled a typical beast's soulstone in appearance, but the aura it exuded was anything but ordinary.
Deeply ominous and foreboding, yet brimming with immense power.
[⋯!]
As I approached to pick up the soulstone, it trembled violently.
Like it was utterly terrified of me.
The abomination's soulstone froze up like a total nerd cornered by their bully.
"Hm."
Kiiiiing—
[⋯!!!]
Just to test, I grasped it with my hand infused with the Blessing of Radiance. It writhed in agony, groveling desperately at me.
Thoroughly cowed by the bully's harsh discipline.
'Better keep it, just in case.'
I had a reliable means of subduing it now. I tucked the abomination's soulstone into my pants pocket.
Looking down, I finally took stock of my own sorry state.
The leather armor Diana had gifted me was torn and shredded in places, reduced to little more than rags.
Especially around my abdomen, riddled with puncture wounds.
Fresh sword scars. Traces of the temple expedition team's onslaught.
No sign of my bracers anywhere, and most critically, the Great Helm...
'Yeah, it's trashed.'
No wonder the air felt so drafty around me.
The lower face guard—with its mouth and breathing holes—was half blown off.
To another person's eyes, probably only my left cheek and lips would be visible.
I could already picture Zirnier flying into a rage over her first creation being ruined.
"Cough, hack!"
The coughing snapped me back to reality. Looking around, I spotted the injured Joy Hog party members.
"Joy Hog! Ramel! Juvell!"
"⋯Still kicking."
Joy Hog, who'd lost one arm and was vomiting blood, pointed somewhere.
"O-over there, start with Ramel. That girl's worse off. And on the way, grab my arm that got dropped. It can still be reattached⋯"
Ramel's injuries were severe. Her right leg completely gone, and she was unconscious.
I scooped her up and plunged her into the fountain.
Thanks to blocking the abomination's attacks with the enlarged axe, the fountain was intact.
It still gushed forth its miracle-like healing waters.
Splash!
Ramel's complexion eased as the healing waters enveloped her.
At a glance, she looked like she was slipping into eternal rest, but her wounds were mending far faster than with cheap potions.
'Can't fully regenerate lost limbs, but if we find the severed parts⋯'
Nearby, Juvell was also submerged awkwardly in the fountain.
Fortunately, she clutched her own severed left arm in her right hand.
I fitted the mangled arm back to her torso.
The healing waters seeped between arm and body, beginning to knit them together.
Incredible healing beyond even high-grade potions. The fountain's waters—the prototype of potions—were truly wondrous.
"Hack, th-thanks, Balkan⋯"
"Feeling better, Juvell?"
"Yeah. It's one hell of a horny day. Wanna take my virginity?"
"You're fine."
Hearing her spout nonsense confirmed it was the usual Juvell.
To crack jokes with her arm torn off—mental fortitude for the ages.
I quickly reattached Joy Hog's right arm and dunked him in too. After scanning his party members, he passed out in apparent relief.
I placed Fusillini and Aldente from Gellen's party in the waters as well.
Aldente had burst apart completely, so I salvaged what I could—five relatively intact slime chunks.
Wiggle. Wiggle.
In the healing waters, the exploded slime pieces began merging into one.
"What the hell."
But the revival was anything but normal.
"Tchuru tutcha ra pa paaa!"
Like a green jelly monster from some MOBA game, Aldente resurrected—but from a near-180cm bulk, she'd shrunk to newborn-baby size.
As if adult Groot had come back as baby Groot after dying.
'Slime-Slime's Curse. Actually a blessing, isn't it?'
No matter how much the healing waters helped, regenerating from half-mush was insane.
'No wonder I never lifted the curse.'
Some curses were curses in name only, maybe.
"Tchuru⋯"
Aldente gazed up at me quietly, then bowed her waist in greeting.
She seemed to lack memories from her adult form, yet instinctively knew I'd saved her.
Oddly cute—I patted her head a few times, and baby Aldente rubbed her slime ball head against my hand.
Shoving baby Aldente aside, I sought the next patient.
"⋯⋯"
"Wh-what... the hell... happened⋯"
Hitollis and Hopf.
The two priests, half-mad during the ordeal, regained their senses now that the abomination was slain.
"⋯⋯"
Hopf still drooled thinly from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were refocusing.
Hitollis wept bitterly, tears streaming down.
Slap!
I smacked Hitollis's cheek to snap him out of it. No time for blubbering.
"Hitollis. You with us?"
"Ugh, y-yeah⋯⋯"
"You can explain why you lost it later. Calm down first. You can still use miracles, right?"
"Y-yes, yes⋯"
"Then cast a healing miracle. Everyone here's half-dead."
Hopf came around soon after. I slapped his cheek too and told him to work his miracles.
Light particles descended over the party members submerged in the healing waters.
The healing miracles accelerated their recovery even further.
'Emergency treatment's done, except for Ramel with her total amputation⋯'
I headed toward the porter bags left in the distance.
"Grrk, grrk⋯"
Gregor huddled behind a large porter bag, face frozen in terror, tears streaming down.
Full panic mode. Too much hassle to deal with—I knocked her out with a chop to the neck and checked the bags.
'One, two, three. All here.'
Gurumimi, Leheim, Gellen too. They'd been securely bound, so no escapes.
One new change, though.
"⋯Monster⋯"
"Y-you... what the hell are you?"
Leheim and Gurumimi, now conscious, reacted oddly differently.
Their earlier vows of vengeance rang hollow now.
They looked like they regretted ever crossing me—something they should never have touched.
"The guy who came to catch you."
"⋯"
They shut up at my curt reply, faces paling further.
I dragged my noticeably sluggish legs to perch on the fountain's edge.
'Exhausted.'
Using the Blessing of Radiance like mad and even Enlarge hadn't taxed me much, but fatigue was fatigue.
Soaking my legs in the healing waters, I rested while keeping my mind vigilant.
Nothing unusual in my perception range, but I couldn't fully relax.
With all the fighters melted into the fountain, unconscious, even I had to stay sharp.
Whoooosh—
A chill wind blew from the distant monster village.
Maybe my imagination, but faint, unintelligible voices rode the breeze.
'Sounds like the labyrinth itself is weeping.'
Facing that wind, I thought the labyrinth mourned as if it had lost something truly precious.
[⋯!!!]
Annoyed for no reason, I smacked the abomination's soulstone in my pocket.
A trickle of the Blessing of Radiance made it convulse wildly.
Thinking of the hell it'd put me through still made my blood boil. No mercy for this one.
While recovering stamina, I periodically zapped the soulstone with the blessing to pass the time.
I'd pry open party members' mouths now and then, feeding them healing water mixed with preserved rations.
No proper fighters around, so I stayed up all night alone, guarding everyone with wide-open eyes.
Crunch. Crunch.
Fatigue piled on, but I chewed through Diana's handmade jerky to hold out.
Two days passed like that, and party members began stirring awake one by one.
And then, a portal tore open before the fountain.
***
"⋯Ha. Fuck."
Nate Elin clutched his forehead and cursed at the sight greeting him beyond the portal.
'Thought it'd be mental damage at worst⋯'
Nate Elin cursed his own careless judgment on this rare labyrinth run.
He should've been more cautious.
Even rushing here the moment Balkan sent ominous word via comm artifact, he was too late.
Far off, the expedition team's corpses lay piled like dung beetle droppings, reeking of rot.
Seven futures lost. Heads would roll back topside.
But something far graver caught his eye.
The far end of the fifth floor brimmed with an unsettling aura.
An aura absent when he'd passed through the fifth before.
And definitely not something that belonged on the fifth.
'Mid-layers mid-to-upper tier at least⋯'
No, this ominous presence defied comparison to mere beasts.
Far more sinister. Utterly repulsive.
And there was the party that had clearly faced it head-on.
"Took you long enough."
Crunch. Crunch.
The sound of jerky being chewed.
A weary-faced Balkan faced the expedition team.
His half-shattered helm and tattered leather armor, plus the injured comrades submerged behind him in the fountain—clear signs of a brutal life-or-death struggle here.
Nate Elin thought of the man he alone respected and followed.
The request from Seriph, hailed as a saint.
—If you encounter Lord Balkan in the labyrinth, please ensure he's not in danger. Got it, Nate Elin?
"Haa⋯"
Balkan watched Nate Elin tear at his hair and sigh, then suddenly screamed.
As if on the verge of fainting, writhing in agony.
"A-aaagh! My wounds from the monster that hatched from the egg the temple paladins had...! Huuugh! My comrades in peril because of it...! Kraaaagh! The guts stabbed and pierced by those temple paladins' swords...!"
The more he spoke, the deeper Nate Elin bowed his head, sighing heavily.
Balkan thought to himself as he watched.
First things first—time to collect compensation.
***
Temple special ward. Purification chamber flowing with holy water.
"From this moment, I, High Priestess Seriph Adeline, swear to faithfully serve Junior Explorer Balkan."
I stared, speechless, at Seriph clad only in a precariously draped bathrobe.
Uh... um... I hadn't planned on taking it this far⋯
How the hell did things end up like this⋯?