Chapter 157: The Labyrinth's Gift
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 157: The Labyrinth's Gift
Three pillars were erected in the central section of the Underground City.
The Tower Lord, Lafnel, and the Druid Club President stood before each pillar.
They were to anchor the Three Villainesses I had summoned onto those pillars. While they performed the anchoring, my task was to hold onto the Villainesses.
"The Labyrinth will show immense resistance. From its perspective, this ritual is something it must stop at any cost."
"You mustn't lose your focus. There’s no telling what will happen if we fail."
"Understood. I’ll hold on until the end."
"Oh, and if you hear a voice telling you the ritual is over, you must ignore it."
"Once it’s truly finished, we will personally pull you out from the center of the ritual. You must endure no matter what."
"I understand."
The Druid Club President and Lafnel gave their final, solemn warnings.
They were saying the Labyrinth itself would move to stop our actions. It made sense. There was no telling what lengths the Labyrinth would go to in order to keep the Underground City from being taken. It was certain to attack us, even if it meant overextending itself. Therefore, we had to summon the Three Villainesses as quickly as possible to stabilize the city.
And I had to endure, no matter what happened.
"Alright, let's begin."
"Yes. Let's do this."
The rest of the party stayed back.
To minimize variables and potential problems, only four of us were present: myself, Lafnel, Mabel, and the Druid Club President.
Lafnel and the Druid Club President would maintain the barrier, while Mabel would guide me and preside over the ritual.
The pressure is already incredible.
It felt as if someone was watching me.
Was the Labyrinth staring me down? I didn't know how it would attack to disrupt the ritual. I had to stay sharp.
"Commence the ritual."
With the Tower Lord’s declaration, I stepped into the center of the circular magic circle where the three pillars stood.
This was a summoning circle crafted with the utmost care by the Tower Lord, Lafnel, and the Druid Club President. Standing at its heart, I cut my palm with a blade and began the summoning of the Three Villainesses.
"Ugh..."
As the ritual progressed, a staggering amount of mana began to converge upon me.
It had begun. The Labyrinth’s pressure.
"Aaaargh...!!!!"
"Hold on!!!"
I nodded at Lafnel’s shout and gritted my teeth.
The Labyrinth had begun to interfere with our ritual.
Damn it... damn it...!!!
My limbs trembled violently as my magical power spiraled out of control.
This wasn't pain caused by the ritual itself. There was no reason for the ritual to be this grueling. I had already reached an agreement with the Three Villainesses to enter the Labyrinth, and the ritual was designed to be light. There was no reason for me to feel this much pressure.
Therefore, the thing crushing me was... the Labyrinth.
The Labyrinth was trying to kill me. To stop the ritual. To prevent the Underground City from falling into human hands.
The Labyrinth was attacking me.
I feel like I'm going crazy...
My mental strength was being shaved away in real-time.
My vitality drained, and backflowing mana seared my internal organs.
It was hard to endure. I felt like I was going to collapse.
My throat was parched. A bitter taste filled my mouth, and an intense hunger made me want to let go of everything I was holding.
Gradually, my vision blurred.
Sweat poured off me.
Darkness came for me.
—Sion! Can you hear me!
He-Helena...!!!
—Close your eyes! You must not open them, no matter what!
What...!?
—The Malice of the Labyrinth has surged! I didn't think it would attack so blatantly...!
I immediately shut my eyes.
Soon after, the pressure eased slightly.
It seemed Helena had done something.
—I will block as much as I can, so endure. You must keep your eyes closed and hold on. If the ritual is interrupted now... the Labyrinth will tear us apart completely!
This is insane...
—It’s only natural since we’ve provoked the Labyrinth. If the ritual fails, a Cataclysm will begin that very instant! So endure! The darkness will try to deceive and trick your eyes! You must keep them closed and persevere!
I pulled myself together at Helena’s shout.
If we succeeded, it was a revolution; if we failed, it was a Cataclysm.
I had to erase the very option of failure.
I have to. I have to make this succeed.
However, the Labyrinth had no intention of leaving me alone.
I felt the presence of things that shouldn't exist. It felt as if hundreds of people were surrounding me.
The moment I closed my eyes, my remaining senses began to twist.
God... this stench...
The smell of rotting corpses wafted from all directions, and the sound of creaking filled my ears.
Along with a pressure that made me drool, an overwhelming presence that made my fingertips tingle washed over me.
"Guh... cough..."
"They're being pulled in! Just a little longer!"
"Sion! Endure!"
Something—I couldn't tell if it was saliva or blood—spilled from my mouth. It was a struggle just to stay standing.
Clink.
Then, something caught in my hand. It was the Spirit Chain. The chain that originated from my heart and connected me to the Three Villainesses.
—Sion! You must pull!
I had to pull the chain.
The ritual had moved to its second stage.
My legs shook. It felt as if my body had become a lightning rod.
Soon, my senses began to shut down one by one.
My hearing failed, and then my sense of smell began to fade. Had it shifted from distorting my five senses to cutting them off entirely?
I felt like I was dying of frustration because I couldn't open my eyes for fear of being deceived by the darkness.
When... when will this end...
Time passed.
It felt like I had been enduring this for days.
Perhaps even my sense of time had been warped....
"Sion!! Sion!!! Get a grip!"
"Huh? Mabel....? Mabel! I can hear your voice!"
"It's over now! You can open your eyes."
"What?"
Mabel was saying the ritual was over.
Had we finally succeeded?
Thank god.
I tried to open my eyes at Mabel’s shout.
It was then.
Tug—!!!!
The chain in my hand was pulled taut.
!?
In that instant, I realized.
The Villainesses had just pulled the chain to warn me.
The owner of the voice I was hearing... wasn't Mabel.
The ritual wasn't over yet.
I had almost opened my eyes. Amidst the warped senses and time, I had almost succumbed to the voice.
Shit... that was close...
If the Villainesses hadn't pulled the chain to alert me, I would have failed the ritual and been consumed by the malice.
Since we had already provoked the Labyrinth, failure to bring in the Three Villainesses would mean certain retaliation from the Labyrinth.
I had to succeed in this ritual even if it killed me. Now that we had started, there was no turning back.
I decided not to trust any other sense. Only the Spirit Chain told the truth. I focused entirely on the chain.
Then, it began to torment the very sense I was focusing on. A twisting pain in my fingertips. The Spirit Chain began to sear my hands as if it had been heated red-hot.
Furthermore, along with the smell of burning flesh, my five senses twisted again, and I had to endure the agony of being burned alive.
It was horrific.
It hurt so much, so incredibly much.
Slowly, I began to break.
"It's over!!!"
"We—we succeeded!"
The Three Villainesses descended into the Labyrinth.
The pillars erected in the central section trembled as they began to accept the Villainesses. Now, if left alone, the Villainesses would be completely anchored here.
As the ritual succeeded, the pitch-black darkness that had been swirling around Sion vanished completely, and the Malice of the Labyrinth that had surrounded the Underground City retreated before the Three Villainesses.
The Underground City was now out of the Cataclysm’s reach. Furthermore, once the Three Villainesses were perfectly anchored, the dominion over the Underground City would pass entirely to Sion. If that happened, they could fix the monster spawn locations.
This meant that operating a large-scale monster farm was no longer just a dream. If they could slaughter the monsters emerging from the Underground City in bulk and harvest their materials, the level of adventurers would surely skyrocket.
It was as good as having the entrance to the 7th floor opened. If they could conquer the 6th floor as well, they would be able to send a large-scale raid force to the 7th floor.
Humanity's victory felt one step closer.
"Sion! Hey! Sion! Wake up!"
"He's lost consciousness! Get the healers!"
At Mabel’s shout, Roy, who had been waiting in the distance, hurriedly called for the healers remaining in the central section, along with Rosier and Erika.
"Crazy... his mana circuits are almost completely burnt out..."
"Sion!!!"
The healers rushed over and began pouring healing magic into Sion, while Yuria could only stomp her feet in anxiety as she looked at the unconscious Sion.
Humanity's victory was close, but Sion had sustained a massive injury. It would likely take a considerable amount of time to recover.
Unless the Saintess returned from her hunt for heretics, they couldn't perfectly erase the wounds left on Sion's body for now.
"What... what on earth happened..."
"The ritual was a success thanks to Sion. He really held on well."
"Ah..."
Lafnel nodded at Leah’s question, praising Sion’s contribution.
As she said, if Sion hadn't held on until the end, the ritual would have failed, a Cataclysm would have started in the Underground City, and everyone would have been plunged into chaos.
"Tower Lord. How is your condition?"
"I've used up every drop of my mana. I'm not in great shape."
Mabel replied to the question from a mage belonging to the Magic Tower, clenching and unclenching her hand.
Sion wasn't the only one in bad shape. Mabel, Lafnel, and the Druid Club President were also far from well.
The Malice of the Labyrinth hadn't targeted only Sion.
Like Sion, Mabel was unable to stand due to the aftereffects of extreme pain, and her mana was so depleted she couldn't even cast a spell.
Lafnel had completely lost sensation in her fingers, and the Druid Club President’s vision was blurred.
Everyone involved in the ritual was now combat-ineffective.
However, the result was satisfying.
Now that the Three Villainesses had safely descended into the Underground City, they just had to turn this place into human territory.
Thanks to the sacrifice of these four, the Underground City would now be safe. The Tower Lord was deeply satisfied by this fact.
The dream of pioneering the Labyrinth, which she had cherished her whole life, had finally begun to take proper shape today.
"It seems we'll have to leave Sion like this for a while."
"Still, I'm glad the ritual ended successfully."
Lafnel and the Druid Club President spoke as they looked at Sion, who was asleep in Rosier’s arms.
Although Sion’s condition was poor, he wasn't dead. This could be considered a fairly satisfactory outcome.
"Good. With this, we can stabilize the 5th floor."
Mabel struggled to her feet and drank a mana recovery potion.
It was time to recover her mana and officially bring the Underground City under human control.
Thump.
"....?"
"What was... that just now?"
Everyone in the central section turned toward the plaza section.
"What in the... this is....."
Something had gone wrong. Something very serious.
Something had intruded, piercing through the barrier that had been deployed as the Three Villainesses were summoned.
"No, could it be..."
"Everyone! Everyone, grab your weapons!!!!!"
Lafnel was pale with terror.
Mabel bit her lip, thinking of the worst-case scenario.
As the Druid Club President shouted for the gathered adventurers to prepare for battle—
A streak of light flashed through the central section.
"..... Guh....."
The Druid Club President’s body was sliced in half.
In an instant, the gathered people fell into a panic.
The Tower Lord poured all her remaining mana into casting a barrier around the central section.
CRASH—!!!!
The barrier shattered in a single moment.
Simultaneously, an iron stake drove into the Tower Lord’s shoulder, sealing her right arm.
Helena, who had been observing the situation from within the Bracelet of Growth, whispered in terror.
—A Demon King...... That... is a Demon King.
A monster in human skin had entered the Underground City.
The worst gift the Labyrinth had prepared to destroy the pillars housing the Three Villainesses.
The Demon King of Regression, whom the Labyrinth had spent a long time meticulously preparing.
A being created by the Labyrinth itself to crush any possibility of the worst-case scenario for it.
"Kaishar... Kaishar... why.... why did you abandon me...."
The weeping Demon King muttered.
His eyes were stained black.
The pure white sword in his hand exhaled thick malice and hatred.
He was human.
He was an adventurer.
He was one of the only three owners of a subspace pocket in the Labyrinth City.
The Platinum Badge adventurer who had gone missing on the 7th floor had now reappeared here.
With the Malice of the Labyrinth on his back.
Longing for his other half who would never return.
He had ascended to the Underground City as the Labyrinth’s final hidden card.
And around that time, below the layer division, the Saint in Black, who was dying at the hands of the Saintess, grinned widely.
"Success... it's a success...!"
The reason the heretics had been resurrected in the Underground City.
The reason the Giant had ascended and increased the mana concentration of the city.
And the true purpose for which the Saint in Black had come to the Underground City.
The time the forcibly summoned Demon King could stay on the 5th floor was only two hours.
He had to be stopped.
If they could not stop the Demon King, everyone here would die.