Chapter 91: Flee to the Center
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 91: Flee to the Center
“Saintess!!! Don’t you dare run!!!! Saintesssss!!!”
“Catch her! Catch the Goddess’s lackey! Tear her limb from limb!!!!”
A barrage of curses and dark magic flew at them from behind.
Fleeing from the Giant while simultaneously fending off the heretics' interference was more than the Saintess could handle. She shouted toward the Porter at the very rear.
“Porter! Take the hits for me!”
“What!? Ah, no—!”
He was forced into the role of a tank.
Pitch-black masses of curses surged through the flames, relentlessly battering Sion’s body. They were the kind of curses that rotted the flesh upon contact and stained one's vision with darkness, yet Sion remained perfectly fine. It didn't even hurt. Since he took zero damage, he was essentially a living talisman against evil.
The binding spell of the Three Villainesses was so incredibly toxic and resilient that it didn't just repel the Giant’s influence; it nullified every curse the heretics threw at him.
In a way, the Three Villainesses' binding spell was so effective that their contract almost felt like a blessing for Sion.
“It doesn’t hurt! Not one bit! Hahaha! You morons!”
Having become a human totem against grand curses, Sion took the brunt of every spell on behalf of his teammates. But as the curses piled up, the souls of the adventurers trapped within him—drawn in by his Spiritual Eye—began to scream.
Sion, the owner of the body, was perfectly fine, but the souls hitching a ride on him began to writhe in agony under the weight of the curses.
—It hurts!!!
—Kyeeeeeeek!!!
These were souls that had been held captive in the Labyrinth like earthbound spirits.
The vengeful spirits Sion had rescued from the corpse golems were now suffering once again from the heretics' curses, letting out eerie, ghostly wails.
Between their screams, the heretics' shouting, the Giant’s roar, and the death rattles of the dungeon trolls, Sion felt like his head was going to explode.
“You—you crazy bastards!!!”
An unbelievable pressure weighed down on him.
Finally, he spat out everything that had been building up in his chest.
“I feel like I’m going to die.”
His Spiritual Eye activated, and Sion’s vision shifted.
He was standing alone.
‘This place is...’
It was the same space he had entered when he encountered Shaka.
Somewhere in the Labyrinth, dyed in shades of gray.
The first time he had stepped foot here, it had also been in the Underground City. When he was on the verge of death in the Plaza Section, he had entered this place and made a contract with Shaka.
The same phenomenon was happening again.
Amidst the extreme chaos and screams, his Spiritual Eye showed him this place once more.
The space between this world and the next.
A razor-thin crevice formed within the Labyrinth.
Countless souls were caught in between, unable to escape, losing their sense of self and fading away within an eternal cycle.
—You. There.
As he looked around in confusion, a woman whose body was more than half-melted approached him.
She wore a wide-brimmed hat. To anyone’s eyes, she looked like a witch.
—You. You can take me up there, can’t you?
Sion nodded at her question.
The witch smiled with satisfaction and reached out a finger toward Sion’s eye. Her long, spindly finger touched his pupil.
—The Spiritual Eye. A treasure more precious than anything. What a relief. Truly a relief. To think it still remains in this era.
Soon, the witch’s form distorted, and Sion’s vision snapped back to reality.
The agonizing screams of the vengeful spirits no longer rang in his ears.
His mind grew calm. His splitting headache cleared, and the curses clinging to his body, slowing his steps, were all washed away.
“Porter-san!!!”
“Huh? Oh, right!!”
As Sion stood frozen, Rosier rushed over, grabbed his arm, and started running again.
In a heretic-hunting party, the most important member was none other than the Porter. Even if she had used him as a curse shield in a moment of desperation, the fact remained that he was an invaluable asset.
“Is the Porter safe!?”
“Yes! Saintess! He’s safe!”
“Keep running! We’re almost at the Central Section! Paramel! Are you ready?!”
“Yes!”
The Saintess and the interrogators sprinted into the Central Section.
Meanwhile, Paramel, who had been reciting prayers while piggybacking on Raphael, cast a barrier toward the gate the moment the group entered the Central Section.
A shroud of holy light trapped the dungeon trolls and heretics following them back in the Garden Section.
However, the barrier looked like it would break at any moment. The thin film covering the gate began to crack under the resistance of the monsters.
“Saintess!!! It’s going to break at this rate!!!”
“Hold on!”
Since Paramel had drawn the initial line, the rest was up to the Saintess.
She knelt on the ground, clasped her hands, and began to pray.
The gate connecting the Central Section and the Garden Section had been severed by Paramel’s barrier, and as the Saintess layered her prayer over it, a perfect wall of isolation was formed.
The monsters trying to enter the Central Section were halted in their tracks.
At the Giant’s roar, the monsters scattered and fled once more.
Sion and his party had survived yet again.
*
“Haa... haa...”
Saliva dripped from his mouth.
He felt like he had run until his heart was ready to burst.
“Is everyone... cough... is everyone okay?”
“Ugh...”
Every member of the party had run like mad.
They had sweated so much that the dehydration made their heads spin; their vision blurred as a blackout threatened to take them.
“Porter. Porter! Pull yourself together!”
“Ugh... Saintess... I think I’m dying.”
“Dying from just this? Shall I cast a Resurrection Spell on you? You have the money ready, right?”
“Gah!”
The Saintess’s words snapped him back to his senses.
A Resurrection Spell out of nowhere? The thought of spending 100 gold made his blood run cold.
“I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine.”
“That’s a relief. Then, please take out some water first.”
“Yes, yes.”
He pulled out leather pouches filled with water and handed them to the Saintess and the others. They drank greedily and poured the rest over their heads to cool down.
Drenched, the Saintess sat on the floor and began to meditate. It seemed her divine power was depleted.
To continue the battle, one had to rest whenever possible. Especially for the Saintess, the team’s greatest asset, managing divine power was crucial.
“It’s burning fiercely.”
“The smoke is incredible.”
Sasaro and Raphael checked the gate leading to the Garden Section. Beyond the barrier was hell.
Until the Saintess’s barrier broke, that heat and smoke wouldn't cross into the Central Section.
‘They’re all burning to death.’
The Garden was ablaze. He had poured so much oil that it was burning like crazy.
Most of the heretics and dungeon trolls inside would likely be charred crisp. But the Giant wouldn't die. A creature like that wouldn't burn to death from this level of heat. If anything, it would probably fill its stomach with the well-done heretics and trolls.
“Hey, Raphael. Heretics are coming from the Plaza Section.”
“Those lunatics. They’re crawling out from everywhere.”
Sasaro spotted heretics approaching the Central Section.
While the Garden Section was temporarily cut off by the Saintess’s barrier, the other sections were still connected. They were likely moving through the Central Section to investigate what was happening in the Garden.
“They don't give us a moment's rest.”
“Old man. Can you still fight?”
“I’m still fit for it.”
Sasaro and Raphael charged toward the heretics.
Meanwhile, Rosier approached me and examined my wounds.
“You have a wound on your back.”
“Huh? I didn't even notice.”
“When you're tense or distracted, you often don't realize you've been hurt. Stay still for a moment.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Rosier placed her hand on my back and cast a healing spell.
Only then did the pain register. It seemed to be a fairly long gash.
“Does it hurt?”
“It’s bearable.”
“Yes, just hold on a bit longer and the first aid will be done.”
“Understood...”
The wound began to heal.
Soon, Rosier wiped the sweat from her forehead and let out a sigh.
“The emergency treatment is finished, but it would be best to wrap it in bandages.”
“Ointment and bandages... here.”
Rosier skillfully applied the ointment to the affected area and wrapped the bandages. Just then, a haggard-looking Paramel approached us.
“Are we... the only ones who survived...?”
“Yes. It looked like about three others fled to a different location, but we should assume they’re dead.”
“Ah...”
Paramel looked dejected.
Seeing a bustling crowd wiped out in an instant, leaving only the six of them again, must have felt hollow.
“Well, we’re back to the original group, so don't be too discouraged.”
“Rosier... you’re too blunt...”
“You’re just too sentimental, Paramel.”
“Ugh...”
While Paramel wallowed in frustration, Rosier went to help Sasaro and Raphael finish off the remaining heretics.
I took the Vine Beans and walked toward the gate.
‘Should I just plant them all here?’
The thought suddenly occurred to me.
Instead of splitting them up by section, what if I just dumped them all into the Central Section?
Lafnel wanted me to plant them in different sections to see how they changed based on the environment, but the situation didn't allow for that.
So, what if I planted a Vine Bean in front of every gate in the Central Section?
There were five gates in the Central Section, which matched the number of Vine Beans perfectly.
‘I’ll turn the Central Section into a fortress.’
Since the Vine Beans would attack every monster except for adventurers, the Central Section would become much safer. If that happened, the survival rate of adventurers entering the Central Section would increase.
I planted one bean at every entrance.
Finally, I thought I could rest for a bit... wait?
“This is...”
Just as I was about to sit down after planting all the Vine Beans, the Bracelet of Growth began to vibrate faintly.