Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Labyrinth of Chimeras
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4
"Is this the place?"
Kyriakos asked, his voice lowered to the barest whisper.
Inside the cave beyond Etset, where not even moonlight penetrated, it was impossible to see even a step ahead.
Yet Kyriakos spoke as if everything were laid out clearly before his eyes.
"Yes."
I nodded and groped along the wall.
It was too dark to see properly... but I relied on the cool sensation of the cave wall against my fingertips.
I found a faint groove and pushed hard. With a grinding sound of stone on stone, the wall slid inward.
It was a primitive yet intuitive hidden door.
"Senior, light the lantern, please."
Without a word, Kyriakos activated the crystal lantern.
A soft glow, not too bright, enveloped us.
Using the lantern's light, we descended the stairs beyond the secret door.
The spiraling staircase disoriented us the further down we went.
By the time I'd lost track of how far we'd come, the stairs ended, opening into a wide passageway.
"From here on, it's a labyrinth. If we get separated, assume we'll never meet again—stick close."
"You seem to know it well."
"I bought some intel."
Of course, it was a lie.
I had bought info from Wipera, but this labyrinth? I'd explored it endlessly in the game until I knew it inside out.
I'd racked my brain for hours searching for the exit, so now I could find it blindfolded.
With Kyriakos trailing behind, I pressed on.
Right, left, left, right again... Without looking back, we advanced, and Kyriakos scanned our surroundings as he asked,
"Are we really going the right way?"
"We're heading in the correct direction. Left, right, left... Then straight at the three-way split...."
Left-right-left, right-left-left-right, left-right-right-left, straight.
I'd memorized the maze route like a chant that rivaled any incantation.
"Three steps back from here."
One, two, three.
Exactly three steps back, and something thudded down from above.
At the same moment, deep claw marks gouged the spot where Kyriakos and I had stood.
"An enemy?"
Kyriakos drew his sword in an instant.
He increased the lantern's brightness, pushing back the labyrinth's darkness.
Only then did the monster that had ambushed us reveal itself.
Its body was that of a lion, but its head was a dog's, with deformed antlers and a deer's skeletal frame overall.
A pair of inverted, broken wings resembled an eagle's but couldn't function properly.
At the end of its tail, a smooth buffalo horn twisted unnaturally, as if it had grown in the wrong place.
"...A monster."
Kyriakos grimaced.
It was that grotesque and repulsive.
I'd always admired Broken World's graphics while playing, but seeing it in person amplified the disgust and horror several times over.
"Yes, a chimera made by Wipera."
"To create something like that... they're insane."
"Insane is right. It's the result of mixing the worst with the worst."
The chimera was the product of discarding all research ethics and respect for life.
So many creatures were jumbled together that it was impossible to guess the originals.
The chimera's roar sounded like a scream of agony.
Chimeras are made by fusing multiple creatures.
In theory, linking only their strengths could produce a monster strong enough to claim supremacy... but forcibly connecting incompatible beings guarantees side effects.
This one right in front of us couldn't even use its twisted wings properly.
Its bones were warped from cramming a lion's body onto a deer's frame.
And crucially, because of the reckless fusion, this chimera wouldn't live long.
"There are rumors they made it to slay dragons, but clearly, it's not on that level."
Who knows, though.
If they successfully combined the strengths of wyverns or griffins, they might create a chimera capable of challenging a dragon.
But the one blocking us hadn't reached that point.
It couldn't stand against a dragon, let alone me right now.
Something like this, I could handle without the Ring of the Absolute.
"While we're here, we should deal with the doctor who made it too."
The Wipera scientist producing these chimeras could only be Shawnri.
The typical mad scientist—if left alone, he'd use humans as test subjects and perfect his homunculus.
A flawless homunculus indistinguishable from a human.
If that fell into Wipera or the Precursors' hands, the consequences were obvious.
Before the kingdom, no, the entire continent descended into a pit of distrust and chaos, better to eliminate him now.
"I agree."
Kyriakos nodded and stepped forward.
I stopped him and drew Deathwise.
Had its eyesight degenerated? The chimera kept turning its head, sniffing repeatedly.
It was tracking our scent.
Before it could, I swung Deathwise.
The chimera, decapitated in one stroke, collapsed limply to the ground.
Its dark blood soiled the labyrinth floor.
"Let's keep going."
After that, I cleaved through a few more chimeras.
Soon, piecing together the map from memory, we escaped the maze.
"A door."
Kyriakos pointed to the one right at the maze exit.
It screamed "enter me" so obviously it was suspicious.
In fact, going through that door led to a quiz-filled sub-maze.
"That's a trap. This way."
Instead of the door, I slashed the right wall with my demon sword.
The thin stone wall couldn't withstand the blow and parted like butter.
Behind the collapsed wall, another secret passage awaited us.
They really loved their secret passages.
5
I extinguished the lantern and entered the secret passage.
The deeper we went, the more a pungent disinfectant stench assaulted our noses.
Kyriakos was on high alert—this smell didn't belong in a cave or labyrinth.
The passage led to a laboratory.
A pristine lab, utterly out of place in a cave, reeked of blood.
The metallic tang of blood, too strong to mask with disinfectant, wafted from the lab table.
The table was drenched in gore.
A mangled corpse, too butchered to identify, lay abandoned haphazardly.
I recognized it from the one intact half-face.
It had been human.
Nausea surged instantly.
If this weren't enemy territory, I'd have vomited up everything in my stomach.
Even expecting the worst, this was beyond imagination.
"Ah! To think you'd volunteer for my experiments by coming here yourselves!"
Clap, clap, clap. A cheerful applause echoed from atop the lab table, accompanied by a grating voice.
A sinister-looking man in a white coat scratched his shaggy blue hair as he welcomed us.
Straightening his hunched back, Shawnri continued nonchalantly.
"You should feel honored to be used in experiments that will etch my name in history. Heh, kehhehehe...!"
"He's mad."
Kyriakos spat the words laced with disgust as he drew his sword.
Despite the killing intent filling the space, Shawnri showed no fear and just kept scratching his head.
"Ah, the foul-mouthed type? No matter. I can reeducate you. Or rip out your vocal cords. Vocal organs are noisy with all that squawking... Yes, let's melt the vocal cords first!"
Shawnri grabbed a flask filled with some unidentified liquid.
Bubbling green liquid and a slimy purple one.
Neither looked remotely healthy.
"If you lie down on the table nicely now, I'll make it as painless as possible. Ah~ whatever. Idiots like you always make the choices you'll regret, anyway? You can't comprehend how groundbreaking my research is!"
Shawnri swung his arms to hurl the flasks.
In that instant, I teleported in front of him with dimensional magic.
At the same time, I sliced all the flasks apart.
Sizzle... The spilled liquids ate into the lab floor.
Smoke rose, but the demon sword was unaffected.
Careful not to step in the liquid by mistake, I pulled back the demon sword and swung for Shawnri's neck.
Clang!
But the blade didn't reach Shawnri's neck.
Someone had appeared at the last second to block the demon sword.
I'd held back since I didn't intend to kill yet.
Even so, to parry the Night Demon Sword.
The two clashing blades neither yielded an inch, locked in a tense struggle.
The one blocking was a taciturn woman with sharp features and straight-cut bangs.
From her bobbed black hair to her all-black attire.
She exuded the aura of a professional assassin.
She gripped her dagger with black leather gloves to prevent slippage.
In a fluid motion, she drew another dagger with her free hand and thrust at my neck.
But she wasn't a match for the Night Demon Sword.
As I withdrew the demon sword to deflect her dagger first—
Clang!!
Kyriakos's sword blocked the dagger before mine could.
"...Please, stand back for a moment."
"Senior."
"I'll explain later. I beg you."
His amethyst eyes trembled faintly.
It was the first time Kyriakos had ever asked me for anything.
The ominous atmosphere made me step back one pace.
"I knew it."
In the bizarre standoff, Kyriakos spoke in a bitter tone.
"Mikaen, is that you?"
The woman called Mikaen showed no reaction.
Her expression didn't change; not even an eyebrow twitched.
Seizing the moment, she grabbed Shawnri by the collar and roughly flung him backward.
"Ow ow... Can't you treat me with a little more respect!?"
Shawnri protested after crashing back-first into the lab wall.
Ignoring him completely, Mikaen kicked Kyriakos in the stomach.
Using feet instead of a sword at close range wasn't proper swordsmanship.
It was raw street fighting, honed for survival in the gutters.
And Kyriakos was no stranger to raw street fighting.
He blocked the kick with his own leg, but the impact forced them apart.
The strange standoff ended.
Yet Kyriakos didn't advance. He stood firm, sword aimed, lips moving silently.
"I am Kyriakos. Kyriakos from the hunting squad with you. Don't you remember?"
His voice quivered faintly.
He pleaded desperately, as if begging.
That made the situation easy to infer.
Mikaen, too, must be a survivor of the Balato family like Kyriakos.
But why was she helping Shawnri here? That didn't add up.
...No way.
An awful possibility flashed in my mind, and I shuddered involuntarily.
If it were true, I couldn't imagine the agony Kyriakos, pleading so desperately, would endure.
"Mikaen, I never dreamed you'd survived too. But... why are you here? Ah, you've come to avenge yourself against Wipera as well...."
"I have no name."
Mikaen sharply cut off Kyriakos's plea, murmuring flatly in a toneless voice.
"I'm just Wipera's hunting dog."
In the lab's light, her two black knives gleamed like a beast's fangs.
Faced with Mikaen's overwhelming killing intent, Kyriakos froze, speechless.
His sword lowered.
Shoulders slumping in despair, Kyriakos let out a hollow laugh.
"Haha, ha...... Wipera!! Wasn't it enough to rob me of my family and my home? Now you take even my surviving comrade!!!"
It was an outburst of rage unlike the inscrutable Kyriakos.
Roaring like a wounded beast in its death throes, he regripped his sword.
"I'll hear your story myself. Mikaen...!"
Right then, one sword and two knives clashed, sparks flying.