The Labyrinth City's Ruler

At the phrase every Player had witnessed simultaneously, the boards went past runaway and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠straight into meltdown.

The cities that had risen from the Abyss each carried a value uniquely their own. Because they were lands that had sunk in ages past, the relics they held and the environments they offered for growth varied wildly.

Among the cities ruled by Players, the Ruins City under Master's control literally teemed with monumental ruins — so much so that it had been called the true prize cut of land.

With Labyrinth City's appearance, a drop in the rankings was inevitable. The present Arhon Empire held near-monopoly dominion over the lands of the Ancient Empire — and the reason the Empire stood first on the continent was precisely that it had inherited the Ancient Empire's legacy intact.

If Labyrinth City truly was connected to the Ancient Empire, plenty of factions would be eyeing it. How Randolph would handle that had become a point of intense curiosity.

Laily's soul, summoned to a throne of radiant light. While that soul had been called forth, a Broken Fragment of the Golden Rule had been in use for over 1,400 hours. Even the Constellations of the Hall of One Hundred Constellations seemed flustered that it would be used for that long.

Survival reward. Looks like additional compensation is tallied according to time survived in the labyrinth.

Apparently there were separate scores for clearing the labyrinth and for time spent surviving it. Clearing the Abyss Labyrinth alone, with a survival time that was even more overwhelming, had thrown a wrench into the process of raising the reward's grade.

For a Constellation to raise the grade of a reward list, there has to be a cost.

What that made clear was that Constellations could not simply upgrade any reward's grade at will. They probably had to surrender something of their own to make it possible. Without that cost, the grade could not be raised — and so the upgrade only appeared, like a favor, for those who had crossed a certain threshold. The greater the stature of the reward, the greater the cost, and the more they hesitated.

When I completed the Mystery, they said there were no rewards obtainable from the tower and the Constellations put forward their own compensation package instead.

A Constellation's treasure. From the hair of a nameless Constellation, I had obtained the Gingoa — and with it, successfully sealed Ahram just before the First Invasion.

So this time, if they simply offered a Constellation's treasure again…?

I suddenly recalled the situation back then and stroked my chin.

…Come to think of it, that time they didn't upgrade the reward list. They replaced it entirely.

Because there had been no reward list obtainable from the Tower of Mystery, they had simply awarded the main quest score and substituted the compensation. But this Abyss Labyrinth clear was different. They had said they would upgrade the rewards — and then the scores had been revealed, and they had panicked. As if they had never dreamed it would be used for 1,400 hours.

The water was already spilled.

Spilled water could not be gathered back up.

…A situation I was encountering for the first time. When upgrading a reward list, it seemed something was required to maintain a Constellation's presence. By forcing that something past its limit, the seats of seventeen Constellations had been taken by others.

Could there be something like Constellation candidates? A system where only those who could rank in the top 100, like a Hall of Fame, entered the Hall of One Hundred Constellations?

I hope none of the Constellations I see often are among them.

The Constellation of Fortune, for instance, or the Constellation of Exploration. I sincerely hoped the familiar ones who appeared every time were not among those seventeen.

But that train of thought did not continue. Messages rose in rapid succession — and at last the rewards appeared, and my entire mind locked onto them.

Whew.

A whistle escaped me on its own. Every single reward that had appeared was Myth grade at minimum — and even among Myth-grade items, half a tier above the Terror of Satyros.

A Complete Golden Rule, huh.

On top of that, this was the first time I had ever seen a Complete Golden Rule itself, not a fragment. I slowly examined the rewards.

Pureblood Blueprint. That's a Unique-grade design.

The first thing that caught my eye was a Unique-grade blueprint I had never seen before. The materials and qualifications required would be written on it as well. Interest stirred of its own accord.

But the other items were every bit as magnificent.

…Brand of Ouroboros. Is this a brand that reveals the position of a star?

Among the stars that had yet to appear, one bore the name Ouroboros — a serpent-lineage star, the same as the Jormungandr Mystery Isabella possessed. Even if it wasn't that, anything carrying the name Ouroboros was ominous in its own right.

And a piece of the Myth-grade Baal Set has shown up.

The Baal Helmet. One of the three set pieces named for Baal. Gather them all, and the rumor was they produced Unique-grade levels of force. No one had ever collected them, so it remained only a rumor — but I wanted this too.

And the Soul of the Magma Giant? A giant-kin's soul — another first for me. Avatar Zigret was one of the Six Heroes; his armor was famous enough to appear in the great epics. Dorian's Dignity and the Eye of Ram would not fall short either.

Insane.

There was nothing I didn't want. Every last one of them was unfamiliar even to me. I had to choose two from among them.

What should I pick?

After a long stretch of deliberation, I selected two from the list.

Ahh.

…Finally!

I closed both eyes and clenched my fists with everything I had. The level that had not risen even after fighting the Supreme Dragon and dueling Sword Saint Ryleigh — the level that had not budged even after clearing the labyrinth — had finally climbed. I had reached Level 7.

Emotion crashed over me like a tidal wave. Because once you hit Level 7, things became possible.

Main Quest 7 only began automatically once you passed Level 7. I had fretted that with a level that refused to rise, I might never start Main Quest 7 at all — but fortunately, it looked like I would be able to begin.

Of course, there was something I had to resolve first.

I slowly opened the door of the Golden Rule and returned to the labyrinth where my companions waited. There I found Greed and Isaac, Isabella, and Saintess Seia, still unconscious.

Saintess Seia.

My eyes fixed on her among them. It was time to wake her.

What the one who was the Abyss itself had left behind.

Examined through the Star's Memory, Saintess Seia's appearance matched almost perfectly. There might be slight differences, but not enough to call her a different person. Pure white hair, long lashes, skin clear without a blemish.

But that should have been impossible. It could not be.

Her entire body should have rotted under the curses of the Demon Realm.

In the Great Expedition, Saintess Seia's role had been immense. Alone, she had carried out the crushing duty of shielding me and the knights from countless curses. Even after the hundred-odd priests who had accompanied her and more than twice that number of holy knights had all been annihilated, she had followed steadfastly behind.

But because she had taken on far too many curses alone, her whole body had rotted and fallen apart. Pus had run from every part of her; her skin and organs had swollen until she could no longer be called human in form.

"G-go. Keep going forward. I will bless you with my life!"

To the very end, the Saintess had been resolute and beautiful. That voice still rang in my ears as if it had been yesterday. Her death had been certain. She could not live. Survival in that situation was impossible.

And yet… she was alive.

I ought to have been purely glad, but I could not simply rejoice. The only possibility by which she could have lived—

The Demon King brought her back…

The Demon King. That bastard had clearly intervened. But why? What was the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ultimate goal in using her — going so far as to purge the toxic curse built up in the Saintess and regenerate her skin and organs?

Level 12. An impossible figure. A human's level, once past 10, required devouring a star to transcend. But the Saintess was not human. She wore a human shell, yet she was one who received and embodied a goddess — and so raising her level past 10 was possible. In exchange, she could not devour a star to transcend. From time to time, there were beings treated as non-human even while human.

I don't sense any curse.

Examining her carefully, I found no sign of a curse. When I stretched out a finger and touched her skin, the sensation was unmistakably hers. Then I slowly lifted an eyelid and checked the pupil.

…Red eyes.

Something had changed. Both of Saintess Seia's eyes were dyed red. The golden eyes that had once shone brilliantly were nowhere to be found. Someone else's eyes, then?

I shook my head inwardly.

These are Saintess Seia's eyes. The color of the pupils changed because of the curses from the Demon Realm.

The more curses piled into her body, the redder her pupils had become. She had lost those brilliant golden eyes to an excess of blessing. Even the Demon King, it seemed, had been unable to restore those eyes.

However—

It's carved on the inside of the eye.

I discovered a curse etched small beneath the eye. A curse so tiny and insignificant it was nearly impossible to find. No…

A Mystery wearing the form of a curse.

Of course. The most ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠insidious Demon King in the world would never have sent the Saintess outside without any contingency.

A Mystery that makes her feel hostility toward humans.

A Mystery containing only that single function — which was why it could not be found from the outside. I had been lucky. If the holy knights of the Goddess Sect had found her first and taken her side, a massacre in the labyrinth would have been more than likely. Holy knights were powerhouses on a different track from ordinary knights, and fanatics. Nothing was more terrifying than their corruption. That Isaac and Isabella had captured the Saintess alive before any contact with the Goddess Sect was a stroke of heaven's favor.

If it was a Mystery, removing it was easy. Eternal Randolph possessed a power akin to the authority to destroy any one Mystery among all Mysteries. Finding and discovering it was the harder part.

"How did you capture Saintess Seia?"

When I asked, Isaac answered.

"Sh-she was unconscious. There were traces of combat with someone all around the area."

Combat. Even with a high level, the Saintess's actual combat power was low. Her innate blessings and regeneration were absurd, but still. Whoever had subdued her, luck had followed in more ways than one. Low combat power or not, Isaac and Isabella alone would have struggled to take her alive.

I don't know who it was, but I'm grateful they only knocked the Saintess out.

I offered silent thanks to the unknown person who had subdued her. Without them, things would have grown large and complicated.

Then Isaac looked at my head and let out a voice close to shock.

"B-but, Successor… that appearance — no, what's on your head…?"

Ah. This thing.

I shrugged and answered.