Chapter 127
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Toki's Resolve
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"One day, this endless ordeal got so unbearable that I smashed my own head in. That's exactly what happened."
What kind of madman's words were these?
Toki was bewildered.
The man who had acted perfectly normal until now was spewing nonsense after having that nightmare.
"I thought that was the end of it, but the next day dawned without a hitch. So I bashed my head in again that day too. And still, the next day came."
"You kept... dying?"
"Did I think I died? I'm not even sure if I actually did. But then one day... I had that dream. Someone with their back turned to me scolded me."
Toki began mimicking someone.
"Foolish... so foolish!"
"I got so angry at those words that I yelled back. Why! Why was I the only one dumped in a hellhole like this! Why, why do I have to live a more miserable life than everyone else! I... I... I can't endure it anymore."
Toki murmured quietly.
"Lord, it hurts so much. And that's when that voice replied."
"Someday, you will understand the reason. The reason it had to be you. The reason you must endure this long trial."
Kang Seol gritted his teeth.
It didn't matter who had appeared in his dream.
It could have been a hallucination born from Toki's suffering, or perhaps some truly divine being.
'...It's me. The one who left him here alone... was me. I...'
But his god was clear.
Toki's god was Kang Seol.
'The god of Toki, and the cruel fate he cursed.'
So that guilt was something Kang Seol had to bear.
An indescribable emotion surged within Kang Seol.
Toki spoke to him.
"I believed those words and endured. Right up to now."
"Toki, then are you... a specter of the labyrinth?"
"You know of them?"
"I've encountered them."
"The fugitives of the labyrinth. Once the labyrinth corrupts you, you can feel that it's alive. It breaks down the minds of those undergoing trials and harvests them once they're fully shattered. The fugitives hide from its gaze to avoid that fate."
"Then why are you...?"
"I don't know. Whether I died or my mind broke, that was ages ago. Even if I want to see the end... for some reason, I can't."
And with that, the story ended.
It was supposed to be a time to unburden their hearts, but instead, it only made it sink in that they—all weary from their trials—were slowly being eroded by the labyrinth.
Their journey seemed like it would continue that way. Precarious, like standing on a swaying bridge.
But change comes suddenly. An event that upends everything that's dragged on tediously.
A few days later, as they trudged through the desert again.
Sniff... sniff...
"Hm? What's up, Tubby?"
Sniff sniff!
Tubby bounced up and suddenly let out a howl. Toki quickly spotted the reason and shouted.
"Damn it..."
Roooaaar...
"Sandstorm! Tubby! Run!"
Sniff! Sniff sniff!
While searching for a door, they were suddenly engulfed by a sandstorm that swept over the desert. The moment it hit, despair washed over them.
'No way to dodge it!'
Rooooaaaarrr-!
The sandstorm approached at a speed no human could counter, swallowing everything in its path.
Kang Seol and Toki were swept away too.
The thick grittiness in his mouth.
The thirst he'd been suppressing.
Kang Seol looked around.
"......"
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Nothing but sand.
What about Toki?
Negative emotions took root in Kang Seol's heart. The malice he'd kept down began to rear its head.
'No way... is Toki dead?'
At that moment, his mental corruption spiked explosively.
"Hah... hahh..."
He couldn't breathe properly.
Mental Corruption Level has reached 75.
No, I don't want to be alone.
"Anyone... is anyone there?"
Mental Corruption Level has reached 78.
Don't leave me alone in this desert.
"Toki! Toki! Nooo!"
Mental Corruption Level has reached 82.
Kang Seol ran madly across the desert.
Or rather, now tormented by hallucinations, he couldn't even tell if he was really running.
"Am I... alone now...?"
Mental Corruption Level has reached 85.
The labyrinth has detected mental corruption.
I can't do anything alone.
Have I failed?
"I can't... it's impossible... I can't do it..."
Mental Corruption Level has reached 90.
Yeah, let's just... end it all.
Kang Seol tried to accept his failure—a judgment he never would have made otherwise.
The labyrinth was one step away from shattering his mind.
Then, he felt a sensation like his body was floating. It pulled him smoothly out of the sand.
Grab.
"Gahhh..."
"Snap out of it!"
"Kek... kuh..."
"Breathe! Breathe, you idiot!"
"Hahh... haaah... who..."
"Haa... haa... We swore not to give in to the labyrinth. Look at me! Recognize me?"
Kang Seol peered through bleary eyes with blurred vision.
There stood Toki, smiling.
"Took me forever to find you."
That smile cleared his corrupted mind, if only for a moment.
"Toki..."
"Your mind's already in tatters. If you stay still, the labyrinth will swallow you whole. We need to get out of here fast."
"But there's no door..."
Kang Seol truly liked Toki.
He was always someone who carried hope with him.
"I found it. The door."
He was Kang Seol's one true saint.
"...You found a door?"
"Yeah, so we can get out!"
As Kang Seol shook his head to clear it, Toki continued.
"No lie. Get ready. We're leaving this place."
Toki's actions looked just like someone tying up loose ends before departure.
"Tubby's dead. Must've landed wrong when we got separated. Poor little guy."
"I see... Tubby..."
Kang Seol felt a pang of sorrow at the loss of the creature he'd grown fond of.
In a place like this, any living being you could connect with—be it monster or man—felt precious.
"But we buried him properly, so he won't feel too bad about it. Anyway, we leave tonight, so brace yourself."
Quick and decisive.
Toki's words rang true; that day, they didn't go anywhere, just sat and chatted.
"Is it really true?"
"I told you it is. Is it that shocking that my heartfelt first love was some noble's kid?"
- Yes.
- Lol wtf
They talked for a long time.
Kang Seol's mind was still in agony, the line between reality and delusion blurred.
It felt like a dream.
The whole situation—talking with Toki, what he was saying—it all sounded like a dream.
An alien scene.
This was the Labyrinth of Trials.
People who had endured months in its worst ordeal, the Trial of Endurance, sharing happy conversation.
So they savored that happiness.
Kang Seol listened to Toki's stories as if they were the most precious things, not missing a single word.
And when night fell, Toki stopped talking.
"Haha... Looking back like this, my life wasn't all that bad after all. Alright! Time to go."
"Toki."
Through their talk, Kang Seol had come to a conviction.
About the door Toki claimed to have found. Its true nature.
"Stop..."
"Hm?"
"Don't do it, Toki."
"...What do you mean?"
He was about to do something no labyrinth fugitive should ever attempt.
"...You didn't find a door, did you?"
"...Young man."
"You didn't find it! Tell me!"
Toki smiled faintly.
"You're right. I didn't find it."
"Then don't look for it."
"No, I have to."
"Why..."
Toki's eyes blazed.
"Otherwise, we'll both get eaten by the labyrinth."
"You..."
Kang Seol's mental corruption was at a critical level, making escape hard for him, but Toki could endure here indefinitely, as he always had.
Even if Kang Seol broke, Toki at least wouldn't be devoured.
"Snowman."
"......"
"Have you figured it out... how to make a door appear?"
Kang Seol nodded.
You might stumble on one wandering the desert normally, but with no time to spare like now, there was only one way.
"Toki... there has to be... another way..."
"You remind me of my younger self. Full of gaps, but brimming with conviction in my youth. Probably why God let us meet."
"If someone has to die..."
"No! You're saying that because your mind's already broken. Think it over again after you escape the labyrinth. It's simple math. One dies, or both do. I figured you could handle basic arithmetic..."
"...Both?"
Toki said heavily.
"Now... I don't have the confidence to endure alone anymore. I've realized how fun it is to have company."
"......"
"If someone can escape this labyrinth... it has to be you, not me."
With a resolute expression, he began what he'd long resolved to do.
"Labyrinth! Toki is here! So..."
Toki had endured to learn the reason for his harsh life.
And now, he released the final barrier protecting his mind.
A tremendous energy swept across the desert.
"Come take me!"
Someone's mind has been fully corrupted.
Toki shouted at Kang Seol as he rushed to stop him. Kang Seol froze at his words.
"You only get one shot! Don't screw it up like an idiot! Escape the labyrinth and greet the morning. You know I'm already a dead man. This... this is a job for someone like me. And never give up! Got it? You, the guy with no grit..."
Kang Seol bit his lip until it bled and replied.
"...the last place."
Pfft.
"You didn't forget. Then don't come last."
Creeeeak...
The sound of a door opening.
Loud enough for both Kang Seol and Toki to hear.
Hummmm...
A massive, grotesque door burst open. From within, hands of unpleasant hue shot out toward Toki.
Grab—
Toki closed his eyes even as the hands surrounded him and murmured.
"The reason I've lived until now, the reason I'm here... I finally understand. You've prepared the exact place I belong, haha! You really... leave nothing to chance. Ugh..."
As the eerie hands wrapped around him, he turned to Kang Seol with his final words.
"My every reason... was you."
Swoooosh!
"Gaaaaahhh!"
Crack...
Toki was seized by the labyrinth's hands and sucked into the door.
"Toki!"
Kang Seol sprinted wildly. Maybe he could still grab him.
But the labyrinth's hands were incredibly fast, vanishing through the door in an instant.
That left only one way to save him.
Swoosh...
After the hands withdrew, Kang Seol leaped toward the door as it began closing on its own.
Creeeeak...
Bam—!
The door shut.
"Haa... haa..."
"Bro... bro... I was trying to help..."
"Cough... hack..."
The final gateway of the labyrinth.
No one sat on the long bench. Nor were they all standing.
Park Chang-sik gazed at Sung Jae-ho, who crawled on the floor with Park's sword impaling his gut.
While Kang Seol fought bitterly in the desert, they too had met a painful end.
"Why... why'd you do that to Tae-gyu..."
Kim Tae-gyu, who had escaped the Trial of Suffering, wasn't unscathed either. With his chest smashed, he gasped for breath—until those gasps stopped forever.
"Heheh... that bastard... tried to stab me..."
Sung Jae-ho, who had passed the Trial of Doubt, soon breathed his last.
Kang Seol had sensed something off when he hesitated answering about his mental corruption level, but he never imagined he'd strike a comrade in the chest.
"Ugh..."
How did it feel to take the life of a close brother-in-arms?
If the devil were there, he'd ask just that.
"Aaaargh!"
Mental Corruption Level has reached 77.
Park Chang-sik clutched his head in agony. If his mental corruption rose further here, he'd likely meet the same fate as the dead.
Then, a loud noise came from the door behind him.
"Gaaaaahhh!"
Booom—!
Something emerged from the door.
'Did he fail?'
Whoosh—!
As the soul was sucked into the reaper statue's lantern, Park Chang-sik sighed.
"What now... what am I supposed to do alone...?"
Thinking the soul just dragged in was Kang Seol's, he fell into panic.
But he hadn't seen clearly.
"Cough..."
"...Huh?"
"Gah... hack..."
Kang Seol had emerged from the door, still reeling from the shock, dry-heaving.
"Y-You succeeded!"
Park Chang-sik rushed over to support him.
"Is it all over? Can we... leave this hell now?"
Kang Seol lifted his head from where he'd slumped on the long bench and spoke.
"No... not yet."
"...What?"
"There's still... the final gateway ahead."
He panted, staring forward.
'A battle awaits at the labyrinth's end.'
A fight against bizarre wooden puppets.
During the Saint of Blood's run, he'd cleared that gateway easily.
It was arguably the easiest one.
At that moment.
Vrooooom—!
The statues vibrated violently.
Red light gleamed in their eyes as something like thread spooled out.
The Final Trial Begins
"What... is that? A puppet?"
The unidentified energy created something shaped like a puppet.
The spawned puppet resembled a wooden doll with unnatural joints.
It appeared in the square space between the statues and Kang Seol, standing motionless as soulless things do.
This much matched what Kang Seol knew. So the labyrinth was as good as cleared.
But his wishes rarely came true from the start.
Pain Sharing has begun.
Defeat the recorded pain of those in the labyrinth's history.
Shhh...
More emerged from the statues' eyes.
It floated gently over and settled onto the puppet.
Clunk.
Finally, the puppet stirred. It rose with a clatter.
Kang Seol knew many secrets of the Labyrinth of Trials, but not everything.
Like what fate awaited harvested souls, the labyrinth's purpose, or why the Trial of Suffering felt so alien compared to the others.
He had once asked Toki about it.
Toki had hesitated before answering.
Kang Seol now perfectly understood Toki's words.
"Why of all things... why..."
Defeat Finn Modria.
Finn Modria exerts only 20% of original power.
The labyrinth had recorded the power of trial-takers through the Trial of Suffering. To greet future ones.
Creak...
The soul puppet cocked its head at an odd angle.
Red light burst from its body.
Fwoooosh—!
Shhhh...
Finn Modria uses Vigorous Flow.
Finn Modria's weakening effects are greatly reduced.
Finn Modria now exerts 25% of original power.
The soul puppet stared at Kang Seol.
Finn Modria.
One of the ten pieces that challenged ascension.
"...Why did it have to be you?"
The footsteps left by the Saint of Blood in the past now greeted him at the labyrinth's end.