109. Labyrinth
109. Labyrinth
Coughing, Samaella spat blood and examined her body.
Her ribs were all shattered. Her spine was severed. No—every bone in her upper body was crushed. It was a wonder her body hadn't been torn in half.
Only then did the pain register.
A dizzying pain, enough to make stars burst before her eyes, scrambled Samaella's mind.
"Kghh..."
Blood and groans leaked through her clenched teeth.
What in the world had she—what had she—done?
She glared with wide eyes at the spot where Eliarnes had stood moments before. The ground where all the attacks had raged had become a swamp.
Bubbling, boiling poison. The spears still embedded in the labyrinth's ceiling, the rising poison mist—all of it was focused on a single person.
Focused... was it? Eliarnes wasn't there. Where in the world was she?
The instant she realized it, with a ripping sound, her eardrums burst. Afterward, she saw Eliarnes.
She was lamenting, right in front of Samaella.
"To think I'd have to open a Gate of Purgatory for a maggot like this. I really need to work harder from now on."
Purgatory? What in the world did that mean?
Before she could understand it, she felt pain.
Temple. Tip of the chin. Bridge of the nose. Adam's apple. Solar plexus. Collarbone. Cheekbone. Heart. Kidney. Liver. Spleen. Spine. Eye. Ear. Crown of the head.
How many hits—how many attacks—were being inflicted?
Her consciousness cut out. Her thoughts severed.
She couldn't see the attacks. She couldn't even perceive them.
No killing intent, no rage, no emotion whatsoever could be felt. Eliarnes was simply, silently, like slaughtering livestock, throwing fists and legs.
When she moved a finger to cast magic, it was stomped. When she tried to bleed, it was squeezed shut to stop the bleeding. When she opened her mouth, her Adam's apple was struck. When she tried to rise, her spine was severed. When she spewed poison, Aura was detonated.
She knew how to fight Wizards. Black Wizards. Better than anyone.
Even so, Samaella would not die.
Poison-Body Steel Physique. Her entire body was made of poison.
Even if she was torn in half, even if her whole body burst apart, she survived.
Not only that, she was tough. Most High-grade Monsters couldn't leave a single scratch on Samaella's body.
And yet.
"Ugh, you're tough. You're definitely not human. But you're not a Demon either. What the hell are you mixed with?"
What in the world is happening?
She couldn't understand. Bones shattered, skin tore, eyeballs burst, her tongue was ripped out, her neck twisted, her body crumpled.
Just as quickly, she regenerated. And then the pain began again. Eliarnes, who was producing that pain, continued her work with an annoyed expression.
Her Intent? Ideal Manifestation. The Eight-Headed Serpent. What in the world was it doing? Amid the pain assaulting her body moment by moment, Samaella rolled her eyes.
The Eight-Headed Serpent was also targeting Eliarnes.
Swinging its tails, snapping with its jaws, trying to spew poison, slamming its heads down.
But why in the world could Eliarnes still attack her?
Samaella's eyes couldn't see it.
She shifted her gaze. The Eight-Headed Serpent. Only then could she barely see it.
When a tail swung, Eliarnes swung her leg. When it tried to bite, she kicked upward and forced the jaws shut. Because of that, it couldn't spit poison.
The jaws closed against its will. In the end, it tried swinging its head, but it was blocked by a tiny fist.
Eight heads. Eight tails.
Sixteen in number. She was deflecting all of it with just one pair of arms and legs, while attacking Samaella.
And even that sight was hard to follow with the eyes.
She, an 8th Circle, by a mere Tier 5 Martial Artist—
was being beaten.
Crunch—she bit her lips with regenerated teeth. Even those were struck again and shattered immediately. But the rage turning her mind red devoured the pain.
How long had it been since she'd felt such rage? How long since she'd gone all out?
She never thought she'd have to bring this out against a mere wench like this. It was something she'd saved to buy time if Shadowless came.
She couldn't speak. Left with no choice, she commanded the Eight-Headed Serpent through her constantly severing thoughts.
'Devour me. Offer me as the price of sacrifice.'
The Eight-Headed Serpent obeyed. One of the eight heads that had been focused on attacking began to move differently.
Eliarnes noticed it.
But she couldn't stop it. No matter how overwhelming her position, she couldn't do anything about that giant snake bastard. Blocking was all she could manage.
"Pulling weird shit again. Tch."
So she had no choice but to focus on pounding Samaella. She knew her whole body was made of poison.
She also knew it regenerated no matter how much she tore, ripped, and broke it.
Then how in the world do you kill it?
You kill it until it dies. Simple.
So that's what she was doing. She didn't know how many times she'd killed her. She regenerated again and again.
It wasn't meaningless. The regeneration speed was noticeably slower than before. Just a little more killing and it would be done.
Faster, more certain.
Could she do it? She couldn't guarantee it, but she thought she could. Her body's physical capabilities were better than expected.
Deceptive Body.
She wrapped her entire body in blazing Mana. Every time she threw a punch, light flashed. It kept flaring. She moved without rest, to the point where it seemed the light would never go out.
Every time she moved, blood sprayed in all directions. Even this bitch's blood was poison. She had to dodge every single droplet, not missing a single one, while killing her.
She couldn't dodge everything. She had no choice but to sacrifice some skin. The pain was fine. Because of the unknown poison she'd been afflicted with, pain and sensation were dulled.
She didn't even know if her limbs were properly attached.
Even so, the reason she could move like this was.
She moved the Mana soaked into every single muscle fiber, making the muscles move along with it.
Probably, if she'd felt the pain fully, even she couldn't have moved like this.
...At this point, it felt like Samaella was helping her.
"Haa..."
Her exhaled breath was hot. It tasted strongly of blood.
How many tasks was she doing at once?
Seeing with her eyes, feeling, dodging, striking, moving Mana, observing the results, operating Deceptive Body.
Seeing, feeling, dodging, moving Mana again.
Thanks to that, her brain felt hot enough to melt, but if she stopped, she'd die. Better than dying.
In her Past Life, she'd fought worse battles than this.
With that single thought, she didn't stop moving.
She also kept the Eight-Headed Serpent's movements in check. She had to delay its nonsense as much as possible.
After a moment of that.
Hazy smoke billowed from Samaella's body.
At the same time.
"Oh, you... fucking bitch!"
Sensation returned to her limbs. She could feel, in detail, how wrecked her tattered body was.
The pain flooding in all at once.
As if her nerve bundles were being torn to shreds, boring into her bones, a thousand needles stabbing her flesh, burning skewers piercing through her skin—unbearable pain dominated her entire body.
Samaella had retrieved the poison that had erased her senses.
Furthermore, she'd extracted every bit of poison that had been inside Eliarnes's body.
And so, the pain that began to be felt made Eliarnes's body freeze, if only for a moment.
And Samaella did not miss that opening.
The Eight-Headed Serpent. Samaella's Intent extended its gaping jaws to chew and swallow her.
Eli, reeling from the pain, rampaged the Mana throughout her body and hurled herself sideways. At the same time—CRAAASH!—the Eight-Headed Serpent's jaws bit down on the spot where its own master had been.
Crunch, crunch—the sound of bones being chewed and swallowed, then gulp.
The obscene sound of swallowing echoed through the cavern.
Eliarnes forcibly shook off the pain and stared at the Eight-Headed Serpent that had swallowed its own master.
"Suicide... doesn't seem like it."
The pain she still felt made her thoughts sluggish.
An Intent that didn't vanish even after swallowing its master.
Yet it didn't attack its master's enemy either.
What was it doing this for?
After she let out two breaths, the result came.
Sacrifice.
The offering was her entire body.
"...You fucking cunt."
Eliarnes, her face twisted, raised her left hand.
It was already a tattered left hand, but she'd somehow protected the Acupoints within it.
The Acupoint on her little finger was opened.
What would be the result of that sacrifice? What other bizarre, bullshit thing would pop out?
Then how many more Gates would she need to open?
The second Gate. Maybe even the third.
She clenched her ring and middle fingers.
What about the recoil? Could this weak body endure it? Luna wasn't even here. It was fine.
Beyond that Gate, there was an Elixir.
If she could somehow eat it, if someone could feed it to her, at least she wouldn't die.
She decided. She'd boldly open up to the third Gate.
And kill that snake-like bitch for certain.
So she couldn't escape through a back door. For certain.
"Haa..."
She let out a heated sigh.
That moment.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
From far away.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The sound of something being destroyed.
BOOM—! BOOM—! BOOM—!
It began to draw closer.
CRAAASH—!
And so, that sound of destruction stopped right nearby.
The Eight-Headed Serpent flinched.
Inside it, Samaella ground her teeth.
How could she already be here?
Had she killed all the humans?
No, Shadowless wasn't the kind of person who could do that.
Then how in the world? She couldn't understand.
No, she didn't need to understand. The situation had already unfolded.
Then, then...
Right now, she had no choice but to flee.
That moment.
Click.
The smell of blood wafted. Whose blood? She couldn't distinguish that. It was just the smell of countless beings' blood. Countless, all mixed together, the smell of blood.
Click.
That smell was bizarre. It seemed alive, moving.
The smell of fresh blood. The smell of blood that seemed to still be flowing even now.
"What the hell is this..."
Killing intent. She felt killing intent as if it were crushing her entire body.
Feeling that killing intent with her whole body, Eliarnes thought.
There's no way, as I am now, there's no way I can win.
Instead.
If I open all five Gates... I'll definitely win.
So she clenched all four remaining fingers.
She couldn't bend them. Her body froze.
Behind her.
The smell of blood. When in the world?
Gulp—she swallowed dry saliva. She turned her head and looked at the source of the blood smell.
The first thing she saw was a pitch-black uniform.
A uniform of rough, stiff material. A uniform with no pattern whatsoever. The hand revealed at the end of the sleeve wore dark-red leather gloves.
Not dark-red. They'd been stained dark-red with blood. She raised her head. A white mask. A featureless mask.
"...Shadowless?"
The captain of Nameless, Shadowless.
She was looking at her. Looking at her without withdrawing her killing intent. An enemy? Betrayal?
The time it would take for everything to spread through her body after opening the Acupoints. One second. Could she endure that long? She didn't know. But she had to do it.
Just as she was thinking that and about to bend all her fingers—whoosh.
Shadowless threw a punch into the empty air.
A light punch. Perfect form.
Along that path, that direction, that speed, exactly.
The Eight-Headed Serpent burst.
*****
Seeing the chunks of flesh scattering through the air, I was slightly—no, quite a lot—surprised.
The captain of Nameless, Shadowless.
This woman... she seems to be right at the edge of Tier 8...?
In the first place, what in the world did she just... how did she do that?
Still, for now...
"Haa... I got scared for nothing."
I let out a sigh of relief.
Shadowless wasn't an enemy. She'd come... to help me.
But then why the hell... was she glaring at me without withdrawing her killing intent?
"...What? What is it? Can you put the killing intent away?"
Shadowless tilted her head. Then she grabbed my face with both hands and brought her face close.
I wondered why she was acting like this.
Brainwashing.
Had Shadowless been tied up by the brainwashed people?
"I wasn't brainwashed, so let go."
Another tilt. It seemed like she was asking, really?
"Really."
Only then did Shadowless let go of my face.
And then, slowly, she tried to carefully hug me?
"Wh-what the hell? What's this?"
I recoiled and stepped back.
"Hey now. This is sexual harassment. Don't touch me. Even if you're a woman too, it's not okay. I'll report you. I'll tell my dad."
Flinch—Shadowless trembled, touched her own mask, then dejectedly hung her head.
Leaving Shadowless like that, I turned my gaze.
After the Eight-Headed Serpent burst, Samaella's presence had vanished. There was no way she'd died so anticlimactically.
Maintaining the Gate Opening (開門), I surveyed my surroundings.
I couldn't... feel anything.
Did she really just die like that?
Just as I thought that.
Not my eyes, but my intuition caught something.
Pina... hadn't finished her consciousness, so there was no need to take her. Then who was left?
Stella.
I turned my head. There, faintly, a shadow.
"Found you."
Flash—cherry-blossom-colored Mana flared. My forcibly extended stride advanced greatly. In the instant I sliced a moment into hundreds, I stood beside Stella.
"Uh, uhh? Wh-what... what in the world is going on—eek?!"
I pulled the dazed Stella into my arms. I extended my right hand, which was at least somewhat intact. Something grabbed hold—squeeze. A bright smile spread across my face.
"Don't touch her. She's mine."
"Uh, uhh...? Huh? Wh-what?!"
Stella let out a stupid noise, and the hazy figure flinched. At that moment, Shadowless surged forward. My eyes couldn't follow her. Only my intuition, honed infinitely sharp, knew it.
And so Shadowless extended her fist to kill that faint figure, Samaella.
She couldn't reach her.
A back door opened.
"...What the hell are you?"
Samaella, being sucked into that back door, glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
I couldn't help but be surprised. I was touching Samaella's body when even Shadowless couldn't reach her. And not only that, I had a firm grip on this bitch's right arm.
"How many times are you going to ask?"
In case of any unexpected situation, I hugged Stella tight—squeeze.
"Ro..."
Oh shit. Almost slipped up.
"Eliarnes Eustetia."
I drew up all the Mana remaining in my body and yanked down the right hand gripping Samaella's arm.
"You touched what's mine without permission, so leave this behind."
Rrrrip—with a rough sound, Samaella's right arm was torn off.
"One arm's a bargain. It'll grow back soon anyway, right?"
"You can look forward to it. I will... definitely kill you."
"Idiot. You got the shit beaten out of you by a Tier 5 and ran away, and you still run your mouth. Shut up and get the hell out of here, you pathetic bitch."
"Ha, hahaha! Ahahaha! Fine. Until I come back for you, don't you dare die. Wait for me."
With those final words, thud.
Samaella vanished.
The battle was over.
The labyrinth was disappearing.