Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Welcome to Hell
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“Welcome.”
The white-haired young man at the front.
Sein grinned devilishly amid the flickering flames.
“Is this your first time in the labyrinth?”
And then.
“Gaaah!”
Screams erupted from his comrades.
“I thought you’d at least let us have the first move. Tsk.”
Sein’s disappointed expression seemed to crush Damus’s heart.
“Anyway, welcome to hell.”
Sein turned around.
Balak and Sis stepped forward beside him.
“……!”
Only then did Damus fully regain sensation in his body.
Boom!
Balak’s greatsword clashed against Damus’s longsword, unleashing a thunderous roar.
The two swords had finally met.
“How…?”
But Damus was the one in shock.
The tremor transmitted through his blade. The overwhelming strength.
He was master-class.
Yet blocking his sword was…
“Master-class?”
A mere Rasiel nobody—whose name he didn’t even know—stood firm against him.
“You really seemed to underestimate us completely, Damus.”
“You bastard. Sis.”
His exposed flank lay defenseless.
Sis’s voice and sword thrust in together.
Damus twisted his body.
Boom!
He parried both Sis and Balak’s swords at once.
“Did you think the labyrinth would give you an edge? Dante trains for mazes and has countermeasures?”
Rumble rumble boom!
Damus’s sword trembled as it held off the two blades.
He needed to create an opening to break free, but it wasn’t easy.
“Sorry, but this isn’t our first labyrinth.”
“Bullshit!”
With a roar, Damus’s mana surged.
Clang!
The two swords flew back.
Damus’s body and mana were adapting to the labyrinth, regaining their full power.
“You think candidates would enter a labyrinth? You’re saying Rasiel allowed that?!”
It was insane.
“Yeah, they wouldn’t….”
Sis’s voice carried a bitter edge.
“But that guy doesn’t care about stuff like that.”
“That guy…”
Damus knew.
The white-haired madman.
Sein Demorus.
“Pretending you’ve cleared the labyrinth or something?”
Damus assumed his stance.
A flawless posture, proving he was truly master-class—no wasted motion.
It could shift seamlessly into offense or defense.
Clang clang clang!
Even amid this, Damus scanned the battlefield.
‘We haven’t been completely overwhelmed yet.’
Some of Dante’s candidates were out of commission, but their two key master-class fighters were holding their own.
Grit.
His teeth ground together.
Holding their own.
Being pushed back by Rasiel.
But they couldn’t just take this lying down.
“Dante! Listen up—!”
Rooooar!
Damus exploded his mana, unleashing his aura.
He thrust his sword forward and shouted.
Aura Pierce.
A master-class skill firing off an manifested aura blade.
“Retreat—! Fall back for now!”
He had to admit it.
Only then could they plan their next move.
“Where?”
Balak swung his greatsword.
Shiiiing!
Sis thrust his blade.
Damus…
Thud!
Blocked both strikes with his sword face.
Creeeak!
His sword rang and shook under the brute force—but only for a moment.
Rooooar—!
Damus’s sword absorbed the power from Balak and Sis’s blades and released it as a shockwave.
In an instant, all of Rasiel staggered, some dropping to their knees.
“Now—!”
Damus bellowed.
Dante began fleeing the battlefield like mad.
*
*
*
They let Damus and the rest of Dante escape.
Only two captives.
A victory, but it felt unsatisfying.
A grin.
If he hadn’t seen Rasiel’s expressions.
“Sein, we did as you said.”
Balak approached and reported.
“Good work.”
Damus would think he’d escaped on his own will, but he was wrong.
They’d let him go.
“Raise your hands if you’re injured.”
Sein took stock as he spoke.
Smack.
Dante lived up to its name.
They’d capitalized on the surprise attack and intel advantage.
Yet the result was still lackluster.
Quite a few candidates were wounded.
“You all know what to do, right?”
“…Sorry.”
Even the injured candidates withdrew their mana and bowed their heads.
The others watched as if it were natural.
“Bring the prisoners.”
Tap.
At Sein’s word, the other candidates dragged forward Dante’s captured ones.
“Kill us if you’re gonna.”
They spoke with resolute faces.
And Sein…
“That’s the plan.”
Shing.
He drew his sword without hesitation.
They’d steeled themselves for death, but facing the sharp blade, they couldn’t help trembling.
Sein swung his sword slowly.
Thud.
But their heads didn’t fall. They merely lost consciousness.
“We’ve got time to kill anyway.”
Sein said.
“You think these guys will break from just this?”
He glanced at Dante.
They were like unyielding diamonds.
“No, they’re probably fuming right now. Refusing to acknowledge our strength.”
“…….”
“We torment them until they shatter.”
Not their bodies—their spirits.
“Chris, you mapped the route?”
“Yeah. And I planted tracking incense on them. We can see where they went and how long they stayed.”
Chris was one of Rasiel’s weaker candidates, but sharp-minded.
Back in the previous labyrinth, Sein had…
-Learn this.
Passed on the tracking master Tank’s teachings from his hunter days to Chris.
And the result…
“They won’t escape my nose until the labyrinth ends.”
A promising talent had been born.
Not just Chris.
“Traps disarmed. Looks like they headed into some nasty ones by bad luck. A few might’ve died.”
Shimara handled trap detection and disarming.
“Let’s eat.”
Toby had learned special cooking methods.
Each Rasiel candidate embodied a fragment of Sein’s past life.
“Alright.”
For now, they were the party Sein would use.
And valuable assets afterward.
“Keep this in mind.”
Sein hadn’t joined the exchange match aggressively.
‘They’re already complete.’
Rasiel’s candidates were already more than equipped to beat Dante.
So this was…
“Not about beating Dante trash. It’s to see if you can keep up with me.”
A test disguised as an exchange match.
*
*
*
“Impossible.”
Over a week had passed since entering the labyrinth.
“Impossible!”
Damus, who’d looked like a hero of reversal, was now no better than a beggar.
The labyrinth—the first he’d ever faced—was pure hell, nothing like training.
“Trap disarmed yet?!”
“N-Not yet…”
Boom!
“Urk!”
“What happened?!”
“Trap blew up during disarming!”
“Again?”
The labyrinth’s traps everywhere threatened even superhumans wielding mana.
“Monsters!”
The dark species monsters that appeared dwarfed anything from their missions.
Size, power, ferocity.
“Damn it! Formation!”
Battling those dark species in the mana-dense labyrinth was torture, not war—pure hell.
Problems kept piling up even after fights.
“Some gear’s totally unusable now.”
“Repair kits?”
“All used up.”
Support items were running out.
That’s when things got dire.
“No food left.”
Rations gone.
The ambush by Rasiel’s scum at the entrance had cost them the magic bag of supplies. Fatal mistake.
The captives were in charge of Dante’s supplies.
“…We’ll have to eat monster meat for now.”
“But…”
Monster meat was bottom-tier emergency rations from lower zones.
Often toxic, induced madness, awful taste and freshness.
Worst: Labyrinth monsters weren’t common types—they were dark species.
“Urk.”
They endured only because they were superhumans.
Demorus blood helped.
“…Let’s rest a bit.”
Minor bellyaches to major fevers.
Dante’s situation only worsened.
Bam!
Damus smashed the labyrinth wall with his fist.
“Raaargh!”
He roared like a monster.
He couldn’t contain his rage.
“We’re Dante!”
Candidates from the three great organizations, proud of their unmatched martial prowess.
“I am…”
Chosen by Dante.
Future head of Demorus.
“Damus Demorus—!”
That was him.
But they looked pathetic.
Yet true to Dante.
Wounded, but no deaths.
No.
“…It’s them again.”
They couldn’t die.
Dante’s candidates, resting, scrambled into formation.
Routine by now.
End a grueling day, sink into a soft bed?
Dante ended theirs facing new assailants.
Glossy hair and skin, unlike theirs.
Shiny gear.
Mana waves calm, as if no battle fought.
“Fucking bastards!”
Damus screamed but couldn’t move.
Days past.
A routine-born fear.
One question arose.
‘These guys…’
Rasiel’s candidates.
‘…monsters?’
Real monsters beyond comparison.
Worst among them: that white-haired youth, Sein.
No.
“…Sis.”
“I’ll handle you again today.”
Same main family origins.
But lowly mother, scorned even there.
While they wielded swords and blessings, Sis hauled their baggage.
Shing.
Since entering the labyrinth, Damus faced only Sis.
“No hard feelings, Damus. Draw your sword.”
“You son of a—!”