Chapter 178: The Wizard of Red Rain
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 178: The Wizard of Red Rain
Adventurers from the mid, high, and Deep Layers all froze at the hellish scene that unfolded in that instant.
A massive clash between hundreds of monsters and sentinels.
Gaze of the Void, Magical Eruption, Ice Pikes, Liquid Gold.
A torrent of magic poured from the monsters.
“Grr! Grr!”
A snow wolf tore at a sentinel.
Primitive Spearmen and Hell Legion Commanders charged together. Butcher’s knives crushed several sentinels.
The floor was the bright red tongue of a colossal beast.
Teeth surrounded the battlefield like the iron bars of a colosseum.
On the ground, a great clash between monsters raged, filled with screams, roars, and magical incantations.
Above their heads, blood poured from the dense dark clouds.
[Bleeding]
The status effect inflicted upon the monsters drenched in the bloody rain made it difficult to distinguish real blood from magic.
The Enchanting Vampiric Magic Circle granted its targets a life-draining status.
The downpour of blood was already splashing on the floor.
And…
“They’re regenerating…?”
Blood pooled over the wounds of monsters torn apart by the sentinels' blades. The rapid tissue regeneration surpassed the healing magic of most priests.
Pweeeet!
The Caretaker of Rest whistled repeatedly. The dying sentinels began to regenerate.
It was a war of undying monsters. Not a strategic battle with formations and rallying points like the adventurers of the Public Security Headquarters, but a bloody struggle of devils devouring one another.
“What… what kind of battle is this…”
Even Blackdog was stunned by the gruesome sight, his face blank.
“Blackdog!”
Caleb shouted.
“Now’s our chance! We have to take out the Caretaker!”
With countless monsters and sentinels blocking the way, they needed a way to reach the Caretaker of Rest on the other side of the battlefield.
Blackdog knew exactly how.
“Opening a dimensional gate!”
*
I had managed to create something similar to a mass heal by stacking Cumulonimbus, the Vampiric Magic Circle, and my turn-based Action Points.
‘The duration is short.’
Cardinal Servan of the Order of Nathaniel could probably sustain a mass heal for hours, but the spell I just used had an expiration date of thirty seconds.
That was because Cumulonimbus only lasted for thirty seconds.
I had to end this within that time.
Honestly, it would be easier if this were a game.
I could use the monsters' magic to pull the Glutton over to this side.
For example, the Glutton's transposition magic.
But since I couldn't just click on the Glutton and activate the spell, it was better to forge a path myself than to leave it to luck.
Thirty seconds.
[Dimensional Gate]
A magical portal connected the space behind a Hell Wyvern's massive wing to the spot right behind the Caretaker of Rest.
To be honest, the original plan was for my party not to come here at all.
We didn't know what dangers lurked inside the Gourmet Whale, and my party wasn't strong enough to fight the sentinels of the 9.5th floor.
So, the plan was to just deliver the scrolls through a dimensional gate and leave the rest to Blackdog.
“Let’s go!”
But it couldn't be helped. I didn't know the dimensional gate wouldn't connect to the surface, so Blackdog couldn't have known either.
He probably came in planning to lie in wait, only to realize he was in deep trouble. With the gate swarming with sentinels, it would have been difficult to go back down.
Thanks to that, I had to come here myself.
So this time, show me the power of a true Deep Layer party, Blackdog.
“I'll keep the gate open! Go!” Blackdog shouted.
The vanguard, Krom, was the first to leap through the gate.
“Ooooh!”
He roared.
Berserker Tier 8 skill, Giant War Machine.
Blue smoke billowed from the superhuman's body. The orc's muscular frame swelled explosively, growing as large as the 3.5-meter-tall Caretaker.
“Krom!”
Following him was Nimue, the Deep Layer mage of the Frostian race.
Her shimmering, light-blue hair fluttered behind her.
Nimue leaped onto the shoulder of the now-giant Krom.
“Pweeeet!”
The Caretaker of Rest fired a decay beam at them, but…
‘Martyr's Patience.’
Rococo, the former cardinal from Sanfriel and the last to jump through the portal, cast a Tier 6 spell.
The massive resistance buff easily deflected the decay beam.
“Sentinels are coming!”
Krom raised his axe high.
“Arctic Cold Wave.”
Nimue blew a gust of wind forward.
The cold wave froze the blood-drenched sentinels solid.
Unlike me, who had only dipped my toes into the 7th floor, the freezing magic of a Deep Layer mage was overwhelmingly powerful.
About ten sentinels who couldn't resist were frozen in an instant.
And what fell upon them was the giant berserker's axe, like the blade of a guillotine.
*
Thwack!
The axe blade sliced horizontally, crushing seven sentinels and cutting the Caretaker in two.
“Come back!” Blackdog shouted from the other side.
He was still maintaining the dimensional gate.
The now masterless sentinels fell into chaos, charging wildly toward Krom.
The horde of sentinels had lost their ability to regenerate, but they weren't wiped out yet.
It was best to hide behind the monster wave again, using it as a shield.
Nimue quickly leaped from Krom's shoulder and threw herself into the portal.
The former cardinal Rococo did the same.
Even the giant Krom…
Shwoop!
Like a spaceship being sucked into a tiny black hole, he returned through the portal to Blackdog's side.
“Very Deep Layer of you.”
At my quiet praise, Krom snorted.
“You were very Caleb-like yourself.”
It was hard to tell if it was a compliment or a jab.
“Seriously…”
Nimue suddenly started ruffling my hair.
“I can't believe you're just a mid-floor adventurer!”
“I took down a Glutton, so will you count me as a high-floor adventurer now?”
“No way! The unwritten rule is that you have to clear the exit room to be recognized!”
“It's certainly surprising,” Blackdog muttered.
“To know this much about scrolls, this insane monster wave, that bizarre magic circle…”
He stared at me intently and said, “Even if you were taught all this by some incredible possessor, is something like this really possible?”
“…”
I subtly averted my gaze.
“Anyway, let's wait a bit. They can't regenerate anymore and have lost their commander, so they'll collapse soon.”
The monster wave, charging through the flood of blood, grew increasingly frenzied. The sentinels were now clearly being pushed back.
None of those torn and crushed specters could be resurrected.
*
Neko.
Killing the Caretaker of Rest is extremely difficult. They're 9.5th-floor level monsters. It's hard enough for your party to even reach the Caretaker, and even if you do, killing it isn't easy.
That's what Consul Peterson had told Neko. He said she had to be prepared to die, that the mission had a much higher chance of failure.
So, he told her to take this instead.
[Order Bomb]
It was one of the legendary-grade magical tools the Consul possessed.
A device that, when carried by a Deep Layer adventurer, would gradually accumulate power like a capacitor and release it all in an instant upon activation.
It inflicted massive divine damage over a 500-meter radius, making everything ‘orderly.’
“I was going to use this if things went south.”
Neko fiddled with the bomb in her pocket.
She had come here as the Public Security Headquarters' hidden card, even borrowing the Consul's legendary artifact, but there had been no place for her to step in.
“That's normal,” Nimue comforted Neko.
“Look at Caleb's party. They didn't have a chance to step in either.”
“Mmm…”
At that, Aimus, Back Attack, and Yernil looked glum.
“…”
But Neko's shock didn't fade easily.
The monster wave was now trampling the horde of sentinels, chasing the fleeing enemies and scattering throughout the Gourmet Whale's interior.
Setting aside the bloody rain cloud, the situation itself was hard to accept.
‘Since when and how did he prepare all this?’
She was thinking of Caleb.
Blackdog, who had been waiting inside the whale's stomach, seemed to have been in contact with Caleb beforehand.
But the strategy they had agreed upon couldn't have been that detailed.
No matter how amazing Caleb was, he couldn't have known the location of the White Lion's warehouse. If he had, wouldn't he have raided it sooner?
That meant he also wouldn't have known the warehouse was full of monster summoning scrolls. He wouldn't have known the Gourmet Whale would emerge from the Labyrinth. He wouldn't have known Blackdog would end up inside the whale's stomach.
It was all improvisation.
Just like how he had charged in using a stair scroll himself when he lost contact with Blackdog.
The extent of the plan agreed upon with Blackdog beforehand was probably just to watch what came out of the Labyrinth and wait. Or perhaps that he would raid the scroll warehouse and send over anything useful.
Everything else was a real-time response, adapted piece by piece to the rapidly changing situation.
If the scroll warehouse had contained something other than monster summoning scrolls, he might have prepared a different plan accordingly.
‘Does this even make sense?’
The most chilling part was that he had just come from a battle with the Assembly.
And it seemed he'd fought a bloody battle with one of its most dangerous members, another Inter-floor Lord called the Dagger Raptor.
Does that mean he came up with a strategy to destroy the Gourmet Whale here while fighting that monster?
‘Is he even human?’
It was the same back at the steel mill; whenever Neko looked at that wizard, she felt like she was facing some impossibly high wall.
Whether he was being doused in lava after turning to gold from absorbing liquid gold…
…or creating a monster wave while drenched in the blood pouring from the rain clouds…
…at this point, Neko felt she would believe it if someone told her the wizard was actually an avatar of Wizus, descended from the Ethereal Galaxy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, a noise came from beyond the whale's teeth.
Just as Neko hadn't been able to ascend with her magic rappel, a magical barrier between the whale's teeth blocked entry from the other side.
“Caleb!”
She could see outside.
In the clear view toward Sohen, the ethereal form of the wizard Meldini was floating, a horrified expression on his face.
“Caleb! Why are you in there!” he yelled, looking like he was about to lose his mind.
“You said you were going to the scroll warehouse! Why are you here! And why is Blackdog there!”
The professor was utterly confused.
“And what is all this blood!?”
*
“I used monster summoning scrolls to push back the sentinels. Blackdog's party took care of the Caretaker of Rest.”
“Hah…”
Meldini stared, dumbfounded. He hesitated, his expression showing he had so much to say he didn't know where to start. The first thing he spat out was:
“Don't hang out with Blackdog.”
He was managing his student's connections.
“They're a bad crowd.”
“Aww~”
Nimue playfully hung on my shoulder and teased Meldini.
“What's the matter, Professor? Are you discriminating against us because we're northern mages?”
“There's much to learn from northern mages. But there's nothing to learn from Blackdog.”
I suspected he was being more sensitive because they were possessors.
“Anyway, even if you've wiped out all the sentinels, it still looks dangerous in there,” Meldini said.
“Hurry and find a gate to get out. No, wait, there's one right ahead!”
Next to the bisected corpse of the Caretaker of Rest, a stair gate leading down to the surface was humming.
“We'll be out soon.”
Honestly, I was getting a little greedy. I wanted to find out more about the Gourmet Whale. Opportunities like this were rare. Besides…
“We'll destroy the Gourmet Whale first.”
The monster wave would exterminate the sentinels and start destroying the whale's inner walls. We would escape before the whale was sunk…
“The Labyrinth Master has appeared.”
What the hell is he talking about now?
“Caleb, I have a bad feeling. Just get out. They're saying the Labyrinth Master took the White Lion's body and disappeared.”
“The Labyrinth Master…”
My brain felt like it was shutting down.
“You're saying the Labyrinth Master went to the Public Security Headquarters?”
“And then vanished. He might be inside the Gourmet Whale. The Consul and the Public Security forces are entering now. The Consul saw him himself…”
“Caleb!”
Suddenly, Yernil yanked on my shoulder. A startled Nimue fell away.
“Some-something's coming,” Yernil said, drawing her bow.
Her arm trembled with an unknown terror.
Thud.
Behind us, the elf crossbow user from Neko's team suddenly collapsed. They were their party's detection specialist.
“Hah…”
The crossbow user clamped a hand over their mouth, like a patient hyperventilating.
“What… what is that…”
The expressions of the Deep Layer quartet instantly turned grim.
“Krom.”
At Blackdog's low call, Krom quickly moved into the vanguard position.
Aimus stood beside him. The steel monk possessed a mind unshaken by long years of training, but even his shoulders trembled slightly.
“What the fuck…”
Back Attack had already moved behind me, his hand resting lightly on my shoulder.
Ready to shadow-jump at any moment.
“What is that…”
From the direction of the whale's throat.
An avatar of the Gourmet Whale, shrouded in the mists of the void, revealed itself.
“So you've killed all the sentinels.”
And what appeared from behind it was…
“The Labyrinth Master.”
Blackdog's voice trembled.
“You've certainly stirred up some fun.”
The Lord of the Abyss stood before the twelve adventurers. His icy, empty gaze swept across them.
Past the commandos of the Public Security Headquarters, past the powerhouses of the Deep Layer, and stopped on me.
“Caleb.”
I met the devil's eyes.