Chapter 222: Deep Layer Magic
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 222: Deep Layer Magic
“I…”
Blackdog saw right through me.
“You think if I go down there, I’ll be persuaded by the madness.”
He was right.
Losing a party with the strength of Blackdog’s would be a waste, but it would be a real headache if they were turned into Inter-floor Lords.
And from my perspective, Blackdog seemed the most likely to be swayed by the Labyrinth Master in Sohen.
“As you saw in the skies over Sohen, the Labyrinth Master has an uncanny knack for getting inside people’s heads. It’s a temptation few can resist. As a possessor, you should know that well.”
Blackdog, if you played the game up to the highest difficulty, you must have experienced it.
Going into the Deep Layer, meeting the Labyrinth Master, and getting completely wrecked by his no-win dialogue options until your party wiped.
“Caleb. Our party is solid, so don’t worry,” Rococo said.
“No one here will be swayed.”
I trusted Chrome, Rococo, and Nimue.
The problem was Blackdog.
“If you’re that worried, then come with us,” Chrome said.
“Just don’t hold us back.”
I finally understood why the Labyrinth Master had let Blackdog wander the 10th floor alone all this time, only to open the stairs right in front of me.
“Please make your decision quickly. We must not keep the Master waiting long,” the Gourmet Whale said with a subtle smile.
“He’s already sowing discord among us,” Aimus remarked.
Just by opening a single staircase, a rift had already formed between my party and Blackdog’s.
This would have consequences later, one way or another.
I could just give up on this party, or…
“Let’s go in togeth—”
“I’m not going.”
Huh?
“If you’re that against it, I have no choice. We will not enter the Deep Layer this time.”
Blackdog suddenly raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Are you serious?” Chrome’s brow furrowed.
“Blackdog, have you forgotten why we came here?” Nimue looked bewildered.
“The Labyrinth could erupt at any moment. Blackdog, this might be our last chance,” Rococo warned.
They had faced the Labyrinth Master before. They knew their enemy was formidable. The reason they had recklessly embarked on this expedition as a four-person party despite that…
…was because they were out of time.
It wouldn’t be strange if the Labyrinth erupted tomorrow. That was why Blackdog had pushed his way here, even when the Consul had restricted high-floor adventurers from entering the Labyrinth.
He had judged that if they couldn’t enter the Deep Layer and kill the Labyrinth Master now, Sohen might not have a tomorrow.
“But anyone can see this is a trap. There’s no need to force our way into something like this just because it’s a ‘chance’,” Blackdog said.
“Besides, I tend to listen to people who have cleared a higher difficulty than me. The Assembly never had anyone like that.”
“…”
“But before that, there’s one thing I want to confirm. Caleb.”
Blackdog approached me.
“What is your plan?”
*
The plan of the Deep Layer adventurer, Bipa.
He had been building a village for possessors for a long time, stockpiling them there. When the Labyrinth eventually erupted, he would take those sacrifices to the 8th-floor altar and summon the old gods of the Ethereal Galaxy.
The Labyrinth would have sent all its forces outside to conquer the surface, and his plan was to raid the empty house from within.
Bipa had said that only he could prevent the ruin brought by the Labyrinth.
The plan of the Deep Layer adventurer and Consul, Peterson.
Gather all the high-floor and Deep Layer adventurers on the surface. Organize an army with support from adventurers from various Labyrinth cities like Madurai, Cruaden, and Wyndham.
Then, combine everyone’s strength for a Deep Layer subjugation. Eliminate the Labyrinth Master and destroy all the Labyrinths in the world.
The Consul had said that only the united strength of all could prevent the Labyrinth’s devastation.
The plan of the Deep Layer adventurer, Blackdog.
He couldn’t help but scoff at the Consul’s incredibly naive and foolish plan. The Labyrinth Master knows ‘everything.’ The great eruption would happen before the Consul’s army was even organized.
The time delay that occurs when crossing the stair gates was also a problem, not to mention the lack of coordination when the number of adventurers increases.
A four-person party was the optimal choice for a Deep Layer subjugation. The Consul’s united army was a moronic idea.
That was why Blackdog had formed the strongest four-person Deep Layer party long ago.
A party that was untouchable by the standards of the highest difficulty. A perfect balance of a priest, a wizard, a vanguard, and a rogue. And the perfect camaraderie forged while building ‘Blackdog.’
They were different from the university professors who, as researchers and educators, were too buried in academic duties to adventure, or the magistrates who were too swamped with Public Security work to find time for the Labyrinth.
Blackdog had never lost its identity as a four-person Deep Layer adventuring party, and that party was currently the strongest on the entire surface continent.
Comparing them to rabble like the other racial lords was almost embarrassing.
The time to wield that finely honed blade was now.
“To stop us like this, you must have a more perfect and effective plan, right?”
“…”
I don’t.
I’m so screwed.
But honestly, I had my doubts about both Bipa’s and the Consul’s plans.
Bipa had hidden the possessors with fox-spirit illusions, but someone like the Labyrinth Master probably already knew about them.
The only reason he hadn’t done anything was likely because he had a way to counter it.
The same went for the Consul’s side. Blackdog’s points were valid.
‘A four-person party is the best option for a Deep Layer subjugation.’
With more people, teamwork would crumble. I recalled why Professor Meldini had excluded all the other wizards and tried to face the Dagger Raptors alone.
It was because their spells could have conflicting properties and create adverse effects. The clever Isilof had managed to coordinate things, but still.
The skills of Deep Layer-level adventurers were each deadly in their own right, making it extremely difficult for strangers to coordinate as a team.
But…
“Even so, Blackdog’s party is not enough.”
“Wait, let me ask you one thing,” Chrome interjected.
“Do you think your party can do it?”
“Once we’ve grown a little more.”
“We go easy on this bastard and he really…”
“Chrome.”
Blackdog calmed him down.
“So, Caleb. Your plan can’t be put into motion yet? You’re going to complete your party’s growth, and then your party will be the one to subjugate the Labyrinth Master?”
“Yes.”
“And if the Labyrinth erupts before then?”
“That’s why I rushed down from the 6th to the 10th floor in one go.”
“…”
“And the Labyrinth Master will wait.”
I looked at the Gourmet Whale.
“Right? Go down and tell the Labyrinth Master to be patient. I’ll be there myself.”
The Gourmet Whale looked at us with a reluctant expression, its eyes darting back and forth.
“Fine,” Blackdog said.
“We’ll do as you say. Chrome, Nimue, Rococo. Let’s withdraw.”
A voice echoed from below the Deep Layer stairs.
A middle-aged woman’s voice.
—Fernando?
Blackdog’s expression hardened.
*
Fernando Perez was promoted to the rank of Sicario within the cartel, and that day, he had a huge fight with his mother.
She had even bought him a computer, telling him to quit that dangerous work and live like a decent human being. Fernando had exploded in anger at her.
And that evening, he was possessed.
What would his mother have done when her son disappeared?
What if.
‘What if she went looking for our organization?’
The cartel was a dangerous and cruel organization.
‘Or what if our organization went to see my mother to find me?’
What would have happened?
He couldn’t predict a thing.
That was the last worry Blackdog had left behind in that other world.
“W-Wait a minute.”
Seeing Blackdog approach the stairs, everyone cried out in alarm.
“Get a grip! Blackdog!”
Chrome grabbed him, but…
‘Shadow Leap!’
Blackdog vaulted over Chrome and ran down the stairs.
“I’m not going into the gate! Don’t worry!”
He was perfectly rational.
“I’ll just check what’s in front of the stairs and come back!”
He just needed one look. He wasn’t going to enter the gate, so there was no problem.
Blackdog was agitated, but he wasn’t crazy.
His heart pounded violently in his chest.
He ran to the front of the gate, followed by a stampede of people in this order: Chrome, Nimue, Caleb, Rococo, Aimus, Yernil, and Back Attack.
“Just the front of the gate…”
I swear, Blackdog had no intention of entering that gate.
Not until he witnessed the scene unfolding beyond the gate’s rippling blue waves.
*
What if he rides the Gourmet Whale’s main body up to the 10th floor?
The walls are narrow, but the Labyrinth Master can control the walls. What if he just cleared them away and summoned the Gourmet Whale here?
I had worried about that.
Hmm.
Nope.
As expected, the Labyrinth Master is no easy opponent.
That bastard doesn’t need to climb the stairs himself.
He just needs to get inside the head of someone like Blackdog, and they’ll cross the gate on their own.
*
“You motherfucking bastard! Take your hands off her!” Blackdog roared.
The gate was open on both sides.
It was truly shocking. Even for me.
In the Deep Layer sat the Labyrinth Master, and next to him was a middle-aged Hispanic woman.
Anyone could tell she was Blackdog’s mother.
To the Labyrinth Master’s left was the gate connecting to the 10th floor.
And beyond the gate open on his right, a steep shantytown stretched out.
I’ve never been to Mexico, but I knew. That was Cancun, Mexico.
No. Fuck.
This is possible?
The impression I got was similar to watching the ghost from the well in a horror movie crawl right out of the TV screen.
In this fucked-up game I’d been wandering through, I had never been able to find any point of contact with my original world before possession, but…
‘That’s actually the modern world.’
A real-world landscape was spread out beyond the gate.
No.
No, get a hold of yourself.
That might not be a real gate. When I killed the Dagger Raptors in Sohen, an exit gate appeared, but it didn’t show a view of the scenery beyond.
This was most likely an illusion. An incredibly realistic illusion.
But…
‘The Deep Layer makes illusions real.’
My head was starting to spin for real now.
If I was feeling this way, Blackdog must be losing his mind.
“¡Mamá!”
He had lived in Sohen for over a decade, but a person’s homing instinct, their instinct for home and family, and the mother tongue they first learned—none of that could be erased.
“¡Es peligroso!”
Blackdog yelled in perfectly natural Spanish and leaped in front of the Hispanic woman, and she…
“Fernando…?”
She recognized her son at once, despite his completely different face.
“Everyone, calm down.”
And in the center of it all, the Labyrinth Master let out a low chuckle.
“You fucking bastard! This is an illusion, isn’t it!” Chrome shouted.
“Is that how you perceive it?”
“Blackdog! Calm down!” Rococo yelled.
“That person is not your mother!”
“Can you be so sure, Cardinal?” the Labyrinth Master asked with a smile, pointing a finger at the woman.
“Shall we kill her and find out?”
“…”
“What is that gate?”
I was more interested in that.
“Is that an illusion too? Or did you really open it?”
“I know the White Lion told you about the Age of Myths, wizard,” the Labyrinth Master said.
“Yes, everything went wrong from the moment Wizus took the Hourglass from me. Originally, I was supposed to devour this world and create a new one.”
I felt the blood drain from my head.
“From my world,” the Labyrinth Master said, gesturing beyond the gate.
“Is it so strange for me to bring someone here?”
“…”
“You’ve killed many Inter-floor Lords, Caleb,” the Labyrinth Master continued.
“That was a very big mistake.”
“What…?”
“Thanks to you, many seats have been vacated. Now, the desire to claim those thrones has sprouted in the hearts of countless powerful figures.”
The demon had watched as I killed the White Lion, the Hunter Shark, the Beetle, and the Lancer.
And he had let it happen.
“The Halfling Prime Minister of the south, the Eastern Emperor. They may be burning with fighting spirit now. But soon,” the Labyrinth Master said.
“They will beg me, just like the Nine Ancient Kings of old. And this time, the role of the White Lion…”
He looked at Blackdog.
“I intend to entrust to you, Blackdog.”
Snap!
The Labyrinth Master snapped his fingers.
And from beneath the demon’s feet, everything in the Deep Layer began to change.
The gate to the Labyrinth Master’s right erupted in reverse. It wasn’t people or objects pouring out from within.
The world itself was changing.
Trash began to roll across the ground, and a plastic bag containing a dead cat’s corpse and used drug needles appeared.
Boys appeared, wandering around on the dirty ground.
A filthy river flowed under a bridge.
It was the slums of Cancun. Fernando’s home.
This was no simple illusion. Because…
“Aaaah!”
The neighborhood kids were running away from us.
The Deep Layer is a place where illusions become reality.
Honk!
A car driving down the road blared its horn at Yernil. Yernil jumped out of the way in fright.
Shwaaaaa!
The Labyrinth Master’s magic continued.
It was too far for our eyes to see, but we could all feel it. We could feel what was being created.
The Deep Layer was an incredibly vast place.
At the far end of this scene, which felt like the slums of Cancun were being loaded directly from Google Maps, the most glamorous hotel district of Cancun city was now being summoned.
A beautiful sea and beach.
Wealthy tourists dressed in suits.
And the members of Fernando’s cartel.
“¡Mamá!”
Several motorcycles sped over and stopped in front of us.
Now, the language was unified.
“Did you find Fernando?” a Mexican man with a magnificent mustache asked Fernando’s mother.
“Who are those guys? They’re dressed funny.”
“That big guy’s skin is green. Is he cosplaying? In this neighborhood?”
“Where did these bastards crawl out from?”
A man in a white tank top glared at the Labyrinth Master.
He paid them no mind.
The demon’s magic continued.
The reach of his mind was far more extensive.
It didn’t end with summoning the hotel district. Now it was time to overlay something on top of Cancun’s slums.
The back alleys of Sohen.
KABOOM!
At the end of the dirt road, Sohen’s casino materialized. And the Blackdog Bank. Next to it, a pub, an inn, a club.
“Waaah!” the man with the mustache screamed in shock.
The curious neighborhood kids and residents began to inspect the Blackdog establishments one by one, stealing glances at us all the while.
“How do you like it, Blackdog?”
“What… what is this…”
“Why do you think you must choose between this side and that one? Why not simply merge Cancun, the city where you lived, with the back alleys of Sohen?”
The Labyrinth Master was the one who would bring an end to this other world and create the next. He was the true master of both worlds.
“In the Labyrinth, you will lack nothing and be completely free.”
Click!
The doors to the Blackdog Casino opened.
I didn’t recognize the people who came out, but from the reactions of Chrome, Rococo, and Nimue, I knew who they were.
Blackdog’s wife and daughter.
“Blackdog.”
They approached him and…
“As soon as I saw the magic being cast outside, I knew. This place…” she asked.
“Is this where you originally lived?”
“…”
“Blackdog. No, Fernando. Is this your mother?”
She even greeted Blackdog’s mother. On the other side, the man with the mustache and the gang members watched them with wary eyes.
“I will give you time with the friends and family you haven’t seen in so long.”
The Labyrinth Master patted Blackdog’s shoulder.
“Go and have your reunion.”
“L-Let’s go home first.”
Blackdog’s mother shook her head vigorously, then led Blackdog and his other-worldly wife and children toward Fernando’s house.
“…”
None of us could stop them.
Blackdog was sobbing uncontrollably, and everyone else just stood there, staring blankly, completely shell-shocked.
Now, even I was dizzy as hell.
Just a moment ago, I was in the Deep Layer. But now, not even a trace of it remained.
This was Cancun, Mexico. With a light dusting of Sohen’s back alleys.
“The Labyrinth’s great eruption is not a disaster,” the Labyrinth Master said.
“It is the greatest blessing for all mortals. Do not stand in my way.”