Chapter 235: Resurrection (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 235: Resurrection (3)
The 9th Floor of the Labyrinth. At the root of the World Tree, a Transcendent was being resurrected.
Thump!
Thump! Thump!
The Labyrinth itself seemed to vibrate in time with the beating of his heart.
Even Ulparyeong, a master of healing magic and a surgeon who had tended to countless patients over tens of thousands of years, had never experienced anything like this.
The World Tree began to wither.
The fountain water that had been flowing into its roots reversed its course.
It was like drenching a wilted plant with water.
As it had always been, the Labyrinth Master was an erupting volcano, and the wizard was the downpour that quenched its heat.
He was water itself.
The sapphire water of the Ethereal Galaxy.
Or the corrupted torrent of the Void that flowed through the Labyrinth.
The water of the fountain.
The natural rain that fell from the skies of Sohen when they caught the Dagger Raptor.
And sometimes, the Ethereal Lake used by the Archmage who had cherished him.
Rumble!
Water poured from the World Tree, becoming a flood that inundated the 9th Floor.
“Be careful not to get swept away.”
Ulparyeong shot out a spiderweb, anchoring himself, Caleb’s body, and Hyedam to the roots of the World Tree.
Thump!
And as the wizard’s heart beat once more…
“…”
Amidst the flooding waters, leaning against a tree root, he quietly rose to his feet.
“Caleb!”
Ulparyeong sensed instinctively that this man was no longer the genius wizard he once knew.
The divine light glinting in his eyes now held the perspective of the Grand Game.
“My goodness. Caleb. You truly are…”
“Caleb!”
Hyedam pushed Ulparyeong aside and rushed forward.
Whether he was a knight or a piece in the game, to her, he was the same Caleb as before.
Crash!
Hyedam fought through the crashing waves and surging currents, running to throw her arms around his gaunt body.
“Caleb! Are you okay?”
“…”
Caleb gently held Hyedam’s head.
“Hello.”
Just like when they lived together in Wyndham.
*
Now that all my memories were back, some things finally felt familiar.
Hyedam was breathtakingly beautiful, with the charisma of a queen, but she sometimes had a silly, goofy laugh.
I did like that about her.
“I’m so glad you’re alive…”
She laughed through her tears.
Honestly, I was glad to see her too. And I wanted to comfort her, but work came first.
“Hyedam, are you sure you should be here?”
“Why?”
What does she mean, why?
From the perspective of a knight in the Grand Game, Bipa and Mugol were currently at the Possessor village on the 3.5th Floor, having a real-time mental breakdown.
-Hyedam! Where on earth could she have gone?
-Bipa. Can’t you do it with your magic?
-I can’t control and move a group this large like I do with fox bewitchment. I absolutely need Hyedam to move this many people to the 8th Floor.
-We’re screwed.
-This is a huge problem! Why did she have to disappear now, of all times, when she’s usually so reliable?
-You don’t think she was kidnapped, do you?
-There would have been traces left behind. Hyedam is no pushover. She wouldn’t have been taken easily.
If I focused my consciousness, I could hear their voices from one side of the game board.
-She could have been kidnapped while she was in her Hyoin state.
-True. We can’t completely rule out that possibility. But she always hides herself perfectly before she turns into Hyoin.
-If she left on her own, where would she have gone?
This was as good as sound mapping.
Of course, it wasn’t an ability I could use all the time.
“The plan was to take the Possessors to the 8th-floor altar and summon the gods devoured by the fountain. Weren’t you part of that?”
“Well…”
Hyedam fidgeted and avoided my gaze.
“I was. But I had to save you…” she said.
“Caleb. I won’t abandon or give up on you like your party members did.”
“I was the one who ordered them to run.”
“Still, if it were me, I wouldn’t have gone.”
Hyedam squeezed my hand tightly.
“Let’s not be separated again.”
“I’d like to tell you to go to Bipa and Mugol, but…”
“No!”
“Alright.”
She’d probably refuse even if I gave her a turn-based command, right?
Hyedam wasn’t going to leave my side anytime soon.
“Caleb.”
Ulparyeong cautiously approached.
“Thank you for resurrecting me, Ulparyeong.”
In the game, the 9th Floor special zone was the last chance to recover a lost party member who had died in the Labyrinth without their soul being preserved.
By the time you reached the 8th or 9th floor, you were in the late game, and losing a well-raised party member really made you want to delete the game.
I’d been saved here many times back then.
This time, in reality, I was the one being saved.
Thanks to Ulparyeong.
“…The honor is mine.”
The Spider Doctor took off his hat, held it to his chest, and bowed deeply. From a modern perspective, the gesture was a bit much.
And what else… let’s see.
There were a few messages next to the Hourglass.
[Final Death]
[The Hourglass’s dominion has been expanded.]
When I’d chewed the poison in the ventilation shaft of the Sohen Public Security annex, the message ‘First Death’ had appeared.
I’d died a few times since then. Once in the Gourmet Whale’s mouth, at the hands of the Labyrinth Master.
And I was on the verge of death when I fought the White Lion.
Now, I had died again, falling into the Labyrinth Master’s trap and killed by the Gumiho.
But this was the first time I’d seen a message like ‘Final Death’.
Does this mean there are no more coins?
Until now, if I had died and been devoured by the Labyrinth, I would have met the God-King at the fountain, and I could have used the knight’s perspective to somehow resurrect myself, just like I did now.
But from now on, death was the end. No matter how the fight between the Labyrinth Master and Wizus concluded, if I died, there would be no time to come back.
Just what I wanted.
Now, it was a three-way deathmatch between me, the Labyrinth Master, and Wizus, where a single graze meant death.
Losing my memories in the first and second playthroughs, dying over and over again… I was sick and tired of it too. Let’s end it here.
[Select a person to bind.]
A list of about thirty names unfolded, just as I’d seen before.
Everyone except Yernil and Back Attack.
From Aimus to Hyedam, Bipa, Mugol, Meldini, Isilof, Birtanen, Jikal… even Ulparyeong.
The Turn-Based Hourglass I possessed felt a little different from the Grand Game's Turn.
I could issue commands during the Grand Game's Turn, but the world didn’t freeze in time.
Thanks to that, I could move freely now, but from the perspective of the Grand Game…
[It is the Labyrinth Master’s turn.]
He was sending his Deep Layer army to Labyrinths all over the world. And what’s more…
He’s reached the 5th Floor.
The Labyrinth Master’s main force had passed through the Gloomy Pine Forest on the 6th Floor of the Wyndham Labyrinth. By doing so, he had not only bypassed the Sohen army but also outmaneuvered Bearhim. Then he returned to the 5th Floor of the Sohen Labyrinth and was now ascending the stairs. He would soon reach the 4th Floor. He intended to unleash that army onto the surface of Sohen without a single casualty.
I have to hurry.
Considering the raid on the Labyrinth Master, the obvious choice for the Hourglass binding was Aimus, but I’d put that aside for now.
“Ulparyeong. Will you come with me?”
“Where are we going?”
“To the Consul.”
I picked up the orb attached to Hyedam’s belt.
The Void Vortex Orb.
The very same one I originally had, which I used to help Krom, Nimue, Rococo, Yernil, Aimus, and Back Attack escape.
“Hyedam, you’re coming too, right?”
“Of course!”
After gathering the two of them close, I used the Hourglass to eliminate the Vortex Orb’s cooldown.
[Void Vortex]
The sea on the 7th Floor was vast enough to be called an ocean, but I could pinpoint a specific location within it.
*
The Consul was, for lack of a better term, a shonen protagonist.
If we all work together and pour our passion into it, there’s no enemy we can’t defeat!
…That was his vibe.
The Deep Layer Lord was overwhelmingly powerful, and the odds of winning by sending in one or two mediocre four-person parties were astronomically low (as the last tens of thousands of years of history had shown). Still, to the Consul, gathering all of Sohen’s forces for a single, concentrated attack must have seemed like the only option.
He probably wouldn’t have rated the operation’s chances of success very high himself, but he had steeled his resolve and descended with a “we’ll get it done with guts and determination” mindset.
That was why he was currently suffering a critical mental breakdown.
-I have to find the exit room…
Before him, as he blamed himself in despair…
A path opened in the Sea of Void.
Boom!
Twisting the currents and causing a stir, the figure emerging from beyond the vortex was Sohen’s genius wizard.
The one who had been devoured by the Labyrinth and returned alive from its fountain.
“Caleb!”
The professors were the first to react, their eyes widening in shock.
“And… the Spider Doctor?”
The massive form of Ulparyeong came through the vortex, followed by Hyedam.
An eight-tailed fox-spirit was not something one could see even in Wyndham.
The Deep Layer expedition force flinched for a moment, then fell silent.
“Don’t tell me… is that fox-spirit Hyedam? She was alive?” Professor Meldini asked.
He had once checked Wyndham’s trial records while suspecting I was a Possessor.
“You know me?”
Hyedam’s ears twitched.
“You’re a Possessor!”
“O-Only half…”
“Caleb. What about your party?” Isel asked.
“They went up to the surface ahead of me.”
“To the surface? Leaving you behind?”
“Yes. There’s no time to explain in detail. The Labyrinth Master’s Deep Layer army is heading to the surface as we speak.”
A grim mood settled over the adventurers.
The Consul bit his lip and explained, “It seems they crossed through the space between the walls and moved to places like Madurai or Cruaden.”
“I know.”
“We sent a dispatch to warn them, but I don’t know if it will arrive in time.”
“Don’t worry about that for now. Let’s focus on defending Sohen.”
I walked over to the Consul and shouted.
“Everyone, stand as close to each other as possible!”
“Do you have a plan?”
A sense of desperation was palpable in the Consul’s voice as he quickly arranged his troops.
A plan?
I had one.
Just not one I was going to use right away.
“Trust me and wait just a little longer.”
Wait until when? Until the Labyrinth Master reached at least the 2nd Floor.
“He’s on the 4th Floor now.”
“What is?”
“The Labyrinth Master’s position.”
The Labyrinth Master was also in a hurry. For him, swallowing the surface was merely the first objective.
Perhaps his real fight wasn’t against the adventurers, but against Wizus, beyond the Ethereal Galaxy.
That’s why the Labyrinth Master didn’t want to expend too much energy consuming the surface. That’s why he was rushing. To strike the surface quickly while the Consul’s army was stranded in the Labyrinth.
But he’s watching me.
I could feel his gaze. The Labyrinth Master himself was running towards the 3rd-floor stairs, but I was within his line of sight, which looked down from outside this universe.
He probably had an idea of what we were about to do.
But he had no other choice.
Right? You’re in checkmate.
You can’t turn back, so you have to hurry before my Hourglass’s cooldown is over.
“Now the 3rd Floor.”
But the Hourglass’s cooldown was already over.
No matter how fast the Labyrinth Master moved his army, he couldn’t break through two floors in sixty seconds.
They had walked all the way up from the Deep Layer, through the 9th, 8th, and 7th floors.
Then they crossed the space between the walls, bypassed other Labyrinths, and climbed again from the 6th to the 3rd floor.
“2nd Floor.”
The enemy was heading for the 1st Floor.
Why?
There were no stairs leading to the surface on the 1st Floor anyway. What reason did the Labyrinth Master have to ascend to the lower floors?
Before he died, Professor Dalstream had revealed his research in front of the Dagger Raptor.
On the day the Labyrinth catastrophically erupts…
The Labyrinth will overturn everything underground and build a tower.
The first basement floor will become the first ground floor.
“Now, the 1st Floor.”
This was the moment, as the enemy climbed the stairs.
[It is your turn. Time remaining: 60 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■■■■■]
I activated Time Trader to remove the orb’s cooldown.
Just as I had been able to send six adventurers soaking in the 9th-floor fountain through the vortex at once…
All the Sohen forces here were inside the 7th-floor sea.
It would just require a lot more vortices.
*
BOOM!
The 1st-floor fountain began to spew out adventurers like a burst water main flooding a street.
Rumble, rumble, like a human cannonball being fired at a circus.
Crash!
The adventurers who came tumbling out of the fountain and rolled onto the floor quickly lifted their heads.
On the far side of the 1st Floor, a horde of monsters was likely crossing through the stair gate.
It was probably rumbling over there, too.
-Tsk.
I heard his voice.
-So you insist on following. Very well. Let us ascend together.
The ground began to shake.
If the Labyrinth was a volcano, then up until now, it had only been showing signs of eruption, like frequent tremors and leaking gas and smoke.
Now was the moment the lava would shoot up like a fountain.
RUMBLE!
The floor began to rise.
The ceiling of the 1st Floor shattered like glass, raining down debris. Above it was the dark night sky.
“Everyone, hold the line!” the Consul roared.
“Maintain your positions!”
CRASH!
All the walls of the 1st Floor collapsed. The view opened up to the scenery outside: Sohen Plaza.
“…”
My eyes met the dazed ones of Yernil.