Chapter 61: Savior of Madness
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61: Savior of Madness
Gildal's soul was also inside the soul vessel.
And it was impossible to safely extract only his soul.
Soyul already knew this.
Caleb had told her on the way back to the snowy mountain.
"You must be prepared."
After witnessing the open Exit Room and the traces of Gildal's battle, Caleb had stressed this to her repeatedly.
"Soyul. You're the only one who can find it, so you have to be the one to do it."
His instructions were cold and cunning.
"But do not attack the soul vessel until the stele magic activates and annihilates the undead."
"Why is that...?"
"It's fine if you hit it, but if by some chance you miss, the undead army will focus all their attacks on you."
He had even factored Soyul's psyche into his calculations.
Her magic was likely to miss. Because of her attachment to Gildal.
If she missed, the lich, its soul vessel threatened, would order a concentrated attack on Soyul. And if, by some chance, Soyul died...
"Then the battle will get complicated. The best-case scenario is for you to snipe the soul vessel after the stele activates. That way, even if you miss, I can cover for you."
Soyul found his thorough strategy difficult to accept.
"What if... I can't do it?"
"Then we'll use another method, but Gildal's soul will inevitably be extinguished."
"Gildal is my dearest friend and my savior."
"Which is why you must let him rest in peace."
"Please, Caleb!"
He might have something else up his sleeve.
Clutching at straws, Soyul pleaded with him.
"I'll do anything you say! Please save Gildal! Please!"
"Once a soul has entered a soul vessel and mixed with others, no one can save it. Not even a cardinal-level priest or a professor-grade wizard could do anything."
"..."
"..."
They were just about to arrive at the ice cave. Once they went inside, the operation would unfold in a flurry of action.
"Is there really... really no other way?"
Soyul pressed him one last time.
After a moment of deliberation, Caleb finally spoke, as if letting out a sigh.
"...It's not what you'd call a 'way,' but..."
"Anything is fine!"
"It's too dangerous and far too uncertain. You could end up hurt or dead for nothing, Soyul."
"I don't care. Please..."
"Haaah."
Caleb sighed.
He debated whether he should even tell her this.
"I'll say it again. There is no one in this world who can save Gildal now."
He said.
"But it might be possible if it's not a person."
*
The method he told her about was truly a long shot. So much of it depended on luck.
"Foxfire of..."
It was better to assume it would fail.
She had to be ready. Ready to let Gildal go.
Soyul steeled her resolve, deciding she would destroy that soul vessel for everyone's safety.
"...Pleasure."
And yet, the reason she hadn't been able to do it was that straw cloak.
Because the cloak Gildal had suddenly draped over her was just too warm.
My resolve melted away like snow.
Flames erupted from the fox marble.
*
Gildal.
That day on the 1st floor of the Labyrinth, when you first draped that cloak over my shoulders.
The truth is, I was freezing.
Maybe I wasn't trembling out of fear back then.
I had left my home and come to this place, where I knew no one, where countless people coveted my tails.
"She's only a 3rd-floor adventurer, but she already has three tails," they'd whisper. Amidst those greedy gazes, I felt a snowy mountain.
Their stares were so cold that Sohen felt like a snowy mountain itself.
It felt like it was freezing me solid, just like a real one.
Gildal.
The day you went missing, I despaired when I couldn't find you no matter how far I extended my soul-tracking.
Had that ability ever felt like such a curse?
But Gildal.
After Caleb resurrected Back Attack, I regained hope and confidence in my ability.
Because I was the only one who could find your ossuary on Floor 3.5.
I decided I'd cast a warming spell on you the moment we met again.
You must have been so cold, all alone in the Labyrinth for so long.
That's what I thought.
I was so excited at the thought of saving you.
But I never imagined it would come to this.
That I would be the one to destroy you.
The Labyrinth is truly a cruel place.
What are the chances of Caleb's plan succeeding?
Still, I'm going to bet on it.
Gildal.
Did you know?
Without you, we don't have the confidence to even enter the Labyrinth anymore.
That was the consensus we all reached before starting this Labyrinth adventure.
Without you, our party would be eaten alive on the 3rd floor.
We decided that no matter how many weeks we had to stay in the Labyrinth, no matter how many dozens of Exit Rooms we had to clear, we would hold out for as long as it took to find the moment you appeared as an Exit Boss.
And then we would open your ossuary, erase your madness, and bring you back.
That's what we promised ourselves.
But Gildal.
There's something I didn't tell Hijikata and Gadozumi back then.
The truth is, without you...
I don't have the confidence to live outside the Labyrinth anymore, either.
If I can separate your soul from the lich's life vessel.
If I can return it to you.
If you can just live.
If I can leave with you.
Gildal.
I would sell my soul to the Labyrinth Master.
*
KABOOM!
The Foxfire of Pleasure, in the form of a tiny arrow, pierced a single point on the lich's lower abdomen.
"Guuuh..."
Antonelli fell limply.
"Uwoooaaaaah!"
Hijikata swung his sword at the falling demon.
Thwack!
It was an anticlimactic end.
The lich's head fell and rolled across the ground.
"Hah... hah..."
Hijikata gasped for breath.
Thump!
He kicked the severed head of the lich with all his might.
"Gildal."
With a devastated heart, Hijikata returned to the Dokkebi.
"It's over now."
He said.
"I'll let you rest now."
Hijikata raised his two-handed sword.
"Gadozumi, Soyul. Say your goodbyes to Gildal."
"W-wait a minute, Hijikata."
But Gadozumi, realizing something, turned pale.
"Soyul's gone!"
"What-the-hell-!"
It was true.
Hijikata's eyes widened in shock.
Soyul had vanished!
"Soyul!"
"What, what the fuck! Where'd she go!"
The terrified adventurers frantically looked around.
Only a large straw cloak remained where Soyul had been standing.
"Keuk!"
And then the Dokkebi suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and lifted his head.
"Wha-what is this..."
Gildal was speaking!
The Dokkebi's eyes blinked slowly.
"So... so cold...!"
"Gildal!"
"Fox-girl, I'm cold!"
"Gildal, you bastard!"
"Where's the warming spell! Soyul..."
For a moment, a confusion rivaling the stele's cryptic riddles swept over the mountaintop.
"It worked."
Only Caleb murmured quietly from the back.
"To think it actually worked..."
*
Thanks to Soyul, I also had an important experience.
I'd rarely seen the process of an adventurer being captured by the Labyrinth Master in detail, even in the game.
So this is how it works.
It was my first time witnessing the moment an adventurer was seized by madness.
Just as the monsters evaporated, leaving only a heat haze from the stele magic, Soyul simply vanished with a pop. The fact that it's different from Antonelli's case is worth looking into. Is it because of the lichification?
Interesting.
I feel a little bad, like I was experimenting on Soyul, but...
"First, Hijikata. Force-feed Gildal healing potions. We need to get him past the critical stage so his life isn't in danger."
"Ah, understood."
Hijikata said, quickly uncorking healing potions.
"But what's going on right now?"
"Soyul has become an Exit Boss."
"What-did-you-say!"
Aghast, Hijikata squeezed a healing potion so hard it burst.
"Hey, don't spill that, give it to Gildal."
"S-sorry... But Soyul became an Exit Boss... What on earth does that mean?"
It's exactly what it sounds like.
Based on Back Attack and Antonelli, it seems that when an adventurer's soul is taken as collateral and they become an Exit Boss, they can have one wish granted.
The condition is that the adventurer must be the strongest on that floor.
So, here's a quiz.
How many adventurers are currently on the 3rd floor of the Labyrinth?
Well.
There probably aren't many out in the field.
A good number of them must be dead.
A lucky few would have escaped before the 2nd floor was overrun.
The ones still remaining are below-average adventurers for the 3rd floor.
Among them, there won't be a single adventurer more skilled than Hijikata's party.
Why?
Because Hijikata's party is top-tier on the 3rd floor. Anyone better than them would have bolted to the 4th floor long ago.
Therefore, the current strongest on the 3rd floor is within Hijikata's party.
And among them, it's probably Soyul.
A shaman who can resist area-of-effect confusion, cast multiple warming spells, transform her marble's shape, use foxfire, and even charm enemies.
Furthermore, the fact that she has three tails, the measure of a fox spirit's strength, is also noteworthy.
Now that the stele magic has wiped out every monster in the field and the Exit Boss Antonelli is dead...
The Labyrinth would want to replenish its stock of powerful Exit Bosses.
With someone like Soyul.
I told her to pray earnestly. To beg the Labyrinth Master.
That if a deal was struck, Gildal might live.
"No..."
The faces of Hijikata and Gadozumi turned deathly white.
"It was a dangerous plan, but it was calculated beforehand."
"How are we supposed to find the ossuary!"
Gadozumi shouted.
"And we can't wait for Soyul to appear as an Exit Boss! Hijikata and I can't just camp out in Exit Rooms! We have an injured Gildal with us!"
"We don't need to do any of that."
Why?
Because there's already an abandoned Exit Room that Gildal opened and walked out of himself.
That Exit Room must have been eagerly awaiting the return of its master, Gildal, but he's been freed from his madness now that he has his soul back.
That Exit Room has no master. If someone passes through the gate, it will simply close, and a new gate will form. It's an empty shell of an Exit Room.
So...
"The newborn Exit Boss Soyul was probably assigned there."
"...My god..."
"Wh-what about the ossuary? Caleb, you said finding the ossuary is incredibly difficult, right?"
Yernil pointed out.
She was right.
This was actually the most important problem.
The inter-floor town is a vast area, and finding the Sanctuary of Rest there could take days of wandering.
That's why when we were looking for the Sanctuary on Floor 1.5, we used the undead Back Attack like a search dog.
Without a special method like that, finding the Sanctuary in a short amount of time is impossible.
However...
"The Floor 3.5 stairs are on the mountainside here. It should be not too far from there."
How do I know?
Because Antonelli returned to the snowy mountain in an instant after harvesting the soul from the ossuary.
Thanks to that, we were all nearly screwed back then, but now, it's our most important hope.
The Sanctuary is close to the stairs here.
Therefore.
"If Yernil and I go down now, we should be able to hear the Caretaker of the Sanctuary placing the ossuary on a display shelf. If we're close enough, that is."
Their expressions were dazed, but it seemed they more or less understood.
"Follow me, Yernil. No, everyone except Aimus and Hijikata, follow me."
"Why just the two of us...?"
"You two have a separate job to do. Back Attack!"
I called out to Back Attack, who was just arriving at the summit.
"You come too, Back Attack. And..."
What's with all the people he's dragging along behind him?
Are they 3rd-floor survivors?
"All of you, head into Floor 3.5 and warm yourselves up. Once you're inside, don't make a sound, don't wander around, and stay quiet as a mouse. You'll be fine."
I pointed to Hijikata's party's sturdy backpack.
"Use the healing potions in here to treat yourselves."
We all have to survive, first and foremost.
"Is that okay?"
I asked Hijikata. He quickly nodded.
"You can use all the potions! Do as you please with them, just tell me what I need to do!"
"Go to Soyul's Exit Room and stand guard in front of it."
It's unlikely there are any survivors besides this group, but you never know.
Someone might try to defeat Soyul and escape.
"I'll be there soon, so tell them to wait until then. Convince them that if we free Soyul from her madness, they can leave without fighting an Exit Boss."
"But Caleb! We don't know the location of the Exit Room,"
Aimus said.
I've prepared for that too.
"It's next to the Treasure Room. I found it on my way here."
I handed Aimus a compass.
And a message-sending wand and a notebook.
"Contact me with this if anything happens."
*
Gadozumi felt as if he were possessed as he followed along to Floor 3.5 amidst the rapidly unfolding situation.
When he came to his senses, a half-dead Gildal was beside him, Hijikata had gone to guard the Exit Room, and Soyul had become an Exit Boss.
At some point, everyone on the snowy mountain had started following the wizard's orders.
Everyone knew.
If they listened to this man, they would live.
It was ridiculous.
This was only the man's third time in the Labyrinth, a rookie who had just entered the 3rd floor for the first time.
Does... does this even make sense...?
Gadozumi felt like he would remember this day even on his deathbed.
Caleb had the people sit in front of the gate to Floor 3.5, instructed them not to make a sound, and distributed healing potions.
They, too, were adventurers who had scraped by on the 3rd floor for a long time. Though there were over a dozen of them, not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
Even when drinking the potions, they did so slowly, so as not to make a gulping noise.
"I found it."
Yernil located the Sanctuary using Sound Mapping.
"It's really close."
"Go. Gadozumi, Back Attack. Both of you use invisibility."
The Kappa set off in the direction Yernil indicated and returned with Back Attack in just ten minutes, ossuary in hand.
Then, Caleb turned to the survivors.
"Everyone. I'll need payment for the potions."
"Payment?"
"Does anyone have any magic or items that protect against confusion or the cold?"
"I only have confusion resistance for one person..."
"I have a music box with a warming spell."
"I can only cast confusion resistance on one person."
Their magic, of course, wasn't a convenient area-of-effect spell like the torch helmet or a multi-cast spell like Soyul's warming magic.
At best, they were single-target spells that could only be cast on the user or one other person.
But when he gathered them all, he had seven confusion resistances and two cold resistances.
"I'll go with Back Attack. Gadozumi, please take care of Gildal."
*
"Man, you're a real ossuary master."
Back Attack joked on the way to the Exit Room.
"At this rate, the Labyrinth Master's gonna see you, slap his knee, and hire you as a Caretaker of the Sanctuary."
What a horrible thing to say.
"But seriously, after all this trouble, shouldn't you be charging Hijikata's team a hefty fee? Want me to collect for you?"
"Back Attack."
"Yeah?"
"Getting paid is fine, but compared to what we went through for you and Aimus, this is barely any trouble at all."
"..."
"We just have to go to the Exit Room, see Soyul, and pop the lid on the ossuary. Back in your cases, you were undead for starters, so what we had to do was..."
"I'll shut up now, boss."
"When we get out of the Labyrinth, get some good rest, then come with me to the back alleys."
"Finally taking an interest in the gambling dens? I told you, you've got a natural talent for it."
No, I'm going to dig into Blackdog.
"There's the Exit Room!"
Back Attack pointed to the Exit Room being guarded by Aimus and Hijikata.