228. Imaginary Enemy

Shion had taken 20 special abilities from Raika.

Among them, 6 were trash, while the remaining 14 were exceptionally powerful.

‘Arad, combine the trash ones into a new ability.’

-Understood.

Shion asked Arad to twist and merge the 6 useless abilities he wouldn’t use into a single new one.

‘Discard the 6 trash ones…’

Out of the 14 abilities, Shion carefully selected and absorbed only 4.

Though he wished he could take all 14, absorbing more than 4 would risk shattering his soul.

Too many abilities would strain his soul, and if this continued, he would suffer fatal damage.

And if such incidents became frequent, his soul would eventually shatter, driving him to madness through schizophrenia-or worse, his soul would vanish, killing him outright.

Thus, Shion decided to take only 4 abilities. The remaining 10 were evenly distributed among his companions. If he couldn’t keep them, it was better to use them to strengthen his allies.

‘Still, even these 4 alone are incredible.’

As he thought, the 4 abilities he acquired this time were an immense boon.

In truth, these were abilities that couldn’t be obtained through ordinary means.

‘Just the upgrade to the Spatial Pouch alone is satisfying enough.’

The first of Raika’s abilities Shion absorbed was the Spatial Pouch.

To enhance his own pouch, Shion took and merged Raika’s Spatial Pouch with his, feeling as though a heavy boulder had rolled down his throat.

‘Did it expand? Or… has it changed?’

The suffocating sensation he felt the moment he absorbed Raika’s pouch.

It was like chewing and swallowing a rock barehanded, sending a shiver down his spine.

However, that unpleasant feeling soon faded, and Shion’s Spatial Pouch was upgraded to another level.

Moreover, all the items Raika had collected merged into Shion’s pouch. It wasn’t just an enhancement-Shion had also absorbed Raika’s hoard, making it his own.

‘Just how much did he carry around?’

An uncountable number of collectibles and monster corpses.

Shion clicked his tongue as he looked through the merged contents of the Spatial Pouch.

Having wandered the 7th Floor for nearly a century, Raika had filled his Spatial Pouch with an absurd amount of items to fill his emptiness. And most of them were junk.

‘No wonder it felt suffocating.’

Shion scattered all the useless clutter from the pouch into the air. If he didn’t, he felt like he’d suffocate to death.

“What are you throwing away?”

“There was too much trash.”

Only after emptying the pouch did Shion feel the suffocating sensation disappear.

Carrying too much was unpleasant. It was better to discard the unnecessary.

‘But is that it? Arad, is merging the Spatial Pouch the end of it? You said it was enhanced, but it doesn’t seem any different from before.’

-No. It’s changed. The pouch merged, and its performance improved.

‘Improved? Really?’

-You’ll know when you use it. Don’t ask for detailed explanations-it’s not even my ability.

Arad informed Shion that the Spatial Pouch had indeed been enhanced.

So, atop the griffin’s back, Shion opened the pouch-and in that instant, he realized it now functioned like a black hole.

“Wh-what the-?!”

“Aaaah! It’s sucking us in!”

In an instant, the Spatial Pouch began pulling in everything, from the surrounding air to the griffins themselves, causing them to wobble mid-flight. Maximus barely managed to grab Chloe before she fell, shouting furiously.

“What the hell are you doing?! She almost fell!”

“Sorry!”

Like a vacuum cleaner, the Spatial Pouch sucked in everything in front of it. With this, Shion wouldn’t even need to catch projectiles mid-flight-he could just absorb them all.

‘But this isn’t all.’

More importantly, the pouch didn’t just absorb air.

‘It even absorbed the mana in the air.’

This implied something enormous.

Along with the air, the pouch had drawn in the ambient mana and maso. This meant Shion could now absorb magic itself.

‘Magic absorption…’

He could either convert absorbed magic into his own mana or fire it back. Both were now possible.

This put him at an overwhelming advantage against mages.

‘With this Spatial Pouch…’

He could more easily defend against enemy attacks and counter them.

Moreover, the remaining 7 abilities were all equally broken.

First, there was the Short-Distance Teleportation Gate he was currently using.

Though labeled “short-distance,” it didn’t feel that way to Shion.

It allowed movement over surprisingly long distances, letting him cover in 3 days what would have taken 2 weeks.

Additionally, he could instantly teleport objects to desired locations, making it an excellent ability for group movement.

Of the remaining 2 abilities, one was Spatial Severing.

This was the ability Raika had used to kill the Druid Association’s leader in one strike upon reaching the 5th Floor.

Extremely lethal, it consumed massive amounts of mana and mental energy, but it was effectively an instant-kill attack that could obliterate most enemies.

With an unavoidable offensive ability like this, there was nothing better for emergencies.

‘The last one is essentially a defensive ability.’

The fourth and final ability Shion absorbed was Space-Time Fixation, a peculiar power.

It protected the user from attacks utilizing “space-time,” including abilities like time stop.

Shion felt he absolutely needed this, so he forced himself to absorb it despite the strain on his soul.

Who knew what awaited them on the 8th Floor? To survive there, this was essential.

“By the way, Shion, I’ve been curious-what exactly is this teleportation gate?”

“It’s an ability called Short-Distance Teleportation. We’re using it to shorten our travel distance.”

Shion gulped down a mana recovery potion and opened another teleportation gate. Absorbing ambient mana with the Spatial Pouch was too dangerous mid-air, so he had to rely on potions.

‘My stomach hurts.’

The excessive potion use strained his body, damaging his liver, but Shion didn’t stop. He kept opening teleportation gates to reduce their travel time.

If they were too late, everything would be lost before they could act.

‘Above all, no one expected Oliver’s death.’

Shion recalled Mabel’s radio message.

In a frantic tone, she had reported that Oliver, who had taken over the Insect King Nihala’s body, had suddenly vomited blood and died.

What method could instantly destroy a Demon King’s body from a distance without warning? Even Shion couldn’t begin to guess.

‘If they have a way to kill a Demon King instantly from afar, they should’ve already killed the Saintess and ended the base camp attack. Does it not work on humans? Or…’

Perhaps it had a cooldown.

Unaware that the technique only worked on those who had eaten the Fruit of Sacrifice, Shion was deeply wary of whatever had killed Oliver so abruptly.

If a monster capable of bursting hearts from a distance was waiting for them, the game would be over before they could do anything.

“Helena, how do we counter an instant-death attack?”

“Instant-death? Hmm.”

While steering the griffin, Shion asked Helena how to defend against instant-kill moves.

Without a countermeasure, they’d just die.

“Based on the current situation, something we don’t even know the location of killed a Demon King in one hit, right?”

“Yes. That’s what the circumstances suggest. Since the Insect King’s heart exploded, I suspect blood manipulation.”

“Then it might be some kind of vampire.”

Assuming the enemy was a vampire, Shion and Helena racked their brains over how to deal with it.

Of course, Oliver hadn’t actually been killed by an instant-death attack, but with no way to know that, they concluded that the enemy forces likely included high-ranking vampires and continued their speculation.

Eventually, Fria joined their discussion.

“Vampires inevitably weaken under sunlight.”

“Fria, are you familiar with vampires too?”

“They’re just pests that crawl out now and then. The key to wiping them out is sunlight. Fight them during the day, and you’ll always win.”

“But there’s no sun in the labyrinth. That thing might resemble the sun, but it’s not the real thing.”

Utopia had no sun.

What illuminated the sky was merely a sun-like light.

That was why this place was called the Model Garden.

Though vast enough to be called another dimension, it was closer to an artificial realm.

Thus, the sun and moon in Utopia’s sky weren’t real.

“If there’s no real sun, we’ll have to make something indistinguishable from one.”

“A fake that’s like the real thing? Would that even work?”

“To be precise, we’ll make something real that seems fake.”

“Huh?”

“It’ll be too humble to call a sun, but unlike the light from that fake, we’ll create something that emits genuine sunlight.”

“What is it?”

“The Saintesses will need to be alive for it. We’ll need the Goddess’s blessing.”

Hearing Fria’s words, Shion accelerated even faster.

To defeat the enemy, they needed to create not a fake that seemed real, but a real thing that seemed fake-and for that, the Saintesses had to survive at all costs.

The only misconception was that, contrary to their assumptions, there was no insane vampire capable of bursting hearts from a distance.

It was simply that Nihala’s body had exploded due to the Fruit of Sacrifice Erphin had fed him.