239. A Path Only One Can Walk

Perhaps we might be wandering in this time forever.

For years, the same scenery has stretched endlessly before us. For years, we’ve been trapped in the same space, unable to escape.

Honestly, the three years we spent on the 7th Floor were heavenly in comparison. Back then, there were always new adventures, endless battles with no time to grow bored, and at least the hope that we might escape someday.

But now, all that remains for us is weariness and helplessness.

“I can’t take it anymore.”

The Saintess of the Kingdom, Irene, muttered blankly. She was staring absently at the darkness outside the ship.

Her gaze was swallowed by the void-an emptiness where nothing existed. As if consumed by it, Irene whispered again.

“Please, just kill me.”

No one could stop her choice.

If her wish to die wasn’t granted, she would attempt suicide.

She had already tried twice. Knowing that, I decided to grant her request.

If I didn’t, she would end her own life anyway.

“I’ll wake you when we reach the 9th Floor.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be. You’ve endured for so long.”

Irene apologized to me, even if only as a formality.

As if she was sorry for not being able to hold on any longer.

“……”

I closed Irene’s eyes and extracted her soul from her body.

The Alraune’s body slumped, and I placed Irene’s soulless form into my dimensional pouch.

A body without a soul isn’t truly alive, so storing it in the pouch wasn’t an issue.

“Shion, are you alright?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

In response to Helena’s question, I simply said I was okay.

I had to be. Many of my companions had already asked to have their souls extracted, as if entering hibernation. One by one, they left, until only a handful remained.

“Helena, are you okay?”

“Me? I was already old to begin with.”

“I see.”

Now, only Rafnel, Helena, and Logie remained by my side.

Maximus, Chloe, Ulysses, and even Joshua couldn’t bear the weight of this time.

The Druid Society’s leader, Machia, couldn’t endure it either. Jason and the others were the same.

Olivia, too, was visibly breaking, so I forced her to sleep. We already knew the way forward. Even if she slept, the path wouldn’t change.

Finally, Fria also entered hibernation. She, too, couldn’t withstand the pressure of this time. When she realized she had to swim endlessly through this infinite void, Fria admitted defeat and retreated into her bracelet to sleep.

Helena and Rafnel, who had lived for centuries as elves, were the only ones still holding onto their sanity.

They seemed like they could endure a little longer. Perhaps because they had lived for hundreds of years, the weight of time felt different to them.

I was truly grateful. At least I had someone to endure with me.

******

“Logie.”

“Yes. Did you call for me?”

“Yes. I think… it’s time for you to sleep too.”

“I can’t do that. How could I leave you behind, Shion?”

“…”

Among the short-lived, Logie was the only one who stayed by my side until the end.

With superhuman willpower, she endured this time. But I knew her limit was approaching.

Logie, too, was breaking.

Over twenty years had already passed.

That’s no short time. A full twenty years. The same amount of time Logie had lived before meeting me. She had spent nearly her entire lifetime inside this ship.

It would be stranger if she hadn’t gone mad.

“Logie. It’s okay now. You can sleep for a while. I’ll wake you when we reach the 9th Floor.”

“But Shion-”

“Logie.”

I grasped her firm hand.

She had spent these twenty years not in a woman’s body, but in an Ent’s.

Logie had already been pushed to her mental limit.

Every night, I heard her crying in her room. Even in sleep, she whimpered in pain.

Though her face, being non-human, was hard to read, her eyes had long been dead.

If I forced her to endure any longer, her soul would shatter.

I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t just stand by and watch.

“See you later. When we reach the end. I’ll wake you then, I promise.”

“Shion… No. If I leave, what about you?”

“Helena and Rafnel are still here. So I’ll be fine.”

“But-”

“Logie. Don’t worry. It’s okay.”

Logie shook her head.

She intended to stay with me to the end.

Even if it broke her, she wanted to protect me.

“If you do that, you’ll be the one who breaks. So-”

I wrapped Logie’s soul in chains and pulled.

-Shion!

Her cry reached me, but I forced myself to ignore it.

I couldn’t bear to watch Logie break any further.

She had come this far for me. She had endured twenty years of this weight solely to help me.

So now, I wanted to let her rest. I didn’t want her to walk this endless, hollow path with me.

Hell was a place I could walk alone.

I couldn’t drag my people down with me.

Why hadn’t I made this decision sooner? I should have put her to sleep long ago. But my own weakness wouldn’t let her go.

Logie had been fraying since ten years ago.

My cowardly heart screamed at me to keep her by my side, even as I watched her break.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”

I hugged the Ent’s soulless body and apologized over and over. No tears came.

I couldn’t cry. I, too, had abandoned my original body and taken an Ent’s form-one that wouldn’t age.

If my real body had endured these twenty years, I’d be in my late forties by now. Old. That’s why, three years after entering the 8th Floor, I switched bodies.

I had already spent three years on the 7th Floor and another three in the ship. My body had aged six years beyond my time on the surface, and I felt I had to replace it before I grew too old.

If I aged any further, I’d be a hunched old man by the time I returned. So I borrowed a body Mabel had prepared. Even if my mind aged, my body couldn’t afford to.

Lifespans are finite. The human body was too fragile to endure the infinite expanse of the 8th Floor.

“Shion. Are you alright?”

“I’m… fine. I’m still holding on.”

“…”

Helena’s eyes looked sorrowful.

She probably pitied me.

“I really am fine.”

“I see. Tell me if it becomes too much.”

I nodded at Helena’s words.

I had to be fine.

For the sake of this operation’s final victory, I had to survive.

No one here could bring me back if I died.

If I gave up now, everything would end. We had come too far.

If I gave up, the lives of those who went before me would vanish into meaninglessness.

There was no turning back. We had already sailed for twenty years. Returning would take just as long.

All we could do was move forward in the direction we had chosen.

The only silver lining was that, with our companions asleep, we still had plenty of supplies.

As long as we had food, we could keep going. And Rafnel had been replenishing what we lacked.

By repurposing the crew’s quarters, Rafnel had set up a hydroponic system, allowing us to grow food even on the ship.

Yes, there were no problems yet. As long as Rafnel stayed awake, she would keep improving our situation.

Everything was fine.

******

“Shion. Are you awake?”

“Ah… Yes. How long was I asleep?”

“About three days.”

Rafnel had woken me. I had slept for three whole days.

Lately, my sleep had grown longer. Sometimes, I’d sleep for months at a time.

“What’s the matter?”

“I think I’ve made everything I can. This ship should last for centuries on its own.”

“Then that means…”

“It means we can sail on endlessly.”

Rafnel sat beside me.

She stared blankly out the window.

“Shion.”

“Yes.”

“I think… the time has come.”

“…”

Rafnel gently embraced me.

Her warmth barely reached me.

“I suspect… this trial was meant to break you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Only one person… can escape this ordeal.”

“That’s-”

“Do you know it’s been nearly thirty years since we descended to the 8th Floor?”

“What…?”

“At some point, you started sleeping for months at a time. Ten years have passed since we sent Logie away.”

“…”

“Too much time has passed. Even if a hundred years go by, I doubt we’ll reach the end.”

“How… do you know that?”

“I saw it. That this path can only be walked by one.”

Rafnel spoke cryptically.

Like someone lost in a dream.

“Remember my words. Once I’m gone… and Helena disappears… you’ll truly be alone.”

“Then… then just don’t go…?”

“You must reach the end without losing your mind. If more than one person remains awake… this ship will never reach its destination. That’s the conclusion I’ve reached.”

“But that’s not certain. Please… can’t you hold on a little longer?”

“Shion. Listen to me. We were thrown into the Labyrinth’s malice from the start. All of this… is a scheme to break you at your core. The greatest enemy on the 8th Floor… is none other than your ‘companions.'”

Rafnel gripped my hand tightly.

The greatest enemy wasn’t the weight of time or the infinite space-but the very people walking beside me.

Her words filled me with despair.

Seeing the darkness in my eyes, Rafnel explained what she had seen.

“Every day. Every single day. A dark figure appears before me. And it whispers… that if I kill you, it will send me back to the 7th Floor. It tempts and deceives me endlessly. I realized… this isn’t just a dream. Look, do you see this crystal orb?”

Rafnel pulled out a pitch-black crystal orb from her robe and showed it to me.

Inside, condensed rage and murderous intent swirled violently.

“On this ship, I researched many things. There was too much time to spare. And my research succeeded. This orb was made using the dormant Erphin. Given its components, it materializes the Labyrinth’s malice.”

“Then this is…”

“The malice overflowing within me. I’ve already been tainted. Blackened. So before I’m consumed entirely, I must sleep. Soon, if even a crack forms in my mind, the Labyrinth’s malice will fully corrupt me. Then… I’ll try to kill you.”

“……”

“You must deal with me while I’m still myself.”

Rafnel’s eyes looked deeply sorrowful.

She was truly sorry.

“I know how hard it is to walk alone. Once I’m gone, Helena will be next. The Labyrinth is testing us. It won’t allow more than one person to stand on this path. It crushed us with time, and when that failed, it intervened directly.”

“If I have no one to talk to… I’ll break.”

“That’s exactly what the Labyrinth’s malice wants.”

“…Rafnel. I… I can’t take it anymore. It’s too painful.”

Sorrow spilled from Rafnel’s eyes.

Wordlessly, she held me and wept for a long time.

The crystal orb darkened further. The corruption had begun long ago and was now trying to fully claim Rafnel’s body.

So this was always meant to be a solitary journey.

I had brought companions because I couldn’t walk this near-infinite path alone.

But their presence was what kept me from reaching the end.

I extracted Rafnel’s soul from her body.

Now, only Helena remained. No-she, too, had to be stored in my bracelet.

Only by becoming alone could I reach the end.

This was the 8th Floor’s rule, and we had realized it far too late.

A hidden rule not even written in Olivia’s strategy guide.

The ship was silent.

Because no one remained.

“Is this what you wanted?”

The Labyrinth’s malice couldn’t attack me directly.

If it tried to kill me outright, the Goddess would intervene. That had been proven on the 5th Floor. The Labyrinth’s malice couldn’t act against me without giving the Goddess an opening.

So instead, it tried to crush me with time. It twisted the 8th Floor’s rules to break us.

Its plan nearly succeeded.

I was broken. Falling apart.

The weight of time pressed down on me, threatening to burst me open.

“That just means you fear me.”

That’s why it’s desperate.

Since it can’t harm me physically, it tries to break my mind and stop me from reaching the 9th Floor.

Seeing through its scheme made it impossible to give up.

“Let’s see who wins.”

If I can just reach the 9th Floor…

This journey will effectively be over.

So I’ll endure. Now that I’m alone, it can’t interfere anymore.

I’ll keep moving forward. Until I reach the end.