Chapter 109 – Labyrinth

Cough, Samaela spat blood and checked her body.

Her ribs were completely shattered. Her spine had snapped. No, every bone in her upper body was crushed. It was a miracle her torso hadn’t been torn in half.

Only then did the pain hit.

Pain sharp enough to make stars burst in her vision scrambled her thoughts.

“Khrrgh…”

Blood and groans seeped through clenched teeth.

What the hell, what just happened?

She forced her eyes wide open and looked toward where Eliaernes had been standing just a moment ago. The ground, once flooded with spells, had turned into a swamp.

The bubbling venom. The spears still embedded in the Labyrinth’s ceiling. The rising toxic fog, all of it was focused on one person.

Focused… was it?

Eliaernes was gone. Where the hell, ?

The moment she realized it, 

SPLAT! 

Her eardrum ruptured. And then, she saw Eliaernes.

Right in front of her, sighing.

“To think I had to open the gate of [Purgatory] for a maggot like you. Guess I’ll need to start taking things seriously.”

[Purgatory]? What the hell is she talking about?

Before she could make sense of it, pain struck.

Temple. Chin. Bridge of the nose. Throat. Solar plexus. Collarbone. Cheekbone. Heart. Kidney. Liver. Spleen. Spine. Eyes. Ears. Crown of the head.

How many hits? How many strikes had landed?

Her consciousness flickered. Her thoughts broke apart.

She couldn’t see the attacks. Couldn’t perceive them.

There was no killing intent. No anger. No emotion at all. Eliaernes simply and silently pummeled with fists and legs, like butchering an animal.

The moment Samaela moved her fingers to cast, they were stomped. When she tried to bleed, her wounds were crushed to stop the flow. When she opened her mouth, her throat was struck. When she tried to rise, her spine was snapped. When she exhaled venom, Aura burst out to crush it.

She knew exactly how to deal with a magician. A Black Magician, even more so.

Yet Samaela didn’t die.

[Venom-Forged Body]. Her entire body was made of poison.

Even torn in half, even if her body exploded, she would regenerate.

And she was tough. Most high-grade monsters couldn’t even scratch her.

But then, 

“Ugh, tough one. You’re definitely not human. But not a Demon either. What the hell are you mixed with?”

What the hell was this?

She couldn’t understand it. Her bones were crushed, her flesh torn, eyes burst, tongue ripped out, neck twisted, body mangled.

And yet it all regenerated. And with it, pain began again. Eliaernes resumed her work with a face that screamed boredom.

Her [Intent Projection], her manifested Eight-headed Serpent, what was it doing? As waves of pain surged through her body, Samaela rolled her eyes around.

Even the Eight-headed Serpent was targeting Eliaernes.

It swung its tails, snapped its jaws, prepared to spew venom, slammed its jaw downward.

Then why, how was Eliaernes still managing to attack her?

Samaela couldn’t see it with her eyes.

She shifted her gaze. Finally, she saw it.

Whenever a tail whipped, Eliaernes kicked. When jaws lunged to bite, she kicked them shut, preventing the venom release.

The forcibly closed jaws could only try to bash with their heads, only to be blocked by a tiny fist.

Eight heads. Eight tails.

Sixteen limbs total. All of it countered by just one pair of arms and legs, while Eliaernes continued beating Samaela.

And even witnessing it, her eyes couldn’t keep up.

She, an 8th Circle mage, was getting beat up by a mere 5th-rank martial artist.

Crunch, she bit down on her regenerated teeth, but they were soon broken again by another hit. Still, the rage turning her thoughts crimson consumed the pain.

How long had it been since she’d felt this anger? Since she’d gone all-out?

She hadn’t expected to use this. She’d saved it, in case Shadowless arrived, to buy time.

She couldn’t speak. Her broken thoughts barely held together long enough to command her projection:

‘Devour me. Offer me as the price of sacrifice.’

The Eight-headed Serpent responded. One of its eight heads, which had been solely attacking, now moved differently.

Eliaernes noticed.

But she couldn’t stop it. No matter how one-sided this seemed, she couldn’t fully deal with that massive snake. At most, she could stall it.

“Tch. Pulling weird crap again.”

So she focused back on pounding Samaela. She understood her body was made of poison.

That it could be ripped apart, crushed, yet would still regenerate.

Then how to kill her?

Just keep killing her until she stays dead. Simple.

And so she kept going. She didn’t know how many times she’d killed her already. Samaela kept regenerating.

It wasn’t meaningless. Her regeneration was clearly slowing down. A few more kills would do it.

Faster. More precisely.

Could she do it? She couldn’t say for sure, but it felt possible. Her body was performing better than expected.

[Martial Spirit].

Mana ignited across her whole body. Every punch she threw sparked with light. The bursts of energy continued without fading. She didn’t stop moving.

With each movement, blood splattered everywhere. Even the blood of this woman was poison. She had to dodge every drop.

She couldn’t dodge them all. Her skin had to be sacrificed in some places. The pain didn’t matter. Whatever toxin was coursing through her dulled both pain and sensation.

She wasn’t sure her limbs were even attached properly anymore.

And yet she moved.

Because she moved Mana through each individual muscle fiber, forcing her muscles to respond and move with her.

If she’d felt the full pain, even she wouldn’t have been able to keep moving like this.

…At this point, it felt like Samaela was helping me.

“Haa…”

The breath I exhaled was hot. The taste of blood filled my mouth.

Just how many operations am I running right now?

Seeing, sensing, dodging, striking, manipulating Mana, checking the results, managing [Martial Spirit].

Then again, seeing, sensing, dodging, manipulating Mana.

My brain felt like it was about to melt from the heat, but if I stopped, I’d die. Better than dying.

I’d been through worse fights in my previous life.

That single thought kept me moving.

I kept the Eight-headed Serpent in check as well. I had to delay its interference as much as possible.

Then, for a brief moment, 

Smoke billowed from Samaela’s body.

At the same time, 

“Son of a… bitch!”

Sensation returned to all my limbs. I could feel, in agonizing detail, just how torn up my body was.

A surge of pain, like a thousand needles stabbed into my nerves, fire-hot skewers pierced my skin, unbearable agony tore through every inch of me.

Samaela had reclaimed the poison she used to numb my senses.

And beyond that, she extracted all the poison inside me.

The pain that returned locked my body for a moment.

And Samaela didn’t miss that opening.

The Eight-headed Serpent, her [Intent Projection], lunged with jaws wide open to swallow me whole.

Reeling from pain, I forcefully ignited all the Mana in my body and hurled myself sideways. 

BOOM!

The Serpent bit down on the spot where its master once stood.

Crunch, crunch, the sound of bones being chewed, then gulp.

The grotesque sound of swallowing echoed through the chamber.

Fighting through the pain, I glared at the Serpent that had devoured its own master.

“Doesn’t… seem like suicide.”

The pain still clouded my thoughts.

The [Intent Projection] didn’t disappear, even after consuming its master.

But it also didn’t attack its master’s enemy.

Why?

After two breaths, the answer came.

[Offering].

The sacrifice, her entire body.

“…You bitch.”

I scowled and raised my left hand.

It was a shredded mess, but somehow, the pressure point inside was still intact.

The pinky’s pressure point had been released.

What would that offering bring? What other ridiculous, bullshit thing would emerge now?

How many more gates would I need to open?

Second gate. Maybe even the third.

I clenched my ring and middle fingers.

What about the backlash? Could this ruined body endure it? Luna wasn’t here either. But it’s fine.

Beyond those gates lies an [Elixir].

If I can somehow drink it, if someone gives it to me, at the very least, I won’t die.

I decided. I’ll open up to the third gate.

And kill that damn snake for good.

Make sure she can’t even crawl out the back door.

“Haa…”

A heated sigh escaped.

At that moment, 

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

From afar, 

Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

The sound of something breaking.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

It began to grow closer.

BOOM!

Then, the destruction stopped just nearby.

The Eight-headed Serpent flinched.

And within it, Samaela clenched her teeth.

How is it here already?

Did it kill all the humans?

No, Shadowless couldn’t be that kind of person.

Then how? She didn’t understand.

No, she didn’t need to understand. The situation was already happening.

If that’s the case, then… now she had no choice but to escape.

At that moment, 

Click.

The scent of blood wafted in. Whose blood? She couldn’t tell. Just the scent of countless lives. A mix of many things. Blood tangled from who-knows-what.

Click.

The scent was grotesque. Alive, somehow.

The smell of fresh blood, like it was still flowing.

“What the hell… is this?”

[Intent Projection]. A pressure that crushed the body.

Feeling that killing intent through every nerve, Eliaernes thought:

‘There’s no way I can win like this. Not as I am.’

But, 

If I open all five gates… I’ll win no matter what.

She clenched the remaining four fingers.

But couldn’t snap them. Her body froze.

Behind her, 

The scent of blood. Since when?

Gulp, she swallowed dryly. She turned her head toward the source.

The first thing she saw was a black uniform.

Rough, stiff fabric. No insignia. The hand visible at the sleeve wore dark red leather gloves.

No, they weren’t red. They were stained with blood.

She looked up. A white mask. A faceless mask.

“…Shadowless?”

The Commander of the Nameless, Shadowless.

She was staring at me. Without withdrawing her killing intent. Was she an enemy? Betrayal?

The time it takes for a pressure point to activate and spread through the body, 1 second. Could I survive it? I didn’t know. But I had to try.

Just as I was about to snap all my fingers, 

Whoosh.

Shadowless threw a punch into the air.

A light punch. Perfect form.

That angle, that path, that speed, 

The Eight-headed Serpent exploded.

* * *

I stared, stunned, more than a little stunned, as bits of flesh scattered through the air.

The Commander of the Nameless, Shadowless.

This woman… she’s probably at the upper limit of the 8th Rank…?

What the hell did she just… how did she even do that?

Still, for now…

“Haa… I freaked out over nothing.”

I sighed in relief.

Shadowless wasn’t an enemy. She came… to help me.

Then what the hell, why the hell did she keep that killing intent up the whole time?

“…What. Why. Mind turning off the murder vibes?”

Shadowless tilted her head.

Then grabbed my face with both hands and pulled in close.

I wondered what the hell was wrong with this woman.

[Brainwashing].

Was Shadowless tied down by brainwashed humans?

“I’m not brainwashed, so let go.”

Another head tilt. She looked like she was asking, Really?

“It’s true.”

Only then did Shadowless release my face.

Then she… cautiously tried to hug me?

“W-What the, hey now?!”

I recoiled in shock.

“Hey. That’s harassment. Don’t touch me. Even if you’re a woman, that’s not okay. I’m reporting you. I’ll tell my dad.”

Flinch, Shadowless shivered slightly, then touched her own mask and drooped her head dejectedly.

Leaving her behind, I turned my gaze away.

After the Eight-headed Serpent exploded, Samaela’s presence had vanished. There’s no way she died so easily.

Keeping [Purgatory] active, I scanned the area.

Nothing… I couldn’t sense anything.

Did she really just die like that?

Just as I had that thought, 

Not with my eyes, but my instincts, something was there.

The one bleeding… the ritual wasn’t complete, so there was no need to take them. Then who was left?

Stella.

I turned my head. There it was, a faint shadow.

“Found you.”

Flash, cherry blossom-colored Mana flared. My forcibly stretched stride carried me forward. In a moment sliced into hundreds, I stood beside Stella.

“W-Wha, What the, what is even happening, KYAA?!”

I pulled the stunned Stella into my arms. Reaching out with my barely intact right hand, I grabbed something tight. A bright smile spread across my face.

“Hands off. She’s mine.”

“U-Uh…? Huh? W-What?!”

Stella babbled dumbly as the blurry figure flinched. In that instant, Shadowless charged. My eyes couldn’t follow her, only my razor-sharp instincts picked it up.

Shadowless threw a punch to kill that faint figure, Samaela.

But it didn’t connect.

The back door had opened.

“…Who the hell are you?”

As she was sucked into the exit, Samaela glared at me, blood vessels popping in her eyes.

Of course she was shocked. Even Shadowless hadn’t been able to touch Samaela’s body, and yet here I was, not only touching her but gripping her right arm tight.

“How many times do I have to tell you?”

Just in case, I held Stella tightly in my arms.

“Ro, ”

Ah, shit. Almost slipped.

“Eliaernes Eustetia.”

I gathered the last of the Mana left in my body and pulled down with the hand gripping Samaela’s arm.

“You touched what’s mine. Leave the arm behind and get lost.”

CRACK!

With a harsh sound, Samaela’s right arm was torn off.

“Consider that cheap. It’ll grow back soon anyway, won’t it?”

“Look forward to it. I will… definitely kill you.”

“Moron. You got your ass handed to you by a 5th-rank and now you’re running your mouth? Just shut up and get lost, you damn scrub.”

“Ha… hahaha! Ahahahaha! Fine. Until I come back, make sure you don’t die on me, got it?”

With those parting words, 

THUMP!

Samaela vanished.

The battle was over.

The Labyrinth began to disappear.