Chapter 91: Retreat to the Center

“Saint!!! Don’t run away!!!! Saaaaint!!!”

“Catch her! Catch the goddess’s lackey! Twist her limbs and kill her!!!!”

All kinds of curses and black magic flew from behind.

The Saint, who didn’t have the energy to block all their interference while fleeing from the giant, shouted towards the porter at the very back.

“Porter! Take the hits for me!”

“What!? No, no!!!”

Tanking passed on to the porter.

Black curse masses that flew through the flames hit Sion’s body hard as they passed.

It was the kind of curse that rotted the flesh where it touched and dyed vision in darkness, but Sion was fine. It didn’t even hurt. Since he took no damage, he was no different from a living talisman.

The binding of the three villainesses was so vicious and strong that not only did it deflect the giant’s binding, it nullified all kinds of curses from the heretics.

The binding of the three villainesses was so effective that it almost seemed like the contract with the three villainesses itself was a kind of blessing for Sion.

“It doesn’t hurt! It doesn’t hurt! Hahaha! You idiots!”

Sion, who had become a human totem against great curses, ended up taking all the curses alone in place of his team members, and every time curses piled up one by one, the souls of adventurers drawn into his body by his spirit vision screamed.

Sion, the owner of the body, was perfectly fine without any problems, but the souls clinging to his body started writhing in pain, affected by the curses.

-It hurts!!!

-Kieeeee!!!

The souls that had become vengeful spirits trapped in the labyrinth like earth-bound spirits.

The vengeful spirits that had been saved from the corpse golem by Sion’s hand screamed in agony, suffering from the heretics’ curses again.

Sion felt like his head was about to burst as he heard their screams, the heretics’ shouts, the giant’s roar, and the death throes of the dungeon trolls.

“You, you crazy bastards!!!”

An absurd pressure weighed down on Sion.

He finally vomited everything that had been building up in his chest.

“I feel like I’m going to die.”

As his spirit vision activated, Sion’s view changed.

Sion was standing alone.

‘This is….’

It was the same space as when he encountered Shaka.

Somewhere in the labyrinth dyed in gray.

When he first set foot here, it was also the underground city.

When he was about to die in the plaza district, Sion had entered this place and made a contract with Shaka.

The same phenomenon occurred as back then.

In the midst of extreme confusion and screams, the spirit vision once again showed Sion this place.

Between this world and the afterlife.

A very thin gap created in the labyrinth.

Countless souls losing their sense of self and disappearing in the cycle of eternity, trapped without being able to escape in between.

-Hey. You.

As he looked around in confusion, a woman with more than half of her body melted approached Sion.

A woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Anyone would think she was a witch.

-You. Can you take me up there?

Sion nodded at her question.

The witch then smiled with satisfaction and reached out her finger towards Sion’s eyes.

The witch’s long finger touched Sion’s pupil.

-Spirit vision. A treasure more precious than anything. Fortunately. Fortunately. It still remains in this era.

Soon the witch’s form distorted and Sion’s vision returned to reality.

He could no longer hear the screams of the pain-stained vengeful spirits in his ears.

His mind became calm. His head, which had felt like it was about to burst, cleared, and all the curses that had clung to his body and slowed his steps were washed away.

“Porter-ssi!!!”

“Huh? Oh!!”

Meanwhile, as Sion stopped abruptly, Rosie quickly ran over and grabbed his arm, then ran again.

The most important person in the heretic hunting party was none other than the porter.

Although they used him as a curse shield in their urgency, the fact that he was a valuable talent remained unchanged.

“Is the porter alright!?”

“Yes! Saint! I’m fine!”

“Let’s keep running! We’re almost at the central district! Paramel! Are you ready!”

“Yees!”

The Saint and the inquisitors ran into the central district.

Meanwhile, Paramel, who was chanting prayers while being carried on Raphael’s back, cast a barrier towards the gate as soon as his companions entered the central district.

A holy light mass trapped the dungeon trolls and heretics who were following them in the garden district.

However, the barrier was about to break soon. The thin membrane covering the gate quickly started to crack under the resistance of the monsters.

“Saint!!! At this rate, it will break!!!”

“Hold on!”

Since Paramel had drawn the first line, the rest was up to the Saint.

She knelt down, put her hands together, and started praying.

The gate connecting the central district and the garden district was cut off by Paramel’s barrier, and the Saint overlaid her prayer on top of the barrier separating the two districts, creating a perfect blockade.

The feet of the monsters trying to enter the central district were bound.

At the giant’s roar, the monsters scattered and fled again.

Sion and his companions survived once more.

---

“Hueeek…”

Saliva dripped from his mouth.

It felt like he had really run to death.

“Is everyone.. cough.. is everyone alright?”

“Ugh..”

All the companions had really run like crazy, again and again.

They had sweated so much that dehydration symptoms set in, their heads spun, their vision darkened, and blackout came.

“Porter. Porter! Get a hold of yourself!”

“Uah… Saint.. I feel like I’m going to die.”

“To die from something like this! Should I use the elixir of resurrection on you? You have money prepared, right?”

“Hueek!”

Sion’s mind snapped back at the Saint’s words.

Suddenly talking about the elixir of resurrection. The thought of spending 100 gold coins made his blood run cold.

“I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“That’s fortunate. Then please take out some water for now.”

“Yes, yes.”

I took out leather pouches filled with water and handed them to the Saint and companions.

They drank the water and poured it over their heads to lower the heat.

The Saint sat down on the floor, soaking wet, and started meditating. It seemed her holy power was depleted.

To continue fighting, you have to rest unconditionally like this when you can. Especially for the Saint, who is the team’s greatest strength, managing holy power becomes even more important.

“It’s burning fiercely.”

“The smoke is tremendous.”

Sasaro and Raphael checked the gate connected to the garden district. Beyond the barrier was hell.

Until the barrier cast by the Saint breaks, that heat and smoke won’t come over to the central district.

‘Everything’s burning to death.’

The garden was burning. They had sprayed so much oil that it was just burning like crazy.

Probably most of the heretics and dungeon trolls in there would be thoroughly cooked. But the giant won’t die.

It won’t die from this level of heat. Rather, it will fill its stomach with well-cooked heretics and dungeon trolls.

“Hey, Raphael. Heretics are coming from the plaza district.”

“These crazy bastards. They’re crawling out from everywhere.”

Sasaro discovered heretics approaching the central district just then.

The garden district was temporarily cut off by the Saint’s barrier, but other districts were still connected.

They were probably trying to move through the central district to check what happened in the garden.

“They don’t give us time to rest.”

“Old man. Can you fight?”

“I’m still fine.”

Sasaro and Raphael rushed towards the heretics.

Meanwhile, Rosie approached me and examined my wounds.

“You’ve been wounded on your back.”

“Really? I didn’t notice at all.”

“When you’re tense or distracted, you might not even realize you’re hurt. Please stay still for a moment.”

“Yes.”

Rosie placed her hand on my back and cast a healing spell.

Now I could feel the pain. It seems it was quite a long cut.

“Does it hurt?”

“I can bear it.”

“Yes, if you endure a little more, the first aid will be done soon.”

“Yees…”

The wound was being healed.

Soon Rosie wiped the sweat from her forehead and sighed.

“The first aid is done, but I think it would be better to wrap it with a bandage.”

“Here’s the ointment and bandage…”

Rosie skillfully applied the ointment to the affected area and wrapped it with a bandage. At that moment, Paramel approached us with a haggard expression.

“We’re the only ones… who survived, right…”

“Yes. It seems about three people fled to another place, but we should consider them dead.”

“I see…”

Paramel looked gloomy.

He must have felt empty as all the bustling people were annihilated in an instant and only six of us remained.

“Well, we’ve returned to our original number, so don’t be too disheartened.”

“Rosie.. you’re too blunt..”

“Paramel, you’re just too emotional.”

“Ugh…”

Paramel was frustrated, and Rosie went to help Sasaro and Raphael deal with the remaining heretics.

I went to the front of the gate holding the vine beans.

“Should I just plant them all here?”

The thought suddenly occurred to me.

Instead of planting them divided by district, what if I just concentrated them all in the central district?

Raphanel wanted to plant them in different districts to see how the vine beans changed according to each district, but the situation wasn’t favorable.

So what if I just planted all the vine beans in front of each gate in the central district?

There are 5 gates in the central district, so it matches perfectly with the number of vine beans.

‘It’s fortifying the central district.’

Since the vine beans will attack all monsters except adventurers, the central district will become safer. If that happens, the survival rate of adventurers entering the central district will also increase.

I planted one bean at each entrance.

Finally, it seems I can rest for a moment too… huh?

“This is..”

After planting all the vine beans, when I was about to rest for a moment, the Bracelet of Growth vibrated slightly.