episode_0078

A few seconds after the world ignited with a blue light.

The city returned to its original state.

However, the giant crater created among the Evil God’s forces far away was visible even from atop the city walls.

As soon as I manipulated the magic tool, I ran to the city walls and observed the Evil God’s forces.

A huge hole had been created on one side, but it was quickly filled with monsters again.

Furthermore, they still guarded the outside without any intention of attacking here, so Luka and I breathed a sigh of relief and returned to our temporary quarters.

Most of the clan members had already returned to the quarters.

This was natural. It was the obvious place to return to get information about the sudden anomaly.

Grace saw me and immediately approached.

She probably figured that if something strange happened in this situation, pointing to me would generally be correct.

“What happened just now?”

“I put mana into that huge magic war machine thing, and it moved.”

“Is that true??”

Gamel, who heard my words, approached, startled.

“No, didn’t you say it wouldn’t move even if you put mana into it?”

“That’s right! I even tried putting Kitra’s mana, who was next to it, and it didn’t move, so I was wondering what was going on…”

Gamel, who had been venting his frustration, his expression momentarily stiffened.

Ah, right. After that expression, Gamel immediately whispered into my ear.

“Perhaps, isn’t it because you’re associated with the Main God?”

“Probably.”

After realizing this hidden dungeon was a record created by the Main God, I had considered this possibility, but I never expected it to actually activate.

“Gamel. How many of the magic tools or magic weapons in the inner fortress have you looked at so far?”

“First of all, I haven’t even examined half of them yet. After all, my knowledge is still insufficient.”

“Guide me.”

“Yes.”

In an instant, Gamel seemed to have made his decision and began guiding me.

I asked Grace, who was about to follow, to calm the kids down and explain roughly.

Gamel and I began examining the magic tools and magic weapons in the inner fortress.

“Do you think these might be the way to resolve this situation?”

“Yes. Perhaps there’s something among these that can clear the fog?”

“Or perhaps we should sweep away the Evil God’s forces with these.”

“Anyway, there must be one answer among these many things.”

Gamel, too, seemed to agree with my idea and diligently began helping me examine the magic tools.

As expected of a mage from the Magic Tower, and as expected of the White Faction which is open to learning, Gamel shared everything he knew based on his vast knowledge.

Upon seeing the magic tool that had just turned the world blue, Gamel looked amazed. He was reading the internal circuits.

“This magic tool, which is most common in the inner fortress, gathers mana and fires a giant bombardment.”

“Are there such magic tools in the labyrinth city too?”

“They exist in the Imperial Palace. The mages of the Empire have maintained their lineage for a long time. The reason they became the strongest nation that swallowed the continent is thanks to this.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Haha, the continent has been peaceful recently. Many mages wouldn’t know unless they are from a faction that learns various information like the White Faction.”

“The Magic Tower was curious how the Empire acquired such magic technology. Perhaps this place might be the predecessor of the Empire.”

“If not…”

The worst possible scenario filled my mind.

Certainly, the Evil God said it erased all sorts of information.

If we assume that the Evil God’s forces, who won this war, completely erased the brilliant past magic and technical abilities, then the Empire, which possesses magic tools, might be in the grasp of the Evil God.

‘Is that thinking too much?’

Perhaps someone living in the Empire simply found these magic weapons and tools that hadn’t been erased yet and developed them.

The world evolves through chance, after all.

But I decided not to forget this one possibility and to keep remembering it.

Grace joined us in the middle, and with the help of all the clan members, we checked all the magic tools and weapons.

And by the end of the day, we discovered a magic tool that served as an air purifier deep within the banquet hall.

There was a reason for the previous hidden dungeon strategy of hunting the Grim Reaper in the banquet hall.

Immediately, I took the magic tool outside the city towards the fog, and it began absorbing all the fog. However, with just one, the speed was terribly slow. So, we decided to bring the magic tools from all three banquet halls.

The next day, carrying the three air purifier magic tools outside, we began clearing the fog.

After seeing that they were working properly, I installed them at a suitable distance.

Gathering all the luggage at the temporary quarters, we leave the city, Serium.

“Don’t you need to research more?”

Gamel and Riza, the mages, expressed regret, but having already recorded most of the magic circles and circuits during the few days we stayed here, they decided to be satisfied with that.

The rest, excluding the mages, seemed satisfied, as if they could finally move their bodies a bit.

To be precise, they were happy because they didn’t have to undergo Kairek’s special training.

Waving the Blue Sun Clan’s flag, we left the brilliant city of the past.

Cutting a path through the fog with the fog-eating magic tools, we advanced towards the Evil God’s forces.

“They won’t attack us, will they?”

Several clan members, including Dayback, were scared, but those who saw Kairek’s arrow pierce the Evil God’s forces relaxed a little.

Finally, we reached the Evil God’s forces.

The monsters were standing in place, waiting.

None of them seemed to be beings without intelligence; they were communicating and playing with each other.

Like any group of humans.

Of course, we didn’t understand what they were saying, and they looked terrifying to the point of feeling disgusted by their entire appearance.

The clan members, who had thought monsters were beings incapable of communication and simply evil, were staring as if it was strange.

And within them, quite a few familiar monsters were visible.

“Isn’t that a Goblin Overlord?”

“It’s a Corpse Golem.”

“There’s a Blade Wolf over there too.”

“There’s an Orc Great Warrior too.”

The origin of all the monsters in the labyrinth was here.

And naturally, I also found the Forest Witch that I had seen on the 2nd floor.

As we went further in, it became filled with monsters that were progressively stronger and more dignified.

And far away, even a giant dragon displayed its majesty.

“Isn’t that a Leviathan?”

“Wow, Clan Leader. You defeated that?”

“…To be precise, the knights defeated it.”

The Evil God’s forces were simply endless.

Despite having left in the morning, it seemed like we hadn’t even reached halfway yet.

Furthermore, since we had to continuously clear the fog as we advanced, our speed was slow.

“Let’s rest here and go tomorrow.”

At least as fighting Gallius was already confirmed, there was no reason to push ourselves by staying up all night.

“Will anything happen if we light a fire?”

“…Surely not.”

Watching Gamel and Kitra lighting a fire, I cautiously walked towards the monsters nearby.

Just then, three guides were exchanging knowledge there.

“Ah, Mr. Ivan!”

“What were you talking about?”

“This monster, you see. It’s a monster that appears on the 6th floor. I think I saw it in the monster guide.”

The monster Grace pointed to was a lion that wielded red flames like a mane.

“Wasn’t the 6th floor said to be a volcanic region?”

“Yes! Since the monsters here seem to appear exactly as they are in the labyrinth, we came to get a rough idea of what they’re like in advance.”

Seeing Grace doing her utmost as a guide, I quietly excused myself.

After that, nothing special happened.

I watched the clan members struggling once due to Kairek, who conducted surprise training with the vanguards because of insufficient exercise (Kairek is not a vanguard), found a suitable spot, and fell asleep.

Fortunately, they didn’t raid us while we were sleeping.

The next day, we continued to move inward.

Monsters that seemed unimaginably strong appeared more and more as we went further.

Passing by monsters that only appear on high floors, which ordinary explorers would rarely ever see in their lifetime, we eventually reached the center of the Evil God’s forces.

A brightly decorated barracks, despite being out for war far away.

Usually, barracks used in such wars are single-story and simply prepared to block the wind. But this place was a three-story building.

At first, I mistook it for a renovated building we saw on the road, not a barracks.

Furthermore, on the outside were bones of large monsters, elaborate ornaments, the skull of a giant dragon, and so on.

It was pure waste, far from restraint and humility, just by looking at the exterior.

Moreover, strange and ominous energy was emanating from inside the barracks, adding to the weirdness.

“C-can we go inside?”

“How about not looking around?”

Even so, going this far inside seemed scary even for explorers.

Only the mages and guides armed with curiosity headed inside.

Inside the barracks, there was a place in the center that seemed to be for meetings, and around it were seven rooms.

Observing that the entrances varied in size, from small to large, we could guess that they were all made to fit the people inside.

“There’s no one inside.”

“Right.”

“Whose rooms are these?”

“Probably the rooms of the Evil God’s subordinates?”

“Seven rooms… It somehow reminds me of the Seven Prisoners!”

Grace spoke about the Seven Prisoners she met on the 5th floor recently.

And I was having a similar impression as well.

A room is another face that represents the person who stays there.

In other words, you can get a rough idea just by looking at the interior design.

The room we were looking at now was filled with all sorts of junk and even had a few monsters locked up.

“The room is huge.”

“But the owner of the room doesn’t seem big.”

“Right. The chairs and desks are all small, and the room is unnecessarily big. They must be very greedy.”

“……”

The next room we reached was clear.

It was filled with sexual items to the point of making one frown immediately.

“As expected of uncivilized monsters.”

To be precise, they seemed to be demons rather than monsters.

As I continued to look around the rooms, my idea didn’t change and became even more solidified.

The Evil God’s seven subordinates are all the Seven Deadly Sins.

‘Surely not…’

The Seven Prisoners are just similar in name, and there’s no particular connection, right?

The ones we met back then were humans, and they were taken away by the Empire…

“Grace. What exactly were the Seven Prisoners?”

“They were seven prisoners who made a name for themselves on the continent.”

“No, not that, didn’t you say something else before?”

“Ah! Among the famous prisoners, the seven who escaped from the Empire were called that.”

Escape from the Empire.

Moreover, the Crown Prince himself came and took them.

An uneasy hypothesis is formed.

With the already formed suspicion that the Empire might be somewhat controlled by the Evil God, the Evil God’s seven subordinates, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Prisoners.

There’s no way all of this isn’t connected.

“Is this too much of a conspiracy theory…?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. We’ve looked around enough, shall we see the Evil God’s face?”

“Are you sure? The Main God reacted to us. Won’t the Evil God react too?”

“It’s just a record left by the Main God. It’s probably not the real entity.”

I immediately climbed the long stairs.

Reaching the end of the magnificent stairs, there was a throne.

And that throne was covered in darkness.

Following the long red carpet leading to the throne, we walked.

In this completely silent place, the only sound was our footsteps.

But those footsteps had to stop soon.

Because of the single being blocking the path to the throne.

“Gallius…”

The final boss of the hidden dungeon.

Gallius was looking at us.

[How dare you come here!!!!]

As soon as Gallius’s voice echoed, the state window reacted.

Ding!!

『The Evil God’s 3rd Corps Commander, Gallius of Wrath, has revealed his true form.』

『Combat begins. Draw 3 cards.』

『Energy 4/4』