Side Story 1. Empire Invasion (7)

The underground of the empire was structured like a labyrinth.

For those who entered without knowing the labyrinth’s conquest method, it was designed so they would slowly starve to death inside, unable to find their way out.

However, if one advanced toward the end of the labyrinth with knowledge of its conquest method, they could enter the empire’s largest storage.

This place was known as Lantel’s Storage-a location where dangerous artifacts were kept.

“Are you truly certain about retrieving it?”

“Did you not hear Tairan’s report? The enemy intends to assassinate His Majesty the Emperor. Unless we awaken the Ancient Ones, we stand no chance.”

“But that’s…”

“His Majesty is the sky of the empire-the empire itself. Do not entertain foolish thoughts, Ryuji.”

“My apologies. I must have lost my senses for a moment.”

“Enough. Let’s move the Sealing Stones. Place them in the Dimensional Pouch.”

Ross Pentanel, the Family Head of House Pentanel, who had deciphered the labyrinth’s conquest method and gained control over Lantel’s Storage, and Ryuji, his slave and the empire’s sole possessor of a Dimensional Pouch-an Easterner.

The two retrieved the Sealing Stones of the Ancient Ones, carefully preserved in Lantel’s Storage, and escaped the labyrinth.

“We’ve brought the Sealing Stones.”

“Well done. You there, porter. You’re coming with us to the battlefield.”

“Me…? You mean me?”

“The safest way to transport the Sealing Stones is by using your Dimensional Pouch. Marquis Pentanel. We will take custody of your slave.”

“B-But…! My lord, am I really going?”

“Hey. It’s His Majesty’s order. You cannot refuse.”

Thus, the Dimensional Pouch-one of the marquis’s most valuable assets-fell into the hands of the knight order, and Ryuji, clueless, was dragged toward the battlefield under the escort of the emperor’s knights.

Ryuji knew nothing of the enemy’s appearance or exact abilities. He only knew that they were an Easterner like himself-another possessor of a Dimensional Pouch.

While he had been enslaved and forced to live like a dog, another man in a similar position was waging war against the empire alone. For Ryuji, it was a night that stirred many thoughts.

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“We must travel by carriage for at least three more days. As we near the battlefield, the curse’s density will thicken. Do not remove your gas masks for the next three days.”

“Understood, my lord.”

Ryuji boarded the carriage wearing the stifling gas mask, escorted by knights as they advanced toward the enemy’s location.

Seven days had passed since they began traversing the curse-infested path.

What should have been a three-day journey had stretched into a full week. Everyone sensed something was wrong, but with the path’s end seemingly erased, there was no way out.

It was as if they had lost their way in the labyrinth while heading toward Lantel’s Storage. They could neither reach their destination nor return to their starting point.

Ryuji and the knights escorting him had all lost their bearings midway.

“We’ve been wandering for a week already. Are you sure this is the right path?”

“It’s not that I took a wrong turn. I think we’ve been trapped in a barrier.”

“A barrier?”

A magic barrier-a type of spatial magic that seals off all exits within a designated area.

Once trapped inside, escape was impossible unless the barrier’s core at its center was deactivated or destroyed.

“It’s an extreme mana-draining barrier-I’ve never seen one maintained for more than two days…”

“You’re saying it’s been active for a full week? That’s monstrous.”

Shion’s mana reserves far exceeded imagination, allowing him to trap them within a vast barrier for an entire week, slowly starving them to death.

At least Ryuji’s presence spared them concerns about food, but they couldn’t afford to wander aimlessly within the barrier forever.

“If we stay like this, we’ll all die here without accomplishing anything! How long are we supposed to endure this endless loop?!”

“Then what do you suggest? We already know his magical prowess surpasses even the empire’s Tower Master.”

“Perhaps we should release it now.”

“The Sealing Stones? You want to unleash them here? Are you insane?”

The moment the Sealing Stones were opened and the Ancient Ones awakened, everyone present would undoubtedly be slaughtered.

The original plan had been to send Ryuji alone to the battlefield as a sacrificial lamb to release the Sealing Stones, but the barrier’s interference had derailed everything.

“We can’t keep wandering here! For all we know, he might have left us trapped here and gone straight to the imperial capital! It’s already been a week! I can’t wait any longer!”

Those who had sworn loyalty to the emperor clamored for the immediate release of the Sealing Stones, while knights who had contemplated desertion refused to die there, resisting fiercely.

A schism erupted among the knight order. Though there was no reason to fight, they shouted excessively, emotions flaring as they glared at each other with murderous intent. The atmosphere grew increasingly hostile, as if they were descending into collective madness.

Amidst the chaos, Ryuji heard a strange voice.

It was like a whisper-shaking his mind and seducing him.

-Child. Open the gate.

‘But… if I do…’

-Open the gate and welcome us. You need not obey those monkeys. Welcome us, and we will erase that filthy slave brand from your neck.

‘You… won’t kill me…?’

-You shall become our comrade. Trust us. We will free you from all the chains that have oppressed and imprisoned you.

The voice from the Dimensional Pouch gradually tainted Ryuji’s mind with darkness.

-Now, open the door.

Fully entranced, Ryuji obediently opened the Dimensional Pouch-

And in that instant, the heads of the knights around him flew off.

Splaaaatttttch-!!!

Blood gushed endlessly from the severed necks, drenching Ryuji, who stared blankly at the beings that had appeared before him, unable to distinguish dream from reality.

“At last, we are revived!”

“Truly fortunate. The carrier was an idiot.”

Pale white skin. Mysterious inscriptions covering their bodies. A third eye embedded in their foreheads.

Bald heads, braided hair, and even mohawks-their hair, glowing with a translucent radiance, shimmered like glass.

“In the end, we were the final victors. Everyone else is dead. Right?”

The seven surviving sinners.

The Ancient Ones sealed within the stones were all individuals who had committed grave sins.

They had suffered in the prison of time, conscious yet eternally trapped within the Sealing Stones, and now, they had finally broken free.

“Well done, monkey.”

“I-I… I just…”

“Thanks to you, we have seen the light of the world once more. As a reward, we grant you eternal life.”

“R-Really?! Truly?!”

A braided-haired Ancient One approached Ryuji. She was the one who had lured him into opening the Dimensional Pouch.

“W-Wait, noooooo-!!!”

Helra, the braided-haired Ancient One, pressed her finger against Ryuji’s forehead-then drove it straight into his brain, scrambling its contents.

Ryuji screamed, unaware of what was happening to him, as his body slowly petrified.

“Eternal life isn’t anything special. If you don’t die, you live forever. Right, monkey?”

Helra’s curse turned Ryuji’s body to stone, sealing him with only his consciousness intact.

She had inflicted the same sealing curse she had endured upon Ryuji, turning him into a Sealing Stone-condemned to live forever in this state.

“M-Monsters!!!”

“Don’t run-fight!!!”

The knights who regained their senses split into two factions.

Those who had sworn to lay down their lives for the emperor drew their swords and charged at the Ancient Ones, while those who had considered desertion from the start fled in terror.

“Gehenna, deal with the fleeing monkeys. Helra, break the barrier. Muzer, you feast on them.”

At the command of Arka, the bald Ancient One, the others began to move in earnest.

“Come on! Bring it!!”

Muzer, the mohawked Ancient One, stretched his limbs as knights brandished their swords at him.

Soon, black filth began oozing from his body, spreading beneath the knights’ feet.

“Not coming? Then I’ll go to you.”

The terrified knights couldn’t attack Muzer. Instinctively, they realized-humans could never defeat these beings.

“Damn it…!”

Nairon, the knight order’s commander tasked with transporting the Sealing Stones, dropped his sword and collapsed to his knees as he watched his men being slaughtered.

Knights who had undergone physical modifications to assimilate monster traits couldn’t even resist-they were being torn apart by a single individual.

Muzer’s ability wasn’t magic. Nor was it a special power-it was closer to psychic ability.

A force that disregarded distance-it manipulated attraction and repulsion.

‘Distance disappears.’

Attempting to flee only brought them right before him, while trying to approach sent them hurtling away.

Unable to gauge distance, the knights’ attacks either sliced through empty air or struck their allies. Meanwhile, Muzer moved among them, driving his hands into their chests and ripping out their hearts.

The more horrifying part? The fallen knights were being sucked into the black filth spreading across the ground. The more they were consumed, the stronger Muzer grew.

Death left no corpses behind-they simply vanished, becoming his energy source.

“Gah… Gah… Kuaaah-!!!”

Those who chose to flee met no kinder fate. Gehenna, the short-haired female Ancient One, fired her fingernails at the escaping knights, embedding them into the gaps of their armor.

“Detonate.”

Kwaaaang-!!!

Gehenna’s body possessed explosive properties.

But this explosion was far from ordinary-it triggered dimensional distortion at the point of detonation.

Though lacking in physical destructive power, it transformed the surrounding five meters into an alien realm.

The real problem was the lifeforms that sprouted from this distorted land.

“It’s been a while.”

Gehenna could command the beings born from this realm, and they proliferated autonomously, self-destructing to devastate the surroundings.

The interior of the barrier began transforming entirely into an alien dimension-the perfect environment for the Ancient Ones. As the fleeing knights exploded one after another, the battlefield grew increasingly favorable for them.

“Arka, the barrier will break soon.”

Helra, the origin of all magic, curses, and sorcery, effortlessly located the flaw in Shion’s barrier and dismantled it within ten minutes.

“Duat. Construct a fortress. There is only one enemy. The rest are mere monkeys.”

“Mobile fortress. Highest quality.”

Duat, the short-haired male Ancient One, plunged his hands into the ground and began constructing a mobile fortress.

With the power of creation, he could manifest anything he imagined as long as there was earth. In moments, he completed Sky Fortress-a mobile stronghold impossible to replicate even with magical engineering.

“Let us go. It is time to remake the world beautifully once more.”

Arka, possessing the All-Seeing Eye, unfurled the Book of All Creation to reveal the enemy’s existence.

Having extracted all information about Shion, the reincarnator, he stepped onto the Sky Fortress, followed by the remaining six Ancient Ones.

Each wielded terrifying power and authority as they advanced toward the strongest man in humanity.

If Shion fell, humanity would be reduced to their slaves.