Chapter 17

Depths of the Otherworldly Labyrinth

Chapter 17: He Who Stole the Principle of Darkness

I saw myself reflected in his eyes.

Was it Dia’s eyes that were asking for help? Or was it my eyes that were asking for his help? I couldn’t gauge it at that instant.

But there was one thing I was sure of: it had always been me who had subconsciously been asking for someone, anyone, to save me.

It could have been anyone. So long as I wasn’t alone, it was all that mattered. I didn’t want to be alone in this world, no matter how strong I became.

That someone who walked into my life just happened to be Diablo Sith, that was all. I was one foot in my grave, so I reached out my hand to him, looking for comfort. And regardless of whether that was God’s mercy or tricks, we became comrades. Had we taken it any other way, we would have been friends of the same age.

If Dia, my only comrade, died there, I would be all alone in the Labyrinth again. And I didn’t mean the dimly lit, suffocating Labyrinth. I meant in this infinitely wide Labyrinth called the other world, I would lose my only ally.

Having experienced that time together with him, that horror multiplied many times over.

Hence, I genuinely wished to help Dia, my friend. I wanted to protect my only place to depend on entirely out of my own self-satisfaction. Those two mixed feelings filled me to the brim; with nowhere else to go, they moved my body before I could think.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM——!!”

I parried Tida’s third stroke that was aimed at Dia’s neck using the same motion to slash his body, causing Tida to fall back.

I then rushed to Dia, who had fallen to the ground, and looked over him—my heart leaping out of my chest.

His eyes were vacant, devoid of life. Right next to him was his cruelly severed right arm, still clutching his treasured sword tightly. He kept staring at it, stunned and lost in a daze. A large amount of blood poured out from the severed stump. I could feel that every moment that passed was a moment closer to his death. 

“I’m surprised… It is beautiful how humans help one another, and it is even more poetic with how vain and useless it is…”

Tida yanked himself up, commenting on Dia’s struggle. It seemed that this harbinger of doom found Dia’s action to be noble. He approached us as though to applaud our comradery.

He admired us, but it was evident from his killing spirit that he had all the intention in the world to harm us regardless. I readied my sword and thought to myself, I shall think of nothing other than killing this monstrosity. The only way to save the gravely injured Dia was to kill that monster as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, all that ‘Exhilaration’ that was taking away my thoughts from me had turned into ‘Fear’. It wasn’t ‘Fear’ of my own death but ‘Fear’ of my friend’s. I may be raging with anger, but my body will never cower.

I kicked the ground; my mind focused on shattering Tida’s body once it was frozen.

The odds were slim. Nevertheless, there was one more factor that could put Tida on the back foot. If I could bet everything on it without losing sight of myself, we still had a chance to survive—I believe we do.

“…’Excitement’ has turned to ‘Fear’, I see. Then I shall put the magic on again and th—?!!”

Tida looked at my face, seeming to grasp my ‘Constitution’. However, in the process of doing so, he looked at me as though he saw something out of this world. No, more precisely, he was looking behind me—

“—Holy Magic, «Zion».”

I heard a voice that was neither Tida’s nor mine.

Immediately, Tida jumped back, assuming a defensive posture. I checked behind me after making sure our enemy had moved a distance away.

Countless bubbles of light… Spherical bubbles of light several meters in diameter filled the space.

“Wha… Dia—?!”

At the center of it all, Dia, bloodied all over, stood up.

He stared at Tida, his eyes vacant. He swung his severed right arm to the side, paying no attention to the endless flow of blood that was pouring out of it.

Fresh blood arced on the ground. Countless bubbles of light began to rage in tandem with it.

The swarm of bubbles became a torrent, engulfing Tida and me. At the same time, the sheer pressure of its magic power held me down.

The light bubbles themselves had no physical strength, but I could tell that they had the power to inhibit magic. «Dimension», that I had deployed around me, was distorted by the bubbles.

And then, Dia casted more magic.

“—Holy Magic, «Cure Ful»l. Holy Magic, «Starfield». Holy Magic, «Divine Arrow», «Divine Arrow», «Divine Arrow», «Divine—”

It was Holy Magic. Dia’s strongest Skill, Dia’s real magic—

And that magic was nearly indiscriminate.

* * *

* * *

Dia’s restorative magic stopped his own bleeding, healed my cuts, and even lit up Tida. And his offensive magic was unleashed all over the Labyrinth, regardless of friends or foe.

Indiscriminate. Anyone could see that he was in a frenzy. Although I could sense his hostility towards Tida, his enemy, he held consideration for me, his ally. Understanding that much, I distanced myself from Dia.

—And rejoiced at that golden opportunity.

Whatever the case, Dia’s bleeding stopped. I had no idea if there were restrictions on the use of Holy Magic or not or if he had never used it in the first place. However, it was made clear that Tida was now pressured to do what he normally couldn’t. The magic power of the light bubbles had fully solidified Tida’s liquid body. Even then, it was clear that he was desperately dodging the magic that was gradually filling the space.

I took Dia out of my sight and ran straight for Tida. If any magic hit me, be it Tida’s or Dia’s, that would be the end of my line. I risked everything and launched my final attack.

My vision was red, and my mouth tasted like iron. My legs were heavy as lead, and my arms were all but numb. If there had been a limit, my body had already far exceeded it. Nevertheless, I put my everything into those limbs that Dia had recovered.

Tida saw me approaching rapidly. He realized that I had abandoned my own safety and thus took up a posture to fight back.

I, on the other hand, jumped into the fray with vigor, not caring where Tida’s blade would hit—as long as it wasn’t my sword hand.

Tida saw through my thoughts and swung his arm-blade to my sword hand. I had gone all-in into that attack; I couldn’t evade his blow. It was so much so that I was actually leaning forward just to gain more speed.

—Hence I was cut on the back of my hand, dropping my sword.

Without the sword, I couldn’t inflict a mortal wound on my foe. Tida understood this very much, his face contorted in a smile of triumph.

—But this was all within predictions. With my slashed hand, I clutched onto Tida’s blade.

Tida looked surprised. He tried to move his blade away, but it was gripped dead tight.

And then, with my free left hand, I took out my spare sword from my Inventory.

Using the same momentum from taking it out, the sword separated Tida’s neck from his torso.

Tida’s head flew off. The feedback was not that of cutting water but that of solid flesh. The sword, which had been completely engulfed by my ‘Freezing Magic’ and Dia’s ‘Light Magic’, conveyed a solid feeling to my hand.

Tida’s torso lost strength, collapsing to the ground. I slashed his limbs, then pierced his heart. Not knowing what to expect, I did what I could to prevent that killing blow from turning moot.

Lastly, I turned my attention to Tida’s rolling head.

“—A-, ah, —y-you won this.”

After declaring so, his magic that was raging in the enclosure subsided.

I looked behind me and saw Dia on his knees, writhing in agony. Had he lost his rage after seeing his grudged opponent chopped to pieces? He was holding his head against the recoil of the magic. He must have gone over his limits.

“Haa, haa, haa—! R-right, we won…!”

I resumed the breathing that I had been holding in for God knows long, declaring our victory. Then I lifted my sword to finish my enemy off.

“Thank you. It was fun. That magic at the end was so nostalgic.”

Tida smiled happily at his own defeat.

The end was quick—a surprise attack utilizing my ‘Item List’ system. Even Tida couldn’t have expected that a sword would come out of thin air.

“Now, my wish has been granted… I knew it. It is you two who would grant it… If possible, I want you to grant Arti’s… ah, the flaming girl from earlier, you see, I want you to, grant hER wIsH, tOo…”

Little by little, his head was visibly turning into liquid. His mouth became unable to form properly; his words were garbled and weak.

“We’re mutual enemies seeking to kill each other… How could you ask me such a thing…”

“Ha, hAha, yOu… arE RigHt. It iS juSt OBvioUs, iSn’t iT. HA, hAHa—”

Tida laughed. And with those last words, he became sand, which soon turned into light and faded away.

After witnessing that, I lowered my sword.

【You have earned the title 『Rinse the Darkness』】

Mental Magic is adjusted by +0.50

A single black gemstone remained at the end of the trail of light. I picked it up and looked at it.

【Guardian’s Magic Stone】

The crystallization of Tida the Guardian’s magic power.

After confirming the disappearance of our enemy and securing my item, I took a breath and ran towards Dia.

Dia was crouching down. Just like when we first met.

As far as I could see from his HP that was on the ‘Display’, it was unthinkable for Dia to die anytime soon. However, there were quite a lot of puddles of blood in the room from his bleeding alone. It should have been impossible for him to be breathing at that point. It was obvious that he should be taken to a hospital for immediate treatment.

I put my sword and other stuff in my ‘Item List’ and lifted Dia up. He was oddly light. I knew he was small, but that was not normal. It felt like the blood he had lost had drained the entire contents out of his body.

“C-Christ, sorry… I’m sorry.”

His breathing was labored, and his eyes didn’t open, but he still seemed to sense my presence. Dia, in my arms, continued to apologize, his voice mumbled.

“First and foremost, we need to get out. God knows what could happen down here.”

I looked and saw the black flame that had closed off the room had somehow vanished. At the same time, I realized that the boss girl who used the flame might be coming, so I decided that there was no time to stand still and talk.

“We are going to be out of here soon, Dia. It’s going to be okay.”

Hearing that, Dia stopped apologizing and lost consciousness.

I panicked when he suddenly lost consciousness, but I was soon relieved when I confirmed that he was still breathing. Then I retreated a path back down the Main Road to the outside of the Labyrinth, not letting my guard down for a bit.

My condition was poor. However, if I also fainted there, all the hard work we had done up to that point would be for naught. I kept my will strong and continued to follow the path smeared by the gems.

On the way out, while I, unfortunately, encountered some monsters, I managed to deal with them using sword and magic after I lowered Dia to the ground. I’d hate to die there out of stinginess, so I had no qualms about cutting down on my maximum HP in the process.

As a result, Dia and I were able to escape from the Labyrinth without losing our lives. We surfaced after overcoming the Trial of the boss of the 20th Floor, the One who Stole the Principle of Darkness.

【Status】

HP: 32/149, MP: 0/262

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