249-243 Toda Outpost

The roar that rang out before the fifty-layered boss room stopped us in our tracks.

'That roar was coming from inside, wasn't it?

Yes. Looks like you had a prior customer.

'Yeah. That would explain why there were no traps or treasure chests. If you can get this far, are you pretty strong?

'Yes. I'm sure it's above a certain standard.

As I recall, when Master saw Dullahan in Grandle's Labyrinth, he said that if he could defeat him by himself, he'd be an A-ranked competitor.

When you think about it, this group of people may seem a bit unusual, but the ones inside, or those who are, are capable.

I just hoped that such talented people wouldn't summon an evil god and become undead.

''I see. I guess we'll have to wait here either way.

The demons just keep coming.

Master Luciel, would you like me to turn the lights off?

I've linked the imagery and the real-life movements much better, and now I can spend time with them without any problems.

And since we're in front of the boss room, we won't fall into any traps.

Now it's up to each of us to decide on our own situation, such as raising our level or regaining our combat instincts by fighting a certain number of monsters.

I decided to listen to everyone's opinions first.

It's probably not a problem now, but what about Lionel? I'll drop the lights if I've served my purpose in leveling up, though?

If you don't mind, let me raise the bar a bit more.

Lionel still chose to raise the bottom line.

'What about Ketty?'

'There are so many of them, I'm mentally exhausted. But I can fight with no problem.

Ketty didn't look like she wanted to fight much, but everyone could see that she was actually fine.

'Where's Kefin?'

I'd like to fight a little longer. After the Empire, you'll go to the Duchy of Brange, won't you?

Yeah. I'm still planning on it, but I intend to.

Then again, I'd still like to raise the bar a bit.

So Kefin is a bottom line for what's ahead. He was certainly going to the land of human supremacy, so he needed to be prepared.

The way Kefin looked at Keti, I thought I knew what he was bottoming out for.

'What about Esther?'

'I'm not that tired, but I'm not sure the durability value of my weapons is going to be enough by now.

Estia's equipment was still the holy silver sword I gave her a long time ago.

''I see. The three of you have Grand-san's equipment. I'll have Estia's weapon made properly next time. For now, if it's a weapon, I think I found something in the magic bag.

I searched through my magic bag and was about to hand Estia the holy silver sword she had in her possession, when I held out the Mithril sword and the holy silver sword that my master had given me for sorting in the past.

''I want you to try them out for a bit and use the one you're comfortable with.''

Thank you. I'll take two of them.

'Then when the battle inside is over, or the movement is getting lackluster, we'll stop putting object X down or luring it with lights.

""Yes."

This is how we decided to defeat the demons that are born from the labyrinth.

Lionel catches the attack with his large shield, then drops each part of the attack, and finally slashes it down with a bold move.

Keti and Kefin use the combination to unleash a series of blows from left and right, where Esther tosses in a flowing stream of blows.

And just like when I fought Kefin in a mock battle, I used my magic power barrier to cut through the demons with my magic sword.

''Luciel-sama's magic-powered sword is not an ordinary power. That alone would make it a one-hit killing sword.''

Kefin praised me admiringly.

I know that if I'm aware of the magic power I pour into my magic sword, I can use different attributes, so I can aim for this to be as natural as that Lord Leinster.

'I'm glad to hear that. But it is more important for me to avoid fatal injuries than to land a blow. If you do that, your chances of survival should increase at once.

No more abandonment attacks?

He laughs back at Ketty, who tries to toy with the fact that he was previously scolded by his mentor, but he laughs back and tells her how he really feels.

'If there's a good chance I'll die if I don't do it, I'll do it, but I won't do it when it looks like I can handle it.'

'Master Luciel is going to do it even though he says that, Nya.

It's our duty to make sure Master Luciel doesn't make that decision.

Lionel joined in on Ketty's words, and Ketty let out a sigh that she couldn't play with him.

''If Luciel-sama is gone, our strong defensive magic won't have any recovery magic, and our strength will drop at once.

"I'm going to do my best...　That's him.

Estia made a statement that could be considered the keystone of this party, and I was about to declare that I would do my best to live up to it, when a strong sense of intimidation that reminded me of death suddenly appeared.

''Yes, there's no doubt about it,''

Lionel immediately agreed with me.

'Do you know what this full-body trembling, intimidating feeling is?

Are you an evil god?

Ketty, who doesn't have a nya at the end of the word, pales with a straight face, asks Lionel, but I answer instead.

'Yeah, definitely an evil god. We can't save what's inside, but inevitably we have to purify the person inside.

Hey, guys. Don't move.

A black haze enveloped us, not with Estia, but with the dark spirits out in the open.

'What is this?'

'The opponent is a god. However, as long as they are in the dark magic, they should not be noticed. As expected, it's impossible to defeat the Evil God, so we'll just have to wait and see.

All right. Everyone listen to Esther.

Thus we decided to wait until the evil spirit's presence disappeared.

Less than a minute after that, that intimidating feeling disappeared, but the dark spirit didn't break the dark magic in the middle.

''Estia, isn't that enough?''

He's cunning. He's going to make it look like he's missing and see what we can do.

I decided to follow the instructions of the dark spirits who seemed to know the evil gods well.

''This time, I'll follow Estia's instructions. More importantly, the demons are slowly approaching us, so let's just be ready for them. Then we'll sweep them out and spend a little time and then we'll go inside.''

When I announced this, everyone agreed.

After defeating the demons, we waited for them to show up twice, wiped them out, and chose to move on.

When we opened the door, it was as bright as the other boss rooms in the labyrinth, unlike the previous boss rooms.

And once inside, the enemies you'll be fighting immediately weren't already people, but they weren't the undead you were expecting either.

There are five demons looking at you.

''Why did the demon tribe traverse the labyrinth? There should have been an evil god in the first place, so why can't they be undead?''

I started chanting a magic circle chant as I started asking questions.

Then one of the demon tribe approached me in a high pressure manner.

''You who are still an inferior species are asking questions of us, a higher species, without even identifying yourselves!

'I'm sorry about that. I am Luciel the Wise, the one who stands against the demons and the demon race.

'Ho. The Empire must be wringing its hands about the labyrinth raider being a wise man instead of a healer.

!　He told the Evil God exactly what he said in Grandle's Labyrinth.

Don't tell me that the Evil God manipulated the demon race to prevent them from breaking the seal of the dark dragon?

'So, as I explained earlier, why are there demons in the labyrinth?

It's a treasure hunt in a maze. Well, the appearance of the Evil One was a bit of a surprise to me.

Didn't the evil gods put them there? If the evil gods called them, they must have known about it beforehand.

But if they weren't, then they must have been created.

"You're not pure demons, are you?　The ones who became demons in the Empire?

Mmm-hmm. Don't lump me in with those freaks. We're an imperial task force.

Apparently, they are not pure demon race. I look sideways at Lionel and Ketty's faces, but they apparently don't know and shake their heads.

''So what are you trying to accomplish by becoming a demon race? Are you going back to being under the control of Duchy Brange or something?''

"Mmm-hmm. That's why they call us an inferior species. How can we be an inferior species?

Of course you can't miss it, can you?

'Ah. You're the man Master Lionel was concerned about as a hindrance. Let me take that head home with me.

All of the enemies and friends hold their weapons at the same time.

'Can I just ask you two last questions?'

We're so generous that we're willing to do you one last favor.

'Then I'll take you at your word. 'Is your head of the emperor?　Or is it General Warlord?

An emperor?　You think we're going to follow the living dead like that?

That's when the other four demon clans started laughing as well. Apparently, it was Cloud who was in charge of the demon squad.

''Wouldn't you want to go back if you could finally turn back into a human?''

I didn't think so. Now, let our great strength sink in.

It's a shame.

I activated the Sanctuary Circle.

At that moment, everyone charged at once with Lionel in the lead.

For a moment, Lionel's face that I could see was different from his usual face, he had a face like a demon, and I realized that this was Lionel, the real Warlord.

The people who called themselves the Imperial Special Forces, who had become demons, suffered while screaming and still managed to fight, but it was a quick end.

In less than a minute, the annihilation battle was over.

I activated the Sanctuary Circle once more just to make sure it was still alive, the screams went up, and as blue-white flames, the imperial special forces disappeared, leaving behind only the items they had equipped.

I felt a little bit of emptiness, but for now, I started walking to everyone to share the fact that we had trudged through the labyrinth.