Alan took a moment to sit on the cracked ice, waiting for his wounds to heal. The Phoenix bloodline, although powerful, was failing to meet his expectations nowadays, The stronger the creatures he faced, he had trouble healing from the injuries inflicted by them. Perhaps...he was just getting too wild for the bloodline.
Perhaps.
Laying down on the cold ice, which felt very nice to him, he looked at the corpse of the Minotaur king.
"?"
A confused expression came on his face, he could see the Minotaur King's body slowly evaporate into light, or perhaps turn to dust. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
But it was true.
"Wait... I was going to sacrifice that to the Altar."
The only reason Alan went through the hassle of opening a big portal beneath the sea to retrieve the body was for two reasons... Strive fear into the remaining Minotaur's hearts, and finally sacrifice it to the Altar at the Jade Palace. Alan was going to use it...
But Alas, the body evaporated, turning to dust that would roam around Gigantum for an eternity. However, the light did leave behind something. Straining his pained body to get a good look... Alan found a small, silver crown in place of the large body now, it paled in comparison to the magnificent body of the Minotaur king... But it was...fitting? Alan felt that
way.
"Huh...?"
He realized... It all made sense now. Monsters present on the outside, hailing from dungeons
or nature itself, would leave their bodies behind...but not beasts from Labyrinth.
He laughed.
He felt incredibly busy nowadays.
'So...tiring.'
He got rid of these thoughts as he stepped into his portal, distracting himself by testing out his new artifact. So what if he couldn't sacrifice the Minotaur king's body to the altar? There were plenty of strong Minotaur left.
*******
Appearing in front of the army, Alan looked at the large gate at the front. His army continued to batter it with a myriad of spells, mainly from his mages. They were expensive for a reason. The Jade Army had noticed the number of Minotaur's decrease on the other side of the wall. It was probably because they went to check on the commotion on the lowest floor... Alan wondered how the morale was doing, with them finding out their king gone, and his throne room, thrashed.
It shouldn't be too high...right?
No matter, the strongest being been dead, and the other side of the gate wasn't filled with as many Minotaur. He wanted to see the effects of this crown.
In fact, he could already tell. His army, behind him, was growing more restless, as they couldn't wait to go to battle, the mana within them was increasing, and their ranks were advancing. They were growing stronger.
"That's the power of an SSS-ranked artifact for you..."
If things really did go rough, Alan figured Richard would understand if a particular floor...was thrashed by a sudden dragon transformation, he wanted to finish this labyrinth quickly.
Without wasting even a second, he transformed himself slightly, to that of a Draconian, resembling his troops more.
He dashed towards the door, breaking it apart with his spear and body, then as he distracted the stunned Minotaur, his army rushed in, in a bloody rage, bolstered by the False Crown.
There was a reason his army had managed to conquer these monsters so fast...they were
simply.
Simply an army, that did not tire. That did not truly 'feel pain'. A soldier's head could be ripped off, but the scaly body would still move, trying to kill.
An army with infinite stamina, and an infinite desire to kill.