Chapter 38 – 038. Archis Great Labyrinth (6)
Thud!
Eunhyeon and Eleanor stopped walking at the sound that shook the labyrinth.
“This sound…”
Listening to Eleanor muttering with a hard expression, Eunhyun searched for the source of the vibration and noise.
Since I was exploring the inside of the labyrinth through ‘detection’, I was able to quickly find out where the cause had occurred.
Eunhyun looked at the floor and said.
“It is below.”
“Sir, shouldn’t we hurry? If your brother’s party is fighting right now…”
“These are not battle sounds.”
“What if it’s not the sound of battle?”
“Sounds and vibrations are getting farther and farther away. It means that one demon is running wild and running around the labyrinth.”
Eleanor tilted her head, not understanding what Eunhyeon meant.
“Judging from the distant noise and vibration, at least it doesn’t seem that the Demonic Beast is chasing humans. It’s like the noise that comes from crashing into the walls here and there enough to make the inside of the labyrinth shake. I don’t know why, but I think I’m crazy. Like I’m mad at something.”
“Are you saying there was no battle?”
“It could have been during a battle. Right now, the most likely thought is that one of the party members set off something like a tear gas bottle prepared for escape and then ran away from the Beast.”
Eunhyeon thought about the reason why one of the demons ran amok in the labyrinth, and came to the conclusion closest to the correct answer.
“Tearworm?”
“It is a non-lethal tool made by putting medicines and catalysts that cause status ailments inside a potion bottle. It is mainly made in the workshops of alchemists. If you inhale the smoke, it will cause abnormal conditions such as stinging on the skin, vomiting, and sneezing. If you explode this bottle when encountering a monster you can’t defeat, the beast breathes in the smoke from the tear gas bottle and makes a hasty retreat using the chaos.”
“Okay. In other words, even if your brother and his party entered the battle, they succeeded in escaping safely, and that monster is angry at missing your brother and his party and is running rampant all the way?”
“I guess so.”
Eunhyun thought for a moment about the now completely stopped vibration and said to Eleanor.
“I need to speed up. I guess I’ll have to pick it up again.”
“Again… ?”
Eleanor seemed to have some hesitation about being carried on the back of the man she was with, not once, but twice.
“The vibration and noise stopped. This means that the effect of the status ailment caused by the tear gas is gradually dissolving. Perhaps, if he regains his sanity lost in pain, the Witchbeast will feed himself a large taffy and go looking for the human who escaped.”
“Ah.”
Now that we don’t know what state the party, which could be Alex’s party, is currently in, Eunhyeon and Eleanor had to contact the party before the monster who caused this noise met again.
It was because, if he was injured, he was not sure whether he would be able to survive the encounter with the Witchbeast again.
Eleanor realized that it was not the time for her to hesitate and nodded her head, and as she ran through the forest in the middle of the night, Eun-hyeon carried Eleanor on her back and started running at high speed.
While walking quickly through the labyrinth at the same speed as the wagon, he was advancing while avoiding all the traps that were triggered here and there.
Eleanor wasn’t even surprised by Eun-hyeon’s ability to boldly move forward while repelling the attacks of the monsters she encountered.
[Eunhyeon’s Unique Ability]
[Time Acceleration]
[Accident acceleration]
Even while Eun-hyeon was running around the labyrinth with movements that exceeded the limit through ‘time acceleration’, after extending ‘sensing’ to the maximum possible range, she was moving while organizing various information coming into her head with ‘thought acceleration’.
In Eun-hyeon’s head, it was to find the structure inside the labyrinth, the type and number of monsters located, the save point known as a resting place, and the location of Alex and Princess Yuria’s party somewhere.
Since the mapping was being done in real time in her head, Eunhyun did not slow down once and ran through the complex and difficult labyrinth without hesitation as if she were at home.
While walking through the labyrinth at breakneck speed, the two arrived at the door.
Knowing through her senses that there was a staircase going down beyond the ‘door’, Eun-hyeon rushed toward the door, lifted her leg, kicked the iron door open, and jumped inside.
“Kyaaak!”
It was more like jumping down than stepping on the stairs.
Realizing that Eleanor was falling in the air, she screamed and tightened the neck of Eun-hyeon, who was carrying her.
“I’m out of breath.”
“Well then, don’t do something like this suddenly! Because my heart seems to stop!”
“You have to be patient to go fast. Isn’t it a matter of risking your brother’s life?”
“Yeah, but that’s it!”
Eleanor, who couldn’t answer the question, put on an expression that she would die of hate for Eun-hyeon, who used Alex’s work as an excuse only at times like this.
After exiting the stairs and entering the new floor, Eun-hyeon walked quickly through the new basement again.
Eun-hyeon, who found four people caught on the edge of her ‘detection’, stopped running at that moment.
“Found.”
“Yes?”
Eleanor, who looked at Eun-hyeon with her strange eyes while muttering her sudden incomprehensible words, had her Eun-hyeon set herself down and untied her bag in front of her.
She watched Eun-hyeon’s actions with an expression of ‘This human is trying to do something again.’
I didn’t even think to ask what I was going to do anymore.
Seeing that infinitely serious expression on his face, he didn’t even want to disturb him.
Putting down her travel backpack, Eun-hyeon summoned a long spear in her hand and immediately took her stance.
He bends his legs and leans, his right arm stretches straight behind his long spear, and his back twists.
‘Javelin? Here? Towards the wall?’
As she was watching Eun-hyeon with a questioning look on her face as she did not understand that action, Eleanor saw a spear in Eun-hyeon’s right hand that was ready to fly at any moment like a loaded crossbow.
“Ah…”
The amount of mana concentrating around the spear was unusual.
It was overwhelmingly high enough to be seen with the naked eye, and a large amount of mana envelops the hands and spears in a blue color.
Eun-hyeon holds mana again and again, strengthening the spear in his hand to the limit again and again.
Strengthening to the limit and creating a penetrating power that nothing can block, and can pierce through everything.
The spear held in his hand with the limit of mana trembled and howled.
It seemed as if this was the limit, as if the screams of the weapon were screaming, as if asking to be freed.
After the reinforcement, Eunhyeon calmly waited while maintaining a posture where she could throw the spear at any time.
I hope that the target at the end of ‘detection’, the ‘wild boar with big tusks’, will come to the target point he aimed at.
And the moment the wild boar rushing madly into her line of fire, Eunhyeon released the magical power he had been holding in his spear.
“Oops!”
Suddenly, a strong gust of magical power began to blow around the spear Eunhyeon was holding, so Eleanor groaned softly and protected her face from the wind.
[Brionac spearmanship]
[Skin Piercing]
It took only a few seconds for the spear fired from the perfect javelin stance to break through the wall and fly toward the Demon Beast 2km away.
After confirming that she had broken down the multi-layered walls of the labyrinth and had accurately penetrated the target, Eun-hyeon nodded with a satisfied smile.
‘Good! I can eat a lot this time.’
[Hey… Concentrate.]
Seeing the sight, Eleanor looked at the demolished walls and made a stunned expression.
“It’s crazy…”
Ignoring Eleanor’s muttering words, Eun-hyeon saw the wild boar-type witch beast, Bull Boar, which was stuck in a spear and looked like it was stuffed in the air, struggling with its legs that couldn’t reach the ground in order to somehow escape.
She summoned a long spear again and this time aimed at the bull bore’s head and threw the javelin. After confirming that the bull bore’s head exploded and died instantly, she put on her travel backpack again.
“Let’s go.”
Eun-hyeon put her arms around Eleanor’s waist and her legs and hugged her.
“Hey, what are you doing right now…”
“It’s 1km away from where the princess’s brother is. If you follow the steps of the princess, it will be a year. My brother seems to have suffered some serious injuries, but let’s hurry up. I’ll drop you off midway, so don’t worry about your face.”
“…”
Eleanor pursed her lips but did not reject Eunhyun’s words.
It was because, if Alex was in critical condition, he wanted to be treated with his divine magic as soon as possible.
It wasn’t because she felt ashamed to be in the arms of an outsider, Eleanor told herself.
Finishing her move in an instant, Eun-hyeon dropped off Eleanor right in front of her, and walked slowly with her, facing her two men and women, who looked dumbfounded at her sudden situation.
“Eleanor? How are you here…”
The man muttered as if taken aback by the sudden appearance of Eleanor.
After passing him, Eun-hyeon went straight to the person who got her involved in the incident.
Alex, who showed that he was in a serious condition even by looking at him, looked at Eun-hyun with a relaxed expression on his face as if he had really put his mind at ease.
Because she wasn’t sure, she thought Eun-hyeon might not come, so seeing her face like this couldn’t be so nice.
Eunhyun opened her mouth as she looked at Alex laughing at what she liked.
“Delivery is here. Sir. I don’t know if the requested ‘help’ arrived on time.”
“It was really great timing… I might have to thank you for the rest of my life.”
“Then next time, I hope you don’t use it as if it’s exploiting ‘lack of delivery’ like this. No matter how cooperative it is, if you do this again, you will be angry next time.”
It was a warning saying, ‘From now on, never let me get involved in your affairs.’ However, Alex smiled bitterly as if he was troubled when he heard Eun-hyeon’s words.
“I am not sure about that. I don’t think there will ever be an end to the need for your help.”
“Well, then go and consult again. First of all, let’s try to do something with the dying body.”
Eun-hyeon was able to notice Alex’s situation at least roughly, so he didn’t feel like arguing too much.
Because he was also caught up in Princess Yuria’s arbitrary behavior, he did his best despite knowing his own lack of ability, and he had ‘Eunhyeon’ insurance in case of an unexpected situation.
I didn’t like his way, but the way he tried to complete the role given to him by borrowing someone else’s strength didn’t give a bad impression to Eun-hyeon.
‘Well, since he’s like this, he’s here to save me.’
[Sounds like you wouldn’t have come to save me if it was someone else.]
‘At least, if it was this bastard’s older brother Ashton, he would never have come. He would have just let me die.’
But Alex thought that he shouldn’t die now, so he reluctantly gave in to Helena and Eleanor’s request.
Eun-hyun was not a ‘saint’ who saved everyone who was in trouble in her eyes.
No matter how good and good a saint is in a crisis or an unfortunate fate, if he does not feel the need for it, he will not bother to seek it.
Eunhyun was not a ‘saint’ but not a ‘evil man’, but a thoroughly calculating person.
Eunhyun stared at Alex silently and was lost in his thoughts.
‘How will I appear to others?’
The way a human being himself judges the value of human life and judges the life to be saved and the life to be thrown away is not a normal human way of thinking.
When he was first appointed as an apostle, he felt a lot of skepticism and anguish about this mindset forced by the gods, but his own way of thinking, which was now fixed, was not a way of thinking that ordinary humans could understand.
Even if the goddess Belldandy released her restraints, saying that she no longer needed to adopt this way of thinking and acting, the way of thinking that had been maintained for 400 years would not be corrected overnight.
‘It must be difficult to go back to the past.’
Will he be able to define himself as a human being now? Eun-hyeon felt skeptical.
The body has already passed the human lifespan, and the way of thinking and thoughts injected into the head are ruthlessly inhumane, wrapping up the expression of rationality that considers humans expendable and pursues efficiency.
[Hey… No more such sad thoughts. I came to the child’s side to fix his heart.]
‘… Goddess.’
[Because it was me and my sisters who made my child have that mindset.]
‘Goddess. It’s fine.’
Eunhyeon comforted Belldandi, who was blaming herself, and looked at Alex’s condition.
“This… It’s a bit serious.”
“Oh, brother!”
Eleanor, who had followed Eun-hyeon, saw the large puncture wound on her abdomen, and her complexion turned blue, and she screamed.
“Treat now.”
“Yes.”
[Bestia Divine Magic]
[Hines Hill]
After seeing her damaged organs, flesh, and skin tissue being restored, Eun-hyeon looked surprised when she recognized that it was a high-level heal filled with divine power.
“I am surprised. You were able to use a high-ranking recovery spell.”
“What is surprising? I told you. She’s confident to help… Eww.”
She spoke confidently, but Eleanor put on a very proud expression when she remembered that she had never been helpful to Eun-hyeon.
Seeing Eleanor hurriedly avoiding Eun-hyeon’s gaze, Eun-hyeon smiled.
“Well then, I guess I should introduce myself. Nice to see you. Guard knights and Princess Yuria. My name is Eunhyeon, who has been entrusted with the rescue mission at the request of Alex and Eleanor.”
Eun-hyeon took a formal posture and introduced herself to the three people who were still not fully aware of the situation.
