Volume 1, Chapter 26: Lord of Underground Labyrinth?
The plushie was squirming around. Its outer skin tore away, revealing something that resembled the sinewy muscle beneath human skin.
Dark-colored mucus dripped down from the long slit that formed its mouth.
Three rows of teeth lined the inside of that insidious-looking mouth.
Its two big eyes were unfocused, moving erratically,
Around its entire body were patchwork wounds. Ten long fingers gripped onto a giant metal club.
Its appearance was simply disgusting beyond belief, as if everything grotesque in the world was embodied in a single being.
「… As I thought, I’m glad those youngins didn’t stay to see this repulsive thing.」
Lambert heaved a relieved sigh as he looked at the monster before him.
It wouldn’t have been strange for Fiona and Co. to go mad after seeing that thing had they chosen not to escape from this place.
Even Titan, who apparently hadn’t died yet, retreated while screaming like a scaredy-cat no sooner that the monster revealed its true form.
「SH-SAVE MEEEE! SOMEONE PWEASE SAVEEEE MEEEE!」
That grotesque monster then grabbed Titan’s feet with its other ten-fingered hand. With a maniacal smile, it swung him around.
Despite how loudly he screamed before, Titan fell silent after the grotesque monster slammed him twice on the floor.
His upper body was torn apart when it was slammed for the third time, leaving only his lower body in the grotesque monster’s hand.
That monster then threw Titan’s lower half toward Lambert.
Lambert lightly slapped Titan’s lower body with the blunt side of his great sword, changing its orbit and sending it far behind him.
「As expected.」
The thing that appeared before Lambert was a flesh golem, a being created by using human flesh as its raw material.
The development of this project was banned even during the Eight Countries Unification War due to its extremely repulsive nature.
Though “Inhumane Research” was used as the pretext, the real reason was because the sorcerer who performed this research would go as far as to commit crimes like wanton killing just to get a fresh supply of corpses.
That was ultimately the reason behind the order for Lambert to hunt down Sage Domiliune who massacred dozens of villages to continue the Flesh Golem’s research.
So that person created dungeon-like research facilities to bait adventurers, and then took their corpses as the material for the Flesh Golem. This style… it’s truly like that of Domiliune.
Lambert pointed his sword toward the Flesh Golem while recalling the anger he experienced two hundred years ago.
The Flesh Golem approached Lambert while randomly swinging its iron club.
Each of its swings held an unimaginable power, enough to decide the victor of the battle.
Lambert parried each swing with the flat part of his blade, letting it glide off to his sides rather than trying to stop it.
This bastard’s movement is fast… And accurate! Just how many lives were sacrificed to complete this single Flesh Golem…
The Flesh Golem leapt toward Lambert as soon as he entered its range, roared loudly while doing so.
It didn’t waste a moment to regain its balance.
Though Lambert side-stepped as quickly as he could, circling behind the Flesh Golem, its large eyeball didn’t miss a single detail of Lambert’s movement.
The Flesh Golem leaped back, readied its stance, and then swung its metal club toward Lambert again.
… Its eyes are surprisingly sharp huh. How about this…?
Lambert retreated, barely dodging the iron club.
The club that missed its target struck the floor, making the water splash up in a large pillar.
The next moment, the Flesh Golem swung its club upward, as if to scoop up Lambert who it believed was shrouded in the water.
The club then hit something that felt like a lump of metal, sending it flying until it crashed against the ceiling.
The Flesh Golem then readied its stance with the metal club again while chasing after the lump of metal that fell from the ceiling.
「It seems to be equipped with excellent reflexes and speed, but its intelligence is clearly lacking.」
Only a moment later, the Flesh Golem realized that Lambert had leaped on top of its head by using the giant water pillar from before.
The Flesh Golem’s eyes opened wide.
The thing that crashed against the ceiling wasn’t Lambert; it was his great sword.
This confirmed Lambert’s suspicion: the Flesh Golem perhaps had superior dynamic vision, but its eyesight was falling behind.
Even without a weapon, this was the best situation for Lambert.
He could freely aim for its head, the weak point of every single living being.
Lambert’s armor-covered fingers mercilessly jabbed into the Flesh Golem’s big eyeball.
Lambert’s gauntlet that pierced through the eyeball was covered with the monster’s bluish-green body liquid.
After his hand was submerged into the eye socket up to his wrist, Lambert pulled back slightly and then clenched his fist.
「OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!」
The Flesh Golem raised a pained cry as it shook its head, trying to crush Lambert against the floor.
Lambert was clinging onto the Flesh Golem’s skin, his hands gripped tightly. Just before his body struck against the floor, he circled around toward the back of its head while maintaining his vice grip on its skin.
He then used the weight of his armor and kicked the monster’s head twice in the back, added even more damage to its head when it was crashing against the floor.
Lambert leapt using the recoil from his kicks and the impact when it crashed against the floor.
His hand then grabbed onto the hilt of his sword that was stabbed into the ceiling. Pulling it down with all his might, his somersaulted as he fell and then landed again with a flawless fighting stance.
「Come what may, pitiful golem, I’ll put an end to your suffering.」
The Flesh Golem glared at Lambert while pressing its hand on its forehead.
And then, it retreated slightly, its heels scraping against the floor.
The Flesh Golem, who had been filled with destructive impulse up to now, was terrified.
The Flesh Golem was terrified of Lambert, whose strength was clearly superior.
The Flesh Golem’s one remaining eye became bloodshot, turning a bright red.
The blood vessels in its arms were twitching vigorously as it strengthened the grip on its club.
「OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!」
The Flesh Golem charged toward Lambert while raising a war cry.
This powered-up attack was its heaviest and fastest attack.
And yet, this was the last-ditch effort of a cornered creature.
But, that also made its current attack far more simple than its previous attacks.
Lambert widened his stance and raised his sword vertically.
The Flesh Golem swung its club toward him.
Lambert slanted his sword to catch the Flesh Golem’s blow with the flat side of his blade. Making sure that the club and the sword were locked together, he let it slip till his waist, and used his body as the axis to reverse the blow.
Thus, the Flesh Golem’s attack with its club was sent back to its owner’s chest at full power.
The club that struck its owner’s chest then fell, crashing on the floor.
This move, called 『Heaven-Earth Reversal』, was a gift from one Quixote, a demon general and Lambert’s swordsmanship teacher.
It was an ultimate counter, designed to redirect the vector of an opponent’s skill back to its owner at full power.
This was the first time Lambert executed this technique, making full use of every single joint in the human body, without allowing even an inch of error.
Originally, it was a specialized anti-personnel skill that required the use of the opponent’s body, but Lambert’s battle sense supplemented the lacking parts and executed 『Heaven-Earth Reversal』 perfectly against the golem.
Lambert circled around toward the stunned Flesh Golem’s blindspot, and sent a powerful blow toward its thick leg.
The Flesh Golem quickly swung down its club, but Lambert, who had predicted such an attack, leapt first. He ran along the top of the club, which was buried in the floor, and approached the monster’s head.
The Flesh Golem tried to meet Lambert’s attack with a head butt.
Lambert adjusted the position of his sword as it pierced through the Flesh Golem’s head and then jumped back to neutralize the impact toward his body as much as possible.
The Flesh Golem’s movement ceased after Lambert’s great sword pierced through its head. He once again swung his sword and then leaped up.
Lambert raised his sword in the air as soon as he landed right in front of the Flesh Golem’s head.
「OOOOON!」
「HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
His great sword struck toward the Flesh Golem’s head.
The sole remaining eyeball of the Flesh Golem flew from its socket due to the impact.
Its head got smashed, revealing clumps of pink flesh inside.
The Flesh Golem fell forward right there.
「… May you rest in peace.」
Lambert offered his prayer while looking down at the Flesh Golem that was left in such a pitiful state.
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!
Suddenly, the sound of clapping hands resounded in that room.
At the same time, a sickening-sweet yet rotten smell, even more powerful than the smell that came from the Flesh Golem, filled the entire room.
When Lambert looked at the source of that sound, he saw a young lady standing on top of the hole that was created by the Flesh Golem.
She had big, round eyes and raven-black hair.
Despite her beauty, the bizzare air around her made anyone who saw her feel uncomfortable.
「If it isn’t Lambert-kun! How unexpected, for me to meet you in this way. Nay, this might be the blessing of my longevity.」
The young lady was smiling cheerfully as she offered her hand, as if she would accept Lambert’s everything.
But, the look on her face made it look like a blatant lie.
「Don’t make such a scary face. Let our past be water under the bridge. It’s not like I[boku] hate you either. You might even say that I ‘love’ you.」
「… I knew that you are a monster, but I never expected that you didn’t die even after you lost your lower half.」
「As if, it was just a ritual that automatically invoked after I died. I died once before, when you cut my upper half along with my heart. Geez, you were such a brute. Your last attack was really painful, you see.」
The young lady licked her lips with her pink tongue as she retold her story with an entranced look on her face.
She then continued on with the same smile as before.
「But unfortunately, you couldn’t confirm my death for sure due to the collapsed building, right?」
Sage Domiliune.
She appeared just like Lambert remembered her.
At that time, Domiliune had modified her own body, turning her body into an ageless one.
That’s why, even back then, no one knew her real age or origin.
Despite her blatant research on forbidden sorcery arts, the reason why the previous kings of that era couldn’t punish Domiliune was mainly due to her overwhelming achievements in research about magic. No one could rival her innovation or sheer power.
Though she was finally killed by Lambert after a fierce battle to the death, Domiliune ended up surviving and continued her research, kidnapping the adventurers who dove into the Underground Labyrinth.