The trio, at the very limit of their strength, sprinted toward the red signal fire.
—-!
Soon, another shell shot up into the sky, tearing through the height. The scarlet flash spreading across the Labyrinth’s foggy heavens carried an extremely ominous foreboding.
— It’s near the rendezvous point, faster!
— What’s happening? Was it those two who fired the signal?
Levain’s face twisted in a way Gunther had never seen before. As he ran, he rattled off an explanation:
— I told you earlier I had to pass something on to you. One of those items is this signal flare.
It was part of Fourth Platoon’s operational supplies, where each color had its own meaning. And red among them...
— Emergency retreat, threat of total squad wipe, highest priority response. This color isn’t used unless the situation is truly critical by our standards. The moment we see it, we drop everything and go save our comrades.
Levain kept dragging a hand over his face, trying to regain his composure. Parco, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be trying at all. His usually relaxed, optimistic face was warped with rage, like a ferocious demon’s. The corners of his mouth lifted, and his bare gums went white with strain.
— Why... I told them so many times to avoid any clash at all costs.
— It’s fine, Parco. Calm down. The mapping is finished, so we’ll break through quickly.
— Levain...
Levain’s words sounded like he was trying to encourage himself.
— And even if something happened... believe in the guys. They’ll make it, they’ll hold out.
Gunther didn’t dare to insert a single word. Yesterday he’d heard what kind of bonds tied them together. He just ran with everything he had, doing his best not to fall behind.
Fortunately, the Stigmas “Wind Flying Ahead” and “Core of the Celestial Vault” gave a combined 25% movement speed bonus, so he didn’t lag too far behind his companions. Reinforcing his body with mana also played its part.
Tap-tap-tap—the sound of their steps drumming against the metal floor filled the silence between them. Only Levain’s directions cut in now and then.
— This way!
In the Labyrinth, it was extremely difficult to get your bearings in the first place. The remains of a dead mechanical civilization were tangled into a complex structure, with traps everywhere and threats like “scavengers.” This was where Levain’s abilities as an Arcane Runner shone in full. Like a bat using echolocation, Levain picked up various signals and mana fluctuations, building a map.
So-called “mapping.” Thanks to that, a route that would have other adventurers wandering for half a day, they identified and crossed in barely ten minutes.
But luck wasn’t on their side.
[...Luck is distorted]
“What? Now?”
Gunther froze abruptly. In the very moment a cold premonition brushed the back of his neck, Levain shouted sharply and stopped.
— Damn it! Everyone grab onto something!
He clamped onto the side railing. Parco and Gunther also lunged for the nearest structures to anchor themselves.
Vzzzhhh-khrrrr! — right after that came a metal shriek that tore at their eardrums, and everything around them began to shudder.
Beep— Beep—
To a steady mechanical sound, the surrounding structures began to segment and move. Walls folded, the floor became the ceiling, and the path they had just taken changed shape instantly. The Labyrinth’s insides flipped and sealed, like a living, flowing puzzle. It felt like a scene from a dream film. Even Gunther, used to mechanisms in modern life, found his breath caught by the sheer scale of it. Hanging from the railing, Levain screamed furiously:
— Why did Restructuring start right now...!
One of the Labyrinth’s anomalous phenomena that tormented adventurers—Restructuring. At certain intervals, part of the landscape and the entire structure of the Labyrinth changes completely. A situation where all scouted routes and safe zones lose their meaning. ...In other words, the mapping went to hell. And as if that wasn’t enough, it happened in the section that led to their goal.
[The King of Ninety-Nine Defeats parts his lips slightly]
[The Drug-Addicted Saint mutters that she never saw anything like this in life]
[Alphonse of Red Street’s legs tremble faintly]
A few more minutes passed before the trio could continue. With a blackened face, Levain stepped onto a completely altered road. Gunther’s face was dark as a storm cloud as well.
— ...Let’s go.
In the end, they reached their destination far later than planned.
* * *
Gunther—rather, Lee Jonghyeon—first started thinking about what “responsibility” meant when he was still very young.
“Jonghyeon, Dad will bring you the robot you like.”
That night when Mom showed Dad the test with two lines, and he tossed it into the trash can. Those were the words Dad threw out in a rush when he bumped into his son at the entrance, trying to slip away in secret. Of course, Jonghyeon didn’t believe him. And Mom, lying there with narrowed eyes, surely didn’t either.
“I’ll never become an adult like my father.”
Naturally, a life motto like that couldn’t not be born. Responsibility. It was a key element that made up Lee Jonghyeon’s personality.
And that was why he consciously walked the “path of the righteous.” The fact that in Act 1, Chapter 1, he didn’t run away with the ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ guild master, but stayed with everyone to the end and ultimately saved them all. The fact that in Act 1, Chapter 2, he saved children instead of protecting his death counter. From an efficiency standpoint, he knew there were better methods, but he was the kind of person who simply couldn’t do otherwise.
Being that kind of person, Gunther couldn’t help but feel responsible for the spectacle that opened up before him now.
— Blanc! Tarsha!
A wasteland drenched in the crimson shadows of the signal flare. Countless corpses were tangled together. Levain and Parco, shouting names like they were spitting blood, rushed straight into the thick of it.
— Back!
Without hesitation, Gunther blocked their path. Both were veterans, superior to Gunther in skill and experience, but right now he had to be their reason.
— It’s not over yet!
The red signal was still burning in the void. If those two were already dead, then who had just fired the flare?
[“Serpent’s Nest” activates Lv. 1]
The moment he realized something was wrong here, Gunther immediately crushed a hidden ampoule in his mouth.
[“Overdose” activates Lv. 1]
The liquid ran down his throat, carrying a harsh smell of char.
[Emergency special-composition ampoule taken from the Drug-Addicted Saint — Type X!]
[All effects of active medicines are temporarily amplified]
[Senses, reaction speed, and overall combat capability increase]
[After the effect ends, severe bodily damage and a complete loss of combat capability may occur]
A secret trump card that, due to heavy side effects, could only be used once per day. But it was the right decision. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to react to the suddenly appearing presence, and he would’ve lost his head.
Clink! — through his blurring vision, Gunther saw the enemies. There were two of them.
The one standing right in front of him with his sword raised had a body as thin as a needle, and an even thinner rapier. The blocked strike clearly surprised him—he tilted his head, studying Gunther with an appraising look.
Boom! — and a few meters behind, a gigantic figure was leisurely stepping out from the shadow of a building.
Crunch! — meeting Gunther’s gaze, the giant demonstratively shook a bag of signal flares. In his other hand he held a butcher’s knife dripping with blood.
Gunther recognized their models at once. An icy chill ran down his spine.
“...The Eldest and the Youngest. Of course.”
Two of the strongest among the Twelve Table Companions. Only now did he understand why the exhausted Fourth Platoon had fallen so easily. A calculator started running in Gunther’s head at the same time. The Eldest and the Youngest were bosses he had fought countless times. The calculation ended quickly.
“No chance...”
Levain and Parco were extremely talented. But they were support DPS and healer. And he himself—the one who had to play the tank and main DPS—still hadn’t reached a level where he could fight them. Because those two were an assassin and a tank of the Fourth hierarchy.
Tremble—
Hands aching with pain after blocking just a single thrust, and cracks in the “Ladenbach Fortress” said more about that gulf than any words ever could. And in that moment...
Fwhit! — taking advantage of Gunther’s attention slipping for a split second, the Youngest lunged again. A movement devoid of any presence, like a ghost. He was clearly closing in fast before Gunther’s eyes, yet his senses couldn’t catch him at all. Gunther fixed his gaze on the sword writhing at the enemy’s fingertips like a snake’s head. ...His head spun from a motion whose trajectory was impossible to predict.
“This is bad...”
The moment he tried to react somehow.
Clang! — a blue-shining dagger blocked that twisted path. Levain had already slipped in front of Gunther.
— Where do you think you’re going!
Clink! — several exchanges followed with no chance to breathe. If the Youngest moved like a ghost, Levain moved like a beast. Explosive springiness and flexibility. With astonishing reaction speed, he deflected attacks that came without rules or tells.
— Khah!
...But it wasn’t enough to seize the initiative. Levain, belonging to a support class, against a Table Companion specialized in killing. The Youngest’s attacks slowly began leaving wounds on Levain. Even if Parco handled healing and stamina recovery, it couldn’t go on forever.
— .......
Worst of all, the Eldest wasn’t intervening at all. If that bastard joined in, they wouldn’t last five minutes, even if they burned everything they had.
“...Is he playing with us?”
Grab! — just as Gunther’s brain was frantically working out how to get out of this, Levain broke the distance, and the fight quieted for a moment. It looked like he needed to recover his breath. Gunther stopped thinking and surged forward to buy time.
— Gunther, wait.
But Levain grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
— Levain?
— Listen carefully.
The face under the mask looked like it might explode with emotion, but the voice kept an outward calm. It was terrifying self-discipline.
— We can’t win like this. Parco and I will buy time. You get out of the Labyrinth and ask command for reinforcements.
But at the last sentence, the feelings he’d been holding back burst out:
— We have to kill them before they leave the city!
Parco, standing beside him, backed him up in a calm voice. Unlike usual, his tone was cold and piercing.
— Sorry you have to see this on your first mission. But we’re relying on you.
Before those words could fade— the Youngest, who had been slowly approaching them, broke into sharp laughter. From far away, the Eldest also started shaking his massive body in a fit of laughter. The Eldest spoke first.
— Ha, you appetizing heretics. What a naive thought. Do you really think this milk-stinking brat can breathe air outside the Labyrinth again?
After him, the gaunt Youngest slowly threw back his head. His hood slid down, revealing a wasted face like a skull.
— Idiots. You think the ones who died here were the last? No. More will come. They’ll keep coming and coming. Endlessly. You won’t get out.
Their glinting eyes never stopped scanning the trio. Gunther had never felt a gaze like that on him before. It wasn’t the look you gave an enemy, but a delicious prey... A cook’s gaze on butchered meat right before tossing it onto the grill.
“...I see.”
Gunther let out a quiet breath.
“There’s nothing to be done.”
