The moment the members of the young generation who were chosen to enter, disappeared through the entrance of the ruin, the huge stone doors closed once again.
Naturally, Daimon and Adam previously retrieved the "keys", but that's not important right now, the moment they disappeared, the second part of the deal made by humans and flesh eating demons immediately started.
In other words, everyone below the peak stage of the Arch rank, was now in for a war, still while they were glaring at each other, no one made a bet yet.
As a part of the deal, everyone past the middle stage of the Arch rank, wasn't going to participate at all, so they all floated away until they were high on the sky, where they actually had chairs prepared for them.
In total there were around fifty peak Arch rank from each side, meaning a hundred people were floating above the volcanic area.
Naturally the different rows represented how much authority each person had, with old Ben and the others leading the human side, and the Blood Archdukes taking that role on their side.
From the side of the Ghouls, one of the two female Archduchesses, who had long hair, mockingly gazed at one of the people on the second row from the human side, before saying.
"You have started to look like your mother, I wonder if the proximity to human filth prevented you from obtaining the glorious eyes of our family, Emily", the voice of the woman was cold.
And in a close observation, she actually resembled Emily a bit, with the difference that Emily's hair was of a darker tone of black in comparison, also Emily looked way younger than her.
And there was a good reason for the previous, that woman was the older sister of Emily's mother, unlike her sister, Emily's mother hadn't reached the level of an Archduke, back then and yet she was able to block her sister's way, while her husband fought against two Archdukes, killing one and heavily injuring the other, unfortunately he died to open up a path for his family to escape.
Humans didn't know about it, but it was a Ghoul the one who turned the balance on humanity's favor, by getting rid of two Archdukes and also killing a lot of nobles and destroying a part of their capital.
"In comparison, I see that you haven't been able to recover from mother's attack, your makeup is disgusting, that's what you get for betraying your own sister", answered Emily with a fierce expression in her usually expressionless face.
"Shut up filth who mingles with cattle!", the woman's eyes turned red, her mana exploded out of her body, which only made a part of her "face" to crumble apart, revealing that everything on the right side of her face, besides her eye was burned black, it wasn't a fire burn, but more of a chemical one as it looked corroded.
"Enough Lani, she'll be captured so we get to know everything about the human side from her, only then you can kill her, besides didn't you already take a small vengeance, after all it was that Andrew's flesh and blood the one used to seal our deal with our new ally", the Ghoul called Eniz, who seemed to be personally against Ben, interfered.
Emily's body trembled due to anger for a couple of seconds, until she felt Jeanne placing her hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, we'll cut off their heads to offer them to Lady Vanis, as for Felix, I have heard that they can't drink or eat each other, unless they want to die, we'll slice him into pieces and force them to eat it, that way your father will be avenged", she casually said.
"Hahaha, well said little Jeanne, you heard that Felix, after beating your scrawny ass, you'll become idiot's food!", old Ben of course didn't restrain from participating in the fun.
"Booom!", a sudden explosion got the attention of the two sides, they looked at the east where there was an open area, which was used for the soldiers as an improvised battlefield.
There, only Lord ranked were allowed to participate, while the Arch ranks were colliding on the sky at west, so that the two sides wouldn't get on the way of the other, the explosion was caused by a magma which suddenly erupted at a corner of the battlefield, reducing a batch of soldiers from both sides to ashes.
While outside things had heated up, literally, inside of the ruin, the situation was quite different, Daimon was in a kind of a predicament as he floated through a dimensional tunnel.
The transportation array that welcomed them earlier, only appeared after the two keys were inserted into the locks, meaning that even with his infinity eyes he couldn't detect it, as it literally didn't exist prior to that.
That being said, this situation wasn't unexpected, it only confirmed Daimon's theory, that there was something controlling the ruin, since he couldn't fully pinpoint Jasmine's location, as it kept moving all the time.
And if that was the case and since he wasn't the "hero" of this story, then it was to be expected that the one controlling the ruin, was going to mess with him, probably to Adam's benefit.
Which is why he acted on the spot, jumping into the array while keeping contact with both Sarah and Reyne, and using Will Manipulation to keep them attached to him, in case the dimensional tunnel tried to separate them, the idea was to go straight to reunite with Jasmine, so it would be troublesome if they were to be separated.
But turns out that wasn't the case, the transition through the dimensional tunnel was quite smooth, there weren't any traps aiming at them, the tunnel was pretty much a straight line, the problem is that who knows wat might happen the next second and so he didn't let go of those two.
Reyne was no problem, she simply kept a gentle expression as she held onto Daimon's arm like a proper young lady, the crazy girl in comparison was taking advantage of the situation to stick to Daimon like bubblegum.
That being said, she didn't push her luck too much, despite how she kept predatorily gazing at Daimon from up-close, luckily for Daimon this didn't last long, after a couple of minutes they got a glimpse of the end of the tunnel.
"Prepare for battle", said Daimon, the two girls nodded at him and the next second, the scenery changed, from the dimensional tunnel to a closed scape.
Daimon landed and only then he reduced his Will Manipulation, so that the girls could freely move once again.
Daimon observed his surroundings, they were in a large room which only had a door, the crazy girl was swift to fulfill her role, with a quick gaze she nodded at Daimon.
"I don't perceive any traps", she was trained by her mother, to be a proficient assassin, so her observation skills and mana sense were quite sharp.
Naturally Daimon also had Rita double check, but everything was fine, as for Reyne she actually stood on the vanguard, unlike the crazy girl who is a mix of scout and offensive knight, she is a long range/flexible type, not to mention she has an interesting double affinity dynamic.
In her human state she can use fire attribute, while in her Nelapsi form, she gets blood attribute, that being said, she can only use the respective attribute for her respective form.
The three of them turned to see the door, which slowly opened to reveal a newcomer, at the same time a fake notification appeared in front of Daimon.
[Welcome to the Despair Labyrinth, defeat the opponents and advance to obtain the prize, good luck!]
As always, the stupid fake notifications seemed to be incomplete, also seeing the word "prize", made Sarah's eyes glow, she glared at the thing that entered through the door, which was a strange humanoid creature.
One of which neither Sarah or Reyne have heard about, and Daimon has only read it in history books back at the four galaxies.
The thing was around the size of a ten year old human child, but besides that it had zero resemblance to the human race, it had dark green skin with some protuberances here and there, it didn't have any hair on its head, it had spiky teeth and a long nose as well as yellow eyeballs and a lanky complexion but with a round stomach, also it was only wearing some ragged cloth to cover its lower body, as for the weapon it was using a dagger.
'Seriously, a goblin-like monster', thought Daimon.
That's right, the creature in front of him was quite similar to the classic goblins from games back at earth, unlike what one would thing, there were no goblins at the four galaxies.
They were nasty creatures, so they were hunted until they went extinct, they didn't contribute anything as they didn't know how to be self-sufficient, instead they pillaged and assaulted others to obtain what they needed, as to why they were exterminated well, there were no females in their race so… to reproduce they had to rely on women from other races, you can imagine the rest.
And the moment their customs were revealed to the public, they were marked for extermination, since there weren't even Arch ranks among them, it wasn't a hard task anyway, it's worth mentioning that the goblins only lived in the Blue-Sky galaxy, ruled by humans.
The thing which seemed inoffensive, suddenly dashed towards Daimon, surprisingly it chose to attack him, showing signs of intelligence since he was the "weakest" of the three, in terms of realm at least.
The goblin was surprisingly agile and since it was quite short, its attacks were also quite low, the dagger was aimed at Daimon's left thigh, which wouldn't be a fatal wound, or that's what normally others would believe, but Daimon could tell that the weapon had poison applied to it.
"Screee!", the goblin screamed as it was blasted away due white flames exploding around it, it died on the spot without leaving anything behind, only then, the door which had closed after the thing entered the room, opened once again to allow them to continue.
Based on the previous, Daimon reached the conclusion that whatever that thing was, it was different than the goblins of which he read about in the records of the four galaxies, there was no notification from the system, so he wasn't sure if it was a just something that the owner of this place created, like the mad chimera, or if the system only ignored it due to the difference in strength.
Killing trash enemies would not give him skills or any benefits, unless it was needed for a mission after all.
"What a strange creature, it seemed to be somewhat smart, but then why did it attack Gabriel?", mumbled Reyne.
"Maybe it wanted to die~", said the crazy girl, to which Daimon shook his head.
"Don't lower your guard, that thing wasn't supposed to be tough enemy and yet it was well prepared, it was only a three star ranked living being, but with the experience it showed, it could have taken out even a fifth star mage, though it seemed to be weak against knights, as it lacked physical strength", he said.
"Mm, okay", the two girls nodded, this was the first encounter and Daimon gave it a decent mark, meaning that things will get more complicated on the next one.
Daimon and the girls advanced to the next room, the door closed behind them, leaving them trapped in room which was the same as the previous, with the difference that this one had two doors at the other side of it.
This time the doors opened the moment they stepped into the room, and a goblin came out of each door, the one on the left was similar to the one Daimon killed, but the one on the right, wasn't using a dagger, but a slingshot as the rock that was about to hit Daimon's head, suggested.
'A long range one this time, was it done on purpose or is it a coincidence', he thought as he casually caught the rock, which to no one's surprise was also covered in poison.
With a normal swing, Daimon threw the stone back at the long range goblin, making its head explode on the spot.
"Boom!", the stone clashed against the wall, exploding into a ton of little pieces, as the now headless corpse of the goblin collapsed on the ground.
Its companion wasn't any better, with small movement of Sarah's hand, a needle appeared on the forehead of the other goblin which was rushing towards them, making the thing trip and roll on the ground, the needle killed it on the spot.
Besides the increase in the variety of the enemy, the second room presented another problem for them, there were two paths ahead of them, the two doors opened when they killed the enemies.
"The right one", said the three at unison, while the right one is from which the "advanced" goblin came from, which would make one be more wary of it, the left one was full to the brim with traps.
Those who didn't have good observation skills, would be deceived and fall prey to the insane number of traps on the left path.
…
While Daimon's group was easily advancing through the rooms, the others weren't having it that easy.
"What the hell was that thing, it threw its dagger at its last moment to try and kill one of us", said a guy who seemed to be in his early twenties, as he bandaged the leg of his companion, whose face was a bit pale.
"And the stupid dagger was actually poisoned, luckily I had prepared some antidotes just in case", said the guy was being bandaged by his friend.
"I have never seen or heard about that creature, must be some kind of humanoid magic beast from the ancient times, I was shocked to see it wielding a weapon, but it was quite weak, let's not lower our guards and we'll be fine", said Elliot, this was the group he was leading.
"Yes, boss!", shouted the other three, as they moved on to the next room, just to be welcomed by two stones flying at them, one aimed at Elliot and the other at the guy who bandaged the previously wounded guy.
The guy who was the one in charge of tending to wounds, dodged the stone, while Elliot used his sword to deflect it, which normally would have been a good reaction as he didn't directly touch it, the problem is that the stone exploded and some drops of a transparent liquid fell on Elliot's hand.
"Arghh fucking poison again!", shouted Elliot as he used his mana to burn the poison on his hand, it wasn't that strong of a poison as it only left a slightly burn mark on the backside of his hand, but the problem is that he didn't notice the stone had poison, until it had landed on his hand.
The other two members of the group, took advantage of the situation to charge at the goblins, killing them on the spot, to then reunite with Elliot.
"Boss, there are two paths ahead, which one should we choose?", asked the guy whose leg was bandaged.
Similar scenes were happening at different places, they all had something in common, the enemies were those goblin-like creatures, but there was a major difference, and that was the fact that each group faced a different combination of goblins, agility type, long range, defensive, close combat and the list goes on, everything started after they reached the second room.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com