Chapter 1228: Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign (19)

Whoosh!!

Standing before a golden labyrinth, so dazzling it stung the eyes.

A sanctuary so splendid and magnificent it was hard to believe even when seeing it firsthand.

“……!!”

Deimus, who had been staring blankly at the sight, quickly snapped back to his senses, got up, and checked his pulse.

There were no injuries severe enough to impede movement, no loss of physical body, and his consciousness and memories were intact.

But if so, what was this lethargy that disturbed Deimus’s breathing and made him feel as if his spiritual energy and will were being chipped away?

A sense of powerlessness that crushed Deimus’s very being from its roots, utterly contrary to the golden labyrinth spread before his eyes.

The moment Deimus painstakingly staggered to his feet, slowly groping his body to find the cause.

A mocking voice echoed from beside him.

“No need to grope around like that. You’re perfectly alive, so don’t worry.”

“……Victor.”

The Manipulation Spellcaster, clad in a shadow robe, leaned against the wall next to Deimus, arms crossed.

An obsidian mask covering his face, chilling red eyes, and the ominous, fierce mana flowing through his entire body.

A ghostly presence, as if he wasn’t there at all. Aside from his mana appearing slightly depleted, he had no injuries.

Deimus, steadying his breath with a surprised expression, stammered as he looked back at Victor.

“Are…… you alright?”

“Better than you, certainly. Is there a problem?”

“……No. It’s nothing. Just…….”

Aside from a minor sense of unease, his appearance was utterly unchanged from when they first met during the annihilation campaign.

But precisely because of that, Deimus keenly realized what a monstrous being the Manipulation Spellcaster before him was.

Not only had he seized the mobile fortress amidst the chaotic slaughter of the Legion and traversed the outer sectors.

But he had also dragged Deimus through the epicenter, confronted Adamant Thunder directly, and reached the command center’s engine room without a single scratch.

How exceptional was the talent of this spellcaster who had flawlessly accomplished all those feats and ensured the Doctor’s plan succeeded?

“It was an annihilation campaign full of nothing but failures…… but at least one thing was done well.”

Deimus managed a bitter smile and stood up.

“Perhaps convincing you to join the battle was the best thing I did in this operation.”

“I didn’t keep you alive to hear such embarrassing words.”

Victor adjusted his mask and sneered.

“You know, don’t you? You’re going to die in this war.”

“…….”

“No matter how this ends, you won’t be able to escape responsibility. That’s probably why you risked your life on the front lines the moment the commanders made their move.”

Deimus didn’t answer. He simply bowed his head with a calm expression.

It was proof that he, too, fully understood the meaning of Victor’s words.

If this annihilation campaign ended in Adamant Thunder’s victory, there would be no need to guess the outcome.

But even if, by some slim chance, the campaign ended in the Legion’s victory, Deimus could not escape death.

As it stood, the majority of the Legion’s main forces participating in the annihilation campaign had been annihilated.

Considering the chaos that ensued, centered around Pandemonium, most of the Legion’s power might already have been sacrificed.

It was impossible for Deimus, who had not only commanded the main forces but also drawn Pandemonium into the campaign, to avoid responsibility.

At best, execution. In the worst case, the entire 7th Legion, led by Deimus, could be purged.

Seeing Deimus’s silence, Victor sneered.

“I know what you’re thinking. You’re trying to use that pathetic life to achieve a military feat and prevent the entire 7th Legion from being executed, aren’t you?”

“…….”

“I have no sympathy for your desperate attempts to clean up your trivial mistakes…… but your judgment itself is somewhat useful.”

“……That’s.”

“The attempt to reverse Adamant Thunder’s Targeted Resistance was not bad.”

An answer he hadn’t expected to hear from a Manipulation Spellcaster, who was notoriously uninterested in others even within Pandemonium.

Had he perhaps rated highly the attempt to somehow come up with a countermeasure the moment the main forces were struck?

A faint compliment, mixed at the end of a sneer that, as always, pierced him to the core.

Deimus understood its meaning and lifted his head.

“By now, you should understand why I kept you alive.”

Victor said that, and then nodded his head towards his back.

“If you’ve resolved to die on this battlefield, then before you die, contribute that tiny life of yours to chipping away at Adamant Thunder’s power, even just a little.”

“…….”

Only then could Deimus finally examine the landscape of District 49 where he had arrived.

An endlessly vast and majestic golden corridor.

The shape of a splendid palace, so dazzling with glittering light from all sides that it hurt the eyes.

The corridor stretched so immensely to the horizon that Deimus’s sensory perception couldn’t properly orient itself.

“A maze…… no, a labyrinth?”

Deimus, realizing its true nature in an instant, muttered.

“Spatial distortion so powerful that its direction and breadth couldn’t be grasped…… this is…….”

The interior of Adamant Thunder’s Domain in District 49.

At that moment, Deimus realized that the Doctor’s conjecture had not been wrong.

Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower encompassed not only the golden sphere that had massacred the Legion, but also the dark blue nebula overflowing throughout the entirety of District 49.

How else could such a vast and majestic facility be hidden within that dark blue nebula?

It wasn’t just an empty facility; it was deliberately constructed to be so expansive as to cause a loss of spatial orientation—

“……This entire facility was a labyrinth designed to draw in intruders and make them lose their way.”

Deimus, leaning against the wall, struggled to his feet and spoke.

“The Doctor was right. Adamant Thunder had created a real spacetime within District 49. However, conversely, that means…….”

“It also means Adamant Thunder might have been preparing for our approach.”

Thud!!

At that moment, a blood-soaked soldier’s corpse tumbled from the opposite end of the corridor.

A corpse presumed to be a special forces member who had been aboard one of the assault ships.

From behind the corpse, whose face was ghostly pale in death, a young man with a snake-like face emerged, dusting off his hands.

Deimus, recognizing the face, stiffened.

“……Ermont.”

“Oh? Deimus.”

Ermont grinned upon seeing Deimus’s face.

“You’re still alive? I thought I was seeing a corpse.”

“…….”

Deimus fell silent at Ermont’s words, which instantly pierced to the core.

Even that seemingly thoughtless black wizard knew what Deimus’s fate would be in this war.

Victor, watching Ermont from behind Deimus, spoke with a look of contempt.

“Hiding in the back, killing off the small fry again, were you?”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand. I didn’t kill this corpse.”

Ermont kicked the soldier’s corpse, sending it rolling, and shrugged.

“When I found him, he was injured and dying alone. He tried to take me with him, so I just finished him off.”

“Are you so foolish you’ve forgotten what ‘killing people’ means?”

“No, seriously, trying to stab me in the back the moment we entered District 49 is a bit much.”

Ermont grumbled, unfazed by Victor’s cold sneer.

“Of course, we seized the 7th Legion’s flagship and stirred things up, but it was all for the greater good, wasn’t it? To react like this feels a bit ungrateful~”

“…….”

Instead of replying, Deimus bowed his head and examined the fallen soldier’s corpse.

“His carotid artery was severed by a very sharp blade.”

Deimus, gently pulling open the sword mark near the neck, spoke.

“There wasn’t much muscle rigidity. A fatal wound was inflicted on a vital spot before he could even react. The pain wouldn’t have been significant. Truly exceptional killing technique.”

“Ahem, actually, I did rough him up a bit before he died, so there would have been some pain……”

“Will thorns grow in your mouth if you just keep it shut?”

Ignoring Victor and Ermont’s words, Deimus’s gaze deepened.

“There are a few talented individuals in the Legion and Pandemonium who come to mind…… but it’s unlikely this was done by an ally.”

Deimus closed the soldier’s eyes, then stood up and turned around.

“Let’s move. First, I’ll explore this labyrinth and investigate its internal structure.”

“We’ll just get lost if we move without a target. Do you have any direction in mind?”

“Direction? Fine. Before we move, let’s summarize what we need to do.”

Deimus’s eyes gleamed with strong resolve.

“Adamant Thunder is currently using this annihilation campaign as his Ascension Ritual, intending to become an uncharted monster. If the ritual succeeds, a blood-crazed, corrupted Ascendant will be born.”

“…….”

“It’s practically a certainty that the moment the ritual ends, Adamant Thunder, having become an Ascendant, will kill everyone participating in the campaign…… As the Doctor said, there’s no way to avoid this.”

“Though we did stick our heads into District 49 just to live a little longer.”

“To complete the Ascension Ritual, Adamant Thunder will inevitably return to District 49, his Domain, in the end.”

Ignoring Ermont’s grumbling, Deimus walked ahead without hesitation.

“Therefore, our task is to reach the center of District 49 before Adamant Thunder and stop his Ascension Ritual. At this point, it’s virtually the only method.”

“I think that should be called a ‘wishful thinking’ rather than a ‘method’ now…….”

“First, I’ll prioritize finding the way to the deepest part of the labyrinth and meeting the Doctor.”

Deimus, taking out his terminal and confirming that communications were cut, spoke.

“Since the Doctor himself devised the plan, he must already be in District 49 with us. If we’re lucky, we might encounter him while we’re searching for a path.”

“Why do we need that pompous old man? We’re already in District 49, so can’t we just handle it ourselves?”

“The Doctor knew that Adamant Thunder had tried to hide the existence of District 49. At the same time, he knew what spellcraft Adamant Thunder used to manipulate the Magic Tower.”

Deimus continued walking, speaking in response to Ermont’s grumbling.

“If so, there’s a high probability he can even gauge how far Adamant Thunder has planned this annihilation campaign……”

“…….”

“This labyrinth is a highly complex spatial distortion facility created to deal with intruders. But such a facility couldn’t have been built overnight.”

Walking through the endless corridor, Deimus muttered with a pale face.

“In the worst case, everything we’ve done so far—”

“Oh, another corpse found over there!”

Ermont, cutting Deimus off, scurried over and flipped the corpse lying on the other side of the corridor.

Ermont, whose hands were rummaging inside the collar of the corpse with a crushed head, its face unrecognizable, clicked his tongue.

“Ah, this one’s no good either. Why do all the Legion soldiers lack Black Magic Affinity? At this rate, I can’t even possess their bodies, let alone use them as catalysts.”

“Black Magic Affinity is known to be extremely rare among all spellcasters. It’s natural that such talent isn’t common among soldiers……”

Deimus said that, looking down at the corpse.

“Moreover, this isn’t even a Legion soldier. His uniform isn’t from the Legion.”

“Is it the Mechanized Legion?”

“Since we borrowed Commander Miloze’s authority to gather all remaining forces in District 49, other factions must have also entered this labyrinth.”

Deimus nodded at Victor’s words.

“The problem is that we don’t yet know if Adamant Thunder intended this situation…… but that’s not important right now.”

“Aha.”

Ermont, only then realizing the strangeness, chimed in.

“This person. Unlike the previous corpse, his head is crushed.”

“Yes. He was repeatedly bludgeoned to death with something blunt. Possessing immense physical strength, and a very brutal hand.”

Deimus said that, examining the crushed skull.

“No weapon was used either. It feels…… like a beast’s paw repeatedly smashed his head in. A raw savagery.”

“…….”

“The one who killed this man is completely different from the one who cut our soldier’s throat earlier.”

“……Hmm.”

Only then did Ermont’s expression sharpen slightly.

“Are you saying there aren’t just one or two opponents trying to kill us in this labyrinth?”

“That…… we’ll find out if we keep following that direction.”

The blood spilled from the corpse with the crushed head stretched along the corridor floor.

Bloodstains, as if he had struggled to crawl from somewhere and finally died here.

If we follow the blood trail backward, the one who killed him will appear.

Deimus, exchanging a brief glance with Victor, was about to lead the way down the corridor when suddenly.

“Whoa?!”

Bang!!!

Ermont, losing his balance and slipping, slammed headfirst and skidded forward in front of Deimus.

“A pathetic sight.”

“I-I almost died…… my neck almost broke just now…….”

Even with Victor’s sneer, Ermont couldn’t get up, muttering.

His uncharacteristically pale complexion was proof that Ermont had truly been terrified for a moment.

“No, seriously, why is it so slippery? Unless someone oiled the floor……!!!”

“Oil, you say……”

Deimus, carefully sweeping the floor, felt a strangely different texture and suppressed his mana.

Deimus’s face hardened as he instantly felt one of his feet slide as if on ice.

A strangeness Deimus hadn’t noticed, having been tightly controlling his mana since regaining consciousness.

“Coefficient of friction…… Could it be designed to make the properties of space itself react differently depending on the mana used?”

“Move.”

Victor casually walked past Deimus, who stood stock still.

“You’ll have to hurry if you want to meet the others before they die.”

“…….”

Watching Victor’s ghostly gait, Deimus and Ermont quietly looked at each other.

“……Surely, we’re not all going to die here, happily, except for Victor, right?”

“First, we succeeded in entering District 49 before Adamant Thunder. There’s no reason to assume failure already.”

Deimus slowly raised his gaze.

“But it’s also true that I never imagined facing Adamant Thunder as an enemy would be this daunting.”

“…….”

“Even when preparing for the worst, there was always something more…… How many more trials like this await us……”

Whoosh!!!

A majestic and imposing Domain, densely carved with splendid chandeliers and unknown spellcraft formations.

A golden labyrinth, metaphysically distorted to the point where its end and branching paths were imperceptible.

Looking back, the direction of the path they had taken had changed, and turning their gaze, a clear fork in the road had vanished.

With every blink, the number of doors on all sides changed, and the magic circles carved into the ceiling and walls stared down at them like eyes.

Amidst that ineffable, eerie déjà vu and fear—

Deimus was, by then, feeling awe beyond fear.

“Could this truly be…… a human born in this world, just like us……?”

A mad Transcendent, treating the war meant to kill him as his Ascension Ritual, undertaking the challenge.

Even after entering Adamant Thunder’s Domain, everything at this moment was far beyond Deimus’s expectations.

Not just Adamant Thunder himself, but even the Domain he presided over carried such an incomprehensible demonic aura?

With every attempt to kill and subjugate him, conversely, they understood and were drawn to what kind of being he was.

Hah, hah……

His breathing quickly grew shallow, his throat feeling constricted.

A sense of despair, as if his blood vessels and cardiorespiratory functions were crushed and breaking, like searching for oxygen on a high mountain.

His vision gradually blurred, the air turned cold, and his five senses tingled and dully stretched.

Whoooah……

Beside Deimus, Ermont was emitting strange sounds with unfocused eyes.

“Seriously, if I just get out alive…… I’ll scour the entire Deepweb…… Ugh…… retch……”

“This is…….”

As they moved deeper into the corridor, their condition visibly deteriorated and broke down.

A hollow sense of loss, as if their basic metabolism and physical functions as living beings were being stolen, lost.

If a high-ranking Long-lived Being were here, they would have realized that this was remarkably similar to the environment found in Kundara’s Ninth Tribulation.

But Deimus, unaware of that fact, immediately fell into conflict as soon as he realized the problem afflicting his body had become much stronger than before.

“…….”

Should I go forward, or retreat?

While following the direction of the bloodstains in the corridor, a faint, glowing golden haze shimmered in the distance.

If they went there, they would likely discover another aspect of this labyrinth.

Conversely, the unknown pain crushing the group would surely intensify beyond what it was now.

Should they take the risk and venture forth, or try to find another method?

The conclusion was already set.

“Let’s go.”

A body already prepared for death on this battlefield.

Even in the worst case, if he could leave information about this labyrinth for his Legion comrades, that would be enough.

Whoosh!!

With every step, the haze cleared, revealing corpses strewn all around the corridor.

Superhumans killed by heavy blunt weapons, or sharp claws, or with their heads crushed as if bitten.

Legion special forces. Blaiver Magic Tower wizards. Mechanized Legion augmented soldiers. Even psychics from various units.

Countless superhumans of different affiliations and origins were scattered throughout this corridor before Deimus.

“…….”

Beyond the eerily silent stillness.

At the end of the haze, a colossal golden gate, dazzlingly shimmering, became visible.

A ‘connecting link’ floating in the vast central hollow, much larger than any corridor they had passed so far.

The golden gate swaying in the central hollow, and beyond it, the landscape of another labyrinth.

Before that gate, a bird-headed giant, wielding a massive hammer, stood with his arms crossed.

“I’ve been waiting.”

A massive body, holding a blood-soaked hammer, emanating red mana from its entire form.

He looked down at the group, having piled dozens of corpses near the gate.

Ermont, facing that sight from behind, tilted his head.

“Oh? That guy is……”

“Felix Magath. A War-Mage mercenary affiliated with Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower.”

Deimus, recognizing the opponent at once, turned his gaze to Ermont.

“You know him?”

“I’ve tangled with him at Anathema’s Temple before. His skill was quite exceptional, so I remembered him……”

Ermont muttered, looking at Felix, who stood guarding the gate.

“It seems he’s been assigned the role of guarding the passage in District 49 this time.”

“…….”

“Well, I’ll take him on this time. Last time, it wasn’t like I couldn’t fight him at all.”

Ermont grinned, rolling up his sleeves.

“First, I’ll show off a bit while I can, then subtly withdraw when it gets truly dangerous—”

Whoooom!!!

At that moment, as Felix turned, a golden halo rose, and Ermont’s words abruptly stopped.

A golden ring elegantly rotating behind the bird-headed giant. Immediately after Felix’s Will-thought explosively amplified, riding upon it.

The hammer Felix held became enveloped in dark blue lightning, instantly transforming into the size of a house and gleaming.

Craaaaaash!!!!

Crackle, crackle…!!!

The Lightning God’s Hammer, massive and imbued with dark blue mana.

Felix, shouldering it, scattering red eye-glow, and turning to face them with the Golden Halo at his back.

Ermont, who had been staring up at him with a foolish expression, quietly lowered his arms and returned to his spot.

“……C-Can I take back everything I just said, even now?”