102-96 Shadow of the evil god




 All eyes will be on me.
 I'm sure they'll follow my choice...

 If the information is correct, there's a chimera in the boss room. But this time it's because it has the potential to be undead.
 I definitely don't want to head to the land of the dead, and I don't want to send anyone else there either.

"There is a chimera inside. And then there's the possibility of another Wraith...
 Unable to make a decision, I decided to take everyone's advice.
 I wouldn't put the final responsibility on them, but I just couldn't risk or force them to risk other people's lives.

'Normally I would have thought you'd retreat but... what's the catch?'
 Lionel's serious eyes seemed to see my thoughts in perspective.

'If it's true I'd like to go home... but I have a feeling that if we leave the labyrinth in its current state, it will grow more impregnable and impregnable and the demons will be stronger than they are now... that's all. I can't say for sure until I go in, but I feel like I can handle it now... that's all.
Okay, we're moving on.
If that's what you think, Master Luciel, then we'll just follow.
''Let your instincts guide you here, Luciel-sama. The decision to retreat should not trouble any of us.
 Ketty chooses to proceed and Kefin and the others follow me, using words that Lionel would never originally say.

"...if you think it's too dangerous, we'll retreat immediately. The doorway is left open between the trees. If the chimera's attack causes you to go insane, or if you suspect that it will, you must tell me immediately.
"Ha.
 Thus I decided to proceed.


 As I opened the boss room on the forty level and everyone entered, I chewed on the wooden stock in my magic bag as a stopper to keep the door from closing.
''Let's go then,''
 As I walked towards the center, the dimly lit room brightened up, and as I was preparing to cast a purification spell when the undead came out, I saw only five Fire Saber Tigers.
 I felt a little out of sorts, but my ability is limited to dealing with one of them.
 Of course, it's not about defeating them, it's about waiting for Lionel and the others to come running in.

 It's not the same as last time, Dolan, Paula, and Bardell's squad is not there.

 This is why one of the Fire Saber Tigers that caught me in the sights jumped at me with its mouth wide open. I'm sure it was instinct, and before I knew it, I had pulled out the holy dragon spear from my magic bag.
 Thanks to such an instinctive action, the holy dragon spear went into the Fire Saber Tiger's mouth and skewered it.
 The Fire Saber Tiger's movements stopped completely when it was only about thirty centimeters away from me and the Fire Saber Tiger.
 It's terrifying to think that this ending would have been different even if it was a second later, but since he opened his mouth in a straight line and pounced on me, I had the feeling that Gounan-sensei was continuing to protect me...like that.

 After checking the fire saber tiger that had turned into a magic stone, I turned my attention to the other battles, and both Keti and Lionel had already finished fighting. The Kefin squad was still in the middle of the battle, but they were on the offensive and just before the decision was made.

''It's just like a dragon slayer nya to take them down by yourself.
You are completely beyond the realm of the healer.
 They returned to my guards with a grin.

'You know what I'm capable of, since I beat you up every day.
If everything is all right, I think Master Luciel is pretty strong there, too.
Actual fighting is my true strength. If I continue to devote myself to it for the next ten years or so, it will be quite interesting.
 I'm not going to mention what makes it interesting.
 Because people call it a flag....

''Yes, yes. Even so, considering that there are no more undead from the thirty-one levels, I think that either the labyrinth is rapidly regaining its power, or it's being remade...''
 The smile disappeared from their faces when they heard my statement.
 I'm sure the two of them must have the same idea.
'So how does that work?'
''As originally planned, we'll collect the magic stones... and after we see the fifty level boss, we'll decide whether to return by magic circle or on foot.
Okay. Oh, it looks like the fighting is about to end over there.
 While we were talking, Kefin's squad used their numbers and coordination to end the battle.

'It was a less dangerous battle than the last one,'
I've decided to let them do what they can, and it's starting to pay off.
 They seemed to be feeling the growth of the Kefin squad.

"...doing what you can, huh?
 I told him that I was going to go up the hierarchy further, throwing those words at myself.

 First of all, I healed the injuries of the kefin squad and paused for a moment before moving up the hierarchy.
 The undead didn't appear from the forty-one levels.
 The number of demons was a bit higher than the last time we came, but since we had completed the map, we went up the hierarchy by the shortest route without dispersing our forces.

He reached the front of the boss room on the fiftieth floor without struggling at all.
It was five hours after leaving the boss room on the 40th floor.


"...thicker than the last time I was here.
If enough miasma is coming out of the ground to be visible, do you think we can purify it?
That's it.
 The miasma of the miasma is not a problem.
 The miasma is no longer leaking.
The miasma is no longer leaking. If the red dragon comes out, there's no guarantee that we'll win this time as well.
'Then, after dinner, Master Luciel, please purify the main room. If you can put down Object X, Keti and I will take Kefin and the others to retrieve the magic stone.
All right. When my magic power is down to 20%, I will put you to sleep. I'm sure you'll all be able to take turns and go to sleep early. Tomorrow might be an even tougher day than today, you know.
"Ha.

 After placing Object X in the corridor to block the demons from entering and exiting, I started chanting with the image of cleansing the boss room clean.
 Keti and Kefin's squad went to sleep, while Lionel and Yalvo's squad went to defeat the demons.

 I put my hand on the door of the boss room while meditating and continue to invoke it, hoping that the purification will permeate.

 Then I suddenly realized something.
 In the past, I used to use magic while imagining all sorts of things, but don't I even do that now?
 When you think about it, you're starting to get it wrong, as you're slowly becoming more and more comfortable with yourself.
 When I asked myself, it was indeed true.

 The only reason I was able to raise my holy attribute magic to this level was because I could see my proficiency level.
 Of course, I've been trying, but thinking about it that much, I still mocked myself for not being a handy person.

 When I left Yenis, I decided to stop by Melatni and ask Instructor Brod to train me for a week or so to fix me up.
'I don't even have the talent for using people now. I'll have to work harder.
 I muttered to myself and my magic level was down to 20%, so I took an angel pillow out of my magic bag and went to bed.


 When I woke up, Lionel and the others were gone, but Ketty and the slightly injured Kefin squad were there.
'Sorry, I just woke up. Gather around, I'll let Area Heal help you recover.
 As I applied the area heel, I decided to re-hang the area barrier while I was at it to check the current situation.

'How long has it been since then, and when did it come back?'
Three hour shifts, and now Lionel and the others are doing a second lap, Nya.
'Then you must have slept for about five hours. Did you notice anything unusual about the labyrinth?
I didn't. But I thought there were a lot of demons.
 
''Alright. Then everyone go to sleep. Or if you're hungry, do you want to make a meal of it?
 No one responded to the food.
'When Lionel and the others get back, I'll wake you up and you can all go to sleep.

 My magic power had been fully recovered, so I decided to continue the purification process, leaving 80% of it behind.
 As I was purifying, I heard the sound of a sword fight.

 I was meditating and purifying, but were they Lionel and the others? But in that case, we're probably fighting each other... I opened my eyes, anxious, and Lionel and the others came back just in time.
 All but Lionel were still lightly injured, so after recovering with area heals, I decided to ask them about the sword fight I just had.

''I heard a sword fight earlier, was it okay?''
'Huh? I didn't hear that sound over here, sir?
 Lionel? He had a look on his face.
 Could it be that the sword fight earlier came from inside the boss room?
 If that was the case, then the only thing to think about is that a new hierarchical lord like the Dead Knight King might have appeared.

''Lionel, how many magic stones have you gathered?''
I'm guessing around 200 if you count the ones Ketty and the others took.
 It took him roughly a thousand magic stones to get to this point.
 If we add another two hundred, it means that we've collected sixty percent of the magic stones we need now.
 There might not be any confusion.

''I'll open the door to the boss's room in six hours. If it looks no good after looking inside, I'll retreat and throw the response to the Adventurer's Guild. I will make a decision without being barbaric. If I make the wrong decision, stop me.
''Ha. I'll make sure Luciel-sama's life is protected.
 I tapped Lionel on the shoulder, who was looking strangely strange, and told him to get some sleep.


 I didn't wake them all up until they all woke up and tried to regain their strength.
 As we ate breakfast, I told everyone exactly what I said to Lionel and opened the door to the boss's room.


 There were the adventurers in the cleaning shop there..........
'It's turning into undead Nya.'
 There were no demons like the red dragon.
 The only thing that bothered me was that there was no magic circle either.

''S-class healers~! Help me~
 It was as if they could be called ghosts, but the red light-lit eyes with a blank face reminded me of the dead knight in the Labyrinth of Trials.
 There, a shouting voice could be heard.
''That is no longer a person! Master Luciel, we will either purify them or cut them off.
"The miasma is coming out of my body. I'm a demon.
 When I shouted that much, Lionel closed the distance between us to keep the janitorial adventurers away from me, and everyone else did the same as they followed.

 My body trembles. Wouldn't it be the same as me committing murder if I died after casting a purification spell on this? Just thinking about it makes me shake and feel nauseous.
'You're an S-class healer, right? Help me, please.
Take away this pain...
'Geehahahaha. Kill, kill, kill.
Die - die.
"You sacrificed us and I will not allow it, Jasoan, S-grade healer.
Our bodies, our souls, will be lost.

 Some of the adventurers were delirious, but they felt alive and willing.

'High Heels,'
 I released my high heel to the nearest adventurer and that adventurer started screaming.
'Ggaaaaah!'
 I heard the same voice as when I cast the recovery spell on the undead, and I apologized in my mind as I used the purification spell as best I could.

 It was because Lionel and Keti were struggling, and Kefin and the others had been forced into a corner in this short time.
 I had given up on talking to them and prioritized my own life and the lives of my friends.

 A blue-white light drowned out the dark purple miasma, enveloping the sweeping adventurers and raising the decapitation, turning their forms into magical stones.
 Among them, as the man Lionel was struggling with disappeared, a shouted voice shook me violently.


 I felt that voice linger in my ears.

 The flesh disappeared and what was left were the magic stones and the adventurer cards and equipment of the sweeping adventurers.

''Don't touch the adventurers' magic stones, including the magic stone in the center, either!
 I commanded.

 The magic stone that appeared in the center after everything had disappeared was large and beautiful, but I decided that it was dangerous.
 And the one that the adventurers turned into a demon stone this time was also small, but its beauty seemed to have a charm that couldn't be compared to other demon stones.
 When I finished retrieving the non-magic stones, I cast purification and recovery spells on all of them, as well as recovery spells on the injured.

 My body was trembling the entire time while I acted.
 That the evil god who had the power to seal the dragon and turn adventurers into undead had set a trap.

 The trembling didn't stop even after he flew to the entrance of the labyrinth on the magic circle that came out a while later.
 Just as the sun shone on me and I felt the blood gradually circulate in my hardened body, the trembling stopped.

 No one asked me about my trembling.

 Forenoire came out of the stables using the hermit's key and bit my head as soon as he saw my face.
'Ouch, ouch, Forenoire, ouch,'
Bulloo. 
 Get a grip! I felt like that's what he told me.

 After Forenoire warned me, I looked at everyone and saw that they were looking at us with concern.
 I guess I need to get a grip. I guess it's my job, not Lionel's, that he didn't talk to everyone...
 I took a deep breath and changed my mind and called out to everyone.