South-Southeast of the Tartarus Kingdom.
It is located directly south of the Royal Capital Shpirren.
Those without power. Must not enter the entrance to the 1st Floor.
1st Floor.
Monsters that appear have high defensive power.
The 1st floor is a maze with dead ends.
After proceeding a certain distance into the maze.
You will be trapped.
The monsters’ eyeballs are as hard as stone.
Aim for the joints.
Defeat them with heavy bleeding.
Or crush them with a blow harder than their hardness.
2nd Floor.
Monsters that appear are equipped with weapons.
The 2nd floor has countless small and medium-sized rooms scattered in all directions.
While searching for the room that leads to the lower layer.
Defeat the armed monsters that fill half the room.
The passage connecting rooms is the only resting place.
Monsters do not enter.
Some of the passages are rigged with traps to kill challengers.
Challengers are annihilated on this floor.
Even if you try to go back, monsters are waiting at the exit of the passage.
Even if you have enough stamina to break through.
The stairs in the room you descended to have moved to another room.
Go around from room to room, looking for the stairs to the upper layer.
The challenger’s fighting spirit will be significantly lowered by this.
The option to advance rather than retreat.
You have to search for the stairs leading to the lower layer.
To find either set of stairs, you must defeat the monsters in each room.
Into such a 2nd floor of the Labyrinth of Power.
Rayos, having possessed his son’s corpse, enters.
“Gaaah!”
When an outsider enters a room.
The monsters in the room receive an announcement in their minds: the challenger has arrived.
They begin to move into one of the four or three passages.
“Get out of the way.”
“Huh? Gyuu.”
The monsters that were about to confront the challenger were attacked from behind.
The one in front was unharmed.
At the screams of their comrade behind them, they turned and saw.
Two bright red eyes floating in the dimly lit room.
“Gaaaaaah!”
“That’s a large swing.”
Or rather, Rayos’s body is small.
Rayos is pushing his body to its limits.
Therefore, his attacks miss.
He easily cuts the tendons of limbs and the carotid artery.
Those who received shallow wounds counterattack.
But Rayos is in a passage where combat is prohibited.
They have no choice but to leave it to those on the other side.
But they might pretend to go to the other room and come back.
The dead and injured are moved to the center of the room.
Then the Demon King, the master of the labyrinth, will exchange them for replacement combat power.
Corpses are materials for labyrinth prosperity.
The injured are treated in the infirmary.
Rayos does not turn back. He charges through the passage.
Even if he steps on a trap, he dodves it with his speed.
“Guaaaah!”
“Hello! And goodbye!”
He easily dodges the welcome at the exit of the passage.
Those who ambushed underestimated the challenger’s speed.
They knew the red eyes were on its head, but.
Its movements were far too fast.
Even when swinging their weapons, they could not correct their trajectory.
By the time they launched a counterattack, they had lost sight of it.
Its black skin blends into the scenery of the dimly lit room.
To find it, you can only look for the red eyes, but.
Rayos only shows his back.
Even if they try to pursue.
Where?
They have no choice but to respond in the same way as when the challenger first arrived.
That is, move to the entrance of the passage connecting to other rooms.
But considering the possibility of their return.
They must leave a certain number of monsters here.
Rayos moved freely throughout the 2nd floor, making the monsters chase him.
While doing so, he discovered the stairs leading to the lower floor.
He descended to the 3rd Floor.
The first person to reach the 3rd floor in the Tartarus Kingdom was born.
But only the Demon King and his retainers knew.
The 3rd floor is a vertical shaft.
About 2 meters below, there is a step leading to the lower layer, extending to the 4th floor.
The monsters are flying types.
The ceiling of the vertical shaft is a nest for monsters.
Those who step on the 3rd floor are reluctantly pushed down.
It is difficult to go back the way they came.
If you try to climb,
You’ll be caught by a flying monster.
To escape the labyrinth.
Defeating the Floor Guardian, the Layer Master, makes a magic circle appear.
A magic circle that returns you to the ground… in front of the labyrinth entrance.
“It’s faster to jump down♪”
Rayos did not hesitate and jumped into the vertical shaft.
He knew he didn’t have time to mess with the steps, but.
The flying monsters were astonished.
The challenger they were supposed to eliminate.
Had understood the mechanics of this floor and committed suicide.
Is their sense of resignation too good!?
Is their turn!? Their long-awaited chance is gone!?
The monsters uproar.
It’s been a long time, or rather, no challenger had ever appeared on this floor.
A warrior who broke through the 2nd floor.
How strong are they, and will their famed flight ability and jaws work?
But unexpectedly, suicide. Jumping suicide.
Their chance to sortie. Their turn.
How much they had looked forward to this moment.
The monsters flapped their wings, buzzing.
They confessed how long they had waited for this moment.
And, have the suicides already bloomed beautiful red flowers on the ground of the 4th floor?
They descended to confirm the corpse.
?
Bzzzz Bzzzz!
There was no corpse.
Could they be alive?
No, no. Jumping from that height?
As those who came to confirm were about to conclude that the Demon King had already disposed of the suicide victim’s body.
The death cries of monsters (comrades) on the 4th floor were heard.
“!? ”
Furthermore, the death cries came from afar… from multiple caves in the walls of the vertical shaft.
Though they wanted to help as reinforcements since they had no chance to fight.
Combat was only permitted within this vertical shaft.
The law set by the Demon King who created the labyrinth.
If the law is broken, the monsters of each floor will meet. The atmosphere in the infirmary becomes hostile. Clashes over the slightest physical contact, leading to chaos.
That is the internal collapse of the labyrinth.
Buzzzzz Bzzzzzz!
It’s regrettable, but they don’t want the labyrinth to collapse.
If the labyrinth collapses, they will have to compete for territory and struggle for survival in the harsh world outside.
A safe environment like the labyrinth.
If no challengers appear.
Eat and sleep.
Self-improvement.
They can live as they please.
Losing that would be too great a loss.
Reluctantly, they returned to their nests.
Feeling guilty for not being able to aid their comrades.
4th Floor.
The countless caves have exits connecting to the four cardinal directions.
In the caves, spider-like monsters lay in ambush, spinning webs on the ceiling.
Burning the webs with fire is effective, but.
Inside these caves, the airflow is blocked by the entrance and exit.
In other words. The more fire you use to burn oxygen inside the cave.
The challenger will suffocate.
No matter how strong their body,
Even if they wear a magic tool that can slay large monsters by uttering a keyword.
Death is unavoidable.
“Shaaa!”
“Kishaaaa!!”
However, for Rayos, the web’s delaying tactics are ineffective.
Because his body is a corpse that does not require breathing.
“Phew, Haah!”
“Gishaa!”
Once caught in a spider web, Rayos.
From then on, he activates fire magic.
He shoots a fire blast forward.
And slashes at the baby spiders falling from the burnt webs.
Annoyed by the delaying tactics.
Rayos finally.
Engulfed his entire body in flames and charged towards the exit.
He ignored the baby spiders. For obvious reasons.
And so he arrived at the southern exit.
A weakened version of the Layer Master.
A guardian monster, disguised as a water strider.
Its sharp claws on its forelegs can pierce anything.
From baby spiders to a water strider.
The size difference is double.
The attack range is also double.
The challenger, who tries to deal with it with the same sense as the baby spiders, is.
A grim reaper that stabs them to death, armor and all, except for those made of alloys and rare metals.
“Bububuku.”
“Whoa?! To have something that big suddenly appear. I’m spooked even though I expected it! Dummy!”
Rayos, while claiming to be startled, dodges the scythes approaching from both sides.
At the same time, he tackles with his body engulfed in flames.
“Bukuu!”
“You’re noisy, mumbling in my ear.”
He attacks at close range.
The water strider has longer attack arms than the baby spiders.
He gets inside its reach, and its attack methods are to crush them against the ground or walls.
Rayos, not willing to be crushed so easily.
Delivers an uppercut under its jaw.
And a fiery fist that burns.
“Guwaaa…!”
“Is that your mouth?”
Rayos spews flame magic, imagined as a flamethrower, into the water strider’s open mouth.
The water strider. In fact, most creatures are weak to attacks on the inside.
Its nerves are being burned and severed.
The water strider, with dull eyes, falls to the ground with a thud.
Its heart is still beating, but.
Its consciousness will never return. Its consciousness enters eternal sleep.
“Ugh.”
5th Floor.
It was underwater.
What are the odds? The structure that forces challengers to the brink of defeat.
Coming this far, to be forced into an underwater battle.
Tophon.
Rayos, possessing the corpse.
After the customary astonishment.
He jumps into the stairs submerged in water.
The monsters on the 5th floor are underwater.
Cannot breathe.
How far do I have to dive? The 6th floor… is there a place where I can breathe?
Humanity’s maximum dive time (around 45 minutes).
The distance required for that time, plus about 15 minutes.
That is the location of the cave leading to the 6th floor.
The 6th floor is a cave to dive into.
The exit is the mouth of a stone lion statue.
A fountain park.
Solve the mystery of the animal statues.
And stop the water.
Then you will gain the right to challenge the Layer Master of the 6th floor.
“Ughhh.”
He vomits water accumulated in his lungs and stomach.
“There are no monsters…”
There are 20 animal statues in total.
Next to each statue is a lever to stop the water.
“And there’s one exceptionally large gate…”
Rayos understood how to clear this floor.
He understood, but he was in a hurry.
He didn’t want to waste time calculating the many possibilities of the mechanism.
“Possession.”
He possessed one of the mechanisms.
Understood its structure.
Checked if it was directly connected to opening the large door.
He went around all 20 statues.
Gogogo…! Gooo…! Daaan!!
He activated the mechanism of this 6th floor.
Normally, this would take 2 to 3 days.
It would consume his food supply.
It was intended to be a psychological attack, making the challenger lash out at the mechanism and statues, thereby blocking their own progress on their own.
But who could have predicted that by possessing the mechanism, one could find the correct solution?
The Layer Master of the 6th floor is inorganic.
An Eastern full-body armor.
Four arms.
A halo on its back.
The halo emits beams if a challenger comes from behind.
Each of its arms is equipped with a masterwork weapon.
For mid-range and close-range combat.
Total length is 6 meters.
Body length is 4 meters.
“Another out-of-place entity is standing guard…”
Giran.
Hozuki lights up the eye area of the mask.
The halo shines brighter, Sparkle.
White steam emanates from within the full-body armor… visible magic power overflows.
“Cheerio!! I’ll win!!”
Rayos, who has no time, doesn’t care about the Layer Master’s activation sequence.
He delivers a flying kick to its chest.
The unmoved Layer Master moves to stab the challenger to death with two of its four arms.
What will happen in this battle?
