I truly want to turn back.
No matter what, this is just too much.
I’ve faced the Great Warrior once before.
Well, I’m not even sure if you could call it “facing” him.
Back when I met him at that ice cream shop, I struggled with everything I had. But against that overwhelming strength, it was all meaningless.
In the face of pure raw violence, clever tricks are worthless.
“Ariel, your shoulders must feel heavy.”
“Wh-What?!”
“You’ve already fought him once, so wouldn’t the second time be easier?”
“Wh-What?!”
Still, we can’t just retreat now.
Here and now, Ariel is the one who must put the Great Warrior’s wraith to rest.
“I-I’ll… I’ll try my best…”
“I’m kidding. We’ll all do our part. We can’t just ignore it. I mean, it’s the end of the world we’re talking about.”
Of course, “we” doesn’t include me.
Not because I’m scared…though maybe I am.
But even without that, I’m weak.
I’ve trained hard, but everyone else has grown even stronger.
The gap is simply unbridgeable.
To make up for that, I’ll need to rely on variables.
I may ramble, but the conclusion is simple:
I’m saving my trump card for the very end.
“Alright, let’s go.
If we can sense where those monsters are, maybe we can avoid them.”
“Well… that’s true, but…”
“No need to worry, Ariel. It’s not like we’re actually fighting the real Great Warrior.”
Of course, if they all come rushing at once, it could be even worse than fighting the real thing.
After all, we have no idea how many of these creatures the Scriptwriter has mass-produced.
Still, I’ve figured something out.
Why the Scriptwriter is acting so openly…
And where his confidence is coming from.
“Hmm.”
I looked up at the ceiling again.
A sudden thought occurred to me.
Is there really nothing at the very top of this castle?
We’re assuming he’s expanding downward, fortifying the lower levels, building walls…
But what if there’s something above, too?
Up until now, I thought it was all just sleight of hand, but if monsters modeled after the Great Warrior are actually roaming around, then it’s a whole different story.
There’s something at the top of the castle too.
And that means…
“This could be dangerous.”
The Misfits heading upward might also encounter those monsters.
***
The fight never even took shape.
With grim determination, Immun had drawn his dagger, but he was overwhelmed without even managing a proper resistance.
His desperate strike didn’t even pierce Minos’s skin.
And the moment he was caught in the monster’s brutish grip, the sheer force made him lose consciousness.
“He’s fearless to a fault.”
The Scriptwriter who was now dwelling within Minos’s body clicked his tongue in disbelief as he looked down at Immun’s limp form.
He must’ve realized the moment they clashed just how powerful Minos was.
He couldn’t have thought he had any chance of winning.
And yet, Immun had charged in head-on and been utterly defeated.
“Maybe he was hoping you would come save him.”
The Scriptwriter turned his gaze to Theseus, who stood frozen, still clutching the hilt of his sword with a dazed expression on his face.
Theseus had been prepared to act. He was perhaps even ready to die if that’s what it took to save Immun.
But he couldn’t move.
Like a frightened child, his feet were glued to the ground.
“Theseus, you’re just a boy. An idealist who doesn’t know his place, someone who never became an adult.”
“……”
“Even now, isn’t that the case? You believed you could do it, didn’t you?”
Thud!
The Scriptwriter stepped forward and Theseus flinched, instinctively backing away.
“But you couldn’t. Living in a dream, then thrown into reality….all you turned out to be was a coward.”
The Scriptwriter was merciless.
To the point where Theseus couldn’t even think of fighting him, the Scriptwriter relentlessly broke down his spirit.
“Were you afraid to kill me? Even after realizing that my earlier ‘death’ was just a decoy, you’re still wondering if the one standing before you now is my real body, aren’t you?”
“……”
“Let me give you the truth. This is nothing more than a vessel I’m using. Even if you destroy it, I won’t die.”
The Scriptwriter spread his arms wide.
Immun, still gripped in one hand, dangled like a tattered scrap of cloth.
And the Scriptwriter said,
“Go on. Destroy it.”
“What… did you say?”
“I’m telling you to show me your strength, just like you did back in the Veldani Mountains.”
“That was…! That was an accident.”
“Did I say otherwise? I’m merely asking you to show me your power. Or… are you just a helpless brat who can’t even break a single mechanical puppet?”
“……”
Theseus bit his lip hard.
The crushing fear still weighed down on him.
He remembered.
The moment in childhood when his mother died. The fury and grief that pushed him past his limits and what he saw in that moment.
He remembered the true face of the First Princess, whom he’d always thought of as a kind older sister.
It was a darkness as deep as an abyss.
And what he witnessed that day… was his mother’s soul being torn to shreds and swallowed by that abyss.
That day, Theseus came to know death.
Only then did he realize the true weight of the lives he’d taken as royalty. And he was terrified.
“I…”
He’d been running ever since. Just running away, because he was afraid of death.
But he knew….he couldn’t keep running forever.
Srrng.
The sword Theseus had been gripping so tightly it looked as though it might break finally began to reveal its cold, gleaming edge to the world.
“I’m not some kind of hero.”
The man the world called a warrior…Theseus.
But in truth, he was nothing more than a coward.
And yet—
“But I have no intention of ignoring the person who believed in me and waited for me.”
“Haha! And if that’s the case?”
“Scriptwriter, Deus. Let go of Mr. Immun. Right now.”
“And if I refuse?”
Clack!
There was no need for further words.
Theseus knew that, rather than dragging things out with empty persuasion or pointless conversation, the fastest way was to show the strength he possessed.
It’s just that until now he’d chosen not to.
Shraaak!
A burst of crimson blood erupted.
Minos’s arm fell to the ground.
It was a body that couldn’t be scratched by most attacks, but Theseus’s strike was too much even for it to withstand.
“Hmm. Good. That’ll do.”
“……”
Deus wasn’t surprised.
He had tried to push Theseus to the very limit and break him but failed.
Still, that didn’t mean Theseus had overcome his fear.
“Your face is still a mess, but… better than before.”
Theseus, with his face pale, stared down at the blood now spilling to the floor.
His chest felt tight, like something had lodged in his throat, cutting off his breath.
“Theseus.”
“Yes…”
Imagine a large ship. But that ship couldn’t sail into space as it was.”
The Scriptwriter spoke.
A question Theseus had pondered again and again.
A riddle that had haunted him countless times.
“So I began replacing the parts of the ship to make it able to travel into space. But you see, at some point, after replacing so many parts, there came a point where not even the original form remained.”
Even now, he couldn’t find the answer.
“Can that ship truly be called the same as the one from the past?”
Even now….having discarded his flesh, shed even the machine, and become nothing but a program, the Scriptwriter was still haunted by that question. Was he truly a different being from the one he used to be?
His emotions had grown cold. His thinking had become more efficient.
But he was still the Scriptwriter.
Still a scientist building a ship to reach the stars.
And because of that, he was certain.
“This is what I believe: As long as the purpose remains unchanged, the ship is no different from the one it used to be.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Well, it’s a simple story.”
The Scriptwriter moved Minos’s body, now missing an arm.
With a clenched brutish fist, Minos looked ready to charge at Theseus at any moment.
“This dream is the root, the trunk, the flower, and the branches of my life. To stop me from pursuing it… would mean you have to kill me.”
“……”
Boom!
Minos charged.
Theseus swung his sword with hesitation still lingering in his eyes.
Crunch!
A body worthy of being called a masterpiece.
Even for Theseus, it took immense strength to cut through Minos’s frame.
It wasn’t a slicing sound. It was more like a snapping one.
“Ah… yes… I hope next time, you’ll be able to give me your answer. About who I really am.”
Having brought down Minos’s body, Theseus silently nodded at Deus’s weakened voice.
“Then, I’ll see you on the lowest floor.”
Next time, he would have to kill Deus.
***
The labyrinth breakthrough was going smoothly.
We had taken a long detour to avoid encountering the monstrous lifeform born from the Great Warrior. But even so, we could feel the distance closing between us and the advance team.
“Hmm, this was done by Prince Theseus. I guess it’s a relief he came to his senses before people started dying… though I’m not sure whether we should be grateful for that, or worried about how far he was pushed.”
Theseus had lived his life strictly adhering to a no-kill principle.
It was frustrating at times, but not something to criticize.
He had made up his mind.
But should we really be glad that he had picked up a sword to kill someone?
I had hoped he would take the battlefield, but… still, it left a bitter feeling.
People like that, once they started shedding blood, often turned into crazed killers…
Of course, Theseus wouldn’t go that far. But there was no denying concern about how this might affect his mental state.
“Big brother Johan.”
“Oh, Emily. Did you find something?”
“The blood in this corner looks like it’s from Mr. Immun.”
“…Is he dead?”
“There’s bleeding, but not enough to be fatal. At least, judging by the amount of blood.”
“I see.”
It was starting to become clear what had happened here.
Immun had likely collapsed in this spot. And that must’ve been what pushed Theseus to draw his sword.
“How’s the monster?”
“Its skin and even its muscles are unbelievably tough. Looks like your guess was right, big brother.”
“How does it compare to the Great Warrior?”
“I’ve never seen one before, so I can’t say.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense…”
What a shame. At least Emily can analyze the situation, but we still can’t gauge the enemy’s true strength.
“So, what do you think would happen if it fought Ariel?”
“She would win.”
“You hear that, Ariel? No need to worry, right?”
“If there are more than three of them, it’ll be tough.”
“So there’ll be a healthy amount of tension.”
“Johan…”
Ariel looked like she was about to cry. It pained me too, but what could I do?
If a monster appeared, Ariel would be the one to face it.
Up to this point, we’d done our best to avoid monsters as we moved forward.
But the deeper we went, the narrower the labyrinth became.
That meant we were bound to run into one eventually.
In that case, maybe it’d be better to face the threat early and go looking for a monster ourselves.
“If we take down something this powerful, the Scriptwriter’s bound to start paying attention to us.”
Even I’m getting worn out at this point.
The deeper we go, the hotter it gets. It was probably because of the underground heat and it’s getting harder to breathe.
We can’t keep putting things off until we reach the bottom layer.
That’s why we have to deliver our message to the Scriptwriter as soon as possible.
“All right, let’s go. Monster hunting. Isn’t that your specialty?”
“Johan… I didn’t realize you could be this harsh with people.”
“No way.”
Ariel just doesn’t know. She hasn’t worked with me enough.
Where are you going to find someone better to work with than me…
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