Get ready to leave.
Upon hearing those words, Yujin felt his heart instinctively pound or at least it felt like it did.
Escape.
The trials he had endured over the past two months had been, in some ways, for this very moment.
“Are we finally leaving…?”
He looked around.
The huge, ashen cave appeared utterly alien compared to the world he had known as a human.
As the memories of his hardships in this place over the past two months resurfaced, he couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.
“You said I could leave the labyrinth if I had the power of a dragon.”
[That’s right. It would have been difficult if you were one of those trapped here, but you’re not, are you?]
There were two types of beings trapped in the labyrinth.
One type is the transcendents who were defeated during the Great War and became prisoners. The other type consists of the monsters born from the powers of those transcendents contained within the labyrinth.
Excess energy spilling over within the labyrinth gives birth to monsters according to its rules.
However, Yujin did not fall into either category.
He was clearly freed from mortality both physically and mentally thanks to his contract with Tiamat. Because his soul was bound to Tiamat, his soul could no longer be considered mortal.
Though young, he carried the heart and remains of Tiamat, the Queen of Dragons. His potential was nothing to scoff at, which made him a transcendent being in his own right.
But the labyrinth was designed as a prison to confine transcendent-defeated in the Great War. Those unable to leave the labyrinth were the transcendent prisoners trapped during its creation, not those newly born within its walls.
After all, the child of a criminal isn’t inherently a criminal, is it? Though imagining a child being born in a prison is unusual enough in itself.
Moreover, Tiamat was already dead during the Great War, so the rule that she could not leave the labyrinth did not apply. Naturally so, who would even consider a dead entity escaping?
In a labyrinth that could give out seeds infused with the essence of dead demons as a reward, the idea that Tiamat couldn’t leave was ridiculous. Of course, neither Tiamat nor Yujin were aware of such a fact.
In any case, since Yujin carried Tiamat’s heart, he too could leave the labyrinth with her.
Still, one might ask:
For someone who entered the labyrinth by conventional means, wouldn’t they need the labyrinth’s blessing to leave? And is there an exit without that blessing?
There is.
The blessing used for leaving the labyrinth is meant for emergencies. The labyrinth has exits that allow departure without it.
Most importantly, leaving through the blessing only ejects you with the items you had when you first entered the labyrinth. In other words, any items obtained within the labyrinth are left behind.
For that reason, unless the situation was dire or escape seemed impossible, people rarely used the emergency blessing. After all, it would render the entire day’s exploration futile.
One way or another, methods to leave the labyrinth do exist. Of course, the old Yujin wouldn’t have been able to reach those exits even if he had known about them.
“How do I use the power of a dragon?”
[Wait. I’ll transfer my knowledge to you now.]
Things were different now.
Tiamat’s tomb was typically a sealed place from which escape was impossible, but it was a different story with the power of a dragon.
Dragons were among the most omnipotent beings, even among transcendents. With just a word, they could overturn the laws of reality and manifest their desires.
Although their numbers were fewer compared to other transcendents, and they had been defeated during the Great War when they faced a combined attack from demons and their arch-enemies, the giants… the power dragons had was unparalleled, even among other transcendents.
In reality, with the power of a dragon, Yujin and Tiamat could leave the labyrinth, even if it lacked a conventional exit. That was, in fact, exactly what they intended to do.
Tiamat had imparted everything about the powers of a dragon to Yujin. There was no need to teach him verbally, step by step. Since their souls were linked through a bond, she could simply implant her knowledge directly into his mind.
And so it took Yujin a moment to process the knowledge Tiamat had shared with him. The sheer amount of information, which far exceeded the alchemical knowledge she had taught him before he became a dragon, hit his mind like a tidal wave.
If it had been the old Yujin, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand such an influx of information. But now, things were different.
“…Hmm, I understand.”
He quickly processed all the information she had imparted. Yujin was now a transcendent being, a dragon, and the master of magic as defined by intellect and calculation. His information processing ability, reasoning ability, and calculation ability were already incomparable to that of a mortal. He was more like a supercomputer.
With his newfound knowledge of a dragon’s powers, Yujin was about to speak.
[Ah, hold on a moment.]
If Tiamat hadn’t interrupted him first, he would have done so. Yujin turned to look at her.
“What?”
[You do remember this is my tomb, don’t you?]
“Of course.”
“The sarcophagi…”
At her words, Yujin turned to look at the sarcophagi.
The rows and rows of stone coffins seemed to emanate a myriad of divine energies from inside them.
…Could it be?
“Do they, by any chance, contain burial goods?”
Burial goods.
Items interred with the dead during funerals.
Yujin didn’t know if dragons followed such a tradition, but if such items truly existed… considering this was the tomb of the queen of dragons, they wouldn’t be ordinary objects.
[That’s right. They may not compare to the treasures I kept in my lair, but they’re valuable items my children offered to honor me. You’ll find them quite useful.]
“…But would it really be okay to take them?”
[I’m the owner of this tomb. Why wouldn’t it be?]
“…Fair enough.”
It wasn’t exactly defiling the dead, considering the “dead” herself had told him to take these items on his way out. In that case, there was no reason not to take them.
[I have already infused you with magical knowledge, so creating a subspace shouldn’t be difficult for you. Let’s gather these items and leave.]
“Okay.”
Yujin nodded his head as he began inspecting each sarcophagus, then pulled out the items stored inside.
***
A while later.
Yujin had rummaged through the sarcophagi (stone coffins) and took out various items. Most were treasures of gold and silver, while others looked like ancient relics.
Though their exact purposes were unclear, every item radiated an extraordinary presence. So he put them all in the subspace he had created with the knowledge Tiamat had instilled in them.
Among the sarcophagi, there was also one filled with potions known as elixirs. In another, Tiamat pointed out an item she referred to as the Philosopher’s Stone.
“The Philosopher’s Stone… No matter how I look at it, it looks similar to the Dragon’s Heart.”
[That’s because the Philosopher’s Stone was originally conceived by mortals trying to imitate a dragon’s heart core. It seems one of my children created this out of curiosity.]
“An imitation… It does seem capable of generating infinite magical power.”
A dragon’s heart core was a unique organ that produced limitless mana. But this Philosopher’s Stone also generated and released an infinite amount of mana, just like a real dragon’s heart.
[Still, it’s lacking compared to a real heart core. The quality of the magical power it generates is on an entirely different level.]
“Indeed. The magical power it produces is so crude that it’s almost embarrassing to compare it to your heart core, Lady Tiamat.”
If anything, its capabilities were roughly on par with Yujin’s own before he became a real dragon….or even slightly better. But as things stood now, it was an object of no real use to him.
[My child likely made it as something to show me rather than as an item for me to use. But from a mortal’s perspective, it would definitely be considered a priceless treasure.]
“Is that so?”
[Well… perhaps not in this era. In my time, the Philosopher’s Stone was something mortals could only imagine. They didn’t know how to create it, nor did they even understand the materials required. But who knows? Maybe in this era, mortals have unlocked their potential and can create Philosopher’s Stones with ease.]
Yujin doubted that very much. He had never seen anything capable of generating infinite magical power at the Labyrinth Academy game.
Furthermore, he remembered that even in places like the Alchemist’s Guild, the Philosopher’s Stone was still mentioned as the alchemists’ long-cherished wish and eternal dream.
“Haha… I don’t think so. The Philosopher’s Stone remains a material of pure imagination.”
[Ah, is that so? I see… I almost forgot you belong to this era, Yujin.]
Though Yujin was technically a being from Earth, not this world, he chose to swallow those words and simply smiled.
By the way, it was astonishing when he thought about it. While the Philosopher’s Stone remained a material of pure imagination for mortals, for a dragon, it had been nothing more than a trinket casually created out of curiosity thousands of years ago.
Transcendents are truly on a different level.
And now, he was supposed to be one of those Transcendents. The world truly worked in mysterious ways.
“Well, I should take this with me as well.
[Yes, take everything. Ah, over there. It looks like a child left behind a collection of weapons and accessories.]
Once Yujin gathered all the burial items, the tomb was left completely empty. Even the energy that had filled the surroundings grew faint.
It seemed that the energy permeating the space had been emanating from the burial items, as well as Tiamat’s heart and bones. Now that Yujin had collected all of them, even the remaining energy had vanished entirely.
“Shall we go now?”
[Yes, at last, I can finally leave this damned place.]
At Tiamat’s words, Yujin smiled faintly before speaking again.
“Well then, [let’s leave this place].”
The power to twist the laws and bring the speaker’s will into reality. The Dragon Word.
When that power took effect—
Flash!
Yujin and Tiamat disappeared from the tomb in an instant.
At long last, the two of them had escaped the confines of the tomb.
The tomb that was now stripped of the bones, the heart, and all its treasures—
Rumble, rumble, rumble…!
—began to collapse and slowly crumbled into nothingness.
Leave a Reply