Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 156

Dungeon Journal-Episode 157

# 157

Dungeon Journal

“I guess I asked a stupid question.”

Hecarim’s face lit up at Kim Jin-woo’s words, and he stepped forward to speak. Or rather, he tried to. But a cold voice cut in before he could.

“You asked an obvious question. The answer was predetermined from the start.”

Kim Jin-woo chuckled as if he found something amusing. Hecarim couldn’t laugh. He had seen the chilling murderous intent and violence hidden in that smile.

“Surely, you are…”

A centaur, with swift mobility and powerful breakthrough capabilities. Hecarim’s combat style, rare in the Underworld, was familiar.

“You must have belonged to the Iron Blood Knights.”

The combat style of piercing the enemy’s heart with swift mobility was also favored by Kim Jin-woo and the Naga Dragon Knights.

The Underworld’s wars, where they stubbornly clash and crush the enemy, are battles of power against power. But the Dragon Knights preferred to shatter the enemy with speed rather than strength.

It was a rare combat style in the Underworld. And the one who proposed and trained them in this unfamiliar tactic was Balzac. And Balzac’s former affiliation was with the Iron Blood Knights.

Hecarim’s combat style was surprisingly similar to Balzac’s.

“Anything else to say?”

“M-My King!”

Hecarim belatedly knelt and begged for forgiveness.

“Too late.”

But before the centaur king could fully bend his knee, Kim Jin-woo was already within striking distance.

“Kuaaaang!”

Realizing this, Hecarim pushed off the ground with his bent legs and brandished his long spear.

“To think you survived after having your prized weapon stolen by Bartholomew, you were hiding such skills.”

Although it didn’t touch him, Hecarim’s attack was extraordinary. It was a force filled with immense power, not befitting the master of a mere 9th floor labyrinth.

The fact that he had his weapon stolen by Bartholomew with such power made no sense.

“You spared Bartholomew.”

Boreas of the Freezing Gale was the one who killed Bartholomew, but Hecarim’s power was comparable to Boreas. It didn’t make sense that Hecarim couldn’t handle Bartholomew.

Moreover, the place where this sly centaur king encountered Bartholomew was outside the labyrinth boundary, where the defender had no advantage.

“Unlike your appearance, you’re quite cunning. Anatolius must trust you quite a bit.”

With both strength and cunning, Hecarim must have been highly regarded even in the Iron Blood Knights. Kim Jin-woo’s smile deepened.

“If you don’t return, Anatolius will be quite upset.”

Hecarim’s spear, which had been slashing and stabbing wildly, stopped. Kim Jin-woo, who had closed the distance to within the spear’s reach, gripped the shaft.

“Iik!”

Hecarim struggled to shake him off. But the small king, who was rather insignificant compared to the massive centaur, didn’t budge.

“Go and tell him. The price for betraying trust will be steep. Tell that to Anatolius.”

Hecarim’s grip loosened. He saw hope in the other’s words. But the words were not over yet.

“If you can even go back after you’re dead, that is.”

Kim Jin-woo’s fist swung with a deafening roar.

Bang!

With that one blow, a third of Hecarim’s upper body exploded as if hit by a bomb.

Twitch, twitch.

The headless centaur trembled a few times with a rigid body, then collapsed.

Thud.

Silence descended upon the Underworld. The sound of the traitor’s massive body collapsing echoed like thunder in the ears of Malakus and the others.

As Hecarim fell, the centaurs knelt one after another. Originally, they would have been annihilated along with their master, but it seemed they had avoided the fate of annihilation since they had already lost the labyrinth and its core.

“Ariane.”

Kim Jin-woo turned around among the kneeling and bowing centaurs.

“My King!”

Ariane, trembling as if struck by lightning, replied with a haggard face.

“Who is behind you?”

“Dinarian of Nightmares, he sent me.”

She was surprised by Hecarim’s hidden power, and once again surprised by the king’s power, who had subdued him as if it were a game. Her answer, beyond resignation, was immediate.

“What is your purpose?”

“I do not wish to hide it, but there are too many ears here to explain the situation.”

Kim Jin-woo nodded at Ariane’s reply, which clearly indicated that she had already decided to follow his disposal.

“You’re lucky. I’ll spare your tenacious life a little longer.”

With those words, he returned to his original position. Ariane, bowing her head, followed him powerlessly.

“Now, shall we continue what we were doing?”

The trial, which had been temporarily suspended due to the two traitors, resumed.

***

“Uwaaaaaa!”

Some of those who had been separated to the right began to scream hysterically and run away. Now that even the king of the centaurs, who had been hiding power that was beyond their comparison, had been defeated so futilely, they didn’t have the courage to resist the king.

In an instant, the number of escapees increased.

“How hasty. If they had begged for forgiveness, I might have spared them.”

Kim Jin-woo clicked his tongue and said in a regretful tone. But unlike his words, his chilling atmosphere seemed far from forgiving.

The rioters didn’t hear his words, or perhaps they chose not to, and ran away even more desperately. How desperate they were could be seen in how some of the fastest among them had already reached the edge of the clearing.

If things continued as they were, he would miss most of the rioters, but he didn’t change his expression. Instead of making a fuss, he chanted with excruciating slowness.

“Labyrinth Closure.”

It was a faint word that could barely be heard, but the aftermath of that one word was by no means small.

Crack!

The floor of the wide clearing undulated like a wave, then solidified and rose up, instantly blocking all sides.

[According to your will, the Great Labyrinth has been completely closed. No one will be able to leave the labyrinth without your permission.]

The rioters, unable to cross the suddenly rising walls, fell into a state of panic and began to pound on the walls.

A chaotic scene of screams and shouts filled with fear, with each trampling on the other, unfolded.

“Blame Ariane and Hecarim, and their masters. Would your situation be the same as it is now if it weren’t for them?”

Based on the facts that flowed out through Ariane’s mouth, some could have discerned the relationship between him and Anatolius. It was a minor possibility, but Kim Jin-woo didn’t overlook it.

He didn’t want such a situation to arise, and he hoped that today’s events would end quietly.

Although he had stabbed them in the back by planting spies, Anatolius and Dinarian were still useful. It was necessary to continue the relationship further.

Also, he wanted to prevent the fact that Ariane’s identity had been exposed from being known as much as possible. If he was lucky, he might be able to return the favor for the underhanded tricks.

To do that, he had to first prevent the conversations that took place here from spreading outside.

In any case, if left alone, they would lose their reason and become speechless beasts, wandering the Underworld until they died, but perhaps some of the lucky ones among them might succeed in contacting the counts.

If even one of them were to blab about what they experienced here, troublesome things would happen.

He wasn’t soft enough to leave the seeds of discord intact out of misplaced sympathy, so he said.

“Devour them all.”

There was no need to step forward and dirty his hands. By simply uttering a short word, he had the ability to eliminate the seeds of discord.

Kwaaaaaaa!

No sooner had his words ended than the entire labyrinth began to wail. A terrifying screech, as if flowing out from the abyss, echoed from all directions, and the vibrations gradually intensified.

And at the moment when the rioters, who were about to leave the clearing, lost their balance and staggered, the ground surged and the ceiling collapsed.

“Save me!”

“Please, forgive me!”

The screams and dying words, filled with fear, were mixed indiscriminately. But soon, they were swallowed whole by the fierce roar emitted by the Great Labyrinth. In that way, the Great Labyrinth devoured the rioters gluttonously.

[Although each one is insignificant, the life force of thousands of rioters was enough for the newly born Great Labyrinth to feel full.]

[The life force absorbed by the Great Labyrinth is converted into dungeon energy.]

[The converted dungeon energy is used to reactivate the deactivated facilities and summon familiars.]

When the clearing returned to its original appearance, the rioters were nowhere to be seen.

***

Malakus and the others were completely terrified. At first, they thought they were just feeling fear from the overwhelming power, but when the Great Labyrinth devoured the rioters without leaving a trace, they finally realized.

They hadn’t just been intimidated by his power. The dangerous aura he occasionally revealed and the power that instantly defeated Hecarim were also frightening, but the fear they felt was not just that.

A more fundamental fear, they finally realized. This place where they stood, this labyrinth itself, was the source of fear.

Remembering only the boundaries of the past, the moment they stepped deep into the Great Labyrinth, it was as if they had thrown themselves into a cauldron that had already begun to boil on its own.

And the Great Labyrinth, a giant cauldron, had swallowed thousands of rioters and still hadn’t cooled down. No, it was boiling even more fiercely than before.

The image of an invisible darkness greedily drooling flashed vividly through the minds of Malakus and the others. And that imagination made them blindly obedient.

“My King!”

They knelt down in a rush, banging their heads on the floor until they cracked.

“Not siding with them was a wise choice.”

The king’s voice echoed. Everyone closed their mouths at that leisurely but irresistible voice.

“But, it’s a shame.”

The air surrounding the king began to freeze coldly again.

“It’s really a shame. If you had stopped them, I could have really trusted you.”

At the king’s sharp voice, Malakus squeezed his eyes shut. Perhaps he himself had considered the slight possibility that the rioters might succeed.

He couldn’t be sure if the Nagas could overcome the thousands of rioters.

He was resentful of his own indecisiveness, as he couldn’t step forward for fear of being concentratedly attacked by the rioters in the worst case.

“Perhaps there are some among you who wanted me to be defeated by them.”

The moment the cold chill dominated the surroundings, everyone gathered here could know.

Their bodies trembled as if they would freeze from the king’s cold anger, but ironically, they were still in the boiling cauldron.

“Kaiman, to the right.”

“Helmut, to the right.”

The temporarily suspended execution began again.