Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 1227

Kyunroe Subjugation (19)

Whoosh!!

They stood before a golden labyrinth, its brilliance so intense it was almost blinding.

A magnificent and solemn sanctuary, so incredible it was hard to believe even when seeing it directly.

“……!!”

Daimus, who had been staring blankly, quickly regained his senses and checked his pulse.

He had not suffered any debilitating injuries or loss of body parts, and his consciousness and memory were intact.

But if that was the case, what was this lethargy that was disrupting Daimus’s breathing and seemed to be draining his energy and will?

An overwhelming sense of powerlessness that seemed to crush Daimus at his core, in stark contrast to the golden labyrinth before him.

Daimus struggled to his feet, slowly feeling his body, trying to find the cause, when a mocking voice echoed from beside him.

“You don’t need to fumble around like that. You’re perfectly fine, so don’t worry.”

“……Victor.”

The manipulator, cloaked in a shadow robe, stood beside Daimus, arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

A black obsidian mask covered his face, eerie red eyes, and a sinister, fierce magical power flowing through his entire body.

His presence was ghost-like, as if he weren’t there. Except for a slight depletion of magical power, he was without a single scratch.

Daimus, startled, took a breath and turned to Victor, stammering.

“Are you… alright?”

“I’m much better than you. Is there a problem?”

“……No. It’s nothing. It’s just….”

Except for a minor sense of unease, he looked exactly the same as when they first met during the subjugation battle.

But that was why Daimus was acutely aware of how monstrous the manipulator before him was.

Not only did he seize a mobile fortress and traverse the outer area amidst the chaotic massacre of the legion.

He also dragged Daimus through the epicenter, directly confronted Kyunroe, and arrived at the command engine room without a single scratch.

How incredibly talented this manipulator was, who had perfectly executed all of that and made the doctor’s plan a success.

“The subjugation battle was full of failures… but at least you did one thing well.”

Daimus smiled wryly and stood up.

“Perhaps recommending you to join was the best thing I did in this operation.”

“I didn’t keep you alive to hear such cheesy words.”

Victor scoffed, adjusting his mask.

“You know, don’t you? You’re going to die in this war.”

“…….”

“No matter how things end, you can’t avoid taking responsibility. The fact that you risked your life on the front lines after the commanders moved is probably because of that.”

Daimus didn’t answer. He simply lowered his head with a calm expression.

That was proof that he fully understood what Victor was saying.

If this subjugation battle ended in Kyunroe’s victory, there would be no need to speculate about the outcome.

But even if the legion won the subjugation battle, Daimus could not escape death.

At this point, most of the legion’s main forces that participated in the subjugation battle had been annihilated.

Considering the chaos that began around Pandemonium immediately after, most of the legion’s forces might have already been sacrificed.

It was impossible for Daimus, who was in charge of the main forces and brought Pandemonium into the subjugation battle, to escape responsibility.

At best, he would be sentenced to death. In the worst case, the entire 7th Legion, led by Daimus, could be executed.

Victor sneered at the silent Daimus.

“I know what you’re thinking. You’re trying to earn some merit with that pathetic life of yours to prevent the entire 7th Legion from being executed.”

“…….”

“Your desperate attempts to clean up your ridiculous mistakes don’t even deserve pity… but your judgment itself is somewhat useful.”

“……That’s.”

“Your attempt to use Kyunroe’s target designation resistance in reverse wasn’t bad.”

An answer he never expected to hear from the manipulator, who was particularly uninterested in others even in Pandemonium.

Was he perhaps praising his attempt to come up with a solution after the main forces were defeated?

A faint compliment mixed in with the usual piercing sarcasm.

Daimus realized the meaning and raised his head.

“By now, you should know why I kept you alive.”

Victor said, nodding his head towards his back.

“If you’re prepared to die in this battle, then before you die, use that tiny life of yours to weaken Kyunroe’s power even a little.”

“…….”

Only then was Daimus able to take a closer look at the scenery of the 49th District where he had arrived.

Endless, vast, and magnificent golden corridors.

The shape of a palace so dazzling with light from all directions that it felt painfully bright.

The corridors stretched to the horizon, so vast that even Daimus’s senses could not properly grasp the direction.

“A maze… no, a labyrinth?”

Daimus muttered, instantly realizing its true nature.

“A powerful spatial distortion that makes it impossible to grasp direction or width… this is….”

Is this the interior of Kyunroe’s domain within the 49th District?

At that moment, Daimus realized that the doctor’s conjecture was correct.

Kyunroe’s magic tower included not only the golden sphere that was massacring the legion but also the dark blue nebula that was rampant throughout the 49th District.

Otherwise, how could such a vast and magnificent facility be hidden within the dark blue nebula?

Not just an empty facility, but one deliberately built to be so large that it would cause a loss of direction-

“……This entire facility was a labyrinth designed to lure intruders in and make them lose their way.”

Daimus said, struggling to get up from the wall.

“The doctor was right. Kyunroe created a real space-time within the 49th District. But, conversely, that also means….”

“It also means that Kyunroe might have been prepared for us to approach this way.”

Thud!

At that moment, the corpse of a soldier, covered in blood, tumbled from the opposite side of the corridor.

A corpse presumed to be a special forces member from one of the assault ships.

Behind the corpse, who had died with a pale face, a young man with a snake-like face walked out, dusting off his hands.

Daimus’s expression hardened as he recognized the face.

“……Ermong.”

“Oh? Daimus.”

Ermong grinned when he saw Daimus’s face.

“You’re still alive? I thought I was going to see a corpse.”

“…….”

Daimus closed his mouth at Ermong’s words, which pierced to the core as soon as he saw him.

Even that seemingly thoughtless black magician knew what Daimus’s fate would be in this war.

Victor, behind Daimus, looked at Ermong with a pathetic expression.

“You’ve been hiding behind again, killing off the small fry.”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand. I didn’t kill this corpse.”

Ermong shrugged, kicking the soldier’s corpse and rolling it.

“When I found him, he was dying from his injuries. He tried to take me with him, so I just finished him off.”

“Have you forgotten what it means to kill someone because you’re stupid?”

“No, but trying to backstab someone as soon as they enter the 49th District is too much, isn’t it?”

Ermong grumbled, unfazed by Victor’s cold sneer.

“Of course, we did seize the 7th Legion’s flagship and went around causing trouble, but wasn’t it all for the greater good? It’s disappointing when you act like this~”

“…….”

Instead of answering, Daimus lowered his head and examined the fallen soldier’s corpse.

“His carotid artery was cut by a very sharp blade.”

Daimus said, slightly widening the cut near the neck.

“The muscle stiffness isn’t severe. He was fatally wounded by a quick cut to a vital point before he could react. He probably didn’t suffer much. It’s a very skilled killing technique.”

“Hmm, well, I did beat him up a bit before he died, so he probably felt some pain….”

“Does a thorn grow in your mouth if you keep quiet?”

Daimus’s gaze deepened, ignoring Victor and Ermong’s words.

“There are a few ability users that come to mind in the legion or the Demonic Palace… but it’s unlikely that it was done by an ally.”

Daimus closed the soldier’s eyes and stood up, turning around.

“Let’s move. We need to explore this labyrinth and investigate its internal structure.”

“Moving without any goal will only make us get lost. Do you have any direction?”

“Direction? Good. Before we move, let’s finalize what we need to do here.”

Daimus’s eyes flashed with strong determination.

“Kyunroe is trying to use this subjugation battle as his ascension ritual to become an uncharted monster. If the ascension ritual succeeds, a corrupted ascendant, mad with blood, will be completed.”

“…….”

“It’s practically certain that Kyunroe, who has become an ascendant, will kill everyone who participated in the subjugation battle as soon as the ritual is over… As the doctor said, there’s no way to avoid it.”

“We did stick our heads into the 49th District to try and live a little longer, though.”

“To complete the ascension ritual, Kyunroe will definitely return to his domain, the 49th District, in the end.”

Daimus ignored Ermong’s grumbling and moved forward without hesitation.

“So, what we need to do is reach the center of the 49th District before Kyunroe and stop his ascension ritual. That’s practically the only way at this point.”

“That’s not a method anymore, it’s more like wishful thinking….”

“First, we’ll prioritize finding the path to the deepest part of the labyrinth and meeting the doctor.”

Daimus said, taking out his terminal and confirming that the communication was cut off.

“Since the doctor planned this himself, he must already be in the 49th District with us. If we’re lucky, we might meet him while we’re looking for a way.”

“Why do we need that pretentious old man? We’re in the 49th District, so can’t we just do it ourselves?”

“The doctor knew that Kyunroe was trying to hide the existence of the 49th District. He also knew what kind of spell Kyunroe was using to manipulate the magic tower.”

Daimus said as he moved, ignoring Ermong’s grumbling.

“That means he’s likely to know how far Kyunroe has planned this subjugation battle.”

“…….”

“This labyrinth is a highly complex spatial distortion facility created to deal with intruders. But there’s no way such a facility could have been created overnight.”

Daimus muttered with a pale face as he walked through the endless corridor.

“In the worst case, everything we’ve done so far-”

“Ah, I found another corpse over there!”

Ermong interrupted Daimus, running to flip over a corpse that had fallen on the other side of the corridor.

Ermong smacked his lips as he reached into the corpse’s collar, whose head was crushed beyond recognition.

“Ah, this one’s no good either. Why don’t the legion’s soldiers have any black magic aptitude? At this rate, I can’t even use them as catalysts, let alone transfer my body.”

“Black magic aptitude is known to be extremely rare among all sorcerers. It’s natural that such talent isn’t common among soldiers….”

Daimus said, looking down at the corpse.

“Besides, this isn’t even a soldier from the legion. The uniform he’s wearing isn’t from the legion.”

“Mechanized Corps?”

“Since we’ve gathered all the remaining forces in the 49th District with Commander Mylos’s authority, other forces must have entered this labyrinth as well.”

Daimus nodded at Victor’s words.

“The problem is that we still don’t know if Kyunroe intended this situation… but that’s not important right now.”

“Ah, I see.”

Ermong finally realized the strangeness and agreed.

“This person. Unlike the corpse from earlier, his head is crushed.”

“Yes. He was beaten to death with something blunt several times. He had tremendous strength and was very violent.”

Daimus said, examining the crushed skull.

“He didn’t use a weapon either. It’s like he was killed by a beast’s forepaw… there’s a bestial nature to it.”

“…….”

“The one who killed this person is completely different from the one who cut our ally’s throat earlier.”

“……Hmm.”

Ermong’s expression changed slightly, becoming sharper.

“Are you saying that there’s more than one enemy trying to kill us in this labyrinth?”

“That… we’ll find out if we keep going in that direction.”

The blood spilled by the corpse with the crushed head was stretched out on the corridor floor.

Bloodstains as if he had crawled here with difficulty and stopped to die.

If they followed the bloodstains backward, the person who killed him would appear.

Daimus, exchanging a brief glance with Victor, was about to start walking down the corridor when-

“Whoa?!”

Thud!!!

Ermong lost his balance and slipped, falling headfirst and sliding in front of Daimus.

“You look good.”

“I, I almost died… I almost broke my neck just now….”

Ermong muttered, unable to get up, even after hearing Victor’s sneer.

His unusually pale face was proof that Ermong had been genuinely terrified for a moment.

“No, what’s so slippery? It’s like they put oil on the floor…!!!”

“Oil, huh….”

Daimus carefully swept the floor, feeling a strange texture, and suppressed his magic.

Daimus’s face hardened as he saw one of his feet slip as if it had brushed against an ice floor.

Daimus, who had been pulling up his magic since regaining consciousness, had not noticed the strangeness.

“Coefficient of friction… could it be that the space itself is designed to be perceived differently depending on the magic used?”

“Move.”

Victor passed by Daimus, who was standing still, as if nothing had happened.

“If you want to meet the others before they die, you’d better hurry.”

“…….”

Looking at Victor’s ghost-like back, Daimus and Ermong quietly looked at each other.

“……Are we, by any chance, all going to die here except for Victor?”

“We succeeded in entering the 49th District before Kyunroe. There’s no reason to assume failure already.”

Daimus slowly raised his gaze.

“But it’s also true that I didn’t think it would be this daunting to face Kyunroe as an enemy.”

“…….”

“Even though we prepared for the worst, there was always something more… I wonder how many more trials like this are left….”

Whoosh!!!

A magnificent and imposing domain with ornate chandeliers and unknown magic circles densely engraved.

A golden labyrinth that was so metaphysically distorted that it was impossible to tell where the end was or where the crossroads were.

When they looked back, the direction of the path they had taken had changed, and when they turned their gaze, the crossroads that had been there had disappeared.

Every time they closed and opened their eyes, the number of doors on all sides changed, and the magic circles engraved on the ceiling and walls looked down at them like eyes.

In that indescribable eerie sense of déjà vu and fear-

Daimus was feeling awe that had surpassed fear.

“Is this truly… a human being who was born in this world like us…?”

A mad transcendent who was using the war to kill him as an ascension ritual.

Even after entering Kyunroe’s domain, everything was far beyond Daimus’s expectations.

Was it possible that even the domain he controlled had such an unfathomable, magical atmosphere, not just Kyunroe himself?

Every moment they tried to kill and subjugate him, they were instead understanding and becoming more enamored with what kind of being he was.

“Haa, haa….”

His breathing became rapid and shallow, and his throat felt blocked.

Like looking for oxygen on a high mountain, his blood vessels and cardiopulmonary functions felt crushed and broken.

His vision gradually blurred, the air turned cold, and his senses tingled and dulled.

“Huuu….”

Beside Daimus, Ermong was making bizarre noises with unfocused eyes.

“If I just get out of here alive… I’ll search the deep web… Ugh….”

“This is….”

Their condition was visibly deteriorating and breaking down as they moved deeper into the corridor.

A hollow sense of loss, as if they were being deprived of and losing the basic metabolism and physical functions of a living being.

If a high-ranking long-lived species were here, they would have realized that this was very similar to the environment in the Kundara’s Nine Calamities [A series of trials or tribulations].

But Daimus, unaware of that fact, fell into conflict as soon as he realized that the problem with his body had become much worse than before.

“…….”

Should he go forward, or should he retreat?

While walking against the direction of the bloodstains in the corridor, a faint golden shimmer was visible in the distance.

If they went there, they would likely see another aspect of this labyrinth.

Conversely, the unknown pain that was currently crushing the group would become even more severe.

Should they take the risk and adventure, or should they look for another way?

The conclusion was already decided.

“Let’s go.”

He had already accepted death in this battle.

Even in the worst case, it would be enough if he could leave information about this labyrinth to his legion comrades.

Whoosh!!

Every time they moved, the shimmer cleared, revealing the corpses scattered throughout the corridor.

The figures of superhumans who had been killed by heavy blunt objects, sharp claws, or heads bitten off.

Special forces of the legion. Mages of the Blaver Magic Tower. Modified soldiers of the Mechanized Corps. Even psychics from the squadron.

Numerous superhumans from different affiliations and origins were scattered throughout this corridor before Daimus.

“…….”

Beyond the chillingly silent stillness.

A huge golden gate shimmering dazzlingly at the end of the shimmer came into view.

A ‘link’ floating in the center of a common area much larger than the corridors they had passed through so far.

The golden gate swaying in the center of the common area, and the scenery of another labyrinth beyond it.

In front of that gate, a bird-headed giant holding a heavy hammer stood with his arms crossed.

“I’ve been waiting.”

A massive figure with blood-soaked hammer, exuding red magic from his entire body.

He was looking down at the group, having piled up dozens of corpses near the gate.

Ermong, who was facing him from behind, tilted his head.

“Oh? That guy is….”

“Felix Magath. A war mercenary belonging to Kyunroe’s magic tower.”

Daimus, who immediately recognized the opponent, turned his gaze to Ermong.

“Do you know him?”

“I’ve fought him at the Anathema Temple [A place of curses or damnation] before. He was quite skilled, so I remember him….”

Ermong muttered, looking at Felix, who was standing as if guarding the gate.

“It seems he’s been assigned to guard the path of the 49th District this time.”

“…….”

“Well, I’ll do it this time. He wasn’t so strong that I couldn’t handle him when we met last time.”

Ermong smiled and rolled up his sleeves.

“I’ll try to show off when I can, and then slip away when it gets really dangerous-”

Whoooom!!!

At that moment, as Felix turned around, a golden halo rose, and Ermong’s words stopped abruptly.

A golden ring rotating elegantly behind the bird-headed giant. Immediately after Felix’s will was explosively amplified by it.

The hammer that Felix was holding was engulfed in dark blue lightning and instantly grew to the size of a house, flashing brightly.

Kwaaaaaang!!!!

Crack, crack…!!!

A giant hammer of the thunder god, imbued with dark blue magic.

Felix, with the hammer on his shoulder, scattering red eyes, and looking back at them with a golden halo behind him.

Ermong, who had been looking up at him with a dumbfounded expression, quietly lowered his arms and returned to his spot.

“……Can I take back everything I just said, even now?”