Chapter 93

Worm, who had tamed the earth dragon, was descending the stairs one by one, their outlines faintly visible in the dim light of the luminescent moss. The worn soles of his shoes tapped against the stone steps. Even after counting a hundred, two hundred steps, the darkness ahead remained impenetrable. After surpassing several hundred steps, an indescribable unease began to assail Worm. He couldn't help but wonder if the path to the bottom would continue endlessly.

"Behind us, it's gone."

It wasn't a concrete statement, but everyone understood what Yuna meant. Relying on the meager light of the luminescent moss, they had continued descending, but the path they had taken had vanished. Perhaps the luminescent moss had simply stopped providing light. Despite this optimistic thought, his skin tingled and his eyes felt slightly hot. Worm's instincts warned him not to be consumed by the darkness. The group had stopped, but Meryl gave instructions with an unchanged tone.

"Let's keep moving forward."

Without being dominated by frustration, they continued their steady descent toward the bottom. After some time, which Worm's disoriented sense of time couldn't measure, his eyes suddenly caught sight of the floor. The stairs had ended, their purpose fulfilled. His vision darkened momentarily. Worm was faced with a decision. Lighting a fire in the darkness would allow him to see, but if there were monsters lurking in the shadows, it would reveal their position, making them easy targets.

"Worm."

Hearing his name, Worm understood the intent and produced a flame in his palm, transferring it to a lamp he had taken from his magic bag. Worm surveyed the surroundings. The floor was the same as before, but the walls and ceiling were invisible to the naked eye.

"Full alert. This place is outside the logic of the labyrinth. Be prepared."

Meryl's warning voice dissolved into the darkness, indicating that this was an abnormal space. In the closed labyrinth, sound always echoed. Now, no matter how much noise they made, there was no reflection. Moreover, the stairs they had descended had disappeared. It was as if the ladder had been removed.

"Should we mark the floor?"

"...There are no scars or debris. It's probably pointless because the labyrinth will consume it immediately."

"Does that mean we have to feel our way through here?"

Marianne looked at the darkness with a sense of frustration. With their retreat cut off, they had no choice but to move forward, but they didn't know which direction to go. Worm was lost in thought, unsure if blindly moving forward was the right decision.

While the group was deep in thought, a sound emerged in the silent labyrinth. It was a grating, massive noise, like metal rubbing against metal. Worm, using all his senses, saw a fire running through the darkness. It spread along the floor, burning and revealing a path. A black, murky liquid flowed in the grooves carved into the floor, with the fire resting on its surface.

"It seems they're welcoming us."

"What a polite invitation."

"Let's accept it. If we stray from the path, nothing good will happen."

The clear guidance. Worm knew he was stepping into a tiger's mouth, but he saw no other way.

"What a crazy world. It's so twisted, it's almost admirable."

"The labyrinth is called a liminal space and a playground for the higher beings. Their interference only reaches certain places, like dragon veins... or so they say. It's always the scholars who come up with such outlandish theories. How much can we trust them?"

"It's definitely not a normal place."

Worm, who had been silently listening to the conversation, inwardly agreed with Marianne. The grooves filled with black liquid branched out, forming a complex circular pattern. The full extent was unclear, but the radius likely exceeded fifty meters.

"Should we go around the perimeter?"

"Let's head to the center. There might be something there."

Worm's question was met with Meryl's bold decision. The space was far removed from the logic of the surface. It was too late to be timid. Worm had willingly jumped into the abyss. There was no choice but to leave the outcome to fate. As they approached the center, the stench grew more intense. It was a smell Worm was familiar with from battlefields.

"...What is this foul odor?"

"It's the smell of decay. But it's too strong."

Even Worm, who had been buried with hundreds of decaying corpses, had never encountered such a pungent smell. A pile of corpses as high as a small hill would not be out of place. When the group reached the center, the flames, which had been hidden, began to spread along the grooves. They formed a path, and the grooves were filled with black, murky liquid, with the fire resting on its surface.

"What a bad taste."

The flames continued to intersect, and as Worm watched, he felt a strange sense of familiarity. He had seen this before. Where? Amid the overwhelming stench, Worm struggled to recall his memories, and they suddenly connected.

"Is this a symbol?"

"What, a symbol?"

Marianne's question went unanswered as Worm focused on his thoughts. He realized the true nature of the symbol from his distant memories. A hexagram, with a history dating back to ancient times, held various meanings in the world of the past. In the region where Worm had lived, it was known as a basket pattern and was said to ward off evil. It was treated as a sacred symbol, and around it were strange characters that seemed out of place.

Worm caught the sound of chains rubbing together above him. From the puzzled expressions of the others, it was clear that it wasn't just his imagination.

"Let's move away from the center. It feels wrong."

"That sounds like a good idea."

As they hurried away, a deafening noise, like metal being stirred, erupted, and the stench grew even stronger. When Worm, who had escaped the hexagram, looked up, he saw a massive chain hanging from the void. Even in the dim darkness, only the center was completely consumed by darkness, making it impossible to see.

"No way."

Even Marianne, a first-class adventurer, was speechless. Despite being restrained by the chains, it crawled out of the darkness. Its lifeless eyes fixed on Worm, and it let out a roar. The air trembled, and a putrid wind blew. Worm recognized the monster, one he never wanted to see again. It was the creature that had caused the great collapse of the northern kingdoms.

"Bone Dragon."

Hari revealed the monster's identity. Its scales were as murky as ink and mud, its teeth were uneven and missing, and the exposed flesh, exposed to the air, clearly indicated that the dragon had become undead. The demon's face, which had been in sync with the excitement, trembled.

"I thought the records of the bottom were lost in the Unified War, but this is bad."

Among dragons, monsters, and all living beings, the Bone Dragon, a creature of immense power, was being born from the darkness at the bottom of the labyrinth.

"It's a fake among dragons, but a force capable of burying armies. How—!?"

As Hari sought a decision, Worm transformed his condensed magic into a fireball and launched it at the Bone Dragon. The blue flames danced on its head, and the enraged dragon rattled its chains. The blue flames, which were highly effective against undead creatures, had a weaker effect on dragons.

"Let's kill it before it fully emerges."

While the party members were shaken, Worm sought a simple solution. Worm had completed a preventive inoculation against dragons and had immunity. At Dandueg Castle, the Flame Emperor Dragon's breath had burned ten thousand people, including the command center, without any means of defense. Compared to that, the Bone Dragon before him was a different story. Its body was damaged and decaying, and it was entangled in chains, struggling to emerge from the black hole. There was no hesitation in attacking such a corrupted dragon.

"Right, no doubt."

Without hesitation, Meryl, who had been concentrating magic, took a characteristic stance. Magic swirled around his body, and with a dazzling flash, the "Triple Magic Strike" was released. The Bone Dragon, which was writhing, had no chance to avoid it, and the light enveloped the exposed parts of its massive body. The shock reached Worm, who was on the ground. The curtain of flesh cleared, and the vision opened. A wound ran from the cheek to the shoulder, but it was not a decisive blow.

"Even the scales of an earth dragon can be shattered with one strike, but—"

Meryl's face twisted as he spoke.

"What's left?"

"Two more, at most."

It wasn't that it wasn't effective. However, even two strikes wouldn't be enough to finish it. The "Triple Magic Strike" lacked firepower, and even the maximum firepower of ghost fire wouldn't be enough. If there were three or four Meryls, it might be possible, but Worm dismissed this as an unrealistic fantasy.

"It's frustrating that we can't do anything from the air."

"Arrows can't reach through the magic membrane and scales."

One of the Bone Dragon's arms emerged from the black hole, and the other was about to be freed. Worm fired a fireball in a last-ditch effort, and Meryl prepared for the second strike. They searched for a strategy as the Bone Dragon hung from the ceiling, but found none.

"Damn, the upper body has emerged."

Muttering, Worm looked down at the ground. The hexagram, which represented the summoning array, continued to glow. As he watched the flames, an idea came to Worm. If it failed, they would be in a worse position, but it was worth a try.

"Meryl, the ground. Destroy the grooves!!"

Meryl, who was about to release the "Triple Magic Strike," believed Worm's words and forcibly redirected it to sweep the floor. The floor was shattered by the flash of light. The grooves, which had been emitting a mysterious glow, dimmed as if their magic supply had been cut off. The Bone Dragon let out an unprecedented scream. The Bone Dragon, which had been crawling from the void, fell from the sky. As Worm looked up, the massive black hole that had appeared in the darkness vanished like a mirage.

"The lower half has been severed!?"

Marianne shouted in disbelief. The Bone Dragon, with its summoning array destroyed, was cut off from the path connecting the spaces and was separated from its lower half. Worm's plan had partially succeeded. The miscalculation was that the Bone Dragon, despite losing its lower half, did not die and used its claws to dig into the floor and rise up