The Great Labyrinth

‘Monggu, that bastard… he cut the dimensional fold. So I could see both the inside and outside of the dimensions at a glance…!’

This is insane…

The dimensional fold that divides between layers is where the god’s fragments once resided.

That place is a space of immortals where countless multi-dimensions are intermixed. For mortals like us, even perceiving it is impossible.

Just experiencing even a nail-sized portion of that place allowed me to destroy the Prophet.

If I could make that sensation my own, the walls of the 7th Circle would surely crumble like sand. And Monggu had cut through such a fold.

“…I don’t know what it is, but… doesn’t it feel ominous?”

Monggu said.

“Hmm… suddenly it feels a bit eerie?”

The mages guarding Mimir said the same thing.

He had cut the cross-section, but he himself couldn’t perceive the dimensional cross-section. It was natural that three-dimensional beings couldn’t recognize four dimensions, let alone eleven dimensions. He was simply… feeling unease with his biological instincts.

The dimensional fold that had split open above Mimir slowly healed as time passed. Records too chaotic for even me to examine closely. But one thing I saw clearly.

“Outer God…”

The aberrant records I had discovered in the Prophet… were crawling all over the cross-section of Mimir’s Well.

“…Really?”

“Yeah. Well of Wisdom Mimir has been completely taken over by the Outer God.”

Monggu asked and I answered. I thought that perhaps Lanciel’s Cube and the Shadow Library couldn’t find traces of the main network server in Mimir because of the Outer God.

‘Hmm. If Mimir is the main network, I was going to ask if there were any arrangements left by the gods, and if so, how to find them… well, can’t be helped?’

Things didn’t go as I’d thought, but it wasn’t a bad situation.

“Monggu. I have a favor to ask.”

“Wh-what is it?”

At the mention of a favor, he turned around with a delighted expression. Ah, interesting. Seeing that vacant face makes me even more excited.

“Let’s do special training together.”

The 7th Circle is a realm where you create magical power neural networks with multi-dimensional structures. Inevitably, I needed understanding of multi-dimensional structures.

In other words…

Monggu’s sword, which could split dimensional folds and allow glimpses of multi-dimensional structures, could become an excellent learning tool.

“Sp-special training? Great! It’s been a while.”

Looking at Monggu accepting the proposal without a moment’s hesitation, I felt delighted.

Ah, I won’t be getting sleep for a while again. But even so, I was only happy… is this what workaholism is?

* * *

“Again.”

“Huff… huff… A-again?”

“Yeah. If you cut about a hundred more times from now, I think I’ll be able to see it.”

“Hiiiek…!”

Monggu’s face turned deathly pale. After all, he was Monggu who had received physical enhancement up to stage 2 at Arsenal #7, became a user of the Shadow Library, and been strengthened once more. He boasted monstrous stamina, but he couldn’t withstand the forced march of cutting dimensional folds every few minutes.

His trembling arms and legs weren’t the problem.

‘H-how do I hold the sword?’

‘H-how do I position my legs?’

‘H-how do I breathe?’

All such thoughts would be occurring to him.

The mental fatigue was too severe. It would feel like being stuck in a swamp. With his concentration at its limit, he couldn’t do anything as he wished—not even moving a finger or breathing—and his body seemed to want to break free from his mind’s oppression and become independent. If he closed his eyes like this, even his heart might beat as it pleased until death became unavoidable.

How do I know this?

I have to know.

Because my current state is the same.

I took a deep breath and said.

“Again.”

“B-but!”

Monggu tried to protest something, but when he saw my face, he shut his mouth.

“N-no. I’ll give it a try.”

His face turned ashen as if he’d seen a ghost.

Well, that’s how terrible my appearance must be. My face would be pale and my eyes bloodshot. I might even be foaming at the mouth. The fatigue I felt was at least as much as Monggu’s, if not more. While Monggu merely cut the dimensional fold, I had to forcibly cram the complex multi-dimensional structures beyond that fold into my head.

But so what?

Thinking about the goals we must achieve, I can’t whine about something like this. A mage at their limit becomes stronger the more they’re pushed… I can’t waste such a wonderful opportunity, can I?

Monggu sighed deeply and lifted his sword again.

He looked straight ahead with eyes full of determination.

In front were two test subjects.

One was a B+ grade lich.

The other was the unidentified spy Shado who had used mental-type magic.

They were test subjects I’d secured long ago but whose research had been stagnating.

So this time, I was determined to finish it.

‘Magical exoskeleton.’

A theory I’d established long ago. Based on this, I had evolved Iron Blood and the wind spirit Ari. At the time, it was a concept I’d created to find ways to become stronger without raising my level due to the dangers of magical power addiction, but now I think this might be exactly the idea necessary for reaching the 7th Circle—no… for aspiring to the realm of gods.

The three elements for ‘magical exoskeleton’ that I’d organized back then are still written in large letters on my research lab’s blackboard.

————————

Hardware

Software

Design

————————

The evolution of Iron Blood and Ari back then was achieved on the ‘hardware’ side.

But what I couldn’t even touch was the ‘software.’

Just as Earth’s Iron Man needed the software called Jarvis. I needed something like that too.

And after several years had passed, I finally found a clue to creating software.

If I could create magical neural networks and breathe consciousness into those networks, that would become software capable of divine calculations.

The reason I chose Shado and the lich instead of researching Mimir’s Well was simple.

This was simpler and easier.

Shado, affected by mind control magic that works on consciousness.

The lich, which acquired consciousness through magical power even while dead.

They were also test subjects directly connected to the software of magical exoskeleton.

I planned to use these two as stepping stones to build my capabilities.

I made my resolution once more.

The boundary of immortality that mortals can never cross… I will leap over it using tools powered by magical power.

Just as Iron Man could face Thor as an equal.

Interesting.

Going round and round, it’s back to magical exoskeleton.

“Come on, open it! You know, right? You can’t make mistakes?”

“Ugh! Don’t be afraid! Your limits are always farther than what you can see!”

Monggu recited the famous saying left by Sergeant Bear and swung his gleaming sword. The golden blade passed precisely through Shado and the lich’s bodies but left no wounds on either of them. With the strange sensation of time being cut away, the dimensional fold behind them split open.

The records of the mind control magic dominating Shado and the records related to the lich’s consciousness structure spread before my eyes. Not superficial records visible on the surface, but deep, deep records that could trace their origins.

At first, I couldn’t understand anything,

but now…

‘I can see it.’

The world the gods see was gradually approaching me bit by bit.

Knowledge to create divine authority was steadily accumulating.

* * *

“Where’s Jun-woo?”

“He’s holed up in the research lab with Monggu again today.”

“Ha! Why is he like that? When he was lying there, I faithfully visited him every day… how come after waking up, he doesn’t show his face even once?”

“That’s how he is. That’s why he doesn’t have many friends.”

“Tsk. Then what about Evan?”

“Evan’s teaching the kids instead of Monggu.”

“That’s insane, really! A mage organization having a knight teach combat techniques? No matter that they’re kids with no magical talent, what are the parents thinking sending their children there? I can’t understand it!”

Beatrice was jumping up and down in indignation.

Having naturally blended into Pathfinder while going back and forth between the Magic Strategy Research Institute and Magic Origin Research Institute, she had few people she could treat casually as friends. No, Beatrice had never had friends in her entire life. To her, Evan and Baek Jun-woo were the first equals she could call friends in her life… but she couldn’t see them at all, which made her feel lonely.

Not fully understanding why she was so angry, Beatrice just kept getting irritated.

So whenever there were reconnaissance missions to the Great Labyrinth where the holy ground was located, Yuria always asked Beatrice to accompany her. She had decided to become her friend.

‘Her behavior is cute too.’

It didn’t take very long to win Beatrice’s heart.

“Right, isn’t it? It doesn’t make sense, does it, sis?”

In less than two weeks after occupying Ragnarok’s holy ground, Yuria had earned the title of “sister.”

Anyway, she was confident in charming friendless loners. Baek Jun-woo had also long been a fish caught in her net (?).

While Yuria felt satisfied looking back at her achievements, Beatrice kicked at the grass-covered ground to express her frustration. Only then did Yuria come to her senses and gently console Beatrice.

“Bea. Don’t be like that. What’s wrong with knights? We all need to work together to prevent destruction.”

Having survived alone as a vagabond after her nomad group was annihilated in childhood, Yuria was very skilled at crafting her image. For a little girl with no connections or usefulness to be accepted by nomad groups, the only way was to appeal with the most ideal and kind attitude possible.

That’s why she had initially shown Baek Jun-woo the very ideal image of the girl next door, and the effect was tremendous. She was able to gain the support of both Baek Jun-woo and his parents, and they became as precious to her as family.

And now that she was older… she had become much more skilled.

“Jun-woo will finish his research soon, and then Evan will have time again too.”

Yuria’s honey-sweet voice ruthlessly penetrated young Beatrice’s heart.

But Beatrice resisted that sweetness.

She frowned hard and looked directly at Yuria.

‘Huh?’

Why is she acting like this, wondered the flustered Yuria, when Beatrice taught her clearly.

“It’s not Bea, it’s Tris. That’s what was decided.”

For Yuria, who didn’t know that Baek Jun-woo had called her Tris, this was baffling.

‘What’s Tris? Bea is much prettier.’

Though she was dissatisfied inside, she stroked Beatrice’s head with a kind smile on the outside. She was still only showing her gentle side. She had shown only gentle sides to Baek Jun-woo for about a year too.

Such was Yuria’s effort that worked on Beatrice. The irritated Beatrice calmed her excitement.

“Still, I’ll let it slide. We have to work hard… since we’re the only ones with the possibility of saving the world.”

Beatrice’s face showed something like determination and pride.

Until recently, she had firmly believed that destroying the world was the only way to save it, but now this agent of destruction was showing such pride in being a member of Pathfinder that would save the world.

‘Life really is unpredictable.’

Yuria chuckled inwardly. Then she suddenly looked ahead with wide eyes.

“Huh? Those are nomads over there?”

The Great Labyrinth.

Though the name suggests a gloomy dungeon, it was actually a great wilderness with sky and sea.

However, since the general concept of space didn’t apply and the paths were twisted in various ways making them infinitely complex, it was called a labyrinth.

A path that had been following the grassland well would suddenly turn 90 degrees and become a cliff. Or gravity would flip so you could walk straight down that cliff—such things were very common in the Great Labyrinth.

The nomads now entering their view also appeared to be walking out of an underground tunnel dug in the grassland at first glance.

But if you actually went there, beyond that tunnel there would definitely be a sunny beach or something instead of a dark underground.

Anyway, the nomads coming up from the underground direction looked very pleased.

They were singing loudly.

Hey-ho! His Majesty the Magic Emperor has called everyone together!

The Wizard of Rebirth spread both arms wide and made a friend’s oath.

Hey-ho! The Wizard of Soul Severance abandoned past wrongs and stood beside his friends!

They fought extinction and won! They promised victory!

Lam-para-cha hey-ho!

They’re saving the world!

At those bizarre lyrics,

Both Yuria and Beatrice furrowed their brows simultaneously.