Honestly, thinking about it carefully, it was inevitable. The Evil God and Hell must have been desperately searching for the Gods of Courage and Endurance. The fact that they still hadn’t found them could only an one of two things: either they had no idea where they were, or they knew, but couldn’t subdue them. And the Northern Great Labyrinth clearly fell into the second category.
"It’s a land of death," said Lord Yorgen, Master of the Magic Tower, with a troubled expression. "The Labyrinth region has a mana density comparable to an artificially-created magical vacuum space in a laboratory. Thus, no magic—nor divine power—can be used there. It’s one of the great mysteries of the natural world. If you attempt magic, the mana structure collapses from the density gap before it can even stabilize, and the spell scatters into nothingness."
"Divine power can't be used either?" I asked. Instead of Lord Yorgen, the White Sect’s High Priestess, Mirol, answered.
"It cannot. And at the sa ti, it can."
"What do you an?"
"The Great Labyrinth is a cursed land, unconnected to Heaven, Hell, or the Abyss. Naturally, divine power — the proof of a god's existence — cannot be summoned there. Without it, divine magic cannot be used either."
"Then wouldn’t it be correct to just say it can’t be used?"
"Except for one case — if the divine being itself has manifested physically on the surface. In that case, it becos possible."
Mirol explained that if the divine being, like Kanya, was directly possessing a human body, divine power could still be used even inside the Labyrinth.
"Of course, it’s an incredibly risky thing. If sothing goes wrong, the divine being could instantly disperse and be destroyed."
"And the God of Courage is there? Risking destruction?"
I looked at Dubolt, the High Priest of the Hero Order, the one who had gathered all the major high priests, the royal family, and myself at the imperial palace today — the one who had found the God of Courage's location.
As everyone's eyes turned to him, # Nоvеlight # he stood up. A solid build, a face that could define the phrase "handso middle-aged man," he looked like a protagonist ripped straight out of a classic 90s Japanese hero manga.
"It’s certain. Please take a look."
Dubolt pulled sothing from his robes and set it down in the center of the conference room for all to see: a finely polished hexagonal object, shimring faintly with a golden light.
"A magic stone. But not an ordinary one. Upon inspection, it contains an extrely high concentration of divine power."
Dubolt carefully brought his index finger close to the stone. The mont his finger touched it, a resonating hum filled the air, and divine power naturally flowed out of the stone, piercing into his body. His eyes turned crimson. Wiping away tears, he nodded.
"It’s the divine power of the God of Courage, Ponemkin. There’s no doubt."
The room buzzed with noise. The paladins and priests of the Hero Order were all openly weeping, while mbers from other sects showed either delight or visible confusion.
"As everyone knows, the Hero Order has long been infamous among the 24 sects of the Pantheon for having extraordinarily weak divine power. We couldn’t even perform a proper holy spell, let alone summon divine words or attract a chosen one. But look at this."
Dubolt drew more divine power from the stone, and a brilliant golden light erupted from his entire body. A sacred, majestic radiance — the kind of light that could move a person just by looking at it.
"The amount of divine power sealed inside this magic stone is greater than the sum total of everything I had in my body. There’s no mistake. Ponemkin is in the North."
"Fascinating... I’ve seen mana stored in stones, but never divine power," said Lord Yorgen, inspecting the stone carefully.
"It seems likely that Ponemkin brought followers with him. Since he can’t bestow blessings normally in the Labyrinth’s low-mana environnt, he must be granting it like this — sealing it inside magic stones. I’ve heard of mages using similar thods with mana stones in such environnts."
"It’s confird, then. The God of Courage is in the Northern Great Labyrinth," said the Emperor, who had been quietly listening.
"But Dubolt," he added, "if you discovered the location of your god, shouldn’t you have brought him back? Why have only your paladins returned?"
It was a fair question. Everyone turned to Dubolt. He looked around at all of us and then gave a single, very simple answer.
"Followers of the Demon Lords of Pride and Gluttony were already there. Our paladins barely escaped with their lives."
Sighs erupted throughout the room. The Emperor quickly asked again.
"So, the demon worshipers already knew about the God of Courage’s location?"
"The Great Labyrinth is a lawless region, out of the Empire’s reach. Even our own paladins, dispatched purely for reconnaissance, couldn’t investigate much. But piecing together fragnts of information... it seems the demon worshipers have known for a long ti that the God of Courage was there."
The City of Labyrinth — a lawless city populated by those who survived hunting the monsters of the Great Labyrinth, living off the byproducts of their hunts.
The Hero Order paladins had heard from the locals that wars between demon worshipers and followers of the God of Courage had been a regular annual occurrence in the city for a long ti.
"So Hell has been trying to recover the God of Courage for ages?"
"It would explain why Ponemkin had no choice but to flee into the Great Labyrinth."
"After the Talahai Rocky Mountain incident and the Scrap Yard disaster, the demon worshipers must have panicked. Realizing that if the Pantheon reclaid the last two divine beings, the balance would tilt, they rushed reinforcents there."
The Emperor summarized it neatly and leaned back, letting out a long sigh.
"The real problem is that it’s a region where the Empire’s power cannot reach."
Because of the extrely thin mana concentration, the Empire’s magical tools wouldn’t even function. Teleportation — impossible. Normal magic — impossible.
As befitting the na Great Labyrinth, the interior was crawling with bizarre, mutated monsters not seen elsewhere in the Empire — many of which periodically raided human settlents, causing heavy casualties.
Thus, the Great Labyrinth was a no-man’s land, untouched by any ruler, untouchable by the Empire.
And because it was known as such a lawless land, all sorts of criminals who could no longer live within the Empire had fled there as a last resort, turning it into a hellhole where even minimal security couldn’t be expected.
"We can't even send the paladins or the Magic Tower’s mages. They wouldn't be able to use divine power or magic."
"We can't send the noble houses' precious knights either. They wouldn't even be able to use aura blades there."
"Airships can’t fly anywhere near it. Deploynt would be impossible."
All of the Empire’s prized assets and military forces would be useless near the Labyrinth.
In such conditions, how were we supposed to recover the God of Courage?
And worse — demon worshipers were already ahead of us.
Everyone turned their eyes toward .
It was my role to go and retrieve the god.
And here arose a major problem.
"Saint," His Majesty called to .
"If you go into the Great Labyrinth alone, even if a problem arises, you might not be able to open a portal."
The basic plan I had crafted was already collapsing from the start.
Originally, I would handle recovering the divine beings while the Empire’s elite forces would suppress the demon worshipers.
But in the Labyrinth, that would be impossible.
"What about sending a special forces unit — one that doesn't rely on magic?" one of the senators suggested, but it was quickly shut down.
"The Labyrinth’s people loathe the Empire. They reject any form of rule. If we send a military force, it will be seen as an invasion. It will start a war."
"The losses would be catastrophic. The hunters surviving in the Labyrinth are ard with rifles and heavy weaponry. Even special forces would struggle."
"Besides, the demon worshipers have been there for ages. They know how to operate inside the Labyrinth. We know nothing."
Many opinions were offered, but there was only one conclusion.
Sending an army was impossible.
We needed soone who could move alone.
Soone whose soul contained a divine being, able to wield powers even in the Labyrinth.
Soone immune to corruption or brainwashing even if confronted by the demon worshipers or the City of Labyrinth.
"Saint, it must be you who goes alone into the Great Labyrinth to recover the God of Courage, Ponemkin."
Even after revealing all the truths, in the end, I still ended up having to move alone.
But whatever. When had it ever been different? When had I ever moved around with full support from the Empire? Honestly, this was more comfortable for .
"Which Imperial territory is closest to the Great Labyrinth?"
"The northern border city of Arad is the closest."
"Gather the paladins and battle priests selected from the Pantheon, along with the Imperial army and knights from noble families there. They will wait in Arad. Once I retrieve Ponemkin, I will return there."
His Majesty looked at with worry.
"Will you really be alright on your own?"
"Frankly, dragging a bunch of people along would be even stranger from my perspective. I’ve always been alone. I’m confident I can return safely this ti too. Worst case, I’ll stop ti and run."
At my words, His Majesty smiled.
"What would you have us do?"
"I need funds to operate in the Labyrinth City, Labyrinth. Please provide gold. Also, I’ll need soone familiar with the Great Labyrinth to guide ."
At that, Jonathan Karma, who had been silently listening, suddenly stood up.
"Our company has soone well-acquainted with the Great Labyrinth."
"Karma Company?"
"Yes. The northern highlands adjacent to the Labyrinth are full of rare creatures. Recently, Cecilia was dispatched to open trade routes there because of an herb that’s very effective as a painkiller. She ntioned that there are people who used to live near the Great Labyrinth and then returned to the Empire."
A smile spread across my face.
"Can I et them now?"
"Of course. I’ll contact them imdiately."
Things moved swiftly from there.
"I will depart within a few days. Please prepare everything I requested before then. I will continue training with the Goddess of Life’s powers in the anti. I’ll retrieve Ponemkin and return as quickly as possible."
With that, the eting ended.
The situation wasn’t as bad as I feared.
We had located the God of Courage, and we had found soone who could guide .
The Empire couldn't enter the Great Labyrinth directly, but if I could retrieve Ponemkin and return to the border city of Arad, that would be enough.
Now that I knew exactly what I needed to do, I felt less anxious.
"There’s no ti, Corn. We need to train as much as possible in handling Asmodeus's powers before we leave. Last ti, we figured out how much power I could pull out at once, so today let’s practice how much I can unleash in a short burst—Corn?"
Normally, the mont I entered the room, Corn would start rambling about this and that, but today, he was unusually quiet.
Wondering if the rocket lid was closed, I checked the pendant, but there was no issue.
"Corn, what’s wrong? Is sothing bothering you?"
After a long pause, he finally answered.
"[...Of all places, why the North? Why the Great Labyrinth?]"
His voice was trembling.
"What about the North?"
"[That’s where unicorns live, Amayel. After the Empire’s southern lands beca human territory, most unicorns fled north and settled there.]"
"Really? Then isn’t that a good thing? You could guide !"
"[I don't want to go there.]"
There was sothing strange about the emotions in Corn’s voice.
"Tell . Explain it to ."
Corn took a long ti to steady his emotions.
"[You saw glimpses of my past, right?]"
"I rember."
That ridiculous tragedy.
There had been so much going on that I had almost forgotten.
Corn had been desperately trying to win over a female unicorn through intense psychic training... and then everything had been cut off right there.
"[In the end, I never got together with her.]"
"Why?"
"[I was attacked by a jealous male from my own kind.]"
"...What?"
"[He couldn't stand the sight of a pathetic, pony-looking virgin unicorn succeeding in courting the goddess of our herd. He suddenly grew incredibly strong and attacked . I got seriously injured, fled south, and... was hunted by humans. That bastard might still be alive.]"
"Master Yorgen said that the unicorn horn used to make my psychic amplifier was harvested over a hundred years ago. Could a unicorn live that long?"
"[Not normally, but he might still be alive. There's a high chance.]"
Corn’s voice was soaked with fear.
"[He’s a Baicorn. A monster who made a pact with a demon for power.]"
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