Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. Chapter 108 - Guild War — Sunlight (1)

Chapter 108 — Guild War — Sunlight (1)

 

Swoosh…

Through the mark on my chest, both versions of Artein expressed their opinions simultaneously.

“What in the world are you doing…?”

“Good grief… This is absurd.”

It seemed that, since this was happening inside a labyrinth rather than reality, they weren’t particularly pleased.

But true harmony hadn’t even begun yet.

“Present and past Artein, I shall soon bring about an extraordinary harmony.”

I immediately broke into a run.

“Tribe member Karr!”

Brunelda, who had been waiting nearby, quickly presented his back.

The moment I climbed on, the North Continent savage, who had spent his entire life training, began sprinting at terrifying speed.

Not toward the tower we’d climbed before, but toward the silver tower connected to the Moon Battlefield.

SHAAAAAA—!!

Just as we were about to arrive, a brilliant beam of light erupted from the golden tower.

A mysterious radiance in which brightness and darkness intertwined.

The brilliance containing the power of Lumerlan, who had governed both the sun and the moon, reached the star-filled sky.

BOOOOOOM!

The light touching the night sky began weaving a bridge through the air.

From above the golden tower, all the way to the very center of the heavens, where Lumerlan’s Orb floated.

“So that’s what you meant…”

“Exactly.”

I turned my gaze back toward the silver tower.

“If you climb to the top of the tower aligned with the opposite attribute and shatter the jewel left behind by the divine beast that pulled the chariot of the sun or the moon, a path to the heavens opens.”

The only way to obtain Lumerlan’s Orb without hunting the Light Wyvern.

A shortcut through the sky.

“This is the true value of the divine beast Hidden Piece.”

Brunelda continued running at a speed unbelievable for someone whose Soul Rank had been reduced to Level 5.

“You said the divine beast’s jewel has to be broken, right? That doesn’t sound easy. Can my sword do it?”

“Of course not through ordinary means.”

Skinfaxi and Hrimfaxi.

The jewels left behind by those divine beasts possessed defensive power surpassing that of most plate armor.

An explorer’s strength and Mysteries alone could never break them.

There were only two ways to destroy a divine beast’s jewel.

Either a Great Relic or a weapon infused with an overwhelmingly massive amount of divine power.

“Tribe member Karr! People carrying something that incredible don’t normally participate in Guild Wars!”

“That’s exactly why the Hidden Piece remained undiscovered for so long.”

There was a reason why labyrinth researchers who had studied Battlefield of Sun and Moon for years still hadn’t completely uncovered every Hidden Piece.

“But then how was that spy planning to break it…?”

“I’ll explain later.”

By the time I finished speaking, we had reached the silver tower.

“We’re going up.”

With me still on his back, Brunelda climbed the tower’s outer wall barehanded, reaching the rooftop in an instant.

“Thank you.”

The moment my feet touched the ground, I immediately placed Skinfaxi’s Heart onto the floor.

“So how are you planning to break it?”

“Like this.”

Placing both hands upon the crimson jewel that shone like the sun, I closed my eyes and began reciting.

“O Solmiran, who burns forever.”

Creator of the blazing sun. The Goddess of the Saving Sun and Radiant Creation.

I offered a prayer to Solmiran.

“I’m terribly sorry, but… would you mind breaking this for me?”

There was no need to observe formal etiquette.

I wasn’t a priest of the Sun Church. Just an ordinary cultist.

My attitude wouldn’t greatly influence the judgment of the Ever-Burning One.

“I beg you. From now on, every noon, I’ll diligently sunbathe wearing nothing but my underwear.”

I had never once offered a solemn prayer while gazing upon the sun.

Nor had I ever practiced the religious discipline of sunbathing for half a day over two weeks.

I had no right to ask for the sun’s help.

And yet…

Crack…!

Solmiran answered my request.

Fine cracks spread across Skinfaxi’s Heart like lightning.

“Thank you.”

“…Does Solmiran normally grant requests whenever someone prays?”

“I doubt it.”

Intervening in the mortal world without any causal connection consumed an enormous amount of faith.

Naturally, most deities simply ignored the prayers of anyone who wasn’t their follower.

The reason Solmiran answered me was that, however mixed my blood might be, I was still an elf.

Whoooom.

Skinfaxi’s Heart shattered completely, and rainbow-colored light shot upward.

When that radiance, possessing both brightness and darkness, reached the sky, a perfectly straight line was drawn across the starlit heavens.

Sparkling, it stretched onward

until it connected with the bridge extending from the opposite side.

FWAAAAAA!

At the center of the divided heavens, Lumerlan’s Orb, positioned where the two straight lines met, became a dark sphere filled with mysterious light.

“…Beautiful.”

Brunelda muttered blankly.

It truly deserved such admiration.

A solar eclipse. The moon had overlapped the sun. A celestial phenomenon that had once symbolized Lumerlan.

Though different from a real solar eclipse, it produced the exact same mystical effect.

KROOOOOOAR!

The Light Wyvern, which had been battling numerous intruders, looked toward the sky and let out a thunderous roar.

Then it spread its wings and flew upward.

The final guardian of the ruins was ascending toward the sacred relic.

The closer it drew, the more its scales peeled away, its body gradually beginning to shine.

[> :O]

Half its body emitted light so brilliant it stung the eyes.

The other half radiated an icy glow cold enough to make one’s vision ache.

Heat and cold. Light and darkness.

Freed from its former form, the wyvern now embodied both opposing aspects.

It let out a mighty roar.

KRAAAAAAH!

 

[Eclipse Wyvern (Level 7)]

[A wyvern that protects both the sun and the moon. The evolved form of the Light Wyvern. Is this really okay? Even if every explorer and ghoul joined forces, this would still be an enemy they couldn’t defeat!’]

 

Spreading its now much larger wings, the Eclipse Wyvern exhaled a breath where golden and silver light intertwined toward the ground.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!

The northern section of the ruins was instantly incinerated into oblivion.

Its power couldn’t even be compared to the Light Wyvern’s previous beam.

The explorers and ghouls watching from below simply stood there, mouths hanging open.

Watching the strengthened wyvern, I nodded in satisfaction.

‘Perfect. A complete and utter disaster.’

 

***

 

One of the Six Apostles, the Conspirator, was crossing the bridge spanning the star-filled heavens.

Constantly glancing down below.

‘…What in the world is happening?’

He was bewildered.

Unexpected developments had continued one after another.

Golden Crow Karr.

It had all begun with that half-elf cultist infiltrating everyone using [Transformation].

‘How has he been using it for that long without losing his sense of self!?’

Then he had gathered the ghouls, started a battle, lured over the wyvern, and turned everything into complete chaos.

The situation had become so abnormal that he had been forced to activate the Hidden Piece earlier than planned, creating the bridge in the sky.

KRAAAAAH!

Below, the explorers and ghouls were still fighting together against the wyvern that had transformed into its new form.

Why had it changed like that?

Did activating the Hidden Piece involving the divine beast jewels on both towers simultaneously cause this?

“AAAH!”

“Ghk!”

The Fire Turtle Guild’s shaman and a Slaughter Ghoul were both obliterated together by the wyvern’s sweeping tail.

‘There’s no way they’ll kill that.’

No matter how he looked at it, Level 5 explorers and ghouls stood absolutely no chance, no matter how many gathered.

‘It doesn’t matter…’

Soon, he would finally obtain the sacred relic.

Running endlessly across the bridge, which felt far longer than it appeared, he eventually arrived before the black sphere radiating mysterious light.

Inside floated Lumerlan’s Orb, embodying the united sun and moon.

‘…Finally.’

The Conspirator smiled brightly without realizing it.

Everything he’d done… beginning with infiltrating the Ash Wolf Guild for nearly five years.

Then his identity had been exposed a month before the Guild War, forcing him to rush through all his preparations.

Recalling all those hardships, he reached out.

Fwoosh!

“Ghk!?”

The moment his hand touched the light emitted by the black sphere, his palm burst into flames.

The instant he pulled away, the fire disappeared.

He even tried putting on fire-resistant gloves. The result was exactly the same.

‘Don’t tell me…!’

After slashing repeatedly at the sphere with his dagger, the Conspirator ground his teeth.

He couldn’t touch it.

He couldn’t even approach it.

With countless labyrinth expeditions under his belt, he could roughly guess what had happened from the circumstances alone.

‘It was strengthened.’

Labyrinth Enhancement.

A phenomenon occurring only in B-rank labyrinths or above, where the completion conditions, appearing monsters, and internal environment all became distorted.

KROOOOOOAR!

Most likely, the conditions had changed.

Now they would have to defeat the upgraded wyvern first before Lumerlan’s Orb could be obtained.

And… the cause of that Labyrinth Enhancement was undoubtedly the blond cultist now calmly walking toward him from the opposite side.

“Greetings.”

Waving with an expressionless face, Golden Crow Karr slowly approached.

“But why do you look so flustered?”

Crash!

CAAAAW!

A crow flew around, shattering every nearby crystal orb.

“Someone with such grand ambitions shouldn’t make such a face over something this trivial.”

Karr continued speaking.

His face remained frighteningly expressionless.

“You’ll need to keep working hard if you hope to fulfill your grand ambition of erasing every righteous god and evil god.”

“…”

For the first time, the Conspirator completely failed to control his expression.

His eyes widened.

How?

How in the world?

How could a mere cultist know of the ultimate plan shared only among the Six Apostles?

Impossible.

This was the sort of catastrophe that should never happen.

“…Who told you?”

Gripping his dagger in a reverse hold, the Conspirator lowered his stance.

Karr tilted his head in an infuriatingly innocent manner.

“I’m a cultist of the Twisted Truth. Naturally, Lord Lidni told me.”

“Ridiculous! That fallen evil god could barely have discovered the identities of Great Monsters at best!”

His mind became ice-cold.

The Conspirator reached his conclusion immediately.

‘…He’s dangerous. That cultist must die.’

 

***

 

Skinfaxi. Hrimfaxi.

If only one of the Hidden Pieces involving the two divine beast jewels was activated, then Lumerlan’s Orb could be obtained without killing the Light Wyvern.

But if both were activated simultaneously?

‘The exact opposite happened.’

The Light Wyvern evolved into the far stronger Eclipse Wyvern, and now defeating it became an absolute requirement for clearing the labyrinth.

The Labyrinth Enhancement of the Battlefield of Sun and Moon was something explorers themselves could trigger.

“You must be shocked. I understand. I can only imagine how heartbroken you must be.”

I leisurely attempted to “empathize.”

The elf standing beyond the black sphere stiffened.

A Pure Mana Mage from the Fire Turtle Guild.

The Jewel Elf Laenis.

More precisely, one of the Six Apostles, the Conspirator, disguised as an ordinary explorer using Skin Cloak.

I had known his identity from the very beginning.

“Skin Cloak can’t disguise body size. And since, Mr. Conspirator, you’re rather slender… Among the suspects, only you could have been the culprit from the start.”

Naturally, that deduction was only possible because I already knew the Conspirator’s real race and physique.

As always, I skipped all the annoying intermediate reasoning.

“For this operation, you also subtly helped those other two explorers rack up achievements, didn’t you? All so the Ash Wolf Guild would spread its suspicions among three different people.”

Like a detective deliberately explaining everything to a murderer standing right in front of him, I continued talking.

“You must’ve wanted to activate the Hidden Piece while the Guild Alliance was occupied fighting the Ash Wolf Guild. Then calmly and mysteriously claim victory. How heartbreaking it must be that you can no longer do that.”

“…”

The Conspirator was obsessively attached to preserving the grand scenario he’d planned.

If even the slightest detail went wrong, he was the sort who would rather abandon everything altogether.

That’s why he had desperately tried to reunite the fighting explorers according to his plan. And it was precisely why I had devoted myself to sowing chaos and discord.

“I understand all suffering.”

I deliberately wore the wicked smile of a proper cultist.

“And to make matters worse, you’ve even lost the artifact painstakingly crafted by one of your fellow Six Apostles. You must be absolutely devastated. Would you like a hug?”

“…I see.”

The Conspirator finally spoke in his real voice, rather than Laenis’s.

It dripped with terrifying killing intent.

The murderous aura that only someone who had killed countless people could possess.

“So it was all you. The informant who exposed Rigobert as a fake. And the one who ruined my ambitious plans during the Guild War…!”

Lowering his upper body to the extreme, the Conspirator suddenly leaped over the black sphere and thrust his dagger toward my head.

Normally, its speed would’ve been impossible to follow.

But inside the Battlefield of Sun and Moon, every explorer’s stats were equalized.

Clang!

The blade was undoubtedly coated with deadly poison.

Rather than taking the hit, I raised Earth Aura and knocked it aside.

Just because I’d chosen the Immortal Cultist build didn’t mean I was some complete lunatic who welcomed every form of suffering with open arms.

“I was willing to let you go because I felt a certain kinship… But you’ve crossed the line!”

The Conspirator swung his dagger viciously.

“The labyrinth’s rules may prevent me from killing you physically… But I’ll make sure you die mentally!”

“You were trying so hard to stop everyone else from fighting just a moment ago…”

A hearty laugh escaped my lips. How long had it been since I’d laughed this sincerely?

“I should warn you as well.”

I looked directly into the Conspirator’s eyes.

“Today. Inside this labyrinth. You are about to experience something far more agonizing than death.”