VOLUME 6: CHAPTER 9

VOLUME 6: CHAPTER 9

After realizing Lark’s real identity, all malice and hatred within the Scylla vanished entirely. It did not even dare look at the human in the eye anymore and simply subserviently bowed all of its heads. 

After a few minutes of silence, Lark realized that the seven-headed monster wouldn’t move nor speak unless he stated otherwise. For a moment, it felt as though he was dealing with another Anandra. 

“Lizard,” said Lark. 

“Yes, my God.” 

Lark furrowed his brows. “I’m just a human. Just call me Lark – or human – anything is fine.”

“As you wish, God Evander.”

A groan almost escaped Lark’s mouth. He should have known from the way the Scylla refused to leave the statue before – this creature was amazingly stubborn. 

Lark sighed. “The questions I’ve asked you before. My two disciples. What happened to them? And why is a Scylla guarding this place?”

The heads peeked at each other. The first head replied, “Master Kubarkava and Qeurvanu are dead. God Evander is right with his previous assumptions. Indeed, this was the place where they conducted the Ritual of the Underworld. The two successfully opened a rift, but perished moments after opening it. The massive amounts of miasma from the rift devoured their physical bodies.”

The Ritual of the Underworld. 

It was among the rituals Lark thoroughly studied in his previous life. If the Ritual of the Immortal was capable of prolonging a mortal’s life, the Ritual of the Underworld was said to be capable of bringing the dead back to life. 

It was ironic, Lark thought, that both him and those two disciples died from these forbidden rituals. 

“They successfully opened a rift?” said Lark. It was an amazing feat. 

“Yes, my God.”

Lark fell silent for a moment. If those two managed to open a rift to the underworld, then that thing should be present in this dungeon. 

“The place where they conducted the ritual,” said Lark. “Lead me to it.” 

“Gladly!”

The Scylla raised its heads and opened its wings. Its expectant gaze was a dead giveaway that it wanted Lark to ride on top of it. 

And to think that this monster was cussing at him just moments ago. But now, it was even wagging its tail like an excited puppy. 

Lark jumped onto the top of its body. For a moment, the Scylla shuddered from euphoria. It flapped its wings, flew up near the ceiling, and shot toward the opposite direction of the lake. It did not even take a full minute before it landed on the ground. 

“This used to be the place where the shrine was located,” said the Scylla. 

In front of them was a gigantic hole on the ground. It was so deep that when Lark kicked a large stone into it, it took almost a minute before he heard the sound of the stone hitting something. 

This was definitely the hole Lady Ropianna mentioned before. The place where the expedition team found the Scylla sleeping. 

“After the ritual failed, the rift swallowed everything in this place. The shrine, Master Kubarkava, the God of Poison.”

There was a trace of longing in those words. 

“If only we were beside the Master back then,” said the Scylla. “Our body is far stronger than humans. We could have definitely absorbed the rift’s impact.”

Judging by the size of the hole, Lark doubted if the Scylla would have made any difference back then. Miasma formed from the rift between this plane and the underworld was vastly different from magic. The Scylla would have probably perished along with his two disciples if it was near the shrine during the ritual.  

Lark looked at the Scylla and decided to keep these thoughts to himself. 

Lark said, “They built the shrine on top of a dragon vein.”

“As expected of God Evander,” said the Scylla. “You are correct.”

Deep within the hole, Lark could feel a familiar sensation. Massive amounts of mana were flowing underneath this floor of the labyrinth. Unlike ambient mana, the mana underneath felt ‘extremely solid’ - clumps of dense mana flowing in a single direction. There was no doubt that this was part of the dragon vein below. The source of all mana in this world. 

The royal courts magicians didn’t notice this before, since they’d been too preoccupied after discovering the Scylla sleeping inside the hole. 

“I’ll be gone for a while,” said Lark. 

Without another word, he jumped into the hole and disappeared from sight. 

Lark used flight magic to softly land on the ground. Another hole, around the size of two carriages combined, was seen in front of him. The familiar sensation was coming from within this smaller hole. If Lark jumped inside this one, he’d probably reach the dragon vein below. 

“This is pretty sweet.” Lark broadly grinned. 

He raised the Sword of Morphes, activated it, and stabbed it on the ground. In mere seconds, a dense river of mana gushed out of the small hole and was sucked by the Sword of Morpheus. 

Lark was really pleased to find a dragon vein in this place – and immediately right after regaining his sword at that. He planned on filling the sword to its utmost mana capacity before he went back to Blackstone Town. 

For several minutes, the sword continued sucking in the mana from the dragon vein. The translucent sword was becoming opaque as time went by. Eventually, it become a white sword the moment it reached its utmost mana capacity. 

Lark grabbed the sword and willed it to stop absorbing the mana from the dragon vein below. Like a slime, the sword slowly changed its shape and latched on Lark’s arm, before turning into a bracer.

Using flight magic, Lark went out of the hole. He noticed that the Scylla was looking at him with eyes filled with admiration. 

Lark made the Sword of Morpheus after taking into consideration the limited mana capacity of humans. One could say that it was similar to the cores of demons and dragons in its ability to store mana. Although replenishing the sword’s mana was a simple task, the Scylla looked at Lark as though what he just did was no ordinary feat. 

Lark ignored the Scylla’s awe-filled gaze and asked, “Ah, you haven’t answered my question before. The reason why a creature like you is guarding the treasure on this floor.” 

The Scylla broke out of its trance. 

It answered, “The reason is simple, God Evander. It’s to repay a debt.”

Lark didn’t expect this answer. He thought that this monster was bound by a pact and was forced to guard this floor of the labyrinth. 

“To repay a debt?” said Lark. 

The first head nodded. “That’s right. Our tribe – the Earth Scyllas – were on the brink of extinction over a thousand years ago. You’re probably already aware of this… our kind had been in constant strife with the Gryphons of the Marut.”

It was a well-known fact that Gryphons frequently hunted Scyllas for their meat. The fact that the Scyllas somehow resembled serpents probably contributed to this. 

Although the Scyllas were considered mythical monsters, they were helpless against the Gryphons. The Gryphons were impervious to most spells and their claws could easily penetrate the scales of the Scyllas. 

The Scylla started recounting the story. 

It seemed that after Kubarkava slaughtered several dragons from the Frost Mountains of Yleonor, he went straight to the monster-infested region of Marut in search for more items and ingredients needed for a certain ritual. 

To the Earth Scyllas’ luck, one of the ingredients he needed for the ritual was the corpse of a Gryphon. 

One event led to another. After killing one Gryphon, his stupid disciple ended up slaughtering an entire nest. Although Kubarkava did not really intend on saving the Earth Scyllas, it was an undisputable fact that if not for him, their tribe would have gone extinct. 

“So basically, you’re the child of the leader of your tribe,” Lark summed up the story. “And you’ve been offered to that idiotic disciple of mine as thanks for saving the tribe.”

The Scylla nodded its heads. 

Lark furrowed his brows. This Scylla already old. It used up almost all of its life protecting this floor. It probably had only a few centuries to live at most. 

“I don’t understand,” said Lark. “You kept calling him master, when in fact, you’re just a sacrificial lamb given to him by your tribe.” 

The words of Lark were unforgiving, but it seemed that the Scylla did not mind. 

“We know,” said the third head. “But coincidence or not, it still doesn’t change the fact that he saved our tribe from extinction. Our master’s only request was for us to guard this floor. A simple task in exchange of saving so many of my kin’s lives.” 

This response left a bad aftertaste in Lark’s mouth. If Kubarkava was here, he would have smacked that kid’s head onto the ground. 

“And although the time we’ve spent with the Master was short, it was the most enjoyable moments of our lives. We’ve frequently heard stories about you, God Evander. Stories of how you single-handedly repelled the Demon Lord’s army. Stories of how you suppressed an entire tribe of Dragons on your own. Feats only a God could achieve,” said the first head. 

“Ever since then, we’ve been looking forward to meeting you someday,” said the fifth head. “The Master and the poison brat were certain that you’d be back. Although they didn’t mention when.”

“And they were right!” laughed the seventh head. 

Lark fell silent for a moment. He slowly asked, “What would have you done if the owner of the sword didn’t come? If I never arrived in this floor during your lifespan.”

Although Lark couldn’t fully comprehend the facial expressions of monsters, he was sure that all of the Scylla’s heads were smiling right now. 

“We’ll use all of our remaining mana and life force to create a barrier to protect this floor,” said the Scylla. “Dying while protecting the treasures would have been the highest honor.” 

Dedicated to their task until the end. 

Lark was starting to like this monster. 

He sighed then smiled. “I live at a small town far from here. Want to come with me?”

The Scylla wagged its tail. 

“Of course!” it said eagerly. “A town? Not a city, but a town?”

It could not probably comprehend why its God was living in such a cramped place. 

“It’s called Blackstone Town.” Lark chuckled after seeing the Scylla’s tail wagging once again. “If you let me ride on your back, we could probably reach that place in just a single day.”

The first head immediately spat, “Of course! You can ride us all you want!”

“Great.” Lark grinned. He looked at the ceiling. “But first, we need a way to transport all of the treasures back with us. A way for all of us to leave this labyrinth.”

The first head snorted. “Leave it to us! We know a way out!”

The other heads nodded in agreement. 

Lark was expecting a hidden path or something similar, but it seemed that the Scylla’s ‘way out’ was far simpler than that. 

Without warning, all seven heads looked up, opened their mouths, and started gathering vast amounts of mana in their mouth. Lark was stupefied upon realizing that they planned on boring a hole through the labyrinth using a breath attack. 

Before Lark could utter a word to stop them, all seven heads fired their spells. Beams of light shot out of their mouths and struck the ceiling above. Several violent explosions and shockwaves shook the entire labyrinth. Large rocks and dust fell down as the ground continued rumbling. 

After the dust receded, a large hole was seen on the ceiling. 

And the Scylla started gathering energy in their mouths once again, ready to fire several more spells to bore a way out of this labyrinth. 

Lark pondered if he should stop the creature from destroying this place. In the end, Lark decided that this was probably the best method they had at this moment. The entire giant statue was made of gold, and Lark had no intention of leaving it here alone in the labyrinth. 

After the Scylla made an exit, it could probably carry the entire statue if Lark used gravity magic on it. The Sword of Morpheus was currently filled with mana. Using gravity magic for several hours should be feasible until they arrived at Blackstone Town. 

Without Lark stopping it, the Scylla fired several more spells once again. The entire labyrinth shook as the ‘exit’ continued growing wider. 

Next chapter: 3 days