Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~-Novel

Chapter 60: Labyrinth’s Minotaurs

◆Valkyrie, Shizufae

「Shirone-sama has already departed to enter the labyrinth.」

Kaya-sama replied curtly to Novis.

We weren’t able to meet her yesterday and when we’d gone to the inn she was staying at this morning, she’d already departed.

「Geez, give it up already, Novis…」

「No wa~y, Shizufae!! I’ll make sure that she teaches me this time!!」

I could only heave a sigh as I failed to stop Novis.

「Geez… You’re just bothering Shirone-sama.」

「No way in hell!! I’ll show her how useful I am!! Do you know where Shirone-sama is currently at, Kaya-sama!!?」

Kaya-sama just shook her head, as if giving up upon hearing Novis’ question.

「Shirone-sama and co are currently diving into the labyrinth.」

She replied lightly.

「The labyrinth!!? Then I should be able to guide her!!」

「That’s impossible. The path Shirone-sama and co took are the shortcut that you’re not familiar with.」

「You mean, a secret path?」

「Yes, the secret path. The one you deemed as too dangerous…」

Kaya-sama looked towards the horizon as she told us so.

◆Sword’s Maiden; Shirone

I’m currently diving into the dungeon alone with Kuroki.

In my hand was a map we’d gotten from Novis and co. But really, this map was a useless piece of junk.

If you ask for the reason, it’s because we’re going a route that has never been taken by any other freedom fighter. According to the information that Kuroki extracted from Atlankua, there seems to be a shortcut which would lead us straight into the UG 1st floor beyond the room littered with bugs.

I looked towards Kuroki.

He’s wearing his usual clothes, not the Dark Knight armor. He wasn’t wearing it because I really hated that armor. Naturally, he’ll change into that armor if he deems necessary, but I wish that he won’t wear it aside from that situation. Moreover, it’s nice to be able to have a closer look at his face now that we’re finally alone after a long time.

Hence, that was why his clothes were composed of just simple gear, an ordinary sword, a black mantle, and thick clothing.

「We’re about to arrive at the bug littered room… Are you sure about this, Shirone?」

「Don’t worry about me, Kuroki!!! Bugs are not a big deal!!! I used to catch a lot of rhinoceros beetles in the mountains a long time ago, remember!!」

I smiled wryly as I spoke, recalling the memories of that time.

We used to run around the mountain a long time ago. There were so many nice old memories about catching beetles and climbing trees together.

「Then let’s go and finish this quickly.」

Kuroki walked ahead of me.

I only realized a while later that the bugs littered in the said room weren’t the cute kind like rhinoceros beetles.

But still, they couldn’t stop us.

「Let’s go, Kuroki. We’ll save them for sure this time!!」

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

「Bumomomomo!」

There was currently a Minotaur wielding a double-edged great axe blocking our way.

Double-edged axes were the weapon of choice for Minotaurs, not to mention, it was also the weapon of the Evil God Labrys.

By the way, both Centaurs and Elves preferred the bow and arrow as their weapon of choice while Dwarves preferred an axe or a hammer.

「Incoming! Reiji-kun!」

「I know, Chiyuki!!」

Reiji replied to me with his usual tone.

A Minotaur swung his axe towards Reiji.

In a swift movement, Reiji parried the axe with the sword in his right hand and cut through the Minotaur’s abdomen with the sword in his left hand.

Another Minotaur immediately leaped at us from behind the collapsed one.

But it was no use. They were no match for us.

We defeated one Minotaur after another by using Reiji as the center for our tactic. After an intense combat, we were able to defeat all the incoming Minotaurs.

Following the battle, we decided to take a short break, being currently in UG 7th floor.

It seems that the lake which we’d fought the Tarrasque in was UG 6th floor.

According to the information we’d heard beforehand, it seemed that from UG 7th – 9th floors was an underground city where the Minotaurs lived. The underground cities were spiraling downwards, with canals flowing under those cities that spiraled downward in a similar fashion and carried the water from the lake in UG 6th floor. The cities were also equipped with magic illumination like the one on the 5th floor.

This labyrinth was extremely well constructed. I couldn’t even imagine our home world being built in a similar underground structure as this one.

As we followed the canal from the 6th floor to the 7th floor, we were finally able to enter the city, where we’d met and fought against the group of Minotaurs from earlier.

「Nevertheless, it’s such splendid structure and yet the Minotaurs who live in this city are a savage tribe.」

I took a look at the minotaurs.

They wore splendid sets of armor.

The ones who’d come to attack us seemed to be the soldier-class Minotaurs. And yet, despite having better physiques compared to other Minotaurs, they were still just muscle brained. All they’d kept doing was keep coming at us using the waves tactic.

There were no twists and turns or any sort of complicated tactic. All they’d done was come at us with bloodshot eyes.

Well, they really do act like rampaging bulls.

Moreover, there seemed to be some internal conflict among the Minotaurs as to who would get the women in the group. I wish they’d start those kinds of arguments only after beating us. Well, it made it easier for us to beat them because of that though.

The level of intelligence of the beings that resided in this splendid city was really low.

Maybe this whole space wasn’t created by Minotaurs at all.

「Uuuh…」

「Are you okay, Sahoko-san?」

「Are you okay, Sahoko-san?」

Rino and Nao were comforting Sahoko who was crying on the side.

Apparently, Sahoko was the Minotaurs’ main target.

It seems that Minotaurs prefered women with big breasts. That was why they’d targeted Sahoko, the one with the biggest bust size amongst us. Some of them were even going commando, in other words, n*ked.

Naturally, all of them were cut down by Reiji’s sword of light before they could even reach Sahoko.

But even if she didn’t suffer from any physical damage, any girl would cry if a pervert cow monster flashing their “Burun Burun*” between their legs were rushing at them. [TL : This is Chiyuki’s code for size of pe*n1s]

At times like these, I feel glad that mine aren’t that big.

By the way, the rank from biggest to smallest were Sahoko, Kyouka, Shirone, and lastly, me. Kaya’s were bigger than our smallest duo, aka Rino and Nao, and a little bit smaller than mine.

Sahoko is still crying. That was just how much she was grossed out by those perv minotaurs.

Nevertheless, we must keep going forward.

「Reiji-kun. I heard that it’s not just Princess Euria. The other kidnapped women are also imprisoned in the lower floor.」

We heard that the Minotaurs tortured the captured men to death while the women were g4ng r4ped by them.

For them, women were nothing more than a tool to produce children. Even if they said it was their culture, I couldn’t bring myself to agree with that kind of culture.

「I want to save them if possible… But they might be held captive in an even lower floor.」

Reiji told me so while looking down below.

According to Zuun, only Minotaurs whose strength cut above the rest could leave behind their descendants. They were also granted the privilege of living on the lower floor, closer to the evil god. That’s why the captured women must be held in their prison on the lower floor.

「I see… well they might be just a little bit stronger than these guys.」

I sent a sidelong glance to Sahoko who’d finally managed to get a grip on herself and was currently talking to Rino and Nao.

Maybe the scenery of what happened to those captured women was going to be little bit too much for Sahoko.

「Then it’s okay, no need to worry and just stick by my side.」

Reiji flashed his usual daring smile.

「Y-Yes. You’re right…」

Sahoko stuck by Reiji’s side. She was the kind of girl who would go through a sea of needles and fire as long as Reiji was there. [TL : Typical 2D heroine]

But, Reiji had no idea at all.

He had no idea what kind of face Sahoko had made when he was on the verge of dying due to the Dark Knight’s, Shirone’s childhood friend, attack.

Just how powerful was the Evil God residing in the deepest part of this Labyrinth? Will Reiji suffer the same critical wound as before?

That’s why I should’ve stopped him.

But, my efforts to persuade him were meaningless. He was the kind of person who will ignore any kind of danger just to save a princess.

Naturally, he also involved the rest of us but still…

「EVERYONE, LET’S GO!!」

Everyone of us girls nodded in unison.

Thus, we continued forward even deeper into the labyrinth.

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

「KYA~~~!! GROOOOOOOOOOSSSS!!!!」

Shirone was clearing away the bugs with her flame sword.

This was the scene when we’d entered that bug filled room.

It was just an empty room a while ago, till all kinds of bugs suddenly filled the room, creeping into the room from all crevices.

「Yup, this is… mentally challenging indeed…」

I’ve got no problem if there’s only one or two of them.

But, like hell if anyone can keep their calm when those guys are basically filling the entire room.

The bugs were kinda like small black scarabs which often came out in horror movies. According to Novis and co, these bugs ate any human who dared to enter this room till there was nothing left of them.

Though these bugs didn’t seem to react to Atlankuas or Minotaurs, they were apparently reacting to us. But despite their best efforts, they couldn’t do anything against me, whose whole body was protected by a membrane of black flame, or Shirone, whose body was protected by defense magic.

But all that didn’t change the fact that the bug-filled room was gross.

The Minotaurs didn’t seem to mind it but it was a BIG DEAL for us.

Both Shirone and I were advancing while burning the bugs with our flames. Soon enough, we were able to finally get out of that bug-filled room.

「Fu~h. Finally passing through that gross room huh, Kuroki.」

After dealing with the barrage of bugs, we’d arrived in a spacious room as soon as we exited. Thankfully, this room wasn’t filled with small bugs like the previous one was.

But still, I can feel some presences lurking around this room.

Though there isn’t enough lighting in this room, it isn’t a big deal for me with my night vision.

「Don’t let your guard down, Shirone… there’s something on the ceiling.」

There were giant centipedes that spanned more than 10 meters long clinging to the ceiling of this room.

「UWAAA! What in the Elios is that!!!」

A centipede then fell from the ceiling.

「WAAAH~~~~~~~~~~!!!」

「UWAAA!!」

We hurriedly dodged the falling centipede. Well it might not be able to hurt us physically, but it doesn’t mean that I wasn’t grossed out by its appearance.

Both Shirone and I held up our swords at the ready as we faced off against the centipede.

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

After descending down the giant staircase, we finally arrived at UG 11th floor.

「Somehow, the atmosphere here seems to be different from the previous floor…」

It’s just how Nao had said; the atmosphere here was greatly different compared to the previous floor.

The ceiling of this floor was supported by numerous pillars lined up in an orderly fashion. Somehow, this scene reminded me of Rena’s temple in the Holy Republic of Lenaria.

Additionally, there was a crest of a double-edged axe carved into the pillars. It was the Evil God Labrys’ crest, the ruler of this dungeon.

It seems that what awaits us beyond this point is the Minotaur sanctuary.

「Everyone, proceed with caution.」

「Roger, Chiyuki.」

「Understood, Chiyuki-san.」

「Okay, Chiyuki-san.」

「Yes. We’ll return to the surface safely.」

Everyone nodded in response to my words.

We moved to advance through the 11th floor.

「It seems there’s no one here…」

「I don’t think there’s any Minotaurs left after the fierce battle in the 10th floor.」

Just as Reiji said, there was a fierce battle on the 10th floor. There were numerous captured women on that floor with many Minotaur soldiers protecting that place.

Naturally, we won the battle and freed those women, but…

I recalled the scene when we’d released the captured women.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t something like a cruel scene like I’d expected. The women ate delicious food and wore nice clothes. Honestly speaking, it looked like they lived far better lives than the low-rank Minotaurs.

Seeing a scene like that made it even more difficult for us to save those women.

I mean, some of them chose to remain in this labyrinth rather than be freed.

One of them had said that there were so many good things in this labyrinth that were unobtainable in the outside world and thus refused to leave this place.

She might not have a good impression of the outside world.

But now, we were going into this dungeon to defeat the Evil God who rules over this labyrinth. I have no way of knowing what will happen to this labyrinth once we defeat the Evil God. This was why we’d put those women who’d refused to leave into a deep sleep using magic and teleported them outside.

They might complain later though.

I could already imagine the oncoming headache when I will have to deal with the complaints from those women.

PON!

Suddenly, someone patted my head.

Turning around, I found out that the culprit was Reiji.

「You seem to be worried over this matter, Chiyuki. Well don’t think too much about it, I’ll do something about this matter for you.」

Reiji spoke reassuringly with his usual refreshing smile.

This guy was really sharp when it came to these kinds of matters.

「Look at you, saying those irresponsible words… again. And I’m definitely not troubled at all.」 [TL : Look at you, digging your own grave]

I glared at Reiji as I retorted.

This guy was always like this. Always saying such honeyed words.

And yet, he always did keep his promises.

「I see, well I guess I’ve no choice if you’ve said so.」

Reiji calmly replied.

Just how many women fell for this same phrase I wonder?

But well, all is well now.

「EVERYONE, LET’S GO!!」

「「「O~h!!」」」

We advanced deeper into the labyrinth while letting out a determined shout.

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

After defeating the giant centipede, we proceeded to go further down while following the shortcut path we heard of from the Atlankua.

As we arrived at the lower floor, we were met with swarms of Antlions.

Antlion, also known as Myrmecoleo was a demon beast with the upper half of lion and lower half on an ant and were born between a male lion and ant eggs. [TL : Google for Myrmecoleo]

The Antlions rushed at us as soon as they saw us.

They were beasts that hardly died from starvation since they were omnivores.

「HEYAAAH!!!」

Shirone kept swinging her sword, cutting down one Antlion after another.

My eyes followed her and I ended up being charmed by her graceful movements. Her movements were truly beautiful, like that of a sword dance.

Not to mention, the sight of bare thigh that sometimes peeked out from below us mini skirt. My gaze ended up locking onto that very scene.

Shirone continued to swing her sword, twisting and turning her body with every step as if she was weightless. Before long, she’d annihilated the Antlion swarm.

After finishing off the last of the Antlions, she was looking at me as she sheathed her sword.

Oh crap, she seems irritated by something.

「I feel unpleasant gaze since a while ago but…」

She was literally glaring at me.

「I… I’m definitely not peeking at all!!」

I unintentionally blurted out my thoughts.

How did you know about that!!!

「Well, it’s way too obvious you know…」

「…………」

「…………」

An awkward silence dominated the place for a long minute.

「My apologies.」

I apologized obediently.

「Look into my eyes when you’re apologizing, Kuroki…」

Shirone made a perplexed face as she told me so.

「My deepest apologies…」

「I wear shorts below my skirt though. Do you really enjoy it that much?」

Shirone was flipping her skirt up.

Since she put on shorts below her skirt, I couldn’t see her underwear at all. Or so she thought.

「I know that already but, Shirone…」

「Is something the matter?」

「I suggest that you’ll be more careful when you’re jumping around, I mean… I can see… your underwear… from the gap of your shorts.」

「WHA!!!!?」

Shirone was glaring daggers at me when I told her about the weakness of her shorts.

「Wait a minute!! So you peeked at me!?」

「Nay, rather… You showed it to me you know…」

I would’ve kept my mouth shut, but at this rate, she won’t ever notice it for as long as she lives unless I pointed it out to her.

「Mu~uh!! Don’t peek again, EVER!!」

Shirone was groaning as she continued to glare at me.

「Uuh, my bad then… I’ll fight in the front then. That way I can’t peek anymore.」

I then took the lead, walking in front of Shirone.

I mean, it’s natural for a girl to hate being peeked at by someone who isn’t her lover. That of course included me, her childhood friend. But then again, I just saw it by accident, that’s all.

I didn’t wish for Shirone to hate me either.

So, it was best for me to walk in the front so I won’t see that scene by accident anymore.

「Kuroki… You dummy. I know that your eyes were always locking on my butt.」

I’ve got no idea what Shirone was whispering about behind me, but I only know that her mood seems to have improved somewhat.

Thank goodness, it seems she isn’t really pissed off from that.

「That’s why I said “I’m sorry”… I promise that I won’t peek again.」

I apologized without turning around to look at Shirone.

Yes, I won’t peek anymore. Shirone already has a boyfriend after all.

「Shall we keep going like this then?」

After advancing for a while, a new swarm of Antlions appeared behind Shirone.

「Sorry I take my words back just now, let me deal with it!!!」

Thus we advanced while slaying one Antlion after another.

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

「You went too far, Reiji-kun!! Nao-san, you go and protect Rino-san and Sahoko-san!!」

I used an explosion spell while giving the order to Reiji and Nao.

My spell blew off several minotaur soldiers at once.

After descending to the 12th floor, the Minotaur soldiers were now blocking our advance.

They might be the last line of defense trying to stop us from moving forward.

They’re a bit of a nuisance since they came along with Golems for defense, but still, their strength was a far cry from ours.

We were able to easily defeat both the Minotaurs and the Golems. And, since there was no barrier here like the one on the 5th floor that locked us inside, we were practically unstoppable.

「Is this the last of them?」

Rino asked while looking at the countless defeated Minotaurs.

「It seems this is all of them. Let’s go and defeat that evil god.」

「No… This isn’t all of them, Rino, Chiyuki.」

Reiji was looking towards the deepest part of the passage.

A Minotaur has been waiting for us there this whole time.

That Minotaur wasn’t wielding any weapon and his physique was smaller compared to other Minotaurs.

「Are you… Zuun?」

I remembered him clearly. He was Zuun, the Minotaur who’d betrayed us on the 5th floor.

「You’ve finally appeared before us huh.」

Reiji gripped his sword and readied himself, preparing to attack Zuun.

「Wait, Reiji-kun!! Let me to talk to him!!」

I stopped Reiji.

「What are you going to talk about to a guy who betrayed us, Chiyuki?」

「Something has been weighing on my mind since a while ago. Please, let me to talk to him, Reiji.」

Reiji lowered his sword at hearing my plea.

「I understand, but make it brief.」[TL : I hate this act]

「Thanks Reiji.」

I went towards Zuun.

「Chiyuki-sama… Mhoo.」

Zuun was looking at me with a sad expression on his face.

「Zuun… I intended to treat you kindly and yet…」

Zuun might be the weakest Minotaur in this labyrinth.

He was treated like a slave by the other Minotaurs.

I’d intended to treat him, the poor Zuun, kindly.

「I only do this because I’ve no choice but to do this mhoo… I can’t even imagine what will become of me if Chiyuki-sama left this place…」

「That’s…」

I was at loss for words.

Because he was right. I didn’t even think about what would happen to Zuun after we beat the Evil God.

He might be killed by the other Minotaurs without us here to help him.

「Then… How about you leave this labyrinth with us? That way you’ll survive.」

I offered the first idea that came to mind.

But, Zuun shook his head in refusal.

「There’s no way the humans will accept a human eater like Zuun… Mhoo.」

I received another shock at hearing his words.

I’d forgotten the fact that Zuun was a Minotaur too, and Minotaurs ate humans.

「I can only live in this place mhoo… My life will be spared as long as I can prevent Chiyuki-sama and the others from leaving this place mhoo…」

「Zuun, you…」

The Minotaur before me was truly living a pitiful life.

Then I recalled the legend about the Minotaurs.

Minotaurs, the creatures born between the King Minos’ Queen and a cow, were locked up in the labyrinth to keep their man-eating habits in check.

The fact that he was born in and itself was a sin.

And just like that legend, Zuun had no other place to live except for this labyrinth.

Someone had planted that kind of suggestion in his mind.

It was at that moment I noticed that Zuun wasn’t the one who wanted to kidnap Princess Euria. Zuun was only a puppet in the hands of the mastermind.

「But still… I don’t wish to see Chiyuki-sama hurt either, mhoo. That’s why, Chiyuki-sama… Please stop, don’t go even further mhoo. Labrys-sama is strong, mhoo. You can still make it in time if you run now, mhoo!!」

Zuun pleaded to us with desperation.

「Thank you, Zuun. But still, what will become of you if we escaped from this place?」

「…………」

Zuun fell into silence and looked troubled at my words.

It seems he especially waited for us here to warn us.

「Moreover, we have to save Princess Euria.」

Zuun shook his head the moment he heard my words.

「No need to worry about her mhoo… That person is Labrys-sam—-MHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!」

Zuun’s body was suddenly wrapped in fire.

「ZUUN!!?」

I was too late. By the time I was able to reach him, Zuun had already been turned into a pile of ashes.

「Zuun… Why…」

I kneeled down where he was standing just a moment ago, picking up Zuun ashes. Resurrection was impossible since his body had turned into ashes.

「Chiyuki…」

「Chiyuki-san.」

Everyone came after me.

「Only death awaits a betrayer!!」

Suddenly, I heard a hoarse voice coming from above.

「WHO’S THERE!?」

I was looking up but I couldn’t see the source of the voice anywhere.

「Come down to meet me, Rena’s hero!! Don’t ever think about leaving this place!!」

The mysterious voice disappeared as soon as it said those words.

「Let’s go, Chiyuki!!」

Reiji offered his hand to me.

「Yeah… Reiji-kun.」

I took his hand to help prop myself up again.

「Are you okay, Chiyuki-san?」

Sahoko asked with a worried look on her face.

「I’m okay… Let’s get going. I won’t feel good until I kicked the ass of that Evil God.」 [TL : IN YOUR DREAMS!!]

I raised my head. The voice just now might have been the Evil God’s voice. He might be monitoring us from somewhere.

Thus, we proceeded towards the 13th floor, the place where the Evil God has been waiting for us.

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

Shirone and I were quickly advancing through the labyrinth with me taking on the vanguard role.

The passage we were using was wide enough for 30 people to be standing side by side.

We should be close to reaching the end of this shortcut.

「Wait, Kuroki!!」

Shirone suddenly called out to me.

「Is something the matter, Shirone?」

I turned around and asked her, confused why she’d called out to me.

「Geez, why are you not looking over here!! You basically defeated all those monsters by yourself to the point that I don’t even get my turn!!」

Shirone complained to me.

「But… you’re angry when I saw….」

Shirone was angry since my eyes were always locking onto her butt before.

Since the current me was still basically the embodiment of worldly desires due to the effects from Kuna’s strange drug, my eyes could basically not stop themselves from locking onto her butt.

That’s why, at this point, her request to fight more monsters was akin to asking me to peep up her skirt.

In addition, Shirone’s guard was too loose.

I think she has no idea that she’s always attracting unpleasant gazes from men due to that.

「You can close your eyes right!?」

Honestly, I was at loss when she asked for the impossible.

I continued to walk in silent since I decided that she was being unreasonable with her demand.

「Wait, Shirone!!」

I stopped Shirone who was about to launch another barrage of complaints.

There was something blocking our path.

It looked to be a knight standing at about two meters tall donned in brass colored armor. It was equipped with a huge sword in its hand and a pair of large wings on its back.

「What is that…」

Shirone said so while looking at the knight.

「It might be the guardian of this shortcut. I think it’s called Talos by its creator, Heibos.」

According to the information that I heard from the Atlankua, Heibos had created Talos as the guardian of this passage.

I also have some information about Talos from its own creator, Heibos.

Even though it was made of metals just like any other golems, what differentiated it from other golems was the magic blood called Ichor* that was flowing through its body. [TL* : Ichor : God’s blood in greek myth, feel free to google it yourself]

The existence of that blood made Talos an existence closer to human rather than a golem.

「Stop right there. You’ve no permission to pass through this passage.」

Talos’ voice rang out in the passage as it noticed us approaching. It had a refreshing, genderless voice.

Heibos had granted it an edo when he created Talos, thus allowing Talos to speak.

「Get back Shirone. This guy is a rather troublesome opponent.」

I drew my sword.

I heard that Talos, the guardian of this passage, was made of orichalcum.

Orichalcum was an enchanted alloy that was created from a copper-like metal called Halcon.

This orichalcum was an extremely tough metal. A normal sword couldn’t even hope to scratch it. But, my demon sword should be able to slice it like a block of tofu.

「Wait right there, Kuroki. I mean, I almost never get the chance to fight since you defeated all incoming monsters so far.」

Shirone walked ahead of me while drawing her sword.

Her transparent, bluish sword blade was shining with a pale blue light.

It seems that the sword was specially made for Shirone. It might be strong enough to match Talos.

「But, I can see THAT you know…」

Shirone glared at me as I pointed it out.

「If you really don’t want to see it, JUST TURN AROUND!」

「That’s even more impossible. I mean, I can’t react fast enough if something unexpected happens during the fight. And it’s not like I don’t want to see it either. It’s the opposite, I want to see Shirone’s beautiful long legs so much to the point that I wanted to lick it.」

I declared fearlessly while making a guts pose with my right hand.