Moon's Labyrinths

Boom!

The being took a step forward. He was very slow and sluggish, but due to his size, he covered a lot of ground.

『Ah!』

A loud sound rang out. Everyone in the party felt as if the sound had been forcefully shoved into their brain after splitting open their head. It was Grenoid’s voice.

『Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!』

Grenoid roared as he watched space. It was unknown whether he was expressing his joy at gaining freedom or he was cursing at the fact that he had been sealed up until now. It could also be an instinctual roar. The reason didn’t really matter. His voice showed off his overwhelming presence.

Ddoohk!

After Grenoid stopped howling, he started to slowly look at his surroundings.

『Kevil. Glaia. Udocus.』

He mumbled the names of his officers.

『Failed to contact through telepathy. No response. Determined they died to enemies.』

In short, his voice had no character. It reminded the party of a mechanical system instead of a living being.

『Critical damage to Planote’s defense system. Connection to Planote severed. Impossible to assess the current situation.』

“Mr. Sungyoon. Why's he speaking so oddly?”

Tim turned to Sungyoon.

Grenoid was a being that had pretty much exterminated the people of Planote. It was odd for him to talk about Planote's defense. However, it did make some sense.

“Originally, he was a weapon of war Planote made. Some remnant of that could still be inside him.”

‘Does he still think Planote is his ally?’

The people of Planote inwardly denied that possibility. If Grenoid had thought of them as allies, he wouldn’t have driven them to near-extinction.

Soon, another possibility appeared within Sungyoon's head.

‘Maybe, the seal allowed him to gain more control of himself.’

If that were true, it might be good news for humanity. However, Sungyoon didn’t put too much hope into that idea. People were capable of looking at any situation with optimism. Unfortunately, such optimism was rarely rewarded.

Grenoid started to move his head once again.

『Confirmed opposition force hostile toward Planote. Planote. Planote. Planote…』

“Huh?”

Until now, Grenoid had been calm as he assessed the situation. But he started acting oddly.

『Planote’s enemy. Pla...note. Correction. Planote’s enemy. Pl..a..no..te. Correction. Planote’s enemy. Pla...』

“M... Mr. Sungyoon. Something is off with him.”

“I think so too, Mr. Tim. It seems his control is starting to slip.”

‘As expected, the best-case scenario won’t come to pass. His madness hasn’t subsided.’

Reality had crushed the tenuous thread of hope. As Sungyoon thought about it, he saw a group of people run toward Grenoid.

“Mayor, a group is charging toward Grenoid, who's standing in the middle of the crater. Are you carrying out some plan I'm unaware of?”

- No. That shouldn’t be the case. I haven't given any orders. Moreover, all the plans I came up with should be known to you.

‘Then who the hell are they?’

Sungyoon narrowed his eyes as he watched those people run toward Grenoid.

‘I’ve seen them somewhere before.’

- Mr. Sungyoon!

Did he really know them or was it a case of mistaken identity? Sungyoon was about to comb through his memories when the Mayor contacted him.

- They are the traitors who went to the other side along with Hyunwoo Sung! They ran away when we attacked the tower. It seems they have been hiding up until now!

‘I see. That's why they looked familiar.’

Sungyoon had fought the traitors a couple of times.

After his party had entered the tower, Connectors had sealed off the tower's entrance. After that, the traitors had appeared alongside the monsters to attack the Connectors left outside. It was a reason the casualties of the Connectors had steepened.

When monsters had started dispersing because of Udocus's and Hyunwoo's deaths, the traitors had run away too. Now, they scurried out of their hiding spots like cockroaches.

“What are those rats doing here?”

Tim's voice was unfriendly. Of course, he had no reason to speak nicely toward traitors.

“Are they going to ask Grenoid to ensure their safety? I can think of no other reason why they should be approaching him.”

As Grace said, the traitors had mobilized to ask Grenoid to ensure their safety. Their leader, Hyunwoo, was dead. All the officers capable of communicating with the humans were also dead. The only thing left for the traitors were the monsters who had dispersed into the surrounding labyrinths. However, they couldn’t communicate with regular monsters, so they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. And they couldn’t return to humanity; after all, they had committed an unforgivable sin toward it. So they could only rely on Grenoid, whom they had decided to serve.

“Oh-oh. Are you the ruler who will lead us!”

The traitors reached Grenoid. They looked with trust toward the pale giant, who had an oppressive and mysterious air around him. Grenoid couldn’t move properly yet, but he appeared very strong. This giant looked capable of crushing humanity and installing these traitors as the ruler class of Earth. That was what these traitors wanted.

Tul-suhk!

The temporary leader of the traitors went to his knees in front of Grenoid, and the other traitors followed suit.

“Oh, Grenoid!”

The temporary leader raised his hands in the air as if he were the high priest. He then yelled toward Grenoid. Did Grenoid understand him? Grenoid looked down, and when Grenoid reacted to his voice, the temporary leader became emboldened. He started shouting again.

“We are your followers accepted under the wings of Udocus, your faithful servant! Please lead us and crush the wicked humanity! Become the owner of our world!”

If Sungyoon and the Connectors could hear the words of the traitor, they would've clicked their tongue in annoyance. The temporary leader was too shameless. If the traitors could come out of this with their lives, wealth, and power, they would willingly follow Grenoid. If Grenoid allowed them to get revenge on humanity, who had discriminated against them, they would willingly get on their knees.

However, Grenoid didn’t react to the temporary leader's words. He just stared at the traitors with his large eyes. As the temporary leader saw that, worry appeared in his eyes.

Sssk!

Grenoid raised his arm. His movement looked sluggish, but there was incredible power behind it. Therefore, even the strongest of the traitors retreated a step.

“G... Grenoid?”

The temporary leader sounded nervous. He had no idea if Grenoid’s movement would be advantageous or disadvantageous to them. The only certain thing was that an alarm had blared within him. It was a sense of danger he had developed through fighting over the years.

Hoo-oohng!

Grenoid swung his arm. When he had raised his arm, it had been sluggish and slow. However, the speed at which the arm descended couldn’t be compared to before.

Kwahhhhng!

Grenoid slammed his hand on the ground, and the ground shook as if an earthquake had erupted. A cloud of dust rose around Grenoid's feet, revealing a newly-formed small crater in the large crater.

“Mmmmm!”

Tim groaned, and he wasn’t the only one to be surprised. Emily’s eyes widened. She covered her mouth with one hand and gripped her staff with the other so hard that her hand turned white. A cold sweat ran down Sungyoon’s cheek.

‘What power!’

The attack hadn't been anything amazing. Grenoid had just slammed his hand on the ground, yet the ground had trembled. Even if he was an ancient monster, they had never expected such physical prowess from Grenoid.

‘No. The magical energy moved alongside his arm.’

The ambient magical energy had screamed as the arm had dragged it along with the attack. Sungyoon felt it.

‘It has a complete hold over the ambient magical energy.’

Grenoid didn't need to use any techniques. Even his movement were imbued with magical energy. It was a cheat ability.

‘Was that really an attack?’

Grenoid's actions had seemed like someone had swatted an annoying mosquito. It was hard to classify it as an attack.

‘Not all of them are dead.’

Some of the traitors dashed out of the cloud of dust. However, their number was far lesser than before. Moreover, all the survivors were injured.

However, that was it. Sungyoon stopped paying attention to the traitors. For some reason, Grenoid had rejected them, and they no longer had a future.

As if he was satisfied, Grenoid once again looked toward the sky.

『Final attempt at communication. No answer.』

Grenoid retracted his hand from the ground. Was it a trick of the light? It looked as if Grenoid’s eyes had turned redder.

『All communication with Planote has ceased. The civilization of Planote is extinct. The pre-planned sequence will initiate. The final plan will be activated at the end of the civilization.』

A powerful wave of magical energy swirled around Grenoid’s body. Sungyoon once again tapped his communication device.

“It seems we’ll have to fight it, Mayor.”

- I agree. From what I heard, I don't believe we have any other solution.

While the two of them conversed, Grenoid spat out his last words.

『Destroy all the enemies of Planote!』

Boom!

Finally, Grenoid started to move, and a tornado of magical energy followed his movements. Sungyoon and all the other Connectors took up their weapons.

“It seems the final plan was to make Grenoid go berserk! Shit! Why the hell did the people of Planote make such a being? Were they braindead?”

“I agree with your sentiment, but I don’t believe modern humans are any different, Mr. Tim. Humanity has enacted a similar plan. To assure mutual destruction, a massive amount of nuclear weapons are ready to be deployed at any moment.”

“Are you serious!”

Grace’s explanation shocked Tim.

However, Sungyoon had some misgivings about Grace’s explanation.

‘Is that really it? The final plan was to make Grenoid go berserk?’

He doubted it would be neat like that, and on top of that, he was a bit suspicious about "the enemies of Planote."

However, he didn’t have the time to go over such thoughts. Sungyoon pushed down the worry and suspicion in his heart. He didn't completely erase it from his heart; he just compartmentalized it.

Sungyoon and his party members quickly went into the crater. The other Connectors also jumped into the crater from all directions.

- We’ll carry out the plan that we discussed, Mr. Sungyoon. Please do your best to lead Grenoid toward the tower!

“Understood!”

The storm of magical energy got fiercer as they approached Grenoid. It was terrifying. The Connectors felt as if they would die due to the intense movement of magical energy. Sungyoon had never felt such emotions before. He thought about Shinhae and Jimin as he pressed down on his fear. His party members used their own methods to press down on their fears.

Tim exaggeratedly swung his weapons, Emily prayed, and Grace thought about her grandmother, family, and country.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Grenoid strode to move quickly, and it soon neared Sungyoon’s party. Everyone in the party overclocked all of their Gems, and the Gems let out a burning light.

Hweek!

Grenoid swung his arm as if he were trying to swat a bug.

“Hoo-ahhhhhhht!”

Sungyoon swung his sword to oppose the arm.

Kwahhhhhhhng!

The final battle had started.