Moon's Labyrinths

As the blue light all over his vision went away, his feet touched the ground. Sungyoon felt something crumble beneath his feet, so he looked down. He confirmed that he was standing atop the debris of a broken building, and it had collapsed further because of his landing.

‘As expected, there's no sound.’

If he were on Earth, he would have heard a crunch. This situation meant that the air was completely gone from Armstrong city.

Sungyoon looked forward. The city had lost its owners; with no one to turn on the lights, it was dark everywhere. The light leaking through the holes and deep wounds in the outer wall wasn’t enough to illuminate the inner city.

However, since the city was overflowing with magical energy, Sungyoon's vision wasn't obstructed. In fact, he clearly saw that a fierce battle was ongoing around him.

It was unclear whether a lot of monsters were left behind in Armstrong city or the monsters had returned after being baited outside. Whatever the reason was, it couldn't change the fact that right now, a sea of monsters had engulfed the city hall.

Among them, one particular monster caught Sungyoon's eyes.

‘Is that Glaia?’

In terms of outer appearance, she was a ten out of ten. One had to show admiration for her beauty. This was especially true for her upper body, which was exposed for the world to see. However, all the admiration would disappear if one saw Glaia's lower body of a snake.

‘It’ swung its long nails. The Connectors worked in tandem to block her attacks, but it was clear that they were in a difficult situation.

A mountain of corpses lay near them. Most of them were monsters, but some were corpses of Connectors. The number of Connectors' corpses was very small compared to the number of dead monsters, but it was plenty enough.

The Connectors were barely maintaining their battle line, and it was clear that the monsters had the overwhelming advantage. The Connector who had returned through the portal had been right.

Wasting no more time, Sungyoon jumped into the battle line.

The blow felt very heavy. Sungyoon had pushed his shield forward, and he let out a silent groan on feeling the impact when his shield stopped the long snake tail.

As the Connectors looked at him with surprise in their eyes, Sungyoon gestured to them.

Fortunately, one of the Connectors understood his intent. He quickly jumped into the large hole where the safe was present.

‘I have to hold on for a short amount of time!’

Sungyoon checked his body.

‘There's no fear.’

He had felt fear in front of Kevil. If he felt a similar type of fear from Glaia, he wouldn’t be able to fight. Thankfully for Sungyoon, this time, that brand of fear didn't emerge inside him.

Was he immune to it now? Or was there a delta to the manifestation of the fear like when he had fought against Kevil?

The reason didn't matter right now. He would have to analyze the difference at a later time.

‘I can’t feel the power either.’

Sungyoon had felt strength surge inside him when he had chased away Kevil. Not experiencing the same sensation now made him a bit disappointed.

‘It's fine. I don’t have to hold out for long.’

Sungyoon raised his shield and took a firmer grip on his ax.

Glaia’s eyes landed on Sungyoon, and 'it' let out a grin. The corners of her mouth rose in a broad smile.

‘It's a monster. That’s for sure.’

Glaia’s face had changed in a frightening manner. When Sungyoon saw that, he inwardly muttered those words.

He could feel the shock pass through the shield once again.

‘Koo-oohk!’

Even his overclocked Gems couldn't deal with the shock from the impact.

He felt surreal since he couldn’t hear the sound of the attacks, but the heavy damage from the tail rooted him in reality.

‘I won’t be able to last long!’

In fact, Sungyoon was already close to his limits. His hand, which was holding the shield, was shaking. Sungyoon had increased his weight with gravity magic, so at the very least, he wouldn’t be sent flying backward.

However, he wasn’t alone in the fight.

An arrow flew past Sungyoon and went forward to hit Glaia’s shoulder.

Flinch!

The arrow burrowed into Glaia’s shoulder. The tip of the arrow didn’t go in deep; Glaia's soft skin was harder than it looked. However, the attack had stopped Glaia for a brief moment.

‘This is my chance!’

Sungyoon hadn’t let go of his ax even though his other hand had been throbbing from holding the shield.

Throb!

His hand stung. He had aimed for Glaia’s side, but she had dodged the blow. His ax had hit her lower body, which was shaped like a snake, and bounced off Its hard scales. But, he didn’t stop.

Sungyoon shoved his shield forward, and Glaia’s body budged because of the low gravity of the Moon.

Glaia’s eyebrows twitched. Her face became more distorted as she became angrier. She raised her hand to attack, but several arrows flew in toward her. Glaia deflected them and looked toward the source of the arrow attacks.

Aruwen calmly pulled back on his bow once again.

While Glaia was distracted, Sungyoon once again attacked its lower body.

Sungyoon's appearance had given the other Connectors some time to recuperate, and they now swarmed Glaia.

‘Bastards!’

Rage appeared in her eyes.

She hadn’t been putting too much effort into fighting these weak opponents as she considered them trash. However, things had changed with the involvement of Sungyoon and Aruwen. At the very least, Sungyoon and Aruwen got on her nerves.

In her irritation, Glaia swung her lower body in a large arc.

The Connectors quickly retreated.

Glaia had been bitten by the bugs around her. She raised her body into the air.

‘Danger!’

Before Sungyoon had arrived at the battlefield, Aruwen had given him a basic rundown of Glaia’s abilities. The information crossed his mind.

[First, her body is very powerful. It's to be expected since she's an officer amongst the monsters. However, the thing to look out for the most is her attribute. Like Kevil, who has the fire attribute, Glaia also has an attribute. It's weaker than Kevil’s fire, but more troublesome.]

Right now, Glaia was about to use that very troublesome attribute.

‘Poison!’

As expected of a monster shaped like a snake, its attributes were also similar to a snake's. Glaia’s mouth started to move, and a green liquid squirted out of the mouth.

The green liquid came out with a considerable force behind it and covered a good amount of distance.

All the Connectors knew that nothing good would happen if they came into contact with the green liquid, so they quickly dodged.

Monsters were hit in the crossfire, and some of the liquid fell to the surface of the Moon. The liquid looked like saliva, and it was a very dirty attack.

However, the effect of the liquid was frightening.

The monsters and the part of the Moon's surface hit by the poison started melting. Then, the monsters' flesh started bubbling. If there had been air, smoke would have risen from the wounds. The monsters hit let out soundless cries as they rolled on the ground.

They were trying to get rid of the poison by rolling, but it wouldn't work. Suffering great pain till the end, the monsters died.

‘What the hell!’

Sungyoon and the nearby Connectors became horrified at the sight. They were already afraid of dying, yet they had to now worry about dying in extreme pain too. Everyone made a note: dodge the poison at all costs.

Glaia once again spat out her poison. However, the poison attack wasn’t a concentrated stream like before. Now, she spat them in a manner that resembled the flow of a garden hose covered with fingers. Glaia kept spitting out her poison with greater speed and spread.

The Connectors quickly dodged the poison.

However, the poison had a wide spray pattern, so it couldn’t be easily dodged or blocked.

The poison hit some of the Connectors, and they writhed in pain. Even if they wore strong armor, these armors had gaps, and the poison inevitably seeped in through the gaps. The poison would then slowly melt away their bodies.

The Connectors who possessed lesser ranked Gems saw that their armors had started to melt.

The poison was powerful. Moreover, it didn’t discriminate between allies and foes. In fact, the number of monsters hit by the poison was much greater than the number of Connectors. However, the death of these monsters didn't even put a dent in the sea of monsters crowding the city hall.

‘The battle line…!’

The Connectors barely held on as they maintained a disciplined battle line. The tactic was quite effective against the monsters.

This time, Glaia shot her poison to disperse the battle line. The collapse of the battle line would be a much bigger problem than the death of a lot of Connectors.

Thankfully, the battle line didn’t immediately fall thanks to the enormous number of monsters in front of Glaia that were being killed by the poison. They created a buffer to the battle line, but it was only a matter of time before Glaia would breach the battle line.

Small cracks had already appeared in the battle line, and monsters were trying to push through them.

‘Even if we make a line once again, we’ll inevitably disperse if the poison is sent our way again.’

Sungyoon made a fist.

‘Just a little more! We have to hold on!’

The Connector who had gone to retrieve the safe from the basement would be coming up soon.

Sungyoon unfurled his wings and suddenly accelerated forward. Since the poison had killed all the monsters in front of Glaia, a direct path to her had opened up.Glaia was looking toward a different location in a bid to hit an escaping Connector. She shot her poison as if she were playing a game.

Sungyoon instantly arrived in front of Glaia and used the momentum to swing his halberd.

Glaia’s body flinched.

Sungyoon injured her a little bit, and the stream of poison weakened. Before his feet could touch the floor, Sungyoon spun his body and swung his hammer up toward her head.

The hammer struck Glaia’s chin. Thankfully, the power generated by Sungyoon’s hammer was greater than the strength Glaia needed to open her mouth, and the blow forcefully closed the mouth. The poison had nowhere to go now, so it splashed into the surroundings.

Sungyoon once again unfurled his wings and immediately put some distance away from Glaia.

‘I hope the poison works on its body.’

He looked at Glaia, who held her face that was drenched with her own poison.

However, things were never that easy.

Glaia glared at Sungyoon. It was a terrifying sight.

‘Shit! I should've known it wouldn’t work.’

Just when Sungyoon again got into his fighting stance—

Flash!

A bright light exploded above Armstrong city. Even normal humans would be able to see this light.

A Connector stood in front of the portal with a steel box in his hands.

‘Success!’

Sungyoon made a fist. The Connector passed through the portal with the box, and the others, who had been maintaining the battle line, started to retreat too. It had all happened in the blink of an eye.

Portals started to appear all over Armstrong city. All the Connector units sent to the city activated their Flesh Gems containing the copied portal ability. The Connectors blocking the monsters all over Armstrong city quickly returned to the designated locations of the portals.

The battle had lasted a long time, but the retreat was instant.

In a flash, all the Connectors within Armstrong city disappeared.

Hoo-oohk!

The portal near the city hall closed as soon as the last Connector passed through. The monsters rushed toward the portal, but it was futile.

Glaia stared at the location where the portal had been with a dumbfounded expression. A forlorn expression appeared on her face as she realized that her actions had been an exercise in futility.

Sungyoon smirked at the sight.

Glaia glared at him, who was the last one left here. She wanted to dish out her frustration on Sungyoon, but Sungyoon had no plans of being her punching bag.

Sssk!

A portal appeared next to Sungyoon.

Glaia glared and charged at him at an incredible speed.

However, there was still some distance between them, and on top of that, Sungyoon was too close to the portal. Without any hesitation, Sungyoon jumped into the portal, and the portal disappeared at the same time.

Glaia had missed Sungyoon by mere seconds. Her claws passed through space instead of the portal. Sungyoon was gone, and Glaia could only tear apart the ground in her rage.