Chapter 367: 367 - Behold, the Strongest Human

Verdia had a dream.

Or at least, that was how it always seemed to anyone watching from the outside.

While directing her Summoned Spirits to help construct and reinforce the outskirts of the Oasis, her gaze suddenly turned completely clouded and vacant.

The natural blue in her pupils vanished, replaced by a smooth, opaque silver, dull as metal.

The next instant, she went still, locked in a trance.

Her ability as a Soothsayer Miko was manifesting once again. She was witnessing a dangerous future.

A nearby beast warrior was the first to notice, and he immediately panicked, believing his commander had fallen prey to some kind of strange magic.

His shout made others turn, and within seconds the commotion spread. Soldiers rushed forward with weapons drawn, mages braced themselves to react, and the uproar swelled with alarming speed.

Jino noticed the disturbance almost at the same moment.

Even from a distance, he crossed the Oasis in an instant.

The soldiers barely had time to register him. One moment they were still surrounding Verdia in tense confusion, and the next Jino was already at the center of the chaos, stopping the panic before it could spiral out of control.

He calmed the soldiers, and it did not take long for everyone to understand that this was not an attack.

So Jino waited patiently, silently observing the mystical powers of the Disaster Witch.

Verdia’s Summoned Spirits, however, were even more alarmed than the soldiers. The moment they realized their mistress had entered that state, they instinctively gathered around her, forming a rigid guard.

Even when Jino assured them she was unharmed, they refused to move, remaining close like vicious hounds.

That left him helpless.

Jino could only stand there, facing a coalition of agitated spirits who clearly had no intention whatsoever of trusting him in this matter.

Meanwhile, Verdia had begun to break into a cold sweat.

Her breathing turned uneven.

Though her body remained motionless, it looked as though it were enduring some kind of pressure.

She was witnessing a future very close at hand.

And very bad.

A few minutes later, she finally awoke.

Her eyes returned to normal all at once, and her breathing caught for a second.

But unlike what Jino had expected, she wasted no time describing what she had seen.

Without saying a word about the Vision, Verdia immediately ordered the Legion to fully mobilize for an all-out assault on the final floors of the Labyrinth.

----

Closer to the center of the Ever-White Oasis stood the elites of the Kingdom of Gaia and their most capable allies.

Several warriors kept constant watch over the entrance to the Labyrinth with unshakable confidence. Their last battle had been a crushing victory, so naturally the armies of the Iron Legion were riding at the height of their morale.

Spirits were high, the initiative was still in their hands, and among the soldiers the prevailing feeling was that the siege was unfolding exactly as it should.

And yet, at the same time, Aisha had a headache.

All because of Verdia’s report.

At that moment, only she, Taes, and the elf herself were inside the tent. Aisha sat behind a table covered in reports and magical communicators.

Outside, the Legions were already beginning to prepare for a new invasion, one that had not exactly been part of her plan.

Aisha spoke in a tense voice.

"Say that again."

She was addressing Verdia.

The elf was dressed in dark brown leather armor, her hair tied back, her expression more serious than usual. Calmly, she repeated herself.

"We only have nine hours before Hitogami’s apostles revive their target."

Taes frowned at once.

"But if they could do that, why didn’t they do it earlier?"

Verdia slowly shook her head.

"I don’t know either. But from what I saw in the vision of the future, it looked like an incomplete resurrection... perhaps they were always capable of doing it, but that was never the original plan." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Aisha finished the thought immediately.

"So you’re saying they’re going to use a desperate measure to complete the resurrection ritual ahead of schedule?"

Verdia nodded.

"That was the impression I got."

Aisha and Taes fell silent.

Up to now, the situation had been favorable because they still held the initiative. That was what had made the Iron Legion’s advance so steady and relentless until now.

They controlled the pace and forced the enemy to respond, not the other way around.

But pushing blindly through the Labyrinth’s final floors was madness.

Even so, at that point it seemed like their only option.

Verdia’s Vision of the Future had shown with perfect clarity that the resurrected enemy killed Nina, Ghislaine, and Kilian with a single blow.

And that was only the beginning of the battle.

She had not been able to see the final outcome, of course. Even so, that alone was enough to shatter whatever room for comfort remained.

Of course, the situation was not a complete loss. One also had to consider that Aisha was not affected by Verdia’s Vision of the Future.

In practice, she was a piece that could completely alter that terrible result. Aisha was not certain, but she had the impression that Orsted was in the same position, a piece of instability, and perhaps even her brother Rudeus as well.

But in the end, that was all it came down to.

She might completely change the outcome... or she might not.

As the commander of that operation, Aisha was not willing to gamble. Not only because the people involved were close to her, but also because she had no confidence that she could change the result against an opponent that terrifying.

Aisha looked at Verdia as she rose to her feet, already taking up her blade and preparing to leave.

"Are you certain about his identity? You can’t be wrong?"

Verdia answered without hesitation.

"Some details are still clouded, but that much is as clear as the sun. I have no doubt about who he is."

That only made Aisha more tense.

She glanced at Taes for a moment, then turned back to Verdia.

"Do you think Jino can face him...?"

Verdia smiled briefly.

Then she said something that sent a chill crawling up Taes’s spine.

"Aisha... I’m not even sure Rygar can face him..."

Aisha’s brows drew together at once.

"We leave immediately. Nine full hours. That’s more than enough time to cross this entire Labyrinth!"

Taes vanished on the spot, without a word of argument.

Aisha strode past Verdia and threw one last command behind her.

"Inform Master about this, and ask how things stand on his side!"

The armies did not understand the sudden urgency of their commanders.

But they were not there to understand.

They were there to obey.

And only a few minutes later, the Iron Legion launched one final push into the deepest floors of the Ever-White Labyrinth.

----

On the final floor, the hundredth level of the Ever-White Labyrinth, an enormous purple crystal stood at the center of a vast hall.

If that crystal had been shown to the adventurers and mercenaries who once occupied the Oasis, many of them would have gone mad on the spot.

Even those who had retreated, those who had fled in terror after discovering that the Labyrinth was nothing more than a slaughterhouse built by Kensai, might have changed their minds the moment they saw it.

They might have descended its floors once more, even knowing full well what awaited them.

Because that crystal was too large, too brilliant.

It drew the eye in a way that was almost indecent, as though it stood above every treasure in the world.

Not only because of the promise of power it held, but because the crystal itself radiated an almost divine aura, hypnotic and intoxicating, easily capable of ensnaring weaker hearts.

A specialist in Resurrection Stones would have known at a glance that this crystal could revive even a being who had lived thousands of years ago.

And that was something monumental.

The largest stone ever found before this one, excluding this relic, could only revive someone who had been dead for a little over a hundred and fifty years.

This stone transcended every ordinary standard. It was an object that should never have existed.

The crystal was submerged in a pool of dark red liquid.

A pool of blood.

Around it, the cavernous hall seemed to throb like a living organ. Glowing purple veins spread along the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, stretching throughout the entire Labyrinth like the roots of some monstrous tree.

An apparently endless stream of energy continued to flow into the colossal Resurrection Stone, drawn into it without pause.

That energy, of course, came from the recent massacre carried out by Hitogami’s apostles.

The Ever-White Labyrinth fed on death in order to create life.

And its final floor held the greatest and finest Resurrection Stone of all.

But that was not the only thing there. Beside the gigantic stone stood a Troll.

Yet this Troll looked nothing like the fearsome, violent Immortal Barbarian Trolls, nor like the Giant Trolls scattered throughout the Labyrinth’s many floors.

He was small and gaunt. Only three meters tall, which was tiny for a Troll, since even the most ordinary of them averaged four.

And the differences did not end there.

This strange Troll was covered in scars. Half his fingers were gone, and where they should have been there were only hideous stumps, marked by old wounds.

His skin was rough and red, dry as old leather, likely the hide of an ancient Troll. One of his eyes was white and covered by a long scar that ran from his forehead all the way down to his chest.

His thinness was so extreme it could be seen even through the ceremonial robe he wore. He looked like a dried stick wrapped in flesh.

But there was something deeply wrong about him. Miserable as his body was, he was sinister as the devil.

His face was terrifying, deeply wrinkled, with grotesquely prominent fangs jutting from his mouth, each more than twenty centimeters long.

In his hands, he held a... staff?

Or perhaps a scepter.

It was a piece of twisted black wood adorned with colorful feathers, with a pink gemstone carved into the shape of a claw fixed at its tip.

The old Troll swayed that staff rhythmically toward the enormous purple crystal, and pink and violet energy answered the movement.

In a rasping voice, raw and guttural, the Troll chanted.

"Moktar drukk-esh... Grakh nal ugh... Zhur nakh thro..."

There was no one else there to witness the strange ritual of that solitary Troll.

But the pool of blood seemed to answer his words in a way no one would have been able to ignore.

The crimson surface shuddered in obedience to the cadence of that sinister chant. The purple veins in the walls glowed in time with the sound, as though the entire Labyrinth were listening.

"Ugh’ma skar... Ugh’ma grakh... Ugh’ma zhur-thro...!"

The old Troll continued manipulating the ritual.

This was the Final Boss of this sinister Labyrinth.

And behind his single visible iris, traces of a strange, deformed dark slime could be seen.

A Slime known as the Nether King, accustomed to dominating the minds of powerful beings. Vita believed he had the Troll under control. In truth, everyone believed the Troll was under control.

Only one despicable god knew the true danger posed by the ancient magic of that sinister and ancient Troll.

But that despicable god had not the slightest interest in warning his allies.

It was in his nature. It was his core, the essence of what he was.

He was accustomed to betraying those who worked with him, and he would not stop even in the face of imminent death. Betrayal was part of him, as natural as breathing.

But for now, no one was worried about that.

Vita had occupied the mind of the dangerous Troll without much concern. Geese, Badigadi, or Kensai—not one of them had imagined that even in the face of such catastrophe, Hitogami would still dare scheme in the shadows against his own allies.

Or perhaps they did know.

But perhaps none of them cared that much.

The Troll was drawing ever closer to his goal, staring at the body floating mystically within the crystal.

A human.

A very beautiful human with short blond hair.

Though his lifeless eyelids were slightly parted, they revealed beautiful, deep white eyes. A man who, despite having been dead for thousands of years, still wore a serene smile on his face.

His mere presence made people want to trust him. It was such a gentle, angelic presence that even the ancient Troll found himself confused by it as he stared at the corpse, despite knowing it was dead.

The most powerful apostle Hitogami had ever possessed across thousands of years.

Above Badigadi, an Immortal Demon wearing the Fighter God Armor.

Above Ars, the human who bore six sacred artifacts and fought the demons at the height of their power.

Above even one of the First Dragon Generals and the foremost retainer of the First Dragon God, the Saint Dragon Emperor Slizard.

This was a human being who had existed six thousand years ago.

The human who founded the greatest Holy Order ever seen in the Six-Faced World.

The human capable of splitting a continent in half with a single stroke of his sword.

The one Hitogami knew, with absolute certainty, to be "the strongest human ever to exist."

The Holy Knight.

Saint Millis.

Inside the crystal, his pupil trembled ever so slightly.

So little that it would have gone unnoticed by almost anyone.

----

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