Moon's Labyrinths

‘We have to push through as fast as possible.’

Sungyoon looked at the horde of monsters with nervous eyes. It didn’t matter whether it was a small or a large monster, whether it was a powerful or a weak monster. Every monster charged toward the Connectors as their red eyes flashed. It was a blind charge without any formation or a plan, and the intensity of the charge made the monsters look even more menacing.

The Connectors didn’t plan on fighting all the monsters by themselves.

Puh-uhng! Puh-uhng!

The combat vehicles lined up in the front started to shoot their Mana Knight shells. The main reason the Connectors had insisted on traveling through the land was to bring along a massive artillery force. If they had tried to fly these artilleries through space, they would have to burn a lot of time and resources. The land route had been the only feasible option.

The Mana Knight shells were focused on two locations. One was a region where the monsters were denser than usual, and the other was a direct path leading to the tower.

‘This is going better than I expected.’

A monster bared its teeth as it charged toward Sungyoon, but he cut it in half.

The Connectors had killed a lot of monsters in a short time, but a massive number of monsters appeared once again from near the tower. It almost made every Connector cuss out loud.

The problem remained that the Connectors weren’t defending a fixed location. They had to push through the sea of monsters. It was always going to be hard, but it made one wonder if it was possible to push through so many monsters.

However, Sungyoon had worried for nothing. The Connectors got into a wedge formation and easily pushed through.

‘I guess I should've expected it. Even they couldn’t recover so easily from losing so many monsters.’

The monsters near the tower were numerous, but their number was less than that of the monsters in the battle to defend Armstrong city. Moreover, the quality of monsters was also lower.

Some powerful monsters occasionally appeared, but powerful Connectors like Sungyoon, Tim, Russell, and Bruce easily killed them.

‘The Corpse Gems have been a big help.’

Sungyoon’s movements were faster and stronger than normal. Each of his swings cut through monsters as if they were paper.

‘The artillery fire support is also quite helpful.’

The advanced weaponry meant that the cannons could hit the monsters with great precision. If Connectors showed signs of stalling in their advance, the artillery destroyed the monsters in their path in big chunks.

‘We can do this!’

Sungyoon felt his confidence buoy, and it seemed he wasn't the only one who felt that way. The Connectors became bolder in their movements; their attacks also became more powerful.

However, when they reached the halfway point, their progress considerably slowed down.

‘It can’t be helped.’

The monsters that were spread around the tower started to focus and converge on the Connectors. This situation couldn’t be compared to before; the strength of the monsters didn't matter as they created a wall of bodies. Even after cutting down numerous monsters, Connectors could take only a step forward.

“Please stall them for some time!”

Grace yelled. She had been running at the center of the formation until now, away from the battle.

Hearing her voice, all the Connectors came to a stop at once. They pushed back the nearby monsters as they got into a defensive formation.

In the middle of this formation, Grace raised her hand.

Woooooooong!

Her hand started to emanate light. The light was so bright that the blinded monsters floundered. The Connectors had their backs against the light, yet they had also almost gotten blinded.

‘She’s just preparing her spell, yet it made our lives easier.’

Sungyoon, who couldn’t open his eyes, thought so as he blindly struck out toward the monsters.

Several dozen seconds passed.

“Everyone between me and the tower should move aside right now!”

Grace yelled once again. The Connectors who had been blocking the monsters from the front quickly moved to the sides.

In a flash, a hole appeared in the defensive formation, leaving only countless monsters between Grace and the distant tower.

Grace stretched her hand out.

Flash!

A light shot forward.

Puhhhhhhhhng!

The air's temperature sharply rose as the superheated light traveled in a straight line, burning everything in its path. The light stayed in existence for a very short amount of time, but that was enough.

Wherever the beam of light passed, the ground turned black as smoke rose. No living beings remained alive on top of this charred land.

“Ooh-wahhhhhh!”

Exclamations rang out one after the other. However, they weren't sounds of admiration; they were closer to sounds a terrified person would make.

Sungyoon agreed with their sentiment.

‘This is the power of a Diamond Gem with all kinds of buffs!’

The light magic that Grace had used just now was her new spell from the Diamond rank Gem.

A Diamond rank Gem was the highest-ranked Gem, so of course, its power would be incredible. The Gem was terrifying on its own, yet Grace had used numerous support spells. As if that weren’t enough, she also used the Corpse Gems and the Mage Gem. It resulted in her destroying all the monsters standing in the path of the beam of light.

Grace was frozen. Even though she had cast the spell, the result left her stupefied. The peerless Russell and Bruce looked baffled by what they saw, while Plu-El and Aruwen dumbfoundedly glanced toward Grace.

“H... hurry up! Move!”

Russell recovered faster than others and yelled. The Connectors came back to their senses, and they resumed their dash to the tower. They had to reach their destination before the monsters closed the opened-up path.

Even though they were running, the Connectors kept glancing at Grace. Her spell had been so powerful that even the mighty Russell had stumbled over his words for a moment, so these Connectors' reactions were understandable.

‘When she tested it out near Armstrong city, she made a hole through a nearby hill.’

Sungyoon remembered Chelsea and the researchers being shocked by the spell.

Thanks to Grace’s spell, the Connectors reached the tower in short order. Monsters had started to get in their way once again, but these monsters were few in number. That was why the Connectors could push past the monsters.

“We broke through!”

Bruce, who was leading from the front, yelled. In no time, the Connectors had reached the tower.

“Aside from those who will guard our backs, let's quickly climb the tower!”

At Russell's shout, a portion of the Connectors turned to fight the monsters rushing toward them. The rest started climbing the rock structure, which somewhat looked like a tree.

‘I guess the Great Labyrinth is in here.’

This rock structure had risen from the ground, and many assumed that it was the Great Labyrinth.

Sungyoon glanced downward.

‘Even a Connector won’t be fine if they fall from this distance.’

They had climbed up the rock structure so far that they could only see darkness when they looked down.

Sungyoon put more strength into his hands, which were holding onto the stalk of rock, without realizing it.

“Doesn’t it feel like we're in some fairy tale? What was it called? Jack and the Beanstalk?”

Tim spoke.

“It does seem we are in a similar situation.”

Sungyoon had read that fairy tale before; he had read it to Shinhae several times.

“It isn’t completely like the story.”

Sungyoon took out his halberd.

“At the very least, Jack wasn’t interrupted when he climbed the beanstalk.”

Numerous monsters were climbing down the stalks from above. They were arachnoides or centipedes who could freely climb down the rock structure.

“Tsk. Monsters!”

Russell clicked his tongue as he yelled at Connectors climbing below him.

“I want you to observe the movements of these monsters. If they get close, get on top of a stalk and fight them! If we're hanging from the stalk, we’ll be at a great disadvantage!”

Thankfully for the Connectors, the stalks making up the Great Labyrinth were very thick, and many locations had an almost flat surface. The Connectors could fight in such locations.

“Mages! We have to protect the mages!”

As always, the safety of the mages had to be prioritized.

Sungyoon looked at his surroundings. Emily and Grace weren’t too far away from him.

“Mr. Tim! You should take the lead! Ms. Emily and Ms. Grace, you should stick close to me as we move up!”

Since speed was a priority, the Connectors had scattered to quickly climb the tower. However, they grouped up once again now. Most of them got together to form parties.

Kwah-jeek!

Sungyoon pierced his halberd through the head of a monster with sharp mandibles. The monster’s red eyes dimmed.

“Ahhhhhhk!”

A scream reverberated through the air. The sharp leg of a monster had pierced through a nearby Connector’s leg.

Without any hesitation, Sungyoon threw his ax.

Kwah-doo-doohk!

The ax pierced through the hard exoskeleton, and the monster thrashed. Soon, as the poison spread throughout its body, it trembled. Sungyoon tried his best to help the Connectors around him, but he was limited in how much area he could cover.

Casualties started to mount in ones and twos, yet the Connectors resolutely climbed the structure.

‘The air….’

The loud sounds of battle from the Moon's surface started to fade away. The group of Connectors had moved past the layer of air that had settled near the ground.

After they desperately climbed the Great Labyrinth for some time...

‘We’ve arrived!’

Sungyoon’s party arrived in front of the tower. Sungyoon looked up at the tower. He couldn’t see a single window. The tower looked like an obelisk where the structure became sharper toward the top.

‘We won’t be able to enter from the top.’

They would have to use the conventional method of going through the entrance.

‘What if there's no entrance?’

Sungyoon thought about the worst-case scenario as he thoroughly searched the tower. Thankfully, his ominous feelings didn't come true.

One of the Connectors waved his hands in an exaggerated manner to get everyone’s attention. He then pointed at a certain region in the tower.

‘Entrance!’

The Connectors gathered around the entrance. Russell and the others started to communicate through hand signals.

‘As expected, the inability to speak is very inconvenient.’

Sungyoon focused on the movements of Russell’s hands.

‘Part of us will stay here to block the monsters. The rest will enter the tower.’

The plan was already made beforehand. Russell was just going over it as a reminder. Of course, Sungyoon and his party members were part of the group that would enter the tower.

At Russell's signal, the Connectors started entering the tower.

As soon as they stepped inside, they felt the flow of air. It meant they could speak, and Sungyoon felt a little happy.

“It doesn’t seem they place monsters near the entrance.”

Russell, who observed their surroundings from the front, relaxed a little. However, no one let their guards down. In fact, their expressions worsened.

“I would have preferred if there were monsters here.”

“I feel the same way.”

Sungyoon let out a sigh, and Bruce clicked his tongue. The other Connectors became disquieted too.

“Why the hell did they have to make a labyrinth within the tower?”

In the end, Bruce cursed as he looked at the several staircases in front of them. It was like an abstract painting where the staircase twisted in odd ways as they climbed the tower. They couldn’t see the end to the staircases.

“Which one heads to the top? Or, do we have to go to the top?”

“I have no idea.”

“I’m not naive enough to think those staircases lead straight up to the top.”

“It might.”

Bruce and Russell were at a loss as they conversed with each other. Sungyoon interjected himself into the conversation.

“We have no choice but to brute force it by investigating each staircase. However, we don’t have enough time to do this slowly.”

Sungyoon glanced back at the entrance. He had no idea how long the Connectors could stall the monsters.

“I see. That’s our only choice. Alright! We’ll search all the staircases as fast as possible! We’ll gather back here no matter what within three hours! If you find something suspicious, come back here as soon as possible! Don’t be reckless by touching anything suspicious! Understood?”

“Ooh-oh!”

“Alright! Let’s go!”

The Connectors started climbing the staircases all at once.