Moon's Labyrinths

“Shit! Where the hell are they!”

Tim's nose steamed as he kept pacing around. He looked like he wanted to beat up and smash anything and anyone nearby. Normally, Emily reined him in when he got too excited, but she wasn’t in her right mind either. Therefore, Tim's aggressiveness went unchecked.

“Please calm down.”

Thankfully, Grace remained calm as she soothed the siblings. However, she also felt anxious.

‘It has been so long. He’s probably fighting Hyunwoo Sung.’

Before becoming a traitor to humanity, Hyunwoo had been one of the top Connectors of Earth. Moreover, he was on Grenoid's side now. There was a possibility that he had gained some other power. If that wasn’t bad enough, other foes might show up after Hyunwoo.

The party had to somehow rejoin with Sungyoon as soon as possible.

Ta-ta-taht!

Suddenly, the three of them heard footsteps. They stopped searching the tower and looked toward the source of the sound.

Russell descended from a staircase.

“Russell! Did you find Mr. Sungyoon?”

Grace rushed toward Russell as she asked the question. Even though she acted calm on the surface, she was so flustered that she forgot to call Russell by his title.

“No. I couldn't find him.”

The three of them became crestfallen.

“Don’t worry too much. As you know, the Knight won’t lose that easily. Moreover, all the monsters around the tower have run away. He must've done something.”

Monsters had been amassed around the tower, and they had been fighting a bloody battle with the Connectors. However, they had dispersed a couple of minutes ago. Only a small number of monsters remained outside the tower; the others had gone back to the nearby labyrinths.

It meant the being controlling the monsters had died.

“You're probably right.”

“Of course, I am!”

Russell did his best and acted unperturbed to keep Grace calm.

Ooh-roo-roo-roohgn!

The tower shook.

“Ooh-ahk!”

“Kyahhhk!”

Everyone quickly grabbed the wall to keep their balance. The vibration was intense, but it lasted only for a short time. That was why none of them fell.

“What... what the hell was that?”

Tim looked at his surroundings, but the only thing he saw was the twisted narrow passageways.

“It seems something has happened...”

Russell spoke in a low voice.

“Let’s start moving.”

If they stayed here doing nothing, they wouldn’t be able to find out any information about what had caused the vibration. Moreover, they wouldn’t find out any information about Sungyoon’s whereabouts.

Everyone followed Russell’s instruction as they started climbing the stairs.

The first to speak was one of Russell’s party members.

“Hmm? Something feels different.”

“Doesn’t it?”

It was subtle, but Russell got an uncomfortable feeling. He warily looked around.

“Something has changed.”

“Did the vibration cause this?”

Russell and his party members spoke amongst themselves. The change made everyone raise their guards. Grace, who did her best to control her worry for Sungyoon, looked at the map. Her eyes widened.

“This is odd. There should be a fork in the path, yet there is none here.”

Everyone turned their gaze toward the front, then climbed the staircase pointed out by Grace.

Russell carefully touched the wall of the passageway.

“Did the tower's structure change?”

At that moment, everyone heard footsteps coming from the staircase. They turned toward the source of the sound on reflex.

The one making the footsteps started coming into view.

“Ah!”

Someone groaned. The man who had been descending the staircase stopped when he saw them.

“You were here.”

Both the items were broken in many places, but they were the familiar silver armor and the red cape.

On Earth, he was called the symbol of hope. Everyone recognized him.

“Mr. Sungyoon!”

No one knew who was the first to move as Tim, Emily, and Grace ran toward Sungyoon. They hugged, cried, and celebrated that Sungyoon was fine.

“You made us worry….”

Russell, who had been watching from behind, grumbled in a low voice. However, a small smile blossomed within his helmet.

“Let’s head back right now.”

Sungyoon spoke as he calmed his party members, who were crying with joy.

“Return? Did you find how we can return the Moon to its original orbit?”

Russell asked the question with anticipation in his voice.

Sungyoon took out a Gem.

“This has the way to solve the problem.”

“What is it?”

“It's Mr. Hyunwoo’s storage Gem.”

Everyone’s face hardened when they heard that name.

“That Gem contains the solution? Who said so?”

“Mr. Hyunwoo.”

“… Can we trust him?”

Russell asked with a dissatisfied expression. His eyes were full of suspicion, and everyone else felt the same. How could they not be suspicious? Hyunwoo had turned his back on humanity. He was the biggest traitor in humanity's history. He was the devil.

“Wouldn’t it be better to search the room you guys disappeared into? Since you could exit that place, there must be an entrance now. No, let me ask this first. What happened? I heard you met Hyunwoo Sung. Did you kill him?”

“I’ll explain as we go. I guess it won’t be bad to search that place. When the distorted space returned to its normal state, an entrance indeed appeared. If you go straight up this staircase, you’ll arrive at that room.”

Sungyoon sounded like he was sure that they wouldn’t find much in that room. After all, he had surveyed the place once already. Nevertheless, it didn't mean that others had no chance of finding anything. The future of humanity was riding on this, so it was good to be double sure.

“Let’s send the other Connectors to search the place. We should head down. I’ll give you a detailed explanation.”

***

The region around the tower had turned very quiet. Just a while ago, roars of monsters and screams of humans had been reverberating in the air. Bloods and guts had been flying everywhere. It was hard to believe that a bloody battle had occurred in this place. However, the corpses on the ground were proof that it hadn’t been all a dream.

Sungyoon’s party gathered around a support vehicle, which was parked a bit away from the battlefield. Several people, who had been driving the support vehicle, went over the data from the USB that had been inside Hyunwoo’s Gem.

Sungyoon’s party let the men work in peace. They moved a bit away from the vehicle and called the Mayor.

- I see. So that's how Hyunwoo Sung met his end.

A shadow appeared on the Mayor’s face as he spoke through the screen.

- I knew he had a reason for betraying humanity, but I never knew what exactly he went through. It's quite unfortunate.

“He is still a traitor.”

Russell was blunt. However, his complexion didn’t look great either.

- Yes. He’s a traitor. I don't deny that. But, I'm the Mayor of Armstrong city. It makes me wonder if there is a way I can govern the city in a better way.

The Mayor felt the weight of being the person in charge.

- I can flagellate myself at a later time. Let’s focus on the story on hand. What's inside Hyunwoo Sung’s Gem?

“There is a USB that he called the solution. Then...”

Sungyoon took something out.

“There’s this Gem.”

It was a Diamond rank Gem.

- Diamond rank Gem? That’s surprising. What is its ability?

“For a certain period, it allows one to recover the power of Gems that have lost their powers after overclocking.”

- Didn’t you overclock all your Gems in this battle, Mr. Sungyoon?

“Yes. That was why I had been worried, but I can participate in the fight thanks to this Gem.”

- It seems Hyunwoo Sung prepared a lot of things.

If the solution Hyunwoo prepared allowed them to defeat Grenoid, Hyunwoo would've played a pivotal role in the final fight. He would've contributed the most to saving humanity. The betrayer of humanity would also become its savior.

- He was a complex person.

It seemed the Mayor thought the same as Sungyoon. They both shook their heads from side to side.

At that moment, one of the people organizing the data from the USB approached the party.

“We checked all the data.”

- Is that so? What information did it contain?

The Mayor quickly asked the question, and everyone turned to look at the man.

“First, there is something that I have to tell you all.”

The man's face hardened. Was he nervous because famous and influential people were staring at him? That wasn’t the case. His face had hardened because of the serious nature of the information.

“Hyunwoo Sung was able to estimate the date of Grenoid’s revival.”

“When is it?”

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every human wanted to know this information.

Hearing Sungyoon's question, the man clenched his eyes shut, then spat out his words.

“Tomorrow.”

A terrifying silence descended within the vehicle.

***

They were standing on a large hill. The moon's back side had numerous craters, and Sungyoon’s party stood atop the ridge of one such crater. The area was deathly silent. Usually, Tim couldn't stand silence and boredom, but even he kept his mouth shut. Nervousness flowed between them as if they were afraid of something.

“… How long do we have left?”

Grace broke the heavy atmosphere. She gripped her staff as she looked at the flat ground within the crater.

Sungyoon glanced at his watch.

“I’m not sure. The day will end in eight hours. If it occurs, it should happen within this window.”

“Do you think Hyunwoo Sung’s plan will work?”

Her voice shook. It was unlike her normal cold and calm demeanor. However, everyone here was the same.

“It has to work.”

There could be no distractions. Sungyoon’s voice sounded heavy.

“I see.”

Grace became silent after saying those words.

The clock kept ticking. If their heart could beat, it would've sounded like a percussion quartet. It probably would've worsened their mood.

“…Hoo-ooh!”

Sungyoon let out a sigh, and Tim, Emily, and Grace looked at him.

‘Keep it together, Woo Sungyoon. I know you're nervous, but you can’t back down.’

He had experienced many hardships in the past, but the foe he now had to face was on a different level. It automatically made one want to cringe in fear. However, they couldn’t do that.

Even if they fought with all their might, they might lose. That was why they had to use all means possible. They couldn’t fight to their full capabilities if they acted weakly. Sungyoon had to come up with a plan, and he had to calm down his party members as their leader.

“I have a bit of wine with me. Do you want to discuss what we should do after we finish this battle?”

His party members looked at him with round eyes, then a smile appeared on everyone's face one after the other.