Chapter 130
“Dead.”
The shattered head was clearly not that of a living person.
Gazing at the gruesome corpse, already swarming with insects, the Team Leader of Team 10 gritted his teeth.
“Where in the world is that damned bastard?”
No scent.
No presence.
No sound.
Nothing at all could be detected.
But then, one of the Team Members who had been walking in the rear suddenly stopped responding. When they went to check, just in case, they found this.
That Saint bastard. Could he really use Stealth and Ambush too?
What trick did he use? It’s impossible to guess.
Lucifer had revealed all the information he knew about the Saint to his Followers.
Among the Saint’s abilities, Stealth was definitely not one of them, as heard from the Demon King.
“What should we do?”
The Team Leader of Team 10 couldn’t answer either.
How could they devise a countermeasure if they didn’t even know what abilities he was using? If they couldn’t even grasp how he was moving around in Stealth, what kind of plan could they possibly make?
Still, he was the Person in Charge. He had to come up with something.
“First...”
The Team Leader of Team 10 opened his mouth.
“It’s the Saint! Over there! He’s appeared about 100 meters away!”
The Team Leader of Team 1, acting as the Scout Team, urgently shouted after seeing something through the Magic Beast he controlled.
“He’s coming! He’s running straight towards us!”
It was like walking straight into the tiger’s maw.
If he comes out like this, it’ll be too easy.
The Team Leader of Team 10 quickly moved his subordinates.
“Do as we trained!”
In an instant, the Lucifer Followers moved to their designated positions and took their places.
Some quietly raised Magic Stones charged with mana.
Enhancement Magic.
In other words, it was Magic that forcibly infused mana into the body, causing Overactivation.
At the moment it was already excessively using the Goddess of Life’s Authority, Mana was added to the Saint’s Body.
The Saint would surely collapse, unable to withstand it.
But why?
*He’s running straight at us?*
The guy who had been hiding in Stealth and playing tricks just moments ago was now boldly charging straight ahead, which inevitably made him feel uneasy.
He kept suspecting that the Saint might have a countermeasure, but the distance between the Saint and the Main Force was already too short to halt the operation based on such doubts.
“He’s visible up ahead!”
It was a distance where he could be observed with the naked eye.
There he is.
The Saint was clad in white priestly robes.
The Team Leader of Team 10’s eyes narrowed.
Damn it. Let’s just engage him.
There was no time for other thoughts.
Due to the Great Labyrinth’s characteristics, the Range of Magic was annoyingly reduced, so after waiting for him to approach within 10 meters, the Team Leader of Team 10 gave the signal the moment he entered range.
“Now!”
All the mana stored within the Magic Stones instantly surged forth, concentrating on the approaching Saint’s Body.
It was an Enhancement Magic that simultaneously used 10 Magic Stones from High-Risk Magic Beasts.
At this level, even an ordinary person, not a Saint, could have their body destroyed by mana Overactivation.
If it were the Saint’s Body, already wielding the Goddess’s Authority, it would be instantly ruined...
“Huh?”
The charging Saint suddenly collapsed to the floor with a *thud*.
A crudely made False Saint, fashioned from clumsy twigs, lay on the floor in priestly robes, in a futile and foolish pose.
The Team Leader of Team 10’s face turned pale.
“You fucking bastards!! A decoy!!...”
He couldn't finish his sentence.
A terrifyingly fast rock flew in and instantly blew off the head of one of the Followers.
Kon’s plan was nothing special.
I’m going to make a decoy out of twigs that looks exactly like you, and then put your clothes on it.
“So you’re going to make them use Enhancement Magic on the decoy?”
[Exactly. That’s it.]
“So they’ll be wasting the only way they have to neutralize me with their own hands. But will those guys fall for this crude decoy?”
Alright. Who am I?
I looked down at the Psychic Amplifier.
“You’re Kon. What’s your point?”
You’ve seen my past, haven’t you? I’m the guy who defeated countless Male Unicorns with nothing but the precision of my Psychic Control.
After saying that, Kon began to manipulate the pile of twigs, fashioned to mimic my skeleton, with Telekinesis.
The pile, made only of a skeletal frame, moved with incredibly human-like gestures, wandering around naturally.
And if I add a little Illusion to it?
It was I.
A decoy, identical to me, was moving naturally through the forest.
“It’s plausible. The problem is whether the enemy will fall for it... Black Mages with deep knowledge of Magic will notice quickly.”
Of course they’ll notice. So we have to make them use Enhancement Magic before they do. We’ll place the decoy less than 100 meters away and make it run at an insane speed. If a guy who tears apart Magic Beasts and Humans indiscriminately is charging like a madman, they won’t have time to judge whether it’s a Psychic Power-made decoy or not, will they?
It wasn’t a bad plan.
I nodded.
“Alright. Let’s try it.”
[You agree, right?]
“Yeah. It seems like the most effective tactic.”
Then strip.
“What?”
Strip, I said. I know what kind of bug-type Magic Beasts those guys use. They’re sensitive to smell. To fool them perfectly, we need to put your clothes on the decoy.
“...If I take off my priestly robes, I’ll just be in my underwear, you know?”
Among men, what’s the big deal? Strip quickly.
Having no choice, I took off my priestly robes and put them on the decoy.
And we executed Kon’s plan.
And the plan worked incredibly well.
Those idiotic bastards! Amael! Throw!
And at that moment, those guys threw away the only way to neutralize me with their own hands.
Kon handed me a rock, perfectly sized for throwing using Telekinesis.
I threw the rock, and it instantly blew apart the heads of about three people.
They’re coming! Get ready! Amael!
Realizing that their means to effectively subdue me were gone, the Lucifer Followers summoned all their Tamed Magic Beasts and began to charge towards me at a terrifying speed.
I continued to hurl rocks, blowing off the heads of the charging Magic Beasts and Followers, but I couldn’t kill them all.
“Kon.”
Finish it quickly. Your body is already under considerable strain.
With a *crack*, I felt my body terrifyingly enhanced by Kon’s delicate and precise skill usage.
Time Stop Armor tightly enveloped the vital parts of my body.
I clenched my fists and began to charge towards the Followers of Pride.
“Kill him! Kill him, I say!...”
The Magic Beast’s action of extending its claws towards me seemed terribly slow.
This was thanks to my Reflexes, operating 3000 times faster.
After easily dodging the attack, I punched the Magic Beast’s head, and I heard the sound of its incredibly tough hide and the thick skull beneath it shattering all at once, with a *thud*.
Any Magic Beast.
One punch from me was enough to deal with it.
I was busy weaving through the Magic Beasts and Followers, who were practically frozen, and smashing their heads.
[Rear! Attack coming from 7 o’clock!]
Kon was catching all the attacks coming from my rear and informing me.
Thanks to that, I never got hit from behind.
Even the few attacks that barely reached my body were blocked, simply deflected harmlessly, by the Time Stop Armor.
Smashing, crushing, exploding.
The one-sided Massacre continued.
Nothing could stand against me.
To that extent, my body had been modified to a level that could be called transcendent.
And because of that, the strain on my body was increasing exponentially in real-time.
My body feels heavy.
It’s not just a cold or body aches.
I felt like the very essence of my body was breaking down due to the excessive manifestation of Authority.
It was exactly like an overheated, sputtering electrical circuit.
[Amael! You have to hurry!!]
I had turned some Magic Beasts to my side with Absolute Hypnosis.
They rampaged alongside me.
The metallic scent of human blood and entrails filled my nose.
It would be a lie to say I felt no guilt or fear.
This is murder.
But if I don’t do this, even more people will die.
They had made choices about how to live their lives, and I was the consequence of those choices.
[Safe! No more! Your body is breaking down!!]
The Body Modification on my body was released.
Time Stop was also deactivated.
I gasped for breath and collapsed to the floor.
“Ugh.”
My overloaded body trembled and convulsed.
This was a kind of ailment that couldn’t be fixed by Body Modification.
It was the price for wielding a powerful Authority as I pleased, one that shouldn’t be granted to Humans.
But there was no time to rest leisurely.
I turned my gaze to the last surviving Lucifer Follower.
The Team Leader of Team 10.
The final person in Charge of the Demon’s Peak Ambush Team.
Since I had read the memories of other Lucifer Followers, I could easily recognize him.
“Cough... gurgle... hack.”
Approaching him, who was gasping as if on the verge of death with his chest caved in, I placed my hand on his head.
[Using Skill: Absolute Hypnosis!]
After extracting and absorbing the necessary information from his memories, I wearily turned and began to head back to the Expedition Team’s Main Force.
“Ah, damn it all.”
And not long after, my body felt so heavy that I had to collapse against a nearby tree, slumping down.
In just my underwear, without clothes.
Blood and bits of entrails were smeared all over my body.
Half-dilated pupils.
My body wouldn’t obey.
Amael? Amael? Hey, hey. You can’t do this. Get up. You have to go back to the Main Force.
*Can I even make it down the peak?*
It seems impossible.
The Great Labyrinth.
*What a truly annoying place.*
Since Authority kept scattering, I had to draw several times more Authority than usual to achieve the same effect, which placed a much greater burden on my body.
“Kon, I really can’t go down.”
At my words, my body suddenly floated up into midair.
I’ll figure something out! Snap out of it!
I heard the sound of wind whistling past my ears.
That Kon.
He really is competent.
As Kon swiftly carried me through the forest with Telekinesis, I saw the Expedition Team members in the distance, spotting me and rushing over.
“Saint!”
I lost consciousness with the shouts of Old Man Ban and Priest Mathieu as the last thing I heard.
It had been a truly intense day.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Old Man Ban’s back.
I slowly sat up.
“Where am I?”
“Saint! How are you feeling?”
I looked down at my body.
There was nothing wrong.
“I’m fine.”
“You slept soundly for a full day.”
*I was asleep for a whole day?*
Surprised by his words, I looked at Ban.
“What about attacks? Didn’t any Magic Beasts or Lucifer Followers attack?”
“Calm down. Nothing happened. The Expedition Team has passed the Demon’s Peak and is currently on Floor 4. There have been no attacks from Magic Beasts or Lucifer Followers yet.”
Ban grinned at me.
“It’s all thanks to you, Saint. We’ve descended to Labyrinth Floor 4 without a single casualty. Not even one was wounded. It’s a miracle.”
I smiled back at Ban.
I stood up.
“Could you please call the Hunter Guild Masters, Mayor Ragot, and Captain Jerome?”
“Of course.”
“I have good news.”
Absolute Hypnosis.
Personally, I think this is the most overpowered of all my skills.
“I’ve identified all the ambush locations of the enemies on Floor 4 and Floor 5.”