‘Why did he make that choice?’
‘He should know better than anyone how much I hate things like this…….’
Anakin, staring alone at the empty labyrinth where everyone had fallen, stumbled toward the chair on the pedestal.
Every step she took felt like leaving a trail of blood, and the weight of it was agonizing.
It wasn’t her physical body that was wounded, but her spirit.
“Damn it…….”
For the first time since arriving here, Anakin let out a curse.
Unable to bring herself to look back at the fallen children, she stared straight ahead with half-closed eyes.
As she slumped into the chair with an exhausted face, the artifact sparkled simultaneously.
The crystal casing shattered with a loud crash.
Inside, a single glowing sapphire ring was stored, as if urging her to take it quickly.
She stared at it intensely with her battered face before grasping the ring in her hand.
As she did, it began to follow her automatically, just like the artifact she had obtained previously.
‘It feels like I dealt with more people than monsters all day.’
As soon as the artifact was taken, the labyrinth began to shake as if its purpose had been fulfilled.
Rumble!
“Ah…….”
The labyrinth was collapsing.
As boulders rained down from the cracking walls, a portal manifested right next to Anakin.
“……I just have to go in?”
Anakin looked back at the children left behind.
The building was collapsing…… what about them?
While she hesitated, the portal grew larger and eventually swallowed her.
The shimmering sensation gave her an unpleasant, jarring feeling.
Anakin squeezed her eyes shut and curled her body.
Her mind grew hazy.
It felt like a constant fall, much like when she first arrived here.
The further she fell, the more sleep overwhelmed her.
By the time she hit the ground, Anakin had lost consciousness.
Tweet, tweet.
Even with her eyes closed, it was bright.
Anakin frowned and shielded her eyes with her arm.
The hard stone floor was uncomfortable.
‘Where am I?’
As she slowly lowered her arm and sat up, Anakin realized exactly where she was.
It was the place where they had been facing off before moving to the labyrinth.
The other children were lying scattered about, perfectly fine and without a single scratch.
“……What?”
The stinging pain and the searing agony she had felt on her back were gone.
‘……Was it an illusion spell?’
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.
Soon after, the children began to wake up one by one with groans.
“What happened?”
“Ugh…….”
Anakin stole a glance at Hilde, who had been unconscious.
Before long, he too sat up, holding his head.
She had much to say to him, but Anakin turned her head away, approached Lucien, and held out her hand.
“Let’s go. We got the artifact.”
Lucien stared blankly at Anakin’s beautiful face reflected in the sunlight before finally speaking.
“Was it a hallucination?”
“It seems so.”
They had fought their peers to the death just to get one artifact, only for it to be treated as if it never happened.
A sense of futility slowly began to wash over her.
Still, she was glad it hadn’t been real.
Lucien, who had been playfully watching Anakin as she held out her hand, suddenly pulled on her thin arm.
“Oops.”
Pulled helplessly by his grip, Anakin’s head bumped against Lucien’s chest.
Lucien chuckled, looking down at the flustered Anakin in his arms.
“Labor costs.”
‘……That unnecessarily handsome face is annoying.’
“……Lucien.”
Sitting on his lap, Anakin frowned and pushed him away.
Hilde, who had been watching the seemingly close pair, turned his gaze away.
“In the end, that side won.”
Roque stared intensely at Anakin with a wary face.
To be precise, he was staring at the artifacts hovering next to her.
Anakin currently held two artifacts, while the others had none.
It was a timing that made it tempting to try and snatch them.
Sensing those threatening gazes, Anakin slowly stood up. Lucien also looked at them and asked:
“Want another round?”
They had lost too much time to the last trap.
Since they were back in reality, the others felt they had to bring back at least one artifact, so they began to slowly encircle Anakin and Lucien.
“This is…… disadvantageous,” Anakin whispered to Lucien.
“Let’s run.”
“Can’t we just fight?”
Anakin replied firmly.
“There’s no benefit for us in fighting.”
The opponents had no artifacts, but they had two.
Anyone could see that a confrontation would only be a loss for them.
At that moment, someone fired a long mana arrow from the front.
The casters were Hess and Roque.
As Anakin dodged, the arrow thudded into a tree.
Crackle.
Then came a dangerous sound.
Pop!
The explosion magic imbued in the arrow severed the tree, causing it to collapse sideways.
Thud!
With that as the trigger, a full-scale magical offensive began.
“Gah!”
Anakin hid atop a tree, and soon another mana arrow aimed precisely at her flew in.
KABOOM!
Anakin, who had dodged nimbly again, muttered while wiping away cold sweat.
“They aren’t kidding.”
As attacks flew in from all directions, Anakin shot fireballs into the air toward them.
Then, she landed on another tree as light as a feather.
“Lucien!”
Lucien was also busy dealing with the other children.
Against so many, it was a burdensome situation for just the two of them.
Frowning at the worsening situation, Anakin turned her head at an ominous sound coming from behind.
Screeeech!
‘What is that? No way…….’
Had monsters gathered after hearing the sounds of battle?
If monsters arrived, the number of enemies would effectively double.
Anakin bit her lip, looking back and forth between the children and the depths of the forest.
After agonizing for a moment, Anakin made her decision.
She would use the monsters to escape this place.
As soon as she finished her deliberation, she moved quickly.
She intentionally destroyed parts of the forest with wide-range magic to provoke the monsters.
Soon, the monsters began to appear.
Hiss.
They were shaped like snakes, but their size was no less than that of a human.
In fact, they were larger.
They were Paradras, known to be toxic, extremely ferocious, and dangerous. Dealing with them would be quite a headache.
“What is that?!”
“Damn it. Why now of all times!”
The children began to deal with the multiple Paradras first to put out the immediate fire.
In that gap, Anakin cast a smokescreen spell.
“Shroud our steps.”
At Anakin’s incantation, black smoke filled the forest.
The children, who had been keeping an eye on her while watching the monsters, cursed in annoyance as the smoke obscured their vision.
“Dammit. She must have escaped.”
“Who fired that wide-range spell?”
“Mantis, was it you?”
“It wasn’t me!”
Anakin took advantage of the gap to grab Lucien and flee.
Lucien, smiling slyly, spoke to the running Anakin.
“That’s clever. To think of using the monsters.”
“I had no choice.”
It was the only method she could think of right then.
“What now? Are we going to look for more artifacts, or go back?”
When Lucien asked, Anakin replied while running, staring straight ahead.
“Of course we have to find more.”
“As expected.”
Lucien lifted the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.
Actually, having two artifacts at the one-hour mark was a pretty good performance.
The children they just saw didn’t have even one.
“Since we tied up two teams, the other teams probably had a pretty easy time getting them.”
“Right.”
Perhaps the other teams already possessed three or more artifacts.
“That labyrinth earlier was just to stall for time.”
Though there was no physical damage, it was a trap that consumed too much time and mental energy.
Just then, Anakin, who had stopped to touch the ground, spoke.
“I think there’s another one over there.”
Anakin, who had practically become an artifact detector, pointed to the left.
At that, Lucien dashed off before she could even say another word.
Anakin followed him, now used to his antics.
The place where the trap was detected was near a waterfall where a massive stream of water flowed.
It was a majestic landscape that made one feel the grandeur of nature.
Below the waterfall was a dizzying cliff.
‘I have a bad feeling about this.’
The fiercely flowing water was powerful enough to swallow a person whole.
“There are people over there.”
In the direction Lucien pointed, Lute and Kayla were looking at each other with sour expressions.
Anakin focused not on their faces, but on the number of artifacts they held.
“……Five.”
Anakin whispered quietly.
Lucien followed her gaze.
Lute had three, and Kayla had two.
They had a whopping five artifacts.
Surprised by the count being much higher than expected, Anakin widened her eyes and bit her lip firmly.
“I’m going in. Don’t stop me.”
Lucien, salivating at the number of artifacts, was already preparing to bolt.
“Wait, you aren’t just going to call more monsters over, are you?”
“Don’t worry. Trust me.”
Anakin watched Lucien as he stepped ahead, just like before, with a suspicious look on her face.
‘No. I can see it in your eyes. You’ve totally lost it.’
