Chapter 1144 (2/2)

But it wasn’t just the guardian that was uncommonly hardy. After releasing a horrible sounding, wet death rattle due to his collapsed left lung, Lazareth Armgrast forced himself back to his feet.

“You fool!” Wendy shouted. Her hands began to glow again while she hurried forward. “You need-”

“Stay back!” Lazareth barked. The guardian casually reached up and took two more obsidian spikes from its shoulder pauldrons. Although only one currently remained, those three spikes still weighed heavily on all of their minds.

“You’d rather die than let me heal you? What the hell is with your pride?” Wendy asked, some of her frustration overwhelming her concern for Lazareth.

“I’d rather you not die,” Lazareth replied stiffly. Then he spat out some blood to the side. “But at least it is down to three spike attacks. If we manage to dodge at least one of those-”

Lazareth’s voice fell away to nothing as the pauldrons of the guardian shivered and then all five of the missing spikes in them grew quickly back. Sighing, Rejt glanced upward at the increasingly disturbed miasma above them. “In addition… it looks like we do not have much time until whatever is changing up in this place… reaches us. We must hurry-”

A tremor ran through the miasma. Then it seemed to be blasted away, shooting out above them into the higher floors above them. And beyond that, it would enter into the atmosphere of the world. Rejt’s expression darkened.

Whatever monster was beginning to breathe in the depths of the Hell Labyrinth, if it was allowed to escape-

Ringing ominously, the guardian stepped forward. But before either Lazareth or Rejt could react, there was a soft whisper of wind and the sound of bare-skin rasping against stone. Suddenly there was another individual who stepped forward to face the guardian of the Hell Labyrinth.

The figure spoke and the air seemed to burn with the weight of his words. “Absolute Gasp of Yggdrasil.”

Huge vines as thick as pythons and lined with thorns that looked like golden daggers shot out of the ground and surged to constrict the guardian. The guardian sensed the attack and shifted out of the way, but the roots moved faster than it could match. In a split second, it was completely suppressed.

Then the vines began to squeeze, radiating an ominous golden light. At a volume incomparable to the small blow that Rejt had struck against it, the guardian began to release its jarring chime that sounded quite a lot like cries.

With a sigh, Randidly Ghosthound turned slowly around to face Rejt, Lazareth, and Wendy. His black hair was slightly longer, but he had the same twist at the corner of his mouth, the same sharp nose, the same emerald eyes. Yet when that gaze settled on the three of them… Rejt could feel prickles on the back of his neck.

He had made such a big deal of emphasizing that Randidly Ghosthound was just a man to Wendy earlier, yet now… the air around this man felt so incredibly heavy that Rejt couldn’t even speak for several seconds. It seemed that the shadow of a vast tree hung above Randidly. It was an image, but it wasn’t like any image that Rejt had ever seen before.

It shook the air by being there. It left the guardian that had slowly been bleeding them dry completely suppressed.

It was admittedly the strength of a god.

“I’m sorry you had to deal with this,” Randidly Ghosthound said. His expression grew heavy. “...if you give me some time, believe me, that this will be completely resolved.”

“If you knew this was coming, why didn’t you give me more warning?” Wendy asked in an accusatory tone. At first, Rejt was impressed that she had been able to gather up the courage to step forward under the sway of that shadow, but Rejt quickly realized she must not have enough mastery of images to sense that terrible darkness that hung over them and pressed the guardian into the ground. “Why not tell me-”

“I didn’t know this would happen.” Randidly gritted his teeth. “This… is my fault for not paying more attention. An old mistake of mine… and apparently one I hadn’t learned from…”

“What is this?” Rejt finally found enough strength to ask. He gestured easily, as though all of this was beneath him. “This… place.”

“A training ground,” Randidly replied. “One that I am beginning to suspect was meant for me, to introduce me to Nether. But… it appears that even old monsters don’t know everything. So I think it’s time I skip to the end of this farce. ”