Chapter 238 – The Death Alchemist 3 (1/2)

It was pitch dark inside the labyrinth.

Helena stood alone.

“… Why did it become like this?!”

If they had to solve the game individually, shouldn’t they have been told this before beginning?

She cursed Woohyuk for having had no manners.

As she was complaining…

“Helena, can you hear me?”

Woohyuk’s voice came from the other side of the stone wall.

Helena ran toward the wall and put her ear up against it.

“Yes, I can hear you. I was swearing at you just now. Did you hear me?” she asked.

“Thanks to this opportunity, I finally understand what you really think of me,” he replied.

“… What do we do now anyway? Should I keep following the path?”

“Basically, yes. But there are some things to watch out for.”

Demonic Spirits, worthy of their name, often used hallucination spells on their victims.

Until they reached the next stage, all the beings they would meet would be virtual images.

If they kept that in mind, they’d face no particular problems at this stage.

“It’s not as bad as I thought. Is this really Hell Mode?”

“This is just the starting point. The full-scale stage is past this point.”

From the Demonic Spirits’ point of view, it was more fun to play around and torment those who entered this space.

Helena nodded her head and then asked,

“Then, can I meet you at the next stage? Oh, how are you going to relay this explanation to our other colleagues?”

“Seeing that you’re next to me, we’ll probably be able to join them at the next stage. We’ll just have to hope that Arhen and the two Homunculus get through in one piece.”

According to Woohyuk’s words, in the Hell Mode he experienced in the past, not everyone had been scattered like this from the beginning.

That’s why he didn’t talk about this in advance.

Thus, this awkward situation couldn’t fully be attributed to Woohyuk.

After Helena nodded her head, she said her goodbyes,

“I see. Then see you at the next stage.”

“Good luck.”

She could hear the sounds of Woohyuk’s receding steps over the stone wall.

‘It’s become a headache,’ Helena thought.

However, worrying about her colleague wouldn’t change anything.

As Helena moved along the labyrinth’s passage, a bluish spirit suddenly jumped out of a crack in the stone wall.

“Ku-Ru…”

“Yikes!”

Helena, whose complexion had turned blue, jumped back in surprise.

She put her hand on her chest and stared at the place where the spirit disappeared.

‘He said it’s just an illusion.’

It was all fake.

Everything that appeared from now on was all fake.

Helena reminded herself of his words and strode forward.

Step. Step.

After walking roughly a hundred steps forward…

‘Wait, he didn’t mention anything like this?!’

Was this instance different from the old Hell Mode?

If so, she’d have to make her own choices.

‘Since demons would like the left path, I should go to the right.’

The probability was half-half anyway.

She was purely relying on her luck, but Helena listened to her gut and believed her choice was right.

As she was about to take a step forward…

Step. Step.

Roan suddenly popped out from the right pathway.

“… What the… why are you here, stubborn Saintess?”

After confirming that Helena was alone, Roan started making fun of her. It was as if he had been waiting to unload on her for a while.

After a deluge of criticism and mockery, Helena shouted out with a grim face,

“Don’t make fun of me, you fake kid!”

“Who said I’m fake? You’re the fake one!”

“This is great. I always wanted to give you a piece of my mind!” Helena shouted as she grasped Roan’s ear.

Since she thought he was an illusion, she felt that she could act as she pleased.

However, Roan wasn’t the type to let things go, especially since Woohyuk wasn’t around.

“Aya! Let go, otherwise, I’ll hit back!”

“How the hell are you going to hit back? You’re an illusion created by a spirit. You have no substance!”

Even if she were to feel pain from his attack, Helena was sure that the Roan in front of her was an illusion.

When Helena didn’t let his ears go, Roan grabbed her head with an angry expression,

“Ouch!”

“I’m not fake! Now it’s your turn to receive your own medicine!”

Their childish fight lasted for several minutes.

Helena felt that something was off after a few minutes. Why was he not disappearing?

‘Is he really a fake?’

She recalled Woohyuk saying that all the beings in this labyrinth were illusions.

She pondered for a moment, then she asked herself,

‘What if Woohyuk at that time was an illusion?’

This was possible, given that the Phantom’s Temple of Hell was designed from the outset to have each of the invaders fight amongst each other.

By convincing each other that they were fake, one can create this kind of division.

When her thoughts reached this conclusion, Helena let go of Roan’s ear and said,

“Roan, listen! This is the Phantom’s trick!”

“What?”

“Did Woohyuk speak to you about this labyrinth beyond a stone wall?”

“Huh, how did you know?!”

Her conjecture seemed correct.

When Helena explained what was going on, Roan stopped pulling Helena’s hair.

“We have to find our other party members. They might be fighting amongst each other like us.”

In particular, if Woohyuk thought that the other person was fake, he would emotionlessly kill without a second thought.

After hearing Helena’s words, Roan was at a loss,