‘We can’t fight them all, what should we do?’ While dodging out of the way after a simple block, Virus began examining his surroundings such as the wall the withered corpses were nailed at, the demonic faces, the ancient runes that were currently shining brightly, and even the enemy in front of him.
On the other side, the cheeky woman was defending Henna who had fainted due to the earlier assault.
After a simple calculation and analysis of the hardness of the decayed corpse, Virus could easily confirm that he would be incapable of damaging it even if his longsword was still intact.
‘Hmm, let’s see if there’s any trick to this trial. I just have this foreboding hunch they’re not meant to be defeated in a direct clash.’ Entering his time-freeze perception, Virus’ mind began to go through every little detail in the surroundings.
And as anticipated, after considering every small detail, it did not take long for him to come up with the possible methods of dealing with their opponents.
“Cheeky woman! Can you keep them busy for a moment? I have an idea that might work.” Turning toward the veiled lady, Virus shouted.
“Huh? A moment? Sure, I have a method of keeping all three in check for a minute or two.” Briefly feeling surprised by Virus’ announcement, the veiled woman didn’t hesitate to take out an unknown pill from her pocket as she swallowed it at once!
Immediately, her energy started to boil, increase, and become much more chaotic. Apparently, the pill had forcefully made her a level stronger compared to before, albeit temporarily.
Bam! Wham! Bam!
Afterward, swiftly maneuvering around, she attacked the three wilted opponents once each, which changed all of their targets from Virus and the incapacitated Henna to herself.
Amazingly, she was now fighting the three all by herself!
“I-I’ll buy you exactly one minute. D-Do whatever you can in that duration!” Gnashing her teeth in pain, veins became visible around the veiled lady’s eyes. Obviously, this was one of the side-effects of using the pill which was putting her body under a lot of pressure.
“Got it!” Sprinting toward the three demonic faces that had released the three dried-up corpses, Virus first examined the ring of ancient runes covering the demonic faces.
‘Is this the source of their energy?’ Pondering that, Virus quickly punched the engraved runes, trying to damage them in any way possible.
After checking the hall earlier, Virus had come to realize that only the ancient runes around these three demonic faces were lighted up. And these were precisely the demonic faces that had released the three shrunken enemies!
The rest of the wilted corpses remained motionless nailed to the walls of the hall while no ancient runes had turned on.
In Virus’ opinion, there was no way for dead carcasses to start moving by themselves. Logically, after having died, they should stay dead and there’s no way for them to start moving as if they were alive.
Or at least that would be the case unless an external force was controlling them like a puppet after attaching strings to them that could successfully make them the puppeteer’s weapons of onslaughter.
Bam!
As his punch landed on one of the shining runes, regretfully, Virus understood although the wall behind it seemed to have been somewhat damaged, the runes themselves didn’t seem to be harmed in any way as they continued shining like a ghost that cannot be touched.
‘Hmm, could it be the runes are not the source?’ As this notion flickered in his mind, Virus’ pupils turned toward the demonic face at the center of the runes.
Boom!
Punching the demonic face once, a few cracks immediately became visible on it. At the same time, the runes trembled slightly.
“That’s it!” Virus muttered while clenching his fist.
Grrrr!!!
“Ahhh! Hot face, one of them suddenly started ignoring me and is on its way to you!” The veiled lady’s yell reached him at this time.
‘Huh? So this demonic face must be the source of that fucking corpse.’ Now that he confirmed the tactic that would successfully deal with the enemies in the hall, Virus rushed to end the fight before the incoming corpse could get to him.
Bang! Bang! Bam! Boom!
After continuously punching the demonic face four times in a row utilizing all his might, the demonic face victoriously broke into several pieces!
At the same time, like a puppet whose strings had been broken, the walking corpse that was just about to arrive behind Virus fell on the ground lifelessly!
Bam! Bam! Bam!…
Not knowing how much longer the veiled lady would be capable of indulging the disgusting dead bodies, Virus immediately changed his target to the next two demonic faces as he shattered them apart one by one!
One after another, two additional corpses fell on the floor, truly motionless this time!
Simultaneously, some smoke left the broken demonic faces as they joined the marks behind each of their palms.
“H-Hot face! You did it! They truly died this time! Hee… Haa…” Came the cheeky woman’s cheerful scream. Sweat was drenching her clothes by now while she panted exhaustedly.
Just as Virus was about to respond, unexpectedly, his eyes fell on the subsequent six demonic faces that started shaking slightly as one rune after another began to light up around them.
Seeing this, a tremor went through Virus’ heart as he knew the situation was going to get much worse in case they stayed any longer in this cursed place, thus, sprinting toward the veiled lady, he shouted.
“We need to get the fuck out of here before the next round of withered corpses starts walking! Grab Henna and let’s run!”
Subsequently, after the cheeky woman’s nod, together with the unconscious Henna, they mustered every ounce of strength in their body as they dashed to the end of the hall before vanishing from it!
“Phew…” After leaving the terrifying hall, both the veiled lady and Virus let out relieved sighs at the same time.
That, however, attracted their gazes into one another soon.
And after a brief few seconds of locking eyes, they both fell into a burst of uncontrollable laughter.
“Hahaha…”
“Hehehe…”
“That was a close one, hot face.” The cheeky lady declared while maintaining eye contact with Virus’ attractive eyes.
Alas, Virus shattered their special moment apart by urging her next, “Yeah, wake her up though, we should continue.”
“Okay…”
…
Sometime later, as she woke Henna up, the trio proceeded on their path through the maze of infinity.
While on the way, they encountered several traps. For instance, once, they came across a really narrow corridor where Henna mistakenly stepped on a trap trigger which resulted in a pit opening up beneath their feet.
Luckily, Virus had been vigilant the entire time as he grabbed both their arms and jumped forward using all his might just as the pit was about to eat the two women alive!
After that, their path proceeded unhindered until they reached a room with four gates!
However, what was unique about the four gates was that each of them was made of special materials.
The first gate was made up of glass alone!
The second passage had a metal door.
The third door was actually made of burning magma!
And the final gateway was just a wooden gate with leaves growing here and there.
Above the gates, only a sentence was visible.
‘Four paths, one destination!’
“Ah!” Reading that phrase, both the veiled woman and Henna yelped flabbergast!
“Hmm, what’s up? Is something wrong?” Unclear about the cause of their surprise, Virus questioned.
“T-This is the hint the cultivator was talking about! Four gates of glass, metal, magma, and wood with the words ‘Four paths, one destination’ carved above them! This is place leads to the treasure room!” Taken aback, the veiled woman explained while pointing at the doors.
She also added, “The cultivator went through the wooden door, but it is believed all gates lead to the treasure room!”
“Hmm, is that so? Let’s not waste any time then, let’s go!” With that, Virus walked before the wooden door and tried pushing it open. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he shoved or pulled, it just wouldn’t budge.
“That gate must be occupied, based on the cultivator’s hint, only one group can enter a gate at a time as it gets locked up afterward. Try the magma gate!” The cheeky woman stated while fidgeting with her clothes.
“Is that so?” Heeding the advice, Virus tried pushing the magma door open. Woefully, it was also locked. Next, trying the metal door, while furrowing his brows, Virus knew it was also occupied.
‘Hope no one’s inside the final gate.’ Deliberating that, Virus shoved the gate forward. If this door was blocked as well, honestly, Virus wasn’t quite sure what their next plan of action should be since they might just be trapped here forever.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they were that unlucky since the glass gate easily opened up!
“Let’s go!” Signaling with his hand, Virus told them to follow him inside as they launched into it without further ado.
…
Currently, in front of the trio, Virus could see a tiled road that continued to the unperceivable distance.
However, the reason why the trio’s eyelids jumped open upon laying their sight on the corridor ahead of them was that all around the tiled path was surrounded by ocean and water!
Meanwhile, apparently, there was an invisible wall that seemed to prevent any water from entering or leaking into the corridor itself, much like an aquarium.
“Woaaah!” Watching the ocean surrounding the corridor while being unable to invade it for some reason, the veiled woman’s eyes began to shine brilliantly while she jumped around in joy, inspecting here and there. She was absolutely enchanted!
“So beautiful!” She exclaimed watching the various types of sea creatures that passed by from time to time.
“Yeah, it is… until it’s not, so let’s just pass through here as quickly as possible.” Through his experience so far, Virus was confident that every time there was a change in scenery, some kind of deadly trial or trap was waiting for them, therefore, he didn’t want to stay here for even a single split-second.
After that, for two minutes, the trio sped through the aquarium corridor.
Throughout the entire way, the two women seemed to be mesmerized by the scenery around them, however, by Virus’ insistence, they maintained their pace.
“I don’t think there’s any danger here-” the veiled lady had just muttered these words jovially when out of nowhere, a dark shadow was cast upon the trio.
Unconsciously, the trio raised their heads upward and looked at the source of the shadow, however, when their eyes landed on the origin of the shadow, the two ladies’ face went ashen white at once while with a shake of his head, Virus helplessly voiced, “You jinxed it. Don’t you know about the red flag?”
Right now, within the ocean in their line of sight, there was a gigantic creature sitting casually while staring back at them.
However, looking at its features, Virus thought it was oddly familiar since it was an enormous creature with the body of a lion and the wings of a bird with the terrifying head of a woman attached to its neck!
‘The body of a lion again, but the head of a woman this time instead of a man’s… and no scorpion tail. Additionally, this one has wings much like that of a bird.’ He scrutinized while making a resemblance between the gigantic being in front of him and the Manticore he had confronted a while ago.
However, while the Manticore was just a couple of meters in size, this one’s gigantic size was incomparable to it, so he couldn’t just say it must be a female Manticore.
“The Sphinx.” Rather, Virus could immediately connect this being in front of him to another mythological creature of the Earth of Technology called the Sphinx which originated from Ancient Greek itself!
“S-Sphinx? W-what is that?” With her voice cracking up due to the horror she was experiencing at the moment, the veiled woman barely asked.
Not responding to the question, however, Virus’ attention was focused on the massive being in front of him as he studied the energy that was currently being released from all over its body.
Woefully, the more he examined the energy and tried to determine the possible cultivation level of the being in front of him, the darker Virus’ face became.
‘I can’t even guess how powerful this thing is… probably a few stages above Liberation! Damn it, I don’t think we can get out of this alive if the situation escalates to direct confrontation. What should we do?’
Meanwhile, considering how the Manticore had behaved pretty much similar to the general knowledge available on Earth, Virus hoped this one would do the same, or at least similar to a particular version of it!
Unlike the Manticore, the sphinx had several versions. Thus, Virus could only hope that this one was that version he had in mind.
At the same time, beside him, both Henna and the veiled lady continued shivering in fear while shuffling backward step by step gradually. Apparently, they wanted to escape from this place.
“Don’t move, both of you. This creature is too strong. If it wants to kill us, there’s no avoiding it. We would be dead before even realizing we’re about to die, so stop the futile act already. You may just provoke it like that.”
Catching the meaning behind Virus’ words, Henna powerlessly fell on her knees as tears started to roll down her face. She had lost all hope of survival.
As a matter of fact, even the cheeky woman wasn’t in any better shape as she was currently busy praying one last time, ‘Oh, my goddess, please don’t let me die right now! I haven’t even gotten married yet!’
Indeed, being a few stages above the Liberation, Virus could only make a wild guess in regards to how terrifying the beast before them must be.
Nevertheless, as Virus began to wonder what their next logical course of action should be, an ancient yet mesmerizing sound of a woman overwhelmed them.
“ANSWER ME THIS RIGHT AND ENTER THE FIRST TREASURY, ANSWER ME THIS WRONG AND ENTER THE AFTERLIFE.”
