After walking a few steps forward, Gray sensed something was wrong.
During the previous two advances, the moment he and Kars left the safe zone of the short fire, they would immediately feel a chilling sensation of being watched by countless eyes from the darkness, making their hair stand on end.
But now, that suffocating malice was gone.
Instead, it was replaced by a deathly stillness, like the calm before a storm.
‘It feels really quiet, Mr. Gray. There don’t seem to be any Twilight Beasts or Chimeras on either side of the path ahead. It’s so different from just now.’
“Stay alert, Captain. Any change or anomaly in the labyrinth could be a sign of greater danger approaching.”
Hearing the girl’s overly relaxed tone, Gray couldn’t help but turn his head and earnestly admonish her.
But after a moment of silence, Kars didn’t reply, just stared blankly ahead.
“Miss Kars? Staring off in the labyrinth isn’t a good habit—“
He instinctively followed her gaze, and his own pupils constricted in shock.
During the Black Crow Squad’s previous exploration of the Third Labyrinth, the scenes they saw had always been pitch-black tomb passages and the hellish decorations lining the corridors.
But the massive bronze door now before their eyes certainly didn’t belong to the labyrinth’s previous decoration style.
At the end of their field of vision, the originally dark and gloomy tomb passage abruptly ended.
In its place was a giant bronze door, tens of meters high, as if connecting heaven and earth.
Intricate and ferocious demon race reliefs were carved into the door, exuding an ancient and majestic aura completely at odds with the previous hellish decoration style.
“…Mr. Gray.”
Kars swallowed.
“Does this… count as a change?”
Gray nodded with difficulty.
This change was far too big.
Was it afraid they wouldn’t know this was a boss room?
It was even more obvious than a rest area that suddenly appeared during a labyrinth raid with no negative effects or monsters!
“We know very little about the core mechanisms of the Third Labyrinth, so… if we want to push open that door and move forward, we must be fully prepared, Miss Kars.”
“Mm, I got it.”
Kars didn’t seem to take his warning to heart.
She trotted over to the giant door.
In the very center of the door panel, a line of twisted demon script was written with blood-like paint: Those who enter this gate must abandon all hope.
Kars twitched the corner of her mouth.
Tch, this Mammon guy, still loves pulling this kind of edgy intimidation.
Even though Gray couldn’t understand the twisted characters, he could still feel a chilling unease from them.
“Scared, Mr. Gray?”
The girl turned around and gave him a bright smile, as if she couldn’t feel the endless hatred for humans that had been forged into the bronze of this door.
The young man took a deep breath.
At this moment, even if he was scared to death inside, he absolutely couldn’t show weakness in front of his captain.
Besides, Miss Kars had learned the true name of the Third Labyrinth’s guardian boss from the Oracle of the Goddess, though he didn’t know if it was real.
If it was real, after this was over, he would definitely go to the Church of the Goddess in Guikesi City to convert, and find a way to steal Ingram’s rice bowl.
“Give the order, Captain. I’m ready.”
Seeing his expression, Kars nodded in satisfaction.
“Then… let’s move out!”
The bronze door was pushed open by the two of them together.
The stirred-up dust swirled in the air, as if opening a world long unvisited.
Behind the door was a grand church, far too large to be a human construction.
Countless pillars carved from diorite supported a ceiling so high it was invisible.
The floor was covered with tiles of obsidian and marble.
And in the center of the space, a huge transparent dodecahedron crystal floated.
The moment the two stepped in, a strange light flashed from the red gem embedded in the crystal’s core.
“Wow, such a big crystal. Is that the reward for the Third Labyrin— Oof!”
Kars’s question wasn’t fully out before Gray grabbed her by the collar and yanked her back behind the door like a chick.
“What… what’s wrong?”
Looking at the warrior’s grim face, the confused captain scratched her eyebrow.
She hadn’t even seen anything clearly.
She’d only caught a glimpse of a strange red light flashing from inside the big crystal.
Why was he already wearing an expression like he was facing a great enemy?
“…According to common sense, the guardian of a numbered labyrinth can only be a Great Demon. And that means that crystal is just a mini-boss in the Third Labyrinth.”
“Huh? That crystal is actually a monster?”
“No wonder the Third Labyrinth, before it was locked down, was as famous as the Thirteenth Labyrinth on the ‘Most Yin Labyrinth List.'”
The young man took a deep breath.
“That’s the Square Water Mirror, a special magical monster. It also has a simple and easy-to-understand title: the All Beings Equal Monster. Its ability is simple: create perfect copies of the entire raiding party.”
Inside the live-stream, although the camera had only aimed at the center of the arena for less than half a second, some sharp-eyed frame-peeping viewers among the audience had already made the same judgment as Gray.
[Holy crap, the Square Water Mirror! The All Beings Equal Monster is here!]
[For this team, the All Beings Equal Monster should be an easy match, right? I can’t even imagine how hopeless it would be if a full squad made it here and met a full, fresh clone team.]
[Doubtful. Let’s see if these two can even get past the warrior’s copy first.]
[Mama’s Water Mirror copy is so good-looking, I wanna lick it.]
[Would the copy’s feet taste like nothing, though?]
Gray frowned at the bizarre bullet comments but didn’t linger on them.
He knew all too well the terror of the Square Water Mirror.
Even if it couldn’t send the team straight back to the labyrinth entrance, it could drastically deplete their supplies.
After all, the copies created by this monster possessed combat skills and magic reserves completely identical to the originals.
They could even perfectly replicate the teamwork between team members.
Aside from being unable to duplicate the potions and supplies they carried, these copies were no different from the “inner demons” in those novels.
Kars nodded thoughtfully.
“I see. So that old bastard Mammon raised this kind of good stuff too?”
“Mr. Gray, do you have confidence in taking down your own clone?”
Gray hesitated, touching the pocket at his waist, which was full of potion bottles.
“If I use all the potions, the odds of winning aren’t small. But if I do that, our exploration would probably have to end here. Without supplies, there’s no way we can beat a Great Demon, even if we know its true name.”
He had expected Kars to back down from the difficulty, or at least think about it.
But he didn’t expect her to twirl her gun-sword and look even more excited.
“In that case, how about we have a contest to see who can take down their own copy first?”
“Huh?”
Before Gray could object, Kars poked her head out from behind the bronze door.
The giant crystal in the center of the arena began to spin at high speed.
Then, two masses of semi-transparent, viscous liquid separated from the crystal and fell to the ground, quickly writhing and shaping themselves.
A few seconds later, a “Gray” holding a longsword and a “Kars” cradling a massive gun-sword stood in the crystal’s original position.
Not only were their appearances exactly the same, but even the aura they emitted was identical.
But… their interaction seemed a bit off.
Since they were products of the “Greed” Labyrinth, these copies not only replicated their strength but also seemed to materialize an extension of the Square Water Mirror’s perception of the original’s desire.
The copy Kars was shyly clinging to the copy Gray’s chest, her arms wrapped around his neck.
The warrior copy had one arm around the girl’s waist and the other lifting her chin.
Their faces were incredibly close, about to kiss.
“Oh… is this also… copied behavior?”
Watching the faded version of herself and the faded version of Gray being so intimate, Kars smirked and turned to look beside her.
Gray’s face had already turned as red as an apple.
“Mr. Gray, are you secretly thinking about some really dirty stuff in your head?”
“Of course not!”
The young man’s shout interrupted the flirting of the two copies in the arena.
One of them turned around, revealing a face identical to Gray’s with a furious expression that screamed “You dare interrupt me?”
‘You’re mad? I’m the one who should be mad! How did your copy expose some deep, hidden fantasy of mine? And I’ve never even gotten to kill Miss Kars! You bastard is absolutely unforgivable!’
Kars smiled lightly, shaking a few vials of potions in her hand and chugging them down her throat.
“O great Goddess, high in the azure sky, grant me a blessing!”
As Kars chanted and the potions took effect, a ring of multicolored halos appeared behind Gray’s head.
“Good luck, Mr. Gray. Don’t lose to yourself!”
The next moment, the girl’s figure vanished from her spot and clashed violently with her own copy several dozen meters away.
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