Prologue
Desir Arman stood before the ruins of the fallen city.
For three generations, the city of Prehenoplu was acclaimed for its beauty; however, none of that was to be seen now. All that remained was ruins.
He drew out a long sigh and focused his attention toward the gigantic beast in front of his eyes–the Meteor-rank Destuction Dragon Brohmier Napolitan.
The enormous magic essence gathering burned like the sun as the Dragon Napolitan looked with disdain at the 100 insects standing before him.
“How dare you mere humans stand against me?” the deep voice said with pressure enough to crush everyone present- yet, no one cowered in fear.
“This is the end, Napolitan.” Desir Arman answered.
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At the ends of hell, there resides the Shadow Labyrinths which stems from the Shadow World. They are the ultimate threat which mankind must face. In this twisted world, Arman has witnessed numerous deaths: from his loved ones to colleagues, childhood friends whom he had memories with, people whom he had uncomfortable relationship and even juniors who viewed him highly. There were also some people whom he were not familiar with.
And this world has taken all of them away.
Ten years ago, when this Shadow World began, millions of people were trapped. From them, only 100 survived.
Every passing day was a fight for survival. The shadow army pouring out every night would wreak havoc and destruction causing people to die at their wake.
In these darkest hours, people would comfort themselves by repeating their fallen comrades’ names, remembering their deeds and using them to reinforce among themselves even greater will to survive.
_____________________
“We will kill you and end this damn hell.”
As they heard the battle cry, the survivors rekindled their will once more.
The Dragon Napolitan who brought this civilization to ruins started attacking.
It was a legendary battle.
The dragon’s magic mercilessly hammered down upon the survivors as they desperately fought back.
With the battle shaking the earth and tearing through the sky, the once shining city in the desert is now nothing but dust and crumbles.
As the battle raged on for hours, the survivors were nearing loss: The best defensive magic they prepared beforehand had been shattered, the artifacts that reinforced their magic were now destroyed and unusable .
Even though they have already fought for many years against all odds and survived through them, it was just that the enemy they’re facing-The Dragon Napolitan, was an insurmountable wall which they could never hope to defeat. As time went by, they found themselves falling deeper and deeper as their numbers slowly dwindled.
But even so, the survivors refused to give up.
They knew that there was nowhere to hide or escape-if they cannot kill the dragon before them, then the world will come to an end.
It was because of this willpower and determination that a miracle was born.
“The first magic! I have finished analyzing the magic pattern for [Absolute Zero]. In 8 minutes, after activating [Elonio’s System of Inversion], the dragon’s magic will be sealed! I have also finished analyzing its skeletal structure! Focus your attacks on its spine!”
“You puny humans!” Napolitan roared.
Kaboom!
An explosive sound was heard as the dragon’s magic sprang all over the place.
The magic power crashed like lightning towards the survivors; however, it was very weak when compared to before. The dragon thought to be impregnable was now losing its touch.
“I have finished analyzing the magic pattern of the thirteenth magic!
I have also sealed its [Geomagnetism]!
A [Dragon Breath] is incoming! Prepare to disperse the shock as much as possible, and evacuate the injured to the side!’
Thud
Finally, they could now respond to its attacks as the patterns of the dragon magic are exposed.
Gradually, as the dragon’s powerful magic was sealed, it began to lose strength.
“H-How… How is this possible?! How come I’m losing against just mere humans?!”
“Final magic pattern analysis is done! I have sealed off all its spells!”
“Now is your chance! Attack him with all you’ve got! Go vanquish the Dragon!”
“This can’t be happening!” howled Napolitan.
Finally, the gigantic dragon fell on the ground.
It’s all over now.
Or so they thought.
______________
As the fight was over, the survivors were relieved.
From among the 100 before, only 6 remained.
And they were looking at the dragon’s body with relief.
The past seemed to pass before their very eyes.
A day survived is a day closer to death. They have survived through countless battles during the ten years. Now they could finally return to their lives before the Shadow Labyrinth.
“I can finally get out of this damn hell!”
The survivors sat down relaxed.
“Good work evreyone! In the end, we were able to save the world.” Raphael, the leader of the party, said.
“I wonder why the message hasn’t been broadcasted yet? The ‘Cleared’ Message. Was it not the goal in this world- to slay the dragon?” Donovan, a barbarian warrior clad in golden jewelry, coarsely asked. He was a warrior from the North and the way he spoke was a common trait among them.
“Hmm.. you’re right. Once the mission is cleared, we were supposed to return to our original world.” Raphael said. “But this place seems different. It doesn’t seem to follow the normal rules of the shadow world… I think it’s best that we wait a bit.”
“Out of 150 million people, is it just the 6 of us that survived…? The survival rate was 0.00000004%. What an absurdly low number.” Said Joan Exarion, the great Tower of Magic’s Sage of Wisdom.
Against his words, The Pure White Priscilla nervously responded, “Stop doing useless calculations. It’s not going to bring back the dead.”
“Whenever an incident occurs, we must always try to understand what happened. Since practically 99% of the mages have died, it’s specially even more crucial that we understand what exactly went wrong.” Joad calmly answered.
“Well in any case, we should just be satisfied that we saved the world.” Desir gleefully said.
The only person who haven’t joined the conversation, and was simply sitting and listening a couple meter away from the others was the Magic Swordsman Adjest.[1]
“It would’ve been really hard had you not been here Raphael.” Priscilla said.
Embarrassed, Raphael waved his hands, “NO, No. That’s not true! Protecting you guys was just part of my duty as a paladin. Sir Desir played a bigger role than I did.”
Desir got embarrassed as well.
“We probably couldn’t have defeated it if Desir wasn’t present.” Donovan swiftly agreed.
Having been pondering over something for quite a while, Joad finally answered, “In all honesty, I thought you were going to die first. Even if you had help from artifacts, how did a Tier III magic circle magician, not only do a complete analysis of the [Dragon Voice]’s magic pattern, but also knew how to seal that power? That’s a highly advanced analysis skll and that is something that even I, a Tier VII magic circle magician, cannot completely do. This is something that I have never seen or even heard of. You have that much of a talent, yet why are you still only a Tier III magic circle magician?”
Everyone’s eyes were focused on Desir.
“Since I’m just a commoner, I was never fully trained or educated. It’s possible that if I was taught formally, then I probably could have saved a lot more people today.” Desir answered in a solemn tone.
“That’s a pity. If only you were in the Tower of Magic, you would have received endless amount of support.” Joad sorrowfully said.
Loudfully clasping his hands, Raphael shouted “Alright, let’s stop talking about the past! It’s very likely that once we return back to our world, we will receive a grand welcoming. What are you all going to do from now on?”
Donovan was the first tor respond, holding ornaments which held the initials of his fallen comrades, “I will be visiting the homes of my fallen comrades. I will be returning their belongings back to their families. I will always remember their bravery. Forever.’
“I will return back to the Western Kingdoms and I’m going to comfort the families of the deceased ones. For all the people who laid their lives at this place, I’m sure they would be glad if we made a memorial shrine for them.” Priscilla added.
“I will research a way to stop any possibilities of the recurrence of the Shadow Labyrinth. Because if another Shadow Labyrinth of this scale occurs once more, it would definitely mean the end of the world as we know it.” Joad sharply said.
“What will you be doing Lady Adjest?” Raphael asked.
Adjest simply looked at Raphael with an expressionless face, then switched her gaze elsewhere.
“Aha! What about you, Sir Desir? Since it’s Sir Desir, I’m sure you will be welcomed anywhere you go.”
Joad looked at Desir beamingly.
“Will you be going back to Havrion Academy?” Raphael kept asking.
“I’ll be-“ Desir said, before he was interrupted by a rambunctious pulsating sound.
Thud
Suddenly, the group felt an extremely powerful surge of mana. Their happy mood instantly vanished and was replaced with fear.
“W-wait a second! Didn’t we clear our mission objective for this Shadow World?! We vanquished the dragon!” Priscilla shouted.
“Is it possible that we didn’t finish it off?” Donovan said.
“I thought we completely finished it off.” Desir answered.
“That’s not possible! I even confirmed if it was dead or not!’ Joad shouted back, “W-wait… Could it be?”
[1] YEAHHHH. BEST GRIL WAIFU
Just Random Things 