Serena and the Mysterious Labyrinth - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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17. Total Annihilation (2)

And she opened her eyes.

She was still Serena. Serena Fackling Huaim. A bright 18-year-old princess of Heuji.

She hadn’t come back to life, but her consciousness was intact. She remembered all the emotions she had felt just before dying. She hadn’t reincarnated again either. Serena currently had no physical body.

‘Am I a ghost now?’

Perhaps because she had left her physical form, she could see far into the dark labyrinth.

Lavenda, Ralph, and Krom had all been stabbed and trampled to death by the Minotaur. If they had listened to Serena’s warning, at least one of the three could have survived, which was regrettable.

‘No. What would be the point of surviving alone? It’s better to die together when others are dying.’

What would be the point of remaining alone, isolated in the labyrinth with insufficient supplies? Perhaps dying like that was better.

The Reincarnated One thought so.

Serena gradually floated upward, piercing through the 2nd floor ceiling and rising to the 1st floor. They said you couldn’t move to other floors even if you dug through the ground or ceiling in the labyrinth, but that didn’t seem to apply to souls.

The 1st floor wasn’t the end. She continued floating upward leisurely and emerged onto the surface she had so desperately wanted to reach. Bright sunlight, not the labyrinth’s strange light, illuminated the ground and Serena.

Serena squinted her eyes. It wasn’t because the sunlight she hadn’t seen in days was dazzling or because the light was damaging her spiritual form.

She frowned at something bizarre that she had never seen in either of her two lives.

‘What on earth is that?’

Serena had expected to see Heuji City devastated by a great earthquake when she escaped the labyrinth. Collapsed palaces and cities, wailing people. A scene of utter chaos. Countless people who had become ghosts like Serena.

But in Heuji City, which she now saw as a ghost, there were no collapsed buildings, wailing people, fallen corpses, or cracked ground.

Something existed that Serena hadn’t expected, something probably no one could have expected.

Before Serena stood a massive tower. The tower was so black it seemed to absorb all light, soaring endlessly high into the sky.

How many floors could it have? Even among the high-rise buildings she had seen in her previous life, she had never seen a building taller than this tower. Even as Serena looked up, she couldn’t see the tower’s end.

Serena was floating higher and higher, yet the tower pierced through the clouds and continued endlessly upward. Could even the orbital elevators she had seen in movies be this tall?

But even orbital elevators would have an end, yet this tower seemed to have none.

As if humans were not permitted to see the tower’s end.

‘Could this be the labyrinth?’

Serena looked down at the distant ground below.

‘Has Heuji City been devoured by the labyrinth?’

She didn’t think this was a hallucination she was seeing while dying. Heuji City had been completely swallowed by the labyrinth, and this bizarre tower, this labyrinth, had taken its place.

Then what had happened to the people who lived there? Serena recalled Lavenda’s words, which she had dismissed as mere rumors.

‘Were all the people swallowed? There must have been about 100,000 people – all of them? The Royal Palace, the temples, everything?’

If that were true, why hadn’t they encountered them in the labyrinth? Or were all 100,000 people wandering somewhere in the labyrinth?

And then dying in the labyrinth like Serena and her party?

Ugh.

Serena shuddered. Even knowing that she would reincarnate after death, death was still frightening.

Moreover, as many as 100,000 people had been massacred in an instant.

Good people, bad people, old people, young people, idle loafers, great people – all had died equally without discrimination. In an instant, without any warning, the lives of 100,000 people had ended.

‘How terrifying.’

The more she thought about it, the more chilling and horrifying it became.

‘May you all be born in good places. Thank you for the taxes. I couldn’t live to 20, but thanks to you, I lived well.’

Most of the 100,000 dead were citizens of Heuji. Grateful, innocent people who had unconditionally revered her simply because Serena was royalty.

Serena prayed for the peaceful rest of the 100,000 dead. Since reincarnation seemed like a matter of luck, she was about to wish them all great fortune when—

Wooooooong.

A chilling sound flowed from the tower. Even without a body, goosebumps rose all over her. Though Serena was in soul form, her entire being trembled minutely, scattering and reforming repeatedly.

‘What is it?’

Woooooooong—.

The strange, chilling sound flowed from the tower again. It was a crying sound. The reason for the strange sounds from the tower was soon revealed.

“Could all of that be people?”

The black, bizarre tower was packed full of human souls. Unlike Serena, they weren’t free but were trapped in the tower, caught in pain and despair, continuously crying and lamenting.

The grief of the trapped souls combined to shake the tower, and the vibrations became sound that spread to the surroundings.

“This can’t be. Can’t they get out? Where’s the door?”

“Those swallowed by the labyrinth cannot escape it. The same goes for those who die in the labyrinth.”

“Who are you!”

A robed figure stood beside Serena as if they had been there from the beginning.

Their hood was pulled so deeply that their face wasn’t visible. Their age was unknown. Their gender was unknown. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if they were human.

The only thing she could tell was that the Robed Figure’s eyes were a deep crimson color.

Serena tried to organize her confused thoughts, wondering what on earth was happening.

“You’re saying that even in death, one cannot escape the labyrinth?”

She had met again in death the one she had seen in her dreams. If this wasn’t a hallucination or a strange dream Serena was having, then this being transcended human dreams and death.

“That’s right. Even in death, they cannot escape the labyrinth. Forever.”

“But I escaped.”

“You are not a soul of this world, so you’re a special exception.”

The other already knew that Serena had reincarnated from another world.

“Wasn’t reincarnation originally supposed to happen by traveling between different worlds?”

“Some places are like that, others aren’t. You failed to reincarnate properly and are more like a lost child. Since we have a connection, I’ll guide you to where you should go.”

A golden path spread out beneath Serena’s feet. The path was too dazzling and alluring.

If she followed this brilliantly shining, enchanting path, what would be at its end? The Emerald City?

No.

What awaited at the end of the golden path was the rest that any person, any living being would desire. That’s how it felt. She was almost certain of it.

Indeed, this life was not meant for her. That place was where Serena was originally supposed to go.

Serena was about to step onto the golden path as if enchanted.

Lady Serena!

A familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

Wooooooong.

The tower, the labyrinth, the souls trapped within cried out again. Serena found a familiar voice among them.

Waaah, Lady Serena! Where are you! I’m so scared! Lady Serena! Darling!

The voice of a maid desperately searching for someone she loved dearly.

Once she distinguished one, she could gradually make out other voices too.

Richard, you traitor!

Always angry, always sad. The voice of her brother, consumed with rage.

Besides the voices of close people, she could also hear voices of those she hadn’t known for long.

I must be crazy! Why did I come to Heuji to die like this? I want to go to Vieta! If I’m going to die in a labyrinth anyway, I’d prefer Bieta’s Labyrinth!

The Mysterious Stranger who had come to Heuji with dreams of striking it rich, only to suffer and die.

No way! Do you know how hard I worked for that money! I can’t die without spending it! No!

Krom, who despite being the eldest, received no respect for his age and suffered the most.

Mother! Father! Sister-in-law! You’re not here, right? The children aren’t here either, right? It’s just me here, right? Right?

Ralph, who had only wanted to get back at his brother for underestimating the difficulty of raising quadruplets.

The voice that had been relieved that his family wasn’t there soon turned into a terrible scream.

Why! Why am I the only one here!

The souls trapped in the labyrinth wailed like evil spirits. Serena couldn’t bear it anymore.

“This is too much! Those people are innocent. But must they remain trapped forever?”

If it were just one or two people, she could dismiss it as bad luck.

But what was before Serena now was 100,000 people. 100,000 that Serena couldn’t dare ignore. 100,000 citizens who had fed and supported her without complaint simply because Serena was a princess.

The souls of those 100,000 were trapped in the labyrinth, unable to reincarnate. It was too pitiful and heartbreaking.

“Can’t you help them?”

“It’s impossible for me. Then it wouldn’t be a labyrinth anymore. That would be a serious problem for me.”

“But…”

“Do you want to help them?”

“…Yes.”

Serena hated working too much, and she detested stepping forward to work for others even more.

But there were too many trapped people to turn away with such childish excuses. If she left them behind, she felt she wouldn’t be able to rest peacefully even at the end of the golden path.

“100,000 people is too many. It’s a number I cannot handle, yet cannot ignore either. Isn’t there some way to help?”

“I’d like to help, but I cannot extend my hand without compensation.”

The robe’s hem parted, and a white hand emerged from within.

“What will you do, child? Will you offer a sacrifice?”

Contracts should not be made carelessly. However, Serena, in her spiritual state, understood spiritually. This wasn’t a contract or transaction, but a one-sided favor. The sacrifice was merely an excuse to provide benefits.

Moreover, Serena had contacted similar beings before to learn magic. If the Robed Figure was indeed the existence she suspected.

Then perhaps it would be alright.

When Serena nodded, the Robed Figure smiled.

It seemed old, yet young. Scheming, yet innocent. The being in whom death and birth coexisted asked Serena.

“Left or right, which do you prefer?”

“Pardon?”

“There’s no time, so decide quickly.”

Urged again, Serena spoke without thinking.

“Left is good.”

There was no great meaning to it. Just like how she used to progress from the left when moving through dungeons in games, just like how she ate kimbap starting from the left end, it was a meaningless decision.

Hearing Serena’s choice, the Robed Figure nodded and reached toward Serena’s left eye.

“Kyaaah!”

The Robed Figure’s finger pierced into Serena’s eye. The finger mercilessly stabbed and gouged Serena’s eye before extracting what it sought.

Serena screamed while clutching her left side where her eyeball had been removed. Whether Serena was in agony or not, the Robed Figure who had accomplished its purpose smiled brightly.

The orange iris held in the white hand appeared crimson due to the blood staining it, making the color deeper.

“I accept the sacrifice.”

***

As she placed her hand on the statue to check its texture, Philia spoke.

“There’s someone over there!”

“Be quiet.”

Serena immediately covered Philia’s mouth and crouched down, hiding behind the statue. Then she realized this couldn’t be right.

‘What is this…’

Serena opened her eyes. Closed them. Opened them again. Closed them again.

She looked around in surprise. She had definitely died, yet she was alive.

She had definitely died on the 2nd Floor of the Labyrinth, yet this place was the 1st Floor.

The day before yesterday when she fell into the Labyrinth. It was exactly that moment when she was observing other people from behind the ugly statue.

Serena, who had been looking around in surprise, soon noticed something different from before. Her vision was different from her memory. It was narrow and stifling.

Had she been having a long, long daydream?

Serena rubbed her eyes to regain her senses and felt a strange yet familiar sensation covering her left eye area. She traced it with her fingers to confirm its shape and position, identifying what it was.

An eyepatch.

Serena slowly removed the eyepatch. She could see nothing with her left eye.

The princess had become one-eyed.

Shocked, Serena staggered and gripped the statue.

“Are you alright?”

“Who goes there! Reveal your identity!”

“It’s a Security Force uniform! Let’s ask for help!”

Philia brightened up and dragged Serena out. This time, unable to stop her in time, Serena was pulled along, and the statue came into view of her remaining eye.

An ugly statue that seemed carved from very hard stone by an unskilled sculptor. The only part that suggested it was meant to be human were the two irises painted crimson.

The statue winked at Serena.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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