Moon's Labyrinths

“That looks like it really hurts . Are you ok?”

Russell asked Sungyoon .

When Sungyoon heard the words, he finally felt the pain . He had overdone it . He had moved while his body was still healing, so he had re-aggravated his injuries .

Sungyoon once again used a healing spell on himself .

“Mr . Sungyoon!”

Grace moved up next to Sungyoon and supported him .

Sungyoon looked at Russell .

“You’re Sir Russell, right?”

The man in front of Sungyoon had worn a helmet that hid his face, but Sungyoon had seen the shape of Russell’s armor before . The voice was the same too .

“What kind of question is that? You already know it’s me . Are you really ok?”

“My healing magic is already working on my body . ”

“I forgot you can activate your Gems really quickly . ”

Russell was one of the best Connectors of the world, yet even he was extremely envious of Sungyoon’s Gem activation speed . However, he couldn’t continue to be jealous .

In a flash, Russell swung his sword backward .

Kwahhhhhhng!

A loud sound rang out as the sharp sword clashed against something .

“Hoo-ahht!”

Russell put strength into his arms . His muscles bulged as he pushed his opponent backward .

The Super Golem jumped a significant distance backward .

Russell observed the Super Golem . One of the Super Golem’s six arms was shaped like a sharp blade that extended from its forearm .

However, suddenly, it looked as if the blade was melting . Then, in a flash, it was reformed back into the same shape as the other arms .

“It has some pretty interesting tricks . What’s this thing? I’ve never seen it before . ”

Russell was as experienced as any other Connector in this world, yet he had never seen it before .

“It looks a bit different, but it’s made out of similar metal to the Golem . Since it is bigger than a Golem, we’ve been temporarily calling it Super Golem . Its battle capabilities are much higher than the normal Golem . ”

“Golem . I’ve heard about it before . You’re referring to the one fallen by your feet?”

Russell glanced at the fallen Golem next to Sungyoon .

“Yes . ”

“Weren’t you and your party the first ones to discover the Golem?”

“That’s right . ”

“It really seems happenings and events occur wherever you go . ”

Sungyoon couldn’t see Russell’s expression because of the helmet . However, he could tell through the voice that Russell was smiling .

However, they no longer had the time to talk any more .

Kwahhhhhng!

Russell once again parried the Super Golem’s attack .

“Stand back . You guys can’t handle it at your power level . ”

They had no reason to turn down the offer . Sungyoon and Grace quickly distanced themselves from Russell . Grace picked up the other injured Connector as she continued to retreat with Sungyoon .

“Are you ok, Mr . Sungyoon!”

Emily, who had been healing Tim, asked Sungyoon when they arrived . She ran her hands over Sungyoon’s arm that had been broken not too long ago .

Fortunately, his bones hadn’t been crushed, as the break had been clean . It was probably the same case with his leg too .

“I healed myself to some extent . Please heal this man, Ms . Emily . ”

The black-armored man had lost consciousness either due to the excruciating pain or due to the exhaustion . Emily applied her healing spell on him . Even though he was unconscious, the man had been groaning from pain, but his groans subsided soon .

The party became relieved, but the relief lasted only for a moment .

Boom! Boom! Boom! Booooooooooom!

As they saw the quality of the fight occurring in front of their eyes, their mouths fell open .

This was the type of battle that appeared in a manhwa where normal eyes couldn’t keep up with the movement of the fighters . It was a literary device used to emphasize how strong the fighters were .

Such a literary device could be used to describe the fight between Russell and the Super Golem . It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the fight was that outrageous .

Kwah-roo-roo-roo-roo!

Another building fell due to the fight between the two combatants .

“We should move a bit further away . ”

Everyone agreed with Sungyoon’s suggestion .

Emily had the lowest combat capability, so she carried the unconscious man . Sungyoon and Tim readied themselves for the unexpected as they slowly moved away from the fight .

Boom!

The Super Golem landed roughly on the ground . Russell landed a short distance away from it .

“Fortunately, Sir Russell has the upper-hand . ”

Russell looked almost the same as before, but the Super Golem’s body was breaking down .

“Of course he has the upper-hand . It isn’t an exaggeration to say that he’s the greatest Connector of England . ”

Grace sounded proud .

The Super Golem’s six arms had morphed into various weapons . However, none of them could touch Russell .

But the Super Golem wasn’t going to go down easily .

Ggee-reek! Ggee-reek! Ggee-reek!

A strange sound emanated from its body . A blue Gem appeared as a flap opened in the middle of its chest .

Tah-aht!

Russell sensed something was off, so he charged the Super Golem .

However, it was a step faster than Russell .

The blue Gem shone as it shot out a large beam of light .

Kwahhhhhhhh!

The light beam flew straight towards Russell, and everything in its path was being destroyed . Russell raised his shield .

Boooooom!

The blue light beam hit his shield .

However, Russell’s shield didn’t move an inch . Russell didn’t budge either .

In fact, he took on the light beam head-on, and he moved forward step by step .

At a glance, one could tell that Russell was much stronger than the Super Golem . It was obvious that he would win .

However, Sungyoon caught sight of the Super Golem . It kept glancing at Sungyoon’s party . Sungyoon unconsciously raised his sword .

Ddoohk!

It happened at that moment . The light beam pouring out of its chest disappeared, and the Super Golem turned toward Sungyoon’s party . It charged at them .

“You dare!”

Of course, Russell wouldn’t let it do as it pleased . He chased after it . He was about to cut it down from the back when it happened .

Boom!

A Golem burst through the wall of a nearby building . It was a weakened normal Golem . It couldn’t hold a candle against the Super Golem, but it was capable of buying some time .

“You bastard!”

Russell’s sword cut the Golem into two . However, this gave the Super Golem some time to approach Sungyoon’s party .

It was moving at a monstrous speed, so the party couldn’t react to it . The Super Golem extended its hand toward Sungyoon as if it wanted to get rid of an irritant .

With his current capabilities, there was no way Sungyoon could react to the incoming attack .

Yet, he could clearly see the Super Golem’s movements right now .

‘It is this feeling again!’

This was the same feeling he had sensed when he dodged the Super Golem’s attack earlier .

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

It had been a long time since he felt his heartbeat . Sungyoon moved his arm . He felt as if he wasn’t moving his own body . It felt unreal as though he was looking at his body from a third-person point of view .

Suh-guhk!

The sword in his hand flew past the extended arm of the Super Golem . It was too easy . His sword moved like flowing water, and he stabbed toward his target .

Poo-shoohk!

The sword went in too easily . It was like stabbing a sword into mud . The sword smoothly penetrated the head of the Super Golem .

Duhl-kuhk!

The Super Golem stopped functioning as if it were a toy whose batteries were just taken out .

It moved forward but only because of its momentum . Once it lost its momentum, it would turn into an odd-looking sculpture .

It would be a broken sculpture buried in rubble .

Sungyoon dodged the Super Golem, which was flying toward him .

Boom!

It struck the ground . Sungyoon looked at all of this with an unbelievable amount of calmness in his heart .

Ssssk!

His senses returned to reality . Sungyoon opened his palm and slowly looked down at it . The feeling of his body not being his own went away .

He turned to look at his comrades .

They were all frozen in funny looking poses as they stared at him . They had been trying to dodge the incoming foe when they witnessed Sungyoon use his incredible speed and body movement to take down the Super Golem .

Boom!

“You... . ”

Russell arrived right after and expressed his surprise . Sungyoon couldn’t see Russell’s face, but he could discern that Russell’s voice was full of questions .

However, Sungyoon couldn’t resolve Russell’s curiosity .

Ba-dump!

He once again heard his heart beat . Soon, he felt enormous pain from the depth of his chest .

“Koohk!”

Sungyoon clutched at his chest as he fell to the ground . Everyone became surprised at his sudden movement . They ran toward him, but Sungyoon couldn’t even hear their worried voices .

‘This is... . ’

He remembered the pain he felt right before he awakened as a Connector . The pain he was feeling right now was remarkably similar . It almost felt the same .

Tuhl-suhk!

In the end, he fell over and he lost consciousness .

***

Sungyoon opened his eyes .

His head felt refreshed . It didn’t feel as if he had just woken up from sleep . His eyelids didn’t feel heavy, and there was no white fog in his mind .

He got up and found himself in a pretty luxurious bed . The room looked quite expensive too . He soon spotted someone pacing back and forth at the corner of the room .

“Ah! You’re awake!”

Her brown hair flew through the air . Emily rejoiced when she saw Sungyon had woken up .

“Where am I?”

“You’re in a hotel . After Mr . Sungyoon fell unconscious, you were brought here . It has been one day since you collapsed . ”

Emily moved up next to the bed with a chair . She sat down and grabbed Sungyoon’s hand . She was usually quite reserved, so this gesture was out of character for her . However, she was slowly starting to get over her shyness when it came to Sungyoon . Of course, this was strictly limited to Sungyoon .

“According to the doctor, you’re fine . Thank god . ”

Sungyoon placed a hand on his chest . He clearly remembered the sensation he felt before he fainted .

‘What was that?’

As always, he couldn’t hear his heartbeat .

Did he imagine it?

“Mr . Sungyoon?”

Emily’s voice brought him back to reality once again .

“Where are the others?”

“They are in their respective room . Everyone is waiting for Mr . Sungyoon to wake up . ”

“Could you call all of them here? I would like a briefing on what happened, and we have to discuss what we’ll do from here on out . ”

“I understand . ”

Emily exited the room . Sungyoon once again placed a hand on his chest .

‘Something feels off . ’

The doctor said nothing was wrong with him, but he still felt the need to investigate what had happened .

However, the sensation he felt wasn’t bad when he looked back at it . In fact, his mind had never felt so refreshed and focused before .

‘I’ll have to ask Mr Hyunwoo or Sir Russell about it . ’

Both of them had a lot of experience . They might know what was going on with him .

***

Sungyoon’s party all gathered in his room . They let out a sigh of relief when they saw that Sungyoon was fine .

Sungyoon quelled their fears, and he asked in earnest about the status of Armstrong .

“It’s a mess . ”

Grace’s description of the current situation was short and straight to the point .

“You should see it for yourself . That would be for the best . ”

Grace stood up from her chair and opened the firmly shut window .

The large dome had always looked like a birdcage keeping the humans penned in . Armstrong was the city of desire and pleasure .

This was the image that Sungyoon had of Armstrong .

However, this was no longer the case .

Sungyoon approached the window . He placed his hands on the window frame and looked down at the city .

Grace quietly moved away from his side .

He saw broken buildings all around and blood staining the streets . The ceiling was no longer a round dome . Several shutters had come down to quarantine different sectors of the city .

Sungyoon could no longer see the desire and pleasure .

“Only the spaceport looks crowded . ”

He could see the Aldrin spaceport in the distance and a lot of people gathered there .

In the past, a lot of people had gathered there too when magical energy had leaked out from Grace’s labyrinth . There was as much if not more people gathered there now .

At that time, the incident had occurred in a labyrinth far away from Armstrong . But, this incident had occurred at the heart of Armstrong .

“Lots of people are leaving Armstrong . Even the Connectors are shaken by this incident . Of course, it’s worse for the civilians . Almost all the civilians are leaving . ”

Grace spoke .

“Then Armstrong will no longer function . It’ll become paralyzed . ”

“The aftereffect of the population drain can be felt already . The only reason why this hotel still has employees is the fact that they couldn’t book a flight . However, they are only thinking about leaving for Earth . They probably aren’t interested in the fact that we are residing in this hotel . When we told them we’ll be staying here, they listened to us in an absentminded sort of way . ”

“Was our company building destroyed?”

“No . However, Sir Russell and the Super Golem fought near there . I’m sure it suffered a significant amount of damage . That’s why we booked rooms in this hotel . ”

Sungyoon nodded . At that moment, they heard someone knocking on the door .

“Who is it?”

Tim opened the door .

“Is Woo awake?”

The visitor was Russell .