STML 17

Chapter 17

Annihilation (2)

Then she opened her eyes.

She was still Serena.

Serena Parkling Huyaim. The eighteen-year-old Princess of Huji.

She hadn’t come back to life, yet her consciousness was perfectly intact.

She remembered every emotion she’d felt just before dying.

She hadn’t been reincarnated again, either.

She simply had no body.

‘Am I… a ghost now?’

Perhaps because she had left her body, she could see far into the dark Labyrinth.

Lavenda.

Ralph.

Chrome.

All of them had been impaled and trampled to death by the Minotaur.

If only they had listened to her warning, at least one of them might have survived.

‘No…

Even if someone had survived, what would they have done alone?

Maybe it was better for everyone to die together.’

Trapped inside the Labyrinth with almost no supplies…

What could one person have accomplished alone?

Perhaps dying like that had been the kinder ending.

That was what the reincarnated girl thought.

Serena continued drifting upward.

She passed straight through the ceiling of the second floor and entered the first.

People said that digging through the ground or ceiling could never move someone between floors of a Labyrinth.

Apparently…

That didn’t apply to souls.

The first floor wasn’t the end.

She kept floating higher and higher…

Until she finally emerged onto the surface she’d longed to see.

Real sunlight shone upon the earth.

Not the strange light of the Labyrinth.

The bright rays illuminated Serena.

She narrowed her eyes.

Not because she hadn’t seen the sun for days.

Nor because sunlight harmed spirits.

She frowned because she saw something so bizarre…

Something she’d never witnessed in either of her lives.

‘…What is that?’

She had expected Hujichen to be a disaster zone.

Collapsed buildings.

The ruined royal castle.

People screaming.

The ground split apart.

Countless ghosts wandering like herself.

Instead…

There were none of those things.

No collapsed buildings.

No crying people.

No corpses.

No cracked earth.

Instead…

Something existed that Serena could never have imagined.

Before her stood a gigantic tower.

It was so black it seemed to absorb every ray of light.

It stretched endlessly toward the heavens.

‘How many stories does it have?’

Even among all the skyscrapers she’d seen in her previous life…

Nothing had ever reached this height.

No matter how much she looked up…

She couldn’t see its peak.

She continued floating upward.

The tower pierced through the clouds…

And still continued higher.

‘Is this some kind of orbital elevator?’

But even orbital elevators had an end.

This tower didn’t appear to.

As though…

Its summit was forbidden to mankind.

‘Don’t tell me…

This is the Labyrinth?’

Serena looked down.

Far below…

‘Did the Labyrinth swallow all of Hujichen?’

It didn’t feel like a hallucination brought on by death.

The entire city had been swallowed whole.

And from it…

This monstrous tower—the Labyrinth—had risen.

‘Then… what happened to everyone who lived there?’

She remembered what Lavenda had once said.

A rumor she’d dismissed.

‘Were they all swallowed?

Nearly a hundred thousand people…

The royal palace…

The temples…

Everyone?’

If that was true…

Why hadn’t she met any of them inside the Labyrinth?

Or…

Were all one hundred thousand people wandering somewhere within it?

Only to die…

Just as she had?

A chill ran through her.

Even knowing that reincarnation existed…

Death was terrifying.

A hundred thousand people…

Wiped out in a single instant.

Good people.

Bad people.

Old people.

Children.

Idle layabouts.

Great heroes.

Death had treated them all equally.

Without warning…

A hundred thousand lives had ended.

‘How horrifying…’

The more she thought about it…

The more dreadful it became.

‘Everyone…

Please be reborn somewhere wonderful.

Thank you for paying your taxes.

I didn’t even make it to twenty…

But thanks to you, I lived well.’

Most of those hundred thousand dead…

Had been citizens of Huji.

Simple, loyal people…

Who respected and loved her simply because she was their princess.

Serena silently prayed that they would all find peaceful reincarnations.

Just as she was about to wish them good fortune…

Wooooooong…

A horrifying sound echoed from the tower.

She no longer had a body.

Yet every part of her trembled.

Her soul shook violently, almost dispersing before reforming.

‘What… is that?’

Wooooooooooong—

The eerie sound came again.

It was…

Crying.

The reason became clear almost immediately.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Those are all people?”

The enormous black tower was packed with human souls.

Unlike Serena…

None of them were free.

They were imprisoned inside.

Endlessly grieving.

Endlessly despairing.

Endlessly cursing.

The cries of countless trapped souls merged together.

The tower itself trembled.

Its vibrations became that dreadful sound echoing across the sky.

“This can’t be…”

“Can’t they get out? Isn’t there a door?”

“Those swallowed by the Labyrinth cannot leave it.”

“The same is true for those who die inside.”

“Who’s there?!”

A figure in a robe stood beside Serena.

As though they had been there from the very beginning.

Their hood was pulled so low that their face couldn’t be seen.

She couldn’t tell their age.

Or even their gender.

She wasn’t even sure they were human.

Only one thing was visible.

Their eyes…

Were a deep crimson.

Serena desperately tried to organize her thoughts.

“You mean…”

“Even after dying… they can never leave the Labyrinth?”

“That’s right.”

“They will remain there forever.”

“But…”

“I escaped.”

“You are not a soul born in this world.”

“You are a special exception.”

The mysterious figure already knew she had been reincarnated from another world.

“Isn’t reincarnation… supposed to happen between different worlds?”

“Sometimes.”

“And sometimes not.”

“You never underwent a proper reincarnation.”

“You’re more like a lost child who wandered astray.”

“Since our paths have crossed…”

“I shall guide you to where you truly belong.”

A golden road appeared beneath Serena’s feet.

It was dazzling.

Beautiful.

Irresistibly attractive.

If she followed it…

What awaited at the end?

The Emerald City?

No.

It felt like…

The destination was the place every living being longed for.

Peace.

Rest.

She knew it instinctively.

‘So this life…

Was never really mine.’

That place…

Was where Serena had originally been meant to go.

Entranced…

She stepped toward the golden road.

Lady Serena!

A familiar voice stopped her.

Wooooooooooong…

The tower cried again.

The imprisoned souls cried again.

Among them…

She recognized familiar voices.

“Lady Serena! Sob… Where are you? I’m so scared! Lady Serena! My lady!”

It was Philia.

Searching desperately for the person she loved most.

Once she recognized one voice…

Others followed.

“Richard! You traitor!”

Her younger brother’s voice.

Always angry.

Always sorrowful.

Then came voices she’d only known briefly.

“I was insane! Why did I come to Huji? I want to go back to Vieta! If I had to die in a Labyrinth, I should’ve died in Vieta’s!”

Lavenda.

The massage therapist who had come dreaming of fortune.

“No! That’s my life’s savings! I can’t die before spending it!”

Chrome.

The oldest member of the party.

“Mother! Father! Sister-in-law! You’re not here, right? The children aren’t here either… right? It’s only me… isn’t it?”

Ralph.

He had only wanted to prank his older brother.

The relief in his voice…

Soon became a scream of despair.

“WHY?! WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE HERE?!”

The trapped souls wailed like evil spirits.

Serena couldn’t bear it any longer.

“This is too cruel!”

“They’ve done nothing wrong!”

“Do they really have to remain trapped forever?”

One or two victims…

Could be dismissed as terrible luck.

But this wasn’t one or two.

It was…

One hundred thousand people.

One hundred thousand citizens.

The very people who had supported Serena without complaint simply because she was their princess.

And now…

Not one of them could be reincarnated.

“How pitiful…”

She turned toward the robed figure.

“Can’t you save them?”

“I cannot.”

“If I did…”

“It would no longer be a Labyrinth.”

“That would be a serious problem for me.”

“But…”

“Do you wish to save them?”

“…Yes.”

Serena hated working.

She hated working for other people even more.

But…

There were simply too many people to ignore.

If she abandoned them…

She felt she could never truly rest, even at the end of the golden road.

“One hundred thousand people is too many.”

“I can’t save them.”

“But I also can’t turn my back on them.”

“Isn’t there… any way?”

“I would like to help.”

“But I cannot extend my hand without receiving something in return.”

The sleeves of the robe opened.

A pale white hand emerged.

“What will you do, child?”

“Will you offer a sacrifice?”

One should never make contracts lightly.

Yet, in her spiritual state…

Serena instinctively understood.

This wasn’t a contract.

Nor was it a transaction.

It was one-sided mercy.

The sacrifice…

Was merely a formality.

She had once encountered a similar existence while learning magic.

If this being was truly what she suspected…

Then…

It should be alright.

Serena nodded.

The robed figure smiled.

The smile looked ancient…

Yet youthful.

Cunning…

Yet innocent.

A being embodying both death and birth asked gently,

“Which do you prefer?”

“The left?”

“Or the right?”

“Huh?”

“We don’t have much time.”

“Choose.”

Urged again…

Serena answered almost absentmindedly.

“The left.”

It meant nothing.

Just as she always explored dungeon paths from the left in games.

Or started eating kimbap from the left end.

A completely meaningless decision.

The robed figure nodded.

Then…

Reached toward Serena’s left eye.

“AAAAAH!”

Their finger plunged directly into her eye.

Mercilessly digging deeper.

Twisting.

Searching.

Until…

It pulled something free.

Serena screamed, clutching the empty socket of her left eye.

Ignoring her agony…

The robed figure smiled brightly.

Resting in their white hand…

Was an orange iris.

Covered in blood.

It looked crimson.

“I accept your sacrifice.”

As Serena placed her hand on the ugly stone statue to feel its texture…

Philia suddenly whispered,

“There’s someone over there!”

“Quiet.”

Serena immediately covered Philia’s mouth and crouched behind the statue.

Then—

She froze.

‘What…?’

Serena opened her eyes.

Closed them.

Opened them again.

Closed them once more.

She looked around in astonishment.

She had definitely died.

Yet…

She was alive.

She had died on the second floor of the Labyrinth.

But now…

She was back on the first floor.

The very moment from two days earlier…

Just after falling into the Labyrinth.

The moment when she’d been hiding behind the ugly statue, secretly observing everyone.

As she looked around in shock…

She noticed something different.

Her vision wasn’t the same as she remembered.

It felt narrower.

More confined.

‘Was everything just… one long dream?’

Trying to calm herself, Serena rubbed her eyes.

Her fingers touched something strange over her left eye.

Unfamiliar.

Yet somehow familiar.

She traced it carefully.

An eyepatch.

Slowly…

She removed it.

Nothing.

She couldn’t see anything with her left eye.

The princess…

Had become one-eyed.

Staggering in shock…

She leaned against the statue.

“Are you alright?”

“Who’s there?! Identify yourselves!”

“They’re wearing guard uniforms! Ask them for help!”

Delighted, Philia pulled Serena out from behind the statue.

This time…

Serena couldn’t stop her.

As she was dragged forward…

Her remaining eye landed on the statue.

It was as ugly as ever.

As though an unskilled sculptor had carved impossibly hard stone.

The only recognizable feature was its two eyes…

Painted a vivid crimson.

The statue…

Winked at Serena.