Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~

They might be the last line of defense trying to stop us from moving forward.

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They’re a bit of a nuisance since they came along with Golems for defense, but still, their strength was a far cry from ours.

We were able to easily defeat both the Minotaurs and the Golems.
And, since there was no barrier here like the one on the 5th floor that locked us inside, we were practically unstoppable.

「Is this the last of them?」

Rino asked while looking at the countless defeated Minotaurs.

「It seems this is all of them.
Let’s go and defeat that evil god.」

「No… This isn’t all of them, Rino, Chiyuki.」

Reiji was looking towards the deepest part of the passage.

A Minotaur has been waiting for us there this whole time.

That Minotaur wasn’t wielding any weapon and his physique was smaller compared to other Minotaurs.

「Are you… Zuun?」

I remembered him clearly.
He was Zuun, the Minotaur who’d betrayed us on the 5th floor.

「You’ve finally appeared before us huh.」

Reiji gripped his sword and readied himself, preparing to attack Zuun.

「Wait, Reiji-kun!! Let me to talk to him!!」

I stopped Reiji.

「What are you going to talk about to a guy who betrayed us, Chiyuki?」

「Something has been weighing on my mind since a while ago.
Please, let me to talk to him, Reiji.」

Reiji lowered his sword at hearing my plea.

「I understand, but make it brief.」[TL : I hate this act]

「Thanks Reiji.」

I went towards Zuun.

「Chiyuki-sama… Mhoo.」

Zuun was looking at me with a sad expression on his face.

「Zuun… I intended to treat you kindly and yet…」

Zuun might be the weakest Minotaur in this labyrinth.

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He was treated like a slave by the other Minotaurs.

I’d intended to treat him, the poor Zuun, kindly.

「I only do this because I’ve no choice but to do this mhoo… I can’t even imagine what will become of me if Chiyuki-sama left this place…」

「That’s…」

I was at loss for words.

Because he was right.
I didn’t even think about what would happen to Zuun after we beat the Evil God.

He might be killed by the other Minotaurs without us here to help him.

「Then… How about you leave this labyrinth with us? That way you’ll survive.」

I offered the first idea that came to mind.

But, Zuun shook his head in refusal.

「There’s no way the humans will accept a human eater like Zuun… Mhoo.」

I received another shock at hearing his words.

I’d forgotten the fact that Zuun was a Minotaur too, and Minotaurs ate humans.

「I can only live in this place mhoo… My life will be spared as long as I can prevent Chiyuki-sama and the others from leaving this place mhoo…」

「Zuun, you…」

The Minotaur before me was truly living a pitiful life.

Then I recalled the legend about the Minotaurs.

Minotaurs, the creatures born between the King Minos’ Queen and a cow, were locked up in the labyrinth to keep their man-eating habits in check.

The fact that he was born in and itself was a sin.

And just like that legend, Zuun had no other place to live except for this labyrinth.

Someone had planted that kind of suggestion in his mind.

It was at that moment I noticed that Zuun wasn’t the one who wanted to kidnap Princess Euria.
Zuun was only a puppet in the hands of the mastermind.

「But still… I don’t wish to see Chiyuki-sama hurt either, mhoo.
That’s why, Chiyuki-sama… Please stop, don’t go even further mhoo.
Labrys-sama is strong, mhoo.
You can still make it in time if you run now, mhoo!!」

Zuun pleaded to us with desperation.

「Thank you, Zuun.
But still, what will become of you if we escaped from this place?」

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「…………」

Zuun fell into silence and looked troubled at my words.

It seems he especially waited for us here to warn us.

「Moreover, we have to save Princess Euria.」

Zuun shook his head the moment he heard my words.

「No need to worry about her mhoo… That person is Labrys-sam—-MHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!」

Zuun’s body was suddenly wrapped in fire.

「ZUUN!!?」

I was too late.
By the time I was able to reach him, Zuun had already been turned into a pile of ashes.

「Zuun… Why…」

I kneeled down where he was standing just a moment ago, picking up Zuun ashes.
Resurrection was impossible since his body had turned into ashes.

「Chiyuki…」

「Chiyuki-san.」

Everyone came after me.

「Only death awaits a betrayer!!」

Suddenly, I heard a hoarse voice coming from above.

「WHO’S THERE!?」

I was looking up but I couldn’t see the source of the voice anywhere.

「Come down to meet me, Rena’s hero!! Don’t ever think about leaving this place!!」

The mysterious voice disappeared as soon as it said those words.

「Let’s go, Chiyuki!!」

Reiji offered his hand to me.

「Yeah… Reiji-kun.」

I took his hand to help prop myself up again.

「Are you okay, Chiyuki-san?」

Sahoko asked with a worried look on her face.

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「I’m okay… Let’s get going.
I won’t feel good until I kicked the ass of that Evil God.」 [TL : IN YOUR DREAMS!!]

I raised my head.
The voice just now might have been the Evil God’s voice.
He might be monitoring us from somewhere.

Thus, we proceeded towards the 13th floor, the place where the Evil God has been waiting for us.

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

Shirone and I were quickly advancing through the labyrinth with me taking on the vanguard role.

The passage we were using was wide enough for 30 people to be standing side by side.

We should be close to reaching the end of this shortcut.

「Wait, Kuroki!!」

Shirone suddenly called out to me.

「Is something the matter, Shirone?」

I turned around and asked her, confused why she’d called out to me.

「Geez, why are you not looking over here!! You basically defeated all those monsters by yourself to the point that I don’t even get my turn!!」

Shirone complained to me.

「But… you’re angry when I saw….」

Shirone was angry since my eyes were always locking onto her butt before.

Since the current me was still basically the embodiment of worldly desires due to the effects from Kuna’s strange drug, my eyes could basically not stop themselves from locking onto her butt.

That’s why, at this point, her request to fight more monsters was akin to asking me to peep up her skirt.

In addition, Shirone’s guard was too loose.

I think she has no idea that she’s always attracting unpleasant gazes from men due to that.

「You can close your eyes right!?」

Honestly, I was at loss when she asked for the impossible.

I continued to walk in silent since I decided that she was being unreasonable with her demand.

「Wait, Shirone!!」

I stopped Shirone who was about to launch another barrage of complaints.

There was something blocking our path.

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It looked to be a knight standing at about two meters tall donned in brass colored armor.
It was equipped with a huge sword in its hand and a pair of large wings on its back.

「What is that…」

Shirone said so while looking at the knight.

「It might be the guardian of this shortcut.
I think it’s called Talos by its creator, Heibos.」

According to the information that I heard from the Atlankua, Heibos had created Talos as the guardian of this passage.

I also have some information about Talos from its own creator, Heibos.

Even though it was made of metals just like any other golems, what differentiated it from other golems was the magic blood called Ichor* that was flowing through its body.
[TL* : Ichor : God’s blood in greek myth, feel free to google it yourself]

The existence of that blood made Talos an existence closer to human rather than a golem.

「Stop right there.
You’ve no permission to pass through this passage.」

Talos’ voice rang out in the passage as it noticed us approaching.
It had a refreshing, genderless voice.

Heibos had granted it an edo when he created Talos, thus allowing Talos to speak.

「Get back Shirone.
This guy is a rather troublesome opponent.」

I drew my sword.

I heard that Talos, the guardian of this passage, was made of orichalcum.

Orichalcum was an enchanted alloy that was created from a copper-like metal called Halcon.

This orichalcum was an extremely tough metal.
A normal sword couldn’t even hope to scratch it.
But, my demon sword should be able to slice it like a block of tofu.

「Wait right there, Kuroki.
I mean, I almost never get the chance to fight since you defeated all incoming monsters so far.」

Shirone walked ahead of me while drawing her sword.

Her transparent, bluish sword blade was shining with a pale blue light.

It seems that the sword was specially made for Shirone.
It might be strong enough to match Talos.

「But, I can see THAT you know…」

Shirone glared at me as I pointed it out.

「If you really don’t want to see it, JUST TURN AROUND!」

「That’s even more impossible.
I mean, I can’t react fast enough if something unexpected happens during the fight.
And it’s not like I don’t want to see it either.
It’s the opposite, I want to see Shirone’s beautiful long legs so much to the point that I wanted to lick it.」

I declared fearlessly while making a guts pose with my right hand.