Chapter 39

Chapter 39

We’ll Clean It Up Nicely

Aris opened the eyes she had been squeezing shut.

A strange chill brushed past one cheek.

She could not tell where it had begun.

Dark blue petals stretched out from somewhere far away, cutting across the dark air.

When her gaze followed the petals, she saw Boss Ryu Jin leaping high into the air.

With no small number of petals wrapped around him, Ryu Jin brought his sword down.

SLAAASH!!

The petals gathered around the Clear Stream Blade scattered, dyeing the surroundings dark blue.

At the same time, something fell.

The club that had been swinging at the sausage seal, and the entire arm that had been holding that club.

“Kraaaaaak!!”

For something so huge, it was ridiculously dramatic.

The Dokkaebi dropped to its knees and screamed.

Ryu Jin climbed up that Dokkaebi’s body, spun once in midair, and cut off its neck.

THUD!

The head fell and rolled across the stone floor.

Normally, Aris would have made a fuss about how disgusting it was, but right now, she did not have the presence of mind for that.

Aris stared at the slowly fading petals.

‘What was that?!’

Was Boss the one who had done this?

Even though she had seen it right before her eyes, she could not easily believe it.

She already knew that Ryu Jin had become stronger than when she first met him.

But what he had just done was not a simple change on the level of merely becoming stronger.

“Hm? This is what they call aura, manifested by condensing mana. How did I make it into the shape of a dragon, you ask? Even if I told you, you would not understand. Only those born with innate talent can understand and perform it.”

Who had said that to her?

That damned old Sword Saint geezer from Aris’s world.

Of course, that did not mean the current Ryu Jin was as strong as that old man.

Even if she was being generous, he was at the level of one of the old man’s toes at best.

But aside from that, the fact that he had pulled off something like this meant one thing.

Ryu Jin was the owner of the innate talent the old Sword Saint had spoken of.

Gulp!

‘This is bad……!’

She wrinkled her nose.

It felt as if it was getting farther and farther away.

The glorious moment of revolution when she would overthrow this wicked dictatorship and rise to the position of number one.

“My liege-duuuuuuu!!”

Poporu came running over at once, leaped up, and clung to Ryu Jin.

With tears welling in his eyes, Poporu rubbed his face against him.

It still seemed to shimmer before his eyes.

The dazzling sight of his liege appearing like a comet and saving him.

At this moment, the seal…… No, Kung-du Poporu made a firm vow.

He would serve his liege-du with even greater loyalty than before!

After rubbing against him for a while and unintentionally wiping away all his tears and snot, Poporu lifted his head.

“Have you already defeated all those enemies and returned-du!? As expected of my liege-du! Even an enormous army is nothing before my liege-du!”

“No? I ran away too.”

“Du?”

Leaving Poporu tilting his head behind me, I looked at the Clear Stream Blade in my hand.

The dark blue petals that had filled my vision moments ago.

I swallowed dryly.

‘It actually worked.’

I had only been in a hurry, wrapped the blade in as much mana as I could manage, and swung.

Yet plum blossoms had bloomed and scattered petals, just like Jin Hwayeon had shown me.

‘Incredible.’

The corners of my mouth slowly crept upward.

I was the one who had done it, but it was absurdly cool.

RUMBLE……

At the vibration beneath my feet, I turned my head.

I wanted to stay drunk on the plum-blossom thrill a little longer, but unfortunately, that was not possible.

“Boss? The ground is kind of rumbling.”

“Because they are coming.”

“What is coming?!”

“Something scary.”

There was no time to explain in detail.

Even if it was not the Monster army pouring toward us, we had to run farther away first.

We were still barely within range.

“Poporu. Can you run while carrying Aris?”

“She is heavy because she is a steamed-bun pig, but I can do it-du.”

“Then run.”

“By your command-du!”

I picked up Tsumugi and kicked off the ground.

CRACK!

“Ow, ow, ow! Why are you grabbing my head, you crazy seal?!”

“There is no time to explain-du!”

“Gyaaaah! My hair is all going to fall out!!”

Regardless of what Aris said, Poporu began running after me at full speed.

Tsumugi, who had absorbed energy, had become incomparably more distinct than before.

It seemed there truly was not much left now.

Rustle.

Even while her hair was being held, Aris diligently examined the surroundings with Sky View.

Cold sweat flowed down Aris’s forehead once she finished.

Now that she looked again, the small-fry Monsters appearing here and there to block the path were not the problem.

The real problem was those bastards flooding through the torii and into the shrine.

‘How many are there?’

She could say with certainty that this was the first time since her birth.

The first time she had ever seen so many Monsters.

It was no exaggeration. They were truly at the level of a tidal wave.

‘This time, I might really get reverse-summoned!?’

There was no need for them to attack her directly.

If they simply stepped on her once each while passing by, she would become as flat as dried filefish.

It was a good thing she had watched a religious broadcast on NewTube in advance.

Recalling the memory, she slowly made the Sign of the Cross.

The Father and the Constellation…… What came after that? She had forgotten. In any case.

After resigning herself, she calmly closed her eyes.

At that moment.

CLAMP!!

Someone pressed down on the back of her head.

“You damned little seal! If I’m going to die, at least let me go in peace……!?”

While she was going, Huh? Huh? at the ground rapidly drawing closer.

Flash.

Light burst from the direction where the torii had been.

And not long after.

KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!

An explosion that shook heaven and earth rang out.

“I’m going to diiiiiie!!!”

With a scream, Aris buried her head in the ground.

She did not die, but the sound was so loud that she felt as if she might lose her mind.

Then the blast wave came rushing in after it, making her body jolt.

The wind was so strong that if Ryu Jin had not been pressing her down, she might have gone flying.

“It’s the apocalyyyyypse!!”

Shrieking, she drew the Sign of the Cross with her short little hand.

Once, twice, three times, four times. That did not feel like enough, so she kept doing it.

Whooooosh……!

The explosive roar and wind that had seemed as if they would last forever began to fade.

The shrine, which had seemed as if it would remain endlessly chaotic, fell silent.

Ryu Jin, who had been pressing down on his friends, cautiously lifted his head.

“Hooooooooo!”

A sigh of relief burst out instinctively.

Even though it had been outside the range I confirmed with the Evil Eye, it was a good thing I had run farther.

Otherwise, we might have been caught in the blast wave and sent flying all the way over there.

But more importantly, what kind of insane weapon was this?

[The Legendary SS+ weapon “Area-Cleanup Sphere” will be returned to the Armory!]

I glared at the message that appeared.

[Area-Cleanup Sphere / Grade: SS+ / Legendary]

A genius chemist named Nuclear was a clean freak who had no equal except perhaps one person in the world!

Nuclear, a cleaning fanatic who loved cleanliness more than anything, spent 17 hours out of every 24 cleaning!

Then one day, Nuclear had a thought! How wonderful would it be if everything became clean with a single click?

After finishing the development of the Area-Cleanup Sphere, Nuclear left these words behind.

If you activate it, run hard. Unless you want to be cleaned up too!

I had been hoping for a laser cannon, but what came out was a throwable time bomb.

I needed something, anything, so I flipped the switch and threw it as hard as I could.

After that, I infused mana into my legs and ran at the fastest speed of my life.

But anyway.

“Uuuuuugh!”

What kind of demon was making the Sign of the Cross like this?

Smack.

I lightly slapped Aris on the forehead.

“Eh!?”

Aris opened her eyes wide and looked around.

It seemed she had not even realized the explosion was over.

“Is this heaven!?”

“What heaven? You are a demon, so if you die, you are going straight to hell.”

“You’re right! Is this hell, then?! It must be hell! Everything around us is empty! Besides, I always believed you would go to hell, Boss!”

“What are you talking about? Pull yourself together. Why would everything around us be empty…… Huh.”

My mouth opened without me realizing it.

I had not been able to see it because of the dust cloud.

Half of the floor had evaporated along with the Monster army.

‘It really did become clean.’

Swallowing dryly, I took a few cautious steps backward.

The ground would not weaken and collapse, would it?

“And this crazy seal is foaming at the mouth again!”

Maybe this was actually for the better.

If he had been awake, he would probably have been screaming, “Duaaagh!”

“Tsumugi, are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

Her eyes had been rolled back for a while, but it seemed she had finally regained her senses.

“Then of course you should be okay! You were nothing but baggage and no help at all!”

“I’m sorry. I can walk now.”

Tsumugi slowly rose.

Then she began walking in the direction we had been heading.

Squish!

Aris took that chance to thrust her steamed-bun-like cheeks forward.

“Boss! Let’s throw her away even now! No, why does only this floor have such a long-winded story in the first place?!”

“I know. This is my first time seeing a floor like this too.”

That was not the only strange thing.

The Monster army erased by the Area-Cleanup Sphere had not been anywhere near that large when I saw it in the Great Labyrinth Library.

‘This sneaky Labyrinth bastard is at it again.’

Tsk! After clicking my tongue, I stood up with Aris and Poporu.

Let’s finish this quickly before the Labyrinth does something weird again.

Ding, ding, ding.

What was that, what was that! Something flashed!?

An enormous sound reached all the way down here!? What did you do!

What are those guys? They look way too shabby to be running the 41st floor.

Uh……? Wait. Was this floor always this small?

It seemed they had noticed.

The chat seemed to go quiet for a moment, and then.

Uwaaaaaaaagh! The floor disappeared!

More than half of it was blown away! What did this bastard do!?

Who dares do this to our precious Labyrinth?!

Messages rose endlessly.

It seemed even the Constellations were seeing something like this for the first time.

“Our Boss took care of your precious Labyrinth, you know? You never know when your heads might fly off too, so watch your mouths! Got it?!”

What is that steamed-bun bastard saying!

Hey, you, come up here! No, wait, come down here!

I dragged Aris, who was busy flipping them off, and matched Tsumugi’s pace.

Now that I looked, she had not merely become clearer. She had grown taller too.

Her appearance had become far more mature as well.

Tsumugi let out a small breath and opened her mouth.

“On the day I was driven out, there were Constellations here.”

“Those guys whining in the chat?”

“I cannot see their forms, so I do not know, but the atmosphere is very different. They were also silent, and overall, they felt heavy. They were not light like that.”

Hey, whisper-whisper! You’re bad-mouthing us, aren’t you?! Say it out loud like a man! We won’t get mad!

“Ignore them. What were the Constellations you met like?”

“They were cruel, and they were powerful. I had been weakened quite a bit from a long battle, but even taking that into account, I was defeated far too easily. Besides, I was not alone at the time. I had a friend who had protected me for a long time.”

“Oh? Something like a guardian warrior who protects a guardian deity?”

“Similar. That friend was human, but truly strong. Even covered in wounds, they cut down several Constellations.”

Tsumugi held out the bracelet she had brought before we left.

“That friend gave it to me. It is a bracelet that lets us find each other again, even if we are far apart. Of course…… it has no meaning now. That friend died at the hands of the Constellations.”

I watched the dejected Tsumugi for a moment.

“……?”

At the movement captured by the Evil Eye, I wrinkled my nose.

Tsumugi had not realized it yet, but the bell on the bracelet was trembling ever so slightly.

“Tsumugi. When does this bell ring?”

“The closer the two bracelets are to each other, the stronger the ringing becomes. But as I just said, that friend is dead, so there should be no reason for this bell to…… Huh?”

Tsumugi, who realized it belatedly, stared at the bell.

And not long after.

JINGLE, JINGLE, JINGLE, JINGLE.

The bell began spilling out an ominous sound.