Time passed quickly within the Labyrinth of inconceivable scale. Crossing several floors of the oldest Labyrinth in the world was not for just anyone; even Rygar and Eris had certain difficulties, despite being powerful.
There was one specific floor that gave them a lot of trouble, because their objective required destroying five stone pillars at the same time, in five places very far apart on the floor.
That left them stuck on that floor for a while — without understanding the mechanic, any attempt was just a waste.
Rygar realized that very quickly. No matter how fast or strong he struck, if it was not "at the same time," the floor would not open the passage.
The distance between the points was too great to be solved with normal running, and the floor did not allow even a difference of a few seconds.
In the end, they managed it due to the miraculous effects of the Sköllvindr Armor, Transcendent Version.
The enormous spatial affinity and the improvement to Spatial Leap that it provided were enough for Rygar to destroy four pillars, using Teleportation in rapid succession, while Eris destroyed the last one at the exact same moment.
Even so, even with that strategy, it took a few attempts.
Of course, although there were those kinds of problematic floors, most of them actually came down to arriving on a floor and immediately looking for the entrance to the next one, completely ignoring the monsters and beasts surrounding them.
That would perhaps only be considered "easy" from their perspective.
Because, in practice, it meant crossing places where every monster was at least Rank S, and many were Rank SS — creatures that, on the surface, would be treated as local calamities, and that in there were merely "part of the way."
And the Boss Monsters on certain floors were, by default, all Rank SSS. Each of them capable of being a disaster on the surface. And each of them had a strange ability, frequently geared toward combat.
The Wendigo on the 200th floor was a great example, although he had been especially problematic due to his Reformation and Rebirth.
Every 100 floors of the Dragon God's Hole, a Boss led the floor. And on the 200th and 400th floors, they were especially strong.
There was also one detail to which Rygar gave a great deal of importance after passing through the floors: the engravings.
At first, he thought they were random engravings from different ancient civilizations. But as they passed through the floors, he inevitably noticed a pattern.
This World of Jungle and Beasts was telling the story of a World — a world ruled by a Beast God who had two heads.
The labyrinth told the story of that strange civilization from the beginning, and each floor they passed filled in gaps in the history or culture.
Rygar missed many of the early ones for not paying attention to that, but he managed to understand most of the ending.
The fall of such a civilization began with the disappearance of the Sacred Beast, the mount of the Beast God.
An enormous Silver Wolf, capable of swallowing rivers and seas and crushing mountains and peaks, imposing and divine, as depicted in the engravings.
Perhaps there was some exaggeration mixed in, but Rygar had no way of knowing.
In any case, he suddenly disappeared.
And that triggered the wrath of the Beast God over the loss of his longtime companion. That started a large-scale investigation and internal intrigue throughout the civilization, and everyone seemed to blame external enemies.
One of the suspects, as depicted, was wrapped in enormous silver-scaled wings. And the other was a huge giant, with many arms, and many eyes across his body.
But that civilization was made up of natural investigators. With a few clues, they found a culprit, but it was too late.
When they gathered a powerful offensive, with more than ten thousand of their strongest beast warriors to go after that enemy… they came to their doorstep.
A God with golden eyes and silver scales, together with Five Generals following him, arrived from the sky looking upon the whole land with fury, arrogance, and disdain.
A great battle followed.
The Beast God faced the Invading God, and the army of ten thousand confronted the Five Dragon Generals.
But the Dragons were the strongest race — a race born for combat, with long lives and naturally powerful bodies. Even the ten thousand beast warriors could do nothing against the mere Five Dragon Generals.
They were mercilessly exterminated down to the last man by the Generals.
And the Beast God, even fighting the Invading God on equal footing… this one was still stronger than him.
The two-headed Beast God was killed, brutally split in two by the fearsome Dragon God, spreading horror and endless hatred through the collapsing civilization.
That seemed to be the end.
But Rygar and Eris were on the 599th floor.
There was still one floor left.
Obviously, Rygar was now almost certain of what this Labyrinth was about — or at least this part of it.
This Labyrinth was portraying the ancient and first civilization of the Beast Race, in all its glory, and also its end.
Thanks to the Future Diary, Rygar knew a few things about the first conflicts that led to the creation of the current world.
He knew that there had originally been Six Worlds, and that they had been devastated by wars, but those were details about which he had no knowledge.
Whether because Oldgar saw no need to include it in the Diary, or because he himself never obtained that knowledge, Rygar had no way of knowing.
But upon realizing this, he made a point of storing all of it in his memory — and even made several notes about it, without that compromising the speed at which the two advanced.
In any case… if he was correct, there would be an especially problematic enemy on the next floor.
And while he was thinking about all that, Eris had just cut a Giant White Gorilla into two halves. The body collapsed in pieces, and behind it there was a staircase with at least exaggerated proportions.
They were standing before the 600th Floor.
Eris was a little different from when she entered the Labyrinth, dirtier, with a sharper gaze, and with a somewhat wild aura around her.
Fighting, running, jumping, and fighting more at all times demanded more from mental endurance than anything else.
Injuries and exhaustion could be dealt with through Magic and their Magic Armors, but mental rest would not happen unless they stopped completely.
Rygar was still fine; his physical and mental endurance, even without Touki, was on another level compared to normal people. Although Eris had almost inexhaustible endurance and vigor… even she was pushing herself.
She took a deep breath and relaxed for a moment, letting all the tension leave her body, and stretched like a lazy little cat.
"Hhhhhnnnn~! Which floor are we on now?"
Rygar approached while observing the staircase, thoughtful.
"We're heading to the 600th, ahead of schedule, actually."
Eris celebrated, throwing her clenched fists into the air.
"Yes! I can't wait to kill the Final Boss! And I need a bath! I'm serious!"
Rygar looked at her with a suggestive smile as he raised one hand and conjured a small ball of water.
She noticed and turned around, denying it faster than ever.
"No, no! Not that kind of bath! Grrrrrr!"
She became prickly on the spot.
Rygar laughed and approached, giving her a kiss. And when he pulled away, he said:
"You look beautiful like this too. You remind me of a true Valkyrie."
Eris blushed a little and smiled at the sudden intimacy, and then spoke confidently:
"Hmph! Of course I do! Now let's go!"
She turned and skipped toward the dark staircase, holding Rygar's hand. Rygar followed her and jumped together with her, but before they disappeared, he warned:
"I feel like this floor will be different from the others. Let me handle the fight alone at first."
Eris had already been instructed to follow everything he said while they were in the Labyrinth, so she nodded seriously.
And then, the scenery around them changed once again.
And then… a frightening sensation suddenly assaulted them.
Rygar immediately went on maximum alert.
The moment he appeared, Eris teleported and ran far away with her Armor's ability.
It was instantaneous, as if she had decided that before they had even appeared, and knowing that she possessed the Foresight Eye, that would be quite plausible.
Instantly, a sea of blue fire arose around Rygar as he drew his Translucent Blue Blade, and his Black Armor began to shine like an incandescent sun.
Rygar swung his sword like never before; he could feel Doomsday moving with what he swore was the fastest attack of his entire life.
The speed with which the fire converged toward the blade came naturally to him. The blazing blue took the space around the strike, and then… it collided with its target.
Even under Rygar's Demon Eye, which allowed him to see everything in slow motion, this being moved very fast.
It was fast enough to be a problem even in the Demon Eye's "slow world" — fast enough for Rygar to feel that this definitely was not an ordinary Boss.
The opponent swung his fist, claws threateningly extended, in a direct, aggressive trajectory, as if he were going to tear Rygar in half with a single movement.
But Doomsday cut faster.
From behind the black helm, Rygar spoke coldly:
"Sunlight Laceration!"
At that moment, a blue crescent in the shape of a slash converged and cut toward the monster faster than he could react — which, for a being like him, was unprecedented.
In the blink of an eye, the mountain ranges and forests around them were split in two horizontally by the blazing blue crescent.
It was not a local slash, it was a slash that tore through space with violence, and the monster was swallowed by the flame at the same time, being hurled far away.
An explosion echoed together with it — at the same moment that the mountain ranges were being torn apart by the enormous shockwave caused by the full extent of Rygar's power.
That was thanks to his instinct. Faced with a real threat, he immediately attacked without holding anything back.
And only after the impact did Rygar finally analyze the environment properly.
It was a mountainous floor, but with many forests around. The end could not be seen. Everything seemed to stretch on, and the entire space had been violently rewritten by the passage of that attack.
And his opponent… was getting up.
On his chest, a cut leaked grayish-white blood. It was a deep, charred wound, a wound that had almost cut him in two immediately, but had not.
The monster had two heads.
One of them was the head of a fierce Black Tiger with saber teeth. The other was that of a White Wolf, with an enormous mouth constantly drooling.
Its body was furry and three meters tall, looking like a two-colored werewolf.
Its claws were long — around fifty centimeters each — and seemed sharper than steel.
But the worst thing was not its appearance. The worst feeling was that Rygar instinctively felt the urge to submit to the being before him.
He felt that he owed him loyalty, that he owed him submission. That attacking him was simply a heretical act.
Before he could understand that feeling, however, the Boss of the 600th Floor attacked him without further hesitation.
With a powerful howl and roar echoing at the same time, a sound wave echoed through the world, shaking its foundations — as if a God were commanding that the world should tremble.
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