CHAPTER 20
Cruella hummed. "Yeah. But it suddenly expelled for some reason when I was about to take action." She said and put down Meira nonchalantly.
"Thank you, Cruella, and I apologize for the inconvenience I have caused. It wasn't my intention to fall asleep halfway through. I hope I wasn't that heavy..." Meira blabbered.
"Don't mention it. Anyway, rest assured that you are not an inconvenience. Furthermore, you are as light as a feather..." Cruella said while examining the surroundings.
Meira beamed. "Do you find anything suspicious?" she asked while staring into the dark dungeon.
"Apart from the hallucination traps, I did not find anything odd. It seems someone cast this magic circle at the entrance of the dungeon. For on what purpose, that was still unknown." Cruella replied after assessing her investigation.
"Do we still have to enter?" Sera asked while frowning. That was because she sensed some powerful aura inside the dungeon.
Cruella and Meira also felt the powerful aura.
Cruella smirked and said, "Of course. Things like this are so intriguing that I'm dying to see what's waiting for us inside this mysterious dungeon."
Sera's eyes lightened up. "If things go awry later, we have the Great Saintess' holy light to back us up!"
"The Great Saintess' holy light?" Meira asked and pondered. Her face lightened up when she remembered something. "It's me, isn't it? Does that mean I could help Cruella later?" Meira smiles brightly. She wanted nothing but to be of use to Cruella to repay her gratitude.
Cruella and Sera were almost blinded by Meira's excited expression as though she blooms like a sunflower in the morning dew.
Cruella smiled and rubbed Meira's soft cheeks. "You are so adorable, Mey."
"Mey? You call me Mey?" Meira pointed herself with eyes widened in surprise.
"Why? You don't like it?" Cruella pouted her lips.
"Of course, I like it very much! He-he, Cruella gives me a nickname! I'm so happy!" Meira beamed like a little child who receives her favorite candy and cling to Cruella's arms happily.
"Ah, what about me, Cruella?" Sera sulked in jealousy.
Cruella chuckled and pinched Sera's cheeks. "Hm, are you jealous, Sey?"
Sera's face lightened up and beamed like a cat who received a precious treat. "I'm not anymore, sis... oh-" Sera anxiously looked at Cruella's expression. Her tongue slipped and subconsciously called her 'sis'.
Cruella was stunned at first but smiled afterward. She felt giddy inside.
"You can call me anything you like," Cruella said and pinched Sera's cheeks again with a smile.
"Okay!"
"Well, let's go in!"
Soon, the group entered the dark dungeon with vigilance as the ominous aura was getting stronger the more they went deeper. It wasn't as dark as they thought would be because many green crystal stones on the wall illuminated the pathway.
Oddly enough, there seemed to be no presence of any monster nearby and the eerie silence was very suspicious as though it was calm before the storm.
Was there an ambush? Or that's what the group thought...
Because a few minutes later, they stumbled onto many skeletons of monsters and colorful gemstones on the ground.
"What in the world?" Sera mumbled in bewilderment.
The group continued walking deeper with vigilance and finally halted when they saw a staircase going down. But a huge magic circle was forming like gears suspended in the air.
"Another magic circle? Is this a work of a sage?" Sera blurted out.
Suddenly, little Lucy jolted awake and saw the magic circles. "What is that?"
"Oh, you're awake, little Lucy." Sera put Lucy down and stretched her arms.
"Ah!" Lucy suddenly squirms while holding her head. At the same time, the magic circle lights up.
"Lucy!" Cruella quickly held Lucy in her arms anxiously.
"Ah, it hurts! My head is going to burst!" Lucy cried out with tears glistening in her eyes but stubbornly endured the pain as a load of information poured into her brain.
"Lucy! What's wrong?" Sera and Meira also panicked.
Cruella noticed something was amiss as she looked back at the magic circles and was taken aback when the magic circles started moving in a circular motion like gears as though the mechanism was triggered.
Suspicion arose in Cruella's heart and her intuition is so strong.
Her mind seemed to work pretty fast and thought of the day she met Lucy.
Now that she thought about it, of all the people who could be fortunate enough to survive in that disaster caused by Sera, why was Lucy the only one who survived unscathed while the rest died tragically?
Who is Lucy?
Cruella quickly peeks at Lucy's status and her jaw dropped in astonishment.
"Lucy has the blessing and skills of a Great Sage?!" Cruella blurted out.
"What?" Sera's jaw dropped in surprise. "If I recall it right, only the descendant of the Great Sage can inherit their precious skills! The legendary Great Sage disappeared even before I gained the title of Great Destroyer. It's a surprise to see her descendant!"
"If that's the case, Lucy's innate talent must've awakened and this magic circle must've been left by the Great Sage!"
Suddenly, the magic circles' gears halted and Lucy also stopped screaming. "The pain was gone!" Lucy blurted out in relief.
At that moment, the magic circles glow brightly and a golden image of a fairy-like beauty appeared.
"Welcome to One-Hundred Level Labyrinth. Clear all the levels and the rewards will be yours. And receive the complete inheritance left by the Great Sage. If you enter, there's no going back."
Cruella frowned. She finally put all the missing pieces in the puzzle. The reason why the adventurers didn't come out was because they entered the labyrinth and it was unknown if they were still alive inside.
'If this labyrinth houses many monsters, doesn't it mean that we didn't come here in vain?'
'I thought all the monsters were gone seeing all the skeletons earlier.'
'This is a freaking opportunity!'
'Since Lucy is a descendant of the Great Sage, this is an advantage for her to improve her knowledge and I won't have to find teachers for her in the future!'
'This is great!'
Cruella grinned.
"Let's go!" Cruella said excitedly and carried Lucy in her arms. Sera and Meira gulped but followed Cruella and Lucy.
It took them a while to arrive at the next floor. They were surprised to see bones scattered on the ground and dried blood painted on the wall. Seems like a bloody encounter happened here not too long ago.
This must be the work of those missing adventurers.
Swoosh!
Grahhh!
A group of huge winged monsters suddenly appeared and growled at the group.
Seeing the hideous monsters, Lucy gripped Cruella tightly. Cruella frowned in displeasure at the sudden emergence of the monsters and waved her hand nonchalantly.
In just a flash, the monsters disappeared out of their sight. Sera and Meira were slack-jawed as they didn't see it coming. They didn't even see how the monsters disappeared out of thin air.
In truth, Cruella put the monsters inside her subspace and those monsters become her subjects. If the girls learned the truth, they would be shocked to the bones.
Just like that, the group descended one level after another with Cruella eliminating the monsters on her own by sending them all to her subspace.
Sera and Meira grumbled because they didn't have a chance to showcase their skills as Cruella forbade them to take action.
Because of that, the monsters in each level disappeared without a trace and the floor became empty of monsters as Cruella searched every nook leaving the monsters with no escape route.
As Cruella and the group continued exploring the labyrinth, somewhere in the capital, Dylan and his group arrived at their residence with the baby wolf, Elle.
While the four heroes celebrate their arrival, Dylan is still dejected when their master doesn't show up after they come out of the subspace. Furthermore, what upset him more was that there was no news about Cruella and Evangeline.
The only thing that gives Dylan some solace is the baby wolf, Elle.
While lost in his thoughts, Dylan didn't notice Elle's strange expression. That was because Elle was communicating Cruella in her mind.
Sometime later, Elle snapped Dylan out of his reverie, "Dylan, I bid you farewell for now. My presence is needed at the subspace! See you!"
Before Dylan could react, Elle jumped into the space and disappeared out of his sight.
"Elle, wait!"
Dylan sighed and his shoulder slumped dejectedly.
The next day...
Dylan was awakened by frantic footsteps followed by knocking on his door. Before he could react, Lexus and the other heroes entered his room excitedly.
"Dylan!"
"What's with the fuss?!" Dylan grunted and yawned.
"Well, we just heard some exciting news!" Conan said.
"Yes, Dylan. A mysterious dungeon suddenly appeared a week ago in the forest nearby and reported that a few adventurers entered the dungeon but hadn't come out since then. Also, some knights and mages scouted the area and found some strange occurrences.
There seems to be a trap at the entrance of the dungeon and they witness some knights fall into the trap and disappear into the dungeon." Lexus elaborated.