Chapter 87: Chapter 0087: Whispers (4/4)
They appear back in the cave, right in front of the door to the boss room for this section.
"Tell me again why we didn't rush through this damn mirror house of self-reflection. The traps and stray monsters were killable with a minor stray attack. We could've cleared this place within minutes with you at your top speed Masashi." Yue asks Masashi.
"Yeah, you remember Miledi's dungeon? The changing layout. This place is built in the same way. The layout changes whenever we reach closer to the end. We have to spend a set amount of time in this maze or else we won't be able to get to the next section."
"These fucking liberators. I'll kill them one day."
"They're already dead Yue." Masashi kindly reminds her.
"Then I'll go back into the past and kill them."
"Haha. Nice plan." Masashi looks at the door to the boss's room.
It's the usual artistic door that is usually found in Schnee's labyrinth. This one's about twice the size of the ones they found before.
There's a decipherable mural on the door 'Different layers represent different things, like the light of the sky, or the darkness of hell.'
"That might be supposed to mean something but I don't care at this point." Masashi pushes open the doors.
The slight mist that was present throughout the labyrinth was much denser inside that room.
It was as if they entered a room filled with so much mist that it seemed like someone was experimenting with liquid nitrogen and water.
The room was opaque with zero visibility. Wind magic wasn't going to help them since the entire room was filled with icy mist. Wind magic moves the air in the atmosphere, so it would only be moving the mist around. The air is not being created with wind magic, that's the job of Creation Magic.
They could sense that there were a huge number of ice crystals present within the room along with an artificial sun like the one in oscar's labyrinth shining through the mist, creating a diamond dust effect.
The rest of the room seemed empty but they could feel that what they saw wasn't all there was to this room.
"Let's go, be wary of what might jump at us," Masashi warns the girls before they walk into the room.
When they walk into the room, the sun's brightness seemed to get amplified by many times and the crystals got much brighter.
"Mai, Shields!"
Masashi orders Mai to conjure shields around them since those lights seem like they'll get amplified to the point of being very painful if they hit.
Soon, the lights started to get redirected among the crystals, going in an unpredictable path.
The only way to tell what path was taken was from the Tyndall Effect that illuminated the icy fog in the path of the light beams.
Soon, the lights started hitting the barrier that Mai conjured and started to superheat the barrier.
Mai had to maintain the barrier with her full concentration since the rays of light were too strong for normal elemental barriers.
She made the barrier using the dark element and it needed her to concentrate fully to maintain a large barrier against the lights.
The dark element was the antithesis of the light and worked very well against it, contrary to what one might think. They were equal elements and perfectly opposed each other.
They keep walking through the mist slowly and cautiously.
Mai's barrier kept weakening against the lights so she had to keep replenishing it but it wasn't even a dent to either her mana or her mental faculties. She just had to constantly be occupied.
Soon what they were expecting happened. Large chunks of ice dropped down from the ceiling of the room right in front of them.
There were three identical chunks of ice there, one for each of them, and they were embedded with familiar crimson rocks.
Soon the massive ice blocks started cracking and forming into typical golem-like shapes with the Mana cores at the place where their heart would be got up from their positions and targeted the three of them individually.
Those huge golems completely blocked the exit path.
Mai was still occupied with the lasers so Masashi and Yue took the lead in blocking the golems.
The golems didn't have much offensive prowess but they had a heavy defense. They had huge tower shields that could block almost all attacks and their mana core was protected by thick layers of ice that kept it safe.
Nonetheless, Masashi's Gravity Magic-enhanced swordplay was able to keep two of them at bay while Yue took care of her golem with a classic black hole spell which she'd gotten much faster at casting after a few days of practicing it.
Talk about Yue being an unfair magical prodigy. Masashi and Mai were monsters in their own right but a lot of that was dependent on the system and they were still not as monstrous as Yue when working with magic.
This was also one of the reasons that Yue never felt inadequate when hanging out with them. While she knew that they were stronger than her in every single other aspect and could wipe the floor with her should the three of them fight, her magic was also a source of confidence for her.
When Yue's golem was done with she came to Masashi to distract the other golem from reaching the preoccupied Mai while Masashi took care of his golem.
By this time Yue had already conjured a black hole and thrown it at the golem but then the strangest thing happened.
Her black hole was shot toward Mai instead.
"Noo!" Yue is terrified at her incompetency which could lead to Mai getting hurt.
She doesn't want Masashi to blame her for hurting Mai.
Masashi was already expecting something like this to happen so he was quick to jump in front of the attack and can put it into his inventory.
This was one of his favorite utilities when using the Gamer system's inventory.
He'd realized after ripping off Koiki's blessing that he could store energy constructs in his inventory. This led him to believe that he could store spells that he couldn't block into his inventory.
"It's okay Yue, I understand. It's not your fault, it was the whispers. Focus on the golem."
Yue was frozen due to the unexpected situation and the golem was almost upon her. Masashi's words wake her out of her reverie and she's barely able to counter the golem.
By this time Masahi's sword slices through the golem, destroying its mana crystal too.
Though this time, unlike before, the golem regenerates itself. Mana crystal and all.
"I guess Mai has to be the one to kill it." When Masashi says this, the mist get's so thick and dense that it's impossible to make out even Yue who's standing right beside him, let alone Mai.
The plus point of this is that the lasers also get blocked somewhat by the mist and Mai doesn't need to be completely occupied with the barrier anymore and can also focus on the golem that's going toward her.
Masashi can feel Mai's presence with their connection and the string is still connected so he isn't worried about her.
Yue is also still connected to him so he knows that she's fine.
Mai, after getting some respite from the lasers noticed the golem coming toward her and charged a disintegration beam that hit the golem square in the place where its mana core was.
At the same time, a section of the mist in front of both Masashi and Yue started to swirl and formed a tunnel clear of any attacks from the lasers.
Seeing that the path ahead was clearing up, they walk into it cautiously as Mai finishes up her golem.
Masashi and Yue wait at the end of the stage for Mai to come after she's done with her golem.
"Are you okay Yue?" Masashi asks a guilty-looking Yue.
"Don't you blame me?"
"It's fine, you made a mistake. You don't need to worry. It wasn't even your fault. From the start, this was the main purpose of the whispers. To mentally weaken you and then make you target your comrades through hypnotic suggestions."
"So it was because of the whisper I just heard before I shot the attack at Mai. I just thought it was a coincidence."
By now Mai is also done with her golem and comes to the end of the room, "Everything okay, Yue?"
Mai is concerned about Yue since she saw that Yue had aimed her attack at her.
Mai's first thought was that something was interfering with Yue's perception.
Seeing that Mai didn't blame her Yue is relieved.
"It was the whispers. There was a whisper in my ear right before I aimed my attack." Yue looks down expecting to be reprimanded like a child.
"It's fine. No one got hurt. I and Masashi have virtually invulnerable minds so it wasn't able to affect us, so we could cover for you." Mai patted Yue's head.
"You girls want to rest a bit or do you want to go to the next section?" This question was mostly for Yue since Masashi and Mai were perfectly fine with Gamer's Mind.
"No, I'm fine, so let's just clear this place."
"Good. Also Yue. Under no circumstances do I want you to take off that cuff. It'll help me monitor your situation. Okay?"
"Mmm."
"We'll be separated in the next section so prepare yourselves."
As Masashi says this, he starts walking to the portal that's been swirling in wait ever since Mai came to the end of the stage.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone