Gufadgarn, the evil god of labyrinths

Having cleared the illusion of fear trial on the 95th floor by destroying an entire floor with Hollow Cannon, a Hollow King Magic spell that possessed enough destructive force to distort space itself, Vandalieu and his companions proceeded forwards and continued smoothly clearing the Dungeon.

Things went so smoothly because the monsters on the 96th floor and below were terrified of Vandalieu and fled for their lives as he approached them.

“I wonder what happened to the Dungeon’s mind-controlling effect?” said Eleanora.

“Perhaps it was loosened when the power of Bocchan’s Hollow Cannon created a hole in the Dungeon,” said Saria.

“That’s just a guess, though, since we don’t know how Dungeons control monsters’ minds,” said Rita.

The party watched the Demons from behind as they scampered away as fast as they could, letting out screams that sounded like cloth being torn.

… All of them were a minimum of Rank 10; a single one of them could almost destroy the entirety of a small nation. Even a large nation would lose several towns and villages in the time it would take an A-class adventurer to arrive on the scene. These were monsters that were thought of as natural disasters rather than living creatures, but…

“They’re even more scared of you than the ones in the Palace of Hell in the Majin nation, aren’t they, Your Majesty?” said the Liberating Princess Knight Iris, who was now a Succubus.

“Yes… Maybe I’m just imagining it, but the fleeing Demons look like they have tears in their eyes,” said Vandalieu.

“I would never have even imagined that tears could appear in Demons’ eyes,” said the Ghost Scylla Orbia.

With Iris and Orbia on either side of him, Vandalieu seemed strangely depressed; he looked at the Demons with a somewhat sad gaze.

You don’t have to be

that

scared of me

, he thought.

He hadn’t minded the Demons lining up in rows in the Palace of Hell, but it seemed that he didn’t feel any positive feelings from seeing Demons desperately fleeing from him as fast as they could.

“If they are causing you to become upset, we can go and hunt them,” suggested Bellmond.

“Bellmond-jouchan, don’t let your guard down. Once they’re far enough from the kid, they’ll return to normal and turn to fight you,” Borkus warned her.

“That’s what Demons normally do, after all,” said Vandalieu.

Demons were supposed to be fearless even when facing clearly superior foes, laughing as if enjoying themselves until the moment they turned into dust and disappeared.

Even with the Dungeon’s mind-controlling effect on them disrupted, they would normally never flee from anything in fear.

“Hmm, is it possible that they are merely pretending to be afraid, and they are actually making fun of the boy?” said Zadiris.

“Mother, as a humble warrior, I’ll tell you, that’s not possible. Look, that Demon over there that’s failed to start running away in time is showing its belly to us in surrender,” said Basdia, pointing at a Rank 10 Ark Sword Demon that was lying face-up on the ground.

This monster, which possessed blades instead of hands protruding from both wrists, knife-like claws on its feet and a tail that looked like many small blades linked together, was immodestly exposing itself to the party.

Indeed, this did resemble a wild animal attempting to surrender.

“Basdia, it looks to me more like it’s playing dead,” said Orbia.

Indeed, with fluids dripping from every orifice in its face as it lay on its side, the Demon’s behavior looked more like a small animal feigning death.

“It’s not moving an inch; maybe it’s actually just lost consciousness…” Basdia murmured.

“Bocchan, should I turn it into Experience Points?” Rita suggested.

“… Maybe not,” said Vandalieu, shaking his head. “Though I wouldn’t hesitate if we were outside rather than in a Dungeon.”

If they were to encounter an Ark Sword Demon outside a Dungeon, Vandalieu wouldn’t hesitate to finish it off. If they didn’t kill it, it would clearly endanger many lives.

But inside a Dungeon, no matter how many Demons he exterminated, the Dungeon would continue to replenish them. Their numbers needed to be kept down so that they didn’t overflow out of the Dungeon, but Vandalieu and his companions had done more than enough of that in the floors leading up to this one.

On top of that, they were not delicious monsters to eat. Thus, Vandalieu didn’t quite feel like fighting them.

“Well then, perhaps we should talk about the divine protection,” said Zadiris. “Boy, do you really not know what it is?”

“As far as the timing goes, I think it’s related to when you collapsed previously,” said Rita.

The two of them had acquired a new divine protection immediately after Vandalieu lost consciousness in the illusion of fear trial. But they had heard strange announcements in their head and realized something when they checked their Statuses.

And the strangest