Chapter 33: The Ancient Sealing Formation
Following Sercia’s pointed finger, everyone turned their gaze—and they saw it.
A location just a short distance from where they stood.
Wuuuuuuuuuuung!
...A magic circle exuding ominous mana.
“What the hell is that...”
Everyone, including Gale, fell momentarily speechless.
There was no better word than enormous to describe the magic circle.
Its intricate patterns and runes were clearly remnants of a civilization that had likely existed for thousands of years.
Though none of them knew why the ancients had created such a magic formation, one thing was crystal clear.
—It was dangerous.
And beneath that circle… lay a single person sprawled on the ground.
A face known to all.
“……”
On a bloodstained altar, drenched in red and dying a pitiful death, was the renowned dual-sword fighter—Duran.
“This way!”
They rushed over and dragged the unconscious Duran away from the magic circle, immediately beginning emergency treatment.
“Frau?”
“I’ll help! Leave the bandaging to me.”
“I’ll stop the bleeding on this side.”
“I’ll apply the salve I have.”
Though Duran still clung to life, there wasn’t an inch of his body that wasn’t wounded.
“Batan, could you hold Duran still? I’ll make him drink the potion.”
“Ah, of course.”
“Thank you.”
Melasa’s healing potion was a massive help.
It didn’t visibly heal him like holy magic would, but it was clear he was recovering.
However, even she couldn’t fix everything.
“…His arms…”
When they found him, Duran’s both arms had been severed.
Melasa groaned in sorrow.
Even if he survived, he would no longer be able to use the twin swordsmanship he was so known for.
“Who the hell did this to him…?”
“Isn’t it obvious? The one who ambushed us out of nowhere.”
In that instant, Gale’s crimson eyes gleamed.
“Zeraphe Gnaude.”
“…!”
“I think so too. Zeraphe Gnaude belongs to the Gnaude tribe, who usually revere nature—but he’s a strange one who specializes in ice magic.”
Abito knelt beside Duran and carefully examined his wounds.
“The gashes are deep, as if torn and pierced by something sharp… The tissue shows signs of necrosis, like it had prolonged contact with something cold, like ice. I’m pretty sure Zeraphe did this.”
Dusting off his hands, Abito sighed.
“He won’t be regaining consciousness any time soon. Tch, there was so much I wanted to ask him…”
Some might’ve helped Duran out of goodwill, but Abito’s motives were clearly to gather information.
“But am I the only one feeling weird about this?”
Gale spoke up, changing the subject, his sharp gaze sweeping the surroundings.
“Where are we even?”
His brows drew up.
“This doesn’t feel like the labyrinth at all. Looks more like some secret room hidden deep in a dungeon.”
The space where the magic circle lay was far too bizarre to be part of the “labyrinth” they had just come from.
It was vast—easily able to fit hundreds of people.
“…More importantly, there’s no exit. No entrance, either. The whole place is sealed shut.”
There were no paths leading outside. No connected corridors.
It was disturbingly sealed.
“Hey, Abito. Is this the place you were aiming to teleport us to? If so… why would you bring us here?”
Unlike the solemn, quiet air of the labyrinth, this place felt unstable—thick with tension, as if something catastrophic were approaching.
Everyone felt it.
Like some natural disaster was walking toward them—an inexplicable dread.
“I agree. That’s exactly what I want to ask!”
Frowning, Sercia stormed up to Abito, looking equal parts upset and shaken.
Perhaps because she was the one who had cast the teleportation magic, she seemed more distressed by the outcome.
“Abito! What’s going on here? I teleported us exactly to the coordinates you gave me, and we end up in this bizarre place?! What is that terrifying magic circle?!”
“I-I don’t know either! This isn’t the place I remember those coordinates leading to…”
Abito bit his lip, clearly flustered by her piercing questions.
Sercia narrowed her eyes.
“You’re sure about that?”
“I swear on the Heavenly Father, LAMPAS. I only gave you the coordinates I recorded using the Blood Compass when I first fell into the labyrinth, just in case.”
Coordinates were essential for spatial teleportation magic.
Each mage had their own way of determining them.
But for non-mages, the common method was using a magical tool called the Blood Compass—you’d drop your blood into it to extract the coordinates of your current location.
“Here. See for yourself.”
Abito handed her the compass, which she almost snatched out of his hands.
Narrowing her hawk-like eyes, she began inspecting it.
Click click.
She adjusted the device, checking its readings, then softly closed her eyes.
She appeared to be concentrating.
Fwoosh!
Her body vanished instantly—teleportation magic.
Thud.
But less than a second later, she reappeared mid-air and landed softly.
“…He wasn’t lying. The coordinates are correct.”
“See?”
She nodded and disappeared again.
Only to reappear a moment later—again, and again.
“Haah, now it’s certain. …We’re trapped here.”
With a stiff expression, Sercia declared:
“We’re trapped?!”
“Yes. No matter what coordinates I try, we end up back here.”
She glanced around, scanning for anything strange.
But there was nothing in this odd space except for the magic circle, stone pillars, and rubble. Just a vast, barren void.
She bit her lip.
“…There’s likely a barrier cast over this area. One that redirects any teleportation attempt back here.”
“What the hell. No exit, and now even teleportation’s blocked?”
“This can’t be…”
Despair swept over the group in a wave of sighs.
“You think this is Zeraphe Gnaude’s doing too?”
“Most likely. He didn’t seem interested in becoming a Hunter. He clearly had another agenda. Placing Duran in critical condition beneath that magic circle probably served a purpose.”
“Ugh. Isn’t it creepy? A blood-soaked person under a suspicious magic circle… Sounds like a human sacrifice.”
Gale shuddered. He had always been deeply averse to sacrificial rituals.
Whatever the intent, it was thanks to that offhand comment that someone pieced the puzzle together.
“…Human sacrifice?”
It was Sercia—the only mage among them.
“Ah, aaaaah! Why didn’t I realize this sooner?!”
Her eyes widened as though a light had gone off.
“In Munas Queenzel’s Magical Ecology, it’s written that natural mana tends to be drawn toward powerful catalysts.”
She muttered like a machine gun.
The subject was obscure, but Sercia, an admirer of Grand Mage Munas Queenzel, had read and reread the book so often she had memorized it entirely.
“And by using that principle—if a barrier is established around the catalyst, any creature that enters the range unknowingly can be trapped.”
She stood up in a daze.
No one stopped her as she slowly staggered toward the magic circle.
“Creatures caught in that space… can’t escape unless the catalyst is destroyed.”
Everyone seemed to hold their breath, waiting for her realization.
“But in the current age, things powerful enough to function as such catalysts are extremely rare. It would have to be a high-tier demon, an ultra-pure mana crystal, or an ancient artifact…”
Sercia stood directly before the circle.
“However, if it were one of the beings lost to time—like a spirit, a fairy, a dragon, or… a monster so powerful it was sealed even in ancient times… then yes, it could absolutely serve as a catalyst.”
And finally, she muttered like a curse:
“Author: Munas Queenzel.”
With that, she conjured a massive fireball in her hands.
Fwooom!
It crackled with intensity, swelling in size like a burning sphere ready to ignite everything in sight.
“Haaaaaah!”
She hurled the blazing orb at the circle.
KA-BOOM!
“W-Wait! That’s dangerous—!”
Gale tried to stop her, but the result left him speechless.
“Oh… my god.”
It was elemental magic—pure fire.
And the target wasn’t a creature or a demon, but a magic formation.
“Magic circles can do that?”
They all expected her attack to be neutralized by the circle’s magic. Even without being mages, it was clearly not an ordinary formation.
But what happened next defied all expectation.
Squirm…
Crimson mana began to flow from the circle like blood.
Then—
ZZZZZZZZT!
It melted Sercia’s fire. Literally dissolved it!
“…The spell melted?”
That bloodlike mana had the nature of sulfur—it devoured magic itself.
A venomous miasma that consumed even spells!
“This wasn’t just some ordinary magic circle. It’s a sealing formation!”
She gritted her teeth and declared:
“And it’s sealing… an ancient monster!”
In this era, monsters were considered extinct. Their place had been taken by demons (괴마).
But demons were fragments of the night—born from fear and despair. Manifestations of darkness that couldn’t be sealed or purified.
The only way to destroy them was to kill them.
It wasn’t widely known and defied common understanding, which is why they hadn’t realized—
In ancient times, monsters just as powerful as demons were sealed, and could still be sealed.
“…Wait. Something’s coming!”
“Everyone! Over here! I’ll deploy a barrier!”
“I’ll assist with a golem!”
They made it just in time.
The moment they ducked inside Sercia’s barrier, something appeared.
<Voices… I hear them.>
A slow, eerie voice whispered in their ears.
<After this endless wait… finally!>
A transparent, elongated, white, writhing body.
It had no eyes, no nose, no feet—but a massive mouth and six grotesque hands.
<The sound of liberation echoes!>
<Our king is awakening!>
<Prepare the feast!>
Dozens of monsters began pouring into the space—many of which they had seen earlier in the labyrinth.
And in their hands… were limp, unconscious humans—likely fellow examinees.
The largest among the nameless monsters stepped forward and uttered: