Though Chilchuck wanted to scold Laios, he could only stare at him with a face full of question marks.
When Laios had finished setting the powder barrels and looked like he was about to stab them with his dagger to ignite them, it was already too late for Chilchuck to stop him.
All he could do was drag Senshi with him to hide behind the mithril cauldron.
How… did Laios survive that explosion?
When did he become so thick-skinned—literally?
Laios, now walking around unscathed after taking the brunt of two massive blast barrels, scratched his head in mild embarrassment and offered an apology to Chilchuck.
The next moment, he saw—
Marcille, standing dazed.
And Kairo Retsu, in the middle of battling a swarm of monsters.
"Marcille! Guildmaster! What are you two doing here?!"
Laios was shocked.
As he said that, the green dragon who had been watching over them emerged from the hole torn by the explosion.
Roaring in fury, it squeezed through the broken wall and lunged toward Kairo.
"Isn't it obvious already?!?!"
Chilchuck shouted at the oblivious Laios.
"Those two are clearly fighting right now!!!"
"Laios, you…"
Marcille looked at him, hesitant.
She wanted Laios's approval. But Laios had already made it clear that he disapproved of what she was doing.
Marcille could vaguely sense it—
That right now, she was like someone forced onto a high pedestal, surrounded on all sides by bottomless pits.
There was only a single iron chain path stretching out into the unknown.
That sense of confusion and fear made her all the more anxious.
Laios, meanwhile, was hesitating too.
To deal with the Winged Lion, he would first have to make sure Marcille was no longer the dungeon master.
Right now, she was practically a hostage in the Winged Lion's hands.
Laios himself was bound by that.
"Marcille."
After thinking it over, Laios didn't draw his Switch Axe.
Instead, he simply walked toward her.
"D-Don't come any closer!"
Marcille recoiled at his approach.
She was afraid of whatever Laios was about to say.
So much so, she didn't even register what the Winged Lion was whispering into her ear.
"Stay right there! Don't come any closer!!!"
"No!!"
Laios didn't stop.
In fact, he quickened his pace.
"There are things that need to be said—right now!"
"Marcille! I told you—your dream shouldn't be realized like this!"
He reached her at last.
The monsters guarding Marcille didn't attack Laios.
Instead, they all turned to swarm Kairo Retsu.
After realizing even dragons couldn't harm him, the monsters had switched to long-range attacks.
A group of airborne Undines began bombarding Kairo with relentless streams of Water Cannons, shaking his shield with continuous impacts.
All of this… was purely the monsters acting on their own.
Marcille, seeing Laios standing before her, grew even more flustered.
"Laios…" she murmured.
"Why can't you just agree with me?"
She gripped her staff anxiously.
"Falin's dead. You know what that felt like, don't you?"
"I just don't want anyone else to leave again."
"This was my original research—my life's work! At first I thought, if I could spend a few hundred years and extend someone's life by even ten years, that would already be incredible…"
"But by then… wouldn't everyone already be gone?!"
She looked at Laios—and the Senshi and Chilchuck standing behind him—with fear in her eyes.
"I just want everyone to live… So we never have to feel this pain again. Never have to lose someone like Falin again.
Is that really so wrong?!"
"In a few decades… even revival spells won't be able to bring you back anymore."
"Doesn't that scare you, Laios?"
Her expression teetered on the edge of breakdown.
"Everyone will die…"
"I should have realized sooner…"
She gripped her staff tightly.
"After living so long inside the dungeon, everyone's perception of death has gotten twisted. We think dying isn't that big a deal…"
"But for me—it's not the same!"
"Just thinking that, in a few decades, everyone will be gone, and I'll never be able to bring anyone back—terrifies me!"
"If I want to stop that… I need the power of the Dungeon."
Marcille looked at Laios through tear-filled eyes.
"Laios, if your life were coming to an end right now—and there was no hope of revival anymore…
Wouldn't you be afraid?"
"..."
After hearing all that, Laios took a deep breath.
He had already realized—
For someone like Marcille, who had fallen under the Winged Lion's sway, trying to scare her with warnings like "The Dungeon's power corrupts hearts" was pointless.
But more than that—
Marcille's words had made him realize something else.
For those who had lived so long in the dungeon…
who relied on the dungeon to survive…
Their understanding of life and death had warped severely.
When had it started?
When had the people of the dungeon begun treating death like it was no big deal?
And what about the Hunters?
That thought suddenly crossed Laios's mind.
Even the Hunters, who could be carted back by Felynes and revived upon death—
How did they perceive life and death?
But right now, Laios had to answer Marcille.
"I…"
He looked at her—on the verge of falling apart.
"If I faced death… and there was no coming back, no revival—I would be afraid."
"And if that meant I'd lose Falin forever… I'd be afraid too."
Marcille's expression lit up for a moment, like she'd finally found someone who agreed.
"Right?! That's why if I just…"
"But Marcille, we met Yad and the others.
The people who live in the Golden Country."
Laios stared directly into her eyes.
"We saw what happens to life forcibly extended.
We saw it with our own eyes."
"I'm not the Mad Sorcerer!"
Marcille panicked.
"I just want—"
"Marcille. You asked me: if I couldn't be revived, would I fear death?"
Laios took hold of the hand that gripped her staff.
"Then let me ask you—if you extended our lives… and then those lives came to an end again someday…"
"Would you really stop there?"
"Or would you extend it again… and again… just like Thistle, who bound all the lives of the Golden Country to the Dungeon?"
"Can you really—guarantee that?"
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