Gary turns around to confirm the person who stabbed him.
"—Stig...!? What the hell are you doing...!? I'm an executive of the Order...!"
The man called Stig speaks with an utterly refreshing smile.
"More precisely, you were to be recommended as an executive only if you successfully completed the orders given to you, right? As you are now, you are not an executive. Please stop spouting lies."
Gary tries to retort at Stig's words, but blood spills from his mouth, and he can't form words properly.
Seeing him like that, Stig deepens his smile and speaks again.
"Still, this helps. I was dreading having to come up with an excuse after disposing of you. I suppose I should at least thank you for your loose tongue. Now that I have a legitimate reason to dispose of you, please go ahead and die."
With those words, Stig twists the blade still piercing Gary and yanks it out forcefully.
Losing his support, Gary collapses on the spot, gushing massive amounts of blood from his chest and back.
"...Aren't you comrades?"
I ask Stig, my voice trembling with rage.
"What?"
"I asked if he isn't your comrade!!"
"Me, comrades with this thing...? Please stop. Even as a joke, it's humiliating to be called comrades with such garbage."
Answering my question, Stig steps on the head of Gary lying on the ground. He wipes Gary's blood off the blade with a cloth and stores it in his storage magic tool.
Even though he just took a life, Stig shows no sign of emotion whatsoever, which only heightens my disgust.
"...Do you have no heart at all?"
"Hahaha. That's an amusing thing to say. Something like that... of course I don't have it."
"......I see. I understand now. The Order really is just a gathering of the lowest scum!"
I immediately invoke [Gravity Manipulation] to drastically increase the gravity at the spot where Stig is standing.
With gravity so intense that moving—let alone raising an arm—is a struggle, I restrain him.
Right after, I pour mana into the formula constructed in my mind and activate the spell.
[Fire Lance Fire Javelin] assaults Stig from all four directions, closing in on him.
At that sight, Stig lets out a small "Hmm..."
Even though the fire lances avoid vital points, being pierced and exposed to high heat wouldn't end well.
Yet Stig merely changes his expression to one of boredom. Without being hindered by the amplified gravity, he brings his right hand up in front of his chest.
When Stig opens his right hand with the palm facing upward, suddenly the [Fire Lance Fire Javelin] changes trajectory toward his right hand.
As the fire lances approach Stig, they gradually lose their shape until they finally transform into mere flickering flames dancing on his palm as if he were holding a candle.
"Surely you don't seriously think you can neutralize me with child's play like this...?"
When Stig clenches his right hand, the flickering flames vanish completely and cleanly.
"........."
I don't answer Stig's question. All I can do is focus maximum caution on his every move.
My intuition tells me that moving carelessly will get me counterattacked, and cold sweat runs down my cheek.
As he said, I didn't expect to capture him with that attack.
I figured he would deal with it in some way.
That's why my plan was to close the distance and restrain him while he was handling the [Fire Lance Fire Javelin], but there wasn't a single opening in Stig's series of actions just now. Moreover, faced with a phenomenon I'd never seen before, I couldn't move a single step.
It was clear that Stig had done something to turn the fire lances into mere flames.
But there was no sign he was using a magic tool, and it wasn't a unique skill either...
Unfamiliar phenomena usually involve unique skills.
Yet my intuition tells me this phenomenon isn't caused by a unique skill.
To put it simply, magic is the phenomenon that occurs when mana executes the commands of a formula.
The current phenomenon felt like something forcibly overwriting the commands given to the mana—like interfering with mana through laws different from magic.
I feel like I know those laws.
The words are right on the tip of my tongue, yet something is blocking them.
As if to back that up, the more I try to think about the phenomenon, the more a fog seems to cover my mind, and the headache intensifies as though telling me not to think any further.
Right now, thanks to [Seal Release Culmination], not only my physical abilities but also my five senses are extremely sharpened.
Yet I couldn't sense Stig's presence at all until the moment he appeared.
Even now that he's right in front of me, his presence is faint.
Add to that the phenomenon that neutralized my magic earlier.
Everything about this man exists outside my understanding.
Does the Order have a monster like this...?
"I see, I see. So distorted... to this extent. Indeed, I can somewhat understand the desire to make use of it."
"...What are you talking about?"
"It's none of your concern, so don't worry about it. Now then, since my business here is finished, I'll be taking my leave."
"You think I'm letting you escape?"
"I strongly advise against it. As you are now... no matter how the heavens and earth are turned upside down, you cannot stop me. Even if you don't understand it, surely your intuition knows that, doesn't it?"
"...っ..."
"A wise decision. Oh, right. I'll return this to you."
Saying so, Stig tosses something small like a red magic stone that he had somehow been holding in his right hand toward me.
I instinctively reach out to grab it, but before I can, a chill runs through my entire body.
Trusting that sensation, I deploy a mana barrier in front of me. Immediately after, the red magic stone-like object explodes.
I avoid a direct hit, but the shockwave and heat wave assault me.
At this point, I realize what that red magic stone-like thing was.
It must have been my own [Fire Lance Fire Javelin] compressed and solidified.
The explosion had the same mana movement as when something compressed—like Heavenly Flash—is suddenly diffused all at once, so there's no mistake.
I use wind-based magic to blow away the smoke and dust kicked up by the explosion around me.
When the smoke clears, both Stig and the dungeon core are gone.
I stay on guard, but I can't sense Stig's presence at all.
I don't know if he's truly gone, but if he had intended to kill me, I would already be dead.
As frustrating as it is, I have to acknowledge the overwhelming difference between him and me.
"...Damn it."
After somehow weathering the negative emotions swirling inside me, I head toward the only thing left here—Gary's corpse.
It's not unusual for people to die inside a labyrinth.
When someone dies, the party usually falls apart.
Sometimes the survivors resolve the situation on their own, but usually, they withdraw with just the living.
Since there's no leeway to carry back the corpse during retreat, it gets left behind, but apparently the labyrinth swallows those corpses.
I think it's better for the deceased that their body isn't left exposed forever.
Well, that might just be the selfish interpretation of the living.
The place I'm in now is a labyrinth, but since it's already been conquered, it has lost its function as one.
Therefore, corpses here won't be swallowed by the labyrinth.
Everyone who sides with the "Cyclamen Order" is my enemy.
So Gary is still my enemy, no change there.
But to be betrayed by a comrade and then left abandoned in a place like this—it's just too pitiful.
If possible, I'd like to give him a proper burial.
Thinking that, just as I was about to wrap him in a large cloth to carry the corpse back—
"—っ!?"
Something with a brown pointed tip burst out from the ground beside Gary.
Because I was off guard, I couldn't completely avoid it, and my left arm is deeply gouged.
I kick off the ground to put distance between me and Gary while healing the gouged left arm with magic.
"A tree... branch...?"
After gaining distance, I confirm what burst out.
It was something like a thin tree branch.
That branch gradually thickens like a trunk, eventually transforming into a shrub about two meters tall.
A tree suddenly growing—such a thing shouldn't be possible under normal circumstances.
No tool or magic exists to rapidly grow trees.
But I have one single thing in mind that could make it possible.
The magic of the great serpent, the floor boss of the ninety-third floor of the Great Southern Labyrinth.
"Can something like this... really happen..."
An impossible sight unintentionally slips from my lips.
Today alone, things impossible by my common sense have happened one after another.
But among them, this might be the most shocking.
In the direction of my gaze, Gary—who should be dead—is standing in an utterly limp state, on the verge of collapsing...
Yet his appearance has changed drastically from when he was alive.
Exposed skin is covered in something like reptile scales, his mouth is torn all the way to his cheeks, and his pupils are vertically elongated like a snake's.
The phenomenon of a tree suddenly growing, and the changes to Gary's body—all match the characteristics of the great serpent.
It's as if a human has taken on the traits of a magical beast—the great serpent.
Such an impossible existence has appeared right before my eyes.
(Should I call this a "demon person" or something?)
For some reason, the term "demon person" feels strangely fitting.
It must have been Stig who transformed Gary into this form.
Perhaps that sword that pierced Gary was a magic tool engraved with some formula to turn people into demon persons.
"Don't screw with me, "Cyclamen Order"... Getting killed and then turned into a grotesque monster—there's no way such utter injustice should be allowed!!"
I raise my voice in anger at the injustice happening before me.
As if reacting to my voice, the great serpent demon person Gary—despite looking on the verge of collapsing—closes in at an unimaginable speed and attacks with its mouth wide open.