Are you the devil in the labyrinth? - C2

“Finally… did we defeat the demon?”
“Yes, Gerard. We’ve finally defeated the demon.”
“Haha, everyone worked hard. Now, adventurers no longer have to tremble in fear.”

Even as his senses faded, Yoo Hyun could hear the cheers of the adventurers celebrating their victory. Their trembling voices were filled with ecstasy.

When he was first summoned to this world, Yoo Hyun had once imagined what his end might be like.
Honestly, even when time had passed after his arrival, he couldn’t imagine his end ending well. He vaguely thought it would always end in a tragic death.

Maybe that’s why.
Even as his vision flickered in black, capturing the world that was soon to be his last, he didn’t feel much. He didn’t feel the fear of death.

Yoo Hyun remained indifferent. His heart had long since gone cold, still and lifeless.
His arms and legs were half severed, and with blood rising to his neck, it seemed he would drown in it. Yet, Yoo Hyun looked at the world with cold eyes.

The sharp pain, like thousands of needles stabbing his nerves, shot through him, but he didn’t utter a single groan. His condition looked more like a broken doll than a dying creature.

Even as the warmth of life extinguished, how could he maintain such calm eyes?

The Elf, who had been watching Yoo Hyun’s death, furrowed her brow.

With her slender, pointed ears, clear water-colored eyes, and golden hair flowing down to her waist, she looked like a finely sculpted statue. She had the beauty that matched her Elven race.

Yet, the look she gave Yoo Hyun was filled only with disgust. At his fearless approach to death, the Elf yelled angrily.

“Show more agony! That is the only way you can soothe the sorrow of the dead!”

“Pfft.”

She was saying something strange. Yoo Hyun burst into a bitter laugh at the Elf’s words, which seemed filled with vengeful rage.

“You’re laughing!?”

The Elf clenched her lips and lifted her bow.
A murderous aura radiated from her as if she were about to drive an arrow through his head at any moment. Yet, Yoo Hyun didn’t feel fear. He just laughed merrily.

Eventually, Yoo Hyun opened his eyes, which had been half-closed.

The blackness in his eyes was as deep as an abyss. The Elf, startled by the eerie darkness, took a step back without realizing it. Yoo Hyun mocked her with a laugh.

“Are you still afraid of me?”

“F-Fear? What’s there to fear when you’re dying?”

The Elf blushed, feeling embarrassed by her own reaction.

Despite dying, just by his gaze, the once-feared Elven sharpshooter, who had been called a master archer, had stepped back in fear. The Elf, aware of her own shame, struggled to calm the redness in her face.

Even though he was still alive, Yoo Hyun was more or less a corpse, half-dead.

At this point, a child with a dagger could probably kill him. Just plunging the dagger into his neck would do. Though he was called a demon, he was still just a human in the end.

In that moment, the Elf was paralyzed with fear, recalling the memory of being chased by Yoo Hyun. The only one to survive escaping from the labyrinth, where the demon had been chasing them, was the Elf, known as the sharpshooter.

Yoo Hyun, who had been quietly smiling, suddenly muttered.

“I should have killed you back then. Your companions’ love for you was quite something.”

Crack.

The Elf, trembling with anger, looked at Yoo Hyun with tearful eyes.

It had been about a year. To save her, her party members threw themselves in front of her, blocking Yoo Hyun. The only reason she had survived was because of the sacrifice of her companions.

Since that day, she had dreamed of revenge on Yoo Hyun countless times. Yet, she also suffered from nightmares every day. Waking up with a pale face, fearing being chased by him, had become a frequent occurrence. She grew afraid of the night.

The darkness was his domain, and every night she dreamed of being hunted, she could never forget it. He, who could appear at any time from the darkness, was the very embodiment of fear itself.

Despite the Elf glaring at him with bloodshot eyes, Yoo Hyun’s breath, weak and flickering, continued. Had he lost too much blood?

His body was growing cold, and his consciousness was becoming blurry. He fought silently to hold onto his awareness, but he was nearing his limit. He was about to die, but he felt no fear.

At least, the journey to the afterlife wouldn’t be boring. The adventurers had suffered great losses in the battle today. Furthermore, many humans, not just him, had died.

Yoo Hyun thought back on everything that had happened.

Before being summoned to this world, he had been like an empty doll. After losing his entire family in a car accident, the will to live had completely vanished. That was when the fairies summoned him.

From then on, he saw much.

He saw people dying, saw others trembling, begging for their lives. That was when he realized he still had a desire to live.

Fighting to survive, Yoo Hyun, over time, became known as the “Demon.” This led to him being perceived as a threat by adventurers, and that led to the current reality.

Many parties had moved to capture Yoo Hyun.
Among them were adventurers known as “Rankers,” those with significant skill who could operate beyond the realms of the mind.

Adventurers who could reach the mind realm and earn the title of Ranker were a rare few, even among the tens of thousands of adventurers. There was a reason they were called Rankers.

The mind realm was considered the deepest part of the labyrinth, a place known as the “Graveyard of Adventurers.” To be active in such a place, one needed experience and strong combat abilities.

Only those with such skills could be called Rankers, and they were revered as heroes by adventurers.

These powerful adventurers spent over a year searching for Yoo Hyun in the labyrinth, hunting him like a rat.

And all of them were killed by Yoo Hyun.

Rankers, traveling alone, were nothing more than prey for Yoo Hyun. Though they were strong, they were still weaker than him, so they were devoured and killed. This simple logic was something the adventurers could not easily accept.

Finally, after hundreds of deaths, the rankers began to regain their composure.

However, even then, catching Yuhyun, who was hiding deep within the labyrinth, was almost impossible. There were countless human dungeons in the labyrinth, and as long as they existed, Yuhyun could continue to hide from the adventurers’ eyes.

To catch Yuhyun, they had to clear all the dungeons that had reached the heart of the labyrinth.

As a result, human dungeons that had reached the heart of the labyrinth were thoroughly purged, and eventually, by holding onto a small thread of hope, the adventurers were able to finally trace Yuhyun’s steps.

However, even after catching up to Yuhyun, that didn’t mean everything was over.

It was only now that they had barely discovered the demon who had been hiding in the labyrinth’s darkness. They had scoured through the labyrinth, purging dungeons to reach the starting point.

During this time, countless adventurers had been slaughtered by the demon. A famous clan had lost all of its members overnight in the labyrinth. After a tough process, the adventurers had finally reached Yuhyun.

And after all their efforts, the adventurers were able to defeat Yuhyun.

But the result was disastrous.

Among the dozens of clans, not a single one was unscathed. What they called a “purge” was almost like a war, and most of the clans suffered catastrophic damage. The demon was not alone.

The dungeon purges pushed the humans into a corner, and as a result, the adventurers began to unite with the humans to resist. At the center of it all was the demon.

Yuhyun, who had not stopped smiling, gazed around him, his vision slowly darkening.

Dozens of adventurers were gathered here.

Even the elf standing right in front of him was no ordinary adventurer—she was a top ranker, known as the “archer.”

In the conversation between the elf and Yuhyun, the archmage, known as the “sage,” sighed and stepped forward. If the elf lost control, he didn’t know what might happen.

There was a reason Yuhyun had not been killed yet.

He wasn’t sure if he would get an answer, but he had a question.

“I have one question. Demon.”

A calm voice, almost like a breeze, came from a corner of the forest.

Yuhyun tilted his head at the voice.

“What is it?”

“You called her Iris, didn’t you? Where is she? That little demon.”

Yuhyun was also called a demon, but there was another being referred to as a demon.

That was Iris, the fairy. And currently, she was the owner of the dungeon Yuhyun was in. At least, that was what was known among the adventurers.

Countless fairies had been slain, but Iris had yet to show herself. In other words, it meant that Yuhyun’s dungeon had still not been discovered.

In response to the sage’s question, Yuhyun shrugged. His small movement caused blood to spill from his many wounds, but he didn’t groan. He just smiled silently.

“I don’t know. Perhaps she is the one suffering the most right now.”

“Hm. Does that mean her dungeon also suffered devastating damage? It seems like many of the players affiliated with her must have died in this fight.”

“……”

“Is that correct?”

The sage grinned, and Yuhyun also grinned inside.

…Well.

The foolish sage in front of him had missed one important detail.

Why did they all believe that every fairy had their own dungeon?

Iris was a special fairy.

She didn’t have a dungeon.

“…Hey, how long are you going to keep this guy alive? Let’s kill him already. Honestly, I’ve reached my limit with all this waiting.”

With an irritated voice, a large sword was pressed against Yuhyun’s neck. The one holding the sword was an orc man known as a “tough fighter,” with red skin and fierce eyes filled with determination.

But even this orc was struggling with the fight against Yuhyun—his left arm was missing, torn off by Yuhyun, and it was beyond recovery. It was an injury that would never heal for the orc.

The sage nodded with a hum in response to the orc’s words.

“Kill him. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to answer anything, so there’s no point in keeping him alive.”

Now, the adventurers would desperately pursue the remaining dungeons. With most of their core forces wiped out in the battle today, they would have no power to resist. If they captured each one, someone might spill some information.

And since the demon didn’t seem likely to say anything else, the sage decided it was fine to kill him.

At first, they had planned to torture him to extract information, but after seeing his attitude, the sage realized that torture would be pointless.

“That sounds good.”

At the sage’s words, the orc grinned.

With a smile, the orc swung the large sword without hesitation. The blade tore through the air and swiftly decapitated Yuhyun. Blood sprayed everywhere. The demon’s breath stopped.

And within the faint remains of his consciousness, Yuhyun thought:

The experience of seeing his head floating above his body without a neck was rather unpleasant.