Meanwhile, in the enormous oasis of the Ever-White Labyrinth, another group of adventurers had arrived, traveling atop the common lizard monsters of the Begaritt Desert.
However, this group was a little different from the others.
It was made up of a mage with a red staff and a gray robe, Rudeus Greyrat; a swordsman with a yellowish robe and red eyes, Kalman III; a bald demon with a bandana on his forehead, carrying a white spear, Ruijerd Superdia; and an elf with silver hair, one red eye and the other pink, Sylphiette Greyrat.
They all wore robes to hide their appearances as much as possible, but the bustling Oasis of the Ever-White Desert did not care about their arrival, much less recognize them.
People arrived every day, by the dozens and hundreds.
The flame and ambition for the Resurrection Stones kept growing rather than fading with time, drawing the attention even of distant Kingdoms. A small group like this passed unnoticed by the majority.
Of course, a true martial artist would probably notice that this group was a little outside the common rule of adventurers.
The white-haired elf looked around curiously.
Sylphiette was experiencing a vague sense of nostalgia toward the Begaritt Continent, with a smile on her face as she remembered her travels with Rudy and Vidette.
After all, the Teleportation Incident was the moment when her entire life was turned upside down completely.
Rudeus noticed this.
He could not say that he shared the good feelings. That time had been quite miserable for him. But, looking back on it, it had been necessary.
It was certainly nostalgic.
Ruijerd spoke at that moment:
"Rudeus, stay alert."
Rudeus looked away from Sylphy and focused again, remembering their objective there.
Kalman laughed.
"Hehe, no wonder Grandma beat you all up!"
Rudeus felt a little embarrassed when he heard that.
Indeed, the recruitment mission involving Atoferatofe had gone from bad to worse very easily.
Since the Iron Legion knew they were coming because of the tampered teleportation circle, they suffered a beautiful ambush, and only managed to get out of an even worse situation because Sandor was able to overpower the Water God in time.
Sylphy immediately snorted:
"At least he was doing something useful! Someone was relaxing in the Asura Palace while his father was being ambushed on the Demon Continent!"
Kalman was surprised at being attacked and shot back right away:
"Hey, someone has to stay in the palace and protect the Queen, you know?!"
Rudeus saw his chance and added:
"Right, but you said you did not want to go because you did not want to have to fight your grandma, so Lord Sandor went in your place, right?"
Kalman's face twisted into a grimace as he muttered:
"That is beside the point..."
Then he continued:
"Anyway! What are we doing in the middle of nowhere again?"
He made his attempt to change the subject.
Rudeus merely laughed and spoke while observing and analyzing the Oasis and its movement:
"We need to investigate this Labyrinth, and its likely connection to the Resurrection of the Demon God Laplace."
Kalman seemed to remember when it was said again.
"Ah! That's right!"
That was Orsted's suspicion regarding what he called the Resurrection Labyrinth.
It seemed that, in some loops, around sixty years in the future, a particularly fanatical cult might or might not appear, whose great objective was the resurrection of the Demon God Laplace.
Of course, this only "might" happen in theory, because after many loops learning this, Orsted had already eliminated the essential people a long time ago.
The Sun Treasure Cult should never exist in this timeline.
And Orsted made sure of that for a reason.
Using the Resurrection Labyrinth, Laplace really could revive some years ahead of time, but he would revive in a very special way due to the peculiarities of the Labyrinth.
He was essentially immortal until the "power of resurrection" was exhausted.
That made eliminating him and extracting the Sacred Treasure he carried extremely difficult, and it almost always led to its destruction. Because of that, Orsted always chose not to do it.
In any case, there was another clear point of divergence that Orsted did not understand this time.
In all loops, Laplace had never revived this early. Even when this Labyrinth appeared, it was always sixty or more years in the future.
Orsted made sure to try every possible way to make it happen much earlier, and of course, he tried to use the Labyrinth to his advantage.
All of his attempts failed.
Because of that, he reinforced his belief that Laplace could never revive in this era. That was impossible in every way.
And yet, with this Labyrinth appearing here at this moment, a thorough investigation was necessary, because a half-immortal Demon Laplace would be an impossible variable to control at this point.
Although Orsted was still almost absolutely certain that Laplace could not be reborn in this era under any circumstances, they had still come to interfere with whatever other plans Hitogami might be plotting.
And while Kalman did not seem especially interested in hearing about Laplace's Resurrection, the Superd demon accompanying them changed his expression to a much darker one upon hearing Laplace's name.
In fact, that was the only real reason Ruijerd had joined them.
And it was also the reason Rudeus contacted him in the first place.
Ruijerd had already fought against the Demon God of Magic. Although he had only played a brief role, his act of madness and vengeance was what ensured the heroes' victory back then.
He also seemed extremely interested in continuing his vengeance, so it had been very easy to bring him here.
Sylphy spoke:
"Hm, but how are we going to do that? Are we simply going to enter the Labyrinth and explore it the traditional way?"
When Rudeus was about to answer, he was interrupted by a suddenly serious Ruijerd.
"Rudeus, several presences moving at extremely high speed ahead!"
Before he finished speaking, his spear was already in his hands, and Kalman had also instantly drawn his black sword.
Rudeus activated his Foresight Eye without delay.
Seeing a few seconds into the future, he immediately said:
"Blend in with the adventurers, do not draw attention!"
At that very moment, everyone in the group—even Sylphy—rushed toward a caravan that was parked nearby.
They had not even covered ten meters before a huge explosion sounded in the distance.
It was as if a meteor had struck the earth at some point in the oasis.
Without pause, more sounds began to ring out, indicating a violent battle.
The sounds of crashes, trees collapsing, and the ground being mercilessly torn apart showed that the people fighting were anything but ordinary.
As soon as they blended in with the other adventurers, who did not even give them a second glance, completely focused on the crashes, Ruijerd finally turned to truly observe the battle with his Magic Eye.
And what he saw was both surprising and frightening.
A hooded swordsman glided across the ground like lightning.
His brown cloak fluttered under the pressure, yet somehow did not tear.
Even so, it was not only the swordsman's abnormal speed that surprised Ruijerd.
It was that, in the middle of the movement, he suddenly turned around and, while still sliding across the ground, swung his sword nine times in succession, without pause.
At that exact moment, he heard a sinister voice reverberate everywhere.
In fact, all of the adventurers heard it:
"Nine Flying Heavens."
Right afterward, nine blinding sword lights spread like a flash through the oasis, dyeing the skies in a bluish-white hue.
The lights stretched like bolts everywhere, creating cracks in the earth hundreds of meters long while the forest of the beautiful Oasis was torn to pieces, and the shockwave finished ravaging what was still intact.
Ruijerd watched everything with sweat falling from his forehead.
The swordsman slid a few more meters, but did not move even a single centimeter more after he stopped sliding.
Had he killed his pursuers?
Ruijerd thought that, if it were him, he would not be so worried either. Who could survive such an overwhelming technique? He himself would be split into pieces if he were targeted, with no resistance.
The Superds' Magic Eye was a broad enhancement to every aspect of vision.
Even if he could not keep up with or fight against Kalman III, he could see and understand his movements perfectly—he had tested that during the journey.
Even if he was no match, he could see the ceiling and the limits of the current North God.
But that strike surpassed his wildest imagination.
After recovering from the shock, he finally looked at the swordsman.
Brown hair. Short brown beard. A calm smile.
He looked... ordinary.
But Ruijerd spoke at the same instant:
"Jino Britz is here."
It was obvious that he knew the description of the Martial God. He was quite easy to mistake, but his skill with a blade could never be disguised.
Rudeus and Kalman were shocked, and Sylphy became worried.
She had a very vivid memory of facing the Martial Emperor, and was not even slightly interested in facing him now that he was the Martial God.
Kalman's shock quickly changed into a smile, but before he could say anything, Ruijerd interrupted him:
"He is fighting someone, nobody leaves here!"
Kalman opened his mouth to complain, but soon closed it and frowned, looking displeased.
Meanwhile, around them, the adventurers who did not know what was going on split into two sides: one immediately ran to see the battle and what it was about, and the others immediately ran away to avoid being implicated.
Meanwhile, Ruijerd, still observing with his Magic Eye, finally saw the Martial God's opponents.
A man walked casually beside one of the cracks created by the strike.
He seemed to be laughing.
He wore a dark blue robe, but his face was exposed. He was talking with Jino, and seemed very satisfied while resting his sword on his shoulder.
Soon after, with another crash, a huge Red Ogre landed near them. He had a deep cut on his shoulder, and looked quite furious.
And then, a man with a skull-like face appeared as well.
He had a certain sickly look, and his posture seemed completely open to an attack. Ruijerd almost thought he was a complete amateur, even with the blade in his hand, but became even more serious upon recognizing him.
Both seemed to be talking with Jino.
Ruijerd took a deep breath before seriously narrating to his companions, hoping that Rudeus would not make any reckless decision:
"The Martial God is currently in conflict with the Ogre God Malta, the Death God Randolph Marianne, and the former Sword God Gall Farion."
If the group had been shocked before by Jino's presence, now all three of them completely lost their composure.
They had not even arrived yet, and they had already found several world powers in an all-out battle?
----
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