"Wait, who showed up?"
Elisneh the First jumped up from the throne.
The knight in front of her was shaking but responded with an urgent expression.
It could not be helped.
"Hurry up and tell me!"
This was Elisneh's office where her close confidants gathered to meet.
This was the place where everything in the Molden Kingdom was determined.
The knight clenched his eyes shut before opening them and almost shouted.
"Former Princess Jopis has infiltrated the castle with some unknown individuals!"
Elisneh started to frown after hearing the report again.
"The people who came with her were one black-haired swordsman, one red-haired man, and others who were all hiding under robes!"
Elisneh's clenched fists were shaking.
"They destroyed the statue in the central plaza."
The knight took a deep breath.
He had been working at the palace for three years.
The Knight Captain had given him an important task because he was loyal and obeyed all the rules.
His task was to protect an entrance that very few people in the palace knew about.
Of course, he had no idea where that path underground led.
"Then they entered the underground path underneath it!"
"Jopis went down there?"
The knight flinched at Elisneh's frown before responding.
"Yes, your majesty! She then destroyed the entrance to the path!"
"What the hell are you doing on your job to let something like-!"
Elisneh looked ready to throw the bottle of ink in front of her at the knight.
"Your majesty!"
One of her vassals urgently called out to her at that moment. Elisneh let out a deep sigh after making eye contact with him.
Her mask as a benevolent king had almost been broken.
Elisneh returned to her cold but benevolent expression and sat back down on the throne.
"…My little sister is here."
Although she was speaking calmly, the fire in her eyes could not be covered.
Jopis. That bitch had returned.
The only bitch who had not listened to her.
Elisneh slowly closed her eyes before opening them back.
One of her vassals gave an order to a Royal Mage standing to the side of the office.
"Why is there no contact from the Ghost Village? Contact them right away!"
The Royal Mage immediately started to connect the video communication device.
"There's no point."
However, Elisneh shook her head.
The fact that Jopis appeared at the capital without any contact from the Ghost Village must mean that it had fallen into Jopis's hands.
The Royal Mage soon shook his head with a frown.
"We cannot get through to them!"
Elisneh looked toward the knight and started to speak.
"Raise the alarm to special grade and protect all members of the royal family."
She could not let that bitch Jopis find the members of the royal family.
Elisneh was using them as hostages against Jopis.
"Yes, your majesty!"
The knight thought it was very much like Elisneh to think about protecting her family first.
"Also, tell the Knight Captain to immediately come to the location."
"Your majesty, which location-"
The knight cautiously asked as one of the three close confidants in the room peeked toward Elisneh and quickly responded.
"The Knight Captain will know where we are talking about, so go quickly! We will escort her majesty there immediately!"
"I understand! Hand salute!"
The knight saluted Elisneh before quickly running out of the office.
Only Elisneh's close confidants were left in the office now.
There was chaos outside, but it was calm inside the office.
One of the vassals started to speak.
There was a small mirror in his hand.
"It is Cale Henituse."
The man who was known as the Minister of Finance had a mirror that was vibrating in his hand.
Ooooooong-
It was similar to the staff in Tiger shaman Gashan's hand.
"The Elves should be here as well."
"The Dark Elves as well."
The other two vassals touched a quill pen and their glasses as they responded as well. Both items were gently vibrating as well.
"We expected all of this."
"My liege, we did not expect Jopis to be here."
"I know."
Elisneh responded calmly to the glasses-wearing person's comment.
However, the bottle of ink in her hand looked ready to break at any moment.
"We are heading underground."
"Yes, my liege!"
The three individuals bowed and headed for the door.
Screeeech-!
The office door opened and Elisneh walked toward the open door.
'We expected this.'
They had expected Cale Henituse and the Elves.
They had expected the Dark Elves as well.
However, they had not expected Jopis at all. She had completely forgotten about her.
'But it's great. I'll kill you all at once.'
She took a small wooden staff the size of her palm out of her inner pocket.
Elisneh turned around and looked toward the Royal Mage before she exited the room.
"You know what you need to do, right?"
"Just leave it to me, your majesty!"
Elisneh did not respond and simply walked out of the office.
The Royal Mage was left alone in the office. Actually, this black mage who was pretending to be the Royal Mage reached his hand toward the video communication device.
'I need to contact our liege.'
It was time to contact his true liege and not this fake liege.
The time they had been waiting for had arrived.
The black mage saw the video communication device flashing at that moment.
"Hmm?"
He looked confused while looking at the source of the call.
"…Why is a foreign nation calling us right now?"
It was a call from the kingdom that bordered the Molden Kingdom to the north.
He connected that call first because he was the Royal Mage as well.
At the same time, Elisneh was heading toward somewhere as she started to speak.
"Find them immediately."
Ooooooong-
The staff started to vibrate.
* * *
At that moment.
The first wall was breaking.
Baaaaaaaaaang-!
"Step back!"
Everybody in the rear took two or three steps back after hearing Cale's shout.
"Damn it!"
The hood of one of the individuals who stepped back came off.
"Crazy bastards!"
It was Elf Warrior Jeet.
He frowned while looking at the crumbling maze wall. He was swearing toward the people of the Molden palace.
Craaaaaaack-
Cracks started to appear around the destroyed part of the wall as well.
"Charge!"
Tasha gave the order to charge toward the destroyed wall and the Dark Elf warriors immediately charged forward.
Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
The first destroyed maze wall…
The dead mana liquid that was inside the wall shot out and drenched the Dark Elves in front of the group.
Jeet started to frown even more while looking at it.
It was not because of the Dark Elves.
"I thought the dead mana river was it!"
The Elves had infiltrated the Molden Palace once already to destroy the fake World Tree.
They had chased after the aura of the World Tree until they were stopped by the dead mana river. That was why they had not managed to see the maze.
Cale started to speak at that moment.
"We are immediately heading to the second wall."
"Yes, Commander-nim!"
The Dark Elves immediately headed toward the next wall a few meters away.
Cale activated the Sound of the Wind and followed behind them.
"I didn't expect you to really destroy the walls like this to proceed."
Jopis commented as she walked next to Cale.
Cale looked at her for a moment before responding.
"The maze is quite large and the item we are looking for is at the center. We need to move quickly and get as close to it as possible before we run into Elisneh."
"The best scenario would be to arrive at the center of the maze before we run into Elisneh."
"Of course."
Baaaaaaaaaang-!
The two people stopped chatting after hearing the explosion.
The second wall was destroyed and the Dark Elves started to laugh as they ran toward the flowing dead mana liquid.
"Kahaha- this is like free medicine-!"
"Damn it!"
However, they soon flinched and stepped back.
Boom. Boom! Boom!
The ground started to shake.
In the maze that was lit up by a small torch…
There was a monster that was at least 2.5 times Cale's height on the other side of the destroyed wall.
"Koon!"
Elf Jeet called out the name of another Elf who removed his hood and responded.
"I'm certain that is a Hidek!"
The Elf from the Eastern continent mentioned the name of a monster that frequently appeared on the Eastern continent. He started to explain about the monster.
"But it looks very different than they normally look!"
They were deep underground. This monster lived in this place without any sunlight nor a source of water.
There was no way it would be the same as the normal monster it resembled.
Cale looked toward the bear-like monster that had smooth purple skin without any hair and started to speak.
"…It looks like it was created through experimentation. Tasha."
"Cale-nim!"
Cale who called for Tasha turned his head to look at Jeet who shouted his name.
"The Elves will take care of it."
"That is not allowed."
Jeet saw someone stepping forward.
He had not seen the person's face until now, but he could tell who it was based on the voice. It was Mary.
She looked toward the group and continued to speak.
"This one is mine."
Boom. Boom!
The large monster was still heading toward them.
"Rooooar!"
The monster that looked excited to find prey after a long time roared as it approached them.
Mary looked toward Choi Han and started to speak.
"Choi Han-nim, please help me."
Clang-!
The Elves saw Choi Han instantly take his sword out and step forward.
He only moved forward in a straight line.
"Rooooar!"
The monster that was holding a weird and hideous club in its hand was not very quick because of its large size.
Bang! Baaaaang!
However, the ground cracked and debris flew up every time the monster took a step.
"Looks like I'll need to end it quickly."
Tatap.
Choi Han lightly jumped up and tried to swing his sword.
As his sword headed up…
Squeak-.
Choi Han heard a voice in his ear.
He then heard it one more time a bit quieter.
Squeak.
It was a rat.
It was the sound of a rat.
Choi Han instantly thought about the rats that the Illusionist, Elisneh the First controlled.
'…The monster isn't the issue!'
Choi Han turned his head toward the direction of the noise and changed the angle of his slash.
The rat first. He needed to catch the rat first.
"Catch the rat!"
Choi Han heard Cale's orders at the same time. He could feel the others quickly starting to move.
However, Choi Han was able to quickly locate the rat as he had heard the rat's squeak before anybody else.
He had seen the red eyes of the rat peeking out of a different path of the maze behind the monster.
He was certain that it was one of Elisneh's subordinates.
Choi Han started to frown.
Boom. Boom!
He needed to get past the large monster to capture the rat.
"…Damn it!"
Choi Han urgently twisted his body.
His legs kicked off the ground to jump over the monster and his upper body lowered to move forward.
It was at that moment.
"Huh?"
Choi Han saw something white move past him.
– Choi Han, move!
'Hmm?'
He heard Raon's anxious voice at the same time.
"Roooooooar!"
It was difficult for an adult like Choi Han to get past the monster's large body to catch the rat.
It was hard to find an opening.
However, there was a large enough opening for a small animal.
'…Fluffy!'
Cale could see Fluffy running past Choi Han and slipping through in between the monster's legs.
Her movements resembled lightning.
Cale had thought it was a white line at first.
Fluffy who had run forward extremely quickly opened her mouth.
"Squeeeak-!"
Her open mouth bit down on the escaping rat.
"S, squeak-!"
She then threw it into the air.
Fluffy then jumped up behind it and kicked the rat with her front paws.
The rat was sent flying in the air.
Fluffy started to move again at that moment.
The puppy turned around and started to run.
"Rooooar!"
She then almost instantly started to climb up on top of the smooth purple monster's body.
The shocked monster swung its club and tried to get Fluffy off its back.
However, Fluffy continued to kick against the monster's back and climb higher.
And in that short moment…
"Rooooooo, ugh!"
Fluffy opened her mouth and fangs suddenly grew out before she bit down on the monster's neck.
"Ugh, ugh!"
She then ripped out its neck.
Plop.
The rat that had been sent flying landed in front of Cale's feet. The rat had fainted with blood flowing out of its neck.
However, Cale had no time to look at the rat.
Plop. Plop.
The monster's head that was ripped off before it could even scream had fallen to the ground.
This monster seemed to have thick skin and sturdy bones that looked as if they would need to use Choi Han's aura to cut apart with a single attack.
However, that monster was ripped as if it was made of paper by Fluffy's fangs.
The headless monster's body slowly tilted back.
Boooom-!
Fluffy who was not standing on top of the fallen monster's body opened her mouth again.
Her fangs had become small again.
"Roooooooooooooooar-"
Fluffy's roar seemed to make the entire maze shake.
Cale made eye contact with Fluffy. Fluffy smiled and opened her mouth.
"Ruff!"
She barked cutely but Cale's shoulders curled in a bit.
He was slightly scared.
However, the corners of his lips were twitching.
This was the unexpected appearance of a strong ally.