The maze was built starting with the mother skeleton replenishing its magic.

"Isn't my brother deep inside the maze? If we just go to the deeper levels, we can find him, right?"

Rena snapped out of her daze and looked at Parker with expectant eyes, hoping to hear the answer she wanted from him.

Parker could even see the tears she was trying to hold back in her eyes.

Perhaps this girl understood better than anyone why her favorite brother hadn't returned for so many days.

She just didn't want to believe it.

"Listen, child," Parker said, taking her hand. "We'll all believe he's still alive until we find your brother's body."

"You are very brave. You even dared to follow us down to the fifth level of the labyrinth in order to find your brother. You are braver than any adventurer I have ever met."

"Please always hold onto this hope, but also learn to accept the facts, even if those facts may make you sad."

"The road ahead is too dangerous for you. Let's take you back to Byrondin first, and then we'll search for you in your place, okay?"

This is probably the gentlest side an adventurer can show.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Parker never had the heart to say anything too definitive.

Seeing Lena with her head down and not saying a word, he sighed, exchanged glances with his teammates, and then carried her on his back. The team extinguished the campfire, packed their belongings, and began to head towards the first floor.

They traversed the five-story corridor, climbed the fourth-story palace, and walked on the ruins of the third floor.

"Your brother is actually dead, right?"

Behind Parker, Lena suddenly spoke, her voice filled with grief.

"It's hard to say," Parker shook his head. "After all, we still don't know what's really going on at the deeper level."

Lena ignored the remark and instead talked to herself.

"My sister Clara told me that my brother was dead. I was very angry and we had a big fight. Then I ran away by myself and left her behind."

"I went to Dunn Village and asked the uncles and aunts I knew, but none of them knew where my brother was. Then I remembered the Adventurers' Guild. In the guild, I saw my brother's 'Daily Quest' posted on the bulletin board, but I couldn't find him."

"I want to tell him that I'm not going to the magic academy in the capital anymore, I'm no longer forcing him to do 'daily quests,' and I don't want to be the sister of 'the greatest adventurer' anymore. I just want my brother to come back..."

As she spoke, Lena's voice began to crack, and she buried her head in Parker's back, sobbing uncontrollably.

Even the three tough adventurers, who wouldn't flinch when facing death, couldn't bear it and turned their heads away.

"What I want is a world where my older brother is..."

"If...if..."

"What if my brother really will never come back..."

"A world like this is better off without..."

The moment Lena finished speaking, time seemed to stand still.

A tremendous aura suddenly emanated from her, and waves of energy emanated outwards from her in bursts.

"What's going on!"

The magician Neil and the healer Delon were both startled. Caught off guard, they were thrown several meters by the shockwave. When they looked up, they were astonished to find a dark red energy enveloping Parker and Rena.

Parker's eyes were bloodshot, and he let out a painful howl.

He knelt on the ground, clutching his head with both hands and struggling incessantly, clenching his teeth as his chest heaved up and down.

"Something... is taking over my...brain."

Parker struggled to support himself, his bloodshot eyes fixed on his two teammates: "Kill me, don't let that thing... come out."

As he said those words, his body underwent a horrifying transformation.

The skin gradually peeled off, revealing flesh and blood. The rotten flesh, like liquid, dripped onto the ground, instantly dissolving into small holes and emitting white smoke.

Parker's limbs became thin and long, and his joints twisted to a shocking degree, growing to a height of three or four meters.

At this moment, Parker was thinking about his childhood, being abandoned, his adoptive parents being killed by raiders, and his teammates who fought alongside him dying in the maze.

In his sea of ​​consciousness, the last vestiges of reason desperately tried to swim upwards, to shake off the bloody hands behind him that wanted to drag him into the abyss.

Until he looked up... that was the pain in Lena's heart.

"My brother has always been the brother I love."

Please give him back to me.

In just a moment, Parker's last shred of reason vanished.

Parker, who was originally carrying Rena, was now enveloped in red flesh and blood, fused with her body.

A monstrous beast... was born.

"By Caldillon, what the hell is this thing?" Deron muttered to himself, his face pale.

Nick looked serious, raised his staff, and flames suddenly ignited in mid-air.

"Are you crazy!" Deron shoved Nick's hand away, his eyes wide. "Those are Parker and Rena! They might be under some kind of curse... You'll kill them!"

Nick was about to rebuke Deron for his foolishness when, in an instant, the beast had already rushed in front of him, roaring as it slashed down with its sharp claws.

The old magician shoved Delon aside, but when he tried to turn back to cast a spell, what was flying in mid-air was the very hand that had been gripping his staff.

Blood gushed from the severed arm, and Nick let out a muffled groan as he barely managed to cast a spell with his left hand.

[Fireball LV2]

[Shield Spell LV5]

"boom!"

The explosion at extremely close range sent up clouds of dust.

Nick's body was the first to fly out of the dust, and even with the shield magic he had used, he still couldn't withstand the damage.

As the smoke cleared, the beast's left arm was blown off and its eyes were blasted out. It was now roaring and wildly swinging its claws, and its wounds were healing at a visible speed.

"Nick!"

Delong shouted and rushed forward.

[Resistance to Death LV2]

[Restore Life Essence LV5]

Delong looked at his teammate lying on the ground, pale-faced, and then nervously looked up to check the speed at which the beast's wounds were healing.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Deron cursed repeatedly, channeling his healing magic to its fullest extent.

"Deron!" Nick's eyes widened suddenly, and he grabbed Deron's hand. "I feel it... the feeling Parker was talking about... something is taking over my brain... kill me."

"Shut up!"

"Otherwise, you'll have to deal with two of those monsters!"

"Shut up, you old man!"

Delong gritted his teeth.

Such a predicament would be quite despairing for a therapist.

Wait, despair...

Deron pulled Nick up from the ground and looked at him with a wry smile:

"If you're talking about the feeling of having something occupy your mind, then I feel that too."

He felt endless pain and despair, emotions that were destroying his psychological defenses.

Deron, a follower of Caldilon, immediately realized what it was.

The demon god who wields the power of pain and despair, Belzaha, this is his curse.

Then the monster in front of you is the "calamity beast".

It is said that the blood curse was spread by the witches of Belzaha, which explains why the people of the Frey Church have been so restless lately and won't say anything when asked.

So that's it, Lena is the witch.

"Before I turn into that hideous monster," Nick coughed up blood, "I have to blast him with a bullet."

Nick raised his hand, and all his magic power poured out wildly.

Fourth-tier magic - [Flame Storm LV1]

A sea of ​​fire, raging flames, and the agonizing howls of monsters.

Having exhausted all his magic, Old Nick coughed up another mouthful of blood, his face pale as he smiled and used one hand to tidy his hair and collar.

"Delong, get started. And remember to pay me back the money you owe me in your next life."

After saying that, he collapsed to the ground, limp and began to reenact Parker's mutation.

A dagger pierced Nick's throat, the mutation came to an abrupt end, and the smile was forever frozen on Nick's face.

A sense of responsibility as an adventurer led Delon to choose to minimize the harm caused by the whole incident.

He killed old Nick.

Pain and despair relentlessly eroded Deron's consciousness, accompanied by the grief of killing his teammates with his own hands and an overwhelming sense of loneliness.

The captain has become a monster, Nick was freed by his own hands, and now he is all alone.

With difficulty, Delong pulled out the dagger, looked at the enraged beast in front of him that was slowly healing its wounds, and gave a bitter smile.

"The followers of Caldilon must not commit suicide, old man."

"Clang—"

The dagger fell to the ground. He clutched his head, gradually unable to resist the bone-chilling despair and pain. The last image flashed before his eyes: him killing Nick with his own hands.

what.

If only a kind person could pass by and help him out of this predicament.

Caldil's followers spent their entire lives researching how to die more gracefully, at least not as monsters.

But why is there a draft coming from my chest?

Delon looked down at his chest, where a bloody hole had been pierced by a sharp boulder.

He looked up again.

Not far away, at the staircase leading from the second to the third floor, a handsome, mysterious man dressed in black armor, a black headscarf, and a black mask remained in an attacking stance.

The prayer was answered.

Now I don't have to turn into that kind of monster before I die.

As for why that person chose to attack the weakened adventurer over the obvious monster...

Delong no longer wanted to argue about it.

Close your eyes.

The body fell straight down.