[Chase the intruders!] Dead December roared in anger, causing the entire Gehenna Fortress to echo. Kerrasentine writhed its massive body and began to follow down the underground stairs. The escape route was completely blocked just by Kerrasentine’s huge body squeezing in. Even the stone walls were scratched and worn down by numerous bones and sharp protrusions, and eventually shattered. And Dead December’s command was not only directed at Kerrasentine. The order was conveyed to the entire fortress, all the traps and guards hidden between the maze and stone walls, and even the prisoners. The entire Gehenna Fortress writhed its stomach to digest Isaac and his party, like swallowing prey that had passed through its throat. Isaac shouted as he cut down the undead guards that sprang out from all directions, "Everyone be careful..." Suddenly, a guillotine trap that popped out of the wall flew towards Isaac’s neck, but it was blocked by Isolde’s sword. The weight of the guillotine trap itself must have been considerable, but she broke it in one go and pushed it away. Isolde also knew that even if the guillotine trap struck Isaac’s neck, it would only sting for a moment. But she was directly showing, through her actions, that they didn’t need to worry about him and could just focus on what they had to do. Come to think of it, Isolde had survived all sorts of terrible situations, not only during her time as an Inquisitor, but also during the Millennium Kingdom. How many fanatics must have targeted her until the moment she resurrected Isaac? Isaac realized anew that she was a seasoned warrior, so much so that an ordinary Paladin couldn’t even compare. [It’s nice to exchange affectionate glances, but don’t you think our moving speed is getting slower?] Linde shouted urgently. As she said, their escape speed was also slowing down as more and more traps and guards sprang out. That meant that Kerrasentine was gradually catching up with them. Kerrasentine was coming down, grinding everything it encountered along the stairs, literally traps, guards, stairs, everything. It was at a level where they would have to consider whether finely minced meat could be resurrected. "Don’t worry and go down!" The plan Isaac had prepared was not just a single Luadin Key. That was just a signal. The real plan was elsewhere. It was a bit of a sneaky method, but he was going to use any method he could. Suddenly, the Gehenna Fortress made a sound as if it had indigestion. Linde, who was worried that the fortress might collapse due to the violent earthquake, suddenly saw the guards in front of her turning their backs on them and running madly underground. [What’s wrong? Why are the guards suddenly retreating?] Isaac, of course, knew the reason. "It seems they have more urgent business than us." Isaac sent a mental thank you to the White Owl, who had warned him in advance. Mommy’s chance was still valid even in the Millennium Kingdom. On the contrary, Dead December felt like he was going crazy. [Stop the invasion of the Outer Boundary! Prevent the monsters from reversing!] In the deepest part of the Gehenna Fortress, there was a fortress similar to the outer fortress, but in some ways, it was much more practical and heavily guarded. It was to block the crack that had split inside the vast underground space, and monsters were madly overflowing from that crack. [Why at such a crucial moment...!] Dead December shouted, grinding his teeth. He didn’t know if the Immortal Emperor would reappear if he cut open Isaac’s belly, but in any case, the moment of the Immortal Emperor’s resurrection was at hand. But even so, Dead December could not neglect his duty. If the Gehenna Fortress collapsed and monsters began to overflow into the world, the Outer Boundary would literally bite off a large piece of this ’world of civilization’. Chapters first released on NovєlFіre.net Then half of the Urdantu Empire, including Holy Land Lua, Ushak, and the southern desert, would disappear. The Empire was already in a state of precarious existence, but Dead December could never tolerate such a situation. ’What on earth stimulated the Outer Boundary? There was no sign at all...? Originally, not so many monsters flow out of the cracks in the Subterranean Outer Boundary. Occasionally, when the Outer Boundary is stimulated from the outside, for example, when Holy Land Lua is attacked, or just before the Millennium Kingdom descends, it has discharged greatly as if it were violently fluctuating. But there was no such sign now.’ The only thing Dead December suspected was Isaac. ’Isaac? Does that deceitful tentacle Paladin have the power to move even the Outer Boundary?’ If so, it was also suspicious that he had entered the Gehenna Fortress on his own two feet, knowing it was a trap. Perhaps he intended to destroy the Gehenna Fortress in order to further expand the Outer Boundary. But whatever the case, the priority right now was to prevent the invasion of the Outer Boundary. If the White Owl heard his thoughts, she would have been disappointed. The White Owl quietly watched Dead December blocking the monsters of the Outer Boundary from one side of the underground space. If Dead December was struggling or the fortress seemed to be pushed back, she was going to withdraw the monsters immediately. Of course, she was not controlling the monsters. The monsters were not targeting the Gehenna Fortress either, but were simply following another attractive bait. "I don’t know if it’s okay to use the Outer Boundary ..." That ’attractive bait’ was, of course, the divided Isaac. Instead of Isaac’s main body, he was focused on suppressing and subjugating the ’rebellion forces’ in the Outer Boundary, and after consultation with the main body, he agreed to this unfamiliar strategy. From the divided Isaac’s point of view, it wasn’t bad to reduce the number of monsters by borrowing someone else’s hands. [It won’t take long. In the end, all we have to do is give Dead December a moderate sense of tension.] In Dead December’s mind, the vigilance against Isaac was gradually being pushed to the back burner. For hundreds of years, Dead December had been working obsessively to make the Gehenna Fortress a more solid and difficult fortress. That effort was to turn the Gehenna Fortress itself into a complex maze and install monsters or traps called trials everywhere. The staircase section that Isaac first entered was only the guard’s quarters or warehouse. It was where the soldiers who managed the Gehenna Fortress stayed and stored the supplies needed for the fortress. There was no great difficulty in passing through that place. But from the moment they entered the section called ’Back Room’, something began to change. With a loud noise, the ceiling collapsed. Linde was the first to poke her head out and look beyond the hole in the ceiling. [It’s still the same space.] Linde replied, annoyed. This space called ’Back Room’ was a maze with monotonous and similar-structured corridors and spaces randomly arranged without regularity. There were no traces of other undead or prisoners in this bizarre structure that made them feel uneasy. They were almost grateful for the traps that occasionally popped out. But from Isaac’s point of view, who had to go down to the lower floor as soon as possible, it was annoying. Breaking the walls or piercing the floor was useless. In the end, it would only lead to a new back room. [It must be a temporary space created by a miracle. It’s designed to make prisoners get caught or exhausted while wandering in the maze when they try to escape. Dead December is skilled at creating such spaces.] Even memorization was impossible like the Lichtheim Secret Archive because the structure of the corridors changed randomly. Isaac knew that the only way to pass through this place was to rely on luck. The Gehenna Fortress itself was like Dead December’s stomach. So much so that it was extremely difficult to attack even without Dead December himself looking into it directly. The movement of Kerrasentine wriggling beyond the wall caused a slight vibration. The only good news was that Kerrasentine was not visible, perhaps wandering in the back room as well. But if they couldn’t go down to the lower floor, they would have no choice but to keep wandering in this back room until they were lucky enough to find the stairs. ’Should I just destroy everything, even if it takes some time?’ Isaac hoped that by increasing the difficulties being imposed on Dead December from both inside and outside, he would be unable to bear it and open the stairs. At that time, Isolde called Isaac. "I think I’ve found a way down." As Isaac turned around in embarrassment, he saw a half-open space right next to Isolde, as if showing off. Unlike the monochrome back room, there was a long staircase made of distinctly different material. It was definitely a staircase leading downwards, but it was completely different from the ’attack’ that Isaac knew, so he wondered what it was. Thinking that it might be a trap, Isaac carefully examined it, but Isolde stepped into the stairs without any hesitation. "There are no traps. I checked earlier." "......How did you find it?" Isolde shrugged and said. "Well, this maze seems to change randomly, but after all, this is also a prison, right? So I thought there would be a separate space for prisoners or guards to move around. Unlike the intruders, a staircase used by the managers." "That... yeah, but of course, but..." Isaac realized that he had missed a very obvious fact. He was looking at the Gehenna Fortress in the way he used to attack mazes in the game. But this was also a place where people lived and a space that needed management. Of course, there had to be a staircase for managers. Isaac realized anew that there might be facts that he missed because of his ’game sense’. Fortunately, Isolde had found it without missing it. "Still, you managed to find it." "Oh, if it were me, I would have created an emergency passage for the guards to come and go around here." Isaac recalled Isolde’s former job. She had also been very familiar with prisons, as the prisons where countless prisoners, heretics, and infidels she had been monitoring were locked up. As soon as the three entered the manager’s staircase, a violent vibration was felt. It was Kerrasentine’s movement. Isaac could now understand why he had only felt the vibration and had not encountered Kerrasentine until now. It was because it had been wandering around on that manager’s staircase. Even if Isaac didn’t say it, the two were already running. As expected, as soon as they went down the manager’s staircase, another space appeared so quickly that the time they had spent wandering in the back room was absurd. [Quickly carry the stones down!] [Weapons! We need weapons! Bring everything that’s in good condition, regardless of type!] They saw undead who were sending out mental waves to anyone with their minds wide open, asking how urgent it was. Isaac realized that most of them were Death Knights, and quite skilled knights at that. [Don’t just stand there blankly, hurry...] And the Death Knights belatedly discovered Isaac and his party. An atmosphere of embarrassment passed between the two groups. The Death Knights were a mix of knights from all kinds of knight orders. Including the Avalanche Knight Order, and even knights from the Elil or Millishar Knight Orders. Among them, Isaac found a familiar mark. It was the mark of the Red Sword. ’So Red Kalua is still trapped in Gehenna?’