VOICES

As was the case with the trials before, the destruction of the ice creatures' central core unveiled a new path for the group to follow. Ivan stood with his arms crossed watching the wall of ice melt away.

So far the dungeon had been a breeze, he was contemplating whether it was the fact that maybe the liberator just didn't anticipate the involvement of people from other worlds.

'No, that shouldn't be the case. At the very least they should have anticipated someone with Creation Magic to have made it this far…' And anyone with the right amount of creation magic would come to the same conclusion and create environmental protection from the cold.

Oscar's Labyrinth was considered to be at the beginner level, such was stated in his journal and even in the journals of the other liberators.

There was also the matter of the compass, he had retrieved it from the Haltina labyrinth which required clearance of three other labyrinths to enter. The dungeons didn't have a definitive order other than that.

Well, in order to uncover the Melusine labyrinth one needed to have the token from the Gruen Volcano to light the way. That made two dungeons that had prerequisites that needed to be made before clearing.

Receiving the magic compass right before entering a labyrinth full of twists and turns just may have been his luck, or perhaps that had also been within the liberator's calculation.

'But if we're using topography this labyrinth is the farthest, in games that should be an indicator that it's for high level players. Though I guess that only applies if we're using video game logic huh…'

Tio had mentioned that every labyrinth had a theme, testing strength, bonds, perseverance, and so on. The Schnee Caverns surely had a theme of its own, the question was what might it be?

'Well it's really cold, there were a bunch of cute heat stealing rabbits, then there was the ice skating sasquatches, and finally a frozen legion… it all just seems more like a random assortment of tasks than trials following a theme…'

But he knew better than to underestimate the cunningness of the labyrinths, if the journals were anything to go by Oscar and Schnee didn't get along very well. In his own words they 'mixed like oil and water'.

Unfortunately there was nothing written about what magic Schnee specialized in. Quite the surprise considering Ivan thought with how much they hated each other Oscar would've likely let a few things slip out of spite.

'Or maybe Oscar is just a tsundere…'

That seemed about right.

'I wonder if the liberator's each proof read to make sure the others weren't spilling anything.' Sure that'd mean there wasn't much trust between them and it was quite likely that could've been what led to their downfall.

Though that's if it were the case. 'In this world they were the only ones who knew the truth and sought to do anything about it, especially so when the seven of them were the final members to survive the eradication of their group…'

Likely his speculation was meaningless, there must've been some blood hardened bond between the liberators if they were willing to trust each other to fight alongside them against gods.

'𝘽𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨, 𝙝𝙚𝙝𝙚𝙝𝙚~'

Ivan snapped his head back, his eyes glaring over his shoulder. He only let out a sigh of relief when he realized nothing was there, instead his eyes only met the concerned or confused stares of those traveling alongside him.

"Ivan… what's wrong?" Yue was the first to press her concern, if there was something Ivan was taking seriously then chances were that it was likely a danger to their group.

"I thought I heard a voice from behind us. Stay on high alert, I believe the next trial has already begun… If anyone hears any voices, tell me immediately." Ivan got the keyword he needed— no, he felt he was incorrect in his speculation. The theme of bonds was already done in the Haltina Labyrinth.

"Yes!" The group saluted before following Ivan down the hallway, for every person walking forwards another one followed behind them walking backwards. This way they'd be able to keep a guard and notice any of the sources that the voices Ivan mentioned and where they might be coming from.

'𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩, 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚? 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘!'

This time it was Claire's turn to snap her head around, she placed her eyes everywhere to seek the source of the voice that had stung her heart.

"Master, it was a female's voice!" She yelled out to him, he hummed for a second before nodding. The others in the group that were facing behind them hadn't seen anyone or anything.

"And mine was a male's…" Either they were being harassed by multiple spirits or the dungeon had scanned their brains to create something to go against them as did the Haltina labyrinth.

"Felis, Canis, how about you two? Did you guys hear anything?" They shook their heads. Which got Ivan to wonder about something else, if this trial was truly what he believed it to be would it affect the two unnatural beings whose life experience amounted to about 1-2 months.

As seconds turned to minutes the voices became more frequent, and by the time an hour had passed everyone but Felis and Canis were hearing them.

'𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨…'

'𝙆𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛!'

'𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙚𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙮? 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙙?'

The voices went on and on, eventually he and the group were bound to understand what was behind it all.

"It's the same as hearing your own voice through a recording, at first it sounds unrecognizable to yourself… After all, hearing your own voice from somewhere other than inside your own body is not something very common to the average person. Y'know, if you're not a voice actor or commentator or something like that~"

They nodded, so far his explanation was pretty reasonable for them to believe. To add an example he even brought out a recorder he uses for memos, asking Felis to speak into it before directing everyone's attention to her when she winced hearing her own voice.

"It's the vibrations of your voice that happens because of the bones in your body, that is why you hear yourself differently than what is really perceived."

"So in other words you're saying what we are hearing is our own voices? Is that why you hear a masculine voice and we hear a feminine one? If so, then I suppose that explains the familiarity I have with it…"

Tio concurred, muttering aloud her own thoughts. As expected of the wise centuries old dragon, well Ivan wouldn't dare say that aloud… even with her masochistic character a woman's age is still a sensitive subject.

"Like the Haltina labyrinth, this dungeon must've scanned our memories, using them to voice out our insecurities and darkest thoughts with telepathy. I'd say we finally entered the true trial…"

As far as Ivan was concerned this whole event was a good thing. The logical part of his brain just took the punches dealt emotionally and ignored them. Moving deeper into the frozen tunnels only made the voices more incessant, marking to him that the trial was near its end.

He turned around to make sure everyone was enduring alright, if they were being affected by the mental attacks then it'd spell doom for their efficiency should they need to do battle.

Apart from an emotionally tired Claire and Ari, everyone else was doing fine. Both Yue and Tio had endured their minds for hundreds of years, added to the fact that they've come to terms with their vices.

Felis and Canis as mentioned before hadn't even been affected. Whether it'd count as them passing the trial or not Ivan didn't know. Maybe it would if the dungeon attributed it to them using their strengths to fight against mental attacks.

"Yue, Tio, help 'em out a bit~" He held both his hands above Claire and Ari's heads, light eliminated from his palms before their expressions softened. They closed their eyes and hummed, savoring the momentary comfort.

"This is…" The tunnel came to an end, once again opening up to another large empty cave of ice. What stuned Ivan was the smoothness of every part of it, from the walls to the floor and to the ceiling, each aspect of the game was shiny enough that they were practically mirrors.

And then—

"What are those things…?" Felis muttered aloud curiously, standing— or rather, floating, above the icy floor was a single three meter in diameter orb of yellow-green light.

It shone brightly as if detecting the visitors, and without another moment of hesitation, it started shooting green lasers everywhere.

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