Moon's Labyrinths

‘Meteors?’

The items falling from the sky looked like big rocks with propulsion systems attached to them. Since the rocks had fallen from space, they could technically be called meteors.

- Didn’t I tell you before? The scientists were also busy working on something.

‘She did say that.’

A few days ago, Sungyoon had encountered a group of scientists, including Chelsea, looking up at space. He remembered her saying something similar.

- We put propulsion devices inside chunks of Mana Knight, then shot them into the Moon’s orbit. This allowed us to control their trajectories. We can hit whatever we want!

‘This is why she said she was mimicking a meteorite fall.’

An orbital bombardment from space, the scientists were executing a tactic mainly shown or described in sci-fi movies and books.

Chelsea excitedly described the attack, but Sungyoon didn’t feel that excitement. He had almost died when a meteorite had whizzed past him.

“That's amazing. However, you should've told me about this plan beforehand.”

- I’m sorry, Mr. Sungyoon.

The one to apologize was the Mayor.

- The scientists had assured me that it would work, but I had considered it to be a highly uncertain plan. That was why I hadn’t included it as an asset for our attack.

Sungyoon heard Chelsea grumble. She got offended when she heard that the Mayor hadn’t believed in the scientists.

A large number of these meteors were on standby near the tower, so rocks continued to fall in massive numbers. The wounds these meteors left on Grenoid healed almost instantly, but they were enough to make him retreat.

Puh-uhng! Puh-uhng!

A couple of meteorites shattered on collision with Grenoid’s magical cannon, but they successfully pushed Grenoid below the tower.

“Now! Shoot!”

Russell yelled, and the mages shot their spells toward Grenoid all at once.

Unlike before, this wasn’t an attempt to push back Grenoid. It was a fully offensive attack. It seemed as though the spells contained all the rage the mages had been suppressing until now. These spells had specific aims: smash, mince, and disintegrate the opponent.

Kwahhhhhhhhhng!

Fire, electricity, rock, explosions, gale, etc, all kinds of violent attacks hit Grenoid. As a heap of wounds appeared on his body, Grenoid started to resemble swiss cheese.

When they saw what happened to Grenoid, the Connectors felt as if all of their stress had disappeared.

“I never expected our attacks to work so well against it.”

Grace spoke as she looked at her hand, which had directed her spell.

“I’m sure Grenoid isn’t in its normal state. The ambient magical energy is way too low.”

“Ah. I forgot about that.”

Sungyoon reminded Grace.

Grenoid had the power to completely control ambient magical energy. Planote's mages had created the stake to drain the magical energy of the Moon, and their arrangement was paying off right now.

Koo-ooh-oong!

As Grenoid’s enormous body toppled backward, blue smoke emanated from his wounds. The tentacle-like structure of the Great Labyrinth, which was supporting the tower, got damaged.

Woooooooooohng!

At that moment, the Great Labyrinth shook. It became like a sponge sucking in water, a vampire that was greedy for blood. The Great Labyrinth started sucking in the blue smoke, which was Grenoid's blood.

Ggool-luhng! Ggool-luhng!

“Ooh-ahhhhh! What the hell! That’s creepier than Grenoid!”

This sight unsettled Tim. The other Connectors showed similar reactions. Many of them even dry heaved. The Great Labyrinth was crawling, and it gave them the willies.

Hairworms were a phylum of parasites that was universally hated for being gross, and right now, the Great Labyrinth looked like a mass of hairworms crawling over each other. However, the Great Labyrinth didn't care what others thought about it. It wouldn't give up on a source that was providing it pure magical energy.

The Great Labyrinth followed the system Hyunwoo created as it continued to move and suck in Grenoid’s magical energy.

Ssssssk!

More tentacles appeared out of the complicated structures of the Great Labyrinth. Such a ridiculous sight was hard to describe in words.

The Great Labyrinth grew like a living organism and created a wall around Grenoid. The tentacle-like structure acted like worms trying to crawl through an empty tunnel. The tentacles dug into Grenoid’s wounds.

Kwah-jeek! Kwah-jeek! Kwah-jeek!

They started to suck in the magical energy within Grenoid’s body. The amount of magical energy being drained into the Great Labyrinth couldn’t be compared to before.

The Great Labyrinth had fully surrounded Grenoid, and the several thousand tentacles looked like hungry snakes attacking their prey.

Kwahhhhk!

A light appeared from the tower.

Kwahhhhhhhng!

It had seemed like the Great Labyrinth would swallow Grenoid whole, but in the end, Grenoid escaped the constraints. The Great Labyrinth broke apart like an empty pile of bamboo.

Despite losing its support, the tower continued hovering in the air and letting out a light. It meant the preparation was done.

“Did you finish evacuating everyone, Mayor?”

- Yes. Everyone is heading to Earth on the spaceships. The only ones still on the Moon are you guys.

“That's good to hear. I think it's about to start.”

Kwah-jee-jee-jee-jeek!

Cracks started to appear on the Moon's surface.

***

Jimin was sitting in her backyard, looking up at the Moon. The Moon was clearer than ever as it had been growing bigger in the sky in recent days. It shone its bright light on Earth.

Since the Moon was approaching Earth, Earth was suffering from numerous natural disasters. The whole world was desperately working together to minimize the damage, but at a certain point, they reached a limit. The damage to Earth grew worse as the Moon moved closer. If this continued, it would probably drive humanity into extinction.

‘I guess it won’t matter if the Moon collides with Earth. That’ll be the end of everything.’

Her husband and his comrades were desperately fighting on the Moon to avoid such an outcome.

“Mom.”

“Why are you awake, Shinhae?”

Shinhae hugged Jimin from behind, and Jimin held Shinhae’s warm hand.

“I can’t fall asleep.”

Shinhae had recently started to act more childish. It was unlike her normally mature self.

‘She’s worried.’

As always, children quickly picked up on something wrong. Right now, a cloud of uncertainty was hanging around humanity, and it was starting to affect Shinhae. It didn’t matter if Shinhae was quick on the uptake or not. At this point, everyone knew the world was in a precarious situation.

“Really? Do you want to watch the Moon here with Mom?”

“Yes!”

Shinhae moved deeper into Jimin’s embrace. She dug her face into Jimin’s bosom when she smelled her gentle scent. It was something Shinhae had never experienced before with Miyun, her birth mother.

Jimin patted Shinhae on the back.

Although they weren't related by blood, the similar wounds they had suffered in their childhood had created a bond stronger than the one between most mothers and daughters.

The two of them hugged each other for a long time. When her anxiety subsided, Shinhae wiggled to turn herself around. She sat on Jimin’s knee, and Jimin encircled her arms around the little girl. Shinhae smiled when Jimin's arms enveloped her. Jimin knew why Shinhae was doing this, so she hugged Shinhae harder.

“Mom! Moon! The Moon!”

It seemed she had finally noticed the Moon. Shinhae’s eyes twinkled.

“Wow! It’s so big!”

“Yes. It's big, right?”

“Is Dad up there?”

“Yes.”

The mother and daughter affectionately conversed with each other. Sungyoon was fighting a fierce battle on the Moon with the fate of the world on the line. However, Jimin didn’t show any of her concerns on her face.

“Uh? Look over there, Mom!”

Shinhae suddenly pointed up toward the Moon, and Jimin lifted her head.

‘That’s...!’

“Wow! It's so pretty! The Moon looks pretty like glitter!”

The bright full Moon sparkled in the air as it started to disintegrate.

***

Kwahhhhhhng!

It was an incredible sight that looked as if God were trying to punish humanity for its sins. The ground churned and went under as the earth from below surged to the top. However, this lasted only a moment, then it churned in reverse.

All the Great Labyrinths and the other labyrinths on the Moon shared magical energy as they spurred on this chain of destruction.

“Mr. Sungyoon! We have to go!”

It really looked like the apocalypse. Tim urged Sungyoon, who had been watching everything unfold, into action.

“Understood.”

The only ones left there were Sungyoon and Tim. Sungyoon looked at the roaring Grenoid and the tower letting out light in the air for the last time. Then, he passed through the portal with Tim. They arrived at the capital of Planote.

“Everyone is here now.”

Grace, who had passed through the portal earlier, greeted Sungyoon and Tim. Emily stood next to Grace.

“Where’s everyone?”

“They exited the palace.”

“Let’s head out too.”

Sungyoon and his party members moved to search out the others. Since the capital was located in the Moon, the vibrations were also affecting it. The palace shook so hard that it felt as if it would collapse. Of course, none of the Connectors would die from the palace collapsing on top of them, but it also wasn’t wise to stay inside a building right now.

When the party exited the palace, they caught sight of the other Connectors staring up at the ceiling.

“Ah! The Knight is here.’

Russell, who was with Bruce, Plu-El, and Aruwen, greeted Sungyoon.

“Hey. Are you sure we’ll be fine here?”

Bruce kept looking at his surroundings as he asked the question. Even they wouldn’t survive if the capital got buried deep underground.

Plu-El answered him.

“Our cities survived even when they were ejected into space. They are fully awakened now, so they’ll survive.”

“I really hope that’s true.”

It seemed Bruce felt endangered by the development. Aruwen frowned when Bruce didn’t put much faith in the cities built by his ancestors. However, he didn’t say anything.

Kwha-jeek! Kwha-jee-jeek!

The vibrations started affecting the walls surrounding the capital city. The walls cracked, and debris started to fall.

“Everyone, get down and grab something!”

Sungyoon yelled as he grabbed the pillar of a nearby building. All the Connectors quickly moved to anchor themselves to nearby buildings. Some grabbed a pillar, like Sungyoon, some grabbed onto the buildings' walls, while others went inside the houses and grabbed onto the sills of windows.

Kwahhhhhng!

As if a bomb had gone off nearby, the ceiling exploded outward with a loud sound.

Too-hwahhhhhk!

At the same time, a force pressed down on the Connectors.

‘We are flying upwards!’

Sungyoon could feel it. The capital and the bedrock supporting the city were accelerating upward toward the sky. The city that had been buried deep underground was now exposed to the light.

The Connectors tightly held on to the nearby structures as they looked toward the light.

“Ah!”

Someone exclaimed. The scene in front of them overwhelmed their senses. An enormous amount of rocks still obstructed their view, but the light from the Sun and the beautiful Earth was too beautiful. Then, they saw the Moon crack and send an enormous amount of rocks into space.

The Moon was disintegrating. A large satellite was breaking apart as dust and debris dispersed into space. It was a shocking and majestic sight. The jaws of these battle-tested Connectors fell to the ground as they looked at the sight unfolding in front of them.

Hoooohng!

Something flew past the capital. Naturally, the Connectors chased after this item with their eyes. They saw a structure letting out a light as bright as the sun. It was the tower.