Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 91

Dimensional Maze

About two days had passed since then.

Melvin Istovan had seemed a bit dejected after having one of his fingers broken, but he was certainly so intimidated that he couldn’t even attempt betrayal.

“Ugh, I’m dying.”

After chewing down a tasteless nutrition block, I scanned my surroundings.

‘Why aren’t they coming?’

There hadn’t been a single attack from the Lunaseeker. I just couldn’t understand the current situation.

In an environment like this—dark and confined—not a single attack in days?

The fact that nothing had happened actually made me even more on edge.

“If that’s what Lunaseeker was aiming for, then their plan worked.”

Irena tossed a light jab my way.

“No kidding.”

I rubbed my eyes and replied to Irena.

She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a dark, lumpy mass. Using her pocketknife, she shaved off a bit of it.

I took out a mug and filled it with hot water. When I dropped the shavings into the water, it dissolved into coffee.

Not that it tasted any good. Even for someone like me who enjoyed coffee, what was in this cup wasn’t just bad—it was awful.

“Seriously makes me wanna die.”

I wasn’t drinking it for the taste or aroma. This was just to stay awake.

Frowning at the cup, I cranked up the output of my battle gear, rapidly cooling the hot coffee, then downed it in one go.

Taste aside, it had enough caffeine to force some life into my exhausted body, which had been in a state of repeatedly dozing off and waking up.

“Fuck. It’s scary how close we are now.”

If my gut was right, we were just a bit away from the destination.

And in fact, there really wasn’t much left.

On the other side of the collapsed debris that blocked the sewer stood the unmistakable entrance to the Dimensional Maze.

The obvious problem, of course, was that we had to clear the debris.

“Just how long has this been abandoned? Looks like it collapsed at least a few years ago.”

The sewer had caved in, and it clearly wasn’t something that happened just yesterday or the day before.

“Do the public servants in this damn city not do anything?”

Irena stared at the rubble with a look of disbelief, then glanced my way.

“Even if we manage to clear this, wouldn’t the backed-up sewage on the other side come pouring out?”

“Goddamn, that’s one hell of a gross thing to say.”

Even as I said that, I couldn’t completely deny the possibility.

“Water is draining through the gaps in the collapsed debris… but how should I put this. The solids could have stayed behind and piled up.”

At my words, Irena made a gagging motion.

“How long has it been since we ate, and you’re already bringing up such filthy things?”

“No kidding.”

What I said was a pretty disgusting hypothesis, but the fact that it wasn’t nonsense made everyone feel uncomfortable.

“The path we need to take is already decided.”

We had to take the risk. If we couldn’t get through here, we’d have to make a huge detour to find another way.

“You probably already know, but once we enter the Dimensional Maze—”

“We’ll have the upper hand against everyone except the Lunaseeker, right? Yeah, I know.”

If a fight broke out, being inside the Dimensional Maze worked in our favor.

At Irena’s reply, I nodded. She let out a sigh at my next words.

“Got it. You’re going to use that sword, right?”

I nodded again and immediately drove Flicker into the debris blocking the path.

The mosaic began to consume the rubble.

“Irena, grab the others.”

Without delay, Irena pulled Melvin and Tanya in close, one on each side.

There wasn’t much time to remove the debris. For people without battle gear, it would be hard to leap across the rubble in that short window.

If they mistimed it, they’d be buried in the returning debris.

“…Alright.”

The mosaic continued to eat away at the debris for over an hour. That just meant the mass of rubble blocking this passage was enormous.

And at the same time—

‘If there’s enough time, that means things like weight or volume limits don’t matter.’

Even this overwhelming amount of debris could be removed if enough time was spent contaminating it with mosaic.

Of course, in actual combat, keeping a blade lodged in someone’s weapon for over an hour would be impossible.

“Now!”

I shouted and deactivated Flicker. At the same time, the debris vanished.

“Thank goddddd!”

Irena had been worried that sewage would come flooding from the other side, but thankfully, though the area beyond was filthy, it wasn’t the overflowing sludge hell she feared. Grateful, she dashed forward with Melvin and Tanya tucked under her arms.

“Looks like the rubble was way bigger than we thought?!”

“If you’ve got time to think, run, damn it!”

I shouted urgently as I sprinted. Just as Irena said, the debris blocking the sewer had been far larger than expected.

If we weren’t careful, we could end up wedged between the rubble.

“Aaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaaaah!”

With that cry, Irena threw her body forward, and the moment she did, the removed debris returned.

“Damn, that was close.”

Looking back, Irena gave a slight shiver. If we’d been just half a second slower, we would’ve ended up trapped in that mess.

It turned out that the entrance to the Dimensional Maze wasn’t located right beyond the collapsed debris.

Kairus and the group had to keep moving for about two to three more hours before the entrance to the Dimensional Maze finally appeared before their eyes.

Melvin, relying on the flashlight to inspect the area, let out a quiet exclamation.

“Actually, thanks to the debris blocking the way, it’s almost completely undamaged.”

“I’d like to believe that’s a good thing.”

At Kairus’s comment, Melvin nodded.

“It means there’s a high chance the entrance still operates the way the original Dersosians intended.”

Kairus let out a satisfied grunt. That meant there was no need to smash through the entrance, no need to waste energy.

If they knew how to open it, they could enter safely without making a scene. But Kairus chuckled.

“Why bother? I could just cut it open with Flicker.”

No matter how large the door was, if he just excluded a part of it with Flicker and slipped inside, that would be that.

Seriously, when it came to burglary, there was no better gear than this.

“Besides, we basically got in without clearing the debris.”

At Irena’s remark, Kairus nodded.

“Yeah. It’s definitely not something others would easily think of.”

From the perspective of the other teams, it would seem like we suddenly vanished.

Even if they did figure out that we’d entered the Dimensional Maze…

The other teams would either have to clear the rubble or find another entrance.

“Now that I think about it, that collapse actually worked in our favor.”

Weighing all the factors, that was the conclusion I came to.

“Wouldn’t the Areumdri Pawnshop know the route to get into the Dimensional Maze?”

After all, it’s an organization that claims to be the underground king of this city.

Even if they hadn’t entered the maze itself, they’d probably at least know the entrance’s location.

“But doesn’t that seem strange?”

Melvin, who had been speaking minimally ever since Kairus broke his index finger, couldn’t hold back this time.

“Hm? What about it?”

Since Kairus had broken Melvin’s finger out of necessity, he didn’t react much to the sudden comment.

“You’re saying they saw this incredible structure… and didn’t go in?”

Kairus let out a small sound and then wore an awkward expression.

“Doctor, not everyone’s an archaeologist.”

It was a door too large and risky to destroy, and they didn’t know how to open it.

“The Areumdri Pawnshop specializes in fencing stolen goods. The only reason they set up underground was because it helped their business.”

They had no reason to care about some door like this. Even if it piqued their curiosity enough to remember where it was, they wouldn’t go out of their way to try opening it.

“You called them fence dealers, right? There could be treasure behind this door. Would they really just leave it alone?”

Kairus scratched his head.

“To be precise, it’s something whose value is still unknown.”

All businesses have limited manpower and capital, and those limited resources need to be used as efficiently as possible.

If Areumdri Pawnshop were in dire straits, they might have needed something like this badly enough to force the door open and go in.

But the current Areumdri Pawnshop has no reason to waste money breaking down a door to hunt for artifacts. They’d make more money just sticking to their usual operations with the manpower that would be wasted on this.

“…Is that so.”

“The important thing is that even though the entrance we used is blocked by debris, there’s still a chance the others might enter the Dimensional Maze.”

But that didn’t matter.

“Once we’re inside the maze, we’ve got the advantage. Like I said before.”

“Except for Lunaseeker, that is.”

As soon as I finished speaking, I drove Flicker into the massive door.

“And the organization that hired Lunaseeker is Lumis & Wesson.”

Not Areumdri Pawnshop.

Which meant the Lunaseeker agents currently operating in the sewers would have a hard time locating another entrance to the maze.

“Well, not that I’m sure they even plan to look for one in the first place.”

My assumption was that a Lunaseeker agent wouldn’t need to find an entrance—just kill everyone.

But the truth was, Nora Galatea, the agent dispatched by Lunaseeker, didn’t want to shed blood in the course of this mission.

And in that case, she had only one viable plan.

‘Find the entrance to Pontus before anyone else does.’

Her desire to avoid bloodshed didn’t mean she was incompetent.

To succeed in her plan, the first thing Nora Galatea had to do was find the team with the highest chance of discovering the entrance—Kairus’s team.

She had succeeded in locating Kairus just a day ago and had been maintaining an appropriate distance while observing their movements.

“Huh, they vanished?”

Kairus and his group had suddenly disappeared near the debris-blocked path. Nora, who had been watching from nearby, came to a conclusion.

There was no way they’d gone back along the path and escaped her sight.

“They’re beyond this.”

There was no other possibility. She didn’t know how they got past the rubble, but that wasn’t important.

“What to do…”

If Kairus had crossed the debris, she would have to do the same.

With no Flicker, Nora had only one option.

“Let’s clear it.”

She made up her mind and drew her yataghan.

Standard Nocturne Model 1.

A battle gear known for its outstanding performance capable of overwhelming enemies, yet standardized enough to ensure consistent quality. That’s why it had become the official equipment for Lunaseeker agents.

“Let’s see…”

The task was simple, yet tedious. Smash the visible debris to create a gap big enough to get through.

If she broke the rubble near the floor, the stacked debris would just collapse again and block the way.

So Nora climbed up the debris blocking the path.

“Ugh! Damn it!”

After smacking the crown of her head into the ceiling, Nora grumbled while rubbing it.

Soon, a deep rumble echoed as the debris, which had been left undisturbed for years, began to tremble.

The vibrations from Nora’s strikes spread through the sewer walls, reverberating outward like an echo.