This Isn’t an E*otic Game?

[There.]

If he heard me say it that way, he’d probably blow a gasket—but damn, Kon was useful.
The instant his psychic sense made one of the hidden bastards glow like a subtle light in the distance, I reached into the leather pouch we’d prepared in advance and pulled out a carefully selected stone.
No need to aim—Kon would handle the trajectory correction.

I hurled the rock with everything I had.
A wet splat followed immediately.
And right after that—

KRRRAAAHH!!
The tamed beast that had been under their control howled violently and sprung upright, charging straight at me with rage.
I punched it once.

It turned into a pile of meat on impact.
[That was the last one. No more in the vicinity.]
“Let’s move.”
[Damn this place... the Great Labyrinth really nerfs my range. This is way harder than I thought.]

“Do your best.”
[Damn it all. I lose my body once, and now I’m your psychic radar and weapons system. You better keep your damn promise.]
He grumbled. But he did his job. As always.

I trusted him—and headed deeper into the trees.
The carnage we left behind, the corpses of Pride’s cultists and their beasts, made one thing clear:
If the main expedition had entered this path first, the casualties would’ve been catastrophic.
I didn’t even want to imagine it.

No—this had been the right call.
[Amael. You need to hurry. I can feel the strain building in your body. This isn’t the surface. Even using the same level of power costs far more here.]
“I know.”

Everything was heavier here.
The mana density was so absurdly thin that any Divine Authority burned away the moment it left your body.
Where 1 unit of power sufficed outside, 10 or even 15 were needed here to achieve the same result.
Even just maintaining physical enhancement took ten times the effort.
But it was still better this way.

If overexerting myself meant no one else died, then I’d gladly take the hit.
I kept going.
Kept hurling stones. Kept slamming down beasts that lunged at me.

Then—
[Amael. Stop.]
I froze the moment Kon spoke.
Almost immediately, shapes began to glow faintly in the forest ahead—moving, clustered.

A group of Pride cultists, closing in fast.
And they were many.
“New strategy.”

[Guess they figured out you’ve got detection. Looks like they’re gambling on overwhelming you.]
The group was advancing directly, boldly.
Too boldly.

[Something’s wrong. You don’t strut toward a Saint unless you’ve got something prepared. They’re baiting you. They must be.]
Even for Lucifer’s followers, rushing me head-on like this would normally be suicide.
The fact they were confident enough to do so meant only one thing:
They had a plan.

I narrowed my eyes.
“Then let’s change our strategy too.”
[To what?]

“To this.”
I quickly laid out the plan to Kon.
[...This is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.]

“Can you do it?”
[Hell yes. Let’s go.]
We were in sync, as always.

Kon started reworking my body with meticulous psychic adjustments.
“He’s gone?”
“He’s gone,” came the curt reply.

The leader of Squad 3 delivered his report, and the commander of the ambush forces—Captain of Squad 10—scowled.
“He was headed this way. We had a confirmation from Recon Squad 1. And now he’s just gone?”
“We searched thoroughly. But he’s nowhere. Not even a trace.”

Squad 10’s gaze snapped to the head of Recon Squad 1.
The ones in charge of insect drones and flying scouts.
They shook their heads.

“Nothing. No human movement detected.”
“Try tracking him by scent.”
“We did. But... it’s as if he vanished from the middle of the woods. Just disappeared.”

The 10th Squad Captain looked like he was about to explode.
“We’ll have to fan out and search.”
That suggestion was met with immediate protest.

“If we scatter, we’ll be picked off one by one. You know that freak is out there.”
“We can’t hunt what we can’t find. First we locate, then we engage.”
“This is exactly what he wants! Why else vanish into thin air? He’s luring us!”

“Keeping everyone clumped up ruins our search radius! Spread out—keep telepathy open. If he attacks, we’ll converge on his location instantly.”
Tension spiked. The two sides of the argument were in deadlock.
Ultimately, the decision fell to the Squad 10 Captain.

He was silent for a long time, thinking hard.
But in the end, there was only one conclusion he could reach.
“Squad 3 is right. We need to find him first. We fan out. But no one leaves telepathy range. That’s an order.”

Obedience to hierarchy was absolute.
No one defied a squad captain’s command.
The cultists began to scatter, fanning out into the woods to search.

[Report the moment he’s found!]
[Telepathic channels stay open! No exceptions!]
The Squad 10 Captain bit his lip as he listened to the flurry of communication.

What the hell are you planning, you freak...
He muttered.
And he had no idea—

That the Saint he was trying to find was already standing right behind him, listening to every word.
 
****

[This really is the dumbest goddamn idea. Even thinking about it again, it’s absolutely idiotic.]
One by one, Lucifer’s cultists were brushing right past me—without the faintest clue that I was standing right in front of them.
Kon, watching it all unfold, sounded half-impressed, half-appalled as he whispered into my head with a psychic link.

[But… maybe that’s exactly why it’s working. It’s so goddamn stupid, no one even considered it.]
‘Told you. It’s so dumb it’s genius.’
One cultist even laid a hand on my shoulder as he passed.

He had no idea.
No idea that he had just touched the very person they were trying to kill.
So—what did I do?

Something very simple.
[I still can’t believe you actually reshaped your entire body to mimic tree bark—structure, color, scent, texture… damn. If it weren’t for my fine-tuning, you’d be mulch by now.]
Yeah. That’s what I did.

Kon used his precision body modification skill to turn me into a literal tree.
My form, scent, even the grain of the bark—completely indistinguishable from the surrounding woods.
No human shape remained. And if Kon lost concentration for even a second, my body would probably collapse like wet clay.
But he didn’t lose focus.
He never did.

[That last guy was it. You can revert now.]
As soon as he said that, I peeled myself off the trunk.
The jelly-like mess that was my body began reforming—slowly reshaping into the familiar human form I remembered.
I reached into the fold between my fake-bark flesh and pulled out the clothes I’d stashed ahead of time, slipping back into them with a quiet grin.

‘Where’s the closest one?’
[Two hundred meters out. You want to move?]
“Let’s go.”

I tore through the woods, fast and quiet.
Before long, I spotted one—
A Lucifer cultist patrolling with a beast companion at his side.
A huge tiger-like monster. Muscles like cables, fangs like swords.
[You take the cultist. I’ll hijack the beast’s brain.]

I nodded and focused.
Absolute Hypnosis.
[Warning: Skill range significantly reduced.]
[Physical contact required for activation in current environment.]

The thinner mana in the Great Labyrinth made every divine skill harder to use.
While Kon’s psychic abilities still worked at around twenty meters, my divine cheat skills? Practically point-blank only.
‘I’ll handle the cultist first, then take the beast. Hold him off until then.’
[Got it.]

That’s all it took—no talking, just synced thought.
I crouched, then shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
The cultist had just finished a whisper into his relay bug.

“This is Leor. No sign of—”
That was as far as he got.
I exploded from the underbrush and lunged for his head.

The beast, trained and sharp, turned immediately, letting out a guttural roar—
But before it could even move—
Kon’s psychic control slammed into its brain.
Its eyes clouded over, then froze.

“Wh-what the hell—?!”
My hand touched the cultist’s head.
[Absolute Hypnosis has been activated!]
[Skill level: MAX.]
[Absorbing selected memories…]

The flood of stolen memories poured into me.
I crushed his skull before he hit the ground.
Without pause, I turned and laid a hand on the beast.

One more Absolute Hypnosis.
I took control.
Then gave it one simple ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ command: Die.

The tiger-like monster raised a claw and jammed it into its own throat.
It spasmed briefly, then collapsed, still and cold.
[Did you see it? Their plan?]
Kon’s voice buzzed in.

I nodded.
But my fists were clenched. My heart pounding.
A sick chill crawled down my back.
I took a few steps back—far enough that no one else could hear me—and spoke aloud.

“Divine power needs fuel. You store mana in a mana stone. If you’re a demon cultist, that’s demonic mana. If you serve a god, it’s holy power.”
[Right.]
“To block someone from using divine skills, there are two ways. First, you drain their mana stone dry.”

[No fuel, no powers. Easy.]
[What’s the other?]
“If the mana stone is already full, you overcharge it—jam so much more power into it that it cracks. It shatters from the pressure.”
[Wait. No. Are you telling me—]

I looked down at myself.
My body held the goddess’s authority.
Which meant—my entire body was a walking, breathing divine mana stone.

“They brought spare mana stones. Dozens. As soon as I appeared, they were going to dump all that mana into me—into my body. Buff spells. Power-ups. Over and over.”
[If this were outside, you’d just turn into a divine tank.]
[But here, in the Great Labyrinth… where every drop of divine power strains your body already…]
“They would’ve overloaded me. I would’ve exploded from the inside out.”

That was the plan.
If I hadn’t gotten suspicious... if I’d just walked in and started fighting... I’d be sprawled in the dirt right now, twitching.
Good thing I listened to my instincts.

I let out a long breath.
“...What now?”
Silence.

Then—laughter.
Kon started to laugh.
[Amael. You know what? I’ve got an even stupider idea than the last one.]
[Wanna hear it?]

I blinked. “...Lay it on me.”
Kon explained.
I stared.

“…That’s… that’s actually the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard.”
[Yeah.]
“…But it’ll work.”

[Damn right it will.]
“Then let’s do it.”