This Isn’t an E*otic Game?

“He’s dead.”

The smashed skull was unmistakably not something that could belong to the living.
Looking at the gruesome corpse, already swarmed with insects, the captain of Squad 10 clenched his teeth.
“Where the fuck is this bastard hiding?”

No scent.
No presence.
No sound.

Nothing. Nothing at all could be detected.
And yet, when one of the squad members, who had been quietly walking in the rear, suddenly stopped responding—out of a vague concern, they went to check and found this mess.
“That damn Saint. Could he actually use stealth and ambush tactics too?”

What the hell did he do?
They couldn’t even begin to guess.
Lucifer had shared all the information he knew about the Saint with his followers.
From the powers conveyed by the Demon Lord—

There was definitely no mention of stealth abilities.
“What should we do?”
Even the captain of Squad 10 couldn’t answer.

They needed to know what kind of power he was using in order to prepare a countermeasure.
If they couldn’t even grasp how he was hiding himself, how the hell were they supposed to prepare for it?
Still, he was a man with responsibilities.

He had to come up with something.
“For now...”
The moment the Squad 10 captain opened his mouth—

“It’s the Saint! Up ahead! He’s appeared about 100 meters away!”
The captain of Squad 1, who had been acting as a scout, shouted urgently, having spotted something through the magical beast under his control.
“He’s coming this way! Running straight at us!”

It was like someone shoving their head into a tiger’s jaws.
If he was going to show up like this, things were going to be much easier.
The Squad 10 captain instantly mobilized his men.

“Just like we trained!”
In an instant, the followers of Lucifer scattered into their designated positions.
Several of them quietly raised mana stones, fully charged with mana.
Enhancement magic.

In other words, forcibly flooding the body with mana to trigger an overactive state.
The moment additional mana was pumped into the Saint’s body—already straining under the excessive use of the Goddess of Life’s power—
There was no way he’d withstand it. He’d collapse without question.

And yet, why?
‘He’s charging us head-on?’
The same bastard who had been skulking around using stealth just moments ago was now boldly charging straight in—and that gave them a bad feeling.

Suspicion crept in: maybe he had some kind of plan.
But it was too late to call off the operation now—the Saint was already too close to their main force.
“There he is! Right in front of us!”

Close enough to see with the naked eye.
He was visible now.
The Saint in his white priest’s robes.

The Squad 10 captain’s eyes narrowed.
“Goddamn it. We’ll just hit him head-on and see.”
There was no time to think of anything else.

Because of the Great Labyrinth’s nature, the effective range of magic had been severely reduced. So they waited until he came within 10 meters, and the moment he entered range, the Squad 10 captain gave the signal.
“Now!”
All the mana stored within the stones exploded out, instantly concentrating on the charging Saint’s body.

Ten high-grade magic stones, all from high-risk-class magical beasts—used simultaneously for enhancement magic.
Even for a regular human, this much overactive mana would shred their body apart.
And for the Saint, who was actively wielding the Goddess’s power? He’d fall apart instantly—

“Huh?”
The charging Saint suddenly collapsed with a dull thud.
What lay on the ground, in a ridiculous and hollow pose, was a clumsy dummy made of branches, loosely shaped like a person, wearing a priest’s robe.

The Squad 10 captain’s face turned ghostly pale.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!! A decoy!!…”
Before he could finish the sentence—

A rock whizzed in and obliterated one of the followers’ heads in a terrifying burst.
 
****

Corn’s plan wasn’t anything complicated.
[We’re gonna build a fake that looks exactly like you using tree branches. Then we’ll dress it in your clothes.]
“So you want them to use enhancement magic on the fake?”

[Exactly. Nailed it.]
“So they’ll waste the only way they have to neutralize me with their own hands. But will they fall for such a crude fake?”
[Come on. Who am I?]

I looked down at the psychic amplifier.
“You’re Corn. What kind of question is that?”
[You’ve seen my past. You know the kind of unicorn I was. I beat down countless male unicorns with nothing but the precision of my psychic control.]

After saying that, Corn began manipulating the branch dummy—which had been shaped to match my skeletal frame—using telekinesis.
Even though it was just a frame, it moved almost like a real human, walking around the area naturally.
[And if I layer just a bit of illusion on top of it?]

It was me.
A fake that looked just like me was casually moving through the forest.
“Convincing. The problem is whether they’ll actually fall for it... Warlocks with real magical knowledge will notice something’s off.”

[Of course they will. That’s why we have to make them use the enhancement spell before they figure it out. I’ll deploy the fake within less than 100 meters and make it sprint at full speed. When something that tears through monsters and humans alike comes charging like a madman, do you think they’ll have the time to analyze whether it’s real or not?]
It wasn’t a bad plan.
I nodded.

“Alright. Let’s do it.”
[You’re in?]
“Yeah. It’s the most effective tactic.”

[Then strip.]
“What?”
[Take it off. The insect-type beasts they use—I know exactly what they are. They’re hyper-sensitive to scent. To fully fool them, the fake needs to be wearing your actual clothes.]

“If I take off my priest robe, I’ll be down to just my underwear.”
[We're both dudes. Strip. Now.]
With no other choice, I took off my robe and dressed the fake.

Then we executed Corn’s plan.
And it worked flawlessly.
[Those dumb motherfuckers! Amayel! Throw it!]

The moment they threw away their only way to neutralize me—
I pulled out the carefully selected rocks from my pocket.
In seconds, I’d cracked open the skulls of about three of them.

[They’re coming in! Get ready, Amayel!]
Realizing they’d just lost their best shot at stopping me, the followers of Lucifer summoned every single tamed magical beast they had and charged at me with terrifying speed.
I kept throwing rocks, blowing open the heads of charging beasts and cultists alike—but I couldn’t kill them all.

I shoved the remaining stones into my pocket.
“Corn.”
[Finish this fast. Your body’s already under serious strain.]

With a series of bone-popping cracks, Corn’s fine-tuned precision skills pushed my body into a terrifying state of reinforcement.
The Time Stop armor wrapped tightly around my vital areas.
I clenched my fists—and charged straight toward the Arrogance cultists.

“Kill! Kill them all!!…”
The movement of a magical beast reaching for me with its claws seemed painfully slow.
Thanks to my {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} reflexes working at 3000× speed.

Dodging the attack was easy. My fist slammed into the beast’s head—followed by a wet, crunching burst as its tough hide and thick skull shattered in one blow.
No matter the beast—
One punch was enough.

I wove through the nearly frozen cultists and monsters, focused entirely on smashing their skulls.
[Rear attack! Coming in from 7 o’clock!]
Corn caught every single threat flying in from behind and warned me.

Thanks to that, I never took a hit to the back of the head.
Even the few attacks that managed to graze me were useless—bouncing harmlessly off the Time Stop armor.
Crushing. Pulverizing. Shattering.

The battle was no different from a one-sided slaughter.
Nothing could stand against me.
That’s how far my body had been pushed—refined to a degree that could only be called transcendent.

And because of that, the burden on my body was increasing exponentially in real time.
I felt heavy.
Not in the way a cold or body ache feels.

It felt like my very being was crumbling from the inside out, collapsing under the excessive manifestation of divine power.
The image of an overheated, sparking electrical circuit came to mind.
[Amayel! You need to hurry!!]

Using Absolute Hypnosis, I’d turned a few magical beasts to my side.
They rampaged with me.
The stench of human blood and spilled intestines filled my nose.

To say I didn’t feel guilt or fear would be a lie.
This was murder.
But if I didn’t do it, even more people would die.

They had made their choice about how they wanted to live—and I was the consequence of that choice.
[Safe! You can’t go on! Your body’s breaking down!!]
The modifications enhancing my body released.

The Time Stop armor was undone.
I collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
“Ugh...!”

My overloaded body trembled violently with spasms.
This was the kind of affliction even Physical Reconfiguration couldn’t fix.
It was the price of recklessly wielding divine powers never meant to be handled by a human.

But I didn’t have the luxury of resting.
I turned my eyes to the last remaining follower of Lucifer.
The captain of Squad 10.

Final commander of the ambush force at Devil’s Peak.
I recognized him easily after reading the memories of the other cultists.
“Guh...ghrk...kek.”

I approached him as he wheezed, a massive cavity caved into his chest like he could die any moment, and placed a hand on his head.
[Using skill: Absolute Hypnosis!]
I sifted through his memories, extracting only what I needed, then turned my battered body back toward the expeditionary camp and began stumbling away.

“Ahh... goddamn it, seriously.”
It wasn’t long before my body felt unbearably heavy, and I had to slump against a nearby tree.
Still in nothing but my underwear.

My body covered in blood and bits of intestines.
Eyes half unfocused.
I had no control over my limbs.

[Amayel? Amayel? Hey, come on. You can’t go out like this. Get up. We need to get back to base.]
Could I even make it down from the mountain?
Probably not.

The Great Labyrinth.
Truly a fucked-up place.
Because divine power constantly dissipated here, I had to channel several times the usual amount to produce the same effect—and the strain on my body was far worse because of it.

“Corn. I seriously can’t make it down.”
At my words, my body suddenly floated into the air.
[I’ll figure something out! Stay awake!]

I heard the wind brush past my ears.
Corn.
The bastard really was good at what he did.

Carried by telekinesis, I flew quickly through the forest—and off in the distance, I saw members of the expedition rushing toward me as they spotted me.
“Saint!”
The last thing I heard was the voices of Old Ban and Priest Mathieu yelling—

Then I lost consciousness.
It had truly been one hell of a day.
 

****
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Old Ban’s back.
I slowly sat up.

“Where... am I?”
“Saint! How are you feeling?”
I looked down at my body.

No major issues.
“I’m unharmed.”
“You’ve been asleep for a full day.”

A whole day?
Startled, I turned to Ban.
“What about attacks? Did any magical beasts or Lucifer’s followers come after us?”

“Relax. There’s been no incident. We’ve passed Devil’s Peak and the expedition is now on the fourth floor. So far, there’s been no ambush from magical beasts or cultists.”
Ban gave me a wide, satisfied grin.
“Thanks to you, Saint. We made it down to the fourth floor without losing a single person. Not even a single injury. It’s a miracle.”

I smiled back at Ban.
Then I stood up.
“Please summon the Guildmasters, Mayor Lagote, and Captain Jerome.”

“Of course.”
“I have good news.”
Absolute Hypnosis.

Personally, I think this is the most broken skill I have.
“I’ve identified every single ambush location on the fourth and fifth floors.”