Although they encountered several sealed doors and traps along the way, Olucus's ring reacted and automatically disarmed them one by one.
The three of them proceeded safely, and finally... they saw light.
It was light from the outdoors, sunlight!
It was the light Hiyama had not seen for several months, and Yue had waited three hundred years to see.
The closer they got to the light source, the more brilliant the light became, accompanied by a refreshing and extremely fresh wind, not the murky air of the abyss.
Yue couldn't even wait and dashed out, basking in the warm sunlight, as happy as a child.
"Darling, look! It's the sun! It's grass! It's trees!"
Hiyama was infected by her joy, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his lips.
He had been worried that vampires might not be able to tolerate sunlight, but it turned out his worries were unfounded.
"Phew, we've finally returned."
Returning to the long-lost surface, Hiyama also felt refreshed.
This place was a hellish execution ground for the people on the surface.
Many ferocious monsters lived beneath the cliffs, and despite the environmental conditions here making it almost impossible to cast magic, the monsters were strong enough to overcome such limitations.
The canyon's average depth was 1.2 kilometers, with a minimum width of nine hundred meters and a maximum width of eight kilometers!
It was known as the scar of the earth, extending west to the Guluen Great Desert and east to the Haltina Sea of Trees, effectively cutting the land into two sections, north and south.
People called this place the Lycian Great Canyon.
The forbidden land of death.
And they were at the entrance of a cave at the bottom of the Lycian Great Canyon.
Yue's voice attracted many monsters, which slowly approached the three of them with blood-red eyes.
"Ugh... these hateful guys~" Yue grumbled unhappily.
She must have been very displeased by the interruption from the monsters.
"Crimson Spear," she chanted.
But...
Magic power emerged from her white ivory fingertips, then suddenly dissipated.
?!
Yue looked at her fingers, feeling a surge of confusion.
"This is a no-magic zone; magic power will be Decomposed here."
Hiyama's voice came from beside her.
"Huh!? Then what should we do?" Yue said, troubled.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that."
Hiyama looked relaxed and commanded, "2B, kill them all."
"Yes, Master."
Still, an emotionless voice sounded, and 2B drew "white ivory" and "ebony wood," naturally aiming at the monster group and pulling the triggers.
After this period of "training" with Yue, 2B's proficiency with these two guns had become even more refined.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The monsters were headshotted and died before they could even resist, one after another, while the remaining monsters that hadn't been targeted had no idea what was happening.
Only the lingering echoes of gunshots remained; the ensuing scene was not a battle at all, but a one-sided slaughter!
2B flew through the monster horde like a butterfly, wielding her dual guns as if playing a piano, occasionally dispatching any stragglers with "White Vow."
She was like a perfect killing machine.
Tireless and emotionless.
Before long, only mountains of monster corpses remained on the ground.
"Well done."
When 2B returned, not a single speck of blood had stained her maid outfit.
"Ugh~ Is Yue too useless?"
Seeing Hiyama praise 2B, Yue couldn't help but puff out her cheeks.
"Everyone has things they're not good at; you don't need to worry about these things," Hiyama comforted her.
Unbeknownst to him, these words had the opposite effect, making Yue's cheeks puff out even more.
"Where should we go next?"
Yue knew Hiyama's goal was to clear the other six Great Labyrinths. They were currently in the Lycian Great Canyon; walking east would lead to the Haltina Sea of Trees, and walking west would lead to the Guluen Great Desert.
Both of these places had Great Labyrinths.
"Nowhere. Lycian has a labyrinth; we'll conquer this one first."
Hiyama recalled.
"Lycian has a Great Labyrinth?"
Upon hearing the destination from Hiyama, Yue's face was instantly full of questions.
Although legends spoke of seven Great Labyrinths on the continent, their locations were not entirely certain.
Currently, only three locations were confirmed: the Olucus Great Labyrinth, the Great Volcano in the Guluen Great Desert, and the Haltina Sea of Trees.
Since Olucus had already been conquered, she naturally assumed the next destination would be the Great Volcano or the Haltina Sea of Trees.
But Hiyama said there was a labyrinth in the Lycian Great Canyon?
This point could not be verified.
Noticing her question, Hiyama proactively explained, "A Great Labyrinth is actually hidden within the Lycian Great Canyon. It's not hard to infer that just by seeing the anomalies here, is it?"
Magic power dissipated here on its own; the Lycian Great Canyon was indeed full of mysteries.
"Hmm, then where is the labyrinth entrance?" Yue nodded; she naturally believed Hiyama's words.
"I don't know," Hiyama said honestly.
The anime only mentioned a labyrinth in the Lycian Great Canyon but didn't provide the exact location of the Lycian Labyrinth entrance, so he truly didn't know.
"This... Then how do we conquer it?"
Yue saw his confident expression and thought he knew the labyrinth's entrance.
"Although I don't know where the entrance is."
"But I know how to find the entrance's location."
Hiyama said seriously,
"We need a rabbit."*
Chapter 38: Found it already?
At the bottom of this deep canyon, in that dry place without a single drop of water, there were all sorts of rocks, big and small.
Without needing to strain one's ears, the low growls of ferocious monsters or the sounds of the strong preying on the weak could be heard echoing at any time.
Here, humans' powerful weapon—magic—could not be used, and there was almost nothing to serve as food.
To ascend the valley and escape, one had to climb hundreds of meters of sheer cliffs independently, and such conspicuous actions would almost certainly make one prey for monsters.
Basically, there were stairs built at the east and west ends of the canyon for exiting, but the keen-eyed monsters would not let such rare prey that had fallen into the valley escape.
In that place where humans found it extremely difficult to survive, a shadow moved.
Between the crevices of a giant rock, there was a pair of rabbit ears.
Cute and charming rabbit ears, completely out of place in the hellish valley bottom, moved left and right for a while as if sensing for presences.
Soon, perhaps believing the surroundings were safe, the owner of the rabbit ears peeked out from behind the rock.
Beneath the rabbit ears seemed to be a person, not an animal; it was a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl with rabbit ears, and this time she was confirming the safety of her surroundings with her gaze.
She was a beautiful girl, even though her body was soiled and her clothes were tattered like rags wrapped around her due to the harsh and cruel environment of the canyon.
But she was beautiful enough to attract men's gazes, with slightly blue-tinged white hair and sky-blue eyes, even giving her a mysterious feeling.
Such a mysterious girl... "Waaah~ So scary~ I just want to relax on my bed and enjoy some snacks~"
It seemed her personality ruined her appearance.
After the beautiful rabbit-eared girl sobbed and complained for a while, she slapped her cheeks to cheer herself up.
"But if this continues, my family and I will become monster snacks."
She murmured, her eyes fixed on the depths of the canyon.
"...I must hurry and go, to that future, to those people."
The rabbit-eared girl resolutely stood up and ran in the direction she was staring... Rumble.
A red and black motorcycle sped through the Lycian Great Canyon, attracting the attention of many hunting monsters in the canyon.
This motorcycle was named "Cavalier," and it was also a creation of Hiyama's alchemy.
Its inspiration came from Dante's mount "Cavalier" in "Devil May Cry," and its performance was largely similar; it could be used both as a vehicle and as a powerful weapon.
Sunlight and air mixed with the scent of earth rushed at them. Yue lightly hugged Hiyama's waist, enjoying this hard-won happiness.
The silver-haired Magic Puppet 2B followed beside them at an incredible speed, occasionally raising her gun to headshot a few unwary monsters, escorting them.
Yue now felt that this Magic Puppet wasn't so bad after all.
After riding the Cavalier motorcycle for some more time, the roar of a monster came from not far away.
The sound exuded an unparalleled sense of oppression; at the very least, one could feel that this monster's strength was vastly different from the monsters at the bottom of the valley.
At this speed, they would probably encounter it in less than thirty seconds.
Hiyama showed no intention of slowing down. After rounding a large bend by the cliff, he indeed saw a large monster appear on the other side.
It resembled the Tyrannosaurus Rex he had once encountered in the abyss, the only difference being that this one had two heads, a Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus Rex.
However, what caught his attention was not the Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus Rex itself, but the girl with rabbit ears on her head, who was hopping and fleeing at its feet, looking as if she was about to cry.
"We met so soon?" Hiyama was a little surprised.
Not only was he looking for this rabbit, but the rabbit was also looking for him; their meeting was inevitable, wasn't it?
"Is that... a Rabbit People?"
Yue, behind him, blinked her eyes. Rabbit People were a very rare race; it was her first time seeing one.
The rabbit-eared girl also seemed to have noticed Hiyama and his companions speeding towards her.
When she was knocked flying behind a rock by the Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus Rex, despite kneeling on the ground, she continued to flee frantically, gazing in their direction.
The Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus Rex swung its claws again, knocking her and the rock flying. The rabbit-eared girl rolled to the ground, stubbornly and fiercely running again... towards Hiyama's direction.
Even though there was some distance between them, the rabbit-eared girl's voice, shouted with all her might, resonated throughout the canyon and reached their ears.
"I found you!! I finally found you! Save me!"
"Eeeeeeek, I'm going to die! I'm really going to die! Save me, please!"
Tears streamed down her face, her expression crumpled, as she desperately ran towards them, the Two-Headed Tyrannosaurus Rex hot on her heels, ready to swallow her whole.
At this rate, the rabbit-eared girl would be swallowed by the monster before she could reach them.
"Get out of the way."