“Can you explain to me first about the procedure for leaving this place?”
“Hm? Sure! I don’t mind!”
“Explain it step by step, slowly, with every detail, without leaving anything out!”
“Alright, alright! It’s actually pretty simple.”
The Game Master gets out of his chair and takes three steps forward. He raises his palm forward, and a dark, spiralling wormhole, taller than his own height, opens up in front of him. The Game Master walks to the side and stands next to the wormhole.
“So, basically, you just step into this wormhole and you’ll return to the place before you were swallowed by my giant pitch black dome! That is it! No tricks, no nothing!”
“. . .Sounds too good to be true!”
“Of course it is! I am the ruler of this entire infinite maze! This is my own Faith power! I can do anything I want inside this maze!”
“What’s your Faith power type?”
“It’s Spe--!!! AH! I almost blurt it out! Hahahahahaha! You’re funny, Coldhart-san! Why are you trying to get information out of me?”
“(So, it’s Special type, huh?)”
“So that I can inform Master Quroe of anything about you! He’ll come later as soon as he figures out how your Faith power works!”
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ehhh? I doubt that! This is a pocket dimension! Do you know what that is? It is a separate, isolated space outside of the naturally existing space and time. You need to have some kinda space-manipulation Faith power to enter here! But even then, if his Faith power is weaker than mine! Then it is merely a fleeting dream by that point!”
“(. . .Does Master Quroe’s teleportation Faith power count? I have no idea until I tell him about this.)”
“Fine! But let me get Luna-dono and Hana-san with me first!”
“Ah! Sure, sure! Go get them! Especially that red-haired one! Get her out of here ASAP!”
“. . .”
Kasumi crawls out of the metallic blue cage and stands up. She walks diagonally right past the Game Master to grab Luna.
*CRANK*
She opens the door to the metallic blue cage. She picks Luna up and carries her by hand on her right waist.
“. . .”
She checks on Luna’s body.
“(No new wounds. Seems like he was telling the truth about not touching them.)”
She walks towards Hana’s cage this time.
“. . .”
She turns towards the Game Master.
“How am I supposed to carry her like this? Released Hana-san from all of her ridiculous bindings!”
“EHHH?? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! USE YOUR VEIN ARMOR AND CARRY HER LIKE THAT!! I KNOW YOUR VEIN ARMOR IS VERY STRONG!! I’VE OBSERVED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR FIGHTS INSIDE THIS MAZE!! I KNOW YOU’RE CAPABLE!! DON’T LIE TO ME!! I’LL OPEN HER CAGE DOOR BUT THAT’S IT!!”
“Tch!”
Kasumi activates her vein armor and puts Luna on her left shoulder to free her right hand. The cage door opens on its own, and she picks Hana up.
“(Surprisingly light, but yes, my Vein armor is thankfully quite strong. Though I doubt this is real metal and is just something he created. It doesn’t feel as heavy as it looked.)”
Kasumi walks to the front of the wormhole and stops.
. . . . .
“So? What are you waiting for?”
“There’s just something I need to confirm.”
“What is it?”
“. . .”
Kasumi immediately drops both Luna and Hana to the floor, and she instantly summons her katana in her right hand.
*Thud thud*
*ZRAAASSSSHHH*
“AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!”
Kasumi immediately charges towards the Game Master, and given their close distance, the Game Master was slashed horizontally on his chest. He did react a bit late, but his wound is shallow nonetheless, as Kasumi never meant to kill him.
*SNAP*
The Game Master snapped his finger, and he teleported out of his spot.
“(Same teleportation as the Clown. Seems like teleportation really is a type of space manipulation. This is bad! I have to wake Luna-dono and Hana-san!)”
Kasumi immediately turns and crouches towards Hana and Luna on the floor.
“Luna-dono! Hana-san!”
She shakes their bodies quite hard to wake them up quickly.
“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT FOR COLDHART-SAAAAAAAANNNNN?!?!”
*!*
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The Game Master suddenly shouts, and his voice came from behind Kasumi, far away above in the air. Kasumi turns around and sees that the Game Master is standing on a floating platform with the same blue colors and twirling motif as the entire space. He’s holding the wound in his torso with his left hand.
*pant pant pant*
“HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!! YOU BETRAYED MY NICE AND HUMBLE OFFERING!! ALL SO YOU CAN LIGHTLY WOUNDED MY CHEST!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THIS??”
“Remind me again what your initial intention was in forcing all of us to play this sickeningly sick killing game?”
*!*
The Game Master suddenly loses his anger.
“If I remember correctly, one of your officers told me that this killing game is just a test run to see how things would go. You’re planning to involve the entire world later in the future. And that’s when it hit me.”
“. . .”
The Game Master did not say anything. It seems he had realized that Kasumi already understood what his motivation was from the start.
“If you let any survivor out of here to the world outside, that would make stories about this killing game, and you as the mastermind, to spread fast, especially via the internet. Eventually, the 10 Commandments of God would take notice of this dreaded event, and surely, you’ll become their priority for how many people you’ve involved at once! That means you never have any intention to let any of us leave! Did I hit the nail on the head?” said Kasumi with a confident smile.
“. . .”
The Game Master did not respond to Kasumi.
“Let me guess, wherever this wormhole leads us, it will be anything but the world outside, correct? Or maybe it’s gonna lead to a room full of your other officers ready, so they all can gang up on us three and kill us all?”
“. . .”
“So? Was I correct?”
“Pfft! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
The Game Master suddenly laughs hysterically, with his head and body leaning upwards and his hands spread wide to the side.
“COLDHART-SAN!! WHAT A GENIUS YOU ARE!! 99% CORRECT!! YOU GUESSED EVERYTHING CORRECTLY!!! THOUGH YOU’RE ONLY WRONG ABOUT ONE THING!!”
“Which was?”
“That wormhole would just lead you to a random room inside my infinite maze! Unfortunately, all of my officers are currently hard at work to greatly dwindle the numbers of participants inside this killing game!”
*!!!*
“That would take a while! How many officers do you have in total?”
“. . .Hm, I wonder if I should answer that!”
The Game Master thinks to himself for a few seconds. Meanwhile, Kasumi secretly shakes Luna’s body with her right foot to wake her up.
“. . .”
“Ah! It’s alright! It’s not like you can do anything about it, even if you know! There are roughly 3,000 officers in total who participate in this killing game!”
“(Three. . . thousand murderers from the Underworld are inside this infinite maze??)”
*!*
But then Kasumi feels that her right leg is being pinched lightly by a small hand.
*ZAP ZRRRTTT*
“Elegant bolt!”
*!!!*
*ZRRRRRRRRR*
Kasumi points her katana at the Game Master and shoots out her purple lightning bolt at him.
*SNAP*
*ZRRRAAARRRRR*
*BOOOOMMMM*
The Game Master snaps his finger and vanishes from his spot. Kasumi’s lightning bolt hits the floating platform instead, and it explodes on contact.
“OH, COME ON NOW, COLDHART-SAN!! I’VE WATCHED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR FIGHTS!! I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR FAITH POWER!! PLUS, YOU ALREADY USED SECOND STATE BEFOREHAND!! IT’S STILL SIX HOURS AWAY BEFORE YOU CAN ENTER SECOND STATE AGAIN!! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF WINNING AGAINST ME!!”
Kasumi follows his voice, and now he’s about 10 meters away behind her, standing on the floor.
*BWOOOSSHHH*
*!!!*
Kasumi jumps forward, and she easily closes the 10-meter distance with a single jump under one second.
“Kasumi style!”
“GHH!!!”
The Game Master raises his right hand in panic.
“POWER CLEAVE!!”
*TRAAANNGGGG*
*?!*
Kasumi’s katana was stopped in its tracks right in front of the Game Master’s hand.
“W-What is this?”
Kasumi sees something strange right in front of her. There’s a bunch of see-through blue rocks floating right in front of the Game Master’s right hand, and they caught and trapped Kasumi’s katana in between them. The blue color on the rocks is the exact same blue as the room, even with all of the twirling motifs in a darker blue shade.
*!*
“(I-I can’t pull my katana out!)”
*!!!*
Kasumi sees that the Game Master has his left hand behind. He is ready to swing it forward to do an attack that she will be unfamiliar with.
“Tch!”
*BWOOOSSHHH*
Kasumi lets go of her katana and leaves it stuck in the Game Master’s blue rocks. She jumps backwards and lands 10 meters away from him.
*!*
But the Game Master still swings his left hand forward. He discards his blue rocks, and her katana falls to the floor near him.
“HAHAHA!!”
*BWOOOOSSHHH*
The Game Master thrusts his left, straightened palm forward and sends out a see-through blue swirling air that spins really fast, it physically looks like a drill. Kasumi resummons her katana in her right hand. She runs forward and raises her katana above her head.
“Kasumi style! POWER CLEAVE!!”
*TRAAAANNNNGGG*
“URGGHH!!!”
Kasumi’s katana clashes with the Game Master’s ‘drill’ in a constant power struggle.
“HHRRGGHHH!!!”
“(HEAVY!!)”
“HOO!!! YOU REALLY ARE STRONG, COLDHART-SAN!! I’VE BEEN WATCHING YOU THIS WHOLE TIME, BUT FIGHTING AGAINST YOU FOR REAL FEELS VERY DIFFERENT!! THIS IS EXCITING!!”
“(Ah! He had a few screws loose as well. But, of course!)”
*TRAAAANNNGGG*
Kasumi tilted her katana and redirected the drill to launch itself diagonally upwards behind her. The drill kept going in one direction until it could no longer be seen.
“That’s impressive. How large is this room, by the way? I can’t tell, given how abstract the design is.”
“This is the Game Master’s room! MY room! It’s as large as I wished to be! Or it's as small as I will it to be!”
“Sorry, you talking like that isn’t going to make you sound smart!”
“Hm, okay! You have a point! Enjoy another one!”
*BWOOOSSHHH*
The Game Master sends out another blue, see-through drill at Kasumi with his right hand this time. From the looks of it, it seems to be spinning at a faster rotation speed than his previous one.
*Inhales exhales*
Kasumi calms herself down by taking a long breath. She puts her katana above her head.
“Kasumi style!”
*ZAP ZRRRRKKKKSS*
Her katana is encased by her purple lightning.
“THUNDEROUS POWER CLEAVE!!”
*ZRAAAAAAARRRRRR*
Kasumi swings down her lightning-powered katana as soon as the drill reaches her, and she cuts the drill in two.
*BRAK BRAK*
The cut drill falls to the floor.
*SSSSHHH*
And they immediately vaporized.
*CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP*
The Game Master hysterically clapped his hands, giving Kasumi applause.
“I genuinely didn’t think you’d be able to cut my attack like that! Seeing how your previous attack didn’t even scratch my rocks! BRAVO COLDHART-SAN!”
“Save me the flattery! I’m immune to that kinda talk!”
“I know! I just wanna try it for real! Say, this is a bit off topic, but there’s something weird that I wanna ask you about!”
“What?”
“During the fight with that red-haired girl. At first, your Vein armor strength and speed couldn’t even keep up with her angelic form, or demonic, actually, at all. You are completely outmatched, and you couldn’t even fight back at all. But then all of a sudden, the real red-haired girl appeared and gave you a floating upside-down white sword. And then all of a sudden, your Vein armor was glowing brighter than usual, and then, you were able to evenly match that angelic freak and even won against it. What is up with that?? What is that white sword? And why is your Vein armor now not glowing as bright as it was during that fight?”
*!!!*
Kasumi was surprised to hear the Game Master’s perspective on that fight. She suddenly smiles joyfully, and that confuses the Game Master even further.
“(He doesn’t know about my encounter with Lord Jesus. Our God really is above anyone and anything else! Hehehe!)”
“What are you smiling about?”
Kasumi looks towards the Game Master with a smile.
“(His perspective revealed three things to me. One, He doesn’t know about Jesus. Two, he doesn’t know anything about the Judges. Three, my Vein armor isn’t glowing, which shows me that God doesn’t need me in that state in order to overcome him. So, Hana-san is by far the most dangerous threat inside this maze, as he already repeatedly said.)”
“Hello? Coldhart-san?”
“(Ah! And also that one other thing that God said to me.)”
-“Fear not, for I am with you.”-
Kasumi remembers the words that God said to her. She smiles so happily with a big grin on her face.
*!!*
“W-WHAT?!”
And then the Game Master sees that all of a sudden, Kasumi’s Vein armor glows brighter than usual. It’s the same phenomenon that happened during her fight with Hana.
