Moon's Labyrinth

“Shit! Where the hell are they!”

Tim's nose steamed as he kept pacing around . He looked like he wanted to beat up and smash anything and anyone nearby . Normally, Emily reined him in when he got too excited, but she wasn’t in her right mind either . Therefore, Tim's aggressiveness went unchecked .

“Please calm down . ”

Thankfully, Grace remained calm as she soothed the siblings . However, she also felt anxious .

‘It has been so long . He’s probably fighting Hyunwoo Sung . ’

Before becoming a traitor to humanity, Hyunwoo had been one of the top Connectors of Earth . Moreover, he was on Grenoid's side now . There was a possibility that he had gained some other power . If that wasn’t bad enough, other foes might show up after Hyunwoo .

The party had to somehow rejoin with Sungyoon as soon as possible .

Ta-ta-taht!

Suddenly, the three of them heard footsteps . They stopped searching the tower and looked toward the source of the sound .

Russell descended from a staircase .

“Russell! Did you find Mr . Sungyoon?”

Grace rushed toward Russell as she asked the question . She didn’t use his title like usual . Even though she was calm on the surface, she was so flustered that she forgot to call Russell by his title .

“No . I couldn't find him . ”

The three of them became crestfallen .

“Don’t worry too much . As you know, the Knight won’t lose that easily . Moreover, all the monsters around the tower have run away . He must've done something . ”

Monsters had been amassed around the tower, and they had been fighting a bloody battle with the Connectors . However, they had dispersed a couple of minutes ago . Only a small number of monsters remained outside the tower . Most of them had gone back to the nearby labyrinths .

It meant the being controlling the monsters had died .

“You're probably right . ”

“Of course, I am!”

Russell did his best and acted unperturbed to keep Grace calm .

Ooh-roo-roo-roohgn!

The tower shook .

“Ooh-ahk!”

“Kyahhhk!”

Everyone quickly grabbed the wall to keep their balance .

The vibration was intense, but it lasted only for a short time . That was why none of them fell .

“What . . . what the hell was that?”

Tim looked at his surroundings, but the only thing he saw was the twisted narrow passageways .

“It seems something has happened . . . ”

Russell spoke in a low voice .

“Let’s start moving . ”

If they stayed here doing nothing, they wouldn’t be able to find out any information about what had caused the vibration . Moreover, they wouldn’t find out any information about Sungyoon’s whereabouts .

Everyone followed Russell’s instruction as they started climbing the stairs .

The first to speak was one of Russell’s party members .

“Hmm? Something feels different . ”

“Doesn’t it?”

It was subtle, but Russell got an uncomfortable feeling . He warily looked at around .

“Something has changed . ”

“Did the vibration cause this?”

Russell and his party members spoke amongst themselves . The change made everyone raise their guards . Grace, who did her best to control her worry for Sungyoon, looked at the map . Her eyes widened .

“This is odd . There should be a fork in the path, yet there is none here . ”

Everyone turned their gaze toward the front, then climbed the staircase pointed out by Grace .

Russell carefully touched the wall of the passageway .

“Did the tower's structure change?”

At that moment, everyone heard footsteps coming from the staircase . They turned toward the source of the sound on reflex .

The one making the footsteps started coming into view .

“Ah!”

Someone groaned . The man who had been descending the staircase stopped when he saw them .

“You were here . ”

They were broken in many places, but they were the familiar silver armor and the red cape .

On Earth, he was called the symbol of hope . Everyone recognized him .

“Mr . Sungyoon!”

No one knew who was the first as Tim, Emily, and Grace ran toward Sungyoon . They hugged, cried, and celebrated that Sungyoon was fine .

“You made us worry… . ”

Russell, who had been watching from behind, grumbled in a low voice . However, a small smile blossomed within his helmet .

“Let’s head back right now . ”

Sungyoon spoke as he calmed his party members, who were crying with joy .

“Return? Did you find how we can return the Moon to its original orbit?”

Russell asked the question with anticipation in his voice .

Sungyoon took out a Gem .

“This has the way to solve the problem . ”

“What is it?”

“It's Mr . Hyunwoo’s storage Gem . ”

Everyone’s face hardened when they heard that name .

“That Gem contains the solution? Who said so?”

“Mr . Hyunwoo . ”

“… Can we trust him?”

Russell asked with a dissatisfied expression . His eyes were full of suspicion, and everyone else felt the same . How could they not be suspicious? Hyunwoo had turned his back on humanity . He was the biggest traitor in humanity's history . He was the devil .

“Wouldn’t it be better to search the room you guys disappeared into? Since you could exit that place, there must be an entrance now . No, let me ask this first . What happened? I heard you met Hyunwoo Sung . Did you kill him . ”

“I’ll explain as we go . I guess it won’t be bad to search that place . When the distorted space returned to its normal state, an entrance indeed appeared . If you go straight up this staircase, you’ll arrive at that room . ”

Sungyoon's voice sounded like he was sure that they wouldn’t find much in that room . After all, he had surveyed the place once already . Nevertheless, it didn't mean that others would have no chance of finding anything . The future of humanity was riding on this, so it was good to be double sure .

“Let’s send the other Connectors to search the place . We should head down . I’ll give you a detailed explanation . ”

***

The region around the tower had turned very quiet . Just a while ago, roars of monsters and screams of humans had been reverberating in the air . Bloods and guts had been flying everywhere . It was hard to believe that a bloody battle had occurred in this place . However, the corpses on the ground were proof that it hadn’t been all a dream .

Sungyoon’s party gathered around a support vehicle, which was parked a bit away from the battlefield . Several people, who had been driving the support vehicle, went over the data from the USB that had been inside Hyunwoo’s Gem .

Sungyoon’s party let the men work in peace . They moved a bit away from the vehicle and called the Mayor .

- I see . So that's how Hyunwoo Sung met his end .

A shadow appeared on the Mayor’s face as he spoke through the screen .

- I knew he had a reason for betraying humanity, but I never knew what exactly he went through . It's quite unfortunate .

“He is still a traitor . ”

Russell was blunt . However, his complexion didn’t look great either .

- Yes . He’s a traitor . I don't deny that . However, I'm the Mayor of Armstrong city . It makes me wonder if there is a way I can govern the city in a better way .

The Mayor felt the weight of being the person in charge .

- I can flagellate myself at a later time . Let’s focus on the story on hand . What was inside Hyunwoo Sung’s Gem?

“There was a USB that he called the solution . Then . . . ”

Sungyoon took something out .

“There’s this Gem . ”

It was a Diamond rank Gem .

- Diamond rank Gem? That’s surprising . What is its ability?

“For a certain period, it allows one to recover the power of Gems that have lost their powers after overclocking . ”

- Didn’t you overclock all your Gems in this battle, Mr . Sungyoon?

“Yes . That was why I had been worried, but I can participate in the fight thanks to this Gem . ”

- It seems Hyunwoo Sung prepared a lot of things .

If the solution prepared by Hyunwoo allowed them to defeat the Grenoid, Hyunwoo would have played a pivotal role in defeating the Grenoid . It would mean he would have contributed the most in the effort to save humanity .

The person, who betrayed humanity, had provided the solution to saving humanity .

- He’s a complex person .

It seemed the mayor had the same thought as Sungyoon . They both shook their heads from side to side .

At that moment, one of the people organizing the data from the USB approached them .

“We checked all the data . ”

- Is that so? What information was on there?

The mayor quickly asked the question . Everyone turned to look at the man .

“First, there is a piece of information that I have to tell first . ”

His face had hardened .

Was he nervous because famous and influential people were staring at him?

That wasn’t the case . His face had hardened because the information that he was about to reveal was that serious .

“Hyunwoo Sung was able to estimate the date of Grenoid’s revival . ”

“When is it?”

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every human wanted to know this information .

Sungyoon quickly asked the question .

The man clenched his eyes shut as he spat out his words .

“Tomorrow”

A terrifying silence descended within the vehicle .

***

They were standing on a large hill .

There were numerous craters at the back of the moon, and Sungyoon’s party stood on top of the ridge of a crater .

No one spoke . Usually, Tim hadn’t the silence and boredom, but even he kept his mouth shut .

There was nervousness flowing between them . It was almost as if they were afraid of something .

“…how long do we have left?”

The one to break the heavy atmosphere was Grace .

She gripped her staff as she looked down at the flat ground within the crater .

Sungyoon looked down at his watch .

“I’m not sure . The day will end in eight hours . If it occurs, it should happen within this window . ”

“Do you think Hyunwoo Sung’s plan will work?”

Her voice shook .

She was always cool and collected . This was unlike her normal cold demeanor .

However, everyone present felt the same way .

“It has to work . ”

There can be no distraction .

Sungyoon’s voice sounded heavy .

“I see . ”

Grace became silent after finally opening her mouth .

The clock kept ticking, and if their heart could beat, their hearts would sound like a percussion quartet . It probably would have made their mood worse .

“…Hoo-ooh!”

Sungyoon let out a large sigh . Tim, Emily, and Grace looked towards Sungyoon .

‘Keep it together, Woo Sungyoon . I know you are nervous, you can’t back down . ’

He had experienced many hardships in the past, but the foe that they would fight was on a different level . It automatically made one want to cringe in fear .

However, they couldn’t do that .

Even if they fought with all their might, it might not be enough to win .

They had to use all means possible . They couldn’t fight to their full capabilities if they were weak .

Sungyoon had to come up with a plan, and he had to calm down his party members as their leader .

“I have a bit of wine with me . Do you want to discuss what we’ll like to do after we finish this battle?”

The eyes of his party members turned round as they looked at him .

Then every one of them sent a small smile towards Sungyoon .