Chapter 655: Moon Shadow

"Moon Shadow."

Rod raised an eyebrow. "The labyrinth rules have changed. Have you ever encountered something like this before?"

Hailey stared, shaken, at the shadow-person before her who looked exactly like herself, and shook her head. "Not at all. I've never even heard of a change like this."

"Then it's probably because of the Moon Goddess Miss Lu Ka's revival. Maybe She influenced the labyrinth."

"Moon Goddess Miss Lu Ka?"

Hailey had no idea what was going on. After being hit by 【Miss Lu Ka's Mad Eye】, she had fallen into a coma and an inner struggle, and didn't know about the later conversation between Rod and the eyeball Miss Lu Ka.

Rod gave a brief, to-the-point account of what had happened.

Of course, he left out the part about his strategic nuclear deterrence.

"So this is an evil god's sealed temple, and She's about to begin resurrecting."

Hailey glanced at the pitch-black misty forest before her, then at the ancient Moon-Gazing Hall behind her.

She felt as though invisible eyes were watching them from every direction.

An evil god.

If it were a deity on the level of the Goddess Mystra, my lord, how could the two of them possibly escape?

Fear slowly spread through her heart.

"Rod, you said those three trial-takers earlier claimed the pale moon in the sky was an eye. Was that true?"

"What's the point of trusting three lunatics?"

Rod answered casually.

He crouched down and briefly examined the shadow-person.

"Hmm, the magic accumulation, fluctuations, and intensity are all about the same as a real person's. Hailey, can you cast all the spells she just used?"

"Mm, and her casting speed and chanting habits aren't much different from mine either. But she isn't connected to the Weave, so she doesn't have spell slots."

Spells stored in Weave spell slots not only have their effects boosted by about five to eight percent compared to Zheng Chang Shi Fa, they're also cast instantaneously.

Chanting, somatic components, and material components are all paid for in advance within the Weave, which makes them terrifying in actual combat.

An ordinary mage's spell slots are limited.

Even a top-tier ninth-tier mage only gets four first-tier slots, three for tiers two through four, two for fifth tier, one for tiers six through eight, and ninth-tier spells don't have spell slots open yet.

Rod is different—four slots for every tier from first to eighth. You could say he slipped through one of Mystra's back doors.

A back door in every sense of the word.

But plenty of spell slots is plenty of spell slots.

Still, a certain forester, relying on the many mage girls around him, only has sixth-tier magic accumulation, and once he learns a spell he leaves it at that—he can't fill his current spell slots.

"In other words, the new rule 【Moon Shadow】 can completely replicate a mage's abilities except for Mystra's Weave."

"The Weave is the embodiment of Mystra, my lord's divine power. If these labyrinth rules could even copy that, it would be way too absurd. Watch your words, Rod—when speaking of the Goddess of Magic, use the proper honorific."

Hailey deliberately put special emphasis on the two characters "my lord."

She lowered her head and glanced at Rod.

The less she looked, the better; the moment she did, she immediately got annoyed.

This guy had his palm pressed against the chest of his shadow duplicate, kneading it carefully.

Hailey's face flickered with bioluminescence, showing her displeasure. "What are you doing?"

"Of course I'm checking its physical strength. The elasticity and softness are identical, and the muscle and bone density, as well as the spiritual intensity contained within, are identical too."

"Hey! How come it sounds like you're very familiar with my b-body!"

"What else? How many times do you think we've hugged in this short time?"

"Mm-ugh."

Hailey was both embarrassed and angry, feeling that she seemed very frivolous.

Rod paid her no mind, reluctantly pulling his hand away from the duplicate's chest.

He shook his head and frowned slightly. "This is going to be trouble."

"What's the trouble? They can't connect to the Weave, so their casting efficiency isn't on the same level as ours."

"The problem is me. 【Moon Shadow】 replicates the body at almost one hundred percent. Besides me, who in this labyrinth do you think could handle my Moon Shadow duplicate?"

Hailey froze for a moment, then finally caught on.

She knew very well how strong the man before her was—she had even personally witnessed him going head-to-head with Archduchess Asmodeus of the Hells.

Rod standing before her as an enemy?

Just thinking about it filled Hailey's eyes with fear. "Then what do we do?"

Rod smiled. "Well, naturally, kill every last one of them."

Boom!!!

At that very moment, a tremendous explosion rang out from the distant forest.

A wave of scorching heat swept across midair, and the mist happily spread outward along with it.

Hailey's face lit up. "That magic intensity... it's ninth tier! A Returning Prophet has entered!"

"It's no surprise a change like this in the Pale Corridor would catch their attention. Good news, we have reinforcements. Bad news, I still have to fight a ninth-tier mage."

Rod's smile didn't waver as he turned, raised his hand, and aimed at the mist within the trees.

Hiss-crack!!!

Crimson, searing fire warped space, crossing the mist in an instant and piercing a bizarre Moon Shadow duplicate hidden in a tree.

In the brief moment the firelight illuminated the forest, a dozen or so shadows—some tall, some short—flickered past within the mist.

Some had humanoid forms, others were tall figures of various avant-garde shapes.

"Here they come. Stay sharp."

"Mm."

Hailey's expression darkened. She glanced at Rod's broad back and found she couldn't muster much sense of danger or crisis.

Rod directly pulled the Star Spirit Young Lady into the subordinate slot of 【Pack Hunt】.

"Keen Smell" and "Wild Coordination" might not be of much use, but this was a moonlit night — exactly the moment for the derivative skill "Moonlight Intimidation" to shine.

【Moonlight Intimidation: On a moonlit night, triggered when the number of leaders/subordinates present is two or more. Suppresses the enemy's spiritual/magical accumulation, constitution/strength/agility, and casting speed by 10%! Each additional subordinate increases the suppression by 10%!】

Hum—

An invisible pressure descended; the auras of every Moon Shadow replica in the forest faltered.

Blue-white lightning exploded.

【Lightning Sinew】!

Rod slid forward trailing bursting arcs of electricity, vanishing from the spot in an instant.

An earth golem twice the height of an ordinary person heaved up from the ground with a rumble. 【Moon Shadow】 had even successfully replicated its earthen nature — it looked exactly like a humanoid lump of black mud.

Yet this clumsy, brutish thing standing between Rod and his targets made no difference whatsoever.

Thick, heavy plasma punched straight through; the body of mingled mud and gravel instantly became charcoal and vitrified glass.

Rod charged in bodily, and in an instant it blew apart into a firework of charred black, glass, and gravelly earth.

The lightning arced and wheeled.

Ignoring inertia entirely, he took a perfect ninety-degree turn trailing plasma and kicked the head off a giant Thornback Spider the size of a large horse.

Spat silk slid past his side. He twisted with the momentum, dodging a violent grapple from an armored rage bear, and with a single kick loosed an ice blade that smashed through a Star Spirit Moon Shadow replica's spell shield and split it clean in two.

"ROAR!!!"

The armored rage bear bellowed. The tattered, grotesque spirit-armor on its body flickered with light as it took Rod's punch head-on.

A black mist of blood swelled out, but the bear did not burst apart from it.

Triumphant, it roared again and lunged in for another grapple.

"Huh?"

Rod was mildly surprised.

Behind him, blue-white soul mist flickered. Hyakume's withered, blood-red arm lashed out like claws, stretching and surging forward in tandem with Rod's swinging arm, piercing clean through the bear's skull without the slightest resistance.

The roar cut off short, and it crumpled softly to the ground.

Hailey behind him watched, utterly dumbstruck.

In that very first charge — less than five seconds — Rod had already slain four units.

And she had only just finished casting her protective spell and begun chanting her second damaging spell.

(End of chapter)