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In the worst case scenario, they could draw the enemy forces into the Fortress should they be unable to hold out against them.

Kim Jin-Woo’s logic was that they wouldn’t survive if all the other labyrinths were destroyed, and should the enemy combine their forces and attack together, the 9th Floor would have no chance of surviving if their own forces were scattered.

His reasoning that it was advantageous to consolidate their forces while they still could, rather than going down a path of destruction while locked inside their own labyrinths, made perfect sense.

Thus, Dominique could no longer object to Kim Jin-Woo’s suggestion and relented. Still, she asked, “Do you think they’ll really be grateful to Master?”

Although the other labyrinth masters had all undertaken the Vassal’s Pledge, their allegiance was based on subjugation by force, not heartfelt pledges. Rescuing them wouldn’t suddenly make them any more loyal.

Nevertheless, Kim Jin-Woo had to make the move. He replied, “I just hope they realize the seriousness of the situation.”

Although the labyrinth masters were all selfish and greedy, they were all sensitive when it came to their own survival. Kim Jin-Woo simply hoped that in the current do-or-die circumstances, they would at the very least conduct themselves wisely.

“Portal,” Kim Jin-Woo murmured softly. The air crackled and a portal opened. He said, “I’ll be heading off. I leave the Fortress to you.”

“I pray that Master will return safely,” Dominique said worriedly.

After Dominique’s send-off, Kim Jin-Woo crossed through the portal. Morrigan, Heimdall, and the other Hero-Grade summons followed him closely behind.

“Until Master returns, don’t allow the enemy to invade us, no matter what!” Dominique ordered.

The troops that had followed Kim Jin-Woo through the portal were the Hero-Grade summons as well as the Army of the Dead. The Nagas were on full alert as they guarded the portal, in case the enemy made their appearance.

At the same time, the Nagas who were guarding the entrance to the Fortress had completely fortified the dungeon and were ready to face the enemy.

***

The Labyrinth of the Dwarves was on the verge of collapse by the time it received Kim Jin-Woo and his army. Malaxus and his dwarves had already ceded most of the labyrinth, including the central passage, to the enemy forces. They were in the midst of a fierce battle, barely able to protect the master room and a few other facilities.

“The King has arrived!” They cheered at the sudden appearance of reinforcements, and pushed back the monsters with all their might.

But the dwarves were already beyond exhausted. They couldn’t muster any more strength to even hold their axes, and were helplessly overpowered despite their heightened morale.

Thus, the Army of the Dead under Valicius and Balzark’s command was responsible for pushing the enemies away. It was a clash between the monsters, which were living creatures but nearly indistinguishable from undead, and the Army of the Dead, which was made up of true undead.

The Dead were entangled with the monsters, biting and clawing away at each other’s necks. Flesh splattered and blood gushed out, but not even a scream could be heard.

The dwarves lowered the axes they had been holding onto since the beginning of the war, as they watched the clash between two groups that knew no pain.

“This is hell…”

The completely exhausted dwarves watched the bizarre battle unfold in front of them. But regardless of what the dwarves thought of the battle, it continued on as the two sides silently bit and tore each other apart.

The Dead constantly attacked their enemies as long as a trace remained of their bodies, and so did the monsters. However, slowly but surely, victory began to lean toward the Dead.

Although their numbers were small, the Army of the Dead had been created by Valicius using the corpses of various Hero-Grade summons. As such, under the command of the newly-evolved Death Knight Balzark and the necromancer Valicius, it was only natural that the Dead’s powers would be further amplified.

On top of that, Morrigan, Heimdall, Ortehaga, and the other Hero-Grade summons were rampaging across the battlefield. Although the Hero-Grade summons were less tenacious than the Army of the Dead, the monsters were no match for the combined powers of Kim Jin-Woo’s most trusted subordinates.

At the end of the battle, the thousands-strong army of monsters was completely destroyed.

Fifty Dead had been destroyed, but Valicius showed no remorse as he promptly resurrected the dead dwarves’ bodies to recoup his losses.

Naturally, Malaxus and the dwarves objected, but Valicius said, “Even though they’re now dead, they would have wanted to get revenge. I’m only granting their wishes, so don’t hate me for this.”

Valicius’ reasoning seemed to work, as Malaxus stopped his objection. Or perhaps he simply didn’t dare question the one who had just saved his labyrinth. After all, without the Dead, the destruction of the dwarf clan and the labyrinth would have been inevitable.

Malaxus was, after all, unlike others in the Underworld. He was a proud dwarf who would stop at nothing to repay his revenge tenfold, and wouldn’t quickly forget his feelings of indebtedness to others. It was only because of this that Kim Jin-Woo had decided to save him first.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no time to rest. Repair the damage done as soon as possible and quickly join us on the battlefield,” Kim Jin-Woo said as he looked at the half-destroyed labyrinth and the dwarves who were looking at it in despair.

Having already heard about the seriousness of the situation, Malaxus immediately began work on restoring his labyrinth.The down gems obtained from the war against the 10th Floor coalition army were more than sufficient for the necessary restoration work. As such, Malaxus quickly filled the void left behind by the slain warriors and began repairing the heavily damaged labyrinth.

In the meantime, Kim Jin-Woo sent aid to a dozen other labyrinths.

As time passed, more Dead were lost, and by the time Kim Jin-Woo came to the last labyrinth, most of the Army of the Dead was made up of corpses that had been raised during the battle.

The Hero-Grade Dead had already struggled to put up a fight against the enemies, so it was to be expected that these improvised summons wouldn’t be a match against the monsters. Thus, as the battles dragged on, the quality of the Dead began to suffer.

Despite that, Kim Jin-Woo continued to score victories one after another. The power vacuum left behind due to the loss of the Hero-Grade Dead was filled by reinforcements from his labyrinth.

However, only a few labyrinths were lucky enough to emerge victorious. The majority of the labyrinths were still stuck in difficult battles with uncertain outcomes.

To make matters worse, the enemy forces began to grow in numbers, little by little. Their sporadic attacks became much more organized, and the scale of the raids became much larger. As a result, Kim Jin-Woo could no longer engage in guerrilla warfare through the portals.

At first, he didn’t notice the sudden surge in the number of enemies, and he was almost caught off-guard by a counterattack. Had Dominique, who had been observing the battles from the opposite end of the portals, not forced the Nagas to cross over to assist him, he would have suffered a major defeat.

“From now on, we’ll continue the battle by forming a vanguard and pushing the enemy back. The fight will be several times more difficult than before, so prepare yourselves,” Kim Jin-Woo subsequently commanded.

It was exactly as he had expected. The real battle would begin from here on out. Large-scale battles took place all across the 9th Floor, as if previous engagements had merely been skirmishes.

Kim Jin-Woo and the Nagas grew busier than before, as Kim Jin-Woo had to run around all across the 9th Floor in order to support and make up for the relatively inferior strength of the 9th Floor armies.

However, the situation showed no signs of improving. A couple of troops from the labyrinths that Kim Jin-Woo and the Nagas had put in so much effort to support and revive abandoned their posts on the front lines when they started suffering heavy losses. New reinforcements from his labyrinth were barely able to cover the gaps in the defenses in time.

“The dwarves have rejoined us on the battlefield!”

“We’ve succeeded in putting the Labyrinth of the Centaurs on the front lines!”

The surviving Labyrinth Cores were abused to the limit. Fallen troops were immediately resurrected by consuming huge quantities of down gems, and the resurrected troops were immediately sent back to the battlefield. Death and rebirth continued to cycle endlessly; the war showed no signs of slowing down, with the end nowhere in sight.

“We’ve barely managed to regain around half of the 9th Floor, but our consumption of down gems has been massive. If we don’t find a solution soon, the stockpile of down gems we have will soon be depleted and the front lines will collapse,” Dominique said out of concern. Even the Naga’s Fortress, which had stockpiled ample military funds, had noticeably emptier warehouses now.

Kim Jin-Woo was certain that the other labyrinths were in much worse shape than the Naga’s Fortress, too. “Were the 11th Floor Counts dealing with these kinds of enemies all along?” he muttered.

As the 11th Floor had entered the war long before the 9th Floor had, Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t help but admire the power of the 11th Floor Counts. However, he couldn’t stand around expressing admiration forever.

Even at this moment, the 9th Floor labyrinths were getting fatigued from utilizing their down gems to support the frontline around the clock, and the number of enemies were only increasing by the hour.

After much deliberation, Kim Jin-Woo finally made a decision. “I’ll accept Denarion’s request.”

“It’ll be impossible for us to maintain the front lines without Master!” Dominique exclaimed.

It was already difficult to protect the 9th Floor as is, and they had to keep Kim Jin-Woo from breaking away from the fight at all costs, because he was the key to holding the front lines together.

Without the titles of Undefeated Commander and Conqueror, it was nigh impossible for the front lines to last more than a single day.

But Kim Jin-Woo was saying that he would leave the 9th Floor despite knowing this fact, and Dominique couldn’ help but feel terrified.

“It’s pointless for us to simply hold on like this. Unless we find and cut off the passageway that the enemy is using to invade us, this war of attrition will never end,” Kim Jin-Woo said, certain that Dominique knew that fact.

And yet, Dominique desperately resisted Kim Jin-Woo’s departure. “Never! Never! I’ve heard the situation on the 11th Floor is even worse than here. There isn’t even a front line left, and the Counts are dealing with the monsters on their end, so you’ll never know when you’ll be attacked by the enemy. I can’t let Master go to such a dangerous place alone.” She continued to plead and beg, but her efforts were in vain.

At that moment, one of the labyrinths seemed to have exhausted their funds, as it collapsed outright. Finally, the front line was broken through, and the monsters started pouring through the broken gap.

The front lines were reinforced and reestablished soon after, but the defensive line that had spanned half of the 9th Floor had now shrunk to one third of its previous size, and even that was subject to constant waves of attacks by the monsters.

Just as Kim Jin-Woo had said, just holding on like this with no plan for ending the war was basically suicide. As such, eventually, Kim Jin-Woo accepted Denarion’s request.

“The situation on the 9th Floor must have been terrible, but you made a tough decision,” Denarion said. He seemed to have heard of the situation on the 9th Floor, as he was surprised by Kim Jin-Woo’s decision. “You’ve decided well. It’s not a bad idea for you to take the opportunity to start getting involved with the 11th Floor now. You’re a Viscount, and you’re more than worthy of residing on the 11th Floor.”

“It’s too early to be celebrating, Denarion.” Sensing that Denarion was taking over the flow of the conversation, Kim Jin-Woo quickly and coldly interjected, “I intend to be paid what I’m worth.”

“I understand. So, how much will it cost for you to lend us your title of Undefeated Commander?” Denarion asked.

Kim Jin-Woo replied, “Enough support in the form of troops and military funds to maintain the front lines on the 9th Floor. That’s my price.”

***

Denarion readily accepted his request. However, he also imposed a condition, which was to show the 11th Floor Counts a satisfactory result first.

“I guess the 9th Floor vanguard still has to hold on without me,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

Dominique’s expression was filled with nothing but determination as she replied, “I’ll definitely hold out until Master returns.”

Since she was more than qualified enough, and because she was  the King’s Advisor, Kim Jin-Woo had complete faith that she would somehow hold the line until the end.

However, she was unable to provide the vanguard with the necessary buffs because she lacked the titles of Conqueror and Undefeated Commander, so any delay in settling the matter on the 11th Floor would mean that the situation on the 9th Floor would only get exponentially worse.

Kim Jin-Woo had no time to waste. He quickly crossed over the passage Denarion had opened and headed to the 11th Floor alone.

***

The day Kim Jin-Woo left the 9th Floor, the front lines began to collapse rapidly. Dominique and the Nagas did their best to desperately make up for his absence. She pushed the Ancient War Heroes to their absolute limit, and succeeded in reducing casualties among the ordinary troops to some extent.

However, not even the mighty Morrigan and Heimdall were invincible, and as time passed, the situation began to deteriorate.

Faced with an endless stream of enemies, everyone on the 9th Floor had one hope: That the mighty Undefeated Commander would return soon, and that the reinforcements he had promised would arrive on the 9th Floor as quickly as possible.