205 Chapter 204 - The Man Behind the Scene

"Well…this does not look good.", Ghislaine commented, staring down at the sea of undead wandering the immediate area outside the labyrinth, "I am going out on a limb here, but…I think we found the missing villagers."

"You must be one of the most intelligent members of your tribe…", Tyuule snickered, in a condescending tone.

In response to that comment, Ghislaine punched her in the side, nearly causing Tyuule to fall off the platform. Letting out a cute, terrified shriek, she instinctively reached out to grab something and got ahold of my coat's bottom. Yanking herself back into position, Tyuule glared at Ghislane and demanded to know what she thought she was doing.

"If the fall did not kill me, those undead monsters would finish me off!", Tyuule spat.

"If you do not go looking for trouble, there will be no trouble.", Ghislaine remarked, with a smirk, "You have an adorable squeal by the way."

"Fuck you!", Tyuule hissed, turning beet red with embarrassment.

"We do not have that sort of relationship, I am sorry.", Ghislaine retorted, giving her an apologetic bow.

"Both of you cut it out.", I sighed, "I need you to stay alert, we are in enemy territory now. The zombies down there have trace amounts of Cedric's power within them, he must be inside the labyrinth itself. Do all of you feel confident enough to handle the horde by yourselves while I deal with Cedric?"

Turning to one another, the women nodded, agreeing that they could do this without me. To better their odds, Ciri reached into her pouch to pull out a few alchemical ingredients, a mortar, and a pestle to whip up an effective oil for the undead. Giving her a few minutes to complete it, she quickly applied it to her blade and then passed the bowl to the next person. Applying the oil to their bladed weapon, gauntlets, and shin guards, Rumi was grateful that she had brought along a spare set of armor that Luna, Evelyn, and Isola sometimes used.

"Thanks again for this, my usual fighting style is a solely blunt force so I do not carry any weapons.", Rumi laughed, staring at the protrusions on her forearms and legs, "I might consider using these though, they are kickass!"

"You are welcome, I am honestly surprised you would be comfortable wearing such armor in public.", Luna commented, "It is common for our people to wear it in our villages, but we rarely wear it in human towns. As you might already be aware…it evokes quite a strong reaction from their men."

Like many female armors from my travels, Warrior Rabbit Armor left very little to the imagination. Similar to female armor sets in worlds I had traveled to, the armor was effectively a leather bikini with bracers and shin guards. As one would expect of a race of rabbits, their greatest weapon was their legs and to maximize their deadliness they affixed razor-sharp blades to their shin guards. The addition of those blades allowed them to whip their legs around and effortlessly decapitate anyone who did not take them seriously.

"Yeah…I guess that is fair.", Rumi acknowledged, "Midnight got in trouble for showing far less skin than this so this might get me suspended."

"All four of you are more than welcome to wear those outfits around the house.", I commented, with a grin, "It highlights those washboard abs, toned legs, finely shaped butts, and enormous breasts that I love so much."

"Cole!!", the four of them shouted, turning bright red with embarrassment.

"We have guests here, please do not say things like that. It is bad enough they give us dirty looks every morning!", Isola complained.

"Thank you for the compliment though…", Rumi admitted, with a happy smile.

Doing one more check of their equipment, everyone gave a thumbs up once they were ready. Setting us down on the wall, Yao grabbed the rest of Ciri's oil and took up a sniping position a few yards from us. Dipping one of her arrows into the concoction, she immediately notched it and steadied her aim. Nodding her head to the others, they leaped off the wall and began engaging the horde.

"Yao, if you guys run into any issues let me know.", I called out.

"Understood.", she replied, letting her arrow loose on an undead coming up behind the group.

Satisfied they would be alright, I sealed off the labyrinth from the rest of the world and jumped inside. Taking a few steps into the structure, Cedric's welcoming party greeted me with a poorly planned ambush. Leaping out from behind pillars lining the hallway, five Cockatrices immediately attempted to petrify me but my skills prevented their power from affecting me. With their primary method for attack proving ineffective, they started running circles around me trying to create an opening to attack me directly.

"It is a pity that Cedric ruined your hides and meat, you would have made a great feast for my family.", I remarked, "Since you have nothing of value for me, goodbye."

Releasing a billion volts of electricity instantly, I vaporized the Cockatrices and reduced a large portion of the building to molten stone. Wanting to end this cat-and-mouse game as quickly as possible, I used Radar Pulse to pinpoint Cedric's location and then froze time. Teleporting to his location immediately, the room I ended up in had magical monitors mounted all over the place showing almost every square inch of the labyrinth. Taking a moment to look at all the monitors, it surprised me to see how poorly he had planned for my arrival.

'Pitfalls, falling boulders, toxic gas, poisonous creatures, and even acid-laced blow darts…what is this, a cliche Indiana Jones movie?', I thought, looking at the heavily aged deity, 'Maybe deities go senile in their old age, it would certainly explain a lot.'

Unfreezing time, Cedric leaped out of his seat and began laughing maniacally as he rubbed his hands together. Staring at the monitor I had been on moments ago, Cedric's expression soured as he realized I was gone. Moving the wall of monitors around him, he frantically began looking for me.

"No no no!!", he shouted, his frustration evident in his tone, "Where did that man go, I had everything planned out perfectly to do him in!! Do not tell me he left or turned invisible!!"

Slamming his hands on the console before him, he turned to leave the room and ended up running into me. Stumbling backward in panic, the decrepit, old man screamed in horror as he pointed his wrinkle finger at me.

"How did you get in here?!", he protested, "How did you get past all my carefully laid traps?!"

"Did you forget who you were dealing with, you bastard?", I asked, taking a step toward him, "Honestly, I cannot believe you thought such childish traps would slow me down. You must have lost your marbles from all the stress you are under, allow me to render some aid to you."

"Keep your hands off me!!", he shouted, attempting to smack my hand away, "How dare you touch me, you filthy mortal!!"

Ignoring his protests, I seized his face with my right hand and began siphoning his powers away. Laughing like a maniac as I did, unsettling images of his misdeeds and actions up till now began to flood my mind. Catching glimpses of his careless actions in the distant past, I began to realize why he had sided with the God of Reincarnation. Overcome with anger, my body moved on its own and threw him against the wall.

"You piece of shit, do you even realize what you have done to the whole of creation!?", I shouted, as lightning arced around the room, "You created people like Joker, Black Noir, and Green Goblin without a second thought!! Do you understand how many lives you ruined and how many more will continue to suffer because of you!?"

"HAHAHA!!!", Cedric laughed, his mind broken beyond repair, "The universe was a boring, uneventful place before I messed with it a bit. I could not act recklessly and interfere too much so…I just found people on the brink of madness and gave them a little push!! Just a hint of super sanity here and a bit of mental trauma there was all it took, and boy did it spice things up!! In just a matter of years, whole universes fell into chaos because of my doing, and only the God of Reincarnation knew about it!!"

Thinking about all the madmen and women I had met, I began to wonder if this bastard was the reason they went off the deep end. Recalling all of the fucked up comic universes I had read, all of them were his creation because he wanted to liven things up.

"Face it, Cole, if it were not for my influence you would have never met most of your wife.", he cackled, "I am the reason those worlds went to hell and that old bastard sent you in to fix them!! You should be thanking me for giving you your family!!"

"I have heard enough from you…", I growled, seizing him by the face again and slamming him into the wall, "This is for all the lives you ruined for your selfish desires!!"

Laughing up until his last drop of life was taken away, I released him and let his body fall to the ground in a heap. Having ripped his divinity and memories from him, Cedric was rapidly approaching death but continued to laugh at me. Knowing exactly what he was drawing amusement from, I spat in his face and walked away.

"How does it feel…knowing that I…I am the reason your family suffered at the end of their lives…", he mocked me, as the last few moments of life began leaving him, "They would not give up…so I sowed the seeds of chaos and got them killed. All of them died believing…you would come back and…fix things. HAHAHA!!!!"

Unwilling to give him the satisfaction of getting the last laugh, I left the room in silence as his body crumbled to dust where it lay.