CHAPTER 4 AVENGERS ~KNOSSOS WAR~
Aiz Wallenstein
LEVEL 6
Strength: H100 -> 154 Defense: H117 ->153
Dexterity: H131 ->19 Agility: H112 ->174 Magic: H154 -> G202
Hunter: G Immunity: G Knight: I Spirit Healing: I
“A total growth over two fifty…I dunno where you went, but that must have been one hell of a training session.”
She could hear Loki stifling a laugh behind her. Without anything to cover her upper half, Aiz looked at the Status update sheet that the goddess handed her and quietly clenched her fist.
She held the sheet to a torch and burned it. Watching the red flame peter out, she donned her combat outfit and looked out the window.
“All right, with that, the arrangements are all set. Today will be the start of the war.”
The day of the assault on Knossos. The sunrise was just starting to peek over the horizon in the east.
In the city’s southeast corner, an oppressive air was settling in around Daedalus Street. Battle-ready adventurers and a heavily armed force of military police were milling around. The former were from Ganesha Familia , who worked to maintain the city’s order. The latter were members of the Guild.
There were currently no residents of the slums anywhere to be seen. On the surface, that was because of rebuilding the neighborhood. Under the pretext of restoring Daedalus Street after the armed monsters had turned it into a battlefield, the residents had been moved to temporary housing to the city’s northwest at the instruction of the Guild.
The truth was that they’d been displaced to keep them from getting dragged into the operation that was about to begin. That was the reason Loki Familia had worked together with the other factions to help the reconstruction effort after the Xenos had returned belowground: to set up camp in the Labyrinth District without raising questions or causing a panic, to have a natural excuse for why the residents were being evacuated, and to establish a tight net around Knossos. Those outlaws who refused to follow the orders to leave were all caught and forced out.
The more perceptive people had probably taken notice. While the daily hustle and bustle was beginning in the surrounding areas, Daedalus Street was unnaturally silent. There were no sounds emanating from it.
“Sister! How is this operation getting reported to the Guild members?!”
“You’re yapping too loud, Ilta. They were told there might be a second entrance to the Dungeon, which is what they’re investigating. Apparently, Royman pulled some strings to avoid any unnecessary confusion with the Guild’s people.”
In the central part of Daedalus Street, where Ganesha Familia had set up their base, a red-haired Amazon named Ilta was kicking up a fuss.
“Sorry…but it’s super annoying! Why aren’t we going to be part of the first strike or whatever they’re calling it?! Gah! That tiny little prum, always bossing us around however he pleases!”
“Our mission is to ensure the defense of Daedalus Street. Obviously, we can’t let normal people enter, but we’ve also gotta keep an eye out for people who might try to escape from inside. That’s the point of roping them in,” responded a tall woman with indigo hair. She was the leader of Ganesha Familia , Shakti Varma.
“And besides, it’s not just us. Hephaistos Familia isn’t going to be part of the first assault, either. Finn isn’t underestimating us. Quite the opposite. He made the judgment to reserve forces for the battle to come.”
“…Huh, now that you mention it, I haven’t seen Cyclops around. The other smiths are one thing, but there’s no way he wouldn’t use her. You know anything about that, sister?”
“During the battle here, she apparently attacked Loki Familia . It’s not like they don’t trust her anymore, but for the sake of appearances, she was removed from this operation. She was worked up about it.”
“What the hell was she thinking…?”
Ilta was exasperated by the predicament that Tsubaki Collbrande, the master smith and Level 5, had gotten herself into.
“…In the end, I really can’t accept it. We lost Hashana in this mess, too, after all.”
Ilta bit her lip, letting a complicated blend of emotions peek out on her face. Shakti was silent for a moment as she referred to getting revenge for Hashana, who had been brutally murdered in Rivira on the eighteenth floor.
“Don’t be angry, Ilta! Stay cool! Yeah, just like me, Ganesha!”
“Shut it, Ganesha!”
“You’re so annoying, Ganesha.”
The god wearing an elephant mask made his appearance, striking a weird pose. Not shrinking back from his followers’ curt responses, Ganesha straightened his spine and took on a different vibe.
“We don’t have to be avengers. We’ll continue to be the shield protecting the masses. Hashana would not have wanted us to lose our path because of him.”
Shakti’s and Ilta’s eyes widened slightly in understanding. They nodded back in response to their patron god. Turning around, they looked toward the opening in a wall that led underground.
The entrance to the hidden demons’ den.
The man-made labyrinth, Knossos.
“Hey, Amid! You’re joining this operation, too?!” Tiona called out in surprise, which traveled down the stone passage, echoing.
While Ganesha Familia was on guard aboveground, Loki Familia and the other groups assigned to take part in the invasion were underground in a passage that connected to a door to Knossos. While adventurers were jostling around, Tiona and Tione went to meet the beautiful girl with long platinum hair.
“Yes, at the request of Captain Finn. Aaaand I wanted to take part myself. But before that…allow me to apologize for delaying the start of the operation because of our medicine production.”
“Do you hear yourself? I mean, even the captain said if it wasn’t for you guys preparing the anti-curse medicine, the success rate of this operation would plummet.”
“Yeah! Yeah! ’Cause we wouldn’t even be able to heal a single wound! That would make charging in a total repeat !”
“You mean total defeat , dumbass.”
Amid cracked a teeny smile at the exchange between Tiona and Tione. This girl, known as the city’s greatest healer, was not in her usual familia uniform or the normal battle clothes that she wore when going into the Dungeon with the sisters.
Instead, she donned white robes. They were reserved for instances when she was heading into a serious battle against the likes of a floor boss—and when she was going not as a normal healer but as Dea Saint. As the other Loki Familia members were captivated by the sight of the holy woman in her sacred garments, Tiona and Tione responded like always: “It’s been a while since she’s broken out that look” and “It feels weird because you’re in a different outfit.”
Amid smiled again, seeing her friends behaving as if nothing had changed.
“I take it you’re coming with us, Amid?”
“Yes. I discussed with Captain Finn if I could join the northeast squad.”
Nodding to Tiona, Amid looked out at the unit formed of people from several familias. The invasion force was not all gathered in one place by any means. They were divided up before the multiple doors to Knossos.
“Bete Loga!”
“Why. The. Hell. Are. You. Here. You Amazon brat?!”
In front of the southeast entrance to Knossos. As a few healers from Dian Cecht Familia were joining the group, Bete let out an angry roar directed at the young Amazon Lena Tully, who had appeared before him.
“I found out from Aisha! I was all like, hmm, I wonder what Loki Familia is up to!”
She was wearing particularly revealing clothes, showing plenty of her bronze skin without any reservations. Combined with her cutesy gestures, everything about her was over-the-top. The young Amazon wasn’t fully mature yet.
She spoke excitedly, her eyes as wide as saucers. “I threw a big tantrum and said I’d tell everyone about all the stuff she was doing behind the scenes for Hermes Familia if she didn’t let me know! And Aisha even said, ‘Just do whatever you want!’ Wow, love is an amazing thing!”
“Love?! You’re just being a whiny, selfish brat!”
“Enough of that! Do you need me to resupply you with my love? I bet your body’s all worked up waiting for the operation to start. Why don’t you relax by embracing my youthful body?!”
Blam! His iron fist rained down immediately, crashing hard on her forehead. A thunderous thud rang out as his fist made contact with her skull as she continued to make no sense.
Lena fell backward and rolled around screaming “Ghnaaaaaaaaaargh?!” as she clutched her forehead with both hands.
The members of other familias who heard the conversation started to whisper, but they let out stifled squeals and averted their gazes when they saw Vanargand’s bloodshot eyes glaring at them. The members of Loki Familia had become so numbed to their interactions that they paid it no mind. Their stance was that nothing bad would happen to them as long as they weren’t directly involved in it.
Lena staggered to her feet as tears welled in her eyes, but she continued to smile, not discouraged in the least. “And plus, Aisha went along with Hestia Familia on their expedition! And she told me to not get involved in this at all!”
“Then don’t do it, dumbass…”
“But it didn’t feel right to stay behind!” Lena blabbed, refusing to listen to him, which made Bete look genuinely stumped.
Lena leaned in. “Bete Loga! Let me come, too…!”
“Stop trying to go the extra mile when no one asked you to,” Bete responded, yanking on her head in an instant.
“Guohhh?!”
Bete was radiating murder. “You’re not coming,” he announced with a serious face.
“Gh—…”
“You’re in the minor leagues.”
“…”
“Got it?”
“…Yes,” Lena conceded meekly, nodding as she squashed her normal upbeat energy.
As a weak person, she understood exactly what he meant. She was the one who had once caught Bete in a terrible predicament beneath that gray sky that pelted rain, and Lena drew back miserably with frustration and sadness etched across her face.
“…Stay with Ganesha Familia aboveground. Okay?”
With that, he turned his back on her, shoving her away without regard for her feelings. Lena nodded as a kind smile made its way to her lips, looking at him, cold and volatile, from behind.
“…Bete Loga, make sure you come back. I’ll be waiting for you.”
And then she clung to his back, hugging him tightly.
Closing her eyes, she relished his warmth spreading across her cheek—though he elbowed her, jabbing her with a vicious blow and sending her flying with a squeal.
“Hey, that Amazon keeps yapping on about Aisha…Do you think she’s caught on to the shady stuff our familia’s doing, Asfi?”
“It’s not any worse than your big mouth, Lulune. Meaning it’ll just be an even bigger headache for me. Don’t you worry…”
Hermes Familia ’s group watched Bete and Lena’s boisterous back-and-forth from afar.
As the chienthrope girl tapped her shoulder, Asfi readjusted her glasses, attempting to hide the mounting fatigue around her eyes, blue hair billowing. The war tiger Falgar, the prum Merrill, and all the other members of their familia looked at her with gazes filled with pity.
“I know we formed an alliance and all, which means we don’t have a choice but to join the first attack…That said, it’s a real bummer. Disabling the traps is one thing, but telling us to map this stupidly huge dungeon, too? Like isn’t this place crazy dangerous?” Lulune complained despondently.
“All we have to do is follow Loki Familia and stealthily investigate the paths they clear: nothing more, nothing less. It’s a simple task. Relax. Your shoulders are tense,” Asfi responded with a sigh as she adjusted her mind-set.
The right arm of Hermes understood the importance of this preliminary skirmish. So while she hid it behind the facade of the sage leader, she was also bracing herself.
“Besides…we’ve got powerful reinforcements.”
Glancing aside, she spotted a masked adventurer wearing a deep hood behind her—a single elf who was standing there quietly.
“Lefiya!”
“Miss Filvis!” Lefiya called out toward Filvis, who was darting in her direction through the squad lining up in front of the southwest entrance. “You’re in this squad, too?”
“Yes, since I’m Lord Dionysus’s guard. It’s wonderful that you ended up being here, too—”
Just as they were ready to bask in their good luck, someone else broke in, cutting off Filvis. “Lord Dionysus’s guard, huh? Look at you, pretending to be his right-hand woman. All you did was gain his sympathy and monopolize his affection by playing the victim of the misfortune on the twenty-seventh floor.”
“Aura…”
As with the two of them, it was another elf with venom practically dripping from every word. She had sweeping white locks that were tied up, the exact opposite of Filvis’s black hair. Her eyes were a deep purple, and she might have been a year or two older than the pair.
Cloaking her body were her battle clothes, black and red, as she held a long staff that marked her as a magic user. It was an unconventional one, seemingly based on the flower known as the queen of the night. It was almost possible to see her fussy nature, a quality she shared with other elves. Put another way, she seemed to have a high-strung sort of hostility.
Aura Moriel. Dionysus Familia ’s second-in-command. A Level 2. Alias: Krater. She had joined the familia at the same time as Filvis, and they should have been the two most senior members in their group. At least, that was what Lefiya remembered from when she’d looked up the members of Dionysus Familia back when their familias had first formed an alliance.
“I thought you were taking him away and moving around in secret. Come to find you’ve managed to get the whole familia wrapped up in it…Are you going to kill us this time, Banshee?”
“…!” Lefiya recoiled at the nickname.
This was referring to Filvis, because every party that she had joined ever since the Twenty-Seventh-Floor Nightmare had been entirely wiped out, leaving her as the sole survivor. Lefiya knew she was still despised internally as the elf who killed her party, despite being the leader of Dionysus Familia .
“…I’m sorry, Aura,” Filvis responded under her critical gaze and offered nothing else.
On the day of the incident six years back, Aura had apparently been left off the party. Filvis must have felt obliged to her for slinking back to the familia, alive, after letting the then-leader and all the senior members perish. And Aura almost certainly did blame her—to the point that their differences couldn’t be settled even six years later.
It was further complicated by the fact that Aura adored Dionysus just as much as Filvis loved him—Filvis, who had the seat next to Dionysus under her control and who had been appointed the current leader of the familia. Aura couldn’t even hide the contempt toward her in her voice.
It wasn’t hard to imagine why Filvis distanced herself from the familia, given her feelings and everything else.
As Filvis looked down, Lefiya was starting to object.
“…But just this once, we’ll set aside the pointless antagonism.”
“What?”
Both Lefiya and Filvis were shocked. Despite her obvious reluctance, Aura was clear in her declaration.
“I understand the situation. And Lord Dionysus even said it himself. This is for the sake of our comrades who were killed…There is no reason to slight fellow familia members on pointless pretexts.”
“Aura…”
“Let’s try our best to not get in Loki Familia ’s way. And you: Make sure you perform your duty—and not just cling to your kin.”
On that snide note, Aura spun on her heel and made it clear that they would provide their support. Lefiya was thrilled for Filvis—that she’d been acknowledged by her own familia for all that she’d accomplished.
“I’m happy for you, Miss Filvis.” Lefiya smiled.
“…Yes.” Filvis grinned back—a mix of gratitude to her fellow elf who had approached her after those long years and sadness at making Aura forgive her.
“Are they gonna be okay? Your kids?”
“Filvis has a wall up between her and the rest of the members. But it looks like, at least this once, they’ve settled their differences. Aura is a wise girl. She won’t bring her personal feelings to an operation that bears the fate of the city.”
Watching their exchange from afar, Loki expressed some doubt, but Dionysus just brushed back his hair with flair. His words had the faint ring of a god bragging about his precious followers. Loki stuck out her tongue at his pretentious air.
“If ye ask me, I’d be more inclined to wonder if having you two along will really be okay…”
“Sorry, Gareth! But there’ll definitely be a point where we’re gonna have to be here! Guaranteed!…Probably! Make sure you do a good job protectin’ us!”
Gareth had butted into their conversation. The dwarf had been given command of the southwestern squad, fully equipped with a helmet and heavy armor, narrowing his eyes as he peeled the annoyingly warm arms of his patron goddess off his shoulders.
Both Loki and Dionysus were joining the fray for this first strike. They had judged that a god’s power would be necessary in order to corner Thanatos, who was leading the Evils’ Remnants, and Enyo, who was suspected of being the mastermind behind it all.
“My apologies, Elgarm. Feel free to use my familia members to your heart’s content. Of course, the same goes for me. As I said, my familia is united again, just this once.” Dionysus’s eyes sharpened. “In order to avenge my followers.”
His eyes normally never showed any emotions, but they revealed his divine will, clear and intense. As Gareth responded with silence, Loki stood next to him and looked into the god’s eyes. She fished something out of her pocket and tossed it to him.
“Just in case…take that.”
She’d thrown a single crystal to Dionysus. Unlike a natural one, this one had a mysterious light shimmering inside it. Loki was holding another one in her own hand.
“…Thank you, Loki.”
After his eyes widened in realization, he grinned at the goddess who was looking at him with a surly look on her face.
“—Everyone, stand to.”
Finn kept it short as he announced the start of the operation.
Before Knossos’s northeast entrance, the familia members standing around the prum holding his long spear adopted tense looks and fighting spirits. Finn did not give a speech to raise morale as he had before the expedition. It was unnecessary. His sharp gaze was all it took. He looked down at his hand. It held a small crystal, just like the ones in Loki’s and Dionysus’s palms.
Upon checking that the magic item was giving off a light, he raised his head to face the tightly shut orichalcum gate and roared: “Commence the operation!”
The familia member at the head of the group raised the key, opening the gate.
With a battle cry, the adventurers charged into Knossos.
“It’s time.”
As the adventurers’ shouts resounded from the magic item—the oculus—and thundering footsteps rang out, Fels looked up.
The Dungeon’s eighteenth floor. “Night” had fallen in the Under Resort.
The crystals clinging to the ceiling like chrysanthemums were silent. Unlike during the day, the entire floor was totally shrouded in darkness, where the shadows of monsters writhed around.
The armed Xenos had gathered at the floor’s eastern edge in front of the entrance to Knossos. They were receiving information from Fels’s oculus. Gareth and the leaders of the other squads had them, too, to collectively respond when the signal began. Closing the gap between the Dungeon and the surface, the allied forces of humans and monsters began their assault from all directions.
The armored lizardman’s claws ripped into the ground; the gargoyle spread his stony wings; the siren mirrored his movements.
Fels gave the command.
“Let’s put an end to this chain of battles—Go! ”
The monsters howled as they loped into the demons’ lair.
“Garuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!” belted the wild werewolf, exterminating anything blocking his path.
A swarm of vargs, vividly colored monsters in the shape of water spiders, literally exploded from the impact of his fierce kicks.
“Don’t get shaken off by Bete! Push forward!”
Led by Anakity, Loki Familia hurried down the path while Bete scattered the wall of monsters with the strength of his charge. Letting Bete be the wedge that forced open the way through the large passage, the lovely catgirl cut down the monsters flowing out of the side paths as she sprinted past them. And if any happened to get past the two of them, there was a stream of Level-3 adventurers behind them ready to slaughter any survivors. The relentless thud of combat boots continued, leaving corpses of monsters that were nothing more than sacks of blood, vibrant magic stones beyond count, and swirling dunes of ash in their wake.
Knossos’s first floor. The southeast.
The instant the door opened, the squad storming the labyrinth charged in at full speed, loosing the opening shot of the battle. They swept away the remnants of the Evils who were lying in wait, breaking through in one fell swoop—as if their pent-up hatred and rage exploded out as they rushed into Knossos.
The familia members had been told the details of the operation by Finn: an assault but, more importantly, a reconnaissance in force. Even if the second attack would be the real deal, once they set foot in the enemy base, there was no reason for them not to run wild. In addition to mapping as much of the vast dungeon as possible, they were striking at major facilities of their enemies.
There were two priorities that overrode everything else: The first was discovering the demi-spirit. And the second was securing the enemy’s ringleaders. In this case, that meant Barca, who they expected to have inherited the blueprints to Knossos, and Thanatos, the patron god of the remnants of the Evils.
If they succeeded in capturing them, they would get a much better layout of the labyrinth and contribute significantly to neutralizing the Evils. As with all bodies—living beings or organizations—once the head was bashed in, the rest would cease to be a threat.
Finn had said that speed would be of the utmost importance on this first strike. They would not give the enemy any time to reorganize, let alone to counterattack. This attack would effectively put the last nail in the coffin—crushing the strength of the Evils’ side.
Following their captain’s order—and, more importantly, to get revenge for their fallen friends—Loki Familia surged forward.
“There’s a door straight ahead in the back and another to the right!”
“Open the one to the right first!”
“It reeks of people here! Don’t get yourself killed from a trap!” Bete yelled as he dismantled a monster with the Dual Roland blades he was wielding in either hand.
“Same to you. Match my timing!” Anakity fired back immediately.
The Daedalus Orb that she held unlocked the door, and as Bete warned, the Evils’ Remnants on the other side fired at once. Anticipating this attack, Bete absorbed the magic with his Frosvirt boots while Anakity and the others took advantage of the small opening to slip through and slice into the enemy squad.
“Wha—?!”
In the blink of an eye, the Remnants fell into chaos. From the first-tier adventurer with his preeminent battle strength down, Loki Familia proceeded to incapacitate the enemy forces. Using magic and magical blades to deal with those who tried to use explosive devices to take them out in a suicide charge, they mercilessly let their fanatical enemies blow themselves up before they could get close enough to do any damage.
The squad in the southeast, which was centered around Bete, was composed mostly of animal people. They could make good use of their enhanced senses to perceive traps and detect the layout of the labyrinth. They were the main mapping squad. The hume bunny Rakuta, who had joined the Fairy Force last time, was in that group, making full use of her skills. During the past operation, she had trailblazed this southeastern part of Knossos with Riveria, so she was navigating for the group as they rushed forward.
“Hurry up with that pillar! Don’t lose sight of Aki and Bete’s team!”
The follow-up group led by Raul immediately reinforced the door that Bete had opened, erecting three metal pillars in between the doors that opened vertically to act as braces to prop them open. This way, they guaranteed that the doors could not be closed remotely, ensuring the squad would not get separated. Even if the orichalcum doors were indestructible, that meant nothing if they could not be closed, and their weight was not enough to break pillars made from high-grade metal.
Those pillars were one of the items that Finn and the others had gathered during the intervening ten days, a crucial tool for taking on Knossos.
—Meanwhile, in the southwest.
“Set up a base! Mappers, spread out from there as you work!”
The squad led by Gareth was setting up pillars, too.
Given that the gates were constructed from the extremely rare material orichalcum, there was a very low probability that there would be a bunch of them. Any reasonable person would put doors at the important points on a route.
Once they could ensure the safety of the surroundings, they used the pillars as a base and unleashed the mappers.
“Make sure you stay with an escort! Don’t make the people from Dionysus Familia do it themselves! Cruz and Narfi, I’m sure the enemy will start pressuring our lines of retreat! I’m leaving the rear to you!”
““Yes, sir!””
Aura and the other members of Dionysus Familia thoroughly investigated the labyrinth, accompanied by Level-3 or higher members of Loki Familia . The secondary force members, Narfi and Cruz, responded to Gareth’s instructions, while he watched out for enemy ambushes.
They continued to open new ground, stopping when they encountered a door or dead end, while Gareth and the others were in the process of holding off and then routing the big wave of enemies pressing from the front.
“Mr. Gareth! The group that went right at the last crossroad found a stairway that goes down!”
“Well done! We’re heading there!”
His voice boomed out at the report as he wheeled the squad around. The southwest squad quickly moved to the next floor as they continued to map.
“Aaaaaaaah?!” shrieked someone from the northeast squad.
“Olba?!”
Knocking down enemies left and right at the head of the group, Tiona suddenly swung around in shock. The enemy’s ambush had hit their lines right from the side, and more and more people were starting to shrink back as those who were cut were unable to stem the flow of blood.
“E-enemies! And they all have cursed weapons!” reported a girl in a shrill voice, causing worry to ripple through the squad.
The combat strength of the lower-tier forces of the Evils was low. At most, they were Level 2. As long as they were careful of the violas, even Dionysus Familia members could handle them. The only problem was that they were wielding cursed weapons. They had to draw blood only once.
Cursed weapons. The unhealable damnation that had stolen some lives from Loki Familia . A single scratch from one of those ominous pitch-black blades would be deadly, an unavoidable depletion of Loki Familia ’s fighting strength.
The remnants of the Evils shouted. With bloodshot eyes, they looked as if they were possessed by death itself. Facing the adventurers who tried to protect those who had been wounded, they devoted themselves to landing a single swing with the curse, even if they were forced to trade blows.
“Healing droplets, tears of light, eternal sanctuary—”
But even that accursed suicide rush was thwarted by her holy hymn.
“Five-meter perimeter. All casualties are inside the area of effect. Activating.”
There was a single healer at the back of the squad, protecting the adventurers as she chanted.
With her platinum hair fluttering in the light of the magic power that she generated, Amid unleashed her magic. “Dia Frater!”
A magic circle in the shape of a diamond appeared on the stone floor. It was as if a pure white splendor had sprung to life, healing all the wounds of Loki Familia ’s members—even the cursed wounds that should have been unhealable. The Evils were aghast at the sight as the adventurers cheered in wonder.
Her magic healed everything . It literally healed all wounds, restored stamina, and managed to boost all Status conditions. Curses were no exception. Essentially, it was a means of complete recovery. If she poured enough power into it, her magic was influenced by her Enigma ability and could even heal faster than an elixir, the ultimate healing item. Even Riveria, who was hailed as the city’s greatest mage, could not begin to match Amid when it came to healing capabilities.
“I will heal everything. And I shall destroy all traces of the curse. Please fight to your hearts’ content.”
Amid Teasanare. Dea Saint. The city’s greatest healer, who was capable of outlasting even a being of immeasurable power, including a Monster Rex.
“Amid, you’re awesome!”
“Since you put it so nicely, I’ll take you up on that…! Let’s gooooooooo!”
Under all normal circumstances, a healer should hang around in the back of the group. Thanks to the efforts of that lone healer, the adventurers’ morale catapulted. As Tiona shouted, Tione licked her lips and leaped out with her, slashing into the enemy forces with her Kukri knives. The Evils could do nothing more than despair as the sisters overran them.
One of the supplies that Finn and the others had pushed hardest to get was the anti-curse medicine. With the enemy capable of spreading an unhealable affliction, it became critical that all the squads have a supply of anti-curse medicine. It was logical to prepare a lot of it in case of unforeseen situations. In the limited time frame that they had to prepare, they neglected to acquire the amount of preplanned medicine for even one squad, though the shortened timeline wasn’t the only reason.
That was why Amid had come. She was the one woman in all of Orario who could lift the curse using magic.
“Dea Saint…! Was she always this absurd of a healer?!”
“Even though she’s not a mage, there’s a magic circle…No friggin’ way.”
From her position at the center of the group, Alicia groaned involuntarily as Elfie, who had never seen Amid get serious before, forgot where she was for a moment. Even as a veteran, Alicia had never seen a healer functioning as an offensive force and not just a support one.
But Amid’s confounding abilities didn’t stop there. With a single spell, the shining magic circle morphed into a barrier of light, maintaining a zone where all her allies would continue to be healed. It completely outweighed the damage caused by the Evils desperately trying to fight back. To the Evils, the scene of their enemies’ wounds healing in the blink of an eye must have been nothing short of a nightmare.
But if the Evils were bringing an uncurable malady to the table, they would bring immortality.
The vanguard was freed from the cumbersome task of dealing with items on an individual level. Attack and advance. That was all they needed to do now.
Though she never worked toward gaining the ability of a mage, there was a magic circle at Amid’s feet, raising the power of her spell. With her robes billowing as she released rays of holy light, she was the embodiment of the Enigma ability. If someone said that she was a goddess reborn, everyone would have believed it.
“‘If I’m there, you need not worry about burning through items,’ huh? If anyone else was making that claim, I’d brush them off as reckless, but…you’re quite the healer,” commented Finn, repeating her assurance as he spectated the raging battle, tapping the shaft of his spear against his shoulder with a smile.
It was unbelievable to think that in the northeast squad, exposed to the most intense counterattack of all the parties that invaded Knossos, all the healing was being handled by Amid alone. The two other girls from Dian Cecht Familia were waiting at her side as if they were holy woman’s attendants, eyes closed as they preserved their Mind.
Amid was handling the entire party. She had received the title of Dea Saint from the gods because she could maintain the battle lines against a floor boss by herself . That meant she was more than able to keep up with the needs of a large party alone.
“As the person commanding the squad, this is a convenient arrangement for me, but is your Mind going to be okay, Amid?”
“I will be fine. I have enough potions. Even without a resupply, I can assure that it would be sufficient to continue at this rate for a distance equivalent to going down to around the twentieth floor of the Dungeon.”
Standing next to Amid in the shining white magic circle, Finn smiled wryly at her response. He was seriously considering asking Dian Cecht to borrow her for the next expedition, but he switched gears and started giving out orders.
“The attacks from the enemy are weakening. We’re going to switch from our defensive positions to advancing. Please get ready.”
“Understood.”
Gazing out over the battlefield with a penetrating gaze, the healer bowed piously, as if she had reached the same conclusion as Finn.
Right as Finn was about to move ahead, she called to him. “Captain Finn. I can maintain the battle line, but I cannot foresee how the battle will progress. Do you believe the operation is progressing smoothly?”
Amid had sworn to prevent any victims from sacrificing their lives in this operation.
Finn glanced back. “If I said that we will totally overwhelm them at this rate…well, that would be wishful thinking. There’s no way that Knossos would fall from this much. They still have the creatures,” he responded with his unvarnished opinion.
Looking away from Amid as she listened in silence, Finn stabbed his spear into the devil sculpture built into the labyrinth wall—piercing it right in its eye.
“But we can’t afford to lose. This time, we’ll win.”
The visual information from the eye’s range of sight cut out. Thanatos smiled at the prum’s blue eyes staring at them through the eye, but then it ceased to function.
“They’ve broken in from the northeast, southeast, and southwest doors on the first floor!”
“They’re advancing too fast! They annihilated all the monsters and our dispatched soldiers…!”
“H-have they already advanced to the second floor?! What the hell is going on?!”
A tumult unlike any other roiled all around him.
The labyrinth master’s room in the depths of Knossos.
The space could be called the Evils’ base. It was filled with the incessant shrieks of Thanatos’s followers, pessimistic and badly shaken. Not unreasonably. They were currently being invaded. They were facing Loki Familia ’s attack—what seemed like an all-out assault from an alliance of familias. The fate of their dearest wishes would be impacted by the results of this fight. In other words, it would determine the victors and the vanquished.
“They prepared for this, huh…I guess we earned ourselves a disadvantage by letting them escape Knossos once,” Thanatos muttered to himself as he looked down at the watery screen spread across the central pedestal, at the transmitted information from the eyes placed all around the labyrinth.
Obviously, their enemies were able to control the doors using the keys they had found, but they had even prepared a response to the cursed weapons and all the various traps. They had Barca, the descendant of Daedalus, to control the doors and activate traps from a distance, but Loki Familia was searching out and destroying their eyes—the observation mechanisms embedded in the sculptures’ eyes and wall reliefs—whenever they found them. Without the ability to track the enemy’s movements, they could not effectively activate the traps from afar.
Loki Familia ’s ignominious defeat in the first attack and the Fairy Force’s surprise attack were the cornerstones for this assault. They had examined all the information gathered from those operations and applied them to their current strategy.
Scrutinizing the profile of the prum hero through the screen, Thanatos could not help but be filled with wonder and admiration, even though he was the enemy.
“L-Lord Thanatos?! We can’t stop their advance…! It’s not just the monsters! We’re losing our comrades, too! At this rate…!”
“We gathered the keys from all the children who went out on the front lines, right? As long as the enemy does not steal any more of them, everything will be fine. As long as there are orichalcum doors blocking the way, the enemy can only split up so much.”
They had retrieved the keys from the soldiers deployed all around the maze and gathered them in the labyrinth master’s room. With their stronghold invaded, they desperately needed to avoid the enemy stealing any more keys, just like the Fairy Force had done. The more keys the enemy had, the more they would be able to do as they pleased in Knossos. That was why the Evils had taken that precaution. It had been a last resort because it prevented the free movement of their own forces, even if Barca could control the doors from his spot.
Currently, the only people allowed to carry a key were Thanatos and Levis. With the possibility of running into Loki Familia and being defeated in an instant hanging over their heads, not even the commanders were excepted from that rule.
Planting both hands on his pedestal, Thanatos swayed his crossed legs back and forth. The commander who had come to report to him looked shocked as the god maintained his usual composure despite the gravity of the situation.
“More than that, I’m curious about their speed—it’s like they have a one-track mind.”
Thanatos glanced again at the adventurer displayed on the pedestal. At that rate of advance, they had to be scheming to pressure the head of the organization. More than that, Braver must have had an estimate on the location of the demi-spirit.
Thanatos’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Do we know how many routes the enemy came in from and where?”
“Y-yes, sir. Three parties from the first floor, every entrance save the northwest. And the monsters are attacking from the eighteenth floor onward.”
“Ikelos’s toys, huh…? Braver joining hands with those monsters. That was totally outside my expectations…If there are advances from the lowest and highest floors…I wonder if he’s planning a pincer.”
Covering his androgynous face with his long fingers, Thanatos descended into deep thought. There are currently four enemy units…They stole two keys from us during the last fight, plus the two from those heretical monsters with the vouivre…It adds up, but…
From the battle before in Daedalus Street, he’d anticipated this amount of fighters, based on what he knew about Loki Familia and the Xenos. But Thanatos was concerned.
There was a lost key they had not been able to track down—
“Lord Thanatos?! A new enemy party has appeared on the twelfth floor!”
“—As I feared.” Ignoring the shouts of his subordinates, the god allowed a nihilistic smile to appear on his face as he turned around. “Who’s in the group?”
As Thanatos gazed at the scene displayed on the pedestal, the messenger paled as he shouted in reply.
“It’s Nine Hell! And the Sword Princess!”
“Tempest!” Aiz fully unleashed her Airiel as she stepped into the labyrinth.
“Keep up with Aiz as if your life depended on it!”
““Yes, ma’am!”” shouted the familia members in unison behind Riveria.
As if being propelled by their voices, Aiz rushed through the stone-paved passage. She held out the key gripped in her right hand and opened the giant door blocking her path. It was the one that Cruz had received in the bargain with Hermes, the Daedalus Orb that Freya had secretly taken when Ishtar was sent back to the heavens. The final key that the Evils, including their late leader, Valletta Grede, had failed to track down.
The appearance of a fifth party was an unexpected blow to the Evils, who had thought that there were only four squads taking part in the assault.
“Aiz, don’t worry if we start to get separated! Just run wild!”
“Okay!”
This force was made up of only members of Loki Familia —consisting of elves, including Riveria, all Level 3 or higher and nimble on their feet. Aiz pushed ahead by herself in front of that party, which had been formed for its dexterity, opening the doors she came across and slicing deeper into the labyrinth with unbelievable speed.
“Don’t overlook even the slightest abnormalities! If something reacts to Aiz’s wind—that’s our number one priority!”
Aiz’s role in this operation was to act as a radar. The one who inherited the blood of spirits was unleashing her magic over a wide range, running around through the labyrinth in order to catch any reaction by the corrupted spirit.
Finn predicted the demi-spirit would be somewhere on the eighth, ninth, or tenth floor…! In Knossos’s middle levels!
Finn had calculated that it was likely that the demi-spirit was tucked away somewhere on Knossos’s middle-level floors, based on the reports from Riveria’s Fairy Force. When she had broken through all the way to the twelfth floor, she had noticed that the enemy soldiers and monsters were deployed with the greatest density on the eighth through tenth floors.
Along with Finn, the rest of the fighters and the Xenos were the units charged with clearing the labyrinth and chasing the ringleaders, while Aiz and the others were the secret squad searching for wherever the ticking time bomb of a demi-spirit was hiding.
They let some time pass after Finn invaded before launching their surprise attack from the entrance on the Dungeon’s twelfth floor that they had already found.
—Listen up, Aiz.
—It’s imperative to find the demi-spirit, but in the worst case, it’s fine even if you don’t find it.
—All you need to do is…
Aiz remembered the orders Finn had given her before the operation. In addition to acting as a radar, she had another crucial role.
“I will…lure her out!”
“Aria?” Levis furrowed her brow. She was getting ready to go out and annihilate the invaders when she received this report.
“Y-yes! The Sword Princess and Nine Hell’s party has come in from the twelfth floor!” The soldier sent by the Evils prattled on in a mix of fear and impatience. “Lord Thanatos has declared th-that they should be prioritized…!”
“…Oh, that’s what he’s after,” she spat back in annoyance.
She understood what the soldier was saying before he could even finish. She correctly realized that Aiz was trying to uncover where the spirits were located. Levis knew that Aiz’s wind at full power could act as a radar. Once, during the last time she was in Knossos, Aiz had done the drastic move of summoning an unbelievably strong wind to let her scattered comrades know where she was. The spirits would react to Aiz’s wind, even from all the way across the floor. And once they started bawling, they were not easily calmed, giving the enemy a critical hint as to where they were located.
From Knossos’s perspective, letting Aiz’s squad move as they pleased was not an option. And no one other than Levis would be capable of dealing with her.
“Is drawing my attention to Aria part of their plan…?”
Levis, who had been heading toward the adventurers running wild on the upper floors, changed course.
This is definitely one of that prum’s schemes.
Picturing the face of the man who had stood against her several times, Levis scoffed and darted to the twelfth floor toward Aiz’s squad.
“The Evils and the creature will be forced to respond to Aiz,” Finn explained as his group rushed along. “In fact, that was precisely why I had Riveria take command of that team. Both as someone who has rampaged in this labyrinth before and as someone capable of taking the reins and guiding Aiz, she was the only one who could lead them.”
“That means Aiz and the others are…”
“They will effectively be bait. If the creature heads out to counter them, the risk of the other squads getting defeated decreases considerably.”
Finn revealed his plan to Amid, who was dashing next to him. With Tione taking the lead of the vanguards and Tiona and the others promptly mowing down the monsters coming out of the countless crossroads, his brain kept spinning in thought.
“If the creature comes to us, then we’ll retreat at full speed. If we can stall for time, Aiz’s wind will be able to find the location of the demi-spirit.”
Finn had left Thanatos and Levis with one of two choices. It was up to them to decide. Finn judged that they would choose the former and counter Aiz, but in the event they lost their cool , he could not be sure what they would do. That was why he had prepared the parties for suitable responses. The initial preparations were to avoid getting wiped out even if they were routed.
He wasn’t pursuing a result with minimized losses: He was aiming for one with no losses at all. He was not planning to abandon anyone. He could not say whether that change was growth or regression. But the precipitous tightrope of chasing ideals was far more difficult, stressful, and meaningful than the easy route of assuming they would sustain casualties from the start.
In the event that he failed, no losses would turn into minimal losses. And if he succeeded, he would achieve his ideal. That was why Braver chose the harder route. After everything that had happened, that was how Finn was thinking now.
If Loki were there, she would surely have said that it was a definite growth on Finn’s part.
“Either way, it’s going to be a race against time.”
The man-made labyrinth, Knossos, stretched all the way down halfway through the Dungeon’s middle levels. Faced with that enormous amount of ground to cover, Finn had not chosen a drawn-out battle or a war of attrition—he had chosen a short, decisive battle.
“Run! Advance! As far and as fast as you can! This will chip away at the enemy’s life span!”
““Sir!!””
Finn shouted encouragement to the whole group while keeping the healers in reserve, ready to spring into action.
“I found an entrance to the Dungeon!”
“Keep pushing! Calculate where we are, you useless rabbit!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
A single blow crumbled the rock face, opening a stone path to the real Dungeon. Bete howled at the adventurers who had reached the open gate first while Rakuta scrambled to open a map of the Dungeon. Based on the characteristic terrain, she narrowed it down, announcing, “We’re on the Dungeon’s third floor, the northeast section!”
Knossos’s third floor. The animal-people squad, which was centered on Bete, had rushed down the floors at a wild pace, making it “outside.” It wasn’t a path leading to a lower level or the location of the spirits but passages connecting to the Dungeon that would be helpful when it was time to withdraw. Bete was making sure to increase their options.
They’d connected to a part of the Dungeon that was a simple light-blue labyrinth. Considering where they were on the Knossos side, it was almost certainly the third floor.
The small room that the passage opened into just happened to have some lower-class adventurers hunting monsters at the edge of the floor. Everyone was dumbstruck seeing Loki Familia appear from the broken wall and stood there slack-jawed, paralyzed, including the goblins they were hunting. As the Level-1 party crumbled into confusion, the Level-6 werewolf roared, “This ain’t a damn show! Scram!” sending them scurrying from the room screaming “W-we’re sorrrrrrrrry?!” They were shoulder to shoulder with the monsters as they ran.
“I’m going ahead! You take care of this shit! If you’re useless and can’t catch up, you’ll get left behind!” barked the werewolf.
“Geez, I got it! Morel! Head aboveground from here and contact the Ganesha and Hermes Familia reserves! Prepare to run a supply line through this area!”
“Understood!”
Bete’s instructions hurled abuse at her, causing the catgirl to snap back at him.
While Bete stayed at the leading edge of the squad, wielding his savage breakthrough ability, the second-in-command and effective leader, Anakity, fired off orders in his stead. While setting up pillars so that the gate could not be lowered, she sent a Level-2 member of Loki Familia ’s reserves to deliver the message. Not watching as Morel disappeared into the Dungeon, she chased after Bete, who had already started pushing forward along a different route.
“—Please accept this offering! Lord Thanatooooos!”
Meanwhile, in the trailing group behind Bete’s advance.
Before Raul could direct his team, one of the God of Death’s followers set off a chain of suicide bombs.
“Urgh…?!”
“Gaaaaaaah…?!”
Because they had thoroughly prepared for suicide bombings beforehand, there was no direct damage. However, after the explosion died down, the smell of burned flesh wafting up, the scattered limbs and the horrific corpses left behind caused some of the younger girls in the familia to hunch over and start vomiting. The same was true for some of the members of Dionysus Familia who had joined them as mappers.
“Gah…Don’t throw up! Stand! If we slow down, that will affect Bete and his squad! Don’t look away! Fight!” bellowed Raul, in charge of this group, as he clenched his fists, struggling to find the words to say.
Yanking the arm of a familia member on all fours on the floor, he forced the squad to keep moving. He was desperate to accomplish his assigned task, even as he fought the nausea choking him at the back of his own throat.
This is different from a battle in the normal Dungeon or a fight between familias…! This is the real Evils! The enemy who clashed against the captain and the others! The battlefield where so many…so many of the people in the familia before us perished!
When he had first joined the familia, the rookie Raul had not been sent out to fight during the most heated period of the clashes with the Evils. By the time Raul and Anakity had started being part of the fighting forces, it was the end stages of the Dark Ages, after the alliance of familias had been formed under the Guild’s jurisdiction.
Raul had never known such an inhuman battlefield. Lives were mercilessly cast aside. Rendering the enemy powerless without killing them was an impossibility. The battlefield did not tolerate hypocrites.
He rushed through the charred passage.
It was almost like an actual war where trench warfare, sieges, suppression, and everything else was abound. They would be forced to pay the price in order to bring down the enemy’s base. The work of men was all around them, even though it should have had nothing to do with adventurers whose job was to scour the Dungeon.
“Set up the pillars! Monsters are coming from the path to the right! Walls assemble! Stall for time! Ines and the other mages, start casting! Watch out for the violas!”
Despite all that, Raul put his all into maintaining control of the situation. He knew that if he was shaken, the party would lose steam. He trusted that his desperate voice would be a source of courage for the other familia members.
In truth, Raul’s quavering orders and his face, which was as pale as anyone else’s, could not even remotely be mistaken for those of a charismatic commander, but—they gritted their teeth.
If even Raul can still be in high spirits, then so can I. That thought pushed the young familia members to roughly wipe the vomit from their mouths, raising their spirits and bringing them to start moving again.
It gives me courage, too…! Seeing the captain’s back when he leads everyone!
Raul tried to embody the small back that was always in front of him with his own, raging as he cut down the enemy’s resisting forces.
“Shield me, cleansing chalice—Dio Grail!”
A shield of white light cut off a violent explosion closing in.
“Filvis, speed up your casts! What if Lord Dionysus got injured?!”
“I’m doing it as fast as I can! Why don’t you try counterattacking some while mapping, Aura?!”
“S-stop it, you two! Don’t fight each other—fight them, please!”
As Dionysus Familia ’s leader and second-in-command argued, Lefiya shouted back with a hint of grumbling in her voice as she fired off a blast. They were on the third floor of Knossos on the front line, where the number of Evils members and monsters was gradually increasing, and the counterattack was getting more intense.
“Raaaaaaaaaah!”
Leaving aside the elves who were on edge from the increased resistance they were encountering, the stout dwarf Gareth pushed forward.
Faced with Loki Familia ’s strongest wrecking ball charging at them with two great shields at the ready, other than catching the tiniest fear of death, Thanatos’s followers did not hesitate to set off a chain of explosions.
“Tch , I really hate this kind of fight…but at least it’s easier to keep moving when they’re quick to give up on an actual battle.”
Not shaken in the least as he withstood the explosion blasting against his shield, Gareth was furious at the enemy force for not even trying to face them. But from another perspective, if the enemy blew themselves up, they were as good as abandoning the battle.
The force of the explosions was menacing, but those same ones caused a battle line to crumble that otherwise would have been able to hold out longer. Their advance was still moving smoothly, albeit in proportion to the damage that their squad was taking from the enemies.
“…They’re reeeeally consistent about blowing themselves up. As soon as we get a certain distance away, it’s an insta-boom.”
“Yes. They must fear us capturing them. It might be to prevent us from learning the key points in Knossos…”
Loki and Dionysus stood in the rear guard, behind stout soldiers. Their gods’ eyes saw through what the Evils were trying to accomplish. When aiming to get a grasp of all the enemy’s infrastructure, the simplest method was to get it from interrogating captives. It didn’t matter if the enemy was tight-lipped; there would be someone who would break if they were willing to use whatever methods were necessary.
Thanatos was removing that possibility at the root by using suicide bombs as an attack and means of silencing them. It was a desperate measure to prevent more information from getting out, but it was also causing real damage to his forces. It was a tactic that could be used only by the God of Death, who had promised his followers a future beyond their demise.
“Finn said that speed was going to be crucial, but…we’re taking casualties just pushing forward. We might run out of ways to recover at this rate. Guess we won’t be able to make our way across that tightrope.” Loki licked her lips as she slightly opened her crimson eyes.
“But the same goes for them, too.”
“—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Gah?!”
The vargs flinched at the thunderous sound wave. The lizardman with a sword in either hand mercilessly cut into the vividly colored monsters that continued gushing out, as if trying to stop their charge or at least slow their advance.
“There, next!”
“Advance! Advance!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
The group of armed Xenos was fighting, unleashing an unending stream of shouts mixed with human words. Wielding a strength that could easily slaughter the vargs and violas, they were undoubtedly a menacing enemy to the forces defending Knossos. They were just a single party, but they were advancing even faster than Loki Familia .
“Rei, which path?!”
“Right at the next crossroad! That leads to a new room!”
The monsters’ senses surpassed the average adventurer’s, but the main reason they had an acute awareness of their surroundings was thanks to the echolocation that the siren Rei was using. With the ability to create high-frequency sound waves, her inhuman technique let her understand the complicated construction of the labyrinth. She led the band of Xenos farther and farther, unstopped by doors and never caught by the roaming swarms of enemies. Conveying what she said, the lizardman Lido at the front of the group had his comrades swing around.
“—! Lido, a plant!”
“Great! Let’s crush it!”
A grotesque organ in the shape of an upside-down funnel was enshrined in the middle of the large room. Composed of a green meat, the plant had crystals that resembled the ones on vargs scattered through it. The inner part in the center was giving off a flickering light with the appearance of a living organism’s beating heart, like a crushed pomegranate or an egg.
There was a green carpet unfurled across the floor, and several vargs were born from the sticky ooze seeping from the egg in the center. The gargoyle’s voice and the lizardman’s order overlapped as the red-cap goblin, harpy, troll, and all the monsters proceeded to overrun the room.
But it didn’t matter how many vividly colored monsters it could produce—the plant did not have any real means of defending itself, broken beyond repair in the blink of an eye.
“That’s the fourth one! There’ll be no end to it at this rate…!”
The Xenos burned with rage. Their grudge against the brutal hunters of Ikelos Familia —who had captured their brethren and were the root of all that evil—was in some ways even greater than the adventurers’ own. That was the cause of their billowing force, which surpassed even Loki Familia ’s.
Because Loki Familia ’s attack was splitting up the Evils’ human forces, it was mostly just monsters positioned in the lower levels of Knossos. Put another way, because the Xenos were taking on all the monsters themselves and cutting off the supply lines from the lower levels’ side, the burden on the adventurers rampaging through the middle levels and higher was significantly lessened. The unstoppable wave of the invasion teams composed of adventurers was an effect of the Xenos taking part in the fight.
The result of the incompatible monsters and humans fighting on different battlefields was greater than the sum of its parts, giving a glimpse of the tactical planning prowess of Finn, who had orchestrated all of it. With Finn and Fels working together, their prepared pincer attack was incredibly damaging to Knossos.
“Don’t let your guard down, Lido.”
“Yeah, I know! That reminds me. What happened to Fels? It’s been a while…”
The golden-feathered siren fluttered down beside the excited lizardman. They were among the strongest of the Xenos and, together with the gargoyle Gros, the oldest group. Their relationship was similar to the one among Finn, Riveria, and Gareth in Loki Familia .
“Moving alone. Fels mentioned discovering some kind of monster storage vault, but…” Rei continued in a lowered voice. “Fels said it would not be long and to search for a path up to the next floor in this area in the meantime.”
“Off planning some trick alone again, huh?! Can’t be helped, I guess!”
“Also, we’re allowed to go up to the thirteenth floor .”
They were currently on Knossos’s sixteenth floor, given permission to advance until right before the twelfth floor, where Aiz’s group had burst in. The lizardman warrior bared his fangs. It was a ferocious smile, though only a certain boy among the humans could recognize it as one.
“Lido…are you going ahead?”
“Wiene…”
A dragon girl had overheard their conversation, approaching them—the vouivre who Bell had protected to the end and who Aiz had let go.
“I want to go, too. To the place where the goddess and Bell and the others live…I want to protect it, too!”
The dragon girl thought of a certain childish goddess and her followers as her beautiful amber eyes overflowed with resolve. She was humanoid, but beneath her black robe was the body of a full-fledged dragon. The girl had particularly enhanced senses, even relative to monsters—second only to Rei’s echolocation when it came to sensing when something was off.
Wiene had volunteered for this dangerous mission herself. The girl who could do nothing as Bell protected her was nowhere to be seen. These monsters were just like people. They would fight for the sake of their bonds, for the things that were precious to them. Oddly, her figure was like a mirror image of Aiz once she hardened her resolve to battle.
“Wiene…All right, come! Together with the adventurers, we will protect Lady Hestia, too!”
“Yes!”
“Gros, we’ll leave this to you! We are going to search a wider area!”
Leaving the cleanup of the remaining vividly colored monsters to the gargoyle’s group, Lido, Wiene, and Rei moved out. The crimson stone in the vouivre’s forehead flashed as she put all her effort into returning the favor she owed to the people aboveground.
“—! She’s coming! ” Riveria bellowed.
Riveria had a magic circle extended on standby as she followed behind Aiz, who was racing around. She had been maintaining the large-scale extermination spell—Rea Laevateinn —making sure it was ready to go at any moment. The jade magic circle reaching out from her feet could identify all obstructions, including distinguishing between enemies and allies.
The strong reaction that touched the outer edge of the circle, approaching at extreme speed, was without a doubt that of the creature. As soon as Riveria unleashed her warning, the squads were visibly on edge. Aiz was running at full speed at the head of the group, opening her eyes wide, and all of a sudden, she slammed the brakes hard enough to skid against the stone flooring.
“Pull back! All the way to the room where Arcus and the others are waiting! Hurry!”
They had continued advancing all the way until then, but at Riveria’s order, they quickly started racing in the other direction. It was a complete retreat, like a wave pulling back into the sea. If Aiz was the radar to search out the location of the spirits and the lure to draw out Levis, then Riveria was the warning siren.
Though it gradually wore away at her Mind, she had kept the magic circle across an extraordinary range from the moment they entered Knossos. It was a measure taken to sense as soon as possible when their incomprehensibly powerful enemy was approaching, so as to quickly withdraw. That was why Riveria had been given command of that party—and why the city’s strongest mage had been sent along with Aiz.
“Aiz, don’t get ahead of yourself!”
“…I know!”
Having drawn out the creature, if Aiz tried to take her on one-on-one now, that would have been the worst possible strategy. At the very least, Finn would never allow it. Riveria ordered her to face Levis in the room where they had already positioned a fully armed and equipped squad.
Just this once, Aiz sealed off her fighting spirit, the strength she had gained while fighting the Warlord. Responding to Riveria, she followed the familia members.
Meanwhile, Riveria left the rear guard to Aiz now that the squad had flipped directions, and she raised the crystal in her hand to her mouth.
“Finn—hook, line, and sinker.”
“Good job, Riveria.”
The oculus delivered her voice to the supreme commander of the operation. The goal of Riveria’s diversionary squad was to catch the creature’s attention, lure her out, and draw her as far as possible from Finn and the others. Levis posed the greatest threat to them. With her position known, the biggest source of concern had been cleared up.
“Squads, increase your speed! This will be the decisive point of the operation—push now and don’t let up! ” echoed the prum’s order through the magic item.
After determining Levis’s location, every other squad picked up the pace. More precisely, they had been moving in ways that maintained an escape route, but now they discarded thoughts of retreat and devoted themselves to attacking. Bete’s squad howled, Gareth’s rampaged, Tione’s shouted, and the Xenos’s roared. Each party began devouring the labyrinth, moving deeper and more fiercely inside.
The operation switched gears.
There was Finn’s command, the ability of Aiz’s group to be a match for anyone, and Fels’s cheat-like magic item that shattered the barriers of space and time. All of them meshed together, allowing the plan to proceed without any hitches.
As one, the scattered adventurers charged forward with a battle cry, almost like a single organism, consuming the giant labyrinth.
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