Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka Gaiden – Sword Oratoria - Volume 11 - Chapter Pr

PROLOGUE A TORTUROUS NIGHT, A GHASTLY GLOOM 

The battle cry of a young man melded together with a minotaur’s ferocious roar. A vicious fight was raging. 
With their lives on the line, the two males threw themselves into mortal combat, both launching starry sparks into the air as they tried to drive home with Labrys ax or knife. The throngs of people enclosing their battleground prayed, crying out with enough force to make the city quake. 
Praying for the victory of the boy who’d set off on his adventure. 
Praying for the birth of a new hero. 
Aiz silently observed this violent scene unfolding in the Labyrinth City. 
“………” 
The werewolf by her side, along with an elf and a dark-elf swordsman—all counted among the ranks of first-tier adventurers—could not pull their eyes away from that battle. 
Five months prior, a similar fight against a minotaur in the Dungeon had fascinated the adventurers of Loki Familia . The battle, howl, and will of this young boy were bound to light a fire in the hearts of many—the entire city, even. 
But Aiz’s heart wasn’t pounding in her chest the way it had the time before. 
Trapped in the dark, she felt closed off from the frenzied world—as if she’d stumbled into a maze with no exit, as if she were a child who had nowhere left to return. 
The only image that reached her eyes seemed to be that of the young boy who bled, cloaked in flames. 
She kept thinking, wondering what was on his mind as he fought. 
His answer had contradicted hers. For what reason was he battling a monster and to what end? There was little doubt that this was a fight to the death, but it appeared as though the boy and the minotaur yearned for this from each other, like they understood each other more than anyone else—leaving Aiz behind. 
Try as she might, Aiz couldn’t come up with a convincing conclusion. 
But she did understand one thing. 
He would become stronger. 
He would start running again. 
He would overcome this trial—a night filled with heretical monsters. This would become the day that the boy who had become an adventurer a scant five months ago would set off on the path to becoming a hero. 

—And what about me as I am now? 
Uncertainty had begun to fester on Aiz’s sword. 
Her vow to kill monsters had been broken. 
When she’d challenged that boy’s will with her own, she’d been the one who’d lost. 
—Can I become strong like him? 
—Can I start running, too? 
At the moment, his gallant figure and her current state could not possibly be any more different. The fleeting thoughts that she’d managed to cling to soon faded away. 
And even though she’d asked and asked, the stars and moon winking in the night sky offered no answer. 
 
Darkness settled in, impenetrable and dismal. A stagnant chill. An ear-ringing solitude. The murky gloom was writhing like a living creature, the ultimate embodiment of chaos. 
In an unknown place—in reality, or illusion, or somewhere in between—a shadow stood erect, waiting impatiently, counting down to a moment that would soon arrive. 
“—Enyo.” 
A blinding ray of light revealed the silhouette of the one who had called out, whose race and gender were unknown, their identity concealed by a masked face. The figure spoke in an ominous voice that mixed together an array of overlapping human voices. 
“ Loki Familia is…coming to Knossos.” 
Upon hearing that report, the named shadow’s lips curled into a sneer, announcing that the finale was drawing near. 
It was an expression that seemed almost cheerful, almost reluctant, almost rapturous, almost lonely—and almost trembling. 
The shadow turned their back to the masked being, who stood in silence, and raised both hands like a conductor preparing to begin. 
—To begin a beautiful orgia .