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CHAPTER 5 FINAL WAR 

In contrast to the adventurers’ cries and the intense thundering of their advance, the start of the battle was silent. The adventurers descended directly to the ninth floor of Knossos using the shaft that Ganesha Familia had tirelessly excavated. 
Some used the prepared ladders, some leaped through the air, but all descended straight down. The adventurers landed in a chamber, a giant space packed with a forest of pillars. There was a clump of green flesh, gnarled like the outline of a person’s body, where Thanatos had turned his blade on himself and returned, creating the giant shaft. The location where a certain God of Death had come to the aid of Loki and her familia. 
Because Thanatos had shot through to Daedalus Street to return to the heavens, his shaft was the shortest route from aboveground to their target on the tenth floor, allowing them to pass through directly to the ninth floor. 
Looking around, Finn glanced at the Thanatos Familia flag that had been deformed almost beyond recognition. Suppressing his welling emotions, he dashed forward. 
“The flesh has ceased all activity! There are no monsters, either!” Shakti said as she joined Finn. 
Her voice encouraged the others, creating an avalanche of adventurers pressing in behind them. Immediately afterward, they entered the labyrinth master’s room. It was the large chamber that Thanatos and the Evils’ Remnants had used as their base, but it had now lost all meaning. The enemy’s true core had moved below it to the tenth floor. 
“The first squad to the north! The second to the northeast! The third to the southeast! Advance to the chambers where each demi-spirit is hiding!” 
Faced with the diverging paths forking off from the labyrinth master’s room, Finn quickly fired off orders. 
Three squads had broken into the ninth floor from the pit that connected to the surface. In addition to Finn’s first squad, there was the second led by Riveria and Aiz and the third, led by Gareth. 
Over a hundred and fifty adventurers, supporters, and healers were moving in coordination with each squad, advancing down the passages that Ganesha Familia had already cleared. 
“Gareth, Riveria! I’m counting on you! Don’t screw up!” 
“Worry about yourself, Finn!” 
“Let’s toast with some of Loki’s secret stash when we get back!” 
The three comrades taunted one another as they went their separate ways, sharing one smile before they left. 
“Finn, Gareth! Don’t lose!” Aiz called out as she left with Riveria, setting off the other adventurers laughing, taunting, and wishing one another luck. 
Each squad had their own path to follow, avoiding and passing by the green flesh without difficulty. The sounds of boots and greaves scraping against one another filled the passage. 
The grotesque mass was still clinging to the ceilings and walls as the elite squads proceeded. Finn resumed his commander’s attitude again and roared into the crystal he took out of his pocket as he ran along with Shakti and the rest of the first squad. 
“Every squad needs to follow their predetermined routes and head for the tenth floor! We’re going to press in from all six directions!” 
“There are six demi-spirits on the tenth floor! We have to take care of all of them! Pay attention and follow the shortest routes as we discussed!” 
Listening to the captain’s voice from the oculus, the fifth squad charged into the remade Knossos with Lefiya. 
The location was the entrance connecting to Knossos on the Dungeon’s ninth floor. 
Using a Daedalus Orb, they opened the orichalcum gate and rushed inside. This route had not been dug by Ganesha Familia but by Magni and Modi Familias as part of the Guild’s mission. The other two routes on the ninth floor had also been dug by other familias under the utmost secrecy. 
There was no connection between Knossos and the Dungeon between the ninth and twelfth floors. There were field notes about gates on the tenth and eleventh floors in Daedalus’s Notebook, the labyrinth’s blueprints, but those entrances had been removed, as if Enyo had already foreseen this future. Because of that, the fastest possible route to Knossos’s tenth floor was through the ninth floor of the Dungeon or through the shaft created by Thanatos’s return. 
“Hey, don’t hold back on me!” Bete warned. 
“How could I?! Not after the captain set the stage!” 
At the head of the fifth squad, Bete’s comment warranted an angry shout from Anakity without even a second glance. “I came here to win!” 
As the squad’s second-in-command and de facto commander, she was the one who had received the oculus from Finn. With her eyes flaring at the scene before her, she blew off the werewolf’s needless concern. Anakity’s improved mood naturally strengthened the familia’s resolve. 
A wide passage spread out beyond the opened gate. It was the location of their heartbreak, the place where they had turned their backs on Dionysus Familia . It was also the place where an elven girl had lost her arm before being mercilessly torn apart by monsters. 
“…” 
Everyone’s gazes turned to Lefiya. Ignoring the concerned looks from the rest of Loki Familia , she stopped for only a second. Filvis’s arm was nowhere to be seen. It must have been swallowed up by the green flesh. Instead— 
“This is…” 
“A sword…and a wand?” 
The ownerless weapons were lying limp on the floor. Filvis Challia had wielded sword and staff in either hand when she flew into a rage and suicidally rushed toward the masked creature. The magic swordsman had dropped the weapons when her neck had been cruelly snapped. 
“Gh…” 
Lefiya picked up the sword and wand, pressing them to her cheek. She closed her eyes tightly, as if the feelings she had sealed away were starting to seep back through. 
The other familia members, even Anakity, could not find the words to say to her in that moment. 
“—Quit slacking, slowpoke! We’ve gotta hurry up and kill that damn spirit! If you’re gonna hold us back, I’ll leave you behind!” 
It must have been expected that Bete would take the initiative, hurling his bile at her. His words were rough but intent. He kicked any weakling’s ass, just like always. 
Anakity glared at him, but Lefiya herself was grateful for his unchanging demeanor and words. 
“Sorry! I’m coming!” 
Looking up, she started running. She stashed away the sword and wand. At the head of the group, Bete snorted, Anakity smiled, and the rest of the adventurers continued their advance. 
“Nine Hell! That’s the gate!” 
“Got it. Leave it to me.” 
In the northeast of the ninth floor, Riveria’s second squad advanced. From Ganesha Familia , Ilta the Amazon called out. At the edge of their vision was a mass of crimson tentacles that seemed to be overlapping like a multilayered spiderweb. This was the one gate that Ganesha Familia had not been able to break through when they were excavating. According to the blueprints of Knossos, it was also the point where the stairs leading down to the tenth floor were located. 
“Harbinger of the end, white snow. Gust before the twilight—” 
As Riveria stopped and readied Magna Alfs, that highest-tier magic staff, the crimson tentacles peeled away from the gate. The speared tendrils rushed toward the high elf, drawn to her powerful magic. 
“Ha!” 
As they flew toward her, Aiz suddenly twisted and severed them all—three slashes in the span of time that it took a single tendril to approach. It was a high-speed series of attacks, and her unbreakable sword, Desperate, became a blur to those watching. As if a knight protecting her queen, she created a barrier with her sword. While Ilta and the others from different factions were in awe at the tremendous display of swordsmanship, Riveria finished her spell. 
“Wynn Fimbulvetr!” 
Three arctic gusts blasted out. When the bunch of tendrils were hit with the blast that froze everything in its path, they held on for a moment, but by the next instant, they burst open, as if crying out in agony. They froze and then shattered into countless fragments of ice, revealing the staircase leading to the next floor. 
Aiz, who immediately dashed through like a whirlwind, was at the head of the squad, and the others poured in behind her with a roar. And then— 
“—!!” 
The tenth floor of Knossos—the castle of demons. 
As Aiz stepped onto the stage of the decisive battle where their target lay waiting, before anything else could happen, her eyes opened wide. 
As expected, the tenth floor was covered in the green flesh, but unlike the other floor where it was flabby, almost like a lesion, here it had been formed into a proper passage. 
It was as if a thin layer of green carpet had been laid over the original stone passage. The surface looked smooth. There were no visible gaps. It perfectly covered the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, as if a master stonemason had constructed it. Ironically, its outrageous beauty proved that it had not been crafted by people. 
The color was not the poisonous dark green of the other floors but sea-foam. The green passage gave off a dim light that seemed almost mystical, evoking the image of a holy altar. 
“…It’s almost like the Dungeon.” 
That was how much the scene had changed. It was reminiscent of the Dungeon that left adventurers in wonder at the scenes of the unknown. While Aiz murmured to herself, the others from Loki Familia and Ganesha Familia were dumbfounded. 
“…?” When Aiz glanced around her, she noticed something. 
There were several veins of light running through the pale-green flesh on the ground beneath their feet. 
“…A light strip?” 
It looked almost like the circuits in magic-stone items. There were many straight lines and some curves, combined like a coded pattern. Some adventurers shuffled their feet and looked down as they tilted their heads in confusion. 
“—No. This is a magic circle,” Riveria declared as she came up from behind them, cutting through their doubt. 
“A magic circle…?” 
“It must be the ritual that Loki spoke of…The great ring that the six spirits are creating.” 
Everyone understood at once. This was the bypass that each spirit was creating. A giant ring for the magic to circulate. It was the foundation of the enormous ritual that would erase the Labyrinth City from the map. 
“Then if we just break up this magic circle…!” Ilta leaned forward. 
“No, attacking it and trying to cut off the flow of magic won’t work. What we see running through the floor is nothing more than the outer layer.” Riveria shook her head. “It’s not just the floor. The entire spirit composition covering the whole labyrinth is a giant magic circle.” 
Riveria jabbed the bottom of her staff into the floor, removing a chunk of it, but in an instant, the light-green flesh covered that wound as if nothing had happened. As if it had an abundance of magic to spare, as if it was using the nutrients it had absorbed from Dionysus Familia . 
“The structure of the flesh on this floor is clearly different. The magic particles filling the air are terrible…As soon as I stepped onto this floor, it made me a little dizzy,” Riveria spat as her thin eyebrows warped in disgust. 
It was bad enough that it felt like it might get her magic drunk. Looking around, she could confirm it wasn’t just her. The other mages were all looking a little pale. 
“…This must be a container of magic powerful enough to destroy Orario,” said the high elf, which caused Aiz and the others to forget the situation for a second and pause. They did not know what to say. 
It was a powder keg about to explode, strong enough to blow away Orario above them. A dastardly minefield. The subtext of what Riveria had said caused them to gulp. 
“…A song…” 
And when she realized it, Aiz had been the one to break the silence. From deep in the passage, she could hear a high-pitched singing voice, like that of an innocent young girl. 
“The spirits’ chanting, huh…?!” 
At the same time, the Xenos had reached the tenth floor of Knossos from the Dungeon’s ninth floor, and they could hear the chanting, too. 
“Even though I can’t use any magic, I know this feeling! Something reaaally bad is about to happen!” 
“That voice is…scary and disgusting…” 
As the monsters were perturbed, Lido and Wiene both trembled. That uninterrupted spell—one far surpassing the longest-cast magics—was proof enough of the boundless supply of magic. 
It was bewitching and beautiful, repulsive yet pure, a devilish and corrupted spirit that would bring about the destruction of humanity. Something neither human nor monster, that disgusting voice sounded heretical to the Xenos. 
“If it reaches the end of this spell, we lose! Hurry! Get to the source of the chanting!” 
The rest of the Xenos shouted in response to Lido’s roar. The group of monsters rushed in the direction of the song of destruction. 
“—Huh?” 
When, all of a sudden, Wiene looked up, her dragon’s ears trembling. Just as she did that, there was a sparkle in the depths of the passage ahead of them: from the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Magic circles of all sizes filled their field of view. Magic that had already been loaded, just about to fire. 
“? ” 
The other Xenos noticed, but too late. The magic circles activated all at once. 
“Doooooooooodge!” 
When the lizardman’s warning boomed out, the explosion flared. 
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!” 
In the fourth squad, led by Tiona and Tione, a number of adventurers screamed out. A sudden blaze had started. 
“The walls are blowing fire?!” 
“You guys!” 
A complete and utter surprise attack. Right after they thought they heard a high-pitched whining, magic circles appeared on the pale-green wall of flesh, unleashing flame magic. 
“A surprise attack?! Were they aiming for this?! Where’s the enemy?!” 
It was an entirely different magic circle from the giant ring running along the floor that the demi-spirits were creating. Tione was rightfully confused by the sudden activation of these spells. There were no suspicious mages around. It was as if the passage itself had used magic— 
“—Tione, up ahead.” 
She was shaken for a second but, drawn by her sister’s stunned voice, her head snapped up, and she was at a loss for words. 
Red, blue, and gold. Dozens of magic circles in every color imaginable. A magic cannon was set up at the end of the passage. They took aim for Tione’s squad as they called forth sparks of flame, freezing tremors, and crackles of electricity. 
It was an enormous deployment that not even a squad full of mages would be able to pull off. 
Tione had finally come to the answer. 
“Are you telling me the Dungeon itself is using magic?!” she shrieked. 
As if to say she was right, the magic circles sparkled and fired off a fusillade that seemed to scoff at their resistance. 
“? Ghhh?!” 
A whirlpool of light poured down on the adventurers. It was a wide passage, but it was an intricate barrage of spells in a limited space. The animal-people adventurers were blown away by the bombing while the human healers were frozen and the dwarf tanks were bathed in lightning. 
Fire, ice, and lightning. It was a flood of magic with no commonalities. The force behind each spell was equivalent to that of an upper-tier mage performing a long chant. 
“Is the spirit doing all this?!” Tione’s scream was tinted with anger as she barely managed to dodge blasts. The tenth floor had become a container charged with magic, a terrain that the spirits had absolute control over. 
Circulating an exorbitant amount of magic, the beings at the cores could cast spells remotely. Tione realized that was why they had not seen any trace of monsters and why there had not been any efforts to slow them down before now. 
With such an absurd trick up their sleeve, who would need gatekeepers or fodder soldiers? The entire floor itself served both as a counterattack installation and the field on which intruders would be executed. 
“I didn’t think they’d just let us pass, but this is crazy!” 
Hail poured down from above, a spear of lightning bolted from the side, and a pillar of flame burst up from where she landed. The adventurers fell into a panic in the blink of an eye. 
The Dungeon itself is using magic. 
For adventurers who explored the Dungeon, the deadly implication of that phrase needed no explanation. It would be fair to call it “absurd.” 
“This is way worse than a swarm of monsters!” 
Even a first-tier adventurer like Tiona could not help but scream at it. A barrage of magic. A never-ending attack. The menacing assault from every direction caused one adventurer after the other to fall. In a short amount of time, the squad was on the verge of losing half its fighting force. Faced with an inexhaustible supply of spells, defending and dodging were both impossible. 
“At this rate…?!” 
We’ll get killed. 
And it wasn’t just Tione and Tiona’s fourth squad, either. That thought crossed the minds of everyone who had charged into Knossos. 
“Use the spirit cloth!” 
Finn’s shout roared through the oculus that each squad was carrying. 
“““!!””” 
“The spirits cloths should resist the spirits’ magic! Each squad needs to deal with the barrage using the spirit flags prepared by the smiths!” 
Finn shouted his orders into the oculus in his hand as he avoided the blasts from all directions with divine precision. 
The members of the first squad he was leading, particularly the members of Loki Familia , responded to his orders almost reflexively. The supporters tore the poles from their backpacks and passed them to those in the middle guard. Taking the poles, the middle guard moved in front of the struggling vanguard, gritted their teeth, and mowed down the incoming fire magic with them. 
“Raaaaah!” 
The poles had a flag stuck to them made of spirit cloth—in this case, salamander wool. The flames entwined with the flag and then burned out with a sizzling sound. 
“It…it worked!” 
“We can cancel out the magic with these flags!” 
In an instant, the adventurers started to cheer. The flags were one of the pieces of equipment that Finn had prepared and passed out to every squad in the lead-up to the second assault. 
Spirit cloths. Fabric infused with the protection of spirits, they had high defensive capabilities against certain elemental attacks. For example, the salamander wool was imbued with fire resistance, undine cloth with water resistance, and so on. On top of that, when used against a spirit’s magic, it created a massive repulsion, negating the magic. 
Since it was clear that the remaining enemies were the demi-spirits, it was the optimal answer. Knowing from experience just how powerful spirit magic was from the encounter on the fifty-ninth floor, Finn had gathered up countless spirit cloths to raise the squads’ survival rates as much as possible. He had used the Guild’s cooperation to its utmost, incurring a bill for the battle preparations high enough to almost cause the Guild head, Royman, to collapse as he clutched his stomach. 
The battle clothes that the adventurers were wearing beneath their armor were made using a blend of all the different types of spirit cloths. 
“Gather the squads into a tight formation! Don’t spread out! Vanguards, take the spirit flags and defend against the enemy’s attack!” 
The spirit flags were a custom defensive gear created by Hephaistos Familia . They were not shields but flags. Salamander wool was crimson, undine cloth was blue, and so on. By using the matching cloth, they wielded a tremendous defensive ability against spirit magic. But the one difficulty was that unlike a shield, they could not just be held up to receive the attack. Instead, they had to be swung into the oncoming magic. But the effects were just what the adventurers had demonstrated. 
They were matching the storm of counterattack spells filling the passage. 
“Observe the color of the magic circles! Be decisive and defend with the appropriate spirit flag! Don’t let me down!” Finn fired off. 
The orders were extraordinarily difficult, but the adventurers could not help but smile as they tried to meet his expectations. 
The people were all warriors with plentiful experience. Top-tier adventurers chosen from each faction who were all confident in their abilities. They had both the dynamic vision to determine the magic circle’s element in an instant and the strength to swing the flag before the magic landed. The combination of those two made it possible to shoot down the incoming spells with ease. 
“Don’t fall behind Loki Familia ! Show them you can do this much without breaking a sweat!” 
““Yes, ma’am!”” 
The members of Ganesha Familia roared at Shakti’s words. Everyone was a fearless veteran of the deep levels in the Dungeon, so they readily put their all into fulfilling Braver’s orders. 
“Advance! Advance to the hall where the spirit is waiting!” 
Even in the extremely dangerous area where a violent storm of magic was swirling, even in the midst of a deadly scene, the indomitable adventurers wielded a frightening level of adaptability and escaped the rain of counterattack magic. 
“To think the armor Finn ordered would be useful here!” 
In the southeast of the tenth floor, Gareth was laughing ferociously in the midst of the third squad. He had a gnome toga spirit flag in his right hand and a Tonitrus mohair spirit flag in his left hand. Wielding the both of them to deftly cancel out earth- and lightning-element spells, the dwarven leader’s daring charge raised the squad’s morale. 
“Ugh, Finn! You forced me to make this boring-ass item, but at least it’s not totally wasted!” 
In response to Gareth, Tsubaki had only venom for the tiny hero. Because the spirit cloths themselves were the main source of the defensive ability, they were basically unmodified. As a smith at heart, it pained her craftsman’s soul that the cloths were basically untouched, only blended together, yet they still had produced this powerful item. The effectiveness of the equipment wounded the pride of the craftsmen of Hephaistos Familia even as it let them breathe easily. It created a complex feeling. 
“As if that impertinent little prum would ever make you put together something that useless!” 
“That’s true enough! Argh, this is awful! I’m going to have to vent all this frustration with Finn by making him into my body pillow when we’re done!” 
Between the dwarf and half-dwarf’s hard-charging advance and their fortresslike defense, the third squad was closing in on the source of the chanting faster than any other squad. 
“It’s trying to cast magic, but it’s not any different from the Dungeon! Anywhere works, but just hit it!” 
“Follow Bete’s orders! The attack is weakening!” 
“Y-yes!” 
And there were some adventurers who were using methods other than what Finn had said in order to get out from between a rock and a hard place. 
The fifth squad centered around Bete and Anakity. The werewolf used the spaces between attacks to move in and smash the green flesh on the walls where magic circles were forming. The wounds immediately started healing, but until they were fully healed, no new magic circles could form. 
When the Dungeon took damage, the structure prioritized repairing itself to creating new monsters, which was the same system in this demon’s den. Until the wounds were fully healed, it would not form new magic circles. The sharp-eyed werewolf did not overlook that similarity. With the labyrinth prioritizing healing to attacking, the fifth squad set out to attack back. 
“Lefiya!” 
Ignoring Bete, who was leading the vanguard destroying the labyrinth’s walls, Anakity was giving out instructions—in charge of orders back in the middle guard. The ace up their sleeve—the one who had just reached Level 4—was Concurrent Casting to keep up with Bete’s counterattack. Lefiya was moving and dodging, in no need of anyone to protect her. She ground to a halt, stopping her attack on the structure of the floor while simultaneously summoning a bright-yellow magic circle. 
“Fusillade Fallarica!” 
She unleashed a scattershot of fireballs. A ferocious hail of fire that went far beyond mere intimidation. The thunderous boom resembled a giant cascade as she unleashed a tremendous attack that even her comrades struggled to endure. It was a raging bombardment. As the arrows of fire arced, they brought destruction wherever they landed. Beneath that unending onslaught, the demon’s lair cried out in anguish. 
“That’s crazy…” 
As the sparks and smoke cleared, the flesh walls covering the passage were strewn all around, and the original stone labyrinth was laid bare. There were gleams of adamantite shining from behind the battered and collapsing stone from obsidian soldiers—the stone slabs that diminished the effect of magic. 
To repair the significant damage dealt there, the labyrinth diverted its resources to recovery. 
“Keep moving!” Bete shouted. 
The fifth squad picked up the pace, dashing through the passage that had fallen silent. 
Bete did not concern himself with Lefiya, who had unleashed her magic with impeccable timing. He had finally acknowledged her growth—recognized that she was not just a weakling anymore. Oddly enough, Aiz had felt the same way before the operation had begun. 
 I’m fired up, but my head is still clear. 
There was resolve hidden behind her eyes. Her focus was keener than anyone else’s as she followed after Bete. 
“…!!” 
And so, the first to reach their destination was Gareth’s squad. Before them was an absurdly large space. The ceiling towered over fifty meders above, and the width was easily more than twice that. Just like everywhere else, it was covered with a layer of pale-green flesh. 
And it was there, waiting at the back of the chamber, an enormous trunk like a pillar. A shining, poisonous deep-purple magic circle seeped on the floor as the upper body of a woman continued to chant sonorously. 
“The demi-spirit!” 
The adventurers’ final target. 
The demi-spirit that was trying to destroy the city. 
 
“What even is that thing…?!” There was an audible tremor in Tsubaki’s voice. 
In the simplest terms, what they saw was an impossibly large pillar of green flesh. Glued to the wall, it extended all the way to the ceiling, its imposing form easily surpassing the sizes of Goliath and the other floor bosses. The entire body was undulating as venomous red, purple, and black rings bloomed from it, like parasitic flowers. On top of that, it had several tentacles the size of full-grown tree trunks wriggling ominously. 
The thing that caught everyone’s eye was not far from the floor—the bottom half of the pillar, for simplicity’s sake. There were three different faces. The faces were oriented to the left, right, and straight ahead, the very image of a hideous monster. They did not have eyes, housing a vaguely inorganic feel, almost as if they were only masks. 
One had a smile, another a frown, and the last one was crying. Its fleshy lips were a deep red, creating an eerie contrast with the pearly teeth. The mouths were large enough to swallow a large-scale monster in a single gulp. 
The three repulsive, gigantic sets of features filled the adventurers with an instinctive hatred and dread. 
“How could something be so hideous…?!” Even Gareth couldn’t conceal his disgust, even though he had seen more than his fair share of variant species. 
The faces and tentacles made it look like a three-faced creature with a bunch of arms. A three-faced monster that used its giant tentacles to mow down any enemies who approached. 
That was the entirety of the bottom half of the spirit pillar. 
“The crystal orb fetus is parasitizing a Grand Treant…! Not just that…From the looks of it, it’s drawn in three different bodies!” 
It was a monster from the deepest regions of the Dungeon, an extremely large tree monster with a face, similar to titan alms, which had been host to the demi-spirit they had encountered on the fifty-ninth floor. It was a trap monster that had no way of moving itself, so it must have been offered up as a sacrifice to become the spirit’s stout, gigantic body. 
“It’s certainly repulsive, but…the real target must be up there!” 
In the fourth squad, Tione looked up with narrowed eyes as they reached their target. In the middle of the pillar was a female body. 
“Distant destruction, the promised land, the salvation of heaven, summoned by the words of God—” sang out a beautiful voice, conducting a lovely melody of destruction from a three-meder-tall upper body. 
Its skin was pale green, its eyes a stagnant golden color. Its long pale-green hair billowed. It was a transformed spirit. 
“The demi-spirit’s actual body…! As the captain predicted, it’s preparing for its ultimate spell!” 
The giant female body protruding from the pillar’s flesh had its eyes glued to the ground as it continued to sing its song. Its gaze seemed almost innocent, as if it were anxious to finally be able to see the sky again. Like an innocent child who breaks its toys, it was trying to reach the sky even if it destroyed everything in the process. 
“We have to destroy that as soon as possible! I’m going, Tione!” Tiona bravely dashed off. 
Several other adventurers roared and followed after the Amazon wielding her enormous Urga. Even though they had lost a not-insignificant number of people on the way there, they valiantly charged forward to take down the enemy’s pillar, supported by the healers. 
“Pierce, spear of lightning. Your envoy beseeches thee, Tonitrus. Incarnate of thunder! Queen of lightning ? ” 
“Gh?!” 
While the spirit’s real body continued the ritual, a spell resounded from one of the three faces. 
Tiona recognized the rhythm, but it was already too late by then. It was a high-speed cast conducted at the approaching squad. The gigantic lips blasted out a different spell from what the spirit’s upper body was chanting. 
“Thunder Ray.” 
A golden magic circle appeared in response to the hair-raising voice, unleashing a lance of thunder. Right before it was about to activate, the hair on Tiona’s body stood on end, and she barely managed to evade it safely with an animalistic leap, but it landed squarely in the ranks of the squad, who were seconds too late to avoid it. The victims were scorched and thrown back against the wall before helplessly crumpling to the floor. 
“Are there two different chants…?!” 
With the rest of the sixth squad, Lido was taken aback when one of the faces on the bottom part of the pillar unleashed a spell instead of from the demi-spirit’s main body. The Xenos were blown away that the pillar’s upper and lower parts continued to double cast. 
“The main body of the spirit is continuing to chant the spell to destroy the city…” 
“And if anyone tries to stop it, those repulsive faces will eliminate them!” 
Fia the harpy and Lett the red-cap spoke in fluent Koine, comments tinged with fear. Their lizardman leader, Lido, saw through the enemy’s structure with his orpiment eyes. 
“One monster filling two different roles, huh?!” 
With dozens of requests under their belt from Ouranos regarding Irregulars in the Dungeon, the Xenos had developed very discerning eyes, and they were correct. 
The spirit’s upper body was gathering magic for the ritual to destroy the city while the three faces at the bottom counterattacked to deal with any enemies. It was a massive fortress, exterminating the enemies even as it prepared the enormous spell worthy of being called an “ultimate attack.” 
“Freeze over as though the eternal permafrost, untold blades. Your envoy beseeches thee, Undine. Incarnate of water. Queen of aqua—” 
“Flash, rays of light. Tear through the darkness. Your envoy beseeches thee, Lux. Incarnate of light. Queen of luminosity—” 
“Run wild, darkness. Devour the light in night’s peace. Your envoy beseeches thee, Shade. Incarnate of darkness. Queen of shadows—” 
“What?! All three at once?!” 
Three different high-speed chants had been sung without a moment’s hesitation. While Lido and the Xenos turned pale as they realized the three big faces were all casting spells, the spirit pillar mercilessly let loose its magic. 
“Icicle Edge.” 
“Light Burst.” 
“Dark Roar.” 
A blade of ice. A flash of light. Oncoming darkness. The wave of blasts swallowed up the monsters. 
“AAAAAAAAH!” 
As the group of Xenos desperately evaded with perfect coordination, the dragon girl shrieked in the arms of the lizardman who carried her. 
“Disperse!” 
The first squad was enduring the enemy’s bombardment, but Finn’s orders were even more precise than his opponent’s barrage. He immediately started firing off orders to the adventurers who had just barely managed to drop to the ground to avoid the blasts. 
“Every squad needs to split into parties of five and move separately to attack! Don’t give the enemy an easy target by bunching together!” 
His orders were transmitted through the oculus to all the other adventurers. He was able to come up with guidance fast enough that the squads who had almost been blown away by the enemies’ absurd triple cannon were still able to keep up and stem the losses. 
Against a powerful enemy and a preposterous situation, the most effective weapon was the commander’s loud voice. A brave command was as reassuring as any weapon or magic to subordinates dealing with adversity. Braver’s immediate orders nipped the loss in morale and avoided the worst result. 
Finn himself was enduring the enemies’ fusillade using the spirit flags while simultaneously taking command and raising his soldiers’ spirits. 

“Shakti! The enemy’s magic resembles the elemental counter spells we dealt with on the way here! The patterns for the elements are the same!” 
“But its strength is incomparable…! Even a single one of these spells has immense firepower!” Shakti snapped back, as if to say that the two spells were on entirely different levels. 
Interwoven with the spirit protective cloths, their battle uniforms were already scorched as they used the spirit flags to protect the mages in the back lines who had been ordered to fire a broadside attack. It was all on target, blowing away hunks of flesh. But then there was a burble, and almost immediately, the giant green pillar healed itself, filling the gaps with fresh meat, frustrating Ankusha. 
“It’s controlling the flow of magic. I bet those masks can control the labyrinth’s magic—” 
Finn did not finish his thought. What he saw in the corner of his eye caused even him to stop moving. 
“Shakti…I’ve got some more bad news.” 
“What—?” Shakti had a sinking feeling about this as she spun around, but she was at a loss for words at the sight. 
It wasn’t the pillar this time—but the rest of the entire space . There was a great number of magic circles appearing throughout the cavern covered in green flesh. 
“It isn’t just the pillar itself…The enemy can fire off blasts from anywhere, it seems.” 
From all four walls and the ceiling far above. 
The adventurers froze as they realized the impending disaster, as they saw the dozens of magic circles blooming from thin air. 
“This is…” 
“I wish my guess had been off the mark, but it seems our investigation was correct. The enemy’s lower part acts as a defense mechanism to protect the demi-spirit’s real body. It can use powerful magic itself and summon counterattack magic anywhere on the tenth floor .” 
The three looming faces on the bottom part of the pillar were gimmicks that linked with the labyrinth itself. 
Six pillars were equipped with three masks each—for a total of eighteen fixtures for suppressing intruders. They were the ones controlling the counter magic on the tenth floor. Until they were destroyed, anyone who set foot on the tenth floor could be attacked at any point and kept from advancing. And even if they made it to the chambers, they would be surrounded by a whole barrage of artillery blasts, just like what was happening to them now. 
If the body in the upper part was the demi-spirit, then the three faces were the spirit altar, a defense mechanism for the purposes of completing the ritual to destroy Orario. 
“Can we win this, Finn…?!” Shakti growled as she swiped off the dried blood from the wound on her cheek. 
As the demi-spirit looked down on the adventurers, its eyes narrowed. The smile never left its face as it kept singing. It was the song of destruction, without a doubt. Despair gnawed away at the adventurers’ spirits, and the fiendish requiem that would destroy the city moved slowly but surely toward completion. 
As the will to fight wavered under the gazes of the demi-spirit and the spirit altar, Finn quietly licked the back of his thumb. The light of hope had not disappeared from that hero’s blue eyes. Instead, he raised a rallying cry to push back against the anguish. 
“All squads! Target the lower part of the pillar first! Neutralize the labyrinth so it can’t attack us anymore!” 
While he shouted his forceful order, the enemy opened fire from all directions. A colonnade of ice poured down from above. A stream of lightning cut through the air itself. Intending to kill, magic circles spread a carpet of flames like a minefield across the floor. 
Slipping through the rain of magic coming from every which way, the front of the adventurers’ armor was scorched in an instant as they dashed forward to attack the spirit altar. 
The vanguard led a gallant charge. Under their protection, the back lines sniped the monster in front of them. 
Faced with a thunderous artillery barrage trying to obliterate them, the adventurers shut out their fear and raised a battle cry. 
It was a battle far beyond anything mere mortals could inflict on each other. The opening of a battle the likes of which the world had never seen. 
 
They could feel the tremors. Far away, the sounds of battle reached them through the rumbling ground. 
“Hurry it up, you slowpokes! Finn’s group has already started!” 
Lefiya was sprinting. As Bete raced ahead at the front of the pack and peppered them with abuse, she listened and picked up the pace, just like everyone else. 
The fifth squad was made up of members of Loki Familia and Ganesha Familia . They were closing in on the chamber where the demi-spirit lay waiting. 
 My heart is calm. 
The passage seemed to quake with every step. Her heart pounded against her chest every time her feet hit the floor. But Lefiya was calm on the inside. Considering it was a battle with the fate of the city at stake, it was shocking to her that she was unemotional. The old Lefiya Viridis would have been desperately trying to squash her unease, holding back the tears as she fought to keep her heart from beating out of her chest. 
But now, her lips smoothly conducted her chants, and there was no sign of her messing up. She had long forgotten the number of adventurers she had helped by scorching the labyrinth. Right now, she was confident she would be able to maintain her Concurrent Casting even if she was facing off against a floor boss by herself. 
She was in a state of mind that had no remaining ties to her past self. Her spirit was a clear white, like the sea-foam from waves crashing silently on a moonlit beach. She almost felt like she was in a different world from the adventurers around her who were getting worked up. 
There was no nervousness, no bluffing, and no wrath. Just resolve—and a determination not to run, to face whatever lay before her and fight as best she could. 
That was why. That was why she had a premonition, a feeling that there was no way they would make it to the demi-spirit that simply. She was sure something was going to happen. 
“E-enemy attack!!!” 
And just as she expected, it came. The counter magic in the passage stopped for an instant. In that small window of opportunity, a single enemy appeared from a side path. As warnings flew from the rest of her team, the figure in a hooded dark-purple robe approached quickly. 
 The masked creature! 
That sinister mask. Those metal gloves. The mysterious creature that left no bit of skin exposed. I’ll never forget it. I could never forget it. This is what I came here for—! 
Lefiya’s eyes filled with emotion. She clenched her fists. Her calm heart suddenly transformed into a raging sea, as if she had been waiting for this very moment. 
“Lefiya! Fall back!” Anakity called out to her. 
The masked creature was attacking perfectly into the middle of their squad. It would take a few moments before Bete at the front would be able to deal with it. To help fill those few seconds, she ordered a counterattack from her position at the tail end of the formation. However, the masked creature paid no heed to Anakity, holding out an orb in its right hand. 
A Daedalus Orb?! What good is that going to do now—? 
Knossos was already covered with green flesh. Like soil that had a matured tree’s roots growing through it, even if someone tried to lower the orichalcum doors, the doors would not be able to move. And there were not even any doors near them. As Lefiya wondered what the creature was trying to do with the key— 
“Out of the way.” A ghastly voice spoke from behind the mask. The layer of green flesh covering the floor withdrew like a wave slipping back into the sea. 
“? ” 
The stone floor appeared, and there was a bright-red jewel inset into the floor right beneath the center of the squad. When the hidden trap appeared, Anakity realized what the enemy was trying to do. She realized it—and that she was already too late. 
“Fall.” 
The jewel on the floor shone, resonating with the masked creature’s key. The next moment, the floor violently split open. 
“Wha—?!” 
The familia members were horrified, and even Bete could only watch in wonder. It was a function that remained from Knossos, a trap activated by the Daedalus Orb. By removing the parasitic flesh, the creature had been able to trigger the pitfall. 
“Damn it!” 
Its area of effect extended from the front of the squad all the way to the middle. As Bete’s curse echoed, the adventurers were yanked down by gravity. The masked creature then jumped in itself and followed after them. 
“Lefiya! Bete!” 
They disappeared into the darkness below, beyond the reach of Anakity’s outstretched hand. She immediately started to take out the key that they had brought along, but the film of green flesh suddenly covered up the ground again with a burble. At a loss for words at the sudden surprise attack, Anakity stood there with the remnants of the squad, her brow furrowed as she held the crystal up to her mouth. 
“Captain! We were caught by an enemy trap! Bete, Lefiya, and several others fell through a shaft to somewhere below the tenth floor!” 
She reported back to the oculus as artillery blasts thundered from the other end. She knew that they were even then in a fight for their lives, but she still could not help shouting. Finally, after a chain of four hair-raising explosions, Finn’s voice responded. 
“Can you join back up with them?!” 
“…No! We cannot figure out where they fell, and we cannot use the same pitfall because it has already been covered up again by the altar’s structure!” 
After a brief consideration of the possibility, she forced herself to respond in a way that tore her apart. The commander whose face she could not see gave her an order quickly. 
“Take whoever’s left and continue the advance. I’ll send some of the reserve forces over to you. Move immediately to attack the demi-spirit!” 
“…Understood!” 
His coolheaded voice resounded in her ears. There was no change in their priorities. It was clearly the correct answer. Even if they lost half their comrades, the demi-spirits had to be defeated. They had joined this battle with that in mind. 
Anakity was consumed with regret as she rushed through the passage with the remnants of the squad. 
 
While Lefiya’s squad was split up… 
“—!!” Aiz sensed an intense presence. 
“Riveria! It’s coming!” Aiz shouted. 
“!” 
She was sprinting in the middle of the squad when she noticed it. Riveria’s shoulders twitched in response. 
The location was still in the long passage where they had been exposed to the counter magic. In the distance, the entrance to the chamber with the demi-spirit was just barely visible. All of a sudden, the flesh wall to the side of the squad opened like a maw, revealing a large passage. 
“…!” 
The passage was completely dark. Not a single light shone in its depths. From the darkness emerged hair the color of blood. It was the strongest creature, wielding a single pitch-black cursed sword. It was Levis. 
“You came, Aria.” 
When she appeared, the magic circles in the passage fell silent, as if respectfully deferring to her. The queen of slaughter sauntered out as the fragments of magic circles dissipated and dissolved to magic particles. 
“This will be the end.” 
“…” 
“You and me. Our final battle.” 
She did not say much. The entire second squad had frozen, facing off against her. The adventurers’ terrified gazes focused on Levis, but she had eyes only for Aiz. There was a moment of silence as the adventurers forgot they were amid a decisive battle. In that passage, where the adventurers’ battle cries and the labyrinth’s magic had fallen quiet, two pairs of eyes, golden and crimson, stared each other down. 
“Riveria.” It did not take long for her to reach a decision. “Let me go.” 
Desperate trembled in her hand as she gripped it. It was hard to tell where the hilt ended and the curled fingers began, as Aiz started to transform herself into a sword. The reflection of her face on the silver blade was filled with militancy. 
“…” 
As the girl pleaded with her, never taking her eyes off Levis, Riveria closed her eyes. There was a brief moment’s pause, but then she immediately fluttered her lids open and nodded in response. She did not say anything. Turning her back on the two of them, the high elf led the rest of the squad to continue the advance. 
Her silhouette told the entire picture: 
 Don’t lose. Win this. 
 Win and come back. 
As Riveria left, Aiz did not say anything in response. She just nodded. 
Levis let them pass, as if she had no interest in the fate that would be decided by the adventurers’ battle. 
“You don’t need to make a speech or anything, I’m sure.” 
“No.” 
“And no last words?” 
“Not necessary.” 
Their exchange was succinct and dispassionate. It was not very fitting for a final battle. Despite being mortal enemies, the two were cold and clinical. They were not rivals, nor would they ever be. 
From the moment they’d met, they had been bound together by an odd combination of blood and ice. Neither had any sort of burning belief in the other. 
“I am going to defeat you.” 
On the surface , at least. 
“I will defeat you and put an end to all this.” 
“I’ve heard enough of these boasts.” 
But even though they did not share any common belief, even if they did not have any motive beyond clearing away the flying sparks, both of them were fighters. 
“That was on the twenty-fourth floor. After losing to me once, you stopped your doll act. Your eyes were flaring, and you were acting awfully high and mighty.” 
Levis was satisfied. She had not noticed it herself, but the task that she carried out with something akin to inertia had become her one reason to keep living—once it involved the fights with Aria. She had not noticed that her emotions—which had rotted away during those numb days a long time ago —had gradually returned as the girl kept standing back up and kicking up a roaring wind, even though Levis had tried to destroy her many times. If her emotions had not been returning, then there would have been no reason for her to let Aiz escape when last they’d faced each other. If they were not coming back, then there would have been no reason for her to want a battle between just the two of them on this day. 
“Then I’ll say the same thing I said before, too,” Aiz added. 
She had pulled together an overpowering hostility—an unyielding spirit that loathed to lose. She had overcome the powerlessness in her heart that had crushed her spirit. And most importantly, she had filled herself with a resolve to protect the people and places most important to her. She was not good at expressing herself verbally, so she did not have the means to put those thoughts into words. But under her skin, in the depths of her heart, the boiling emotions in her soul pumped through her body with each heartbeat. 
“I will not lose to you.” 
A glint of light flashed from the silver sword. The black cursed sword raised into the air as it whined. The passage was watching and waiting—and spectating. Levis must have willed it to not intervene using magic. 
They stared each other down. 
“—Let’s do this.” 
Levis quietly announced the beginning. With her arm holding the sword hanging loose by her side, the true monster shifted into battle mode. Aiz had not taken a real stance with her sword, either, when the trigger went off in her heart. Everything except the enemy before her quickly slipped away from her vision. 
“That said, this is going to be one-sided.” 
Levis had no doubt of the fact that she was overwhelmingly superior, but she still wanted a fitting finale for their last battle. At those words, Aiz closed her eyes for an instant. 
Levis was right. It would have been a one-sided battle had they fought not that long ago. There would have been no way for Aiz to overcome the creature. But it was different this time. This time, Aiz was different. 
“—Here I come.” 
When Aiz opened her eyes, there was something different about what she saw. 
The creature standing before her, the hybrid between a person and a monster, the enhanced species that had eaten magic stones to grow stronger, the being whose battle potential was far beyond that of Aiz or the other first-tier adventurers in Loki Familia —it was a true monster. 
Yes, that’s right. 
Aiz perceived the contours of a human woman, which morphed and changed with an audible squash , melting like hard candy under heat. Levis darkened, becoming a pitch-black color. The humanoid form warped into a more grotesque form. There was a sound of a switch being flipped on her back. In the dark depths of her heart, a fragment of power rose. 
“…What?” 
Her vision was clouded. Lines formed, evoking images of a storm. The being standing before Aiz noticed her change, but even so, it was too late. It did not matter anymore whether she noticed or not. Aiz’s golden eyes were filled with a dark light. A pitch-black circle filled the outer edges of her irises. 
Alter. Adjust. Change. 
The being before her was transforming—changing from a human to something more disgusting, and from that nauseating form into a full-fledged monster. Levis had become a monster covered by a mixture of pitch-black and bloodred. 
“—!” 
Aiz’s back was burning. The raging fire crackled, distorted, and howled as it gave off black sparks. Aiz was embracing the torrent of power—but she was controlling it, like Warlord had taught her. She did not become a puppet to the black inferno ravaging her body. She integrated it into herself—not allowing the black blaze to burn her body but weaponizing it to defeat her enemy. 
Aiz readied the sword in her right hand. 
“Tempest ? Avenger.” 
And then she cast it—the spell to summon the wind. The forbidden chant to combine the strongest Skill and the spirits’ Airiel. 
In the next instant, the world around her changed dramatically. She could no longer hear the violent tornado roaring. The wind whipping about her took on a darker color. It gave birth to a spiral of wind. The wind’s flow created gashes in the nearby green flesh. Because of the wind running wild in the passage, the boundaries between them became blurred. 
It was not the melody of a beautiful wind. 
The spirit wind that the creature had seen so many times before turned into an inky storm swirling around Aiz. 
“ ? Gh?!” 
In that same moment, in places far from their fight, in the six chambers, the six spirits all simultaneously screamed. 
“Wh…?!” 
Finn, Gareth, Tiona, Tione, the Xenos, and all the other adventurers engaging with the demi-spirits saw it happen. Even the demi-spirits’ bodies stopped singing as they held their heads and cried out in anguish. All the intricate counterattack spells cut off, as if they were recoiling in fear from the sinister black storm that had been summoned inside them. 
“? ” 
While Knossos was consumed in a chaotic quake, time stopped for Levis. Her green eyes snapped open wide. It was the first time that genuine monster had set eyes upon a true beast besides herself. 
“ ? !!” 
Though it had ground to a halt for a moment, the green flesh started creating magic circles again. The attack spells that had stopped because of Levis’s thoughts all of a sudden began again as one. They had received the spirits’ command and created a cage of more than a hundred magic circles, with every last one aimed at Aiz. 
All the elements and all the magic. If it could manage to fire, this simultaneous barrage would completely destroy the girl and her black storm. 
However, none of that meant a thing to Aiz now. 
“Nizelle.” 
She launched herself off the floor with just her right foot. That alone was enough to make the flesh burst apart. The black gust of air whipped into a gale that almost looked like a raging fire, blasting away the film of green flesh on the floor and even the stone paving beneath it. 


 


She broke free from the magic cannons’ encirclement, leaving it behind in the blink of an eye. As the accelerating shock wave from impact spread outward and the hundred magic circles were being shredded to pieces, Aiz appeared directly in front of Levis. 
“? Gh?!” 
From a close range, the black storm brought Levis back to her senses. The girl was expressionless as she prepared to attack. She held her sword raised high above her head. And then she swung it down with a single vertical slash. It was a stance for striking down an enemy who had left themselves open to attack, and she was using it despite the fact that she was assaulting Levis head-on. But even that meant nothing to Aiz now. 
In truth, Levis was not able to fully respond to it in her current state. Using the wind pressure that was brutally blowing right in front of her, the creature used all her strength to retreat as the blade swung down. 
And it broke . 
“What?!” 
Aiz’s sword broke the adamantite floor—and the structure of Knossos was supposed to be indestructible. 
Green flesh splattered. Fragments of stone and metal blasted through the air. The floor shattered, making a giant crater like a meteorite had fallen there. And a hole opened. 
Levis was struck by a sense of weightlessness. And then she was swallowed up by the darkness leading to the next floor, still shuddering as she fell. 
“I will beat you.” 
“—Ghhh, Ariaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” 
Levis screamed as the girl leaped into the hole to pursue her. Using her black storm, Aiz accelerated in midair, closing in on the creature who had no foothold, mercilessly hitting her with a slash. 
The splattering of flesh and shattering of bones were melodic. 
Losing an arm to a single blow, Levis crossed blades with Aiz at a disadvantage. But if she had not done so, she would have died. 
As the creature took the brunt of that charge, the top half of the cursed sword broke off, but she still desperately swung it. She was able to avoid lethal blows; however, there was a lot of blood pumping from her stomach. Her lips were red with fresh blood. With one exchange, Levis fell, and Aiz used her wind to kick off the wall and immediately chase the creature. Levis would not be allowed to escape. The black wind billowed, lashing out. 
Overpowered by the wind, her sword broken, tossed about by the gale, she was pierced through while in the air. 
One, two, three, four. As Aiz’s sword transformed into wind and roared, she broke through four adamantite walls and then through the floor again. 
Despite being in an underground labyrinth, Levis was experiencing the weightlessness of free-falling through the air. As rage and fear filled Levis’s eyes, fragments of metal and thousands of bits of green flesh filled her vision, making it hard to see. She fell and fell and fell some more. She fell to a far deeper floor as pieces of her body were carved away. 
And then… 
“Gaaaah?!” Levis slammed into the floor of a big chamber with a resounding boom. It was a wide area blanketed in green flesh. Levis could immediately guess it was the twelfth floor due to the distance from the demi-spirits. 
“This will do.” 
After knocking Levis down through two whole floors, Aiz landed gently using her wind as a rain of adamantite and flesh crashed down around her. This would be the true location of their final battle. 
“Aria, you bitch…” 
Levis no longer had her right arm; her gnarled left foot had lost all shape and form. Anyone who did not know better would surely believe she was down for the count. She had been stretched to her limit by the sword’s wind, and her whole body was covered in lacerations. There was nowhere on her without some open wound. 
With a face warped in rage, Levis got up, wounds giving off a hot steam as the creature’s regeneration kicked in. The severed right arm was quickly mended. She slammed the last bit of her sword’s hilt that remained into the ground. 
“Where were you keeping that monster?! Why haven’t you used it before?!” 
“I couldn’t use it. Because I was always imagining you were human. Even though you have extreme power, somewhere in my heart, I thought you weren’t a monster, since we could communicate with each other.” 
Avenger. According to Loki, it was an incomparably powerful rare Skill—the most potent one, even among all her followers. The effect was a strong increase in power based on the strength of her desire for revenge. Its target was hideous monsters. 
Until now, Aiz had not been able to view Levis as a monster. Or, rather, Levis did not fall into the neat box that the girl had created to define them. But she had overcome this obstacle by training with a certain strongest. 
“But after fighting him…after fighting Warlord, he taught me: I need to use everything I have to beat you.” 
And more importantly… 
“…There are monsters who can speak human words. There was a dragon with a human heart.” 
A troubled look appeared on Aiz’s otherwise expressionless face as she put her heartbreaking thoughts into words. The image of a single vouivre crossed her mind. Under that moonlit night, there was the dragon girl who had been protected by that boy, who then had protected him—the dragon girl who had cried as she pleaded with Aiz. 
“The exact opposite of you. You have a monster’s heart.” 
Aiz did not know the answer to this question: If a monster could reason and cry, could it really be a monster? Or was someone in a human shell committing atrocities the true monster? 
She had been at a loss after meeting the Xenos. Were monsters an absolute evil that needed to be destroyed or not? 
“I’ll be the one to decide who is a person and who is a monster.” 
And now, she finally spoke the answer she had been avoiding. 
“I’ll decide with my own eyes who to use this power on!” 
That was the answer Aiz had reached after the chance encounter with the Xenos. She would not burn everything down indiscriminately with that black blaze. She would not become a puppet to the raging howls of her Skill. Instead, she would use her golden eyes to direct her sword. Even as she was eaten away by the black flames, her eyes were lit with the light of that resolve like a sword. 
Levis stood dumbfounded as the girl’s glare pierced her. 
“…Bh.” Finally, air passed through the creature’s lips. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” 
Levis laughed. It was the first time Aiz had ever heard her chuckle. 
“You’ve changed, Aria…Yes…you’ve changed.” 
“…” 
“Compared to our first encounter…Your eyes never looked like that before. When your eyes were black all the way to the bottom, it was similar to ours.” 
While the creature’s body was recovering, giving off a hot steam, Levis compared a scene from her memory with what stood before her now. 
“What changed you? How did you become that strong? For the first time, I’m a bit curious about you.” 
True to her words, her eyes were filled with interest as she ran her fingers over her wounded stomach that had fixed itself, up across her own voluptuous bosom, her neck, and then her cheek. 
“Aria, until today, you were my everything. Stealing you away was my job.” 
“…” 
“Everything in this world is worthless. I’m not even sure what meaning there is in doing this. Even though I have something that I must protect at all costs, it’s really just inertia pushing me forward.” 
The pessimistic creature finally unveiled her own thoughts for the first time. Stowed away in her gradually strengthening tone was a fighting spirit that did pale in comparison to Aiz’s. 
“But when I’m chasing you! When I’m facing off against you! When that happened, surprisingly, that might have been the only time I was happy! When I was crossing blades with you, it might have been the only time I could forget myself!” Levis howled, as if her withered emotions were returning with their full force. 
“That must be why I’m so happy to face off against you now that you’ve changed into this!” 
“That’s not how I feel.” 
And on the other end, Aiz stared down the monster before her, her eyes giving off a sort of black glint. 
—Don’t be consumed by it. Control it. And remember. 
 The enemy facing you now is… 
Aiz had an enemy she needed to defeat, a being that could not be forgiven. She had an irreplaceable wish. However, her target was not Levis. 
“You are my enemy. And a stepping-stone. I will defeat you and then go fulfill my wish.” 
Levis cackled even more maniacally. 
“That’s in your nature, Aria! A dollish face and a childish determination not to lose! How horribly impertinent! But that’s fine. You are fine just the way you are!” 
In the next instant, her eyes flared as she stuck her arm into the green flesh on the floor. 
“Come, you useless fragments!” 
“!!” 
Shock flashed through Aiz’s eyes. Starting where she stuck her hand into the floor, the green flesh began to gradually rise, eating into Levis. It was a flesh brimming with magic, an armor created by the corrupted spirit that granted power beyond human understanding. 
Crawling from Levis’s right hand, arm, and shoulder, the green flesh violated Levis’s right side, synchronizing with her and turning a crimson color. It became an armor of flesh bonded to her body. 
The red surface was gnarled with vessels like leafy veins adhering to her skin. The enormous, eyelike organ embedded in her right shoulder stared at Aiz. 
“If you’ve changed, then…I have to change, too.” 
As Levis stood up from her kneeling position, she withdrew something as she pulled out the arm she had thrust into the floor. 
She drew a crimson longsword from the floor with a ghastly burbling sound. The sword was steeped in magic, the spirits’ corrupted sword. 
“Let’s begin. This really will be our final battle.” 
There was a popping sound as the vessel running along Levis’s cheek burst, letting out an explosion of magic that her body could not contain. The wound was immediately healed by her regeneration, but there was just another pop in a different location as boiling blood splattered across the floor. 
The creature’s body was gradually self-destructing. However, Aiz was in the same position. The black wind blasting all around her was steadily eating away at her slender body. Levis was not the only one summoning a power beyond what her body could withstand. 
“…” 
“…” 
They both quietly readied their blades. The violent waves from the black wind whipped their hair through the air, and the unsightly flesh armor trembled in the face of its prey. 
This was the fourth time. The fourth time that they had crossed blades. When one lost, they would train to win the next time, causing the other to go off in search of strength. 
To stamp the last ticket in that unending relationship, they both rampaged wildly. 
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” 
With a howl, the creature sprinted, tearing up the floor where she’d launched off. Aiz responded by lowering her body and disappearing. The black wind shattered the ground in a single blow as she accelerated even faster than the monstrous woman, closing the distance between them. 
The monster howled against the roar of the black wind as they clashed. 
 



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