CHAPTER 5 THE BATTLE OF RIVIRA
Lefiya stared out at the carnage unfolding before her eyes.
The town, normally beautiful at night with its scattered magic-stone lamps and sparkling crystals, was being destroyed.
It was impossible to miss the incredible number of plant monsters, their long bodies whipping from side to side as they charged forward. The river of slithering forms cleared the town wall moments after reaching it and scaled the cliff faces like fish jumping up a waterfall. There were enough of them already in town that Rivira itself looked yellowish-green in the dim light.
The onslaught crushed tent after tent and shop after shop, scattering their remains into the air along with the sea of tendrils.
Vibrant petals of the beasts’ heads flashed as rocks, crystals, people, and anything else unfortunate enough to be in the town were trampled beneath the stampede.
Lefiya’s dark blue eyes shook as they took in the pandemonium below, a shrieking chorus of screams and roars reaching her ears.
“Wh-what’s going on, what’s happening…?!”
“Monsters. They’re attacking the town.”
Lulune visibly shook with fear. Even Aiz couldn’t hide her surprise.
The blond girl was known for being aloof, but now her gaze was sharp, her eyebrows low.
Upon further inspection, she could see that adventurers in Crystal Square were starting to fight back. The high vantage point here gave her a great view of a jade magic circle that had formed in the middle of the square. Monsters from all around were drawn to it like moths to a flame, and hundreds of adventurers broken into small battle parties were there waiting for them. More than likely, Finn was fighting alongside them.
The monsters farther away from Crystal Square ignored Riveria’s magic energy and continued to rampage through the town. Some smashed their heads into the vending stalls and small shops, or thrust them into cave entrances, while others chased after the adventurers who were running away from the square. In the middle of the pandemonium, a flash of silver cut through one of the monsters’ bodies every few seconds. Aiz guessed it was probably Tiona using Urga.
“Let’s go back to the square and meet up with Finn.”
No one disagreed with Aiz’s decision.
A fierce battle might have been raging in the center of Rivira, but it was the safest place to be.
Lulune nodded up and down as though her life depended on it. Lefiya responded with a quick “Yes.”
Readjusting the shoulder strap of the pouch, Lefiya left the high ground right behind the other girls. Just then…
“OOOOOooooOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!”
“?!”
A howl like that of a broken bell echoed through the air as a plant creature crawled down in front of the girls.
It arrived with such vigor that it trailed a small landslide of rocks and debris in its wake as it slid down the cliff face and into their path. The girls came to a sudden halt, their eyes wide. Aiz reacted in a heartbeat and rushed forward with her sword drawn, leaving the still-awestruck Lefiya and Lulune behind.
The monster was cut down in an instant, but Lefiya’s relief was short-lived, as a distant rumble strong enough to make her body shake came down from above. She looked up to find its source.
“More from over there, too…?!”
“You gotta be kidding!”
The three girls were still technically in the town, in the northwest corner close to the wall.
A swarm of the monsters appeared as they poured over the top of it.
Lefiya didn’t wait for Lulune to finish screaming before running into another pathway, past the remains of the opponent Aiz just took down. The creature leading the charge came to a halt over its fallen kin’s corpse before swinging the head of its long body toward the path as it continued its pursuit.
“Lefiya, get to the square!”
“Miss Aiz?!”
The pathway was a dead end; the girls were trapped. Aiz jumped out from the group, charging headlong into the oncoming horde.
She unleashed a storm of slashes. Aiz was able to hold the onslaught at bay, cutting down monster after monster without hesitation.
Lefiya stood in awe for a moment, watching Aiz’s golden hair sway back and forth. Her first instinct was to try to help the girl who was facing numerous enemies alone. As much as it pained her, though, she contained the urge, grabbed Lulune’s hand, and took off at a sprint.
She would only hold Aiz back if she stayed here. The monsters reacted to magic energy. So if she were to start conjuring magic, it would force Aiz to defend her rather than go on the offensive. Lefiya and Lulune might have been at Level 3, but the monsters were at least that powerful, if not more. Their hides would have been too tough for them to crack. The two of them alone wouldn’t be able to defend themselves in battle, let alone counterattack.
But with saber in hand, this number of enemies wouldn’t be a problem for Aiz.
She had to do what Aiz could not: deliver the crystal orb to Finn and escort Lulune to safety as soon as possible. There was a murderess on the loose in Rivira in addition to the monsters.
The elf repeated these facts to herself over and over, gritting her teeth as she ran with Lulune in tow. Her thin legs carried her as fast as they could, feet kicking hard against the ground with every stride.
The path led directly to Crystal Square. However, it was crawling with monsters, so they decided to take a detour through a northern pass that was far less overrun. They were careful to avoid the man-eating plants and took shortcuts in an effort to shave seconds off their arrival time.
Angry howls filling the air around them, the two girls emerged from the path into an area of the town that might as well be called a crystal forest.
Cluster Street.
Like Crystal Square, it was one of Rivira’s famous locations.
It had earned its name from the clusters of large crystals that shot up from the ground like pillars. There were so many, in fact, that they created many intersecting paths that were about as wide as the backstreets aboveground. The crystals reflected anyone who walked through, making the whole area appear like a labyrinth of mirrors. This was also the only place in Rivira where the pathways had been paved with stone.
Two sets of feet echoed against the crystal walls. Lefiya’s and Lulune’s faces reflected off the many surfaces as they raced through.
“Whoa, damn! Was that an explosion?!”
“That was…Riveria’s magic!”
A thunderous roar filled the air as a pillar of flames erupted from the middle of town.
Lulune’s shoulders trembled as she watched the dim blue of “night” over Rivira give way to a flood of red-hot light. The crystals flashed around them. Even the ceiling itself looked crimson as sparks danced into the air.
“Whooaaaaaaa.” The impressed voices of the adventurers in the square reached their ears. Lefiya knew immediately that many of the monsters had been incinerated by the most powerful fire magic in Orario.
“…?!”
A figure appeared in the midst of the flashes and shadows from the flames.
Sparks rained down around the being in the girls’ path.
A male adventurer…?
Leg armor, gauntlets around the arms, and a breastplate.
The man was completely decked out in black armor.
A shabby rag was wrapped around his neck, and a helmet covered his head. The skin on the exposed half of his face was dark, the rest wrapped in a bandage. Lefiya could only see his right eye, and it was blankly staring at her.
The elf’s eyebrows curved upward as she began to feel something was off. Meanwhile, the man started to walk toward Lefiya, not saying a word.
“S-stop right there!!”
Lefiya yelled out of reflex.
The man’s ominous aura—not much different from that of a black beast from the bowels of the Dungeon—was overwhelming. Lefiya raised her staff.
However, the man took no heed. Step after step, the distance between them was steadily vanishing.
Lulune pulled her ears back, tail nervously swishing behind her while she growled at the approaching man. Her animal instincts were becoming more pronounced as the color drained from her face. Her eyes locked on the armor that covered the legs that were getting ever closer as he walked down the middle of the narrow five-meder path. Meanwhile, Lefiya’s sweaty hands tightened their grip on her staff, her lips a heartbeat away from conjuring a spell.
Then, the moment he came within ten steps of their position—the man disappeared.
He was too fast for Lefiya to react.
His approach was so quick that he was in the elf’s face before she had time to show surprise. In that same instant, he grabbed hold of her neck with one hand.
“Gah—!”
Her feet left the ground as the man picked her up, as if she was as light as a toothpick.
The gauntlet’s cold grip wrapped all the way around her neck. The unrelenting metal pressed up against her skin, and a chilling fear overtook Lefiya. She lost her grip on her staff. It landed with a clatter on the stone pavement at her feet.
She grabbed the man’s right arm with both hands in a panic, but his hold showed no signs of weakening, no matter how hard she pulled.
Each of the five fingers started to tighten, threatening to choke—no, crush—her throat. The man’s strength was immense.
“Ugh-ugahhhhh!”
Lulune’s body shook, her mind going blank as she charged forward. She dived headlong at the man, eyes flashing.
She whipped out her knife as she came to Lefiya’s aid, but the man didn’t even look at her, only swung his left arm in her direction. A moment later, she collided with the nearest crystal.
A large web of cracks appeared as her back slammed into it. The dog girl fell to the ground in a heap.
“Ah…! Ug, uh…?”
Lefiya gasped for breath as she began to lose her grasp on consciousness.
Her light golden hair meekly swayed back and forth as her kicking started to slow down. She could feel the strain on the bones in her neck through her entire body, each pop sending waves of pain down her spine.
Her mouth was wide open, gasping for air that couldn’t get through. Tears were building up in her eyes. The man’s grip had forced her to look upward, so she was unable to see the utter lack of emotion on his face.
Crick! Her thin neck started to contort.
The hands that had been desperately pulling against the gauntlet fell limp at her sides.
She heard the scythe of death itself coming down from above her.
—Miss Aiz.
The last of the crimson-shaded crystals on the ceiling blurring in her vision, one solitary tear rolled down Lefiya’s cheek as she tried to whisper Aiz’s name.
A moment later…
“OOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Large clusters of crystals blew apart in small explosions as pieces of a plant monster’s body plowed through them.
Shards of crystal scattered through the air, reflecting the creature’s final moments. Lefiya’s eyes opened as the dying cries reached her ears.
Eyes unblinking and full of resolve, the blond knight had arrived at the last possible second.
“!!”
As the man gazed at the girl who had appeared at his side, Aiz brought down her saber.
The armored man dropped Lefiya without a second thought and narrowly evaded a fatal blow. A long, sharp gash appeared in his breastplate.
Thump. Lefiya’s limp body hit the stone pavement. The Sword Princess immediately jumped between her friend and the mysterious adventurer, standing in front of the crystal carnage created by the monster’s dying body. The two warriors squared off against each other.
Aiz’s saber whipped through the air under the “sky,” which was glowing red with fire.
Cough, cough.
Aiz heard Lefiya coughing and gasping for breath behind her. However, all her attention was focused on the person standing before her.
A male adventurer covered in black armor. As far as she could tell, the only weapon he had was the longsword at his waist. Despite the amount of armor covering his body, it seemed only average in strength. None of it appeared to be extremely high quality.
His unnaturally deep left eye glared back at her, and he clicked his tongue.
“Lefiya, are you okay?”
“F-fine…”
Lefiya’s breathing was slowly but surely returning to normal as she responded to Aiz. Still sitting on the ground, she used one hand to massage her neck while the other wiped the tears away from her eyes. Still, she didn’t look away from the man.
The dying monster had slammed into part of the crystal wall behind the mysterious black figure. One of the pillars had collapsed, shutting off potential exits through Cluster Street. The man in black armor kept his distance. He’d waited for a chance to kill Lefiya as soon as she left Aiz’s side.
The blond knight had used all her might to lay waste to the monster ambush and managed to catch up with the other girls before the man could succeed, but the timing was too perfect not to have been planned out in advance.
“…Are you the one who killed Hashana?”
Echoes of other adventurers fighting not too far away reached their ears as Aiz decided to use the momentary pause to try and get an answer.
All information thus far had said the killer was female. But Aiz just couldn’t shake the feeling that this man was Hashana’s true killer.
The two girls watched closely as the man spoke for the first time.
“What if I am?”
Both of the girls’ eyes went round the moment they heard the voice.
It was high-pitched, unbefitting his appearance—a woman’s voice.
“So, you are not male…?” Lefiya asked in confusion.
The elf couldn’t take her eyes off the masculine body and clearly male face.
The face was nearly devoid of emotion, and half of it was wrapped up in a bandage, but there was no room for doubt. It definitely belonged to a dark-skinned, virile male. Nothing about his appearance was feminine.
The stone-faced figure drily explained:
“I just peeled it off.”
“Eh…?”
“I just peeled the face off the corpse. Now I’m wearing it.”
Words failed Lefiya.
Even Aiz was having difficulty believing what she had just heard.
“Injecting a dead body with ‘Poison Vermis’ prevents skin decay…Didn’t you know?”
He—no, she—spoke in a perfect monotone, which only served to amplify the chill running down Aiz’s and Lefiya’s spines.
In other words, the person in front of them had stolen that face.
After breaking Hashana’s neck, she literally cut his face off.
The reason the body was found without a head wasn’t because of the temper tantrum.
—It was to conceal the fact that his face had been stolen.
“So you mean, that face belonged to Mr. Hashana…?”
Color that was finally returning to Lefiya’s face drained away again with each word. Her hands covered her mouth in shock.
The woman wearing a mask of flesh neither confirmed nor denied her words. At this point, she didn’t need to respond.
Aiz squinted, trying to get a better look at the figure’s face. The purpose of the bandages wasn’t to conceal identity or heal from injury, but to hide the parts that didn’t line up with her real face.
“Ah, screw this, it’s too frickin’ tight.”
The woman ignored the two girls staring at her and started roughly removing her armor in frustration.
She stuck her fingers into the gash in her breastplate and tore it off her body. As pieces of the armor fell to the ground, two breasts, still restrained by an inner shirt, burst forward toward freedom. Tearing away even more of the protective covering, the woman exposed the silky white skin on her neck, arms, and legs.
The powerful impression of the male face had thrown everyone off. She had created the mask in order to stay in Rivira and look for the item Hashana had been carrying. Since the investigation had focused solely on women, she’d found a way to remove herself from the list of suspects from the beginning.
It was a strange sight to behold, a man from the neck up but a woman from the shoulders down. Suddenly, rip.
The anti-deterioration agent must have worn off, because the mask started to flake off her face. White skin appeared around her left eye—a woman’s skin.
At long last, the woman looked up with only her helmet, knee plates, and gauntlets still on her body.
“I’ll be taking the seed now.”
With that, the woman drew the longsword hanging from her waist and charged directly at Aiz.
“!”
“You’re strong, just as I thought.”
Aiz met her at full speed.
Desperate and her opponent’s longsword clashed as Aiz took the fight as far away from Lefiya as possible.
Aiz moved at the same blinding speed as the woman. Eyes narrowing, the blond knight intensified her attack.
“…?!”
Lefiya was speechless as she watched the furious sword fight unfold.
The longsword swung down, and the saber cut to the side. Silver arcs carved through the air, each sword coming in for another pass only to be rejected and come back for more. The two women were a blur as they attacked each other from all possible angles. The narrow street between the pillars didn’t allow much room to maneuver, but the two warriors changed positions constantly as they matched blow for blow.
What’s more, their reflections in the many crystals made it appear as though entire armies were engaging in an all-out brawl in the middle of Cluster Street.
—She’s so strong!!
Aiz was taken aback by her opponent’s display.
The techniques that she polished through countless hours of training and combat weren’t enough to match the woman’s skills. The mysterious fighter didn’t just rely on swordsmanship; she mixed in a flurry of punches and kicks, the likes of which Aiz had never seen. She was forced onto the defensive. Her arms were already covered in bruises from her opponent’s gauntlets. Every impact from the longsword or one of her slicing kicks sent waves of pain through her entire body. Even though she was finding small windows to counterattack with her saber, her opponent’s blade was coming close enough to cut strands of her blond hair every time she dodged.
She couldn’t believe she didn’t know the name of an adventurer with such skill and prowess.
Whose face was hidden behind the mask? Aiz kept trying to get a closer look.
“—Unleashed pillar of light, limbs of the holy tree. You are the master archer.”
Suddenly, the words of an enchantment filled the air from behind Aiz.
Lefiya had picked up her staff. There was no time for her to climb back to her feet. A golden magic circle appeared around her as she sat on the stone surface.
Ranged support was inbound. The mysterious woman’s gaze fell on Lefiya. Aiz jumped in the way in an attempt to distract her.
“Loose your arrows, fairy archers. Pierce, arrow of accuracy!”
The amount of sparks from the fight drastically increased in that instant. Lefiya completed her trigger spell as quickly as possible.
Their opponent was unable to break away from the wall Aiz had created with her saber.
A beautiful yet powerful voice echoed through the air as a pillar of light erupted from the magic circle.
“Arcs Ray!”
An arrow of light barreled forward.
It was a single-target spell that was designed for speed. However, Lefiya had poured a large amount of Mind into the attack. Compounded with her high Magic ability, the spell looked less like an arrow and more like a beam.
Additionally, the light was like a homing missile. Once launched, the energy of the spell took on a life of its own and would not dissipate until it hit its target.
The brilliant light illuminated the crystals of Cluster Street. Aiz quickly sidestepped the oncoming spell as the female adventurer squinted her left eye—and stuck out her arm.
“Eh?!”
“?!”
Lefiya and Aiz watched on in disbelief as the woman stopped the beam with the palm of her hand.
Thunderous roars echoed through the street as a spray of light particles diffused from the main arrow. The gauntlet couldn’t handle the energy and shattered, but the woman’s skin was unaffected. Instead of backing down, she was pushing back.
Swinging her arm with all her might, she sent the beam off its course and hurtling into the wall diagonally in front of her.
“~~~~~~~~~~~?!”
Crystal debris rode the shock wave that blasted its way through Cluster Street.
Lefiya’s scream and Lulune’s unconscious body were swept up into it as well. At the same time, Lefiya lost her grip on the pouch in her hand and the cover flap fell open. The blue-green crystal orb rolled out onto the ground.
It took a moment for Aiz to recover her balance after the impact, and the woman saw her chance to attack.
“?!”
The longsword grazed the surface of Aiz’s skin. The merciless attack signaled the start of the next round.
The knight’s blond hair swished as she jumped back into combat. She couldn’t believe it—her opponent was moving even faster than before. Her already immense power had increased exponentially, with a boost in speed, making Aiz’s arms go numb every time Desperate collided with the longsword.
She couldn’t see the depth of her opponent’s strength.
The emotionless eye staring back at her made chills run down her spine.
“Keh—!”
She struggled to hold a downward swing at bay, her body bending backward underneath its force.
Aiz’s face showed a trace of fear for the first time since the fight began. She knew she couldn’t afford to hesitate. Lefiya and Lulune would be in danger if she didn’t give her all immediately.
She had never used her magic in a fight against another person because she felt it was unfair to her opponent, too strong for a duel. It was time to abandon that way of thinking.
“Awaken, Tempest!!”
The trigger spell flowed from her lips.
“Airiel” was triggered by Aiz’s call. Air currents enveloped her sword and body in the blink of an eye.
Aiz reengaged her opponent with the explosion of speed granted to her by her magic.
“Wha-?”
Genuine surprise appeared in the woman’s left eye.
The impact nearly knocked the longsword from the killer’s grasp, and it threw her opposite shoulder forward. Although she had managed to block the blade in time, she couldn’t keep her feet and stumbled backward under the incredible force of Aiz’s magically enhanced saber.
Wind roared through the battlefield on the next strike. The torrent of air was strong enough to knock the murderess’s helmet off her head, taking most of the flesh mask with it. Crack, crack, crack! The stone pavement beneath her feet crumbled as the woman desperately tried to maintain her balance as the gale blew her backward. As soon as she came to a stop, the now-uncovered woman looked up.
Hair the color of blood danced in the breeze.
Most of the short, fine strands were held together in a small knot at the top of her neck. Her hair was cut roughly, as if it had been much longer before.
Her green eyes sparkled like gems.
Half of the woman’s true face was visible beneath the heavily damaged bandages that managed to still cling to her head. Her pure white skin and symmetric features twisted as her long left eye went wide.
“That wind…So then, you must be Aria.”
The blond knight’s eyes widened at the mention of that word.
Ba-dum. Aiz’s heart beat so hard it was almost deafening. The shock was so intense that she couldn’t speak, the word “why” threatening to overload her mind.
Her thin neck quivered.
For one moment, both warriors stared at each other in shock. The silence was eerie.
“—AaaaaaaAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
It came out of nowhere.
Inside the crystal orb on the ground—the female fetus screamed.
“?!”
Aiz spun around to find the source of the earsplitting pitch.
Of course, the red-haired woman heard it, too. But before she could react…
The fetus inside the orb started to thrash about, slamming its tiny hands and head with eyes much too big for his body size against the green shell until it cracked.
“AaaaAAAHHHH!!”
Aiz’s magic seemed to have triggered this frenzy. It was unclear where its tiny body got the strength, but a moment later the creature launched the crystal orb, two or three times bigger than itself, flying through the air like a rogue cannonball.
Aiz could see the thing’s unnervingly large eyes hurtling toward her as she quickly jumped out of the way. The orb kept flying through the air, leaking liquid on the way past.
It collided with the dead monster halfway buried in the crystal wall. The sphere shattered and the fetus seeped into the monster’s body like a parasite.
“Wha—”
“OOOOoooooooOOOOOOOOOoOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The should-have-been-dead monster behind Aiz and the red-haired woman howled.
The fetus was sealing itself into the monster’s hide and causing other changes to its body in the process.
A series of red veins worked their way around its body like thick spiderwebs under its skin. The monster’s howls coincided with each new blood vessel.
Thrash! The beast flinched as if it had been shot with electricity before rearing up.
Muscles pulsed.
Lefiya froze at the other end of Cluster Street. Every twist, every painful howl, every jolt the creature experienced as it slowly transformed was reflected in her dark blue eyes.
One transformation was leading to another.
It was an unnatural change, perhaps a sort of forced evolution.
The thing that had resided within the orb was changing the monster into something else. Was the sphere a kind of forbidden fruit, perhaps?
Aiz watched in horror as something started to emerge with an unbearable sound from the place where the fetus had sealed itself to the monster.
Something that looked human. Like a moth breaking free from a pupa, the shape was becoming more and more defined with each passing moment.
“?OOOOOoOHHHHH!”
The writhing monster, still in the middle of transformation, suddenly attacked without warning.
Aiz saw the creature coming, its thrashing body smashing its way toward her with no rhyme or reason. Picking up Lefiya and Lulune’s unconscious body, she immediately started to retreat. She carried the injured girls away, as the monster repeatedly crashed its body into the crystalline path while it chased after them.
“Awww! This ruins everything…!”
The red-haired woman couldn’t hide her frustration as she, too, withdrew from the scene.
The thick crimson veins had worked their way through the creature’s entire body. However, it was focused solely on pursuing Aiz. Plowing through groups of crystals rather than going around them, it roared with such ferocity that each one was physically painful to the girls’ ears. Aiz used a combination of dead sprints and leaping bounds to lead the creature on a wild chase through Cluster Street. She knew full well she couldn’t fight like this and had decided to change course.
Meanwhile, the monster was nearing the end of its evolution when it happened to encounter other flowered beasts—and devoured them on sight.
A gruesome scene greeted Aiz’s gaze when she looked over her shoulder. Bits and pieces of broken monsters were merging together.
The next thing that Aiz’s golden eyes saw was—
—A human female shape emerging from the back of the parasite-infected monster, stretching its arms the same way a moth would spread its wings for the first time.
“What’s that, an octopus?”
“Isn’t that what we fought on floor fifty…?!”
Many battles raged throughout Rivira. Tiona and Tione paused to take note of the sudden appearance of the massive new foe.
Tiona’s comparison was fairly accurate. The beast was transforming itself into something resembling an octopus. The main difference was that it had well over ten legs, each limb slithering and howling like it had a mind of its own and ending in the head of a flower monster. Above the area where the legs attached was a vibrantly colored, remarkably human female figure that was large enough to identify from a good distance away. It was very similar to the legendary half-human/half-octopus beast that was said to once roam the coastlines, Scylla.
It was that female shape that reminded Tione of the monster they had encountered on the fiftieth floor of the Dungeon not too long ago during their previous expedition. The one Aiz slew had had a lower body shape like a caterpillar, but the similarities were too obvious to ignore.
The figure on top of the monster finally stopped twisting and turning, settling down now that its metamorphosis was complete. Slowly, very slowly, its featureless head rose to its full height, and the beast started to move.
The monster set its course for the center of town, Crystal Square. Tiona and Tione gave chase.
“No one around here’s under attack by monsters anymore, right?”
“Everyone that’s safe should have been sent back to the square! We’re going, now!”
Tiona called out to her older sister as she ran. Tione yelled back, kicking up loose rocks and crystal shards in her wake as she zipped by.
The carnage the Amazons left behind showed just how one-sided the battle had been. Decapitated monster heads littered the ground, and what was left of their bodies was embedded in the cliff face or in crystal pillars.
The girls made a beeline straight for Crystal Square, leaping and bounding over the remains of the tents and small shops that once lined the street.
“Where did they come from…is what I’d like to figure out…But finishing them off is more important.”
“Yes, I completely agree.”
“How the hell are the two of you so calm?! Get your asses moving!”
Riveria and Finn watched the monsters intently, studying their movements while Bors was on the verge of a breakdown beside them, yelling at the top of his lungs.
Aiz had arrived at Crystal Square, carrying Lefiya and Lulune over her shoulders. The many legs of the octopus monster followed close behind, each one of them howling and madly snapping in her direction. It was true that a great deal of the fiends in the square had been incinerated by Riveria’s magic, but the adventurers were still busy contending with the survivors. Many of them forgot to breathe the moment the hideous creature came into their line of sight.
The man-eating flowers that made up its legs were nearly twice as thick as the rest of their kin. They moved like flexible tree trunks as they advanced deeper into the square. Crimson veins bulged out of their greenish-yellow bodies as they thrashed about like they were overcome with rage or had gone insane.
In sharp contrast to the many layers of howls erupting from its crazed lower body, the brilliantly colored upper body appeared rather tranquil. Its face lacked eyes and a nose, but featured a slightly open mouth that looked large enough to swallow a human being whole. Waves of green hair flowed from the back of its head all the way down to its waist. It was the one thing on the creature’s body that could be considered beautiful.
The arms that emerged from its shoulders split into many tendrils at the elbow. They hung down loosely over the top of her numerous legs.
“Was another fetus responsible for creating that monster on the fiftieth floor…?” Lefiya whispered, her eyes glued to the beast as Aiz put her on the ground.
The creature was physically larger than the female-figured thing they’d encountered much deeper in the Dungeon because it had ingested several of the plant monsters. It was only about six meders tall, but thanks to its many legs, it took up an incredible amount of space. Even with its legs bent as it walked, the octopus monster was at least ten meders wide.
“We’re back!”
“Eww, that thing’s even more disgusting up close.”
The Amazonian twins arrived from overhead, landing in the square.
The last of the sparks from Riveria’s magic were fading away over the town. The octopus’s eyeless gaze fell on the reunited battle party.
“!”
It made its move.
Whoosh! All the heads at the ends of its legs looked up like a pack of wild dogs. They all charged at Aiz as one, obliterating anything standing in their path.
The blond knight passed Lulune’s unconscious body to Lefiya before running in the opposite direction. She was determined not to let the others gets dragged into the fight. Several pairs of fanged jaws clamped shut where she’d been standing a moment earlier. The creature continued its pursuit, destroying the twin crystals in the middle of the square in the process.
“It is focused on Aiz!”
“I wonder if it’s because of the wind surrounding her body.”
Riveria and Finn, staff and spear in hand respectively, analyzed the situation as they advanced.
However, Tiona and Tione got there first. Taking aim at two of the legs snapping at Aiz’s heels, they jumped in.
“Hi-yahh—!!”
“OOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOO!”
Tiona drove Urga straight through the neck of the nearest flowered leg. The silver blade flashed as the head let out a dying cry.
Tiona had been given the title of Amazon because of her desire to cut down her enemies. She lived up to her name in full as her beloved Urga severed the head in one clean stroke. It was the same as in the earlier battle, despite the creature’s increasing girth. The end of the thick leg arced through the air.
“—!”
“That hurt!”
The now-headless limb was spewing blood high into the air, but that didn’t stop it from launching Tiona straight back, hitting her like a thick whip.
Blocking the attack with the flat part of Urga’s blade, Tiona rolled over her shoulder and jumped back to her feet.
“They’re a heck of a lot stronger! And they don’t die after losing their heads anymore!”
“They’re nothing more than legs now! Of course they’d keep kicking!”
Tione took a different approach from her sister’s wildly directed aggression, using: calm, precise strikes. Her Kukri flashed as she turned another one of the creature’s veiny extremities into cold cuts, yelled back to her sister, and dodged the other flailing limbs.
Tione saw that the leg she was working on had gone limp and used the window to press her advantage. However, the upper body also saw the opening and moved to defend.
Shifting its attention from Aiz, it launched its many tendrils toward the Amazonian warrior.
“Damn!”
Tione spun her body in midair, Kukri flashing as they deflected each of the stems one after the other. However, the next wave of vines came in from other angles, forcing Tione to retreat. She withdrew another knife from its sheath at her waist and flung it straight at the monster at point-blank range before jumping away.
The female figure raised a tendril to block the incoming white blade. She knocked it off course, but—Shing!—the tendril was lost.
“Riveria, I’m going ahead.”
“Understood—You, over there! Lend me that bow!”
“Y-yes, my lady!”
Finn charged into battle, severing one of the creature’s legs on his first pass. Riveria turned to an elf who happened to be among the adventurers still in Crystal Square.
No elf could refuse the order of a high elf. He carried a high-powered bow as a sub weapon, but surrendered it and his quiver of arrows to Riveria as soon as she rushed to his side.
Gracefully attaching the quiver to her belt, she withdrew one of the needlelike blue arrows in one swift motion. It was nocked and fired in the blink of an eye, followed quickly by a whole slew of them. Purposely burying them into the upper body’s tendrils, she focused on drawing its attention away from Finn’s attack, where the real damage was being inflicted.
Loki Familia’s second-in-command had grown up as a high elf in her home forest. During that time, archery had been one of her few hobbies, and her skill showed. The figure atop the creature bent backward, the monstrous legs flinching every time one of the heavy arrows hit its mark.
“Bors, we need more help! See that we get it!”
Finn called back to the group in the square using the time given to him by Riveria’s support. He moved as if he had eyes in the back of his head, avoiding the rain of arrows slicing into one leg after another. His small stature allowed him to weave through tight spaces as he removed several of the legs trying to catch up to Aiz.
Anytime one of the limbs came at them from above, he spun his spear like a hurricane to deflect it. Countless sparks flew from his weapon, lighting up his yellow hair as they fell around him.
“Ahh, I knew somethin’ was wrong in their heads…!”
Bors hunched over in the middle of the square, shouting to no one in particular as the battles raged around him. He wasn’t the only one left speechless by Loki Familia’s actions. Many of the adventurers fighting off the plants still in the square were dumbfounded that four people would face down an abomination like that on their own.
“…!”
Tiona, Tione, Riveria, and Finn launched their attacks in continuous waves, forcing the head to lose track of Aiz. The monster’s frustration was apparent as it reluctantly turned its attention from the pursuit of the blond knight to intercepting the constant barrage of blades and arrows harassing it from all sides.
“Everyone…!”
Aiz had been dodging the jaws of the hungry appendages one after another as she led it away from Crystal Square. Naturally, she was curious as to where they had gone when she was momentarily freed from their pursuit. Turning around, she caught glimpses of all her allies putting themselves in harm’s way.
She had to help them. Setting her feet, she was a heartbeat away from diving into the fray—when a shadow fell over her from behind.
“!”
Aiz evaded the incoming blade at the last possible second.
Spinning around to face the new threat, she saw the mysterious woman’s red hair come into view.
“It’s you and me. I can’t go back like this…and I’m not letting you get away.”
“…!”
Aiz raised her gaze to meet the woman’s green left eye head-on.
Her opponent charged, attacking with such ferocity that it drove Aiz away from the square. Desperate in hand, Aiz matched her blow for blow.
She didn’t have time to assist the others in battle; her foe wouldn’t allow it. At the same time, there were many questions that still needed answering. This was her opportunity to get them.
“Aiz!”
She heard Tiona’s voice from behind her, but paid no heed.
She accepted the woman’s open invitation for a private duel and the pair left the square.
“Lefiya, do you remember the formation we practiced in our last session? Now is the time to use it.”
“U-understood!”
Riveria spoke as she approached Lefiya, who responded with a nod.
The two elves immediately took off in different directions, one to the front of the octopus monster and the other to the back.
“?!!”
Aiz left Crystal Square at the same time the battle against the extremely large monster was ramping up.
The female figure was focusing all its attention on Finn and the two sisters. At the same time, adventurers who’d finished off the plant monsters in their area summoned up their courage and came together to join the fight.
Magic users formed ranks a good distance away from the beast and stronger adventurers made a wall in front of them to block its attacks—but sheer numbers meant nothing in this battle.
The colossal creature spread out its healthy legs, still more than ten, and flipped adventurers out of the way like they were nothing more than ants. Everyone was knocked off their feet or into the air.
“UwahhHHHH! Holy shit, that thing’ll kill us all!”
“Hey, get everyone on the edges out of here! We can’t cover them all!”
Debris and adventurers flying left and right, Bors’s yell barely made it through the typhoon of destruction. Tione yelled back to him to warn the other adventurers.
It had become a vortex.
Just like the currents that rage on the open seas, the many legs spun around and around, preventing anyone from getting into their surprisingly wide range. The moment any of them detected a hint of magical energy, it would lash out to attack the caster responsible. Any other adventurers who tried to protect the target magic user, including dwarves with their massive shields, were bowled over or tossed to the side.
Taking up position behind the creature didn’t help, either. Each of the legs extending from the female figure’s upper body acted independently, howling and lashing out in an unpredictable fashion. Even if a combatant made it past the leg’s attack, the arms of the vibrantly colored upper body would either grab them or run them through. Finn and the Amazonian twins were the only ones who could get close enough to attack.
“We’ll hack it away one piece at a time, eh?”
“GEHHHH!”
Urga flashed as Tiona severed yet another head from one of the monster’s limbs. Its scream of pain cut short, the echoes traveled through the air long after the head hit the ground and stopped rolling.
“Tiona, you idiot! Now the magic stone is gone!”
“Oh.”
Tiona celebrated the victory until her sister pointed out they couldn’t study it without a magic stone. The younger Amazon’s face turned from jubilation to disappointment.
The two had reached terminal velocity, rocketing toward the water, and yet their descent had turned into a one-sided lecture and a continuous apology.
“…I hope Aiz and Lefiya are okay.”
Tiona looked back up to the edge of the cliff, her back to the oncoming lake.
She could see crimson light cast on the ceiling of the Dungeon by the remnants of Lefiya’s magic still lingering in Rivira. She didn’t know all the details, but she could tell that redheaded woman fighting with Aiz was dangerous. She was obviously not normal, even at a distance.
Her hair flew above her head, pushed by the wind whistling in her ears. Tione could see her sister was worried about their friend and young ally, so she called out in an attempt to reassure her.
“Riveria’s up there, and don’t forget about the general. Of course they’re fine.”
“…You’re right.”
There was an element of pride, almost bragging, in Tione’s voice. She wore a broad smile full of confidence on her face.
Seeing her, Tiona smiled, too. Both sisters cast their gaze up at the edge of the cliff.
Splash!
Two gouts of water erupted from the lake as they hit the surface.
The howls like broken bells had all but disappeared from the town.
While the last of the flower monsters were slain, the battle between Aiz and the red-haired woman raged in the west.
Fighting their way up the east-facing slope, the two women emerged close to Rivira’s western wall. This was the highest plateau inside the wall, but it had been turned into a wasteland of crushed boulders, broken wood, and crystal shards by the onslaught of monsters.
Far from the ceiling crystals that still flickered with crimson light, the area was shrouded in a bluish darkness. Places where the monsters had broken through the wall were visible all the way around the plateau. Aiz and the red-haired woman traded blows as they crossed paths while dashing through the remains of Rivira.
“!”
“That’s a convenient wind.”
The red-haired woman’s expression didn’t change as she commented on Aiz’s Magic, Airiel. The wind-based enchantment not only increased her speed, but the power of her saber as well.
It effectively granted Aiz the strength of a ferocious beast. She was able to meet every strike of the longsword, no matter which direction it came from, and deflect it.
The sound of clashing blades spread out over the plateau as Aiz, with her wind assistance, repeatedly crossed swords with the red-haired woman.
Desperate arced through the air and collided with the enemy’s longsword with such force that it knocked the woman backward. The two blades separated for the moment and both combatants took off running. Tap tap tap tap! Debris crunched beneath their feet as Aiz decided to venture a question.
“‘Aria’—where did you hear that name?!”
The unrelenting emotions building up within Aiz had bubbled to the surface.
Her eyes burned with an unearthly rage, unblinking as she glared at her opponent.
Even Tiona and her other friends had never heard Aiz speak as loudly and forcefully as she just had. However, the woman running alongside her answered casually.
“I wonder…?”
“……!!”
Aiz’s eyebrows shot straight down and she charged in for the next round of attacks.
Her silver blade was a blur, bearing down on her opponent faster than the eye could see. Striking ten times in less than a second, both blades bore the brunt of the exchange between the two warriors. The woman’s remaining gauntlet became covered in several deep diagonal slashes, and strands of her red hair fell to the ground. Long red lines crisscrossed their way through the skin of both women.
Most likely, the redhead’s longsword was a drop item from the Dungeon’s Deep Levels, a monster fang that had been fitted with a handle and used as is. The lead-colored blade itself had an unaltered, almost wild aura to it. Dull flashes met silver streaks as the fang and Desperate collided once again.
—However, the enemy was overpowering Aiz and her wind.
Even with the enchantment’s boost, the longsword was knocking Desperate off its path at incredible speed each time the two clashed. It even cut through Aiz’s protection, making several deep cuts across her body.
Even Airiel at full power wasn’t enough to gain the upper hand in this one-on-one duel. Aiz was able to keep her opponent from inflicting serious damage, but was still being overwhelmed. Her golden eyes were filled with surprise, but she didn’t consider looking away.
The other woman knew something—she knew the name Aria.
Adrenaline flowed into her chest, seemingly into her very soul. Tightening her grip on the weapon in her hand, Aiz pushed her body to move even faster.
The expression on her face was fitting for someone with the nickname “Sword Princess Kenki.” Her eyes only saw one thing, the enemy. Aiz struck forward once again.
“—And here I thought you had the face of a doll.”
Then.
The red-haired woman noticed the sudden change in Aiz’s rhythm, the passion burning in her heart.
Her green eye narrowed for an instant before her body almost disappeared.
Sidestepping Aiz’s overhead strike, she moved with enough speed and power to cut through the wind.
An uppercut that started low and ended very high.
The woman’s bare left hand traveled through the wind armor and buried itself deep into Aiz’s stomach, launching the girl’s thin body into the air.
“!”
The force of the blow knocked Aiz completely out of balance.
She tried to regain her center of gravity by manipulating the air swirling around her body, but before she could—
The woman stepped forward, bringing her blade high above her head and moving her bloodied left hand out of the way.
“?”
Jolt!
A cold spark raced up Aiz’s spine.
Her enemy’s green eye locked onto her; the sword came straight down.
Golden eyes as wide as they could go, Aiz rerouted Airiel’s wind at the last moment to bring Desperate up at an unbelievable speed.
The moment held.
“?!”
A clang on par with an explosion rang out.
An arcing slice over the shoulder at blinding speed. The longsword slammed into Desperate from the upper left and broke past the sword and through every single air current. The impact hit Aiz like a hammer.
The enemy disappeared from Aiz’s sight as the girl flew backward and landed hard on a pile of debris.
“Ughh!”
Bits of wood, rock, and crystals blasted into the air around her body on impact.
All the air was forced from her lungs in an instant. Aiz’s body went limp for a moment, refusing to listen to the commands from her brain.
Clang! Desperate bounced off the nearby boulder and rolled to a stop.
“Finally, this is over.”
The longsword had shattered on impact. The red-haired woman discarded the handle and what was left of the shaft before rushing to where Aiz had landed.
The blond knight willed herself onto her knees. She glanced up in time to see her enemy charging, right arm drawn back behind her shoulder.
There was no escape.
The woman could see the expression of fear on the girl’s face. The muscles in her gauntlet-covered fist tensed as she threw a punch—when suddenly…
“What?!”
The metallic echo reverberated through the plateau. Her fist had been stopped.
A long spear and staff crossed just in front of Aiz’s surprised face. They’d come together at the last possible moment to block her opponent’s attack.
The tips of each weapon were embedded in the ground. Aiz’s neck swiveled left and right. A young prum man and an elegant elf lady were standing on either side of her.
Like knights protecting their princess, they had arrived just in time to shield her.
“Finn, Riveria…”
The two adventurers pushed the enemy back with their weapons as Aiz whispered their names.
The woman jumped away, clasping her right hand in her left. Finn adjusted his grip on the spear and charged forward.
“Miss Aiz!”
“Lefiya…?”
Aiz felt delicate hands supporting her chest and back.
A quick look to her right and she could see Lefiya was there propping her up.
“Lefiya, heal her, now!”
“Yes!”
Riveria issued the order as she turned to face the enemy. The battle between the red-haired woman and Finn was already well under way.
She swung her fists around like battle hammers, but Finn’s small body proved to be a difficult target. Ducking low to the ground, the prum pressed in hard. He thrust his spear up from beneath her line of vision as a feint, then instead tried to sweep her legs out from under her with a low kick.
Frustration at her small target was written all over her face as the woman bent her upper body backward and jumped to avoid the attack. Eyes wide, she faced her opponent once again.
“Are you the Tamer who controlled those monsters?”
“…Confident enough to talk, I see.”
“Not as much as you are.”
The prum’s normally friendly and warm expression had transformed into that of a determined warrior.
Sharp eyes studied his opponent as he struck from every angle, trying to find a blind spot, looking for a space between his opponent’s limbs to move into after each strike. Sometimes, they showed him when to give distance or when to charge forward. Thanks to their perception, Finn was constantly moving to more and more advantageous positions.
His strategy was completely different from Aiz’s straightforward combat style, and it frustrated the red-haired woman to no end. She was unarmed and forced to constantly match Finn’s footwork to find opportunities to attack.
Her grip, strong enough to snap the neck of a man, closed on nothing but air. Even her kicks missed their mark. None of her attacks were connecting with her opponent’s small frame.
She tried to grab the spear more than once, but each time Finn knocked her hands away with a series of upward thrusts, almost like he could see it coming.
A fresh cut on her cheek warped as a frown appeared on the woman’s face.
“Don’t—get cocky!”
“?!”
She kicked her left leg high above the prum and brought her heel down, slamming it into the ground with the force of a small explosion.
The rubble at the point of impact was launched into the air as a result of the extraordinarily strong blow. The shock wave knocked Finn off his feet, his clothing whipping around his body as debris pelted him.
Once he left the ground, his agility was gone.
Finn was a sitting duck as the woman twisted around for a backhanded blow.
“General!”
Lefiya’s yell was masked by a gruesome snap—a piece of the long spear flew off into the air.
The weapon was broken, but the murderess’s green eye was wide open in shock.
An uninjured Finn was upside down, looking up at her.
He had managed to jam the spear into the ground to use as leverage, forcing his body just above the path of the backhand to avoid the attack.
As he flew literally head over heels in midair, the light in Finn’s eyes disappeared for an instant as he withdrew a knife from the sheath in his belt.
Using his momentum from dodging the fist, he brought the white blade toward the red-haired woman, whose arm was still extended.
“Guh—!”
A spatter of blood shot through the air.
Finn’s upward swing connected with the woman’s chest, the blade cutting flesh.
The woman staggered backward—that was the window Riveria needed.
“Why, you…!”
The woman twisted her body to meet the new threat.
Her muscles burned as she whipped her fist forward like a wrecking ball.
Riveria only had one eye open as she adeptly avoided it, and then—Tap.
The gauntlet flashed right by her as her feet came to a complete stop. She had foreseen this reaction and had made sure the enemy’s counterattack would fall harmlessly short.
But that was only the first part of her plan. The red-haired woman watched in horror as the elf swept the staff at her feet.
That light contact was enough to completely knock her off balance.
The woman hit the ground.
“?”
Next up:
Finn, round two.
“—Guah!”
His incoming fist landed square on her jaw, sending her flying backward.
Finn had used every muscle in his small frame, put every fiber of his being into that punch. The woman’s body glided through the air and landed on the ground with a hard smack almost immediately. What’s more, she kept rolling for another ten or twenty meders.
The golden combination of Loki Familia’s top two left Aiz and Lefiya speechless. It also served as a demonstration for why they should stay on their good side.
“…”
“Finn?”
“My finger’s broken.”
His face devoid of emotion or pain, Finn shook his right hand as Riveria’s eyes opened in surprise.
Finn followed her line of sight.
“Gahhh…” The red-haired woman was climbing back to her feet, using her hands for support.
“First tier…Level Five—no, Six.”
Blood flowed from her massively swollen left cheek and the fresh gash across her chest. A tone of deep hatred had taken over her voice, spitting out the words like poison.
Finn Deimne. Riveria Ljos Alf. Add in Gareth Landrock, and all three Level 6 adventurers made up Loki Familia’s top commanders as well as their strongest warriors.
Not only did they have more combat experience than Aiz, their knowledge of techniques and strategy made them much more powerful than their Statuses alone indicated. Finn and Riveria were pulling out all the stops to overwhelm the red-haired woman.
“The odds are not in my favor…” she mumbled to herself. Then she took off, running away without another glance at her opponents.
Aiz saw it all happen. Choosing to ignore the pain coursing through her body, she gave chase.
“Miss Aiz!”
Lefiya’s call was far behind her. She practically flew past Finn and Riveria.
She was vaguely aware that they were following her, but Aiz had her sights set on her target.
“…!”
The woman passed through the gaping hole in the town wall, exiting Rivira.
Aiz wasn’t far behind, chasing the woman west, down the trail of shattered rocks and crystal fragments. They were headed toward the center of the island. Aiz could hear Riveria and Finn telling her to stop, but she wouldn’t let herself. Pushing Airiel even further, she started to close the distance, even though the woman was running at full speed.
Anyone who took one step out of Rivira knew that the rest of the island wasn’t much more than a wasteland. The ground was covered with different sizes of rocks, making the footing unstable. Tall, wild grasses and small trees grew randomly here and there. Short crystals also sprouted from the surface, providing speckles of light in the darkness.
Aiz’s Magic increased her speed exponentially, but just as her target was almost within striking distance, the woman made it to the other side of the wasteland and to the western edge of the island.
One green eye looked over her shoulder as she neared the cliff, then she jumped over the edge without a second thought.
Aiz ran to the drop-off, looking over with a deep frown. The red-haired woman was running down the rock face, combining her already incredible speed with gravity. By the time Finn and Riveria caught up to Aiz, the woman’s silhouette was indistinguishable from the boulders at the bottom.
They heard a splash a few seconds later.
“Incredible…” whispered Riveria under her breath.
No matter where they looked, none of the adventurers saw the woman rise to the surface of the lake. Most likely, she was swimming underwater. If they lost track of her now, there’d be no way to pick up the pursuit.
The eighteenth floor of the Dungeon was that big. Vast plains, a wide marsh, and an expansive forest were all located on this level. There were places to hide around every corner. They could search all through the night and never find a trace.
Would she return to the surface or go deeper into the Dungeon, for the time being?
Whatever her decision, there was no way to follow her.
“…!”
Lefiya had finally arrived on the scene. Aiz was looking at where she saw the splash, lips shut tight. She willed her face into a calm expression, but her right fist was clenched and shaking.
She was experiencing a feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time—emotional pain. It stabbed at her heart.
The powerless feeling from losing a battle wrapped itself around the girl.
Dim light from the crystals above made her golden hair sparkle fleetingly in the bluish darkness.
Healthy flames roared on top of four torches as their light wavered around the chamber.
Ouranos was silent, the flames illuminating the stone altar where he sat.
Elbows resting on the armrests, he fixed the blue eyes beneath his hood on the stairwell.
A few minutes had passed since Loki’s departure.
Eventually, he opened the mouth that he had kept shut tight and spoke:
“Fels.”
His heavy voice filled the room with echoes of the name.
He called to a dark corner of the chamber where no one should be present. However, there was a response.
“Yes, I’m here, Ouranos.”
A figure in a black robe emerged from a darkness that the flaming torches could not reach.
The cloth covered the figure from head to foot; no skin was visible anywhere. No light reflected from beneath the hood, as if the being were formed of condensed shadows. Black gloves covered the hands at the ends of the robe’s sleeves. A complex and intricate pattern was engraved on the back of them.
The new voice in the chamber was a middle pitch that had no characteristics at all. It was impossible to tell if the speaker was male or female.
“An unexpected visit from Loki…I was on pins and needles just watching.”
“The whimsical actions of gods didn’t start yesterday.”
“Yes, but the reasoning was different this time. Drawing her attention is bad news, Ouranos.”
The robed figure completely came out from the darkness at Ouranos’s left and walked closer. He stepped up onto the base of the altar and came to a stop directly in front of the towering deity.
“Loki and Freya…It would be horrible for either of them to harbor any unnecessary suspicion. They must not become our enemy.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
Fels spoke as if he were trying to warn the deity. Ouranos seemed unconcerned, his expression stoic.
Apart from them, no one else was in the chamber. The roar of the flames was the only thing to fill the silence.
“What did you think of our conversation?”
“…Concerning the flowered beasts at the Monsterphilia?”
Ouranos’s gaze shifted to the hooded figure.
The hood moved as if Fels was drawing in his chin at the question.
“Clearly there are beings who wish to destroy the peace and order of the city—no, of all Orario.”
Fels’s answer was clear.
“Ouranos, the ‘whimsical actions of gods’ might be connected to this incident. My own investigations have already confirmed seven types of unknown monsters lurking beneath Orario’s streets.”
“In that sewer system?”
“Yes. However they got there.”
Fels added that he didn’t know if a god was pulling a prank or if the monsters’ presence was the result of more earthly hands.
“It could be the work of ones outside the city, or perhaps the group of deities that refer to themselves as ‘wicked gods’…The remnants of the Evils.”
“Ghosts of the past…”
A “familia” of deities who had once existed in Orario but who despised order and worked to spread chaos.
The familias in power now had conspired to destroy that group, with the Guild’s permission and cooperation. Fels had suggested that some of these deities who still remained on Gekai could be working in the shadows.
“The fact that someone released monsters from Ganesha’s holding cells might be a blessing in disguise. Thanks to that incident, adventurers were quick to take action…before the monsters could inflict too much damage.”
“Indeed. It is safe to say that their plan ended in failure at the Monsterphilia.”
The actions of a certain Goddess of Beauty had spurred Loki and several other gods to act alongside the Guild. By the time the plants had made their appearance, it was impossible to move freely about Orario.
Fels and Ouranos reflected on the surprisingly small numbers that were involved in the attack. Most likely, the mysterious beings behind the incident had sensed a great deal of activity on the surface and hastily removed the rest of the monsters from the sewers. They could be lamenting their failure at this very moment.
With Fels at his side, Ouranos looked forward once again.
“Someone who can manipulate the monsters in question…It appears there is a Tamer whose abilities surpass those of Ganesha Familia.”
“Unbelievable…This is a nightmare.”
Fels’s head shook back and forth, his voice weak after hearing Ouranos’s claim.
Someone was controlling the monsters; all their deliberation had led them to that answer. Fels sighed as if he didn’t want to find out the truth. Ouranos glanced at the hooded figure out of the corner of his eye before looking forward once again.
Silence once again filled the chamber. Slowly, Fels looked up at the deity sitting at the altar.
“Ouranos, I also have sad news.”
Fels began with a preface. His shoulders sank in sorrow before continuing.
“Hashana, the one who took up that quest, has been killed. A message from the town of Rivira reached me moments ago.”
Ouranos closed his eyes.
He kept them closed for a few moments before looking down at Fels.
“What about the delivery girl?”
“I don’t know. At the very least, she has yet to return to the surface.”
“I see.” Ouranos broke off eye contact.
There was pain in his eyes as the deity angled his chin ever so slightly skyward.
The ceiling of the chamber was so high that it was easy to forget that they were underground.
The four torches couldn’t illuminate every corner. The darkness surrounding Ouranos and Fels hinted at the unseen dangers silently lurking in the near future.
The blue eyes narrowed.
“In that case…it was there after all.”
Fels didn’t ask for confirmation, only responded to Ouranos’s statement with a firm “Yes.”
“As much as I didn’t believe it, it appears so.”
Fels’s robe lightly swished from side to side as he continued.
“A mysterious crystal orb that causes monsters to mutate…Something that we don’t know about is happening in the Dungeon.”
An Irregular that even Ouranos couldn’t comprehend.
That…or the existence of something that surpassed monsters. Those were Fels’s suggestions.
“Something is moving beneath the surface.”
The sound of those words was absorbed by the four torches before fading into silence.
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