Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka Gaiden – Sword Oratoria - Volume 5 - Chapter Int3

INTERLUDE FLIP SIDE OF THE STAGE 

The crystals growing from the Dungeon floor glimmered with a hazy, surreal blue glow. 
Deep, deep in the forest, they shed their light at the floor’s easternmost tip. 
And from within those mighty crystals, towering among the trees, a cry of anguish reverberated against their glistening surfaces. 
There were two of them, gasping for breath. Above them, a figure stood with small tachi unsheathed, shrouded in darkness as their long cape fluttered in a nonexistent breeze. 
Blood dripped from the silver blade’s gleaming edge. 
“Now then, there are a few things I’d like to ask the both of you,” the adventurer began in a low voice, her face hidden deep within her hood as she looked down upon the two figures on the ground. 
The two men were currently lying crumpled at her feet. 
It was the same two Evils associates who had sicced the swarm of violas on Lefiya and Bell earlier. 
The young human and elf, now laid bare of their forehead protectors and hoods, trembled with fear as the cerulean eyes of the masked adventurer cut into them with an icy glare. 
“Were you the ones who released that monster here? And if so, what are you trying to attain?” The girl’s voice was cold, calculating, entirely unbefitting the adventurer who’d only a short while ago been healing her fellow elf and white-haired companion. 
Bright-red splatters of blood dotted the surrounding greenery. Her weapon had cut them down to the bone, slicing through muscle and sinew and rendering them incapable of movement. 
She’d gone after them the moment she’d left Lefiya and Bell, mostly due to her concern regarding the new monster species she’d fought earlier but also due to the twinge of doubt she just couldn’t shake off. 
This grand forest was like her playground, after all. 
She knew where the white flowers grew, flowers she offered to the graves of her fallen comrades. She even knew where the wild fruit grew. She knew the forest so well, in fact, that the moment she’d given chase after the two men below her, their fate had already been sealed. 
“Gwahh…!” the man on the ground groaned, his robes wide open to reveal the countless crimson pellets lining his body—firestones, to be used for his own self-destruction. 
Neither one of them had been granted poison capsules in their teeth. Even if they were to attempt to cut their own lives short, the only way out was fire—otherwise, the hieroglyphics on their backs, the Falna that would reveal both their true names and the name of their patron deity, could be revealed with a Status Thief. 
Knowing all this, the masked adventurer made no attempt to stuff their mouths. 
She held their lives—and their deaths—firmly in the grip of her hand, words callous as they hissed between her teeth. “I’ve seen these…self-immolation tools of yours before.” Her eyes narrowed, voice lowering further still. “They stole the lives of one of my comrades,” she spit out. “You’re survivors of that…familia, then? The ‘Evils,’ as they call themselves?” 
The air ran thick with her hatred. 
Down on the ground, the two men could do nothing but tremble, the elf’s pure, unadulterated contempt pressing down on them from all sides. 
They cowered like frightened rats, sweat pouring off them in rivers, and the thickset human, at least, seemed to have lost control of his bowels. 
“If you don’t start talking, I’ll have to defile those backs of yours. And if I find you’re colluding with some kind of nefarious deity, I’ll have no choice but to wipe you off the face of this earth.” 
“P-please, no! I-I’m begging you!!” the human suddenly screamed, no longer able to hold it in. He desperately attempted to put distance between himself and the demon in elf’s clothing staring murderously down at him, but she quickly put a stop to his retreat. 
The male elf, on the other hand…simply watched his companion struggle and writhe with a tight-lipped laugh. 
“Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha…” 
“Is something funny?” 
“Y-your eyes. I can tell from your eyes. You seek revenge…and you won’t stop until you’ve achieved it.” Another laugh. “You’re just like me.” 
It was a laugh of scorn. Of pity. And as the masked adventurer looked down at the elf and his derisive gaze, her eyes narrowed to slits. 
“Nameless kin of mine, do you not, too, wish to lay your eyes once more upon those whom you’ve loved…those whom you’ve lost to the cruel reality of death?” 
“You cannot bring back the dead.” 
“And yet such a meeting exists within the realms of possibility.” 
“What are you talking about?” 
The elf continued to laugh, his gleeful snickering forming a network of creases in the girl’s brow. His human companion, on the other hand, remained crouched in terror, staring at the elf with a look of sheer disbelief. 
Perhaps he took pity on her—an elf like himself, with a similar history. Whatever the reason, he continued in a tremulous whisper as he spoke of the unspeakable. 
“Swear your allegiance to our master. Then you, too, shall—” 
Suddenly— 
—a brilliant flash of silver light shot toward them from straight overhead. 
In a show of breathtaking quickness, the masked adventurer leaped out of the way, dodging the attack meant for her. The same could not be said for the two men, however, the knives plunging deep into their necks. 
“Ghu…ah…?” 
“Wha?” 
The girl’s eyes widened as blood sprayed from their lips. 
One after another, the dark projectiles came hurtling through the air. Quickly distancing herself from the two men, she waited and watched for the second wave that was sure to come. 
She watched for a further moment as blood gurgled out from the fresh holes in the men’s necks—they wouldn’t be telling her anything else, that was for sure—then checked behind her to see the source of the incoming blades. 
Her eyes caught sight of a hooded purplish-blue robe among the rustling upper branches. 
But she couldn’t identify its owner, a strangely patterned mask obscuring the figure’s face. 
“Evils scum…Nothing but incompetent fools keen on making nuisances of themselves.” 
The voice from beneath its mask was spine-tingingly disquieting, almost as though multiple people were speaking at the same time. 
One metal-gloved hand disappeared into the robes before reemerging with a brilliant red magic sword. 
“—” 
All of a sudden, time slowed down to a crawl. 

The figure’s sword moved. It was so fast, she could barely see it let alone react to it. 
The glowing ball of flames it launched swallowed up the two Evils associates, dying breaths and all. 
“Gnngh—?!” 
She leaped back just in time, cape fluttering, before the resulting explosion lit up the sky. 
The fireball had set off the firestones lining the two men’s robes. 
Barely managing to escape the blast zone, she stood back and scrutinized the scene of carnage in front of her. The gouged earth; the blazing grasses; and the charred, shredded bodies of the two men in its midst. All around her, the nauseating stench of burned flesh saturated the air. 
She looked toward the branches above, but the masked figure was already gone. 
“…” 
So much for getting any information. Her one source had been effectively snuffed out. 
They got me good, she thought with frustration. 
A sigh passing her lips, she quickly scanned the perimeter. Fortunately, the massive crystals surrounding the area were keeping the flames fairly well contained, stopping the fire from spreading farther into the forest. She made her way toward the center of the blast, smoke and embers whirling around her. 
It would be of no use to search the men’s bodies. The firestones had done their job well—one could barely tell the flaming remains were even human. Various body parts lay strewn about, crackling and smoking and entirely unrecognizable. 
With one last pitying glance, she prepared to make herself scarce. 
“…?” 
Until a sudden glint stopped her in her tracks. 
Walking over to a nearby bit of brush, she stooped down to pick up the source of the tiny light. 
“What’s this…?” 
It had belonged to the two men, no doubt. Though that would mean it was considerably resilient. Had it been tossed over here during the explosion? 
Bits of it were, indeed, charred, but its general shape and structure remained intact. 
It was an ingot of human construction, big enough to rest comfortably in her palm. 
A strange red orb, like an eye, almost, was inlaid within its body, and what appeared to be a letter D had been carved into its surface, resembling neither Koine script nor the hieroglyphics of the gods. 
“…Some kind of magic item?” she murmured to herself, voice heavy with doubt. 
Then, tucking the stone away inside her robes, she disappeared into the night. 
 
“We couldn’t find anything, Lefiya.” 
Finn spoke as the white crystalline light of “morning” shone down across the eighteenth floor. Most of Loki Familia’s members were scouring the forest in search of clues when he approached the young mage, his words earning him a look of bewilderment. 
“But that’s…” 
It had been less than twenty-four hours since their battle in that pit. 
Upon Lefiya’s relay of the events, Finn had ordered a large-scale search of the eastern part of the forest. He’d had faith in her theory—that the two Evils associates must have been protecting something, hiding something, if it justified going so far as to install that trap monster, the “Guardian of the Forest.” 
And yet, the results were just as Finn had said. 
No matter how much they combed the massive forest in increasingly larger circles, they discovered absolutely nothing—not a stone out of place nor a trace of questionable goings-on. 
Lefiya, now recovered after a night’s rest, could only look out across the surrounding forest and at her weary companions in confusion. 
“B-but…but Captain, we…we truly did fight for our lives against that brightly colored monster!” 
“I’m not saying that I don’t believe you. I actually believe your theory is correct. You don’t need to produce the hole itself for you to persuade me,” the prum commander responded as he surveyed the ground in front of them, where traces of Lefiya’s and Bell’s magic scarred the land. The mess made it look almost as if the very stone itself had split and crumbled. 
All around them, large pieces of crystal lay scattered about, broken off from their toppled pillars. Already, however, new crystal columns were poking out of the ground to take their place, the stone circle regenerating itself. It would seem the Dungeon’s restorative properties were especially swift in this region. 
Finn narrowed his pool-like green eyes, long Durandal spear in hand. “There was something here…and perhaps it yet remains.” 
“…” 
“If it’s the latter, however, it’s not anything we’ll be able to find as we are now.” Finn gave his thumb a lick, muttering in self-assurance. “Regardless, it wouldn’t do us any good to continue our search. That’s my guess, anyway.” 
“Then we’re just going to…?” 
“Yes, it’s time we put this place behind us. Gareth and the others back at camp will undoubtedly have finished packing, as well.” 
Riveria, Gareth, Aiz, and the rest of the party were currently back at the base camp, readying the group for their return to the surface. 
Everyone was tired. There had been far too many incidents already on this expedition, and they weren’t about to miss their day of departure. 
It was crucial that they meet with Loki and relay everything they’d learned. 
Lefiya had no choice but to hold her tongue at Finn’s decision. 
“Still, I can’t deny the very distinct stench permeating this place. We’ll be back to investigate again once we’ve gotten everything in order.” 
“…Understood, sir…” 
“Then we head out. Raul! Let’s bring it in! Call everyone back!” 
“Roger that!” 
The scattered members of the search party began to make their way back toward Finn. 
Lefiya could only stare at the remains of the hole where she’d fought the trap monster, staff gripped tightly in her hands. 
Knowing nothing of the masked adventurer’s meeting with the two Evils associates, Loki Familia left the eastern edge of the forest behind them.