CHAPTER 4 THE SWORD’S WIND CALLS
From within the gloom, the watery film glimmered, hazy atop its pedestal.
Gazing down at it, fixated on the reflected images, was the ever-impassive Barca.
“The Sword Princess, too, has fallen, at Levis’s hand…Our victory is but a matter of time…”
He muttered to himself, watching as the golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman tumbled to the floor in a pool of blood after the red-haired creature’s critical hit. Her plight in the tank room wasn’t the only scene playing out on the watery screen—the rest of Loki Familia were also shown in similarly dire straits.
Barca watched everything from his window into Knossos. “All that remains are those two elves…whose location currently eludes me…” he said slowly. The tiniest of creases appeared between his normally expressionless brows.
He had lost sight of the two elves.
Somehow, no doubt unintentionally, they were moving into his blind spots—just out of sight of the statues and reliefs that housed his all-seeing “eyes” in the labyrinth. Without knowledge of their exact location, operating doors or setting off traps was meaningless.
As if on cue, they appeared on the screen, finally having stepped foot in front of an eye. However—
“More magic…?”
His view disappeared in an instant as the white elf unleashed a tendril of lightning.
They were destroying them—the statues and reliefs. Not on purpose, but simply during the course of fighting the monsters they encountered in the tunnels. The Thousand Elf’s spells were especially devastating, taking out whole pieces of stonework in one brilliant flash of her magic.
It seems they were momentarily back on the first floor…but now they’ve descended again to the fourth. Their movements are…irregular. What are they aiming for? he mused, prioritizing the chance glances he received of their progress through the maze among his surveillance. It was in this attempt to anticipate their target that he realized something with a start.
“If they remain on this path, they’ll…”
“There, Lefiya!”
“ARCS RAY!!” Lefiya cried out before unleashing her magic in the direction indicated.
Instantly, the gleam of light filled the tunnel, disintegrating the legion of assembled water spiders and, with it, the surrounding stone face.
It had already been some hours since they’d discovered the exit up on the first floor, and currently, they were progressing through the deeper tunnels, taking out any monsters they encountered.
Though the rampant use of magic was quickly draining Lefiya’s Mind, for better or for worse, they’d yet to come across any Evils associates during their trek to the fourth floor. They also made sure to keep track of their movements, marking the walls with white chalk to designate their way back.
“!”
“Miss Filvis?”
The change was sudden.
Lefiya came to a screeching halt when she saw Filvis’s shoulders jump, and her eyes followed the other elf’s line of sight.
She found herself face-to-face with an unusual change in scenery—a monstrously sized corridor, unbefitting an underground labyrinth. Blue magic-stone lanterns lined the walls, offering their ethereal refulgence in place of the sun’s light, and rows of perfectly aligned columns stretched to the ceiling.
It looked almost like a ruin of some sort, or at least that was the first thought to pop into Lefiya’s mind, thanks to the large drawing covering one of the corridor’s walls.
“A mural…?” Lefiya murmured in awe.
And, indeed, it was.
In fact, there were many of them, some drawn on the red stone, others etched into the cracked and faded rock face…all of them, no doubt, lifted from various ruins outside the city and pasted here on the labyrinth’s walls.
And all of them depicted similar ideas: panic and hysteria as humans escaped from colossal dragons, ominous birds, and other egregious types of monsters. One could practically hear the frightened screams, the bestial cries echoing from the images.
Calamity and chaos. A feast of destruction and clamoring.
As Lefiya stood there in that room of disquiet, she felt a sense of revulsion wash over her.
What in the world was this place? As her brain searched for answers, her azure eyes took in the sights until they stopped on another of the murals.
“Is this…a dragon?”
It was different from the rest.
At its center was a dragon of elephantine proportions, and surrounding it was a sextet of young maidens. At first glance, they appeared to be praying, eyes closed and hands clasped.
“Sacrificial maidens, perhaps?…Or some sort of holy saints?”
There were references to such practices in the Ancient Times of a thousand years past—rituals on the frontier lands, in which young girls had been sacrificed to monsters ascended from the Dungeon in hopes of appeasing their wrath.
The cracked, decayed image was pulling her in.
“And that dragon…it’s—”
Lefiya was gazing into the image as if in a trance, when suddenly.
“Nidhogg…is the name you’re looking for.”
The funereal voice slithered out from the encompassing gloom.
“?!”
It belonged to neither her nor Filvis, and the shock that someone else was in the room with them sent Lefiya whirling around.
A god stepped from the shadow of a nearby pillar.
“Behemoth, Leviathan, the One-Eyed Dragon…the marks of the Three Great Quests. But before these black dragons terrorized the land, there was another: a grisly creature that plunged the surface into the depths of fear and despair.”
“Wh-who are you?!”
Long hair like a woman’s cascaded down his back. And his features seemed to be molded from the shadow itself. The air surrounding him reeked of noxious decadence. Though he boasted the graceful refinement characteristic of the gods, Lefiya could not recall meeting another god quite so despondent.
“I am called Thanatos…guardian deity to the dregs of the group you call the Evils.”
“!”
Lefiya’s breath left her, and she quickly readied her spare wand. “Then, you’re the one carrying on the Evils’ dying wish…?!”
“Though, honestly, it’s more a simple gathering of those the Guild once deemed ‘evil’…Those of us who are left, that is,” the god continued with a laugh. “At any rate, I won’t deny I ‘lead’ them in a way. True, I picked up dear Valletta and the rest of her crew, bereaved as they were after their guardian deity was finished off, and certainly I’ve been accumulating a number of children these past five years…Why, I’m even the one who decided to accept their invitation to join them in their evil plans and lay waste to Orario. It was aaaaall me.”
He really was the last one—the only “evil” god who’d escaped being repatriated to Heaven.
Assimilation, solicitation, reorganization, and finally, expansion of power: that was how the remaining Evils associates had reached their current level of authority, and hearing this new god say so sent Lefiya reeling from shock.
The only way to describe Thanatos was as a vast, bottomless abyss of impenetrable darkness.
Lefiya swallowed hard, staring down the god in front of her before slowly forming her next words. “Are you…Enyo?”
She’d once heard Levis use the name of this preeminent being.
Even the name itself, Enyo, meant “Destroyer of Cities.” And the rest of her familia had come to believe this entity was the puppet master pulling all the strings.
“Me? Enyo?…Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, oh, my dear, you’ve got it all wrong!” Thanatos denied with an amused laugh.
It was an answer Lefiya hadn’t been expecting, and one that made her glance this way and that in confusion. She and Filvis found themselves at a loss as the deity in front of them continued to chuckle.
“I’ve never even seen or heard of Enyo. I’d be hard-pressed to provide evidence that such a god even exists!…God? Mortal? Who knows. But most definitely not me.”
“You…you’ve never seen or heard…?”
Their confusion compounded on itself.
Wasn’t Enyo the one commanding the Evils? Utilizing the power of the creatures belowground? How could Thanatos, currently allied with Levis and the Evils, not know the true form of this “Enyo” entity?
Truly, this mysterious name was becoming the cause of sheer confusion.
“That I haven’t. What I do know, however, is that Enyo is the mastermind behind our current plot of calamity and intrigue, at least according to my dear Levis and our masked friend. That, and the one who brought in all these murals from some ruin or another,” he responded with a shrug, glancing at the dragon-and-maiden-adorned wall nearby. “Nidhogg is a symbol of darkness and despair…and what Enyo wants to eventually become, if I’m to understand correctly.”
What Levis and her friends were supporting wasn’t just a destroyer of cities but the destroyer of Orario. If Orario were laid to waste, it would be open season on the rest of the lower world; monsters would be free to wreak havoc and destruction as they pleased. And with the added threat of the Corrupted Spirit, eclipsing the world in shadow and despair was very plausible.
A shiver ran down Lefiya’s spine.
“But let’s talk about something cheerier, shall we? For instance, your having made it this far. A surprise, really. Two souls, undeterred by Knossos’s tangled halls. What were your names again? Let’s see now…” Thanatos mused, appearing to rack his brain. He seemed honestly impressed at what, to them, had simply been luck. “You’re…dear Lefiya, the one called Thousand Elf, yes. And you’re…” His deep-purple eyes moved from Lefiya to Filvis. “…Maenad. Filvis, as I recall…Though this is strange. Has Loki Familia taken on a stray?”
He cocked his head at this, clearly confused as to how Filvis had ended up here.
“…Ah, yes. That’s right.” His confusion morphed into a smirk. His lips curling upward in a shape reminiscent of the reaper’s scythe, he fervently nodded. “You, too, met with a terrible fate…during the Twenty-Seventh-Floor Nightmare.”
“!”
Filvis’s shoulders gave a sudden tremble. As her scarlet eyes widened, she was left speechless.
“Miss Filvis!”
“Let me just put this out there now, but…I had nothing to do with that, I assure you.”
Lefiya quickly stepped in front of Filvis, one of the few survivors, protecting her from Thanatos’s ridicule.
“Why?! Why would you want to lay Orario to ruin?! You’re a god, aren’t you?! Why would you want to wreak havoc across the mortal realm?!” she shouted, voice ragged. It was a question not only to him but to the rest of the “evil” gods.
“Erm, well…we all have our reasons, I suppose. Even among us ‘evil’ gods, our motivations have varied,” Thanatos answered, his earlier smile still playing on his lips. “Some are simply bored; others wield a natural distaste for order; still others are nothing but necessary evils for the heroes of this world to overcome…While it’s true that some wouldn’t even apologize for the suffering they’ve wrought, we’re not all the epicurean sadists you seem to think we are.”
“…!”
He’d read her like a book. Even now, Lefiya’s thoughts had gone straight to her confrontation with Kali in Meren—the hedonistic Goddess of War who sought nothing but pleasure and the excitement of the unknown in the mortal realm.
“As for my motivations, well…I’m the God of Death,” Thanatos confessed with another scythe-like smile. He was the ruler of mortality itself. “Isn’t it only natural for death to desire as many lives as possible?”
“!!”
A chill ran through Lefiya’s body. Next to her, Filvis felt the same, her breath catching in her throat. In that single moment, they felt as though they’d touched the god’s madness. A place where there was no reason, no pretext, not even emotion or principles. And somehow, though they’d never deign to admit it, within that vortex was an echo of divine providence and truth.
As Lefiya stood overwhelmed, Thanatos raised his hands with a laugh. “I kid! I kid! Honestly, up in Heaven, I did my job, as diligent as they come. Workaholic, actually…Managing you kids’ souls as they ascended to Heaven, giving them a thorough bleaching, then sending ’em right back so they can start again as someone new.”
“…Then you’re in charge of…reincarnating the denizens of this world?”
“Exactly. I gave those old, worn-out souls a new outlook on life. They’re as pure and clean as newborn babes when they leave me. It was pretty fun, actually,” he explained, glancing idly at the ceiling as Lefiya’s lips parted in awe. There was a hint of nostalgia in his eyes, mixed with traces of ecstasy. “I miss the good ol’ days. Souls came in one after another…I did my work…”
“…”
“But it’s different now. Orario’s changed things. It sealed the monsters…and even the Dungeon itself.”
Lefiya quickly realized Thanatos was referring to the Ancient Times, back when monsters made their way freely to the surface, slaughtering human and demi-human alike. It was an age of iterative cycles of fear and war that sealed the fates of both humanity and beast.
“Truthfully, I know that wasn’t right…I know those things shouldn’t have been crossing their borders and creating havoc up on the surface as they did, but that doesn’t mean I can’t miss it.”
“What…?”
“The lower world’s teeming with life, now that they’ve received the thoughtless gift of the Falna. Life and death are two sides of the same coin, you see? Without souls ascending to Heaven, the cycle, well, stops. Which is why I developed a new little outlook on life myself…”
At this, Thanatos gestured with his index finger and thumb, letting out a brief chuckle.
“It would be all right if just a few more of the children die.”
The feeling that struck them was electric.
A thrill of horror, like the deepest of despairs.
This wasn’t an “evil” god, intent on the destruction of order, and neither was this a seeker of the unknown, committing crimes of schadenfreude.
No, this was a god with a sense of moral obligation, who felt it was his duty to correct the world in the only way he knew how: rampant death. He, himself, had said he was nothing but diligent, earnest, loyal, and fair—a description that contained no lies. The concepts of “good” and “evil” meant nothing to him.
No, the only concept he understood was nihilism.
He truly epitomized death itself.
“…Then…your followers are…” Filvis started slowly, as though just having realized something.
Thanatos nodded, his eyes narrowing. “Exactly. I offer my children a path after death.”
“Wh-what does that even mean…?”
“Think, Lefiya dear. All those Evils bumpkins down in the twenty-fourth-floor pantry? Who sacrificed their own lives and blew themselves to smithereens? Why on earth would they be so unhesitating, I wonder…?”
Lefiya gasped. “You promised them passage to the next life…?”
“That I did. One by one, I forge their contracts. One by one, they sacrifice themselves to my will. Then…once Orario’s been destroyed…and once I’ve returned to Heaven…I’ll restore their lives, as well as those of any loved ones they’ve lost to death.”
For those who’d lost someone precious, when they were overcome with grief at the loss of a family member, friend, lover, or partner, it was nothing short of the deal of a lifetime.
For Thanatos, however, they were easy pickings.
With sweet words, he lured them in.
He enticed them with the thought of being reunited with their loved ones in the next life.
“How…how could you do such a thing…?!”
That was who they were fighting, the true identity of Thanatos’s army of the dead—ordinary humans, bereft of their beloved, who’d forged a contract with the devil in hopes of reuniting with their loved ones in the next life. For the members of Thanatos Familia, death was a door to their dearest companions and the reason they so readily gave their lives.
This was how the Evils had been able to mobilize so many so quickly even after their previous defeat. The world was rife with the misery of death, which made Thanatos indispensable for their recruitment purposes.
His followers were nothing more than puppets of the God of Death, freely sacrificing their lives for a second chance.
“You think you can just do whatever you please with human life? These are our lives! Even if your followers are reincarnated, they won’t have any memory of their pasts…!” Lefiya shouted in accusation, unable to tolerate the way he toyed with people’s grief.
“And that’s exactly what I tell them, along with the rest of the rules, but none of them seem bothered in the least. They all tell me the opportunity to see someone so precious again outweighs the memory loss that comes with it,” Thanatos replied simply. “Everything is their choice. I don’t coerce them. There are even a few who believe they’ll be different. That their love for their lost one is so strong, they will be the special exception that remembers, even if no one else ever does…Heh, the Goddess of Love might get a little chuckle from that.”
As if he were reading the minds of his followers, Thanatos laughed in obvious mirth this time.
In scorn at their lack of enlightenment.
“But who am I to doubt them, hmm? Perhaps a miracle will occur…An Irregular unlike any before witnessed by us gods. So I never refute their delusions.”
“You can’t just shirk your responsibility in this whole mess!” Lefiya cried out.
“I’m not shirking anything. I wish for it just as much as they do, Lefiya dear…I have high expectations for the abilities of these…earthly children. It would certainly be nice if it came true, after all,” Thanatos countered, not bothering to hide his genuine beliefs. “And they make for such moving tearjerkers, as well…which I must admit are my favorite kinds of stories.”
Lefiya found something so aggravating about him, about the way he talked, the way he looked at her, the way shadow darkened his smile. It made her proud elven blood boil, almost as though he’d disgraced one of her own brethren.
The more her rage built, the more she wanted to beat the God of Death right where he stood. That was, until—
“Lord Thanatos!”
His reinforcements arrived before the elves could move.
“?!”
“Are you unharmed?!”
“I’m fine, I’m fine, truly…Though I must apologize to you, Lefiya dear, for keeping you here this dreadfully long time.”
Lefiya bit her lip as she watched the black-robed followers of Thanatos Familia rush into the room. There were enough of them that any action she took would prove futile.
The important question now was how they were going to get out of here.
“Lefiya. Close your eyes.”
“Miss Filvis?”
The whispering voice came from behind her, just loud enough for her to hear.
Immediately following the command, Filvis pointed her wand at the ground.
“Purge, cleansing lightning—DIO THYRSOS!”
The short chant was complete in less than a second, summoning a golden bolt of lightning that detonated the ground.
“?!”
“Oh dear, that’s awfully bright.”
The entire group of robed figures, Thanatos included, brought their arms up instinctively to shield their eyes from the light.
“Now!!”
“Right behind you!!”
Taking advantage of the split-second opening, they ran.
“Damn elves! After them!”
Thanatos, meanwhile, simply laughed as he watched the robed throng give chase.
“What a fabulous little trick.”
“Lord Thanatos!” those who remained with him for protection scolded. “You shouldn’t be wandering about alone without an escort! Not with Loki Familia running amok throughout the labyrinth! If anything were to happen to you…!”
“My sincerest apologies. Had a little matter to attend to, was all…Though now that you mention it, how are things going?”
“…The majority of Loki Familia is now trapped on the eighth floor thanks to Lord Barca’s plans. He has assured us it’s only a matter of time before they’re properly dealt with. Lady Valletta and her men have also subdued Braver, Vanargand, and the Sword Princess…” one of his officers explained, knowing full well the advantage they currently held over their invaders.
“Marvelous. Then things are going swimmingly!” The ever-fickle Thanatos let out a guffaw. Just thinking about their impending victory was enough to widen his smile. “Does this mean we’ve won?” he mused, sending his gaze toward the steely walls of the fortress that protected them even now.
After a moment, he made to leave.
“—Things have taken quite the interesting twist, I see.”
The voice came from behind him, prompting him to turn around.
“You…?”
“Raul! Take the three on the right!”
“O-on it!”
Anakity severed the legs of the nearest water spider with her lightsword as Raul mowed through another set of the fiends with his short spear. With Valletta still hot on their trail, they were doing their best to fend off the incoming waves of these new species. Stopping wasn’t an option, and they threw themselves down one empty passageway after the next as they obliterated any monsters that crossed their paths.
On and on they fled into the darkness down those tunnels, staying in a formation to protect the human girl carrying a scarcely breathing Finn.
“A dead end?!”
“Not another one…!”
Aki grimaced at the scream of warning from their scouts up ahead. Repelling an incoming monster with her left buckler, she returned it with a swipe of her sword, dismantling it in seconds. As it was the last one of the bunch, once it had been laid to rest, the attacks briefly stopped.
“Are you in here, Fiiiiiiinn?!”
“…?! Right! To the right!”
But then, Valletta’s great voice boomed from behind them, and Raul yelped, leading the party down the one remaining path.
Running was their only option at this point. Even as the ragged breaths of his companions revealed their fatigue, Raul could think of no better strategy to keep them alive.
“Raul, they’re leading us right where they want us! Can’t you see? We just keep going deeper and deeper into the maze!” Aki pointed out from next to him.
“…! Then…then why aren’t they attacking us…?!”
“Probably trying to wear us down little by little…”
Raul’s face paled at this.
It did not escape the notice of his second-tier cat companion. Calling out to the rest of the group, she issued a command in his stead: that they should look for an opening when no monsters or pursuers were nearby and stop for a moment to share what little potions and water they had left.
“Here you go, Captain…”
The human girl in charge of Finn spoke softly as she laid the prum out on the ground. For the moment, at least, magic had frozen his wounds—Aki had ordered the emergency measure to keep his injuries, still un-healable thanks to the curse, from bleeding out.
“…Hngh…nn…”
Finn’s lips parted as if he was trying to say something, but he couldn’t seem to form the words.
They’d never seen their captain like this before. His fragile state symbolized the hopelessness of their current predicament, lowering their morale all the more.
“If he doesn’t get help soon, then he’ll…We’ll…”
No one knew who said it. But the unfinished words hung over them like the grim reaper’s shadow.
With every encounter, their wounds increased and, with them, a building sense of relentless despair. The mental burden was even greater than the physical, and it was reaching its peak now that they were completely lost in the middle of this prisonlike labyrinth.
“Stop talking like that! Calm down and chin up! If we don’t, we’ll…we’ll…” But not even Aki could keep her voice steady during her desperate attempt to lift their spirits.
Raul felt an inescapable sense of defeat wriggle through him like a demonic worm. Not even Aki, already superior to him and attempting to do his job for him, would last much longer. If somebody didn’t hold her back, that slender body of hers was simply going to break.
—This is it.
—This is the end.
For me. For Aki. For everyone.
All of us. We’re all about to die; that demoness’s laughter will swallow us whole—.
“…ul.”
But right as these thoughts had reared up in his mind.
Just as he was about to hang his head in defeat, the tiniest, faintest sliver of a voice reached his ear.
“…Ra…ul…”
From the prum, nearer to death than any one of them.
Finn’s nearly inaudible appeal pricked at his ear.
“?ngh!!”
Raul’s eyes popped open with a start.
In the claustrophobic tomb that was to become their final resting place, his captain had provided the light he needed to see the way. Heart nearly thumping out of his chest, Raul felt the strength return to his fists.
We can’t give up…not without a fight!!
With one proverbial punch from his tightly clenched hands, he sent his despair-ridden heart sailing into the darkness.
How can I sit here and do nothing?!
Who was it Finn had entrusted the party’s safety to? Who was it Aki had always been there to support?
Right now, Raul’s greatest fear was to betray the trust in Finn’s blurred eyes looking up at him. How could he abandon his duty and lead into ruin the party his captain had counted on him to protect?
You need to pull yourself together, Raul Nord…!
That was what being a party was all about. That was what being a leader was all about.
Seeking one’s worth through sheer adversity.
Why else would he have spent those many days tagging along behind his glorious leaders if not for this day? Why else would they have imparted to him their knowledge and guidance, if not for this day?
—Everything had led him to this very moment.
Yes, that was what he had to tell himself. That was what he had to convince himself of.
Fake it if you have to, Raul! You are the wolf. You are the wolf. Now…HOWL!!
Grinding his teeth together, he hurled his inhibitions to the wind.
“—Weeeeeeeeeeeee can do this, people!!”
It was a passionate, high-pitched squawk.
The comical timbre was so unbefitting to their situation that Aki’s tail gave a startled jump, and the rest of the group stared at him with open mouths.
“Now…now is the time for action! We have to stay calm and—! And carefully assess the situation…!”
Tongue fumbling, shoulders shuddering, fists trembling, he screamed.
He was a pitiable sight that became even more so as he gave 110 percent…and as Aki and the rest of his companions simply stared at him, eyes glassy—they finally let out a collective sigh.
“…Huh? Wh-what gives, guys? What was that for…?!”
“…Somehow? Seeing you like that actually calmed me down,” Aki explained, her disbelief melting into a smile.
“Yeah! I mean, you’re pretty much the least dependable person ever, so it kinda makes us realize we have to get our shit together,” someone else piped up as laughter and dry smiles rippled through the group.
The shadows of anguish and despair that had plagued their faces were gone.
All thanks to one of Raul’s few merits.
They knew they had to man up, had to support one another, because Raul was a hopeless mess.
Somehow, albeit via a method far different from Finn’s, Raul had managed to lift the party’s spirits in a way only he could. It was a talent not even the first-tier greats possessed—not Finn, not Riveria, not Gareth, not Aiz. No, only him.
And seeing the smiles return to his companions’ faces was enough to calm his own anxiety, as well.
“—This is an adventure, after all!”
And he didn’t stop there.
“We’ve gotta give it everything we’ve got! Get your swords ready and let’s do it! This is how the mettle of true adventurers is tested!—The captain would say the same thing!”
Raul might have been ordinary, but he wasn’t a fool.
He’d amassed a great deal of experience, burning into his memory the backs of the familia elites as he studied their every move, every motion. And as he wove his speech now, the hearts of his peers stirred in response, and their heads nodded with resolve.
The light had returned to their eyes. They were Loki Familia once more.
Even Finn, watching them from afar, curled his bloodied lips upward in the faintest of smiles, his eyes crinkling.
“Let’s put our heads together, guys! Those bastards still think they’ve got the advantage, which puts us in the perfect position to strike back!”
At Raul’s urging, they set their minds to work, using what short time they had available to rattle off as many ideas as they could.
“We know that running around aimlessly will get us nowhere…The quickest solution, then, would be to simply steal that key of theirs.”
“Yeah, but they’ve got way more manpower than we do. They wouldn’t be chasing us in the first place if they were worried we could actually pull off a counterattack. Stealing that thing won’t be easy.”
“True…but we also can’t let them keep pushing us farther into the maze. No matter what we do, we’re gonna have to try to get past them.”
Aki listened to the three opinions from her peers before speaking up herself. “I’m almost positive Valletta and her goons have something that keeps those new species from attacking them.”
“Huh? Whaddaya mean by that?” Raul this time.
“Think about it—tamers and creatures are the only ones who can control those crazy colored monsters, right? So if these Evils psychopaths were to release monsters all over their hideout, they’d run the risk of being attacked themselves.”
Raul and the others were quiet for a moment, then, as if on cue, their faces brightened in realization.
“So far, all we’ve seen down here are those water spiders…which means there must be some way to keep those things from attacking.”
“And also that those spiders are basically an army built specifically to guard this place…”
“Exactly. Aside from that very first encounter, we haven’t seen a single one of those violas.”
Even then, the giant flower creatures had been lurking behind those orichalcum doors, meaning it was highly likely they were being kept separate from the rest of the maze and had been put there solely for use in that trap.
“Now, whether this is some sort of special trait of the new species, an odor, or even an item, we don’t know…” Aki continued, her feline ears flicking back and forth as she surveyed their surroundings. “But whatever it is, it’s making the enemy careless. So if we can use that to our advantage somehow and shake things up…”
It was a plan that made sense, to be sure, and Raul found himself unconsciously humming in affirmation, his hand going toward the pouch at his waist in search of anything that might give them an idea.
“…Ah.”
The plan popped into his head when his hand came in contact with a certain item, an item he had considerable experience with from his expeditions in the Dungeon.
Color draining from his face, he drew it from his pouch. He wore several expressions until finally, after working up the nerve, he opened his mouth to relay his scheme.
“Y-you can’t be serious! There’s no way I’m letting you do that, Raul!”
“We don’t have any time, Aki! We’re past sitting back and leisurely talking this out!…I think,” he countered, turning around even as the rest of the group voiced their own objections. He approached the one person who hadn’t put in his own two cents—the prum lying on the ground.
“Captain…I need to use you for a little bit,” he told him, face sallow.
Finn just smiled.
“Where aaaaarrrreeee you, Finn, my sweet?”
Valletta and the rest of her assassin troupe made their way down one of the maze’s tunnels. They numbered ten in total—enough that they’d be able to take out Braver’s little rescue party in one fell swoop.
“Hiss…”
A water spider appeared in front of them—before simply passing them by.
In fact, they crossed many of the brightly colored creatures, and all of them simply ignored the way the assassins readied for battle at the unfamiliar presences and continued along.
“Stop pissin’ yourself at every monster, you pussies! So long as we’ve got this crystal, those vargs won’t even come close,” Valletta sneered, pulling out the small crystal she kept tied around her neck. It was just as Aki had hypothesized—the Evils did have something that kept the new species of monster at bay.
They were a new monster—vargs.
By harvesting crystals from a certain species of plant and carrying them with them at all times, the assassins could fool the spiders into thinking they were their own brethren. This allowed them to wander the labyrinth’s passageways without fear of attack.
“Sure has gotten quiet, though. What are they up to, hmm? Hiding, perhaps? Or…has my favorite midget whispered some scheme to them from his deathbed, I wonder?” she mused with a crinkle of her brows. When she caught sight of something underfoot, however, she laughed. “Pfft, ha-ha! That sweet, sweet blood of yours will still show me the way!”
Crimson droplets of blood dotted the floor, like footprints leading her to her wounded prey. She licked her lips in anticipation.
…And oh, how they’ve grown, too! Not like those random splatters from before. He might as well be asking me to come kill him!
One after another, the bright-red specks called to her. A trap, perhaps? Her lips curled into an impish smile as her fellow assassins cautiously scanned the area. They’d slowed their pace now, prepared for an ambush, following the bread-crumb-like trail of blood until it led them to a large intersection where a multitude of different tunnels branched off like the strands of a spiderweb.
Still, the marks continued all the way to the far wall…to where a lone prum sat motionless.
It was Finn.
Not another soul was in sight, almost as though he’d been left behind.
“Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…gya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
The prum captain’s diminutive size made him look like an old doll whose owner had abandoned it, a sight that had Valletta positively roaring in laughter.
“Did your precious friends leave you, Finn? Did they decide they couldn’t afford to protect you?! Ha-ha-ha!! What a riot!!”
Finn didn’t respond, the shallow rise and fall of his chest the only indication that he was even alive. Valletta narrowed her eyes as she slowly went in for the kill.
—Suddenly, it came from her blind spot.
A certain young man leaped from the shadows. Concealing his breath, he waited for the precise moment when Valletta was in front of Finn before launching himself at her with the untapped ferocity of a beast.
“!!”
Gripping a shortsword in both hands, Raul went flying at Valletta.
“—Is that all?”
“Ngah?!”
But Valletta sidestepped his attack as easily as evading a child, grabbing ahold of his collar as he passed and slamming him to the ground.
The impact was enough to make his eyes roll back into his head as he tumbled faceup to the floor.
“Gngh…gah…”
“Forget my level, did ya, High Novice? As if your half-baked plan would work against a Level Five!” Valletta cackled, spitting on Raul as he lay spasming on the ground like a fish out of water. The sight was enough to make even the normally expressionless assassins sneer.
Valletta snorted. She remembered this little adventurer. “A real good-for-nothin’ you’ve got workin’ for ya, Finn. Almost makes me feel sorry for you, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
The peal of laughter rang in their ears.
Across from her, Finn sluggishly raised his head—and smiled.
It was a tiny smile, the corners of his mouth moving only slightly, but it was a smile all the same.
“What are you laughing at…? Finn?”
It was the infuriating smile of a hero, the expression that had persisted so tenaciously in her memory.
As she began to seethe in barely contained rage, Finn’s lips parted.
“…Good-for…nothing? My band is made up of…nothing but…heroes…”
Valletta let out another snort. “Heroes? Don’t make me laugh! Or are you as blind as you are dumb—?” she started, only for her mockery to be cut short.
At the center of her gaze was Raul, still splayed out on the ground like a limp starfish. Tears had gathered in the corners of his eyes as he blubbered out a nearly inaudible soliloquy of self-reproach.
“No good…I’m no good…not even when they needed me most…Forgive me, Captain…for getting you involved in this…and sorry, Mom, but…but I’m not ready to die yet…!”
Sword lost, he instead tightened his grip around a small fist-size bag.
“Hey, High Novice! Just what do you think you’re up to over—?”
Only she wasn’t able to finish her thought.
“Lady Valletta! They have reinforcements!”
“!”
At the sudden shout from one of the assassins, she whirled around to see a catgirl rushing toward her from one of the other tunnels. And she wasn’t the only one, either—there were three more from each of the remaining paths, and all of them were coming straight at her.
What the hell are they—?
She froze.
“?”
From behind Aki, her sweat flying as she hurled herself down the tunnel, was the biggest swarm of monsters Valletta had ever seen.
While her attention had been focused on Finn, the other members of his group had been racing through the surrounding passages, luring as many monsters as they could. All four of them were leading their own massive parade.
Valletta and her entire crew went wide-eyed with shock—a development that did not escape Raul, and he leaped to his feet before launching the bag in his hand in Valletta’s direction.
“What the—?! That smell…! Ugh!!”
It was the “magic powder” they’d picked up in Meren.
The powder that was actually a ground-up mixture of magic stones Nj?r?r had used to attract the violas in the sea. The crystal dust now covering their bodies would encourage the spider monsters to charge straight at Valletta and her assassins.
“?”
Horrified realization appeared in Valletta’s eyes as Aki upped her pace, her three companions attempted to hold back tears, and the throng of monsters stampeded toward them from every direction.
Raul’s decisive plan…
…was none other than a pass parade of life-or-death proportions.
“Watch out, Raul!!”
In an instant, Aki leaped toward the assassins before bounding right over their heads.
And, just as planned, the monsters charging behind her set their sights on their new prey, dusted in magic-stone powder from head to toe—.
“Y-you’ve gotta be kidding meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!”
The hellish feast had begun.
As Valletta’s scream ripped through the air, the horde of spiders lunged. It was like an avalanche as Aki’s companions followed her lead and passed off their own parades, leading the teeming throng of monsters straight into the intersection.
“Captain!!” Raul screamed as he dove toward Finn, snatching him up into his arms as blood and other monster juices began raining down.
The enemies’ monster-deceiving crystal did nothing anymore. Not in the face of the powder now coating their bodies. The horde of water spiders saw nothing but fresh meat as they besieged the assassins, fangs ripping and tearing and filling the tunnel with screams of agony. The assassins fought back desperately, whirling in every direction in an attempt to thwart their attacks as wave after wave of the beasts moved in for the kill.
It had been a gift from Loki.
A “just-in-case” sort of item for if they ran into trouble within the enemy stronghold, and a way for them to incite chaos between human and monster alike.
“Goddammiiiiiiiiiiit!!”
Not even a first-tier adventurer like Valletta could last long against the sheer mass of monsters attacking her now—a major miscalculation, considering she’d been ridiculing the same adventurers only a few moments prior.
Valletta and her forces had forgotten one important thing:
This was a Dungeon. And in the Dungeon, monsters made the rules.
There were no absolutes when it came to the labyrinth, and the vargs just kept on coming.
As if to further spur on the unforgiving pandemonium of the battle, Aki abruptly launched herself at Valletta.
“?!”
Valletta barely had time to react, still twisting desperately as her sword and claws bit into monster hide. And Aki took full advantage of her plight, lightsword flying as she raced toward the demoness with the “key.”
“Don’t you mess with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
But Valletta was still a Level 5.
And using her Level-5 strength, she was able to fling the incoming monsters away, turning her attention to the incoming assailant.
“Ngh!!”
Aki stayed calm until the very end, even as Valletta’s attacks bombarded her.
Following up every powerful strike with a swipe of her lightsword, she spun around with the grace of a cat. Then, after sidestepping the next counterattack, she aimed a blow straight at the vertebrae in Valletta’s neck.
“Gngh?!”
Valletta’s eyes popped open as she was sent crumbling to the ground.
Raul was right behind her.
“?”
As the young man came at her with his dagger, the words of her mortal enemy rang through her head once more.
—“…Good-for…nothing? My men are…nothing but…heroes…”
The hunter had become the hunted—an outcome borne from sheer desperation and an unstoppable resolve to outrun the touch of death. Loki Familia’s Level-4 “flunkies” had launched a combination attack reminiscent of Finn’s and Riveria’s handiwork.
Utilizing the opening Aki had created for him, Raul sent his dagger flying.
“Gngh!!”
“Nnnggaah?!”
Its blade carved a diagonal slash across her upper torso.
At the same time, the “key” slipped from her hand.
“Shi?!!”
Before she had a chance to snatch it back, it disappeared beneath a thundering landslide of spindly spider legs and claws. As she stumbled forward with a voiceless scream, Raul responded with a cry of his own, features twisting in urgency.
“Retreeeeeeeaaaat! Everyone, RUN!!”
With their number one target gone, Loki Familia had lost all reason to stay.
Darting in and out among the assassins and monsters, Raul sped away from the clamor, joining up with Aki and the rest of the group in a frantic sprint toward the tunnel Valletta had first appeared from.
“They’re getting away! After them! After theeeeeeeeeeeeem!!” Valletta shrieked, but her assassins paid her no heed. They were far too busy defending themselves against the spider onslaught, and Raul’s group slipped right past them before they could respond.
“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn!!”
The scream thundered down the tunnel behind them.
“Raul, are you okay?!”
“Okay’s a bit of a strong word, but I’m…gettin’ by!”
As they made their escape, Aki fell in step beside Raul, who still had Finn in his arms. And it wasn’t just Raul who was looking worse for the wear, either—Aki, Finn, all of them were covered in cuts and bruises, but that didn’t lessen their speed. They’d made it. Finn was fine. Not that they had time to celebrate successfully outwitting their foes as they quickly continued down the tunnel.
Especially when Knossos wasn’t about to let the adventurers escape.
Farther down the passage in front of them came the sound of a door opening, and suddenly, a massive swarm of violas launched themselves into the tunnel.
“?!”
Raul felt his breath catch. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence.
Indeed, this was the work of none other than Barca, who had been spying on them from the watery film of the pedestal. Though neutralizing Finn and his crew had been entrusted to Valletta, after witnessing Raul’s scheme, Barca had had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
—Raul could practically feel the despair.
The wounded boy could almost hear their hearts breaking behind him.
From one menace to the next, the labyrinth wasn’t done with them, its malice wringing from their hearts what hope they still had left.
Though the winds of favor currently propelled them forward, if they lost its graces now, they’d never be able to find them again.
“Grrrrruuuuuuuuuuaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!”
The earsplitting roar shook the walls as the massive beasts came charging.
“Take the captain!” Raul screamed in response, his eyes flashing.
“Raul?!”
But he’d already passed off the prum, launching himself forward toward the incoming stampede at an exhilarating speed. Snatching a short spear and dagger from one of his companions, he lunged, leaving Aki in shock behind him.
“We push forward!!”
It was a suicide attack.
The sight was one his companions were all too familiar with.
They’d seen it before—with Finn, with Aiz, with all the other first-tier elites.
“Ruuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaggghhh!!”
Only this time it was a Level-4 second-tier in their place.
Spear sailing and sword gleaming, Raul flew, cutting through the mass of tentacles and splitting heads left and right.
But there were simply too many of them, and no sooner had he finished his first attack than the monsters sent their tentacles toward him en masse. Blood ran rivers down his forehead; his fingers cracked; ugly bright-red rivulets spilled from his nostrils.
He’d reached his limit.
But who had expected otherwise?
He wasn’t a first-tier adventurer, after all. He wasn’t like Finn and the others.
“?Nnnggh!!”
But that didn’t stop him.
For every time he was struck, he retaliated viciously and shattered magic stones, building piles of ash around him as he forced a way open for the rest of his party.
“Stop, Raul!!” Aki screamed from behind him.
But he didn’t look back, no matter how many times she cried out, and swung his weapons again and again and again.
“You’re going to kill yourself…!!”
“This is what the captain would do!”
“You’re not the captain!!” she screamed, so loud her voice cracked.
“You don’t think I know that?!” Raul’s response was immediate and powerful, stunning her into silence. “I’ll…never be like him! I’ll never be like all those people we look up to!”
Raul knew his place all too well.
He was indecisive. A pitiful excuse for a human being. No one in the familia, not even his juniors, considered him remotely noteworthy. He could run himself ragged, but he’d never compare to Finn, Aiz, and the other first-tiers.
—Doesn’t matter how hard I try. I’ll never be like them. I know that.
His vision was starting to warp. It took him a moment to realize there were tears in his eyes. Tears of anguish. His confidence was failing him, stolen by the cruel vision of those chosen few ahead of him.
He was useless. Completely, utterly useless.
“But…” He wiped the blood and snot from his nose with his arm as he drew it back for a jab with his spear. “…I’ll be even more useless if…if I stop chasing them now!” he cried out, tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he squeezed them shut.
Just as Lefiya had a dream of her own to chase…
…he, too, struggled to keep up with his own target.
“You idiot…!” Aki called, salt stinging her eyes as she took out the enemies to her left and right in an attempt to shield Raul from the onslaught of tentacles.
“Ruuuuuaaaaarrrggghhh!!”
Raul sent his spear spiraling into the odious jaw of the final viola.
With a crisp snap, the haft broke in two, but not before the spearhead shattered the magic stone deep inside the creature’s flesh. Just before its teeth came down around him, the monster disintegrated into a pile of ash.
“Come on! Let’s get movin’! We can’t stop now!!” Raul bellowed, his body liable to give out at any moment.
“Y-yeeahhhhh!!” His companions raised a triumphant roar, hot on his heels as he abandoned his broken spear and unsheathed a longsword.
“…Kids these…days…” Finn rasped from the base of his throat.
“Captain?” The girl carrying him turned around. The prum captain was laughing, faintly but surely, from behind the rest of the group.
“You’re already a…fine adventurer…Raul.”
Graceless and unseemly though their struggle was, the adventurers would refuse to succumb.
“Miss Tiona!”
The synchronous deluge of poison vermis attacks shot through the air.
Elfie’s eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of her gruesome end.
“…?”
Only the blow never came.
Instead, she heard a raging gale, surging up and in and all throughout the tunnel.
Ever so slowly, she cracked her eyes open before gazing in wonder at what she saw.
“Not…todaaaaaaay!!”
Tiona was wielding her Urga in one hand, spinning it like the blade of a windmill.
The cyclone it created was so powerful, so fast, it acted as a force field that sent the incoming wave of vermis toxin flying in every direction. Still, not a single drop hit the adventurers behind her.
“Cast something, guys!!” she screamed.
“!”
The magic users were stunned for a moment, then nodded in zealous affirmation.
In less than an instant, their chant began. It was so loud, it drowned out the cacophonous competition between toxin and sword mill. While the girls readied their staves, even the boy, injured as he was from previous exposure to the venom, raised his arm and gasped out his spell.
The moment the first drop of sweat fell from Tiona, still caught in her test of endurance with the multitude of maggots, their magic was ready.
“Miss Tiona!!”
“Let ’er rip!! One big blast!!!”
In coordinated precision they’d practiced time and time again during their expeditions, Tiona leaped out of the way the moment the mages on the back line let loose their magic blast. The poison vermis, seeing the line of defense gone, rushed forward, only to find themselves face-to-face with the perfectly timed inferno headed straight in their direction. It rushed through them, frying them on the spot.
“Gwww?uaaaaaaghhh!!”
Flames filled the tunnel as the three unique blazes completely swallowed the maggots’ bodies. They atomized everything, forming a roaring sea of fire that left nothing but magic-stone cores in its wake.
“M-Miss Tiona, your—your hands!”
Having escaped the crisis temporarily, the three magic users looked now to Tiona’s sword hand, eyes widening in horror.
Though the blade of her Urga had protected them from the toxins, her hand around its hilt hadn’t been so lucky, taking the full brunt of the vermis venom. Her normally copper-colored skin had turned an intense shade of black.
“No biggie! You shoulda seen the stuff I got hit with in Meren—and I still kept fightin’!” Tiona laughed, shrugging off their tearful gazes with a reference to her duel against Bache, the Poison Queen. Despite the sweat pouring off her, she still wore her usual smile on her face.
“…Sorry, though. Kinda hard to…save everyone all by myself.”
The sweat refused to stop.
Smile faltering, she looked out over her three teammates.
She didn’t have Tione with her. Didn’t have Finn or Gareth. Not even Aiz or Lefiya. Hell, she would have even taken Bete at this point. It was only her. And she was quickly realizing that not even a first-tier adventurer like her could free them from their current predicament all alone.
Her own stupidity, her inability to come up with a solution, was beginning to grate on her.
But without even trying to put on a brave face, she entreated, “So…if you could maybe…do the savin’ for me…?” Her grin returned, sweat-drenched though it was.
The sight of her in such pain was enough to make Elfie and the others stop short before replying in unison:
“““Roger!!”””
“All right, then! Let’s do this! We put our heads together and we’ll make it through somehow!”
Even as their arms and legs trembled, the group felt smiles return to their faces.
Morale back with a vengeance, Tiona took off, leading them down the tunnel—and toward a lingering hope.
The assassin’s mighty mace came flying at her.
At the sickening squelch of flesh, Cruz and the other supporters turned white in horror.
“?Guagh!!”
But it wasn’t Tione who’d been shattered—it was the giant face of the assassin.
The Amazon’s copper fist had connected with the bridge of his nose, splitting it in two and rendering it a squishy mess. Watching the action play out, her companions nearly fainted right there on the spot.
“B-but why…?” the giant figure moaned, snot and tears dribbling down over his shattered front teeth before he fell head over heels to the ground below. His mace, just like his face, had been smashed into thousands of tiny pieces.
The punishing fist of an Amazon never missed its mark.
“Because you’ve done nothing but…whine and moan…!” Tione flexed her fist, chunks of skin missing from her knuckles. Around her, no one moved, and a heavy silence settled over the passageway.
She’d just smashed through the man’s mace at point-blank range. Gaze directed downward, she suddenly raised her head—murderous flames searing her eyes.
“And I’m sick of it!!”
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