Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka - Volume 11 - Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 

ULTRA SOUL! 

“…” 

Tiona discovered the body of an adventurer hidden among the ruins. 

The adventurer was not dead—only unconscious. 

As she looked at the human with blood running from both ears, she groped around her waist. 

“Damn, I don’t have any potions with me,” she said, realizing she’d forgotten to bring her items. 

“Tiona, hurry up!” her sister called. Reluctantly, she left the adventurer behind. 

Without using her hands, she scaled the structure that surrounded the tunnel-like passage where she’d been. At the top, she found her sister, Tione, who like Tiona had been ordered to serve as both scout and guerrilla fighter. The Amazon was stamping her bare feet and looking irritated. 

“Ugh, this is so frustrating! We’re doing what the captain said, but we’re not finding any monsters. Daedalus Street is so annoying. It’s nothing but twists and turns and dead ends.” 

Not to mention ups and downs. 

The western section of the Labyrinth District, where the two sisters were, was so complex they felt like they were walking through a trompe l’oeil painting. It was no wonder Tione was irritated. 

“Our opponent may be moving faster than Finn’s commands,” Tiona said. 

“Are you suggesting the captain is falling behind? I’ll kick your ass for saying that!” her sister growled in defense of her beloved leader. 

“You’re pretty annoying yourself!” Tiona snapped back with a fed-up look on her face, before mumbling that Tione was right. “But yeah, I think Finn’s instructions are spot-on. I bet the monsters passed near here.” 

“…Did you find something?” 

Tiona remained silent for a moment, gazing into the distance before answering. 

“I’ve been thinking, Tione. Those monsters that we’re after—” 

She did not complete the thought. The clanging of a bell broke the silence. 

“The signal for a monster sighting…! Let’s go, Tiona!” 

“…Yeah!” 

Watching her sister race off, Tiona seemed to change her attitude of a moment before. She shouldered her double-edged sword and followed Tione. 

Like a ferocious wave, the Xenos were barreling straight down the road in a single line. 

They were in the western section of the Labyrinth District, near the center. After emerging from the shortcut immediately in front of Loki Familia’s formation, the monsters were now running as fast as they could toward the underground passage to Knossos. 

“Thanks to Lillicchi, there aren’t any adventurers around!” said Lido at the head of the group. 

“Don’t let down your guard! They’re coming!” Fels yelled up from the center of the line. The mage was right: Loki Familia members were at that very moment rushing from the center, northwest, and southwest to fill the gap in the formation. 

“Archers, take your positions!” Loki Familia platoon leaders shouted. 

The archers drew back their bows and aimed at the advancing group of monsters. Positioned on buildings in front and to the left and right, they were about to unleash a tri-directional rain of arrows on the Xenos. 

But. 

“?!” 

“It’s cooooold?!” 

The elves and animal people who had been fitting their arrows to their bows were suddenly half-frozen. A blizzard that materialized from thin air had blindsided the girls. The bow, arm, shoulder, and half the face of each demi-human were covered in an armor of ice. They cried out at the bitter cold. 

“Sorry…!” 

“Apologies for the surprise attack!” 

Under their veils, Welf and Mikoto whispered their regrets. Their invisible hands gripped the aqua-colored magic daggers they had drawn from their sheaths. 

By running alongside the Xenos at a set distance and letting the noisy band of advancing monsters draw the attention of their opponents, Welf and Mikoto had managed to pull off the perfect sneak attack. Even the upper-class Loki Familia adventurers were helpless against this bombardment from their blind side by an invisible enemy. There was no escaping the blizzard from such close range as it swept over a wide area the instant it was released; even those who attempted to defend themselves from the aqua-blue wave of cold were imprisoned in ice. 

The magic ice daggers were called Hiens. 

Welf had worked without sleep or rest to forge the two blades for this day. Their beauty, which recalled crystals carved from ice, belied their cruel icy waves that froze anything in their way. Welf and Mikoto each carried one. 

Flames or lightning would wound an adventurer, but ice—while painful—could be reversed without seriously harming the enemy. 

“With these, we can get by without damaging the city!” 

Welf smiled half-heartedly, unable to fully give himself over to pride in his creation. 

The Crozzo magic daggers and the original Sage’s magic items made for a wicked combination. Without revealing that Hestia Familia had sided with the monsters, they were able to completely immobilize the targets of their surprise attacks. 

Not only were the adventurers on the rooftops unable to pull back their bows, they were also unable to move, because their feet and even the ground was frozen. As the adventurers below looked up, dumbfounded at the frozen blocks of ice that their companions had become, Welf and Mikoto leaped to the ground and unleashed another attack. 

“Aaaaaaahhh!” 

The adventurers on the ground screamed as they were enveloped in the blizzard, and the Xenos charged forward. 

“Yaaaaaaaarrrr!” 

Led by the lizardman and unicorn, the parade of monsters hurled themselves against the frozen adventurers. Animal people flew through the air. Humans were thrown against walls. Weapons and fragments of armor scattered. As they broke through the enemy line, the Xenos let loose a chorus of monster bellows. 

“Lady Haruhime! Tell me the way forward!” Mikoto screamed into her oculus. 

“There’s a road off to the right a little farther ahead!” Haruhime responded. 

Leaving Welf to watch for enemy pursuers, Mikoto went to intercept adventurers approaching from other streets. With the help of Hestia and Haruhime, she was able to forestall them without getting lost herself, sending waves of cold over them as they rushed toward the Xenos. The adventurers became her magic dagger’s quarry as she plastered herself to a wall above their heads and waited to ambush them. They cried out as the ice forced them to halt. 

The invisible Welf and Mikoto were able to hold the sporadic groups of Loki Familia fighters entirely in check. 

“Go, Welf and Mikoto! You get ’em…!” 

Hestia pumped her fist into the air as she looked down at the magic map. She could see the symbols for Welf and Mikoto moving frenetically around the Xenos, who were advancing east straight through the central zone of the Labyrinth District. She cheered on her familia members as they did their utmost to hold back the enemy’s approach. 

“Found ya!” 

Unfortunately, the goddess’s prayers were dashed. 

“—!! Shit?!!” 

“Gros!” 

The gargoyle rearguard spun around as he sensed a flash of light flying toward him. A knife had been hurled toward the group at high speed. It crashed into his stone right wing—which he had spread to protect his brethren in the rear—and shattered it like a hammer. 

Rei, who had been singing as she flew along, looked back—and saw two Amazonian women, their black hair flying behind them. 

“I knew they were around here!” one shouted. 

“We’ve caught up with them!” the other responded. 

Rei and Gros widened their eyes simultaneously. 

There was no way they could have forgotten those two Amazons. 

They were the same extremely strong first-tier adventurers who had trampled the Xenos in this very city several days before. 

“OHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” 

Gros let out a tremendous yell. His warning alerted Lido at the front and Fels in the center to the threat, and Welf and Mikoto, too, instantly turned around. 

“The Hyrute sisters!” 

“So they’re here…! Let’s give ’em hell!” 

“Yeah!” 

Welf and Mikoto immediately dropped what they were doing and ran to intercept Tiona and Tione, who were approaching with incredible speed. Dropping from the front of the formation to the back, they lifted the Hiens. Welf was on one side of the Xenos and Mikoto on the other, running on top of the buildings lining the street. They aimed their daggers at their opponents and, at nearly the same moment, swung them forward. 

They were sure they had targeted the sisters’ blind spots, as they had managed to do with the other adventurers up till now—but the sisters dodged. 

“?!” 

Welf and Mikoto were too surprised to utter a word. The sisters had reacted with incredible speed to the blizzard that materialized from thin air, evading it quite easily. 

“What was that? Is there an ice bird around here or something?” Tione called out, brushing a strand of long black hair from her face. 

“Seems a little too powerful for that!” Tiona replied, glancing backward at the enormous icy form that had risen up in the street. Returning her gaze to the front, the Amazonian girl called out to her sister again as she ran. 

“Hey, Tione. Someone’s here, aren’t they?” 

“Yeah. I don’t know if they’re shape-shifting or they’ve made themselves invisible…but there are two of them for sure.” 

The sisters looked up and directed their piercing gazes at two points ahead and above them. 

Welf and Mikoto shuddered. The sisters had accurately pinpointed their locations. For all their invisibility and freezing blizzards, they both realized that one blow from the sisters would crush them. 

The twin warriors were she-devils incarnate. 

The sight of the Level 6 first-tier adventurers bearing down on them was truly petrifying. Yet even though the glint in the sisters’ eyes filled them with a horror unlike any they’d experienced before, they summoned their courage. 

“Lady Hestia, is there any terrain coming up that we can use?!” 

“Uh, um…Sorry, Welf, there’s nothing! No turnoffs and no obstacles! The road just gets wider and wider. Looks like the only thing is a downward slope…” 

The wind was so strong that it nearly blew Welf’s veil off and drowned out his questions as he spoke into the oculus. The answer sounded like a screech. He could sense that the invisible Mikoto was growing anxious as well. He looked up, startled. 

“A slope…!” 

Far in the distance down the arrow-straight road, he could see a hill that appeared to lead into a basin. 

The young smith spoke once more into the blue crystal in his hand. 

“Lady Hestia, please connect me with those two.” 

Hestia understood immediately who he meant by “those two.” Working with the flustered Haruhime, she pushed Mikoto’s and Fels’s crystals together with Welf’s so they could hear him. 

Mikoto and Fels paused for a moment after hearing the gamble Welf proposed, then agreed. Fels spoke first. 

“We have no other choice. We’re betting on your magic daggers, Welf Crozzo. Lido, run as fast as you can!” 

“I’ll try, too, Sir Welf!” Mikoto said. 

“I’m counting on you!” 

The Xenos mustered their strength and ran even faster. 

Having given up on aiming directly at the approaching sisters, Welf and Mikoto now attempted to stop them by freezing the road, throwing up dozens of ice walls and knife-sharp ice mountains to block their progress. But Tiona and Tione crushed each one in the space of a single breath, slashing them down with the double-edged sword, kukri knives, and even their bare feet. Mikoto grimaced at the sight of the extraordinary woman warriors in savage pursuit of the Xenos amid a blizzard of shattered ice chunks. 

“Run! Run!” the lizardman shouted to his brethren again and again in the howling language only the other monsters could understand. They had to take full advantage of every second Welf and Mikoto gained for them. 

Wiene gasped for breath as she ran, and the flat-footed troll flapped its arms even more clumsily than usual as they tried to keep up. Lido and Fels took on the other Loki Familia members who Welf and Mikoto—now fully focused on the Amazons—were no longer able to hold back. Lido’s longsword and scimitar mowed down all who tried to block their progress forward, while Fels’s jet-black gloves sent out invisible shock waves that kept others from approaching. 

Rei, who was flying above the party, dropped back to Gros’s position to protect Wiene and the other Xenos at the rear, as well as Welf and Mikoto. With feather projectiles from her wings, she somehow managed to intercept the knives that Tione threw and send them to the ground before they reached their intended targets. But again and again, the white blades made their way through her defense and ripped into the siren’s body. 

As the parade of monsters grew increasingly ferocious and the fighting verged on spinning out of control, the narrow road began to widen as Hestia had said it would. Soon they were running down an avenue more than eight meders wide. 

“This is annoying! Tiona, you throw something, too!” Tione shouted, clicking her tongue in irritation at her inability to draw closer to the Xenos. 

“Okay, but Urga is all I’ve got!” Tiona called back before hurling the double-edged sword. 

The massive hunk of metal was impossible to fend off. Welf, Mikoto, and Gros gaped at it, and Rei shrieked shrilly for her kin to get out of the way. 

With no time even to glance backward, Wiene and the others in the rear rushed away. In the next instant, the huge double-edged sword hit the ground. 

“?!” 

The stone pavement buckled at the tremendous impact, sending the Xenos flying. Avoiding a direct hit by a mere hairbreadth, they tumbled down a slope paved in black bricks. 

It was the hill Hestia had told them about. 

“Tiona, let’s kill them he—” 

Tione stopped mid-sentence. She had just begun to descend the slope with her sister, who had retrieved her sword from the ground before running on. She sensed that the invisible sources of the bombardment had stopped in the middle of the road at the bottom of the hill. 

“They’ve stopped!” 

“So they think they can cut us off?!” 

Tiona and Tione knew their opponents were facing them, poised for battle. 

Instantly, they realized they were facing the fiercest attack yet. In the distance, they could see the monsters falling back into formation as they escaped, but they nevertheless made their decision without an instant’s hesitation. 

“I’ll shield you. Kill them, Tiona!” 

“Okay!” 

Rather than retreat from the wide avenue, the sisters had chosen to charge the enemy. 

Tiona stood directly behind Tione, hiding in her shadow; her older sister would take the fire while she brought down the enemy. Their target was clear. 

As Mikoto braced herself for a direct attack from the warrior sisters who were ready to risk their lives in the fight, sweat trickled beneath her veil. 

But her heart was as clear and quiet as a perfectly still pool of water. 

If they lost the upper hand here, everything was over. 

If the enemy caught up with the Xenos, they would be destroyed—and she could not let that happen. 

The girl from the Far East met the gazes of the approaching first-class adventurers with her invisible eyes and brought her hand to the hilt of her magic dagger. 

“!” 

Welf swung his dagger from his position diagonally below them in a final attempt to stop the advance. Unfazed, Tiona and Tione positioned themselves firmly in the middle of the slope. Whether their opponents tried to freeze them or burn them, the sisters were confident they could withstand the attacks. No matter how terribly they were wounded, they would not back down from their enemy. They flew through the air toward the invisible presences. 

The instant before they made contact, the sisters heard a metallic shing. 

“—” 

The sound was neither ice crystals forming nor raging flames. 

It was the sound of a glittering metal blade sliding along its sheath—and a sword being loosened from its scabbard. 

Mikoto, crouched low to the ground, had two weapons at her hip. One was her third-tier adventurer’s weapon, Kotetsu. The other was a sword with a magic blade. 

As the first-class adventurers gaped, Mikoto’s eyes flashed with determination. She waited for just the right moment, then drew the weapon. 

Welf smiled as he watched. 

“Go get ’em, Fubu.” 

“—!!” 

The jade-colored blade sparkled as it was freed from its confines with a single swift, silent movement. 

As it flashed before the eyes of Tione and Tiona, the blade released a hurricane-force gale. 

“Wha—?” 

“You’re kidding me!” 

The sisters literally flew backward in the gust. 

There was no fighting against the bombardment. The twins were blown high into the air and far away into the distance, completely unable to “withstand” anything. 

Their hair whipping around them, Tiona and Tione disappeared from the battlefield. 

“We did it…Oops!” Mikoto said, struggling to hold down her Reverse Veil as the powerful back draft pushed it up. 

The Xenos cheered. 

“Hurry up, they’re not knocked out of the fight! They’ll be back before you know it!” Welf shouted to them. 

Like the Hien, the Fubu could not kill or wound. It simply created a strong wind. It lacked even the power to lacerate its victims, and so long as it was used correctly, it would inflict no wounds. The instant Tione and Tiona hit the ground, they would most likely rush back toward their opponents in a fit of fury. 

But Fels couldn’t help letting out a shout, even as Welf urged the Xenos along. 

“Down with the first-class adventurers!” 

Mikoto may have made ample use of the magic blade and veil, but she had nevertheless driven off the sisters, and Fels was praising her for it. 

And now…! 

As the Xenos continued moving forward, the mage felt confident of their position. 

The fact that Amazon the Slasher and Jormungand had intercepted them was likely the result of a miscalculation on Loki Familia’s part. With guards posted throughout the Labyrinth District as well as at the doors to Knossos, few troops were free to move unhindered—let alone the Sword Princess, who was glued to Bell, and Finn, who was tied up commanding the operation. 

The underground path to Knossos was close now. If things continued like this, Fels believed they would be victorious. But just at that moment— 

“—” 

The black-clad mage saw a lone shadow cross the sky. 

“I am sorry, Captain!” 

It was earlier in the night, and at Loki Familia headquarters, Raul Nord was bowing obsequiously. Finn kept his back to Raul as he gazed out at the western section of Daedalus Street, which was now a battlefield. 

“B-because of me, th’ battle formation was destroyed…! But th’ phony captain looked just like you! I mean he coulda been your twin. Two peas in a pod! That’s why I didn’t see through him…! Oh geez, I am so, so sorry!” 

“There’s nothing to be done about it now, and I don’t have the time to hold you to account. Just answer my questions, Raul.” 

With that, Finn began to calmly question his pale, quivering underling. 

“Did my imposter ask you anything?” 

“Huh?” 

The question confused Raul. He searched his memory. 

“Uh…he said monsters had been sighted in th’ south and told me to move the unit…and then, I’m fairly sure that after that he asked me where th’ guards were positioned in Knossos.” 

“I see…Good work, Raul. You’ve confirmed my suspicions.” 

Ignoring the bewildered Raul, Finn continued as if reciting a monologue. 

“Our opponents went so far as to impersonate me in order to find out where the guards were positioned in Knossos…I don’t want to believe it, but there’s no other explanation. They must have Daedalus’s Notebook.” 

If that was the case, then all they had to do once they knew the locations guarded by Loki Familia was follow the plan of Knossos to one of the unguarded entrances, avoiding all contact with Loki Familia. 

“It’s meaningless for us to guard the underground doors. Raul, I’ve already called back half the guard units and told them to wait aboveground. Take this message to them.” 

“Yes, sir!” 

Finn stared straight down onto the battlefield as he spoke. 

“Send Gareth on a sortie.” 

Back in the present, the shadow that Fels had seen approaching lifted the weapon in its hand skyward. 

“—” 

It was a huge battle-ax. 

The figure holding it was a mighty dwarf warrior, his mantle flapping in the chill night air that had descended after the rain. 

As Fels watched the aged warrior plunge downward, eyes bulging ferociously, the mage tossed appearances to the wind and let out a piercing scream. 

“Run!!” 

An instant later, the warrior landed. 

“Yaaaah!” 

He swung his battle-ax downward, shattering the black brick pavement. 

“Gaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrhhhhh!” 

Gareth’s blow bounced high and fell like a meteorite, exploding in the center of the line of Xenos. 

Immediately Fels released a shock wave. The Xenos were not injured, but the combined force of the blow and the shock wave was strong enough to crumble the earth and throw them back. Not one was left standing—not Welf, not Mikoto, not Wiene. The sound of the rumbling earth mixed with the cries of the monsters, most of whom had been hurled against the walls. 

Cracks split the stone pavement and fissures ran up the sides of the buildings, sending walls thundering down. 

“Guess I got carried away. I’ll have to pay for those,” Gareth said, readjusting his helmet. Swinging his battle-ax up onto his shoulder, he broke into a run. 

He was closing in on Fels, who was plastered to a wall. 

“?!” 

Gareth had guessed that the figure in black was a commander of sorts for the monsters and prudently set his sights on the head of the group. The dwarf’s merciless ax cut through the air toward Fels. The instant before it struck, a longsword and scimitar knocked it away. 

“Yaarrhh!” 

“Huh?” 

The side of the sword slashed into the ax, driving it off course and sending it crashing into the wall directly next to Fels. 

Even as he pressed his own wounds, Lido had swooped down on Gareth, and now he immediately raised his weapon to mow him down with a second blow. But Gareth pulled his ax back first and, eyes narrowed, drove the pommel into the lizardman’s breastplate. 

“Ooof!” 

The monster’s massive body flew back as easily as if it were a feather, rolling onto the cracked stone pavement. Fels thrust out both hands and released a shock wave from point-blank range, but the dwarf warrior swiftly leaped to the side, successfully avoiding it. 

“OHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” 

The gargoyle’s command echoed through the air, and the next instant the Xenos were flying at Gareth in unison. They had realized they had to deal with this demi-human if they were going to escape. Coughing violently from all the dust, Welf and Mikoto checked that they were still invisible and watched the battle in terror. 

More than ten Xenos surrounded the dwarf, but still he managed to keep them at bay, overwhelming his opponents with his sheer strength. Using his ax, he sliced off the jabbing horn of the unicorn and the flailing tail of the lamia, before sending the troll flying with a fierce punch from his gauntlet-clad fist. Even the lizardman and the gargoyle, who were the strongest of the bunch, were dispensed within a matter of seconds. 

The scene was an exact replay of the one that had unfolded five days earlier in the Labyrinth District. The overwhelmingly powerful Level 6 adventurer was trouncing the monsters. The most terrifying thing of all was the intense presence of the dwarf who stood in front of them, more frightening even than that of the Amazonian sisters or the werewolf. 

“—Aaah!” 

With all her might, Rei released a wave of sound. 

The strange shriek caught Gareth off guard. For the first time, his notably un-dwarflike mental agility dulled for an instant. Welf and Mikoto, who had been standing stock-still until that moment, realized this could be their only chance to act. 

“!” 

Gareth sidestepped the blizzard that Welf’s Hien drew from thin air, but the wave of frigid air that Mikoto released a moment later froze one of his legs. Standing their ground, Welf and Mikoto unleashed a second attack on the trapped dwarf. 

The first-class adventurer was imprisoned in a world of freezing winds, ice, and frost. But in the next moment, he rendered Mikoto speechless. 

What?! 

Welf couldn’t believe his eyes. 

Is this some kind of joke?! 

“Uwaaaaaaaaaa—!!” 

The mighty dwarf warrior was determined to fight, whatever the consequences. 

His body still frozen, he burst through the armor of ice with sheer will, raised his ax in his fist, and swung it wildly around him. The Xenos flew at him, mouths agape, but were hurled back. 

Welf and Mikoto edged around to his blind side and released wave after wave of cold. He did not stop. No matter that half his body was frozen solid and covered with frostbite. He was one lone adventurer, but they could not stop him. 

A moment later, a cracking sound split the air. 

“…?!” 

As if defeated in their battle of wills with the dwarf, the magic blades crumbled to pieces. Overuse had destroyed them. Welf and Mikoto were speechless as they watched the shards of the aquamarine blades crumble through their fingers. 

“Mr. Gareth!” 

“Get ’em! Bring ’em down!” 

As if to drive home their misfortune, Loki Familia’s reinforcements had arrived. Upper-class male and female adventurers flooded in from the alleyways feeding into the main street, from the rooftops of the buildings, and from all four directions. 

“Time to use these!” 

From the sleeve of Fels’s black cloak appeared a number of black spheres, which the mage scattered across the road. 

As the spheres cracked, black smoke billowed into the broad avenue. It was the same smoky veil Fels had used five days ago to help the Xenos escape: the black mist, a magic item. It was a last-ditch strategy to prevent the adventurers from communicating with one another. The black mist instantly turned the street into a tangle of adventurers and monsters blindly fighting any moving body, the air filled with their confused screams. 

Shit, this is bad. What do I do?! 

Spears and claws materialized from the depths of the mist and besieged Welf, his invisibility no protection from the chaos. He was at the mercy of his own wildly pounding heart. 

The word annihilation swam through his mind, stirring his thoughts into chaos. It would be nearly impossible for the Xenos to pull themselves together and escape from this insane melee. At the very least, he had to do something about Gareth. 

Welf had lost the Hien. Mikoto still had the Fubu, but if she were to use it to blow away this black mist, both enemies and allies alike would be blown away with it, and when the air cleared, Gareth would be waiting once again to trample them. If the other Loki Familia members were to join in, the fate of the Xenos would be to end then and there. And Lilly probably couldn’t come to their rescue, either. 

What if I use this…?! But if I use it now…! 

Welf looked at his waist. 

In place of his usual longsword, his belt held a magic one. As he gazed at the naked blade, which was a deeper aquamarine than the Hien, a ferocious inner struggle tormented him. 

He had already wasted a few precious seconds on this mental conflict when he heard a familiar voice. 

“Ha-ha! This is a real party!” 

Chunks of ice rained down from the sky onto the street. 

“Huh?!” 

Welf could hear the crackle of the street freezing and the screams of the dwarf and the other adventurers, and through the mist, he was sure he could see a powerful gust of snow. 

As he stood there bewildered, a figure landed with a thud directly in front of him. 

“Uh…Tsubaki?” 

“Huh? Is that Welfy I hear?” 

The girl had brown skin, black hair knotted behind her head, and a patch over her left eye like the one her patron deity wore. Dressed in a bright-red hakama and combat clothing, she brought to mind a fencer from the Far East. Her attractive but somehow peculiar features indicated a mix of dwarf and human blood. 

Tsubaki Collbrande, captain of Hephaistos Familia. At the sight of this unexpected intruder, Welf pulled off his veil and revealed himself. 

“What are you doing here?!” 

“My patron deity begged me to help you guys out. I heard about the Zenoes or whatever you call them, too. Looks like you’ve got yourself wrapped up in something pretty interesting, Welf!” the half-dwarf explained simply with a smug smile. Like Nahza of the Miach familia, she had come to help Welf and his familia members in their attempt to save the Xenos. 

Welf wasn’t entirely thrilled that Hephaistos had told Tsubaki about the Xenos, even though he could imagine why. From the perspective of Hephaistos, whom Tsubaki venerated, telling the girl must have seemed unproblematic. But Welf hated the idea that this pleasure-seeking adventurer knew about their situation. 

Totally unaware of Welf’s thoughts, Tsubaki held up her magic blade. 

“Looks like we both had the same idea, eh, Welf? Anyway, leave it to me. I’ll stay out of view and let them have it with this magic blade. Ha-ha, I’ve got weapons coming out of my ears!” 

Welf found the sight of Tsubaki with her bundle of weapons slung carelessly over her shoulder revolting. 

“You just want to try out your magic blades!” he shouted, forgetting where he was in his anger at the master smith’s ulterior motives. 

Tsubaki was such a pure and eccentric craftswoman that she sometimes descended to the Deep Zone of the Dungeon just to see how well her creations worked. This insane passion also explained her skill as a smith and her genuine battle prowess, which had earned her the nickname “Cyclops.” 

“Don’t be stupid. Didn’t I rush to your aid knowing full well Loki Familia would hate me for it? Ha-ha! I’m off! Here I go!” 

“Just like I thought; you’re enjoying this! By the way, if you go crazy with your attacks, Loki Familia’s gonna—” 

“Ha-ha-ha!! You think that dwarf is gonna roll over because of this? Loki Familia leaders are all monsters!” 

Accurately speaking, she seemed to be after Gareth alone. Taking advantage of the veil of smoke, Tsubaki slashed her magic blade randomly through the air. The chaotic battlefield made Welf uneasy, and he had an excruciating headache. After a few minutes, Tsubaki came across his crumbled magic blade. 

“Eh, looks like this one reached its limit. Still room for improvement, I’d say,” she said, tossing away the empty hilt. 

The next moment, her mood shifted, and she glanced sidelong at Welf through her narrowed right eye. 

“And? What are you standing there dreaming about? Is that longsword at your waist a decoration?” 

“…!” 

“Why did you even bring it, silly boy? Put that thing to use!” 

The senior smith seemed to be ridiculing Welf, or perhaps scolding him. 

“Didn’t you come here to save those Zenoes guys? While you stand there dithering, the monsters are gonna turn into a pile of smoking ash!” 

“…If I use this, even a first-tier adventurer would—” 

“Idiot!” 

Tsubaki brushed away Welf’s needless worries with a smile. 

“I told you before, those guys are monsters. A little baby magic blade like that isn’t gonna knock them down so easily.” 

Tsubaki directed her single eye at Welf as if to say he didn’t have time to waste worrying about his opponents’ well-being. He couldn’t find anything to say in response. 

Instead, he frowned and gripped the hilt of his longsword, bracing himself for the fight. 

“…It’s hard to find the enemy in all this mist.” 

“I’ll be your eyes. Get ready.” 

Tsubaki was not only a master smith but also a Level 5 adventurer. She could hold her own against any first-tier. Welf frowned at this superwoman who could sense her opponent’s presence especially well in the current chaos, drew his sword, and took a fighting stance. 

“Two o’clock. Yeah, right there. They’re on guard, but nothing to worry about—not with your silly old magic blade.” 

“Any Xenos in the line of fire?” 

“Nope, nothing to worry about. Now is the time—do it,” Tsubaki said, sidling behind him and pushing her finger into his spine. 

“Asshole,” Welf mumbled. 

Then he swung the deep-aqua blade down from above his head. 

“Hiyo!” 

With a high-pitched, birdlike screech, a wave of ice and wind materialized. 

The aqua-blue ice floe swept through the black mist like the outstretched wings of some giant bird of prey. Instantaneously freezing the pavement below, its sharp beak searched for victims. The raging blizzard unleashed by the Hiyo far surpassed anything the Hien had produced. Even Gareth stared wide-eyed at the blizzard and pulled his shield from beneath his mantle, forced for the first time to take a defensive stance. 

Standing protectively in front of the adventurers near him, the dwarf bore the full brunt of the raging snow and crackling ice. 

“M-Mr. Gareth?!” 

“…Feels about the same strength as Riveria’s magic. That did a bit of damage.” 

Gareth’s entire left side, including the shield he thrust before him, was frozen solid. His beard was encrusted in ice and his face was frostbitten, but still the mighty dwarf warrior laughed fearlessly. 

“You guys step back!” he told the other adventurers, hiding them behind his back as he made his body into a wall against the second bombardment of ice and snow. 

“Hey, look, he’s alive!” Tsubaki laughed. 

“Shut up. Lady Hestia, can you hear me?” Welf retorted, taking out his oculus. 

“Yes, I’m here. What is it, Welf?” 

“We’ll hold them here somehow! Tell the Xenos to move forward!” 

The black mist lingered stubbornly despite the repeated blizzards. Welf had decided that he could turn it to his advantage by using it to hide his presence as he fought, and that was why he asked Hestia to send his message to Fels. Mikoto must have heard him, because her voice came back through the oculus. 

“Got it!” 

Presently, he heard the lizardman’s roar. Welf could sense the monsters scattered around him responding to the command to move forward. And then, the adventurers pursuing them. Cursing his inability to hold them back, Welf continued to swing his magic blade in the direction Tsubaki told him to. 

We’ve just gotta keep that dwarf pinned here! 

The road where Gareth stood had turned into a river of ice. They had stopped the first-tier adventurer. 

On the outskirts of southwestern Daedalus Street, Hestia dripped with nervous sweat. Next to her, Haruhime had turned white. 

“Oh, this is bad. This is really bad…!” 

“Yes! It’s awful!” 

In the aftermath of the fierce attack from Loki Familia, the names of the Xenos were scattered across the magic map. The enemy had ruined their prospects of reaching the central zone of the Labyrinth District. 

As if to drive home the dismal message, Hestia saw a lone symbol moving away from the group. 

“No, Wiene! You can’t go that way!” 

The dragon girl was striking out on her own. 

Wiene was running. 

Some of her scales had been torn off, and crimson blood was seeping from the gaps. 

She gripped her wounded left arm and plunged into the black mist. 

Fels’s smoke had overflowed the main avenue and filled the alleys that surrounded it like a spiderweb. The thick fog that blotted out the stars was probably visible from anywhere in Daedalus Street. 

If Wiene stopped in the mist, the adventurers would surround her. She knew that. And she knew that even now she was running farther and farther from the other Xenos. But she could not stop her feet. 

They’re…coming…! 

Arrows flew at her ceaselessly, grazing the hood of her robe and her pointy ears. Loki Familia archers. Terrified of the bolts flying to kill her, she turned a corner. The dragon girl’s diabolical pursuers were drawing closer. 

“Huff, puff…” 

Wiene struggled to find her way through the Labyrinth District. She didn’t have an oculus with her, so she could not turn to the goddess for help. The black brick buildings stretched up as far as she could see, turning the streets into canyons. Countless side alleys branched off like fissures, beckoning the girl into the abyss of mist. 

At last, Wiene broke out of the dense, still fog that blocked her vision. 

“!” 

She emerged into a scene of ruin. The black bricks had given way to ancient cobblestones surrounded by clusters of the strangely shaped, crumbling buildings Daedalus had designed ages ago. Every few minutes, the tremors and rumbling from the battlefield shook loose a rain of sand and stone fragments. 

The scene suggested that in her confusion, Wiene had crossed the border of the Labyrinth District’s western region and entered the northwestern section. She paused for a moment and looked around at the wider and slightly less complicated roads. 

“There it is! I found it!” 

“!” 

At the sound of the adventurers’ shouts, Wiene took off running again. Evading the rain of arrows, she turned a corner. Her bluish-white skin and scales covered in sweat and her silver-blue hair tangled beneath her robe, Wiene plunged desperately forward, clinging to an invisible hope. 

But. 

“—” 

As if to crush the monster’s wish, the starlight illuminated a figure far in the distance. 

Wiene stopped breathing. 

I’ve made it this far somehow, but… 

The brown-skinned woman’s bare feet were planted firmly on the roof of a building, and she had an unbelievably huge double-edged sword over her shoulder—an Amazon. 

It was Tiona Hyrute. 

Why—? 

Wiene recognized her as a threat. She could not understand how one of the pair Mikoto had blown away earlier could be standing before her now. 

“Well, I guess since I’ve happened across one, I better do something about it,” the Amazon muttered to herself. 

Tiona didn’t really know why she’d ended up in this place. If she had to say, it was probably because she’d seen the black mist creeping to the northwest. 

Once she had finally landed on the ground after Mikoto’s tornado, she’d headed back toward the battlefield with Tione, who was insane with rage. But when she saw the jet-black mist spreading northwest, Tiona had changed directions. 

The south side was still okay. The only ones down there were adventurers. But she’d heard that there were still some townsfolk on the northern side of the Labyrinth District who hadn’t managed to evacuate. Her instincts told her that things could get nasty if they tried to head to the outskirts through the mist, and that had led her to follow the cloud to the northwest. 

“I’ll take this one down,” she said to herself. 

When Wiene saw Tiona toss her double-edged sword to one hand, she sped off in the opposite direction. 

For all her youth and inexperience, the dragon girl could sense that she was in a desperate situation. As she collided with Loki Familia pursuers, all hope drained from her face. She leaped into an intersection as the adventurers and Tiona closed in on her from both sides. 

Huh? 

A little boy was standing near her. 

A human…child…? 

It was a pale, young half-elf, hugging a kitten to his chest. 

Wiene saw her own reflection in the child’s pupils. Her two amber eyes peering out from the dark hood and, above them, like a drop of blood on her forehead, her sparkling third eye. The sight of her monster’s face wreathed in darkness would surely be enough to petrify any small child. 

Wiene hesitated for a moment as she faced the terrified boy. Just then, she heard a loud explosion from the direction of the battlefield that shook the ground. 

An instant later, it gave way to a powerful roar. 

Suddenly, one of the buildings looming above the child’s head pitched forward and began to crumble. 

“Ruu?!” 

Screams exploded from the mouths of Lai, Fina, and Maria as if their chests were bursting open. 

“Ouka?!” 

“It’s coming—!” 

As they saw the building tipping forward on the west side of the intersection, Chigusa and Ouka dashed into the street, their weapons in hand. 

They had arrived at the corner just a minute earlier, still searching for the little boy who had run back to the orphanage all alone. They had felt a flood of relief when they caught sight of the half-elf on the east side of the intersection. That was immediately before the explosion. 

“Miss Tiona?!” 

“Oh no!” 

Ouka saw the monster in the torn robe racing with frightening speed into the intersection, the little boy frozen in place, and the astounded Loki Familia members. Then he noticed the dilapidated building falling toward the intersection. 

I won’t make it!! 

Within his heart, Ouka screamed silently at the horrifying disaster about to occur. 

Ah… 

It was a familiar scene for Wiene. 

The mountain of bricks falling above the boy’s head. Back then, it had been packages falling from a horse-drawn cart. 

You should just leave him there, Wiene’s fearful heart whispered to her. 

The people will scream and throw rocks at you. They will all hate you, and sadness will overwhelm you, and your heart will wear thin, and your days will pass in miserable tears. 

But— 

Wiene asked her heart a question. 

But even so, Bell saved me, didn’t he? 

She had heard from her brethren about the boy’s plight. It was her fault that even now he faced hostility and malice on all sides. When Wiene learned that, she had burst into tears and felt a tightness in her heart. 

Bell had saved Wiene even though he knew people would throw rocks at him. 

Wiene’s fearful heart had nothing to say in response. Instead, it gently urged her onward. 

The next moment, the heat in the finger pushing her forward burst through her skin and her robe and grew into a new wing. 

“—!!” 

The potential of a dragon turned Wiene’s body into a bluish-silver arrow speeding toward the child. 

She spread her wing out to block the mountain of falling brick, using her body to press the half-elf boy to the ground. 

“Ruu!!” 

The collapsing rubble drowned out the screams of the other children. 

The sound of avalanching debris enveloped the intersection as a waterfall of stone descended. 

By the time the rush had subsided, an enormous cloud of dust had ballooned from the wreckage, and the entire area was littered with jagged hunks of stone. 

“…Ah.” 

Wiene and the boy were in the center of this collapsed building. 

The boy was lying faceup on the ground, and the vouivre was pressing her hands against his face as she peered down into his eyes. 

Her outstretched wing had not been able to block all the rubble. Blood dripped from her head onto the boy’s cheek. 

“—Shoot it!” 

“?!” 

An arrow bounced off Wiene’s wing. 

How had this scene appeared to those who watched it unfold? At least to Maria, the children, and Loki Familia’s members, it looked as if the monster had attacked the child with its dreadful wing, and by chance the rubble had fallen onto its head. 

Wiene looked down as a band of angry adventurers approached from beyond the settling dust. She rose from the boy’s side and began running. A moment later, Maria and the children and other Loki Familia members rushed to take her place next to the boy. 

“I’ll go after her! You guys protect the children!” Tiona shouted to the adventurers, raising her sword as she ran after the monster. 

“Got it!” 

Maria, Lai, and Fina hugged the dazed Ruu, who was gripping the kitten tightly. 

“Oh, Ruu! Ruu!” 

“You dummy! What were you doing?!” 

“Ruu, are you okay?” 

Maria, Lai, and Fina were all crying. 

“No, you’re all wrong…Mother, Lai, Fina,” he whispered faintly as they held him close. A drop of the monster’s blood trickled down his cheek like a tear. 

“Big brother…was right all along.” 

The half-elf child stared up at the deep-blue night sky as his foster mother held him. His lips trembled as he made out the faintly shining moon beyond the settling dust. The child’s sobs echoed through the ruins. 

A few steps away, Ouka and Chigusa were standing stock-still. 

“Ouka…what just happened?” 

“The monster protected him? Protected a child…?” 

The two had been standing immediately beside Wiene as the scene unfolded, and they had seen all the details that Maria, the children, and Loki Familia members had missed from their position behind the vouivre. Now they exchanged puzzled whispers about what they had witnessed. 

Their words trailed off, and they gazed toward the street where Wiene had disappeared. 

A short distance from the intersection, two pairs of footsteps echoed down a narrow alleyway illuminated by timeworn magic-stone lanterns. 

It had taken only a few moments for Tiona to catch up with the fleeing Wiene. 

“Here we go!” 

“?!” 

The Amazon handily swung her double-edged sword down, blocking Wiene’s path of retreat. 

Although the sword did not hit the dragon girl, her thin legs collapsed from the force of the impact and the gust of wind from the rapidly swing of her weapon. Tiona did not waste this chance to lift her sword in preparation for another thrust. 

Ah… 

Wiene didn’t even have time to shield her body with her single wing. Even if she had, the sword would have skewered her, wing and all. In the last instant, as the Amazon closed in on her, she squeezed her eyes shut. 

“…?” 

She waited and waited, but the piercing thrust of the sword did not come. 

Very timidly, she opened her eyes. The huge double-edged sword was suspended in front of her chest. When she looked up, Tiona was standing there silently with a deeply conflicted expression on her face. 

“Uhhh, errrrr, mmmm…yeah!” 

After groaning and grumbling for a minute, Tiona nodded and pulled back her weapon. 

“I just couldn’t do it after all!!” 

She tossed the sword over her shoulder. The massive weapon rolled across the ground with a grating crash. 

“Huh…?” the vouivre whispered hoarsely from her bluish-white lips. 

The best word to describe her expression would be “stunned.” 

“You…you saved him, didn’t you? That little boy.” 

Wiene reacted with surprise. 

“I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying…but you’d better get out of here fast.” 

“Ah…” 

“Not everyone is a softhearted idiot like me, you know.” 

Tiona stared down at the monster. Wiene didn’t know what to do, but very timidly, she stood up. She opened her mouth slightly as if to speak, but at that moment the booms of the battle echoed down the alleyway, and she hurried away. 

Just once, she turned to look back at Tiona, then disappeared. 

The magic-stone lamps flickered in the alleyway. Left alone, Tiona picked up the sword she’d tossed away and slowly raised her eyes to the heavens. 

“…This is how the Argonaut must have felt…” 

Her words faded into the cloudy night sky. 

“Tiona!” 

“Oh, hey, Tione.” 

When she left the alleyway, Tiona bumped into her twin. Tione frowned angrily and pressed in close to Tiona. 

“Why’d you run off without telling me? I was looking for you!” 

“You came after me? I figured you’d be busy fighting over on the main street.” 

“The captain told us to stick together! I’m not going to disobey him, am I? And…what about the monster? I heard you chased one over here.” 

Tiona considered lying to her sister but decided against it. 

“Yeah, I let it go.” 

“What?! It didn’t escape; you purposely let it go?! Are you crazy?” 

“But—!” 

“‘But’ my ass! These are unique circumstances. Didn’t you hear what the captain said?” 

“But, Tione, even you know those monsters are more than just smart…” 

“Hmph.” 

“I think they’re different from regular monsters. I don’t get a negative feeling from them,” she told her sister frankly, thinking back to the adventurer she’d found who was unconscious but not dead. 

For a moment, Tione was silent, as if she knew Tiona had hit on the truth. But her anger quickly resurfaced. 

“Shut up! I’m going to get that black minotaur no matter what! I’m out of here!” 

“You just want revenge!” 

The sisters ran off side by side, bickering as they went. 

“Goddess Hestia, where is Wiene?!” 

Fels’s voice was coming through the oculus. 

“She’s in the northwest, heading farther and farther away!” Hestia screamed back. 

She was at her post in the southwestern outskirts of Daedalus Street. As she looked down at the dragon girl’s name moving steadily northward across the magic map, Hestia could feel her heart thumping faster and faster. 

“Can’t anyone go rescue her?” she asked. 

“It’s impossible. The adventurers are fighting hard…! If Lido or anyone else left, we’d be done for!” 

Through the blue crystal, Hestia could hear the monsters howling in a furious battle. Frowning, she frantically thought about what else they could do. 

If Fels can’t help, then the closest ones to Wiene are Welf and Mikoto…No, that’s impossible, too; they’re holding off the adventurers! And Lilly and Bell are too far! 

Fels and the Xenos were fighting in the western sector, just on the edge of the central zone, and Mikoto and Welf were very close by. Lilly was due east, and Bell was heading southeast, stirring up trouble with adventurers. It would be hard for them to reach Wiene as she fled to the northwest. 

It was clear the adventurers were pursuing Wiene as she headed north through the Labyrinth District. Hestia felt like every tick of the hands on her broken watch shaved off more minutes of the girl’s life. She was at a loss for what to do, when— 

“Aaah!” 

“Haruhime?!” 

The girl, who had been on the tower rooftop with Hestia, had leaped off the edge. 

Just as her golden hair and crimson kimono disappeared into the darkness of the Labyrinth District, the loud crack of something breaking rang through the air. Panicked, Hestia peered over the edge of the roof. Far below, she could make out a hole in the roof of a barrack and, below it, the renart’s form stumbling forward as if she had rolled onto the ground. 

“—!!” 

Haruhime had abandoned all trace of logic or reason at the thought of Wiene in peril, and she literally jumped into the night to find her. Hestia, too, threw aside her indecision, grabbed one of the oculi, and shouted into it at the top of her lungs. 

“Bell! Help!” 

“Wiene has run off from the Xenos! And now Haruhime has gone after her!” 

Hidden under my veil, I panic at first when the goddess’s voice unexpectedly comes through the oculus. But as I listen to her desperate plea, the blood drains from my face. 

“Wiene’s by herself?!” 

Burning with anxiety, I slip into a back alley to get away from the shouts of the adventurers. 

Wiene is all alone? And no one can get there to rescue her? The vision of the girl crying by herself is deeply upsetting. As I pull up a map of Orario in my mind’s eye, I know that we are in an awful situation. 

I am in the southeast. Wiene is in the northwest. We’re as far as we can be from each other. If I take the most direct route to her, I’ll run straight into Loki Familia’s encampment in the center of the Labyrinth District. It’s impossible for me to get through without a hitch, invisible or not. But a detour around their encampment would take forever. No matter how I think about it, I know I can’t make it in time on my own two feet! 

Well, maybe not with the feet I have right now… 

The second that thought crosses my mind, I yell into the oculus. 

“To Haruhime!” 

“Huh?” 

“Please tell me where Haruhime is!!” 

I start running even before the goddess has answered me. 

Realizing what I plan to do, she gasps, and then—as if she’s made a decision—relays the information on the magic map. 

I forget all about clandestine actions and rush headlong down the street. My body heat is building up inside my veil, but I don’t even have time to wipe away the sweat. Forsaking my role as a decoy, I leap and run across the uneven rooftops. 

Faster, faster! Hurry!! 

The goddess’s voice guides me as I cross the southern section of the Labyrinth District from east to west. 

“Haruhime!” 

“Eeek!! Oh—Master Bell?!” 

Haruhime has been running as fast as she can through the back alleys as the goddess guides her. I catch up with her and grab her hand, forgetting to take off my veil. As I pull her into an abandoned old house, she guesses my identity, and her surprise gives way to tears. 

“Master Bell! Lady Wiene, Lady Wiene has…!” 

Her trembling hand grips my clothes. I try to support her as she collapses, and we both sink to our knees. As the tears spill from her green eyes onto her kimono, I take her hand again and squeeze it. 

“Haruhime—” 

She looks up at me, and I ask her to do what would be impossible on my own. 

“—please help me.” 

We will save Wiene together. 

Surprised by the urgency in my eyes, Haruhime dries her tears and nods. My right hand grasps her left, and her right hand takes my left. 

The beautiful renart begins to chant a song of illusion. 

—Grow. 

Her voice is clear and pure as crystal. 

She closes her eyes and continues to sing in her sonorous voice. 

That power and that vessel. Breadth of wealth and breadth of wishes. Until the bell tolls, bring forth glory and illusion. 

As the spell builds, a golden light begins to glow in the dim room, illuminating my tense face. 

“—Grow.” 

From this point on, I—no, we—will be in great danger. 

Perhaps because Haruhime, too, realizes this, her hands shake despite her smooth, flowing singing voice. 

“Confine divine offerings within this body. This golden light bestowed from above. Into the hammer and into the ground, may it bestow good fortune upon you.” 

Her hands cling to mine as they rest on my knees, revealing her fear for Wiene. 

I answer with a squeeze. Trembling under her kimono, she forcefully utters the final line. 

“—Grow.” 

Haruhime opens her eyes and looks into mine. She says the name of the spell. 

“Uchide no Kozuchi.” 

The room is filled with a brilliant light. At the same time, a swirl of sparkles surrounds my body. 

She has given me a level boost, raising me one level with the strongest of sorcery. The thrill of reaching Level 4 buzzes through my whole body, and I let out a cry of joy. 

I pull the veil around me again, stand up—and lift Haruhime off her feet. 

“Huh?!” 

There’s no way one level boost will be enough. I still need Haruhime’s help, and I have no intention of leaving her behind. I’m sure she knew that, but her cheeks flush pink all the same—maybe because she wasn’t expecting me to sling her under my arm like this. 

I feel bad, but there’s no other choice. She’ll just have to endure it. I check to make sure both Haruhime and my sparkling body are completely covered by the veil, then bring my mouth to the fox ears at my chest. 

“Please hold the veil down.” 

She nods. Since both my hands are holding on to her, she reaches her arms around my neck and grabs on to the Reverse Veil for me. Through the fabric, the objects of the outside world appear transparent. I peer around and steel myself for what is to come. 

“—We’re off.” 

A single bead of sweat trickles down my cheek, and I take off running. 

“Ack?!” 

Haruhime gulps back a shocked yelp at my extreme Level 4 speed. 

I fly through the wide-open door of the old house, leap down the street with stone-crushing strides, and soar into the night sky. 

Below me sprawls the Labyrinth District. There are the blinking magic-stone lamps of Loki Familia’s encampment. There’s the western sector cloaked in black mist. And there’s the northwestern part, where Wiene has been left all alone. 

I take one last glance, then let gravity pull me down to the rooftop of a building—and start running again at full speed. 

“?!” 

“What’s that?!” 

Despite our invisibility, people are bound to notice us passing by. We’re unbelievably fast, and we’re stirring up a wind that makes a ferocious roar, and my feet are pounding across rooftops and walls. The adventurers in the area look up as they sense me speeding past above their heads. 

But it doesn’t matter. All I can do is ignore it. I don’t have time for anything else. 

I have to get to Wiene as fast as I possibly can! 

“—!!” 

Haruhime grips my neck tight as I run even faster, desperately trying to hold down the veil as the wind pulls it up. 

Leaping like an actual rabbit across the uneven roofs, I rush through the streets, sometimes even scaling lofty towers in a single breath. 

“Yes, keep going straight ahead just like that!” 

The sound of the wind rushing past me almost drowns out the goddess’s voice, but I manage to follow her instructions and blast through town via the shortest route. 

The risk of Loki Familia detecting us is extremely high. First-tier members of their familia will definitely be able to sense my movements. 

But my only option is to continue. 

As I run with a speed unthinkable without Haruhime’s level boost, I feel like an all-powerful god. But there’s no time to get drunk on the glorious sensation of her beautiful sparks of light. I just run as fast as I can. 

“—Pardon me, Master Bell! Despite my current strange position, I am deeply happy!!” the shivering renart says, as if she can’t help herself. 

“I feel like I’ve heard those words before!” I shout in response, without thinking. 

“What? Those are my lines, Haruhime! I’m going to come take your place!!” the goddess says for some reason, and things get a bit chaotic for a moment. 

Even as the three of us shout at one another, I continue to tear through the night air. 

With all my energy focused on becoming the wind itself, I blow across the Labyrinth District from southwest to northwest. 

Wiene was advancing through the alleyways. 

“Huff, puff…” 

Her ragged breath was a sign of just how worn out she had become. She had no sense of where she was. She walked forlornly through the backstreets, her new wing hidden and her hand against the walls, confused by the darkness. 

Her pursuers seemed to have disappeared, but she could not calm her terror of the phantom adventurers who her fear drew from thin air. More than anything, an overwhelming loneliness tormented her. 

“……” 

She desperately tried to keep her lips from uttering that one name. 

She didn’t want to worry him. If she cried, he would start worrying about her again. She wanted to reassure him. That was why she was trying so hard to control her feelings. 

But the dim Labyrinth District eroded her determination. At last, the pitiful fear that shook her reedy body got the better of her, and she sought the shadow of the past, that irreplaceable warmth. 

“Bell…” 

She whispered his name so faintly it seemed to melt into the darkness. 

And something happened. 

“—Wiene!!” 

He answered her prayer. 

“!” 

“Lady Wiene!!” 

As the vouivre looked up in shock, Bell and Haruhime threw off their veil and materialized from nowhere, floating down from the dark-blue sky. 

Tears overflowed from Wiene’s amber eyes, and in the next instant she was running toward them. She flew into the arms of the boy and girl who had landed in front of her. 

“Bell! Haruhime!” 

Their outstretched arms encircled her. 

“Oh, Lady Wiene, Lady Wiene!” 

“Wiene, it’s so good to see you…!” 

“I’m sorry, so sorry, Bell and Haruhime…! Thank you, I love you…!” 

All three could hardly form a sentence for all their tears. They simply held one another in a warm embrace. Wiene buried her face in Haruhime’s chest, and Bell wrapped himself around both of them—Wiene’s new wing and all. 

“You came looking for me…?” 

“The goddess told us where you were!” 

“So you’re okay, Wiene? I’m so glad you haven’t been hurt!” 

Bell smiled at Wiene’s upturned, tear-covered face. 

“…Thank you, Goddess!” she said. 

They heard sniffling from the sparkling blue oculus on Bell’s gauntlet, and Wiene’s expression blossomed into a smile. 

After they had hugged for a few minutes, Bell stepped back from Wiene and Haruhime. 

“Come on, there’s no time to waste. We have to meet up with Lido and the others somehow.” 

“Right!” 

Wiene and Haruhime nodded, and they set out. 

By now, more than five minutes had passed since Bell met up with Haruhime. He wanted to find a place to renew the level boost. They were currently in the north-northwest of the Labyrinth District. He knew full well that heading south to meet up with the Xenos while dodging Loki Familia along the way would be next to impossible. In the worst-case scenario, he would have to serve as a decoy. Still, he brought the oculus to his lips. 

“Goddess, please tell us the w—” 

Bell’s sixth sense suddenly set internal alarm bells clanging. 

“Uh-oh!!” 

“Huh?” 

It was practically a miracle that he was able to pull Wiene and Haruhime close and throw the Reverse Veil over all three of them. The instant he had retreated into the darkness of an alleyway—thwack! A pair of silver metal boots crashed onto the ground. 

The figure wearing them had a coat of wind-ruffled gray fur and an intimidating blue tattoo on one side of his face. 

Bell, Haruhime, and Wiene all gasped at the young werewolf who had descended from the sky. 

It’s Bete…! 

As Bell had feared, they’d been detected. 

Bete Loga had sensed Bell and Haruhime’s reckless trip through town. Defying Finn’s orders, the first-tier adventurer had left Loki Familia’s encampment to pursue them. Bell was horrified by the werewolf’s incredible speed, which nullified all chance of his getting another level boost from Haruhime. 

“…” 

Bete stood in the open area at the end of the alleyway where Bell, Haruhime, and Wiene were hiding. As he slowly scanned his surroundings, all three held their breath and followed his eyes. The thunderous pounding of their hearts blended together so loudly that they feared he might hear them. On the other side of the oculus, Hestia blanched and tried to keep completely silent. 

A drop of Bell’s sweat dripped onto Wiene’s hair. 

“—Come out!” 

Accurately and mercilessly, Bete had scanned the many alleys branching off the plaza and determined the one where Bell and the others were hiding. 

They froze beneath his gaze, which pierced them despite their invisibility. The minute it had taken him to find them had felt like an eternity, and now their hopes crumbled like sand. 

Wiene’s shoulders shook as Bete pointed his feet in their direction. Bell squeezed them and prepared to do the only thing he could: walk out to Bete. He would act as a decoy while Haruhime and Wiene escaped. 

But Haruhime’s next move prevented him from doing that. 

Haruhime…? 

Wiene looked up when she felt someone stroking a lock of her hair, and she saw the renart smiling down at her. Haruhime gently extracted herself from the dragon girl’s embrace and sent a fleeting smile at the dumbfounded Bell. 

His outstretched arm met air as Haruhime pushed aside the veil and stepped into the darkness. 

“Huh?” 

“…” 

As the astonished Bell and Wiene watched, she stood facing Bete directly, illuminated by the starry sky. 

Her fox’s tail quivered as the werewolf eyed her dubiously. But she hid it behind her back and returned his stare resolutely. 

“You can’t be here alone. Come out, all of you!” 

“I am alone.” 

“Let’s stop the jo—” 

“—I am alone!!” she shouted. 

Wiene jumped—she’d never heard Haruhime speak so loudly. 

Her gracefully arched eyebrows and determined green eyes showed no sign of yielding to the boy’s dangerous glare. She pressed her hands to her voluptuous chest and shouted at the young werewolf again. 

“Please move!” 

Bell understood that she was speaking not to Bete but to him. The weak young girl he had rescued from such depraved surroundings was nowhere to be seen. Standing guard with her back to them, she was like a Shinto maiden bravely confronting calamity, a sister protecting her dragon-girl sibling, a mother. 

She howled. The girl who had always needed rescuing cried out now to save the ones she loved. Bell was amazed. 

“Now!!” 

Haruhime’s yell, along with the sight of her resolute back, urged Bell forward. 

He couldn’t let her determination go to waste. 

He shook off his distress and pulled his hand back from Wiene’s shoulder. Gritting his teeth with determination, Bell tugged the dragon girl along as she glanced tearfully back, then took off running in the opposite direction from Bete and Haruhime. 

“…You won’t even fight, so stop lording it over me!” the werewolf growled. 

Bete could sense the two invisible forms beyond Haruhime disappearing into the distance. He pawed the ground, his foot scraping over the cobblestones. As he did, fragments of broken stone shot like bullets toward Haruhime, tearing into her cheeks and kimono. She threw her arm in front of her face and stumbled but caught herself before she fell. Still, she did not move aside. 

“Tch. Get out of my way,” Bete said. 

“I will not.” 

“I’ll crush you.” 

“I will not move!” 

As Bete strode toward her, she threw both arms out. He narrowed his eyes at the renart, who still refused to budge, and kicked the ground. He moved with such incredible speed that she could not even track him with her eyes. In an instant, the werewolf’s shadow was at her feet. As she stood frozen, Bete raised his left hand as if to brush away a trivial speck of dust. He was about to bring it down on her when— 

“—!!” 

His hand stopped in midair. He was looking at Haruhime’s steadfast green eyes below her golden bangs. 

“…” 

His gaze was fixed on Haruhime, silently taking in this girl who refused to look away even on the verge of a direct blow. 

Quiet fell over the pair. In the distance, the two animal people could hear the faint sound of battle cries. The odd scene continued until Bete broke the silence. 

“—You small-fry!” 

A brutal smile played over the werewolf’s lips. 

“You’re totally helpless—but you’ve still made up your mind, eh?” 

“?!” 

The werewolf’s thirst for blood was out of control. Haruhime’s animal-person instincts trembled before the overwhelming presence of this starving wolf. He was about to devour her on the principal that the strong must consume the weak. 

Still, she did not retreat. 

She looked back at him as a humiliating trembling finally overtook her, her arms still thrown out. 

“Got a little carried away, didn’t you?” 

Instead of his lowered fist, his left metal boot came crashing down on the ground. 

His foot struck the stone with a splintering sound and a shockwave that launched Haruhime backward. She doubled over in pain and groaned as her back was slammed against the wall at the entrance to the alley. 

Bete’s smile contrasted with his harsh words. It was half mocking condescension toward the “small-fry” and half enjoyment. 

He had accepted Haruhime as an enemy. He recognized that she was not just another nonentity hardly worth sneering at but an opponent he was meeting on the battlefield. 

He smiled because he recognized the renart’s determination. 

“Don’t stand there all pleased with yourself like a little minx! You’re all show!” 

“!!” 

Haruhime, who had been suffering under Bete’s stream of abuse, raised her face. She glared as hard as she could at the werewolf smiling wickedly down at her and thrust both hands out in front of her chest as if she was presenting an offering. 

“—Grow.” 

She began to chant. 

“That power and that vessel. Breadth of wealth and breadth of wishes. Until the bell tolls, bring forth glory and illusion.” 

It was the only magic Haruhime knew, and it had no use as a weapon. She was well aware that it could not harm the mighty adventurer standing before her, but still, she chanted. 

“—Grow.” 

She needed an interval of around ten minutes between level boosts. By the time her strange exchange with Bete was over, almost ten minutes had elapsed, and as she began to chant, the magic drew forth her powers even more. 

“Confine divine offerings within this body. This golden light bestowed from above. Into the hammer and into the ground, may it bestow good fortune upon you.” 

Bete remained facing her at a slight distance, waiting silently until she finished chanting. Did he wait out of pride? No. He waited because he respected the girl’s determination—this weak girl’s roar toward the strong. 

The instant she finished, the werewolf would set upon her without hesitation or mercy. Just before he did so, he clapped his hands. 

“—Grow.” 

Uchide no Kozuchi. Even though Haruhime hadn’t formed a magic circle, golden light beamed out before the spell took effect, signaling its peculiar nature. As the chanting continued, the faint mist of magical power gathered into a cloud of light, announcing the presence of a magic so potent even the goddess Ishtar had groaned under its force. 

A cloud of light and a swirl of golden sparkles rose up above the heads of Haruhime and Bete. Like the black mist spreading through the Labyrinth District’s western region, a faint glittering enveloped the north-northwest area where they were. Anyone who saw it likely recognized it as a sign that the hammerhead made of light was being summoned. 

Just as Haruhime finished chanting and Bete leaned toward her, the one who had heard the girl’s prayers rushed toward them. 

“!!” 

Bete turned to look behind him and saw a beautiful woman with coal-black hair land firmly on the ground. 

It was an Amazon armed with a huge broadsword: Aisha Belka had arrived as backup. 

“Uchide no Kozuchi,” Haruhime pronounced. 

Instantly, the sparks of light flowed over Bete and gathered around Aisha, and the shaftless hammer of light fell onto her. 

“You…” 

Before Bete’s narrowed gaze, the level boost was completed. 

Wrapped in a torrent of light, the Amazon brandished her sword and pointed it at Bete, sparks of light rising from its tip. 

“Hey, asshole. You were about to lay your dirty paws on my little sister, weren’t you? I think you were. In fact, in my eyes, you already did.” 

“Hey now.” 

“—I don’t let anyone mess with my sweet little sister. I just won’t feel right unless I kick your ass right here and now.” 

Aisha was picking a fight with a smile on her face. 

This had nothing to do with the Xenos. Aisha had turned it into a personal grudge. As Haruhime watched her confront Bete and his glare, she shivered with emotion. 

“Lady Aisha…!” 

“Useless little fox, don’t be so reckless. I told you not to use your magic so freely…but I like the look in your eyes today, so I’ll forgive you,” Aisha replied with a shrug. She seemed secretly pleased that Haruhime had called on her for help. 

Bete snorted at the two women. 

“Worthless girl, leaving all your hard work to someone else,” he said, despite smiling in recognition of Haruhime’s tactics. 

He was raring for a fight. 

“Get over here and take me on, crazy woman. I’ll stomp you into the ground, idiotic head and all.” 

“I’m ready for you!!” 

As Haruhime looked on, the two began their battle. 

“Bell, Haruhime will be…!” 

“…!” 

Bell was pulling Wiene through the alleyways, a deeply troubled look on his face. 

Would Bete hurt Haruhime? He didn’t know. But he was willing to bet he wouldn’t kill her. For now, he had to focus on getting as far away as he could before Bete came after them. 

Bell’s mind was a tangle of worries and doubts and things he had to do. Even as he silently apologized to Haruhime for his incompetence, he kept moving forward so her determination wouldn’t go to waste—and for Wiene’s sake. 

“Bell, you don’t have much time…! If you don’t hurry, you won’t be able to meet up with Fels!” 

Spurred on by Hestia’s anxious voice, Bell and Wiene hurried ahead even faster. 

The sparks of light from the level boost were already gone. Bell was wearing the veil and taking care not to draw the attention of adventurers or Loki Familia members, but the streets were so empty there was hardly need for those precautions. Instead of seeing this as good fortune, however, Bell sensed a threat in the air. Glancing from side to side, he headed south toward their destination. 

South, south, ever farther south…eventually, Bell’s feet could move no more. 

“…Bell?” Wiene asked, confused that their progress had stopped. 

“…” 

Gripping her thin hand, Bell was drenched in what seemed like every last drop of sweat in his body. His breath came in ragged gasps, and the deafening sound of his own heartbeat thundered in his ears. He stood in the middle of a backstreet, surrounded by narrow side streets and steps leading up and down. His red eyes stared into the blackness ahead. 

Southeast Orario. 

In a corner of an alleyway where the ongoing chaos and shouts of the adventurers did not reach, a form lay twitching. 

An arm moved slightly in the dim light as the figure peeled its back from the cracked brick wall and coughed weakly. 

“Five years, is it? She’s left me in the dust…” 

Three minutes. 

That’s how long the fight had lasted. 

As consciousness returned, the figure sluggishly lifted its head and looked up at the sky. 

Forgetting to wipe the blood from her lip, she pressed her hands against her stomach, where she’d been hit with the back of her opponent’s sword. 

“I’m sorry, Bell Cranell…” Lyu Leon whispered. 

“—” 

The ruffled clouds covering the sky had dissipated, and the moonlight chased away the darkness below. 

Its beams illuminated long hair that shone like gold dust, glinting faintly off silver-and-blue clothing and the hilt of a sheathed sword. Bell and Wiene blinked at the brilliance. 

To Wiene, time seemed to stand still as the girl stared down on them. 

“Miss…Aiz…” 

Golden hair and golden eyes. 

At the sight of the swordswoman standing in the middle of the backstreet, Bell gasped out a single cough. 

“…So the vouivre is alive.” 

The word vouivre—there was no doubt Aiz had said that word—shot through Bell like a shock wave. In the same moment, he realized belatedly that Aiz had probably gotten past Lyu with ease and started following him again quite a while ago. 

He hadn’t noticed her because she hadn’t actually been looking at him. She knew he was unusually sensitive to gazes directed his way, so she had avoided looking straight at him; instead, she had followed not so much his physical form as his presence, so skillfully he hadn’t detected her. 

After losing track of him once because of Lyu’s interference, she had picked up the trail again when he crossed from the southeast to the southwest. She’d watched as he met up with Haruhime and again when he was reunited with Wiene. She’d been watching the whole time. 

In other words, Bell hadn’t succeeded in shaking off Aiz. Bete had shown up first only because she’d been unable to make up her mind. 

“Come out…” 

With a trace of sadness, Aiz ordered Bell to take off the Reverse Veil. 

Silently, he pushed aside the veil. 

“…” 

“…” 

Aiz lowered her eyes as Bell and Wiene, with her single new wing, appeared. 

“I’ve been thinking about…why you asked me that,” Aiz said. 

Five days earlier, immediately before the mission had been issued to the entire city, Bell had asked Aiz a question. 

If the monsters had a reason for living…had feelings just like you or me, what would you do? If you met monsters who could smile just like people, worry about things, shed tears just like people—could you still draw your sword against them? 

“So this is what you meant…” she said, slowly raising her gaze from the ground to look at Wiene. 

Bell saw something dangerous in that gaze. 

Her expression was as emotionless as always, yet something in her eyes was distinctly different from the Aiz he knew. His heart trembled at those eyes. 

Why here? How could she? Stop looking at us like that! 

Desperately pushing down the grief that was rising up from his chest, Bell shielded Wiene from that gaze and pleaded with Aiz. 

“Miss Aiz!! This girl—” 

“My answer,” Aiz said, interrupting him emphatically, “has not changed.” 

With that, she brought her hand to the hilt of her sword. 

“If anyone is crying because of a monster—then I will kill that monster.” 

Bell froze at the words of the Sword Princess—and the sight of her silver blade. 

Aiz’s boot came down with a resounding thud as she took one step forward. 

“Wait…please wait, Miss Aiz! This girl hasn’t done any harm! She would never hurt anyone!! This girl—Wiene—is different!!” Bell shouted. 

His voice was ragged and tinged with tears as he hid the terrified Wiene behind his back. 

“Will you be able to say the same thing if she goes on another rampage?” Aiz asked. 

“—” 

The ruby embedded in Wiene’s forehead glittered as if it were shaking. 

“I would not be able to, myself,” Aiz said. 

She was fundamentally different from the naive Amazonian girl who poked fun at herself and others in equal measure. Her expression was cold, her daggerlike words final. Bell did not know what made her so cold-blooded. He did not want to know. 

All he knew was that negotiations had broken down. 

He understood at that moment that the girl he admired and yearned for was now his opponent. 

“Uh, ah…” 

Finally, the despair and resignation raging within him led his hand to the hilt of his knife. 

Like the swordswoman he faced, Bell had already arrived at an answer he could never reverse. 

He’d do it for the monster girl he’d promised to protect. 

As Aiz narrowed her eyes at him sadly, he pulled two knives—one black and one crimson—from their hilts. 

“Bell…” Wiene whispered, sounding like she was about to cry. 

“…” 

Hestia, on her side of the crystal, was at a loss for words. 

“…Why?” Bell whispered, his lips trembling uncontrollably. “Why…?” 

Aiz leaned forward and lunged toward him. 

“—Crap!!” 

Bell, too, lunged forward, swinging his black knife at the silver sword that bore down on him. 

The first clash of blades threw off a shower of countless sparks. 

Aiz was of course overwhelmingly stronger than Bell. But he knew that from the start and compensated by turning the brunt of her blow into centrifugal force that sent him spinning. 

“Wiene, run!!” he screamed as he slashed the Hestia Knife in a reverse grip in his right hand toward Aiz once again. 

The dragon girl hugged the veil to her chest and swayed before Bell’s ghastly expression and voice. Then, still on the verge of tears, she obeyed his order. 

Bell had no time to look back as Wiene ran down the road they’d come by. Since Aiz had blocked the Divine Knife, he thrust the crimson knife in his left hand toward her. 

But the golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman unceremoniously flicked it away with a single blow of her sword. 

“Oof!!” 

Bell gritted his teeth as Aiz facilely parried his blow. Somehow, he had to keep her pinned here. He raised both blades in preparation for a twin strike, but— 

“—” 

The instant after he felt something deflect his black knife, a golden curtain descended in front of his eyes. 

His mind went blank. It was only a moment later that he understood what had happened. 

After her defensive move, Aiz had leaped into the air and flown like a butterfly over his head. Bell’s red blade found only air as she landed behind his back, their positions reversed. 

“Huh?!” 

Every nerve strung taut, Bell spun around. Aiz was already racing after Wiene. He followed the direction of her gaze. 

She’s not looking at me! 

The sorrow that had filled his chest transformed into something else—something that set the pit of his stomach on fire. 

Was it anger? No, not that. It was frustration that the adventurer he admired so much would not even deign to fight him. 

His whole body radiating heat, Bell ran after Wiene and Aiz. 

“B-Bell?” 

Hestia’s sob crackled through the oculus. She must have figured out what had happened by watching their movements on the magic map. As she feared, Bell was not drawing closer to Aiz. It seemed that Aiz’s sword would reach Wiene’s back before he caught up with them. 

It’s hopeless! I’ll never make it in time. Wiene will—! 

As Aiz’s gaze pierced the dragon girl’s back, Bell squeezed his hands into tight fists, as if he were wringing out his anguish. 

Wiene glanced backward as Aiz closed in on her. But the instant before the Sword Princess made contact with her quarry, Bell let out a heartrending roar. 

“Firebolt!!” 

A scarlet streak of fire plunged through the air. 

The Swift-Strike Magic shot like a flash of lightning toward Aiz, crossing the hopeless distance between her and Bell in an instant and blocking her progress. As it collided with a wall and sent stone fragments in every direction, the surprised Wiene disappeared behind a cloud of dust. 

He’d taken a shot. Once again, he’d gone and taken a shot. 

Last time it was at an adventurer. 

This time it was at his idol. 

What was he doing? He had no idea, and that confusion practically drove him to tears. All he knew was that he could no longer reverse course. 

Bell kept running, his face twisted into a frown. As the stunned Aiz jumped back to avoid the bolt, he flew at her with knife raised. 

“Miss Aiz, please listen to me!” he shouted across his knife, which she had blocked with her sword. 

An absurd emptiness filled him as he recognized the contrast between his words and the urgent need to swing his knife at her. Their blades clanged together as they parried each other’s blows. 

“…I don’t have anything to talk about with you,” Aiz said, refusing to meet his eyes. Her cheeks flamed red. 

“Well, I do!!” Bell retorted, like a petulant little boy spurned by his playmate. 

He stepped toward her and jabbed his knife forward, but the scowling Aiz repelled his blow. After she easily sent Bell tottering back, she once again took off after Wiene. 

“…Goddess!” 

“Yes!” 

The oculus on his gauntlet sparkled as Hestia guided him through the streets. 

He’d never be able to catch up simply by following Aiz, so she searched for a shortcut to reach Wiene’s location on the magic map. 

The vouivre had turned down a backstreet into a network of alleyways as tangled as a spider’s web. Bell climbed above the cloud of dust from the Firebolt and sped across the rooftops, hoping to reach the dragon girl—and Aiz—by the shortest route possible. From high above, the buildings of Daedalus Street looked like rafts floating in a calm ocean. His footsteps firm amid the waves of this imaginary ocean, Bell sped through the neighborhoods. After a few moments, he caught sight of Aiz’s long golden hair flying down a narrow street. 

Leaping down from the rooftops, he landed directly in front of her. 

“!” 

“Miss Aiz!” 

Aiz stood frozen, staring at him in astonishment. 

They were in a cramped alley with no side streets nearby. Her golden eyes swiftly scanned their surroundings. As she tilted her slender neck back to look upward, Bell closed in. 

Oh no you don’t! 

He was one step ahead of Aiz, who was searching for an escape route via the rooftops. He lunged toward her. 

“…!” 

Left with no other choice, she returned his attack. 

For the second time, his two knives clashed against her single sword. 

“I don’t want to fight you…” Aiz whispered, as if she were struggling to get the words out. 

“Neither do I!” Bell shouted back. 

Just a few months earlier, they’d trained together on the city walls until the sun rose, but this fight bore little resemblance to those. This was no drill. 

Pushing down the pain and burning with anguish over his horrible situation, Bell pleaded with Aiz for a third time. 

“Miss Aiz, I’m begging you, please listen to me! That girl and the other Xenos are—!” 

“My answer…is the same.” 

“Ergh!” 

Why?! 

Bell glared at Aiz, silently screaming at her refusal to even listen. 

He gripped his knives. 

Channeling all the thoughts and feelings he couldn’t communicate through words into the blades, he slashed at her with all his might. 

“Yahh!” 

“?!” 

The black and crimson blades flashed in front of her eyes. 

It was the Rabbit Rush, a series of extremely quick attacks. The fight was on again. 

The black and red knives cut tracks through the air, and Aiz’s sword flashed in all directions to defend. As if to mirror her astonishment, an extraordinary fountain of sparks danced to the tune of clashing metal. Bell’s physical instincts kicked into high gear, leaving conscious thought behind. 

He was moving faster than he ever had before. 

Bell threw everything he had at his idol, moving even faster than he had in his past fights against first-tier adventurers like Phryne and Dix. 

“…!” 

The shape of the alleyway put the silver sword at a further disadvantage. It was difficult to move the long blade in the narrow street, and Aiz was unable to take advantage of its full reach. Bell’s knife, on the other hand, was especially effective. 

Pressed hard from start to end, Aiz gulped and looked into Bell’s face. She blocked his final slash and jumped back. 

“Huff, puff…!” 

The sound of Bell’s breath echoed through the dim alley. 

“…” 

Aiz looked down at her tingling hand. 

“…You’ve improved, I see,” she said. 

“!” 

Bell looked back at her, surprised that she had acknowledged his skill. But the praise had a downside. 

“I can no longer make any allowances for you.” 

She was giving him notice of the fierce onslaught that was about to begin. 

“—” 

Aiz’s figure became a blur. All Bell could make out was the trace of her long golden hair. 

He was able to respond to her attack only through pure intuition and instinct; during the course of training, his entire body had learned the path of her sword through the air better than he would have liked. 

The instant the Hestia Knife made contact with her blade, an absurdly powerful impact overwhelmed him. 

“?!” 

His right arm was knocked upward with enough force to tear it off, or so it felt. It was a miracle he didn’t lose his grip on the knife. 

The blur of gold and silver did not slow. Aiz spun like a whirlwind, her blade flashing as if it were possessed by a supernatural force as it sliced through the walls of the narrow street like butter. 

Her next inhumanly fast spinning strike left Bell time neither to respond nor to defend himself. 

It’s over. Two blows. That’s all it took. 

Bell’s instinct as an adventurer told him that death was near. 

“…” 

His body did not split in two. 

The instant before her blade made contact, Aiz drew her eyebrows together and flicked her wrist aside. 

“Oof!!” 

The side of Aiz’s sword struck Bell’s ribs and hurled him against the wall directly next to him. As his shoulder crashed into stone, the world swam before his eyes. He felt dizzy and nauseous. 

He sunk helplessly to his knees, watching as Aiz’s boots passed calmly before him. 

“No…!” 

Determined to stop her, he commanded his trembling knees to rise. 

He summoned energy to every crevice of his body and stood. 

Aiz stopped and looked back at him. Hiding her emotion at the sight of the undefeated will to fight in the boy’s red eyes, she flourished her sword with a cold expression. 

“Here I go,” she said. 

In the next instant, a whirling sword attack materialized before Bell’s eyes. 

“—Huh?!” 

The Sword Princess had unleashed a true continuous slashing attack. 

As if to return Bell’s similar attack of a few moments earlier, Aiz began to perform her sword dance. He reflexively raised his knife, but he did not have time to intercept her blade. If he managed to block one blow, five more rained down on him. The dual adamantite armor that Welf had forged for him rang out again and again with earsplitting clangs. If she had been hitting him with the edge of her sword rather than the flat, he would have been long dead from the overwhelming onslaught. His field of vision was entirely filled with the silver slant of her sword. As Bell teetered on the edge of consciousness from the pain and force of her blows, something dawned on him. 

She was stronger than Phryne and faster than Dix. She was beyond comparison. Those first-tier adventurers who had caused him so much suffering paled in his memory. 

I knew it. 

I knew it, but— 

This girl is stronger than anyone!! 

The flashing sword cut under his breastplate with a swoosh of wind, lifting Bell into the air. 

A moment later he crashed onto the cobblestones and lay there faceup. 

“Ah…oh…” 

As the world grew dim around him, Bell saw Aiz lower her eyes and turn her back. The burning pain that gripped his entire body prevented him from even stretching out his hand as it seemed to spin away from him. Again and again he tried to rise, but his body only trembled. 

In his blurred gaze, the night sky looked far, far away. 

…I feel like I’ve seen this place before… 

As his body sunk into the earth after the baptism from his idol, his empty consciousness recalled an irrelevant scene. 

Doubt began creeping into his mind about the backstreet, which all along had looked familiar. 

When was it? Where was it? 

He couldn’t think straight. 

“Bell, Bell?!” 

Hestia’s voice reverberated into his consciousness just as he was about to sink into the blackness. 

He thought of Aiz’s sad expression and Wiene’s tears. 

He closed his eyes once, then raised his eyebrows and scratched his fingers across the cobblestones. 

Far from Bell, in the north-northwest of the Labyrinth District, a woman lay prone beside a huge broadsword thrust into the ground. 

“Damn werewolf…you have no mercy,” Aisha said, hurling her spiteful words at Bete. He was already long gone, leaving her there covered in wounds. Blood was running from a laceration on her lip. 

“Owww…” she said, glancing at the chipped broadsword beside her. Despite her frown, she sounded secretly pleased with herself. 

“Lady Aisha, Lady Aisha…!” 

The tears dampening Aisha’s brown skin were Haruhime’s. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she sobbed, gripping the hand of the woman Bete had defeated. Haruhime herself was uninjured aside from some scratches from the stone shards Bete had kicked at her. As the girl’s sobs echoed through the alleyway, Aisha scowled in annoyance. 

“Stop crying. A few little bruises aren’t going to kill me.” 

“But—but…!” 

“If you have time to cry, you have time to do something else, don’t you?” 

Aisha stroked Haruhime’s long golden hair as the renart wiped the tears from her face. 

“You have some place you’re trying to get to, right?” 

“…Yes.” 

She pulled the blue crystal from the sleeve of her kimono. 

Holding the oculus she’d been given in her role of supporter, Haruhime looked down at Aisha. 

“Okay, get going, then. I’ll just rest a little and then figure out something to do.” 

“Thank you so much…Lady Aisha,” the red-eyed Haruhime said before standing. 

As she watched the girl run off, fox tail swaying, Aisha felt the energy drain from her body. 

“All I ever do these days is lose…Maybe I should get the Little Rookie to take me on a trip instead of training.” 

Aisha’s glossy lips curved into a smile as she closed her eyes and drifted into a long sleep. 

“…Bell?” 

Wiene stopped and looked over her shoulder. 

The sounds of fierce fighting no longer reached her ears, and the worry she’d been feeling all along ballooned now into a raging anxiety. After hesitating for a moment, still gripping the veil, she turned and slowly began walking back down the road she’d come by. 

“Bell…Goddess?” 

Wiene advanced fearfully through the maze of tangled streets. Pressing her single dragon wing to her body and hugging her thin chest as she edged along the walls, she looked less like a monster than a lost child. 

Would those golden eyes be staring at her coldly around the next corner? Would the silver glint of that terrifying sword sever her neck the instant she stepped into a crossroads? She quivered at the imaginary scenes the dusky half-light seemed to whisper into her ear. 

Just then, a shadow fell across her from behind. 

“—?!” 

Startled, she looked over her shoulder. A hand reached out and clamped over her mouth, and another wrapped around her thin waist and pulled her close. Suddenly she was enveloped in warmth, wing and all. 

“Wiene, don’t say a word.” 

“Ah…Bell!” 

As the white-haired boy whispered into her ear, the tension drained from her body and relief took its place. 

The next moment, though, she noticed Bell’s appearance. His clothes and armor were torn to pieces and covered in bloodstains. His face could not hide his pain and exhaustion. She was speechless. 

“Let’s go,” Bell whispered, pulling her along by the hand. 

“B-Bell…” she said, her voice dissolving into tears. 

“I’m sorry, Wiene, just try to hold out a little longer.” 

As Bell moved forward, he kept a careful watch for any sign of Aiz. He squeezed Wiene’s hand. Then, as he brought the oculus on his gauntlet to his lips, he happened to look up. 

On one of the walls surrounding the wide intersection paved in sooty black cobblestones was an ariadne drawn in brilliant red lines. 

His sense of déjà vu crystalized and tapped on the door of his memories. 

Oh, so that’s what it is… 

He’d finally figured it out. Of course he felt like he’d seen this place before. 

He’d been down this road once. He’d been with Hestia on the day of the Monsterphilia, and the silverback had been chasing them. 

A self-mocking smile spread over Bell’s face as he thought of what he was about to do. 

“Goddess…are there any hidden passages near here?” he said into the oculus. 

“Huh? Uh, um…there are, but none of them lead to where Fels and the Xenos are. They’ll actually take you out of your way,” Hestia said, sounding confused. 

“Please tell me how to get there.” 

Following her instructions, he eventually arrived at a wide dead-end street. He pushed one of the stone panels on the walls, and the wall opened to reveal the passage. Bell told Wiene to go in first, then passed something to her. 

“Bell…? Is this…?” 

“Yes. You’ll be able to communicate with the goddess. She’ll take good care of you…” 

He squeezed her hand around his only oculus, which he’d detached from his gauntlet. 

“Bell, you’re…” 

Coming through the oculus, Hestia’s words trailed off into silence. 

“Go down this passage. I’m going to stay here for a few minutes,” he told Wiene. 

“What…?” 

Wiene’s eyes, too, were wide with surprise and worry. 

“Wh-what will you do?” 

“I want to talk to Aiz about something…She’s definitely going to end up here.” 

“…” 

“As long as you listen to the goddess, you’ll be completely fine. Don’t worry, I’ll be following right after you…” 

There was no way he could follow her. 

Without the oculus, Hestia would not be able to direct him. He wouldn’t know where Wiene was. Bell stroked Wiene’s hair, covering his lie with a kind smile. 

Hestia listened in silence to their conversation. He was grateful; she’d understood what he wanted to do. 

As Wiene looked up at him, dumbfounded, he gently pushed her forward. 

“Go ahead.” 

She slipped into the passage and disappeared as Bell shut the secret door behind her. 

She’d stared back at him with her amber eyes until the very last minute. As the door shut with a heavy thud, Bell leaned his head against it. 

This is the second time… 

He felt he was a coward. The instant he realized he would be unable to protect Wiene if he couldn’t beat Aiz, he sent her away from him, just like he had done with Hestia. 

He was still a pitiful, powerless, weak adventurer. 

But that time… 

When the silverback had been closing in on them, he’d thought to himself with a tinge of wistful longing that he’d like to see Aiz’s face one more time. How ironic that was in light of his current situation. 

Bell laughed. It was funny. No, maybe it was his head that was funny. 

A moment later, he heard a scraping sound behind him and slowly turned around. 

“Bell…” 

Aiz was staring straight at him. She must have seen him help Wiene escape. Her eyes glinted with reproach. Bell tried to form his mouth into a wry smile but failed. 

He was guarding the only door to the passage where Wiene had escaped. Aiz didn’t know where it led, so forcing Bell to move aside was her only option. This would buy time for her to get away. And it would also force Aiz to interact with him. 

He would not let her ignore him. 

“Move.” 

“No.” 

“What can I do to get you to move?” 

“I’m staying here until you listen to me.” 

“…” 

Aiz looked down and closed her eyes. 

After a moment, she flourished her sword resolutely. 

Bell’s smile stretched into a tight line. As Aiz walked toward him, he drew his weapons. 

It was a dark, dark passage. 

“…” 

“…Turn right there, Wiene.” 

“…” 

“…Now go straight ahead.” 

“…” 

“…” 

“…Goddess.” 

“…What is it?” 

“I don’t like this…” 

“…” 

“I don’t want to leave him…! Bell is lying to me…!” 

“…” 

“Bell is trying to save me. I’m happy, but it’s wrong. I don’t want Bell to be hurt; I don’t want him to cry.” 

“…” 

“I’ve never repaid him for anything!” 

“…I won’t stop you.” 

“Huh?” 

“I understand. I was like you.” 

“A goddess… Like me…?” 

“Yes. You know how sly Bell is, right? He knows he’s weak, but he’s always trying to show off and do the impossible. He probably wants to escape more than anything else, and I’m sure he knows he can’t beat her, and still…” 

“…” 

“Even though he doesn’t want to fight his hero and he’s suffering…” 

“Why did Bell…?” 

“Because he can’t abandon a girl—no, a family member—who’s in trouble.” 

“Family…?” 

“Yes. It doesn’t matter if you’re human or monster. He loves you like you’re part of his family.” 

“…Goddess, I really don’t like this.” 

“I know.” 

“I want to go to Bell.” 

“I know.” 

“I want to repay him for his help.” 

“Are you prepared to face the consequences? You may be separated from him forever…What I mean is, are you ready to die?” 

“Yes. This time—it’s my turn to save Bell.” 

“…I understand. Go, then.” 

“Thank you, Goddess.” 

“Wiene.” 

“What?” 

“You’ve grown strong.” 

A hard blow struck his body. 

Several empty glass vials were rolling at his feet. The potions were already gone. He didn’t know how many times he’d been on the verge of being unable to recover. He’d been hit with far too many blows to count. He gagged, but still, he stood his ground and brandished his knife. 

“…!” 

Even on the verge of yielding to his enemy, even on the verge of collapsing, Bell rose again. He would not move from in front of the door. To the contrary—he dauntlessly attacked her. Aiz gasped softly, but she, too, refused to let up. Her sword swished through the air and landed mercilessly on Bell. 

High-speed slantwise strike from his shoulder. He was unable to block it. 

Uppercut. He knocked her sword off course from the side. 

Mowing strike. He was unable to dodge. 

Jab to his knife sheath. He recognized that one. 

Spinning kick. Direct impact. 

Their blades missed. They met. They missed. They slid over each other. The skills she had taught him, and the tactics he had stolen, were proving more useful than ever before. 

As the glint of the dancing blade flashed before his eyes again and again, a thought passed through Bell’s delirious mind. 

What am I doing? 

Why am I fighting the person I admire the most? 

She’s beating me to a pulp. 

—Of course, she always beat me to a pulp in training, too. 

Smiling at this completely unamusing situation, Bell watched Aiz’s unforgiving sword technique. His attacks couldn’t reach her, and his counterattacks didn’t even leave a scratch. She was deaf to his screams and his thoughts alike. 

Did he hate this cold girl? No. 

Was he angry with her for refusing to listen to him? Not at all. 

Her sword presented him with a towering paragon. It forced him to see the wall between reality and ideal. That was how he felt. That was how unforgiving his decision to save Wiene was. 

He had to catch up with Aiz. 

He had to reach her level. 

He had to overtake her. 

If he recognized his own weakness, he must push harder. He must rush forward. Faster. Harder. 

“—!!” 

His back was hot. His back was burning. His back was screaming a mad hope at him. 

She was fast. So fast. He’d known that. But her skill was limitless. 

That was why he had to catch up with her. 

He had to save Wiene. 

“—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” he roared. 

Aiz’s arms shook from the vehemence of his furious cry. There was no question that the force of his incorrigible will shaved some of the strength from the Sword Princess’s blade. He poured what little energy he had into his two knives, and for the first time, they scared her. 

“?!” 

She shook off her astonishment and swung her sword through the air, deflecting the red knife. Instantly she aimed a second blow directly at Bell. He flung out his left gauntlet to block it. The Sword Princess’s strike slid across his dual-adamantite armor. 

The space between them was filled with showers of sparks and the sounds of blade scraping against blade. He pressed in with all his might, recklessly trying to get close enough for a solid blow. 

Their faces were so close they were practically touching—separated by the width of his knife. 

Bell swung the Divine Knife upward. 

“Aaaaaaaa!!” 

The flashing blade traced a purple-blue arc across the sky. 

Aiz’s long golden hair flipped upward as she leaped back to evade the blow. She pressed her hand to her chest in shock. 

“…!” 

Her silver breastplate was scratched. Something sharp had made a scar. A mark that proved Bell’s roar had hit its target. 

For a moment, Aiz was speechless. 

She stared at the breathless Bell, her eyebrows drawn together in consternation, then once again lunged toward him. 

“Huh?!” 

Bell instantly pulled his knife back and blocked the blade that slashed down diagonally across his chest. The blades screeched as he gripped his knife with both hands against the incredible weight of her sword. She was once again in a close battle with him. 

“Why are you going this far?” 

It was the first question she had asked him. 

The Sword Princess who had refused to listen to him now stared into his eyes across their locked blades. 

Bell returned her gaze with a surprised look and shouted his reply. 

“I want to help that girl!” 

“Really? Are you telling me the truth? She’s not a person; she’s a monster!” 

“She’s different from ordinary monsters! She can talk! We can smile at each other! We can hold hands—she has the same emotions that you and I do!” he retorted, determined not to give in to the weight of Aiz’s sword. 

“You’re wrong. Not everyone can do those things.” 

By “those things,” she meant, at the very least, hold hands with a monster. 

With each word, the sword she held with one hand pushed against Bell’s knife. 

“Eh?” 

“Monsters kill people. They can take so, so many lives…They make people shed so many tears.” 

“But…don’t we adventurers do exactly the same thing?” Bell spat back at her. Each word felt as if it were slicing through his own body. 

“…?” 

“Your sword and my knife do those things!” 

If they wanted to, they could massacre thousands of people. Rationality was all that stopped them. Rationality and the sense of fraternity that the Xenos, too, possessed. 

Some monsters were kinder than humans. 

Some hunters were more hideous than monsters. 

Where was the line that divided them? 

Bell pushed away Aiz’s sword as he pled with her. 

“I…” 

Aiz hesitated, standing a few steps back from Bell. 

It would be a lie to say that Bell had never thought about the things she’d said. She was right. Essentially, he knew which side he should choose. But then the smiling faces of Wiene and Lido and the others rose before his mind’s eye. He thought of their tears. He recalled Dix’s howling laughter and the words of Fels. 

A bat—a hypocrite. 

Bell took all this in and made his decision. 

He would tell Aiz the true feelings that had been smoldering within him, the final statement he hadn’t been able to say out loud. 

“…I want a place where we can live together with them.” 

There—he had finally said it to his idol, the girl who stopped time. 

“I want a world where they can smile!” 

His foolish wishes echoed in Aiz’s ears. 

“What are you talking about…?” she whispered in astonishment. 

Her eyes said that she could not—and did not want to—understand. 

They stood on separate sides of the line, she bathed in moonlight, he in dark shadows. 

Aiz turned her face away from Bell. 

“I’ve had enough…get out of my way.” 

As if his ragged body were telling him it had reached its limit, Bell’s knees sank to the ground. He looked up from below her, his eyes filled with suffering. 

But he did not retreat. 

“I don’t want to…” 

“Stop it.” 

“I don’t want to…” 

“I’m asking you, please.” 

“—I can’t!” 

“—Move!” 

Both of them were shouting at each other more loudly than they ever had before. 

Her hair swaying, Aiz closed the gap between them and thrust her sword before his eyes. 

“I’ll cut you.” 

“…!” 

“It’s gonna hurt a lot, so…” 

Those clumsy words were her last warning. 

Bell’s throat trembled at the cold air around the tip of her sword, but still he did not move. 

Her gaze was filled with sadness. Bell’s chest overflowed with an inescapable pain. 

The next instant, eyes flashing with determination, the Sword Princess directed all her energy into the tip of her blade. 

Bell squinted as the blinding moonlight glinted off her sword. 

“—No!” 

The door behind Bell burst open, and a figure rushed into his field of vision. 

Her robe fluttered as her hood fell back from her face. 

She leaped forward, both arms outstretched, directly in front of him and Aiz. 

“Leave Bell alone!!” 

Her high voice rang out, exactly like a human’s. 

Time stood still as Bell stared at her back with its single new wing, and Aiz gaped at her bluish-silver hair and strange bluish-white face. A fragmented word fell from Bell’s lips. 

“Wie…ne…?” 

Pulling himself back into the present, Bell screamed into the oculus that the dragon girl held in one hand. 

“Goddess, why?!” 

“…” 

The oculus was silent. 

Ignoring Bell, who had not yet recovered from his frustration and confusion at this sudden change, Wiene stood protectively in front of him and stared into Aiz’s eyes. 

“Please…don’t hurt Bell.” 

“…!” 

At the sight of Wiene’s amber eyes, Aiz felt her expression crumble. 

The entreaty of the monster shielding Bell seemed to shake her heart. The dragon girl’s actions and words confirmed what Bell had said to her just moments before. 

“Stop…Please don’t talk,” she said. Unable to regain her composure, Aiz looked down and hid her eyes behind her bangs. “…Why do creatures like you exist?” 

Bell shivered at her quiet, dispirited words. He sensed something unknown in the blank expression on Aiz’s—no, the Sword Princess’s—face as she slowly raised it. 

Wiene, too, froze at the extremely overbearing energy from the girl’s thin body. 

“What do you and your kind want?” 

“I…I want to stay with Bell.” 

“—I won’t let you do that.” 

Aiz’s eyes narrowed to slits as sharp as her sword. 

“I’ll never let you have your way on the surface like those other monsters,” she declared, aiming both her words and her sword at the dragon girl. “Your claws can hurt people. Your wing can frighten them. That stone in your forehead can kill so many of them.” 

Her words were filled with condemnation and hatred and rejection. 

This was not the usual Aiz. Her unhesitating enumeration of reasons spoke to the strength of her will. This wasn’t the Aiz Bell knew. 

What was driving her? 

Anger? Hatred? Sorrow? Hope? 

He was on the verge of touching the darkness within her—no, her very core. 

“I can’t turn a blind eye to you,” she said. 

As Bell listened to Aiz declare anew her fundamental rejection of Wiene and her intention to kill her, he forgot to even breathe. She seemed about to slice him to pieces with a conviction and resolution as sharp as her sword. 

Wiene, Aiz’s sword pinning her in place, looked down at her hands as Bell sat unable to speak. 

“…” 

She stared at her bluish-white palms and at the sharp claws that had hurt Bell just like Aiz had said. Quietly, she wrapped her right hand around the claws of her left. 

“Huh?” 

Bell had noticed too late. 

Breathing raggedly as Aiz looked on in amazement, the dragon girl broke them all off in a single movement. 

“Wiene?!” 

Next, she did the same to her left hand. 

After she snapped them off, the cracked claws pattered onto the cobblestones. Wiene ignored Bell’s cries for her to stop and brought her bloodied hands to her wing. 

“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…!!” 

As if offering up a payment for her sins, the girl ripped her dragon wing from her body. 

“—” 

The wing, with its ashen skin stretched across a bluish-silver framework of bones, fell at the feet of the dumbfounded Aiz. 

The girl’s slim arms, filled just a moment before with a dragon’s power, now dropped limply to her sides. As she collapsed toward the ground, Bell caught her in his arms. The lifeblood that poured from her bluish-white skin and stained Bell’s armor a brilliant red was exactly the same as Aiz’s. 

Bell put pressure on her back, frantically trying to stem the bleeding from where wing and skin had been moments before, as Wiene slumped against his chest and looked up at Aiz. 

“If I…What if I disappeared?” 

Struggling to breathe, she brought one hand to the stone in her forehead. 

“This time, I’ll really disappear…” 

She moved her hand from her forehead to her chest—to the place where her magic stone, the core of every monster, resided. 

Bell’s face distorted with grief, and Aiz’s crumbled. 

Slowly and quietly, Wiene spoke again. 

“…I was always alone. It was cold and dark…and I…before I became myself…I was always alone. Nobody came to save me. Nobody held me…” 

She spoke hoarsely, from the depths of her darkest memories. 

“I was cut; I was hurt…It was scary and lonely,” she whispered. Even breathing seemed a struggle. She looked up into Aiz’s golden eyes, almost the same color as her amber ones. 

“But Bell saved me when I was all alone.” 

“!” 

“When I was in the darkness…and nobody would save me, Bell came to my rescue!” she shouted. 

The transformation was dramatic. As she listened, Aiz’s mask dissolved. She stood silently, as if she had discovered something within a bleak winter landscape. She must have been imagining it. From the monster girl’s fragmented story, she must have been piecing together what she had seen, what she had felt. Or perhaps she could see it through her own golden eyes. 

She had forgotten everything beyond the girl’s tears. 

“I want to stay with Bell…!” 

The innocent monster was not explaining herself or trying to prove anything but rather expressing her wish. Before the sword that would take her life, she had revealed the depths of her heart. 

Aiz’s gaze wavered at the dragon girl’s tearful voice. The tip of her sword quivered for a moment, too, as if in hesitation. 

The sword that she could neither drive home nor withdraw glinted with her agony. The blade that she was ostensibly holding against Wiene seemed to be cutting into her own flesh. 

Reason and emotion battled within her heart as she fought her own internal contradictions. Then a light shone in her eyes—not a glint of pain and confusion but, instead, something resembling a drop of the moon. 

Sorrow? 

Envy? 

What did Aiz see in Wiene? 

As Bell, who had protected the vouivre from the start, stood there unable to speak…Aiz hung her golden head. 

She looked precisely like a marionette whose strings had been cut. 

She lowered the sword that had been pressed to Wiene’s chest. 

“…I can’t kill the vouivre,” she mumbled in a voice drained of all energy. 

“Miss…Aiz…” 

“I…I can’t help feeling you two were right…that’s why I can’t do it.” 

“…” 

“I can’t fight you anymore…” 

As she stood there with her eyes to the ground, bathed in moonlight, she looked tremendously small to Bell. Not an adventurer, not the Sword Princess—simply a girl. 

In an attempt to hide the tightness in his chest, Bell wrapped his arm around Wiene’s shoulder. 

After a moment, Aiz withdrew an elixir from the pouch at her waist, set it on the cobblestones almost as if she was dropping it, and turned away from them. 

“I can’t save you…I’ll be here.” 

“Miss Aiz…” 

“Go.” 

“…Thank you.” 

Bell picked up the elixir and, with Wiene leaning on his shoulder, walked away. 

After a few moments, he looked back one last time at Aiz’s distant figure. She was standing with her back to them, her golden hair blowing in the wind. To Bell, she looked so ephemeral she might disappear at any moment. 

“…” 

Aiz stood rooted to the ground. She had even forgotten to return her sword to its scabbard. 

The drifting clouds and silvery moonlight looked down on her. 

“Aiz.” 

“…” 

It was Bete. 

The young werewolf had descended from above. He stared at the girl’s face, half-hidden by her bangs. 

“Everythin’ okay?” 

“…Yes.” 

She nodded listlessly at his question, although perhaps she had taken it in a different way than he intended. She did not say anything else. 

“I’ll head back first,” Bete said. 

“…Thank you…very much.” 

“Why the hell are you thanking me?” he said, spitting on the ground before walking off. 

Stillness descended once again. 

Left alone, the girl whispered something to herself, then gazed up at the deep-blue night sky. 

“Bell, does this hurt?” 

“Are you hurt, Wiene?” 

I’ve taken off my armor, and Wiene is prodding me gently all over. 

We’re in a large abandoned building some distance from where we left Aiz. In the weedy ruins of this stone structure with half its roof missing, we patch up each other’s wounds the best we can. Or more accurately, we apply the elixir Aiz gave us. 

Wiene has taken off her robe and is as naked as the day she was born—although I’ve gotten her to at least cover her chest. Her wounds have all closed up, but even the elixir can’t bring back her claws and wing. If that kind of miracle were possible, of course, Nahza wouldn’t be walking around with a prosthetic arm… 

As for me, despite my many wounds, not one was life-threatening. 

I wonder if Aiz was going easy on me all the way to the end, despite what she said. 

I’ve still got a long way to go… 

“I’m no match for her,” I mutter as I put my armor back on and help Wiene pull on her robe, which now has a gaping hole in the back. 

We have no time to rest. We need to get to Fels and the other Xenos as fast as we can. 

“Master Bell! Lady Wiene!” 

“Haruhime!” 

Just as we are about to leave, she appears in the abandoned building, oculus in hand. 

The instant Wiene sees her, she flies to Haruhime and wraps her in a tearful embrace. Haruhime is crying, too, as she pulls Wiene’s delicate bluish-white body close. 

“Haruhime, did everything go all right?” 

“Yes. Lady Aisha came to my rescue…What about you two?” she asks timidly. 

“…We’re fine.” 

Haruhime must have heard about our exchange with Aiz from the goddess. I smile awkwardly back at her. 

“Well, we’d better get going,” I say, steering the conversation in a different direction. 

“Uh, Master Bell…I, um…” 

“What is it—Ack!” 

“Kyuu!!” 

Something soft and fuzzy has jumped onto my face, which is partially turned toward Haruhime. I pull it off in a panic before I realize it’s a little monster—a Xenos rabbit wearing clothes. 

Wiene, who still has her arms around Haruhime, jerks her head up. 

“Uh, the al-miraj…Miss Aruru?” 

“Kyuu!” 

“On my way here, I was able to meet up with several of the Xenos who had been separated from the others…” 

The instant Haruhime says the word several, a number of Xenos rush into the building. 

“Bell!” 

“So we meet again, creatures of the surface!” 

“Lett! Fia!” 

There they stand, Lett the red-cap next to Fia the harpy. And there’s the hellhound…Helga, was it? Including Aruru, who is still glued to me, four of the separated Xenos are here. It seems that just like Aisha, they saw Haruhime’s magical light as she fled north from the east of the Labyrinth District to escape the adventurers gathered there, and they took a chance on approaching her. 

It wasn’t our original plan, but we’re all happy to be together again. 

“There’re so many of us all of a sudden…We’d really better hurry now!” 

“…Bell. I need to talk to you about that…” 

The goddess has been quiet, but now she speaks to me through the oculus. 

Meanwhile, the al-miraj is quarreling with Wiene, who’s peeled her off my head. 

“No, Aruru!” 

“Kyuu!” 

“I think you’d better give up on meeting with Fels and the others,” the goddess says. 

“Huh?” 

Everyone looks at the oculus, which Wiene has returned to me. 

“D-did something happen to Fels and the other Xenos?!” 

“No, they’re all right. They got away from Loki Familia and they’re in one of the passages leading to Knossos.” 

“In that case…” 

“There’s no way for you to get to them. When everyone heard the fighting in the west, they all gathered in the center of Daedalus Street—not only Loki Familia but other adventurers, too…” 

In a depressed voice, the goddess tells us that meeting up with Fels is hopeless. 

She’s right that it will be a huge challenge to avoid being spotted. There’s no way all of us can fit under the veil, of course. It will take too long for me to make multiple trips bringing everyone there, and Finn and his troops would surely sense our presence passing by anyway. 

We’re out of time…The fight with Aiz took too long. 

Wiene looks up at me, but I don’t know what to say. Haruhime and the other Xenos are all silent, too. 

It’s game over for us. The words of the deities loop through my mind. 

“…! Bell, take this!” 

“Huh? This…It’s the key to Knossos?!” 

I can’t help starting in surprise at the magic item that Lett offers me. As I look back at him, perplexed, he explains. 

“The last of our brethren gave it to us. He said it made no difference if he had it or not…” 

“No difference…? The Xenos said that?” 

“He said he’s going to stay here. He said he felt his dream was close by.” 

“…Is that a good thing?” 

“We couldn’t stop him…He seemed to be ceaselessly searching for something.” 

Lett lowers his eyes, and I clamp my mouth shut. 

So now we have a key…but it’s meaningless if we can’t get to a door. Loki Familia is sure to notice us if we try to take a path leading underground— 

“—Ah!” 

A light blinks on in my mind, and I look up. 

“Master Bell?” 

Ignoring Haruhime, who’s looking at me curiously, I desperately try to reel in the threads of memory. 

A path leading underground…A route leading to Knossos. 

I’ve never seen it myself. There’s no proof. Still— 

“There is! There is one! There’s another entrance!” 

I look from one surprised face to another, raising my voice in hope. 

The residents of Daedalus Street have followed the orders from the Guild to evacuate. Thanks to that, the northwestern sector where we are located now seems nearly abandoned. Keeping an eye out for the adventurers who pass by occasionally, we follow the goddess’s directions down one shortcut after another, finally arriving at our destination in the north of the Labyrinth District. 

Maria’s Orphanage, where the children live. 

We make it to the back garden without anyone noticing us. 

“Did you know about this place, Master Bell…?” Haruhime asks in surprise. 

“Bell, you’re amazing!” Wiene chimes in excitedly. 

“No, I’ve just happened to come here before…” I reply with a hollow laugh. As we descend a set of stairs, I activate a magic-stone lamp embedded in a wall. 

The garden behind the church housing the orphanage leads to a sea of ruins. Hidden among them is a stone slab door. We use it to enter the underground passage that I explored with Syr and the children a month or so earlier. 

…The underground room where the barbarian was. 

“It’s so big…” 

“To think a place like this would be down here…” 

Fia and Lett murmur in awe as they look around. I, too, survey the place using a torch I lit with the hellhound’s flame. Our stone surroundings are just as I remember them. 

After the incident down here, I filed a report with the Guild through Eina…but considering how poorly the investigation was done, I guess they hushed it up before it ever reached Ouranos. I hear they’ve gotten very uptight about things ever since the Monsterphilia incident when the monsters escaped… 

“…” 

In one corner of the room, there’s an enormous pile of ash and the burned remains of the barbarian’s body hair. I look at it in silence, then lead everyone to the far end of the room. 

There before our eyes is the door to a passage, sealed tight. 

“Bell, I can’t believe it…” 

It was the hunter with the goggles who mentioned the passage to me. 

Yeah, we caught that big oaf. 

Before we had a chance to ship it off, it gave those idiot workers of mine the slip and actually escaped. 

We tried to chase it, but it disappeared down the end of that crumbling underground passage. 

The “big oaf” was the barbarian I’d encountered down here, and the crumbling underground passage is the door we’re standing in front of right now. 

Lett looks down at my right hand, where a white light is pulsing again and again as a bell chimes. 

The hunters who were capturing Xenos used to go in and out of Knossos as part of their smuggling activities, so it’s only logical to assume there’s a door down here that the barbarian escaped through. 

I’ve been charging for two minutes. 

I tell Wiene and the others to step back and thrust out my right arm to use my skill. 

“Firebolt.” 

The massive bombardment that I’ve charged up blows away the brick door to the passage in one blast. 

“?!” 

Haruhime and the others press their hands to their ears at the tremors and roar. 

When they look up, they see a half-destroyed doorway where the bricks were and, beyond that, an underground passage leading into the distance. 

“Yessss!” I whisper as I catch sight—far in the distance, among the crumbling stone walls—of the glint of adamantite. 

There’s no mistaking it. This passage leads to Knossos. 

“If you head down here, you should reach a door to Knossos. I don’t know the way, though…” I say. 

“We’ll be fine. The scent of our brethren is still lingering in the farther reaches of the passage. Probably…” 

“Woof!” 

Helga the hellhound, who’s been sniffing the air noisily, finishes Fia’s sentence with a bark, as if to affirm her suspicion. Probably it’s the scent of the smuggling victims… 

The Xenos in our group cheer at the path that’s opened before them. After a moment, they turn to Haruhime and me. 

“Bell, thank you, thank you so much! We will not forget your help. Next time, if you are in trouble, it is we who will rush to your aid,” the gentlemanly red-cap says. 

“Creatures of the surface, I hope you are able to visit us in our home again. Let us sing and dance together once more,” the ever-curious harpy adds. 

“We will…and next time, we’ll bring Mikoto.” 

The red-cap and the harpy shake my hand and Haruhime’s in turn. 

As the peculiar al-miraj and hellhound snuffle at our legs as if to say how sad they are to part, I overflow with happiness that Haruhime has held the hands of the Xenos. 

“Bell.” 

The last to say good-bye is Wiene. 

The dragon girl stands in front of us and looks up into our faces. 

“I’m going back with everyone. If I stay here on the surface, I’ll only hurt you both.” 

“Lady Wiene…” 

Wiene smiles, so that Haruhime, who already sounds heartbroken, doesn’t feel even sadder. 

“You know, when we parted the last time, I cried and cried because I was so lonely,” she says. 

“…” 

“But if I do that again, you’re going to worry about me, aren’t you? So I’m not going to cry anymore. You don’t have to be upset.” 

“Wiene…” 

She sounds like she’s trying to free herself from her position as the protected. 

What caused her to change so much in such a short span of time? 

Was it all the people she met? The malice humans showed her? Her brush with death? Whatever it is, I know in the depths of my heart that I wouldn’t trade the sight of her smile right now for all the gold in the world. 

I know that it doesn’t matter if she’s a monster or a human—this girl who protected me is a noble creature. 

“You know what Lido told me? It might not be possible right now…but he said that if people like you exist, then our dream might come true one day!” she says, a smile blooming on her face. 

I smile back at her. 

“We’ll meet again, won’t we?” she asks me. 

“Yes, we will.” 

“And we can live together one day?” 

“…Yes, for sure!” I nod. 

I’m not merely consoling her. I am determined to make it happen. 

“I promise you. I don’t know how long it will take…but one day, I’ll create a place where we can live together.” 

Wiene blushes and beams at me. 

Haruhime, who’s been watching us with kind eyes, claps her hands together. 

“Let’s pinkie swear!” she says. 

“Pinkie swear?” 

Wiene and I both look at her questioningly. She explains how in the Far East, people link pinkies to make a promise. Then she hooks my pinkie together with Wiene’s and recites the promise. 

“Th-this is embarrassing!” I mutter shyly. 

“No it’s not!” Haruhime insists. 

Wiene giggles, and Haruhime links pinkies with her. Then she hands Wiene the oculus as if she’s giving her a present, and the two of us wrap our arms around her. 

She hugs her pinkie to her chest like it’s her most precious possession, then follows the other Xenos down the passage. 

“Good-bye, Bell, good-bye, Haruhime! We’ll see you soon!” 

Their strange forms grow smaller and smaller. 

Wiene’s glittering amber eyes as she turns back give away the tears she was hiding. I’ve been hiding mine, too. 

Haruhime and I shout our good-byes and watch as the Xenos, still waving, fade into the darkness. 

We stay there until they disappear completely. 

“A promise…” 

I look at my still-warm pinkie. 

I have to make it happen. I can’t let it be a lie I told because I didn’t know what else to say. 

Even if it’s as preposterous as a child’s fantasy, even if it’s a pipe dream, even if it’s an out-of-reach ideal. We have to smile at each other on the surface once again. 

To make that happen, I have to do more from now on— 

“…” 

I look down at my palm and squeeze it tightly into a fist. 

A minute later, Haruhime smiles, wiping away her tears, and I smile back. 

Today, right now, I’ve engraved a new promise into my finger. 

“Really, Fels? Wiene and the others have really entered Knossos?!” Lido shouted. 

He was covered in wounds that told the story of his fierce battle with Loki Familia. But in contrast to his battered appearance, his voice overflowed with joy and excitement. 

“Yes. It seems that Bell Cranell led them there,” Fels answered, holding the oculus in one hand. The stone passageway where they stood echoed with the cheers of the monsters. They were advancing down one of the underground routes leading to Knossos. 

Thanks to Welf, Mikoto, and the black mist, a short while earlier they had made it to a hidden staircase in the central zone of the Labyrinth District that led underground. The persistent attacks of Loki Familia had taken a heavy toll, and the scattered group had been on the verge of collapse, but with strong defense by Lido, Gros, and Rei, they had somehow made it this far. Now, knowing that Wiene and the separated Xenos were in the clear, their last worry was gone. 

The line of monsters picked up its pace toward the door to Knossos. 

“It seems that Lett and the others passed through the door without incident, but the enemy’s underground forces appear to be moving with dizzying speed. Most likely, Braver realized we have Daedalus’s Notebook,” Fels said. 

“And thanks to that, we made it here just in the nick of time,” the lizardman responded. 

“But there’s not a single enemy in this passage. Must be one of the enemy’s blind spots,” the gargoyle pointed out. 

“Gros is right. Loki Familia doesn’t know that this underground passage exists. Looks like the plan was our trump card after all,” Fels said, looking down at the blueprint of Knossos copied from Daedalus’s Notebook to determine their route forward. 

The western orichalcum door was just around the corner. 

“Well then, Fels…” the siren Rei said. 

Fels nodded. 

“Yes. I don’t know if we can call it a victory, but we’ve almost reached our destination.” 

They hurried down the dim passage. 

“Whew…I wasn’t sure there for a while…but I’m glad they’ve made it,” Hestia said, sinking to the ground and letting out a long sigh as the tension drained from her body. 

She was still in the desolate tower on the southwestern outskirts of the Labyrinth District. It was no surprise that her shoulders had finally relaxed now that she had safely delivered the Xenos to Knossos. She deserved a prize for her meritorious service directing Bell and the others from place to place via the oculi. 

Beneath the night sky over her open command center, Hestia returned her gaze to the magic map spread out on the floor. 

“Bell and Haruhime are in the north, Lilly is still wandering around in the east, Welf and Mikoto are heading south…I guess we’re done. Looks like everyone will be okay from here on out.” 

The names of the Xenos had already disappeared from the magic map. That was because the Legacy of Daedalus that Fels had drawn up did not include the underground passages leading to Knossos. Since the Seeker Powder couldn’t turn the plan of Knossos into a magic map, Hestia no longer had any way of tracking the Xenos. 

“It sure is lonely here. I think I’ll go meet up with someone,” Hestia—who had been alone on the tower since Haruhime left—muttered, pulling the Notebook lying next to the map closer to her. 

“Boy, did Bell surprise me. I didn’t realize that passage existed…I mean, it’s not even in the plan,” she continued, puzzling over the underground passage he’d brought Wiene and the others to. 

Some of the passages seem to be dead ends…I wonder if the descendants of Daedalus constructed them, she mused to herself. 

It wasn’t impossible. In fact, there was a decent possibility that was the case. 

Hestia nodded to herself and flipped through Daedalus’s Notebook. 

“To think this book is a thousand years old…and it really saved us this time.” 

The book’s ragged condition spoke to its age. Drawings of the multilayered maze covered pages that had clearly been turned countless times, and here and there amid the text she came upon characters she couldn’t read. The words laid down in obsessive pursuit of that masterpiece of creation—the maze—together with the bloodstained binding were truly a testament to tenacity. 

As Hestia reread the pages of the ancient book that had helped them outwit Loki Familia, it suddenly slipped out of her hands. 

“Oh!” 

The book tumbled across the rooftop and, of all the worst luck, landed in a depression in one corner that was full of water from the previous day’s rain. 

“Oh no!! Not this th-th-th-th-th-thousand-year-old book!!” 

Of course, she should have been handling the precious tome with the utmost care. Fearing the worst, the suddenly pale Hestia rushed to pull it out of the puddle. 

“Captain, I’m extremely sorry…but we’ve lost track of the monsters.” 

As Finn stood at Loki Familia headquarters in the central zone of Daedalus Street listening to the report from his faction member, he was deep in thought. 

Should I have sent Riveria out when Gareth was held up? That black mist really threw a wrench in our communications…No, it’s a waste to think about it now. 

Finn’s instinct when he dispatched Gareth was to kill the group of monsters. They’d outmaneuvered him due to his fatal underestimation of the enemy’s strength—no, the strength of Hestia Familia standing behind the monsters—and having been stingy with his troops. 

And we still haven’t found the black minotaur. Did someone kill it…? No, I don’t think so. Something is going on with that minotaur. 

He had failed to achieve his main goal. Now his options were limited due to a number of factors, including the Knossos situation. He looked out at the Labyrinth District, which was still buzzing with the chaotic shouts of adventurers. 

More than anything, it’s because I can’t get a read on the enemy’s movements… 

If everything had gone according to the enemy’s plan, then their leader must be formidable. Finn acknowledged that. But there was still something he couldn’t understand. 

“You’re sure you lost sight of the monsters near the twenty-first district?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

Finn frowned. 

The twenty-first district…No way, we surveyed that area, and… 

Finn’s guess had been completely off. He’d been totally outwitted. 

No, something was going on. 

“…” 

Finn looked down at his right hand. 

His thumb was throbbing with surprising force. 

“…Where in the world is the enemy heading?” 

“The mortal plane has gone crazy.” 

Somewhere in the world, someone cried out. 

The innumerable stories playing out on the world below belonged to the children, but still, the deities lurked in the background. 

Like marionettes on strings, or actors listening to their lines whispered to them from backstage, or dancers whose performance was rewritten mid-step, the children were led by the divine will of the deities. 

“We are merely puppets of the gods and goddesses.” 

Somewhere in the world, someone gave up. 

“Fels, what next?” 

“Right at the next corner! That’s where the door is!” 

The Xenos advanced. They were heading for the red mark on the map that represented their one hope. 

Clawed feet struck the stone floor. Wings beat the air. A snake’s belly slithered over the ground, hooves beat it, and tails scraped across it. The monsters ran with all their might. 

Finally, they rounded the last corner. 

“Oh, it’s soaked!” Hestia sobbed, holding the book she had retrieved from the puddle. 

Then she gasped. 

“—Huh?” 

She felt as if time had stopped. 

“What? How could—? I can’t believe it!” 

Incoherent fragments fell from her lips as she held the wet binding in her hands. Her eyes widened as she stared at the page open before her. She lost all remaining composure. 

“How can this be…?” 

Trembling with fear, she let out a piercing cry. 

“Ouranos, what is the meaning of this?!” 

“…” 

On the altar in the underground shrine, the aged god drew his brows together and shut his eyes tightly. 

“What the—” 

The Xenos rounded the corner and came face-to-face with a horrifying sight. 

An enormous stone wall, without a single crack or seam, filled their entire field of vision. 

A massive wall blocking their path forward. 

The door that was supposed to save them was nowhere to be seen. 

“A dead end…?” Lido said in astonishment. 

“Fels…what’s going on? Did we make a wrong turn?” Gros asked. 

“This is impossible! I’m sure I read the map right…” Fels answered, looking down at the plan. 

The mage had followed the drawings the whole way, heading for the western door that Loki Familia was unaware of. But still, there stood the enormous wall. 

Is there a hidden door? No, the map didn’t indicate anything like that… 

Unbelievable. It’s like someone’s been manipulating us the whole time… 

Beneath quivering black robes, the cursed skeleton recalled vividly what it felt like to sweat. It was then that the mage heard the voice. 

“Hey there, Xenos!” 

The cheerful voice came from directly behind them. 

“!” 

“Pleasure to meet you. Please don’t be afraid. My name is Hermes. I’m just an ordinary god.” 

The god had red-orange hair and was wearing a feathered traveling cap. His eyes, the same color as his hair, crinkled as he smiled kindly at the astonished Xenos. 

“God Hermes…?! What are you doing here?” Fels asked. 

“It’s quite simple, downfallen Sage. I’m ambushing you.” 

“A-ambushing…?!” the Sage sputtered in confusion. The Xenos shared his bewilderment. 

What was Hermes talking about? What did he mean by ambushing? What was his aim? Fels’s mind refused to understand the situation they found themselves in. 

The Xenos, who were pinned in place, sensed something cold in the god who stood before them. The black-clad mage gripped the map as he asked a question. 

“God Hermes…Why is there no door here? Weren’t you the one who obtained the plan of Knossos? This plan, Daedalus’s Notebook—” 

Hermes grinned from ear to ear. 

“You didn’t really think Daedalus’s Notebook existed, did you?”