ULTRA SOUL! Part 2

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 de ja 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, halfhidden 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?"