The Voice of the Hammer Part 2

Just as that party took flight, elsewhere, Tsubaki raised her head.

"What is it, meow?"

"Oh… nothing, it's just…"

For once, Tsubaki had no ready answer for Chloe's question. It was simply a feeling—

or rather, the sixth sense of a smith. She tried to put her premonition into words, but

quickly gave up and shook her head. If she didn't focus on her immediate surroundings,

she would undoubtedly trip up.

"OOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The passage in front of her eyes was packed with monsters. Starved for blood, they

roared incessantly.

This was the twenty-sixth floor.

Tsubaki and her companions had made it partway through the ordeal of descending

the cliff, but as soon as they got past the twenty-fifth floor, harpies, sirens, and other

winged monsters appeared, forcing them to give up on that route. They'd decided

instead to enter the twenty-sixth-floor maze before they were hurled against the Great

Falls.

"Zaa!"

Tsubaki guided her sword boldly and skillfully through the wave of grotesque beasts

dashing toward them.

Silently, almost like magic, multiple monster heads were sent dancing through the air.

The terrible flash of silver sliced the long body of an aqua serpent in half, then

switched direction to sever the head of a crystal turtle.

The blade she held in her hands was Benishigure, a magnificently crafted naginatastyle polearm without a single nick on its blade. She had forged it herself, a first-class

weapon that reigned unchallenged over all others. It flashed through the air like

swirling flower petals, sending down a rain of fresh blood worthy of its name, which

meant Scarlet Winter Shower.

Any monster standing in Cyclops's path was soon stained red and deposited atop the

growing mountain of corpses.

"Out of my way~~~~~~~~~!!"

The fighting style of the three waitresses rampaging in front of Tsubaki was equally

extreme. Befitting their employment at The Benevolent Mistress, which had its own

interesting history, their combat skills could not exactly be described as average.

While Ahnya mowed down a pack of mermen with one swing of her golden lance

through their torsos, Chloe cut a fast-rolling crystal urchin into slivers with her

assassin's blade. At the same time, Runoa's merciless knuckledusters tore through the

intestines and chest of a kelpie rearing up to strike, transforming it into a mass of ash.

They were making quick work of the lower-level monsters. But no matter how many

they slaughtered, the flood was endless.

"We don't know much about the Dungeon, but wow!"

"Yeah, is it always such a crazy party down here, meow?"

Runoa and Chloe kept fighting the unending battle as they spoke. Tsubaki and Ahnya,

too, wielded their respective naginata and sword as they answered.

"If things were always like this, the place would be littered with the corpses of

adventurers!"

"This is an Irregular for sure, meow! I've never seen the Dungeon like this!!"

Their expressions were racked with anxiety as they struggled to contain the deluge of

monsters, never mind stemming the tide. They were thinking of Hestia Familia,

believed to be in this zone, and Gale Wind, whose location was still unknown. This was

not an easy situation to break out of, even with Level 5 Tsubaki in their party. What

might have happened to a group of adventurers lacking similar strength?

"The monsters are howling like crazy…!"

Even Runoa, who knew little of the Dungeon, could sense something unusual was

happening as battle cries echoed from every corner of the floor. It was as if the

Dungeon itself was running wild because it couldn't get the situation under control.

"…I've got the feeling there's a really nasty monster around here, meow."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Just a hunch, meow. Still… my tail's quivering. Might be on this floor, might be above

or below, but there's something nasty nearby, meow."

Chloe narrowed her eyes in irritation as Tsubaki glanced back at her. As if to back up

what experience told her was true, her ears moved constantly and the fur on her slim

tail stood on end. Ahnya and Runoa seemed nervous as well; their time together with

Chloe had taught them to trust her as someone who was as sensitive to danger as a

stray cat.

What they didn't realize was that by entering the twenty-sixth floor, and therefore

dividing the attention of the monsters, they'd miraculously lightened the burden of

the other party also fighting on that floor.

Unbeknownst to them, their struggle had allowed that certain other party to break

through the wall of monsters and enter the twenty-seventh floor.

That said, how could Tsubaki and the others have possibly known that they had just

ushered the other party into an even more harrowing situation?

"…! A scream?!"

Just then, Ahnya's ear's stood straight up. Amid the war cries of the monsters, she had

made out the sound of a human voice.

"The twenty-seventh floor!"

"We made it!"

Welf and Lilly shouted excitedly the second their feet hit the flat crystal ground on the

far side of the connecting passage. The labyrinth here didn't look significantly

different from what they had seen on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth floors. The size

of the crystal columns and the passageways themselves, however, was generally larger.

"Stop spacing out! We're gonna keep moving!"

Aisha didn't even give the party a second to catch their breath before hurrying them

along. She was determined to reach the lower-level safety point as soon as possible.

"Monsters incoming!"

"Out of my way!"

As a great swarm of monsters hurtled toward them from the distance, Welf pushed

Ouka out of the way and leaped to the vanguard.

"Kazukiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!"

He swung Shikou Kazuki through the air. It spit out a dramatic tongue of dancing flame

that burned the entire swarm to a crisp.

"He did it again…!"

"Seems a lot stronger than his old blades!"

Cassandra and Daphne stared in shock at the vista of decimated enemies. That's how

unprecedented the war cry of this new magic sword was. Aisha smiled to herself, a

storm of sparks flowing around her as she took on the monsters popping up from side

tunnels while Welf handled the main route.

A magic blade that never shatters…! He's crafted us quite the weapon, hasn't he?!

The scarlet-and-crimson sword glittered brilliantly against the backdrop of their

surroundings. It had played a starring role on their journey to the twenty-seventh

floor as well. They'd lured the monsters into cramped passageways and then torched

them en masse. There wasn't even a need to chant when monsters tried to approach

during the downtime between magic-blade attacks. As long as they had the timing

right, the monsters never got a chance to draw near, and if a couple did happen to

escape the flames, Aisha and the others could easily take care of the leftovers. Plus,

they were free of the anxiety they'd always felt from not knowing when a Crozzo's

Magic Sword would shatter.

In the party's current heavily wounded state, Welf's magic sword had drastically

reduced the burden of fighting and turned the hopeless prospect of reaching the

twenty-seventh floor into a reality. Aisha silently commended the smith's achievement

in such a tough spot.

Still, she had some concerns.

Instead of eventually shattering… I guess they consume the user's Mind like spells do.

She could already see the exhaustion lining Welf's face. It wasn't possible to constantly

summon such overwhelming firepower. Conducting this many attacks entailed a rate

of Mind depletion that completely dwarfed the strain of using anti-magic fire.

"Ignis, hang in there!"

"I know!!"

As Aisha hollered at the sweat-drenched Welf, she silently swore she wouldn't be

caught dead carrying a male adventurer on her back, and redoubled her own efforts.

Swinging her podao again and again, she cleared a way forward for the party with a

ferocity equal to Welf's magic.

"—Oh no!"

"Don't tell me this was the main hunting party…!"

They had been following the paths up and down inside the multilevel maze for some

time when they stumbled upon a horrific scene.

Chigusa went pale and Ouka groaned as blood-spattered crystal walls, still-wet pools

of blood, and half-eaten arms and eyeballs sprang into view. Most likely, they had been

killed by the monster Bors had spoken of, each corpse belonging to a victim the beast

had hunted down. The water nearby was dyed light pink, as though some of the bodies

had been dragged inside.

The scene hinted at the sort of atrocious banquet that had taken place here. Aisha

examined the space, oddly glad Haruhime was currently unconscious.

"What the hell showed up here…?!"

As they stood stock-still while taking in the aftermath of a string of murders that

stretched into the distance like footprints, each member of the party tried to imagine

what monster could have carried out this massacre on the hunting party.

Had it really managed to kill so many adventurers?

Was it still on the twenty-seventh floor?

Had Bell and Lyu managed to survive their encounter with this calamity?

As those idle musings crossed her mind, Aisha glanced at Bors, the only member of

the group to have actually seen the monster. She was worried he might once again be

consumed by terror, but that was not the case.

"…I can't hear it."

He was simply in shock.

"What?"

"That hopping sound… that sound it makes when it moves, I can't hear it anymore…!"

The calamity played a certain melody of death—an omen of destruction bouncing ever

closer, as if it were ricocheting off the floors, walls, and ceiling. Bors had experienced

that hell firsthand. The calamity on legs had instantly located and lashed out at them,

no matter where they tried to hide, and he was disturbed that there was no longer any

sign of it.

"Is it really… gone? Could Gale Wind and Bell have killed it?"

Aisha didn't know how to interpret the words Bors mumbled in a daze. Was he

expressing a real hope or unfounded optimism? She didn't know, so she decided to

keep moving.

"Bors, take us to the last place you saw Gale Wind!"

"Right!"

Whether the monster was still there or not, every second was precious. Aisha chose

action over stagnation. She pushed Bors to the head of the party and told him to lead

the way.

"…n't… don't."

The moment they set out, however, Aisha heard a strange voice.

"Don't… go that way."

"…?"

The warning came to her in fragments between the sounds of the party's pounding

feet. The words were spoken haltingly in human language.

She checked around but saw no one. The only things reflected in her eyes were dimly

glittering crystals, bloody weapons scattered on the ground, and water running

alongside dry land.

Only she had heard the voice. It sounded urgent and tearful, as if it was desperately

trying to hold them back. Although she sensed those emotions, however, her only

choice was to ignore the warning.

That was because she knew the rest of the party would not stop until they found Bell.

"Here it is…!"

Finally, they reached an enormous room with both an abundance of solid land and

numerous waterways. The entire space was scarred by traces of a terrific battle.

"What… is… this?!"

Enormous crystal formations were lying about, webbed with cracks as if something

had crashed into them with incredible speed. Deep fissures ran through the ceiling,

walls, and floor, which were perforated with deep, cave-like holes. Some of the crystal

columns looked like they'd been melted by the extreme high heat of a flare.

Every corner of the room bore scars.

"What could have possibly caused this kind of damage…?" Daphne wondered aloud.

Beside her, Ouka stared around in a daze.

The adventurers didn't need to say it aloud to know that a huge battle had taken place

here, and that it had been a fight to the death with a monster far more powerful than

any of them.

The problem was that neither winner nor loser remained in the room.

There was no pile of ash to show that a monster had been slain, nor did they see the

tragic remains of an adventurer who had met a cruel end. The noisy gurgling of the

waterways crossing one another was all that remained on the wrecked battlefield.

Welf and the others walked to the center of the room, but found no clues there, either.

As if pulled by some invisible force, Lilly approached a patch of land where the fighting

had been so fierce it had changed the very direction the water flowed in.

Among several holes in the ground, she saw one vertical shaft that was larger and

deeper than the others. It looked like it had been carved out by something spinning,

and seemed to continue all the way through to the floor below them. As Lilly stared

wordlessly down the hole, she felt as if it led all the way to the deepest depths of the

Dungeon. Like the chamber's other scars, it was slowly healing and closing itself up.

—It can't be.

Suddenly, Lilly thought of the lambton, a deep-level monster she would never have

expected to meet in this watery zone.

The possibility seemed outrageous, yet alarm bells were ringing in a corner of her

mind.

"Where the hell did all the corpses go? I saw those guys kick the bucket myself… Did

those damn monster eat them, too…?"

Clearly still fearing the hideous creature he had encountered, Bors closely examined

the copious amounts of gore left behind by the missing adventurers.

He was the only one who knew exactly what had happened here. The rest of the party

peered around as he spoke.

Who would be on a battlefield where neither winners nor losers remained, where all

who had fought had disappeared? Of course it would be looters who stomped on the

dignity of fallen warriors. Bandits who devoured towering piles of corpses to satisfy

their hunger. But this devastated battlefield was not home to any loping hyenas on its

land or any circling vultures in its skies.

What it did have was corpse fish lurking in its waters.

"?!"

Splash, splash.

Suddenly, multiple forms broke the water's surface and swam into the air.

"Fish monsters…? Floating in the air…?!"

Ouka gaped as the piscine bodies floated through seemingly empty space.

The bodies were made of stone. They were purplish black and ranged in length from

one to two meders, with eight protruding appendages resembling fins. Where a pair

of eyes should have been was only a single goggling eyeball.

The ragged scraps of human flesh stuck between their sharp fangs answered the

question of where the corpses had gone.

"Voltemeria!"

Aisha, who had been to the twenty-seventh floor before, grimaced.

The voltemeria was a rare monster found only on that floor. Its potential ranked

among the highest in the Water Capital, right alongside the kelpie. Its stone body was

exceedingly resistant to physical attack, while its powerful jaws and sharp fangs could

crush even the heaviest armor donned by adventurers. Its ability to swim through the

air distinguished it from all other aquatic monsters.

With a composition similar to that of light quartzes, which also were present on the

twenty-seventh floor, the fish monsters were able to float approximately three meders

aboveground. Their speed, however, far exceeded that of the floating crystal monsters;

voltemeria lunged at adventurers like menacing demons swimming in air just as they

would in an underwater battle. Instead of "living fossils," adventurers usually referred

to them as "flying fossils."

Normally voltemeria only inhabited areas where multiple waterways met and formed

deep pools. But the smell of blood from the massacre had drawn them here.

Now, they were leaping incessantly from every waterway in the room.

"There's so many…!"

"We're surrounded…!"

The endless splashing the voltemeria caused as they flew into the air upset Cassandra,

and her alarm quickly spread to Chigusa. They could easily count thirty of the floating

fish in front of them.

This is bad.

Daphne paled as she took in the scene.

Their advance through the twenty-sixth floor had been an exercise in risk-taking. They

had holed up in various rooms and survived monster attacks by limiting the front they

presented to only the entryways. But now they were under siege. The monsters were

using the massive chamber to their advantage to attack from all directions, including

from overhead and underwater. There were far too many for the party to take down

one by one.

On top of that, the fish could move through both air and water. Even with Welf's magic

sword, there was no way to wipe out an enemy that crept up on them from both

directions.

"Ignis, can you burn them all?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Welf spat out his response to Aisha like a curse. He was on the verge of a Mind Down.

Aisha could tell from one glance at his harrowed face.

The party realized that for the third time, they were staring into the jaws of death.

They had lost track of Bell and Lyu again, and with it went all indication of what was

the correct way forward. The party's physical stamina and their will to go on were

both dwindling.

"…"

The stone voltemerias made no sound. They simply rolled their single eyes ceaselessly

in their foreheads, signaling that they would never let their prey escape.

The school of monster fish encircled the adventurers exactly like a snake coiling

around its prey or a pitch-black tsunami about to swallow them whole. From outside

the room, they could hear a thundering mixed chorus of other monsters. Faced with

the Dungeon's infinite pool of resources, the adventurers nearly sunk to their knees.

"—!!"

The next instant, the taut thread of tension snapped and the monsters flew toward

them.

The merciless siege had begun.

Predictably, Welf's magic sword was the first weapon to intercept this school of

voltemerias so numerous it could have been considered a monster party on its own.

Kazuki's breath of fire annihilated ten of the monster fish, but another thirty bore

down on them from a different direction.

Frantically fighting for their very lives, Bors and the others struck back. They sliced,

ripped, jabbed, and crushed, struggling desperately to protect their wounded

companions and rearguard members currently in the center of their circular

formation.

But it was no more than the final struggle of a cornered animal.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiit!"

Lilly's stores of items were long exhausted, and Cassandra's Mind had been drained to

the last dregs. Welf's fingers were already slipping from the hilt of his magic sword.

Ouka's brute strength, Daphne's quick wit, Chigusa's weapon handling, and Bors's

tenacious grip on life were all on the verge of running out. Even the ever-flowing

stream of curses from Aisha's mouth was beginning to run dry.

They killed monster after monster, but still the throng came. One of the fish clamped

its jaws hard on Daphne's shoulder. The girl vomited blood. Ouka pried it off her with

brute strength. Next came his turn to feel sharp fangs sinking into his arm. Cassandra

and Chigusa screamed. Lilly lost hope in her own meaningless commands.

Then a singular darkness blacked out their vision.

A wall of flying fish had surrounding them.

The adventurers were about to be smashed flat by voltemerias. The purplish-black

wave was about to swallow them. It was precisely the "cage of despair" that the

prophetess of tragedy had sought to avoid.

And then, like a fatal blow, the adventurers glimpsed a sight so horrible it broke their

spirits.

"But that can't…"

From outside the room, an avalanche of monsters led by a lamia thundered in.

The assorted species roared their individual terrible cries.

The adventurers gasped at the overwhelming numbers they faced.

"Is this the end…?"

Someone muttered the words, and all understood their horrible meaning. The

voltemerias set upon the discouraged adventurers with renewed vengeance.

"—!! Haruhime?!"

"Cassandra?!"

Fangs of death bore down on the rear guard.

Having broken through the front line, the monsters closed in on Lilly and Cassandra,

who were respectively guarding Mikoto and Haruhime. As their bodies slammed

against Cassandra, she went flying together with Haruhime. The renart was hurled

onto the ground some distance away, while Cassandra looked up to find herself staring

into a hideous maw.

Her pupils contracted.

She was staring directly at death.

Daphne was shouting something.

Cassandra shut her eyes in the face of her inescapable demise.

And then—

A lamia flew at her from the side and tore the oncoming voltemeria to shreds.

"—Huh?"

The claws drew a bloody arc through the body of the floating fish.

As Cassandra froze on the spot, the lamia mowed down the other voltemeria near her

with its long snakelike lower body.

"aaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

The lamia thrashed and screeched in a shrill voice.

Other monsters followed suit. Unbelievably, the pack that had just barged into the

room began attacking the voltemeria.

Time seemed to stand still as the adventurers watched the monsters begin to

slaughter one another.

"Infighting?!"

"What is going on?!"

Daphne and Ouka whipped their heads back and forth, watching the fight in confusion.

In no time at all, the battle had turned into an all-out melee. The adventurers stood

like statues, unable to make sense of the scene before them.

"…Wh-what the…?"

"…"

Lilly was in a daze behind the still-stunned Cassandra, gazing at the monsters

attacking the voltemerias.

The newcomers were terrifyingly strong.

Their faces were stained red with what looked like gory makeup.

They were carrying weapons.

"—"

Lilly's eyes practically popped out of her head.

The lamia—the same one that had just rescued Cassandra—noticed Lilly's gaze and

shot her an adorable secret wink.

It was not the unfeeling blink of a monster's eye, but more like the sort of wink a

human would give a dear friend.

Lilly's chest filled with an emotion so strong she could hardly breath.

"—The Xenos!"

She was practically weeping as she screamed the words.

"Greetings once again, good people of the surface!"

No sooner had she cried out than a form danced through the air and landed at her

side.

This figure wore a hood and robe that covered the entire body. Lilly recognized this as

a disguise meant to impersonate an adventurer.

She remembered those monster eyes that were so warm and kind.

"We have come to rescue you!"

Under her hood, the harpy Fia shook her deep red hair and smiled brightly at the

teary-eyed Lilly.

"Are you well, Miss Lilliluka?"

The next moment, another small monster arrived at Lilly's side, having just used a

battle-ax far too large for its size to split a voltemeria in half. It was Lett, the

gentlemanly red-cap goblin. He, too, was wearing a robe to disguise his true identity.

"Why are you here…?" Lilly asked, still unable to quell her surprise.

"Fels ordered us to come! Rei and several of the others are on a separate mission at

the moment, but the rest of us rushed here under Lido's command!"

Such was the Will of Ouranos when he had learned of the irregularities in the Dungeon.

The Xenos had received the wizened deity's mission during their assault on the manmade dungeon, Knossos, and had split into two groups accordingly. Rei had taken

charge of the group that remained in Knossos while Lett's group had taken the secret

passage on the eighteenth floor into the Dungeon and headed straight for the Water

Capital based on the information Ouranos had provided. Taking the shortest possible

route and using any means available, they had even barged straight through the

adventurers' line of defense to rescue the rear guard.

In fact, the monsters that had caused a huge panic among the adventurers returning

to Rivira were these very Xenos.

They had done it all to rescue Hestia Familia, whom they believed had gotten pulled

into the maelstrom of a certain calamity's return.

If an outsider had seen Lett and Fia in their costumes, they wouldn't have been the

least bit suspicious, but Lilly lost all words at their explanation.

"We made a pledge to Mr. Bell! We promised to come running to your aid if you should

ever find yourselves in trouble!"

They had only made it in time because they were Xenos.

Even the support troops Lilly had requested would have been too late to save them

from this scene of tragedy.

Only the monsters that Hestia Familia had shaken hands with, forged a relationship of

trust with, and ultimately saved from certain death could have made it in time to

rescue them from imminent danger.

"We have come to pay back our debt to our irreplaceable friends!"

And there was one more reason.

There was the bond that Bell had woven.

Just as that young boy had saved Lilly, he had also saved the Xenos, and now they were

here to return what he had freely offered them.

There was no way to stop the tears spilling from Lilly's chestnut eyes this time.

"B-but, how did you get here? How did you find Lilly and her companions in this

immense Dungeon…?"

She hurriedly rubbed her eyes dry.

Fia answered with a smile.

"We have Helga and Aruru to thank for that!"

"Meep!"

As Cassandra lay slumped on the ground, a white al-miraj straddling a hellhound

appeared before her. Ignoring her shock, the fluffy white monster raised one hand

energetically, as if to say, Hello again, old friend!

"Y-you…"

The wide-eyed Cassandra had seen these faces before on that unforgettable day when

these very same armed monsters had appeared on the surface and plunged Orario

into complete chaos.

Obeying a prophetic dream, Cassandra had secretly protected the hellhound and the

al-miraj.

"Meep! Meep!"

"Woof, woof!"

Cassandra yelped as the al-miraj threw its arms around her and the hellhound licked

her. She was about to faint as the white rabbit monster buried its face in her cleavage

and nuzzled her breasts. As it looked up at her with its red eyes, she couldn't help

flinching a little.

"Did you… come to find me?"

The little round eyes glittered as the al-miraj rubbed its face against her chest.

Cassandra took that as a yes—but an instant later, a shock ran through her, taking her

breath away.

"That dream I had… with the jet-black wave and the rabbit charm…"

It had happened about twenty days earlier, just before the battle on Daedalus Street.

She had seen a prophetic dream that led her to shelter the al-miraj.

In the dream, a jet-black wave had swallowed her up. Just as she was on the verge of

death, she had taken out a rabbit charm she'd received beforehand and managed to

escape. At the time, she'd taken the black wave as a representation of the black

minotaur. Because she protected the al-miraj, she'd avoided being attacked by the

frightening beast.

But now that she thought about it more closely, that interpretation seemed odd.

If she hadn't protected the "rabbit" like the oracle had dictated and gone to the place

it had told her to go, she wouldn't have encountered the minotaur in the first place.

Maybe Daphne had been right when she'd gotten mad and told her she was acting in

a play she wrote herself.

In other words, the destruction she avoided by protecting the al-miraj hadn't taken

place that day.

Cassandra looked around in a daze.

The voltemeria were black. And when a mass of them crowded together, they looked

exactly like a jet-black wave.

Could it be that the dark wave that swallowed her in that dream wasn't the minotaur

but rather the school of black flying fish?

Had the "rabbit charm"—that is, the al-miraj—grown used to her scent when she

cared for it for days on end and then used it to locate her in the Dungeon?

Squeezing the fluffy white monster with her right hand as it gently pawed her

cleavage, she realized that she had only just evaded the fate laid out in the prophetic

dream moments ago.

"Can prophetic dreams be redundant…? Was the vision of that day a warning to avoid

the destruction of today?"

Cassandra looked questioningly at the al-miraj and the hellhound who seemed so

overjoyed to see her.

Meanwhile, Daphne—who was totally overwhelmed by the unexpected turn of events—

wasn't paying attention to Cassandra, who had mustered up her courage and was

about to furtively hug the monsters.

"…Nope, can't do it!"

"Meep?"

Well intentioned or not, it seemed that she still wasn't ready to go that far.

"You guys…"

On the verge of a Mind Down, Welf could only manage a few mumbled words. But as

he watched, a troll, a lamia, and a deadly hornet wiped the floor with a huge school of

voltemerias while totally ignoring the adventurers.

"Wh-what… the hell is going… on?"

"Are these… the armed monsters we heard about?"

"I thought Loki Familia wiped them out on Daedalus Street!"

Bors, Chigusa, and Ouka were hopelessly confused. Daphne was still frozen, unable to

understand what was happening. The monsters appeared to be protecting the

adventurers, or rather prioritizing their fierce battle with their own kind as they

ignored the adventurers. Bors, Chigusa, Ouka, and Daphne couldn't manage much

more than a freaked-out response, let alone a coherent reaction.

But Welf understood what was happening.

A gargoyle flew over his head, noticed Welf's stare, and glanced back at him before

turning away like a rude person. Suddenly, savage air combat commenced. Completely

overpowered by the Xenos with its huge, nearly indestructible stone wings, the

voltemerias fell one after the next.

Below the gargoyle, a certain lizardman was fighting his own battle. With countless

ground-battle victories under his belt, the proud warrior sliced through several

furious flying fish with one swipe of the scimitar in his right hand, while pounding still

more with a bold swing of the longsword in his left.

As he sped in front of Welf, the lizardman turned up the corners of his fang-filled

mouth.

He looked like he was about to smile.

—Guess who else is here?

That's what the indomitable glint in his narrowed reptilian eyes seemed to say as he

glanced across the room.

Welf followed his gaze and jumped in surprise.

A figure in a black robe was dashing across the battlefield—

"…Ahh."

Haruhime's eyelids fluttered as something moved against her cheek.

She felt very groggy, almost like some gauze draped over her ears was muffling the

sounds around her.

The one thing she knew for sure was that she was on a battlefield.

Perhaps due to the persistent aftereffects of the Mind Down, an extraordinary

exhaustion and lethargy weighed down her arms and legs. But she had to sing. She

understood her role as a sorcerer. She could not afford to remain lying down.

Haruhime whipped her body with the lash of her will. She needed to summon strength

in her limbs and bring a chant to her lips. She had to grant that miraculous light to her

companions. But right as she was thinking that she should stand up, and fast, like Bell

had done on that day in the past—somebody took her in their arms.

"…?"

As she realized that her body was being gently supported, she opened her eyes.

She saw a pair of amber eyes, and then a face filled with a warm red light.

It looked exactly like the face of the girl Haruhime had been thinking of ceaselessly

since they parted.

As soon as her hazy vision came into focus, Haruhime's lips spoke the girl's name.

"Lady… Wiene…?"

In response to the feebly whispered words, the dragon girl's face blossomed into a

smile, her blue-white hair swaying.

"Yes, Haruhime."

Tears fell from Haruhime's green eyes at the sound of the vouivre's voice.

"I've come to save you!"

"Ah… ahhhh…!"

Still kneeling, the Xenos drew her close in her slender arms. Haruhime found holding

back her emotions an impossible feat.

She had never stopped thinking of this girl who felt so much like a sister or a daughter.

Not a day had passed when she did not think of her. Her tender feelings at seeing

Wiene again swept away any thought of exhaustion. She wrapped her own arms

around the dragon girl and pulled her close. Wiene nuzzled her tear-stained face

against Haruhime's.

"I wanted to see you so much, Haruhime!"

"Me too… me too!"

"I didn't cry the whole time! I didn't want to make you worry!"

Like Fia, Wiene was wearing a robe that concealed her head and body. Her beautiful

voice sounded like birdsong to Haruhime's ears.

"But… now I can't stop crying!"

Haruhime felt as if her heart would burst. The dragon girl's smile was as pure as the

clear tears rolling down her cheeks.

They embraced once again.

"Ms. Wiene…!"

"Wiene has been taking part in our various activities, and when she heard you were in

trouble, she said she wanted to come no matter what."

Lilly had been watching the reunion unfold in happy surprise. As Lett explained the

dragon girl's motivations, she sensed the truth in his words. She thought back warmly

on the days she had spent on the surface with Wiene. She truly had become a part of

their familia.

"What is going on in here, meow~~~~?!"

Just then, she heard an oblivious voice shouting at them from the room's entryway,

accompanied by the sound of a monster being brazenly kicked aside.

Ahnya and her party had arrived just a few steps behind the Xenos.

"We found the adventurers, but…"

"The monsters are killing one another, meow?!"

The panting Ahnya was startled out of her wits by the scene they found inside the

room. Runoa and Chloe also gaped at the ferocious battle between the various

monsters—that was to say, between the voltemeria and the Xenos.

After the band of four heard Lilly's scream, they had followed Chloe's hunch to the

twenty-seventh floor, where they caught a glimpse of a terrifyingly strong parade of

armed monsters from behind. Sensing the monsters might be up to something based

on their single-minded march into the floor's depths, Ahnya and her companions had

decided to follow them. Whenever they lost sight of the parade, they simply followed

the sounds of fighting before eventually ending up in this room.

"Ms. Ahnya…! Lady Hestia really came through for us!"

Lilly was the first to guess the meaning of their arrival, silently cheering her patron

deity's response to her request for support from the surface.

Meanwhile, a certain half-dwarf was advancing toward a certain young man as if

drawn to him magnetically.

"Welf…"

"Tsubaki?! Why are you…?"

Tsubaki stopped in front of the confused smith.

Her former colleague was in tatters. He was gasping for breath, covered in wounds

large and small, and seemed ready to collapse at the slightest nudge.

But for the moment, she didn't care. All her single eye could see was the sword in his

hands.

"That magic sword…"

It was a crimson longsword. Not a Crozzo's Magic Sword—a Welf's Magic Sword.

Her right eye opened wide with a level of emotion Welf had never seen in it before.

She was not so unsophisticated as to ask what it was, however.

To the contrary, she found herself momentarily dumbstruck. One glance at the sword's

gleam told the master smith what Welf had achieved.

"Heh-heh-heh, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! So you've finally gone and don't it, eh, greenhorn?"

Her roaring laughter was hardly appropriate for a battlefield. As Bors and the others

peered crossly at her, only Welf returned her gaze with clear eyes.

"You tried your hand at it even though you didn't know how far the heights of mastery

go! You aimed for the peaks of the heavens!"

"…"

"I said you were an idiot, but to think you were actually an idiot even among idiots!

And all the more a fool for giving unnecessary advice! Ahhh, what a cheeky bastard! A

unique pleasure, this is!"

Tsubaki's words were neither insults nor criticisms, but instead the expression of pure

delight.

They were a sign of the rivalry she felt toward this boy who had exceeded her

expectations.

And they were proof that she had accepted him as a part of her tribe.

"Congratulations, Welf Crozzo. You're finally one of us."

Then she added, "And… welcome to hell."

Her praise was genuine; the master smith celebrated Welf's achievement from the

bottom of her heart.

"I'm in a good mood. Leave the rest of these monsters to me."

"…! Wait, Tsubaki, those monsters are—"

"I know, I know. I'll only take down the ones that aren't armed."

Tsubaki turned away from Welf, licking her lips at the arrival of a fresh school of

voltemeria that the waterway had carried to her side. Unable to hide her excitement,

she grinned as she set upon them like a demoness.

Ahnya, Chloe, and Runoa threw themselves into action and joined Tsubaki in

slaughtering the voltemeria for the sake of the paralyzed party they had come to save.

A bitter battle between monsters, adventurers, and Xenos had begun.

"Lido! Lidoooooooooo!"

A soprano voice pierced the ceaseless sound of fierce fighting. The lizardman looked

up to see the Xenos mermaid Mari popping her head out of a waterway. He hurried to

her side.

"Mari, you're here of all places?! Then you must know what happ—"

"Bell! Bell went below!"

Mari tearfully interrupted Lido's human words.

"Bellucchi? Mari, you were with him?!"

The surprised lizardman quickly made sense of Mari's halting words, gleaning that

Bell and an elf had been sucked into a wormhole and taken to a level somewhere

below them, only to be followed by the "apostle of murder" that had recently spawned.

The report matched up with what they'd learned about the "calamity" from the

wizened god via Fels.

"UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

The Xenos whipped their heads around toward Lido as he bellowed a war cry. That

call was a message to monsters that humans could not understand. Having received

his information, the lamia and several other Xenos howled back at him and immediately

raced out of the room.

"The armed monsters have…!"

"One minute I think they're fighting among themselves, and the next they're taking off.

What exactly is going on, meow?! I don't understand one bit, meow!"

Chigusa and Chloe watched in shock as the eccentric monsters hunted down the last

few voltemerias before suddenly rushing out of the room.

"Mr. Lido has—?!"

"He said that Mr. Bell and an elven adventurer were taken to a lower level by another

monster!"

Lett, still wearing his adventurer disguise, had remained behind with Fia. He relayed

what they had just learned.

"It seems that an apostle of our mother, the Dungeon… a huge monster chased after

Bell and the elf!"

"…! And what floor are they on?!"

"We don't know! But if the god Ouranos's guess is right… they could be in the deep

levels."

Lett's words left Lilly speechless. Her mind went completely blank at the prospect of

this worst-of-all-possible news.

"And Lido had a message for you… 'If you want to come, then come. We will take you

there.'"

"!!"

Lido's call to action startled Lilly. She perfectly understood what he was trying to say.

"Ms. Ahnya!"

"Meow, meow, meow? The white-haired one's supporter is calling…?" The catgirl

raised her voice as she turned toward Lilly without moving. The prum ran up to her.

"What level are you, Ms. Ahnya?"

"What kind of question is that, meow? More importantly, where is Lyu—?"

"Oh for goodness' sake! Just answer my question!!"

"Meow? Level Four! Chloe, Runoa, and I are all the same level as Lyu, meow!"

Frightened by Lilly's bloodshot eyes and indignant expression, Ahnya answered

reflexively. Lilly's heart pounded at her answer.

"—Then we can clear the Water Capital!"

The very next instant, Lilly shouted a command to the party.

"It is highly likely that Mr. Bell and Ms. Lyu were carried through a wormwell hole to a

lower level! We'll all head to the safety point and regroup! From there we will go to

rescue Mr. Bell and Ms. Lyu!"

"What…?!"

Bors and the others stared at Lilly in a daze as she shot out her orders.

"No arguments!!"

The little commander proclaimed her decision like a tyrant.

The mysterious waitresses from The Benevolent Mistress are actually Level Four

fighters! And Tsubaki, the captain of Hephaistos Familia, is Level Five! If we work

together with them and the Xenos, we can make our way through the twenty-eighth floor

and beyond…!

Lilly noted the fighting ability of Ahnya and her companions on her mental battle map,

calculating whether the strategy she envisioned was feasible.

She had guessed the intention behind Lido's message correctly.

The Xenos planned to rescue Bell together with Lilly's party. Most likely they would

maintain a certain distance from the adventurers as they searched for Bell and Lyu,

relaying messages back and forth via bestial howls that Lett could interpret for them.

This is what Lido meant by saying the Xenos would take them there.

Starting with Lido and Gros, who both had Level 5 potential, the Xenos had high

fighting ability. Including Tsubaki's party meant they had more than enough strength

for the battles that lay ahead. Plenty to break through the lower levels. All Lilly and

the other Level 1 and 2 adventurers had to do was provide support.

It was clear that an unexpected opportunity—a kind of opening—had materialized.

But could they properly execute the strategy needed to take advantage of it?

We might.

No. We're absolutely going to make it work!

They would take up the challenge to defeat the Dungeon and find the boy and the elf.

Nearby, Daphne and Cassandra were debating their next move.

"You mean we're looking for the wormwell's hole? But we have no proof Rabbit Foot

was even taken down there, let alone any assurance they're alive…" Daphne argued.

"L-let's go with them, Daphne!! Let's save Bell and Lyu!"

"Oh geez! Fine, I'll come along! It's not exactly a question of logic now that we've come

this far, anyway."

Daphne tried to voice her doubts about Lilly's plans, but when Cassandra eagerly

leaned forward to convince her friend, Daphne gave in and responded in a detached

manner.

Meanwhile, Bors was looking for a way out. As usual, he was putting his own safety

first.

"I'm not obligated to go along to the end…!"

"What are you talking about? A Level Three fighter like you is valuable to us. We're

going to squeeze every drop of strength out of you until you're bone dry!"

"You've gotta be kidding me!"

Aisha laughed shamelessly, having effectively denied him any chance to escape. At the

same time, Tsubaki's party was renewing its commitment to saving Lyu.

"I don't really get it… but if Lyu's down below, then I'm going, meow!" Ahnya said.

"In the Dungeon, the lower you go the worse it gets, right? Whew, I'm already exhausted."

"It's a losing proposition if we're not getting compensated for this quest, meow… And

we're not even adventurers."

"Ha-ha-ha! We're all in the same boat now!"

Tsubaki's laugh swept away Runoa's and Chloe's lingering pessimism.

Chigusa and Ouka, on the other hand, were still thinking about the scene they had

witnessed on Daedalus Street, when a certain vouivre had rescued the children.

"…I feel like those armed monsters… were intentionally helping us…"

"…And those guys hiding behind robes who seemed to be adventurers… Smith, you

better explain all this later!"

"Not sure I can explain it very well!"

Brushing aside their questions, Welf threw his two companions an annoyingly calm

smile.

That same vouivre was still standing beside Haruhime.

"Let's go, Haruhime! Let's save Bell!"

"Yes, Lady Wiene!"

The dragon girl reached out her hand, and Haruhime squeezed it firmly.

As Lilly looked around at the determination and high morale apparent in the faces of

her companions, her little chest grew warm with emotion.

We can do it…! With this party, we can make it to the deep levels!!

There was just one problem left.

"From here on out it's a battle against time. We've got to find Mr. Bell while he's still

okay!"

"…!"

"Progress in the lower levels is slow. It'll take us at least a day or two to reach the deep

levels…!"

Lilly responded to Lett's muttered concern by clearing her throat. Without proper

equipment, they would only be able to function in the lower levels for a limited

amount of time. They didn't have a second to spare. They had to advance at top speed

if they were going to rescue Bell and Lyu. She momentarily pushed away the anxiety,

uncertainty, and fear she felt swirling around her and issued an order.

"We're off!"

The adventurers began to run.

They left the room and flew into the main route leading to the next floor.

The Dungeon could not stop them now.

The war cries of the Xenos thundered ahead of them, as if they were welcoming this

advancing front of courage.