CHAPTER 237(Final Descent)

Please read the author's notes.

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CHAPTER START---

With the sun at their backs, The Trifecta saunter up to the dungeon entrance, ignoring the large crowds of adventurers descending into hell on this fine morning.

"So, full speed ahead?" Welf asks, leaving Mosoka on his back and simply drawing Ikari.

Yang thinks about it for a moment, a soft smile forming on his lips, "nah, let's just take a victory lap, one last time..."

Arriving at the large hole in the floor they see the spiraling pathway wrapping around the entrance, descending a hundred feet along a few loops before reaching the first floor. Crowds of people shuffling along trying to get by, the standard procedure here.

With barely any effort Yang jumps off the edge, quickly followed by Welf and Thalie.

Falling for a hundred feet they catch the eyes of anyone who didn't already notice them. Thalie's golden spear makes them stand out that much more.

CRACK!

The stone cracks beneath her feet while Welf and Yang soften their landings with flames.

They both give her a bored look, as if to ask 'seriously?', but she only shrugs and continues walking. Enjoying the healthy distance everyone is giving their team now.

The comfort people always had around them always bothered her, when everyone thought Yang was the only powerful member his casual manner destroyed what people would expect of such a warrior, at least in her opinion...and Freya's.

But now everyone knew to be mindful around them, and Thalie relished in the feeling of people trying to make themselves smaller in their presence.

Eyes all around were sparkling with envy and adoration. From younger adventurers beginning their adventurers and seeing their idols walking by.

To older adventurers that had given up on reaching high levels, only focusing on Mosoka and Ikari, knowing those weapons were exceptionally powerful. And not to mention the large golden spear, Hokori, in Thalie's hand.

Each weapon a fortune that they could only dream of amassing within their lifetime.

For a few of the younger members, however, something finally stood out to them, just how strange The Trifecta was acting when compared to the usual experienced adventurers.

Walking into the dungeon, casually chatting away.

Welf leading at the front, clearly not taking anything seriously and trying to describe details of his work that his teammates simply couldn't comprehend.

One step behind him to his right was Yang, hands in his pockets with his coat draped over his shoulders. Playing with a small bubble of water, making it orbit him while forming a myriad of different shapes and animals, as if in his own little world.

And beside him, to Welf's left, Thalie. The woman was two inches taller than Yang and five taller than Welf, standing at 6ft2 inches. This caused everyone to immediately focus on her, black metal jaw and golden spear certainly helping.

But it was unsettling how she seemed to be so animatedly speaking to Welf about his designs, especially compared to the side of her they saw during the War Game.

And they saw all of this while preparing to fight for their lives on the first ten floors. A reminder of exactly how far away they still had to go. So far that the only thing they understood about the journey, was that they couldn't comprehend how far or difficult it would be.

'One day, that'll be me...' dozens of witnesses thought, hopeful adventurers who wanted to reach the top of the world.

The entire journey to the 18th-floor safe zone was exactly like this. The trio had some casual conversations but Yang never stopped playing with his magic, and Thalie felt annoyed by the few adventures who thought they were being sneaky and following them, hoping to see some action against monsters.

But she did as Yang said and just let them be, and much to their disappointment there were no monsters.

Not a single monster on their trip through seventeen floors of the dungeon.

"I never thought the dungeon could be this boring," Thalie says.

"Sometimes it's nice to enjoy the quiet," Yang scrunched his face as a scent hit his nose. "I smell smoke, and ash..."

"Yeah me too," Welf says.

"I can sense scared people ahead," Thalie says, earning curious looks from both men. "What?"

Yang turns back to the path and continues walking, "Primal Awareness is a weird skill," he mutters.

"Says the man who sets himself on fire to heal," she fires back.

Yang is about to respond but the words die in his throat, "fair enough," he sighs in defeat.

As they arrive in the Goliath's boss's room the scent of smoke assaults them much stronger than before.

Welf draws Mosoka and holds it ahead of him, still leading them forward. "Weird, feels like the safe zone is on fire..." he mutters.

Yang and Thalie share a confused look as they all walk a bit faster.

Entering the 18th floor the scent of ash and smoke is overwhelming. With a wave of his hand Yang creates a bubble of air around them to help filter everything out.

The safe zone, a lush green forest over half the size of Orario was entirely on fire. Raging orange flames tore swaths through the landscape. In the midst of the chaos they could see adventurers trying to protect the dungeon town, Rivera. Carrying buckets of water or using whatever skills and magic they had, protecting their town atop the plateau from the heat and fire.

Just above the deafening crackling of flames Yang speaks to Welf, "can you deal with the fire?"

Welf shrugs and points Mosoka toward the crystal ceiling. The sword glows a dim red for a moment before all the flames in the forest match the blood-red colour of Welf's flames.

"That's new," Thalie mutters.

FWOOM!

The flames rage and crackle, soaring high above the trees as they're torn away from the forest and into the air, completely separating them from the land below.

Like a thousand raging rivers the flames bend and twist through the air and snake their way directly into Mosoka.

Welf shuts his eyes and grips the hilt with both hands, focusing on his new skill. And after the longest twenty seconds of many adventurers' lives, all the flames were stored within his weapon, safely dispelled.

"Wow," Yang says, not bothering to hide his surprise, eyes wide at what he just saw. "So um, what the hell was that?"

"Ignis," Welf says as they begin walking through the forest. "Lets me control and absorb flames that I can overpower, basically removes the threat of anyone weaker than me ever using fire in my general vicinity," he shrugs.

"So it works on other people's magic too?" Thalie asks.

"Yup, that's the fun part," Welf chuckles. "Assuming I can overpower their magic, so basically anyone other than him," he gestures over his shoulder to Yang.

"Well everything has exceptions," Yang chuckles.

As they walk through the heart of what used to be the forest, ash and dust now surrounding them in the newly made clearing, Thalie notices something that she's sure isn't normal.

"There's a massive group up ahead, not sure who," she says.

"How big?" Yang asks.

"Atleast a hundred people, probably more, not far away, all agitated."

"Loki familia?" Welf asks.

"They were still in Orario when we left, so was most of Ganesha familia," Thalie says. "Hopefully we can get by without them noticing."

Sadly the first thing they saw when entering the Great Tree Labyrinth, was a small militia of adventurers. Clearly cobbled together from different familias, looking as if they just fought a war.

At a glance they could see dozens of adventurers off to the side being treated for injuries, many of which were unconscious.

Upon sighting The Trifecta the standing adventurers breathe a sigh of relief, spears and sword relaxing as they finally saw an end to this struggle.

Seeing the adventurers blocking their path Yang releases a quiet annoyed sigh and rolls his eyes before approaching.

Waving to the woman at the front, she was a head shorter than him but wearing full plate, carrying a battleaxe. All blue and silver equipment.

"Hey," he casually greets the woman, still stunned by the sudden appearance of his team she awkwardly returns his wave, not sure how to interpret the casual manner of this interaction. "What happened? Some big monster spawned?"

Thalie shakes her head at the entire scene, once again Yang speaks to everyone as if they were equals in any way.

"Um..." it takes a moment for the woman to realize what's going on. She immediately straightens up and places her weapon on her back, all the adventures around her follow her lead. "No sir, all the monsters from the upper floors came rushing down, we had to hold this line to protect the other wounded groups on this floor," she says firmly.

"Hmm," Yang nods a few times. "That explains a lot, ok, you can go up now, the monsters are gone and the safe zone isn't on fire anymore," he gives her a gentle pat on the shoulder while walking past her, leaving her frozen in place.

Everyone just watches in silence as they walk deeper into the dungeon, and finally when they're out of sight the woman's shoulders slump forward and she breathes easily.

"That was intense..." she mutters, voice cracking and shaky, cold sweat forming on her forehead.

"You ok?" One of her allies asks.

"Yeah just, give me a minute and I'll be alright," she reassures him, trying to catch her breath. "That could have gone really bad," she says, a strong inclination of fear in her words. "If I'd insulted them somehow," she dears not think about it.

Her friend gives her a gentle pat on the back, "you did good and we all survived, the monsters and those monsters, let's get back to the surface."

She nods, "yeah, let's get out of here before they come back..."

It took all her willpower not to panic when she saw them walking toward her, all her worst fears were suddenly becoming reality when Yang approached her directly. And when he spoke, it felt like she'd been thrown on the edge of a blade and asked to walk across it, one misstep, one small error, and it was over.

At one point she would have been fearless in the face of most people, as a level-4 with her allies surrounding her, all matching her level, there wasn't much to be afraid of. But this was one of those few encounters that most adventurers pray they'd never be a part of.

Entering the next floor Yang and his friends didn't pay any mind to the interaction. To Yang it was just a casual conversation in the dungeon. To Welf it was just another adventurer who respected their status.

But Thalie could feel the fear radiating off the entire group, it was intoxicating, especially as she could feel all those shaky eyes tracking her every more, knowing that all they could think about was the War Game. That all they were praying for was her leaving without pouncing on them, it was always a fun experience being around people like that, at least for her.

"So... the monster ran away from us, right?" Yang asks.

"Definitely," Welf says. "Hell Hounds must have left floor 15 and burned floor 18 to the ground, those adventures probably had to hold the line because these few floors are all wood and greenery, they wouldn't survive a fire in here."

"Mhm," Thalie nods along. "With Welf joining me at level-7 we can't be as casual anymore, we need to focus on making our presence smaller to avoid trouble like this in the future, at least when all in a group."

Yang gives her a completely confused look, "make my presence smaller? What the hell does that even mean?"

"Ugh, you're worse than Mikoto," she groans.

"Actually," Welf shyly rubs the back of his head. "I'm not really good at that stuff either, but the Invisibility Badges do that for us, we can just use them," he suggests.

Thalie rolls her eyes," fine, put them on."

Yang withdraws the three badges from his inventory, equipping one each they all completely disappear, and all around the floor they were currently on the monsters immediately calm down.

Going back to their usual lives instead of trying to run as far away as possible.

"Honestly hiding your presence is one of the most basic things," Thalie grumbles, glaring at the transparent form of her allies. Appearing transparent is a byproduct of people using badges and looking at each other.

Yang rolls his eyes, "well when you two get back to the surface you can beat that lesson into Welf, I've never been one for subtlety."

"We know," Welf says. "Luckily all the big monsters haven't respawned yet, aside from Balor but he isn't in our way, should be a quick trip from here."

"Mhm," Yang nods. Eyes focused on the path ahead, trying his best to clear everything else from his mind, 'time for Alatreon' he thinks to himself, each step marching him closer to home...

END CHAPTER---