Chapter 13 part 2

P/N let me know if there's any mistakes and I will try to fix them

Clinging by those terrible claws to the towering Ring Wall.

Waiting for its sole target to come walking beneath it.

Waiting for its prey—that is, Bell and Lyu—to pass through the

Fourth Wall and enter the Beast Zone.

The grotesque form pulled its claws from the wall and silently

descended.

Giving the adventurers little time to track its movements, it kicked

off the ground.

As the claws of destruction closed in, Bell grabbed Lyu's hand and

leaped with all his might.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

!"

An explosion.

As if it had been struck by a meteor, the ground where Lyu and Bell

had stood an instant before shattered. Bedrock fractured, stone

shards hailed down, and a brutal dust cloud swirled. They tumbled

awkwardly over the ground. When he finally stopped rolling, Bell

snapped his head up, dumbfounded.

"ooo…!"

The purplish-blue shell glowed faintly.

There was that distinctive form, reminiscent of a dinosaur fossil in

armor. The monster of calamity had wandered in search of the prey

that got away and eventually settled in here to lay in wait for it.

"The Jugger…naut…!"

Looking once again at that unforgettable nightmare, Bell uttered its

name for the first time. As if responding to his call, the monster

turned its left side, which was shrouded in darkness, toward Bell and

pulled its glittering purplish-black claws from the ground. Its presence was all the more overwhelming since it was injured; there

could be no greater symbol of death for Lyu and Bell.

"Aaa…!"

The trauma dwelling within Lyu rose again at the breathtaking sight.

As she struggled fiercely against the terror, Bell grimaced.

Of all the times…!

Surging emotions roiled his chest as his left arm recalled the hell it

had been through. His flesh throbbing with hot pain beneath the

scarf wrapped around it, Bell drew the Hestia Knife.

He neither gave in to absurd anger nor moaned uselessly, but instead

prepared to fight back so he could live.

The Juggernaut narrowed its eyes at this prey that still had not lost

the will to fight, its piercing eyes glowing in the dark. The claws on its

feet screeching across the floor of the maze, it slowly rotated its

body so it was facing Bell.

"Wha—?"

Bell could not believe his eyes.

"It has its right arm?"

The right half of its body was turned toward Bell.

Through the veil of dusky darkness, the silhouette of its right arm

was clearly visible.

What was going on? During their deadly fight on the twenty-seventh

floor, Bell had risked his life to take that arm. He had used Argo

Vesta, his lethal skill, to erase the arm along with its claws of

destruction—or so he thought.

But now that he looked closely, he saw that the Juggernaut's tail was

back to its original length as well, despite having been severed during

the fight.

Had it self-regenerated? Did it have the same ability as the Black

Goliath?

As Bell was lost in confusion over the regeneration of the arm he had

stolen at such great cost, he heard a noise.

"…?"

Something was writhing in the darkness.

It was coming from where the monster's right arm was, from the

shoulder down.

Perhaps the Juggernaut was making the unpleasant creaking sound

intentionally. It reminded Bell of insects devouring one another

inside a jar. That, or two gears that didn't quite fit being forced to

turn with a chunk of meat stuck between them.

A subconscious alarm bell began to ring in Bell's mind.

Finally, the monster called calamity took a thundering step forward.

Beneath the phosphorescence, it shook off the darkness.

"

"

—

Time stopped for Bell.

Lyu, too, froze.

The now-exposed right arm—was made of countless masks of

bone.

"…Skull sheep…?"

From the monster's shoulders all down the side of its body, sheep

skulls were packed close together. The sheep of death that Bell had fought so many times on this floor had become part of the

Juggernaut's body.

"No way. It…"

Lyu's lips quivered as she shuddered uncontrollably. Bell spoke the

abominable words that she could not.

"…Ate those monsters…?"

That was the answer.

It was different from an enhanced species.

It had not eaten only magic stones.

It had eaten those monsters alive from top to bottom.

And by eating them, it had absorbed their bodies.

It shouldn't have been possible. It was incomprehensible.

But there was no other way to explain the monster before them.

It was an Irregular like none before it.

It was an unknown being unforeseen by even the Dungeon herself.

Adventurers, monsters, maze.

When she spoke, Lyu expressed the horror that possessed all that

existed in that place.

"It's impossible…it can't be…!"

The Juggernaut simply raised its grotesque arm as if to show it off.

The right arm made of white bone contrasted eerily with the

purplish-blue armor covering the rest of the monster's body.

Innumerable sheep ribs, femurs, and twisting horns fit together like a

puzzle into a warped curve. Pink scraps of muscle showed through

here and there.

Most likely, the large sinews, still glossy with blood, came from

barbarians.

The humanlike skeletons mixed in among the assortment of bony

parts were without question spartois.

The sizable scales covering the long, curving tail belonged to

lizardmen.

The chunks of stone reinforcing the severely cracked magic-reflecting

shell came from obsidian soldiers.

Skull sheep were not the only monsters the Juggernaut had

incorporated. Lacking a magic stone of its own, it had taken in every

type of monster inhabiting the deep levels and made their bodies its

own.

The hideous form had grown even larger than before.

Every monster Bell had fought on this floor had become a single

being that now loomed in front of him.

A chimera.

Bell couldn't help thinking of that monster that appeared only in

made-up stories—that fairy-tale monster that contained the bodies

of a hundred beasts, that powerful goblin he had believed was only a

product of inventive imaginations.

But now that nightmare had taken on the form of the Juggernaut and

appeared before him.

"Haaa…!"

The Juggernaut breathed out a gust of white mist that could have

been mistaken for steam, as if the monster could not contain the

billowing volume of heat produced within its trunk.

With a hiss, some of the bones making up the right arm melted out.

Bell's and Lyu's faces twitched as skull-sheep heads coated in sticky

liquid rolled toward them.

It was like a human body rejecting a transplant.

The monsters were resisting their unnatural fusion.

To Bell, the sound of the various parts rubbing against one another

with terrible creaks and groans sounded like screaming—like living

monsters sobbing in pain.

The Juggernaut, too, was likely suffering from this armor of

persistence. By devouring its fellow monsters and using their bodies

in place of its own, it had gained a new weapon.

The sole purpose of that weapon was to kill the white prey—that is,

Bell.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

The Juggernaut signaled the start of the battle, shattering Bell and

Lyu's moment of shuddering horror. Bending its left reverse joint, it

leaped abruptly toward Bell.

"Whoa!"

As the Juggernaut sped through the air like a bullet, Bell shielded Lyu

behind his back and repelled the claws of destruction in the nick of

time. He'd used the Goliath Scarf. Sparks flew and pain shot through

his brain, but at this point he couldn't complain.

His enemy's mobility had declined. He was quite sure of it.

Aside from crushing the reverse joint in its knee, Argo Vesta had

severely damaged its entire lower body, reducing its jump speed to

the point that even in his depleted state Bell could follow the

monster with his eyes and parry its attacks.

But…

"HAA!"

The Juggernaut landed on the passage wall and stuck out its

composite right arm. As if imitating Bell's Firebolt, it fired off several

pointy white bones.

"

"

—

A total of four white javelins flew from various sections of its right

arm. Bell gaped as the sharp projectiles soared in an arc toward him.

"Pila—?!"

He and Lyu narrowly managed to evade the deadly weapons.

Bam-bam-bam-bam!! The four javelins pounded noisily into the

ground.

Bell, whose right shoulder had been grazed, could not hide his

agitation.

"Were those skull-sheep pila…?!"

Bell was flabbergasted. It seemed his enemy had acquired the attack

methods of the monsters it absorbed, including the pila the skull

sheep had tormented him with.

Bel returned the monster's glare with his own shuddering gaze.

" !!"

The Juggernaut's fierce offense had begun.

With a rolling thunder, it shot off pila from its spot on the passage

wall. Sixteen of them. Each was a different size and drew its own arc

through the air as it raced toward the Juggernaut's prey. As Bell and

Lyu contorted their bodies to escape harm, the rapid-fire barrage of

sharp projectiles crashed into the floor, sending up a rain of stone.

The crimson eyes tracked the two adventurers on the other side of

the dust cloud as they dashed frantically back and forth. Suddenly,

the Juggernaut bent its knee and flew forward.

"?!"

Shifting from shooting to direct attack, the monster turned itself into

a shell hurtling forward.

Bell moved to defend himself from the huge, rapidly approaching

form. Although he managed to narrowly evade the surprise attack

with skill and tactics, the monster began shooting pila again the

instant it landed.

Bell didn't have time to catch his breath, let alone feel shock.

The elongating pila were coming both from the ground and the air

following jumps. They flew toward Bell at like a phalanx rushing

forward with the force of an angry wave. Bell was forced onto the

defensive by the constant threat of a deadly blow from the terrible

claws combined with the Juggernaut's insistence on piercing him like

a piece of grilled chicken.

He couldn't use a Firebolt because he feared the monster's magic

reflection.

"It's using projectiles…!"

Lyu narrowed her eyes at the spectacle before her.

Under normal circumstances, the pila would be worse than useless

for the Juggernaut. Missiles that moved more slowly than its legs

would be nothing but baggage. But since Bell had crushed its reverse

joint, they were the ideal weapon for making up the deficiency.

Hard as it was to believe, the monster was carrying out a hit-and-run

made up of repeated missile attacks followed by lunges at Bell. It had

come up with a strategy to beat the adventurers at their own game.

The massive body of the Juggernaut zigzagged across their field of

vision along with countless flying pila.

They're too fast!

I can't track them—!!

As the glowing red eyes streaked through the darkness trailing a tail

of light, Bell and Lyu screamed out silently. The pila were coming

from every direction, including above their heads, in a ferocious

three-dimensional attack. Forced to intercept them, Bell was tossed

from left to right, up and down.

The terrain was unfavorable for them as well.

The passage was wide, with no obstacles. The Juggernaut was able to

leap freely in all directions around the space as wide as a room,

breeding chaos. Even if its astounding jump speed was somewhat

reduced, a closed-in space would have allowed Bell to track it more

easily.

The wavelike attacks lapped closer to the adventurers with each

passing second. Although it scattered shards of its shell with every

leap and shed melted-off monster parts, the Juggernaut did not ease

up. With its hideous roars and flashing claws, its unbendable

determination to kill was clear.

Even without its incredible mobility, the Juggernaut was a

slaughterer. Clad in an "armor of persistence" made from countless

other monsters, it was carrying out a new, unprecedented campaign

of destruction.

Faced with this deadly calamity, the adventurers recalled their

despair. The apostle of murder had blotted out the light of hope.

My hands are shaking. This calamity is terrifying…!

Lyu's spirit was the first to be worn down. Although the situation

now was different, the Juggernaut's insane behavior, so unlike that of any ordinary monster, summoned a gray scene to her mind—

Astrea Familia, trampled, stripped from her, lost. That same trauma

still tortured her.

The past hounded her. The nightmare was trying to rise from the

ashes.

She could not stand it. She could lose anything but Bell. Determined

to ward off the return of tragedy, she tried desperately to infuse her

terrified limbs with the will to fight.

"HAAA!!"

But the Juggernaut did not wait for her limbs to respond. It pushed

its cruelty to the limit in a drive to slaughter the enemy that had

escaped its grasp before.

"Ah!!"

As it dropped to the ground, it swung down its scale-covered tail,

throwing both Lyu and Bell backward. As the white rabbit's stance

crumbled, the monster roared triumphantly.

Its bony right arm crashed to the ground.

Its palm smacked down.

The ground shook.

Deep fissures raced across the stone at lightning speed.

The instant the cracks reached Bell and Lyu's feet, they exploded.

"

"

—

A great thicket of bone stakes rose from the ground directly beneath

them.

Two rubellite eyes and two sky-blue eyes were glued to the

mountain of enormous needles that burst through the ground.

The Juggernaut had fired its bony javelins through the ground. There

were so many of these pila—or rather reverse pila—that they could

not count them.

Bell's and Lyu's gazes had been focused upward because of the rain

of pila launched a minute earlier. Now they were coming from

below. It was a surprise attack intended to catch them off guard.

They had become accustomed to looking up for incoming attacks

when they lost their footing, and so they were not able to dodge this

one.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaa!"

It was like a super-sized land mine. The tsunami of pila thundered

ominously as it exploded around them.

They shaved away strips of Bell's side armor, arm, and cheeks.

They gouged out pieces of Lyu's mantle, right leg, and ear.

The hideous mountain of swords swallowed up the two adventurers.

Damn—this is the floor boss Udaeus's attack—

Lyu shuddered as time spun out to its limit like a revolving lantern.

A new level of despair descended on her as she wondered if their

enemy was equal to the Monster Rex of the thirty-seventh floor.

Even as she thought this, pila continued to shoot up like grave

markers, gouging her skin as they formed an ever-denser mountain.

" !!"

The Juggernaut thundered its terrible roar, not lightening its attack in

the least. It shot one barrage of pila after the next in a continuous

attack.

Within the hideous armor, "he" uttered a monologue.

—Look.

The prey is struggling uselessly, using what protective gear it has

left, spraying red sweat. It will not succumb willingly to the spikes. It

will fight to the end.

I know, I know. That's what they're like.

They are supreme prey, refusing to die no matter how I crush

them. All the more reason, all the more reason—

The monster of calamity howled and continued to produce its deadly

pila.

On went the thunder of firing so loud it made ears meaningless.

On flew the pila that sent up their rain of blood and flesh.

Finally…

"

—Rgh."

The final "reverse pilum" hit Bell.

Beneath the tattered side armor with its broken clasps, it found his

stomach.

The pointy crimson projectile pierced his flesh.

The artillery fire had been concentrated on him.

The clutch of pila aimed at the white prey that had stolen the

Juggernaut's right arm did not let that prey escape.

Time froze for Lyu, who was also covered in wounds.

As Bell hovered unnaturally in midair and the pilum fell to the

ground, she reached toward him.

But she could not rewind time.

Instead, as if to shatter the frozen flow of minutes, blood began to

seep from the hole in his stomach.

Blood bubbled from his mouth, staining his lips red.

It was a perfectly lethal wound.

An irreversible, decisive blow.

Bell responded correctly to this worst of all possible situations.

Before his guts spilled pitifully from the hole, he acted.

He made the immediate decision to close the wound.

"

—Firebolt!!"

As he pressed his left hand to the opening, a small explosion

erupted.

His stomach was burning.

The pain was hellish, a flash of light running across his field of vision

followed by the sensation of his insides on fire.

His eyes were so bloodshot it was like they had turned into

pomegranates.

Lyu gaped and the monster stiffened.

His stomach smoking, Bell raised his left hand and fired wildly.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

The first and second shots hit the ground.

The third shot on went into the air directly in front of him.

A wave of heat and wind billowed out as the ground exploded.

Abandoning his usual habit of stomping down to withstand the

recoil, he grabbed Lyu's outstretched hand and they both shot

backward.

Pulling the surprised elf along with him, he flew far from the sword-

mountain, as if that had been his plan all along.

"!!"

For a second, the Juggernaut was caught off guard.

Billows of smoke swirled in the air, a curtain concealing the prey.

From beyond this veil, flames streaked wildly toward the monster.

Magic reflection was meaningless if it didn't know where the prey

was. Worse, its attempts to reflect the shots nailed the monster in

place.

The space between the monster and its prey widened.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!"

Bell was shooting off firebolts indiscriminately as he flew through the

air.

The price of searing his stomach was an inability to aim properly.

Sparks filled his field of vision. It was like he was broken, simply

releasing his magic in the blind hope that it would keep his enemy

away, buying time and distance.

After a second or two he and Lyu crashed to the ground and tumbled

over and over.

"Bell?!"

They had been blown to the edge of the large passage. Lyu screamed

as she stood up.

Convulsing from the extreme pain, Bell flickered in and out of

consciousness.

"…Hrk!"

Lyu only paused for an instant.

She saw the smoke swirling behind them and understood their high-

risk escape. Dragging Bell behind her, she dashed toward a side

passage she could see in the distance.

"

—!!"

The instant the electrical fire ended, the Juggernaut roared in fury.

The huge purplish-blue form hurtled toward the adventurers.

Lyu kicked off the ground even harder as the monster broke through

the smoke and raced toward them. Just as the claws reached her

long cape and ripped into it, she dove into the side passage.

It was about two meders wide, enough to fit two adventurers but

not an extra-large-category monster. The three-meder-high

Juggernaut could not squeeze itself into the tunnel. In terms of

width, the parts it had absorbed from other monsters turned out to

be its curse.

"OOOOOOO!"

"…?!"

All the same, it twisted and turned, trying to catch the adventurers.

Its left arm reached forward, yearning to shred Bell and Lyu where

they lay collapsed on the ground. But it could not quite reach. It was

like a rampaging giant attempting to rake a dwarf from the hole into

which it had fled. Lyu felt the purplish-blue claws persistently

scraping the tips of her boots.

Shivering at the tremendous noise of claws attempting to break

through walls and ground, she lashed herself into standing. Now it

was she who supported Bell. Sweating from head to toe and

breathing raggedly, on the verge of stumbling and falling at any

moment, she fled deeper into the tunnel, away from the crimson

eyes tracking their every move.

The path was straight and unbranching. She felt as if the walls on

either side were closing in on her. The ceiling, however, was so high

she could not see it, making the passage feel like an alley at night.

"GAAAAAA!"

"OOU, OOOUN!"

Lizardman elites, loup-garous, and spartois blocked their way

forward.

The monsters might have been cowering as they instinctively hid

from their calamitous kin, but if an adventurer landed at their feet

they would show no mercy. Lyu and Bell could not turn back; the

only road to salvation lay ahead. Lyu brandished her shortsword,

grimacing.

"

—!!"

At that very moment, however, the Juggernaut—whose left arm had

been plumbing the tunnel—stepped back and beat the adjacent wall

with its bony right arm. The passage shuddered as deep fissures

spread through it.

Dozens of pila shot through the wall to the right of Lyu and Bell.

"?!"

"Ahh!"

The hellish javelins targeted adventurers and monsters alike.

The lizardmen, loup-garous, and spartois were all torn to shreds.

Lyu's right leg and hand, which was gripping the shortsword, were

pierced and the nape of her neck was gouged. Red splotches swam

before her eyes as she collapsed to the ground beside the ripped-

open monster corpses.

Fresh blood splattered the walls of the tunnel and pooled like springs

on the ground. Lyu and Bell were both as red as if they'd bathed in

blood. The passage looked like the scene of a brutal murder. The

monster corpses stank terribly. Bell and Lyu were drowning in a

revolting sea of intestines and flesh—as if they themselves were

corpses.

"…!"

Pila were still shooting through the wall to their right and battering

the wall to their left. However, they did not reach Bell and Lyu where

they lay. The angle was off.

Eventually, the Juggernaut stopped its barrage, as if it had realized

the projectiles were not reaching their target.

The crimson eyes stared down the tunnel.

After observing the perfectly still lake of blood for several moments,

the monster vanished silently into the darkness.

"...Ugh, ahh."

Lyu, who had not moved at all, exhaled with a soft moan.

She was still alive.

Ironically, the pack of monsters that had intended to kill them had

become a wall that protected them from lethal wounds.

Lyu stopped playing dead and opened her eyes. All she saw was red.

Tepid, nauseating bodily fluids and soft lumps violated her senses.

The powerful stench made her want to vomit even though her

stomach was empty.

Her wounds were open again. Signals were flashing from her whole

body, telling her if she didn't do something she would die.

She had to use her recovery magic—no, it was no use.

She'd lost too much blood. Her magic could not bring that back. Even

if they survived this particular moment, they were—

"…Bell…"

Steeling herself against the picture of hell surrounding her, Lyu

turned her head. Her eyes fell on Bell, who lay faceup beside her. He

must have heard her, because his finger twitched slightly.

"Cough, cough…! …Ms. Lyu?"

He began to convulse again, as if he had forgotten for a moment and

then remembered again, and coughed violently several times. He

flopped his head to the side and looked at Lyu, who was lying on her

stomach.

"…Did the Juggernaut…?"

"It's gone…it's not in here…"

Their voices in this red world were so faint they nearly vanished.

His gaze still locked with Lyu's, Bell turned the corners of his mouth

up ever so slightly. His smile didn't even look like a smile.

"So it's given up on us…"

"…Yes."

No.

In all likelihood it had not given up but rather was looking for its next

opportunity. The Juggernaut would not stop pursuing them until it

had killed them with its own hands. Lyu sensed its persistence and

understood that terrible truth.

"So…we can go home now, right…?"

Bell probably understood as well. But he was pretending he did not

so that he could lie to Lyu.

He was pretending they could return to the surface—that they could

overcome the darkness of the maze and bask in the warm sunlight.

"You can go back…to Syr and your other friends…"

Their odds of returning home were worse than terrible.

As long as the Juggernaut remained, Lyu and Bell would never be

able to leave the thirty-seventh floor.

Bell understood, but he told Lyu a kindhearted lie.

He promised her a future in which they walked together through the

door of The Benevolent Mistress, were greeted by an angry Syr,

punished mildly, and then spent the evening laughing and talking

together.

He promised her so she would not be afraid even though she had

lost Astrea Familia.

What a kind lie it was.

What a happy dream.

Lyu smiled.

A light sheen of tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as she

smiled peacefully.

"Yes…we can go home now…"

The lie tricked her.

As she lay on the boundary of life and death, sinking in a pool of

blood beneath the gaze of the darkness, she drowned in a happy

dream.

The boy and the elf smiled at each other.

"Bell…"

"Yes…"

"…Will you hold me?"

At the very, very, end, she had finally grown honest. She was finally

able to lay bare her feelings for her friend, and her elf's pride, and

the heart that she had kept concealed for so long.

Bell looked surprised at first, but then he reached a shaking hand

toward her. Lyu reached her own hand toward him and he drew her

into his arms.

He's so warm…

She smiled as they prayed and held on to each other.

She basked in his warmth and let the tears spill from her eyes.

The world truly was cruel.

Of all the people in the world, Bell was the one she hoped would live

on, and yet the Dungeon had made him her companion on this

journey. Her heart had been broken, her hopes eaten away by that

monster. She could struggle no more.

She could not let go of this warmth.

She pressed her cheek to his bloody chest. He smelled of iron. She

saw a vision of pure white snow. She saw the two of them embracing

as the snow buried them.

When she pulled her face away, the beautiful snowy field

disappeared and all that remained were the two of them wet with

each other's blood.

I wasn't able to do anything, and yet these last moments…are so

tender.

Lyu could not help feeling that way.

At this moment, she was closer to him than anyone else.

No matter what anyone said, she could tell them this with

confidence.

Right now, for this one brief moment, Bell and Lyu were tied more

closely together than anyone in the world.

She was so glad of it, and so sad.

So happy, and so lonely.

"Bell…I'm going to sleep, just a little…"

Slowly, she closed her heavy eyelids.

Was she bidding life farewell?

Or when she opened her eyes, would she still be here in this cold,

dark reality, the warmth vanished from beside her?

Or would she meet Bell once again, on the far shore of the light,

beside Alize and the others?

"Okay…I'll wake you up soon."

Bell's voice caressed her gouged ear gently.

She pulled his hands to her chest so that she would not forget the

warmth, and drifted off to sleep like a baby.

…

Lyu slept.

Bell smiled faintly as he watched her drift off.

She had let him fool her.

This way, he was sure she wouldn't have any nightmares.

That was all he wished for.

He wanted her to dream sweet dreams until everything was over.

She has suffered so much already…

As she had suspected, he had lied to her.

But it was not a kindly lie. To the contrary, it was a terrible betrayal

prompted by self-righteous egotism.

Bell had not given up on returning alive.

I remember the look on her face when she told me everything…

He had not forgotten the expression of long-suffering pain on the

face of this elf who had lost her companions.

That was why he did it.

"…!"

The wretched spasms were already subsiding. In their place came

unbelievable pain.

He touched the stomach wound that he had seared shut.

Sparks danced before his eyes.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

He wanted to scream and wail and break into a hundred pieces.

He wanted to howl until all his energy was gone.

But if he could feel pain, then he could move.

If his body was screaming that it would die, then he had the energy

he needed to cling to life.

If his heart was insisting with its rapid beat that he run from death,

then he had the strength left to escape.

He would not use that strength to escape death—he would use it to

defeat death.

"!!"

He heard his instincts screaming. He ignored them.

He heard his body shouting a warning. He ignored it.

He heard his heart sniffling that it was impossible. He ignored it.

His whole self, every element that made up that human called Bell

Cranell, was fighting against his decision. He ignored it.

He heard his soul crying for him to stand up. He affirmed it.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa…!!"

He gave the cry of an animal.

The adventurer became a beast and chewed up the shards of life so

it could stand.

As light flashed before his eyes, what remained of his human

rationality recalled a story.

It was the tale of Belius the Guard.

The elf's guardian was a sorrowful and unyielding knight loved by an

elf of the lake. A martyr to love till the very end, he died in her arms.

Bell begged the elf's hero to give him the strength to protect what

was important to him.

…I have no light to concentrate. Most likely I only have one charge

left. I cannot summon the heroic blow.

But the desire to be a hero is here in my heart.

He stroked Lyu's hair softly, his smile gone.

The lone male stood.

The Juggernaut was moving.

Having given up on penetrating the passage Lyu and Bell were in

from its entrance, it circled around to the exit. The Juggernaut had

exquisitely refined senses. This immune ability was a gift from its

mother, the Dungeon, to enable it to exterminate foreign viruses. It

was able to rapidly track any adventurer on the same floor as it. This

was one reason the "banquet of calamity" had unfolded with such

speed on the twenty-seventh floor.

Here on the thirty-seventh floor, it knew where Bell and Lyu were.

The reason it chose to lay in wait in the Beast Zone was because it

disliked narrower passages and did not want to risk letting its prey

escape.

The Juggernaut—he—also knew that Bell and Lyu were still alive.

He would crush them when they came out the exit thinking he had

disappeared. This was the plan he had concocted with his hunter's

instinct. With a speed out of proportion to his large size, he raced to

a large room adjacent to the main route. There were four doorways

in the room, and he hovered by the one that led to the passage his

prey had fled into.

He still sensed life inside. From his position, he would be able to send

pila through the walls to where they were, which meant he would be

able to smoke them out. He exhaled a hot breath and peered down

the passage with his red eyes.

"

—Firebolt!"

The next instant, a river of flame erupted from the darkness.

"!!"

He jumped backward, his left reverse joint creaking. Electrical flames

erupted from the passage and carved a path of raging fire to the

middle of the room.

Slowly, the boy followed in this path of flame.

Trailing swirls of sparks, his white hair swaying, the adventurer

appeared.

He stopped close enough for the Juggernaut to reach him at a single

leap. Then he let out a war cry and lunged forward.

" "

In the middle of his lunge, he froze.

The prey looked up and smiled.

A dark, fleeting smile.

That body so battered it was hard to find a place without a wound

was displaying a smile that seemed ready to flicker out at any

moment.

The shadow of death was on the boy.

The god of death had drawn near and given the boy his gift.

In other words, the promised end.

Victory or defeat mattered little to the prey before the Juggernaut.

Even if he, the monster, did not deliver the final blow, this human

would—

"

—OOOOOO!!"

But it didn't matter.

Even if the boy were fated to die anyway, he would slaughter him

with the full brunt of his strength.

The Grim Reaper's scythe would not take the prey's life—his own

claws of destruction would.

He would throw all he had against this human.

That was the raison d'être of the Juggernaut now that it was free of

the Dungeon.

"…I will end you."

But neither would the boy embrace a meaningless death with open

arms.

"I will return to the surface…with Ms. Lyu…"

If he did not win—if he did not return to her—she would die.

So he had to win. He could not lose.

He brandished his jet-black knife, his breast full of unspoken feelings.

The monster understood neither his words nor his feelings.

What it understood was his will.

The boy was intent on killing him. He would try to beat him.

He would turn the Juggernaut to white flame and burn him to ash.

The monster's breast quivered.

A monster of calamity who spread massacre mechanistically

wherever he went should not have felt that emotion.

Joy.

The Juggernaut gave thanks for having met this human.

He was moved deeply by the fact that this male was offering himself

up.

"Let's do this."

The monster welcomed the boy's words with a roar of joy that split

the heavens.

When Lyu woke up, she was sitting in the darkness.

It was a familiar darkness.

This was the darkness that had tormented her for the past five years.

This was the boundary between life and death where she had been

stalled.

No one was beside her. That person was gone. She felt that was a

pity.

She did not know why. She could not remember anything. But her

cold hands struck her as sad.

Suddenly, light pierced the darkness.

Beyond the light, she saw her irreplaceable companions.

Astrea Familia.

Alize, Kaguya, Lyra, and all the others were standing with their backs

to her.

No matter how she shouted, they would not turn toward her. Lyu

knew that. The gulf between her in the darkness and them on the far

shore of the light was too wide.

Suddenly, she realized she could walk forward.

She could walk out of the darkness. She could walk to the source of

the light, to the place where the companions she longed for so

deeply were standing.

Joy filled her.

No matter how much she called to them or how bitterly she cried,

they would never turn toward her. But if Lyu walked toward them,

they would welcome her.

At first they would be angry. Kaguya would scold her and Lyra might

crossly pull on her ear. Maryu and the others would probably push

her around. Alize would definitely stick her finger in the air and give

her a half-baked sermon.

And then, she was certain, they would break into smiles.

They would all gather round to welcome her back and praise her for

how she had soldiered through these five years.

They would throw their arms around her shoulders and stroke her

head.

Her wish would finally be granted.

Her sins would finally be atoned for.

She would finally be able to pass away.

Lyu began walking toward the light, searching for salvation.

One step, two steps, three steps.

She passed the boundary of the darkness. Only a little farther now

until she reached the distant shore—

You can't.

At that very moment, one of the forms that had never before turned

toward her finally showed her face.

"

"

—

The red hair swayed and the green eyes pierced Lyu.

She had been seeking the light, but now her feet stopped.

Leon, you can't come here. We won't let you.

The eyebrows rose in flat rejection.

The lips that were always so just denied her.

Alize spoke as if she were trying to make Lyu realize something.

You must not run away.

Alize's gaze skipped past Lyu into the darkness beyond.

The monster's horrible roar pounded against Lyu's back. It was the

same roar of despair that terrified her, robbed her of the mask of

wind, and turned her into a wretched elf.

But within that hair-raising roar was the sound of resistance—a

brave war cry like raging flames.

If you come here, you will regret it!

Alize's powerful voice made Lyu's hands shake.

Finally she was able to go beyond the light where she had so longed

to go, but now she was beginning to question her decision.

Her dried-out heart that yearned for her friends was competing

fiercely with the mad desire to seek out that battle cry of flame.

"I can't do it anymore…"

Lyu's voice was quiet now. To stop the fight in her heart, to give up

on everything, she spoke in the unfeigned voice of her heart.

"I just can't, Alize…I can't fight anymore. I can't resist the past."

The Juggernaut. It was the beginning of everything, the source of all

misfortune. A symbol of the past that tormented Lyu. She knew that

if she returned to the darkness, harsh reality awaited her. It terrified

her. She was crippled by her fear of facing the past.

Lyu gave a miserable bleat and hung her head.

Liar.

But Alize responded with a single word.

"

"

—

Lyu opened her sky-blue eyes and looked up. Her friend's face was

before her, with its firm gaze that saw right through her.

You claim you don't want to lose hold of justice.

Alize did not explain anything. She did not admonish Lyu. She did not

lead her.

She simply presented her with the truth.

Her words shook Lyu to the core, sending out ripples in her heart.

Justice is still alive within you!

What was "justice"? What was "right"?

Lyu had never known. She had never been able to find an answer.

All she knew was that Astrea had told her to forget about justice. She

assumed that she had lost all right to it.

But Bell had told her something different.

He had said she still had justice within her.

Now Alize, too, was confirming Lyu's justice.

The words of the boy and the girl linked up in her mind so that finally

she understood their meaning.

Your justice—your hope has not died yet!

It was true.

The justice Lyu had been seeking since the day her companions died

was hope.

When Syr saved her, she decided to live so she could make sure the

justice of her companions was fulfilled. She wanted to believe that

what Astrea Familia had bequeathed her would connect to hope.

She wanted to believe it would bring order and peace to Orario and

smiles to the faces of its people. Lyu had been pursuing that vision

since the day they died.

It was like Bell had said:

Lyu had brought them help and salvation and hope.

Lyu's actions had led to hope for someone.

That's what Bell had been saying all along.

There was no such thing as universal justice.

But this was Lyu's justice.

A hope that illuminated the future, not the past.

Finally, finally, Lyu realized what the justice that lived within her

meant.

As she did, the other members of Astrea Familia turned toward her,

as if to compound the change in her heart.

Go.

Next to Alize, Kaguya shooed Lyu toward the dark.

Don't run away!

Lyra smiled spitefully, her hands laced behind her head.

Do your best.

Beat 'em!

Each of her familia members had their own words of encouragement

for Lyu.

Unable to bear their words and kind gazes, Lyu frowned and shouted

back at them.

"I…I've wanted to apologize for so long! I wanted to say sorry to you

all!"

At long last she spoke the words weighing on her mind.

This was the true wish she had harbored since the day she lost

everything.

"I stood by and watched while you died, and I didn't do a thing. I

wanted you to judge me! I wanted you to blame me and curse me

and condemn me!"

On the far shore of the light, neither Kaguya nor any of the others

spoke a word.

They simply looked back kindly at her as if to say, But you knew!

Yes, she did know.

She knew they would not have blamed her.

It was only Lyu who could not forgive herself. She could not accept

her past.

By thinking of it as a crime, she was trying to punish herself so she

could stop suffering.

Lyu's fists relaxed and hung limply at her sides.

Leon!

The voice of the girl she loved so dearly rang out high and clear.

What does justice mean to you?

Lyu's throat quivered.

Before she realized it, she was weeping uncontrollably.

Desperately holding back her wails, she answered with her truest

desire.

"I want…to save him…"

Not the gentle light on the far shore, but the depths of darkness

where cruelty awaited her.

Not by the sides of Alize and the others, but by the side of the boy

who was alive now.

"I want to go back to the tavern with him…to where Syr is!"

Not to the past where her familia was, but to the future.

Alize smiled.

Her smile was like the sun telling her she had done well.

Leon, you must not run away! You must not let go!

Lyu smiled.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

There was no sorrow in her sobs, and no darkness.

She turned her back on her companions and walked toward the

darkness.

We will meet another day, Leon.

Their words sent her softly on her way.

She would go, and come back one day.

I loved you, my dear friends.

"

—!!"

Lyu opened her eyes.

The first sensations she felt were a burning pain and a will-crushing

lethargy. Then the loneliness of having been left by herself. The

warmth that had enveloped her was gone.

Bell had vanished. In his place, in the darkness at the end of the

passage, was a fierce song of battle.

Bell had not given up in the least.

He was thinking of Lyu and trying to fulfill her hopes.

He did not want her justice to be lost.

"Bell…!"

Lyu drew together her strength and made a fist.

She knew what she had to do.

The vision was gone. The hallucination had vanished. Alize and the

others were nowhere to be found. Perhaps everything she had seen

on the far shore of the light was no more than a delusion that suited

her own fancy.

Still, they had taught her something.

Justice was alive within her.

She must not throw it aside. She must seek hope.

Lyu planted her shaking hands on the ground and peeled herself off

it.

"Aaaaaa…!!"

In the pool of blood, she gave a newborn cry.

She broke with the self that had huddled in the shadow of her

departed companions, imprisoned by the past, and gave birth to a

new self.

She had to face it.

She had to face that past she had hid from for so long.

She had to fight.

She had to fight the symbol of her past she had feared all these

years.

The Juggernaut, the monster of calamity, was her past personified.

If she wanted a future, she had to overcome that past.

If she was determined not to lose anyone else, and to live out her

justice and hope, then she had no other choice.

"Aaaaaaa!!"

She stood up.

She grabbed a weapon from the pool of blood—the skeletal sword of

a spartoi—and thrust it into the ground.

Pushing the pain away, she took a step forward. That step gave birth

to another, stronger step. She called forth the strength to move

ahead.

Ignoring her screaming body, Lyu walked down the dusky path.

She walked toward the song of battle.

Toward the place where the roars of the monster and the war cries

of a human reverberated.

Beneath the phosphorescence that illuminated the darkness, Lyu

threw herself toward the place where calamity and cruelty waited.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Beyond the passage, a fight to the death was under way.

In the center of the room, the monster and the human were

clashing, intent on killing each other. Bell was crossing swords with

the Juggernaut. Where did that strength come from? It was as if he

was literally pouring the last dregs of his life itself into their fight.

He had pulled the monster into a pure contest of strength.

With the gleaming white knife in his right hand, he was fending off

every pilum the monster shot at him as they ricocheted relentlessly

off the walls, floor, and ceiling.

The enemy's pila were slower than iguaçu. Of course, that meant he

could counter them. He had faced a storm of those murderous

swallows before, and now Hakugen knocked down the barrage of

evil pila without missing a single one.

When the Juggernaut, with its hatefully joyous roars, shifted to close

combat, Bell switched to the Hestia Knife. It was a high-speed

weapon with a double edge. By alternating between the dark purple

blade and the sparkling white one in his right hand, Bell successfully

shut down the monster's hit-and-run strategy. He even found time to

slash its tail and slice off some of the lizardman scales.

There was a regular pattern to his enemy's jumps now that it could

not move with complete freedom. With his adventurer's instincts,

Bell registered the relationship between the angle at which it landed

and the time needed to prepare for its next jump, and by doing so he

managed to withstand the savage attacks.

Determined to use his earlier loss as the basis for victory this time

around, Bell roared and launched a counterattack.

The knife and the claws flashed purplish-blue, drawing countless arcs

through the air. Sparks swirled amidst the deafening clatter. It was a

circle dance of fiercely clashing light.

To Lyu, it looked like one raw life force being hurled against another.

—! Ms. Lyu?!"

Bell had noticed her presence.

At the same time, the Juggernaut twirled around and looked straight

at her.

Her chest shuddered. She could not hide it. Her trauma creaked with

fear.

But now there was something that scared her more than having her

past wounds opened afresh.

That was the prospect of once again losing something irreplaceable.

For a brief second of concentrated time, her heart was calm.

This perfect stillness was followed by a tempestuous gale wind.

This was the wind of her will driving her forward.

"

—!!"

Lyu leaned forward and took off running.

She kicked off the ground, danced through the air, and landed a

terrific blow on the astonished Juggernaut.

She plunged the blade of white bone into the monster's raised right

arm, above its protective armor.

"Bell! I…can't be the elf of the lake."

Knocked aside by her enemy's forearm, she hit the ground rolling

and shouted at the dazed Bell. Since he liked heroic tales, she was

sure he was familiar with the one she'd mentioned. Elves respected

the story greatly. Young elven girls dreamed of living that story. But

Lyu was rejecting it.

Bell stared at her.

"I will not allow those who I care about to protect me while I sit by

and do nothing! I will not let you walk into the jaws of death alone!"

Bell smiled as her strong words reached him. He nodded back to her

with his bloody, scarred head. The hieroglyphs on the Divine Knife

gripped in his hand pulsated with light, as if it was burning with a

renewed passion to fight.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, the human and the elf launched their

counterattack.

"AAAAAA!!"

The Juggernaut was wild with rage.

He was terribly put out to have his fight to the death with Bell

spoiled.

The clock was ticking for this monster who had incorporated so many

of its own kind and now wore its unnatural "armor of persistence."

He had decided to pour every last remaining second of his life into

the battle against this one male. He absolutely must kill the white-

haired boy.

This worthless being was interfering with his reason for existing

despite being nothing but a distraction. At the whim of his anger, the

Juggernaut prepared to squash the offending bug.

"!!"

"!"

But Lyu dodged. And that was not all; she fought back.

Her movements were incomparable to those of a few moments

before. It was hard to believe they came from the same adventurer.

Blood was still flowing from her right arm and right leg, and indeed

from her entire body. She was wounded from head to toe yet still

she had found the courage to face her past, her trauma. Gale Wind

was back to her old outstanding self. More than that, she was set on

overcoming her past limits.

The beauty with which she fought set her apart from the rabble the

Juggernaut had slaughtered so far.

"I will end you!!"

She screamed the same words as the white-haired boy, with the

same look in her eyes and the same will.

The Juggernaut had recognized this before. Like the boy, the elf was

worth hunting. She was worth giving of himself body and soul to

massacre.

Therefore, he would kill both of them together.

The Juggernaut gave a fearsome battle cry and devoted every ounce

of his being to murdering them.

"Ahhh…!"

The accelerated onslaught consisting of a series of jumps and a storm

of pila pushed Bell to the limit.

Five minutes had passed since the battle began. But in their tattered

state, it would not have been surprising for either Bell or Lyu to lose

their equilibrium at any moment. Their bodies were well beyond

their capacity. When their flames of life had flickered out, the

journey would end. Although the Juggernaut was paying for its

transformation into a chimera through the rejection of body parts,

the physical strength of this nonstandard monster exceeded that of

the adventurers. When the waiting game was over, it would destroy

them.

When Bell was fighting alone, he had constantly been on the lookout

for a chance to land his lethal blow. The Juggernaut, however,

seemed aware of this. The evidence lay in the fact that while it still

used its claws, the pila were now its main weapon.

In the current stage of the battle, there was no such thing as a

decisive blow.

"Distant forest sky. Infinite stars inlaid upon the eternal night sky."

Against this backdrop, Lyu began to chant.

"!"

"!"

Both Bell and the Juggernaut had the same reaction to the elf as she

began to sing in the midst of running and brandishing her sword.

Concurrent chanting.

By carrying out attacks, movement, evasion, and chanting at the

same time, the user called forth the necessary moment for a lethal

blow.

"Heed this foolish one's voice, and once more grant the starfire's

divine protection."

It was also a song of regret.

Lyu had sung the same song as she allowed Alize and the others to

protect her without saving them in return. Succumbing to despair

and terror, she had frozen, able to move only her lips.

"Grant the light of compassion to the one who forsook you."

Now she sang that detestable song as she fought.

She was determined not to lose what she cared most about. This

time, she would not only be protected, she would protect in return.

"…!"

Bell sensed the intention behind her actions, as well as their strategic

meaning.

The removal of the Juggernaut's shell.

The shell that still remained on the left side of its body was endowed

not only with magic reflection, but also with the stone body of the

obsidian soldiers it had incorporated. Lyu's Luminous Wind could not deal a lethal blow as long as their enemy wore this stony armor

capable of reducing the strength of magic. And she did not have the

mental strength left for two attacks.

"…!"

The Juggernaut interpreted the cutthroat speed of Lyu's chanting as

a threat. Given the compromised state of its armor, there was a slim

chance the attack could hit home. There was a small possibility this

could open the door to defeat. Thus the Juggernaut was determined

to destroy Lyu first, before her magic swelled to its full strength.

"

—Firebolt!"

Bell fired off a shot—not at the monster, but at his own black knife.

"!"

The electrical fire converged on the blade, followed immediately by

the sound of a chime. He was preparing to activate Argo Vesta. He

was summoning what strength he had left to charge for the last time.

The Juggernaut could not help reacting to this omen signaling the

same attack that had taken his right arm. There was no way he could

ignore the lethal blow that had almost killed him.

This was what Bell had been aiming for.

In front of the monster was a human carrying out a concurrent

charge; behind him was an elf chanting as she ran. The one in front

was clearly a decoy, yet he could not ignore it. His attention split, the

Juggernaut stopped moving for a second.

"Come, wandering wind, fellow traveler."

Behind the monster, Lyu belted out her chant.

In front of it, Bell charged forward with his flaming knife.

Their plan was to strip the Juggernaut of its shell and then blast it

with magic.

The monster of calamity reacted by slamming its right arm against

the ground.

"

—!!"

Pila erupted from below—but not only in one spot. They formed a

circle measuring ten meders in radius around the adventurers.

"Shit!!"

"Ahh!"

By sending the bone javelins underground, the monster had

managed to attack Lyu and Bell at the same time. The sword

mountain rose with the monster at its center, injuring both

adventurers. Lyu's shoulder was torn and Bell's thigh gouged. With

one strike, the Juggernaut had shaved away at both of their lives. It

intended to finish them off by skewering them on another batch of

pila.

"Cross the skies and sprint through the wilderness…"

But Lyu did not stop chanting. With an indomitable spirit, she

maintained control over her magic and seized a chance at victory.

Because she did, Bell did, too.

Even as blood spilled from his mouth, he narrowed his eyes and hit

the ground with his right hand.

"Argo Vesta!!"

He had charged for seven seconds.

The lethal blow was not aimed at the Juggernaut itself, but instead at

the pila boring through the earth.

"?!"

The ground exploded with a thundering roar as the reverberations

shook the world before the Juggernaut's eyes. The underground flare blasted every one of the bone javelins into dust. The supply of pila

had been cut off.

That was not all, however. The power and impact of the sacred fire

was transmitted through the pila to the Juggernaut's right arm. The

limb made of the bodies of countless monsters shattered.

" ?!"

The Juggernaut screamed as its right arm exploded from the inside

out. As Argo Vesta sent cracks racing across the floor and the entire

room shook, the monster stumbled. For a moment, its guard was

down.

Bell did not let the opportunity slip past. He charged.

Without the strength left to keep a solid grip on his weapon, the

Hestia Knife spun into the air. He closed his hand into a fist instead,

intending to dive into the monster's chest.

"Damn—!"

But he was far too late.

Using Argonaut to carry out his last concurrent charge had robbed

him of his remaining mental and physical strength. Even though he

cursed his collapsing knees and braved a close press, the threat was

no match for a monster specialized in agility. In the final moment,

the limits of Bell's physical body betrayed him.

Having bounced back from the damage inflicted on him, the

Juggernaut turned his outraged red eyes on Bell.

He anticipated no trouble in intercepting the ragged rabbit that was

flying toward his chest. He raised his left arm, brandishing his six

purplish-blue claws.

Raised at an angle above its head, the claws of destruction were

without question intended to finish off Bell by skewering him. No

doubt they would color the world red when they pierced his chest and exited his back. Just as Bell imagined they would. Just like the

attack that had stolen Lyu's friends five years earlier.

"

—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

Blocked from regaining her footing by the damage from the pila as

well as the impact of Bell's attack, Lyu howled.

To overcome the tragedy that had been seared into her eyes, she

became the wind and flew through space. She kicked her left foot

against the ground and pierced the air like a flash of light arcing

toward the monster. Approaching from the side, she soared directly

to his upraised left arm.

"?!"

With Futaba already drawn, she used her two shortswords to dissect

the claws of destruction. The blades sliced through his wrist and

finger joints.

Time stopped for the Juggernaut as it realized Lyu had just stolen its

most potent weapon, those claws so sharp they could be mistaken

for fangs.

If I'd only done the same on that other day—

Within the still pool of time, memories of the past rose in Lyu's mind.

Again she saw Alize, her back pierced by those claws that she had

welcomed in order to protect Lyu.

If only Lyu had stood up.

If only she had fought beside them like she was fighting now.

—she would not have been defeated!

Regret and pain seared her body as her heart let out a scream that

ripped through her chest.

She knew she could not bring back the past.

Still, she looked back on that moment when she had been saved and

cried out with a heart full of a hundred different emotions.

All of this while she sailed past the dazed Juggernaut.

"

—OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

O!"

The next instant, Bell hurtled into the Juggernaut.

Lyu's support had allowed him to make the final leap toward the

monster's breast.

The enormous skeleton froze as the space between Bell and him

vanished and the boy's right fist pounded down on his right side.

"FIIIREBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLT!"

The cry came an instant later. Swift-Strike Magic exploded into his

body.

There was just one shot.

But one shot was enough.

The final dregs of Bell's magic raced through the Juggernaut's poorly

defended body, ruthlessly exploding it from the inside.

"?!"

The remaining shell on its left side flew off its body as the electrical

fire detonated. The obsidian soldier's armor, too, shattered to the

ground in a swirl of sparks.

A single weak Firebolt did not have the force to take down the

Juggernaut altogether. Without a magic stone to be shattered, the

unique monster remained standing. However, the massive form was

now completely naked and without armor.

"

—swifter than anything."

The elf's song rang out, a beautiful melody of wind.

From the Juggernaut's perspective, she was on his right side. Having

stolen his claws, she now lay on the ground with both legs pressed

into it.

She thrust her right hand toward the frozen Juggernaut and prepared

to release a torrent of magic.

"Imbue the light of stardust and strike down my enemy!"

This was the final line, the one that announced the spell's

completion.

Bell had been thrown backward by his own attack. Astonishment

filled the monster's red eyes.

Lyu fired.

"Luminous Wind!"

The magic was activated.

Huge orbs of light swathed in green wind materialized.

Forty-seven of them.

The magic attack into which she had poured every drop of her

mental strength had begun.

" !!"

The stream of light-orbs flew toward the monster.

There was no escape from this storm of destruction.

Yet the Juggernaut did escape.

"What?!"

Bell stared in disbelief.

The monster had leaped with such power it seemed his right knee

would shatter as it bent. The orbs of light swallowed up his tail and

blew off his right leg from the shin down, yet still he flew into the air.

Having lost their target, the storm of glowing orbs blasted past Bell

as he screamed in frustration and crashed into the wall of the room.

The monster had evaded Lyu's lethal blow.

Bell grimaced as reverberations shook the air. But not Lyu.

"I know your speed better than anyone else in the world."

She had kept ten of the forty-seven orbs by her side.

She had predicted this.

She had guessed that the monster of calamity would probably evade

even the most powerful magic released at the ideal moment.

Even with the sacrifice of her closest friend she had not been able to

fully take down the previous Juggernaut. She had looked at the

current situation with coolheaded realism and fully anticipated the

monster's ability to evade her attack.

From its position on the far wall of the room, the Juggernaut stared

along with Bell below him at the ten glowing orbs.

Ten.

That was a special number for Lyu.

The number of irreplaceable battle companions she had lost.

These orbs, larger than all the others she had produced, hovered

around her back.

"

—Let's go."

With that, she dashed forward.

"?!"

She did not fire the orbs she had held in reserve but instead pulled

them forward with her toward the Juggernaut.

This would not be a long- or mid-range attack.

Just before Bell used Argo Vesta on the twenty-seventh floor, the

monster had leaped into the air. If Bell hadn't used the Goliath Scarf

to pull him back, his blow would not have hit its mark. Likewise, if

Lyu didn't release her attack from extremely close range, the

Juggernaut would not be destroyed.

Lyu had learned from her repeated fights against the Juggernaut, and

she chose a "zero-range attack."

Although she could not accelerate as fast as she would have liked

because a pilum had wounded her thigh, she leaped forward with a

scream.

"Noin, Neze!"

As if responding to the names, two of the glowing orbs exploded into

the soles of Lyu's boots.

"Huh?!"

The sound of the light slipped into Bell's ears as Lyu accelerated with

explosive speed. The wind-wrapped orbs of light had given her

incredible forward momentum. Lyu became a gale wind that cut

through the air so quickly it left both the shuddering Bell and the

astonished Juggernaut in the dust. As if she was kicking off from the

two orbs of light, she hurtled straight toward the monster.

"?!"

The Juggernaut scrambled to thrust its right arm, which was now

missing its lower half, toward the flying elf.

A pilum volley erupted from the joint between its arm and its body.

"Asta, Lyana!"

Lyu once again howled the names of her companions and shot forth

two large orbs of light. One was released from her side and landed

on her left arm, which she held close to her, thereby changing her

course midair.

"?!"

She turned at a near right angle, evading the rain of pila in the nick of

time.

Immediately, the second glowing orb exploded into the sole of her

right shoe, and once again she flew forward.

The arc she drew through the air was like a bolt of lightning.

As the space between Lyu and the Juggernaut vanished almost

instantly, the monster kicked off the wall with its left foot in an

attempt to escape.

"No way!!"

She followed.

Ignoring head wind and the law of inertia alike, she twisted her

creaking body around by pure force of will, landed on the wall where

the monster had been a second earlier, and took off flying again.

The Juggernaut's gaze wavered as it took in the form roaring toward

it.

She was using her magic like never before to move through the air.

Her high-speed leap beat the astonished Juggernaut at its own game.

Of course, her reckless strategy of changing her magic into propellant

force was unlikely to lack consequences. The heels of her boots

flaked off, exposing the blazing red soles of her feet. The left arm she

had blasted an orb into in order to change directions was fractured

as well.

Her body was not broken, however.

It might take all the abilities she had to withstand its evil power, but

she would not permit herself to die until she had shot that monster

dead.

She shot herself with her own magic, making her flesh smoke and

her skin burn, and yet the "flight of the elf" continued.

—Friends, give me strength.

Together with her familia, she would shoot their enemy.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

"

Correctly perceiving Lyu's intention, the destroyer sounded a blaring

alarm.

Throwing caution to the wind, it shot all its remaining pila.

Having lost a great deal of its mobility, it was desperately trying to

prevent the elf from drawing near.

"Celty, Iska, Maryu!"

As if they were lending her a hand, the three orbs whose names had

been called redirected Lyu diagonally and smashed the pila speeding

toward her.

As Lyu flew through the air buffeted by powerful wind pressure, she

saw the faces of her companions in war.

Her ten sisters in justice flew beside her, raising their voices with her

in a battle cry.

It was a hallucination. A mere sentimental delusion.

A mirage to suit her whims.

She knew that.

And so she transformed that vision into the strength that drove her

forward.

"

—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

The elf's roar shook the air.

Strangely enough, this was a dogfight between two wingless

opponents.

As if drawn upward by this scene unfolding like stardust crisscrossing

the night sky, Bell rose to his feet. His eyes wide, he was like an

animal unable to do more than stare up at the stars in the heavens.

He saw:

The track of the elf as she danced through the air guided by ten orbs

of light.

Her long cape fluttering like wings spread wide, truly a vision of the

wings of justice.

The sword was the girl herself striving to overtake the monster.

At last, this girl with the name of Astrea, the goddess of justice,

carved in her back had the monster of calamity in her grasp.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!"

Strangely enough, all this was unfolding in midair in the center of the

room.

As the monster raised its right arm of bone to intercept this pursuit

that had left it no escape route, Lyu released one of the three

remaining orbs.

"Kaguya!"

As if responding to the cry of a companion in arms, the orb raced

forward like a fencer throwing off cutting wind.

The orb pulverized the monster's last remaining section of arm, its

last weapon.

"

"

—

The impact of the explosion sent the monster's trunk swimming

through space.

Lyu soared very close to it and then overtook it, dancing over its

head. The instant her powerful momentum vanished…her body

slowly rotated, as if time had been cut away from that patch of air.

Her legs were stretched toward the heavens, her head toward the

ground.

The Juggernaut twisted its massive body so that it was looking up at

her from directly below her eyes.

"Lyra."

She called forth the glowing orb quietly and it approached her feet as

she began to fall. It was like an older sister pushing her forward with

a smile.

Tears gathered in Lyu's eyes, and the next moment the impact hit

her feet. She became a shooting star falling downward.

And last:

"Alize."

The final orb of light flew to Lyu's palm.

She had wanted judgment.

She had wanted redemption.

She had wanted to die and join her friends.

She had been afraid to overcome the past.

She had been terrified of forgetting the past.

If she could have, she would have taken back her past and made it

right.

But now.

Now she wanted the future.

For its sake—

The monster's huge form was approaching. It had lost both arms, but

its red eyes still stared up at her in a daze.

Like her, this symbol of her past was battered from top to bottom.

Lyu held the orb of light in her right hand and raised it.

She was sure that in the light of the beautiful glowing sphere, she

saw her friend's hand on top of her own. A tear fell from her sky-blue

eyes as she spoke with quivering lips.

"

—Good-bye."

Good-bye to the lingering shadow of her friends.

Good-bye to those bygone days.

Good-bye to the past that she must overcome.

Lyu said her farewell to everything, and then she roared.

"Luvia!!"

A violent explosion.

" "

The huge glowing sphere crashed into the monster's chest.

As if it were receiving all the skill of the girl who had protected Lyu

and saved her, it flowered into a circle of light.

Unable to defend itself, without even a dying scream or a roar of fury

or resentment, the Juggernaut burst quietly into pieces. A piercing

melody of light and wind rang out as the monster's body

transformed into innumerable fragments.

Lyu watched the falling shards turn to ash like any other monster and

then closed her eyes, drained of every last bit of energy.

Her tears scattered into the air.

"Ms. Lyu?!"

Lyu and the remnants of the Juggernaut drifted down into the center

of the room like a meteor shower. As the monster's ash swirled in a

smoky haze, Bell watched, unable in his injured state to dash to Lyu's

side. Instead he dragged himself slowly to the center of the room

and gazed at the purplish smoke hanging in the air.

"Aah…!"

He saw an elven form hovering at a distance. Gradually its silhouette

came into focus and the figure stepped forward out of the smoke.

It was the battered Lyu.

She met his eyes and curved her lips up ever so slightly. Bell smiled

back in relief.

The room was entirely still aside from the two of them.

They had beaten the calamity.

Still smiling, they walked forward slowly, as if they were seeking each

other out.

But before they reached each other, Bell stumbled.

His body tilted forward.

Lyu's did the same.

Although they were only steps apart, their knees buckled and with a

crash they tumbled to the ground.

"..."

"..."

Blood was erupting from their bodies, which were no more than

walking wounds.

Their breathing was shallow.

They could hardly feel their hands and feet.

They could hardly see the hazy world.

They were close enough for Lyu to place her right hand over Bell's

right hand.

They lay facedown on the cold Dungeon floor.

"…We won, didn't we?"

"…Yes."

"…And now we can go home."

"…Yes."

Their voices were faint.

They did not look at each other as they formed smiles that were not

really smiles.

A future in which they returned to the surface had become no more

than a dream that they shared, its boundary with reality blurred.

No adventurers remained in that room.

There was only burned-out ash.

They were like birds that had flown to the heavens and back only to

lose their wings.

White embers and the fading vestiges of an elf.

That was all.

The howls of monsters echoed in the distance. As if the stillness that

the monster of calamity had presided over was a lie, the darkness

thundered. The pounding of countless feet twined with roars

heading toward the room where Bell and Lyu lay.

They could not stand. They could not move a muscle. The darkness

stared down at them.

"…Bell."

"…Yes."

"…I…you…"

"..."

Lyu did not finish her thought.

The light faded from their eyes as they gazed to the side.

As if they were going to sleep, they closed their eyes.

By the time the roaring monsters reached the room, their bodies had

ceased moving.

Their adventures had ended.

They had beat the calamity but lost to the Dungeon.

They had failed to escape the maze.

Like many adventurers before them, Lyu and Bell were swallowed up

by the darkness of the deep levels—

"

—

, —chi, —llucchi!!"

Or so it had seemed.

"

—Bellucchi!!"

The volley of the monsters' roars—the roars that sounded exactly

like monsters communicating with companions some distance

away—turned into words in human language.

Within the dimness of his world, Bell sensed a shadow falling over his

body.

His eyelids fluttered open as his body was lifted in someone's arms.

"He's alive, he's alive!!"

"Tell the humans!"

Following an explosion of joyful roars, familiar voices echoed in his

ears.

Bell understood that he had been turned on his back, and a pair of

eyes was peering down at him.

Those very same round amber eyes that he had wanted to see for so

long.

"Bell, Bell!"

Tears spilled from the amber eyes and dampened Bell's cheeks. The

sparkling red stone in the girl's forehead glistened as if it, too, was

crying. Bell tried to brush the tears from her face, only to remember

that he could not move at all. He tried at least to smile, but failed at

that as well. Finally he managed to move the muscles in his cheeks

and raise the corners of his mouth very slightly. The girl with the

amber eyes responded with a huge grin.

"Mr. Bell!"

"Bell!!"

"Lyu!"

"She's over there, meow!"

Bell could hear other familiar voices in the distance.

The voices of their friends who had found them.

The curtain had fallen on their adventure; they had lost to the

Dungeon.

But Lyu's hopes had not been crushed.

She and Bell had not given up hope. Instead they had risked death to

fight the monster, and that fight had called their companions to their

side. The ties of friendship they had pulled toward them had beaten

the Dungeon.

Moving quicky, the monsters who had gathered at their sides hurried

away. Their jobs were done, although they would continue to watch

over the pair from the shadows. Their presence remained near, as if

to whisper their reassurances.

The only two Xenos who remained with the adventurers were the

dragon girl and the harpy disguised in hoods and robes. The harpy

lifted Lyu and held her close.

"…Bell."

"…Yes."

The tearful, joyful voices of the friends who had called their names

drew closer.

Lyu looked Bell in the eye and smiled.

"We can…go home."