Chapter 8

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

THE VOICE OF THE HAMMER

They were too late.

Even Ahnya, who was universally recognized to be dim-witted,

understood that as she confirmed the scene with her eyes.

"What is this?!"

"…Is the Water Capital always such a hellish landscape, meow?"

Runoa was shaken, and Chloe's voice was heavy.

They were standing at the edge of the cliff outside the passageway

that led to the twenty-fifth floor.

A terrible vista sprawled below them.

Rising from a raging sea of blue flames was the wreckage of what

appeared to be the burned-out roots of an enormous tree. The

plunge pool was filled in with a mountain of crystal debris huge

enough to easily bury any living thing that might have been in the

yawning cavern. The waves of blue napalm showed no sign of

subsiding, sending waves of heat and billows of scalding steam

toward the band of adventurers. Chloe had not exaggerated when

she described the scene as hellish.

The cavern's walls and ceiling, too, appeared as if they had been

crushed to pieces in the jaws of a dragon.

The once beautiful watery paradise was nowhere to be seen.

"Looks like a floor boss went wild in this cavern…I bet you've never

seen anything like this before, have you?"

Even the Level 5 Tsubaki couldn't help narrowing her one good eye

as she looked down on the decimation. Their surroundings bore the sure signs of a fierce battle rather than a natural disaster. But how

much time had passed since the fighting broke out? Hours? Half a

day? Had the Amphisbaena been defeated?

Only one thing was clear:

Tsubaki and her companions had arrived too late to help the

adventurers who had fought here.

"Well…Lyu should be on the twenty-seventh floor, meow! Let's get

down there quick, meow!" Ahnya shouted, giving her head a good

shake to clear away the swirling questions. Given her own stupidity,

she realized it wouldn't do much good to stand there trying to think

her way through things.

Clearly, there was nobody left in the hellfire below them. Whether

on land or in the water, anything inside that inferno wouldn't have

been able to breathe. That, or they had been buried alive. It was

certain that searching for survivors would be a waste of time.

They had heard in Rivira that the hunting party pursuing Gale Wind

had been on their way to the twenty-seventh floor. Encountering this

Irregular made Ahnya anxious. The face of her elven coworker rose in

her mind as she urged the others on.

"That's all well and good, but…this whole place is in shambles!

There's nowhere for us to walk! What do we do?!" Runoa asked,

frowning. Tsubaki tapped the back of her sword against her shoulder

as she answered.

"Looks like our only option is to descend this cliff face."

"What? You're not serious, meow…?"

Chloe stuck her tongue out in dismay.

"There aren't any monsters in the cavern now, meow! As long as

they're not pestering us, we can do it, meow! Plus…my older brother managed to go down all by himself! If he can, we can, meow! A-at

least, I think so!"

Ahnya's unconvincing argument echoed hollowly across the cavern.

"Oh, damn it all, guess we're going for it!" Runoa finally said.

The four women nodded at one another and leaned boldly forward.

Pushing through the hot steam, they stepped off the cliff's edge.

Without using their hands, they raced straight down the near-vertical

slope. Whenever the rocks began to noisily slip out from underneath

their feet, they jabbed their weapons deep into the cliff face to

support themselves.

Although they nearly fell countless times, the advancing line of

adventurers held one another up, heading for the twenty-sixth floor.

"Shit!!"

Welf's spare longsword sliced a merman in half.

But even as the bisected half-fish monster died, a new merman

crushed its corpse underfoot in pursuit of the smith, who responded

with more curses.

"Is this a joke? They're endless!" he shouted.

"These numbers aren't normal!"

"They're coming from the s-sides and behind us, too!"

Ouka and Chigusa returned his shout.

The party was currently on the twenty-sixth floor. Having narrowly

escaped the crumbling cavern, they were now facing one battle after

the next. They encountered an unending stream of monsters. It was

possible that due to the unprecedented destruction on the twenty-

fifth floor, which had thrown the interior maze into chaos, the monsters seemed to have grown more sensitive to the presence of

invaders.

The adventurers' breathing was ragged as they met the swarm of

aquatic monsters that ferociously bore down on them.

"We shouldn't bother with them! It's a waste of precious energy!"

Even as she shouted, Lilly's arrow threaded the crowd of jostling

mermen before piercing the eye of their leader. Such shots from

supporters or commanders, who normally did not directly participate

in the fighting, were rare. The merman leader in the center of the

swarm screamed and for a moment neglected to direct its troops.

The adventurers seized the moment to flee the scene.

"This is no joke! At this rate, we'll never have time to search for

Rabbit Foot…!"

Glancing at Aisha, who was handling monsters approaching from the

sides, Daphne confirmed the escape route. Just then, a devil monster

jumped down from overhead and she swiped it away with her baton-

like dagger. Paying no heed to the spray of fluid produced by the

hideous monster's wound as it rolled across the floor, Daphne

dashed forward.

A drop of something—sweat from nerves or heat, she didn't know—

rolled down her narrow chin.

"How many times are you going to say that?! When we came to the

twenty-sixth floor, we made up our minds to meet up with Bell!"

"I know, I know! We can't go back to the twenty-fifth floor now that

it's destroyed! And believe me, I get that you don't want to abandon

your friend! I've given up convincing you all otherwise! But still, this

is…!"

Daphne returned Lilly's shout with equal irritation. Even her eyes

seemed ready to groan in distress as she surveyed their

surroundings.

The twenty-sixth floor had clearly suffered damage as a result of the

cataclysm on the twenty-fifth floor. The walls and ground were

cracked, suggesting that they hadn't been able to safely withstand

the pressure from above. The water running down the center of the

passage had overflowed and was thoroughly soaking their feet. The

sprinkle of falling crystals conjured ugly visions of the whole ceiling

collapsing in the near future. The labyrinth could easily cave in on

them at any moment.

The viscous howls of either confused or excited monsters further

fanned the party's anxiety.

"In our current state, and without the slightest clue to his location,

our chances of finding him are basically zero!"

"Sheesh!"

Every time Lilly wanted to prioritize looking for Bell, Daphne always

cut in with the reality of their situation.

The wretched condition of the party after the fight with the floor

boss was a serious concern. How were they supposed to search for a

lone adventurer on such an immense floor?

"Anyway, since this is our first time on this floor, we need to be

putting safety first…!"

Even though the twenty-sixth floor was considered a part of the

Water Capital, it was irrefutably a completely new world for most of

the party. Despite that, they had totally ignored the usual standards

for clearing a new floor and were barging straight ahead. It was

enough to make Daphne—who approached Dungeon exploration

with the watchwords "steady, cautious, and timid"—want to faint.

She thought it was absolute madness to leap without looking into

the maw of the demonic Dungeon.

But even as she exchanged shouts with Lilly, Daphne could not afford

to stop running. It was obvious that the moment she did, she would

be crushed underfoot by the onrush of monsters.

"Moving forward is our only option! We can't go back to the twenty-

fourth floor until the Dungeon has repaired itself, and we don't even

know if it will repair itself! Just pray we bump into him!"

Currently the party was proceeding down the floor's main route.

Aisha, who was constantly keeping track of the party's morale, tried

her best to ease Daphne's anxiety.

Plus, though I hate relying on other people, Gale Wind should be

on the same twenty-seventh floor, where we'll find Bell…!

She had other things on her mind, too—namely, the elf who had

been accused of murder in Rivira. For Aisha, the question of whether

she was actually guilty no longer mattered much. If they were able to

meet up with her and Bell and gain her cooperation, even by force, a

way forward would open up, albeit a rash and potentially deadly

one. It was precisely the presence of that idea in the back of her

mind that had convinced Aisha to change course and bet her life on

their current reckless advance.

It was a pity that an irregularity so extreme it would rip Aisha's

schemes to shreds awaited them at their destination, the twenty-

seventh floor.

"More monsters…!"

"Even for an Irregular this feels like too many!"

As Chigusa carried the unconscious Mikoto on her back and

Cassandra shouldered Haruhime, Ouka and Welf scowled at the newest swarm that had just appeared. They were at the front of the

party, and now the adventurers were being forced to change course.

"It's like every monster in this place is after us…!"

Chigusa's panted speculation was by no means an exaggeration.

To the contrary, she had hit a bull's-eye.

All the monsters on the floor—or rather, the entire zone—had

rushed in the party's direction, searching for prey. As if to confirm

her fearful guess, a huge form burst through the water's surface.

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

"What?! A kelpie?!"

"But that's a twenty-seventh-floor monster!"

Lilly's astonishment was even greater than Aisha's wide-eyed

surprise.

Kelpies. These horse monsters with blue pelts and manes as well as

finned bodies were able to gallop through the water just as if they

were on land. As Lilly said, they normally appeared on the twenty-

seventh floor. Their beautiful outward appearance belied a potential

that was among the greatest of any in the Water Capital.

"It came up to this floor?! And in these conditions…?!"

Overwhelmed by the magnificence and power of her enemy, Lilly

was continuing to shout in confusion when she was interrupted by a

chorus of roars coming from deep in the maze.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

"OOOO, OOO!"

"GUAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

A lamia, an afanc, and a dodora were loudly announcing their

presence. All were monsters that normally appeared for the first

time on the twenty-seventh floor.

"A huge swarm of monsters? No, a mass migration…?! It can't be!"

Daphne shrieked.

All the monsters were red with blood, shreds of scarlet flesh hanging

from them.

All of it belonged to adventurers. Upper-class adventurers who had

joined the hunt for Gale Wind only to be crushed by the fangs and

claws of calamity.

This tragedy had unfolded unbeknownst to Aisha and her

companions. Now, after devouring the corpses of various

adventurers and becoming drunk on enormous quantities of gore,

the monsters had grown more ferocious and brutal than ever.

More blood. More flesh. Another feast.

In search of fresh offerings, the massive swarm of monsters had left

the demolished twenty-seventh floor behind them and poured into

the twenty-sixth floor.

"What in the world is going on?"

"Ask the Dungeon! That's what's messing with us adventurers like

this…!"

Of course, Lilly and the others had no clue about any of that.

Aisha, who had hoped to find refuge at a safety point, swore in

frustration when she realized her plans had been foiled.

Fortunately, because the Dungeon was prioritizing the repair of the

twenty-fifth floor, no new monsters were currently being spawned

on any of the Water Capital's three floors. Nevertheless, there were

still far too many for the party to take on.

Sensing impending doom closing in from all sides even as they fought

the kelpie directly in front of them, the blood drained from their

faces.

"

—!!"

"Whoa!!"

Welf's knees quaked at the sight of the kelpie thrashing wildly and

flinging its blue mane around. This was an incredibly strong

specimen. Its potential might even have exceeded Welf's and Ouka's

statuses. The level boosts that had provided them with divine

protection that led to victory so many times before were not

available.

Facing this twenty-seventh-floor opponent, the party was finally

beginning to hit a wall they could not scale with the skills of Level 2

adventurers like Welf and Ouka.

"Argh!"

Caught up in the monster's attack, Welf was thrown backward. He

had been able to somehow prevent a direct hit with his longsword,

but now his back was against the wall. It had been cracked before,

but it distorted under the latest impact, sending fragments flying as

the crystal moaned.

"Shit…!"

Welf, still exhausted from the fight with the floor boss, gritted his

teeth and was trying to stand back up when…

"

—?"

Clank, clank!

A chunk of wall rolling across the floor with a clatter drew his

attention.

lustrous steely blue was not the color of the tiresomely

abundant crystals of the Water Capital.

This was a natural Dungeon ingot, glittering with the sheen of rare

metal.

The ingot resembled a garnet the size and shape of a misshapen fist,

with fragments of crystal clinging to it. It seemed to have fallen out

of the wall's interior, perhaps due to the extensive damage the floor

had suffered.

In true smith's fashion, Welf stared in disbelief at the ore that had

rolled to his feet.

"No way…this is adamantite!"

He gasped as he realized what variety of rare metal it was.

"What are you doing, Ignis?! Get back on your feet!"

"Oh, right!"

Aisha, who had just cut down the kelpie, yelled at him impatiently.

As Welf stood up in relief, he reflexively picked up the ingot before

running to catch up with his companions.

"Uoooooooooooooooooo!"

"!!"

Just then, someone cried out. Someone who did not belong to their

party.

The sound came from a human form surrounded by monsters farther

down the main route.

"Is that…someone who went to the twenty-seventh floor?!"

Aisha's earlier prediction had proven true. Welf and several other

members of the party ran to the stranger, quickly drove away the

monsters, and rescued the intended victim.

"You're Rivira's…"

"Mr. Bors!"

Welf and Lilly were right. It was indeed the hulking adventurer Bors

Elder, his whole body heaving as he breathed.

He was a wretched sight.

His brawny figure was covered in wounds from head to toe. His

battle clothes were stained red with blood, although no one could

tell how much of it belonged to him and how much came from the

monsters he had killed. The patch he usually wore over his left eye

was missing. So was his weapon, which they guessed he must have

lost somewhere along the way. It was unbelievable that he had made

it this far without one. His hands and gloves were torn and reddish

black, evidence that he had fended off the monsters by flailing wildly

and slamming his fists against their tough shells and scales.

"Y-you, you guys are…Hestia Familia…? You…survived…?"

Bors turned from one member of the party to the next in a daze.

There was no trace of the leader of Rivira's usual arrogance or

overbearing self-importance. Instead, he spoke as if he was still

delirious after just waking from a nightmare.

"Are you alone? Where's the rest of the hunting party?"

Filled with a terrible dread, Aisha questioned this returnee from the

twenty-seventh floor. Bors responded in a barely audible whisper, his

face clouded by an uncharacteristically dark expression.

"…I'm the only one left. Everyone else…they're all dead."

"What?"

"What are you saying…? Do you even know how many upper-class

adventurers went with you?!"

"They can't all have been wiped out!"

"Were they killed by Gale Wind when they tried to attack her?"

Chigusa was the first to break the silence with her whisper, followed

by Daphne, Ouka, and Aisha shooting out questions in rapid

succession. They weren't outright denying Bors's claim, but their

faces were taut with doubt and disbelief.

Several hours earlier, they had witnessed the twenty-seventh-floor

plunge pool turn crimson. The "lower reaches of Hell's river" had

turned that huge body of water the color of blood.

"It was an Irregular…a monster I've never seen before took my

followers and…"

"…The great calamity."

Cassandra turned white as Bors, eyes unfocused, recalled his

encounter with a creature not of this world.

Only Cassandra understood that this was the "calamity" her

prophecy warned of.

"

—Mr. Bors?!"

Just then, Lilly interrupted with an ear-shattering shout.

"What happened to Mr. Bell?!"

"Rabbit Foot got taken out, too…one of his arms was blown clean off,

and the bones in his neck were…I'm sure he…"

"?!"

"And Gale Wind, too!…That elf who was fool enough to protect

me…! Everyone, and I mean everyone, got killed! That monster

slaughtered them all!!"

As she listened to this tragic tale, Lilly's chest heaved as if she had

been run through by a sword. Meanwhile, the more Bors talked, the

more emotional he became.

As if he had lost heart. As if he had lost hope.

"It's a lie…a lie, a lie, a lie! Bell can't die! He can't leave Lilly alone!!"

"Calm down, Li'l E!"

Welf held down Lilly's fist, which seemed to be on the verge of

punching Bors while her other hand gripped his shirt.

The smith's heart was hardly calm, either. From the annihilation of

the upper-class adventurers to the death of Bell, the information

that suddenly confronted the party was like shackles binding their

feet. They all froze, but only Lilly's screams echoed down the

passages.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

"

—?!"

Of course, the monsters didn't care the least bit for their feelings.

Their wild war cries once again reached the adventurers, who had

momentarily forgotten their current situation. A second later, a pack

appeared from around a bend in the passage and charged toward

them.

"Run!!"

Aisha creamed a command. Her companions shook off their shock

and complied. Obeying their own instincts screaming for survival,

they defied death once again.

"UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

To the adventurers, the monsters' roars sounded like an evil sneer.

Retreat was out of the question, yet moving forward held no hope

for them.

Ahead of them lay only the corpses of countless adventurers.

The party had broken out of the "coffin" and overcome "despair,"

but what awaited them now was the "banquet of calamity."

The reverberations of monsters running in pursuit of their prey

transformed into phantoms howling "Give up!" Beneath the dim

phosphorescence, the deformed shadows streamed past as if they

were dancing wildly in rapture. The beasts seemed bent on crushing

the weak hearts of the adventurers.

"Damn it!!"

With a curse, Welf swung his remaining magic blade at the pack of

monsters charging straight at them. Flames shot forward with no

heed for the watery surroundings, charring the monsters as they

howled in their death throes.

And then he heard the dagger cracking.

"…!"

The last Crozzo's Magic Sword was beginning to crumble.

Welf panicked as he watched it fracture. Ouka grimaced as well. The

moment they lost that last magic blade was the moment the party

itself would collapse.

Not long after, they arrived at a crossroads where a number of

routes intersected. At the same time, howling monsters appeared

from passages in every direction.

The adventurers had no idea what to do as certain death drew near.

Suddenly Aisha shouted:

"Shrimp, take out the stink bombs!!"

"What…?! The Malboros?! But they won't work on water

monsters…!"

"Not for their noses, for their eyes!"

"!"

Realizing Aisha's intention, Lilly stuck her hand into the side pocket

of her backpack and pulled out five stink bags—their entire supply of

Malboros. She threw them down the four passages toward the

approaching monsters.

"UUUUU?!"

As the minority of monsters that did have a sense of smell writhed in

discomfort, the remaining majority groaned in confusion. A curtain

of haze made up of the green particles released by the bombs

enveloped them. Like some kind of strange pollen, the stinking dust

filled the entire intersection, causing a chain of collisions. The

monsters forgot all about the adventurers—who had slipped away in

the midst of the chaos—and began tearing at one another in

outrage.

Aisha's plan had not been to use the Malboros to keep the monsters

away, but rather to create a blinding smokescreen by ripping open

the bags.

"Now's our chance!!"

Just before the stink bombs split open, the party had turned tail and

dived into one of the few passages that wasn't completely filled with

monsters. They continued to run as fast as they could, moving

farther and farther from the main route. After putting quite some

distance between themselves and the monsters, they emerged into a

large room.

"…!! It's a dead end…"

The room was a cul-de-sac.

It measured around thirty meders on each side and had no

waterways in it. What had once been a field of crystal lay in ruins,

perhaps due to the shocks of the destruction on the floor above.

There was only a single opening for entry and exit, meaning they had

no escape route.

"Uh-oh…"

They had to get out quickly.

The same words were on everyone's lips, but they were panting too

hard to speak them.

The combination of the battle with the floor boss and the continuous

harassment they'd been dealing with since then meant the entire

party was in desperate need of rest. They had to have at least a

moment to catch their breath. More than anything, the very real

possibility that Bell could be dead was throwing their minds and

bodies out of sync.

We're still in a hopeless fix…we haven't escaped ruin. Is the

prophecy still continuing? Or have we parted ways with it? Did I make

the wrong decision?

Meanwhile, Cassandra was wandering through her own maze of

unanswerable questions.

She didn't know if they were still following the trajectory of her

prophetic dream, or if they had strayed off its path. Gloomy thoughts

bubbled up ceaselessly in her mind, robbing her of the willpower to

even to lift her face.

No one could lift even a finger, never mind take decisive action.

"

—Bors. Tell us exactly what you saw."

As the party sunk into a state of near mental paralysis, Aisha broke

the silence.

"Tell us all the details you know about the monster that attacked Bell

Cranell…not your pessimistic guesses, but exactly what happened."

"…Rabbit Foot's arm got pulled off, and he suffered a blow to the

neck. No question those were fatal injuries. But I saw Gale Wind use

recovery magic, too. He could…still be alive."

"…!"

Under Aisha's sharp gaze, Bors relayed what he had seen without

embellishing the account.

As they listened to his words, Lilly and the others shuddered. Light

returned to their eyes. The transformation surprised Cassandra.

"Listen to me. Our plans haven't changed. We're still heading to the

safety point. Getting there might leave us a hairbreadth from dying,

but we're going to find Bell Cranell. Even if it costs you your life,

you're going to help us, Bors."

"H-hey?! Didn't you hear me?! I said there's a horrible monster on

the twenty-seventh floor!!"

"Who cares? There's no way back anyway."

"I…I'm not going! I'll be damned if I head into that hell again!"

As Bors screamed in protest, Aisha grabbed his battle clothes

threateningly.

"If you understand how indebted you are to Bell Cranell and Gale

Wind…then man up."

The Amazon's words were quiet but weighty. Bors stood

dumbfounded for a moment, then glared angrily at his feet. He

didn't nod in agreement, but he didn't argue any more, either.

This woman is truly strong. It's not just the strength granted by

her status, but that emotionally fortitude…Even in a pinch like this,

she hasn't given up.

Cassandra gazed at the black-haired powerhouse. Despite being

covered in sweat and blood, Aisha was beautiful. Her words had not

only stemmed all argument from Bors, but had also unified the will

of the party. The proof was in their faces, which were no longer

clouded by hopelessness. Aisha had successfully revived the will to

fight that had nearly buckled under the news of Bell's possible death.

Neither Lilly nor Daphne, their commanders, had been able to do

that. Only Aisha, who was stronger and more battle-hardened than

any of them, had what it took. As Cassandra stared at that powerful

figure, she wished that she could be equally as strong.

"If we're going anywhere, we better backtrack out of this room

quick."

Daphne spoke slowly. Her words sounded heavy, as if she were

driving reality home.

"We may have shaken the monsters, but the route to this room was

practically a straight shot. If we don't get out of here, we'll be

crushed by a headlong rush of monsters…"

But what was next? What would happen if they managed to slip past

the mob of monsters? How many more battles were awaited on the

long journey to the twenty-seventh floor?

The unspoken questions flashed back and forth in the adventurers'

glances. Not even Daphne had an answer.

Their hearts and minds were united, but their situation hadn't

improved one bit. They still didn't have a solid plan to turn back the

hordes of rampaging monsters or otherwise shake them off for good.

Once again, a veil of silence descended on the room. They could hear

the howling monsters. As death crept ever closer, anxiety tormented

the party.

Lilly and Daphne racked their brains trying to come up with a way

out. Ouka and Chigusa laid Mikoto and Haruhime down on the floor,

frowning as they held their limp hands in their own. Aisha and Bors

kept their sharp gazes fixed on the passage beyond the entrance,

watching for enemies. Cassandra frantically tried to interpret the last

part of the prophecy.

—What should we do?

Last of all, Welf stood rooted to the ground by mental anguish.

How can we get to Bell? How are we supposed to get through

this?

Like Lilly, he was racking his brain for a way out of this impasse.

He turned the seemingly impossible problem over in his head again

and again, searching for a solution.

If only we had some magic blades…!

Instead of a solution to their crisis, all he could muster was wishful

thinking.

I'd already made the decision to stop weighing my pride against

my friends…That's right, I did, I did stop! But I still don't have the

magic blades I need!

He could only curse his stupidity for using them all up. It was either

that or his own incompetence was to blame for making weak blades

that crumbled so quickly. All he felt when he looked back on his past

actions was regret.

Is there anything I can do to help these guys? What can I offer as a

smith to repay these adventurers?!

Welf shut his eyes tight and searched for an answer.

He clenched his fists and asked what use he was to the world.

Lady Hephaistos…what should I do?

He was being a wimp. A total wimp.

But he couldn't help asking.

When he was really, truly in trouble, that goddess, that pillar of

strength always had the words he needed.

If she were looking at his spineless self now, at this Welf Crozzo who

couldn't do anything, what would she say?

It made him nauseous to foist his responsibility on a woman like this.

But for the sake of his friends, he tossed away his shame and his

concern for outward appearances and sought the help of that

exalted presence in his heart.

Here in this Dungeon, what can I do…?!

And then—

"As long as you have a hammer, metal, and a good flame, you can

forge weapons anywhere—

"

He heard the voice of the goddess he revered.

He saw the supreme light he must aim for.

Divine revelation pierced his mind.

"

"

—

His eyes popped open.

His arms trembled.

The words that Hephaistos, the goddess of the forge, had spoken in

the past rose vividly in his mind.

Welf jerked his head up as if someone had punched him, then looked

around.

He was in a room with only one entry and exit.

Lilly's backpack was stuffed with tools.

Lastly, he had the flame magic blade that was already starting to

disintegrate plus the ingot gripped in his hand.

The glow of heat still flickered deep within the cracked blade, and

the nugget of metal glittered like steel.

Welf looked down at his hands and gulped.

An instant later—he made up his mind.

He clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked, widened his eyes

with fierce intent, and gripped the magic blade and adamantite ingot

with all his might.

He took a step toward his companions.

"Hey, you guys."

His resolute voice echoed through the quiet room.

All eyes were on Welf.

"Will you put your lives in my hands?"

Every one of them stopped moving and stared back in shock.

Every one of them choked on his words, confused and unable to

discern what he intended to do.

"…Smith, you must be kidding."

Ouka, his voice shaking, was the only one who guessed Welf's plan.

Welf gazed steadily back at his companions and spoke.

"I'm going to make magic blades right here."

Time stood still.

"…What?"

"I'm saying that I'm gonna forge new magic blades here in this

room."

Welf held back his emotions as he answered the flummoxed

Cassandra.

Magic blades would be born here in the Dungeon.

Here in this crucible of monsters that might attack at any moment,

he would set up a smithy and work the metal. Although his face

dripped sweat, his eyes were unclouded as he announced his

intention.

"That's impossible!"

It was Lilly who explosively shot down his idea.

"Stop saying idiotic things!! What are you thinking?! The very idea—

to forge weapons in such a dangerous area of the Dungeon that isn't

even a safety point!"

While Aisha and the others stood frozen in place, Lilly, who had

known Welf so long, panned his idea.

"Where are your tools? Your furnace? Where will you gather the raw

materials you need?!"

Although Lilly had decided his idea was unreasonable, Welf

answered her in a low, calm voice.

"There's a hammer among the tools I brought for maintenance. A

hearth, too. And this magic blade will provide the flames."

Lilly was at a loss for a response. She glanced at her backpack. As

Welf had said, everything was there. He himself had pulled together

a full set of tools for their expedition. It was a moveable blacksmith's

workshop, and he'd already used it to repair their tools and make the

Goliath Scarf.

"Plus, I picked up some materials a minute ago."

Daphne and the others gaped as he held up the misshapen chunk of

adamantite, which shone dully in his hand.

"Listen, the only way we can get out of our current fix is with magic

blades. If we're gonna blow away those damn monsters and make it

to the twenty-seventh floor, our only option is to rely on the power

of the Crozzo blood…!"

Welf's mental anguish was clear as he laid out his thoughts.

"Once I start working, I won't be able to fight. You'll have to protect

me until the magic blades are done…I'm asking you to put your lives

in my hands."

An unnatural stillness descended on the room, as if it had been cut

loose from the rest of the world. The crystal fragments scattered

around the floor gleamed blue. Lilly, Chigusa, Daphne, and Cassandra

were stunned, their eyes unsteady. Aisha and Ouka simply stood

there tight-lipped.

"You, Ignis…are you in your right mind?"

The first to squeeze out a few words, his eyes twitching, was Bors.

I've never met a smith as crazy as you, the head of Rivira seemed to

be saying. Welf returned his question with an irate scream.

"What's it matter if I'm crazy?! We have no other choice! Are you

gonna believe in me or not?! Answer me!"

Welf looked around at the adventurers, before finally resting his eyes

on Aisha.

The second-tier adventurer held the real decision-making power in

the party.

A moment passed before she answered the smith standing in front of

her.

"…Can you do it?"

That was all she asked.

Before he replied, Welf closed his eyes and once more turned inward

to his own heart.

You have a hammer.

You have metal.

The only question is, has your fire been lit?

"Of course I can!"

It was blazing.

The flame of Welf's heart burned hotter than ever.

He opened his eyes and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"As long as you have a hammer, metal, and a good flame, you can

forge weapons anywhere. That's what it means to be a smith!!"

The determination and commitment in his voice made his audience

quiver. Aisha ignored her breathless companions and laughed.

"Well then go ahead!"

Ouka, who had been quiet up till then, laughed as well.

"Yeah, forge us some blades!"

With that, Lilly stared up at the ceiling, Daphne fended off a fainting

spell, and Chigusa squeezed her hands together in a sign of faith.

"Son of a bitch," Bors said, slamming his fist onto his knee as he

smiled spitefully.

To show her respect for Welf's decision, Cassandra screwed up her

courage and nodded at him.

"Our lives—

"

Acceptance, resignation, resolution.

Ouka spoke for all of them, though the emotions each carried were

different.

"

—are in your hands."

As his fellow adventurers gazed at him with trust, Welf grinned back

at them fearlessly.

Welf took his bandana from around his neck and tied it around his

head.

This was the process, or rather the ritual, by which the ordinary Welf

became a smith.

He brandished the remaining magic blade.

The furnace glowed vermilion, shining brightly as it began to give off

heat. He didn't have any proper fuel like coke, so he used the

Amphisbaena bile Lilly had collected. It caused a small explosion

when it came in contact with flame, but the furnace stayed lit and

began to violently heat up. He had reinforced his portable hearth

with drop items they'd picked up along the way, such as the blue

crab shells they had intended to use as proof of completing their

mission, and the lopsided dome contained the heat well. It would be

able to perform the job of melting adamantite, one of the hardest

metals around.

Having given up its last burst of power, the dagger fell to the ground

in countless pieces. Welf clutched the weapon's skeleton in his palm

and crouched before the blazing furnace.

"Here I go."

Gripping the hunk of metal between his tongs, he carefully but

swiftly thrust it into the fire.

"Get into battle formation! Don't let any monsters approach Ignis!"

As the flames roared, the others followed Aisha's command and

formed a semicircle around the lone entryway. Aisha, Ouka, Daphne,

and Bors made up the front line, while Lilly took command and

Chigusa supported the formation from behind. Farther back,

Cassandra the healer stood watch over Mikoto and Haruhime, and

farther back still, in the center of the large room, was Welf.

Charged with reviving the party, the High Smith could not fight. The

others had to halt the advancing monsters so he could concentrate.

"Huff…puff…"

The sound of shallow breathing filled the room. The adventurers

were panting despite not even catching a glimpse of a monster yet. It

wasn't simply due to the heat radiating from the glowing furnace,

which dampened their cheeks with sweat; Lilly and the others were

all on edge as they watched Welf glare into the flames.

The contents of the furnace melted swiftly in the fierce heat. At the

perfect moment, Welf slowly extracted the hot metal. The

adamantite had been transformed into a red candy-like material,

bathing the deep blue crystal walls of the room in crimson as it cast

intense heat. The shadows of the adventurers stretched long on the

floor, swaying unsteadily.

Welf set the metal on an impromptu surface, grasped the hammer in

one hand and the tongs in the other, then held his breath.

The room went completely silent.

The smith focused his mind and swung the hammer down hard.

"Huff!!"

Clang! Clang!! A loud, metallic clanging rhythm began.

"Even the idea of forging in the Dungeon…!"

Daphne pressed her hand to her mouth.

"This can't be happening…!" she moaned at the unbelievable scene.

They had indeed entered unknown territory.

Most adventurers and smiths would have called it idiotic.

The deities would have held their sides and laughed with glittering

eyes at this adventurer's journey into the unknown.

If he succeeded, it would be an incredible accomplishment.

If he failed, it would be an unprecedented act of folly.

Their corpses would be buried here, their disgraceful deaths the

laughingstock of future generations.

Welf was attempting an act of barbarity that even the master smith

Tsubaki Collbrande had never hazarded.

—Forging weapons in the Dungeon.

Producing magic blades deep within the labyrinth itself.

"Huff!!"

Welf exhaled loudly as he hammered the blazing red adamantite.

Sparks swirled as the rhythmic pounding continued. Each time the

hammer crashed against the metal, Chigusa and Cassandra jumped.

The whole world seemed to vibrate from the unrelenting pounding.

Unsurprisingly, the deafening metallic clanging began to attract

monsters as it rang out in the Dungeon.

The sound of the hammer was like a countdown to ruin.

And then it began.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

O!!"

Accompanied by a chorus of roars and the pounding of countless

feet, a huge, motley swarm of monsters came into view far down the

passage. The whole pack they had dodged at the crossroads was now

rushing toward them.

"Hell Kaios!!"

Aisha activated her magic instantly. She had been chanting as she

waited, and now the jumble of monsters struggling to beat one

another down the narrow passage became fodder for the slicing

wave attack.

"Take these shields and hold at the front of the entrance! We can't

let the monsters into this room!"

Obeying Lilly's command, Ouka and Bors positioned themselves

between the passage and the room to form a wall that would hold

back the rush of monsters.

The single entryway would limit the number of monsters that could

enter at one time and reduce the maximum momentum of their

charge. This was one tactic for taking on a large horde of monsters in

the Dungeon. The flip side was that if even one got inside and started

a melee, the adventurers wouldn't stand a chance.

Defending the "gate" with their lives was an absolute precondition

for Welf's success.

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Bastards!"

Ouka braced himself as the monsters began to throw themselves

against the spare shield he was holding up. Despite putting his whole

body into a defensive stance, the impact forced him to take a step

back. Next to him, the Level 3 Bors desperately held them off with

his own borrowed shield as he jabbed randomly with the expandable

silver lance Chigusa had handed him.

"You don't have to kill them! Just cut off their feet!"

"I can't even aim!!"

"We need support…!"

Aisha and Daphne sliced at the enemies from the sides of the "wall,"

while Chigusa stepped in with Shakuya, Mikoto's throwing knives,

and Lilly supported them with shots from her Little Ballista. At the

back of the formation where Mikoto and Haruhime lay, Cassandra

struggled to keep her wits about her as she activated her recovery

magic whenever Daphne or the other fighters were at risk of falling

out of the battle line.

With the smith's iron melody ringing in their ears, the adventurers

intercepted one monster after the next.

"…!"

Bang, bang, bang!

As if mirroring their anxious hearts, the falling hammer drew an arc

through the air again and again.

The dangerous heat seared Welf's skin. The combination of the

magic blade and the dragon bile had created temperatures far higher

than normal, scorching his undine cloth and bathing him in sweat.

The instant a drop of moisture fell from his chin onto the hammer, it

evaporated with a sizzle.

The flurry of sparks was proof of his strength, though it needed no

outside confirmation.

The precision with which he hit the center of the metal each time

stemmed from his dexterity.

His whole body burning, Welf threw every bit of physical strength,

courage, and skill he had at the hunk of metal.

But, but, but…

"Crap…!"

He couldn't properly shape it according to his wishes. In fact, the

metal seemed to ignore his will as it morphed into an uneven, bumpy

shape. He felt as if it was a living being with a capricious mind of its

own.

Adamantite was among the finest of rare metals. It was exceedingly

hard, which made processing and forging difficult. Even famous High

Smiths struggled to control it.

He'd gained experience working with dir adamantite, a lighter,

processed version of the metal, when he made Bell's armor. But this

pure ore was resisting his attempts completely.

His skill level clearly fell short. That, or he lacked the experience

required. The wildly leaping flames and the intense resistance of the

metal were all signs that he was not in control.

"You've gotta be kidding me…!"

Complaining didn't help, of course.

Welf's hands shook as the adamantite stubbornly refused the

hammer.

Impurities were transformed into countless sparks that flew into his

face as he reheated the metal and began to beat at it again.

There's no time. I can't stumble. I have to finish fast.

Nevertheless.

Wish my heartbeat would pipe down.

It sounded slow, lingering in his ears unendingly.

For every three times I bring down the hammer, my heart only

beats once—

Welf was at the center of a maelstrom of time.

Each time he swung his hammer, time seemed to melt away. The

burning red metal consumed his focus.

How long have I been working on this?

How many hours? Half a day? Or a single minute?

Where am I?

The process for making a magic blade differed from that for a regular

sword, but neither could be drastically shortened. If he wanted to make a weapon strong enough to break them out of their current fix,

he had to achieve mastery within limited time.

This anxiety verging on obsession thrust Welf into the darkness of

the forging process.

I'm giving it all the strength and skill I can muster.

All my craftsman's pride, self-worth, and will.

So why isn't it coming out how I want?!

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

!"

"Gyaaaa!"

The monsters' roars were coming more often now. The

counterattacks Ouka and the others undertook sounded weaker.

Welf wondered if they were okay, but he didn't have the leeway to

look away. If he took his eyes off his work even once he could fail.

And failure here meant death. Distraction invited distraction. It was

the worst possible cycle, eating at him mentally and physically.

As he struggled, he began to sink into an uncomfortably warm,

bottomless abyss. It was a miracle that his hammer hadn't missed its

mark yet.

"Huff, puff, huff…!"

As large drops of sweat rolled down his face while his breath seemed

to come out scalding, the world disappeared into the pounding

reverberations of his heartbeat.

He couldn't even tell right from left, up from down, front from back.

Within the blackness before his eyes hung the brilliant red metal and

his hammer.

At this moment in time, they were his entire world.

For the first time in his life, he experienced an extreme vision.

I hear a voice.

The world was wrapped in darkness.

In the gap between despair, anxiety, and an individual's will to resist

those feelings, Welf heard the ingot speak.

"Listen to the metal's words, lend your ears to its echoes, pour

your heart into your hammer."

He had learned that from the Crozzo family as a young boy.

These words expressed the spirit of his grandfather and father,

whom he had once hated.

They were the starting point for Welf's rebirth and the cornerstone

of everything; now they delivered to him the voice of the metal, the

question of the hammer.

Listen.

To what?

Why do you swing me, your hammer?

To forge weapons.

Why do you forge weapons?

To survive.

Wrong.

That's not what I'm asking. That's not what you need right now.

Listen.

Why do you forge weapons?

"

"

—

The questioning voice of the hammer became Welf's own voice as he

asked himself why, plumbing the depths of his heart.

"Mr. Welf!"

From the depths of the darkness, Welf heard the prum's desperate

plea.

"Smith…!"

From beyond the darkness, a man moaned.

"Mr. Crozzo!"

From beside him, the girl whom he had told not to call him by his

family name was doing exactly that.

The war cries of the adventurers and the voices of his friends shook

him.

I…

I…

I…!

"I forge weapons for my friends."

For Bell.

For the people here in this room—his comrades.

"To save my comrades who believe in me!!"

The weapons he forged with someone particular in mind contained a

special power. They sparkled brighter than any other weapons.

Yes. This was the truth. It was obvious. Why had he forgotten?

For his friends.

So they could go save Bell—

"I!!"

The hammer struck metal with a loud clang. The hammer screamed

as it bounced back into the air. The melody changed.

The tempo of the hammer was freer, stronger.

The adventurers heard the difference as they continued to hold off

the braying monsters. When they looked up in surprise, they saw

that Welf's eyes were burning crimson as if they had melded with

the flames.

Changing, changing, changing.

The adamantite—hardest of all metals that had no reason to obey

Welf's hammer—was taking on a new shape.

As if yielding to the will of one man, its war cry rang out, its

crystalline structure shifted, and the silhouette of a blade began to

emerge.

"Whew!!"

Welf's blood boiled with excitement.

His racing blood harmonized with the roar of his heart, pushing open

a new door.

We'll never get out of this with regular magic blades.

We'll never overcome danger if our magic blades have an

expiration date.

We'll never escape the jaws of death with magic blades destined

to fall apart.

So what should he do?

The answer was clear.

He had to overcome.

He had to overcome the idea of regular magic blades, right then and

there.

He had to make a weapon that went beyond magic blades—a new

generation of weapon, a stable magic blade.

He had to twist the destiny of the magic blade itself to create a self-

contradictory weapon.

On that fateful day in the past, he had declared his intentions to his

grandfather, Tsubaki, and Hephaistos.

He had sworn that instead of simply crafting Crozzo's Magic Swords,

he would forge his own weapons—Welf's weapons. He would fulfill

that promise here and now.

Right here and now, he had to go beyond being Welf Crozzo.

"Excellent!!"

He didn't have a theory.

But he had an idea.

A vision had started to come into view.

No—that wasn't accurate. The hint he needed had been beside him

all along.

It was the goddess's blade.

The masterpiece that the goddess of the forge had crafted was

viewed as heretical, but it also represented the hope of Welf's

ideal—and it had been in that boy's hand the whole time.

Bell, wait for me!

Bell had run so fast and soared so high that he shocked humans and

deities alike.

And Welf—well, he'd be damned if he just stood by and watched the

distance between them widen relentlessly.

I won't leave you alone!

I refuse to abandon you. I'll walk by your side no matter what it

takes.

No.

I'll walk a step or two ahead of you.

I'll surpass you, and Hephaistos, too!!

That's why—!!

I'm aiming for the heights, beyond this cursed blood of mine.

I'm going past that abominable curse to the source of virtue and

merit.

The skin of Welf's clenched fist tore, seeping blood that sizzled in the

flame.

But the Crozzo blood did not evaporate. Instead it became a haze of

heat that intermingled with, and then entered the adamantite.

This cursed blood—the bloodline of the dead that Welf had

inherited—became blindingly white-hot as it tried to answer the

young smith's will.

As his mind ran wild in an unconscious state devoid of a sense of self

or idle thoughts, it crafted a design acknowledging the fundamental

laws, heeding divine providence, and overturning logic itself.

As he spoke with the adamantite, Welf infused it with the plan he

had drawn in his mind.

"It won't hold!!"

At that very instant, the sound of metal being ripped apart

thundered through the room.

"Eyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Daphne's shout was followed by Bors's howl as he and his wrecked

shield flew into the air.

" !!"

With roars that sounded like declarations of victory, an avalanche of

monsters spilled into the room.

What began to take place afterward was a portrait of hell.

Intent on trampling the adventurers whose battle line had crumpled,

the monsters set upon them from every direction.

"Form a circle! Don't show the monsters your backs!"

The party just barely managed to obey Aisha's blurted command and

form a circle, but it clearly wouldn't last long. The monsters pressed

further into the circle second by second, its circumference shrinking

as if it were being steadily shaved away.

Soon, they were forced back to where Cassandra was guarding

Mikoto and Haruhime. Aside from the central area, the entire room

was filled with monsters.

"Aaaaaah…!"

Concentric rings of monsters surrounded the adventurers. Cassandra

felt the strength draining from her body as she stared out at them.

The fighters were still repelling their enemies' fangs and claws, but

just barely. The moment they had lost control of the room, their

morale had flagged.

Their faces smeared with blood and sweat, the party was on the

verge of accepting utter destruction.

Cassandra stiffened as despair breathed down her collar for the

umpteenth time, and was about to press her eyes shut.

—?

But as she did, she realized something.

That sound—

The hammer had gone quiet.

The melody of the forge, which had continued up till that point no

matter how fierce the howling of the monsters, had stopped.

Cassandra looked over her shoulder, unsure what this change meant.

"

"

—

And then she saw it glittering.

Whoa—!

"Ouka!"

At exactly the same moment, razor-sharp claws shredded Ouka's

shoulder, and at long last, he collapsed. Chigusa screamed his name

as several bloodthirsty mermen flew at him.

Their black shadows engulfed Ouka, who had stopped breathing.

Their hideous fangs bore down on his fallen form—and then they

burst into flame.

"…What?"

"GYAAAAAAAA!"

As jaws of fire devoured the pack of mermen, time halted for Ouka,

Lilly, and the monsters alike.

The flames had come from the center of the room.

Their source was the patch of ground inhabited by a single man,

whom Lilly and the others had protected.

Everyone looked in his direction.

Like Cassandra, who was staring wide-eyed and unable to pull her

gaze away, each of them processed what they were seeing.

"

"

—

The smith stood tall.

Though his undine cloth flapped in waves of heat, its hems singed, he

stood quiet and calm.

In his left hand, he held his bandana.

In his right hand, he held a gallant crimson longsword.

"

—

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

O!!"

The monsters had regained their destructive instinct. Shaking off

their confusion, they flew at the adventurers, intent on initiating

another bloodbath.

"Can you give me a hand?"

"What?"

From all directions, every monster in the room flew at him.

Welf was standing next to Cassandra with no means to block them

on his own.

"I can't do it by myself—would you grab hold of this?"

Cassandra peered into his eyes and grasped the hilt of the magic

sword he held out.

Monster fangs and claws drew close.

The adventurers took their stances.

Welf wrapped his hands around the same hilt Cassandra was

gripping and pointed the tip of the blade toward the ground.

"Here we go!"

For Welf, this was the beginning.

It was a mere foothold for reaching the level of mastery that the

deity of the forge had achieved.

He puffed out his chest as he spoke.

To save his friends, and to carve his will into the world, he roared the

weapon's name for all the Dungeon to hear.

"Shikou—Kazuki!"

He thrust the blade into the ground.

Instantaneously, huge crimson flames leaped upward.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OO!"

Precisely as the monsters prepared to launch themselves toward

Ouka, Chigusa, Lilly, Daphne, and Aisha, flames erupted from directly

below.

Neatly avoiding the adventurers—or rather, protecting them with a

formidable wall—the flames leaped up in overlapping circles like a

flower of fire. They had traveled through the ground from the tip of

Welf's sword and blossomed explosively the moment they reached

the monsters' feet.

The group of adventurers standing at the eye of the storm was

dumbfounded by the power of the flames and the waves of heat

they radiated. Beyond the crimson haze, they heard mermen,

kelpies, blue crabs, and lamias howling as they burned.

The inferno was so powerful it immolated even water monsters

normally resistant to fire attacks. Blasting in all directions around the

adventurers, it looked as if the sun had descended into the Dungeon.

"

—Ah."

A flash of light shot across Casssandra's brain.

That most hideous of nightmares replayed in her mind alongside

lines from the prophecy. In the dream, Lilly had died with her guts

spilled everywhere; Haruhime had drowned in a sea of blood, torn to

pieces; the bodies of Mikoto, Chigusa, and Ouka had been piled atop

one another; Aisha, carrying the body of the renart, had teetered

from exhaustion before finally getting swarmed and then devoured

by multitudes of monsters; and a blood-drenched, hollow-eyed

Daphne had drawn her last breath.

The prophecy clearly referred to death, and the images had depicted

annihilation—but Welf alone had not been included.

"The hammer shall be shattered…" Welf had lost his arms and legs

in a cruel vision.

Certainly, his arms and legs had been severed in her dream.

But that was all.

In the prophecy, too, Welf was the only one whose certain death had

not been hinted at with words like "flowers of flesh" or "torn to

pieces."

What if he lost his four limbs but still remained alive?

The last remaining piece of the prophecy, the warning in the

sixteenth line, connected everything.

Gather the fragments—The fragments were Welf's four limbs. This

suggested Cassandra, the healer, would restore them.

Consecrate the flame—This was a metaphor for lighting a fire in the

furnace in order to refine the magic blades.

And finally, beseech the sun's light—the answer to this puzzle was

already plain to see.

"A great sun…no, it's blooming crimson lotus flowers in the shape

of the sun."

An inferno in the shape of a sun had formed to protect the

adventurers in their circular battle formation. And that "sun's light"

had indeed incinerated countless monsters.

Heal the smith, watch over him as he worked at forging, and blaze a

new trail with his magic blade.

That was the full meaning of the sixteenth line.

Cassandra's actions had changed the future, and as a result, Welf

never lost his four limbs. Neither had Daphne and the others died.

Cassandra had won out over fate without losing a single one of her

companions.

—She had managed to prevent the prophecy from coming true.

The prophetess of tragedy, fully understanding for the first time,

stood rooted to the ground as the flames illuminated her face. Her

hands still gripping the hilt of the magic sword, she looked at the face

of the young man beside her.

Welf gazed out at the towering flames and slowly parted his lips.

"That's right…this is the beginning. The beginning of my quest for

supremacy."

For Welf, it was the beginning.

It was a mere foothold for reaching the level of mastery that the

deity of the forge had achieved.

The sword hilt he still gripped tightly was no more than a masterful

forgery born through imitating Hephaistos's creations.

That's why he had partly dubbed it Shikou, or First Height. It was a

name that contained his ambition to reach true mastery as well as

signaling the start of his journey to realize that goal.

It was the beginning of his climb toward the peaks—the first of a

series, worthy of commemoration.

The strength of this new type of magic blade depended on the

magical power of its user, and for that reason, it would never run

dry. Its life span was not determined by a predetermined expiration

date.

This sword was not fated to crumble; it had shaken off that destiny.

It was a Welf's Magic Sword—the only one in the entire world. This weapon's strength was not only directly in proportion to its user's

strength, it would continue to develop as its owner grew. Just a

moment ago, Welf had added the magical power of Cassandra, a

healer, to his own in order to increase the sword's attack strength.

Welf's magic blades would never shatter again.

Never again would they corrupt the pride of the person who used

them or the dignity of the smith who created them.

They would accompany their user through life, developing together

like a part of their own body, forging a bond that only death could

separate.

"…Hey, you guys."

The braying of the flames had faded and the room was quiet again.

As Daphne and then all the others slowly turned to face him with

incredulous eyes, Welf addressed them.

"I'm ready to give back the lives you put in my hands."

He pulled Kazuki from the ground and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

Daphne's eyes happened to meet Welf's at that exact moment, and

she blushed.

Cassandra smiled at the smith, who looked exhausted but at peace.

Ouka also recovered from his stunned state and turned up the

corners of his mouth.

"You did it!!"

He, Aisha, Bors, and even Lilly joined in praising the smith.

Welf grinned faintly in return, then grew serious. They had to get

moving, and fast.

Leaving behind immense heaps of ash that had once been monsters,

the adventurers dashed out of the room.

"

—?"

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 naginata-style 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 man-made 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?"