No one's POV
Adventurer 1: Boris, this is bad!
Adventurer 2: I've never heard the Dungeon make this noise before! Let's get outta here!
The adventurers had gathered together again after being scattered by their encounter with Gale Wind, and they were now chasing her and Bell in a group.
They were determined to kill the legendary fugitive with their own hands. She had managed to get away after the surprise attack, but they were sure that with a group this big, they would be able to take her down.
Things were changing quickly, however. There had been the tremendous explosions on the twenty-fifth floor, and now the wails that were unquestionably coming from the Dungeon. Everyone guessed that the high-frequency sounds, so loud they could not stand to leave their ears uncovered, signaled an irregularity.
The upper-class adventurers knew something unprecedented was about to happen, and without exception they petitioned the head of Rivira to evacuate the party from the floor.
Adventurer 3: Hey, Boris! Boris!
Boris:...Wait.
Adventurers: Huh?
They stopped moving as Boris thrust his palm toward them. He removed his other hand from the side of his giant eye-patch-adorned head and muttered.
Boris: The sound...has stopped.
(Elsewhere)
The mermaid wrapped her arms around her body.
Marie(mind): Ugh...I hate this sound...!
She was deep underwater, surrounded by bluish darkness. She had dived down to escape the horrible cry of her mother, the Dungeon, trying to hide in the water. Her body curled like a fetus, she desperately pressed her hands against the fins that served as her ears.
Marie(mind): I'm scared, scared, scared...!
It had happened before, just once. It had been five years ago, she was sure. She had heard her mother's lament coming from far deeper in the Dungeon. Of course, that time it had nothing to do with Marie, who could not leave the Water Capital, but still, she had been frightened. Something bad had been born that time, too. She didn't know much, but she knew that. She understood.
Marie pressed her hands to her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. She had escaped to the depths of the water in an attempt to separate herself from the terrifying reality. But behind her shut eyelids, she saw her friends and her family—the Xenos. The Xenos, and an image of the back of the boy she had met so recently in the Dungeon. That boy, who was as important to her as her own family, was here. He was already among her most prized treasures.
Marie(mind): Bell...!
She pushed away her fear and forced her eyes open. Her tears spilling into the water and her tail beating against it, the mermaid swam toward the surface where the light filtered in.
(Elsewhere)
Lili: That was close...
Lili muttered, ignoring the bead of sweat that was dripping down her chin. Before her eyes was a collapsed crystal floor. Far below, she could see the raging waterway. Her party had barely managed to escape disaster thus far as they ran through the crumbling twenty-fifth floor, explosions ringing out all around them and destroying anything resembling a road.
They didn't know how extensive the damage was, but they knew it was bad. In any case, it was no time to be fighting monsters, who were in the same situation as they were. The water paradise had become a ruined capital, and some routes were now impassable. Lili feared that until the Dungeon finished repairing itself, they would not be able to make it back to the passageway that led to the twenty-fourth floor.
Aisha: I'm worried about these explosions, but...!
Welf: That insanely high-pitched noise just a minute ago... Was that from the twenty-seventh floor?!
Mikoto: If that was an irregularity, then Sir Bell...?!
Aisha, Welf, and Mikoto were equally distraught.
Daphne: Cassandra! Cassandra! Pull yourself together!
Haruhime: Lady Cassandra?
But the healer was more upset than any of them. She was collapsed on the floor, unresponsive to Daphne, who was kneeling by her side and shaking her shoulder, or Haruhime, who was frantically calling her name. The strength had drained from her legs, and she gripped her head in both hands. Her face was white. Her blood had drained away to the point that her companions wondered whether it was possible for a person to sink that deeply into despair.
Rin: Sora...!
Muller: Hey...! Please...! Say something! You know what's going on... don't you?!
Even the Level 4 duo was pale as they begged an explanation from the Hero. But the Hero didn't say anything as he stare right above the ceiling of the dungeon. He was gripping his hand so tightly that blood started spilling from it.It was strange. Lili couldn't understand what had happened. Ouka and Welf felt the same as they looked on, holding their breath nervously. Their ability to think was dulled in the midst of the chaos. None of them could barely make out what Cassandra was saying.
Cassandra: n...un...
She was shrieking something over and over.
Cassandra: Run...!
(Elsewhere)
As the sound of shattering crystal rocks rang out, it silently appeared from within the fissure. Spawned from the wall of the cavern, it fell into the plunge pool with a tremendous splash.
Its newborn cry was an unpleasantly warm sigh. As the crashing sound of the Great Falls beat against its skin, the white mist veiled its silhouette. It neither howled nor roared a battle cry but instead swished its long tail and moved its two legs, sending ripples across the water's surface. Deep in its eye socket, a sinister crimson light glinted.
At the edge of the plunge pool as broad as a lake, it bent its joints, and its knees creaked. The next instant, it disappeared. It had burst from the water's surface and into the floor's internal maze.
(Elsewhere)
Adventurer 7: Hey, shouldn't we try to meet up with Boris?
Adventurer 5: Idiot. We save our own skins first!
The small band of adventurers was on the twenty-seventh floor, but they had been unable to meet up with Bors's main party. Instead, the four-man party comprised of humans and animal people had hurriedly turned back up the road they came down. They had lost their nerve in the face of the Dungeon's irregularity.
For a bunch of hooligans who made their living by exploring the Dungeon, it was the obvious course of action. But things didn't go as they expected.
Adventurer 6:...? What's that noise...?
Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam! A strange sound was coming from behind them. It sounded like something was jumping up and down. The adventurers stopped and looked over their shoulders. The noise was quickly approaching them. A shadow flickered in the depths of the passage.
Adventurer 7: Huh?
Adventurer 5: Something's com—
Pop! There was a rather pleasant sound, and then the adventurer's head burst open, so that he could not finish his sentence. Even when his final moment came, he did not know what had happened. He had become a silent lump of flesh, with fountains of blood spurting from him as his knees sank to the ground.
It happened four times.
They were annihilated. It ignored the fresh blood dripping from its claws and trampled on the adventurers' corpses. As its massive shadow fell over the maze, the monster reversed course. It was headed toward its next prey.
(Elsewhere)
Adventurer 8: A...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
A scream echoed through the Dungeon. It was the wail of a weeping lancer. His small party had been demolished by a sudden attack. The elven sorcerer had been killed first. She had been determined to purge her shameful fellow elf Gale Wind from their race, and her pridefulness verged on bragging, making her an unpleasant woman to be around.
Still, although she was not docile, she was thoughtful in her strange way, and he had thought her something of a good woman. She was the first to fall victim to the claws. Her body was ripped in half at the waist. Her guts spilled out and blood dripped from her vacant eyes. She had died in a way no proud elf would willingly allow. And so the man had lost control of himself and thrust his sword forward. But it met only air. Everything before him went black, and his head split open. When he fell, his hand brushed the cheek of the elf who cried tears of blood.
Adventurer 9: What is this thing? I don't know...What are youuuuuuuu?!
The ninth adventurer, a half elf and the last one left standing, pulled out his magic blade. There was an explosion followed by flames. When the smoke cleared, it had disappeared, leaving the burned corpse of the fifth adventurer sprawled in the passage.
(Elsewhere)
The shadow ran and danced, and then the next one did, and the next. The Dungeon filled with screams. Screams of agony were joined by fountains of blood.
Adventurer 10: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Faster and faster, so fast it was unbelievable, the corpses multiplied. It had a merciless sense of where the adventurers were, and it snuffed out their lives one by one. Its slashing claws tore apart whatever they came in contact with. Its biting fangs chewed through flesh and armor alike. Its thrashing tail knocked blood from the mouths of adventurers. There was nothing the fifty-some adventurers on the twenty-seventh floor could do. They were simply slaughtered.
Adventurer 11: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!
All who saw it cried out.
Adventurer 12: What is that huge thi—?!
All who saw it trembled with fear.
Adventurer 13: The t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t t-t-t-t-teeth are...
All who saw it were destroyed and devoured. Their screams echoed. Their weapons shattered. They tried to run, but they could not.
Adventurer 14: Bors, save us!! Sav—Aaah!!
Adventurer 15: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
The banquet was unending.
(Elsewhere)
There were many "wails" as the "road of viscera" was built within the crystal maze. The "azure current" now "ran red with blood." As the corpses of the adventurers multiplied one by one, the monsters— the "grotesque horde"—rejoiced. They drank the blood of the humans that stained the waterways as if it were fresh dew, and they greedily devoured the bodies the water carried to them as if they were the finest meat.
Some adventurers bloomed into "flowers of flesh."
Some were "swiftly torn asunder."
Some were "shattered."
The dignity of some became as "playthings."
Those who tried in desperation to escape were knocked down by other monsters, who swarmed around them and tore them apart with "countless" fangs and claws," and they were "mourned" all the more miserably. Those who died and left their comrades behind "imparted sorrow." But those who mourned them soon followed the same path. The Water Capital had transformed into the stage for a massacre.
(Elsewhere)
Chigusa: Oh my...!
Ouka: This is...
When they saw it, Chigusa trembled in fear and Ouka was stunned. They were in the cavern on the twenty-fifth floor. Lili and the rest of the party stood on the cliff at the mouth of the waterfall, near the passage leading to the twenty-sixth floor, and looked down on the scene as the falling water thundered in their ears. They had just emerged into the cavern.
The Great Falls ran red. A faint, fleeting red. The cascade, which was directly connected to the waterways within the maze, was spitting out a river of blood produced by the monsters' feast. The emerald-blue of the plunge pool on the twenty-seventh floor was but a faint memory.
Bobbing in the water far below, so distant they looked to Lilly and the others like black specks, were the dismembered legs and arms of the half- devoured corpses. The pitiful fragments of weapons and adventurers floated and sank at the lowest level of the water paradise. The "depths of hell" overflowed with corpses, returning all to the "mother," the Dungeon.
Welf: No way...Is that all...blood...?
Welf could not conceal the shaking in his voice.
Mikoto: It's insane; how many adventurers...?
Rin: Not everyone who went to the twenty-seventh floor...?
Rin and Mikoto's voice, too, faded away as they contemplated the possibility.
Lili: Please stop joking around!! Master Bell is still alive! Master Bell is...!
Lili said in a panic. Haruhime, even more panicked than Lili, had gone completely white.
Haruhime: Ah, aaah...!!
Even Muller and Aisha were in a daze.
Aisha:...What the hell is happening?
Muller: What's happening to the dungeon?
The second-tier adventurer shifted their gaze from the bloodred plunge pool to the fissure opposite it. For a moment, they forgot to breathe as they imagined what had been spawned from that all-too-deep crevice.
Lili:...Let's go to the twenty-seventh floor! I don't know what's happening, but we have to save Master Bell!
Lili shouted. Far above her, standing on the cliff by the passage leading to the twenty-fourth floor, another group of adventurers was screaming. The tunnel leading to the inside of the twenty-sixth floor was on the southeastern side of the cavern where Lili and the others stood now. Other than Sora, for the other Hestia Familia, the floors below were an unknown world, but all nodded back at Lili. Neither Rin nor Welf nor Mikoto nor Haruhime hesitated for even an instant.
Lili was about to take off running through the cavern with the others in tow when Sora, who had been silent up to that point, grabbed her hand.
Lili: !! Master Sora! This isn't the time to play arou—
She broke off mid-word when she looked up at the face of the Hero grasping her small hand in his own. Out of all the people there, Sora's gaze was far more serious than it has ever been. No one, not even Rin who was the closest to him had ever seen Sora made such face.
Rin: Sora...?
Rin said, standing as still as Lili. Welf and the others had stopped as well and were staring silently at Sora. Until Cassandra started muttering.
Cassandra: I'm sorry...I'm sorry; I'm sorry; I'm sorry...!
She was sobbing. Her face was filled with despair. She hung her head as tears overflowed from her eyes. She was apologizing to those who were not there.
Cassandra: I'm sorry; I'm sorry...!!
She was apologizing to the countless adventurers she had given up on because they would not believe her. And also to the boy she had allowed to go to the place of disaster. She could not stop apologizing.
Sora: All of you...
They all looked at Sora whom still wouldn't let go of Lili's hand. What they saw shock them, especially Lili whom could feel it with her own hand. Sora's hand were trembling.
Sora: Get out of this floor this instance!! I'm the only one who needs to head to the 27th floor!!
This was the "banquet of calamity." The Dungeon said nothing. It merely accepted the blood that flew onto its walls, as if this was the proper course of events. The crystals that had sparkled blue before were stained with blood now, transforming the fantastical scene that had struck Bell's party with wonder into a picture of hell. The Dungeon knew how their journey would end. No one would return alive.
Everyone: !!
They all looked Sora in shock.
Rin: Sora, what's wrong?
They all looked at Sora demanding explanation. For Sora, time stood still. He spoke gravely.
Sora: That thing has come out...
Muller: Thing? What are you referring to? What are you saying, Sora?
Muller's voice rose in panic in response to the Hero's strange behavior. Sora gazed through narrowed eyes toward the underground world spread beneath his feet as he spoke, trying to calm down his ragged breath.
Sora: The monster that decimated the former Astrea Familia five years ago...
Everyone:...?!
Sora continued to speak solemnly to the dumbstruck Rin and everybody else.
Sora: The calamity has begun again...
(Elsewhere)
The crystals on the ceiling have dimmed now, like magic-stone lanterns about to run out of energy, because of the explosions on the twenty-fifth floor. As the room grows ever darker, sounds reach our ears.
Bell: This is...?!
The chaotic howls of monsters. The sound of something shaking the Dungeon. And mixed in with it all, distant but distinctly human screams. The sounds intertwine in a strange, unsettling melody.
Bell(mind): What are these sounds? What are these screams?!
As Bell support Ryuu's body, he cannot prevent himself from screaming at the man in front of them.
Bell: What did you do?!
Jura: It's a ritual, you see!
He smiles with deep joy.
Jura: A ritual to wake me from my nightmare!
Bell: Nightmare...?
Jura's sunken eyes shine glassily, as if he's gone mad. It's hopeless. Bell had no idea what Jura was talking about. What spurs on Bell's panic was the fact that this guy standing in front of them grinning is in just as bad a situation as they are. He's dripping sweat as monsters keep howling and the Dungeon shakes, and he looks like his teeth are about to start chattering.
As if he, too, is heading toward the jaws of death—. But what worries Bell's even more than that was the way Ryuu—who's always been so calm and cool—was acting right now.
Ryuu: Jura...!
She steps away from Bell's arms and tries to calm her ragged breath. But her small frame will not obey her will. As if she was battling a fear on the verge of overflowing or, more likely, because she cannot escape the chains of trauma that bind her, she continues to shake violently. She wraps her arms tightly around her chest and glares piercingly at the catman. Far from shrinking, however, he seems to find the situation enjoyable.
Jura: So you still haven't figured it out, eh, Rabbit Foot, even though Lion is so upset she's practically dying? I've called it here to the twenty-seventh floor!
Ryuu: Stop!!
He ignores Ryuu's plea and merely shouts again. His next words left Bell speechless.
Jura: I've summoned the beast that butchered Astrea Familia! Five years ago, my familia, Rudra Familia, was in a feud with Astrea Familia, you see! I don't know who was in the right or whatever, but they were getting in the way of us Evilus and we couldn't stand it! So we decided to trap them in the Dungeon!
Bell gaped in shock as Jura's words echoed through the room on the twenty-seventh floor. A signal throbbed in the back of his mind. What he was hearing now was linked to the story Sora had told him on the eighteenth floor.
Jura: Just like today, we collected a whole lot of inferno stones! We thought we'd lure Lion and her familia down there and bury them alive! But those tough bastards didn't die. We actually ended up on the defensive!
Fear and anger rose in Jura's eyes as he recalled that day. Suddenly, though, his emotions seemed to cool, and an unsettling smile curled his lips.
Jura: But then...something happened that we hadn't expected.
Ryuu's face distorted, and Jura flinched.
Bell: Unexpected...?
Bell asked, sweat dripping down his face. The catman went pale, but all the same, he continued to grin.
Jura: An abomination spawned from the Dungeon, you see! A totally insane monster that no one had seen or even heard of before!
(Elsewhere)
Sora: When excessive damage occurs, it provokes a self-protective instinct... The Dungeon's lament was so terrible even Ourano's prayers could not reach it.
Sora spoke sorrowfully as he listened to the continuing voice of the Dungeon. On that day five years ago, Rudra Familia had recklessly brought masses of Inferno Stones into the Dungeon, causing huge explosions to erupt on one of the floors. The damage had been so extensive the term maze no longer held any meaning. And then the Dungeon had sent out its warning signal.
Sora: If they had simply damaged the structure of the maze, nothing much would have happened. The Dungeon would have repaired itself and regenerated. It has such great power that the children call it an 'infinite resource'...
Rin: But if destructive behavior is so great, so excessive...that the regeneration cannot keep pace...
Sora: Yes... The Dungeon chooses not regeneration but elimination of the source of the damage.
It was quite simple, really, if one thought of the Dungeon as a living creature. When a foreign organism attacks a human internally, the immune system acts to kill the invading pathogen. This is the natural self-defensive instinct of all living creatures. The same holds true for the Dungeon. As the adventurers say, "The Dungeon is alive."
When the womb of all monsters is attacked too fiercely, the living underground maze activates its defensive instincts and spawns a being that serves as its immune response. This being that kills foreign organisms—in this case, invading adventurers —can be thought of as the Dungeon's apostle. And it shakes off even the will of Ouranos, whose role is to hold the Dungeon in check.
Muller: Are you saying that the same level of damage that occurred five years ago has happened once again?
Sora: That seems to be the case...
The being the Dungeon spawned five years ago was an Irregular. Ouranos had not anticipated it, meaning neither had Sora or Astrea Familia or Rudra Familia; it was a truly unknown monster. Loki Familia had never seen it, nor had Freya Familia, nor had either of the two largest familias at the time, those of Zeus and Hera. Which is to say, in the thousand years since the deities had descended to the mortal plane, the phenomenon had been observed only once.
Everyone: !!
Only Ouranos, who prayed to the Dungeon for mercy, had noticed it. And only the victims of this nameless monster had ever laid eyes upon it. The victims were, Sora, former Astrea Familia, and Rudra Familia.
(Elsewhere)
Jura: On that day... all of my allies were slaughtered until only I was left. But guess what! So were all of those stupid bitches from the Astrea Familia! It would've killed Lion as well if that Flash didn't come to the rescue!
As Bell listened to the full story that Sora and Ryuu had kept from him, everything but shock drained from his mind. Beside him, Ryuu's face was filled with pain.
Jura: I spent these past 5 years studying it. I investigated all the details of what caused it and how I could summon that monster again! I didn't ask any of the Evilus' Remnants—I did it all myself! And oh boy, did I learn a lot! Like the fact that going beyond the middle floors. And intentionally causing a staggering amount of damage to the dungeon on a lower floor would then spawn the monster on that very same floor! Also, the crucial fact that the dungeon can perceive floors 25th through 27th as one single whole! Cheer up, Lion. You have the honor of seeing the fruits of my research as I announce them to the world! Hahahahahahaha!
Ryuu: Damn, you Jura!
Bell could not believe his ears as he listened to Jura's overheated explanation. His head still swimming with astonishment and his lips trembling, he finally spoke.
Bell: Why?! Why would you want to summon a horrific monster like that a SECOND time?!
Jura: Isn't that obvious? Because I'm going to tame it!
Jura snapped back instantly.
Bell: Tame it? You can't be serious? Are you completely out of your mind?!
Jura: Even though I was pissing and shitting myself that time, as a tamer I couldn't take my eyes off it. Lion, did it look like a monster to you? Not to me! To me, it was more beautiful than a goddess!!
Ryuu returned Jura's glance with an indecipherable gaze. For the first time, the catman's voice was trembling.
Bell(mind): A monster lover.
The phrase rose to Bell's mind.
Jura: Its presence was overwhelming, killing everything, destroying everything! I wanted it; I wanted it all for myself!!
Perhaps because he was a tamer, his eyes glittered like a child's, and his voice throbbed with a perverse joy. At the time, even though the overwhelming awe and fear had made his whole body tremble, he had earnestly longed to possess the monster. Jura had, in a sense, deified and worshipped the horrible creature. In other words, the one-armed tamer had been enraptured by the beast whose overwhelming power gave rise to such tragedy. Ryuu glared angrily at Jura as he revealed his deepest motivations.
Ryuu: You're insane! That thing is practically the devil itself! There's absolutely no way that you can control it!
Jura: In normal circumstances, sure! But look... I have this baby!
Jura pulled out an expandable collar. By resonating with the whip, the magic item fashioned by the Evils could tame even monsters from the deep levels.
Bell(mind): Oh right! He used that to control the Lambton! It's a magic item!
Jura: Once I have control of that thing, then nothing will scare me anymore! And nobody can threaten me again!
Ryuu:...?!
Jura: Not even you, Lion!
Jura pointed at Lyu with his remaining hand, his loathing burning high.
Jura: Until now, there hasn't been a single night when you didn't haunt my dreams! Yes, they were nightmares! But when I summon that monster...Yes! I will overcome the nightmare of that day!
As Bell listened to the furious stream of words, the meaning of nightmare and overcome were clear to him. Ryuu was the embodiment of Jura's trauma, and he planned to use her personal trauma to humiliate and erase her. There was no room for sympathy toward this man. All the same, Bell could see that he, too, was another individual tormented by the past.
Jura: It's mine! I'll never give it up!
Jura howled, looking toward the ceiling. Five years of investigation and research had led Jura to two conclusions. First, no matter how much damage was inflicted on the upper levels, the Dungeon would not let out its "wail," or even so much as a warning. This was because the zone near the surface was heavily affected by the will of Ouranos. Therefore, he determined, the monster could not be summoned to that area.
His second conclusion had to do with the conditions needed for the nameless monster to appear. The damage to the floors had to be so severe, the Dungeon could not keep up with repairs. If that level of damage was inflicted, the monster would be spawned on the same floor. The monster could not be summoned without taking certain measures. By comparing the number of Inferno Stones his familia used five years ago and the data on damage to the Dungeon against hundreds of locations on maps, Jura had determined that approximately 20 percent of a given floor had to be destroyed. In other words, the very structure of the Dungeon had to be undermined.
Jura had tamed and then sacrificed a large number of monsters during his five years of experiments in destruction. Based on the minute reactions of the Dungeon, he had finally concluded that the Dungeon viewed the entire Water Capital as a single floor.
(Elsewhere)
Sora: No one knew of this Dungeon taboo. If we had issued some sort of regulation, we would have ended up revealing that something was there... So Ouranos had no choice but to keep quiet and suppress the truth. I was summoned directly to Ouranos chamber 5 years ago to make sure I don't leak this to anyone.
The assumption was that under ordinary circumstances, no one would be able to cause large-scale damage to the sprawling floors of the middle levels or below. Who, after all, would risk their own life to do such a thing? Sora and the former Astrea Familia, which had witnessed the monster, had been wiped out, and Rudra Familia had been exterminated to the last man by Gale Wind.
Sora and Ryuu were the only two left who knew the truth about what had happened, and Ouranos had not thought that Ryuu—having experienced tragedy so directly—would ever test the limits of the taboo. In other words, it should never have spawned again. That would have been true, if Gale Wind had not failed to kill Jura.
Sora: That's why... All of you. Head back to the 18th floor safety point.
They all exclaim in shock.
Rin: You can't be serious! Are you expecting us to just stay safe while you fight such terrifying opponent all on your own?!
Sora: A high level 8 monster, Rin... The same as the Red Juggernaut that I fought a week ago.
Rin: !!
Sora: With a speed that far surpasses the Red Juggernaut. Strength that is beyond the Black Minotaur that Bell fought at floor 9. Immune to all Magic attacks and Magic Swords. A monster whose living purpose but to slaughtered anything it sees. A monster that cannot be tamed. And finally, a monster with no Magic Stones.
Everyone:...
Hestia Familia, Muller, Aisha, Ouka, Chigusa, Daphne, and Cassandra couldn't believe what they were hearing. Sora continue, to make sure he gave every last detail.
Sora: I too barely survive that fight 5 years ago. Other than Ryuu, I failed to save the other Astrea Familia members. This is a fight, that I gotta make sure that I don't have to worry about anyone. That's why... Return back to the 18th floor! I'll bring Bell and Ryuu!
Everyone:...
(Elsewhere)
Bell: So there's a monster powerful enough to wipe out Miss Ryuu's entire Familia, and was even on par with someone like Sora, and you seriously just summoned it to this floor?!
Bell could not piece together all the information that had been thrown at him so quickly.
Bell(mind): It's no use! I can't keep up.
As the sound of his own heart pounded unpleasantly in his ears, Bell frantically tried to understand.
Bell(mind): So the monster that Jura intentionally called here by destroying the floors is Ryuu's true enemy...
That nightmare was never supposed to return. But now it was rampaging through this floor, exterminating what it viewed as a virus. In other words—
Bell: Mr Boris?!
Having finally figured out what was going on, Bell turned toward the entrance of the room and the maze beyond, where he could still hear monsters howling as if in celebration. The faces of the adventurers in Boris's party rose before his mind's eye, and he was about to take off running in their direction when Ryuu grabbed his arm.
Bell: Miss Ryuu?! We need to hurry and save the other adventurers down here!
Ryuu: No...!
Her delicate elf's hand was as white as snow.
Ryuu: You must not go! If you try to fight that thing...!
For the first time, Bell saw a look of pleading fill her face. Her normally resolute blue eyes wavered with despair. It was as if she was crying without any tears—as if she was looking through him and pleading with some phantom of the past not to go forward. Bell was torn over what to do. He said nothing.
Jura: That's right, Lion! You can't let it go, can you?! You fought that monster yourself, and you know even better than I do how terrifying it is!
Once again, Jura cackled.
Jura: Not to mention...
Bell gasped at the catman's next words.
Jura:...the fact that you don't want to butcher more of your friends with your own hands!
Ryuu's face seemed to crack.
Jura: Oh yes, that's what you did!
Ryuu: Shut up.
Jura: To save your precious self!
Ryuu: Shut up!
Jura: By sacrificing your friends, you were finally able to drive off the monster! Oh wait, even that had failed!
Ryuu: Shut up!
Jura: If it wasn't for that Flash, you'd be dead! You sacrificed your friends life for nothing!
Ryuu: Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!!
The catman laughed. Bell stood rooted to the ground. Ryuu threw her head back and howled. The three of them were trapped in the chaos of their entangled emotions. Just at that instant, a roar thundered through the Dungeon.
(Timeskip)
For a moment, after the hair-raising roar died down, the entire floor was silent. Bell couldn't breathe. Ryuu stood frozen. Jura shuddered. Both the carefully cultivated senses of the three adventurers and their most basic animal instincts were screaming warning signals. The tremor of horror lasted for only a second. The floor quaked in unison, and when the momentary hush was shattered, a mad rush of men and women flooded into the room where Bell stood.
Adventurers: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!
The pack of adventurers arrived with Boris at the head. It was the hunting party that both Bell and Ryuu knew so well. Only now, its size had clearly shrunk. Those who remained were spattered with copious amounts of blood—and it was not their own. Bell gaped at them.
Bell: Mr. Bor—
His scream died mid-word. A pair of bloodred eyes floated faintly in the darkness beyond the entrance to the room. Icy claws gripped his heart.
Bell(mind): There it is.
An instant later, the shadow disappeared into the darkness.
Bell: !!
Bell heard the sound of crystal being crushed underfoot, and then a flash of movement grazed past Bors and his party as they tried to flee. It continued on without stopping, whizzing at a slant over Bell's head.
He didn't even have a chance to react. By the time he whipped his head around, one member of Boris's party was missing. Gripped by terror, still not understanding what had happened, he scanned the room behind him. Nothing was there.
Bell: Aa...Aaaa...
It was above him. Like a giant spider, it clung there gripping the joint between the wall and the ceiling. The ill-fated missing adventurer was clenched between its jaws.
Bell:—
The form illuminated by the light of the crystals was huge and thin. It resembled a skeletal centipede with an elongated skull for a head and red shining eyes. The majority of the creature's bones, including its arms, legs, and rib cage functioned like scythes. Oddly, the bony, nearly fleshless form was covered in a shell that at first glance looked like a coat of armor. The eye color was deeper and far more malicious than that of Bell's rubellite eyes. If Bell had to describe the monster's overall appearance, he would have called it a "dinosaur fossil wearing armor." Even among the innumerable monsters inhabiting the Dungeon, it was clearly an Irregular.
Bell:—
Its body, suspended upside down as it gripped the crystal wall with the claws of its feet and stared down at Bell and the other adventurers, measured 9 meters long. There was no question this was a large-category monster. Its most conspicuous feature was its fang-like claws. Extending from the ends of its bony arms, legs, and rib cage that look like a scythes. At the sight of them, Ryuu sank into despair and Jura smiled twitchily.
The monster that inflicted such tragedy five years ago had appeared once again before the two adventurers, and now for the first time, Bell was seeing it, too. Its crimson eyes scrutinized the remaining adventurers.
Adventurer 1: H-help m—
Crunch. Before the eyes of the stunned Bell, the monster bit through the adventurer it held between its teeth, as if doing so was the most ordinary thing in the world.
(Elsewhere)
Here was the prime culprit behind Astrea Familia's suffering. At the time, people had said it would only be a matter of time before the young female adventurers who made up the familia attained first-tier status. But this one monster had decimated them, erasing their future in a matter of minutes. Two had been Level Three. Eight had been Level Four. This nameless monster had wiped out all ten of these second-tier adventurers.
Sora: The name of this disastrous fiend is "Skull Reaper The destroyer".
Everyone could only listen at what they were hearing as Sora told them everything he knows about the so called monster Skull Reaper. They could not piece together all the information that had been thrown at them so quickly. But Sora continues.
Sora: I have to go. I already wasted to much time explaining all of this to you. If I don't get there fast, Bell, Ryuu and the other hunting party will be slaughtered.
Everyone's face all shudder in horror at the possibility Bell dying.
Lili: Master Sora... Please...
Haruhime: Please save Master Bell!
Sora: Yeah. But before I go. Welf...
Welf: Y-Yes...
Sora: Here...
Sora grabbed the huge wrapped piece of clothes that he carried on his back and gave it to Welf. His heart immediately started pumping loudly from everyone to hear.
Welf: Is this a sword...
It was the sword that Sora had found on the 24th floor. It was a weapon carefully forged by a blacksmith. No one knew how Sora could have such giant sword. Nobody knows whether the smith that forged it hid it here or if it belonged to an adventurer who was defeated.
Welf: Is this...
Mikoto: Sir Welf! Is something wrong?
Rin: A sword...?
Once again Welf's heart started thumbing loudly.
Sora: Welf. I'm sure you already know what this is.
Welf: It's the ancestor's sword. My blood is screaming. It's a weapons forged by an ancient Crozzo.
Everyone: !!
Muller: Seriously?!
Welf: I'm sure of it. I have no idea why you have this, but it's the Origin Sword. Unbelievable...
It's not just an ordinary blade. How much training did the first Crozzo take to create such beauty? What kind of material was used? How is it so well balanced? All thoughts were consuming Welf's mind. The sword was forged with the wills of several craftsmen. How was it that people from thousands of years ago forged such sword?
Sora: I can't go into details right now. But...
Sora then leaned on to Welf's ear and whisper.
Sora(whisper): Me and Slyphid had already add some of our Spirit Blood into this sword. Now all that's left is for you to revive this sword with your own Spirit blood. And revive this sword. And with that, a Magic Swords that will never break will finally be forged by you and you alone.
Welf: !!
Sora didn't gave time for Welf to ask questions as he reached towards Rin and leaned on her ears as well.
Rin: S-Sora...?
Sora: You as well Rin. I know how much you hate that Spirit Blood flowing through you. But... Don't hate it. Listen to the voice and knowledge of your past users of this power. Why you were given such ability in the first place? When you do, you will gain a power like no other. It will grant you superhuman strength and it will allow your ability to perform especially powerful and extraordinary feats. That's all...
Rin: W-Wait... What do you...
Sora: I have to go. May the Light of Hope will always accompany you all on your journey!
Without anymore explanation, Sora ran off leaving his party behind as he rush towards the 27th floor. He slip past towards the 26th floor, jumping over ravines and crystals with the fastest speed he could muster without destroying the dungeon even further. He ignore all the monster as they were all too afraid by the aura that Sora was executing. After awhile, he saw a girl with green hair and an elf ear running in front of him. It was Slyphid who had ran ahead in search for Bell, while Sora explained about the Skull Reaper towards his friends. She too had noticed his approached.
Slyphid: There you are...
Sora: You sure this is the right way...?
Slyphid: Yup! We have to hurry Sora! That thing has already taken dozens of lives.
Sora: Right! Godspeed speed of lightning!
Slyphid: Tempest!
Both had activated their magic enchantment as the two of them sped up even further heading towards the nightmare once again. Sora grunted, praying that he would got there in time
Sora(mind): Please....! Please let me make it in time...!!
(Elsewhere)
The adventurer's head quietly fell from between the monster's fangs and split open on the ground. Boris and the others went pale as they watched. Bell's mind went blank. The monster moved again.
Bell:—
Its knees bent backward, extended—and once again it vanished.
Bell: ?!
It moved with unbelievable speed. The wind it threw off was so strong it blew back the adventurers' hair. Bell dodged the streak of purple just in the nick of time. A second later, someone screamed.
Adventurer 2: Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
An animal person had been torn into several pieces. The claws, or scythe or tail were moving so fast they left behind a deep-white arc, had murdered him. It had taken only a single swipe. The massacre continued unabated. The beast pulverized a pair of dwarves with its long flail-like tail. They collapsed, vomiting blood.
Then it brought down its hand onto an elf, crushing her into the ground. Still gripped within its hand, she fell prey to the fang-like claws. Her arms and legs dropped away from her body, now no more than a mangled lump of meat. It devoured a human from the head down. Within a window of time so brief that Bell's mind could not keep up, a chain of five deaths had taken place.
Adventurers: Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Half-crazy with fear and anger, the three adventurers in the front guard rushed forward, swinging their greatsword, mace, and battle-ax. The instant before the weapons landed on their target, the monster crouched nimbly on its backward-bent legs, crushing the crystal floor beneath it, and leaped to the side. The three weapons met nothing but air. The Skull Reaper landed beside a huge cluster of crystals, sending up a spray of debris.
It dashed forward again, and the upper bodies of the three adventurers flew into the air. The purple-blue form did not stop. Springing from one crystal column to the next, it began its mad dance of death.
Adventurer 1: Aaaaaah!!
Each time it passed, fresh blood spewed from adventurers and shredded armor flew toward the ceiling. Like a spider weaving its web, the monster surrounded Boris and his party with intersecting flashes of purple. Caught in this web, the prey vomited blood, lost limbs, and fell to the ground one after the next.
The calamity Cassandra had foreseen in her dream was made real. What allowed the monster to carry out this slaughter that not even a floor boss could have managed was its ability to move at super-high speed. Normally, large-category monsters could not move this fast.
Using the insane power of its legs, it sped like a missile from one corner of the fifty-meder-wide room to the other, efficiently wiping out the virus— that is, the adventurers. It ricocheted off the floor, ceiling, and walls in a continuous series of leaps, swiftly and cruelly massacring the large group of adventurers who had gathered in that chamber of death. They didn't even have time to understand what was happening.
As she watched her nightmare rise to life once again, Ryuu's voice caught in her throat. Even Jura, who was the originator of all the horror, found his legs shaking beneath him.
Bell stared in disbelief.
Adventurers collapsed.
Brave warriors were torn to pieces along with their shields.
Cowards were pierced through as they tried to flee.
The wavering chants of sorcerers turned to requiems as they were murdered.
The rampage wasn't even a battle.
The spectacle of so many deaths in such a brief period of time defied the limits of emotion. As Bell watched the merciless slaughter unfold, he felt neither terror nor despair; instead, it was as if he had been cut loose from all feelings.
Bell: Hang in there, Mr Boris!!
Suddenly, he exploded. With eyes wide open and a wordless roar on his lips, he leaped into the midst of the massacre.
Ryuu: Mr. Cranell?!
Perhaps it was fortunate that Bell had not ventured out into the maze and witnessed the deaths of the other adventurers. After all, just the deaths inside the room had been enough to make him lose his cool entirely. Ignoring Ryuu's shout, he accelerated.
Bell: Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
The savage claws and fangs bore down on the adventurers who not long before had made up Bell's party—the animal-person siblings, the powerful Amazon, and the ax-wielding Bors.
Bell: THAT'S ENOUGH!!! You think I'll let you get away with that?!
Channeling his raging emotions into a roar, Bell scooped up a great sword that had been dropped by its original owner and charged toward the speeding white blur.
Skull Reaper: !!
The sword resonated with a low bovine clang. White-blue fragments scattered onto the ground. The light within the Skull Reaper's eye sockets focused in on the boy. It had suffered a direct blow to the side, which forced it to abort its attack. Bell's rubellite eyes had perfectly tracked the high-speed movements of its huge body and responded with an equally accelerated sword blow, which the monster had blocked with one of its long, bony forearms.
Boris: Rabbit Foot?!
Drenched in blood and sobbing, Boris and his three companions cried out in joy as the Skull Reaper stopped in its tracks. For the first time, the unstoppable torrent of violence was momentarily stalled.
Bell's gaze met the glow of the monster's eye sockets. In those brief few seconds, he sensed the unfathomable depth of his enemy's skill, and he shuddered. For its part, the monster recognized the creature in front of it as a menace, and it automatically shifted its priorities so that Bell was now at the top. Each saw only the other. The fight to the death between adventurer and monster began.
Bell: Aaaaaa!!
Skull Reaper: !!
The boy swung his greatsword, and the monster swiped its left forearm. The whining metal sent fragments of the enemy's armored shell flying into the air. Bell staggered from the Skull Reaper's brute strength, yet even as he dripped sweat at the thought of its overwhelming force, he had discovered a point of attack.
Bell(mind): It hardly has any armor!! Its defenses are weak! That means it's a monster built on speed and attack!
His opponent's shell had cracked under a single blow, and a faint fissure had run down its thin arm. An instant of battle was enough for Bell to understand. To the extent that the monster's strength and speed had evolved far beyond ordinary limits, its endurance in the face of attack had declined.
Bell(mind): Whoever struck first would win!
Having reached this simple, clear conclusion regarding the conditions for victory, Bell spurred his body to even more energetic movement.
Bell: Yah!
Using the energy from the foot he planted on the ground, he abruptly twisted his upper body to deliver a fierce spinning blow with the greatsword. The arc of the black scarf around his neck mirrored that of the silver blade.
Bell:—
In response, the Skull Reaper's reverse joints creaked, and it sprang forward.
Bell: Huh?!
The blow Bell had delivered with all his strength met thin air, and for a moment his enemy vanished from view. He looked up as he heard it land above him. The Skull Reaper was suspended upside down from the ceiling.
Bell(mind): No way! Could it really have leaped twenty meders upward in a single bound? Nope, no way. There's no way something like this can exist.
On the one hand, it was an insane large-category monster strong enough to kill an upper-class adventurer with a single blow, but on the other, it had the unparalleled speed and agility to easily dodge its opponent's attacks. Everything Bell thought he knew about monsters was being turned upside down. Still, the knowledge and experience he'd gained so far gave him parallels to work with.
Bell(mind): This thing is like a floor boss that moves faster than an Iguazu! You've gotta be kidding me. What is this? I can't win. It's impossible. I've gotta get out of here.
Bell pushed away the thoughts blaring inside his head, rejecting what both logic and instinct told him.
Bell(mind): There's no way I could escape anyway.
He pushed down the fear and unease surging inside him with a ferocious determination to fight, gritting his teeth with an iron will.
Skull Reaper: !
The Skull Reaper exhaled a hot breath, fixed its glowing orbs on Bell, and launched itself off the ceiling with a powerful kick.
Bell: Whoa!
Bell dodged by a hairbreadth the massive sycthe of destruction that came hurtling toward him. The shock waves followed fast and furious. Adventurers who had been standing rooted to the spot were blown backward as the ground burst open to form a crater. Crystal fragments bombarded Bell like scattershot. The greatsword—which he had pulled aside just a moment too late—was half-demolished.
Bell: What the...?!
Ryuu: Mr Cranell!!
Bell skidded across the ground, tossed aside the greatsword, and thrust out his left hand. No matter how fast the enemy was, Bell figured it would be no match for the speed of his electrifying flames now that he'd leveled up. He'd use his Swift-Strike Magic to break through the monster's vulnerable defenses.
Ryuu: It won't work!!
Ryuu's all-out scream came just as Bell opened his own mouth.
Bell: Firebolt!
Electrical fire spouted from his fist. The instant before the scarlet lightning bolt exploded into its target, however, the whiteish-blue shell encasing the silent Skull Reaper pulsed with light. Instantly, electrifying flames exploded into Bell's own body.
Bell: Owww—!
He stumbled backward, not grasping what had happened. Smoke billowed from his breastplate. A power and heat so strong they took his breath away told him his own magic had struck his chest. The sparks danced uselessly before him.
Bell: Wh-What just happened...? It rebounded—?
As flames he had never expected to experience burned his body, he stared at the being standing in the distance. Even now, the ominous beast's armored shell was glowing. Light rippled out from the spot on its stomach where Bell had expected the electrical fire to make contact, but there wasn't the faintest trace of a
wound.
Bell(mind): This is bad!
The blank incomprehension in Bell's mind lasted only an instant, but the Skull Reaper seized that moment. Crushing the ground underfoot, it launched its body forward at top speed.
Bell: Whoaaa!!
As the monster bore down with its right scythe raised above its head, Bell switched into defensive mode just a second too late. The long, glittering claws swept through the air. Bell whipped the Hestia Knife from its hilt with his right hand. The knife's purple arc mirrored that of the monster's claws as Bell tried to
block the blow.
Ryuu: No—
Just as he made contact, Bell heard someone behind him whisper. It was the despairing whisper of an elf, like a bird that had lost its wings. Then came a blow so powerful the whole world quaked before Bell's eyes. The next moment, he felt a lightness in his right shoulder.
Bell: ?
Something was spinning through the air. It was as vibrant as a songbird, spraying specks of liquid that looked like blood. It was sheathed in a gauntlet. It was gripping a black knife. It was Bell's right arm.
Bell: Aa—
He had lost one of his arms. His right one, sliced off at the elbow. It took a second for the reality to hit him. The next instant, what remained of his arm flared like it was on fire.
Bell: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
A scream ripped from his throat. As if to restart the temporarily frozen flow of time, a fountain of blood spurted from the exposed flesh of his right elbow. The pain was so intense he thought his nerve endings were going to burn out. His eyes were bloodshot to their very core. The arm drew a parabola through the air before landing—still clutching the knife—in the waterway.
Ryuu: Mr. Cranell! Get out of there!!
He could hear Ryuu screaming his name. But it wasn't a cry of grief—it was a warning. The enormous shadow covering Bell flickered. He looked up in surprise and saw the silhouette of the monster with the schthe of its left hand raised like a guillotine above his head. The fear that flooded his body at the sight of those scythe that had ripped off his arm, protector and all, was enough to make him cry. Nevertheless, he raised his gauntlet-clad left arm to block the blow. Its dual adamantite flashed. An instant later, the gauntlet met the scythe , and it was destroyed.
Bell: !!
That armor was supposed to be unrivaled. At the very least, Bell had believed it was. Certainly, it was the strongest armor Welf had ever forged for him. But now the dir-adamantite shield that had withstood even the blows of the black minotaur was demolished.
Bell(mind): It couldn't fend off the blow.
Bell had intended for the claws to slide along the metal, but the moment they made contact, the force of the blow had crushed the armor. That was how strong the Skull Reaper's scythes of destruction were. They extended long and ominously from the end that signaled a monster. The sythes themselves were as thin as bones, but the tips were thick and sharp and curved. They glinted like white jewels, just like Bell's Divine Knife and Sword.
Only Ryuu and Jura knew the truth: that one must never tangle with those claws. One had to somehow fight without letting them bite into one's flesh. Only they, paralyzed by the return of their worst nightmare, knew that defense against the claws of destruction was completely impossible. Shaped more like fangs than claws, they were a gift from the Dungeon, stronger than any armor and honed to points sharper than any weapon.
Bell: !!
The monster advanced mercilessly on Bell as he stared in a daze at the crushed back of his left hand. It brought its scythes up into the air, then down. That was enough to split open his armor. Somehow managing to avoid a direct blow, his one-armed body crumpled. All hope drained from his heart as he watched the fragments of silver swirl in front of his eyes.
His shoulder guards, his hip guards, his knee guards, and his chest guard all split into fragments and flew off him. Even the leg holster on his left leg burst off, spraying blood into the air.
Whether from the extreme pain or from fear, Bell realized something through the haze of blood and tears. The reason the monster's defenses were so low was that it had no need for them.
It had magnificent strength, all-destroying claws, and an overwhelming, unparalleled ability to kill. Why would it need to defend itself against prey it could slaughter in a single second? The entire purpose of its specialization in offensive attacks was to crush its enemies.
The monster before his eyes was catastrophe incarnate.
It was an apostle of murder let loose by the Dungeon.
Like a marionette with its strings cut, Bell was performing a clumsy dance. A black shadow was corroding his heart, even though he had managed to stay alive this long.
He could practically hear his heart being crushed.
It was the sound of a despair far deeper and more devastating than what he had felt when he faced the Black minotaur. Pitilessly, the Skull Reaper swept its tail—that all-destroying weapon of death—toward the prey that had stumbled in its battle stance. It landed on Bell's neck.
Bell:—
A cracking sound came from a place that should never have made that sound.
—Death.
Bell heard the sound of his own life coming to an end. Ryuu's voiced echoed. That was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.
Ryuu: BEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!