by Fujino Omori
To Finn, the battle had already been decided. All that was left was to determine the route and escape path of the incomprehensible armed monsters and locate the whereabouts of the black minotaur. With that, the skirmish aboveground could be wrapped up.
“If Riveria is moving according to plan, they should be securing an escape route. A report should be coming from the Dungeon anytime now. We wait for that.”
“Understood!”
“Reassemble all forces aboveground. Surround the north and corner the black minotaur—”
Finn had already assumed there would be no more disturbances.
At least until that moment. That was when his thumb suddenly started to ache.
“Wh—…?”
“H-hey! That’s—!”
Even before he heard the familia members’ voices, Finn’s blue eyes saw it—grotesque shadows rising into the air above 20th Street, not far from the encampment, just on the western edge of the central area.
The winged beasts bat their wings, roaring as if unveiling their true monstrous nature.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—!”
The thunderous roar of a gargoyle shook the night sky.
The swarm of monsters flew to the north of Daedalus Street, howling as if to draw attention to themselves.
It was at odds with their previous actions. Finn couldn’t understand their intentions. The prum was bewildered but quickly narrowed his eyes.
“C-Captain?!”
“I know.”
Finn didn’t even glance at Raul, who’d rushed in, looking at the northwest outer edge where the monsters had touched down.
“This is just like the Dungeon…” He let out a long sigh at the series of extraordinary events.
Finn had judged from their previous movements that they wouldn’t attack in the north where the residents were evacuating, trusting the instincts of Bell Cranell, who hadn’t been worried about the armed monsters.
Because of that, he hadn’t deployed any familia members to the outer edge of the district. The defenses were light.
The inconsistent movements of the monsters were so out of place that he felt the presence of a third party in them.
Can I attribute their mysterious route to that third party? Someone trying to use this situation…This doesn’t sit well with me.
Finn understood that it had come to this, that Loki Familia had to send out a squad, too.
At that, his eyes dropped to his right hand.
It was slight, but there was an ache in his thumb.
Is there something there?…Or is something going to happen?
As he licked his thumb, Finn remembered the words of his patron goddess.
“See through it with my own two eyes, eh…? Sheesh,” he grumbled, sighing once before he made his decision.
“Huh? What is it, Captain?”
“Raul, I’m taking a squad and heading over there.”
“What?! You’re going yourself?! Wh-who will give orders here?!”
Riveria will be back eventually, he indicated as he left it in Raul’s hands, intending to clear his name. In response, a pitiful wail rose up, which Finn ignored, moving out quickly.
He gave the lower-tier members and even the first-tier adventurers a standby order as he headed to the northwest with a unit.
“…It’s no good, Thanatos. We lost one of the varg plants.”
In the base inside Knossos, the labyrinth master’s room, Barca spoke flatly, standing before the pedestal to observe the inside of the maze.
“Argh…Was it Nine Hell’s team?”
“Yes. They found the plant on the twelfth floor, following the path of the swarm of monsters that was drawn to its magic…”
Barca looked down at a screen of water that reflected the image of the high elf’s side portrait as she moved. As the remnants rushed around, struggling to move heaven and earth, Thanatos looked up at the ceiling, taking in Barca’s report.
“Not just Braver…but Nine Hell is after us, too…I guess I really shouldn’t have let Valletta die this easily.”
Even though he was the God of Death, he still regretted allowing a single soul to return to heaven.
That said, the god couldn’t wipe the smile from his face, even though he’d been duped. It was as if he was enjoying the mystery of the unknown, continuing to move pieces on the board, amusing himself with the lost battle with no thoughts of surrendering.
“There’s another…no, two more groups of invaders besides Loki Familia. Well, they aren’t people…”
On the surface of the water, an image of a monstrous shadow flashed across the screen instead of Riveria’s group. Barca’s visible eye, which was inscribed with a D, narrowed.
“Ahhh, one of Ikelos’s toys, huh…? Our hands are full enough with Loki Familia. To tell you the truth, I wish I could let them be, but both sides have keys. Can we bring them down?”
“We won’t be able to get the small group…the one with the vouivre. They came in through the abandoned door connecting straight to the seventeenth floor. Did they break through the collapsed hidden passage…?” Barca postulated as Thanatos sketched out the battle situation in his head from his position atop the steps.
The Evils had lost one of their plants, leaving them with half their battle power—well, half might be overselling it, but it was a painful blow. It wouldn’t be fun to get their asses handed to them and let Loki Familia go.
They’d ascertained that the current location of Riveria’s group was on the tenth floor. Even if they pressed in force, the monsters weren’t enough to stop them. The actual members of the Evils’ Remnants were split between fighting Loki Familia on the first floor and tracking down Riveria’s squad. The latter group was still moving through the ninth floor.
“And Levis?”
“Healing her wounds. Which seems like…it’ll take a while.”
Upon hearing the status of his last dependable bodyguard, Thanatos drummed his fingers against his temple.
They had enough firepower to crush Riveria’s group—though it wasn’t as if he could send out the demi-spirit. And if the situation repeated itself, Levis would get killed this time.
But, like, based on Nine Hell’s movements, I’m guessing they’ve found the connecting path to the twelfth floor…
Even if Thanatos got his forces together with the intention of wiping them out, Riveria could easily retreat from Knossos. It was possible. Very possible. The only reason they were still rampaging around the labyrinth was because they had a means of escape.
Thanatos wanted time to ready his forces and to create a situation that wouldn’t allow the enemy to run away even if they tried.
A lure to keep the fairies in place.
“…Barca, where are the other invaders?”
“The tenth floor. Far away from our troops.”
Thanatos pondered in silence for a moment.
“Open all the doors to the routes that I’m about to specify.”
“…What?”
“Manipulate the doors around the loitering vargs to prevent them from getting in the way of the intruders.”
He wouldn’t stop them. Instead, he instructed that they be drawn deeper into the labyrinth.
The enemy had a key to freely move inside the maze themselves. If he was unlucky, they might stumble across an important facility or a spirit room.
Barca swung around, doubting his ears, as Thanatos’s eyes narrowed coldly.
“We’ll collide with ’em.”
“Are we really doing the right thing, Fels?!”
The black-robed mage Fels paused upon hearing that voice.
They were inside Knossos.
With their deal with Hermes, Fels made use of this escape path, breaking into the Evils’ hideout with their team. This area was connected to the Dungeon.
“This is a good option if we’re thinking about Bell and his gang! But abandoning Gros and the others? It…feels wrong for us to return without them, right?!”
They had somehow managed to make it through Loki Familia’s counterattack. They had been in the process of trudging toward the Dungeon when one voice rose in opposition. The mage clenched their jet-black gloves, robe trembling, despite being one who wouldn’t lose their composure even before the old god Ouranos.
“To think that foolish boy would overcome a deity’s divine will—”
Fels ran, filled with trust for a certain boy. As the mage moved forward, the others pushed on to continue along the path, too.
They rushed down the stairs. Fels was looking for a path back to the Dungeon. To let those behind them escape, the mage continued deeper and deeper underground, farther from the traces of the battle above.
With the key, Fels opened the orichalcum doors. One of their party used high-frequency echolocation to accurately pinpoint the best route in the winding maze that they could steadily and confidently proceed through without getting lost.
“If you make it into Knossos, it’s your victory, he said…but it won’t be that simple in a hideout for the Evils—now will it?”
When a swarm of monsters appeared before them in the winding passage, the black gloves of the mage released a shock wave that blew away the swarms of vargs and detonated parts of the larger violas’ bodies. This team’s counterattack cleaned up the enemy in no time at all.
But we’ve only encountered monsters—not the actual members of the Evils…Is something happening in here?
Fels suspected something abnormal was occurring in Knossos, since the remnants of the Evils weren’t resisting with as much force as expected.
The mage guessed correctly. In an unknown location, Loki Familia had robbed the Evils of all their leeway to deal with intruders, especially when they were also dealing with Anakity’s group in the hidden passage underneath the Labyrinth District near the open door. They were all out of forces to split off to deal with the newest intruders.
“If it’s like this…”
We can make it, Fels was about to say.
Bam. A deep sound echoed through the passage.
“…?”
Followed by: bam. Bam. A series of the same noise.
Fels quickly realized it was the sound of doors opening—but they hadn’t done anything to unlock them, and the mage couldn’t fathom the reason behind this sudden change.
Are the Evils operating the doors…? Is it to lure in the monsters? No, but…this open route is…
Following the echolocation despite Fels’s misgivings, they arrived at the stairway to the next floor.
“Fels! I can faintly smell Mother—the Dungeon! It’s connected down here!”
“…” Fels fell silent amid their excited shouts.
There was a connecting path to the Dungeon on the floor below. If they got there, they could escape Knossos.
But this timing…Is this a trap?
Are the Evils intentionally leading us to the next floor?
“Hey, Fels? What are you doing? Those bizarrely colored monsters will come after us!”
“…No, it’s nothing. Let’s go!”
Either way, Fels’s group had no information about the structure of Knossos, which meant there was no real choice to make. If there was a path before them, they could run through it as fast as possible to avoid the enemy’s traps, and that was it. They couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.
“Full speed ahead! We can get out soon!”
Fels and the others accelerated down the stairs.
Their decision was correct. The mage guessed they could crush any enemy in hiding with their battle strength. Fels was confident they could deal with any man-made Dungeon gimmicks using insight and magic items. All of it was correct.
But if there was a flaw in their calculations, it would be the fact that they’d crossed into the twelfth floor; that the enemy was leading them not to a trap but to another group; that they would encounter the vicious fairies rampaging through the labyrinth.
“”
The first person to notice their presence was Fels.
“This is…”
“The thing that emerges when adventurers…use magic…?”
They stopped moving inside the jade crest spread across the ground. Only Fels guessed the true nature of the crest extending out from the door thrown open by the Evils.
It was part of a magic circle, spreading across an extremely large range. This ability materialized with an enormous magic power polished through a combination of once-in-a-lifetime talent and extreme effort.
Someone on the same floor had cast a net of magic power.
The magic circle crawled across the ground and arrived at them, moving past their feet.
It can’t be…searching—
The jade brilliance shone up from their feet, a magic response almost screaming that it had locked onto its target.
—Have we been caught?!
In other words, they were already in range of the onslaught.
“Get out of the circle!” warned the mage with too much talent.
“—My name is Alf.”
The mage heard an incantation that they shouldn’t have been able to hear.
“Rea Laevateinn!”
A multitude of giant pillars of flame surged out of the ground in front of them, out of the magic circle.
“Uuuu—oooooooooooooooooooo—?!” They screamed and leaped backward as bursts of infernal fire exploded before their eyes.
Just as they were about to be burned by the blazing pillars rising from their feet, they managed to scramble out of the magic circle, avoiding being turned to ashes.
With a tremendous wave of heat and sparks, the labyrinth was scorched in an instant.
“Fels?!”
“…This is a special robe made to protect against magic and curses, but…that really nailed me good,” Fels admitted in tattered clothing, standing at the head of the group and last to escape.
Smoke rose as the mage looked down at the charred black robe, letting out a groan that resembled a wry laugh behind the hood ensconced in darkness. Supported by one of the team members, Fels had managed to stand up.
Thud.
“To think we’d run into you in a place like this.”
The sound of boots rang out from the smoke in the passage, which parted to reveal long jade locks of hair. It was Riveria, holding her long staff and leading her group of elves.
“Loki Familia…!” Fels groaned at the unlikely encounter.
Riveria had been in Knossos on the twelfth floor, using Rea Laevateinn to distinguish between humans and monsters. In the words of her patron goddess, she had been using radar—expanding the magic circle to search the floor.
Riveria had been looking for enemy forces. But when she encountered a response that wasn’t Levis, the remnants of the Evils, or their accomplices, the vividly colored monsters, she’d decided to unleash a preemptive attack.
Fels couldn’t have predicted an attack spell triggered through walls.
“Those armed monsters…managed to slip through Finn’s attacks and made it all the way here, huh?” Riveria’s eyes narrowed sharply at the scene before her.
Those cowering behind Fels were a group of armed beasts, eleven of them in total.
With teamwork and divine plans, the monsters had gotten past the city’s strongest faction and managed to make it into Knossos—against all odds.
This reaffirmed to Riveria that the monsters were a threat. It didn’t matter how they managed it—their existence posed a danger. Faced with a prearranged encounter, Riveria immediately moved to eliminate the force standing before her.
“—Riveria Ljos Alf—no, Loki Familia, I would like to negotiate with you.”
Fels was a step ahead of the high elf preparing to cut them down, opening their mouth and stealing the initiative before Riveria could move. The mage understood they were in the wicked hunting grounds of Knossos and wanted to avoid turning it into a battlefield. To
make it out alive, Fels opted for a negotiating table.
“…You’re the mage leading the monsters. You’re Lord Ouranos’s messenger, right?” asked Riveria as she gazed grimly at the mage.
“That’s correct. I’m here obeying the divine will of the creator god of Orario,” Fels readily confirmed upon deciding that it wouldn’t serve any good to hide the truth.
The mage knew it would be better to persuade her, to draw out every card possible, to use anything with the potential to help them in their cause. But when the younger elves, plus Rakuta, heard about the divine will of the founding god, it shook them up.
Riveria mentally chided herself. Her subordinates’ will to fight was dampening, and they’d lost much of their determination. The proud elves would hesitate to attack the mage now, much less the monsters. She discerned from this short exchange that the mage was extremely wise and extraordinarily dangerous.
“You let them rampage aboveground. And now that you’re in a predicament, you’re suggesting we negotiate? How convenient. Did you think we’d accept this nonsense?”
“When we were aboveground, everyone was directing their malicious intent toward monsters. Even if we’d tried to force contact with you, it wouldn’t have been possible for us to engage in a levelheaded conversation. It has nothing to do with logic and everything to do with emotion.”
“…”
“And in the one-in-a-million chance that a third party happened to observe our negotiation, Loki Familia would have had no choice but to exterminate the monsters. We would never have been able to propose negotiations under those conditions, but then this opportunity fell into our laps by chance…Do you understand where we’re coming from?”
I see. They have a point. And they are familiar with the war of words.
Riveria could recognize the mage’s wisdom was coming from an age even greater than her own, as a high elf who boasted a life span longer even than normal elves. The mage before her eyes was wiser than she was. It would be impossible to try to win the argument.