With their teamwork, the familia steadily advanced against the bloodthirsty ranks of the masked faction.
“One! Two!”
“Argh!”
Lulune inflicted precise cuts on all four limbs of her opponent before driving her knee square into his chest.
The masked figure, likely human, cried out in pain as he was removed from the fight.
“Now then, why don’t you tell me your familia?”
Hauling the man up by his collar, Lulune’s interrogation began.
The man’s bleeding arms hung limp at his sides, his eyes glaring at her from beneath his mask. Though the battle still raged, he kept his cloth-covered mouth shut tight.
“……!”
“Shoulda figured. But silence will get you nowhere.”
A vicious smile appeared on Lulune’s face at the man who refused to say a word. She grabbed a vial from beneath her combat gear.
It was filled with a clear red liquid and had a small crystal floating inside—Status Thief. It had the ability to pick the “lock” that deities could use to hide the Blessings on their followers’ backs, their Statuses. With this, it was possible for her to figure out not only what familia the man belonged to but his name as well.
The man’s eyes trembled when he caught a glimpse of the vial between Lulune’s fingers.
“……”
Determination appeared in the man’s eyes almost immediately, as if he’d come to an important realization.
“My Lord, I shall follow through on our pact…”
Muffled words sounded beneath the kerchief over his mouth.
It happened in an instant.
The man’s eyes flashed as he reached up with his bleeding arms and grabbed the robe at his waist, tearing it away from his body—to reveal what lay beneath.
A dark-red rock that looked as though a flame had been petrified mid-burn and sealed in stone was strapped to his chest.
“—”
The sight of it made Lulune forget to breathe.
—An Inferno Stone.
This drop item could be obtained by defeating monsters called flame rocks in the Deep Levels of the Dungeon. Unaltered, these pieces of the monster’s body were highly flammable and could easily explode.
The man’s Inferno Stone was especially large compared to the others she had seen. What’s more, there was more than one, all of them tied along one long rope against his skin.
Her blood ran cold as she saw his hands move.
The stones were attached to a small box at his waist—a detonator with a string attached. The man grabbed hold and gave it a sharp yank.
Lulune immediately let go of the man’s collar and jumped away with all the strength her legs could muster.
“My life for Iris—!!”
Flinging his body backward, the man crossed his arms over his chest.
Sparks emerged from the detonator a moment later, igniting the stones.
“!!”
The resulting explosion launched Lulune even farther. The heat blast overwhelmed her, followed by a shower of ash. She landed flat on her back, burns peppering her exposed skin.
Willing her body to sit up, the first thing she saw was a mass of smoldering flesh not too far away. The words fell from her lips.
“…H-he blew himself up?”
The charred remnants of the human body on the ground were still burning.
She stuck out both arms as she collapsed back to the ground. With that much damage to his skin, there was no point in using Status Thief. Of course, the man could no longer be counted among the living.
The man had sacrificed his life in order to prevent an information leak.
His level of devotion stunned Lulune.
“—May this unworthy vassal find salvation!!”
Suddenly, more of the robed warriors started exploding all around her.
The first ones to pull their cords were too injured to continue to fight. Then the ones who had lost hope of their chances of survival self-ignited. Still others decided that if they were going down, they’d take someone with them, and lunged forward with their arms extended. With each burst of flame came a blinding flash and thunderous roar filling the cavern.
And the cries of Hermes Familia were right in the middle of it.
“Asfi, these guys are zealots!!”
Having lost her composure, Lulune screamed as loudly as she could.
These warriors had committed everything to completing their mission.
A group of fighters prepared to face the ultimate fate—death.
Screams echoed through the chamber as a small army of warriors willing to turn themselves into bombs advanced on their position.
—“Syle’s down!”
—“Someone, heal!”
—“Oi! Stop theeeem!”
The sight of explosions swallowing her allies one by one reflected in Asfi’s stunned eyes. While her cloak protected her from the intense heat waves, the stench of gunpowder and burning flesh stung her nose. The entire battlefield was drowning in it.
“My brothers, fear not death!”
A new voice swept over the battlefield from behind the masked warriors.
A man in a robe different from the others urged his comrades forward, dark light pulsing in his bloodshot eyes.
“All we have dreamed of lies on the other side of death! Our Lord makes it so—show him loyalty!!”
The eyes behind the masks of the robed warriors changed at the voice. Their fear was gone.
They advanced as one, their half-covered faces already dead. Together they moved like a somber white inferno.
“Forgive me, Sophia!”
“Reina, I will now atone—!!”
“Alas, Julius!!”
Lives provided the sparks to ignite a chain of explosions.
The thunderous booms rendered hearing useless. A flabbergasted Asfi watched as the detonations showed no sign of stopping.
Names of deities…No, people?!
The last shouts of men and women on the other side of the explosions began to die down. Asfi’s blood ran cold as soon as her ears recovered enough to catch what sounded like people’s names echoing in the air between explosions.
Was this a sign of complete and total loyalty to a deity? Or was this the will of a deity they were being forced to obey?
Just what kind of familia were they fighting against? That thought sent another chill up Asfi’s spine.
At the same time…“Should this kind of thing be allowed to exist?” she wondered aloud in a shaking voice.
“Such broken souls. Fools bound to a deity…Disgraceful.”
—Elsewhere in the chamber, at the farthest corner away from Asfi’s party…
The man clad in white scoffed at the battle unfolding in the distance and raised one hand.
Aiming his palm at the battlefield, the eyes behind his white skull mask narrowed.
“Violas.”
Every monster in the chamber looked up the moment that word left his lips.
As if they were connected by one mind, one overarching will, their heavy slithering movements broke the silence in the cavern.
Monsters contained within the black cages broke free and joined the rivers of green flowing directly for Hermes Familia.
“Wha—?!”
“Monsters, too?!”
A joint attack of masked warriors and plant monsters was now under way.
As the monsters jostled to advance on their position, the adventurers cried out in terror. Vine whips and gigantic fangs mercilessly bore down on them.
“UWA-AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
The floral rampage was not only aimed at Asfi and her allies. The tendrils wrapped around anything they touched, and the remaining robed warriors directly in their path were first. The last human was soon halfway down a monster’s throat, screaming and thrashing about as his blood splattered everywhere.
The monsters were on track to wipe out everything, friend and foe alike.
The battle had turned into pandemonium.
However, the army of zealots paid no attention to the carnivores feasting on their allies and continued their attack on Asfi and her party. They ignited their Inferno Stones the moment they were in a creature’s grasp, catching as many combatants in the blast as possible. Hermes Familia’s teamwork and defenses were not enough to hold the devastation at bay. Chaos was spreading, the battle deteriorating into a nightmare.
Barely able to defend herself, let alone the casters in the back of the formation, Lulune cried out as the overwhelming number of monster whips caught up to her.
“Not good…!”
With her carefully constructed battle formation in ruins, Asfi’s eyes flared to life.
Allies and enemies were dropping one after another; there wasn’t enough time to tell which was which.
At this rate, annihilation was just a matter of time. The relentless attacks of the monsters and the fear of the remaining robed warriors detonating their stones kept the still mobile members of Hermes Familia from advancing.
Retreat was close to impossible in this situation. The party would be mowed down the moment they lowered their weapons to run.
That white-robed bastard…!
Shortsword in hand, Asfi rushed to the aid of her allies. Breaking through the front lines of the enemy, she slew masked warriors and monsters alike on her way forward.
The mysterious man in the white robe and drop-item mask stood far in the distance, well behind the man in the unique robe. Asfi managed to catch a glimpse of the man moving his arm an instant before the plant monsters launched their attack.
—A tamer, no doubt!
Asfi developed her own theory about their enemy’s true identity from her limited information.
It was illogical for one tamer to have so many large-category monsters under his command at one time. However, if this tamer was also behind the mutation of the pantry, a theory could start taking shape. That would also explain their current situation.
The destruction of friend and foe was the enemy’s—no, the man in white’s plan all along.
Even if the zealots failed in their mission, the easiest way to clean up the mess was to set the monsters loose.
If only she could destroy the “head,” including the man in the unique robe guiding the zealots.
Asfi kicked off the ground, determined to put an end to the chaos.
“Falgar, take command! Gather everyone together and hold your ground!”
Even before she finished issuing the order, Asfi tossed a vial of Burst Oil directly into the fray.
Her target was one particular robed man. His eyes opened wide as the vial hit him square in the chest, flared, and ignited his own Inferno Stones.
Monsters, masked warriors—everything in the immediate vicinity was caught up in the blast and launched into the air. That provided a window for the war tiger to reestablish formation and for Lulune and the others to catch a breather. Asfi, however, charged directly through the cloud of smoke in front of her.
Wrapped in the cloak that she designed herself for protection, the swirling heat of the explosion had no effect on her. She cut through the blazing battlefield like a streaking arrow.
Surprise and horror spread over the face of the man in the unique robe as she broke through the wall of zealots and monsters under the cover of smoke.
By the time he had drawn his own weapon and braced for combat, it was already too late.
“GAH!”
Asfi was already past him, the man collapsing into a pile behind her.
Aqua-blue hair streaming behind her, she left his bleeding body in her wake.
She maintained that momentum with her eyes focused directly on the man dressed in white.
Asfi’s course was set for the ominous figure standing at the base of the quartz pillar, shortsword tightly locked in her grip.
“You would have been spared so much pain if you’d only let the violas consume you…You are delaying the inevitable,” her target mumbled from the corner of his mouth as he ran to meet her head-on.
Leaving the feminine fetus at the base of the pillar, the man didn’t back down.
The distance between Asfi and him disappeared in a heartbeat. Asfi thrust her blade toward the still unarmed man and increased her speed before jumping at her target.
“Now.”
“?!”
In that moment…
When she was only five steps away, green spears erupted from the ground.
Sensing danger from beneath, Asfi roughly threw her body to the side. Her desperate change in direction allowed her to dodge the surprise attack by the slimmest of margins.
When she regained her footing and faced her enemy, the man was already protected by a thick mass of vine whips growing directly out of the floor. What’s more, the surface below was cracking open to reveal more floral beasts.
Had they been lurking under their feet the whole time? Either way, this new swarm of monsters stood in front of Asfi like an elite guard protecting the master.
“You move well, adventurer…or should I say Perseus.”
“Geh—?!”
“But you shall die.”
The man spoke in a calm, cold voice as he manipulated the monsters.
Just as Asfi returned to her feet after her emergency evasion, the swarm charged forward at the man’s command.
Their fanged blossom heads rained down on her in quick succession like the legendary hydra. Never able to truly regain her balance, Asfi desperately flipped and contorted her body to evade. However, the countless whips swiping at her cut off every escape route.
She retreated while using her white cloak as a shield, but blows assailed her from every direction at once.
Asfi grimaced and clicked her tongue before reaching down and stroking her sandals with the tips of her fingers.
“Talaria.”
With that word, Asfi disappeared from the path of the whips and fangs.
The green flesh of the floor shattered on impact, its groans of pain echoing throughout the chamber.
“What?”
The eyes behind the skull mask widened in surprise.
There should have been a corpse lying where the whips and fangs connected, but it wasn’t there. Asfi had disappeared without a trace, leaving the monsters confused as they searched for her. Meanwhile, the man’s gaze had turned to the ceiling.
There he spotted a figure seemingly floating in midair, standing on white flapping wings attached to her sandals. Asfi.
“In the air…”
The man in white couldn’t hide his surprise. Even the remaining masked zealots raised their eyes as Asfi stared down at them.
Talaria—a magic item created by Perseus herself.
Each sandal was equipped with two white wings, allowing the wearer free movement through the air. It was the crowning achievement of prodigy Perseus’s inventions thanks to her Advanced Ability Enigma.
Asfi adjusted her silver glasses while observing the swarm of monsters and the man dressed in white, who were all staring back at her.
“You have forced my hand. This ends here and now.”
With those words, she thrust her hand beneath her cloak.
Her hand emerged with an entire holster-load of Burst Oil between her fingers. Flinging her arm open in a wide arc, she spread out the hail of vials, including her spares, over the targets below.
The eyes beneath the skull mask opened as far as they would go.
The crimson liquid grenades triggered a new wave of explosions over the area.
“!”
The destruction had begun.
Each burst of brilliant red flame hurled monsters haphazardly across the room. Even their dying cries were drowned out by the explosions. Shreds of deeply colored flower petals, fangs, pale-green flesh, whiplike roots, and snakelike bodies were strewn about the floor.
The rain of Burst Oil was composed of eve
rything Asfi had left.
She watched the carnage unfolding below with a stoic expression on her face.
“Tsk!”
Even from beneath his hastily formed shield of plant-monster bodies, Asfi’s flaming claws drew ever closer. Crimson light dominated his entire field of vision, and the monsters that had absorbed the blow in his place were peeling away.
The carpet-bombing rattled the very walls of the cavern.
“—!!”
Only now did Asfi descend into the plumes of smoke rising toward the ceiling.
Making it through the outer layer of the hazy dome, she picked up speed. Her knowledge as the creator of Talaria allowed her to move through the air at any speed or direction she wished. She descended into the devastation like a bird of prey searching for its next kill.
The white smoke filling the air provided her with cover. It was time to strike.
Too slow!
She swooped in to ground level directly behind the man dressed in white.
He had been scanning the space overhead, but she used the smoke to her advantage to attack from a blind spot. He moved to defend himself, but Asfi was faster.
Now that it was impossible for him to dodge, Asfi thrust her blade toward the chest of her unarmed enemy.
—You’re mine!
The sharp blade of her shortsword flashed through the smoke.
“—”
But…
“?!”
He stopped her blade by grabbing it with his bare hand.
“Huh…?!”
Asfi’s eyes went wide, stunned by what she was seeing.
The man was only halfway turned in her direction, his left hand around the blade of her shortsword. Her momentum died.
Grabbing a weapon with an unprotected hand was a reckless, desperate defensive tactic. But even so, the man had, with one arm, completely shut down an aerial strike at Talaria’s full speed.
It defied comprehension. Even though the man’s fingers bled, the sharp edge did little more than penetrate his skin. All the power that Asfi’s Level Four strength could muster was unable to propel the weapon any farther.
Staunch muscles and a terrifyingly strong grip.
Two frigid, inhuman eyes fixed on her from beneath the white skull mask.
A chill colder than anything she’d felt before swept through Asfi’s veins.
Alarm bells blared inside her mind. She released her sword in a last-ditch attempt to escape, but her enemy didn’t allow it.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 3 Page 14