by Fujino Omori
The destruction of the curse. The salvation of his spirit. Freeing him from his damned bonds.
Amid spoke as she looked at the monster, clenching in her left hand the magic wand that aided the efficacy of her magic and thrusting out her right palm. Her platinum hair blew back from the shock waves brought on by the light.
The Barca Monster flailed both arms as if being assaulted by the most excruciating pain, burned by the holy light. The thick veins running across its body burbled and swelled, as if boiling, the black curse fading moment by moment. The very reason it had been reduced to that form was gradually disappearing.
“ Ooooooooooooooooooh!”
As if screaming at her not to screw with it, the Barca Monster rampaged. Almost as though the creature was resisting, it unleashed the full strength of its curse at Amid.
“ ?!”
It was beyond rain. The surging wave of miasmic energy took on the life of a vengeful spirit that consumed Amid. All the adventurers in its path, all those who had formed a wall to protect her, were washed away by the wave of blood. Even the holy robes protecting her body were starting to burn and turn a festering black.
“Amid!”
A clash of white and black. A battle between holy light and curse with which adventurers could not interfere. Blood seeped out from the corner of her mouth.
Her outstretched hand in all its youthful vitality withered like an old woman’s. The cries of Tiona, Tione, and the other adventurers grew distant. Amid was consumed by a swirl of pain unlike any she had ever experienced, but she still refused to stop her magic.
“Dae…da—…lus—…!”
“—Gh!”
As if repeating the curse, its D -inscribed eye became bloodshot and burned with the remnants of its will. Seeing that, the holy woman’s eyes flashed radiantly.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Amid let out a triumphant roar.
The brilliant magic light gathered into a giant pillar of pure white, blasting away the miasma. White particles of light scattered around the room as the pitch-black stain enshrouding the Barca Monster finally disappeared. As if it had lost the armor protecting its body.
““Gh!”” As Amid started to collapse, the two Amazons dashed forward faster than anyone else.
They lunged above the monster’s head, determined not to let their friend’s efforts go to waste as they swung their massive weapons.
“Uraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
“Here I goooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Tione’s halberd and Tiona’s Urga came crashing down. Their twin attacks severed its arms. Losing its balance, the giant body began to pitch forward.
“—Hah!”
And finally, Finn sprinted head-on. His golden Fortia Spear at the ready, he thrust it toward the monster with tremendous force and speed.
“!!”
But just as the golden spear’s tip was about to pierce the monster’s head, he stopped short.
“Captain?!” Tione shouted, bewildered that he had stopped right before delivering the final blow. She was about to ask why he had wasted the golden opportunity.
“—It’s dead.”
“Huh?”
“It’s already over,” Finn murmured as he gradually lowered his spear.
Tiona and the others stopped moving. Even those suffering from the curse and struggling to breathe looked up at the monster in the center of the room. The Barca Monster’s head hung, the light gone from its eyes. The crystal orb fetus attached to its chest gave off smoke, and there were no signs of any life.
“At the same time as the curse was dispelled…?” Lulune whispered in a daze.
“…I don’t know, but…the power of the curse has vanished…” Asfi responded in a quiet voice.
The people who had fallen to the floor coughing up blood started to rise—horribly battered, but the unhealable curse had disappeared from the air.
“Meaning…Amid beat the monster…?”
“…Idiot. That’s not what…this is…”
Tiona’s and Tione’s voices rang hollow as the last act played out on the battlefield. It was unknown whether Amid’s devotion had saved that one soul—whether Dea Saint’s prayers had freed a single man from his thousand-year curse. Or whether he despised the girl for doing it. Regardless, the D in the monster’s red eye had vanished.
“…”
Amid was kneeling on the floor, supported by the other two healers, her eyes shut as if grieving. Finally, she clasped her hands and offered up a silent prayer.
An unbefitting silence filled the room after the conclusion of the battle.
“…All right, prepare for the next move. Use all remaining items needed to heal Amid. We’re re-forming with all those still able to fight. Hurry,” urged Finn in a calm voice, directing them onward, not allowing them to immerse themselves in any lingering emotions.
They collectively raised their heads and started to move.
“We’re splitting up! Don’t let Thanatos escape! There’s a high probability that a god by the name of Enyo will be present, too. Don’t let any suspicious people get away!” Gareth boomed.
The location was the ninth floor of Knossos, an area far removed from where Finn and his group were fighting.
The great dwarf warrior looked out over the combined party of Loki Familia and Dionysus Familia members as he rattled off his commands.
“With their god present, this area shouldn’t have as many monsters roaming around! Even if there are some, they won’t be any bigger than the water spider ones! Those from Dionysus Familia should be able to handle them as long as you work in groups! Split up into as many teams as possible! We’re going over every last bit with a fine-tooth comb!” he belted out.
With Lulune’s directions, they had reached the major enemy base nearest the labyrinth master’s room. Along with the main squad with the gods in tow, Gareth himself headed directly for the room, while the other teams searched the surrounding areas, to catch both Thanatos and whoever the mysterious Enyo ended up being. It was also Loki’s divine will.
“That good?” Gareth asked with a glance.
“Perfecto!” The goddess with crimson hair flashed him an OK sign.
With a cheery attitude, Loki licked her lips as she strained her divine majesty. From there on, they could run into a god at any point.
“Squads! Make sure you have at least one dwarf with you! I’d expect them to have a secret path out for when their stronghold was about to fall! Don’t miss any hidden passages!”
““Aye!”” The dwarves in both familias called back in response. Gareth nodded and finally turned to the elven mage for her orders.
“Lefiya, keep watch on the surroundings. Aiz might have lured out the red-haired creature, but the other masked one still hasn’t shown up. If anything happens, report to me immediately.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
He passed an oculus to Lefiya, who could use the same method as Riveria to search the surroundings for threats—by spreading Rea Laevateinn ’s magic circle. It was an incredibly important role. Lefiya was nervous to take on the same responsibilities as one of the core members of the familia but accepted the oculus with determination and a sense of duty. She was ready to live up to that trust.
Gareth grinned as the members of both familias formed into parties.
“All right, let’s go!”
The adventurers dashed off in all directions. The operation was at last reaching the final stages. They scattered into the surrounding areas to complete the task of taking down Knossos.
“ ”
Amid all that, Dionysus paused at the entrance to a passage instead of moving with the main squad that contained Gareth and Loki.
It was a corridor shrouded in darkness, hidden in the shadows where the magical light of the wall-mounted lamps could not reach—a straight path becoming one with the void, unnoticed by the adventurers. There was no light ahead, and the darkness stretched out into the depths of the passageway even when Dionysus
raised his handheld magic-stone lantern.
Somewhere in the depths of that darkness, something was quivering.
“…”
As if enticing Dionysus in…or ridiculing him.
His head ached. Dionysus swore he could smell the sweet scent of wine when he’d take it to his lips.
His heart thumped loudly—once. There was no longer anyone around him.
Looking to the side, he saw Loki and the others disappearing down the passage leading to the labyrinth master’s room. When his gaze shifted back, he let his eyes fixate on the darkness before him. He realized his eyes flared in anger.
Holding one hand to his chest, he gripped the shortsword hidden away in his cloak. Taking the hilt designed in the shape of a grapevine, he drew the blade as if rousing himself to battle and took a step into the dark corridor.
“…Let’s go, Filvis.”
“Yes, Lord Dionysus.”
He didn’t bother looking back as his follower’s response called out from behind him, as Dionysus quietly, seriously, resolutely started to proceed down the passage.
“…Why’d you go and die on me, Barca?”
Thanatos looked up. He was sitting on the pedestal, legs crossed, as he leaned back and supported himself with his hands.
One of his followers had stopped responding. It might have been one of the far-off, nameless soldiers whom he had promised a future beyond death. But he suspected that the soul that had left his side had been that of the man possessed by obsession. Aside from his fixation, Barca had been selfless and without desire—so pitiful, so ridiculous, so precious. Even among Thanatos’s followers, he was a child who had particularly sparked his interest.
When Thanatos had taken the title of wicked god, taken part in the activities of the Evils, taken an unexpected pit stop at Knossos, Barca had already been there, already a prisoner of Daedalus in every sense of the term. He had been as pure and as cruel as a child, his soul more twisted than anyone’s spirit, more than any soul Thanatos had ever seen before.
That was why the God of Death had loved Barca. To some extent, it could be said that he had been simply enjoying himself, but Thanatos had loved Barca in his own philosophical way.
His thoughts drifted to the heavens above, beyond the labyrinth where he was sealed away, with a minimal amount of sentimentality.
“…I thought everyone other than Loki Familia was just along for the ride, but…Dionysus’s and Hermes’s guys really got me.”
There was no one left in the labyrinth master’s room save Thanatos. They had all gone out to engage Loki Familia in battle. Even knowing they were no match, they were trying to buy time for their patron god to escape.
With his followers, he had made a contract that would be fulfilled with the destruction of Orario. So even if they were defeated here—as long as Thanatos could escape, as long as they gave him another opportunity to succeed—their dreams could be realized. That must have been what they believed.
“A decade or two is nothing to a god…but I really don’t want to do all this again. Yeah, time flies, but it takes so much effort. It was trouble just getting this far…really…”
As the room fell silent again, Thanatos sighed heavily. Swinging his legs, he stood up from the pedestal. From that distance, he could make out the approaching footsteps of adventurers as he walked in the opposite direction, taking a different path to head into the darkness. He arrived at a location even deeper than the labyrinth master’s room.
It was a wide room hosting a set of round pillars, as though the home of Thanatos Familia had nowhere to go aboveground.
The room was barely lit by small torches set into the pillars. On the back wall that was designated as an altar, there was an emblem with a heart made of iron and bronze and a black wing that resembled the God of Death’s scythe.
In front of that altar, and at the bottom of the stairs, stood the person he was looking for, gazing up at the familia’s emblem.
“Ein, my dear.”
“…”
A masked person. A mysterious figure in the underground forces, called Ein by Levis and the others. As Thanatos stopped close to the silhouette and called out, the masked being wrapped in a purple-hooded robe gradually turned around.
“Loki Familia got us. All my children have been defeated. There isn’t anything left to do.”
“…”
“Unleash the demi-spirits.” That was all he said to the creature called a follower of the corrupted spirit.
There was no longer any way of stopping Loki Familia . They were already in check. The only possible way of turning things around was by using the multiple demi-spirits hidden away in Knossos.
Originally, the demi-spirits were intended to be the key to destroying Orario by summoning them aboveground. But given the gravity of the current situation, there was no use whining about that.
“I refuse.” Giving an unexpected response to Thanatos’s request, the masked silhouette bluntly rejected him.
“You refuse…?”
“The spirits have their own roles. They cannot be moved from their positions.”
“Are you serious? Look at the situation. This isn’t the time to be whistling past the graveyard.”
“It would go against Enyo’s divine will.”
Thanatos exhaled sharply as the voice somewhere between a man’s and a woman’s responded matter-of-factly.
He did not display irritation—but exasperation. “Even if you are Enyo’s puppet, there has to be a limit, right? What kind of farce would it be for the secret weapon to stay a secret to the end and never see the light of day?”
“…”
“Are you trying to say Enyo is a naked king on his throne?” he asked, a disparaging smile on his lips.
“You are the fool ,” the masked being announced, cutting him off with the same cold, disinterested tone as before.
“ ”
“No, you are a fool, too.”
Backed by darkness, the figure’s hooded robe quivered ominously as the silhouette continued. Thanatos froze in place.
“A message from Enyo—‘This is the end. Thank you for your cooperation.’”
“…What…?”
“I will complete the plan for the destruction of Orario. I shall open the path leading to the underworld. And in order to achieve that—”
“Become my sacrificial lamb, God of Death.”
The chilling message rang through the dark room.
Thanatos could not move. He could not form a sentence. There was no shock, or agitation, or confusion. He did not even have time to feel humiliated from being looked down upon by a mortal. Because he was a god, he understood in an instant the true meaning of the masked figure’s words—the divine will of the mastermind hidden within the message.
“…Everything is as Enyo wills ,” the silhouette finished before slipping into the darkness.
Stillness closed in around Thanatos, an earsplitting silence gripping the god who was left behind.
Tick. He swore he heard the needle of a distant clock move.
“Gah…hah…”
Thanatos doubled over, letting out a sharp breath. And before he knew it, he couldn’t control his emotions anymore as they exploded out of him.
“—Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! ”
His laughter broke the silence.
It kept going and going, as ceaseless as a broken music box, and his wild laughter echoed in the room as the shock rocked his body.
“Quit playing around! That’s, like, when a god flaunting their omnipotence gets slapped in the face with shame !—Using me? Gimme a break!”
He cackled and guffawed—spilling out rage and self-derision as the one who understood what was happening in the labyrinth sooner than anyone else. A booming laugh containing his hatred, resignation, every last intense feeling.
“Come on. Don’t give me that. Framing a nice guy like m
e?—Enyo, you piece of shit.”
And at the end of it all, the loser crudely wiped the smile from his face, replacing it with a howling rage.
“—You’re Thanatos, I take it?” called out a voice from behind him as he contained his laughter.
When he turned around, he was faced with a goddess with vermilion hair accompanied by a powerful dwarven warrior and some of her other followers. The patron gods of opposing factions stood before each other as though they had been intended to meet, as though they had been drawn together by a third party’s design.
“We finally tracked you down, Thanatos.”
“…Yes, I’ve been cornered, Loki.”
Thanatos sneered as he murmured, “I can’t go on like this” in a voice that Loki couldn’t quite catch.
“Pick up the pace! Re-form the squad! There are still areas that need a key! We’re setting up to attack again!” Finn fired off his orders.
He gathered the members of Loki Familia who had taken the least damage in the fight with the Barca Monster in order to move to their next target.
“If you’ve run out of items and other supplies, gather up and go back to replenish them. Hermes Familia set up a resupply route using the line of retreat that Aki secured with the others!”
The encirclement of the ninth floor was complete. Bete, Anakity, and Raul had pounced into action, securing the three different entrances to the Dungeon. According to the reports from the oculi, almost all the enemy forces had been wiped out already. The critical stairways had been secured with the help of Dionysus Familia .
Now that the Evils’ resistance had been almost entirely pacified, Finn secretly raised a single crystal to his mouth. “How are things down there?”
“There were no problems on the eighteenth floor, Braver. As you said, I found the area where monsters were held. It’s been cleared out according to plans. We’ve made it up to the thirteenth floor while destroying anyone in our path.”
Fels was on the other end. Even though Finn had told the familia about the pact with the monsters, contacting this sage out in the open would just provoke those who still had hard feelings, which was why Finn quietly confirmed the situation and shared what was happening above.