by Fujino Omori
“I knew they were capturing the Xenos alive…but I didn’t realize those Ikelos Familia guys were raising other monsters free-range. Or do you think they let them loose because they predicted we’d come down here?”
Asfi and the other members of the familia had been briefed about the Xenos by Hermes and were familiar with the whole situation.
As a result, they’d imagined a place where monsters from the Dungeon were being captured and kept. However, they hadn’t expected to keep bumping into monsters every time they tried to advance down a path, exactly like in the real Dungeon. As she stood surrounded by the cold stone walls that made up the maze, Asfi let out three of her habitual sighs.
Something else was irritating her as well.
“Asfiiii! That masked elf has gone crazy! Wasn’t she supposed to be backing us up?”
“Believe me—I’m aware…”
Lyu had been their lifeline, but now she was gone.
As the chienthrope girl screamed at her, Asfi grumbled at the long-gone elf.
“According to our agreement, you weren’t supposed to act on your own…Right, Leon?”
The day before Hestia Familia’s operation to return the Xenos to the Dungeon began, Asfi had made Lyu Leon a promise.
“I’ve heard that the surviving Evils’ Remnants are hiding out in Knossos. As soon as this situation is cleaned up, I’ll search the dungeon and gather the information you want.”
Later, Lyu had come to Asfi with a request.
“I want to take part in your search,” she’d said.
This request had been unexpected, but Asfi had been happy about it. There was no harm in bringing along extra forces if she had to go into that man-made dungeon with its shady past. All the better if it was Gale Wind.
Now that powerful helper had disappeared.
Plus, at Hermes’s bidding, Aisha had joined up with Bell Cranell’s group…If she had been here, things might have been different.
Aisha was a newcomer who, on paper, didn’t yet belong to any faction and also happened to be Hermes Familia’s trump card.
Even if they were to make a mistake in Operation Conquer Knossos, her joining up with Hestia Familia would serve as insurance to make sure the boy and his party didn’t get involved. But Aisha was Aisha, meaning she probably would have joined their expedition anyway, for the sake of Bell Cranell and her “little sister” from her former faction, Ishtar Familia.
Asfi stared into the blackness of the path down which Gale Wind had disappeared, pining after the impossible in spite of herself.
“I thought she’d calmed down…Did I simply underestimate her tenacity when it comes to the Evils?”
It had happened in an instant.
The moment Lyu glimpsed the group of adventurers attempting to escape at the far end of a passage filled with swarms of monsters, she had changed completely. Her sky-blue eyes had widened in fury while she emanated an air of intimidating bloodthirst that overwhelmed even Asfi. Then the elf chased after her fleeing targets without so much as a backward glance.
“It must have something to do with Astrea Familia’s history…”
Evils’ Remnants lingered on in Knossos, even aside from the diabolical hunters.
These were the residual forces of the Evils who had brought an age of darkness to Orario and had been nearly wiped out five years earlier. Knossos suited them well as a hideout, for the Guild had been unable to capture them here.
Gale Wind’s connection to these Evils was deep. She—Lyu Leon, member of the justice-seeking Astrea Familia—was undeniably tied to them.
The adventurers had fled in terror…Had her foe been among them?
“The flames of revenge are burning you, Leon…Will you succumb to them once again?”
No one was there to answer Asfi’s mumbled question.
In the dim, man-made dungeon, she narrowed her eyes in pity.
CHAPTER 2
THE PROPHETESS OF TRAGEDY
A great calamity draws near.
The one who must not be approached is catastrophe incarnate. The one who must not be touched is the oracle of certain death.
A mother’s lament shall call forth disaster, and despair shall let out its newborn cry.
The road of viscera shall be paved with the countless wails of the sacrificed.
The azure current shall run red with blood, and the grotesque horde shall rejoice.
The depths of hell shall overflow with corpses, returning all to the mother.
The squirrel shall bloom into flowers of flesh.
The fox shall be swiftly torn asunder.
The hammer shall be shattered.
The lives of the foreign warriors shall be as playthings.
The bloodied temptress shall abscond with a keepsake of the fox, but shall be mourned upon her defilement by countless fangs and claws.
A friend shall impart sorrow.
The fairy fated to guide all to ruin, compelling the roaring white flames, shall spin a cruel fate.
And so the cage of despair shall become a coffin, tormenting thyself.
Do not forget. Seek naught but the light of the reviving sun.
Gather the fragments, consecrate the flame, beseech the sun’s light.
Take heed. Such is the banquet of calamity…
The dream was nothing special.
The mere product of the sleeping girl’s fancy.
In short, it was simply a horrible nightmare, worse than any she had ever had before, so awful it made her physically ill. For the first time, the girl faced a divine message that was both undeniable and inescapable.
“?!”
Cassandra jerked up in bed with a silent scream.
Straining so hard it seemed her vocal chords would burst, she felt enormous tears gathering at the corners of her panicked eyes.
“Huff…puff…huff…”
Her own ragged breaths reached her ears.
Her clothes were sopping with sweat, and she felt incredibly ill.
She stared ahead in a daze as if her eyes were glued in place, still heaving shallow breaths.
“What…just…happened?”
For a moment, confusion reigned.
In front of her, she saw bare stone walls. She was in Rivira, the traveler’s town on the eighteenth floor. Outside, she could hear the bustle of adventurers like rippling waves. The wrinkled sheet spread around her belonged to a bed in a rented room.
As her consciousness returned, memories began to rise one after another.
Right…I laid down to rest before joining the hunting party…
Cassandra always took a nap before any big event.
Like a fortune-teller, the reason she did this was to dream.
Cassandra was endowed with the ability to have precognitive dreams.
In these dreams, vague images were accompanied by prophetic verses. Invariably, they hinted at impending disasters, and to Cassandra, they were as good as the future that awaited her. Although it was not a very pleasant experience, she made a point of always dreaming before any major event, because the import of her prophecies was so enormous. She’d done the same before Apollo Familia went on expeditions and before the War Game.
After Bell and the others decided to make contact with Gale Wind, Cassandra had obeyed the instinct throbbing in a corner of her brain and received permission to take a rest. She’d come alone to this room and lain down on the bed.
Judging by the hourglass in the room, less than an hour had passed since she’d lain down.
Next to the pillow lay several leaves of Argelica, an herb Cassandra always kept with her to ensure sound sleep.
“…What is going on…?”
Her head hurt, and she felt dizzy. Her lips would not stop trembling.
She had seen a nightmare. It had been absolutely terrible, incomparably worse than any dreams she had ever had on the surface.
It had been composed of seventeen prophecies accompanied by vivid, horrible scenes. A blackness embodying de
spair had crushed everything.
Crimson had gushed, intestines had spilled, and corpses had rolled.
Among them had been the bodies of Lilly, Haruhime, Welf, Mikoto, Chigusa, Ouka, Aisha, and also her friend Daphne.
The moment after she recalled the scene, a powerful nausea crawled up from her stomach.
“Blehhh!!”
She struggled to keep down the vomit rising in her throat. Failing in her attempt, she rolled off the bed and sprinted out of the room into the depths of the cave that had been turned into an inn. She forgot all about external appearances as she retched again and again into a pit carved in one of the walls. The taste of acid filled her throat.
When the nausea finally subsided, she reached her trembling hand out to the bucket beside her. Scooping up the pure water of the Under Resort that the innkeeper had hauled in, she rinsed her mouth repeatedly, then took several deep draughts.
I’m so cold…and so afraid…!
She thought back to when she had been very young, before she had joined Apollo Familia. Every time she had a scary dream back home, she would jump into her mother’s bed, sobbing. She was filled with the desire to once again drown herself in the warm feeling of her mother’s hands stroking her head and back. But her mother was not here. And even if she had been, the prophecies of the dream would not have disappeared.
That was because for Cassandra, they represented the waiting future.
“This is no good. Calm down…You have to think…If you don’t think, the dream will come true…!”
Dream and reality raced through her mind, still entwined. She mulled over the visions.
The “fairy fated to guide all to ruin”…an elf? Gale Wind? The adventurers…Us…Will we be led by Gale Wind?…No, by chasing her, will we make the dream come true?
Gale Wind was an elf.
Cassandra knew that to be true based on information that had been shared five years ago when a bounty was placed on her head.
But she also seemed to be an acquaintance of Bell’s and the others. More to the point, she was the masked adventurer who had taken part in the War Game against Apollo Familia.
And we’re about to chase after Gale Wind to find out what really happened to the murdered adventurer…
That was their goal; that was the big picture.
But…
Is that the whole story…?
I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.
Is this really a straightforward murder investigation?
Just a story of helping out Bell’s acquaintance?
Cassandra turned white as the memory of her prophetic dream assaulted her once again. Just then, she heard a voice nearby.
“Shit, that damn Bors, dazzled by money. Honestly, a hunting party to go after Gale Wind?…Huh? Hey, you, what are you doing over there?!”
Willy, the animal-person owner of the inn, had stumbled on Cassandra as he was carrying some packages into the back of the inn. And now that he had discovered her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Thanks to the sweat, her clothes were clinging to her body, outlining her womanly curves. The sight of a beautiful girl standing there exhausted and miserable stirred up the innkeeper’s lust for conquest.
He gulped at this sexy view, but the next moment, he noticed the awful color of her face.
“Hey now, are you okay…? You look really pale…!”
“…I’m…fine.”
Evading the man’s concern, which bordered on panic, Cassandra stood up. Tottering like a baby, she walked forward and then broke into a run.
In an attempt to somehow distance herself from the scenes of her dream, she hurried toward Daphne and the others.
What I dreamed is not a future set in stone…!
Depending on Cassandra’s actions, the future she foresaw could sometimes be avoided.
The party can still be saved!
She burst out of the cave, obsessed with that single, fervent desire.
“Mr. Welf, is the equipment all ready?” Lilly asked.
“Yes, and I’ve prepared the weapons for Bell and the rest as well. Some of the magic blades are still left, too. We can push into the lower levels once or twice more yet!” he answered.
“Since we need to get ahead of the other adventurers…our enemies won’t necessarily just be monsters. We may have to fight other people as well. Don’t forget that,” Aisha added.
The party was already assembled in front of the inn. It was still night in the Dungeon, which explained why the light of white crystals illuminating their surroundings seemed to emit moonlight.
Lilly and Aisha were leading the group’s final briefing.
“Hey, Cassandra! Where have you been? We’re about to leave!!” Daphne shouted. Not only she but the rest of the party as well had noticed the girl had reappeared.
“Everyone!” she blurted out at the top of her lungs. As they fixed their eyes on her, she continued her entreaty. “About the hunting party…Is there any chance we can give up on it?”
“…Huh?”
“Something terrifying is going to happen…so…let’s just not go…!”
Her voice was shaking. Welf and Lilly stared in disbelief at her crazy request. It was Daphne, of course, who rushed over to her first.
“Cassandra! Are you going to babble on again about some dream you had? Haven’t I told you to get ahold of yourself?”
“…!”
Cassandra’s old friend, whom she had known since their time together in Apollo Familia, was turning a deaf ear to her pleas. Daphne never believed in her prophetic dreams. But it wasn’t just Daphne. She couldn’t get anyone to believe in them. It was like she was cursed. The exact same thing had happened during the War Game.
Lilly looked puzzled, and no one else seemed to believe her warning about “something terrifying” happening, either. Mikoto, Haruhime, and Chigusa looked confused, while Ouka had a dubious expression on his face, and Aisha seemed about to tell her that danger was just part of the package in the Dungeon.
In the past, no one believed me…but this time…!
Cassandra turned her desperate eyes from Daphne toward the white-haired boy.
“B-B-Bell…!”
There was one person who might believe her when no one else did.
The boy standing right in front of her, Bell Cranell.
Yes, she was sure of it; he was blessed with some kind of divine protection, something she might even call fate. Something strong enough to push aside Cassandra’s curse. Ever since the day she had come to Apollo Familia’s former home in search of her lost pillow, this boy who believed what she said had been special to Cassandra.
He was also the party’s leader, and now she turned her pleading eyes toward him.
A troubled look on his face, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I’m very sorry, Miss Cassandra…I can’t.”
Despair darkened her face.
“We have to meet up with Miss Lyu…I want to help her,” he went on.
As he spoke, Cassandra caught the glint of his rubellite eyes, and she knew he meant what he said.
Aaah…It’s no good. He’s not going to give it up…!
Even if he did believe her warning, he was so overly kind that he would head toward the appointed place she had seen in her prophetic dream for the sake of the person he cared about.
For the first time, Cassandra understood that a firm will was synonymous with a strong destiny.
No matter what, she would not be able to stop the group.
The moment she realized this, the strength drained from her knees and she collapsed to the ground.
“Uh…Cassandra?”
As Lilly and the others gathered around in a panic, Daphne quickly supported her friend’s limp form. She was about to ask if Cassandra was all right when she noticed just how pale her face was. From Daphne’s perspective, Cassandra was always saying or doing something odd, and her appearance couldn’t be called hearty even at its best, but she h
ad never before seen her companion looking quite so haggard.
“…I’m sorry. I was planning to help search for Gale Wind…” Daphne said, still supporting Cassandra and looking around uncomfortably at the group. “But this girl seems to be feeling ill…Would you mind letting her rest a bit? I hate to ask this, but I’d like to stay here with her in Rivira—”
Just then, the slumping Cassandra opened her eyes wide.
“No!!”
“?!”
“No! Not that! Anything but that…!”
Lifting her face, Cassandra repeated her denial over and over as if she’d lost her mind. Not only Bell and the others but Daphne, too, was shocked. Gradually their surprise turned to deep confusion, and then they began to watch her as if she was a madwoman.
With both hands pressed to her head and her long hair disheveled, she felt her thin body shiver. Faced with her friends’ failure to understand her message, she was the very picture of a prophetess of tragedy.
No matter what, I can’t let myself be separated from them…!
Even if the general outline of her prophecy was inescapable, they could still avoid total destruction by stepping off the foretold path. And it was only Cassandra, who knew the content of the dream, who could help them to swerve from that path and onto another.
In other words, if Cassandra didn’t go along with the party, the terrible calamity foretold in her dream was certain to befall them.
I can’t; I can’t…! There’s no way I can abandon them now!
If Cassandra and Daphne stayed in town, they would definitely be safe. And not long ago, Cassandra would have chosen her own safety and that of her close friend over the group.
But it was too late. She’d been on an adventure with them, and she knew what kind of people they were.