“Damn, this is blazing hot.” Saori’s body slumped forward, forcing her to take off her coat and open her shirt slightly, revealing her cleavage. She scowled, covering up her mouth and nose.
Floor 15 was, as we expected, a realm of heat and magma. The rocks were colored red and yellow from the glowing streams of magma, flowing like a river to the side of the first chamber. Streaks of flaring rocks radiated like markings on the ground, lightning up for a bit until it turned dim, repeating this ad nauseam. Every breath I took inside this place felt thick from heat, warming my lungs up instead of burning them, like a warm campfire.
I hate to admit it, but I felt right at home here. I wasn’t sweating yet, which meant the temperature wasn’t higher than my tolerance level. I snapped my fingers to create three colored flames, making sure that I could use my three fire types without any issues.
“Okay, Tasianna, cool everything down. Haha, you three are already sweating,” I teased the rest of Aurora. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were having difficulties breathing while the garms had to hide inside our shadows. This place wasn’t for them.
“Understood, Lady Hestia,” with a loud confirmation, Tasianna recalled her catalyst to her hand before conjuring up a cyan-colored magic circle above it, its size growing the more she poured her mana into it. She then sent the circle onto the ground, encompassing everybody in its ring. “Custom spell: Aifli eir Vintral!”
The magic circle began glowing, and two butterfly-like wings made out of ice materialized right behind Tasianna, floating around her much like her catalyst. The magic circle began to turn translucent as the inner contents—the runic letters—disappeared completely, leaving behind only a cyan ring.
The heat began to disappear, cooling down to the point that white fog appeared every time I exhaled. I shivered for a moment, noticing the drastic temperature change, before closing my cloak shut.
This was one of Tasianna’s two newest custom spells. Following my example, my fairy maid not only practiced tailoring and potion making, but dutifully continued reading and training using Master Kushlek’zar’s notes. This was [Fairy of Winter], a spell meant to create an aura of ice to help cool me down in case I ever overused [Dreaflare Aura] or [Solar Beam].
The spell was a Tasianna exclusive spell, or rather, to be more specific, a spell only usable for those with [Cryokinesis] and [Frost Body]. The wings, similar to the mana slime made from her catalyst, couldn’t be moved by conventional means, requiring her to use [Cryokinesis] to keep them airborne. She could also attach mana slime to them to have her catalyst move them for her.
In any case, the power of this spell was its ability to decrease the surrounding temperature, much like the spell [Reduce Heat] could, but unlike that fire spell, [Fairy of Winter] also increased the potency of all ice spells and attacks within range. After what I did to the alchemist’s guild’s building in Firwood, literally burning the air, it inspired Tasianna to create a heat-killer spell. After we knew we had to enter the magma chamber that was floor 15, she finalized the spell during one week of training with everybody’s help.
She also had a second custom spell finished, but that one was designed entirely for combat.
“Is this adequate? This is as warm as I can set the spell, otherwise, the intense heat of the floor would cancel out my spell’s effect.” Tasianna looked apologetic, despite us knowing the limitations of the spell from our initial testing.
However, I shook my head, blowing a fire to warm up my hands. “Don’t worry about it. Did you forget? I can control my body temperature with my core well enough to not freeze; besides, it’s more important you guys keep your stamina up.”
I didn’t need to be inside Tasianna’s spell, after all. I could always leave and enjoy the heat bath to warm myself up. Being a fire dragon was suffering sometimes, especially in the winters where I felt drowsier than usual. Hibernation, ha!
“I cannot sense any of the lesser faefolk or elementals around, just like the last four floors. We need the garms to sniff him out,” Tasianna stated. Since the dungeon couldn’t create faefolk, as they weren’t considered monsters unless under specific conditions, like treants or onnikais, the ones we met until now came from the surface.
Saori then pulled out one of the [Inferno Resistance Potion]s Grimnir gave us, one of the few items he left behind at camp. We didn’t have anything with a more powerful smell for Saori and the garms to track with, since Grimnir carried all his belongings in his backpack. We unfurled the map for floor 15 and began our search for the dwarf.
“He should not have gotten that far, but I still do not like how he has been away for this long,” Saori worriedly stated, leading the party with Uno, now that it was cool enough for the garms to stay outside.
After leaving the tunnel leading from the entrance room, a massive magma chamber came into view with a river of magma, complete with small pockets of rock sticking out of the fiery river like islands. Inside, a pack of giant red-scaled salamanders hanging on the walls hissed at us before shooting out balls of fire from their mouths.
Fireballs rained at us from the wall climbing salamanders while the rank C swimming in the lake of magna spat a ball of molten rock at us.
The garms immediately went into evasive maneuvers, sidestepping the fireballs with finesse. Without needing any orders, Ellaine began supporting the team by conjuring [Earthen Wall]s on the walls, knocking each salamander down for Tasianna to pincushion with her ice daggers and [Ice Spike]s.
“Tasianna, stay in the middle and stay in support. We need the air conditioning!” Saori ordered as the both of us engaged the magmespine salamander, leaving the fodder to the others.
We could have ignored it after taking down its pack, but the chamber was huge and the river was long enough for the salamander to follow us at a distance, spitting out exploding magma balls at our backs. From this distance, I could see other magmaspines hanging around on islands like relaxing crocodiles, making them a real threat for our continued travel.
“Holy, how did Grimnir get through all of this?” I exclaimed after dismounting Song, using [Wind Blast] and [Air Walk] to “fly over” the magma lake with my wings.
“Who knows. Did his mana and stamina amount fluctuate at all on the party screen? He is a runesmith, right? So he should have a few tricks under his sleeve, especially when he was that determined to get that magma rock,” Saori raised a good point. “Hestia, do you think you can dive into the magma river and fish the slazzanbal out?”
“There you go with your risky jokes, again. No, I won’t jump into a magma lake even if I possibly could.”
A part of me believed I could survive within it, especially if I turned into my minor or dragon form, but the rational side of me was sensible enough to not go with every single one of Saori’s ideas. For example, eating that damn rock when we were still stuck in the Belzac forest was a dumb move.
Besides, why dive into the lake when I could just continue gliding around?
… And drop bombs.
Using [Detection Sensor], I pinpointed the salamander’s movements, throwing one bomb into its path. With a huge explosion, magma splattered into the air like a geyser, sending the slazzanbal flying up as well. Unfortunately, as per the System description, these monsters had magma-resistant scales, so my scale-dust bomb didn’t do enough damage to kill it in one go.
Regardless, they were now in the air; easy targets for a black lightning shooting wolf! With [Stygian Lightning], Saori stunned it with a continuous blast of black electricity, leaving it vulnerable to a clean slash from my tail, decapitating it.
I grabbed both its body and head, threw them into my storage before turning back to the others. “Okay, on to the next! Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, you guys lead and I’ll fly around to—”
“No need!”
As I was about to finish giving out our game plan, Tasianna shouted, interrupting me and pointed her finger to the side where multiple slazzanbals began running away. The magmaspines dived into the magma river while the rank Ds skittered into the holes of the walls.
… I honestly expected them to be as belligerent as the felgheists, so I was prepared to fight multiple hordes of monsters. That has been how we spent the last four days on floors ten to fourteen. It was a surprise.
“Everybody, look,” Ellaine called us over to the edge of the chamber’s cliff, drawing our eyes to what was at the bottom of this place.
“What in the—”' I exclaimed but stopped before ending the sentence as the picture of a green-glowing, spotted red mushroom forest entered my eye. A small pond of water laid in the grove of giant mushrooms, serving as a watering hole for a pack of ram-horned buffalos.
This bottom area in general looked more organic than where we currently were standing on, with slopes, stalactites, dark brown vines, and red grass growing around in the area. Herbivores like those buffalos and four-legged pachycephalosaurus wandered around in the area while carnivores like those slazzanbals either relaxed next to a stream of magma or prowled the area for prey.
On one side of the spectrum, magma was falling from the walls as lakes of molten rock flowed through the ground and into small caves. On the other hand, there was a mushroom forest in a red grassy area which made a good home for any monster thanks to a water-filled lake. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Wow,” all of us murmured in wonder, having not expected another well-working ecosystem like the ones from floor five to nine. I knew this was a possibility for this dungeon, but how could you guess that an area like this would exist after the felwing-infested place we just fought through?
As the rest of us goggled at the mix of green-glowing mushrooms and yellow-glowing streams, Saori pulled multiple maps out from her storage, inspecting them before her eyes widened. “That is floor 16.”
“Huh?” The three of us turned around, unsure of what we’d just heard.
“That’s what the maps say. Now that I look at them properly, starting from floor one until 14, all the floors were connected with staircase-like rooms; however, 15 to 20 is by itself an entire ‘room.’ We could technically jump down from here and we would have made it to floor 16. I thought it was odd that there was no staircase symbol on these maps, but now I know why,” Saori explained, making me wonder if this phenomenon was described anywhere in my dungeon book since I hadn’t finished it yet.
Saori continued, “Grimnir might have known this, since he was responsible for the maps until floor five. He might have inspected them and already knew this was the case.”
That caused my mind to return to our issue on hand. “You aren’t telling me he’s exploring this whole giant place on his own to find that damn rock he wanted, are you? Scouting is one thing, but going further out alone when he could encounter rank C or even B monsters is suicidal! What is that drunkard thinking?”
None of us could understand what Grimnir was thinking, even Tasianna who had minimal knowledge on dwarven culture had no way to explain his actions. All we knew was that he hadn't come back yet and we needed to find where he got himself to and reunite this dungeon party. Leaving him to possibly die would just leave a horrible taste in my mouth.
“He could have found a way to enter the next few floors, everybody,” Ellaine stated before hopping onto Quatre. “However, let’s follow the garms’ noses first before we jump to any conclusions. It is far too huge for us to wander around without a clue.”
I had no idea why the dungeon created its last few floors like this, but that question could be left for later, after we found Grimnir and lectured his drunken, dwarven ass for being an idiot. Once we remounted the garms, we ran past all the slazzanbals still hiding under the magma river, wary of our party after what we had done to a few of them.
We entered a cavern, diving deeper into it until we found a small cool lake away where a couple of felgheists were sleeping on the ceiling, unaware of us. We weren’t looking to fight, so we snuck into a tunnel on the other side of this lake, where we found a group of fat, four-legged giant iguanas with tough, bony jaws digging into the ground and stuffing their mouths full with ore and rocks. They looked at us for a moment before returning to minding their own businesses, which we reciprocated in turn.
“If you were to tell me this was inside a volcano on the surface, I would believe you without a doubt in my mind. Look at this, the red mushrooms are growing from the rocky soil,” I pointed to a colony of mushrooms.
“Ellaine, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about this place, would you? Did your parents mention this place to you or your brother or talk about trading for any of the materials from here? I would find it hard to imagine the Duke would have no idea about any valuables here, since the hunter’s guild clearly discovered some when they made these maps,” Saori asked as we sprinted through a tunnel.
“Unfortunately, I know very little about this. This dungeon, after all, isn’t in my house’s fief, so it wouldn’t exactly have furthered my education had I known. I know the forest next to Carine village well enough since mother and I would follow father and brother on their hunting trips, but that is the extent of my wildlife or dungeon knowledge,” Ellaine explained, informing us how nobles love hunting animals in their own fiefs despite, or perhaps because of, the fact monsters existed. “Trade, on the other hand, is a different subject, since what we import and export from our land and businesses does affect me. I used to visit the Sarlenzia company quite a bit in my childhood and one thing I do remember, since it wasn’t something the company usually traded in, was a type of ore that came from this dungeon. I can’t remember anything else, though.”
“Would that ore be the one?” Tasianna interjected the moment the garms stopped moving.
We dismounted and moved closer to the area Tasianna was pointing in, noticing that a small opening about my size was dug into the wall. Small black glimmering splinters were littered on the floor as we approached it. Picking one up, I used [Mana Eyes] to appraise them.
Did he—?
“I don’t know about Grimnir, but I heard dwarves are supposedly natural miners. As a blacksmith, it wouldn’t be weird for him to bring a pickaxe with him and begin mining the moment he saw this ore vein. It is not like he was especially well-off when we visited his carriage,” Tasianna mentioned, unintentionally burning Grimnir’s financial status.
Since the garms stopped here, we decided to look into the cave. Snapping my fingers, I created a small fire to illuminate the dark opening, revealing that the ground had collapsed a few steps in, creating a hole large enough for a person. Looking down, I figured whoever fell down would have a rocky ride before landing.
“It’s large enough for Grimnir to fit into,” I commented, to which everybody nodded. “Damn, well, I don’t think dropping down into a hole leading to unknown lands would be smart.”
“Naturally,” Saori chimed in.
I ignored her. “No choice, though. Everybody, I’ll go first with [Panzer] activated. Once I give the signal, you guys can come down.”
With no one objecting, I withdrew my wings with [Humanize] and cast [Panzer] on myself, cladding my skin in a hardened corrosive flame armor before jumping into the hole. As I didn’t want to crash land, I scaled the wall using my claws, hanging onto the rock while sliding down slowly. Smart move, since the trip down was almost like a water park slide, only far harder and extremely bumpy.
The wall looks broken here. And here, too. Here … doesn’t this look like a ram horn imprint? Shit, Grimnir.
The moment light came into view, I knew the exit of this hole was close. Instead of dropping down, I hung on the wall like a lizard, peaking out of the hole’s exit while my body was upside down.
Which floor is this? Floor 16? 17? How deep did our search lead us? Hmm, I should stop thinking of this place like multiple floors, and more like a single floor. Makes it less confusing.
The area under me was a cavern with red-hot rock, literally exuding steam like those rocks those masseurs use in a hot rock massage. Next to it was a medium-sized pond, boiling like a hot spring, while some magma was flowing into the ground of the place, which I guess flowed under the whole pond. A lot of free geothermal energy if somebody wanted to use it like renewable energy.
Casting [Humanize] again to bring my wings back out, I dropped out of the tunnel once I confirmed it was safe. “A hot spring is here, you guys can drop down! It’s safe!” I shouted through the tunnel to inform the others before testing the water myself.
“Wooo, nice. Stinks a bit, though.”
If we weren’t in a hurry, I definitely would like to dip in to relax, but I began a reconnaissance instead. While Saori and the rest slid down the hole, I managed to find the way out of this place, where I conveniently found something hacked into the wall.
“Sorry” was written, uh, carved into the wall. A few drenched pieces of cloth and clothing laid before it with an axe lodged into the ground. The axe was excessively decorated compared to other woodcutter’s axes, with rune-like markings, but it was undoubtedly the axe Grimnir used to chop the barkwraith into pieces.
Was the reason why he couldn’t make it back cause he fell through that hole? It would explain why he never returned for the rest of our party to finish up his fetch quest. Still didn’t make it less crazy how deep he went into that tunnel instead of staying where he fell and waiting for us. Maybe he really was trying to find that rock by himself and got himself in this mess.
Argh, enough. I shouldn’t be thinking about these things when I haven’t asked his side of the story. Still, annoying to get us—Wait!
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 1891/5791 Mana: 641/1109 Stamina: 3789/5471
_____________________________________________
How did he lose such a huge chunk of his health so quickly ?
“Song!” The second garm of Saori’s shadow pack had been hiding inside my shadow when I went down the hole first. I called her out and told her we needed to find Grimnir immediately, giving her some of Grimnir’s wet clothes to track with.
[“I understand, Mistress Hestia.”]
“Party Screen! Saori, we need to rush!” I shouted as loud as I could before rushing forward into the tunnel with Song.
There was a function of the party bracelets which our party hadn’t used for a very long time, and that was the ID tracking function, which displayed the direction and distance between each party member if we were close enough. Grimnir’s signal had been too far until now, but it suddenly showed the distance between the two of us.
It unfortunately couldn’t pinpoint the exact location but knowing we were close made me even more nervous, stimulating my imagination as I couldn’t keep myself from visualizing what could be happening to Grimnir. On the party screen, his health just went up by a huge chunk—he used up one of Tasianna’s potions, probably—but it just went down again just as quickly. His health was fluctuating up and down while his mana and stamina were constantly being drained at this moment. He had to be fighting, but against what? A rank C should be something he could handle.
“GriARRRRRRHHHHHH!”
As the meters between us decreased with every second, an ear-pounding echo flooded the tunnel, causing not only Song’s but also my hair to stand up. Anxious, I refreshed all my buffs with my parallel minds before turning [Aerokinesis] to play one of my spell songs.
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines
It’s blinding my sight
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ”
“Song, you can smell it, too, right?”
[“Yes … I shall leave to inform the Alpha as soon as possible. Please, be careful on your hunt, Mistress Hestia. The pack will come as soon as possible.”]
“Thank you, Song,” I uttered in thanks after taking a deep breath, before jumping off her back. Using [Wind Blast] on my wings, I ran and flew forward while staring at the party screen with the edge of my vision.
Using [Shadow Dash], she disappeared into a shadow to inform the rest. [“Hunt well, Mistress!”]
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 2391/5791 Mana: 501/1109 Stamina: 2889/5471
Effects: [Broken Right Arm (Right)] [Inferno Resistance (Moderate)]
_____________________________________________
He drank the resistance potion! Faster.
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 1418/5791 Mana: 489/1109 Stamina: 2051/5471
Effects: [Broken Right Arm (Right) (Minor)] [Burning (Minor)] [Inferno Resistance (Moderate)]
_____________________________________________
Faster!
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 773/5791 Mana: 241/1109 Stamina: 1397/5471
Effects: [Broken Right Arm (Moderate)] [Broken Left Arm (Moderate)] [Burning (Minor)] [Inferno Resistance (Moderate)]
_____________________________________________
Faster! Wind Blast!
“Umslid kain, kawuk ka—Argh! —an, fie Crustacia! Volrun! Umsleud!”
“Grigrigrigri! Graaahhh!”
Draconic Roar!
Adrenaline rushed through my veins as [Wind Blast] blew me into a large chamber. I adjusted the air in front of my mouth, before blasting it at the first giant thing I saw.
Holding nothing back, my vocal cords exploded into action as a roar filled with all the emotions I felt up until now was released from my mouth, amplified to the point it caused the air to tremble with my wrath.
“KriiiARHHHHHHHHHH!”
A serpentine monster—standing on two legs with a long snake tail, the beast’s arms were reinforced in what looked like scaled gauntlets, emitting flaming swords from both arms. The scales covering the back side of its body were a beautiful snow-white while the front was red and orange. It had the head of a dragon, armored with carapace as two devil-like horns adorned it, making it look, frankly, pretty cool.
As it was about to slam its flame swords down, my roar forced it to flinch and block the sound with its hand. Using its nimble, almost human-like legs, it jumped back with the flow of the sonic attack and stepped away from the magically shaped sound waves once it was far enough. Far enough for my eyes to notice a bloodied Grimnir who was set on fire.
Healing was needed here, but I couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room. The serpentine monster braced itself and roared forward, seeing me as a new challenger.
Sacred Field. Wind Blast! Humanize!
“Lass!”
One of my parallel minds cast the healing spell on Grimnir while another blasted my body forward. Blue mist exploded from my body, covering and hiding me as my body metamorphosed. Bones cracked and grew, skin stretched and morphed into scales, hair replaced with armor-like carapace.
“Kriaaaauuuhhhh!” Stomping my legs forward, I pulled my tail on the ground, instantly igniting it on fire and slashed at the monster with it.
“The carnage of the blazing sun
Blood rain from swords and claws
As the music drops, our emotions will run wild
Top the world
The strive to pierce the sky
The light that beckons you forth
The promise to stand fast
Family and Friends
The Will to Fight and Survive! ”
Kaboom!
An explosion of fire. My attack … was blocked!
“Grigrigrigri!” Two flame swords wrapped around the serpentine’s arms, used to block my attack. My tail, reinforced with [Hellblade Edge], was capable of slicing steel and penetrating the skin of a rank B high ogre, but it found its match against this monster. Just like in my spars with Farron!
The giant serpent pushed me back, launching me closer to Grimnir in this humongous magma chamber. The flame swords on its arms disappeared, extinguished by will as the monster began to crackle. Holding one hand on its long neck, it began to loosen up its neck. It cracked its hands, stretched its arms, and slammed its tail on the ground thrice before roaring again.
Was it doing a warm-up?
“Lass, w-why are you—” Grimnir stuttered as he noticed his arms were being mended, looking up to me in my dragon form.
[“We can talk later! Saori and the rest are coming from the tunnel. Run and get to them!”]
“Hestia, that thing is a—!”
[“I know!”]
Mana Eyes.
Level eight …
It was neither a newly evolved rank B like those snow wyverns nor was it too strong like the high ogre or Asterios. It was five levels above me. It was a fairly even fight, especially with all my stat and skill increases from my completed Jobs.
… So, why do I feel so nervous?
Our eyes clashed, matching perfectly. We knew we found an opponent worthy of our power but not too strong to overwhelm each other. Neither of us moved a muscle, as we knew the first to move would be the one to be counter attacked.
In this inferno hell, only my music was playing, scaring the silence away. Even to me, I had to question if the music actually fitted.
Who was the boss here, and who was the challenger?
“Marvelous! Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! The gods of the Fire Pantheon have blessed us with this show of the true inferno!”
However, even the sound of my music was broken by this fervor-filled shout. Both the slazzigula and I broke our staring contest to turn towards the sound, eyeing the congregation of humans and beastmen. All of them wore black and red coats over a light red robe, kneeling before the two of us as if they were worshipping the two of us.
“Fire consumes fire!” the congregation exploded, simultaneously shouting that one phrase over and over again, fully synced.
“Ahh, oh, Fiery Lord, God Danterno, although you are missing, suppressed by the wicked witch, Plesia, you are still strong enough to send us this teaching, to grant us knowledge on how to improve ourselves even further? Oh, Grand Inferno, we are unworthy of even your embers!” The one who looked like the leader bellowed out like a madman. “We shall become stronger, bolder, to strengthen your subordinates. Ohhh, to war with the witch and free you of your bondings, let our worship fuel your pantheon! I, Keith Svonnweidher, a lowly inferno mage am no match for the witch, but I shall guide these younglings through these trials, to have them learn of the truth of the fire! Fire consumes fire!”
Now that I think about it, isn’t that amulet Shitterno’s symbol? You gotta be kidding me!
The leading figure pulled out a core-like rock. Streaks of fire and magma flowed inside it, showing them through the rock’s crevices. The figure holding it groaned as it began sizzling his hands. “Ahhhhh, this trial! Let the fire consume the filth inside me, purify my sins, and release my true potential. Fire consumes fire! The cleansing fire brings not only destruction but also life, destroying the old to bring forth the new! Fire consumes fire! We sweat, we burn, we suffer, for the power to bring our God to his rightful power. Fire consumes fire!!!”
“Fire consumes fire!”
… What?
Even the slazzigula looked as if it couldn’t understand the situation, which it probably couldn’t. The tension between us was broken by Shiterno’s followers.
“That rock!” Grimnir suddenly cried out. “That magma rock! A core of ever-burning voldunna! That rich rock of condense ore is wasted on you banal fire slingers! Hand it over!”
“Ahhh, the follower of the traitor god. Bleidla no longer serves the Fiery Lord, so why must we listen? Even this beast sent by our lord attacked you, punishing you for your god’s sins! Unworthy infidel, this magma ball shall be our strength!” the leading figure blurted out.
… What even is going on here?
“KEITH!”
No … You gotta be kidding me.
Both the slazzigula and I turned towards the newest voice, where we saw the air literally shatter like glass, revealing a party of sevan standing there. At its helm was a man in black robes, wearing a half-mask, screaming his lungs out, “KEITH, you fucking bastard, I will KILL YOU!” He then ripped the mask off his face, revealing how disfigured it was from old scars.
Talon, oh shit!
While that caught my attention for a moment, my eyes and my nose turned over to a snow-white haired woman in the very back of the group, wearing white armor fitting her hair, looking pristine and regal in contrast to the surroundings. She was holding a white spear and emitted an aura I couldn’t possibly describe.
Why does she look so familiar … wait, this sweet smell. Hold on, hold on, I know this scent!
As my eyes widened, the woman returned my gaze, her nose twitching the moment she did. I could hear the slazzigula crackling a laugh to the side, possibly at the thought of more people to fight, as I saw the woman raise her hand to hide her gaping mouth while staring back at me.
“P-Prince—” She was about to call out, only for my attention to be drawn behind me, as I saw my friends finally having arrived!
“Hestia!”
“Lady Hestia!”
“Hestia!”
Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, and the garms caught up, looking battle-ready as they called out for me. Honestly, what was with this situation? It was so chaotic!
… However, it seemed like the universe didn’t think it was crazy enough for me.
“Shriiiiieeeeeeeekkkk!”
The ground crumbled, a giant spider emerged, pandemonium ensued as everybody began to fall.
“Hestia, keep them safe! Yaaaahhhhhh!” I heard Saori shout.
“P-Princess Hestia, shit, damnit! Kids!” Another adult woman’s voice entered my head before so many others swirled around me in a maelstrom of cries, roars, and yells.
“KEITH!”
“Oho, Talon, old friend! Join us!”
“My rock!”
“Grigrigrigri grigaaaaaaaaaa!”
Why couldn’t all of this have been simple?
And deeper all of us fell into this troublesome dungeon.
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“Damn, this is blazing hot.” Saori’s body slumped forward, forcing her to take off her coat and open her shirt slightly, revealing her cleavage. She scowled, covering up her mouth and nose.
Floor 15 was, as we expected, a realm of heat and magma. The rocks were colored red and yellow from the glowing streams of magma, flowing like a river to the side of the first chamber. Streaks of flaring rocks radiated like markings on the ground, lightning up for a bit until it turned dim, repeating this ad nauseam. Every breath I took inside this place felt thick from heat, warming my lungs up instead of burning them, like a warm campfire.
I hate to admit it, but I felt right at home here. I wasn’t sweating yet, which meant the temperature wasn’t higher than my tolerance level. I snapped my fingers to create three colored flames, making sure that I could use my three fire types without any issues.
“Okay, Tasianna, cool everything down. Haha, you three are already sweating,” I teased the rest of Aurora. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were having difficulties breathing while the garms had to hide inside our shadows. This place wasn’t for them.
“Understood, Lady Hestia,” with a loud confirmation, Tasianna recalled her catalyst to her hand before conjuring up a cyan-colored magic circle above it, its size growing the more she poured her mana into it. She then sent the circle onto the ground, encompassing everybody in its ring. “Custom spell: Aifli eir Vintral!”
The magic circle began glowing, and two butterfly-like wings made out of ice materialized right behind Tasianna, floating around her much like her catalyst. The magic circle began to turn translucent as the inner contents—the runic letters—disappeared completely, leaving behind only a cyan ring.
The heat began to disappear, cooling down to the point that white fog appeared every time I exhaled. I shivered for a moment, noticing the drastic temperature change, before closing my cloak shut.
This was one of Tasianna’s two newest custom spells. Following my example, my fairy maid not only practiced tailoring and potion making, but dutifully continued reading and training using Master Kushlek’zar’s notes. This was [Fairy of Winter], a spell meant to create an aura of ice to help cool me down in case I ever overused [Dreaflare Aura] or [Solar Beam].
The spell was a Tasianna exclusive spell, or rather, to be more specific, a spell only usable for those with [Cryokinesis] and [Frost Body]. The wings, similar to the mana slime made from her catalyst, couldn’t be moved by conventional means, requiring her to use [Cryokinesis] to keep them airborne. She could also attach mana slime to them to have her catalyst move them for her.
In any case, the power of this spell was its ability to decrease the surrounding temperature, much like the spell [Reduce Heat] could, but unlike that fire spell, [Fairy of Winter] also increased the potency of all ice spells and attacks within range. After what I did to the alchemist’s guild’s building in Firwood, literally burning the air, it inspired Tasianna to create a heat-killer spell. After we knew we had to enter the magma chamber that was floor 15, she finalized the spell during one week of training with everybody’s help.
She also had a second custom spell finished, but that one was designed entirely for combat.
“Is this adequate? This is as warm as I can set the spell, otherwise, the intense heat of the floor would cancel out my spell’s effect.” Tasianna looked apologetic, despite us knowing the limitations of the spell from our initial testing.
However, I shook my head, blowing a fire to warm up my hands. “Don’t worry about it. Did you forget? I can control my body temperature with my core well enough to not freeze; besides, it’s more important you guys keep your stamina up.”
I didn’t need to be inside Tasianna’s spell, after all. I could always leave and enjoy the heat bath to warm myself up. Being a fire dragon was suffering sometimes, especially in the winters where I felt drowsier than usual. Hibernation, ha!
“I cannot sense any of the lesser faefolk or elementals around, just like the last four floors. We need the garms to sniff him out,” Tasianna stated. Since the dungeon couldn’t create faefolk, as they weren’t considered monsters unless under specific conditions, like treants or onnikais, the ones we met until now came from the surface.
Saori then pulled out one of the [Inferno Resistance Potion]s Grimnir gave us, one of the few items he left behind at camp. We didn’t have anything with a more powerful smell for Saori and the garms to track with, since Grimnir carried all his belongings in his backpack. We unfurled the map for floor 15 and began our search for the dwarf.
“He should not have gotten that far, but I still do not like how he has been away for this long,” Saori worriedly stated, leading the party with Uno, now that it was cool enough for the garms to stay outside.
After leaving the tunnel leading from the entrance room, a massive magma chamber came into view with a river of magma, complete with small pockets of rock sticking out of the fiery river like islands. Inside, a pack of giant red-scaled salamanders hanging on the walls hissed at us before shooting out balls of fire from their mouths.
Fireballs rained at us from the wall climbing salamanders while the rank C swimming in the lake of magna spat a ball of molten rock at us.
The garms immediately went into evasive maneuvers, sidestepping the fireballs with finesse. Without needing any orders, Ellaine began supporting the team by conjuring [Earthen Wall]s on the walls, knocking each salamander down for Tasianna to pincushion with her ice daggers and [Ice Spike]s.
“Tasianna, stay in the middle and stay in support. We need the air conditioning!” Saori ordered as the both of us engaged the magmespine salamander, leaving the fodder to the others.
We could have ignored it after taking down its pack, but the chamber was huge and the river was long enough for the salamander to follow us at a distance, spitting out exploding magma balls at our backs. From this distance, I could see other magmaspines hanging around on islands like relaxing crocodiles, making them a real threat for our continued travel.
“Holy, how did Grimnir get through all of this?” I exclaimed after dismounting Song, using [Wind Blast] and [Air Walk] to “fly over” the magma lake with my wings.
“Who knows. Did his mana and stamina amount fluctuate at all on the party screen? He is a runesmith, right? So he should have a few tricks under his sleeve, especially when he was that determined to get that magma rock,” Saori raised a good point. “Hestia, do you think you can dive into the magma river and fish the slazzanbal out?”
“There you go with your risky jokes, again. No, I won’t jump into a magma lake even if I possibly could.”
A part of me believed I could survive within it, especially if I turned into my minor or dragon form, but the rational side of me was sensible enough to not go with every single one of Saori’s ideas. For example, eating that damn rock when we were still stuck in the Belzac forest was a dumb move.
Besides, why dive into the lake when I could just continue gliding around?
… And drop bombs.
Using [Detection Sensor], I pinpointed the salamander’s movements, throwing one bomb into its path. With a huge explosion, magma splattered into the air like a geyser, sending the slazzanbal flying up as well. Unfortunately, as per the System description, these monsters had magma-resistant scales, so my scale-dust bomb didn’t do enough damage to kill it in one go.
Regardless, they were now in the air; easy targets for a black lightning shooting wolf! With [Stygian Lightning], Saori stunned it with a continuous blast of black electricity, leaving it vulnerable to a clean slash from my tail, decapitating it.
I grabbed both its body and head, threw them into my storage before turning back to the others. “Okay, on to the next! Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, you guys lead and I’ll fly around to—”
“No need!”
As I was about to finish giving out our game plan, Tasianna shouted, interrupting me and pointed her finger to the side where multiple slazzanbals began running away. The magmaspines dived into the magma river while the rank Ds skittered into the holes of the walls.
… I honestly expected them to be as belligerent as the felgheists, so I was prepared to fight multiple hordes of monsters. That has been how we spent the last four days on floors ten to fourteen. It was a surprise.
“Everybody, look,” Ellaine called us over to the edge of the chamber’s cliff, drawing our eyes to what was at the bottom of this place.
“What in the—”' I exclaimed but stopped before ending the sentence as the picture of a green-glowing, spotted red mushroom forest entered my eye. A small pond of water laid in the grove of giant mushrooms, serving as a watering hole for a pack of ram-horned buffalos.
This bottom area in general looked more organic than where we currently were standing on, with slopes, stalactites, dark brown vines, and red grass growing around in the area. Herbivores like those buffalos and four-legged pachycephalosaurus wandered around in the area while carnivores like those slazzanbals either relaxed next to a stream of magma or prowled the area for prey.
On one side of the spectrum, magma was falling from the walls as lakes of molten rock flowed through the ground and into small caves. On the other hand, there was a mushroom forest in a red grassy area which made a good home for any monster thanks to a water-filled lake. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Wow,” all of us murmured in wonder, having not expected another well-working ecosystem like the ones from floor five to nine. I knew this was a possibility for this dungeon, but how could you guess that an area like this would exist after the felwing-infested place we just fought through?
As the rest of us goggled at the mix of green-glowing mushrooms and yellow-glowing streams, Saori pulled multiple maps out from her storage, inspecting them before her eyes widened. “That is floor 16.”
“Huh?” The three of us turned around, unsure of what we’d just heard.
“That’s what the maps say. Now that I look at them properly, starting from floor one until 14, all the floors were connected with staircase-like rooms; however, 15 to 20 is by itself an entire ‘room.’ We could technically jump down from here and we would have made it to floor 16. I thought it was odd that there was no staircase symbol on these maps, but now I know why,” Saori explained, making me wonder if this phenomenon was described anywhere in my dungeon book since I hadn’t finished it yet.
Saori continued, “Grimnir might have known this, since he was responsible for the maps until floor five. He might have inspected them and already knew this was the case.”
That caused my mind to return to our issue on hand. “You aren’t telling me he’s exploring this whole giant place on his own to find that damn rock he wanted, are you? Scouting is one thing, but going further out alone when he could encounter rank C or even B monsters is suicidal! What is that drunkard thinking?”
None of us could understand what Grimnir was thinking, even Tasianna who had minimal knowledge on dwarven culture had no way to explain his actions. All we knew was that he hadn't come back yet and we needed to find where he got himself to and reunite this dungeon party. Leaving him to possibly die would just leave a horrible taste in my mouth.
“He could have found a way to enter the next few floors, everybody,” Ellaine stated before hopping onto Quatre. “However, let’s follow the garms’ noses first before we jump to any conclusions. It is far too huge for us to wander around without a clue.”
I had no idea why the dungeon created its last few floors like this, but that question could be left for later, after we found Grimnir and lectured his drunken, dwarven ass for being an idiot. Once we remounted the garms, we ran past all the slazzanbals still hiding under the magma river, wary of our party after what we had done to a few of them.
We entered a cavern, diving deeper into it until we found a small cool lake away where a couple of felgheists were sleeping on the ceiling, unaware of us. We weren’t looking to fight, so we snuck into a tunnel on the other side of this lake, where we found a group of fat, four-legged giant iguanas with tough, bony jaws digging into the ground and stuffing their mouths full with ore and rocks. They looked at us for a moment before returning to minding their own businesses, which we reciprocated in turn.
“If you were to tell me this was inside a volcano on the surface, I would believe you without a doubt in my mind. Look at this, the red mushrooms are growing from the rocky soil,” I pointed to a colony of mushrooms.
“Ellaine, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about this place, would you? Did your parents mention this place to you or your brother or talk about trading for any of the materials from here? I would find it hard to imagine the Duke would have no idea about any valuables here, since the hunter’s guild clearly discovered some when they made these maps,” Saori asked as we sprinted through a tunnel.
“Unfortunately, I know very little about this. This dungeon, after all, isn’t in my house’s fief, so it wouldn’t exactly have furthered my education had I known. I know the forest next to Carine village well enough since mother and I would follow father and brother on their hunting trips, but that is the extent of my wildlife or dungeon knowledge,” Ellaine explained, informing us how nobles love hunting animals in their own fiefs despite, or perhaps because of, the fact monsters existed. “Trade, on the other hand, is a different subject, since what we import and export from our land and businesses does affect me. I used to visit the Sarlenzia company quite a bit in my childhood and one thing I do remember, since it wasn’t something the company usually traded in, was a type of ore that came from this dungeon. I can’t remember anything else, though.”
“Would that ore be the one?” Tasianna interjected the moment the garms stopped moving.
We dismounted and moved closer to the area Tasianna was pointing in, noticing that a small opening about my size was dug into the wall. Small black glimmering splinters were littered on the floor as we approached it. Picking one up, I used [Mana Eyes] to appraise them.
Did he—?
“I don’t know about Grimnir, but I heard dwarves are supposedly natural miners. As a blacksmith, it wouldn’t be weird for him to bring a pickaxe with him and begin mining the moment he saw this ore vein. It is not like he was especially well-off when we visited his carriage,” Tasianna mentioned, unintentionally burning Grimnir’s financial status.
Since the garms stopped here, we decided to look into the cave. Snapping my fingers, I created a small fire to illuminate the dark opening, revealing that the ground had collapsed a few steps in, creating a hole large enough for a person. Looking down, I figured whoever fell down would have a rocky ride before landing.
“It’s large enough for Grimnir to fit into,” I commented, to which everybody nodded. “Damn, well, I don’t think dropping down into a hole leading to unknown lands would be smart.”
“Naturally,” Saori chimed in.
I ignored her. “No choice, though. Everybody, I’ll go first with [Panzer] activated. Once I give the signal, you guys can come down.”
With no one objecting, I withdrew my wings with [Humanize] and cast [Panzer] on myself, cladding my skin in a hardened corrosive flame armor before jumping into the hole. As I didn’t want to crash land, I scaled the wall using my claws, hanging onto the rock while sliding down slowly. Smart move, since the trip down was almost like a water park slide, only far harder and extremely bumpy.
The wall looks broken here. And here, too. Here … doesn’t this look like a ram horn imprint? Shit, Grimnir.
The moment light came into view, I knew the exit of this hole was close. Instead of dropping down, I hung on the wall like a lizard, peaking out of the hole’s exit while my body was upside down.
Which floor is this? Floor 16? 17? How deep did our search lead us? Hmm, I should stop thinking of this place like multiple floors, and more like a single floor. Makes it less confusing.
The area under me was a cavern with red-hot rock, literally exuding steam like those rocks those masseurs use in a hot rock massage. Next to it was a medium-sized pond, boiling like a hot spring, while some magma was flowing into the ground of the place, which I guess flowed under the whole pond. A lot of free geothermal energy if somebody wanted to use it like renewable energy.
Casting [Humanize] again to bring my wings back out, I dropped out of the tunnel once I confirmed it was safe. “A hot spring is here, you guys can drop down! It’s safe!” I shouted through the tunnel to inform the others before testing the water myself.
“Wooo, nice. Stinks a bit, though.”
If we weren’t in a hurry, I definitely would like to dip in to relax, but I began a reconnaissance instead. While Saori and the rest slid down the hole, I managed to find the way out of this place, where I conveniently found something hacked into the wall.
“Sorry” was written, uh, carved into the wall. A few drenched pieces of cloth and clothing laid before it with an axe lodged into the ground. The axe was excessively decorated compared to other woodcutter’s axes, with rune-like markings, but it was undoubtedly the axe Grimnir used to chop the barkwraith into pieces.
Was the reason why he couldn’t make it back cause he fell through that hole? It would explain why he never returned for the rest of our party to finish up his fetch quest. Still didn’t make it less crazy how deep he went into that tunnel instead of staying where he fell and waiting for us. Maybe he really was trying to find that rock by himself and got himself in this mess.
Argh, enough. I shouldn’t be thinking about these things when I haven’t asked his side of the story. Still, annoying to get us—Wait!
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 1891/5791 Mana: 641/1109 Stamina: 3789/5471
_____________________________________________
How did he lose such a huge chunk of his health so quickly ?
“Song!” The second garm of Saori’s shadow pack had been hiding inside my shadow when I went down the hole first. I called her out and told her we needed to find Grimnir immediately, giving her some of Grimnir’s wet clothes to track with.
[“I understand, Mistress Hestia.”]
“Party Screen! Saori, we need to rush!” I shouted as loud as I could before rushing forward into the tunnel with Song.
There was a function of the party bracelets which our party hadn’t used for a very long time, and that was the ID tracking function, which displayed the direction and distance between each party member if we were close enough. Grimnir’s signal had been too far until now, but it suddenly showed the distance between the two of us.
It unfortunately couldn’t pinpoint the exact location but knowing we were close made me even more nervous, stimulating my imagination as I couldn’t keep myself from visualizing what could be happening to Grimnir. On the party screen, his health just went up by a huge chunk—he used up one of Tasianna’s potions, probably—but it just went down again just as quickly. His health was fluctuating up and down while his mana and stamina were constantly being drained at this moment. He had to be fighting, but against what? A rank C should be something he could handle.
“GriARRRRRRHHHHHH!”
As the meters between us decreased with every second, an ear-pounding echo flooded the tunnel, causing not only Song’s but also my hair to stand up. Anxious, I refreshed all my buffs with my parallel minds before turning [Aerokinesis] to play one of my spell songs.
“Is this the fated battle, the light shines
It’s blinding my sight
But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls
The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ”
“Song, you can smell it, too, right?”
[“Yes … I shall leave to inform the Alpha as soon as possible. Please, be careful on your hunt, Mistress Hestia. The pack will come as soon as possible.”]
“Thank you, Song,” I uttered in thanks after taking a deep breath, before jumping off her back. Using [Wind Blast] on my wings, I ran and flew forward while staring at the party screen with the edge of my vision.
Using [Shadow Dash], she disappeared into a shadow to inform the rest. [“Hunt well, Mistress!”]
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 2391/5791 Mana: 501/1109 Stamina: 2889/5471
Effects: [Broken Right Arm (Right)] [Inferno Resistance (Moderate)]
_____________________________________________
He drank the resistance potion! Faster.
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 1418/5791 Mana: 489/1109 Stamina: 2051/5471
Effects: [Broken Right Arm (Right) (Minor)] [Burning (Minor)] [Inferno Resistance (Moderate)]
_____________________________________________
Faster!
_____________________________________________
Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner
Health: 773/5791 Mana: 241/1109 Stamina: 1397/5471
Effects: [Broken Right Arm (Moderate)] [Broken Left Arm (Moderate)] [Burning (Minor)] [Inferno Resistance (Moderate)]
_____________________________________________
Faster! Wind Blast!
“Umslid kain, kawuk ka—Argh! —an, fie Crustacia! Volrun! Umsleud!”
“Grigrigrigri! Graaahhh!”
Draconic Roar!
Adrenaline rushed through my veins as [Wind Blast] blew me into a large chamber. I adjusted the air in front of my mouth, before blasting it at the first giant thing I saw.
Holding nothing back, my vocal cords exploded into action as a roar filled with all the emotions I felt up until now was released from my mouth, amplified to the point it caused the air to tremble with my wrath.
“KriiiARHHHHHHHHHH!”
A serpentine monster—standing on two legs with a long snake tail, the beast’s arms were reinforced in what looked like scaled gauntlets, emitting flaming swords from both arms. The scales covering the back side of its body were a beautiful snow-white while the front was red and orange. It had the head of a dragon, armored with carapace as two devil-like horns adorned it, making it look, frankly, pretty cool.
As it was about to slam its flame swords down, my roar forced it to flinch and block the sound with its hand. Using its nimble, almost human-like legs, it jumped back with the flow of the sonic attack and stepped away from the magically shaped sound waves once it was far enough. Far enough for my eyes to notice a bloodied Grimnir who was set on fire.
Healing was needed here, but I couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room. The serpentine monster braced itself and roared forward, seeing me as a new challenger.
Sacred Field. Wind Blast! Humanize!
“Lass!”
One of my parallel minds cast the healing spell on Grimnir while another blasted my body forward. Blue mist exploded from my body, covering and hiding me as my body metamorphosed. Bones cracked and grew, skin stretched and morphed into scales, hair replaced with armor-like carapace.
“Kriaaaauuuhhhh!” Stomping my legs forward, I pulled my tail on the ground, instantly igniting it on fire and slashed at the monster with it.
“The carnage of the blazing sun
Blood rain from swords and claws
As the music drops, our emotions will run wild
Top the world
The strive to pierce the sky
The light that beckons you forth
The promise to stand fast
Family and Friends
The Will to Fight and Survive! ”
Kaboom!
An explosion of fire. My attack … was blocked!
“Grigrigrigri!” Two flame swords wrapped around the serpentine’s arms, used to block my attack. My tail, reinforced with [Hellblade Edge], was capable of slicing steel and penetrating the skin of a rank B high ogre, but it found its match against this monster. Just like in my spars with Farron!
The giant serpent pushed me back, launching me closer to Grimnir in this humongous magma chamber. The flame swords on its arms disappeared, extinguished by will as the monster began to crackle. Holding one hand on its long neck, it began to loosen up its neck. It cracked its hands, stretched its arms, and slammed its tail on the ground thrice before roaring again.
Was it doing a warm-up?
“Lass, w-why are you—” Grimnir stuttered as he noticed his arms were being mended, looking up to me in my dragon form.
[“We can talk later! Saori and the rest are coming from the tunnel. Run and get to them!”]
“Hestia, that thing is a—!”
[“I know!”]
Mana Eyes.
Level eight …
It was neither a newly evolved rank B like those snow wyverns nor was it too strong like the high ogre or Asterios. It was five levels above me. It was a fairly even fight, especially with all my stat and skill increases from my completed Jobs.
… So, why do I feel so nervous?
Our eyes clashed, matching perfectly. We knew we found an opponent worthy of our power but not too strong to overwhelm each other. Neither of us moved a muscle, as we knew the first to move would be the one to be counter attacked.
In this inferno hell, only my music was playing, scaring the silence away. Even to me, I had to question if the music actually fitted.
Who was the boss here, and who was the challenger?
“Marvelous! Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! The gods of the Fire Pantheon have blessed us with this show of the true inferno!”
However, even the sound of my music was broken by this fervor-filled shout. Both the slazzigula and I broke our staring contest to turn towards the sound, eyeing the congregation of humans and beastmen. All of them wore black and red coats over a light red robe, kneeling before the two of us as if they were worshipping the two of us.
“Fire consumes fire!” the congregation exploded, simultaneously shouting that one phrase over and over again, fully synced.
“Ahh, oh, Fiery Lord, God Danterno, although you are missing, suppressed by the wicked witch, Plesia, you are still strong enough to send us this teaching, to grant us knowledge on how to improve ourselves even further? Oh, Grand Inferno, we are unworthy of even your embers!” The one who looked like the leader bellowed out like a madman. “We shall become stronger, bolder, to strengthen your subordinates. Ohhh, to war with the witch and free you of your bondings, let our worship fuel your pantheon! I, Keith Svonnweidher, a lowly inferno mage am no match for the witch, but I shall guide these younglings through these trials, to have them learn of the truth of the fire! Fire consumes fire!”
Now that I think about it, isn’t that amulet Shitterno’s symbol? You gotta be kidding me!
The leading figure pulled out a core-like rock. Streaks of fire and magma flowed inside it, showing them through the rock’s crevices. The figure holding it groaned as it began sizzling his hands. “Ahhhhh, this trial! Let the fire consume the filth inside me, purify my sins, and release my true potential. Fire consumes fire! The cleansing fire brings not only destruction but also life, destroying the old to bring forth the new! Fire consumes fire! We sweat, we burn, we suffer, for the power to bring our God to his rightful power. Fire consumes fire!!!”
“Fire consumes fire!”
… What?
Even the slazzigula looked as if it couldn’t understand the situation, which it probably couldn’t. The tension between us was broken by Shiterno’s followers.
“That rock!” Grimnir suddenly cried out. “That magma rock! A core of ever-burning voldunna! That rich rock of condense ore is wasted on you banal fire slingers! Hand it over!”
“Ahhh, the follower of the traitor god. Bleidla no longer serves the Fiery Lord, so why must we listen? Even this beast sent by our lord attacked you, punishing you for your god’s sins! Unworthy infidel, this magma ball shall be our strength!” the leading figure blurted out.
… What even is going on here?
“KEITH!”
No … You gotta be kidding me.
Both the slazzigula and I turned towards the newest voice, where we saw the air literally shatter like glass, revealing a party of sevan standing there. At its helm was a man in black robes, wearing a half-mask, screaming his lungs out, “KEITH, you fucking bastard, I will KILL YOU!” He then ripped the mask off his face, revealing how disfigured it was from old scars.
Talon, oh shit!
While that caught my attention for a moment, my eyes and my nose turned over to a snow-white haired woman in the very back of the group, wearing white armor fitting her hair, looking pristine and regal in contrast to the surroundings. She was holding a white spear and emitted an aura I couldn’t possibly describe.
Why does she look so familiar … wait, this sweet smell. Hold on, hold on, I know this scent!
As my eyes widened, the woman returned my gaze, her nose twitching the moment she did. I could hear the slazzigula crackling a laugh to the side, possibly at the thought of more people to fight, as I saw the woman raise her hand to hide her gaping mouth while staring back at me.
“P-Prince—” She was about to call out, only for my attention to be drawn behind me, as I saw my friends finally having arrived!
“Hestia!”
“Lady Hestia!”
“Hestia!”
Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, and the garms caught up, looking battle-ready as they called out for me. Honestly, what was with this situation? It was so chaotic!
… However, it seemed like the universe didn’t think it was crazy enough for me.
“Shriiiiieeeeeeeekkkk!”
The ground crumbled, a giant spider emerged, pandemonium ensued as everybody began to fall.
“Hestia, keep them safe! Yaaaahhhhhh!” I heard Saori shout.
“P-Princess Hestia, shit, damnit! Kids!” Another adult woman’s voice entered my head before so many others swirled around me in a maelstrom of cries, roars, and yells.
“KEITH!”
“Oho, Talon, old friend! Join us!”
“My rock!”
“Grigrigrigri grigaaaaaaaaaa!”
Why couldn’t all of this have been simple?
And deeper all of us fell into this troublesome dungeon.
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