No one knew when it had started, but beginning from the 52nd Floor, the Dragon's Vase had returned to calm.
Now, there was no longer any ultra-long-range bombardment coming from the 58th Floor, nor were there Ill Wyverns flying out from magma-like burning holes.
Only a tiny number of monsters, such as Thunder Snakes and Venom Scorpions, still wandered here, causing the threat level of the Dragon's Vase to drop sharply.
'Did they already take care of the Valgang Dragons and the Ill Wyverns?'
Upon entering the 53rd Floor and heading toward the 58th Floor, Riezel realized this.
As he split a Venom Scorpion in half when it rushed at him, he looked downward.
'Looks like they already secured the 58th Floor. Huh, way faster than I expected.'
Was it because of the aid of Raumure, which had drastically increased everyone's speed?
Or was it because Ais had learned Wind Breathing, making her significantly stronger than she had been at this point in the original story?
'Either way, if they've already cleared the Valgang Dragons and the Ill Wyverns on the 58th Floor, then they're probably already on the 59th by now.'
With this thought, Riezel decided not to waste any more time, as after finding a hole on the 53rd Floor, he immediately jumped down.
Following the pull of free fall, Riezel passed through the 53rd Floor and entered the 54th Floor.
He continued falling, leaping into the hole that led to the 55th Floor, and kept descending through a burning, gigantic hole that a Valgang Dragon had blasted open, all the way toward the 58th Floor.
By the time he arrived at the 58th Floor, the place was empty—not a single monster remained.
He stepped onto the floor and surveyed his surroundings.
Like the vast wilderness of the 49th Floor, the 58th Floor did not have tangled pathways or steep, maze-like terrain, but instead consisted of a single, enormous open space.
It was a gigantic rectangular cavern, its walls and ceiling dark, lead-colored—it was so large it almost seemed endless, making one seriously wonder whether, if Orario were thrown in here, this place could easily contain the entire city.
'In the past, they suffered a defeat here and could only retreat in disgrace, failing to reach the unexplored floors…'
Although this was not Riezel's first time arriving here, it was only now that he felt some emotion about it.
It was only natural, for the highest floor the Loki Familia had ever reached was this 58th Floor.
Finn and the others had once been subjected, here on this floor, to the Valgang Dragons' bombardment that ignored floor boundaries.
In the end, they lost their stamina, their items, and a large amount of equipment, which left them unable to continue exploring and with no choice but to abandon the expedition on this floor and return to the surface.
Back then, that incident had happened right when Riezel joined the familia.
At the time, he had welcomed Finn and the others back at Twilight Manor after their expedition and had met many of the familia's executives for the first time, including Ais.
And that was the expedition in which Finn and the others had suffered a crushing defeat here. Later, they prepared for revenge, and by then, Riezel had already become Level 4 and joined the expedition.
Unfortunately, thanks to encountering countless caterpillar monsters on the 51st Floor and a woman-looking caterpillar monster on the 50th Floor, all their supplies ended up being destroyed, forcing them to once again return in disgrace.
All things considered, that had only been about four months ago.
And now, this time, the Loki Familia had finally conquered the 58th Floor with thorough preparation, as shown by the fact that not a single monster remained here, and the ground was covered in pits and craters, clearly showing that a fierce battle had taken place.
Riezel even saw a stretch of icy ground that seemed to have been frozen by Riveria's Wynn Fimbulvetr, as well as scorched earth that looked like it had been bombarded by Lefiya's Fusillade Fallarica.
In addition, the drop items and even the magic stones from the defeated Valgang Dragons and Ill Wyverns were still scattered around, completely untouched.
"Are they planning to pick them up on the way back?" Riezel said thoughtfully. "Yeah, that makes sense. Whether it's the Valgang Dragons or the Ill Wyverns, their drop items are huge and crazy heavy, and the magic stones aren't small either. If they hauled all that stuff down to the 59th Floor, it'd probably slow the supporters down and mess with their mobility, which would end up affecting the whole expedition."
After all, this was the Deep Floors of the Dungeon, where no adventurers other than the Loki Familia would be coming this far down to casually steal the drop items, so leaving the goods here for now was a reasonable choice.
Still, Finn and the others probably had not imagined it at the time, had not imagined what kind of terrifying existence awaited them beyond this point, waiting for them at their destination.
"..."
Riezel shifted his gaze toward the southern end of the 58th Floor.
In the southern part of this floor, there was a dark, massive hole, and that was the passage leading to the 59th Floor.
*Swish!*
Riezel activated teleportation magic and appeared before the entrance to the 59th Floor, a place he had reached more than once but had never stepped into.
Unlike before, he stepped inside without the slightest hesitation this time.
===
Dungeon, 59th Floor.
The 59th Floor was a floor that only the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia had ever reached in the past.
According to the records left behind by the Zeus Familia, starting from this floor, everything ahead should have been an icy glacial domain, where everywhere was supposed to be filled with flowing glacial water spreading throughout the area, making movement extremely difficult, along with air of extreme cold that could slow the body, similar in nature to the 5th Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
However, when Riezel arrived here, what entered his sight was not a glacier, and there was no flowing glacial water as described in Zeus Familia's records. In fact, there was not even any extreme cold at all, as the air instead felt somewhat stuffy and warm.
Before his eyes, this was not a glacial domain in the slightest, but rather a land overgrown with unsettling plants, a dense forest filled with large areas of green trees, tangled vines, and a lush green grassland stretching outward.
All around were clusters of dazzling, vividly colored small flowers scattered everywhere, and within this massive cavern space, similar in scale to the 58th Floor, both the distant walls and the ceiling were covered with green, flesh-like surfaces.
Countless flower buds of different sizes hung from these flesh-like walls, making anyone who looked at them feel an intense sense of physical discomfort.
"Nursery bed…"
Riezel looked at this scenery, which was clearly parasitized by Viscums and completely transformed, identical to the Pantry of the 24th Floor, yet he felt no surprise at all.
He had long known that this floor had already become a nursery bed for those colorful monsters.
He had long known that this place was not a glacial domain, but rather a nest that had been completely consumed by monsters.
He knew the woman-looking caterpillar monster, along with the caterpillar monsters from before, had all crawled upward from here, climbing up to the 51st Floor and even the 50th Floor, where they had eventually encountered the Loki Familia during their last expedition.
He also knew the purpose of those monsters had been to hunt other monsters, devour magic stones, grow stronger and larger, and then return here to offer their magical energy to the 'queen' that resided in this place.
"Fly."
Riezel activated flight magic and flew toward the other end of the forest.
As for who this queen was, it was the primary recipient of nourishment from this nursery bed—a Jewel Fetus.
However, unlike the woman-looking monsters that had appeared in the Pantry of the 24th Floor and the safety zone of the 50th Floor, the Jewel Fetus here, which had continuously absorbed nourishment and fed on the magical energy offered by the colorful monsters, had already completed its metamorphosis.
From what he remembered, the Jewel Fetuses, which were split from the Corrupted Spirit, had three forms in total.
The first form was the newborn fetus, the most primitive form of the Jewel Fetus.
The second form occurred when the hatched fetus parasitized a monster, transforming into a woman-looking monster.
The third form, and also the final form, was when the Jewel Fetus or the woman-looking monster absorbed sufficient nourishment and magical energy, eventually undergoing metamorphosis and sublimation.
Only in this form did the Jewel Fetus become the true avatar of the Corrupted Spirit, a genuine monster whose power increased explosively—a Demi Spirit.
Within this nursery-like 59th Floor, such a monster existed.
In the original work, the expedition party of the Loki Familia had also encountered it here and had been beaten to the brink of death, nearly wiped out.
Yes, the entire expedition party, which consisted of eight First-Class Adventurers—Finn, Riveria, Gareth, Ais, Bete, Tiona, Tione, and Tsubaki—had nearly been annihilated by a single monster.
Yet after only a brief initial encounter, one that lasted scarcely any time at all, they had almost been destroyed, pushed to the brink of total annihilation before they could even fully respond.
It was a monster even more terrifying than the Monster Rex Balor of the 49th Floor, whose level was classified as Level 7.
In other words, this monster was at least a Level 7 Monster Rex, and possibly even Level 8.
A Level 8 Monster Rex.
What kind of concept was that?
Soon enough, the answer was revealed before Riezel's eyes.
*SCREEEEECH—!!!*
Along with a familiar hoarse screech entering his ears, Riezel arrived at the battlefield in the center of the dense forest.
Here, countless caterpillar monsters were charging in groups, relentlessly assaulting a group of people ahead.
"Quick! Chant defensive magic!"
"Riveria!"
"Hurry!"
With Finn at the lead, the expedition party's First-Class Adventurers were all fighting fiercely, continuously cutting down the writhing monsters one after another.
Yet every one of them looked anxious and panicked.
It couldn't be helped.
Behind the army of caterpillar monsters, a massive monster was standing with its arms spread toward them.
It was a woman-looking monster with an enormous, plant-like lower body.
However, unlike the woman-looking monsters Riezel had encountered in the past, this monster's upper body was truly shaped like that of a human woman, possessing beautiful, loose, long hair, supple arms, graceful curves, and even a beauty that did not lose out to that of a goddess.
Her eyes had no pupils, showing a dull golden color devoid of life.
Her lower body was covered with gigantic petals and countless tentacle-like vines.
Both her lower body and her maiden-like upper body emitted an ominous, malicious yet beautiful aura, a filthy existence that mixed chilling sacredness with repulsive ugliness.
Needless to say, this monster was...
"Demi Spirit..."
As this mutter left Riezel's mouth, the Demi Spirit, who had spread her arms toward Finn and the others, smiled gently and began to chant.
"Arise, flames. Rage, rage, rage..."
An unbelievably huge red magic circle unfolded on the spot.
"Vortex of fire. The crimson wall. Hellfire's roar. May the ardor of the gale plunge the world into grief and misery. The sky shall burn. The earth shall ignite. The seas shall boil. The fonts shall churn. The mountains shall erupt. All life shall turn to ash. May the lives of the great ones serve as atonement for the coming choler and grief. Your envoy beseeches you, Salamander. Incarnate of fire. Queen of flame."
What followed was an even more unbelievable, ultra-high-speed chant.
In the very next moment, the Demi Spirit, still wearing a beautiful smile, cast a bomb that would give birth to hell.
"Firestorm!"
In the next instant, hell itself was formed.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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