*WHOOSH!*
It was a world formed by red lotus heatwaves and raging flames.
True to the name Firestorm, within a gigantic red magic circle large enough to cover half of the 59th Floor, a storm made purely of fire rose and exploded outward like a tsunami.
In an instant, the 59th Floor, which had originally looked like green flesh-covered walls, was dyed crimson, transforming into a hell of extreme heat and violent scorching winds that filled everyone's vision.
Facing this irrational storm of fire, every member of the expedition party wavered and shouted.
Gareth even roared as he rushed forward, raising two heavy shields in an attempt to block this unreasonable magic attack for everyone.
Yet before a storm capable of creating a red lotus hell in a moment, let alone Gareth, even the massive army of caterpillar monsters was swallowed by the sea of fire and completely consumed by the flames.
All the monsters screamed.
All the adventurers were blasted away like a collapsed dam.
Everyone's armor was burned away, their skin was scorched, and the layer of light clothing formed by the defensive magic Veil Breath applied to their bodies shattered almost instantly.
Everyone could only rely on the continuing effect of Raumure to forcibly endure through END enhancement, yet before this ferocious magic, the outcome was still obvious.
Without question, it was an ultra-long chant magic that far surpassed Riveria's Rea Laevateinn.
Moreover, it was a wide-area annihilation magic.
Whether in attack power, destructive force, or range, it exceeded even the Rea Laevateinn of Orario's strongest mage, Riveria Ljos Alf.
A magic of such astonishing power should not have been so easy to use, yet the Demi Spirit could use ultra-high-speed chant to shorten the chant time to the extreme, and thus release the magic with ease.
Needless to say, that was what a spirit was: a natural magic race praised as part god.
More mysterious, rarer, and more miraculous than elves, they were beings capable of calling forth all kinds of miracles.
"Ugh..."
"Ahh..."
"Eh..."
After the storm of fire had swept away everything, and the scorched earth was left as nothing but a field of ashes, the members of the expedition party were already covered in wounds as they collapsed to the ground, letting out pained voices and strained cries one after another.
With only a single magic, the strongest combat power of the Loki Familia had been completely silenced.
"Lalala~"
The Demi Spirit felt happy, delighted, and pleased by this, and while keeping her arms spread wide, she even began to sing.
Her innocent appearance, as seen by those present, was more terrifying than anything else.
Of course, something even more dreadful was still waiting behind.
"Moan, mighty earth..."
Watching the First-Class Adventurers shakily force themselves to rise, the Demi Spirit's beautiful smile deepened as she began to chant again without hesitation.
A pitch-black magic circle unfolded beneath her—its range was not as enormous as before, yet it was still extremely wide.
"Rise, rise, rise. Husk of the earth. Sheen of iron. Hammer of the cosmos. May Genesis's pact upheave rock and stone. The sky shall burn. The earth shall split. The bridge shall rise. Heaven and earth shall become one. May the axes of the ether rain down and bring about calamity's ruin."
Because the chant had been reduced, the ultra-long chant had become a long chant, meaning the power of the next magic would certainly be weaker than the previous Firestorm.
However, it also meant that under that abnormal ultra-high-speed chant, this magic would activate very quickly.
"Your envoy beseeches you, Gnome. Incarnate of the land. Queen of the earth."
Finn, Ais, and the others, who reacted violently to this magic, did everything they could to stand up and roared as they charged toward the Demi Spirit.
Yet the Demi Spirit continued to chant happily while simultaneously manipulating the vines beneath her to launch attacks, and even controlling the massive petal armor on her body to defend against the magic fired from afar by Lefiya and Alicia.
Attack, defense, chant—although there were only three actions, the Demi Spirit had indeed demonstrated the technique of Concurrent Chanting.
In such a situation, the adventurers could only watch in despair as the magic was activated.
"Meteor Swarm!"
As soon as these words fell, the pitch-black magic circle bloomed with blinding light, turning the ceiling of the 59th Floor into a vast, shimmering starry sky.
Immediately afterward, a dense swarm of meteors shrouded in black light appeared, crowding the ceiling above.
A relentless rain of meteors, formed from enormous rocks, fell from the sky, crashing down one after another onto the already scorched earth of the 59th Floor.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!**BOOM!*
Along with thunderous explosions that erupted continuously, the ground was trampled, the bedrock was destroyed, and the shockwaves turned into surging air currents that spread outward, causing even the black starlight to surge violently.
Although the black meteor swarm had only been a long chant, it displayed an attack range no less than an ultra-long chant, shaking the Dungeon itself.
Bete roared as he used his metal boots to absorb the enemy's magic, but they shattered on the spot due to overload and immediately lost their function.
Ais only had time to use Ariel to protect herself while holding Lefiya close and shielding her beneath her.
Gareth could no longer stand and was blown away by the raging air currents, together with Raul and Anakitty.
Tsubaki and Alicia tried to protect Riveria, yet it was only a vain hope, because in the end, not only did they fail, but they were struck head-on by a meteor.
If Tiona and Tione had not desperately thrown themselves over them, and if Finn had not thrown out all the magic swords from a nearby fallen backpack and released their magic at once to cancel out part of the meteors, they would certainly have already perished.
In this way, under the continuous meteor bombardment, circular craters formed everywhere across the scorched earth. All the adventurers collapsed as a group for the second time, meeting a destruction that could only be described as bodies strewn across the field, without doubt, utterly defeated.
"..."
Such a tragic scene caused Riezel, who was flying in midair, to fall silent.
However, he did not move forward.
Yes.
He had no intention of intervening.
"Hahh... this was an adventure that belonged to them."
In the original story, when facing the overwhelmingly powerful Demi Spirit, although the members of the Loki Familia fell again and again, they continued to resist despair, dispel fear, and rise to fight.
In the end, through wholehearted teamwork, they successfully overcame this crisis, crossed this trial of adventure, and achieved great feats one after another.
It was also after this battle that Bete, Tiona, and Tione advanced to Level 6 and caught up to Ais. Even Lefiya accumulated high-rank excelia sufficient to advance to Level 4.
As a result, the Loki Familia's strength soared and was once even considered to have surpassed the Freya Familia.
Knowing this clearly, Riezel had planned from the very beginning not to interfere in this battle, which was why he had taken the initiative to stay behind and resist Olivas alone.
And that was also why he had appeared unhurried all the way, reaching the 59th Floor through the normal route. Otherwise, he could have used a teleportation magic long ago to go directly to the entrance of the 59th Floor and catch up with the expedition party ahead.
Only...
"No, this still isn't enough."
Before Riezel's eyes, Ais and the others struggled to prop themselves up.
Even though they were covered in wounds and drenched in blood, they still charged forward, one by one, under Finn's shouts.
Some became entangled in fierce combat with caterpillar monsters, fighting desperately to clear a path for everyone.
Some collided head-on with the vines of the Demi Spirit.
Others were chanting magic, doing everything they possibly could to blast apart the petal-like armor covering the Demi Spirit, dismantling her defenses and striking directly at her.
Seeing the scene, Riezel hardened his resolve.
"I'm gonna increase the difficulty of this expedition."
Why?
Simple.
"In the original story, Bete, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and the others all managed to level up thanks to this fight, but Finn, Riveria, and Gareth failed to accumulate enough high-rank excelia and ended up stuck at Level 6."
Perhaps because the high-rank excelia had been distributed across the entire party, the excelia that should have been enough to push Level 6 adventurers to level up instead only allowed the Level 5 members to advance.
"Wasteful..."
Indeed, Riezel saw it as wasteful.
He knew very well that after this expedition, the Loki Familia's progress in Dungeon exploration would come to a halt.
Corrupted Spirit and hybrids.
Enyo and the remnants of Evilus.
All these forces of darkness, all targeting Orario and scheming to destroy the fortress that sealed the Dungeon, would begin to arrive one after another.
As one of Orario's most prominent familias, and due to Ais's connection with the Corrupted Spirit, the Loki Familia would inevitably be regarded by those lurking in the darkness as the primary enemy.
Even if they did not take the initiative, the Loki Familia would still be forced to strike out to protect Orario and confront them.
However, the enemies' tenacity and unfathomable methods would mire the Loki Familia in a quagmire. Not only would they be unable to continue normal Dungeon exploration, but many members would also be lost.
Riezel could not simply stand by and watch that happen.
Yet even he could not guarantee the safety of every single member of the familia.
Just look at this Demi Spirit—the Corrupted Spirit had merely split off some avatars, and once those avatars completed their metamorphosis, each would become a Monster Rex comparable to Level 8.
If too many such avatars appeared, then even if Riezel unleashed all of his power, whether he could handle that many Demi Spirits at once would remain an unknown.
And then there was the city destroyer, the mad god Enyo—the evil god who manipulated events from the shadows, collaborated with the Corrupted Spirit, and even drew the remnants of Evilus into his plans—who had, in the original story, toyed with the Loki Familia countless times.
Even Finn, hailed as the embodiment of wisdom, had been thoroughly outplayed, so ordinary people would likely never realize that they had been driven to despair by this mad god.
And there were also 'Creatures' like Revis, the hybrids of monster and human created by the Corrupted Spirit.
Revis's threat was not yet obvious, but once she devoured enough magic stones and absorbed sufficient power, she would absolutely evolve into a terrifying existence that even Finn and the others could not hope to match.
Even the remnants of Evilus, whose presence seemed the weakest, still retained some hidden methods and trump cards.
Moreover, Orario was not free of collaborators who worked alongside these schemers.
By the end, this vortex of conflict had drawn in the Loki Familia, the Freya Familia, the Ganesha Familia, and many major familias throughout the city.
In the end, victory had only been achieved by relying on the power of the protagonist and the Hestia Familia's unconventional assault.
Faced with such a chaotic and brutal future, Riezel did not dare claim that he could shoulder everything and protect everyone.
Of course, if something truly went wrong, he would still be able to turn the situation around.
He, after all, possessed resurrection magic that could bring the fallen back to life, so even if the Loki Familia were completely wiped out, he could revive them one by one.
However, that was the worst-case scenario.
To prevent his companions from falling into the same regret, sorrow, and despair as in the original story, he believed it was necessary to find a way to strengthen everyone before everything truly began.
Ais had grown stronger through learning Wind Breathing.
Bete, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and the others would level up through this adventure.
If so, the rest could not be left behind.
Having made this decision, Riezel took out a jewel from the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube. It was a purple jewel filled with immense magical energy, with something like mist flowing within it.
"Let's use this jewel that's been soaking up 11,000 years' worth of magical energy from Euryale's tomb..."
Riezel selected the smallest among the precious jewels in his possession and threw it toward the Demi Spirit.
"Hmm?"
At the same time, the Demi Spirit, who had been happily watching Ais's blood-soaked struggle as though eager to devour her, seemed to sense something and suddenly turned her head.
But her reaction was too slow.
*Chi—!*
In the next second, the purple jewel shot through the air with a faint whistling sound and easily slipped into the Demi Spirit's small mouth.
*Ka-cha!*
At first, she tried to spit out the foreign object, but when she sensed a vast amount of magical energy that made her instincts tremble, her desire for magical energy instantly overwhelmed her reason, and she quickly and without hesitation crushed the jewel, absorbing the magical energy within.
*Whoosh!*
In an instant, the astonishing magical energy accumulated over 11,000 years in another world erupted from the Demi Spirit's body.
"Wha—"
Unaware of what was happening in the shadows, Finn, Riveria, Gareth, Ais, Bete, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, Tsubaki, Raul, Anakitty, and Alicia—twelve people in total—could only stare at the Demi Spirit, whose magical energy had multiplied several times over, and feel the power that made the entire Dungeon tremble.
Everyone couldn't help but freeze in place.
"Aaaaah—Hahahaha..."
The Demi Spirit seemed to be savoring the immense power coursing through her body as she let out sounds as if she were deeply moved, then burst into laughter.
Riezel, upon seeing this, could not help but twitch his brow.
"It looks like I overdid it a little..."
As he muttered this, the Demi Spirit began to chant in high spirits.
"Flash, rays of light. Tear through the darkness. Your envoy beseeches you, Lux. Incarnate of light. Queen of luminosity."
Following the flow of magical energy, the Demi Spirit completed a short chant in less than a second.
"Light Burst!"
In the next moment, a massive white magic circle appeared before the Demi Spirit and unleashed a torrent of light on a terrifying scale.
*BOOM!*
Within the great chamber of the 59th Floor, the earth-shaking roar surged upward and downward through dozens of floors as the horrifying torrent of light swallowed everything, erasing all things within the Dungeon.
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[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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