Deep inside the ruins, the Artemis Familia had no idea they were walking straight toward death.
The farther they pushed in, the tighter the space became. The corridor narrowed until there was barely room to breathe—forcing them to draw blades and fight up close.
Thankfully, most of them were Level 2, and their captain, Rethusa, was Level 3. The calf-sized venom scorpions were dangerous, but not unstoppable.
They knew the monsters' weaknesses. The front line slipped in and cut off the tails first—clean, precise strikes—then darted sideways to avoid the scorpions' head-on rush. The moment an opening appeared, the back line loosed arrows.
Swish—swish—swish!
A wave of scorpions dropped, turning into a carpet of corpses under their practiced coordination.
But this time, nobody moved to harvest materials.
More kept crawling out.
The endlessness of it made every heartbeat feel wrong.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
A heavy, rhythmic tremor rolled up from deeper in the corridor—like something massive dragging itself forward.
"Something big is coming!" Rethusa warned.
Artemis and the others snapped their eyes toward the darkness ahead.
Then a colossal shadow filled their vision.
BOOM—!
The corridor shook as something slammed into the stone, and a monster that dwarfed the normal venom scorpions by nearly a hundredfold forced itself into view.
Scorpio Antares.
Its head was dominated by a single enormous eye. The instant it saw Artemis, the instinct to hunt a god ignited inside it like a trigger being pulled.
"ROAR—!!!"
The sound hit them like a physical blow, rattling bones and turning stomachs.
Not a chance.
Absolutely no chance.
Even Rethusa—Level 3—knew it the moment she looked at it: she had no path to victory. The others at Level 2 didn't even belong in the same conversation. Numbers wouldn't save them here.
Artemis recognized it too, her expression tightening.
This was the Divine Assassin sealed in ancient times by the Great Fairies—Scorpio Antares.
So the disturbance in the Great Tree Labyrinth… it was because this thing had broken free.
"Run," Artemis ordered, voice sharp. "Now. RUN!"
But from behind, more venom scorpions poured in, choking off their retreat. They could kill those smaller monsters—if they had time.
They didn't.
Antares surged forward, twin pincers swinging with crushing force.
"I'll hold it!" Artemis stepped in front, placing herself between the monster and her Familia. "You find a way out—GO!"
"Artemis-sama?!"
Rethusa and Lante's voices cracked. Several members went pale, grief flashing across their faces.
But nobody had time to cry.
"We can't let Artemis-sama down!" Rethusa snarled, forcing her fear into motion. She immediately began organizing the others to carve a path.
On Artemis's side, things were already turning ugly.
The corridor was too tight. She couldn't use her speed properly, couldn't circle, couldn't dance the way she needed to. Antares's sheer bulk jammed the passage like a moving wall.
Swish—swish—swish!
Artemis fired arrow after arrow.
Each shot was the kind that could drop a flying dragon out of the sky. The arrows punched into Antares's armored shell with heavy, wet impacts.
Thud—thud—!
Purple blood sprayed from the wounds.
For a moment, it looked like she might be able to do something.
Then the seconds passed.
One… two… three—the wounds writhed.
They closed.
Antares regenerated right in front of her eyes, the damage shrinking into nothing. Against a body that huge, her arrows were pinpricks—annoying, not lethal.
Worse, the pain only stirred it into a deeper frenzy.
"ROAR—!!!"
Its pincers crashed down at her like executioner blades.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each strike made the corridor quake. Even Rethusa's team—still trying to break out—staggered as the shockwaves rippled through the stone beneath their feet.
"This won't work…" Artemis breathed, grimacing.
She drew a short sword.
Then she lunged.
In a tight, explosive leap, she shot forward, aiming straight for its back—driving her blade toward the eye set there like a target.
Antares made a sound that was almost mocking.
A purple energy beam erupted from its mouth.
Artemis's pupils shrank. Midair, she twisted hard, forcing her body to rotate—
HISSS—!
The beam skimmed her side, tearing fabric and flesh at the edge of her abdomen, then slammed into the corridor beyond.
RRRUMBLE—!!!
Stone exploded.
The tunnel collapsed.
Rethusa, Lante, and the others—who had been racing for the exit—were caught in the blast's aftermath. Falling debris smashed down and sealed the way out completely.
They stared at the rubble in bitter silence.
"We… can't escape."
"Protect Artemis-sama!"
The decision snapped into place. They turned back as one, rushing toward Artemis.
Artemis wiped cold sweat from her brow, one hand pressed to the burned, bleeding cut along her left side. She glared at Antares, fury sharpening her gaze.
If this continued, her Familia would be wiped out.
"No…" Artemis's voice shook, teeth clenched. "Not like this."
Her eyes hardened with a final kind of resolve.
Divinity stirred inside her.
As the Moon Goddess, her true Authorities were Moon and Hunt. In Heaven, among the ordinary gods—excluding the great gods—she stood near the top.
Moonlight-like divine power began to spill from her and Antares reacted instantly.
"SKREEEE—!!!"
Like a creature that existed solely to punish gods, it shrieked as if the divine power itself was poison and bait at once.
Purple streams poured out of its body, forming a cage that wrapped toward Artemis in twisting bands. The moment those bands touched her divine power, they devoured it—absorbing and suppressing it in a heartbeat.
"…Divine power," Artemis whispered, face draining white, "is useless."
She'd underestimated it.
This wasn't just a monster.
It was a weapon the Dungeon made specifically to kill gods.
Antares split its maw open wider—four-part jaws peeling back—its single eye flooding with greedy hunger as it lunged.
Artemis had no more cards to play. She could only watch as it came closer. Closer—
"ARTEMIS-SAMA!!!"
Rethusa, Lante, and the rest screamed in disbelief.
And at the exact instant Antares's jaws were about to swallow Artemis whole—an invisible wave slammed down.
"Cursed Technique: Stop."
HUM—!!
Antares's massive jaws trembled violently, straining to clamp shut.
But no matter how hard it forced itself, it couldn't bite down—couldn't close that final distance, not even an inch.