"A monster—casting a spell?!"
A pitch-black magic circle manifested at the base of the massive spirit-tree's lower half. Inscribed with ominous patterns, it emitted a dark magical light that surged upward.
Magic was a gift reserved solely for humanity. It was an impossible act for monsters, which lived only by instinct and destructive impulses. The idea of a monster performing a magical incantation was fundamentally inconceivable.
Such a domain belonged to those with intellect and wisdom. Yet, the reality unfolding before them was undeniable: this creature was currently chanting a spell.
Did this mean the monstrosity had once been human? Or was it something else entirely?
Regardless, there was no time for calm reflection.
"Could it be—a Spirit?!"
Ryuu, an Elf with a natural affinity for Spirits and a descendant of the great forest guardians, guessed the entity's true nature. As her anxiety mounted, she began her own incantation.
(My magic won't be enough to offset that energy!) "Heavenly forest in the far-off sky. O infinite eternity—"
The black magic circle expanded wide. The surging magical energy clearly eclipsed the power of Ryuu, who was among the most elite Level 4 adventurers.
"[Come, come, come, O cage of veils. Receive the mysterious and somber spiritual power. Shroud the sky, obscure the stars, dye the moon. Part the river of heaven and turn all to deepest black—]"
(She's fast! And it's an incredibly long chant!) "Hearken to my foolish voice, and grant me once more the protection of the stardust—"
Ryuu had no choice but to continue her chant, hoping to dampen the coming blow even slightly.
"Use the old man's protection magic!"
"Y-yes! I pray in the name of Wishe. O ancestors of the forest—"
Lefiya regained her composure at Bete's shout and began her incantation. Meanwhile, Bete lunged toward the Spirit to interrupt the spell, wielding his custom weapon, Flosvirt, which glowed with magical energy charged through its blade.
"── Follow the 'Vana Arganture'! Launch the magic arrows!"
"[Annihilate all, O sacred staff that drives away evil]──── (Dio Thyrsos)!!"
Ryuu fired her magical projectile to counter the attack, while Bete and Filvis moved to disrupt the spell. Lefiya focused on defensive magic as Asfi took command. In that instant, everyone understood their roles with clinical precision.
The adventurers, including the members of the Hermes Familia, moved in perfect coordination against this unprecedented anomaly. Yet, the Spirit's power defied their expectations, almost as if it were mocking them. Despite the simultaneous assault of magic swords, exorcism bolts, and a strike from a first-tier adventurer like Bete, the Spirit completed its chant.
Then──────
"[Black, black, black, black, black. O darkness that swallows the light. Shroud us from beyond the stars. O meteor of destruction, O tears of salvation. O iron hammer for my beloved hero, crush the earth.]"
"[Run faster than anything.]"
The Spirit and Ryuu chanted simultaneously. Ryuu—renowned for her concurrent chanting skills that rivaled even Riveria Ljos Alf, the city's greatest mage—struggled to keep pace with that extraordinarily long incantation. The Spirit surpassed her in both chanting speed and the gathering of immense magical energy.
"[── I am the messenger of darkness, the soul of darkness, the embodiment of darkness, the queen of darkness.]"
"[── Receive the stardust light and strike down the foe.]"
"[── Gather, O breath of the earth── My name is Alf.]"
"[── Become a shield, O sacred staff that drives away evil.]"
A fourfold magic attack was unleashed. Lefiya finished her second-tier protection spell, and Filvis deployed a super-short incantation shield.
"[Dark Wave]"
"[Luminous Wind]!!"
"[Noah Cure]!!"
"[Dio Grail]!!"
The black magic circle flared with overwhelming intensity. Simultaneously, the ground split open to reveal a dark sphere ten meters in diameter. It was a surge of darkness resembling a bottomless swamp, pitch-black as the dead of night.
A massive amount of black magical light illuminated the area, dyeing the nocturnal forest in its shadow. The sphere rose slowly, shimmering with a grim luster, before silently detonating.
The destructive magical energy rippled outward in dark waves, violent enough to swallow and erase everything in its path. Pillars of darkness, resembling towering trees, tore the surrounding crystals from their roots. The explosion ravaged the entire area.
It was absolute devastation. The torrent of darkness scorched the earth, clashing with a deafening roar against multiple spheres of light wreathed in green wind. For a moment, the forces seemed matched, but the staggering difference in magical energy shattered the balance.
Ryuu's wide-range magic—spears of light formed from stardust—collapsed before the black tide. The brilliant white magic shield shattered. Waves of darkness swept over the adventurers, even those protected by defensive magic, tossing them aside like leaves.
"── You bastards still alive?!"
"── Barely, 'Vana Arganture'."
As the tsunami of darkness receded, Bete was the first to rise, his body battered by the shadows. The Level 4 adventurers followed, and finally, the members of the Hermes Familia struggled to their feet.
"Since it was a dark-element spell, I managed to dampen the effect with my own magic. But I can't keep that up for long."
Because Luminous Wind contained light elements that counter darkness, Ryuu had weakened the strike. Even so, without Lefiya and Filvis's protection magic, several members of the Hermes Familia would have surely fallen.
"[O fire, come forth──]"
"A consecutive chant?!"
The flower petals glowed as they absorbed magical energy. The Spirit began to chant once more without mercy, staring down at the adventurers who remained paralyzed.
──────
Ais felt a sudden chill and an indescribable sense of revulsion upon hearing an unidentified scream. It felt worse than when she had touched the "Jewel" in Riviera; it was as if something were tampering with her mind.
Breathing heavily, Ais scanned her surroundings, though her movements were naturally restricted.
"Did you notice, 'Aria'? It sounds like the awakening of one of your own kind."
"My kind?"
"It's just a miserable failure resulting from using a low-quality 'Jewel'. But even as a failure, it's enough to dispose of this trash."
Revis, the red-haired creature, was not one to miss such an opportunity. She threw her shattered greatsword aside, and a moment later, her new blade was easily parried by Ais. The gap in power between them made maneuvers and feints useless.
Ais possessed the skill Avenger. Its effect was a massive offensive boost against all types of monsters. According to Loki, it was a skill that boasted the highest power output in the history of the Lower World, its strength increasing with the intensity of the user's hatred.
The hatred Ais carried was directed toward the monsters that had stolen her parents, and toward her own personal weakness. This hatred far exceeded what she had felt nine years ago when the Falna was first engraved upon her. Thus, Ais Wallenstein's current power occupied a territory that others simply could not match.
The first time she had unleashed this power—forbidden for years—was when she defeated Uduaeus alone, shattering its defenses and achieving a crushing victory.
Ais now held the power to kill enemies of the Monster Rex rank in moments. Revis was strong, undoubtedly, but Ais was absolutely superior in this space.
When facing non-human entities, the current Ais certainly surpassed Finn or Gareth—who occupied the peak of Level 6—and had effectively placed one foot into the territory of Level 7.
"D-damn you── you monster!!"
Ais easily brushed off Revis's violent assaults, which even Deep Floor bosses could not withstand. The blade of Ais's sword, enhanced by a raging hurricane of wind, began to tear Revis's body apart. Every time, petals of blood flew into the air, and Revis let out screams of agony.
Faced with this massive surge in abilities that differed entirely from their previous encounter, Revis could not maintain her composure. In her eyes, Ais resembled that white-haired human—Al—who had previously crushed her without allowing a single chance for a counterattack.
The greatsword swung, but Ais's speed was superior. She launched a series of strikes too fast for the eye to follow. In an instant, Revis's body was sliced in every direction.
One of Ais's strikes hit Revis's left arm, which held the sword, severing it directly from the shoulder. Revis retreated instinctively, but the movement was insufficient to gain any distance.
A step forward, a horizontal slash. It tore through Revis's body deeply from abdomen to chest. Blood spurted like a fountain from the wound, pooling red on the ground. But Ais's assault was not over.
Ais pursued the retreating Revis, closing the distance within two or three steps before swinging her raised blade with immense force. Revis raised her greatsword quickly into a defensive stance, but the force of Ais's descending blade was overwhelming. The collision between the weapons blew out the surrounding walls. After a moment of struggle, Revis was hurled away.
Still, Ais did not stop her pursuit. A vertical strike from above, followed by a diagonal slash, then a thrust. Each time, blood sprayed from Revis's body.
Receiving this storm-like series of violent attacks, Revis suffered deep gashes across her entire body.
"── You... you are the monster."
Ais tried to force that terrible scream, still ringing in her ears, out of her mind. She began to gather even more black wind around her to defeat Revis, but she felt an internal anxiety.
The terrifying thing was the vitality of this "Human Monster." Despite repeatedly piercing her greatsword's defense and inflicting injuries that would make it impossible for any human to continue fighting, she healed in the blink of an eye, her strength remaining constant.
The environmental advantage belonged to her opponent. Despite Ais's overwhelming superiority in pure combat ability, she felt that continuing the fight would eventually put her in a precarious position.
Due to its high energy output, the Avenger skill placed an immense and continuous strain on Ais's body while active. Since it was a buff that raised Ais—who had only recently reached Level 6—to the rank of Level 7, the physical toll was immeasurable.
Invisible wounds began to map themselves across her body. Pain that made flesh slacken and bones groan began to cover her. She wouldn't last much longer. Based on this assessment, Ais decided to launch an even more powerful attack.
●○●○●
On the other side, the battle against the Spirit—led by Lefiya and the support group from the Hermes Familia—was progressing well. Though they lacked a clear advantage, they were successfully tilting the scales.
No matter how much of a "failure" the Corrupted Spirit was, its size and the strength of its limbs resembled a Floor Boss. Moreover, it possessed magic that surpassed the projectiles of high-level mages. Its estimated level, at the very least, matched a Level 6 Floor Boss.
The reason these individuals, whose individual levels were much lower, were able to fight such a monster without fatalities thus far was the presence of Bete Loga, the sole first-class adventurer on the scene.
He was the fastest among them, disrupting the Spirit's incantations with heavy strikes using his magic-charged weapon, Flosvirt. In the few moments he created, the others rained down magic and magic swords.
Ryuu's presence was also significant. Despite her lower raw stats, her combat experience surpassed that of any ordinary Level 5 adventurer. Though she had been away from the front lines for a long time, her accumulated experience and superb combat techniques allowed her to evade the Spirit's limb attacks brilliantly. She rushed to heal the injured, performing short-chant healing magic while maintaining concurrent chanting, making her a first-rate field medic.
The presence of these two provided a profound sense of security.
Lefiya, protected by Filvis while pouring all her magical energy into offensive spells, was an indispensable asset as the primary damage dealer.
As for the members of the Hermes Familia, though their levels were lower, they functioned as a support force superior to the mid-tier groups of the Loki Familia, thanks to Asfi's leadership and a coordination that exploited each individual's strengths.
It was an improvised coordination among people who didn't even know each other's names, yet it was unbelievably perfect.
However──
"[Close, shut, drop the light]"
(── A super-short chant?!)
"[Tia Noir]"
There was no error in their coordination. Even though it was a super-short chant, it wasn't an unavoidable attack. Rather, it was a momentary lapse in judgment—a result of Ryuu's five-year absence from combat. Ryuu, moving through the air with magic, was knocked down by soaring shards of darkness. It wasn't a fatal wound.
But the collapse of the defensive lines began rapidly from that point.
Bete was next. The werewolf, who moved more than anyone and was depleting his energy, was facing the Spirit alone. He couldn't carry the burden Ryuu had left behind and fell prey to the Spirit's limbs.
"[Receding light, frozen earth. Rain down, three── Agh!"
Lefiya, distressed by the collapse of the front lines, finally chose the absolute freezing magic of her mentor and the city's strongest mage, Riveria Ljos Alf. Had this magic hit its mark, it might have paralyzed the Spirit entirely.
But Lefiya collapsed mid-chant. No matter her magical capacity or mental fortitude, she was still Level 3. The continuous use of protection and offensive magic had drained her more than she realized. Due to mental exhaustion, her vision blurred, and she collapsed to the ground.
"Fil-Filvis-san..."
"Viridis?! ── Damn it!"
"──"
Asfi, seeing the three core elements fall, realized they had lost. Their ability to hold out against such a superior foe had relied on Bete as the front line, Ryuu combining defense and healing, and Lefiya providing magical output and options beyond her level—all under Asfi's oversight.
"Finished? Then, then, then, I'll tear you to pieces!"
Ryuu was down, Bete was defeated, and Lefiya had reached her limit. No matter how brilliant the coordination, the Hermes Familia—composed of adventurers below Level 4, excluding Asfi—could never defeat the despair before them: the Corrupted Spirit.
In the next moment, as Asfi gripped her precious magic item to attempt one final strike before inevitable death, she saw something.
A portion of the Great Fissure's wall exploded. The massive sound of shattering stone made everyone—enemy and ally—turn toward the source. From the midst of the debris and dust, a red-haired woman lunged out.
That woman—Revis—was covered in blood as if she had been forcibly expelled. She dug her feet into the ground, trying to stop her momentum. With great difficulty, she stood up, bleeding from her entire body and panting violently.
"Hah, hah...! ─ Gkh, cough!"
She let out a groan and spat a large amount of blood. Her body was covered in spiral wounds, as if hit by a cyclone. From the same fissure she had broken through, a girl with golden hair and golden eyes appeared── Ais. She was breathing heavily but was largely unharmed, save for some damage to her armor.
The beautiful girl with fluttering golden hair. Everyone was frozen in place, unable to look away. In that silence, Ais raised her sword and stared ahead, her eyes burning with battle spirit.
"Ais-san!!"
Lefiya, supported by Filvis, cried out with tears in her eyes at seeing Ais after a half-day separation.
"── What is this entity?"
But Ais didn't have the luxury of attending to Lefiya.
"Aria!! You too, let's be together? ── Let me eat you?"
Ais saw the Spirit emitting strange feminine screams toward her. The Spirit had transformed into a massive entity resembling a great tower, still growing in size. A cluster of limbs like giant whips writhed, their tips sharp as spears.
"────── AAAAAAAAH!!"
With a thunderous cry, the Spirit launched a massive cluster of limbs that completely blocked Ais's vision.
── Fast.
Those limbs tore through the air and struck with a speed surpassing any monster Ais had encountered. It wasn't just speed; they possessed a wide attack range and destructive power that turned everything they touched to dust. Yet, Ais did not waver.
Faced with that forest of limbs filling her sight, Ais's action was simple and clear. She made a single movement with her sword. With one strike, the limbs were severed into small pieces and scattered into the air.
(Such durability.)
Ais furrowed her brows as she looked at the severed limbs. Had she used an ordinary weapon, it would have shattered or been severely damaged from that single strike.
The strength of those limbs was unnatural. At that moment, Revis took the opportunity to treat her wounds minimally and backed away from Ais, heading toward a massive red quartz crystal in the center of the Pantry.
"Aria, it seems I can't win against you as you are now... stay and busy yourself playing with that miserable failure."
It seemed Revis calculated that she wouldn't win now, even with the Corrupted Spirit present. She threw aside her broken red sword and decided to flee.
"Wait! Are you a monster?"
"── I am merely a part, a former human implanted with that woman's magic stone."
A "Creature"—a hybrid of human and monster. Possessing human intelligence and states, combined with the strength and regeneration of a monster gained through the magic stone.
"Aria, go to the 59th Floor."
Revis finished her words and vanished into the green tissues. Although Ais was the only one unharmed and capable of movement, she did not follow.
Ais was shocked by the reality of beings that combined monsters and humans, but more importantly, she wanted to focus on the monster before her now.
Ais faced a massive mass of limbs. The sight resembled a black carpet strewn with countless pupils the size of an infant's fist, making Ais involuntarily catch her breath.
But just as Ais had appeared earlier, the wall of green tissue exploded. A man appeared, characterized by pure white hair that contrasted with the massive black sword he carried on his shoulder—Al Cranel. With a single strike, he severed a cluster of limbs. The sword Al carried was wreathed in flames coiling violently around its blade.
●○●○●
"Ah, it seems that woman has already fled."
Well, there's no point in fighting now anyway. As for the Spirit... hmmm, our compatibility makes fighting illogical.
For now, I'll stick to teasing Filvis and be patient for a while.
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