CHAPTER 3
Eden’s Demise
The crystals were melting. The forests had been reduced to ash. The land itself cracked and burned. Glittering lakes had become bubbling pools that belched blistering steam, and droplets of molten crystal rained from above like hail.
It was a vision of apocalypse painted in scarlet and crimson. Not a memory remained of the Under Resort the adventurers knew.
“Is this really…floor eighteen?” Lyu muttered in disbelief as the girls of Astrea Familia stood dumbfounded beside her. “The paradise we all know and love, reduced to…this?”
Lyu recalled the vow she had exchanged with her friends just two weeks prior. Astrea Familia had promised to be buried here when the time came, but there was no sign of that paradise now.
“The trees are burning…” wailed Celty. “All the greens and blues…they’re gone.”
“I ain’t never seen anythin’ so…horrible,” muttered Lyra.
Aiz lifted an arm to her sweat-soaked brow. “It’s so hot…” she complained. “It’s hard to breathe…”
“This is like hell itself,” said Kaguya.
“It…it can’t be,” cried Riveria, the horror plain on her face, “but this is just like…”
“Yes.” Gareth completed her thought. “It’s the same as the Dragon’s Urn on the deep levels!”
The rocks in the walls and floors disgorged a terrifying heat, like magma. The two first-tier adventurers scanned the area, taking it all in.
“What’s the Dragon’s Urn, old man Gareth?” asked Alize, but she didn’t get to hear his answer before the ground at her feet split open, unleashing a column of fire.
“Whoa?! What’s happening?!” cried Iska.
“The ground just exploded!” yelled Lyana.
The strange phenomenon occurred three times, the ground shaking violently with each burst.
“A large group of monsters got engulfed by the flames,” cried Neze, “and they’re coming this way!”
While floor eighteen was a so-called safe point where no monsters spawned, a good number of monsters still ventured in from the adjacent floors seeking respite. Clad in fiery armor, bugbears and mad beetles advanced toward the adventurers.
“I’ve never seen anything like it!” shouted Kaguya. “We have to fight them!”
She drew her katana and lunged for the horde.
“The monsters are a pain in the butt, but…”
“Those pillars of fire are a real danger, too!” Lyu finished Lyra’s warning. “What incredible heat… A single hit from one of those and we’ll be incinerated!”
The two girls leaped with impressive agility, fighting burning monsters while dodging fiery columns that shot up from their feet. All the while, the sheer heat scorched their flesh, leaving no doubt in their mind that these flames were responsible for floor eighteen’s dramatic transformation.
Kaguya paused during a break in the hostilities to cry out to her allies. “Why is fire coming out of the ground?” she yelled. “What’s going on?”
“It’s coming from the floor below,” came Gareth’s reply.
“Wha—?!”
Riveria studied the landscape. “It’s the monster we’re looking for,” she concluded, after drawing on the wisdom she and her fellow first-tier adventurer had obtained over the years. “It must be. It’s blasting its way up through the floor as we speak.”
“By spitting fireballs?! That’s insane!” cried Neze. Her thoughts echoed the minds of everyone else in Astrea Familia. Compared to Riveria and Gareth, they were practically greenhorns. While they looked on in utter shock, the first-tier adventurers went on.
“The Dragon’s Urn is a deep level that only Zeus and Hera have ever reached,” Riveria explained. “We only have Guild reports to go on, but we have heard tales of attacks that cross floor boundaries.”
“From floor fifty-two onward, the Dungeon becomes hell,” added Gareth. “I wouldn’t be surprised if our quarry is using the same tactic it would down there.”
The girls of Astrea Familia were stunned. “So this is what it’s like down on floor fifty-two?!” spat Lyra in disbelief. “You’ve gotta be kidding me! That’s crazy!”
The Dungeon was an abyss that defied all reason. Lyra was only now beginning to realize its true extent.
Alize, meanwhile, eyed the fiery landscape, then gave a cheerful smile and a nod.
“So this monster’s as powerful as the ones you find past floor fifty, huh? Yeah, that’s scary! My alias is Scarlett Harnell, but that might not be enough to save me here!”
Alize thumped her chest with a smug grin.
“Why do you sound so proud when you say that?!” Lyu shouted.
The rest of the girls fell about in disbelief. Aiz tilted her head in confusion while Lyu shook her head, wondering if it was a good or a bad thing that Alize’s foolishness had banished the tension in the air.
“Never mind, just form up as Lady Riveria indicated!” she said in the end.
“That’s right,” Riveria agreed. “The monster hasn’t broken through yet. We still have time to—”
But before she could give any concrete orders, a new voice interjected.
“Do not interrupt.”
All sound disappeared at once. The adventurers froze in stunned silence, as if their voices had been stolen.
Out of a cloud of whirling sparks stepped a woman in a jet-black dress. Despite the scorching conditions, everything around her seemed cold and desolate.
“We bear witness to the final moments of the Age of Gods.”
Her words flowed like poetry. Her ashen hair fluttered around her shoulders.
“In death, as it was in life. Obtrusive, violent, and cruel.”
Her voice carried like the tinkling of a bell.
“Do not resist. There is no need to add your voices to the world’s death knell. You can simply remain forever silent.”
Her words sounded like a prayer, but they were an omen of the end times. A prophecy of destruction laid down by the second conqueror before the astonished adventurers.
It was Lyu who recovered first and spoke the witch’s name.
“Alfia… Silence!”
“I-it can’t be,” stammered Maryu. “H-how did you get here?!”
“It’s not just Babel’s sentries—you would’ve had to sneak right through our main base! How did you manage that?!”
Alfia remained cool throughout Kaguya’s interrogation.
“I see no reason to answer that.”
Then her neck turned ever so slightly, placing Riveria and Gareth squarely in the path of her unopened eyes.
“I see you are not surprised, followers of the Trickster.”
“Finn warned us,” answered Riveria. “He said there might appear a foe even more deadly than the Dungeon monster.”
“Yes,” added Gareth. “We wouldn’t be here were it not for his canny hunch.”
“I see. In any case, it matters not. Demise is imminent.”
Alfia quickly seemed to lose interest in the pair. What she said next was a pronouncement of death.
“Promise to neither cry nor act. Remain silent, and I shall leave you in peace.”
“““Hrh?!”””
“You shall be exempt from despair and destruction. Free from resentment and loss.”
The woman was dead serious. Her words cut Astrea Familia to their core.
All—save Lyu, Kaguya, and Lyra—were seeing her for the first time. The raw power behind each of the Level 7’s words was incredible. It was as if she were a messenger of hell itself, come to spread word of humankind’s downfall.
She held the power to carve out the silence she desired for herself. That much was undeniable.
Any adventurer in Orario ten years ago would call her the Grand Silent Witch.
Any god in heaven would call her the world’s final boss.
She was lofty, supreme, and no mortal could intrude upon her silence for even a moment.
Alfia spoke as if she were tracing the score to her requiem with her finger.
“Promise me to wait out this tower’s fall and the end of an era without word or deed. If so, then—”
“Nope, sorry!!”
One insensitive young redhead shattered the weighty mood.
“I don’t get all this ‘bringing an end to the Age of Gods’ stuff, but if you think I’m gonna stand around while Orario crumbles, then you’ve got another think coming!!”
Alfia’s lips parted gently in surprise. The jaws of the rest of Alize’s allies, on the other hand, hit the floor in shock.
Alize ignored all of them and continued shooting off. “You’re trying to destroy the city! That’s ridiculous! Besides, we’ve already come all this way! You really think I’m just gonna go, ‘Oh, okay then,’ and not do anything just because you asked?!”
Riveria and Gareth went uncharacteristically wide-eyed, while Aiz blinked multiple times.
“Well, I’m sorry, but our justice doesn’t care what you think! What do you think of that, eh? Too hot for you to handle? Well, that’s too bad!!”
Alize puffed out her modest chest and put on the smuggest smile she could muster, eyes closed. The only sound that ensued was the roaring of the flames.
Kaguya was the first to break the silence.
“…Heh. Ha-ha-ha!”
“Talk about disrespectful. Sheesh…” Lyra hung her head in defeat. “…But I guess that’s what we all love about ya. Never change, Captain.”
She gave a warm smile. Lyu couldn’t help but agree. Alize’s outburst gave them all courage. So long as she was there for them to look up to, the disciples of the stars could go on fighting adversity for as long as it took.
Freed from the grip of silence, Lyu’s fingers curled around Adi’s blade.
“Hwah-hah-hah-hah!” Gareth chuckled. “I see not even Silence can put the fear of the gods in you, lass! Hold on to that courage—you’ll need it against her!”
“We could all take a leaf out of Alize’s book,” added Riveria with a smile. “If Alfia hates noise so much, then perhaps we should be making more of it.”
“Yes. Let’s take her down,” said Aiz, tightening both hands around the hilt of her sword. “Everyone else is working hard. We won’t lose like last time.”
All of them saw something in the enthusiastic young girl. It couldn’t quite be called hope—but it inspired them nonetheless, and each of them leveled their weapons at the witch standing in their way.
“Hmm.”
For one short moment, while her face was obscured by the sparks…Alfia smiled. Then any trace of amusement was obliterated.
“The rallying hymn of foolishness mistaken for courage,” she said. “Orario has not changed.”
The air about her suddenly gained an unbearable weight.
“Very well. If you will not watch this world’s demise in silence, then perish alongside it. Let the cries of life and war return equally to nothing. That is the mercy I offer you.”
Suddenly, unbelievable waves of magical energy began radiating off her.
“Get ready!”
Riveria immediately set up a magic circle and started chanting, while Alize raised her sword, Crimson Order.
“Let’s go, girls! There’s a world that needs saving, so we’ve got a job to do!”
“Yes, Alize!” came Lyu’s reply, and she and the other adventurers all launched themselves at the ashen-haired witch.
“Raaaaaaaaaahhh!”
The curtains of battle rose as Gareth led with a mighty swing from his battle-ax. The witch’s response was a single word.
“Gospel.”
“Graaaaaaaghhh!!”
With an unfairly short chant, a wall of sound hurled Gareth’s stout frame backward. The adventurers, however, knew all about Alfia’s spell by now and had been expecting it. They continued their assault without hesitation.
“Hup!!”
“Tempest!”
Gareth’s distraction gave Lyu and Aiz the time they needed to follow up. They raced across the terrain like panthers, approaching the witch from opposite sides and unleashing a pair of upward swings. Any average monster would have been torn to shreds by the two hurricanes, but…
“I see the echoes have still not died down.”
Alfia was not an average monster. She was a monster among monsters. As the two blades approached her flesh, she spoke the next word in her hymn.
“Rugio.”
Another sound of destruction.
“Wha—?!”
“Aaaahhh!!”
Lyu and Aiz were flung back as if they’d stepped on a mine. The elf crossed her swords and dug her feet into the floor, while the lighter Aiz soared through the air like a ball. The two girls had leaped into the spot Gareth had only just vacated and were immediately enveloped in explosive magical energy.
“That was a spell key!!” yelled Lyu, recognizing the nature of the force.
By reciting the spell key, a spell could be detonated at will, releasing the latent energy in an instant. Lyu realized that this was what Alfia had done just seconds after dealing with Gareth. The scary thing was, she had released the spell once already, so what Alfia was detonating was not a new spell, but the residual energy left behind by the first.
Usually, spell keys were used with spells that utilized homing projectiles or beams, so that the caster could detonate the projectile at will. Lyu had never seen anyone do what Alfia had done, a kind of two-stage attack that cast a spell once, then triggered the residual energy for a follow-up attack.
“Wait, what?! What just happened?!” shouted Alize, looking left and right between the combatants. “I blinked, and now old man Gareth’s on the floor, and Leon and the Sword Princess got blown back as well!”
“She uses sound magic!” yelled Lyra, never taking her eyes off the foe for an instant. “Weren’t you listening when Finn explained it to you?”
“The casting time is ultrashort, hits as hard as Nine Hell’s magic, and you can’t even see it coming!” yelled Kaguya.
“And if that ain’t enough, the wave’ll bust your eardrums and make you dizzy as hell! Every hole in your face’ll be oozin’ blood—even your eyes!”
“Ew, gross! I can handle a nosebleed or two, but that sounds nasty! If even old man Gareth got blasted off his feet, then I hate to think what it’ll do to me! It’d break every bone in my body!”
“…And yet, you all remain in once piece,” spoke Alfia above the hubbub of Astrea Familia. “How curious. A magic item, perhaps?”
Kaguya and Lyra could freely attest that a single spell from Alfia was enough to end the battle then and there, but Gareth, Lyu, and Aiz all staggered to their feet, ready for more. From each of their ears hung a small purple piercing in the shape of a miniature harp.
“Precisely,” answered Gareth. “Finn devised them, and that Perseus lass crafted them for us!”
“One for each of us,” added Lyu. “So don’t expect us to go down easily!”
They were originally a type of accessory called a Silence Lyre, which Perseus had developed to protect against the alluring songs of mermaids and sirens. However, at Finn’s orders, Asfi had modified them to ward off the damaging effects of all sound-based attacks. It combined active and passive noise cancellation, generating a field around the wearer that dampened incoming sound waves. It was a piece of equipment custom-made to counter Alfia, and were it to be given a name, that name would probably be something along the lines of Alfia Velador—Witch Bane.
Aiz picked herself up from the ground and swung her sword as she readied herself once more.
“Evidently, the noise will not die out so easily,” Alfia muttered. “How irritating…but at the same time, it reminds me of something.”
She spoke of the past without much visible emotion.
“You and that elf always did have an answer for everything, dwarf. A wall to our sword, a veil to our magic. And now, these cheap tricks.”
““Grh…!””
“Your own past has saved you,” she said. “All that noise was not in vain after all.”
She spoke of the long feuds between the Loki Familia and Freya Familia and those of Zeus and Hera. The only reason Riveria and Gareth were able to respond so decisively this time was because they had been beaten so soundly and so often in the past.
Yet the witch spoke dismissively of those events fifteen years ago. She considered them but more noise. Riveria and Gareth shot her a rotten glare.
“Then let us see, shall we? Let us see how long that legacy will hold.”
A second passed as Alfia’s unassuming words hung in the air. And then the onslaught began.
“Urgh?!” cried Lyu.
“Dammit! This ain’t fair!” shouted Lyra.
“How are we supposed to get close when she keeps blasting us back?!” complained the dwarven vanguard, Asta.
Alfia’s magic could not be stopped. Even the adventurers’ specialized defensive enchantments could not completely attenuate the raw power of her attacks. Lyu and her allies were dashed across the ground and hurled into crystals that shattered on impact. At long range, fighting Alfia was an impossible task. She alone surpassed all the mages that faced her combined, including Riveria. She cast faster and hit harder. A contest of magic was doomed to end in failure.
“Ignore it! Keep pushing!” came Riveria’s command. “Overwhelm her with numbers and don’t give her breathing room! Keep casting!”
The high elf sprinted to a different position, using concurrent casting to keep up her own attacks. Obeying her orders, the melee fighters leaped into action.
“Leon, Kaguya! Let’s go!” cried Alize.
“I’m coming, too!” came the voice of Aiz.
The four launched themselves at their foe; Alize in the lead, with Lyu and Aiz at her sides, and Kaguya bringing up the rear. All four of them attacked in concert…only for their whirlwind of blades to hit nothing but empty air.
““““Grh!!””””
“Don’t even raise your swords if you lack the skill to use them properly.”
It was like Alfia could see the future. With just a lean of her torso, a tilt of her head, or a brush of her fingers against the sword edge, she deflected or avoided every blow without even opening her eyes.
The four girls reeled in shock. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.
I can’t touch her! thought Alize, her eyes wide.
Even four of us can’t land a single hit! observed Kaguya, scowling in frustration.
I’ve never seen a mage move like her! Sweat beads formed on Lyu’s brow. It’s like…
Aiz’s heart thrummed to the melody of the unknown. She’s a frontline fighter, just like us!
Soon, the witch seemed to grow bored of only dodging.
“Give me that.”
Her arm shot out, and in a flash Desperate was hers.
“Wah! That’s mine! Give it back!”
Aiz ran over and began hopping for her stolen weapon like a bullied playground kid. Quickly, the other girls caught on to the witch’s intent and pulled her back, but by then they were too late.
“Let me show you how to use a sword.”
There was a roar, like thunder, and the streak of steel seared a burning horizon into the girls’ retinas. Mere moments before all four were bisected, the old dwarf jumped in the way, greatshield raised.
“Raaaaaaaaaaahhhh?!”
Like a replay of a few moments past, Gareth was blown back, though he succeeded in protecting the lives of Aiz, Lyu, Alize, and Kaguya. All five were scattered across the ground, along with the shattered remains of Gareth’s shield.
“Leon! Alize! Kaguya!” shouted Neze.
“That attack just sent all of ’em flyin’!” yelled Lyra. “The hell was that, anyway?!”
Her eyes trembled in fear. It was Riveria who answered with a scowl. “That was one of Zald’s techniques!”
None among Astrea Familia could believe what they were hearing.
“You’re joking,” spat Kaguya, lying flat on her back. Her arms trembled as she reached up, peeling the dazed Aiz off her stomach and tossing her aside. “Glutton’s swordplay? She’s supposed to be a mage!”
It was Alfia herself who provided the answer.
“I can reproduce any technique if I’ve seen it even once before,” she explained. “While I cannot pretend to possess Zald’s physicality, I can imitate his swordplay, at the very least.”
The girls of Astrea Familia couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Least of all Noin and Asta, who gulped in terror. As frontline fighters themselves, nobody understood better. The witch who stood before them made a mockery of hard work and effort.
“The Monstrously Gifted…” muttered Lyu.
“You’re not human!!” screeched Kaguya.
It was then that Gareth crawled to his feet. “No point in comparing yourselves to her, girls! She’s exceptional even by Hera’s standards! A mage who fights on the front lines, but not as a magic swordswoman! A category unto herself! An avatar of destruction, dominating with sheer talent!”
“I know not if that is insult or praise, dwarf, but it is noise either way.”
Alfia tired of the adventurers’ words, and raised Aiz’s sword to shoulder height, testing its weight.
“This weapon does not suit me, after all,” she said. “How ridiculous it looks in these twigs I call my arms. You may have it back.”
She tossed the sword, dumping it carelessly onto the ground at Aiz’s feet. The golden-haired girl stooped and took Desperate in both hands, her brow dripping with sweat.
“My heart’s pounding… I’ve never felt scared of another person before!”
“Rest assured, I despise your kind as well, girl. All I ever evoke in the eyes of children…is fear.”
A wave of sound marked the recommencement of hostilities. Aiz and the other adventurers did their best to leap out of the line of fire.
A horrifying melody of silence. Swordplay, magical ability, inborn talent: none of it mattered against the Monstrously Gifted. She was the storm, and all the adventurers were the sailors clinging to their ship for dear life. That was simply how powerful Hera’s Level 7 was.
“Alize! Girls! Get back!”
“The chant’s complete! Get ready!”
Lyana and Celty shouted, their voices cutting through Alfia’s ceaseless barrage. As back-rank fighters, they had been spared the brunt of the attacks so far. Together with Riveria, they raised their staffs, unleashing a vortex of magical energy.
“Wynn Fimbulvetr!”
Fire, lightning, and three blasts of arctic wind that far outclassed the rest. This magical bombardment could fell a floor boss, but all Alfia did was extend her arm and speak a single word.
“Ataraxia.”
The magic dispersed as though colliding with an invisible wall.
“Wh-what the…?!”
“All our projectiles are being nullified just before impact!”
Celty’s and Lyana’s faces paled.
“Grh!” Riveria scowled. “She can use that barrier even after she’s just cast a different spell!”
The mages had timed their combination attack for the precise moment it would be impossible to block—right after Alfia had unleashed her magic on the frontline fighters of Astrea Familia. Alfia, however, had seamlessly pivoted to defense in mere moments.
“You never learn, do you?” Alfia said. “How many times do I have to silence your paltry spells? I was under the impression the elves were a wise race, young one. Is that not the case?”
“Young one?! I’m older than you!!”
Of course, Alfia was by far Riveria’s senior when it came to adventuring, and the high elf understood that. That didn’t stop the witch’s remark cutting her to the bone.
“That makes it worse,” Alfia shot back. “It means your years have taught you nothing, you ill-tempered spinster.”
The high elf snarled, her anger so plain that it startled the young Aiz, who jumped in fright.
“Rrrrrrrrrrrrghhh!!”
“Don’t lose your head!” cautioned Gareth. “To think that anyone could set you off like Aina did…”
But more concerned than anyone else by Riveria’s outburst were her fellow elves.
“Lady Riveria’s lost it!” cried Celty.
“Wh-what do we do?!” asked Lyu.
“Drop the comedy act, numbskulls! We’re in the middle of a fight, here!”
Lyra chided the two elves, then turned her attention back to her foe, a cold sweat making its way down her neck and into her clothing.
Still, that high elf is right; her abilities are crazy! She can put up a wall so quickly after batterin’ us with spells!
It was unreasonable. It was unfair. It defied magical common sense. Even Alfia’s level wasn’t enough to explain it.
There’s supposed to be limits to what ultrafast casting can achieve! She’s practically castin’ two spells at the same time!
Such a feat was supposed to be impossible. One of the central rules of spellcraft stated that spells could not be cast without performing the corresponding chant. And it was impossible to recite two chants at once, no matter what rare skills a mage possessed. If one tried, the words would become muddled and both spells would fail.
“There’s gotta be some trick to what she’s doin’! How’s she able to mix offense and defense so easily?!”
Lyra glared at the witch, unable to unravel her mysteries. Alfia looked down on her with disappointment and spoke a single word.
“Gospel.”
This spell contained more energy than all the previous ones. Sound transformed into pure destruction, breaking the ground apart and sending everything flying.
“It’s a wide-area attack!!”
“We can’t evade it!!”
“Grrrrrhhhh!!”
Alize, Lyra, Lyu, and the other girls of Astrea Familia were engulfed in the blast. The entire floor shook, and the sound of shattering crystals filled the air.
Soon, only the distinct sound of a tuning fork lingered. The dust cleared…revealing two dwarves, protecting the party with their shields.
“E-Elgarm, you saved us…” stuttered Neze, seeing the old dwarf’s damaged state.
“Is everyone okay? You did well, too, young one.”
Gareth’s words were directed at Asta, who stood alongside him, her own shield up and at the ready.
“W-well, I’m a dwarf, too, after all…!” she replied.
“Do you have a spare shield? I’m afraid this one won’t do anymore.”
“O-of course! Here you go!”
“Appreciated. However, I fear for our prospects. We shall have no weapons or armor at this rate…”
Gareth tossed aside his shield, of which very little now remained, and Noin passed him a new one. Alfia was burning through their equipment faster than a floor boss. The party’s sound-cancelling accessories could only accomplish so much. One look at Asta’s full plate made this obvious, seeing how it was cracked from head to toe.
“There’s no gap in her attacks to exploit!” cried Riveria. “And there’s not much time! Soon—!”
But right on cue, there was a sound so loud it outclassed even the Level 7’s spells.
“Another attack from below! It’s a big one!” cried Kaguya, barely managing to stay upright. But she didn’t get another word out before an enormous explosion drowned out all sound.
Like a waterfall in reverse, a column of fire erupted from the ground, spanning the entire height of the cavern.
“It’s coming through the ground!” cried Aiz, raising her arms to shield her face from the blistering heat.
“What is this monster supposed to be, a volcano?!” yelled Lyra. She watched as the great tree at the floor’s center was consumed by the flames and crumbled to ash.
“There’s a big hole in the center of the floor!” shouted Lyu.
The attack left a void about twenty meders in diameter, and a rumble like the horns of heaven announcing the creature’s arrival.
The adventurers all turned to stare at the abyss in shock.
“Oh no… It’s here!”
“…A demon wreathed in flames,” Alfia calmly declared.
And then…
“The Dungeon’s cry made manifest. A monster’s first birthday.”
“Grh…!!”
A divine voice wormed its way through the labyrinth of suffering until it reached Lyu. She spun to face its source.
“The birth of evil. A nightmare made real. In the name of primordial darkness, I have upheld my oath.”
Framed against a pillar of flames that seemed to go on without end, a single figure approached, a contingent of troops at his back. Lyu froze when she saw him, and her lips trembled.
“It’s you… Erebus…!”
The dark god stepped out of the veil of scarlet and into stark relief.
“Here I am,” he said. “And I brought the apocalypse with me.”
Three pillars of flames erupted behind him, and a harbinger of destruction climbed out of the abyss.
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