CHAPTER 3 FEAST OF THE DEAD
“No good! The door’s closed…We can’t get inside!”
The scream of one of the lower-level members echoed off the stone of the hidden passageway outside the maze. This new development was enough to stir the others in the group—Riveria and the rest of Loki Familia, currently stationed outside the main door—into a frenzy.
It had already been seven hours since Finn and his team had entered the labyrinth, which, combined with the radio silence beyond the door, was enough to confirm that something had happened.
“They’re trapped in there, then…Not entirely unexpected, but what are you thinkin’, Riveria?”
“They could be separated by all the orichalcum doors in the world, and Gareth would still be able to break through the adamantite walls if worse came to worst. The fact that he hasn’t done so…leads me to believe they’ve gotten themselves caught in a trap,” Riveria mused, staring into the darkness. “It’s not like them to miscalculate the ideal time for retreat.” Her jade-colored eyes narrowed sharply as she glanced around at her frightened companions.
“Right. Lemme put it this way, then: If they really have taken a tumble down a pitfall…will they be able to get themselves out?” Loki asked.
“Were this an ordinary maze, I’d say yes without question. However…” She trailed off, stepping toward the nearby wall and giving it a sharp rap with the butt end of her staff to expose the underlying gleam of adamantite. She scooped up a piece of the fallen stone in her hand. “Just as I thought…”
“Whazzat? It mixed with somethin’ weird?”
“Indeed. Obsidian soldier matter.”
As Loki peeped over curiously, Riveria responded by naming the drop item.
Obsidian soldiers were a type of rock monster that appeared on the thirty-seventh floor of the Dungeon. Boasting bodies of magic-repellent rock, they had the ability to severely reduce the effects of any magic spell cast at them. The drop item for these lapidary beasts went for a pretty penny up on the surface and was often used to make superior-grade, magic-resistant shields and armor.
“I can only assume it’s blended into the entirety of the stone face covering the adamantite, making it not only solid but magic-resistant, as well,” she continued before crushing the chunk of anti-magic obsidian between her slender white fingers. Her brows furrowed. “Meaning, were I to attack from the outside, I would only cause damage to Daedalus Street and the sewerway. If not even I am capable of breaking in, I can only imagine the labor it would necessitate from the inside…Finn’s spear, too, is likely useless,” she finished coolly. The rest of the group gulped anxiously.
“You serious?” Loki’s eyes widened ever so slightly as she turned a glance toward the maze.
“The labyrinth we’re currently facing is nigh unprecedented. I know not what led to its creation…What I can say for certain, though, is that it’s based on a sort of deep-rooted belief far beyond what we can even imagine,” Riveria asserted, laying to rest their previous theories that this dungeon was merely an enemy stronghold.
Following this assumption, the high elf and goddess began actively attempting a plan of action.
“Hmm…Riveria? Your magic circle. Didn’t it have, like, some kinda radar thingamajig to it?” Loki asked.
“While I’m not sure what a ‘radar thingamajig’ is…if you’re speaking of my Rae Laevateinn, it can, indeed, discern whether humans or monsters are within its magic circle. However, the effect is merely horizontal. I can’t guarantee it will work on floors below us.”
“How about this: You make the biggest damn magic circle you can but cancel it out before the flames start comin’, and just…do it over and over again? Wasteful and inefficient as hell, I know, but it’s worth a shot. At least we can check out this floor, yeah?”
“Understood. I’ll give it a try,” the mage responded before quickly beginning her chant.
As the massive jade-colored magic circle formed beneath her feet, Loki quickly began issuing out further orders. “Alicia! Grab a few people and start whippin’ up a map! I have absolutely zero clue how big this place is gonna turn out to be, but we’re gonna use that magic circle to find out!”
“R-roger!” the elf acknowledged before calling out to her peers for help.
Loki grimly watched her go as the brilliant green glow from Riveria’s magic circle bathed her body in light.
Soft blue phosphorescence illuminated the faces of the two figures shrouded in darkness.
“Loki Familia has fallen to the eighth floor, just as you instructed.”
“Thank you, Barca dear. You’ve been a wonderful help.”
Barca and his god, Thanatos, had met up and begun their conversation.
They were in one of the labyrinth’s many rooms, at a depth far below their intruders. Around them lay strewn a ghastly assortment of swords and spears, and from the numerous exits, robed figures wandered in and out. It was the Evils’ lair, having been annexed onto the maze post-completion. It was bathed in shadow, scarcely a magic-stone lantern in sight, just the way Thanatos liked it.
“I have to step out for a bit. You’ll take care of your little operation for me, won’t you?”
“As you wish…”
Barca watched as Thanatos vacated the room, then made his way toward a certain pedestal. Though fashioned out of stone, it resembled the stump of a tree, overgrown with layers of ivy and practically fused with the vegetation itself. Atop it lay a watery film of bluish white, reminiscent of the moon, and a crimson jewel had been affixed to the front of the structure, similar to those embedded in the labyrinth’s orichalcum doors, though roughly a size larger.
This was the device. The most important device in the entire maze.
Only Barca and a select few others could operate it.
“—Knossos is certainly lively today.”
One of those special few appeared from a side passage.
The voice belonged to a tall, well-built human. One glance at his churlish smile was all it would take to identify him as a scoundrel, and masking his eyes was a pair of smoky quartz goggles. His left eye, the same red as Barca’s, was just barely visible through the black lenses.
“Up to somethin’, bro?”
“Leave me be, Dix.” Barca’s annoyance was palpable as he shot his unwelcome guest a look of disdain. “And don’t call me that. Not even in jest. We may share the same mother, but that is all.”
“Just havin’ a little fun is all! You think I’d actually wanna be related to slaves to the curse like you? Makes me sick just thinkin’ about it,” scoffed the man called Dix.
Barca turned back to the pedestal without another word, uninterested.
“Anyway, the hell is goin’ on here today? How’re we supposed to sneak those creepy-crawlies out with all this yellin’ and screamin’?”
“Loki Familia is here…looking for us.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…hold on there! Yer tellin’ me we got some new asswipes comin’ for us?”
Images began to appear in the watery film atop the pedestal: deserted passageways at first, then shots of Aiz’s harried face as she rushed down a flight of stairs, then Tiona and Tione glancing around in the darkness. Bluish-white flowers had been hidden all about the labyrinth, within the macabre eyes of the maze statues and among the reliefs depicting plants on the walls. They were similar to the ones that had sprung up all over the mutated twenty-fourth-floor pantry after the giant parasitic flower appeared. These new blossoms reflected scenes from all over Knossos onto the pedestal’s screen of water. Levis and the other creatures had introduced the technology to the man-made labyrinth.
“Perfect. Lend me a hand, Dix?”
“Huh?”
“Thanks to Valletta’s negligence, we’ve got an escaped wolf and fairy on our hands. Look at them, scurrying about…They should be dealt with properly, as our ancestor would wish.”
“That’s what the monsters and that creature lady are for, yeah? Let them deal with it.”
“Unfortunately, that deplorable monstrosity of a woman has gone rogue…It’s highly unlikely she’ll answer to anyone.”
The scene in the water changed to show first a werewolf, drop-kicking a number of monsters that had appeared in his path, followed by two elves racing down a tunnel, and finally to a silently slinking Levis.
“If this keeps up, not only will our underground monster transportation efforts fail, your unsightly hobby would likely be affected, as well…” Barca continued, meeting Dix’s gaze.
Dix was silent for a moment, then laughed. “All right, all right. You convinced me. Can’t say getting involved with Loki Familia’s ever been high on my bucket list, but…what can ya do? This is our home, after all. And the odds are definitely on our side,” Dix agreed, his voice crackling with laughter. He knew all too well how unforgiving Knossos could be. “Gimme a new spear, then. I was here to get one anyway. Got a little too wild with the last one and busted it.”
“…They’re over there. Take whatever you like.”
“Heh, I’d expect nothin’ less from a wielder of the Mystery ability. You always come prepared, O Great Hexer.” Dix grabbed a spear from among its brethren leaning against the wall. It was a long red spear, its tip a twisted point. And while its shape was already nefarious enough, it was the deep bloodred color that truly evoked the curse rippling through it.
Giving the unsettling weapon a few test swings, Dix tapped the handle against his shoulder in apparent approval.
“I’ll be off, then. Got me some Loki Familia to hunt.”
“Captain! Captain, open your eyes!!”
The frightened screams reverberated off the walls of the labyrinth.
Having fallen roughly six floors of the upper levels, Raul, Aki, and three others had somehow managed to escape Levis’s wrath and were currently attending to a critically injured Finn.
“It’s no use, Raul. Nothing is working.”
“But why?! We’ve given him so many potions already! So how come…how come…?!” Raul sputtered, watching as his colleagues administered item after item to their barely conscious captain.
No matter how many they used, Finn’s wounds refused to heal. Red rivulets continued to trace their way down his body, taking his life with them, and his small chest was fluttering up and down with shallow breaths—evidence that he was holding on, if only by a thread—and his green eyes stared blurry and unfocused toward the ceiling.
“A curse…!” Aki bit down hard on her lip as she watched their attempts.
“A curse? But…but from where? And when?! If there’d been a weird spell or whatever, it would have gotten us, too…!”
“Think for a moment, Raul! The sword that woman was using! It was definitely Superior-grade. And probably cursed, too!”
Aki had identified the long, malevolent-looking jet-black sword they’d seen Levis holding.
“A cursed sword…” Raul shuddered at the revelation, the rest of their peers, too, paling in fear.
A Superior imbued with a curse: no doubt the work of some hexer, as opposed to a mage, making for a heinous weapon. Cursed weapons were rare enough already, but for the weapon itself to be a Superior made it all the more extraordinary. As for the hex, it was likely an Unhealable Curse—preventing those it afflicted from receiving treatment.
“Then…then, the captain…?!”
“I’m afraid so. Unless we can break the curse, our items and magic are useless…” Aki lamented, causing Raul to fall to his knees.
It was true, then: Finn’s condition wasn’t going to improve. And if they didn’t break the curse quickly, he’d never wake up.
They had nothing they could use. No items. No healers. Which meant—
“We have to get him out of here…!” Aki declared.
Raul’s face went from pale to pure white. Escape? From this hellhole teeming with cruel enemies and monsters? Without Finn? They had no idea where they were and no ability to map it out, either. If they couldn’t even locate themselves, how were they supposed to find the exit? They had no one to help them. Not Aiz. Not Gareth. Not any of the others. Their chances of survival might as well have been nil.
How in the world were they supposed to do this? Alone, no less!
“Raul! Raul, look at me!”
“!”
The feeling of Aki’s hands on his shoulders jolted Raul from his thoughts, his head popping upward.
“We have to save the captain! Not Aiz. Not anyone else. Us. We’re the only ones he’s got!”
“Aki…”
“So don’t…don’t let me lose you, too…Not now…!”
Aki’s hands were trembling.
Aki was the one with the level head, who was always able to keep her cool no matter how much Raul and the others came apart at the seams, and even she was having trouble containing her panic. It was all she could do to keep her head above water.
And somehow, seeing her attempt to hide her own fragility brought Raul back to his senses.
But still. Still. Still.
—Captain, what should I do?
Raul threw a desperate glance down at Finn, whose breath was scarcely more than a whisper. Around and around his thoughts raced; the more he struggled to find an answer, the more hopeless their situation seemed.
“Oh, Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn! Where AAAAAAAARE yooooooooooou?”
“!”
The loud, echoing voice cut through Raul’s thoughts like a knife. His shoulders jumped, and he spun around, realizing in horror that Valletta was on her way to finish the job Levis had started.
They moved quickly to put their landing spot behind them. Eluding their enemies was top priority at the moment, even with the risks that came from haphazard progression through the labyrinth’s passages—if Levis or Valletta caught them, getting lost would be the least of their worries.
Valletta was still a good distance away…but if the thunderous footsteps accompanying her were any indication, she had a whole army with her.
“Don’t go dying before I find you! Wouldn’t want you to kick the bucket before I SLAUGHTER all your little followers right before your eyes! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
“…!”
The sadistic screams stirred a terror within them that drove them onward even faster.
“Keep running!” Raul shouted, the only thing he could do as the situation deteriorated around them.
“Wonderful little trap we’ve gotten ourselves caught in here…”
“What do we dooooo, Tioneeeeee?!”
Meanwhile, in another corner of the maze, Tione and Tiona were attempting to lead their shaken comrades through the darkness.
“This isn’t like the Dungeon at all! Where are we?! Hey, we’re in major trouble, aren’t we?!”
“Calm down! We lose our heads, and we’ll only be playing right into their plans!” Tione shouted behind her in an attempt to hide her own anxiety.
The large-scale trap they’d succumbed to had been specifically arranged to target them, a party without Finn’s keen intuition to keep them out of harm’s way. Their enemy was clearly well prepared with any number of impromptu plans they could deploy practically anywhere in the labyrinth at a moment’s notice.
Was Finn okay? And the other group?
I have a bad feeling about this but…You’re fine, right, Captain?
Tione told herself she had no reason to worry about someone who was far stronger than she was despite her worries. However, as if in direct opposition to her thoughts, a giant mass of metal came crashing down behind her with a sudden thud.
“Wh-what the—?!”
An orichalcum door had effectively split the path in two.
And it had taken Tiona and three in her group with it.
“Tiona? Tiona!! Goddammit!!”
Now the party was even further divided. They hadn’t even noticed the door in the darkness. All she had with her now was the animal person Cruz and one of the male supporters.
Cursing her ineptitude, she threw an angry punch at the steely door before taking a look at her surroundings.
Somebody had to have brought that door down, right?! Then where the hell are they?!
The door had closed with such perfect timing that someone must have manually triggered it, which meant they were watching. As Cruz and the other supporter fretted next to her, Tione scanned the dark tunnel and its ominous statues with distrust—before hurling one of her throwing knives straight at her companion.
The Filuka knife sailed through the air at an alarming speed.
Her companion, the male supporter, stood frozen in shock at the glinting blade flying his way—then it grazed the side of his cheek as it passed by and plunged straight into the body of the figure hidden behind him.
“Gwuuaagh?!”
“…Huh?”
“An enemy!”
Tione readied her Kukri knives—Zolas this time—and her target fell to the ground as the poor supporter was, once again, shocked into silence. As her companions quickly fell back, Tione moved forward to take their place and launch herself at the swarm of writhing forms in the shadow up ahead.
“M-Miss Tione!”
“Cruz! Olba! Gimme some light!” she shouted, not even looking back as she sent her Zolas screaming through the air. It connected with flesh, and she heard a moan. Behind her, Cruz and Olba pointed their portable magic-stone lanterns toward the darkened area to reveal a company of black-robed figures.
“When did th-they…?!” they sputtered with horror, neither of them able to believe his eyes.
Tione, however, just plowed through their new guests one after another.
These don’t look like the Evils Lefiya mentioned…Assassins, then?
Loose-fitting clothes enveloped their bodies beneath their hoods. There was almost something familiar about them—their shadowy presences and gaits were similar to those of the countless assassins she’d run into during her post-Telskyura travels.
Hired hands, then? Or simply a different group of Evils? Either way, Tione wasn’t going to let them live.
But suddenly.
“Ngh!”
She was assaulted by a brilliant light—magic, perhaps—as a shrill, high-pitched sound filled the tunnel. Between the limited space and her entanglement with the silent figures, not even her first-tier abilities were enough for her to avoid the attack. Clamping a hand down on one ear, she searched furiously for the source, and she was just about to sidestep an incoming knife when she felt a curious sensation wash over her body.
Why do I…feel so heavy all of a sudden…?!
Her hands, too, were shaking, her motor functions strangely dulled.
In the middle of their own fight in front of the orichalcum door, Cruz and Olba seemed to realize something before letting out identical moans.
“It—it’s a curse! And…anti-Status Magic…!”
The Demerit curse hindered their movement, while the anti-Status Magic lowered their Statuses. The curse was the cause of the feeling of fatigue. Her enemies had essentially sapped her strength.
“Miss Tione! This is really bad!” Cruz shouted in a vain attempt to provide warning, but the assassins had already swarmed her.
Though her Status had been weakened, the Level-6 adventurer refused to yield. Try as she might, however, as curse after curse and spell after spell hit her, her strikes turned sluggish. And the assassins took full advantage of it, using their curses and numbers to go in for the kill.
“You…damn…!!”
Assisted by the sacrifices of their comrades, they piled on more and more curses, using everything in their power to bring down their prey.
The man-made labyrinth and its party-dividing abilities were perfect for a combination tactic like this. They rushed her in a wave to overwhelm her, until finally, the Kukri knives were knocked from Tione’s weakening hands.
“Gnngh!!”
Swords and fists rained down on her from all sides.
They hit her like a gale, their black robes whipping around her as they cut her to ribbons.
Her legs giving out, she fell to her knees, and one of the towering assassins raised his mace to deal the final blow.
“Miss Tione!!”
The sound of splattering flesh filled the passage.
“Tione! Tione!!”
Tiona slammed her fists into the orichalcum door again and again.
But there was no response. Not a sound. As the terror of being separated from her sister began to overtake her—
“Miss Tiona! Monsters! An—an army of them…!!”
“!”
She spun around at Elfie’s frightened scream to find a new species of monster bearing down on them—the same water spiders Bete and his party had battled only a short while ago.
For a second, her thoughts froze, but she quickly overcame her hesitation with action. “Let’s get outta here!”
“A-after you!”
The sheer number of spiders was enough to trample even her, to say nothing of Elfie and her other lower-level companions. Giving her sister, Cruz, and Olba a silent apology, she sprinted forward from the door, cutting a path through the monsters with her Urga and leading the others to safety.
Man, I don’t have Finn, Gareth, Aiz, or Tione to help me now! Not even that good-for-nothin’ Bete. Damn, this is getting bad! I’m not good at figuring this stuff out!
Intelligence and tact had never been Tiona’s strong points, and they weren’t helping her make heads or tails of the maze’s myriad openings now, either. All she could do was run pell-mell down the path in front of her, worrying whether she could protect her lower-level peers desperately racing to keep up.
“—Gwaaugh!”
“Hey! Arcus?!” She spun around at the sudden scream from behind her to find one of her human companions on the ground, cradling his arm. It took her a second to realize what had happened, and her eyes widened at the sight of a monster latched onto him.
“Poison vermis?!”
Even second-tier adventurers feared the toxicity of the poison vermis. Loki Familia had suffered their fair share, as well, on the way back from their previous expedition.
“Elfie! Cynthia! Outta the way!” she shouted, not letting her surprise impede her attack. She swung her oversize Urga with swiftness and precision, slicing the vermis on Arcus’s arm without so much as grazing his skin.
“It’s too late…Without an antivenin, he’s done for!”
“But why would poison vermis be in a place like this…?!”
Elfie and Cynthia ran to his side, cries of dismay on their lips. Poison vermis toxin was powerful enough to defeat even the strongest of status resistances, and the reality that they had nothing in their inventory to heal him set Tiona’s thoughts whirling—when suddenly—
Another poison vermis tumbled toward her feet.
“…”
Her expression hardening, she slowly raised her gaze—and came face-to-face with the innumerable holes of the ceiling overhead, each one of them teeming with monsters.
“Run!!” she screamed.
They were off in a flash, while poison vermis dropped from the sky like acid rain the moment their feet left the ground.
“This is insane, this is insane, this is insane!!”
She dashed down the passageway with everything she had, supporting her poisoned comrade’s shoulder. Purple bodies cascaded from the ceiling in an endless flow, secreting venom from their skin. Tiona’s panicked chatter only served to spur on her companions; the footsteps of the two mages beat out a maddened tattoo on the ground below.
“Outrunning a dragon would be easier than this!!”
Their full-out sprint paid off, and they somehow managed to outrun the vermis waterfall.
But the unforgiving labyrinth wasn’t about to let them rest just yet—
A heartbreaking THUD!! resounded in their ears.
“Another door?!”
“Miss Tiona! Behind us!!”
There wasn’t even time to throw the new orichalcum door a dumbfounded glance. Spinning around, Tiona found yet another massive wave of poison vermis awaiting them.
It was a nightmarish scene: toxic maggots writhing on the floor, the walls, the ceiling, like an army of ants swarming their prey. It was enough to send nausea-induced goose bumps up their arms.
All at once, the poison vermis came at them.
“Okay, you nasty little—!!”
Tiona pushed Arcus toward the two mages and launched herself at the incoming mob, Urga flying. Its double blades flashed back and forth, creating a propeller-like barrier as it sliced through the charging maggots. Their tiny bodies were ripped to shreds one after another, pained squeals echoing off the walls.
Their escape route was gone. It was do or die at this point; Tiona barely had time to break a sweat.
All of a sudden, the poison vermis stopped in their tracks, their miniscule mouths opening.
“?”
It was a single synchronized attack. And for a moment, Tiona felt time come to a halt around her.
In one concentrated stream, the toxic fluid shot straight for the adventurers.
“Gngh-haw!!”
Gareth’s fist connected with the monster in his path, shattering its frame.
“Glad my ax helped Aiz escape, but I sure miss it now,” the dwarven warrior grumbled to himself as he rent the beast limb from limb with his bare hands.
The room they currently occupied was teeming with water spiders. On high alert lest these unfamiliar foes catch them off guard, he and the rest of the group were fighting to keep the circle of monsters from closing in around them.
Dropped quite a ways. I’d dare say eight floors’ worth, at least if we’re counting with the Dungeon’s middle floors.
He’d fallen through his fair share of pitfalls in the Dungeon’s middle levels during his early days as an adventurer. Just recently, he’d taken a trip down The Dragon’s Urn on the fifty-eighth floor during their previous expedition. By timing the fall, he was able to estimate their current location.
Lost damn near all my greenhorns, too…Could really use Tiona and Tione right about now…he thought, glancing worriedly in the direction of the followers still under his wing. Including Narfi, there were just three left, all of them second-tiers, and despite their valiant efforts against the monster swarm, they were growing visibly haggard.
“Mister Gareth! Enemy reinforcements!” Narfi cried out with a desperate flourish of her twin blades.
“!”
Gareth’s eyes swept the room, only to find each of the countless exits suddenly brimming with drove after drove of black-robed Evils disciples.
“Stay away! Accordin’ to Lefiya, that lot’s willing to blow themselves up!”
Certainly, these Evils’ Remnants seemed undaunted by death so long as it kept their Statuses—and their true names and affiliations with them—a secret, as they had learned during the fight in the pantry.
As if in response to Gareth’s warning, the deviants before them now activated the Inferno Stones hidden beneath their robes.
“Atonement for this foolish desire!!”
“Gwwuuaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuugh?!”
The human bombs exploded within the wave of monsters, their cries combining with the pained screams of the beasts themselves.
“Run, all of ye!” Gareth shouted, and they were off in an instant, retreating from the onrush of blazing heat. They dove into the one passageway unoccupied by the black-robed apostles, momentarily throwing off their pursuers.
It didn’t last, however, as their enemies were quick to follow. They came out of the woodwork like ants, one after another from the labyrinth’s multitude of tunnels, and launched themselves at the group in fiery kamikaze attacks.
“I’ve heard the stories, but…this is worse than I ever imagined!” Narfi shrieked as she raced down the tunnels next to the dwarf.
“Aye, and in these cramped quarters, we’ve nowhere to run…!”
Gareth was forced to concede that they were in trouble, his features contorting in irritation.
They sped around an upcoming turn in the path—
—and the relentless onslaught behind them came to an abrupt halt.
“They…stopped?” Narfi asked in confusion, breath ragged.
Beside her, Gareth brought his hand to the wall, brows furrowing in suspicion. It was quiet now. The dogged footsteps and murderous hostility of their pursuers had been cut short, leaving the maze deathly still.
“—Lord Barca! Lord Thanatos! I’ve done it! Your loyal servant, Tris, has cornered the foul insurgents who’d dare to stand against us!”
The sudden shout from in front of them caused them to whirl around, only to find themselves face-to-face with a black-robed human who appeared every bit an Evils chieftain. Great salty tears poured from his eyes as his body trembled in what could have been either joy or fear, an altogether bizarre sight to behold.
As a jolt of fear rippled through the group, the man prepared to activate his stones.
—A suicide attack? From so far away?!
At this distance, the flames weren’t likely to reach.
But perhaps more importantly, what had he meant by “cornered”? Trying to make heads or tails of the man’s words, Gareth—
“?”
—brushed his hands across an unfamiliar object, bringing him to examine it more closely.
There was something there, visible between the cracks of his fingers. A dazzling scarlet light radiating from the stone.
It was then that it hit him: Inferno Stones, the same as those hidden in the man’s robes. And they’d been installed, evenly spaced, across the entirety of the walls both to their right and left.
“My Lord, I pray…pray that you grant me my heart’s desire…”
The man self-destructed in a thunderous blast—
—setting off all the inlaid bombs in the walls, detonating the tunnel around them.
“Run!!”
They sprinted down the corridor as the heat and shock waves came at them. Like land mines beneath their feet, the Inferno Stones detonated one after another with successive roars that joined together in one mighty wave of pure flame rolling toward them as they ran.
It was a crematory trap. A desperate, wide-scale attempt to incinerate the intruders where they stood.
The stone covering the walls exploded, flying around them and revealing the adamantite beneath. Though the stout metal itself remained unscathed, the entirety of the tunnels it formed rose to a scorching temperature as the wild flames choked the air.
Beads of sweat slid down Gareth’s and the group’s temples as the massive conflagration lapped at their ankles.
Then, for the final blow.
A door came slamming down in front of them, blocking their path.
“!!”
Like an executioner’s ax, it fell, just as it had with Tione and Tiona.
They whirled around to take the flames head-on, the blaze painting their faces a fierce vermillion—
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
With one final scream, they were swallowed by the inferno.
“There you are!”
As Bete and the rest of his group battled the monsters, a new contender appeared amid the pandemonium.
“…The hell is this guy?”
Clothed in an Evils robe, open at the front, he carried a long spear of deepest red, reminiscent of blood. While he was identifiably a human man, a dark hood that was as threadbare as the rest of his garments disguised the better part of his features.
“And what’s up with those clothes?! You ain’t foolin’ anyone with that half-assed getup, dickhead!” Bete spat, turning away from the gaggle of monsters he was thrashing at the front of the group to face the newcomer head-on. Rakuta and the rest of the group were glancing back now, as well, even in the midst of their own fights.
The man himself—Dix—laughed, giving his spear a spin before resting it on his shoulder. He pointed in Bete’s direction. “As much as I hate to leave a bad first impression—you’ve gotta die.” He smirked, red eye narrowing behind the lenses of his goggles. “Get lost in an endless nightmare!”
In an instant, the spell was complete.
A short chant.
And ushering in with it, the nascent cries of a curse.
“Phobetor Daedalus!!”
The moment Bete’s amber eyes caught sight of the ominous surge of red light coming for him, they widened with a snap.
“?”
His next course of action was to run like hell.
Instinctive as it was for the battle-hungry werewolf to take the enemy head-on, even he understood that this was not the time. He didn’t even issue an order to retreat, instead simply snagging Rakuta by her collar and hurling her down the nearest side tunnel.
A mere moment later, the passage they’d been occupying, along with their peers and the monsters they’d left behind, was awash in a wave of brilliant crimson light. And with it came a bloodcurdling, malicious echo that coiled around their very ears.
In the next instant:
“?Gngh!!”
With a great roar, their companions, the monsters, everyone—went berserk.
“Wh—…Guys?!”
“…?!”
Swords, spears, fangs, and whips formed a flurry of haphazard attacks amid a spray of blood. Person, monster—it didn’t matter who was who. Rakuta and Bete could only stare in shock at the inconceivable scene, friend attacking friend, monster attacking monster, all of them using anything they could lay their hands on to slaughter the being next to them.
“It’s a curse…!” Bete hissed, one glance of the hysteria enough for him to realize it was too undignified to be proper magic. More specifically, it was a confusion curse, one that caused its victims to rampage blindly, attacking friend and foe alike until their strength gave out.
Quite the opening move from their new opponent—not only a short chant but a veritable killing blow, as well. Even Bete would have found himself prey to its effects had the side tunnel next to him not been so conveniently placed.
“I’m impressed, Vanargand…Most people wouldn’t be able to dodge that attack after seeing it. Guess I should’ve expected more from Loki Familia!” Dix laughed gleefully in Bete’s direction. Tapping his spear against his shoulder, he directed his gaze back toward the carnage, lips curling upward. All around him, weapon and claw continued to bite into flesh, staining the floor with human and monster blood. “You just gonna let this happen, wolf? If ya don’t do somethin’ soon, all yer little friends are gonna rip one another to shreds! Ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
Bete could do nothing but scowl at the contempt.
Standing before his feast of blood and mayhem, the goggled man howled with laughter.
“Our ancestor…the master architect Daedalus…sought to create a masterpiece grander, more magnificent than even the Dungeon itself,” Barca said as his eyes studied the pedestal. “And that monument is here…The man-made labyrinth: Knossos.”
Images of Loki Familia flashed one after another in the watery film below him.
“To fulfill that wish…using the blueprints passed down to us generation after generation…is what we desire most in this world. We, his descendants, who share his blood, shall consummate his magnum opus, a work of genius one thousand years in the making.”
As Tiona’s group flashed across the surface, he narrowed his eyes, bringing one hand to the pedestal’s large jewel. With a simultaneous flash of eye and jewel, he slammed down an orichalcum door in Tiona’s path.
“Though it was with great reluctance that I installed this peculiar technology, beyond the scope of my ancestor’s design…it was in the Evils’ contract. And without their help, our dream will never reach fruition.” The mechanism in the pedestal allowed him free control of the maze’s doors from afar.
The technology was inoperable by all but those with the letter D emblazoned on their eye—descendants of Daedalus himself, like Barca. Using that technology now, he watched as Tiona and the rest of her group faced off against the vermis’s mass poison attack.
“A malice far greater than that of a certain other Dungeon emanates from these walls. This is no mere fortress for sheltering the wickedness of Orario…No. The very moment you stepped foot within these halls, your fate was sealed…Loki Familia,” he finished, eyes never leaving the pedestal. “Draw them away from their herd…Yes, one of the most basic axioms of the hunt. Adventurers are ever so weak without their parties to rely upon. And Loki Familia is no exception.”
They would divide, and then they would conquer. Everything was going according to plan. Already, they were closing in—the assassins, the monster swarms, Valletta and the other Evils—driving each of the disunited Loki Familia parties into their own little corners.
“Even they are nothing without one another.”
Again and again, the scene changed: to Finn, still barely conscious in Raul’s arms; to Tione; to Tiona; to Gareth; to Bete, and each one of them was on the verge of being swallowed by the labyrinth’s carefully laid traps.
Loki Familia had finally met its match.
Difficult as it was to believe, the truth was undeniable.
And it came in the form of a man-made labyrinth, hostile as even the Dungeon’s depths.
“Without a key, you’ve no hope of storming the mighty keep of Knossos…Your time is up, Loki Familia,” Barca finished coldly, eyes unfeeling as they watched the adventurers’ features contort in burgeoning horror. “All that’s left, then, are the elven pair…and the Sword Princess.”
The scene in the water switched, finally, to the ones in question.
To the two elves…and to the golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman, hurrying like the wind.
“Lefiya! I will take the lead. Stay behind me!”
“U-understood!”
Lefiya acknowledged Filvis with a furious nod as she propelled herself forward.
They’d yet to discover any sort of clue as to their current location in the maze. All they could do was run in an effort to rejoin their separated companions and find a solution to this labyrinthine madness.
“…All clear. This way!”
Filvis was a magic swordswoman, so it was only natural that she would take the point position while a purely rearguard mage like Lefiya would stay to the rear. Peering around the upcoming corner to check for signs of enemies, she signaled for Lefiya to follow, and the two of them continued down the path.
“Lefiya…I think it would be best to search for the exit.”
“Huh?”
“While I understand your desire to pursue your fallen comrades, finding a way out and soliciting help seems the wisest path.”
Lefiya found herself at a loss for words.
She knew Filvis was right. Certainly, enlisting the help of Riveria and the others waiting outside would prove more productive than simply wandering aimlessly about the maze, which meant they’d need to alter their course: not down, in the direction Finn and the others had fallen, but up.
The logic was sound. And yet, somehow, Lefiya was finding it hard to agree.
They’ll…be all right, surely? she told herself, unable to shake her worry.
Praying for the other party to be unharmed—and that, if they were, they’d reconvene shortly—she was jolted from her thoughts as the elf in front of her came to an abrupt halt.
Sticking out an arm to grab her, Filvis pulled her into the shadows of a nearby side tunnel.
“Wh-what is it?”
“Quiet.” Filvis offered only one word in response.
Lefiya held her breath at the sharp tone of her voice, and soon, a figure appeared at the intersection in front of them.
…! That’s…?!
Her eyes fell on a bluish-purple robe.
The figure was none other than the masked entity she’d first encountered in the twenty-fourth-floor pantry. All but completely concealed beneath a robe and silver gloves, it was a creature capable of manipulating the violas, at least according to reports from Finn and the others.
Just one…?
As far as they could tell, the masked creature was alone. As they watched to see which direction it would head, their target suddenly whirled around.
“…!”
Filvis pulled her arm in just in time for her to hide.
Their cover hadn’t been blown. Probably.
Lefiya’s heart was beating so loudly, she could feel its frenzied pulse all throughout her body. Filvis, too, was silent as the grave, her jaw tight.
They would be helpless if the creature were to summon its monster allies there. Holding their breath, they waited as the hooded figure stared in their direction—before abruptly turning on its heel at the sound of something farther down the passage.
It dashed off without a word.
“…It’s gone…”
“Then we’re safe for now…though that sounded like another one of those doors opening.”
They’d become all too familiar with it while traversing the labyrinth—the distinctive sound of those impenetrable orichalcum doors opening and closing.
As Lefiya’s slender elven ears twitched in response, Filvis nodded her agreement. Darting out from the shadow of their tunnel, they made for the masked creature. They were careful to keep their distance, putting just enough space between them to keep the figure in their sights without being seen. Turning corner after corner, even ascending a staircase, they finally stopped a short distance from what appeared to be an exit.
Standing in front of the recently opened door was a trio of hooded figures—their guide and two others.
Who are they…? Lefiya’s mind raced as she peeked around the corner. The two new figures appeared to be talking, and from what she could make out of the shapes beneath their robes, one of them was male, while the other was female. Her eyes narrowed. Is that a…god?
Even from their current distance, she could just make out the undeniable sense of divine will emanating from one of the speakers. She watched as their masked friend led the two newcomers toward another door, opening it with a key before guiding them inside.
“Where does that lead, I wonder…?”
“That I can’t say…but what I can say is that we’ve accomplished our goal. Look there—it leads outside,” Filvis replied. Both elves glanced at the door their enemies had taken before directing their gazes at the unobstructed path that would point to their freedom. Whether the door had some kind of automatic shutoff function, they weren’t sure, but for now, at least, it remained open. A quick peek outside rewarded them with the familiar sight of the hidden path that had first brought them into the maze.
No doubt, this would lead them straight to Riveria and the others.
“No enemies or monsters in sight, either. Let’s go, then!” The relief was tangible in Filvis’s voice.
Lefiya, however, hesitated.
“…”
“…Lefiya?”
Filvis turned around, bewildered, only for Lefiya to summon a magic circle without warning.
“I beseech the name of Wishe!”
“What are you—?”
She was casting her summon burst, Elf Ring.
In only a matter of seconds, she’d woven her spell as Filvis looked on in shock beside her.
“Blow with the power of the third harsh winter, advent of the end—my name is Alf!” she finished, transitioning into the final words of Riveria Ljos Alf’s ice spell. As brilliant jade-colored light radiated from the magic circle, she gripped her staff in both hands before thrusting it forward. “WYNN FIMBULVETR!”
Three chilling spirals of ice and snow barreled toward the exit. Like a blizzard, they froze the path, including the open door, and turned the tunnel into a veritable ice cavern.
“This way…”
Yes. This way.
This way, even if their enemy was to use that key of theirs, that door wasn’t going anywhere—at least for a while.
“…You go. Fetch Lady Riveria and the others and tell them what happened. I’m…going back!”
“Y-you can’t be serious!” Filvis’s voice cracked. Her features twisted in worry—before suddenly sharpening as she quickly scanned the perimeter. Voice low, she drew close, practically in Lefiya’s face. “Going back? In this maze?! Are you trying to kill yourself?! What do you even expect to do on your own?!”
“I know what you are saying, and I agree…If I go back alone…I might accomplish nothing,” Lefiya started, firm as she looked straight into Filvis’s piercing scarlet eyes. “But if I just stand here and wait for help, it…it might be too late!”
“…!”
“I know where the exit is now, and this door will remain open at least a short while longer. If I go straight from here, I can greatly reduce the time it would take to find the others,” she explained.
But Filvis refused to listen. “You’re going to get yourself killed…” she nearly whispered, weakly shaking her head. Lefiya’s plan was nothing more than naive, wishful thinking.
Filvis felt tears threaten to well up in her eyes. She needed her to stay.
But Lefiya would not be swayed.
Her mind had already been made up, as evidenced by the way she hoisted the cylindrical pack back onto her shoulders.
“I am sorry, Miss Filvis…but I simply cannot abandon my familia.”
The words hit Filvis like knives.
Her eyes widening in surprise, she turned her gaze toward the floor, lip clenched between her teeth. For her, who had abandoned her companions during the Twenty-Seventh-Floor Nightmare, the words were too painful.
For Lefiya, however, Filvis’s traumatic history was all the more reason for her to continue now. And Filvis understood Lefiya’s resolve so well it hurt.
A heavy silence weighed down on the air around them, the seconds ticking away.
Finally, Filvis raised her head.
“…I’ll come with you, then.”
“What…? But…you need to go; you need to get hel—!”
“—I’m not going to leave you!!” she shouted.
Lefiya’s shoulders gave a jump, and she held her breath for a moment.
“You…you think I can just leave a selfish, stubborn…wreck like you to fend for yourself?!”
“Miss Filvis…”
“Do you even care at all how I feel?…I can’t…I can’t let you die!”
“…!”
“I…I…” She attempted to turn her thoughts into words, but she was clearly struggling to hold in the rush of emotions.
Lefiya’s chest squeezed painfully at the tremble in her crimson eyes. To think the other elf cared so deeply for her. It made her heart ache. And yet, she still couldn’t take back her words.
Silently, she met Filvis’s eyes with a woeful gaze of her own.
Finally, Filvis seemed to regain her composure. “…I will go with you, whether you choose to remain here or return to the maze. If you refuse to yield, then I shall do the same,” she said, lips curled in a scowl.
It was enough to keep Lefiya from attempting to dissuade her.
They were too similar, Lefiya and Filvis. Like mirror images.
A wry smile crossed her face. Lefiya knew there would be no changing her mind. It was her own selfishness that had gotten Filvis tangled up in this mess in the first place.
“…”
She glanced at the frozen wall next to her. Great as the magic had been that had glazed it over, it was already starting to melt. Her eyes followed the length of the wall and the magic-resistant drop items that formed its canvas.
I’ll simply have to believe…that Lady Riveria will know what to do. Somehow…
Moving just inside the hidden passageway, she placed her staff, Forest Teardrop, next to the wall. Before leaving, she cracked the magic jewel affixed to its point, waiting for the release of its azure-tinted magic essence, then turned back toward the maze and its halls of dim shadow.
“Let’s go.”
Filvis nodded wordlessly, then the two of them were off, back into the man-made labyrinth.
“Thank you…Miss Filvis.”
“…”
There was no reply from the back in front of her.
Aiz’s feet hit the ground as she ran.
Both for the friends who had fallen down in that trap and for a clue as to how she could save them.
“Just how long have they been building this place…?”
It was simply too enormous to have popped up overnight.
And the farther she progressed, the more obvious this became.
It was vast to the point of meaninglessness. The sheer complexity of its construction was on par with the Dungeon itself. She’d passed so many forks at this point that she’d lost her sense of direction entirely.
They’d truly underestimated the power of this place.
They had always thought that except for Levis and the other creatures, the Evils’ Remnants were at a far lower level than them.
But as Aiz felt the insufferable chill of the labyrinth now, she knew they were anything but.
As worried as I am about Tiona and the others…I need to keep my sights on the enemy!
One particular enemy, in fact: the door-controlling Barca. Unfortunately, considering she had absolutely no idea where he’d gone, she had no choice but to comb the maze’s passages one by one.
At the same time, she found it hard to believe that Barca was the only one capable of moving freely through the labyrinth. Which meant there must have been some sort of key—much like whatever the masked figure had used to open the door for them upon first entering the maze.
Aiz honed her first-tier-adventurer’s senses, seeking out any sign of human life as she sped along, expeditiously cutting down any monsters that came across her path.
A staircase…!
Four of them, to be exact.
Strangely enough, her current floor seemed completely devoid of human presence. Piles of ash lay strewn about—the decayed corpses of monsters—and the walls and tunnels were a mess, giving her the feeling the entire area had been abandoned.
Still sensing nothing and fully prepared to race down the stairs and into the descending corridor far below—
“?!”
She stopped.
Before her feet touched the steps.
Because her golden eyes had landed on a single side passage.
There was nothing off about it. Nothing different from the rest of the tunnels she’d traversed already. In fact, it seemed altogether like simply another dark passageway.
And yet, for some reason, she found herself unable to look away.
Almost as if it were drawing her in.
This feeling…
BA-DUMP. Her heart gave a leap in her chest.
The blood of her ancestor urged her forward.
“Gngh…”
Hesitation tugged at the back of her mind, and she glanced again at the staircase she’d been about to descend.
But all the same, her feet turned toward this new path.
Not a single magic-stone lantern lit the way; the tunnel was shrouded in darkness, and the farther she continued, the faster her heart accelerated.
She could see a faint light deep, deep within the shadow—an exit, perhaps, calling to her.
The door is…open…
She stepped out from the long tunnel into an open room—
“?”
—and into another world, completely unlike the rest of the labyrinth and its stony walls.
Thousands of pipes crawled across the floor’s surface. They spanned the entire length of the circular room, and all of them were connected to large-scale tanks set into the room’s walls. It was eerily reminiscent of a mage’s studio. No, a lab room of sorts. And like the halls outside, it was covered in dust and ash, as though it had been out of use for some time and was now nothing but an abandoned relic. Only the colossal magic stone hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room still lived, giving off a phosphorescent glow that bathed the space in pallid blue.
“What…is this place?”
There were seven tanks in total, sitting around the circumference of the room. They were large enough to house a curled-up adult human, but the glass had long since cracked. Needless to say, they currently lay empty save for a greenish fluid stagnant on the floor and giving off a rancid odor.
Aiz reached toward the nearest vessel.
BA-DUMP.
Her blood churned.
Before she knew it, the world was spinning, just as it had back in Rivira, and she was overcome with a feeling of nausea.
She could feel it—the vestiges of a twisted spirit.
She was certain.
This vessel had once housed a crystal orb fetus.
“Then this room…”
—Was a facility for growing and preserving crystal orb fetuses that had been transported to the surface.
Did that mean there were seven fetuses? The same as the number of shattered tanks?
A chill ran down her spine.
Demi-spirits.
The same creature she and the rest of Loki Familia had finally faced off against down on the fifty-ninth floor—and seven of them were already on the surface.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she glanced around the derelict room.
“—So you are here.”
All of a sudden, a woman’s voice accosted her.
She whirled around in the direction of the newcomer.
“You…!”
“Enyo said you would come, drawn by the presence here like a moth to a flame. Good thing I didn’t listen to those surface dwellers.” The red-haired woman, Levis, entered the room via a separate tunnel. The creature was practically her archrival at this point, and seeing her here now was enough to send a jolt of panic through Aiz’s veins.
“It’s been a while, Aria, since we last faced each other…Since the day I tasted agony because of you,” she continued, the same cold, calculating voice as when they’d first met. Her green eyes burned with scarcely contained acrimony—a thirst for revenge that she planned on finally quenching. The blackened sword she carried glinted with a dull, foreboding sheen.
“The orbs…They were here, weren’t they?”
“Must I answer that? Or are you really that blind?”
“Where are they now?”
“Hidden within the labyrinth. Perhaps you’d like to find out for yourself…if you can.” A silent bloodlust implicitly warned Aiz that Levis had no intention of letting her do so.
It was an unbridled ferocity Aiz had never faced before. Prickles of anxiety gathering beneath her collar, she readied her Desperate for the upcoming fight…only to catch sight of something that made her stop.
“That blood…whose is it?” she asked, referring to the red fluid decorating Levis’s sword. The presence of blood meant Levis had already faced off against someone else—another one of the intruders. Given the fact that Loki Familia were the only others present at the moment, it likely belonged to one of her companions.
The thought brought images to her mind of their faces, so far, far away.
She felt her chest clench.
“Oh, this…?” Levis replied, glancing down at her sword. “That prum’s. The one with the spear.”
Time slowed to a halt.
“Though I wasn’t able to finish the job, those Evils clods are surely doing so as we speak.”
“That—that’s not possible!”
“I assure you, it is.”
“Finn would never lose!!” she screamed at a volume normally unthinkable for her.
As Aiz fought to regain her composure, Levis reached dispassionately toward her belt, tossing something at Aiz’s feet.
“?”
Clink! The golden spearhead clattered as it fell.
It was Finn’s Fortia Spear, cleaved from its shaft.
Everything around her sounded like it was going farther and farther away.
“There’s no need to fear, though. Once I deal with you…the rest of your friends are next on my list.”
The words hit her ears like a dissonant chord.
In that one second, her thoughts became clear.
“Gnngh!!”
Using a pipe as leverage, she threw herself forward to become a raging wind.
She saw nothing but red as she shrieked through the air, sword flying at Levis.
“You? Attacking me first? This is certainly new,” Levis noted calmly as Aiz came at her with everything she had—
—before being batted away.
“?!”
The impact rippled through her arms, and shock colored her features as she immediately prepared herself for the next attack.
But Levis blocked it just as effortlessly as the first. One after the next, she deflected each of the Sword Princess’s patented strikes with undiluted power and speed.
In fact, the dance of swords was so fervent that Levis’s sword gave a sudden crack! as a chipped piece flew through the air.
“…Aha, I see,” she mused, glancing down at her sword as if she had realized something before stepping back from the reckless rain of blows.
But despite the damage to Levis’s weapon, it was Aiz’s heart that was beating out of control and Aiz’s hands that prickled with a numbing pain. The Levis she was fighting now was on a completely different level from the one she’d faced on the twenty-fourth floor.
“That was close. I’ll simply have to kill you with this.” Levis ignored Aiz’s tremors as she tossed aside the broken sword and drew a second longsword from her belt instead. “Your wind, Aria. I want to see it.”
In that instant, the aura around Levis changed.
“I wouldn’t want you dying too quickly on me.”
She leaped, splitting the ground beneath her.
“?Hngh?!”
It was too fast, invisible almost, and Aiz’s pupils dilated in disbelief.
Then came the impact and, with it, a roar that shook the entirety of the room. The sword she’d raised in defense was nearly flung from her hands.
Levis didn’t stop there, her next strike hitting before Aiz even had a chance to find her footing. And though she managed to parry just in time thanks to her skill, the crazed dance kept her confined to one place.
The attacks came at her in a blur, sending locks of her golden hair flying; the ground, the pipes, everything crashed and tumbled around her as the glass of the tanks shattered beneath the frenzied blade.
Aiz could barely think, let alone plan out any sort of strategy as the room around her transformed into a scene of utter carnage.
“Awaken, Tempest!!” she cried out, activating her wind enchantment, Airiel. She leaped at the creature, armor of wind engulfing her body and honing her sword.
Only.
“You humans. So affected by the death of your companions.”
Levis’s speed simply rose to meet hers.
It seemed that even before Aiz’s armor of wind, she was no longer worried that one full-powered hit could very well end her life.
“Your emotions betray you.”
“?”
Her attacks came at carefully timed intervals now to slip between the gaps of the raging gale dominating Aiz’s field of vision.
With one well-placed strike, she sent Aiz’s sword flying.
Her wind was reduced to feeble shreds, leaving her with no defense.
Levis seized the opening, directing one powerful downward strike toward the defenseless Sword Princess.
“I win, Aria.”
Cutting through what remained of her armor of wind, the sword carved a diagonal crimson slash in the air.
“Ah?”
It was a direct hit, plunging through her breastplate in a cascade of blood.
Like fire, the searing pain overtook her body as Levis’s killing blow struck home.
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