"Leo!"
"Ais!"
At a spot some distance from the gray forest, very close to the entrance leading up to the 49th floor, Line and Lefiya's tearful cries rang out, and the mood all around turned instantly oppressive.
To escape the female-form monster's self-detonation and the wide-area attack of its explosive pollen, Finn and the others had brought the whole expedition force to this place far from the battlefield, retreating past a safe distance before finally halting their flight.
But they had only just stopped, with no time yet to make their next move, when that magnificent explosion abruptly appeared, not only shaking the entire 50th floor but sending its aftershock blowing all the way here, making everyone raise an arm in front of their faces and shut their eyes to endure the hot wind and shock that hit them.
The temperature around them was climbing at a staggering rate, growing blisteringly hot.
Their field of vision was surrounded by flames too, dyed completely red.
Every heart shook with alarm, unable to believe that even at this far a distance they'd been caught by the explosion's aftershock.
If they hadn't retreated in time, what would have become of them now?
The moment that question crossed their minds, they looked toward Finn with lingering fear and complicated feelings.
The facts proved it: the captain's instruction had been correct.
Without his insistence on retreating, they would surely have suffered heavy casualties by now.
But if they'd been caught by the aftershock even at this spot, then Leo and Ais, who'd covered their retreat and were standing at the very heart of the blast, what state must they be in now?
Those who thought of this, like Line and Lefiya, couldn't hold back their tearful cries any longer.
"Ais..."
"Leo..."
Riveria's and Gareth's moods were grim too, eyes fixed hard on the blast center ahead, their hands gripping staff and spare weapon clenched white.
"...They'll be all right, won't they?"
"Who knows."
Even Tiona, normally so loud and boisterous, had dropped to a murmur, and Tione even less able to hide her agitation, clutching her hair, looking like she wanted to fly into a rage but didn't know who to aim it at.
"Damn it all...!"
Bete stomped a rock beneath his foot to pieces and swore, though there was no telling whether he was cursing himself or someone else.
"Leo..."
Even Raul, who'd already come to, wore a pained expression, the cat-girl Anakitty and the beautiful Elf Alicia beside him both falling silent.
The entire expedition force sank into a low-pressure gloom, some downcast, some chagrined, some full of regret, some ashamed of themselves, but every last one of them kept their gaze fixed dead ahead.
There, the huge fireball had already formed a dome, scattering every object in the surrounding area, igniting the gray forest, burning it into a sea of fire that scorched heaven and earth.
The blaze nearly spread across the whole 50th floor, flames rising everywhere on this safe floor, the black smoke even churning into whirlpools, forming something like thick rain clouds against the vault overhead.
So it went on for who knew how long, until suddenly someone in the expedition force gave a startled shout.
"Look over there!"
Everyone present jolted to attention and snapped their heads up, looking toward where the man was pointing.
The next second, they all saw it.
Within the slowly burning sea of fire, two figures were walking toward them, slowly, propping each other up.
The boy was filthy and disheveled, and on the jade-green short staff in his hand the jewel's luster had gone dull and lightless.
The girl had broken gear all over her, her skin stained gray-black, but the silver saber in her hand still gleamed bright.
The two looked battered, yet their eyes were as bright and sharp as ever, one with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, the other utterly composed.
Watching the two of them walk slowly closer, the whole expedition force trembled all over, beyond moved.
With a cheer from Tiona, everyone was completely seized by their surging emotions and rushed toward the two.
Finn, whose face had been tense the whole time, let out a heavy breath as well and broke into a smile.
Half an hour later, as the excitement gradually faded, everyone had to start facing a harsh reality.
That was, after the assault of these unknown monsters, even though no one had died for it, they had paid a fairly painful price.
Leaving Leo and Ais aside for the moment, the rest of them, in dealing with those worm monsters, had either taken wounds or seen their weapons and armaments gloriously perish, even their spares all but used up, leaving them with no way to keep fighting at all.
The first-class adventurers especially, including the still-weeping Tiona, had one after another had their main armaments dissolved, only Bete's metal boots surviving, and that thanks to Ais's magic.
It had been the same during the retreat just now. To pull back to a safe distance as fast as possible, Finn had given the order outright to carry only the bare minimum of supplies and abandon all the rest.
Under such conditions, continuing the assault on the unreached 59th floor was clearly no longer possible.
"Let's turn back."
Seeing the situation, Finn had no choice but to give the reluctant order.
"This expedition ends here."
That was right, this expedition could only go this far and no further.
An expedition force left with only the bare minimum of supplies and not even any weapons was like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, ferocious or not, it could never go any deeper.
They couldn't very well have Finn and the others go fighting the monsters below the 50th floor with their bare fists, after all.
Even supplies like potions had grown scarce, so even if they forced themselves to fight, how far could they get?
So there was nothing for it but to end the expedition and begin the return.
At this, everyone was naturally bitterly unwilling.
They'd come aiming to reach the 59th floor, and to be turned back at the 51st was a loss to end all losses.
For this expedition Loki Familia had sunk who knew how much money, only to halt at the 51st floor, short of even the 58th they'd reached last time, and to abandon a huge amount of supplies on top of it. They couldn't even recoup their costs, and with the main fighters' primary armaments all wrecked, going back was bound to mean bleeding out a fortune to forge new weapons.
This situation, never mind the others, even Leo found it heartbreaking.
After all, the main weapons of Finn and the other first-class adventurers were all first-class items, easily costing upwards of 100 million valis apiece to forge, and this time nearly all of them were wrecked, the losses absolutely exceeding 500 million.
The weapons and armaments consumed fighting the worm monsters had been far too many, and the supplies abandoned were no small value either, so after this one battle, not only did the Familia have to bleed out a fortune, but the members each had to dig deep into their own pockets to replace the equipment they'd lost.
Originally, Leo had thought that with his advance warning, the expedition force shouldn't end up in such a state as in the original work, but the result had gone unchanged after all.
Even he himself, when the female-form monster self-detonated at the end, had only escaped being harmed by that all-consuming dissolving fluid thanks to the protection of Ais rushing to his side, never mind anyone else.
"In the end, it still comes down to not being strong enough."
Leo came to realize this point deeply once again.
He was, after all, only Lv.3, and even with Lv.5-level magic firepower, able to play a huge role on the expedition, in a Deep Floor region where even first-class adventurers had to tread carefully, he was still found wanting.
If he were already a first-class adventurer now, with the power to strangle the female-form monster directly from a safe distance, then this situation wouldn't have happened, would it?
"I hope this time, going back, I can take one more step forward."
Leo thought this quietly to himself.
Though the expedition's goal hadn't been achieved, as far as he himself was concerned, getting to follow the expedition force into this kind of Deep Floor region this time, his gains were surely greater than ever before.
After all, he'd originally only cleared up to the 17th floor, had reached even the 18th floor only by going along with the expedition force, hadn't fully cleared even the Middle Floors, never mind the Lower Floors and the Deep Floors.
Having crossed so many floors to reach here, subjugating who knew how many monsters stronger than himself along the way, Leo could be certain he'd already accumulated extremely rich excelia and even great feats.
Perhaps, going back this time, he'd be able to cross over to the next stage, that wasn't out of the question.
Holding onto this hope, Leo set out on the return journey together with everyone in the expedition force.
Loki Familia's expedition was now formally declared over.
The road back was much like the road there, basically a swift march the whole way.
There was no helping it. The supplies they carried were already few, and most of the members had lost their main weapons, so the expedition force's combat strength was greatly reduced, and they couldn't afford to waste energy battling the monsters on every floor.
In the current expedition force, the only ones who could still bring their full strength to bear were Ais, Bete, and a scant handful of others, along with the rearguard Mages led mainly by Leo, Riveria, Lefiya, and the like, and even Ais, from overusing her magic, had taken no small strain on her body, now suffering aches all over, which though not enough to leave her unable to fight, did genuinely affect her performance.
For this reason, on this return Finn had given the clear order that the main policy was to avoid prolonged battle as far as possible, fighting only when there was no other choice, and that taking a slight detour was perfectly acceptable so long as they could avoid a fight.
At this stage with most of the main combat strength having lost their primary weapons, the expedition force could face danger even in the Deep Floor regions above the 50th floor, especially with the Dungeon still eyeing them hungrily and liable to deal them a vicious blow at any moment, so a swift march that avoided battle as far as possible and returned at top speed was the best countermeasure.
Only once they left the Deep Floors and reached the Lower Floor region would the pressure on the expedition force shrink dramatically, and only then could they be considered relatively safe.
So, under Finn's direction and the lead of the few limited main combatants like Ais and Bete, the expedition force set out on the return at top speed, heading for the floors above.
The Mage corps led by Leo, Riveria, Lefiya, and the others had what amounted to its shining hour along this road, the group's reliance on them rising in a straight line, their magic becoming the primary means of dealing with enemies on the way back.
Of course, with supplies like potions already running low, Finn took care to rotate the Mages through rest, preserving a certain degree of Mind to keep them from falling into the Mind Down state.
In this manner, the expedition force spent roughly three days leaving the Deep Floor region, then another two days leaving the Lower Floor region, returning to the relatively safe Middle Floor region.
By the sixth day, the expedition force had made it back to the Under Resort on the 18th floor, and could finally breathe a little easier and rest properly for a while.
Still, to avoid drawing things out, the expedition force didn't linger too long on the 18th floor, with no plan at least to stay the night there, setting straight out on the final stretch of road out of the Dungeon.
This stretch, perhaps because the butterfly effect brought by Leo the transmigrator had finally appeared, passed off without incident the whole way, going extremely smoothly.
By the time the expedition force left the Dungeon and walked out of Babel, the sky hadn't even darkened yet, with it being right around midday.
Babel at this hour wasn't especially lively, since at this time of day most adventurers were still down in the Dungeon and hadn't come out.
But Loki Familia's return still drew plenty of attention.
"It's Loki Familia!"
"They're back already?"
"Seems like they came back kind of early this time, huh?"
"Did their expedition succeed? Or did it fail?"
"The 59th floor, did they reach it or not?"
"Who knows..."
The crowd buzzed with talk, the atmosphere gradually growing noisy and lively.
The news of Loki Familia's return from the expedition spread at top speed, reaching the various factions throughout Orario.
The members of the expedition force, though, paid it no mind, wanting only to get back to their home base quickly and wash off all the exhaustion and grime.
So, without stopping, they headed for the northern part of the city, making their way along the bustling North Main Street, and at last caught sight of Twilight Manor beside the road.
"We're back!!!"
Tiona was the first to cheer, bringing looks of delighted surprise to the two rank-and-file members standing guard at the front gate.
"It's the expedition force! The expedition force is back!"
"The captain's back! Everyone's back!"
"Quick! Open the gate!"
Inside Twilight Manor, a commotion gradually rose, breaking the quiet of midday.
The gate swung slowly open, and the travel-worn expedition force was finally back home, each of them wearing a happy, relaxed smile.
"We're back..."
Leo and Ais exchanged a glance and broke into smiles.
Even Ais wore a rare relaxed expression, which suddenly lifted the spirits of Lefiya walking beside her.
"You're back!!!"
As everyone filed into Twilight Manor one by one and reached the central courtyard, a figure came lunging out of the Central Tower at a staggering speed.
"I missed you all so much!!!"
The goddess, her head of crimson hair shaking nonstop, came flinging herself out like a bullet, charging straight toward where the female members were.
"Eek! L-Loki?!"
"Loki, what are you doing? Let go right now!"
"Don't hug me! I'm exhausted!"
"Let go of me! You lecherous goddess!"
The female members let out screams, yelps, and angry scoldings one after another, dissolving into chaos.
The whole of Twilight Manor fell into a raucous mood that went on and on without fading.
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