Dungeon 18th Floor, Under Resort · Rivira.
Having just subjugated the recently respawned Monster Rex, Goliath, the maidens of the Astrea Familia had, as usual, set up camp on the hillside not far outside the small town.
Subsequently.
They began to wait.
Cecil was escorted back to the surface by Ais, who was the fastest among them.
Meanwhile, Ryuu, Lefiya, Tiona, and Heith remained here, waiting until Ais and Isagi returned from the surface. Then, they would begin their daily routine of grinding Ability Scores in the Middle Floors.
That's right!
After several months of exploration, they had figured out quite a lot about the situation here.
Now, all they had to do was wait—
The massive crystal clusters overhead emitted a warm radiance akin to the sun.
The small town nestled in the distant mountains remained the same.
However, compared to before, it now appeared much more orderly.
Ever since the conclusion of the Artificial Labyrinth operation, the Adventurer town, which had originally been somewhat chaotic, had now been formally "taken over" by the Guild and the Ganesha Familia.
Because it was directly adjacent to the exit of the Artificial Labyrinth, they could no longer leave it unattended as they had in the past.
According to intelligence Isagi and Ryuu heard from Goddess Demeter...
The Guild seemed to want to use the [Goddess Alliance] as a lead, taking turns dispatching Level 2 Adventurers from the Loki, Freya, Ishtar, and Artemis Familias to be stationed in Rivira and manage it.
The specifics of how to handle it were still under discussion, but currently, with the completion of the Artificial Labyrinth's "Elevator" plan...
The Guild intended to expand the Adventurer town and build it into a frontline fortress for exploring the Dungeon.
Therefore.
Bors, the original person in charge of the town, looked somewhat sullen.
Rivira had become much quieter.
Naturally, this was because the members of the Dark Familia who were originally here, along with certain fellows who walked on the gray edge of legality, were now nowhere to be seen.
Quite a few of them were Bors's acquaintances; he hadn't expected them all to...
"Sigh~"
He felt an inexplicable sense of lamentation.
Although his own Goddess said he could return to the City in the future, at this moment, Bors actually felt quite a bit of melancholy toward the Rivira before his eyes.
He could no longer buy low and sell high to earn black-hearted price differences.
Nor could he...
Amidst his thoughts, the originally bright crystal clusters suddenly dimmed. Accompanying this were the small gasps of certain Adventurers seeing this situation for the first time.
The mountain forest below the town began to be gradually sealed by crystals.
And overhead, the originally massive crystal cluster had, at some unknown point, transformed into an inverted black castle.
[Here it comes again.]
Thinking this, Bors's originally vexed mood instantly became even worse!
He was even quite speechless!
Because, previously, when he was almost taken up by a monster coming down from that castle to "enjoy" him, a group of young men and women had run out from who knows where. In the blink of an eye, they had actually beaten that monster to death!
Bors was dumbfounded, thinking, What are you people doing!
So many people in Rivira before were all waiting for this. He had finally been the lucky draw, thinking it was his lucky day, only for it to turn out he was incredibly unlucky?!
However, facing that fierce "Adventurer Squad," Bors dared to be angry but not to speak.
After all, he couldn't possibly admit that he really had that kind of interest in monsters, right!
Although, judging by the situation at the time, the experience was indeed very good. It was a pity, truly a real pity...
"Thanks, Marie."
"Ehehe~"
The charming mermaid girl smiled foolishly. Beneath the gray robe she always wore, a deep blue fishtail was swaying slightly in the water.
She had brought Isagi and Ais to this side of the "Under Resort" in one breath.
No.
It should now be called the [Barren Border].
For Adventurers, a "Resort" had never existed from the start. A Safety Floor that wouldn't spawn monsters was, for the monsters, naturally an incredibly terrifying, barren land.
Isagi and Ais emerged from between the crystal walls as if passing through a "water surface."
On the other side.
Inside the incredibly massive crystal wall, Marie was still smiling and waving her small hand to bid the two farewell. Subsequently, she quietly swung her fishtail and vanished instantly into the depths of the darkness within.
Turning his head.
Isagi could see Rivira on the small hill in the distance, as well as Ryuu-senpai and the others walking toward him and Ais.
Using the "Hidden Path," he and the girl had arrived directly at the [Barren Border] (Under Resort) located on the 18th Floor. As for why it was like this, it was a long story.
Everything.
Stemmed from when they were dragged from the Artificial Labyrinth into the Deep Levels by the Dungeon.
On the way back, they naturally had to pass through the lower regions of the 25th to 27th Floors before they could reach the Middle Floors here.
Thus, Isagi discovered...
With Marie's help, when he finally found an exit from that boundless "Underwater World," he suddenly arrived at a baffling place.
It was somewhat similar to the [Land of Truth] where he had encountered the Monster Adventurers and that nameless hero before.
Barren cliffs were everywhere. Among them, most areas were permeated by heavy black fog, making it almost impossible to see anything. It was also at this time that Marie, holding a small lantern, appeared again and continued to lead the way for him.
The girl swung her fishtail in the darkness, as if she were swimming.
Isagi didn't know how she did it. Perhaps it was power temporarily granted to this fellow by the Dungeon.
Thus, after passing through the long darkness...
After a long, long time, suddenly, when the lantern in Marie's hand extinguished, it was as if the night curtain had been thoroughly dispelled. All the darkness vanished completely, and Isagi found the place before his eyes seemed extremely familiar—
Wasn't this the Goblins' Forward Fortress!
Although he seemed to have drilled out from one side of the city wall, those grayish-white walls, the Goblin corpses hanging on the ramparts, and the deep pit in the distance piled high with Goblin heads...
What was the situation?
Isagi recalled the path he had traveled all this way, and then realized a very important matter!
Undoubtedly.
Below the 24th Floor was the 25th Floor. No matter how the Dungeon was specialized by his skill, it couldn't change its own "physical state." Overall, it was a massive cavernous chamber continuously going downward, floor by floor.
And previously, that "Road of Pain" that required constant upward climbing after leaving the Goblins' Forward Fortress, and the fortress where he was currently located, were both parts of the Special Dungeon.
So that's how it was, that's how it was!
Isagi understood!
No wonder that place was called the [Inverted Painful Spiral Road]. No wonder the NPC called the Great Tree Priest kept saying that pilgrimage and paradise were lies fabricated by the church. No wonder one could reach the so-called [Land of Truth] through a certain tree hollow there.
In reality, the situation wasn't complicated. It was simply that he and the girls had taken the wrong path from the start.
The Road of Pain that required constant climbing, accessed through the Goblins' Forward Fortress... even if one reached the very top, what they arrived at wasn't the true endpoint. Nor could they reach the so-called "Paradise." Instead, they only arrived at the [Inner Side of the Holy City] sealed by crystals beneath it.
Conversely.
If one departed from outside the Goblins' Fortress, walked along the city wall into the darkness from just now, and then relied on Marie to lead the way, they could reach the 25th Floor, and...
Find a path leading upward, directly to the "Resort" on the 18th Floor.
It was that simple.
That so-called "Pilgrimage Road" inside the fortress was merely a false level created by the Anthropomorphic Holy Church. Of course, as for why Alfia was there, that was currently unknown—the plot hadn't advanced to that point yet!
With this new discovery, Isagi and the girls had previously borrowed Marie's guidance.
In the darkness that flowed like water, under the Mermaid girl's lead, they experienced an extremely peculiar sensation of "swimming" through the dark, constantly rising, until finally surfacing from the "water." In an instant, they arrived at Rivira on the 18th Floor.
Which was the [Barren Border] before their eyes.
And next, the group was to head to the Holy City suspended upside down above the small town.
The method to get there was also very simple.
No flight was needed. Nor was it like before, using the small whistle Marie gave him at the Site of Grace to summon a fiery red monster bird to carry him through the giant tree forest.
Instead—
When Ryuu-senpai and Lefiya came over to regroup with him and Ais...
Isagi turned his head directly, looking at the crystal wall he had just emerged from. By now, Marie's figure had long since vanished. Without her using the lantern to guide them, they couldn't pass through the crystal before them. Instead, they could walk directly up it.
Just like those "three-dimensional levels" found in many games or anime.
The moment he walked up, the original crystal wall became the ground. The field of vision rotated. In Isagi's eyes at this moment, whether it was Ais and the others, the black Holy City originally suspended in the sky, or the corresponding Adventurer town...
They all became guys "standing" on the walls on both sides.
Ryuu-senpai and the others quickly followed suit and walked up—as mentioned, this wasn't the first time.
Returning from the Deep Levels, from deep winter to the current spring season, he and they had already explored the Dungeon several times over the past two months.
Including this time, which was merely a very "daily routine" trip to farm Ability Scores.
So far, it was a familiar road.
The squad quickly walked to the end again. Subsequently, they stepped onto the "wall" before them.
In the blink of an eye.
The black Holy City appeared in the distance before them, while the original town of Rivira became an existence suspended from the ceiling.
This was the true [Inversion], Isagi couldn't help but lament.
There were no monsters in the Holy City before his eyes either.
Ah, no... originally there was a BOSS. It was a fellow with a rather good figure, slender and tall, with a rabbit's head, called [Manifestation of the Church · Painful Barbara]. But she had been killed by him and the girls.
Aside from that, walking into the black Holy City, this massive architectural complex was pitch-black and dead silent, completely lifeless—
[Outer Side of the Holy City].
The first thing the group encountered head-on was still that very familiar "dilapidated small church" Isagi had seen before, which the girls later identified as having an identical counterpart in the City.
The outside looked like a bell tower, but upon entering, it turned into an abandoned church.
But Alfia wasn't here. Last time, what Isagi and the girls encountered was that Rabbit Person "BOSS," Painful Barbara.
At that time.
She was using her foot to step on some Adventurer who seemed to have been captured from Rivira.
That furry, muscular rabbit leg stepping on the large man's thick chest hair... it was simply an eyesore to the extreme.
Accompanied by the crackling sound of a whip, Isagi even felt it was somewhat unsuitable for children, thinking, Doesn't the "Dungeon" know a bit too much?
He didn't think much of it when it was mentioned before.
Now seeing it with his own eyes, he discovered they were really playing a "Master and Servant Game"?!
This was too pure!!
There was no helping it; they could only save that Adventurer from the monster's hand... ah no, from under her foot.
Subsequently, through the collected plot items...
They roughly learned.
This Holy City seemed to be a "Paradise" the Anthropomorphic Holy Church originally wanted to build for the monsters. But for some unknown reason, the Church later changed its mind, believing that "Paradise" should not exist, and that is why it could be called "Paradise."
Thus, the Holy City was abandoned, becoming its current state.
Continuing forward, passing through the abandoned small church, they would arrive at the city center, where a divine statue stood.
It was Alfia.
And.
The monster referred to as [Absolute Evil].
In contrast to the colossal monster's body, the woman's slender and tall figure appeared incredibly small.
Before the statue, there was an elevator. After stepping onto it, the sound of vibration began to transmit from beneath their feet. Subsequently, it began to slowly and continuously descend.
Or perhaps, ascend?
After a brief darkness, what abruptly entered everyone's view was a giant skeleton, seemingly sealed inside a layer of transparent, pure crystal.
From Isagi and the girls' perspective...
The giant was currently inverted. Only its massive skeleton, at least dozens of meters high, remained, sealed within the crystal wall.
Scattered all around were weapons and equipment left behind by Adventurers. Most of them were already damaged, as if this place had once experienced an unspeakably abnormal great battle.
And in the end...
The [Giant] was defeated by the [Adventurers].
This was a fact Isagi and the girls had heard from the Great Tree Priest before. So the "Divine Miracle" in the monsters' mouths wasn't Goliath?
Then it couldn't possibly be...
Since it wasn't the first time passing through, Isagi and the girls actually already had a worrying answer in their hearts.
[It couldn't be Alfia, right?]
The moment he thought of this, Isagi felt a headache.
Beside him, Ryuu-senpai, seemingly nervous again, grabbed his hand and squeezed it discreetly, which counted as comforting this guy.
The quiet little interaction between the boy and the maiden...
Was seen by the sharp-eyed Lefiya, causing this Elf maiden to narrow her eyes once again!
The squad's atmosphere was obviously somewhat different from before.
The elevator continued to rise all the way. Finally, of course, it stopped at the 13th Floor.
The force that allowed one to hang upside down vanished at this moment. Isagi and the girls were quite accustomed to this and quickly climbed out of the pitch-black hole.
[Anthropomorphic Holy Church · Origin Land]
Inside the stifling hole where not even wind existed, from far away, that "narration voice" they had heard before rang out, seemingly coming from nowhere.
"In the beginning, we had nothing."
____
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