[Banner of the Victory Goddess:
The first and last glory of the Pallum people — this is the proof of one who charges forward, fearing nothing.
Whether there is something you wish to protect, or something you wish to obtain.
Victory is a conclusion that must always be fought for. The vast majority of Pallums do not truly understand what their goddess once looked like — but out of need, they have willingly adorned her image with whatever perfection they themselves desired.]
Something of divine power lingered on the banner — in a manner that defied easy explanation.
Strange as it was.
Both Isagi and Artemis could feel it.
But why?
Legend held that Goddess Fianna of the Pallum people — along with the knights she led — had never been [Heroes] blessed by a Spirit. And yet, she had become an immortal legend regardless.
Moreover.
If the timeline was right.
Fianna should have died long, long ago — she was a hero from an era far more ancient than even the "Age of Antiquity." That was precisely why, passed down from mouth to mouth across the generations, she had eventually become a deity in the eyes of her own people.
No matter. Set it aside for now. If genuine divine power truly lingered within it, this was quite the valuable "material." An unexpected windfall.
After that, the group scoured every inch of the battlefield within sight — and found no survivors.
Not even anyone sheltering inside the stone fortifications.
Every last Pallum knight, every hero and soldier, had died on the slope.
Based on the state of the city above, it was clear — they had failed to stop the monsters from pouring up out of the Dungeon's depths toward the surface. The [Front Line] had completely collapsed, utterly overwhelmed.
And yet, even so — it was admirable.
Isagi and the girls stood in silence, gazing at it all, and found themselves once again thinking of Mam and Airon, whom they had encountered before.
The heroes of this age — no, all the people who had ever come to this city.
Every single one of them had understood, with clarity, that death awaited them.
And yet, for centuries and millennia, they had never stopped coming — streaming in from every corner of the world — and had, at one point, genuinely kept the Dungeon suppressed beneath the earth where it belonged.
Remarkable. Truly remarkable.
The further they pressed on, the more the corpses of monsters and people alike were mixed and heaped together.
With no thick fog to obscure their view, they could see far down the slope — a sheer cliff face running in a straight line across the distance.
And below that.
What appeared to be an enormous hollow inside a tree. A cavity of incomprehensible scale.
There was, somehow, at least a faint connection to the Dungeon that Isagi and the girls knew.
Starting from the distant cliffs.
The walls shifted — the pale grey stone giving way to brown, weathered, ancient bark, gnarled and worn with age like the timber of an old house that had stood for centuries. The vast branches of colossal trees intertwined with one another, forming dreamlike pathways that wound downward in layer upon layer.
There was no doubt about it. This was the Great Tree Labyrinth.
Standing at the cliff's edge and looking down into the lush, interlocking canopy below, they could even hear the sound of rushing water drifting up from the depths.
Was that the Great Waterfall?
Without question, their only objective now was to keep descending.
But before that.
Isagi paused where he stood, glancing left and right for a moment, then led the group back the way they had come — until they found a stretch of slope that was relatively open and not too soaked in blood.
He was waiting.
And before long, it came — the "target" that had followed them through time and space.
"——!!"
The crystals in the sky began to tremble.
With a thunderous roar, the crystals that had been radiating light cracked apart and came crashing down, burying the nearby woodland beneath their weight — all while still pulsing with light.
The glare around them sharpened several degrees.
And at the same moment, something far, far larger came crashing down alongside them.
[Progenitor of the Eternal Night Empire · Divine Relic of the King · Udaeus].
A soundless howl tore out from the colossal black skeleton before them, the sheer force of it nearly flattening every tree in the distance.
But.
Against Isagi and the others — it was completely ineffective.
"Begin the hunt."
With that single command from Isagi, the party moved with seamless, wordless coordination.
First was Haruhime, still slightly tense.
"Grow larger——"
The fox girl chanted her enhancement magic, designating Ais, Tiona, Isagi, Lefiya, and Riveria as her primary targets.
"O body that swallows the sacred feast of the gods, grant unto them the divine golden radiance. Return the mallet to the earth, bestow thy blessing — grow larger!"
With her new spell, [Kokonoe], in hand.
There was no longer any need to cast [Uchide's Mallet] five separate times — a single chant sufficed, and then she could move straight into the next spell.
"Beloved auspicious snow, compassionate crimson, deeply cherished white light — please remain at their side. Guardian of two thousand nights of longing."
"I am the nine-tailed fox, symbol of bygone ruin. I am the ancient song, symbol of remembered yearning. For thee who spreads thy wings and soars on high — I invite nine spirits to dwell within this form. Strike the golden chord, Tamamo, recite the verse. White-faced, golden-furred, King of the Nine Tails."
"Devour all things, fulfill all wishes — tails of the sacred beast ——— dance."
"[Kokonoe]!"
Fox tails formed entirely of golden magical energy drifted silently into being behind the girl — and then, all at once, transformed into five gleaming golden miniature hammers.
Five in total.
They descended simultaneously onto the heads of the party members.
This had been planned well in advance — their predetermined battle strategy.
Ais and Tiona both needed the enhancement because, as the vanguard responsible for holding the enemy back, facing a Floor Boss they had limited experience fighting, it was only natural to push their stats as high as possible and minimize the risk of surprises.
On the other side.
Isagi himself — wielding the named blade Tsukikakushi, Moon-Shadow, and preparing to serve as an offensive spellcaster alongside Lefiya and Riveria — also received the enhancement, so that he could unleash devastating magical burst damage in the shortest possible time.
Haruhime, having released the first wave of enhancements, would use the time to rest, consume mind-restoration potions, and maintain her condition — then, on Isagi's signal, choose her moment to release a second wave. Of course, if everything went to plan, there would be no need for it.
Because this first burst would be more than enough to kill the enemy outright, or cripple it beyond recovery. That was one of Isagi's most fundamental, straightforward battle doctrines.
As for the others — they were free to act, doing their best to support the rest of the party.
So it began — a gale and a surge of blood-energy tore forward first, like a violent crimson wave crashing straight toward the distant Skeleton King.
Udaeus, having just come crashing to the ground, was still unsteady.
The monster — which had no lower body whatsoever — could only lie sprawled across the earth, then slowly push itself upright.
And then.
It saw a deep-green gale come roaring in, instantly hurling the massive, heavy crystals that surrounded it outward into the distance.
And within that gale.
What struck its face first was a greatsword — enormously heavy, charged to its absolute limit, compressed into a jet of wind-speed force — that slammed into the Floor Boss's skull in an instant.
A crisp crack rang out.
Ais hadn't even felt resistance in her hands. It made sense — nothing could stop a fully-charged strike from the blade she held.
But.
With her razor-sharp eyes.
Ais watched clearly — in the very instant her weapon shattered the Skeleton King's head, reducing it to countless tiny motes of black dust — as the heavy blade swept through and past, something happened within the wreckage of that shattered skull.
Among the countless large and small fragments, something grew: an impossibly vivid, iridescent radiance — viscous as liquid, writhing like tiny tentacles.
They reached for one another, and in moments, pulled the fragments back together.
Simultaneously, the Skeleton King's previously black skull began to seep that dreamlike color — like drops of blood scattering, yet more like something alive, endlessly waving its tendrils.
"Die!"
Hard on the heels of Ais's strike came the Amazon girl's fierce cry.
And crimson swallowed everything.
With the crash of heavy gauntlets, blood-red energy erupted — a torrent no less fierce than the volcanic eruptions of the apocalypse.
No sound at all.
The blood-energy consumed everything, engulfing Udaeus's massive, towering form in an instant.
Ais didn't stop either. The hurricane tore through — and then the girl spun and halted.
She shifted her weapon into its heavy crossbow configuration, aimed it at the distant "volcano" still erupting with abandon, and charged it — charged it — charged it——
And finally, with a roar like a dragon's breath, a searing fireball was launched — the "Dragon Breath Shot," hot enough to incinerate even a Great Dragon.
"Tiona!"
"Got it!"
The two girls serving as vanguard had long since reached a wordless understanding.
The blood-energy that had been erupting in all directions suddenly halted.
In that instant — it transformed, condensing into a bizarre twin-bladed weapon of blood-red, held in the grip of the girl's massive gauntleted fist.
Congealing. Converging.
In that single moment, it was as though time itself ground to a halt — leaving everyone with an inexplicable, suffocating sense of dread.
That was the feeling of a heart ceasing to beat.
Why? No one could say — not until the blood-red twin blades surged violently forward, and everyone's hearts lurched back into motion with a single thunderous thud, a sound that seemed to shake their very chests.
Dragon breath and blood-blade converged.
From entirely opposite directions, they slammed simultaneously into Udaeus's enormous frame — turning it into a blazing "sun," and then swiftly, visibly, in that brilliant golden light, growing thin, dispersing, as if every last trace of it were being carbonized.
And within all of that.
The crimson compressed down to a single, infinitesimal point — and then, at its most extreme, detonated from within the very center of the monster's body.
A silent explosion.
As the flames extinguished, there was no sign of the Skeleton King's massive form anywhere on the grassland — only a field of black residue, much of it still wreathed in roaring flames.
Legend held that dragonfire never goes out — that it burns on until everything has been consumed.
But even so.
Even that could not stop the iridescent color seeping once more from the countless tiny fragments. Using the innumerable shards of Udaeus as their vessels, they stretched out small, worm-like tendrils — and began pulling themselves back together, piece by piece.
In almost no time at all, the colossal black skeleton had reconstituted itself — only now, the greater part of its original form had been replaced by that flowing, iridescent color.
It rippled. It coiled. Viscous as slime, yet moving like some manner of soft-bodied creature.
Stretching, shifting, endless and inexhaustible.
Both Isagi and Ais recognized it — this was the same thing they had seen in the deep floors before, in the [White Palace] on the 34th floor.
They had no idea what it truly was.
But whether it appeared in ordinary monsters, in Floor Bosses, or even as "traps" woven into certain areas of the terrain — this substance existed throughout.
What it concretely did was allow monsters to revive continuously, making them extraordinarily difficult to kill.
Back then, the only solution they had managed to devise was to destroy the Magic Stone within the monster's body.
As long as the Magic Stone was shattered.
These tiny iridescent specks would die along with it. That was a fundamental rule of the Dungeon — it wouldn't fail.
Except — here was the problem.
The Magic Stone within the Skeleton King before them was not hard to find.
After sustaining the assault just now, Udaeus — whose body was now more than half consumed by the flowing iridescence — let out another roar.
And then.
It tore off its own left arm. Then it smashed apart every rib in its torso, exposing what had been protected within: a single enormous Magic Stone, impossibly deep, radiating an eerie pale-blue light.
Like a heart.
The attacks from Ais and Tiona just moments ago hadn't scratched it in the slightest.
The Skeleton King tore out its own "heart" — and combined it with what remained of its right hand, its severed left arm, and the scattered fragments of its ribs.
Together, they formed a massive black greatsword, streaked with the flowing iridescent color.
"…?"
What was that?
They had never seen Udaeus do anything like this before.
Both Ais and Riveria blinked in momentary surprise — after all, when it came to hunting this particular Monster Rex, they had considerable accumulated experience.
But clearly, none of it applied anymore.
Udaeus raised the enormous blade high. Its surface dripped with viscous iridescent liquid — splattering down onto its own body, and onto the grass at its feet, the droplets writhing and squirming, taking the shape of tiny insects and tendrils.
A profound, creeping nausea spread through everyone watching.
And then — it was swallowed by the magic that Lefiya and Riveria released simultaneously.
The two Elves spoke almost in unison, chanting the exact same spell.
"——Before long, flames shall be loosed. The creeping advance of war's fire, the destruction none can escape. The horn of battle sounds high and fierce, encircling all violent strife!"
"Come forth, crimson blaze — merciless inferno — thou art the incarnation of karmic fire, sweeping through ten thousand armies, drawing down the final curtain on great war. Burn all to ash — Surtr's sword, I who am named Alf——!!"
"[High-Class · Sword of Victory]!"
Riveria — who had already passed the first two tiers of her offensive magic down to Lefiya — brought two enormous fireballs blazing down from the sky simultaneously, each one as searing as a sun.
And at the same moment.
Isagi acted exactly as he had during the battle with Zard before.
He swallowed every pill that boosted his attack power, magical power, and destructive force — then invoked the Forbidden Script.
The named blade Tsukikakushi in his hand.
Once again radiated a blinding azure glow — and then, a soaring crescent of moonlight and the searing twin suns converged together, clashing head-on against the colossal sword now wielded by the Skeleton King, its blade streaming with dazzlingly iridescent color!
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting with Shirogane Kei
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!