Blood dripped and trickled down from the towering city wall, sprayed there by the monsters.
"Isagi, roughly three hundred meters to the north—there are still monsters."
"Mm."
Azure magic power gathered, and as the longsword swept out, a crescent-shaped slashing spell tore free in an instant, as though it would split the thick fog blanketing heaven and earth clean in two.
And then.
There came a few distant shrieks, followed by the sound of flesh and blood being ripped apart like tattered rags.
Beyond the [Great Wall] lay what was called the absolutely forbidden "death zone"—a place no adventurer who wasn't of the highest rank could ever set foot in.
Isagi watched the "Wyverns" circling in the sky far off, each of them at least Lv.3, always clustered together, and he thought he understood why the place within was so terrifying.
The most ordinary monsters around the [Dragon Valley], if turned loose on the outside world, could casually overrun an entire city.
Not to mention that the sandstorms within weren't normal either—they seemed to carry some kind of extremely potent toxin.
Forget ordinary people.
Even an average adventurer might have to give it their all just to draw near the [Dragon Valley].
"Let's take a rest."
"Sure."
It had already been several days since they'd come here.
In truth, nothing all that serious had happened this whole time. A [Visiting Dragon] really didn't appear every day—otherwise the outside world would have been finished long ago.
Many, many years ago.
A [Visiting Dragon] would appear perhaps once every few years, or even once every few decades. It was only lately, because the seal on the [Dragon Valley] had begun to weaken, that they'd grown more frequent.
In all these days, Isagi hadn't seen a single dragon-type monster come running out of the Dragon Valley.
He had only encountered a few creatures that seemed lured by his own presence, coming from the desolate wastelands outside the Dragon Valley.
Why didn't they cross the [Great Wall]?
Why was it that around the Dragon Valley, unlike other monsters, they hadn't grown weaker through generations of breeding?
That, too, was a question.
And neither the Guild nor the Academic District had any answer.
Including why the dragon-type monsters that came out of the Dragon Valley were of such high levels—no one knew the answer to that either.
If it were simply because dragon-type monsters had extremely long lifespans, then the dragon-types still lingering in various parts of the world—those creatures, through a millennium of breeding, would long ago have dropped from their original terrifying Lv.4 or Lv.5 down to Lv.2 or even Lv.1.
It didn't add up.
So the only thing left was to lay all these questions at the feet of the [Black Dragon].
It was because of its influence that things were this way.
The monsters the "Three Great Quests" required to be destroyed all possessed the power to affect the world—whether it was Behemoth, or Leviathan, or the [Black Dragon] that remained sealed even now…
After finishing dinner.
As usual, Isagi set out on patrol with the two goddesses, walking amid this seemingly endless, colossal city wall.
It wasn't really necessary, because the sound of the [Dragon's Snore] was quite loud—if a [Visiting Dragon] appeared, they would notice as long as they were anywhere near the north.
The youth and the girls simply wanted to walk a bit, to take a look at these "ruins" left behind from ancient times.
Even Artemis couldn't quite say.
When exactly the [Great Wall] had begun to be abandoned.
She actually hadn't been in this world for very long. The highest-leveled child in her Familia was only Lv.3, and the rest were basically Lv.2—their combat strength, set against the city, was merely a touch above average. Though a large part of the reason was that she and her Familia were almost never in Orario, roaming all over the world instead, carrying out what they called their "hunts."
Leveling up on the outside was of course nowhere near as easy as in Orario.
Aphrodite knew even less. She had descended to the Lower World even later than Artemis, and although she too had traveled for a time, she soon began planning her own "troupe," so she never carried on with it.
This was her very first time in the north.
After all, she'd lacked the strength before and hadn't dared to come—which was exactly why she called this a once-in-a-lifetime… no, the one and only chance of her entire life!
Following at the side of Isagi, a Lv.7 adventurer, was of course the safest option there was!
Treading over the ancient stone bricks beneath their feet.
The road ahead seemed shrouded in dense fog.
Here, there was almost no shift between so-called day and night; the sky was forever pressed down by unimaginably thick clouds and mist, faintly letting through a dim, grayish light.
The sandstorm clamored on ceaselessly, with no sign whatsoever of stopping.
The [Great Wall], too, seemed to have no end. This high wall, raised over a millennium, truly spanned the northern reaches of the continent, encircling nearly all the thousand-league expanse around the Dragon Valley.
Just like the Orario of old.
People had regarded the [Dragon Valley] as another Dungeon, hoping to raise up a great wall and seal it off entirely within.
But they had failed.
Isagi gazed into the distance, lost in thought.
Dimly, in that far-off darkness, he could just make out an immense tornado towering between heaven and earth.
That tornado spun without cease, breeding within it a violent, terrifying power beyond measure.
That tornado took on a color of utter pitch-black, and the magic-power fluctuations it exuded had reached a truly horrifying degree.
Had even the seal left behind by the Great Spirit been "assimilated"?
Isagi wondered.
When would he be able to go into the Dragon Valley and take a look.
Lv.8?
Or should he wait until he'd leveled up to Lv.9?
Even though he could be resurrected, there was no revival point outside the Dragon Valley—so if he died, he'd probably only be able to revive right where he fell.
In that case, going in was still dangerous.
In only a single day, the expeditionary subjugation force—centered on the Loki, Freya, and Astrea Familias—had passed through the [Dragon's Crucible] region.
Using that outrageous method mentioned before.
Making use of the enormous hole blasted from the bottom up by the "Cannon Dragons" on the 59th floor.
High-[Endurance] vanguards like Gareth and Ottar, along with fliers like Ais, leapt straight from the 51st floor down to the 59th, slaughtering every Cannon Dragon there so the following units would no longer suffer their sudden bombardments erupting up from beneath the ground.
Then the team on the 59th floor held their ground while the team on the 51st floor swiftly passed through the floor and joined up with those below.
And so.
They finally arrived at the 60th floor where they had once been—and here, it was still a stretch of "dead ground."
According to the records of the Zeus and Hera Familias, beyond the 59th floor lay a glacial domain, unimaginably cold. Even a first-class adventurer, without the protection of an ice-attribute Spirit's charm, could scarcely advance a single step.
Yet now, all that remained here was a gray, fleshy, tepid presence.
It covered the ceiling, the walls, and the floor.
Compared to the lush green of before, at this moment the vast space, taking on a grayish-white hue, held only a soundless, deathly stillness.
And in the distance.
At the far end and ahead of this region, an infinitely evil, terrifying presence was wantonly radiating its aura—like a taunt, and like a trap as well.
Waiting for the crowd of adventurers to come.
"On the way here, did you run into any of those Violas or female-bodied monsters?"
"No."
Riveria shook her head. Ever since the 51st floor, they hadn't encountered any of the monsters mutated by the Corrupted Spirit.
"Then it seems they're saving up their strength, waiting for us."
Gazing at the utterly empty 60th floor, Finn gripped the longspear in his hand, murmuring in a low voice, somewhat uneasy.
____
👻🔥Want more? P*treon: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: Rewriting Fate in New Eridu — posted on The_Mikudayo
📚 Walnut-chan readers are already 40 chapters ahead, and they're the reason new translations keep coming
Let's reach these milestones together:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all readers