Late night——
It was probably late night. Here, in the north, close to the [Dragon Valley], the place looked a little like the Dungeon—you could hardly tell day from night.
Thick clouds and mist piled up overhead, and even now, in the daytime, in the middle of summer, the sunlight struggled to pierce through them, leaving the whole day looking dim and gloomy.
And at night it was even more so.
Atop the towering city wall, the bonfire that Isagi and the two young goddesses had lit was like a tiny star amid the pitch-black curtain of night.
At this moment.
The three of them huddled together, sipping piping-hot meat broth while watching the distant situation unfold.
Just now, Isagi had summoned the [Soul Teardrop], sending it toward the place where the [Dragon Valley] lay to carry out a long-range "livestream."
Making use of the [Eye Crystal].
It could transmit both sound and image back over a long distance, and could even be used to communicate—exactly like using a cellphone for a video call.
Of course, this thing wasn't very useful inside the Dungeon.
Especially in the deep levels.
Because of the Dungeon's influence, not only was the image hard to transmit back, you couldn't hold a call either. At most, only the sound would make it through.
But even that was already plenty good.
Isagi remembered that this time, when Ais and the others had gone to subjugate the Corrupted Spirit, they had obtained quite a few [Eye Crystals] from Fels.
Including this trip of his to the north—he'd taken one off of Fels as well.
And even without an [Eye Crystal], it wouldn't have mattered.
Both Artemis and Aphrodite were goddesses, so they could use "Divine Power" to unfold a Divine Mirror and scout out distant conditions.
This was an ability all deities could use. Although it was nominally forbidden by the Guild, plenty of gods still used it from time to time—Goddess Freya, for one.
She would even use the Divine Mirror to observe what was happening inside the Dungeon.
Isagi had only learned this not long ago—that this [Goddess of Beauty] had in fact been using the Divine Mirror all along to watch his own adventures down in the Dungeon.
Still, just to be safe.
For now, so long as he had an [Eye Crystal], he might as well use the [Eye Crystal] first.
Isagi worried that a god's power might, perhaps, provoke the Black Dragon.
After all, the thing was a "black Monster." In the Dungeon, a Monster black from head to toe was a "god-slaying weapon" made specifically to counter deities.
Its black exterior rendered it completely immune to any Divine Power.
"But isn't the [Black Dragon] a Monster that had already appeared before the gods came down to the Lower World?"
A thousand years ago, in Albert's era, the gods were all still up in the heavens.
So Aphrodite asked.
Isagi had been mulling over this very question earlier too. After all, "historical records" from ancient times were truly scarce—even going to ask the Elves yielded the same result. Traditional Elves scarcely cared about anything outside their own forest, so unless a given piece of history had something to do with Elves, they wouldn't pay it any mind at all.
However, this question of the young goddess's already had an answer.
"Do you still remember the [Six Rings of the Spirits]?"
"That's right—"
"In ancient times, a Monster called [Nidhogg] appeared. It was known as the [Doom-Bringing Dragon], a mighty Monster capable of bringing destruction upon the world."
This was a legend he'd seen back in the Artificial Labyrinth.
The dragon powerful enough to destroy the world had been wiped out by six Great Spirits, who paid with their own lives to invoke the magic [Six Rings of the Spirits].
But it hadn't actually been magic—it was a kind of ritual.
The Spirits had summoned the power of the gods, and a colossal pillar of light descending from the heavens had utterly annihilated the Doom-Bringing Dragon.
Isagi speculated.
It was probably from that point onward that the Dungeon began to birth "black Monsters" that feared no Divine Power.
Without a doubt, such Monsters consumed an enormous amount of the Dungeon's own power, which was why, ever since the [Black Dragon], no creature so dreadful and terrifying had appeared again in a thousand years.
Tch.
In other words, was the [Black Dragon] perhaps the incarnation of a "small loan"?
And who knew how many years it had been paying it off.
Hmm——
Feeling like his train of thought had gone completely off the rails, Isagi shook his head and turned his attention back to the "image" floating amid the firelight before him.
By the glow of the Magic Stone lantern, the [Soul Teardrop] had pushed deep into the land of death surrounding the Dragon Valley.
There was nothing here—you could even say the very concept of "life" did not exist. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but barren earth and shattered stone.
The heavy darkness once again deepened its sense of "loneliness."
And because that glow was so conspicuous, all sorts of dragon-type Monsters kept gathering in from the surroundings.
Fortunately.
The dragon-type Monsters lurking near the [Dragon Valley] were quite the handful for ordinary adventurers, but before the Soul Teardrop—which was of the same level as himself—they still didn't amount to much.
Most were Lv. 3 or Lv. 4 creatures. Even swarming in packs, they posed no real threat.
And so, Isagi kept the Soul Teardrop pressing onward.
At last, after sprinting at full speed for a long while, he caught sight of that enormous "tornado" in the distance.
It was entangled together with the thick layers of cloud in the sky.
The scope of the twister was immeasurably vast—so much so that it blotted out the sun and sky. Its diameter had to be at least several thousand meters?
In any case, as far as the eye could see, there was no end to it in either direction.
The wind spun as though it would never cease, and yet, even upon coming right up before it, one couldn't feel any "drag" or "Strength" at all.
It was as if the tornado before his eyes were nothing but a visual effect, as if it didn't actually exist in this world.
Interesting.
And what's more, it was said that the seal of the [Dragon Valley] could be passed through freely.
Even an ordinary person—provided they could make it here—could walk straight in without any problem whatsoever.
The seal worked only inward, not outward.
It was said this had been designed with the future in mind, since surely there would one day be people who came to attempt to subjugate the [Black Dragon]—and if they had to break the seal just to get in and face the [Black Dragon], that would be a bit too dangerous.
If the subjugation failed, wouldn't the world be destroyed?
There was another theory as well.
Even during its slumber, the [Black Dragon] would continuously summon dragon-type Monsters from all over the world to come guard it. In this way, a steady stream of more and more dragon-type Monsters would enter the [Dragon Valley], thereby getting sealed within it as well.
Those low-level Wyvern Monsters in the surroundings had come about the same way.
Isagi didn't have too many thoughts about all that.
The question now was whether or not to go in and take a look.
Isagi exchanged a glance with the two young goddesses at his side, and all of them silently gave a nod.
Who could possibly refuse a chance to go into the Dragon Valley and check things out at a moment like this?!
Then let's go!!
He directly commanded Teardrop Big Bro to keep moving forward.
Isagi simply wanted to know what the situation was, right now, behind the [Dragon Valley].
And the result was.....
The instant they stepped into the tornado, what appeared before the three of them was a wasteland encircled by wind—and at the same time, a Great Dragon looming before them like a mountain slowly opened its eyes, vast as the sun itself.
[Right Hand of the Dragon God · Mad Dragon Delmos].
____
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