"Boss, once we get there, should we just deal with him first...?"
One of the lackeys following behind Zagg made a throat-slitting gesture and whispered in a low voice.
Looking at Noir up ahead, who was doing nothing but leading the way in silence,
Zagg grinned. "An unexplored region is dangerous. Keep him alive for now. If we run into any trouble, we can always throw him out as bait."
The three of them exchanged knowing smiles and followed tightly behind Noir.
"We're here."
Noir pointed at the crystal ahead.
After a single night, the shattered crystal had already restored itself.
Before they could suspect he was toying with them, Noir decisively stepped forward and smashed it apart again.
The moment he saw the opening, Zagg eagerly moved to enter, only to be tugged back by one of his lackeys before he could step through.
Turning his head, Zagg saw the lackey jerk his chin toward Noir.
"You go in first."
Zagg pointed at the pitch-black opening with his weapon.
Noir walked in without even glancing back.
The three men followed behind him with delighted expressions. It seemed that sickly old bastard had been telling the truth after all.
After entering the passage and going through several waves of Monster Parties made up entirely of goblins, the three were completely beside themselves with joy.
In just this short stretch of time, they had already harvested what normally took them several hours to earn.
As for how they should deal with Noir, this rookie who had not even been an adventurer for a full week, they could just "happen" to run into some monster on the way back.
Dying as a rookie adventurer on the sixth floor was the most normal thing in the world.
That was exactly why War Shadows had earned the title of rookie killers.
The three of them madly slaughtered the endless goblins that kept appearing, while Noir was forced into the role of supporter, trailing behind them and constantly picking up the magic stones that dropped to the ground.
For the three of them, happy times were always short-lived.
Before long, the day had passed. All their packs were stuffed full, and by their estimate, they had close to a hundred thousand valis' worth of loot.
Feeling the distinct weight of all those magic stones in his pack, Zagg and the others were already imagining themselves drinking divine wine to their hearts' content tonight.
As long as they killed that piece of trash on the way back, everything here would belong to the three of them alone.
Faced with the barely concealed malice coming from the three of them, even an idiot could guess what they were planning.
If Zagg and his men had been just a little more cautious, they would have noticed that Noir, who had been following silently behind them this whole time, was acting strangely.
From the moment they entered the cavern, he had practically never lifted his head again.
Unfortunately, with their eyes blinded by the wealth that had fallen into their laps, none of them cared what state a dead man was in.
Still, compared to Noir, the three were obviously far more skilled at killing monsters. They wasted almost no movement, and every goblin that lunged at them was cut down with a single fatal strike.
By the end of the day, they reached the end of the passage.
Though that was only natural. No matter how worthless the three of them were, their years of adventuring had not been for nothing.
At the end of the passage was a somewhat spacious chamber, and in the center stood a throne piled high from massive stones.
At that moment, a gigantic, bloated goblin wearing a crown sprawled across it.
"Boss, it's an enhanced species. Do we attack?"
Seeing the monster, which was clearly much larger than an ordinary goblin, one of Zagg's lackeys spoke with some concern.
"It's just a goblin. So what if it's an enhanced species? How strong can it really be? Hey, sickly old bastard, go draw its attention."
A kick landed squarely on his back, sending Noir staggering several steps into the room, nearly dropping him to the ground.
The strange crimson that had been flickering deep in his eyes suddenly surged, and rage began burning through his heart like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
But it was as if something were clogging the crater.
Noir knew what it was.
The shackles called morality.
Just a little more. Just a little more.
Noir needed an opening.
Roar!
The moment it saw prey enter the room, the huge goblin grabbed the giant axe beside its throne and swept it straight at Noir.
The weapon, wrapped in violent wind pressure, slammed into the sword Noir had raised horizontally to block.
The immense force blasted him several meters through the air, and he hit the ground hard, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"He can't even take a single hit from a goblin. Trash really is trash. But since he didn't die, that means this monster isn't that strong. Let's go."
Seeing Noir struggle twice and fail to stand, Zagg confirmed that the monster in front of him was incapable of killing even a rookie adventurer, and immediately led his lackeys into the fight.
Just as Zagg had said, even as an enhanced species, it was still just a goblin.
After some effort, Zagg and the other two still managed to bring it down together.
They stared in delight at the magic stone and the axe it had dropped.
Another fortune.
Today's haul had broken Zagg's earning record again and again.
As long as they got rid of that useless cripple afterward, the secret of this place would belong to them alone.
At that thought, Zagg cast a covert glance at his lackeys, who were laughing loudly while examining the axe with delight, and a trace of killing intent flashed in his eyes.
The danger level here was not that high. He could handle it by himself.
And besides, he still had a trump card.
Calculating silently in his heart, Zagg spoke to the other two.
"Alright, it's getting late. Let's head back for now and continue tomorrow."
"Got it, Boss!"
"Yes, Boss!"
The three turned to leave, only to realize that Noir, who had been lying on the ground the entire time, had vanished.
Zagg's expression changed drastically.
"Chase him! Don't let that bastard get away!"
Realizing there was now a risk that this place might be exposed, the three of them no longer bothered clearing out the goblin trash mobs appearing along the way and ran straight for the exit.
But they had not gone far before they slammed headfirst into a massive wave of goblins.
"That bastard?!"
Zagg instantly realized he had been set up and spat the curse through clenched teeth.
"It's a Monster Party! That bastard would rather die than not drag us down with him!"
"Boss, what do we do?!"
Damn it! A pass parade!
Pass Parade, a tactic similar to shifting aggro, where a large number of monsters surrounding oneself were redirected onto other adventurers through positioning.
Inside the goblin nest, Monster Parties happened frequently, but nearly every single monster that appeared was just the lowest-grade goblin trash. As long as they were cleared quickly, this place was basically a living machine for farming valis.
But what happened if you ignored the goblins that kept spawning and just charged ahead without stopping?
The three men, trapped inside an endless ocean of green goblins, could tell you one thing for certain.
Enough ants really could kill an elephant.
Back to back, they stood together. Everything from before their eyes to the very edge of their vision was goblins.
The swarming masses of them were like green waves, crashing down on them again and again.
"This isn't working, Boss! We can't hold on!"
After killing goblins all day long, the three of them had little stamina left. Before long, they were already gasping for breath.
As for stamina potions and the like, with that kind of money, they would rather buy another bottle of divine wine.
Under the threat of death, Zagg gritted his teeth in pain and pulled a short sword flashing with a yellow-brown glow from his chest, then slashed it viciously forward.
Boom, crack!!!
Peals of thunder roared out, and a lot of goblins were swept into ash by arcs of lightning.
"Good thing I still had a magic sword, or I really would've been finished here this time."
Though magic swords possessed terrifying power, the number of times they could be used was extremely limited.
Still, it was enough to buy the three of them a brief moment to catch their breath.
A short while later, faced with the monster tide on the verge of swallowing them once more, Zagg had no choice but to swing the magic sword again.
Crack!!
Mixed into the booming thunder came the sound of breaking.
At last, the magic sword shattered completely, and at the same time, the sea of goblins trapping the three of them was all but annihilated.
The walls and ground, blasted full of craters by the magic sword, were already beginning to repair themselves under the Dungeon's regenerative power.
"Hah... hah..."
Zagg panted violently, but when he saw the magic stones carpeting nearly the entire ground, he burst into wild laughter.
The magic stones here might have been low-grade, but there were just too many of them.
Not only could they make up for the broken magic sword, they could still turn an enormous profit on top of that.
'That bastard probably never imagined that the trap he set would only make me even richer.'
Tap....
Tap...
Tap..
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoed through the empty cavern.
Turning toward the source of the sound, Zagg saw a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
A monstrous figure shrouded in burning black flames stepped slowly out of the darkness, a pair of crimson eyes full of madness locked directly onto him.
'I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die...'
Pinned beneath that gaze, those blood-red eyes brimming with chaos and insanity, every hair on Zagg's body stood on end. A chill shot straight through his skull, the raw instinctive terror of death itself.
The beastman's instincts were screaming a frantic warning.
He desperately wanted to run, yet his legs shook uncontrollably.
In the corner of his eye, he saw that his two lackeys were in even worse shape than he was, already collapsed to the ground.
If he did not do something now, he would absolutely die here.
With a vicious pressure, Zagg bit through his own tongue.
The sharp pain jolted his brain and suppressed the fear for just an instant. He turned and fled.
As for his lackeys, there were plenty more back in the Familia.
Right now, the only thing that mattered was surviving.
Thud!
The moment Zagg turned and took his first step to run, he crashed face-first to the ground.
'Why did I fall?'
The question had not even finished forming in his mind before it was swallowed by unbearable agony.
Lowering his head, he saw that both of his legs had vanished from the knees down.
In their place, black flames roared madly from the severed stumps.
"Aaaahhh!!"
The black fire seemed to possess a special property. The pain it caused was far worse than ordinary flames.
Zagg screamed miserably and writhed across the ground, reaching out to smother the fire.
But a flash of black sword-light swept past, and he watched his outstretched hands spin into the air, burning into black ash before they even hit the ground.
"Ah, AAAAAAHHHHH!!"
Watching Zagg roll and thrash across the ground, the figure engulfed in black flames actually curled his lips upward into a smile.
"So... so I've finally managed to use it."
Looking down at his burning hands, Noir muttered under his breath.
"Heh... hahaha... HAHAHAHA!!!"
The truth was, when Noir first learned that he possessed the skill Flame of Vengeance, he had suddenly thought of Ais from the original story.
With such a powerful skill, why had she been so unwilling to use it?
But when that power became his own, Noir hesitated.
He began to understand how Ais had felt.
It was not that she did not want to use it.
It was that she was afraid.
What if, after using it, she lost control and harmed the people around her?
And the truth had proven that fear justified. The one and only time Ais used Avenger, her entire Familia had almost been wiped out in the Dungeon.
Back when Noir had watched that scene, he had thought, as a first-class adventurer, was her willpower really that weak?
But now, with the lid over his chest finally torn away, and the hatred he had suppressed for so very, very long erupting like molten lava all at once,
Noir suddenly understood.
Why were human beings emotional creatures?
Because at this moment, all he wanted was to flay alive the man in front of him.
With every passing second, the hatred rose again by another three parts.
Stepping down onto Zagg's chest, Noir pinned the wildly thrashing body beneath his foot.
And only then did Zagg finally see the face of the monster before him.
"It's you, sick-"
Slash!
The moment Zagg opened his mouth, Noir drove his sword straight through the man's shoulder.
"I never told you my name, did I? My name is Noir."
He lowered his head as he spoke.
Then, before Zagg could even react, Noir gripped the sword with his right hand and dragged it downward.
"AAAH! I was wrong, please, spare me!"
Noir ignored him and kept moving, smiling as he did so.
Noir understood perfectly.
Zagg did not know he was wrong.
He only knew he was about to die.
"So tricking me was fun, was it? Threatening me made you happy, did it? Crushing the weak under your feet, did that feel good?"
He vented the hatred he had accumulated for so long without mercy, and perhaps most of it had little to do with the man beneath his foot.
But so what?
What the return of his memories had brought back was not only reason, but emotion.
The Flame of Vengeance hidden in the depths of his heart burned only his own tattered, broken soul.
Noir was already close to his limit.
Morality, ethics and reason.
The moment the black flames appeared, all of them had evaporated without a trace.
The miserable screams echoing through the cavern went on for a long, long time, until at last they gradually weakened.
Looking down at Zagg, now barely clinging to life, Noir let out a sigh.
My methods of torturing people are still too limited.
In Noir's understanding, the cruelest thing he knew was live flaying.
Zagg might have looked utterly miserable, lying there trembling all over.
But that was only physical pain.
Noir endured agony on that level, or even worse, every second of every day.
With one final thrust, he delivered the last blow.
As Zagg drew his final breath, black flames consumed him completely, bringing his sinful life to an end.
In the end, all that remained was a wisp of ash, just like a slain monster.
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