The party stopped in their tracks, every last one of them holding their breath as they stared at the enormous spectacle before them.
Leon took one look at the staggering sight and let slip the first thing that came to mind:
"Holy shit..."
Crude. Absolutely crude.
The girls had been building up a perfectly good sense of awe, and Leon's two-word outburst shattered it into pieces. They shot him dirty looks, then turned their attention back to the surroundings, taking in the place that had earned legendary status among adventurers.
Unlike the irregular, misshapen chambers on other floors, this space formed a roughly rectangular box. From the circular entrance where Leon and the others stood to the far wall, the room stretched several hundred meters deep, a distance that surpassed even the giant storehouse chambers described in the reference materials. The width ran somewhere between one and two hundred meters, and the ceiling hung roughly fifty meters overhead.
"Rose, Jeanne, look over there..."
Laurier nearly cried out, slapping a hand over her mouth just in time as she pointed toward the left side of the hall.
The walls and ceiling of this chamber were built from rough-hewn rock, all except the left face. That surface was polished to a disorienting smoothness, as if shaped by master stonemasons working in perfect unison. Not a single seam, not a single bump. One continuous slab running from one end of the chamber to the other, dominating the entire field of vision with its sheer, overwhelming presence.
Leon, Rose, Jeanne, and the others stared up at the wall with grim expressions. It was beautiful in its way, and deeply, fundamentally wrong.
"The Wall of Grief...!"
That was the name given by the adventurers who had reached this hall and lived to tell the tale. The final barrier of the seventeenth floor.
What made it special?
The Wall of Grief spawned only one specific monster.
The master of this chamber. The Floor Boss: Goliath.
Crack... crack-crack...
Without warning, a massive fracture split across the mirror-smooth surface of the Wall like a bolt of lightning.
The ground began to shake.
"What's..."
A Pallum Supporter gripped her pack straps with white knuckles, sweat stinging her eyes.
BOOM... RRRUMBLE...!
The tremor underfoot snapped everyone to attention, Leon's squad included. Every pair of eyes locked onto the growing shadow behind the Wall of Grief.
"Stay calm!"
Alise sensed the shift in the group's composure and stepped forward without hesitation, her clear voice ringing through the hall:
"This is the sign that the Floor Boss is about to be born!"
"All units, move to your assigned positions! Now!"
Kaguya's command followed on its heels, sharp and absolute.
"Leon, we're on the left flank."
Jeanne gathered the group quickly and laid out their task:
"Objective's simple: when Goliath counterattacks the Astraea Familia, we harass and pin it down. That's all we need to do."
Leon nodded, then dropped his voice for the rest of the squad:
"Keep it together, and nobody plays hero. The Floor Boss hits hard enough that even Jeanne might not be able to tank it head-on. Rose's Pure White Kite Shield might be the only thing that can absorb a direct blow."
He looked pointedly at Laurier and Aura.
"Especially you two. Listen to me. Get a few hits in, get a taste of the fight, and that's enough. Staying alive comes first. For us, joining the subjugation and walking out in one piece is the win. Understood?"
Laurier and Aura both knew he meant well. They exchanged a glance and nodded together.
"Understood."
The moment the words left their lips, the squad scattered into formation.
Two forward, three behind. A standard assault configuration snapped into place. Jeanne and Rose anchored the front like a wall, shielding Leon, Laurier, and Aura and buying them room to attack and support. Leon served as the primary damage dealer, bearing the bulk of the harassment duty. Laurier and Aura focused on keeping themselves alive while covering for the two up front.
Roles clear, spines taut, every nerve firing. They braced for the first wave of destruction the Floor Boss would bring.
Leon gripped his staff in his left hand, the magic gemstone at its tip flaring with surging light that matched the glow in his eyes as he began channeling power.
He stole a glance around the chamber. Every squad had reached their designated position.
A tiger-man vanguard hefting a double-bladed greataxe, bloodlust already twisting his grin.
An Amazon warrior with a greatsword propped on her shoulder, her dancing silks billowing as she flashed a wild smile.
A dwarf fighter who'd planted his tower shield in the ground and was adjusting his helm with methodical precision.
A Pallum mage cradling a crystal orb, lips moving in a quiet stream of preparatory words.
An elf archer in hunting garb, silver hair streaming, standing tall and poised with bow in hand.
Even the Supporters had readied backup weapons and supplies, crossbows in hand, faces set.
The entire force was coiled tight, morale high, ready to strike.
No dead weight here, Leon thought, letting out a slow breath. Makes sense. Nobody who'd risk their neck coming to fight a Floor Boss is going to be a slouch.
After all, this wasn't a game. This was a fight where lives were on the line.
As Leon's thoughts raced and his magic built toward its peak...
The cracking from the Wall of Grief grew louder, faster.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK...!!!
The ground drummed like a war drum beneath their feet, his vision shaking violently.
Then the sounds from deep within the wall shifted from muffled to unmistakable: gasping, groaning, straining... all of it converging into a single roar so heavy it rattled the soul:
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH...!!!"
BOOM...
A concussive blast rocked the entire hall. The wall screamed under the pressure, and a hurricane of sound tore across the chamber, forcing everyone's hands over their ears.
As if some threshold had been crossed, a barrage of blows erupted from the inside of the wall.
KRRRRAAASH...!!!
The deafening sound of destruction echoed through the seventeenth floor as the massive wall exploded outward. Countless chunks of rock shot in every direction like cannonballs, trailing a storm of dust and debris that hammered the ground with bone-shaking force.
THOOM...!!!
Something enormous crashed down from behind the ruined wall, slamming into the ground with an impact so far beyond expectation that even the adventurers standing at a distance stumbled and fought to keep their footing.
"It's here!"
Rose's voice came low and steady. Her grip tightened on sword and shield, her narrowed eyes sharp as blades.
And Leon felt his usual caution slipping. He didn't fight it.
His blood was running hot. His heart was pounding like it wanted out of his chest. His will strained against its leash.
He wanted this fight.
Jeanne and Rose noticed the change in him. They exchanged a look, and Rose blinked with a faint, amused smile.
"So this is what boys are like. Doesn't matter how calm and collected they pretend to be, put them in front of something like this, and they turn into excited kids."
Jeanne's mouth twitched, a helpless smile forming.
"Honestly. I knew this would happen."
"?"
The dust cleared, and the shape that emerged killed their conversation dead.
An absurdly massive silhouette. A thick neck, shoulders as broad as a mountainside, arms knotted with muscle that looked carved from stone, and legs like pillars holding up a body the size of a hill. Roughly humanoid in shape, but scaled up beyond all reason.
Its skin was a rough gray-brown, textured like raw rock. From the back of its skull hung a mass of coarse, oil-black hair, stiff as wire, falling past the nape of its neck.
"It's huge...!"
Laurier would have sworn on the Sacred Tree that this was the largest living thing she had ever seen.
Aura bit down hard on her lower lip. The invisible pressure radiating from that body clamped around her throat like a physical force, and for a moment she couldn't breathe. No, it wasn't her imagination. Every instinct in her body screamed that this thing could kill her without trying.
Leon's gaze swept over the two figures standing before him, Jeanne and Rose, steady as bedrock. He drew a deep breath, and his mouth split into a fierce, almost reckless grin.
"So this is the Floor Boss."
"The Dungeon's Lonely King... Goliath!"
Every adventurer in the chamber craned their necks upward, staring at the mountain of a creature before them. Even the veterans who'd fought it before found themselves caught once more in Goliath's suffocating, absolute pressure.
"Can we... can we really beat something like that?"
A trembling voice rose from the crowd.
"So that's a Floor Boss... there's no way adventurers at our level can fight that!"
A whisper of despair followed close behind.
"I... I shouldn't have come... I want to go home..."
Someone buckled under the fear, ready to run.
"D-damn it... move! Move, you worthless legs! MOVE!"
Others refused to give in, wrestling their own bodies, fighting against the instinct screaming at them to flee.
Adventurer after adventurer began to falter, to shrink back. The survival instinct clawed at them, demanding they abandon this place.
Leon watched it all unfold, and a shadow settled over his thoughts.
So this is the Floor Boss's presence. Its mere existence nearly crushed the entire force's will to fight...
But then...
At the darkest moment, when confidence crumbled and fear spread like a plague...
She stepped forward. The girl who burned like a beacon.
Standing tall directly in front of Goliath, Crimson Order in hand, Alise Lovell's red hair whipped in the churning air. Her brows were raised in fierce determination, and everything about her radiated composure and absolute conviction. She raised her beloved sword high overhead, and her voice rang across the battlefield, clear and unyielding as a war horn:
"Everyone, are you afraid? Of course you are! Who wouldn't be, standing before something like this!"
Her gaze swept the crowd, burning with intensity.
"It's massive. It's terrifying. It's the Dungeon's Lonely King!"
Before the words had fully settled, her tone shifted, soaring upward like a blade drawn from its sheath:
"But...!!!"
"It is not invincible! Because..." Her voice blazed with conviction. "We are adventurers! We dance on the edge of blades and laugh in Death's face! We see the darkness ahead and light the torch anyway!"
Alise clenched her fist as if seizing the collective will of every soul present.
"Today, we're not just betting our lives! We're fighting for our pride and dignity as adventurers! To show this abyss of a Dungeon that humans, elves, dwarves, beastfolk, Pallums... every creature that dares to challenge fate..."
She drew a deep breath, and a smile broke across her face, bright enough to scatter every shadow in the room. Confidence rose off her like heat from a bonfire.
"We will never kneel!!!"
"A Floor Boss? That's all this is!"
"Everyone, find your courage! Stay with us!"
She leveled the tip of Crimson Order at the ceiling and made her oath, sacred and searing:
"I swear on my sword and wings of justice!!!"
"Victory... will be ours!!!"
The echo of her voice hung in the air, and for a heartbeat, time stopped.
Every eye was fixed on that figure, so bright it almost hurt to look at.
Then...
"ASTRAEA FAMILIA!!!"
"OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!"
The roar erupted like a volcano. Alise's words had been a spark thrown into dry tinder, and the blaze caught instantly. The fighting spirit that fear had smothered surged back in a torrent that could have shaken the ceiling.
Leon glanced at his companions, and a knowing smile crossed his face.
"Scarlet Harnel, Alise Lovell... lives up to the name."
Watching the girl's radiant back, he murmured in a voice only he could hear:
"The sword and wings of justice, huh..."
...
The moment passed, and time resumed.
Before the aftershock of Goliath's landing had faded, the instant Alise brought the raised Crimson Order sweeping down like a commander's signal...
Leon moved.
The whole group was ready to fight.
Demon Lord's Crest, active!
Scholar's Heart, active!
True Essence of All Magic, active!
Arcane Ward, active!
The magical light in his eyes burned bright. Leon thrust his staff skyward with his left hand, and for the first time, his voice rang clear and loud across the battlefield as he began to chant the searing incantation.
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