In the bottomless darkness deep underground, aside from Thanatos, Ishtar, and the small goddess who led a group of unknown amazoness warriors, the news that the Loki Familia was about to arrive reached another person's ears.
"Lord Barca, Lady Valletta has asked me to inform you that some thieves are about to invade this domain built by you and your great ancestor. Please proceed to assist Lord Thanatos in resisting the coming enemy."
A black-robed man found the man who should have been the master of this place at the deepest point underground and intended to invite him out.
"…When time is already so limited, why do you still have to disturb me?"
Barca, a gray-haired man with sunken, lifeless eyes and a pale, desolate expression, stopped his hands, which had been ceaselessly carving into the wall, and remarked listlessly.
In the end, while letting out an unhappy, sorrowful sigh, he nonetheless had to stand up and head toward the hall where the stone-made pedestal stood.
===
"Hey, Revis, aren't you going to step in?"
At the same time, after issuing several orders and sending people to request reinforcements, Valletta arrived at another area and looked at the final person she had been searching for, asking this question.
*Ka-cha—*
A meter away from Valletta, the red-haired woman and Creature, Revis, did not answer her right away, but instead bit down and crushed the magic stone she had put into her mouth.
Behind her, the remains of monsters gradually turned into flying ash as the magic stones that served as the foundation of their existence were lost.
Revis stood with her back to the many monster corpses that had fallen beneath her sword, coldly chewing on the spoils taken from those remains.
"Let's go."
Only after chewing and swallowing the magic stone did Revis speak flatly to Valletta.
"It's time."
As she spoke, Revis tossed an object toward Valletta.
"!!!"
Valletta's pupils shrank as she looked at the object in her hand.
"It's for you," Revis continued indifferently, not looking at Valletta at all. "If you're afraid of dying, then don't use it. Use it when you're about to die. As for whether it works or not, that depends on your own luck."
"...Why give me this?" Valletta clenched the thing in her hand and glared at Revis. "Don't tell me she's been eyeing me this whole time?"
"Of course not," Revis answered without hesitation. "It was a decision she made only recently. She told me that, besides Aria, there is another thing she wants. It's an investment she made for that. You can understand it as her needing more hands right now to achieve her wish."
Revis spoke without joy or sorrow, causing Valletta to click her tongue involuntarily.
"What does she want?"
Valletta, curious, asked anyway.
"I don't know."
Revis, wearing an emotionless expression, replied bluntly.
"What?"
Valletta frowned and glared at Revis.
"Don't look at me like that. I really don't know," Revis said nonchalantly. "I only know that it happened after the Loki Familia returned from the 59th Floor. Something happened on the 59th Floor that day, something that made her fix her gaze on an object. I can feel how badly she wants that thing, just like how she wants Aria. To some extent, she seems even more eager for the former."
After saying this, Revis glanced at Valletta, as if to indicate that she had said all there was to say.
"I don't know what that thing is, so I won't go looking for it."
"My target is still Aria, at most adding that boy. If you want to use this thing, then I advise you to think it through carefully."
"After all, she has found so many people, yet only Olivas, Ein, and I succeeded."
Leaving these words behind, Revis departed without hesitation.
"Where are you going?"
Valletta asked reflexively, gazing at Revis's retreating back.
"Where else? To the place you want me to go."
Leaving these words behind, Revis vanished, stepping once more into a long-absent battlefield.
Valletta was left alone, unconsciously tightening her grip on the object in her hand—a brilliantly colored magic stone.
After a while, she spoke with a twisted expression.
"As long as I get my revenge on that damn Braver, who cares if I turn into a monster?"
Having made up her mind, Valletta put away the brilliantly colored magic stone and also turned to leave.
With that, the forces of darkness were now fully prepared, waiting only for the enemy to come knocking.
===
Meanwhile, the sudden skirmish in the underground sewer had already come to an end.
*BANG!*
As the last Violas collapsed with a heavy crash and fell into the wastewater channel, a tremendous splash erupted within the sewer.
Riezel, Ais, and Lefiya each stood at different positions, with countless Violas lying all around them.
Some had been hacked apart, others frozen solid into ice, their deaths miserable beyond measure, and before long, they all turned into flying ash and dissipated, leaving behind only brilliantly colored magic stones and a battlefield that looked battered and disheveled, silently telling anyone who came later that a one-sided battle had indeed just taken place here.
"Hm?"
Just as Riezel was about to sheathe his sword, he suddenly sensed something and turned his head toward a certain direction, and that direction was precisely where the jewel was embedded.
At this moment, Riezel felt as though he was once again standing outside the Pantry on the 24th Floor, locking gazes through unseen eyes with the existence that was peering at this place.
However, unlike last time, the gaze Riezel felt now showed not the slightest hint of retreat, but instead stared straight at him, as if deliberately issuing a provocation.
"..."
Riezel did not speak, but the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Mr. Riezel? Is everything alright? What are you thinking about?"
Just then, Lefiya's voice reached Riezel's ears, pulling him back to his senses.
Ais and Lefiya, having finished the battle, had both come to his side—one silently watching him, the other wearing an expression full of concern.
"Nah, I wasn't thinking about anything..." Riezel shook his head, not explaining what he had noticed. "Anyway, the presence of Violas here means our direction's correct—our enemy really is here. We've already stepped into the enemy's territory, so we need to be careful."
Hearing this, Ais and Lefiya nodded at the same time, their expressions tightening.
"Let's go this way."
Riezel continued to lead the way, with Ais and Lefiya following behind him toward the direction from which the Violas had attacked.
As they walked, the three of them heightened their vigilance, keeping their weapons firmly in hand as they advanced with caution.
They passed through a pair of rusted double iron doors that were clearly old enough to have endured a long stretch of time, stepped onto a stone bridge built over the wastewater channel, and proceeded forward along it.
After moving ahead like this for a while, Riezel suddenly came to a stop.
"Stairs."
Riezel pointed toward the front, at a branching path that diverged from the waterway.
""Stairs?""
Ais and Lefiya quickly looked over and immediately discovered a passage opened in the floor, covered like a hatch.
The cover over the passage had been slid aside, revealing wide steps within that extended downward, large enough in scale for even Violas to move in and out freely.
More importantly, they keenly noticed marks resembling drag traces there, and the dust was not particularly thick.
What did this mean?
"Someone comes and goes here often..."
Ais quietly spoke what was on everyone's minds.
"Someone?" Lefiya hesitated, asking cautiously. "Not monsters?"
"It's more like both people and monsters," Riezel chimed in, giving the correct answer. "We've finally found the enemy's hideout."
He immediately headed over and walked down the stairs.
Ais followed without a word, leaving the visibly tense Lefiya with no choice but to steel herself and go after them.
Just like that, the three of them descended along stone-made steps whose construction was clearly different from that of the sewers.
Soon, at the very bottom, they discovered a door.
A gigantic metal door over three meters tall, entirely silver in color and inlaid with a crimson orb, stood before Riezel, Ais, and Lefiya.
Looking at this gigantic metal door, both Ais and Lefiya were visibly stunned.
It couldn't be helped.
"The material of this door..."
"Could it be...?"
With a glance, they had already recognized the material that made up the enormous door before them.
And precisely because they recognized it, they were frozen in place.
Only Riezel continued to stare steadily at the crimson orb embedded in the door, and after a moment, he finally spoke.
"No doubt, this is the place."
Riezel spoke slowly, glancing at the two.
"Let's go inform everyone."
===
Two hours later, dozens of fully armed adventurers were gathered before the gigantic metal door.
"It looks like this really is the place."
Finn, who stood at the front, spoke after observing the gigantic metal door for a while.
"You guys actually found this place, huh?"
Tione, standing at Finn's side, looked at the three who had led the way with a mix of admiration and disbelief.
"N-No, it wasn't our doing…"
"Riezel led the way."
Lefiya and Ais spoke one after the other, pushing the credit onto Riezel.
Riezel did not say anything, merely smiling faintly.
Instead, Tiona, who was pacing back and forth in front of the door, spoke up with some uncertainty.
"By the way, the stuff they used to build this door looks like orichalcum, right?"
In response to Tiona's unsure remark, Gareth, a dwarf skilled in earth and stone engineering, gave an affirmative answer.
"It's hard to believe, but yeah, it really is orichalcum—the whole freakin' door."
Hearing this, everyone present was left speechless.
"…How the hell did those filthy sewer rats who only dare crawl around underground get their hands on this much orichalcum?"
Bete clicked his tongue in annoyance, voicing what everyone was thinking.
Orichalcum was a very rare material hailed as the hardest metal, the highest-rank precious weapon material in the world.
It was the primary material for many highest-class weapons and an indispensable component in forging various special equipment, such as Riezel's Fool, Ais's Desperate, and the Roland series weapons crafted by Tsubaki for the Loki Familia's First Class Adventurers, with orichalcum being the main material of this special equipment that possessed the Durandal attribute.
Orichalcum possessed astonishing hardness—even without any processing, it made it nearly impossible for most First Class Adventurers to leave even a single mark on it.
And now, there stood a gigantic door over three meters tall, forged entirely from this precious metal.
It was simply outrageously extravagant.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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