"Wow. They've been gone for a while now." Maple said as she sat opposite Sally with Yslaine standing behind her. "You think something went wrong?"
Sally had a few documents in her hands, her eyes reading through them even as she answered. "Chrome's with them. I doubt they're in any real danger. I mean Mai and Yui can obliterate people in one hit."
Maple frowned. "Yeah, but Sally you haven't spent as long as I have in this worl... Err... Land." She glanced at Yslaine behind her. If the former princess cared at all about what Maple was trying to hide, she didn't show it.
Sally sighed, dropping the list of names she had gathered just that morning. "Okay, I get that. But even then. Chrome's the most experienced of us, and he's with our strongest hitters. I wouldn't worry all that much."
Maple's frown worsened. "But Sally." She whined. "It's supposed to be a new dungeon, and not that dangerous. If that was the case, then why haven't they returned in three days. Even I don't get lost for that long."
Sally deadpanned at her for a few moments.
Maple chuckled nervously. "Ok not usually. But even Chrome got hurt against that one guy. He lost his head and everything. Literally."
Sally blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Maple sighed. "Yeah it happened in the day I... Killed... Varkos." She grimaced when she mentioned what she did to the former Sin.
Behind her Yslaine's eyes widened at a chance to hear the story of how her Lady has saved all of Malakar.
"Chrome picked a fight with some guy named Nahand over a..." Maple's eyes widened. "The girl! I forgot about her, damnit. Now I have to go find her!"
"Maple focus." Sally scolded.
"Right, right. So Chrome was beating this guy and humiliating him, in typical Maple Tree fashion." Maple continued.
"Understandable." Sally nodded.
"Then the one of the sins. Garuth. He's the sin of pride, and father of Nahand. I guess he didn't like that Chrome was beating his son because he just smashed Chrome's head like a water melon..." She paused at that, taking deep breaths.
"Just thinking of that bastard makes me so angry. If it wasn't for Namari, I would have killed him. Luckily, Chrome has a skill that lets him revive by sacrificing the souls of monsters he's killed." Maple finished.
Sally's expression shifted into a thoughtful frown. "That does sound worrying. Has anything changed in the guild interface?"
Maple paused, eyes unfocusing as she mentally scrolled through menus only she could see. Sally was starting to get used to the look. "…Nope. Everything looks the same as before," Maple finally said. "Although Mai and Yui have leveled up a few times. Chrome has leveled up once too."
"So they're fine, then." Sally shrugged, leaning back in her seat. "I still think there's nothing to worry about."
Maple still looked worried, but the tension in her face slowly eased. She let out a soft huff. "If you say so. Although I still need to find that girl from back then. I can't believe I forgot about her. Why did I forget? She stood out so well…"
Sally sat up straighter, curiosity piqued. "Do you have a description of this girl? I can help search for her too. I've been building a network of my own." A sly smirk tugged at her lips. "We even have spies now. And a few… other things."
"Nah, it's fine. I already know where she is." Maple waved dismissively, as if this were the most normal thing in the world. "She's probably still with Garuth and Nahand. Which, now that I think about it, is not a good thing, considering Garuth almost killed her last time."
Sally's brows shot up. "Will she even still be alive?"
That landed. Maple's eyes widened with sudden urgency. "I should hurry. I'll be back soon!" She bolted for the door without another word.
Sally opened her mouth to protest, but Maple was already halfway down the hall. She sighed and prepared to sit back down, reaching for her paperwork, when she froze mid-motion.
"Wait… didn't she say Garuth was one of the Sins?" Sally snapped upright. "Maple!" She shouted after her, but it was too late. The ground gave a low, rumbling thud, a tremor rolling through the building like an annoyed beast stirring in its sleep.
Yslaine grabbed the edge of a table, wings flaring slightly for balance as she braced herself against the shaking.
"And she's gone," Sally deadpanned, rubbing her temples as the tremor faded.
---
Smash!
The last Cyclops turned to mashed meat under Mai's hammer as she swung down. "And that's the last one."
Jean grumbled under his breath as he trudged forward, boots scraping over cracked stone. "I think I've seen more than enough Cyclops for a lifetime. Hopefully the next room is the last one. After this? I'm never entering another dungeon again."
Beside him, Kitti walked with a far more composed stride, her gauntleted hands swaying slightly with each step. "Do you plan to retire?"
Jean snorted. "No. Maybe I'll take a long break from adventuring or mercenary work, sleep for a week, eat actual food, that sort of thing, but I'm not retiring yet."
He cast a glance toward her, eyes narrowing playfully. "What about you? Planning on joining Maple Tree as well?"
Ahead of them, the Shielder led the group with steady, confident steps, the twins trailing closely behind him. Shade, Daisy, and the rest of the main formation followed next. At the rear were Kitti, Jean, Bone with his rattling gait, and Alice watching over the rest of the group.
Kitti looked ahead, her gaze lingering on the Shielder's broad back and the twins' unbothered posture. "I think I will," she admitted. "But first? I'm definitely taking a long vacation. This has been too much danger all at once, even for me."
Jean huffed a tired laugh. "They don't even look winded. Or tired. Do you think they're… champions? Like from those old stories?"
Kitti flicked him a skeptical look. "What's all this now? I thought you didn't even like them. And suddenly you're calling them warriors of legend?"
"What else do you think they could be?" Jean hissed quietly, glancing forward to ensure he wasn't overheard. "I don't like them because they've been too complacent. Too relaxed. They didn't take any of this seriously. We wouldn't have lost half our people if they had just been focused from the start."
Kitti sighed and shook her head. "I'm not convinced that's fair. One of them is a necromancer, remember? If he used everything he had, people might accuse him of being the enemy. Of bringing death into the room. I don't blame him for holding back."
She paused, her voice softening. "We lost our people because we didn't have enough information. Because of our own weaknesses. Nothing else."
Jean didn't reply immediately, his jaw tightening.
"We're lucky they came along," Kitti continued gently. "Lucky they're helping us finish this. We might not have even made it past the first floor without them. But now? We're here. Final floor. And soon this chapter of our story will finally end."
She offered him a small smile.
Jean let out a long, weary sigh. "And here I was thinking you had muscles for brains."
Before Kitti could retort, a voice echoed from ahead of them.
"All right, this is a large set of doors. I'm guessing this is the final room," the Shielder called out, his tone steady but edged with anticipation.
The group halted. Before them stood a colossal pair of gates, towering slabs of ancient stone reinforced with blackened steel, each door easily taller than a castle wall. Runes crawled across the surface like faint scars, pulsing weakly as if resisting the party's presence.
Without hesitation, the twins stepped forward. Their expressions never changed, they simply reached into their inventories and pulled out their massive hammers, raising them with practiced ease. Then, in perfect synchrony, they began shouting:
"Double Stamp!"
"Double Impact!"
"Double Strike!"
"Conqueror!"
"Annihilator!"
"Destroy Mode!"
Jean stiffened. He didn't know what any of those terms meant, but they sounded like spells. Very powerful spells. And also incredibly reckless ones. Annihilator? Destroy Mode? What kind of ability name was that supposed to be?
He didn't get a chance to ask.
The answer arrived in the form of an earth-shattering blast.
A thunderous BOOM tore through the corridor, followed instantly by a rapid succession of concussive explosions that rattled the floor beneath their feet. In the blinding flash, the colossal gates didn't break.
They simply ceased to exist, shredded into dust and molten scraps that vaporized before they even touched the ground.
Jean stared at the now-empty doorway, mouth hanging open.
"…Right," he muttered. "That… explains it."
Kitti squinted into the room. "Is it just me… or should there be, uh… anything in there?"
Shade stepped forward cautiously, shadows swirling at his feet. "Let me check."
He waved a hand, sending a plume of darkness rolling across the floor like a scouting mist.
It found no movement.
Where'd they go?" Bone asked
Alice pointed a finger toward the still-glowing scorch marks where the gates used to be.
Everyone followed her gesture.
And then the awful, hilarious, terrifying truth dawned.
Jean swallowed. "…No. No, they didn't. Don't tell me they..."
The Shielder cleared his throat, voice flat.
"They were standing behind the gates."
Kitti inhaled sharply. "Oh."
Mai and Yui smiled innocently.
Jean clutched his head. "OH COME ON! They vaporized the entire army?! All of them?! In one hit?!"
"It was six hits," Mai corrected politely.
"Six skills," Yui echoed.
"That's not..! That's NOT BETTER!"
The Shielder clapped once, as if this were all perfectly normal. "All right. If the army's gone, that means the boss is ahead. Stay sharp."
Shade muttered, "Sharp with what? There's nothing left to fight…"
Daisy whispered, "Maybe the boss ran away…"
---
'HE' winced the moment 'HE' felt it. Every guard 'HE' had stationed in the chamber behind 'HIM' had died in an instant.
How?
How had that even happened? Those were the strongest Cyclops the dungeon had ever produced. Not quite Grorubas' equal, but close, thousands of towering brutes bred for war, each one capable of tearing through entire adventurer parties.
And yet they hadn't bought even a single heartbeat of time.
'HE' stood before a vast pool of blood, at least, it resembled blood, though its ink-black surface made the comparison almost laughable. The liquid churned with a slow, nauseating ripple, as if something unseen stirred from the depths.
Every few moments, a face would rise from the surface.
A cold, lifeless, and undoubtedly human face.
An adventurer's face.
If any surviving adventurer were here, they would have screamed, rage, grief, disbelief, because these were the faces of comrades who had fallen throughout their journey into the dungeon. Faces they had mourned, feared for, sworn revenge for.
The faces never remained long. Within seconds, each expression would twist, sag, and melt into bleached white skulls before the entire structure dissolved back into the black pool.
Then the process would repeat.
Again.
And again.
Even the same melted faces reformed, only to melt once more before being dragged under. A cycle with no pause. No mercy.
Their souls were trapped in endless agony.
And all of it, every scream, every dissolved fragment of identity, fed the ritual 'HE' needed to ascend.
HE' inhaled slowly, feeling the ritual circle beneath 'HIS' feet thrum with stolen life. Veins of pale, bone-white light pulsed through the stone like a heartbeat, his heartbeat now, growing stronger with every tortured soul torn apart and reformed in the pool behind 'HIM'.
It was working.
Slowly. Imperfectly. But working.
Ascension was within reach.
'HE' lifted 'HIS' head, sensing the intruders' approach through the trembling corridors. Their presence was like a swarm of flickering sparks, insignificant individually, yet collectively bright enough to be irritating.
"Three days," 'HE' muttered, voice echoing through the empty ritual chamber. "Three days of preparation. Three days of feeding this pool. And they destroy everything at the final moment."
A twitch of annoyance rippled across 'HIS' jaw.
The ritual symbols flashed in response to 'HIS' anger, but the power flowed unevenly, unstable, those Cyclops were supposed to be the final sacrifices. Losing them was a setback. A painful one.
But not an ending.
Not yet.
'HE' raised a hand, letting droplets of the black blood float upward, twisting into thin strands that wove themselves around 'HIS' fingers. The blood responded eagerly, hungering, whispering, promising power so long as more souls were fed into the pool.
"I need only one more offering," 'HE' said.
Dark amusement curled across 'HIS' lips.
"And fortunately… they have brought many."
The chamber doors trembled. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Faint voices echoed from the corridor just outside, the party had reached the threshold.
'HE' felt their confusion the moment they saw the scorched stone where thousands of Cyclops should have been standing guard. Felt their disbelief. Their fear.
A slow smile crept across 'HIS' face.
"Come then, humans of the surface," 'HE' whispered. "Let us end this farce."