"The progress bar finally broke the 5,000 mark—nice."
Takumi felt like he was playing some kind of rescue game now—save one person, watch the meter jump.
On his way up, he'd rescued nearly ten thousand people by himself.
At this point, the adventurers were all chanting things like, "We'll never be able to repay our lord's kindness!"
Honestly, if you put Takumi and Apollo side by side, they'd probably swear Takumi was the one shining brighter.
While Takumi was busy saving people, Orario—and the upper floors of the Dungeon—finally realized something was seriously wrong.
Especially after Astraea Familia brought the news up, the entire city mobilized again.
Loki Familia and Freya Familia both sent their main forces.
Even Artemis Familia, who'd only just returned to Orario, deployed everyone.
Takumi was pushing upward.
Loki, Freya, and the other Familias were pushing downward.
Both sides were rescuing people—Takumi faster, them slower—so they finally met at the safe zone: Floor 18.
When Loki's group arrived, they saw a nightmare: crystal melting, the ground splitting, the forest burning.
Crystals that used to bloom from the ceiling like massive flowers were now dripping blue-green chunks like melted candy.
Everything looked like it was about to be swallowed by crimson, lotus-red flames.
"This is… Floor 18?!"
Even Ryuu—who had literally just passed through here twice—stared in disbelief.
"It's so hot… I can barely breathe…"
"This place… is hell."
Kaguya groaned, and Riveria's expression tightened—because Riveria was thinking about something worse.
This scene looked exactly like the Dragon's Pot they'd reached during the expedition.
The entire floor was radiating molten light and heat, leaving ordinary adventurers no room to survive.
"Dragon's Pot? What's that?"
Alise blurted, about to press them—when the ground ahead exploded.
BOOOOM!
A pillar of magma and fire surged upward like a volcanic eruption.
Everyone snapped into combat stance, eyes locked on the lava plume.
"The monsters on this floor are on fire—and they're coming this way?!"
"They're flaming monsters… damn it, get ready to engage!"
Kaguya, Ryuu, and Ais drew their swords immediately.
Floor 18 was supposed to be safe—no monster spawns—but it was so vast and natural that plenty of monsters wandered in to nest.
Now those monsters had been swallowed by the flames, yet they weren't harmed at all—if anything, they'd gained a red-lotus "armor."
Under the Dungeon's will, they'd become absurdly dangerous.
"Nine-Tailed Uchide no Kozuchi!"
Haruhime moved first, buffing everyone on the spot.
Even Riveria and the others instantly surged one level higher.
Feeling that explosive power pour through their bodies, even Alfia's eyes shifted.
"Not bad… Takumin's people really are something. That little fox's potential is absurd."
Then Alfia's gaze sharpened. "Though… Takumin supposedly has some kind of item that makes people stronger. Even Meteria used it. When this is over, I'm getting answers."
She was ready to move—when a mass of black shadow rose out of the magma plume.
"…What is that?"
Nobody had time to figure it out, because the next thing they saw was even more ridiculous. Takumi stepped out right behind it.
"Huh?"
Before anyone could even form a sentence, Takumi casually blew out a breath.
"Elemental Magic: Windblown Snow."
Snow Woman bloodline, pushed to the limit and reinforced by his newly-acquired spirit lineage—that exhale flash-froze everything.
Cold rolled out across the land in an instant, racing outward at terrifying speed.
The molten hellscape transformed into a snowfield of glittering frost almost immediately.
"Ah! Takumi-sama froze the magma with one breath!"
"Takumi-sama killed the Floor Boss with a pebble!"
The cheering got even louder—because the shouting was coming from inside that shadow mass at Takumi's feet.
At some point, Takumi had noticed his progress climbed even faster if the rescued adventurers stayed close and watched the "live broadcast."
So he'd just started doing exactly that.
"This is getting out of hand… at this rate, with my popularity alone, I could found a whole country." He muttered, then looked over at the stunned crowd.
"Yo. Alfia, Ryuu, Alise, Ais… you all came down, huh."
He greeted them like he'd just returned from a picnic.
Right now, Alfia didn't even have the energy to nitpick his wording.
She pointed at the shadow mass, dead serious. "What the hell is that?"
"People I rescued on the way up. I stashed them in the shadows."
"As expected of Takumi-sama!!"
Lili—the world's most loyal hypewoman—immediately bounced forward to praise him.
And annoyingly… everyone kind of agreed.
Ryuu especially—this hammered home what Takumi had told her before.
True justice… really does require strength. Enough strength to save more people.
Her eyes hardened with resolve—then, without meaning to, she glanced at Ais's blank, innocent face.
Apparently Ais's strength had skyrocketed after training with Takumi…
Could I also…?
While Ryuu's brain started wandering into dangerous territory, Riveria forced the conversation back to what mattered.
"Since you're coming up from below—do you know what the situation is down there?!"
As she spoke, the ground trembled again.
The frost-covered earth split—and flames surged out once more.
The red-lotus fire reignited, trying to turn the entire floor back into a blazing hell.
Seeing everyone's faces, Takumi answered plainly, "It's from a massive monster attacking. It's forcing its way upward by smashing through floors."
"So it's literally spitting fireballs and flipping the entire ground over—are you kidding me?!"
Alise voiced what everyone was thinking.
Alfia's expression turned grim with recognition. "I've been to the Dragon's Pot. This matches it. That monster… it's probably climbed up from that floor."
"…You're serious?" Lefiya's body trembled. The thought alone overturned everything she thought she knew about the Dungeon.
"So what do we do?"
"I already sent my shadow troops to slow it down," Takumi said, eyes steady. "For now, get the adventurers out of the Dungeon."
"Yes. This terrain isn't suited for a fight," Alfia agreed immediately, calm and sharp. "And a monster born from a sacrificed god will be empowered inside the Dungeon. Best option is to wait until it exits—then we kill it on our terms."
...
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