Zald had once fought the Behemoth—the Land King, one of the Three Great Quests—alongside the Zeus Familia.
During that legendary battle, he had eaten the Behemoth's flesh.
The power he gained from it had been terrifying, enough to push him past his limits and let him bring down the Behemoth in a single strike.
But the Behemoth's flesh and blood were horribly poisonous.
Not even the highest level of Abnormal Resistance, nor the strongest antidotes, could purge that poison from his body.
It stayed buried in his veins like a slow curse, eating away at him little by little.
Even now, Zald still suffered from that pain.
Both he and Alfia were monsters among geniuses, blessed and cursed by the heavens alike.
One was fated to die young from an incurable illness and the brutal side effects of her Skill.
The other had been left beyond saving by a poison powerful enough to ruin even him.
Ottar was one of the few people who knew Zald had been poisoned.
But even he didn't know that both warriors were already standing at death's door.
As he felt Zald weakening under the pressure of his attacks, Ottar guessed that the Behemoth's poison had flared up in the middle of the fight.
On top of that, Bakusaiga was greedily draining far too much of Zald's Magic to keep launching those destructive slashes, leaving the man unable to suppress the poison any longer.
Ottar decided he had to take this chance now, while it still existed.
With Beastification active, his basic physical ability had already reached the edge of Level 7.
But this state put an unbearable strain on his body, and he couldn't keep it up for long without destroying himself.
So he chose to end it in one blow.
"I will defeat you, Zald!"
With a savage roar, Ottar brought Tenken down with all his strength.
The gigantic spectral blade came crashing toward the street like a fallen skyscraper!
Faced with the descending strike, Zald was blasted backward, smashing through more than a dozen abandoned buildings before finally stopping.
But Ottar was already above the place where he landed, gripping his real blade with both hands before roaring and swinging it down again.
Clang!
Another blue crescent burst from Bakusaiga's edge and slammed head-on into the massive spectral sword.
The clash between the two caused destruction all across Orario.
Every collision of their weapons sent tremors racing through the city, shaking the earth and even the distant mountains.
Even from several kilometers away, Finn could feel that overwhelming power through the soles of his boots.
As the Captain of Loki Familia—one of the only two great factions left standing—he was now forced to swallow the bitter reality of being kept away from the front line.
Compared to those two abnormal monsters fighting in the distance, the only thing he could do was try to save the city through strategy.
"C-Captain, is there anything I can do?!" Raul asked nervously as he approached Finn.
He had forced himself to speak, but his shaking body gave away the fear buried deep inside him.
Standing behind him, the cat-girl Aki immediately reached out and yanked him back by his armor.
"Raul, you idiot, do you want to die?"
"..."
Raul lowered his eyes, stung by how blunt she was.
"I just... wanted to do something useful."
"Aki's right, Raul. Right now, you're one of the people who needs to be protected. Staying here is the best thing you can do," Finn said.
There wasn't much emotion in his voice.
If anything, it sounded cold.
Raul had still been trying to resist Aki's words, but hearing Finn say the same thing made his face go pale.
"Wait, Captain!" Aki said quickly, startled by how harsh he sounded.
She didn't expect Finn to speak to his subordinate like that.
But Finn ignored her.
"Raul. Aki. What you both did the day before yesterday was excellent. But even if you've now reached Level 2, your strength still isn't enough to survive on a battlefield like this." Finn paused, and his expression softened just a little.
"This isn't about insulting you. It's simply that you don't need to fight yet—not while we old-timers are still standing."
As he said that, several cloaked figures appeared silently behind him.
They were trusted veterans of Loki Familia, the people who had been there since the very beginning and helped build the Familia into what it was.
"Finn's right. It's not your turn yet, kids. No need to throw your lives away in such a hurry."
"Senpai's..." Raul looked at the older members of Loki familia—people who had already retired from active duty, yet had now stepped back onto the battlefield once again.
His heart twisted painfully.
'Am I really still this weak?'
Even after reaching Level 2, he could still only drag the front line down!
'If it were him... he definitely wouldn't look this pathetic.'
'If I had strength like his, I wouldn't just stand here waiting for others to protect me.'
Raul lowered his head, frustration swallowing him whole.
He clenched his fists so hard they trembled, and before he knew it, tears were slipping from his eyes.
"I thought... maybe now I could do the same things Rayleigh-san does. Looks like I was just fooling myself..."
The moment that name left his mouth, Finn's expression changed.
It turned serious in an instant.
He looked straight at Raul and spoke in a solemn voice, "Don't compare yourself to that young man, Raul. I do have high hopes for you, but you should never see him as a rival—or even as someone on the same level as you. If you do, you may end up falling into a pit of despair you'll never crawl out of."
Hearing those heavy words, Raul broke into a cold sweat.
"His situation can't be explained with words like 'genius.' He's beyond that. He's a true anomaly—something that doesn't follow the common sense of this world."
...
At that same time, deep inside the Dungeon, Rayleigh was moving at high speed alongside a Special Task Force, three sheathed swords hanging at his waist.
The mission of this team was critical.
They had to intercept the monsters the Evil Gods had summoned inside the Dungeon and kill them before they could threaten Babel.
After careful thought, Finn had assembled the group from the best fighters among the allied forces:
[Nine Hell] Riveria Ljos Alf, Level 5
[Elgarm] Gareth Landrock, Level 5
[Sword Princess] Ais Wallenstein, Level 2
[Scarlet Harnel] Alise Lovell, Level 3
[Yamato Rindou] Gojōno Kaguya, Level 3
[Gale] Ryuu Lion, Level 3
[Thrail] Lyra, Level 3
[Vyasa] Ardee Varma, Level 3
[Unnamed] Rayleigh, Level 3
Those nine made up the entire strike force assigned to exterminate the monster.
According to the latest reports, the creature had been born on the 37th Floor—the Deep Floors.
Even by conservative estimates, its strength was around Level 6, with raw power on par with a real Floor Boss.
But the city's Level 6 combatant had to remain on the surface to deal with Zald.
So instead, they had no choice but to send in a carefully chosen elite team—fighters capable of punching above their level.
"We're about to enter the 18th Floor! Stay sharp!" someone shouted.
The group rushed out of the stairwell and into the passage leading to the 18th Floor.
But the moment they stepped inside, a wave of suffocating heat slammed into them.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The 18th Floor was supposed to be a natural paradise within the Dungeon.
With its forests, clear lakes, and rich water sources, it was known as the Labyrinth Paradise—a safe zone.
But the dry, overwhelming heat pouring through this passage felt like it led straight into the mouth of a volcano.
Clack.
A loose stone rolled under Alise's boot, and she frowned.
"What the hell is this? Did I remember it wrong? This is supposed to be the 18th Floor, isn't it?"
Rayleigh and the others stared at the ruined scene ahead, unable to believe this was the same peaceful floor they had seen on past expeditions.
There wasn't a single patch of green left.
The ground had split apart in every direction, riddled with deep cracks.
Beneath those jagged openings, molten lava churned and glowed.
Just imagining what kind of unnatural power could turn the 18th Floor into a hellscape like this was enough to make their skin crawl!
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