She didn't know why she had come to this dark, icy cavern beneath the earth. She only knew she had nowhere else to go.
After hurting the person who cared for her most, loved her most, and looked after her better than anyone else in the world, where could she go after running away from Riveria?
No one else would accept Ais. As a sword, she could only find purpose in surviving in the Dungeon, a place teeming with monsters!
So Ais swung her sword, thrusting and slashing as she charged through the Dungeon with a ferocity greater than any monster's.
She used the blood spraying through the air to hide her face, wet with weak, helpless tears.
She let the shriek of her sword drown out the childlike sobs bursting from her throat.
She drove her frenzied battle lust to wreak havoc on both the monsters in front of her and her own body.
All she wanted was to leave behind the loneliness that clung to her like a shadow and gnawed at her will.
Only when her body signaled that it was about to fall apart did Ais awaken from her violent emotions. She realized she had even forgotten to breathe.
After defeating the last monster, Ais drove her sword into the ground and felt heat spread from her hands and feet deep into her lungs and organs. She struggled to take a deep breath.
When she finally forced herself to raise her head, she found herself in a wide wasteland, surrounded by dim white mist and overgrown with countless dead trees.
Ais recognized the place as the twelfth floor, the deepest level of the Dungeon's upper floors.
With the monsters cleared out, the only sound echoing through the silence was Ais's breathing. The loneliness of being all alone washed over her again, making her eyes grow hot.
Just then—
"—Are you suffering, lost child?"
A solemn voice with a hint of playfulness echoed through the cavern, and Ais's heart jumped.
She turned and saw a figure emerging from the white mist.
He wore black robes, and long, deep-purple hair spilled from beneath his hood. His slender figure was as delicate as a woman's.
Though he had a distinctly decadent air about him, his refined features and otherworldly presence still gave Ais a sense of his identity.
—A Heavenly God?
Why was he in the Dungeon?
As the question crossed her mind, more black-robed figures appeared, gathering behind the purple-haired god like guards.
The Dark Faction!
Ais instantly grew wary and instinctively prepared to raise her sword and fight.
"Those people don't understand you, do they? They're always getting in your way, leaving you lonely, sad, and anxious, aren't they?"
The god's voice was as soft and sweet as honey. Ais's expression froze.
Her heartstrings stirred. The sound of black flames churning roared in her mind, and a burning sensation spread across her back, calling forth the impulse surging within her.
It was the urge to break free from every beautiful illusion, surrender her body and soul to the savage black flames, and sink into endless slaughter.
"Then let me grant you power. Come to me—I'll give you everything you want..."
Looking at the god's graceful hand, Ais's hand twitched. She was about to release her grip on her sword—
Then the sorrowful emerald eyes of the Elf Royalty flashed before her.
The memories of the time they had spent together over the past year became a glimmering breeze, calling Ais back from the black flames. She tightened her grip on her beloved sword.
"I want power, but this isn't right... I can't go with you!"
The purple-haired god's smile fell silent. Before long, he shrugged, his manner turning flippant.
"—What a shame. I thought I might be able to recruit the little sister of the rumored 'Doll Princess'... Well, in that case, I'll just have to take care of you as promised..."
At the words "take care of you," Ais swiftly assumed a battle stance.
But the purple-haired god suddenly snapped his fingers. Beneath his hood, his lips curved into a chilling smile.
As Ais watched in confusion, the purple-haired god raised his hand. The next instant—
His Arcanum was released!
A black-purple sea of light surged into slender beams that pierced the maze's ceiling.
The Dungeon then shook violently, as if awakening. The cavern walls crumbled like an avalanche, and the entrances collapsed with a roar.
From the ceiling above, something like a cracked eggshell appeared. A life broke free, and an ominous black wing dropped upside down with an angry hiss.
It had sharp claws, cruel fangs, black scales, and wings.
It was a wyvern, a powerful Dragon Kind that should have lived in the Middle Floors. The one before them was clearly an abnormal specimen that had been enhanced.
Ais's eyes froze in an instant.
The black flames that had quieted down blazed up again, destroying her reason in a heartbeat.
"Well then, little sister Doll Princess. Bye-bye."
Waving goodbye to Ais, the purple-haired god took a silvery-white orb that looked like a magic item from his chest, then turned and left with his somewhat flustered guards.
Thanatos was heading toward his target—a tall wall somewhere on the twelfth floor—with a mix of despondency over his failed attempt and excitement at having pulled off such a daring move. Then he suddenly stopped, his eyes widening.
Amid the earth-shaking rumble of the maze, a chilling sword shriek rang out, like the wail of an evil spirit.
A figure abruptly appeared through the swirling dust and mist. A sword flash, radiating bone-chilling cold, vanished in an instant!
"Lord God! Look out!"
"Enemy attack!"
The guards behind the purple-haired god immediately noticed the danger. They sounded the alarm and hurriedly pulled him behind them.
In the next moment, the blade struck the purple-haired god, almost decapitating him on the spot—
Ais wondered, "Am I actually just cannon fodder?"
### "Say it's a rainy night, and you see a group of black-robed people sneaking after a little girl who's running around everywhere. What would an ordinary person think?"
I didn't know what anyone else would think, but Noah's first impression was that this was another typical gang of kidnappers targeting little girls.
When dealing with people like that, Noah had always followed the righteous principle of "Why bother with honor when you're fighting scum? Everyone, pile on!"
In other words, if he could use poison, he wouldn't fight. If he could attack from a distance, he wouldn't get close. If he could ambush someone, he wouldn't face them head-on. If he could gang up on them, he wouldn't fight one-on-one. In short, he did whatever was most convenient!
But in the current situation, Noah had no choice but to ambush them.
He'd lost sight of the black-robed people on the way, but Noah had been clever enough to follow the little blonde girl.
After watching her carve through monsters with swordsmanship that left even him stunned, then run deeper into the Dungeon, Noah had—as expected—spotted that group of black-robed figures again.
He didn't know what those perverted old men had said to the blonde girl or what the purple-haired guy had done to cause the disturbance. But following the principle of "I came all this way, so it'd be a waste not to take a swing at him," Noah raised his hand and swung his sword!
Noah had originally meant to decapitate the purple-haired guy with one strike, but his guards were more alert and perceptive than he'd expected. On top of that, his control over his body, already on the verge of collapse, had deteriorated badly.
In the end, Noah could only watch as the purple-haired guy ducked his sword.
Still, while he had dodged, he hadn't entirely escaped.
The purple-haired guy had ducked so quickly that the blade, which should have cut through his neck, passed over his head by a hair's breadth.
Sword energy swept through the air. The hood shattered, strands of hair flew, and the god screamed.
His strike had missed, and the moment was gone.
Even though Noah wanted to strike the purple-haired guy again, the guards behind him had already drawn their weapons and were swinging them at his back.
With no other choice, Noah gave up and turned to meet them.
Blades and swords closed in on him, but every one of them cut through empty air as his silver-armored figure slipped past.
At the same time, a flash of swordlight appeared out of nowhere, sweeping over the guards like a streak of moonlight.
Noah leaped lightly onto one of the heavy axes that had passed by him, then withdrew his sword and slipped out of the crowd.
By the time Noah came to a slow stop and turned around, snowflakes were beginning to bloom across the guards' bodies, staining the ground crimson in an instant.
The few guards still clinging to life clutched their wounds, their faces filled with terror as they cried out.
"This—this speed and swordsmanship! He's at least a Level 3, maybe even a Level 4 adventurer! No one can beat him except Lady Valetta! Retreat!"
Thanatos, who had fallen onto his backside, came to his senses and broke out in a cold sweat. He hurriedly felt his neck.
Gods couldn't die. They would only be forced to release their divine power and return to the heavens. Still, having your head cut off was terrifying, no matter how you looked at it.
After confirming that his neck was still intact and his head was still on his shoulders, Thanatos instinctively breathed a sigh of relief.
But then, his vision was covered by the purple hair lying scattered on the ground.
Huh?
Feeling a chill on top of his head, Thanatos instinctively touched his crown. His fingers met a smooth surface.
His expression froze, turning ugly, then erupted into boundless fury.
"You despicable, shameless, underhanded lowlife! How dare you cut off my precious hair and leave me bald?!"
As it turned out, even the most handsome man couldn't pull off a bald look. Not even a god.
His roar rang across the entire twelfth floor, nearly drowning out even the monsters' howls.
That roar also drew the attention of a danger high above in the sky—the Jet-Black Wyvern swept its red eyes across the ground below.
After spotting the target it had been born to find, the wyvern opened its mouth, lined with countless sharp teeth, and spat out a huge fireball radiating terrifying heat.
Dazzling light swallowed everything. The scorching glow filled the entire field of vision, and the dim cave suddenly seemed to have gained a sun.
"Run!"
Two guards drew magic swords and fired ice magic at the oncoming dragon's breath, while the rest ignored Thanatos's fury, hoisted him up, and carried him away.
"What the hell? Is the power level in this world really that high?"
Feeling the dragon's scorching breath, Noah narrowed his eyes gravely.
Back in his old world, this dragon would have been only two ranks below the Demon King. There wouldn't have been more than ten energy sources of its caliber across the entire continent.
So how had he just arrived in this world and already run into a monster of this level?
Tsk. Could he actually be some cannon fodder grunt in this world?
With a flicker of uncertainty, Noah prepared to dodge, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a silver orb on the ground that looked like a magic item.
Was this the thing that had fallen from that purple-haired pervert?
It looked like it might be valuable, right?
Before he could even think it through, his body reacted on its own. Noah dashed forward, picked up the silver orb, then threw himself behind a rock.
The scorching fireball swept over him by a hair's breadth, close enough that he could almost smell his blood burning on his body.
The flames slammed into the ground, shattering the earth with a deafening crash. Then the Jet-Black Wyvern turned its neck, spreading the light of destruction throughout the chamber.
But after releasing its breath, the Jet-Black Wyvern closed its mouth, still crackling with sparks and lined with fangs. It looked around, its expression betraying confusion and surprise.
Because its target had disappeared.
The target born from the will of the Mother Labyrinth and meant only to be destroyed—the one called a "Heavenly God"—was gone.
Elsewhere, Ais stood up from behind a mound of earth, having escaped the blast of scorching flames, and stared silently at the scene before her.
The dead trees and the great trees alike had been burned to ashes in an instant. Thick flames surged straight up from the ground, licking at the cliffs and ceiling.
Across the blackened plain, where the flames had partly died down, lay patches of amber-colored sand, melted and crystallized.
Small orange-red flames dotted the ground, giving it an uncanny, otherworldly beauty.
But Ais had no time or inclination to admire it, because the wyvern high in the sky had already locked onto her.
The black beast, a symbol of destruction and flame, circled once with its wings spread wide, then plunged toward her at terrifying speed!
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