"Hestia, what does that gesture of Leon's actually mean?" A god in the underground altar asked, looking toward her with curiosity.
"Hehe! Since Leon made that sign, it means there is absolutely nothing left for us to worry about." Hestia replied smugly as she beamed at the projection.
Hephaestus, standing beside her, looked slightly speechless at Hestia's lack of detail and stepped in to explain the technical meaning of the signal.
The gathered deities began to buzz with renewed discussion, though Ouranos, seated upon his high platform, did not relax his furrowed brow. He knew the dungeon's depths were never so easily settled.
Back on the 75th floor, despite the breach in the floor, the Black Dragon's roar continued unabated. Leon did not move to interrupt it, as he had his own tactical considerations.
At that moment, Ais, carrying Haruhime, flew to his side.
"Leon, leave the Corrupted Spirit to me." Ais said, her voice trembling with a serious, cold intensity.
"Okay. It's yours." Leon agreed without a moment's hesitation.
He understood the depth of Ais's hatred for that monster. While that rage had once been focused solely on the One-Eyed Black Dragon, it had shifted toward the Corrupted Spirit.
The Corrupted Spirit desired Ais for her lineage, and Ais, in turn, sought it out with a desperate hunger.
Leon had long pondered Ais's behavior. Riveria had once approached him about the possibility of resurrection for Ais's mother, yet Ais herself had never made the request.
He had concluded that Ais simply didn't believe her mother was dead. She believed her mother was being held somewhere deep within the dungeon's heart. Her shift in focus to the Corrupted Spirit suggested she hoped to extract information about her mother's fate from it.
But Leon wasn't about to let her go in unprepared.
"Haruhime, use Uchide no Kozuchi on Ais the moment the engagement begins." Leon instructed.
"Yes, Leon-sama." Haruhime responded with fervent enthusiasm, her magic power already beginning to swirl in anticipation of the coming clash.
Leon wasn't worried about whether Ais could handle the Corrupted Spirit. Among the entire expeditionary force, Ais stood as the strongest individual besides Leon himself.
Like Tione and Tiona, she had been reincarnated as an angel, but her potential far exceeded theirs. She grew stronger at a much faster rate, eventually surpassing them entirely.
In addition to her physical evolution, Ais possessed a terrifying skill: Avenger. When this skill was combined with the specialized power of her Ariel, her combat output became incredibly powerful, easily reaching the absolute limit of Level 8.
Furthermore, with Haruhime utilizing Uchide no Kozuchi to increase her level and amplifying her with Heroic Power, Ais was perfectly capable of contending with Level 10 monsters.
In truth, if the Zeus and Hera Familias had possessed a supporter like Haruhime in their era, the One-Eyed Black Dragon would have been slain long ago.
The Empress of the Hera familia was no ordinary warrior to have reached Level 9. Had she received Haruhime's level-boost to negate the Black Dragon's debuffs, she could have undoubtedly crushed it. One can only say they were born at the wrong time.
The Corrupted Spirit didn't keep Leon and Ais waiting for long. Less than five seconds after Ais arrived at the breach, the green flesh that had been pulsing with pained cries began to emit a different, more ominous sound.
The gushing mass of flesh suddenly receded, and a pillar of fire—even more terrifying than the Black Dragon's roar—shot upward into the sky. It shattered the dragon's sonic attack and slammed into its body head-on, vaporizing nearly half of the Black Dragon's physical form.
Everyone present witnessed this devastating scene, their pupils shrinking in shock.
"Fire magic." Ais murmured, her eyes trembling slightly as she watched the inferno.
Leon narrowed his eyes. The attack that erupted through the 76th floor did not actually originate from there, but from a much deeper level.
From the moment the breach occurred, Leon had used Veins of Light and Shadows to penetrate the strata, exploring the situation on the succeeding floors.
The 76th floor was almost entirely carpeted in green flesh. The entire environment had been corrupted and terraformed by the power of the Corrupted Spirit.
Leon's investigation revealed that the flame pillar had bypassed the 76th floor entirely, originating from the abyss below. It turned out the Black Dragon's roar had not stopped at the 75th or 76th floors, it had pierced through multiple levels, provoking something in the deep.
"Aria!"
A sharp, piercing cry echoed from the hole below as the flame pillar continued to surge.
The sound wasn't deafeningly loud, yet it carried across the entire 75th floor with haunting clarity.
Everyone heard it and quickly realized the gravity of the situation: this was the true voice of the Corrupted Spirit.
The atmosphere became extremely solemn.
Ais, in particular, stared intently at the hole pierced by the flames, her grip on Desperate tightening until her knuckles were white.
"Haruhime, please!" Ais pleaded, a violent gust of wind beginning to swirl around her body.
"Yes, Ais-san!" Haruhime responded instantly.
She began an ultra-fast incantation, activating Uchide no Kozuchi in the shortest possible time.
A golden magic circle manifested beneath Ais's feet, followed by a beam of light descending from the sky. When the radiance faded, Ais was enveloped in a faint, pulsating golden glow.
"Such powerful strength." Ais murmured, clenching her free fist.
Without another word, she flashed forward, rushing directly into the pillar of fire.
Clang!
A crisp sword cry rang out as a terrifying tornado struck the flame pillar, tearing the magic to shreds in an instant.
The enormous cave was now fully exposed. Ais floated above the center of the abyss, her golden pupils fixed on the ground far below, searching for a specific target.
Suddenly, her eyes contracted. A terrifying killing intent erupted from her body, and she transformed into a streak of light, sweeping downward accompanied by a localized storm.
Boom!
Ais's wind magic caused the entire floor to tremble.
Having traced the origin of the fire, Leon knew exactly why Ais had lost control: she had seen the Corrupted Spirit.
Specifically, she had seen it residing on the 79th floor. Ais's primary objective for this entire expedition was to find this entity. Now that it was within sight, she could not remain calm.
Leon did not stop her. With Haruhime's dual amplification, Ais's current strength was more than enough to handle the Corrupted Spirit.
Leon turned his attention back to the heavily injured Black Dragon. He reached out and pulled Haruhime into his arms. On this chaotic floor, she could not be left alone. Previously, Ais had been her guardian, but with Ais gone, Leon took over her safety.
Carrying Haruhime, he flew toward the Black Dragon, which lay nearby, mangled by the Corrupted Spirit's fire. Although half its body was gone, the dragon was not yet dead.
Leon wouldn't let such a massive opportunity for gathering feat pass. Killing the black dragon would provide the final feat needed to rank up to Level 9. He had already squeezed all the combat value out of the black dragon, there was no reason to waste more time.
With a single, fluid sword strike, Leon cleaved the Black Dragon in two.
While his standard full-force strikes couldn't match the destructive power of Golden Wheel Rebirth Explosion, they were close enough to be world-ending. The black dragon, unable to resist, was killed instantly.
"Leon-sama is so amazing." Haruhime whispered, her face flushed as she clung to him in mid-air, her tone full of pure admiration.
"Of course." Leon replied, gently patting her hair.
He then flew toward the massive cave opened by the clash of the two monsters—a breach that showed no signs of self-recovery.
As they passed the threshold of the 75th floor, a deafening explosion roared from the depths, followed by a powerful, upward-surging shockwave.
Leon noted calmly. "The fight has officially broken out."