What Leon feared most finally came to pass. In the heart of the 58th floor, after a fierce, life-or-death struggle that leveled the surrounding geography, the Black Dragon seized a momentary lapse in Julie's positioning.
With a concentrated burst of destructive breath, it blasted the golden fairy into the ruins of the floor. Without waiting to confirm the kill, it beat its massive wings and surged upward through the vertical cavern.
In the blink of an eye, it's massive silhouette disappeared from the 58th floor.
Julie, struggling to rise from the debris, immediately relayed the dire situation back to Leon via their mental link.
"This is troublesome." Leon mutters to himself on the 77th floor, his blade cutting through a Level 7 monster as if it were parchment.
He is currently the only one with the raw power to truly kill the black dragon, but the Dungeon has successfully isolated him. The encirclement is too dense to break without resorting to divine power—an option he is still hesitant to use.
"Follow it. Do everything in your power to minimize the damage. If we cannot stop the ascent, we must ensure the disaster is contained." Leon ordered Julie.
...
The Black Dragon's speed was terrifying. In mere seconds, it tore through multiple floors and reached the 50th floor.
The "Safe Zone" trembled violently, the ground bucking so hard that many members of the expeditionary force's support team were thrown off their feet.
Boom!!!
The sound of the 51st floor's ceiling being pulverized echoed. Instinctively, adventurers covered their ears and ducked for cover.
Above them, a massive, dark blur streaked across the cavernous ceiling, shattering the bedrock and heading straight for the upper floors.
Before the dust could even settle, a second streak—this one glowing with a brilliant golden light—flashed past, trailing the dragon into the newly formed hole.
The members of the expeditionary force remaining at the high-platform camp stare upward in a daze, their faces pale with disbelief.
"What... what was that just now?" Belle asked, her heart hammering against her ribs as she stared at the jagged hole in the sky.
"I don't know, Belle-sama." Lili responded, her voice shaking as she clung to a supply crate.
Behind the scenes, Julie was pushing their fused form to the absolute limit, refusing to let the black dragon out of their sight.
As the dragon neared the surface, the Dungeon's influence began to wane. The deeper the floor, the more control the Dungeon has over its environment. Near the surface, its ability to manifest walls or seals is significantly weakened.
Faced with Level 10 combatants, the upper floors were like wet paper. The Dungeon tried to manifest obstacles to slow Julie, but it was powerless to stop them.
—
In the underground altar of Orario, Ellie's voice suddenly manifested before Hestia and the gathered deities, reporting the dragon's rapid approach.
"Everyone! The Black Dragon is charging up! It has breached the 50th floor!" Hestia shouted, her face grim.
Ouranos monitored the dungeon's pulse through his divine sense, confirming the news instantly.
His voice boomed through the altar. "Fels! Order Asfi and Shakti to accelerate the evacuation! Move everyone away from the Tower of Babel immediately! The epicenter of the impact will be the city center!"
"I understand!" Fels nodded sharply, turning away to relay the emergency orders to Shakti and Asfi.
"So even the fused fairies couldn't hold the line! This is a disaster in the making!"
The divine assembly within the underground altar erupted into a chaotic symphony of voices.
The high-ranking gods of Orario, usually composed and detached, were now pacing the reinforced stone floors with visible agitation. The news of the Level 10 Black Dragon's ascent had shattered the last vestiges of their calm.
"What do we do now? There isn't a single adventurer currently on the surface capable of even scratching a monster of that caliber." One god fretted, his hands trembling.
"The top adventurers are miles below the earth! We are defenseless!"
"Does this mean we have to break the taboos? Do we unleash our divine power and end the Age of Order?" Another countered, looking toward Ouranos.
"If that monster reaches the streets, the contract with the lower realm will be the least of our worries. Orario will be a graveyard."
"But what about Ellie? That little creature was so spirited and loyal. If it was crushed by the dragon's breakthrough, it would be a tragedy to lose such a rare elemental soul." A goddess chimed in, her voice soft with worry.
Hestia, hearing the mix of fear and genuine concern for Leon's companion, stepped forward.
She shook her head firmly, her pigtails swaying with the motion. "Don't write Ellie off just yet. They haven't been defeated. They simply lost their footing when the Black Dragon exploited a momentary gap in the blockade to force a breakthrough. They are already in pursuit, soaring toward the surface as we speak."
She paused, her expression turning stern. "They will deal with the dragon, but the scale of their clash is going to be unlike anything this city has ever seen. The shockwaves alone will level buildings. We must accelerate the evacuation. If the residents aren't clear of the Tower of Babel's shadow within the next few minutes, they will be caught in the crossfire of a Level 10 war zone."
The gods didn't move to leave. They knew that the underground altar, carved from the very foundations of the world and saturated with Ouranos's prayers, was arguably the safest place in existence. Even if the world above was torn asunder, this sanctum would remain impregnable.
On the surface, the atmosphere had shifted from organized confusion to primal terror.
Fels' emergency orders had filtered through Shakti and Asfi, and the urgency in their voices had finally reached the masses.
Suddenly, a low-frequency vibration began to hum through the soles of everyone's feet. It started as a subtle tremor but quickly escalated into a violent, rhythmic pounding that seemed to originate from the very roots of the Tower of Babel.
"Move! Run faster!"
Adventurers screamed, pushing residents toward the city walls.
People scrambled, wishing they had been born with extra legs as the ground beneath Orario began to buckle and groan.
Then, it happened.
A deafening explosion ripped through the central district. A terrifying, suffocating aura blanketed the city.
The Black Dragon had breached the surface.
It soared into the sky, its massive, obsidian wings blotting out the sun. The sheer scale of the monster was incomprehensible to the common citizen.
A profound, unspeakable fear took root in the hearts of the residents. Those who had lived through the legends of the Zeus and Hera Familias felt a cold, paralyzing despair.
"It's... it's the Calamity." A middle-aged adventurer whispered, his eyes wide as he collapsed against a stone wall.
He was a veteran of the old era, one who remembered the adventurers who never returned.
"Why is there another one? Is the dungeon trying to reclaim the surface? Are we all meant to die here?"
The colossal shadow in the sky looked identical to the One-Eyed Black Dragon described in the Guild's most restricted archives. It was the ultimate predator, a living end-of-days.
But then, a second light appeared.
Under the collective gaze of a terrified city, a golden streak of light erupted from the hole in the earth, chasing the dragon into the clouds. It came to a halt directly in front of the massive monster.
As the golden figure solidified, a secondary aura radiated outward—a warm, hallowed frequency that clashed with the dragon's oppressive weight.
Instantly, the invisible pressure crushing the residents vanished. The suffocating fear was replaced by a bewildered awe.
"What is that?"
Everyone looked up, squinting against the brilliance of the golden figure.
High above, Julie faced the black dragon. They could sense a change. The moment the Black Dragon had tasted the open air of the surface, its frantic, urgent aura had dissipated. It was no longer a trapped animal clawing for an exit, it had become eerily, unnervingly calm. It floated there, its scarlet eyes fixed on Julie, waiting.
Through their shared link, Julie relayed this shift to Leon on the 77th floor.
Deep in the dungeon, surrounded by the corpses of a hundred monsters, Leon paused. His brow furrowed as he processed the information.
"What exactly happened?"