The comet that had pierced heaven and earth was gone, its trail of light fading until it disappeared entirely.
The defiled Spirit, its whole body run through and left with a gaping hole, howled, and the shrill sound shook the air and rang through the entire fifty-ninth floor.
That cry was horrifying, but it also shook the adventurers awake, and they finally reacted.
"Now's our chance!"
Finn's eyes took on a red glow, a golden spear in one hand and a silver spear in the other, and he shouted toward Ais.
"Now! Go, Ais!"
Ais's gaze sharpened, and her body shattered the ground beneath her as she shot upward, riding the wind into the sky, clearing that hard petal armor.
The multicolored monsters all around saw it and let out frantic, broken-gong cries, some readying dissolving fluid, some readying tentacles to intercept her, and all of them were blocked at the risk of life by Bete, Tiona, Tione, Raul, and Tsubaki.
They had all long since fought themselves into a state of covered wounds and streaming blood, but the will to fight in their eyes had not dimmed in the slightest, their fury unchanged, life and death set entirely aside, and they cut down the multicolored monsters without stopping, even throwing their own bodies in the way of attacks aimed at Ais when their strength fell short, so that all five of them were splashed to some degree with dissolving fluid or struck by tentacles, smoke rising from their bodies, blood spraying.
That willingness to stake their lives, plus the belated support of the magic from the three Elf Mages behind them, finally held back that startlingly large army of monsters.
As for the green pillars and green walls falling from the sky and the long, thick tentacles, Finn and Gareth blocked all of them with no thought for their own lives.
Finn's twin spears danced like wind, his usual calm and composure gone, replaced by a violent ferocity, and every sweep of the spears became countless flashes of spear light that struck tentacle after tentacle and knocked all of them away.
Gareth had an axe in each hand, swinging wide and hard, his strength unmatched, his courage unmatched, and every stroke of his battle axe was like smashing the earth itself, roar after roar, breaking apart the green pillars and green walls that came down from above.
Both of them were sometimes blasted away by tentacles, sometimes knocked down by a green pillar or green wall, but the next second they would be back in the fight, opening the road for Ais.
Thanks to that, the golden-haired, golden-eyed girl was finally able to leap high and see the defiled Spirit hiding behind the petal armor, a great hole torn through its body.
"Awaken, Tempest!"
Ais drew out the wind at maximum output.
Just as Leo had done before, Ais wrung out every last bit of her Mind with no regard for the consequences, loading the converted magic power into Ariel, and the violent hurricane, beyond a force-ten typhoon, burst open with a roar.
"Ice Pillar Blades!"
The defiled Spirit, howling in pain, saw it and opened its eyes as wide as they would go, its face twisted, and it could only complete at top speed the chant for the one magic it could still get off in time, firing out enormous pillars of ice.
That was an ultra-short chant magic, and under the defiled Spirit's ultra-high-speed chanting the incantation was so fast it was nearly omitted, so Ais heard only the name of the magic before she saw the huge ice pillars coming at her.
But magic thrown together in that much of a hurry could not possibly stop Ais's strike at full power and maximum output.
"Lil Rafaga!"
When the strongest female swordsman in the city released her finishing move, the violent hurricane beyond a force-ten typhoon became a spiral of powerful wind racing toward the ground, and it crashed into the huge ice pillars rising toward the sky.
An impact.
The collision lasted only half a second before the spiral of wind racing toward the ground shattered the huge ice pillars outright, sending ice fragments flying everywhere.
The wind spiral punched through the huge ice pillars, pulverized them, and dove on without losing momentum, finally driving into the defiled Spirit's head, pouring in through the crown of its skull and running all the way down, crushing the neck, crushing the chest, crushing that lovely, beautiful body, and even boring into the huge plant-shaped lower body, straight through to the bottom.
One flash of that powerful hurricane ran through the defiled Spirit's entire massive body from top to bottom.
Including the magic stone inside it.
A roar.
The wind spiral struck the ground, as if an entire typhoon had slammed into the earth, throwing up dust that blotted out everything, raising a storm that shook heaven and earth, blowing everything away.
The shock wave became a blast of air that raged wildly, sending the adventurers around it and the multicolored monsters alike flying.
Wind churned, air pressure surged, and the shock wave filled the whole wasteland, as if some unseen giant beast were roaring.
The entire Dungeon fell into a long tremor in that moment, and only after a long, long while did it stop.
"Cough, cough, cough...!"
Without exception, every adventurer was face down on the ground, coughing hard in the dust that had not yet settled while struggling to raise their heads and look ahead.
"Did... did it work?"
That thought surfaced in all of them, and even veterans like Finn, Riveria, and Gareth, even hot-tempered ones like Bete or Tione, felt a stab of unease.
Every one of them had fought to the point of near exhaustion, and lying there on the ground now, they could feel that their bodies no longer had the stamina to move, and the pain running through them made it clear that their injuries were serious.
If even this had not settled the enemy, they might well be unable to stand and keep fighting.
If Ais had succeeded, this battle could be declared a victory outright.
If Ais had failed, this battle would be declared a defeat outright.
Under everyone's tense gaze, the dust ahead finally cleared, revealing a huge crater.
That was where the defiled Spirit had been.
But now that defiled existence was completely gone.
There was only a girl with dust-covered golden hair swaying as she unsteadily got to her feet and lifted her golden eyes to look their way.
Silence descended on the wasteland.
A moment later, a great cheer went up.
Finn, Riveria, and Gareth smiled without hiding it.
Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and Alicia clung together in one bundle and burst into tears on the spot.
Bete took an excited slap on the back from Tsubaki and coughed in pain, while Raul was off to the side crying and laughing at once, with no dignity left at all.
The joy of having crossed the line between life and death ran through all of them, and they cheered and let it show on their faces.
The cheering went on and on, and only Ais never joined in.
She pulled the silver longsword out of the ground and walked out of the crater, her body shaking with pain from having borne that maximum output of wind.
Just as she was about to step out of the crater, a hand reached down from the edge.
Ais paused, and reflexively lifted her head to look up.
The next second, a familiar boy with a familiar smile came into view.
Looking at that smiling face, Ais stayed frozen for a while, then her expression relaxed and she put out her own hand.
The boy's hand and the girl's hand joined together in the wasteland.
That scene looked like something eternal.
...
Because the fifty-ninth floor had been completely remade into a seedbed, no monsters other than the multicolored ones were born on this floor anymore.
And with the defiled Spirit slain, the multicolored monsters here were left leaderless and could only scurry around in the corners of the floor, no longer showing the viciousness with which they had attacked Leo and the others earlier.
Of course, if the two sides met, only one of adventurer and monster would walk away, and those multicolored monsters would still attack without hesitation.
So after the great cheering, everyone calmed down a little, gathered again, and started on the next step.
First they found a hidden corner to shelter in, then they pooled what supplies they had left and began treating their wounds and recovering.
There was no denying it: running into the defiled Spirit had been the most dangerous encounter they had ever had. Not only were they badly hurt in the first exchange, but if Leo had not held the front while Ais used the opening to treat the wounded, then every single person there might never have seen the sunlight on the surface again.
And after Leo ran out of strength, they had fought another all-out battle to cover Ais, and every one of them had taken no small amount of damage. If the people here had not all been of extraordinary willpower, they might not even have been able to crawl.
But they could not go down yet.
They were still on the fifty-ninth floor, surrounded by multicolored monsters that could appear at any moment, and they had to get back to the base on the fiftieth floor before they could count as safe.
They had not fully escaped danger yet, and getting back to the fiftieth floor would mean more fighting with monsters.
So the immediate task was to use the remaining supply items to treat and restore everyone, not aiming to heal every injury or return to peak condition right away, but at least to regain the ability to move and keep fighting.
Fortunately, the supply items they had brought were fairly complete, and even after all those battles a good amount remained.
So they began using potions to restore stamina, injuries, and even Mind, resting while racing the clock.
The process went smoothly enough.
A few multicolored monsters blundered in partway through, but in front of this group, already somewhat recovered, such monsters could pose no threat at all unless they came in real numbers.
Clearing away the monsters that wandered in while they treated and recovered, they finally got back on their feet once the supply items on hand were nearly used up.
"Return to camp at top speed, gather all our companions, and begin the trip back."
Finn gave that instruction, and everyone headed for the entrance leading to the fifty-eighth floor.
A crash.
The green wall blocking the way was destroyed, the road ahead was clear, and they could finally start back.
At this time the monsters on floors fifty-two through fifty-eight were still in their production rest period, so very few monsters were about on those floors, and Finn was not about to miss the chance, urging everyone to keep moving the whole way.
"You don't have to rush us this much, do you?"
Tsubaki was still collecting the drop materials she had not had the chance to collect earlier, and seeing Finn constantly hurrying them along, she complained.
Tiona, Tione, and Bete were up at the vanguard dealing with the few monsters that remained, so they did not join the conversation behind them.
Finn gave a bitter laugh.
"I don't want to either, but what happened here is too big. We have to get back to Orario as fast as possible and report it, so Loki, and the Guild too, know about it."
Everyone looked at Finn.
"Uh... is it that serious?"
Raul, not following, spoke up carefully.
Leo, who had been running along the flank with Ais, spoke up out of nowhere.
"Have you all still not realized how urgent this has become?" Leo said as he ran, his face calm. "You saw that defiled Spirit. Absurdly strong. Even with the whole main force of Loki Familia going at it together, that's how the fight went."
"And that thing came from a green jeweled fetus, the kind that can parasitize a monster, molting and transforming into what we saw."
"That green jeweled fetus isn't the first one we've run into, is it?"
In the town of Rivira on the eighteenth floor, Leo and the others had encountered a green jeweled fetus for the first time, and watched it parasitize a Viola and turn into a huge octopus-shaped female form.
In the Pantry on the twenty-fourth floor, Leo, Ais, and the members of Hermes Familia had seen a green jeweled fetus again, and that time it had parasitized the quartz pillar, drawing freely on the Dungeon's nutrients to grow.
"Which tells us there are a fair number of those green jeweled fetuses."
Leo's voice carried clearly to all of them.
"So is there another jeweled fetus out there, like that defiled Spirit, evolving off the magic stones it's collected by devouring Violas and other monsters? Or one that's already finished evolving?"
The moment he said it, a chill ran into the crowns of all their heads and their scalps prickled.
Riveria and Gareth both changed color.
"Then the goal of those Creatures and the remnants of Evilus..."
"Is to carry the jeweled fetuses, which are easy to transport, up to the surface, let them finish parasitizing, and then mature?"
At that, everyone who knew recalled the intelligence Leo and Ais had brought back last time.
That intelligence had stated that those people's final goal was to destroy Orario.
So how would they destroy it?
The answer was all but spoken already.
"They're planning to summon defiled Spirits on the surface!"
Leo's words, one after another, dropped the mood on the spot to freezing.
"Hey, hey, hey! You're kidding, right?"
Tsubaki, who did not yet know about the Creatures, the remnants of Evilus, or Enyo, looked stunned.
But the members of Loki Familia were different.
They thought of those beings, and then of the defiled Spirit they had just fought to the death against.
Even they, the strongest Familia in the city, with their main combat force all committed, had ended up in that state against it. If a being like that suddenly appeared on the surface, and not just one of them, what would the result be?
"...Destroying the Labyrinth City. It doesn't look like a wild joke after all."
Gareth said it in a low voice, and everyone finally understood how serious this was.
"Let's move faster."
Finn licked his thumb and said one line.
"We need to get back to the surface at top speed."
No one had any objection.
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