Merely mulling the question over like this wouldn't yield any answer; perhaps he ought to go back and take another look—but Isagi hesitated again, because it was simply too dangerous.
In fact.
That earlier adventure had already made him feel a certain intense sense of crisis.
Not only because of that utterly incomprehensible, near-"multiple overlapping spaces" phenomenon, but also the monsters they'd encountered...
Isagi wasn't certain whether he and the girls, if they kept pushing deeper, would actually be able to handle the monsters they ran into.
And what's more, even if they really did make it to the deep floors, what if they ran into the just-spawned [Black Dragon]?
Even with Albert and the others present.
But the other monsters of the deep floors—were they really something he and Ryuu-senpai and the rest could deal with?
Their earlier exploration had only been on the surface floors, so that had been fine, but as they pressed deeper, Isagi was, without a doubt, keenly aware of the grave danger.
Perhaps.
It would be better to keep leveling up after all.
Going a step further—returning to a thousand years ago—aside from clearing up many of the questions he wanted answered, perhaps the greatest gain would be to directly take down the [Black Dragon] that had only just been spawned back then, and that would absolutely require tremendous power.
How pressing it was; once again Isagi felt the urgency of leveling up.
The snow fell on and on, soft and ceaseless.
Orario's winter this year, just like last year's, was forever drifting with heavy snow.
That morning, Isagi called Ryuu and Cecil together, getting ready to go do something "extremely important."
Codename: the "Save the Senpai" Plan!
That is, the thing Ryuu had set her heart on—returning to the past to save Alise and the others from their fate of "death."
Before this.
He and the girl had already, for the most part, resolved the matter of the [Great Conflict]; ahead of time, they'd helped the city's Justice Familia defeat the executives of the Dark Familia, and had even destroyed the Artificial Labyrinth in advance.
That Rudra Familia executive Jura—who had ambushed the former Astrea Familia, setting a trap that ended up accidentally summoning the [Juggernaut]—had likewise been taken out ahead of time.
And yet, even so, as though it were fate's own doing.
The Astrea Familia still, within the Dungeon, due to an "accident," came under attack by the [Juggernaut].
The result was that now even Ryuu-senpai herself had no idea what exactly Alise and the others had run into.
Because in the latest "history,"
she no longer took part at all in that adventure which would lead to the Astrea Familia's annihilation.
"According to Goddess Astrea's account, the point in time when the senpai died is still the same as before.
That is, two years after the [Great Conflict] ended—which is to say, two years before the present.
It seemed to have started as just an ordinary adventure, but partway through an accident occurred. As for why Ryuu-senpai didn't take part—according to the present "history," it was because the girl had been dispatched by the goddess to Solingen, to purchase the materials and tools needed to forge the first-tier armaments for the Familia's children once they reached Lv.5.
And it was there, too, that Ryuu-senpai had come to know Cecil; later, together with Goddess Astrea—who had left the city in grief after all the other members of the Familia were wiped out—she took in him, who had crossed over into this world.
That was, more or less, how it had all gone.
Although the process really was different, for many people the "outcome" of fate turned out the same all the same.
Even so.
According to his and Ryuu's investigation, Olivas—the mastermind behind the [Nightmare on the 27th Floor] three years ago—had long since "died" in the Dungeon and, controlled by a tainted Spirit, had hidden himself away in the inner depths of the deep floors.
However, the adventurers who died because of that incident all seemed, at some point three years ago, to have perished within the Dungeon for all sorts of different reasons.
"Is it the will of heaven?"
This line that Isagi suddenly blurted out left both Ryuu and Cecil utterly baffled.
But that doesn't matter! What matters is this:
Isagi seemed to have grasped the crux of it!!
And that was:
Alise-senpai and the others, including those who perished in the [Nightmare on the 27th Floor]—even though he had taken out the instigator ahead of time, he hadn't reversed their fate.
Compared with how, earlier, he and Ryuu-senpai had prevented the [Great Conflict] from happening, letting a whole host of people survive—including the Elf girl's friend Adi, as well as the veteran soldiers of the Loki Familia, and so on—what exactly was the difference?
The answer was——
[The event that would cause the deaths did not itself occur].
Adi had been blown to death by the Dark Familia using self-detonating bombs made from Flame Stones; so once he and Ryuu warned the Guild and the Justice Familia, making it impossible for them to obtain the crucial Magic Stone "detonation device," naturally the girl could no longer possibly be blown up.
Likewise.
The veteran soldiers of the Loki Familia had died during the [Great Conflict], fighting desperately as a rearguard against the Dark Familia's lot in order to cover the retreat of the Familia's juniors and the city's residents.
So when the Great Conflict never happened at all—under his and Ryuu-senpai's influence, not only did Alfia and Zard never come to the city, but most of the executives were dealt with by "capturing the ringleader first to seize the rest," and the remaining ordinary Familia members, without the boost of the Flame Stone self-detonation devices, were no match whatsoever for the city's adventurers.
Naturally, these veteran soldiers would never face that kind of hopeless plight, and so would not lose their lives.
But the victims of the [Nightmare on the 27th Floor], as well as Alise-senpai and the others, had all died inside the Dungeon.
The former had run into an unprecedented Monster Feast;
the latter, because of an accident, had summoned the [Juggernaut];
whether Olivas or Jura, as instigators, they were merely the triggering causes, not the actual thing that brought about everyone's deaths—even without them, the Dungeon would still produce a [Monster Feast], and likewise, owing to suffering "excessive destruction," the [Juggernaut] would still appear.
Having figured this matter out.
The problem seemed to become something of a dead end: namely, if he wanted them to truly survive, then the only method was to ensure that, from now on, they absolutely never went to the Dungeon again.
Because as long as they didn't go, within the city they would never encounter a "Monster Feast," nor run into the "[Juggernaut]."
To verify this idea.
Earlier, on the occasion of traveling back through time, Isagi and Ryuu had specially sought out a batch of adventurers who had died in the [Nightmare on the 27th Floor] and warned them that, starting today, they should never again go to the Dungeon.
Among them.
Some listened; some didn't.
And the good news was that he and Ryuu-senpai found that those fellows who no longer went to the Dungeon—who had even left the city—had all survived. This was something he had confirmed by asking Miss Asfi and the other members of the Hermes Familia to leave the city and verify.
Since this line of thinking worked, the rest was simple.
This time, going back to the past was about persuading Alise and the others never to set foot in the Dungeon again from now on—by whatever means, even if it meant locking them all up in a little dark room... ahem. In short, he had to make all the senpai heed his advice!
And avoid that doom of certain death brought on by the erosion of heaven's will!!
____
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