Letting Asfi join this subjugation operation was an idea born of the Guild's "careful deliberation."
The reason was this.
Coming along as well were Airmid and Haruhime—two "support" members whose levels weren't high, yet who served an enormous purpose. That being so, it became necessary to have Asfi cover them.
It wasn't a matter of how strong the woman was.
As the captain of the Hermes Familia, Asfi herself was a Lv.4 adventurer. Within the city she could already be counted as someone able to hold her own, and outside the city she could even be honored with the title of "strong one."
But in this subjugation operation, especially given that they were bound for the deep floors, her level naturally wasn't much to speak of.
What the Guild needed were the many wondrous items she created through her [Mystery] Development Ability.
The simplest example.
With the invisibility-granting "Helm of Hades" and the "Flying Boots" in her possession—
Asfi could very easily carry Airmid and Haruhime, two supporters with no combat ability, out of the battlefield, and even bring them all the way back from the deep floors to the city surface.
This was her greatest use.
And beyond that, Asfi had also prepared many [Mystery] items for this operation.
The "Alchemy Puppets," capable of fighting with actual combat strength enough to rival a Lv.4 second-tier adventurer, went without saying—while their individual power still wasn't strong on the deep floors, their numbers were plentiful, so they could be used to bring up the rear and stall for time, or to guard the logistics and supply base;
The "Harp," which could detect and record the number of Monsters in the surroundings, and lure or drive them away—and in a certain sense could even control the surrounding Monsters for a period of time;
And also—
"This one!"
After rummaging for a moment in the little pouch she carried, Asfi finally found the thing she could use to locate the "Jewel Fetus."
If Isagi had been here, he might well have hallucinated her as some kind of "Doraemon."
What Asfi took out was a golden fruit.
[Golden Apple].
This was no simple [Mystery] creation, because it contained the power of the "Golden Tree" standing tall and graceful in the courtyard of the Astrea Familia.
This, of course, was also done with Isagi's permission.
The boy had once been curious just what sort of power the "Golden Tree" held.
And so Cecil, Asfi, Fels, and others had naturally joined in researching it. For instance, Cecil had recently been considering how to use a branch of the Golden Tree to reforge and strengthen Ryuu-senpai's wooden sword.
She felt it was surely a "super material" far more powerful even than the Elf race's Great Holy Tree.
Asfi, meanwhile, had discovered a certain "Divine Power" contained within it, and had drawn it out with her [Mystery] power.
Perhaps.
The woman herself wasn't certain.
Because [Mystery] was a power that even the gods couldn't comprehend—one might even say it represented the very "possibility" of the mortals of the Lower World.
And as for this "Golden Apple," what it contained was actually a certain rule itself.
Just like [Once an apple ripens, it will fall from the tree].
What it represented was a kind of inevitable, undeniable, unalterable "rule" that simply existed within this world.
[A person must breathe.]
[A person must eat.]
[After a person dies, the body will rot.]
Even including:
[Within a Monster's body there must inevitably be a Magic Stone.]
And now, if one bit down on this Golden Apple and swallowed it into one's stomach, one could understand a certain rule of this world itself.
For instance.
[Within a Monster parasitized by a "Jewel Fetus," there must inevitably exist a Jewel Fetus serving as its "core"]—and one could discover its existence and its precise location.
The conjecture was correct; the rule truly existed.
And so, having gently bitten off a piece of the fruit, Asfi found the place where the "Jewel Fetus" was located.
It was.
Somewhere in the depths of the Dungeon.
"Go!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Asfi placed the invisibility-granting "Helm of Hades" upon the heads of Airmid and Haruhime.
And so the figures of the two girls vanished in an instant—so that even were a god present here, none could discover their traces.
Then.
Asfi took flight, carrying Airmid and Haruhime, and charged straight ahead toward the dark depths before them, while at the same time scattering a great many "Steel Puppets."
They had originally been no larger than the palm of a hand, looking no different from a child's toy dolls.
But as their magic was released, their bodies swelled and grew rapidly upon the ground, finally transforming into steel constructs several meters tall.
Their numbers were in the tens, the hundreds—even more.
For this operation, Asfi had clearly brought out every bit of her "stock."
And so, in the blink of an eye.
It was the Corrupted Spirit and the "god" who were surrounded by the steel constructs instead.
And seizing precisely this moment, both the members of the Loki Familia and the Freya Familia immediately pursued in Asfi's direction.
The girls of the Astrea Familia were no exception.
No need for words—only trust.
If she was a comrade, then they believed in her one hundred percent, and to tell it straight—though the god Hermes was quite unreliable, it was precisely this that made Asfi so very reliable by contrast. Whether it was Finn or Riveria, Airmid included, they all felt a sort of "kinship in shared misfortune."
This sudden turn of events caught even the Corrupted Spirit somewhat off guard.
By the time it realized something was wrong.
At the speed of a Lv.7 adventurer, they had already crossed most of this vast floor, heading straight for the "secret" hidden away in the deepest part.
"!!!"
Accompanied by a shrill, agonized scream.
The Corrupted Spirit immediately set off with the "god" to chase after the group.
In truth, the ["God of Death and Wine"] was not like the other "children" who, after being parasitized by the Jewel Fetus, obeyed its commands completely.
But it was, after all, connected to the Jewel Fetus.
So the two sides could, to a certain degree, be considered a "cooperative relationship."
But compared to those children who obeyed its every word, the "god" clearly had ideas of its own, which meant the two of them couldn't be perfectly in sync at this moment.
Worse still, this foolish creature was even half a beat too slow, and was at once ensnared by those Steel Puppets!
Yet the Corrupted Spirit had no time to mind it, because it had to stop those adventurers as quickly as possible!!
That swollen sac hanging inverted from the ceiling, like the tail of a bloated worm, sped toward these dark depths in tandem with the Corrupted Spirit's movements.
But in the end. But in the end.
It was still a step too late.
Upon that altar, where countless "Spirits" were piled layer upon layer, Asfi had already precisely located the Jewel Fetus that served as the "god's" core.
And moreover.
She had also discovered the Corrupted Spirit's greatest secret.
At this moment it was not a complete being—it needed "Ailiya (Ais)," for only then could it obtain its full power.
Then—did that mean that if Ais obtained the Corrupted Spirit, she too could gain that mighty power?
For just an instant.
Such a thought surfaced in the mind of Asfi, who had eaten the "Golden Apple."
____
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