"Wasn't there also a clan that gained the bloodline of a Spirit—"
"You mean the Crozzo family, the ones who forge Magic Swords?"
"Not the same."
Riveria shook her head, dismissing the guesses of Ryuu and Lefiya.
In the ancient age, there had indeed been some people who obtained the "bloodline of a Spirit," but that was closer to a special sort of blessing—it merely granted the members of a clan some particular ability.
Among them, the most famous was the Crozzo family.
With the aid of that Spirit bloodline, they gained the power to forge Magic Swords, and in the end, they helped a certain ancient kingdom conquer vast swaths of territory—destroying, in the process, no small number of homes belonging to Elves and Spirits. This is why, even to this day, many Elves and Spirits harbor a fierce loathing for Magic Swords, and hold the Crozzo family in even lower regard.
Could it be.
Was Ais a case like this?
Surely the girl couldn't truly have been born of a Great Spirit?
After all, according to the Corrupted Spirit, Ais and Ailiya looked so very, very alike—identical, one might even say.
They talked for a long while, yet arrived at nothing conclusive.
The women treated it as a way to pass the time. The matter of the Thousand-Azure Ice Garden, after all, was an event of the ancient age, far earlier than when the gods had descended to the lower world. And since it had taken place within the Dungeon, not even the gods could know the specifics of what had happened back then.
Perhaps.
They could borrow Isagi's power to return to the past and probe a little into it—
At that thought, everyone's gaze gathered once more upon the boy who was now slumped over the edge of the bed.
There was no telling what had happened.
As the watch wore on, fewer and fewer people remained in the room. The goddesses drifted back one after another to rest, then Lefiya and the others, until at last only Riveria was left keeping vigil.
She gazed at the golden-haired girl lying on the bed, and at Isagi beside her.
For some reason, the Elf woman's mood was rather complicated.
How to put it… Riveria was of course deeply worried about Ais's condition just now. After all, neither Airmid nor the gods knew what had actually befallen her—only that she had fallen into a "Nightmare."
According to Loki, if there was truly no other way, they would have to summon a god who governed nightmares or the dark of night, and then intervene using Divine Power.
Or there was one other option—
"That busty little idiot midget hasn't come down to the lower world yet. If she were here, there'd be no problem at all…"
Riveria had no idea what her own goddess was resentfully muttering about.
She shook her head. She felt it wouldn't come to that—at the very least, once Isagi came back, there ought to be a way.
This was born of the strange trust she had placed in the boy for so long now.
At this moment.
What Riveria found herself pondering, instead, were times far more distant—things yet to come.
Having subjugated the Corrupted Spirit, she now had at least some tangible sense of what it would mean to "complete the Three Great Quests" and slay the Black Dragon.
In any case.
The Corrupted Spirit was surely opponent enough to have served as a match for those people of the old Zeus and Hera Familias, wasn't it?
She herself, along with her companions—
All of them had already grown to the very peak of their strength.
And more than that, she could keep pressing forward, for Isagi's special Dungeon had only been explored to a little past the thirtieth floor.
There remained a vast expanse of the deep levels still unexplored.
By then, would she rise to Lv. 8, or Lv. 9—perhaps even Lv. 10?
So Riveria mused.
Which brought her to another question: after slaying the Black Dragon, what was she to do?
Would she graduate from being an adventurer?
Or would she press on deeper into the Dungeon, to see the still-lower depths that not even the Zeus and Hera Familias had reached?
And also—
By then, what choices would Ais and Isagi make?
She'd heard, for her part, that once the boy "retired" from adventuring, he intended to go run his hamburger shop.
Hmm—
In short, going back to her homeland to inherit the throne was absolutely out of the question. That old man could probably keep living for many, many more years yet. She gave her head a shake!
Riveria first settled it firmly: she would never go home.
Then she went on staring blankly, glancing now at Ais, now at Isagi, thinking about the boy, the girl, and her own future—for a long, long, long time.
Until.
Isagi suddenly woke.
"Sorry, I couldn't beat her."
"…?"
At this abrupt, out-of-nowhere remark from the boy, Riveria's mind was nothing but one enormous question mark.
So Isagi began to explain everything he had just encountered inside Ais's Nightmare.
Well… it came down mainly to this.
A battle against ["Wind of the End" Ais Wallenstein (Spirit)].
"Huh?"
Had Ais gone "dark" inside her own dream?
How had a fight suddenly broken out?
And more than that—even Isagi was no match for her?
"She was too strong. Probably absorbed that Corrupted Spirit's Strength. The Ais in the Nightmare was just unbelievably powerful."
"Mm—"
Considering the girl already had Lv. 7 power to begin with, and had now taken in the Corrupted Spirit's Strength, could it be she already possessed Lv. 8—perhaps even Lv. 9—strength?
At that thought.
Riveria felt a chill of retroactive dread. Thank goodness it was Ais who had claimed the Corrupted Spirit's Strength; had it been the other way around, their earlier battle might well have spawned any number of complications.
"So what do we do now?"
"Rest a bit, and then… mm, try again!"
"…?"
"This time we'll go together. Where's Lefiya and the others? Gone back to sleep? Then we'll call them in next time. We'll give it a try first."
Isagi was brimming with spirit now.
So he'd lost—that was all. Then he'd just keep fighting; sooner or later he'd win! He refused to believe otherwise—but first, food!!
The night deepened.
After devouring the late-night snack Riveria had made and moving about a little, Isagi prepared to enter Ais's Nightmare once again!
"Wait until I've fallen asleep, then come along with me, Miss Riveria."
"Ah—"
What did "come along after I fall asleep" even mean?!
It was too strange!!
Fortunately, Riveria could grasp what Isagi meant—after all, they'd done this same thing more times than she could count.
And so.
Once Isagi had slumped back over the edge of the bed, the woman quietly seated herself there as well, and then her fingers touched the boy's body.
The familiar darkness rushed at her all at once, followed by a heavy wave of vertigo.
It was always like this entering the [Dark Hall], so it caused her no discomfort—on the contrary, Riveria was quite used to it.
What she wasn't used to was this: this time, the place she arrived in was Ais's Nightmare world.
Amid these vast, sprawling sheets of darkness, a small, utterly lonely light illuminated the courtyard before her.
It was an altogether ordinary house and yard.
Grass, a stone table, a dilapidated wooden hut in the distance, and a great tree long since withered—and standing beneath that tree, wrapped in a Black Wind, a girl gripping a longsword.
Those eyes that had once shone a brilliant gold were now brimming with pitch-black color.
Was this Ais?
Riveria sensed nothing but an intensely oppressive, frigid aura—one that nearly stole the breath from her lungs. And at that same instant, the familiar soundless characters welled up from within her heart.
["Wind of the End" Ais Wallenstein (Spirit)].
____
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