Boots crunched across the scorched earth, leaving prints outlined in embers.
Leon moved cautiously through the corpse-strewn battlefield. Every time he passed a body, he raised a hand and fired off a Scorch, putting down anything that might be playing dead.
At the edge of the battlefield, Ais and Heith watched the display, their brows furrowing in unison. Leon's behavior struck them as more than a little disrespectful to the dead.
Riveria, standing nearby, picked up on their subtle shift in mood. Her emerald eyes turned thoughtfully toward the black-robed figure in the middle of the field, and she thought to herself:
You can't tell from the surface, but he has a surprisingly ruthless streak and decisive methods...
And not the slightest discomfort about killing people...
A veteran? That kind of cold temperament is rare among young people, even in this dark age.
At the center of the field.
A hand wrapped in black robes reached out and lifted a short sword from a thick bed of plant ash, dim red light flickering along its length.
"A Magic Sword? Ooh, nice, I'm taking it!"
Wearing his gloves, Leon brushed the dust off the short-sword-type Magic Sword and tucked it happily into the pouch at the small of his back.
"Hmph, shameless."
Ais's cold gaze swept over Leon, her jab landing without mercy.
Leon: "..."
Hoo... don't get mad. This is a short-sword-type Magic Sword, worth millions of Valis!
So what if I get a few cold remarks? That's nothing!
Picking up free money is not embarrassing.
He took a few deep breaths and quickly fixed his expression.
Leon turned around, smiling.
"Lady Riveria, did you find anything on your end?"
The royal elf was crouched down, carefully examining a few charred "humanoid remains," her fingertips cautiously grazing the blackened surfaces.
Hearing the question, she straightened up, let out a soft sigh, and shook her head.
"Aside from how suspiciously well-equipped they were, there are almost no clues of value."
Leon nodded in agreement.
"They must have been Evilus's elite soldiers. The Magic Swords and high-quality weapons aren't something the rank and file would be issued. Also, there's this..."
He held out his palm. A crimson mineral lay quietly in the center.
"This is...?"
Ais and Heith looked at the red stone in his hand, slightly puzzled.
But the moment Riveria's gaze fell on it, she let out a low gasp.
"Flame Stone?"
Leon nodded, rolling the dangerous ore between his fingertips, a hint of mockery at the corner of his mouth.
"A strictly controlled strategic material. Usually only high-ranked smiths apply to use it, for smelting special metals. Looks like Evilus's creativity has found some delightful new directions."
Riveria closed one eye and folded her arms, thinking.
"With a fuse attached, it could be made into a throwable explosive. Similar to a Magic Sword, but less versatile, and dangerous to handle improperly."
"The key point is, this stuff doesn't need any fine processing at all. The raw ore can be used directly..."
"For Evilus, which lacks logistical capacity, it really is a convenient weapon..."
Riveria realized that if Evilus equipped its forces with these in bulk, a well-timed surprise attack could deal a massive blow to the Alliance of Order.
Once she grasped the implications, her expression tightened. She filed the matter away in her mind, deciding to report it to Finn the moment they got back to the surface.
BOOOOM!
At that moment, the vaulted canopy overhead, woven from the twisting root systems of the massive trees, suddenly shook violently. Debris rained down.
"Hm?"
"What was that?"
"The ceiling's shaking!"
"Up there... that's Floor 18?!"
"The Under Resort?"
"This is bad. Evilus is making their move."
"Rivira..."
"The fighting's already started."
"Let's go!"
Feeling the tremors from above, Riveria, Ais, and Heith sprang into action.
Leon glanced back for a long moment at the monster horde in the distance, which was slowly beginning to regroup, then drew in a deep breath and took off after the three of them.
"Frost Armor!"
Cautious as ever, even in the middle of a sprint, he habitually layered ice armor over himself against any underhanded sneak attack.
He might have all sorts of damage-reduction skills, but getting caught once still hurt like hell.
This layer of ice armor not only boosted physical defense significantly, it also absorbed impact energy, and the mental drain was practically nothing to him.
So whenever he had even a sliver of downtime, he'd throw this safety net over himself without a second thought.
It kept honing his mental recovery speed, and quietly sharpened his magic in the process.
Multiple birds with one stone. Why not?
...
...
At the very moment Leon and the others were racing toward Floor 18...
The Under Resort. Rivira.
The already narrow, run-down streets had been dyed crimson by sticky blood and corpses scattered every which way. A hellscape.
Beneath the crystal dome, screams of despair, wails of agony, deranged laughter, and bloodthirsty shrieks rose and fell together, weaving a death symphony that chilled the bones.
Squelch...!
A cold blade sliced clean through an adventurer's fragile neck. Even in the final moment of his life, the adventurer had been kowtowing and begging for mercy, paralyzed by terror.
The Evilus member holding the blade twisted his lips upward into a smile full of sick pleasure.
"A pack of cowards who just want to cling to life! With you lot looking like this, you call yourselves Adventurers?"
He raised his foot and casually kicked aside the severed head rolling at his feet, his voice dripping with scorn.
"Lv. 2? Heh... could it be that even the gods' Falna misjudges people?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Pathetic!"
Weak, cowardly, afraid to die... how could trash like this ever defeat a stronger enemy?
"Heh..."
A contemptuous snort.
He kicked the headless corpse aside and surveyed the adventurers fleeing in panic down the street, then swung his arm downward in a lazy gesture.
Behind him, the silent Evilus soldiers instantly fanned out into a line.
Some raised Magic Swords, some raised staves, some gripped explosives in throwing stance. At their leader's command, they began a cold, merciless, indiscriminate massacre of Rivira's residents and adventurers!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Explosions swept through the entire town in an instant!
"AAAAAAH! It's Evilus! They broke in!"
"What?!"
"Damn it! Adventurer Hunting again!"
"Screw it! Let's take them down! A pack of Lv. 1 trash thinks they can treat me like a pushover after all my years in Rivira?"
"Brothers! Grab your weapons! Cut these maniacs down!"
After the initial panic and chaos, the disorganized adventurers managed to rally under the shouts of a few minor leaders. Weapons raised, driven by blood-fury and desperation, they launched a suicidal counter-charge into Evilus's black tide!
"HAHAHAHAHA! With your pitiful three-penny skills, you think you can pull off Adventurer Hunting? Now if your executives showed up, that might be different! Now die!"
An adventurer with a face full of coarse flesh bared his teeth in a snarl and brought his heavy greatsword down with crushing force on a silent soldier in front of him.
But he failed to notice: in the shadow of the hood and mask, there wasn't a trace of fear on the Evilus soldier's face. Only a kind of burning fanaticism, a sacrificial piety.
"For..."
The soldier's low voice rose like a murmur from the abyss.
"..."
"...granting you death and salvation!"
His tone suddenly shifted to fervent exultation. He flung his arms wide and locked them around the adventurer's waist, clamping down like a lover's embrace!
"What the fuck... are you doing?! Let go! Let go of me!!"
The adventurer, horrified beyond words, thrashed with everything he had.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle...!
Just then, an urgent, clearly audible hiss of a burning fuse cut through the surrounding din.
"?"
The adventurer looked down. His eyes met the Evilus member's.
He suddenly noticed, in that fanatical gaze, there was nothing of human reason left. Only a completely twisted, self-erased... light of faith.
A slave to faith!
In that instant, the adventurer felt a chill of pure dread.
"Lapdog of the evil gods!!!!!!!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
In the last moment of his life, the adventurer let out a curse of despair!
BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!
The world-shaking explosion swallowed the two locked in their embrace in a heartbeat! Raging flames and a shockwave bloomed like a grotesque flower of flesh and blood, sucking everything around them into a vortex of destruction!
"SONIC!!!!!!!!"
"Damn you!"
Not far away, another adventurer watched his closest friend devoured by the flames, his eyes splitting with rage! Scalding tears streamed down through the blood and grime on his face, and the last shred of reason in his eyes was utterly replaced by a frenzied red haze!
He cleaved through the cloaked figure in front of him with a single sword stroke, his gaze locked dead on the Evilus leader at the far end of the street.
"I'll kill every last one of you!"
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