Riveria caught hold of Ais, whose face was twisted with fury, and spoke in her cool, clear voice:
"Come back, Ais."
The girl's cheeks were flushed red with agitation, her chest heaving violently, her voice thick with disbelieving rage:
"Why?! How can they do this!"
"Heith saved their lives! What gives them the right to push her like this!"
Ais clearly felt the injustice done to Heith as if it had been done to her, indignation boiling over.
"These adventurers are out of line!"
"Riveria, let me go teach them a lesson!"
Watching the girl like an enraged cub, as if the moment Riveria let go she would pounce on those ingrates.
Riveria and Gareth exchanged a helpless glance, and she let out a soft sigh.
"Ais, now do you understand what human nature is?"
"Do you understand why we didn't step in, and are just keeping watch from the perimeter?"
Her slender finger pointed coldly at that crowd of adventurers, still clamoring, still questioning, some of them even wearing smug little faces, and she said to Ais:
"Not every adventurer is kind and reasonable like the companions in our familia."
"No, I should say, people like us are the rare minority."
"The attitude they're showing is the baseline color of this world."
Gareth stepped forward from beside her, his rough, thick hand carrying the warmth of an elder as he gently stroked the top of Ais's golden head:
"Ais, you and Heith, as the rising talents of Loki and Freya Familia, have always lived inside a safe ivory tower that your seniors built up around you."
"And this scene in front of us is the first alarm bell harsh reality is ringing for you two!"
"Compared to monsters you can see, the human heart is the hardest thing of all to grasp."
"..."
As for Heith at the center of the crowd.
After the initial shock, fury, and the violent churning of her inner turmoil, she had ultimately been led away from that uproar by a silent Ottar.
In the instant Ottar had appeared and walked toward Heith...
Those adventurers, who just moments ago had been swaggering and sneering, went silent as if their throats had been clamped shut. The blood drained from their faces, and nothing was left in their eyes but pure terror. They scurried back like a receding tide, voluntarily clearing a wide vacuum around Ottar's body.
Noticing how they caved in the face of strength after preying on the weak, the other adventurers watching wore undisguised contempt on their faces:
"Bunch of spineless cowards! Saw the girl was easy to pick on so you climbed right up on her, huh?"
"Got the guts to bark at the Warlord? Didn't think so!"
"And you lot call yourselves adventurers of Rivira?"
"I'm ashamed to stand in the same ranks as you!"
"Pah!"
Tuning out the noise around her, Ais's gaze locked tight onto the retreating backs of Heith and Ottar.
In the moment Ottar turned and Heith's profile came into view, she saw clearly...
The Heith who had always been wild and unrestrained, whose face always wore a confident grin, now looked as if her soul had been pulled out of her.
Her face was expressionless, her eyes as hollow as a delicate but lifeless puppet.
If she couldn't see through the cold logic behind this trial of human nature, this post-breakdown withdrawal into herself would likely become a shadow over her heart that wouldn't easily heal.
Clank clatter...!
Just then, a dense clash of armor and weapons, along with messy footsteps, surged in from the direction of the town entrance!
Everyone was startled at first, then expressions of relief broke across their faces.
"Looks like the main force is finally here? They sure kept us waiting!"
Gareth stroked his thick beard, his hearty smile returning.
Riveria gave a slight nod, her cool voice ringing out:
"Indeed. With the main force arrived, we can free ourselves up to clean out the monster horde gathered on Floor 19..."
Mid-sentence, Riveria's voice cut off.
Her eyes suddenly went blank, as if her memory had gone briefly empty.
Then...
Leon's face, wearing that slightly sly little smile, struck her mind like a bolt of lightning!
The next second, Riveria's eyes went wide, and the ever-composed, aloof elf actually lost her cool and cried out in alarm:
"Oh no!"
"Huh?"
Gareth and Ais froze, caught off guard by her sudden reaction.
Not far off, Heith slowly raised her head, and those hollow, lightless eyes gradually regained a flicker of color.
...
Floor 19, the Great Tree Labyrinth.
"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!!"
Eight fireballs fired in rapid succession, their detonations overlapping into one long, continuous roar. Scorching waves of air rolled in like a mountain-toppling tide, making Leon's cloak snap and flap like mad.
"Leon! Use the time to recover your stamina! The next wave Rose is luring in is almost here!"
Jeanne's voice cut through the lingering echo of the explosions and reached his ear.
"Got it!"
Leon's mouth curved up. He squinted at the horizon and watched the tide of monsters Rose was leading at high speed as they rushed toward them.
Without a moment's hesitation, he hoisted the Twisted Staff high above his head!
A massive crimson magic circle unfolded under his feet in an instant!
Activating his skill True Essence of All Magic to begin charging, he chanted aloud, frantically refining magic:
"O flame! Grant me power!"
Crackle!
A colossal fireball more than three meters in diameter materialized above Leon's head with a roar, and began rotating slowly under his control!
As the magical light flowed through his eyes, the fireball grew larger and larger, its color deeper and deeper, its "weight" heavier and heavier!
Sparks drifted down like embers, leaving scorch marks on Leon's fire-spirit protective cloak.
"A hundred meters..."
"Fifty meters..."
"Thirty meters..."
Jeanne's pale violet eyes locked dead onto the charging tide, calmly calling out the suffocatingly close distance.
"Now!"
Jeanne barked, her wrist snapping sharply!
Fwwp...!
The banner bearing the Familia Crest burst open in full display!
She gripped the flagpole with both hands, straightened her back, stepped forward, and lifted her chin with pride.
Her pale violet eyes stared fearlessly at the oncoming torrent of monsters, and she chanted aloud in a tone filled with sacred faith:
"My banner, protect my brethren!!!"
"Luminosité Eternelle!"
As her voice fell, the banner bloomed with a soft golden radiance! Jeanne drove the flagpole hard into the ground, dropped to one knee, and bowed her head in prayer!
Hummmm...!
The domain unfurled!
An enormous sacred barrier flowing with holy runes expanded instantly, centered on Jeanne's banner, like an upside-down dome, blanketing the surrounding space and locking it firmly within!
And in that same instant as the barrier unfolded...
"Barri!"
"Pure White Kite Shield!"
Rose kicked off the ground, spun and leapt backward, the shield in her hand blazing with pure white light. After blocking countless incoming attacks, she rode the aftershock of the impact and slammed into the barrier in an instant!
The moment had come!
"Leon!"
The two women, their roles complete, whipped their eyes back toward the man behind them.
By now, the fireball above Leon's head had charged to nearly ten meters in diameter. Drenched in sweat and trembling head to toe, he was barely maintaining that "heavy" orb of flame.
And the instant the shout hit his ears.
Leon's eyes went wide, and he bellowed at the top of his lungs:
"Rrraaaaaaahhhhh...!"
As if the thing on his arms weighed ten thousand tons, his left foot stomped the ground into fragments, veins bulging on his forehead, the muscles in his arms swelling all at once!
The next second!
With every ounce of strength in his body, he hurled that "heavy" fireball out!
"Haaaaa...!"
Fwoom...!
"..."
Jeanne and Rose tilted their heads back, silently watching that fireball, like a miniature sun, arc across the top of the barrier.
Then...
At a spot just outside the barrier, within mere meters of them...
Silence swallowed everything, and their vision was instantly flooded with blinding white.
Next...
A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering explosion erupted with a thunderous roar, the shockwave rolling outward in concentric rings of flame and pressure that devoured everything in its path.
Monster slain, Excelia +1
Monster slain, Excelia +1
Monster slain, Excelia +1
Monster slain, Excelia +1
...
The floor passage.
A messy clatter of footsteps grew from faint to loud, and Riveria and the others appeared at the entrance to Floor 19.
"Aaaaah! My eyes!"
"What is that!?"
"The sun?"
"Why would there be a sun in the Dungeon!"
The support team pouring in from the passage hadn't even had time to shout anything.
Before their eyes were flooded with searing white light!
"Damn it..."
Riveria, Ais, Heith and the others bit their lips, lowered their heads, and covered their streaming eyes, faces blank with bewilderment.
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