At the entrance.
Persephone stood on a rise, gazing down with cool detachment at the absurd rout unfolding in the passage below. She thought of how this lot had bullied the weak in days past, and especially of the high-and-mighty faces they used to show the lowest-ranked members of the Demeter Familia, and a cold smile slowly surfaced on her flawless face.
"Scum that bully the weak and grovel before the strong..."
She murmured it under her breath, a cold light turning in the depths of her eyes. "If I don't make you cough up everything you swallowed this time, with interest, then my name isn't Persephone."
With that, she flicked her long hair back, turned, and left.
...
"S-Scared the woof outta me..."
The dog-person lackey, who had gone in running second right behind Boss Bors only to wind up dead last on the way out, came tumbling and scrambling from the passage, lips quivering, and flopped spread-eagled on the cold grass. Ears drooping, face pale, he kept replaying the figure he had glimpsed mid-flight. The whole pup was a mess.
"Hey... y-you saw it too, right?"
A man beside him, wearing a deep green turban and dressed like a certain swordsman, leaned in, sweat pouring off him, voice quavering.
"Th-that woman... was the Priestess of Desolation... Demeter Familia's captain, Persephone, the Priestess of Desolation..."
"So the ones the boss went to pick a fight with... are the Demeter Familia?"
"We're done for..."
"If it were the Demeter Familia from a few years back, fine. But now..."
"Lv.4... that crazy woman is a genuine Lv.4 now..."
"Stop talking. Let's just run..."
"While Demeter's expedition is here, I'm locking myself in the inn and not coming out. Buddy, do me a favor and keep an ear out for me... the moment they leave the Under Resort, that's when you come get me..."
"?"
"A couple years back... I stopped some of their people. Collected a 'toll' off them."
The dog-boy's face went yet another shade paler as he finished, his voice sinking lower and lower. "And not just once..."
Buddy: "..."
The two exchanged a glance, and each saw the same fear in the other's eyes.
Wind came rushing out of the depths of the passage, carrying the scent of ice and snow, and the faint sound of Goliath's furious roars.
...
It wasn't only Rivira's people who had been scared out of their wits by that "frozen hell." At that same moment, adventurer squads scattered all across Floor 17 were shaken to their cores by the violent tremors, like a great earthquake, and the frenzied roars rolling out from the direction of the Monster Rex's room.
"That rumbling... someone's taking on the Monster Rex?"
A squad carefully working its way down a tunnel stopped. At its head, a bull-headed beastman warrior pricked up his ears to listen, and his expression shifted.
"Quick, fall back! Let's get as far from the Monster Rex as we can! The farther the better!"
With that, the bull-headed warrior executed a strategic advance to the rear without a moment's hesitation.
"The moment someone opens hostilities with Goliath, every monster on this floor bolts from that area in a panic, which means..."
He had barely finished when thunderous, pounding footfalls and countless shrill shrieks erupted from the bend in the passage ahead!
The next instant, under the squad's horrified stares, a tide of monsters came flooding out!
"It's the Monster Delivery!"
"The Monster Delivery, passively triggered by a Monster Rex battle!"
"Retreat! Quick!"
Amid the screams, the squad scrambled around and sprinted back the way they had come.
...
At the same time, in another out-of-the-way cavern on Floor 17, a handful of boys and girls were silently clearing the battlefield. They had set out before daybreak and had been fighting in this spot all morning.
Right now, every one of them was expressionless, moving with almost mechanical rhythm: bend down, pick it up, drop it in the pack. And the oversized supporter packs on their backs were bloated out of shape, long since stuffed with Magic Stones big and small, fine-quality Drop Items, and all kinds of precious materials, the seams nearly splitting.
"Hm?"
An unnatural tremor came up through the ground, and muffled roars and rumbling echoed faintly in the distance. The boys and girls froze mid-motion and looked at one another, then, as one, turned toward the petite figure in the corner.
Long sword in hand, she stood motionless as a doll, her golden hair almost seeming to come with its own glow effect in the dim cavern.
At that, a black-haired catgirl hurried to her side and said in a low voice, worry on her face.
"Ais, the tremors are coming from Goliath's room... the Monster Rex has probably been reborn. From what Lady Riveria taught us, the Monster Delivery is very likely to follow. Shouldn't we... take cover for a while? Irregulars aren't something we can handle easily."
Ais turned her face slowly, not a ripple crossing her doll-like face. Her lifeless golden eyes rested quietly on her companions, all of them Lv.1 and Lv.2, her voice cool and detached.
"Hide? Who? Go where?"
The words were barely out before she drew Desperate from her waist once more. The air around her quietly stirred, coiling into a soft breeze.
The next second, a tap of her toes sent her streaking into the depths of the passage like a rushing wind.
Only one flat, unruffled remark drifted back to the group standing rooted in place.
"You all stay right here and don't move. I'm going to go... turn them into paste."
Raul: "..."
Aki: "..."
The other extras: "Buh... buhbuh..."
The cavern fell completely silent, leaving only the faint roars in the distance and the soft clink of Magic Stones knocking together in the packs echoing through the empty chamber.
Raul stared blankly, mouth working, but not a single word would come out.
"A-Aki... what... what are we supposed to do now?"
The black-haired catgirl, Aki, rolled her eyes in exasperation and cinched her pack shut in one crisp motion.
"What do we do? What is there to do? We chase after her, of course!"
Gripping the short blade in her hand, she jerked her chin toward the passage.
"Let's go!"
...
Once a Monster Rex battle began, it set off a chain reaction of environmental upheaval. Whether you were a monster horde stampeding away in agitation or an adventurer caught in the sweep, if you didn't have the strength, a "strategic advance to the rear" was usually the wisest choice. Of course, if you happened to be a hardcase like Ais, an Lv.3 with an anti-monster skill to boot, charging in headfirst wasn't exactly out of the question either.
A ragged burst of wet, muffled impacts rang out.
Inside the boss room, apart from the ten ice clones still maintaining the Transcendent Magic Circle like statues, pinning down Goliath's movements and slowing him with a continuous blizzard, the four Lv.4s, Leon, Persephone, Rose, and Jeanne, had all stopped attacking as if by unspoken agreement, withdrawing from the main battlefield of their own accord and leaving the space to the others in the Familia.
As for the reason?
One glance upward said it all. The giant Goliath had long since sunk to one knee, with no strength left even to stand.
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