As the creator god of Orario, Ouranos sat year-round in the depths of the Guild to perform prayer rituals.
While using his divine authority to suppress the Dungeon, he also established a certain connection with it.
Through this connection, Ouranos could detect anomalies in the Dungeon at the first moment they occurred.
"Half a minute ago, the Dungeon entered a berserk state and birthed a special monster on the 27th floor."
"After that, ordinary monsters from the 25th to the 27th floors also began to spawn frequently; the entire Water Maze City has begun to riot."
Faint candlelight illuminated the basement; leaning against the massive stone throne, Ouranos showed a rare serious expression.
"Fels, you and the Xenos are currently closest to the 27th floor. I need you to help investigate the specific situation."
"I understand."
Fels nodded.
The meeting place he had agreed upon with the Xenos was the 24th floor; one more floor down would be the 25th.
From the 25th to the 27th floors, centered around the Great Blue Falls, the three floors of the City of Water Maze were interconnected.
As long as they reached the 25th floor, they could use the help of flying monsters like Rena to quickly reach the 27th floor; the whole process wouldn't take much time.
"Ray, Rena, I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion at this time, but I need help."
Hanging up the communication with Ouranos, Fels came before Rena and Ray and explained the situation.
"No problem, leave it to me."
Rena nodded and agreed immediately.
With a Level 4 physical constitution as a foundation, let alone carrying Fels, carrying two more would be no problem.
"I'll go with you."
Lyd followed along.
As one of the Xenos leaders, his physical constitution was no worse than a Level 5 adventurer; he could help clear the path and deal with monsters along the way.
"Take me too."
"I want to help too."
"Puchi, Puchi!"
As Lyd stepped forward, a group of Xenos of different races also jumped out.
The strength of these Xenos was mostly at the Level 3 or Level 4 level; they were either small in size or possessed the ability to fly.
As long as they were paired properly, they could also go directly from the 25th floor to the 27th floor with Lyd and the others.
"That's enough people; these will do."
Leaving the Xenos who were not convenient to move at the base, Lyd led the team toward the 25th floor.
The Xenos bases were without exception located in hidden spaces within the floors; the base on the 24th floor was located on the west side of the floor, very close to a passage leading to the 25th floor.
With a group of Level 4 and Level 5 Xenos clearing the way, Fels and the others advanced at full speed, taking only about ten minutes to reach the 25th floor through the passage.
"Ray, take us down."
"Okay."
Unlike Rena, Ray only had a torso that resembled a human's; her legs were still in the shape of talons.
With her claws gripping the inside of Fels's skeleton, she exerted force and flew down with him.
Passing over the first two tiers of pools that were arranged like steps, Ray, arriving above the 27th floor, immediately discovered the mission objective.
"That's... Amphisbaena?"
Looking at the massive monster over thirty meters tall rampaging on the pool, a look of horror appeared on Ray's face.
"Why does it have eight heads?!"
"I don't know, but this should be the abnormal situation Ouranos mentioned."
Fels was also startled by the monster in front of him, but more than the Amphisbaena, he was concerned about another figure.
A massive barrier enveloped nearly half of the pool, and a figure entwined with golden lightning was continuously fighting the monster.
"That's... Lynn?!"
"He's Lynn?"
A look of surprise appeared on Ray's face.
The battle between Lynn and Amphisbaena was too conspicuous; she naturally noticed that figure as well.
But Ray hadn't expected that the person fighting that monster would be the Lynn who had rescued Rena.
"Fels! Let's go help him!"
"No! Wait a moment!"
Fels called out to stop Ray just in time.
Because they were so conspicuous, as soon as he arrived above the pool, his attention was drawn to the two of them.
It wasn't until Ray spoke about helping and he subconsciously looked for a suitable landing spot that he noticed the other two figures beside the pool.
Hestia Familia member, Sanjono Haruhime.
Freya Familia Captain, Ottar.
Knowing the relationship between Lynn and the Freya Familia, Fels was certain that these two being here must be related to Lynn.
In that case, the situation on the scene was very strange.
Why was Lynn fighting the mutated Amphisbaena while Ottar, the highest combat power, was slacking off in the distance and doing nothing?
"Fels, that person seems to have noticed us."
Ray's voice rang out again.
Fels, who was thinking about the reason, looked over again and happened to lock eyes with Ottar.
"...Ray, take me over there."
Since they had been discovered, there was no need to hide anymore.
Puzzled by the current situation, Fels directed Ray to drop him at the edge of the pool.
Leaving Ray and the subsequently arriving Lyd and the others on standby, he approached Ottar alone.
"Who are you?"
Ottar asked expressionlessly.
Through aura perception, he could roughly judge the level of the target's strength.
Setting aside that group of monsters in the back, this person in black was only at the level of LV4.
Identified as small fry; could be dealt with in one punch.
"I am a partner of Lynn, sent on a mission to investigate the anomaly on the 27th floor."
On the other side, Fels, unaware that he was being treated as small fry by Ottar, responded: "Ottar, can you please explain the current situation?"
"...Ask Lynn yourself later."
Ottar fell silent for a moment, revealing nothing.
In fact, Ottar didn't know what to say to Fels either, as from his perspective, the sequence of events was also very strange.
Lynn invited him to blast fish -> came to the 27th floor with Lynn -> Lynn started blasting fish -> Amphisbaena suddenly spawned.
After watching all this, the only thing Ottar could be sure of was that the mutation of the Amphisbaena was related to Lynn.
As for why an Amphisbaena would spawn, and a mutated one at that, he didn't know.
However, there was one thing Ottar could be certain of.
"The battle is almost over."
Ottar looked toward the distant battlefield.
Through observation, he could see many things.
The mutated Amphisbaena, aside from the strength advantage brought by its massive size, only had other ability values at the LV6 level. Furthermore, the most troublesome parts were the number of abilities and its counters to Lynn's magic.
But with the boost from the Uchide no Kozuchi, even if Lynn didn't use Current Propulsion or the full version of Fading Light Slash, he could still deal damage to the Amphisbaena.
As the battle progressed, the Spirit Devouring Barrier also began to exert its power, continuously draining the Amphisbaena's strength to feed back to Lynn.
With the dual boost of the Uchide no Kozuchi and the Spirit Devouring Barrier, Lynn had already completed a numerical overtake, entering the realm of LV7 in terms of physical fitness alone.
With sufficient base stats, dealing with the Amphisbaena would only get easier for Lynn.
Boom—!
As if to answer Ottar's speculation, Lynn suddenly exerted force in the battlefield, striking the Amphisbaena's torso with a punch.
The metal surface defense was instantly pierced, and a massive bloody hole appeared on the Amphisbaena's body.
But unlike before where he would hit and run, this time after wounding the enemy, Lynn didn't retreat but instead closed in directly.
"It's time to end this."
A cold light broke through the air as the Rai-Kiri blade, radiating lightning, was instantly thrust into the bloody hole, sticking to the Amphisbaena at zero distance.
In the next moment, he gripped the hilt with both hands and let out a roar, dragging the Rai-Kiri as he began to run across the Amphisbaena's body.
With brute force creating miracles, starting from the bloody hole, the sharp blade left a massive gash on the Amphisbaena's torso.
At the same time, the Dismantle was fully activated, and countless sword qi erupted inside the Amphisbaena's body with the blade as the core.
In just a few breaths, a series of dull cutting sounds echoed from the Amphisbaena's body.
Blood mist filled the air, and deafening roars resounded throughout the City of Water Maze.
Sensing the approach of death, the Amphisbaena put up a final resistance, its poison and the pool water intermingling to form hundreds of water spikes that bombarded the area where Lynn was located.
"The same move won't work on a Saint Seiya!"
Lynn laughed loudly and took the hit without even dodging, continuing his charge across the Amphisbaena's body.
Poisonous spikes pierced Lynn's body, but under the effects of Reverse Cursed Technique and Super-speed Regeneration, he completed regeneration in just an instant, and the toxins were countered by antibodies he had already analyzed.
Sword qi pierced the air, and blood mist filled the surroundings.
The final counterattack was broken by Lynn's unreasonable methods, and the Amphisbaena's strength began to plummet.
LV5, LV4, LV3...
The Spirit Devouring Barrier continued to exert its power, and Lynn's movement speed grew faster and faster, until finally, the speed at which he dealt damage surpassed the Amphisbaena's healing rate.
With a mournful cry, the Amphisbaena reached its absolute limit, its body turning into black ash that scattered in the air, leaving behind a massive magic stone and a blue snakeskin.
At the same time, a beam of white light shot out from the swirling black ash and, drawn by the Spirit Devouring Barrier, flowed into Lynn's body.
Visibly, Lynn felt his physical fitness surge, gaining an all-around boost from the inside out.
"As expected, killing a BOSS gives a lot of experience."
Grabbing the magic stone and the snakeskin, Lynn let out a sigh of emotion.
The bigger the waves, the more expensive the fish; high risk is followed by high reward. His harvest from this battle was at least ten or even nine times that of yesterday.
Of course, there was a price for doing this.
Invisibly, Lynn could feel a massive malice enveloping him, and a sixth sense from deep within his soul kept signaling a warning—he had been targeted by the Dungeon.
If he used the Spirit Devouring Barrier again, the Dungeon might not even wait for him to devour souls before sending assassins specifically after him.
"It seems I can only go this far for now."
The Dungeon was not a dead thing; it was the source of all monsters, a special living entity with self-awareness that even the gods needed to treat with caution.
Continuously provoking the Dungeon to test its bottom line wasn't just courting death; it was seeking it.
Holding the loot dropped by the Amphisbaena, Lynn returned to the edge of the pool and looked ahead.
It was time to greet the guests.
...