"Was that guy alive after all?!"
"This isn't the time for that! Vesta-"
The heretics' voices grew frantic, but they never reached Ais's ears.
Because one word was already echoing inside them.
Aria. It was a name Ais could never forget.
The name of her beloved mother. And that red-haired monster was calling her by that name, as if it belonged to her.
Ais couldn't understand why. Setting aside the fact that she was being targeted, why was that woman calling her Aria?
Her mother had been a mature woman. Ais thought she resembled her mother, too, but mistaking her for the woman she was now was impossible.
"I'm Ais."
"No, you're Aria."
The woman said it in a flat voice, as if she had no intention of having a conversation, and lunged forward.
Ais wanted to ask her privately what she knew, but unfortunately, her opponent had no intention of talking.
Perhaps the old Ais would have rushed in with a cry of rage, but the Ais of now was not the same as before.
She was no longer a vengeful wraith, only an ordinary girl. And an ordinary girl would not recklessly challenge a threat she could not resist.
Clang!
"Out of the way!"
"Tch..."
Reed's scimitar collided with Revis's sword, scattering bright red sparks.
The monster and the monster woman met each other's gaze for a moment, but soon the woman's overwhelming strength began to drive Reed back.
Was she planning to cut him down with the sword itself? Reading the intent in her momentum, Reed twisted his body and slipped away.
"Ghk!"
The sword's trajectory warped and swung toward him at a bizarre angle. It was an attack that relied purely on physical force, with technique thrown to the dogs.
Reed smoothly deflected it and avoided the blow, but even so, the impact seemed to pierce through his scales and reverberate through his whole body. A cold sweat ran down his cheek.
At a glance, it was a horribly twisted formation. Reed, a lizardman, was technically overwhelming Revis, who looked human. Of course, he was being pushed back by the sheer difference in strength, but Reed facing a stronger opponent with skill alone looked almost like an adventurer fighting a monster.
And adventurers fought in groups.
"Kyaoooooo!"
"Hup!"
The gargoyle's vicious claws came crashing down at the same time the redcap's dagger aimed for the woman's ankle.
A simultaneous attack using the difference in their builds. Attacked from the highest point and the lowest point, Revis's movement hesitated for just an instant.
Reed did not miss that opening. He readjusted his scimitar and thrust his arm toward Revis's chest.
A three-way simultaneous assault. Yet Revis, without the slightest panic, casually swung her sword at the heretics who had survived by relying on one another.
The first to be struck was Reed's scimitar. It was a crude swing with no technique at all, only force, but that alone was enough to twist the scimitar helplessly and shatter it.
It was the result of overwhelming power, with no skill whatsoever behind it. Reed's cheek trembled at the realization.
The second thing devoured by the sword was Gross's claw. Because the monster instinctively stopped his attack midway, his arm was spared by a hair, and only the claw was broken.
Looking at his claw bent so mercilessly out of shape, Gross felt his heart drop for an instant.
It was obvious what would have happened if he had taken even one more step forward.
The third was Rey. Rey, who had slipped outside the sword's trajectory, launched his attack, only to be sent flying far away by the woman's kick.
That too was not a movement born of training, but one achieved purely through strength and reflexes. The woman was so fast that she could simply track her opponent with her eyes and still have time to react.
But conversely, that meant she lacked the [experience] to respond to things she could not see.
"Haaah!"
The shout from above froze her body. The harpy did not give her opponent even a moment to recover, descending at once and launching a close-range assault.
She was late in reacting to Rey's attack. Revis raised her arm to block it, but Rey seized her by that very arm and hurled her far away.
Kagagagak! Revis drove her sword into the wall to halt her flying body. Rey's cheek twitched at the faster-than-expected, brutish response, but the objective had been achieved.
"Ais!"
"Yeah!"
Before long, the blue, eye-shaped key was in Ais's hand.
She tried to lift the door with it, but—
"Waste of effort."
"Damn it..."
When Revis raised her hand, the moving door stopped again. Seeing the key in Revis's hand, Gross muttered irritably.
Until just a moment ago, the wall had moved however they wanted, and now it wouldn't budge. Nothing could be more frustrating. If they could just bring over the human on the other side of this wall, they could win!
"It's pointless, Aria."
"I'm not Aria...!"
"No, you are Aria."
The woman said it with absolute certainty. By now, Ais was almost more curious than anything else.
Why was that woman so convinced she was Aria? Did she have any basis for that certainty?
"It is a vow."
As if sensing Ais's confusion, the woman muttered the words.
"A... vow?"
"That is right. Aria, you have an obligation to fulfill the vow. Do not resist. Come quietly."
"What is this... vow?"
"An obligation left behind by a forgotten past."
She didn't understand. She couldn't understand a single thing this woman was saying. Revis's words were full of things Ais had never heard before.
If someone other than her had been here, would they have understood? Who could have understood? Finn? Riveria? Among the people Ais knew, those two were the smartest. She had always learned knowledge and wisdom from them.
But even those two had never spoken of a vow. What was this woman, to shove something like that at her?
"Do you think your appearance in the Dungeon was a coincidence?"
The calm murmur sowed unease and fear in Ais's heart.
The fact that there was a truth she did not know filled Ais with a strange dread.
"Do you really think it was a coincidence that you arrived here by crossing time?"
"...Crossing time?"
"Remember, Aria."
"!"
It happened in an instant.
The woman was suddenly right in front of Ais, reaching out toward her.
"It is time to fulfill your duty. Do not feel wronged. If you want someone to resent, blame your mother for leaving that duty to you."
"...Don't insult my mother!"
Ais didn't understand the rest, but she understood that the woman before her was mocking her mother. She didn't know anything about the woman's words, but she knew her mother well.
Her mother had loved her. There was no doubt that love had been real. If her mother had left something to her, it must have been because she believed in her.
There was absolutely no reason to resent her, just as the woman in front of her claimed.
"Don't you dare say my mother's name so casually!"
She drew her sword and charged at the woman. The tip of her blade was so fast and precise that it seemed impossible for a child like her to produce it.
But—
"Weak."
"Kuh... [Tempest]!"
The monster blocked it far too easily.
The difference in power was overwhelming. Her sword aura was far too crude to overturn that. So Ais summoned the wind.
Faster... sharper!
"How pathetic."
Kagagak! The wind made a chilling sound as it ground against the woman's weapon.
But the woman merely looked at it with indifference before swinging her sword once more.
Bang—!
"Huh...?"
With that alone, Ais's wind was blown away. The young spirit's wind scattered and vanished beneath the savage sword gust unleashed by the monster.
Startled by the unexpected turn, Ais's throat was seized by Revis's hand.
"Ghk...!"
"Ais!"
"Get your hand off her, you monster bastard!"
The heretics rushed in hastily, but one swing of the sword sent them flying like leaves in the wind. Revis was overwhelmingly strong in this place. The only one she was wary of was one person.
"Hmph."
"Ah...!"
Revis stepped on the key that had bounced to her feet and crushed it. With the one and only hope shattered, a despairing cry slipped from Rey's mouth.
Revis, satisfied after destroying the only variable in the place, lifted her head and looked at Ais.
"This is the end, Aria."
"Kuh... ngh...!"
"When you wake up, it will all be over."
As she said that, she tightened her grip. Ais thrashed as she was instantly driven into suffocation, but Revis did not budge.
It hurt. She couldn't breathe, and her vision began to blur. What would happen if she blacked out like this?
Her oxygen-starved brain would not allow proper thought. Even if it had, nothing would have changed.
Ais had no way to escape this rough hand.
And so, as Ais flailed helplessly and her limbs went limp, and a faint smile touched Revis's face—
Ring—
"Hm...?"
Along with that small chime, a sense of foreboding scraped down Revis's spine.
She immediately tried to move away, but her opponent was faster.
Boom—!
"What the...?!"
The wall exploded in an instant. And what appeared in Revis's startled eyes was—
A man wearing a ferocious expression utterly unlike his appearance, and in his hand, lightning crackling like an enraged bull.
"[Astrafe]!"
The lightning swept over Revis and raced through the labyrinth.
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