Darkness.
That was Shiro's first impression when he opened his eyes.
It was not the strange feeling of suddenly going from daytime to night. Rather, not even the slightest trace of light could penetrate the space around him.
Shiro alone floated through the pitch-black void, surrounded by darkness so deep it felt as though something might crawl out of it and reach for him at any moment.
This place was the Dungeon.
The occasional roars coming from somewhere above led Shiro to that conclusion.
After being transported between worlds so many times, he immediately understood that the World Crossing Gate was responsible.
For some inexplicable reason, the tool he used to travel between worlds had a habit of dumping him into bizarre places. It was almost as if, so long as there was still a way to make his life harder, it would gladly do exactly that.
With no way to complain to the gate itself, Shiro could only start moving and find an exit on his own.
"Tch. I don't even know what floor this is. I don't remember ever visiting anywhere like this before."
A faint white glow appeared around his body, illuminating the surrounding area.
If he really was inside the Dungeon, lighting himself up like this was practically an invitation for nearby monsters to swarm him.
Unfortunately, it was also the easiest way to find a route leading upward.
Even now, neither mortals nor gods knew the Dungeon's exact size. All they knew was that the farther one descended from the surface, the larger each floor became.
By the eighteenth floor, a single floor was already comparable in size to Orario, the city known as the center of the world. If Shiro wandered around in complete darkness without even knowing which floor he was on, he might spend three days without finding the exit.
Yet once he could finally see his surroundings, that very fact made something feel strange.
Shiro raised his head and stared at the ceiling less than three meters above him, so low that it almost felt ready to crush him.
The height of this floor was completely disproportionate to its apparent size. Even the first floor of the Dungeon had a higher ceiling than this.
Then again, perhaps that only proved how unusual this place was.
"Hah? There's actually somewhere like that inside the Dungeon?"
Back in the present, Loki rubbed her smooth chin and interrupted Shiro's story.
Gods were not truly omniscient. They merely seemed that way because they had lived for so long and experienced far more than mortals ever could.
That was precisely why they descended to the Lower World in the first place. They wanted the world below, and the children in their Familias, to show them things they had never known before.
The Dungeon had always been shrouded in mystery, so hearing about something completely unknown hidden within it immediately caught Loki's interest.
"That's because the place could barely be called part of the Dungeon anymore. More accurately, it was something the Dungeon had been suppressing all this time."
As Shiro spoke, he raised his right hand and turned his palm upward.
The temperature inside Loki's divine room suddenly dropped.
The next moment, ominous black mana surged from his palm and rapidly spread through every opening in the room until it completely enveloped Loki's entire chamber.
"Waaah!"
The sudden change startled Loki so badly that she nearly fell out of her chair. Fortunately, Shiro had expected that reaction and used the black mana to steady the chair before continuing.
"This is what I found on that floor. It's also the main reason the Dungeon went berserk this time."
"Oho? There's something like this down there? Let me get a good look."
Loki immediately jumped down from her chair and leaned close to inspect Shiro's right hand, which was wrapped in black mana.
"I should've returned several days ago, but merging with this thing took longer than expected."
Poke, poke.
"Just to be safe, I spent some time on the way back testing whether merging with it had caused any harmful effects. My conclusion was that it hadn't."
Squeeze, squeeze.
"And not only that. I'm pretty sure the new magic I gained came from this thing too... Would you knock it off already?!"
Pat, pat.
Smack!
Halfway through his explanation, Shiro finally lost patience with Loki's antics and slapped away both hands she had once again reached toward him.
"I'm helping you check whether you missed anything during your own examination. My divine power might be sealed down here, but I still have the eyes I developed over all those years."
Loki shook her reddened hands and gave him an awkward grin.
"Go outside Twilight Manor and ask all the gods you know whether any of them would believe that excuse."
Loki might genuinely have meant well, but the thing truly driving her behavior was the endless curiosity buried inside her.
If the personalities of every god were placed on an alignment chart, Loki would undoubtedly land somewhere around lawful evil.
It was only because she wanted to protect Orario, the place that provided her with endless entertainment, that most people now regarded her as a defender of order and one of the city's two great rulers.
Only gods who had lived through Ragnarok knew what really hid behind Loki's permanently narrowed eyes.
"You wait right here. I'll have my kids drag over a couple gods and ask them myself. I'd love to see who dares bad-mouth me to my face."
"Don't use your Familia's power for something like that."
"Hah? What kind of stupid thing are you saying? If I can't throw my weight around and bully people, why did I even build a Familia?"
"...Don't tell me you descended and founded a Familia just so you could bully other gods."
"That's just a bonus. Using my power to torment that little shrimp's weak Familia is fun and all, but I do have some dignity. I'd rather spend the time finding a few more beauties around Orario."
Loki's grin became increasingly suspicious.
"At least then I'd have something nice to look at while Ais-tan and the others are away on expeditions. Cute girls and sexy clothes are the perfect combination, aren't they? Guehehe~"
"..."
'She actually admitted it.'
'And by little shrimp... does she mean Hestia?'
"You've already figured out what's wrong with me now, haven't you?"
Defeated by Loki's shamelessness, Shiro remained silent for a moment before deciding to ignore the strange noises she kept making and move the conversation along.
Loki might rarely act serious and often behaved like an idiot, but she was still a god.
Shiro did not believe something this significant could escape her eyes.
"Oh~ So you already noticed. I thought I'd have to specially point it out for you."
"It happened to my own body. Of course I noticed. That's exactly why I wanted to ask you."
Shiro withdrew the black mana surrounding the room. His expression then became completely serious.
"How can I repair this incomplete divinity inside me?"
…