The brow of every member of in team was slick with sweat.
"It's getting closer!" said Ryuu as her hand tightened around the sword.
We were currently on the seventeenth floor, and the tremors from below were growing stronger by the second. Ryuu sliced a minotaur in two, carving a path for us. She was desperately trying to turn her mounting tension into strength rather than fear.
"We're almost at the eighteenth floor," noted Ais, clearing the hordes with her sword.
"And these rumbles are no joke!" added Gareth, swinging his ax. "No doubt the monster will meet us there as planned!"
Our strike team had been able to maintain a good pace and was quickly approaching the deepest part of the seventeenth floor—the Great Wall of Sorrows.
"I suppose that means we needn't worry about being late to the party," said Kaguya, narrowing her eyes and licking her lips in anticipation.
"Yeah, in fact, the timing's so perfect it's scary!" cried Lyra. "The heck is wrong with you, Finn?!"
This location was meant to be home to the Goliath, a Monster Rex, but right now it was startlingly empty. It was as though all the powerful monsters of the Dungeon had gone into hiding.
"We'll take up our positions before the enemy arrives," said Riveria. "As soon as we reach floor eighteen, take the high ground. We'll start the battle with a fusillade of spells!"
"Got it!" came Alise's spirited reply. "Leave it to us!"
She sprinted off ahead, and the rest of us followed. But just then, Ryuu and I spotted something strange. A scarlet ember was dancing in the air. "…Sparks? Where are they coming from…?"
But Alise didn't notice our confusion. "I see the way to floor eighteen right ahead! I'm going in!" She leaped through the hole at the end of the room, into a dark tunnel that slanted downward.
Soon, the light of the exit came into view, and Alise jumped out into the world beyond.
Instantly, she felt a blistering heat.
Her ears were deafened by a thundering roar.
And hellfire stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Wha—?!"
I was at a loss for words. Kaguya, Lyra, and Ais couldn't speak, either. The girls of Astrea Familia froze. Riveria and Gareth paused, their eyes wide.
"…What…happened…?" muttered Alise, stupefied.
The Dungeon Paradise was on fire, and it now looked like a gateway to hell.
The crystals were melting. The forests had been reduced to ash. The land itself cracked and burned. Glittering lakes had become bubbling pools that belched blistering steam, and droplets of molten crystal rained from above like hail.
It was a vision of apocalypse painted in scarlet and crimson. Not a memory remained of the Under Resort the adventurers knew.
"The trees are burning…" wailed Celty. "All the greens and blues…they're gone."
"I ain't never seen anythin' so…horrible," muttered Lyra.
Ais lifted an arm to her sweat-soaked brow. "It's so hot…" she complained. "It's hard to breathe…"
"This is like hell itself," said Kaguya.
"It…it can't be," cried Riveria, the horror plain on her face, "but this is just like…"
"Yes." Gareth completed her thought. "It's the same as the Dragon's Urn on the deep levels!"
The rocks in the walls and floors disgorged a terrifying heat, like magma.
"What do you mean by Dragon urn, Old man?" I asked Gareth, since I forgot a lot of things related to the anime, but I didn't get to hear his answer before the ground at our feet split open, unleashing a column of fire.
"Whoa?! What's happening?!" cried Ardi.
"The ground just exploded!" yelled Lyana.
"A large group of monsters got engulfed by the flames," cried Neze, "and they're coming this way!"
While floor eighteen was a so-called safe point where no monsters spawned, a good number of monsters still ventured in from the adjacent floors seeking respite. Clad in fiery armor, bugbears and mad beetles advanced toward us.
"I've never seen anything like it!" shouted Kaguya. "We have to fight them!" She drew her katana and lunged for the horde.
"The monsters are a pain in the butt, but…"
"Those pillars of fire are a real danger, too!" Ryuu finished Lyra's warning. "What incredible heat… A single hit from one of those and we'll be incinerated!"
Kaguya paused during a break in the hostilities to cry out to her allies. "Why is fire coming out of the ground?" she yelled. "What's going on?"
"It's coming from the floor below," came Gareth's reply.
"Wha—?!"
Riveria studied the landscape. "It's the monster we're looking for," she concluded. "It must be. It's blasting its way up through the floor as we speak."
"That's insane," I said. I think now I remember something like this happening in the Sword Oratoria anime. When Lefiya fell into the hole. But that means…
"The Dragon's Urn is a deep level that only Zeus and Hera have ever reached," Riveria explained. "We only have Guild reports to go on, but we have heard tales of attacks that cross floor boundaries."
"From floor fifty-two onward, the Dungeon becomes hell," added Gareth. "I wouldn't be surprised if our quarry is using the same tactic it would down there." The girls of Astrea Familia were stunned.
"So this is what it's like down on floor fifty-two?!" spat Lyra in disbelief. "You've gotta be kidding me! That's crazy!"
Alise, meanwhile, eyed the fiery landscape, then gave a cheerful smile and a nod. "So this monster's as powerful as the ones you find past floor fifty, huh? Yeah, that's scary! My alias is Scarlett Harnell, but that might not be enough to save me here!" Alise thumped her chest with a smug grin.
"Why do you sound so proud when you say that?!" Ryuu shouted.
"Never mind, just form up as La–Miss Riveria indicated!" she said in the end.
"That's right," Riveria agreed. "The monster hasn't broken through yet. We still have time to—"
But before she could give any concrete orders, a new voice interjected.
"I will not allow you to interrupt."
All sound disappeared at once. All of us froze in stunned silence, as if our voices had been stolen. Out of a cloud of whirling sparks stepped a woman in a white dress. Despite the scorching conditions, everything around her seemed cold and desolate.
"We bear witness to the final moments of the Age of Gods." Her words flowed like poetry. Her pure black hair, like the night sky, fluttered around her shoulders.
"In death, as it was in life. Obtrusive, violent, and cruel."
It was Ryuu who recovered first and spoke the witch's name. "Saphira Elmareth… The Duskwitch!"
"I-it can't be," stammered Maryu. "H-how did you get here?!"
"It's not just Babel's sentries—you would've had to sneak right through our main base! How did you manage that?!" Saphira remained cool throughout Kaguya's interrogation.
She must have used one of those paths from knoses.
"I see no reason to answer that."
Then her neck turned ever so slightly, placing Riveria and Gareth squarely in the path of her black eyes. "I see you are not surprised, followers of the Trickster."
"Finn and Arin warned us," answered Riveria. "They said there might appear a foe even more deadly than the Dungeon monster."
"Yes," added Gareth. "We wouldn't be here were it not for their canny hunch."
Saphira's gaze settled on me with an unsettling intensity. "Even the failed heroes are still heroes, I suppose."
I frowned. "Failed hero? What are you talking about?"
Her lips curved into something that might have been a smile, but held no warmth. "You possess the vessel—strong enough to bear great power. You have determination that refuses to bend, and grit that endures where others would break. Most importantly, you carry within you the soul of a hero, that rare spark that compels one to stand against evil."
She paused, letting her words hang in the scorching air before continuing with cold finality.
"Yet both your soul and your vessel have been stained by this world's endless cruelties. The purity required for true heroism has been tarnished, leaving you caught between what you could have been and what you have become. A hero in potential, perhaps—but a failed one in practice."
"Though it matters little, as you will be resting in a cold but fiery cage free from all burdens."
The woman was dead serious.
Saphira spoke as if she were tracing the score to her requiem with her finger. "Promise me to wait out this tower's fall and the end of an era without word or deed. If so, then—"
"Nope, sorry!!"
One insensitive young redhead shattered the weighty mood. "I don't get all this 'bringing an end to the Age of Gods' stuff, but if you think I'm gonna stand around while Orario crumbles, then you've got another think coming!!"
Saphira's lips parted gently in surprise. The jaws of the rest of Alise's fellow members, on the other hand, hit the floor in shock. Alise ignored all of them and continued shooting off.
"You're trying to destroy the city! That's ridiculous! Besides, we've already come all this way! You really think I'm just gonna go, 'Oh, okay then,' and not do anything just because you asked?!"
Riveria and Gareth went uncharacteristically wide-eyed, while Ais blinked multiple times. "Well, I'm sorry, but our justice doesn't care what you think! What do you think of that, eh? Too hot for you to handle? Well, that's too bad!!" Alise puffed out her modest chest and put on the smuggest smile she could muster, eyes closed. The only sound that ensued was the roaring of the flames.
Kaguya was the first to break the silence. "…Heh. Ha-ha-ha!"
"Talk about disrespectful. Sheesh…" Lyra hung her head in defeat. "…But I guess that's what we all love about ya. Never change, Captain."
"We could all take a leaf out of Alise's book," added Riveria with a smile.
"At times like these, I am glad you are so insensitive," I said, drawing my sword out.
"Hey! I am not insensitive!"
"The rallying hymn of foolishness mistaken for courage," she said. "Orario has not changed."
The air about her suddenly gained an unbearable weight.
"Very well. If you will not watch this world's demise in silence, then perish alongside it. Let the cries of life and war return equally to nothing. That is the mercy I offer you."
Suddenly, unbelievable waves of magical energy began radiating off her.
"Get ready!" Riveria immediately set up a magic circle and started chanting, while Alise raised her sword, Crimson Order.
"Let's go, everyone! There's a world that needs saving, so we've got a job to do!"
"Yes, Alise!" came Ryuu's reply, and the rest of us all launched ourselves at the Black haired witch.
.
.
.
"Raaaaaaaaaahhh!"
The curtains of battle rose as Gareth led with a mighty swing from his battleax. The witch's response was a single word.
"Rime."
"Graaaaaaaghhh!!"
With an unfairly short chant, ice materializes, colliding with Gareth's hurling his stout frame backward. We, however, knew all about Saphira's spell by now and had been expecting it. We continued our assault without hesitation.
"Hup!!"
"Tempest!"
Gareth's distraction gave Ryuu and Ais the time they needed to follow up. They raced across the terrain like panthers, approaching the witch from opposite sides and unleashing a pair of upward swings. Any average monster would have been torn to shreds by the two hurricanes, but…
Saphira was not an average monster. She was a monster among monsters. As the two blades approached her flesh, she spoke the next word in her hymn.
"Ignite." An explosion of destruction.
"Wha—?!"
"Aaaahhh!!"
Ryuu and Ais were flung back as if they'd stepped on a mine. The elf crossed her swords and dug her feet into the floor, while the lighter Ais soared through the air like a ball. The two girls had leaped into the spot Gareth had only just vacated and were immediately enveloped in explosive magical energy.
"That was a spell key!!" yelled Ryuu, recognizing the nature of the force.
"Wait, what?! What just happened?!" shouted Alise, looking left and right between the combatants. "I blinked, and now old man Gareth's on the floor, and Leon and the Sword Princess got blown back as well!"
Yeah, the battle only began a few seconds earlier and but it was enough time to see how strong she is.
"She uses Fire and Ice magic!" yelled Lyra, never taking her eyes off the foe for an instant. "Weren't you listening when Finn explained it to you?"
"The casting time is ultrashort, hits as hard as Nine Hell's magic!" yelled Kaguya.
"And yet you are still in one piece." Saphira said, observing, "A magic item perhaps?"
"Precisely," answered Gareth. "Finn devised them, and Arin and Perseus Lass crafted them for us!"
"One for each of us," added Ryuu. "So don't expect us to go down easily!"
It was the cloak all of us were wearing. It gives resistance against ice and fire, is extremely durable, and has protection against impacts. Asfi and I started making them the moment we found out about Saphira. It was a difficult process, but with Asfi's amazing talent, we were able to make it.
We named it Twilight Aegis.
Though I do not know how it would bear against her strongest attacks.
"Then let us see, shall we? Let us see how long that magic item will hold."
A second passed as Saphira's unassuming words hung in the air. And then the onslaught began.
"Urgh?!" cried Ryuu.
"Dammit! This ain't fair!" shouted Lyra.
"How are we supposed to get close when she keeps blasting us back?!" complained the dwarven vanguard, Asta.
Saphira's magic could not be stopped. Even the adventurers' specialized defensive enchantments could not completely attenuate the raw power of her attacks.
"Riveria, start casting your magic. I will distract her." I told Riveria that since her magic is the only way I see we can defeat Saphira.
"Understood," she said and casting her magic. "Harbinger of the end, the white snow. Blow with the wind before the twilight."
I activated my Magic Astrum cordis. With my recent level-up, I am essentially a level 5 now.
I leaped at her blind spot, but she easily dodged my blade aimed at her neck.
"So you decided to participate in the battlefield, Failed Hero."
I ignored her words and used my fire magic, aiming at her.
"Agni O!!" Scorthing blue flames manifested, hurling towards her.
"Impressive, but not enough," she said, "Ice wall." Blue flames collided with the white wall, resulting in an explosion that created a shock wave, flinging me back. Static electricity appeared in the area where our magic collided.
"Riveria now!!" I shouted.
"My name is Alf– Wynn Fimbulvetr!" Riviera ice magic started hurling towards Saphira.
"Scarlet Nova."
The two opposing forces met in the center of the hellish battlefield with cataclysmic fury. Riveria's Wynn Fimbulvetr—a blizzard of absolute zero that could freeze entire armies—crashed head-on into Saphira's Scarlet Nova, a crimson tsunami that burned with the heat of a dying star.
The collision was nothing short of apocalyptic.
A blinding white flash erupted at the impact point, followed immediately by a deafening roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the Dungeon. Where ice met fire, reality itself seemed to fracture. Steam exploded outward in all directions like a massive bomb, but this wasn't ordinary steam—it carried both the searing heat of Saphira's flames and the bone-chilling cold of Riveria's blizzard.
The shockwave hit first. Even wrapped in our Twilight Aegis cloaks, we were all thrown backward like ragdolls. The ground beneath the collision point cracked and split, unable to withstand the conflicting temperatures. Chunks of stone alternately melted and froze in rapid succession, creating grotesque formations of half-melted, half-crystallized rock.
"Everyone, take cover!" Gareth roared, but his voice was barely audible over the chaos.
Lightning-like discharges of raw magical energy crackled through the superheated steam, creating an aurora of impossible colors. Where the energies touched the already damaged crystals of the eighteenth floor, they either shattered into diamond dust or melted into glowing pools.
For several seconds, the entire area was engulfed in a swirling maelstrom of conflicting elements. Visibility dropped to zero as the steam cloud expanded, carrying with it the paradox of scalding heat and numbing cold existing in the same space.
When the chaos finally began to settle, the aftermath was revealed. A crater roughly twenty meters wide had been carved into the floor, its edges lined with strange ice formations that glowed red-hot from within. The air itself seemed wounded, shimmering with residual magical distortions.
Both Riveria and Saphira stood at opposite edges of the crater, but the toll was evident. Riveria was breathing heavily, her usually perfect composure cracked, sweat beading on her forehead despite the lingering cold.
Saphira, for the first time since her appearance, looked... interested. A thin smile played at her lips as she observed the destruction.
"Impressive, High Elf," she said, her voice carrying easily through the settling mist. "It has been some time since anyone forced such an exchange with me."
The temperature around us fluctuated wildly—one moment scorching, the next freezing—as the conflicting magical energies slowly dissipated into the already chaotic environment of the transformed paradise.
"But this is merely the prelude," Saphira continued.
"Is she a freaking monster?" I said, getting back up on my feet.
But right on cue, there was a sound so loud it outclassed even the Level 7's spells.
"Another attack from below! It's a big one!" cried Kaguya, barely managing to stay upright. But she didn't get another word out before an enormous explosion drowned out all sound.
Like a waterfall in reverse, a column of fire erupted from the ground, spanning the entire height of the cavern.
"It's coming through the ground!" cried Ais, raising her arms to shield her face from the blistering heat.
"What is this monster supposed to be, a volcano?!" yelled Lyra. She watched as the great tree at the floor's center was consumed by the flames and crumbled to ash.
"There's a big hole in the center of the floor!" shouted Ardee.
The attack left a void about twenty meders in diameter. and a rumble like the horns of heaven announcing the creature's arrival. All of us turned to stare at the abyss in shock.
"Oh no… It's here!"
"…A demon wreathed in flames," Saphira calmly declared. And then…
"The Dungeon's cry made manifest. A monster's first birthday."
Comes the familiar voice of Erebus.
"The birth of evil. A nightmare made real. In the name of primordial darkness, I have upheld my oath."
"Erebus!" Ryuu's voice trembled.
The dark god stepped out of the veil of scarlet and into stark relief.
"Here I am," he said. "And I brought the apocalypse with me."
Three pillars of flames erupted behind him, and a harbinger of destruction climbed out of the abyss.