As the light flooded the cavern, the goblins seemed to realise their plan had failed. At their leader's howls, they scrambled to retreat.
It was then that Sword Maiden finally understood—they'd walked into a goblin trap.
Remembering the horrific fates of women victimised by goblins that she'd heard about at the Adventurer's Guild, Sword Maiden whirled around without hesitation. Disregarding her footing, she recklessly swung her sword toward the fleeing creatures.
At the same moment, Luo Shu, still gripping the intercepted club, reached out and caught her descending blade.
"What?"
Sword Maiden stared in shock at the man who should have been her saviour, confusion written across her face at his apparent defence of the goblins.
Then Luo Shu said drily:
"Could you aim properly? That was heading straight for my head."
Instantly, Sword Maiden's face flushed crimson.
Scarlet with embarrassment, she yanked her sword free when Luo Shu released it, promptly reducing the rope-swinging goblin into eight neat pieces. She then turned her blade toward the escaping goblins—particularly those trying to drag away captured comrades.
This time, Sword Maiden adjusted her breathing. Footwork, swordplay, and divine magic synchronised perfectly, finally displaying the combat prowess she ought to possess.
Meanwhile, the previously captured Witch and Cleric, now illuminated by smartphone light, grasped the situation.
The Witch began casting wandless spells while the Cleric donned brass knuckles—both attacking with such ferocity that within moments, the goblins were either reduced to charred fragments or pulverised into meaty lumps.
Watching the adventurer party cutting down goblins like slicing melons and chopping vegetables, Mai Sakurajima, who was holding Ai Hoshino's arm, wore a completely bewildered expression.
'You're all so strong and brutal... How did you almost get captured by goblins earlier?'
'Does this make any sense? Not at all!'
Under Mai Sakurajima's dumbfounded gaze and Luo Shu's crossed-arm observation, not a single goblin surrounding the adventurer party escaped, all falling victim to their blades.
After pummeling the last goblin to death with his fists, the red-haired Cleric angrily cursed:
"The intel said there were only two goblin nests, twenty at most!"
"We've slaughtered at least a hundred here! How dare the Adventurer's Guild spread such false information? This is practically murder!"
The purple-haired Witch beside him, unusually not undermining Cleric this time, darkly agreed:
"I'm blowing up the Adventurer's Guild when we get back!"
"Sword Maiden! Are you unharmed?!"
The pale-faced Archer, clutching a short sword, rushed to Sword Maiden, her expression a mix of lingering fear from nearly being captured by goblins and dread at the thought of anything happening to the Sword Maiden.
If the Archbishop learned that the Sword Maiden under her protection had fallen during a goblin subjugation, suicide would be her only recourse for atonement.
Thus, the Archer had been truly terrified, even abandoning the cost-effectiveness of magical arrow bombardment in her panic, exhausting all her arrows to blast fleeing goblins to bits.
Yet even this couldn't fully vent the terror in her heart.
In stark contrast, Sword Maiden remained remarkably composed.
The golden-haired girl with a ponytail patted the Archer's back reassuringly before approaching Luo Shu. Raising her sword vertically before her, she bowed deeply with solemn respect:
"We owe you our deepest gratitude for your timely assistance earlier. Had it not been for you..."
At the thought of that possibility, Sword Maiden couldn't help biting her lower lip.
Such an outcome was something she'd rather die than accept.
Meanwhile, Luo Shu was observing Sword Maiden with a thoughtful expression, his eyes filled with cold scrutiny.
'Such an intense Fate Concept... So those dice rolls I saw earlier weren't hallucinations after all.'
Remembering what he'd just witnessed, Luo Shu's gaze grew even colder.
As Luo Shu remained lost in thought, Sword Maiden—having waited in vain for a response—looked at him in confusion:
"Is something the matter?"
"Heh." Mai Sakurajima chuckled with mild amusement from the side.
Earlier, she'd wondered what possible 'gains' Luo Shu had been referring to.
Turns out it was such a seductive vixen.
With that innocent expression yet such outrageous proportions—those two offensive mounds in front nearly bigger than her head—and that innocent face to top it off, not to mention being saved by Luo Shu in classic hero-rescues-beauty fashion...
Mai could almost predict exactly how this would play out.
Thinking this, and being either a competent subordinate or an actor under the director's guidance, Mai decided to lend some support to her Chief God by asking the girl's name:
"You there with the sword—what's your name?"
"Ah, are you addressing me? You may call me Sword Maiden," Sword Maiden replied with a smile.
Mai frowned slightly. "That's a title, not a name. I'm asking for your actual name."
Sword Maiden appeared puzzled. "But this is my name. It was bestowed upon me by the divine."
"Divinely bestowed name?" Mai grew more confused. "Then what were you called before the gods gave you this name?"
"I was called Ascetic," Sword Maiden answered matter-of-factly. "Before that, I believe I was known as the daughter of Cleric from Village 343. Earlier than that, I don't recall."
Hearing this, Mai found it utterly incomprehensible:
"Those... aren't proper names, are they? 'Ascetic' could describe you or anyone else. Don't you have a name that belongs solely to you?"
"A name that belongs solely to me... That would be Sword Maiden then." She tilted her head slightly, clearly struggling to understand Mai's concern.
Are names really that important?
It was then that Mai realised the fundamental issue.
"Are you telling me... people in this Abyss world don't have proper names?"
Just as Mai was reeling from this revelation—
Luo Shu, who had been silently contemplating nearby, suddenly moved.
He took a single step—a step that transcended space—vanishing from everyone's sight and entering an unknowable perspective.
Then—BOOM.
A foot came crashing down upon a chessboard.
The board shattered violently, fragments flying in all directions, grazing the faces of numerous unseen presences surrounding them.
Standing atop the ruined chessboard, Luo Shu surveyed the surrounding trash with a cold sneer:
"Having fun rolling your dice, trash?"
"Now... shouldn't it be my turn to play?"