"Ais! Are you okay?"
Bete, who was leaping backward in a large, evasive jump, shouted toward the person beside him.
"Yeah..."
Ais landed as well with a similar long jump, then nodded lightly with her eyes locked firmly on what lay ahead, unwilling to look away.
Seeing that Ais was unharmed, Bete felt relieved—and yet, at the same time, he could not help but curse aloud.
"No matter how you look at it, he’s way too much! Damn bastard!"
It was not unreasonable for Bete to curse in this manner.
Standing at the edge of the battlefield, even someone with a temperament far gentler than his would probably end up swearing when faced with the current situation.
Before Ais and Bete lay a ruin engulfed in a sea of flames.
A torrential rain of fire that shook the entire Dungeon’s 9th Floor continued to pour down, destroying everything in its path and giving birth to this blazing wasteland.
Walls were blasted apart, the ground was blown open, and aside from the ceiling, everything else was being destroyed, reduced to a crimson lotus hell.
Had Ais and Bete not retreated quickly—and with sufficient speed—they might already have been swallowed by the falling firestorm, becoming pitiful victims scorched in the inferno. They would either have collapsed as charred corpses or struggled desperately, fleeing in disgrace through the hellfire, utterly powerless.
"Fuck! This is still just the Upper Floors, so the area’s limited! Yet he went and fired off wide-area annihilation magic of that old hag and that magic idiot back-to-back?! Is he nuts?!"
Bete continued to hurl curses nonstop, but it was precisely because of this that it revealed how complicated his emotions were at this moment.
Riezel was, after all, facing that man, ’King’ Ottar—the strongest adventurer of the current Orario.
Yet, Riezel had actually launched an extremely threatening counterattack even against Ottar—the sheer power of his magic and the overwhelming scale of his battle made Bete clench his fists so tightly that it felt as though his nails might draw blood.
He did not want to admit inferiority, but reality was forcing him to acknowledge it.
"Riezel..."
Unlike Bete, Ais felt only pure concern.
Given that Riezel’s opponent was Ottar, no matter how optimistically she imagined it, she could not believe this battle would be an easy one.
Rather, facing Ottar—someone two levels above him, a Level 7—Riezel being able to fight to this extent already shocked her.
More than that, he had successfully cast magic amid a battle of such scale, nearly turning the entire 9th Floor into a sea of flames. Even the harshest observer would have to acknowledge Riezel’s great strength and excellence.
If the opponent had been anyone else, Riezel would have already claimed an overwhelming victory, but because the opponent was Ottar, she could not suppress the unease in her heart.
"Ais!"
"Bete!"
Just then, the sound of powerful footsteps and urgent shouts came from behind them.
Ais and Bete snapped back to their senses and turned their heads in unison.
Finn, Riveria, Tiona, Tione, and the others had finally caught up.
"Are you all right?"
Tione asked urgently, holding the unconscious pallum girl in her arms.
Clearly, just like Riezel and Ais, they had encountered her along the way.
"What’s going on here? Why is Riezel fighting King?!"
Tiona burst out loudly the moment she arrived, causing Bete to lose his patience and kick her without thinking.
"What are you doing, you damn wolf!"
"You’re too damn loud!"
Just like that, the two of them started arguing right there, completely ignoring the circumstances.
Only Finn and Riveria remained focused—one frowned deeply, the other wore a grave expression, and both turned their attention to Ais.
"What exactly happened?" Riveria asked seriously.
"I don’t know..." Ais shook her head and answered honestly. "By the time we arrived, Riezel was already fighting that man."
"Huh, that really is an unexpected turn of events..." Finn muttered, licking his thumb as if speaking to himself. "Even though he’s from an opposing familia, Ottar isn’t the kind of person who casually picks fights with rising talents—unless... this was that goddess’s will..."
Needless to say, the clever pallum captain had already uncovered a fragment of the truth behind the situation.
"Enough already!"
Tiona stopped arguing with Bete, grabbed her oversized double-bladed sword, and shouted anxiously, almost hopping in place.
"Let’s go help Riezel!"
As she spoke, Tiona tried to charge straight into the sea of flames.
"We too. Let’s move."
Finn, setting aside his thoughts for the moment, did not stop Tiona but instead called out to everyone, preparing to advance and support Riezel.
But just then, two figures appeared as if they had teleported—flashing out from a side passage and blocking everyone’s path.
"You are—!"
Seeing the two who appeared so suddenly, Riveria’s expression changed slightly, while the others’ faces hardened as they instinctively halted.
The ones who blocked the path of the Loki Familia were two elves.
One was a white elf with porcelain-like skin, golden hair, wearing glasses and a white cloak, and holding a double-edged longsword that was taller than he was, while the other was a dark elf with dark skin, silver hair tinged with purple, wearing a jet-black cloak, and wielding a terrifying black longsword.
Now, these two elves not only dared to block six First Class Adventurers of the Loki Familia, but also carried themselves with a presence and dignity that did not fall short of Riveria’s, despite her royal elven lineage.
"White and Black Knights!"
Holding the pallum girl, Tione called out their origins and identities with a sharp intake of breath.
Indeed, the two who barred their way were First Class Adventurers of the Freya Familia, Level 6 magic swordsmen feared for their ferocity.
"Forgive our lack of greeting, milady."
Facing Riveria, the white elf adjusted his glasses and was the first to bow politely to her, acknowledging her royal status—while completely ignoring everyone else.
Calm and rational on the surface, he demonstrated the very meaning of treating others as beneath notice.
He was the elf known as Hildrsleif—Hedin Selland.
"..."
Unlike Hedin, the dark elf remained silent and didn’t even bow to Riveria, despite her royal lineage, but simply stood there, his face filled with indifference.
He was the dark elf known as Dainsleif—Hogni Ragnar.
"Why are you two here?!"
Tiona, who had been about to charge forward earlier, slammed to a stop and demanded angrily, eyes wide.
As for Ais and Bete, one had already drawn her sword, while the other lifted his foot clad in a silver metal boot with a savage glint in his eyes, both clearly ready to launch themselves forward at any moment.
"I didn’t expect you two to be here as well, Hedin, Hogni."
Finn was the only one who showed no surprise, speaking calmly throughout.
In response, the black and white elves cast looks of disgust toward him—more accurately, Hedin did.
"Don’t look at me with those truth-digging eyes, Braver," Hedin said coldly. "We won’t be giving you any information. All you need to do is stay here quietly and do nothing else."
Hogni, on the other hand, still said nothing.
As if leaving all conversation to Hedin, he ignored Ais and the others, who were on guard against him, turned around, and looked toward the two figures battling amid the flames.
"Do you really think that kind of threat works on me?"
Finn rested his spear on his shoulder and spoke just as lightly as before.
"Of course," Hedin replied with absolute certainty. "You don’t want to start a full-scale war with us in the middle of an expedition, do you?"
As he spoke, four more figures appeared around them.
They wore nearly identical equipment—armor and helmets—and each held a different weapon: a greatsword, a warhammer, a spear, and a massive axe.
All four of them were pallum.
"Are we fighting?"
"If we’re fighting, let’s get on with it."
"I’ve wanted to fight for a while now. No, I really wanna fight."
"Same here."
Even though their small bodies made them look like children playing house, utterly lacking in menace, the words they spoke were more arrogant than anyone else’s. Especially when they turned their gazes toward Finn, their eyes burning like those of sworn enemies.
""We want to smash that smug bastard Braver’s face in, so if we’re fighting, let’s fight.""
They spoke in perfect unison, letting out a flawlessly synchronized statement that made it clear these four pallums were not only alike in appearance but shared a much deeper bond.
"You bastards!"
Tione exploded in fury at the insult aimed at the one she loved, and if Tiona had not grabbed her, she would have already rushed out.
Meanwhile, the others’ expressions grew tense as they looked at the four figures.
"Bringar..."
Ais tightened her grip on Desperate and murmured the alias of the four pallums.
Like Hedin and Hogni, they were all First Class Adventurers of the Freya Familia—executive-level adventurers of immense strength.
They were quadruplet brothers, each one a Level 5, the same level Ais once held and that Bete, Tiona, and Tione currently possessed.
The Loki Familia had three Level 6 adventurers: Braver, Elgarm, and Nine Hell, the three top executive leaders of their familia, and the Freya Familia likewise had three Level 6 adventurers: Vana Freya, Hildrsleif, and Dainsleif.
As for Level 5, both sides had four.
The Loki Familia had Ais, Bete, Tiona, and Tione.
The Freya Familia had these four pallums.
People called them the Gulliver Brothers, while the gods had granted them a shared alias—Bringar.
Now, with their appearance, a confrontation capable of shaking the entire surface world had taken shape.
The Loki Familia was missing Elgarm.
The Freya Familia was missing Vana Freya.
Aside from those two, all of the First Class Adventurers of Orario’s two strongest familias were present, standing like this, locked in opposition.
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[A bonus Chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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