"..."
In the darkness, a colossal being seemed to sense something and slowly raised its head.
Just moments ago, the red-haired hybrid who had always listened to its voice had perished, and that made it seriously consider what kind of impact this would have on itself.
However, after thinking about it, it seemed that there was no impact at all.
It was, after all, nothing more than the loss of a single hand.
Even if that hand had been particularly useful, so what?
Ultimately, with this in mind, the colossal being smiled and gradually awakened from the darkness.
*Clank!*
All of a sudden, one of the many thick chains bound to its body snapped.
*Clank!* *Clank!* *Clank!* *Clank!*
As one chain broke, the others followed in rapid succession, until the things restraining it gradually ceased to exist.
"Aah~"
It let out a sound at once, as if overcome with emotion.
From the sound, one could tell that it was the voice of a woman.
Even though the surrounding darkness had not yet dispersed, this body, no longer bound, was already able to move freely. Since that was the case, it—or rather, she—would go, go to the place from which she had been continuously sensing that familiar magical energy since just now.
Sensing that gust of ’wind,’ an expression of intoxication and obsession appeared on her face.
And so, she smiled as she sang.
"Aria~ Aria~ Aria~"
"I’m coming over now, Aria~"
"Hurry up and merge with me~"
Singing like this, the colossal being stepped forward with heavy footsteps that thundered through the darkness, moving step by step in the direction from which the familiar magical energy emanated.
With that, the most terrifying monster in the Man-Made Dungeon Knossos had finally begun to move.
===
Within a cavern-like, square, and spacious chamber, the white-hot battle had already neared its end.
As Riezel successfully slew Revis, the outcomes of the other battlefields were also being decided.
*PENG!*
Ais’s Desperate traced a large curving arc, releasing a high-powered slash that crashed heavily into the already battered full-body armor, finally shattering it and sending fragments flying everywhere.
"GAHHHHHH!!!"
Phryne, who had been completely overwhelmed by Ais, could not help but let out a shrill scream like that of a frog being crushed as her massive body was sent flying and smashed into the adamantite wall, causing it to tremble violently.
"You lost."
Only then did Ais sheathe her sword and stand still, looking at Phryne—blood streaming down her forehead and bruises covering her body—as she made this declaration with an expressionless face.
"I didn’t lose!"
Phryne shouted as if she had suffered the greatest insult of her life, her toad-like face twisting violently into something incomparably ugly, her eyes overflowing with overwhelming hatred as if she wanted to carve Ais into pieces, and she spat out words filled with resentment.
"I don’t believe it! I seriously don’t believe it!"
"I even used level boosting! How come I still couldn’t beat an ugly freak like you who can’t even use that damn wind?!"
"I absolutely refuse to accept this!"
Phryne tried to stand up and charge at Ais again, but unfortunately, she no longer had any chance to fight Ais, as the particles of light lingering around her body seemed to lose all their power and began to fade away.
Phryne, who had only been able to reach the peak of Level 6 thanks to this power, finally panicked.
"T-Time’s up!?"
One should know that Uchide no Kozuchi had a time limit.
Once that limit was exceeded, the effect of the magic would fade and return the person to their original state. If it had been Riezel casting it, he could have maintained this magic for at least over an hour, a duration long enough for one or even several large-scale battles to come to an end.
However, the original owner of Uchide no Kozuchi was unable to release a level-boosting effect with such a long duration. Because she was only Level 1, and whether in terms of MAG or her own level, she fell far short compared to Riezel.
Consequently, the level boost released by her could currently last no more than fifteen minutes. And that amount of time had clearly already passed, so it was only natural that Phryne would lose the level-boosting buff.
"Haruhime!"
Thrown into a panic, Phryne hurriedly shouted toward the direction of the passageway.
"What are you staring at blankly for?! Hurry the fuck up and chant!"
Clearly, Phryne was planning to have Haruhime cast the magic on her once again.
Knowing that Haruhime’s Uchide no Kozuchi only required a ten-minute cooldown before it could be activated again, and given that the fifteen-minute duration of the magic had already passed, the ten-minute cooldown had naturally ended as well.
To defeat Ais, Phryne unceremoniously ordered around the tool of her familia, demanding that she apply the level-boosting effect to her once more.
"...Yes."
Inside the passageway, within an iron cage, the female renard Haruhime had her delicate body tremble slightly under Phryne’s roar, and after responding in a voice barely audible, she prepared to cast her magic once again.
What she did not know was that someone had already been watching her for a long time.
*Swish!*
A figure suddenly appeared out of thin air within the passageway, materializing in front of the iron cage as if by teleportation, startling Haruhime.
"Y-You are...?"
Haruhime was frightened, but when she raised her head and clearly saw the appearance of the person standing before the cage, she froze.
"Liberator!"
At this moment, Sharay, who was standing beside the cage with a staff in hand and had just sealed Ais’s magic with a curse, reacted and cried out the newcomer’s name in shock.
Indeed, it was none other than Riezel.
Sharay could not help but step back, attempting to put some distance between herself and Riezel, then clenched her teeth and prepared to chant magic, but...
*BANG!*
However, before Sharay could even chant a single syllable of her magic, she was kicked away by Riezel.
"Consider this paying Ais back for you."
Riezel glanced at Sharay, who had been kicked down the steps and now lay unconscious on the ground, and spoke indifferently.
"AAAAAAAHHH—!!!"
In the next second, a shout came from behind Riezel, and a figure leapt high into the air, attacking from behind.
It was none other than the tall, long-legged amazoness named Aisha.
Wielding a massive blade, she swung it at Riezel as if to protect Haruhime and vent her anger on behalf of Sharay.
In response, Riezel merely cast another glance behind him, an eerie light flashing in his eyes.
"!!!"
In that moment, an uncontrollable sense of fear arose in Aisha’s heart.
Under the influence of this emotion, her speed slowed, her movements became sluggish, and she even felt an impulse to flee at full speed.
If there had been a YGGDRASIL player present witnessing this scene, they would certainly have recognized her abnormal condition, because she had been afflicted with the fear status, suffering debuffs to both speed and mobility.
Silent Magic - Evil Eye.
Riezel silently activated this magic, capable of inflicting negative status effects on others, selecting fear from among multiple gaze-based effects, and subjecting Aisha to its influence.
*BANG!*
Immediately after, Riezel threw a fierce punch that sent Aisha flying out of the air, making her spit blood as she was hurled backward.
"Big Sis Aisha!"
Inside the cage, Haruhime finally snapped out of her daze.
Seeing Aisha being punched away by Riezel and coughing up blood, her originally timid and powerless self suddenly became agitated.
What responded to her, however, was a light, almost drifting voice.
"This isn’t a place someone like you should be."
"Just go to sleep."
"When you wake up, you’ll be able to go back to the surface."
No longer calm or indifferent, Riezel’s gentle voice entered Haruhime’s ears, making her freeze once again.
"Sandman’s Sand."
Riezel had already reached out, placed his hand on Haruhime’s head, and activated a magic that was of a higher grade than Sleep, a hypnotic magic that could plunge a person into deep slumber and prevent them from waking unless they were harmed.
As Riezel activated the magic, Haruhime felt her mind grow empty before an irresistible drowsiness surged up, causing her eyelids to droop heavily.
"You..."
In her hazy state, Haruhime struggled to look at the young man before her, as if she had returned to a certain day more than half a month ago.
On that night, she had been receiving customers as usual in the Entertainment District when she encountered a somewhat special guest. Who that guest had been, she could no longer remember clearly, because she had only met him briefly before immediately losing consciousness.
Afterward, her goddess, Ishtar, had summoned her and questioned her, asking whether she had done something with the monster rookie of the Loki Familia.
At that time, Haruhime had been confused.
Naturally, Haruhime knew who the monster rookie of the Loki Familia was.
In just a few short months, he had risen from a mere novice adventurer to a First-Class Adventurer, a super genius unanimously acknowledged by various gods and labeled with titles such as monster, outlier, exception, and hero.
Unlike her own timid and weak self, he shone brilliantly and had a boundless future ahead of him, belonging to a completely different world from hers.
How could such an existence possibly have anything to do with her?
Haruhime had found it unbelievable.
Therefore, she had honestly told Ishtar what she thought and said that she had not done anything with that famous super genius at all, that she had been completely muddleheaded and had not even had the chance to say a single word to him.
Because those of the Lower World could not lie in front of the gods, Ishtar, seeing that what Haruhime said was the truth, frowned deeply but ultimately let her go without further interrogation, allowing her to escape disaster.
It was only today, upon seeing Riezel again, that Haruhime vaguely recalled that on that night, this young man had indeed appeared before her and made her do something.
Charm was an abnormal status that allowed the caster to completely control the afflicted, stripping them of independent will and making them regard the caster as the closest and most intimate being.
When this abnormal status was lifted, memories of what one had done while charmed would remain. Sometimes only one or two fragments were left, sometimes everything remained, and Haruhime happened to be the former.
As a result, although she remembered that Riezel had made her do something, she did not know what that something was.
Could it be that she really had done something with him?
Carrying this doubt, Haruhime closed her eyes, and her consciousness completely faded away as she fell into a deep sleep, no longer able to unleash the strongest magic of this world.
"Haru... HARUHIME!"
Aisha, lying on the ground in the distance, could not help but shout.
"HARUHIME! DAMN LIBERATOR!"
Phryne also grew restless and roared angrily at Riezel.
"Ais, finish her."
Riezel, not even looking at Phryne as if she were not worth dirtying his eyes or as if he simply held her in utter contempt, left these words behind and pushed off with his foot, dashing toward Tiona and Tione.
"BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME?!"
Riezel’s disregard made Phryne, who was full of self-importance and had always lacked any clear understanding of herself, believing she was the most beautiful woman in the world, roar again and again in fury.
"Huft..."
Ais, meanwhile, watched Riezel’s retreating figure and unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.
Having already seen how strong Revis had become, she had been worried all along that Riezel might not be able to handle Revis and might meet with danger.
Now, it seemed she had worried for nothing.
Although she felt some regret at not being able to personally finish off that Creature, the fact that Riezel had dealt with her still made Ais glad.
Hence, Ais stopped paying attention to Riezel and to Tiona and Tione’s side of the battlefield and walked toward Phryne, who was raging helplessly.
Having lost the buff from Uchide no Kozuchi and reverted to Level 5, the outcome of Phryne facing Ais again was already obvious. No matter how unwilling, resentful, or jealous this toad woman giant was, she was destined to never measure up to even a single hair on Ais’s head.
Lefiya and the others were also gradually suppressing the berberas and the Telskyura’s amazonesses, and it was likely that victory would soon be decided there as well.
Only on Tiona and Tione’s side had the battle truly reached a stalemate.
Argana and Bache, who had originally been suppressed by Tiona and Tione’s counterattack, had now launched counterattacks of their own.
Both of them seemed to have activated magic.
One was enveloped in a strong smell of blood, her aura surging violently along with a noticeable increase in strength, while the other’s limbs were coated in purple magical energy light that radiated a horrifying atmosphere, making it something no one dared to touch lightly.
Having unleashed their trump-card magic, Argana and Bache were no longer being beaten back by Tiona and Tione.
One fought Tione evenly, with neither gaining the upper hand, while the other tried to attack Tiona with hands covered in the purple light film, forcing Tiona to act cautiously and temporarily fall into a defensive position.
Riezel’s arrival immediately drew the attention of both pairs of sisters.
"!!!"
Just as Riezel was about to join the fight and help Tiona and Tione crush their enemies in one decisive blow and achieve total victory, his figure suddenly came to a halt.
An extremely vicious aura appeared out of nowhere and locked onto Riezel’s body, causing warning signs to blare wildly in his mind.
"Greater Teleportation."
Without the slightest hesitation, Riezel activated teleportation magic and vanished from where he stood.
*BOOOM!*
Almost at the same moment, the spot where Riezel had been standing just an instant earlier exploded—the adamantite floor was torn apart like fragile paper, shattering into fragments that blasted violently outward.
*Rumble—*
A massive black shadow burst up from underground, like a demon crashing through the earth and emerging from hell itself, making a grand entrance.
A vicious aura instantly spread out and blanketed the entire battlefield like a storm.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]