Prologue III

Location: 51st Dungeon Floor

Time: 40 Minutes a.C.

"Who .Are .You?"

The question Raven had asked was one of many on that continuously growing list. Already, Ayre could think of new ones, particularly questions she would have liked to ask these people.

Most glaring were their weapons. Through FANG's camera, Ayre saw swords, spears and staves, but nothing even remotely resembling a gun. Wherever the Coral had brought them, it was disconnected from intergalactic society at large.

Was that why they still hadn't answered Raven's question? Did they not speak the common language?

But then, a blonde child wielding a large spear stepped forward and spoke with a surprising confidence: "We are the adventurers of the Loki Familia! We may not know who you are, but it seems our interests align at the moment! Would you fight with us against these monsters?"

Adventurers? Loki Familia? What did that any of that mean?

"…Raven. What do you want to do?" Ayre pushed her other thoughts aside.

The mercenary hesitated for a moment. "I should refuse. Now that I have escaped the encirclement, I should head downwards towards the Coral."

As he had been before, Raven remained focused on his mission. But if that was the case…

"Then why did you stop and ask them a question?"

"I…" Another pause. Had he realized the contradiction in his behaviour? "Don't know." He finished.

Perhaps he was not as single-minded as he had purported to be?

"Don't take too long to decide, please. Those monsters are about to get back up." The boy supplied.

At this rate, Raven was going to refuse and leave. Ayre didn't want that. Not just because of her own curiosity, but because she didn't want to simply abandon these 'adventurers' to fight those horrible creatures.

However, she couldn't reasonably expect from Raven to comply with her request for no reason at all. There had to be some benefit to his mission, some way in which it brought them closer to reaching the Coral and returning to Rubicon.

And thankfully, there was.

"I think you should accept. It will slow us down, but it's likely the adventurers can give us information about our location that will make it easier to traverse this place. Besides, you need some rest and if they can offer some shelter, I believe that will increase our probability of success. But I'll support your choice, Raven."

The mercenary remained silent. The adventurers' expressions grew more nervous as they awaited a response.

Ayre herself was anxious.

Then, FANG's left arm reached up to the left shoulder, replacing the Laser Dagger with the LUDLOW.

The adventurers raised their guards.

And FANG turned around, opening fire on the caterpillars.

Relief went through Ayre.

" Not .Good .At .Hol-Ding .Back." Raven told the adventurers.

"That's fine, we can handle ourselves. Although…" The boy thought for a bit. "Would you mind following my orders? I think this will go a lot smoother that way."

So, he really was the leader? It was fascinating to consider how he had obtained such a position at his apparent age. But for now, Ayre had to focus on supporting Raven.

"Fine." FANG's head nodded slightly.

The boy nodded back. "What should I call you?"

The magazine empty, the machine gun stopped firing, ensuring the next word was heard by all.

"…Raven."

"Is that a gun?" Finn asked the now identified 'Raven'.

An affirming grunt could be heard through the bullet hail.

Guns. They were a new type of weapon that, through triggering a small explosion, shot a projectile out of the barrel. In theory, the projectile fired would possess far greater speed and power than an arrow fired from a bow, rendering the latter utterly obsolete.

In practice, there were multiple problems. To begin with, guns' main selling point of being superior to bows only applied to ordinary bows made for ordinary people. Bows made from the proper materials, with draw weights appropriate for Adventurers, were still better than what guns could do. Then there was the issue of fire rate and reloading. Guns would fire a single shot, then require a relatively long procedure for reloading, leaving the user open for attack. Finally, as it was a rather complex technology, logistics would be a nightmare, especially in the Dungeon.

For all of these reasons, guns were only seen in a few parts of the world and were not used in Orario.

However, the weapon Raven was using seemed to have none of these issues. It was firing multiple bullets that tore through the monsters every second, the reloading had been quite swift. Considering the number of bullets Raven was firing, acquiring ammunition was apparently not an issue either.

Still…

"Hold your fire. Save your ammunition."

Another affirmative grunt and the gun fire stopped accordingly.

"Everyone!" Finn shouted to all present fighters. "Fall back! Let the monsters come in! We'll take them out in one go with magic!"

Finn saw Riveria nodding in the corner of his eye, her mind already turning to determine the best spell for this situation.

Raven simply looked at him for a moment, then began to take slow steps backwards, making sure not to step on anyone.

Until then, the others had barely moved, shocked as they were from Raven's appearance. Now they approached their leader to get back into a closed group. A group that now included the talking metal golem.

The newly formed formation with Raven and Finn in front, slowly but steadily backed away, leaving the caterpillar monsters space to come in.

As they settled into a comfortable pace, Tiona could no longer restrain her curiosity:

"So, you're Raven, right?"

"Mm-Hmm", was the still somewhat distorted response.

Tiona nodded and continued: "What are you?"

Everyone paid close attention to Raven now. The question they had all been asking themselves had now been brought into the room.

The timing was perhaps not ideal, but now that it had been asked, they all wanted to hear the answer.

Raven's head turned slightly, apparently considering his response. Then he answered: "Merc."

"Huh?" Tiona's expression was puzzled. "'Murk'? What's that?"

A short contemplative grunt preceded Raven's answer. "Mer .Ce .Nary."

Finn's brow furrowed. "A mercenary? As in, someone who fights for money?"

"Yes."

"That ain't the question, dumbass!" Bete shouted at Raven. "We don't wanna know your job, we wanna know what kind of bein' you are!"

Finn had to chuckle lightly. Though the werewolf had been far cruder than he would have been, Bete had nonetheless expressed his own thoughts.

"Ah." Raven nodded as he understood the question at hand. "Human."

…

What? How could he possibly-

"Huh?! You think we stupid or somethin'?!" Bete shouted again.

"We can think about that later." Riveria interrupted the werewolf. "Look."

She pointed at the mass of monsters that had been coming in. By now, they had filled up the room extensively.

More precisely, what Riveria was pointing at was the rift that was opening within the monsters and the new monster that was coming through.

The base of its body was a larger version of the bodies of the caterpillars with the addition of multiple small leg pairs allowing the monster to walk instead of crawl. Much stranger however was what was connected to that base: a nearly human upper body. A torso with seemingly female curves covered in patches of black skin and a featureless 'face' that had tendrils coming from the back of the head. Instead of normal arms, the monster had four thin flaps sprouting from its sides.

All in all, it was twice the size of the other caterpillars and large enough to be a floor boss.

"There's more?!" Tiona shouted exasperatedly. "What's that thing?!"

Finn answered curtly, "Who knows? ...Whatever it is, we'll still have to wait for it to get in a better position for Riveria's spell."

The Monster was indeed moving in their direction, but it did not seem focused on them. Instead, it was walking towards…the corpse of Cadmus they had left behind in their retreat.

Finn's brow furrowed. "Raven. Can you hit it at this distance?"

The response was as short and to the point as Finn had learned Raven's answers often were: "Yes."

"Do it."

Without hesitation, Raven opened fire once more, bullets flying at the monster at high-speed – only for the creature to cross its arm-flaps in front of itself protectively and for the bullets to uselessly fall on the ground, unable to pierce the flaps.

Those flaps were evidently much tougher than their thinness suggested.

Before Finn could issue Raven another command, the Monster made a move of its own: something akin to a mouth opened on its face and then contorted in such a way that indicated it was going to…spit something?

Finn's eyes widened. "AIS!"

Despite the captain having only shouted her name, Ais immediately knew what to do. She stepped forward, taking a position in front of even Raven.

"Tempest. Ariel." The magic winds wrapped around her.

And not a second too late. The monster spit out a concentrated stream of the same acid the caterpillars had been spewing, only stronger, faster and important at this moment, with a longer range.

The purple liquid collided with the wind, the unbreakable rapier pointing forward. Ais strained, bearing the burden of her magic while resisting the might of that lethal attack.

The acid splattered all around her and in front of her allies, immediately melting away the ground and creating smoking grooves.

After a few seconds, finally, the acid subsisted. Ais let out a relieved sigh, the toll on her stamina this feat had taken evident. Nevertheless, she was still able and willing to continue the fight.

Regardless, they had a problem now. The plan to let the horde walk into the perfect range to be annihilated by a single spell from Riveria wouldn't work if that monster stayed away and fired at them instead. Of course, Riveria had spells that could cover that distance, but they wouldn't be able to destroy the entire horde, leaving them with a grueling battle against a large number of these caterpillars, which was what he had wanted to avoid in the first place.

Now, the box on Raven's right shoulder opened releasing…fireworks? With astounding speed, those new projectiles closed in on the monster and once again, it crossed its flaps in front of itself.

The rockets impacted the monster and detonated, causing not a brilliant display of colors, but a violent explosion that ripped through the air.

Yet, when the smoke settled, the monster had withstood that attack too. It moved to retaliate, but instead of launching more acid at them, it opened its flaps. From the appendages, vibrant pollen emerged.

Gently yet swiftly, the colorful particles floated towards them. In a different circumstance, one could even consider it to be a beautiful image.

Still, Ais summoned the strength of her wind to sweep away the pollen. A move that protected them all from the massive explosion which dwarfed the one Raven's rockets had caused.

As the smoke began to clear, Finn saw that triangle-shaped weapon Raven was holding in his right hand had begun to glow in a blue light.

The light intensified and reached its peak, Raven cocked back his right arm and put his left leg in front, positioning himself as though he was about to throw a punch.

And when the first signs of the monster became visible, the punch was thrown.

For a moment, Finn was blinded. Such was the brightness of the beam that Raven had fired at the monster.

When Finn could see again, his eyes beheld a hole that had been cleanly burned through multiple caterpillars. The monsters that had been struck haplessly disintegrated, never even capable of doing anything to prevent their demise.

The actual target of the attack on the other hand was still standing. Finn had seen it: In the instant before Raven had launched his attack, the monster, perhaps sensing the danger, had moved away with surprising speed.

Not quite fast enough, as evidenced by the burn marks along the right side of its body.

But it was still capable of fighting and now that it had seen this attack, it was highly unlikely it would get caught by it again.

As impressive as Ais and Raven had been in this exchange, it was getting increasingly obvious that they couldn't take down the monster at this distance in a timely or efficient manner. The further this ranged battle went on, the likelier it became that the rest of them and most importantly Riveria, would get hit by a wayward explosion or splash of acid.

Should he tell Riveria to launch a spell right now after all? Many of the monsters would survive, but at least their apparent leader would be dealt with.

If the need arose, it was also well within Riveria's capabilities to cast another spell to wipe out the rest, although Finn would rather not put her through the strain of casting multiple powerful spells in quick succession.

Still, maybe that was-

"OI, CAPTAIN!" The shout dragged Finn out of his thoughts.

He turned his head to the source, revealing a snarling Bete Loga.

"Didja forget we're here too?! I dunno about you but I'm gettin' tired of just standin' around!" The werewolf argued loudly. "They" Bete pointed at Ais and Raven, "aren't the only ones who can fight!"

"I wanna get in on the action too!" Tiona interjected.

"Captain." Tione stepped forward as well. "A little acid never hurt anyone, right?"

"Hah." Finn couldn't help but let out a short laugh. He had been so caught up in the different dimensions this fight had taken on, that he had completely overlooked the most straightforward and old-fashioned way of doing things.

"You're right." His grip on his spear tightened as he began to walk forward. "We shouldn't be standing here doing nothing."

Bete, Tiona and Tione all grinned in response and followed their captain's lead.

Finn spoke to their current vanguard: "Ais, Raven. We're leaving the big one to you."

The Sword Princess and the giant golem nodded in unison.

The Braver nodded back, then addressed the people behind him one last time: "Raul and Anakitty, keep the healing potions ready. Riveria, you know what to do."

"Yes sir!" The two supporters replied. The high elf silently acknowledged Finn's words, signalling that she understood.

"Then…" Finn pointed his spear forwards. "CHARGE!"

There were many things Ais wanted to ask Raven. What he knew about those tremors, that weird sensation and the ear ringing most of all.

That ringing was in fact still present, but she had adapted and could push past it now.

In the current situation however, the only thing she said was: "Please throw me."

The presence of the other caterpillars had prevented them from closing the distance to the female monster, since they would have been drowned in all of their acid. Now that Finn, Bete, Tiona and Tione were drawing the attention of those creatures, Ais and Raven could face the female monster alone.

Simultaneously, in order to prevent the female monster from attacking Finn and the others, they had to put pressure on it immediately.

Hence the throwing.

Without a word, Raven switched out his gun for the u-shaped device on his shoulder, now attached to his left wrist and stretched out his open left palm.

Ais jumped up, gracefully landing on the large metal hand. She held on to the index finger as Raven wound up his arm – and launched her across the room.

Using her wind to reduce air resistance and propel herself further, she reached the creature in but an instant.

It was by far the fastest she had ever gone, so fast that even she could barely process it. She could hardly do much more than stick out Desperate in front of her.

To accomplish the immediate objective of the manoeuvre, that was enough.

The creature had haphazardly raised one of its flaps in defense, one of the very same flaps that withstood both the bullets and rockets. That flap was now pierced, Desperate having run it through.

Ais had to grit her teeth. Her right arm had taken quite a shock, flying into the creature at such high speeds only to meet such abrupt resistance. Still, pushing off the flap with her feet and applying more pressure on her force, she sliced open the flap and jumped back.

As acid dripped from the injured upper left flap, one of the right flaps viciously swatted at Ais. The flat appendage slammed into the ground, its target having deftly evaded.

In that same moment, the monster's body contracted and launched another acid stream.

A stream that went completely over Ais' head.

She looked back and saw Raven, propelled by blue flames, flying at them. The acid aimed straight at him, he swerved to his left and slid across the ground. In a radical change of direction, his powerful metal legs launched him at the female monster, a blue light now emerging from his left wrist.

The creature retreated, using its many legs to step away from its position.

The light now formed a relatively short blade and Raven's left hand swiped upwards. The blade traversed the monster's prior location, barely missing its intended target. Instead, it effortlessly sliced both of the monster's right flaps in half, the wounds instantly cauterized.

The flaps flew away into the crowd of caterpillars, where they promptly exploded.

The creature howled in pain, paralyzed for a short moment.

Neither Raven nor Ais missed the opportunity.

Raven attacked with his right-hand weapon, firing not a single blinding beam like before, but a salvo of small beams that spread out. Multiple missed the creature, but many burned into its body, burrowing small black holes into it.

Ais sprinted around the female monster's left side and cut off a sizable number of the short legs, disrupting its balance.

Another scream of pain was followed by the tendrils on the head beginning to move, half stretching out towards her, the other half towards Raven. From them, yet more acid shot out.

Raven leaped up, almost reaching the ceiling in one go. Ais blew it away with her wind and jumped onto the caterpillar section with the intention of attacking the back.

Showing astounding reflexes, the monster attacked Ais with its last intact flap. The Sword Princess using both the wind enchantment and the durandal sword to protect herself was still brushed away from its body, Ais' arm aching once again.

A whistling and flaming noise coming from above told her that Raven had employed his rockets once again. Now that only one functioning flap remained, the monster could no longer defend against them that easily.

It tried to dodge, still able to somewhat move despite its lost legs. However, the rockets simply changed their trajectory, rendering any attempt at evasion futile.

The creature desperately raised its left flaps, but it wasn't enough. The rockets directly impacted the monster's softer body, quite literally detonating right in its face.

The display of explosive power was accompanied by yet more pained screams, an indication that the creature still drew breath.

But as the smoke cleared, it was clear that it had not survived unscathed. Sizable holes had been torn into the upper body and much of it was now a charred black.

With one glaring exception: In the head, that had also been ripped open, Ais could see a yellow glint.

That had to be-!

Everything began to happen even quicker than before.

In mere moments, Ais sprinted up the monster's body and jumped up to the height of its head. Propelling herself forward with her magic, Desperate impaled the yellow glow. It pierced the crystalline structure, confirming Ais' suspicion: this was the magic stone.

The monster's body turned to ash, which Finn, attentive as ever, didn't miss.

"Get behind Riveria now!", he bellowed, his orders clear even to those embroiled in fierce combat.

"Soon, the flames shall be loosed."

Recognizing the moment had come, Riveria began to chant her spell. All the frontline fighters hurried to get away from the horde, even when some of their conditions were less than ideal.

"Creeping flames of war, inevitable destruction. The battle horns sound out on high, and the atrocity of conflict will envelop all."

Raven landed behind Raul and Anakitty.

"Come, crimson flames, ruthless inferno!"

The jade magic circle began to grow, spreading across the ground.

"Thou become the consuming inferno. Consume all and bring this battle to its end!"

One after the other, Ais, Finn and the rest reached the safety of Riveria's side. Raul and Anakitty immediately moved to give them the potions they needed.

"Incinerate, Sword of Surtr – My name is Alf!"

The caterpillars scrambled to get close enough to Riveria to hit her with acid.

"Rea…"

They didn't make it.

"Leavateinn!"

Flaming pillars emerged from the magic circle that had spread far enough to engulf all of the monsters. In short order, the imposing fire storm was all that could be seen.

Then-as quickly as it had arrived, the storm was gone. The pillars died down, leaving behind nothing but ash and smoke.

Ais was quite certain none of the caterpillars had survived, but she still wanted to-

"No.More .Hos .Tile .Life .De .Tected. ", Raven's distorted voice proclaimed.

" .Accom .Plished."

Location: 50th Floor

Time: 1 hour a.C.

Lefiya Viridis was not in a good mood. That much was obvious from what Gareth could see. She went from listlessly sitting around, to erratically fiddling with her staff and back in record time.

Really, Gareth wasn't as close to her as Ais and Riveria were and Riveria in particular was better suited to talk to the young elven mage. But as neither of them, nor any of the other executives were present, it now fell to him to address this, a responsibility he would certainly not shy away from.

As such, the dwarf made his way towards Lefiya.

Now, despite being a dwarf and having the according size, Gareth was far from skilled at stealth, nor was he even trying to hide in the first place. All the more evidence to Lefiya's state of mind, that she did not notice his approach.

"How're ya doin', lass?" Gareth asked casually.

Lefiya shrieked in a way more reminiscent of a scared house cat than a Level 3 adventurer; jumped like the former too. Upon realizing who was talking to her, she nervously straightened out her skirt, fixed her hair and gave her most anxious smile.

"Uhm-Mr. Gareth! I'm sorry for acting out like that, I wasn't paying attention and got startled and-"

"Calm down lass, it's fine." Gareth assured her. Lefiya noticeably relaxed after hearing she hadn't offended her senior.

"I get that you're tense. You're worried about Finn, Ais and the others, right?" The dwarf inquired.

The young elf despondently looked down. "Well, yes…What with those strange tremors we experienced before and the fact that they are in such a deep floor with such a small group…even if its them I can't help but be concerned about Ms. Ais and the others. But…"

"That's not all." Gareth surmised.

Lefiya nodded slowly, her pointy ears drooping downwards. "I…want to do more to help Ms. Ais, but I'm just up here and even if I was, I am too weak and would get in the way." She sighed.

"I'm just so useless and I really hate that."

Gareth stroked his full beard. Especially in as powerful and prestigious a Familia as that of the goddess Loki, feelings of inadequacy were far from uncommon. It was something he had seen in his juniors quite often, though that didn't make it less disheartening whenever he chanced upon it.

They were also quite delicate emotions and had to be handled with the utmost care and respect. Harshly criticizing them could reinforce a negative self-image, while placating them with vapid phrases could come across as insincere and have no effect.

Still, being an executive of such a large Familia also meant managing situations like these, and what sort of senior would he be if he couldn't handle a distressed youth?

"So…" Gareth began, "Ya think I'm useless too?"

Lefiya's expression tensed up. "Huh?"

"I mean, I'm here too, like you. If you're useless by stayin' here, so am I."

The arms of the elf waved around in panic. "No,no,no, of course not, Mr. Gareth! You could never useless, I never meant to imply-"

Gareth cut her off. "Then you ain't useless either."

Lefiya stopped her nervous flailing, her ears perking up.

"Listen lass. Ais, Finn, Riveria and all the others can fight at full strength because they don't need to be worried 'bout our comrades here. 'Cause they know, we're here."

"R-really?"

"Really. So, ya see lass, even if you ain't helpin' directly, you're still helpin' Ais fight better, just by bein' here." Gareth concluded.

Lefiya didn't respond, instead simply letting Gareth's explanation sink in.

For a short moment, the eyes of the dwarf widened, then he chose to share one last thing: "I actually just remembered, when we were discussin' the make-up of the expedition party earlier, Finn and Riveria mentioned that they originally wanted you to go along. It was just 'cause of the current situation that didn't happen. Trust me, you ain't weak. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Lefiya's eyes widened, she averted her gaze and a blush colored her face. Then, a resolute expression appeared, she closed her eyes and firmly slapped her own cheeks.

"Alright! I've decided to put my utmost effort into guarding the camp! I'll make sure Ms. Ais and Lady Riveria have nothing to worry about."

She stood up, then took a short but clear bow to Gareth. "Thanks for cheering me up, Mr. Gareth!"

The dwarf gave a hearty laugh. "Anytime, lass."

He made to walk off, when a faint noise entered his ears. A noise that seemed to originate from the 51st floor.

Gareth turned towards the dark slope that led to the lower floor, his face deadly serious.

The mage picked up on that. "Mr. Gareth?"

"Hear that?" The executive asked.

"Hear wha-oh."

The noise was becoming clearer, so that Lefiya was beginning to notice it as well. Though it would be more accurate to refer to it as noises, not a singular noise.

In fact, as the noises got closer, Gareth understood that some of those noises were actually voices. One voice appeared by screaming in abject terror, while the other was…cheering?

What the hell was going on?

A blue light was filling the tunnel and a sound resembling a powerful fire could be heard.

Then it came out.

"WOOOOOOO!"

"AHHHHHHHH!"

A grey metal giant, flying by shooting blue flames out of its back emerged from the 51st floor. The voices, opposite though they were, seemed to come from the giant.

It soared through the 50th floor, before swerving and making a beeline towards…him and Lefiya?

Despite the utter confusion, Gareth grabbed the axe hoisted on his back, while his younger comrade clutched her staff.

Then the giant landed in front of them.

When Gareth could see again through all the dust, he saw the strange new entity in all of its imposing detail. Steam was coming off from it and ominous lights glowed faintly.

He also saw all members of the expedition party hanging onto different parts of its body.

Raul immediately jumped off, making a face so terrified Gareth might have believed the boy had seen a ghost.

In utter contrast, Tiona hung on to the giant's left shoulder looking even more excited than usual and rambling about wanting to "do it again."

And of course, Finn was next to the head, his right sleeve conspicuously absent, giving one of his classic awkward smirks.

The captain looked straight at the dwarf's baffled eyes. "Hello, Gareth. We're back."

Author's Note: I'm back with another chapter! This one is a bit longer than the other two, which I was actually surprised by. But last Saturday I was just really motivated and wrote over 2k words in one sitting, finishing the chapter a lot earlier than I was honestly expecting.

Anyway, I welcome any commentary, criticism, questions or other thoughts you have for me. Hope you enjoyed it and see you next time!