Chapter 9: Fleeting Triumph
One step, two swift strides—then the Goliath hunched forward and launched itself in a brutal tackle that shattered the entire defensive line. Though it lacked the troublesome magic or abilities of the deeper floor bosses, its raw physical strength was something to be envied.
With the frontline adventurers thrown aside, the monsters they had been holding back wasted no time. Freed, they scattered in all directions, flooding out into the city.
Without waiting for orders, the adventurers who had been on standby instinctively drew their weapons and charged into the fray—like predators unleashed upon prey.
From the highest point of Babel, the executives of the Freya Familia watched the scene with clear disapproval.
"Tch. They couldn't even handlethat," muttered Allen Fromel, while the Gulliver Brothers chuckled in amusement.
They had observed the entire battle below—but none had moved. Their role was to protect their goddess, and they wouldn't waste their efforts on what they saw as lowly vermin.
"Ottar, is something wrong?" Hedin asked, his voice tinged with curiosity. His stoic comrade was known for being reserved—not a man of many words—but ever since they had arrived, Ottar hadn't spoken once.
Without replying, Ottar's gaze remained fixed on the horizon, as though he were trying to see something far beyond the borders of the city.
Hedin had noticed it too. Without question, something unusual was happening around the outskirts of Orario—but he couldn't comprehend what could be so compelling that it would draw the gaze of the city's strongest adventurer away from his beloved goddess Freya.
"They've arrived," Freya whispered from her throne of gold and silver, a mischievous smile curving her lips—one that shattered the serene stillness of the room and drew the attention of all her children.
Following their goddess's gaze, every eye turned toward the horizon beyond Orario—and then they froze.
It was something so surreal, so inexplicable, that had they not seen it with their own eyes, they never would have believed it.
A tide of thousands was approaching.
...
"Why is it ignoring us?!" Welf shouted, chasing after the floor 17 boss as it stomped past him.
When the defensive line broke, everyone had assumed the monsters would attack without hesitation. From their vantage point, it had looked like they'd entered a berserk state, consumed by nothing but battle instinct. It wouldn't have been the first time.
But they had been wrong.
None of the monsters attacked proactively. Only when their escape routes were completely blocked did they engage the adventurers—fighting not out of bloodlust, but necessity.
Waving a magic weapon, a burst of flame tore through Daedalus Street and struck the Goliath square in the back, leaving behind flickering embers that sizzled on the monster's flesh.
"What the hell are you doing, idiot?! Who told you to use your magic weapons in a fight?! You trying to burn the whole district down?"
Lili's furious voice erupted from the crystal orb strapped to Welf's waist, halting him before he could launch another attack.
Using magic on the surface was far more troublesome than within the Dungeon—and that included the abilities of all magical weapons. It wasn't just the risk of low durability; the threat of collateral damage was far more serious.
A skilled mage had refined control over their mind, allowing them to modulate the power and shape of their spells. Magic weapons, however, had no such restraint—especially the wild Crozzo-forged weapons, imbued with fire spells that far exceeded standard potency.
Starting a fire with flames fueled by the spiritual blood of that family would be a catastrophe they couldn't afford right now.
"Here, Welfy. Take care of the small fry in the back."
A blur swept past the blacksmith, dropping a frost-enchanted magic sword at his feet.
In a blur of motion, the figure closed the gap with the Goliath, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. With a swift swing, she landed ahead of the beast, carving a trench across the width of Daedalus Street, forcing the enraged monster to a halt.
A grin spread across her face as she hefted her massive two-handed sword like it was a twig and rested it casually on her shoulder.
Thud.
With a sickening crack, the Goliath's right arm dropped to the ground like dead weight.
Tsubaki Collbrande, the half-dwarf captain of the Hephaestus Familia, had entered the fray—showing exactly why she was a level 5.
She chuckled before planting her magic sword into the pavement and unleashing the spell sealed within.
The street split open beneath her. From its sides, jagged stone stakes erupted, impaling every monster in her path.
Even the Goliath was caught—pinned in place, immobilized. Tsubaki's excitement faltered slightly. She had hoped the spell would finish it off, but the beast's sturdy defenses had managed to hold back the impact before its magic stone could be compromised.
"Grraaaa..."
The Goliath roared, shattering its stone bindings. It locked eyes with the warrior before it, saw the blocked street and the lack of escape routes—and chose.
Itturned, completely ignoring her, and barreled through the buildings of Daedalus Street, carving out its own path of retreat.
"Hey, wait! Don't run away—get back here and taste the edge of the blades I forged!" Tsubaki shouted after it, visibly annoyed.
Lili watched the scene unfold and buried her face in her hands in shame. She wasn't sure if those two were just particularly dense or if being a little thickheaded was some hidden trait of blacksmiths. Clearly, Tsubaki could have finished off the Goliath with ease—but the blockhead had let the floor boss escape, all because of a momentary whim.
Repairing that entire street would be an enormous expense. Just at a glance, it was obvious the buildings were beyond saving, which meant full demolition and reconstruction from scratch once this madness was over.
With no other choice, she lifted the communication artifact developed by Fels—distributed by the Guild for emergency coordination—and called upon the only adventurer she truly trusted with the task.
"Bell-sama, Mikoto-san, you can switch places with Tsubaki. She'll handle the monsters scattered across the city. You two—stop the Goliath before it escapes Orario," she instructed, her voice tinged with concern.
She didn't want to push Bell too far—but most of the high-level adventurers had used the chaos as an opportunity to rush into the Dungeon and try to cut off the monster flow at the source, leaving her with few remaining options.
Bell and Mikoto nodded in unison, immediately altering course. They split up and flanked the Goliath, which continued its relentless charge in a straight line down Daedalus Street, oblivious to the trap closing in around it.
At a crossroads, Bell intercepted the giant, dashing forward and slicing at the monster's heels. The wounds left by Tsubaki had already begun to regenerate at an alarming pace—fully healed in the short time it took them to catch up.
Even the severed arm had begun to regrow visibly, sinew and bone knitting together as if time itself were reversing.
With Bell's speed as a level 4 adventurer, the Goliath looked like a lumbering turtle in comparison. Its attacks were slow and clumsy—like watching a child flailing to swat a mosquito.
This feeling...
Dodging the blow with a slight pivot, a forgotten warmth stirred in Bell's chest. Though his mental training had kept him sharp both physically and emotionally, nothing compared to the thrill of real combat.
He was even holding back—intentionally letting attacks come close before dodging at the last moment, savoring the thrill that surged through his veins.
He was playing.
Months ago, the idea would've been unthinkable. Against this monster, he would've needed to rely on the full power ofArgonautjust to survive. But now, he knew—with time and precision—he could win with his physical abilities alone. He was trulyenjoyingthe feeling of becoming stronger.
""
Having completed her chant, Mikoto clasped her hands, forming a small black orb between her palms.
Above the Goliath, a purple magic circle appeared—then a blade dropped from it like divine judgment, piercing the beast and locking it in place within a gravity field.
"Now, Bell-dono—finish it!" Mikoto shouted.
Nodding, Bell's hand glowed faintly as he gathered a small amount of magic, igniting in flames.
""
A blazing fireball shot forth, striking the Goliath square in the chest.
Its flesh burned away rapidly, revealing the magic stone—the monster's core—glimmering beneath.
But something was wrong.
Caught in the swirling colors of the crystal, Bell's momentum halted. A sudden wave of helplessness struck him, like a child staring into the eyes of a starving lion. And in that moment, something tugged at him—his strength began to drain.
Bell's eyes trembled. Frozen in place, an icy chill crept down his arm while sweat began to bead across his skin. His breath grew shallow and uneven, and a tremor took hold of his knees.
What stood before him was no longer the floor 17 boss. In his vision, a skeletal monstrosity loomed—shrouded in darkness, staring at him with cold, disdainful eyes.
HisFalnaflared to life across his back, activating his skillat full force to drive out the illusion clouding his mind. But every time it cleared the miasma from his thoughts, the effect returned—deeper, stronger.
Mikoto noticed Bell's state before following his gaze—down to the Goliath's exposed magic stone.
It had turned a chilling shade of black, and from it rose a noxious miasma—impure, unholy, a heretical energy that defied everything she had known about monsters and the Dungeon.
Something terrible was at work.
Almost lost in its eerie glow, Mikoto's face turned pale as her body instinctively stepped back, unable to keep looking.
Her spell dissolved, releasing the Goliath from the gravity field.
"Bell-dono, close your eyes—don't look at its magic stone!" she shouted with the last of her strength before collapsing, unconscious.
Fighting against the overwhelming fear flooding his body, Bell forced himself to look away. As soon as he broke visual contact, some clarity returned. Within mere seconds, he realized just how close he had come to mental collapse—his mind nearly consumed.
Keeping his gaze fixed on the ground, he lunged toward the Goliath, determined to end it once and for all. But when his knife struck, it didn't meet the exposed crystal—it bounced harmlessly off the creature's hardened flesh.
Lifting his eyes just slightly for a better view, he froze.
The creature that had once been battered, broken, and nearly dead now stood pristine—no,morethan that. Its height had grown, surpassing ten meters. Its body, once flesh and stone, was now coated in jet-black skin, obsidian and unyielding.
"Grrraaaa!"
It let out a thunderous roar.
Before Bell could react, a full-force blow slammed into him from the front, driving him deep into the earth.
From afar, Lili and the gods turned, drawn by the monstrous noise, their eyes widening as they watched an unrelenting storm of blows rain down like meteors—each one shattering the street and burying the young adventurer deeper beneath the rubble.
"Bell!" Hestia's scream—followed by cries from his guildmates—rang out, jolting the adventurers who had been battling weaker monsters nearby.
All eyes turned to the towering irregular as it stood triumphantly.
And then—to their shock—they saw him.
In the center of the crater, Bell stood tall. His body had moved on instinct alone, mere moments before the first blow could knock him unconscious. He had crossed his arms in front of him, turning them into a shield.
Though the Goliath—now strengthened by a full tier's worth of power—had unleashed a storm of devastating strikes, Bell had not yielded. Even as his armguards were shattered and his limbs bore the brunt of the punishment, he hadn't taken a single step back. He endured the hellish assault, his stance unwavering.
As if Bell's life meant nothing beneath its feet, the empowered Goliath didn't bother to finish him off. It simply turned, leaving the two adventurers it had bested behind and charging toward the city's outer limits.
Only when the monster's silhouette shrank into the distance did Bell's body finally give out, collapsing to his knees, drained and battered. A feat only he—and perhaps a handful of others in all of Orario—could ever claim.
No ordinary level 4 adventurer could've survived that onslaught, let alone remain standing. If not for Bell's monstrously high stats—each maxed and even surpassed in his previous levels—his body would've been nothing more than a broken heap, staining the shattered street beneath him.
"Everyone, we must stop the irregular!"
Riveria Ljos's voice, firm and commanding, snapped Lili out of her daze. The pallum had been opening and closing her mouth, struggling to process what she'd just witnessed. Now, the high elf's command—issued through the Occulus communication crystal—gave everyone a much-needed direction.
"If Finn and Gareth were here, this wouldn't be happening," muttered Loki, biting the tip of her thumb.
The fact that a floor boss had evolved into alevel 5 irregularhad shaken even her.
Whatever was affecting the monsters... it was making themstronger.
Normally, the Dungeon would expend an immense amount of energy to produce a single black irregular—leaving it drained and unable to spawn monsters for a time. But somehow,external energyhad triggered the same phenomenon—outsidethe Mother's domain.
"Retrieve Rabbit Foot and Absolute Shadow... You."
Loki turned her sharp gaze to Haruhime, standing quietly behind her goddess.
During the previous battle against the Hestia Familia, Loki had taken careful note of the Renard's special ability—one that had stuck in her mind.
A mysterious power that couldboost a person's level—that wasn't something Loki would ever overlook.
"Six... maybe seven, if I push my mind to the brink. But it will only last a few minutes," Haruhime said softly, her voice faint but resolute—never once taking her eyes off the crater where Bell still knelt.
"Good. Strengthen Riveria," Loki commanded without hesitation. "For now, your ability will be our last resort if things go south. A few minutes is more than enough—Riveria will turn that irregular into a block of ice. We'll finish it in one blow, before that mysterious power can evolve it again."
She then turned her gaze toward Babel.
'Aren't you planning to help, Freya?'she thought with a flicker of irritation.
Second-class adventurers intercepted the Goliath as it neared the outer edge of the city. None dared meet it head-on, but instead launched rapid strikes in succession—wounding the beast again and again, giving it no time to regenerate. Bit by bit, they chipped away at its nearly immortal flesh, prying open its defenses to expose a single, fatal weakness.
Then—splash!
With a thunderous crash, the wall surrounding Labyrinth City gave way under the monster's might.
It was official: for the first time in many years, a monster hadescapedfrom Orario.
But that would be its limit.
Behind it, standing tall with golden radiance, was a high elf, her long green hair flowing in the wind. Her spell's tones linked together like divine chains, her chant laced with power—and with the pride only a true queen could carry.
"My name is Alf... !"
From the tip of her staff, a sky-blue light exploded outward, blanketing the day in brilliance. In the blink of an eye, the Goliath was sealed in a glacial tomb—ice so absolute that not even monsters oflevel 7could hope to escape.
Cheers erupted from the adventurers. Relief washed over them, the roar of victory filling the air.
The irregular had fallen—or so they believed.
But behind the shattered city wall... awave of monstersemerged, grinning wickedly, as if mocking the triumph.
...
Then—a pillar of light shot skyward from Babel, piercing the earth andsplitting the heavens above.
An unthinkable event had occurred once more.
A god has died in the Dungeon.