Dungeon Raid (2)

I had just heard from Uriel and was about to step out of my dorm room when a white envelope, slipped through the crack of the door, caught my eye.

The instant I picked it up, a thick cloud of perfume hit me. I tore it open at once. Of course it was from Elysia.

Every ornate phrase she could summon, rambling on and on — and the whole of it boiled down to a shameless request to spend the weekend with her at a café near the academy.

And whose fault is it that I'm going through all this hell in the first place…

I snorted in disbelief, shredded the letter to pieces, and stuffed it into the trash in the corner of the room.

She'll throw another fit because I didn't reply. Not my problem.

Without a shred of lingering attachment, I left the dormitory and hurried toward the transfer portal where I'd arranged to meet Uriel.

"Caelus…!"

She was already waiting when I arrived. Uriel lit up with a bright smile and came toward me — then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, slipped her arm through my left.

A soft warmth pressed against my arm. It occurred to me, unbidden, that this was the same left arm Elysia had clung to so desperately yesterday.

I could tell Uriel had chosen that side on purpose. Looking at her smiling face, though, I couldn't say a word. I decided to let it pass.

Well. Not that I mind.

"Shall we go, then, Uriel."

"…Y-yes…! Caelus!"

I glanced down at her ears, which flinched and flushed red every time I said her name, and a small laugh escaped me as we set off side by side.

Uriel set the coordinates, and we stepped into the portal. In a matter of seconds the crowded transfer-plaza fell away, and we emerged at the dungeon entrance.

It was only when the northern chill sank into my bones that I finally noticed it — hidden among the presence of the countless people filling the area around the portal, a warped pulse of mana, and a faint hostility I hadn't caught until now.

…Mages.

They'd gone to great lengths to erase themselves with mana, but for someone used to monster ambushes, even the smallest trace — even a trembling ripple of mana — was impossible to hide. And once I recognized that the wavelength was unique to Magic Tower mages, I had a fairly clear picture of who was behind this.

Zenon.

He might be trying to read my intentions after yesterday, or gauge my strength. Or perhaps, since I was the only one in Hartelion who harbored open hostility toward him, he'd decided this was the moment to eliminate me.

Whatever his intent, the moment he'd sicced these rats on me, there was no reason to let them live.

Uriel's shoulder stiffened almost imperceptibly — she'd noticed the tail as well. She sent a brief signal, secretly letting divine power flow from her fingertips, then met my eyes and gave a small nod.

We kill them, then.

They'd followed us of their own accord. This dungeon would be their grave.

Feigning complete ignorance of the pursuit, we stepped into the dungeon's deep darkness. They, too, hid themselves in the shadows, slowly closing the distance.

Zenon, you impatient bastard. You let the dogs off the leash faster than I expected.

If he'd properly understood this dungeon's rank, he wouldn't have been stupid enough to send rats of this caliber. Whether they'd even survive the grimoires that would come flying the moment we entered the first zone was already in doubt. From mana absorption to overheating the mana cores of their equipment — the place was stacked with things that were poison to mages.

I casually slipped an arm around Uriel's waist and murmured into her ear.

"…The second we go in, I'm taking those rats. You move immediately too."

"…Understood, Caelus."

After confirming the resolute look in her eyes as she nodded, I opened the door to the first zone without hesitation.

The moment the archive doors swung open, a vicious surge of mana from the grimoires inside washed over us. The rats trailing behind used our entry as cover, stealthily closing in, preparing their ambush.

Now.

Without a moment's pause, I detonated aura through my entire body and plunged into the archive. Just as they rushed to chant their spells for the ambush, I struck the grimoires diving at me with aura and ricocheted them straight at the rats.

A crackling surge — then a thunderous blast.

The golden grimoire forcibly swallowed the mana of the mages mid-chant and sent it into a runaway surge. The red grimoire that flew with it struck their equipment and instantly overheated the mana cores to the point of explosion.

"Ghk…! Aaaagh…!"

Their armor detonated in a chain reaction. Shrapnel sprayed in every direction, punching through flesh, while inside their bodies the mana circuits reversed, burst, and slammed into their ribs. I surged toward the blood-soaked figures writhing on the floor and brought an aura-charged blade down on their necks.

A wet slice.

In a matter of seconds, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠men who had to have been mid-ranking mages at the very least were reduced to unrecognizable lumps of meat.

Uriel, who had been reading the grimoires' attack patterns and holding a divine barrier, saw the blood on my cheek and pulled out a handkerchief.

"Hold still, Caelus."

With careful hands, she began wiping the bloodstain from my cheek. She stroked my face as if handling the most precious treasure in the world — and yet, somehow, that tenderness seemed to carry a strange heat, a hint of obsession.

"If you're done, we need to move again."

I said it while watching grimoires bounce off her divine barrier. Uriel stopped wiping my cheek, her lips pursing in disappointment, but she nodded at once.

"Yes. Understood."

Leaving the scattered corpses and the stench of blood behind, we headed toward the deeper heart of the archive — and toward the Zone 1 boss, Archivist Selene.

The closer we drew to the center, the denser the mana became, and the number of grimoires slamming into Uriel's barrier surged. I adjusted my grip on my sword. Uriel, still holding the barrier, condensed divine power at her fingertips.

A deep rumble shook the floor.

The instant we set foot in the center, the grimoires packed along the wall shelves began to thrash violently as one, and the space at the heart of it all warped. Through a rift in that space, a colossal form of black mana-smoke emerged, wearing a white mask.

So this is the Zone 1 boss.

As if conducting an orchestra, the thing swept a giant quill through the air, and every book on the shelves lifted into orbit. Then it drew a circle with the quill. The red and gold grimoires from before fused into a grotesque form, radiating an ominous orange light.

Flame that overheated mana cores, combined with lightning that triggered mana runaway. Merged, they filled the air with a force that could detonate not only mana, but aura and the very energy within the body.

"Caelus, leave this to me…!"

But even that threatening power had one counter — divine power. Uriel's precise divine barrier thickened around us, and I felt my faintly stirring aura settle again.

The moment I was fully free of the grimoires' influence, I kicked off the floor and condensed aura at the tip of my blade. A sharp rush of air — I closed the distance to the Archivist in an instant and drove my sword straight into the giant mask, right between the eyes.

The explosive aura in my blade struck its mana core. The colossal body was hurled backward, slamming unceremoniously into the bookshelves. But it recovered at once, and in a fury it swept the quill down again.

This time blue and white grimoires fused together — a freezing ice-attribute force that flash-froze everything around it, mixed with a metallic force that could cut through anything. An attack that would freeze you solid and shatter you at the slightest graze.

"I'll raise the temperature…!"

Uriel conjured purifying flame with her divine power. The binding force of the two energies dropped sharply under the interference, and they began to waver unstably. Wrapping aura around my body like armor, I didn't waste the opening she'd made. I condensed aura into my sword once more and charged the Archivist.

Just as it tried to sweep the quill again, my blade found the quill's mana core first and pierced it clean through. A sickening crack, then a boom — the quill shattered to pieces, and the books floating in the air lost their power all at once and fell.

With even the quill that had commanded the grimoires destroyed, a bizarre mana pulse erupted from the Archivist's colossal form, seized by a rage bordering on madness. The fallen grimoires were sucked into its body as one. Flame, ice, lightning, and steel — four forces mixing together, taking the shape of a grimoire marked with a crescent moon.

Destructive waves surged. An annihilation technique capable of sweeping everything away was taking form.

If this lands, we're hit dead-on.

Just as the overwhelming force threatened to crush me, Uriel beside me stretched out a fingertip and pointed to a single spot in the wave.

"That's the binding point…!"

Uriel had found the weakest point among the four forces' waves, and she drove pure-white divine power into it like a wedge. The divine power sank in. The grimoire's energy violently reversed, and a massive crack split across the crescent-moon pattern, tearing it open.

I threw myself at the gap she'd opened, gathering every last bit of aura at the tip of my sword. The instant my blade pierced the heart of the giant grimoire, thousands of fused grimoires and the Archivist's body itself — unable to withstand the runaway ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mana — shattered to pieces in midair.

The fragments soon all transformed into mana-stone crystals, pouring down in every direction like rain.

"I've never been caught in a mana-stone rain before…"

Uriel murmured, watching the falling stones. A red mana stone settled in her hair, and without thinking I reached out, brushing her locks to knock the fragment away.

For what I'd thought was the smallest of courtesies, her entire face — not just the tips ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of her ears or her cheeks, but that pale complexion of hers — flushed red as a ripe fruit in an instant. Uriel clutched her cheeks ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with both hands, her legs seeming to give out as she swayed and sank to the floor.

"Uriel…?"

"Caelus… Caelus touched my hair…"

I looked down at her, mumbling with a face about to burst, and a small laugh slipped out of me.