The Dungeon Raid
“Is this the item you spoke of?”
“Yes.”
Bishop Nilain looked down at the two objects I had carefully set in the corner of the room.
A necklace and a bell.
Beside him stood a woman who clung to his side like a shadow. The bishop had introduced her only as Bedeia, a heresy inquisitor. No further explanation. She herself had not spoken a single word.
“…Indeed.”
The bishop murmured as he gazed quietly at the objects.
“These are theirs.”
“Theirs?”
Ren asked carefully. He had promised me he would extract as much information as possible from the Order’s people.
“You mentioned a heresy called the Black Moon, correct?”
“That is so.”
“Well. They are not the only ones who wield this alien power. There are other groups.”
“Alien power, you say…”
The bishop’s eyes shifted slowly toward Ren.
“We call the spawn of the Outer Gods who seek to invade this land the ‘False Ones.’”
“Outer Gods…?”
Ren frowned at the words, his face showing he did not understand.
“We do not claim that the Light Goddess is the only existence.”
The bishop closed his eyes, then opened them again with deliberate calm.
“But She alone is the one who embraces us and protects us. All others possess neither compassion nor order. They desire only power, and they use humans as mere instruments to achieve their own manifestation. Those who serve such Outer Gods are what we name the ‘False Ones,’ and the appearance of that external force upon this land is…”
He bent at the waist and carefully reached for the necklace. Black electricity crackled out and shoved his hand away.
“Black mana.”
“External force? …You mean the power of other gods?”
“The power contained in these objects is certainly that. As for external forces—just as the ground we stand upon is not the whole of existence… this world itself is merely one layer.”
His voice was quiet, as though he were delivering a sermon from the altar.
“Beyond the Light Goddess, in hierarchies so distant we dare not reach them, there exist many ‘beings.’ They are unlike us. They do not understand us. Rather, they seek to erode us. The power they send is never pure; it appears in corrupted form and takes root within us. That is black mana—and its omen.”
Too much information had poured out at once.
Ren, too, seemed to be hearing this for the first time; he stood frozen for a long while, as if trying to parse the words.
I was stunned myself for a moment.
Was this not a medieval world?
The concepts he spoke of were closer to the modern idea of the cosmos.
Being somewhat familiar with such notions, I recovered first and stepped in for Ren. I had intended to stay quiet and unnoticed—after all, I myself possessed black mana—but curiosity was too strong to suppress now.
“So all black mana is external power? I’ve heard there are a few people on the continent who possess it.”
“That is correct. That is how we view it. Those born with black mana on the continent have all, knowingly or not, been influenced by their attempts at invasion.”
Ren had said every one of them was somehow off. Mentally unstable, short-lived, or quick to commit crimes.
Was that the influence of the power?
“The force called black mana has no unified theme. Red mana is destruction; light mana—what is commonly called holy power—is purification. Ordinary mana colors each possess a single, consistent nature. Black mana, however, is all different. That is why we regard it not as a single power, but as a shell that wraps external force. By what rule, we cannot yet say.”
Then was the black mana I carried also an external force?
Did it apply to everyone from my homeland? Or… was it because I had awakened in this place carrying memories of a previous life—because I was never of this world to begin with?
I could not ask the bishop such questions. He would not know, and it would only invite suspicion toward me.
It was a doubt I would have to resolve alone.
While my thoughts churned, Nilain’s gaze shifted to me.
“And you are…”
Ren stepped forward as if to block that gaze.
“Someone caught up in this incident. A mercenary we hired to raid this Catastrophe-class dungeon. He simply got swept into it somehow…”
“I see. A Catastrophe-class dungeon… Yes, I had heard the raid was soon to begin. But with matters as they are…”
The bishop quietly made the sign of the cross.
“May you find peace in the embrace of the Radiance.”
In that moment, one question that had not yet cooled inside me slipped out.
“Then… do those external beings also possess power equal to a god’s?”
The instant the question ended, the air shifted on one side of the room.
Bedeia, who had not spoken a word until now and had stood quietly beside the bishop, furrowed her brows ever so slightly.
Her gaze cut sharply toward me. The tip of her boot moved a fraction in my direction.
It was an openly displeased motion.
Nilain raised a hand and stopped her.
“He is a civilian. Restrain yourself.”
At the calm authority in his voice, Bedeia bowed her head without a word.
The bishop turned back to me with a gentle smile and continued.
“Of course they possess power. Yet that power does not manifest directly upon the world as the Goddess’s does. It acts only indirectly—though in their case, far more blatantly.”
He looked again at the bell and the necklace.
“The blessings left by the Goddess appear within the framework of order and harmony. The Outer Gods, by contrast, twist that order however they can and create cracks. That is what makes them more dangerous. Humans can be swayed by their power without even knowing the name of the god. Just as with these objects.”
“So these were items imbued with the power of Outer Gods.”
“Indeed. We will take them into custody. However… since you obtained them through such hardship, there should be fitting compensation. Is there something you desire?”
Ren exchanged a glance with me and stepped forward.
“Do you know the whereabouts of those who display this black mana?”
“I can say we know a great deal… Of course, such a question is natural. Why does the Order not simply wipe them out at once?”
He carefully folded his hands and went on.
“We are fighting them. Yet of late they have swollen their ranks at a terrifying pace, and when they set their minds to hiding, even we find them difficult to locate. They deliberately melt into the cracks of cities. Sometimes they rest in the shade of power itself.”
Nilain spoke with his head bowed, as though confessing a sin.
“We continue to gather information and dispatch forces. Strengths such as Bedeia.”
He indicated the female knight standing beside him—the heresy inquisitor.
“We need information on them as well.”
“…You intend revenge, I see.”
“Not immediately… but one day we will, without fail.”
Anger seeped quietly through Ren’s words. Nilain nodded as though he understood well enough.
“We will assist you. Or rather, we should call it cooperation. And… I will dispatch Bedeia. You said you intend to raid a Catastrophe-class dungeon. Take her with you. Request her aid wherever it is needed, and should further cooperation arise afterward, work together freely.”
Ren looked at Bedeia, but she only gave a short bow. Her expressionless face revealed neither dislike nor approval. It was the attitude of one for whom the bishop’s word rendered her own will irrelevant.
After the conversation ended, they offered to perform a mass if we wished before departing with the items.
The funeral mass was held quietly in a modest corner of the building as the sun sank beyond the horizon.
There was no hymn—only the bishop’s prayer in black vestments—yet the mass clearly helped settle the chaotic atmosphere.
In particular, the wandering guild members seemed to regain their composure.
In this place, religion held that kind of meaning.
And quite apart from their recovery of spirit, matters moved swiftly.
Once the mass concluded, Bishop Nilain left quietly, leaving only Bedeia behind.
Before long the date for the raid attempt was set.
Prior to that, a grand council chamber was prepared, and representatives of clans and the imperial house gathered from every region.
Though called a strategy meeting, it was far more than a discussion of tactics. Official alliances, force composition, distribution of authority, even political interests all crossed the table in a complex tangle.
Ren had said it would be nothing but exhausting and that I need not attend, yet curiosity won out. In the end I decided to sit beside him.
Ren brought Bedeia as well—to display the backing of the Luen Order.
Veteran adventurers were hardly unaware that this was meant to conceal their weakened strength.
Even so, Ren had brought her because one could not casually criticize religion. Mentions of faith—especially of the Luen Order, the state religion of the Empire—were dangerous sparks.
Clan masters and their attendants filed into the chamber one after another. That alone filled the hall in short order.
The scale was entirely different from the Forbidden-class dungeon raid. This was a true coalition facing the highest difficulty short of the unconquerable.
As people continued to enter, a man seated near Ren spoke to him.
“I heard the news. Aren’t you pushing too hard? Even hiring mercenaries.”
He glanced at me standing behind Ren, then shifted his gaze to Bedeia beside me.
“And that one next to you…”
“A heresy inquisitor of the Luen Order.”
“…Ah. I see.”
As though he had lost his words, he merely clicked his tongue and turned his head away.
At that moment, a figure bearing the imperial crest rose from one side of the hall.
Ren whispered that this was Marquis Tern, the sole noble attending as representative of the imperial house.
He wore a neatly polished smile and slowly raised a hand. Every gaze fixed upon him.
“Before we begin the meeting, there is someone I wish to introduce to you all.”
With those words the tent flap of the chamber was drawn aside and someone entered.
He was an ordinary-looking blond man, yet the moment he stepped inside the atmosphere of the entire hall shifted.
Several clan masters shot to their feet.
“Five-Star?”
Amid the confusion he walked forward without a word and seated himself naturally in an empty chair.
Marquis Tern opened his mouth as though to soothe the mood.
“Correct. He is the one we have invited to ensure the absolute success of this raid.”
The words were accompanied by an exaggerated, confident gesture, yet the expressions of the clan masters were far from pleased.