The Dungeon Lord's Chamber
Simon and Lethe entered the black cave without a moment's hesitation.
Outside, the bitter cold raged like a madman, but inside the cave it was strangely warm.
"For a dungeon entrance, it looks pretty ordinary."
Simon said, glancing around at the jagged stalactites jutting from the cave ceiling.
"I think we found the right place, actually."
Lethe, walking beside him, pointed straight ahead with a fingertip. They hadn't gone far at all, yet the end of the cave was already in sight.
The far end was sealed off, and two barrier magic circles of intricate design lay spread across it — one black, the other white. Long circuits flowed out of each circle and threaded into a hairline crack in the cave wall.
"Just like Israfil said."
Simon approached as he spoke.
"A Jet-Black circle and a holy circle. When she said we'd need both, this is exactly what she meant."
"If you hadn't come with me, this would've been a real headache."
Lethe examined the circles' structure as she continued.
"Try forcing the configuration to change and the whole cave comes down on our heads. Simple as that."
"Then there's no reason to change anything. Let's start right now."
Simon placed his hand on the black circle.
"Fine by me."
Lethe set her hand on the white one. The two of them closed their eyes at the same time, drawing up their focus, raising Jet-Black and Divinity and pouring them into the circles.
Vwooooom!
The circles, empty husks that had held only their forms, activated — awakening their Rune Script and setting their formulas into motion. Like interlocking gears, the components caught hold one by one, and the circles roared to full operation.
Kugugugugugu!
Both of them turned their heads. It wasn't the cave wall they were touching that had opened — the wall beside them split apart, revealing an enormous portal.
"There we go, there we go."
Lethe dusted off her palms and smiled.
"Everything's going exactly as planned~ And that miserable cold is finally over!"
Simon lifted his hand from the circle as well and came to her side.
"Let's go."
"Yes!"
They threw themselves into the portal together.
The portal wasn't deep. The moment they passed through, they dropped onto solid ground.
Hm.
Simon's expression stiffened slightly.
Bones. Nothing but bones.
The bones of humans, animals, and monsters alike rose into an enormous hill.
Thud!
Lethe landed at Simon's side — and then, hearing the dry rattle beneath her feet, her gaze dropped to the ground.
"!!"
She let out a strangled cry and clung to Simon's arm. Lethe was terrified of skeletons, thanks to a memory from her past.
"You okay, Lethe?"
Simon asked gently. Her face had gone ghost-white, but she shot him a look and hastily peeled herself away.
"Ahem. Ah. I'm fine."
She followed it with an awkward cough.
"If it's too much, you can wait outside. I can handle this on my own."
"……I can't tell if that's kindness or just the most insulting thing I've ever heard."
Steel hardened in her eyes.
"This is Holy Federation business. There is absolutely no world in which I, a Saintess candidate, stand down."
Just as I thought.
Saying nothing more, Simon started walking. Lethe fell in beside him.
Sweat dripped from her brow onto a skull's crown. She flinched at every dry clatter of bone underfoot, yet kept her eyes locked forward, pressing on for all she was worth.
She really is something else.
"Simon, over there."
Just then, Lethe stretched out a hand and pointed ahead.
Someone was there.
A young woman in a priest's habit and glasses, smiling in slow, easy circles.
Where have I seen her before?
A sense of dread welled up in him. Simon pulled a crumpled photograph from his robe pocket.
"It's her."
Simon said, his face hard.
"The teacher who arrived in the village before us and disappeared."
"She must have been offered to the dungeon as a sacrifice."
Lethe's expression went icy in an instant.
"Shapeshifting into your last meal a hobby of yours, monster?"
As if it understood the words —
The human-shaped mass of flesh swelled and rippled, its size multiplying several times over.
BUURK! THUK!
Massive limbs burst through the skin, and —
THUK!
a long reptilian head — a dragon's, to be precise — emerged from the mass. Its whole body was covered in brown scales, with blade-like spines running down its back.
Freezing cold streamed from its mouth, and its eyes were blue.
As a dungeon monster, its threat level had never been measured, but common knowledge held that anything bearing a dragon's form was powerful by default.
THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!
Did it take them for the usual sacrificial offerings? The wingless dragon swung its colossal legs and charged, the bones it trampled grinding to powder across the ground.
"Ready?"
"Wouldn't dream of falling behind."
The monster split its jaws wide, baring razor teeth. Lethe raised her right arm.
⟨ Divine Barrier ⟩
GUWOOOOOONG!
The monster's charge slammed to a halt head-on, and in that gap Simon slipped in, low and silent. The hem of his black robe whipped upward as six vials of deadly poison soared into the air.
Open Gate!
And then, Overlord as well.
The tentacle-blades surging in from six directions shattered the potion vials one by one. Poison slicking their edges, they plunged straight into the seams of the monster's scales.
—GAAAAACK!
The monster shrieked in agony.
"Nice!"
Now it was Lethe's turn — she released her Divine Barrier and leapt skyward. Divinity gathered in her hands and condensed into the shape of an enormous hammer.
⟨ Divine Hammer ⟩
GUWOOOOOOOONG!
A devastating blow landed on its head. The giant monster staggered backward, and Simon and Lethe dismissed their spells and charged in reverse.
—Grrrrrrr!
The monster's body bulged and swelled, then took on the weight of two legs as it shifted into a bipedal form. Just like its human guise earlier — changing shape seemed to be its specialty.
"So what?"
Lethe kicked off the ground and soared.
"What good does changing your shape do you?"
Her shin sheathed itself in a whirling drill of pure white as it shot forward. The monster flung out an arm, but her kick snapped five knuckles clean out of joint.
—GAAAAACK!
Twisting its head, the monster lunged its gaping maw at Lethe's thigh.
CRACK!
But this time it was Simon's right foot that slammed into the monster's face. The beast's features caved in like a boot print, and Simon flipped backward over it, landing on the ground.
I'm in pretty good form today.
He activated the magic circle drawn in his palm, and a vast wave of Jet-Black spread outward, seeping into the bones around them.
Obey me.
As Simon raised his index finger, the bones on the ground surged to life at the command and floated up around him.
⟨ Bone Prison ⟩
For a necromancer, exploiting the terrain was non-negotiable.
The bones slapped onto the monster's body in sheets, or linked together like chains to form a cage. Trapped in an instant, the monster thrashed wildly to break free.
"Lethe!"
"Already on it!"
Lethe, seeing Simon's Bone Prison, readied the white magic that matched it. From the air, twenty blades of Divinity came rushing in, threading through the gaps of the bone cage and burying themselves in the monster's flesh.
The monster twisted in torment, howling.
"Ugh, damn it — this thing just will not die."
"Then we make absolutely sure it stops breathing!"
KWAAAAAAAAAH!
Trapped inside the bone prison, the monster spewed a breath of freezing cold from its jaws. The bones froze over like icicles and clattered to the ground.
Simon and Lethe fell back quickly, preparing their next spells.
—Grrrrrrr!
And the monster, having cut off its breath, began its third transformation. From bipedal back to quadruped — no, eight more legs sprouted, and driving its twelve limbs, it came charging at Lethe.
It had become something like a centipede.
"Hah."
She exhaled a long breath and brought her hands together as if in prayer. Then she closed her eyes and began to chant.
⟨ Strength, Bless, Haste, La Vitesse ⟩
She didn't even need a magic circle. With every incantation, a cascade of blessings took root in her body, brilliant radiance of every color wrapping around her.
Meanwhile Simon pointed a finger at the monster, a cluster of curse circles hovering in the air before him.
⟨ Exhaust, Sickness, Weakness, Paralyze ⟩
Curses poured from Simon's fingertip one after another. The monster weakened beneath the stacking curses — while Lethe grew stronger and stronger beneath the blessings.
And at last, when Lethe and the monster met —
Swhoosh.
The gap between their full strengths had become quite simply the gap between heaven and earth.
CRUNCH!
Lethe drove her Divinity-wrapped fist down onto the charging monster's head, driving it straight into the ground.
The one-sided assault continued.
Lethe's Holy Martial Arts — the priestly combat art — was elite-class as well. Every time her fists and legs moved, the monster's joints buckled and its scales split apart.
KRRRRRK!
The difference in power and speed was absolute.
CRUNCH!
Her follow-up straight punch smashed the monster into the cave wall. Perhaps that knocked some sense into it, because it turned and fled.
"Ugh, what a pain!"
Lethe panted and stretched out her arm.
The monster was running, and obstacles littered the field.
In that case —
Switch over to Divinity!
Simon withdrew his Jet-Black and filled himself with Divinity instead, extending his right arm. A holy lance took shape before him, and a Blessing spell flew in as a ribbon of light, winding around the shaft and reshaping it into a drill.
And the exact same stance was unfolding beside him, at Lethe's left hand.
Their spells completed at the same instant.
⟨ Lethe Original — La Escrime ⟩ ×2
TUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!
With a sound like a thunderclap of release, the holy lances shot out like twin lines of white light.
BUURK!
THUK!
The monster's body, skewered on both drills, carried straight into the wall.
A roar that shook the entire dungeon. Blood bursting from its abdomen splattered everything around, staining the ground green.
"Hah."
"Whew."
Simon and Lethe lowered their arms in unison, then stole a glance at each other and broke into small smiles.
"Not bad, huh?"
"Still a long way from the original."
No more words were needed. Hands on their knees, the two of them savored the lingering taste of victory for a moment.
After destroying that monster, Simon rifled through its corpse. Lethe, apparently too squeamish to watch, stood with her arms crossed and her back turned.
Before long, Simon found a key-shaped ore among the monster's remains.
They moved at once, and finally reached the dungeon's last destination.
"It's not as big as I expected."
Lethe said, sweeping her hair back.
"Yeah. And I think that thing we just killed was the last monster guarding the Dungeon Lord."
"Feels like somebody already cleared most of this place."
She waved a finger back and forth.
"And of course, that somebody failed to beat the Dungeon Lord at the very end and was killed. That much, I'd wager."
"So the Dungeon Lord himself is right on the other side of that door."
Simon, holding the key taken from the monster's corpse, stood before the enormous door.
"Open it."
"Standing by."
Lethe gathered her Divinity, bracing for the worst.
Simon slowly slid the key into the keyhole.
Ah—!
Suddenly the key tore free of his fingers, sucked into the keyhole, and with a heavy ka-CHUNK! the stone door began to grind open.
Grrrrrrrrrr—
As stone scraped against stone, an ominous white mist seeped out through the widening gap.
The Dungeon Lord's chamber finally revealed itself in full.
"……!"
And the instant they looked inside, Simon's and Lethe's faces both went rigid.
"……What the hell is this?"