Stone Bread
The first basement level of the Gold Mine Dungeon.
This, more than anywhere else, was a place that truly felt like a dungeon — a strange, alien space. The first basement floor wasn't a floor at all; it was a vast chamber filled with a churning crimson sea.
And surely, this sea had not always been red. Human corpses bobbed on its surface here and there without end.
So they dumped the corpses of their failed experiments here, of course.
The road to Simon's next destination — the second basement level — lay at the far end of a great central causeway that cut straight across this unpleasant sea.
The causeway connected to dozens of smaller passages branching off in every direction, and from each of them, undying soldiers poured out in a ceaseless tide.
"Prince! Send zombies to block the seven o'clock direction!"
[Okay!]
"Erze! Web up the flanking bridge with your spider silk!"
[As you wish, my lord!]
The longer they fought, the thinner the Legion undead trailing behind them grew.
There was no helping it. With three basement levels still to go, Simon had to conserve his strength as much as possible and fight efficiently using his forces.
Come to think of it —
Simon lifted his head.
What is the deal with this space?
A river of blood flowed through the level above, yet it never fell downward. The water of this sea had climbed all the way up there to flow instead. Definitive proof that the space itself was enormously warped.
Then again, expecting a dungeon to follow the continent's common sense and laws of physics was its own kind of absurdity.
"Simon, the road's cut off."
At Kajan's words, Simon snapped back to his senses and stopped in his tracks. Sure enough, the path ahead was severed.
Nirrti's doing.
Fragments still drifted on the sea, as if the road had been shattered mere moments ago. And hundreds of meters beyond, the causeway picked up again.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
And even at this very moment, undying soldiers kept surging onto the central causeway toward Simon.
[What now, Simon?]
Prince asked.
"No other choice. We leave this to the Legion's undead and cross fast on our own."
Simon kicked off the ground first, leaping up and landing on one of the fragments floating on the crimson sea.
SPLASH!
The fragment wobbled precariously and began to sink under his weight. Simon quickly hopped to the next one.
"Ugh, this is dangerous."
[Hehe! There's no need to go about it the hard way, you know.]
Erzsebet anchored her spider silk to the ceiling and soared upward. Soon Kajan and Prince were likewise tethered and lifted, and Simon grabbed on after them, hauled into the air.
She led the way, and the three men dangling from her webs moved along with her.
"Nice work, Erze!"
Travel had never been so smooth. Far in the distance, the road to the second basement level came into view.
This'll do! Just a little farther and—
[Everyone, look out!]
Pier's cry rang out.
Ahead of them, the sea of blood surged upward. From within its depths, a long, monstrous creature wreathed in scarlet lava came writhing toward them, maw stretched impossibly wide.
Damn it!
Erzsebet flung out her arm. The three men were shoved aside, and the monster crashed into Erzsebet alone, slamming her back into the ground on the opposite side.
Simon landed on a fragment above the river and shouted in desperation.
"Erze!!"
[Leave this one to me and keep going, my lord!]
He could see her shoving the monster back with her webs as she slipped free.
Simon, Kajan, and Prince nodded and sprinted across the floating fragments as though they were stepping-stones.
Erzsebet picked herself up and studied the creature that had tackled her.
[Well, I never. What in the world is this thing?]
A chimera that brought an earthworm to mind, molten lava oozing from its skin in place of sweat.
The lava hurt it too, apparently — its body twisted in agony — but the dungeon's regenerative effect kept knitting its wounds closed.
A chimera that could exist only in this Gold Mine Dungeon — immortal, and therefore condemned to suffer forever.
[How pitiful. And undead kin as well, no less—]
Erzsebet spread both arms wide.
[Then let me gift you a peaceful dissolution!]
She crossed her arms, and the webs she had spread through the air in advance snapped shut like a net, seizing the chimera.
But the lava streaming from its body melted the silk away. Freed from its bonds in an instant, the chimera lunged straight at Erzsebet.
KUUUUM—!
[Ghh!]
Struck by the chimera, she was slammed into the ground once more.
The chimera pressed its assault, jaws gaping wide. She held it back by sheer arm strength, barely managing to keep the maw at bay.
Her webs kept trying to coil around the chimera, but the flowing lava melted them away each time. A terrible matchup for her ability.
[Haah.]
She sighed, as if in resignation.
[I do hate this.]
Crackle—
Her porcelain-white face cracked apart, skin of a different hue pushing through from beneath.
Pop! Pop!
Then the flesh at her waist rippled and softened, and spider legs burst forth, planting themselves firmly against the ground.
In a flash, Erzsebet kicked off with all eight legs and forced the chimera back with raw strength alone.
[I simply despise being anything less than beautiful, even for a moment.]
Erzsebet heaved the monster up with pure power and slammed it into the floor. Lava sprayed in every direction as the chimera shrieked.
It had been a long time since she'd fought in her true form. Her jet-black webs spread out to blanket the area.
[I've changed my mind. Before you dissolve, you'll pay for making me angry, won't you?]
Thanks to Erzsebet, Simon's group made it safely down to the dungeon's second basement level.
If the first basement level was a fortress designed to repel intruders, this second level evoked something more like a massive detention facility.
Prisons filled every corner of the place, and the undead citizens of Tarados poured endlessly out of their open cell doors, swarming toward Simon's group.
[They never end, do they?!]
Prince charged forward and hauled back his fist with all his might.
[HIDDEN CARD PUNCHIIIE!!]
TKWAAAAM—!
The undead soldiers flew like leaves swept up in a gale, smashing into the ceiling and walls. But even their pulverized bodies began regenerating at once.
"The recovery's gotten even faster."
Kajan clicked his tongue as he watched a zombie with a snapped leg spring right back to its feet.
"We split up here."
Simon said, consulting the map.
"There's a place on the second basement level called the 'Secret Experiment Wing.' And on the third basement level, there's Nirrti's private laboratory. Kajan, you go on to the second level as planned and find 'Karl.' I'll send Prince with you."
"Understood."
"I'm heading down to the third level to settle things with Nirrti myself."
Prince's eyes went wide as he stared at Simon.
[What, you'll be fine with just you and Pier?]
"More than fine. And—"
Simon extended his right hand and opened his subspace.
"Did you forget there's one more of us?"
Simon grabbed the 'wand' that sprang straight out of the subspace and slammed it down against the floor.
Goldenization!
The dungeon floor flooded with golden light, then split apart and heaved upward in shards. The undying soldiers standing on it were caught in the wide-area attack and sent flying.
"Thank you for the battle ahead, Herseba!"
[That's right, that's right! Just leave it all to me, kiddo!]
Herseba lifted the goldenized floor into the air once more and hurled the undying soldiers away with it.
"Simon, once our business is done, we'll head down to the third basement level ourselves."
"Got it! See you soon, Kajan!"
Kajan and Prince pushed ever forward, while Simon detoured slightly to search out the stairs leading down to the third basement level.
—SKREEEEE!
—GRRRRRRAAAAGH!
Perhaps it was Nirrti's final struggle. The undead soldiers pouring from the cell doors had formed a veritable human tide.
Let's do this.
Simon took Pier's greatsword in his right hand and Herseba in his left.
The power of an Ancient Undead, and an undead nearly its equal.
He couldn't have felt more invincible.
Goldenization!
Simon turned the floor to gold with Herseba's Authority.
Then the Greatsword of Ruin came down, grinding along the goldenized floor with a terrible shriek as it pushed forward.
Slashing Wave!
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWA—!
A mountain-sized slash from Pier raked across the floor and shot outward.
The first strike was the slash itself. The second came as the golden shards flung up in its wake came raining down.
In an instant, a path had opened through the undead army, and Simon sprinted along the trench the slash had carved.
Almost there!
Just ahead, he could see the final stairway leading down to the third basement level.
"Th-thank you!"
"I thought we were done for, just waiting there to die."
The dungeon's second above-ground level.
The holding pens where residents were kept before becoming experiments were located precisely here, on the second floor above ground.
While her Feather Soldiers held back the undying legion, Serne was evacuating the residents out of the dungeon.
"Come along now, this way!"
"Heads down and move quickly, everyone!"
The guiding of the refugees was being handled by a handful of residents she controlled with her feathers. As for Serne herself, she strolled along at the back, arms crossed, letting out a long, lazy yawn.
"So tired."
She had come to a dungeon, yet not a shred of tension could be found in her. The composure of the strong, plain and simple.
She rubbed the sleep from the corner of her eye and yawned again.
"Honestly, Simon. Leaving me with nothing but errands like this."
"Um... e-excuse me..."
Her drowsy, half-lidded eyes slid sideways. A grimy, disheveled little kid was shuffling toward her.
"Thank you for saving my mom and dad!"
And with that, the child bowed their head. Serne stared at the little one for a moment, then waved a hand dismissively, as if it were too much bother.
"H-here."
The kid held something out with one filthy, grimy hand.
A single fragment of rock-hard stone bread, baked dense and dry.
"It's for you, miss!"
The child pressed the piece of bread into Serne's hand, bowed deeply once more, and then ran off toward their parents.
"......"
She looked down at the bread with a blank expression.
It was genuinely hard as a stone.
Only the very end of it was slightly damp — it had been licked. The child, it seemed, had been so loath to eat it that they'd survived by letting their tongue slowly melt the bread instead.
"Serne Aindark."
Then it happened.
From out of the darkness, footsteps came clicking closer — the measured clack of heeled shoes.
The fleeing evacuees caught sight of the figure and scattered in a panic, every last one of them.
"Well, well."
Serne curled her lips into a smile.
"My luck's rather good today. And here I find the boss herself. May I help you?"
Nirrti — the supreme head and lead researcher of The Society's Tarados branch.
Her face was hidden beneath heavy shadow, unreadable. Serne drew out a feather and held it in her hand.
"Serne Aindark. Eighteen years old, second-year at Kizen. An orphan of adoption — and yet the official heir to the Ivory Tower."
Serne's brow furrowed with displeasure. Nirrti went on with a smile.
"I've wanted to meet you at least once."
"Me, of all people?"
"Yes. Your trajectory — starting as an adopted nobody and swallowing the Ivory Tower whole — was quite impressive. It gave me plenty of inspiration, in fact."
Nirrti placed a hand on her hip.
"But your conduct after entering Kizen has been one long disappointment."
"......"
"Even after being dragged off as a hostage and subjected to the indignity of wearing that Kizen uniform, you spent an entire year being meek and docile. I assumed you intended to tear the school down from within, but lately that doesn't seem to be the case either."
Her tongue slithered out, snakelike.
"Why, I wonder? Did Kizen's power prove so overwhelming that you simply gave up? Or is it that wearing that uniform, becoming Kizen, has made you proud — made you hold your head high? There you are, docile little prisoners, releasing their hostages exactly as they intend!"
Nirrti let out a soft, lilting laugh and extended her hand.
"Forget all that nonsense. Take my hand, and let us work together."
As Serne looked at the outstretched hand, her expression began to curdle.
"Me, with you?"
"You must have guessed it by now, coming all this way. What the purpose of The Society's experiments is."
"Undying soldiers who cannot die."
"Exactly. It was only possible inside this dungeon before — but now we can deploy undying soldiers outside of it as well."
Nirrti spread both arms wide.
The very undying soldiers the Great Lords feared so deeply! No matter how mighty Kizen might be, it could never defeat an undead army that neither died nor dissolved. You saw it yourself, didn't you?"
"Hmm—"
"We share a common enemy in Kizen. The undying soldiers' first target will be Kizen itself. Serne, if you help me, everything will go that much more smoothly."
Nirrti grinned.
"This experiment is nearly complete. I need only a little more time. And when the promised day arrives, and the Ivory Tower rises together with The Society—!"
"I believe you're under some kind of misunderstanding, monkey auntie."
Serne crossed her arms and smiled.
"I'll say this with certainty: your toys will never be a match for Kizen."
"Toys?" Nirrti bristled with fury. "Toys, you say?!"
"And you claim my conduct since entering Kizen has disappointed you — but I'd say the opposite."
Serne wagged a finger.
"I am very, very satisfied with this life of mine~ As it happens, the one and only trump card capable of bringing Kizen down is right beside me, close as can be. The path I chose was not the wrong one."
"Don't make me laugh! Nothing in existence surpasses my undying soldiers and The Society's plan!"
"No. There is."
She smiled.
"Simon Polentia. The continent's future will soon be remade around him. And there could be no deadlier blow to Kizen than tearing Simon away from that interminably long-lived Witch of Death and her daughter."
"You'd rank some promising upstart above me and The Society?"
"Of course."
Serne raised the feather in her hand.
"And if you're going to make me an offer—"
CRUNCH!
Her feather punched straight through Nirrti's abdomen and tore inside.
"Least you could do is show up in your real body. Don't you think?"
"Gahk—!"
Nirrti's body turned the color of dry clay and crumbled away to dust.
"You'll... regret—!"
THWACK!
Stomping the clay head flat beneath her heel, Serne tossed her ivory hair and turned away.
"......"
And yet her left hand still clutched the rock-hard bread the little girl had given her.
She stared at it blankly for a moment, then flung it back over her shoulder.
"You eat it."
The flying bread landed neatly in the open palm of one of the men she was controlling with her feathers.
Watching him wolf the bread down, Serne lifted the corner of her mouth and strolled off, light on her feet.