"Another bunch of pests!"
Bache's face twisted in anger.
She glanced at the Crystal Spiders being cut down like weeds in front of her. After a quick assessment, she judged the newcomer to be at least Level 6 and immediately decided to retreat.
"Tiona! Next time, we'll settle this!"
Throwing out one last threat, Bache vanished into the tunnel behind her.
"You lot, move!"
At her command, a swarm of black-cloaked followers rushed forward. They blanketed the group with curses, status ailments, and other debuffs before pulling out ignis stones and charging in, screaming as they detonated themselves. The relentless assault threw Tiona into complete chaos.
Then a sea of flames erupted from the tunnel behind them, instantly reducing every Crystal Spider in its path to ash.
"Tiona! Narvi! Are you all right?"
"Ryoji! Your timing couldn't have been better!" Tiona looked ready to burst into tears. "Waaah... I knew you loved me!"
The roaring inferno swallowed every black-cloaked fanatic charging forward.
"Actually, I don't."
Rolling his eyes, Ryoji walked over to the group. He pulled several potions from his pouch and tossed them to Narvi and the others. After drinking them, everyone's injuries began to improve, though those suffering from poison were still groaning in pain.
"It's Virga's poison," Ryoji said after taking one look at them. "You'll need a specialized antidote to cure it. I've already found the exit, so I'll get you out of here so you can receive treatment from the Dian Cecht Familia as soon as possible."
"Really? Thank goodness!" Narvi and the others nearly cried with relief.
The Loki Familia had always considered themselves Orario's strongest, but this expedition through Knossos had worn away far too much of their confidence.
"The one fighting you just now... was that Bache?"
"Waaah..." Tiona was still sobbing, so Narvi answered for her.
"Yeah. It was Bache of the Kali Familia. But the moment she saw you, she turned tail and ran."
"A cautious one..." Ryoji muttered. "Let's regroup with everyone else first."
With that, he led the survivors toward the exit at full speed.
"Ais!"
"Tione!"
Before long, Ais and Tione came into view. With more of the executives reunited, everyone's spirits lifted.
"The captain's okay, right? He is, isn't he?!" Covered in wounds, Tione charged at Ryoji like an enraged lioness, grabbing him by the collar.
"Calm down," Ryoji said firmly. "Finn has already been sent outside. With Airmid's skills, he'll be treated."
In truth, he wasn't completely sure whether even Airmid could remove the curse on Finn, but this was no time to spread doubt.
"I'll escort all of you out first." He glanced at the unconscious members of the group.
No one objected, and they immediately headed for the exit to the sixteenth floor.
"Who haven't we found yet?" Ais asked after quickly counting everyone.
"Riveria, Lefiya... and Filvis from the Dionysus Familia. Also Line and the others." Ryoji counted the remaining people in his head.
Seven in total.
Hopefully they were all still together. If Riveria was with them, they should at least be able to stay alive. But if they'd been scattered apart... that would be a serious problem.
"Pick up the pace," Ryoji suddenly growled. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
The moment they heard that, everyone's heart sank.
When they first entered, Ryoji had said he had a bad feeling about this, and not long after, the entire Familia had fallen into Knossos's trap. At this point, everyone trusted his instincts almost blindly. The second he said he had another bad feeling, they all turned pale and sprinted after him with everything they had.
"...?"
Halfway through their dash, Ryoji's expression suddenly changed. "The ground's shaking."
Ais seemed to notice it as well, her blood-stained face growing tense. Only after she pointed it out did everyone realize the metal floor beneath their feet was trembling, and with each passing second, the vibrations grew stronger.
"Something's coming! Run!"
Ryoji's ominous premonition had come true, and he urged everyone to move even faster. But only a few seconds later...
"...!"
Without the slightest warning, the attack began.
'BOOM!!'
A deafening crash like a thunderclap exploded through the corridor as the metal wall ahead of them was ripped apart by a massive impact. There was no technique behind it, just overwhelming brute force.
A gigantic monster burst through the super-hard metal wall with terrifying momentum, tearing it open as if it were paper. It had the lower body of an enormous bull, its entire hide gleaming with a metallic luster. Growing from its forehead was the upper body of a woman with emerald-green skin and hair. She possessed beauty worthy of a goddess... and a grotesque, twisted smile.
The sight dredged up memories everyone wished they could forget.
"That's... the one from the fifty-ninth floor...!" Tione's eyes flared with hatred.
The avatar of the Corrupted Spirit.
Unlike before, however, the Corrupted Spirit now seemed to have taken over the body of a monstrous bull.
"It destroyed a super-hard metal wall in a single hit...?" Narvi's face went pale.
The Corrupted Spirit's avatar on the fifty-ninth floor had left an unforgettable scar on her mind. Even all of the Loki Familia's executives fighting together had barely survived that encounter. She never wanted to face something like that again.
Yet here it was... another one.
"ARIA...!!"
The female upper body fixed its murky golden eyes on Ais. Its smile twisted into madness as it let out a shrill roar. Ais immediately tensed, treating it as a deadly threat.
"So they dropped a monster right next to the exit..." Ryoji glanced behind the creature. The exit was only a short distance away, and now their greatest obstacle stood directly in their path.
"I'll lure it away. You all use that chance to escape!"
The words had barely left his mouth before he charged forward.
"Wait!"
"That's too dangerous by yourself!"
He ignored the shouts behind him.
'Whoosh!'
The Cross Sword shot through the air like a supersonic shell, screaming straight toward the monster's human half. The smile on the Corrupted Spirit's face faltered.
'Crack!'
In the next instant, a streak of light lashed out from behind it, knocking the flying blade aside in a single blow.
Ryoji narrowed his eyes.
It was a whip. No... it was an incredibly long, slender tail. It moved with the speed of a flashing blade. Even after colliding head-on with a supersonic projectile, its surface remained perfectly smooth, without so much as a scratch.
"Come after me!"
Slipping past the Corrupted Spirit while its attention was diverted, Ryoji sprinted down a different passage.
"You want to play with me?" The Spirit's smile stretched into something utterly broken. "Fine! Then let's play."
(End of Chapter)
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