Hachiman stared at the reddish creature, his mind reeling. The resemblance was undeniable, an image torn from his most nostalgic and nerdy memories of another life. The reptilian, bipedal figure, with large green eyes and sharp claws, was an image ripped directly from his deepest, most nostalgic memories, an echo of a past life spent in front of a screen.
'Agumon? Here? In the Dungeon? Impossible.'
The thought was so absurd, so ridiculously out of place, that it lasted only a single heartbeat. His logical mind, forged in cynicism and survival, crushed the nostalgia with the force of a hammer. 'Don't be an idiot. It's just a design coincidence. A bipedal reptilian creature, nothing more. There are dozens of monster variations down here. But…'
His analytical gaze swept over the creature again. The rustic cloth hood that covered it, the way it moved to attack stealthily—not with the blind fury of a monster, but with the precision of an assassin. And above all, the intelligence that shone in those green eyes. It wasn't the animal cunning of a predator, but a spark of consciousness, of assessment. 'This is no ordinary monster.' The conclusion bloomed in his mind, cold and certain: a sentient monster. A Xenos.
While Hachiman's mind was racing at a mile a minute, Ryuu was already the personification of action. The initial surprise of the lightning-fast attack dissipated like smoke, replaced by the lethal efficiency of a veteran. Her elven wooden sword, Alv, was in her hands, a pale extension of her arm. Her stance was low, her body tense as a bowstring about to be fired. Her eyes, the color of summer leaves, were fixed on the threat, hardened and cold. To her, it was simple: an unknown monster had appeared, an unknown monster needed to die.
The shift in Ryuu's posture provoked an immediate reaction from the creature. It took a step back, digging its three-fingered claws into the stone floor, and let out a low, guttural growl that vibrated in the air. It wasn't a roar of defiance, but a clear warning. It was ready to fight to the death.
Ryuu prepared to advance, to turn that warning into a hiss of pain. Her muscles tensed for the first step of her deadly dance, but before she could launch herself forward, Hachiman's hand landed firmly on her wrist. The touch wasn't aggressive, but it was unquestionable. A silent command.
"Hachiman-san? What are you doing?" Ryuu's voice was a tense whisper, a mixture of confusion and irritation. Her eyes shifted from the creature to him, surprised as much by the unexpected physical contact as by the interruption. "It's an irregular monster, dangerous. We need to eliminate it before it calls others."
"Wait," Hachiman said, his voice calm, almost meditative. His eyes never left the reddish creature. Ignoring the electric tension that hung between the three of them, he took a cautious step forward, raising an open hand in a universal gesture of peace. He addressed the being directly, his voice devoid of any hostility. "Can you... understand what I'm saying?"
The silence that followed was heavy. The reptilian creature seemed genuinely caught off guard. The aggression in its posture wavered. Its large green eyes blinked, and it tilted its head to the side in a curiously human gesture. It studied Hachiman for a long, tense moment, its gaze moving from his face to the hand still holding Ryuu's wrist. Then, very slowly, as if the movement were new to it, it nodded its head.
In a hoarse voice, rough from disuse, it replied, the words broken and hesitant, as if it were trying to assemble a linguistic puzzle in real time. "I... understand... you."
Beside Hachiman, Ryuu gasped. The sound was sharp in the silent Dungeon air. A monster that spoke. That didn't just imitate sounds but understood human language. This shattered all the rules, everything she, as an adventurer, knew about the creatures born from the Dungeon's stone womb. Her hand relaxed on the hilt of her sword, confusion overpowering her fighting instinct.
"What... what is happening, Hachiman-san?" she whispered, the shock evident in her voice.
"Creatures like this are known as Xenos," Hachiman explained in a low voice, keeping his focus on the being before him, as if dealing with a wild animal that might bolt at any moment. "They are monsters born with consciousness and intelligence, aberrations of the Dungeon's nature. Different from the normal beasts that only follow instinct. They're a very well-kept secret. As far as I know, the Guild not only knows of their existence but helps them, protects them."
"The Guild... helping monsters?" Ryuu questioned, incredulity tinging every syllable. The word "monster" came out with an instinctive animosity, a verbal poison that did not go unnoticed. The reddish Xenos reacted immediately, the low growl returning, its claws contracting on the floor. Distrust returned to its eyes.
Sensing the tension escalating dangerously, Hachiman acted as a mediator. "They're not like the others," he said, his gaze shifting from Ryuu to the Xenos, trying to appease both sides with the calmness of his voice. "The Dungeon itself hates them. It constantly tries to purge them, sending other creatures to hunt them. They have to defend themselves from adventurers, who see them only as valuable prey, and at the same time, they are attacked by their irrational 'kin'. They live in a constant war on two fronts."
The revelation left Ryuu silent, her mind trying to reconcile the image of a talking monster with the idea of such a tragic and solitary existence. Hachiman used the pause to turn back to the Xenos. "Why did you attack us?"
The Xenos raised one of its claws and pointed in their direction, specifically at Ryuu's sword and the twin blades at Hachiman's waist. "Your... kind... always attack," it said with difficulty, the logic brutally simple, yet undeniable. "Call monster. Kill. I... strike first."
Hachiman nodded slowly. It was exactly what he had expected. A lifetime of being hunted would teach anyone to shoot first and ask questions later. "Have you met others like you? Others who think, who speak?"
The surprise in the Xenos's eyes was genuine and raw. It shook its head negatively, a slow, desolate movement. "Did not... know... there were... others." There was a trace of such profound loneliness in its hoarse voice that Hachiman, the eternal loner, felt a distant echo in his own soul.
A moment of silence passed as Hachiman pondered. The chaos of the Goliath the day before, the blatant manipulation by Freya and Hermes, the fragility of peace on the surface... it all demonstrated how quickly things could spiral out of control. A newly awakened Xenos, lost, alone, and operating under a "kill or be killed" logic in the Middle Floors was a ticking time bomb. A recipe for another disaster Orario didn't need. He made a decision. He turned to Ryuu, his gaze serious.
"Ryuu, would you be willing to help me with something... complicated? I want to take him to where the other Xenos are."
Both Ryuu and the talking monster stared at him, both clearly shocked by the statement.
"Hachiman-san, why?" Ryuu asked, her voice still uncertain. "Why get involved in this? It's a dangerous situation that doesn't concern us. Protecting a... a Xenos?"
"Because a Xenos running free, knowing nothing, will cause complications," Hachiman explained, his voice firm and pragmatic. "Think about it. Sooner or later, a group of adventurers will find it. If it speaks, the news of 'intelligent monsters' will spread like wildfire. That would cause panic, fear, and probably an indiscriminate hunt for any monster that seems remotely intelligent. If it doesn't speak and just fights to survive, it will be just another dead irregular monster, and the cycle continues. And there's more..." he paused, his gaze hardening with a cutting coldness, "...there are remnants of Evilus hunting Xenos for their own dark purposes."
Upon hearing the word "Evilus," the atmosphere around Ryuu changed drastically. The shock and confusion were swept away by a wave of glacial fury. Her eyes narrowed, the color of summer leaves turning to the dark green of a stormy forest. Her hand, which had relaxed, clenched around the hilt of her sword again with a force that made her knuckles turn white.
"Evilus..." she hissed, the word like poison on her lips. "How do those worms still dare to exist?" The memory of her Familia, of the tavern, of blood and ashes, surfaced, uninvited, threatening to drown her in hatred.
Seeing that his gamble had paid off, but also that he was about to lose Ryuu to her own demons, Hachiman quickly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Ryuu. This is why we have to act. Not to get revenge on them, not now. But to prevent more tragedies like yours from happening. To protect the innocents who might get caught in the crossfire."
Ryuu closed her eyes, taking a deep, trembling breath. The pressure of Hachiman's hand on her shoulder was an anchor point in the whirlwind of her rage. After a long moment, she exhaled slowly and opened her eyes. The fury was still there, but now it was a controlled ember, not a wildfire. She nodded, the movement short and precise. "You're right. I... I will help."
With Ryuu's agreement, Hachiman turned to the Xenos. "And you? What should we call you? And are you willing to follow us? To find others of your kind, a safe place?"
The Xenos hesitated. "Have... no name." The confession was simple and desolate. It looked from Hachiman, the strangely calm man, to Ryuu, the elf who still radiated an aura of restrained violence. Distrust was still etched into every fiber of its being. But perhaps it was the sincerity in Hachiman's eyes, or the simple, overwhelming hope of no longer being alone in the world, that convinced it. It nodded slowly. "I... will follow."
"Great. For now, I'll call you Agumon. It's practical," Hachiman declared, more to himself than to the others. He opened one of his spatial rings and pulled out a hooded cloak, similar to the one Aqua had worn on the surface. "Wear this. Hiding your appearance is the first priority." Agumon took the cloak with hesitant curiosity and covered itself, instantly becoming an anonymous and less conspicuous figure.
Soon, the unlikely trio set off, advancing toward the twentieth floor. The journey through the rest of the nineteenth floor was a test of their new, fragile alliance. Battles were inevitable. A Battle Boar, with tusks the size of daggers, burst from the undergrowth. Before Agumon could react instinctively, Hachiman shouted, "Left flank!" and Ryuu was already there, her Alv deflecting the charge while her enchantment, Luka, launched a blast of cutting wind that unbalanced the beast. In the next instant, Hachiman's twin blades, Kanshou and Bakuya, sang through the air, sinking into the monster's exposed vital points. It was swift, brutal, and perfectly synchronized.
Further on, a Firebird dove from the cavernous ceiling, leaving a trail of flames. "I've got the aerial!" shouted Ryuu, as a swarm of Mad Beetles boiled up from the ground. "The insects are mine," Hachiman replied, already moving to intercept them, his blades a blur of steel. Agumon, seeing a beetle escape Hachiman's whirlwind and charge toward Ryuu, who was focused on the fire bird, acted on pure instinct. He threw himself to the side, knocking the monster down with his body weight and smashing it against the wall with surprising force. A brief look of gratitude from Ryuu was all the communication needed. They were becoming a unit.
Finally arriving at the entrance to the twentieth floor, the atmosphere changed. Hachiman knew that the Xenos' village had to be hidden somewhere around here. Following the logic that an intelligent community would keep its area clean to avoid unwanted attention, they began to move toward zones where the concentration of monsters seemed to be unnaturally decreasing. The air grew quieter, the oppressive presence of the Dungeon receded. After a careful search behind waterfalls and rock formations, they found it: a fissure in the wall, almost perfectly camouflaged by luminous moss, the entrance to a discreet cave.
As they entered, they found a tunnel encrusted with the same blue crystals that illuminated the forest on the eighteenth floor, casting a soft, ethereal glow on the walls. The passage was silent, almost reverent. At the end of the tunnel, however, the path was blocked by a single, massive blue crystal, pulsating with a faint light, sealing the passage like a living door.
"This is it," Hachiman said, his voice echoing in the silence. Without hesitation, he summoned Kanshou and Bakuya. The blades glowed with an overload of mana. With a powerful and precise movement, an X-shaped strike, he shattered the large crystal. The sound was like a giant glass bell breaking, and the fragments rained down on the floor, the light within them slowly dying. The passage was open.
What lay beyond the entrance was total darkness, a vacuum of light and sound. It was a vast space, and the air wafting from it was dense, heavy with the smell of damp earth, ozone, and something else... a musky odor, the unmistakable scent of many living beings in a confined space. The three entered cautiously, Ryuu with her sword in hand, Agumon instinctively retreating behind Hachiman.
Hachiman took out one of the iron plates with light runes he had created. With a faint snap of his fingers and a pulse of mana, he tossed it into the air. The rune glowed, first like a spark, then exploded into a sphere of cold, white light that hovered near the ceiling, bathing the entire cavern in its relentless luminosity.
The sight that was revealed made the air freeze in their lungs.
The cavern was immense, with dozens of natural stone pillars supporting a ceiling that was lost in the gloom. An improvised subterranean city. But it wasn't the geography that mattered. It was the inhabitants.
The instant the light flared, dozens, perhaps hundreds of pairs of eyes turned towards them. And every single one of those eyes, without exception, shone with a cold, primordial, and murderous hostility. Lizardmen in bone armor with sharpened stone spears. Sirens with tridents made of black coral, their tails whipping nervously in pools of water. Granite-skinned Gargoyles perched on the pillars, their claws flexing. Vouivres hissing from the shadows, their serpentine bodies coiled and ready to strike. Harpies with leathery wings and razor-like talons. Goblins, Almirajs, Hellhounds... an entire community of sentient monsters, and nearly all of them were armed.
Hachiman could feel the killing intent like a physical pressure, heavy and suffocating, a promise of imminent violence that made the air vibrate.
'It seems,' he thought, with grim irony, 'the reception is very different when you're not a guest announced by the Guild. Such a warm welcome.'
Deciding that the tense silence would only make things worse, he raised his hand again, the same gesture he had used with Agumon, and tried to break the tension with the only word that came to mind, a beacon of normality in a sea of hostile abnormality.
"Hello."
The word hung in the air for a fraction of a second.
It seemed his greeting was the trigger, the signal all the monsters had been waiting for. In the next instant, a collective, dissonant roar—a cacophony of hisses, squawks, grunts, and war cries—echoed off the cavern walls, and all of them, without a single moment of hesitation, charged the small group of intruders. The darkness was over, but the nightmare was just beginning.