"Let's keep moving as quickly as possible," Kairo Retsu proposed. "Once we get past this area, we should arrive at the Mad Sorcerer's dwelling."
"To defeat the Mad Sorcerer and find the place where he sealed the Winged Lion—that's our objective, right?" Kairo said firmly.
"Mhm. According to the people of the Golden Country, in order to defeat the Mad Sorcerer, we'll need the Winged Lion's help…" Marcille replied.
Chilchuck, however, remained skeptical. "This 'Winged Lion' stuff sounds like a stretch. Are we seriously going through with this?"
"Yes," Laois answered his companions with surprising resolve. "We absolutely must do this!"
To keep being a hunter! To keep eating Palico meals made from all kinds of different creatures every day! To keep studying dragon ecology every day! He couldn't afford to give that up!
"…Alright, if you're that determined, Laois…"
With Laois's decision made, the group resumed their journey.
The path ahead was relatively smooth, without too many obstacles.
With their objective set to reach the goal quickly, they cleared out the excess monsters and reached the dwarven mine carts, heading down to the lower levels. Around that time, the effects of the Transformation Mushrooms also began to wear off.
This mission was clearly taking far more time than the previous one.
Back in the Infinite Castle, most of their battles had been packed into a single night. But now, even just traveling consumed a significant amount of time.
That time, however, gave the group plenty of opportunity to interact and grow closer.
Kairo and the other hunters were well aware that Chilchuck and the others still held some doubts about them.
After all, putting yourself in their shoes: if one of your party members, say someone like Laois, suddenly disappeared for a night and came back with a bunch of hulking strangers, new armor, weapons, and said they were going to help with something extremely important…
That'd be suspicious as hell.
But Tanjiro Kamado had quickly left a strong impression on Marcille's group.
"Mr. Senshi! Let me help you!" Whenever someone needed assistance, Tanjiro was the first to step up. The Shield Hero, glancing at the other hunters, could only sigh.
Among the hunters, Tanjiro's personality was like a cotton ball bouncing out of a sewer.
The rest of the journey was quite relaxed. Kairo's team already knew that, in the normal course of events, the Mad Sorcerer had already finished his first clash with the elves on the first basement level. But the effects of that conflict hadn't yet spread here.
"Let's move."
Kairo spoke with conviction. "While we still have a good stock of ingredients, we'll press on and reach the Mad Sorcerer's home."
"While the intel we've gathered is still relevant," Kairo clenched his fist. "And then… we'll see how the enemy responds to our arrival!"
Hearing Kairo's words, Laois instinctively touched the Winged Lion sword hilt hanging from his waist.
If they told people now that their goal—this small group—was to eliminate the source of the dungeon itself: a demon…
Everyone would think they were insane.
Laois never expected that, from simply wanting to rescue his sister, he'd end up on a path to saving the world… But the most important thing was still saving his sister.
Until they found the two books that sealed the Winged Lion, Laois still had a final chance to back out.
Repel, slay, or capture.
Kairo's team had given Laois full authority to choose. They'd planned for every option—waiting on his final decision.
However, Laois's original proposal of capturing a bicorn and observing the succubus mosquitoes, as per the original plan, had been entirely scrapped.
Even though getting bitten by a succubus mosquito was key to his first encounter with the Winged Lion, they didn't need that anymore.
The Winged Lion was already observing their progress from within Kensuke, so the group had to be extra careful with what they said on the way.
Thanks to that, they safely defeated several minor monsters and eventually reached the very deepest part: a fairytale-like little cottage nestled near a forest.
"This is the place that's holding the Winged Lion?" Marcille whispered from the bushes as she watched the distant house. "The Mad Sorcerer isn't here, is he?"
"Nope, he should be too busy stressing over the Western Elves to return," Kairo answered. "The place sealing the Winged Lion should be right here."
"…!"
Just then, several armored tendrils extended from Kensuke at Laois's waist, stretching toward the house—seemingly confirming the direction.
"Looks like this is the spot. Think it's safe?" Chilchuck stayed alert. But soon, he noticed something strange: beside the house was a bird with a red back and yellow belly, scanning its surroundings warily.
"Knew there'd be a monster guarding it," Marcille muttered. "What do we do?"
"Leave it to us," Kairo said. "That's an Immortal Bird. Even if you kill it, it'll resurrect in flames—so you need to be quick."
"Kazuma! You're up!"
Kairo turned and grabbed Kazuma's shoulder, who had been trying to sneak away. "Kazuma! Use your unbeatable stealth skills and come up with something!"
"Why do you always make me do the dangerous stuff?!" Kazuma struggled to resist, but ultimately had no choice.
While Laois's group assumed Kazuma was going to draw that massive longbow from his back to shoot the bird, he instead crouched low and darted out of the bushes—entering stealth mode.
"Wait, wasn't he supposed to attack it?" Chilchuck asked. "Am I supposed to do it?"
"No."
As Chilchuck wavered, Naofumi Iwatani was already deploying his heavy bowgun and loading a Snipe Wyvernshot. "I'll handle it."
"!"
The gun barrel extended from the bushes. The Shield Hero peered through the scope, locking onto the wary Immortal Bird, waiting for Kazuma's signal.
"I've been meaning to ask—what is that weapon…" Chilchuck muttered.
"A weapon ahead of its time!" Joseph Joestar said excitedly, reminiscing about his old "Hamon-infused Tommy gun" days.
By now, Kazuma had silently evaded the Immortal Bird's detection and slipped into the Mad Sorcerer's home. A few minutes later, he signaled from the window.
"…Guess this is my first time playing sniper." Naofumi smiled naturally as he took aim.
Bang!