The elves stared at the drawings scattered across the table—depictions of dragons in all sorts of bizarre forms. The sight plunged them into momentary panic.
This man… he really intends to become the dungeon master and execute his plan.
And if he actually manages to pull it off… the demons will seize that opportunity to reach the surface!
"Damn it! This guy's insane!!!" someone from the Canaries squad shouted.
Patadril's eyes were wide with alarm. "Take him out of the dungeon—now! We can't let him remain in here any longer! Quickly, find the book that the Mad Sorcerer had—the one related to demons…"
"Where's the book?" Taking advantage of the illusion magic, the elves pressed Kairo Retsu with their questions.
"Are you looking for this book?" Kairo Retsu reached into his cloak and, right in front of the elves, pulled out the very first unsealed tome—the one from which the Winged Lion's head had emerged. "It's right here. The book that seals the Winged Lion. If we can figure out how to unseal the other book, we can replace Thistle as the dungeon master."
"Where is the other book?!"
As Patadril demanded an answer, she reached out, trying to snatch the Winged Lion's Book from Kairo Retsu's hand.
The elves were genuinely panicking now.
A Long-lived Man who could defeat a thousand-year-old elven dungeon sorcerer in minutes—and now he stood right before them, shouting world-ending ambitions with unshakable passion…
And now, he literally held one of the two "world destruction buttons" in his hand…
"The other book…"
Kairo Retsu had still been under illusion magic, but Kazuma, sensing something was wrong, had already eaten a Nulberry in the warehouse to clear abnormal statuses. In that instant, Kairo Retsu's previously glazed eyes regained clarity.
Seeing Patadril reaching for him, Kairo Retsu grabbed her wrist and yanked upward as he stood up.
Without much strength of her own, Patadril was hoisted off the floor by her wrist. The sudden shift prompted the Canaries elves to immediately draw their weapons.
"The other book's not with me. It's in the hands of a magician capable of unsealing it."
Though freed from the illusion, Kairo Retsu kindly answered their question.
In his ear, Kazuma was relaying the elves' interrogation through the Guild's party channel.
"So, how was the illusion interrogation result?"
Still holding Patadril in one hand, Kairo Retsu beamed at the elves. "Now you know what I'm trying to do, don't you?"
"Don't worry about me! Just kill him!!" Patadril screamed, knowing hesitation would be fatal. They needed to kill Kairo Retsu here and now, then escape with the book.
Even if her teammates wounded her in the process—it didn't matter. This was the dungeon. Even if she died here, she'd revive.
She didn't know how he'd broken the illusion, but right now, the Winged Lion's Book was in his hands!
"..."
The Canaries' captain, Mislen, acted the moment Patadril gave the order.
He seized one of the diagrams on the table and activated teleportation magic.
In the next instant, a thin slice of flesh, like a strip of paper, appeared in Mislen's hand. The diagram of the Nergigante had been swapped with that strip—and Kairo Retsu's neck was instantly severed in a single clean stroke.
Patadril was dropped to the floor as Kairo Retsu's limp hand lost strength. His head tumbled from his neck and rolled across the floor, a flood of blood soaking into the illustration of the fearsome Nergigante.
"Cough… cough…"
Clutching her arm—possibly wrenched during the scuffle—Patadril's mind remained fixated on the dungeon. "Go get the book! We have to track down the other copy quickly! If someone unseals it, it'll be disas—"
But her voice cut off the moment she witnessed a new nightmare unfold before her.
The decapitated body had stopped bleeding.
And right before the eyes of the elves, the gaping wound on the neck began to close—rapidly regenerating a brand-new head.
At the same time, Kazuma… was downing a Potion.
From the Hunters' perspective, Kairo Retsu's health bar had just dropped to zero—his entire stamina bar turned red and started draining rapidly…
Once the red bar completely emptied, it would trigger a faint (i.e., a cart). But not yet. They'd tested this exact mechanic back when they first entered the dungeon, behind the Dungeon Delving Squad's backs.
And now it was paying off.
"That was clean and sharp!"
Kairo Retsu rubbed his newly grown head, no sign of injury left on his neck.
"Such a shame about my lil' Nergi…"
He looked mournfully at the blood-soaked diagram. "I put a lot of heart into that one… Even if it was just a rough sketch."
"The dungeon's a great thing. You don't faint immediately after death—it's like carrying around an emergency Guts skill with you!" Kairo Retsu said, speaking in words the elves didn't understand. "Magic is great too. That slash just now cut my head clean off. Too bad I can't spare the time to study it…"
"Impossible! How did you revive?!" The elves were stunned. "No one even cast a healing spell on you!"
"That's a little Hunter trick," Kairo Retsu said, still holding the Winged Lion's Book. "Honestly, I really did want to have a nice talk with you. But…"
Kairo Retsu smiled radiantly. "This was the expression I wanted to see!!"
Planting his feet in a stance, he lowered his head to take in every reaction. "To be honest, I saw it from the beginning—how unreasonable you were. That long-lived scorn and contempt you carry for the short-lived races…"
"And now?"
Kairo Retsu's grin grew even brighter. "Your expressions are magnificent!"
Mislen remained silent. Having once had his desires devoured by a demon, he no longer felt strong emotions, nor could he react to Kairo Retsu's taunts.
Without a word, he prepared to swap the Winged Lion's Book with a teleportation scroll again.
But the ever-alert Kairo Retsu, seeing Mislen move, immediately slipped the Demonic Book into the Hunter's pack.
"Why are you stopping me?"
Kairo Retsu's tone turned falsely aggrieved. "Sure, Thistle was a terrible dungeon master—but I'm not like him!"
"I could totally replace him—as a better dungeon master! One who strives to create a brighter world!"
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