Once Andaris died, its body turned into black smoke and vanished.
Tokisaki Kurumi stared at the empty ruin. "Ugly as sin, but you've got to admit it's eco-friendly."
In the world of black bullet, Gastrozoa corpses were major pollutants; mishandle them and the surroundings would be contaminated.
But here, apart from wild beasts, monsters born in the Dungeon dissolve into green smoke the instant they die—leaving only their drop items as proof they ever existed.
Yet while the girls of the Artemis Familia were still stunned, a pillar of light descended from the sky and completely enveloped Artemis.
Startled, Artemis's heart skipped a beat.
She knew the gods' forced-return Law had activated once more.
When a deity in the Lower Realm uses Divine Power beyond the rules—or suffers a fatal wound—the Law instantly teleports them back to the Heavens.
The same pillar had appeared when Andaris attacked her earlier.
But because it was ineffective against Andaris, it had faded away.
Now that Andaris was dead, the Law had logged Artemis's existence and was set to return her again.
"Huh? Seriously? Again?"
Tokisaki Kurumi found it ridiculous.
You couldn't protect Artemis from Andaris, but now that the fight's over you're hauling her back to the Heavens?
Is this pillar the police that only shows up after everything's finished?
Rosen, of course, had anticipated exactly this.
So as Artemis began to ascend again, he simply raised a hand; a Light Spear condensed in the air, shot skyward at light-speed, and struck the pillar targeting Artemis with pinpoint accuracy.
The colossal force swept every cloud from the sky, golden radiance rippling outward in all directions.
The pillar holding Artemis vanished and did not reappear for a long while.
Seeing this, the girls of the Artemis Familia were even more stunned.
Artemis herself wore an expression of utter disbelief.
After a moment she finally reacted, murmuring,
"I… can stay in the Lower Realm?"
"Of course."
Rosen answered with a light chuckle.
After all their effort, if Artemis were still sent back, their trip would have been for nothing.
"Even if you were returned, I could bring you back down. The simplest way is to smash the rule itself."
"Let's… skip that."
Artemis hastily refused his suggestion.
The forced-return Law protects not only the gods but also serves to limit them.
Imagine if deities could use Divine Power freely in the Lower Realm as Rosen does—life on earth would quickly become as dull as in the Heavens.
For Artemis, the Law also safeguards the mortals below.
Most gods are neutral and orderly, yet some constantly seek to disrupt the Lower Realm.
The Dark Factions are exactly such beings.
Had those gods not let their Familia run rampant, far fewer innocents would have died back then.
"Just kidding."
Rosen said.
Just as Rosen had said, no more columns of repatriation light fell after that.
Once the members of the Artemis Familia calmed down, they finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
To these girls, though only a few minutes had passed between life and death, those minutes had felt as long as centuries.
Artemis looked at the girls with eyes full of guilt.
In truth, Rosen had warned her long ago that Andaris was awakening.
But Artemis had insisted on coming to the ruins to check the Seal in order to find proof.
If she hadn't asked for help in the chat group beforehand, every one of them would have been wiped out here.
273 "I'm sorry—my selfishness nearly got you all killed."
Hearing this, the girls exchanged glances and hastily replied, "Lady Artemis, this isn't your fault at all!"
"It's all Andaris's fault—monsters like that should just stay sealed away!"
"You don't need to apologize; this isn't on you."
"Right, and Andaris has already been dealt with—those two ladies and this..."
At this point, the Amazonian girl didn't know how to address Rosen.
Adventurer?
That didn't seem right—she couldn't think of any Adventurer who could single-handedly beat a black monster.
Much less neutralize the repatriation pillar in the blink of an eye.
That was beyond the reach of ordinary people.
But was he a god?
Though the girls could sense the alien yet sacred aura around Rosen, it felt utterly different from their long-held impressions of other deities...