A gripping silence descended upon the ruins of Floor 60. The blood-red light radiating from the cracks in the labyrinth walls highlighted the silhouette of the silver-haired woman standing tall in the middle of the slaughter field.
Alfia closed her eyes for a moment. She ignored the two Level 9 Juggernauts preparing to lunge at her from a dozen meters away. Instead, the mage focused her entire consciousness inward, tracing every inch of her blood vessels, muscles, and nerves.
In the depths of her soul, an invisible vessel that had been stagnant now felt full to overflowing. The pressure of death, the pain from muscles pushed beyond their limits, and the euphoria of battling the labyrinth's two strongest entities had become the absolute catalyst. High-level Excelia—the spiritual experience that formed the foundation of an adventurer's strength—now boiled in her blood.
The thick wall confining her at Level 7 slowly cracked, then shattered completely. She could feel it. The absolute requirement to ascend to the next level had been fulfilled.
Alfia opened her eyes slowly. The heterochromatic glow in her eyes no longer implied the madness of a warrior thirsting for battle, but returned to radiating the absolute coldness of a queen. Her enthusiasm evaporated just like that, replaced by a deadly boredom.
"That's enough," murmured Alfia softly.
Her voice was very calm, yet somehow managed to pierce the thick air of the Glacier ruins and reach Aria's ears in the backline.
The Great Spirit of Wind, who had been watching closely all this time, narrowed her eyes. Aria could see the drastic change in the mage's aura. Alfia's intent for physical combat had vanished entirely.
"Are you satisfied, Alfia?" asked Aria.
"My goal of using them as whetstones has been achieved," answered Alfia without looking back. She relaxed her shoulders, letting her torn dress flutter softly. "My body has recorded all its limits, and my vessel of power is ready to evolve. Stalling for more time with these two broken dolls will only waste my energy uselessly."
Across the way, the two Juggernauts roared with a sound resonance that vibrated the ice. Their killer instincts, programmed purely by the Dungeon's will, sensed absolute insult from their prey. The target that had been dancing with them all this time now lowered her guard, as if considering them nothing more than pebbles on the side of the road.
The Juggernauts were furious. The two Slaughterers lowered their bodies, compressing all the energy in their hind legs for a double finishing strike. They intended to use their maximum speed to behead the mage before she had the chance to do anything.
"They're coming, Alfia!" warned Aria, preparing to summon her parrying wind if Alfia let her guard down.
"Let them," Alfia replied flatly.
BAM!
Two craters were created instantly as the two Juggernauts shot forward. They no longer moved synchronously or in a circle, but took a straight-line trajectory from two intersecting directions—left and right—with a single meeting point: Alfia's neck. Their speed purely defied the laws of visibility. To the ordinary eye, both of them had disappeared.
But to the Calamitous Talent, that speed had been read down to its roots.
The two Juggernauts had no flesh or vital organs. They were merely killing machines made of magic-reflecting exoskeletons and labyrinth-made muscle fibers. Throwing magic at them would only be deflected. But Alfia already knew how to destroy something immune to magic: use the magic itself as an absolute physical weapon.
Alfia did not step back. She let the two Juggernauts close in until their deadly claws were only a centimeter away from her face.
Right at the thousandth of a second before the claws beheaded her, Alfia ducked slightly, letting the slashes of the two monsters cross emptily above her head. At the same time, Alfia clenched both her fists tightly. She drew all the mind from within her body, not to chant projectile magic, but compressing Silentium Eden—her absolute energy-nullifying magic—completely covering both her forearms until they were as thick as silver steel.
Both of her arms turned into gauntlets of annihilation radiating a blinding silver light.
"Shatter, you labyrinth junk."
Alfia unleashed a double punch toward the blind spots on the chests of the two Juggernauts, whose shells she had cracked in the previous fight. This was not offensive magic. This was the physical strength of a martial arts master wrapped in absolute protection.
CRAAAAK! KABOOOM!
The two fists coated in Silentium Eden smashed into the Slaughterers' breastbones. Because Silentium Eden possessed the absolute property of nullifying the existence of any magic it touched, the Juggernauts' bone plates, created purely from Dungeon energy, instantly lost their hardness upon contact with Alfia's fists.
The physical destructive power of Alfia's punches crushed the monsters' bones as if they were made of cheap glass. There was only an explosion of white bone shards and the snapping of thousands of artificial purple muscle fibers simultaneously.
The red eyes of the two Level 9 monsters widened in horror before finally dimming forever. Their exoskeleton frames exploded, scattering in all directions due to the raw kinetic force struck by the mage.
Bone shards and gray dust spilled out, falling around Alfia without a single piece touching her face thanks to Aria's invisible protective wind.
The Dungeon instantly fell silent. The two strongest immune systems it had ever birthed at this depth were smashed to pieces by the pure physical strikes of a human mage.
Alfia slowly pulled back and lowered both her arms. The layer of Silentium Eden faded, leaving an absolute silence interrupted only by the sound of grinding ice debris.
"Poor labyrinth slaughterers," said Alfia as cold as ice, staring at the pile of bone shards beneath her feet. "You possessed a feared magic-nullifying shell. Too bad your bones are still fragile when I crush you directly."
As the boiling adrenaline in her blood faded, physical reality finally exacted its toll. Alfia's body suddenly staggered forward.
She fell, resting on one knee, her breathing ragged. Moving and fighting using high-level physical techniques at the speed limit of Level 9 monsters, then exerting all her explosive muscle power at the very end, was still an act that drained the strength of a mage's vessel.
However, there was not a speck of regret on her face. Only absolute satisfaction. Alfia felt that if her Falna were updated, the wall of Level 7 would crumble to pieces.
Light and elegant footsteps were heard approaching. Aria floated down, sweeping away the remnants of ice dust. The Great Spirit of Wind looked at her partner with a gaze that was a mixture of gentle reprimand and boundless admiration.
"You really know no compromise, Alfia," said Aria, her voice flowing warmly, erasing the remnants of bloody tension in the air. "Even though you have the talent to copy all the martial arts in this world, your physique is still human. Using your own fists to crush a Juggernaut's skeleton is tantamount to walking a tightrope over the abyss of death."
Alfia clicked her tongue softly, smirking even though her face was deathly pale. "A mage who fears the pain of close-quarters combat will never reach the pinnacle, Sylphie. Besides, if I threw magic, my magic would bounce back. Someone had to break their bones physically... and I don't intend to die just yet."
Aria smiled faintly, shaking her head slowly. The Great Spirit walked over to the supply backpack Alfia had entrusted to her before the battle peaked.
Aria opened the bag and took out two small crystal bottles. One contained a brightly glowing thick blue liquid, and the other contained a viscous golden liquid. They were the high-level Mind Potion and the high-quality healing Elixir they had brought from the surface of Orario.
Without saying much, Aria tossed the two bottles sequentially to Alfia.
"Drink these," ordered Aria softly. "Your body managed to break its limits, but if you don't heal it immediately, you won't even be able to walk to the end of this room."
Alfia caught both bottles with one hand precisely. She uncorked the Elixir first and downed it completely. An incredible warm sensation instantly spread from her chest throughout her body. Her damaged cells knitted themselves with magical speed, the scratches on her cheek and arms closed without a trace, and the acute pain in her joints evaporated like dew swept by the morning wind.
Next, she drank the thick blue Mind Potion. A stinging coldness hit her throat, directly targeting her exhausted brain nerves. Her mind reserves were refilled instantly, restoring the mage's clarity of thought.
Alfia stood up, tossing the empty bottles into the pile of bone ash. She clenched her fists, feeling a flow of power far denser and more solid than before. There was no more hesitation. Once she returned to the surface and asked her god for a status update, Alfia was guaranteed to level up to Level 8.
"The burden of our supplies just got lighter," said Alfia casually, tidying her torn dress, displaying an elegant posture once again as if she had never been injured at all.
Aria merely smiled understandingly at the haughty demeanor inherent to Alfia. The Great Spirit then shifted her gaze, looking straight past the craters of destruction, toward the only structure still standing intact in the darkest corner of the hall.
There, radiating a holy blue glow amidst the Glacier ruins, the Frozen Garden of Talia still stood firm. Celdia's eternal ice seal was completely untouched by the corrupt spirit's explosion or the rampage of their battle against the labyrinth's Slaughterers.
Aria stepped forward slowly. The wind element around her, which was previously used to cut storms and parry the apocalypse, now became very gentle—softly caressing the ice illusion, as if afraid to disturb the golden hair of the little girl sleeping peacefully inside the ice block. The Great Spirit's eyes welled with tears, filled with a longing that had finally anchored at the end of its wait.
"Our battle with the labyrinth is over," whispered Aria, her voice trembling with the maternal emotion she had suppressed at the bottom of her soul all this time.
Alfia walked closer, stopping right beside Aria. She looked at the little girl inside the ice with a gaze that somehow felt far more human than usual.
They had pierced through the hell of the Dungeon. They had slaughtered anomalies, torn down the deepest labyrinth's immune system, and honed their strength beyond the limits of logic. Everything culminated in this moment.
"Yes," replied Alfia softly. A faint, sincere smile finally graced her lips. "It is time we break this ice seal. Let us bring your daughter home to the surface, Sylphie."
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