We've traveled a thousand years into the past, folks.
As someone who'd crossed over from another world, Isagi adapted to the situation surprisingly fast.
This was Orario as it existed before the Gods descended to the Lower World — the age known as the Era of Heroes. People had gathered here from across the world, raising towering walls around the Great Pit to hold back the monsters that poured endlessly from its depths.
And the Elf girl standing before them, the one who looked almost exactly like Ryuu-senpai — she really was Wishe. A legendary figure, celebrated throughout the entire Elven race.
Fun fact: Lefiya's hometown, Wishe Forest, was named after her.
An eccentric among Elves, Wishe was a renowned wandering bard who had traveled the whole of the world, leaving behind countless legends and heroic tales. The most famous of them all was probably the story of the Little Heroes of Argo.
"You two... how could you possibly... and also..."
Wishe stared at Ais and Riveria in a kind of dazed stupor. The soldiers and guards nearby were the same — they had clearly noticed that the two women's faces looked startlingly similar to—
"In any case," Isagi interrupted, pulling them back on track. "The current situation is that Mr. Albert led all the heroes into the Dungeon—"
"The Great Pit," Wishe corrected.
That was what they called the Dungeon in the Era of Heroes.
"Right, the Great Pit. They went in, and then went silent. Is that about the right of it?"
"That's correct."
"What about the Black Dragon?"
"The what?"
"Has a one-eyed Black Dragon appeared from the Great Pit?"
"No."
Only a few days had passed since Albert the [Mercenary King] led his company into the Great Pit — and the result was that an uncountable tide of monsters had come surging up from within. The soldiers and guards who had been holding the city could not advance without the heroes to lead them, and had been forced to fall back step by step, ultimately abandoning the city entirely and retreating to man the high walls.
In this age, heroes were like blazing torches carried at the head of a march. Without them, fighting monsters was nearly impossible.
And so — this was the Era of Heroes in its purest form.
Everyone aspired to possess the qualities needed to become a hero. For most people, of course, that aspiration was entirely futile.
The situation atop the walls was grim. The wounded lay in rows upon rows, bedded on dry straw spread over cold stone. Fortunately, the monsters showed no intention of assaulting the walls directly, and heroes defending other nearby fortresses had already rallied their forces and come to reinforce this position — enough to barely stabilize the line. But it solved nothing fundamental.
The real question was: what was happening inside the Great Pit right now?
As Isagi had already begun to suspect, the heroes of this age made frequent sorties into the Great Pit — seeking to uncover the Dungeon's secrets, to understand why monsters were born there, and to find some way to end the disaster.
And then Wishe said something deeply unsettling.
"For some reason, the monsters born within the Great Pit prioritize attacking anyone who enters."
"If there are always heroes stationed within the Great Pit, the surface remains safe."
So gradually, the current arrangement had taken shape: a city built up around the edges of the Great Pit, with heroes rotating in and out of camps and fortresses constructed inside, while the people of the city above served as their rear support — keeping them supplied, keeping them fighting, keeping the monsters from ever reaching the surface world.
Isagi, Ais, and Riveria listened to the Elf girl who looked so much like Ryuu-senpai, and none of them had expected this particular "setting" to exist.
Which meant — if that was true — the flood of monsters now pouring from the Great Pit meant that Albert and his companions had already been wiped out, didn't it?!
Because according to Wishe, the Great Hero had led his companions into the Dungeon. If monsters were prioritizing adventurers inside, there was no reason for them to be rushing out in such overwhelming numbers. The sheer scale of the surge suggested something terrible.
And so — that was the fear occupying everyone's mind right now.
If a party composed of the Mercenary King, the Elf Saint, the Amazon Empress, and countless other heroes had been completely annihilated within the Dungeon... what would the future of the world look like?
And just what kind of monster would even be capable of wiping out Albert and all of his companions?
The Black Dragon!
Ais suddenly thought of something and flinched, a look of fierce emotion crossing her face. She turned to stare toward the distant Great Pit.
Isagi gently took hold of her arm, signaling the girl to ease off.
Seems like we've arrived at a rather inconvenient moment.
Based on what they'd just gathered, neither Wishe nor any of the soldiers present had seen a one-eyed Black Dragon emerge from the Great Pit. Which meant the most likely scenario was that the Great Hero Albert and his companions were currently still locked in combat with the Black Dragon somewhere inside.
In the storybooks, it was written simply: one day, a black dragon of incomprehensible scale emerged from the Great Pit — a creature vast enough to blot out the sky and capable of destroying the world — and Albert struck out one of its eyes, sending it fleeing in humiliation toward the north.
That was the entire story as told. But reality was never that simple.
Could it actually be that he, Ais, and Riveria were about to witness that moment as it happened?
And more importantly — at their current level of strength, encountering the Black Dragon right now would almost certainly mean they couldn't win.
So how were they supposed to get back?
And then there was the Dungeon itself in the distance—
Beneath the night sky, the silhouette of that impossibly deep, vast pit loomed in the darkness. Isagi was uncertain: would his Skills have any effect on this ancient-era "Great Pit"? And what would the interior look like?
"O mysterious heroes from distant lands," Wishe said, her voice lilting with a bardic cadence. "Would you be willing to venture into the Great Pit and investigate what is happening within?"
Isagi gave a small nod.
Staying here and doing nothing wasn't an option — and besides, he was genuinely curious. What did the ancient-era Dungeon look like? More pressingly, staying here meant they had no way of finding a path home.
"Our deepest thanks. Then allow us to clear a path to the Great Pit for you."
"No need."
"?"
Wishe had already been preparing to leap from the wall and lead the other heroes and soldiers in battle, carving an escort route through the monsters. She paused, caught off guard.
But truly — it was unnecessary.
"Let's go, Ais, Lady Riveria."
"Yeah!"
Neither of them had any objections. Besides — the one who really wanted to get to that place was Ais, and Riveria could hardly stand by and watch her "daughter" go alone.
And so—
Awaken.
At the girl's soft, quiet murmur, a pale green wind began to spiral around her. Ais rose into the air, and then Riveria climbed onto her back.
Almost at the same moment, a small ripple of startled voices moved through the crowd gathered on the walls.
"Is that child a Great Spirit too?"
"A hero... a saint... and a Great Spirit... oh..."
What a devastatingly enviable standard configuration.
For some reason Isagi couldn't quite explain, he could feel the weight of everyone's deeply admiring gazes upon them. But some of the sharper-eyed observers in the crowd voiced a confused question:
"That wind... isn't that the same as Lady Aria's...?"
Identical. There was no mistaking it.
And not only that.
"She really does look like Her Highness Lady Sertia, doesn't she?"
"She really does..."
In form, in bearing — in everything. The surrounding heroes and soldiers murmured among themselves. Wishe, for her part, simply watched the two departing figures grow small in the distance, an expression of boundless curiosity and amusement on her face.
And that included the third departing figure — the one who had activated his [Furnace of Many Forms] ability, unfolded a pair of golden wings, and taken flight after Ais.
O heroes from afar, from some unknown distant place — what kind of tale will you yet write?
I find myself truly, utterly, burning with anticipation——
— ◇ —
Even in flight, reaching the Great Pit was no simple matter — plenty of monsters had wings of their own.
But it didn't much matter.
Omen of the end — snow-white and boundless. In the face of twilight, let the raging gale rise.
"Sealed light, frozen earth. Blizzard sweeping all the heavens, three times the winter of ruin — I am of Alfr!"
"[Ecstasy · Fimbulwinter]!!"
A blizzard of pure white erupted outward from the girl, unfurling like a ring of ice, and the monsters swarming toward them were transformed one by one into frozen statues, which plummeted to the earth with tremendous, crashing weight.
Simultaneously, Ais had equipped the [Complete Hunter's Arsenal] Isagi had given her, shifting it from its initial iron-chest form into the shape of a spear. Her left hand held an impossibly thick, massive shield raised before her. Her right hand gripped a spiraling lance several meters long — the kind cavalrymen used when charging on horseback.
She had no horse.
But with the wind beneath her, all she needed to do was charge — forward, forward, forward — and every monster in her path was shattered to pieces on impact. The girl who was famous for her swordsmanship was currently moving like an impossibly heavy freight vehicle, grinding apart anything foolish enough to stand in her way.
Isagi had it easy. He simply needed to trail behind Ais and Riveria.
And so, in no time at all, the three of them reached the edge of the Great Pit. By the glow of the Magic Stone lantern, they looked down — and saw nothing but a bottomless, lightless abyss stretching below.
Something indescribably cold emanated from within it.
It made you feel as though you were standing at the threshold of something vast and terrible — like a colossal living thing — and from somewhere deep within your chest, a primal, bone-deep dread welled up.
Ruins surrounded them on every side. There were remnants clearly identifiable as wall foundations, and a scattered array of small, fortified watchtowers, like miniature strongholds.
Just as Isagi had suspected — the ancient heroes weren't fools. After raising the walls of Orario, they would naturally have tried to build further fortifications encircling the edge of the Great Pit itself. It seemed, though, that none of those attempts had ever fully succeeded.
The Gods built Babel and sealed the Dungeon completely — and that was the symbol of victory.
Standing here, Isagi, Ais, and Riveria all felt they understood, at least a little, what that sentence really meant.
At the pit's edge, there was a staircase spiraling downward — circular, like the familiar Starting Point they knew, but far more primitive and crude, and noticeably narrower.
The moment they set foot on it, a small golden respawn point flickered into existence at the side.
Isagi paused.
Then he switched his active Character Card to [Puppet Kingdom].
Almost immediately, the golden light of the respawn point quietly dissolved — and in its place appeared the intricately crafted, pale-gold respawn point he recognized: beautiful circular rings of light rotating around a central structure shaped like a metallic horn. Deep blue discs orbited it as it turned, and from within it emanated an overwhelmingly familiar pulse of Ego Essence.
No way through. No way back home.
What had brought him, Ais, and the others here in the first place was a respawn point surrounded by pure white discs.
Did they need to keep searching for it?
Isagi looked at his own fingertips. The Divine Power he had been accumulating had been spent again. It seemed the only path forward was to find that respawn point wreathed in pure white butterflies. Surely there had to be one somewhere.
He switched back to a combat Character Card and gestured for the two girls beside him to press on.
They stepped onto the Starting Path of this ancient-era Dungeon.
Surprisingly — when they entered, the monsters from the surface did not follow. It seemed that the creatures that had already surged out of the Dungeon had no intention of returning within.
Along the way, they could see the blackened sconces where torches had once been mounted in the walls — all of them long since extinguished.
And at regular intervals as they descended, they passed what were clearly checkpoint positions: rough defensive structures built from stacked stone, the kind soldiers would have erected to establish a defensive line. All of them had been destroyed. Around them lay the scattered remains of what had once been people — fragments too graphic to linger on.
Isagi thought it through.
The way heroes of this era entered the Dungeon must have been completely different from how adventurers did it in his own time. They would have advanced step by step — leading soldiers and followers, establishing camps, building fortresses, organizing supply lines, then pushing further. The city of Orario above served as the "great rear base." Of course, monsters would counterattack. Everything could be destroyed. In the worst case — exactly like the situation right now — you abandoned the city entirely, fell back to the walls, and retreated even further to the outer fortresses.
Heroes and their followers engaged in one grinding war of attrition after another.
Until the Gods descended to the Lower World.
So it really was a war.
They had already passed through a countless number of ruined walls and blood-soaked battlefields. The further down they went, the more bodies there were — monsters heaped upon the corpses of soldiers, piled together without distinction.
At least, it seemed no monsters were respawning here.
That said — was this ancient-era Dungeon also divided into numbered floors, the same way the one in his own time was?
Carrying that question with them, Isagi, Ais, and Riveria finally reached the bottom of the pit — or perhaps "Floor 1" was the more appropriate term.
Isagi looked up.
The deep night above swallowed everything, painting it all in lightless black. By the faint glow of the Magic Stone lantern, he could see a single tunnel passage ahead of them, leading off into the unknowable distance.
"Stay sharp."
Isagi wasn't going to let his guard down — even in the ancient-era Dungeon, his Skills would certainly activate. That much he had no doubt about.
And yet — the silence before them was absolute. Death-like.
That silence was somehow more terrifying than any noise. What was going on? Could it be that this Dungeon, right now, was completely empty?
But the quieter it was, the more worrying it became — didn't it mean the Dungeon was building up toward something enormous?!
____
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