"Hey! Is anyone there? Help us!"
Inside the Tower of Babel, a group of four Adventurers stumbled out, covered in blood and heavily supporting one another.
With the Central Plaza under strict martial law, the guards detained them on sight.
Finn arrived on the scene moments later.
In the brief time it took him to reach the perimeter, all four men had lost consciousness from the severity of their wounds.
"Treat them!" Finn called for a healer.
Airmid answered the call.
Gripping a newly replenished Tenseiga, she rushed to the fallen men.
With three swift strokes of the glowing blade, she healed their grievous injuries.
When the first Adventurer woke up, his eyes focused on a pale doll-like figure pointing a sword at his chest.
"Aaaaaah!! A monster!"
Terrified, he scrambled backward on all fours, desperate to escape.
The harsh accusation petrified Airmid.
A monster? Was she really that ugly?
Of course not.
Airmid possessed a flawless beauty, but that very perfection lent her an unreal quality.
Combined with her icy, focused expression, observers often mistook her for a masterpiece crafted by a master puppeteer.
Seeing such a cold, doll-like figure aiming a blade evoked the image of a cursed puppet.
Similar monsters existed deep within the Dungeon—like expressionless puppets wielding daggers with mindless ferocity.
In this regard, Airmid and Ais shared a passing resemblance.
However, Ais viewed the world solely through the lens of gaining strength and slaughtering monsters.
Airmid harbored a delicate kind heart beneath her cold exterior.
Being branded a monster by the very man she had just saved stung deeply.
Seeing the patient spiral into a panic, Airmid froze, looking toward Finn for assistance.
Finn moved to step in, but halted with a knowing smile when a familiar figure approached.
Rayleigh stepped up behind Airmid and rested a reassuring hand on her head.
He pointed his free hand at the thrashing Adventurer.
"Bakudō One: Sai!"
The invisible spell forced the four men's arms behind their backs. Losing their balance, they collapsed to the dirt, pinned in place.
"Don't let it get to you, Airmid. These guys are just idiots," Rayleigh said.
Catching his familiar scent and hearing his reassuring voice, Airmid threw herself into Rayleigh's embrace before she even turned around.
The sting faded.
She was okay!
"Huh? It doesn't hurt?" The pinned Adventurer came to his senses, realizing his fatal wounds had vanished without a trace.
"Th-thank you."
"Ah! Wait, there is something much worse! Monsters! A monster appeared in the Dungeon!" Recalling the nightmare, the man's face turned deathly pale.
His body trembled violently, his speech breaking down into incoherent stammers about a terrifying beast.
Rayleigh pressed a glowing finger against the man's forehead, channeling a soothing pulse of Kaidō to calm his fractured spirit.
Once settled, the Adventurer finally detailed the crisis.
"What is this about a monster?" someone asked. "It would be stranger if there were no monsters in the Dungeon."
"No, you don't understand! It came from the deep floors! A disastrous, unnatural beast. The Evilus cultists are luring it toward the surface!"
"How is that possible? How could they manage such a feat?" another Adventurer questioned.
Finn bit his thumb, his expression turning grim as he pieced the puzzle together.
"It's divine power."
"What?"
"The enemy is using a God Arcanum to stimulate the Dungeon into birthing an anomaly, and then using that same God as bait to lure the beast upward," Finn explained.
"Then wouldn't that mean..."
"Yes. The enemy's true goal is Babel itself. They intend for this summoned monster to blow the 'lid' right off the Dungeon!"
Relying on his sharp intellect and a handful of clues, Finn deduced Erebus's endgame.
Rayleigh found no opening to offer his own foresight.
He could only marvel at the Pallum's deductive reasoning.
Facing Finn as an enemy would be a nightmare!
"But this presents a contradiction. How did Evilus enter the Dungeon?" Finn muttered, puzzled.
With the Central Plaza teeming with the city's combined combat forces and civilian survivors, bypassing the blockade to enter Babel and descend undetected should have been impossible.
Rayleigh realized the missing link.
Erebus did not enter through Babel. He used the man-made labyrinth, Knossos!
Long ago, the legendary craftsman Daedalus fell into madness after witnessing the Dungeon's sheer, living scale.
The magnificent, miraculous architecture was a feat he could never hope to replicate.
In a desperate bid to construct a structure that could rival the Dungeon, Daedalus began building his own labyrinth.
But a mortal's lifespan proved too short, and Daedalus died within his unfinished maze.
His lingering will cursed his bloodline.
Generation after generation of the Daedalus line fell to madness, obsessed with completing the labyrinth.
That sprawling, underground network connected directly to the Dungeon. Erebus must have bypassed Babel entirely through Knossos.
"This is bad. We cannot ignore a threat rising from the depths," Finn announced.
The tide of battle shifted.
Orario, tasked only with defending the surface walls, now faced a siege from both sides. The very structure they were guarding had become a ticking bomb.
"We will split into two teams! One force will guard Babel, while an elite squad enters the Dungeon to intercept and slay this God-killing beast! We cannot let that monster shatter the lid!"
Raul sprinted over, gasping for breath. "Captain! A massive horde of Evilus forces has been spotted outside the city walls! Their numbers are impossible to estimate! They have surrounded Orario!"
"So they have come," Finn replied, his tone steady.
Royman, the head of the Adventurer's Guild standing nearby, turned pale.
"What!" His expression twisted in panic. "Damn those Evilus bastards! Where did they hide so many troops?!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Heavy explosions echoed from every direction, rattling the city's foundations.
Finn frowned.
Royman shrieked, "What now?! What is happening?!"
Raul sprinted toward the communications team to gather intel, refusing to rest for even a second.
"It's the gates, Captain!" Raul shouted upon his return. "Orario's outer gates have been breached! They used heavy explosives!"
"Calm down, Raul. Which gate fell?"
Raul braced his hands on his knees, gasping for air.
His face carried a look of pure dread.
"All of them! Every single gate has been destroyed!"
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