The 18th Floor
"Why has the 18th Floor turned into this…?"
The lush forests, rolling plains, and crystal lakes had vanished.
Scorched earth and an oppressive, suffocating heat took their place. The sheer ambient temperature taxed the Endurance of even a Level 3 Adventurer.
Prolonged exposure here would cook a person alive from the inside out.
"How could this happen..." Ardee clenched her fists, heartbroken by the devastation.
This sanctuary held countless warm memories for her and Rayleigh.
Now, nothing remained but a wasteland.
"Where is the enemy?" Ryuu scanned the ruined landscape.
When no target presented itself, a deep frown creased her face.
Three thousand meters ahead, the cracked ground glowed a fierce molten red.
Rayleigh and the vanguard tracked the glow as a towering pillar of flame erupted.
The geyser of fire pierced the crust, shattering the thick bedrock from below and melting a massive crater straight through the physical barrier separating the 18th and 19th Floors.
The perimeter of the fresh chasm reduced to churning, superheated lava.
Rayleigh stared wide-eyed at the sheer destruction.
'That kind of raw power... Even catching the ambient shockwave would melt human flesh.'
A direct hit would vaporize a Level 3 Adventurer, leaving no corpse intact.
"Maintain your guard!" Riveria raised her staff.
Chanting at high speed, she cast a localized defensive barrier over the expedition team.
Her expression turned grim. "This is the handiwork of our target. It's destroying the bedrock to bypass the labyrinth's natural layout."
She braced her stance. "The barrier is breached. It's coming up! Prepare to intercept! We strike first! Ready your Magic! Charge your strongest attacks and finish it in a single barrage—"
A cool, serene voice cut through Riveria's orders.
"That won't do."
Riveria flinched.
She turn around to find a cloaked woman standing mere paces away, bypassing their sensory net entirely.
'Alfia!' Rayleigh narrowed his eyes, recognizing the silhouette beneath the fabric.
He did not speak to her immediately. Instead, he simply watched.
"Identify yourself!" Riveria demanded.
The woman did not answer the question.
Instead, she said, "As long as I stand here, you will not interfere."
A dangerous glint flashed in Riveria's eyes.
"I warned you already! Gareth!"
The armored dwarf move fast, appearing directly in the woman's blind spot.
His heavy, two-handed battle axe crashed down toward her fragile frame.
"So noisy..... how vulgar."
The woman raised her left hand and pressed it toward the great axe swinging down from behind her.
Her motion appeared slow and graceful, yet it defied logic—moving later, but arriving first.
The moment her bare fingers brushed the edge of the great axe, the weapon stopped dead.
'What?' Gareth's pupils contracted to pinpricks.
His full-power swing met an immovable wall!
A slender arm that looked fragile enough to snap under its own weight held his raw strength at bay.
"Impossible!" Riveria gasped.
Although she did have certain racial prejudices toward dwarves, she had never once doubted their strength.
Raw, unyielding strength remained the defining virtue of Gareth's race.
"Who exactly are you?!" Riveria demanded.
The woman hesitated, her tone dropping to a quiet murmur. "Me? I only wish the dead would stop laughing."
She flicked the flat of the great axe with a single finger.
A concentrated sonic boom detonated on impact, Gareth screamed as the kinetic shockwave launched him backward through the air.
An overlapping chain of acoustic blasts forced the rest of the vanguard to brace and retreat.
The violent backdraft tore Alfia's cloak away, revealing her pale skin, white hair, and heterochromatic eyes.
Though her eyelids remained shut, Rayleigh felt the weight of her gaze resting squarely on him.
"You are—!" Riveria's composure shattered the moment she recognized that face.
She reflexively cried out the monster's title. "Alfia the Silent!"
"Huh? Who is that?" Alise asked, recovering her footing from the acoustic blast.
Gareth pushed himself out of the dirt, rubbing his bruised chest.
"You idiot, don't you know history? That woman is the last surviving executive of the Hera Familia."
"The Hera Familia?!"
Ardee, Ryuu, and the remaining Astraea members froze.
Decades ago, the Hera Familia reigned as the undisputed strongest faction in the city.
Their legacy bordered on an untouchable myth. They had ruled the pinnacle of Orario alongside Zeus with overwhelming dominance.
If you pulled any of their elites into the modern era, they would rank as peerless heroes.
And now, a ghost from that golden age stood blocking their path.
"Not just an executive," Gareth warned. "She was the most talented adventurer the Hera Familia ever produced. Don't let your guard down for a fraction of a second, or you will die!"
Alfia absorbed their evaluations with a stoic expression.
"The same applies to you two."
Following a hyper-condensed chant, Satanas Verion activated.
The wind pressure kicked up by that bomb of noise blasted everyone away.
The wide-area impact rattled their bones and organs.
Had Riveria's localized barrier not blunted the kinetic force, that single strike would have neutralized half their vanguard.
Using her Zanpakuto like a crutch, Ardee forced herself upright.
"She's so strong! So... this is the Hera Familia... they operate on a different plane of existence compare to us!"
The sheer disparity in raw power paralyzed the group.
Everyone froze—except one.
"Pierce! Gonryōmaru!"
Ais launched her small body into the air.
The Zanpakuto in her grip transitioned seamlessly into Shikai, adopting the form of a rapier.
"Thunderstrike!"
She thrust the steel three times in rapid succession.
Three jagged bolts of lightning crashed down from the cavern ceiling.
"Soul's Serenity."
Without raising her head, Alfia chanted the trigger for Silentium Eden.
A layer of invisible barrier easily nullified Ais's lightning strikes.
"Reckless child. Learn your place," Alfia reprimanded.
She countered with a fluid knife-hand strike aimed at Ais's chest.
Before that hand had even reached her, Ais already felt every hair on her body stand on end and a chill run down her spine.
"Surge, Water and Heaven! Nejibana!"
A torrent of pressurized water shot toward Alfia's extended arm.
Ardee seized the crucial opening, thrusting her trident to disrupt the fatal blow.
Tracking the incoming tide, Alfia retracted her arm.
She sidestepped the water strike with an elegant pivot.
Ardee's counter missed, but it bought Ais enough time to retreat.
The young Sword Princess gasped for breath, her survival hinging on a fraction of a second.
It was no exaggeration.
Had that bare hand connected, her skull would have shattered on impact!