When we shut down the factory and came back outside, the enhanced humans were shouting noisily.
"Emergency!!!"
"Looks like we picked the right answer."
"Seems so."
While we were having a calm conversation in the rear, a few impatient Sinners rushed out as always to finish off the enhanced humans.
"This is Heathcliff's revenge!!"
And the rest was obvious.
They quickly finished off the enhanced humans, who for some reason had become far weaker than before, and the battle came to an end.
**
"Ms. Faust, was that thing earlier also an [Abnormality]?"
"That is highly likely. More precisely, it would be correct to say the factory behind it was the [Abnormality]."
Hmm, I see.
It seemed [Abnormality]s weren't just monster-shaped things; they came in a wide variety.
If there could be an [Abnormality] that looked like a factory, then what couldn't exist?
Maybe someday there'd even be some huge [Abnormality] or something.
"――!"
What was that sound?
"I hear something up ahead."
As Mr. Heathcliff said, an incomprehensible sound was drifting from the front.
"Probably someone's got some weird song playing. Right?"
"...Is that so?"
"Ah—God—!"
Ah.
"Wait. That sound—"
Before I could even speak aloud after realizing what the sound was, we had already reached the end of the corridor.
"Ah. God, it sounds. Fun. Sounds."
"The game of de. Th!"
In the next room, a group of enhanced humans was approaching us while chanting words with a bizarre rhythm, each of them clutching a giant roulette wheel.
"...Seems like they want to play a game?"
As soon as Dante muttered that unconsciously, Ms. Rodion reacted at once.
"Dante! Let's do it right now. It looks fun!"
Hmm...
After a brief pause...
Let's.
Apparently unwilling to take on three enhanced humans again, Dante decided to play the game.
"Yes! Games are my specialty! Leave it to me, Dante~"
Ms. Rodion shouted triumphantly and stepped forward.
There was a strange excitement and anticipation on her face.
So she really is a hardcore gambling addict...
"I like red! I like red! Like! Like!"
The enhanced humans shouted in a bizarre rhythm.
"Red 4!!!"
The moment they called out the number, they spun the roulette wheel hard.
Then they placed three roulette balls into the Sinner's hands.
Was success achieved if the ball landed in a red slot above 4?
"······."
Was it true that she liked gambling? Unlike usual, Ms. Rodion was focusing properly as she carefully tossed the ball.
-Tap, tap. Tap. Tap. Roll...
The ball caught on the roulette and slowly rolled over...
The slot it landed in was red, number 6.
Success.
"Success! See? That's me~"
"I lost!! I lost!! Aaaah!!"
The enhanced human who had spun the roulette collapsed with a crackling sound.
Even its final death cry somehow had rhythm to it.
"No time to—hurt—any. Mo. Re!"
The enhanced humans laughed and spun the roulette again.
"I like yellow! I like yellow! Yellow! Yellow! Yellow!"
There were two balls left... so did that mean we just had to win two more times?
"Yellow 6!!!"
After hearing the enhanced human, Ms. Rodion tossed the ball again...
-Tap. Tap. Tap. Roll...
The slot it landed in was yellow, 8. Another consecutive success.
"I lost! Lost again!! Aaaagh!"
As expected, the enhanced human who had spun the roulette collapsed.
Of course, the rest of the enhanced humans didn't care and spun the wheel again.
"Fun things are re. Al. Ly. Unbearable!"
...Wait, aren't all the things they're saying lyrics I've heard somewhere before?
"I like blue! I like blue! Blue! Blue! Blue!"
"Blue 8!!!"
-Tap. Tap. Tap. Roll...
Blue...
-Tap.
8!
"Lost again! Lost again!! Damn it!"
And so the enhanced human who had spun the roulette crackled and collapsed.
Then all the enhanced humans crumbled down together.
Did we win?
Before I could even fully process what had happened, Dante picked something up from among the enhanced humans' remains.
That is...
"It's an E.G.O gift."
If it was an E.G.O gift, I didn't know what effect it had, but it would probably help.
Once the commotion died down and we realized the room was completely safe, we headed deeper inside.
**
After that, nothing special happened and only battles continued.
How many of those Sin things are there, I wonder?
"As of now, there has been no measurement."
Was that all the small talk we managed during the little time spent moving after each battle?
-Clack, clack
The sound of footsteps descending stairs echoed out.
Maybe because so many had died in the battle with the [Abnormality] just now, silence hung among the Sinners.
The main culprits behind that silence were some of the combat specialists who had boldly stepped forward in battle, only to die helplessly.
They must have been too ashamed to say anything after letting their guard down and dying in one hit.
Come to think of it, was it just my imagination, or was it getting colder little by little?
When I felt the chill and looked around, ice had already frozen over the stairs.
"It feels like it's getting colder and colder."
"Why is there more and more ice...?"
Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed; Sinclair spoke up.
"As strange phenomena become more frequent, it's better to think of that as a positive sign."
"Did you call me?"
"···Haa, I'd rather that not have been a joke. It feels like it'll only make me colder."
"Then that's a relief. Mr. Yi Sang isn't the type to make jokes, after all, are you?"
"That's not what I meant... Hah, forget it."
"It was a joke, a joke."
While I was desperately ignoring Ms. Ishmael's sharp glare, Dante asked a question.
...You mean we're close to the Golden Bough... right?
"Yes, well."
Ms. Faust's answer seemed sharper than usual.
Normally, if she answered like that, she would either just say "Yes" and leave it at that, or add some explanation... or was that just my imagination?
As we continued talking, the third floor came into view.
"Whoa..."
"I never expected to see something like this in the basement of a casino."
It was a sight that drew genuine admiration.
A vast underground ice cavern... yes, it was dreamlike enough to inspire awe.
Of course, that poetic feeling was quickly shattered by the icy wind that blew in.
"Ugh, it's cold! Dante, let's hurry."
It looked nice enough at first glance... but moving forward was going to be hell.
***
In the ice cavern, a blizzard blew.
Underground and blizzard were words that really didn't belong together, but [Abnormality]s seemed capable of casually ignoring common sense like that.
After fighting through the blizzard and struggling onward, we found a ruined, frozen village.
A village?
"A village wouldn't be underground, so maybe this is inside someone's mind too?"
"······."
Only Ms. Rodion, in response to my innocent question, was staring at the village with a gloomy look in her eyes.
"Everyone, prepare for battle! Enemy ambush!"
Damn, looks like there's no time to think any further.
The main enemies on the third floor were frozen versions of the debt collectors we'd seen on the first floor.
Unlike on the first floor, where they swung pickaxes with their edges already worn down, now they were wielding sharp pickaxes made of ice that wouldn't melt, making them even more threatening.
I had no idea why they were suddenly attacking us, but did that matter right now?
-Clang!
What mattered was that they attacked first.
"Hup!"
-Crack!
With a powerful swing of my spear, I smashed him, and the ice covering his body shattered as he collapsed in an instant.
His body had been covered in ice in so many places that I'd thought it might be serving as armor, but thankfully that didn't seem to be the case.
"We're done here. How about your side?"
"This side's done too."
Dante looked back and forth between me answering here and Ms. Rodion over there in the distance, then, deciding the battle was over, urged his halted steps forward again.
If everything's cleared out, let's move.
As much as I wanted to rest, resting in this cold would be insane, so we'd better keep moving.
**
After several hours of nothing but battle and walking, we finally saw the end of the village.
There was a castle there.
A huge ice castle.
The massive ice fortress and the even harder-looking ice around it seemed to tell us at a glance that this was the end.
And, as always, there was also one thug hanging around in a place like this.
"Whenever my thoughts get complicated, I sometimes come here. Though there isn't an armchair or whiskey here like you like..."
"This place is so cold that no matter how tightly you fasten your coat, the chill still gets through. That makes it easier to think clearly."
Sonya. Why the hell was that man here?
As I, or rather we, glared at him with all the cold we'd suffered to get here, Ms. Rodion slowly walked forward toward him.
"I didn't expect you to be here already."
"My men and I knew a shortcut leading here from the start."
"It was information obtained through the filth of this district. Information about the space where great power for a grand cause was buried."
...If you had something like that, why didn't you tell us?
"But we only managed to reach the vicinity of the space where this... Golden Bough was buried, and saw no way to do anything about it."
Even under the Sinners' gaze, now clearly sharper than before, he didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
"I thought it would be buried in District 25, but if you were just going to use methods like some kind of organized crime gang, you should've stayed buried."
"Sonya. Because of you, innocent merchants were having all their money taken too."
At Ms. Rodion's words, which struck right at the heart of the matter, even that Sonya had nothing to say and changed the subject.
"...You know, Rodion? This place used to be nothing more than a slightly strange location covered in frost."
"But look at it now. It's become a place covered only in a giant castle and hard ice."
"From the moment you set foot here."
"...That sounds like you knew it would change when I came. How did you know?"
"There are many sources of information... but you don't need to know, Rodion."
Even with Sonya's mocking words, Ms. Rodion kept pressing him.
"How can you be so sure it was because of me in the first place? I'm not some magician wandering the back alleys."
"Nothing difficult. You only need to look at the faces of those sleeping in the ice."
"Look at this. They're the faces you loved, but also the ones you looked down on in your heart, aren't they?"
Right, what the hell is he talking about now?