Another hellish calamity had passed.
The inferno of flames that scorched the earth.
A rain of meteors pouring down from the sky.
Its power was so overwhelming it felt as if it might bring down the Dungeon's very floor itself.
Still, if this layered disaster differed from the two before it in any way, it was only that its process was clearly visible to the eye.
And that it had not so much as touched a single hair on their bodies.
"What is... this?"
"It feels... strange."
"It's almost like we've been dropped into water."
Within that bizarre space like a night sky, the party was each experiencing the same sensation.
A strange feeling of floating in midair, along with an odd sense of freedom.
Yet unlike that sensation, their bodies would not move at all.
And then the calamity of reality came crashing down on them.
"N-no!"
"W-w-won't..."
"D-damn it!"
Some shut their eyes against the pain and fear that was about to come.
But no matter how much time passed, it did not hurt.
It should have been hot. It should have been agonizing.
And yet, strangely, it was not painful at all.
The approaching disaster had no effect on them whatsoever.
Like a nightmare on a summer day.
It simply drifted past meaninglessly.
A truly bizarre phenomenon, a bizarre reality.
No, had that just now really been reality at all?
Just as that question began to surface...
"Ah."
"I can move."
As if waking from a dream, the calamity ended and vanished, and with it the strange space disappeared as well.
After that, the party was freed as their bodies once again became movable.
While everyone was still bewildered,
"Aaaaaaahn!"
The girl screamed.
"An! Open your eyes! An!"
At the girl Tiona's cry, the party finally understood the truth.
That the utterly inexplicable phenomenon from moments ago had been the strange art of the outside helper who had introduced himself as Andersen.
That he had used it to save them from danger.
But before they could even feel grateful for it...
"Gasp!"
"T-that..."
"Riveria! Heal him, now! Raul! Get every potion you have out! Hurry!"
"Y-yes, yessir!"
Finn shouted urgently, issuing orders to the supporters.
But his command was already one step too late.
That was how utterly, horribly ruined the Magus's condition was.
"An! Don't die! Please, don't die!"
"Ugh, you idiot little sister! Stop it already!"
"B-but...! But An is...!"
The Magus as seen through Tiona's eyes.
He was already little different from a corpse.
One of his eyes was gone somewhere, leaving a hollow socket that looked like it needed an eyepatch like Tsubaki's.
More than half the skin on his face and neck had been torn away in a rough, hideous mess, as if mauled by a beast.
One of his remaining arms had vanished somewhere along with half of one leg.
And if that were all, it might still have been a relief.
The skin across his entire body had been burned with strange patterns and was still sizzling.
His abdomen had several holes punched through it beneath ragged tears, as if someone had forcibly ripped it open.
Through those holes, the space inside was faintly visible, and at a glance it was obvious that several vital organs had gone missing somewhere, leaving him in a terribly dangerous state.
And when one looked at the carefully cauterized wounds, as if they had been seared shut, it was enough to make one feel not gratitude for a narrow escape, but a nauseating sense of grotesque bad taste.
By the amount of blood pooled and spilled beneath his feet like a puddle, he should already have been as good as dead.
To be honest, from a third party's point of view, the fact that he was still breathing at all was beyond comprehension, a miracle in itself.
"Get a hold of yourself! He's not dead yet! He's still breathing!"
"But An... An is dying... He looks dead... What do I do...? What should I do...? Tell me, sis..."
"Tch, you only call me your big sister at times like this. Honestly..."
So it was only natural that Tiona would lose her reason, crying and thrashing about.
Tione forcibly restrained her younger sister and dragged her back so she would not interfere with the treatment.
Yet despite the words she gave Tiona, her own face was just as grim as her sister's.
That was how horrific and serious the Magus's condition was.
How he could stop breathing at any moment and it would not be strange.
"Damn it, for a weakling to go and do whatever he wants...!"
"Enough, Bete. That's rude. We received great help from him."
"Tch... damn it!"
"How shameful. I'm ashamed to have been helped so pathetically."
Bete ground his teeth in frustration, with Gareth beside him trying to calm him down.
And Riveria, standing behind them, was blaming herself alone.
They, too, could not hide their frustration, just like the Hiryute sisters.
The expressions of everyone else who had been helped by him were equally stiff.
For the faint-hearted among them, some had already begun mourning him in their hearts.
But there were only two.
Only those two did not remain still like the others.
"Don't die, Magus! If you dare die, I'll wake you back up even if I have to kill you to do it! So don't you dare die! You hear me! Do you hear me, Magus!"
Tsubaki desperately tried to save him, forcing recovery potions into his lifeless mouth and over the unknown injuries, pouring them in and onto him.
Yet even with her efforts, fierce and almost possessed as they were, the Magus showed no response.
And here was the other one besides her.
"Everyone. Prepare for battle."
Smaller than anyone here, yet greater than anyone, the lone "hero" calmly recognized their role and spoke it aloud.
A voice so indifferent it was almost cold.
"But, Finn!"
"Commander, right now at least...!"
"Look over there."
As expected, the party was startled and flustered by his sudden order.
But Finn did not turn to them. Instead, he pointed somewhere with the tip of the spear in his hand.
Following the direction of that tip, everyone's gaze shifted to the source of this calamity.
Under the flickering light, there was a fallen spirit, mysterious and beautiful.
And therefore all the more disgusting as she danced and laughed in delight.
"What is that?"
"No way... is it absorbing mana?"
"T-then that thing from earlier was again?!"
"Impossible...!"
The entire party understood the situation and could not hide their shock.
Tiona and Tsubaki were no different.
Everyone thought of "defeat" and despaired.
But one person alone.
"We hunt that monster."
Only Finn, with the calmest tone of all and the firmest expression of all, declared it.
"I will ask you for courage."
What did those eyes see?
Fear? Or despair? Or perhaps ruin?
"All I see before me is an enemy that must be brought down. And victory."
No retreat.
From the beginning, such a thing had never been necessary.
Only with this spear.
Only with this [Noble Phantasm] he had received.
He would carve a path through.
"Follow me."
I promise you victory.
"Or else..."
"Is imitating Bell Cranel beyond you?"
At those words, several of them flinched.
The "Wolf" bared his fangs fiercely.
The "Sword Princess" stirred the wind in silence.
And the "Thousand Elf" hardened her resolve and steeled herself.
But it was still not enough.
Still not enough to raise everyone up.
"Or else what? Even now, after all this, are you not even feeling any anger?"
The mighty Loki Familia had been unilaterally trampled by a single foe.
Those who had been called giant slayers had been unilaterally protected by a single person.
"Can you really accept any more humiliation than this?"
Clench!
It was a provocation that made fists tighten on their own, along with an infuriating expression.
If one could remain still after hearing something like that, who could dare call themselves an adventurer?
"Ha! That arrogant little Pallum...! Bring me my axe!"
"...Prepare maximum bombardment! Raul, Narvi, Alicia, Cruz! The four of you protect me!"
"""Yes!"""
Everyone steeled their resolve once more.
They hardened their fighting spirit toward the goal before them.
"Tiona."
"I'm going."
The same was true of the foreign sisters.
"Don't go losing your head for no reason. Got it?"
"I won't. Otherwise An will keep making fun of me forever later."
Gripping Uga tightly once more after having let it go, Tiona recalled it.
The past, the day she first met Andersen.
The time she fought him after confronting him over that misunderstanding.
The conversation they had by chance after she lost to him and returned together with him.
"You come down into the Dungeon because you want to be a hero?"
"Yeah. Hehe, weird, right?"
"No, not at all. If anything, it's so cool I'm jealous."
"Eh? Rea, really?"
"Of course. I really, truly love heroes too. The flashy ones, the ugly ones, the forced ones—I like them all. And that's because that's what heroes are. So I can understand why you'd have that kind of admiration. It's not weird at all."
"Hee..."
"To stake your life, your whole life, on challenging something that seems impossible! To adventure without yielding to any danger! Hmhm, where else could you find a dream like that? Yes, that too is romance!"
A foolish question, and a foolish answer.
Perhaps it had been from that moment.
Perhaps the small spark of this feeling had begun there.
But what truly made her decide was after that.
"I can't... keep losing forever!"
The day they happened to meet again in the Dungeon.
The expression he wore then.
The innocent childlike purity that peeked out beneath his usual adult composure.
His face, which looked more serious and passionate than anything else, had made her ask him without thinking.
Why he came down into the Dungeon.
"An, what's your dream?"
And he had answered like this.
"Because I'm curious. Because it's fun. Because I want to."
"What I want to see, what I want to imitate, what I want to achieve. I'll seize all those romances in this one hand and savor them!"
The man who said that then was undoubtedly an adventurer moving toward a dream of his own, and a "man."
Someone who believed in himself, wanted what he wanted, and dreamed his own dream.
A foolish man who thought only of moving forward every day with such a firm goal in mind.
That was why Tiona could keep him in her heart.
She wanted to stay by his side.
And someday... if possible... together with him...
"I'll go on an adventure too! With An!"
Recalling those precious memories, Tiona moved forward once more.
Ah, like...
Like sunlight.
Like the sun itself.
Tiona was the same girl she had always been, then and now.
"Going and getting up all by himself. What a selfish little sister."
Following after her, Tione let out a dry laugh.
It was a dry laugh that felt especially lonely at the side.
"My, my. Everyone's got plenty of spirit."
Even Tsubaki, whose composure had been shaken by the resolve of the party, could gather herself again.
She tossed the empty potion bottle carelessly nearby and muttered, "I'm off. Good work. Leave the rest to us."
So don't you lose either.
After giving that lone admonition, she too advanced with the warriors.
Leaving behind the Magus who still had not opened his eyes.
Leaving behind the shadow flickering beneath him.
"We'll pierce that bastard with this charge!"
Pour everything out!
The "hero's" cry signaled the beginning of battle.
The entire party once again began their challenge toward the "adventure" before them.
Without a shred of doubt.
Toward a "victory" with only one road ahead.