Deep in the underground wine cellar of the Dionysus Familia base,
Under Soma's gaze, Loki's expression kept shifting.
She stared fixedly at the wine before her, a wine whose drifting aroma alone seemed enough to steal all five senses. After tracing through a chain of clues in her mind, she finally confirmed it one by one.
At the same time, that special fragrance belonging only to Divine Wine rushed into her nose, and the aroma stirred waves in Loki's memory.
As a qualified drunkard, Loki could never forget this one-of-a-kind taste.
Before she knew the identity of its source, she could only barely sketch a vague outline in her mind, but now… looking at the bottle in her hand, its surface coated in a layer of dust, a bottle refined through experience yet still exquisitely crafted.
"…I know it. I know this smell!"
Loki had smelled this fragrance somewhere, not here, somewhere else! She was certain. Absolutely certain.
She gripped the bottle in both hands, sweeping her gaze over it as if staring down an enemy.
"Where? Where did I smell it? Where exactly have I smelled this scent…!?"
Her eyes flickered light and dark, her expression gradually growing ferocious.
Lowering her head, she examined the bottle. Even Loki, a drunkard, had never seen the brand pasted on the label. From this alone it was obvious… this wasn't a product in circulation. Not even the gods who served fine wines at banquets had ever brought out this sort.
On the label, the painted design resembled a crest, a simple wine glass with grapes.
"A tavern? Impossible, there's no way they'd bring out something this dangerous! A fermentation facility? No, that's wrong, I've never even been to a place like that! Then it's not the wine itself… it's the ingredients? Grapes… grapes… grapes?"
She stared at the red wine sloshing inside the bottle, as red as blood. And then, a faint voice rose out of her hazy memories, soft and warped.
...
What surfaced in her mind was the scene of the Denatus Ganesha held, summoning the gods in hopes of gaining their support for the Monsterpheria he wanted to host.
At that time, Dionysus sat beside that fellow, drinking wine,
Right, at that time,
"Even someone as picky about wine as me has to admit it." Dionysus said this to Loki as he welcomed her: "This wine is delicious."
Standing beside Demeter, he really said that.
"No, no way… don't tell me…"
Loki's voice rose, her eyes flashing with disbelief. Her vermilion irises widened to the limit.
In the end, the elegant, absolutely stunning face of a honey-haired goddess slowly surfaced in her mind.
...
In Orario, on the wide street in the northwest district mockingly called [Adventurers' Avenue], things were as lively and bustling as always.
Citizens, merchants, and, making up the majority, adventurers weaved back and forth.
Some browsed the many adventurer-related shops lining both sides of the street for satisfactory goods; others haggled loudly with vendors.
There were even merchants tirelessly advertising their products, hoping a sharp-eyed deity would choose them and bless them with sudden wealth.
Amid this noisy atmosphere, the massive white building at the center, the Guild Headquarters, was unusually busy today.
Waves of complaints washed over the staff, who wore troubled expressions yet were forced to maintain strained smiles.
Clearly, for some reason, the Guild Headquarters' operations were facing significant issues, and the cause was unmistakably that incident.
...
With his gaze gradually pulled back from overhead, the dim underground altar once again fell silent.
"Ouranos… don't tell me?"
This was the Chamber of Prayers, located in the deepest part of the tower's foundations.
Even now, the old god sat upon his stone throne as he had for millennia, his expression eternally unmoved.
Below the steps, the hooded magician in a black cloak let out a cry.
"Your conclusion?"
"…Then I'll start with that. The result is this: the Artificial Dungeon has been completely turned into a danger zone."
During the artificial dungeon assault, unlike the Ganesha Familia monitoring and guarding designated areas of Daedalus Street on the surface, Fels had descended to the deeper levels for investigation.
After time ran out yesterday, he had hurried back here. His shaky voice made it obvious, he was reporting to Ouranos, but trembling.
It was terror intertwined with dread.
The final green-flesh surge had completely swallowed the artificial dungeon, flooding it, engulfing the unfortunate adventurers, and Fels had witnessed that unknown, world-shattering power with his own eyes.
Even after a full night, he still hadn't recovered.
"That was something related to the spirit. Most likely something similar to that. It looked similar to the things seen on the 24th-floor Pantry the Sword Princess and the Nightweaver discovered, and to the thing Lyd's group dealt with on the 30th floor, but incomparably more oppressive."
"No, if I had to put it another way… what I felt was more like an evolved version of those beings."
As he pondered the truth behind the green-flesh surge, his words overflowed with fear. Every part of his statement trembled.
"…"
"What I saw with my own eyes… that green-flesh tide filling the corridors was ferocious, carrying a will to annihilate all intruders. If I had to describe it, until now our enemies have always been monsters, but this time, we had to face the Dungeon itself as an opponent. This is a first."
"Compared to the nature of the true Dungeon, the artificial one has been completely twisted."
The god confirmed it, but Fels still rejected calling that grotesque green flesh something related to the corrupted spirit.
Silence filled the Chamber of Prayers. The darkness beneath Fels' hood seemed to stare at Ouranos, waiting for his explanation.
After a long pause,
"I suspect the truth is this, someone used several Fallen Spirits, then activated some ritual. I don't yet know the structure of the spell, but what I can say for certain is that without a doubt, its power is directly connected to the Fallen Spirits."
Everything had already happened. The artificial dungeon could now only be described as even more dangerous than the real one.
It had become an even more hideous, far more durable, and flawless man-eating fortress, Fels thus concluded in his heart.