Stepping inside, Ryota frowned slightly as he gazed upon the icy landscape before him, where time itself seemed to have frozen.
Unlike the vast frozen plains of the fifty-ninth floor, this space felt more like a small pocket forcibly wedged between two floors.
Looking up, the surrounding walls weren't the usual rocky terrain found throughout the Dungeon.
Instead, they were composed of neatly stacked crystalline ice, arranged with almost surgical precision in symmetrical geometric patterns—like a sealed chamber used in a ritual.
The entire space was no larger than a hundred meters across, but its chill surpassed that of any floor they'd encountered so far.
More importantly, it didn't match the structure of the sixty-first floor, nor did it feel like an extension of the sixtieth.
It was more like… a makeshift gap, forcibly "squeezed" between two layers.
A rift conjured by power—an unnatural remnant that shouldn't exist, and yet, here it was.
Ryota searched through hazy memories in his mind:
"Is this… Thalia's Ice Garden?"
Footsteps approached from behind as the members of the Loki Familia and Freya Familia began filing into the icy domain.
The moment Ais stepped in, a flicker of something strange passed over her otherwise composed face.
She furrowed her brows slightly—there was a stirring deep in her chest, like something was agitating her heart.
"Miss Ais?"
Lefiya hurried up beside her and asked in a low voice.
Ais shook her head.
"It's nothing. Just… feels a little stifling."
Just then, Demi Spirit that had been silently trailing behind Ryota suddenly moved.
She bolted toward the deepest part of the icy garden at high speed.
"Did she detect danger?"
"But there aren't any signs of monsters here, are there?"
The thought had barely crossed Ryota's mind when—bang! A dull, heavy thud echoed out.
Barely ten meters ahead, Demi Spirit's body suddenly exploded right before everyone's eyes, disintegrating into black ash that scattered into the air.
"What just happened?!"
Lefiya's pupils contracted.
"An explosion? Did it self-destruct?!"
Ottar tilted his head, looking at Ryota with confusion.
Ryota shook his head and said calmly:
"Not a self-destruction. It was crushed… by something."
At the same time, the mechanical voice sounded in his ear:
[Ding! Main Branch Quest: Eliminate a Demi Spirit – Complete!]
[Reward Calculating——]
[Reward 1: Special Nine-Tails Chakra +10%!]
[Reward 2: Sage Jutsu Chakra +10%!]
[Reward 3: Hashirama Cells +10%!]
[Reward 4: Kekkei Genkai Unlocked – Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom!]
[Reward 5: Chakra Capacity +200,000!]
"So as my Hashirama Cells accumulate, the rewards are shifting toward Wood Style…"
Ryota looked around at the icy expanse before him, suddenly realizing that Wood Style might be especially effective here.
Returning to his senses, he turned to face the others and said steadily:
"Let's move."
"This place isn't the sixty-first floor. Don't linger."
The moment he said that, everyone's expression changed.
They had all sensed that this space was unusually strange.
But hearing Ryota confirm it wasn't the sixty-first floor sent a jolt through their hearts.
Not a floor? Then what was it?
But before anyone could ponder further, an unusual aura suddenly spread from up ahead.
Whoosh—!!
The frigid, bone-chilling air abruptly spiked in temperature.
The frosty mist began to boil, frozen vapor started to melt, and the snow under their feet sizzled with sharp hissing sounds!
Ryota's head snapped up, his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan spinning rapidly.
In the distance, a crimson flame burst forth into the sky, roaring as it surged toward them like a dragon's fury!
"Dragonfire…?!"
"Is that—dragon breath?!"
"How is that possible?! This is the sixty-first floor! How could something like that be here—?!"
"..."
The torrent of dragonfire swept forth like a raging flood, packed with overwhelming force.
Everyone's faces paled—there was no room to dodge in such a confined space.
"Ryota!"
Ais, seeing the black-haired boy standing at the front, launched forward without hesitation.
Lefiya bit her lip hard and followed right behind her.
After all, Ryota was at the front—he would be the first to take the brunt of that dragon's breath.
"You two—!"
Finn's face twisted in alarm. What the hell were they doing?!
Beside him, Riveria was already raising her staff, beginning a chant to form a defensive barrier.
But just as the incantation reached her lips, Ryota moved.
With a sudden leap, he raised his right hand—and reached straight toward the incoming inferno!
Sizzle—SIZZLE—!!
The raging dragonfire collided with his palm—and in the next instant, like a furious dragon having its throat ripped open, the flames were sucked in, swallowed whole.
Like they'd been devoured by a black hole!
"Wh-what… just happened?!"
"He absorbed it?!"
"What the hell is going on?!"
"..."
Before anyone could snap out of their shock, Ryota lifted his left hand once more:
"Takami Musubinokami!"
FWOOOOSH—!!
An even more powerful torrent of dragonfire erupted from his left palm.
The searing flames condensed into a divine spear in midair—and launched right back the way it came.
BOOOOOOOM————!!
A deafening explosion shattered the darkness.
Shockwaves pulsed outward in waves, rising like mushroom clouds.
THUD!!—!!
A massive object crashed down with a resounding impact, shaking the entire Ice Garden.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
In the swirling haze of dissipating fire, a massive dark figure slammed to the ground, smoke still curling from its body.
"Is that…?"
Finn squinted, his voice trembling in disbelief:
"—A Valgang Dragon?!"
Ais and Lefiya, having halted their rush once the threat was neutralized, exchanged a glance—both of them full of questions.
Lefiya clutched her staff, her mind reeling.
"A monster from the fifty-eighth floor? Why is it here?"
"Isn't it supposed to only appear in the Dragon's Vase region, between floors fifty-two to fifty-eight?! How could it—"
She trailed off as she noticed no one responding.
Everyone was staring at Ryota.
More precisely, they were staring at the black-haired boy who had leapt into the air, absorbed the dragonfire into his hand, then unleashed it back—obliterating the Valgang Dragon in a single strike.
Ottar's facial muscles twitched involuntarily.
Hedin stood there with his mouth open, speechless.
Hogni was frozen stiff, forgetting even how to unleash his usual flamboyant tone.
The entire Freya Familia had fallen silent.
They knew all too well what a Valgang Dragon was.
A dragon. The King of the fifty-eighth floor. A catastrophe from the Dragon's Vase.
And now…
It couldn't even struggle before Ryota?
Even Finn from the Loki Familia was biting down on his thumb, unable to make sense of it. His voice wavered:
"And that ability… the one that absorbed the attack and countered it… what even is that?"
He voiced the question everyone was thinking.
But Ryota had no time to answer. The mechanical voice was back in his ear:
[Ding—Fusion Progress +11%]
[Current Fusion Progress: 50%]
[Ding—Unlocked Abilities: Rinnegan Intimidation, Super Almighty Push, Planetary Devastation]
"…It's finally here."
"Fifty percent, huh?"
Ryota looked at the Valgang Dragon disintegrating into ash, his heart surging with excitement.
The purple ripple pattern deep within his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan had become more pronounced.
From the monsters on the sixtieth floor to the just-completed branch quest—it had all added up, finally pushing that 39% to 50%.
He'd known all along that this system was stingy as hell.
Back when it hit 39%, it hadn't given a single reward—probably holding it all back for a giant unlock all at once.
"Super Almighty Push" and "Planetary Devastation"—now those were familiar names.
He'd seen the former used by the Six Paths before.
But the "Super" prefix? That meant this version was on steroids.
Full boost to range, power, suppression—it was the kind of move that could flip an entire battlefield in one go.
And Planetary Devastation—well, that was the showstopper.
But…
"This one…"
Ryota muttered, looking at the last newly unlocked ability:
[Rinnegan Intimidation]. (I don't really remember if this ability of Momoshiki even had a name… so I'm just using a fan-made one for now)
A unique ability of Momoshiki's Rinnegan.
It unleashes a 360-degree omnidirectional shockwave of blade-like chakra, centered on the user, with devastating destructive force.
He slowly turned around.
The members of the Freya and Loki Familia were still stuck in stunned silence from that "reverse dragonfire" moment.
But Ryota acted as though nothing had happened, simply thinking to himself:
"…Just halfway there."
"Almost."
He was just about to tell everyone to keep moving, when—
The ground of the Ice Garden suddenly began to tremble violently again.
THUD—!
THUD—!
The booming echoed up from deep underground.
Everyone instinctively gripped their weapons, their faces darkening.
"Be… behind us!!"
Hedin was the first to shout, pointing behind Ryota.
Ryota turned around—and saw that the scorched shadows left by the dragonfire were churning and writhing.
Like the earth itself was about to vomit up something forbidden.
And then—
THUD!!!!!!
Louder than before, dozens of massive figures stomped forth from the shadows!
Valgang Dragons.
No—an entire horde of Valgang Dragons!
"No way… This can't be!!"
"Wasn't there supposed to be only one?! The Dragon's Vase area of the fifty-eighth floor never spawns more than one!!"
"But now—it's—"
"..."
Finn's face drained of all color. His first instinct was to roar:
"Everyone, prepare to retreat!"
Ottar immediately turned to the Freya Familia:
"Fall back—now!!"
No one wanted to face down an entire group of Valgang Dragons.
As those towering monster emerged one after another from the shadows, a single truth became clear to everyone present—
This wasn't a battle. This was a massacre.
"Retreat! Retreat, now!!"
Finn was shouting, nearly foaming at the mouth as he jabbed a finger toward the corridor behind them, cursing under his breath:
"Damn it! Just one floor to go! Just one more and we're there! And now this damn place turns out to be a rift layer?!"
"Why the hell did this happen to us?!"
Lefiya's face had gone ghost-white. Her earlier awe had turned to sheer terror.
She gripped her staff with trembling hands, and her gaze involuntarily flicked to the boy still standing unmoved at the front.
Ais, too, furrowed her brows and glanced back at Ryota. Her lips moved, but she said nothing in the end.
"Ottar!"
Hedin shouted,
"We have to retreat—now!"
"I know!"
Ottar's face was grim as iron. He'd already taken a few steps back, leading the Freya Familia in a hasty retreat, their faces stricken with panic.
They knew—even for the mighty Freya Familia, not one among them could stand against this many Valgang Dragons.
But soon, they realized—Ryota hadn't moved.
Amid the chaos and despair, he was the only one who hadn't taken a single step back.
"He's lost it, hasn't he?!"
Hedin growled.
"He's seriously planning to hold them off alone?! What, does he think this is some kind of War Game?!"
Hogni grit his teeth, shouting:
"That crazy brat—what the hell is he thinking?! Trying to be some kind of savior?!"
"Forget Freya's mission—we're out of here!"
But no one could answer him, because everyone else was retreating.
Ryota's eyes spun slowly, red and purple lights intertwining within his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
RUMBLE——!!
The dragon horde had arrived.
But just then—
VMMM!!——
A rift suddenly tore open behind the horde!
From it surged an indescribable, ancient aura, crashing down like a tidal wave!
Ryota's calm face twisted sharply.
"…That's—"
"…The Black Dragon?"
He turned toward the source of the aura.
It wasn't a hallucination, wasn't a mistake.
Only the Black Dragon could emit an aura like that.
The ultimate catastrophe that even the combined might of Zeus and Hera couldn't defeat—the being that had plunged the entire world of Orario into darkness.
"These Valgang Dragons… suddenly appearing here…"
At that moment, Ryota finally understood:
"They were summoned by the Black Dragon?!"
----
Join my Patreon for early access to chapters: Patreon.com/rivyura