A huge pillar dropped from above, crashing to the ground with no warning at all, landing right where Leo and Ais stood.
The two of them had already been fairly close to begin with. After all, everyone else present was an adventurer from another Familia, and only the two of them were companions from the same Familia. This wasn't the first time they'd fought side by side, either, so they were long used to keeping track of each other's positions and drifting toward each other whether or not there was a reason. So when the huge pillar fell, Leo and Ais happened to be together, both caught within the pillar's landing zone.
Their reactions were quick, naturally. The instant the pillar dropped they went into an emergency evasion, springing apart to the left and right as if flung, dodging its direct hit.
But the next second, pillars made entirely of green flesh kept dropping from the ceiling, landing amid a run of heavy thuds and throwing up thick clouds of dust.
"Look out!"
Asfi shouted, and Hermes Familia's members scrambled somewhat frantically to dodge the falling green pillars. But they soon realized the pillars' main target wasn't them at all, but Leo and Ais, who were dodging without pause.
Leo burst backward, skipping away again and again on the tips of his toes to avoid the green pillars raining down from above, only to be chased by one strike after another.
Ais dodged backward with a string of back handsprings, her form quickly swallowed by the rising dust.
By the time the green pillars stopped falling and the dodging figures of Leo and Ais also came to a stop, everyone was stunned to find that the entire passage had been split into two halves by the green flesh pillars.
The green flesh pillars were arranged with precision, joined into a new flesh wall that divided the corridor into a left side and a right side.
Now, Leo and Ais were in the left passage, while Asfi and the other Hermes members were in the right.
Seeing this, who among them still didn't understand what had happened?
"We've been split apart on purpose...!"
Asfi clicked her tongue.
Unfortunately, they soon had no time to spare for that.
Broken-gong roars rang through the whole passage, and Violas came surging in from ahead one after another, exactly like long worms fighting over food.
"Intercept!"
Asfi made a decisive call, and the team's front row raised their shields again.
"Asfi! What about those two?!"
Lulune cut through a tentacle with her dagger, her voice tight with worry.
"Deal with the enemy in front of us first!" Asfi threw several Burst Oils, and as the blasts flared up she spoke calmly. "Those two are together, so it's hard for anything to go wrong! It's us who might be in danger!"
Just as Asfi said, with Leo and Ais, those two supremely powerful fighters, gone, the pressure on this team of Hermes Familia members trying to handle the Viola horde before them shot up all at once.
These Violas weren't weak to begin with, at least not something a Lv.3 second-class adventurer could just casually handle, otherwise Rivira wouldn't have been wrecked by them.
Hermes Familia's adventurers were mostly Lv.3, so taking on the whole Viola horde was never going to be easy.
Before, it had been because Leo and Ais were there, the two of them cutting down large numbers of Violas like slicing vegetables and bearing most of the pressure, that there'd been no major problem.
But now, with Leo and Ais gone, the team's forward momentum dropped sharply, and their situation started to look precarious.
Realizing this, Asfi switched her thinking on the spot, using Burst Oil to force back part of the Violas while reorganizing, reforming the team into a formation better suited to holding against the Viola horde.
On the other side, the separated Leo and Ais had been about to destroy the green pillars to link back up with Asfi and the others, only to be stopped by a figure giving off a terrifying air.
That figure came tearing through the air like a bullet leaving the barrel, streaking at astonishing speed toward Leo, who had stretched a hand toward the green pillars and was about to cast Magic.
The sight was just like that first appearance back in Rivira on Floor 18, when she'd attacked without a word.
A bizarre longsword with a grip cut through the air as it swung down, and just before it struck the crown of Leo's head it was blocked by a black, rough longsword, striking up a crisp clash of blades.
Longsword ground against longsword, grinding out sparks that lit up both their faces.
"...Still as sharp as ever, adventurer."
The red-haired woman who'd launched the attack spoke coldly, killing intent in her eyes.
Leo wasn't sent flying by her attack like before, but stood firmly on the ground, a cold light in his eyes.
"And your greetings are as rough as ever, Creature."
The newcomer was Revis.
After roughly ten days, the two sides had finally met again.
Right here in the Dungeon, on Floor 24.
A silver saber came slashing in from the side, so unbelievably fast that it split the airflow, the blade itself a blur, leaving only a streak of silver light, cold and dangerous.
The red-haired woman Revis abandoned Leo without hesitation, and gripping her bizarre longsword, arched her body back, dodging the incoming silver saber by a hair's breadth as she opened distance from Leo.
Ais stood at Leo's side, raising her beloved sword, its tip leveled at Revis, her gaze sharp.
"Aria."
Meeting Ais's sharp gaze, Revis spoke the name without wavering.
Sure enough, Ais reacted strongly to that name again.
"...I'm not Aria."
The blonde girl bit her lip as she said it.
"No, you are Aria." Revis wasn't affected in the least by Ais's rebuttal. "I've never seen you before, but I've heard 'She' say it, that wind doesn't lie, especially not to someone like me."
"'She'?" Ais knit her brows, staring hard at Revis. "'She'... who is that?"
"Want to know?" Revis sneered. "Then come with me. I'll take you to see 'Her'."
As she spoke, Revis raised the bizarre longsword in her hand.
That longsword was different from the one she'd used back in Rivira on Floor 18. It had a dreadful appearance, as if flesh and blood had been taken straight off a living thing, poured into a blade mold, and cast. It had no guard or any other ornamentation, just a bright red blade and a rough shape, and looked like it wasn't sharp in the slightest.
The longsword's look was actually rather similar to the black longsword Leo was using right now, both of the type made without any polishing, taking material straight off a monster to use as a weapon.
The blood-colored blade gave off an ominous feeling at a glance, like some sort of cursed sword, as if a single cut from it would bring an instant curse, leaving Ais not daring to be careless in the slightest.
"Tell me... who is 'She'?"
Ais demanded in a colder voice than ever before.
"Why do you people know about Aria? And you... who are you?"
As one might expect, Ais's demands earned no response at all.
Revis was as cold and self-absorbed as ever, doing whatever she wanted, as if she didn't have Leo or Ais in her sights at all.
"I said, come with me and you'll find out."
An explosive killing intent and ferocity radiated off Revis.
Clearly, she didn't intend to take Ais away by gentle means.
"As for you..."
Revis looked at Leo, who stood off to one side watching coldly, as if he didn't care about the exchange between the two women at all, and the killing intent in her eyes grew thicker.
"I'll make good on my earlier declaration and kill you."
At that, Leo walked forward, expressionless.
Step by step, very steady, as if he felt nothing of that terrible killing intent at all.
He silently made his stance clear, as if to say, "Bring it on."
"Tch... a mere adventurer...!"
Revis, with a temper as fierce as a wild beast, couldn't stand it in the least, and was provoked with total ease by Leo's attitude.
Without any hesitation, Revis stamped and cracked the green flesh under her feet, her whole body shooting out like an arrow off the string, exploding forward with astonishing speed as she charged at Leo.
In the middle of the surprise rush, the red longsword in her hand traced out a glow like a spray of blood as it slashed at Leo, the blade driving straight for his throat, fully intent on putting the man before her to death, holding nothing back.
In a fierce clash like a struck bell, that blood-colored strike was blocked once again.
Only this time it wasn't Leo who blocked it, but Ais, who had appeared before him at some point, using the silver saber in her hand to knock Revis's blade aside.
"Ais."
Leo stopped his steps and looked at the blonde girl with her back to him, calling softly.
"Leave her... to me."
Ais held Desperate up, not turning to look at Leo, but that back of hers looked determined no matter how you saw it.
Before Leo could respond, Revis spoke first.
"Doesn't matter." She said in a cold voice. "Whoever comes first is fine, even both of you at once, it makes no difference. The result's the same either way."
Revis had that kind of confidence.
After all, the three of them had already crossed blades ten days ago, and Revis reckoned she'd already sized up the strength of these two.
That man's strength wasn't much, no match for her at all, as long as she was careful of those two spells of his.
"Aria's" strength wasn't bad, but even using "wind" she could only barely fend Revis off, and Revis was fully capable of taking her down.
If the two joined forces, it might pose some threat, but Revis still didn't think she'd lose.
Against mere adventurers, mere Humans, she had no reason to lose at all.
That confidence was about to be thrown back in her face.
Meeting the red longsword swung in horizontally, Ais took it head-on, completely stopping the immense force coming through the blade and bouncing it back.
The clash of blades ringing through the passage was like hammering on iron. Ais exploded with astonishing power, not only taking Revis's slash but swinging her own blade in a violent chop that beat back Revis, who had raised her sword to guard.
"You...?!"
A stunned look surfaced on Revis's face.
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