Because they'd met no danger halfway in, the girls of Artemis Familia assumed everything was fine and started chatting idly.
Artemis herself, however, felt a knot of unease the entire way.
That unease persisted right up to the moment they reached the Seal that bound Andaris.
The ruin's interior was vast.
After a long tunnel, Artemis's party stepped into a space like a Roman Coliseum.
It lay in ruin now, but traces on the ground still hinted at past glory.
"Andaris is sealed here; our task is to confirm the Seal is intact."
They still hadn't been attacked, and even Artemis began to relax.
Yet the memory of her Familia's crushing defeat in the anime remained vivid.
She wouldn't lower her guard completely until the Seal itself was verified.
Andaris rested at the spiral's lowest level; the girls followed the path to its prison.
Even from a hundred meters away they could see its huge, jet-black silhouette.
A translucent film—like a barrier—shrouded the scorpion-like colossus.
Its form was angular; rather than flesh, it looked almost mechanical, dark limbs veined with dull crimson patterns that radiated menace.
At the sight, every girl of Artemis Familia froze, mouths agape in awe.
They had seen huge Dungeon monsters before, yet even floor-bosses had never exuded such crushing pressure.
They couldn't help wondering how their predecessors had ever managed to Seal this thing.
An ordinary adventurer would probably lack the courage even to stand against it.
Fortunately, the jet-black beast remained sealed, with no sign of weakening bonds.
Just as Artemis thought the mission would end uneventfully, everything changed in an instant.
But the source wasn't Andaris—it was the livestream camera swiveling on its own.
A close-up of another gloomy cave suddenly filled the feed.
Viewers in the chat group instinctively held their breath.
[Fallen Angel: "High-energy warning ahead!"]
[Avenger: "Too dark—can't see a thing."]
[Spirit of Time: "These cheap Jumpscare angles again? Even our group livestream's doing it now?"]
[Hells Fubuki: "Another hidden monster?"]
Seeing the camera shift and reading the messages, Artemis's heart shot back into her throat.
She reflexively drew her bow, arrow nocked at the gloom.
The other girls stifled their laughter and gripped their weapons.
Seconds passed.
A soft scraping drifted out.
A dog-sized shadow scuttled from the opening.
It stepped into view, reeking of rot.
The moment the girls saw it clearly, their eyes flew wide.
The creature looked like a miniature Andaris, shrunk to a fiftieth of the size.
Artemis's pupils narrowed; she loosed her arrow, the shaft piercing the small monster's head and exploding it into wisps of smoke.
A thumb-sized Magic Stone clattered to the ground.
So-called Magic Stones are crystals every Dungeon monster carries within.
Even a first-floor Minion has a tiny one.
Magic Stones contain a unique energy, but to ordinary Adventurers they're useless, so almost always they're simply exchanged for the currency circulating in Orari.
Normally, a Magic Stone is pure and transparent.
Yet the monster Artemis had slain left behind a green crystal that shimmered with a gloomy emerald light.
"What is this?"
"Huh? The crystal's color looks different."
"Could it be a brand-new species never seen before?"
"Wait—something feels off."
The girls reacted in different ways, but Artemis fell into thought.
Although the monster just now had been fairly weak, its uncanny resemblance to Andaris made the goddess extremely uneasy.
A dark premonition lingered in her heart.
The problem was she couldn't pin down why.
A few seconds later, however, Artemis froze, comprehension flooding her face. "I get it! So that's why… we could reach the Seal of Andaris without any obstacle!"
"Andaris let us in on purpose!"
The instant the words left her mouth, countless skittering sounds rose from every direction.