Chapter 45

The floor is the 19th.

Lastiara darts nimbly through the corridors filled with sweltering heat.

A Minotaur, chasing after Lastiara, swings its axe downward. The powerful blow tore through her body, causing it to vanish.

Vanish—meaning the distorted image of Lastiara’s torn body simply disappeared into thin air.

Naturally, that Lastiara was a fake.

The real her was running some distance away, completely unscathed.

Then, from beside me, I heard Maria’s voice as she deployed her magic.

“—Firefly: Mirage, Firefly: Phantom.”

Beads of sweat dripping down her face, Maria deployed even more spells.

The Lastiara that had just vanished was a magical illusion constructed by Maria.

Firefly: Mirage is a spell that refracts light through temperature differences, distorting the target’s sense of perspective.

Firefly: Phantom is a spell that creates a humanoid illusion made of flame.

By combining these two spells, she caused the Minotaur to miss its attack.

Supported by Maria’s magical assistance, Lastiara continued to circle the Minotaur without a hint of danger.

As planned, Lastiara was focusing entirely on distraction. She made no attempt to counterattack.

The purpose of this run was a test trial.

We were confirming Maria’s magic. And until she finished constructing her maximum firepower spell—something called Midgardsblaze—Lastiara would absolutely not attack.

Incidentally, I was acting as Maria’s guard.

However, with Lastiara out front drawing the enemy’s attention and the magical refraction occurring all over the place, it was unlikely the Minotaur’s attacks would ever reach Maria.

“‘Kindle, O severed flame.’ ‘At the mercy of the illusory stagger and the delicate thread’—”

Maria chanted verses I had never heard before.

It was likely a magical “incantation.”

This was something she hadn’t done before. It was probably Alty’s idea. I could feel the temperature around Maria rising the more she chanted.

Then, the poem ended, and the magic was unleashed.

“‘Swallow the stars’…! —Midgardsblaze!!”

With those words, Maria’s mana, which had been compressed over and over, was converted into flames.

A pillar of fire erupted from behind Maria, shaping itself into the form of a giant serpent. The Great Serpent of Flame opened its jaws wide and swam through the air like a living creature.

Feeling the aftereffects of the spell, Lastiara put some distance between herself and the Minotaur. The Minotaur facing them also noticed the magical flames. But it was too late.

The Minotaur braced its tough body to withstand the magical fire.

The Great Serpent of Flame bit down without mercy. Flaming fangs gouged into the Minotaur’s flesh, and its long body coiled around the enemy, constricting it. As it squeezed, it scorched the meat, and finally, the hellfire consumed the enemy’s entire body.

The Minotaur let out a pained cry as it crumbled into charcoal.

The remaining charcoal turned into light and vanished, leaving a Magic Stone behind.

“Haah, haah… How was that, Master…?”

Maria, breathing heavily, asked for my thoughts.

From that previous spell, her physical condition had noticeably deteriorated.

Looking closely, I saw that Maria’s HP had decreased from using magic—

My thoughts could be summed up in one word.

It was simply abnormal.

It might be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but this clearly wasn’t the kind of magic one should be able to acquire in such a short period.

The magic was too strong. And the price was unusual.

Even her application of the existing Firefly was abnormal enough, but the final spell, Midgardsblaze, was especially strange.

It had an abnormal attack power that didn’t match her Level. Furthermore, there was the change in Maria’s condition after using it. Normally, no matter how high-level a spell is, you don’t lose this much physical stamina just by casting it.

I had once cast magic by consuming my Maximum HP before, but this was different. Back then, it was simply because I had no MP left, so my Max HP was paid as a substitute.

But this spell, Midgardsblaze, was draining her HP even though she still had MP remaining. It was a spell predicated on consuming HP. While it didn’t reduce her Maximum HP, I had never heard of a spell that drained current HP just through normal use.

Lost for words at this overly specialized magic, I looked to Lastiara for help.

Sensing my gaze, Lastiara spoke up.

“…It’s a spell I’ve never seen before. And I’ve never heard of magic being utilized like that. I can see it too. Mana isn’t the only thing this spell consumes.”

Lastiara shared my sentiment.

Hearing that, Maria began to explain her magic.

“That’s right. The two spells I received from Alti, Midgardsblaze and Flame Flamberge, are spells that consume both HP and MP. But anyway, if an enemy’s attack hits me directly, someone like me would die in a single blow. There’s no point in worrying about HP.”

Maria explained as if it were nothing.

I couldn’t see a hint of hesitation or agitation in her. She spoke of it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Certainly, the logic was sound. If this were a game, you could justify consuming HP to achieve maximum efficiency.

But Maria is flesh and blood.

Maria is alive, right here, right now.

She was actually falling ill; she was suffering after unleashing that magic.

I had seen her HP decrease, watched her move relentlessly closer to death.

That’s why I pushed back.

“No, that might be true… but it’s not realistic. You’re clearly not feeling well. If your health declines, your concentration and judgment will drop, which will hinder you in combat. It’ll be too late once something irreversible happens. This isn’t magic you should be using repeatedly.”

“My job is to construct magic from the rear. I’m not fighting in the thick of the front lines where every second counts like you two, so a slight change in my condition won’t affect anything. Besides, the idea of not losing HP in the Labyrinth is far too naive.”

Maria cut my argument to pieces.

She was right. Her argument was more logical. If we wanted to explore the Labyrinth efficiently, that was the correct way. My opinion was nothing more than a softhearted plea based on a bad feeling.

“…!”

But I didn’t want to back down.

As Maria and I glared at each other, Lastiara stepped in between us.

“Christ, Maria’s argument is the correct one.”

“It might be correct… but…”

“It’s fine. She’s only just met the bare minimum requirements. Don’t worry, she’s still far from being able to keep up with the way we fight.”

Lastiara gave Maria a cold evaluation.

Even after seeing that powerful magic, Lastiara judged her as “lacking.” In other words, she had decided that Maria couldn’t keep up with combat from the 20th floor onwards.

Maria bit back at that.

“Then please, test me. Let me go to the 21st floor one more time. I will show you that my presence will increase the efficiency of your exploration.”

Maria’s will was firm; she desired to fight on the front lines.

To that, Lastiara gave a pleasant reply.

“Yeah, of course let’s test it. You’ll realize soon enough that it’s still not enough.”

With that, Lastiara stepped forward into the 20th floor. She likely intended to take Maria all the way to the 21st.

Maria followed Lastiara with a firm, steady stride.

I didn’t stop her.

I understood what Lastiara was thinking.

If we took her along, Maria would realize the truth soon enough.

Because we see the same things, Lastiara and I had reached the same conclusion.

—She has maybe a few shots left, at most.

Calculating Maria’s limits, I thoroughly rehearsed the simulation of a fighting retreat in my mind.

As I constructed tactics to get through the coming battles unscathed, I followed slowly behind the two of them.

We reached the 21st floor and took up the formation we had planned beforehand.

Just like the test battle on the 19th floor, Lastiara handled the vanguard while Maria focused on her magic in the rear. I acted as Maria’s guard.

This time, enemies would likely break past Lastiara’s line. If that happened, my role was to pick up Maria—who would be focused on her chanting—and move her to safety.

With total confidence, Maria had told me, “I leave my life in your hands.” I had to protect her life while she remained unaware of her surroundings due to her magical concentration.

As we advanced in formation, my Dimension magic picked up an isolated monster, a Fury.

Taking up an ideal position, we prepared for a long-range strike.

This was a revised version of the coordination I had previously done with Dia.

The target was several hundred meters away, with a single corner between us. Since Maria’s magic had excellent maneuverability, turning one corner was well within her capabilities.

I gave Maria a verbal description of the target’s location and the layout of the corridor leading to it, and had her chant the spell.

“—Midgardsblaze!”

The flaming serpent, which took a massive chunk out of Maria’s mana, surged through the corridor.

To ensure the serpent didn’t miss, I continued to feed Maria detailed information from Dimension.

The hit was successful.

Exactly as I instructed, the flaming serpent bit into the slow-moving Fury and set it ablaze.

However, it didn’t die instantly.

Letting out a death-throe scream, it attempted to call other monsters. This was where the real battle began.

“Alright, one down. But it’s screaming to draw in other monsters. Let’s move.”

I reported the result to the two of them and urged them to relocate.

Maria was delighted to hear the result.

“Haah, haah…! I-I did it…!”

But her breathing was heavy.

Since she was losing HP along with her MP, it was only natural.

She walked with unsteady feet. Lastiara watched her with an amused expression, while I watched coldly.

And I thought coldly as well.

After a few more battles, I needed to make sure we stayed in a position where we could retreat to the 20th floor at any time. We must not let this turn into a serious, committed fight.

“This way, you two.”

Taking Lastiara and Maria with me, I ran toward the next planned combat point.

After moving several hundred meters, we were unable to shake off the swarming monsters and found ourselves caught between two Furies.

Immediately, Maria deployed her support magic, Firefly. I thought about using my magic, Little Snow, but realized it would be difficult to deploy alongside the heat from Maria’s magic, so I stopped.

Maria transitioned straight into the chant for Midgardsblaze. I left one side to Lastiara and pinned down the other. Naturally, I didn’t neglect my situational awareness.

The Furies targeted us right in front of them and didn’t initially try to go for Maria. However, as Maria’s mana swelled, the Furies’ priorities shifted.

Just as the flaming serpent spell was almost complete, a Fury ignored our attempts to hold it back and lunged toward Maria with suicidal desperation.

I immediately stored my sword in my Inventory and ran toward Maria at full speed. I scooped her up in a bridal carry to move her away from the Fury—and in that moment, the flaming serpent spell was completed.

“—Midgardsblaze!!”

While being carried by me, Maria manifested the serpent.

She immediately had it attack the Fury chasing us. The Fury, charging head-on, had no way to dodge and took a direct hit.

Swallowed by the hellfire, the Fury died while showing the same death-throe struggles as the Minotaur.

The flaming serpent’s onslaught wasn’t over yet. Maria maintained the serpent even after it had incinerated one Fury. Next, she directed it to attack the Fury Lastiara was dealing with.

Maria was drenched in sweat in my arms.

I could tell her breathing was ragged and she was using every ounce of her concentration.

More than anything, through the Display, I could see her HP steadily dropping.

I approached Lastiara, who was holding back the Fury, and called for her to disengage.

“Lastiara! The magic is coming, get back!”

“Roger that!”

Lastiara, who had been coasting through the fight while waiting for the finishing spell, pulled away with plenty of room to spare.

Maria’s flaming serpent struck. Just like before, the Fury vanished in a single hit.

For now, the wipeout was complete. In my arms, Maria stared with satisfaction at the spot where the monsters had burned away.

However, hearing the death screams of those Furies, even more monsters were drawn in from the surroundings. At this rate, we would be surrounded by increasing numbers.

I pinpointed the enemy positions and calculated a route.

A route to the safety zone—back to the 20th floor.

I weighed the calculated route and called out to Lastiara, who was busy collecting Magic Stones.

“Reinforcements are coming! Lastiara, we’re moving!”

“Okay!”

I started running while still carrying Maria.

Maria protested in my arms, but I ignored her since I couldn’t let someone who was so out of breath try to run.

After advancing a bit, our path was blocked by three Furies. This time we weren’t surrounded, so Lastiara and I stood in front while Maria stayed in the rear.

Confirming that Maria had started chanting her magic, I focused on the Furies in front of me.

Working in tandem with Lastiara, we fought to ensure the three Furies didn’t slip past us.

Since it was a straight path and the monsters were positioned well, we successfully bought enough time. Once again, Maria’s magic succeeded. From behind us, the flaming serpent swam through the air and headed toward the front.

Because I had Dimension, I succeeded in timing my withdrawal perfectly. However, since Lastiara had no way to track what was behind her, her timing was slightly off.

I regretted that I should have called out to her. Because she always moves better than I expect, I had overconfidently assumed she would time it perfectly on her own.

Although the serpent caught one Fury, the aftereffects broke the coordination between Lastiara and me.

One Fury slipped through the gap in our teamwork and started running toward Maria.

Seeing this, I tried to chase it immediately—but I was blocked by another Fury.

“Damn it—!”

The remaining Lastiara tried to rush over, but Maria, seeing the situation, called out to stop her.

“Lastiara! I’m fine! —‘Run, O etched flame’!!”

Maria released her hold on the flaming serpent that was restraining the first Fury and began a different chant.

Though Lastiara had been told to stop, she didn’t stop her rescue attempt just in case.

Finishing her chant, Maria unleashed her next spell.

“—Flame Flamberge!”

Flame erupted from Maria’s arm, instantly condensing into the shape of a sword. The sword of flame, wreathed in even more fire, extended toward the lunging Fury.

It pierced the Fury’s torso, attempting to incinerate the enemy right then and there.

However, the firepower was insufficient.

Partly because the chant was short, but it seemed to be a lower-power spell compared to Midgardsblaze.

With the sword still impaled in it, the Fury tried to keep moving forward.

However, its advance was stopped by Lastiara’s sword as she caught up. Struck by both the flame and the sword attack, the Fury collapsed and turned into light.

All that was left was the Fury I was facing.

Lastiara and Maria joined in, and we handled it without any danger.

After defeating the three Furies, we gathered the Magic Stones.

—However, Maria alone couldn’t move.

“Haah— haah, haah—!!”

She was so out of breath she couldn’t take a single step.

I spoke to her.

“Maria… We’re going back to the 20th floor.”

“—!”

Maria couldn’t object to my words.

She tried to talk back, but her ragged breathing wouldn’t allow it.

After just a few battles, Maria was exhausted to the point where she couldn’t even give a reply.

I immediately scooped her up and headed for the 20th floor with Lastiara.

Maria tried to say something in my arms, but I couldn’t hear her words before we reached our destination.