The Decisive Moment And Collapse

The man once again closed the distance between us at tremendous speed, so instead of blocking with my sword, I created an Ice Wall and defended myself with the wall of ice.

However, just before the man’s sword struck the ice, he leapt high into the air, clearing the wall and swinging his sword down at me from above.

I froze for a moment at the sudden movement, but quickly recovered and blasted myself sideways with wind magic.

“That was seriously dangerous.”

“…You can even use wind magic? Truly impressive. Very few people have ever fought me this well.”

The man widened his eyes slightly and looked at me with admiration, so I spoke to him in order to buy time to think about how to defeat him.

“What’s your name?”

“…Aseem. And yours?”

“I’m Luca. The one behind me is Rebecca.”

“Luca and Rebecca, then. I’ll remember those names.”

“…!”

Seriously… he’s heavy! The man calling himself Aseem muttered our names and immediately followed up with another sharp strike meant to end our lives.

You won’t even give me time to think!?

I barely deflected the attack and tried to launch a counterattack with Wind Cutter. However, it was easily canceled out by wind magic as well.

Then a follow-up sword strike came immediately after the wind magic, leaving me barely able to dodge and unable to launch an attack of my own.

I avoided direct hits by the narrowest margin, but small cuts continued to appear on my cheek, arm, and neck.

This was bad… magic couldn’t settle the fight, but I couldn’t win with a sword either. Even Rebecca’s arrows were casually deflected.

If it came to this—there was only one option left.

Temporary Peace.

If I used it at the beginning while he wasn’t guarding against it, I should be able to land the purple sphere.

“Rebecca! Aim for the Dungeon Core!”

“Understood!”

By calling out loudly so that Aseem could hear, his attention shifted slightly toward Rebecca—and at that moment I lunged straight toward his chest.

However, my sword was easily stopped, and the Ice Ball I fired was canceled out by a Fire Ball.

But that was fine. The Fire Ball released at such close range didn’t just evaporate the Ice Ball—it scorched my entire body.

“Ugh…”

A groan escaped from the pain and shock, but I endured it and immediately activated Temporary Peace. Temporary Peace couldn’t extract damage from self-inflicted wounds, so I had to receive an injury from my opponent that wouldn’t kill me.

“W-what… is that?”

Purple mist rose from my body and formed into a purple sphere. Seeing it, Aseem heightened his guard to the maximum. However, since it was an attack he had never seen before, he seemed unsure how to counter it and merely glared at me without making a move.

Taking that opening as my chance, I hurled the purple sphere at Aseem with all my strength.

Aseem instantly created a thick Rock Wall in front of himself as a shield—but just before striking it, the purple sphere suddenly changed direction ninety degrees, passed over the wall, and attacked him from above.

“What—!?”

Aseem quickly jumped aside and avoided it, but the pursuing purple sphere—

—caught him a few seconds later.

The moment the purple sphere struck him directly, Aseem’s body suddenly collapsed and he fell to the ground.

“Rebecca, now!”

The instant I signaled to Rebecca, who already had her bow ready, she fired an arrow at tremendous speed—and the arrow pierced directly into the center of the Dungeon Core.

Cracks spread outward from the point where the arrow struck… and with a sharp, clear sound, the Dungeon Core shattered.

“So you… were a divine servant.”

Aseem cast Heal on himself while glaring at me from the ground, still unable to stand.

“Who knows.”

“…You…!”

Aseem fired magic at me, but his aim was unstable and the spells missed without me even needing to dodge.

“Luca, we did it!”

“Rebecca, you really saved us. Thank you.”

“That was amazing! That attack can move that freely?”

“Yeah. I can control it freely for up to five minutes. But the faster it moves, the harder it is to control… whoa!”

Just as we were celebrating, the ground suddenly shook violently, making it difficult even to stand. The dungeon… was collapsing.

“This… is okay, right?”

“Yeah… it should be fine…”

While holding hands to steady ourselves against the shaking, a massive tremor struck and our vision turned completely white. When I realized what had happened, we were inside a narrow cave.

Looking around, Aseem had also appeared there. Still injured, he stood up with a deep frown. I prepared myself in case he attacked again, but instead he glared at us and manipulated the cave wall, disappearing into a gap.

So that was the Servant of the God of Earth’s ability… extremely convenient. This time he must have underestimated me, because I was really lucky he hadn’t used that ability earlier. If he had, even Temporary Peace might not have been enough.

“Lady Seremees, should we chase him?”

“That won’t be necessary. You won’t catch him anyway. The God of Earth does not kill without reason. As long as you don’t interfere with the Servant of the God of Earth again, you likely won’t meet him.”

“I see.”

That was good news for me—but he would probably cause another Stampede somewhere else. And if I wasn’t there in time, many people would lose their lives.

But there was nothing I could do to stop that. Even if I killed him, the God of Earth would simply find another servant.

—Perhaps it was simply unavoidable. I couldn’t save everyone.

I wanted to fulfill Lady Seremees’s wishes as much as possible, and I wanted to save as many people as I could… but instead of trying to reach everywhere, I should start by saving those close at hand.

“Luca, I think there’s some commotion outside.”

“…You’re right. I can hear voices.”

The cave we were in was a small one within the rocky mountain where the entrance to Ant Hell had been. Outside, adventurers and knights who had been responding to the Stampede were probably in confusion after the monsters suddenly stopped appearing.

“Let’s go explain things. The city must be filled with anxiety, so we should reassure them.”

“Yeah.”

Rebecca and I looked at each other and nodded, then stepped out of the cave.