Full-fledged preparations for war began in the early dawn.
Supplies and provisions piled up.
Their quantity, however, was not enormous; instead, their quality was exceedingly high. Only the most elite units would be entering.
As daybreak drew nearer, knight orders fully prepared began to gather, and the assembly point was soon filled with people.
The Imperial Elite Knight Orders: the First Knight Order led by Gale Ainsidel, and the Second Knight Order led by Courtois Beneker, a former Royal Knight.
The Reliant Knight Order, a unit composed purely of skill users, led by Aratus Muel, the Enlightened One.
A unit formed by integrating long-range interception forces, support troops, supply troops, and more.
And finally, the greatest knight order led by the great Sword Saint Vitalianus Mahel—the Royal Knights.
For an army setting out to wage war, their numbers were modest, but considering the caliber of each and every one of them, an astounding force had gathered.
Even those in charge of supply and support were all knights.
More than two hundred such elite combatants had assembled.
Claire thought that was all, but it was not the end.
“The guild personnel have arrived.”
The group entering the assembly point appeared to number roughly seventy, and they were the people from the guild who had been mentioned time and again.
Claire had heard them called the Adventurers’ Guild, but she had no idea why Sirbert was included among them.
Nor did she understand how each and every one of them could possess such an overwhelming presence.
The fact that they were possessed ones was information known only to a very small few, so not only Claire but most of the people present were unaware of it.
All they knew was that these people were specialists in the place that had begun to be called the Demon Realm, and powerful individuals who had foreseen this situation and prepared for it for years.
That was the extent of their knowledge.
“You are the proud expeditionary force that will vanquish evil and bring peace to this continent…”
The day had fully dawned. The departure ceremony, with its procedures reduced to the bare minimum, began, and Empress Sylvia Verden herself stepped onto the platform and read the proclamation.
The moment it ended, the expedition set out.
Their target gate was located in an outlying area some distance from the imperial palace.
The entire vicinity had already been placed under complete control, and the citizens gathered along the road sent fervent cheers toward the expeditionary force.
It had begun to be widely known in an official capacity.
The existence of the Demon Realm, and the launch of the expeditionary force meant to stop it.
And that their departure would take place this very morning.
This was the first official expeditionary force heading for the Demon Realm.
It was the first step that would be recorded as the beginning of the war.
* * *
“The fifty-third floor’s types are the Floor of Hardship and the Floor of Infinity.”
Before the Abyss Gate.
The briefing that began before their entry was being conducted under the guild’s lead.
“I have already given you a brief explanation, but I will state it clearly once more.”
Before the gate that rippled black, with an ominous aura enveloping the expeditionary force, the area was silent.
Since a wide region centered around the gate had been entirely sealed off, only the explanation from the guild representative echoed amid the quiet tension.
At the very front stood Vitalianus and the commanders of each knight order, while opposite them were gathered the guild’s core members.
“When you enter the floor, you will see one enormous gate each to the left and right. What you must be careful of is that you must never enter those gates.”
The space of the Floor of Infinity could be broadly divided into three areas.
One Space of Infinity, and two Spaces of Hardship.
“You may think of the enormous gates on the left and right as the Spaces of Hardship, and everywhere else as the Space of Infinity.”
The method of clearing the floor looked complicated, but it was simpler than one might expect.
First, they had to decide on two people who would enter the Spaces of Hardship.
One person had to enter each gate without fail, and if that rule was violated, the raid would fail then and there.
Once the chosen individuals each entered a Space of Hardship, Abyss monsters would begin pouring into the Space of Infinity.
Until the two who entered broke through every trial and emerged from the spaces after enduring hardship, those in the Space of Infinity had to hold out, quite literally, without end.
And so