「Entering Abyss—Floor 58.」
A message appeared vividly in his vision as it blacked out completely.
As his consciousness repeatedly scattered and gathered in disarray, he suddenly felt as though both his feet had landed somewhere.
It was a fairly familiar sensation.
He had crossed the gate and arrived in the space of the Abyss.
「Skill—‘Heaven (天上)’ is activating.」
The moment he sensed it, he activated the skill Heaven first.
Neither his vision nor his other senses had returned yet, but hadn’t he already been told what sort of space the 58th floor was?
They had to clear away the terrible poisonous fog, and that was why Hio had volunteered to enter first.
Before long, his vision recovered.
What entered his eyes was, as expected, the surrounding area transformed into a domain of golden radiance.
Because he had spread it as wide as possible, the domain of Heaven was large enough to accommodate all their forces.
And beyond the domain, he could see a dreadful ash-gray fog.
As if waiting for the moment Heaven lifted, it drifted viscously and slowly, glaring in at them.
“Just as I heard, it’s a dense poisonous fog. It feels as though the stench reaches even here.”
As he was looking around, a voice suddenly came from right beside him.
Vitalianus had entered the floor almost at the same time as Hio.
“If it weren’t for you, we would have had to prepare hundreds of artifacts related to poison.”
“You’ve called not only Ripue’s high priests but even the saintess, and you’re still exaggerating.”
“No matter how devout they may be, do you think they could create a scene like this?”
Vitalianus briefly looked around.
The golden radiance filling the surroundings resembled a hand.
The hand of a goddess stretching down from the lofty heavens. A miraculous touch that made one feel warmth simply by entering it.
“Wizard, you surely foresaw even this.”
“……Foresaw?”
“You don’t need to pretend not to know with me. When was it that you, who had been hiding your power, first revealed it before me? Was it not to save a single street girl no one cared about?”
Come to think of it, he had first met Vitalianus when he came chasing the traces of Black Fang while Hio was saving Irina.
And that very Irina had now returned as a saintess respected by all.
“You aided Her Highness the princess back then, whom everyone had turned away from, and in the end placed her upon the imperial throne. Thanks to that, the Empire has now gained the strength to unite and fight as one.”
“……I was lucky.”
“And the fact that a girl from the streets was actually a woman chosen by god? Will you call that luck as well?”
Vitalianus spoke with complete conviction, and Hio gave no answer.
It really had been luck, but even if he told him so, the man wouldn’t believe it.
At times like this, keeping his mouth shut was the best option.
“Thanks to that, the Holy Kingdom gained a focal point, and we gained a powerful holiness with which to oppose that sinister energy.”
“Well, it worked out.”
“And that is not all. Is there not still one more arrangement of yours remaining?”
“……One more?”
As Hio stared blankly, wondering what arrangement he was talking about, Vitalianus burst into hearty laughter.
“You insist on pretending until the end. I mean our new recruit. You recognized that child’s talent and personally recommended him to the academy, did you not?”
“That was…….”
That was because he’d thrown a fit saying he wanted to go, so Hio had just sent him.
He had known the kid’s talent wasn’t bad, but he had never expected it to be to this extent.
“Indeed, that is true.”
He had been about to make that excuse, but instead simply nodded.
Let’s just say that’s how it was.
No matter what he said, Vitalianus wouldn’t believe him anyway.
“I knew it. I am curious what sort of future you saw through that child, but for the sake of later enjoyment, I shall refrain from asking.”
Vitalianus laughed heartily again, as if he had expected as much.
Hio had grown rather used to that by now, so he roughly nodded and looked around.
A fair amount of time had passed, so it was about time the other forces began stepping through the gate.
Thinking so, he tried to widen the domain of Heaven even a little more.
“Thank you, wizard. I am truly glad you are here.”
Suddenly, words so embarrassing they made his skin crawl reached his ears.
Hio was about to brush it off with a vague cough, but before he could, Vitalianus’s solemn voice sounded again.
“However, you seem to have much on your mind. It appears you have yet to find your path.”
“……If you’re talking about intent, then you’re right. You really are sharp.”
“I have seen countless people standing at crossroads similar to yours. Every one of them wore eyes as grave as yours and sank deep into thought.”
Vitalianus’s voice was heavy, but it did not sink.
Though his words carried weight, rather than dragging others down, they seemed to lift them up with him.
“I am saying there is no need to be so serious. The answer will be closer than you think, and it will likely be nothing grand.”
“Close, and nothing grand.”
“Yes. Even so, I cannot quite tell you to cast aside impatience. The burden you carry seems heavier than I can imagine. But make sure to look around you. Those who run forward thinking only of the future tend to have a narrowed field of vision. They are prone to losing sight of the present. The present becomes the past in the span of an instant. So you must often look around at the precious things beside you.”
“I’ll take your advice to heart. Thank you.”
With a relaxed smile, Vitalianus patted Hio on the shoulder.
“What of it? As you once said, are we not friends? Of course, I am far older than you.”
Hio likewise gave a faint chuckle and nodded.
“We are. Now, and before as well.”
“I have not said it aloud, but I rely on you quite a bit. So you should try relying on me a little as well. For the future you are looking toward, use me with all your might.”
“That’s…….”
“You may. Is that not what friends are for?”
Vitalianus’s expression as he said that was bright, but Hio did not miss the regret hidden within it.
From that, he could guess.
These were words he had never been able to bring himself to say to his old friend.
What if it burdened him? What if his words came across as hypocrisy?
The regret of having only watched from afar.
Vitalianus was a man who spent the present with all his might and looked around him so that he would never regret again.
Having sensed that, how could Hio shake his head?
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
The moment he nodded, clusters of light began appearing one by one around Hio and Vitalianus.
The few clusters of light instantly surpassed ten, then grew into dozens.
Beyond that, they increased to hundreds.
Soon, those clusters of light began gradually taking shape.
“Looks like they’re finally starting to come in.”
The expedition force, having judged that Hio had been given enough time to drive away the surrounding poison, was entering the floor.
Hundreds of clusters of light took on human forms.
Among them, the cluster of light that appeared beside Hio and Vitalianus was the first to change into the shape of a person.
The familiar man gradually taking form was the strongest among the possessed, excluding Hio.
Antiphus Praman.
“I said it just now, did I not? That I have seen countless people wandering because they could not find their own path.”
Looking at him, Vitalianus slowly opened his lips.
“Likewise, I have seen many who despaired when, despite yearning for something for a very long time, they were ultimately unable to achieve it—when they could not see the path leading there no matter how hard they looked.”
The cluster of light vanished, and what was formed was the complete shape of Antiphus.
However, perhaps because his senses had not yet returned, his eyes remained closed.
“Every one of them looked at the world with eyes emptied out.”
Antiphus slowly began to open his eyes.
Hio looked at him.
His light brown pupils found Hio and met his gaze.
They were eyes that seemed unfocused.
Like those of a man who had lost his dream.
“Dangerous eyes.”
Eyes emptied out.
* * *
All members of the expedition force safely entered the floor under the protection of Heaven.
Since they had seen Heaven used several times on the previous floor, the members of the expedition force entered without much disturbance.
Only the newly joined high priests made a brief fuss, sensing the abundant divine power and calling him a saint or whatnot.
“Are the priests ready?”
“Yes. We are prepared.”
After the minor commotion ended and the priests calmed down, Vitalianus asked, and the priests who had finished their preparations sent a signal.
That signal meant Hio could now cancel his skill, Heaven.
Since Heaven consumed a great deal of mana and divine power, he could not keep it deployed forever, so the high priests were going to divide and perform Heaven’s role among themselves.
「Skill—‘Heaven (天上)’ has been canceled.」
The golden baptism pouring down from the sky was abruptly cut off.
The supply of divine power and mana was severed, and the domain of Heaven began to vanish.
“Arts of warding and protection!”
Before all of that domain disappeared, the priests of Ripue unfolded their divine arts.
If they had tried to use divine arts from the start in an area filled with poisonous fog, they would have had to purify it and secure a domain, making it complicated and consuming a great deal of divine power. But right now, thanks to Hio’s skill, it was a clean area.
So all they had to do was unfold warding and protection.
“O Ripue of Hope. We beseech you, from wicked power, protect us……”
White light spread with their prayers.
The golden radiance withdrew, and white light made of divine power took its place.
“Advance!”
Only after the divine art had been fully unfolded did the expedition force begin to advance little by little.
Their formation was somewhat unusual.
Fifteen priests were distributed at regular intervals along the outside of the expedition force, and knights surrounded and protected them in turn.
And at the very center was the saintess Irina. Seeing how the light spread out with her at its center, it seemed Irina was regulating the overall barrier and divine power.
The most important thing was ensuring that the priests’ divine arts could spread evenly over the entire expedition force.
The second most important thing was preventing the priests’ divine arts from being broken, so this formation had been devised.
Thanks to that, their countermeasure against the poison was resolved.
However, outside the barrier, a dense fog that rendered scouting skills ineffective still lay over the area.
So normally, they would have had to advance carefully, one step at a time.
“It’s still fine, so continue advancing like this.”
But among the expedition force was the outstanding hero, Vitalianus Mahel.
Even in fog that dulled the senses and blocked scouting, Vitalianus could see at least several hundred meters ahead.
After advancing for about thirty minutes without any particular incident—
“Stop.”
At last, something began to register in his senses.
Of course, because of the dense fog, the others could not see anything, but Vitalianus had sensed something and given the command.
“There is something there. Advance again, slowly.”
The expedition force slowed down and moved carefully.
Before long, a certain shape began to appear in their sight as well.
“That is……”
“A building?”
Gray buildings began appearing here and there through the ash-gray fog.
As they drew closer, they realized there were not just one or two such buildings.
Like a village—no, like an enormous city, countless buildings were gathered together.
“Why are they so old?”
However, the buildings were so decrepit that stone dust crumbled down with the slightest touch of a finger.
A dense ash-gray fog lying heavily over the ground, and countless old buildings on the verge of collapse.
A city made of those things.
It was the sort of place for which the term ghost city could not have been more fitting.
“I can sense quite a number of presences from deeper inside.”
“By presences, you mean……”
“Monsters, most likely.”
At Vitalianus’s words, Hio looked far ahead, toward the center of the ghost city.
If this truly was the Floor of Control, there should be a core related to control somewhere within the city.
If they found and destroyed it, or found some other method of control, then the fog—the greatest obstacle—would likely disappear as well.
That was their current hypothesis.
If there was a problem……
“Of all things, a city.”
It was the fact that the terrain was not an open plain, but a city.
And that the city was so enormous it could not be taken in at a glance.
Why was that a problem? First, because of the narrow alleys and decrepit buildings, they could not maintain their formation.
It meant they had to split their personnel to move, which would not only increase the danger, but also lower the efficiency of the divine arts if the priests were scattered.
Moreover, within a complex city, finding the core would not be easy, and it would be all too easy for the Abyss monsters to launch surprise attacks.
All of it was a problem.
“What will you do?”
Vitalianus turned his head and asked Hio.
Hio fell into thought for a moment.
There was a way.
An exceedingly simple way, at that.
A method he had only hinted at to Vitalianus and Sylvia before they began the攻略.
Vitalianus was asking whether he intended to carry it out.
“Hmm……”
The method was simple.
Wouldn’t it be enough to cleanly blow away that city shrouded in mist?
And while they were at it, it would be nice to clear away all that terrible poisonous fog as well.
However, it was beyond Vitalianus’s strength alone.
No matter how superhuman he was, no matter that he was an eighth-rank knight, his essence was ultimately that of a swordsman.
Erasing an entire city with aura? How inefficient an act was that?
So it was only right to leave such work to a specialist mage.
“Let me think for a moment.”
Of course, it was not easy even for Hio.
There was the option of summoning Kkingkking and having it bombard the area with 5th Circle magic, but that carried the risk of being unable to use other skills, would take a long time, and likely would not be clean.
He could use azure flames, but to burn this vast city in its entirety, he would have to pour in all of his mana.
The terrain was also far too broad for using the Domain of Void.
Then what method remained?
Was there not one spell that could resolve this cleanly with a small amount of mana, without going to such trouble?
As expected, it seemed right to just do it.
“……I’ll do it.”
The preparations were complete.
He had obtained permission as well.
He had even told them to be ready, since it would soon be going out into the world anyway.
In that case, there was no reason to hesitate.
It would be revealed to the world a little earlier than expected, but it would be an incomparably splendid debut stage.
“Good. I shall prepare.”
At Hio’s nod, Vitalianus nodded along with him, then abruptly turned his back and issued an order.
“Fall back and secure space!”
Though they did not know what the order was for, it was Vitalianus’s command, and the expedition force quickly retreated.
In an instant, a wide space was secured, and on the faces of the expedition members who had withdrawn behind it floated an unmistakable doubt.
At a time when advancing would not have been enough, they were retreating to create space.
For what purpose were they securing such a vast area?
“Then I’ll begin at once.”
Ignoring those doubts, Hio headed toward the center of the wide-open space.
Those questioning expressions would soon turn to astonishment, to shock.
For the magic he was about to unfold was a spell that no one in the present age could imagine.
It was magic capable of clearing away broad expanses of buildings in an instant and erasing a vast city, and at the same time, it was in truth a rather simple spell.
A being now forgotten, remaining only as legend.
The green guardian who governed the wind.
“I summon a dragon.”
A magic circle began to be drawn in bright light across the wide clearing.
A pale green wind began to blow.