Tents erected here and there, and a command post set up before the gate.
The orderly movements of disciplined knights, their presence held in check.
The swift motions of the troops assisting their sortie.
From the 52nd floor to the 58th, it was the scene that had been seen before the gates for a little over half a year.
But this time, before the 59th-floor gate, things were a little different.
Far from holding back their presence, the knights were pouring out a ferocious air without restraint, and even those who should have been busy preparing other matters were standing frozen in place, tense to the bone.
As for the reason—
“Ugly bastards in whom not a shred of honor can be found, no matter how hard one looks.”
It was because the possessors had shown themselves again in time for the gate raid.
At that shameless behavior, Gale Ainsidel, who had already been waiting for the chance to strike them down, stepped forward without concealing his killing intent, and the surrounding knights joined him as well.
“How dare you set foot here again, without even knowing shame!”
They did not know the exact circumstances, but every member of the expedition knew the general situation.
The fact that those Guild bastards had fled the 58th floor by themselves, through some method of their own.
Now that this was known, there was no longer any place in the expedition where the Guild would be welcomed.
Though the number of those who died on the 58th floor had been fewer than expected, that was only compared to the despairing situation at the time; since the Empire had begun its conquest, it was the floor that had produced the greatest number of dead.
Those who had suffered grievous wounds from which they could not recover numbered several times more.
In such a situation, who would welcome deserters?
Had they not fled and instead added their strength, would the situation not have been far better?
“For your merits until now, and by the commander’s final mercy, I will not condemn you.”
Seeing the shameless faces of the possessors made his blood seem to rush backward, but with the utmost restraint, Gale did not draw his sword.
“So get the hell out.”
They could no longer be together with them.
After all, an ally one could not trust on the battlefield was even more dangerous than a powerful enemy.
If they devised a strategy while taking these people’s strength into account, and then they fled as soon as things became a little dangerous like they had this time, what would happen to those who remained?
The same thing that had happened on the 58th floor would occur again.
Either everyone would be slaughtered together, or a hero would fall.
If even a handful of shame remained in them, they would disappear without complaint.
Thinking so, Gale turned his back.
“There is nothing good for either side in bluffing, Gale Ainsidel.”
Only to be forced to stop immediately.
Only after replaying it in his mind once more—whether he had heard correctly, what nonsense had just been spewed—
“……How dare you.”
Did he slowly turn around again.
The killing intent of the highest-ranking knight after Vitalianus surged so visibly that those possessors with weak mental discipline and the ordinary soldiers forgot even how to breathe, freezing in place.
Like mice set before a snake.
“You truly know not the slightest shame.”
Gale’s eyes moved like a serpent’s as he swiftly swept them over the possessors gathered together.
And soon, he was able to find the one who had uttered that absurd remark.
The man standing at the very front of them.
A possessor who had once served in the imperial household, only to leave for the Guild after Sylvia Verden took office.
“Antiphus Praman.”
Upon confirming him, Gale finally drew the sword in his hand.
“Even when you were appointed to the position of knight commander, I opposed it. Your eyes looked as if you knew no one but yourself.”
“Gale Ainsidel. Think coldly.”
“If you would teach me coldness, then first learn of human shame and a knight’s honor before coming here.”
Dark green aura burst from Gale’s sword as if exploding.
The surrounding space fell beneath his aura, and at the same time, every knight drew their sword.
“……At a time like this, when the raid is before us, there can be nothing good in clashing with us.”
Yet Antiphus continued to attempt conversation without even unfastening the greatsword on his back.
Had it been the Antiphus of before, he would not have backed down in the slightest, but would have faced him and raised his own presence.
“We, too, keenly feel the tragedy of the previous floor. That is why we are trying to take responsibility and return to the raid.”
“The one thing I can tell you is that the reason you are alive and breathing right now is thanks to Lord Vitalianus. Had I been commander, deserters like you would have been executed the moment they were found.”
“Do you think anything would have changed even if we had been there in that situation?”
“Then let me ask you in return. Do you sincerely think nothing would have changed?”
“……This conversation is running parallel.”
As if he had no intention of listening to Antiphus’s words, Gale continued to raise his dark green aura.
For Antiphus, who was trying to pursue cooperation, it was an utterly frustrating situation.
In the past, he would not have backed down and would have resolved it by confronting him with force.
No, there would have been no need to go as far as force. He simply would not have appeared here at all. After all, he would have thought that the ones who needed help were them.
“Gale Ainsidel. Calm down and listen. In the end, do you not need our information about the floor as well?”
But now, he could no longer do that.
What had changed for it to be so?
When he thought about it, there was only one thing that had changed.
The fact that the one person who had long stood above him had disappeared.
The fact that an unbearably immense presence had evaporated in an instant.
That was all, so why did it feel this heavy?
Why was it that he could no longer act as he pleased, that even when angered, he had no choice but to swallow it down, that he had to keep saying things he did not want to say?
“We also sincerely wish to clear the floor.”
There was only one reason.
The nearly one hundred high rankers standing behind him, and the nearly ten thousand possessors as a whole.
Beyond them, the billions of people in the outside world.
All of their lives depended on a single judgment, a single action of his.
Now that the Supreme Heavenly Demon was gone, this was a weight he had to bear entirely on his own.
The moment he realized that, his chest felt so stifled.
His breath caught so painfully.
“I have only one thing to say, Antiphus Praman.”
Why, from the very beginning, was there nothing that went as he wished?
“Get out of my sight at once.”
It was suffocating.
It was irritating.
Gale Ainsidel, who could not be reasoned with, and this situation in which he had no choice but to bow his head.
Even so, he had to do something somehow.
There was no one who could clean up after him if he acted as he pleased, led by emotion.
If he made a mistaken judgment in a fit of temper, not only this world but the outside world as well would be swept up in every kind of misery and despair.
The situation he had only seen as a game would come crashing down as reality.
There was no one he could rely on, no one who could judge in his place, and no one who would take responsibility for him.
Amid that immense pressure, just what had the Supreme Heavenly Demon felt as he burned his life to the very end to prevent that hellscape?
Because his thoughts reached that point, Antiphus bit his lip with all his might.
“Gale Ainsidel…….”
He had to endure.
This was merely the process of being reborn as a true ruler.
He had to grow accustomed to bearing the weight of the world upon both shoulders.
“Very well. We will withdraw.”
So for now, he would withdraw.
Gale was unyielding, and the reason he could act that way was likely because he had the Sword Saint’s permission.
“We will obtain information in our own way at another gate and pass it along.”
“…….”
This, at least, he would not be able to refuse.
They might not be able to trust the possessors on the battlefield, since they could flee at any moment, but the information related to the raid was real.
“Do not fail.”
Rather than causing a clash here, he would take one step back and deliver whatever information they obtained.
That would be the best judgment in the current situation.
It would be for everyone, not for himself.
And so Antiphus turned away from the gate.
He walked away just like that.
It was surely the best judgment for everyone, and the best he could do.
And yet, why was it so……
“We’re going back.”
Why did his chest feel so stifled?
Why was each exhaled breath so difficult?
What if his judgment was wrong?
What if the decision he had just made caused thousands, tens of thousands, to die?
The burden on his shoulders, everyone’s gazes, the lives of each and every one of them, felt far too heavy.
Heavy enough that he wanted to collapse on the spot.
* * *
After Antiphus left.
Silence descended before the gate.
The aura that had burned fiercely went out, and the presence that had lost its destination wandered through the air before vanishing high into the sky.
The expedition’s composition had already changed due to the abundance of wounded, making the atmosphere unsettled, but with the seventy or so possessors who had been with them from the beginning suddenly gone as well, the gap was keenly felt.
Especially when it was just before they were to enter the gate.
Until now, even if they had been tense, their morale—at least their spirit—had been high, but now the atmosphere was instead cold. It even felt as though it had sagged.
Claire, who had watched all of this from beginning to end, blankly looked up at the gate burning black.
The atmosphere was the worst, and the situation was even worse.
They had not even begun, yet it already felt like the aftermath of a war.
All because a single person was gone.
The possessor group and the Empire would never again trust each other and stand together as they had before.
Because the one person whom the Empire and the possessors alike had trusted, admired, and relied upon was no longer there.
A cogwheel with a missing gear was meaningless no matter how diligently one side turned.
‘That is why I absolutely have to find him.’
Inside that pitch-black gate, in that hellish demon realm, Hio was surely alive.
He might be barely holding on, enduring with all he had, desperately waiting for someone’s help.
So she had to enter and find him as quickly as possible.
If he was not on the 59th floor, then on the 60th. If he was not on the 60th either, then on the 61st.
A small spark was born in Claire’s empty eyes as she looked up at the gate.
It was a tiny hope beginning to bloom again.
A terribly feeble hope that everyone else thought dead, yet she alone tried to kindle.
‘This time…… I’ll save you.’
Using that to desperately thaw her freezing heart, she moved her feet toward the gate.
* * *
Airaitz had run straight to the imperial capital immediately after hearing the news of Hio’s death.
She had gone with the momentum to overturn the Empire, with the momentum to kill every last person involved, but the figure that returned was terribly hollow.
Then where was she supposed to vent this stifling feeling?
As she walked aimlessly while thinking that, she eventually found herself back here.
The divine mage’s house.
The ordinary two-story home where she had lived with Hio.
In truth, there was nowhere else for her to go.
Airaitz had no place to return to, and no one who would welcome her.
This had been the only home to which she could return, and now even that was losing its meaning.
“…….”
She stood there blankly for a long while, staring at the house.
Why did the home that had always been warm feel so cold?
Why did she so desperately not want to go inside?
But soon, she opened the front door and entered.
As expected, only a silence filled with chill awaited her.
[Hio ♡ Airaitz’s Newlywed Home]
The crookedly hung nameplate was the only thing that welcomed her.
What should she do?
After pondering for a moment, she turned toward the basement stairs out of habit.
Past the first underground floor, then the second.
When she reached the third underground floor, traces filled her eyes.
Books and research materials scattered here and there.
The wool blanket she had left there for Hio, who practically spent his nights in this place.
The chair and desk where Hio had sat.
A single small lamp lit atop it.
In one corner, small so as not to disturb him, were the traces of her own magic research.
Her gaze swept across the third underground floor like that, then finally stopped in one place.
The place where the portal that could move to Tetradia existed.
It was the entrance leading to the fourth underground floor.
Since she, too, was now a mage who had formed the 1st Circle, if she went down to the fourth underground floor, she would likely be able to use the portal and enter the Mage’s Tower.
The entrance was closed.
She had been told that only Hio could open it, and only Hio could use it.
Because Hio had reactivated the magic circle that had originally existed and was protecting the fourth underground floor with it, forcing her way in would not be easy either.
But it did not matter.
No matter how solid a magic circle was, if one struck it thousands, tens of thousands of times, would it not eventually break?
Airaitz’s skill was not suited to this, but her superior physical stats would make such a thing possible.
So she immediately moved her feet.
She intended to break the entrance herself, go down to the fourth underground floor, use the portal, and head to the Mage’s Tower.
She did not know why, nor did she know what meaning there was in it, but it was the only thing that came to mind for her to do right now.
Because even through that, she wanted to feel Hio’s traces a little more.
She was about to smash the entrance at once.
—Hio will hate it if he comes back.
But the fist she had raised became meaningless as the strength drained completely from her body.
Although she knew better than anyone what it meant that he had not returned despite succeeding in the Abyss raid, why was she acting like this?
Why did those few words make her harbor hope?
Even though she knew it was an utterly vain hope.
“What…… what am I supposed to do…….”
She did not know what she should do, nor how she should do it.
She simply sat there blankly.
There was nothing she could do but trace back the moments from when she had first met Hio in this world until now.
The moment she first discovered him, and the moment she actually faced him.
The time they spent together in the Gray Castle, and the time when she willingly chose death for him.
After that, she was reborn through his power, and after passing through all the moments they had spent together since then, the memory she reached was of Hio just before he set out for the final raid.
The sight of him rejoicing, saying he had finally found what he had been tracking for quite a long time.
The words he had spoken as he opened the door to the fourth underground floor, now firmly shut.
—I found a clue.
Airaitz’s head turned naturally.
A single book lay open and face down on the desk.
The one book Hio had been reading until the very end.
The clue he had been searching for right up until he set out on the raid should be written in this book.
Airaitz rose and approached the desk, picking up the book that lay there turned over.
When she turned it around and looked at it, the first words she saw were:
『……Usoa Ostrum, a faithful servant of the Order of Venus, goddess of beauty and love, and an official mage of Tetradia, said that love’s divine magic was on the verge of completion. Thus, we went to Randevür, where Usoa was…….』
A scarlet glow rippled in Airaitz’s eyes as she read down the page.
She had finally found what she had to do.