Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 (27 page)

Bell’s body was in rough shape. Cuts, bruises, and blood covered his arms and face as he steadied his breath and took another defensive stance.

The sounds of battle still raged around them as they stared each other down, getting ready for one last charge to settle this.

“Stop—this—
now
—!!”

Cling
…Everything fell silent.

Even Mord and Bell froze in place with their fists raised and looked in the direction the loud voice came from.

Standing there for all to see was Hestia. Lilly was standing next to the small goddess as she looked out over the battlefield.

“Bell, everyone, I’m okay! This battle is now pointless! All of you, stand down!”

Bell felt a wave of relief wash over him upon hearing her voice, and he let his arms slowly drop.

Welf’s group also sheathed their weapons, following the goddess’s wishes.

On the other hand, Mord’s rage did not subside. Veins throbbing on his face, he turned to face his allies, who were at a loss as to what to do.

“The words of a goddess don’t mean shit! End them, all of them!!”

Most of the upper-class adventurers were on the ground and writhing in pain thanks to Lyu’s counterattack. But they’d already come this far; they couldn’t turn back now. The adventurers rose to their feet as Mord turned back toward Bell and set his feet to charge.

However.

“—You will stop.”

The entire floor seemed to fall silent with those words, the air eerily still.

Mord and all of the adventurers’ bodies stopped moving as if they were being restrained by unseen chains. The color leaving their faces, many sets of eyes locked onto Hestia. Their throats quivered in fear. Even Bell and those who came to help him were lost for words at the power exuding from the expressionless goddess.

This was the power that made the people of this world bow down to the gods. They had no choice but to lower their heads to a being from the heavenly plane of Deusdia.

Hestia unleashed her godly providence not for her own benefit, but to stop the children from hurting one another.

“Put down your weapons.”

“Uh, ah…”

Bell had never seen Hestia look like this, or use such a persuasive tone.

Mord and his adventurers could only grunt and moan as they stepped backward, overwhelmed by the immense pressure being emitted from the goddess’s blue eyes.

“…uwaHHHHHHH!!”

One of the upper-class adventurers turned tail and ran. Then a second and a third, the others watching and contemplating their options. Suddenly, everyone started a full retreat. “W-wait, you idiots!” screamed Mord. It didn’t take long for him to join them.

A distinct calm filled the forest, as if the storm had passed.

“—Bell, are you all right?!”

“Ughaa?!”

Bell still couldn’t move even as Hestia tackled him to the ground. Time came back to him. The goddess sat on top of his stomach as she took one of Miach’s high potions out of her pouch, popped off the lid, and poured it onto Bell’s face. “Bwff?!” Bell spat in surprise even as the sweet liquid flowed into his injuries and healed them. The potion made its way into his bloodstream and through his body, healing his other wounds in the process while restoring his strength.

“Uwahhhh, I’m sooooo sorry, Bell! It’s my fault you ended up like this—”

“Ah, no, Goddess…I couldn’t protect you in the first place, so…Please don’t cry.”

Bell didn’t know how to react as Hestia collapsed onto his chest, tears pouring from her eyes. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, as if trying to comfort a crying child. Just moments ago, she was unmistakably a deity from another world. But now she was looking very human. Bell didn’t know what to think anymore.

The gods were still worthy of the awe and reverence of the children of Gekai even with their divine powers, Arcanum, sealed.

This was because their life on Gekai was nothing more than a game to them…They could still unleash their divine providence and force everyone around them to bow down. But at the same time, they cared about the children who had pledged to follow them, and they wanted to assist in their life stories.

Bell looked down at the deity who had used her power not for her own gain but to save people just like him…Hestia looked up, eyes filled with tears. At that moment, Bell felt something new for his goddess, an even deeper connection.

“You in one piece, Bell?”

“Welf…”

“Lilly understands the situation, but please don’t act alone! Mr. Bell had plenty of chances to ask us for help!”

“Mmm—” Hestia once again buried her face in Bell’s chest as Welf and Lilly appeared on the stage. The red-haired young man was doing his best to force a smile as Lilly scolded Bell. The boy apologized and thanked them both. Mikoto and her group watched from a distance, smiling at the bonds of friendship that held the battle party together.

“…Hmmm. Sorry,
Takemikazuchi Familia
, I’ve caused trouble for you, too.”

“Not at all, Lady Hestia. We were happy to help.”

“Thank you for your help too, Hood.”

“Hood…”

Hestia had stopped crying and stood up, finally acting like the
goddess she really was. Her face hidden under the hood of her cape, Lyu mumbled to herself as everyone’s shoulders relaxed.

A soft breeze came to the forest with the battle finished. Everyone there had a genuine smile on their face.

Then: “Anyway, how should we—” Hestia began. That’s when it happened.

“Eh—?”

The ground beneath their feet shook.

No, the entire floor was shaking.

“Q-quake?”

“No, this is…”

“The Dungeon is shaking?”

Chigusa, Mikoto, and Ouka spoke to one another with their eyes on the ground.

Zhaa, zhaa
—the vibrations became more intense, causing the leaves to rub against one another.

“This is…
a bad tremor
.”

Bell realized at the moment that those words left Lyu’s lips…

An Irregular was about to occur, and this was a warning sign.

Every feature of the eighteenth floor seemed to shiver around them—the next moment…

Something above them cast a massive shadow over the stage.

“…The hell is that?”

The words fell from Welf’s mouth as he looked upward.

The entire ceiling of the eighteenth floor was covered in millions upon millions of crystals, each providing light. The largest one of these, the “sun” of the floor, had something inside it.

Something big. Something moving.

A piece of it reflected onto every surface of the massive white crystal, as if it were inside one big kaleidoscope. It was blocking the source of the light, each one of its movements casting a shadow across the vast landscape.

Just like the others, Bell had noticed the thing inside the crystal and watched it closely as the biggest tremor yet overtook him. All of
the adventurers present on the stage took a defensive stance, their hands going for their weapons out of reflex.

Then—
crack
.

It appeared.

The thing was still moving inside the crystal, but a thick line had appeared on the surface of the crystal itself.

“A crack…?! Monster?!”

“That’s impossible. This is a safe point!”

Several pieces of crystal fell away, glinting in the sky as they fell to the ground.

More and more lines appeared on the surface of the crystal as Mikoto and Lilly practically screamed at what they were watching.

The black thing inside the crystal was doing more than wiggling; it was punching and kicking from within. The figure seemed to grow with each passing moment.

“Aw, c’mon…No way. This is my fault.”

Whoosh.
Every head snapped in Hestia’s direction.

Completely ignoring the stares of the people around her, Hestia didn’t take her eyes off the ceiling and continued:

“That was almost nothing…There’s no way?”

The echoes of the cracks were getting louder, as though they were attempting to crush everything beneath them. Hestia watched in disbelief.

“
I was noticed…?!
”

“No, this isn’t Hestia’s fault.”

Hermes watched the entire floor continue to shake from his perch on top of the tree.

“Lord Hermes, what did you do this time?!”

“Of course, none of my little amusements could trigger something like this.”

Asfi’s lack of trust in her god came out in her voice as she unloaded all of her frustration at the top of her lungs. Hermes, however, kept his eyes on the black shadow inside the crystal.

“Ahh, Uranus…Haven’t you been listening to the prayers? I didn’t hear anything about this.”

Hermes’s eyes narrowed in frustration. He was so upset by his predicament that he practically spat the words out of his mouth.

“Stop ignoring me and please tell me what’s going on! What is that thing?!”

“Out of control, I’d say. And for some reason it’s more sensitive than usual. And it’s noticed our presence.”

Hermes once again ignored Asfi’s borderline panicked confusion and continued talking quietly, almost to himself.

“The Dungeon
hates it
, you see. It hates the fact that gods are all the way down here.”

Hermes continued to watch the ceiling despite the suspicious look he was getting from Asfi. She opened her mouth to speak but was suddenly interrupted by the sound of another loud crack.

The monsters lurking in the forest chose that moment to howl at the “sky.” The sound of their vicious howls mixed with the cracking sound coming from above and resonated through the whole landscape.

“Asfi, go to Rivira and call for reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements? Don’t tell me we’re going to have to fight that thing? Not run away?”

“Certainly looks that way…”

Hermes let his words trail off. A moment later, a new series of echoes joined the chorus from the south—a rockslide.

Asfi’s head snapped in that direction. The pupils of her eyes shrank behind her glasses.

“The tunnel, our only escape route, is blocked…I don’t think it wants us to get away.”

“—?! I’ve had it! If I don’t get out of this alive, I’m haunting you until the end of time, Lord Hermes!”

Asfi flung herself out of the tree with reckless abandon. Hermes watched her go, his shoulders slumping out of sympathy for her situation. He looked back up toward the ceiling once she was out of sight.

“Well, then…”

The cracks were growing, scattering like a spiderweb of lightning. A rain of crystal shards fell to the ground below.

The thing stuck its face out from the top of the crystal, shaped like an open lotus flower, with a thunderous boom.

Hermes watched in awe, frozen to the spot, before cracking a smile in spite of himself.

“Yep, that’s a floor boss.”

The monster thrust its face out of the bottom of the heavily damaged crystal.

It was almost as if a severed head had been placed on the ceiling of the eighteenth floor. However, this head was most definitely alive. Its massive eyes glared at anything that moved as it stared down from above. Its shoulders and chest emerged with another explosion of crystal shards shooting out in all directions. With most of its upper body free, it opened its gigantic jaws.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

A booming roar made the entire floor tremble. The otherworldly monster, a Goliath that surpassed the seventeenth floor’s version in every way, was born into the safe point of the Dungeon.

The Goliath slammed its fists into the crystal until its legs started to emerge and gravity took care of the rest.

It fell toward the ground like a black meteor, surrounded by twinkling crystal shards, large enough to engulf any humans in its path. Flipping its feet downward in mid-fall, the beast landed with a loud crunch directly on top of the Central Tree.

The resulting shock wave was deafening. The trees roots were crushed under the monster’s weight. In fact, the trunk was thrust halfway underground as the colossal tree buckled under the giant’s weight. The crystal shards weren’t far behind, slicing into the trees and tall grass of the plains, embedding themselves in the ground.

The “blue sky” was gone. The crystal that supplied the most light to the floor—the one the Goliath just smashed to pieces—had lost its luster. A shroud of darkness fell over the eighteenth floor. What was left of the broken crystal faintly glowed in the middle of the sea of blue crystals. An unnatural night with a full moon had come to pass.

An irregular Monster Rex stood in the middle of it all.

The monster slowly lifted its head as it stepped down from the tree.

“…Wh-wha…?”

The people with the best view of the Goliath’s landing were Mord and his group of adventurers.

They were running away from the edge of the eastern forest and toward the plains. Unfortunately for them, they were coming up on the Central Tree when the first crack rang out.

The Goliath on the seventeenth floor had skin the color of ash; this one was pure black, with eyes the color of blood. It loomed over Mord, unblinking.

“—OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!!”