Three hours later, we finished our break.

　While the two adults, Illtimina and Kilt, cleaned up their tents, I spoke to the wizard girl next to me.

'Solstice, how's your magic recovery going?'
So-so.

　She replied as she sat down on the floor and gathered her things into her backpack.
　Eventually, she put the backpack on and stood up while

That's about 40 percent of your usual?　So, from this point forward, I'm going to leave all the fine magic to Merle.
Yeah, okay.

　I nodded broadly.

(If it's a light bird or micro-recovery, I'll do it again and again.)

　Solstice laughed and

Come on.

　pong

　He lightly tapped me on the shoulder from the side.


　◇ ◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇


　Soon, everyone was ready to leave.

　In the space built entirely of pure white stone, there was now only one large passageway opening in the wall. It was the passage that appeared the moment the seven knight statues were knocked down.

(.......Was it a hidden passageway for that kind of trick?

　It's a long, narrow passage.

　It's straight ahead in every direction, with no light reaching the end, and from there it's tainted with darkness.

　I suddenly turned around.

　The broken knight statues were left as wreckage in that white space.

''..........''

　Here, 195 Arun knights died.

　I don't know how it works, but there were no bodies, and no relics left behind. It was just a terrifying space, white and serene.

　I bite my lip.

　Suddenly, I realized that everyone was looking back at me too.

''.........''
..........
..........

　The look in the eyes of General Dardios and Ms. Frederica was particularly striking.
　Their eyes were filled with the light of quiet thoughts.

　Cuts.

　The two Arun Knights joined their heels and saluted.

　The four of us also said a silent prayer.

　Rapt and Lectoris muttered something briefly. It seemed to be the words of the gods, perhaps to pray for the repose of the soul.

　I open my eyes.

　There are the destroyed knight statues there.

(.........avenged.......but)

　But I knew that in order to respond to their souls, I had to reach the lowest level and obtain a living 'divine Armament'.

''--Let's go!''

　At the sound of Kilt's voice, we started to walk to the end of the passage.


　◇ ◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇


　Letting the light bird flap its wings first, we formed up and proceeded down the aisle in formation.

　The first row is the two 'Divine Fanglars' of Rapt and Recto Alice.

　The second row is the strongest duo, Kirt-san and General Dardios.

　The third row is me and Solstice, the two younger ones.

　The fourth row is Illtimina-san and Frederica's two beautiful sisters.

　This party of eight proceeded with us.

　We walk endlessly along the white stone pathway.

　Click, click, click.

　As the footsteps echoed, the occasional red glowing divine letter would drift in and out of nowhere and then leave again.

　Eventually, after twenty minutes or so, we emerged into a single room.

(!?!)

　All of them gulped.

　On both walls of that rectangular room were those 'winged knights' lined up in a row.　

　Would there be 20 to 30 of them?

　We reflexively held our weapons at the ready.

Jeez, are you kidding me...?

　Solstice next to me mutters in a voice that trembles with fear.

　But.

...moving?

　The knight statues remained silent.

　A third eye opened, and Lectoris let out a small gasp as a red light flashed, "I see.

''So this is a storage facility.''
The vaults?

　She nodded to Rapt, who asked back.

'Maybe when the gatekeepers from earlier were destroyed, the statues of the knights here will be replenished. I don't know how they're going to move them, but I have a feeling they will.

　Replenishment........

(I mean, such a powerful enemy is being mass-produced in these ruins!

　The threat was so great that it sent a chill down my spine.

　Everyone must have felt the same way.

　All of them were staring at the 'winged knights' lined up here in a row with their eyes gazing at something terrifying.

　Mr. Kilt frowned and

Will those seven bodies come back to life one day?
That's a great maze.

　General Dardios let out a heavy sigh, too.

　I said.

"Can we break this thing while it's still intact?

　Everyone looked at me, muttering.

　Then we each looked at each other.

It's all good.
That's my Merle.　
Let's just break it up!

　They all nodded.

　For now, as long as the head is destroyed, I don't think the 'divine letter' of red light will be inhabited.

　''Gashan, gosh, gagaan.

　Kilt-san, Illtimina-san, me, and five warriors, the father-daughter warriors of the Dardios family, destroying all the knightly statues.

(Phew!)

　It's a breath of fresh air amidst the mooing and dusting.

　On the white floor, the remnants of nearly thirty, headless knight statues are lying on the white floor.

''.........What the hell, it looks like Lord Callwood will be punished.

　Rapt mutters to himself.

(............)

　After all this time, I felt like I'd done something big when you said that.

　Geez.

'I don't mind. If you want to kill Marle, even 'God' is my enemy.

　Illtimina said, hugging me in a frightened hug.

　Rapt and Recto Alice stared at her in surprise and fear as they fought.

　Kilt-san chuckled.

I'm sorry for the Gray Goddess, but the werewolves cannot just sit back and let her kill us. This much resistance must be forgiven with an open mind.

　Solstice clasped her little hands together.

"...if you're going to punish me, please let it be only Marle, the one who started it.......

　To heaven, I pray.

(This, this girl~)

　At the last words of the girl, everyone gave a small smile, and so we left the room where only the countless 'wreckage of the knight statue' was left behind.　


　◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇


　We went on incessantly through the pathways that had no branches.

　Since then, we haven't encountered any knight statues or demons. A little bit of peace.

(.........well, you can't be too careful though.)

　Eventually, they arrived at a strange place.

'What is this place?'

　Mr. Kilt's voice is the voice of all of us.

　--We were in the middle of the ruins, but there was a tower.

　The top of our level is the top of the tower, and it stretches down about 5 levels. The tip of the tower and the ceiling were connected by a number of cords.

　Hing hing hing hing.

　Hundreds, thousands, or even more of divine script red light flowed through the tower in large numbers.

(...It's like a giant computer, isn't it?)

　Thoughts from previous life knowledge.

　Occasionally, red light would stream through the cords in the ceiling to other levels.

　It occurred to me.

　Up to the 11th level of this ruin is the living quarters.

　And from the 12th level onwards, the center of this ruin - in other words, the control system might be concentrated in the layers beyond.

(.........is this tower one of those control systems?)

　The gatekeepers of those knight statues were surely there to protect these things.

　Standing at the very edge of the broken floor, they all look downstairs.

　Huoh!

　A cold breeze caresses my skin.

　Maybe it's working on the cooling system for this control tower?

　And it's about 200 meters high.

　Higher than the toggle cliffs it would be the end of the roll if we fell.

'Hey, there's a staircase over there.

　At the sound of Solstice's voice, everyone turned to look in that direction.

　The tip of the little finger indicated a spiral staircase built along the outer wall of the space surrounding the tower.
　Apparently, it seemed to go all the way to the foot of the tower.

　It's a space with a diameter of about 300 meters, though, so it's going to be a long distance.

Hm, I'd be grateful if we could traverse five levels with this.
Yes.
Yes.

　We nodded at Kilt's words.

　Then, illuminated by the red light emitted by the tower, the eight of us began to descend that long, long staircase.


　◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇.


　Each staircase was long and wide, with each step going down in all directions.

　Along the way, the stairs had collapsed over the years, and in some parts they were broken off, more than fifteen meddlesome.

'Let's go, Marle,'
Yes.

　Just as I once did when I climbed the Cliffs of Toggle, I, a child with a rope, breathed in time and was thrown to Mr. Illtimina.

　BOOM.

　Flying through the air.



　And landing.

　I immediately secure the rope to a nearby post.

　Just in case they threw another rope and secured it too.

　We all make it through the two ropes and finish crossing safely.

(Now we just need to untie the rope and retrieve it.)

　I tied it tightly, so I asked Illtimina to help me work on it.

They are both very skilled at this.

　Mr. Quilt looked at it and admired it.

　I looked over and saw that everyone else had the same look on their faces.

''Haha.''
"Hmm.

　Me and Illtimina looked at each other and smiled.

　There were several parts of the spiral staircase that had collapsed in the same way, and we were dealing with the same thing as we made our way downstairs.

　It took us about an hour.

　Finally, we stepped on 5 levels.

(Phew...)

　A quick pause.

　Looking around, I could see the base of a huge tower.

　Like the ceiling section, there were countless cords stretching out, with red light going back and forth through them.

'Over there.

　Turning to the voice of Recto Alice, I see a doorway to another passage at the end of her finger, on the white wall at the back.

　We formed up in formation and started walking.

　After about half an hour's walk, a staircase appears that leads to the basement.

　A staircase to the next 17 levels.

　Kirt looked around and muttered to himself, "Hmm.

'This is it for today's exploration. Tonight, we'll camp here.

(Huh?)

　I was surprised.
　Iltimina gently stroked my hair and

I know it's hard to tell since we're in the middle of the ruins, but the date has already changed, right?

　He told me.

　Yeah, that's right. I had no idea.

(But I'm not that tired yet...)

　I don't know if that thought was on your face.

If you start camping when you're exhausted, you won't be able to deal with anything, such as being attacked by a demon while camping, right?
Oh, okay.
The rule of thumb is to leave some extra energy in the camp.

　Dr. Illtimina's explanation made deep sense to me.

　She smiled kindly at me, still a new adventurer, and we all began to prepare for the camp.

　Yeah, that's it for today's exploration.


　◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◇.


　All of us eating portable food around a small campfire.

　Mugging.

(...we don't know how long it will take us to get to the bottom of the line, and we need to save money.)

　I have enough for two weeks.

　But I've decided to keep the amount of food I eat to about half that. ...though it's a little disappointing for me when I'm growing up.

　By the way, Rapt and Recto Alice are drinking the glowing water in a long, thin bottle - the 'Spiritual Water of Healing' which is a shrine shrine shrine.

　Looking at it.

That's an expensive meal.

　Pouting, Solstice next to me muttered.

　I wonder if she heard him, or if Raptor said, "An? And look at her. Recto Alice also stopped eating and looked at me.

　The girl cowered her shoulders and

'I don't know if you know it, but that's a precious commodity in the human world.　It's an important restorative that can also heal wounds.
...so what?
'So you can't have a normal diet like this Merle?　I mean,

　He indicates me with his little thumb.

"I can't.

　Recto Alice replied.

'It's not impossible. But your body will be altered and you'll lose a lot of power. ...That's exactly what happens, just like Marle.
Hmm?

　Solstice raises one eyebrow.

　I looked over and saw that everyone else was also focused on these kids' conversation.

　Rapt gulps down the rest of the 'healing spirit water' and wipes his mouth with his arm.

''Later, little guy?　I'll correct my mistake.
What?　Little guy?

　snappy

　Solstice makes a blue streak.

　But Rapt doesn't mind.

Originally, the gods created this artificial water on the earth for Wai and the rest of the gods 400 years ago. We humans are the ones who are taking all the credit for it, calling it 'healing spirit water' and 'restorative medicine'.　

　Was it?
　No one seemed to know that fact and everyone looked surprised.

That's why this is our meal. "So, this is our food, and we're not going to hold back. I don't know about human logic, but it's precious or whatever.
..........

　Rapt snorts and pouts at Solstice, who is silent.

(............)

　But he wouldn't put his mouth on the new bottle of 'Spiritual Water of Healing' any more.

　Even though I, once in the Great Forest of Aldoria, had finally filled my stomach after more than ten cups of guzzling, neither Rapt nor Lectoris had drunk more than one bottle of it.

(That's not very honest.)

What's up, Merle?
No, it's nothing.

　I laugh and shake my head at Rapt, who looks doubtful when he notices me.

'I just thought I loved you two.
Oh, yeah?
Oh, thanks.

　It's Rapt who is somewhat surprised and Recto Alice who is smiling like an adult.

　After that, Solstice and Recto Alice

''Then which components of the 'Healing Spiritual Water' are necessary for the physical composition of the 'Divine Military'?'''
It's possible that the photon may be stimulating the meridians in the body's divine veins.

　I was kind of reveling in a difficult topic.

　Glimpse.

　Looking at the others, it seems that the topic is incomprehensible to all but two of them, and they're all turning away.
　And Rapt, of course.

"It's a good sign that you're able to keep up with Lecto Alice, that little one.
Haha.....

　I looked at the girl with a bit of trepidation and muttered to myself.

　I thought from the exchange of letters, but it seemed that the two of them, Recto Alice and Solstice, who seemed to be somewhat of an intellectual, were a good match for each other.

　Soon, it was time for bedtime.

''Then it's me and Marle.''
Yes.

　We were to stand guard in pairs for two-hour shifts, and I was paired with her.

　The others, by the way.

　Mr. Kilt and Mr. Rapt.

　General Dardios and Ms. Frederica.

　Soltis and Recto Alice.

　And so it is.　

(I think we're seeing some chemistry here, don't you?)

　And so we stood first on guard.

　For some reason, I was on guard with Illtimina hugging me from behind, and for two hours she seemed very happy, and eventually we were replaced by the next pair without incident.

'Hmph, goodnight, Marle.'
Good night, Miss Illtimina.

　Of course, it's a cuddle after that, too.

　Well, it's okay because I'm happy too...............but it's a little hard to keep the boy part down.

(I'm a gentleman ... a gentleman ... a gentleman ...)

　It's been a long time since I've had a spell.

　And so, before I knew it, I fell asleep and eventually made it safely into the morning.

　And when I finished cleaning up the encampment.

All right, then.

　The eight of us descended the stairs to the "Great Labyrinth, Level 17" in front of us.