"Went off without a hitch!"
They had returned to the present, and it was another clear autumn night.
Stars and moon alike shone bright overhead in a crisp, cloudless sky.
By any asure, it had been a full day's work — yet Isagi and the girls felt not the slightest trace of fatigue. If anything, there was a hard-to-define sense of refreshnt in the air.
"Let's grab a late-night snack?"
"Sure."
"Let's go! My treat!!"
Adi was exactly as loud and boisterous as ever.
Isagi hadn't forgotten to swing by the Garden of Stars either — he poked his head in to ask Goddess Astrea and the other girls whether they wanted him to bring anything back.
As it turned out.
Both Deter and Goddess Astrea were away from ho again, reportedly still over at Babel attending a council of the gods — still concerning the Harvest Festival, apparently.
Aphrodite was busy directing Lefiya and the others in a rehearsal out in the courtyard — a stage production she was preparing to perform.
Even Cecil had been roped in.
The reason was that a certain Goddess of Beauty had, yet again, massively overhauled the script, adding a slew of new roles. It wasn't just the smith girl — word had it that even Miss Ais had been called upon to pull in quite a few people from the Loki Familia, Miss Riveria included.
At that mont, the courtyard of the Garden of Stars was alive with noise and color. Wherever you looked, there were beautiful girls of every description.
The amount of late-night food they were going to need was anything but ordinary.
Isagi found himself wondering whether just the two or three of them heading out would even be able to carry it all back.
He took stock of what everyone wanted.
Then, at last, he set off with Ryuu-senpai and Adi, leaving the Garden of Stars behind. They passed through the quiet streets — lamp-lit by the soft glow of magic stone lanterns — and stepped out onto the lively, bustling main road beyond.
They made straight for Central Park.
Their destination was, of course, the Hostess of Fertility — and Isagi was already thinking that if they were short on hands later, they could always get that idiot Anya to help with the delivery.
Even at this late hour, the plaza beneath Babel was far from quiet — adventurers ca and went in a steady, lively stream.
Isagi caught sight of more than a few aged adventurers.
The kind you could tell at a glance had passed middle age — fellows with greying, salt-and-pepper beards.
For a mont, sothing distant and hazy ca over him.
Because back in the city he knew — the era he had co from — you almost never saw this many elderly adventurers.
Not simply because the profession was so dangerous and most didn't live long enough.
The city had stood for a thousand years. People died in the Dungeon every single day — and yet the survivors only ever accumulated. There would always be those who had dodged a thousand dangers and simply grown old.
But he had never seen those faces before.
Because they had all died during the [Great Conflict].
Those seven days that beca synonymous with death had claid the veterans of so many Familias. The Loki Familia, for instance — aside from Riveria, Finn, and Gareth, every mber of their generation had been wiped out. Not one had survived.
These aged adventurers had once spent their lives carving out a road to survival for those who ca after.
When people said the [Great Conflict] had caused a complete generational rupture among the city's adventurers, they weren't speaking lightly. The old guard had truly been all but annihilated in those seven days.
And now —
He supposed this was the result of one evening's "work" — his and Ryuu-senpai's.
The lightness in his chest grew a little warr.
Isagi and the girls arrived at the Hostess of Fertility, and found, to their surprise, that the red-haired goddess was right there in the middle of a feast with a full crowd.
Excluding the likes of Riveria and the other beautiful girls who had been dragged off by Aphrodite to perform in her play.
Every mber of the Loki Familia.
Finn, Gareth, and the young werewolf Bete — whom Isagi had t once before — were all there. And scattered among them were a great many aged veterans bearing the jester's crest of the Loki Familia.
"Isagi!"
Loki herself — who was probably the only one who actually knew the whole story — was already thoroughly drunk, and she lunged straight for him, absolutely insisting that he, Ryuu-senpai, and Adi all drink with her.
Not far away.
Syr, the grey-haired waitress, was watching with a quiet smile.
The tavern had taken on several new faces — grim-looking, battle-scarred old warriors who seed to have lived through more than most, and many of those who glanced toward the proprietress, Mama Mia, did so with an unmistakable reverence in their eyes.
The big-hearted dwarf woman simply roared with laughter and set an enormous barrel of ale down in front of herself and Loki.
What was happening?!
Isagi stared in silence. He had a sinking feeling he should never have co here — if he'd known, he would have bought the night snacks sowhere else entirely!!
Soti later, in a haze.
Isagi had been drinking a bit too much lately.
Goddess Loki was a hopeless, incorrigible drunkard. In the future, he was going to have to give her a wide berth whenever he was in the city. Honestly...
And so, without quite noticing, several days slipped by.
Having washed up and collected his thoughts on the edge of his bed, Isagi rembered — today was the day they were headed back into the Dungeon to keep grinding levels.
Lv.6 wasn't far off now. Probably within the next month or two.
At the sa ti.
There was sothing else he wanted to do on this Dungeon run.
He wanted to return to that bell tower where he had once encountered "Alfia" — and confirm whether the woman was still there.
Just as he had been thinking before.
If Alfia had never co to the city and done battle with the Astrea Familia, she would not have died on the 18th floor of the Dungeon. And if that were so, she logically shouldn't appear in his own special Dungeon either.
Isagi wanted to see for himself whether sothing had changed.
And so, before long.
After breakfast, he set off with the girls, who were already packed and ready, and made his way to the Dungeon entrance beneath Babel.
The party was, of course, the sa formation as before.
Lefiya, Tiona, Ryuu-senpai, Ais, Heith, Haruhi, and little jellyfish Saika.
The group moved with practiced ease through the upper levels, following the connecting passage between the 12th and 13th floors until they arrived once more at the vast corpse pit brimming with goblin heads.
Beyond it lay the Goblin forward base.
Isagi had the girls wait here.
Then he passed through the fortress alone and stepped into the grueling upward path that demanded everything.
He spread his wings and flew straight up.
Every obstacle along the way had already been cleared — this ti, it went even more smoothly than before, and he reached the lightless void of the "Dark Zone" in no ti at all.
Then he pressed on upward, and this ti, none of the forr bosses ca to challenge him.
Isagi cut through whatever had been in his way with ease — and as the sound of shattering glass rang out beside his ears, he arrived once more in that place known as the [Inner Holy City].
Ahead of him stretched a vast and utterly silent cityscape, devoid of all life.
And at the very far edge of it, the tall, weathered bell tower rose unmistakably against the horizon.
Isagi walked quickly toward it.
Outside the tower, the respawn point had appeared again, along with the still and silent fog gate.
[Could it be...]
Without hesitation, Isagi walked inside — and sure enough, in the abandoned church, seated on a pew with her back turned to him, was the figure of a grey-haired woman.
[Absolute Evil · "Stillness" Alfia].
She was still there.
Isagi confird it. So — her "tiline" hadn't changed at all?
____
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