Chapter 77: Instant Wolf Gang ⑦: A close battle

The black-purple light rose from the town like a pillar.

“…”
“There’s something over there!”

Narcissus said energetically.
In contrast, Agaro’s expression was dark.

“Is that a town? Probably ruins, but… weird. I never heard of a town on the 44th floor.”
“…”
“Hey, isn’t the ruin in that town?”
“I think the remaining three are probably there too!”
“Yeah… shall we go check it out, Wof?”
“…”
“Wof, are you okay?”
“Um… Wof-sama?”

I snapped back to reality when they called me.
The three of them were looking at me with curious expressions.

“…Ah, right, we’re going to the town.”
“Did you eat something weird?”
“Um… Wof-sama, are you feeling unwell?”
“Hey, are you okay? You don’t look well.”
“…Actually, I’m not really okay. I saw something unbelievable with my relic.”
“What did you see?”
“Something… unbelievable?”
“Relic. You explained it lightly, but it can detect enemies, right?”

Before entering the dungeon, I had briefly explained my relics.
Though I hadn’t mentioned [Wheel of Fortune].

“Yes. My relic, [Danger Detection], shows white for safe, red for danger, and black for mortal danger. From that town, I can see black light rising like a pillar.”

The three of them were stunned at my explanation.

“So… mortal danger?”
“Yes.”
“If we go, we’ll die, huh?”
“Yes. There’s a mortal danger.”
“Um… Wof-sama, is it monsters?”
“I don’t know. It could be that the town itself will collapse, that there’s a monster strong enough to be mortal danger, or some other cause. I can’t tell beyond that.”
“But there’s mortal danger, right?”
“Yes. There is.”

A heavy silence fell.
I decided to remain silent about the purple light.
It was a light above blue rarity—ultra-super-rare—the kind that signals mortal danger.
Now was not the time to mention it.

“…You guys, sorry. I dragged you all into this place.”

Suddenly, Agaro smiled awkwardly.
Then he turned his back to us.

“From here on, I’ll go alone.”
“Agaro!?”
“You might die if you go there.”
“Um, no, Agaro-san, you can’t!”
“‘Annihilation Sword,’ calm down. There’s mortal danger! You don’t even know if they’re alive!”
“That’s exactly why I’ll go.”

Agaro’s resolve was firm.
Narcissus’ eyes sharpened, her aura becoming intimidating.

“If you’re going to die…”
“Huh!”

Suddenly, Dagaa leapt at Agaro.

“Whoa! What the hell are you doing?!”
“Huh!”

She climbed onto his head and started smacking his eyepatch.

“What the hell, get off!”
“Huh!”
“Don’t mess around!”
“Huh?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“Huh!”
“You’re not thinking about the feelings of those who would grieve if you died.”
“Huh!”
“No, I don’t intend to die.”
“Huh!”
“You plan to make Arifa cry?”
“Hey, Narcissus, is he really saying that?”
“Huh!”
“If we’re going to die, I’ll go with you!”
“Wait, wait!”

My voice overlapped with Agaro’s.
…Wait, he refers to himself as “I” in a formal “yo” sense?

“Um… let’s all go together!”
“Jucy.”
“Girl…”
“Um, yes! We’re a party! The Impromptu Wolf Gang! You’re not alone, so we absolutely won’t let you go alone!”
“Exactly. ‘Annihilation Sword,’ you’re not going alone.”

Jucy and Narcissus’ resolve was unwavering.
Agaro looked confused.

“I’ll go too.”
“Wof… alright. I understand. We’ll go together.”

We would go as the Improvised Wolf Pack.

While gazing at the waterfall, we carefully made our way toward the plunge pool.

“…His name is Robert. He’s the leader of ‘The Lid of Tartarus.’”

Agaro began speaking quietly, bit by bit.

“Robert once drank me under the table in a drinking contest. I won. He never beat me. A good guy—whenever a mission ended, we often drank together.”
“So he was your drinking buddy.”
“Milco too. We often treated each other. The next morning we’d be useless with hangovers, and Remika would get mad at us.”
“All you did was drink.”
“True. We never met outside the tavern.”

Those three names were probably the explorers who had turned into zombies.
Two men and one woman.
Agaro muttered,

“I still can’t get used to it. Explorers are always near death, and it’s not rare for acquaintances to die in the dungeon. But I… I can’t get used to it.”

He hid his face from us, voice on the verge of tears.

“Um… Agaro-san, do you want to get used to it?”
“There was a time I thought so.”
“Agaro-san…”
“Some people are like that. But they’re not used to it—they’ve just come to terms with it.”

Alweld had come to terms with it.
Narcissus sighed and muttered, “Silly,” as a preface.

“Just because you come to terms with it doesn’t make you stronger. If you had to defeat a zombie like you, ‘Annihilation Sword,’ you’d cry for three days and nights, be useless for about a month, be depressed for a year, and even now sometimes remember and cry… and then… sob, sniff, ugh…”

“Wait, hey!?”
“Huh?”
“sniff… ugh… Potsutarou… ugh…”

Suddenly, Narcissus started crying.
No way… she remembered something. This can’t be real.

“Potsutarou?”
“sniff, sniff It was my pet… a slime…”
“Hey, what?”
“Pet… and a slime…”

There were too many points to comment on.
Narcissus wiped her tears with her hand, but they wouldn’t stop.

“Huh?”
“Um… cheer up.”
“Ugh… sniff, sniff why are you barking now?”
“Woof?”
“Ugh… Potsutarou… sniff, sniff”
“Huh!”

Jucy and Daga comforted Narcissus.
In the sudden situation, Agaro and I could only look at each other in astonishment.
Agaro spoke to me,

“Well… you see…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t cry, but sometimes I remember and drink alone.”
“Is that so?”
“Sometimes. There are nights like that.”

Agaro gave a wry smile.
Perhaps last night had been one of those nights.

Then, somehow, Narcissus finally stopped crying.

We descended into the plunge pool. On the way to the town, we fought zombies.

Among the zombies, the three people we were searching for were not there.
We defeated appearing zombies and advanced, repeating this without much trouble.
Finally, we arrived in front of the town.

The town was surrounded by large gray walls.
The gate at the entrance had decayed and stood wide open.
Looking closely, the once grand walls were faded, cracked in places, and crumbling.

“Wof. How does it look?”
“It’s black.”

The entire town was unusually pitch black. But that wasn’t all.

“I feel some unpleasant pressure coming from that town. What is this?”

Narcissus expressed her discomfort and disgust openly.
Jucy also frowned and said,

“Um… it reminds me of the King of the Death Wind.”
“Huh!”
“Yes, it’s similar to that.”

That’s right. It resembled that time.

“King of the Death Wind… speaking of which, you guys went into the Death Dungeon, right?”
“About a month ago, I think.”
“Yeah, around then.”
“Alright… shall we go?”
“Yes.”
“Um… yes. Woof.”
“Why did you bark just now?”
“Woof?”
“Huh!”

We raised our weapons and passed through the gate. The moment we did, it appeared.

A massive body with many long limbs blocked the streets and gaps between buildings.
It looked like a centipede, but each limb was a human hand or foot of varying size and gender.

Eyes were attached to its joints, and on its head was the upper body of a woman.
Her skin was pale and lifeless, and her long black hair obscured her face.

Occasionally, purple light flickered through the gaps.
In her slender hands, she held something black, elongated, and distorted.

Suddenly, our eyes met.
I felt like it was looking at me.

From our gaze, I could tell: those were purple… black, murky, deathly eyes.
Instantly, I reflexively chanted.

“———Pseudo-Deity Relic [Generous]”

My hair and eyes shimmered in a deep purple instantly.
Without hesitation, I spoke aloud.

“[Rave Form]”

Suddenly, a strange pain shot across my forehead and face.

“Guh-ah―――!”

But it vanished quickly, replaced by a sudden expansion of perception and thought.
It felt as if my existence had shifted dimensions.

If I reached out, I could literally grasp the stars in the night sky.
And yet, all of it felt like child’s play.

‘Gyi-gyaaahhhhh!’

“Ugh!?”
“W-what… that feels disgusting!”
“Kyaah!”
“Huh!”

It screamed at me.
Agaro and the others writhed in agony.

“Shut up. [Phantasmagoria Roar]”

I raised my hand to erase it.
But some barrier blocked me, and I only erased that barrier.

Even so, the resulting shockwave was enough to knock it over, and it was sent flying.
Several buildings collapsed.

“Daga!”
“Huh!”

Daga leapt high, spun, and transformed into a knife.
When caught and held, it shifted. A strange triangular knife with a hollow center.

A slightly pointed triangular blade, hollow in the middle like a forked design.
In the center of the forked area, a large teardrop-shaped gem, the True Eye, glowed purple.

“[Roar’s Cosmic Arm]”

Enchanting Dagaa, a blade radiating black and blue-purple light, as if containing the universe itself, extended.

‘Gyi-gyaaahhhhh!’

It rose and screamed again, attacking me.
It swung its black, elongated, distorted limbs down.

It was the Abstract of Death. Somehow, I just knew.
This was the same treasure-level being the witch had once defeated after rewriting the world.

I countered it with the cosmic blade, absorbing and pulling it in.
Then, using [Rave Move] continuously, I leapt high and sliced it.

To be precise, I severed the upper body of the woman on its head.
The part cut by the cosmic blade was absorbed and vanished.

Exactly one minute passed.
I landed successfully.

I was still in [Generous] form. Are they all safe?

“Woof! Wawoon! Woof, Wof-sama!”
“Wha—!?”

Jucy, now in [Fenrir] form, leapt toward me.