Inside the [Elf Garden], the distant "Sacred Tree" had long since withered.
Those palm-sized "Fairies" lay scattered in twos and threes around the trunk like dead insects, utterly still. There was something pitiful about the sight.
Even so.
Remembering the ugly faces those things had worn earlier, Ais and Lefiya could tell they were nothing good either. Maybe, just as Isagi had guessed, there was some story thread that could have triggered another BOSS out here by the Sacred Tree.
It just didn't look possible anymore.
And with the "Sacred Tree" withered away, the flower fields all around it had turned far more vivid than before.
They picked a small hillside at random, made camp, lit a fire, and started cooking.
Ais lowered her head to check the time.
Before setting out, everyone had of course agreed on the latest hour for a return — it was a BOSS fight, after all, and those didn't actually take very long.
And if that [Appointed Time] passed, the others would go looking for them.
Of course, that was all well and good in theory, but if the subjugation had failed, then…
"Hey!"
From far off came a boy's shout, brimming with energy.
Ais flung the bad feeling that had just risen up in her clean out of her mind, then stood and looked toward the distance.
Isagi and the others were back.
Not a single one missing — though Hedin had taken some wounds, his left arm and most of his body stained red with blood, and everyone else carried minor injuries here and there. Still, they were all right.
Better off than her own group, even.
In the fight with the twin-headed dragon, Finn had been hurt badly and was still unconscious. Gareth was much the same, except that the dwarf's [Endurance] was high enough that he could still hold himself upright and walk.
The two parties joined up quickly, then settled back into rest, planning to head up to the city's surface the next day.
While they waited for supper.
Isagi and Ais went together to the stream not far off, meaning to gather some wild greens and see whether they could catch a few small fish in the water — there was a kind of fish here whose name nobody knew, very long and very thin, delicious deep-fried and just as good in soup.
Normally Tiona was the expert at this sort of thing, but the Amazon girl seemed a bit too worn out — most likely from burning through so much blood aura — and was currently fast asleep, snoring away. That left it to Isagi and Ais.
The stream was hushed and still.
Faint silver motes of light drifted down from overhead like moonlight, illuminating the flowers and grasses along the bank.
Isagi searched carefully among the red, yellow, white, and green blossoms for the pale violet wild greens, the ones with slightly curled, thicker leaves.
Ais, meanwhile, crouched at the water's edge catching little fish.
Copying the way Tiona did it, the golden-haired girl lowered the small specially made fish trap into the clear water, set a piece of "jerky" made from certain insects inside as bait, and waited quietly.
As they worked, the two of them talked about the BOSS fights they'd just come through.
As for a pure stat monster like the twin-headed dragon, Isagi had never imagined it could be that strong — mainly because it hadn't just died to Riveria's strongest magic. Before that, it had also eaten one of Finn's "magic spear" shots.
By all accounts, that was the magic that had nearly brought the whole 60th floor down during the subjugation of the Corrupted Spirit. Its power was absolutely absurd.
It was also the final trump card of Finn, the Pallum Braver — and once he used it, he was left in critical condition.
On the other side, Ais was curious about the outrageous mechanics BOSS that Isagi and the Freya Familia crowd had run into. Once they saw through its ability to turn invisible the fight had gotten much easier, but before that, it had been genuinely frightening.
The conversation came and went in fits and starts.
Isagi and Ais were used to chatting on and off like this, and soon it turned to the "Black Wind" she'd used a short while ago.
"Once you can use it a single time, you can use it any number of times after that," Isagi said.
The girl had a grip on that power now; from here on it was only a matter of practice. Ais went a little bashful about it, and then she brought up the past she had remembered during the fight.
On that subject, Isagi was wide awake.
When he'd traveled back a thousand years, he really had met Ais's mother.
And what was more, the "little Ais" of that time really had gone with Albert Waldstein down into the deep floors of the Dungeon.
Isagi had actually asked the Amazon tribe's Empress about that matter.
At the time it had struck him as cruel. She was only an eight-year-old girl, after all — strong, sure, but in that situation, taking her down into the deep floors of the Dungeon, wasn't that a little…
But that was simply how the age was.
And the Empress had added that Ais herself had asked for it.
A [Warrior] could only grow stronger through battle. Endure countless slaughters, and whoever survived at the end was the mightiest [Hero]. There was no other road.
Which was, in fact, the truth.
So, taking the fragments of memory the girl had just recovered and threading them together with what he himself had seen and heard a thousand years ago—
Ais had clearly remembered something more.
Almost without thinking, her hand went to the [Sword of Despair] she habitually wore at her waist. Except that the indestructible weapon that had accompanied her through so many years was now broken clean through; by the look of it, even taking it back wouldn't be enough to repair it.
[I'll just have to have a new weapon forged.]
Faint and indistinct.
As Ais ran her fingers over the hilt that was all the [Sword of Despair] had left, a familiar, nostalgic feeling seemed to rise from somewhere deep inside her.
She realized what it was.
It was her weapon from long ago — the weapon she had carried a thousand years back, when she went to the "Great Pit" together with her father, her mother, and a great many companions.
What on earth had that been—
"Want to go back and take a look together sometime?" Isagi said suddenly, smiling.
Honestly speaking, Isagi thought that bringing Ais back a thousand years carried a certain amount of risk.
It might change the course of the world, and it would expose his own identity, along with a great many things about the future.
The impact could be enormous. Perhaps it was better to go back and discuss it with the goddesses first.
And honestly, again — with his own strength and the girl's as they stood now, even returning to the past wouldn't change anything. The Black Dragon would in all likelihood still leave the Dungeon, and Aria would in all likelihood still have to sacrifice herself to seal it away.
So when he suggested she come back with him for a look—
What he really meant was this.
Just a glance from far away. As long as they didn't expose who they were, that should be fine, right?
"Mm."
Faced with his invitation, the girl sank into thought.
She wanted to go.
Of course Ais missed her mother; that was a bond rooted deep in her blood. Otherwise she'd never have reacted so fiercely back when she heard the monster-people controlled by the Corrupted Spirit speak the name "Aria."
"No rush on deciding. Either way, we head back to the city first."
"Mm!"
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