Grosse stood on the platform before the tunnel mouth and turned its head for one last look at the blazing sunset along the skyline.
The clouds at the horizon looked scorched by fire, thick orange-red tangled through dark purple.
Just as it turned around, ready to drag its heavy steps into that familiar dark passage—
"Th-that... um..."
"That..." A guardsman on defense duty swallowed hard and forced his voice out, small and stammering.
Grosse heard him. Its body shifted slightly, that enormous frame like a walking hill of gray stone, and it looked down at him from above.
The guardsman stood beneath Grosse, face tight with fear, legs trembling faintly. "Th-this... this..."
He didn't dare raise his eyes to those terrifying pupils. With a shaking hand he held out a bundle of yellow wildflowers, freshly pulled from the roadside, and stumbled through the words.
"It's from over by the collapsed wooden house on East Main Street... a little girl ran all the way here and begged me for help. She wanted these flowers passed on to the one who carried her toy bear back out of the fire today... a big stone dragon."
"I think... that has to be you."
"She also said... she said to thank the big stone dragon uncle for digging out her doll."
Grosse stared at the yellow wildflowers in the guardsman's hand.
The small bright blossoms swayed in the evening breeze, looking as though a breath could ruin them.
Alone, they sat reflected in Grosse's frightening dark red eyes.
After a brief silence.
It slowly extended one huge stone claw.
Those talons could tear through steel armor without effort. Now they moved with painstaking care, as if breathing too hard would snap the fragile stems.
"I will keep them safe."
Grosse's voice came out rough and grating.
It took the flowers by their stems, turned, and stepped into the cold, dank tunnel.
Only this time, a few steps in, it looked back once more at the light spilling through the entrance.
Even about to return to the sunless dark of the Dungeon, it kept that spot of bright yellow tucked firmly into the gap between the hardest scales on its chest.
Meanwhile.
In the upscale residential district.
With every last matter settled, Shakti had made her farewells as well and departed with a large detachment of guardsmen.
Haimer cleared away the last of the business on his hands and went up to the master bedroom on the second floor.
He pushed open the door.
The light inside was dim and yellowish. The girls were gathered together, a strange flush faintly coloring every face.
Because during the search in the Pleasure Quarter, Aisha's dirty needling—that "your god will get charmed by the Goddess of Beauty and never climb back out of bed"—was still circling in their ears.
Which was why the eyes of Onigawara Rin and the others roamed all over him the moment he came through the door.
Haimer walked in without ceremony, shrugged off his coat, and slung it over the back of a chair.
"Looks like you're all in decent spirits."
He sat down on the edge of the bed and patted the mattress beside him.
"A whole night without rest. Well, since everyone's here, let's begin. You've piled up a fair stock of excelia. Time to cash a little of it in."
At those words.
The girls straightened where they sat, every tangled thought from a moment ago flung out of their heads.
Amou Kirukiru moved first.
Modesty had never been a concept she bothered with. In front of everyone, she grabbed the hem of her thin training top, yanked it up over her head, and tossed it on the floor.
Her pale, tightly drawn back was bared to the air, the lines of muscle hinting at terrifying explosive power.
She lay down on the mattress beside Haimer, hands folded beneath her chin.
The position pressed her impressive curves out of shape against the edge of the mattress. She turned her face to the side, long black hair spilling down.
"Kami."
"Hurry up."
Haimer nodded, raised a hand, and drew his fingertip lightly across a nail. A bead of dark golden Divine Blood welled out.
Sacred script surfaced, line by line.
—Amou Kirukiru, Rank Sublimation, Lv.3.
[Name]: Amou Kirukiru
[Race]: Human
[Level]: Lv.3
[Ability]: Strength: I0 | Endurance: I0 | Dexterity: I0 | Agility: I0 | Magic: I0
[Development Ability]: "Rigid Body"
[Magic]: None
[Skills]: "Avatar Blade", "Battle Frenzy"
"Sublimation succeeded."
"Three Development Ability branches came up for you."
Haimer studied the glowing row of text. "[Body Recovery], [Power Strike], and [Battle Soul]."
"Given how you fight, I wouldn't take [Body Recovery] or [Power Strike]. Lock in [Battle Soul]."
"With 'Battle Soul,' as long as you don't die, the worse you're wounded and the more blood you lose, the more attack power gets wrung out of the depths of your body's potential."
Amou Kirukiru didn't hesitate for a second. "'Battle Soul.'"
Light flashed across her back the moment she chose.
Development Ability "Battle Soul" confirmed and engraved.
She straightened, and the glow on her back sank away.
Amou Kirukiru sat up on the bed, dragged a shirt over her shoulders, and worked the buttons closed at her own unhurried pace.
"How does leveling up feel?" Onigawara Rin asked from the side, curiosity getting the better of her.
Amou Kirukiru licked the corner of her mouth and kneaded at the ache in her neck.
"Loosened up the joints a little, I suppose."
She lifted her eyes to Haimer, undisguised fever burning in them, and dropped her voice.
"But it isn't enough. This much groundwork isn't fit to measure against a god."
Faced with provocation like that from such a wild, magnificent creature, any other male god in the Lower World would already have been swept off his feet.
However.
Now was not the time.
Haimer patted her shoulder.
"Forget it. Get dressed and go wait over there."
And that was that.
Amou Kirukiru pulled a face, then dropped cross-legged onto the floor to one side, easy about it, and let the matter go.
Tsukuyo Inaba came next.
The same as always.
She undid the wide miko robes with care.
Her constitution was a special case.
That small body pressed against the sheets, spine faintly ridged, still looked painfully fragile.
Divine Blood fell.
The text on her back shifted and rewrote itself again and again.
Even though the skill "Ill-Fated Sword Demon" had severed the ceiling of her Endurance outright, leaving her ability to take a hit forever on the brink of collapse.
When the light dispersed.
Tsukuyo Inaba had still achieved Rank Sublimation, Lv.3!
[Name]: Tsukuyo Inaba
[Race]: Human
[Level]: Lv.3
[Ability]: Strength: I0 | Endurance: I0 | Dexterity: I0 | Agility: I0 | Magic: I0
[Development Ability]: "Mind's Eye" I
[Magic]: None
[Skills]: "Magatsuko", "Fleeting Splendor", "Ill-Fated Sword Demon"
The options popped up beneath it.
Haimer read them aloud. "Tsukuyo Inaba, your options are [Enemy Sense], [Nimbleness], and [Flash Slash]."
After going through the effects, he reached out and ruffled her silver hair. "Nimbleness lightens the strain on your body. That paper-thin Endurance of yours might get some use out of it."
"Then Tsukuyo will choose 'Nimbleness.'"
Tsukuyo Inaba said it with her eyes closed, smiling.
The light drew back in.
She rose, gathered her robes against her chest, bowed slightly in Haimer's direction, and only then stepped down from the bed.
Onigawara Rin hurried up the moment she saw the bed free, fingers making quick work of her buttons.
She was used to the routine by now. Mask clipped at her waist, small face flushing as she peeled off her top, she lay down, seized the pillow in both hands and buried her face in it.
Update complete. The light faded.
—Onigawara Rin, Rank Sublimation, Lv.3.
[Name]: Onigawara Rin
[Race]: Human
[Level]: Lv.3
[Ability]: Strength: I0 | Endurance: I0 | Dexterity: I0 | Agility: I0 | Magic: I0
[Development Ability]: "Swordsman" I
[Magic]: None
[Skills]: "Clear Mirror Sword Heart", "Sealed-Heart Sword Soul"
Haimer looked over the new options.
"Lun, your choices are 'Magic Defense' and 'Iron Wall.'"
"'Iron Wall' adds a recoil of force back into an attack whenever you block it."
At that, Onigawara Rin tore her head out of the pillow, balled up her small fists, and lit up all over. "'Iron Wall'!"
Once it set, Lun threw her clothes back on at record speed and went off to a corner, fists clenched, to feel out her new strength.
Next was Nomura Satori.
Mary Kikakujou wasn't there. The residual poison had cleared out of her system, but at the thought of what she had done in front of her god last night, she was still shut in the bathroom, as reluctant to show her face as Miss Rei.
The Holy Emperor, worried about the state of the two of them, had stayed in the bathroom to keep them company.
So the turn passed to Nomura Satori.
She stripped off her clothes with brisk speed and climbed on, long emerald hair fanning out across the sheets.
Once Haimer let the Divine Blood fall.
Nomura Satori, Rank Sublimation, Lv.3!
[Name]: Nomura Satori
[Race]: Human
[Level]: Lv.3
[Ability]: Strength: I0 | Endurance: I0 | Dexterity: I0 | Agility: I0 | Magic: I0
[Development Ability]: "Stealth" I
[Magic]: None
[Skills]: "Blade of No Mind"
"The options are 'Throwing,' 'Concealment,' and 'Shadow Step.'"
"'Shadow Step' wipes out your presence entirely while you're moving. Even the sound of your footsteps gets pressed down to almost nothing."
When her god finished the explanation, a bright glint crossed Satori's perpetually smiling eyes.
"I'll take that one. 'Shadow Step.'"
Once Satori had climbed back off the bed, she tilted her head and grinned at Tsukuyo Inaba, who stood against the wall with her long sword in her arms.
"Hey, now even Tsukuyo might not hear me walking, don't you think?"
Tsukuyo Inaba's ear twitched a fraction, and she answered softly.
"Even with no breathing to hear, Satori still has a heartbeat."
"And even if the heartbeat were silent, the sound of Satori's blade splitting the air doesn't get away."
"...Hard to say, isn't it."
Satori pushed out her lips and huffed, striking a thoroughly unconvinced pose, but she let the argument drop.
Next in line was Warabi Hanasaka, whose numbers had piled up sharply across the board after several street sweeps alongside Kyoubou, and who ascended to Lv.3 as a matter of course.
She gained "Mounted Combat"—while riding a tamed beast, attacks made with a held weapon have their physical power doubled outright.
It might as well have been a Development Ability cut to fit her and Kyoubou.
Then came Tendou Kisara.
Tendou Kisara walked to the bedside and removed her top with far more reserve.
After the level-up.
The Development Ability she drew was "Blade Draw"—specialization in iai-style techniques, with a shorter wind-up before the strike and a sharply raised burst of opening power.
And that settled that.
Then Aihara Enju came bouncing over and cheerfully pulled off her shirt.
Divine light flickered.
Sublimation to Lv.3, without a hitch.
She took the "Swift Kick" that Haimer recommended.
"'Swift Kick'—once a leg technique lands on an enemy, you gain a short burst of extra speed."
Enju heard him out.
She tugged her clothes back on, straightened her shorts, and bounced hard twice on the spot in excitement.
"That's the best! So as long as I keep kicking, I just keep running faster and faster, right, Kami-sama?"
Enju grinned wide, her two little fangs showing, energy pouring off her with nothing held back.
Seeing that, Kohina Hiruko was hardly going to be outdone, and got in line for the bed.
Strength, Dexterity and Agility all capped at SS.
With the level-up finished.
Little Hiruko went straight for "Chained Blades."
The effect of "Chained Blades" was simple and brutal.
Her twin blades' attack speed stacked with every kill. The more she killed, the faster the swings came.
And there it was.
With both little girls done.
That left Koharu Narukami, who had only reached Lv.2 a short while ago, had piled up an absurd amount of excelia all over again, and now stood with one foot across the threshold of Lv.3!
Haimer let his blood drip onto her back, and the text rose to the surface of the parchment.
[Name]: Koharu Narukami
[Race]: Human
[Level]: Lv.3
[Ability]: Strength: I0 | Endurance: I0 | Dexterity: I0 | Agility: I0 | Magic: I0
[Development Ability]: "Preemptive"
[Magic]: None
[Skills]: "Slay for the Sake of Slaying", "Slay Because of Slaying", "Reforging Carnage"
"I'll take 'Swordsman.'" Haimer had barely finished listing the options before Koharu Narukami made up her mind.
She sat up, fastened her buttons, and rolled her wrists a few times.
Since it concerned the elder sister she admired, Tsukuyo Inaba looked more invested in the matter than Koharu Narukami herself.
"Two ranks in a handful of days. Elder Sister really is remarkable."
"It's only a pity..."
"The Denatus wrapped up just days ago. Otherwise, at the pace Elder Sister is climbing, she could certainly have claimed a resounding title of her own in front of all those gods."
Tsukuyo Inaba heaped on the praise, then broke off, her voice turning complicated, tinged with regret.
Hearing that, Koharu Narukami tilted her head slightly.
Tsukuyo had been tutoring her on Orario's common knowledge lately, so she had a decent grasp of this world's specialized vocabulary by now...
"A title?"
"It doesn't matter."
Koharu Narukami turned to Tsukuyo Inaba and said it in passing.
"Nothing but empty reputation."
"Although, speaking of it, your title is 'Pale Cherry Blossom Demon,' isn't it? In this world, is there anyone called something like Sword Demon? That name has always sounded good to my ear. I'd rather have that one."
At those words.
Every girl in the room went still, and the air in the room shifted key.
Tsukuyo Inaba pressed her lips together and said quietly. "There is... there already is one, and what's more—"
"What's more, what?"
"Somebody's holding it? In that case, I'll go cut down whoever's sitting on the title and take it from them."
It really had to be said.
Evilus badly needed talent like Koharu.
At those words.
Haimer leaned back against the headboard, out of options, and looked at his own problem child.
____
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