“La… What?”
Goddess Blanc, who heard my monologue, asked while tilting her head in wonder. She seemed curious about what I said, but we had no time to talk about it.
The floating piece of land lifted off the ground for about half a kilometer, stopping midair. As it did, right in front of it, the space started cracking from a small point, expanding slowly.
“We need to hurry to that piece of land, now!”
Goddess Alpha shouted with a serious expression. Everyone could already guess why she was pushing us to rush forward. The crack in space that was opening was undoubtedly some sort of portal. If that opens, then the floating castle will definitely escape to an unknown location!
One after another, the god tamers and the others jumped off, flying straight for the large castle… All but our team.
“… We can’t fly.”
I sighed.
At this point, all we could do was watch as the other god tamers flew up… Or so I thought.
“Leave this to me, Sir Will!”
“Woah!”
Suddenly, all of us were lifted off the ground. Looking at the energy covering all of us, I noticed that it was actually Minerva’s doing. She’s using her psychic powers to lift us all, moving at a moderate speed toward the floating castle. .
“Great job, Minerva. Now, we only need to be careful of attacks…”
Knowing Noir, there’s no way he wouldn’t place something to prevent us from approaching.
Ajax and Vermeil reached the vicinity of the floating castle the fastest. As soon as they came within range, the attached land below the castle suddenly showed signs of change.
“Watch out!”
Vermeil shouted as she took evasive maneuvers.
From the land part, black tentacles suddenly extended. It was fine if there were only a dozen or so since they could still handle it easily. However, with a rough calculation, there are millions of those wiggling all around the entire thing!
To make matters worse, it wasn’t the usual tentacles that were merely a few meters long. These ones reach over a hundred or so meters easily, a clear threat to everyone.
Ajax didn’t copy Vermeil and instead fought back, chopping dozens of tentacles with each swipe of his dagger. Despite his efforts, however, the attacks didn’t lessen but instead increased even more.
“Kuh! These d*mned tentacles!”
Realizing the futility of his actions, he quickly took distance from them and heaved a deep sigh. As he was, he couldn’t do anything against those tentacles.
“Right person for the right job, right?”
Blanc, who approached the two, muttered with a faint smile. As soon as she overtook the two, she spread both hands, palms open, and pointed straight ahead.
“[Purifying Light]!”
Along with her words, a blinding flash of light came from both her palms, illuminating the entire castle. The light melted the tentacles as it hit them, like Styrofoam exposed to acetone.
Soon, the flash faded, revealing the scene of the floating castle. In just one wave, half of the tentacles vanished without a trace. However, the back half of the tentacle swarm was still mostly unaffected.
“Go!”
Still, it’s true that the coast was clear, so everyone quickly tried to board the flying castle as soon as possible. However, looking at the state of the cracking portal before it, we wouldn’t be able to make it in time.
Goddess Zeta wordlessly waved her fingers, interfering with the forming space and slowing down its formation.
“I can’t stop it from opening! All I can do is delay it. The one opening this portal must be as powerful, if not more powerful than me!”
A being that was more powerful than a goddess like her. A certain six-winged angel’s visage suddenly crossed my mind, but I quickly denied the possibility. That one was tasked with watching the Otherside’s entrance, so she wouldn’t be able to move from there at all.
“Which means there’s another beyond-god-level powerhouse ahead?!”
It was a scary thought, but there was still the possibility that it was just another god-level with space control abilities on par with Goddess Zeta. Rather, I hope that’s the case.
“There! An entrance!”
Goddess Blanc pointed straight ahead, where a rectangular entrance could be seen protruding. Everyone went for it without hesitation, safely entering the floating land.
Being the slowest, our group entered last. As soon as we landed, Minerva crashed on her knees, panting hard as cold sweat covered her forehead.
While passing a recovery potion to her, I scanned the entire thing we entered. At first glance, it was just a normal rectangular passage, but upon closer inspection, something strange caught my attention.
“The walls… have energy circulating in them?”
The pattern was closer to a living being than the energy flow of an inorganic object or artifact. This fact made me question what sort of place we’re really getting ourselves into.
“Don’t worry, Will.”
However, Goddess Blanc corrected me immediately.
“This is without a doubt a part of the dungeon, as dungeons are technically living things.”
“Right. The problem here is: how should we find the correct path leading to Noir? Based on common sense, he should be somewhere near the core of this dungeon…”
Zeshion added as a frown covered his face.
“Really? I think it’s easy to find the center, though.”
When I mentioned that, everyone turned to me with quizzical gazes. After all, the dungeon was supposed to be hard to conquer, even for god tamers like them. The intensity of their gazes made me flinch a little.
“I-If the dungeon really is living, then all we need to do is follow the flow of energy. It should circulate through certain areas and return to the core, after all.”
I’m not a hundred percent sure that the energy returns to the core, as it could be managed by another “organ” or something. However, it should still be closer to the center.
“…!”
“That’s genius, Will!”
“Heh, even I could think of that…”
Zeshion and Vermeil seemed surprised, while Blanc and Ajax commented.
Alpha moved immediately, touching the walls and closing her eyes. She seemed to be detecting the flow of energy and finding the “center” of its circulation.
It didn’t even take her a few seconds before she exclaimed.
“I found it!”
Without waiting for the others, Alpha rushed along the pathway, turning to the right and going out of sight immediately. The god tamers and the others quickly followed, with our team coming in last.
They were all fast! It was to the point that those without body-strengthening skills could only lag behind. In the end, we needed to be a bit creative just to catch up. In lieu of the tired Minerva, I made everyone but Igni float, tied everyone with a strand of rope, and let her pull us like a kite.
Although I needed to adjust the flight path every time she turned a corner, we were now moving at roughly the same pace as the others. They were already a dot ahead of us, however. Without Fang’s nose, we would’ve lost their track long ago.
*BOOOOM!*
“Woah!”
Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard ahead. The entire passage shook, causing Igni to lose her balance and fall to her knees temporarily. We, who were floating, didn’t notice the shaking of the ground, but the vibration in the air made our skin feel like it was pricked by needles.
*BOOOOM!* *BOOOOM!* *BOOOOM!*
Three more explosions resounded, causing dust and fragments to fall from the ceiling of the passage. The intensity of explosions could only mean one thing.
“They already met with Noir!”
Igni didn’t even need my order, as she quickly regained her balance and forged onward. In under a minute, while suffering from several more shakes from explosions, we finally reached a wide clearing. It was a large dome of about a hundred meters in diameter.
There, a large aggregation of tentacles were squirming at blinding speed, trying to catch several figures in the air. A little distance ahead, on the ground, Goddess Blanc was present with Zeta and Alpha.
They were already exchanging blows, each strike enough to rend the tough walls of the dungeon!
Looking around, I quickly found the target at the furthest end of the large dome. Noir was there, standing… No, he’s not standing, not even sitting. His lower body was half-integrating with the wall of the dungeon, the one that releases myriad colors, and it was also the energy core that circulates energy throughout the entire dungeon.
He looked immobile but had an almost impenetrable defense.
Zeshion, seeing a lapse in the attacking tentacles, quickly dismantled those around him and rushed forward, his sword glowing in a bright golden light.
“Noir! It’s time you die!”
Noir didn’t seem panicked. Instead, he even smiled a sinister smile.
“Kill me? You’re not even qualified!”
He pulled his right arm off the wall, causing its surface to ripple like water. In his hands, a blue crystal orb was held, releasing a mysterious glow.
.