30 Chapter 30: 27th-Floor Nightmare

The strong stench of iron.

The thick and humid air.

The red liquid almost solidified itself to the ground.

A sight that I am familiar with.

"Battlefield."

If someone saw the brutal carnage that those curses had done during the Shinjuku Train Station Massacre, they would be able to handle this scene better.

The weak-hearted ones might have vomited out all of the food they have eaten for the day.

"Revelares, Veritas."

Dozens of numbers showed up. This included the temperature of their bodies, the tension in their muscles, and the coagulation rate of their blood.

With these, I could determine the time of their death.

"1.2 hours ago…"

With this much blood lost and two sharp punctures, only a single monster is capable of making this injury.

"Devil Mosquitoes…"

If ordinary mosquitoes are enough to annoy people to death, then the version of mosquitoes in Gekai is enough to suck you to death.

What is more disturbing, however, is the fact that they hunt in groups. Like cockroaches in Australia, a single trace of them could warrant more than a dozen.

"If there are devil mosquitoes in the periphery, how worse would the other places be?"

Right now, I am on the 27th floor. A huge skip from my previous floors, I daresay.

The only reason I came here is my ability to maneuver in dangerous battlefields.

I have finished calculating for [Alice's Wonderland] and kept it inside the catalyst, ready to be manifested anytime. My mana kept them from disappearing due to the mystical entropy. Fortunately, it is far weaker in this world due to the widespread knowledge of magic.

(A/N: Mystical Entropy is the clash between magic laws and laws of physics. Magic couldn't remain permanent as physical laws or physics exist and contend against them.)

With my current [Mind], the special power awakened with falna, my thoughts could be organized more easily. It is something apart from [Mana], with it being "a mental capacity to think until fatigued".

It is the limiting factor that I have had in the past. Without sufficient mind, I could manifest three magic circles at most. Anything beyond that requires a catalyst with a [Memorize]-engraved catalyst. There are strong spells that are under three spells, but they are far and few in between.

"Hm..?"

Amid the bloody battlefield, I finally found someone alive. A weak life signature beside the lake. Strangely, most of the corpses turned into masses of flesh.

"What is this..?"

A work of an Irregular, perhaps.

I came closer. I saw these things that used to be adventurers. It creeped me out. I tried placing my analyze spell, only to find out there are foreign substances inside them.

'Poison.'

I went to the sole survivor in their midst. There lies a young girl—an elf.

Buzz.

A group of devil mosquitoes discovered me.

"Their eyesight is insane…"

With [Alice's Wonderland] ready to be cast anytime, I am limited to one big spell, lest my previous calculations go to waste.

Hence…

"Seiden." (Sacred Lightning.)

Buzz-!

A lightning bolt struck two harpies at the same time. I could see them fall from their pack. This action bewildered some mosquitoes, but they did not stop closing in the distance.

I responded by widening the distance between us. At the same time, I placed a blue potion in my mouth and drank it.

Tap.

With Seiden's characteristic, it brings down more enemies the more frequently you use it—the remnants of the previous spell would attach to the new spell. By the time two minutes had passed, the fifty or so devil mosquitoes dropped dead.

"Chain lightning is the best…"

Retracing my steps, I deftly grabbed the magic stones in their chests. It was not hard due to my sensitivity to mana.

to corpses dropped thin black spikes, presumably their stinger. They are good for making arrows.

I have to thank my storage for being quite large. It has the space of a 15 x 15 storage unit. It is enough for handling magic stones, provisions, and drop loots. It lasted for more than four days back then.

Slurp.

"Fu…"

With a high potion, my mind was restored.

Just as I was about to proceed to the adventurer from earlier, my sight caught a man running away from a monster party.

'...'

Our gazes met. In that instant…

"Finally…"

The blue crystals illuminated the man's face. His white hair swayed as he coldly stared at the monster party behind his back. With my sharp hearing under [Double Robustness], I heard his low mumble.

I tensed up. He might not know, but that short burst of malintent was caught by my senses. Going down this thought, he is someone who seeks to harm me.

Who would do so in this situation?

'Either he is desperate to survive or…'

He is a member of Evilus.

I made my decision.

*****

"Finally…"

Olivas Act, also known as Vendetta, did not reveal his true face even during the Great Feud five years ago. He kept his face behind a mask as insurance for the future.

Surely, it did serve its purpose today. No one recognized him as a part of Evilus.

"Help..!"

He wore a desperate look as he ran the "fastest" that he could. Fake tears spilled from his eyes as an extra. Though, it is not entirely fake.

He is indeed crying out of joy due to the spectacle he would be witnessing soon.

"Don't try and defeat them! Just run!"

The fully armored adventurer did not respond and instead stood still. He held a blue longsword in his hand. The knight stabbed it deep into the ground.

"Huh..?"

Vendetta ran past him. Surprisingly, the 'knight' did not move. It's as if he is a statue.

"It's time."

Suddenly, he heard a childish voice inside the helmet. He was not far away from him, thus his ears caught those words. A huge central magic circle appeared in the ground where the longsword was stabbed. Then, several smaller circles appeared beside it. They all spun like gears inside a clock.

The next moment, his sight was caught in a blinding light.

"Damn..!"

Vendetta knew that he was briefly incapacitated by that move. If he doesn't move fast enough, he would be—

"Ah..?" His mind froze as he looked all around him. "Where are the monsters?!"

The monster party that followed him was formidable. It consisted of more than fifty monsters that came from the core of the 27th floor—Light Quartz, Aqua Turtles, and Kelpies.

This lineup made it so that even level fours won't be able to live. The moment they get outrun by this group, they would die.

Right now, he found himself on the surface.

"No… This is not Orario..!"

Perfectly cut marble floors as well as an asphalt road far better than the ones in Orario.

Towering infrastructures that are only below Babel itself.

Street lights that look more advanced than the magic stone lamps present in Gekai.

"Where am I..?!"

"Guess."

Vendetta looked at the center of the road.

"?!"

He was perfectly sure that no one was present around him before.

'How could he appear like this?! Only magic items… right!'

Just as he was becoming more confident in uncovering this man's tricks, another thought passed by.

'What about this place? I am not hallucinating…'

From the cold touch of the marble floor and the slightly cool air, he knew that this is not an 'illusion'. He could even see the stars in the sky.

Simply, everything is extremely detailed.

"Who are you?! What do you want from me?!"

For now, he decided to put on an act.

"I should be the one asking things." The armored man said. "Speak. What does the Evilus want this time?"

"W-what?! What nonsense—"

"Drop the act. You are already cornered."

Suddenly, the knight appeared behind his back. He grabbed Vendetta's right arm and placed it behind his back.

Bam-!

The knight kicked him down to the ground.

"Argh!"

Vendetta's right arm felt pain from being twisted like this. If it continues, it would break.

"I'm not joking around. If you want to live, speak."

"I… do… not know anything..!"

Vendetta gritted his teeth to resist the pain. He insisted on continuing the innocent act. Unfortunately, he showed enough malice against the knight.

Even if he isn't from Evilus, he would have been punished for threatening his life.

Thus—

Crack-!

Two of his fingers were bent in strange directions as his joints gave up.

"ARGHH..!"

All this time, Vendetta had been the one to inflict pain. He enjoyed the expressions that his victims would make.

Will they despair?

Will they cry?

Will they lose hope?

Each of their reactions varied, which entertained him even more.

Crack-!

Not once had he experienced this kind of immense pain. He broke his fingers many times as an adventurer, but they never felt like this.

It's as if his sense of pain became amplified. His perception of time became slower, making the pain even worse.

"I… don't…"

"...Confess now and I'll let you go. Back to the surface, even."

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!"

"I see."

Surprisingly, the knight let him go. A warm feeling went through his body. When he retracted his hand, he found it to be completely healed.

At the same time, the knight had disappeared.

'He's gone..?'

Just as he scanned his surroundings, he saw a huge pillar of violet light coming in his direction.

Before he could even react, his entire body was disintegrated. Forces came from all directions, pushing and pulling his very cells apart. For Vendetta, the sensation felt like an eternity.

Ten years… Hundred years… Thousand years…

"Huh?"

Abruptly, he found himself in the same spot.

"What… was that..?"

His entire body shivered uncontrollably. His legs folded as he fell to the ground. Urine and fecal matter spilled from his pants—as if he could not control his body anymore.

His teeth clattered subconsciously that he could no longer speak. His irises narrowed as his entire body felt the trauma of being killed continuously.

He was about to lose consciousness when his condition became slightly better. His mind calmed down a bit he could now control his body once more.

"Confess, and you shall live."

The voice from before resounded ubiquitously.

"I… I…"

Never had Vendetta thought that he would concede to an enemy. However, the pain he had experienced before was just that terrifying.

Not even level seven adventurers could create that sensation, that he is sure of. Evilus had many encounters with First-class adventurers (Beyond Level Five) back in Orario's Dark Age.

"...Will… not experience… again..?"

"If you do not trust my words—"

"W-wait..!"

*****

[Alice's Wonderland].

It is a spell that I have created to become my ultimate spell. After learning the principles of [Domain Expansion], this idea came to the corner of my mind.

Just because I don't have cursed energy doesn't mean I can't mimic them

Then my encounter with medical knowledge began. The first field that I dove into was neurology. A human's brain worked wonders—some of its functions are still not unearthed by the modern era.

Still, the foundation that lasted centuries of work was enough to help me establish the spell.

[Alice's Wonderland] does not work like Sorcerer's domains. It did not dabble into the "absolute hit" rule that it has, but rather on a human's body.

The eyes transmit light from the outside to the brain.

The ears sense soundwaves that came from an external environment.

The nose extracts every smell and is described by olfaction.

The tongue imparts the taste through the thousands of nerves present in it.

The touch sends the external information to the cerebral cortex.

If there's a spell that could "modify" this information, it would result in an illusion of sorts. Although, I wanted to go a step further. I wanted a spell that could be mistaken as reality, even only for a moment.

Everything was set up on the sensory scale. Hence, I applied another magic system that affects one's astral body. I made it so that the spell manipulates both the target's physical and astral body; a double-layered spell.

It inflicts pain to the astral body and messes the senses of the physical body. The combination of these two formed a synergistic effect. The best thing is that it's not reliant on myths; it perfectly works anywhere.

The only remaining thing is the base memory. Then again, I didn't lack any strong people in my memories.

Satoru Gojou.

Okkotsu Yuta.

Zen'in Toji.

Zen'in Maki.

Sukuna.

"What if I use their strengths against my enemies..?"

Even if they did not exist, the sensation of their power could be emulated, albeit not wholly.

The result was the pathetic man in front of me.

"Rudra Familia…"

Once he confessed, everything became clear. Unexpectedly, I caught a big fish—a high-ranking official in Evilus.

This man is Olivas Act who is better known as "Vendetta". Even now, he was placed on the Guild's blacklist due to his numerous crimes during the Dark Age. The corpse of his victims was unbearable as he extracted the maximum pain he could.

Shiing-!

Wave Blast-!

A huge impact condensed into the sharp edge as it tore through his neck. Moments later, it slipped from his body.

Blood began splurting on his wound as his body fell lifelessly to the ground. I do not need for his pathetic life.

My hands trembled slightly, but it is not as bad as before. True, my hesitation from before had greatly affected me. Even though I had those memories, they served as nothing but nightmares, considering how I lived in a peaceful and lawful world.

Now that I am getting more used to this world, my future memories are gradually being accepted.

Gekai is vastly different from the peaceful world that I am used to. It is more similar to the bloody sight I am always seeing in the future.

I wiped my blade with a black cloth that has [Cleansing] in it. Just a single swipe is enough to clean the blood out of it.

My surroundings changed as my magic came to an end. The blue longsword—a magic sword that has the [Memorize] spell—served as [Alice's Wonderland]'s core. The bulk of the computations is stored inside it, leaving my head with its activation portion.

If I truly kept everything inside my head, I would not have been able to cast any spells.

"Ah, it's gone."

The longsword turned into blue specks of light as it drifted to the sea. The tool that helped me kill dozens of 27th-floor monsters, as well as a high-ranking official, disappeared.

With a thought, the magic stones on the floor floated on top of my hand before being sent inside my storage. Their drops also followed, filling more than half of it in one go.

"I need to deal with her."

I came closer to the survivor. I checked her vital signs with [Correspondence]. There, I found out her current status.

"Normal..?"

It is a strange result. I expected her to be severely injured, yet there are only small internal injuries. Other than that, she is completely normal.

I placed a high potion into her mouth.

"Miss? Can you hear me?"

"Ah…"

She's out of her unresponsive state. The high potion rid her of most of her injuries.

"If you could, please drink this as much as possible."

I placed another potion in her mouth. Some of it spilled at the edges of her mouth, but she could now swallow the majority of it.

"Cough!"

Her blood mixed with the high potion spewed out from her mouth. Small pieces of muscles are also included which might be caused by her internal injuries.

Trust me, I almost choked on my internal organs several times (in the future).

After taking those two potions, she recovered from her current state. As expected of something that costs half a million valis each.

"W-where…"

"Sadly, we're still inside the dungeon. On the 27th floor, to be exact."

"27th floor…" She murmured dazedly. "The others! Where are they?!"

She tried to stand up, but she was forced to lie down on the ground.

"You were the only one who lived. The others around you are already dead by the time I arrived."

"N-no…"

She used her arm as a support to sit uptightly. Then, she scanned her surroundings. She saw her friends' corpses all around us; rather, the mass of flesh that they turned into.

The place where I used [Cleanse] already had blood spilled onto it once more. It dirtied her conservative white dress.

"Everyone…" She blankly muttered. "That monster…"

She has a blank expression of disbelief. It is a look I am the most familiar with—

Despair.

'...Fuck.'

A few weeks ago, I had an idea of resurrecting everyone in the Astraea Familia. It is wishful thinking, yes, considering that there are ten targets. That equates to ten chances. This entered my mind due to how close they were to Lante-san and the others. Also, wouldn't Lady Artemis be happy to see them alive?

As for the other adventurers, I wouldn't go as far as doing that. Removing the fact that I don't have any reason to do so, I will also need those chances to live in this world.

In fact, I only need less than two weeks to have a new chance. It would be useful in this new world.

'In the future… I might consider it.'

"If gods exist, won't the afterlife be the same?"

"...Ah..?"

Her tears fell nonstop. She lost the will to live after seeing this scene of carnage.

"Wouldn't your friends be happier up there? Happier that you survived."

"..."

She fell silent upon hearing my words.

"They wouldn't want you to die." I said seriously. "Remember that."

"How..?"

I tilted my head toward her direction. Her dull pupils met mine. She reminded me of myself when I was tired of everything.

"How are you sure of it..?"

"It… Let's say it happened to me. My friends will be happy if someone else lived… even at the cost of their deaths." I said as I reminisced about one of my memories. "We swore that at least one of us would live."

In the third iteration, I made some sorcerer friends. To be more specific, the ones on the Tokyo High. I visited that place once and became a teacher due to my extensive research on cursed energy.

At first, there was a distance between us as a teacher and a student, but all of it disappeared over time.

All of this was caused by my fascination with Satoru-san's unparalleled power. My progress was stagnant since it was the third round, hence I attended that place in hopes of learning something.

By the time the Culling Game happened, I died. Kenjaku used Suguru Geto's [Uzumaki] to kill me in one hit.

That time, I was like the side character who encountered the villain in advance.

"...I see." Despite her tears, she seems to have found her answer—be it complete or not.

"Thank you… for saving me."

"No problem."

She wiped the tears off her face with her sleeves. Her eyes still feel lost, but a small light is presented to her.

I assisted her in standing up. I saw her expression change for a moment before she reached out to my gauntlet.

Just as I pulled her, I remembered something.

'Their tradition… Oops.'

Long story short, elves wouldn't let anyone touch them except for their family. Other than them, only their lovers could do so.

I sent an apologetic look at her, which is useless with my helmet on.

Her legs are shivering slightly, but she could finally walk.

Wordlessly, I watched her search for a piece of her familia members. They might have become these flesh, but they still have their items. She is also considerate enough to think about our escape.

After that, two minutes had passed.

Screech-!

"We have to go. Even the twenty sixth floor is safer than here."

Since the bulk of the monsters are rampaging on this floor, their spawn rate became abnormal. Only two mosquitoes spawned nearby…

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

I ought to take responsibility for the ones I saved until the end. If I don't, wouldn't that be irresponsible?

"Here."

I offered her two potions. Both of them came from Dian Celt Familia.

"No. You must have spent a high potion already. I will compensate you later."

The black-haired elf rejected it resolutely. Her looks indicated that she wouldn't take a no for an answer (compensation).

"If so, couldn't you add these later? Our chances of escaping here will be higher, too."

Too bad for her, I have a glib tongue.

*****

A/N: For those who have noticed, the 27th-floor nightmare happened six years before the canon. However, it happened only now in this fic (three years before canon). There's a reason behind that. Though, it doesn't mean that this world's AU. It's just Nobu's arrival to the other world that affected some aspects of Danmachi world. We'll still be following the canon for the past and present stuff (up to SO14 and Danmachi V18).

Added Fact: Did you know that the Arrow of Orion movie isn't canon? It is due to the contradictions it has. Just the 'divine armament' stuff and gods being killed contradicted the established rules of the Danmachi world.

(Gods aren't truly killed in Gekai. When they sense danger, their arcanum activates. Since it is against the agreement to use Arcanum, they get sent back to Tenkai, which is the light pillar often described in the series.)

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