Volume 2 - CH 20.2

Chapter 20: Let’s Step into the Dungeon of Instant Death, Part 2

「Fuh!」

With one breath, Hoseli cuts three aproaching monsters in two. The way she moved around the battlefield while slashing and kicking the enemies was truly reminiscent of an exotic dance.

「What?! Could it be that some monsters wandered off into the Dungeon while we were away?」

「That’s not possible. They must be the vanguard forces sent by the Sun God. He cannot kill us directly so he sent the cannon fodder to do this instead.」

Or it may have been the Dungeon’s defensive mechanism, unleashing monsters against any intruders that dare enter it.

「Lord Aur, there is no end to them!」

Hoseli shouted while she cut down the monsters one after another.

「We have to break through! Finish changing and move your ass!」

Aur yelled to Rames who was still getting changed even in the middle of battle.

「But, but …」

「OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE!」

Zana waved her hand furiously and created a wall of ice which separated Rames from the others.

「I’m sorry. I’ll be in your debt for this.」

She heard him say that from the other side of the white ice wall, which was intentionally made not to be as transparent as usual.

「Did he just thanked me…?」

Zana couldn’t believe her ears.

「All right, I’m done changing now!」

Since all of them were now ready, Au activated the curse that connected him with everyone. Then, Rames unleashed the power of his flames and channeled through Mari’s Cold Sword, flowing further into Zana who created another ice passage for them and transferred her authority to her sister Eldav, who maintained it with her spiritual strength.

Rames’ inexhaustible output of magical power. Mari’s versatility. Zana’s rapid firing. Eldav’s sustainability. Those were the components which Aur needed to wrestle his Dungeon back from the foolish God who took control of it.

And while they were making their way forward, Hoseli was taking care of everything that tried to stop them. Regardless of how well she was trained, however, with this amount of enemies constantly going at her like a flowing stream she sustained multiple small wounds, and even those can prove to be fatal if they accumulate. But that was of no concern to her.

As the aftereffect of her surrendering her body to Kukuru, her wounds, no matter how deep or severe they were, were now healing at an abnormally fast rate. So against weaklings such as those, she was practically invincible. She could do this all day without getting tired.

「Okay, we’re almost at the surface!」

「Oh, now this place brings back memories.」

Mari’s sword cuts through the Dungeon’s ceiling and Zana creates a cylindrical passage with a spiral staircase. Once they climbed it all the way to the end, they found themselves in the natural labyrinth of the forest where the thick trees walled the entrance to the Dungeon from outsiders.

When Aur first visited this continent, he came here together with Mari… and this is where they first met Sofia.

「All right, let’s take a break for the time being.」

Zana closed the icy passage behind them, so they don’t have to worry about being attacked anymore, at least for the time being. Just to be on the safe side, Aur erected a simple barrier around them and then procured a small table and chairs for everyone from his leather bag.

「This doesn’t suit the Dungeon exploration at all.」

That was what Aur had to say when he saw Lilu placing a fresh, still warm dishes on the table. She made them all herself with great care and attention to every detail.

「You’re the only one who complaints like that, Aur. Look at everybody else! They are practically salivating at their mouths!」

For Aur 「Meals Suitable for Dungeon Exploration」 include hard-baked bread, dried meat and simple wine.

「I always thought that if you call yourself a ruler, doesn’t matter if it’s a king of a country or a Demon Lord, then you have to eat properly at all times to display your status to your surroundings.」

Rames says while pouring a calf sauce on his plate. The dish he was eating was so sweet and soft that it practically melted in his mouth. Even is his homeland of Sahara, he could only eat such delicacies during the times of the annual festivals.

「I can’t believe you guys could make something that tastes so good.」

Zana praised Lilu’s cooking while she savored every single bite with her entire tongue. Even though she was a ruler of a country herself, the meals she was eating in Himuro were always somewhat rough, totally unlike what she was eating now.

「What did you say!?」

「I know they might not look like it, but Aur really is a king, and Lilu is an outstandingly good cook.」

Mari offered an explanation to Zana and Rames, who was just as astounded as Zana was.

「So that woman with wings and horns did it, huh? She might not look like it, but each and every one of this dishes is truly a top class one worthy of praise.」

And he went on, praising Lilu’s cooking for quite a while. While Mari was finishing her portion of the food, she thought to herself that for someone who was a man not that long ago, Rames was becoming more girly surprisingly fast.

「Now, allow me to talk about what we are aiming for here.」

When they finished the meal, Aur opened his mouth to explain what their target was.

「Isn’t it saving Sofia from the Sun God?」

「It is, but I want to talk about the specifics of how we are going to go about it.」

He explained when Mari asked her question.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook with a roar.

「What !? An earthquake !?」

「No, this is …」

Yamato was a country where the earthquakes were a common occurrence, but this one was clearly different from the others.

The plate on the table makes a rattling sound and it falls to the ground, breaking.

「Oh! My gelato!」

Rames shouted in despair.

「They are coming!」

The first thing they saw were the huge antennae. Next was a giant red head, followed by countless enormous orange, poison spewing legs felling the trees that stood in their way.

「Yatarasu!」

A giant centipede that was big enough to coil itself around a mountain eight times over. Such a creature was now looking down on them.

「No problem. She can handle it.」

However, it is an opponent whom Hoseli had defeated once already.

She jumped and attached to the back of a large centipede and pulled out a dagger with a paralytic poison. Now she just has to paralyze the nerves between the first and second leg and it will all be over.

…… or it would have been if there was only one enemy.

Suddenly, another big centipede appears from the shadow of the forest, aiming for Hoseli as she was occupied with attacking the first one. She was unable to dodge the surprise blow and was knocked to the ground.

「Hoseli, are you all right?!」

「Forgive my incompetence, Lord Aur.」

Hoseli laments while raising her upper body. She was able to avoid the blow to her torso, but her thigh wasn’t so lucky, ending up being torn apart. Aur stops the bleeding and poison with his magic, but that was only the necessary first aid. In that condition she won’t be able to climb back on top of the centipede. And even if she managed to do that, she would probably just get knocked off once more.

「So? Any backup plans for the occasion?」

「I have one. Time to call in the reinforcements.」

Observing the movements of the centipede, Aur opens his leather bag again.

「Mio!」

When Aur calls that name, a young girl with braided hair the color of wheat appears beside him. A village girl Mio, known in the ranks of Aur’s army as the Queen of Demonic Beasts, respected and feared by all.

「Can you take care of it?」

「S…S-S-S-S…」

Mio becomes pale with Aur points at the large centipede.

「S-Sorry! I’m sorry but that’s impossible! I, I can’t stand bugs that have more than ten legs!」

Aur initially thought that she was unable to manipulate insects at all, so that weakness of hers was a major surprise to him.

「And if it has ten legs or less?」

「If it’s like Arakune-san then I think I’ll manage somehow…」

Arakune is a demon beast with a lower body of the frog and an upper body of a person with eight frog limbs and two human ones. Exactly ten.

「Kuh, but there are actually two of those giants…」

Now that was a wrench thrown is his plans. If Mio cannot defeat them, who can? Yunis? Wolfe? But they are both Aur’s trump cards which he didn’t want to use so early in the game.

「Leave those things to me, my Lord.」

A cool voice reverberated from the depths of the bag, and a brown arm emerged from it.

「My friend’s predicament is my predicament! I’ve come to save you, Mio!」

「Ellen!」

Ellen, the leader of the Black Alvs, appeared to help them.

「But Ellen, how do you plan to defeat that?」

This centipede’s shell is so hard that even Yunis’ sword would be unable to penetrate it, so Black Alvs’ bow would be even more useless. That creature does not bear the name Yatarasu for nothing.

「I asked that Tena woman about that. Looks like it is vulnerable to saliva.」

With that said, Ellen suddenly kissed Oulu. Not only that, but she also shoved her tongue into his mouth and exchanged a lot of saliva with him with a series of obscene sounds.

「N … fu…」

Separating from Aur after a deep and passionate kiss, she held his saliva in her mouth and smeared it all over her arrows and assumed the shooting position.

「Ha!」

The moment when the big centipede rushes at her, Ellen stretches the vines on the branches of the tree, shakes her body like a pendulum, jumps and dodges its attack.

Then she twisted her body in the air, shooting two arrows in a row.

Without aiming, she pierces the eyes of both centipedes. The wounds resulting from that were small, but as they were all about to see, fatal.

The bodies of the large centipedes are dyed in ash-grey starting from the pierced eyes, and their movements become slow. After a few seconds, they were completely turned to stone.

「What did you do?」

「Didn’t I say that this centipede is vulnerable to saliva?」

Ellen answers with full confidence.

「I just had an arrow coated with saliva from a Basilisk that I received from Mio.」

「I see! There are truly no creatures in this world that are immune to Basilisk’s saliva! Good thinking, Ellen!」

Mio kept clapping her hands while chanting 「That’s my Ellen for you, so amazing!」