“Rea Laevateinn!!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Evil-purging hellfire roared to life with a crimson gleam.
Countless pillars of flame erupted from the ground, piercing the monsters, charring or scorching them, and dragging them down in a howling blaze. Even Goliath was no exception. The floor boss’s massive body was skewered and burned from the inside out, disappearing before it had a chance to writhe in pain.
Total annihilation. A sea of flames that erased everything.
The students were speechless. They were the only ones who had been spared by the pillars of flame. Though their lungs were untouched, they still forgot to breathe as they stared in awe at the sparks dancing overhead.
This was Riveria Ljos Alf’s wide-area extermination spell.
Its defining characteristic was its precision. The spell could distinguish between friend and foe within the massive magic circle, making it the ultimate attack that obliterated only enemies. It had incinerated the monsters and silenced their roars, transforming the entire chamber into an inferno.
“…Nano…”
“Ah…”
Lefiya held her hand out to the girl who had fallen and was looking up, entranced by the sparkle of that crimson realm.
The wounded elf mage and adventurer had carried a shadow that scared Nano.
But that shadow was now nowhere to be seen as she smiled.
“Thank you for protecting me… From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all.”
When she saw that beautiful elf smile, Nano burst into tears.
Despite her Mind Down state, Nano climbed up like a little animal, reaching past Lefiya’s outstretched hand and hugging her.
Ignoring her surprise, Nano buried her face in the elf’s neck and started sobbing.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…! Lefiyaaaaaaa…!”
“Nano? Nano? I’m all right. You’re more injured than I am. Please don’t hurt yourself…”
“Noooooooooooo!”
Like a child clinging to her mother, she cried and wept and whined.
“Thank goodness…Thank goodness,” she murmured between sobs, tears soaking into Lefiya’s clothes.
Lefiya was entirely at a loss as the other three, battered and exhausted, shambled over, watching the two of them with warm smiles. Unable to hold back, Miliria cried, too, as she hugged Lefiya.
Aaah, you don’t have to resemble this part, too.
Without realizing it, Lefiya started to smile as they overlapped with her past self, when she had been saved by Aiz and Tiona and Tione. And just a little bit, she became misty-eyed, too.
✦ ✦ ✦
“We came all the way to the seventeenth floor, but…was this the right move?! Maybe they were waiting for help on one of the other floors!” Tiona asked, running with Urga in one hand.
“There’d be no end to it if we searched every nook and cranny of every floor!” Tione shot back as she ran in the lead. “Lefiya knows that, too! She’ll be in a place where it’s easy to find her!”
“Mhm…this is where Lefiya would choose to go, I think…”
“I—I think so, too, but…you’re all too fast!”
Running diagonally behind Tione, Aiz nodded, and a bit farther back, Elfie shouted, too, breathing heavily as she struggled to keep pace. As she did her best to keep up with the first-tier adventurers, Tiona wrapped an arm around her and lifted her over her left shoulder.
“Hyaaah?!”
Their gear was dirty because they had been working hard at clearing the rubble for a long time.
Thanks to the labors of Gareth and the others, the main route had been made barely passable and the four of them immediately rushed ahead, racing all the way down here to the seventeenth floor.
“Anyway, let’s go to the wall—gh!”
A powerful tremor interrupted Tione.
The world shook as if some incredible spell had erupted. Visibly stunned, they looked at each other and sped up.
Aided by the fact they did not encounter any monsters along the way, they raced through the great passage in a flash.
Soon, the floor’s massive final chamber finally came into view.
“!”
“Eh…who’s that?”
“He got here faster than us?”
Aiz, Tiona, and Tiona were stunned again to see a person standing there with his back to them.
He wore silver armor over his upper body. Slender and tall, he held a large longsword in his hands.
Elfie squirmed down from Tiona’s shoulder and tensed up. Aiz’s eyes widened as she saw the man’s hair and his gallant figure.
“Knight of Knights…”
Perhaps the man heard them because he turned toward them. It was Leon.
When he realized who they were, he smiled for some reason and stepped aside to let them see the scene inside the room.
“Ah…!”
“Lefiya!”
“That’s a relief… Looks like the students are there, too.”
“Thank goodness you’re safe! But I don’t know how I feel about you leaving your good old roommate Elfie behind and start getting along with some other girl!”
Aiz and Tiona were overjoyed, Tione was relieved, and Elfie complained like usual to hide her tears.
Lefiya was surrounded by students, one clinging to her as she patted her on the back.
“…Lefiya is smiling again.”
“Mhm…”
Tiona broke into a warm, sunny smile, and Aiz nodded with a soft expression.
Seeing her true, albeit troubled, smile, they decided to just watch for a little while.