Danmachi: A Mage's Journey

Chapter 291 291: Is This The 52nd Floor?

Lyra sheathed her dagger, exhaling sharply, sweat dripping from her chin. "The impact's insane... don't tell me the monster has already reached the 18th floor!?"

Thanks to Akira and Gareth, the two unshakable vanguards, the expedition stormed through the 17th floor at unmatched speed, reaching the place where the infamous Wall of Sighs loomed.

"No need to worry, we won't miss the banquet."

"Hah! If we finish this quick enough, maybe we'll even get to reinforce the others above."

Kaguya's sharp gaze never left the shadows ahead, while Lyra's voice boomed with excitement.

Akira remained silent, unwilling to spoil their confidence. They all knew, the true battle had not yet begun. Before the "greatest evil," there was still Alfia.

The chamber opened before them. A vast, oppressive silence filled the space where the monster rex once roared but Goliath did not appear.

Even it had fled, unwilling to face the calamity rising from the depths.

Riveria's voice broke the silence, firm and commanding. "Form ranks! Once we reach the 18th floor, secure the high ground. We'll open with a barrage of magic and weaken it in one strike!"

"Got it! Leave the charge to me!"

Alise surged forward, her presence like a torch blazing in the dark, with the Astraea Familia rallying at her back.

"What is that? From where...?"

Ryuu's sharp eyes caught sight of it, fiery red fragments drifting into the chamber, glowing like embers carried by the wind.

However, Alise did not notice Ryuu's whisper and instead quickened her pace, her boots pounding against the earth.

"I see it! The passage to the next floor! Let's go!"

Without hesitation, she hurled herself forward, diving into the pit yawning at the end of the vast cavern chamber.

The slope was pitch-black, the descent steep. She charged recklessly, her hair whipping behind her as she rushed toward the well of fiery red light flickering at the other end.

The others followed immediately. The heat that engulfed them was unbearable, as though the very air itself would scorch their lungs. It wrapped around their skin like molten chains, threatening to burn flesh straight from bone.

What whispered in their ears was not silence, but the bestial roar of something monstrous, and the crackle of fire gnawing at everything in its path.

What filled their vision was not the peaceful safety floor they remembered, but a blazing hellscape.

"What?" Ryuu froze mid-step, her eyes wide.

Kaguya, Lyra, and even the usually composed Ais were struck speechless. The entire Astraea Familia stood rooted, stunned beyond words.

Even Riveria and Gareth faltered, their usual composure shaken.

"How could this be...?"

The paradise that had once been the adventurers' sanctuary had been transformed into an inferno. The crystal canopy melted like candle wax, dripping sluggish blue droplets. The lush forests had vanished into ash.

The earth itself was torn apart, crumbling and aflame.

The serene lakeside was no more, the water boiled and frothed like a cauldron, spitting great clouds of white steam.

The grand crystal light source above, once resembling a magnificent blossoming chrysanthemum, now hung like a warped, melted jewel, dripping incandescent hail.

A crimson nightmare stretched before them, painting the floor in apocalyptic flames.

What awaited the expedition team was no longer the tranquil 18th floor, but a desecrated, hellish wasteland.

The Dungeon... it's burning up like a body in fever.

The thought slipped into Akira's mind.

"Is this really still the 18th floor?" Ryuu's gasp echoed, disbelief carried to the ears of her comrades.

'That beautiful place... the place everyone loved...?'

The memory stabbed at her heart, the forest full of crystals and green canopies, the sacred lake, the crystal-lit skies. Gone. All of it.

"The forest is burning... the trees, the blue skies, they're disappearing before our eyes."

"I've never seen anything like this."

Celty and Lyra murmured hollowly, sweat pouring down their temples as they stared into the nightmare.

Behind them, Ais wiped her forehead with a trembling arm. "It's so hard to breathe."

"This time, it's not a metaphor. This really is hell." Kaguya groaned, her tone grim.

The sight of the girls drenched in sweat, their flushed cheeks glistening in the firelight, might have been captivating in another time, but now, it was a cruel irony.

What use was beauty if they were exhausted before even facing the "Greatest Evil"?

Akira exhaled slowly. The next moment, streams of silver mist seeped from his body, curling like serpents of cold air. The frost-laced vapor wound its way around the party, coolness brushing their skin. The suffocating heat lightened.

"Well done, Akira!" Alise said, bounding up beside him with her usual brightness.

As Alise got close to Akira, she felt even cooler.

The others instantly caught on to her little tricks, edging closer as well.

"Oh, Akira, you're amazing. I love you so much right now."

"Truly, having Akira with us is a blessing."

"Haa... finally... relief..."

Smiles returned, if only faintly, as the girls basked in the icy mist.

"Don't crowd around me! We're still in battle!" Akira protested, irritation slipping through but his complaints were thoroughly ignored.

"Enough fooling around."

Riveria's voice cut sharply through the moment, though even her usually steady hands quivered slightly.

"This looks... exactly like..."

"Yes. The Dragon's Vase." Gareth confirmed grimly. "The conditions here are the same as the deep floors."

The entire cavern floor radiated blistering heat from deep underground, the air searing their throats with every breath.

At once, the first-class adventurers spread out, scanning their surroundings with weapons raised.

"Dragon's Vase? Uncle Gareth, what even is that—" Alise began.

But her words were swallowed by a violent eruption. The ground ahead exploded, vomiting flames into the sky.

"Wha—!?"

"Damn it, the ground's exploding!?"

Three consecutive eruptions thundered like volcanic bursts. Fire pillars speared upward, the earth itself quaking underfoot.

Then came the second horror.

From the fiery cracks, monsters emerged. Their silhouettes were twisted, their bodies cloaked in burning red flames.

"The monsters! The ones that lived here, they've been driven mad by the fire and now they're charging us!" Neze shouted a warning with a twitching expression.

"Tch. Monsters turning into fireballs now? Damn troublesome! Guess we've no choice but to fight." Kaguya spat in frustration.

The safe floor was no longer safe.

The Bugbears and Mad Beetles that had once made the 18th floor their refuge were now ablaze, their minds consumed by fire. Coated in molten armor, they shrieked as they lunged.

Kaguya met them head-on, weaving past their fire-wreathed charges, blade flashing.

"Annoying as these monsters are, it's the flames themselves that are worse. This heat, if it hits us directly, even first-class adventurers will be vaporized."

Alise and Ryuu darted to either side, parrying burning monsters as the inferno closed in. The heat singed their skin, forcing squints through the oppressive waves of fire.

The truth was undeniable now: the very floor itself had been reshaped into a blazing crucible.

The Fire wasn't just threatening their lives, it was rewriting the dungeon.

"Why... why is the ground burning like this!? What the hell is happening!?"

"It's because of the 'Greatest Evil' below us." Akira's words silenced the battlefield.

"It!?" Kaguya's voice cracked as realization dawned.

The flames, the eruptions, the quakes, they were not natural. They were weapons.

"The bastard's trying to climb up." Gareth growled. "Destroying the bedrock itself to escape from below."

"Breathing fire to shatter the very layers of the Dungeon? That's insane!"

Riveria's emerald eyes narrowed at the fractured earth. Neze voiced the panic that everyone else felt.

"Is that even possible?!"

The veterans answered grimly.

"So far, only Zeus and Hera familia ever conquered the Dragon's Vase. Even the Guild only has fragments of information. But it's said. attacks that ignore the floor structure are common there."

"The Hell of Fire, beginning at the 52nd floor..." Riveria's tone trembled. "This is the same phenomenon. The enemy is replicating it here, on the 18th."

The revelation left Ryuu and the others breathless.

"So what you're saying is... we're standing on the 52nd floor right now!?"

"You've got to be kidding me! The scale is too much! I can't even comprehend it!"