Desperate to an Excessive Degree

What she faced was the sight of every monster within visible distance being swept away by just one person.

What she heard was the incomprehensible howls of spider monsters and the sound of green bodily fluids dripping onto the cave floor.

What she felt from all of this was just one thing: pressure.

After that, more monsters continued to gather from various corridors of the vast cave, but even those were soon divided into two pieces or crushed.

What remained on the numerous corpses that would soon turn to ash were translucent weapons of various forms.

Weapons like crescent-shaped daggers, heavy axes, faintly glowing long swords, and thick greatswords were stuck in the monsters’ vital points, leaving not even the slightest chance for them to survive.

Nevertheless, the silhouettes of numerous weapons that continued to appear and float around the person who ‘had been’ a child.

She still didn’t know how the child had been hiding such tremendous power and powerful armaments.

Nor how she could wield various weapons skillfully and deal with monsters perfectly, beyond mere cleanliness.

“Am I… dreaming right now?”

Yes, it would make more sense to think it was a dream.

She had never seen, heard, or even read about someone cutting through a path while delivering all kinds of sword strikes without even gasping for breath.

So, how much time had passed since the vast cave filled with monsters began to be cleared by just one person?

“Here, take this.”

Eventually, she received a small bottle filled with clear liquid from the one who had briefly disappeared somewhere.

What followed was a request to deliver it to Rea, who was suffering inside.

And a reckless decision to try to eliminate the monsters waiting for them on the higher floors alone.

“I’m not sure how far I can go… But I’ll try as much as I can for now.”

As the only person who had witnessed the literal slaughter of various monsters just before, she couldn’t say no.

The reason she couldn’t say “take care” either was probably…

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Lua.”

“I know.”

“If it had been Senior Rea, she would have stopped you from going alone no matter what.”

“I know that too.”

Because of the slight hesitation that remained as the child’s companion.

No, the concern for the child that remained before being a companion, as a single person.

However, not long after that, because the gate leading to the next floor finally rose up from beneath the ground.

“Don’t overdo it and follow slowly. I’ll go ahead.”

“…Lua.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. There won’t be any problems.”

Because the person who reassured Iris herself, saying everything would be fine until the very end, finally moved away from her once again.

Only after the silhouette completely disappeared beyond the gate, which rippled with lights of various colors, did she move her heavy footsteps.

As expected, Adrian’s question directed at her, who had returned alone without the child.

“Huh? Where’s Lua?”

“I’ll… tell you later. For now, we need to treat Senior Rea first.”

And so, feeding the clear sap the child had given her to the person who was groaning while lying on the hard cave floor.

After watching the progress and finally confirming that the purple color around the shoulder area was gradually disappearing, she took only Adrian outside.

The story that followed was about the various surreal scenes she had clearly witnessed with her own eyes.

“…That’s impossible.”

“I know it sounds impossible. But… it’s true that Lua eliminated them alone.”

Naturally, he found it hard to believe, but after showing him that all the monsters that had been crawling until recently had disappeared and that the gate to the next floor was open, he had no choice but to believe.

Eventually, silently staring at the various sword marks engraved everywhere and the bodily fluids dried on the cave walls.

A murmur in a tone with various emotions turbulently mixed followed.

“Why is a child so… desperate?”

“…I wonder.”

She knew that the possibility of avoiding destruction increased if they reached the top floor as quickly as possible.

Therefore, she couldn’t deny that it was efficient and reasonable to let the child, who had shown powerful strength in yet another form different from what they had seen so far, take action.

Because if the child were to worry about them, she surely wouldn’t be able to fully exert her power.

Either way, since their role was to help the child, feelings of self-blame for falling behind didn’t matter.

It would be more rational and reasonable to exclude as much as possible the possibility of holding the child back.

Just, she had a not-so-light doubt.

What on earth had made the child make such a reckless and dangerous decision to eliminate the monsters of the upper floors alone?

Even if she possessed powerful strength surpassing that of most strong individuals, could that really be a sufficient reason for a child to walk alone among various ferocious monsters?

No matter what grounds and reasons could be attached, a child is a child. A young child who should be protected from various dangers and crises.

“But, she acts as if she doesn’t care about danger at all…”

“Maybe it’s because she’s still a child. She doesn’t seem to understand what’s dangerous.”

“No, I think she does it knowing full well.”

Right after that, they finally turned back to the inside of the cave where Rea was.

Since the best they could do now was to follow the child without being too late, they tried to avoid as much as possible the possibility of creating problems that the child would need to worry about.

Therefore, they hid the fact that the child had eliminated all the monsters alone, especially from Rea, who cherished the child the most among the three.

Also the fact that the child had set out alone to eliminate the monsters of the next floor.

However, even at the lie that the child was just scouting ahead on the next floor alone, Rea’s expression contorted.

“…Let’s go.”

“You shouldn’t overdo it, Rea. Lua was most worried about you.”

“I said let’s go. I’m fine.”

They had to somehow head to the next floor while supporting the person who hadn’t fully recovered her strength yet.

Because her expression and voice suggested that she would crawl to the next floor if necessary.

“It’s not good to worry too much. You know Lua isn’t weak.”

“You guys are too much. What were you thinking to let Lua go alone!”

However, before long, even Rea’s reproach completely stopped.

The reason being…

“Wait… Didn’t we just pass through a gate?”

“…Yes.”

“Then why… is another gate already open?”

Because despite having walked through the gate to the next floor, for some reason, the gate to the floor after that was already revealed.

As expected, the savage traces of battle filled the surroundings.

When rocks that appeared to have been golems, crushed trees, and soil with large holes here and there came into view, not only Rea’s but also Adrian’s own eyes began to waver.

“What on earth… is going on.”

“I-I don’t know either.”

For some reason, Iris, who had been keeping her mouth tightly shut, jumped through the gate to the next floor right after that.

As a result, when they inevitably followed Iris and stepped through the gate once more, this time a colossus monster with a hole in its chest area came into view.

An enormous size that was clearly dozens of meters tall.

However, its seemingly hard arms and legs were already full of all kinds of cracks and scars.

In addition, coincidentally, this floor also already had a gate leading to the next floor.

“Don’t tell me, Lua…”

Even if they tried hard not to notice the fact that the child was advancing to the next floor alone, they couldn’t help but notice.

Naturally, their footsteps gradually accelerated.

And so, continuing.

After passing through countless gates over quite a long time.

Grrrr─!!

“Is that… a dragon?”

They finally encountered an elder dragon monster fighting something in the distance.

According to what they had heard from the child, this huge monster was one that only appeared right before the top floor.

Therefore, it was a monster that the child herself had emphasized they should focus the most attention on during their training for various situations, but…

Why on earth.

Boom─

“W-Wait, Adrian. Don’t tell me that’s… on the dragon’s back…”

“…Damn it. What the hell is going on?”

Was she fighting alone without any of the help or support they had practiced countless times?

What’s more, looking closely, she had pushed it to the brink of death.

Not even a few seconds after that, an unpleasant sound of something like leather being pierced filled the entire atmosphere.

Almost simultaneously, flash.

With a white flash that momentarily enveloped the elder dragon monster, something small began to fall from the high sky.

As they gradually became able to identify what was powerlessly falling, Rea’s complexion turned pale blue.

At this, her hand, which had hurriedly taken out her staff and was about to cast a protective barrier spell.

Whoosh!

The sound of another footstep already running toward the front finally jumped up into the air and barely caught what was falling.

And, thud.

Small dust rose up around the person who had fallen back onto the ground while completely enveloping the small figure in her arms.

Why did she not mind at all despite having painful scratches all over her body?

“Hah, hah…”

Even while breathing heavily with difficulty, she did not release the strength from her two hands holding the warmth in Iris’s arms.

“How is this… being fine…”

The child, who had already lost consciousness, couldn’t possibly hear this reproach of hers, but it didn’t matter.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a reproach directed only at the child.

What followed was a mutter, not quite a mutter, saying if she had known it would be like this, she would never have let her go.