Rei and Ara remained in silence. Beside them, Seto lay with its eyes closed, patiently supporting Rei’s weight as he leaned against it.
Just as the sand in the hourglass was about to run out for the fifth time—meaning approximately ten hours had passed—Elena finally awoke. She had been lying in the center of the magic circle with her eyes closed as if in a deep slumber.
"……Nn……"
"Lady Elena!"
Elena’s voice, though faint, echoed clearly through the silence of the Inheritance Altar Room.
Ara instinctively tried to rush to her side, but Rei caught her hand once again, stopping her in her tracks.
"Lord Rei!"
"Calm down! Look at the surroundings!"
Ara shouted at him to stay out of her way, but Rei’s response was even more urgent and strained. At his command, Ara finally looked around the room.
"This is……"
She trailed off, her voice catching at the sight unfolding before them.
The structure that gave this place its name, the Altar of Inheritance, stood right beside Elena. The Ancient Dragon magic stone, which Vel had shattered during the ritual, still lay upon it. But now, the altar began to dissolve into a haze, as though its presence until that moment had been nothing more than a phantom.
The Altar of Inheritance and the three magic circles—including the one where Elena lay—all turned into mist. In the next heartbeat, the haze was drawn into Elena’s body as if she were a void consuming it.
"Ara, is this a normal part of the Ritual of Inheritance?"
"N-no. I’m sorry, but I don’t know enough about the ritual to say……"
"I see. It's unsettling not knowing if this is a normal process."
Just as Rei muttered those words, a voice replied.
"Do not worry. As I said before we began, the ritual can only be performed at this altar once. This is the reason why."
Elena sat up on the stone floor. There was no longer any trace that a magic circle had ever existed there.
"Lady Elena!"
With tears welling in her eyes, Ara threw herself at Elena and embraced her. Rei watched them for a moment before walking over.
"How much do you remember?"
"……Vel," she replied.
"Yeah."
"I remember up to the point where he destroyed the magic stone on the altar."
She murmured the words, then looked around the room until her gaze landed on the form covered by a cloth.
"……Kyuste?"
"Yes. He protected you from Vel’s golem."
"I see. ……It was my failing as a commander to miss Vel’s betrayal."
She pulled back the cloth covering Kyuste’s face and closed her eyes for a few seconds in silent prayer. Then, she turned her gaze back to Rei.
"Rei, please store Kyuste’s remains in your Item Box. I want to return him to his family, even if it is only his body."
"Understood."
Nodding at Elena’s request, he stored the body inside the Misty Ring.
"……So, what happened with the Ritual of Inheritance? Vel destroyed the magic stone you were supposed to absorb halfway through."
"Wait a moment."
Elena closed her eyes, checking the state of her body.
"……I haven’t inherited the full power of the Ancient Dragon, but I’ve managed about seventy percent."
"Seventy percent. I’m not sure if that’s high or low."
"Considering the ritual was sabotaged, it’s not a bad outcome. The altar could have broken entirely, or the stone could have been lost with nothing gained, even with Kyuste’s sacrifice. His mistake was destroying the magic stone instead of the altar itself. In this ritual, the altar is more important than the stone. ……Vel Sails. I will ensure you pay this debt in full."
Elena whispered the last part to herself. Her eyes held a light of fierce determination, radiating an aura like a hunter stalking its prey.
"Lady Elena, you said you inherited the dragon's power…… but what exactly has changed? You look the same as always."
At Ara’s hesitant question, Elena let the ferocious aura vanish and stroked the knight's head with a smile.
"True. Had the ritual failed because of Vel, I might have lost my human form and become a dragon myself. But rest easy. It seems I’ve gained the Ancient Dragon’s physical strength and immense magic power while remaining human. ……I can’t do it yet, but I might even be able to use elementary Dragon Language Magic."
As she clenched her right hand, Elena unknowingly radiated magic power into the air. The sheer scale of her mana far surpassed what she had possessed before the ritual. Even Rei, who lacked the ability to perceive magic power directly, could tell just how vast this inherited power was.
"……But enough about me. Rei, tell me everything that happened after I lost consciousness."
Elena suppressed her leaking mana and looked at Rei. He nodded and gave her a more detailed account of everything he had already told Ara.
"I see. So Kyuste died satisfied."
"Yeah. He was an arrogant guy, that's for sure, but he died as a knight should—protecting the person he swore to serve."
"……Is that so. Then I must live in a way that proves his satisfaction was earned."
"Lady Elena……"
Elena gave Ara a faint, reassuring smile and then turned her gaze toward the exit.
Rei spoke up as he watched her.
"Now that the ritual is over, we need to get out of this dungeon. But with only three of us…… it might be a bit rough compared to the trip down."
Elena shook her head and smiled.
"It’s true that losing Vel and Kyuste hurts our numbers. However, I can feel that I am significantly stronger now. I wouldn’t challenge the Silver Lion guarding the dungeon core, but I should be able to handle an A-Rank monster on my own."
She gripped the handle of her whip-sword. Rei could see the truth in her words; she felt far more powerful than before the ritual. Her beauty still commanded the room, but she now possessed an aura of much greater depth.
"If you say so, I’ll take your word for it. If we move now, the monsters on B6F might not have finished resummoning yet."
"Right. Let’s move. Formation will be Rei and Seto in the vanguard, with Ara and me in the rearguard. We need to leave this dungeon as quickly as possible and inform my father of Vel’s betrayal. ……And I want to get Kyuste home."
"If you’re going, Lady Elena, I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth!"
Ara declared her loyalty, and Seto let out a low 'Guruuu' from the back of its throat in agreement. Together, they left the Inheritance Altar Room.
"Gyan!"
As soon as they reached the corridors of B6F, a pack of three Emerald Wolves appeared. The monsters lunged at them the moment they were spotted, but Seto instantly used King's Intimidation to stun them.
The immobilized Emerald Wolves were nothing more than target practice for Rei and Elena. The third wolf had its head crushed by a single blow from Seto’s foreleg before Ara could even join the fray. Barely thirty seconds after the initial contact, the monsters had been utterly slaughtered.
"Hmph. I’m still not quite used to this body."
Elena muttered the complaint while flicking the blood off her whip-sword blade. She had used the weapon in its whip form to evade an attack and decapitate one of the wolves in a single motion. She seemed frustrated that she couldn't yet perfectly control her newfound strength.
"But Lady Elena, that was incredible! Your reaction speed and the power behind that swing were amazing!"
Elena smiled at Ara’s praise but shook her head.
"No, I feel like this power is swinging me around rather than the other way around. I’ll need to start my training from scratch once we’re out. More importantly, time is wasting. Let’s keep going."
"Right. Luckily, the traps Vel disabled haven't been reset yet. I don't know if that's because of the dungeon core or other monsters, but we should cover as much ground as we can while the way is clear."
Rei responded while quickly storing the three Emerald Wolves into his Misty Ring.
"Alright, let's go!"
The group began to run. They matched their pace to Ara, who was the slowest among them, though even her "slow" pace was quite fast for a normal human. It was only in comparison to a Rare Species gryphon, a man with inhuman physical capabilities, and a woman who had inherited the power of an Ancient Dragon that she seemed lagging.
As Rei had noted, B6F had been a nightmare of traps on the way down, but they had not yet been re-armed. This allowed them to move at a brisk pace. Any monsters that dared to appear were instantly cut down, burned, or crushed by Rei, Seto, and Elena before they could even pose a threat.
"I see the stairs!"
At Ara’s cry, the group breathed a sigh of relief as the stairs to B5F came into view. However, the relief was short-lived as they remembered exactly what awaited them on that floor.
"……This is…… brutal……"
Elena groaned the moment she stepped onto B5F. Her physical enhancement had also sharpened her five senses, meaning the putrid stench of the floor hit her nose with even more violence than it did Rei or Seto.
"You'll just have to get used to it," Rei said, his own face contorted in a grimace of resignation.
"Guruu," Seto agreed with a low rumble. As the one with the sharpest senses in the group, the gryphon was clearly suffering the most from the smell.
"Hmm? I don't think it's that bad," Ara muttered, tilting her head. Being the only one with normal human senses, she was spared the full brunt of the odor.
"Ignoring the smell for a moment, we have a problem with this floor."
Elena spoke through a scowl, clearly struggling to endure the air.
"A problem? What do you mean?" Ara asked, looking confused. Rei gave a wry smile and explained.
"On the way down, we were pulled into that back space and the master of that voice used his power to create a shortcut straight to B6F. We didn't actually cross this floor ourselves. That means we have no idea where the stairs to B4F are."
"……Ah!" Ara shouted as the realization hit her. "W-what should we do!?"
"What should we do…… actually, wait."
Rei suddenly remembered the magic item Grimm had given him—the Paired Orbs. If he used them to contact Grimm, the lich might be able to use space magic to send them all the way to the surface in an instant.
(But……)
Using the orbs meant revealing his connection to Grimm.
"Lord Rei?" Ara asked, noticing his hesitation.
Rei was about to shake his head and dismiss the thought, but then he looked around. It was just him, Seto, Elena, and Ara. Vel the traitor was gone, and Kyuste, who had always looked at Rei with suspicion, was dead. There was only Elena and her loyal shadow, Ara—who would follow any order Elena gave without question.
(If I use the Seed of Restraint to keep them quiet, I can make this work. It’s a blessing in disguise that I never got around to using the seed back at the altar.)
"Seto, keep watch. Elena, I need to talk to you."
"Gururuu."
Seto moved to alert status as Rei called Elena over. She approached him with a curious expression.
"What is it? We’re in a hurry, so I’d rather not dawdle."
"It’s about that. If this works, I might have a way to get us back to the surface instantly."
"……What?"
"But to use it, I have to share some secrets I’d rather keep hidden. ……Do you remember the Seed of Restraint we talked about on B4F?"
"Yes. Now that you mention it, so much happened that we never actually cast the spell. It was a grave mistake on my part not to do so before Vel escaped. ……Do you want to use it now?"
Rei nodded. Seeing his serious expression, Elena composed herself and waited for him to continue.
"If you're willing to change the scope of the magic—from just info about Seto to any information that would be disadvantageous to me or Seto—I think I can get us out of here much faster. ……What do you say?"
Rei fell silent, leaving the choice to her.
(It hurts that I couldn't bind Vel, but at least the secret of my Beast Magic—the magic stone absorption—is still safe. They still just think Seto is a Rare Species gryphon.)
He waited for her answer. Elena leaned her chin on her hand, thinking for nearly ten seconds before she finally spoke.