Two male corpses lay sprawled on the ground before Rei and Elena.
A short distance away, the body of the third man lay in the sand.
Elena stood before the remains, her expression bitter. Rei, visibly irritated, thrust the butt end of his Death Scythe into the sand and glared up at the sun as it beat down with intense, direct light.
"Damn it. I can't believe they committed suicide just to protect a secret."
"Indeed. And they did it without a moment's hesitation. Their loyalty to their organization must have been remarkably high, but..."
Rei tilted his head at Elena’s murmured observation.
"Given that they were conducting experiments to create Anomaly Species, there’s no doubt they were connected to House Rebisole. But do you really think anyone would offer Shaffner the kind of loyalty that makes them end their own life?"
It was a natural question. The Shaffner that Rei and Elena had encountered was arrogant, to say the least. He certainly didn't have the kind of personality that inspired love or devotion in his subordinates.
If asked whether anyone would show such absolute fealty to a man like that—to the point of swallowing a suicide pill—the answer would almost certainly be no.
Yet, the reality remained: the men lying before them had swallowed poison capsules hidden in their molars and ended their lives without the slightest hesitation the instant they realized escape was impossible.
That very contradiction was the source of their confusion.
"Guruuu..."
Seto purred and rubbed its head against the two of them in turn.
Cheer up, its attitude seemed to say. Jolted back to his senses, Rei turned his gaze toward the corpses once more. He looked at the two bodies directly in front of him, the third one further away, and finally, the Cactus-modoki corpse.
Seeing these remains, he let out a sigh and reached out his hand.
"Are you taking them with us?"
"Yeah. To us, they're just corpses, but Bosk might be able to find a lead from them. Especially if these three really were House_Rebisole_members, someone might recognize them."
"The possibility is extremely low, however..."
"Even so, it's better than doing nothing."
The researchers and staff who had worked at the House Rebisole laboratory had all been found murdered. Why, then, were these three the only ones alive?
(Normally, you'd think these three killed the researchers and fled... but their combat skills weren't impressive enough for that. At best, they were around D-Rank. It's a mystery how they even made it down to this floor... well, I suppose it's possible if they descended the dungeon with a powerful escort.)
Deciding that it was better to leave the investigation to Bosk—who knew more about the inner workings of this Labyrinth City than anyone—Rei stored the bodies inside his Misty Ring.
"...Hm?"
As he finished storing the Cactus-modoki corpse and the two men, he noticed a single Dungeon Card lying nearby.
Judging that it must have dropped when the man collapsed, he picked it up, but the name written on it was completely unfamiliar to him.
(Since they were involved in something this massive, they were likely registered under pseudonyms anyway.)
He muttered to himself, but deciding it might still serve as a clue, he stored the Dungeon Card in his Misty Ring as well. He then collected the third corpse, finishing the task of gathering everything that could be a lead.
The work complete, Rei gave a long stretch.
Elena flicked her whip-sword once before sliding it back into its sheath. "Now then, what shall we do? If we want to hurry, we could return to the safe room the way we came."
"What's the distance like?"
"Hmm, let me see. Considering that this cactus grove wasn't on the map, it must have formed quite recently. I can only roughly estimate our position. From what I can tell, I believe we have about half the way left until the stairs leading down to B14F."
Rei looked back in the direction they had come from and weighed his options.
"Alright, let's keep moving forward."
"Is that fine? I thought the Anomaly Species incident was a matter you wanted to solve as quickly as possible, Rei."
"That's important, certainly, but since we've made it this far, I want to clear B13F sooner rather than later. If we go back now, we'll have to start from the beginning of B13F next time, which means walking through this desert all over again. Since we're already here, I want to make sure we reach the next floor today."
Elena clearly had no objections. She gave a small nod of agreement.
Having confirmed her stance, Rei turned to call out to his partner, Seto, but...
"Guruuu... guru... guru."
Seemingly oblivious to Rei, Seto was pacing around the area where the Cactus-modoki had died. The desert was covered in Seto’s pawprints, proof of how much it had been walking around that specific spot while Rei and Elena were talking.
"Seto? What's wrong?"
"Gurululuuu, gurulul..."
Though it replied to Rei's call, it continued to pace back and forth across the sand.
Rei watched the behavior suspiciously, but then he remembered that the men had been trying to drag the failed Cactus-modoki corpse toward where Seto was now.
(They couldn't just leave a half-transformed Cactus-modoki behind. But they didn't seem to have an Item Box or any kind of Magic Pouch, and they were definitely trying to move it. That means there was a reason to bring it specifically to this spot... I see.)
"Rei?"
"Did you figure out what Seto is doing?" To Elena's question, Rei gave a small nod and pulled several logs of firewood from his Misty Ring.
He tossed one toward the area where Seto was pacing. It simply landed on the sand, and nothing happened.
He took out another piece and threw it further out. Still nothing. He continued to throw the wood little by little, tossing them further and further away.
At first, Elena watched with curiosity, but she must have realized his intent soon enough, as she unsheathed her whip-sword and held it ready.
Once the number of logs exceeded ten, the moment the wood left Rei's hand and hit the ground—sand suddenly erupted into the air.
The sight was similar to a Sandworm appearing. However, the obvious difference was that after the swirling sand vanished, there was no sign of a Sandworm—or any other monster, for that matter.
At least, not on top of the desert.
Beneath the sand, at the bottom of a funnel-shaped depression, four sharp, horn-like protrusions emerged. They moved around several times as if searching the surroundings, and once they determined that no prey was present, they submerged back into the depths of the desert.
"I see. They were going to use that to dispose of the failure."
Elena murmured in admiration beside Rei, who was still holding a piece of firewood.
"Without a doubt."
As he spoke, the image of an insect called an Antlion—or its adult form, the Antlion Lacewing—crossed Rei's mind. The habit of drawing prey into a pit was strikingly similar to the behavior of the monster they had just seen. It likely drew any monsters or adventurers passing through the desert into its nest to feed.
"In a way, I suppose we should be grateful to those men."
"Indeed. If we hadn't known that monster was there, we might have been dragged into its nest ourselves. Perhaps because it was buried in the sand, even Seto didn't seem to notice its exact position."
"Guruuu..."
Seto purred as if apologizing. However, its eyes never strayed from the spot where the four horns had protruded.
Rei held the Death Scythe in his right hand while using his left to stroke Seto's head encouragingly.
"It can't be helped. If the opponent is under the sand, you can't find them with smell or vision, and if they're lying perfectly still, you can't detect them with touch or hearing. That leaves only taste and some kind of sixth sense, but..."
He trailed off, tilting his head as he looked at the desert floor.
(But... then why did it show itself so suddenly? If it had stayed hidden, it could have launched a surprise attack. Did it lose patience because Seto was wandering around? Was it lured by the impact of the firewood? ...Wait. If it showed itself, that means—!)
"Fall back!"
The moment the realization hit, Rei reflexively shouted while leaping backward.
Elena and Seto understood the urgency in his voice immediately. Without hesitation, they leaped back as well.
Simultaneously, a high-pitched sound echoed through the air... and in the next instant, something was fired, whistling through the exact spot where Seto had been standing a second ago.
Then came the explosion of sand.
A geyser of sand erupted, following the path of whatever had been fired from the center of the four horns. It formed a literal curtain of sand, dividing the monster from Rei and the others.
"Tch, another troublesome attack... Flying Slash!"
"Gurulululululu!"
"Wind Arrow!"
A flying strike released from Rei's Death Scythe, two Water Balls about 40cm in diameter from Seto, and arrows of wind from Elena all pierced through the curtain of sand.
However, as if to intercept them, something was fired from the pit again. It collided with the two Water Balls, and both attacks vanished in the impact.
Seizing that opening, the Flying Slash and Wind Arrow flew toward the Antlion. Rei judged they would hit, but he suddenly sensed a presence above and looked up.
Hovering there was a monster that looked like a giant Stag Beetle. One look at the four horns growing from its head made its identity clear. It had a brown carapace, likely for desert camouflage, and two pairs of transparent wings like an Antlion Lacewing growing from its back, flapping violently.
(An Antlion that turns into a Stag Beetle? What kind of biology is that? The wings look the part, at least... I guess that's just how monsters are.)
Rei was exasperated by the sheer absurdity of the creature.
(But I don't remember Pleiades mentioning a monster like this. Is it a genuine New Species? ...Either way...)
Knowing that his task remained the same, he turned his gaze toward the flying monster and swung the Death Scythe.
"Flying Slash!"
The slash flew straight toward the beast. However, the monster simply tilted its body to evade the path of the strike and simultaneously vibrated its wings sharply.
"Ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki!"
It was a sound he had heard before. The meaning of that high-speed vibration became clear an instant later.
"Rei, dodge!"
At Elena's warning, Rei reflexively leaped backward.
An invisible force slammed into the spot where he had been standing.
An invisible blow. Instinctively realizing that the attack was a Vibration Wave produced by the wings, Rei watched his opponent as it began to vibrate them again. He clicked his tongue and swung the Death Scythe once more.
"Flying Slash!"
The released slash collided with the Vibration Wave in mid-air, both attacks cancelling each other out.
Rei sensed a smug aura from the monster. It seemed to have decided it was untouchable. However, that wasn't the rational confidence of a High-Rank Monster like Seto; it was a smile of pure, predatory instinct.
"Don't... look down on me! Flying Slash!"
He released another Flying Slash, but this time, he followed it up. He kicked off the sand, his brow furrowing slightly at the soft surface, but the sensation lasted only an instant. The sand partially absorbed the force of his jump, but once he was in the air, that no longer mattered.
He activated his Sleipnir's Shoes and leaped higher into the sky.
With the ability to walk on air, Rei reached a position above the monster in an instant. High above the beast that had lost sight of him, he raised his Death Scythe—now glowing with Magic Power—and flipped his body. He kicked the air above him with the Sleipnir's Shoes to accelerate, falling like a meteor. By the time the monster noticed Rei—the embodiment of death itself—descending upon it, the Grim Reaper's Great Scythe was already mid-swing.