When Rei returned to the fourth basement floor, he found Vihera laughing with delight as she battled the giants.
However, since Rei had temporarily repelled the new giant attempting to climb the staircase, the number of giants on the fourth basement floor wasn't particularly large.
The ones Vihera was fighting now were the few remaining survivors.
"Ahaha, ahahahaha! More, more! Try harder!"
"GRAAAAGH!"
Giant fists and kicks—attacks powerful enough to break bones, or even kill in a single blow—raged around her. Amidst the onslaught, Vihera dodged, read the attacks, and gently placed her hand against their fists to redirect the flow of force.
That alone was enough. The more powerful the giant's own attack, the faster it was thrown, the speed increasing in accordance with its own brute strength.
The giant's sheer body weight became a powerful weapon, inflicting heavy casualties on its comrades.
Watching the battle unfold, Rei noticed there was no sign of the dead giants on the fourth basement floor coming back to life.
(As I thought. It seems that to revive the giants, they need to come into direct contact with that black snow.)
From Rei's perspective, that Black Crystal appeared to be an extremely troublesome object.
What made it seem so above all else was, naturally, its effect of bringing the dead back to life.
For the time being, operating under the assumption that the Black Crystal wasn't something that could be easily brought to the surface, Rei headed toward Elena and the others.
There were few giants left alive on the fourth basement floor, and the only one still fighting was Vihera.
Elena and the others were no longer engaged in combat, simply watching Vihera's fight.
Because of that, they noticed Rei approaching right away.
Elena wore a smile, and Marina gave a light wave.
Byune was focused on petting Ielo.
"You're back. ...How was it? From the look of things here, there are clearly more giants than the number that survived on the fifth basement floor."
"Yeah. You're exactly right. Right now, there are almost no corpses left on the fifth basement floor. That Black Crystal somehow gathered the corpses around itself, and when it covered them in something like black snow, the dead came back to life. Even regrowing missing heads and all."
"...What is that?"
Marina murmured in dumbfounded astonishment at Rei's words.
She had seen the Black Crystal on the fifth basement floor with her own eyes.
She had known it was an ominous-looking presence, but she could never have imagined it would be something this absurd.
Moreover, for Marina, who had lived many years as a Dark Elf, she had never seen or even heard of a Magic Item that could so easily resurrect people.
"Well, I'd like to know that myself. If it's simply a magical ore, that's a problem in its own right... and even if it's a Magic Item created by modifying some kind of magical ore, that naturally raises its own questions. However..."
Rei paused, turning his gaze back to Vihera, who was still fighting the giants.
"It seems that to revive them, it needs to rain that black snow down around the Black Crystal. In other words, as long as we keep our distance, there shouldn't be a problem... I think."
The reason he didn't say it with certainty was undoubtedly because he had watched the Black Crystal use some kind of power to pull the giant corpses toward itself.
The range of that power probably wasn't very wide.
That was what he believed, but it was solely Rei's assumption, not something he had any real conviction about.
It was possible—truly just possible—that it could also pull the giant corpses on the fourth basement floor.
(Though, there's no sign of that happening for now.)
As far as Rei could see, none of the numerous corpses scattered across the fourth basement floor showed any sign of movement.
In other words, it was reasonable to assume the Black Crystal could only pull things within a certain proximity.
Alternatively, there might be other conditions—such as it only being possible when in the same space as the Black Crystal—but at the very least, Rei had no grasp of those details at present.
"In that case, to do something about the Black Crystal, do we first need to pull all the giants on the fifth basement floor up to this fourth basement floor?"
Rei nodded at Elena's question.
"That's how it'll be. Though even without us pulling them or doing anything like that, the giants will probably come here on their own. ...Look."
When Rei looked toward the staircase, a new giant was just appearing.
When Rei had gone down the stairs earlier, he had only killed one giant. The rest had simply fallen down the staircase after crashing into the lower half of the giant Rei killed.
If so, it had actually taken longer than Rei expected for them to reappear.
And right as the new giant fully emerged onto the fourth basement floor, the giant Vihera had been fighting sank to the ground.
(No, "sank into blood" might be more fitting.)
Likely because it had taken a Magic Impact Palm to the head. Watching the giant collapse on the ground covered in blood, streaming from its eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, Rei harbored that thought.
"Oh my, there's more? How wonderful. Entertain me more!"
Looking at the newly appeared giant, Vihera shouted happily and broke into a run toward it.
At first glance, she looked like a child who had found a new toy... but the expression currently on Vihera's face was so indecent that most men would have gulped involuntarily at the mere sight.
"There's no stopping her now."
Seeing Vihera like that, Marina muttered with a hint of exasperation.
Their recent battles had only been at the level of mock fights, if that, so a life-or-death battle like this was probably the perfect opportunity for Vihera.
She had fought three giants on the third basement floor, yes, but because there were beds present, she hadn't been able to fight to her heart's content in perfect condition.
In that sense, now was truly the ideal opportunity.
For Rei and the others as well, they had no intention of stopping Vihera now—partly because in her excitement, she might even turn her attacks on them.
The fact that having the giants defeated posed no problem at all for Rei and his party was also a significant factor.
"Come on, what's wrong? Try harder. Come on, hurry up and get up, get up, get up! Ahahahaha!"
Vihera's gleeful voice echoed through the fourth basement floor, but hearing it, Rei and the others only felt that it was good her stress was being relieved.
...To anyone who didn't know better, it was the kind of voice that could easily inspire all sorts of terror.
Precisely because Vihera was a woman who truly deserved to be called a peerless beauty, that terror would only be amplified.
But Rei and the others had a long and deep relationship with Vihera, despite everything.
They understood that even if Vihera appeared to have lost herself in excitement, she could calm down in an instant if she chose to.
As if to prove it, when the last giant to come up the staircase was killed by a Magic Impact Palm to the heart, her excitement from just seconds earlier immediately settled.
"It seems it's over."
Elena murmured, watching Vihera as she gazed out over the giant corpses scattered around the area.
Everyone nodded at those words, and Rei and the others headed toward where Vihera stood.
Vihera had probably noticed Rei and the others approaching while she savored the afterglow of battle.
With a smile, she welcomed them.
"Good work."
"No, in this case, I think those are our words."
Rei replied to Vihera, who murmured with a satisfied expression.
In truth, it was Vihera who had taken down nearly all the giants that came up from the fifth basement floor. The others had essentially only provided light support.
Of course, Rei had gone down to check on the fifth basement floor, so from Vihera's perspective, having seen that, it wasn't strange for her to offer a word of appreciation.
"Fufu, I suppose so. Though I didn't really do anything that impressive."
"No, you definitely did."
Marina retorted almost involuntarily.
After all, Vihera had single-handedly defeated that many giants, each possessing considerable strength.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been utterly impossible.
"Did I? Though, to be a little more greedy... I would have been fine with half as many giants, if each one had been stronger."
They were huge, so they were fun to attack, but she would have liked to enjoy more tactical back-and-forth in the fight.
As Vihera continued, the others wore expressions of understanding.
However, what they understood was not that the giants should have been stronger, but that the giants' combat had been nothing more than brute instinct.
As giants, there was no doubt they possessed strength incomparable to an ordinary human's.
But they relied entirely on that brute strength, and there was no technique to be found in the blows they swung.
If the giants had properly learned the kind of martial arts that humans used, they would without a doubt have been even stronger than they were now.
Vihera lamented that fact and would have loved to fight such giants if possible.
Of course, that was solely Vihera's sentiment. For everyone else, there was nothing wrong with weak enemies.
"An opponent stronger than these giants... well, who can say. But giants must have been born long before we arrived, too. In that case, there's a possibility that giants with actual combat techniques exist, just as Vihera says."
Even as he said that, Rei had no real certainty that giants with combat techniques actually existed.
For one thing, there was the question of whether it was even possible to teach human combat techniques to giants. And there was also the question of whether giants could use those techniques the same way even if they did learn them.
Size aside, there was little difference in body structure between humans and giants.
But whether that meant they could use the same combat techniques as humans was something Rei had to question.
(Well, for now it's probably best to let Vihera be satisfied with that. There's a chance, however small, that such an opponent might actually appear.)
Just how strong the giants in this Underground Facility were compared to others was naturally something Rei had no way of knowing.
Were they giants born after the ones previously here had been shipped out? Or were the elite among the giants left behind as guards?
Which one it was would make a significant difference.
"So, what do we do now? We need to do something about that Black Crystal first, right?"
"That's right. But... after seeing it bring giants back to life, I don't exactly feel like touching it casually."
Moving giant corpses toward itself with some kind of power—something that from Rei's perspective seemed less like magic and more like a psychokinetic superpower—and then resurrecting those corpses with black snow.
From Rei's perspective, he couldn't possibly think of that Black Crystal as an ordinary Magic Item.
"I understand how you feel, Rei, but there's no question that we have to do something about that Black Crystal, is there?"
"I know that. I know, but... after seeing that sight, I'm a little..."
What would be waiting for him if he casually touched that Black Crystal?
When he imagined it, Rei felt an unsettling, creepy sensation.
Of course, there was a possibility that nothing would happen if he actually tried touching it, but that didn't mean he wanted to test it right away.
"But if we just sit here... Byune, stop that."
Vihera, who had been about to say something to Rei, called out to Byune, who was touching a giant corpse a short distance away.
But Byune, as if letting Vihera's words go in one ear and out the other, kept touching the giant corpse.
Several seconds passed. Just as Vihera was about to say something again, Byune pointed at the giant corpse and spoke.
"Mn!"
Byune's attitude clearly asked, "Aren't we taking this giant corpse?" Rei and the others exchanged glances.
If this had been an ordinary monster, they would have taken its corpse, harvested its materials, or eaten its meat without any hesitation.
That wouldn't have changed even for humanoid monsters like Ogres or Cyclops... but when it came to the giant corpse before them, Rei simply couldn't bring himself to feel that way.
That was undoubtedly because the giants were born from humans.
Even if they had been born for reasons outside the natural order, through the Black Crystal or Slave Collars... Rei still had no desire to eat them.