"Alectas, please, take this."
Anne produced a small bottle of Hourai Island’s special Persica juice, which she had brought along for emergencies, and offered it to Alectas.
Draining the small bottle—scarcely a hundred milliliters—was enough to wash away Alectas's fatigue and fill him with a sudden surge of vitality.
Alectas himself was the one most stunned by the transformation.
"This is incredible...! Is it some kind of secret elixir? My exhaustion vanished in an instant."
"I am glad it helped. Now, let us proceed."
Deciding it was still too early to reveal everything, Anne prioritized moving forward. Alectas did not press her further.
The ceiling had returned to its original height. Being able to walk without hunching over was a welcome relief.
They traveled about twenty meters before the corridor began to curve gently.
"What is that?"
The passage opened into a small, wide hall ahead.
"There may be more traps," Reiko cautioned.
She peered warily into the hall. It was a stark, circular space, roughly ten meters in diameter with a four-meter ceiling. There were no decorations or features—nothing but metal floors, walls, and ceiling.
Another corridor was visible on the far side.
"I cannot imagine this place being free of traps, regardless of how it looks. However, we cannot turn back now."
Their destination lay beyond that far corridor.
"I will go first while maintaining my barrier," Reiko said.
As long as her barrier was active, Reiko could withstand almost any trap.
"Elder Sister, please be careful."
Despite her logic, Anne couldn't help but pray for Reiko’s safety.
"I am going."
With her barrier deployed, Reiko trotted across the hall when—
"Ah?"
The floor depressed about a centimeter under her weight. Since her sensors hadn't detected a hollow space beneath the floor, Reiko hadn't predicted the pressure plate.
Her toe caught on the edge, halting her momentum for a split second. In that moment—
"Elder Sister!"
The ceiling of the hall slid open, and a viscous substance rained down.
It was like a translucent birdlime. While it didn't stick to Reiko herself thanks to her barrier, the entire sphere of the barrier became coated in the adhesive.
Reiko didn't panic, but she wore a grim expression within the sphere.
The restraining force was weak, but it was incredibly troublesome. The substance was elastic, making it impossible to simply shake off. Since it was also stuck to the floor, moving forward would mean stepping on more of it, eventually causing the birdlime to stick to Reiko herself.
"W-What should we do?" Alectas stammered, hovering nearby in a fluster.
"This is quite a nuisance..."
Just as Anne reached the same conclusion as Reiko, she received a set of instructions from Laojun.
"...I see. We shall use that method."
The same information must have reached Reiko, as her form remained perfectly still inside the translucent shell.
Anne prepared to cast the most powerful fire spell in her repertoire.
"Fire Storm!"
"Wh-What are you doing!?"
Alectas turned pale with shock. It was a natural reaction, seeing as Anne had just unleashed fire-attribute magic directly at Reiko.
Fire Storm was a spell that completely engulfed the target in a vortex of flames. Reiko and the birdlime surrounding her vanished instantly within the blaze.
Anne carefully controlled the radius of the inferno to ensure the walls and ceiling wouldn't sustain significant damage.
"Elder Sister will be unharmed by fire magic of this level. She is inside her barrier, after all. But as for the birdlime..."
Just as Laojun had calculated, the birdlime was roasted by the heat of the Fire Storm. It ignited and burned away completely within minutes.
Reiko deactivated her barrier and smiled.
"That went well."
She walked the rest of the way to the opposite corridor and beckoned to the others.
Anne, accompanied by Alectas and naturally maintaining her own barrier, crossed the hall to join Reiko.
"Anne, thank you. That was a help."
"Think nothing of it, Elder Sister. It was according to Laojun’s instructions."
After that brief exchange, the three of them continued down the passage.
＊ ＊ ＊
"Those are some persistent traps..."
In the command room on Hourai Island, Jin muttered with a look of disgust as he monitored the feed.
"No, My Lord. While they are certainly traps, it might be more accurate to call them defense installations designed to protect whatever lies at the end of this path, rather than simple intruder countermeasures."
"Defense installations, huh?"
"Yes. While I humbly suspect the 'dungeon' Reiko mentioned might imply a labyrinth, this path has been almost entirely linear."
"I see. If that's the case, then they're definitely on the right track."
"Indeed. That said, the nature of the traps is quite inconsistent. The threat levels are all over the place—ranging from obvious hazards like the electrical floor to vicious ones like the chlorine gas."
"Couldn't it be the opposite? Maybe they set a variety of types and levels specifically to counter any kind of external enemy."
"A valid point, My Lord....However, I am inclined to believe that several additions were made after the fact to an original, existing defense mechanism."
"Yeah, that's another way to look at it..."
The truth would likely reveal itself once they reached the end.
＊ ＊ ＊
Beyond the hall, the corridor stretched straight and sloped diagonally downward.
"Our destination is undoubtedly ahead."
After descending about thirty meters, a door came into view at the end of the hall.
"I expect the goal lies beyond that door."
The three stopped about ten meters away. There were no guards or guardian golems at the door, nor did it appear to be protected by a barrier.
"I cannot believe there are no traps left."
"I agree."
"A possible trap here would be..."
It was unlikely they would reuse a trap that had already been bypassed. The traps encountered so far—pitfalls, electricity, poison gas, birdlime, and golems—had covered both physical and magical bases.
"I wonder what other traps are common in the 'dungeons' Father knows of..."
Reiko used her internal manacam to consult with Laojun. Since Jin was in the command room, he weighed in as well.
"The nastiest thing I can think of right before a destination is a trap that warps you to a different floor."
"A teleportation trap, then."
That insight was immediately relayed to Reiko and Anne.
"A trap that teleports an intruder the moment they step on it... To prevent that..."
"A Magi-Jammer is our only option," Anne concluded.
They couldn't afford to waste time. All-Creation, Sion, Netros, Lucas, and Jin’s Body Double were still waiting back at Capricorn 1.
"Magi-Jammer, activating."
"Magi-Jammer, activating."
Anne and Reiko both activated their Magi-Jammers. Maintaining the interference field, Reiko slowly approached the door.
Nothing happened. Once she reached the door, she pushed up the lever beside it, which appeared to be the opening mechanism.
However, nothing happened.
"It may have required some form of magical power to function. It is possible it will not open now because the Magi-Jammers have cut off the flow," Anne speculated.
Her guess was likely on the mark.
"Then... it cannot be helped."
Reiko gripped the handle on the door and pulled with all her might.
But, to her surprise, there was a sharp snap as the handle broke off in her hand.
"How fragile."
With no other choice, Reiko drew Touka. At the very least, any presence inside surely would have noticed them by now.
No longer holding back, Reiko swung Touka in a swift arc.
The door was slashed in an X-pattern. Reiko then followed up with a powerful kick.
The locking mechanism must have been severed along with the metal, as the door blew inward with a thunderous roar, revealing the mysterious room beyond in its entirety.