Chapter 49 – Three Paths into the Dark

  (Knossos – Daedalus Street / Bete’s Group / Ryuu’s Shadow)

  Daedalus Street looked less like a neighborhood and more like a wound.

  Stone houses leaned into each other at impossible angles, stacked and twisted like a child had taken Orario’s building blocks and broken the rules. Underfoot, the cobbles were scarred — blast marks, scorched lines, dried blood in cracks no one had bothered to scrub away.

  Today, it was crowded.

  Armored boots, polished greaves, sharpened spears. Banners of Loki Familia, Hermes Familia, Ganesha Familia, and others swayed in the dust-thick wind. Supply carts rattled, healers checked straps on bulging potion satchels, and gods watched from the edges with eyes too quiet.

  At the very front of the chaos, a “building” that wasn’t a building at all yawned open — a massive stone gate built into a slanted wall. Anyone who didn’t know better might have taken it for a collapsed house.

  Everyone here knew better.

  This was a mouth.

  And below it was Knossos.

  1. Aiz & Alise – The First Line

  “Form up! Final check, five minutes!” Raul shouted, voice cracking a little as it bounced off twisted facades.

  Alise stood beside Aiz at the edge of the staging line, looking up at the crooked houses. Wind tugged at her crimson ribbon; she adjusted it once, more out of habit than nerves.

  “They rebuilt fast,” she murmured.

  Aiz followed her gaze. “From the Daedalus battle?”

  “Yeah. Last time I came here, there were more screams.” Alise huffed a small breath. “Guess that’s an improvement.”

  Ahead, Finn stood on a raised slab of stone with Riveria, Gareth, Asfi, and Loki beside him. Around them, squads organized into their three main attack paths:

  Northeast route – Finn’s group, with Airmid and heavy support.

  Southwest route – Gareth, Riveria, Lefiya, Loki, Dionysus’ forces in canon.

  Southeast route – Bete’s Beastmen spearhead, plus Hermes Familia and “assorted others.”

  Alise and Aiz were slotted into Riveria’s strike team, the one that would enter through the hidden 12th Floor pathway using Hermes’ Daedalus Orb.

  For now, though, everyone listened.

  Finn raised his spear. The hubbub dimmed.

  “Today, we enter Knossos again,” he began, voice clear and steady. “You all know what waits below. Traps. Curses. Spirits. And something worse pulling the strings.”

  He didn’t say “Enyo.” He didn’t have to.

  “We are not here to die as martyrs,” Finn continued. “We are here to learn and to cut. The first strike is reconnaissance and decapitation where possible: Evilus bases, Demi Spirits, command routes. Ganesha Familia will secure the surface. Xenos support will anchor our lower flank. Hermes will handle special operations.”

  He paused, letting the words settle.

  “Some of you still aren’t sure about fighting alongside monsters,” he said, glancing over the crowd. “Some of you lost friends to them.”

  Alise felt a few glances flicker her way: Astrea Familia, Daedalus Street, Line Arshe.

  Finn went on anyway.

  “We fight with anyone who stands against Evilus and this thing wearing the Dungeon like a coat. If that includes monsters—no, if that includes Xenos—we adapt. If that offends you…” he shrugged, “you’re still free to walk away.”

  No one moved.

  Gareth grunted approvingly. Riveria nodded once. Loki smirked and stretched, making a show of yawning.

  “Good,” Finn said. “Then listen up for path assignments.”

  He began calling out names and positions. Groups formed tighter lines.

  “Riveria’s unit — northeastern sector, 12th Floor entry,” he listed. “Composition: Riveria, Aiz, Alise, Lefiya, Gareth will join later from below, Hermes auxiliary—”

  Lefiya, standing not far behind them, swallowed loudly. Her hands trembled just enough for Alise to notice.

  Alise glanced back and offered her a brief, crooked smile. “Hey, elf. You keep us alive from the back, yeah?”

  Lefiya’s cheeks pinked. “Y-Yes! I– I mean, I’ll do my best!”

  Aiz watched the exchange quietly, then spoke in her usual flat tone: “Her magic is strong. We will need it.”

  Lefiya’s ears reddened further

  Lefiya lingered near the edge of the war room long after the others had started to disperse. The plans were decided, the markers set — yet her heart was tangled somewhere else entirely.

  She hadn’t noticed Alise approach until a warm shadow fell across her.

  Alise tilted her head, studying her with a gentle, knowing smile.

  “You’re carrying a storm in that little chest of yours,” she said lightly. “That kind that crackles even when you’re standing still.”

  Lefiya flinched faintly, fingers tightening around the hem of her robe.

  “I—I’m fine,” she lied.

  Alise chuckled softly. “Sure you are.”

  Then her tone shifted — not teasing anymore, but calm… sincere.

  “The other day,” Alise said, eyes narrowing just a touch in memory,

  “I saw you staring at Bell.”

  Lefiya’s breath hitched.

  “You were all puffed up with awe,” Alise continued, “and at the same time, you looked like your heart was tearing itself apart.”

  She turned fully toward Lefiya now.

  “So,” Alise asked gently,

  “What happened between you two?”

  Silence stretched.

  Lefiya’s lips trembled. For a second, it looked like she wouldn’t answer at all.

  Then, quietly—

  “He keeps running ahead,” Lefiya whispered. “No matter how much we train… no matter how hard I push… he’s always further than where I can reach.”

  Her fists clenched.

  “I’m proud of him,” she admitted. “But I’m also afraid. Afraid that one day, I’ll only be watching his back disappear.”

  Alise listened without interrupting.

  When Lefiya finished, Alise didn’t laugh.

  Instead, she smiled — soft, steady, and full of fire.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “That fear?” she said. “It’s proof you’re alive.”

  She stepped closer and rested her hand gently on Lefiya’s shoulder.

  “And if you want…”

  “I can teach you a thing or two.”

  Lefiya looked up, startled.

  Alise tapped her own chest once.

  “He’s my hero too.”

  Then, softer — almost like a confession whispered into a flame—

  “And I have very high hopes for this human.”

  Lefiya’s breath shuddered.

  Not from fear.

  From resolve.

  Alise turned toward the door with an easy grin, her crimson ribbon swaying behind her.

  “Don’t fall too far behind,” she added lightly. “Heroes hate being lonely at the top.”

  And with that, she was gone.

  Lefiya remained standing there long after.

  Her heart still racing.

  Her fear still burning.

  But now — so was her will.

  Aiz stood just beyond the threshold of the corridor, half-hidden by the stone archway.

  She hadn’t meant to listen.

  It simply… happened.

  When Alise’s last words drifted through the air—

  “He’s my hero too.”

  “And I have very high hopes for this human.”

  Aiz’s fingers tightened around the strap of her sword.

  Just slightly.

  So slightly that no one else would have noticed.

  Her eyes shifted a fraction to the side — unfocused for a heartbeat. The faintest hitch passed through her breath, almost inaudible.

  Then—

  A tiny change.

  Not jealousy.

  Not anger.

  Something quieter.

  Acceptance… mixed with a strange, unfamiliar warmth.

  For a single moment, the wind around her stirred without command.

  Then it settled.

  Aiz turned away silently, her steps soundless against the stone.

  But in her chest, something continued to move.

  Not conflict.

  Resolve.

  Finn continued assigning until he reached the group on the far right.

  “Southeast route — Bete’s spearhead. High-mobility unit. Objective: smash through, map, hold key crossroads.” He pointed with his spear. “Bete, Raul, Aki, Rakta, Hermes Familia, Ryuu—”

  He stopped.

  Ryuu’s name was not on the list.

  Finn frowned, just a little, then let it pass. Paperwork mistakes happened. As long as they had the strength.

  “—and additional scouts,” he amended smoothly. “You’ll be our fastest blade. Don’t break.”

  From somewhere in the Beastmen line, Bete’s voice floated lazily: “Tch. Don’t tell me what to do, shorty.”

  Loki cackled.

  2. Bete’s Line – And a Ghost in Green

  Closer to the gate, Bete rolled his shoulders, ears flat, tail lashing with impatient irritation.

  The southeast formation already split itself into two assault columns:

  Front column – Bete, Raul, Aki, the stronger front-liners.

  Second column – Hermes Familia, support fighters, runners to carry messages back.

  Raul paced along the second line with a checklist, counting heads. “Okay, front column: Bete, Rakta, Aki, (…names…), count looks good. Second: Hermes team, three archers, one dagger unit, one—”

  He hesitated.

  Someone in a green cloak shifted slightly in the second row.

  Raul blinked. “Uh… you are…?”

  The hood tilted up just enough to reveal a familiar sharp profile, emerald eyes half-lidded, expression like carved ice softened by something tired.

  “I’m only a waitress,” she said. “Passing through.”

  Raul nearly choked. “M-Miss Ryuu?!”

  Bete’s ear twitched. He turned just enough to see the cloaked elf slide fully into line, cloak hem brushing the dusty stones.

  “The hell are you doing here, forest stalker?” he growled. “Thought you retired to pouring beers and glaring at drunk idiots.”

  Ryuu’s gaze met his, calm and utterly unbothered. “This is an Evilus nest. I was asked to help exterminate pests once. Consider this continuing the job.”

  Hermes, standing just behind her with his arms crossed, wore his usual faintly amused smile. Asfi stood at his side, expression politely blank but eyes sharp.

  “Asfi?” Raul hissed under his breath. “Is she really…?”

  Asfi adjusted her glasses. “The Guild was informed that we’d have an additional ‘independent asset’ familiar with certain Evilus members. She’s cleared.”

  Bete snorted. “Independent asset my ass. Just don’t slow us down, waitress.”

  “If you are faster, I won’t see you long enough to be annoyed,” Ryuu answered, tone perfectly flat.

  A few of the Hermes kids snickered quietly.

  Raul leaned slightly toward her as he passed. “You really don’t have to do this, you know. Finn’s plan—”

  Ryuu’s fingers flexed once under the cloak, just enough for the leather of her glove to creak.

  “Someone like Jura can’t be left in a maze built for cowards,” she said softly. “I won’t stay on the surface while he hides.”

  Raul blinked. “Jura…?”

  Before he could ask more, Finn’s young runners jogged down the line, calling:

  “First columns ready! Stand by on my signal! Second columns follow thirty seconds behind!”

  The gate ahead rumbled as the first stone mechanisms began to move. The mouth was opening.

  Ryuu lowered her hood. The light caught the Astrea Familia emblem still hidden on the inside of her cloak, pressed over her heart.

  I’ll find you, she thought. This time, there won’t be a crowd in the way.

  3. Asfi’s Whisper – The Hook

  The night before, in a quiet back alley near the Hostess of Fertility, Asfi had pressed something small and folded into Ryuu’s hand.

  “You understand this isn’t official Guild intel,” Asfi had said. “Hermes didn’t want you going at all.”

  “So you overruled your own god?” Ryuu asked.

  “No.” Asfi’s lips tightened. “I simply know what happens when information is buried. People like you walk blind. More people die.”

  The note had been concise. Asfi didn’t waste ink.

  Jura Halmer – Ikelos remnant.

  Sighted during Xenos incident.

  Confirmed: responsible for Astrea Familia incident.

  Tendency: retreat over confrontation.

  Current status: believed to be hiding in Knossos, attached to Evilus clean-up cells, likely southeast sector, uses secret paths others don’t know.

  There had been one last line, added in smaller handwriting.

  If you chase him, you will be alone.

  Ryuu had folded the note once more and let the candle burn it to ash.

  Now, as southeast column two prepared to move, she felt the faintest ghost of that heat at her fingertips.

  ‘Alone’ was fine. She had walked alone before.

  She just wasn’t going to be late this time.

  4. Descent – Three Paths Diverge

  Finn raised his spear again. The street fell fully silent.

  “Loki Familia!” he called. “And all who fight with us today!”

  Every head tilted up.

  “This is not the end,” Finn said. “This is the knife that finds the heart. Don’t die where no one can reach you. Don’t die for nothing. We’re going to drag this thing into the light if we have to rip the Dungeon open.”

  Loki whistled, grinning fiercely. “You heard him! Make Mama proud, kids!”

  “MOVE!”

  The command cracked across Daedalus Street like thunder.

  Northeast group surged first, flowing into one entrance.

  Southwest group peeled off to the left, heading for another submerged gate.

  Southeast group — Bete’s spearhead — sprinted straight ahead, toward the main, jagged gate yawning in the warped house front.

  “Front column— with me!” Bete barked, going from lazy slouch to lethal motion in an instant. “Second, don’t trip over your own tails!”

  He launched forward. Beastmen followed, the stone under their boots shuddering with the force of their charge.

  Seconds later, Raul shouted, “SECOND COLUMN, GO! GO!”

  Ryuu moved with them, cloak barely stirring, steps almost soundless as she darted into the opened throat of Knossos.

  The light dimmed—not like a natural descent, but as if the walls swallowed it. The air changed, thick with dust and old curses. The twisting stone corridors of Daedalus’ labyrinth accepted them like a host greeting guests it meant to poison.

  Bete’s group tore ahead, shredding the first wave of ambush monsters, ripping through triggered traps with practiced efficiency. Behind, the second column followed, Hermes’ people marking walls, Raul shouting directions, Ryuu’s gaze sweeping every shadow, every side passage.

  The further they went, the more wrong the geometry became. Hallways looped back into themselves, staircases doubled at angles that should have been impossible.

  Knossos remembered them.

  Now it was waiting to see what they’d do differently.

  They’d cleared three choke points when it happened.

  The group rounded a corner into a wider intersection — four branching corridors, two of them plugged with collapsed stone, one warded by a ugly Evilus sigil, the last dimly lit by flickering lamps.

  “Forward,” Bete snapped, nostrils flaring. “I smell rats that way.”

  He and the front runners plunged down the lit corridor.

  Second column slowed to re-mark the intersection. Hermes gestured to one of his children to scratch another symbol into the wall.

  Ryuu hung back for half a heartbeat, letting the noise of the group surge a few steps ahead. Her eyes narrowed, scanning the other passages instead.

  A faint movement.

  Not along the main path — along the wall itself.

  A stone panel, almost imperceptibly different, was easing itself shut. Through the narrowing crack, Ryuu glimpsed a hunched shape in a tattered cloak, white hair, the gleam of cruel eyes that seemed to scan for pursuers and find only shadows.

  Her body remembered him long before her mind caught up.

  That back. That gait. That way of looking over his shoulder without slowing…

  The man turned his head just a fraction and, for an instant, Ryuu saw his profile cleanly.

  Her heart stopped.

  “Jura,” she breathed.

  The panel clicked into place.

  “—Ryuu?” Raul called from up ahead. “You coming?”

  Her lungs burned. Sound thinned. For a moment she saw another street, another pursuit, her familia falling one by one into a trap bathed in lamp-light and fire.

  If I stay, he slips away again. If I call out, he’ll never use that passage twice.

  Asfi’s warning line ran through her mind: If you chase him, you will be alone.

  Good.

  Ryuu spun on her heel.

  “Continue without me,” she said, already moving toward the sealed panel.

  Raul stared. “W-Wait, what?! Miss Ryuu, you can’t just—”

  Bete glanced back with a scowl. “Oi! Where the hell do you think you’re—”

  “I’ll rejoin the formation later,” Ryuu cut in, voice like snapped ice. “There’s a snake using passages you don’t have on your maps. If I let him slip again, more than this operation will pay for it.”

  Hermes’ eyes narrowed slightly. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. From where he was standing he saw everything.

  So you found him, he thought. Faster than I expected.

  Out loud, he only said, lightly, “We are on a schedule, Miss Elf.”

  “Then don’t wait for me,” Ryuu replied. “Finn can decide whether to scold me after I cut off a head he’s been chasing for years.”

  She placed her palm on the misaligned stone.

  The wall was subtle — Daedalus’ work. The edges of the hidden door hummed with a faint, wrong magic. Other adventurers might have missed it.

  Ryuu had spent years memorizing exits.

  She pressed, twisted, shifted. The panel resisted… then gave with a grinding hiss, opening just enough for a slim elf to slip through.

  “Ryuu!” Raul called again, voice tight. “It’s not in the plan!”

  She looked back once, green eyes calm and utterly resolved.

  “Neither was what happened to Astrea Familia,” she said softly. “Tell Finn I apologize.”

  Then she slid through and let the stone grind shut behind her.

  Silence swallowed her. The muffled noise of Bete’s group dulled to a heartbeat through the rock.

  Alone now, Ryuu Lion stood in a narrow, dust-choked passage that sloped downward at a cruel angle, lit only by sickly light crystals hammered into the stone.

  She touched the handle of her wooden sword, inhaled once, and started to run.

  “Jura Halmer,” she whispered. “This time… I will not lose your trail.”

  She didn’t know yet that his path would drag her all the way to the 18th Floor, to a cavern drenched in

  blood and broken stone, to a monster born from a curse and a wish.

  For now, there was only the narrow passage, the pull of old grief, and the sound of her own footsteps, echoing further and further from the safety of any plan.