Alina ran through the fourth floor, guided by the light of the Shard of Guidance.

Not that there was any chance of getting lost on this floor, which was nothing more than a large corridor stretching all the way to the interior. When she finally arrived at the tightly closed door, Alina raised her warhammer without a moment’s hesitation.

‘Haa!!’

A wild swing sent both halves of the iron door flying off their hinges. With the rest of her momentum, Alina slipped into the room, but there she came to a halt.

A dense darkness and a creeping silence pervaded the room. Alina wondered. Wasn’t Jade supposed to be fighting the Demon God to keep him from leaving? Then why was there no sound of combat? As Alina peered into the depths of the vast, spreading blackness that seemed to swallow the light from the shard hanging from her neck—her only source of illumination—she was seized by a sense of impending dread. Gazing into the unseen depths beyond, Alina proceeded with caution.

‘Jade?’

Alina nervously called out into the silence. There was no reply. She continued to be led through the eerie air steeped in silence, when Alina suddenly stopped.

At last, the light had reached its target. There, lit in pale green, was a lone man, his legs outstretched, his back slumped against the wall, the crystal shard on his chest absorbing the light from Alina’s counterpart.

His condition was dreadful.

He must have suffered a constant barrage of savage attacks, for his armour was badly damaged, with part of it having fallen off, and didn’t look like it could serve its function any longer. The attacks must have penetrated his armour, for his body was riddled with wounds and covered in dark-red blood, while a sea of deep crimson spread out around him. At his feet lay a familiar relic—a great shield, deep cracks running through it in several places and barely able to regain its original form. Silver hair, dyed red, hung weakly down the man’s head.

It was Jade, battered and bloodied.

A shock ran through Alina’s entire body, as if her brain had been struck directly.

She struggled to breathe. Words failed her. The muscles in her face stiffened, her eyes widened, and all she could do was stand frozen and stare at the horrible scene. The strangely quiet room echoed with the sound of her heart, beating like a drum.

‘Jade?’

She tried to call out to him in a timid voice, as if forcing the words past her lips, but his downcast head didn’t so much as twitch.

‘This… this can’t be… answer me, hey!’

Even as she shouted, Jade didn’t move, as if he were a corpse.

Even though he always came even when she didn’t call him.

Even though he always followed her around like a stray puppy.

I was too late.

Alina bit her lip so hard it almost pierced the flesh. Confronted with the truth before her eyes, she tightened her grip on the warhammer until her knuckles turned white.

I was too late.

Despair hung over her like a leaden blanket. She lowered her gaze and was reminded of the time she had been told of Shroud’s death. Alina stared at her boots poking out of the darkness, trying desperately to hold back something welling up inside her, but in a corner of her mind she thought of it as someone else’s problem and accepted the truth. He was an adventurer. This was a foregone conclusion. He had reached the end of a path that led inexorably towards death.

Suddenly, the air stung with hostility.

Alarmed, Alina quickly leapt aside, whereupon a mighty blow came down where she had just stood.

‘Impressive. You managed to dodge my attack. Another has come to entertain me. Today’s a good day.’

A human male said, his voice cheery, as he pulled his silver spear from the floor. No, his exposed, blood-spattered upper half and long blonde hair certainly made him appear human, but the black stone buried in his pit proved him to be anything but.

Alina had a hunch as to who this person was, though she had no proof.

‘Demon God!’

Silva, God of Demons. He must be the relic that Loewe spoke of.

The man grinned as if to confirm Alina’s hunch and produced a sphere of light from his right hand, illuminating the room. Alina could clearly make out the symbol on his temple. The mark of Dia, the same one that is carved into every relic.

‘Have you come to save this man? I’m sorry to tell you this, but he’s dead.’

Silva said plainly, glancing at the still figure of Jade.

‘I was just about to eat his soul. He proved to be unexpectedly entertaining. I thought humans were a fragile lot, but he was more resilient than I imagined.’

Silva chuckled. His mocking tone made it sound as if he regarded Jade as nothing more than a toy to be tossed aside.

Alina gritted her teeth.

Alina didn’t know what the feeling welling up inside her was. But some violent, unruly emotion was swirling in her chest like a dark eddy.

This bastard.

This fucking bastard!

‘Never mind. I’ll eat later. What’s more important is that I don’t let the prey before me get away!’

A delighted Silva swung his huge spear upwards and ran towards Alina. He was fast. He closed the distance between them in an instant, but Alina barely managed to catch his attack with her warhammer. The air shook with the sound of silver weapon clashing with silver weapon. Alina couldn’t resist the force of the blow and was forced onto her back feet.

‘Impressive! You managed to block my spear!’

‘You, Demon God’

Alina snarled.

Alina remembered Jade’s face as he left her room, telling her that he’d be fine.

How is this fine? Didn’t you want to “go to a dungeon together sometime”?

You adventurers, each and every one of you, never keep your promises.

‘I’ll fucking kill you!’

Alina threw all her strength behind her weapon and pushed the silver spear back.

‘Oh!?’

Her Herculean strength lifted Silva’s body from its earthly rest. Alina swung her hammer into his unguarded stomach.

‘I’ll fucking kill you!!’

As his body slammed to the floor with a violent thud, Alina brought her hammer down on his unprotected body.

Blow after blow rained down on the Demon God’s body as Alina turned her fury into strength. The room shook, clouds of dust rose, the stone floor cracked and fragment were lifted into the air.

‘Haha! This is starting to be fun. Very fun indeed.’

But even after the violent barrage had stopped, Silva got up as if nothing had happened. Despite taking so many blows, the only sign that he was ever hit was the streak of blood running down the corner of his mouth, and even that he wiped away with a look of glee.

Suddenly, he vanished his spear. He held out his right hand and began to chant softly:

‘I call upon thee: “Dia’s Judgement”.’

As though hailing to his call, rays of skill-light ran through the black stone in Silva’s pit, and numerous magic circles appeared in the air, each one producing a sword that deployed in a circle around Alina.

Surrounding her on all sides, the longswords attacked her all at once, not even giving her time to panic. In what was largely reflex, Alina kicked off the ground and took refuge in the air. As she watched several swords pierce the hard floor like butter, she tried to regain her posture.

‘Did you think I was going to let you escape?’

With a start, Alina noticed that another sword had appeared behind her.

‘Damn!’

She deflected it with a swing of her hammer. It was lighter than the spear thrust from before. However.

As she landed, a single sword appeared directly in front of Alina, as if it had predicted when her swing would be completed, creating a gap in her defence.

There’s no time to dodge.

Alina’s expression stiffened.

She keenly felt the approach of death. As if the clock of destiny were ticking towards her demise, a single moment stretched into seconds, and in her vision, where everything stood still, only the terrifying silver blade moved, slowly drawing closer to her chest.

‘Activate skill: “Ironclad Guardian”!’

Alina heard a voice coming from somewhere. At the same time, a battered shield blocked her view.

The great shield, which looked as it might fall apart at any moment, shone with a bright red light. A beat later, the sword aimed at Alina ricocheted off the shield with a metallic screech and shattered into pieces.

Now is the chance!

Following her instincts, Alina leapt into the air. Using the fragments of the great shield as a diversion, she closed in on Silva with all the speed she could muster.

‘Die!!!’

Silva couldn’t keep up with her sudden charge. It must have seemed to him as if she had suddenly emerged before his eyes. Alina’s warhammer, swung with all her might, landed in his shocked face.

‘Gah!’

His body spun through the air and slammed into one of the majestic columns. The room shook with the tremendous impact, and the pillar came crumbling down, burying Silva under a pile of rubble.

The room fell silent once more. Alina slowly lowered her hammer and turned around. Her gaze fell on Jade, who, with a pained expression on his face, was hacking up blood and trying to stagger to his feet.

‘Jade.’

In the end, he sank to the floor in a fit of pained coughing.

Alina slowly walked over to Jade, who, covered head to toe in blood, looked more corpse than living man. Kneeling in the still spreading pool of blood, she cautiously touched his cheek.

It was still warm.

Though his face was white as a corpse’s, it wasn’t freezing cold like one.

‘Were you… alive?’

‘I was asleep.’

‘Hah!?’

Alina unintentionally raised her voice, causing Jade to finally lift his head. Though half of his face was painted crimson and his bare skin was the colour of chalk, only his grey eyes sparkled with their usual unfounded confidence. He looked at Alina and grinned:

‘I woke up because you were banging your hammer around.’

He glanced at the blood-drenched warhammer—proof of the countless monsters she had slain as she climbed her way up to the fourth floor.

‘When I heard you, I thought: “I can’t just die here, can I?” I wanted to go to the dungeons with you one more time. So I slept, pretending to be dead, and regenerated, hoping to endure death by hook or by crook until you came.’

Alina’s mouth fell open.

She was so astonished that words failed her.

In these grave circumstances, where it seemed that he would die if he suffered one more attack, he went to sleep in the belief that help would come in time. Is there a limit to this man’s audacity?

‘Didn’t I tell you, miss Alina? I’m pretty tough, so I won’t die easily.’

Jade laughed. The next moment, however, he opened his eyes wide in surprise.

‘M—m—miss Alina!?’

Before she knew it, great tears were rolling down Alina’s cheeks.

‘A—a—are, are you crying!?’

‘Shut up! Die!’

‘Blegh!’

Alina planted her fist in Jade’s solar plexus and turned her head away.

It looked like a fatal blow as jade fell to the floor, his body convulsing in violent spasms, but it was his just reward.

Serves you right for pretending to be dead.

Frustrated and embarrassed, Alina pursed her lips and aggressively swept the tears from her cheek with the back of her hand. The moment she felt relief, tears kept pouring out like a dam had burst, and contrary to her will they would not stop.

She hadn’t cried in a long time. The last time had been during her her first year on the job, when she’d been loudly scolded for a mistake she hadn’t made and cried alone in the toilet at the unfairness of it all.

‘I—I’m sorry, miss Alina. You were worried about me, weren’t you?’

‘Shut up. Don’t look at me. First of all, why are you even alive, wounded like that? How tough are you, you piece-of-shit cockroach Silver Bastard!’

‘Cockroach!?’

‘For God’s sake. I shouldn’t have bothered coming here. I still have work left to do. Now I’ll have to have to work overtime tomorrow—’

Just then, Alina suddenly felt herself being seized by something, but when she looked down she saw Jade holding her in a silent embrace.

‘Hey!’

She reflexively tried to shake him off, but his grip was stronger than she had thought a wounded man could muster.

‘What the hell are you doing!?’

Alina’s protests fell on deaf ears, and Jade made no attempt to let her go. As if he wanted to confirm her existence with his entire body, he held her so tightly that it hurt. Trapped in his embrace, Alina suddenly noticed. Jade’s body was trembling so much that it was hard to believe that he was the same man who had so brazenly escaped the clutches of death until now.

‘Ahh, it’s miss Alina.’

He said in a strangely bright voice that sounded as if he had to force it out.

‘It’s miss Alina’

Hearing his voice, Alina held her tongue and did not move.

She could feel the warmth of his embrace, fanned by the flame of life. Nowhere was there the cruel coldness she had felt from Shroud on the day of his death.

She gave in and let her body relax. Leaning into his arms for a while, she closed her eyes in silence. As she faintly felt his faint warmth, she softly exhaled softly—

The next moment, she kicked Jade across the room.

Grimacing, Alina looked down at Jade, who was writhing in agony after skidding across the floor like a skipping stone, and spat:

‘Don’t cling to me with your blood-soaked body, you’re dirtying my uniform. I have to wear this to work tomorrow, you know?’

‘what a terrible thing to say!’

‘Here, drink this.’

Alina said, tossing Jade a small bottle containing an opaque liquid.

‘A potion? Why is a receptionist walking around with a potion?’

‘It’s my overtime companion, and the last of my supply. I’ve been working late until just now, so I’ve had a couple of sips already, but it’s better than nothing. I’ll have you repay me a million times over later. Keep that in mind.’

Jade’s eyes opened wide as he looked at the halfway-empty bottle.

‘You mean this is an indirect kiss from Alina!?!?’

‘I’m going to smash you to pieces.’

‘I will accept it with gratitude!’

After glancing at Jade as he forced the potion down while coughing up blood, Alina moved her wary gaze into the darkness.

The pile of rubble trapping Silva underneath stirred, until it finally collapsed, and he came out as if nothing had happened.

Hey there. If you though the chapter ended quite abruptly, that’s because I had to split it in two because I was running out of time. Sorry.