Chapter 348

Chapter 348: Chapter 348

"The two Corrupted Spirit clones on the western side are yours. Any problem with that?"

Kiriya looked toward Ottar and the other Freya Familia executives.

As expected, they simply nodded, their expressions calm and confident.

Two Corrupted Spirit clones might each possess strength comparable to Level 7, but that hardly meant they were beyond the Freya Familia’s ability to handle.

Ottar alone could take one, while the other could be left to Hedin, Hogni, Allen, and the rest.

"The one on the southern side goes to the Loki Familia."

"Only one?"

Finn and the others frowned.

With six Corrupted Spirit clones waiting on the 60th Floor, they had naturally assumed that the three Familias would each be responsible for two.

"You don’t have a Level 7, and your strength comes from functioning as one tightly coordinated combat unit," Kiriya explained. "Splitting your force would weaken you rather than help."

His reasoning was sound enough that Finn and the others could not really argue, though none of them looked particularly pleased about being assigned the smallest share.

Riveria, however, immediately noticed the implication.

"If that’s the case, your Familia will have to deal with the remaining three. Are you sure about that?"

"Completely." Kiriya’s answer came without hesitation.

Ais, who had remained quiet until now, tilted her head curiously.

"How are you going to do it?"

Everyone else turned toward him as well.

Kiriya glanced at the three women beside him. "Ryuu, Jeanne, Esdeath. You each take one."

The room fell silent.

Other than the three women themselves, everyone stared at Kiriya as though he had completely lost his mind.

"Boy, think carefully!"

Finn and Gareth both changed expression.

"Those are Level 7-class Corrupted Spirit clones!"

Nobody doubted Kiriya’s own strength.

He had already been capable of overpowering a beastified Ottar while still only Level 4. But the three women beside him were another matter entirely.

There was no way all three of them were secretly Level 7.

"This is a battlefield," Gareth warned gravely. "If you make a reckless decision here, people will die."

"I don’t gamble with my companions’ lives."

Kiriya remained perfectly composed.

His gaze softened slightly as he looked toward Jeanne, Ryuu, and Esdeath.

"My clones will stay nearby as insurance. Don’t worry about anything else. Just fight with everything you have."

Jeanne gave him a serene smile. "All right."

"We’ll win."

Esdeath’s confidence did not waver in the slightest.

"I have no objection."

Ryuu was equally calm.

"Madmen! Every last one of you is insane!"

Even Allen looked genuinely bewildered.

Were these people really adventurers?

Then Hedin caught something everyone else had missed.

"Wait. You said your clones would support them." His eyes narrowed. "Then what will your main body be doing?"

Kiriya smiled.

"Finding the seventh Corrupted Spirit clone."

The reaction was immediate.

"What seventh one?"

Even Finn, normally the most composed person present, visibly stiffened.

Kiriya tapped the table lightly.

"The Sixfold Spirit Ring should be powerful enough to destroy Orario and the upper floors of the Dungeon, but if the beam is meant to reach all the way down to the 60th Floor as well, six ordinary Corrupted Spirit clones shouldn’t be enough. You’d need six Great Spirits at their original full strength to achieve something like that."

His expression grew colder.

"And if the strongest Familias in Orario survive the blast because they’re already underground, that obviously defeats the purpose of whoever planned this."

"So they prepared something else."

Kiriya raised one finger.

"After the Sixfold Spirit Ring is released, a seventh Corrupted Spirit clone will serve as a vessel and absorb the remaining power of the other six."

Riveria’s face immediately darkened.

"It wouldn’t survive that."

"Exactly."

Kiriya made a small exploding gesture with one hand.

"It’ll blow."

The room went still.

"If that happens while we’re on the 60th Floor, there’s a good chance none of us escape. We’d be buried together with the Spirit."

A chill ran down everyone’s spine.

Whoever was behind this had not merely planned to destroy Orario.

They intended to wipe out the city’s strongest combat forces at the same time.

"So we have two objectives," Kiriya continued. "Stop the Sixfold Spirit Ring before it activates, and locate and destroy the hidden seventh clone before it can be used as the final bomb."

He looked around the room.

"That’s the plan. Any objections?"

Nobody spoke.

"Good. Rest for an hour, then we move."

...

52nd Floor.

The moment the main forces of the three Familias entered the 52nd Floor, the Valgang Dragons on the 58th Floor locked onto them.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!

A chain of massive bombardments tore through multiple floors at once, blasting open the ground beneath the expedition and creating an enormous vertical shaft.

Everyone had already been expecting it and moved before the attacks landed.

Time was too precious to waste fighting every dragon between the 52nd and 58th Floors.

Kiriya created a Shadow Clone, pulled out a Flying Thunder God kunai, and hurled it down through the newly opened shaft.

Several monsters instinctively tried to intercept it.

Then the single kunai multiplied.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu."

In an instant, one weapon became thousands.

A dense rain of kunai poured downward through the Dungeon, impossible to block completely.

Quite a few monsters were skewered outright before the weapons finally reached the 58th Floor and embedded themselves throughout the ground.

Kiriya turned toward the expedition.

"Everyone hold hands. Nobody lets go."

He then glanced at his Shadow Clone.

"Bring them down in ten seconds."

The clone nodded.

Kiriya vanished.

...

He reappeared on the 58th Floor.

The surrounding Valgang Dragons and other draconic monsters recoiled in surprise at the human suddenly appearing in their midst, but they recovered almost immediately and began turning their heads toward him.

Hundreds of dragons prepared to fire at once.

Kiriya remained completely calm.

"Eight Gates—Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit, Open!"

Violent chakra erupted through his body.

Then he drew his sword.

"Afterglow—Blade Storm!"

For a single instant, the entire battlefield seemed to fill with light.

Countless brilliant sword arcs screamed outward in every direction.

Wherever they passed, enormous dragon bodies were carved apart with almost no resistance.

Hardened scales, dense bones, and thick muscle were sliced through as easily as warm butter.

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk—!

Within a radius of several kilometers, blood erupted again and again like crimson flowers blooming across the plain.

A battlefield that had been overcrowded with dragons only moments earlier became eerily empty and silent.

Whoosh—!

A few moments later, nearly a hundred adventurers from the three Familias appeared together on the 58th Floor.

Many of them had already drawn their weapons, expecting an immediate fight.

Instead, they found themselves staring at an empty plain.

"Huh?"

Tiona blinked.

"Where did all the dragons go?"

"Idiot. Kiriya obviously killed them already."

Tione knocked her sister lightly on the head.

Sometimes she genuinely wondered how the two of them could possibly be related.

Ottar stared at Kiriya for several seconds.

"Your Afterglow has improved again."

The level of mastery was absurd.

Kiriya was beginning to use what should have been a finishing move as casually as an ordinary attack.

"So that was his spatial Magic."

Hedin looked toward the exhausted Shadow Clone, which was standing nearby with its tongue practically hanging out.

"Interesting. Though the consumption must be enormous."

That seemed like the obvious explanation for why Kiriya had not simply teleported the entire expedition straight down from the surface.

If moving nearly a hundred people at once were cheap, they would never have spent almost an entire day traveling to the 50th Floor.

ROAR—!

A chorus of dragon cries interrupted his thoughts.

More monsters were already rushing toward them from the distance, while others were beginning to regenerate from the Dungeon walls nearby.

"Advance at full speed. Don’t get dragged into unnecessary fights."

Kiriya gave the order and immediately charged ahead.

"ROAR!"

Ottar followed almost at once.

The massive boaz swung the Supreme Black Sword as though it weighed nothing and transformed into a living meat grinder.

Wherever he passed, dragon flesh and blood exploded across the ground, turning the path behind him into something resembling a slaughterhouse.

"That damn boar is getting carried away too."

Hedin sighed.

Ottar was hardly the only one.

As the expedition continued tearing through monsters that would normally have posed serious difficulty, the blood of many adventurers began to heat up.

The dragon species of the Deep Floors were usually feared.

Today, there simply were not enough of them to kill.

The expedition continued its relentless advance, cutting through every obstacle in its path until, at last, they reached the 60th Floor.

The moment they stepped across the boundary, the scenery before them changed completely.