Meanwhile.
Heizen Wof's dungeon. Floor 55. A hall surrounded by rock.
Thunder Fang, with Sue, was surrounded by a pack of dozens of goblins.
Yes, the green demons with horns sprouting from their heads. Those goblins.
Moreover, the goblins were armed. They wore leather armor from head to toe and carried swords, spears, and axes.
What's more, a notably larger hobgoblin clad entirely in metal armor was stationed in the back.
The sword the hobgoblin was carrying was an OOPArt.
In other words, it could wield a Relic.
"That one in the back looks pretty tough."
"Whoa, old man. You were here?"
"I've been here the whole time."
Enns gave a wry smile.
"Old man?"
Sue tilted her head. He had supposedly introduced himself, but she had no memory of it.
Maybe he just hadn't left much of an impression. Sue couldn't really remember.
Besides, he had mentioned the old man and Axe, but he sure didn't look the part.
"Ah, well, it's complicated, but he's my real father."
"...He doesn't seem like an elf, though?"
"There are all sorts of complicated circumstances, you know."
Ence managed a wry smile.
"Don't lay a finger on the old man. We'll handle this one."
"Yeah. If somebody else had to step in for a First-Class fight, we'd never live it down."
"I know. Do your best."
Thunder Fang with Suu headed toward the mob of armed goblins.
Ence took a step back and watched over them.
"Taaaaahhhh!"
"Seaaaaahhhh!"
"Oraaaaahhhh!"
Thunder Fang with Suu let out their battle cries.
They had one thing in common: no Relics. Including Ence, they had absolutely zero Relics.
Axe's blade deflected the goblin's sword, then cut the goblin clean through.
The sword glowed a faint, pale white.
Hoss stabbed and slashed through goblins with his halberd, which shone a bright, intense white.
And diagonal behind them, Suu blasted away five goblins at once, her body glowing a soft, pale white.
"Wow, that's some violent life force."
Ence couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
Suu's entire body was glowing a faint, pale white.
But what shone brightest of all were her two hands.
Her weapons were her bare fists. In other words, she fought completely unarmed.
This white light is the light of the soul.
The soul dwelling within the vessel of the body possesses a powerful force of its own.
Normally, this soul energy is consumed whenever a Relic is used.
But when there are no Relics to be had, it can be wielded as one's own power.
Throughout the ages, this soul energy has gone by many different names.
Among those names, the one Ensu is especially fond of is—
"'Soul
Force—
it's strong, huh."
"Soul
Force."
That's what it's called.
Axe was the most skilled of the three when it came to using Soul Force.
By concentrating it solely into the blade, she could amplify its power. Axe is the only one who can pull off that level of technique.
Hoss had the deepest reserves of Soul Force among the three.
That's why Hoss's halberd emits not a faint but a rich, dense white glow.
Suu had the greatest volume of Soul Force among the three.
The faint white light that covers her entire body—only Suu has that.
"All three of them show off their individual strengths. Yeah. I like it."
Incidentally, Rel is the only one who can imbue things with Soul Force.
Only Rel could fire off arrows with Soul Force still clinging to the tip.
Enz wasn't standing with arms folded in the back, but he was observing their fight.
"Ah, right. Rel's not there, so there's no ranged support."
Thunder Fang, together with Suu, made for quite a wild trio—every single one of them an attacker.
No defense, no support, all-out offense. It was a blitz-style party composition.
"Yaaaaah!"
"Haaaaaah!"
"Doryaaaaah!"
"They've certainly got momentum."
What Enz felt was pure violence.
Especially Suu, whom he'd once called violence incarnate in its most primal form—the violence of life force itself.
Watching her wield her bare fists—humanity's oldest and most innate weapons—was like witnessing the embodiment of violence personified.
In the end, she grabbed a goblin and started swinging it around like a weapon.
Axe was cutting through goblins with swordsmanship, and Hoss was methodically slaughtering them with steady, reliable blows.
"It's rough, but it's a good party. However—"
Enz's gaze settled on the one standout: the hobgoblin clad head-to-toe in full metal armor.
It was standing further back, silently watching the battle. It almost seemed to be sizing them up.
"Hmm. I thought they might be able to handle it on their own, but that one is, no matter how you look at it... top-tier Gold-rank mid-tier. Three people might struggle."
At this point, nobody in the dungeon had noticed, but this particular hobgoblin—
It was actually an anomaly within the dungeon. Along with Jess and one other, it had undergone a transformation.
But nobody noticed.
A goblin had anomalously evolved into a hobgoblin, becoming a subspecies.
It was that small a change — one that slipped by entirely undetected.
Not every change in a dungeon ends up affecting the dungeon as a whole.
There are small shifts like this that simply go unnoticed.
Thunder Fang, with Sue, entered combat against the hobgoblin.
The sword the hobgoblin wielded was an OOPArt.
Moreover, it was a rare OOPArt attuned to both wind and flame — a double Relic.
With wind and fire wreathing its blade, it toyed with the three of them.
"Damn — this guy. He's strong!"
"Wind and fire both — that's trouble."
"Rraaaagh!"
Sue charged in.
But she was blocked by the hobgoblin's Wall of Wind.
"Guh—?!"
And as she was brought to a halt, a slashing wave of flame bore down on her.
"Sue!"
"Take this! Haaaah!"
Hoss hurled his halberd with every ounce of strength he had, and it struck the flaming sword.
The hobgoblin grimaced. In that opening, Sue fell back.
Seizing the chance, Axe closed the distance to the hobgoblin in a single step, aiming to settle things in one rush.
He leapt and raised his sword high.
"One Cut, Demon Sever—!"
A powerful slash of the Fang of Fire style. But the hobgoblin swiftly caught it with his flame-wreathed blade.
The instant the blades met, the flames erupted violently and surged forward. The force sent Axe flying.
He slammed into the rock wall and tumbled to the ground.
"Axe!"
"I-I'm fine..."
Axe slowly rose to his feet, using his sword as a walking stick.
"That guy... he's strong..."
Sue glared.
The hobgoblin silently imbued his sword with wind and flame.
"He's a mid-rank gold-class monster. And closer to the upper ranks at that."
Ens said as he stepped in front of them.
"Mid-rank gold-class...?"
"How is there a monster like that—"
"...Even so, I'm fighting."
Sue's eyes burned with fierce determination.
"No. How about you watch from the sidelines for now?"
Ens drew his sword, cutting off Sue's fighting spirit.
In that instant, the hobgoblin's demeanor shifted with a twitch.
It stared at Ens and, for the first time, raised its sword of wind and flame.
Perhaps it had realized this was a different kind of opponent.
The hobgoblin launched the attack. Ens calmly caught it on his blade.
"Oh, the flame!"
"The wind's coming!"
"Look out!"
However — nothing happened.
On the contrary, both wind and flame had vanished from the hobgoblin's blade.
This made the hobgoblin's eyes go wide.
"Huh?"
"They're gone."
"Why?"
The three of us were left speechless.
Ens knocked the hobgoblin's blade aside.
Just like that, the wind blew and the flame reignited. The hobgoblin looked confused.
"Huh?"
"They're back."
"How?"
The three of us were dumbfounded all over again.
Ensu waved his pale white sword.
"'
Soul Energy
', you see. If you master it, you can seal away a Relic."
He said it in a thoroughly laid-back manner.