Agaro and the others set out to slay the Lich.
The ones who went were Agaro, Narsis, Suid, and Dokkas.
Milese stayed behind to keep watch, since she's non-combat.
As for me — I'd already burned through most of my trump cards.
Juicy, who'd exhausted her Fenrir, was assigned as her bodyguard.
This place couldn't be called completely safe, either. If something happened, it'd be too late to react.
Also, I'd been deemed tired from defeating That.
"Just rest easy and leave the rest to us." That's what it came down to.
Anti-Undead Specialty
...Yeah, I've got that.
Well, I couldn't picture a future where Agaro and the others lost, so it'd probably be fine.
"…………"
Milese was in the break room.
Juicy was in the shower room.
So here I was, alone in the control room, sitting in quiet thought.
I could see the end approaching, but questions lingered.
First — how had the bandits gotten in here?
The 44th floor was a special floor. There was no normal way to reach it.
And this was the Ruins of Avsdrakudu, where That had been sealed.
Even if the dungeon had reproduced it, could it really reproduce something like That?
No — impossible. No matter how powerful a dungeon was, it couldn't reproduce something on that scale.
Which meant this ruin was the real thing.
Agaro hadn't been told there was a town here.
It was hard to imagine the Guild had simply forgotten to mention it.
The 44th floor hadn't originally had a town, so it must have been transferred here somehow.
There was even a possibility it had arrived together with the bandits.
"Oh right. There's a pedestal here too."
Fortunately, nobody was around. I immediately started operating the pedestal's console.
First, I checked the archive.
"An energy circulation research facility…? What is this?"
The world contained both positive and negative energy.
Positive energy was life, holiness, and light.
Negative energy was death, miasma, and darkness.
A world brimming with life was filled with positive energy.
A world where life dwindled was filled with negative energy.
If positive and negative energy weren't circulated properly, the world would be destroyed.
A world that had tilted entirely to one side was on the verge of ruin.
"But that still doesn't justify mass slaughter. So the idea was to draw in negative energy from worlds overflowing with it, and send positive energy back in reverse… A research facility aimed at restoring proper circulation?"
What an insane thing they were doing.
At first, everything seemed to be going well. But something unexpected happened.
Or rather — there was never any way it could have gone well.
"The materialization of the abstract. Vast quantities of negative energy gained sentience and became a living entity. That thing… the Death Abstract… After that, the research facility became an enormous sealed city along with the surface. They kept researching, though? At the same time, they were also working on converting the materialized entity back into energy — but that's pretty much the same as killing a living thing."
The later archives made it clear that the attempt had failed.
Then came a plan to create a living entity from positive energy and pit it against the Death Abstract — but it was cancelled when a risk of mutual annihilation between the positive and negative forces surfaced. The projected scale of destruction at that point was half the continent gone… Ugh. Looks like the only option was to keep it sealed.
They apparently tried borrowing the power of the Seihou religion at the time, but that didn't work either.
"Hm? During the course of resealing experiments in response to seal degradation, the lead researcher was absorbed by the Death Abstract. But by using her, they managed to create a kind of control device. Ah — that would be the female upper body on the head of the thing. Edda, I think it was. The lead researcher's name was Runierika Eldorado… Another one that makes me groan."
Hard to put it into words.
Eldorado. Munieka's ancestor, huh.
Come to think of it, her facial features and build did resemble Munieka's in certain ways.
"She was definitely beautiful."
A bitter smile.
The archives were vast, but they cut off abruptly.
Around a few dozen entries before the end, there were records of a war breaking out.
The war erupted and brought the whole thing down.
"Now that I think about it, there was something in the research archives — right. A phenomenon where a world overflowing with positive energy would plummet from its peak in one fell swoop. The main cause was war. The most cruel, but most effective method."
War was a harsh remedy, though.
Sometimes the negative energy swelled while the positive energy dwindled.
And even in worlds with proper circulation, wars broke out frequently.
"…Like the symptoms of chronic drug addiction."
It's a fitting way to put it, but pretty harsh.
I found myself wondering what the current world was like.
When I'm in Hydrangea, it feels like positive energy fills everything.
But at the same time, it feels like there's a fair amount of negative energy too.
Still, I don't think the circulation is working properly.
It feels more… skewed somehow. Hard to put into words.
"Come to think of it, there's no mention of dungeons or Relics or anything like that in here."
There's nothing about vessels of the soul either.
Maybe I should search for it. Huh? Fragments of god? A sword? I can't use swords, so I'm not interested.
Hmm. Can't find anything. It's gotta be somewhere in this absurdly massive archive.
"Haaah…"
I stepped away from the pedestal, worn out from searching.
I'd looked pretty thoroughly, but came up empty. I just didn't have it in me to keep looking.
But I felt like I'd gained some important information.
Only, I had no idea how useful it would be going forward.
"Oh, right."
I slid the memory plate into the pedestal.
A map labeled "Treasures" appeared in a separate window.
I compared it against the map of the ruins.
"Sub-level 36. Research wing. Research Director's office…"
Research Director… So that's why it's written in Edda's script.
"Wh-what are you doing…?"
Miles eyed me standing on the pedestal with a wary expression.
I figured there was no point trying to hide it, so I answered honestly.
"I'm investigating something."
"A-are you able to handle that…?"
"As it happens, well, I've handled it before."
I explained my real name was Wof, that I was the witch's disciple, and gave the fabricated reason as well.
"I-I-I see. The witch's… the Night King's…"
She stared at me through gaps in her hair, fidgeting the whole time.
So she did know.
"H-hey, hey, hey! I'm all better now. Woof. Thank you!"
Juicy came trotting over, wiping her hair, in the best of spirits.
"That's great. Juicy."
"Yep. Woof!"
"S-so, um, W-what were you doing, Wof?"
Miles asked again after glancing at Juicy.
She seemed uncomfortable around the outgoing Juicy because she was the quiet type.
"I've been looking into all sorts of things, and I found a place I'd like to go."
"H-hey, hey, Wof! Are we going for a walk somewhere? A walk?"
Juicy perked up her ears, wagged her tail back and forth, and her eyes started sparkling.
"Yeah. I'll just go and come right back. So I'm counting on you, Miles."
"Um, woof. Okay."
Her ears drooped, her tail sank, and the sparkle vanished from her eyes.
Juicy was so obviously disappointed it was plain to see.
Sorry about that. But I couldn't just leave Miles alone.
It was then that Miles spoke.
"Wh-where are you going? I-I'm interested... aau..."
"U-um, Lord Wof! Let's all go together!"
"Y-yeah. Got it."
Pressured by the two of them, I found myself nodding.