“Alright… let’s take down the boss of this floor.”
“Indeed. If the Goblin’s story is accurate, it should be the Orc King… how do we plan to defeat it?”
“Well… normally, we’d just charge straight in, but Cliff is here, so let’s go with that plan.”
“That plan…?”
“That plan.”
…
“I have a report. Gahead-sama, the Orc King and floor boss of the first level, has received a message from Tect-sama of the Four Heavenly Kings.”
“Tect of the Four Heavenly Kings? That disgrace to the Four Heavenly Kings who was defeated by a C-Rank Adventurer? …What does that coward want now?”
“Apparently, he has seized control of the Royal Capital.”
“Hmph… I thought he was just a Four Heavenly Kings in name only, but it seems he had at least the bare minimum of strength. Well, I’ll be taking his seat among the Four Heavenly Kings before long, Gahaha… huh?”
Gahead, who was laughing loudly, suddenly collapsed.
“Gahead-sama!? What’s wrong? Is something the matt—…er…”
The subordinate who was reporting also collapsed a few seconds later.
“Phew… Cliff is still the strongest against monsters that breathe…”
We quietly emerged from the shadows.
As usual, Cliff had used Air Manipulation to fill the surrounding air with carbon dioxide.
Among monsters, there are those who rely on breathing and those who don’t, but basically, monsters that reproduce to create offspring rely on breathing, while those born naturally or created by superiors do not.
“Well then, shall we conquer the other floors in this manner?”
We (mainly Cliff) steadily defeated the floor bosses and monsters on each floor.
Cliff defeated the breathing-type monsters, while Eneima, Erna, and I took care of the others.
We defeated them quickly to prevent reports from reaching higher-ups, allowing us to proceed without raising any alarms.
And so, we finally arrived just before the final room.
“The Demon Lord is above this, right?”
“…Our presence hasn’t been discovered yet, has it? If so, can’t we defeat him here?”
If we could conquer the Demon Lord without even defeating Tect, everything would be resolved.
“Even if we can’t defeat him with carbon dioxide, it’ll still be a surprise attack…”
“That’s right… it’s worth a try.”
“But the risk is high.”
“Ugh! We’ll probably die if we fail.”
“What should we do? Should we wait for now…?”
At that moment, a terrifying voice called out to us.
“What’s this? Who are these fools trying to intrude upon my throne? Won’t you come in?”
(He knows!?)
“Hahahaha. Don’t think you can launch a surprise attack on me.”
…This is the Demon Lord.
Even from behind the door, I could feel an overwhelming presence.
“If you won’t come, then I’ll come to you…”
“All three of you, grab on!”
I felt a premonition of death and used Shukuchi.
In the split second before using Shukuchi, I saw a dark ray of incredible speed rushing towards us.
However, I managed to succeed in using Shukuchi just before it hit us.
“Haa, haa, haa… what was that…”
If our retreat had been 0.3 seconds slower, we would have certainly died.
“Let’s… stop. We’ve already dealt considerable damage to the Demon Lord’s Army… let’s obediently wait for Tect to come.”
“Ah… you’re right.”
It was the first time in a while that I had felt true fear from the bottom of my heart.