Danmachi: The Focalors Familia Starting from the Dungeon

The image in the Oculus plummeted along with that violent collision. As Aiden’s figure was lost to the extreme distance, Furina’s heart—already hanging by a thread—leaped into her throat.

”Hey, Aiden, you can’t lose!” she shouted at the Oculus, her small fists clenched tightly in nervousness, completely forgetting that he couldn’t hear her at all.

”Don’t worry, he won’t lose.”

A gentle hand pressed lightly onto her shoulder.

Robin watched the two equally dazzling lights that had just vanished from the screen. Her lake-green eyes were filled with absolute trust. She smiled, comforting the anxious Furina.

”Furina, have you forgotten? Aiden possesses an advantage that a mere replica could absolutely never have.”

”And that is... the Godslayer.”

Robin believed that Aiden would not lose to a clone. In many situations, a weapon was more than enough to create a decisive gap between evenly matched opponents. Knowing that this sword was no ordinary iron, but the manifestation of a Great Spirit, Robin wasn’t the least bit worried that Aiden would fall to a fake.

Just as Robin firmly believed, the scales of battle were still far from tipping toward a victor.

Deep within the ruins of the thirty-something floor of the Dungeon, Aiden slowly straightened up. He raised his hand, using the back of it to wipe away a trace of golden blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

That burning Platinum Divine Armor kept him free from even a speck of dust. However, the apocalyptic collision from just moments ago had still severely shaken his internal organs. Opposite him, the replica also staggered to its feet; its condition appeared identical to his, perhaps even slightly more battered.

After all, the clone had taken a direct hit from Unsheathed Heavenly Fire, whereas Aiden had merely been caught off guard by the impact crashing down from above.

But injuries of this magnitude were almost meaningless to them now.

Upon entering the Lord Ravager state, they had both temporarily gained a multitude of powerful development abilities. Naturally, this included Spirit Healing and Healing, which rapidly restored their stamina and mind. Their churning blood and trembling organs were being soothed and healed at a visible rate.

”Fighting like this isn’t a solution.”

Right then, a female voice echoed directly within the depths of his mind. It was Himeko, residing within the Godslayer.

”Whatever you can do, he can do too. He possesses the exact same magic as you do. If you want to break this stalemate, use my power, Aiden.”

”...Alright.”

Aiden nodded, all hesitation vanishing from his eyes. Without a second thought, he poured the entirety of his magic power into the Godslayer in his grasp.

Vmm—!

The Spirit power slumbering within the blade was thoroughly awakened. The flames of tribulation surged wildly within Aiden’s palm.

The edges of the already ferocious greatsword turned a searing red in an instant. The entire blade vibrated, as if chanting an ancient, tragic elegy.

Opposite him, the replica seemed to sense this terrifying power that threatened its very existence. The flame sword in its hands emitted a piercing hum as the clone raised it high above its head.

In a split second, an endless torrent of flames erupted from its body, coalescing into a towering pillar of fire that pierced through several layers of the rocky ceiling.

Aiden took a deep breath, raising the Godslayer high in tandem.

”—Sunset of the Divine Court!”

He shouted, bringing down the ultimate strike.

In that moment, the Godslayer was no longer a sword; it transformed into a pure scepter of fire, capable of judging gods. All the white-gold flames on the blade receded, replaced by a devastating, pitch-black darkness that could devour light itself. Streaks of violent, blood-red lightning, pulsing like biological veins, wrapped around this absolute blackness.

Two equally massive pillars of sword aura, both containing world-ending might, clashed. One shot upward from below, while the other crashed down from above. One was blackish-red, the other golden-red.

Then, they collided squarely in the center of this underground space.

There was no sound.

In the first millisecond of their impact, the entire world fell deathly silent. It wasn’t that the sound had vanished, but rather that the very concept of sound, along with the medium that carried it, was instantly evaporated and erased.

What followed was a pure, absolute white.

It was the kind of light from the dawn of creation, capable of burning through retinas and stripping all color from the world. Before this white light, both the black-red flames of tribulation and the golden-red blazing sun appeared incredibly insignificant.

The silence and pure white lasted for less than a second.

In the next instant, true destruction officially descended.

BOOM—

A terrifying shockwave of sound, indescribable by words and feeling as though it would flip the entire Dungeon upside down, finally detonated.

Using the collision point of the two sword pillars as the core, an ever-expanding sphere of superheated plasma began expanding wildly outward. Anything it touched—whether the hard rocky ground or the ancient stalactites hanging from the dome—bypassed the melting phase entirely, sublimating directly from solid to gas.

The nearby monsters were instantly wiped out.

Next was the floor above, and the floor above that...

That devastating spherical shockwave ignored the physical barriers between floors, advancing upwards, downwards, and in all directions simultaneously with an overwhelming, destructive posture.

The twenty-eighth floor, a wasteland that had just been leveled, suffered a catastrophic disaster once again. The hard surface was easily flipped like a fragile pancake, and the entire floor groaned under the immense force surging from below.

On the floors further down, countless monsters that had just been birthed from the walls were crushed into elementary particles by the invisible shockwave before they could even get a look at the world.

Ultimately, when the storm of light and heat slightly subsided, a massive spherical void—spanning at least five floors and measuring hundreds of meters in diameter—appeared starkly in the depths of the Dungeon.

At the center of the void, the interwoven black-red and golden-red energies were still frantically and unstably devouring and colliding with each other, much like a newly born star. And the two figures who had incited all of this had long since disappeared into that chaotic mass of light and heat.

”No way... did they take each other out?”

Hermes held down the brim of his hat against the howling winds. If Asfi hadn’t been quick enough to grab him from behind, he probably would have been blown away by the terrifying shockwave erupting from deep underground. With his fragile frame, he would have likely returned straight to Heaven.

───

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