Her congratulatory message was a bit awkward, and Tesilid and I couldn't bring ourselves to thank her as our faces turned red.
Whoosh!
I never expected a dungeon gate to come in handy, but what saved us from this uncomfortable moment was the gate to the Demon Realm that was preparing itself to release the boss. I could sense a shift in energy at the center of the city where the gate was located as the vortex of the gate spun and created a gust of wind.
"Allie."
"Yes. Let's go, Tez!"
It was time to meet the boss. I hurried out of the alley and was immediately faced with an annoying group of low-grade demons blocking the way. They screamed and groaned and clattered at us in unison. Instead of slowing down, I picked up more speed as I summoned my aura blades with my mind and took the lead in front of Tesilid. The plan was to get rid of them swiftly and make our way through, when something completely unexpected happened before I could release my swords.
Swoosh!
Ten aura blades flew past me from behind. Within seconds, they had slaughtered all the demons before us.
"Huh?"
«Huh?»
A clear path was created in an instant.
But those weren't my aura blades. What is going on? I had to blink three times before I finally found the answer by turning my head to follow the swooshing sounds I heard behind me. The moment he formed new blades, our eyes locked.
"An aura master?!" I exclaimed indignantly.
"Oh..." His response was laced with a deep sense of bewilderment, as if he'd just done something he hadn't intended to do.
He's an aura master already?
"Tez, h-how did this happen?" I asked as a look of regret spread across his face.
Soon, he looked away as if conceding defeat and admitted, "It just happened."
"What do you mean by that?"
Although I was flabbergasted, my legs automatically continued to move, and Tesilid naturally followed along beside me. As we continued to run shoulder-to-shoulder, I fixed my eyes on Tesilid, not the path before us.
Seemingly worn down by my stare, he decided to explain. "I think the danger I faced when I fought Leviathion worked as an accelerator. Don't people usually awaken new levels that way?"
Perhaps I was overthinking this, but it sounded like he was coming up with an excuse, especially when he quickly took the opportunity to change the topic of discussion.
Eyeing my aura blades that no longer had a purpose to serve, he remarked, "I knew you could do it, Allie. Congratulations on becoming an aura master."
I should have returned the compliment, but I was too distracted to do so because his ten aura blades were still flying around in all directions to clear a path for us. The way he controlled the blades with his mind was more sophisticated and precise than I could ever manage.
How could this be the Tesilid of Loop Seventeen?
That was when I recalled an unusual message.
â¬The Advocate of Confidentiality informs that the main lead in this Loop can't be killed by something of this level.â
Another wave of shock smacked me in the head.
"Allie?"
I pulled my gaze away from Tesilid and looked in front of me as a bitter smile spread across my face.
Oh, I see. There were too many clues now for me to ignore the truth.
Grab.
I grabbed his hand to pull him along and hastened my pace as I said, "Let's go, Tez."
This very moment we were in was as intense as could be, so I didn't allow myself to fall deeper into my thoughts.
â¬Â«System» Warning. Demon Realm Rank 151 [Cavalencia the Diva of Explosions] has appeared in the Human Realm.â
â¬Â«System» Warning. Demon Realm Effect on the entire city has been expedited due to the arrival of Walpurgis Night and the presence of an SS-class boss.â
Another disaster had arrived.
Rumble.
The ground shook, for changes had started happening around the gate. The buildings behind the road that should've been blocked from our sight began to appear as a large piece of land started rising with the plaza in the center.
Soon, a towering square structure rose from the ground. It reminded me of a pyramid, the usual sloped sides tiered with roughly two hundred stairs, and at the very top stood a female demon with an intimidating presence. She was dressed elaborately even from this distance, her green hair split into two coils on each side. She was wearing a strange antique dress that fully displayed the wires of her bell-shaped crinoline, as well as her smooth legs, while the rest of her body was completely covered by accessories made of black pearls.
"Hi there, humans!" Her alluring voice crossed the distance to reach my ears thanks to the metal trumpets around her that were acting as loudspeakers. "Can you hold on for a minute? I'm still preparing the stage."
This was Cavalencia, the dungeon master of the Lonely Opera House dungeon. She was the boss we needed to subjugate to save the capital of the republic.
"Whew..." sighed Tesilid as he jogged next to me. He always had a tough time with Cavalencia in every Loop because of a unique rule within her dungeon.
â¬Â«System» Warning. The area experiencing the Demon Realm Effect will follow the rules of the dungeon.â
â¬Â«System» Warning. The power of the rules has been concentrated within [The Stairs of the Diva] region. The enforcement of the rules has been intensified.â
â¬Â«System» Warning. The following rules: [Ten-Key Crazy Mode] [Note Bombs] [One Stair Per 100 Combos] and [Proof of Rhythmic Sense] have been applied to [The Stairs of the Diva region].â
These terms were not commonplace in the human world, so the Bible of Truth wasn't entirely helpful in explaining them. As such, Tesilid never discovered the correct strategy to defeat Cavalencia in the original storyâhe always had to take her down by brute force, although things weren't the same for myself who was a transmigrator with access to a system that fed me necessary information.
â¬Â«System» Warning. Access to [The Stairs of the Diva] limited until the start of the show. Time remaining: Nine minutes, fifty-seven seconds.â
Tesilid and I were rendered immobile at the foot of the pyramid stairs, for there was a barrier that was preventing us from taking the first step. As dungeon rules were absolute, we didn't waste our energy trying to do something about the barrier.
That was when my colleagues approached from a different direction.
"Ailetteâ Huh? Tesilid?!"
"Hey, Tesilid! You made it!"
"I'm glad you're here, Big Bro."
"Thank god you're back, dear Brother-In-Law."
Our team members all warmly welcomed Tesilid's return.
He replied with a light smile, "I'm sorry I worried you, Ephael and Hestio. I'm sorry to you as well, Lady Hilde."
"What about me, Big Bro? Say something to me too. I lost sleep over how worried I was about you."
"You too, Ash."
"Yay! That makes Ash happy!"
"Don't refer to yourself in the third person."
"My bad, Big Sis."
At that moment, another voice joined the crowd.
"Saintess! I'm here as well!"
A young man with long, sky-blue hair ran toward us, taking short breaks to lean over and pant due to poor fitnessâit was Moriphys Marcellion, the Chimera Researcher. My colleagues frowned, and Hilde hid behind me as we watched him approach.
Hestio spoke for all of them and complained, "What? He's going to fight with us?"
"Yes. A Tier 8 mage is a good deal shuttle."
"But what if he tries to play a stupid trick again?"
"I don't think he can."
Moriphys reached us just as we stopped speaking, his eyes glistening desperately with the dog collar still wrapped around his neck. "I cleared out the city as you commanded! Now, we just have to defeat that boss before you'll show me my babies again, right?"
"That's right."
"Whew! Beatrice, Katalina, and Esmeralda! Wait for me!"
His love for his chimeras was truly exceptional. He was a mad man who didn't care about anything else if he set his mind to something, so his motivated attitude quickly melted away the caution the others felt toward him.
Hilde was the only one who was eyeing me sideways with a troubled look on her face, so I gave her a smile that meant I knew everything she wanted to say. Moriphys' chimeras had already accepted Hilde as the new master, so it was unclear whether the chubby parrotbill, cat, and squirrel that played in the front yard of the castle at the duchy would choose to return to Moriphys again.
But more importantly, Moriphys didn't come alone. There was quite a significant army behind him, wearing the black cape-like uniform of mage knights. The remaining forces of the Gehenid seemed to have gathered around Moriphys, for Moriphys was actually quite respected in the Republic of Magic, as difficult as it is to imagine.
While I was staring at their uniforms, the mage knights also stared at ours and began to murmur amongst themselves.
"Those white uniforms..."
"What are holy knights doing here?"
"Did the Holy Kingdom of Elfenheim come to help us?!"
A middle-aged man who seemed to be their leader locked eyes with me, his surprised expression telling me that he must have realized something.
«I think he recognized your hair,» said Agnes, and she was absolutely correct.
He immediately assumed a respectful stance and remarked, "Wynard Van, the commander in chief. Are you the Divine Emissary?"
"Yes, I am. I came with my knight division to help Gehenid."
The mage knights, who seemed unsure of our presence until now, looked like they could cry at any moment, for we were reinforcements they never expected would come.
"Whew..." Sir Wynard's shoulders trembled as he took a deep breath, one that was evidently taken to hold back tears. He didn't hide how moved he was as he said, "We were already so grateful that you returned Lord Moriphys to us. We never imagined that the Vatican would send us the Divine Emissary as well."
Unfortunately, I had to shatter that deep appreciation a little bit.