Antagonist Protection Service

"―The map says the entrance to the next Floor is right after this boss room."

Glancing down at the paper in her hands and confirming that, Nina then folded it and put it into a pocket beneath her outer cloak.

'The boss...'

Inwardly narrowing my eyes, I slowly turned my attention to our resident exterminator, just in time to watch him give a firm nod.

"Let's do it! I'll make sure it's all burned down."

Patting his chest with an open palm, he seemed to have warmed up to his role faster than I thought.

Turning back to the thick web before us, he wasted no time in approaching it with his white flame.

"Ah, no, wait--"

Seeing what he was about to do, Nina exclaimed, but it was already too late.

"Huh?"

Fwoosh~!

It had caught alight in the blink of an eye, and with the highly flammable material being stacked so densely for this final blockade in particular, it didn't take long at all for it to rage.

The final stringy lattice preventing our march was swiftly destroyed, but that wasn't all.

"Gah, what have you done...?!"

Plainly exasperated, I glanced back to see our other member's face jaw-dropped, a chaotic mix of irritant fury and pure disbelief wracking her heart and brain as she grasped at her head with both hands.

"Wh-what do you mean?! What did I do?!"

In response, Cassano could only seem to raise his own voice in panic.

Looking back towards the web, or at least the place where the web used to be blocking, I found it to lead to a vast chamber, every surface covered in a sheet of thick webs with clusters of sickening eggs as well as big orbs of what was probably "food" dotted around the place.

'Bloody disgusting...'

"This dunce... Haaah, trapping prey isn't the only thing a spider uses webs for, you know?"

Hearing Nina's still-maddened voice behind me, I noticed something suddenly move at the very top of the expansive chamber.

'Oh...'

It was as if the entire middle of the ceiling had abruptly shifted, and for the first time, some part of me had wished I wasn't able to see its true identity hiding in the shadows.

"Do you get it? They're used for detection. Detection! And you've just gone and triggered their alarm!"

"H-how was I supposed to kn--"

Pat.

Interrupting their conversation, I firmly put a hand on Cassano's shoulder.

They both naturally turned to look at me, but again, there was only one thing I had to say.

"Fire."

"..."

"..."

At that moment, for some reason, I watched their eyes gradually widen in real time.

'Hm? What are they looking at?'

It took a few moments to realise that their attention was not directed towards me, but rather, to what was behind me.

'...Oh.'

"――F-Flare...!"

All of a sudden, the two of them moved, and a burst of white fire surged right past me into the web-covered chamber I had turned my back to.

Immediately, Nina dashed further into the cave, presumably for cover, and drew her bow.

Meanwhile, spinning around following the hasty attack from our mage, the first thing to grab my attention was, of course, his target.

"Skriieeeeegh...!!"

Engulfed in a small blaze of white flames that also affected the webbed ground beneath it, the Area Boss of this route, a Broodmother, shrieked.

"More."

Turning my head to Cassano, who watched the same sight just beside me and grimaced at the horribly unpleasant sound, I thankfully didn't need to say any more for him to get the message.

"R-right! Flare...!"

Once more, a miniature explosion of white flames was discharged from his outstretched hand, impacting the stunned Broodmother with a second fulmination it was unable to dodge with its enormous body.

Although I sensed his magic energy dwindling to a point where I wasn't sure if he had the juice to throw another one, I doubted it was necessary.

"Skriiiieeeeeeegh...!!"

Following the intense screeching of the monster spider as it writhed around, bathed in fire, the destruction quickly began to spread, more and more of the combustible silk that covered the ground of the chamber incinerating by the second.

The farther it spread, the faster it grew, and the faster it grew, the more it devoured.

Before long, the white blaze had reached the boundary of the chamber's floor, but it didn't stop there―The numerous egg clusters and mummified remains of whomever or whatever had been unlucky enough to succumb to the spiders of the cave were also natural targets, swiftly swallowed up by the unstoppable inferno which continued further up the web-slicked walls and even climbing onto the ceiling, gorging on everything in its path.

Roughly one whole minute had passed before the entire boss chamber was cleansed by the ghostly white flames.

'Alright.'

That was when I stepped forth.

'It was a good start, but it doesn't look like that alone'll be enough to put it down.'

Entering the purified realm of the Broodmother, no longer protected by the unsightly stage it was used to, I unsheathed the Villainous Blade.

Casually approaching the opponent, shrivelling and squirming pathetically on the ground despite being many times the size of my own body, it certainly made facing such a massive, repulsive creature a little easier...

'Eugh...'

...Of course, that didn't mean it was effortless.

In any case, there was not much else to say. Raising my hand holding the hilt of the blade high into the air, all it took was the simple action of bringing it back down.

Slash~!

Like that, the oversized bug was exterminated, and we could continue onwards to the next Floor.

Speaking of which, the tunnel continued in a similar fashion to prior to this boss room, but only for a short distance before it then opened up to an incredibly vast, surprisingly brightly illuminated cavern, with countless sparkling gemstones and massive crystals jutting out from all sides.

[Floor 15]

[Objective: Find your way to the surface]

'Another chain quest, huh...'

Alas, it appeared we still had a bit of a way to go.