🌐 Language / 言語
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🇯🇵 [日本語版]
“Hey, Sis Amnez? Do you actually know why this place was built in the first place?”
Faznir’s voice echoed as they descended the path leading to the subterranean sanctum on the outskirts of the Republic of Varney.
She punctuated her question by rhythmic tapping her staff against the cold stone floor. Tap. Tap. Tap.
“No idea,” Amnez replied without looking back.
She led the way, her senses fanned out like invisible filaments, scouring the shadows for any ripple in the Aether.
“Wasn’t it… yawn… some place where they locked up a particularly nasty Beast-Devil?”
Zigre added, her long silver hair swaying with her lazy stride.
Though she looked bored enough to sleep standing up, her two machine-gun-type Blitz units hovered at her flanks, their muzzles tracking the darkness with predatory precision.
“Exactly! Even if it’s sealed, are we really gonna be okay? Just the three of us?” Faznir asked, a hint of genuine nerves beneath her chatter.
They were entering Galtira, the Subterranean Sanctum. Legend held that a Celestial Emissary of the Great God Ioks had entombed a horrific entity within these depths. Gilzenth had ordered Amnez’s team to investigate this god-forsaken hole—a place where even the bravest refused to tread.
“You are the polar opposite of me. That is precisely why I trust you.”
Gilzenth’s parting words drifted through Amnez’s mind.
Amnez, a peerless master of close-quarters slaughter. Zigre, whose twin Blitz units provided overwhelming, suppressive fire. And Faznir, a high-tier buffer whose Aether pulses could turn a squad into a whirlwind of destruction. Together, they could dismantle a Greater Beast-Devil with ease.
But their deployment here only confirmed one thing: whatever lurked in Galtira was a threat of that exact magnitude.
“Eh, we’ll manage. As long as Amnez and I are on the job,”
Zigre teased.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean? Am I just decoration?”
Faznir chirped, feigning a pout. “Fine then. When things get hairy, don’t come crying to me for a Divine Pulse boost!”
Amnez felt a phantom ache in her brow at the volume of their bickering. Yet, she didn’t silence them. Their banter was a byproduct of a hundred battlefields; it was how they kept their nerves from fraying.
I just hope this remains a simple stroll, Amnez thought.
She came to a sudden halt.
From the abyss of the stairs leading deeper into the earth, a heavy, suffocating draft began to coil around them—as if the darkness itself had begun to breathe.
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