Chapter 46: The Shattered Illusion and the Ice Princess’s Tear
Location: Frontierra Nation - Cyanis Hollows Dungeon, Floor 50
Aria’s small hands gripped the fabric of Shiori’s shirt like a lifeline. The terrifying aura of the SS-Rank Dungeon Boss vanished entirely, leaving only a fragile, lost child from another era. She buried her face deep into Shiori’s shoulder, her tears soaking through the fabric.
"Shiori-onee-san... is warm," Aria murmured, her voice muffled and trembling. "I was almost forgetting... what the warmth of hugging a person felt like. I forgot the kindness of humans."
Shiori tightened her embrace, resting her chin softly on top of Aria’s silver hair. "You don't need to stay alone in this dark place anymore, Aria. We have Saintess Evelyn. We have connections to the High Church. There has to be a high-tier Resurrection spell, or an artifact. I can revive you. You can come with us."
Slowly, Aria broke the hug. She stepped back, wiping her silver eyes with the back of her tattered lace sleeve. Despite the tear tracks on her pale porcelain cheeks, a breathtakingly beautiful, genuinely childish smile bloomed on her face. It was a smile completely devoid of the malice and despair that had haunted her for centuries.
"That's enough for me, Shiori-onee-san," Aria said softly. Her silver eyes looked deeply into Shiori’s, seeing past the stats and levels, straight into the teenager’s soul. "I am very happy to have met you. I can see it clearly... you lack the human greed that brought all those others here. You just wanted to survive. But..."
Suddenly, a violent tremor ripped through the clearing.
RUMBLE.
The ground heaved violently beneath their feet. The colossal, glowing tree at the center of the world groaned, its massive roots tearing through the soil. The sky above them flickered, the artificial morning sun glitching like a dying ember. The dungeon itself was experiencing a catastrophic earthquake.
"Let's escape together!" Shiori yelled over the deafening roar of shifting earth, reaching her hand out to the little girl. "The floor is collapsing!"
Aria shook her head gently, her smile never wavering. "I cannot, Shiori-onee-san. I am already dead. I have not belonged to humanity for many, many years. My time ended a long time ago."
"Why?" Shiori pleaded, her voice cracking as the ground splintered between them. "Why don't you want to live more? You deserve a second chance!"
"Because this is enough for me," Aria replied, her voice echoing with a profound, peaceful finality. "I am just very happy to have finally met a person like you."
Aria raised her delicate hands. A soft, iridescent blue magic enveloped Shiori, lifting her feet off the violently shaking ground. Aria floated into the air beside her, and together, they flew swiftly over the crumbling illusionary forest, heading straight for the colossal bronze entrance doors.
Near the doors, the violent tremors had finally snapped the rest of the party out of their catatonic despair. Gareth, Elara, and Boran scrambled to their feet, drawing their weapons as a pure survival instinct kicked in. Shota, Yua, Mei, Kazura, and Yoshi huddled together with Saintess Evelyn, looking around in utter panic as the forest began to tear itself apart.
Then, they looked up.
Every single one of them froze in absolute terror. Flying toward them was Shiori, accompanied by the Witch of Loneliness. Shota whimpered, instinctively backing up against the bronze door, the phantom pain of his frozen demise flashing behind his eyes. Gareth raised his shield with trembling arms.
Aria gently lowered Shiori to the ground in front of her terrified party.
"Lower your weapons!" Shiori commanded, stepping defensively in front of the little girl. "She won't cause us any trouble now. Stand down!"
Saintess Evelyn looked at Shiori’s resolute posture and the lack of hostility in the little girl's eyes. Taking a deep breath, the Cleric lowered her staff, choosing to place her absolute trust in the Summoned Hero. The others, however, remained stiff, their eyes wide with lingering trauma.
Aria looked at Shiori, ignoring the terrified adventurers. Her physical form was beginning to turn translucent, the edges of her Victorian dress flaking away into glowing motes of silver ash.
"Now is the time to say goodbye," Aria whispered, her voice like a fading wind chime. "I want to meet you in the next life, Shiori-onee-san. But not as a Dungeon Boss, and not even as a friend... next time, I want to be your real younger sister."
The innocent, beautiful smile she gave Shiori left the entire party speechless. The terrifying anomaly that had slaughtered them repeatedly just moments prior was looking at Shiori with pure, unconditional adoration.
Gareth, ever the pragmatist, lowered his shield slightly. "But... what about the Dungeon Core? If we don't destroy it, the floor won't clear."
Shiori snapped her head toward the veteran vanguard, her eyes flashing with such a terrifying, murderous glare that Gareth physically recoiled a step.
"It is okay, Shiori-onee-san," Aria intervened gently, her legs already completely dissolved into ash. "The man is right. But there is no physical core to smash. I am the Dungeon Core of Floor 50. My sealed emotions, my sorrow, my anger... they were the anchor holding this floor together. But you broke the seal. You thawed the ice. And now, the dungeon is destroying itself."
Shiori’s eyes widened with sorrow. She raised her hand, giving a slow, trembling wave to the little girl from Japan.
"I'll miss the music..." Aria’s voice faded to a whisper as the ash consumed her torso, reaching her peaceful, smiling face. "...but I won't miss being alone."
With a final gust of wind, Aria Nanami vanished entirely.
The moment she disappeared, the violent earthquake abruptly stopped. And then, the grand illusion shattered.
The vibrant emerald canopy, the artificial morning sun, the dewy grass, and the beautiful lilies all dissolved into black smoke. The party gasped collectively as the true nature of Floor 50 was revealed.
It was a massive, jagged, pitch-black cavern. The air was freezing and smelled of ancient decay. But what made Elara scream and Yua cover her mouth in horror was the floor.
It was a literal sea of bones.
The skeletal remains of hundreds—perhaps thousands—of elite adventurers littered the cavern floor. Rusted armor, shattered weapons, and hollow skulls with their jaws open in silent screams stretched out as far as the eye could see. This was the true legacy of the Witch of Loneliness's centuries of agonizing defense.
In the exact center of the cavern, resting on a pedestal of jagged rock, sat the obsidian grand piano. And lying delicately on the ground next to the piano pedals was a very small, fragile pile of human bones. Aria's original remains.
CLUNK. CREEAAAAK.
The massive bronze doors behind them suddenly shrieked open.
Light flooded into the dark cavern. Standing in the threshold was a massive rescue party of over fifty high-ranking adventurers, led by the Guild Master of Cyanis City himself.
"By the Goddess!" Guild Master Vargas gasped, staring into the bone-filled abyss. He looked at Gareth, then at Shiori, his eyes wide with disbelief. "You're alive! What in the blazes happened in here?! We've been waiting out here for three days!"
Shiori blinked, checking her internal system clock. Three days? According to her status screen, from the moment they first entered to the moment the illusion broke, they had only spent 23 hours, 12 minutes, and 6 seconds inside the boss room. The time loops had severely distorted the flow of time relative to the outside world.
"We survived, Vargas," Gareth rasped, dropping his battleaxe. He looked at Shiori with a newfound, profound reverence. "The Floor 50 Dungeon Boss is successfully cleared. But it wasn't us. The Summoned Heroes did it. Especially her. Lady Shiori Asano."
Shiori didn't bask in the praise. She walked slowly to the center of the room, ignoring the crunch of bones beneath her boots. She reached the obsidian piano, lightly running her fingers over the keys, before activating her [Spatial Inventory] skill. The massive instrument vanished into her subspace. She then carefully knelt and gathered the small, fragile bones of the little girl.
She walked back to the Guild Master, her face as cold as ice.
"Bring your clerics and your morticians," Shiori ordered, her voice brokering absolutely no argument. "Gather every single remain in this room. Give them all a proper burial. Burn them well. But these bones..." She held the small bundle close to her chest. "...these get the highest honors."
The Guild Master swallowed hard, looking at the sheer volume of death in the room, and simply nodded.
There was no gold, no legendary weapons, and no magical artifacts hidden in the boss room. The only things Floor 50 had harbored were dense, suffocating loneliness and ancient betrayal.
But as they crossed the threshold out of the dungeon, a cascade of golden light erupted around Shiori, Yua, Mei, Kazura, Shota, and Yoshi.
[System Notification: Floor 50 Cleared!]
[Massive EXP Granted.]
[Level Up: 200 reached.]
[Rank Promoted: Rank SS]
They had officially reached the pinnacle of human strength, but none of them felt victorious.
"We are not going to Floor 100," Shiori announced flatly to the Guild Master and Gareth as they rode the magical elevator back to the surface. "We are done with the Cyanis Hollows. I am not risking another anomaly right now."
She was terrified. If Floor 50 held an SS-Rank anomaly that could bend time and instantly decapitate them, she couldn't even fathom what horrors the bottom of the dungeon held. They would continue their journey across the continent, but this dungeon was off-limits.
"We understand, Lady Shiori," Boran said quietly. Gareth and Elara nodded in unison. "You saved our lives in there. We veterans thought we had to protect you kids, but... we got a brutal lesson from the younger generation today. We are forever in your debt."
Shota, leaning heavily against the elevator wall, let out a shaky, humorless laugh. "I'm never setting foot in a dungeon again. I swear to the Goddess. Never again. If I see a cave, I'm walking the other way."
Nobody argued with him. They all silently agreed.
Two Days Later: Cyanis City Grand Cemetery
The sky was painted in the soft hues of a golden sunset. Thousands of citizens of Cyanis City, along with hundreds of adventurers and clerics, gathered around a massive marble memorial in the center of the cemetery. The High Priests chanted prayers for the souls of the fallen, wishing them peace in the highest heavens.
But the central, most beautiful monument was dedicated to a single name: Aria Nanami, Summoned Hero of the Past.
Shiori stood at the back of the crowd, dressed in a sharp black mourning coat. She watched the smoke of the incense rise into the sky, carrying Aria's spirit finally into the light.
A single, solitary tear broke past Shiori’s iron emotional control, sliding down her cheek and dropping onto the collar of her coat.
"Well, I'll be damned," Shota whispered, leaning in with a teasing, lopsided grin, completely ignoring the solemn atmosphere. "The Ice Princess of our school is actually crying? I didn't even see you cry during finals week back in Tokyo."
Shiori quickly wiped her cheek, glaring at him, but Yua stepped up behind Shota and violently pinched his ear.
"Ow! Ow! Hey!" Shota yelped quietly.
"You want to tease her?" Yua hissed, a wicked, menacing aura radiating from the healer. "Should I tell the whole school when we're back, and the Guild Master, how the 'cool and collected' Shota cried and froze himself into an ice cube because he was too scared of a piano?"
Shota’s face drained of all color. He immediately dropped to his knees, pressing his hands together in desperate prayer. "I beg you, Yua-sama! Please, spare my dignity! I'll do anything!"
Mei, Kazura, and Yoshi held back quiet laughter. Even Shiori felt the corner of her lips twitch upward into a small, genuine smile. They were traumatized, they were exhausted, but they were together, and they were alive.
"Get up, idiot," Shiori said, turning away from the memorial and looking toward the western horizon. "Pack your gear. We are leaving for the Sunderland Nation in the morning."
Sunderland. The kingdom that had betrayed Aria. Shiori didn't know what awaited them there, but she knew one thing for certain: she was going to change this cruel world, one step at a time.
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