Danmachi:a new face

Chapter 70: Passageway

"Because hunters killed our kin. They got away with Fear and Weine."

"Hunters? And they got Weine?"

"Heh. Guess we are just as bad as the others." The color in Ray's eyes returned.

"No."

"We tried to convince everyone to not attack. but-"

"Shut. Up." I said in a stern voice. "There is nothing wrong with being angry because you lost someone you love. It's natural, it just depends on how you deal with that pain."

"But I-"

"No buts. trust me when I say this...You should always learn from your mistakes so that you never make them again. If you never do, you will never grow as a person and you will be stuck making the same mistakes over and over."

"You're right." She replied with a shaky voice.

"Now do you know where they could be?" I stood up and looked around.

"I might have an idea on where they can be." Ray shakily stood up and began walking away. "Follow me. We're going there on foot."

"Lead the way then." 

As we walked through the forest, we eventually came to the edge of the floor and there was a huge doorway that was wide open that lead to a dark pathway that led to somewhere deeper into the 18th floor. Right as we walked in, the doorway slowly rematerialized and closed off the opening to the rest of the 18th floor.

"What is this place?" Ray said while she admired the long pathway that lead into the darkness.

"This is nothing like anything I've seen in the dungeon." I said as we came to a steel wall that blocked our path.

"Just wait, this might feel weird bit I think I can get us through."

"Umm...Okay." 

Just as Ray said that, I warped over to the other side of the wall. The coast was clear, so I began to visualize where Ray was through her mana output and began to focus my mana right into the spot where she was and with in a blink of an eye, Both me and Ray had swapped places. As for me, I simply warped back to the other side of the wall.

"Are we on the other side or am I just being an idiot?"

"Yes, we are on the other side. This looks different from before." She confirmed.

"Good."

'Hey.'

"What?"

"Hm? Did I say something?" Ray looked at me with a confused expression.

"It's nothing." 

'I know that I've never really spoke to you but it's me, Sarah.'

"So why are you speaking to me now?" I muttered. 

'You don't have to speak out loud. I can head your thoughts, so you don't really have to speak.' She replied.

'Well what do you want? You literally showed up just as soon as I forgot about you.'

'Let me take over just for five minutes.' She replied with no hesitation.

'No. Just no.' I also replied with the same amount of hesitation.

'Can I at least explain myself?'

'No.' I stated bluntly.

'Something bad is going to happen and it might not end well for anyone.'

'If it gets like that, I'll reconsider.'

"Acro, can you hear that?" Ray brought me out my conversation with Sarah.

"No." I then caught a whiff of an all to familiar smell. I could only smell the faintest metallic smell of blood. "But I can smell blood."

"Hurry up, lets go!" Within the blink of an eye, Ray sped off deeper into the passageway.

The only thing that I could do was follow her, so I began to speed up and I eventually was right behind Ray. I the distance, I could hear the sound of weapons clashing and there was also a dim light that lit up the end of the passage way. 

The light was where the passageway opened up into a much larger room.  This place seemed like it was not carved out through natural means. The cave seemed as if someone had slowly chipped the rock away which lead to this spacious area. 

Within the room however, was the source of the sound/ smell of blood that we could sense. The cave was filled with the Xenos fighting amongst their selves. They looked as if they had intended to kill the each other through any means possible.

"I call upon the spirit of the light, to aid me in this battle, for I seek your help! Come now and heed my plead for help! Radiance Burst!" 

A glowing yellow fairy like entity appeared at the top of the area and charged up for an attack.

"Ray, turn around before you get blinded. My shields aren't enough for this." I said as I got one of my shields to block Ray from the view of the fairy.

"Got it." She said as she turned around and covered her eyes.

Just like Ray, I also got one of my shields to cover me and I turned around to face away from the fairy. Just as the fairly finished charging, the room was engulfed with a blinding light that was still very bright even with the shield and my hands covering my eyes.

Within a few seconds the light had disappeared. Even with my eyes struggling to adjust, I could still hear the sounds of weapons colliding. The bright flash of light had little to no effect on the monsters. They didn't even seem to acknowledge the flash of light.

However, there were two people who were affected with the light. "Ahhh! What the hell was that!?"

This brought my attention to an elevated part of the cave and I saw Bell and another adventurer recovering from the flash.

5

"Acro what do we do? It had no affect." Ray said in a pleading tone.

4

"Just try you best to restrain them from fighting each other." 

3

"But-"

2

"if we do it another way, we might sacrifice a little more than some blood."

1

"Okay, I'll try." 

"Okay, on my-"

0

"Hey, Acro. What happened?" Ray began to shake my arm.

"I call upon the goddess of trickery to bestow me with her power, to allow me to overpower my enemies with their own power."