The Flash (Danmachi x OC)

Season 4 Chapter 83 The Colosseum

No one's POV

The Colosseum. There was only one room of its type known to exist on the thirty-seventh floor.

Although the sprawling space was far larger than any other room on the floor, its exact dimensions were not known. This was because it was so dangerous adventurers had given up on measuring it.

To Bell, it looked about the same size as the cavern on the twenty-fifth floor, or perhaps larger. As elsewhere on the floor, the ceiling was hidden in the darkness, making its height impossible to judge. Air must have been circulating in the room, because a whistling sound like dry, cold wind rushing down a narrow ravine came from the distant, rocky floor. Bell trembled at the scale.

The colossal structure rising like an island in the center of the room was especially noteworthy. It reminded Bell of a certain structure in Orario.

Bell: The Amphitheatrum...?

The huge round structure looked exactly the same. It threw off a dim phosphorescence so that it seemed to float in the darkness. Even now battle cries echoed ceaselessly from the milky white form to which the bridge in front of Bell led.

Ryuu: To be clear, the Colosseum isn't this whole area—it's just that structure in the middle. It's called that because...no matter how many monsters you slaughter, the supply never runs out.

At Slyphid's urging, they had lain stomach-down on the ground so the monsters wouldn't notice them.

Sora: In this room, the instant the number of monsters falls, more are spawned from that Colosseum. There is no way to reduce the upper limit. In other words, the supply is infinite.

Bell:...!!

Slyphid: Perhaps you could call this room a miniature version of the Dungeon itself.

Bell knew about this place. Eina had told him there was an area in the deep levels where monsters spawned endlessly to maintain a certain predetermined population. But as he looked out on the real thing and heard Sora, Slyphid, and Ryuu describe the reality they faced, he felt despair eating at his heart. Now that he was an upper-tier adventurer, he understood the full meaning of that reality.

Even in the deep levels where the battles came fast and furious, there was always a small break between encounters. But the Colosseum was different. In contrast to ordinary rooms and passageways, there was no end to the monsters no matter how many were killed. The infinite battles continued until the adventurer perished in obscurity.

A "Bottomless Goblet" of monsters. This was the nickname that trembling, terrified adventurers had given the Colosseum.

Sora: We have come to a danger zone in the thirty-seventh floor that even parties of first-tier adventurers such as myself, Aiz, and Asuna do not dare to approach.

Bell was dumbstruck by Sora's words. Even first-tier adventurers like Sora—even Aiz, Asuna and their companions—could not enter this place? It was the deadliest of "dead spots," on par with or even surpassing in danger the Monster Rex slumbering on this floor.

If they got past this, they would emerge onto the main route. Bell finally understood the true meaning of the words Sora had spoken a few minutes earlier. In order to attain hope, they had to traverse despair as deep as the abyss below them.

He broke out in sweat. At the same time, he was consumed by an impulse to rip out his hair. He thought back to the corpses of the adventurers who had died in that little room. The same despair that had broken their spirits now pressed in on Bell. Sweat beaded his forehead. He panted uncontrollably and shifted his eyes restlessly.