Orario was quiet.
Too quiet.
It was the kind of silence that only settled when something deep, old, and deadly had started moving beneath the surface. And though most of the city went about its business, there were whispers—fearful glances from seasoned adventurers, unease among the Guild's staff, and conversations the gods themselves chose to hold behind closed doors.
And at the center of it all was Noah.
He stood in the high chamber of the Guild, flame-touched coat billowing as he looked across the long table where the gods sat—Freya, Loki, Ganesha, Miach, Hermes… and his goddess, Hestia, small but unshaken, seated beside him like a lion cub guarding a wildfire.
"I'm going down," Noah said, voice calm, steady. "And I'm not stopping at the mid-floors."
That statement alone was enough to send murmurs echoing across the chamber.
Finn Deimne, seated just behind Loki, leaned forward slightly. "How far?"
"Floor 40. At minimum," Noah replied.
The silence that followed was heavier this time. Thick with meaning.
Ganesha blinked, forehead creased. "No expedition has gone past 37 in over a decade. Not officially. Not without losses."
Hermes leaned forward, steepling his fingers. "And you want to go past that with… what? One Familia? A handful of misfits?"
Noah didn't flinch. "I'm assembling a cross-Familia expedition. Voluntary members only. Those willing to face what's coming."
"And what exactly is coming?" Loki asked, her eyes narrowing as she leaned forward lazily. "Because unless you've got a prophecy shoved in your pocket, you're just starting fires for fun."
Noah stepped forward, removing something from his coat—a black fragment of corrupted crystal, still flickering faintly with heat.
He dropped it on the table.
Freya was the first to react. Her eyes flashed, the easy curve of her lips fading.
"That isn't Dungeon-born," she said softly.
"It came from a place called the Echofield," Noah explained. "A broken layer of Floor 19. A memory field. It's been absorbing pieces of someone else's world. Kevin's."
Hestia placed a hand over her chest, her gaze steady. "The Dungeon's reacting to Noah. Or maybe it always was. The truth is… it remembers Kevin."
"The Kaslana template," Finn murmured.
"It's not a template anymore," Noah said. "It's a legacy. And the thing Kevin couldn't kill is starting to wake up."
That made even Loki sit up straighter.
Freya remained silent, but her attention sharpened.
Noah continued, voice like smoldering stone. "You've all noticed the shifts in spawn behavior. The corrupted mana veins. Monsters reanimating after death. That's not Dungeon evolution. That's contamination. And I'm betting it's coming from the Deep."
"Assuming you're right," Hermes said slowly, "and something is stirring below Floor 40—what do you intend to do about it?"
Noah looked directly at him.
"I'm going to burn it out."
Silence.
Then, Freya stood. Her presence alone was enough to make the air thin.
"You'll have my support," she said simply. "I'll send Ottarl and Allen. And if you fall…" Her eyes gleamed. "Then I'll retrieve your bones myself."
Loki grinned, clapping once. "Well, now it's a party."
Ganesha muttered something about insanity.
Hestia, however, was smiling. Small. Proud. And very, very worried.
Noah turned toward her. "I need you to stay in the city."
"Noah—"
"Please," he said, softer this time. "If I'm going to drag the Deep into the light, I need to know someone is up here still protecting what we've built."
Hestia's eyes shimmered—but she nodded.
"I'll hold Orario," she whispered. "You hold the fire."
---
By dusk, the expedition roster was official.
Voluntary enlistment only. Cross-Familia command structure. Noah in charge.
Word spread fast.
Some called it suicide.
Others called it destiny.
But everyone knew one thing:
This would not be an ordinary descent.
And Noah?
He sat alone on the church roof that night, flame flickering in his palm, coat draped over his shoulders like a mantle.
The fire no longer hissed.
It purred.
Like it knew what was coming.
He stared up at the stars, eyes reflecting their silver shimmer.
"You died fighting it," he whispered.
He felt Kevin stir faintly in the back of his mind. No words. Just that same overwhelming pressure.
"But I won't."
He closed his eyes.
And for the first time since entering the Dungeon...
He began to plan a war.