Everyone was sitting in a chair or armchair in the room, Dora, Midgard, Zuri, and Marie on the bed. Leon was sitting on the ground next to Erick by order of Midgard.
"So, Miss Owner, what is this super strategy that should help us win easily against that non-D-rank rift?"
Kraim asked casually from his chair.
"I don't know what's worse, the fact that this expedition was a failure from the beginning because you weren't wise enough to see how unbalanced your pupils were or the fact that they still lost with you on the team."
He flinched and looked away, groaning. What was left of his pride, anyway?
"So if all the failures are done barking, let's talk strategy. Thanks to my conversation with the maid, we know how to deal with this rift. First, the enemy, it seems that the monsters you have been fighting all this time are mere summons. "
A few gasps of astonishment arose, and Dora scratched his chin while whispering.
"Oh... That's why none of them dropped a soul stone... What a waste!"
Midgard nodded, a small smile on her lips, and continued.
"The black smoke must be some sort of summoning portal, as you saw, it doesn't matter how many monsters you kill, as long as the summoner is alive, the undead will always come back. To put it simply, it seems that they are the bosses of this place."
Intrigued looks were exchanged among the people.
"They? Are there many summoners?" Mercy asked.
"Yes, the maid killed one earlier, but since they returned, we can assume that there are others, probably in the ruins, but now that we have this information, the difficulty comes to go down a notch."
She stood up and walked to the middle of the room.
"Now for our plan of action, our main concern is the shooter, we need a long-range attack for Dora and the servant to take care of it."
Kraim, offended, hit his chest.
"Are you serious? You say we need a long-range attack and you ask these two? Didn't you see how they fought? Where do you see a long-range attack? I'm an archer! It's my specialty!"
"So you're going to take care of them alone?"
He flinched.
"Uh... I didn't say that. You were disrespectful..."
"Well, if you can't, then we'll do without your services, we need people who could actually do it. So, maid, you focus on your little magic tricks, and for you Dora... Gamma."
Kraim was shaking in his chair with rage, but no one paid any more attention to his antics. Eryl and Dora nodded.
"Roger."
"Good. You, the puppet girl, You will protect them with all your tank-wannabe puppets. only them."
"Understood... What? And the others?"
"Now listen, I know what's going on better than any of you, I know how we're going to win, so stop questioning me and do what I said. Valid for everyone."
Marie seemed a little frustrated but as she glanced at Dora, the boy gave her an understanding nod. She sighed and nodded to Midgard.
"Good, they will be the main target so none of you will need any support. No matter what, don't let them get hit by the black crystals... Valid for everyone, but for these two in particular. And then..."
She developed her entire plan and everyone's actions for about ten minutes, from time to time arousing the anger or astonishment of the members of the group but no one questioned her.
And so, they were all ready to leave. Standing in the middle of the room, facing Midgard. Cid and Erick unconscious on the ground, the woman was ready to send them off.
"Don't mess up everything again, if you fail, I'll only save Dora since you're all useless."
Despite the tough warning, Freya smiled and took the challenge.
"Don't worry, we won't disappoint you. Thank you, we owe you our lives."
She bowed her head, an action unfitting of her social class, it was the thought of Hope at this moment, but for the others, they knew that the one in front of them was a being beyond normal standards, even for emissaries.
They didn't know her nature nor her power, but the instinct of an emissary was never wrong, the strong will recognize the strong. A door of light appeared on the wall, and at the signal from Midgard, they rushed to the other side, with weapons in front, and threw themselves into this hell.
A good hundred undead, scattered in every corner, barely had time to react when an explosion threw several of them into the air.
"Magic Art: Heat Wall"
A barrier of fire rose above the smoke where the undead were coming from and spread. Eryl, behind Dora, made a green magic circle appear in each of her palms.
"Good idea, Gassy Wind."
A powerful green air current rose from the flames and transformed them into a gigantic wall of continuous explosion. Gamma made a slight grimace of annoyance but quickly turned to Marie.
"A wave of spikes is approaching!"
"Materia!"
She summoned 10 puppets armed with large shields and 5 of each gathered around Dora and Eryl, just at that moment, a rain of black spikes fell on them.
As Midgard had predicted, the others farther away were no longer the target of the undead, with Gamma acting as a control tower for the group.
"Morgi, Lilia, the walkers!
"Got it!"
"Alright!"
The 2 girls, back to back, destroyed the undead melee that threw themselves at Dora and Eryl.
"Lightning Sword" Liliana infused her sword with lightning energy, spreading through her body, and slashed the undead at high speed in front of the 2 strongest.
"Dragon scale"
A yellow aura covered the spearwoman as she twirled her spear and dragged undead at their backs. The crystals from the spikes fell apart from the puppets' shields, dangerously close to Dora and Eryl.
"Purify now!"
"I-I'll try." Sana brought her hands together and released her aura around them, but the crystals continued to spill onto the ground and the particles flew into the air.
"Seriously… Hey, bossy girl, do it!"
He shouted at Freya. For a second, everyone else flinched and glanced at him, as if to tell him to apologize to the one standing above them all. But the young girl, a little surprised at first, smiled and clasped her hands.
"Oh, now you need my help?"
"For once someone asks you something, you're not going to complain!"
"Watch your tone, I'm not complaining. Fairy wind."
A warm yellow and pink aura covered the area and the crystals were gradually disintegrating.
"... We could have done this from the beginning."
"Someone put me into a bubble."
"And you couldn't escape, bravo. Hey, toad girl and family issues girl!"
Zuri and Mercy flinched.
"Who... Who has family issues?!"
"Do you think you did something? I'm used to worse insults."
"Great, toad, use your debuff on the giants in front of the temple, issues, do everything you can with your dark power but cover the failed heroes, and stay far away from me!"
"Sigh K, K..."
"Lucky, the air here sucks."
Mercy rushed towards Hope, and Leon while Zuri threw a vial towards the giants fighting Kraim and Lilith, then took out a small misshapen stick from her bag and shot black lightning at the vial.
The vial burst and a purple cloud covered the giant undead whose movements got slowed.
"... Well done!" Lilith jumped high and smashed a giant's head with a powerful blow.
Mercy passed between them easily and began to chant a spell when a thought crossed her mind.
"... How did he know?"
She had never spoken about her power since the beginning, she wasn't even in Midgard's plan, but Dora knew right away that she was a dark power user.
She quickly reached Leon and Hope, fighting 3 undead giants, the latter was surprised when he saw her.
"M-My Lady?! What are you doing here?! Go back!! It's dangerous-"
"No time to chat, keep fighting!"
She clapped her hands and several tiny black stars appeared.
"Whirlwind of Stars"
The stars rushed over the heads of the giants and swirled around their heads.
"I got them, go for it!"
"My lady, you can't be serious!"
"Trust me, dammit! He sent me here because he knows I can do it, I'll take care of it, go kill the summoners!"
"... Hey Dora! Are you crazy?! Why did you send her here?!"
From behind, Gamma crushed a group of shooters with air magic and turned towards the temple, sighing deeply in frustration.
"Hey, the dwarf with the hammer!"
Lilith froze and looked at him, fuming with rage.
"I knew it was coming... You're dead!"
"Make yourself shorter!!!" He gathered wind energy in his hand and threw an invisible ball that sucked Lilith in and carried her towards the temple.
"WHAT?!" Everyone screamed.
Dora did the same thing again and turned to Liliana who was clutching her head, trembling.
"Light, she needs light energy! Short yourself!"
"... What-AAAAAAAH!!!"
In turn, she flew in a ball of wind and quickly crossed the place.
The balls passed two of the small windows in the temple walls and stopped in the air. Thanks to their "specific morphology", both were able to get here with almost no injuries.
"W... What... What the hell?... oh..."
"Lilith, the ground!"
Lilith quickly shook her head and looked at the ground at Liliana's request. She saw in the middle and on the right side of the ruins, 2 undead praying in a luminous pentagram.
"The summoners! Lilia, with me!"
"Yes! Shining Warrior!" Her body lit up with warm energy. They touched the ground and Liliana held Lilith's hand, her aura covering the girl.
"Let's get this over with."
"Yeah, but I swear he'll pay!"
Armed with their shining weapons, they each ran towards one target. A tremor occurred and lightning flashed temporarily inside the temple, and after a few seconds, outside, the undead let out sinister groans and crumbled into dust, this time every last one. The black smoke cleared and the remaining crystals crumbled, after all this time, the nightmare was finally over.