[Moments Earlier]
~VWUUUSH!~
Adonis found himself standing in a vast, dark room.
Just a moment earlier, he was standing among the upper echelon of Adventurers, only for an overwhelming amount of energy to surge forth and a Magic Circle appear.
He had seen the Magic Circle clearly, and at that moment nothing but sheer surprise took over his body. His instincts told him to run—escape to the farthest of locations—but there was nowhere to run to.
He could only stand there, helpless, as he looked to the people who stood beside him.
The only people capable of making any movements besides him—Jet and Lux.
Sure enough, there was movement from their end—from Jet, at the very least.
He could see a surge of energy emanating from him; the Spatial kind.
The air around him warped, and the intense energy that filled his and Lux's surroundings seemed too unreal for mere humans to achieve.
'I'm sure that was at least an S-Tier Skill!' Adonis furrowed his brows.
Unfortunately, he couldn't read any of the finer details, or even act in any capacity, before he got transported to the dark room where he currently occupied.
'Damnit… I was too careless!'
Clenching his fist, Adonis felt rage swirling from his insides.
'To think those Dragon Spies would use such a large-scale Spatial Magic… I never imagined such a scenario.'
Jet and Lux had behaved well for the most part, even assisting the Conquest tremendously. Their acting was so convincing that he would have bought it if he wasn't so sure about the events of the future.
But, they did enough to let his guard down.
'I wasn't expecting that they would make their move so soon.' Gritting his teeth, Adonis admitted that to himself.
It was his mistake.
There was a chance that this was a mere Dungeon Trap, since that wasn't unheard of—though nothing of this scale—but after seeing the evidence of Spatial Magic around Jet and Lux, there was no way he could consider any other explanation.
Even if he didn't catch them in the act, they would have still been his primary suspects. After all…
'This never happened in the previous timeline. There was no Mass Teleportation reported by the survivors.'
This was a new development—another alteration to the timeline.
'And what else is a new development? The participation of those two in the Conquest!'
These elements gave his conclusion perfect coherence, with everything tying itself up in a catastrophic string of logic.
'Yeah. There's no doubt on my mind.' His frown deepened as he stepped forward.
It had to have been them!
'To what end, though? What do they hope to achieve?'
Adonis felt foolish for even thinking to ask himself that question. They were clearly planning on exterminating everyone—including him—in this Dungeon.
"Violence and destruction are the two basest characteristics of Dragons." Adonis spat in rage and disgust.
Rising above those feelings, however, was concern—specifically towards his comrades.
Of course, he was worried about everyone else, but when considering the grand scheme of things, his classmates were the most important.
Not only were they the closest to him, but they were the biggest threats to the Dragons, and humanity's only hope in its fight against them.
It wasn't just him, but the world, that needed them to be safe.
"Right now I have two missions…" His eyes glowed golden and his energy began to spark all over his body.
"First, save as many people as I can—especially my classmates."
Adonis unsheathed the blade strapped around his waist and coated it in condensed light.
"Second, I'll eliminate those two."
Adonis could no longer risk it and wait. Jet and Lux were both immense threats to humanity, as well as immediate threats to the Adventurers and his friends.
For the sake of everyone, he had to kill the both of them.
"… And fast!"
***********
[Meanwhile…]
~SWOOSH!~
Richard swiftly moved, much faster than most youths could even dream of imitating, as he slashed through a horde of Undead Monsters—Greater Zombies—who swarmed around him.
'The hell…!'
The world around him was dimly lit thanks to the small fiery lamps that were hung on the four corners of the relatively vast room.
It wasn't nearly as large as the Ground Floor, but the place was still absurdly huge, with old stones making up the floor, walls, and ceiling—just as in the Ground Floor.
Richard had no idea how he appeared here, but the moment he did so, he was bombarded with the joint assault of the Greater Zombies that lurked in the room.
His instincts told him to fight. Even if he couldn't comprehend what was happening, as long as he didn't want to die, he had to keep fighting.
As he swung his blade and allowed invisible slashes spread around the area, causing incredible damage to his targets, he couldn't help but grit his teeth and wince.
With heavy breaths, he jumped from the crowd and used his only Magic Skill [Stone Magic], to sink the ground beneath him so that the Zombies would get stuck there.
Fortunately for him, [Greater Zombies], while being B-Tier Monsters, had no Active Skills. They just had incredible vitality and troublesome regenerative capabilities.
Their strength was also nothing to discount.
Thankfully, though, his [Stone Magic] attack was successful, and just as one would sink into wet cement, the dozens of Greater Zombies fell right in.
~WHOOOSH!~
Twisting in the air, he found a way to avoid the sinking ground and landed just a few meters away from the only exit door in sight.
'I should escape now. There's no point facing so many of them at once!'
It was better to leave the room and hopefully regroup with another, or multiple Adventurers—hopefully Heroic Rank ones.
'I was probably forcefully transported here. Those stairs… it has to be a Dungeon Trap!'
The Guildmaster sighed, almost mortified that he had been so careless.
'I didn't even sense anything or notice it.' His thoughts trailed as he approached the exit and pushed his hand towards the door.
'I just found myself he… re…?'
As soon as Richard touched the door, his body froze and the entirety of his mind trembled.
'T-this…" His eyes bulged as tears of blood proceeded out of them.
'W-what is THIS?!'