Surprisingly, the Ninja group didn't enter immediately and scouted the surrounding area first. Cain watched as the ninjas used a few jutsu to check their surroundings, trying to figure out if there was anything strange in the cave.
"Oh come on, I won't put a trap or monster out there." Cain grumbled, "Just enter already."
While he was a little bit disappointed, Cain also had to admit that they were professional, doing what they had to do. He shifted his attention to the screen that monitored the Devils.
Sona, alongside her peerage that consisted of six people excluding her, Saji, Tsubaki, Tomoe, Momo, Reya, and Ruruko, stood before the gate. They had a serious expression and were on guard.
Rias also stood with them, crossing her arms anxiously.
"This is truly ominous. The limit is 8 people... Can we even enter?" She asked, "If Akeno and the others are still inside, then only 4 more of us can go."
Looking at the sign, Sona couldn't help but sigh. She didn't want to imagine what would happen if all of them were able to cross the door. If that were to happen, then she had to leave two members in the human world to hold the fort. It was an unfortunate choice to have to leave someone behind.
"It is a bit too late to regret." She muttered and signaled her pawn, Saji, to enter the gate.
Saji nodded and stepped into the entrance with Tomoe, the Knight. Following that, the other peerage members, including Sona's queen, Tsubaki, entered one by one. Before long, 6 people managed to enter, and Rias' expression worsened with each person that went through while Sona frowned.
"No... It can't be." The red-haired heiress muttered in horror.
Seeing that, Sona patted her shoulders and gave a rational reasoning.
"Rias, listen. This is a dungeon similar to a game, right? Isn't there a rule where each party will not be connected to the same space inside the dungeon? Your peerage members could be counted as a different party and are in a different space. Let's enter together and find clues." She said, calming the Gremory princess down.
Rias took a deep breath and calmed herself.
"You are right... " She nodded, entering the dungeon together with the Sitri Princess.
The moment she entered the gate, hell greeted her. A strange space with dimmed light. There was no sun, but it was bright enough to see the ground. However, she couldn't see beyond 2 meters from her position due to the fog. The air was hot too. A strange environment, not something from the human realm.
"...This place is...?"
Sona appeared from the gate, standing next to Rias.
Calmly, she looked at her surroundings, the flaming hell that had lava flowing on the ground and on the trees. A place where heat filled her surroundings.
"Sorry, but it seems I will only be able to use my ice" Sona said after assessing the situation calmly.
As a Devil specialized in water and ice, Sona would need a large amount of mana to support her ice power in this place. Her power would be limited and would take a great toll on her body if she used it.
And while the situation didn't allow her to stay still and rest, using ice magic would only make her tired faster. In the end, the only thing she could do was to rely on her Queen and peerage members while she saved her magic power.
In response to that, Saji smiled widely and punched the air.
"Don't worry! We can do it! Just sit back and relax!"
Tsubaki, who heard him, didn't waste time to scold him. "You are not reliable at all. But you are right about the part where Sona-sama doesn't need to worry. We will take care of the monsters."
The other members of her peerage also voiced their affirmation and readied their equipment.
Having a competent and loyal peerage member, Sona smiled at the display.
"Everyone, thank you. I will leave the battle to you then."
Although she wouldn't be so useless to the point she wouldn't be able to fight, she was happy with their sentiment. She didn't tell them that she would still be able to use her water magic normally.
With that, they entered the formation and the group started to move slowly, finding the first step of the dungeon. Rias still looked around with less focus on the dungeon.
While she tried to not be affected by her peerage's situation, she was still anxious about their whereabouts. Her anxiety was affecting her concentration and she couldn't focus.
Even when a fire Orc attacked, Rias didn't pay attention to it at first. She was a little bit startled, but she regained her bearing and watched Sona and her peerage dealt with it. The monsters were no match to the trained devil and the battle was quick.
'My peerage members won't lose to something like that.' She thought, observing the battle with anxious expression, 'They should be alright, but... No. They must be alright.'
The Sitri peerage's formation wasn't something to scoff at. With Tomoe and Saji as the tank, she had Tsubaki and her as the main attackers. Meanwhile, the rest were either supporting the two of them, or attacking from behind.
Her observation, though, wasn't correct. Sona's peerage wasn't that good. In fact, compared to her, they weren't as skilled. They were weaker and less experienced.
Even so, Sona could rely on them.
"Let's get going."
Sona pushed her glasses up after defeating a fire slime with water magic, and then signaled her team to move. The group of 8 then walked to the direction that was marked with a sign. It was an obvious trap, but the only path that seemed safe enough. Besides, the fire element monster would attack no matter where they go, so it was better to just go through the main path.
The group moved cautiously and slowly. The enemy was weak, so they weren't too afraid of fighting.
Watching them easily breeze through the first floor, Cain hummed. He observed their reaction closely and found out something interesting.
They were acting as if this place was a dangerous one.
Especially Rias. Her expression was truly one of a kind, something he had never seen before. It was the look of a girl who had to face the death of her family.
"Ah, is it because she thought her peerage had died? Come to think of it, I never put any sign that said resurrection is possible. It's normal if they think they have died."
Thinking about it, Cain realized he forgot to mention it in his rules.
He opened the notification and wrote a new rule on the sign.
─ Upon dying, you will be sent out of the dungeon and revived in 3 days.
"Alright, that's done. Now, I need to maximize Rias' emotion to get Coins before she know that her peerage can be revived. While I want them to have fun, I also need Coins. Hehehe, the corpses haven't disappeared yet, so let's use them for my Coins bank."
He smirked, and remotely controlled the Yeti on the second floor using his new authority.
A game screen appeared, with the screen shown from the Yeti's point of view. Somehow Cain immediately understood how to move and control the Yeti.
He walked around the snow to get used to the control before heading to the entrance where the fallen corpses of Issei, Yuuto, Koneko, and Akeno were. There was also Raynare's corpse, buried under the snow, but he ignored her entirely.
Right now, Cain was in a situation where he couldn't control his excitement, and the only way to express it was through moving his monster to gather snow and throw it like a professional basketball player.
"Hahaha, it worked!"
Not satisfied, he threw another snowball and it landed on Raynare's body, burying her further.
"Strike!" Cain exclaimed excitedly.
Controlling a large monster like Yeti made him feel like inside the cockpit of a mecha from the Gundam series, an exciting dream of every boy. He wanted to throw more snow and enjoy himself, but he stopped when he saw that Rias, Sona, and their group reached the second floor entrance, the long cave corridor that had fire on the walls.
He then moved his camera view from Yeti to the system's screen that monitored the dungeon.
Sona's group, just as he had thought, was on high alert and they were ready to fight.
"Alright, this is perfect. Time to put on a show."
The Yeti, which had been under Cain's control, prepared the show. First, he set the corpses around him and took Issei's corpse, raising him high above the monster's hed. He grabbed the leg and let Issei's bloodied body dangling like a pinata, placing it right on top of the monster's mouth.
He deliberately stood a bit away from the entrance that would appear soon. When Rias' group reached the end of the tunnel and entered the room, he would slowly lower Issei's corpse into the monster's mouth, creating a dramatic effect where the Gremory princess would watch her servant being eaten.
With this, he could gain both entertainment value for himself and coins, a perfect combination.
Cain couldn't wait to see Rias's face. She would surely scream in horror and shoot the destruction ball from her hand. He would then move the corpses and make them look as if the ball hit and obliterated them.
'That should give me a lot of coins, hehehe.'
And so, he turned his attention to the second screen on his right, showing the Devils arriving at a metal door.
Meanwhile, the Ninjas were still paranoid and put on a sealing scroll to keep the civilians away.
***
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