Electricity gathered around Alessia's hand, as it hovered just a few centimeters away from the hilt of her sheathed sword.

"Stardust Blade," Alessia whispered, and flicked the blade partly out of its sheath with her thumb. The golden sparks of electricity turned black and then billowed out, like flames. Her blade shone with the glimmer of silvery steel before turning entirely black, with sparks within the blackness like stars strewn across a night sky.

Alessia lunged forward and slashed her plasma-wreathed sword through the monstrous demon ape's body. On contact, the demon's blood evaporated, and its skin shriveled away. Though its body was tougher than steel, it could offer no resistance to Alessia's sword.

It had been five days since they entered the dungeon looking for the Calamity God. There was not a single trace of it.

"There are a lot of demons down here," one of the adventurers in Alessia's division said.

"Mm," Alessia emitted. "The Iscar Dungeon used to be a Demon Battleground."

"We fought the forces of hell here?" Rium asked.

Alessia nodded. "A long time ago."

Alessia cleaned the blood off the blade with her cloak. "There's a generally held belief that the Demon Overlord was the first Calamity of this world. All Calamities are inheritors of Hell's Will, and commanders of Hell's forces."

"I thought that was just the teaching of the Church of Reclamation," one of the adventurers said.

"It is. But the Church predates our nation, and many nations on this continent. It was the Order of the Reclaimers, as it was known back then, that sponsored the first Guilds. Their purpose was to find and annihilate Calamities to avoid another Breach," Alessia said. "Then, when you consider that the dungeons appeared at the same as the Demon Overlord and you begin to see the world in a whole new light."

Even Rium was slack-jawed at that explanation. "Then that means..."

Alessia nodded. "Mm, I am a demon hunter. Many of the National Heroes are. Ultimately, the purpose of adventurers, and those who rise to the ranks of Heroes, is to hunt down the agents of Hell, and the Calamities that could one day rise to lead them."

----------------------------------------

Unknown to Alessia, and the invasion party, the Calamity they were looking for in those 5 days had been in its room, absorbing materials. The dragon's scales provided far more materials than the creature expected. Strangely enough, it truly was steel, although different. The creature could not identify many of the materials within it, but it had the properties similar to its own superalloy frame and armor.

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In a way, the dragon was not far from the truth, Halas realized. They were both creatures capable of growing a superalloy skin. Theoretically, it was not impossible to conceive that the dragon and Halas shared a common evolutionary ancestor. Of course, had Halas's Education Module still been online, it would know that Halas was a product of an advanced civilization, not evolution.

[Laser battery calibrated.]

[New weapon added to database.]

The scales proved to be useful as they had molecules with electrical properties that were similar to ultra-conductive materials. At a certain temperature, these molecules provided a method to channel large quantities of power with virtually no waste to heat. It was wonderful. Such efficiency was the holy grail of material sciences. Unfortunately, at those temperatures, the material was very brittle. It followed a similar paradigm to Halas's armor. It could withstand the temperatures of a nuclear fireball, but under those temperatures it cracked and broke easily, requiring immediate replacement.

There were not many things in this world, or any other, that could kill Halas, even at its current stage. Or so it thought.

"Master... Dungeon Lord is over there..." Krimor spoke quietly. "Beyond that big door."

Even though Halas spent five days accumulating materials, it was still far ahead of the party that was after it. Because the party was so large, and they did not have a guide, it took them much longer to traverse the confusing tunnels of the dungeon.

On the other hand, Krimor guided Halas straight down to the deepest pits of the dungeon, without ever entering one of the monster-infested chambers.

Halas stood before the massive, ornate door and even it could sense something beyond it that was a threat to its existence. What kind of creature could it possibly be to even make Halas break into a metaphorical cold sweat.

[Emotion Matrix: Excitement.]

[Commence operation.]

The door opened on its own as Halas approached.

Danger. Dungeon Lord area.

Turn back now.

There was no turning back. Those who set their throne above Halas's must suffer. To say that Halas was excited to find out what was waiting beyond the door was an understatement. What could possibly make Halas feel threatened, and once dissected, what could Halas learn about its weapons and predatory methods? Not once did Halas consider that this creature could actually kill Halas; it could only improve Halas. A perfect organism of death and destruction... was that not the desire of every living being? Halas thought it was. It had to be. What else did life offer other than the opportunity to destroy and to be destroyed?

If Halas could laugh, it would have. Even though it lacked the capacity, function and design feature to laugh, the monstrous creature still felt the need to emit a sound. Any sound would do.

[Gate voltage clamped.]

[Temperature rising.]

[Stealth factor reduced by 22%.]

"Khrrssssshrrrsssss." The sound that came out was static. Blood-freezing, malevolent static. If demons truly still existed in this world, all those within earshot would have snapped off their horns and crawled under a rock at that sound. Dragons would have pretended to be cats.

The chamber beyond the door was massive. The ceiling was so far away that the room had its own sky. The room was filled with waterfalls falling from mountainous cliffs. It had ravines and chasms. It was a grassland, but Halas could see deserts and jungles in the distance.

It was not just a room within the dungeon. It was its own entire world.

Halas's sensors focused on the creature that gave off an incredible amount of threat, and likely created this place.

There, upon a rock stele, was a butterfly. Not a giant butterfly. Not a demonic butterfly. An ordinary butterfly with flower patterns on its multicolored wings.