My Dungeon Comedy is Wrong, As Expected.

The fall was dizzying. As Hachiman plummeted, consciousness fading like smoke after the colossal effort of pulverizing the Goliath, a pair of surprisingly strong and agile arms caught him before he could smash against the stone floor of the already devastated 18th floor. The last thing his mind registered was a fleeting glimpse of golden hair and the echo of a whisper, almost a sigh, that belonged to Aiz Wallenstein: "...just like the heroes... from mama's stories..."

Aiz held Hachiman's inert body, his weight almost negligible in her trained arms. Genuine surprise and something more – was it admiration? Or perhaps a pang of confusion? – danced in her gold-colored eyes as she gazed at his pale, exhausted face. Almost at the same instant, the sound of hurried footsteps announced the arrival of two more figures.

"Aiz! You caught him!" Tsubaki Collbrande exclaimed, relief evident in her voice, as Tiona Hiryute arrived right behind, slightly out of breath but with her eyes shining with excitement.

"You better not try anything funny just because he's out cold, Sword Princess!" Tsubaki warned, in a tone that mixed playfulness with protective seriousness, already approaching with a glint in her eyes. "This one's already taken, and he belongs to Lady Hephaestus, you hear me?"

"Aaaah, Aiz! You sly thing!" Tiona complained with an adorable pout, peeking at Hachiman in the blonde's arms. "Geez, I wanted to catch the Dark Hero! He's so... intense!"

(And here, dear readers, and perhaps some more observant adventurers right there on the scene, you must be scratching your heads: how on earth did Aiz, Tsubaki, and Tiona pop up on the 18th floor, in the nick of time, to witness Hachiman's finishing blow and his applause-worthy rescue? Well, history has its ways...)

(Beginning of Flashback – A little earlier, on the upper floors and in the Dungeon itself)

After the Loki Familia (with Tsubaki as a gatecrasher, I mean, special guest) resolved their own squabbles on the middle floors – which included, according to rumors that would later circulate, a particularly stubborn Goliath on the 17th floor that was a real pain to take down – the group began the tiring ascent back to the surface. Aqua, still wrapped in the cloak Hachiman had lent her to camouflage her rather conspicuous divine aura, kept to the rear. As other supporters and less stellar members of the Loki Familia were also wearing cloaks to protect themselves from the Dungeon's oppressive environment, and with everyone's mind already dreaming of a hot bath and a soft bed, no one immediately noticed her absence.

It was only when the group finally emerged into the relative safety of the surface, already in Orario, that Tsubaki, looking for Aqua to check if the goddess was alright and, perhaps, to discuss return plans with Hachiman, felt a chill down her spine. The Useless Goddess (with all due respect) was nowhere to be found. Panic, cold and swift, hit her like a punch.

"Aqua?! Has anyone seen the goddess Aqua?! Where is she?!" Tsubaki asked, her voice rising an octave, her gaze frantically scanning the tired faces around her.

The answers were a cold shower. Negatives. Some had last seen her around the 17th floor, shortly before they began the final climb. Then, she vanished.

"Damn it, a thousand times damn it, that troublesome goddess!" Tsubaki cursed under her breath, her face visibly paling. She knew Aqua's capacity for getting into trouble, and how relentless the Dungeon could be, even for a deity (especially one who seemed to have a magnet for disasters). Without a second thought, she spun on her heels, decision etched on her face. "I'm going back! I have to find that airhead!"

"Whoa, whoa! I'm going with you, Tsubaki!" Tiona exclaimed at the same moment, her Amazonian eyes shining with an irresistible mix of genuine concern and pure thirst for adventure. Anything involving the enigmatic Hachiman and his equally peculiar goddess was right up her alley.

Aiz Wallenstein, who had heard the commotion with her sharp hearing, approached silently. There was an indecipherable expression on her face, almost a mask of serenity, but her golden eyes did not hide a certain intensity. "I will help too," she stated, her voice soft but firm.

And so, the unlikely trio – the worried blacksmith, the excited Amazon, and the silent sword princess – plunged back into the depths of the Dungeon. They descended the floors at an impressive speed, clearing the path of monsters with brutal and coordinated efficiency, their senses alert for any sign of Aqua. They reached the 17th floor in the blink of an eye, but there was no sign of the goddess. It was then that something caught their attention: the main passage connecting the 17th to the 18th floor was completely blocked by a mountain of rubble and collapsed rocks, as if a titanic explosion had occurred nearby. And from the other side of that makeshift barrier, they could hear the distant but unmistakable echoes of a pitched battle – monstrous roars that made the ground tremble, the metallic clash of weapons meeting, and the vibrant explosions of magic.

"But what... happened here?" Tiona murmured, her eyes wide, excitement giving way to palpable apprehension.

Aiz nodded, her hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of her sword, Desperate. "The Dungeon's pressure... it's chaotic. Unstable."

Without wasting a second, Tiona summoned her gigantic dual sword, Urga, the weapon seeming like an extension of her own body. With a war cry that echoed off the stone walls, she delivered a crushing blow against the rock barricade. The force of her Level 5 turned stones into gravel, blasting open a passage with a roar.

When they passed through the newly created opening, the scene that greeted them on the 18th floor was the personification of pandemonium. The famous crystal ceiling, which normally bathed the floor in an ethereal light, mimicking a starry sky, was shattered in countless places. Gigantic pieces of crystal lay scattered across the floor like a giant's broken teeth. The lighting was dim, ominous, casting dancing shadows that heightened the sense of danger. Countless monsters, a grotesque and unlikely mix of creatures from the 17th, 18th, and even the feared 19th floor, attacked in hordes the adventurers who had been trapped in Rivira. Cries of pain and fury, the deafening clang of steel against steel, magical explosions painting the air with deadly colors – it was hell.

And then, amidst that whirlwind of violence, their gazes were magnetically drawn to a solitary figure, the epicenter of one of the largest and most desperate battles. A man, clad in blue-black armor that seemed to absorb the little light, faced a mutant Goliath of terrifying proportions. Even from a distance, his combat stance, the dark and palpable energy emanating from him... it was unmistakable.

"Wow! Look at that! It's Hachiman!" Tiona shouted, her jaw dropped, pointing with Urga. "But what the hell is he doing?!"

They saw him. They saw him dodge a crushing blow that kicked up dust and debris, his agility almost supernatural. They saw him leap onto the Goliath's massive arm, running along it as if mocking gravity, and then, in an impossible move, launch himself into the dark skies of the floor. In his hands, a large black bow materialized out of nowhere, and notched as an arrow was a silver sword that gleamed with a blinding amethyst light, pulsing with a power so vast it made even Aiz, the Sword Princess, hold her breath.

"That... that energy..." Tsubaki stammered, caught between shock and an admiration that tingled up her spine. "He's... he's flying? And that sword... I've never seen anything like it in my life! It looks like he's holding a shooting star!"

Aiz just watched, lips parted, her golden eyes fixed and wide. An almost inaudible "Unbelievable..." escaped her lips, a silent testament to the spectacle before her.

They witnessed Hachiman reach the apex of his ascent, the amethyst star in his bow vibrating with a promise of destruction. And then, the release. The incandescent "arrow" tore through the air like an avenging meteor, and the ensuing explosion not only obliterated the Goliath, turning it into a shower of shining particles, but also illuminated the entire floor with a blinding flash, revealing for an instant every corner of that battlefield. And immediately afterward, they saw Hachiman begin to fall, his body limp, inert like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

The three of them shot towards him at the same instant. Aiz, activating her wind magic, Tempest, became a golden blur, cutting through the air and arriving by a hair's breadth, just in time to catch him before he crashed violently against the ground. And the words, those words from her childhood, echoed in her mind and slipped from her lips almost unintentionally: "...just like the heroes... from mama's stories..." Her eyes, meeting Hachiman's unconscious face, were a complex whirlwind of pure admiration, a confusion that intrigued her, and perhaps... perhaps something more, something new and unknown beginning to awaken within her, something she herself could not yet name.

(End of Flashback – Back to the Chaotic Present of the 18th Floor)

Aiz, ignoring the provocations with a slight frown that Tsubaki and Tiona would surely notice later, held Hachiman with surprising firmness, yet with an almost reverent care. Her objective was clear: to get him out of that immediate danger zone. Looking around the still-smoldering battlefield, she spotted a rocky "peak," a small promontory where a group of adventurers and some gods seemed to be gathering, a point of relative safety amidst the chaos. With Hachiman in her arms, she headed there.

As soon as they approached, Aqua, who was among those present, chattering nervously with Hestia and Hermes, while Bell Cranel still lay unconscious nearby, spotted Hachiman in Aiz's arms. "HACHIMAN!" she screamed, her voice shrill with panic, running towards them like a blue rocket. With an agility no one would expect from a usually clumsy goddess, she practically snatched Hachiman from Aiz's arms, not without first throwing a scowl worthy of an angry cat at the Sword Princess. With maternal gentleness, she laid him on a piece of cloth someone had spread on the ground, checking his vital signs with a frantic concern that almost made her stumble over her own hands.

Tsubaki, who had also reached the peak right behind, glared at Aqua with a look that could melt steel. "You little imp of a goddess!" she growled, planting both closed fists on Aqua's head and rubbing hard, in a vigorous double noogie. "You can't just stay put in one corner, can you?! You only cause trouble wherever you go! I almost died of worry, you irresponsible thing!"

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ouch! Sorry, Tsubaki-sama! Please forgive me!" Aqua whimpered, fruitlessly trying to escape Tsubaki's grip, her face a comical mixture of pain, guilt, and impending tears.

Tiona arrived shortly after, letting out a hearty laugh at the scene. "Take it easy, Tsubaki! At least she's in one piece!" Her gaze, however, soon shifted to the battle still raging in the distance. The other Goliath, the one Bell had bravely faced, was beginning to regenerate, its limbs writhing and growing back. "But it looks like the party's not over yet! That ugly brute is still standing! You can leave it to me, I'll take care of him!" she exclaimed, the enthusiasm of a true warrior taking over her. She drew Urga with a fluid motion and rushed towards the monster, a savage grin on her lips.

Aiz, who observed everything with her usual outward calm, though a storm of thoughts was brewing inside, also moved. "I'll help clean up the remaining monsters." Activating Tempest, she became a golden and silver blur, disappearing into the fray of battle, her sword Desperate singing a deadly song with every monster that fell. Before leaving, however, her gaze quickly passed over the faces of Bell, still unconscious, and Hachiman, also unconscious. A silent, almost involuntary comparison between the two adventurers who had demonstrated such extraordinary power that day.

Tsubaki, seeing that the immediate situation around them was under control for now, finally released a tearful and disheveled Aqua. With surprising gentleness that contrasted with her earlier scolding, she knelt beside Hachiman and rested his head on her lap, carefully brushing stray strands of hair from his face. There was genuine concern and a touch of admiration in her gaze as she watched him. Aqua, now free, just sulked beside them, sniffling and looking at Tsubaki with the expression of a child whose favorite toy had been confiscated.

The battle for the 18th floor dragged on for some time longer, but the end was already in sight. Tiona, with Urga in hand and her Berserker Skill, Indomitable Fury, pulsing through her veins, transformed into a whirlwind of destruction against the regenerating Goliath. As the monster's head had not yet fully reformed from the impact of Bell's Argonaut, the Amazon found her opening. With a powerful leap and a cry that echoed through the hall, Tiona delivered a devastating downward blow, Urga's blade cleaving the giant in two as if it were made of paper. The death of the last Goliath seemed to be the trigger; the torrent of new monsters pouring into the 18th floor began to drastically decrease, until it finally ceased. With that, Tiona, exhaling steam and with a victorious smile, joined Aiz. The two, like a hurricane and a storm of blades, began to systematically eliminate the remaining monsters. Aiz was a silver and gold flash, agile and precise; wherever she passed, monsters were sliced and disintegrated into black smoke and magic stones in the blink of an eye. Tiona was brute force, each blow of Urga crushing and sweeping away multiple enemies. Soon, the chaotic swarm began to visibly diminish, until the last monster howled its final agony and fell.

A heavy silence, laden with exhaustion, finally fell upon the 18th floor. It was broken only by the painful groans of the wounded and then by a rising wave of cheers and pure, visceral relief. Adventurers from all Familias, covered in dirt, blood, and sweat, but alive, began to celebrate loudly, embracing each other, some falling to their knees in sheer gratitude. Some brave souls had fallen in that desperate battle, and many others carried wounds of all kinds, but the most important thing was that they had survived. The day had been a terrifying rollercoaster, a passage from the near certainty of death to a fragile glimpse of hope, and finally, to overwhelming victory.

Amidst the celebrations and palpable relief, conversations, as expected, inevitably turned to the unbelievable feats of two rookies who had barely reached Level 2: Hachiman Hikigaya and Bell Cranel. Both, against all expectations, had faced and, in a way, triumphed over monsters equivalent to a Level 5 challenge. There was, however, a certain... nuance in the stories that began to circulate like wildfire.

"Did you see the white-haired kid? The one called Bell Cranel? They say he almost fried his brain to use that crazy magic!" commented an adventurer from the Ganesha Familia, wiping blood from his face.

"Yeah, but he couldn't finish the beast alone, right? Needed a little help here and there," countered a mage from the Goibniu Familia, gesturing. "Brave, no doubt, but still a bit green."

Bell, though he had fought with inspiring bravery and almost defeated his Goliath with his charged attack, had needed the support of others and, in the end, couldn't deliver the killing blow alone. Hachiman, on the other hand...

"But what about the other one? Hikigaya? The one in the dark armor?" an adventurer from the Freya Familia asked, her eyes shining with curiosity. "I only saw the flash, but the people who were closer said it was... absurd!"

Tsubaki and Tiona, who had witnessed different parts of the spectacle – Tiona witnessing the devastating final blow and Tsubaki seeing the moments that preceded it – shared their perspectives with the other adventurers, admiration clear and vibrant in their voices.

"You have no idea!" Tiona exclaimed, gesturing enthusiastically. "He just flew! And that sword-arrow? It looked like the sky was going to fall! BOOM! And the Goliath turned to dust!"

"His concentration, the energy he released... it was otherworldly," Tsubaki added, more restrained, but with profound respect in her words. "He faced that thing with much less direct help, and the result... well, you saw the crater."

Aiz listened in silence, absorbing every word, her golden eyes once again alternating between the memory of Bell and the unconscious figure of Hachiman, still resting under Tsubaki's care. The white-haired boy, with his luminous soul and miraculous growth that defied logic... and the boy with dead fish eyes, with his dark and unpredictable strength, and that aura that intrigued her and pulled at her in a way she couldn't explain. The one she had initially almost dismissed in favor of Bell, in that alley on the fifth floor... Who would have thought she would find herself in this situation, her gaze now lingering considerably longer on Hachiman's unconscious form, a silent question hovering in her mind?

Finally, after a time that felt like an eternity, filled with celebrations, relief, and the somber yet necessary work of paying last respects to the fallen, it became painfully clear to everyone that Rivira, the once-safe haven, was no longer habitable at the moment. Reconstruction would have to wait. Tired to the bone, but with gratitude for being alive pulsing in their hearts, all the adventurers began the long and arduous climb back to the surface.

Tsubaki, this time, made sure to keep Aqua under her hawk-like eyes, while carrying an unconscious Hachiman in her strong arms, his weight a constant reminder of the danger they had faced and the strength he had shown. The goddess just pouted, but didn't dare even think of running away, knowing full well she was in deep trouble with the blacksmith. Tiona chattered nearby, her eyes still shining like stars as she looked at Hachiman; the reports she had heard and the spectacular final blow she had witnessed painted him as a hero straight out of the songs and legends she loved so much, and she was genuinely excited at the prospect of getting to know him better. Aiz also walked near the group, quieter than usual, her thoughts an indecipherable tangle, but her eyes frequently, almost magnetically, lingered on Hachiman's figure.

When they finally reached the surface, the fresh night air had never seemed so sweet. Another exclamation, this time a mixture of relief and shock, arose from those anxiously waiting at the Guild and in the nearby streets. Seeing that mass of adventurers returning, many of them known for their long stays in Rivira, and all looking as if they had crawled out of hell itself, generated a new wave of questions, murmurs, and speculations. One thing was certain: the fame of Hachiman Hikigaya and Bell Cranel would skyrocket exponentially after the events of that day. Their names would echo throughout Orario.

At the city gate, as the crowd began to disperse, Tsubaki said goodbye to Tiona and Aiz. "Thanks for the help down there, girls. I'll take care of him from here," she said, with a grateful nod.

Tiona bid farewell with her usual enthusiasm. "No problem, Tsubaki! It was... wow! Let me know when the Dark Hero wakes up, I want to know all the details!" She winked at Hachiman, still unconscious.

Aiz just gave a brief, almost imperceptible nod, her lips curving minimally. But her eyes, once again, lingered a little longer on Hachiman, a final silent analysis, before she turned and followed the members of her Familia who had come to meet her.

Tsubaki then, with Hachiman still secure in her arms and a dejected, grumbling Aqua in tow, headed directly for the Hephaestus Familia headquarters. He would need the best possible treatment.