Nope! They head right on in!

"So... How good are the EXP?" Cremea asked Darkness.

"I gained two levels from it!" Darkness replied.

"It's settled, I'm going in!" Cremea grinned.

"I'll go in too," Kazuma said. "Just to make sure neither of you get in over your heads."

"Sure," Cremea shrugged.

"Shouldn't more of you go in?" Sena asked.

"No, it would be best if as few of us endanger ourselves as possible. With how many of these things are probably in there, it'd only take one missed nook or cranny for one of us to get ambushed by one. Cremea and I have Endure, and I have Detect Enemy, so we should be fine."

"In that case, take this," Sena replied, handing over a tag of some sort. "It contains a powerful sealing spell. It should cancel out the effects of the circle Aqua placed."

"Thanks," Kazuma nodded, and pocketed the tag. "The rest of you wait out here, make sure none of these things get by us and make their way to town."

"Can do!" Xylixia replied.

With that, Kazuma went in with Cremea and Darkness, Ria floating along behind them. It was a long hard slog through many of the dolls, and Darkness started swinging her sword, laughing at how she could actually hit them. "Well yeah, your accuracy has improved, and these things don't seem to dodge at all," Kazuma noted as one came out a side passage and leapt at him. He quickly swung his blade, setting it off, and was thrown back. And unfortunately, once again, his sword was broken. "...for fuck's sake! When is whoever is authoring this story going to get tired of this exhausted old gag!?"

"Careful Kazuma, I see some cracks in an invisible wall for some reason," Ria noted.

"Oh shut it," Kazuma huffed. Three jumped for Cremea, but she raised her shield, and redirected the brunt of the blasts. They passed another corridor, and Kazuma shot a fireball down it, blowing up several more, and Cremea threw her mace at a couple, setting them off.

Of course, the real MVP was Darkness, who just tanked the blasts of whichever ones she failed to hit. "... you guys holding up alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, though it's odd..." Kazuma mused.

"What is?" Darkness blinked.

"There were a bunch of other monsters down here before... Yet now it's just these dolls..."

"That should be the Khiel's room just up ahead!" Cremea noted, pointing.

"Good... Let's find out who is responsible for these things and get rid of Aqua's damn circle," Kazuma nodded.