"Mm, mm, this was very nice!"
Deep within the Man-Made Dungeon Knossos, in an area roughly equivalent to the Dungeon’s 10th Floor, a stone-made pedestal draped with a pale, flowing, water-like screen was projecting the battlefield where Riezel and the others were fighting in real time, prompting a small goddess seated on a sofa to let out a delighted laugh.
Clearly, with the support of Veil Breath and Raumure, Tiona and Tione had already launched a counterattack and entered a brutal, blow-for-blow melee with Argana and Bache, even reversing their earlier disadvantage and forcing Argana and Bache into a steady retreat, yet Kali, the goddess of these two amazonesses, not only felt no worry at all but instead clapped her hands and laughed as though she were watching a wonderfully entertaining performance.
"I thought that even if those sisters had already reached Level 6, they probably still wouldn’t be able to stand up to Argana and Bache, and that the fight would be completely one-sided."
"After all, Argana and Bache are not only their teachers, but they’ve also been Level 6 for far longer than those sisters."
"But now this is great—both sides are evenly matched, and those sisters are performing far better than I expected. It may be thanks to magic, but this is war, this is slaughter, so there’s no need for extra excuses or explanations."
"Mm, those sisters really are high quality... I’m starting to regret it a bit. I really shouldn’t have let them leave Telskyura so casually back then."
Kali alternated between delight and mild annoyance, but overall, she was clearly enjoying herself immensely.
Standing beside Kali, Ishtar found this utterly incomprehensible.
"I really don’t know what you’re so happy about when the situation is clearly turning against us."
Unlike Kali’s beaming expression, Ishtar’s face was filled only with coldness and displeasure.
At this moment, not only were Argana and Bache being pushed back by Tiona and Tione, but Phryne, who had been strengthened by Uchide no Kozuchi, had also been slashed by Ais until her armor was covered in cracks and damage, swaying on the verge of collapse, able only to roar in helpless fury as she brought her battle axe down again and again without landing a single hit, each swing easily dodged by Ais, leaving her to degenerate into nothing more than a one-sidedly battered meat shield.
Meanwhile, the berberas who had been surrounding and attacking the other members of the Loki Familia together with Kali Familia’s amazonesses were no different, as the entire battle situation had been completely reversed.
Watching as Ais, Tiona, Tione, and the others got back up on the spot and launched a fierce counteroffensive, Lefiya and the others were overjoyed, their morale surging as they activated the effects of Veil Breath and Raumure as well, no longer scrambling to defend themselves but instead pushing back in return.
With magic support in place, the strength displayed by the Loki Familia was astonishing.
It was true that the amazonesses of Telskyura were powerful and fearless, and that the berberas were likewise not to be underestimated, but did that mean the Loki Familia was weak?
They were Orario’s strongest familia, adventurers who had plunged into the Deep Floors of the Dungeon countless times, ranked first among exploration-type familia, and who fought constantly on the front lines.
Although they usually faced monsters far more often, which meant they were not as practiced in or adapted to chaotic human-versus-human battles as the berberas or Telskyura’s amazonesses, they had encountered innumerable crises and dangers in the deepest floors of the Dungeon and possessed extremely strong adaptability to anomalies, so even if they had been caught off guard at the start and pushed into a disadvantage, once they stabilized the situation, the flow of battle was bound to be overturned.
And so, at this very moment, led by the Level 4 second strings, the Loki Familia had already launched a full-scale counterattack.
In particular, Lefiya, the near-omnipotent mage, had begun to truly display her power from the rear.
Her magic chanting never stopped from start to finish, alternately releasing defensive magic, recovery magic, and offensive magic to support the frontline and middleline, while the crystal and silver small swords of Sword Canon were summoned repeatedly, each unleashing astonishing power and causing the Loki Familia’s advantage to grow ever more obvious, to the point that even the fearless amazonesses of Telskyura had quite a few members who could no longer stand back up.
Such an unfavorable situation had already ruined Ishtar’s mood completely, yet Kali remained unconcerned, still clapping and laughing, which truly irritated Ishtar.
In response, the third god present let out a low chuckle.
"Loki’s children are far more capable than I expected," Thanatos said with a laugh. "No wonder they were the ones who ended Orario’s Dark Age and reduced us Evilus to hunted rats, leaving behind only a few remnants—ah, I really can’t help but admire them."
He spoke like this while laughing, prompting Ishtar to shoot him a sharp glare.
"You still have the mood to laugh?" Ishtar said coldly. "Don’t forget, you’re the one who dragged us into this. If we end up losing, I absolutely won’t let you off."
Ishtar had long since had dealings with these remnants of Evilus.
Even though her servants formed one of Orario’s major familias, controlled the entire Entertainment District, and operated gray industries that others could not touch, she did not actually care what Orario became.
"Everything is for the sake of bringing down that damn vixen..."
Ishtar had murmured these words under the night sky more than once.
Freya, the Goddess of Beauty who stood alongside the Loki Familia as one of Orario’s strongest familias and served as the goddess of one of Orario’s largest familias, was also a Goddess of Beauty like herself, and Ishtar had harbored jealousy and hatred toward her for many years.
As fellow Goddesses of Beauty, Freya surpassed her in status, reputation, and familia strength, even casting her aside and monopolizing the title of the world’s most beautiful, which made Ishtar’s jealousy toward Freya stronger than anyone else’s.
A woman’s jealousy was an irrational, rude, and terrifying thing.
It could make them lose reason and composure, fall into becoming demons, and stir everything into chaos without regard for the consequences.
If a woman’s jealousy was already so frightening, then the jealousy of a goddess went without saying. As omniscient and omnipotent beings, their jealousy could throw fate itself into disarray and repeatedly bring chaos down upon the lower world.
Now, Ishtar was precisely in such a state, willing to cooperate with the remnants of Evilus to bring down Freya.
Relying solely on her own familia’s strength, there was no way she could ever stand against the Freya Familia, which possessed one Level 7, three Level 6, and four Level 5 adventurers, a total of eight First-Class Adventurers, along with as many as one hundred and fifty-seven high-ranking members and non-combatant personnel, plus five thousand civilian followers.
Some said that if the Freya Familia were dissolved and its members scattered to form new forces, the people within that familia alone would be enough to establish twenty familias in Orario that could each be considered a solid backbone.
By contrast, the Ishtar Familia had only a single First-Class Adventurer, and that was Phryne.
From this alone, the gap between the Ishtar Familia and the Freya Familia was obvious.
Consequently, Ishtar did not hesitate to sink into darkness, cooperating with Evilus, providing them with funds, and using vast sums of money to purchase the power they offered in order to increase her familia’s combat strength.
Ishtar had also set her sights on one of the rare world-class forces in the Lower World, targeting Telskyura, and invited the Kali Familia—whose main members, like her own familia, were composed of amazonesses—to come and support her.
"To have a chance to fight the famous Freya Familia... an opportunity like that is rare, so I suppose I’ll agree."
Driven by her thirst for blood and slaughter, Kali accepted Ishtar’s invitation for that very reason and came here.
What this goddess pursued was not battle itself, but mutual killing, since her entertainment, or rather her purpose for descending to the Lower World, was struggle itself. For that sake, she was willing to pay any price to touch darkness and taboos, and in that sense, she truly did resemble Ishtar in some ways.
Hence, the two familias hit it off immediately and embarked on a series of collaborations.
Originally, they should not have appeared here at all, but should instead have been making preparations in secret to bring down the Freya Familia.
However, due to the Loki Familia’s actions, as the Demi Spirit of the 59th Floor was defeated, the underground forces led by Enyo were forced to make arrangements against the impending enemy.
Thanks to this, Ishtar and Kali were both invited here to lend their strength.
Kali had no objections to this, since she very much wanted to watch Tiona and Tione perform a ritual with Argana and Bache, these two pairs of sisters, and thus she cooperated enthusiastically.
Ishtar, however, was different.
Her target was not the Loki Familia, nor was she interested in the underground forces’ goals or the Kali Familia’s bloodthirsty preferences. All she wanted was to defeat the Freya Familia and bring down that detestable Goddess of Beauty.
If her own familia were to be defeated here at the hands of the Loki Familia, thereby affecting the decisive battle against the Freya Familia, she would certainly fly into a rage.
Sensing Ishtar’s fury, Thanatos hurriedly raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Relax, relax. Even though the situation doesn’t look great right now, it’s still far too early to talk about losing."
Thanatos spoke with a friendly smile while pointing at the labyrinth.
"Once they enter this labyrinth, their fate is already sealed."
"Everything here is under our control."
"We still have plenty of methods we haven’t used yet."
"What you’re seeing now is nothing more than an appetizer. If necessary, the descendants of our god-smith will turn this labyrinth into a demon’s nest and send the Loki Familia straight to heaven."
"And besides..."
Thanatos looked at Ishtar and smiled meaningfully.
"Don’t you still have that so-called ’Gugalanna’ on your side?"
Upon hearing this, Ishtar had not yet spoken when Kali spoke first.
"Are you referring to the one locked underground?" Kali narrowed her eyes and laughed. "I saw that as well. It’s incredible. I never imagined something that ferocious still existed in the lower world. Is that what you call an ’unknown’?"
"You flatter us, you flatter us," Thanatos said with a grin. "That’s our masterpiece, and also the greatest weapon in our possession. If we truly didn’t need financial support so badly, Enyo never would have agreed to hand it over, right?"
Hearing Thanatos’s words, Ishtar suddenly spoke.
"Release Gugalanna then," Ishtar said decisively. "I want to see its power for myself."
"...Are you sure?" Thanatos fell silent for a moment before speaking. "I mean, that thing really isn’t something you should use casually, y’know?"
"Are you joking with me?" Ishtar sneered. "Do you have any idea how much money I’ve poured into you people? And why do I pour in that much? Not for anything else—just for power. For that sake, you already sold that thing to me. It belongs to me now. And since it’s mine, I’ll use it however I want."
Ishtar had already seen Gugalanna itself, and to be honest, she was very satisfied with it—extremely satisfied.
When she saw Gugalanna, her first thought was that with that thing, the Freya Familia would be nothing to fear at all. In fact, the reason she had come here in the first place was precisely to confirm Gugalanna’s condition and to test its performance before the battle with the Freya Familia.
"All right, all right," Thanatos said, once again raising his hands in surrender. "But which side should we send it to?"
At this moment, the Loki Familia had already split into two groups.
One group was on Riezel’s side, currently engaged in battle against Revis, the Ishtar Familia, the Kali Familia, and other forces, while the other group was on Finn’s side, where they had already encountered the forces dispatched by Evilus and were presently being targeted, with the situation there being far worse than on Riezel’s side.
However, neither side had yet reached the point of defeating the Loki Familia.
Under these circumstances, as long as Gugalanna was dispatched to either side, the situation there would undergo an overwhelming change.
And Ishtar did not hesitate at all.
"Of course, this side."
Pointing at one of the two scenes displayed on the water screen, Ishtar’s cold voice echoed.
"Let’s start killing them there."
Hearing this, Thanatos turned his gaze to the side.
"You heard that? No problem, right, Barca?"
In the direction Thanatos looked, the gloomy man who had been furious not long ago over Riezel destroying the orichalcum door broke his silence.
"Finish it quickly."
Barca, the descendant of the god-smith Daedalus, spoke without expression.
"I still need to continue building this labyrinth. I don’t have time to waste on these uninvited guests."
As he spoke, Barca stepped forward and began operating the pedestal.
On the water screen, the battlefield displayed in one of the scenes immediately underwent a startling change.
===
*Splurt!*
When the wind-wrapped Fool cut across Revis’s body, its astonishing sharpness easily tore through her overly tough hide, sending blood spraying into the air.
*Splurt!* *Splurt!* *Splurt!* *Splurt!*
A gale circled Revis at incredible speed, kicking up shockwaves of wind as it streaked past, causing countless sword lights to fly out and land one by one on her body, carving her apart alive with blades and leaving her continuously slashed and wounded.
"AAAAAAARGHHH—!!!"
Revis could only use her jet-black longsword to block attacks aimed at her vital points, while the rest of her body inevitably took slash after slash, leaving her covered in wounds as she screamed incessantly.
"All right, it’s time to end this."
Riezel, wrapped in wind, calmly made his declaration.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]