Everyone in this world knew that the amazoness race possessed two striking traits.
One was belligerence.
The other was promiscuity.
Even though they were all female, this very fact made them obsessively worship strength. They not only loved intense, blood-pounding combat, but also favored powerful and virile males.
All these traits were carved into their instincts, and aside from a few rare exceptions, the vast majority of amazonesses were exactly like this.
Because of that, amazonesses were basically either battle-loving female warriors or bold, aggressively courting male hunters. Combined with their custom of abducting powerful males, mating with them, and giving birth to strong children, many people saw amazonesses as little different from promiscuous prostitutes—an existence completely opposite to the extremely conservative elves, who avoided exposing even an inch of skin whenever possible.
In this regard, Tione also had such tendencies.
Why was she so infatuated with Finn?
It was precisely because, back when she left Telskyura and arrived in Orario, Tione had been defeated by Finn.
At that time, Tiona and Tione were already Level 3, and they had no familia, which put them in a position where they could join any familia at any time and convert to that familia. For Orario, there was absolutely no reason to let unattached Second Class Adventurers leave once they arrived, and the major familia in Orario thought the same way.
Regardless of strength, when faced with two Level 3s as immediate combat power, no one would refuse to recruit them—especially when these twin sisters were so outstanding in appearance.
Hence, Orario at that time could be described as extremely lively, as countless familia swarmed toward Tiona and Tione, continuously offering various benefits and doing their utmost to extend olive branches to them.
Growing utterly fed up with this, Tiona and Tione proposed a condition for joining a familia: whoever wanted them had to defeat both of them.
And so, after numerous small and medium familias were defeated one after another, the Loki Familia appeared.
In the end, Tiona lost to Gareth, Tione lost to Finn, and the two fulfilled their promise and joined the Loki Familia.
From that moment on, Tione became enamored with Finn.
When a man defeated a woman who took pride in her strength, many amazonesses would become captivated by that powerful male and desire to bear his child, and Tione awakened to this racial instinct.
In other words, Tione fell in love with Finn at first sight.
If even Tione was like this, then as a proper and pure amazoness from Telskyura, even someone as taciturn and emotionally cold as Bache could not avoid developing an interest in a powerful male.
No, not only Bache—even Argana was the same.
In fact, compared to the quiet Bache, Argana, a pure combat fanatic, cared even more about Riezel.
"Hey, Tione, what’s with that powerful guy? Is he also a warrior in your familia?"
Only at this moment did Argana stop launching reckless attacks like before, instead asking with obvious interest.
"...None of your business," Tione said coldly, glaring at Argana as a murderous aura surged from her, naturally having no intention of answering obediently. "Why are you asking something like that? What are you planning?"
"Isn’t it obvious?" Argana said with a matter-of-fact attitude and stuck out her tongue before licking the corner of her mouth, like a snake preparing to swallow its prey. "A powerful male like that should obviously be taken back to our homeland. If he can defeat me, that’d be even better. I’ll mate with him and give birth to strong children."
Hearing this, Tione instantly felt both furious and unable to stop herself from laughing in mockery.
"You think you’re Riezel’s opponent?" Tione mocked with a sneer. "Trash like you can only bully people like us. If you ran into him, you’d learn what real despair feels like."
"Isn’t that exactly why it’s good?" Argana not only felt no anger but instead looked full of anticipation. "I want to give birth to the child of a strong male who can defeat me. Riezel is his name, huh? I’ll remember it!"
"Stop spouting nonsense!"
Tione, feeling her anger rush straight to her head, charged at Argana while gripping her two kukris.
Argana immediately met her with an excited expression, and with that, the two amazonesses once again clashed fiercely.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Tiona seemed to have used her not-so-bright head to understand Bache’s meaning, her face filled with shock.
"So you also want to give birth to Riezel’s child, just like Argana?"
Such a revelation seemed completely unbelievable to Tiona.
Unfortunately, Bache did not explain and merely raised her fists in silence, activated her magic, and once again attached purple magical energy to her limbs.
Seeing this, Tiona felt fighting intent arise for the first time.
"All right then. If you wanna fight, let’s fight!"
Tiona rotated the large double-bladed sword in her hands and declared to Bache,
"I won’t let you lay a hand on my companions!"
Especially Riezel, because he was...
"Riezel belongs to Ais!"
Evidently, the innocent Tiona believed the rumors within the familia and throughout the city, wholeheartedly believing that Riezel and Ais had already become a couple. For this reason, to protect Riezel’s chastity, and even more so to protect Ais’s romance, she decided to fight.
"...Come."
Bache narrowed her eyes and spoke calmly.
"I’m coming, Bache!"
Tiona shouted her declaration and then immediately charged toward Bache, colliding head-on with the amazoness, who threw a purple-powered punch.
===
It was worth noting that Ais and the others had already become separated from Tiona and Tione.
It couldn’t be helped.
Two passages led to that square, spacious area, directly facing each other and extending in opposite directions.
One was the route Riezel and the others had taken, while the other was the passage through which the members of the Ishtar Familia had appeared while pushing the cage that held Haruhime.
When the battlefield turned into a sea of flames, and when Riezel ordered everyone to withdraw to avoid harming his companions, the difference in distance and positioning caused the retreating group to split into two directions.
Tiona and Tione were chased by Argana and Bache into the passage they had originally come from.
Ais, Lefiya, and the others rushed into the passage the Ishtar Familia had used to retreat.
As a result, the two sides were forcibly separated, and with the battlefield between them reduced to a sea of fire, there was no way for them to regroup.
Hence, unaware that her rumor was being viciously distorted (Tiona: Riezel belongs to Ais), Ais could only put on a mask of abandoning personal feelings and, with difficulty, issue an order.
"...We’ll pursue the Ishtar Familia."
Clearly, the Ishtar Familia was connected to the underground forces formed by the remnants of Evilus, Enyo, and Corrupted Spirit-related organizations.
And that fact alone gave the Loki Familia sufficient justification to pursue them.
Now that Revis had been defeated by Riezel, and the Demi Spirit had also been intercepted by him alone, all the opponents Ais herself had intended to face had been taken care of by him.
Since that was the case, as a member of the Loki Familia, she had to carry out the mission of this familia deployment.
"Is that all right, Miss Ais?"
Lefiya asked Ais with visible worry.
"...Trust him."
Ais could only say this clumsily, then led the members of the Loki Familia in pursuit of the Ishtar Familia.
However, this pursuit did not go smoothly, because during the chase, the Telskyura amazonesses who had also retreated into this passage caught up from behind.
Ais immediately led everyone to intercept them, reclaiming the overwhelming advantage.
Without Argana, Bache, Phryne, Haruhime, and the others, the strongest among these amazonesses were only Level 4 at best. Facing Orario’s strongest swordswoman at Level 6, it would have been strange if they were not cut down like vegetables.
Yet at this moment, the Man-Made Dungeon Knossos began to reveal its sinister nature.
One should know that this place was filled with numerous traps, as well as a large number of monsters. While the traps had been set by Barca and other descendants of Daedalus, the monsters had been brought in by the Creatures of the Corrupted Spirit.
As Ais and the others were locked in fierce combat with the Telskyura amazonesses, Barca, who was stationed in the dark hall where the stone-made pedestal stood, finally made his move.
He manipulated the traps within Knossos, causing the floors and walls to split apart as countless brightly colored monsters poured out.
Among them were Violas, Virgas, and also a new type of monster resembling spiders known as Valg, which had six long legs, stood only up to a human’s waist in height, and had a red crystal at the center of their bodies that differed from a magic stone.
Compared to other types of brightly colored monsters, Valgs were clearly small in size.
However, the problem was their sheer numbers.
Like ants or locusts, they appeared in dense swarms, instantly crawling over the floors and walls of the entire passage to the point that even the ceiling was covered. Together with the Violas and the Virgas, they launched a pincer attack on Ais and the others.
Faced with these small monsters that kept lunging at them from all directions, Ais and her group were thrown into momentary disarray.
The ones that suddenly dropped down from the ceiling were especially difficult to strike, forcing Ais and the others to remain constantly alert, fully focused, and unable to neglect defense from any direction.
Yet no matter how many of the brightly colored monsters they killed, they could not wipe them out.
They continued to crawl endlessly from the fractured floors and walls, and no matter how many Ais and the others slaughtered, their numbers showed no obvious decrease, as though they intended to drown everyone in their numbers and gnaw them to nothing.
To ensure that Ais and her group would be buried here, Barca also lowered the orichalcum door, blocking the passage like a fallen dragon stone.
Needless to say, he intended to trap Ais and the others here until death.
"Lefiya!"
Seeing that the situation was untenable, Ais could only call out Lefiya’s name.
Lefiya immediately understood.
"Mm! I’ll destroy the passage!"
Lefiya, possessing formidable attack power, began chanting magic and activated Sword Canon, releasing crystal short swords and pouring her mind into charging the magic that was about to be unleashed without any restraint.
*BOOM!*
Not long after, a tremendous roar echoed through the passage, and explosive flames surged forth once again, engulfing everything.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]