On this day, Riezel’s figure appeared once again in the Entertainment District.
However, perhaps due to the recent war with the Hestia Familia—and the incident of capturing a member of that familia and bringing them to their familia home, which ultimately led to sanctions from the Guild—the Entertainment District today displayed a markedly different atmosphere compared to usual.
In the district, there were fewer people on the streets, fewer shops were open, and fewer prostitutes had come out to receive customers.
Most notably, the berberas, who typically dressed in revealing attire, were almost nowhere to be seen.
As a result, when Riezel—the one who had once caused chaos in Yuukaku—appeared again in the Entertainment District, the attention he received this time was drastically reduced compared to before.
Riezel, however, paid it no mind.
Just like last time, he walked openly through the streets of the Entertainment District, heading straight toward the home of the Ishtar Familia—the palace known as Belit Babili.
Because the path was unobstructed, Riezel arrived smoothly in front of the palace.
He stopped there, raised his head, and looked toward the very top of the palace, a faint chill surfacing in his gaze.
"You... Liberator?!"
"What are you here for this time?!"
Having reached the home of the Ishtar Familia, Riezel was finally noticed by the guards at the gate.
They were somewhat stunned, a mixture of alarm and anger on their faces, yet without hesitation, they both turned and ran inside, seemingly intending to report the news as quickly as possible.
"Mass Hold Species."
However, before the two gatekeeping members of the Ishtar Familia could run far, a calm chant sounded.
"..."
In the next moment, an invisible restraint descended upon them, freezing them in place and causing expressions of terror to immediately appear on their faces.
Riezel, however, did not even spare them a glance and merely shifted his gaze upward to the sky.
In truth, he had arrived long ago, having come here this morning after finishing breakfast at the dining hall of Twilight Manor, yet he did not act immediately and had instead been waiting for nightfall.
Why?
Because he knew that Ishtar’s vicious plan could only be carried out under the full moon of the night.
He was also waiting for another group to appear, a group that would be the ones to bring an end to the Ishtar Familia tonight, so there was no need for him to act hastily.
Hence, he waited, and that wait lasted until night.
"Tonight really is a beautiful full moon..."
Under the night sky, the full moon hung high above, radiating a soft glow, causing Riezel to unconsciously adjust his breathing and activate Moon Breathing.
Gentle rays of light descended from the sky, draping over Riezel’s body as though drawn to him, lingering around him and rising and falling in sync with his breathing. After such a long period of practice, he had already mastered Breathing Styles to a level approaching perfection.
Even though after reaching Level 8, almost all Breathing Styles had lost their ability to enhance him, and even Sun Breathing could now increase his combat power by less than half a level, gradually becoming just a standard combat method, the functions of Breathing Styles outside of direct combat augmentation had not disappeared.
Maintaining stable breathing not only helped improve endurance and accelerate stamina recovery but also allowed one to instantly enter a focused state, enabling actions such as stopping bleeding, suppressing toxins, rapidly reaching peak condition, and stimulating adrenaline.
Of course, for the current Riezel, there was no longer any need to deliberately perform such actions.
Having already mastered ’Total Concentration - Constant,’ equivalent to using a Breathing Style continuously twenty-four hours a day, Riezel was perpetually in peak condition and did not need to make any conscious adjustments.
Just like now, Riezel merely shifted his breathing naturally, and with precision so refined that even the creator, Kokushibou, would have been astonished, he smoothly employed Moon Breathing.
In this state, Riezel did not need to raise his body temperature to 39 degrees, nor did he need to increase his heart rate to 200 beats per minute—he could awaken the Demon Slayer Mark at will and wield its power.
Naturally, Riezel had no intention of activating the Demon Slayer Mark.
Not only was the cost immense, but the enhancement it provided was also underwhelming, making that slight increase in strength, for the current Riezel, inferior even to the lowest-tier enhancement magic, let alone comparable to cheat-like magic such as Uchide no Kozuchi, which could reliably raise one’s level.
Consequently, even though a certain heat seemed to surge deep within his body, waiting to be awakened, Riezel not only ignored it but forcefully suppressed it.
However...
"Even if I suppress that heat, tonight is destined to be lively... and blazing..."
Murmuring these words, Riezel, at a certain moment, turned his gaze in a particular direction, toward the massive annex within Belit Babili.
Within Belit Babili, aside from the palace where the goddess of the Ishtar Familia and its members resided, there was also a stone-built structure connected behind the palace. Constructed from white stone, its scale rivaled that of the main hall, yet it resembled not a palace, but rather a divine tower from ancient ruins.
In fact, this annex was used to conduct a certain ritual.
Through the Transparent World, Riezel clearly saw a golden-haired renard woman walking with her head lowered, sorrow etched across her face, as though she were an offering about to be sacrificed to the gods. Around her was a group of berberas escorting her along an aerial corridor connecting the palace and the annex.
Their destination was the sky garden atop the annex, a place that stood nearly as high as the upper floors of the palace, above the fortieth level. Several tall towers surrounded it, and the ground was fully paved with stone slabs that appeared to be made from a special kind of ore, as, high above, under the moonlight, they emitted a faint, pale glow.
And at the center of that sky garden, an altar encircled by long stone pillars was absorbing the moonlight, radiating an unusually intense brilliance.
"Hm, so that’s the place..."
Riezel continued murmuring, and after a moment of silence, he suddenly smiled.
"Looks like the first shot of this war... will have to be fired by me."
As he spoke, Riezel extended one hand toward the sky garden of the annex.
Magical energy gathered in his palm, but soon, Riezel stopped his movement, because...
"GOOOOOHHH—!!!"
Accompanied by a ferocious roar unlike a battle cry, a massive black shadow leapt down from above the palace. In an instant, the moonlight was obscured by its enormous body, and its shadow covered Riezel entirely, causing the light above him to dim.
Meanwhile, the shadow on the ground beneath him rapidly expanded, signaling that the enemy was crashing down from directly overhead.
*BOOM!*
A heavy battle axe came crashing down with immense force, generating a sonic boom.
Riezel halted his motion, and with a light tap of his foot, he calmly drifted backward, his expression unchanged.
*BOOOM!*
In the very next second, the black shadow slammed heavily into the ground with the massive battle axe in its hand, shattering the earth upon impact, causing the ground to tremble violently with a thunderous explosion, and causing the flooring to be effortlessly pulverized, breaking into countless fragments that scattered in all directions.
Dust spread outward, forming a storm-like shockwave.
Riezel landed lightly, standing within the fierce, dust-laden wind blowing toward him, his gaze shifting forward toward the shattered crater.
"LIBERATOR—!!!"
Along with this thunderous shout, the true form of the massive shadow finally revealed itself.
It had a giant-like torso, short limbs, and a toad-like face, and although its skin was brown, it did not resemble an amazoness at all, but rather a beast-human female giant.
Yes, she was the only First-Class Adventurer of the Ishtar Familia, the Level 5 Androctonus—Phryne Jamil.
"So you really came to cause trouble again, you bastard!"
Phryne’s roar resembled a monster’s intimidation, as the sheer force of her furious bellow shook not only the air but even caused the ground to tremble slightly.
"Oh, so you expected me to show up?" Riezel said with a calm smile. "Looks like that foolish goddess actually used her brain for once."
When he had deliberately stirred up trouble in the Entertainment District last time and taken Haruhime away, even someone as foolish as Ishtar should have realized by now that Riezel already knew Haruhime possessed the strongest form of magic.
Now that she was preparing to carry out her vicious plan and place Haruhime on the altar, it was only natural for her to guard against Riezel’s return.
However...
"Just you alone?"
Riezel glanced around and, upon finding no one else, could not help but feel somewhat surprised.
It was understandable.
"What can you even do on your own?"
Stating a simple fact, Riezel caused veins to bulge on Phryne’s forehead.
"Don’t you dare look down on me!" Phryne roared with a twisted expression. "You’re just a pretty boy raised by that ugly freak Sword Princess! If you can fall for someone like that, what’s so special about a man like you?!"
Hearing this, Riezel lifted his gaze and looked at Phryne, but this single glance was so cold it seemed capable of freezing the air.
"!!!"
A chill shot through Phryne’s heart, forcing her to instinctively take a step back, but upon realizing her own retreat, she immediately grew even more furious.
However, what angered—and even filled her with hatred—was what Riezel said next.
"If Ais is ugly, then what are you?" Riezel said flatly. "Not even human? An orc? Some deformed mutant? Or just some kinda abomination? Don’t tell me... you actually think you’re beautiful? I’m gonna be real, you look like a toad so ugly it makes people wanna throw up."
If Riezel had spoken these words in a deliberately mocking tone, Phryne might have assumed he was jealous of her beauty, because she was that confident, convinced she was the most beautiful being, just like her goddess, to the point of self-hypnosis.
No, compared to Ishtar, Phryne was the rarer kind of aberration.
At the very least, although Ishtar envied Freya and refused to believe she was inferior, she never thought Freya was ugly.
After all, Freya was a Goddess of Beauty of the same standing—how could she possibly be ugly?
Phryne, however, was different, because she genuinely believed everyone else was ugly—including both Goddess of Beauty Freya and Goddess of Beauty Ishtar.
In her eyes, no one was more beautiful than herself.
However, when Riezel spoke those words in such a calm, indifferent, and detached tone, anyone would believe that he truly meant them.
In his eyes, she was ugly.
In his eyes, she was not even human.
"Androctonus means Man-Killer, right? You should be called Sapioctonus instead, like, Intelligence-Killer."
"I mean, human or god, anyone with intelligence would be disgusted to death the second they see your face."
"Luckily, monsters like those orcs in the Dungeon don’t really have intelligence."
"In their eyes, you might actually look beautiful."
"So how about you just roll yourself back into the Dungeon, go mate with those orcs, and stop coming out to scare people and embarrass yourself?"
Riezel, for once, went off with a whole string of brutal insults.
"Watching you walk around with that face, thinking you’re beautiful... I’m honestly worried I’m gonna burst out laughing before I even get to throw up."
*Snap!*
At last, the string in Phryne’s mind called reason snapped.
"LI—BE—RA—TOOOORRR—!!!"
Blinded by rage, Phryne gripped her twin battle axes, shattered the ground beneath her feet, and charged at Riezel. In short, she was a living battering ram, a war chariot of flesh, barreling forward like a tank while carrying overwhelming pressure.
Perhaps due to her extreme fury, Phryne’s speed even surpassed the limits of Level 5—no, at this moment, she was no longer Level 5.
Riezel keenly noticed that faint particles of light were flickering around her body, indicating that she was under the effect of the miracle known as level-boosting brought by Uchide no Kozuchi.
Indeed.
Before coming here, Phryne had already received the power of Uchide no Kozuchi, so now, she was no longer Level 5, but Level 6—just like Riezel’s current state.
However, as Phryne charged in front of Riezel and swung her massive axe down in fury, Riezel’s figure blurred, then he slipped effortlessly past her guard and delivered a powerful kick to her abdomen.
*BANG!*
A shockwave exploded from her stomach, and Phryne’s eyes bulged as her entire body was sent flying.
*Swish!*
Riezel’s figure blurred once more, instantly appearing above the airborne Phryne.
*BANG!*
With a punch that broke the sound barrier, Riezel struck the center of Phryne’s torso.
"GAHHH—!"
Phryne let out a strange cry, like a frog being crushed, as she was blasted toward the ground, smashing through the floor and embedding herself in it.
Riezel landed atop her body, stepping on her as he looked down from above and spoke lightly.
"Y’know, even among Level 6, there’s still a difference."
"I’ve fought a Level 7 before. And you—a half-baked Level 6 who only got there through level-boosting magic—really think you can threaten me?"
"You might be ugly, but damn, your imagination’s kinda impressive."
Ugly as she was, Phryne’s fantasies were truly grand.
Riezel’s words instantly shattered what little self-esteem Phryne had left, but unfortunately, she could no longer muster any anger.
"Firebolt."
A magic chant rang out mercilessly from above, followed by a thick bolt of flaming lightning crashing down.
*BOOOM!*
An explosive blaze erupted before Belit Babili—and this became the signal flare marking the start of war.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]