"Ishtar… let's skip the nonsense and just tell me where Phryne Jamil is."
Judas said, his gaze unflinching as he stared into Ishtar's eyes.
"You…"
Tammuz frowned at the way Judas rudely addressed his goddess.
Seeing this, Ishtar raised her hand to stop him, her smiling expression remaining unchanged.
'Interesting… he doesn't seem to have the innate sense of awe that mortals have towards us deities.'
Every mortal that had been born on the lower world, no matter how powerful they became, carried an inborn sense of reverence or apprehension toward the gods.
Of course, this feeling could be suppressed by strong enough willpower, or it would depend on the relationship a mortal had with a certain god.
But it never disappeared.
A mortal would always view themselves as someone lower than a deity.
Well, except for people like Alfia, who could be considered an anomaly.
But for Judas, who was not originally a resident of this world, the way he looked at Ishtar was no different from how he would look at a random person he met on the street.
"You're looking for Phryne?"
Ishtar said as she smoked her pipe and gracefully descended the stairs, swaying her hips seductively, her eyes locked onto his.
"Why search for a creature that looks like a toad when you have the most beautiful woman in Orario standing right in front of you?"
When she finally arrived in front of him, she slowly raised her hand, touching his face delicately as her eyes glowed with a pink and purple light, activating her divine charm.
'Hehe… you foolish boy. You basically handed yourself to me on a silver platter.'
She thought, a triumphant smirk tugging at her lips.
This was why she had remained so composed.
With her divine charm, she was absolute in her confidence that no mortal man could resist her.
'He's a bit young for my tastes, but this is a miracle dropped right onto my doorstep. Veneratus Est… if I make him mine and claim his strength, my chances of tearing down that bitch Freya will increase greatly.'
She thought as she licked her lips.
In her mind, she was already planning to have Judas fall for her and steal him away from the Loki Familia.
Just as she was thinking about all the bedroom 'activities' she would do to him…
Judas merely stared back with a deadpan expression before casually slapping her hand away.
"Don't even bother. Your charm won't work on me."
He said casually before snapping his fingers.
A magic circle appeared beneath his feet, and a sonar pulse radiated outward.
'I should've just done this from the start.'
Meanwhile, seeing that her charm was ineffective, Ishtar's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
"Huh?"
"M-My charm? It didn't work?"
She muttered in complete shock at this revelation and unconsciously took a step back.
But Judas stopped paying her any attention before looking to the east.
He had just cast his search magic all over the entire district and was able to track down Phryne's location.
He could see that she was inside one of the Ishtar Familia's establishments, in one of their most luxurious rooms inside a pleasure house.
"Gyehehehe."
Phryne let out a wet, raspy chuckle as she downed a bottle of wine.
Her bulky arm was wrapped tightly around a terrified, trembling underaged boy whose face was drained of all color.
"You're a lucky one tonight."
Phryne said with a lewd grin, her thick tongue sliding over her lips as she held a small vial of aphrodisiac.
"This beauty is going to give you so much pleasure you'll think you died and went to heaven."
Judas' face twisted in pure disgust.
"Come here, you sick freak."
He muttered coldly.
He extended his right arm, and a bronze-colored magic circle manifested on the floor beneath him.
Tammuz immediately shifted his stance, placing himself defensively between Judas and Ishtar.
"Huh? What the hell is this?"
Phryne hiccuped, blinking down at the bronze light glowing beneath her feet.
Her drunken stupor vanished instantly as the ground beneath her feet surged upward.
Before she could react, the earth wrapped around her rotund body like a vice, trapping her arms and torso in a dense cocoon of solid rock, leaving only her head exposed.
'Huh?'
Phryne blinked, surprised by this sudden turn of events.
'I am under attack?'
The boy that was in her arms stumbled back, realizing the opportunity, and quickly made his escape.
Seeing this, Phryne's face quickly contorted with rage.
"WHO!?"
The veins in her neck began to bulge as she tried to break free.
With her Level 5 strength, cracks gradually started to form on the earth cocoon.
However, her efforts were in vain when the earth cocoon suddenly turned into crystals, immediately fixing itself.
"What?!"
A violent gravitational pull yanked her upward.
Phryne screamed as she smashed straight through the ceiling, tearing through layers of wood and tile before shooting out into the night sky.
In the next instant, she was hurtling through the air toward Belit Babili at breakneck speeds.
She barely had time to brace herself before she crashed headfirst through the outer masonry of the palace.
A deafening impact echoed through the hall as Judas yanked Phryne from halfway across the district, slamming her through the wall.
When Ishtar and Tammuz saw their captain appear, floating in the air and wrapped up in a cocoon of crystals, their eyes widened in disbelief.
Phryne spat out pieces of the wall that had gotten into her mouth.
"Phryne Jamil… I believe this is our first time seeing each other."
She blinked through the dust to find a pair of sharp purple eyes staring back at her.
"As I expected. You're even uglier in person."
"V-Veneratus Est?"
Phryne stammered, finally recognizing the boy in front of her.
She glanced around the room, finally seeing her goddess and vice-captain, both looking on with equal amounts of disbelief.
'What is happening?'
Before her mind could fully process what was happening...
BOOM!
"Argh!"
She let out a grunt of pain as Judas stomped her face into the ground, creating a large crater.
The hard crystals that wrapped around her body immediately shattered.
She tried to look up, only to see Judas staring a hole right through her from where he was standing, pressing his foot down.
"A bit over an hour ago, did you or did you not harm a civilian, endangering her life in the process?"
Judas asked quietly.
Despite his calm tone, a bone-chilling pressure radiated off him, making the hair on the back of Phryne's neck stand on end.
"W-What are you talking about?"
Phryne cried out, her mind too much in disarray to even remember what she had done earlier in the day.
Judas continued to stare at her impassively.
"You don't remember? Then let me help refresh your memory."
He raised his boot and stomped down onto her head a second time.
BOOM!
Another loud crash resounded, only this time, it was much more powerful than the previous one.
Just from that one stomp alone, the ground shook violently, causing the walls to crack and the chandelier on the ceiling to sway wildly back and forth.
Even at Level 3, Judas possessed maxed-out parameters that allowed his base stats to easily match an ordinary Level 5 without a problem.
In addition to the buff and enhancement spells that he could cast on himself, even without [Penitent Executioner]… the current version of himself could now go toe-to-toe with, and even defeat, a low-grade Level 7.
Not to mention, tonight… the full moon hung over the sky, and Judas could feel that his new skill [Blessing of the Moon] was strengthening him even further.
As a result, when he confronted Phryne, who was only a Level 5, it was no surprise that she was completely powerless.
"I am sorry, did that hurt?"
Judas mocked, staring down at Phryne on the floor.
"Gah… Urgh… Ergh…"
But instead of replying, Phryne could only mumble incoherently.
Blood spilled from Phryne's lips, a few of her teeth had been knocked out, and her giant Dora the Explorer-like head was misshapen and buried into the ground.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, on the verge of passing out entirely.
"This pain you are feeling… it is only a fraction of what Rose had felt."
"You've dug your own grave the moment you laid your hands on her."
Judas continued to press down, exerting more pressure with his foot.
Fwoosh!
Tammuz suddenly sprang up from behind, swinging his sword straight at Judas' exposed neck.
A silver arc flashed through the air, only for Judas to casually catch the tip of the blade between his fingers, stopping it dead in its tracks.
'Impossible!'
Tammuz's pupils trembled as cracks spread all over the sword before it shattered into pieces.
『Air Burst』
Judas glanced sideways at him.
With a single flick of his wrist, an invisible wave of compressed air erupted, throwing Tammuz across the room and embedding him deep into a wall.
"Judas Spade! That is enough!"
Ishtar finally shrieked, her immaculate hair now a disheveled mess.
"Do you truly intend to make an enemy out of the entire Ishtar Familia over some bitch from the Guild?!"
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