"Heh."
Roy picked up the Daedalus Orb from the hidden compartment, studying the blood-red eye. Looking into it felt like staring into an abyss; it was hard to pull one's gaze away. Of course, it had no effect on an LV.4 powerhouse like him. As a cursed item, its properties were far more aggressive than standard magic items, carrying heavy, hidden side effects.
Roy's lips curled. Finally. The most critical item for conquering the artificial labyrinth was his. Dark Factions... your days are numbered.
While Roy was satisfied with his tactical plunder, Aisha was focused solely on the nature of the "Killing Stone." "What exactly is it?" she demanded coldly.
Haruhime's magic was the Ishtar Familia's greatest, absolute secret. If not for Roy's precise information, Aisha wouldn't have believed a single word he said.
Roy spared her a brief glance. "Simply put, it's a highly specialized, grotesque magic item. Through a specific ritual, it imprisons the soul of a Renard. Once the stone is shattered, each remaining fragment allows others to use that Renard's Level Boost magic."
Aisha's face grew grimmer and more deathly pale with every word.
"My intel says Ishtar is actively searching for a Killing Stone," Roy continued with a casual chuckle. "If you don't want your sister's soul permanently imprisoned and shattered into a thousand pieces, you'd better pay attention to her movements. If you harbor any lingering doubts, go verify it with the Takemikazuchi Familia. They're from the Far East—the exact same homeland as your little fox girl."
With that, Roy turned on his heel and vanished into the night. The deal was done. Aisha still had her uses; she was an invaluable chess piece he had left on the board for a rainy day.
Left alone within the ruined manor, Aisha clenched her fists so hard her manicured nails drew blood. She understood the inner workings of her goddess better than anyone; if Haruhime's level-up magic could be systematically distributed to multiple people simultaneously, Ishtar wouldn't hesitate for a single moment to sacrifice the girl. Ishtar was completely blinded by her monomaniacal obsession with destroying Freya.
"I will go to the Takemikazuchi Familia!" Aisha hissed through the pain, forcing her fractured physical frame to move.
Meanwhile, the Monster Rex Amphisbaena was still continuing its unbridled, catastrophic rampage through the Ishtar territory. The massive, twin-headed dragon was an absolute force of nature, its blue flames painting the night sky in horrific hues of red and azure. Smoke billowed heavily into the atmosphere, visible from every single corner of the city.
The crowd watched the burning apocalypse in silent, paralyzed awe. A Monster Rex hadn't appeared on the surface since the gods descended a millennium ago. The sheer impossibility of the situation made everyone's skin crawl.
The Ishtar Familia tried to fight back, but the vanguard operation was an absolute disaster. Phryne Jamil, the LV.5 captain, was a terrible leader who commanded zero authentic respect among her subordinates, and the actual brain of their operations—Aisha—was lying broken deep within the mansion. The Familia was in absolute chaos, fighting as decentralized individuals rather than a cohesive unit. Despite deploying an LV.5 powerhouse, they were being thoroughly suppressed and thrashed by the dragon.
The summoned puppet could only exist on this plane for a flat duration of one hour. By the time the Guild's reinforcement divisions finally organized and arrived at the scene, Amphisbaena had already vanished into thin air, leaving behind nothing but a smoldering wasteland of ruins.
Sss—!
The next day, Orario was plunged into a dead, graveyard of silence. The Pleasure Quarter had been reduced to a flat wasteland. Gods, adventurers, and common citizens alike were terrified. Was the Dungeon undergoing a catastrophic mutation? Would another terrifying boss crawl out tomorrow?
At the apex of the Babel Facility, an emergency assembly was called.
"Could it potentially be a calculated act of revenge from the Monster Rex itself?" one god asked tentatively. Coincidentally, the Ishtar Familia had actually defeated the newly regenerated Amphisbaena just a few days prior to this raid.
"Shut your damn mouth!" Ishtar screamed, her face twisted in a feral rage. She was absolutely livid.
Another god suggested an alternative hypothesis. "The Dark Factions? Those unhinged terrorists routinely used monsters three years ago during the Dark Period."
Ishtar wanted to explode in pure fury. She was the single most critical financial benefactor funding the Dark Factions! Why would those idiots execute a high-profile attack on their own prime benefactor? Furthermore, she knew the "Berserker" had come specifically for the key to the Knossos labyrinth—the Daedalus Orb. But she was fundamentally incapable of saying that out loud without exposing her own treasonous crimes. She was forced to swallow this bitter humiliation in absolute silence.
She shifted her gaze toward the red-headed goddess slacking off in the corner. "Loki... what exactly do you think about this?"
Loki, who had been lazily watching the drama unfold for her own entertainment, just chuckled smoothly. Her sharp mind could easily tell that Ishtar was systematically withholding a massive amount of critical information. Ishtar claimed she was instantly knocked out by a blurry "shadow" and didn't see anything, and she completely refused to provide a list of what was stolen from her private vaults. Since the victim wasn't cooperating with the investigation, Loki wasn't about to do their work for them.
Few in attendance were actually sad about the devastation. The solitary goddess truly enjoying herself was Freya. After Ishtar had spent months aggressively mocking her over the unmasking of her "Syr" alias, the cosmic tables had turned completely.
Freya, looking impeccably elegant and regal, caught Ishtar's furious glare and offered a small, mocking smile from her seat.
"Freya!" Ishtar hissed through gritted teeth.
Freya remained entirely composed, the absolute picture of divine grace and nobility. "Ishtar, are you quite alright? I heard rumors indicating you suffered physical trauma. I have to say... your children must be so very weak. To think they lack the basic competency required to safeguard their own patron deity."
Veins throbbed violently on Ishtar's forehead.
"Do you require external assistance? As the strongest vanguard Familia in Orario, our faction operates under a formal duty to assist the fragile, weaker ones," Freya said, a gentle smile plastered across her face as her words dripped with passive-aggressive venom.
Hearing Freya's masterclass in veiled mockery and underhanded insults, Ishtar could no longer hold back. She slammed her palm violently onto the conference table, roaring like an enraged lioness on the savanna, "You stinking bitch, don't get too arrogant before me!"
Ishtar rolled up her sleeves, completely ready to start an all-out physical brawl.
"Calm down! Everyone, maintain your composure!"
Seeing the two goddesses of beauty about to scrap was incredibly entertaining for the surrounding gods, but once the situation escalated toward actual physical violence, they were forced to step forward to separate the duo. The grand hall on the thirtieth floor instantly descended into a raucous madhouse.
Upon closer inspection, the many male gods clearly favored Freya. They swarmed around Ishtar to "restrain" her, their opportunistic hands casually sneaking in touches and taking minor, sleazy liberties under the guise of helping.
Hmph~
Freya remained seated in her chair, her long, snowy-white legs crossed elegantly. Her posture was relaxed, languid, and radiating an intense allure. She looked down on the commotion like an absolute empress seated upon a supreme throne, completely disdainful of all.
Hermes watched the spectacle, feeling a massive headache coming on. Conflicts between goddesses were always far more terrifying than any brawl engineered between male gods.
Seated quietly by the grand window, Goddess Astrea stayed completely out of the messy circus. She sat in serene silence, like a solitary peony blooming apart from the world. Her deep blue eyes gazed into the far distance; her thoughts had already flown a thousand miles away from the Babel Facility.
When exactly... will my child finally return home?
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