In another part of the city, close to the Arena, a different kind of madness unfolded.
While elsewhere, fear and panic might have reigned, here, two crazed sisters revelled in their frenzied dance.
"Oh, Hogni and Hedin! This is so much fun!" shrieked the elder twin, Dina, her fair skin marred by fresh cuts, yet her eyes alight with manic glee.
Her younger sister, Vena, with dark skin similarly wounded, echoed her delight.
The Dis sisters, as they were known, pressed their assault against their precious arch nemeses, Hogni and Hedin of the Freya Familia.
"Just a little longer, and we'll hold your cold, lifeless bodies in our loving embrace!" Dina sang, twirling her stiletto daggers—weapons designed to grant a dying knight reprieve—with lethal grace.
Beside her, Vena unleashed all-consuming hellfire, scorching vast swathes of the Arena to ash. Her inferno created an impassable perimeter of death, preventing any other members of the Freya Familia from attempting a rescue.
Hogni and Hedin, battered and bleeding, dodged the searing flames and flashing steel, landing a short distance away.
Hogni was bruised and beaten, his breathing ragged, while Hedin's arm was slick with blood, staining his elegant attire.
The Dis sisters had revealed their true, terrifying power, and the chances of victory for the elves looked perilously slim.
"Not long now, Vena! I'll let you have my power! Now give me yours in return!" Dina's voice was a wicked purr.
"Yes, Dina!" Vena replied, her smile deviously innocent.
They clasped hands, a bond of shared madness and power, as Dina began to chant, her voice rising in a chilling cadence.
"Black mire; red sin. We tear each other with our teeth; the slime that is our bodies mixed!"
It was no mere spell, but a curse of potent, repulsive energy.
"Diaval Stige!"
A sickly crimson light wreathed Dina's fair form, then spread, engulfing Vena too.
This eerie glow caused a grotesque fluctuation in their very being, their stats shifting as if they were literally trading blood and flesh.
"Oh, your magic always tastes so sweet, Dina! It's going to drive me wild!" Vena moaned, her cheeks flushed with unnatural pleasure.
"So is yours, my lovely Vena! Oh, it feels like your baby is in my belly, trying to burst free!" Dina responded, her own cheeks equally flushed.
"Oh my, Dina! How lewd!" Vena giggled.
"Tee-hee-hee! Ah-ha-ha!"
The twins' repulsive conversation earned a look of anger and disgust from Hedin, whose elegant features contorted in revulsion.
Ignoring him, the two sisters licked their lips, as if lapping up the excess power each had received.
Dina's curse, Diaval Stige, had the effect of mixing her basic ability scores with those of whom she touched.
Through it, she could steal half of her target's Strength and Agility.
Yet, no curse came without a downside; Dina was obligated to compensate the target with an equivalent amount of her own Endurance and Magic.
It was a fearsome enchantment, evoking images of a dismal mire, of sinners tearing each other piecemeal, their blood and bodies mixing in a crimson, viscous stream.
"Now we can start the feast!" Dina declared, her eyes gleaming.
In the hands of the Dis sisters, however, the spell's drawback was no drawback at all.
Dina surged to the front lines, wielding her twin stilettos with a speed that would shame any Level 5 adventurer, while Vena seamlessly covered her back with devastating magic spells.
This macabre trading of ability scores only reinforced their respective roles, making them a terrifyingly synchronized unit.
"Their curse seems stronger than when last we fought…" Hogni muttered, panting heavily from the sheer exhaustion of the battle.
"It seems we aren't the only ones who've been training," Hedin agreed, clutching his upper arm where blood now freely seeped through his fingers.
"No doubt those sirens have been preying on their own allies in our absence."
With Dina now singularly focused on melee combat and Vena entirely on magic, their combined power level approached that of two Level 6 adventurers.
"Your magic has come undone, fool." Hedin scolded Hogni, his voice strained.
"And you've lost your glasses. You look so lame without them," Hogni retorted, the two bickering even as death loomed.
The elves of the Freya Familia had suffered significant damage.
Hogni's Dáinsleif, the powerful magic he wielded, had finally worn off, leaving him vulnerable, while Hedin's spectacles—had been blasted from his face.
Though Level 5 adventurers themselves, the Dis sisters were on another plane entirely compared to the spirit warriors of Basram; the elven adventurers truly had their work cut out for them.
Due to the humiliation they had suffered at the sisters' hands in a past encounter, both Hedin and Hogni had sworn to kill Dina and Vena personally.
There was no room in their hearts for teamwork.
Besides, they were both prominent members of the Freya Familia, considering themselves mortal foes, eternal rivals for their lady's affection.
In the previous Folkvangr, they had even tried to truly kill each other, making cooperation an almost impossible feat.
"Aw, even now, Hedin and Hogni are being big, mean, grumpy-pants to each other! Isn't it sad, Dina?" Vena giggled, her voice oozing saccharine malice.
"So sad, Vena! If they just put their differences aside, they might be able to catch up with us; at least enough to lick our toes!" Dina chuckled in reply.
Hogni and Hedin knew the girls were taunting them, attempting to chip away at their resolve. But this time, they showed no reaction.
After a short, tense pause, they spoke, their voices low, without turning to look each other in the eye.
"Hogni."
"What?"
"It sounds like Ottar won."
Faintly, carried on the wind from the Central Park, the triumphant cheers of adventurers could be heard.
The Warlord had given everything, and in doing so, had earned the city's praise.
"…I know." Hogni's gaze dropped, his anger and disgust for the twins momentarily eclipsed.
"Everywhere, the fires of life are burning."
The blood of the Einherjar fuelled fierce cries across the city; Heith's healers risked their lives to provide support; Tsubaki's sword, Mia's fists—nothing was being held in reserve.
The city screamed with a desperate desire to repay the many who had laid down their lives.
It would all be for naught if these two prideful, stubborn, infuriating elves could not cast aside their differences now, in this desperate hour.
And so, with one short, shared meeting of their eyes, the elves of light and dark slipped through the shackles of their respective oaths, their individual grudges momentarily forgotten amidst the greater war.
"Hmph!!"
The two grunted in unison, a sound of grim resolve, and sprang forward.
Their paths crossed in a blur of motion.
Hogni, the melee fighter, lunged towards Vena, the mage.
Hedin, the mage, closed the distance with Dina, the close-quarters assassin.
Up until this point, it had always been the other way around: Dina and Hogni, the two melee combatants, and Hedin and Vena, the two mages.
From now on, they would swap targets.
The battle was about to take a dramatic, and perhaps decisive, turn.
But this change in tactics was within range of what the sisters expected them to do.
On the faces of the evil twins, the corners of their mouths crept up, slow and inevitable, like the dreadful opening of a carnivorous plant.
"Silly boys!" Dina and Vena chorused, their voices laced with mocking disdain.
"Did you think you could fell me with magic just because I'm weak to it?"
"Did you think you could humiliate me in close combat just because I'm bad at it? Sorry, boys, but that's not going to happen!"
Dina, wielding her vicious stilettos, flickered into motion; Vena, her magical sword flaring with power, followed suit.
Hedin, the white elf, reached the optimal range for his elemental spell, his eyes wide with shock. Despite the brevity of his chant, the siren's blade, moved faster still, tearing his own weapon from his grasp and sending it spinning away.
Hogni, the dark elf, bounded forward, entering cutting distance, only to be stopped cold.
Vena swung her magic sword, while simultaneously chanting a swift magic circle, unleashing a hailstorm of fire that pushed Hogni back.
"You call that teamwork? How pathetic!"
In close combat, Hedin was helpless.
He was competent with a blade, but he lacked the raw kinetic punch and power.
At longer range, Hogni was strapped for options.
He possessed potent magic, but nothing with the necessary velocity and casting proficiency.
With the curse enhancing their specialties…..Dina's physical prowess and Vena's devastating magic….the twins were able to draw both elven adventurers into custom-made arenas and overwhelm them separately.
The attempt to strike at the girls' perceived weaknesses had failed, and now Hogni and Hedin stood weaponless.
"Diaval Dis!"
The twins had them in check.
Their destructive magic manifested as ten magic circles that appeared overhead, summoning ten pillars of hellfire and trapping Hogni and Hedin in a hurricane of annihilation.
Even their superior elven speed and evasive maneuvers could not protect them fully from the omnidirectional blast waves.
As the smoke cleared, the twins advanced.
"Now you're ours!"
Vena, Hedin, Hogni, and Dina lay on a perfectly straight line, in that exact order.
The two men were completely surrounded.
To the sisters, it was the perfect arrangement.
To Hogni and Hedin, it was the worst.
As they crawled to their feet, Vena began to chant, and Dina rushed forward, stilettos raised.
"In paradise, the heretics face fire; let errors and perversions both be cleansed; and in a thousand tombs those sinners burn! Let the sixth garden open! Let the ninth song howl!"
This was the third and final spell of Vena's Diaval Dis: Incineration.
It was a potent attack that annihilated anything Vena considered heretical within her line of sight, and it was virtually impossible to dodge.
Crucially, it was one of the few spells that would reduce her foes to ash while leaving her sister Dina completely unharmed.
'You're a feisty one, Hedin! But it's too late now; my spells are faster than yours! Why don't the two of you just cry in our arms already?' Vena thought, ecstatic.
The range of the spell easily surpassed twenty meters, meaning no matter how menacingly Hedin scowled, he could not close the distance in time.
Vena wanted nothing more than to burn the white elf who had so clearly been repulsed by her; Dina wanted nothing more than to tear to shreds the dark elf who was so disgusted by her.
They had returned to a formation that guaranteed each sister received the victim she desired. Vena prepared her final magic circle while Dina rushed forward to skewer her chosen love in the heart.
"...?"
But just as the magic circle opened like a devil's eyelid, Vena noticed it.
Hedin was acting strangely.
He stood side-on, blocking the contents of his left hand from view.
'Does he plan to throw a weapon? But wait… he lost his weapon. When did he retrieve it?'
A fraction of a second passed as those questions flew through her mind.
Then, Hedin revealed the answer.
"I never thought this day would come," he said, his voice flat.
In his hand, he held a cursed black sword.
It was not his own, but Hogni's.
At the exact same moment, Dina's eyes went wide as saucers as Hogni pulled out Hedin's lost weapon.
It had all been intentional…..the exchange of blows, the perfect moment when the heroes' weapons were flung from their grip.
It was a mind-numbingly simple bluff, a moment of chaos that allowed Hedin and Hogni to swap their specialties.
"Sip and slurp, you rotten sword. Victim Abyss!"
Hogni's trusty sword, was a terrible curse weapon, able to extend its reach at the cost of the wielder's stamina.
Hedin was never one to hold back.
He allowed the sword to drink deep of his total stamina, pouring every erg of energy into a single thrust.
The resulting blade reached fifty meters in length.
"Gh…" Vena gasped.
The thrust struck like a vacuum wave of invisible energy, instantly piercing Vena's nascent magic circle and then her chest.
Before she even fully registered what had happened, a line of blood ran down her lip.
The moment Vena realized that Hedin's and Hogni's cynical teamwork was responsible for her demise, the spell she was channeling detonated, engulfing her completely.
An Ignis Fatuus.
The inevitable result of catastrophic magical feedback.
Seeing her sister consumed by blossoms of fire, Dina turned and screamed.
"Vena?!"
Hedin's attack had been carried out with perfect and diabolical timing, planned from the very beginning to lure Vena into using her annihilation spell, thereby destroying the caster herself.
"Hediiin!!" the remaining elder sister screeched.
Her anger drove her ever faster onward, intent on striking down the white elf in vengeful fury.
It was then that Hogni entered her path, Hedin's weapon, raised high.
"You're after me, remember?" Hogni said, his eyes devoid of warmth.
Furious, Dina tried to cut him down, but beyond Hogni, she watched as Hedin turned and shot her a chilling, disinterested glance.
He raised the black sword in his hand and began to chant.
'Caelus Hildr'
Dina knew the spell.
It was a low-power, precision-strike magic, which Hedin would be using to avoid hitting Hogni. A spell like that, Dina reasoned, she could easily evade.
She was wrong.
"Valiant Hildr."
There was nothing remotely like restraint in Hedin's response.
"...…" Dina froze for a single moment, unable to speak, before the lightning engulfed her.
Hedin had chosen not a hail of restrained magic missiles, but a single, immense beam of light that devastated all in its path—not just Dina, but Hogni, too.
"Aaaaaaaaaaghhh!!"
Dina screamed.
Amid a world of blinding white, sheer terror overcame her as Hogni approached.
"Grgh?!"
He had not fallen.
Even taking constant, violent damage from Hedin's twisted magic, he lunged for Dina, the borrowed sword drawn for a strike.
Dina could not resist the assault.
Through the curse, she had traded away not only her magic but also her core endurance to her ill-fated sister.
There was nothing she could do.
It was all the cold result of Hedin's plan—a terrible strategy built entirely on the back of Hogni's suffering.
It was a plan that Dina, who loved her sister dearly, could never have conceived.
This was not trust.
This was not faith.
This was not teamwork.
The only word for it was spite.
A strategy birthed from a single vile sentiment the elves both shared..
'If it was this easy to kill him, I'd have done it a long time ago' Hedin thought.
"Roooooaaaaaaaaaggghhh!!"
A guttural roar, issued from the depths of Hogni's belly, drowned out the storm.
He lacked any magical buff to block the pain; he only held Hedin's blade.
There was a flash of steel.
"Ugh…"
Guided by all Hogni's might, the blade cut Dina from shoulder to hip.
She staggered back and collapsed, and Hedin's searing magic finally dispersed, giving way to colorless gray skies.
It was at that moment she saw him.
Hogni, sword poised for a horizontal swing, no flicker of emotion in his eyes.
"Hogni," she breathed, "I…." love you.
Those final words were never spoken, interrupted by the swift, borrowed blade that severed her head.
The siren's severed head flew through the air, a peaceful smile gracing its lips.
Hogni turned his back, refusing to dignify the death of his cursed kin with another moment of his attention.
Instead, the head landed at the feet of Vena, who had escaped death due to her stolen endurance. She picked up Dina's severed head and peered at it.
"D-Dina…?"
The light softly left her own eyes, and soon she tossed the head aside.
"No! No, no, no! It's so dirty! Such a dirty thing can't possibly be her! We're both elves! Beautiful elves!"
After her outburst, Vena laughed.
She continued to laugh as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
"Where are you, sister? Where did you go? Don't leave me!"
A vital part of her destroyed, she broke.
Then again, the Dis sisters had always been broken.
It was only through each other that they ever falteringly clung to sanity.
The tears and laughter overflowed.
Here she was, a deviant who had only ever pursued her own lust for killing.
At last, her eyes fell upon Hedin.
"Ah, there you are, sister!"
Crawling on her front, she arrived at his feet and clung to his leg.
Hedin looked down at her, at this twisted creature who had created a refuge inside her own brain, but he said nothing.
Only his hair fell across his face.
"Break me, sister! Love me, sister! Hurry up and turn our pain and suffering into joy, so I don't have to feel so cold!"
Soon Hedin could bear her pathetic, dirty, rotten, vile, and hopeless behavior no longer, and he snapped at her.
"Shut up, you filth!"
"Eep!"
His hand tightened around her skull, and he hoisted her into the air.
His coral-red eyes burned like fire, causing Vena to squeal.
"It hurts! It hurts, but it feels so good!"
"You abhorrent, accursed, befouled, begrimed, defiled, depraved piece of filth. You are evil incarnate! After all this time, you seek to be absolved of your sins?! I can hardly bear to admit we are the same race! Get out of my sight!"
His anger ignited.
Hedin took his revulsion, and like a fire-breathing dragon, he belched a stream of insults at the hated elf before preparing to remove her from this world entirely.
"Strike forever, indestructible lord of lightning!"
Gazing deeply into the burning hellfire of Hedin's eyes, Vena smiled as bitter tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Hedin. Sister. I love you!"
"Valiant Hildr!"
Lightning erupted.
Once the magical embodiment of Hedin's rage had subsided, there was nothing left of Vena.
But unlike Hogni, Hedin had been forced to bear witness to the elf's last words.
"You make me sick!!" he spat.
...............…
The battle for Orario had reached a breaking point.
"A-Apate… and Alecto, too?!"
In the Arena, cultists of the evilus paled, witnessing the swift, brutal fates of their masters.
The shift in momentum was palpable.
High atop the eastern walls, a field captain watched the city burn.
"S-send in the reinforcements! Take down the strongholds, now!"
Smoke and flames choked the city sky, but what truly worried him were the celebratory shouts of the adventurers below.
The balance of power had irrevocably tipped.
"The adventurers abandoned their posts to sally forth!" he roared, seizing one last, desperate chance to scrape back victory.
"Strike at their weakened defenses, and we shall have victory yet!"
The Central Park and the Arena were lost causes, but the other four strongholds were vulnerable. The simultaneous charge of Noir and other veteran upper-class adventurers…..many of them Level 3 and above…..had been a maverick sacrifice, leaving critical holes in the defensive line. This was precisely why Finn had been so reluctant to send them in the first place.
"All units, descend from the city walls! Chaaarge!!"
The highly skilled troops maintaining the siege were ordered to leave their positions and join the fight below, the commander seeing the war about to reach its decisive end.
However, just as they moved…..
"Guh!"
"Gah!"
They were struck by a frighteningly accurate hail of arrows.
The torrent came not from the streets below, but from their flank…..meaning the assailant was already on the walls with them.
Flabbergasted, the elite evilus troops wheeled around, stunned by the sight: one of the gods themselves leading a charge of bow-wielding followers, each wearing the mark of the moon and bow.
"Shoot them!" she cried.
"A-a goddess?! Gahhh!!"
The goddess moved with terrifying speed; it was only due to the captain's Falna that he could even process her approach.
His focus split between her swiftness and the rain of arrows loosed by her followers, to which the goddess herself seemed to pay no heed.
Then, with godly timing, she leaped upon him, drawing her mythril blade.
Seven swift cuts targeting the seams of the armor beneath his robes, and the follower of darkness crumpled.
He watched with growing despair as the reinforcements….allies from outside the city….streamed over the walls, until a hard blow from one of the goddess's followers knocked him unconscious.
"Lady Artemis! We've captured the eastern walls!"
"Hold them. We must hold this path into the city. Our enemies have spotted us, and we can no longer rely on the element of surprise. Wait here until Lante arrives."
This azure-haired beauty was Artemis, goddess of Chastity.
Answering her captain without looking back, she instead turned her gaze southwest.
Her eyes briefly widened as she spotted someone bathed in a vivid green glow, hovering over a horde of monsters.
However, her attention was immediately pulled back to the walls of the southeast.
Far in the distance, an evilus cultist pointed in her direction and started making a ruckus.
The goddess immediately loosed an arrow.
It sailed through the air and struck the alarm raiser, who promptly exploded.
Artemis frowned.
She hadn't known that would happen.
"It's a relief to finally be here in Orario," her captain said.
"After marching for five days and five nights, I thought we would collapse."
"I apologize for the rapid pace, but we couldn't abandon the people here. If Orario falls, the mortal world is done for."
Artemis continued shooting arrows even while conversing, striking an awe-inspiring form, her wise eyes constantly scanning the besieged city for movement.
This was the Artemis Familia.
A familia without a home, wandering the continent on a perpetual hunt.
Though not officially part of Orario, they were counted among the upper-class adventurers in terms of skill, and the goddess herself was a tough fighter.
They were the proof that Vito and Valletta had been fatally wrong.
Just three days prior, deep in their underground hideout, the two high-ranking masters had scoffed: 'How will the other cities have resources to spare when they're dealing with an unprecedented outbreak of riots all at the same time? Even if one or two cities manage to put down the riots and send someone over, they'll be Level Two at best. Nothing to fear.'
They had decided the continent had better things to do than send aid to Orario.
These brave women proved otherwise, putting Orario's needs above their own.
Though the strongest among them was only Level 2, no hunt was too dangerous with the divine leadership of their goddess at their backs.
"I can appreciate why it was important to liberate all the towns and villages along our path, but shouldn't we be helping other world powers like the Empire?"
"We'll leave that to the Knights Council. Their forces far outclass ours, both in quality and quantity. Plus, they have the Knight of Knights on their side."
"You mean that brat who helped slay the Leviathan…?"
The actions of the Artemis Familia had been swift.
The moment she heard news of the war, Artemis had decided to come here, to Orario, instead of assisting elsewhere.
Having scaled the massive walls with a rope, she beheld for the first time just what had become of the inner city.
"Either a return to the ancient times, or a prelude to Ma…" She trailed off, her expression lost.
'Is this truly the city's destiny?' she pondered.
"…Hmm? Lady Artemis?" the captain called.
"Nothing. Once Lante returns from exterminating the monsters below, we will head clockwise southwest. Rethusa, decide who'll join the hunting party and who'll stay here!"
"Yes, my lady!" Artemis's captain returned a crisp nod.
A spark-filled wind blew over them, but the goddess tried to ignore it, pulling back her bow and resuming her archery.
"Artemis. She came!" muttered Hermes, seeing the azure-haired Goddess and her all-female band conquering the city walls.
As he watched them proceed clockwise, Hermes felt a deep sense of relief, knowing the days of the enemy siege were numbered.
Alone, atop one of the buildings in the casino area, he turned his gaze to the streets below.
"Things are just about settled up here," he murmured.
"Our brave adventurers have given too much to lose now."
It was not a prediction, but a certainty.
The fires of rebellion were lit and already spiraling out of control.
It was only a matter of time before evil succumbed.
"The problem now is the Dungeon…the outcome of Bahamut's battle and whatever is brewing south," Hermes said with a frown, glaring toward the green streak of light moving erratically in that direction.