Yama was hiding in the corner, shivering!
What was the situation?
Watching his precious monster suppressing the Infant Dragon, suddenly a group of adventurers popped out and joined the battle? And by the looks of it, every single one of them seemed terribly strong!
Yama even spotted Tiona and Alicia at a glance—two Level 2 adventurers of the Loki Familia. They were quite famous in the city, so of course he recognized them! So... what were they doing here?!
More importantly, that black-haired boy wrapped in a pitch-black cloak beside the women gave him an inexplicably terrifying feeling. For some reason, Yama almost instinctively did not want to be discovered by him.
Fortunately.
For a Tamer, battle was originally about hiding first, waiting for one's tamed monster to defeat the opponent, or be defeated by them. In this way, winning was a huge profit, and losing wasn't a loss either; at worst, one could just run away. As long as one was still alive, there would always be a time to tame powerful monsters again!
This was Yama's rule of life!
With the sound of a scorching explosion coming from the distance, followed by the rolling heat waves and earth-shattering tremors, Yama couldn't help but wonder: what happened this time?!
Immediately following was the sound of the monster wailing as it died.
[It's over.]
The Cat Person youth, knowing at this moment that he could no longer tame that Infant Dragon, also sensed that the steel Orc parasitized by the [Jewel Fetus] had been simultaneously annihilated. He shrank into the pitch-black, filthy corner, muttering phrases like "I'll remember this...", "Just you wait!", and "We'll see!!", while making a ferocious face, thinking about how to ambush these guys next time.
They were just the second-string troops of the Loki Familia, that's all. He had even killed those women of the Astrea Familia himself, so what were they...
And then!
"Oh?"
As a voice came from above, Yama raised his head, his gaze colliding squarely with the boy's indifferent brownish-gray eyes.
[I've been recognized!]
A chill surged from the depths of Yama's heart, as if his fur had exploded on end. Although he didn't even know who the boy before him was, almost instinctively, before the Cat Person youth was knocked unconscious, three large words surfaced in his mind...
[I'm done for.]
Isagi never expected he would catch Ryuu-senpai's enemy here.
Yama. An executive of the Rudra Familia, the instigator of the [Astrea Familia] annihilation event one year ago. The Guild possessed intelligence on the Dark Familia executives, and the portrait among them was simply lifelike. What a truly unexpected delight!
Of course, this was also thanks to Lefiya's "cheat"; otherwise, in this city full of ruins, finding a guy who was hiding really wouldn't be a simple task.
"Let's retreat."
Carrying the Cat Person youth who had already been knocked unconscious, Isagi decided to return to the city first. After cleaning up the drops from the two BOSSes, they didn't even go to the 7th Floor to find the "Giant Chest" to enhance equipment.
The group quickly passed through the city, leaving via the North Gate originally occupied by the Infant Dragon. Walking over the bridge covered in scorched corpses, they arrived at the elevator inside the outer tunnel. The Old Goblin's efficiency was quite high; he had already finished the repairs.
Isagi seriously suspected that the "shortcut" which had been bombed into collapse was repaired the very moment his group arrived at the [Kingdom Core].
Returning to the [Management Layer], they met Akshi again.
"Ah, adventurers, you've returned!"
"I heard that many compatriots are still trapped within the city. I want to help them hide here in the safe [Management Layer], so could I request you to defeat that Infant Dragon? It guards that place, preventing the compatriots in the city from leaving..."
"It is a [Remnant Miracle]. Although it was killed once by the King and the King's strongest knight, its strength still cannot be underestimated."
"The King once left only its head as a trophy, hanging it on the city gate. But for some reason, its body slowly regenerated, and it eventually became a monster like that. Please be careful; even if its strength is far less than before, it was still the head of the Three Great Miracles..."
"It's already been taken care of."
"Eh?"
"I said, it's been killed," Isagi said softly, watching Akshi reveal an expression of disbelief.
"That... that is truly wonderful! I will go down immediately to bring the compatriots back! Praise you, great adventurers!! The Kingdom will not forget your help!!"
Isagi simply waved his hand at this.
Pal and the Old Goblin were nowhere to be seen. The former was fine, but where had the latter gone? Akshi only said that after repairing the elevator, the other party also went to the [Kingdom Core], saying he was looking for something. Did that bug-eating old fellow really have a follow-up quest?
Thinking this, Isagi bid farewell to Akshi, then led the girls to continue taking the elevator, heading upward.
This time, accompanied by the sound of churning iron chains from the top, the elevator slowly left the pitch-black pit. It continued upward amidst the castle ruins, making it feel like some kind of sightseeing elevator.
The pitch-black town remained as it was. The [Circular Colosseum] in the distance was also still noisy, but looking from afar, the audience seats that were previously full every time seemed to be missing a few people.
Hmm?
...
The night stars were bright.
After receiving the letter sent by the Hermes Familia, the Elf girl, who was originally conducting an investigation in the port city of Melen, ran back to the farmhouse outside the city in one breath, at the fastest speed of her life.
Ryuu gasped for breath and violently pushed the door open. Then, she saw Isagi sitting by the table, and the Cat Person youth tied up and thrown in the corner of the room.
"Yama!!!"
Intense killing intent made the girl's beautiful face become ferocious.
[Only this guy absolutely cannot be forgiven!!]
For months, this was the second time the boy had seen such an expression on his Familia senior's face. It seemed as if every nerve was pulled tight. The hatred and rage flowing from those azure eyes were terrifying just to look at.
But, Isagi still stopped her. Fortunately, he had leveled up; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to do this even with all his might—Ryuu-senpai was still too strong for the current him. The "hierarchy of levels" among adventurers really was strict.
Ugh... It hurt. He collided with the Elf girl who charged straight over, and subsequently, they rolled onto the floor just like that. Isagi tried his best to firmly grab this fellow's hands. Otherwise, in the next second, the neck of the Cat Person youth, who had already fainted, would be slit directly.
"Let me go! Let me go!!"
"Isagi! Let me kill him... Sob... Let me kill him!!"
"Sob... Please... Alise... Kaguya... Lyra, Neze... Astrea... Sob..."
The Elf girl struggled.
Isagi knew that Senpai still had a shred of reason left; otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to stop her. So, as Ryuu cried and wailed, gradually curling up and sobbing, Isagi slowly released her. He gently stroked his Familia senior's thick and messy blonde hair, comforting her softly.
"Calm down, Ryuu-senpai. If you kill him, the Rudra Familia will just have new executives. The vengeance we need to exact is not just this."
"..."
As the Elf girl slowly relaxed, Isagi told her the sequence of events—although he himself didn't know why Yama had run into the Goblin Kingdom. Perhaps this was a meeting of fate.
Ryuu just felt it was incredible. The enemy she hadn't found after chasing for a year; even with her investigation in the port city these past days, she had no leads. What were the man-eating flower monsters that attacked her and the boy before? Why did they exist? What was their connection to the Dark Familia? None of these questions had been answered.
But in the end, just like that, suddenly, the enemy appeared right before her eyes. Was this real? Ryuu even childishly thought, could I be dreaming?
Watching his Familia senior shyly and blushing as she slowly drilled out of his embrace, Ryuu, who had finally recovered from her rage, realized how embarrassing her "wrestling" with the boy just now had been.
Isagi took out two jars of [Divine Wine] from his cloak. One was Soma's. The other was the kind that could hypnotize gods—during this period, whenever he had nothing to do, he would go to the poor goddess to steal a little hypnotic divine wine. Not much, to avoid being discovered, but this stuff was indeed useful to keep.
Isagi first woke Yama up, then poured a whole jar of Soma's Divine Wine into his stomach. Subsequently, the intelligence regarding the Rudra Familia was spilled out by him all at once.
Ryuu simply couldn't believe it.
During the year of her vengeance, they were actually still conducting human trafficking and monster smuggling activities in Orario—this was the Rudra Familia's main source of income. Especially monster smuggling. Perhaps because aside from being the God of "Violence and Evil," Rudra also held the title of "Beast Lord." Most of his Familia members possessed the "Tamer" talent.
Moreover, Yama had actually encountered the Elf girl on the street, but Ryuu hadn't recognized him. Isagi found it absurd, and the Familia senior on the side had an incredibly colorful expression on her face when she heard the Cat Person youth say this personally.
However, what was somewhat surprising was that the Rudra Familia was not the core of the Dark Familias remaining in the city today—or rather, they had been excluded.
This guy knew some important intelligence on the Dark Familias. For example, their main remnants were now hiding in the "Dungeon"; the Dungeon indeed had other entrances and exits connected to the city; there was a "Powerful Evil Existence" in the depths of the Dungeon; including the mastermind behind the previous [Nightmare of Floor 27], Olivas, known as the [White Hair Ghost], who cooperated with them to deliberately kill the relatives of foreign adventurers in the Dungeon. Then they would conduct "missionary work," making them believers of the Death God, and so on.
But he knew absolutely nothing about the most important pieces of intelligence: Where the Death God was hiding; what exactly "That Existence" in the depths of the Dungeon was; who brewed the hypnotic divine wine; and what the remnants of the Dark Familia were actually planning.
Rudra didn't know either, because they had been excluded from the plan entirely.
"The Rudra Familia were pawns from the start."
Isagi figured it out quickly. Ryuu-senpai's vengeance was well-known in the city, and the Dark Familia remnants naturally knew it too. Therefore, [Gale]'s vengeance would definitely end with the destruction of the Rudra Familia. From the beginning, the Rudra Familia were discardable pieces. Only this guy, Yama, didn't understand at all, even thinking Ryuu would never find them.
In fact, Isagi even guessed that if Senpai's vengeance continued, the Dark Familia remnants might even actively help her find the Rudra Familia and complete her revenge. In this way, the "darkness" on the surface of Orario would disappear. The city would enter a period of peace. They could then hide even better and continue to execute their unspeakable plans.
After listening to Isagi's analysis, Ryuu revealed an even more disbelief-filled expression. Because putting it that way, didn't she feel like she was being used by the Dark Familia?
"Let's ignore those for now, one step at a time."
Now that they had caught the Rudra Familia, vengeance came first. As for the remaining guys, the Loki Familia had started investigating too; there would be results sooner or later. Take revenge where revenge is due!
So, the next thing to do was simple, which was to make Rudra... no, to make everyone in the Rudra Familia enter the Dungeon...
The "Secret Base" of the Rudra Familia was located on the Old Street of Orario's 7th District. This was the city's old town. Many Familia bases were located here, and because it was adjacent to the Adventurer's Street, there were not only various strange shops but also quite a few ancient buildings from long ago.
Yama staggered under the night sky, returning to the outside of an old church.
This was a church of a god who "did not exist" and was worshipped by people of the ancient era. The surroundings were also similar buildings, including the "Saint Flander Elf Hall" which was quite famous in the city. It was an ancient ruin as famous as the Adventurer's Cemetery, recording the Heroic Tale of "Flander of Water and Light." It was a temple sacrificing to the Elf beloved by Flander, and also the evidence of Flander's sin. Legend had it that the long river passing through the city and the great lake to the southwest were both formed by the Elf's tears.
The stone church occupied by the Rudra Familia looked no different from an uninhabited ruin from the outside.
Yama pushed the door and entered. Seeing the Cat Person youth return, the Familia companions who had been taken to the Dungeon earlier and returned early—now sitting among the pews where believers originally prayed for divine blessings, drinking wine, eating meat, and making noise—began to complain to him with some dissatisfaction. After all, they had lost quite a few tamed monsters in the Dungeon just now, yet this guy Yama had just walked away, going who knows where.
"Shut up!"
The Cat Person youth paid no attention to these guys. He simply continued forward and saw the red-haired god drinking fine wine, sitting high up on the beams of the temple. Rudra's appearance was that of a tall, robust, and handsome man, with dark, wheat-colored skin like the Amazon race, wearing gold earrings and a necklace resembling prayer beads. He always lowered his eyes slightly, carrying a smile as he looked down upon all existence before him with contempt.
"What is it, Yama?"
"Lord Rudra, God Thanatos sent a message hoping all members of our Familia go to the Dungeon to regroup with them."
___
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