Let the hunt begin

A week passed since the funeral. News of the losses suffered by the Loki Familia spread among the people and although no one knew what exactly had happened, everyone assumed that they had encountered problems in the dungeon.

During this week, the members of the Loki Familia recovered both physically and mentally, after all, it was known that time heals all wounds, leaving only memories behind.

In those days they made several explorations in the sewers of Dedalus Street, but the two entrances to Knossos were again closed by orichalcum gates, and from the dungeon they found no clues, causing the mood of the members to lower, except for one person.

"Let today be the lucky day, Let today be the lucky day, Let today be the lucky day!"

'grumbling.'

Inside the vast courtyard of the Familia residence, Mark was performing vertical bends on his fingertips, while above his feet he had placed his sword with the increased weight. This form of training might have been considered obsolete for the strength he had achieved, but Mark's goal was something else.

'grumbling.'

After the events of Knossos, he realized how essential transformation was in cases of crisis, but the cost of finding his body half-paralyzed after use was too dangerous. The problem was that when he combined the aura with his magic circuits, he would overload his body too much because he let too much aura flow. So in the last few days, he concentrated on finding a solution, managing to find a way to perform a partial transformation, which allowed him to maintain that state for longer and with fewer negative effects, at the cost of a considerable reduction in strength and speed.

'grumbling.'

'heavy breathing.'

With his body covered in sweat and his eyes bloodshot, many would think he was exerting himself a lot, and even if it was not entirely false, that was not the reason why he looked so demonic.

'grumbling!'

"I can't take it anymore!"

With the last bend, he fell on his back and his gaze rested on the beautiful blue sky where white clouds floated silently. He looked lazily at the sky as the wind moved the grass on which he was lying and tickled his body.

'I am hungry...'

The events of Knossos had allowed Mark to grow a lot, both in terms of stats and his mastery of the aura, and although the gains were lucrative, the price was not easy. Having used 'golem heart' three times in one day, the corruption had jumped from 0% to 21% and the effects were not like those of the past.

When less than 20%, the corruption removed emotional parts that did not affect Mark too much, such as empathy and fear, redeeming his behavior more coldly and objectively, but this time the price was his sense of taste.

For many, the taste might have seemed a trivial thing, but in the long run, continuing to eat, drink and swallow his saliva became a form of torture.

If Mark had to describe what nothing tasted like, he would say that it tasted so horrible that he could not even describe it in words, which is why at every meal he simply tried to swallow his food without even chewing it, with the sole aim of getting the minimum of nutrients.

"Hmm?"

As he gazed at the sky absent-mindedly, someone approached him, casting a shadow over him, but knowing who it was, he did not even bother to shift his gaze.

"What are you doing?" -The voice belonged to none other than Tiona.

"I try to do photosynthesis... unfortunately, my body is not designed to do something like that." -Sighs Mark.

"Photo-what?" -Tiona said, tilting her head in confusion.

[This world has no concept of photosynthesis].

"...Let's say it is something that plants can do and that I envy in my situation."

Getting up, he dusted off the dirt he had on him.

"What situation?" -She asked curiously.

"Don't you think it would stop being a personal situation if I told you?" -Mark said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Stingy."

Watching out of the corner of his eye as the Amazon kicked the ground sullenly, Mark felt another headache coming on. If hunger was at the top of the list of problems he had to deal with, Tiona was on the next rung.

He did not understand the exact reason for this, but after all the events in Knossos, Tiona started to show even more interest in him, such as visiting him every time he trained.

'But I don't understand, in this last period I have only had simple conversations with her!'

What Mark didn't know, was that his feat of fighting against a veteran adventurer of two levels above and being able to heal curses spread quickly among the members, including Tiona, who only increased her evaluation of him.

Of course, Mark made sure to make her understand indirectly that he was not interested, but for the stubborn Amazon it did not seem to matter and he had serious doubts that if he told her the real reason behind his refusal, she might become a psychopathic person like her sister, something Mark wanted to avoid in the strongest possible way.

'I just hope you don't try to overstep the limit, otherwise, I don't think my words will continue to be kind.'

Without having the slightest idea what was going on in Mark's mind, Tiona was still smiling when she remembered something.

"Right! Did you see what happened last night at the Ishtar Familia?"

"?"

Seeing Mark's confused look, Tiona handed him the paper and after quickly reading the article, his expression could not help but contract.

"I swear, the gods have some serious problems..."

From what he had read, the Freya Familia had razed the entire red-light district by setting it on fire and Freya had sent Ishtar back to Haven. This would both help and worsen the search because while exploring the red light district was no longer a problem, finding clues would become much more complicated.

"It seems that the goddess Ishtar has touched someone in whom the goddess Freya is interested, but I must say that taking down one of the largest and strongest Familia of Orario so quickly is astonishing."

"Finn will probably talk about this today, telling us to explore the area." -Considering that they had had difficulty doing so because of the high guard the Ishtar Familia had, this was the best time to investigate.

"Yeah, he'll definitely say that after lunch."

Nodded Tiona, while Mark's expression turned sour when he saw that it was already lunchtime. If possible, he wanted to avoid meals as long as possible, but his rumbling stomach did not seem to take no for an answer. So he walked as if he were heading towards the gallows with Tiona. Nothing seemed to be able to free him from that fate, or at least it was until he heard the Guide's words.

[Corruption down to 20%].

Those words sounded sweeter than honey to Mark's ears and for the first time after nine days of torture, his mouth could taste again, no longer having to suffer the pain of having his mouth taste like tar.

"Why did you stop?" -Seeing Mark stop suddenly, Tiona couldn't help but ask.

"Tiona, I need a favor!"

"E-EH?!"

Mark clung to Tiona's shoulders as if his life depended on it, while the latter's brain was frying seeing how close he was to her, unable even to maintain eye contact.

"If anyone says anything, tell them today is my day off!"

With the speed with which he said it, he sped away full of energy. If he could taste it again, there was one place he had to go to eat, where he could not leave because of his condition.

"...Huh?"

By the time the poor Tiona recovered from her shock, Mark was gone and with a dejected sigh, she walked alone into the common room. She wanted to have lunch with him, but that day it did not seem possible.

Arriving in front of the doors to the common room she was about to open the doors, but they suddenly opened, but thanks to her reflexes she managed to avoid being hit.

"Be more careful!"

"HAH?!"

The person who opened the doors with a kick was Bete, who glared at Tiona and continued to walk away more upset than usual.

As she entered, she could see a couple of broken tables and her companions who were uncomfortable, especially her sister, who looked ready to burst out in anger from the way the vein on her head was throbbing dangerously.

"Hmm... what happened?"

"You see-"

"He's a huge piece of shit that Bete, that's what happened!"

Before Lefiya could even speak, Tione screamed in anger.

"Bete will spend some time outside to cool his head, but I want all of you to calm down too." -Finn's voice seemed to have the effect of calming the others, especially Tione, who immediately softened.

Seeing that the situation had calmed down, Finn turned towards Tiona.

"Do you know where Mark is? He's the only one missing." -Finn asked her.

"He said today was his day off..." -Tiona said with some hesitation.

"Day off?" -He said wordlessly, but Riveria and others had the same expression, after all, one of Mark's faults was that he hardly ever rested; so the news had caught them off guard.

"Oh well, looks like today is a day to celebrate if that workaholic has finally decided to rest without being forced." -Lifting the cup in her hand, Loki made a toast to the heavens before draining the contents all at once.

"Considering the merits he achieved in Knossos and how he didn't seem to be very well these days, I think it's not a problem if he doesn't participate." -Riveria said, ignoring Loki.

"Agreed. Good, now let's talk about the reason why I am here." -At his words, everyone became more serious.

"As you know, last night the Ishtar Familia was destroyed by the Freya Familia. With no one standing in our way anymore, we can scour the red light district for good... or what's left of it. However, we know for a fact that Ishtar had the key to open the gates of orichalcum, since it was her Familia that transported the monster plants to Melen, and our goal is to find it."

"Don't you think the goddess Freya has already found it?" -Raul asked, raising his hand.

"Very likely, but do we have any other alternatives?" -Loki said with a dry laugh, which no one could deny.

These days there were zero results and this was the only lead available.

"We will split into balanced teams and search the area and considering the size of it, you know it won't be easy, but that's not the main difficulty. We're not the only ones desperately searching for the missing key, Evilus will also do everything he can to get it back so that it doesn't end up in our hands, and considering what our arrogance brought last time, I don't want anyone to let their guard down, alright?" -Finn's tone grew heavy.

"YES CAPIATAN!"(all)

(Evilus Perspective.)

Inside the corridors of Knossos, the god Thanatos walked carefree as usual, while next to him, Valletta was the exact opposite, ready to kill anyone who annoyed her.

"Come on my sweet Valleta, don't tell me you're still angry that I forgot you? You know I often have my head in the clouds." -Said the god with a pandering air.

"Shut the fuck up Thanatos, don't you understand the shitty situation we are in? Tch, that useless goddess had to die and leave the key missing-ARGGHH!"

Amid her hysteria of rage, she clutched her eye covered by a bandage, feeling it throb with pain. It didn't matter if it was day or night, suddenly her eye would start to ache, driving her almost to madness, and the only way she could resist was through the use of potions, but due to her constant use, even those were losing their effectiveness; therefore, all she could do was grit her teeth.

"How unfortunate for me, first I lose many of my members, then my dear daughter returns all battered, and on top of that, one of the keys to our fortress is missing." -Said the melancholic god, only to be looked at coldly by Valletta.

"At least try to hide that you are laughing."

"Oops." -Covering his mouth, which was raised, he continued speaking.

"However, I am serious when I say that I was surprised by Freya's

intervention."

"I don't care about that goddess, I'm not going to let the Loki Family get the better of us. I will turn the whole place upside down to find that key."

"Hmm... you say that, but I can smell death on you. You have something else on your mind don't you?" -The god said, moving his face curiously close to the woman.

"There is someone I must have in my hands with whom I share a precious bond and this is the best opportunity to do so."

As she said this, she slowly moved her hand towards her missing eye and her expression turned into one of complete murderous ecstasy, thinking of the person who crippled her.

'Haaah Mark, you don't know how much I look forward to killing you in the slowest and most painful ways possible. So don't make me wait too long or I really think I'll go crazy.'

Licking her lips, she had to prepare to go hunting for both the key and her prey.