Rescue. Part 2

At the same time, as numerous people ran around the Labyrinth city in a frenzy, somewhere on the upper floors of the Dungeon, in the Hera Familia's secret hot springs spot, many beautiful and curvy women relaxed after yet another deep floors expedition.

A 187 cm tall and well-endowed young-looking woman with a silky purple hair and hazel eyes relaxed her whole body after one of the longest expeditions the familia had under her leadership.

However, her bliss was short-lived as a certain elf now sitting in the water nearby thought it was a good idea to bother her.

"Captain… can we maybe go back already?" Eris, a Level 7 Vice-Captain of the Hera Familia, said to her captain while hugging and caressing her own, much more modest, breasts in the water, not even looking her captain in the eyes. "I have a premonition that something bad will happen."

"Eris, can you tell me again, who is the captain here?" Eileithyia asked her in a polite tone.

"It's you."

"That's right," Eileithyia replied with a tired smile, her eyes closed.

After that, she took a deep breath and stretched her whole body in the water to raise her alluring chest entirely above the water level. This was clearly an aggressive move by her since her massive right breast even briefly touched and pushed the petite elf's face.

"Then… Why are you bothering me with nonsense like this? Do you not see that I am tired and currently engaging in my daily water rejuvenation session?"

"I-I'm sorry, captain," she meekly replied, slowly submerging herself in the water up to her nose, only to swim away from her captain closer to the other executives' place.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Hey, Eris. Don't be mad at the capt'n. Better come here… we are choosing what outfits we will get for this upcoming "Halloween" thing," a half-dwarf executive said with an uplifting attitude. "It said that the festival's main theme would be "vampires" and everyone must put on some monster costumes. We should have a full day to buy the costumes when we return to the surface."

"...V-vampires?" someone stammered.

"Yes! But, I will be a devil queen," a weretigress executive just declared.

"I will be a fallen angel," a renard blissfully added, already imagining herself with perfect white wings and a white dress….

"Huh.. looks like I will be the only one wearing a vampire costume…" a half-dwarf indignantly said after seeing that no one planned on sticking to the event's central theme.

To this, the vice-captain only rolled her eyes at the antics of her companions, who, despite being one of the most accomplished adventurers in the world, still kept their childish and playful sides alive. Well, everyone except the captain….

***

"—AAAAAGGHHHHH!"

An agonizing scream, as if someone was having their flesh cut off piece by piece, was heard on the floor where the Gin was currently walking.

Now it wasn't a muffled scream somewhere in the background - it was a real person who was having their blood slowly leaking out of their body, another innocent child soon to be dead in the hands of the inhumane individuals.

Upon hearing the sound, Gin immediately heightened his senses and decided to go straight to the room where the cultists currently performed their inhumane rituals.

He knew that he could be likely outnumbered and killed himself… but the chance that it could be Alfia suffering at that very moment was enough to give him all the motivation needed.

While approaching the room, Gin even felt like the time had started slowing down.

He started to hear the loud beating of his own heart.

Even the screams became low and prolonged.

When he finally stood in front of the door that was ajar, there was no hesitation in his movements.

Whatever skills he obtained in the last two weeks would be everything he could rely on in his next battle.

***

A big iron door in the room was thrown open.

"—Who?!" was the only word that the real monsters wearing the human skin were able to say before the two of them were able to react and had their heads disconnected from their body.

A small child-like shadow rushed to the opposite corner of the room while harvesting the lives of the perpetrators inside.

Another jump and another swing - this time deflected by a ceremonial dagger in the hands of the leader of the group.

"You dare to interrupt the holy ceremony?!" a gruff voice full of self-righteousness and enmity cried while assessing the unexpected situation.

However, the biggest issue for the leader was not that the intruder was undoubtedly as fast as he was but that the others in the room were just five disarmed Level 1s without much combat experience at all.

Precisely because he noticed that, in just two more quick jumps, the child cut off another two men - this time, by slicing them in two around their waists.

Clang! Clang!

A dagger met the sword mid-air, sparkles visible to the naked eye.

Clang!

Another intense collision, the dagger now being deflected to the side. A short scream of pain indicated how hard it was to take the hit of the kid… making it the perfect opening for the child to finish the last person other than the leader.

"—Agggghhh!" another man, now nailed to the wall through his heart, tried to scream.

"You are going to pay for this, heretic!"

Sword and dagger violently collided for a minute, and then another one.

At the beginning of the battle, they even seemed to be on par with each other….

However, even with a bit of training, a low Level 1 was able to overpower the last enemy standing in the room - the legacy of a woman who was said to know all 8,000 schools of swordsmanship, showing itself clear as day.

Instinctive, honed in thousands of battles, ability to parry, deflect, and attack at the right place and at the most appropriate time, an ability to push the small body of the child to the maximum of its available potential made the mid Level 1 Evilus member unable to do anything but slowly step back with every attack while gnashing his teeth in anger.

That was until he felt the brick wall behind him.

The slightest moment of hesitation was enough to decide the winner and loser of this deadly impromptu competition.

"Yo—!" however, the man wasn't even able to finish the phrase because the sword of a small child pierced his skull right from under his chin, crimson liquid now spilling on the ground from the blade.

A dagger fell on the ground with a heavy sound echoing throughout the room, the smell of blood now even stronger than before.

Not even a few seconds later, after visually confirming that all six souls had finally left this world, Gin approached a naked girl tied to the cross and breathed a small sigh of relief.

Her eyes were still intact.

Swish!

A wooden cross now cut at its foundation started falling on the ground, only to be caught in the hands of a kid, before being carefully put in such a way that the girl's face faced the ceiling of the god's forgotten room.

"Kaido," Gin said before starting to pour his mind power into the healing spell, mending the cuts on her wrists.

After a silent minute, an unknown red-haired girl was now healed and free of all restraints. However, that didn't help her psychological state, as she still hasn't said a single word, only looking at Gin with almost the same primal fear as the men who tortured her before.

"If you want to go home," Gin firmly said to her. "Do what I say."

"H-H-Home?" she only said, her voice soft and tremulous.

"Yes, if you do what I say, you will come back home."

"*Sob* Y-Yes," she only replied with tears forming at the corners of her beautiful, tropical-green eyes that showed an absolute submission.

'This is the closest room to the staircase… and now I have to think what to do with this girl… I need to find Alfia… I can't waste my remaining mind power on healing children like this…' Gin thought in his heart before making a hard choice…

'Should I bother saving these children at all? Helping them would only decrease Alfia's chances of survival… Or maybe I should bring all of them to one location…?'

However, soon a realization struck the silver-haired kid.

If he encountered a child, they would either be dead if the ritual was completed or still alive if it wasn't. So he can save time by just killing the cultists on the floor.

The situation where he had to save someone mid-ritual was realistically unlikely to happen.

Once he would kill all the enemies in the underground base and find Alfia, he would start leading the children out. Unfortunately, his pointless compassion didn't allow him to leave these children behind unless the situation was extremely unfavorable…

"Stay in this room and be quiet! I promise I will come back to you," he looked into the girl's eyes and said with an immense amount of resolution. "Got it?"

A scared red-haired girl only nodded.

With a sword in his right hand, Gin left the room with six corpses, only to start finding many children tied to the crosses still alive on the entire floor - the only issue being that Alfia was not among them.

However, what Gin didn't know was that the moment he killed the first cultist at the base, he had already triggered a big chain of events…

***

At the same time, an underground base in the Beol Mountains area.

'Adonis,' the man heard a female voice in his head while looking over the "Halloween" Festival preparations plans for the third time.

'Yes, Lady Callisto,' he only obediently replied.

How much he hated that voice… a voice bothering him everywhere he went…

He knew that it all started after he put on that strange glove that Lord Apollo's newfound girlfriend gave him a few weeks ago.

It was said to be a communication device, but Adonis felt like not only was the voice transmitted, but his own will was also greatly weakened. He found it incredibly hard to resist her commands that were voiced right in his head - however, for some reason, that never bothered him to a degree where he would take off the glove.

Whenever he had even the slightest rebellious thoughts, he would almost immediately remember just how much his god was in love with the goddess who gave the glove to him. How can she be a bad person if Lord Apollo loves her? Who was he to take away the happiness of his deity?

Although frequently bewildered by his actions, Adonis followed almost everything that he heard.

Only his strongest habits and deepest desires were the few things the icy voice had seemingly no control over.

"Go to the Port Melen base together with Apollo and Poseidon's men and kill everyone there. I got the information that someone wants to disrupt Apollo's festival and humiliate your deity," a voice commanded.

The mind control of the Nandaka glove was not perfect after all - if she would let Adonis see the process of the blood being collected in real-time or completely drop her act with drugged Apollo, then none of the "strong suggestions" she would make would help her.

"...As you wish, Lady Callisto," a captain of Apollo Familia responded before calling everyone under his control at the base to follow him southward to save the festival….

However, little did he know that the only information that the goddess Callisto got was that she felt the Falna of her newly borrowed and recently converted Evilus members disappearing.

Nonetheless, it was not out of her calculations that something might disrupt her plan, so she was already prepared.

Most importantly, at this point, the Port Melen base should have already started shipping the last batch of the specially prepared children's blood to the third base - a place where she stored her biggest trump card and a place where the actual sacrificial ceremony would start tomorrow morning, a ritual that needed the bodies of strong adventurers…

Now all the preparations have been made - the only thing needed was for Apollo and Poseidon's men to bury whoever dared to come to Port Melen base uninvited and then embrace their new forms during the tomorrow's festival...

"Evacuate the place and move everyone to Daedalus Street base. Collapse all the exits when we leave," she commanded to her most fanatical and strongest Evilus followers.

Not questioning a single word of their mistress, each of them proceeded to collapse all the real and fake exits after their departure, leaving only a single "hidden" map with the directions to where Callisto would want to lead whoever would come to the now-abandoned base.

***

Flashback 2 weeks ago

In a grandiose, pure white marble Greek temple, well-known by everyone in Port Melen as the Temple of Poseidon, home of the Poseidon Familia, sat a god while carefully looking at the letter in his hands.

In that same room, a young man, a messenger of the old friend of Poseidon, stood in front of him.

'Hmmm… Apollo needs my men to help with the upcoming festival? Never heard of this "Halloween," …but I can't just refuse it… besides, Atlas has been feeling down lately because of the rejection of that Hera's vice-captain… Didn't he do everything that I suggested? The fireworks, the flowers, the musicians, the gifts, everything… Even their social status matched - it's not like he confessed to Hera's captain… Everyone even prepared for a War Game just in case the confession would go poorly, but it turned out even worse with the whole slap in the face in public… Perhaps, I should listen to Zeus more, yes… Or maybe come and talk to Aphrodite about this… Her lap pillows are always so warm and soft….'

"Ahem, *cough* Lord Poseidon," an Apollo Familia messenger reminded the sea god of his presence.

"Ohh, yes… Well, I don't have many plans for the next month, so Atlas and others will help you. I have clearly overworked them lately - at least they should have some fun at the festival. Ha-ha!" a deity replied with a smile and some self-blame in his voice.

'Maybe I should listen to that advice of letting children have some fun by themselves… I also haven't visited Telskyura in a long time… I have to win some Amazoness girls from Kali in a card game….'

***

Kali: Achoo! ...Damn, is Poseidon coming back again to steal my girls? He already has dozens of Amazonesses under him - why does he keep bothering me?!

***

On the same day, meeting between Atlas and Adonis.

"Hello, Atlas, or should I now call you the Knight of Knights? How was your road?" an excited voice was heard somewhere on the other side of the room.

"Heh… that stupid title I've got is not worth mentioning. Lord Poseidon is an old friend of Lord Apollo. So it's not a problem to help with some festival preparations. Port Melen is the closest place to Orario, as we all know."

"Yes, you are right," Apollo Familia's captain smiled while walking up to his acquaintance. "It's quite close. Though I am sorry that we're meeting in this place instead of our Familia home - we don't want any leaks since Lord Apollo wants to make a name for himself with the whole event. You know what I mean, right?"

"Sure, sure," Atlas calmly replied before Adonis confidently approached him to shake their hands.

"Don't worry, we've known each other for a long time - we can absolutely make this festival the most memorable one in Orario's history."

Immediately after the last phrase, Atlas's eyes turned full gray for a split second, only to return to normal immediately.

His breath turned irregular, seeming like he saw a real devil standing right before him.

"You are so right, Adonis…! Ehm… What are your orders?"

"Invite all other members who came with you to this room. Make it all seem natural."

"Yes, my Lord," a Knight of Knights obediently responded.

***

"Hi, Adonis! Long time no see! …"

…

...

"...Yup. There just aren't any other familias in the Orario worth peeking at other than Hera! At least you agree with me, Adonis..."

"...Yes, yes. Also, I agree with you not only because our familias are practically the best allies in the whole Orario, but... look, we've known each other for a long time…."

***

"Adonis, what is this "Halloween thing? It better be good because the captain's mood has been very gloomy lately," a boaz executive of Poseidon Familia asked.

"Halloween is a festival that Lord Apollo thought would make everyone happy. There would be a lot of people wearing all types of monster costumes, different competitions, plenty of food... Rest assured, your captain Atlas will be much happier than before… I've also heard about his rejected confession…."

"Really? Man, everyone heard at this point. It's so embarrassing to have our captain rejected - someone even started the rumors that he was rejected because he went to the Pleasure District the day before…" a boaz spoke, finally finding a person who he can freely complain about this issue.

"Don't worry. After this festival would start, everyone would shift their attention. You can rely on me - after all - we've known each other for a long time…."

***

"Hahaha, Adonis. I haven't seen ya' in such a long time. So how have you been doin' lately?" a tall, strong dwarf said after entering the room.

"Everything is the same, to be honest. Now I've got this festival thing - it sure will be a blast. Lord Apollo's name will resound throughout the Orario," he replied while walking up to the dwarf and extending his right hand. "Now that I think about it… we've known each other for a long time, Bolin..."

***

Back in the present time, all the Freya high-level adventurers, including the newly arrived, Bodvar and Sophia, who returned from her adventure of interrogating Soma Familia's members, have been rushing towards the Beol Mountains' area - to the place where the vice-captain of Apollo Familia was to arrive the following day.

With a loud bang, the door to the base instantly shattered - Mia Grand, already in her transformed "Stoneform" state, rushed forward with the support of her fellow familia members.

However, to everyone's surprise, the whole place was empty… suspiciously empty…

"Someone was here not long ago," Mia said at some point. Her experience as an adventurer telling her not to relax.

Not having any other clues other than the current location, it was immediately decided to search every single corner of the place in case whoever left this base accidentally left anything useful.

To their disappointment, nothing was found other than multiple collapsed underground exits.

When they thought they had searched the whole place, a strange map with only two marked locations was found: the base where they were currently at and some site near Port Melen.

"Don't you all think… it is too suspicious… for us to find nothing… but a very… very convenient map… right in this forgotten place… ha-ha…." Sophia said in her usual wistful tone.

"The map shows only one other marked location somewhere to the southeast of Port Melen - even if it is a trap, we must go there, considering this whole place was scrubbed clean of all other clues," Amazoness immediately concluded.

"Seeing that they evacuated in such an organized way…," Mia Grand mused while holding her chin - her "Stoneform" transformation already turned off. "They must have been prepared long ago. We should probably expect an ambush there, unlike what we did here."

"Ambush? I bet they don't expect five first-tier adventurers rushing inside, nya. So what are we afraid of, meowhahaha?!" a cat-girl eagerly responded.

"...I think everyone Level 4 and below should either stay here and look for other clues or go back and protect Folkvangr while we rush to the location on the map expecting a head-on fight," Malika said after some calculations in her mind. "We should not underestimate whoever is playing this game with us."

"About right…," Mia responded after some of her own thinking. "...Echidna should stay here looking for clues along with your two cat-men, Love. Then, if you can't find anything in half an hour, return to Folkvangr."

"Meow! Why can't we take my boys, nya."

"No," Mia paused. "Extra Level 4s would only hinder us if there would be an intense battle - you all know that only highest-level familia members really matter in battles to the death. Besides, your abilities frankly do not need any support, Love."

To this, the cat-girl only visibly frowned and sighed heavily before thinking again how incredible it would be if she would be the captain….

"We've already wasted enough time," Malika suddenly interrupted everyone. "Let's go, everyone."

And with those last words, the five strongest adventurers bearing the name of the goddess of Love and Beauty rushed off in the direction marked on the map… right behind the group they would have to confront…

***

In the meantime, Perdix family living quarters, Knossos.

"Dad, can you play with me!" a small child whined.

"Go play with Barca, Dix! Don't bother me right now."

"But, dad… I wanted to play tag with you or mom..."

"Mom's busy too. Why don't you try to read architecture books like Barca?"

"Dad, but I hate it! And I'm not good at it…."

"That won't work, Dix. We - the direct descendants of Daedalus- must all become great architects that will not shame the name of the great ancestor."

'At least we've got good money by retrieving those stone statues from the deep floors… and where did those bastards even obtain such precise locations and excavation instructions - no one would've found those long-forgotten relics buried in the ground if not for those notes….' Icarus Perdix thought while putting his instruments back into the box.

'Great ancestor, life is not easy, but rest assured that we will finish the Great Project….'

***

Author's Note:

Can you guys guess the name of the girl that the Gin has just saved?