CHAPTER 155(Cleanup)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

"Finn... what now?" Riveria asks. Her voice laced in concern, the silence of the battlefield allowing her words to reach the spectating crowds as they watch Yang rocket away from Orario.

"Hmm," he averts his gaze from the blue streak of fire soaring high above to survey the battlefield.

The broken adventurers scattered about were already being tended to by their allies. He breathes a sigh of relief, it seems no lives were lost tonight, at least from his familia. Looking over his shoulder his eyes roam up the massive wall surrounding Orario to see his oldest friend, Gareth, stuck in a hole in the wall, completely knocked out.

"I suppose now we lick our wounds and prepare for when he returns," Finn says. Casting a pity-filled look toward Ais who was being comforted by Lefiya not far away.

"You really think he's coming back?" Allen asks, the man was sitting beside Finn, both still out of energy from using their trump cards.

"Definitely, the evidence is in front of us that he plans to return," Finn says. He reaches up to Riveria who helps him to his feet, although he keeps a hold on her to support himself.

"Evidence?" Allen asks, not sure what part of destroying a guild facility and beating everyone up counted as evidence.

"Yes, us being alive, the fact that he left us breathing is evidence enough," Finn says as he sees Shakti limping over to them.

"You all ok?" She asks as Allen struggles to his feet, using his spear to support himself.

"I'm fine," Allen lies, trying to keep a facade of strength.

"We've been better, what about your people?" Finn asks.

"We've been through worse."

"When?" Riveria asks, not quite sure she's even seen all of Ganesha's executives taken down.

"Uh...never, but now we know better for next time," Shakti says.

"I doubt knowing is gonna change anything, have your people gotten to the cell blocks yet?" Finn asks.

"Almost, the cave-in isn't as bad as we thought. I'm not sure what the guild is gonna do when we finish investigating...whatever they were after in there, plus I need to do a headcount of my adventurers," Shakti says.

"Then we can only wait," Riveria says.

"Then I'm not needed here," Allen says. Seeing his familia members already being given elixirs by their supports.

"What if Thalie and Welf are on the lower floors?" Shakti asks. She wasn't fond of the idea of fighting whatever could be on the same team as Yang.

"They aren't," the man growls out as he walks over to his familia to gather them and return to their mansion.

As Shakti is about to try and stop him Finn speaks up, "he's right, they're gone. When your investigation is done we can discuss where to go from here at the meeting Royman will inevitably call for," he lets out an exhausted sigh.

"Hmm, it should take at most a day or two to double-check everything and report to the guild. And we'll have to launch an official investigation on Hephaestus familia, that won't be pretty," she grimaces at the thought.

"Try to keep this quiet, the last thing we need is the people thinking Hephaestus and Ganesha are at each other's throats. Orario can't afford to lose either of your familias," Riveria says, earning a nod from Shakti.

"Mhm," Finn nods in agreement with both women, "hopefully lady Hephaestus really had nothing to do with this, then at least her familia can stay in Orario, she's vital after all," he says.

"Too bad they attacked the only familia that's literally irreplaceable, the guild can't afford to lose Ganesha's arm. Six hundred adventurers patrolling the city and policing it is worth more than a volatile team like the Trifecta," Riveria says.

"Hmm, I'll start the investigation once my people are healed enough, Tsubaki shouldn't be much of a problem for two or three of us if things go bad...will I be able to count on your familia to step in if things go badly?...assuming they ever return that is," she asks Finn.

"Of course," the man responds with a smile. "Although I'd rather we have our own level seven next time Yang shows up. Hmm," he raises a finger to his chin pondering a dangerous idea.

"You really think Lady Freya knew about this?" Riveria asks.

"Lady Freya?" Shakti hadn't considered this.

"Well," Finn looks up to the top of Babel, "the only person that could possibly stop Yang is up there, they had ample time to get him here and he never came, it's too suspicious...but too obvious, I doubt she was in on this," he concludes.

"Hmm, I'd rather not poke that nest if we don't absolutely have to, dealing with one level seven is one too many for me," Shakti says before looking to the crowd. Seeing her allies dismissing everyone. "I'll contact the guild when our investigation is complete, unless something too big for us happens I'll see you two at the meeting. Thank you for helping us," she gives them a polite bow to which they only nod in response.

As she's walking away Finn calls out to her," one second Shakti," the woman turns around giving him a curious look, "I'm in no shape to be doing anything serious so...can you help us with that problem..." he points up to the wall surrounding the city, to Gareth, still a hundred feet above the ground unconscious and stuck in the wall.

"Wha---when did that happen?" she asks with a look of confusion and horror on her face.

"I blinked and Gareth disappeared," Riveria says.

"Damn...why can't you high-level adventurers be normal?" Shakti gives Finn and Riveria and pleading look.

"You're high level too, level five after all," Riveria points out.

"Mhm..." Shakti takes another thoughtful look at everyone tending to their allies, at the plot of dust where their building was, then back to Gareth stuck in the wall, "then why does it feel like I might as well not have a Falna at all...?"

Sharing the same feeling with Shakti, Finn, and Riveria could only echo the same thoughts as the woman.

---Hephaestus's Apartment...

"Damn it!" Hephaestus throws her message ring across the room. The clink of metal echoes out as it clatters to the floor.

"Hephaestus!" Tsubaki rushes forward and catches the goddess. Her frail thin body was still nowhere near recovered from using the potion days ago, she hadn't left her apartment and barely even got out of bed till now.

"I'm fine," the woman says in a low tone, forcing herself to stand enough to drop down onto her bed. "What the hell were they thinking doing this crap," she mutters softly.

"That's what everyone wants to know, you need to stay here under high security until I finish our report for the guild," Tsubaki says.

"Yeah yeah," Hephaestus dismisses the paperwork, "but why would she go back to that woman, her Falna is still locked so she can't transfer..."

"Revenge, that's what she wants right, it makes sense that she'd go no matter what."

"But I expressly ordered her to stay away, and she pulled them into her scheme too, how selfish," Hephaestus furrows her brows in anger at the thought.

"No matter how it came about, I don't think anyone in the world can force them to do anything they don't want to, so no way in hell they didn't choose this," Tsubaki says. "But to betray their god..." she mutters, a hint of disbelief still on her lips.

"Mhm, extremely problematic, in most cases I could just say this was my doing and get them out of it... but doing that would put my entire familia on the chopping block to be blacklisted, I can't do that to them," Hephaestus says.

"We're fucked, and those idiots stored the message rings in his inventory so we can't call them," Tsubaki walks over and picks up the ring.

"We're in the dark and left to clean up this mess," Hephaestus says, dropping back to lay on her bed, feeling a new kind of exhaustion hitting her.

"Wait," Tsubaki gets a horrifying thought, "is she actually gonna kill Adrestria? That's a mortal sin isn't it, she knows that."

It was common knowledge that killing a god was in fact one of the very few things classified as a true sin, an action that would earn the disdain of the gods and make a mortals' life true hell. When a god dies at the hand of a mortal they can mark that mortal's soul, eventually, they can either return to torment the mortals or ruin their lives from heaven above. This is why when one god wants another dead they always ensure that the enemy is brought before them to be personally executed, to spare their children from the wrath of heaven.

"No, she's not stupid," Hephaestus casts aside the idea. "She likely wants the spear..."

"Spear?" Tsubaki is completely confused.

"Adrestria has a mythic item, the Champion Spear."

"Mythic?" Tsubaki stares at her goddess in disbelief, "that's impossible, weapons with even a faint hint of divinity were banned from the lower world right, right?" she desperately asks.

"Yes, but there was Arcanum in the apples that heaven never detected, other Mythic items exist down here. As long as it doesn't actually try to go back through the barrier to heaven then it won't affect anything. Gods are sneaky little shits when they want to be, and considering she was one of the first to descend, she could have gotten it down here before heaven got a real grip on this world."

This is why Hephaestus couldn't simply make a new divine weapon, that would require her to call Arcanum from the upper realm, breaching the promise they made with heaven. Not even a god could create a divine weapon without Arcanum, therefore Mythic items should be an impossibility in the lower world.

"So she's going to bring back the spear then, why?"

"No," Hephaestus sits up. "She doesn't want to bring it back she probably just wants to take it, then she'll send it back with Yang and Welf," she says with a grim look.

"A-are you saying---" Tsubaki didn't want to even have the horrid thought.

"Thalie doesn't plan on surviving this adventure..."

END CHAPTER---