Eve of the Expedition

Over the next few days, Leo and Ais lost contact with each other.

No one knew where they went, nor did anyone discover their current location. The two even forgot the tasks Finn had assigned them, and completely failed to return to the Twilight Manor to entertain the outsiders who had come upon hearing the news. This caused concern among the Loki Familia, who discovered their whereabouts.

Finn, who had been stationed at headquarters, clearly guessed what was going on. He pressed his temples with a hint of helplessness and headache, and then gave a brief explanation.

"Alright, let them go. Leave the reception to those who are still at home. Call Anakitty back to oversee it."

With the appearance of this talented and beautiful [Madame Cat], who enjoys immense popularity among the gods and is praised by them, it wouldn't be considered a slight to the guest.

So, the Loki Familia selectively forgot about the two people's existence and continued to push forward with all their affairs. Only from time to time would someone pay attention to the latest news in the city, saying that someone had seen the two fighting fiercely in the Dungeon.

However, this was only the initial news.

After all, it's fine at night; adventurers wouldn't go to the Dungeon at night, and Leo and Ais could fight without restraint without worrying about any consequences. But once it's daytime, if adventurers collectively enter the Dungeon and fight recklessly in a place like the 10th Floor, it will definitely affect others and even cause a huge uproar, spreading unnecessary rumors.

So, early the next morning, Leo and Ais left the 10th Floor of the Dungeon and headed into deeper areas.

After they left, no one ever saw them again.

As if abandoning everything else and no longer caring about the affairs on the ground, the two plunged into the depths of the Dungeon and disappeared without a trace.

No one knows what they went to do. It's as if the two of them simply moved into the Dungeon and never appeared again. They even ate their three meals a day in the Dungeon, being self-sufficient, and didn't even go to Rivira Town on the 18th Floor.

Under these circumstances, Finn and the others had no choice but to let them go, even though they felt helpless.

Who can blame them when these two are their trump cards?

If they can use this time to become stronger, it will be beneficial for the upcoming campaign.

As for those miscellaneous tasks—let them handle them.

Thus, Loki Familia, ignoring the presence of Ais and Leo, continued to methodically organize preparations for the offensive.

Loki has fully communicated with the guild, and the guild has taken this matter very seriously, cooperating with Loki's Spring Familia to begin summoning the major factions in the city.

The Ganesha Familia, Hephaestus Familia, Hermes Familia, and Dian Cecht Familia —all the renowned families in Orario —were summoned, and even the Freya Familia was notified, prompting the Chief God and guild leaders of each family to rush to the guild.

These clans are almost all large urban clans with a faction level of B or higher. They are either powerful, extremely large, or have a significant influence and status in a certain category.

What does it mean to reach a faction rank of B?

To put it another way, even with the protagonist Bell Cranel reaching Lv.5 and Ryu Leon joining the faction at Lv.6 in the original work, the Hestia Familia's faction level only reached B.

While it's true that the Hestia Familia has a small number of members—only a handful at most—and that aside from Bell Cranel and Ryu Leon, the rest are all at low levels, with almost no one reaching Lv.3 or higher, which has been a drag on their progress, the faction level of the Hestia Familia is only B, even with one Lv.5 and one Lv.6 member. This shows that a Familia reaching this level is considered one of the top in the entire city.

Most of the clans that reached the A-level faction level have been recruited. These clans are the true top factions in the city, second only to the three major factions with the S-level strongest clans.

As for the three major clans of faction level S— the Loki Familia, the Freya Familia, and the Ganesha Familia —all three except for the Freya Familia were present.

As the city's military police, the Ganesha Familia naturally couldn't possibly ignore the city's impending Power of Destruction.

The Loki Familia was the organizer; it would be strange if they didn't come.

However, Freya Familia did not attend.

They gave a clear indication----

"The Freya Familia will not participate in this incident; we have more important matters to attend to."

That's how unruly they are.

Compared to the Loki Familia, the Freya Familia, while having a clear status in Orario, has always been quite independent. Not only do they live in a remote corner, but they also often remain on the outermost edge of official management, keeping their distance from the major factions within the city. In short, they are not very sociable.

There was no way around it; the people in this clan were basically all won over by the goddess's charm and were deeply fascinated by her.

In their hearts, the most important thing is the goddess; nothing else matters.

A crisis of urban Power of Destruction?

It's not as serious as the potential cold crisis that might arise from my goddess's sneeze!

Day after day, year after year, they fought each other to the death in their clan's main camp, training themselves and improving their strength, all for the sake of winning a smile from the goddess.

So, while others might care about the Power of Destruction of cities, they don't really care.

Unless their goddess commands it, these brutes in Freya Familia have no interest in becoming saviors.

Meanwhile, the goddess they longed for was currently obsessed with a certain white rabbit, so why would she care about any guild recruitment?

In light of this, the current attitude within Freya Spring Familia is very clear.

The group members are not interested in anything other than the goddess, including urban crises.

The goddess is uninterested in anything other than a certain innocent boy, including urban crises.

As a result, this clan completely ignored the guild's summons, which infuriated the guild.

Finally, Loki spoke up.

"Forget about that idiot goddess. Once she enters this state, she completely ignores everyone else. Unless you want to be her enemy, just let that idiot stay on the ground as the last line of defense."

Loki didn't believe that if the [Six Fairy Rings] were activated and the entire city were Power of Destruction, that Lovesick Goddess would remain unmoved.

After all, this is her territory, the man she cares about is here, and she treats this place as her own backyard where she can do whatever she wants. Even if she doesn't fit in, once she realizes that everything will be reduced to ashes, the other party will have no choice but to take action.

Therefore, on Loki's advice, the guild directly issued a mandatory mission to Freya Familia's headquarters, forcing them to take action if things went wrong, and then ignored them.

Following this, under Finn's direction, representatives from all the major urban factions held a secret meeting.

The talks lasted a full day and were not declared over until late in the evening.

After the meeting, the representatives of the various clans immediately returned to their respective headquarters, gathered their troops, issued orders, and announced the arrangements one by one.

Some sent out scouts to gather intelligence on Daedalus Street, while others hurriedly prepared elixirs, weapons, and equipment. Still others began purchasing various supplies and items on a large scale in the city, bringing the tense atmosphere that had been subtly permeating the city to the forefront.

Some of the citizens who noticed this scene were puzzled, some were surprised, some were confused, and some started to have their own thoughts, but no one knew what had happened.

The guild and all the major clans have reached an agreement not to make this public in order to avoid causing unnecessary panic.

There's no way around it; Orario is too big, and unlike ordinary cities, it serves as the lid of the Dungeon and a frontline fortress. If something happens here, the entire Lower World will suffer. If news of the city's Power of Destruction crisis spreads, not only will the city descend into chaos, but the outside world will also fall into turmoil. Who knows what will happen then?

As for dispersing residents and allowing ordinary people to take refuge before the [Six Fairy Rings] is activated, that is something that cannot be done.

First, it's too late. The ultimate destructive Spell Formula [Six Fairy Rings] will affect not only the city itself, but also the surrounding area. Even if the city's residents want to evacuate, they won't be able to get very far at this point, and they will most likely still suffer.

Secondly, once Orario is destroyed, the entire Lower World will perish along with it. Even if they manage to evacuate, they will only die a little later. When endless monsters rush out from the hole exposed in the sky, the first to suffer will be the residents who have just evacuated from Orario.

After much deliberation, the guild and the various clans decided not to make this public, otherwise not only would the outcome remain unchanged, but it would also cause panic and chaos, which would be detrimental to the city's order and subsequent actions.

Therefore, ordinary citizens and minor clans and forces that were not qualified to participate in such a major event were completely kept in the dark and had no idea what was happening. Only some intelligent people and gods vaguely sensed something, but precisely because they were intelligent, they tacitly chose to keep quiet and simply watched silently without doing anything else.

Of course, the citizens will still feel uneasy. After all, everyone saw the Return Pillar before, and the guild also blocked Daedalus Street and evacuated the residents of Daedalus Street. Anyone who isn't an idiot will realize that something serious is happening.

But that's all the information they can get; they can't obtain any other news.

In short, this was a disturbing and unsettling period.

Everyone sensed the impending storm, but could only wait quietly for things to unfold.

The entire Loki Familia sprang into action, some gathering intelligence, others preparing supplies, some planning operations, and others researching countermeasures, putting the entire Familia into a period of high-speed operation.

Once everything is ready, they will join forces with the major factions in the city to storm the Artificial Labyrinth of Knossos and end the conspiracy of "Enyo" —Dionysus.

That day is drawing ever closer.

In a situation where every second counts, no one can afford to waste time. The campaign must begin as quickly as possible, bringing the day of the decisive battle closer than ever before.

And so, preparations for the Artificial Labyrinth strategy were completed one by one.

When all the Familias involved in the operation relayed the message "Ready to depart at any time" to the Loki Familia, Finn immediately gave instructions.

"The operation will officially begin tomorrow."

This is the eve of the Artificial Labyrinth conquest, and also the eve of the final battle.

It was at this moment that the missing persons finally appeared, albeit belatedly, and returned to the clan's main camp.

Twilight Manor, top floor of the Central Tower.

After returning to their clan's headquarters, the two missing persons did not go to Finn's office to apologize immediately, but came straight here.

"Help us update our stats, Loki."

The two stood in the Divine Room, looking at the Chief God before them, and said these words in unison.

They were filthy, covered in dust and even blood, looking quite disheveled and travel-worn, more like refugees than refugees themselves, leaving Loki speechless.

Especially when he saw that although the two looked disheveled, their eyes were brighter and sharper than ever before, all of Loki's pent-up resentment and complaints vanished, leaving only a heart full of helplessness.

Oh well, they're still my two most beloved kids, so let them be a little willful.

Loki, trying to comfort himself, sat down, took out his golden needles, and said something rather irritating.

Who wants to go first?

Upon hearing this, Ais withdrew.

"Wow?" Loki couldn't help but glance sideways, muttering, "Ais actually managed to resist updating first? That's a miracle!"

You should know that Ais used to be more eager to become stronger than anyone else, and she would never give up her abilities like this, letting others upgrade their stats first.

Unexpectedly, Ais actually gave it up this time.

Loki sensed that something within the girl's heart seemed to have changed.

The person who caused this change was right in front of her.

"Please, Loki."

Leo didn't stand on ceremony and sat down quite naturally, turning his back to Loki and taking off his dirty shirt.

It wasn't that he didn't want to give in, but rather that he felt it was unnecessary to argue with that girl with whom he had a close relationship over such a small matter.

The bond between the two seems to have deepened even more than before.

"----Those two, could they have secretly done something quite amusing behind our backs?"

At that moment, various inappropriate images flashed through Loki's mind, causing her to tighten her grip on the golden needles.

Has my own cabbage been stolen?

Loki's face contorted in shock, and he nearly pricked Leo, who had his back to him, on the forehead with a needle.

Garlic birds, garlic birds, they're all our own little ones----

At worst, we can just urge those two to have a daughter soon.

Ais's daughter will probably be just as cute as her mother, right?