CHAPTER 123(Casino Night; Part 2)

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

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

---Minutes before Yang leaves to get Freya...

"You reconsidered yet? This might be your last chance," Hephaestus says, sitting opposite Thalie in her lounge as both women wait for Welf and Yang to join them for a night at the casino. Thalie was currently double-checking a small water-skin kept on her thigh beneath her dress.

"Nope, don't need em, but they're gonna be helping me either way," Thalie says as she ties her hair into a tight bun with a small, silver pin.

"How?" Hephaestus raises a brow at Thalie's casual demeanor.

"Well, you made the vault for that casino forty years ago, it's essentially unbreachable right?"

"Right," Hephaestus confirms once more. "That's why I'd feel better knowing Yang or Welf are in on the plan."

"Have I ever failed you?"

"Never."

"And my record stays after tonight, all I need you to do is your part, you already got the outfit to Freya, that'll turn heads enough for me to get where I need to be. Yang sucks at math so he'll stay on the second or third floor where simpler games are, he definitely won't be on the first floor because he doesn't like noise or crowds that large, when Freya walks in that's my signal to start and when I give you the signal just give me a distraction, her guard is usually relaxed when Yang is around so just get her tipsy and parade her around for a bit until I'm out," Thalie says, completely relaxed as if it were another day in the office.

"Ok, that's fine but you still didn't tell me how you're opening the vault, it's completely made of Orichalcum so not like you can punch through it, and you definitely can't break the enchantment sealing it..." Hephaestus points out.

"Mhm, you made the vault Hephaestus, if you can't find the flaw but I can...that's on you," Thalie gives her a cocky grin as Yang and Welf enter the room.

---Minutes Later...

Walking down the streets of Orario toward the casino beside Welf and Hephaestus, Thalie decides to put her plan into motion.

"I'll catch up with you guys," she says as they exit Babel, immediately deciding to separate from them to avoid any problems later on.

Taking the scenic route she arrives at the casino minutes after Welf and Hephaestus, ignoring the strange and disgusted looks people cast her way as they see her scarred face.

Entering the casino with no problem, likely due to none of the employees wanted to speak to her much on account of her messed up face, she looks around at the business she's paid more than a few visits to in the past week, all for the sake of preparing for tonight.

Looking around, she saw Hephaestus and Welf playing at one of the crowded tables in the gaming pit on the main floor, the noise from people and games alike was drowning out anything else in the building, perfect. Glancing to her right she saw her target, a security door, one adventurer defending it, level two with a blade openly hanging at the side of his fine formal suit, standard equipment for the hired muscle in this business.

Walking over to that side of the room, she sits at one of the cheaper machines, not somewhere anyone would want to be seen in a high-end place like this, everyone here has a reputation to uphold after all.

Sitting down she drops a hundred Valis coin into the machine and slowly plays it out, ensuring she has her back to the security door but is facing the entrance, waiting for her chance.

The moment Yang and Freya enter the room, all heads turn to the goddess of beauty, taking the chance Thalie immediately gets up, leaving her game with credits still running and saunters over to the security door, noticing the man completely focused on Freya she waits just a few seconds until his instincts nudge him forward. The few steps he takes are common amongst mortals when they first lay eyes on Freya, as if their instincts pulled them toward her.

Quickly circling around the man, she delicately steps around him while swiping his key from his belt. With deft motions she opens the door and steps inside, meeting a short hallway with a sharp corner at the end of it, clean white walls with grey tiles lead her deeper into the building.

As Thalie makes her moves, Hephaestus steps away from Welf for a moment to refresh her drink at the bar as he continues his winning streak.

Walking over to the bar she removes a stack of ten-thousand-Valis coins from her small purse and slides it over to the woman serving drinks, "the gorgeous woman that just went to the upper floors, give her your sweetest and strongest glass of wine please, on me, and keep it flowing...

As Hephaestus was executing her end of the plan, Thalie was walking down the hallway toward the treasury of the casino. Her mental map of the casino is vivid in her head from days of studying, a room filled with lockboxes both large and small as well as the main vault being her goal.

"Mmm-hmmm," she muses to herself while walking down the hallway, her level 5 senses hearing more guards up ahead, putting on a serious face she begins rushing down the hallway.

Attacking the first guard before he can even react, all of the guards being level 2 made this a relaxing stroll for her.

Knocking out the first man, she draws his blade for herself before his body even hits the floor, dividing his skull in two and moving onto the next man before he can even yell 'Intruder!'

Leaving almost a dozen corpses in her wake she slows her pace as she eventually finds a security gate.

"Hmm," she looks down at the reinforced lock on the security gate, adamantite bars, and an enchanted Mythril lock to keep the pathway sealed unless a specific person flows magic into it, only the casino owner or manager would have access, the guards here were useless for this part.

Removing her hairpin, made of Adamantite just for this, she places it under the hinges and easily pops the pins out, kicking the gate out of the doorframe completely while rolling her eyes.

"Fancy lock and a useless door..." she mutters while walking to the last guard, this man had an alarm that he would trigger if anyone got this far, the moment she enters the next room he'll have backup down here in minutes.

Leaning with her back against the wall, the final security door to her side, and the man blissfully unaware on the other side, just before the main treasury.

Leaning down she draws three of the throwing knives from her holster and places them between her knuckles before taking a deep breath. 'One second off and game over,' she reminded herself.

The high-pitched sound of her whistling echoes through the hallways, soon followed by the sound of movement from the last man's shoes on the tile floor.

Turning around and stepping in front of the gate, her knives are thrown as fast as her level five body can, the man immediately loses the fancy 'watch' on his wrist as one of the blades slashes the band on it, the hidden alarm clatters to the floor along with his corpse, two knives deep in his skull.

"Huh, easier than I thought," she says to herself before popping the pins out of the last gates' hinges and casually strolling through.

Looking at the final lock to the treasury she groans to herself, the lock was easily breakable, but she couldn't let them know she was a first-class adventurer. Removing the door was believable for anyone but she'd need time... resigning herself to the task she immediately sticks her fingers into her throat.

The burning sensation flows up her throat as two items scrape against her insides before clattering to the floor in a puddle of vomit.

Ignoring the smell and texture she wipes her fingers and items off on the dead mans' suit before inspecting her Message Ring and another small sphere that opens to show thieves tools, little delicate tools made for breaking into places.

As she raises the ring to her mouth she begins walking through the hallway to drag bodies back to the final door.

"Hephaestus," she says into her ring.

"Yeah..."

"Two hours," Thalie says before swallowing the ring once more.

That's how long it would take her to break into the final room and some of the larger lockboxes just in front of the vault, those large lockers were the key after all... by the time Hephaestus did her part, Thalie would be ready to leave.

"Alright..." Thalie kneels in front of the lock as she gets to work, "let's get you open before his regular inspection alright," studying the layout and routine of the casino and its workers made her task so much easier. The time Hephaestus planned for their little night out was no coincidence after all...

---Almost two hours later...

Walking through the security door on the main floor, the casino manager wore an all-white suit with a red undershirt. A cat-man with blonde hair and a tall, powerful frame. He was a level three adventurer in his own right which made him powerful enough to defend this business against any would-be thieves, at least those they expected to attempt a heist.

Feeling something odd, he reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out adamantite knuckle dusters, he slips them on while carefully walking further through the hallway.

The hallway was completely empty all the way to the first gate, something didn't add up, there were supposed to be men here... the grey floor was completely clean and the gate itself was untouched.

Touching the gate, it immediately swings open as the lock enchantment deactivates, walking past the second gate he round the final corner, freezing at the horrific sight before him.

Looking through the bars as he runs to the final gate, he sees a pile of bodies, dismembered and dead, his own men.

"Oh gods..." he comes to a stop at the pile of bodies before his head whips to the left, the horrified look on his face gets that much grimmer as he sees the treasury door open, all the larger lockers were broken into, "NO!"

In a hysterical panic he steps into the room, looking around mortified as he sees all the gold and jewels from the boxes on the floor, whoever was here came looking for something.

"What..." he thinks to himself, before he almost feels his heart stop at what he saw next, a trail of bloody footprints, a woman's bare feet leading from the pile of bodies all the way to him, he looking down to see the footprints move past him...all the way to the vault. Particularly to the side that opens.

"Nononononnononnononon!" he panics, dreading the thought, looking around once more he comes to a horrific conclusion. The footsteps went to the opening of the vault but they didn't leave... she's inside.

A rage overtakes him as he tightens the metal on his knuckles and readies himself for a fight, marching forward with furrowed brows and heavy steps, he places his hand on the vault door.

He was ready to kill whoever had the audacity to be inside this vault.

With loud metallic creaking the tumblers slowly turn before the seal at the edge of the door breaks.

Putting a hand on the handle, he heaves the door open, only to be confused at what he saw within.

It was completely untouched.

"What the hell..." he thought aloud as he stared at all the sealed boxes, a large stack of gold bars at the center of the vault.

"Thanks for that," Thalie's voice calls out from nearby.

Turning on a dime, he sees a brown-skinned woman in a bright yellow dress with scars all across her face uncurling herself from within one of the large lockers he assumed was empty...she tricked him. The only weakness to an otherwise unbreakable vault, the human component...

"YOU DID THIS!"

"It's just business..." she says as he immediately rushes her.

As they brawled, she was slightly weaker than him, in their first clash, he shoved her back, slamming the woman into the wall of metal boxes.

As their fight went on he landed only a few hits, she was faster than him, eventually, she drew her small knives and began cutting away at him, death by a thousand cuts style.

'She's fast but if I can pin her that's it,' he thinks to himself as they continue trading blows.

Landing a solid blow to the side of her head, she gets thrown across the room from the force, her body crumpling to the floor for a moment before she seemingly forces herself to stand, breathing heavily, exhausted from the fight as she holds her face.

Rushing in once more, this time she uses her agility, cutting the tendons under his arms while dancing around him, narrowly avoiding his strikes as she disassembles him, eventually leaving him on the floor barely conscious.

"Who...sent...you?" the man asks, fighting to stay awake.

Ignoring his question, she stomps on his head, not enough to kill him but enough to knock him out long enough.

"Sigh, pulling punches is so annoying," she mutters to herself while walking into the vault.

Strolling past all the gold and jewels, she walks to a specific lockbox and immediately begins opening it with her tools.

After only a few minutes, the box opens to reveal a small golden apple, barely the size of her palm as it rests alone in the lockbox.

Taking the apple she places it into one of the pockets on the inner lining of her dress before walking down the hallway, removing the security gates once more and leaning against the door to the main floor as she waits.

"There it is," she says while opening the door and walking out, hearing the swooning and cheering from the crowd was her signal, proven as she looks up toward the third floor to see Hephaestus helping Freya to wave at the people on the ground floor, all of which are captivated by the goddess and can't help but applaud or wave back, easily ignoring Thalie as she begins making her way to the washroom.

As she walks past some of the distracted gamblers, quickly swiping a small red purse from a woman and speeding up her pace, she makes it into one of the bathroom stalls and immediately places the apple into the purse before completely removing her dress.

Flipping her dress inside out, the bright yellow goes on the inside to reveal a blood-red dress, it was two-sided just for this purpose.

"Thalie?" she hears Hephaestus call out as she and Freya enter the otherwise empty washroom.

"Yeah, I'm...makeup," Thalie says as she begins flaying her own face while pulling the waterskin off her leg, placing it on the toilet tank as she tosses pieces of flesh into the toilet bowl.

"Freya needs a minute so take your time," Hephaestus says as they enter the stall beside her, holding Freya's grey hair back as the goddess empties her stomach.

After a minute or two of roughly flaying her own face, Thalie leans forward and empties the water skin onto her face, allowing the elixir she stored within to heal her wounds, bringing returning her normal appearance once more.

"All good?" Hephaestus asks as she holds Freya up, the goddess was already beginning to fall asleep on her.

"All good," Thalie shows her the purse while double-checking her appearance in the mirrors at the sink, "let's go..."

---The Present, Hephaestus's Lounge...

"So you manipulated my girlfriend to rob a casino?" Yang asks, not trying to hide his annoyance as he narrows his eyes at the goddess sitting opposite him and Welf.

"That's what your problem is?" Welf asks in disbelief.

"That and she didn't tell us, we're a team so your fights are gonna be our fight soo so I'd appreciate knowing why I'm fighting," he tells Thalie.

"That was for the best honestly," Thalie says, only to see both of them give her skeptical looks, "look, Welf sucks at lying or doing anything shady so he would have given us away, and you---" she nods toward Yang, "definitely wouldn't let us use your girlfriend as a distraction."

"Obviously," Yang says.

"Which is why it was best to just not tell either of you."

"I would have helped you," Yang says, "casino heist sounds kinda fun...minus all the unnecessary killing."

"Not unnecessary," Thalie says," the casino manager lost his cool when he saw the corpses, threw him off his game and made him panic and open the vault..."

"Mmm, don't think that's a good enough reason... look I don't really care what you do as long as it doesn't come back to bite us, now I've gotta go make sure Freya doesn't throw up in my bed," he gives Hephaestus a harsh glare before getting up. "Wait," he stops and looks between the women, "what the hell was the apple?"

Taking the opportunity, Hephaestus explains, "Hera used the arcanum she could sneak into the lower world to bring one of her golden apples, that's it," she sees his eyes widen at the idea, "if you eat it you die, mortals can't handle pure arcanum, but I need it for...something," she says, knowing Thalie told him about her potion-making endeavor, but not Welf.

"Right, don't bring Freya into this unless she agrees to it in the future," he says before leaving the room.

With Yang gone, a tense silence occupied the room, Thalie could feel the tension as Welf stares daggers at Hephaestus, the woman looking to the side just enough to avoid meeting his eyes.

"I'm gonna go..." Thalie says, quickly getting up and making herself scarce.

Not sure what's about to happen, Hephaestus decides to take the first step," Welf---"

"You killed a dozen people tonight, just because you wanted the apple..." he mutters lowly, not breaking eye contact with her.

"I have a good reason."

"For having those men killed? You know how Thalie operates and sent her anyway. Her I expect this from but not you Hephaestus," he couldn't look at her anymore, deciding to look at the small table between them.

"I needed certain things, the apple is one of the last ones, Tsubaki went to get another one in Melene, in a few days I'm sending Yang and Thalie to the Far East for the last one then that's it..."

"And what about the people who already died, what's so good that people should die for it?"

"I...a potion," she says hesitantly, earning a raised brow from the man.

"Potion? Potion for what?"

"It...it will fix me," she places a hand on her eyepatch, earning a wide eye stare from him.

"So those people died for what, for you to feel better about how you look?"

"It not that simple, gods are supposed to be perfect... and I-I'm the only one that isn't..."

"Do you remember why I came to Orario?" His question was only met with silence as Hephaestus looked away, her eye brimming with tears as she could see where this was going. "I ran away from Rakia because one god's selfishness was killing people, you haven't killed tens of millions like Ares, but I...I just expected better from you," he says with a low voice, sadness echoing in his words as he storms out of the room.

As she hears the door shut, Hephaestus can feel the tears flowing down her face.

She knew him finding out was unavoidable, she knew he'd react like this, she knew it would hurt.

But she never could have known it would hurt this much...

END CHAPTER---

Not sure how much spotlight I wanted to give Welf X Hephaestus but after this, they gotta get some attention...

Thoughts on the heist and how I linked these two chapters with the POVs of Yang/Thalie?