CHAPTER 152(Treason)

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---

"That's the last of 'em," Shakti says as she signs off on the final profile. A pile of documents on her desk as a result of their latest victory in the name of keeping the peace. Handing the adventurer's profile to her pink-haired Amazon vice-captain.

Two days ago they'd acted on an anonymous tip and raided a black market auction, as a result almost one hundred adventurers were arrested and had their Falnas inspected via Status Thief potions.

"Finally, let's go get drinks after this," the woman says. Releasing a deep sigh as she moves to store the copies of these files in their records room.

"Yeah, I need a break," Shakti shakes her sleepy head, deciding to spend the night relaxing rather than overworking herself for a change.

---Thalie's Apartment...

"We really had something special, but I guess this is it..." Thalie says in a soft voice, standing in her living room wearing casual combat clothes. Dark green pants and a top with her usual boots, a backpack on the couch beside her as she speaks to Liberty in her hand, running her fingers along the ridges of the billion Valis spear.

'No more of her soldiers...no more Adrestria,' Thalie says, dropping her message ring onto the couch as she leaves her spear beside it and exits the apartment for the last time.

Twenty minutes later, Thalie is standing in a narrow alley, staring down a small stone building. Protected by a large wall and iron gate as well as multiple level-two adventures, this was Orario's detainment facility.

Sponsored by the guild and operated by Ganesha familia's peacekeeping division. The building looked inconspicuous other than all the extra security. But it had no features that resembled a prison on the top floor. Only two floors were above the surface, offices, and armories, all the cells were on the underground floors.

The only entrance and exit was the front door, a classic kill-box design, perfect for securing adventurers.

Visiting was impossible without permission from the guild, and permission from the guild required a request from Hephaestus, so naturally, she'd be using the louder approach.

---Dungeon Floor 1...

"Look all I'm saying is if you had another one then you'd be able to fly properly like me," Yang says, hovering above the ground with his flames for just a moment to prove his point. He was wearing his battlemage pants, the new coat, and his boots with a plain grey t-shirt.

"I can't just wake up and decide to make another one of these," Welf waves Mosoka around, the man was also in casual clothes, a red shirt with his black fire-resistant pants. "I barely know how this one even happened, maybe something smaller would be easier," the smiths says as he looks at the weapon.

"Yeah like a dagger so you can dual wield," Yang says as they walk along the path to exit the base of Babel.

As their conversation continues, excitedly discussing the results of their small training trip to the middle floors, a shy feminine voice calls out to them.

"Mr. Shen sir," both their heads look over to see Cassandra and Daphne, the oracle was almost hiding behind her friend. Both in their standard Apollo familia uniforms.

With a raised brow Yang looks to Welf, as if to ask what was going on.

"Uh, yeah?" he says as he walks over to the girls, now standing a few feet in front of them.

"Um, I, I'd like to speak to you..." Cassandra barely manages to speak so he can hear, still not sure if she should even be approaching an alleged level-seven.

"Right," Welf gives Yang an amused smirk, "have fun with the fangirls, I'll go see what Thalie's doing," he says before walking toward the elevators.

At night Babel plaza as well as the unsafe floors of the dungeon tend to be empty, everyone needed their sleep after all, this gave the trio most of the surrounding area to speak unbothered by eavesdroppers.

"Right, my team doesn't accept new members and I don't wanna date anyone, if that's what you wanted then don't bother," Yang says as he begins leading the girls out into the plaza.

"It's not that," Daphne says. "I'm Daphne and this is Cassandra, she had a dream about you," the girl speaks with apprehension, hoping this man was more reasonable than she expects of strong adventurers.

"Uh, I'm flattered but not interested in that kind of stuff," he cringes at the thought of the fourteen-year-old girl fantasizing about him.

"I had a vision, you get hurt badly," Cassandra says.

"Vision?"

"Mhm," the girl meekly nods.

"She gets bad dreams and thinks they tell the future," Daphne says bluntly, shaking her head at Cassandra's antics.

"They're always true, it's fate, I saw you get hurt badly. Someone hurts you and you lose something, I saw a great blue flame leaving stone walls, I saw the flame flickering and piece of it falling away, you're going to get hurt," Cassandra says ominously.

"Leaving stone walls?" Yang asks.

"Mhm, big stone walls."

"Like that," he points out to the edges of the city, the massive two-hundred-foot walls that protect the outside world from the dungeon in Orario.

"Mhm..."

"Uh-huh," he gives her a strange look, "I doubt any of that'll happen, besides I don't think anything outside the dungeon can really hurt me that badly. I'm level-seven, and really really damn strong too," he says with less modesty than his usual self, trying to get his point across.

"My visions are never wrong," the girl warns him.

"Well your vision basically says I live anyway, so it doesn't matter," Yang says.

"But... you need to be careful," Cassandra says, although she didn't miss the fact that for the first time in her life someone somewhat believed her.

"I live and that's all that matters---"

"I think something's wrong man," Welf's voice calls out through Yang's message ring on his left hand.

"What's wrong?" Yang asks, turning away from the girls as his attention snaps to his ring.

"I found her ring and spear at her place, something feels off about this," Welf says.

"That's weird, why would she leave her ring?"

"Maybe she doesn't want Hephaestus's name attached to whatever she's doing, it has our familia sigil on it right," Welf says.

"What the hell!" Daphne yells out.

Looking over to her Yang sees both girls staring out into the distance. To the far southern edge of the city, he sees two flares rising into the sky. One a bright yellow and the other a bright red. The trails they leave don't dissipate with the wind, remaining like pillars of color to guide any help that would come.

"What is that?" Yang asks.

Both girls turn to look at him as if he's a complete idiot.

"Don't you know the 'Call to arms' signals?" Daphne asks.

"I've only been here less than a year, what are they?"

"Green is for level 1-2, yellow is level 3-4, red is level 5 and above, the guild is calling anyone above level two to respond, something bad is happening over there," Daphne says.

"Oh...uh, ok," Yang says. Clearly not having any particular interest in attending whatever this was. Raising his ring to his mouth he calls out to Welf," dude you see that?"

"Yeah... you think it's her?" Welf responds.

"I really really hope it isn't, but bring her stuff, guess I've gotta go deal with whatever crap this is," Yang says as he looks over at both girls. "Are you two coming too?"

"Oh, no, our familia only has one level three so we don't have to go, and I'd rather not spend time with him so we'll stay here," Daphne says.

"Must be nice, wish I could just go back into the dungeon," Yang groans out.

A moment later Welf descends beside them, using Mosoka he creates flames to cushion his drop from floor-51.

Both girls are completely stunned by this, staring wide-eyed at him while both men converse as if nothing spectacular happened at all.

"If it's her we need to get to her before anyone else," Yang says.

"Yeah, and get her this," Welf holds out Liberty to Yang, the man quickly stores the spear away in his inventory.

"Let's go," Yang says. Grabbing Welf and throwing him over his shoulder as he rockets off on a trail of blue flames, soaring across the sky like a meteor.

Not long after they begin descending outside the prison compound.

Seeing adventurers already swarming from nearby, the gate was bent inward, some weapons broken and scattered across the lawn and the front door was completely torn off the hinges.

"What happened?" Yang asks as he drops down beside Shakti, cracking the stone beneath his feet with his landing. Dropping Welf so the man can stand on his own.

"I should be asking you that! What the hell is Hephaestus doing?!" Shakti demands, the adventurers nearby immediately turn all their weapons to Yang and Welf.

"Uh," Yang raises his hands in surrender, "I'm completely lost here, what's happening?" he asks.

"Thalie broke into the dungeon of the prison, we don't know what she's plotting, did Hephaestus order this?" the woman asks.

"Hmm," Yang didn't want to answer that, either way was bad but he didn't know enough to choose the lesser of two evils. "I dunno, did any of your people die?" he asks.

"Some," she grits out, narrowing her eyes at him and Welf. "I'm taking her down for this," she says with certainty.

"Yeah, just um," he looks around at the surrounding adventurers, more and more showing up by the minute to look at Ganesha familia pointing their weapons at him. "How about you let me go in there, I don't think she's acting in the interest of our familia so let us talk her down, we're her team remember," he gestures to himself and Welf.

Taking a moment to think it over, Shakti signals for her people to lower their weapons.

"Look," she makes sure Yang is focused on her, "I know you guys are freakishly strong so I don't want my people fighting her, if you two can bring her in without us having to get involved I'd appreciate it. But I can't say it'll lower the punishment for this," she tells him.

"What punishment is that?" Welf asks.

"If this was all Hephaestus's plan, then this could spark a serious war between our familia's, and that's just on the surface level. It would weaken Orario to an unacceptable amount," she says.

"And if this is just her?" Yang asks.

"She disobeyed her god and wrecked a guild facility as well as potentially freed dangerous prisoners, I'm sure you can figure out what happens to her then," Shakti says with a scowl.

"Fuck..." Yang takes a deep breath and rubs a hand down his face. "Ok let's go get her," he begins walking off toward the building with Welf in tow.

Walking down the pathway to the facility both men can't keep their thoughts from racing.

"Did she tell you anything about this?" Yang asks.

"No I'm just as lost as you are, maybe Hephaestus did order this..."

"Hell no," Yang says as they begin walking up the dozen steps to the main door. "Hephaestus can't start a war with Ganesha. If either familia takes a serious hit Orario loses a lot of either its best weapons or police force. The guild would never allow that."

"Ok, but why would she do this otherwise?" Welf asks as they begin walking through the broken hallway. Seeing broken stone and furniture as well as a few blood splatters on some walls, a clear path of destruction leading to a set of winding stairs.

"Maybe it's personal."

"No way," Welf denies the thought. "Thalie thinks through every action, she knows this will either get her killed or at best banished, she wouldn't do this...unless..."

"Unless she doesn't plan on staying around, she's planning to leave Orario," Yang says.

"Fuck."

"Yeah, we need to fix this shit," Yang couldn't agree more with Welf's completely dumbstruck train of thought.

Both men were completely confused as they found the woman.

With an absolutely massive corridor of adamantite cells on one side and a small railing at her back with a dozen floors of cells below. Thalie was staring at the bars, no, staring at someone through the bars.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Yang calls out, the woman snaps out of her daze to look at him, a frown forming on her face as she immediately looks away from the people she betrayed.

"You shouldn't be here," Thalie says.

"You're one to talk," Welf bites back.

"It's complicated, alright. Now get out of here before you get dragged into it."

"Too late for that, you're looking at the death penalty or something along that line, you killed some Ganesha familia members remember, now start talking," Yang says.

Taking a deep breath, the woman points at the cell in front of her, pointing to the human man sitting on the floor staring at her with a bored expression.

"He's from Adrestria familia, that's the guy who's supposed to take Hephaestus's payment back to Adrestria... I tipped off Shakti to a little event he was at so they'd round him up, then when they log all their Falna's into the prison records I just had to look for the name Adrestria in it," she says.

"So Hephaestus didn't order this. You realize if you're lucky they'll exile you right, they'll probably kill you for this shit," Yang says.

"It's worth it, I need to remove every single trace of that goddess from this world, if I die then so be it," Thalie says, still staring at the man on the floor.

"Then why aren't you breaking open the bars?" Welf asks, not used to seeing her so stagnant when her goal was almost within reach.

"She can't," the man speaks up, giving her a cocky smirk. "She didn't know these cells don't use locks, they use enchantments. She so much as bends one of those adamantite bars and that barricade drops," he points at the small piece of metal in the ceiling behind the bars within the cells.

With a single look, Welf immediately recognizes the metal and frowns. "Orichalcum, nothing can break that," he turns to Yang, "think Durandal but for construction, this place definitely cost a fortune. Adamantite cells and Orichalcum emergency measures... damn," he muses.

"If even I can't break it then we just leave right? But then they'd probably still call for Thalie to get killed or exiled...damn it," Yang says.

"Hmm, well," Welf gets an insane thought. "Level-5s aren't as rare as you and me, you're level-7 and I'm the world's best magic swordsmith, so..."

"They can't kill us all," Yang says. Thalie just keeps staring at the man, absolute rage and hate flowing through her veins. "Can you open it?" he asks Welf.

"Hmmm, if I mess with the enchantment while cutting the bars, but I'll need some time, and they aren't gonna just wait for us outside," he says.

"NO!" Thalie yells out. "If you do this then you might not get to go back to your lives. You might not get to keep your adventure going," she tells Yang. "And you...Hephaestus would be mad at you," she tells Welf.

"If we don't stay then you'd most likely die and maybe you haven't noticed but we accomplish more in the dungeon together, so this is better," Yang says.

Drawing Mosoka from his back Welf moves to begin working on the Adamantite bars. Unlike before, Gron, the Vice-captain of Adrestria familia actually looks shook. The prospect of being tortured suddenly seemed far too close for comfort.

"If I didn't help you Hephaestus would be disappointed that I abandoned my friends, that's a hell of a lot worse than her begin mad at me," Welf says as he gets to work opening the cell.

"I... thank you," was all Thalie could say. She was at a complete loss for words. She thought she'd be doing this alone, to wipe all of Adrestria's soldiers away with the goddess herself, but she received help from people with so much to lose.

"I'll head up top and make sure nobody comes down," Yang says.

"We'll message you when we're out of here, when you get out of Orario I'll tell you where to meet us," Thalie says.

"You have another way out?"

"Not a clean one, but it'll work..."

"Ew, I'll just fly or something, good luck," Yang says before walking toward the front of the prison.

Arriving on the surface, Yang sees Tsubaki waiting at the door to speak to him. An entire army of adventurers waiting not even a hundred meters away with weapons drawn.

All eleven of Ganesha's level 5s were present.

Ishtar's toad was in the crowd.

All Freya executives.

All Loki executives, even Ais got to come on account of this being a mandatory summons.

Scanning the crowd Yang couldn't find Ottar, the man likely thought protecting Freya during a potential city-wide emergency was a higher priority, a logical thought honestly.

"Why aren't they with you?" Tsubaki asks.

"They aren't coming out, Thalie is going after Adrestria..."

"Damn it, that's what this shit is about? Hephaestus already fixed that, she doesn't have to go back!" the woman argues.

"This isn't about her, she wants to stop Adrestria, she's breeding soldiers and making kids fight to the death, don't you remember Thalie was literally bred to be a perfect soldier... she wants to stop that cycle," Yang says.

"She's turning the city against our familia," Tsubaki points at the army of adventurers, everyone was staring at them with anger, either from having their lives interrupted to deal with this or for attacking the guild prison.

"I realize that, but the only way they maybe won't kill her is if the three of us are in this together, as a team we're too valuable for them to execute at least, you can tell them we're working against Hephaestus on this since we are, we'll take the heat for it," Yang says.

"You can only take so much, Hephaestus will still have to answer for this too," she pokes his chest to get her point across as she speaks in a threatening tone.

"I know, but Welf and I only got here a few minutes ago, this is the best we could come up with."

"Wait... you weren't in on this from the start?" Tsubaki asks, a look of confusion on her face.

"What, no, we saw the flares and came running just like everyone else," Yang says.

With a deep sigh, Tsubaki pinches the bridge of her nose. "At least this isn't a full betrayal, you two morons just got pulled into her bullshit... if you plan on doing this then I need to be against you from now, got it," she nods toward the army of adventurers.

"I don't like it, but yeah I get it..."

"Good luck," she says before walking away. A disappointed look on her face as she walks back over to Shakti.

"God damn it Thalie... really making us the villains here," Yang mutters in an exhausted tone as he trails behind Tsubaki. Making his way to the steps of the building and taking a seat at the top. Resting his elbows on his knees he looks out at the army of adventurers with a bored expression, not at all fond of what comes next.

"Is she coming out?" Shakti asks as Tsubaki walks back to the battle line, her eyes never once leaving Yang as he slinks down on the stairs.

"No, none of them are, they're together in this, against Hephaestus's orders," Tsubaki says with trepidation.

"Then it's out of your hands," a man growls out from behind them. Turning around both women see Allen, wearing his visor and holding his spear with a firm grip, a hungry smile on his face as he looks toward Yang. "I've wanted to do this for a long time," he confesses.

"Then."

"Get."

"In."

"Line," the gulliver brothers say as they also walk forward.

"Hmm," Hedin adjusts his glasses as a small smirk forms on his lips, "if lady Freya were here she'd likely order us to stand down...so---"

"Then let's kill him before that happens," Hogni says.

"He's level-7, if you recall," Finn's voice turns all heads to him. "You'll need help to DETAIN him, lets try not to spill any more blood tonight," the Pallum says.

"Tch, he dies tonight Braver," Allen says as his executives begin to walk toward Yang.

"Finn," Riveria says in a quiet voice. Seeing the man turn to her she continues, "I don't believe my magic will be any good here, it's probably best I focus on having my barrier ready," she suggests. The truth was she rather not have to fight Yang, directly at least.

"Good idea Rivera. Everyone else, move up!" Finn says as she quickly falls into step with Allen, both men leading their executives at the front.

Behind their teams was Ganesha's 11 level-5 adventurers led by Shakti.

Seeing all the variably armed adventurers in front of him, Yang only casts them a bored expression as he sits up, still resting on the stairs.

"Can we skip the fight and all of you just go home?" he asks. Many faces, namely Ganesha and Freya familias turn to rage. Ais narrows her eyes at him as Tiona instinctively takes a step back. Something most people would miss, a side effect of her being the only person outside of his team to see him really fight. But even that was two levels ago.

"I'll leave when you're dead," Allen growls out.

At this reaction of complete anger a slightly confused expression forms on Yang's face.

"Uh, sorry, have we met?" he asks. The entire crowd sweatdrops at his, looking between Yang and Allen in shock.

"You little shit! I'm Vana Freya, Allen, Vice-captain of Freya familia!" the cat person yells out, hands gripping his spear as all his veins bulge out.

"Ohhh, you're one of the people mad because of the Freya thing," Yang takes the chance to finally make fun of one of her lapdogs in person. "Look it's not your fault ok, the numbers just worked better with me," Yang says.

At this Allen looks confused for a moment, "numbers?"

"Yeah, I'm like 80% power, 60% good looks, 80% heart, 20% good jokes, 100% honest, and 3% bad at math," Yang says with a playful smile, only earning another confused look from everyone.

"That's more than 300% dumbass!" Allen says.

With a devious smile, Yang can't help but chuckle slightly, "exactly why she chose me, I'm three times the man you could ever be."

Allen immediately lost his composure, flying into a blood-lusted rage as he dashes forward aiming his spear directly at Yang.

And so Yang Shen Vs Orario begins...

END CHAPTER---

Yang VS Finn, Gareth, Tiona, Tione, Ais, Bete, Lefiya, Allen, Hedin, Hogni, Gulliver Brothers, Shakti+10 other Ganesha level-5s...damn :/