31. Streets Run Red

Loki was not happy.

One of her children was attacked in broad daylight and kidnapped. This alone wold enrage any god or goddess that consider their familia members like family, but they had to take one of her most promising children. A child who's shouts at full strength could shake anyone regardless of level and had storage magic to help on expeditions. Not only that but the girl had grown to be liked by everyone, even Bete who claimed to like no-one.

No, Loki was not happy.

The rest of the familia was downright pissed off. Those that interacted with Marlet on a daily basis had been hunting non-stop to find the perpetrators. Those that met her in passing were searching for clues when they had the chance and those that barely knew her had supported where they could.

This had been within the first 2 nights she had been taken and Orario was taking the brunt of it. The Loki familia had been patroling the upper floors of the dungeon relentlessly and Bete with a few level 2s and 3s were moving between the Great Tree Labrynth and Water Palace to find any illegal entrances that the less upstanding familias used to enter.

This all came to a halt though when Ottar stood before the entrance of the guild, arms crossed and a stoic look upon his face. The adventurers that wanted to get into the building were givin a death glare that set off all the warning bells an adventurer's survival insticts might have honed. This naturally casued public outcry from the smaller familias and less powerful adventurers but what could they do?

Goddess Freya had been seen going twice to the Twilight Manor and this made a lot of people nervous. The Astraea familia had been trying to manage the heavy atmosphere that seemed to have enveloped the entire city by reassuring the general population but that did little to help.

Rumor was that Hephaestus was also reaching her breaking point because she had been trying to understand the Loki familia's weapon enchanting system but with Loki closing all forms of trade between anyone and her familia, the goddess of smithing was running out of research materials.

All this came down to the current day where the big 3 familia convened in the guild's reception hall, looking at the fearful employees. It took a brave mortal to approach the 3 fuming goddesses and everyone involinterily looked at Rose, one of the more senior employees.

With a loud sigh that the entire reception area heard Rose pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath before approaching the three.

"How may I assist you Ladies Loki, Freya and Hephaestus?" Rose tried to seem as profesional as possible but under the angry glare from the smithing goddess, the murderous smirk on the goddess of beauty and what frightened her the most was the deadpan face of the trickster goddess. No smirk and no playfulness, she was simply twirling a very sharp and dangerous dagger in her hands. "Do you know why were are here?" came the reply from Freya, causing Rose to gulp some saliva that had been building in her throat before giving a small nod.

"Good" Loki spoke for the first time, "we are here to inform you that there will be blood on the streets and death in the air. Who knows, we might be lucky enough to have a little light show or two." Loki seemed ready to stab anyone who twitched in a manner she did not approve of. "We are only here to tell you that the guild will comply and hand over all information we request. There is no protection for the adventurers if we ask for their information and should problems arise, we shall send our own people to look for what we need."

A look of horrer was seen on a few employees faces, this was a declaration that people will die and even possibly deities will be sent back to Tenkai. What was worse was that there could be a possible invasion of the guild. With an audible gulp Rose could only nod her head in agreement, "I will relay the message up to the head of the guild." Loki got really close to Rose when she finished talking and opened her eyes slightly to make direct eye-contact, "if there is any information you have currently, now is the time to give it." Rose took a quick glance at the dagger Loki still seemed to be playing with but much closer to her own body. Quickly shaking her head no, Rose could only quickly reply "I don't know anything Lady Loki, but a team is already being formed to comb the archives. The information will be given as soon as something comes up."

Loki had turned around and walked out of the guild with the other 2 goddesses on either flank. Loki with a dagger, Hephaestus with her eye-patch and Freya with a cold and calculated look on her face, anyone not knowing they were goddesses would think of them as a bandit group. Reaching outside the guild hall the three of them stopped and Freya took the lead to address the large group of adventurers that had gathered outside the guild.

"It is with great sadness that I have to announce the guild has been swamped with too much work currently!" Some of the newbie adventurers had a look of confusion on their faces whilst the more senior ones had a grim look, "luckily, with Ottar here we have ensured maximum efficiency and hope this problem is resolved quickly." Freya continued, "until this monumental task is completed, the guild will not be accepting any new exchanges of any kind to Valis." The moment she finished speaking there was public outcry from indistinguishable voices and although the goddess expected as much it still irked her that the mortals spoke over her. The second a small crease was seen on his goddess's face though Ottar slammed the head of a war-hammer onto the paving beside him.

Although his main weapon was a large sword, his goddess had asked him to use this in case anyone got any funny ideas. 'The image of being turned to minced meat sent a stronger message than a simple bisection' she had said.

The entire quad and street went silent. "Fear not! We three goddesses could not stand the thought of hard working adventurers not earning any income to indulge in whatever your pastimes are." Loki cut Freya off here and cut right to the chase.

"1 000 Valis for valid information on the kidnappers.

10 000 on information regarding their familia or anyone associated with them.

100 000 Valis for information on the masterminds.

1 weapon forged by Hephaestus herself if anyone brings me the gods responsible."

Loki simply walked off back to the Twilight Manor after her say, causing Freya to sigh. "All information will be checked and should there be deliberate misinformation," a small smile adorned her face causing some of the male and female audiences to blush regardless of the obvious threat mixed in, "you will kindly help Ottar here remember how to properly wield a hammer correctly much sooner."

A shiver went down the spines of everyone save for one person, the goddess Astraea walked forward and narrowed her eyes. "What does Ouranos say of all this?" At this Hephaestus responded while also returning to her personal forge, "he hadn't said anything yet, why would he now."

With only Freya left she decided to make one last statement before retreating back to her tower, "the sooner this little… 'job' is completed, the sooner the guild will open again and all you adventurers can continue with your daily lives. I suggest you work with us, because those that are against us…" a murderous smirk on her face, "won't be quiet soon." Everyone watched the goddess retreat back to her tower as though she hadn't just threatened them all with Allen Fromel walking besides her with a happy smile on his face, no doubt at being her new attendant due to Ottar's current duties.

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"Those whores!" a god slammed his fist onto the table making it slightly crack. "Who do they think they are to place bounties on our heads as though we were some common thug found in the slums!" To say that they were angered was an understatement. Years of working in relative peace, setting up plans and schemes that could have had long lasting effects on Orario to achieve their goal of chaos was starting to unravel before them.

"Calm down you idiot" a second god scoffed at the first, "that table wasn't responsible for our predicament, I'm more interested in who allowed this to happen to the big 3's golden child?" This god stroked their chin and eyed all the gods at the table.

"What's done is done. What we need to do is relocate for a while" a third god said, "we can't hide from the entirety of Orario forever. We have been losing numbers quicker than usual and this has caused unrest among our familias."

The second god agreed by nodding their head, "that's true, but punishment must still be given. A nice weapon from Hephaestus sounds like a good trade-off" the finished with a smirk that enraged the first god to no end.

"You do that and I'll castrate you in your mortal shell and back in Tenkai! We can't afford to lose more members and you want to offer up more!"

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It had been a few days since the Crime-Purge announcement, as it was now being called, was given. With adventurer parties teaming up to delve in Orario's underbelly to find any leads instead of adventuring into the dungeon.

Some parties succeeded in getting the promised money whilst some struggled like any other day. The city had seen an overall drop in crime rate as well as prices due to the economy not flowing through the city as it once used too. The countries with major trade deals concerning Orario were getting more and more nervous as the usual products they traded for was being delayed without a specified time indicated.

The normal citizens were happy at first with some of the newer temporary rules implemented and lower prices they could practically send their children to play out on the streets with little to worry about. Any crime reported was given a reward and said criminal was interrogated thoroughly.

That's not to say some didn't try their luck to gain a few quick Valis, far from it, there was always opportunistic scum thinking they could exploit the system. They were dealt with swiftly however, and after the 15th person met their end the 'false informants' understood that this was not the get rich quick scheme they thought it was.

Loki had been going over paperwork tirelessly, a very out of character image for her until the casual observer saw that all the papers were in some way related to the search they were having. In a small corner of her desk was the mail for the day and at the very bottom lay a letter addressed to her from Zolingham. As she finished up the last of the information gathered inside the city Loki was going to start with her mail she had left for last until Riveria burst through her doors holding a lime-coloured parchment.

"I may have a lead goddess!" Were the first words out of her mouth before Loki parkoured over her desk and dive tackled the Elf, snatching the parchment from her hands.

Whilst straddling Riveria's stomach and reading what was written a feral look appeared on her face. "Call in Bete and Lefiya, I have a little adventure planned for them, meet in Finn's office."

Riveria simply nodded and after getting out from under her goddess, left to complete her given task.