Penultimate Clash

A considerable weight now finally off his shoulders, Finn distanced himself from Valletta's corpse with steady, strong steps. There was a hint of a smile on his lips and not even the slightest shadow over his heart that could have possibly dampened his mood. Honestly, he hadn't felt this refreshed in years.

'Noir, Dain, Bara. I've finally fully avenged you.'

When thinking back upon what Orario's citizens commonly referred to as the 'Dark Era', upon everyone who was lost and sacrificed during those times, primarily the faces of his three mentor figures came to mind. They had been amongst the many who had fallen to Evilus' schemes back then, which Valletta had had a significant part in.

Noticing her beloved Captain exuding a far more joyful aura than usual, the last bits of annoyance disappeared from Tione's face. Well, the fact that her perceived competitor had most definitely bitten the dust had also considerably contributed to her jealous wrath subsiding.

As Finn was delegating some minor duties to those that had come with him, a somewhat disappointed voice suddenly resounded from the nearest hallway, accompanied by extremely quick footsteps.

"You've already wrapped everything up over here?"

Led by the shorter of the two, a dispirited Gareth and the ever-collected Riveria arrived at the scene. They had rushed here as quickly as they could, but they had still been a little bit late in the end. Fortunately, nobody seemed to be injured. However, something else caught the High Elf's eye.

"Tione, how often do I have to tell you to make sure to at least clean your face!?"

Clearly exasperated, Riveria walked up to the blood-drenched Amazoness and pulled out a handkerchief. Before the young woman fully realized what was happening, the mother hen was already wiping away the blood and dirt with practised movements, completely ruining the elegantly embroidered piece of cloth in the process.

"We're all used to being covered in monster remains, but you should always at least keep your face moderately dirt-free! After all, some of it could get into your eyes in the heat of battle. I don't have to tell you just how dangerous that could be, right!?"

Feeling utterly helpless but not resisting against Riveria's care and affectionate scolding, Tione glanced around at everyone else for some sort of support, only to be met with amused grins as well as feigned ignorance all around. Eventually, she could only sigh and accept her fate.

Naturally, the rest of the group didn't just pointlessly stand around while Tione was getting drowned in well-meant cautionary words.

Finally, all parties that were still in Knossos had met up, so once they finished salvaging all the information and goods from the Thanatos Familia's base that were worth the hassle, they congregated in the biggest hall of the entire underground complex, which had enough space to house close to 100 people, give or take.

Everyone who hadn't reached Level 5 yet was tasked with carrying what they had gathered back to the surface - that included their latest captured deity, Thanatos. To be honest, having 18 Level 4 adventurers assigned to such a simple task was more than just a little bit excessive, but none of them could go any deeper from here on out anyway, because their safety would be highly compromised otherwise. Therefore, it was better for all of them to return to Daedalus Street.

Under the lead of Lefiya and Ryuu, they all departed, leaving a mere twelve figures behind: Ais, Finn, Gareth, Riveria, Tiona, Tione, Bete, Ray, Lyd, Gros, Gryuu and Four.

Because Bete had never come into contact with the Xenos before, he was in a very tense state, despite having been informed about them a few times prior to actually meeting with them. However, considering his usual behaviour, it could be argued that he was currently acting like a model student. After all, nobody could blame him for his instincts acting up a bit - it was already great that he hadn't caused any major trouble.

Thankfully, the group didn't have to endure this uncomfortable state for long, as Isaac's next instructions had them once more refocus their efforts on conquering this manmade labyrinth.

The 19th floor was entirely devoid of anyone but the Thanatos Familia's members, so they could directly skip ahead to the 20th one. Originally, this one had been housing quite a few large groups of the monster species that they had taken care of on the 16th and 17th floors - the Virgas, Violas, Venenthes, Viscums and Titan Alms. However, these last remnants had all been ordered to retreat to the unfinished 21st floor by their creator in response to the Loki Familia's advance, as well as to the intel that they had inevitably garnered due to many thousands of their creations getting slaughtered in a short time. This wasn't unexpected in any way, though, because even the densest of idiots would realize that a formidable force had invaded if the majority of their defensive measures were broken apart at a rapid pace.

With one more floor entirely empty, the group rushed towards one of the staircases leading towards the 21st floor, only to be met with a solid, venomous green wall that was made from a material that was somewhat reminiscent of tree sap.

"So that's where all of those Vesios went…"

Muttering to herself, Ais nodded. At some point, all of the unusual monsters had retreated from the 59th floor of the dungeon, so she had been wondering about where they had gone to - seemingly, they had been recalled to Knossos. Considering that they hadn't been seen again in the dungeon and that all other species aside from the Vesios had already been encountered on the 16th and 17th floors of Knossos, this had already been pretty much confirmed, but now that even those purple caterpillars' handiwork had reared its head, the last morsels of her doubt had vanished. Admittedly, she could have just asked Isaac about this, but occasionally it was quite entertaining to figure some things out on her own.

"Why did you make us come to this place? Wouldn't another staircase have been better if this one is blocked?"

Scowling unhappily, Bete crossed his arms and sized up the seemingly entirely blocked-off path forwards with furrowed brows.

An amused sigh resounded in response.

"But they're all like this. The vast majority of the 21st floor has been entirely filled with this material, primarily in an effort to buy time as well as to lure us into taking specific paths. Did you notice? The wall here is only a few meters thick, but in every other place, there is absolutely no end in sight. Thousands of meters worth of hallways were clogged up by the Vesios' hardened liquid."

Initially, after Bete analyzed Isaac's words, he wanted to caution him because this was clearly a trap, but then he caught himself before speaking up and paused for a moment. Upon further reflection, he realized that if even he had taken note of this, then 'that monster' most certainly would have done so as well - therefore, there was no need to make a fool out of himself.

"So you want us to deliberately spring this trap, huh?"

Not even deigning this utterance with a reply, Isaac instead explained the rest of the plan to all those that were gathered. Not even a minute later, the flame-clad boot of a Werewolf shattered the Vesios' wall and absorbed the mana within, causing the fire to burn a little more fiercely.

-----

A mocking grin stole itself on the lips of the blonde god, Dionysus, as he felt the enemy break through his defenses at exactly the spot that he had hoped for. Of course, he wasn't foolish enough to believe that they hadn't discovered that he was leading them along, but he had nothing to fear either way. No matter which force it was that had infiltrated this place, they couldn't possibly overcome all of the aces that he had up his sleeve.

He was currently pouring any and all of his surplus Divine Energy into a beautiful ornamented golden cup, which converted it into a green-red liquid. Afterwards, he fed the result of this conversion into a funnel that led into a hall adjacent to the secret room that he was currently hiding in. There was also a second, much bigger hall that this place was connected to, which should be where his enemies would arrive at first - because it literally was the only path that they could take. The 21st floor was still far from being completed, after all.

Next to the masked god, there stood a white-haired middle-aged man of about medium height. His physique gave off the impression that he was a bit frail, but this appearance belied his actual strength - he had made it to Level 4 long ago. He wore a white shirt and comfortable pants of the same colour, but they had both been stained by enough dirt plus dust to cause their original look to be difficult to distinguish. Very clearly, his hair hadn't been washed for weeks and his short goatee hadn't been taken care of properly in ages either. A brown vest with multiple belts and pouches attached to it that were crammed full with various tools was draped over his shirt, while leather armguards protected his black-gloved hands, which constantly played around with the hammer that was fastened to his hip. His boots seemed to be made out of the same material as his gloves, but they had turned grey from all of the dust that they were covered in.

All in all, he appeared like a somewhat crazed inventor or architect - which was exactly what he was. His name was Barca Perdix and he was the older brother of Dix, who had been sent off to reincarnate less than half a handful of hours ago. As a faithful descendant of Daedalus, he was the one responsible for continuing to work on Knossos.

Just like Dionysus, who he knew by the name of 'Enyo', he was staring into a Magic Item that looked like a mirror which displayed the aforementioned massive hall. From time to time, he frowned or sighed, clearly unhappy about having been dragged away from his current project and forced to hide in this last resort instead. But it simply couldn't be helped - this was the safest place in all of Knossos and now that danger had arrived at their doorstep, he had to make sure to survive it first so that he could carry on with his work afterwards.

Suddenly, a shadow flashed across the mirror, completely ignoring all of the defensive measures that had been put into place, and appeared in front of a particular portion of the wall. After touching a few minutely protruding rocks in a specific order, a small entrance nigh-soundlessly gave way, which allowed the black-robed figure to slip into the hidden chamber that Dionysus as well as Barca were in. A second or so after they had entered, the hole that had temporarily been opened had disappeared once more.

"M-My Lord! The intruders are the Loki Familia, as well as five Xenos!!"

Obvious concern could be heard in the pleasant, feminine voice that came from underneath the shroud that concealed Ein's identity - she was none other than the Elf who Dionysus had been with at the time that Knossos had been breached, the last member of his familia, Filvis Challia.

"... so it's them? How did they even get wind of any of this?! Oh well, no matter. They shouldn't be capable of overcoming what I've prepared."

Still worried, Filvis crept closer to the one that she served, her apparent unease causing her to shiver as she presented him with the intel that she had barely been able to pick up while she was making her way back here. It had been arduous to make sure that she wasn't noticed by the Loki Familia's members, but she had managed somehow.

"But Braver has r-reached Level 7! I've confirmed it with my own eyes. It's not out of the question that one or two others might have ascended from Level 5 to Level 6 as well, but I can't be certain. Are our measures sufficient enough to deal with them, my Lord?"

Underneath his mask, Dionysus was heavily furrowing his brows as he took in the information that he had just been presented with. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he eventually nodded and relaxed his tense facial muscles again, a casual smile blossoming on his lips once more.

"It should be fine. But just in case, prepare for the worst case scenario. You know what to do, right? Once the time comes, do not hesitate!"

Right as he said this, the only hallway that led to the massive chamber that was displayed on the mirror lit up brightly, as if a blazing inferno was approaching. Because he was already aware that the various groups of his creations that had been stationed in the path of the Loki Familia in an effort to ambush them or to bog them down had been obliterated - the Vesios that he had tucked away off the intended path included - Dionysus wasn't taken aback but only showed a smug grin.

'So you're finally here. Face your deaths, pathetic fools!'

A lone figure suddenly shot into the enormous open area, before coming to a halt as they observed their surroundings. It was a Werewolf whose hands and feet were enveloped in flames that had been created by a fire enchant type Magic. However, contrary to regular ones that wouldn't backfire on the user, the Werewolf was sweating bullets due to the heat and was clearly in pain, parts of his body already a bit scorched.

The moment that he slowed down, the six beings within the room started to chant their Magics, their voices overlapping to form an uncanny chorus.

"Pierce, spear of lightning. Your envoy beseeches you, Tonitrus."

"Freeze over as though the eternal permafrost, untold blades."

"Flash, rays of light. Tear through the darkness."

"Rage, wrath of heaven. Caelum Veil. Distel."

"Run wild, darkness. Devour the light in night's peace."

"Arise, flames. Rage, rage, rage. Vortex of fire."

Already considering Bete, who had become the vanguard for the others, to be a dead man walking, as nobody could possibly deal with this many Spirit Magics once they were all successfully unleashed, Dionysus' grin widened.

He had invested quite a lot of resources and time to catch the optimal monsters for his plans, as well as to implant Inferior Jewel Fetuses within them. Admittedly, he had to trigger all of his plans prematurely, so he could only use the results of his tough labour in mostly unintended ways right now, but everything should still rise up to the challenge. He wouldn't even have to worry about these Inferior Demi Spirits not listening to his commands, because they weren't capable of independent thought anyway. In that way, they could even be considered to be superior to their actually sentient brethren! Speaking of, even the Power Bull Demi Spirit hadn't managed to last for long, had it?

Initially, Bete managed to evade the bolts of lightning that were sent his way due to Caelum Veil having an extremely short chant and therefore activating first, but before he got a chance to fully close in on his opponents, the other Magics had finished being casted. A firestorm, lances made up of electricity, pillars of ice, blasts of light as well as waves of darkness threatened to bear down upon him as well, no doubt powerful enough to completely obliterate him.

At this point, a faint, green magical barrier appeared in front of Bete's body, fully blocking every single one of the Magics that had been about to hit him, merely shivering a little due to the repeated impacts.

"What?! How is it that strong? Don't tell me… Nine Hell is also a Level 7?!"

In his disbelief, Dionysus momentarily failed to pay attention to Bete, who reached his slightly scorched hand out of the barrier, letting his fire enchant type Magic devour the remaining mana as well as any belated attacks of the Magics that had been aimed at him.

-----

Although he had already been informed of what would be waiting for him, Bete still felt the sight of the monsters that he was greeted with to be a highly unpleasant one.

These six Demi Spirit-esque monstrosities were more than 50 meters tall and reached all the way to the ceiling of the vast hall, akin to gigantic pillars. Their foundations had indubitably been Grand Treants, as their general compositions were quite similar. The majority of their bodies were massive tree trunks and they both had faces growing from them a couple meters above ground level, but that was pretty much where the resemblances ended.

Large purple-red flowers were blooming all over these creatures' tree trunks, while leaf-tipped tentacles sprouted from their bodies in the thousands. They also grew underneath the roots of the former Grand Treants, enabling them to move by making use of them to slowly shift their positions. Instead of one face per tree trunk, there were three even bigger feminine faces growing on each of the trees: A joyful one, a wrathful one and a saddened one respectively. These faces' features were absolutely breathtaking, while their lips were a profound scarlet and their teeth a pearly white. However, nobody would dare to get ensnared by their considerable beauty, because they were simply too monstrous otherwise - after all, each of them were more than five meters in size and none of them were attached to an even remotely humanoid body. Even the most copulation-starved of degenerates would not genuinely consider to have any 'relations' with these faces. Especially considering that they were currently casting Magics whose goal it was to tear anyone in their sights to shreds.

Noticing that one of those Magics had been successfully chanted before the others, Bete steeled his nerves, then he dodged through the approaching arcs and bolts of electricity, but by the time that he was merely 20 meters from the nearest monster, the rest of the chants were all either already finished or very close to it. Magics of various elements instantly cut off all of his potential escape routes and aimed for his life. Recalling what they had previously discussed, instead of getting distressed and losing his cool, he stopped his advance once more, then he waited for Riveria's Via Shilheim to protect him. As soon as it did, he took a deep breath and reached out towards the terrifying amounts of mana that ran amok right outside of the protective barrier.

His fire enchant type Magic, Hati, had two particular properties, aside from those that were usually associated with enchant type Magics. It could absorb both significant amounts of the damage that he took, as well as 'Mind' - a.k.a. mana - in whatever form it took. Both of these would result in the power of his flames growing stronger, burning him more fiercely as a result as well as slightly buffing his various stats. The damage that he took from his stronger flames would, in turn, get partially absorbed once more, leading to a further increase in quite literal firepower. The best part but also simultaneously worst of it all was that there was no cap on how strong the flames could grow. At some point, even though the vast majority of the damage would never reach him due to getting absorbed - coupled with him having a remarkably high Endurance stat - he would just turn into a heap of ash, so he couldn't stay in this state for too long. Not that he had ever even remotely approached that limit.

Until the last expedition, when he had come face to face with the Deformia - he was actually really proud for having come up with that name - he had loathed using his Hati, because it opened up some old wounds and reminded him of the people that he had lost. After all, he had only obtained this Magic after suffering through those tragedies, so it was hard to separate the two in his mind. However, when his life had been on the line, he hadn't thought twice and immediately used it - to great effect. Ever since then, as if a mental barrier had been shattered, he had never felt himself incapable of using it any longer. Due to this, during prior strategy meetings, it had been decided that his usage of it would be included as a vital component of this final part's strategy.

Prior to coming face to face with the six Demi Spirit-esque monsters, he had already absorbed vast amounts of mana via his flames, courtesy of the hardened liquid of the Vesios, which had originally been intended to slow them down. It was infused with quite a bit of mana, so this had strengthened his flames to a point which he had never needed to endure - all before he had even arrived in this place.

"Tsk… this shit really hurts. Can't wait for this to be over."

Unhappily muttering to himself and clearly wincing a bit, the intensity of Bete's flames increased by multiple steps, until he found it difficult to resist them. At this point, knowing that he couldn't risk increasing the power any further, he shot through the small remnants of the Magics that still lingered in the air, which couldn't even hope to scratch him any longer due to his significantly buffed Endurance stat.

Giving the former Grand Treants no opportunity to begin their second round of attacks, he almost instantly crashed straight into the one that he had already been extremely close to, annihilating two of its faces with a single kick and letting his flames consume the monster's body afterwards. Despite its desperate struggles, its not-yet-burned tentacles couldn't even get close to him before they were incinerated by the blaze that tormented him. A punch later, the last of the faces had been destroyed, causing the entire 'pillar' to stop moving and catch on fire even quicker, just like dead wood that had been left to dry for decades.

Breathing heavily, Bete quickly determined that the other five creatures had already finished their chanting and had him in their figurative crosshairs, then he deactivated his Hati, letting the flames fizzle out completely.

Finding it difficult to stay standing upright due to the self-inflicted torture that he had experienced, Bete staggered a little. Before any of the Magics could harm him, a green magical barrier enveloped him once more, keeping him safe and secure. At the very same moment, a vial of Mermaid Blood appeared in front of his eyes, which he quickly took and gulped down with reckless abandon.

'I'll leave the rest… to the others. They better not mess this up, else I'd have suffered for nothing.'

Inwardly cheering his comrades on in his own particular manner, Bete closely observed his surroundings. Right as the enemies had sent their second wave of attacks his way, his allies had chosen to enter the scene, perfectly according to plan. The five Xenos all ganged up on the monstrosity that was the second closest to the hallway they had come from, while Finn, Gareth, Tiona and Tione each had their own target to take care of. The 'old hag' was responsible for support, defense and healing, so she stood at the hall's entrance, keeping an eye on the entire situation and intervening whenever necessary.

There was no need to even mention Finn's and Gareth's battles - they were over pretty much as soon as they began. While these Demi Spirit-esque monsters were indeed a threat if one had to take their Magics head-on, the two Level 7's easily dispatched them in the brief moments between their second and third volleys of attacks.

During Tione's fight, she made use of her List Iorum to momentarily restrain and effectively silence her opponent while it was chanting its third Magic, giving her just enough time to slice it to pieces utilizing her Zolas, her pair of kukri knives. As for Tiona, she had to rely on Riveria's second strongest defense Magic, Veil Breath, to tank multiple Magics while she attacked the massive writhing pillar with her Urga, a double-bladed sword which was about one and a half times as tall as she was. Like a whirlwind of blades, she cut a path straight through the former Grand Treant, until it finally breathed its last.

Regarding the Xenos, they were the ones who had to rely the most heavily on Riveria's support, because all of them were still 'only' at Level 5. The sheer stat difference between them and their opponent, which was suspected to be about equal to a Level 6 in all stats but Agility, was difficult to overcome, so they could only slowly chip away at it over time.

The one with the biggest contributions aside from Ray, who blinded the faces using her feathers, and Gros, who endured the majority of the tentacles' varied attacks, was Gryuu, the Green Dragon. His bluish-green flame breath attacks managed to injure their plant-based enemy the heaviest. Eventually, two or three minutes after their battle had begun, the last Demi Spirit-esque monster was vanquished.

-----

"This cannot be! How?! Just… how can all three of them have reached Level 7? How did Nine Hell's mastery over magic advance this far? Also, how are Vanargand, Crusher and Jormungand already all at Level 6!? HOW?!?! This doesn't make any sense…"

With deeply bloodshot eyes, Dionysus witnessed almost all of his precious aces being unable to mount an effective resistance against his enemies. No matter how hard he thought about it, none of this added up. Having six adventurers as strong as these ones rank up within a time period of a couple of weeks, with no prior indication, was simply unheard of. It had never happened before. But the real crux of it all was most definitely Riveria's vastly improved magical skillset. She had faintly touched upon a realm that, in his eyes, only deities should be able to reach. How could he have possibly accounted for such a thing?

Thinking about it further, he realized that his plans, even should they not have been interrupted prematurely, would have most likely failed anyway. Unless he managed to fool all of these dangerous individuals and led them to their deaths individually, there would have been nothing that he could have done. A direct confrontation with all of Orario, which he had originally aimed for, would have simply been him courting death.

Chuckling to himself in an almost maniacal manner, the crazed deity injected nearly all of his left-over Divine Energy into the golden cup that he had been holding onto all this time, waiting for the created liquid to finish the first step of nourishing the very last card that he had to play. It was a real shame that it would never reach its full potential, but the bare minimum would have to do for now.

Half a minute later, as the last battle against the Inferior Demi Spirits came to a close, the earth trembled all of a sudden and an enraged roar violently shook the entirety of Knossos. Even many kilometers above, on the surface, a very slight tremor could vaguely be felt.

'I know this won't be enough to turn it all around, but my Nidhogg should be able to take a few of these people down with it at the very least.'

Clenching his fists tightly and staring at the mirror in front of him without blinking, Dionysus excitedly anticipated the bloodbath that was fast approaching.