Chapter 52

The time of the raid had finally come, one final meeting was called because reports of the nightmare reaching the 20th floor had arrived.

"It could have already reach the 19th floor, considering the time it took for the scouts to report back" Gareth said which made the room quiet. The nightmare was advancing to the surface a bit too fast.

"Don't worry the Astraea familia and I are ready to depart" Riveria said to break the silence.

I just sat in a corner of the room watching things. I didn't really have much say in front of such high ranking familia's.

I was invited here so might as well make myself useful. I wore my cloak, making my features less visible because Ais could be anywhere around here and conflict with her now wasn't what I needed.

Though I planned to milk the Loki familia through her, I had bigger issues such as surviving the evilus final onslaught with my familia. I already managed to get them assigned to the Ganesha familia home to protect the civilians there.

I didn't know where I would be assigned yet but I prayed to any higher god out there that it wasn't the dungeon group. I had a high chance of meeting Alfia, the fake dragon kin or even Zald, if I was included in that group or was I jinxing myself.

"Change of plans, Draco, Gareth and Ais will go with you Riveria. I have a bad feeling and my thumb has been twitching a lot lately" Finn suddenly said and looked at my direction.

'Seriously, what the hell?? Why are they working a mere level 2 to death. Does Finn expect me to tickle the Nightmare to death or was I just canon fodder'. These thoughts plagued my mind as i was just too shocked to reply.

The others the room were surprised but decided to do it since they trusted Finn's instincts.

......

In another location Astraea and Hermes were talking about something while the rest of the Hermes familia moved around, preparing for the battle with the evilus.

"Hermes, I think that Erebus is in the dungeon" Astraea said. This shocked Hermes but he couldn't really say that it was impossible.

"That's is unlikely but even if its true, what do you plan to do about it" Hermes replied.

"…..". Astraea remained silent but she already had an idea in her head. Hermes seeing that she would not say anymore now decided to change the topic a bit.

"Did you hear that some of the Evilus raided the Bahamut familia's manor" Hermes suddenly said.

"Yes, I heard from Bahamut herself but she was strangely calm about it" Astraea replied.

"Calm you say, that crazy goddess" Hermes said in shock as a shiver went down his spine.

"Hey she is my friend don't call her crazy" Astraea replied.

"Hope she doesn't do anything here". Hermes muttered before changing the topic to something else.

......…..

Before going into the dungeon, Lyra and Asfi finally came out looking very exhausted. They had spent 77 hours working on a magic item to deal with Alfia's magic. Neze saw Lyra carrying a shield and asked what it was.

"It's a secret weapon" Lyra replied. Ryuu seeing both of them was a bit worried for their well-being because they would be entering the dungeon soon and with them looking like that, something bad could happen.

"Hi" a voice suddenly came from behind Ryuu making her jump in fright. A cloaked figure was what came into her sight when she turn around.

"Draco is that you??" Ryuu asked.

"The one and only" I replied. My actions made the other Astraea familia members less tense and chuckled at Ryuu's earlier reaction.

"When did you get here and why are you covering yourself…?" Ryuu said, barraging me with a series of questions.

My enhanced senses quickly picked up and incoming attack from a small figure, It was Ais. I was a bit shocked because, I was fully covered and have never met her directly before. With my fast reflexes, I dodged her initial attack and countered with a kick to her side.

"Ais what are you doing" Riveria yelled, appearing along with Gareth at the meeting location.

"Cough, I was attacking this suspicious person in a black cloak" Ais replied while tilting her head in confusion. It seemed that my counter landed and knocked some air out of her.

"Quickly apologize" Riveria said while scolding Ais. I felt a bit relieved she didn't attack because she saw my true form or my money milking plan would be gone.

"Sorry" Ais said with an expressionless face. It was hard to tell if she was messing with me or just being sincere.

"No worries and nice to formally meet you Riveria. Gareth it's been a while" I replied. I had never really formally met Riveria but me and Gareth had met a lot of times at the hq in city center.

"Ah you must be Draco, I have heard a lot about you. I hope we will have some time to talk more after all this is over" Riveria said with an expression of deep interest. I nodded to her in reply while Gareth just nodded to my greeting.

"Have we met before" Ais suddenly said while looking at Ryuu. Ryuu not wanting us to know that she fought Ais before just denied their meeting. Well Ryuu wasn't very good at lying so it wasn't hard to guess that she was hiding something.

Soon we started our dive into the dungeon but to my surprise Asfi wasn't coming with us. Apparently she had other duties to attend.

Swarms of monsters kept attacking our party but were nothing more than a nuisance now because they were from the upper and middle floors .

"Where are we going to fight the Nightmare?" Neze suddenly asked. It was said that the Nightmare was as big as a monster rex. A large space was required to fight it freely.

"The constant monsters spawning is also a problem, they could swarm us in a small space" Alise added.

"We will most likely fight it on the 18th floor. It is spacious and monsters don't spawn there" Riveria answered after listening to the conversation.

"Yea Finn also said the same thing and had us prepare till the last moment for it" Lyra added.

........

Meanwhile back on the surface, the evilus started their attack on the city by destroying the four gates on Orario's walls with explosives and led many monsters into the city.

Chaos spread and sounds of battle could be heard everywhere. Blood was constantly been spilled but the adventurers fought back bravely.

"The evilus truly are crazy" Royman, the guild leader suddenly said.

"I was expecting this" Finn replied which further shocked Royman.

"Then why did you let them destroy the gates" Royman yelled in anger.

"That would leave fewer people to defend babel" Finn calmly replied, silencing Royman.

Valletta soon noticed that there were few people protecting the places where some civilians were.

At least the ones that refused to move to safer locations as instructed. She deduced that Finn was using the people as bait after hearing that they sent out multiple scouts.

She also guessed that they were used to determine the location of Zald and Alfia. The fake dragon kin that was part of their forces went missing yesterday but the plan still had to move forward.

"The wall of ice at the center of the city is probably where their main force is located" Valletta muttered. She couldn't send just a small unit nor everyone of their forces. She though about it for a brief moment before deciding to send Zald.

Zald was watching the view of Orario being destroyed when he was approached by someone. Turning his head in the direction of the approaching person to discover that it was just Vito.

The two of them talked for a while but Vito was curious about one thing that had been bugging him and now was his best chance to ask Zald.

Vito hated the gods and admired heroes but couldn't figure out why someone he considered to be a great hero was on the dark side.

"Why did you come to our side" Vito suddenly asked.

"Does your hate come from the fact that you can't see Colours?" Zald asked in counter to Vito's question. Vito was shocked by Zald's question but didn't get to reply as Zald continued speaking.

"Aside from my sense of touch, all my other senses are completely gone. This is the source of my hate that drives me to insanity" Zald said. Vito was so shocked to know this, that all he could mutter in reply was "Monster".

"Heroes and monsters are almost the same, that is why I fell to the dark side. I believe the true reason that I have fallen this far is because it is necessary" Zald said in conclusion before they were interrupted by an evilus member that came to deliver Valletta's letter to him.

A/N: Thanks for reading. See ya all Monday. Feel free to read ahead at my pat3on and donate. Also check out my other work. Journey through fictional realities.