Knossos(1)

'splash' 'splash'

The sound of crushed puddles and the pungent smell accompanied the Loki Familia as they walked through the sewers beneath Daedalus Street.

'Who would have imagined that one day I would walk inside the sewer of a fantasy city.'

Mocking his situation, the group continued through the long, humid and dark tunnel as they reached the spot Finn had found.

"It's definitely a trap." -Commented Loki.

A giant gate stood in front of them. The doors were decorated with reliefs that resembled dragon scales, and on either side, there were two columns with perfectly sculpted gargoyles on them. Finally above the gate, a demonic stone monster looked down on them as if it could not wait to devour them.

"It's a challenge for us, but that's not the problem."

Finn approached the door, only to give it a few knocks and turn back to the others.

"Pure orichalcum, taking it down is impossible."

Also known as the metal of the gods, orichalcum was the hardest ore in the world and only the most skilled smiths were able to work it, and the fact that there was such a large amount of it in front of them surprised even Loki.

(Change of perspective.)

'clank' 'clank'

Inside a narrow tunnel, the sound of something being dug out was repeated again and again.

A man holding a hammer and chisel was digging into the stone with a haunted gaze. The only source of light was a small lantern next to him, which allowed one to see what the man looked like. Greyish-white hair and pale skin of someone who had not seen the sun in a lifetime. You could tell he was severely malnourished, but the intensity with which he dug never diminished.

"Don't you ever get tired Barca?"

The god Thanatos, who until then had been leaning against the wall, asked him bored.

"Leave me alone Thanatos, just talking to you is wasting my time finishing my family's work." -Replied the man in a hoarse voice, not stopping his work.

Barca Perdix, a member of the Thanatos Familia, but that was not the important thing. His ancestor was fascinated by the dungeon and its magnificence, so much so that he wanted to create something similar. As the years went by, that passion of his turned into an obsession. He wanted his work to be equal if not better than the original, but he was a mere human and a work of that size was impossible to finish in a lifetime. Therefore, he inflicted a curse on himself, which would be passed down from generation to generation. This curse would erase all sense of individuality in a person, leaving only the obsession to finish the work.

"Touchy as ever I see. Anyway, the Loki Familia is finally arriving and I want to welcome them as warmly as possible, but to do that I need a gadget similar to yours or your brother's." -Said the god in a sad tone.

"Are you going to ruin my work?" -Barca's voice became harsher.

"Come on, don't say that. Besides, wasn't this place built to imitate the dungeon? If you don't let adventurers in to test it, your work can never surpass the original."

Thanatos whispered gently in his ear, making the man stop for the first time, who sighed in acceptance.

"Good boy. Now let's go back and enjoy the show."

When he turned back, the god's smile was so distorted that the tips of his lips reached his eyes.

(Loki Familia.)

'rumble'

As the group thought about how they could enter, the doors of the gateway opened, connecting them to a long corridor whose end was not visible due to the darkness that could not be removed by the few lanterns attached to the walls.

"Bete, Cruz search the area, but don't go too deep."

After analyzing the situation for a few moments, Finn gave the command to the two, who entered carefully. However, it took less than ten minutes before they returned and told what they saw.

"In the vicinity there is nothing, but at a certain point the streets begin to branch out, like a real maze." -Said Cruz hesitantly, as he looked down the corridor.

There was insecurity in the group. On the one hand, entering would have meant being in the enemy's house, but on the other hand, it was impossible to leave it like this.

"We will go in."

There was a grave seriousness in his voice. Even though they had managed to find the enemy base, something was wrong and the tingling in his thumb increased that feeling.

To stay safe, he decided to split the group in two. In the rear would remain Rivera with Loki and others in case of emergency, while the rest would go as the vanguard.

Bete was not so happy with the choice, as he considered the other members more of a burden than a help, but as Tione pointed out, without support it would be difficult for them to continue.

Without wasting any time, everyone began to prepare and organize the things to bring.

"Hehehe, forbidden love between elves, my eyes have been blessed."

"You have serious problems you know?" -Commented Mark with annoyance to the goddess.

"Said the dungeon addict." -Loki huffed.

Mark rubbed his eyes. He believed that he would get used to this goddess, but that thought grew more and more distant every time he spoke to her.

Ignoring her complaints, he turned in the direction Loki was looking, where he saw Lefiya and another dark-haired, red-eyed elf talking amongst themselves.

The elf's name was Filvis, a level 4 member of the Dionysus Familia and also the friend Lefiya had told him about enthusiastically.

"Is it ok to let a member of another Familia join us?" -Mark asked, drawing the interest of Gareth, who was standing nearby.

"Technically no, but after she helped us in the investigation of the 24th floor and after some research on her I don't see the problem. Besides, she doesn't seem to be lying when she says she's worried about Lefiya."

"If you say so." -Gareth seemed to accept this.

Mark, on the other hand, was not entirely convinced. From the others' point of view, there might not be a problem, but it was different for him. The girl's aura was too big to be that of a level 4. However, there was one feature that made it difficult to assess, and that was the fact that the aura was split perfectly in half vertically.

'Do you know anything about it?' -He asked the Guide.

[Difficult to make a general appraisal. What I can see is that her soul isn't damaged or anything, it's simply split in half, and consequently, she can't manifest her full strength].

"We are ready. Bete, Tione and Tiona will lead. Anakitty will be in charge of any traps, while Mark will take care of spotting the monsters. Finally, Paul will mark the areas we have visited with chalk, while Rakta will be responsible for mapping the roads. If there are no problems, it's time to go in."

Hearing Finn's command, Mark turned his attention away from the elf, who although suspicious, was not the main problem.

As they walked down the corridor, Mark scanned the structure that began to branch off into several corridors. The walls were made of purplish brick and the ceiling was supported by several arches that supported the weight. Statues of monsters and lanterns that illuminated the area were also often seen, but nothing more.

"Another door."

They had already been walking for a while when they encountered several gates identical to the entrance gate, also made from orichalcum.

"Is it just me, or does it look like they're leading us in a specific direction?" -Mark asked, frowning.

"I agree." -Finn nodded.

"I don't think it's a big deal, we can always escape by destroying the walls" -Tiona said confidently.

"I don't think it's that simple."

'Baam!

Gareth's fist hit the wall, causing the area to shake slightly. The part of the wall made from what looked like bricks was immediately destroyed, but the metal layer behind it had hardly sustained any damage.

"That's not possible... is that adamantine?!"

Being an extremely hard mineral, second only to orichalcum, it was normal for others to be surprised, especially if they were surrounded by it.

"Let me see."

Tione destroyed several pieces of the tunnel, but they all had the adamantine layer, but that wasn't all. Finn recognized that the outer layer was composed of a type of stone dropped by the Obsidian soldier, who lived on the 37th floor, which had a strong resistance against magic.

"This place is literally a fortress." -Concluded Mark.

Indestructible doors, intriguing corridors, walls that resisted attacks from level 6 adventurers, and decreased magic damage. Instead of a base, it felt more like the dungeon

With few choices available, the group continued, until they reached the stairs leading further down.

"I think it's best to split up at this point. If there are too many of us fighting in a confined area, we risk getting in the way of the others, plus it will be faster to explore."

By the time they reached what seemed to be the second floor, the corridor extended to the left and right, so Finn thought it best to split up.

Gareth's group had Ais, Tiona, Tione, and eighteen other mainly level 3 and some level 2 members. In contrast, Finn's group would have fewer level 6 adventurers but balanced with a majority of level 4 and Mark.

"Ah, captain..."

"Good luck Gareth."

"You too Finn, take care."

Ignoring Tione, being held back by Tiona, Finn and Gareth shook hands, and then each headed in their own direction.

The group Mark was in had been walking for several hours already, but of the sight of enemies, still nothing. All they did was walk or descend to a lower floor.

"Can you sense anything, Mark?" -Paul asked fearfully.

"Nothing. The material of the walls prevents me from perceiving whether there is anything on the other side."

This rhythm continued until they reached a room supported by several columns, in which there was a closed door and a corridor at the end, from which the sound of footsteps began to be heard.

"FIIIIIIINN! You don't know what joy it is to be able to see you again, do you remember me, bastard?! I hope you do because otherwise,

you're dead! I'll cut off your limbs! I'll tear off that beautiful face of yours that everyone admires so that my image remains stuck in your SOUL!"

The woman who showed up screamed at the top of her lungs with spittle flying everywhere as her eyes filled with madness and the will to kill settled on Finn.

"... Oi captain, do you have some disease that attracts psychopaths or similar?" -Bete asked wordlessly, looking at the state of the woman.

'Damn, that was a good one.' -Obviously Mark would never admit it.

"Do you know her captain?" -Poul asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. Valletta Grede, one of the leading exponents of the Evilus fifteen years ago, during the Dark Age of Orario. I thought she was already dead."

The Dark Age was the worst period experienced in Orario. When the Zeus and Hera Familia lost most of their members to the One-Eyed Dragon, they were forced to leave the city due to the presence of the Loki and Freya Familia, whose strength had begun to grow. Unfortunately, the hole left by the two Families was not easy to fill, which allowed the Evilus to be more active, causing severe damage to both the city and the dungeon.

Several Familie joined the war between 'good' and 'evil' gods and large numbers of adventurers died and gods were sent back to Paradise.

As could be understood, the Evilus could not hold out for long against the onslaught of the various Familie and after the nightmare of the 27th floor and the fury unleashed by Gale most of the Evilus members were killed.

This also explained Valletta's anger. On the day of the nightmare on the 27th floor, she was there. She and her group had ambushed the enemy forces and expected Finn and his members to come as support, but they did not.

Finn gave up the 27th floor and taking advantage of the fact that most of the Evilus forces were in the dungeon, attacked as many enemy bases as possible. This caused the Evilus members, who had the blessing from the 'evil' gods, that were sent back to heaven, to be canceled while they were still in the dungeon.

"Do you have any idea what it feels like to be in the dungeon with your status locked?! I've lost count of how many monsters have tried to devour me! For that, I will never forgive you! I will catch you and torture you until you beg for a quick death that I will never give you!" -Her eyes were bloodshot as she screamed, but for Finn, it was no big deal.

"Interesting proposal to spend time together, but alas I must decline. You're not really my type, but if you worked on your anger management I might even think about it."

"Hehehe I was hoping you would show that pride."

Laughing maniacally, Valletta pulled out an orb, where an eye seemed to be embedded.

When Finn saw her pull out the object, his expression hardened, especially as the pain in his thumb grew stronger, but it didn't end there.

'Baam!'

"The door we came from has been closed!"

"Forget the door, an exorbitant number of monsters are on their way!"

Mark's shout attracted their attention, and from the other side of the room, the door that had remained closed until then opened, and an avalanche of carnivorous plant-like monsters crashed into them.

"I welcome you to Knossos, our castle, and your grave!"

(Author: I finally have some free time to write, so I hope to publish at least two or three more chapters this week.

Another thing. As you know, I started correcting the old chapters, but what I didn't take into consideration, was that the comments to the paragraphs, which I corrected, were deleted. So if you don't see them, that's the reason.)