Thanatos Familia

Sighing listlessly, a god with a head of long, purple hair that reached all the way to the end of his shoulder blades fell back into his comfortable leather chair and closed his dark purple eyes. His outfit consisted of black shoes and pants, as well as a tattered robe of primarily the same colour that had grey patterns stitched on, as well as purplish highlights towards the edges. Overall, he gave off a gloomy, depressed aura, intermixed with a 'healthy' dose of rueful self-deprecation.

'So… they're all dead. I expected this to happen, but… I really dislike this feeling.'

The sensation of having his connection to his children cut off left him with a void that was difficult to fill. Although he hadn't had a particularly close relationship with them, nor had he liked them much - if at all - to have them suddenly disappear like that was not something that he had ever grown used to, no matter how many times that it had happened during the few hundred years that he had been in the Lower World.

'Today's circumstances are the most precarious ones that Evilus has ever found itself in since its establishment. I wonder what Valletta will do to deal with this. Will she reach out to the ones currently travelling all over Peira? Perhaps to that kid that Erebus was so fond of? Oh well, it doesn't really matter.'

Once more sighing to himself, Thanatos shook his head, grabbed a bottle of expensive liquor and poured himself a glass. Whilst taking a sip, he stared aimlessly at the ceiling, recalling the days of old. In all honesty, he had never really wanted to take up this mantle. The only god left in Evilus? What a burdensome position, especially when he had never particularly yearned to join them to begin with. But… his friends had found the organization and what it stood for tempting, so they dragged him along. Decades later, they had all been forced to return to Heaven, while he was the only one left.

'Putting up airs just to seem imposing to the kids is really exhausting. Ah… if only I could just go back up there too…'

Smiling mockingly at his half-hearted wish, he shook his head. If he had truly been motivated to do so, then he would have just ended his mortal vessel's life - but he hadn't done so. Admittedly, that was mostly because he just couldn't be bothered to, but also due to the responsibility that he felt to see things through to the end once he started them.

All of a sudden, an almost imperceptible noise reached his ears, making him turn his head to see a figure entirely wrapped within a black robe standing just three meters away from him. The style of robe was distinctly different from those of the members of Evilus, but it covered even more of the body, shrouding it in mystery and making it impossible to tell whether the being wearing it was male or female.

Honestly, he had no clue how they had gotten here, as he hadn't perceived his door getting opened at all, but he didn't panic. After all, he knew that this was a messenger sent by his dear friend, Dionysus.

Upon realizing that they had been noticed, the figure hastily pulled out a dagger from somewhere underneath their robes, causing the god seated on the leather chair to freeze up momentarily, before showing a relieved, bright smile.

'Ah, so that's how it is. So he's planned to get rid of me here. Is he trying to pin everything on me? No, that wouldn't work out, and he knows that. Hmm… maybe he just wants to destroy the majority of Knossos to sow confusion in our enemies' ranks? Whatever it is, I guess I can finally retire!'

Happily closing his eyes to welcome the slightly painful journey home, he anticipated the fatal blow to come. But when it eventually started its descent towards him, it was intercepted by the sound of his door banging loudly against the wall, as well as the noise of metal clashing against metal.

"Ein, you bitch! Fuck off, you hear me?! I won't allow you to kill him!!"

Taken aback at this turn of events, as well as at the familiar voice of his familia's child, Thanatos' eyes abruptly opened, revealing the scene of a woman with medium-length pink hair facing against the veiled intruder by the name of Ein. Her yellow eyes burned with hatred and annoyance, but her arms, which were exerting her full strength, were slightly buckling underneath the mounting pressure of the attacker's one-handed, casual stab.

Although it looked like Thanatos' unwelcome reinforcement was on the verge of loss, Ein paused for a moment, before retracting their dagger and marching out of the door as if they had never been present at all, vanishing in a matter of seconds.

'Huh? Why did Ein just leave like that?'

His eyes almost tearing up in disappointment as well as disbelief, Thanatos stared at the spot at which his 'saviour' had stood mere moments ago, then he smirked derisively at himself and shook his head. Putting on a more dignified expression to live up to his prestigious position within Evilus, especially in front of the current Head Executive of the organization, Valletta Grede, he glanced at the woman that had just forcefully refused his friend's kind retirement offer without his consent.

She was about a head or so shorter than him, who was close to 190 centimeters tall, and wore a black top that exposed her fit stomach as well as long, tight-fitting pants of the same colour that sported red lines which helped to set them apart from bog-standard unicolour clothing. Both of these were rather worn and torn - they had holes throughout which made them appear both more stylish as well as oddly enough somewhat visually appealing, in a sensual way. A brown belt with a few pouches was fastened to her right thigh, in which she stored various small weapons, poisons and potions. Usually, she would be wearing a black coat with grey fur decorations as well, but as this was her home and because she had apparently barged in here in a hurry, she hadn't had the time to put it on. Speaking of, she also hadn't had the opportunity to grab her shoes, so she was barefooted.

Held in her hands was a slightly less than a meter long, black sword, which had three jagged teeth jutting out of its two sharp edges, akin to those of a shark crossed with a saw blade. It wasn't meant to cleanly cut, but to lacerate, to rip apart. This was her most prized possession of all, a cursed sword which would make it excruciatingly difficult to heal the wounds that were inflicted by it.

An unhappy frown had formed on the lips of the woman who looked not a day older than her early twenties despite already having long since entered her thirties. Undoubtedly, she felt as if she had just had excrement stuffed down her throat due to how helpless she had been in this confrontation with Ein.

"Just you wait, I'll properly tear you to pieces next time…"

Mumbling these words while clenching her fists, she took a few deep breaths to urge the frustration, which she currently had no way to vent, to dissipate. Then, she finally bothered to glance at her god, Thanatos, with a mostly unconcerned look in her eyes. Admittedly, if he hadn't been the one to give her a Falna - and with that, her strength - then she wouldn't even care about his life or death in the slightest. But if she lost the power that she currently held, then how could she possibly bathe Orario in a rain of blood? And how would she seek her revenge against that despicable, hateful Pallum?!

"Valletta, my dear, how did you know that I was in danger?"

At Thanatos' curious inquiry, she tilted her head for a second and thought back on what the situation had been like just a couple tens of seconds ago. Everything had honestly all happened so quickly that she hadn't truly had a chance to properly analyze it.

"I was just sitting in my room when I suddenly heard a voice speaking to me, telling me that someone was trying to kill you, and that I would be too late if I didn't interfere immediately. Then… well, I came here, and you know the rest. Wait… something isn't adding up here. Who was it that talked to me!?"

Evidently confused, Valletta rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to pry deeper, for any and all information that could help her figure out this mystery.

"Hmm… I think… it was a guy's voice? Sounded somewhat pleasant, actually. I feel like I've heard it somewhere before, but I can't really put my finger on it. Was I… just hallucinating or something? I mean, I'm certain that there was nobody else in my room. A rare Skill, perhaps? One that lets you communicate with others over long distances? But… how would they have known that you were in danger?"

The further that she followed that train of thought, the more befuddled she became. There were too many unanswered questions, and they just continued piling up, leaving her completely lost in her thoughts.

Next to her, Thanatos showed a look of partial understanding, still intermixed with doubt. He didn't have the answers to all of the questions that Valletta had uttered, but he had a pretty good idea of what was going on now, at least.

'Ah, I see. This strikes me as a god's meddling. Maybe… Hermes? Is he working together with Isis again, perhaps?'

BANG!

Right as both of them were trying to mentally put the pieces of this puzzle together, multiple loud noises resounded from all directions. This, coupled with the alarmed shouts as well as pained cries of the various Evilus members stationed in the headquarters, snapped them out of their ruminations.

"Let me guess. It's the ones that Olivas was sent to catch, but he failed? Nice! Time to have myself a little workout~"

Grinning happily at someone having been so stupid as to deliver themselves to her doorstep, Valletta charged out of Thanatos' room, her cursed sword in hand.

The god couldn't even react or give her a warning. Everything had long since spun out of his control. But despite the solemnity that started to set in, a glimmer of anticipation sparkled in his eyes. Was this another chance at retirement? Was it finally time?!

Merely seconds passed until the almost Level 6 Valletta reached the closest cluster of noises, which had already died down by that time - one of the entrances to Evilus' headquarters. Although it should have been securely locked as well as guarded, it was already open and ten or so bodies of her subordinates 'decorated' the floor. None of this entered her eyes, however. Instead, her gaze had zeroed in on the figure of a blonde Pallum, who was standing protectively in front of seven Level 4's and an Amazoness. Of course, she didn't pay any attention to these accompanying figures either.

"FIIIIINNNNNNN!!!!!"

A guttural roar erupted from deep inside her, then she shot towards this most detested foe of hers with bloodshot eyes.

-----

Speechless at how predictable this scenario had been, Finn internally chided himself for having failed to completely demolish this madwoman's plans in the past, especially considering that she oftentimes amounted to nothing more than a bloodthirsty beast. He didn't feel any threat whatsoever from her presence, especially since he had just recently ranked up.

With a casual swipe of his hand, he brushed against the flat side of her cursed sword, pushing it to the side and making her stumble in her tracks. Then, he thrust out his palm, hitting her right in the exposed stomach. Like a kite with her strings cut, the pink-haired woman flew backwards, crashing into one of the adamantite walls. However, she merely got slightly impeded by it, destroying it in the process. Only the wall of the next room managed to withstand her body's impact after most of the force had already dissipated.

"You fucking… bastard…! Since when did you get so… strong?"

Even though she had just been dealt an extremely heavy blow and was coughing up a few mouthfuls of blood, Valletta nearly instantly rose to her feet again, albeit a little bit unsteadily. The look in her eyes had only grown more murderous and her already tattered clothing had been ripped apart further, revealing half of her chest, which she didn't even bother to hide. Instead, she licked her lips as if happy about having met a challenging foe, despite her clear disadvantage.

"Is it just me or does she seem to be into you, Captain?"

Suddenly, Isaac's voice sounded out next to Finn's ear, barely loud enough for the Loki Familia's two parties that were at this entrance to hear it. Out of the Level 4's, most could restrain themselves, but Aki, Nicole and Cynthia giggled a little, making the Pallum show a wry, powerless smile.

"Even if that was the case, I cannot reciprocate her feelings. She's one of the worst criminals in all of Orario's history. That aside, she also isn't a Pallum, so…"

After whispering these words so that only Isaac could pick them up in an attempt to let this topic end here and at the same time answering the question to what he felt to be a sufficient degree, Finn refocused on the 'battle'. Or, well, he would have done so, had the Amazoness situated very close to him not started to act... unusual.

"She… someone like her… desires MY Captain…?!"

Spitting out that sentence between her clenched teeth at full volume, Tione's eyes instantly turned even more bloodshot than those of the enemy that she was glaring at. Without taking any physical damage whatsoever, her Berserk Skill activated, causing her muscles to swell up more impressively than during a regular battle. Her previously seductive, healthy figure had turned into one of a seasoned female bodybuilder within a few fractions of a second.

Slight bewilderment clouded Valletta's eyes for a moment once Tione's words reached her ears, but before she had any opportunity to regain her senses, a fist had already arrived in front of her face, bashing her backwards and reuniting her with the wall. Accompanied by the cracking of bones and stinging pain, her nose got horribly malformed, marring her otherwise admittedly quite gorgeous features.

"Don't even think about laying your filthy hands on MY Captain! He's MINE, understand? MINE!! He'll be with me, and me only!"

Howling in an animalistic manner, just like Valletta had earlier, Tione continued to punch the completely powerless Valletta, turning her into a bloody pulp step-by-step. Originally, the difference in their stats hadn't been too massive, so Evilus' Head Executive could theoretically still have put up a little bit of a fight, but with Tione's Berserk Skill continually increasing her Strength stat, Valletta couldn't struggle out of her predicament at all. With unresigned, rebellious eyes, she continued to glare at the Amazoness, who was unreasonably beating her up, never having given her a chance to explain herself.

'Who said that I'm into that pipsqueak?! I highly doubt someone of his 'size' could ever satisfy me, even if he tried! Wait, why am I even considering him as a potential partner? Is it because she's hit my head a few times?'

Wincing painedly at the words that Tione shouted while thrashing Valletta, seemingly without any intention of killing her - as she could have easily done so - Finn heaved a deep sigh and covered his face with his right hand in an expression of exasperation.

"Interesting. It seems as if the Berserk Skill can also be triggered via mental damage."

Isaac's words that had been delivered to his ears exclusively caused Finn to freeze up, before the corners of his mouth twitched and rose. The reason as to why he had gotten burdened with a mess like this was now obvious.

'That explains what happened. He only said what he did to rile Tione up and to confirm one of his hypotheses.'

Looking up at nothing in particular - a.k.a. at where he imagined Isaac to be for convenience's sake - and furrowing his brows, Finn smirked a little as he whispered.

"You know, I'd really love to beat you up right now."

Immediately, he got an amused, playful response.

"Sure, go ahead. Feel free to do so once you return."

Baffled for a moment, but then once again sighing helplessly, Finn shook his head and secretly complained, while waving the matter off on the outside.

'He's just going to use that beating of mine for one of his experiments, isn't he? Ugh, he can be so frustrating sometimes…'

"Nevermind."

Moments after their private exchange concluded, the loud 'battle' in their vicinity subsided and an almost entirely bloodstained Tione shyly made her way back to Finn's side, holding her arms behind her back and eyeing him up out of the corner of her eyes. The moment that his gaze turned towards her, she shyly looked away, her eyes darting all over the place, no doubt blushing underneath that layer of fresh blood that covered the majority of her face. Her antics of a young maiden in love, coupled with the results of her rampage, were equal parts cute and concerning.

'... maybe Isaac's got a point and I actually somehow do attract the affection of these kinds of lunatics…'

Thoughts like these couldn't help but bubble to the surface of Finn's mind as he carefully sized up Tione's body to make sure that she hadn't gotten injured. It was actually a bit harder to do so than it seemed, because spotting a small cut or bruise was very difficult due to her new red 'coating'.

"... seems like you're alright. I'm glad. You might have had a tough battle on your hands if she had had a chance to use her rare Magic to lower your stats, so it's good that you ended it quickly."

As he was praising Tione for a job well done, trying to completely ignore the creepily obsessive claims that she had shouted during the battle, Isaac suddenly spoke up once more, this time with a far more intrigued tone of voice than earlier.

"Wait a minute… a rare Magic that can lower someone's stats? And it isn't a Curse? Huh… Captain, could you make her use it somehow? I need to examine it."

Utterly speechless at his request, Finn expressionlessly stared at the brutalized mess that was Valletta, who appeared to barely hang on to a thread of life.

"Umm… even if I wanted to, I don't think she is in any position to do that right now…"

Right after he had voiced his valid concern, a vial of Mermaid Blood appeared in front of his eyes. At a loss for words, he just let it hover there for a while, unsure of what to do or how to react.

"You're not taking it?"

At Isaac's voice tinged with a hint of disappointment, as if his chance at playing with a toy had gotten delayed a little, Finn finally sighed and reached out, grasping the vial. With hurried steps, he walked up to the pink-haired woman and dripped two drops of the blood into her mouth. Thankfully, despite her state, she quickly swallowed it upon recognizing it by its taste. Her eyes displayed her utter bewilderment.

Once her throat had healed somewhat, she spat out the question that now occupied her mind.

"Why are you… helping me?"

Putting on his most polite business smile, Finn patted her shoulder in a friendly manner, before grasping it tightly, putting insurmountable pressure on her with merely a small point of contact. Immediately, her pupils constricted and her eyes shook in disbelief. Only now, after having gotten her head forcefully cooled down via a beating, did she finally successfully glimpse at the realm that her nemesis had reached.

'L-Level 7…?! Just… how? This… isn't it all… over…?'

Ignoring her panic, Finn showed a toothy grin and spoke to her as if he was addressing a buddy of his, but his aura only grew increasingly more threatening.

"Valletta, old pal… how about using that rare Magic or yours once? I REALLY need you to do that, so what do you say~?"

Flabbergasted by his utterly unexpected request, Valletta blanked out for a moment or two, before finally scoffing at him.

"Heh. And why should I do that, you little slave tras— AARRGH!!"

Staring in disbelief at her now-shattered shoulder, whose bones had been fractured into small pieces which cut into her flesh like tiny razor blades at even the slightest of touches or movements, a foreboding feeling settled into her heart. Finn's relaxed, at last more genuine smile only further confirmed her suspicions.

"Oh, I don't know? Maybe because you don't want this to happen to you all that often?"

Dripping another few drops of Mermaid Blood into her mouth after forcing it open with ease, the dashingly handsome Pallum waited a bit until she was mostly healed, then he crushed her shoulder into bits again. He repeated this procedure in a methodical manner until the vial had been entirely emptied.

"So, what now? Will you just kill me? You can't do this forever, after all."

Glaring at him mockingly from underneath, in all of her almost entirely naked glory, which was a result of Tione's handiwork - it had obviously backfired considering that her Captain was now in the close vicinity of an exposed female body - Valletta rejoiced to herself. Admittedly, this experience had been rather gruesome, and - to put it lightly - she would highly prefer it if she didn't have to be injured like that again. With all of the Mermaid Blood gone, a sense of relief had begun to soothe her.

"Well, while I won't be able to do it forever, I certainly can continue for a long, long time~"

Winking at her playfully, Finn seemingly pulled out tens of other vials out of the empty air, perfectly matching his acting with Isaac's actions. Upon layout her eyes on the newly arrived, overwhelming stash of goods, even someone as ruthless as Valletta, a woman who had indulged in torturing others on thousands of occasions, had a cold shiver run down her spine. Her pupils severely constricted in unconcealable fear.

'... that's enough for him to shatter my shoulder… at least 1,200 times. That… I might be able to last through that… but what if he has even more than that?!'

Finally letting go of her last remnants of resistance, Valletta took a deep breath and resigned herself to chanting her Magic, 'Shaldo'. After all, what was the worst that could happen? She would die anyway, and if she did what she was told, then she might be able to get an express ticket to a less excruciating execution.

Half a minute later, the entire room got covered in reddish-purple patterns, significantly impacting the Level 4's that were around, almost dropping their stats by a whole Level. The Level 6 Tione temporarily lost half a Level's worth, while Finn was barely affected. At the same time, Valletta got strengthened by a certain percentage of the stats that her opponents had been suppressed by, albeit not even close to enough of them to even dream of defying her fate.

"Alright, that's good enough. It seems as if my hypothesis was correct - if a Magic has a positive effect on the caster, then even Curse-like properties can be included in it without any issue. Thanks for the hard work, Captain. To repay you for your efforts, I'll invite you to some of Titania's tea later, if you'd like."

The voice that suddenly spoke up around a minute after she had put her Magic into effect made Valletta's eyes open extremely widely in shock. Wasn't that the person who had warned her of the danger that her god had been in? Who were they? Had they asked Finn to torture her just to study her Magic? What exactly was going on? Where were they hiding?!

Turning her head frantically in an effort to find this mysterious person, she struggled to move, already very clear on what would happen next. Even though she had told herself that she had accepted this outcome, when it really came down to it, she didn't want it to end like this!

However, her questions were fated to never get answered, nor was there any chance for her to escape.

With a quick stab, Finn rammed a dagger straight into her heart, twisting it a few times to be sure that it got properly destroyed. Then, to make doubly certain, he also cut off her head with a swift slash, just in case the remnant effects of the Mermaid Blood could have somehow healed this old foe of his. A wave of relief washed over him as he looked into the unwilling eyes of Valletta, who stared daggers at him right until she eventually met her end.

-----

Bound, gagged and slung over the shoulder of a muscular, tall man who was following behind a bare-chested Werewolf, Thanatos closed his eyes and inwardly lamented in pity.

'Ah, Valletta is gone as well. Looks like everyone in the headquarters has met their end. May you be reborn as a kinder person next time, my dear.'