Within the Apollo Familia mansion, every member was suiting up for battle. Since Hestia wouldn't agree with his proposition, Apollo decided to besiege their Familia to either destroy them or force them to accept their challenge. All for the single purpose of obtaining the three rising stars from their Familia.
Just to make sure of their success, he also hired some outside help to attack them. More specifically, those from the Soma Familia, who were very desperate for money and would do almost anything for it.
Of course, Apollo was aware of the heavy sanctions that he may receive from the Guild after doing this, but it was not something that he couldn't pay.
Aside from that, he also invited numerous Gods to watch this 'entertainment' and would ask for some 'compensation' to recoup his potential losses after this.
Within Apollo's study room, his executives were gathered while waiting for their members and the Soma Familia to get ready, "We received some intel that said that two of their members had left Orario the other day and our targets, along with the new members of the Artemis Familia, seem to have stayed in the Dungeon last night, so we can expect weaker resistance from them.", reported Daphne.
Apollo's smile widened, "Great. How about your little plan, Hyakinthos?"
"I sent some of our members before daybreak, Apollo-sama. Since their store is their only establishment, they won't be able to use it if by chance there's an escape route from it. I've also asked the people who have records regarding the basement level of that ruined church and we've been reassured that it isn't connected to anything, so escaping from there is also impossible. They won't be able to escape, Apollo-sama.", replied Hyakinthos.
"Good. You should depart now."
Hyakinthos bowed his head and said, "As you command, my Lord."
But before they could actually leave the door, the window of the room suddenly opened up with a loud bang, allowing the cold wind to come through, "So this was your plan! How dirty, Apollo."
"Hestia!?", exclaimed Apollo. Beyond the window, Hestia was staring down at him with her arms crossed, "How did you come from there!? This is the third floor, you know!?"
While sneering at him, Hestia replied, "How? Are you not aware of the existence of ladders? You ought to learn more about the Lower World."
The mocking aura that came from Hestia instantly pissed Apollo off, "How did you come here anyway!? What you're doing is trespassing!"
"Heh? You complain about me trespassing when you're here about to attack my place? Are you really that stupid, you damned punk?"
"What!?" Apollo lost his patience and was about to command his children to catch her when she continued speaking.
"Well, enough of that. I'm actually here to tell you what you wanted to hear from me." Hestia then pointed at his face with a smug expression, "I accept your challenge."
The instant she said that, something flew by her left shoulder with an amazing speed and hit Apollo square in the face, creating a loud slap, "Gahh!!!"
That something covered Apollo's head with red ink and the splash it created on the wall behind him created a message, 'Whatever your rules are, we'll accept! As long as you can bet everything in the name of the Apollo Familia and never set foot in Orario for at least 100 years~!'
While everyone was stunned and Apollo was busy wiping off the ink, Hestia jumped down while shouting, "The War Game is on! So you guys make sure Apollo won't do anything that will upset our chances of winning or that'll be extremely boring!"
From below, a small maid with purple hair jumped up and caught Hestia midair to slowly cancel her momentum, before running towards the front gate to escape, "Apollo~! Don't make these people wait for too long~!"
Soon enough, the Deities that were inside the mansion cheered in unison, "It's finally here!"
Since there weren't any people guarding the gates due to them being busy, Hestia and Medusa were able to escape without any problem and returned to their place. When they arrived, both of them saw Kisuke and Artemis standing in front of the supposedly destroyed store.
"Welcome back~." Kisuke greeted them.
With a twitching mouth, Hestia asked, "Since when did you rebuild the store?"
"Rebuilt the store? What do you mean?", asked Artemis.
"Y-you didn't see the state of the store this morning?"
"Hmm? I helped out with making breakfast and waking up the kids. I came out not long ago since you were taking your time to come back down. Did something happen?"
Hestia sighed and shook her head, "Haah, it doesn't matter. He already created that giant cavern so a small store shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, we've declared war on the Apollo Familia."
Artemis paused for a moment before replying, "I feel that I should be worried, but I can only feel pity for them."
Putting his fan in front of his face, Kisuke laughed out loud, "A free mansion will be good~! We can't have Claire and Ophis always staying underground."
"I guess you're right about that. We should just use the Denatus, but since you told him that he can make any rule, Apollo would surely go for borderline shamelessness."
"It doesn't matter. As long we can kick them out, anything's fine."
.
.
.
The Denatus to discuss their War Game was scheduled two days later. During that time, all sorts of rumors started floating around regarding the Hestia Familia and them being just a group of Level 2s going against a Familia with at least a hundred members and multiple of them being Level 3.
Due to this strength difference, many people assumed that they'd be skipping the town and those from the Apollo Familia seemed to believe the same thing as their members were guarding the gates of the city to prevent them from skipping.
The news regarding what Apollo wanted from the Hestia Familia also spread like wildfire, earning various reactions about it. Most of them were disgusted by it while some took pity on them. Takemikazuchi and Miach, on the other hand, were very worried about them and wanted to lend a hand, at least, to help them at escaping but Hestia just reassured them that there was nothing to worry about.
Apollo was also worried about the Hephaestus and Loki Familia giving some assistance to the Hestia Familia because he received some reports that said that they were 'getting along'. But he put his worries down when he saw no movements from either of them, with the latter even openly celebrating Hestia's misfortune.
But even if they gave them assistance, Apollo had already thought of the rules to make it invalid, at least for the current Hestia Familia.
After Hestia left for the Denatus, Sona, Aika, Koneko, Akeno, Irina and Serafall finally returned to the surface.
"Uhmm... What's going on?", inquired Sona from Kisuke, who was on his break.
"We're smashing some heads. The Apollo Familia kept bothering you, didn't they? This is your chance to retaliate legally~!"
"...Just how did the situation devolve to this?"
"They messed with my shop."
"..."
The girls could only silently pray for their opponents.