With the great divide in the middle of the battlefield, the movement of the monsters was greatly disturbed, allowing the Adventurers and Mercenaries to push the frontlines and give themselves some much-needed breathing time.
Serafall was waiting for everyone else to move out since her job was only to protect the Deities. Creating a pathway for them was already a bonus, "...What are you guys waiting for? Go!"
"Let's go." Ottar calmly uttered before he started running at full speed on the newly created path.
"..." Finn wanted to ask what just happened but knew that it was not the time for that, 'I don't know how Riveria got acquainted with her and how she was able to so easily teleport, but what we have to do hasn't changed.' He thought as he started following after Ottar.
Soon the entire group followed them, swallowing their shock and confusion while also clearing their minds to focus on their current goal right now. Although they were relieved that someone very strong was among their ranks, none of them thought of just handing over the Black Dragon's head. Even though they formed a coalition to ensure the safety of people and take back the land, they were still prideful Adventurers and Mercenaries.
Upon seeing them go, Serafall snapped her fingers once again and the Deities behind her started floating. But before they started following the group Serafall addressed something important without turning her head, "I'm going to make this clear, but I'm not involving myself in the actual fighting. Even if some of them start dropping dead."
Despite her very cold Magic, from her earlier interactions, Serafall seemed to be a very warm person. However, right now, there's this distinct coldness that's surrounding her that makes it seem she's a very cruel person. The Devil King was present.
"...But why? You obviously have the power." Hermes muttered softly.
Too bad for him, Serafall didn't deem to explain herself and they just started flying after everyone else.
However, Loki, Freya, and Zeus could tell that her cruelty was not directed to the children, but to something or someone else. Hence, they didn't ask.
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The elite team soon reached Orario, but the previously cleared path was already riddled by new monsters that came from the Dungeon. Though none of that was a problem since this is what they were expecting from the start even before Serafall helped them.
"Shakti, Ilta, we'll leave the rear to you two. Tsubaki, Gareth, Ouka, take the pressure from the monsters. Ottar, Allen, Hogni, you have autonomy on what you want to do. I trust your judgment. The rest of you, we'll go straight into the Dungeon and lure out the Black Dragon." Finn started gushing out with commands as monsters from all directions started besieging them.
The group was able to easily break through the crowd of monsters and was about to reach the Dungeon when a familiar roar resounded from deep within it causing Ais to shake.
[Ais... Don't listen to it.] Aria's voice deep inside her head sent a feeling of warmth and protection into Ais' mind and she was able to clear her head.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group stopped their steps and saw a 15-meter-long silhouette of a dark being flying up and taking the sky's supremacy. Its single working dark red eye looked down on everyone while it flapped its wings. "GRAAAHHHHH!!!!!"
Along with its dreadful throat-tearing roar was a cloud of poisonous Black Wind that brought about the curse of decay.
"Move as planned! But be careful. Don't ever let up your defenses! If your defense is breached, immediately inform everyone and retreat temporarily to get treated!" Finn shouted as the ground beneath him cracked and caved in before throwing his spear at the flying Black Dragon.
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"Amazing... To think they could easily endure its decaying breath..." Zeus muttered while watching the fight from the sky with others, "Back at our last clash, my and Hera's children had to constantly drink Elixirs and Antidotes while also casting anti-curse spells just to keep fighting."
"It was this Ki and the development of Magic that one could learn as long as they know how to manipulate Magic Power." Hephaestus replied, "It's an incredible tool that allowed the children to develop their powers that shouldn't have been possible without a God's blessing. It has been a while since it has spread through the whole world and there are even some children of the Lower World who could fight and defeat those who received a blessing without receiving it themselves."
"And because of that, the faith in Deities has significantly decreased." Hermes added, "Some Familia's even prohibited learning this as they saw this as a disrespect to the Gods."
Hearing that, Loki couldn't help but sneer, "Such fragile egos. Just because their children could live without their help, they wanted to deny their hard work."
"It's a real problem in some parts, though." Freya sighed, "There are some reports of Gods being betrayed by their children and abandoned, causing a great degree of resentment to the inhabitants of the Lower World before returning to the Upper Realm."
After that, everyone became quiet. They all tried to gauge Serafall's reaction since they knew that this method of gaining power originated from their group. Serafall could feel their gazes but chose to ignore it since no amount of explanations she had right now would satisfy them, much less take responsibility for those Gods who lost their children.
"Enough about that." Loki ended the topic and turned her attention back to Zeus, "You still haven't explained why you had to sacrifice your own entire Familia just to save and extract Ais from the Black Dragon."
"It was a promise from a thousand years ago. I promised Albert and Aria that I would save their daughter. Of course, I didn't force my children to go to such a length just to fulfill a promise. The main reason is that Ais was a child born out of a miracle. A miracle between the union of a man and Spirit. If Ais were to get absorbed by the Black Dragon, we have no way of knowing what's going to happen but we all agreed that it was going to be very dangerous."
"How did such a miracle come to be in the first place?" Loki asked again.
However, this time, Zeus refused to answer.