As the gods continued their heated debate, Dionysus quietly slipped away.
With everyone's attention focused on Loki and Freya, no one noticed his departure.
Leaving the guild's underground altar, Dionysus returned to his familia and immediately sought out Filvis.
"Filvis, go check the situation in the dungeon right away. If possible, release the sealed monsters."
"Understood, Lord Dionysus."
Filvis nodded and began contacting her doppelgänger.
After being transformed into a monstrous being, Filvis had been unable to accept her new self, but eventually, she came to terms with it. After mastering the doppelgänger magic, she split her dark side and the monstrous powers into a separate entity.
The Filvis of today was only half of her original self, with the other half embodied in her doppelgänger.
In Orario, now veiled under a blanket of dark clouds, a masked figure swiftly moved through the shadowy streets.
The Babel Tower, originally constructed to suppress the monsters underground, was now tightly sealed. A large number of adventurers surrounded it, ensuring that nothing could break through. The entrance to the dungeon had been closed off, and to prevent a potential monster breach, adventurers were stationed around it as a precaution.
The masked figure slipped through the blockade without a sound and entered the Babel Tower.
At the sealed dungeon entrance, several powerful adventurers stood guard. Among them were Finn, Riveria, and Gareth from the Loki Familia, along with Ottar, Allen, and the Four Flame Warriors from Freya's Familia. Additionally, the leaders of other powerful familias had gathered there as well.
The situation was dire enough to warrant the combined efforts of all the major familias.
This made things difficult for the masked figure. If there had only been a few adventurers, sneaking in might have been possible. But with so many present, attempting to break into the dungeon and reopen its entrance was nearly impossible.
"To be honest, Ottar, I never imagined that one day we'd be fighting side by side," Finn remarked, glancing at Ottar.
The two had been rivals for years, so it was surprising to find themselves on the same side.
The other adventurers exchanged wary glances as well. As the heads of the two most powerful familias, tensions had always run high between them, and their relations were anything but amicable.
"Finn, hasn't that man shown up?" Ottar asked.
"Are you talking about August? No, he hasn't. He's a newcomer to our familia, a seed of hope—we can't afford to lose him."
"A newcomer? That man is a monster, a true monster," Ottar replied coldly.
Behind him, neither Allen nor the Four Flame Warriors disputed this claim. In fact, August had become something of a fixation for Allen, haunting his thoughts.
The eldest of the Four Flame Warriors couldn't forget how August had single-handedly overpowered all of them—a feat that cemented him as a fearsome figure in Allen's mind.
Finn, however, was unaware of August's astonishing feats. He merely thought Ottar was referring to August's victory over him in the dungeon, considering it no small feat to defeat Orario's strongest adventurer. To Finn, such a newcomer truly was a monster.
But the rest of the adventurers were on edge due to the current crisis. Now was not the time to stir up old rivalries.
Since Ottar hadn't been defeated publicly, only a few people from the two familias were aware of the event. To everyone else, Ottar was still seen as Orario's strongest adventurer.
"Hm?" Ottar suddenly turned toward a corner, sensing a faint killing intent.
But when he looked again, there was nothing there. He chalked it up to his nerves, or perhaps a disturbance among the monsters below.
The masked figure, hiding in the shadows, was surprised. Ottar had almost noticed her. It seemed the man's instincts were sharper than she expected.
However, with so many people present, breaking through the blockade and opening the dungeon entrance would not be easy.
Then, as she scanned the adventurers outside, an idea came to her.
During the recent Monster Festival, she had brought some newly-bred monsters to the surface. Although the ones near the pool had been dealt with, some had survived and were still hiding in Orario's underground waterways.
If she could use these man-eating plant monsters to create a distraction, even for a short time, it would give her the opportunity she needed.
With this plan in mind, the masked figure began to summon the plant monsters.
As a modified beast-tamer, this was well within her abilities.
'Boom!'
"Monsters have appeared! Everyone, attack! Don't let them escape!"
"Right! Let's get them!"
"Mages, start chanting. We'll cover you!"
"There are too many of them!"
…
Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside, drawing the attention of those inside the tower.
"Not good, Finn! Those plant monsters from before have appeared!" Tiona came running in, her face full of urgency.
"Plant monsters? The new species?"
"Yes!"
"Could it be... the monster on the fifty-ninth floor wasn't the main body?"
Finn muttered, causing a ripple of shock among the adventurers around him.
Loki Familia had recently slain a Corrupt Spirit on the fifty-ninth floor of the dungeon, marking a legendary achievement. It had been confirmed that the new species of monsters were all created by this Corrupt Spirit to gather magical energy.
But now that these monsters were reappearing, did that mean the spirit had survived? Could it be responsible for this new chaos?
"Ottar, I'm leaving things here to you. I'll go check outside," Finn instructed.
"Understood."
With a curt nod, Finn rushed out, followed by his group.
The square in front of the Babel Tower had already turned into a battlefield. Plant monsters were everywhere, and many adventurers had been caught off guard.
Because the monsters' vines had ensnared several adventurers, the mages couldn't freely cast spells for fear of harming their allies.
"Damn it! Tiona, Tione, Bete, let's go!"
"Yeah!"
"Understood, Captain."
"It's about time."
With Finn's arrival, the adventurers regained their morale. The four of them charged into the midst of the monsters, swiftly cutting them down. Within minutes, the number of plant creatures began to dwindle rapidly.
___
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