Chapter 14 - Chapter 14

"I literally called it."

Toji paced back and forth across the red carpet of the hotel lounge, dragging a hand down his face in annoyance. "What were my exact words? I said, 'You need to put a leash on that ugly thing.' Did I not say that?"

'God, I want to strangle her stupid, perfect neck,' Toji thought, staring at the Goddess.

Ishtar sat in the center of the room, attempting to project an image of absolute control. "Do not pace. It is giving me a headache."

"Whatever," Toji forced out smoothly, stopping in his tracks while his internal monologue violently cursed her out. "But we had a plan. A quiet, low-effort, A-to-B plan to deal with Freya. I stab the people you want stabbed, you get the prettiest girl title, and I get what I want. But now? The Toad is out there starting a gang war with the Loki Familia."

Ishtar scowled. "She was manipulated! That backwater, battle-crazed loli played her!"

"Well, that makes it so much better," Toji deadpanned. "Your captain isn't just a rogue idiot. She's a gullible rogue idiot. Fantastic leadership. Ten out of ten."

"Watch it, Toji." Ishtar said. "You may be useful to me, but don't mistake that for permission to disrespect my authority."

"Haah...I'm just telling you that this is annoying and could have been avoided." Toji shifted his gaze downward. Beneath Ishtar, a muffled groan echoed from the floor.

She was currently using Lena, the Level 2 Amazon, as a makeshift piece of luxury furniture. She was one of the few low-level grunts left to guard the hotel, and was the one who had the unfortunate fate of telling them the bad news.

"My feet are killing me. Where's my Amazon chair?" Toji grumbled.

"She brought me bad news. This is her punishment," Ishtar said dismissively, crossing her long legs over Lena's back. "Isn't that right, Lena?"

"I-I'm sorry, Ishtar-sama..." Lena whimpered into the carpet beneath the Goddess. "I'm sorry...!"

"Quiet, footstool, the adults are talking," Toji said dismissively.

He stared out the balcony windows, the gears in his head turning rapidly. Should he just leave? Just pack his shit, walk out, and let Ishtar drown with her band of incompetent sluts?

Before he could mentally finalize his resignation, Ishtar slammed her hands down on the table.

"You will go after the Kali Familia. Break those damn backwater morons," Ishtar commanded, her divine charm flaring, bouncing off Toji's mind like water against rock. "But keep the executives alive. We still need them for Freya. Especially the Captains. I'll take care of Phryne myself."

"Hold on, Boss." Toji stared down at her. "You want me to walk into a war, beat two Level 6s into submission, and somehow keep everyone breathing?"

He sighed, adjusting his katana hilt with one hand. "I don't do non-lethal against heavyweights. It's either kill or don't engage."

"Then find Haruhime first!" Ishtar said. "She will give you the edge you need to end this quickly."

Toji raised a skeptical eyebrow. "The fox? What's she gonna do, cry at them?"

"Just do it!" Ishtar commanded, then pointed toward the doors.

Toji clicked his tongue and turned toward the hallway.

Screw this.

He should walk out right now and deal with Freya on his own...

...Nah.

It was too early to burn the bridge after investing so much.

He'd check on the fox first. See what was so special about her that Ishtar thought she could turn the tide.

"I-Is he really going to fight them all...?" Lena mumbled to the floorboards as Toji disappeared.

Ishtar finally stood up, stepping off the young Amazon.

"Of course he is. Now get up, you useless girl," Ishtar ordered coldly, looking down at Lena. "Gather all available forces. We are going to clean up Phryne's mess."

༻❁༺

The salty breeze of Meren did little to wash away the growing tension building in the port city.

​Loki walked with her hands in her pockets, her carefree grin nowhere in sight. Beside her, Riveria walked with the effortless grace of High Elven royalty, though there was a faint trace of wariness behind her eyes.

​Trailing a few paces behind them was Ais Wallenstein, walking like a reanimated corpse. Her eyes were staring blankly at the back of Riveria's head, while her lips moved in a silent mutter.

​"So," Loki began. "The girls did a little digging around the port. Seems the merchants are terrified. They swear up and down there are plant monsters swimming in the sea. But when we pressed the Njord sailors, they said they haven't seen hide nor hair of a single monster matching that description."

​"A glaring discrepancy," Riveria noted, her voice smooth and analytical. "It suggests the monsters are either being deliberately concealed, or they are being unleashed in highly controlled bursts that likely benefit the fishermen. Let's not forget that Meren has a sea monster problem, and the Violas would attack a monster for its magic stone before a ship..."

​"Huh. That's a good catch. Very good, Mama Elf!" Loki grinned, ignoring Riveria's irritated side-glance. "I was thinking along the same lines. Especially with Mayor Borg handing out bags of monster-repellent powder to every sailor in the city. That's a little too generous, don't you think?"

​She glanced toward Riveria. "What about you? Find anything on your end with Ais? Anything suspicious about that shady Guild manager, Rubato Ryan?"

​"No," Riveria replied smoothly. "We were...busy inside the inn."

​Loki glanced at the High Elf out of the corner of her eye. "Busy? Doing what?"

​"It is not important right now," Riveria deflected seamlessly.

​"Right..." Loki said, curious but not quite enough to derail her train of thought. "Anyway, I have my sneaking suspicions about who's pulling the strings. If things move in our favor, we'll catch the culprits with their hands in the cookie jar."

​Riveria nodded slowly. "What bugs me is your decision to not report any of our findings to the Guild's main branch in Orario. Are you sure that's wise, Loki?"

​Loki sighed, scratching the back of her neck in irritation. "Riveria, Finn and I have been following the exact same threads lately."

​Riveria raised an eyebrow. "And what did you two conclude?"

​Loki's eyes narrowed as they passed over a bridge, the Guild's Meren branch briefly coming into her line of sight. "There is a very real possibility that the Guild has been compromised."

​She had built this suspicion on a string of seemingly unrelated events. First was Dionysus constantly buzzing in her ear, peddling theories about Ouranos being the mastermind behind the new breed of monsters.

​Naturally, Loki wasn't foolish enough to base her suspicions on his word alone. For all she knew, the wine god himself could be pulling the strings! But Dionysus lacked the vast resources and deep connections required to orchestrate a conspiracy of this magnitude.

​No, the real seed of doubt took root when Ais returned from the 24th floor, battered and bruised after encountering a mercenary hired by the Guild to guard the pantry.

​And when Loki pressed the administration about it, the staff had played dumb, claiming they had no idea how that quest had even ended up on their board.

​But the cherry on top came in the form of that itty-bitty pipsqueak Hestia and her freaks of nature kids.

​While the other gods had stonewalled Loki's attempts to investigate the Hestia Familia's rise, the Guild theoretically should have been all over it.

​Spoiler alert: they didn't give a single damn. In fact, when Loki went directly to them to file an official inquiry, her request was swiftly denied, and she was escorted out of the building for being "unreasonable."

​The absolute nerve of those suits!

​Riveria's eyes widened at the gravity of the accusation. "On what basis?" she demanded instantly. "How could the governing body itself actively compromise its own rule? It doesn't make sense."

​Loki chuckled. "Relax, Mama Elf! It's just a working hypothesis, not our official stance."

​Riveria sighed in relief. "Good. We shouldn't jump to such absurd conclusions."

​"Yeah, yeah..." Loki dismissed her worries with a wave of her hand. A shiver suddenly ran up her spine. She rubbed her arms before glancing over her shoulder.

​Ais was still muttering to herself. Loki wasn't sure what had happened, but Ais somehow looked more dead than when they had arrived in Meren.

​"...A lady must judge character carefully...A lady must recognize manipulation...A lady must not follow strangers into buildings...A lady must not be abandoned...A lady must..."

​Loki leaned in close to Riveria. "What the hell is wrong with Ais? She's starting to creep me out with that dead-fish stare."

​Riveria looked away, a guilty cough escaping her lips.

​Loki's eye twitched. "You know something. Spill it."

​Riveria let out a sigh. "I...may have locked her in a room."

​"Okay..."

​"And I may have lectured her."

​"Uh-huh. I'm listening."

​"For approximately 12 hours," Riveria admitted quietly. "Straight. Without a break."

​Loki blinked. "Lectured? Was that what you meant by 'busy'? Riveria, we have a conspiracy to uncover, and you're giving my star child detention? Look at her, she's fucking broken!"

​"It was a very necessary lecture, Loki," Riveria defended firmly, though the tips of her ears tinted pink.

​"Then what the hell was it about?" Loki pressed.

​Riveria looked between her and the zombified Ais, debating whether to reveal what she believed she'd uncovered about Ais's relationship with that rude man. "I just...needed to ensure that Ais isn't vulnerable to smooth talkers. People who might take advantage of her nativity or swindle her."

​Loki blinked, staring at the High Elf for a moment before bursting into a loud cackle.

​"Pfft—hahaha! Mama Elf, you're worrying over nothing!" Loki waved a hand dismissively, wiping a tear from her eye. "This is Ais we're talking about! Our little sword-nut! The girl barely understands how to buy a potato snack without adult supervision!"

​Riveria offered a stiff nod. "Yes...well. One can never be too careful."

​"Speaking of smooth talkers, did I tell you about the record breakers? You weren't there when I told Finn." Loki grinned. "Guess what alias we voted for the older one who is apparently very smooth with the ladies? Ruinous Gigolo! Imagine that!"

​"R-Really..." Riveria swallowed uncomfortably.

​"Talk about the biggest red flag for the ladies," Loki snorted, completely oblivious to the High Elf's rising panic.

​Riveria's mind raced, trying to find a safe way to change the conversation.

​Thankfully, she didn't have to.

​Dozens of presences flared on the rooftops and in the alleyways, blocking the streets ahead and behind them. Amazons stepped out into the moonlight, weapons drawn, eyes locked on them.

​Riveria's eyes swept the surroundings. "Those emblems..."

​"Ishtar's girls? What the hell are they doing here!?" Loki hissed, stepping behind Riveria nervously. "It seems we got caught with our pants down..."

​"DIE, LOKI SCUM!"

​The scream was accompanied by a dozen blinding flashes of crimson.

​"Magic Swords!" Riveria realized.

She grabbed Loki by her collar and launched herself backward just as a volley of Magic Swords detonated where they had been standing.

​"Ais!" Riveria called out, watching the inferno swallow the spot where the Sword Princess had been standing.

​The smoke began to clear, Ais was unharmed. A faint barrier of Ariel had automatically shredded the flames before they could burn her.

​"Look up, Mama!" Loki warned.

​Another volley of Magic Swords was already being aimed.

​Riveria gritted her teeth. She was a Level 6 High Elf, a master of grand-scale magic. If she started a chant, she could wipe every single Amazon out of this district. But doing so would annihilate the city of Meren and kill countless civilians. Her magic was too destructive for an urban crossfire.

​Which meant she had to fight physically. And she couldn't do that while protecting a fragile deity.

​"Hey, be gentle, Riveria! I'm very delicate!" Loki yelped as Riveria scooped her up under one arm, dodging another explosive blast that tore through a nearby storefront. She had to get Loki to safety first.

​"Ais!" Riveria shouted over the flames. "Snap out of your childish daze and fight already!"

​Ais suddenly blinked. "Fight..."

​The dull lifelessness over her golden eyes vanished. The 12 hours of agonizing, unjust brainwashing lectures from Riveria—the cause of which Ais still had no idea about—stacked on the trauma of the Demi-Spirit and the humiliation at the hands of Toji, finally found bodies to break her knuckles on.

​She looked up at the Ishtar Amazons surrounding her.

​"...Ahhh," Ais breathed out in pure relief, sounding as if she had just found her true purpose in life. "Fighting you all would be nice."

FWOSH!

She moved through her enemies not like a princess, but like a rabid warmonger.

An Amazon lunged. Ais leaned away from her blade, and drove the hilt of her rapier into her jaw with enough force to shatter it.

Another Amazon screamed, unleashing a wave of fire from a Magic Sword.

Ais emerged from the smoke, her momentum unbroken. She closed the distance in the blink of an eye, her silver blade sending the Amazon crashing through a wooden stall.

She was a blur of relentless violence. She took direct hits without flinching, retaliating brutally.

Ais twisted, bringing her sword up to redirect what she believed was another Magic Sword, only to be met by a strange light from a staff.

The moment the beam made contact with her skin, a suffocating weight settled deep within Ais's body.

The ever-present hum of Ariel that rattled within her own soul was violently chained.

She was hit by a curse. Her wind had been sealed.

Ais blinked, looking down at her hands. The Amazons surrounding her let out a collective cheer, thinking they had finally crippled the legendary Sword Princess.

It didn't matter.

She launched herself forward, moving without a second of hesitation. If anything, the lack of Ariel forced her to hit harder, her strikes becoming more feral. The screams of the Amazons echoed through the streets.

And then...she ran out of targets.

Ais stood in the center of the street, breathing heavily. The dust settled slowly around her, revealing the groaning bodies.

The beating of her heart began to slow. She looked around at the carnage she had wrought, and she felt...nothing.

Taking them all down, even with a magical handicap and fighting with complete recklessness, hadn't scratched the itch in her soul.

They were too weak for her to feel any pride in defeating them. That was all it was.

Ais raised her blade horizontally above her head just as a massive shadow blotted out the moon.

The earth beneath her boots cracked as a colossal, dual-bladed battleaxe slammed against her rapier.

Ais's knees bent under the crushing force of the blow. With a grunt, Ais twisted her wrists, redirecting the massive weight to the side, but the attacker immediately followed up with a shoulder tackle that sent Ais skidding backward down the street.

Ais dug her sword into the ground, bringing herself to a screeching halt. She looked up, her eyes narrowing.

Standing in the center of the crater was a hulking, toad-faced monstrosity of a woman, radiating an unearned sense of absolute superiority.

"Ahahaha! Finally!" Phryne laughed, resting her axes on her shoulders, her face twisting into an arrogant smirk. "I've been waiting years for this, you blonde whore! I'm going to smash that ugly face of yours and prove once and for all who the true beauty of Orario is! You're dead, Wallenstein!"

High above the street, crouching on the edge of a rooftop, two figures watched the confrontation unfold.

"Damn," Aisha Belka winced, looking down at the scattered bodies of her Familia. "The Sword Princess really did a number on them. She seems very pissed off."

Behind her, Haruhime shrank back, her fox ears pinned flat against her head as she gripped her robes nervously.

Down in the street, Ais stared at the babbling, hulking Amazon with pure indifference.

Phryne Jamil, Level 5, captain of the Ishtar Familia. Ais had noticed that she'd been fighting Ishtar Familia members. Were they allies with the Kali Familia now? Too many unknowns.

"I'll peel the skin from your bones!" Phryne continued to rant, spit flying from her thick lips. "I'll make you scream until—"

"Shut up already," Ais interrupted, her voice flat and completely devoid of interest.

Phryne froze. Her eyes widened in shock, followed immediately by a flushed rage.

"You dare...?! You arrogant bitch!" Phryne roared, raising her axes. "Haruhime! Start casting your magic right now! I'm going to butcher her!"

"R-Right away, Phryne-sama..." Haruhime whimpered, focusing her mind to clear—

"Pipe down, fox. You ain't doing shit for that toad."

"Ahhh!" Haruhime flinched violently, her tail puffing up to twice its original size in pure fright at the sudden voice behind them.

Aisha snapped her gaze around, her hand instinctively flying to her weapon, only to freeze. "Oh, it's you."

Stepping out of the shadows of the rooftop, completely undetected until he spoke, was Toji Fushiguro.

"Just to clarify," Toji said, deeply annoyed. "Ishtar is on her way here to clean up this mess, and hopefully you are all getting fucked for listening to that stupid bitch."

Aisha let out a sigh of annoyance. "I knew something was off about this whole operation. But I didn't have the chance to verify it with the Goddess...Wait a minute."

Aisha narrowed her eyes at the mercenary. "The Toad moved completely off the books. How the hell did you find out? Did you know about this, or what?"

Toji sighed. "Wasn't that hard. I figured something was a bit off right in the middle of your wax-obsessed Goddess and I getting intimately acquainted. Kinda kills the mood when I call for refreshments and no one answers, then that brat Lena told us everything."

"W-W-What...with Ishtar-sama?" Haruhime's face instantly turned red as her mind tried to process the scandalous implication of his words.

"I-I-In-In-Intimately a-acquainted?" Haruhime squeaked, slapping both hands over her burning face, her fox tail vibrating so fast it was a blur. "A-A-As in...the bedchambers?! Oh my! Oh my!"

Aisha groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We don't need the details."

Toji clicked his tongue. This whole rogue operation was getting on his nerves.

"Furball," he pointing a finger at Haruhime. "Ishtar said you could help me tip the scales in our favor. Whatever trick you've got up your sleeve, it better be good."

If it wasn't, then bye-bye bitches.

Haruhime, still recovering from her wild imagination, peeked through her fingers. "Y-Yes, I can..." She glanced down at the street. "But what of Phryne-sama...? She will be angry if I don't help her..."

"Just do it, fox, or would you rather I get physical?" Toji said, taking a step forward.

"Eeek!" Haruhime squeezed her eyes shut as the memory of the physical inspection at the hotel assaulted her mind. She immediately focused her thoughts, her trembling slowly vanishing as her lips began the sacred chant.

Down below, the fight had resumed.

Ais deflected a blow from Phryne, stepping inside the toad's guard and delivering a front kick directly to the Amazon's knee. Phryne stumbled, swinging wildly to overcompensate.

"You are just a waste of energy," Ais muttered. It wasn't out of malice or a taunt: she was genuinely speaking her mind.

Phryne's face twisted. "I'll kill you! I'll tear you apart!"

The fight raged on, but as Ais shifted her footing to avoid a cratering smash, her eyes flicked instinctively upward toward the rooftops.

Standing on the edge of the roof, looking down at the battlefield, was Toji.

The hollow lack of interest in Ais's eyes instantly vanished.

This was her chance for a rematch!

Ais immediately abandoned Phryne, preparing to leap up the side of the building to reach him.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Phryne mocked, swinging both axes to force Ais back down. "You're fighting me, you little brat!"

Phryne called out at the roof, her patience finally snapping. "Haruhime! Where is that boost?! Cast it now!"

Up on the roof, Haruhime was nearing the end of her chant. Aisha watched in silence, eager to see how the Level-Boost might affect the absolute monster that was Toji.

Toji looked down at the street fight, a mocking smirk spreading across his face.

"You ain't getting shit, Toad!" Toji called out, his voice echoing cleanly over the clash of steel.

Phryne froze mid-swing, her blood running cold as she recognized the voice.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Phryne screamed, her voice cracking with sudden panic. If Toji was here, that meant Ishtar knew she had disobeyed orders!

"Just watching a fat, ugly toad embarrass herself against a kid," Toji mocked. "You're really struggling down there, huh? I could beat her with my hands tied behind my back, you useless trash. And you thought you stood a chance against that bacon Ottar?"

Ais gritted her teeth. She wasn't weak. She was a Level 6, a first-tier adventurer, the legendary Sword Princess. To hear him dismiss her as just some trivial kid made the sealed tempest in her blood ache to break free.

Phryne let out a screech of pure fury. Humiliated and panicked, she turned all of her frustration entirely onto Ais.

"Haruhime!" Phryne roared. "Cast that boost on me right now, or you will regret it for the rest of your miserable life, you stupid fox!"

"Keep croaking, Toad!" Toji laughed, enjoying watching the ugly bitch get beaten down. This was her punishment for ruining his peace.

Haruhime finished her incantation. "Uchide no Kozuchi!"

An ethereal golden beam erupted from her body. It completely bypassed the street below, shooting forward to engulf Toji on the roof.

Toji didn't flinch as the beam washed over his body, not expecting much from it.

His eyes widened slightly as the magic took root, a golden aura flaring around his body.

This spell was different from the other support-based cursed techniques Toji had encountered in the past. Most relied on the target having at least some cursed energy to function.

Uchide no Kozuchi didn't rely on cursed energy or magic to function. It targeted his Falna directly, bypassing his Heavenly Restriction and temporarily raising his Status by a full Level.

Toji flexed his muscles, feeling the raw power surging through his veins, now equivalent to a fresh low-level 7 adventurer.

"Huh," Toji muttered, genuinely impressed. "I actually feel a lot stronger. Maybe Ishtar wasn't exaggerating."

He looked back at the exhausted fox girl, panting heavily from the magical exhaustion.

"How long does this last? Does it have a range?" Toji asked, already expecting a catch.

"F-Fifteen minutes..." Haruhime answered weakly. "You can move freely..."

Toji whistled. "Heh. People would've killed for a trick like that where I'm from." His grin returned. "Looks like you're useful after all, furball."

No bye-bye bitches for tonight, lucky for them.

Aisha scowled, helping Haruhime up to her feet. "You have your ego boost. Now what?"

Toji waved a hand at them dismissively. "I'm done with you two. Go find a hole to hide in until Ishtar arrives."

"Prick," Aisha muttered, grabbing Haruhime by the waist and quickly vanishing across the rooftops.

Toji turned his attention back down to the street.

Ais and Phryne had paused their clash, both staring up at the golden aura radiating from the mercenary.

Toji looked directly into Ais's furious eyes, flashing her a patronizing grin.

"Hey, Doll face!" Toji called out. "Beat her good, you hear me? I'm gonna be real disappointed if you can't even handle this ugly thing on your own!"

It was a blatant fueling of the fire.

Ais's eyes narrowed in rage. "Come down here and fight me!"

"Don't ignore me!" Phryne shrieked, swinging blindly at Ais.

Toji just chuckled.

Now, he had...14 minutes left to take down the Kali Familia.

Toji's eye twitched. "That's shorter than I thought."

With a single step, Toji practically vanished into the dark, his new, insane speed boost carrying him out of sight in a blink, leaving Ais's chance for a rematch completely out of reach.

Ais stared at the empty space on the roof, then turned her head, looking at Phryne the way one looks at a dead, rotting insect.

Phryne took a step back, suddenly feeling a deep, instinctual chill run down her spine.

"This is your fault," Ais whispered, her voice colder than the ocean wind.

Phryne gritted her teeth, raising her axes. "W-What did you say, you little—"

Ais didn't let her finish. She exploded forward, the cobblestones violently shattering beneath her boots. "You're in the way, Toad."

༻❁༺

Down by the harbor, away from crazy blonde princesses.

The docks were infested. Dozens upon dozens of Amazons from Telskyura were on the piers, perched on crates and leaning against the posts.

A squad of Kali Amazons stood by the edge of the wooden piers, watching their massive flagship drifting slowly out to sea, on it their captain and the traitor Tione.

"Think she's dead yet?" one of them laughed, kicking a loose pebble into the water.

"Argana likes to play with her food," another smirked. "Tione will be screaming for at least another hour before she finally gets eaten."

"I wish we could see the blood—"

The Amazon didn't finish her sentence.

A sudden, violent gust of wind tore through the pier, accompanied by a flash of gold.

SMACK!

The second Amazon blinked, and her companion was simply gone. A heartbeat later, a sickening crunch echoed from a nearby stack of crates.

"What the—?!"

Before any of the Amazons could even draw their weapons, the golden blur shot across the docks. A swift knee shattered a jaw. A sweeping kick broke two pairs of legs simultaneously. A casual palm strike sent an Amazon into the ocean.

Meanwhile, out on the waters, the wooden deck of the Kali flagship groaned under the weight of the combatants.

Tione Hiryute was bleeding from a dozen cuts, her breath tearing through her lungs.

Gone was the bright, cheerful facade she usually wore for her captain. Gone was the lovesick maiden of the Loki Familia. Her face was twisted in rage.

Across from her, Argana Kalif wasn't unscathed, but she still stood tall, holding a clear, dominant advantage as she casually licked a streak of crimson from her knuckles. Her eyes, filled with a familiar cruelty, locked onto her prey.

"Is that really all you have, Tione? I'm disappointed," Argana mocked. "You ran away from Telskyura, abandoned our rites, found yourself a fancy new Familia, and you're still this weak? You're losing, 'little sister.' You've always been losing."

"I'll rip your ribcage open, you stupid bitch!" Tione gritted her teeth so hard her jaw physically ached. Her muscles twitched with exhaustion and lingering fury, she forced her trembling legs back into a defensive stance. Slowly, her rage began to activate her Berserk skill.

Argana's grin widened into a bloodthirsty sneer. "That's the look! I'm almost proud. Come on! Let me break you all over again—!"

Suddenly, the pressure on the deck violently shifted. A magical flash of gold shattered the gloom of the night.

Argana's hyper-tuned instincts flared at the last possible microsecond. She managed to turn her head just slightly over her shoulder, her one visible eye widening.

CRACK!

A heavy boot materialized from the golden blur, connecting with the side of Argana's face and raised guard with insane force.

Argana's Level 6 durability and frantic block took the worst of the kinetic trauma, keeping her neck from snapping, but she couldn't fight the overwhelming momentum.

She was launched entirely off the ship, sent skipping across the surface of the sea like a thrown stone until her momentum finally died, and she sank into the water.

Tione stood frozen in absolute shock. Her jaw dropped wide, her rage fading into confusion.

"What a pain in the ass," Toji muttered, glaring back toward the distant city lights of Meren.

"You!" Tione recognized the man from the 18th floor, instinctively dropping into a defensive stance.

Toji slowly turned his head, giving Tione an unimpressed look before casually stepping off the railing and falling toward the water.

Tione rushed to the edge of the ship, her eyes widening.

Toji was running. His legs were moving with such explosive speed that he was literally treating the surface of the ocean like solid ground.

"What is he doing here? And why is he so fast!?" Tione questioned the empty night, her mind still struggling to process what she'd just witnessed.

Her confusion quickly gave way to anger again.

That bastard had interrupted her fight! Argana was hers!

Miles away, on the sandy shores of Meren, Argana Kalif dragged herself out of the surf and onto the beach, violently coughing up a mouthful of seawater.

Her vision spun, pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, shaking the heavy disorientation from her head.

"What...what hit me...?" she wondered aloud, her mind rapidly recovering.

She tasted salt and sand, her eyes narrowing as she recognized the shoreline. She had been hit hard enough to be launched all the way to the beach?

Suddenly, the primal instincts that had kept her alive in the blood pits of Telskyura flared to life. Her recovering vision snapped back toward the ocean.

Tearing across the water was a blinding blur of gold, closing the gap in mere seconds.

"Come on!" Argana roared. Refusing to be caught off guard twice, she braced herself.

Toji shot forward like a missile. Argana squeezed her eyes shut, ready to grapple him the moment they made contact.

Toji stopped, his boots dug into the sand mere inches from Argana's face, his abrupt halt creating a small gale that blasted wind, sand, and water all over Argana.

Argana snapped her eyes open, but before her brain could process the feint, Toji drove the back of his katana straight into her nose.

CRACK!

Blood trickled from her nose, Argana didn't even blink.

"Gotcha!" she snarled, throwing a haymaker aimed right at his glowing chest.

"Sloppy," Toji replied.

Toji redirected her chaotic momentum downward. Argana's fist bypassed his ribs, burying itself elbow-deep into the sand.

Before she could rip her arm free, Toji slid smoothly behind her, sweeping her legs.

Argana fell, but twisted mid-air, landing clumsily on her hands and knees. She immediately kicked out backward, forcing Toji to weave out of range of her leg.

She pushed herself up, breathing steadily. The brief exchange was enough for her to realize the truth. He was undeniably faster and stronger than her.

Toji stood perfectly still, resting a hand on his hip as he watched her. "You seemed a lot tougher back at the hotel. Then again, I guess barking is easier than biting."

"The insolent male..." Argana spat, her voice laced with venom. "So, you finally caught up to us, huh? Doesn't matter. We already achieved most of our objectives in the city. Now, it's only a matter of crushing you, finishing off that wretched Tione, and completing our rites!"

"Still talking shit after I ragdolled you across the sea?" Toji tilted his head. "Did you hit your head on a rock on the way here?"

Argana gritted her teeth. She pointed at the golden aura radiating off him. "What is it, little man? Glowing all yellow like a candle? Are you relying on a magic trick just to defeat me?"

"It's quite the bug repellent," Toji grinned, making absolutely no effort to hide it.

"Let's skip the foreplay and get this over with," Toji said, Slowly drawing his red cursed blade from its sheath. "I'm on a time limit."

Argana's eye twitched, her blood boiling. "I'll tear that sharp tongue right out through your throat!"

She exploded forward, the sand erupting behind her. She threw a chaotic flurry of strikes, putting every ounce of her Level 6 stats behind the blows.

Toji parried a right hook, ducked under a lethal kick, and used her own forward momentum against her, casually tossing her over his shoulder.

Argana crashed into the sand, crossing her arms in an X shape to protect her face against a back-heel from Toji that rattled the bones inside her body. She immediately bounced back up, her hands shaking but still smiling.

"You hit hard for a man!" Argana laughed maniacally, launching forward blindly, twisting midair with a kick directly at Toji.

"You're what passes for strong in Telskyura?" Toji gave a dry chuckle. "Talk about bad marketing."

"Arrogant male!" Argana pressed the attack, throwing a straight palm aimed right for his throat.

Toji flicked his wrist. The red katana cleanly bypassing her dense Amazonian skin to slice across her ribs and left bicep.

Argana hissed, leaping back to create distance. She glanced down at the shallow gashes on her side and arm.

"Weakling cuts," Argana sneered, flexing her muscles, fully expecting her body's constitution to clot the shallow wounds.

But the bleeding didn't stop.

In fact, the blood was pouring out of the cuts continuously, staining the sand beneath her feet.

Argana's arrogant smirk faltered slightly. "What...what is this?"

Toji rested the flat of the red blade against his shoulder, looking at her menacingly.

"A curse. Not that your tiny brain could understand it," Toji said with a chuckle. "That blood isn't going to stop flowing anytime soon."

Toji had deliberately revealed the trick behind his blade, sealing the admission into a Binding Vow and trading secrecy for greater pain inducement. "But don't worry. I won't cut you badly enough to kill you."

"Coward!" Argana's eyes went completely feral.

Refusing to be slowly taken down, she lunged forward, completely ignoring the red blade. Toji slashed her again, but Argana powered right through the pain and wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders.

Before Toji could throw her off, Argana buried her face into the curve of his neck and sank her teeth into his flesh.

"Rabid bitch," Toji grunted.

He grabbed a handful of her hair with his free hand, yanking her head violently backward and drove his knee upward into her liver.

"Gah—!" Argana's eyes rolled back into her head. She violently coughed up half-digested food, seawater, and blood directly onto the sand. Toji released her hair, letting her drop into the dirt where she rolled away, gasping frantically for air.

Toji wiped his bleeding neck, inspecting the red smear on his fingers. "You're disgusting."

Argana let out a chuckle, clutching her bleeding ribs. She licked her lips, her expression melting into ecstatic bliss as she tasted the blood she had managed to draw from his neck.

"Incredible..." Argana wheezed, a sick, feverish obsession washing over her face as her curse, Kalima, activated. The tiny taste of his blood sent a pulse of strength through her body, far more than she expected from such a small amount. "Such dense, delicious strength...Once I'm done with you...I'm going to drain you dry. I'll eat you whole!"

"You really think you're walking away from this?" Toji snorted, casually flicking the blood off his katana. "The only reason I haven't just ripped your fucking head off yet is because Ishtar insisted I don't."

Argana laughed with an obsessed blush, her bloody grin widening. "So the little dog is on a leash."

"Yeah." Toji grinned coldly, his eyes completely devoid of light. "Leash says you stay alive. Doesn't say how many pieces of you have to stay attached, though."

༻❁༺

"Leave me alone!"

Lefiya Viridis sprinted through the narrow alleyways, her boots splashing through shallow puddles as her eyes darted frantically through the dark.

Just a few minutes ago, she had been safely moving with her assigned squad—Elfy, Rakuta, and the others—investigating the strange anomalies around the city. Then, out of nowhere, the Kali Familia had descended upon them like a pack of wolves. In the chaos, Lefiya had been cut off and herded away from her friends by the tribal freaks.

"Come back here, little Elf!" a mocking voice echoed behind her. "We only want to talk to you!"

"Don't trip on those fancy heels!" another laughed, the sound rapidly closing in.

'I need to chant!' Lefiya thought in panic. 'Just a few minutes of Concurrent Chanting and I can blast them!'

She took a sharp turn down a corridor between two warehouses, hoping to find a wider street to gain some ground. Instead, she found a towering brick wall.

Lefiya halted. Before she could turn back, a figure fell from the rooftop above, landing before her.

Bache Kalif slowly straightened up, her expression entirely blank behind her thin face veil as she locked onto the trembling elf.

Within seconds, the pursuing Amazon fodder flooded into the alleyway as well, blocking all routes of escape for Lefiya.

"S-Stay back!" Lefiya stammered, raising her staff with shaking hands. She tried to channel every ounce of Riveria's regal authority into her voice, though it cracked pathetically. "I am L-Lefiya Viridis of the Loki Familia! If you lay a hand on me, my Familia will hunt every single one of you down!"

"Ahahaha! That is exactly why we are targeting you, idiot!"

Sitting on the edge of the warehouse overlooking the alley was the Goddess of Carnage herself, Kali, swinging her legs like a child watching a street performance.

"Why?!" Lefiya cried out. "We haven't done anything to you! Why are you attacking us?!"

Before Lefiya could even blink, the back of Bache's hand landed across her cheek. The physical force of the Level 6's strike, even heavily restrained, sent Lefiya crashing hard onto the ground.

"Shut up," Bache stated, her voice flat, cold, and final.

Lefiya clutched her burning face, her ears ringing loudly.

"Don't break her too much, Bache!" Kali laughed from above. "She's the perfect bait! Once we drag this crying little mascot back to our den, Tiona will be forced to come crashing in to save her. It's the ultimate stage!"

Lefiya froze, the physical pain suddenly eclipsed by a crushing wave of shame.

Because she was too weak to fight back, Tiona would be forced into their sick, twisted games.

The utter humiliation tore at her soul. If only she were stronger and braver, like Ais-san, Riveria-sama...even Filvis-san. Instead, she was always the liability that needed saving.

"Take her," Bache instructed to the grinning Amazons at the back.

Two of them stepped forward, reaching out to grab the motionless elf.

Lefiya gritted her teeth. No. She wasn't going to let them use her. She tightened her grip on her staff, her magic flaring in her body. She was going to snap, cast a point-blank fake chant, and make one final run for it—

FWOSH!

A projectile missed Bache by an inch and slammed into the brick wall, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris.

"Hm? What was that, Bache?" Kali asked, peering down from the roof with a disinterested gaze.

Bache didn't answer. Her eyes cut through the settling dust, completely paralyzed by a silent, disturbing horror.

Slumped amidst the rubble was a pile of blood, bruised muscle, and shredded skin.

It was her older sister, Argana.

Bache felt her breath hitch. For her entire life, Argana had been the terrifying monster that haunted her nightmares. A cannibalistic, unhinged predator that Bache secretly feared would one day turn around and devour her too. It was her most closely guarded, crippling insecurity.

But looking at the unbeatable monster now...beaten to a literal pulp...

Bache felt a sudden, intoxicating sense of...security.

Suddenly, the bloody pile shifted.

Argana pushed herself up from the rubble, her joints cracking. Her face was a completely pulverized mess of cuts and bruises, but visible through the blood was a feverish blush spreading across her cheeks.

"Ah..." Argana wheezed, her one good eye entirely dilated in ecstatic bliss. "...that was amazing~"

"Huh?" Bache mind short-circuited in disgust and bewilderment. That elated tone did not sound like the Argana she knew.

"Argana?!" Kali shrieked from the rooftop, vibrating with fascination at the sight of the bloody pulp. "What a beautiful mess! Did Tione do that?! So fast?! Girl, if only I could have watched it!"

Kali scrambled to her feet, peering eagerly into the darkness of the city streets. "Tione! Tione! Are you there?! Let me see your bloodied hands!"

Down on the ground, Lefiya was equally shocked. Staring at the horrific state of the Amazon, she heard Kali shouting Tione's name and felt a sudden surge of hope.

Kali was about to shout again when a familiar voice echoed cleanly through the alley.

"Keep barking. Maybe she'll hear you from the harbor."

Kali's eyes widened. She snapped her gaze back down to the alleyway.

The Amazons who had been standing mere feet from Lefiya were now sprawled face-first on the cobblestones, unconscious.

Lefiya turned her head, realizing the hands reaching for her were gone. She looked up, her eyes locking onto the golden Toji.

He was covered in blood, most of which belonged to Argana. His posture was relaxed, but the cold void in his eyes sent a spike of pure terror straight through the elf's heart.

Lefiya scrambled backward on her hands and knees. "S-Stay away! O-Or else...!"

Toji slowly dragged his gaze down to her, looking at the squirming elf.

"Quit squeaking and get lost," Toji said flatly. "You're giving me a headache."

"Eeek!" Lefiya didn't need to be told twice. She scrambled to her feet and bolted out of the alleyway as fast as her legs could carry her. Beneath the blind panic, a wave of immense relief washed over her. She was free. She wouldn't be a burden to her Familia!

"YOU!" Argana suddenly called.

Completely ignoring her crippling injuries, the Amazon pushed off the rubble, launching herself straight at Toji like a rabid beast, an unhinged smile on her face. "WE AREN'T DONE PLAYING!"

Toji clicked his tongue. "Relentless dog."

He casually stepped back on his heel, driving a devastating roundhouse squarely into Argana's ruined face.

The kinetic force shattered the surrounding windows. Argana was launched upward, tearing straight through the brick warehouse wall. She disappeared into the night sky, flying out of the district entirely.

"Ah damnit!" Kali violently stomped her foot, her face twisting into a furious scowl.

"You again!" Kali pointed an accusing finger at Toji. "Why did you have to ruin this, bastard! You insolent male! I have waited years for these rites! The superiority of my methods was going to be proven in blood, and you ruined it!"

Toji dug a pinky into his ear, completely ignoring her tantrum.

"I've got about five minutes left to spare," Toji interrupted, his tone completely bored. "Your street trash is mostly dealt with. Ishtar tapped out. And I just sent your attack dog to la-la land. You're out of pieces. It's over, Loli."

Kali gritted her teeth, staring ythe golden aura radiating off him, then at where Argana had just vanished. The aura was definitely a buff that he had used to beat her...

Slowly, her furious scowl melted into a wide grin.

"I admit, you've backed me into a corner," Kali said, tilting her head. "Very well then. If the grand stage is ruined, then we shall simply see one last rite. How about a deal...Toji, was it?"

Toji didn't reply.

"I will return to the original plan against Freya," Kali offered, leaning forward. "And I will no longer seek any rites in blood against the Loki Familia...at least until Freya is done for."

Toji raised a single eyebrow, waiting for the catch.

"But," Kali's grin widened maliciously, "You will have to beat Bache right here, right now...without that fancy, glowing magic trick you're wearing."

Toji looked at the Goddess, then down at Bache, who was still staring at the empty space where her sister had just been standing in silent shock.

He weighed his options. He could just beat them into submission and be done with it, but the midget was clearly planning on continuing to ruin his plans, which would force him and Ishtar to forsake them as potential allies. But doing so would cut them off from decent fodder against the Freya Familia.

Handling a Level 6 to avoid future headaches was an acceptable alternative.

"Fine by me," Toji said, smirking. "Saves me the hassle of hunting the rest of you down."

Kali let out a sharp laugh. "Snap out of it, Bache! This is your new rite! If you want Tiona's blood, you have to survive Ishtar's mate!"

Without another word, Kali turned away. "I'll be at the hotel! Entertain me!"

Silence fell over the alleyway.

Toji stood silently, perfectly willing to run the clock down on Haruhime's Uchide no Kozuchi since most of the targets were dealt with anyway.

Toji waved at Bache. "Let's take a walk. I'd rather not have your crazy sister interrupt our special time."

"Don't say that ever again," Bache muttered in disgust, but she turned anyway, following the glowing assassin out of the alleyways and into a wide intersection.

"So," Toji began, genuinely bored as he stopped in the center of the street. "What's the deal with this cult shit anyway? What's the point of this 'rite'?"

Bache just stared at him. She wasn't one for words. The silence stretched until it was almost uncomfortable, the sheer lack of killing intent radiating from the assassin finally drew a response.

"...Telskyura is governed by blood," Bache answered, her tone flat but laced with old history. "Survival is dictated by fighting to the death in the arenas. Tione and Tiona were destined to take each other's lives. But when the moment came, they rejected the sacred rites and left to live soft, fake lives. Kali-sama wanted to prove that our way of blood is superior to their way of choice."

Toji let out a short huff of air. "Righhht..."

Bache's eyes drifted toward the direction Argana had been launched. The usual dead, stoic emptiness in her eyes was replaced by a vivid spark of color. "You...really defeated Argana all by yourself?"

"Yeah." Toji gave a crooked grin. "She put up a fight, didn't help her much." He glanced toward where Argana had been blown. "Looking to avenge her? Stupid move."

"No," Bache laughed, a soft, rusty sound, a gesture she rarely, if ever, used. "Thank you."

Toji blinked, momentarily caught off guard. "Come again?"

"For showing me that she isn't untouchable," Bache confessed, her voice dropping to a whisper. "She has always been the stronger and unstable one. Seeing her like this..."

She let out a long breath, her shoulders finally dropping as years of tension seemed to leave her body. "It gave me hope for the future. An immense relief. I don't expect you to understand."

"Oh, I get it now," Toji let out a short laugh, scratching the side of his neck.

For a single second, an image of the pristine noble estate of the Zenin clan crossed his mind. The sneering face of Jinichi Zenin, kicking him into the dirt when he was just a kid for being born without cursed energy. The memory didn't bring pain, just a lingering annoyance at his older brother being no different from the rest of the Zenin clan.

"Siblings are a pain in the ass," Toji stated casually, his voice devoid of any pity. "People get a lucky head start at birth and think it makes them untouchable."

A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth as he briefly recalled Jinichi's caved-in face beneath his feet. "You give them one beatdown, and they suddenly stop fucking with you."

"It seems..." Bache looked at him, her eyes flickering in quiet surprise, "...we share more than we let on."

"Keep telling yourself that," Toji replied with a dismissive wave.

A quiet moment settled over the wide street...

And then, the golden light of Uchide no Kozuchi shattered like glass.

CRACK!

Toji pressed the assault. Bache dodged, parried, and deflected with the reflexes of a Level 6.

"Not bad for a street brawler," Toji taunted, his blade missing her skin by a hair's breadth.

Bache didn't reply, her eyes narrowed in focus. They broke apart, launching themselves upward simultaneously, their feet landing on the clay tiles.

They blurred across the rooftops of Meren in a deadly game of high-altitude tag. They leaped across wide gaps between buildings, trading rapid blows mid-air, spinning and switching positions before landing and sprinting again.

Bache stopped on a flat rooftop. She reached up, her fingers grazing her right cheek. Her veil had been sliced away in the fray and lost to the wind.

A thin gash was weeping blood down her jawline. The bleeding wasn't stopping.

A few buildings away, Toji landed silently on the edge of a chimney. A confident smirk was on his lips, but it vanished as his left shoulder twitched. A small bruise was already forming where Bache had grazed him with a lucky strike during their mid-air clash.

Toji pushed off the chimney, dropping back down into the streets.

Bache immediately followed, her eyes locked onto his descending form. The pursuit turned chaotic. Her perspective became a blur of lefts and rights, vaulting over wooden crates, dodging merchant wagons, and weaving past terrified, fleeing civilians.

She saw his boot turn sharply into a narrow alleyway. She kicked off a wall, launching herself around the corner right behind him—

SMACK!

Before her brain could even register the movement, Toji's heel slammed into the side of her cheek.

Bache was launched sideways, her body crashing into the alley wall.

Toji landed gracefully a few feet away, resting his katana against his shoulder. "What's the matter? Enjoying the chase too much to watch your blind spots?" he mocked.

Bache stumbled up. She wiped the fresh blood from her chin and looked up at him. Instead of anger, she wore a smile.

"I didn't even feel you until you hit me," Bache muttered, cracking her neck. "Tell me, are you one of those Sekhemt assassins I hear so much about?"

"Never heard of them." Toji chuckled. His eyes briefly settled on her uncovered face. "Huh. You're prettier than I thought. Shame you're still an annoying bitch."

Bache felt her eyes twitch.

They exploded toward each other again.

Bache took a deliberate slice to her shoulder, and delivered a devastating double fist strike squarely to Toji's chest.

Toji was launched straight through the brick wall of a building, tearing through the interior, and exploding out the other side.

He landed in an abandoned, open-air fish butcher's market, shattering a wooden stall.

Bache stepped through the massive holes Toji had left in the architecture.

Toji rose to his feet. Kicking up multiple cleavers with his boots, snatching them out of the air and throwing them at Bache with the speed of sniper bullets.

Bache casually tilted her head, dodging them rapidly.

Toji exploded forward, moving like a ghost, slipping past her strikes and retaliating with a flurry of blinding slashes.

SLICE! SLICE! SLICE!

Bache stumbled backward, her breath tearing through her lungs. Her arms, torso, and legs were suddenly littered with dozens of cuts.

"Velgus!" Bache hissed.

A dense purple aura erupted around her forearms. The enchantment magic clung to her skin like a layer of armor, dripping with a volatile, acidic poison.

Bache didn't dodge Toji's next strike. She reached out and grabbed the cursed red katana directly with her bare hand.

Bache ignored the pain as she clamped her fingers shut, her Velgus acidic poison instantly began to hiss and eat away at the cursed metal.

Toji's eyes widened slightly, he drove a front kick into her stomach to force her back, and yanked the katana to free it.

Only the lower half of the blade came free. The acid had completely melted through the center of the steel, rendering the expensive, cursed weapon into a useless metal stick.

"Bitch," Toji spat, staring at the ruined blade. "That idiot Ishtar paid a fortune for this tool. It was brand new."

Bache gasped for air, testing her grip. She looked down at her bleeding palm, and then at her arms and legs. Slowly, the bleeding began to clot.

The curse had broken.

In this world, cursed weapons were almost entirely guaranteed to lose their magical properties the moment the physical tool was destroyed. Furthermore, Toji had already begun to notice that items here often came with arbitrary debuffs, like rapid stamina consumption, which he had been ignoring entirely due to his immense stamina.

But seeing the weapon's effect simply vanish because the steel broke?

"Bullshit," Toji muttered, tossing the broken hilt into the dirt in disgust. "What, is the curse tied to a physical Binding Vow? Useless garbage. Got scammed."

Technically, Ishtar was the one who got scammed since she bought it. But Toji was still pissed.

"Neat technique." Toji stared at Bache, cracking his knuckles loudly. "A dense acid functioning as both defense and offense. I'm guessing you can coat your legs with it, too. Means I just have to make sure I don't get hit."

"Try it," Bache challenged, silently impressed by how quickly he'd read her ability. She raised her glowing fists.

It was a brutal, ugly street fight. They threw simultaneous kicks, their shins colliding mid-air with bone-rattling smacks. They locked legs, hung in the air for a fraction of a second, and pushed off each other.

Toji landed a devastating right hook to her jaw. Bache retaliated with a sweeping strike to his ribs.

Toji grunted. Her acidic blows were intensely annoying and, admittedly, quite painful.

Toji ducked under her next strike, grabbed her tightly by her barely existent clothes, and launched her across the street.

Bache crashed through the wooden doors of a massive, isolated warehouse at the end of the block.

"Getting tired!?" Bache called, pushing herself to her feet.

"Nah." Toji sprinted after her. "Just getting tired of looking at your annoying mug."

They brawled deeper into the warehouse, shattering wooden crates. As Toji ducked an acidic kick that melted an iron support beam, he glanced around.

There was something strangely familiar about the layout of this place. The crates, the specific type of goods...

Toji finally placed it as he delivered a devastating uppercut that sent Bache crashing backward into a stack of wooden boxes, spilling their contents across the floor.

Lying amidst the splinters were familiar armor sets, weapons, and a large, painted crest.

The emblem of the Ishtar Familia.

This was one of the many smuggling warehouses they used to move their gear into Meren under the Guild's radar.

Before Toji could ponder it further, a chorus of guttural clicking sounds echoed from the darkest corners of the warehouse.

Both Toji and Bache turned their heads toward the sound.

Deep in the shadows, dozens of iron cages rattled. Inside them, twisting masses of thick vines and appendages thrashed violently against the bars.

Violas.

Toji looked briefly surprised. These plant monsters were tightly associated with his elusive clients. What were they doing here? Was Ishtar in league with the people breeding these things?

More annoyingly, was he working for them for free without knowing it?

The cages groaned as the plant monsters pressed themselves against the bars, their eyeless faces snapping directly at Bache.

Toji realized why instantly. These monsters were drawn by magical energy, and Bache was practically a beacon right now with her Velgus enchantment.

He didn't second-guess the tactical advantage.

As Bache slowly backed away from the cages, Toji stepped up beside her and delivered a spinning side-kick squarely into her head.

"Gah—!" Bache was launched forward. She tearing through multiple iron cages.

The Violas spilled out into the warehouse and instantly swarmed the glowing Amazon that had just landed right in their laps.

Toji casually leaned against a support beam, amused as he watched Bache frantically go on the defensive.

"You guys have fun," Toji chuckled, crossing his arms. "I think I'll rest for a little."

༻❁༺

"Riveria, my ribs! Have some respect for the divine!" Loki whined under the High Elf's arm. "You're treating your beloved Goddess like a piece of luggage! Put me on your back, at least!"

Riveria ignored the complaining deity, her eyes scanning the chaotic streets below.

"They've stopped," Riveria noted, her voice calm but tight with focus.

Loki paused her thrashing and blinked, looking down at the alleyways. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"The Amazons," Riveria explained, leaping over two buildings. "They were pursuing us just moments ago. Now, they are no longer giving chase."

Loki frowned. "You think they realized they couldn't catch you?"

"No," Riveria said softly. "They possess the numbers to keep up the pressure. If they abandoned us, it means their objective changed—"

Riveria cut herself off, her eyes catching a lone figure sprinting across a quiet plaza below as if the literal hounds of hell were biting at her heels.

"Lefiya!" Riveria called out.

The High Elf dropped down from the rooftops and landed gracefully in the plaza, setting Loki down on her feet.

Lefiya, who had been sprinting in a blind panic, practically crashed into them. She stumbled, her knees buckling as she caught herself on her staff, gasping for air like a drowning fish.

"R-Riveria-sama?!" Lefiya cried out, her eyes wide with shock and immense relief. "Loki-sama!"

"Breathe, Lefiya," Riveria instructed, stepping forward to steady the trembling mage. "Where is your squad? Why are you alone?"

"S-Scattered!" Lefiya panted. "Kali Familia...ambush...they tried to take me...to bait Tiona!"

Riveria's eyes narrowed cautiously. "Are they still pursuing you?"

"N-No!" Lefiya stammered, shaking her head frantically. "A man clashed with them, and I ran in the confusion..."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "A man?"

Riveria looked troubled. The pieces weren't aligning, and the chaotic variables were multiplying—

KABOOM!

A concussive shockwave rattled the plaza, vibrating up through their boots.

They turned their heads. Several blocks away, the roof of a warehouse violently exploded outward, sending fire and rubble high into the night sky.

A woman was thrown violently into the sky like a broken doll—it was one of the Kali captains. And immediately following her from the ruined warehouse like a nest of disturbed hornets, was a tide of vines.

"Violas...?" Riveria muttered, the realization slamming into her mind.

Their suspicions were correct, then. There were Violas in the city, and the warehouse that had just erupted was where they were being hidden.

Loki stared at the surging mass of plants swarming the airborne Kali captain. "Would you look at that," she muttered, a wide smirk stretching across her face.

"Loki," Riveria said urgently, "I'm going to join up with Ais and try to contain this situation."

"Lefiya," Riveria turned, her voice commanding.

Lefiya straightened up immediately, pushing past her exhaustion. "Y-Yes, Riveria-sama!"

"You are to stay here and guard Loki," Riveria stated. "Do not let her out of your sight. Do not let anyone approach her."

Lefiya nodded rapidly. "Of course!"

Satisfied, the High Elf vaulted over a wall, disappearing into the city.

"Bye-bye, Riveria!" Loki said, not minding her departure in the slightest. She even gave her an overly enthusiastic wave.

"Alright, Lefiya. Playtime's over," Loki said, her voice dropping into something dangerous. "Stand up straight and dust yourself off."

Lefiya blinked, her shoulders slumping as she gripped her staff. "E-Eh? But Riveria-sama said—"

"Forget what mama elf said," Loki interrupted. "We have a golden chance to catch the rest of the smuggled goods. Come on, kid, we're about to expose this city's elites...We're going deity hunting!"

Lefiya stared at her Goddess, then down at her exhausted legs, before letting out a miserable sigh. "...Can't I just faint instead?"

༻❁༺

Ais Wallenstein sat on top of Phryne Jamil's massive torso, pinning the larger woman down..

"Y-You're just jealous!" Phryne choked out, blood and a loose tooth bubbling past her lips, still clinging to her trademark delusions. "You're jealous of my overwhelming beauty! D-Don't touch my perfect face, you ugly...flat-chested...harlot—!"

Ais didn't blink as she brought her fist down for the who-knows-how-many-th time.

She raised her blood-soaked fist again, prepared to deliver another blow—

"GHRAAHH!"

A familiar guttural roar echoed across the city, followed immediately by the heavy rumble of a distant explosion.

Ais froze, her fist hovering in the air.

"Plant monsters..." She blinked. The sound of the distant monsters acted like a splash of ice water, snapping Ais out of her unhinged state.

She stood up, stumbling slightly as a sudden wave of physical exhaustion washed over her. She reached down, grabbing the hilt of Desperate, and pulled the sword free from the rubble.

All around the edges of the street, figures were emerging from the shadows. Dozens of Ishtar Familia Amazons. They stopped dead in their tracks, staring in absolute horror at what the Sword Princess had done to their captain and the rest of their elite members.

"So this is the power of a Level 6..." one of the Amazons whispered.

Ais began to walk, dragging the tip of her rapier across the stones.

SCREEEECH!

The metallic shriek of her blade sent a collective shudder through the Amazons. They scrambled over each other against the brick walls to ensure they didn't provoke the blonde monster.

Ishtar stepped out from the shadows her forces had just emerged from. The Goddess of Beauty's eyes flicked past Ais to look at the cratered street and the whimpering mass of flesh that used to be Phryne.

Then, Ishtar looked up at the night sky, watching the distant smoke rising from an exploding warehouse and hearing the shrieks of the Violas.

"That man..." Ishtar muttered to herself. "I tell him to make it quick, and he can't even keep a low profile."

Ais didn't stop. She didn't stare, she didn't speak, and she certainly didn't acknowledge the Goddess standing in her path, walking right past Ishtar.

Ishtar didn't even bat an eyelash at her. She had a far bigger mess to clean up right now anyway.

The Goddess turned her attention to some of the conscious Amazons who had fallen to the Sword Princess, and finally, her gaze settled on her twitching captain.

"I-Ishtar-sama..." Phryne gurgled pathetically, reaching out a trembling hand toward her Goddess. "That ugly brat...she ruined my flawless face...you have to avenge my beauty..."

Ishtar stepped forward, stopping beside Phryne's head, then brought her heel down, grinding it mercilessly into Phryne's outstretched hand.

"Ow! Ishtar-sama!"

"Shut up!" Ishtar spat. She looked over her failed forces. "How should I punish each and every one of you stupid bitches for following this ugly amphibian and that midget Kali behind my back?"

The Amazons flinched, a shiver of terror running down their spines.

Ishtar tapped her finger thoughtfully against her chin. "Ah, I know."

The Amazons held their breath.

"No prostitution for an entire week!" Ishtar declared. She looked down at Phryne with spiteful eyes. "And for you, Phryne? Your captainship is revoked until further notice!"

"N-NOOO! The men of the world will weep without me!" Phryne wailed over the loss of men rather than her authority, her body thrashing against the stones.

"Ishtar-sama, please! Have mercy!"

"A whole week?! I'll die! My body can't handle that kind of deprivation!"

"I beg of you, Goddess! Whip us! Torture us! Break our bones! Just don't take the men away!"

Ishtar laughed, leaving her girls to drown in their own culturally specific despair.

༻❁༺

Bache dragged herself out of the smoking crater, her breath hitching as she finally finished off the last few plant monsters.

A high-pitched shriek pierced the air. The final plant monster lunged at her from the smoke, its jaws wide open.

Bache sidestepped the creature's maw, grabbing its thick vines with her poison-coated hands.

The Violas shrieked as its vines melted away. With a brutal twist, Bache ripped the plant in half.

She stood there, panting. Then, she heard a munching sound.

Bache's head snapped up.

Sitting on a relatively intact chunk of a ruined apartment just a few yards away was Toji, looking completely unbothered as he took another bite out of an apple.

He pointed the half-eaten fruit at the dead Violas. "Gotta hand it to you Amazons. You really don't know when to stay down."

Bache narrowed her eyes, wiping a streak of blood from her face.

"You fight with no one-on-one honor," Bache said, her voice rough and exhausted. "Hiding behind beasts to wear down your prey is a coward's play!"

Toji tossed the apple over his shoulder, hopping down from the ruined building with a lazy stretch. "The world ain't fair, and it sure as hell ain't honorable. I'd dropkick a Goddess if it makes my job easier."

Bache stared at him in shock. Then, a smirk crossed her face. The unashamed pragmatism of the man was infuriating, but she couldn't deny his strength and cunning.

"Alright," Bache declared, her bruised muscles tensing. "But I am not done after only—!" She didn't finish her sentence.

CRACK!

A figure crashed a few feet away from Bache, the ground exploding in a violent cloud of dust.

It was none other than Argana.

"Ahhhh..." Argana groaned, stepping out of the debris. Her one visible eye burned with an unhinged, feral fire. She looked down at her body, countless shallow cuts still staining her skin red, but no longer bleeding. "Well, look at that...the curse wore off. I feel fantastic!"

"You..." Bache stared at her older sister, surprised she was even walking with those injuries.

"Back off, Bache," Argana growled at her sister, her gaze locked onto Toji. She licked her lips, her face flushing with sick obsession. "That male is mine. I'm going to rip him apart and eat him."

Bache's expression darkened, entirely fed up with her sister's chaotic arrogance. "Piss off, Argana. Kali-sama gave him to me as my rite. I am going to kill him to reach Tiona!"

"Try to take him from me, and I'll kill you too, little sister!" Argana threatened, dropping into a feral stance. "So back off!"

Bache tensed, dropping into her own combat stance, fully ready to throw hands with her own blood.

Toji watched the two Amazon captains bicker, letting out a loud snort that brought both of their murderous glares directly to him.

"Look at you two. A couple of half-dead street dogs barking over me. I'm flattered," Toji mocked. "If you're both so eager to get put down, step up. I'll take you both on."

Argana and Bache exchanged a split-second glance. The decision was made.

They vanished.

Toji barely had time to brace himself before Argana was in his face. He ducked easily, but Bache was already diving for his legs. Toji pushed off the ground, backflipping into the air, only for Argana to leap up and grapple him mid-flight.

"You're slow without the candlelight!" Argana shrieked, wrapping her arms around him.

Using her momentum, she slammed Toji straight through the nearest brick wall.

CRASH!

Toji hit the rubble hard, but before he could throw Argana off, Bache lunged through the dust cloud, aiming a venomous kick straight at his head.

Toji brought his arms up, blocking the strike.

"Okay, maybe this was a slight miscalculation—!" Toji hissed as the skin on his forearm burned from Bache's acid.

Toji violently twisted his leg free from Argana's grip. "Get off me, you rabid mutt!"

He caught Bache by the ankle. Ignoring the poison eating into his palm, Toji swung her directly into Argana like a bat. "You two could use a reunion!"

The collision sent them both tumbling across the street in a tangle of limbs.

"Get out of my way, bitch!" Argana kicked her sister off her body, quickly setting up to intercept Toji.

Toji effortlessly slipped inside her guard, driving an elbow directly into her sternum.

"Gah!" Argana spat blood, but before she could fall, Toji planted his boot down on top of hers, pinning her in place.

With blinding speed, he unleashed a one-handed flurry of brutal strikes across her face, turning his head away, lazily wiping his hair back with his free hand as if she were nothing more than a mild nuisance. "Come on, don't bore me."

Argana roared. She powered through the blows.

"Slow!" Toji casually ducked under her wild swing and drove his elbow squarely upward into her chin.

Argana violently stumbled back, her remaining eye rolling back into her skull.

"One down!" Toji finished the combo with a skull-crushing double spinning kick to her temple that finally, permanently, rendered the elder sister unconscious.

Bache recovered from where her sister had kicked her. She slipped past Toji's lowered guard and landed an uppercut straight into his jaw.

Toji stumbled away, his head snapping back. A thin trail of blood flew from his lip.

"Don't think it got easier!" Bache landed on her feet, panting heavily, a triumphant smirk attempting to form on her exhausted face.

"Right." Toji's head tilted back down. He wiped the blood from his lip with his thumb.

Toji blurred. He grabbed her directly by the face and violently slammed her down onto the cobblestones. The impact forced all the air from Bache's lungs in a pained gasp.

Before she could recover, Toji kicked her in the stomach, launching her across the street's rubble. Bache clutched her midsection, desperately attempting to stand back up, but a split second later, Toji appeared above her with his leg raised.

"Gah!" Bache wasn't fast enough to block his back heel. The kick landed squarely on her face, driving her flat onto her back. Despite the brutal blow, the resilient Amazon remained conscious, though her poison had faded.

"Haaah...Thirty minutes to clear out just one Familia," Toji muttered, crouching down over Bache's broken body. "I guess it's an achievement in this world."

Bache tried to squirm free. She weakly pushed against Toji's arms.

Toji raised his hands—

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Bache's hands twitched violently. She dug her fingernails into his forearms, desperately trying to pry him away, but it was like trying to move a mountain.

"Just. Go. To. Sleep," Toji growled with each impact, completely unbothered by her frantic scratching.

Her grip tightened, drawing blood from Toji's skin, before finally giving out. Her arms dropped limply to the ground.

Toji stopped, exhaling. He looked down at her battered face. He might have overdone it.

He grabbed both Bache and Argana roughly by their hair, two in one hand. Without a second thought, he began to drag them down the street like two bags of heavy groceries.

SCREEEECH!

Toji paused, his ear twitching at the sound of metal scraping against stone. "You gotta be kidding me..."

Stepping out from the shadows of a ruined building was Ais Wallenstein. Her golden eyes were blown wide.

"Found you," Ais breathed out, raising Desperate directly at Toji.

"So," Toji stared at the bloodied blonde girl blocking his path, a dry smirk forming at his mouth. "You beat the Toad good?"

"She was loud and in my way," Ais replied, her tongue perfectly deadpan despite the manic look in her eyes. "So I punched her."

Toji actually snorted at that. "Nice. But seriously, the hell is wrong with your face? You look like a serial killer."

Ais didn't lower her blade an inch. "Rematch. Now."

"I don't do pro bono work, girl," Toji scoffed, barely lifting the two unconscious women off the ground. "Look at you. Look at me. We both look like shit. If nobody is paying me to kick your ass again, I'm clocking out. Go find some fodder to play with, psycho."

"We are both in bad condition. My wind is sealed," Ais reasoned, her smile somehow growing wider. "That makes it a fair match."

Toji blinked at the sheer absurdity of her logic. "That's not how a 'fair match' works, you crazy bitch! Move out of my way before I—"

"Ais!"

A commanding voice shattered the tense standoff.

Toji sighed. Was it raining women or something?

Having deposited Loki in safe hands, Riveria rushed back to the ambush site, only to find the street completely deserted. The High Elf was about to leave when a deep trail in the cobblestones caught her eye—the trail left by Ais dragging her rapier across the stone.

She landed gracefully between the two of them.

"Not you again," Riveria scoffed, her eyes flashing with barely contained annoyance at Toji. But then her gaze flicked downward, widening as she saw both of the Kali Familia Captains being dragged across the dirt. Had this Level 2 man just taken down two Level 6s simultaneously?!

Then, she looked back at Ais. The Sword Princess was breathless, her armor disheveled, a wide smile on her face as she stared with literal hunger at the rugged, bruised older man...

"A-Ais!" Riveria stammered, her regal composure fracturing instantly as she completely misunderstood the dynamic. "What is the meaning of this? Didn't we discuss this at the inn? Why are you so fixated on this...this filth!?"

"Who are you calling filth, you stuffy tree-hugging bitch?" Toji snapped, his eyes narrowing.

Ais completely ignored the High Elf, her eyes locked onto Toji. "Don't interfere, Riveria!"

Without another word, Ais launched herself directly at Toji.

"No you don't!"

Moving entirely on overprotective maternal instinct, Riveria threw her arms around Ais's waist in a tight bear hug. Under normal circumstances, Riveria couldn't have physically restrained the Sword Princess. But Ais's wind was sealed, her stamina was completely spent, and Riveria was still at her physical peak.

"Let me go!" Ais thrashed violently, her voice losing its monotone, sounding genuinely desperate. "He's right there! Let me at him! I need this!"

"H-HUUUH?!" Riveria squeaked, digging her heels into the dirt as she struggled to hold the thrashing blonde back. "I forbid it! I will not let you throw away your life to a homewrecker who drags women by the hair! Have you no shame, Ais?!"

Toji just stood there, completely deadpan at her words, watching the elegant High Elf practically wrestle her own sword-nut child in the middle of the street.

"You people are braindead," Toji sighed at Riveria's misunderstanding, but couldn't care enough to correct it. "Hey, mama bear. Do me a favor and put a leash on your stalker kid."

"D-Don't you call me that! I'm not your mama!" Riveria snapped, still struggling to pin Ais's arms down. "Just go! Take your...unfortunate victims and begone!"

Toji rolled his eyes and turned around, dragging Argana and Bache's bodies behind him. He was utterly done with this entire Familia.

"Wait!" Ais whimpered, reaching a desperate hand out toward his retreating back as Riveria dragged her in the opposite direction. "Come back! Just one exchange! Please...!"

"Absolutely not!" Riveria scolded, her face now completely red. "I thought I got through to you in the inn, but it seems I was being entirely too sentimental! We are extending your detention, Miss!"

༻❁༺

The morning sun rose over the skies of Meren.

The battle between Kali Familia and Loki Familia, if you could even call it a battle, had been brief, thanks to Toji's refusal to let it drag on.

Inside the luxury hotel, bruised, battered, and groaning Amazons from both the Ishtar and Kali Familias had been rounded up, dragged out of the streets by Ishtar, and stuffed into the lower levels of the hotel to recover.

Up in the master suite, the atmosphere was different.

"You really should learn to control your impulses," Ishtar leaned back in her velvet chair, her face a mask of absolute, smug superiority. "If I hadn't intervened, that little idiotic stunt with the Loki Familia would have ruined years of my meticulous planning."

Sitting across from her, Kali scowled. She was trying to save face, but the reality of her Familia's crushing defeat at the hands of a single man in less than an hour was a bitter pill to swallow. Toji had practically brought an entire thousand-year-old civilization to its knees in a single night.

"Don't get too high and mighty with me," Kali snapped, flashing a feral grin. "I made a deal with your little attack dog out there. I get to enjoy a spectacular fight, and I still get my rites against the Loki Familia later. Minor setbacks."

"Who says I'm going to allow you any more freedom, you backwater loli?" Ishtar leaned forward, her divine charm leaking into the atmosphere. "I have you sitting right in front of me. What is stopping me from simply charming you right now? I could turn you into an obedient, adoring little princess and end any future hassle you might cause me."

"Oh, you could certainly try!" Kali giggled, her eyes wide and unhinged as she leaned into the oppressive aura. "But you really shouldn't. My ideals for love and devotion are...quite twisted."

Kali tilted her head, her smile stretching into something deeply unsettling. "What might make a normal mortal kiss the floor you walk on might just make me want to 'love' you so intensely that I tear your head right off your shoulders. Are you willing to gamble your life on how my divine domain interprets your charm?"

Ishtar's eye twitched.

"Furthermore," Kali continued cheerfully, "even if I became your little puppet, my girls wouldn't just fall in line. Telskyura respects strength, not brainwashed Goddesses. You'd have to personally charm every single one of my Amazons to get them to obey you. Is that really worth the hassle?"

Ishtar huffed, crossing her arms in sheer annoyance. "Let us hope, it won't come to that. But do not force my hand, Kali. I wouldn't mind wasting a few hours of my day breaking your Familia piece by piece."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, we're good," Kali waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, can you keep it down over there? We are trying to discuss adult matters."

Kali gestured toward the far end of the suite.

Sitting at a small dining table, entirely ignoring the two deities, was Toji Fushiguro, currently in the process of aggressively demolishing a massive tray of various cuisines.

"I burned a lot of calories cleaning up your stupid mess," Toji grunted around a mouthful of rice, reaching for another piece of gabagool. "So, shut the fuck up."

Ishtar cleared her throat, redirecting the conversation. "As I was saying. The plan against Freya remains the same. My Familia will take the initiative and handle the necessary logistics to ensure that the Kali Familia is smuggled inside Orario days before the actual attack commences."

"Hold on," Toji interrupted. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and walked over to them. "Slight change of plans."

Ishtar blinked. "What change?"

"We aren't leaving the muscle behind," Toji said flatly, looking down at Kali. "Your Captains. They're coming to Orario with us. Now."

Kali's jaw dropped. "Haaaah?! Like hell I'll allow that!" She jumped up on the sofa cushions to get closer to his eye level. "They are my trump cards! I said I'll follow your script, so get off my back!"

"Look, you chaotic gremlin," Toji sighed. "I just spent the night beating your 'trump cards' because they decided to start a gang war with a top-tier Familia. I want them on a short leash, right where I can see them."

Ishtar's eyes lit up as the tactical advantage dawned on her. Having two Level 6s directly in her custody would give her incredible leverage. "He is absolutely right. The Captains come with us."

"Absolutely not!" Kali spat. "Even if I agreed, which I don't, they can't pass the city security."

"You don't need to worry about that," Ishtar smirked. "I have my ways of bypassing the Guild's little checkpoints."

Kali glared daggers at both of them, her mind racing. She hated being boxed in, but she also knew that Ishtar held the advantage here.

"Haaah..." Kali huffed. "Fine. But I'm coming too."

Ishtar frowned. "And why is that?"

"I'm bored as hell here," Kali complained, crossing her arms. "I wanted to see Orario anyway, and this is the perfect opportunity. Either I come along, or there's no deal."

Toji clicked his tongue. "Just let the brat come. It's easier than fighting her on it."

Ishtar let out a long sigh. "Fine. But if you step out of line in my territory, you'll regret it."

With the roles and logistical nightmare out of the way, the tension in the room finally broke.

"Now that everything is accounted for," Ishtar stood up. "Come, Toji. We are going to get a proper breakfast and leave by 10."

"Sure, I guess." Toji followed the Goddess out of the master suite.

The moment the double doors opened into the hallway, a shadow suddenly detached itself from the ceiling.

"Toji-kunnn~!"

Toji barely had time to blink before a curving mass slammed into him.

Argana Kalif, completely healed from the brutal beatdown she had received just hours prior, wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, clinging to him like an oversized koala.

"What the fuck—" Toji was taken aback, stumbling back a step.

"You were so amazing last night," Argana purred, her eyes practically swirling with hearts. She nuzzled her face directly into his neck, right where she had bitten him. "So strong...so ruthless. I've never felt pain like that before. You're the one and only for me!"

Toji's face twisted into absolute disgust.

Kali, who had followed them out into the hall, sighed in disappointment, but also amusement at Toji's reaction. "Heavens, look at you! How utterly useless you've become, Argana."

Argana didn't even look away from Toji's neck. "Don't get jealous now, Kali-sama. Some of us just realized we need to take care of our feminine side."

"Shut up, you brain-damaged idiot!" Kali roared, her amusement turning to anger.

"Get the hell off me." Toji tried to pry the Amazon off him, but her Level 6 strength made it annoyingly difficult. He glanced over Argana's shoulder and noticed another figure standing quietly against the wall.

Bache Kalif was perfectly still, healed as well, her face covered by a new veil, arms crossed firmly under her chest.

"Tell me you aren't going to follow your sister's example," Toji glared at the younger twin.

"Of course not." Bache shook her head from side to side. While the two had shared a quiet moment of understanding before their fight, unlike her sister or the rest of the Amazons, she held her standards above just being beaten to a pulp.

Kali casually leaned close to Toji's ear and whispered loudly with a smirk: "She's lying."

"Gh—!" Bache physically flinched, her cheeks flushing red beneath her veil as she looked away in a panic. She wasn't lying! Or was she...? She didn't know herself.

"Right. That's it." Toji grabbed a handful of Argana's hair and punched her off his body.

Argana crashed into a decorative vase, shattering it, before immediately rolling back up onto her knees. She cupped her bruised cheek, a blush spreading across her face. "Ahhh...I really do like it rough~"

Toji's eye twitched. He turned to Ishtar. "I changed my mind. We are leaving the Captains here. Forever."

"Nuh uh. You made your bed, you lie in it," Ishtar chuckled, enjoying his misery. She turned toward Kali. "But, you should get it through your girls' thick skulls, Kali. This man is mine and mine alone."

To assert her dominance, Ishtar boldly reached out and intertwined her fingers with Toji's.

Toji looked down at their joined hands and let out a sigh, doing nothing to stop her.

Argana hissed like a feral cat, glaring venomously at their locked hands. Even the stoic Bache shifted uncomfortably.

"If you'll excuse us," Ishtar said smugly, practically dragging Toji down the corridor. "We have breakfast to catch."

As they disappeared around the corner, Argana slammed her fist into the floorboards.

"No fair!" Argana whined, her bloodlust replaced by bizarre, teenage frustration. "He's under her charm! How am I supposed to compete with a literal Goddess of Beauty using mind control? That's cheating!"

Bache offered a sharp nod of silent agreement, completely abandoning her stoic facade.

Kali sighed, looking at her two most lethal warriors acting like lovesick maidens. She felt a profound sense of disgust.

"You're both idiots," Kali muttered. "That hulking mass of muscle isn't taken."

Argana and Bache instantly snapped their heads toward their Goddess in pure confusion. "What?" they both asked.

"He's faking it," Kali said, crossing her arms. "I don't know if Ishtar is just coping, or if she genuinely believes she has him hooked, but that man is about as charmed as a brick wall. The way his eyes move, the absolute disrespect in his voice...he's playing a game."

Argana's eye widened, a thrilling shiver running down her spine. "He's...faking it?"

"So...there is a chance..." Bache muttered to herself with a blush.

"Whatever," Kali sighed. "Now get up and leave someone in charge to take care of the grunts. The three of us are moving to the big city with your new crush."

Argana literally jumped into the air with excitement, immediately sprinting down the hall to pack her things. Bache remained quiet, but Kali didn't miss the subtle, happy bounce in her step as the younger twin hurried after her sister.

༻❁༺

Toji and Ishtar walked through the quiet corridors toward the private dining quarters.

"Clingy idiots," Toji muttered, rubbing his neck where Argana had grabbed him. "Are all Amazons this crazy, or just the ones you associate with?"

Ishtar laughed softly. "Telskyura breeds a special kind of madness. But it matters little. They are our weapons now."

Toji glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. It was time to push his luck regarding his discoveries.

"Speaking of weapons," Toji said casually, keeping his tone perfectly indifferent. "Those plant monsters. The green, ugly ones that I found in one of your smuggling warehouses. Where did you get them?"

Ishtar's steps faltered for a second. She glanced at him, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Toji shrugged. "Done a few jobs for some underground types who used livestock like these. Nasty things. Good for causing chaos. Was just curious who the supplier was."

Ishtar's cautious frown slowly melted back into a proud smile at his words.

"Ah, If that is the case..." Ishtar murmured, her ego demanding she show off the true depths of her resources. "Then I don't think it will be a problem if I introduce you to our little underground friends once we return to Orario."

Ishtar leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "They are the ones holding my ultimate trump card. The key to crushing Freya once and for all."

"Sounds like a fun crowd," Toji said lazily. "Can't wait to meet them."

And gather dirt on them, especially.

༻❁༺

The End

༻❁༺

And done...this took three entire rewrites to finish it btw

Toji just got himself a Harem of Amazon's lol

This is officially the longest chapter bruh. But you should've seen it in its early stages—it was hitting 18k words. I managed to tighten it up quite a lot

I hope y'all liked this one despite its shortcomings. And just to clarify: Loki managed to corner Njord just like in canon, but the Guild Manager hasn't been caught yet. Idk about the Mayor though

Anyway, you might be curious why I wasn't updating:

1- I rewrote the premise for this chapter three times. You wouldn't believe how different it is between the rewrites

2- I was living in nostalgia, playing God of War 1 & 2

3- I was excited for the GTA 6 trailer and couldn't concentrate very well

But damn, bro...GTA 6 looks fire!

Too bad I'm broke :(

Leave a like/comment/review to support this work

OR

If you like my work and want to help me afford GTA 6—and experience the jiggle physics of Lucia—you can help a brother out by sending any amount you're comfortable with to this crypto wallet:

---

SOL / USDC — Solana Network Only

Wallet address: FFg3pAJ1nr8St7uvFH7yuMSLRoN8k8wxM4igSMqqMQmr

(Make sure all the letters and numbers are correct)

---

Btw, don't worry, I won't start some scheme where I make fans pay for content. All my content will remain free for everyone. Donations will just help me keep the energy to keep going, I guess?

Anyway, cya.