Chapter 43: The Evilus Suppression Operation.
.....
"Ryuu — stay after closing tonight. I need to talk to you."
"Of course."
Ryuu turned the request over in her mind as she worked. She hadn't been taking excessive time off recently. What could Mia want to discuss?
After the last customer left and the noise of the evening drained out with them, the Hostess of Fertility went quiet in the particular way it only did after hours. Mia came out of the kitchen without her chef's hat, set a glass of fruit juice in front of Ryuu, and cracked open a can of Joja Cola for herself.
"You've been here a while now. How do you find it?"
"I'm grateful. If you hadn't taken me in, I'm not sure how I would have managed."
"That was then." Mia looked at her steadily.
"If you're ready to start something new — a different kind of life — you can tell me whenever you like."
"I don't follow."
Mia exhaled with the patience of someone watching a daughter fail to arrive at an obvious conclusion.
"Chloe mentioned that Kihara touched the back of your hand recently, and you didn't react."
"That was probably an accident."
"Your own face doesn't believe you."
Ryuu turned toward the mirror across the room — and found her complexion entirely normal. She lowered the hand she'd started to raise. Her eyes dropped.
"I'm a wanted person. He's going to become one of Orario's heroes. Those two things don't belong together."
"You and I both know perfectly well that ordinary people see the Gale Wind as a hero. Don't talk yourself out of something using an argument you don't actually believe."
"Mia — I never said I had feelings for him."
The proprietress tapped the table once with the flat of her hand.
"Stop performing for an empty room. I'm not interested in hearing it." She set down the can. "Astraea is currently in the Sword City in the east. Once this business is settled, go and see her."
"I will."
"That's all I have to say. The offer to resign stands — whenever you want it, it's there."
Ryuu left without answering. The shape of her back, disappearing through the door, carried something that hadn't been there before.
Two days later, Kihara received Fels's message and went to collect Ryuu. When they arrived at the Loki Familia's grounds, the courtyard was already filled with the assembled elite of three Familias — Freya, Ganesha, and Loki — standing in clusters, waiting.
Fels addressed them when everyone had arrived.
"The Evilus remnants are located in the Daedalus Street area. They have access to a labyrinth device — an artificial maze that connects directly to the dungeon's eighteenth floor. That's why they've evaded detection until now."
"Fortunately, Mr. Kihara recovered the key item that allows free navigation inside the artificial maze, which allowed me to map the entrance and exit points. The three Familias will divide into three teams: one to secure the entrances and exits in Daedalus Street, one to hold the eighteenth-floor dungeon exit, and one to enter the maze and eliminate the remnants."
"Allocation is your decision. My role is to carry the navigation device and support whoever goes inside."
Shakti, captain of the Ganesha Familia, stepped forward without hesitation.
"Ganesha Familia takes Daedalus Street.
Maintaining order in Orario is our function."
She looked toward the Freya Familia's representative — Ottar, Orario's only Level 7, arms folded, expression carrying the specific economy of someone who had already decided the outcome of any engagement he entered.
"Would the Freya Familia take the eighteenth floor exit?"
"As Freya-sama commands."
"That leaves the interior elimination to the Loki Familia."
Finn nodded. "Agreed."
Roles established, the teams separated at intervals to avoid drawing attention. Kihara and Ryuu were folded into the Loki Familia's group and followed Fels toward the artificial maze's entrance in Daedalus Street.
The entrance was at the base of the most-trafficked bridge in the district — specifically, in the drainage access beneath it. Fels produced the crystal eye that Kihara had passed to Ouranos.
The rusted access point began to shift. Metal and stone twisted and reconfigured until a dark passage led straight down.
"Move."
"Stay in contact at all times. Our opponents today are not mindless creatures — they're intelligent, they're watching, and they will exploit isolated targets. No one moves alone."
"Understood."
Deep inside the artificial maze—
A god named Thanatos pressed a crimson gemstone into the chest of a creature that was something between a woman and a carnivorous flower. The stone was absorbed by the reaching, tendril-like flesh around it. When it fully integrated, the creature released an aura that combined wrongness with something that shouldn't have been able to coexist with it — and expanded to four or five times its previous size, nearly splitting the walls of the room built to contain it.
"It can fully absorb a refined twenty-seventh floor boss magic stone." Thanatos studied the result with the absorbed attention of a researcher who has stopped distinguishing between curiosity and obsession. "Spirits are genuinely fascinating... I believe the Loki Familia has a human who carries spirit blood. A pity she's already reached Level 5 — direct capture would be difficult. I'll need to find a way to use the resonance between spirits to draw her in instead."
A subordinate burst through the door.
"Lord Thanatos — the Loki Familia has entered the maze—"
"The Loki Familia?" Thanatos's expression rearranged itself with the speed of someone who has just been handed an unexpected gift. "Is the Sword Princess with them?"
"She is—"
"Send every test subject. Use the magic-stone collars to control them. I want the Sword Princess captured — alive, intact. She's the target material."
"But—"
"Go. Unless you'd prefer to become the next subject."
The look that accompanied this was brief and sufficient. The subordinate left at speed.
Thanatos turned back to the corrupted spirit-flower and touched one of its serrated leaves with the deliberate tenderness of someone who has transferred their feelings to the wrong kind of object.
"If they all fail — then it's your turn, my dear."
Bang. Bang.
Two shots. Two Evilus members who had been moving toward Aiz's blind spot dropped without completing their approach. She turned, registered what had happened, and gave Kihara a brief nod before moving to support the Hiryute sisters, who were managing a cluster of frenzied monsters.
Ryuu had just finished eliminating the handler controlling the creatures nearby. She watched the exchange, and something in her expression shifted in a way she didn't notice herself.
"You really do keep your eyes on Aiz."
The words were out before she'd decided to say them, and carried a quality she hadn't intended.
Kihara turned and levelled Ivory at a point directly behind her head.
Bang.
The wall cracked open. The assassin stepping through it, knife raised, dropped.
He spun the pistol back into position and looked at her with an easy smile.
"I'm watching you too~"
"I — nobody asked you to—"
She pulled her hood up over the warmth that had appeared on her face, drew the wooden staff at her hip — the one that looked like a practice weapon and wasn't — and began channelling a support incantation toward the Loki Familia members fighting further down the corridor.
...
Thank you for reading.