From the "hole" created by the return of the two gods Thanatos and Dionysus, the reality was that within the massive passage, the green flesh that had previously gushed out like an underground fountain was now overflowing madly and spreading across a certain area on the surface of "Daedalus Street."
As the waves of green flesh surged forth, its expanding carpet looked as though a section of this city of towering buildings and interwoven streets, a true labyrinth, had been cut out and directly transformed into something like a city forest park.
Because the expansion was so vast, after discussion among the Guild Headquarters and the upper ranks of related familias, a unified directive was issued: overnight, they erected partition panels around the entire district and draped a huge curtain over it, using the flimsy excuse of "reconstruction work" to hide the sudden transformation of the terrain.
This was to prevent ordinary people from noticing the anomaly and thereby disturbing the already-fragile order of Orario.
As administrators and residents, they preferred their city to be orderly yet passionate, not a chaotic and disordered wasteland.
From Loki's elevated vantage point, she only needed to glance at the map of the man-made labyrinth to realize, the green flesh's erosion had already spread across the entire artificial labyrinth.
In other words, it covered all regions underground beneath the Daedalus Street district, overflowing through leaps and shifts of distance, compression, and expansion.
Back then, Gareth, truly worthy of being called a former miner, had commanded his troops to adapt on the spot.
At the most critical moment, using the knockoff magic tool Daedalus's Eye in his hand, he shut the Orichalcum door, successfully preventing the substance from flowing into the Dungeon's entrance.
The only places where it spilled out were the two openings created by the holes from the pillar of lights, located in the center of Daedalus street.
After an entire night of settling, for some unknown reason, the once-erupting waves of green flesh had now fallen completely silent.
It no longer moved, almost as if the green carpet had gone into hibernation, maintaining only the most basic activity.
No… Loki touched her chin, a word flashing through her mind, she should say it had stopped "growing."
"What in the world is going on…?" The murmured whisper of the goddess was carried away by the morning breeze.
As she surveyed the area, what lay before her were the members of the Ganesha Familia, stationed here for vigilance, supervision, investigation, and prevention, jointly assigned by the Guild Headquarters and the factions in the know.
Although their god, the "Lord of the Masses," Ganesha, appeared unreliable and frivolous in the eyes of gods, adventurers, and ordinary citizens alike, whenever it came to key moments or official duties, he would seem like a completely different person.
Like now, through the entire night without sleep, continuously issuing orders, Ganesha himself was on the front lines without taking even a single break.
Both Loki and everyone else had been fooled by Enyo, leaving them all in a period of heightened nerves.
If anything suspicious happened now, the extremely-tense adventurers would likely rush forward immediately.
Yes, the level of alertness practically bordered on paranoia. Once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of a rope. Nothing more than that.
"..."
After surveying the Daedalus street from the rooftop for a while, Loki left the railing and sighed.
She carefully descended the staircase that had been somewhat damaged in the battle, circled into a back alley, intending to avoid the noisy adventurers who had rushed here after hearing rumors.
Just then, an irritatingly familiar voice came from behind her.
"Yo, Loki. What a coincidence. Seeing you up and about this early in the morning is really rare."
"….." The blond male god wearing a traveler's hat with a feather, half-lidded eyes, none other than her ally, Hermes.
'A coincidence?' The mouth of that god, full of lies.
Loki would sooner believe in ghosts.
Seeing him appear at the perfect moment to "coincidentally" catch her alone, Loki narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
After a few seconds, she glanced back at him silently, expressionless.
"Ahem. Since we've run into each other, how about we chat for a bit?"
Hearing that, Loki squinted, clearly thinking: What tricks are you plotting again?
"Oh? Chat? Fine, go on, let's hear it."
"..." What's with that condescending tone?
Hermes froze, a bit speechless.
But when he remembered the power gap between their familias, his heart trembled, and he straightened his face.
"Alright, let's get to the point."
He shrugged.
His Familia's captain Asfi was busy elsewhere and not at his side. With no outsiders around, Hermes dropped his elegant smile.
"About the mastermind, Enyo, I want to hear your thoughts."
A rare seriousness appeared on Hermes' face. Clearly, even though they had never seen this enemy, the oppressive pressure of the unknown was weighing on him.
"It's probably the same as what you're thinking. The intel we have is too limited. In short, our conclusions are about the same."
"That's true… We know far too little. We don't have clues about Enyo, nor about the motives behind these actions. Even if his goal is the same as the death god Thanatos, still…"
If Loki's side knew anything at all, it was only that ridiculous label: "Enyo."
Because they didn't even know if it was a real being or a fabricated persona, the impression it left felt like a vague shadow, uncertain whether real or illusory. And because of that, Loki's side hadn't planned a serious investigation.
No, that's not right. It wasn't that they didn't plan to investigate. The truth was, they couldn't investigate.
They had no clues. Nothing to start from.
But the true enemy, full of obvious malice and intent, had suddenly sacrificed an ally and bared its fangs at the Adventurers. It was as if it were loudly announcing its presence onstage.
Yes, he wanted a stage, flowers, applause.
And then, as if laughing uproariously, he mocked the "clowns" in the audience.
"So, up until now, who do we suspect as the mastermind, shall we say it at the same time?"
The two exchanged a look, their eyes emotionless.
'Three, two, one'
"Dionysus!" Two overlapping voices rang out.
Hearing the name both had expected, neither Hermes nor Loki showed any change in expression, as though they had long accepted it.
"And why do you think it's him?"
"Heh, don't tell me you haven't noticed, everything is just too coincidental."