Bonus chapter unlocked by your Power Stones!
...
As Takumi and the others rushed back toward Orario, the sun climbed to its zenith.
Northwest of the city—District Seven.
Members of the Ganesha Familia had zeroed in on a particular building in that sector: a church long forgotten by the public. Above its tightly shut front doors loomed a stone goddess missing half her face.
"We finally found the warehouse that stores the merchandise from the [Villains' Illegal Market]. Who'd have thought it wasn't near the exchange at all, but tucked away here in this quiet northwest quarter."
"Never would've guessed they'd pick a residential area for common citizens. The enemy's not stupid… but that only gets them as far as today."
Adi clenched her fists; beside her, Shakti's eyes burned like live coals. In a blink, their subordinates slipped into position around them without a sound. At Shakti's order, the squad surged forward, seizing every Dark Faction operative holed up inside the church.
As they stripped the place of contraband and uncovered what the Dark Faction had smuggled in—Elven treasure, Branches of the Great Sacred Tree—Adi smiled.
"That's the stuff Ryuu said was stolen from their village? It's prized material for staffs or weapons, sure… but I didn't expect they'd piled up this much."
"Mhm! Ryuu and I promised we'd take those branches back!"
Adi's nod and answer met Shakti as the captain strode up—but before they could savor the moment, a violent series of detonations rolled in from far off.
BOOM! BOOOOM!!
The ground bucked; citizens cried out; towers of flame punched skyward. The Ganesha adventurers sprinted out and saw thick black smoke rising all across Orario.
"Th-this—"
"Dark Faction again!?"
Staring at the city in shock, Adi heard Shakti mutter through a dark expression. The enemy had moved too fast, and Shakti's forces were all the way out in the backwater of District Seven.
"Alise and her team got orders to ambush on the eighteenth floor too… This is bad!! The Dark Faction's target is Orario itself!!!"
As captain of the Ganesha Familia, Shakti's mind snapped to the pattern. The Dark Faction had scattered them—then used the gap to launch a full-scale assault on Orario.
Claws of the Dark Faction tore through everything. Streets. Shops. Civilians. Wild blasts of magic slammed into whatever lay in front of them, collapsing masonry, rattling the earth, drawing screams. Blood ran. Flesh charred. Bones blackened. Pavers split. Walls burst. Sunlit scenes unraveled in a blink.
"Hahahahahahaha! The banquet begins! I'm crashing the party, you pathetic adventurers~~!!"
Standing in a pool of blood, the Dark Faction officer known by the codename [Arachnia], Valetta Grede, slung her gore-smeared greatsword up onto her shoulder and laughed like she meant to split the sky. Her hair was a piercing, eye-stabbing pale red; a torn, sweat-stained shirt and leather pants clung to her frame. Any adventurer who caught sight of her would know exactly who they were facing.
Valetta swung her brutal blade in mad, singing arcs, lopping off civilians' arms, cleaving torsos, severing throats—composing a chorus of screams. No one escaped a Lv.5 adventurer.
"V-Valetta-sama! What are you doing!? Acting without orders is—!"
A Dark Faction soldier, seeing the plan go off the rails, rushed up in a panic to warn her—only for the next instant to see a blade open his throat. His head spun up into the air and dropped with a heavy thump. Hidden among the fleeing crowds, other Dark Faction footmen blanched as if their blood had frozen; only Valetta grinned, blood-bright, eyes on the sky as she spread her arms and howled:
"How annoying~ Look at that pretty blue up there! If we don't wreck this place—if we don't hack every last one of them into paste—how's that gonna look, huh?"
"This is a hopeless era! A hell with no time left for smiles! If we don't remind these brainless idiots of that, then what's the point! Everyone—move!"
Under Valetta's crazed command, the remaining grunts had no choice but to obey. Before they turned into corpses themselves, they would fulfill the mission—detonate Orario and shatter its order.
The next heartbeat—an icy sword-glint split the air, driving straight for the crown of Valetta's skull.
She reacted instantly, snapping her greatsword up to catch the thrusting rapier. Edge met edge, pressure detonated outward; the shock tossed chips of stone in every direction.
Staring into the face of the blonde girl before her, Valetta's mouth curved up, thrilled. "Hahahaha!!! The fastest to reach Lv.5—the Sword Princess, Ais! I'm so glad we get to cross blades! But is it just you? Where's that runt Finn?"
Since the dissolution of the Hera and Zeus Familias, Loki Familia's Finn had crossed steel with Valetta's armies more times than she could count. So even if Ais was here, the opponent Valetta most wanted was still Finn.
"Unfortunately, he's not here. He saw through your objective just now—and he's already sent people to reinforce every sector."
The voice behind Valetta was cold as forged steel. She sensed danger, yanked a dagger from her breast and batted Ais back, snatching that fraction of a second to twist around—
BANG!!
Her greatsword met a battle-axe, and Valetta was blasted away like a fired shell. She rammed her off-hand dagger into the street to grind to a stop, metal shrieking long and loud; only then did she kill her momentum and plant her feet again.
She glared at the dwarf who had appeared before her. "Damn you, stinking old dwarf!"
Unmoved by the insult, the armored dwarf—Gareth—locked eyes with her over the bearded edge of his face. Heavy armor. Heavier axe. His voice rumbled like a drum. "You're not getting away, villain!!"
"Not getting away? Don't worry—every last one of you useless do-gooders is too 'kind' to deal with me."
Still at ease, Valetta snapped her fingers with mocking flair.
Snap!
At the signal, hidden ambushers burst from cover on all sides. Weapons came up; explosions blossomed in all directions. Magic swords arced out and thudded down among streets and crowds alike.
"AAAAAAHH!!"
Blast after blast rolled across the district, wringing new cries from those caught in the shockwaves. Ais's face went tight—ugly with the need to choose—and she sprinted off to claw civilians out of danger. Gareth, planted where he stood, had no such option: Valetta was already surging back in to strike him.
BOOM!!
Axe met sword again; released pressure ripped down the street, wrecking what hadn't already fallen.
In the thick of it, Adi led a wedge of Ganesha Familia fighters onto the scene. Her sister was taking the rest to counter other pockets of destruction. Seeing Valetta and Gareth locked together, Adi barked orders at once.
"Split into two teams! Lower-levels—get those civilians out of here! Higher-levels—you're with me! We're backing up Gareth!"
A Lv.3 adventurer and Shakti's younger sister, Adi's standing inside Ganesha Familia was sky-high. Not one adventurer balked. The formation broke and flowed—clean, practiced, fast.
....
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.
Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon! [patreon.com/METARLN]