In the dim underground space, in front of the huge orichalcum door, the adventurers of Loki Familia began moving in order according to Finn's arrangements.
"Vanguard, middle guard, rearguard, and healing group each handle your own duties. Everyone take your positions."
"Gareth and I will lead the party, the main combat power is Ais, Bete, Tiona, and Tione, Lefiya takes the lead on firepower, and Leo and Riveria stay here on standby, in case anything happens."
"Beyond that, put together a squad of scouts with good legs, responsible for following the party to gather intelligence and bringing it back whenever necessary, so we keep contact with the outside."
Finn's mind worked fast, and in no time he had everything organized, getting the members who were about to enter the enemy's headquarters ready to move.
The rank-and-file members who hadn't been chosen began hauling over the supplies that had been prepared in advance, package by package, and handing them to the Supporters joining the party. Inside were all sorts of necessary potions, provisions, items, and spare equipment, all quite thoroughly prepared.
Leo and Riveria were left outside, along with Anakitty and Alicia, while Raul, like Lefiya, was picked for the infiltration party.
"Leo's staying outside too?"
Tiona held her great double-blade in one hand and spoke up in confusion.
The way she saw it, Leo was now essentially confirmed as the strongest combat power in the entire Familia, and if he joined in, their operation should go far more smoothly.
But Finn had his own reasons for doing it this way.
"The enemy threw the door wide open like that and invited us in. That's practically telling us straight out that there's a trap waiting inside."
Finn analyzed it with complete composure.
"On top of that, we still don't know what the situation inside is, so this first operation is basically for scouting the way and gathering intelligence. It hasn't reached the point where we need to commit our main combat power in full."
Finn had to keep a trump card in hand.
With Leo held back, even if something happened to them inside, the Familia could still organize a corresponding rescue operation afterward, with strong enough combat power available to use.
Leaving Leo outside was also to prevent the Familia's ace from walking into a trap, having something happen to him, and dragging the whole operation down with him.
Furthermore, he had to guard against the possibility that the enemy was making a feint.
What if what lay ahead was only bait, and the enemy's real aim was to pin them down and then strike at their rear, or even start releasing Spirit avatars into the city outright?
If that turned out to be the case, with Leo covering things from outside, they wouldn't be completely without the power to resist.
Leaving Riveria, the strongest Mage in the city, outside was based on similar reasoning.
As long as those two were there, no matter what happened, the people left outside would have enough capability to respond.
"Then what about Line?" Leo hadn't objected to Finn's arrangements, but seeing Line preparing to go along with the party, he suddenly spoke up. "Does Line have to go in?"
"What?" Finn hadn't expected Leo to ask that, and after a moment of surprise he frowned and asked, "Is there a problem?"
"...No." Leo was silent for a while before he said, "I just want a Healer left outside so it's easier to deal with anything unexpected."
Setting Finn aside, at those words, Loki, who had been off to one side sizing up the orichalcum door and apparently still considering whether it could be pried loose, glanced over at Leo.
Others couldn't tell, but this goddess could hear that the line was a lie.
It really was a lie.
The main reason Leo wanted Line kept back was that he wanted to protect her.
He hadn't forgotten that in the original work, Line was the one who died during this operation.
There was no way he could stand by and watch Line go to her death.
That was why he'd said it.
Of course, he also knew how dangerous this operation was for Loki Familia. Even Finn had nearly died in it, the whole party had barely come out alive, and there had been quite a few casualties.
For that, Leo had already thought up a few strategies to compensate, but before that he wanted to secure Line's place out here, just in case.
As for stopping Finn and the others from pressing ahead into what they knew was a trap, Leo had considered it, but he figured that even if he tried, he probably couldn't stop them.
Because, in terms of the conclusion, they had no choice but to go in.
The enemy's aim was to summon Spirit avatars on the surface and destroy all of Orario, and they had no idea when the enemy would begin. So in order to stop them as fast as possible, their own side had to walk into the tiger's den knowing full well the tiger was there.
Besides, Leo knew perfectly well that what lay below was a man-made labyrinth no less complex than the Dungeon, with any number of traps and mechanisms, and terrain of unknown structure.
To wipe out the one behind all of this, they were always going to have to step inside.
Which meant that in order to defeat the enemy successfully, sending a vanguard force in to scout the way and gather intelligence was absolutely necessary.
Leo knew the original work, but there was no way to learn from the original work what this underground man-made labyrinth actually looked like, how the paths inside should be walked, or whether there were other traps waiting.
In the original work, the reason Loki Familia was able to win the final great victory in the end was the paths scouted during that first operation, the intelligence gathered, and the enemy's true situation being figured out.
Based on all of that, Finn had drawn up the plan that truly decided things, and in the end gathered the forces that counted as the backbone of all of Orario before finally settling it for good.
Without this operation, the later victory absolutely could not have been won.
Given all that, after turning it over several times, Leo decided not to stop this operation.
Of course, not stopping it was one thing. So that his companions could withdraw safely, he was prepared to contribute his own share as well.
There was a hum, and a magic circle giving off brilliant starlight spread out beneath Leo.
"What?"
"Leo!"
Everyone present was startled, and several of the people closer to Leo even backed up a few steps, pulling away from him by reflex and clearing the area the magic circle covered.
In that moment an enormous light of Magic gushed out of the magic circle and turned into a gale that set the clothes of Leo and everyone around him flapping.
Some raised their hands to shield their faces, some raised their weapons, and some wanted to shout but couldn't, buffeted uncomfortably by the storm of Magic blowing straight at them.
"...!"
Ais hadn't expected this either, and the moment she recovered her first thought was to get close to Leo.
But by then, Leo had already begun chanting.
"Come charging forth from the golden palace."
"Beasts of light that never lose, stars' spirits that trample the battlefield, streak forth bearing the undying fire of the earth's core, and roar with all your voice."
"Meteors of thunder, flood, storm, ice and snow, and flame. You are the incarnations of calamity, the war hammers of heaven's judgment. Gallop from the ends of the world and descend upon boundless disaster."
That chant might have been unfamiliar to some, but to those who had gone with Leo to the 59th floor and seen him face off against the defiled Spirit, it was more than familiar.
"Th, this is Mr. Leo's third magic!?"
Lefiya was stunned.
Never mind her, even Finn and the others changed color.
Why was Leo using that magic here?
This was magic strong enough to hold back a defiled Spirit single-handedly!
Using magic with that kind of terrifying power in a cramped underground space with companions everywhere, what was he planning to do?
Take them all down with him?
"No, he's holding back."
Riveria noticed that Leo's chant seemed considerably shorter than the one he had used on the 59th floor.
His complete third magic was without question the ultra-long chant type, but right now Leo was only performing a long chant.
That was exactly the case.
This time Leo hadn't released his third magic at full power. He had released only half of it.
"Come forth. Star of the Bull, Taurus. Star of the Crab, Cancer. Star of the Lion, Leo. Star of the Maiden, Virgo. Star of the Archer, Sagittarius. Star of the Goat, Capricorn!"
At Leo's summons, star beasts appeared one after another within the golden star magic circle.
A bull with rocks floating around it, a crab like a dream or a bubble, a majestic and powerful lion, a maiden holding a stalk of grain, the half-man half-horse star of the archer, and a long-nosed, sharp-fanged, fish-bodied beast of shadow and drifting light... Leo summoned only these six star beasts, and all six appeared around him carrying startling waves of Magic.
Looking closely, the star beasts' bodies had shrunk considerably as well, from the several meters tall they had originally been down to around two meters.
Leo had clearly reined in his output, summoning these star beasts in an incomplete state.
But incomplete or not, the people around them could still feel a considerable pressure, enough that first-class adventurers like Bete, Tiona, and Tione felt it too.
Having finished the summoning, Leo spoke from within the ring of star beasts.
"These six star beasts can hold their presence here for about three hours, and I can feed them Mind remotely at any time from my end to keep extending their summoning time."
At that, Finn understood at once.
"You intend to send these star beasts in with us?"
Finn's words made everyone look at Leo in surprise.
"Right."
Leo nodded, confirming what Finn had said.
This was the compensating measure Leo had thought up.
"They're in an incomplete form, but I made them that way on purpose. In this form they move more easily and can hold their presence longer, so they won't vanish after a few minutes of fighting like last time."
"Star beasts summoned this way naturally can't avoid a drop in power, but they still won't lose to an ordinary Lv.5, which makes them good enough to serve as main combat power in the party, and main combat power you don't have to worry about losing."
"You can use them to scout ahead, or use them to block traps. As long as they don't vanish outright in an instant, I can feed them Mind at any time and make them whole again."
Like his first two Star attribute spells, Leo's third magic was extremely free and very easy to control, which was what let him apply it this flexibly.
If Leo had released the spell at full power in one go the way he had on the 59th floor, then even at his current Level he could only have maintained the summon for a short time, and would soon have collapsed from the violent drain on his Mind.
But releasing only half the chant, summoning only half the star beasts, and having those star beasts all be in an incomplete form, the time he could keep the summon going increased enormously.
And since Leo, staying outside, could replenish these star beasts' Magic at any time, he could use Magic Potions continuously to recover his Mind while sending that Mind to the star beasts in a steady stream to keep them in existence.
As long as he sat tight in the rear, this amounted to handing the operation party six first-class adventurers' worth of combat power in one stroke, and fearless combat power at that, able to scout, able to take hits, able to fight anytime and anywhere.
"Good idea!"
Finn's eyes lit up, and once the rest understood what Leo had done, their spirits rose too.
This move of Leo's took an incalculable weight off the party about to enter dangerous ground, and gave them an incalculable sense of security.
With those six star beasts, even if there were traps ahead, they wouldn't have to step on them themselves.
With the star beasts handling the mine-clearing, the risk of this trip would drop by an amount they couldn't even measure, to say nothing of this also being six first-class adventurers' worth of combat power.
Thinking of that, many of the members who hadn't known about Leo's third magic looked at him differently now.
To provide multiple first-class adventurers' worth of combat power with a single spell, didn't that mean Leo had a pack of powerful helpers with him at all times?
Wasn't that a bit much?
Who could beat him like that? Even if King came at him, he'd probably have to think twice.
And this was without a full-power release. If he did release it at full power, what then?
All that could be said was that after rising to Lv.6, the power of Leo's magic had grown a good deal stronger again.
Before this, summoning six star beasts to lend a hand this casually would have been hard to manage, even keeping them deliberately incomplete to extend the summoning time.
"In that case, Line stays outside."
Finn looked at the six powerful star beasts, thought for a moment, and made the call at once.
"The party keeps its current formation, but of the six star beasts, two can go to the front line to scout the way, two stay in the middle of the formation to support, and the remaining two cover the rear."
Leo directed the star beasts into position according to Finn's instructions.
He also handed the star beasts' control over to Finn, so that his directions could be carried out by them as well.
The star beasts had faint wills of their own and could understand Leo's orders, so there was no need for Leo to control them constantly.
And so the six star beasts became unexpected main combat power, standing together with Finn and the others.
"Be careful."
Leo gave Ais one last quiet word of warning.
"Mm."
Ais nodded and gave a serious response.
With the six star beasts, the invading party led by Finn formally stepped into the man-made labyrinth sleeping beneath the ground.
And then... in the near future, a great upheaval came.
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This side story is now COMPLETE at 191 chapters.
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