It took several minutes until the crowd, present at the arena and back in other places, finally calmed down. Relatively speaking of course. The girls of the Astraea Familia for example still laughed and giggled, entangled in their own little hug pile. Filvis and Lefiya were holding hands, the latter way more excited than the former as she forced Filvis to jump up and down with her. Meanwhile Hestia was playing patty cake with Astraea as she hollered in victory, with her excited energy overflowing. Most of the Loki Familia weren't any different, arms thrown over each other's shoulders as they sang and threw their legs up, or in Tiona's case, her stumps. Suddenly Bete shot up, causing Riveria to glance at him.
"Where are you going?"
"Ya think I can sit still after that all that crap?!" He snarled, baring his teeth as his body practically vibrated, before going on his way. Aiz looked down on her own shivering hands before grabbing Desperate and hurrying out as well. It was then that Tiona fell out off her chair and actually started to crawl towards the door. Tione immediately picked her up by the neck, holding her sister up like a cat.
"You don't even have prosthetics yet!"
"I can kill stuff up to the middle floors without any legs anyway, don't take this from me!" The twin objected, wiggling what was left of her legs. It spoke volumes of the effect the War Game had on Tione that she actually hesitated and contemplated those words. Meanwhile Alise and the other girls finally fixed their clothes after standing up, with the captain holding a hand on Kaguya's and Ryuu's shoulder, stopping them from going out as well and earning a glare from each of them.
"Sorry girls, but we still got something to do."
They blinked before Ryuu frowned with realisation.
"Eris."
While Ganesha seemed to be keeping a lookout, it was always better to be safe than sorry. Nodding at their goddess, who approved of their decision, they were moving out to the door as well. Ryuu sent one last glance at the Divine Mirror, as the two opposing Familia were lined up in front of each other, only to stop.
"Ryuu?"
The elf narrowed her eyes at the screen. The people around their executives, Lulope, Danos and Diego... she didn't like the way they smiled and how they surrounded them. The next thing she saw was some movement underneath their clothes... before they all got suddenly blasted away.
Whether by Arash's arrows or the sheer physical power of Oryou, Artoria, Penthesilea or Romulus, just as the suspicious members of Eris could make their moves, they were all launched away, with shattered bones and pierced flesh. It happened so suddenly the spectators needed a moment to process what just happened.
"...Huh?" Hestia muttered. It was then that those flying corpses suddenly exploded, far away from their intended targets. Panic spread across the audience, shock and screams audible. Ryuu could see Bell actually stumble back in shock as Solaris and Kojiro got into fighting positions despite their injuries, while Haruhime covered her mouth with wide eyed horror. Her worry for him and them aside, she then saw how the surviving Eris members reacted. Or rather how they fell down to their knees, as if the breath was taken away from them. It spoke of Bell's character that he rushed forward, hands on his former enemy's shoulders.
"Diego, what's wrong?!"
"...Eris... ?"
A hollow feeling entered Ryuu's gut. An idea formed in her head of what caused such a reaction and she immediately looked out the window, towards the entertainment district. It was in that instance that she saw the explosions. Her ears twitched, barely picking up the synchronized scream that managed to carry its message across the city.
"Praise the starless sky!"
Old instincts forced the veterans to react. They were all outside the mansion in seconds as they rushed out, with Finn in the lead.
"Son of a bitch, get some hobbies!" Kaguya screamed in frustration, drawing her blades. With the captain of the Loki Familia leading them, they hurried and split up to cover more ground in case there were more fanatics. As she was assigned to Kaguya and a bunch of lower leveled adventurers of the Loki Familia, two questions ran through her mind as she grit her teeth in frustration.
Why did the Night Queen keep killing her own allies?! And where was the light pillar that showed Eris returning to heaven?! Where was it?!
/
The groups of the other countries didn't leave for their homes immediately. It was night by now, with many sitting around their designated camp fire. Naturally there were clear, invisible lines drawn between the countries. Altena was with Altena. Rakia with Rakia, and so on. The only exception was the Far East, having left already. Aside of Ryoma and Oryou, who followed Arash to escort the War Game participants back home safely. Because of that, around a specific campfire, only Artoria, Romulus and Penthesilea were sitting, drinking from the wine the Legiones brought with him. Despite the amount they drank, especially with Bell and the others, they were only slightly tipsy at best. They enjoyed a nice silence with each other, having basically run through their topics of local events and what not. It was then they felt movement in the ground and the trio looked at the incoming visitor. Hans yawned, rolling his shoulder before lazily waving at them. The man left first, apparently on the orders of his goddess to inspect something.
"I'm back." He looked around, raising an eyebrow. "What, they're already gone?"
"Given the declining chaos we decided it would be good for them to return home proper," Romulus responded with a grave nod.
"It was nice to catch up with them," Artoria responded, smiling slightly. Hans raised his eyebrow at her.
"Did you heal them?"
"I believe it would make a good excuse to rest properly if I didn't."
The author scoffed in amusement, shaking his head.
"And people say you are a saint."
"Well, certain individuals mistake me for Jeanne."
"Nonsense, you aren't nearly as bad as her."
At his flat look, the small group of theirs shared a small laugh.
"Hahahaha…"
Then the smiles disappeared as Hans sat down and instead of accepting a cup, took the entire bottle before drenching his throat with it.
"Fine, guess I gotta tell Arash while one of you tells this world's premiere couple."
"What happened in the city?" Penthesilea asked, crossing her arms as they all frowned at the recent events. In response, Hans twirled his hand dismissively.
"Suicide bombers. The usual cliche." He shrugged, trying to act nonchalantly. "Eris is gone too. So once more, we don't have any leads."
"Their captain knows nothing?" Romulus asked. Hans sighed before taking another sip from his bottle.
"Oh, he got helpful information. Shared the paperwork he kept in mind and what not. But no real leads about the Night Queen or her servants."
So they were back at step one. Idiotic as it was to get rid of her allies all the time, none of them could find fault in the information denial the queen of slaves seemed to possess. It was also worrying about her lack of care. Hans theorized that something was wrong with her, that caused her to see things in such a long term way, that she didn't care about short term casualties. Most likely tied to a long life or something of the sort. Either way, Artoria frowned as she crossed her arms.
"What else happened? You seem shaken up."
Hans took a deep breath. Rummaging into his pockets, he pulled something out, not looking up from the ground as he presented it to them.
"Here's a picture."
The three strongest of their respective countries looked at it before their eyes widened. Blood seeped down on the letters that were rather close to Japanese. It was clear that whoever did it took their time, as the calligraphy was beautifully carved into the wall. Their meaning however was worrying combined with the rest of the picture.
"Above heaven." Tenjou
"Under heaven." Tengen
"I alone am worthy of honor." Yuiga Dokuson
Above those words, Eris herself was nailed to the wall, a steel stake keeping her above the ground, using her blood as a sort of paint for the writing.
"The body is still there." Their heads snapped up at Hans, eyes wide. That was impossible. Gods had their Arcanum to send them back to heaven basically automatically at the face of lethal danger. It was no different with Ishtar after all. Yet in this case, the divine power just didn't work? As if reading their minds, Hans looked up with a deep frown. "The leading theory is that her Arcanum was forcibly shut down before she was killed. Then her mantle had nowhere to go as the vessel was empty for lack of a better word."
The power of negation. A shiver went down their spines at the thought. There were many ways one could have it. But there was one leading image in their heads. Neither would say it out loud however, instead focusing on Hans' next words as he rolled the bottle away while shaking his head.
"And another thing. That goddess Bell befriended? Nyx?" Artoria and Romulus narrowed their eyes. "She's gone too. And there are eye witnesses of her being with Eris before all that happened."
"You don't sound certain."
Hans shrugged in response to Penthesilea's question, who kept a neutral expression.
"I've never met that woman. So I can't judge. But I feel there's more to it. Bell may be naive, inexperienced and what not... but he's not blind."
The queen of Amazons then turned to her other colleagues who had interactions with the goddess. Romulus rubbed his chin thoughtfully as Artoria had her eyes closed.
"I could not get a read on her, besides her aura of terror. But her personality seemed... genuine."
"My instincts aren't exactly meant for social occasions…" She opened them again with a nod. "But I trust Bell as well. If he considers her a friend, there has to be more to it. Maybe she is just another victim."
"Maybe." Hans cleared his throat. "Shir-"
"Angra," Artoria immediately interrupted, sounding incredibly displeased. The author raised his hands in self defense.
"Right, right. Anyway, he didn't remember anything when I informed him. Nothing besides immense hatred of the one who summoned him."
Romulus took a deep breath.
"Immense hatred is usually the opposite of intense love."
They all tensed up. Memories of battles in another world, another tree, resurfaced to their mind. The amount of things that had to line up perfectly to succeed against these perfect beings. Hans was the first to recover, scoffing as he shook his head.
"Please, if we were dealing with an actual Beast, we'd all be way too dead to care."
"What about a Larva Beast?" Penthesilea asked. At that, Hans went silent. Artoria sighed before standing up.
"Then we better hurry, shouldn't we?"