Dance
All was peaceful in Orario, the citizens chatted and laughed back and forth with one another. The merchants sold their wears to the passers by. Even the gods were enjoying their work or a leisurely stroll. All was good on this day and it seemed as though nothing could go wrong.
Suddenly, there was a giant explosion in a mostly unused area that drew the attention of everyone to that area. The explosion was soon followed by many more and soon flaming rocks began falling from the sky, setting buildings ablaze.
People screamed and began running in the opposite direction whilst the adventurers on the street made a beeline to the action area, as they prepared their weapons, magic and skills for whatever battle awaited them. The gods were confused but soon recomposed themselves and headed for Babel to get a better view.
At the scene of the explosion...
Ray struck first with a brilliantly glowing kick, that sent a blinding yellow laser beam at the building the Loki Familia was standing on. In response the Loki Familia executives leaped away from the building that violently exploded a moment later.
Before captain Finn Demine could give an order Ray yelled at the top of her voice, "Xenos, scatter!" the yellow clad monsters acted immediately and scattered down the different side alleys in the area with Ray and Lyd in tow. Finn gritted his teeth as he ordered the adventurers in the area to protect the civilians then help in the battle with the monsters when they're done.
"Loki Familia after them, leave them alive for questioning if it's at all possible if not then you're permitted to use lethal force." the captain said as he sent his Familia's executives off into battle.
The first to break formation was Ais, The level 6 swords master of the Familia. Finn followed behind her quickly knowing about her absolute hatred for all monsters, and these intelligent monsters must be causing quite a bit of confusion for the sword princess.
Finn followed her and waved the others away as he followed her. 'Well then, this day has become quite incredible hasn't it...' the Pallum thought as they gained ground on the Siren.
Ais sprang forward with the assistance of her wind magic [Tempest], and flew higher than the Xenos before striking downwards with her sword drawn to decapitate Ray. In response the Siren raised a yellow glowing wing and intercepted the strike.
The Xenos then heard the sound of a sharp object whistling through the air behind her. Ray immediately turned her body into light and allowed Ais to push her back as the gold tipped spear passed through where her other wing was a moment before.
The Siren crashed into a nearby building in the form of a massive laser beam that destroyed the building while she reformed in the center of the crater where the building had once been. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, you're the mighty adventurers I've heard about." Ray said with a smile.
Ais frowned angrily at the Siren before nodding to Finn and charging the adversary before them.
Bete and Tione found the Gargoyle flying through the air while making strange gutteral sounds that hurt their ears and gave the 2 adventurers a headache. The Werewolf had had enough and leaped high into the air while rotating his body and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to the monster's head.
The Gargoyle seemed to be stunned as the kick made it take a sudden nose dive straight into the ground. Instead of crashing into the ground with a loud thud the Xenos seemed to phase through the solid rock as though it was a liquid.
Both Amazon and Werewolf were stunned into silence until the ground began moving and they raised their guard, just in time to block half of the street sending them flying through the air. The 2 adventurers flipped through the air several times before landing. They looked up in surprise as a giant 50 foot tall stone Gargoyle stood before them.
"Well then, let's dance shall we..." Spoke the living mountain as he raised one of his fists and struck towards Tione and Bete who had to dive out of the way in panic. "Oy! Tione what the hell do we do with that!" the anxious Werewolf yelled as he barely managed to dodge the Gargoyles surprisingly fast attacks for it's size.
Riveria followed the Lamia that seemed to be followed by several other monsters, she noticed how synchronized the Xenos seemed to be and was slightly impressed. However the high elf shelved the thought of praising the Xenos, she had a job to do after all.
She soon came to a stop as the Lamia that she was chasing stopped in the center of a grassy knoll, it was one of the many parks within the walls of Orario. The other monsters had scattered away from her, the Xenos probably stayed behind to keep her busy while the others wreaked havock.
Riveria charged forward as she raised her blade ended staff and slashed towards the monster, as she didn't want to use her magic just yet. To her surprise the Lamia parried her slash with a spike of ice, before retaliating with a piercing strike towards the elf's midsection.
Riveria barely managed to sidestep the lunge of the monster and decided to make some distance before she got herself skewered. "Tell me something Lamia, why did you lead me here? What is your goal in doing all this?" the elf asked suddenly.
The Lamia seemed to compose herself at the sudden shift from battle to conversation but answered none the less, "I lead you here because I sensed no innocent bystanders here, though the Xenos are technically monsters we don't desire the death of others without reason."she paused before continuing.
"As for your second question, the Xenos want to be left alone, if we retreated to the dungeon the adventurers would have pursued us but if we defeat the strongest of you here in your own territory, they'd be less likely to hunt us in the dungeon for fear of being killed." The Lamia finished as the temperature seemed to drop rapidly.
"My name is Laura of the Xenos, prepare yourself for defeat adventurer." the now named Laura said as frost formed over the grass and 2 spikes of ice rose into the Lamia's hands in preparation for the coming battle.
"In that case it's nice to meet you Laura, my name is Riveria Ljos Alf, level 6 adventurer of the Loki Familia, prepare yourself for battle." the high elf responded as she began charging her own magic for the upcoming battle.
Lyd was running down a street in the direction he sensed the least number of people. The Lizardman was currently being pursued by a heavily armoured Dwarf and a flat chested Amazon. Suddenly he came to a stop in an area surrounded by giant blocks of stone.
This area held the remains of the first Tower of Babel built by the mortals, before the gods destroyed and rebuilt it better than it was before. Lyd stopped gawking at his surroundings to deflect an overhead strike from the Amazonian woman's urga.
She flipped away from the Lizardman's counter slash and landed next to the armoured Dwarf. "Hi there adventurers of the surface world, I'm Lyd, of the Xenos. May I know your names as well warriors?" the Lizardman introduced itself with a broad smile.
The 2 adventurers looked at one another, a silent conversation happening between them before they both nodded and turned back to the Xenos before them,
"My name is Tiona, a level 5 adventurer of the Loki Familia." the Amazon said proudly as she waved her urga in the air as a form of greeting towards the monster.
"I am Gareth, level 6 adventurer of the Loki Familia." The armoured Dwarf said as he prepared his battle axe for the fight ahead. But Lyd only smiled as he motioned for the two first class adventurers to attack when ready.
Both Tiona and Gareth launched themselves at the Lizardman with a battle cry and their weapons in an under arm swing towards the Xenos, He didn't even move a muscle as he waited for them to get closer. Both Gareth and Tiona were shocked by what happened next.
The Lizardman stopped their combined 2 armed swing with 1 of it's feet covered in molten magma that started turning their weapons red because of it's heat. Tiona and Gareth immediately leaped away from the monster who only smiled in response.
"Alright guys, let's have a great battle!" Lyd yelled in joy as he charged the 2 adventurers with a pair of smoking magma fists.
The gods were currently having an emergency denatus because of the Xenos situation happening down below and the proceedings were rather chaotic to say the least. There were shouts of anger accusation towards one another, the reason for this?
These monsters were to strong, and this fact drove many dieties to believe that one or several among them gave a blessing to the Xenos for them to gain the power they possessed and were currently using in battle against their children.
"Who is responsible for this, which one of you did it!?" yelled the irate trickster goddess Loki as she looked at the crystal mirror Hermes was permitted to create using his Godly power called Arcanum, to show the dieties how the situation below progresses.
"Hey Loki, we don't know who did this or why but the children are organizing themselves for a counter attack and now that Freya's children have entered the fray there's nothing to worry about." Hermes tried to calm the emotional Loki down as she worried about her children despite knowing of their strength.
"Regardless of who did it, they must be returned to Tenkai. There is no way for us to overlook this." spoke a silver haired goddess from the window that she was standing in front of as she gazed down at the increasingly chaotic battle against the Xenos unfolding below.
Indeed Orario was in shambles as the monsters seemed to be changing the city to suit their own desires. A part of the city was completely filled with molten lava, while an open park was completely covered in ice that seemed to move as if it were alive
In a recently evacuated area where the sword princess and braver were fighting the Siren it seemed as though the place had become unnaturally bright, it was like the buildings had become a source of light on their own.
While a giant 50 foot tall stone Gargoyle fought against another 2 of Loki's executives, while changing the design and architecture of the area it was in.Things were getting out of hand.
"Fellow dieties, I believe if the situation continues to worsen we may need to unseal our power to protect the mortals." Freya said as she turned around to face the rest of her peers and saw the shock on their faces at her words.
"You can't be serious Freya, why would you even suggest that?" spoke another goddess named Hephaestus. She like many others in the room were confused by the goddess of love's words. Freya began speaking again before another could ask.
"I have a feeling that this is a battle the children cannot win without our assistance, I just feel it in my soul." she said with a calm serious expression on her face, hiding the fact that she could see the souls of the Xenos and knew they were slightly stronger than Loki's executives.
"As such the lower ranked adventurers would be swept aside by the monsters while the stronger ones tired themselves out in the battle."The goddess of Love finished, before the other gods could respond a monstrous roar was heard all across the city.
All the dieties looked at Hermes, who nodded before shifting the crystal mirror.They were shocked to see a 7 foot tall black furred Minotaur holding an axe in it's left hand. The roar it unleashed was strong enough to knock most of the civilians and level 1 adventurers in the city unconscious, even the gods stumbled a bit under the pressure.
Soon more monsters followed behind the Minotaur and spread out to assist their brethren, throughout the city. The Minotaur seemed to sense the strongest fighter and charged right through several buildings to reach him.
The 2 seemed to converse for a moment before a monumental battle ensued between the black Minotaur and the Level 7 adventurer Ottar.
While the surface was in absolute pandemonium, down in the dungeon it was unnaturally calm. No monsters spawned which greatly confused the adventurers.
Unknown to everyone, a wave of yellow coloured puss was rising through the floors of the dungeon at a sluggish yet rapid pace. All the Xenos had evacuated the dungeon and as such none were caught up in the rising puss wave.
From the puss rose hundreds of stalkers and Gibbering heaps who walked and consumed any living thing in their way. When the puss reached the deep floor bases of the Evilis organisation. The doors immediately opened flooding the new areas with the viscous fluid and eldritch abominations.
Members of the criminal organisation were consumed and destroyed by the unknown enemies that sieged them. Even higher leveled members such as Revis and Filvis were eventually overwhelmed and eliminated by the encroaching tide.
All were consumed, Even the extremely powerful floor bosses were consumed like the rest and soon the wave of yellow coloured death reached the 18th floor and all the residents of Rivira were turned into eldritch abominations who mindlessly shambled in search of food.
Until everything suddenly stopped and bowed towards the area of the floor where the entrance to the 19th floor as a figure clothed completely in an infinite Yellow garment rose from the puss covered entrance to the lower floors.
"The time has come..."
Back on the surface...
Ais and Finn were having a hard time with the Siren before them. It was incredibly fast and it's skills with it's light blades was nothing to be scoffed at either. The 2 level 6 adventurers noticed the area around them getting brighter and their vision becoming weaker.
Ray was currently flying through a mostly uninhabited area with her 2 opponents chasing her, they were beginning to show signs of blindness as the Siren's manipulation of light was making the surrounding areas incredibly bright.
Ais kept her eyes closed as she used her 6th sense to find her enemy, when Finn saw what she was doing, he mimicked it. The two found it much easier to combat their enemy this way, and began gaining ground on the Siren.
Ray was forced to deflect a slash from the sword princess before ducking under a thrown spear from the side which forced her to the ground. right into close quarters combat against the 2 executives. It became a blinding display of slashes, bashes and flashes.
"This is actually quite fun don't you think?" the Xenos said with a smile as the battle continued, before she became serious.
"How about we stopped playing around and get a little serious?"
Ray ended her speach with a short request as she created several vertical disc's of light around herself that released large beams of light at the surrounding buildings.
Instead of destroying the structures these beams of light bounced off them at odd angles.
Finn went for a stabbing thrust with his spear but the Siren was no longer there as she appeared behind him while rotating her body for an overhead kick that landed on the Pallum's shoulder sending him crashing into the ground hard.
Enraged, Ais did a quick slash at Ray, who seemed to fade out of existence from even her 6th sense perception. The sword princess raised her sword behind her out of instinct and blocked the Siren's wing slash before counter slashing and nicking the Xenos' shoulder with the tip of her sword.
Ray retreated immediately and flinched when she saw the blood leaking from her shoulder. The Siren hid her shock behind a shaky smile. "I believe you are the first to ever injure me after I gained this coat." She said with amazement while the human looked at her with rage.
Ray seemed to be slightly confused by her opponents anger, but before she could ask Ais spoke, "Why does something like you exist. Why does something that causes so much fear to people and terrifies children have a personality and a voice that speaks knowledge and wisdom?" the sword princess asked with disdain as she pointed her blade at the Xenos.
"How the world works, and what kind of life lives and developes in it is not for us to decide. We can only adapt to what happens around us. Well that's what I've learned in my life. I'm sorry I've dampened the mood, shall we continue?" Ray gave Ais the most honest answer she could as she bent her knees in preparation for the next battle as she saw Finn rising from the crater she had put him in earlier.
The Pallum captain smiled as he looked at the Siren before speaking, "You're right the mortals have no say in what should and shouldn't exist, but we can decide what continues to exist." Finn said as he raised both of his spears towards the Xenos, who's wings and feet began glowing in response.
Tione and Bete were not having a good day. At first they thought they could just break the 50 foot tall stone Gargoyle but the thing kept changing the surrounding landscape with it's steps. The empty streets of Orario were suddenly strange and twisted.
Both adventurers experienced a feeling of vertigo several times while they were fighting and ended up landing on a street that seemed to be going along the wall of a building, or the sky suddenly being to their left instead of above them.
This bizarrchitecture seemed to be spreading as every time the Gargoyle stepped on the ground another part of the city's districts would become high on something as all the buildings became tilted at strange angles.
Bete and Tione Tried to leap forward towards the Xenos but always misjudged the distance and ended up on the other side of the Xenos or flat on their faces lying on a strangely angled vertical wall.
The environment was starting to make them feel sick and their anger towards the Gargoyle wasn't helping.A group of adventurers from the Ganesha Familia approached to assist with the battle but were also heavily thrown off by the structures around them.
A few members tripped and fell to the ground or walls as what seemed to be obtuse angled stairs behaved as if they were acute.
It was absolute insanity and Bete and Tione were hating it...
On the other side of the Labyrinth city of Orario a very similar situation was occuring in what was once a park, was now covered in ice that seemed to grow and move in unnatural ways as it seemed to clash with a wave of fire that rose from the ground.
Riveria was fairing significantly better than her peers as her opponent could apparently only create and control ice and nothing else. That gave the high elf the advantage of versatility against the Lamia she was currently fighting.
Laura on the other hand was making Riveria's head hurt with the strange and frankly impossible shapes she was making with the ice she was controlling. Bizarre shapes moving in bizarre directions that had no name.
The sheer wrongness of what the monster was doing caused the high elf to feel an unbearable itch in her eyes.The two combatants were soon joined by more adventurers and magic casters who tried to help the Loki Familia executive.
Most of them unfortunately fell into blissful unconsciousness rather quickly due to the insane visuals presented by the Lamia and her control over ice.
The only two remaining alongside Riveria, were another two younger elves from the Loki Familia, Lefiya and Elfy who were only conscious because they were able to minimize how much they saw by hiding their eyes behind the light of their staves.
The two were currently enhancing Riveria's fire magic spell [Lea Lavatein] with their own magic reserves. The spell had the appearance of many interconnected crimson magic circles spreading out across the icy ground of the park before erupting in a wave of fire that almost completely engulfed the Xenos.
Laura wasn't idle as she formed the ice into a giant constantly shifting wall that quickly replaced the ice that melted while she drew more water from the air to make more ice to combat the adventurers she was currently fighting.
Lyd was having fun with the 2 adventurers who had decided to challenge him. After the initial clash and subsequent near melting of their weapons Tiona and Gareth immediately avoided any close quarters combat with the Lizardman.
Which made the battle more fun in Lyd's opinion. He was mostly a close quarters combatant with a few really strong long ranged magma attacks. Among the Xenos, his strength was only outclassed by the black Minotaur Asterios.
Because of the 2 executives change in approach Lyd was forced to send average sized magma fists at them while he himself had to avoid long ranged wind blades created by the strength of the 2 adventurers swings.
The entire battle had become a shootout between the 2 sides until more adventurers stepped up to battle.They were soon forced to step back to a safe distance as well because of the extreme heat the Lizardman was releasing, because the ground around him was beginning to melt.*sigh*
Lyd began getting bored again as the adventurers tried useless attacks against him such as arrows that burst into flames before they even reached him.
"I'm getting tired of this, it was fun in the beginning but now I'm just bored." The Lizardman said and was about to attack with one of his more powerful techniques but was interrupted by a roar that shook the city.
"So the tough guy finally showed up, huh?" he said with a bored expression before his entire arm became covered in magma and was thrown skywards with a yell.
[Great Eruption], the Lizardman shouted before throwing a building sized magma fist into the air almost reaching half the height of Babel before it exploded sending burning rock falling into the area where his fight with the adventurers was taking place.
The adventurers themselves only barely managed to evade the rain of molten death from above. After evading and slicing several lava rocks, Tiona and Gareth decided that they needed to end this fight quickly before anyone was killed.
The 2 executives charged towards the Lyd from different directions before striking with full force. Instead of blocking this time the Lizardman dodged out of the way before spinning on one of it's hands and striking at the adventurers with his right foot and tail respectively.
This continued for a while before as neither side could get a decisive strike on their adversaries.
Back in Babel...
The gods were looking on in concern as the battle devolved below, none of the children could seriously harm the Xenos in any meaningful way. That when Hermes spoke to the air.
"Lord Uranus, I know it's against the law's we gods have established but for the sake of our children I request permission to unseal the power of a few of the deities so that we may help protect the people of the lower world and our own children!" he spoke with passion as he awaited a response from the God of wind.
The room was quiet for a long time before Uranus answered with a heavy heart, "Permission granted." answered a voice that was heard from seemingly everywhere, before it continued. "However I will only permit 3 of the gods to unseal their power. Loki, Ganesha and Takemikazuchi. That is all, go forth and protect the lower world." the god Uranus ended with finality.
The 3 named deities rose from their seats, Loki with a look of excitement on her face, Takemikazuchi was as calm as ever and Ganesha was uncharacteristically serious as the 3 left the room to end this battle quickly.
After the 3 gods had left another goddess spoke up with concern in her voice. "Has anyone else noticed how quiet the dungeon has become, something strange is going on here." said the tiny goddess Thoth.
She had felt her connection to her children vanish a little while ago, they didn't die but her connection to them had been severed. As a goddess of knowledge Thoth knew many things, one of those was that the connection between a deity and their children could only be broken by choice of both mortal and god together.
Yet her connection to her children was gone, she knew they weren't dead as the falna would have told her had they died, but the connection between them was just severed. This was why she raised her question to the other gods and goddesses in attendance.
Many looked at her with surprise as they had never heard her speak before, but soon registered her question and were shocked when they couldn't feel their own children in the dungeon. Some of them started panicking but were calmed by Freya's next words.
"Do not worry my friends, as soon as this situation with the Xenos is resolved, I'll send my Familia into the dungeon to find them. You have my word." the goddess of beauty said with a calm smile that instantly won the hearts of all the male deities and some of the goddesses as well.
Thoth merely nodded and returned to her silent contemplations and concerns. Her thoughts were interrupted by 3 monstrous holy auras being released within the city as Takemikazuchi, Ganesha and Loki unsealed their divine power.
sigh* 'What a day...' she thought.
Down in Orario...
The tables had turned the moment the 3 gods had entered the battle field. The Xenos did their best to fight back against them but were unfortunately no match for the divine entities and their empowered children.
When Loki joined Finn and Ais Ray was put on the defensive, she could no longer attack as it seemed as though the goddess was empowering her children with her presence unconsciously while attacking with her divine rapier. This made the two adventurers strong and fast enough to keep up and even damage the Siren repeatedly.
After several tears in her clothes and bloody wounds the Xenos decided to retreat. Ray began speaking in eldritch tongues as she spoke to her friends, telling all of them to retreat to the dungeon. The entrance to Knossos had been sealed to prevent more of the Xenos from escaping the dungeon.
As such they were forced to retreat through Babel to get back to the dungeon. After 15 minutes all the Xenos including the support monsters were gathered and surrounded by adventurers less than 30 feet from the entrance to the dungeon.
The three gods stood with their divine weapons at the ready. Takemikazuchi, with his katana. Ganesha, with his war hammer and Loki with her rapier. They were about to order the children to restrain and capture the monsters when they were interrupted by an unexpected voice.
"Wait!" shouted a voice that broke through the crowd. everyone stopped and looked at the adventurer who broke through the crowd and stood between the monsters and the unchained gods. The adventurers and gods were shocked whilst the Xenos were confused but hopeful when they saw who it was.
The one standing with his arms spread wide, was none other than Bell Cranel. Him and his Familia had been secretly helping the Xenos throughout their battles in the city, but stopped when the gods entered the battle as they knew they weren't going to win.
"Young Man, what is the meaning of this!" yelled Ganesha as the elephant masked god as he looked at the young white haired adventurer. Bell trembled a bit before taking a deep breath and spoke without fear as he looked at the three deities before him.
"Please listen to me Lord Ganesha, Lady Loki, Lord Takemikazuchi, we need to stop this, all this fighting against a group of monsters that never wanted to fight in the first place," the adventurer said with as much emotion in his voice that he was capable of due to the injustice before him. He paused before continuing,
"and now we wish to kill them for attacking a branch of Evilis who killed their friends and sent one of them into a mindless rage. Tell me which one of us are the monsters and which are the heroes!?"He finished with a yell that tore at the heartstrings of the adventurers in the area and even the gods who were before him and those watching from Babel.
But before Ganesha could order the adventurers to stand down Ais stepped forward, "So this is what you meant when you spoke to me the other day." the sword princess started with her hand on her blade.
"You asked me, what I would do if I learned that monsters had feelings and intelligence of their own, and I gave you my answer." she continued, her eyes closed in contemplation.
"I'm sorry Bell but my answer remains the same, as long as there are monsters I will kill them, and if you stand in my way I'll kill you too." she finished with a glare directed at the white haired adventurer as she unsheathed her sword and pointed it at him threateningly.
"Bell I'm ordering you to stand aside." Ais gave her ultimatum. In response Bell lowered his stance as he unsheathed his daggers and held them in reverse grip. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry it had to end this way guys." Bell said as he glanced back towards the Xenos.
Ray was shocked by what Bell said and did for the Xenos and wanted to tell him to leave them to their fate, but she knew he'd rather die than let his friends be harmed.
Then Ais sprang forward with a piercing strike towards Bell's chest with her wind magic Tempest. Bell was too slow to dodge, so instead he futilely tried to block the blade as he closed his eyes preparing for the end.
Suddenly everything became bright yellow...
Bell opened his eyes as he didn't feel any pain. What he saw shocked him and everyone else into silence. Ais'blade was stopped by a piece of cloth as thin as paper.
"You will stop right there and harm my flock no longer." said a mysterious voice from the entrance to the dungeon.
Everyone looked at the yellow clothed figure in surprise and confusion as to who he was, except for the Xenos who turned to the individual and bowed deeply in reverance before saying in sync. "Lord Hastur you've come to help us..."