Hey guys, Striker777 here. Wow, Arc 4 already. Now, Arc 4 will be the Astraea Record Arc, and some previous choices made have affected the outcomes of the story slightly, but I won't reveal what those are yet. Be sure to stay tuned for them. But anyway, onto the story!

It was the dead of night in Orario, yet the city refused to sleep this night. Flames reached from the skies in the industrial district of Orario, storehouses for magic stones going up in flames under the latest attack by Evilus. People were screaming, damage was being done, and the lives of some people were going to be changed that night.

However, luckily for the people of Orario...

Justice also refused to sleep.

A blade from the Far East slashed through a member of Evilus, slicing him straight in two as if it had just gone through butter. Not a moment later, the sword found itself imbedded in the chest of another man, cloaked in black and committing Evilus' deeds. The red blade paired well with the blood of the now deceased member of Evilus, as Akihide looked back at where he entered. "Storehouse 2 is now ours, Alise!" he called out, looking down at the sea of fire and chaos that Evilus had sown through the industrial district. "Fire's still raging, and I can't put it out!"

"We'll freeze the raid and the fires all at once!" exclaimed the red haired girl as she appeared behind Akihide. "We'll help the others in the other storehouses, meet up with Asta, Celty and Iska in number 4, I'll help the others in number 3."

Akihide smiled. "Ah, a storehouse that matches my level. This will be fun." he said, teleporting up onto the rooftop and beginning to run to storehouse number 4. The ten year old smiled as he looked ahead.

Yes, in just a year and a half of gruelling training and hardships, Akihide had managed to climb the ranks to Level 4, once more leaving Ais in the dust. He was the only member of Kiddy Party to breach level 3, as another accident in the Dungeon during an expedition by the Loki Familia had forced his Rank Up as of yesterday.

So now, he, Alise and Kaguya all found themselves at level 4, though it was clear to all that Akihide and Alise were more than capable of going toe to toe with first class adventurers. After word of his Rank Up had reached the ears of the public, Ottar had come to ask for a spar whilst Akihide was in his red form, though Finn had denied the request on grounds that Akihide needed to get used to his new strength first, but Akihide had promised Ottar that he'd work hard and then challenge him when he was ready. Ottar had smiled at that, promising to look forward to the day.

But enough of that for now.

Akihide jumped down to the floor of the other storehouse, looking at the members of the Astraea Familia fighting. Asta and Iska were in the front, whilst Celty was supporting them from the rear with her lightning magic. Akihide smirked as he rushed forward, past the three girls and slashing two members of Evilus at once, cutting them in half. "Support has arrived!" exclaimed the boy, smirking at the remaining members of Evilus. "Time to repent for your sins!"

A member of Evilus lunged at him, sword in hand and screaming his war cry. Akihide easily dodged to the side, before slamming the blade of his sword up through the man's chin, through the top of his face. The other member of Evilus charges at him, but Akihide was not u fazed, teleporting between the cloaked figures and killing them quickly.

In the time that Akihide had been battling Evilus, he had grown somewhat accustomed to killing people. Obviously, it was something no one wanted him to become okay with, but he was unfortunate enough to have developed a strong sense of protection for Orario and its people. So strong, that he had no more qualms about killing Evilus in order to protect Orario.

It was unfortunate, but in the current day and age, this is what it meant to be an adventurer.

As the final member of Evilus went down, Akihide looked back towards the others. "Alise is in storehouse 3 with the others. We should go let her know we've secured storehouse 4." he said, getting affirmative nods from the others. It was still odd, knowing that he was stronger than the three people before him that he called his seniors. "Other than that, I think the others are helping with the fires. Hopefully they're not having too much trouble putting them all out."

Akihide looked over to storehouse 3's location. "Since we're done here, let's head to the third storehouse and see if the others need any help." he said, turning around and beginning to make his way through the ruins of the warehouse. "After that... we'll count casualties and report to the Guild."

It was a shame that Akihide had done this before, but as was the times of Evilus and their freedoms.

Akihide teleported onto the roof of the warehouse, and then immediately jumped down into warehouse 3. Dropping down onto the floor, he looked upon the scene before him.

Alise Lovell.

Right in front of him.

Rolling around on the floor in a desperate attempt to put out the fire that was currently burning her skirt.

Akihide sighed. "Five minutes..." he muttered. "I left you alone for five minutes, and you're on fire. Why doesn't this surprise me? I feel like this is something to be surprised about."

Alise, having finished putting the fire out after rolling all over the floor, simply stood up with a smile. "Phew. Well, things like that happen! You know, we learn from our mistakes! Now I'm one step closer to achieving perfection."

Akihide looked at the red haired Captain of the Familia of Justice, and sighed. "Alise... did you happen to hit your head on a rock while you were rolling around on the ground? You're making even less sense than usual."

Alise grasped her heart at the harsh words from the ten year old boy. Ryuu looked at her friend in shock, wondering how it was he could say that to Alise.

Then she paused.

She turned her head to Kaguya, who was nodding at her student with a proud smile and a thumbs up.

'Oh...' thought Ryuu, defeated. 'Kaguya was too bad an influence.'

After tying up Evilus and spending much of the night putting out the fires in the warehouse district, the Astraea Familia and Akihide were resting on the nearby benches, recovering from their night of precisely zero sleep.

Akihide sighed. "Man... Riveria is going to kill me over this..." muttered the boy, looking at the carnage before him. "I told her I was just doing an early night patrol with you guys! Once she hears I was involved in this, I'm dead."

Lyra patted his back. "We'll say something nice at your funeral." she teased, smirking at the young boy.

Ryuu scoffed. "Come on Lyra. You'll be fine, Akihide. Lady Riveria will understand." said the elven magic swordsman, getting a nod from Celty as well.

Akihide shuddered. "I just don't want to disobey her and end up like Ais." he said, thinking about all the times he laughed at Ais as she got her ass beat by Riveria for defying her.

Kaguya laughed. "You're just afraid of a level 6 kicking your ass. It's understandable, if a little cowardly." she mocked, smirking at the young boy.

Akihide sighed, as his head fell onto his hand, which rested on his knee. "Yeah... the last thing I want is a level 6 going to town on my ass for not following instructions."

In the recent expedition where Akihide had Ranked Up, so had the big three of the Loki Familia. The expedition was done for the sole purpose of allowing the top members of the Loki Familia to Rank Up again. Apparently, Akihide's Rank Up during the incident with Ais that time had convinced them to Rank Up once more in order to stay ahead of the child and keep him and the rest of their Familia protected. Akihide had been acting as a supporter, and Alfia had written them notes on some secrets of Floors 51 to 58.

After that, it was as simple as running for their lives and making their way down to 58 as fast as possible to find what they had been looking for.

The Alpha.

A concept that was rare in the Dungeon based on the needed conditions for an Alpha to be born. An Alpha was just a regular monster that had ingested the magic stones of other monsters on the same Dungeon floor, going beyond an Enhanced Species. This was only possible when the Dungeon Floor had yet to be explored, or when it had been left alone for extremely long periods of time, where the monsters would have the necessary time to grow that strong. They would eventually become the ruler of the Floor, and the other monsters would serve them as a lord.

Apparently, the Zeus and Hera Familia would cultivate Alphas in the Sandy Desert and Glacier Zones of the Dungeon in order to ensure they constantly had a nice and steady supply of high quality Excilia, which many of their members used to Rank Up to level 7, Maxima reaching level 8 upon soloing a particularly nasty Alpha that spawned in the Desert Zone.

And so, Finn had decided that if there was an Alpha to be found on Floor 58, they would kill it and Rank Up. It did not even take them getting to Floor 58 to know, as the breath of a dragon was able to pierce through Floors 58 through to 52, in a much larger circle than the rest of the regular 'Snipes'. With anticipation, Finn, Riveria ,Gareth and the rest of the top members of the Familia, with Akihide as their supporter, made their way to Floor 58, coming face to face with Valgang Dragons.

And the Alpha.

Easily double the size of the regular Valgang Dragon, it had sharper spikes, gnarled fangs, and scales as red as fire. It' seyes had studied the adventurers, sizing them up before deciding what to do with the intruders who dared to enter his domain.

He didn't get a choice as the three adventurer's rushed in.

Everyone else stayed back, or faced off against the regular Valgang dragons if they thought themselves strong enough. The battle had taken well over an hour, all of Riveria's mind, Gareth's shield and Finn's spear, but the Alpha laid dead at their feet, his eight year reign of Floor 18 taken away by the adventurers of the Loki Familia.

There was a huge celebration at the Twilight Manor when they returned, their top member having Ranked Up, along with some of their other members who had been trying to Rank Up for a while now. Whilst they did now possess the most level 6 adventurers in Orario, they all knew that they would lose to Ottar, so Loki Familia was still second strongest until they caught up to Ottar.

But from the rumour mill going around recently, neither Ottar nor the other upper ranks of the Freya Familia were going to allow that to happen.

Still made the concept of going home all the scarier for the poor Renard. He could imagine the angry Riveria striking at him for not following her orders. 'Teleport and get us before you jump in.' she said to him, as he was well known to just jump in at the first sign of trouble.

But people were dying.

Surely she'd understand, right?

Alise put on her smug smirk and said to the group, "We've captured Evilus and stopped the fire! Once again, we've saved the world! I'm so proud of myself! With my purity and beauty, I can crush an exploding factory in no time!"

Lyra stared directly in front of herself to her Captain, and in a monotone voice, retorted. "I don't exactly know what that means. Anyway, it's nice that you can always be so proud of yourself." she said, before looking down. "I wish I could be like you. Honestly, I'm sick and tired of endlessly fighting battles."

Alise looked at her friend. "... You have a point." she said with a sad tone. "We've once magain allowed Evilus to sin. We could've handled this quicker and minimized damage."

Kaguya smiled at her Captain. "You have done nothing wrong, Captain. This is all because some Miss Elf was slowing us down." she said.

Ryuu glared at her Vice Captain. "Kaguya. Are you implying that this is my fault?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, almost as if she didn't believe that to be possible.

"Oh. So you noticed?" she said sarcastically, looking at the young elf with a fake smile.

"I'm the one who led the way to the enemy's field! Plus, I arrived at the enemy's location faster than anyone!" said the elf, matter-of-factly. "I don't see what I've done wrong, and it bothers me when you're playing the hypocrite."

Kaguya's smile widened. "Oh my. Now you're talking, and I like it. Now, is it my turn to speak?" she asked with her smile. "Well..."

She took a pause as she looked at the elf with her smile.

She then proceeded to glare at the elf with an angry face.

"You DUMBASS!" she shouted, startling everyone. "Of course, it's all your fault, you idiot! Provoked, you went on and did what you've done without any teamwork at all, and I had to clean up your mess! You arrogant, shitty elf!"

"S-Shitty elf?" asked Ryuu, looking down at the ground in shock.

Kaguya, however, didn't stop. "You're shortsighted! Indecisive! Don't act like you've accomplished a mission while you absolutely haven't!" she yelled at the elf, poking the centre of her chest with her finger.

Ryuu knocked the hand away and shot back. "W-What about you?!" she asked. "You were unstoppable, creating a bigger disaster! You do not deserve to speak that way to me!"

Kaguya glared harder. "What did you say, Shitty Elf?!"

Ryuu had enough.

"Don't call me Shitty Elf!" she screamed, as she jumped at Kaguya, grabbing her throat with both hands as the two began fighting on the ground.

Akihide sighed. "They're at it again, huh?"

Lyra looked at him. "You know how they are, that stubborn elf and the Far East princess can never get along. I swear, they need to learn to praise each other rather than insult them.

Alise laughed. "Well, that's Ryuu and Kaguya. There's nothing we can do about it. I like how they compete against each other as rivals though."

Akihide looked at the growing fight between the two girls. "Are you really sure you can call them rivals?" he asked, looking back on her. "I think Kaguya is trying to bite Ryuu's ears off."

Behind them, a throat was cleared. Ryuu and Kaguya came to an immediate stop, half of Kaguya's hair was bunched in Ryuu's hair, and Kaguya had her mouth over Ryuu's left ear, ready to bite down. Standing before them was Orario's newest First Class Adventurer, Shakti Varma, Ardee's older sister.

Half a year ago, she led a Ganesha Familia Expedition to Floor 48, where many of their members at level 4 were planning on Ranking Up. They had fought for close to two weeks in that hell hole. And whilst all 8 level 4s made it back, only Shakti had Ranked Up. Having gone toe to toe, facing a Fomoire Enhanced Species, she had almost lost her life to the monster 3 times, but had managed to prevail.

And now, she stood amongst the tops of the Loki and Freya Familias, as a fellow First Class Adventurer. All to ensure her younger sister had no chance to surpass her.

So she could keep protecting Ardee.

"Sorry for the late arrival, Alise." said the blue haired woman, looking at the red haired woman.

Alise simply smiled. "Shakti, you're here!" she said excitedly, looking at the older woman.

Lyra scoffed. "What a great time to show up! Where were you when we were at war, Guard of Orario?"

Alise looked back to the pink haired girl. "Drop it, Lyra! The Ganesha Familia is always busy keeping their eyes on the city!" said the girl, standing up for the hard working people in Ganesha masks.

Lyra sighed. "You're all being such good people, and it makes me look like a villain. We've got to say what we've got to, you know?" she said, nodding apologetically to Shakti.

Shakti waved it off. "Lyra is right, Alise. I've come here to relieve you all of your duties, seeing as you've all worked hard tonight. Go home and get some rest." she ordered in a sarcastic tone, before turning to her fellow Ganesha Familia members. "Hurry! Tie up the members of Evilus while they're still unconscious! Be sure to keep an eye on this area, and continue the investigation!"

As the Ganesha Familia began to spread out, Ryuu and Kaguya stood back up, dusting themselves off. "This is the fourth magic stone factory that's been attacked by Evilus." said Ryuu.

"Makes me wonder what they're planning with magic stones..." muttered Akihide. "What could they want with all these magic stones?"

Kaguya sighed. "Most likely, they're funding themselves through selling magic stones, taking stock from the Guild and selling it at lower prices. It lets them buy all the stuff they need for materials, equipment, potions and so on." she said, looking around at the destruction. "It cripples Orario's economy as well. Our economy is essentially magic stones. By stopping the refinement process, they're taking away our ability to export magic stones, and that cuts into essential services that the Guild provides, and inflation's starting to take hold."

It made no sense to Akihide, who thought Evilus might be making one giant bomb, but Kaguya was already seeing the effects of the magic stone refineries being targeted. Basic necessities were becoming more and more expensive as the days went by, and families were beginning to struggle.

Akihide looked at his teacher. "So what do we do now?" he asked.

Shakti took over. "Since this is apparently just another attack at one of Orario's core businesses, I'll have the Guild put more protection around similar businesses. Akihide, could you go ask Finn to do the same for a while for me?"

Akihide nodded his head and stood up. "Sure, I can do that."

At that moment, a blue blur shot out of seemingly nowhere, grabbing Akihide in a tight hug. "Now hold on, don't tell me you were about to leave without saying hello at least!" exclaimed a voice familiar to all.

Akihide smiled. "I was hoping to. I can only deal with so much crazy in one day that I'm at my limit." joked the boy, getting a light punch to the arm for his troubles.

"Oh come on, you love me, and you know it." said Ardee, smirking at the boy, before turning to her sister. "Big sis, I've tied up all of Evilus!"
Shakti sighed and put a hand to her head.

"Ardee... don't call me that in front of others. How many times have I told you?"

"I don't know, too many?" asked a smiling Ardee. "I promise I'll remember next time!"

"You say that every time though..." muttered Shakti.

Ardee smiled before her face turned serious. "Anyway, we found something during the investigation."

Shakti raised an eyebrow. "Already, it's barely been 3 minutes. What could you have found?"

Ardee looked at her sister. "It's just like the others, the hammering system is gone."

Akihide looked perplexed. "What's the hammering system?"

Shakti turned to the young one. "It's also called 'the button for activating the system'. It's a core component in the refinement of magic stones, and also difficult to replace, since it's so hard to gather the materials and find craftsmen skilled enough to make them."

Kaguya nodded. "Probably to stop us from just rebuilding the warehouse and putting it back to work..."

Lyra shook her head. "Or maybe to produce something with all the magic stones they have."
Like a bomb, went unsaid.

Shakti looked back at the worn out group. "I'll take care of reporting this to the Guild, you ladies, go get some rest." she said.

Akihide smiled. "I'll just go ahead and include myself in the 'ladies' group." he said, smiling and running down the street. "Bye guys, pray for me!"

The group of girls watched him run off into the sunrise as he made his way home.

Knossos, the Man Made Dungeon, hidden from all of Orario.

The perfect hideout for Evilus.

A man in pure black armour walked through the halls of Knossos, looking amongst the members of Evilus scattered around. Zald, the Gluttony of the Zeus Familia, not for the first time, wondered if what he was doing was right. Maybe if he had Alfia by his side, the two level 7s being enough for Thanatos to reach out to some children of his old friends for some help.

Those monsters.

He sighed as the sounds of battle became more and more evident, as well as the corpses of both monsters and members of Evilus. He turned another corner, just as a body came flying in front of him, crashing into the wall behind him. He sighed, looking at the mostly unclothed figure before him. "You do realise the more members you kill, the harder this is going to be, right?" he asked the tall and imposing figure, with a pair of ram horns on the side of their head.

Said figure laughed. "Good! All I want is a battle that will bring my blood to a boil!" said the man, turning around to find a disfigured face, almost looking like an animal's face. "Ever since Maxima died, I've had no one who can match me except you, Gluttony. And you don't want to fight."

Zald sighed. "As long as you know. It doesn't bother me either way."

The figure smirked. "No one in Orario can stand up to me, Gluttony. Have a little faith, and rejoice in the thrill of battle!" he screamed out, laughing out loud. "I have not experienced battle in so long, and no one has excited me as much as Maxima in the 500 years I have been alive! I want another Maxima!" he screamed to the heavens.

'The Immortal Beastman' from the Aphoph Familia, Zodd, level 7. He was a thorn in the side of the Zeus and Hera Familia for centuries, an immortal being that just seemed to refuse to die. Zald had faced Zodd himself, but the battle was left undecided when Zodd had feld. That was back prior to the 3 Great Quests.

Now with the giant hold in his stomach?

Zodd would beat him.

An irritated sigh came from behind the two men, as a white haired woman stood behind them, her arms crossed and glaring at the two. "Can you not cause trouble whilst I'm researching?" she asked, blood covering her black clothes. "My hand slipped, and I lost a valuable test subject."

Zodd glared at the woman. "Careful, witch. I will gut you if you get in my way."

The woman scoffed. "So unrefined, always straight to violence with you gentlemen." she said, shaking her head. "Try fucking with me, it won't end well for you."

The other monster.

'The Witch of Greed' from the Typhon Familia, Echidna, sealed away 400 years ago, but recently returned to the land of the living. She was said to be a monster, having found multiple entrances to the Dungeon all over the world, and using them to venture places, conducting cruel experiments on monsters and people, fascinated by the Falna and the limitations of mankind.

Both she and Zodd had become new members of the Erberus Familia, following their own gods being sent back to Heaven, Aphoph was sent back 10 years ago, prior to the Three Great Quests, and Typhon was a name not seen on the mortal world for 400 years. Zodd had gone into hiding to train so he could fight without a Falna, and Echidna had been sealed inside her workshop that was lost to time centuries ago. However, the same god that had recruited Zald had managed to gather this pair of monsters as well.

Orario's future was dark, with these monsters on the side of Evilus.

Zald sighed as he turned around. "Figure out your own issues, I'm going to rest." he said, as he began to walk away. As he departed, the two others turned to each other and began to argue.

'Alfia...' thought Zald, as he walked away. 'I hope the hero you've been preparing is ready. This is the age of Orario's greatest darkness.'

Hope you guys enjoyed that. Be sure to comment and vote if you did, but enjoy this Omake in the meantime, canon to the story.

Omake: How the Planning Started

Finn looked at his old friend in question. "Rank Up?" he asked the elven princess, confused. "This is certainly sudden, Riveria. Why the sudden push?"

Riveria looked out the window, watching Akihide chase Ais with a stick, threatening some sort of violence. "It's them." she said, as Finn turned to look out the same window. "They're catching up, too fast for my liking. Soon, they might even surpass us. But they're kids." she said, looking down. "They need the opportunity to grow up, shielded from the world by their parents. But if their parents are weaker than them, there's no use for that shield."

Gareth nodded. "Basically, you want to keep on protecting Akihide and Ais by being a stronger mama." said the dwarf, getting a small glare from the elf. "Well, it has been a while since our last Rank Up, and both my strength and endurance are at 999."

Finn nodded, knowing he had reached the limit on his dexterity long ago. "I suppose my stats aren't going to go up much more either." he said, looking at his spear. "The question is, what do we do for a level 6 feat?"

The three looked at each other, the answer seemingly obvious, and also very dangerous. They had taken care of every monster in the Dungeon that they had explored, including Balor. That left only one option.

"We need to go deeper into the Dungeon." said Riveria, looking down.

"Ay." agreed Gareth, stroking his beard. "The problem is that Royman isn't going to give up the information on that level of the Dungeon until Evilus is taken care of."

Finn nodded. "Yeah, Royman is going to be a problem." said the pallum. "But the issue is how dangerous the Dungeon is, especially if we walk in blind. It's just not worth the risk to our lives, as I'd rather have Akihide grow up in a family with all of us alive." said the blonde man.

Riveria nodded, not wanting Akihide to be forced to accept the reality of growing up an orphan again. She needed to make sure not only that she was strong, but that she could be there for Akihide in the land of the living.

Then she had an idea.

"What about Alfia?" she asked, looking at the two other executives. "We could always ask Alfia for the information. She's been much lower before, and she might know what we can hunt to Rank Up."

Finn put a hand to his chin. "There's no guarantee that Alfia will tell us anything, especially after throwing her out of Orario with Hera and Zeus." he said, before turning to the two. "But, we have nothing to lose by asking her. So let's give it a shot."

"Finally, I see common sense has caught up with you all." said the young woman, standing before the three older adventurers. "You need to be Ranking Up at a much faster rate if you want to be of any help against that bastard lizard. If a level 9 like The Empress was taken out, then a bunch of level 5s like you will only be good enough to be supporters."

Finn nodded. "Thank you for agreeing to share with us." said the man. "I know we don't have the best rel-"

Alfia glared at him. "You are the reason my sister died in a cart on the way to the mountains. I hate you, but we need you as strong as possible to take on the One Eyed Black Dragon." she said harshly. "Now, for what you want, you'll need to go to Floor 58."

Riveria looked shocked. "We've only managed to get to Floor 50 before. Floor 58 is a little deep."

Alfia waved her off. "Yeah, you'll barely register Floors 52 through to 57, so it's only really 51 and 58 where you'll have to work hard fighting." she said. "Floors 52 to 57 are instead made up almost completely of running."

"Running?" asked Gareth.

"You've heard of the Dragon's Vase before, right?" asked the woman, getting nods from the others. "Of course, you'll at least know the names of the zones of the Dungeon. Dragon's Vase, Glacier Territory, Desert Zone, all places you must someday visit, but for now, stick to Floor 58 until you're ready to hit level 7." she said, before waving her hand. "Getting back on track, the dragons on Floor 58, Valgang Dragons can shoot breaths of fire through the ceiling of Floor 52, all the way up to Floor 52. It's called 'sniping', but as long as you constantly stay on the move, you should be fine."

"It might be difficult for the supporters though..." muttered Riveria.

"You still have those three level 4 people your age, right grandma?" asked Alfia, refering to Noir, Dain and Bara. "Even if their bones are as old as yours, they should be fine."

Riveria could feel her blood pressure rising.

"There, find the Alpha. One must've been made since there hasn't been anyone down there in over 7 years now." she said, looking amongst them. "I'll go ahead and give you a map that will give you the quickest route which will also be the easiest, as well as several other routes to make it to Floor 58, after that, it's all up to you."

The three Loki Familia members looked between themselves, nodding and whispering amongst themselves, before looking back at Alfia.

"What's an alpha?" asked Gareth.

Alfia slammed her hand into her face and let out a sigh. "How are you people double my age?"

And that's it. I hope you guys enjoyed the introduction to this arc, we have a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of fun to be had. But for now, this is Striker777, over and out.