Hello, everyone, I hope all is good and well with you so far.

I know I said I would be slowing down, yet here I am, releasing two chapters within 24 hours. However, this is a one time spur of the moment, so my next chapter will, true to my word, take several weeks of work until it releases. I hope you forgive me for that tardiness.

Some questions answered first!

Zabaniya: It wasn't written in the chapter, but yes, Finn was informed about Penia too in connection to the long introduction to Knossos they had off-chapter. It will be addressed in this chapter for clarity!

The-Killer40513: Yes, yes she did.

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Monsters, Gods with Arcanum etc. talking"

Premise:

Loki Familia plans their assault on Knossos, while Kaida makes her own plans with the city...

It was a fresh morning, the sun was rising, the rays of red turned blue-ish bit by bit as the day was announcing its begin. But the peaceful morning was deception, for it was anything but peaceful...

Finn sat against his office table, hands crossed together as he looked down at said table, the executives of the Loki Familia, and Loki herself as well, all assembled together to discuss their future events.

"Ta think it was ol Dionysus the whole time..." Loki mused, though despite musing it out, she was clearly irritated, her usually slit eyes were slightly opened and she was chewing on the nail of her left thumb. She was supposed to be the great trickster, and she had been thoroughly fooled.

"Are you sure she is telling the truth?" Gareth questioned, unsure about the entire thing. After all, this was one of the most unsuspect gods they were talking about. "Dionysus has pretty much only good things told about him. Man's a saint in the public eye."

"I am very sure" Finn responded while uncrossing his arms and setting them down on the table, tapping with his left thumb against it. "I don't think Kaida would lie about this, and she seemed annoyed about it as well" he commented, recalling their entire discussion they had that night, what with Knossos and the remaining Evilus associates. "Not to mention that Dionysus has made his structure so we cannot dismantle him with a simple assault either... he even roped Penia into it all"

Loki scoffed at the sound of that poverty-loving goddess' name. "Penia... damn it all, Dionysus sure ain't make it easy ta us"

"No kidding there, Loki" Gareth whistled while scratching his beard. "Hypontizing his members to think they are his, when actually they have Penias blessing. He could've used her to fake his death if things went south."

"That was his intention, actually" Finn added and his tapping with his thumb sped up slightly. "According to Kaida, that was exactly what he had planned to do to escape the radar should he be discovered, along with pinning all the blame on Demeter."

"So..." Riveria then decided to speak up, her hands clenching tightly against her staff. "How do we proceed?"

"I hate to say it, but we don't have the manpower to approach this with the prefered strategy" Finn spoke, a sigh escaping his mouth. "We will need Freya Familia's aid in this endeavor, if we want to make sure we get the ideal result out of this."

"And how, pray tell, do ya want to convince that frivolous goddess ta aid you?" Loki shot, her annoyance growing to greater heights now.

"That... remains to be seen. I have a few ideas on how to convince their familia, but they all depend on Freya herself" Finn admitted, his trained smile straining itself ever so slightly upon the prospect of this 'alliance' of theirs. "As such, you have to do the talking with her, Loki"

"Aight, sounds like a job fer me!" The trickster-goddess proudly exclaimed, lifting a fist up to bump it into the air with cheer. "Just tell me what ya need and imma try to convey is somehow"

"Well, first we need to convince Freya that it is in her interest to deal with Evilus' remnants for good-"

BAMM

With a loud slam, the door to their office suddenly banged open due to it being literally kicked in.

"Hope you don't mind the intrusion, but I invited myself into your home!" Kaida exclaimed with a smirk on her expression while holding a sheet of paper in her hand. "I convinced Freya to join us on the hunt for Evilus' remnants!"

"..."

Dead silence followed this exclamation.

"You..." Riveria started.

"What now?" Loki followed suit.

"That's right, I convinced Freya to lend us her goons for this endeavor of ours!" Kaida repeated before slamming the sheet of paper she held in her hand onto Finn's desk with a resounding BANG noise. "She even wrote a blood sign for it!"

"NO WAY!" Loki shouted and jumped from her seat to grab the piece of paper and, at its very bottom was a thumb-imprint made with blood. The imprint had a light hue to itself, like it was something ethereal, inhuman, beyond mortal grasp. Loki immediately understood what this meant. "Ain't no fuckin' way, how da hell ya convinced her into a blood sign?"

"Trade secret!" Kaida responded with a toothy grin before snatching the paper back and rolling it up, putting it away into her pockets. "Anyway, now you all know that you got Freya on your side"

Kaida would never possibly reveal that she bribed Freya with knowledge she had from her previous life as a show-fan. "Anyway, that's all for now. I just came to deliver the good news. I got a few rookies to train in my new familia so I gotta go back and check in on their progress!" She then added and just turned around to exit like she owned the place, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Well... there's that..." Gareth noted with a whistle in his tone, finding the whole ordeal slightly amusing.

"Indeed you may call it such, Gareth" Finn admitted with a defeated sigh before returning to his practiced smile. "However, this is indeed good news. With Freya's aid secured, we have the numbers and the strength to overcome this with optimal results. I even daresay we can go out with little to no casualities if they somehow get the drop on us despite the odds" Finn then resounded, letting his optimism shine in his tone of voice.

"We will be divided into three squads" The Braver then began his instructions, letting his infamously smart brain do the working for tactics on how to apprehend this entire thing in one go...

Meanwhile...

Bell was currently sitting cross-legged on the ground outside the Hearthfire Manor. Kaida had, before she abruptly disappeared, given him instructions on a specific task that involved blindfolding himself, which he did, and sitting as motionlessly as he could.

As he sat there, Lili, Welf and Mikoto all sneaked up on him to the best of their abilities, wooden sticks in their hands as they all began to swing at him once in range.

Bell, as one may have expected, dodged only the bare first swings before being hit by them all, and those dodges were purely lucky because he flinched from the anticipation of a coming hit. "OW OW OW!" He howled in pain as he got whacked over the head with several sticks.

"Sorry, Bell-Sama!" Lili apologized with somewhat comical teary eyes, clearly not liking the task of hitting her hero and loved one. Mikoto and Welf also looked no less joyous at the task.

"Sorry, but orders are that we have to do this until you can dodge the attacks..." Welf said before taking a few steps back, hiding the stick behind his back before giving a sheepish, apologetic look towards Bell.

"No, it's alright, if this is how I can train to become stronger, then I will do this!" Bell answered with a resolute voice, rubbing the bumps on his head before taking position once more. "Again, and don't hold back please!" He requested, trying to again focus on anything that might help him sense the oncoming attacks without dodging by pure dumb luck.

Whistling innocently, Kaida approached the Pantheon, which was the official name for the Guild's Headquarters, where the Guild manages all of its official business and has their desks for magic stone exchanges and all related works available. There, she immediately beelined towards one of the desks and tapped at it with her finger. "Sorry to bother, but I got a little something that needs attention"

The worker behind the desk, who happens to be Eina, perked up lightly and took on her formal, professional gesture before nodding. "Of course, Miss. What may I help you with today?"

"I gotta register myself under a new familia, and I gotta see the boss of this place" Kaida shot out instantly before she reached for the pen behind the guild desk, ready to write. "Name's Kaida"

"Of course, one se-" Eina began, before her brain caught up to the information. "EEEEEEEHHHHHH! THE INFAMOUS LEVEL 8 KAIDA!?"

The Empress in question simply chopped Eina's forehead harmlessly with her right hand. "No need to shout like that, yes that's me" She responded before tapping the pen against the desk with an impatient tapping. "Now, get the paperwork, girl"

"O-of course Ma'am!" Eina hurriedly answered before flying through the papers on her desk until she found the adventurer's registration.

Kaida then reached into her backpocket and took out a scrolled up piece of paper in her hands, slamming it on the desk while filling out the form with her left hand, demonstrating ambidexterious writing. "Also hang this up on the board. I want the whole world to know about it"

Eina took the scrolled up piece of paper and her eyes almost bulged from her skull when she read it.

Kaida (Ashrah)

Race: Oni

Level: 8

STR: S999

AGI: S999

END: S999

DEX: S999

MAG: S999

SKILLS:

Haki: The manifestation of Willpower into physical form. Enables:

- A sixth Sense to register danger, intention of even immediate clairvoyance

- Armament to ehnance defense and offense and allows the User to interact with magic in a physical manner

- The Ability to pulsate a wave of pure intimidation to test the willpower of nearby or selected targets. Those with much lesser willpower pass out or submit to the user.

This skill consumes a Slot for Magic and use of it consumes Mind Power and improves the Magic Stat.

Queen of Beasts: Proof that the mortal host body has ascended into a realm of its own through sheer willpower and success against tribulations beyond reason, acclaiming rulership over all creatures of the mortal realm.

- Excelia gain is boosted to those fully loyal to the user.

- Fighting against User produces Excelia. Excelia gain is increased significantly if the intent to kill is present.

- All status numbers are increased up to 25% when fighting one on one.

MAGIC: -

DEVELOPMENTAL ABILITIES:

Strong Body: S (Tougher Skin, higher muscle power, highly improved natural healing factor and endurance. Passively increased resistance to toxic materials as well as diseases)

Abnormal Resistance: E (Higher resistance to poisonous substances, curses and mental attacks such as hypnosis, charms, enrages, taunts and fatigues)

Eina could not believe such a broken status sheet, and she wanted to publish it? Just like that? But for what purpose would one want to- "WAIT IS THAT AN EXCELIA BOOST!?" She thought to herself and her eyes, already the size of plates, damn near doubled in size.

"B-but... are you sure?"

"Of course I am! I don't do things half measuredly, Eina!" Kaida exclaimed before handing her the filled out registration which had her name, level, race and which familia she belongs to.

Eina was very, very nervous to process this information, but she could not protest this decision, not with the decisionmaker having doubly confirmed it, and it being the level 8 herself of course. She could snap the poor half-elf like a twig if she wanted to. "Y-yes Ma'am... I... I will process this paperwork then..." She spoke and took the two sheets of paper before hurriedly disappearing.

Kaida meanwhile decided to take a leisure walk past the desks and to the back of the Guild. Nobody tried to stop her, of course, because even if they did try, who even could? No one, that's how it was. So Kaida eventually found Royman's office and knocked at it twice before, in true fashion to her character, kicked the door open most unceremoniously.

"WHO DARES!?" The obese, aged elf questioned.

"I dare!" Kaida fired back with a toothy grin. "Kaida, Level 8, and if you talk back to me while not even sitting upright, I will kick your nuts so hard they will spill out your damn throat!"

Royman immediately fixed his posture and sat upright on his chair, sweat trickling down his forehead. "O-of course! Forgive my rudeness!" He exclaimed with a gulp before placing his hands on his desk. "I have been informed of your arrival in Orario... what can my humble self do for you?"

"I need an audience with Ouranos" Kaida simply stated before slamming the door shut behind them. "We are about to tackle the remnants of Evilus' troops all in one go, and he needs to be informed. His... second in command, if we can even call that thing so, has fancy gadgeds we will need to properly coordinate."

Royman gulped loudly before nodding his head and getting up from his seat. "Of course, please follow me, I will deliver you right to him!"

This chapter was a bit shorter than the last couple ones, and I apologize for that, but I at least managed to release two on the same day, so silver linings me thinks :D

Anyway, I hope you guys liked the read and as always, if you have any questions, do be open and forthcoming with them as I love interacting with my readers!

See you on the next chapter!