This is a double update, so if you haven't read Tsubaki I chapter, go back one.
So, for some necessary info for those of you keeping up with newest novel and its revelations.
The orichalcum gates of Knossus opened, purposefully menacing by only showing a dark passage in a way clearly meant to intimidate.
She did not care, and walked right in.
The passage led to a larger room. As she moved to the center, two others emerged from other passages. Relying on her own mask, she was able to observe them without worry.
One figure made her narrow her eyes, despite the mask making it pointless to glare. Yet, the hatred she felt hadn't settled even after all these years and what she had become. The sight of that short pink-hair, yellow eyes, and too-wide smirk brought her back to years ago. When she was still a person who had a right to despise such evil with no reservation or shame.
Arachnia. Valetta Grede.
The urge to attack that filthy member of Evilus was held back by knowledge that they'd be sacrificed all the same by her Master.
Well, that and the other figure. Arachnia was Level 5, but this figure was worse. The third figure was covered by a simple cloak, hood raised to shadow the top half of her face. Only red hair, green eyes, and an emotionless mouth was revealed.
Just the sight made the whispers in her own head intensify, that disgusting being once again trying to speak to her.
She refused utterly, buoyed by hatred and Lord Dionysus's will.
She glared at the corrupted remains of-
"Revis," Valetta spoke, cutting off her own thoughts. "Ein."
Neither of the creatures responded to the false names bestowed upon them.
Which only seemed to prompt Valetta to let out another of her disgusting smiles as she looked at Revis, exclaiming in a tone both angry and mocking, "We heard Ottar returned from the Glacier Territory. 66th floor, I hear. Even his familia executives supposedly reached the 59th. Oh, wow. That's so great, right? If only we had some plans in place to slaughter anyone that reached floors down low. What were those floors again? Oh yeah, the 59th and 60th…wasn't it?!"
Even as Valetta growled out that last bit, Revis didn't shift nor did her all-but-lifeless eyes change.
"And now I heard the Ganesha and Loki familias are down deep already too," Valetta continued, sauntering close to Revis to ominously circle her. "Now, unless you bring news that some first-class adventurers were slaughtered, I hope you have a good explanation why nothing happened."
Revis was clearly unintimidated, her eyes suddenly flashing and even Valetta knew enough to make room as Revis stated, "The situation was untenable, even for Her. She hid the newborn demi-spirit in the cracks of the 59th floor, and She then went deeper."
"Running scared, eh?" Valetta mocked.
Ein herself finally spoke up, as much as she didn't want to, declaring, "No, it was the right choice. Enyo ordered it. Even if She would not lose outright to the Ottar, the likelihood of killing him is low. He would have escaped with knowledge of Her."
"That boar…" Valetta cursed.
It was unfortunately the case. Ottar was a unique threat to their plans, even before he leveled up. There was a reason that Lord Dionysus had approved Evilus working with the Ishtar Familia to hopefully ambush him. Even accepting the use of one of the extra Jewel Fetuses they were planning to harvest for redundancy. He was just that dangerous.
They hadn't expected Ishtar to win, of course. Even with a demi-spirit. However, he had secretly planned to have Ein herself and Revis spying on any such attempt, intending to finish off Ottar if possible. Any Ishtar members too, since the Ishtar Familia was still one of the six forces he had deemed a potential threat to Orario's destruction.
If anything, Ishtar's willingness to even try such a plan indicated she had to have some trump card that they hadn't learned of, only reinforcing the necessity of removing them too.
With the current changes though…
"Enyo now considers Ottar clashing with Her or learning of our plan enough to investigate as an automatic loss," Ein explained. "Complete avoidance is necessary."
"Oh ho," Valetta left out, smirking. "The city destroyer is scared of one shitty pet of a perverted goddess?"
"No, he is not," Ein said, facing the Evilus member and almost hoping she offers more provocation so Ein could…act. "Enyo has more than enough plans to handle anything. Not even this is outside his considerations."
Freya Familia. Loki Familia. Ganesha Familia. Hephaestus Familia. Ishtar Familia. Whatever secret forces Lord Dionysus is sure Ouranos has hidden away.
The six forces her lord has deemed threats that must be outmaneuvered if his dream was to occur. Fifteen years, he had gathered information on them. Six years, he had created plans and contingencies.
His plan was not something so undeveloped that he didn't have dozens of permutations or adjustments ready.
No matter what any of them did, any possible action had already been prepared for.
"You say that and that complete avoidance is necessary, and yet it already came so close to failing," Revis now spoke though, approaching Ein till she could glare at her from up close. "She barely had time to hide the immature Demi-Spirit before the Freya executives showed, and She was only able to reach the 67th floor ahead of Ottar. If he hadn't stopped at the 66th floor, it all would have ended. Your Enyo was meant to distract any force able to reach that deep. Direct them to the surface."
"Do not make any mistake. You or Her," Ein warned as she stepped forward, pushing her mask against Revis' forehead. "We provided you the information on the Freya executives likely to go that deep after her leveled up. We also warned you of when Ottar was to descend, and I assure you that you will not be able to find that elsewhere."
Revis glared.
Ein did not care, stating coldly, "Ottar works with none. Besides the Goddess Freya, only one source receives any warning from him on when he shall descend. One person he always informs…and Enyo's hand is grasping the throat of that one source. We gave you hours of warning, and you won't get better from anyone."
The glare remained, but Ein knew that Revis had no counter to that.
Scoffing inwardly, she then demanded, "What about Her own methods? Was she not supposed to be able to block off the 59th floor?"
"Such magic is complicated. It is not physical. It merely warns away subconsciously. More illusion than barrier," Revis claimed, finally stepping back. "It was never meant to hold if a group of high-level adventurers were determined to reach the 59th floor. She always intended to merely slaughter and use any that pushed further."
"Unfortunately, Ottar is likely the adventurer in all Orario best able to resist corruption or parasitizing," Ein supplied, thankful for the mask as she forced down ugly bitterness and resentment.
If only...
"Hehehe, and now you've got your oh so great spirits locked down. How ironic," Valetta mocked, unable to help herself. "One forced to the 67th floor, and the other so useless it has to hide."
"She wouldn't lose. This is merely to continue the plan you rely on," Revis stated, not reacting further. Merely explaining in a hard voice, "The other is not grown enough to handle a group of first-class adventures. She had to move and hide it. Ottar almost found it, and only the cracks of the Dungeon helped hide it from him. If it isn't able to feed without fear of adventurers, it won't ever grow enough."
Thus She is forced to flee unless they want to abandon the plan entirely, and the Jewel Fetus they sacrificed to serve as a guard – or lure – on the 59th floor became a vulnerability.
"We shall keep you appraised as much as possible. It should be simply enough to find when the only three familias able to reach that far are on the surface, so long as little evidence is left of their existence for when they are there," Ein said. "One can eat, and She can wait till a proper time to ambush Ottar or one of the familias that deep."
Loki Familia was predictable on their expeditions, all organized well ahead of time. This expedition by the Ganesha Familia all but came out of nowhere, but still not enough worry. Either would be easy enough to work around, luring in or avoiding as needed for the plan. The Freya familia though…
That familia's unpredictability and solo efforts were more troublesome. Yet, they hadn't expected issues before this. That familia's weakness was the same as its strength. Their goddess. They followed Freya so much that one only had to get an estimate of the goddess to know how the familia would act. Freya admittedly was terrifying if she was ever worked up, but Lord Dionysus had barely even needed effort to figure out how checked out the goddess was in recent years. Goddess Freya had all but lost ambition since the Great Feud, and that filtered down into stagnancy for her familia. She acted on a loose sense of duty and whim nowadays, and seemed entirely distracted otherwise.
Yet, somehow…
Who would have guessed the little independent will that familia had – Ottar's desire for greater strength and the desire of others to not fall behind him – would prompt new energy entirely separate from their goddess's explicit will?
Ein still asserted sternly, "We can work out how to avoid them. For both the Deep Floors and the pantries for the Jewel Fetuses."
Because that still needed to happen as well. They needed to take over and use a pantry for several days to properly manifest one of the Jewel Fetuses, and that required certain considerations. Even with creatures acting as guards, they could be overwhelmed. Too deep of floor, and the monsters would break through any barriers and they couldn't hold for days against a never ending horde. Too high of a floor, and the risk of adventurers stumbling across them increased. They also couldn't reuse any, as the risk of the Dungeon acting from repeated destruction was too high.
They were currently on the 35th floor, and could only really go to easier floors. They needed at least seven Jewel Fetuses for the final part of the plan, and preferably twice that for plenty of spares for distractions or ambushes. With them only having three so far, the final ones would be far too exposed to adventurers than hoped.
Last thing they needed was Freya Familia learning of it just because some of those reckless idiots dived deep without any warning.
"That does not matter," Revis claimed though, glaring. "Not when the risk of Ottar stumbling on Her is so high."
Ein was irritated, but still asked, "What is needed?"
"Time," Revis answered bluntly. "She needs to find a hiding spot suitable for her that is out of the way he would likely pass, and more to set up magic to ward him away."
"He is likely to dive again as soon as his equipment orders come in," Ein remarked. She then reluctantly turned to Valetta. "Not enough time. What options are there to delay him?"
Valetta smirked, remarking, "Good thing about a dumb shit like that Boar is that he's easily distracted. He's not like Finn. If you give that guy a piece of the puzzle, he'll start picturing the whole puzzle and start investigating everything. That boar, he's a hunter at best. If he finds something, he'll hunt it down but move on afterwards."
"You want to get him looking elsewhere. Somewhere of our choosing."
"Obviously," Valetta claimed, chuckling. "The two assets we can't allow him to learn of is Her and Knossus. He wouldn't stop till he brought them down."
Likely true. Ein wasn't sure how strong She actually was, but Ottar treating Her as some form of Monster Rex to hunt was an automatic loss. Even if he didn't bring the Freya executives to assist, it would distract Her from the plan. Enyo needed Her controlling the Demi-Spirits, not to mention the assistance of the other creatures still under Her control.
Knossus was also too much at risk. The man-made Dungeon would have allowed even the remnants of Evilus to challenge any familia that challenged them there, but not anymore. While the orichalcum gates likely hold, the walls were 'just' adamantite. They'd already calculated that Ottar, Gareth Landrock, and maybe Hogni Ragnar could be able to break through at least some of them. With Ottar's level up, he was the most physically powerful adventurer Orario had seen in centuries.
What point was a Dungeon when the rat trapped inside could just break through walls to go in a straight line?
If Ottar learned of Knossus, even if he failed in the first or second assault, he could no doubt escape and just keep coming back till he won by attrition.
"So, we make him look elsewhere," Valetta continued, waving her finger. Said finger eventually settling on Revis. "And I know just the little girl to do it."
Revis glared.
Valetta didn't care, continuing, "I said it before, didn't I? We already know that Gale is in some sad disguise at that little restaurant far too close to the Freya Familia to be nothing. Two birds, one stone. If a threat is obvious, that Boar will be distracted. At least long enough for that 'Her' to finish her work in the Deep Floors. So long as the attacker doesn't lead to Knossus in any way, they can create issues whenever he's on the surface. Once we can allow him to descend again, then we've also got weeks at a time where he's out of play. Just perfect, right?"
…
Valetta grin was just sick as she declared, "So, Revis, next time we hear that the Boar is about to descend…how about you burn that Hostess of Fertility down and break all the cuties inside to send a message to that familia of pets? Can you do that for me? Break that Gale? For me?"
Ein once again could only call Valetta sick.
…
Revis merely stared, eyes blank again to show her thrall to Her, and finally spoke.
"Understood."
Really didn't want to expand too much of the changes to the antagonists' side, but most of you already know the main story beats of canon so hopefully this didn't feel like it lowered tension.
Next update should be Ottar's POV and finally actually have the Eye of Balor properly examined so you can see what that easter egg is about.