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[ Chapter Size: 2364 Words. ]
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"I'm sure of it, the blood on his face wasn't that of an Almiraj or any other rabbit-type monster, instead it was from a Ligerfang. I can guarantee it."
Neze sitting on the outermost futon next to Kaguya exclaimed, her fluffy tail constantly waving behind her.
"I'm also think the same, the amount of blood doesn't match, Light looked like he was completely soaked in monster blood, two rabbit monsters have nowhere near enough blood, unless he deliberately poured it over him."
Kaguya, now with a serious expression also gave her thoughts.
The red-haired girl, Alise sitting opposite them, upon hearing their opinions did not reply immediately, instead looked like she was deep in thought.
"I'm also not sure, but I feel like he was strong enough as a Level 1 adventurer when I saw him sparring with Noin at our Stardust Garden. And about the monster blood being from a rabbit monster, he just made it up on the spot to cover it up?"
"We don't know anything about him, and it's always a good thing to keep some cards hidden."
"Wouldn't you both have done the same in a similar position."
Just as Kaguya was getting impatient, Alise also stated her thoughts, but hearing her next words made them facepalm.
"Or who knows, maybe Light just wanted to see Lion naked?"
Alise, looking at Ryu wrapped up in a bedsheet, teased the elf.
"Alise, how can even think like that?"
A red-faced Ryu immediately poked her head out from the bedsheet and stared at her captain in disbelief, who was teasing her, with almost teary eyes.
"That's true. Lion, how do you feel flashing for the first time, that too at the opposite gender?"
Kaguya, following up immediately took another jab at Ryu, her fingers poking the elf over the bedsheet.
"Hmph, at least Light looked at me, he didn't even take a single glance at you, you unattractive old woman."
Ryu replied back sharply looking at the black-haired girl.
"You, you, tell that once again."
An annoyed Kaguya held the bedsheet roll with Ryu still in and started shaking it, making Ryu feel dizzy.
"He didn't even look at you, buuu, I'll repeat as many times as you want."
Even as Kaguya was shaking her, Ryu smugly replied, making a face at Kaguya, her earlier embarrassment forgotten in exchange for finally one upping against the black-haired far-eastern girl.
"Huh, who should look at Kaguya and why?"
All four girls turned to look at the tent entrance upon hearing Lyra's voice.
Entering the tent was indeed the pallum Lyra and behind her were Iska and Maryuu.
All the three newcomers were staring at Ryu and Kaguya.
It seemed they had heard Ryu's final comment.
Hearing Lyra's question, Kaguya's eyes sparkled, coming up the perfect idea to counterattack against the elf.
"Lyra, you won't believe what happened earlier when we went out-"
Kaguya, ignoring Ryu, looked at Lyra started speaking in a deliberately slow voice as if wanting to build up the tension.
But before she could continue further, Ryu put a hand to her mouth silencing her, and spoke out.
"We met with Light earlier who said that he wanted to treat us to a meal in Rivira. I was just telling Kaguya that he did not even look at her."
Finishing her words, she looked at the other two girls, Alise and Neze, signaling them to act along.
Alise, also not wanting to bring up the matter, conveniently nodded her head at Lyra.
"Yes, Light just wanted to thank us for allowing him to travel with us till here. That's all. Now, enough about us, tell us about what you guys did?"
Alise, changing the subject to the expedition and looked at the three girls, asking them.
"We came up with an initial idea for the antidote, it'll be ready by tomorrow and we can be back on track."
Nodding at the healer, Alise then turned to look at Lyra,
"Lyra, did Finn have any idea about the sudden increase in the enhanced monsters and that to in such large numbers?"
Lyra, picking up a futon from the corner of the room, laid it down next to Alise, sat down on it and then replied,
"Currently no, the only speculation is that it may be due to the boss monster Delphyne summoned by the Evilus a month back."
"Finn was also not sure if that was truly the case, as the change in the dungeon was in the last few days. "
"umu, umu, currently we know that it may be related to the letter from the guild a few days back. "
"And captain, we got the the results of the investigation about the 18th floor, everything has been restored to as it was before, there is no mark left from our battle during the Great Feud."
"There is no trace left of the fire or the huge hole created by the black monster anywhere on the entire floor."
The pallum continued with a wry smile.
Their entire battle against the witch of Silence and support in defeating the approximate Level 7 Delphyne [the black monster] had left no traces, the dungeon had erased everything.
Lyra continued speaking, but Alise attention had wandered, her mind going back to their fight against a level 7 Alfia about a month or so ago.
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[ Flashback ]
Alise still remembered that day clearly, it was the seventh day from when Orario was plunged to despair and just when it was confirmed that the Evilus had a God trigger their Falna in the deeper floors of the dungeon and that the summoned Monster was heading upward, towards the surface breaking through the dungeon floors.
All the adventurers could feel it, the final battle against the Evilus was here.
On the surface were Gluttony from the Zeus Familia, the witch of silence from the Hera Familia, the last remnants of two giants who held up Orario for almost a 1000 years, and also the entire Evilus faction.
And on the other side, coming up from the dungeon was a deep floor boss monster capable of destroying Orario if it successfully reached the surface.
Unable to spare any manpower from the upcoming fight against Evilus, but still wanting to stop the monster from making it to the surface, Alise had taken it upon her to lead her Familia into the Dungeon.
Finn, the commander on behalf off all the families and the guild, was only able to spare his lieutenant's and another Level 3.
Alise final group consisted of all her Familia members, the champions of justice, the beacons of hope among an almost destroyed Orario, and from the Loki Familia, surprisingly Nine Hell - Riveria, vice-captain of the Loki Familia; Elgarm - Gareth, and finally, the Sword Princess - Ais Wallenstein, their mission to descend into the dungeon and stop the boss monster from reaching the surface, a mission easier said than done.
The venue of the face of between their group and the monster was set as the 18th Floor.
When they reached the 18th floor, instead of seeing the paradise the floor was known for, what they found was a crimson hell.
The crystals everywhere were melting. The forests had been reduced to ash. The land itself cracked and burned. Glittering lakes had become bubbling pools that belched blistering steam, and droplets of molten crystal rained from above like hail.
It was a vision of apocalypse painted in scarlet and crimson. Not a memory remained of the Under Resort they knew.
Within a few moments, the heat became unbearable, and soon columns of fire burst through the ground.
And what awaited them there was the Witch of Silence - Alfia, a genuine Level 7 and to make things worse the boss monster, was still making its way up through the dungeon floors and would soon reach the 18th floor in some time.
As she and her group fought Alfia, they were able to barely hang on with the buffs from Riveria and the dwarf blocking the witch's attacks.
Even using her skill and magic together had no effect on Alfia, who was easily evading their attacks.
For the first time, Alise had found what it would feel like to fight against an overwhelmingly strong opponent.
Magical attacks were having no effect on Alfia, who had now started using Zald's sword techniques and was overwhelming them even in physical or close combat, making everyone feel like the had hit a wall that they could not climb.
But surprisingly instead of fear or being scared, what Alise, at the moment, had felt was she still had room to grow so much, and whether she would be able to find her justice if she became as strong as the opponent in front of her.
But before a full fledged fight could begin, a colossal column of fire erupted from below the ground at the center of the 18th floor, like a waterfall in reverse, spanning the entire height of the cavern even melting the crystals embedded in the ceiling.
The attack left a void about twenty meters in diameter, and with a huge sound, a grotesque-misshapen creature that looked like a winged serpent emerged.
The black boss monster, Delphyne, a dragon-type, had made its grand entrance.
...
Alise still vividly remembered the feeling from back then; there was Alfia in the front and the newly emerged boss monster in the back.
The moment when someone find themselves helpless at least in a particular situation.
Just as Alise was about to suggest splitting up and trying to fight both on separate battlefields was the only way, the golden-haired young girl standing next to Riveria, Ais went berserk, shot towards the Delphyne, disregarding everything and cutting down any monsters in her path, completely enveloped by wind all around her.
Looking at Ais who looked like she had lost all her reason and was rushing towards the monster, Alise had taken an absurd decision, she had asked Riveria and Gareth to go help Ais against the monster Delphyne. After all, how could she allow a 9-year-old child to face such a monster alone, even if the child in question was a Level 3 or any level for that matter.
But by taking that decision, she had pitted her entire familia against a Level 7, eleven Level 3's against a Level 7 adventurer who can fight above her level.
But Alise believed that if such a situation were to happen again, she would still take the same decision.
Once again, calling the Astraea girls to form a formation against Alfia, they had started to fight the Level 7.
Reinforcements soon came in the form of a brown-haired goddess and a blue haired girl.
The brown-haired goddess being their patron goddess Astraea, seeing her goddess down in the dungeon had indeed made Alise feel concerned but looking at the blue haired girl, Mischief Maker - Lisa standing next her she felt relieved.
Although she did not know which familia Lisa was affiliated to, Lisa had helped save Ardi during a raid on an Evilus base, and had also helped them many other times, showing the strength of a near Level 5.
There was also another person being dragged on the ground behind Lisa, the captain of the Erebus Familia, Faceless - Vito.
Immediately upon arriving on the floor as her name suggested, she had gone to pester the god, Erebus, the root cause for the entire Great Feud, all the while waving and poking at a limp Vito still hanging in the air in front of the now dark-faced Goddess of Darkness.
Alise watched on as the blue haired girl throw Vito away and turn towards the Witch of Silence, taunting Alfia, throwing explosives near the Witch of Silence, the bombs making a loud ringing noise upon contact with the ground making Alfia cover her ears, and distract her.
It gave Alise and her party a well needed rest.
Lisa then stepped in to fight against the black monster, helping the Loki members to defeat the black dragon with her unique door magic or what Lisa herself called it.
The poor dragon not able to do anything against Lisa's hundreds of illusory doors.
Lisa had also caught Alfia from falling into the void, but instead of joining with Goddess Astraea, she had teleporting behind Erebus, knocking the god unconscious and vanished from the spot, leaving Alise and the others dumbfounded.
Later, in front of Orario, on the tower of Babel, a masked person beheaded the God of Primordial Darkness, Erebus, the light column raising up to the skies a proof that a god had indeed been killed, not an imposter.
The guild had added the masked person to the black list, no details mentioned and later released an announcement saying that Erebus had indeed been sent back to Tenkai on that day, while also posting a 10 billion Valis bounty on the masked person.
...
Later, when Alise had asked Royman for details on the masked person added to the black-list, the fat elf was evasive saying that the guild to did not know much details about that person...
Connecting the dots easily, Alise had no problem figuring out that the masked person was Lisa, but could only speculate whether she and the Guild had reached some understanding. Because even though Lisa had shown the strength of a near Level 5 during the Great Feud, she was neither well know before the Evilus' attack nor was there any info about her at the guild, even after the Great Feud.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Alise looked at Kaguya, Ryu, Lyra and the others who were now discussing about the dungeon expedition and the enhanced monsters, she too joined in.
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[ A / N : I have given a brief summary of the Astraea familia vs Alfia; Riveria, Gareth, Ais vs Delphyne [The black Dragon monster] and have also made some changes from Canon, like Lisa [OC] would not be there, Kaguya was the one to defeat Vito and some more.
Anyway let me know if you need the actual version, will try to upload it on my discord.
Also how many of you would like a fate arc? Light going to the world of Fate?
Thank you for reading.ヾ(^▽^*))) ]