The one that struck first was the Amphisbeana, the twin-headed dragon unleashing a rge burst of blue fmes right at us.

  “Venti Troy Magnum Decim!”

  With a swift chant, Garos’s astral shields materialized and redirected the fiery breath up towards the ceiling with a loud bang, before swiftly dissipating once their duty was fulfilled.

  “Leave the defenses to me!” Our vice-captain assured us, “Jeanne, start chanting! If there is anything that could hurt it, it would be your magic!”

  “Okay!”

  “The rest of you, lure it close to shore!! It has the advantage in the waters, so bring it to ours!”

  ““Got it!!””

  As our captain and strongest mage started chanting away, we rush into action as we split up our forces once more; only this time it was to go on the offensive instead of retreating.

  Drake was the first to attack back, firing an arrow into its damaged eye and causing the twin-headed dragon to let out a cry in pain, drawing its attention and ire towards him.

  That was swiftly followed up by Lisa swinging in close to it and sshing it inthe same spot as he had just shot into moments prior, widening the bleeding gash that was once its pupil.

  “RAGH!!”

  “Hah! Miss me!!”

  With an angry snarl, the Amphisbeana rushed at her and tried to chomp down on Lisa; the pallum swiftly throwing her chain up before pulling herself up to the ceiling before its jaws could close in on her.

  That did not stop the dragon’s animosity towards her as it unleashed its fiery breath at her, which she quickly pulled herself away from before it could strike her before swinging away.

  “GRAAAHH!!”

  “That’s right! Come and get me, you stupid lizard!!”

  Annoyed that none of its attacks even touched her, the Amphisbeana hastily swam after Lisa with a loud roar, all the while constantly unleashing its fiery breath at the pallum that she was quick to swing away.

  Which was exactly what she was after as she immediately made her way towards the shoreline, making sure to keep in view of the twin-headed dragon.

  Then, once it was close enough…

  “Ignis Lumine!!”

  “Piercing Thunder!!”

  Tetra and I unleashed our spells from opposite sides at the twin-headed dragon; and due to us keeping ourselves out of its line of sight, it didn’t noticed our attacks until it struck both of its heads hard in barrage of fiery explosions.

  Though for my case, my lightning bolt simply pierced into its open wound once more and drawing out more blood than it really had.

  With the Amphisbeana now left stunned from our combined surprise attack, Jirou and Kyumaru quickly followed up on the chance along side Otto with several swift strikes of their swords.

  The two older veterans managed to strike through its scales with their combined attacks, actually drawing out blood and getting the dragon to cry out from the pain.

  Unfortunately, the younger renard’s bde barely left marks despite how many times he had struck it.

  “Shit! Its scales are too tough!”

  Even then, the wounds they inflicted on it were too shallow to deal actual damage to it; though it was better than nothing compared to what we had achieved so far.

  “RRAAAHHH!!”

  “Venti Troy Magnum Decim!!”

  The Amphisbeana quickly retaliated with a bst of blue fire towards the three swordsmen; the fiery breath was directed away with another barrier of Garos’s astral shields.

  This time, the breath attack was directed up towards the ceiling which had the effect of causing several stactites from the cave’s ceiling to break off and fall upon the Monster Rex.

  The three of them quickly got away as one of its two heads dropped onto the ground with a loud thud and left immoblised under a pile of rge rocks, while its other head was still conscious if left a bit dazed from the ordeal.

  And if I was not mistaken, the one that was just knocked out was the one that breathed out the anti-magic mist; which meant that it currently had no way to deal with our magic.

  “Quick! Take that head out!!”

  “No need to tell us twice!!”

  At Garos’s command, we immediately pounced upon the vulnerable head and began attacking it with everything we got; other head tried to stop us but Garos’s astral shields made sure its fiery breath didn’t touch us.

  Jirou took the first strike, leaving a long gash as he dragged his long katana across its long neck; Kyumaru doing the same on the other side only far less effective with his bde barely scratching through the scales.

  Otto immediately followed up with a jumping ssh down onto its neck, opening up a shallow gash in its scales that Lisa was quick to dug deep into with her twin sickles.

  “Strike, and break through; Electro!”

  I cast my enchantment and focused all of it onto the tips of my fingers, extending it as far as I was able till I got a bde of lightning, which I then used to stab into the underside of dragon’s jaw before pulling out and leaving an opened gash.

  Drake joined me with his two trench knives, leaping into the other side of the dragon’s head and stabbing into its eye before pulling and tearing its pupil apart, creating a wound that mirrored its other head’s.

  That st attack was enough to have both dragon heads cry out in pain, after which the fire-breathing head forgoes its usual breath attacks and instead dived its head down upon us with its jaws wide opened.

  We immediately scattered away like ants as its jaws carved up the ground in one bite; it then, the head that moved to sweep the pile of rocks off of its other head and freeing it from its shackles as it turned its attention to us.

  With the bloody scars all over the neck, and a rge gash over its eye that mirroring the same wound on its other head, it was a far cry from its imposing figure mere moments ago.

  It didn’t change the fact that it was a Monster Rex, as flickers of blue fmes came to life between the jaws of one of its heads as it prepared to fire another of its fiery breath.

  But before it could do anything, Jeanne’s spell was completed.

  “Everyone, get clear!!”

  “Caelum Lupical/Tartarous Canis!!”

  Two gigantic wolves of lightning and va burst forth from where she and Garos were, standing menacingly like guardian spirits before unching themselves towards the Amphisbeana.

  The twin-headed dragon quickly released its anti-magic red mist in an attempt to nullify the spell, but the magic constructs easily dodged the mist’s range and made contact with it.

  The lightning wolf struck first as it exploded in a burst of electricity onto one of its heads, which was soon followed by the va wolf that bit into the neck of the other head before erupting in an explosion of fire and molten rock.

  “…did…did we—”

  ““Don’t finish that sentence!””

  “Ah! Sorry, my bad!!”

  When the smoke cleared, Otto’s jinxing words had taken effect as the Monster Rex was still standing there and had no indication that it would be leaving.

  Jeanne’s spell had left its mark on its body, with its anti-magic head covered in steaming burns halfway down its neck aside from one of its eyes and snout.

  There were also burns around its lower body, along with cooled va that had fused the dragon to the edge the ke in bck va rocks, shackling it to the nd and unable to return back out into the waters.

  Even then, it was not still enough to drive the dragon away. But it was now clear that it wasn’t the invincible monster of despair we had once thought it was.

  “Okay, let’s do this one more time—”

  “GRRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”

  Before we could attempt another assault on it, the Amphisbeana let out a loud roar as it fired its fiery breath onto the ceiling, blue fmes bsting into the crystals and stactites, causing the entire cave in the process.

  Eventually, the shaking causing them all to break off and fall down onto us.

  “Move!!”

  We all quickly started running away from the falling debris just like at the start of this encounter; rocks and crystals big enough to crush us dropping down all round us.

  And as we were doing that, the dragon released a bst of blue fme right that swept across the entire shoreline; most of us barely managed to escape the fmes, with Jeanne barely getting Garos and herself from being burnt to a crisp.

  “It’s getting more aggressive…!” Kyumaru pointed out.

  “Guess it is serious now…” Drake noted.

  “We shall do the same!” Garos commanded, “Strike when it is still trapped in the va!”

  “Ignitis Lumine!!”

  “Piercing Thunder!!”

  The fireballs from Tetra’s spell soared across the ke and bombarded the anti-magic dragon head in a series of fiery explosions; it was then swiftly followed by my lightning bolt piercing into the eye wound of the other head.

  It was quickly followed up by arrows from Drake flying through the smoke towards the Amphisbeana; but they were quickly burnt away when it blew its fiery breath at the wooden projectile.

  That did not deter us from the attack as everyone else rushed at the dragon, Lisa taking the first strike with several wide swings from her chain sickles, drawing several deep bloody gashes along its burnt skin.

  With its scales burnt off, it was easier to strike right into its flesh, as demonstrated when Jirou and Kyumaru quickly joined in after the pallum with several fast swings of their katana that left deeper gashes than they had previously.

  But it did little against the Amphisbeana, the twin-headed dragon swiftly retaliated by unleashing a wave of blue fmes right at them; the vanguard quickly pulling back and away from the fiery breath.

  The fire breath had also struck the va rock, melting it away within moments and freeing the dragon from its grasp as it quickly swam back out into the water, taking away our only advantage with it.

  “Not good…! Lure it back—!”

  “RRRAAAAAHHHH!!”

  Before Garos could give out another command, the Amphisbeana turned and spraying its anti-magic red mist at him and Jeanne before firing a massive burst of blue fmes at them.

  Without his astral shields to defend them with, their only option was to get out of the way of the bst, which they only barely managed to do by the skin of their teeth.

  The dragon was not done, as more anti-magic mist sprayed out of its mouth at us in an unnaturally rge amount; within moments, our surroundings became coating in its red mist.

  “Get out of the mist!!” Garos called out, “Without any magic, we are—”

  “RRRAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

  It didn’t take long for the Amphisbeana to strike, as a bst of blue fmes erupted out from its mouth and towards us; the fiery breath coming right for us at arming speeds.

  Most of us had managed to get away from the bst of fmes that burnt away the ground we had been standing on, though not all of us had gotten away unscathed from the attack.

  “Je-Jeanne!!”

  “Otto…!! Your foot…!!”

  Jeanne had suffered major burns on her shoulder and back when she tackled Garos away from the fmes, while Otto had one of his boots completely burnt off his foot from trying to push Tetra out of the way with charred burns on the exposed skin.

  And to make matters worst, the Amphisbeana unleashed another spray of its anti-magic red mist around us once more.

  “Go… leave me behind…” Otto grunted out, “I will only be a burden…”

  “We’re not leaving anyone behind!!” Tetra cried out.

  “Damn straight!!” I shouted, “We are all getting out of here!”

  No way was I going to let anyone die, not again!!

  “We need to get rid of this mist somehow…!” Drake noted.

  “…I have an idea; give me some space.”

  We quickly moved away from Lisa as the pallum wrapped her chains around Otto’s weapon before spinning it above her head; the massive cleaver getting faster with each rotation till it was a blur.

  The wind then started to swirl around her in a miniature cyclone and the red mist along with it; within moments, most of it had been sucked up by her and freeing us from its constraints.

  Just as blue fmes were flickering from the Amphisbeana’s jaws.

  “Venti Troy Magnum Octum!”

  With the anti-magic mist now completely gone, Garos’s astral shields quickly formed in front of us and split the fiery breath down the middle and directed the sides once more.

  Lisa stopped spinning her chains and letting the cleaver drop to the ground with a loud thud, before dropping to her knees panting and gasping heavily, sweat pouring down her face.

  “Lisa!!”

  “Fo…Focus!! The dragon is still…!!”

  She was right; while the problem had been temporarily solved, the cause of it was still there and ready to spew more of that anti-magic mist.

  And with how exhausted Lisa was from dispelling it once, she couldn’t afford to do it a second time.

  Jirou turned to our vice-captain, “Garos, create some footholds with your shield.”

  “Wait, are you pnning on…!?”

  “With Lisa down, someone has to. Can I count of you?”

  “…always.”

  He then turned to our captain, “Jeanne, got enough in your tank for another spell?”

  Jeanne, grunting as she struggled back onto her feet, “Yeah, just one.”

  “Make it count.”

  “I always do.”

  “Tetra, cast your protection spell on me.”

  “On-On it! May the shroud of the nd protect thee; Terra Evlogia!”

  “Venti Troy Magnum Decim!”

  A quick chant and more astral shields were formed, only this time they were apart instead of being grouped together and formed a path that Jirou swiftly jumped onto with practiced ease, the glow of the amazoness mage’s spell radiating off of him.

  Hopping from one shield to another in quick succession, he swiftly made his way towards the water dragon; when he ran out of footholds, Garos quickly conjured some more with perfect timing.

  It really showed how skilled our vice-captain was to do all of that with such precision and timing; his mouth was a blur with how fast he was chanting and casting. It was a wonder that an ignis fatuus hadn’t occurred.

  Of course the Amphisbeana wouldn’t just stand by and let him get to it, as it turned its head towards him and unleashed a breath of blue fmes.

  Jirou was quick to react as he quickly jumped away to avoid the fiery breath, but it also broke the foothold underneath him leaving the swordsman with no pce to nd.

  Garos swiftly prevented his plummet into the waters via conjuring another shield under him before adding several more for him to continue his assault at the dragon.

  “Drake! Dae! Tetra! Cover Jirou!” He shouted out, “Keep its attention off of him!”

  We immediately flew into action as the long ranged fighters ran along the edges of the ke, Drake and Tetra taking one side while I took the other.

  Drake took the first strike once more with an arrow lodging itself into its burnt skin and drawing one of the Amphisbeana’s head’s attention, and its ire with how it was snarling at him.

  It was quickly followed up with Tetra’s spell fireballs flying towards it; though it was quickly taken out of the air with a spray of anti-magic mist, turning them all into harmless embers.

  “Piercing Thunder!”

  At the same time, a lightning bolt shot out of my hand and twisted about the air around the monster before piercing into the wounded eye of the fire-breathing head, drawing its attention towards me.

  And it was not happy with my attack as blue fmes was soon burst out of its jaws towards me.

  “Electro!”

  My enchantment set in and I took off running away to avoid the fire breath; it did not stop there as it fired yet another bst in a sweeping motion at me, I barely managed to get away from it.

  With both heads distracted, Jirou was able to reach the water dragon without any more issues; and with both its heads distracted from him, he took the opportunity to strike at it.

  And struck he did, and proved to us that he was indeed the strongest Adventurer in the Hecate Familia.

  When he saw the arrows, fireballs and lightning bolt flew over his head and struck the dragon’s two heads, drawing its attention away from him, Jirou knew that he had to make full use of this chance to deal a devastating strike to it.

  He ran his palm along the edge of his bde, blood dripping out of his self-inflicted wound as the crimson aura of his skill radiated off him and mixed with Tetra’s spell, granting him another boost to his abilities.

  But he would need more than just the boost from his skill; he would have to resort to using a certain sword style from his past, one he had swore to never use ever again.

  Just remembering it brought back lots of painful memories associated with it; and the intense guilt from the many mistakes he had made decades ago.

  Even now, he could still hear the voices calling to him, berating him for even thinking about breaking his oath, of considering using that sword style after all he had done.

  ‘But if we are to get out alive, I need to use it. …please forgive me…’

  So with a heavy heart, as he leaped off one of the st shields, he took a long deep breath.

  The breath he took was different from the usual, from how he sucked in air to the sound of thunder that echoed from his clenched teeth; as he did so, the muscles in his arms flexed and tensed as veins bulged from under the skin.

  Then, as he nded on the shield which Garos had pced right in front of one of the Amphisbeana’s heads, his knees bent as he fell forward slightly.

  And, when the dragon finally noticed his presence, the astral shield broke under his feet from the force he was exerting as he unched off it in a burst of speed.

  “Zantetsu!”

  A fsh of steel followed by the sound of thunder cracking, and his bde sshed right through the scales around the throat of the Amphisbeana, slicing it open and the dragon’s blood spurted out of the massive gash.

  Out of all the attacks the expedition party had nded on the twin-headed dragon, it was no exaggeration that his attack had dealt the most damage to it after Jeanne’s bombardment magic.

  But even then, it wasn't enough.

  “Gah!!”

  The head that he had struck did little to react to the attack and swung its head into him in retaliation, sending the swordsman crashing into the nearby wall with a loud boom.

  Thankfully, Tetra’s spell was just enough to keep him from taking too much damage from the attack, though he had suffered quite a bit regardless.

  The crimson aura radiating off him intensified as his skill worked to convert all that damage into a boost to his body as Jirou took another deep echoing breath and readied his sword for another strike.

  The walls cracked from him kicking off of it as he leapt towards the Amphisbeana once more and swung his sword with a loud cry, sshing yet another long bloody gash across its neck.

  Irritation filled its eyes as the twin-headed dragon swung its head forward and smmed into Jirou who tried to block it with his sword, the bde shattering from the impact as he was sent flying and crashing back to the expedition party where he id unconscious.

  “Jirou! Caelum Lupical!!”

  At the same time, Jeanne finished chanting her spell and unleashed it upon the Amphisbeana; another wolf contract manifesting above the elf in a crackle of lightning before dashing through the air towards the twin-headed dragon.

  But just before the magical construct collide with it, the dragon released a thick spray of its anti-magic mist at it; the wolf of lightning shrank almost immediately upon getting doused in it till only a tiny spark of it struck harmlessly on it.

  As we looked on in shock and terror at what was our final assault, the Amphisbeana unleashed its fiery breath at them that swept across the entirety of the shoreline.

  And despite Garos’s best attempt to conjure up his astral shield to block it, he wasnt able to conjure them up quick enough and the entire party ended up getting engulfed in its blue fmes.

  “Ngh…”

  A grunt let my mouth as I struggled to get back on my feet; I had barely managed to cast my enchantment when the breath hits, but it didn’t st long before dissipating and I was at the mercy of the fmes.

  Thankfully, I wasn’t bathed in it for long so the burns weren’t too bad, though my jacket was completely burnt away by it; this would be the second time I had my jacket burnt off by a dragon’s fiery breath.

  I gnced around and saw a bleak scene, with flickers of bright blue fmes left behind from the fiery breath surrounding us and the almost the entire party either colpsed on the ground.

  It was a complete devastation, with no one left unburnt from the attack; the least burnt was Tetra, whom Drake had protected with his body much to the amazoness’s dismay. It was a miracle that no one had actually died from the attack at all.

  And I knew how bad a direct hit from it was from first hand experience.

  But we were now in no condition to unch another assault at the Amphisbeana, nor were we be able to defend ourselves against it.

  In other words, this really was the end of the road, with no way of surviving.

  Even then…

  Gritting my teeth, I took a few unsteady steps forward towards the Amphisbeana, the burns on my body sending jolts of pain with each little movement I made until I reachd the edge of the ke.

  I raised my hand, and poured every st bit of Mind left in me as I began casting what could possibly be my st spell.

  “Lightning… Sprites… reach… my target…and… pierce… through it… Piercing Thunder!”

  My st lightning bolt shot out of my palm and towards the twin-headed dragon, the magic projectile twisting and turning through the air till it pierced into its burnt skin.

  And it didn’t even flinch from the strike, not even with a trickle of blood slowly dripping down its neck.

  I knew that it would be the case, just wishful thinking if my little spell could send it packing when Jirou and Jeanne could hardly do so.

  But at the very least… I fought right till the very end.

  The nausea from the Mind Down soon started to kick in, my vision began to lose focus and my knees nearly buckled under my weight.

  Still, I forced myself to stand, to not colpse as I stared back at the Amphisbeana; if this was the end, I would face it on my two feet.

  And I wasn’t the only one either, as one by one, more of the party crawled back up onto their feet and joined me.

  Aside from the ones there who were unconscious, the entire expedition party had stood back up and prepared to face our end.

  And yet, as we were bracing for it, the dragon did the unthinkable.

  For instead of finishing us off like we had expected it to, the Amphisbeana simply turned its head at us, before diving back down into the waters.

  The silence after the st traces of it disappeared into the ke was deafening, for a moment none of us had even moved or even breath from what had just happened right before our eyes.

  “Ngh…! What in the…”

  It was only when Jirou arose back into consciousness that the silence and tension was broken, and we immediately colpsed back onto the ground.

  I didn’t need to look back to see the dumbfounded looks on everyone’s faces; I was pretty sure I had the same expression.

  “Did… Did you all see the same thing as I did?” Drake asked us.

  “No, you aren’t hallucinating this.” Lisa told him, “I saw it too.”

  “Same here.” Kyumaru noted.

  “I think we all did…” Otto pointed out.

  “…why, what happened?” Jirou asked us, “Where’s the Amphisbeana? Did… did we chase it off?”

  “Jirou, it… it left.” Jeanne told him, “A Monster Rex… just left us alive…”

  “It… It left!? It just… left!?”

  I wouldn’t bme his shock for all of this; no one had ever heard of a Monster Rex just leaving like that. The thought of such a thing was absurd! Unthinkable!

  And yet, that did not change what we had witnessed just moments ago.

  “…we can ponder about this once we get to a safe spot.” Garos told us, “Staying here is just asking for a Monster Party.”

  “True enough.” Jirou nodded in agreement, “Those that can still move, come with me.”

  “Coming…!”

  “Drake needs potions!!”

  “Is there even any potions left?”

  “I think there are a few remaining in the bag.”

  “Where did you put that bag, anyways?”

  Even as everyone began moving about to deal with the aftermath, I kept staring at the ke the dragon had disappeared into, hoping see any signs of it still remaining.

  But no matter how hard I looked, there was no sign of it ever remaining in these waters; the Amphisbeana had truly left us alive.

  This should have been the good outcome we had hoped for; while badly injured, no one in the party had died to its attacks, and we had even managed to chase it away.

  We had managed to survive this struggle. This should have been a win for us.

  And yet, it didn’t feel like a victory at all. Far from it. If anything, it felt like we lost.

  From the way the Amphisbeana had turned both its heads on us, and how it looked like it was scoffing at us, it was as if it was looking down on us, viewing us as mere annoyances rather than actual threats, even after after everything we had inflicted upon it.

  That at the end of the day, we weren’t even worth the time and effort to finish off.

  It… It was so frustrating…!!

  For all we had managed to accomplish throughout this entire struggle amounted to nothing in the end, that all the blood, sweat and tears we had spilled had been for naught.

  We had survived, but we didn’t win either.

  In every sense of the word, we had completely been defeated.

  Emma let out a long sigh as she walked down the brick road of the shopping district, paper bags filled to the brim with groceries for the coming days in her arms.

  ‘I can’t stop thinking about it…’

  Her mind had been constantly going back to what happened this morning, from Coco accidentally breaking Garos’s mug, to her patron goddess looking rather worried at the broken mug like it was some kind ill omen.

  It got her lost in her thoughts, constantly worrying about the safety of the rest of the Familia that were on the expedition in the Lower Floors, that something might have happened to their vice-captain down there.

  It had gotten so bad that she couldn’t concentrate when down in the Dungeon and nearly got the entire party killed; Tris had decided to call an end to the day early because of it.

  ‘I know Lady Hecate had told us not to think too much about it, but…’

  She was immediately reminded of what Tris had told them days ago about the previous expedition she had taken part in, and the loss of her dear friend that came from it.

  The possibility of any of them getting killed off like how he had crossed her mind for a moment, but Emma quickly shook it off before she could dwell on it any longer than she wanted to.

  ‘No! I mustn’t think like that! I might end up jinxing the party otherwise! I’ve got to have faith in them! They will come back! …They have to!’

  When Emma came out of her thoughts, she noticed that she wasn’t on the usual road that she had always taken to get back to Arcane Manor, or anywhere she recognized.

  “…ah.”

  In her ck of attentiveness, she had unknowingly wandered off her usual path and ended up getting lost in another part of Orario; her bad sense of direction rearing its head once more, in a week.

  Emma let out a groan as she hid her face in the paper bags in embarrassment, “Guh…! Why am I always like this…!? I was doing well for the past week…!”

  ‘…okay, Emma. Keep it together… I just have to trace my steps—’

  “Oi! You there! The girl with the pink hair!”

  “Huh?”

  She raised her head when a condescending voice had called out to her, a shirtless man with unruly red hair walking up to her with his hands in his pants’ pocket; an aura of divinity radiating off of him marked him as one of the gods.

  And the way he was looking at her, it was akin to how someone looked at a product they wished to procure rather than a random individual; it was unnerving to say the least.

  However, he was still a divine being, she still had to show him at least some level of respect.

  “Show me your face.”

  “Is-Is something the matter-Ngk!?”

  The god grabbed her chin in his hand and proceeded to jerk her head around as he looked her over from head to toe, as if he was checking out a vegetable he was pnning on purchasing.

  A small grin then adorned his face, “Hm… yes, yes, you will do nicely…”

  “What are you doing!?” Emma cried out as she pried the god’s hand off her.

  “I am merely examining you.” He told her rather nonchantly, as if it was a normal thing to do.

  ‘Even for a god, this guy is weird… I really lucked out with Lady Hecate…’

  “If there‘s nothing else, I have to get going—eh!?”

  “You’re coming with me.”

  When she turned around to walk away from the pompous god, he suddenly grabbed a tight hold on her arm before pulling her back towards him.

  “Let go of me!” Emma immediately freed her arm with a hard jerk before shouting at him, “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

  “Yes, you are.” He told her with a scoff, “I’ve decided to add you into my Familia.”

  “I’m already in a Familia!”

  “Tch, that’s annoying. Who is your patron god? We’ll have you transfer—”

  “That would be me.”

  The air suddenly turned colder when Hecate made herself known, the goddess suddenly appearing behind the pompous god with a small smile before walking past him and pcing herself between him and Emma.

  Any form of theatrics were usually present whenever she made herself known was currently absent from her features, with her one cyan eye gring holes into the god that had him stumbling a few steps back.

  Even Emma took a couple steps away from her goddess, in shock of how terrifying Hecate had become; she couldn’t believe that she was the same goddess that was sulking over her cooking disaster this morning.

  “It’s nice to see you, Aeshima.” Hecate greeted him, “Pray tell, what business do you have with one of my Familia members?”

  “…So, she’s a part of that Familia? Of all the…” The god Aeshima grumbled, “Hand her over to me. Her potential is wasted if she stays with you.”

  “Hah, and it won’t with you? Pray tell, whom among us here has a Second-Css Adventurer in their Familia?”

  “You merely got lucky with your pick.”

  “Did I now?”

  The god let out a frustrated groan, “That girl could have the key component I need! You must give her to me—”

  “Aeshima.”

  One word and the air immediately turned frigid as the surrounding temperature swiftly dove into the negatives, Hecate was no longer smiling and was straight up scowling as she stared down the god in front of her.

  This was the first time Emma saw her patron goddess act in such a manner, a far cry from the overly dramatic and theatrical individual she was accustomed to.

  “You are not taking her. Fuck. Off.”

  “…Tch. You will regret this.”

  With one final click of his tongue, Aeshima turned around and walked away from them, hands in his pocket and grumbling all the while.

  “…You alright, Emma?”

  “Ye-Yes, Lady Hecate! I’m…I’m fine!”

  The goddess let out a soft ugh at the girl’s nervous behavior, “You must be quite startled. Sorry to have scared you.”

  “N-No! It’s fine! It’s just… I never seen you like that before… usually, you are more…”

  “Hey, even I know when not to py around and be serious! Now, come on. Let’s go home before more creeps like him show up.”

  “Ri-Right…”

  Little did Emma knew, this wouldn’t be the st time she would have to deal with the god Aeshima.

  And this meeting of theirs would only be the start of the greatest trial the Hecate Familia would ever face.

  …To be continued…

  Boy, oh boy, is this chapter one heck of a ride from start to finish. Writer’s block really made things difficult for this.

  But yeah, the fight with the Amphisbeana! It was a dozy to write especially with how limited in the number of attack patterns the damn dragon has. Hopefully, I was able to do its danger justice.

  I originally pnned for the Amphisbeana to escape after they dealt enough damage to it, but I ended up scraping it as I was writing it. I feel like the frustration of not winning after putting everything on the line is more appropriate.

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!