To say that the city of Orario was bustling with excitement this morning would be a gross understatement of the decade.

  The moment the sun had risen over the city walls, many gods and goddess rushed towards the coliseum along with a few members of their Familia, alongside any other Adventurers and tourists that had managed to secure tickets for themselves.

  Those that couldn’t get tickets found themselves within the many pubs and bars around the city, all had decided to open early with special promotions; some had even put up the posters the Guild had made to promote the War Game, each containing the emblems of both participating Familias.

  As for those that couldn’t find seats, or ck the funds to buy drinks and be seated, they made their way towards the city’s Central Park, where many food stalls had set up shop and temporary seats had been arranged.

  Within all these taverns was the War Game betting pool that had just opened up mere moments ago, and countless bets from all over had been pced within seconds.

  The current odds were in favour of the Aeshima Familia seven to three, with a huge payout for anyone bold and daring enough to bet against them.

  “Five hundred thousand on the Hecate Familia!”

  Welf was one such guy, getting the attention of everyone in the tavern when he smmed down a heavy bundle of coins in front of the Guild employee officiating the betting pool, especially with his bold and gutsy procmation on what was generally accepted as a loser’s bet.

  Not that the bcksmith cared, as he simply waited for his bet to be written in before being given a makeshift ticket in the event of his bet winning.

  “Hey, you’re that Crozzo kid, aren’t you? From the Hephaestus Familia?” One of the regurs pointed out, “Are you sure about that bet? You’ll be losing out big.”

  “Ha! Maybe!” Welf ughed, “But I have a feeling that they will definitely win. Heck, I think the Aeshima Familia has no chance at all!”

  “Oh, that’s some confidence! Tell you what, if they win, I’m buying you a drink! If they lose, you’re buying me a drink! Deal?”

  “Deal! Why, I can taste the liquor already!”

  “A million on the Hecate Familia.”

  “Last bet! This is the st bet! No more bets!”

  The atmosphere quickly changed when another person pced the same loser bet as Welf, the redhead turning his attention towards the Guild employee to see who else had the same idea as him.

  After taking the ticket, Otto was about to make his way towards the bar counter to order a drink, when he noticed the redhead staring at him from a table close by, one that he recognized quite quickly.

  “If it isn’t little Welf.” He greeted his fellow bcksmith and took a seat next to him, “Fancy meeting you here of all pces.”

  “I was going to say the same thing to you.” Welf told him, “I thought for sure that you will still be working and not pcing a bet.”

  “Ah, well, the Hecate Familia and I are business acquaintances; thought that I should at least show my support somehow. You?”

  “I’m the same. One of them is a friend of mine. And they also bought my stuff.”

  “Did they, now? Must not mind the weird names…”

  “Rude. They aren’t that bad.”

  Otto rolled his eyes at the redhead, before asking, “How much are you betting?”

  “500 000 valis!” Welf boasted, “No risk, no reward, am I right?”

  “Sure, if you want to end up broke.”

  “You don’t have the right to say that when you bet one million yourself.”

  “Because unlike you, I got more than a million to spare.”

  “True enough!” Welf let out a ugh, as he turned to the old regur he had just made a bet with, “Hey, old guy! How about we increase the wager? If the Hecate Familia wins, you have to buy both of us drinks!”

  “Hahaha!! I like your style!!” He ughed, “Alright, but only if you buy me and blonde here drinks if you lose.”

  “Deal!”

  “Why are you dragging me into this…?”

  Even with all that excitement, many Familia still need to work to support themselves through the festive day, countless Adventurers cursing their own financial issues for missing out on such an exciting event before descending into the Dungeon like any other day.

  Meanwhile, those that didn’t need to dive into the Dungeon to earn their keep remained at their respective shops, even if they weren’t likely to get any customers that day.

  One of those shops was the Blue Pharmacy, its owner and the patron god of the Familia running it sitting by the counter on a humble wooden stool, anxiously waiting for the word to be given.

  Miach looked towards the backroom, where the ingredients and the cauldron used to brew the shop’s many potions were located; and where his only remaining Familia member was busy brewing the next batch.

  Even though they had yet to deplete any of their current batch.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to watch it with me?” He asked her.

  The tired voice of the chienthrope Naaza called out from behind the door, “I’m busy, Lord Miach. I still need to prepare some more.”

  “Hah… if you say so…”

  He knew that the real reason that she refused to take part in spectating the War Game had to do with who was fighting in it, someone whom she had swore to not interact with in any shape or form since his departure.

  For her, the pain of betrayal from him leaving the Familia in its most dire moment was still as fresh as the day he left.

  ‘You can’t keep running from him forever, Naaza…’

  “Permission granted.”

  The familiar voice of Orario’s founding god echoed throughout the entire city, signalling to the divine that they were now allowed to use their Arcanum, specifically the one of cirvoyance known as the Divine Mirror.

  With practiced ease, Miach swiped the air and a window opened up in front of him; after a few tweaks here and there, he moved the sight to the coliseum, just as the chosen host of the War Game began talking to all the gods watching.

  “The mirrors are on? Are we good? Okay then… GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING ORARIO!!!! Are you all ready!?”

  A loud energetic cry echoed all around the coliseum, which was quickly followed by a cacophony of different cheers of different tones and different levels of excitement, from both gods and mortals alike.

  Standing upon the stage the Guild had built for him, the host then turned to face the spectators above him, the Ganesha Familia Adventurer raising the voice amplifying magic item to his lips as he introduced himself with a hyper energetic tone.

  “I am your host, the ever-energetic chatterbox that rivals even our favorite Ibly Archer, Ganesha Familia’s ‘Crazy Voice’, Iblis Robinson! Nice to meet you!”

  The spectator let out a huge cheer of excitement that shook the building they were in, before calming down just as quickly and allowing Iblis to continue with his introduction.

  “Aaaaand joining me in the announcer stage, and assisting me with the py-by-py analysis, the Ganesha Familia captain herself, ‘Ankusha’ Shakti! Lady Shakti, a word, please.”

  “There is no need for that, Iblis.”

  “A-Ah, right…”

  The azure-haired woman didn’t much flinch or expressed any interest in entertaining the masses when she was handed the magic item, so the host decided to move things along.

  “Ahem! Also joining us in the festivities, and providing us with some color commentary, it’s Lord Ganesha himself!!”

  “I! Am! Ganesha!!”

  On the other hand, the self-procimed god of the masses was more than happy to entertain, jumping up from his seat and flexing his muscles for everyone to see, and getting both cheers and boos alike.

  “Now, without further ado, put your hands together as we welcome the two Familias!”

  He then waved his hand towards one of the two iron gates on opposite ends of the stadium, which was followed by the sounds of rusty gears moving as the iron bars were slowly being raised into the walls.

  “From the East Gate! Among the many members within his ranks, his ‘creations’ are procimed to be the best of our generation! Would his boast turn out to be the truth!? The Aeshima Familia!!!”

  The spectators cheered as members of the Aeshima Familia exited through the gate and into the coliseum, led by their redhead god who strutted forward with his hands in his pocket with confidence as his captain followed close behind.

  The blonde man was also holding up a yellow banner with fancy embroidery and the emblem of their Familia imprinted on it for all to see; a spiked mace surrounded by fmes.

  “From the West Gate! After years of silence, this loner goddess had finally made her move! What sort of chaos would her and her group of troublemakers bring this time!? The Hecate Familia!!!”

  There were only hushed words of caution and wary gnces when the members of the Hecate Familia exited through the gate, their goddess taking the lead with a sense of swagger in her steps and a sway in her hips with her captain right next to her.

  The dark-skinned elf too was holding up a white banner of their own, a simple and somewhat aged banner with their emblem proudly dispyed upon its fabric; two torches in a cross in front of a wizard hat.

  Both Familia circumvented the massive, elevated ptform in the middle of the coliseum and walked right up to each other, stopping a fair distance from each other but close enough that either could strike at the other if given the chance.

  They wouldn’t be given the chance as Iblis quickly got between them before things could escate; not that he needed to do so, considering that his captain and his Familia lone First-Css Adventurer would intervene if she needed to.

  “Allow me to set the stage once more! Today’s War Game will be a series of duels! Each Familia will send five members each to fight it out with each other! The one that wins more duels than the other is the winner! Of course, to keep things fair, only Third-Css Adventurers are allowed to fight!”

  He then reached into his pants pocket and took out several folded pieces of paper for all to see.

  “To decide who would fight who, we would be drawing lots! Within each of these is a colored circle and a number, with every two of them sharing the same color and number. Those who picked the same color will be paired up with each other, and the number will indicate which order you will fight. Simple, no? Now come on up, fighters!!”

  The Aeshima Familia captain was the first to step towards him and was swiftly followed by four of his comrades. The five members from the Hecate Familia soon followed suit, and the ten of them picked a paper within Iblis hand.

  Once he saw his hand was empty, he called out for everyone to hear, “Now, let us see what fate had in store for us today!”

  To say I was a bit worried about the lots would be an understatement, especially considering that any one of us could ended fighting against that Enoch bastard.

  Among the five of us, only me and Drake stand any chance against him with the fact that we were Third-Css Adventurers; Tetra was one too, but she wasn’t that skilled with close-quarters, even after her training with Jeanne.

  As such, with a pounding heart, I opened up the paper in my hand and checked the color I had picked—

  “Ah! Aeshima Familia’s captain was the first one to show off his pick!”

  I looked up to see Enoch with a smirk and his hand up in the air and showing to us and everyone around us the color of the circle in his piece of paper, and it was that of the color blue and the number 5.

  Looking back down into the paper in my hand, a sense of relief washed over me as determination and excitement kicked in when I saw the color of my circle, which I quickly showed off to everyone.

  “And it looks like we have a match! For the final match of the day, it would be between Aeshima’s golden child, and the Record Holder!”

  Cheers erupted all around us from the announcement, as me and Enoch stared each other down, neither of us was willing to break eye contact before the other as the other matches were being announced.

  The blonde man huffed before giving me a smirk, “Looks like we will be finishing that fight of ours after all. And this time, there will be no one to save you.”

  Just as I was about to retort back, when I remembered what Hecate had told me to do if Enoch tried to intimidate or taunt me, and that it would be way more effective than any words.

  So I did just that; looking right at him as I pointed at him, before raising my hand to my neck and resting my thumb against my throat, and then sliding it from one end to the next like I was slicing with it.

  “I-I don’t believe it! Dae just decred her victory over Enoch!!”

  “Haha!! I like her confidence!!”

  “She didn’t seem to be aware of what she did, though.”

  The results were instant and just as advertised, Enoch being taken back and left speechless while fuming with his teeth gritting tightly as his comrades wordlessly moved away from him, all the while the spectators were loudly cheering me on for what I just did.

  Behind me, I could hear Hecate ughing up a storm alongside Jirou, while Jeanne was letting a groan but muttering about bad influences; not sure why she said that

  “Nice job, Rein!” Tris ughed as she patted me on the back, “Way to stick it to him!”

  Emma let out a nervous chuckle, “But isn’t that going a bit too far…?”

  “Who cares! He’s a jerk!” Tetra huffed.

  While utterly confused over what I had just did, I did feel a bit satisfied over what I had just done, especially when it had clearly pissed off Enoch.

  “Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!”

  Within the Twilight Manor, home of the Loki Familia, their patron goddess was ughing her head off at the unintended taunt, much to the chagrin of both their captain and vice-captain.

  After being unable to secure herself tickets into the coliseum, the trickster goddess Loki had gathered her Familia executives into her office for what was essentially a family watching party; she had even bought along some snacks from the food stands.

  One of which was quickly disappearing into the Sword Princess’s mouth at an arming rate.

  Riveria let out a sigh, “At least try to compose yourself, Loki.”

  “Oh, quit being such a buzzkill, Maman Riveria!!” Loki ughed, “That kid is a riot! Look at that clueless face of hers! She has absolutely no idea what she has just done!”

  “Hah…and can you please not call me that ever again…?”

  “Never!”

  Gareth let out a small chuckle, “Still, seeing that kind of taunt reminded me of their te Captain. He would often rile people up with taunts like that all the time.”

  “Yeah; ‘Big Mouth’ Jason.” Finn noted with a grimace, “Can’t say I miss being at the end of his endless tauntings.”

  “Hahaha!! As do I! There’s no one who could get under your skin as quickly as he can with just his words!”

  The pallum captain let out a sigh at the memory of that particur Adventurer, before turning his attention back to the Divine Mirror and the War Game; the two Familias heading to the small open-air tents pitched near the coliseum walls.

  “So,” He then noticed his goddess leaning up to him with a skewer stick in her mouth, “She’s that Adventurer that caught your eye, eh? The one that took your breath away?”

  “Not in that kind of way, no.”

  His words couldn’t come out any faster, shivers went down his spine when he felt the older amazoness twin eyes drilling into him from his goddess’s rather misleading choice of words; ones that he knew that she purposefully used to mess with him.

  And like the trickster that she was, she let out a little chuckle at his quick retort when she saw the little chaos her mischief had created.

  “I know, I know; I’m just messing with ya! Still, that’s the girl that broke my beloved Ais’s record? That damn Hecate sure picked quite a talented one this time. It’s so unfair…”

  “Finn, you rescued her from the Dungeon, right?” Gareth noted, “You saw the feat that got her that Level Up?”

  Finn nodded, “It was an intense fight; her body was in tatters and she was just one strike away from death, yet she fought on, with courage I could respect.”

  “Sounds like quite the fight! Sure wished I could have seen it!”

  “Tch, all that praise for a weakling like her.” Bete scoffed, “I bet she and her little buddies will regret what she did once they fought.”

  “I don’t know; she’s pretty strong.” The younger of the amazoness twins, Tiona noted as she pointed at the werewolf, “She handled herself pretty well back in the Tree Labyrinth. Took down those bees in no time at all.”

  “Those are just mere bugs! Small fries! That doesn’t mean shit! Not when she couldn’t even die to the Amphisbaena!”

  Her older sister, Tione rolled her eyes at the werewolf’s comment, “Right, of course you would think that. And isn’t surviving and escaping a Monster Rex impressive enough?”

  “Hah! She’s probably just lucky! I bet the Bloody Bde was the one that drove it off in the first pce!”

  “Even so, you can’t just dismiss the effort she had put in so far as mere luck, Bete.” Riveria told him, “I’m sure you remember all the trials you have to undergo to become as strong as you are now.”

  “…Tch.” The werewolf huffed in annoyance, “She still needs to be put in her pce…”

  A sigh left Finn’s mouth at Bete’s harsh and arrogant demeanor, something he and many of the executives had come to accept to be a part of who he was, even if there were still many within the Familia that found his words and attitude intolerable.

  He then turned to the only one that had yet to say anything about the Adventurer, mostly due to her being too busy enjoying her Jagamaru and not paying attention to anything they said.

  “Ais.”

  The Sword Princess raised her head from her snack, crumbs sticking to the corner of her mouth, “Hm? What is it, Finn?”

  “What is your impression of Biriken?” He asked her, “You’ve talked with her before, right?”

  “Ah, her? Hm… she’s strong. And kind of weird.”

  “Weird? In what way?”

  “Back then, after I apologised to her, she asked if we had met before.”

  Finn raised an eyebrow, “She asked that of you?”

  Ais nodded, “She seemed rather disappointed when I said no.”

  “How dare she!!” Loki growled, “To ask out my beloved Ais with such a cliche pick up line… you have to at least—”

  “It is clearly not what’s happening here.” Riveria sighed, “Did she say anything else?”

  Ais shook her head, “She didn’t.”

  “Wait, why did you apologise to her anyway?” Tiona asked, “Did you do something bad to her?”

  “I…don’t know?”

  Tione raised her eyebrow at the ckluster response, “You don’t know? Then why did you even apologise?”

  Riveria’s eyes widened in realization, “Ais, have you met Biriken before?”

  The Sword Princess nodded, “I was buying some Jagamaru, and she bought the st of the red bean special. When she saw me, she suddenly started crying, before holding her head in pain and passing out.”

  Tione sheepishly scratched her cheek, “I…don’t think that’s your fault, Ais.”

  “Really…?”

  “It is a weird response to Ais.” Tiona noted.

  Finn shared a look with Gareth and Riveria, the new information catching them completely by surprise, especially considering what they were aware of about the Sword Princess’s past.

  The pallum turned back to the Divine Mirror, with one thought going through his mind.

  ‘Just who are you, Dae?’

  Sitting on her favorite cushy chair, with a gss of her favorite wine in hand, the goddess of beauty Freya was in the epitome of comfort within her favorite room atop the highest and luxurious floors the Babel Tower, where she spent most of her time residing instead of her Familia’s home.

  And with her was her Familia’s captain, the ever stoic ‘King’ Ottarl; the rge boarz had found his pce merely standing by her goddess where he awaited whatever orders she would give him.

  “Fufufu.”

  She couldn’t help letting out a chuckle when she saw the half-elf’s unintended taunt through her Divine Mirror, much to the confusion of the stoic boarz standing behind her.

  ‘You truly have a talent in finding the interesting ones, Hecate.’

  “Say, Ottarl.”

  “Yes, Lady Freya?”

  “I seemed to recall you having encountered the Hecate Familia a few months ago; about that Irregur Troll Guild Mission?”

  The boarz nodded, “Indeed, I have, Lady Freya. They were the ones that took it down.”

  “Yes, I remember you telling me that.” She maneuvered her Divine Gss to zoom in on the half-elf, “Was she among them back then?”

  “Yes, she was. Although she is quite different now.”

  “Oh? What was she like back then?”

  Ottarl pondered for a moment, before telling his goddess, “Empty. Like a bnk ste. And confused. Lost. Filled with grief.”

  Freya pced her cheek on her hand, “What about now? What changed?”

  “…She has found the resolve to move forward, no longer unsure of her path. Gained a new purpose. A new strength. No longer a bnk ste.”

  “I see. She must have piqued your interest if you noticed that much about a mere rookie.”

  Ottarl shook his head, “I’m only making an observation, Lady Freya. But I must admit, her sudden growth does intrigue me a little.”

  “Oh?” Freya let out a small giggle, “Well, now you have me interested in her. Maybe I should take her for myself?”

  “If that’s your desire, Lady Freya, then I shall—”

  “I merely jest, Ottarl. I have no intention of getting Hecate’s bad side.”

  “Understood.”

  The goddess returned her gaze towards the half-elf in question, her sharp gray eyes peering deep into her in a way that no mortal eyes could.

  In this private room of hers, high above Orario and far from the chaos of her Familia, Freya had found some respite from her boredom with a few people watching; her unique sight allowing her to peer into many mortals’ souls and their true selves.

  Once in a while, she would notice some souls that shone more than the average citizen or Adventurer, with a potential to rise up above others if given a little push.

  Yet none of them, not even those within her own Familia had held her interest for any longer than a passing gnce; even Ottarl was not able to hold her interest beyond that of a favorite child.

  So it was to her surprise when she saw the state of Dae’s soul, one so unusual that had her more intrigued than interested, though not for the reasons she usually had with any of her previous interests.

  For unlike the souls of her fellow Adventurers around her that reflected only their inner self, the half-elf’s instead appeared to be a melding of two distinct souls, one was that of a mortal soul, a translucent gray with a spark of light within.

  While the other was more akin to that of a Spirit, one that housed the shards of many others, though shadows would be a more accurate description.

  And one of those shadows was bigger and was beginning to mix with the two souls, melding into them.

  ‘Truly, Hecate has a talent for finding the interesting ones…’

  …To be continued…

  The War Game is a go! And with it fight scenes galore!!

  And, we got a hint to who and what Dae actually was. What you think of it may be, it’s up to you to specute, because I’m not saying any more!

  Now then, who shall be fighting first…?

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!