This time, the intelligence Leo and Ais brought back could be called extremely valuable, letting Finn and the others suddenly bring into focus a great many things that had been murky before.
First, somewhere deep in this city and the Dungeon, an unknown power had certainly been born, or rather, an unknown underground alliance.
This underground alliance had two known forces.
The first was the force centered on 'Her'.
The members of this force, all of them Creatures, included but were not limited to Revis, the white-haired man, and the Masked One. These Creatures were beings that combined human and monster, abnormal lives that transcended common sense, and they could control large numbers of gaudy, multicolored monsters, monsters that likewise included but were not limited to the worms, the Violas, and the Giant Flowers. At the same time they were cultivating jeweled fetuses capable of gestating female-form monsters.
Who 'She' was remained unknown for now, but it was certain that the Creatures had all been born because of 'Her', and that 'She' was presently located in the Dungeon and seemingly could not leave on her own. Otherwise the white-haired man would not have said that 'Her' wish was to see the sky, and that for its sake they intended to lift off the eyesore of a lid so 'She' could walk out from the dim underground.
The second force was Evilus.
Evilus was not unfamiliar to Finn, nor to Riveria or Gareth.
Up until five years ago, before the city's Dark Age ended, they had been leading their companions in Loki Familia and joining hands with the other Familias in the city, under the Guild's assignment, to fight together against these beings that intended to destroy order.
It could be said that back then Evilus's main enemy was them, and that Finn and the others had played a crucial and pivotal role in why the Dark Age was brought to an end five years ago.
Now these enemies they themselves had once ended had made a comeback, and had even colluded with the Creatures' force. That undoubtedly meant the two sides had a common goal or a common enemy, and were about to do something together that would be bad for this city and for them.
To that end, they were helping the Creatures build so-called seedbeds in the Pantries on the Dungeon's various floors, cultivating Violas, Giant Flowers, and jeweled fetuses there, quietly accumulating strength.
Both the Dungeon's Floor 24 and Floor 30, where the fallen Ganesha Familia member Hashana Dorlia had gone and brought back a jeweled fetus, had their Pantries remade into seedbeds, which was what had caused the abnormal explosion in monster numbers.
Finn, Riveria, and Gareth were all certain that deeper in the Dungeon there had to be still more Pantries remade into seedbeds cultivating multicolored monsters and jeweled fetuses. The worm-type and female-form monsters that had appeared on Floors 50 and 51 had very likely crawled out of seedbeds on the deeper floors, and had finally run into them during the expedition.
The incident on Floor 18 had also happened because Hashana Dorlia carried a jeweled fetus away from the Floor 30 seedbed. Revis, to recover the stolen jeweled fetus, had gone so far as to kill people in the adventurers' underground supply station, only for it to come to nothing because Leo, Ais, and the others showed up.
With all this intelligence combined, the enemy's origins and purpose slowly surfaced. There was still a great deal that had not been made clear, but at last there was a rough outline.
"The question now is... who exactly is 'She'? Human or monster? And why does she have the power to make Creatures?"
Finn pointed this out.
"The Evilus remnants are certainly worth minding, but behind them is nothing more than one or several Evil Gods who weren't deported back then, and from what you've said, these remnants' abilities can't compare at all to Evilus during the Dark Age five years ago."
Five years ago, while the city was still in the Dark Age, Evilus had possessed the power to shake the whole city. To deal with them, Finn and the others had used every trick they had, and in the end had to resort to a scheme before they finally won.
The Evilus remnants now couldn't even hold their own against Hermes Familia's adventurers, and could only seize a chance at victory by blowing themselves up. In Finn's view that was hardly worth worrying about.
So what he truly focused on was the Creatures' force, and the one those Creatures served... 'She'.
This 'She' was perhaps the root of everything behind the scenes, and Evilus had clearly chosen to assist because they had their eye on her power.
"Their purpose, at least, is easy enough to guess."
"Right, there's no doubt about it anymore."
Riveria and Gareth spoke in turn.
Evilus's purpose needed no thought at all: they wanted to overturn the order of the lower world, overturn the order of the city, to throw everything into chaos.
And 'Her' purpose was already plain: to leave the Dungeon and come to the surface. For that, the Creatures were preparing to destroy the Dungeon's "lid," that is, Babel, the white tower that sealed the Dungeon's entrance.
That was no different from wanting to destroy the Labyrinth City Orario.
After all, once Babel was destroyed and the Dungeon's entrance freed, the surface would surely be the same as in the age a thousand years ago before Orario existed. Countless monsters would pour out of the Dungeon, and in the end everything would be drowned by that endless tide of monsters, the entire surface sinking into utter chaos.
The two sides' purposes aligned, and both were naturally destined to be enemies of all of Orario's powers.
Loki Familia, as one of the Labyrinth City Orario's strongest Familias and one of the city's main fighting forces, would certainly be targeted when the time came.
Loki Familia was a thorn in their side, especially Evilus's. If anyone had survived from the Dark Age five years ago, they would surely be grinding their teeth at Loki Familia, the city's main army that had wiped them out back then.
Add to that the Creatures and the monsters the Creatures controlled, all of them blocking the way in the Dungeon, even blocking their path to the unexplored territory, and hostility between the two sides was already unavoidable, and the kind where only one side could survive.
That being so, Finn and the others naturally had to first work out just what sort of being this 'She', the root of everything, actually was.
"Do you have any clues on that point?"
Finn had taken it entirely seriously now, and asked Leo and Ais gravely.
"Even a little is fine, even something merely suspicious. If there was anything you noticed or doubted during this incident, bring it up."
Ais furrowed her brow at that, while Leo felt his chance had come.
He had already intended to disclose some important intelligence to the Familia, to provide information that would expose the identity of the mastermind, and now was a good opportunity to say it.
Of course, how to say it still had to be weighed carefully, or there would be no explaining where the intelligence came from.
With that in mind, and with some measures already prepared, Leo spoke up to Finn.
"That female Creature called Revis said something after the Masked One appeared."
The first to react to Leo's statement was none other than Ais, who had been there at the time.
Ais had heard it too. Revis had indeed said something.
"...Enyo sent you?"
She had mentioned that name.
"Enyo?"
Finn and the other two frowned in unison.
It was a very unfamiliar name.
None of the three had ever heard of anyone by that name, much less any god called that.
"It's very likely just a code name, or simply a false name."
So said Riveria.
"Could it be the name of that 'She'?"
Gareth even put forward that opinion.
"It doesn't feel like it." Leo didn't let the Familia's leaders guess wildly and gave the answer directly. "Those Creatures all call their maker 'She'. There's no reason Revis would suddenly say her name out loud."
"So this Enyo isn't 'She'."
"The word Enyo, in the language of the gods, means Destroyer of the City."
"Which means it has to be the code name or false name of some deity."
Hearing that, everyone looked at Leo.
"Destroyer of the City... is it?" Gareth said with some feeling. "Impressive that a kid like you knows something like that."
"I just happened to know it." Leo brushed it off simply. "I have been shut up in the library a lot lately, after all."
"Was it recorded in some book?" Riveria said thoughtfully. "I'll go look later. I might find some clues."
Leo rubbed his nose and let his eyes slide away from Riveria's.
Well... I hope you really can find it.
"A name with a meaning that plain, all right. It practically tells us outright that their goal is exactly what we think it is." Finn said calmly. "If this Enyo isn't 'She' but the false name of some god, then that god should be one of the Evil Gods on Evilus's side, shouldn't he?"
"Maybe, but it feels a bit off." Leo offered another clue. "That Masked One who saved Revis was obviously a Creature too, or he wouldn't have had the ridiculous strength to punch Ais away while she'd activated Ariel."
"But from what Revis said, this Masked One seems to have been directed by Enyo, not by 'Her'. Otherwise Revis wouldn't have said that Enyo sent the Masked One."
"The Creatures were all made by 'Her', so why isn't this Masked One directed by 'Her' instead of by this Enyo?"
"My feeling is that this Enyo may well be a key figure, and might even be a third party besides the Creatures' force and Evilus."
Put that way by Leo, Finn and the others fell into thought as well.
"It isn't impossible." Finn analyzed coolly. "From the intelligence you provided earlier, we know those Creatures differ from one another."
"Revis was clearly short on information about the surface. She didn't even know who the two of you were."
"The white-haired man, on the other hand, knew everything about us. He may well be a being who had ties to the surface to begin with."
The gap between their understanding of the surface was that large, which proved the Creatures didn't necessarily share the same origins and duties.
The Masked One was perhaps some god's follower, remade into a Creature by 'Her', so compared to 'Her' the Masked One would surely give priority to his patron deity's orders.
By the same reasoning, the white-haired man had very likely come from Evilus, which was why he knew something of the surface situation and moved together with those Evilus remnants.
As for Revis, she was possibly the purest Creature of all, a being who had stayed in the Dungeon with 'Her' for years on end and had never even been to the surface.
"It seems this underground alliance's composition is more complicated than we imagined."
Finn's fingers tapped absently at the table as he spoke with meaning.
"If Enyo really is a third force, then just who would that be?"
Riveria spoke in a low voice.
"An Evil God from outside Evilus?"
Gareth couldn't quite make sense of it.
Only Leo, his expression calm, said a single thing.
"That's the nature of gods, amusement above all else. Maybe Enyo is some god still active right beside us who learned of 'Her' and, on a whim, wanted to take part in this great work of destroying the city for the entertainment of it. That's not impossible either."
At those words, everyone felt a slight chill run through them, body and heart.
"There's also..."
Leo glanced at Ais with a somewhat apologetic look, then went on.
"'Her' identity may still be unknown, but one thing is certain: she must have some close relationship with the Spirits."
Ais's head snapped up, and she stared blankly at Leo.
"Spirits?"
Finn and the other two were taken aback as well.
Spirits, also called Nymphs, Elementals, and the like, were a special form of life that existed in the lower world yet differed clearly from the lower world's races.
They were extremely few in number and extremely mysterious, and their latent abilities far surpassed those of other races. Together with the Elves they were known as the lower world's two great magic races. Not only could they easily wield magic more powerful than the Elves', they were also skilled at bringing about miracles, and so were considered the race closest to the gods.
They were the children most beloved by the gods, even called the gods' avatars. Before the gods descended, they had been the receivers of divine will, beings dispatched by a portion of the heavenly gods to save the lower world from the monsters that had not yet been driven back into the Dungeon, charged with guiding the Humans and helping the lower world fight the monsters.
In many ancient tales and hero stories, the figures of Spirits had appeared. With magic and a power of miracles close to the gods' own they guided the heroes of ancient times, whether by teaching magic or bestowing powerful weapons, and sometimes they even lent a hand directly, helping the heroes accomplish the missions they shouldered and save countless lives.
It could be said that the power of the Spirits was inseparable from the great feats of those ancient heroes who could contend with monsters without receiving a Falna. Before the gods came to the surface, they had amounted to a proxy version of the Falna, and the heroes had acted precisely by gaining the Spirits' protection and listening to their voices.
The historical facts handed down to this world today were in fact the history of heroes struggling against monsters under the gods' guidance, through the Spirits.
Clearly, the Spirits were a most special and sacred kind of being.
And now Leo was saying they had a relationship with the being behind the scenes who made Creatures and intended to destroy the city.
But it was the truth.
The reason was simple.
"'She' has been craving Ais all along, or rather, craving Ais's mother, Aria."
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