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But Ais was nowhere to be found.
Tiona and the others searched everywhere through Loki Familia's home, yet none of them could find any trace of where she had gone.
Bang!
The door flew open, and a flat-chested goddess with narrowed eyes appeared in front of them.
"You still haven't found Ais?"
Loki's voice carried a hint of urgency.
She and Riveria had already searched the surrounding area themselves, but they still had not found Ais.
At this point, they were starting to fear the worst.
"Not yet, Lady Loki, Did you find anything on your side?"
Tiona and the others were just as helpless.
"Forget searching, Everyone! move out! Head straight for where that dragon is."
Loki narrowed her eyes. That dragon truly was a nightmare in every possible sense.
"We're not looking for Ais first?"
Bete scratched his head, confused.
He had no issue with going to fight the dragon, but should they not gather all their strength first?
Ais had reached Level 6 not long ago. No matter how you looked at it, she was one of their top fighters.
"No... We're out of time. There's a very good chance we'll find Ais there."
Loki glanced toward the Dungeon.
In that short span of time, the Black Dragon had already returned to the area near it.
And Ishtar Familia, which the beast had just ravaged, had already been reduced to a sea of fire.
The Pleasure Quarter, beloved by male adventurers all across Orario, had just been erased from the map.
That was right, before the War Game with Hestia Familia could even begin, Ishtar Familia had already effectively gone bankrupt.
Not only had their business been wiped out, but the majority of their core members had been killed. Only a small portion survived.
And if no one had stepped in to save them, even that tiny fraction would have been wiped out too.
"No time to waste, move. We'll see if Ais is there."
Loki issued the order.
She knew exactly what the One-Eyed Black Dragon meant to Ais.
It was the enemy Ais would burn her life for.
Burn everything for.
The one thing she would destroy no matter the cost.
It was her greatest enemy.
The reason she had spent all this time obsessively chasing strength.
...
Meanwhile.
At Ishtar Familia.
Anos Kanzaki looked at the cluster of girls standing there in front of the flames, all staring blankly into the fire, and let out a sigh.
He was the one who had just stepped in to save them.
If he had not, Ishtar Familia would have been completely annihilated.
Of course, he had not saved them carelessly.
Even rescuing people required standards.
A quick judgment was all he needed to know whether someone was worth saving.
"Why did you save us? Weren't we... your enemies?"
Aisha was finally the first to recover enough to speak.
She was one of the people Anos had saved on the way through. In the face of the Black Dragon's fire, the Holy Child had pulled them back from the brink of death.
"You may have thought of me as an enemy, but I've never thought of you that way."
Anos smiled and shook his head.
In truth, he had only ever regarded them as pebbles by the roadside.
"The reason I saved you is simple. You were worth saving. No matter what, I still owed you for looking after Haruhime for so long."
That was why he had saved her.
If it had been that toad Phryne instead, he absolutely would not have saved her.
If anything, he might even have lured the Black Dragon in her direction.
"Haruhime... So it was because of Haruhime..."
Aisha's voice carried real emotion.
Maybe good people really did get rewarded after all.
She had always thought that kind of thing only happened in stories.
She really had taken care of Haruhime.
Haruhime herself did not know every detail, but even with all her innocence and clumsy naivete, she had always been able to feel Aisha's kindness toward her.
"You should find some other way to make a living from here on. Of course, if you want to join Hestia Familia, that's also an option."
That single sentence made the eyes of most of the girls light up instantly.
"Though joining Hestia Familia comes with the same condition as everyone else. You passed my interview first."
His next sentence was like a bucket of cold water dumped over their excitement.
Of course, they wanted to be in the same Familia as the Holy Child.
And if that turned into something more, so much the better.
But they had all heard that Hestia Familia's selection process was unbelievably strange. The girls who got rejected never even seemed to understand why they had failed.
In the end, Hestia Familia had only accepted a few dozen people out of the massive crowd, not even one in several dozen.
And the Holy Child did not look remotely inclined to lower his standards.
So how could they dare apply?
"That's all. I'm heading off to deal with the bigger problem now. You should all try to run out of Orario as fast as you can."
Anos turned toward the Black Dragon's direction.
He had only used a little of his ability earlier, and yet somehow the Black Dragon had retreated all the way back near the Dungeon?
He had to run several judgments before arriving at a result.
The answer was simple.
The Black Dragon feared the divine power on him.
Not Anos himself.
The gods.
That was why it had temporarily retreated to the Dungeon, where it could benefit from the tremendous boost the place offered it.
And it showed no sign of fleeing any farther.
If anything, it looked like it planned to camp in the upper levels of the Dungeon and refuse to leave.
Anos rose to his feet, ready to move.
If he dealt with the Black Dragon now, it might be the perfect achievement to push him up another level.
Thanks to his quiet grinding, plus his natural growth, his status had already reached the very peak of Level 5. He basically only needed one great enough event to elevate him to Level 6.
For ordinary adventurers in Orario, Level 6 usually corresponded to the realm of a High-Class Devil.
But for Anos, Level 6 would mean something else entirely.
It would mean he could beat a Ten-Wing Angel or a high-ranking fallen angel into the ground with his bare hands.
"Wait. Holy Child, where are you going?"
Seeing that Anos was about to leave, Aisha hurriedly called out to him.
He was not seriously planning to challenge the Black Dragon, was he?
Had he lost his mind?
Even their Level 5s had been completely helpless in front of that thing.
"You already know where I'm going, so why bother asking?"
Anos smiled, then stepped onto the wind and left.
No matter what, he could not allow the Black Dragon to destroy Orario.
His businesses had only just started becoming real giants here, and they were finally beginning to spread outward.
If one breath from that dragon erased it all, he had no idea how much time he would waste rebuilding everything.
...
On Ais's side.
The moment she sensed the Black Dragon, she rushed straight toward it without the slightest hesitation, moving as fast as she had ever moved in her life.
There was nothing else left in her mind now.
At this moment, the meaning of her entire existence was fixed on one thing alone.
Kill the One-Eyed Black Dragon.
That was the meaning of her life.
The reason she had survived this long.
The reason she had struggled and fought all this time.
And it was not as though she had no chance.
First, she possessed the development ability that almost all high-ranking adventurers gained.
Hunter.
It significantly boosted her damage against monsters.
Second, she possessed the skill Tempest Avenger.
With that skill active, every attack she made against monsters was greatly enhanced, and against dragon-type monsters the increase became overwhelming.
The degree of the boost rose in direct proportion to the intensity of Ais's hatred.
Loki herself had once judged that skill to be the kind of ability that could be written into the history of the lower world.
The ultimate offensive skill.
One that anyone would have been proud to possess.
That overwhelming power, far beyond her level, along with her extreme anti-monster specialization, was exactly why Ais carried the Desperate Sword, the blade that would never break.
Anything Ais judged to be a monster had, until now, always fallen beneath her blade.
Awaken.
Howl.
As if she still felt her speed was not enough, she began chanting the spirit words of wind once more.
Magic: Ariel.
The winds wrapped around Ais as though they loved her, as though they wanted to lend their strength to the battle of their child.
Her attack power, defense, and speed all surged dramatically.
If she wished, she could even fly.
And on top of that, Ais had one final trump card.
Yesterday, she had finally completed the last stage of training for the Final Secret Sword, Chasing Shadow.
She was still not at Anos's level with it.
But she truly could use the technique now.
Even if it came at a certain cost.
Ais did not know why the One-Eyed Black Dragon had appeared here.
She only knew one thing.
The time had come for her to do what she was meant to do.
...
At Babel Tower.
Freya watched the crimson night spread before her and slowly swirled the wine in her hand, looking deeply satisfied.
"Only the strongest, fiercest, cruelest, and hardest-to-defeat monster can create the strongest, noblest, most perfect hero, can it not?"
She murmured to herself.
Unlike the other gods, she could sense from the side just how terrifying Anos truly was.
In her eyes, even Ottar could not push him.
And if Ottar could not do it, then the answer was obvious.
Bring forth the one monster most capable of forging a hero.
And the price of drawing it out?
In Freya's eyes, Ottar was not even worth comparing to Anos.
"Now then. Show me your brilliance."
"The finest stage has already been prepared."
"This... is the moment a hero is born."
Freya tossed the wineglass from her hand.
Ruby-red wine sprayed through the air, adding a faint sweetness to the flames that now filled the sky.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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