The Grand Arsenal is the large mansion where Aviza had been doing his research to tame monsters stood quietly in front of them.
"So this is the place?" Vyrn asked, staring up at the mansion.
After hearing Aliza explain her uncle's plan, everyone agreed to follow her here and confront him.
"But how could he conduct research like that right in the middle of town?" Lyria wondered aloud.
"If his research is truly a hobby of taming vast numbers of monsters, where is he keeping them all?"
"I have an idea. Follow me, everyone," Aliza said as she pushed open the gate and stepped inside.
Everyone started following her, but Sandalphon suddenly stopped Djeeta before she could continue.
"What's wrong?" Djeeta asked.
"I'm going to stay here," Sandalphon said. "My powers won't help much in a tight space like this. And if my senses are right, Aviza is currently underground. If I fight there, the whole place might collapse."
She paused, looking toward the mansion.
"And… this is Aliza's family problem. I feel like I shouldn't get in the way."
"That's fine," Djeeta nodded. "You can wait here. If Rei comes back, tell him what we're doing."
Sandalphon nodded and stepped aside, letting Djeeta continue toward the mansion with the others.
"Huh, I never realized it before, but your family is really rich, huh, Aliza."
Inside the mansion, Therese made a comment after looking at the layout.
The mansion's design alone showed it belonged to a wealthy family — beautiful decorations, expensive furniture, and hanging ornaments normal people rarely ever saw.
"That's right, didn't you have another mansion in Port Breeze?" Djeeta added.
"Haha, you can say that," Aliza replied, though her voice sounded distant. She wasn't focused on their comments at all.
Ever since they stepped inside, she kept looking around carefully, checking every corner and wall as if searching for something.
"What are you looking for, Aliza?" Katalina asked, noticing her behavior.
"I'm searching for the secret passage. During my investigation, we found out that he has an underground area where he always does his experiments."
"Your investigation? You mean you were already spying on him?" Vyrn asked.
"Of course. He's a dangerous person, so I always ordered someone to watch him to make sure he couldn't do anything reckless… but it seems that wasn't enough, because he still managed to do all of this behind my back," Aliza said with frustration.
"Then let me help," Lyria said. She crouched down and placed her hand on the floor.
The crystal on her chest began glowing softly as she focused her power.
"Yggdrasil… help me find the secret entrance," she murmured, using the tree's power to sense through the ground and detect the underground area.
Only a few moments later, Lyria opened her eyes.
"I found it. Follow me, everyone," she said, guiding the group toward the hidden entrance she sensed beneath the mansion.
Walking inside the mansion, Lyria guided them through the correct path before she finally stopped in front of a specific wall.
"It's should be behind this wall," Lyria said as she touched the wall in front of her.
"Then we need to find a way to open it. What about you, Aliza? Stan? Do you two have any idea?" Katalina asked.
"Me? I don't know. I actually never came here before," Stan said. It was true—his job was only to protect Aliza, and as a commoner, he had no way to access a place like this.
"I have an idea, actually," Aliza said.
After saying that, she made Lyria step back while she moved to stand right in front of the wall.
Aliza took a deep breath, preparing her body for something.
"Wait a minute—don't tell me!" Katalina shouted, realizing what Aliza was about to do.
"Hyaaaahhhh!"
Aliza raised her right leg high before smashing the wall in front of her, breaking it with such force that everyone screamed in surprise.
"see now it's open" Aliza proudly said after destroying the wall and revealing the secret passage going down.
"Holy Sandalphon you muscle head girl at least tell us first before you do something like that" Vyrn said coming out from behind Djeeta after dodging the wall scattered.
"That's the fastest way instead of doing puzzle and wasting our time here"
"But that's kinda loud though, what if someone coming here because of the sound" Lyria ask peeking from behind Katalina.
"What's that sound!?"
"Quick check it!"
And what Lyria said immediately come true because they can hear a lot of people sound and then people running toward them.
"Well it's seems the guard is here" Djeeta said
"Guard huh why they just appears now where are they before?" Jessica said
"Hmm" Djeeta just shrugged and they decided to just wait for them to arrive instead of being attacked from behind while they going down the secret entrance.
Not long six draph man appears looking at them in surprised.
"What the? Why is there a lot of people"
"Look the entrance is destroyed"
"That's lady aliza!?"
All of them saying together from the destroyed wall to Aliza then they finally realized Aliza and the others is here for Aviza
"You six all of you is his guard right? What do you think you doing letting my uncle doing something like this!" Aliza said with anger to them
If Djeeta and the others hadn't been there, so many townspeople would have been killed by that swarm of monsters. That thought alone made her furious at her uncle.
She didn't care if her uncle kept trying to kill her as she could defend herself. But involving innocent people? That was going way too far.
But instead of showing guilt, the guards laughed. Then one of them said:
"Lady Aliza, we're being paid by Lord Aviza to do whatever he wants."
"If he wants us to sacrifice others, we'll follow. We're his underlings."
"I feel bad for them, sure, but business is business," they all said, making excuses one after another.
"These scums!" Katalina shouted, angry after hearing them.
"Let's just take care of these people and throw them outside," one of the guards said.
"Yeah, let's finish this fast so we can go back to drinking."
After saying that, they pulled out their weapons—giant swords, brass knuckles, and other heavy tools.
They were nothing more than thugs Aviza hired, so they weren't a real threat to Djeeta and the others.
Djeeta planned to knock them out with the flat side of her sword, but before she could draw it, Aliza suddenly walked forward.
"Let me handle them. They were hired by my family, so I'll take responsibility for them," Aliza said, stepping ahead while stretching her arms.
"Lady Aliza, that's dangerous! You're outnumbered. There are six of them, and you're alone!" Stan quickly objected. To him, fighting even one draph alone was already tough. Now there were six—all of them draph and all of them hostile.
"Don't worry, Stan. You know I'm stronger than that. And I've been fighting Rei on the Grandcypher during our trip here," Aliza said with a calm smile with no worried at all.
"Huh? You've been fighting with Rei? When did that happen?" Djeeta asked, confused.
Her confusion made sense. In the mornings, she was always still asleep in Rei's room and rarely joined any morning training.
"Maybe you should wake up earlier, Djeeta… so you don't miss things like that," Katalina said, shaking her head.
"Lady Aliza, how about you just surrender and go home? We don't want to hurt you," one of the thugs said when he saw Aliza walking forward.
"Nope. I'm going to take care of all of you right now," Aliza replied, smiling brightly.
She took her stance, slamming her left leg onto the floor. Cracks spread under her foot, and fire burst from the gaps, forming a circle of flame around her.
"Flame Wreath."
Buffing herself, she felt her whole body grow stronger. And while the thugs were still underestimating her, she made the first move.
She dashed forward with incredible speed. A loud impact echoed through the hall—Aliza's right leg driving straight into the stomach of the closest draph.
"Gahhh!"
Even though draph men were tall and muscular, Aliza's strength was far beyond theirs. One kick was enough to knock him out. He fell backward and slammed into the ground unconscious while Aliza's leg still raised in the air.
"Who's next then?" she asked, looking at the remaining five while still posing with her leg like taunting them.
"Wha— Don't expect us to go easy, even on you, Lady Aliza!" one draph shouted, charging forward with his greatsword.
It seemed he had already forgotten the order not to kill her, anger clouding his mind after her taunt.
But Aliza didn't look scared at all. The massive blade swung toward her, yet she only needed to shift a little to the side. The greatsword cut through empty air and crashed into the floor with a heavy boom.
"Your swing is too sluggish."
Using the embedded sword as a foothold, she jumped and drove her knee straight into his jaw. A sharp crack rang out as his jaw possibly broken.
"Gahh!"
Using the momentum of her knee kick, Aliza quickly shifted her target to another draph. She swung her right leg in a clean, powerful arc from right to left, smashing it into the man's face.
He was sent flying to the side from the force of the kick, while Aliza landed smoothly on the ground. She still wore a confident smile with eyes sharp never dropping her guard.
Meanwhile, the others stood behind Aliza, watching her beat the thugs down one by one.
"Uhh… that looks painful," Jessica said, holding her own chin as she winced at the sight.
"Hmm. Aliza's martial arts are really interesting," Djeeta murmured, her eyes following every movement. "The way she moves her body and uses it to increase the impact of her kicks is amazing."
"Didn't you have martial arts like that too, Djeeta?" Lyria asked. After all, Djeeta could fight in multiple styles and techniques.
"No, mine's more like a combination of upper-body strength and speed," Djeeta explained. "But Aliza compensates for her body with the way she moves. It's interesting."
"Of course Lady Aliza is strong," Stan said with a proud smile. "She's been practicing martial arts since she was a child. Even when her body was small, her heart was big. She never gave up and kept learning to find martial arts that suited her."
During their childhood, both of them trained together—but unlike Aliza, Stan had always been scared of fighting, so he rarely trained seriously.
"I CAN HEAR THAT, STAN!!" Aliza shouted without even turning around. She definitely heard him call her small, and she hated that—even if it was true.
"I'M SORRY, MY LADY!!" Stan bowed so fast he almost hit the floor.
"STOP CALLING ME 'MY LADY' ALREADY!!"
Another kick crashed into one of the thugs, sending him flying and smashing through a nearby wall.
Not long after, Aliza had beaten all of them without even breaking a sweat.
Pat, pat, pat.
She dusted off her clothes, looked around to make sure all the thugs were unconscious, then walked back to the group.
"Sorry for the wait."
"Incredible, Aliza! You managed to beat six draph so easily," Katalina said, impressed.
"Yeah! You muscle-head girl, you're awesome!" Vyrn added.
"Being called a muscle-head is really annoying… but thanks. This was way easier than my fight earlier with Rei," Aliza said with a smile, remembering her fight with Rei back on Tarvi Island.
"Hmm. Looks like you two had your own adventure before this," Therese said. "But we should keep moving and confront your uncle."
Aliza nodded, and the group finally continued into the secret entrance, making their way down into the underground.
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A/N: With the ending of main quest part 1 of granblue fantasy i can finally continue this fanfic, the ending is so hype can't believe Lucilius actually gonna become canon in main story can't wait for his appearance.
I'm gonna try to update this often as we still have long way to go to reach arc 2, this arc 1.5 gonna be focusing on meeting a lot of characters and fate episode see you later~