The battle was slowly coming to an end. The number of Evilus fighters were dwindling down under the battering ram of adventurers. Evilus had nowhere else in the building to fallback to, now cornered, their only options were to die fighting or surrender.
As Ardee pushed forward, a small, cloaked figure rushed out from behind a crate, knife in hand. Ardee easily parried the attack, causing the figure to fall over, revealing the child underneath the hood.
The young girl only came up to the height of Ardee's chest.
"A-a child?!"
The little girl whimpered with tears in her eyes as she clutched the knife in her hand.
Ardee was quickly filled with rage. She couldn't believe at how low Evilus would go to achieve their goals.
"Put down that knife!" She cried as she ran over to the girl "you mustn't fight! Don't listen to anyone who puts a weapon in your hands!"
The girl paused, her eyes widening before she started crying.
Ardee smiled. "It's okay, I would never hurt you." She lowered her sword and reached out her other hand. "Now, come with me. I'll get you somewhere safe."
The little girl took Ardee's hand, and looked up at her with vacant eyes, and in an emotionless voice, "O Lord, please... please let me see my mother and father again..."
It seemed like time froze all around her, she couldn't pry herself away from the girl's hand. She couldn't move her own body, as if locked in place.
Within a split second, she had closed her eyes tightly and braced herself for what was to come.
...
Yet nothing happened.
"Ara~ you should pay more attention, you almost ended up as a gooey mess and not in the good way~
Ardee opened her eyes, the child was still in front of her, but her body had become still. She was still breathing, but it seemed like her body was hollow.
Merlin walked over and removed the cloak, showing the high-powered explosives that seemed to have been hastily strapped to her body. Merlin began removing each bomb one by one carefully, setting them inside a small crate.
Seeing the number of explosives that could have killed her, Ardee quickly gave herself some distance from the girl. "W-what did you do to her?"
"I simply put this little one in an illusion. You don't need to worry about the illusion breaking, her mind is too weak to do so."
"An illusion?"
Finished taking off the bombs, she closed the crate, picking it up and walking up to Ardee. "Yep." She placed the crate in Ardee's hands before glancing over at the girl, whose still body was now silently crying.
Holding the crate of bombs, she glimpsed around her to see that the battle was pretty much over at this point, she let out a sigh of relief, placing the crate on the ground, not willing to continue carrying such a dangerous box. "Can I ask what type of illusion?"
"It's not that complicated. I'm simply showing her, exactly what she wishes to see. Though removing the illusion might cause some problems."
"Are the problems serious?"
"Well, they could be. My illusions are quite realistic, they feel so real that most people won't be able to distinguish what's reality to what's fake. And because of that, some people will wish to continue being trapped in that sweet illusion."
Merlin patted her shoulder before walking off to go find Ais, passing by her was Ryuu who quickly went to Ardee's side.
...
Walking past various adventurers who were now doing a final cleanup of the place, Merlin spotted Ais off in the distance.
Blood splattered on her clothes and face, a few bodies surrounding her. She stood still, with her head low and clenching the grip of her sword, now stained with blood.
Merlin walked over the bodies and stood before Ais. Neither saying a word for a moment.
Then Merlin reached out and began patting Ais's head. "You did well, Ais. Can you continue fighting?"
Ais became tense.
Merlin began speaking with a soothing and calm voice. "You know, there is no shame in running away. Oh well actually it would depend on the situation, but right now, there would be no shame. If you can't handle it, then there is no need to continue, there is no point in breaking yourself."
"..."
"I... I can still fight..."
Merlin smiled. "Good, because the prologue has just finished, now it's time for the main story to begin."
...
Inside the factory targeted by the Loki familia, they were having the same level of success, the members of Evilus had been caught off guard. But what alarmed Finn was the massive number of explosives that were gathered and had been packed and ready to be transported.
He didn't know exactly what they were planning, but with this many bombs, it easily narrowed down the options to just a few, and none of those options were any good.
With the battle coming to an end, he didn't bother with the remaining forces, he quickly went to find any and all documents in the building.
What the familias and guild lacked most against Evilus, is information. The fact that Evilus had converted three large factory buildings to produce bombs in broad daylight was already a massive red flag. But what was more terrifying was how they even gathered the materials in the first place.
This level of operation would be resource intensive, and some of the materials used in the bombs could only be found in the lower floors. This meant that they had a supply chain that was unknown to the guild. And to maintain this supply line, they would need dozens of high-level adventurers.
And all this isn't even considering if they have more factories within the city or outside in nearby towns, or the fact that foreign powers could be funding them in order to weaken Orario.
'But how? The guild has been monitoring the entrance and everyone that goes in and out. If too many groups came out with so many volatile materials, the guild would have noticed and acted.'
'Unless they have an entrance, we have no knowledge of.'
Just as he was about to explore this thought some more, his eyes widened after scanning a document. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He reread it again and again.
With no hesitation he ran out of the room, straight towards where the rest of his familia was gathered. Entering the large storage room, the lower ranking members of the familia looked at him with worry due to the serious expression on his face, but for Riveria and Gareth, that look was all they needed to know.
"We need to move now!"
~BOOM~
An explosion shook the building, turning everyone into a hyper serious state since they were still confiscating the bombs.
Finn ran outside and saw the pillars of smoke in the distance, all the information he had now connecting together. His two most trusted companions rushing to his side.
"The bombs were never meant for us! Evilus plans on bombing the entire city!"
Evilus didn't plan on confronting the Familias, instead they targeted the city, to drown it in despair.
The evil gods thrived on violence and chaos, and their followers upheld the justice of their gods. These people who had lost all things, their homes, families and belongings to this cruel world, saw themselves as nothing more than victims empowered to commit the most heinous acts in the name of their justice, no longer bounded by morality.
More bombs went off across the city, the followers of the evil gods rushed out onto the streets, either blowing themselves up in a crowd of civilians or simply attacking anyone that entered their line of sight. It didn't matter who they were, men and woman, the elderly and children. All shall be consumed by the chaos.
The guild immediately tried to control the situation, but it was too much. The streets were filled with people running to the guild headquarters, the only place they knew would be safe. With the streets filled, the adventurers couldn't move quick enough, and it didn't help that many of Evilus's followers were disguised as civilians, making it impossible to tell who friend or foe was until it was too late and more bombs went off.
The Astraea Familia had rushed to the streets, trying to protect who they could, trying to guide the people to safety.
Alise reached out to a man, only to watch be stabbed to death.
"Oh gods! Please help me!" A woman cried out.
Lyra seeing the woman, quickly called out. "This way, hurry! Get to the center of the city, you'll be--" but her voice was cut off as she watched a man tackle the woman and detonate the bombs on him, killing them both and anyone near.
"Dammit! DAMMIT!"
Lyra cursed the heavens, and the rest of Astraea Familia fared no better. No matter how much they fought to protect the people. Lives still slipped through their fingers like grains of sand.
A top a building, Merlin and Ais watched the chaos in the streets. Ais who had been questioning her decision to kill earlier and felt guilt, was now filled with immense killing intent. If Merlin hadn't stopped her, she would have rushed down already.
"Ais."
"Yes, teacher?"
"Don't bother trying to examine who could be the enemy." Merlin looked down into her student's eyes. "Trust your instinct and never hesitate. Now go."
Ais didn't need to be told twice.
"TEMPEST!" With a burst of wind, she shot down into the streets.
"Geez... this is more extreme than I expected.... I should fast forward my plans, I wanted a more theatrical set up, but I guess that can't happen with all this chaos..."
Merlin gazed upon the senseless bloodshed, the strange invention she had created the night before, now floating up to her side. But in the distance, a sight caught her eyes.
'Astraea? Why is the goddess out on the streets?'
Her question was quickly answered as she watched the goddess rally the adventurers and raise moral.
'Well, it seems like I can't stand still for long.'
...
Astraea continued to run through the streets with zero bodyguards. For a goddess in a mortal body, to willingly run into danger where she could be killed at any second was insane. It was only by chance that Hermes had spotted and quickly moved to toward her.
"You should watch yourself Astraea. No god should be walking around a place like this with no protection." He stated.
"And here I thought you liked to watch events from a far" replied the goddess. "If it's so dangerous for me to be here, then what are you doing here?" She cast him a coy look of a playful big sister. Hermes shrugged and sighed.
"...Guess I'm the protection. Besides, even Zeus would call me a failure if I let the world lose a beautiful goddess like you."
"Oh~ I second that!"
Both gods turned their heads to the sudden voice.
Astraea quickly realized who it was. "Merlin?"
"At your service." She bowed.