That technique?
While leaders like Shakti from other familias looked puzzled, executives of Loki Familia like Ais immediately understood.
It was that dual-sword throwing technique called Heavenly Spiral Acceleration!
Though it rendered the user unconscious each time, its dominance was absolute. Used twice before, it had slain the corrupted spirit's avatars without resistance!
Indeed, that technique could surely defeat the evil dragon's avatar!
Riveria and the others were certain.
Having witnessed it firsthand, they held unshakable confidence—no one could survive that strike. Not even the evil dragon avatar that had been hunting Freya Familia like chickens could escape death!
"No, I don't think it'll work."
But Eiji suddenly shook his head.
"What?"
"Why?!"
Not only Riveria and the others, even Finn was stunned.
"I don't know why. It's just intuition."
Eiji replied.
While Shakti and the others found this explanation absurd, Finn's group instantly accepted it, their expressions darkening.
"Not even Eiji can do it?"
Ais clenched her fists in frustration.
Eiji was undoubtedly Orario's strongest now—no one would dispute him being the world's greatest adventurer. Everyone present had seen him obliterate the corrupted spirit's avatar in an instant.
If even he claimed it wouldn't work... who could possibly face that evil dragon?
The same realization dawned on everyone, plunging the plaza into oppressive silence. The atmosphere grew so heavy it stifled speech.
Loki glanced silently at Ais.
Ais still held a trump card—one specifically effective against monsters and dragonkin.
But the power gap was too vast. Even with that, victory seemed impossible.
Loki clicked her tongue inwardly, equally at a loss.
"Give up!"
A triumphant laugh rang out.
Dionysus shouted wildly.
"Just as the One-Eyed Dragon destroyed the great familia, now the Evil Dragon will annihilate all familias in Orario! Against such overwhelming power, any resistance is futile! Even that technique is useless—the last remaining spirit avatar has already prepared countermeasures!"
He declared.
The corrupted spirit, having suffered twice from Aurora Blade, had taken precautions.
"Does destroying all familias bring you such joy?"
Loki ground her teeth, glaring at him, itching to land another punch.
"Of course! All familias will vanish, adventurers stripped of vitality. Once the Tower of Babel falls, the dungeon's seal will reopen, returning the world to pre-divine chaos! Surface dwellers will spend their lives trembling under monster threats—blood, fear, and screams will reclaim the earth. What greater revelry could there be?!"
Dionysus laughed maniacally.
The adventurers trembled with rage, fists clenched, yearning to tear this evil god apart on the spot.
"Your motive is to return the world to the era before the gods descended, even before the spirits appeared?"
Finn suddenly understood.
That's it.
Barca's notes mentioned that the evil dragon mural was the only thing Enyo had transported into the artificial labyrinth.
Why would he send the mural into the labyrinth? What possible use could that thing have?
Simply out of fondness.
Dionysus was a god who revered madness. Just as Thanatos saw death as truth, Dionysus considered madness his lifelong pursuit.
He had stumbled upon the evil dragon mural by chance and became deeply fascinated by the era of the evil dragon, which was why he had it transported into the labyrinth.
"So... your goal is to gather adventurers and destroy them all at once?"
Finn comprehended everything now.
Why drag Loki Familia into this?
Why place a corrupted spirit clone on the 59th floor?
Why specifically bring the utterly useless evil dragon mural into the labyrinth?
All of it was to orchestrate the current situation.
Exactly.
In the end, Dionysus's initial target had always been the adventurers.
To return the world to the chaos before the Age of Gods, destroying Orario alone wasn't enough. High-level adventurers could still escape, leaving embers behind.
He needed to gather all the high-level adventurers and annihilate them in one fell swoop to completely crush the vitality of humanity on the surface, erasing their resilience and returning the world to an era dominated by monsters.
The reason for dragging Loki Familia into this was to make them the vanguard!
The corrupted spirit clone on the 59th floor and the evil dragon mural were deliberately placed by Dionysus to make Finn and the others perceive the labyrinth's threat. This way, Loki Familia would inevitably rally the upper-tier familias to conquer the labyrinth, allowing him to wipe them all out at once!
So far, every move Loki Familia made had gone exactly as Dionysus predicted—they had unwittingly become the borrowed blade in his hands!
A chill ran down Finn's spine.
From the very beginning, they had been Dionysus's pawns!
"Only realizing it now?"
Dionysus cast a mocking smile their way.
"That's why I've always said—the wisdom of gods surpasses all mortals!"
This situation was precisely what Dionysus had engineered.
All of Orario's high-level adventurers had gathered here, attempting to resist the evil dragon that would destroy Orario.
But in the end, all the adventurers would perish, and the surface world would return to an era of chaos, with monsters from the Dungeon once again dominating the land!
This was the full extent of Dionysus's scheme!
Even Eiji was left speechless by the depth of it.
When it came to schemes and deceit, mortals like them, even straining every nerve, could never match a god who had lived for hundreds of millions of years.
Should they flee?
Whispers of such thoughts began to spread among the crowd.
No matter how you looked at it, fleeing now was the most rational choice.
Even Eiji thought so.
No one would blame them—escaping now was the only way to preserve their legacy, given how utterly outmatched they were against that impossibly powerful evil dragon.
"But honestly... it's incredibly frustrating."
Eiji looked up at the evil dragon wreaking havoc in the sky.
If all you ever do when faced with a strong enemy is run away, how can you ever become truly strong?
"Eiji!"
A voice reached his ears.
Soon, a white-haired, red-eyed rabbit boy appeared before him.
It was the protagonist.
But what good would the protagonist's arrival do now?
That was what Eiji had thought.
Until he saw the figure behind Bell.
A golden-haired beast-eared girl in a red kimono was staring at him with a nervous expression.
"That fox girl!"
Eiji suddenly exclaimed.