Weeds grew unchecked among the crude mounds of earth. The graves were nothing more than hastily piled dirt, marked with broken swords or wooden planks driven into the soil. Under the rain, they appeared even lonelier, even more forgotten.
Only a handful of gods stood silently before those graves. They looked down at the resting places of their children, familia members they had once spoken with, laughed with, guided… now reduced to soulless corpses, buried beneath mud.
These weren't graves, not really. They were desperate memorials, hurried heaps of earth, unworthy of the lives that once burned so brightly. So many had died that night, so many that there had been no time for proper tombstones, no coffins, no rites.
"Many adventurers… many innocent residents lost their lives in the battle last night…" Astraea's voice trembled faintly.
Her long, brown hair clung to her face, drenched by rain. Her blue eyes, like fragments of the Milky Way, shimmered with sorrow.
Like the other gods present, she carried no umbrella, wore no cloak against the rain. She stood bare beneath the storm, allowing the heavens' grief to soak into her body as she gazed out at the endless field of makeshift graves.
"Even now, the death toll continues to rise…"
The burials had no end. Blood and tears spilled without pause.
The "First Cemetery" had already been filled to capacity. This place had been carved out of the forestation district in a desperate rush to bury the fallen.
Astraea lowered her head, her bangs veiling her expression.
Even with Akira by her side—
"I'm sorry! Even if it's meaningless now, I'm still sorry, children!" A bellow tore through the rain.
It was Ganesha, the god with the elephant mask. His loud, unrestrained apology shattered the suffocating silence. His tears burst forth like a dam breaking, pouring down in torrents more furious than the rain itself. The fabric of his clothes grew dark and heavy beneath the flood of his grief.
"I'm the leader of this city's defense! Yet all I can do now is cry and scream! I… I'm so sorry!"
His voice echoed raw and untamed, the cry of a beast mourning its young.
It was noisy, so unbearably noisy but no one scolded him. No one rolled their eyes. Instead, every god present found themselves envious. Envious of this man who could shed tears without restraint, who could bare his grief without shame.
"Their souls are no longer here beneath the soil. No regrets remain to appease, no redemption will come from these graves."
The calm, almost indifferent voice came from Hermes, standing just a step away. He looked down at the mounds with his usual sharp gaze, but his hand tugged the brim of his hat lower, hiding his eyes. His words were cold, yet the tremor in his voice exposed his heart.
"To us gods, these burials are nothing more than customs. Sentimentality. A ritual of the underworld. But…"
Astraea whispered, lifting her head to the stormy sky, her eyes glistening with unspoken grief, "But at least, we should send their souls away in peace."
The rain did not stop. The graves did not end. And the adventurers who had died that night had not even been given time for a final prayer.
Not even a moment of silence was granted.
The adventurers, still reeling from the night before, received their new missions and executed them without pause. There was no rest.
The Great Struggle — Day Two.
The sky had only just begun to brighten, a faint shade of white creeping over the horizon.
"Open the gates! Let us out already!"
"Why are you locking us in here?! Let us go!"
"We don't know when those monsters from evilus will attack again!"
Desperate voices rang out like thunder in front of Orario's western gate.
Crowds of soot-stained, blood-smeared residents surged forward, their faces twisted with fear and despair. They cursed and screamed at the adventurers standing in their path, who had formed a living wall with weapons in hand.
"No! No one leaves!" One of the adventurers barked back. "Outside the walls is certain death! Evilus has surrounded the entire city!"
Among the defenders, Falgar Batros, a massive weretiger of the Hermes Familia, towering and broad-shouldered, lifted his hands desperately, trying to calm the masses who looked seconds away from turning violent.
"Please! Once you leave this place, we can't protect you anymore! You must endure for now!" He pleaded, his voice carrying over the din.
But his words were drowned out in an instant.
"Who cares about your protection?!"
"Then why don't you go deal with the enemy?!"
"Aren't you supposed to be adventurers?! What good are you if you only block us?!"
"I don't want to stay trapped in this cursed city any longer!"
Roars of men mixed with shrieks of terrified women. Children sobbed into their parents' arms, frightened further by the adults' frenzied shouting. The chaos swelled, a sea of fear and anger threatening to break.
Even the armed adventurers, swords drawn and armor gleaming faintly in the pale dawn light, faltered under the pressure. The people they were protecting looked at them not with gratitude, but with hostility. The irony cut deep.
"I didn't think we who specialize in secret investigations would end up suppressing panicked citizens." Asfi muttered bitterly, watching from the sidelines. Her face twisted with unease.
Guild staff stood shoulder to shoulder with adventurers, shouting orders and pleading for calm. But it was like tossing stones into a stormy sea, their voices vanished in the uproar. Panic had taken root, and reason was drowned beneath it.
To the people of Orario, desperate to flee through the west gate and seek shelter in Melen, the port city not far from here, those adventurers barring their way were no different from enemies.
And who could truly blame them?
Fear makes cowards of the brave. It makes fools of the wise. They had seen their homes burned, their loved ones cut down. Their anger and terror were not without cause.
"We need a plan—fast. If this continues, it'll erupt into a riot." Asfi's anxious voice cut through, directed toward the woman she relied on most.
The Ganesha Familia, known as Orario's "urban police," had been deployed not only at the west gate, but the north and east as well. They were the backbone of order, the wall holding back chaos.
Shakti, their stern commander, stood atop the defensive line. Her gaze was sharp as she replied grimly, "I'm afraid this is exactly their plan. Not only do they seek to trap us adventurers inside, but also the common people. Internal strife, that is their goal."
"…!" Asfi's eyes widened in shock.
Shakti said, "Even if we attempted a counterattack beyond the gates, evilus has surely laid traps in wait. And with our strength stretched thin, we cannot afford such recklessness."
She was right. Their enemies had pulled back deliberately, retreating to lurk outside the city walls. They had no intention of overextending. Instead, they sought to bleed Orario dry, forcing adventurers to guard citizens, exhausting resources, sowing panic until the city collapsed on itself.
Weaken them without striking. A cruel, efficient strategy.
Clenching her fists, Shakti scanned the city walls, only for her eyes to widen.
Glints of red. Dozens of them.
"Kaensekis! Everyone, clear the area!" She roared, her voice sharp as a blade.
The warning came just in time. Several magic bullets tore through the sky, streaking like meteors. They homed in on the clusters of Kaensekis, striking dead-on.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Small explosions blossomed, triggering chain reactions. Massive fireballs erupted midair, painting the dawn sky red and black. The force was enough to rattle the walls and scorch the air, yet because the detonation was set off at a safe height, the deadly impact never reached the crowd below.
"Wha—?! A bombing?! Again?!"
"Evilus is throwing bombs from the walls!"
Panic spread like wildfire. Screams erupted as people shoved and trampled over each other in a desperate rush to flee. Bodies were knocked down, crushed beneath the stampede.
Adventurers scrambled to save who they could.
Falgar roared, grabbing a stumbling man by the collar and leaping aside just as another shockwave rocked the ground. Asfi, her forehead slick with sweat, spread her arms wide to shield the terrified guild staff from the chaos.
Shakti exhaled sharply, relief barely flickering in her chest when her eyes caught movement.