Just as Loki and Hermes had expected.
They had waited through the day, but by evening, the Guild couldn't hold back any longer and sent someone to summon them.
Before long, they were brought into the prayer room.
"Ouranos, what is it you want from us this time?"
Loki made no effort to play nice, immediately feigning ignorance and acting like she had no idea what was going on—clearly trying to distance herself from the issue.
Ouranos, fully aware she was doing it on purpose, didn't bother with pleasantries.
"Loki, this is what you promised. The Xenos are in trouble."
"..."
Loki's mouth twitched. This old bastard was even more shameless than she was.
"Fine. Let's hear what kind of trouble the Xenos are in first."
"Fels, explain the situation."
Ouranos didn't bat an eye and handed the matter directly over to Fels.
Receiving the task, Fels glanced at Loki and paused for a few seconds before speaking.
"The Xenos trying to survive in the Dungeon have recently been targeted and hunted by supporters of the Evilus."
"Several members of the Xenos have already been captured, though we still don't know the full situation. However, it's clear that both the Evilus and their supporters are occupying the same hidden area deep within the Dungeon. That's what makes this so serious."
"If we try to take out those supporter groups, we may also end up having to fight the Evilus directly."
"Worse yet, we currently have no way of pinpointing their exact location within the Dungeon."
Even just this much information was enough to give Ganesha a headache.
"We've known there's a hidden Evilus base somewhere in the Dungeon. We've guessed at its location and searched for it before, but even now we haven't been able to find it."
Ganesha pointedly reminded Fels of this.
He didn't like those Evilus supporters who were targeting the Xenos, and he also hoped to resolve the safety concerns for the Xenos in the Dungeon. But wasn't the biggest problem, as always, the fact that they had no idea where the base was?
"That's exactly it. Without a clear location, it's nearly impossible to organize an effective pursuit. But... Hestia's Familia has a way. They can track them."
Ganesha's eyes lit up—so the key to resolving this really lay with Hestia.
Thinking it over, he realized neither the Guild nor their own forces were well-equipped to handle this.
Not because they lacked power, but because their enemies were simply too good at hiding. They had no reliable way to locate them.
If they had, those enemies lurking in the Dungeon would've been taken care of long ago.
"Wait, Hestia's child... isn't he usually extremely cautious?"
Ganesha couldn't quite bring himself to say the child was "reckless," so he settled on calling him "cautious" instead.
But the implication was clear.
That child had always been the careful type—so why had he suddenly rushed into the spotlight?
Fels fell silent for a few seconds before replying.
"The Xenos initially sought out Hestia's Familia."
"!?"
Ganesha's eyes widened in shock. That was clearly not the answer he was expecting.
Fels, not wanting to linger on the topic, quickly shifted the conversation.
"Ganesha-sama, what we need to address now is how to completely clear out the facility once we've locked down its location."
"Clear it out entirely?"
"Yes. According to our investigation, the group is descended from Daedalus. The Guild has already confirmed their identities. Their leader is Dix Perdix, the captain of the Ikelos Familia. That Familia has close ties with Evilus, and they've also been involved in human trafficking alongside the Ishtar Familia."
"Ishtar again?"
Lately, Ganesha had started to feel that Ishtar really lived up to her reputation as the social butterfly of the gods—every shady affair somehow seemed to lead back to her.
"Yes. According to our investigation, the underground caverns used by the Ishtar Familia may not have been newly excavated. They might have existed long before."
"Don't tell me... Daedalus built those too?"
Ganesha's eyes went wide, shocked at the possibility that Daedalus had been involved even in that.
Fels nodded slightly, a trace of regret in his expression.
"A thousand years ago, Daedalus was praised for designing and building Orario and the Tower of Babel. In recognition of his work, Ouranos granted him one request. Daedalus used that opportunity to take the full construction blueprints of Orario. We now suspect he included hidden features—something meant for his descendants."
"He... had some guts, that's for sure."
Even Ganesha had to admit he was stunned. To pull off such a scheme under the nose of a god, as a member of Ouranos's Familia no less—it was insane.
Then it suddenly clicked for Ganesha.
"Fels, you're not suggesting that Daedalus's descendants built a massive hidden space in the Dungeon and handed it over to Evilus, are you?"
"Yes. Based on the intel we have, that seems to be exactly the case."
"Daedalus, that guy... really had guts."
At this point, Ganesha was speechless. Daedalus's outrageous actions left even a god stunned.
In all his years, he had never seen a child of Genkai act this boldly.
Deceiving Ouranos right under his gaze, tampering with Orario's construction, and extending those modifications into the Dungeon itself.
Now Ganesha finally understood why their people had never been able to locate Evilus's base in the Dungeon all these years—it was genuinely impossible to find.
If the Dungeon's structure had been altered in a way similar to the Tower of Babel, then trying to locate anything with conventional methods was futile.
Daedalus truly lived up to his name as a master builder—not only daring to dream, but daring to act on it.
Ganesha didn't even think he could provoke Ouranos so brazenly. Did Daedalus really believe Ouranos wouldn't get angry?
"So then, what do we do about Ikelos this time?"
The situation in the Dungeon clearly had to be dealt with—but what about Ikelos, the Familia God at the center of it all?
At that moment, Hermes raised his hand.
"If it's him we're dealing with, I think I might have just the solution."
...
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