The sound of pounding boots filled the air.
Just as Alise and the others were at their wits' end, reinforcements arrived.
The Ganesha Familia military police, who had been lying in wait nearby, surged out from every direction the instant the riot erupted.
"Alise, what's the situation?"
Shakti Varma, captain of the Ganesha Familia, cut through the chaotic crowd and reached Alise in moments. Her voice was steady, but threaded with urgency.
"..."
By now, Alise understood perfectly well why the crowd had been agitating itself in waves. The instigators stirring up the panic had hidden themselves deep, and she hadn't been able to root them out at all.
The thought that her own inadequacy had caused this...
"Hey, Alise!"
Shakti caught the shift in her mood instantly. Her brow knit and her voice sharpened.
"Pull yourself together. Now isn't the time for self-reflection!"
"Sorry, Shakti. You must think I'm a joke."
Alise drew a deep breath, forced down the churning emotions, and rapidly laid out everything that had happened, the strange behavior of the crowd, the explosions, the whole sequence.
When she finished, Shakti's eyes turned hawk-sharp.
"Valletta..."
"Only she would come up with a scheme this vicious."
Just then, Lyra came running up, her face dark and her teeth grinding.
"We checked the explosion sites. Not a single trace of anyone! Damn it, the Braver's setup... it fell flat!"
Beside her, Kaguya narrowed her eyes and let out a soft, unreadable laugh.
"It was an obvious bait, and a poisoned one at that. If the enemy had actually shown up, I'd have had to give them more credit."
"Evilus hasn't appeared, but the chaos in front of us is far from optimistic!"
Shakti's gaze swept the edges of the square, where she could already see signs of pushing, shoving, even the start of a stampede.
She turned at once and barked an iron-clad order at her members.
"Now is the time to prove what the Ganesha Familia is made of!"
"Whatever it takes, suppress this chaos immediately!"
"If anyone resists or picks a fight, I give you permission to use your fists to cool their overheated heads!"
Shakti's words ignited the spirits of the military police. Every one of them straightened with their chests thrust out and answered loudly.
"Yes, Captain!"
Hearing their reply, she swept her arm out.
"Move out!"
The next second, those Ganesha military police, every one of them at least Lv. 2, charged into the square.
...
"So they had ambushers planted around the area!"
Leon watched the police force, fierce as wolves and tigers, plowing forward with their fists, and clicked his tongue in sudden understanding.
"I was just wondering, the square was packed tight as sardines, and apart from Astraea's girls, there were only a handful of stray-cat military police wandering around uselessly..."
"With at least tens of thousands of civilians gathered here, what good would that scattering of police do?"
"Damn, so the main force was hidden in the outer ring all along. They were setting up to trap Evilus, a counter-encirclement..."
Hearing his analysis, the women caught on instantly.
"The plan is nearly perfect. A textbook open stratagem," someone murmured.
"Using civilians as bait, gambling that you wouldn't dare not show up."
Kureha's gaze sharpened, her expression grave.
"So... what we're seeing now is that Evilus's commander, Valletta, didn't have the guts to accept Finn's straight-up invitation. Is that right?"
Jeanne answered in Leon's place, her voice cold as ice.
"Finn laid this out specifically to tell Valletta: it's a trap, but the bait is the blood you crave most, along with the beautiful death cries of countless lives wilting away at once, the very thing you love best..."
"If you've got the guts, come and take it!"
"..."
After hearing her words, everyone fell silent.
Only Rose furrowed her delicate brow and voiced the question that had been circling in her mind.
"That's exactly what's confusing me."
"If Valletta isn't taking the bait, what is Evilus actually trying to accomplish here? If it's just to tie up the Order Faction's main forces and provide cover for their real operation, then..."
"Where is the bulk of Evilus's forces right now? What are they doing? What's their objective?"
Three questions in a row, and the group's expressions turned solemn.
All except Leon.
A piercing peal of bells tore through the silence, sweeping down from the high ground at the city's northern edge.
"?"
The continuous tolling didn't draw much reaction from the others, but Leon's expression shifted slightly.
He whipped his head toward the far north, his brow knotting tight.
Jeanne caught his change instantly. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and pressed urgently.
"Leon, you know what this is about, don't you?"
Before he could open his mouth to explain, Demeter came hurrying over, escorted closely by Persephone, her forehead beaded with sweat from the run.
The hard sprint had left her winded, but she didn't even pause to catch her breath before bursting out:
"Leon! It's the Loki Familia! Their headquarters... they're under attack!"
"...Huh?!"
Leon was momentarily stunned.
Jeanne and the others took a beat longer to process the earthshaking news, every one of them staring with their mouths agape.
Leon's eyes dropped briefly to the curves heaving with Demeter's hard breathing, then snapped back to her face. His voice came out incredulous.
"Demeter, you... you're not joking, right?! Attacking the Loki Familia headquarters? How is that any different from suicide?! Has Valletta... lost her mind?!"
It wasn't just Leon. Even Laurier and Aura, the two younger girls, were left wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
A series of distant explosions rolled in from the north.
Evilus had moved with terrifying speed. Mere minutes after they'd manufactured panic here, the assault on the Loki Familia had already begun.
Listening to the distant blasts, Demeter drew a deep breath, steadied her ragged breathing, and forced her voice to stay calm.
"Leon, you all should go..."
But before she could finish, Persephone raised a hand and cut her off.
"Demeter, your safety is what matters most right now. As your guards, protecting you is our sole task. Anything else falls outside our duties."
"..."
Though Demeter had been cut off mid-sentence, everyone present understood what she'd been about to say.
Seeing Persephone's stern expression and her tone that brooked no argument, Demeter closed her eyes.
"In that case, stay on alert in the area. Until the Ganesha Familia has the riot under control, we absolutely cannot let anything else go wrong here."
Watching the goddess regain her composure, Leon felt a flicker of surprise.
Was she worried this Evilus operation was a trap within a trap? First a feint to draw attention east while striking west, using mass chaos to pull the Order Faction's troops here so they couldn't monitor the enemy's real movements.
Then the hidden maneuver, an ambush on the Loki Familia headquarters, forcing them to sound the alarm and pulling whatever reinforcements were left in that direction.
What if... the strike on the Loki Familia wasn't the hidden maneuver, but the obvious one?
Then what was the real hidden play?
Layers of feints stacked on each other.
So... what was Evilus's true target?
"Hahaha!"
"You worthless Braver, you fell for it, didn't you?"
"You think I, Valletta, am some kind of idiot? Toss out a little bait and I'll come charging straight into your trap?"
"Too naive!"
"Have you been killing monsters in the Dungeon for so long that your brain rotted?"
In the same moment that a fleeting thought flashed through Leon's mind...
A wild, arrogant burst of laughter rolled across the square from the rooftop of a building on the opposite side, reaching every ear.
"My subordinates! All these delicious souls right in front of you, and that idiot Brave has been led around in circles by my diversion, doesn't even know where he is. So what are you waiting for?"
"Death!"
"Death!"
"Death!"
Madness, fanaticism, malice, the air of frenzy and chaos erupted from one corner of the square and shot skyward.
Like wildfire across a dry plain, in mere moments it had blanketed the entire sky.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Grant them death and salvation!"
"Grant them death and salvation!"
"Grant them death and salvation!"
The fervent response of the masses, the twisted faith, the frenzied will, the deranged words, all three fused into one.
A wet chorus of impacts rang out, blade after blade biting into flesh.
A scream tore through the air.
In the blink of an eye, the square ran with rivers of blood.
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