Chapter 344

Chapter 344: Chapter 344

"Ahhh..."

Inside a luxurious room, a high, breathless cry finally faded into silence.

Freya sank bonelessly into the sofa, her cheeks still flushed as she gazed through the window at the distant figure on Folkvangr.

Satisfaction softened her beautiful features, while a faint mist shimmered in her eyes.

"That radiance... it really does keep getting brighter."

The Goddess of Beauty watched Kiriya with undisguised fascination.

Yet when her gaze shifted toward Esdeath and Hestia standing beside him, emotions she herself had barely noticed began creeping into her expression—jealousy, envy, reluctance, and eventually a trace of wounded grievance.

It really wasn’t fair.

She was supposed to be the most beautiful woman of them all, yet she was the one forced to worry about appearances and timing.

She couldn’t even openly go on a date with the man she loved without using another identity and waiting for her turn!

’When will I finally be able to stand beside you openly and share your affection without hiding?’

Freya sighed inwardly before shaking the thought away.

Dwelling on it now would only make herself miserable.

She would be far better off deciding what to wear on tomorrow’s date.

With that, Freya rose and walked toward her enormous wardrobe, immediately becoming absorbed in choosing an outfit.

As for Ottar...

He was still alive, wasn’t he?

It was only a serious injury.

A couple of days of rest would be enough!

Knowing him, he probably thought the beating had been worth it anyway.

...

The Hestia Familia became the center of attention once again.

The reason was simple: Captain Kiriya and the newly joined Esdeath had effectively challenged the Freya Familia all over again.

This time, Esdeath had done most of the work.

The newcomer had fought her way through almost every significant combatant in the Freya Familia and defeated everyone except their captain, Ottar, while Kiriya himself had taken care of the King.

Even more astonishingly, Kiriya had handled the battle with far greater ease than before, clearly demonstrating just how rapidly his strength continued to grow.

At first, many people assumed the story was nothing more than drunken exaggeration from some loudmouth.

Quite a few of Kiriya’s admirers even went directly to the Freya Familia and asked them to publicly deny the rumors.

The Freya Familia desperately wanted to.

Unfortunately, they were far too proud to lie about losing.

Besides, Kiriya had started showing up every few days with Esdeath to spar against them anyway, so denying it would have been pointless.

Worse, if Kiriya heard that they were trying to pretend the whole thing had never happened and suddenly decided to drag them into another War Game for fun, the humiliation would be even worse.

Naturally, every curious visitor was turned away at the door.

Anyone foolish enough to keep pestering them for details was liable to receive a personal demonstration of just how angry the Freya Familia currently was.

They never officially admitted anything.

Which, in practice, was practically an admission of everything.

Orario exploded with gossip.

Countless idle people—especially gods with far too much free time—began gathering outside Hearthstone Manor purely for a chance to catch a glimpse of the now-famous Ice Queen.

Because despite Kiriya’s involvement, the person who had drawn the most attention from the entire incident was undoubtedly Esdeath.

A completely unknown female adventurer had appeared out of nowhere and, on what was essentially her debut, fought through nearly all of the Freya Familia’s elite combat forces.

Hedin, Hogni, Allen, and other veteran first-class adventurers had all fallen before her.

The impact on the city was enormous.

Some quick-thinking god had already given her a title: Ice Queen.

It suited both Esdeath’s abilities and temperament perfectly—beautiful, commanding, and intimidating.

Esdeath herself rather liked it.

She had originally planned to find Ryuu and show off a little, only to discover that the elf had gone to update her Status with Astraea.

With no one suitable to brag to, Esdeath had no choice but to suppress the urge for the moment.

Hestia, meanwhile, was absolutely delighted.

Over the past few days, she had been drowning in the envy and jealousy of other gods.

Her Familia was now widely acknowledged as the genuine strongest Familia in Orario, while Kiriya himself had become known as the adventurer most likely to become a true hero in the last thousand years.

At this point, Hestia was so proud her nose practically pointed toward the sky.

Jeanne alone remained almost completely unaffected by the commotion.

She continued living her peaceful little life, eating when she wanted, drinking when she wanted, and occasionally wandering through Orario’s busy streets with all the quiet curiosity of a country girl visiting a great city for the first time.

Kiriya’s own days were equally full.

He went on dates with Syr, accompanied the girls at home while they shopped, and whenever his hands started itching for a fight, he would head over and spar with Ottar.

He was having a wonderful time.

Naturally, when some people were happy, others inevitably suffered.

The Freya Familia was one obvious example.

After being repeatedly subjected to the combined torment of Kiriya and Esdeath, they accumulated so much pent-up frustration that they eventually organized an expedition and disappeared into the Dungeon simply to get away.

Another unhappy group consisted of Dionysus and his associates.

To most Familias and gods, Dionysus appeared to be a gentle, refined deity with a kind temperament.

In truth, beneath that pleasant exterior was a god who adored chaos, destruction, fear, and despair.

Even back in Heaven, Dionysus had frequently created conflicts between gods, manipulating rivalries until hostility turned into outright hatred and violence.

Unfortunately for him, gods were fundamentally immortal.

Even if one somehow killed themselves, they would eventually return after enough time had passed.

The interval might stretch across thousands of years, but to an eternal deity, that was little more than a long sleep.

As a result, two gods might be trying to destroy one another one moment and casually reconcile the next.

The endless hatred and chaos Dionysus desired simply could not take root.

Then, three thousand years ago, the Dungeon appeared.

For the first time, the Lower World was plunged into unprecedented catastrophe and disorder.

The despair and screams of mortals tasted to Dionysus like the richest wine imaginable, and the more he witnessed, the more intoxicated he became.

Unfortunately, Ouranos eventually put an end to that age.

The great god not only granted mortals Falna but also helped seal the Dungeon beneath the earth, allowing civilization to recover and peace to return.

Dionysus had hated him ever since.

He had always wanted to undo everything Ouranos had accomplished, yet for centuries he lacked the opportunity.

Then, fifteen years ago, the Hera and Zeus Familias collapsed.

At last, Dionysus saw an opening.

That was when he began planning the destruction of Orario.

After years of maneuvering, six years ago he discovered the Corrupted Spirit clones secretly operating within the Dungeon.

He formed an alliance with them and finally began putting his plan into action.

There could not be the slightest mistake.

To protect the secret, Dionysus even used wine of his own creation to hypnotize himself.

By deceiving his own conscious mind, he ensured that other gods would be unable to detect falsehood in his words.

For the most part, everything had proceeded smoothly.

By now, the Corrupted Spirit clones had fully matured, while the main Corrupted Spirit had accumulated sufficient power to transform the deeper floors of the Dungeon into something resembling a demon realm.

All the necessary conditions were finally in place.

Once the Sixfold Spirit Ring was completed and the legendary pillar of heavenly light summoned, the resulting destruction would be enough to erase Orario from the map entirely.

The Loki Familia.

The Freya Familia.

The so-called twin kings of Orario.

Finn the Braver.

Ottar the King.

Ais the Sword Princess.

Every current champion and every promising future hero would disappear together.

That was how things should have gone.

Then Kiriya appeared.

His sudden rise completely destabilized Dionysus’s calculations for one very simple reason.

He was far too strong.

Judging only from the battles Kiriya had already revealed publicly, his full combat power was at least comparable to a high-level Level 8.

Dionysus even suspected that those performances were nowhere near the true limit of what the boy could do.

Of course, no matter how powerful Kiriya became, Dionysus remained confident that he could not withstand the full destructive power of the Sixfold Spirit Ring.

The problem was something else.

Kiriya possessed spatial Magic.

That meant he could simply take the people closest to him and escape Orario before destruction fell.

And if the Sixfold Spirit Ring, after a millennium of preparation and more than a decade of careful accumulation, failed to kill the most promising hero of this generation, Dionysus would consider the entire plan a failure.

Fortunately, he had anticipated the worst possible outcome.

On the floor where the Sixfold Spirit Ring would ultimately be activated, Dionysus had already prepared a few surprises.

Used properly, they should be enough to bury Kiriya permanently inside the Dungeon.

Better yet, Dionysus wanted the humans and gods above to witness it.

Let them watch every promising hero fall.

Let them watch hope itself be crushed.

The terror and despair created by such a scene would be the finest vintage imaginable, perhaps even worthy of comparison with the wine Dionysus brewed with his own hands.

"Excellent."

A mysterious smile appeared on the god’s face as he slowly disappeared into the darkness.

"Miraculous boy... let me see whether you can survive this trial."