Chapter 76

Finn

With their camp packed away and their defensive perimeter dismantled, the vanguard stood locked in a rigid shield wall, weapons ready, eyes straining at the entrance.

They were prepared for a monster attack while they waited for the mysterious escort Ouranos promised, but the waiting wore on them worse than any fight. The Dungeon had been acting aggressively for a month, and it had frayed the party's nerves to the breaking point. Finn could hear it behind him, in the shuffle of boots and the creak of leather every time someone adjusted a grip they had already adjusted.

That's when a cheerful voice severed the heavy tension.

"Hey! What are you all doing, staring at the entrance like that?"

It didn't come from the darkness ahead. It came from directly behind them, right in the dead center of their supposedly secure formation.

Finn whipped around, his spear coming up before he even processed the sound.

Standing casually near the stacked supply crates was Loki.

For a disorienting second, he was sure the Dungeon had found a new way to attack his mind.

His Goddess stood there in traveling clothes, her hands buried deep in her pockets, looking at them as though she just strolled into the manor's dining room. It was exactly what the Dungeon would show him if it wanted him to lower his spear.

Every part of him wanted to lower it, but Finn quickly centered himself and heightened his senses for a detailed assessment.

An illusion could borrow a face. Unless this was a new type of monster which was proficient in mental attacks, he was sure it could not borrow the lazy slits of her eyes or the grin she wore whenever she played her pranks. Every detail he could find matched

Except one. All of them knew the divine pressure Loki carried, and standing a few paces from her now, he felt nothing. That should have strengthened his suspicion, but the Dungeon stayed silent around her, and a trick this elaborate made no sense from the Dungeon that had a month of easier chances to kill them. Which only meant she was hiding behind some artifact.

How she appeared out of nowhere was another question entirely, but it could wait.

Finn's chest loosened. A month of worry came off his shoulders in a single breath, and the relief was so sudden it almost hurt. She is safe and well.

The thought barely formed when his thumb twitched.

It was faint, a single prickle beneath the skin, but it was enough to still the warmth spreading through his chest. Why is my thumb stirring at the sight of my Goddess?

He took her in again. Exhaustion carved lines around her eyes that her easy posture didn't quite hide. And the question he set aside came back to him. The vanguard watched the only approach the entire time, and nobody came through it. So how did she end up behind them?

The answer should have come to him the instant he turned, and it stung that it didn't. The voice that called out to them belonged to a young man, not Loki. Someone else stood inside their perimeter, close enough to speak, and not one of his sentries saw him.

The prickle sharpened, and his eyes moved past Loki.

That's when he registered the young man standing beside her.

A blue-haired stranger in casual adventurer's gear offered the stunned Familia a relaxed smirk. A blue ooze sat perched on his shoulder, observing the vanguard with mild curiosity.

The moment Finn's eyes settled on him, his thumb shrieked.

The pulse spiked with such violence that Finn staggered. The digit felt as heavy as lead, dragging his arm down with the weight of a death sentence, and he drove his spear into the sand just to keep his knees from buckling. His breath went shallow. He knew this dread. He felt it only a handful of times in his life, the last in the shadow of the Balor, moments before its final strike nearly tore Gareth in half.

The stranger did not carry himself like a supporter or a rescuer. A dense gravity radiated from him, and the air around the crates felt thin and brittle, as though anything that stood too close might simply stop existing.

An Irregular, every instinct in his body told him. A monster wearing a human shape.

Finn tightened his grip on his spear and made himself breathe. Panic would help no one here, and his instincts, for all their accuracy, were not the only thing he had to work with.

The two of them arrived together. He was so fixed on how Loki got behind them that he nearly missed the obvious. Whatever brought his Goddess 36 floors below the surface brought this boy with her, and she stood beside him without a trace of fear. Ouranos promised an escort. This could be him.

But Finn didn't know his face, and he knew every adventurer of that caliber in the city. A month away was not long enough for the Guild to find someone who radiated pressure like this, let alone send him down here as a courier. The weight of his presence alone put the boy at a solid Level 5, perhaps higher. Until Finn knew more, he would treat him as a stranger standing inside his lines.

And those lines were facing the wrong way. The formation was built to meet a threat from the entrance, with the shield wall in front and the backline behind it. Loki and the stranger stood exactly where the backline was, among the mages, the most exposed members of his expedition and the slowest to answer a threat at close range.

His eyes went to Riveria, who was already making adjustments. The high elf made the mages step back from the crates in twos and threes, spreading them out of front lines while she placed herself between them and the man, staff held low and ready.

Finn's chest eased a bit at that. With the backline in Riveria's hands, he could afford to do the harder thing. He straightened, lowered his spear to his side, and drew a breath to greet his Goddess and take the measure of the helper she brought with her.

A gale of wind beat him to it.

Ais didn't wait for a command. She felt the same crushing weight that staggered Finn, and she answered it on protective reflex. Her blade left its sheath with a metallic shriek as her boots tore up the sand. Driven by the furious winds of Ariel, the little Princess became a blur of pale hair and silver steel, charging straight at the stranger's neck with all of her Level 4 speed.

She cannot win this.

The realization hit Finn with certainty. Knowing his own hesitation might result in a fatal outcome, Finn launched himself forward to intercept the girl before she reached the boy, his commanding voice cutting through the night sands with panic.

"Ais, fall back!"

But Ais, wreathed in a roaring tempest of wind, was already crossing the final stretch.

-◈ -

Max

He expected a rough welcome. Dropping into the center of an exhausted expedition camp meant dealing with raised weapons, shouting, or an interrogation from the Braver.

A blonde missile launching herself at his throat before he could say hello sat right at the top of his predictions. Seeing her do exactly that still made him shake his head.

Watching the girl blur across the sand, Max turned his head and shot a smirk at the Goddess beside him.

"Didn't I tell you?" he began over the rushing wind.

"If this isn't suicidal behavior, what is?" he continued, gesturing toward the incoming steel.

Loki winced as she watched Ais cross the sand at Level 4 speed.

"Alright, alright, you made your point," Loki muttered, resigning herself to the reality in front of her. "Now stop this child before she embarrasses herself."

Max flashed a grin. "I appreciate your cooperation."

He called upon his protector.

"Kairu."

The slime resting on his shoulder reacted instantly. With a wet squelch, Kairu launched forward. Mid-air, the familiar expanded, shifting from a compact blob into a wall of blue jelly directly in the path of the strike.

Max anticipated a clash akin to an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object. The reality proved anticlimactic.

THUD-SQUISH.

As Ais struck the slime dead center, her momentum vanished. The tempest of Ariel screamed against Kairu's surface, only to sputter and die as the gelatinous body absorbed the magical and kinetic energy. Without a ringing clash of steel, her rapier sank harmlessly into the mass, the thick gel catching the blade with zero damage.

For a second, Ais hung suspended in the air, her eyes widening with confusion as her strongest thrust died in a puddle.

Then, Kairu flexed his core.

Pushing back with elastic force, the slime bounced Ais off his mass. Stripped of her forward momentum, she tumbled backward through the air with her balance shattered.

Max grinned at his familiar's defense, but a sudden spike of magic flaring from the defensive line cut his praise short.

Finn, already lunging to intervene, caught the falling girl out of the air and slid backward across the sand to absorb the force. A green blur shot past them both. Closing the gap in a heartbeat, Riveria stepped forward in retaliation and swung her staff into Kairu's wall, churning the sand beneath her boots as the air hummed with hostility.

Before Riveria could chant a spell and escalate the standoff, a familiar voice cut across the sand.

"Alright, settle down, all of you!" Loki yelled, stepping past Max with her hands tucked in her pockets. "Put the stick away, Riveria. We're just here to give you a ride home."

-◈ -

Loki

Seeing her children standing alive in front of her made her throat close up.

She wanted nothing more than to pull them into a hug, to reassure herself they were actually safe. But she held back. Showing vulnerability would undoubtedly trigger Finn's paranoia, and she knew the pallum would interrogate her until he dug up the disaster waiting for them on the surface.

Needing a distraction to deflect the tension, she seized the opportunity Ais provided. Looking past the raised weapons of the vanguard, Loki found Finn keeping a grip on Ais while the girl stared at the slime with wide eyes. To Loki, she looked confused, resembling a child failing to understand why her toy had broken against a puddle of jelly. Ais had likely sensed a threat and reacted on instinct, only to get swatted away.

Tucking her hands into her pockets, Loki crossed the sand toward them.

"Alright, settle down, all of you!" she called out, projecting her authority across the sand. "Put the stick away, Riveria. We're just here to give you a ride home."

Not stopping until she reached her vanguard, Loki pulled a hand free to pinch Ais's cheek, stretching the skin playfully.

"You can't just go swinging at the rescue party, Ais-tan," Loki teased. Treating the fighter like a sulking child was a tactic designed to ground the room.

It worked as Ais blinked and rubbed her cheek, the hostility bleeding out of her posture as she surrendered to her Goddess's nonsense.

Satisfied, Loki turned back to the front. Finn hadn't lowered his spear. His eyes darted toward the ceiling, and Loki guessed exactly what he was looking for—the inevitable monster spawns that accompanied a deity stepping into the labyrinth.

"Loki," Finn warned, his voice tight. "What are you doing down here? The Dungeon—"

"It will be fine," Loki interrupted, pointing to the sheen covering her skin. "His familiar layered me in a masking gel, so the Dungeon doesn't even know I'm here. Gather the camp, Finn. We will handle the debrief on the surface."

Finn's gaze moved past her. Loki watched his eyes narrow, and she could almost see him weighing her command against the pressure radiating from the boy behind her. Whatever conclusion he reached, it prompted him to finally ground his spear into the sand.

That sound acted as a release valve. Weapons slid into sheaths and shields dropped, the posture of 90 adventurers slumping as a month of adrenaline crashed all at once.

In the silence that followed, Loki finally closely observed them.

Finn was thinner than when he left. Dust clung to his hair, and his eyes held the sharpness they only carried after too many nights of too little sleep. Gareth leaned on his axe harder than he wanted anyone to notice, and fine cracks ran across the plates of his armor. Riveria's hair had lost its shine under a month of grime, and the shadows beneath her eyes were deep enough that even her composure couldn't hide them. Behind them, Loki caught the flash of fresh bandages on more arms than she liked.

They were worn down to the bone. But they were here, all of them, breathing.

Ais didn't move from Finn's side. Her cheek was still pink from the pinch, but she wasn't rubbing it anymore. She was glaring past Loki's shoulder with a sulky intensity Loki rarely saw on that blank little face.

Loki followed the look and blinked.

Max was no longer beside her. At some point, while she was busy watching her executives, he had wandered off to the middle of the clearing and started pacing a slow line through the sand, drawing the edge of his circle with his heel. The slime rode on his shoulder, jiggling contentedly with every step, entirely unbothered by the daggers Ais was staring into him.

Loki bit back a smile. The brat was taking his sweet time on purpose. He was giving her room to speak with her commanders.

She didn't waste it. Finn, Riveria and Gareth had already drawn in close, and without a word, the four of them fell into the huddle.

"Loki. What happened?" Finn asked, pitching his voice low. "How did you appear here out of nowhere?"

A shadow crossed her face as she swallowed the truth of Twilight Manor. "We arrived using teleportation."

Riveria's eyes widened. "Teleportation?" the elf repeated, her composure cracking as if the concept had short-circuited her logic.

Loki nodded, her mood lifting at the sight of that rare shock. "Yeah. The stuff of myths. That kid holds the magic, and he is our ticket up."

Recognizing the tactical questions forming in Finn's eyes, she raised a hand to cut him off.

"Leave the surface alone for now," she ordered. "What happened to you? Why the delay? You should have breached the upper floors days ago."

Before Finn could formulate a summary, Gareth grunted. The dwarf shifted his weight against his axe, and the cracks in his armor caught the light.

"Balor," Gareth rumbled, his drawl thick with exhaustion. "The beast caught us on the descent. Took a nasty bite outta my flank. We had to hunker down and lick our wounds afore we could push back up."

Loki stared at the dwarf as the breath left her lungs.

Her eyes went back to those cracks and stayed there. A Monster Rex had nearly crippled her defender, and she hadn't felt a thing. Consumed entirely by the shadow war on the surface, she had lost sight of the lethality lurking below. Guilt flared in her chest, sharp enough that she had to look away from him to keep it off her face.

But Finn wasn't done.

"Fine," Finn murmured as if accepting her refusal to speak about the surface and continued. "Then tell me about him. What is he? What Level is he? Is he one of our newest members? What else can he do? And did you say that slime was his familiar?"

Riveria stepped closer, her tone clinical but urgent. "Loki, that creature is not only stronger than Ais, but faster. And it wasn't just raw strength that stopped her charge. It felt more akin to an ooze's innate ability to bounce off physical attacks."

Gareth nodded in agreement. "Aye. When the little beast moved, I felt the aura and intent of a first-class adventurer."

Loki stared at her executives, speechless at their assessment. Across the sand, the subject of it bobbed happily on Max's shoulder, looking about as dangerous as a dessert. She understood this Kairu was an ooze and Max’s companion, but didn't expect it to possess that kind of speed or intent. But a first-class aura? That made her suspect if the creature actually possessed a Falna, a theory she couldn't confirm since she couldn't exactly interview a puddle of jelly.

Lacking answers to half their questions, she quietly shared what she knew.

"His name is Maximus and he came into the city just after you left for the expedition," Loki answered, keeping her voice down. "From what I know, he is a human. Why do you ask what he is, Finn?"

Finn remained silent, his eyes locked on the boy pacing his circle.

Loki let the silence sit a moment longer than was comfortable. Finn never went quiet without a reason.

"He is a Level 4," Loki continued, bracing herself for the inevitable fallout. She grimaced, mumbling the final part. "And he is a member of the Freya Familia."

Nobody spoke. But Loki easily noticed the changes in them. Gareth's grip shifted on his axe. Riveria's lips parted and closed again without a sound. Finn finally tore his eyes away from Max to look at her, and for once, the Braver seemed to have no idea what to say.

Before the executives could process the absurdity of her statement, their window of privacy expired.

A clap echoed across the oasis.

She turned to see Max at the edge of his completed boundary. He looked directly at Loki, raising an eyebrow as if to confirm everything was ready.

Loki turned to Finn. The pallum shook off the revelation, scanning the packed crates and his resting personnel. He took a moment to verify the camp was secure before giving Loki a curt nod.

"Alright, everyone stay inside the circle," Max instructed. He gestured to the boundary he mapped out, providing space for the adventurers and their loot. "Keep your arms inside the perimeter," he continued, pacing the edge of the formation. "Do not panic when the light flashes, and use the bags if you feel the urge to throw up."

Loki watched Max distribute paper bags to her veterans. She had no idea where he sourced them, but knowing the nausea his jumps triggered, she figured it was a practical choice.

Once he confirmed every member stood safely within the boundary, Max stepped to the center.

A crimson circle flared to life beneath their boots, more than wide enough to accommodate everyone and everything in it.

A heartbeat later, the light flashed, and the Loki Familia vanished from the dungeon after a month of gruelling expedition.

-◈ -

Riveria

She watched the crimson circle bloom beneath her boots, her emerald eyes tracking the flow of mind. Translocating nearly ninety adventurers across thirty-six floors defied every established rule of magic. Using the toll of her own ultimate spells as a baseline, she theorized the Mind cost for a spatial jump of this magnitude would be catastrophic. By her estimation, the matrix should demand the sacrifice of a high-tier monster stone just to bridge the gap. She had even braced herself to share her own reserves to fuel the spell and keep the man from collapsing.

But Maximus never asked.

The spell functioned with a terrifying simplicity. Riveria rationalized the anomaly by assuming a mother-circle waited at their destination, maintained by a choir of their mages at Twilight Manor. She committed the circle to memory, intending to dissect the theory later.

A heartbeat later, the oasis vanished.

The magic materialized them in sequence, solidifying their bodies from the boots upward. As the light faded, Riveria felt her stomach heave. The spatial jump wrecked her equilibrium. Channeling a trace of Mind, she cast a quick healing spell, settling her nausea. A glance revealed pale faces and groans spreading across the party. Adjusting her output, she expanded the restorative magic over the expedition, soothing the worst of their sickness.

With her focus restored, Riveria scanned the courtyard for the anchor team. She found nothing. No etched ritual circles, no sacrificial altar with a fading magic stone, and no exhausted mages recovering. Aside from the welcoming party, the courtyard was empty. She narrowed her eyes at the human as this meant there was no external support; he supplied the mind needed for the translocation on his own.

To survive a Mind cost of that scale without falling into a coma left only one logical conclusion. He had to possess an unnaturally deep mind pool, amplified by the Mage development ability, alongside some rare Skill designed to slash the costs of spatial magic. It was the only way magical math should work. The other possibilities of a single Level 4 wielding that kind of unchecked logistical power introduced a very dangerous variable into the city's political balance.

Pushing the thought aside, she analyzed the ground she was on.

Sandy tiles.

Twilight Manor used polished granite. The discrepancy registered instantly. Riveria looked up, coming face-to-face with the sculpted back of an elephant statue. She knew exactly where they were standing.

"I AM GANESHA!"

The booming voice of the God of the Masses rattled the courtyard.

"Welcome back, warriors of Loki!"

Riveria tracked the welcoming party. Lord Ganesha struck a pose near the statue. Captain Shakti stood beside him, maintaining a professional distance. A little apart from them, to Riveria's surprise, stood Goddess Astraea. And to the side Noir waited.

Riveria’s mind raced, processing the variables of their landing zone. Why bypass their own home to arrive at a neutral stronghold?

Her first theory was tactical concealment. Loki wanted to keep this teleportation network a secret, and arriving inside the Ganesha compound provided credible cover. But she discarded the excuse a second later. The adventurers stationed in Rivira would notice the Loki vanguard never marched through the 18th floor. Bypassing the town meant they had a physical reason they couldn't return to their own territory.

Her knuckles tightened around her staff. She reached out, placing a hand on Ais's shoulder and pulling the girl a half-step closer.

She glanced at her fellow executives. Finn’s jaw was tight and Gareth’s grip on his axe shifted. They reached the exact same conclusion. Add the fact that they just relied on a Freya Familia member for extraction, and the implications spelled political disaster.

Hoping to gauge the physical cost of the spell, Riveria checked the human mage again. She expected the delayed onset of Mind Down to finally stagger him.

Instead, the human looked fine. He stood near the edge of the courtyard, politely enduring Lord Ganesha, who was introducing him to Goddess Astraea.

"Behold, the Primordial Dragonslayer!" Ganesha bellowed.

Riveria shelved the alias. She lacked the mental power to unpack a Level 4 given a title like that.

Before the courtyard could devolve into a chaotic reunion, Noir approached the huddle. The old veteran stopped in front of them and looked at each of their faces in turn, as if counting them. His shoulders dropped with a breath he seemed to have been holding for a long time.

"Welcome back, everyone. I'm glad to see you all safe," he said, his voice rougher and more grateful than Riveria felt the situation warranted. And something behind his eyes didn't match the words. "I have prepared a private room for you. Follow me. I will take care of settling our personnel once this is sorted."

Accepting the lifeline, they followed their veteran through unfamiliar corridors. Noir led them to a windowless room stocked with basic provisions.

Once the executives stepped inside, Noir gently guided Ais back out into the hall, intending to settle the girl with the rest of the Familia and pulled the heavy door shut on his way.

Riveria felt the ambient magic shift as privacy wards flared to life within the stone walls. After ensuring the room was secure, she gave a satisfied nod and turned to face her Goddess.

"What did we miss, Loki?" Riveria asked as calmly as she could, keeping her voice gentle, but she knew the others could hear the crack in her composure.

"Evilus attacked Twilight Manor," Loki began, her tone heavy, stripping away the Trickster persona entirely. "It got destroyed."

Loki turned to face them, her vermillion eyes wide open.

Riveria froze at that, as she didn't see her Goddess bare her eyes like that since the bloody fall of Zeus and Hera. The sheer fury radiating from the deity chilled the room.

Finn didn't blink but Riveria noticed his knuckles turn purple around his spear. When he finally spoke, a tremor edged his voice. "Who attacked?"

"The Dis sisters," Loki spat. "A few dozen Evilus grunts, and the God Rudra."

Silence choked the room. Riveria felt the realization hit the executives simultaneously. Their base defenses were robust, but they were built to stall. They were never meant to withstand a First-Class siege without the vanguard to hold the line. They had left their lower members exposed.

"We lost a few members," Loki continued, and her voice cracked on the words. She pressed on quickly, as if speed could make them smaller. "But the casualties were not severe. The rest of the Familia managed to evacuate in time with the help of Maximus."

Riveria felt an ache tear through her chest at the lost lives, but the sorrow was instantly swallowed by wrath. For years, the Loki Familia held back in their pursuit of Evilus, weighing the collateral damage a clash would inflict on Orario. But if those cowards dared to slaughter their friends and burn their home while the vanguard was trapped in the Dungeon, restraint was no longer an option.

She closed her eyes, mapping out strike teams to scorch their bases.

Her plans for vengeance halted a second later.

"But you want to know the real kick in the ass?" Loki asked, letting out a hollow laugh. "The Freya executives handled the assault party. They slaughtered the grunts, captured Rudra, but the Dis sisters escaped."

Riveria sat frozen, the words delivering a crushing blow to her pride. Their home was gone, their Familia had bled, and their rivals stepped in to save the survivors.

-◈ -

Max

As the crimson light bled out of the courtyard, he watched his disoriented passengers sway. He mentally patted himself on the back for distributing the barf bags, at least until a wave of green light washed over the crowd. The restorative magic instantly silenced their groans.

Looking toward the source, Max found Riveria staring directly at him. Her emerald eyes were narrowed, calculating his worth with a dissecting intensity that made him swallow a nervous gulp. Unsure what the high elf was thinking, he took a quiet step backward. His job was done. He fully intended to slip into the shadows unnoticed and leave Loki and her executives to their grim reunion.

Instead, he was immediately accosted by a mountain of muscle. The God of the Masses boisterously barged into his path, his elephant mask backed closely by the laser-focused gaze of Captain Shakti, who securely walled off any chance of escape.

"Primordial Dragonslayer!" Ganesha boomed, throwing a heavy arm outward to gesture to the elegant woman standing nearby. "Let me introduce you to the just and dutiful Astraea. You must have met her children."

Max internally cringed at hearing the full alias. He would vastly prefer they just use 'Dragonslayer' for short, but he guessed he couldn't stop Danmachi gods from being chuuni. Taking the theatrics in stride, he turned his attention to the lovely lady before him. He instinctively wanted to shake her hand, but thinking better of it, he settled for a slight bow.

"Lady Astraea. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. I did meet Miss Alise and Ryuu, and we went on a patrol recently."

Astraea tilted her head, making the customary face of a puzzled goddess. Max kept his smile perfectly in place. He realized she was trying to read him and failing; she couldn't discern if he was speaking the truth or not.

After a moment of searching, she recovered with a soft smile. "Yes, Primordial Dragonslayer. Alise did share about your encounter. If I am not wrong, your name is Maximus, correct?"

"Yes, my Lady."

Ganesha didn't let them stay outside. Clamping a hand on Max's shoulder, the god essentially herded him through the stone corridors. Looking around as he was guided deeper into the compound, Max had to agree—this was one massive residence, its size easily rivaling his own Familia's home.

They eventually settled into a meeting room. Shakti took up a position guarding the entrance, crossing her arms. With the perimeter secured, Ganesha finally came to the main reason he had essentially arrested him.

"Primordial Dragonslayer, we would love to have one of those Teleportation Arrays in our Familia residences," Ganesha said, his boisterous tone dropping with more seriousness. "Shakti just shared her interest in setting up anchors at our other bases across the city for better patrolling as well."

Shakti offered a single nod to confirm the request.

Max sighed internally. He just made peace with Ganesha knowing his identity, and the god had immediately gone ahead and dragged Astraea into the mix. He really needed to tell this guy not to spread the secret to the rest of the city. But aside from the breach in operational security, it was a good thing. He just ironed out the details for the networks, and giving them to these two Familias was critical for maintaining the city's peace.

"Lord Ganesha, Lady Astraea, I am very happy to set up the network anchors in your residences and bases as you desire," Max agreed. "I have just ironed out the details regarding the terms of use as well. I would request you to send an application to the Guild for the purpose of authenticity, and I will set them up tomorrow and fill you in on the mechanics."

He paused for a second, offering a polite smile. "It would be free of charge to you, since you play a critical role in maintaining the city's peace."

Ganesha let out his usual booming laugh. "Primordial Dragonslayer, that won't be necessary. The Guild has rolled out a new fund to take care of that, so we will pay whatever is the market rate."

The god patted Max's shoulder good-naturedly. Max saw Astraea nod in firm agreement and simply shrugged, knowing he couldn't change their minds when Guild coin was involved.

"Though I am very surprised by the speed," Ganesha noted, tilting his masked head. "Are you confident that the Guild will share the applications with you that quickly?"

Max smugly smirked at the god. "I would love to see them delay."

A surprised look passed between the trio—Ganesha, Astraea, and Shakti—catching the sheer leverage implied in his tone. A second later, both deities laughed in genuine amusement.

"In that case, Primordial Dragonslayer," Ganesha chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "Would you be interested in sharing more details about your familiar? What is its name?"

Ganesha looked around, searching for the creature. Max just sighed. The treacherous slime had obviously flattened out and slid straight back down his shirt the second they left the Loki vanguard, opting to hide rather than deal with more people.

--> Devil in a Dungeon <--

AN:

We get the full reaction from Finn and the reunion between the Goddess. ;)

Poor Max wanted to silently slip away for his scheduled flight session with Freya, now with Ganesha hijacking that, what do you think will happen if the evening turns to night? Would Max keep his word to go on a flight or negotiate to go on the flight tomorrow? :)

What do you think Kairu's protection and assessment from the Loki Executives?? I just love their reactions to Kairu effortlessly dismantling Ais.

For those wondering, Kairu's bubble on Loki burst as soon as they appeared in Ganesha Familia's compound. So he won't be secretly spying on their meeting. 

The next chapter will mostly Freya and how she would deal with Max and his new Alias ;)

Do share how you felt the chapter was. Was it good or did you feel it was a bit forced? Please share your feedback/suggestions on how to improve the story in a comment/review. 

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Next update will be on Thursday.

Ben, Out.

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