Yoruichi and Serafall were in Freya's room on the top floor of Babel once again to update them on the current situation of the Expedition team and to rest for a bit from monitoring them.
"Aside from the good things that happened with Line and Tenestra's addition, it also caused the other Familias to become concerned, huh..." Loki muttered while going through the report.
"That's to be expected. Everyone thought that Magic was tied to their Level and here comes someone who can easily use it despite being a Level 1." Freya commented while looking down on the city of Orario from her glass window, "For their whole life, they've believed in Levels. The higher it is, the stronger they are. So the moment they saw a crack in that faith and argument, they started panicking and lost sight of their futures. Thankfully, however, my children could easily deal with that."
Loki threw the report down the table and leaned back with a sigh, "That's only natural. What they believed in from the start wasn't their strength nor their Level, but you. Their blind faith and love exempted them from this."
"That really sounds impressive." Serafall nodded in agreement, "But with a cult-like mindset, as strong as their minds are, they are also the first one to fall when their belief is broken."
"Speaking from experience?", asked Yoruichi.
"They are a pain to deal with, but easy enough once you find the crux to their belief."
Freya wanted to defend her children some more, but small tremors in the earth had suddenly begun. Everyone became silent and stayed in their positions for a few seconds until the tremors started getting stronger and the bookshelves in Freya's room were about to topple.
"I'm reinforcing the tower!" Serafall declared with a Magic Circle appearing beneath her feet and extending out of the tower.
Even then, the shaking only continued to get stronger and Serafall had to extend her reinforcement throughout the entire city, the nearby fishing town of Melen, and the newly constructed factory, research, and development building for Magic Vehicles.
Yoruichi stood up from her seat and caught Freya who was about to lose her balance, "Thank you."
But she ignored her and started muttering with a serious expression, "An earthquake... But what's below us-"
Her thought process, however, was interrupted by a Magic Circle appearing on the table, displaying a hologram of Medusa, "Three Gods have descended. We will move to resolve the issue as originally planned."
At that moment, a wave of Divine Power that came from the west suddenly washed over the entire region, jolting all the Divines within it.
"W-what was that!?" Loki stood up in panic while trying to figure out who's Divine Power was unleashed and why it was having such a massive effect.
Freya, with a similarly serious expression, looked at Yoruichi who had an amused one, "What do you know about this?"
Yoruichi escorted Freya to take a seat while answering, "I don't want to repeat my explanation so we should wait for our guest first before starting. Besides, the stage is still being prepared."
Loki and Freya looked at each and gave up. Since they're so at ease of what's happening, they didn't want to look like paranoid individuals, "Just make sure that those in the Dungeon are safe."
"I just activated a barrier for their camp. But if they choose to venture outside despite the dangers, it'll be up to them.", replied Yoruichi.
"Well, I guess that's fine."
A few minutes later, a group of out-of-breath Deities came to Freya's room with Hephaestus in the lead, "Freya! Loki! We have to pull them out of the Dungeon now! Where's-..."
What the group saw was Loki, Freya, Yoruichi, and Serafall just chilling with some alcohol and some fresh raw fish.
Loki very much liked the expression they were making and greeted them with a shit-eating grin, "Yo~ Were you lot running a marathon? Some really weird timing, I must say. And if you're here to invite me, I refuse."
A nerve visibly bulged in Hephaestus' forehead as she stomped her way in, "Marathon!? Do you still have the time to joke around!? Are you not aware of what's going on!? Some idiot... No... Several idiots decided to go against the pact and came down with their real bodies! The Dungeon surely won't stay quiet with them down here!"
Following Hephaestus were the rest of the Gods that agreed to the expedition namely, Hermes, Takemikazuchi, Miach, and Ganesha. All of them had a fed-up expression.
"Is there anything you want to drink?" Freya, meanwhile, calmly stood up and went towards her wine shelf, "Ah, don't answer that. I only have wines."
Seeing this, Hermes sighed and took off his hat while patting Hephaestus' shoulder, "Let's sit down for now. Loki and Freya wouldn't be acting like this if the situation were that grave." He then looked at Yoruichi and Serafall with a serious expression, "And from the looks of it, they were waiting for our arrival. Let's hear what they have to say."
Takemiazuchi, Miach, and Ganesha still have complicated expressions because they still didn't know the fate of their children, but they didn't have a choice but to nod and follow Hermes' lead.
"Please don't worry about the expedition. We already made sure that they'd have a safe point if this were to happen. Unless they wanted to brave the dangers, nothing bad would've happened to them." Yoruichi first addressed everyone's concern because Hermes kept glaring at her.
Aside from Hermes, the newcomer's opened their eyes wide in shock, "If this were to happen, huh?" muttered the former. Although he was able to hide his own feelings, he had the same reaction as the rest, "So you already anticipated this situation where Gods wouldn't know what to do."
Yoruichi shrugged her shoulders and picked up her glass, "To anticipate it, we'd need to have a good source of information. It's our luck that we just have those."
On this one, Loki was the first one who disagreed, "Luck? If something like this could be done through luck then there's nothing impossible in this world."
Freya then sat back down and added, "Aren't you all curious why the both of us who were openly antagonistic, suddenly started working together and supported Hestia and Artemis' Familia? You'll probably get your answer soon."
All sorts of questions started popping out from the newcomers, but Yoruichi and Serafall only gave noncommittal answers. But just when they were about to lose their patience, the table lit up once again with Magic Circle, showing an image of Medusa, "The stage has been set. Aside from Kuroka, no one knew what was going on, until now."
"Great~!" Serafall excitedly exclaimed and snapped her fingers.
From that sound, three floating screens suddenly appeared in front of everyone depicting three different terrains.
But instead of the terrain, what the Gods noticed first were their fellow Deities who were brimming with Divine Power, "Is that Aruna, Aktzin, and Osiris?" muttered Hephaestus.
"So it was these three reckless idiots," commented Ganesha. He was not at all surprised that Serafall's Magic was capable of emulating the God's power because he'd already received a comprehensive report about her. But his real concern was the girls who were facing these Gods, "What's the meaning of this? Are they trying to throw their lives away?"
Editors:
28th00: Ah, The Age of Gods is also known as The Age of Godslayers. Like, seriously, it had to end somehow after all!
A few minutes ago, Aktzin was still relishing in the fact that he and the other two Gods were able to bring forth their original avatars from Heaven by using mortal souls to act as an anchor and cover the scent of his Divine Will. Through connecting the souls of the children connected to him through Falna, the God of rain, thunder, and lightning was able to descend without many reactions from the Dungeon.
'The work that Osiris and Aruna put into this is just wonderful. It's a good thing that I'm the first one to volunteer to join this experiment as I can imagine the jealous faces of those who chose to sit back in fear of the consequences.' Aktzin thought while chuckling to himself.
Aktzin appeared to be a light-blue-haired middle-aged man wearing a white suit. He had matching blue eyes and a thin blue mustache. Thanks to the Divine Power he was emitting, a regal aura was also surrounding him, giving him the look of authority.
However, he couldn't enjoy the situation and thought about being a 'Hero' anymore, due to finding himself on top of a vast forest and below a purple sky with a pair of black and white Cat-people standing and talking in front of him.
"Nee-sama... Do you mind explaining the situation now? You and Medusa-neesan suddenly pulled all of us out of the Dungeon and teleported us to this... Rating Game space?" the white one asked.
"There's really no other explanation other than that, nyaa.", the black one rudely pointed her finger towards Aktzin without looking at him, "He wants to cheat his way through, but he's also a very convenient adversary for us, nyaa. Don't you want to test your limits?"
The white one looked at Aktzin for a very brief moment out of curiosity, but immediately returned her sights to the black one, "Where are the others?"
A bit of annoyance rose through Aktzin's mind, but he immediately calmed himself down, because he's the big guy and today's a monumental day, "Children, tell me where we are."
But as if they didn't hear him speak, the two Cat-people continued to ignore him, "They are also taking care of the other cheaters, nyaa... Though I'm a bit worried about Sona-chan since she's all alone and the match-up could be bad."
"Bad? How bad?"
"She's against a God of Sea and Medusa-chan actually put her and him in a Sea Stage, nyaa."
The white thought about it for a moment before nodding, "There shouldn't be any problem."
"Eh? How can you be so sure?"
"Actually, all this while, Sona-neesan has been holding herself back. I don't know what she's trying to keep hidden, but I think this will be her chance to let loose."
At this point, Aktzin finally lost his patience and raised his arm toward them. Within a few seconds, a large Magic Circle appeared in the sky above the Cat-people before a pillar of blue lightning struck down.
Kuroka and Koneko instantly looked up when they felt power converge above them and hurriedly jumped back to avoid the lightning that created a crater on the ground, "Ho? Looks like the two of you have some abilities. Good job avoiding death, but there won't be next time. Answer me, children. Where are we?"
Contrary to his expectations, Kuroka and Koneko only looked at him briefly once again before returning to what they were discussing, "...Holding back, nyaa...? I can only think of one thing, but I heard it's very dangerous. Well, Sera-chan should be watching her closely... Anyways, do you want to go first, or should we do it together?"
"You'll let me do it first?"
"Don't look down on yourself. Aside from experience, you can already match my battle prowess, nyaa. And if we go even more technical, you're much more capable of destruction than me, since I'm more of a controller."
Aktzin snapped and his pride hurt, "I don't care anymore. I'll figure it out myself." Raising his arm once again, Magic Circles formed in the sky once again, but this time there were five of them, covering a much larger area.
However, as the lightning struck down, he didn't see any 'panicked' movements that he'd seen earlier. Instead, both of them disappeared and it was already too late for him to realize that there was a fist coming straight towards his face, "Wha-?!"
With a enough force to blow off the head of a high-level Adventurer, Koneko successfully landed a punch on the arrogant God's face, but she felt like she was punching an insanely hard brick wall even though she sent him flying, 'Is this a God's basic defense or is he just sturdier than normal?' she asked herself, but she's leaning towards the former.
Aktzin stopped himself in midair while holding his bleeding red nose with a face full of hate, "You imbecile. Unforgivable."
This time, without any gesture, Aktzin's blue eyes lit up and several smaller Magic Circles appeared and surrounded Koneko instantly and each of them sent out a bolt of lightning. But the same as before, Koneko disappeared from her spot and reappeared behind Aktzin.
Even then, a God was still a God and he immediately figured out the weakness of the strange instant acceleration and was able to turn around to block a leg sweep from the white cat with his left arm.
Koneko had sent a considerable force behind her kick and was surprised that she wasn't even able to move the blue-haired God. Aktzin used this slight lapse in concentration and counterattacked with his right fist aiming for Koneko's stretched-out leg.
Koneko realized the threat behind the punch that could cave her knee in and hurriedly rotated her body to dodge it and used the air as a foothold to initiate a Flash Step to retreat and gain some distance.
Nevertheless, Koneko's Flash Step wasn't as refined as Kisuke's nor Yoruichi's so she made so much 'noise' that it was easy for her opponent to predict where she'd be stepping out. And as Koneko did, she noticed that several Magic Circles were already pointed in her direction, ready to fry her.
Koneko gritted her teeth and balled herself up while summoning her Soul Gear.
Tens of lightning bolts struck Koneko and momentarily covered her with blinding light.
Aktzin knew that he'd hit her this time but something felt weird, so he kept his senses heightened in case another surprise attack appeared and he was especially wary of the black cat, 'Still nothing from her? Who are these people anyway? They aren't Deities yet she was able to exchange fists with me.'
Aktzin's bolts of lightning finally let up, but he could only narrow his brows as he saw the little girl of before had transformed into a mature form with four metallic white wings sprouting white flames behind her, white gauntlets, boots, and a chest plate.
Aktzin also noticed the four white tails swaying behind her and asked, "Just what are you people?"
Now that the euphoria of descending had faded, he could now think calmly and it was only now that he found the entire situation extremely weird.
Editors:
28th00: They telenapped their asses, hilarious. Especially since it was to make them punching bags.