Chapter 72: The Great Feud!
"My hair's gotten long again lately..."
Soma tugged at the long hair spilling down from his head and covering his eyes. At some point, he had completely handed the management of his appearance over to Tara.
Whenever he could no longer see the faces of his Familia members clearly, a flash of vivid red would always appear and style his hair into a shape he hated.
A silver moon climbed up from the edge of Orario. The clouds seemed fixed in the sky, endlessly shedding raindrops like tears.
The rainy scenery looked gray, almost the color of rotten moss, like the gap between day and night before twilight fully arrived. It was neither dark nor bright, giving the world a faintly unreal feeling.
"Dionysus-sama, thank you for your help this time."
Tara bowed to Dionysus before her, holding a glass bottle filled with red liquid.
"No... I didn't really help much this time either... What a shame..."
Dionysus looked at the wine in Tara's hands and sighed.
The wine Tara had made was only one step away from reaching the level of divine wine. This miracle-like bottle was about to be born after countless rounds of trial and error from the girl.
Unfortunately, at the final step, it was still missing one ingredient that could only be found in Heaven.
"You've already helped me a lot, Dionysus-sama. I'll think of a way to handle the final ingredient myself. I'll take my leave for today."
"Come by whenever you're free. And tell Soma not to hole himself up indoors all the time. He should come out and walk around more."
Dionysus waved his hand and watched Tara leave.
Boom—
A sudden roar from the distance caught Tara's attention.
One corner of Orario was rapidly swallowed by raging flames.
On this peaceful night...
The darkness was burning.
The familiar sight made Tara immediately rush over to help.
Ever since Zeus Familia and Hera Familia failed to subjugate the Black Dragon and left Orario, incidents like this had been happening in the city again and again.
In the southwest of Orario, Astraea Familia, the symbol of justice, was engaged in a fierce clash with Evilus fighters.
For now, Astraea Familia seemed to hold the advantage. Evilus was being forced back step by step.
"Are you okay?!"
Tara rushed over in a hurry, hid the bottle of wine inside the armor at her chest with a cloth wrapped around it for padding, then ran to the side of a little girl.
The girl was dressed in the same outfit as the Evilus fighters around her. In her right hand, she was still clutching a short knife that looked far too large for her small body.
"Come here, quickly. Put the knife down. You can't listen to adults who force a child like you to pick up a weapon!"
The human girl who had been called out to widened her eyes, tears unconsciously spilling down her cheeks.
She looked at Tara, who was reaching a hand toward her, and clenched her tiny chest with her right hand.
"Goddess-sama..."
Tara looked into the girl's eyes.
Just those eyes alone made her feel as if she had been thrown into a boundless deep sea, where there was nothing to grasp except coldness and loneliness.
There was no hostility or killing intent in the girl's heart.
She only prayed with an unbearably hoarse throat.
"Please... let me see Papa and Mama one more time..."
Holding on to that final wish, she pressed the button on her chest.
Click—
Boom—!!!
Impact and scorching heat surged outward.
Tara, along with everyone nearby fighting Evilus, was blown away.
When the drifting smoke cleared, the surrounding scene made people doubt their own eyes.
A large section of the once-prosperous city had been carved away, and everything had been reduced to dust.
"Huh?"
Tara pushed away the rubble pressing down on her and propped herself up, covered in wounds.
The little girl was already gone.
The walls were covered in something dark and sticky.
Perhaps it was blood.
Or perhaps it was the ugly paint Evilus had delivered to the city.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"
At that moment of despair, a grating laugh shattered the silence and dragged the adventurers' minds back to reality.
"Did you see that, Thanatos, you filthy bastard?! The brat you tricked just took the adventurers down with her! Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
An Evilus god trembled in ecstasy.
"Attaching a firing mechanism to Kaenseki turned out pretty damn well, didn't it?!"
But this was only the beginning.
"I hope this life can reach my beloved's side."
"Wait for me over there. I'll be coming soon."
Along with those prayers, the Evilus foot soldiers pressed the self-destruction switches on their chests one after another, turning themselves into the most terrifying weapons and ending their own lives.
A chain of explosions rang out, drowning even the dying screams of the adventurers nearby.
Destruction and wailing.
Terror and despair.
On this night, the Great Feud began.
...
"What was that?"
Soma was still at the Familia residence.
The continuous explosions in the distance made his brows knit tightly.
Tara's face flashed through his mind.
"Bad news! Evilus launched an attack on Northwest Street!"
A member of Soma Familia stumbled in from outside and rushed into the hall.
The moment Soma heard the report, his heart jumped.
Dionysus's residence was near Northwest Street.
He immediately threw on his robe and hurried toward the door.
"Soma-sama! It's too dangerous outside. You should evacuate right now!"
Zanis blocked his path.
He calmly pushed up his glasses and said,
"Evilus members are destroying Orario everywhere right now. If you go outside, Soma-sama, you'll be caught up in it too."
As soon as he said that, the adventurers around them all nodded in agreement.
Clearly, in their hearts, Soma, who could brew Soma wine, was far more important than the captain who often lectured them.
Facing his own children surrounding him, Soma took out the Soma wine he had brewed recently.
Flattery.
Greed.
Those were the expressions the members of Soma Familia showed the moment they saw Soma wine.
Not a single one of them could maintain their reason in front of it.
Soma placed the wine on the ground.
Deeply disappointed, he ignored the adventurers swarming toward the bottle behind him and ran toward Northwest Street.
...
The city was burning.
This time, Evilus's target was not only adventurers, but the city itself.
Starting with the little girl's self-destruction, Evilus members kept appearing all over the area and causing riots.
The moment they were attacked, they would press the self-destruction switch on their chests.
Deafening explosions tore through the buildings.
The citizens, who had even forgotten how to grieve, let their emotions twist into screams as they fell one after another.
Tara's right arm could no longer move.
During the explosion, she had used her right arm to bear most of the damage, and the skin across her body had been burned by the blast's scorching heat.
"Someone... please save me..."
From beneath a collapsed house somewhere nearby, a faint cry for help could be heard.
But it was soon swallowed by another explosion.
"Don't go that way! Hurry to the Guild in the city center and take shelter!"
She shouted at a man fleeing in panic on the left side of her vision.
But before she could even finish, a flying knife pierced the man's throat.
He collapsed to the ground and lost his life.
A hellish scene unfolded all around her.
The defensive line formed by adventurers was torn apart in an instant.
Most of the adventurers fighting to survive had already fallen into extreme chaos.
Facing this sight, Tara held back her tears.
With her right arm unable to move, she had even lost the right to fight.
All she could do was watch helplessly as Evilus members slaughtered and plundered among the crowd.
…
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