A few moments of planning later, attack plans were made, and everyone outfitted themselves with their own best equipment. The Tsugunai familias were prepared as if going on a deep excretion into the dungeon's abyss. Artemis familia was given a few extra potentially useful items to help with the assault plan.
Leaving behind a small defense within the village, Artemis, her familia, most of Freya familia, and most of Loki familia were ready to begin their charge.
"Let's go over this one more time. Once we arrive at the Elsos Ruins gate, the monsters will certainly swarm us. Riveria, Hogni, and Gullivers will remain behind with the fairy force to eliminate them. The rest of us will push forward into the pseudo dungeon Antares made. Gareth will be our vanguard defender, with Allen as the vanguard attacker. Ottar you'll be preparing for the monster rex, Antares. I will survey the field and give orders as needed, the rest of you, except for Lady Artemis, deal with any monsters the vanguard misses." Finn explained.
"And what about me, huh? Why don't you want me killing monsters?" Artemis asked with disdain in her tone.
"Honestly, if there was time, I'd rather not have you or your familia come with us at all."
"That seal will not open without me. Well, maybe he could open it, but he's not here now."
"And that's exactly why you are going to stay close to us, and I'm assigning Noir, Dain, and Bara to ensure you don't catch a stray mortal wound. Or worse, being devoured by the monster."
"How dare you."
"What? You're a goddess, no matter how you look at it, a monster would see you as one of two things, if not both. First, an enemy to be slain out of disgust. Second, the single best meal they'd ever get. Monsters wielding arcanum is not my idea of a fun time. Only one person is alive today that might stand a chance in that scenario, so don't die, and don't get caught."
"You're a weak man, but fine. I won't go overboard, but I will be hunting. You can not tell me to stop what I'm good at."
"Keep it within reason. We need to conserve our strength for the fight ahead."
"It will be fine." Ottar stated matter of factly.
"Good, then let the operation to clear out the Elsos Ruins, and slay Antares begin at once." Finn announced, with a seemingly light pound of his spears to the ground.
…
Hathor familia home received a visitor from the guild, and handed a letter to the member guarding the gates. She took the letter, and ran inside without missing any wasted movement, located Shurry, and handed the letter to him.
"Shurry, this just arrived from the Guild. The messenger looked panicked beyond measure, and ran away into the darkness."
"What did he look like?" Shurry asked, taking the letter.
"He wore a heavy black cloak that covered himself completely. I only know he was panicked by how he trembled, and spoke."
Shurry opened the letter, and read it with worry creeping in on his face… "Thank you for giving this to me. Return to the front and guard the gate."
"Can you send me away with a squeeze of my butt?" She teased. "Just kidding, I was kidding." She panicked and ran off after seeing the nearly feral expressions Alfia, Ardee, Neze, and Rose all gave her. The four of them laughed in sisterly bonding after they'd chased away the woman.
"So, my love, what was the letter about?"
"Just Ouranos telling me that he might require my assistance dealing with an ancient demon that seems to have broken free of its seal. Though he mentioned that the Tsugunai is currently attempting to deal with it, Artemis familia is helping out as well."
"Must have something to do with the moon then too."
"Probably, but let's go back to enjoying the party."
…
Elsos forest, the expedition moved through the forest with a degree of ease that screamed experience. The great tree labyrinth definitely instilled good technique. Every scorpion that came into view was crushed with overwhelming force. All until they reached the clearing right next to the Elsos ruins.
Just like they had predicted, Antares began to feel threatened, summoning the horde of monsters to attack enmasse.
"This is where we make it all count! Riveria start chanting! I shall hold them at bay. Show me why you're the princess." Hogni spoke in his usual odd tone.
The group meant to hold the line, and slaughter the scorpion type monsters broke off from the group, the fairy force had prepared their spells in advance, summoning them with the triggers upon their break away from the expeditionary force. The result carved out a sizable chunk of the monsters like they were nothing. Because they were, these monsters were weak, only around level 2, with the occasional one bordering on the level 3 classification.
"Huh? Alright, fine, my turn." Hogni turned into a blur, leaving nothing but dead monsters in his wake.
Finn and the others continued forward without stopping until they reached the sealed doors. Artemis was allowed forward to open the seal. It was then the sight of how bad the situation actually was set in for everyone.
"Push through, and find the cowardly monster." Finn ordered, this time it was a useless one, only meant to say the obvious, yet, it worked for some reason.
With walls full of gigantic gooey looking eggs, a feeling creeped in on them, this felt exactly like the dungeon. It was so eerily familiar, Hedin had a thought pass through his mind, one that he couldn't help, but also one that he quickly got rid of. Artemis noticed this.
"You know, it's not good to dwell on bad thoughts, but sometimes they might help you understand something you might have missed."
With that tidbit, the group pushed forward, destroying each and every single egg, and monster they found. It was roughly an hour of hunting later when the group caught sight of Antares. All of them froze in a temporary fear.
"That's…" Ottar started, his mind went right back to the time he was standing in front of Alise. "Strong."
"High, level 8… or maybe, we were too late." Finn added with a little more than a tinge of worry.