The entire Great Falls was eerily silent. Two barefoot amazonesses walked along a path soaked in deathly stillness.
"Weird… why's it so quiet today?"
Tione frowned, scanning their surroundings.
The oppressive silence made her skin crawl.
"Not a single monster sound," she muttered. "Even on the day before Amphisbaena respawns, it's never this quiet. You can always hear something moving around."
"Maybe it's because we've come down here so often looking for Amphisbaena," Tiona said suddenly. "What if someone's watching us?"
That earned her a surprised look from Tione.
"Tiona… you actually used your brain?"
The tone was pure condescension, and Tiona's face immediately tightened in outrage.
"So you really do think I'm some airheaded idiot?"
"What do you think? You usually just charge in without thinking. Even if your brain works fine, you never use it—so what's the difference?"
"You—you're infuriating!"
Tiona's eyes widened as she tried to come up with a comeback, but the words caught in her throat.
She couldn't exactly deny it—her usual approach really was just "hit first, think never."
Tione had always been the one doing the actual thinking for both of them. Whenever things got complicated, she handled it.
Tione ignored her sister's glare and kept her eyes on their surroundings instead. Her expression darkened.
The atmosphere was far stranger—and far more dangerous—than she'd expected.
They'd been talking loud enough to wake half the floor, yet not a single creature had appeared. That was wrong.
"Tiona," she said sharply, "something's off."
The moment those words left her mouth, three clawed creatures lunged from the shadows at a tunnel corner, attacking from all sides.
Splurt!
The claws nearly pierced straight through Tione's body.
But at the last possible instant, she twisted away—barely avoiding a fatal blow. The claws only grazed her abdomen, tearing through flesh but missing anything vital.
"Tch! So close."
Tione clutched her bleeding stomach and staggered backward.
"Tione!"
Tiona immediately raised Urga and stepped in front of her sister, shielding her.
"I'm fine. It's not fatal—"
"Oh? And you think you can escape from me?"
A wild, arrogant laugh echoed through the tunnel.
Both sisters' hearts sank.
The woman standing before them—pink hair, crazed expression—was someone they recognized immediately.
"Arachnia... Valletta Grede."
Tione spoke each word slowly, her eyes locked onto the enemy.
A Level 5 adventurer. And one who'd just used such a cowardly ambush.
There was no way they'd escape this easily.
"Hehe Good, good You still remember my name."
Valletta's gaze was dripping with mockery.
"So tell me—did Finn predict this would happen?"
"Three years ago, that bastard left quite an impression on me. Every move I made, he was there to block it. But this time... it looks like Finn can't protect you at all, doesn't it?"
The more she spoke, the more triumphant Valletta became.
But then—
Something strange happened.
Tione released her hand from her abdomen. The wound began healing right before their eyes—bit by bit, as if the injury had been nothing but a joke.
"!?"
That bizarre sight sent a wave of intense alarm through Valletta.
Her smug expression vanished. Her face darkened instantly, and without hesitation, she spun around to flee.
CLANG!
The moment she turned, her head slammed into an invisible wall.
"Space magic!?"
Valletta's face went pale. In the next instant, she felt the space around her shift completely.
Shit!
When her vision cleared, she saw Tiona and Tione standing across from her—completely unharmed. And beside them stood someone else. A figure whose face she couldn't make out.
The mysterious new recruit from Loki Familia?
Damn it… this is bad.
Valletta had been gathering intelligence on the Loki Familia's newest member, of course.
But the information she'd collected was sparse—mostly just rumors floating around the city.
And nothing in those rumors had prepared her for this.
A calm voice spoke from the faceless figure.
"Arachnia. A Level 5 adventurer from the dark factions. One of the key players during the Great Feud three years ago."
Valletta tried desperately to move her neck, but her body was completely locked in a fixed spatial prison. She couldn't even twitch.
Even though she was at their mercy, Valletta's mouth was still sharp.
"Heh~ Not bad. Even a new recruit from Loki Familia knows my name."
"Looks like the damage I caused to Orario three years ago was pretty significant."
But before she could hear any words of fear or respect, one sentence completely shattered her composure.
"Oh, I know you. You're the one who got played like a fool by Finn, right?"
"What the fuck did you say, brat?"