In the depths of the man-made labyrinth of Knossos, silence possessed a far different texture compared to the silence of the surface world. It was not the soothing silence of the night, but a dense, cold, and oppressive silence born from behind the Orichalcum metal walls. The smell of stagnant air created an atmosphere that could only be enjoyed by those who had discarded their sanity.
However, to Thanatos, the God of Death, this place was merely a temporary abode that was unfortunately very uncomfortable.
In one of the dimly lit main halls, Thanatos sat slumped on his throne. His posture did not reflect the majesty of a god, let alone the leader of a terrifying dark faction, at all.
Thanatos was a tall god, draped in a long, tattered black cloak with gray motifs and purple edges that looked like a redesigned shroud. His long, fine, dark purple hair fell messily, covering part of his face and shoulders. His eyes, also purple, radiated a natural, gloomy aura.
"Aaaah... so tiring..." complained Thanatos, breaking the silence of the hall. He cracked his neck left and right until a soft popping sound was heard. He raised his right hand, massaging his own left shoulder with a frown. "Pretending to be a charming, mysterious, and dignified tyrant god in front of the new members is really draining. My shoulders feel like they're being crushed by a boulder as heavy as a high-class giant. This lower world is truly troublesome."
Thanatos let out a long sigh. If other gods descended to the Gekai seeking entertainment, indulging in luxury, or building empires of power, Thanatos had a very simple and grounded reason: he loved his job.
In Tenkai, his main duty was to welcome deceased souls, purify them with love, and guide them toward the cycle of reincarnation. He was very dedicated to that job. The problem arose when the Age of Gods descending to the Gekai began. The presence of Falna made humans stronger. Adventurers could survive fatal wounds, healing magic developed rapidly, and the human population exploded. The result? The mortality rate dropped drastically.
Thanatos found himself "unemployed" in heaven. Driven by a pure love and dedication to his job, he finally decided to descend to the Gekai and join Evilus. He didn't care about chaos, he didn't enjoy meaningless suffering, and he certainly didn't care who ruled Orario. He only wanted to increase the daily death toll so he could get back to working hard at purifying souls. A very innocent ambition, yet it led him to become one of the most dangerous pillars of darkness.
Thanatos's daydreaming about souls in Tenkai was suddenly interrupted. The echo of heavy, quick footsteps laden with anger shattered the silence of the corridor outside the hall.
Valetta Grede walked in. The captain of his familia looked absolutely horrific today. Her face was sour, her clothes were dirty, and as soon as she reached Thanatos, the woman immediately raised her hands and scratched her scalp very roughly, as if she were trying to scrape out her own brain.
"Lord Thanatos! We have a huge problem. A very, very severe problem on the surface!" grumbled Valetta with a tone of voice bordering on hysterical.
Thanatos looked at her with his drowsy purple eyes. His expression remained calm and relaxed. He even forced a faint smile, radiating a gloomy aura that strangely felt very friendly.
"What's wrong, Valetta-chan? You look like you were just told to chew raw meat," greeted Thanatos softly, ignoring the disrespectful tone of his subordinate. "Sit down first. You could ruin your scalp if you scratch that hard."
"This is not the time to discuss my scalp!" Valetta stomped her foot in exasperation, refusing to sit. "Tonight, a few hours ago... Ikelos was forcibly repatriated to Tenkai!"
Thanatos's purple eyes widened slightly. The movement of his hand massaging his shoulder stopped in mid-air.
"Oh? Ikelos, the smuggler god?" Thanatos murmured, his tone slightly raised in surprise, but remaining relaxed. "Wow, what an unexpected death. It's a shame I was at the bottom of this labyrinth, so I couldn't see his pillar of light. That means, if Ikelos returned to Tenkai..."
"Correct!" Valetta cut in quickly, scratching her head aggressively again. "If God Ikelos died, that means Dix Perdix and all the main adventurers of the Ikelos Familia have most likely been slaughtered! Damn it! We just lost one of our main logistical routes and our best supplier of smuggled goods. But, that's not even the craziest part."
Thanatos tilted his head. "There is something more surprising than losing your precious business partner, Valetta-chan?"
Valetta swallowed hard, her eyes wide open staring at the God of Death. Her voice dropped to a hoarse hiss. "Dionysus. At almost the exact same second as Ikelos's pillar, a second pillar of light exploded from within the Dionysus Familia residence. Dionysus was also executed tonight."
Absolute silence suddenly enveloped the Orichalcum hall.
This time, the remnants of the childish demeanor on Thanatos's face faded completely. His gloomy eyes narrowed, flashing with an incredibly sharp gleam of intelligence. He slowly lowered his hand from his shoulder and straightened his back.
"Dionysus...?" Thanatos repeated the name slowly, tasting it on his tongue. "The wine god who always smiled, donated to orphans, and spread kindness throughout the streets of Orario?"
Thanatos could easily understand if Ikelos was killed. Ikelos was a god who only cared about smuggling and operated in a gray area that invited many enemies. His death was merely a risk of his dirty business.
But Dionysus?
Dionysus was the epitome of a benevolent god worshipped by humans and highly respected by fellow gods. Dionysus never sought enemies. There was no reasonable political, economic, or personal grudge for anyone to execute Dionysus in his own room.
Unless... Dionysus was hiding something that made his death make perfect sense to the party executing him.
Thanatos's cold and logical mind began piecing together the scattered puzzle pieces. He was always honest with himself, and his deductions were never clouded by emotions or shallow assumptions.
"Valetta-chan," said Thanatos, his tone of voice now turning serious, echoing softly. "Let's play a guessing game. Who do you think is the true figure behind the codename 'Enyo'? Who is the god who always hid his true identity from us and only sent crazy instructions from the shadows?"
Valetta was stunned. Her hands stopped scratching. She stared at Thanatos with a deeply furrowed brow. "You mean, you suspect Ikelos or Dionysus as Enyo?"
"Of course," Thanatos leaned back against his stone chair. "Ikelos is too stupid and too obsessed with his short-term pleasures. He lacks the brain capacity, patience, let alone the elegance to be the director of large-scale plans like those often devised by Enyo."
Thanatos paused, letting the silence fill the gap before he continued.
"But Dionysus..." Thanatos's purple eyes flashed. "The impression he gave on the surface was always too perfect. Too holy. In this Gekai, something that looks too perfect is usually just a very thick mask. The facade of a good god is the most absolute hiding place. If I wanted to destroy Orario, there is no better role than being the benevolent god and the most loved by Orario."
Valetta's eyes widened. She took a step back. "Wait... you actually think that Dionysus is Enyo?!"
"It is the most mathematically logical possibility right now," Thanatos chuckled softly, a laugh that sounded hollow yet full of dark admiration. "I must admit, I really didn't expect it. The impression I got from Enyo all this time was of a crazy manipulative figure obsessed with destruction. While Dionysus always brought wine and smiled warmly. The contrast is too great."
Thanatos sighed, shaking his head. "But if my deduction is correct... then our arrogant director was just kicked off his own stage. And the perpetrator tore off that mask without hesitation."
Valetta swallowed hard, imagining the horror behind that fact. "If Dionysus is indeed Enyo... and he was executed on the same night as Ikelos... it means there is a party on the surface who already knows Evilus's biggest secret. They didn't waste time reporting to the Guild. They executed him directly without a trace."
"Exactly," replied Thanatos. "Valetta-chan, this is what you must do. Order our familia members to monitor Evilus's secret communication channels. Wait and see. If in the next few days Enyo does not issue a single command or show his shadow... then my hypothesis is proven. Dionysus is Enyo, and Enyo is gone."
Valetta nodded quickly. "I will carry it out. But, Lord Thanatos... if Enyo is indeed dead, what should we do with the last instruction he gave?"
"Oh?" Thanatos raised an eyebrow with a childish expression of curiosity. "What instruction is that? What task did Enyo order?"
Valetta exhaled roughly. "Enyo ordered Evilus to kidnap and interrogate the new members of the Barbatos Familia. A Level 1 girl named Sylphie. And Enyo even added an instruction; if possible, just kill the Level 1 on the spot to see how the Barbatos Familia reacts."
A very awkward silence suddenly dominated the room. The torches on the wall crackled softly, as if they too felt the stupidity of that sentence.
A large question mark seemed to float above Thanatos's head. The God of Death blinked twice. Three times. He stared at Valetta blankly, trying to process the information he had just heard.
"Wait, wait, wait a minute, Valetta-chan," Thanatos raised his hand, his face showing pure disbelief. "Let me get this straight so I don't misunderstand. Enyo... the director who considered himself a genius... wanted to send Evilus forces to..."
"Yes," answered Valetta.
"Just to kidnap, and if possible kill... a Level 1 adventurer?"
"Correct."
"A member of the Barbatos Familia? The Familia that has Alfia the Silence as one of their members?"
"Exactly, Lord Thanatos."
Thanatos covered his face with one hand. His shoulders began to shake. And then, laughter erupted from behind his palm.
"Pfft—Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Oh my goodness!" Thanatos laughed so hard he had to hold his stomach. The laugh echoed off the Orichalcum walls, not a condescending laugh, but the laugh of someone who had just heard the most absurd joke.
"Kidnapping a Barbatos Familia member?! A Level 1?! Hahaha!" Thanatos wiped a fictitious tear from the corner of his eye. "Enyo is truly insane! Truly, I must admit his madness exceeds the bounds of any god's sanity! Even I, a god whose job is taking lives, would never take such a ridiculous suicidal action!"
Thanatos's laughter slowly subsided, replaced by a very grim and cold smile. Despite his manipulative methods in recruiting followers, Thanatos was a god who deeply cared for his Familia members. He was always honest with them, and he highly valued their loyalty born from pain. Knowing that Enyo treated Evilus members as lowly suicide bait made Thanatos's stomach churn.
"Even if that kid is only Level 1," Thanatos shook his head with a pitying look. "Is Enyo not afraid of Alfia's retaliation at all? That woman is the incarnation of a walking disaster. She could destroy the city of Orario if she's in a bad mood. Messing with a Familia guarded by a monster like that... Enyo was not strategizing, Valetta-chan. He was throwing lives into the abyss purely because of his own arrogance."
Thanatos let out a long sigh, a sigh laden with deep exhaustion and resignation. He resumed massaging his increasingly stiff shoulder.
"Come to think of it, Valetta-chan..." muttered Thanatos, his gaze drifting far into the darkness of the Knossos corridors, as if seeing the red thread of their misfortune. "Ever since that god named Venti appeared and established his Familia, our Evilus faction has always ended up with huge losses. Everything always fails completely."
Valetta fell silent, realizing the truth of her god's words.
"First, we lost Alecto and the elite platoon in the Far East territory," Thanatos began counting on his fingers. "And now, when Enyo tried to play around and touch the wind god's Level 1 girl... boom. Ikelos and Enyo himself are immediately repatriated to Tenkai on the exact same night."
"You think... it was the Barbatos familia that executed them last night?" asked Valetta, cold sweat beginning to run down her temples.
"Who else is a predator in this city brave and capable enough to do such a clean sweep?" Thanatos lowered his hand, looking at Valetta with a pragmatic and brutally honest gaze.
Thanatos rose from his stone chair. His tattered cloak rustled softly. He stepped closer to Valetta, looking directly into his familia captain's eyes.
"Valetta-chan, issue an absolute order to all Evilus branches under our control," instructed Thanatos, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Reduce all attack activities. Cancel all expansion and terror operations in Orario for now."
Valetta clenched her fists. "You mean... we have to retreat and hide again like rats in a sewer?"
"Yes," answered Thanatos without the slightest hesitation. "Exactly like that. Just like when the Zeus and Hera Familia were still in power and hadn't been destroyed."
The names of those two legendary Familias made Valetta freeze.
"Back then, we had to swallow our pride and hide in the shadows purely out of fear of those two pillars of Orario," said Thanatos with a faint smile laden with irony. "Now, there is a new pillar that is far more unpredictable and unseen. We don't know how deep the Barbatos familia's power runs, but seeing two gods repatriated to tenkai... that is a very clear warning message."
Thanatos turned around, walking back to his stone throne. "Let the gods on the surface panic, gossip, and suspect each other. Let Loki and Freya waste their time looking for that assassin ghost. We will stay here, close our Orichalcum doors, and 'sleep' until this crazy storm passes."
Valetta bowed her head deeply. Frustration boiled in her chest, but survival was far more important than pride. "Understood, Lord Thanatos. I will immediately handle the orders to all Evilus members."
As soon as Valetta's footsteps faded and disappeared from the hall, Thanatos slumped back into his chair. He propped his chin on his hand, staring blankly into the darkness.
As the God of Death, Thanatos never feared death. He was always ready for whenever his time came to return to Tenkai. However, he did not want the children of his Familia—the poor humans he had deceived but genuinely loved—to die foolishly just for being the wrongly targeted victims of a god's anger he didn't even know.
"It seems my dream of increasing the daily soul quota in Tenkai will have to be postponed even longer," murmured Thanatos softly, closing his eyes and letting the silence of Knossos swallow him once more. "Venti, huh? Your presence is truly making my job harder. A very troublesome god."
------------------------------
"Like my work? Catch up to Chapter 74 over on my Patreon!"
P - Gem_Blanks
Thank you so much for your support — you make all of this worthwhile.)