The morning sun began to climb the Orario horizon, brushing a golden light that chased away the remnants of the night's dew. The streets of the Labyrinth City, previously tense, were gradually breathing again. Equipment shops began opening their shutters, and the aroma of freshly baked wheat bread wafted from small stalls.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of the morning routine, three figures walked with a rhythm completely unaffected by the crowd around them.
Venti strolled casually in the middle. He wore his signature green cloak, a slightly tilted beret, and a wooden lyre slung comfortably across his back. There was no formal suit or stiff noble attire; for the God of Wind, the best clothes were those that let the wind touch his skin freely.
On his right, Alfia walked with deadly elegance. She wore only her usual casual black dress, without armor or excessive jewelry. However, the way she walked—with a straight back and a cold, forward gaze—was enough to make pedestrians instinctively step aside, providing an open path as if welcoming a queen inspecting her territory.
On Venti's left, Hedin Selland marched with the precise posture of a general. The former White Elf King wore his usual light combat gear. His sharp eyes behind his thin-lensed glasses constantly scanned every corner of the street, ensuring not a single threat dared approach his god.
Although Venti appeared to be smiling playfully and humming softly along the way, the petite young man's mind was actually spinning fast, dismantling every layer of possibility.
The Guild summoned me and Alfia directly, Venti thought, his teal eyes staring at the tip of the Tower of Babel soaring through the clouds. Royman Mardeel is not the type of elf who likes to waste his time dealing with a new Familia personally. He is the absolute definition of a calculative bureaucrat. If he went as far as bypassing the Guild Advisors to send a messenger to our headquarters, it means there is a very urgent agenda.
Venti twirled a valis between his fingers. Do they want to interrogate us? No, if that were the case, they would send the Ganesha Familia, not an invitation. This is something else. Something that makes the Guild desperate enough that they have to borrow the hands of a 'Monster' from the past.
"Stop humming, Venti," reprimanded Alfia softly, breaking the god's reverie. Her beautiful face radiated clear displeasure. "The closer we get to the Guild headquarters, the more the air reeks of greed. I am really not looking forward to having to talk to that old elf again."
Venti laughed crisply, pocketing his valis. "Be a little patient, Miss Silence. Just pretend we are watching a theatrical performance. I am very curious about what script the Head of the Guild is hiding behind his expensive desk."
Hedin snorted softly, adjusting his glasses. "If that elf dares to show the slightest disrespect to you, Lord Venti, I will make sure his office turns into a pile of charcoal reeking of lightning."
"We came to discuss, Hedin, not to renovate the Guild building," chuckled Venti, calming his guard.
Their steps finally brought them to the vast courtyard in front of the magnificent Guild Headquarters building. The Orario Guild Pantheon stood sturdily with giant white marble pillars, symbolizing absolute authority over all adventurers and gods in the lower world.
As soon as Venti pushed open the giant double doors made of carved oak, the buzzing sound of chatter, haggling over drop item prices, and the clinking of weapons from hundreds of adventurers immediately assaulted their ears. The Guild's main lobby this morning was very packed, filled with parties about to descend into the dungeon.
However, that bustling scene did not last long.
When Alfia stepped fully inside, a highly terrifying wave of silence spread from the point where she stood like ripples of freezing water.
Loud laughter choked in throats. Adventurers' chatter cut off mid-sentence. Hundreds of pairs of eyes turned simultaneously, staring with shrinking pupils upon realizing who the woman in the black dress that had just walked in was. The presence of Hedin Selland beside her added to the weight of terror that glued their feet to the floor.
Between the two monsters radiating deadly pressure, Venti instead walked very casually, winking at a young adventurer who nearly dropped his sword from trembling.
Realizing the lobby's atmosphere could trigger panic at any moment, a neatly uniformed male Guild staff member immediately half-stumbled running toward them. Cold sweat soaked his collar as he bowed deeply with jerky movements.
"L-Lord Barbatos! Miss Alfia! Sir Hedin!" he greeted haltingly, his gaze fixed on the tips of Alfia's shoes so he wouldn't have to look directly into the witch's heterochromatic eyes. "I-I have been specifically instructed to welcome your arrival. Please... please do not stop in this lobby. Please follow me, Sir Royman is already awaiting your arrival in his office."
"Of course. Lead the way," replied Venti amiably, patting the staff member's shoulder lightly.
The staff member immediately turned around and walked quickly, guiding them through the sea of adventurers who very voluntarily stepped back and parted to make way, as if terrified by Alfia. They were directed toward a special VIP spiral staircase at the back of the lobby strictly guarded by high-level adventurers.
As soon as Venti and his entourage went up the stairs and disappeared from sight, the Guild lobby instantly erupted again. This time filled with hysterical whispers, pale faces, and wild speculation spreading like wildfire in the dry season.
The Head of the Guild's office was located on the top floor of the Pantheon building. And once the gold-polished double doors were opened, the description of the room did not reflect the authority or majesty of an institution protecting adventurers at all.
Instead of looking elegant and scholarly, the room emitted a very pungent stench of greed, like a forced exhibition of wealth.
Royman's office looked more like the treasure hoard of a greedy black-market merchant than a formal workspace. The floor was covered by a thick silk carpet with tacky motifs imported from the Far East, feeling too soft, making footsteps sink slightly. In every corner of the room perched human-sized statues of goddesses made entirely of solid gold, reflecting the light from an excessive crystal chandelier.
The walls were filled with masterpiece paintings by legendary artists arranged haphazardly, their art styles clashing with each other, as if the room's owner only bought them because they were expensive, not for their artistic value. Various antiques—from diamond-studded chalices to heirloom swords that had never been sharpened—were crammed into glass display cabinets.
This was visual proof of Guild funds and adventurer tax revenues siphoned and collected by the Head of the Guild to pamper his own eyes.
The only thing worth being proud of in that room was a giant clear glass window at the back, offering a spectacular panoramic view of the entire vast Labyrinth City of Orario, placing the room's owner at the highest point attainable outside the Tower of Babel.
Alfia clicked her tongue softly as soon as she stepped inside. Her sharp eyes swept over the crowded gold statues with a look of disgust.
Behind a giant desk made of rare gold-plated mahogany, sat Royman Mardeel. A plump elf with a bulging stomach that almost pressed against the edge of his desk. His face, which usually always radiated bureaucratic arrogance and complacency, now looked very uncomfortable. He continuously wiped the sweat on his temples using a lacy silk handkerchief.
When Venti, Alfia, and Hedin stepped fully inside, Royman immediately stood up with difficulty. A highly forced political smile bloomed on his round face.
"Welcome! Ah, welcome to my humble office, Lord Barbatos!" greeted Royman, spreading his arms as if welcoming a dear old friend he missed very much. "And of course, an extraordinary honor to see you standing in this building in person again, Miss Alfia. Truly, Orario feels blessed with the return of one of the strongest pillars from the age of heroes."
Instead of returning that sweet greeting, Alfia stepped forward, closing the distance until she stood right in front of the Head of the Guild's desk. The witch's heterochromatic eyes looked Royman up and down with an unhidden condescending stare.
"Save your disgusting smiles and fake flattery for the stupid gods you can buy with Valis, Royman," said Alfia, her voice slicing through the room's silence with absolute coldness that made the temperature in the room drop drastically. "Honestly, breathing the air in the same room as you makes me want to destroy this place. This room of yours looks more like a dragon's lair hoarding stolen treasure than an office. So, stop wasting time and state your business."
Royman swallowed hard. His face instantly turned pale, and the smile on his lips wavered. He glanced out of the corner of his eye toward Hedin who stood near the entrance with his arms crossed. The former White Elf King radiated the aura of a merciless executioner ready to sever Royman's neck at any time.
Amidst that deadly tension, Venti casually walked over to one of the shelves. He picked up a small horse statue made of solid gold, tossed it lightly into the air, caught it, then sat in a plush leather-upholstered chair. He propped his chin on one hand, staring at Royman with a calm gaze that pierced right to the bottom of the plump elf's soul.
"As Alfia said, Sir Royman," said Venti with a gentle tone that somehow felt far more pressing and terrifying than Alfia's overt anger. "The Guild couldn't possibly bother summoning us secretly and urgently just to show off your gold collection. We heard there is a special mission. What agenda are you actually facing?"
Royman cleared his throat loudly, trying to clear the dryness in his throat and gather whatever dignity he had left as the highest bureaucratic leader of this city. He sat back down in his chair, pulled a secret drawer under the desk, and took out a thick document folder with a plain black leather cover without the Guild crest. He placed the folder right in the middle of the desk with a heavy movement.
"Very well. If you two prefer a conversation that gets straight to the point, then I will not use diplomatic language anymore," Royman began, his facial expression turning very grim and tense. The handkerchief in his hand was squeezed tightly. The cold sweat on his forehead proved that he was not playing around.
"Lord Barbatos, Miss Alfia. The Guild is currently facing a real crisis. We have an emergency-scale Special Mission that cannot be announced to the public," Royman tapped the black folder with his plump index finger. "This is not an ordinary labyrinth exploration or monster subjugation mission that can be posted on the lobby notice board. This is a highly classified operation, and specifically, only the Barbatos Familia possesses the most perfect qualifications to complete it."
The plump elf looked straight into Alfia's eyes, emboldening himself to lock gazes with the legend.
"Especially... because this special mission relates directly to the monster remnants from the Three Great Quests left over from your era. This mission concerns the remnants of the Behemoth and the Leviathan."
The air inside the luxurious room filled with gold suddenly felt frozen.
Alfia's eyes instantly widened slightly before narrowing very sharply. Her hands, which had been at her sides, slowly clenched tight. Hearing the names of those two World Calamities made memories of her glory days churn in her mind. Those were two giant monsters successfully subjugated by the Zeus and Hera Familia—an incredibly proud pinnacle victory of mankind, right before the true tragedy against the One-Eyed Black Dragon shattered their Familia to pieces.
"What do you mean by remnants, Royman?" demanded Alfia, her tone now radiating an aura of pure threat that made the nearby gold statues tremble slightly. "The Behemoth and Leviathan are dead. Your Guild knows that perfectly well because it was you who received the reports from our captains' mouths."
"That is correct, Miss Alfia," Royman nodded quickly, wiping the sweat dripping again on his temples. "The Zeus and Hera Familia completely eradicated those two calamities. That is the absolute reason why I am giving and offering this mission to your Familia. Because you are the only remaining existence in Orario right now who fully participated in that expedition. You understand the anatomy, their poison characteristics, and the pure danger of those two giant monsters better than anyone else."
Hedin stepped a little closer to the desk, his eyes squinting suspiciously behind his glasses. "If those monsters have already been successfully killed, what else is there to investigate from a carcass?"
Alfia let out a long sigh, trying to suppress the anger provoking her dark past memories from exploding in that room. She closed her eyes for a moment, recalling the hellish battle that led to their bitter victory.
"The Behemoth," said Alfia slowly, her voice breaking the silence with absolute historical facts known only to the legends on the front lines. "The King of the Land. A giant monster whose every inch of its body emitted an incurable deadly poison. We fought it in the rocky desert region to the southeast. Zald... he was the one who delivered the deciding blow by eating that monster's poisonous flesh to gain power beyond limits, sacrificing his own body."
Alfia stared at Royman with eyes that pierced into the past.
"After Zald killed the Behemoth, the massive Monster Stone of that creature was completely destroyed so its body could not regenerate. The explosion from the destruction of the monster's core was massive. Its poison and physical remains exploded, covering the entire area with thick ash. That place turned into an incredibly vast, highly toxic, and completely lifeless desert. The Black Desert, Kaios Desert." Alfia pressed both her hands onto the mahogany desk. "That desert is dead. The giant's corpse has turned into toxic dust. What could possibly happen in an ash dump like that?"
Before Royman could open his trembling mouth, Alfia continued with an increasingly sharp and intimidating tone.
"Then the Leviathan. The King of the Sea who triggered tsunamis and swallowed most of our fleet. I myself pierced its scale defense and delivered the finishing strike from the sky using Genos Angelus magic," said Alfia, her voice laden with cold pride. "But we didn't destroy the Leviathan's remains into ash like we did with the Behemoth. We needed something massive enough to seal another danger."
The witch leaned forward, glaring sharply at Royman, making the plump elf lean back into his chair under pressure.
"Its carcass... the giant body of the Leviathan that still harbored remnants of the sea curse... was used as a physical seal to close the entrance of a deadly underwater Dungeon. And as the whole world knows, the Poseidon Familia was exclusively tasked by the Guild to oversee and guard that carcass seal in the waters of Port Melen."
Alfia straightened her back again, giving a judgmental look that pierced the soul.
"So, tell me, Bureaucrat. What exactly happened to the remnants of the monsters we already killed and took care of?"
Hearing the detailed explanation laden with intimidation and the weight of the past, Royman swallowed hard again. He opened the thick-covered black folder before him, revealing a stack of paper reports filled with emergency stamps and red ink scribbles.
"Your knowledge and memory are very precise, Miss Alfia. Exactly as expected from the hero who defeated them," said Royman with a voice that sounded almost like a hoarse whisper. He slid the first few pages of the report towards Venti and Alfia.
"This is the real crisis currently threatening the stability of the outside world," continued the Head of the Guild, pointing to a nautical map marked with many red crosses along its coastline. "In the past week, the Guild has received a string of horrifying reports from Port Melen. A massive number of merchant ships, passenger ships, and even heavy-class armed patrol ships have disappeared without a trace in those waters."
Venti glanced at the report from his seat, his eyes catching highly unnatural numbers of financial losses and casualties.
"Those ships didn't sink due to a storm, and there isn't a single piece of wooden debris or sailor's corpse floating on the surface of the waves," explained Royman with a gloomy tone, crumpling his report. "They just vanished around the area of the Leviathan seal. We highly suspect there is an anomaly using the remnants of the Leviathan's curse, or the giant carcass seal has suffered severe damage causing sea monsters to swallow ships again."
Royman then pointed to the second stack of reports showing a map of the continental landmass, far to the southeast of Orario.
"And this tragedy is not only happening at sea," added Royman, his voice trembling slightly imagining the horror. "In the opposite direction, in the Kaios Desert. The Black Desert is indeed deadly, but there are certain peripheral routes that are usually safe for merchant caravans to pass through to bring supplies to Orario. However, recently, many large-scale merchant caravans have been reported to die tragically, and most of them simply disappeared in the middle of that toxic ash field."
Royman looked at Venti and Alfia with a pleading gaze, shedding most of his bureaucratic arrogance and forgetting the gold treasures around him when faced with a disaster-scale threat.
"Lord Barbatos... Miss Alfia... the Guild really needs the Barbatos Familia to investigate this double anomaly secretly," pleaded Royman, his tone turning highly desperate and urgent. "The Melen sea route and the land route on the Kaios border are the lifeblood of Orario's foreign trade. The Demeter Familia does guarantee our basic food supply, but this city cannot survive on wheat alone. The supply of rare iron ore for blacksmith familias, potion ingredients from the outer continent, and most importantly, our magic stone exports... all of it will be paralyzed. If this distribution dies, Orario's economy will collapse and foreign countries will start cutting off trade ties with us. I beg you, please help us investigate this matter. If possible, deploy Alfia directly. She is the only existence left in Orario right now who truly understands the structure of the Behemoth and Leviathan."
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