This chapter is 3 in 1, 193.1/193.2/194 — I did this so I wouldn't lose track of the count ;)
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Chapter 193.1: Chapter 5: Elf Girl's Great Counterattack!
"Are we really doing the hypnosis thing...?"
"Trust in Goddess Aphrodite!"
"Hmm."
That woman — could she actually be trusted?
Both Lefiya and Tiona harbored considerable doubts on that front. Only Ryuu seemed to place any real faith in the Goddess of Beauty — and with good reason. The last "operation" she'd devised had actually worked, after all!
It was the dead of night.
The three girls were huddled in their room, whispering to one another in the dark.
That's right — Ryuu was also planning to participate in tonight's "Great Hypnosis Operation." In fact, she was the one who had conceived it in the first place, and had subsequently recruited Tiona into the fold.
The story was simpler than it sounded. Aphrodite had let slip to Ryuu that on the night of the "invisibility" incident, Lefiya had actually been right there alongside everyone else. (A certain Goddess of Beauty: Heh-heh~☆)
And just like that, a certain... indescribable new "understanding" had taken root between the two Elf maidens.
Hmm!
As any woman knew, when girls gathered in private, conversations had a way of cutting straight to the point — blunt and completely unfiltered. It didn't matter whether you were a goddess or an elf. No one was immune.
And so, at present, Ryuu had her own grievance to air.
Specifically: Demeter and Lady Astrea were absolutely shameless bullies!!
Of course, explaining exactly what had been happening was its own challenge — because to make Lefiya and the others understand, she'd have to explain how, when they were trying to sleep at night, Lady Demeter would always... and then Lady Astrea would join in together... and they'd bite... and press down... and then...
She had tried fighting back, of course. But one against two goddesses? She didn't stand a chance.
Ever since that first night, Ryuu had realized — she was always the one getting picked on. Because the goddesses had each other as backup, and she had no one!!
And so.
At first, Ryuu had found it all merely... vexing. But then she'd learned that Lefiya had also taken part in the "Great Invisibility Operation," and a new thought had naturally followed: perhaps she could acquire an ally of her own?
Quietly, privately, the two Elf maidens had already discussed the matter at length.
And so, when Aphrodite declared that "the theme of the next act shall be [Hypnosis]," Ryuu and Lefiya had immediately decided to join forces.
Originally, they'd considered inviting Cecil as well.
But the prickly young blacksmith girl seemed to have her own agenda — and she was clearly far too embarrassed to discuss this sort of thing with everyone else. So that was that.
What Ryuu hadn't anticipated, however, was that Tiona would end up joining in at the last moment.
"I'm here to help!"
The Amazon girl wore an expression of complete and utter seriousness, nodding away with an earnest, slightly clueless look on her face. But the kind of "help" Tiona had in mind was clearly not the same kind of "help" Ryuu and Lefiya were thinking of.
In any case...
"Operation: Begin!"
At Ryuu's command, Tiona produced the Holy Grail that Aphrodite had bestowed upon her and placed it before the two Elf girls.
Following the method Aphrodite had taught them, they completed the hypnosis in short order.
That's right.
They were not going to use the Holy Grail to hypnotize Isagi — they were going to hypnotize themselves. And that choice was very much tied to the two Elf maidens' respective goals.
First: Ryuu.
Her objective was simple and pure. When the goddesses came to bully her, she wanted to fight back — to make them understand once and for all that she was not someone to be pushed around!!
This had absolutely nothing to do with adventuring or anything remotely "respectable." It was entirely, completely "disreputable."
But it was also extremely important!!
After all, this was something she had to endure on many a night back in the city, when they weren't out on expeditions.
And if she was being honest with herself.
Ryuu had gradually come to understand why her former companions — not one of them with a boyfriend to their name — had always made this sort of thing such a constant topic of conversation.
It had long since gone beyond mere physical comfort. There was an inexplicable sense of release — something almost beautiful about it. Even when she was out adventuring, knowing that once she returned to the city there would be so many things waiting to be done with Isagi... it gave her something to look forward to. Something that made her feel as though both body and soul had been through a kind of purification.
So — improper as it was, it truly mattered!!
Ahem, ahem, ahem...
Ryuu had already analyzed the problem thoroughly. She was no match for the goddesses on her own — and beyond the simple numbers disadvantage (two of them, one of her), there was also the matter of her own personality.
She simply couldn't bring herself to strike at goddesses with any real force.
Which meant every time she tried to fight back, it came out soft and half-hearted — less like resistance and more like flirting, which only fanned the goddesses' interest further.
Damn it!
Clearly, what was needed here was hypnosis.
Use hypnosis to strip away her own timid, shrinking nature, and then strike back with full force!
Ryuu's thinking was exactly that simple.
As for how to strike back — she genuinely had no idea. That was why she had to leave it entirely in the hands of Lefiya and Tiona. They were the ones doing the hypnotizing, after all. Which meant the specifics of the counterattack were entirely up to them.
From Ryuu's perspective, that was the full extent of the plan.
And so...
——
Late night.
The stars and moon of early summer shimmered bright against the pitch-black canvas of the sky. Glimpsed through the window, they gave the strange illusion of a world that was somehow cheerful.
Isagi rubbed his eyes, no longer sure what time it was.
Summer nights weren't as long as winter ones, and beds lost a great deal of their charm when the cold was gone.
Back in those chilly winter days — huddled in a stifling room thick with the heat of burning charcoal, cocooned in heavy blankets, with the warm, soft weight of a woman pressed against him — those were memories he found himself missing with a deep, wordless fondness.
But summer was summer. Even now, with the thin, cool night breeze drifting in through the window, there was still that faint, clinging stickiness that made sleep uncomfortable.
That was why Ryuu-senpai and Goddess Astrea had both gone back to their own rooms to sleep. With four people crammed in together, there was no way anyone would have gotten a decent rest.
Even Isagi himself had been thinking about getting up for a bath.
Demeter, at his side, was fast asleep.
Even the perpetually clingy "mama goddess" had, in this heat, retreated to the far side of the bed — curled up close to the wall — rather than wrapping herself around him the way she always did in winter.
Back then, getting out of bed had always felt like dragging himself out of a mountain of cotton candy.
Summer really was like that. For lazy, restful days at home, it simply couldn't compare to winter.
Mmm——
Though perhaps there was one other issue worth noting: this world had no air conditioning.
Not even an electric fan!!
Deep in these idle thoughts, Isagi climbed out of bed — clad in nothing but his sleep pants — and made his way downstairs to the bathroom for a quick shower before returning to sleep.
The late night was perfectly still.
The farmstead was large. By now, the other girls of the Familia — including Goddess Artemis and Goddess Aphrodite — should all have long since gone to bed. The silence was complete.
Only the intermittent, distant-then-near calls of dogs, frogs, and cicadas reached him, laced with the occasional cry of some unidentifiable bird.
Isagi didn't bother with the lights.
After more than half a year, he knew the farmstead by heart. Even in total darkness, navigating by the faint outlines of familiar shapes, he made it to the bathroom without incident, showered, and returned to his room without any trouble.
All of it done. He had no idea how long it had taken.
But when Isagi settled back into bed — he found that someone had appeared while he was gone.
It was Ryuu-senpai.
"?"
He only noticed when he lay back down.
The slender Elf girl was tucked inside the summer blanket, and she was warm — almost startlingly so, like a small furnace pressed against him in the sticky night heat.
Isagi was genuinely puzzled.
Because under normal circumstances, Ryuu-senpai was the same type as Goddess Astrea — neither of them were the type to initiate. They simply didn't do this sort of thing unprompted.
To put it plainly: when it came to bedtime, Goddess Demeter would come straight to him — practically pouncing — and then, without any preamble, use her hands, her lips, or... whatever else, in a way that was completely direct and required no explanation whatsoever. The message was one word.
[Want.]
But Goddess Astrea and Ryuu-senpai were nothing like that.
At most, a hint might surface in their eyes — and even then, more often than not, they'd actually run away, as if going any further would be too embarrassing to bear, something even they themselves couldn't bring themselves to go through with.
That was simply the difference in personalities. Perfectly understandable. And so Isagi could tell immediately — the Ryuu-senpai beside him right now was being proactive in a way that was entirely unlike herself.
Come to think of it — hadn't she just gone back to her room to sleep? Surely she hadn't had a nightmare and come running over to sleep beside him? That seemed too far-fetched even to consider.
Isagi shook his head at his own absurd reasoning.
And then — the next surprise.
Ryuu-senpai made her move.
And not in the tentative, half-asleep, "maybe I want something" sort of way — no, she was direct. She reached over and flipped Goddess Demeter onto her back.
That was baffling on an entirely different level.
Because by Ryuu-senpai's nature, even when she did want something in this kind of situation, she would always "pretend" the women beside them didn't exist. As if acting like they weren't there.
Which, of course, was impossible in practice — and so, naturally, the other goddesses would take that as an opening to tease her, which made the whole thing rather entertaining.
So in that sense, having both Demeter and Astrea already asleep was actually something of a relief for Ryuu.
And yet — right now.
Isagi was certain of it — this was, without question, the first time Ryuu-senpai had ever been the one to initiate with someone else. And not just anyone: Demeter, who was considerably more "formidable" than even Astrea.
Because sometimes, even when Demeter had already drifted off to sleep, Isagi himself would feel a little guilty about disturbing her.
And here was Ryuu-senpai, doing exactly that — without a moment's hesitation.
And moreover.
She was being very, very direct about it.
Beneath the dark blanket, in the absolute, impenetrable blackness where sight was useless, there was no need for eyes.
Isagi had long since grown accustomed to reading a situation entirely through touch in moments like these. It wasn't hard to figure out — lying in bed, the range of things that could be happening was not particularly wide, after all.
And what was happening right now was unmistakable.
In the narrow space of the double bed's blanket, Ryuu-senpai — who had been curled up small in the center, taking up almost no space at all, like a cat rolled into a ball — had now fully unfolded herself.
Based on his experience, he would have expected her to shift toward his side.
Proactively, in the clumsy, endearing way of a koala — nestling close, arms wrapping around him, using that awkward nearness to wordlessly communicate that she was still awake and perhaps something ought to be done about that.
But instead, she had done the exact opposite.
Not only had she dragged Demeter — who had been lying with her back to the room, facing the wall — and turned her completely around, she had then actively moved over to that side herself.
All of her. Her whole body.
And she pulled Isagi along with her.
What had been a reasonably spacious arrangement suddenly had all its open space claimed, leaving Isagi and the two of them pressed together in a warm, cramped tangle.
The cool air that had made the night bearable vanished instantly, replaced by a clinging, muggy heat.
The sweet, natural fragrance of a woman filled his every breath.
At the same time, Isagi heard Demeter let out a soft, murmuring sound — the unmistakable reaction of someone pulled from sleep by an "external disturbance."
And Ryuu-senpai was accelerating the process — rapidly.
The Elf girl had come completely prepared.
She took hold of Isagi's hand — quickly, silently — and began guiding his movements with quiet authority: draping Demeter's arms over him, pressing his head down beneath them, then using her legs to pin Demeter's legs — or rather, to entwine them, which was the more accurate word.
Ryuu-senpai was practically tumbling around beneath the blanket, making full use of her small, slender frame like a warm little snake winding through the dark — and though it was no easy feat, she ultimately accomplished everything she had set out to do.
And then.
With his hands still free to move.
Isagi soon realized that on Demeter's side, Ryuu-senpai had begun — swiftly — to employ her hands and... not her feet, no, the right phrase was hands and mouth, both working in concert.
As if staking a claim. As if demanding cooperation.
Even as she did whatever she was doing, she reached out and pulled Isagi's hand over — making it completely, unmistakably clear exactly what she was up to.
That, of course, produced an immediate response from Demeter — which was precisely what Ryuu-senpai had wanted.
Everything was going according to plan.
Because after this.
If the Elf girl wanted to continue, she would need Isagi to take over the "lead role" — and she, clearly, would shift to providing support from the side.
Just like what Demeter or Goddess Astrea usually did.
Understood. Isagi understood immediately — Ryuu-senpai was getting revenge tonight. And now that he thought about it — her earlier move of saying she was going to take a bath and then heading back to her room, taking Goddess Astrea with her, sending her away — that had been part of the plan all along, hadn't it?!
Because if both goddesses were still here right now, even with his help, "holding down" two of them at the same time would be next to impossible.
Mmm——
Isagi, for his part, had no particular objection. It wasn't so different from any other night, really.
But for Ryuu — this felt entirely different from anything before. Especially when it came to Goddess Demeter herself, this was all fine, comparatively. The one she was truly embarrassed about, the one she'd never allowed herself to even think of this way, was Goddess Astrea. Because before all of this, she never could have imagined herself ever doing something like this.
And yet.
The more she thought it, the more the Elf girl felt an irresistible, restless stirring.
She had been thoroughly corrupted.
Whether it was the hypnosis's doing, or simply her true nature finally surfacing — she couldn't say.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the farmstead, Lefiya and Tiona — not yet asleep — had no idea what was currently unfolding in that bedroom. But the night was still long, and what lay ahead wasn't only what Ryuu-senpai had in mind. They had their own intentions to see through as well...
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Chapter 193.2: Chapter 6: Interlude - Elf Girl's Great Counterattack!
Ryuu's Phase One battle plan was an overwhelming success!
But it wasn't enough.
After all, that victory had only been possible with Isagi's help — and more importantly, only because Goddess Astrea hadn't been there. The elven girl knew perfectly well that if the Goddess of Justice had been present from the start, she would have been the one getting thoroughly "dealt with" instead.
Which meant it was time for Phase Two.
Heh-heh-heh.
When it was all over, the beautiful matron goddess had once again collapsed into exhausted slumber. But for some reason Ryuu couldn't quite explain, she herself felt inexplicably, almost impossibly awake — positively buzzing with a restless, giddy energy.
The elven girl was in a very strange state of mind.
Her head was completely full of what came next — how she was going to get her revenge on Goddess Astrea — and sleep was simply out of the question.
And so.
Ryuu tugged the boy beside her along, making a show of wanting to take another shower. Which, technically, they did — but afterward, she proactively led him straight to the Goddess of Justice's bedroom.
Isagi was a little dazed through most of it.
It was deep into the night, and he was genuinely tired from the second round. He had noticed that Ryuu-senpai seemed a little strange tonight, but he was too worn out to think it through. He just figured she'd been plotting this for a while — and honestly, it didn't really matter. It was just a little "late-night mood-setting," and having it was better than not.
So when the elven girl led him into the Goddess of Justice's room, Isagi wasn't surprised in the slightest.
Compared to Demeter — Goddess Astrea was almost certainly the one Ryuu-senpai really wanted to "bully," wasn't she? There was always that sense of something slightly forbidden between those two, some delicious, unspoken tension.
That was precisely the charm of things done in secret.
It stripped away all the usual rules and reservations, and in their place left a pleasure that was almost impossible to put into words. Watching the elven girl — just like before — take the initiative and slip into the bed, Isagi could only let himself be pulled down alongside her.
The summer night had grown even deeper without their noticing.
Even without checking the time, you could feel it in your bones — it was well past midnight now. The sky outside hung heavy and dark, the stars and moon almost entirely hidden, and only the distant, intermittent barking of dogs carried through the stillness.
Goddess Astrea was fast asleep.
Much like the beautiful matron goddess before her, the Goddess of Justice lay alone in her bed, curled slightly inward like a sleeping child. A look of pure, contented satisfaction rested on her face, and the faint flush of cherry blossom pink bloomed softly across her pale skin as she breathed quietly in slumber.
Isagi's mind was getting a little hazy.
His body was perfectly fine, but his thoughts had gone quiet — almost completely still — and he was moving almost entirely on Ryuu-senpai's silent guidance. He didn't really need to think about anything, because what the elven girl did next was, in essence, no different from what had just happened.
And so——
Goddess Astrea was, of course, woken up before long.
When the Goddess drifted up from sleep, she was thoroughly disoriented. For a moment she couldn't distinguish dream from reality at all — her mind still replaying something from the dream she'd just been having — while her body, already sending her very clear signals, was insistently informing her of exactly what was going on in the present moment.
The feeling was familiar.
Because on many a night, this was simply how things went. It never ended after just once. You'd drift off to sleep, then surface again in the middle of the night, look at the person beside you, and suddenly... want to start again. It had happened to both of them — to her, and to Isagi alike. So neither of them could judge the other for it. You simply got used to it, and quickly.
And so.
The very first sound Astrea made was one that closely resembled her usual reaction — something warm and pleased, almost encouraging, with just a faint undercurrent of impatient urging.
Unlike Demeter, the Goddess of Justice was quite content to simply close her eyes and enjoy herself. In moments like these, Demeter still liked to take a more active role — pulling closer, maintaining some sense of control — but Astrea preferred to simply let things happen naturally.
At most, she would let out those soft, sweet sounds of hers as a signal — a gentle nudge for him to hurry up and stop teasing.
But the more she relaxed into it, the more something felt wrong.
How were there suddenly more hands under the blanket?!
And more than that — mm — how were there... more lips...?!
!!
Being "attacked" from multiple directions simultaneously — there was no way Astrea could fail to notice that!
But it didn't take long for her to think of an explanation.
Demeter. That woman must be in here too!!
Because that's just how it usually went, wasn't it? If anything, Astrea had learned a lot of things from watching her. At the very beginning, she had only been able to lie there and observe, waiting for Isagi to come find her. So it wasn't so strange.
But then, very quickly.
She came fully awake — even the dream she'd been having evaporated entirely — and reality snapped back into place. Memory followed close behind, and Astrea suddenly remembered with perfect clarity what time it was and exactly where she was.
Wait — this wasn't right!
Hadn't it already ended earlier? She and Ryuu had bathed together, then each gone back to their own rooms to sleep.
Isagi turning up in her bed after that — honestly, that didn't surprise her in the least, and if anything she found it rather welcome — but Demeter too?!
It wasn't impossible, she supposed.
But something still didn't add up. Because the touch she was feeling through the darkness was simply too different from the soft, sweet warmth of the beautiful matron goddess.
And more than that.
The lips and tongue... were very, very different!
In that same instant, the only name that came to Astrea's mind was: Ryuu.
"?!!"
For one brief, suspended moment, the Goddess found herself in a state of complete and utter blankness.
And then, rapidly, the memories came flooding back — all those previous nights, including everything that had happened just before she'd fallen asleep, everything she had done to the elven girl — and now it had all come flying back like a boomerang, landing squarely on her.
No — what even was this?!
Astrea's very first instinct was to continue pretending to be asleep.
Mm—!
But her mind and body were both already melting. Stopping it was out of the question — she couldn't even manage to move. Not even a twitch.
Right. Just pretend to be asleep. That was the plan.
In that moment, the Goddess of Justice became overwhelmingly, utterly adorable in the most childish, helpless sort of way.
And then, of course, the unexpected struck again.
"Creak."
In the darkness, the sound of the bedroom door being pushed open was startlingly clear. Then came a girl's voice.
"Goddess Astrea, are you asleep?"
It was Tiona!
The moment the Amazon girl's voice rang out through the room, both Isagi and Ryuu felt it instantly — Goddess Astrea's body, which had been so wonderfully, softly yielding just moments before, like a cloud spread open, went rigid as a bowstring.
What—?
Why had Tiona come in?!
Isagi had absolutely no idea — but this was Ryuu's Phase Two plan!!
The hypnosis had turned the elven girl into a complete devil.
And without question — for Goddess Astrea, having another Familia member present in this room right now sent her sense of shame skyrocketing in an instant.
Tiona didn't turn on the lights.
She simply entered, closed the door behind her, and began walking slowly toward the bed.
As the sound of her footsteps drew nearer.
Astrea — who had just been planning to keep pretending she was asleep and know nothing — felt her entire being begin to unravel.
Trembling. Breathless. Fighting the urge to make some very strange sounds.
Tiona's footsteps didn't stop. She kept approaching, and kept asking in that cheerfully oblivious tone of hers:
"Goddess Astrea, are you asleep?"
"No, I'm not!"
The Goddess finally broke, speaking up first, determined to stop the girl from reaching the bedside.
"What is it... Tio...na?"
She managed to keep her voice soft and gentle, the way she normally spoke, and the words halted Tiona's advance.
The room was pitch-black.
Tiona hadn't turned on any lights, which was, in one sense, a mercy for Astrea — but somehow, perhaps because of that very darkness, Ryuu and Isagi both became even more brazen.
!
Astrea had been about to push herself up from the bed — to sit halfway up and look composed — but she found she absolutely could not manage it.
She worked desperately to swallow back every strange sound that rose in her throat, concentrating with every ounce of willpower she possessed — as though she had never once been this focused on anything — forcing all her attention onto the silhouette of that dim-witted Amazon girl standing in the darkness, whose outline alone was enough to make you want to smile.
It was like being trapped in the sweltering heat of a blazing summer day, roasting in the sun with no escape, and having nothing left to do but repeat over and over in your head: "A calm heart brings its own coolness, a calm heart brings its own coolness, a calm heart..."
"Mm——"
Every second of Tiona's hesitant, about-to-say-something-but-not expression was pure torment for Goddess Astrea.
"I can't sleep."
"What's the matter?"
"I had a nightmare!"
"A nightmare?"
"Yeah! But I'm already starting to forget it... it's just, I..."
[Well done, Tiona!!]
Isagi had absolutely no idea what this girl was actually here for — but he couldn't help mentally giving her a massive thumbs-up.
Because the experience really was something else entirely.
It wasn't necessarily that the Goddess's current state of rigid, trembling tension was better than her earlier state of blissful relaxation — it was just completely, utterly different. And different was the whole point. You understand?
A different experience meant entirely new sensations. That was the most interesting part. And beyond that, even Isagi himself could clearly feel the shared embarrassment, and —
Ryuu-senpai was stepping it up!!
Because this had been the elven girl's plan all along: while the Amazon girl was making awkward small talk, use that window to press the assault on the Goddess, deal her maximum critical hit damage!
The old Ryuu — the one before tonight — would never have even dared think something like this. Even if Tiona and Lefiya had proposed this exact plan, she would have been completely incapable of carrying it out.
Thank goodness for hypnosis.
Right now, the elven girl had sunk completely into that overwhelmingly sweet indulgence. And she was growing more and more reckless by the moment.
And besides — this was nowhere near the end. Not even close. Because—
_______________________________
Chapter 194: Ancient Era DLC?
"Thank you, Goddess. Sorry to bother you — Tiona's heading back now."
"Mm... g... good ni... good night..."
"Good night."
As the Amazon girl finally turned to leave, the sound of the door opening and then closing traveled through the dark.
Goddess Astrea let out something very close to a sigh of relief.
And then — completely unable to hold it back any longer — she very nearly cried out loud right then and there.
She barely managed to clap a hand over her own mouth in time. Demeter's farmstead did have excellent soundproofing, it was true — but the window was open, and if she got too loud, the sound really would carry outside. And what if Tiona, who had just walked out the door, actually heard her?
So she had to be very, very quiet.
Sneaky, even.
She let only the smallest, most delicate sounds escape — the kind that, paradoxically, made you want to push even further.
Very clearly, Goddess Astrea felt that now, at last, it was time to go back to how things had been before — close her eyes, ignore the rest of the world, and simply enjoy.
But the Goddess had clearly gotten ahead of herself.
Tiona had been gone less than two minutes when, without warning, the bedroom door was knocked on again.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Those small, gentle knocks rang out through the darkness with startling clarity.
"Goddess, you haven't gone to sleep yet, have you? I'm coming in~"
It was Lefiya's voice.
But for some reason, the way she said it was oddly strange — an almost unsettling cadence to the words. The door opened again, followed by the sound of another girl stepping into the room.
The sudden, violent swing from one extreme to the other made both Isagi and Ryuu feel the shift in Astrea's body all over again — sharp and immediate.
[Yes!!]
Isagi was, naturally, still very much enjoying himself.
So was Ryuu.
Because this was still all part of their battle plan!
The night was long — there was simply no way they'd let the Goddess reach the "end" so quickly.
——
Hee-hee-hee.
The elven girl grew more and more shameless. Keeping herself quiet was easy enough — she just had to keep her own mouth occupied. Biting something, or... keeping something in her mouth. Very simple solutions, all of them.
However.
Not even Ryuu could have anticipated what happened next.
Because Lefiya, at this moment, completely abandoned the battle plan.
She was supposed to do what Tiona had done — wander around the room, make her presence known, keep the Goddess flustered and teetering on the edge while making awkward conversation, keeping her mind stretched taut.
Every experienced reader knows the principle: the tighter the string is wound, the more explosive the moment it finally snaps — you keep stopping it, holding it back, for longer and longer and longer, until all of it comes rushing out at once... which is, more or less, the idea. Everyone gets it.
But Lefiya did none of that.
Instead, the elven girl crossed the room in quick, determined strides — giving Goddess Astrea no time to react whatsoever — walked straight up to the bed, and dove under the blanket.
"?"
"?"
"?"
In one sudden moment, the already-crowded bed had gained another person — and that was entirely unexpected by absolutely everyone present.
And this.
Was Tiona's battle plan.
"Why make it so complicated?"
Tiona had just slipped out of the room, used the Holy Grail to hypnotize Lefiya, and sent her in to carry out her "instructions." Now the Amazon girl stood alone in the second-floor corridor, muttering to herself.
She had clearly awakened some deeply buried Amazon instinct.
Holy Grail in hand, Tiona pushed the Goddess of Justice's bedroom door open once more.
And then.
"Click."
As the door closed one final time, the farmstead sank completely into that particular, clinging, sweltering heat that only a summer night could produce — the kind that promises a long, long, long——
______
Black Moon.
Black liquid dripped down into the courtyard below, pooling slowly like the still, cold surface of a gathering lake.
Isagi held it carefully in both hands — a heart the size of a football, enormous, seemingly throbbing with a faint, persistent pulse. It was what he had dug out from the corpse of the "Tree Dragon" beneath the Pearl Tree — the creature also known as the [Miracle of Life] — after defeating the Nameless Hero "Dawn-Dark Moon." The hero himself had dropped no equipment or materials upon death, but this had been waiting inside.
[Inherited Heart of Life:
The source of power held by an ancient miracle — a being that symbolizes the birth of countless lives.
Legend has it:
Light gave birth to all life. But within the Dungeon, all of that was accomplished by "Darkness."
Ancient miracles are born already carrying a certain function. Compared to monsters, can they truly be called living things that possess "life"?
Life is not boundless and free. On the contrary — for life to be passed down and continued, it must shoulder a certain responsibility, and give everything for the sake of that duty.
This is the original symbol of life.
Note: Life continues without end. Even when the body is lost, the spirit endures.
(Blessed by a miracle of the Dungeon)
Battle Skill: Black Moon
· Life Magic
· Capable of summoning a living "Mana Teardrop" and shaping it into any form.]
At first glance, the thing had looked like nothing more than raw crafting material for weapons or equipment.
But after having it appraised — Isagi realized it was actually a Magic Gem.
And a Magic Gem of almost unbelievable quality. So high, in fact, that when Riveria saw it, she immediately told him to hide it — because if word got out, the magical great powers would come calling. Her exact words.
[A Heirloom-Grade Treasure]!
Those were the High Elf Princess's exact words.
Beyond that, the item description had also mentioned from the start that the [Miracle of Life] obtained from the Tree Dragon could be used to enchant it.
So Isagi did exactly that.
The result was that the Magic Gem became a usable "weapon" in its own right — gaining a brand new Battle Skill.
The magic he was demonstrating right now.
Black, ice-cold liquid spread outward from beneath his feet, slowly, gradually — and then began taking form, just like the Nameless Hero from before. Spikes. A shield. Blades. It could become anything.
Offense and defense alike. Both at will.
But none of that was the important part.
The important part was this: under Isagi's control, it reshaped itself into Isagi himself.
"How is that even possible?!"
Under the night sky.
Ais and Riveria stared at the scene unfolding before them, completely speechless.
They had originally come looking for Isagi to continue tonight's adventure run in the [Dark Hall] — a full party sweep on auto-pilot.
Honestly, they were getting a little addicted to it.
After all, through several rounds of exploration, the group had already left behind the original [Plague Village] area and pushed through to the place called the Ancient City of Caelid — or something like that.
And since Isagi and the girls had just returned from a Dungeon run, brimming with energy — of course they weren't going to miss out!
Isagi had no particular objections either.
It had been just over a month since he'd unleashed that Divine Power and brought the "Nightmare" down upon the Pleasure Quarter.
In the time since, he and the girls had simply continued grinding through the Dungeon together, clearing floors and leveling up.
He felt like he'd covered the Middle Floors pretty thoroughly at this point. His only real remaining goal was to reach Lv.6 and then attempt a challenge against Alfia.
That would probably take a few more months — maybe even half a year. Isagi wasn't in any particular rush. His routine was simple: head into the Dungeon every few days for a week or two at a time, then come back up. Repeat.
That was how most adventurers lived.
After all — many second-tier adventurers spent years grinding the Dungeon. Most of the time, "being an adventurer" really just meant this: descend to a familiar set of floors, systematically clear the monsters as they respawned, then head back up loaded with loot. A cycle, over and over again.
Isagi had come to settle into that rhythm himself.
But — getting back to the matter at hand.
The black liquid had finished coalescing into human form. It had no face. But its silhouette — its outline, its proportions — was nearly identical to Isagi himself.
Not only that: it had even manifested weapons and armor. In the blink of an eye, it had taken on the exact appearance of Isagi in battle, clad in his [Wolf's Feast] equipment — and it looked ready.
There was no need to bring Ais in as a test subject.
Isagi drew his weapon and ran a brief sparring session against it himself. The result was clear: the double's combat strength was absolutely no weaker than his own. It might even have been slightly stronger.
Because it genuinely felt no pain — and it didn't fear death. That was a meaningful distinction, even compared to Isagi's own resurrection ability.
Gazing at the fully-formed humanoid figure before him — the "Black Moon" standing there in perfect stillness — Isagi dredged up a memory from the very distant past.
[Holy sh—!!]
"Big Bro!"
How had it taken him this long to realize his "Teardrop Big Bro" existed?!
For future adventures, this wasn't just a matter of getting twice the result for half the effort. This was something else entirely.
[This is broken.]
It had already crossed the line into territory that made you want to scream "This is unfair!"
That was the first thought that arose in both Ais and Riveria's minds.
The three of them stood in the courtyard of the [Garden of Stars], circling around "Teardrop Big Bro" for quite a while. Neither Ais nor Riveria had any idea why Isagi had suddenly started calling the thing "Teardrop" — what the name even meant — but they were both utterly fascinated regardless. What kind of magic was this, exactly? It was extraordinary.
"Life Magic."
That was the magic attribute listed on the Magic Gem in Isagi's hand — written out clearly and explicitly. Riveria had never heard of it before.
And beyond that — Isagi himself was puzzling over something.
The description of the Magic Gem contained a "Note" — and he didn't know what to make of it.
[Life continues without end. Even when the body is lost, the spirit endures.]
If this were just a throwaway line in an item description, there would be no reason to single it out in its own dedicated entry. So why?
Isagi couldn't figure it out.
And the item was clearly connected in some way to the Nameless Hero "Dawn-Dark Moon" that he'd fought before. On that subject, Riveria had turned up something new.
Some time ago, Isagi had visited the Guild's archives looking for information on the hero — and come up empty. His conclusion had been that the man was almost certainly a "Heroic Ancient" — someone who had come to Orario before the Gods descended to the Lower World, and therefore had never received a Falna.
Intrigued by the mystery, Riveria had written letters back to the Alfr royal forest, asking for help from several elder Elves — ancient sages who had long since retired from the world — to dig up whatever they could.
Thank the Elves' longevity for this one.
It had taken a long time — but they had actually found something.
"[Dawn-Dark Moon] Airon Delmos was one of the followers of Sertia, the former Elf Saint."
Elves are a race that places enormous weight on their royal bloodlines. And the former Elf Saint Sertia was herself of royal descent — so when she came to Orario to fight monsters, it was perfectly natural that many Elves would volunteer to serve as her guards and escorts.
"The name Airon Delmos is recorded explicitly in the adventure chronicles connected to Her Highness the Saint."
"According to legend, he was a solitary wandering Elf. By chance, he intervened to save a village under monster attack — and then, hearing rumors of the Saint fighting monsters in the city, he followed those rumors here and offered his service."
The records on him were sparse. And they weren't even proper written accounts — just stories that a handful of Elf sages, each over a thousand years old, recalled having once "heard about."
"As expected — something from the ancient era."
This at least confirmed what Isagi and Ryuu had already suspected.
But the connection to the Elf Saint Sertia was unexpected. She was a figure of considerable renown — reportedly a companion of the Great Hero Albert himself.
"Albert was also known as the [Mercenary King]. Back in those days, he must have gathered a group of extraordinarily powerful companions around him."
The hero chronicles devoted very little ink to the Mercenary King's companions.
But when you thought about it — turning the [Black Dragon] into "One-Eyed" couldn't have been his accomplishment alone.
Beyond that, Sertia was an Elf Saint who had witnessed the entirety of the ancient age with her own eyes. From the moment monsters first appeared on the continent and began sweeping through nation after nation, to the heroes who rose in answer and took up their banners, to the great counterattack that pushed back to the location of the "Great Pit" — and the founding of the earliest form of Orario upon that ground.
Because Elves live so long.
Throughout all of that time, countless heroes rose and fell — but Sertia was among the first to arrive in Orario, and she witnessed everything from beginning to end.
Of course, she had already died before the Gods descended to the Lower World.
But the circumstances of her death — along with the fates of the Great Hero Albert and his companions — remained an unsolved mystery.
The hero chronicles, naturally, made no mention of any of this.
Within the Elf race itself, the one thing that could be confirmed with certainty was that the current Alfr royal family were all descendants of Sertia's younger sister.
The Saint herself had left no bloodline behind —
Of course, over the past thousand years, there had occasionally been Half-Elves who claimed descent from the Saint. But it was almost universally dismissed as rumor and unfounded gossip, with no evidence to support any of it.
"The Gods almost certainly know — but for some reason, none of them are willing to say."
Riveria said it quietly.
That was only natural. The Gods watched everything that happened in the Lower World — claiming they knew nothing was simply impossible.
But Isagi understood by now — including Goddess Astrea herself — that there were many things the Gods simply could not speak of.
Because of the [Covenant].
Something tied to Divine Power — absolutely unbreakable. Now that Isagi himself had begun to wield Divine Power, he understood more clearly than ever just how immense and terrifying a force it truly was.
Well — not that it particularly mattered. It was all ancient history, in the end.
He recalled the "Teardrop Big Bro" back into the gem.
Isagi called out to Ais and Riveria and they turned back toward the house. By now, Ryuu-senpai and the others should have finished making the late-night snack — once they'd eaten, they could sleep, and then the girls could head into the [Dark Hall] to continue their adventure.
The routine was so familiar by now it was almost automatic. And honestly, Isagi thought — the more people the better.
Because the more people adventured there, the more Divine Power he accumulated. He'd nearly burned through all of it creating that last "Nightmare." Thanks to several sessions since then, he'd recovered a decent amount — and next time, he was planning to properly explore just how far the "Nightmare" ability could go at its absolute limit.
"Oh, right."
As if suddenly remembering something, Isagi switched his active Character Card over to [Puppet Kingdom].
He figured he'd extract some Ego Essence after dinner while he was at it.
And just at that moment — among the papers Riveria had brought from her letters, a tiny black Magic Stone fragment tumbled free and fell to the ground. According to the note, it was residue from the spellcraft "Dawn-Dark Moon" had developed during his lifetime.
Something like a holy relic of a dead hero.
Ancient-era Elves, beyond learning the various basic forms of magic, had relied primarily on their own cultivation.
Isagi guessed it was something like what Lefiya did — concentrating spiritual energy over and over, starting from its most basic form, and slowly, gradually shaping and transforming it into increasingly complex expressions.
But that kind of magical cultivation apparently couldn't be passed down. It was too deeply tied to the individual — to the self. To the soul.
In a way, that wasn't so different from how modern adventurers used magic.
Different in form, different in function — but carrying that same intense, irreducible quality of uniqueness. Back then, you had to discover and develop it yourself through long years of searching. Now, the Gods granted a Falna, a Status Panel appeared, and the magic simply... came to you.
Isagi didn't dwell on it too long.
He pocketed the small fragment — this so-called "holy relic of a hero" — and kept walking toward the gate.
Actually — come to think of it.
He'd been speculating for a while now that each of his Character Cards corresponded to a distinct "form of Divine Power" — a different kind of ability or manifestation.
[Night of the Hunt] was, without question, the [Nightmare].
But what about the others?
So far, he'd only sensed something from [Golden Age] — the small Golden Tree he'd planted seemed to carry within it something like a kind of "Rule" or "Law." A force that quietly existed.
Both Goddess Astrea and Goddess Demeter had felt it too.
At its core, it was a principle of the form: [if X happens, then Y follows]. Like "when an apple ripens, it falls" — or "when a person stops breathing, they die."
He still didn't know how it connected to the ability he'd already manifested — the one that could bring "a power remembered" into this world and imbue it into a weapon or piece of equipment.
Whether there was any connection at all, Isagi genuinely couldn't say.
And then there were the other Character Cards — what kind of "ability" would their Divine Power take shape as?
He was still turning that question over in his mind when something happened — the same kind of thing that had happened that night on the remote island, when he'd been alone in the wooden cabin drifting off to sleep, the night the Nightmare suddenly descended.
Right now. Right here.
With his thoughts drifting quietly beneath the stars and moon —
Isagi, Ais, and Riveria all saw it simultaneously: a tiny, pure-white butterfly, drifting up from within his chest and floating free into the air.
It scattered light as it moved — light like impossibly bright stars.
And it gave Isagi an intensely, overwhelmingly familiar feeling.
[Ego Essence].
But wasn't Ego Essence supposed to be deep blue?
Before he could even finish the thought — right there in front of all three of them, before the gate of the [Garden of Stars] — something grew.
A golden structure. Exquisitely crafted. Delicate as a work of art.
A respawn point?
This was a [Puppet Kingdom] respawn point.
Isagi had never used that Character Card for actual adventuring, so both Ais and Riveria looked completely lost.
And then.
The pure-white butterfly circled around it, dancing through the air — and in the very next instant, all three of them vanished without a trace, pulled by a force that could only have come from a God, carried back into the distant, distant past.
____
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