"Oh, they're tough. Supporters, fall back toward the center. Don't try to fight these things head-on—use ranged support instead. Melee fighters, watch out for their stingers."
After taking down a black scorpion in a single blow and feeling the resistance in her hands, Liya immediately began issuing orders.
Individually, the black scorpions did not have especially high stats, but their armor-like shells were a real nuisance. At the very least, it took the strength of a solid upper-tier Level 1 adventurer to break through their defenses.
Duncan and Letsa had forcefully split the black tide apart, but plenty of scorpions had still slipped past the range of their attacks. One look at those pitch-black tails was enough—no one dared guarantee they weren't venomous.
"Liya, you take command."
From within the formation, Artemis loosed several arrows into the swarm. When she saw the shells deflect them completely, she tossed her bow onto the supply cart, drew her shortsword, and leapt straight into the mass of black scorpions.
"Lady Artemis?! Ah, honestly—! Protect Lady Artemis!"
Seeing her goddess charge ahead before anyone could stop her, Liya stamped her foot in frustration and rushed after her.
Sword-light flickered.
Though gods descended to the lower world possessed only ordinary mortal bodies, Artemis's blade slipped through the black scorpions' defenses with astonishing ease. She danced amid the encirclement, and in the space of a few breaths had already cut down four or five of them. Even compared to Level 2 adventurers, that kind of skill was hardly inferior.
It was enough to give her followers a headache—her goddess ignored orders and threw herself into danger—but at the same time, their goddess charging the enemy herself gave the rest of the Familia incomparable courage.
If even their goddess could fight so fearlessly, how could they shrink back?
And when the two sides were evenly matched, the courage of one side could tilt the scale of battle.
The fierce clash lasted for a full half hour. Only after Duncan and Letsa finished clearing out most of the black scorpions at the front and turned back to support the rest did the encounter finally come to an end.
The forest had been reduced to a complete wreck.
Yet these black scorpions seemed unwilling to leave the blighted, withered woods. Once the party fought while retreating back into the still-living forest, the creatures' reluctance became obvious. It was the exact opposite of the suicidal frenzy they had shown before. Even so, they still forced themselves to push forward, and only by exploiting the terrain did the party manage to hold the line without suffering any deaths.
Still, everyone was injured.
The lower-level adventurers and the frontliners had it worst of all.
For an expedition Familia, casualties were hardly unusual. Even in the Artemis Familia, anyone who had lived with them for more than five years had already seen life and death at close range. Faced with a monster assault this ferocious, the fact that everyone had survived—however badly wounded—left the overall mood unexpectedly buoyant. Quite a few of the injured could still laugh and joke with one another.
Under normal circumstances, against something like this, "no fatalities" would have been a luxury. Even with Letsa present, the best outcome in the past would probably have been covering the retreat of their goddess and the Level 2 members, while the supplies and all the Level 1s were wiped out.
Now, not only had the entire party survived, they also had a mountain of magic stones and drops.
How could anyone not be happy?
"Captain, you and Duncan should get some rest. No matter what happens, if monsters attack again, you two will be the main force. Leave the watch to me and Landi."
Lixia and Landi took the initiative to relieve them.
"…All right. Then I'll leave it to you. We'll rest."
Letsa was not one to put on airs. After only a moment's thought, she accepted.
Unlike the good spirits among the rank and file, however, both Letsa and Artemis—the ones making the decisions—were deeply troubled. All their earlier concerns had resurfaced, and now that they had seen the strength of the monsters for themselves, the choice before them could no longer be postponed.
And yet, after that battle, the Aelsos Ruins were already close enough to be seen with the naked eye.
Even Letsa could no longer bring herself to say, Retreat immediately.
"What do we do, Lady Artemis? If those scorpions were only the grunts, then the mother body inside the ruins must be even stronger."
"…We split up," Artemis said after a long breath. "The exploration team will be me, you, Duncan, Liya, and Lixia. Landi and the others will fall back into the forest and remain on standby. If monsters appear, do not engage. Leave markers behind and retreat at once."
"If we haven't come out within a day, Landi is to lead everyone out of the Great Tree Labyrinth as fast as possible, regroup with the Astraea Familia, and decide what to do from there."
"Lady Artemis, absolutely not! You are not going inside the ruins!"
Letsa answered at once, her tone utterly resolute.
The danger inside the ruins was obvious at a glance. As captain of the Familia, she feared for her goddess's life first and foremost. And beyond that, if their goddess were sent back to Heaven, all of them would lose their Falna and become ordinary people.
To become ordinary humans in the depths of the Great Tree Labyrinth—
No one needed to say what that outcome would be.
"Aelsos has multiple seals and gate-locks. Without me, you cannot enter the ruins."
Artemis shook her head and rejected the proposal outright.
"Then stay at the entrance! Lady Artemis can open the gate and—"
"Letsa, you know that suggestion won't work. It's still early enough in the day. Other monsters haven't shown up yet. Move quickly."
Artemis cut her off and signaled for her to pass down the order.
Seeing that she couldn't sway her goddess, Letsa could only click her tongue and head toward the others to relay the command.
The order was so aggressive—reckless, even—that it immediately sparked another round of argument among the members. But under both Artemis's authority and Letsa's, the objections were finally beaten down, and the group moved, however reluctantly.
For a Familia member, a god's command was absolute.
Even when the order sounded absurd, that remained true.
That was precisely why adventurers were so cautious when choosing a Familia to join. The obligations tied to Falna were not exactly a contract of servitude—but they were close enough.
Under evil or dark gods, using one's own followers as human bombs had not been uncommon during Orario's darkest years.
Artemis was not that kind of deity.
She had never once forced her children to do something that harmed them for its own sake. It was her authority, and the love she had shown her Familia, that made them obey even when they did not want to.
As for whether they themselves would die in the Great Tree Labyrinth if their goddess were sent back to Heaven?
That mattered less to them than her safety.
The party shifted again.
The search group expanded from five people to nine. Aside from Landi, every Level 2 remained.
As they put it, if something happened to their goddess, they were not getting out of the Great Tree Labyrinth alive either. In that case, it made more sense to pile their strength around her.
A Familia without its goddess could be rebuilt.
A goddess without her Familia still had a future.
But if Artemis herself were lost, then the Artemis Familia would become nothing.
Its goddess, its members, its history, its memories—
all of it would be buried in this devouring forest.
By contrast, if their goddess survived, then even if everyone outside were wiped out, the surviving upper-class adventurers could still help Artemis build a new generation of the Artemis Familia.
....
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