-----------------------------------------
[Chapter Size: 2172 Words]
----------------------------------
The first day of the joint expedition, on the other side of Orario.
In a room on the second floor of the 'I am Ganesha', the Ganesha Familia's Home, an azure haired woman was sitting on a chair next to one of the many beds.
The room was the infirmary of the Ganesha Familia.
The Azure-haired woman sitting on the chair was none other than the present captain of the Ganesha Familia, Shakti Verma, a Level 5 adventurer.
She was wearing an orange dress with short sleeves. The collar of her dress was wide open and her dress two slits on both sides up to her thighs, showing off her black stockings, and just a big of her bare thighs.
A pair of silver white gauntlets adorned both her forearms, under which were black arm bands that extended till the short sleeves of her dress.
She was holding the hand of the person lying on the bed.
On the infirmary bed next to Shakti, a girl of about 15 years was lying down on the bed with a peaceful smile on her face.
The girl had short slate blue hair, and was wearing a white patient's gown.
...
If one asked anyone in the Ganesha Familia, they would tell the girl's name in a second, Ardi Verma, the captain's sister, a cheerful and caring girl.
Ardi had been caught in a trap in the Great Feud, and as a result had been in coma till now.
While raiding an Evilus base, Ardi, upon seeing a small child tried to help them, only to have the child self-explode trying to take Ardi down along with them.
Due to the last-minute intervention of her friend, Ardi's life was saved, but she was badly injured.
Even after being completely healed by elixirs and all types of methods being used by the healers of the Dian Cecht, Ardi had shown no signs of waking up.
...
...
Back to the infirmary.
Standing on the other side of the bed were two members of the Dian Cecht Familia.
Leaving her sister's hand, Shakti stood up, and asked the blonde-haired healer about her sister's condition.
"Melisandre-san, how is my sister now? Is there any signs of her waking up?"
...
This morning, when Shakti was checking on her sister, she had seen Ardi fingers move a little, and without wasting any time had asked her one of her familia members to go get the healers from Dian Cecht.
"Shakti-san, from what I can see there is no improvement. She is fully healthy; we really have no idea why she is not waking up."
The black-haired girl next to Melisandre gave a soft sigh and also spoke up,
*fuu*
"Even after using our skills and elixirs there was still no response."
"If only Airmid-chan was here, she may have found something, but today was the start of the expedition and Dian Cecht-sama asked her to go to the expedition."
...
"Thank you for your help, Melisandre-san, Dia-san for your help. And as Dia-san said, I can only wait for Airmid to return from the expedition."
"I am Ganesha, I am here. Shakti how is Ardi now, has she woken up?.
Shall we have a party in celebration!"
The booming voice of Shakti's Familia head, the God Ganesha's voice sounded before he even entered the infirmary.
Entering through the door was Ganesha with his always present red and yellow elephant mask over his face, his lips below the half mask showing a big smile.
"Kami-sama, my sister still does not show any signs of waking up."
[A / N : Male gods are also addressed as Kami-sama. Kami is a gender-neutral address. ]
Shakti spoke up, causing the god to stop smiling.
"Kami-sama. "
"Kami-sama."
Both the healers bowed towards Ganesha, greeting the god.
"Don't be down Shakti, it's still good. There is no life-threatening factor for Little Ardi, she just has to wake up. "
"We can do the celebration after Little Ardi wakes up. And! I am Ganesha! Hahahaha"
The smile on the face of Ganesha returned once again, trying to cheer up his Familia's head, all the while not forgetting his celebration party.
Turning to the two healers, he continued to speak,
"And thank you for your help, healers of the Dian Cecht Familia, I'll pay a visit to your God and thank him in person."
" Excuse us. " x 2
Taking that if the cue the both of them exited the infirmary.
Ganesha after hearing the door close, dropped the smile on his face and started in a serious voice,
"Shakti, as we suspected the Evilus are up to something, they were spotted near the Saint Fulland's Cathedral, very near to the Guild."
" As soon as they were spotted, the guild sent a message to us. Also, the Hermes Familia members who are still left on the surface are trying to investigate them."
"Unlike usual, they did not attack anyone and just vanished, the guilds couldn't make sense of this and thinks that they may be a decoy, but still have asked us to check it out."
Ganesha was now sitting on an empty bed, the one next to Ardi's.
" I'm also not sure what to think of it, the Evilus usually attack the people whenever they appear or try to sabotage something, but this time they just vanished, something feels fishy, be careful., Shakti."
Ganesha's voice become even somber towards the end.
Shakti, absorbing all the information given by Ganesha, was silent for a moment and then spoke up,
"Ganesha, it doesn't matter if the Evilus members were just spotted near the Cathedral and then vanished suddenly, we need to send some people try to capture them."
"Capturing them will at least give us some much-needed information. We still don't know what the Evilus aim is this time, I'll immediately set out with Familia members and make rounds on the walls on Orario."
"I do not want the repeat the feeling of being attacked by all sides like the great feud. But don't worry, you can send messengers to carry or convey any message."
"This time the Ganesha Familia will be ready for anything."
Saying that, Shakti nodded towards the god and gave one single glance at Ardi and left through the door leaving Ganesha sitting on the bed deep in thought about something.
...
In a huge room shrouded in darkness, a few figures sat on top of pillars, as if they were convening a secret meeting.
"Everything went according to your plan, Valetta, splendidly executed. You diverted the attention of the guild, Ganesha Familia, and the others away from the dungeon."
Olivas Act, a person with white hair and yellow green eyes, started singing praise of the women sitting on the middle pillar.
"Shut up Olivas, and instead tell me which idiot among you guy's asked the Evilus who were acting as decoys near the cathedral to pull back. Huh?"
Valetta Grede, one of Orario's greatest criminals, the name at the top of the guild's black list, the commander of the entire Evilus, was currently pissed off.
The members who she had chosen to act as scapegoats near the cathedral had vanished.
Their actual role was to get caught by the guild or the Ganesha Familia, give the wrong intel and self-explode if possible.
Only half of her plan had been successfully and the white-haired idiot in front of her was praising her.
"???"
"???"
"???"
The rest of the people who were still hidden in the darkness gave out puzzled sounds.
"Huh? What are you even saying Valletta, didn't they retreat under your command, and why would we even ask them to retreat."
Another person with short dark red hair and with a face so common that you would just forget it the next moment, spoke out.
The person's name was Vito, a Level 4 who had jumped to the Rudra Familia recently after his original Familia's God was killed.
The other people agreed with Vito, making Valletta scratch her head.
She had not asked the scapegoats to retreat, neither had the other executives sitting opposite her.
She then turned to Olivas, questioning him, "Are you certain that Finn went on the expedition? Did you see him enter the dungeon?"
She asked about the only other person she could think of who could put a wedge in her plans.
But as far as she knew, her beloved pallum was on the joint expedition in the dungeon, heading to the 38th floor if she was not wrong, the final target of her entire plan.
"Yes, Valletta, I have confirmed with my own eyes that Finn descended with a few members of the Loki Familia into the dungeon."
Olivas brought his hand to his chest thumping on it, and spoke out while looking towards Valletta.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, "Forget about those scapegoats, let's check about that issue after we come back, anyway the Ganesha forces and the Guild are spread thin across the entirety of Orario now. "
"Bring all the members you can and head towards the Knossos. The taming of those Worm Wells or Lambtons, which we painstakingly gathered for half a month should be done by now. Let's go, I still want to replay Finn's favor from last time."
Continuing to give commands, she started smiling crazily while speaking about Finn.
" Just you wait my beloved Finn, just you wait. Haha hehehe."
The laughter soon turned into full blown maniacal laughter making the others in the room grimace.
...
The cause of the Evilus members disappearing was current in the Saint Fulland's Cathedral.
It was none other than the Ereshkigal, the family head of the new Tiamat Family, a recently created one.
After Light left for the joint expedition, Ereshkigal killed some time by reading a few books, but feeling bored soon, took the money Light had put in the jar, and left the house.
After having Lunch at a good-looking restaurant nearby and doing some window shopping, she decided to visit the attractions Light had mentioned.
As she was already near the west main street, Ereshkigal decided to visit the so-called Saint Fulland's Cathedral.
A black-haired cat girl was kind enough to show her directions.
But just going about a few streets she had gotten lost and was standing at the entrance of a black alley.
"Evilus"
"Evilus"
A group of people wearing white robes were chanting the name Evilus, looking very suspicious.
As Ereshkigal tried to step back and leave the group to do whatever they wanted, she was found out.
It seems they had the mind to at least post a lookout in case anyone entered the alley.
"Hehe, no offense, I just wanted to ask the way to the Cathedral, but seeing you guys busy, I thought not to disturb you. Be grateful to me."
The goddess spoke as if she was doing a great favor to the people in front of her.
"She's a goddess, what do we do?"
They were easily able to discern that Ereshkigal was a goddess due to the innate aura around her.
"Did the commander give any order what to in such a case?"
The group of began discussing among themselves ignoring Ereshkigal in front of them.
"No, the commander has not given any order for this case, but her words is, attack anyone you see, don't leave anyone alive."
"Bastards, I'm standing in front of you, and you're talking about killing me, hahahaha."
Ereshkigal got angry, these people in front of her not only ignored her, but also spoke about killing her to her face.
Ereshkigal had come down to the Gekai after undergoing the process of sealing her powers, but maybe because she was not from this world, the seals were not much effective on her.
If she wanted, she could return to her complete power with just a thought without alerting a single soul or God.
"Enjoy your trip, assholes."
Before any of the Evilus members could react, a huge crack in space appeared in front of them with just a wave of Ereshkigal's.
The Evilus members were swallowed without even able to react.
Only an empty alley was left, with Ereshkigal's hand stretched in front of her.
As for where the portal had connected to and what would become of those people, Ereshkigal was not in the mood to care.
...
Thankfully after a few more minutes, she was standing in front of the Saint Fulland's Cathedral.
-----------------------------------------
A / N : I started writing this chapter wanting it to be fluffy and about following Shakti on her patrol around Orario, but instead wrote a completely whole different thing. (〜￣▽￣)〜
Everyone, it's almost thirty chaps (including the aux chap) now for this fic, please let me know how you feel about this story till here. It'll be very helpful for me to hear about your views>
How do you feel about the story ? Good ? Okay ? How is the pacing ?
Any tips would be helpful !
And if you feel there are things I can improve, please do let me know>
Thank you :)