Chapter 196
Valletta calmly surveyed the gathered crowd trying to block her retreat, completely untroubled by their desperate actions.
With a hint of mischief in her eyes, she declared, “Oh my, although I’d love to stay and have fun, very soon you will all have much more important things to do than chase after a rogue like me.” Her unsettling grin deepened as she snapped her fingers—a gesture that sent a shiver of foreboding rippling through the chaotic scene.
“Quick, stop her!” Vasileios shouted from behind, having suddenly caught wind of a growing swarm of people emerging from the branching streets along the main road.
Valletta’s simple finger snap was not just a casual action—it was a signal to her loyal minions.
In response, the messenger who had appeared earlier immediately fired a red flare, sending Valletta’s orders to every evilus hidden in the shadows.
Shockingly, scores of enemy operatives had been waiting in secret: tucked away in the buildings among the civilians guarded by brave adventurers, or concealed in narrow, obscure streets, all waiting to receive her command.
As the flare’s light reached every corner, massive explosions burst out from seemingly everywhere.
"Aaaaaaaah!" screamed countless voices as the earth trembled and debris cascaded from above.
The once orderly protective circles painstakingly set up by the adventurers were crumbling in the wake of this sudden chaos.
Valletta’s backup plan was a sinister twist—deliberately sow chaos and inflict as much destruction as possible, ensuring her escape even if her primary plan had failed.
In the midst of this controlled disaster, it became almost impossible to distinguish friend from foe, as civilians and evilus blended together in the turmoil.
“This is bad! We must save the civilians!” cried Alise in a burst of panicked urgency.
With a wicked sneer, Valletta spoke.
“Hahahaha! Better hurry, little brats. If you don't act now, these people might end up as nothing more than red pancakes by the time you are done with me.” she urged subtly.
Her gaze was fixed on Gareth, the one person she truly regarded as a threat to her escape.
“Arachnia!” Ryuu yelled in rage, though her anger seemed powerless to change the course of events.
Seeing that no one was going to stand in her way, Valletta turned to leave—but she paused when she spotted Vasileios and Nikolaos.
“Ah, how could I forget you two cuties!” Valletta said, her face scrunched in brief anguish.
“You’d better stay alive until I come back for your heads,” she teased before disappearing into the swirling dust stirred up by the explosions.
Nikolaos and Vasileios clenched their teeth, as a wave of mixed emotions washed over them. They felt fear at the thought of being targeted by one of the evilus commanders, relief at having survived Valletta’s blade, and anger at her mockery of their strength, along with many other conflicted feelings.
“We have no choice,” stuttered the messenger who had launched the flare, his voice trembling with anxiety.
Along with several other direct minions left behind, he realized that they had no choice but to serve as meat shields.
Even if they managed to return safely, Valletta had made it clear that their fate was sealed—she would kill them eventually.
“Brothers and sisters! Unleash destruction! Take down as many of them as you can!” the messenger screamed, his voice rising in a desperate attempt to muster the courage needed for the suicidal endeavor.
In response, the remaining minions grabbed their magic weapons and charged at members of the Loki, Astraea, and Bahamut families.
Gareth quickly took charge, shouting, “Everyone, help the civilians get to safety. I will handle the evilus!” His voice cut through the chaos as members of the Astraea and Bahamut families rushed to assist the chaotic civilians.
Softly, Ryuu murmured, “Elgarm… we are sorry,” burdened by the weight of the unfolding tragedy.
Gareth’s decisive actions had eased the decision-making for many, securing a temporary hold against the enemy forces.
“Take care, Gareth-san. We will definitely rescue as many as we can,” Eleni yelled, guiding Nikolaos and Vasileios to help restore order amid the pandemonium.
They needed to regroup with their other familia members scattered along the northern main road, who were surely facing intense battles that raged elsewhere.
They took some solace in the knowledge that their goddess Bahamut was likely safe—stationed alongside Draco in the central soup kitchen area.
Even if Draco were not present, few could actually harm their ridiculously overpowered goddess.
Elsewhere, Alise and Ryuu had also left the immediate battle, parting ways to join up with their scattered allies, while the clash of Gareth’s axes against the evilus echoed hauntingly behind them.
The old dwarf wielded a battle axe nearly as tall as himself, yet he twirled it with no more effort than he would a piece of paper.
As he hurled and bashed his foes onto the cobblestone street, terror swiftly replaced the enemies’ faces, prompting all of them to turn their swords and magic spells upon him.
Undeterred, Gareth redoubled his assault, striking with the long, gleaming edge of his axe—the pommel as strong as diamond.
Gareth showed the evilus no mercy, pulling all their attention and firepower onto himself had been the goal all along.
If he could spare the buildings and civilians one more fireball or explosion, he was willing to shoulder any pain without hesitation.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Meanwhile, around the central soup kitchen area along the northern road, a series of explosions erupted.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of the impacts echoed through the area, yet only a small section of the target was actually damaged.
A sturdy earth dome stood firm between the attackers and the defenders.
“Cough! Cough! So much dust!” Draco muttered in annoyance.
As he had anticipated, the soup kitchen had attracted the attention of the evilus.
Fortunately, he was somewhat prepared for an ambush of this nature.
When the explosions first began, Draco quickly erected an earthen dome and dug a makeshift bunker, evacuating all the staff and nearby civilians inside.
Sadly, he couldn’t save everyone.
The emergence of the evilus had caused immense chaos, with people trampling over one another in their desperate attempts to escape.
Many were seriously injured, and some even died from being crushed by their fellow civilians before the evilus could reach them.
This greatly enraged Draco, but he knew there was little he could have done to prevent it; fear often brought out the worst in people.
The only reason he managed to gather and save so many was due to the presence of certain goddesses who helped calm the civilians.
“Sniff, sniff…” The sounds of sorrow, regret, and despair filled the bunker as people trembled at the severity of their situation.
Demeter was actively comforting those around her, feeling a pang of guilt as she had been one of the major hosts for the soup kitchen.
Bahamut had tried to reassure her several times, stating it was not her fault, but the Demeter on felt more guilty.
'Sigh, her intentions were indeed pure. Orario genuinely needed some uplifting, and too many people were starving,' Draco thought.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Another wave of explosions struck the earth dome, causing significant dents.
Draco quickly reinforced it with more earth, mending the damage.
“Are you okay? Can you still hold on?” Bahamut asked, concern evident in her voice.
Draco had been expending a lot of mind to maintain their protection.
“Yeah, I can still hold it,” he replied with a smile.
“Sigh, what’s taking that Kaguya girl and the other adventurers so long to handle a few pests?” Bahamut muttered in annoyance.
After Draco had set up a defensive perimeter, Kaguya and a few adventurers had gone out to deal with the surrounding evilus, but it seemed they were facing difficulties.
“Should I just go out and handle things myself?” Bahamut said, clenching her fist.
“Please don’t do that,” Draco pleaded.
Bahamut was the only combat force besides him currently guarding the bunker; the rest were fighting the evilus alongside Kaguya.
If the evilus somehow managed to break through elsewhere, Draco would struggle to respond.
He also needed Bahamut to stay because there was the possibility of evilus members mixed among the civilians.
He couldn’t trust random adventurers to cover his back.
“Maybe it’s because of the magic weapons,” Draco speculated.
‘Tsk, damn merchants, their greed causing so much suffering just for a few extra coins,’ Bahamut thought, recalling her discussion with Astraea, Loki and Freya.
“Fine, I will stay put, but let me know if you can’t handle it anymore,” she said, returning to comfort the civilians with Demeter.
‘Sigh, I should probably check what’s happening, outside’ Draco thought.
He really didn’t want to expend too much mind scanning the battlefield, but Kaguya was indeed taking too long.
Sending out a pulse of energy, Draco was shocked by what he sensed outside.
The evilus were attacking indiscriminately, and nearly all the buildings in the central area had been reduced to rubble.
This left little to no cover against the evilus’ magic weapons and spells.
Several adventurers who had gone out with Kaguya had already perished, and Kaguya herself was struggling to close the distance.
Their numbers were overwhelming, and the evilus even had the leeway to target his earth dome.
This sight filled Draco with worry for his other familia members, prompting him to expand the scope of his search.
“Ghhh...” he grunted in pain, quickly cutting off the spell.
The sudden influx of information had been too much, but he managed to filter what he needed.
All his familia members were alive, but the streets along the northern road and its branching streets were filled with death on both sides.
He sensed Gareth slaughtering a group of evilus single-handedly.
Alise and Ryuu were gathering their familia members while hunting down evilus members in their path.
Vasileios and Nikolaos seemed weakened but not close to death.
He caught a glimpse of them and Eleni regrouping with Michalis and Clair, who were protecting a small group of civilians.
Dimitra and Vasiliki were moving with Lyra and some unfamiliar adventurers, successfully saving many people.
Overall, the adventurers were regaining control of the situation, which greatly relieved him.
‘Since things are stabilizing in other areas, we should probably go on the offensive right?,’ Draco thought.
He had used more mind than he wanted with the search spell, making it impossible to maintain such a large earth spell for much longer.
Even with his ‘Mage’ development ability and ‘Dragon Mind Art’, the energy expenditure was simply too taxing on such a grand scale.
It now seemed better to take the initiative rather than wait for reinforcements before he ran out of mind to uphold the spell.