Chapter 213
“Loki-sama, we can’t keep taking losses like this! Every time we finish one off, they counter with suicide bombings,” one of her children complained.
Loki frowned as she absorbed the report.
“Damn it, they’re like living bombs. This is complete madness—never did I imagine they’d stoop so low,” she muttered in frustration.
She was currently on her way to Central Park.
After carefully scrutinizing the battlefield, Loki had decided to relocate all the remaining members of her familia there.
She believed it to be the best course of action, and for a moment, it eased the perpetual furrowing of her brow.
‘I don’t know if it can get any worse, but I have a bad feeling,’ she thought.
‘It almost feels like everything we’re experiencing is just the opening act.’
Her musings were abruptly interrupted by a sudden heat wave radiating from a burning building. Sweat streamed down Loki’s forehead as she and her children reached the front of the park.
At that moment, she spotted a group of adventurers who had arrived not too long ago, and sudden cheers erupted from them upon recognizing her.
“Loki!” one of them cried out in relief.
“Finn, you made it,” Loki replied, her expression lighting up with immense joy.
She was overjoyed by the safe return of her familia’s strongest members, but that joy was short-lived as she immediately turned to business.
“Where are Riveria and Gareth?” she demanded.
“I left half the team in their care and sent them south to strike back at the enemy,” Finn responded.
“And how is the evacuation progressing?” Loki asked as she surveyed the fully functional camp.
“It’s going remarkably well. A decent base had already been established by the time we arrived. That Draco kid from the Bahamut familia set it up as soon as disaster struck, so it wasn’t difficult to organize ourselves and begin our counterattack,” Finn reported.
“The Bahamut familia, huh,” Loki muttered.
“Anyway, with Freya, Astraea, Ganesha, and the Bahamut familia on our side, we have enough manpower to secure more space. We plan to make our final stand here,” Finn declared, his voice loud enough to reach the civilians nearby.
Loki understood Finn’s strategy and said nothing as she led the rest of her children into the camp.
Finn knew that evilus members were likely mixed in with the innocent-looking civilians, but he couldn’t afford to show any hint of weakness.
Thanks to Draco’s careful scrutiny, the worst had been averted.
While none of the concealed evilus had managed to sneak bombs inside, the unarmed ones were almost indistinguishable from ordinary civilians, so they had to be left alone.
The road from the guild to Central Park was already well secured; now all that remained was to organize and push back.
‘Hopefully, the gods can set aside their differences and sort the evilus members and evil gods from the crowd,’ Finn mused.
“Captain!” a voice called out from behind, snapping him from his thoughts.
“What is it?” Finn asked.
“Draco-san just reported that the enemy is attempting to encircle Central Park with their members carrying bombs,” the woman explained.
“I see,” Finn muttered as he paused to contemplate.
Draco had relinquished full command of the camp to Finn as soon as he arrived, so most of the reports were now channeled to him.
Draco’s role was now to use his scanning magic to monitor enemy movements, giving them precious time to prepare and react.
It was a taxing job—no different from what he had been doing all along—but being relieved of the decision-making workload took a lot of pressure off his shoulders.
“Gather all available adventurers and create breaches in their encirclement. Remind them to hit any suicide bombers with fire magic or a magical weapon,” Finn immediately instructed.
This was the only method they currently had to counterattack: striking the bombers with fire magic or magic weapons caused their bombs to detonate prematurely.
Although there weren’t many magic users available, magical weapons had become slightly abundant after many were confiscated in previous evilus raids.
“If fire magic or magic weapons aren’t available, use any ranged weapon to strike their feet—throw a sword or spear—just don’t let them get close,” Finn ordered.
“Roger!” the woman yelled, quickly sprinting away to relay his instructions.
With Finn’s commands disseminating throughout the camp, the adventurers burst into action, energized by a fresh surge of morale.
A capable commander could inspire soldiers to fight harder and imbue their efforts with greater purpose.
Draco was a decent commander in his own right, yet he was far less established than Finn, who had been in Orario for many years.
Coupled with Draco’s ridiculously young age, the older adventurers found it difficult to rely fully on his decisions—even when they were sound.
“Now that Finn is here, our formation is unbreakable!” a dwarven woman shouted enthusiastically.
“Oooooooh!” her group echoed, their excitement mounting with her energy.
The seasoned adventurers from Finn’s era surged with enthusiasm, determined not to be outdone by his leadership.
This dynamic similarly incited the younger generation, who fed off the electrifying energy.
‘So there is this much of a difference,’ Draco thought, acutely aware of the vast gap in charisma between him and Finn.
He had barely managed to hold the adventurers together, yet with just a few inspiring words from Finn, the entire camp brimmed with unbridled energy.
‘Is my path perhaps closer to that of Ottar rather than Finn?’ he wondered.
He couldn’t imagine himself inciting that level of passion in people.
Shaking off the distracting thoughts, Draco quickly refocused on more pressing matters.
No word had come from Shakti’s raid groups, a detail that deeply concerned him.
The Freya and Loki familia groups had already arrived at the camp, so he couldn’t fathom what was holding Shakti up.
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“Oryaaa!” The screams of electrified adventurers rang out as they began pushing back the Evilus forces.
Following Draco’s suggestion, Finn had started using lower-ranking adventurers as messengers between different positions.
Since these adventurers weren’t strong enough to handle the explosions, it was better to have them deliver critical information rather than waste their lives fighting.
The Freya familia had moved swiftly to set up additional fortifications at the guild and other large, defensible buildings that were serving as evacuation points.
In Orario, there were few places capable of sheltering such a massive population.
‘With this setup in place, I should delegate command of specific areas to the different familias. That way, even if the command chain is broken, chaos won’t inevitably follow,’ Finn mused. With his decision made, he called for a messenger.
“You there, relay this message to Hedin. Tell him to take full command of the North,” Finn instructed.
However, the messenger hesitated.
“Uh, sir, Hedin anticipated that you’d say that and has a message: ‘How dare you force all that responsibility on me, you shameless pallum! Go and die!’ He was furious,” the messenger reported.
“Well, that was unexpected. Tell him that I will gladly give my life if that’s what it takes—I pray for his success,” Finn replied calmly. With that, the messenger departed to deliver Finn’s message.
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“That's Finn’s response,” the messenger said, shivering with fear.
“After everything I said? Is this a joke? Did you even deliver the message properly, you useless piece of excrement? Are you perhaps seeking a swift end at my hands?” Hedin raged, his pointed ears twitching and his golden hair waving in the wind.
“Aaaaaaaak! Don’t kill me!” the messenger pleaded.
“Tsk, do you have any idea how many crazy people I am now responsible for? Perhaps it’s difficult for you imbeciles at the Loki familia to understand, but all we have at the Freya familia are reckless, obnoxious dullards like our boar-headed captain. How on earth does Finn expect me to hold the North when I’m stuck with incorrigible warriors with death wishes?” Hedin paused to catch his breath before continuing.
“You know who’s going to have to clean up this mess, don’t you? It’s me, you idiots.”
‘Is he mad at me or at them?’ the messenger wondered silently.
Normally, Hedin was a calm, fair elf—so much so that observers might even mistake him for a fair maiden.
However, his face was now so contorted by rage that not a trace of beauty remained, even to the untrained eye.
The messenger could barely contain his fear, yet Hedin’s ceaseless bemoaning of his allies almost stirred a faint sense of pity within him.
Hedin was the main brain of the Freya familia—perhaps the only one—so the messenger endured his harsh words, knowing there was more to Finn’s message that needed to be conveyed. “Also, Finn says to engage the suicide bombers with…” the messenger began, but Hedin cut him off, ignoring his words and beginning to chant a spell.
“Caris Hildr!” Hedin bellowed.
In an instant, a blinding flash of lightning nearly seared the messenger’s retinas.
From atop the steeple of a cathedral, Hedin’s magic unleashed a torrent of lightning that rained down upon the city below.
“What are you doing?” the messenger asked, still reeling.
“Engaging with long-range attacks, you fool,” Hedin replied curtly.
Noticing the messenger’s confusion, Hedin elaborated, “Once I deduced that the enemy were all suicide bombers, I switched tactics. I have been stationed here, and whenever the enemy gets too close to any of the evacuation points, I rain down lightning.”
As he finished speaking, the messenger heard distant screams—the sound of evilus members being electrocuted before they exploded—and realized the full impact of Hedin’s long-range assault.