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Finn was left to claw fruitlessly at the empty air for a new strategy. According to Rei, Evilus's original plan saw their first stage as a viola attack, a testing strike during Monsterphilia. The creatures would blend into the backdrop of the festival itself, letting them get an idea of their capabilities, their strengths and weaknesses, without exposing themselves unduly. Their next major moves would take longer to arrange, but they would come. In the meantime, they were lurking in Knossos, a masterfully designed trap, created by the spirit of Daedalus which still hung over his descendants like the shadow of a great bird of prey.

Knossos. It all came back to Knossos. A century of labor, designed by the mind who created Daedalus Street. That region itself was hard enough for anyone not intimately familiar with it to navigate. It resisted being read or understood. What if he was tasked with imagining a whole complex, a labyrinth to rival the Dungeon? It would be hellish to invade.

The classic siege strategy was to starve them out, but the Dungeon provided its own fruits, and in any case, it would be almost pathetically easy to break any siege he might put in place. Even if they knew every exit to the surface - they could just send men up and out of the Dungeon. An adventurer with a ration pack was enough.

No. There was one weakness, he realized. The plan was made by a man, but it was not complete. "Rei," Finn said, the girl turning to face him. "You know more than anyone outside of those afflicted themselves, I suspect. Does the bloodline curse of Daedalus include the plans that the man himself designed?"

Rei blinked at that. "You're thinking a physical plan?" She asked. Finn nodded. Her eyes clenched shut for a moment. "There - yeah. It's not all in their heads. I think the high rankers would have copies on them."

"High rankers such as Dix Perdix?" He asked, though he already suspected the answer.

"Yes."

"Who Erza killed. Months ago. Without recovering any key or book from him."

Rei's lips thinned. "Yes."

Finn let out a long sigh, massaging his forehead. Perhaps the knowledge was merely a product of her complex array of senses and forms and powers, that provided stealth and secrets easily, but only when sought out. Maybe the entire theories about precognition, time travel, monsters in human flesh, possession... perhaps it was all nonsense. He'd been looking too far.

He shook his head. He would review that thought later. For now... "Valletta had a key, but not any such plans," he said.

"Valletta wasn't a descendant of Daedalus, just a psycho bitch. You're welcome by the way."

Oh. Right. Valletta would have had a grudge against him personally, and Rei had been the one to lead them right to her. "My apologies. Thank you for dispatching that horrid woman. I'm glad she's gone." He gave her his most charming smile. "You make much better company."

Rei just gave him a flat look. He chuckled at it. She could see through him quite well, it seemed. He did admire that. It was too bad that she wasn't a pallum; she would have been his ideal woman, if she were.

His thoughts idly wandered to all her inane sex talk, her crudity, her general selfishness and laziness.

Well, perhaps not. But he could have smoothed that over.

"Right. So we gotta find another map. With the monster slaving operation over, then..." Rei's lips thinned. "We have to go through Ikelos."

"We already caused him enough trouble as is. I don't see the advantage of pissing that familia off further."

"Well, we can't exactly sneak up on the guy who can smell Julia's death-stink even when she's wreathed in invisibility strong enough to hide from a Level Six," Rei responded with annoyance. "They have to have recovered Dix's plan, notebook, thingy, you know."

"The construction plans."

"Yes. It's gonna be some Ikelos guy who picked them up. Not Thanatos. And I only know Daedalus descendants who are members of Ikelos and Thanatos familia. And Loki did track down Ikelos. He's not hiding that well. Thanatos, I'm pretty sure he's living in Knossos. So we track down Ikelos again. Use him to find his familia members. Pick out the strongest." There was a brief pause. "By the way, if you kill Ali I'm going to fucking eat your head off and take over your life," she added, like the thought had just occurred to her.

"Ali?"

"She's pale and reeeeally tall, with dark hair. She goes topless and she's got no legs. You'll know her when you see her. You're smart."

Finn had no idea what in the world Rei was talking about, but he nodded. "I don't see why I would kill this disabled woman."

"On account of she's strong as a Level Five right now," Rei replied evenly. As strong as? Some situation similar to Erza? "Aaaanyway," Rei said, popping her lips. "Just remembered that on account of talking about the Dungeon. It's pretty fucked up how you treat other people, really."

Finn just frowned at that. He had always done his best to show himself courteous to his familia members, to act the part of the diligent, thorough, protective leader. "How do you mean?"

"You know." She tilted her head, looking at him. "Come on. Don't bullshit a bullshitter."

"I honestly don't know what you're referring to."

Rei plopped her butt on the chair, crossing her arms, looking at Finn with an expression of absolute exhaustion, like a mother whose child refused to take responsibility for stealing from the cookie jar. "Okay. Finn. You're playing at being a hero. Deep inside, that's what you're doing. Not in the sense of having imposter syndrome or whatever the fuck. In the sense of being a huge fucking asshole on the inside, who only thinks about how badass and cool he is, and how this is all necessary to save the pallum race, and blah blah fucking blah." She actually made hand motions to accompany that last bit. "It's all appearance. Pretense. I know, like, uhh, hang on. Cass, Julia, Kori, Drake, yeah, four people who are like, actual for-real heroes. Drake'd be nice to you since he's read a lot of books 'n shit too. He'd say something like, Taira Shigesuke said, surely he can be said to know what is right and have done it. The point being, you did the right thing, you did it on purpose, who cares if your motives are pure enough?"

"I take it that isn't a shared opinion between the two of you?"

"Nah. I don't give a fuck about that hero shit, Finn. I guess you could even say I'm kinda like you, in that I just wanna bang and be cool and get a harem and whatever. People like you more if you're nice to 'em. I'm not fucking dumb." She pushed her tongue against her cheek. "Drake was talkin' about this guy, St. Francis of Assissi, a little while back. Guy was born to a prosperous silk merchant. Takes all he has, gives it to the poor, keeps giving, lives like shit, keeps ministering, keeps working in poverty to make the world a better place."

"Sounds like a miserable life." Finn suspected the story went the other way, of course, but he figured he ought to play his role in the conversation. It provided him more space to think.

"The city I'm from is named after him. He's got a whole order named after him, the Franciscans. Even Drake didn't remember his dad's name, and he sperged out about that shit. If you want to have a name that's remembered long after you're gone, you have to be like that. Not some calculating dipshit. Well. You could conquer half the planet, then everybody'd remember you. But this half-assed crap is a waste of everybody's time. It means when anybody pokes beneath the surface, they see a shithead, so they don't like you. But you also can't let your 'heroism' really shine because it's not real."

Finn just stared quietly at Rei. "What would you have me change, then?" He asked.

"Why? So the tiger can rearrange his stripes a few inches? The thing about lies, Finn, is people don't see through them on account of you're a bad liar. They see through them on account of they're not true."

"I see."

"Doubt it. Anyway, my point, Finn, is if you fuck with Ali, because you think it makes you look like a hero? I will fucking, unironically, one hundred percent, tear you to fucking ribbons and swallow your corpse, take over your fucking life until Loki notices you're dead, and piss all over everything you ever built up. I'll tell pallum bitches they oughta get bred by superior human cocks so the race can fall into the dustbin of history where it belongs. I'll rail Tione in the town square wearing your face. That's not a lie. That's not a joke. That's not a threat. It's a promise. A solemn oath."

That actually did get Finn's hackles up. He could possibly kill Rei right here, but there would presumably be fallout. Further, it was always possible he couldn't kill Rei right here, given the girls wide variety of powers that had allowed her to slip away from two attackers in the past. And, as she said - the thing about lies, is that they aren't true. The truth would be he killed Rei because of what she said to him, and it would be very difficult to hide that. Almost certainly, there would be evidence left behind. He pushed those thoughts to the side. "I understand the impulse to protect the people you care about, Rei," he said, instead of mentioning any of that. "But I don't even know who this Ali person is."

"Like I said. You'll know her when you she see her," Rei said, hopping off her chair. "If you feel tempted to kill her, remember, I can see everything you see, and I have a dozen bodies, and I can turn into an Amphisbaena. I'mma go do that shit to find the Knossos plans, by the way." She left, then, abandoning him to his thoughts.

He was vaguely reminded of Xulia's words, back when he had gone down with her to the Dungeon. Something about a demon, and making a deal with it, to end violence. Both sides would 'win,' because they would recognize neither would gain by continuing to fight, rather than fruitlessly seeking vengeance on one another. Rei's words with respect to Ali reminded him of that. It ought to add up to something. He put his thumb to his lips. Ali - a member of the Thanatos familia, perhaps? Former, or the like... some Evilus figure, that made the most sense. Seeking redemption, perhaps?

Hm.

No, no. Rei had just threatened him. That seemed the more important matter, rather than figuring out what her motivation was. He decided to speak to Loki about it.

* * *

"Uhh." Loki tilted her head. "I'll talk to her," she said, at last, peering down at Finn. "Dunno why she said all that. Seems unnecessary. Don't start a civil war by killing this Ali chick, though. Sounds like fun since she goes around topless everywhere."

"Rei did threaten to kill and eat me."

"Only if you killed her friend first!" Loki countered. "Look, Finn, I love you, honey boo, but tell me she didn't have your number." Finn didn't quite understand what the turn of phrase meant literally, but he knew the intent. Rei's interpretations of his behavior - were they accurate? Finn's lips turned thin. There was no way to lie to a god.

"I do not think it is good for the familia's cohesion if she can behave in that manner and get away with it."

"You already stuffed it down in the moment, Finn," she pointed out.

Finn just took a deep breath, sighing a moment later. That was true. Why was that? Some admiration for her? A lack of any counterpoints? Shock at being 'found out'? He should have rejected her words. Lied and said she didn't know anything. Somehow he doubted that would have stopped her, though. "Do you know who this Ali is?" He asked Loki.

"Nope. Maybe could guess, but don't know, and ain't saying my guesses." She paused. "Agggh!" She slammed her palms against the sides of her head. "I just made her promise to not go facegrinding a Monster Rex again without the rest of the familia, and then she immediately tries to piss you off!"

Finn let out a soft laugh. He would like to imagine that was all it was. Childish rebellion. She was young.

But he doubted it. "Please, Lady Loki. Some appropriate discipline is necessary," he said.

"Should I treat her like you treat Bete?"

"Bete is... a senior member of the familia, who has been through a lot."

"Rei can fight like a swarm of allied Amphisbaena," Loki replied. "She's also been through a lot lately." Finn's brow furrowed. "She died. Twice. Once to Phryne, once to Valletta. Can't imagine how that messes you up."

Finn rubbed the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Very well, Lady Loki. Given your view, I will... sleep on this. Wait a few days. See how my view on the matter shifts with some time. I do request you not suggest to Rei that her behavior was acceptable or will go unpunished, however. At the very least, the option should be left open."

"Yeah, yeah," Loki said, waving him off. He looked at her, expression solemn. "Promise!" She raised her hand up. Finn left the room, wandering the halls of Twilight Manor, his eyes on his feet as he contemplated Rei's words. They were surprisingly on point. He could only wonder as to how she had 'figured him out' so thoroughly. He had buried his true motivations, his true feelings, deep inside himself before the girl had even been born.

Was she able to see that deep? Was it something else?

If she knew the future somehow, that idea he'd toyed with - perhaps his mask cracked?

In such a situation, her words could only serve to benefit him now. Let him fasten his face back together, before it came undone altogether.

He frowned. He knew that wasn't it.

"What's the matter, general?" Tione's voice made Finn almost jump out of his skin, but the sight of her - rich dark skin, slender figure, large bust - ignited in him certain feelings. That long, beautiful hair. The feminine way she composed herself, something he knew she did only for him, only because she thought it would win his heart. For just a moment, he contemplated that he could simply give her what she wanted - then he tilted his head up, and his gaze met hers once more, the smile on her lips telling him that she hadn't minded his wandering eye at all.

"Just something I need to think about. Thank you for your concern, Tione."

Loki had been right. Finn was rattled by Rei's words. Otherwise he wouldn't have contemplated lying with Tione even for a moment.

"I'll be in my quarters," he added, halfway marching off.

* * *

"Alright," Loki said, rolled up bit of paper in her hand, ready to strike. "Why'd you go pissing off Finn so bad?"

"Tch. Cause he's an asshole," Rei scoffed.

"Soooo what! You little shit!" Loki bonked her on the head repeatedly with the paper. Even with a falna, the instinct not to get hit drove Rei to protect her head. "Bete's an asshole! You're an asshole! And unlike Finn, you can't stop pissing people off! Now give me the real answer!"

"That was the real answer!"

"It was the truth, it wasn't the real answer!"

"I was talking with him about the whole Knossos bullshit and I remembered he goes absolutely apeshit on the Xenos when he finds out they exist. Just straight up trying to murder them, no consideration to the fact that they're people. Hell, the fact that they're people only drives him to kill 'em faster, so nobody else finds out they're people and feels any internal conflict. And I'm banging Ali, and she's hot, and she's got, like, a long forked tongue and she's never heard of the concept of reciprocation, so I don't want him to kill her in particular."

Loki groaned. That did sound sexy, but still. "Okay. But we're keeping the whole Xenos thing from him, remember?"

"Yeah, and? He's Finn. You think he's not going to figure shit out? Anyway, I was right too. No point saying that shit if I wasn't. You can't stab a dude where he isn't vulnerable." She crossed her arms, which made her tits jiggle in place. "His inner thoughts were literally to the effect of, If I knew about this, I would kill your friend right in front of you, but not before torturing all the info out of her first. Fucking dipshit."

"Well he's my fucking dipshit. Dumbass," Loki said, smacking her a few more times for good measure.

"Well he's gonna be my fucking problem," Rei replied spitefully. "With Dix dead, the canon shit that led to conflict between the Xenos and the Loki familia isn't going to happen. That doesn't mean that there won't be something, eventually. Ali got nabbed by Ganesha already. Ais almost iced her. There's always Hermes to be a huge fucking cunt too."

"Hermes?" She didn't like the guy that much.

"Yeah, he's basically, like, 50% of the reason the Xenos almost get wiped out. He's another fucking dipshit. I'm pissed right now. So many of you fucking people think that heroism is all play acting. Like I told Finn, I know actual heroes, like two literal superheroes, and there's no play acting. You can be a coward and be a hero, sure. You can stuff down your fear, put on a brave face, act like a different person than you are. But you have to fight real fights, against real villains, because they're actually bad." She huffed. "So there. Now whine some more."

"Whine whine," Loki said. She bonked the back of Rei's head a couple times, but it was a limp movement with no real heat to it. "Mannnn. You are just the most annoying little ball of human id."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Rei demanded, as if she didn't already know.

* * *

The girl without a name sat perched on the edge of the building where Ikelos was resting. She pondered Finn's plan that Rei had told her about, which was terrible. Her plan was much, much better. Of course, she couldn't blame Finn for not knowing about her ace in the hole - she hadn't told him about it!

A grungy looking young man with soot black hair glanced from side to side, then slipped into the alley next to the building Ikelos was resting in. With her enhanced senses, the girl without a name could pick out as he fiddled with the side door, which was designed to be hidden from the casual observer. She quietly stepped off the rooftop, her feet not even touching the ground as she followed the boy inside her.

"I need a status update, it's been three months for me," the young man said.

"How sad!" The girl without a name said, breaking the invisibility, making both of them jolt straight up. She grabbed the young man's wrist before he could escape. "We really need to talk."

"I did tell you kids not to come here," Ikelos said, leaning back lazily in his seat. "Warned you about the Loki familia snooping around."

The young man wiggled and fought against her grasp. "Let go of me, bitch!"

"That's- ah, I guess I shouldn't say that's my name, don't wear it out," the girl without a name said, her smile bright as she showed him all her teeth. "We were going to do this whole circuitous plan, you see, figure out how to make a frontal assault on Knossos despite it being traps and mazes, but that's pretty stupid, don't you think? A thousand years of traps..." She licked her lips, leaning in so close that the boy could smell her breath. "What if they all went up in smoke? We're in front of your god right now. I can destroy... oh, several floors of Knossos, in a single moment. There's not really anything you can do to stop me."

His body went still at that. His eye - the one that contained that alien mark, declaring him a descendant of Daedalus - seemed to throb. His gaze went to Ikelos. "You're lying."

"She's not," Ikelos said. "Which is weird."

"Yep!" The girl without a name said, smiling brightly. "Sorry that I didn't mention it to Loki-sama, so the other girl couldn't carry the message back, so... well! See, there's something you've never heard of, but it's called a tactical nuclear weapon, and when it explodes, boom! City blocks disappear! Fwoosh! I can enter Knossos, put a tactical nuclear weapon somewhere, and walk on out whistling dixie! That'd be so terrible to the great project you guys have going on, don't you think?"

The young man looked to Ikelos again. "He's lying," he decided.

"Hmm. Do you really believe that? We could go find a neutral god or goddess. Dealer's choice! Anybody you please!"

"Freya."

"Oh, not her, she doesn't like me much. Anybody else!"

"You're definitely lying," he spat out.

She sighed. She thought about it for a few seconds. Then she nodded to herself, having come up with a new plan. "Oh, alright. We'll go talk to Freya. It'll be nice to see my dad again!" His expression was bewildered as she dragged him out, then she just stepped up, and up, and up into the night sky, vanishing into the abyss so far as all the people below were concerned. Certainly not to the young man, who was currently screaming bloody murder about the possibility of being dropped.

How did he think she was going to go talk to Freya? Book an appointment?

* * *

Freya gently ground one finger against the center of her brow. She didn't know why she had given Kenet another chance. It wasn't pity, but perhaps something in its neighborhood. Like an art dealer who buys something that is far beyond usable, but can't quite admit it to himself, so he insists on going to great effort to try to restore it anyway. That was Kenet - the worthless item.

She hadn't even orgasmed. She'd gotten so tired of it, so exhausted of giving him directions, that she had just pretended to come and sent him off. He had been happy as any damn fool could be, but she was alone. She should have sent him to fetch one of her other familia members. Allen, perhaps? Ottar? The Gulliver Brothers could be a good bit of fun, though she always found the fourth rather awkward... well, it was too late now. She could go find Drake, perhaps. Certainly, he wouldn't fail to satisfy-

There was a loud banging on her window.

Which did not make much sense, as her window was... very high up in the air. A bird might impact it, but this was someone striking it repeatedly.

Her eyelid twitched involuntarily. She suspected she knew who was on the other side of it. The filthy maggot-soul. She kept banging away, and Freya simply decided not to get up. Perhaps she would decide that Freya was not present, and leave, which would be ideal. She wasn't even going to try to kill the filthy maggot-soul again, despite her implicit threat to poor little Rye, who was completely unaware of what sort of monster his innocent heart had fallen for. She grit her teeth. Maybe she should kill her anyway. She could just unfurl her full beauty for a moment, tell the filthy maggot-soul that looking at her disgusting loathsome soul offended her, and she should make her soul vacate her body, and the problem would solve itself.

No, then her Cassandra would be upset at her. Her Cassandra... she wanted a girl tonight, yes, for sure. Mayumi was far eastern, and she could make her cut her hair short. The soul wasn't the same, but she could close her eyes, perhaps. Just let imagination do it. Mayumi was pleasantly muscular in build. Blindfold play?

On the other hand, to fetch Mayumi, she would have to go out of her room, which would put her in a position of seeing the filthy maggot-soul, which would certainly ruin her mood even more than it already had been.

"I know you're in there, Freya!" Came the loathsome sing-songy voice of the filthy maggot-soul. "If you don't come out, I'm going to open a hole in the window!" True.

Freya sighed, gathering a silken robe, gently covering her naked body with it. She considered showing off more. Perhaps the filthy maggot-soul might spontaneously kill herself if she realized the beauty she was being a nuisance to, without her needing to fully unfurl her beauty. She opened the door to her bedroom and stepped out, squinting so as to avoid seeing too much of the filthy maggot-soul, who was of course waving like an idiot. She had somebody at her flank, suspended in the air by a tight grip on her arm. Some random. A boring dull meaningless soul, though it did look quite a bit better in contrast to what was currently projecting its ugliness into the room.

Freya simply shielded her eyes. "What is it, you awful woman?"

"I need you to confirm I'm not lying!" True. She hefted the man up. "This is Freya, see? Just like you asked."

The man promptly puked all over her window.

The outside of her window.

The outside of her window, which was very, very high up. Freya closed her eyes so she did not have to contemplate it.

"Oops, I don't think he likes heights! I promise I didn't know that before I brought him up here!" True, though she knew enough to know that denial avoided suggesting what she might have done if she had known that (make him puke even more, and all over the window, presumably).

"Yes. What stupid nonsense is it, so I don't have to be in your loathsome presence any longer."

"See? She super-duper hates me," she told the man in her arms. "Anyway! Freya! I told this man I could blow up a huge chunk of his life's work!"

"That is a statement of what you told him, not the statement itself, you dullard." Freya could feel a headache developing in her skull.

"Ah, my bad! Everything I said earlier about tactical nuclear weapons is true!" True.

Freya stuttered momentarily at that. Mortals didn't understand nuclear forces. They were too complicated and strange. Had Loki decided to explain the underlying laws of physics to her? But even knowing them, how would one weaponize nuclear forces? A god could do it with their Arcanum, but how could a mortal unbind such forces to unleash their fearsome power? "What?"

"Everything I said earlier about tactical nuclear weapons is true! I totally can destroy huge chunks of Knossos with them, and I know this, not guess this!" True.

"Yes. That's true. You. Boy." She pointed at the one barely restraining the urge to puke, squinting at him to avoid seeing too much of the filthy maggot-soul. "In the future, do not waste my time by requesting my presence. You are just an ashy grey stain so far as my eyes can see. Begone, both of you."

"Alright, Lady Freya! Where's my dad, by the way!"

"I sent him away. He is a complete incompetent at cunnilingus."

"Oh, sorry! Never had that, so I can't really sympathize!"

"Go away you fucking awful whore before I unfurl my full glory to you and make you kill yourself, no matter how much work that takes to accomplish!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going, I'm going," the filthy maggot-soul said, though she suspected the threat was ultimately empty - the filthy maggot-soul was many things, such as viscerally disgusting, loathsomely annoying, pathetic, bitchy, tedious, unwanted, interloper, whore, but she was not stupid. The filthy maggot-soul could simply close her eyes.

Once she was gone, Freya opened her eyes... and was reminded the young man had vomited all over the outside of her window.

She closed her curtains. She couldn't exactly fix it now, and her mood was utterly ruined. A double team of father and daughter - one would have thought such an experience would be more pleasant. Alas, it was those two.

* * *

Thanatos laced his fingers together as he looked through the security cameras, spying on the approaching form of the Black Agony. She was whistling happily, a beaten-down member of the Ikelos familia following after her. Across her neck was swung something very large - the size of a human corpse, he'd have guessed.

Thanatos wasn't much of a schemer. He'd have rather relied on Enyo or Valletta, but neither of them were here at the moment. He didn't know that much strategy, so he just collected a few members of his familia to pick at their brains. After a bit of discussion, he decided that it would be safe to allow the Black Agony to come to him, assuming that she merely wished to parlay, as he suspected was the case. He sent a few familia members out after her, leaning back upon his throne to wait for her to arrive, or else be killed off, if her intentions were less than pure.

He doubted any productive conversation could take place, but maybe he could have some fun with her before killing her. Though - the Black Agony... that was the one people talked about as being a mad dog. Dangerous. Perhaps she was hoping to switch sides? He smiled at that thought. Maybe that bag contained the body of Loki, all trussed up and waiting for him.

No, probably not. But it would be fun if it did!

The smell hit him before he could see her - the scent of death, intense and all-encompassing, thick like molasses seeping through the air. He actually shuddered a bit as he smelled it, and he just relaxed in his chair. Oh that was a truly good hit. Perhaps this really was a woman after his own heart.

She appeared in the doorway less than a minute later, finding him quite relaxed. "Hiiii," the Black Agony said, waving at him as she dumped the bag on the ground. She kicked it forward towards him, the superhuman strength of a Level Three sending it skidding across the floor loudly. "You know what a dead man's switch is, right?"

"Yes," Thanatos said, frowning. What was the relevance here?

"Great! This is a dead man's switch!" She held up some curious mechanism in her hand. "If I release it, every single person in this room except me will instantly die!" True.

That woke him up quick. He jolted up in his chair, the pleasant high instantly flushed out of his system by the new reality.

Alright.

He could admit when he made a mistake.

Perhaps he shouldn't have let her into the room.

He looked at the bag in question - it was large and chunky, large enough to contain a human body if they were a bit folded in on themselves. He would guess it was Loki inside it, and that the dead man's switch would cause something to kill her, causing her Arcanum to unfurl momentarily before a hole was ripped through Knossos. That was the most logical conclusion. "What do you want?" He asked her.

"Ah... lots of things. To have my limbs broken and get stuffed in a bathroom to be used as a urinal, a gangbang by a bunch of fat rapists, getting paraded naked around town with goshujinsama's name stamped on my ass cheeks... oh, you mean here!"

"Yes. I mean here."

"No~ot much." She smiled. "I just think that a lot of your familia members, well, they wouldn't appreciate me letting go of my dead man's switch here," she said, waving it. "Since when I said it would kill everybody instantly, I actually meant, it would destroy a huge chunk of Knossos, destroying decades of work in a few scant seconds! And, since I would survive, I could just do it again."

"Do it again?"

"Yep!" She popped the word. "Over and over again, digging a giiiiiant hole in Orario, as I corkscrew around the Dungeon just like Knossos does, blowing it all to hell, ruining all the work of the entire line of descent of Daedalus! And, you know what? There's basically nothing anybody could do to stop me!" She smiled.

"That's - that's impossible."

"Nope! Easy as pie!"

"You can't just - keep getting gods and blowing them up! I mean, yes, they will descend when another goes up, but-"

"Oh, no no no. There's no god in that. That's a tactical nuclear weapon. A suitcase nuke, to be particular! It's a kind of man-portable nuclear device, when it goes off, boom! It's like, mm... oh, probably about a hundred thousand times the strength of an equivalent amount of those regular explosives you guys love!" True.

Thanatos shuddered, subtly moving away from the object. He very much definitely should not have let her get this close. "What do you want?"

"I want you to give up on this whole 'Evilus' thing. Knossos is cool! It's nice to have a hobby, even if it's magically enforced, and it'd be mean to go around ruining all the hard work of past generations. But using it as a hideout for Thanatos while he does evil things? I don't think that'd be very wise, right, Bob?"

"Yes," the boy said, his eyes fixed on the object in question.

"Now, I know you have all those fun cultists you tell you'll reunite with their lost family-slash-loves-slash-et cetera. But you're kind of taking advantage of the poor Daedalus descendants!" She paused. "Ooo! You know, it'd be really sexy, if you failed to get together with this girl you liked, so you asked Thanatos to help out, and then he like, made you her uncle or something in your next lives, so you could rape her really easily!" Everybody twitched, the cultists looking to him for some guidance. "Sorry. All the potential. Sexy concept though, right? Anybody? Bueller?"

"Huh?" Byule asked, looking up sharply at hearing something so close to his name spoken.

"Oh, nevermind. Anyway!" She made a one-handed clapping motion with her free hand. "Kaboom! Get out! I'm evicting you! You're leaving Knossos one way or the other, with a big hole torn in the place, or you going all the way back up to Heaven in a flash of explosive energy!" True.

Thanatos bit his lip. "What's the plan when I get to the surface?" He asked.

"I don't know. What's the plan? Up to you! I'm not trapping you or anything. Can I trap a god? Heck, that's part of the reason I did this all on my own initiative! If I told anybody else about it, I'd have to think, Oh no, did Finn decide to break the agreement, and I'd have to tell you that. Bleh. Besides, I don't lie to people when I threaten them with death. Ever-ever." True. "If you lie, that ruins the point!"

Thanatos swallowed thickly. His whole body trembled. He rose to his feet at last. "Lord Thanatos!" One of his cultists looked to be trying to stab the Black Agony in the back, but he knew that it wouldn't work.

"I have been outplayed," he admitted, raising his hand to prevent the man in question from doing something insanely stupid that would get them all killed. He suspected this wasn't even his mistake here, which assuaged his bruised ego at least a bit. After all, the scent of death that was so rich in the room right now - he had smelled it once before. They had found no sign of the intruder he had sniffed. Perhaps she was close enough to have done this right then. "Very well. Black Agony."

"Huh? Who? What? Who's that?" Black Agony twisted her head around in confusion.

"That's you."

"Nope!"

"That..." He tightened his hand into a fist. "Is you."

"Alright, alright... you got me," she said at last. The scent of death intensified greatly, and she moved to the center of the room, hefting the baggage up over her shoulder. "Now come on before I kill everybody here!"

As he began to follow after her, he noticed the cultists following after him sniffing at the air. There was no scent save the particularly rich smell of death, now. He followed the Black Agony up winding staircases, up, and around to the surface, coming upon one of the doors to Knossos that emptied out into Daedalus Street. He contemplated what, precisely, his next step would be, having been driven out. There was a strong chance the descendants of Daedalus would not let him back in willingly. He could, perhaps, force Perdix to allow him to return, but he would have to find a place very deep inside Knossos, to prevent the Black Agony from finding him again... no, it would be better to relocate. But where? The Dungeon itself loathed gods, and Orario would not have forgotten what had happened too easily.

The door to Daedalus Street creaked open, the sound bringing him back to reality. He noticed the distinctive sounds of flies buzzing, as if attracted to rotting meat, but put it aside - it wasn't important. He stepped out into the sun once more, flanked on either side by cultists. "Good luck!" Came the Black Agony's voice from behind him, still carrying that large bag.

"Lord Thanatos, what shall we do now?" Asked one of his cultists, as he began to walk.

He sighed. He missed Valletta. He could be himself with her. "We will take shelter in an abandoned building, and contemplate our next move," he told the man. "Perhaps the descendants of Daedalus will allow us back."

"I have to say, that doesn't sound too likely." He recognized the voice instantly, his heart stopping in his chest, as he turned towards its source. Finn Deimne. Armed with his spear, wearing a smile. "I am in a particularly sour mood right now, Thanatos. If you-"

"For Lord Thanatos!" One of his idiotic companions said, rushing towards Finn - the pallum simply speared him in the chest with casual ease, tossing his body up into the air where it exploded, chunks of blood and viscera raining down on Thanatos like a pleasant rain.

"If you would like," Finn said, finishing his thought as if the interruption had just been some minor matter, "you could make this a fruitless battle, leaving me exhausted and irate at the end of it," Finn finished his thought. "Or, we could discuss the matter like civilized people. We have you surrounded."

As if to emphasize the point, he saw the various high Rankers of the Loki familia step out - Jormungandr, Nine Hell, Sword Princess, Elgarm... and, of course, even more footsoldiers. They'd been mustered fast. Thanatos really didn't need the demonstration. He let out a sigh. "The Black Agony had told me she was acting alone."

"She was," said the Human Rex, his eyes turning to the petite young woman. "Too bad I'm too smart to let my cumdump just wander around without keeping track of her." She stuck out her tongue at him. "Now you're fucked, retard."

"Lord Thanatos," one of the cultists said. "What shall we do?" They were just so annoying. They expected him to know every little thing. He was a god of death! Not winning battles! This was so obnoxiously unfair!

He thought about it for a couple seconds. There were more cultists in Knossos, he could perhaps rush back there. "Buy me time to-" something yanked him by the leg, pulling him into the crowd of Loki familia members. He heard the distinctive sounds of men exploding, detonating the devices on them, but as the Happy Ending placed his foot on Thanatos's sternum, he really doubted it would accomplish much.

"Don't... kill him," came a soft female voice, coming from - from the Dark Knight. They were really out in force.

"I wasn't going to," the Happy Ending said.

"You... thought about... it..."

"Oy, oy!" That was Loki. "Morning, sunshine!" Loki said, wiggling her fingers as she waved at Thanatos's supine form. "Been a while since we last saw one another," she added, wearing a smile that almost split her face ear to ear.

"Not long enough," Thanatos muttered.

"Feeling's mutual," Loki replied. She squatted down next to him. "Now. I know it's not just you down there," she said, poking his chest, as if to mock him. He was still under the Happy Ending's boot, after all. "So let's chit-chat, doom and gloom."

"I could just go back up to heaven."

"Oy," she said, smacking him right in the face. "Don't act like such a petulant little brat. I could just kill ya myself, you know? I'm giving you a chance, Thanatos. You can keep your head down, I know that. It's your pal, Enyo, who can't." How did she know about Enyo? Perhaps Valletta had mentioned him before her death? "So come on. Stop being evil. Join the forces of righteousness. Redeem yourself."

"I haven't done anything to need redeeming," he replied, which made the Happy Ending unpleasantly grind his foot down against his chest, his expression sharp.

"Don't..." the Dark Knight repeated, her voice soft.

"You-" the Happy Ending responded, then gently, slowly, lifted his foot off Thanatos's chest. Thanatos shifted on the ground. "Sorry. You're right, Cass," he said. "He just pisses me off."

"I didn't even do anything to you!"

The Happy Ending gave him a sour look, and Loki smacked Thanatos's face, attracting his attention back to her. "Oy! You think I got all year here?! If you're not gonna make yourself useful, I'll send you on up to heaven myself! I'm doing this on account of you could prove to be a useful ally, but you ain't gonna prove to be of much use to anybody if you just sit there whining."

Thanatos glared up at her. "As if."

Loki sighed, standing up - then kicked him right in the groin. The pain was instantaneous and agonizing, his whole body jerking as it hit him. He squirmed in agony on the ground as Loki spoke. "I'm not joking, idiot! Heaven or earth, that's your choice right now, and if you keep acting like a sore loser it's gonna be heaven!"

"Heaven," he spat out through the pain, and she let out a long, annoyed sigh.

Loki squatted down next to him. "You sure? Really sure? Won't be able to do any evil stuff if you're in heaven. It'll be back to the daily grind." He shot her a baleful glare. "So..." she trailed off. "So annoying. Waste of my time." She rolled her shoulders. "Right, Drake, you carry him. I'll take care of him outside the city. Everybody else - well, Finn can tell you what to do."

Thanatos was easily hefted up onto the Happy Ending's shoulder. He just silently brooded as they headed out of the city, Loki walking alongside him, occasionally poking at him, either verbally or literally, to see if he would betray his allies.

As if. He was a good natured god. Enyo could carry out the work in his absence.

It didn't take long before another pillar of light descended from the heavens, reclaiming one more god: Thanatos himself.

* * *

Flies buzzed around the girl without a name's form. The swarm had grown in intensity ever since she had responded to her alias. It was really, really annoying by this point. Buzz buzz buzz. Even when she enveloped herself in nothingness to hide her presence, the flies lingered, and kept on buzzing, completely ruining her stealth! More importantly, it'd be a huge turn-off for Drake and Rei if she was covered in flies! Agh!

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