When they returned to the city, they welcomed the Astraea Familia on their victory with great praise, but they knew the praise was aimed at Cirrus. His appearance in the War Games completely overshadowed everyone.

The Alecto Familia were all taken by The Guild and the Ganesha Familia.

Cirrus has felt such praise when he was a musician, but the praise from that and now from this was entirely different. One praised him for his talents and ability, the other was for his mere existence, a hero in the people's eyes. He wasn't fond of that, nor does he ever seek to want it or such a title as a hero.

“Sorry, but I’m not a huge fan of massive praise.” He then left through the rooftops.

“Guess we’ll see him back at home, right?” said Lyra.

 

The Room of Prayer.

“So you revealed who you are… Cirrus.” Said Ouranos.

“I did… I think it’s time for it. I lived too long in the dark and I wanted a taste of the light."

'And I have grown strong enough to fend for myself. There has even been enough time for people to forget my mother.'

“Hm, I will not go against your wishes, but do you truly wish to reveal you're true level?”

“Yes, to show that Orario has produced another level 7 adventure and to show Evilus that their end is near.”

“It seems so… I look forward to the day they are removed from the city.”

“Yeah… by the way, where is Fels?”

“They had to do a job, but they asked me to tell you they watched the War Games through their familiar."

“Heh, I feel a bit happy to hear that… well, I should get going, seeing as I’m going to have to pull my weight.”

 

Leaving the Room of Prayer, Cirrus decides to go meet up with Astraea and the Familia to discuss the Alecto Familia.

“Hey Circe, do you mind if you tell Lili that I’ll talk to her later?”

‘Um, Nox is already doing that.’

“Ah, so that’s where she went… then how’s it going with them?”

‘Hmm… she seems fine enough… mostly she’s surprised who you were and what she is gonna be doing now.’

“… Tell Nox to tell her I’ll come by her home later.”

‘Alright, are you going to have another meeting?’

“Something like that…”

 

Returning to the Astraea Familia’s home, Cirrus took the path he always took and went in from the back.

“Welcome, Cirrus,” Astraea said with a joyful smile. “You know coming in through the back has become a rather bad habit of yours?” she said, leading him in.

“Ah, well, I’ve been doing it for years. It’s not gonna change over time.”

Arriving in the living room, they all were sitting and waited for Cirrus to return.

“What the hell took you so damn long, Cirrus! If you are this late, I’m going to have to have you break up with Ai-chan!” said Kaguya.

“So what of the Alecto Familia?” Cirrus said, ignoring Kaguya and sitting down on the couch as though it was natural.

“Don’t ignore me!” she shouted.

“Whaaaat!? Geez, I had stuff to do!”

“Is stuff Ai—“

Both Kaguya and Cirrus glared at Lyra before she could finish her sentence.

"... Cirrus." Kaguya glared at Cirrus intensely. "If you lay a hand on Ai, I will—"

"Oh yeah, we held hands at the goddess festival. It was a really fun time between the two of—"

"I'll fucking kill you," she said, full of anger and murder.

"Try me, bitch me! I'll fucking pop your arms off their sockets!" Cirrus glared back. He had his hand open, ready to do what he said.

“Alright, that’s enough!" Alise said, stepping in-between them before it escalates any further. "Geez, how much bad blood is there between you two? It’s worse than you and Lion.”

“It would take too long to tell,” Kaguya said. “By the way, Lady Astraea, did you know he was going to help us in the War Games?”

“Well, I knew he was planning on announcing himself eventually, but seeing as this was an opportunity, he couldn’t pass it up. He took it and paid them back for what they did.”

“And why didn’t you just announce it yourself when you arrived?” asked Ryuu.

“Well, from what Ai had said since they announced me, 'missing' Evilus grew bolder. If they could get rid of an adventure, who could fight Ottar? What could anyone possibly do?”

“So you remained in the shadows so we can deal with them, as they're now more active,” said Alise.

“Yup and now, after 4 years, I’m sure they had to quickly scramble during the War Games to move all of their resources.”

“Speaking of all of their Familia has been imprisoned and Alecto was sent to heaven! We are also investigating their Familia home as we speak! By we, I mean the Loki and Susanoo Familia.” Astraea said.

“Ayy, that’s great news!” Cirrus said. “If they find anything of value, we're one step closer to ending Evilus!”

“Hm! So let's all work to finally finish this!”

“Uroooo!!!!!!!”

They all brought out food and drinks and, in the celebrations of the victory, Cirrus however takes his leave.

“Leaving already,” Kaguya said, noticing he was not celebrating.

“I am. As I said, I have stuff to do.”

“You mean that Pallum? I’ve seen that Pallum around you playing your instrument. What do you plan on doing?”

“Yeah, that is what I'm going to work on."

Taking his leave, he walks out of the home and looks to find the moonlit night.

“…(Exousía, Adorn: Stymphalian).”

 

Arriving in Daedalus Street, Cirrus knocks on Lili’s door.

“It’s me.”

He could hear the small scuffles from behind the door and her unlocking the door.

“H-hello Sora—I mean Zephyr, sir!”

“You can call me Sora if you still like, um, may I come in?”

“Y-yes!”

Entering her home, he still found it rather… plain. The only thing she had was the stuff he or Nox had given her, along with some clothes and a bed.

“Sorry if it’s messy, um, I was tired from working.”

“It's fine,” Cirrus said, sitting down and crossing his legs.

Lili also takes a seat; Cirrus could see she was nervous.

“So about what to do—“

“Um, Yoru said that she and you will find something for me since you’re going to be doing more, um… dangerous stuff.”

“Yes, I’m sure you know I will be dealing with Evilus, and I don’t want you to be caught in this.”

“…. Is there really no way for me to help?”

“Well…” Cirrus begins to think, but each time he does on what Lili could do, he thinks of what the worse could happen and then an idea came to him. “Ah, I have one thing you can help and do, and it’ll be much safer but… also very dirty.”

“W-what is it?” she said enthusiastically.

“You see, the Pallums in the alleyways, right? The ones who lost their will to live?”

“Y-yes?”

“Can I ask you to join them?”

“…Eh?”

“Don’t worry! I’ll help train you in case of anything bad happens.”

“Ehhhhh!?!?!?”

 

Somewhere outside of Orario, a few days later.

“So… you saw the War Games!” Erebus said. “What say we return to Orario? You see, the Masked Prince returns, so why are we here in the village he saved?”

“Because we wanted to know how strong he is. Do you not see this level of destructiveness?” said Alfia gazing at the aftermath of Cirrus's fight with Hecton.

“Yeah, the kid even fought that massive monster and killed it on his own. Even for us, it took several Familia to bring down the Behemoth. Granted, I was the one to deliver the finishing blow.” Zald said, looking out at the crystalized and carbonized valley.

“You know it was a spirit that did this, right? I had thought you were in contact with Zeus?”

“Spirit?” said Zald.

“The old man left before the fight finished, but care to explain to us this Spirit having this level of power?” Alfia said with her eyes opened towards Erebus.

“Of course! But we are still going through with the plan, right?”

“Of course,” Zald said confidently. “We will go through with it so the world may have heroes who can take our place.”

“That’s good to hear!” Erebus said with a smile on his face. “Now, shall we get going? I’ll explain it to you on the way!”