Day of the operation and of the Great Feud.
Astraea’s group.
“Captain. Everyone is ready.” Said Kaguya.
“Good. Has the enemy noticed we’re up to something?” asked Alise.
“At the moment it doesn’t seem so. They’ve been so quiet I’m starting to feel anxious.” Said Kaguya.
“But nevertheless we got to do this. We will be taking down Evilus today.”
“Ardi…” said Ryuu.
“Yes, Ryuu?”
Ryuu had a face of hesitation, but she swallowed it back and made a stern expression, whatever she wanted to say will be saved for later.
“Nothing…lets just win this war.”
“Sure! Oh say Ai where is Cirrus?”
“He’s…around.”
“Around?” said Alise. “What is he doing at a time like this!?”
“He said he will be around, and that he’ll watch everyone’s back!” Ai points up.
They look high in the sky to see a white owl barely visible circling them.
Freya’s group.
“Ottar, Allen. Was it really good that we left Hogni, Hedin, and Alfrigg behind?” said a Freya member.
“I have no idea what the Elf and Pallum’s plans are. Working together with a boar is already quite overwhelming.” Allen said.
“Hedin is in charge of commanding reserve troops. If anything happens, do as he says.” Said Ottar.
“Y-yes sir! Good luck, sir!”
The member then leaves.
“We’ve given them enough time to have their fill of blood, its time for them to die. You better not stop me captain.”
“I won’t, they shall be exterminated.” He said in a assured tone.
Loki’s Group.
“Finn. The preparations are complete. We can attack all three bases at once at any time-wow what’s going on?” Riveria asks.
“….My thumb is twitching.” Said Finn.
“Is this the intuition again?” said Gareth.
“Yes. Ever since the Dark Era started 8 years ago, its been itching all along. But…I'm feeling a new level of twitching today.”
“…So what shall we do then?” asked Riveria.
“We fight. It’s pointless to postpone this. Now that we’re prepared, there are only two options-we win or lose." He glanced at Babel to see a pinkish-hawk fly around.
'Seeing that hawk does make me feel a bit better...'
Time for all of them seem to slow, everyone involved were waiting for the operation to begin.
Tick!
Tock!
Tick!
Tock!
“…It’s time.” Said Riveria.
“Lets go.” Finn said brandishing his spear.
And so at 6:30 PM the operation was underway.
Astraea’s Group.
“Haaa!!!”
“Uraa!!”
“Down the hall! And one above! The enemies are coming!!” shouted Lyra.
“Ardi! With me!” shouted Ai.
“Got it!!”
The two then go up top.
“Lion! You take the right, ill deal with the left!” shouted Kaguya.
“You didn’t have to tell me!” shouted Ryuu going to the right.
“I have your backs!” shouted Kushida.
“Gaaa!!”
“Thanks!” said Ryuu.
They continued to cut their way through the members until finally reaching the deepest part of the factory.
They opened the door to find-
“Archina!!” shouted Ryuu.
“Yo…hows it going…Hm? Finn isn't here? Oh well I can’t believe that bitch gave us the wrong information.” said Valletta. “I'm rather impressed by quick work you made of all of them guys to get here. But was it due to that saint?”
“Sounds like your trying to praise us but your face and voice says otherwise. Tell me what are you hiding before we mop the floor with you.” Said Lyra.
“Mmmm…what do you think Pallum? Ways to get rid of you folks once and…wait? Where is that dam goat? Heh! No matter! This works out better than expected.”
“Valletta Grede! We’ve surrounded this building! Most of your troops are arrested too! It’s about time you surrender!”
“Ahahahahahah!!! Did you think I'm some run of the mill villain! Who in their right minds would listen to that fucking shit! Come on out guys!!”
Coming out of the shadows were Turn and Mata as well as several of the former Alecto Familia.
“Them!” shouted Kaguya.
“We’re ambushed!” shouted Ryuu.
“Now let’s have some fuuuuun!!!!!!!!!”
“RAAAA!!!!!”Ai fought against Turn.
“HAAAA!!!!” Shakti faced against Valletta.
“AHHHH!!!!” Alise fought against Mata.
“ROOO!!!” Kaguya, Lyra, Kushida, and Ardi face off against the mobs of enemies.
They all began to exchange heavy blows with one another in a flurry of swords and fists.
“Not bad Ankusha! Hahahahaha!!!” laughed Valetta.
“Guh!”
‘What is this woman planning!’ thought Lyra.
Ardi continued to fight when in her crosshairs a small child wielding a knife came at her.
Clang!
Clang!
“Ahhh!” she screamed in pain.
“A-a child!? This is insane! Children shouldn’t be involved in this!”
“Ah! Ah!” she was holding the knife with shaking hands.
“Drop the knife! don’t fight! You cant listen to someone who’d make you wield a weapon!” she then lowered hers. “I’m not going to hurt you. You believe me, don’t you? Now come here-“
As Ardi knelt down and the child approach each other Shakti could see the grin on Valletta face start to grow.
“!!” Shakti turned to Ardi and yelled. “ARDI!!!! GET AWAY FROM-“
“Tee-hee!” Valletta giggle as she watched her gods plan come to fruition.
“God…" The little girl said as she went and hugged Ardi. "I want to see mom and dad.” she said in such a hollow and desperate tone it filled Ardi with dread.
“!?”
Ardi understanding the weakness that brought her to this point. She smiled one last time as she hugged the child tightly, giving her one last sense of comfort despite what she did.
The little girl felt a deep sense of regret in that moment. She looked up at Ardi as the white light slowly encompass them.
"It will be alri-"
Booom!!
Everyone looks in horror as when the ringing in their ear faded as did the light what remained was nothing but the scorch marks of the bomb.
Time seemed to stop for them all.
“…Huh?” said Ryuu with a horror filled face.
“N-no…that can’t be…” said Alise.
“No…way…” said Kaguya.
“A suicide bomb??” said Lyra.
“…No…” said Kushida.
And the most devastated of them all, Shakti.
“…Ar….di?????????”
Followed by one other.
"...Eh???" said Ai as her eyes slowly lose their light.
With all the subterfuge and killing Cirus did for the gods as a child in the underworld, it's kinda confusing how naive he and the gods have been acting and treating Evilus since he got back from the island vs beforehand.
I get that for most criminals for most times, a planned raid works, and had for most of history and Evilus is the exception in the god's eyes.....but they already had spies/ambushes/fake info strongly interwoven into all of their past plots they already dealt with and got hurt in.
It's rather irritating seeing all the gods/familias ignoring all of that and just assuming everything will go to plan. Like did I miss a chapter? I mean, how many bloodbaths have to happen before the gods stop approaching the group as if they're a small-time gang and start taking a war footing?
Last chapter it said that the spy they planted was years ago and they never contacted Evilus until they drew up the plans for the raid.
Also for the most part from what I read it seems that Evilus has acted more in their own intelligence I mean it's not like they don't have smart people.
You also can't go super hard on them or else they will dig even deeper to hide themselves and they would continue to spread. You need to get them all in one fell swoop.
I'm not asking why they don't have the same information the readers have, I'm asking why they're ignoring/forgetting their past experiences. Why can characters be ruthless, accept collateral damage to take out a bigger threat (like Cirrus as a kid when traveling abroad), even clash with eachother over the morality of it (Cirrus w/Kaguya).....but then ONLY Evilus is treated like a saturday morning cartoon villain...for some reason.
It's like the author is indecisive with following the early story grittier dark/pragmatic tone or whether to revert things back to the more shonen flavor of the source material. Just feels out of character for so many individuals given what we've already seen them do.
@BDF2 I guess the bait was to good to pass up. I feel like the author maybe should have gone a bit more into Evilus and flesh them out a bit more.
@Normalguy @BDF2 The entire story has gone off the rails for this arc. Nothing has been making sense anymore. It's like the good familias became too powerful for the authors plan, so they had to put everyone's IQ and common sense to zero to force the plot along.
@Scarecro As someone who has just speed read up to this point, I have to agree with you. This arc is forced to the point of immersion breaking. I mean I get that not everyone is as forged in blood as the MC, but there are gods of old on their side. They or the dungeon should have tempered their children to be better. Kid just stabbed you, so knock them out or kill them. You can sort it out when the dust settles. Also, that bomb should have hurt more people if you compare it to the bombs the MC faced earlier. Again forced growth instead of organic.