The crystal glass in his hand clinked softly, reflecting the dim light of the fireplace inside the god's private room.
Outside, the streets of Orario were beginning to empty, sinking into the embrace of the night following the exhausting Denatus. However, inside this soundproof room located in his Familia's headquarters, Dionysus stood facing a large window, staring at the twinkling city lights with an expression that was difficult to read.
His face, which usually radiated the elegance of an aristocrat, heartwarming friendliness, and sincere empathy, slowly began to crack.
Dionysus pulled a small bottle from beneath his cloak—a dark glass bottle that was completely different from the wine he brought to the Tower of Babel. Without using a glass, he uncorked it and downed its contents directly.
The thick liquid flowed down his throat, and in that exact second, a horrifying psychological transition occurred.
The light of gentleness in his purple eyes extinguished completely, replaced by a bottomless abyss of darkness. His friendly smile curved upward, twisting into a chilling, mad smirk. His elegant posture turned rigid and oppressive. The holy aura that usually surrounded him evaporated, replaced by a murderous intent so dense it could freeze the air around him.
The kind-hearted Dionysus had fallen asleep. Enyo, the City Destroyer, now took over the stage of his consciousness.
"What a truly disgusting mess," he whispered to the night, his voice sounding as cold as eternal ice. "This week has been the worst script I've ever seen."
Enyo crushed the crystal glass in his hand until it shattered into pieces. The sharp shards scratched his palm, dripping red blood onto the thick carpet, but he didn't even blink. The pain actually helped him focus his mind.
His brain spun back to the string of anomalies that had torn apart the order of his grand plan over the past seven days.
First, the roar of the Black Dragon and the disappearance of the storm seal at the northern end. That was the Final Calamity, the ultimate ace card he was going to play at the end of the act to scorch Orario to the ground after the city rotted from within. The dragon moving ahead of schedule was a harsh slap to his directorial authority.
Second, the earthquake at the bottom of the labyrinth last night. While Enyo was walking to inspect the expansion of the Knossos tunnels—the artificial labyrinth masterpiece of Daedalus's descendants that he controlled—the destructive tremor struck without mercy. The Orichalcum walls of that labyrinth were indeed impossible to collapse from an earthquake, but the kinetic shock effect devastated dozens of facilities inside. The breeding magic circles painstakingly constructed were shattered to pieces, energy channeling crystals cracked, and several of his precious hybrid monster seeds died crushed by the stone ceiling. Most humiliatingly, the tremor sent Enyo himself tumbling to the ground in front of his Evilus followers.
However, what made Enyo's blood boil the most was the third anomaly. Alecto's death.
"A foolish goddess too obsessed with torture," hissed Enyo, shaking the blood from his hand.
A week ago, Alecto asked permission to go to the Far East. The goddess had a sick obsession with mentally breaking people and wanted to deliver absolute despair.
In exchange for Alecto's loyalty, Enyo secretly lent her a platoon of elite Evilus forces. Not just any troops, but top-class fighters among whom was a Level 4 adventurer. In this current era, a Level 4 loyal to Evilus was a high-tier military asset.
But tonight, Ouranos's announcement at the Denatus hit him. Ouranos stated that an unknown god was forcibly returned to Tenkai from the Far East. That fact perfectly answered why the magic communication device Enyo gave his elite platoon had gone completely dead a few days ago.
Someone, or something, had slaughtered his Level 4 platoon and sent Alecto home in the blink of an eye.
And amidst the sea of Enyo's frustration tonight, Hermes voluntarily offered the name of a Familia.
Enyo recalled the moment inside the Denatus. Hermes sat next to him, weaving a conspiracy theory connecting Venti's disappearance out of town, the appearance of a new member, Alfia's sudden activity descending into the Dungeon, and the earthquake explosion.
Hermes's suspicion towards Venti had actually started since the Denatus a week ago, exactly when the dragon roared. But Hermes only dared to weave all his suspicions into one cohesive narrative tonight.
To Enyo, Hermes was a smart god. His observer instincts were deadly. However, the philosophy Hermes used was too naive. The Messenger was a detective playing with logic; looking for evidence and alibis.
A very boring philosophy, sneered Enyo inwardly. He didn't care about evidence. If a rat was suspected of hiding inside a house, Enyo wouldn't bother setting traps. He would burn the house to the ground and see who ran out.
That was why Enyo decided to use Hermes as his fire starter.
Enyo walked toward his desk, staring at a small bottle with a deep purple hue stored inside the drawer. The Wine of Madness.
Getting Hermes drunk and forcing him to attack Venti in public sounded like a simple plan. However, executing it in a room filled with sharp gods of the caliber of Loki, Freya, and Hermes himself was an impossibility. Gods were absolute lie detectors. If there was even the slightest malicious intent, cunning, or aura of manipulation when he offered the wine to Hermes, they would surely notice it immediately, and his disguise would be shattered.
Then, how did Enyo manage to pull off that perfect crime right under all their noses?
Enyo laughed softly. "You cannot deceive the gods, unless you brainwash yourself until you believe your own lies," he whispered with a mad smile.
That was his darkest magic trick. Before leaving for the Denatus, Enyo had drunk a special variant of his Divine Wine—the same drink he had just downed to cancel its effects. That wine sealed the "Enyo" personality completely into the deepest corner of his soul, letting the "Dionysus" side take over absolute consciousness.
The Dionysus sitting next to Hermes earlier was not an act. It was pure and innocent Dionysus. A Dionysus who truly cared about his friend's stress and sincerely offered a glass of wine (which had previously been secretly swapped by Enyo). Because Dionysus himself had no malicious intent when pouring it, not a single god could detect the manipulation.
His plan worked perfectly. The wine hacked Hermes's mind, making the Messenger vomit all his wild theories and strip Venti's alibi bare in public.
However, it was Venti's reaction at the end of the performance that made Enyo's instincts scream.
Venti did not break. The god actually danced atop Hermes's barrage of accusations, twisting logic, and making Hermes a clown. And the most terrifying part... was when Venti walked past their table.
Enyo closed his eyes, recalling the memory recording from Dionysus's eyes.
In a fraction of a second, Venti's gaze locked onto him. Those usually cheerful emerald eyes pierced his marble illusion. Venti's faint smile was not the smile of a debate winner, but the smile of someone who knew a hidden lie.
That gaze seemed to say: I know the wine in that glass is not normal, and I know you gave it to him intentionally.
"He pierced through Dionysus's absolute sincerity," hissed Enyo, opening his eyes which now flashed with deadly purple lightning. "Even Loki and Freya were fooled by that fake empathy. But that bard god... he could see there was manipulation behind that glass of friendship wine."
That fact made Enyo feel a pulsing vigilance. Venti didn't know that he was Enyo the mastermind of Evilus—if Venti knew, the god would surely have used that information already. However, the fact that Venti possessed instincts and perception sharp enough to notice his secret wine manipulation made Venti a very dangerous anomaly.
"He's not just a poor god who happened to take in Alfia," Enyo concluded, his tone trembling with ecstasy. "He is an unexpected variable. An irregularity."
If Venti was so sensitive to intrigue... then what if Hermes's crazy theory was close to the truth?
Enyo smiled broadly. Hermes might waste time observing to verify Venti's alibi. But Enyo would take a much more efficient path.
Enyo walked back to his desk and pulled out a piece of parchment.
Attacking the old church where Alfia sheltered directly using Evilus forces was the stupidest action anyone in Orario could take. Silence, despite being ravaged by illness, was still a natural disaster. Enyo would not throw away his Evilus assets to commit suicide in the courtyard of that church.
Instead, Enyo would target their blind spot.
From underground reports, the Barbatos Familia had just recruited new members, including the Level 1 child Alfia brought into the labyrinth. Sooner or later, Venti would definitely send these new members to train in the Dungeon, because that was the essence of an Orario adventurer.
Enyo scratched his quill across the parchment, writing a coded instruction.
The message was addressed to the Evilus higher-ups hiding in Knossos. The instructions were very sharp: Watch the movements of the new Barbatos Familia members when they enter the labyrinth on the Upper or Middle Floors. When Alfia is not guiding them into the dungeon, isolate them. Lure monster crowds to test the limits of their strength, and if possible, capture one of them alive.
If those new kids died to ordinary monsters, then the Barbatos Familia was just a bunch of weaklings who happened to get lucky. However, if those kids showed strength beyond their level, or if Venti was forced to reveal his Familia's ace cards or let the sick Alfia descend to sweep the labyrinth to save them—Enyo would get all the answers he needed from behind the shadows of the Dungeon.
Enyo rolled the coded message into a small silver tube. He then walked toward a large bookshelf in the corner of his room. His index finger pulled a thick book with a dark red cover.
A very soft mechanical click was heard, and a small panel opened behind its wooden wall. It was a secret pipeline—a small masterpiece left behind by Daedalus—whose channel slid straight underground, connecting directly to the control room of the Knossos headquarters.
"Show me your darkest secrets, Bard God," whispered Enyo, dropping the silver tube into the dark hole.
A soft hissing sound of wind was heard as the tube slid down, piercing the city's foundation towards the depths of his secret labyrinth. Enyo immediately pushed the red book back, closing the panel without a trace, as if the wall was just ordinary solid wood.
After his message was sent underground, Enyo returned to his desk. He took a bottle of clear wine—the antidote to Enyo's memories—and poured it into a new glass.
He stared at the reflection of his mad face on the surface of the liquid for the last time.
"The testing stage is set," he murmured, before downing the contents of the glass.
Within seconds, silence enveloped the room. The abyss of darkness in his purple eyes slowly faded. His rigid jaw muscles relaxed again. His cruel smirk was replaced by a gentle smile that was sincere and soothing. His murderous intent vanished like morning mist.
Dionysus blinked slowly, holding his head which suddenly felt a bit heavy. He stared at his palm, scratched by glass, with an expression of very innocent confusion.
"Ah... did I break a glass when I was drunk earlier?" Dionysus murmured anxiously, taking his silk handkerchief to bandage the small wound. "Goodness, it seems the wine at Babel was truly too strong for me tonight."
With a soft sigh full of regret, Dionysus walked out of his private room, completely forgetting the figure of "Enyo", the secret passage behind his bookshelf, and the deadly testing plan he had just orchestrated.
In the darkness of the Dungeon, Evilus spies would soon be on high alert, awaiting the arrival of the new Barbatos Familia members.
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