Takatsuki closed his eyes, sensing the information fed back through his aura perception, and drew his longbow.
A longsword without a hilt was used as an arrow, nocked onto the longbow.
With only a day of practice, Takatsuki couldn't yet transform his projections into exactly what he wanted, and his memory also lacked powerful weapons for him to project. Thus, he could only rely on brute force, using a large amount of magic power to project a longsword, based on the Kusanagi Blade he possessed, which, aside from the heavy magic power input, had no other special characteristics.
Although he had never learned archery, shooting an arrow wasn't actually difficult.
Of course, this was based on a person having extremely strong control over their own body.
Though others couldn't see it, a highly mechanical-looking phantom enveloped Takatsuki.
The precision of the Heavens Stairway was far greater than Takatsuki's own, locking onto the target through aura perception.
Whoosh!
As Takatsuki released his hand, the longsword flew out like lightning, covering several kilometers in just a few seconds before embedding itself in the city gate.
"Broken Phantasm…"
The sword embedded in the gate erupted with powerful magic, causing immense destruction. A single sword shattered the entire gate. In just one day, although he hadn't fully mastered projection, Takatsuki had already mastered the ability to collapse the magic within a projection to cause destruction.
"What?!"
"What happened?! That sound!"
"Oh no! The gate has been destroyed!"
"Who did it?! How did they do it?!"
Instantly, panicked voices filled the city of the Apollo Familia.
"Don't panic! Everyone, hold your positions!"
The disadvantage of an overly large city was that when one area was attacked, other areas couldn't know immediately and could only hold their positions until orders arrived.
Taking another sword from his Kings Treasure, Takatsuki began to draw his bow and nock an arrow. A small circular hole appeared beside him, and on the other side, a white-haired girl was waiting.
"The city gate is destroyed. Go, Kiana."
"Understood! Just watch me show off!"
As the command was given, Kiana suddenly appeared before the city gate.
"It's the enemy!"
"Where did she come from?!"
Kiana, who had instantly teleported to the city gate through the effect of The Hand, was covered in red armor. She watched the members of the Apollo Familia charging towards her.
"This is my home turf!"
She lifted her right leg high, the Gilgamesh constantly charging, then stomped heavily on the ground. A massive shockwave erupted from Kiana, knocking back the surrounding enemies who charged at her. Even the arrows shot at her from the air were blown away.
"Heh heh, now it's Kiana time."
Ignoring Kiana, who was like a wolf among sheep, with another arrow shot by Takatsuki, a huge crack appeared in another section of the city wall. The surrounding adventurers and archers on the wall were directly knocked back. Just as this defense faltered, a massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky, completely tearing apart the slightly cracked wall, disintegrating it at a molecular level.
"See, coward? This is how the Herrscher of Thunder's power is used."
Beside the purple-haired katana girl who walked in from outside the torn wall, a figure identical to her spoke to her. Unfortunately, in the eyes of others, they could only see her alone.
Looking at the adventurers arrayed in the city, Mei assumed a drawing-the-sword stance.
"Hokushin Ittō-ryū, Master License, Raiden Mei, reporting for duty!"
On the other side of the city wall, just as someone relayed the battle situation at the main gate and one side of the wall, everyone heard an explosion.
Under Broken Phantasm, the city wall here was torn apart again. To everyone's horror, frost spread from outside through the crack into the city, completely freezing an entire section of the wall. Then, a clear voice spoke:
"Project Bunny, annihilation mode activated."
Boom!
The wall, weakened by the ice, shattered. A grey-haired girl stood outside the wall, and behind her floated a massive machine. However, the people of this world didn't know what it was, only that from its metallic texture, they regarded it as some kind of construct.
"She's only one person, go!"
A dozen people on this part of the wall charged towards Bronya, but before they could get close, they were frozen by frost spreading up from their feet.
"West wall, Bronya has completed suppression."
The scene of completing the suppression of three sides in just half an hour shocked everyone in Orario.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, is this really a new Familia?"
"Didn't they say it was formed less than a month ago? Are they veteran adventurers from outside Orario?"
"Is this really LV1?"
A group of Gods were extremely surprised, and Apollo, with his mouth agape and eyes wide, watched the crushing scene in the light mirror: "Cheating! You must have cheated! Ouranos! Hestia must have lied about their levels! This can't be LV1!"
"Of course they're not LV1."
Hestia said, crossing her arms, as if it were obvious.
Just as Apollo was about to say something: "Takatsuki-kun reached LV3 after returning from the Dungeon two days ago! We have already reported this to the Guild."
"LV3!?"
"Wait, wasn't he only LV1 before? How did he suddenly become LV3?"
"Did he lie about his level before?"
"Hmph!" Hestia snorted at the questioning Gods around her: "My Takatsuki-kun underwent two consecutive ascensions to reach LV3, and he could have even ascended directly to LV4 at the time, but his ability values hadn't reached their limit yet, so he just didn't level up."
Hestia's words surprised those around her even more.
Even Gods who had lived for hundreds of millions of years had never encountered a situation where someone could ascend consecutively.
"Impossible! Ouranos! Hestia must be lying!"
Listening to Apollo's hysterical words, Ouranos's voice once again rose from underground.
"The Guild will conduct an investigation after the War Game. If any violations are found, the Guild will penalize them."
Although he said this, Ouranos didn't mention the War Game at all.
Apollo sat back in his seat, ashen-faced. Ouranos's meaning couldn't be clearer: the results of the War Game were real and valid, because both sides had agreed to it, and Apollo himself had even provoked it.
And if the Hestia Familia violated rules, it would be the Guild that penalized them, having nothing to do with the Apollo Familia.
But ultimately, by then, the Apollo Familia would probably no longer exist.
The Apollo Familia had about a hundred members.
After three individuals attacked from three directions, anyone else who went to support them was quickly defeated. Only a dozen people remained guarding the room of their captain, Hyacinthus.
"Damn it! How is this possible! Just a small Familia, and they actually defeated everyone in our Apollo Familia!?"
Hyacinthus had originally been calmly waiting in the main base, but who would have thought that just half an hour after it began, his castle had already fallen.
Just as he was raging in frustration, a sword shot through the wall and landed in front of him…