Genichi's shadows moved through the darkness of the palace without a sound, like a group of the deadliest assassins.
They had no faces and no features, only vague humanoid silhouettes, yet they radiated a suffocating sense of pressure.
They slipped through corridors, infiltrated rooms, climbed staircases, and silently eliminated the guards of the Ishtar Familia one after another.
Some had their mouths and noses covered until they suffocated.
Some had their necks broken and died instantly.
Others were dragged directly into the shadows and vanished without a trace.
There were no sounds of fighting.
No cries for help.
No noise at all.
Only the muffled thuds of bodies collapsing to the floor.
One Level 4 guard leaned beside a wall, yawning as he stood watch over a door leading deeper into the palace.
His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Just as he was about to fall asleep, a pitch-black hand emerged from the shadow behind him and clamped over his mouth and nose.
His eyes snapped wide open.
He tried to struggle.
Tried to shout.
But the hand was terrifyingly strong, and he could not break free.
His body convulsed and trembled as his strength slowly drained away.
A few minutes later, he stopped moving.
His body slumped limply to the floor, his eyes still open.
Elsewhere, another guard patrolled a corridor.
His footsteps echoed across the stone floor in a crisp, monotonous rhythm.
He was highly alert, constantly scanning his surroundings with one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw at any moment.
But he failed to notice the shadow beneath his feet beginning to writhe.
It spread.
Expanded.
Slowly crept closer.
By the time he felt something coil around his ankle, it was already too late.
The shadow suddenly tightened and yanked him off his feet.
Only half a cry escaped his mouth before something silenced him.
It did not take long.
Before long, the guards of the Ishtar Familia had been completely neutralized.
Those adventurers who normally strutted around the Pleasure Quarter with arrogant confidence now lay scattered throughout the corridors, rooms, and stairways.
Blood seeped from wounds and spread across the stone floor in dark-red trails.
The thick smell of blood mingled with the fragrance of flowers drifting in from the courtyard, creating an unsettling contrast.
Genichi stood before the palace doors.
He pushed them open and walked inside.
His steps were light and steady.
Each footfall struck the stone floor with a crisp sound that echoed through the vast, empty hall.
The shadows beneath him rippled faintly, following behind like a pack of loyal hounds.
He crossed the hall.
Climbed the stairs.
Passed through the corridor.
Finally, he stopped before a large door at the deepest part of the palace.
It was luxurious, covered in elaborate decorative patterns.
Genichi pushed it open.
The sight inside was hardly elegant.
He walked over to the bed, raised one leg, and kicked the two people occupying it straight onto the floor.
Thud!
Ishtar hit the ground hard.
Her laughter immediately turned into a shriek.
The man who had been sharing her bed rolled several times before crashing into the wall.
Confusion flashed through his eyes, quickly replaced by terror.
He looked at Genichi, trembling uncontrollably, and curled himself into the corner without daring to move or make a sound.
Ishtar climbed to her feet, furious.
Her eyes burned with rage, and her beautiful face twisted with anger.
"Who dares..."
Her words stopped the instant she saw Genichi.
Her pupils contracted.
The fury on her face immediately vanished, replaced by astonishment.
She had spent so long searching for him without success.
Now Genichi had actually appeared in front of her on his own.
Perfect.
"Genichi..."
Disbelief, surprise, and uncontrollable delight blended together in her voice.
"You came."
"You finally came!"
She did not even seem to realize that she was still naked.
She did not notice that all her guards had been taken down.
She did not understand that Genichi had not come to surrender.
He had come for revenge.
She simply assumed that her Charm had finally taken effect.
She thought he had finally fallen into her hands.
She thought the resurrection magic she had dreamed of obtaining was finally hers.
Ishtar stood and walked toward him.
Then she unleashed the full force of her divine Authority.
Charm poured outward without restraint.
She tried to seize Genichi's consciousness, to turn him into her servant, her tool, something that belonged solely to her.
The power was invisible and intangible, yet it could pierce through ordinary defenses and strike directly at the weakest part of the soul.
Ishtar had almost never failed.
She had never encountered anyone capable of casually resisting her Charm.
But this time, she had miscalculated.
Genichi simply stood there.
His expression remained calm.
His body did not move in the slightest.
He looked at Ishtar's exposed body without desire, fear, or even embarrassment.
Her Charm swept over him like a passing breeze.
Then it vanished.
It left nothing behind.
"Disgusting."
Genichi's voice was quiet, but the revulsion within it seemed to seep into his bones.
"You reek. Just looking at you makes me sick."
He raised his hand.
Slap!
The crisp sound echoed throughout the room.
Ishtar's head snapped to the side, and she staggered several steps before nearly falling.
One side of her face immediately turned red.
A thin trace of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
She covered her cheek and slowly looked back at Genichi.
Her violet eyes were filled with disbelief.
"My Charm... didn't work?"
Her voice trembled.
Confusion mixed with fear.
She could not understand it.
Her Charm was an innate power of a Goddess of Beauty.
Even other gods could have difficulty resisting it.
Aside from a handful of virgin goddesses and other special cases, almost no one could simply ignore her influence.
Yet now a human adventurer was standing before her completely unaffected.
His gaze remained calm.
Cold.
Disgusted.
There was no desire.
No infatuation.
None of the familiar reactions she had seen countless times before.
"You're finished."
Ishtar's body suddenly stiffened.
She stared at Genichi, terror finally filling her violet eyes.
She could tell.
He was not bluffing.
He was not trying to frighten her.
Everything she had done, he knew about.
Every rule she had broken, he intended to settle.
Every debt she had accumulated, he intended to collect.
"You can't kill me."
Ishtar's voice trembled as she backed away until her shoulders struck the wall.
"I'm a Goddess of Beauty. I'm the patron goddess of the Ishtar Familia."
"If you kill me, the Guild won't let you go."
"The other gods won't let you go either."
"You'll make an enemy of everyone in Orario."
Genichi shook his head.
"The Guild won't pursue me."
"Uranus already agreed."
"And the other gods won't come after me either, because you were the one who broke the rules first."
"You spread Charm throughout almost all of Orario and altered the memories of gods and adventurers alike."
"That was a serious violation of the rules."
"Even if I kill you, the gods you manipulated won't sympathize with you."
"They'll be relieved you finally got what was coming to you."
Ishtar's face turned deathly pale.
She knew Genichi was not lying.
Using Charm to alter the memories of nearly everyone in Orario had indeed crossed a serious line.
The Guild had wanted an excuse to deal with her for a long time.
They simply had not possessed sufficient justification.
Now they did.
"As for your Familia members..."
Genichi's voice grew even colder.
"They've already gone ahead of you."
Ishtar's pupils contracted violently.
Her children.
The adventurers who had followed her for years.
Those who had fought for her, killed for her, and committed countless crimes at her command.
Were they all dead?
Had Genichi killed every last one of them?
Her lips trembled as if she wanted to speak, but nothing came out.
Her mind went blank.
Only Genichi's words continued echoing inside her head.
There were hundreds of members in the Ishtar Familia.
Could he really have killed them all so easily?
Ishtar could hardly believe it.
In reality, Genichi had deliberately exaggerated.
Not everyone had been killed.
Some members had merely been knocked unconscious because he had determined that they had not committed crimes serious enough to deserve death.
People like Haruhime were among those he had intentionally spared.
They had not earned the same fate as Ishtar and the Familia members who had willingly participated in her worst crimes.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]