Loki let out a smile and straightened up on the desk. "While you lot were underground, I did some diggin' of my own. Took Bete into the sewers beneath the city to chase a hunch I had, and lo and behold, we found one of those monsters still alive down there."
She tapped her chin and adopted a pondering look. "After Bete killed it, we left and ran into Dionysus and one of his kids, Filvis Chalia. Bete noticed the smell on them matched the sewer smell, so I pressed Dionysus for answers."
"And?" Finn leaned forward against the desk.
"He told me several of his Familia members have been murdered by an unknown assailant. He suspects it's connected to the monsters." Loki said as her eyes narrowed. "He also raised a good question. Why did the Guild push Monster Feria onto Ganesha Familia in the first place, knowing how much of a risk it could be?"
"The Guild was behind Monster Feria?" Yuji couldn't help but ask, a few suspicions of his own started cropping up in his mind.
"Yup." Loki said, waving her finger around. "I think Ouranos is hidin' something. I went to see him after, and he told me that 'this time' he wasn't responsible for anything." She emphasised the words with air quotes. "The way he said it told me plenty, he knows more than he's letting on, but he's not our enemy. At least, not on this."
That was Yuji decided to ask her, "What about Freya? I saw her briefly, watching one of the monsters chase a kid."
Loki raised a brow but shook her head. "She met with Aiz and me at a cafe before Monster Feria, but she didn't tell me her plans yet. I confronted her after everything went down and she admitted to part of the events. She was responsible for most of the monsters, the normal ones at least, for going loose. But, she was confused herself when I brought up the additional vine monster that attacked the twins and Lefiya."
Finn absorbed everything Loki said before turning to Yuji. "Thanks to your intelligence, we've corroborated everything in regards to the underground routes and the monsters being 'puppets', as you've said to the twins."
Yuji nodded his head before speaking, "There's a labyrinth beneath Daedalus Street. I sensed it just before Monster Feria when I was roaming the city. The structure is massive and the walls are built from something extremely dense. I can perceive through the walls to an extent, but the doors were made of something far, far stronger and blocked everything out. It extends further down, most likely to the Dungeon itself."
Finn began writing the moment Yuji started speaking. "So the fetus, the vine monsters, the Floor 50 monster, the sewers and now this labyrinth?" Finn said, tapping his pen against his journal. "They're all connected to the same source, operating somewhere beneath the city right under our noses, and we've been none the wiser to such a development."
"Knossos." Loki said, causing everyone to look at her. "That's its name. I've been chasin' rumours about it for a while. Didn't have confirmation it connected to the Dungeon, or that whatever's inside is trying to keep people out, but now I do."
Gareth leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "So we've got a hidden labyrinth, producing puppet monsters and fetus creaturs, operated by people who can peel a man's face off and use it as a mask." He exhaled through his nose. "Wonderful."
"And whatever's down there reacts to Aiz's magic specifically." Finn added on. "The fetus went berserk near her magic, Ariel. That woman was drawn to her because of it. None of this is random. Whoever, or whatever, is running this operation has a connection to spirits and to whatever 'Aria' means."
Finn closed his journal and looked at everyone in the room. "This stays between us. No one outside this room can know until we have a plan. We need to find a way into the labyrinth, past its doors and identify who's operating inside and understand why they're fixated on Aiz."
Gareth nodded while Loki gave him a smile. Finn turned to Yuji seeing he was silent.
"Yuji, is there anything else?" Finn's blue eyes stared at him steadily.
Yuji thought back to what he found in the Dungeon, the discovery of the Xenos and the fact that they had souls. He also remembered the promise he kept.
"Not yet." Yuji shook his head. "But I'll tell you when there is."
Finn studied him for a moment before nodding. "Alright. Welcome to Loki Familia, Itadori. I wish it were under better circumstances."
The meeting ended, with Finn and Gareth being the first to leave the room. Loki lingered behind.
"You held somethin' back." She said quietly as Yuji got up.
"I did."
"More than one thing, I'm guessin'."
Yuji didn't confirm or deny her words.
Loki watched him for a beat, then grinned. "Most people try to impress me in their first week. You're the first one who's made me dying of curiosity instead."
She hopped off the desk and walked past him to the door.
"Don't make me wait too long, fossil."
She left the room, leaving Yuji alone as he walked towards the window instead, peering towards Babel in the far distance.
To the people here, monsters are a plague to their lives. From the few pages he'd managed to read, he recounted how the people of this world was nearly wiped out by the monsters almost a thousand years in the past, before the Gods descended into the Lower World.
He could already imagine the fallout that would occur if they found out there exists a species of monsters, Xenos, that had souls and were able to communicate, think and feel just like any other person.
He'd have to meet more of them to confirm if this was true for all of them, but he didn't sense a single sense of falsehood in the lizardman Xeno he met, Lyd.
Letting out a sigh, Yuji turned and left the office.
-------------------
The night air was cool against Yuji's skin as he walked through the streets of Orario.
It had become a habit over the past few days for him to go on evening walks. The Manor was comfortable enough, but after centuries of constant movement, sitting still for too long would make him feel antsy. So he would take an hour or two after dinner to wander through the quieter districts, leaving him alone with his thoughts as he took in what the city had to offer.
Tonight, he'd drifted toward the southern edge of the city, where the residential blocks started to thin out and the wall surrounding Orario became visible between the buildings. The streets here were dimmer with the magic stones being placed further apart.
He was passing through a narrow lane between two closed storefronts when he felt the air shift.
It was subtle, the kind of shift that most people wouldn't register. But Yuji wasn't most people.
He stopped walking and spoke out to the empty dark streets.
"You're good at hiding." Yuji said to the empty lane, "But you were better when you followed me through Daedalus Street."
Silence greeted him. Then, a breath later, from the shadows of a building to his left, a figure materialised.
It was draped entirely in black, a hooded robe that concealed every inch of its body. Black gloves with intricate designs covered both hands and its hood hung low over their face, revealing nothing. Not even a single patch of skin was visible.
The figure was tall and thin, moving with carefully calculated shifts as if something about its body wasn't quite right beneath the cloth.
"I must say, I'm impressed." The voice that emerged from the hood was androgynous, neither clearly male nor female. It carried a scholarly tone to its voice that reminded Yuji of university professors he'd known in his previous life. "Most people don't notice me at all. Even experienced adventurers rarely detect my presence."
"You already know I'm not most 'people'."
"No." The figure agreed, and there was a hint of amusement beneath their words. "You most certainly are not, Yuji Itadori."
Yuji studied the robed form for a moment. It was also in the room with him and Ouranos, but he didn't pay it any mind since it never interrupted or moved. He'd also felt its presence following him ever since he left the Room of Prayer. Lyd referred to him as the messenger between the Xenos and the God who watched over the Dungeon, telling him the name as well.
"Fels." Yuji said.
The hood tilted slightly, as if they were surprised. "Lyd mentioned me by name, I take it?"
"He said there was someone on the surface who helped his kind. A messenger between them and Ouranos." Yuji kept his hands in his pockets, fully relaxed and Fels made note of this. "Given that you've been following me since leaving that chamber after my chat with Ouranos, it wasn't hard to put together."
Fels was quiet for a moment, before letting out a sound from beneath their hood, something between a chuckle and a sigh.
"I had a feeling, but Ouranos was right about you. You see far more than you let on."
The robed figure took a step closer, moving into the faint light of the nearest magic stone lamp. Even under the added illumination, nothing was revealed beneath the hood, just pure shadow and the faintest glint of something that might have been eyes.
"Allow me to be direct, as I suspect you prefer that to pleasantries." Fels said. "I came to find you because of your encounter with the Xenos on the nineteenth floor. Lyd reported what happened to me, and I…" The androgynous voice paused and when it continued, there was a weight to their words. "I wanted to thank you."
Yuji raised an eyebrow at their words. "For what?"
"For not killing him." Fels said directly. "You are, by all accounts, one of the most formidable beings to set foot in Orario in living memory. You could have destroyed Lyd and his companion without effort and without consequence. No one would have questioned it. No one would have ever known."
The figure's gloved hands clasped together in front of their robes.
"Instead, you spoke with him. You listened, and then you did something that no one from the surface has ever done before." Fels paused, letting the silence linger in the air before speaking. "You told him his soul was real."
The street was quiet except for the distant sound of the city's nightlife coming ot life.
"Lyd was… quite affected by your words." Fels continued, choosing each word with care. "The Xenos have spent their entire existence wondering if they are truly alive or merely an elaborate imitation. I have believed in their souls from the beginning, but belief is not proof. I cannot perceive what you perceived through that handshake."
Yuji studied Fels for a moment.
"How long have you known about them?" He asked simply.
"Years. Ouranos became aware of them long before I did, of course. He'd been watching the Dungeon for centuries. When the first Xenos began appearing, showing signs of intelligence and speech, he tasked me with making contact." Fels voice shifted, as though they were reflecting on the past. "It was… not easy, at first. They were terrified of anything that came from the surface. It took a great deal of patience to earn their trust."
"And now?"
"Now I serve as their lifeline. I smuggle supplies to them, maintain hidden routes through the Dungeon and act as their intermediary with Ouranos. In return, they provide information about changes in the deeper floors that we wouldn't otherwise have access to." Fels paused before continuing. "It is a fragile arrangement, Mr. Itadori. The Xenos exist in a space that the world has not made room for. If the Guild, the Familias or the public learned of their existence before the time was right, the result would be a massacre."
That was an assessment Yuji understood completely.
"And what do you want from me?" Yuji began, "I doubt you came to just offer me your words of gratitude."
"Directly? Nothing, for now." Fels replied. "I indeed had come to express my gratitude and to ask that you continue to keep the Xenos's existence a secret, which you've already promised Lyd you would do."
"And?"
Fels went silent for a moment, before turning slightly as if to check if there were any hidden listeners nearby. They then turned to face Yuji fully again.
"You are uniquely positioned, Mr. Itadori. You possess an ability that no one else in this city has the capacity to confirm, through direction perception, whether a being possesses a genuine soul. This is not merely significant for the Xenos. It has implications for everything happening beneath Orario right now."
"The puppet monsters." Yuji stated simply.
"Yes. The creatures that have been appearing on the surface, the violas, the caterpillar beasts, they are extensions of something deep within the Dungeon. A corrupted entity that has been growing and spreading for centuries." Fel's tone hardened slightly. "The Xenos are not connected to this entity. They are a separate phenomenon entirely, but they are caught in its wake."
"How so?"
"The entity produced creatures by inserting fetal organisms into monsters, forcibly transforming them. The Xenos, on the other hand, are born naturally from the Dungeon's cycle of death and rebirth. They develop souls through a process we don't fully understand." Fel's gloved hands tightened. "The danger is that the people hunting the entity's creatures won't distinguish between them and the Xenos. To most adventurers, an intelligent monster is still a monster. Whether it was born with a soul or manufactured by a parasite makes no difference when someone is swinging a sword. It is one of the reasons why we push for Monster Feria taming festival to be hosted every year, to lessen public hatred of monsters."
Yuji contemplated Fels words for a moment.
He thought back to the briefing in Finn's office, to Knossos that was beneath Daedalus Street. About the woman using a dead man's face as her own.
He then thought back to Lyd back on the 19th Floor, laughing in joy as he was told he had a soul.
"I'm not in a position to get involved in this right now." Yuji said after a long silence. "I just joined a Familia and I'm still finding my footing. The last time i tried to fix everything at once, it cost me, people I cared about."
Fels nodded slowly. "I understand. I am not asking you to involve yourself in a conflict that isn't yours. Not yet."
"Yet."
"The world has a way of making bystanders into participants, Mr. Itadori. Especially in Orario." Fels said without any added pressure. "I only ask that when the time comes, and I believe it will, you will remember what you felt in that handshake."
Yuji met the shadow beneath the hood.
"I'm not going to forget."
"No." Fels said softly. "I don't believe you will."
The robed figure stepped back, their form beginning to blend with the shadows of the street once more. Before they disappeared entirely, they spoke out.
"One more thing. The Xenos have asked if you would visit them. Lyd in particular has been quite insistent." Even without a visible face, the smile in Fel's voice was unmistakable. "He says you owe them a proper introduction."
Yuji exhaled through his nose. "Tell him I'll come when I can."
"I will pass that along." Fels voice grew distant. "Have a pleasant evening, Mr. Itadori. And please, do be careful. You are being watched by more eyes than mine."
The shadow dissolved into the darkness of the streets fully.
Yuji stood alone and the night air seemed to have resumed, blowing a soft cool breeze past him.
'Everyone in this city is playing a game. And they all want me on their board.'
He started to walk back toward the Twilight Manor, hands in his pockets as he was deep in thought.
He'd told Fels he wasn't ready to get involved, which was true.
But that truth had an expiration date, and he could feel it approaching.