The emergency Denatus was called at noon the following day.
The thirtieth floor of Babel had been remodelled centuries ago into a meeting hall for the Gods. Glass walls encased the room on all sides, offering a panoramic view of Orario and the lands beyond. The ceiling was impossibly high, giving the impression that the assembled deities were meeting in a temple suspended among the clouds.
Today, the clouds outside were grey, reflecting the mood set inside the room filled with Gods and Goddesses.
The hall was fuller than a standard Denatus. Emergency sessions drew attendance that the regular quarterly meetings rarely achieved, especially when the emergency involved a direct attack on the city itself. Dozens of Gods and Goddesses filled the seats arranged around the central table, their divine presences creating a subtle pressure that no mortal could have endured comfortably.
Ganesha was the first to speak, which surprised no one.
"I AM GANESHA!" He declared, slamming both hands on the table, and the elephant mask he wore shook with force. "AND I DEMAND ANSWERS! My Familia suffered seventeen casualties yesterday! Seventeen! Three are still in critical condition! We were fighting those creatures when they all just—" He made a slicing gesture with his hand. "Poof! Gone! Cut in half! What was that?!"
"Please sit down, Ganesha." Royman Mardeel, the Guild's representative, said from his position at the head of the table with visible exhaustion.
"I WILL NOT SIT DOWN UNTIL—"
"Ganesha, sit." Shakti Varma's voice carried from behind him with the quiet and weary authority contained in her tone. Fitting of someone who had been managing the elephant God's outbursts for years, as Ganesha sat back down.
Royman cleared his throat and adjusted his papers. "The Guild has compiled a preliminary report on yesterday's events. At approximately ten fifteen in the morning, fifty creatures of the same species observed during the Monster Feria, which Loki Familia fought against, emerged simultaneously across multiple districts. The creatures have been tentatively classified as enhanced violas. The attack lasted approximately eight minutes before all fifty creatures were destroyed simultaneously by an unknown force."
"Unknown." Apollo repeated from his seat, his golden hair catching the light as he leaned forward with amused interest. He wore his usual white robe and a smile that showed he found the entire situation fascinating rather than concerning. "Come now, Royman. Surely the Guild has more than 'unknown.' An entire city of adventurers, Gods and mortals alike, and no one can explain how fifty monsters died in the same instant?"
"The investigation is ongoing." Royman said tightly.
"He means they have no idea." Ishtar said from across the table, her lips curved into an amused smile as she reclined in her chair. The Goddess of Beauty wore a revealing outfit that drew eyes whether its audience wanted to look or not. "Let's not pretend otherwise. The Guild is as baffled as the rest of us."
Several Gods murmured in agreement.
"What we do know," Royman pressed on, "is that the creatures emerged from below the city through pre-existing subterranean routes. The Guild is investigating how they accessed these routes and whether additional breaches are possible."
"Below the city." Dionysus said quietly from his corner of the table. The God of Wine held a glass in his hand, and his violet eyes carried the composed sadness he was recently known for. "Similar to the tunnel systems that connected to the sewer network, I assume? The same ones where remnants of certain organisations were suspected to operate?"
The room grew marginally quieter.
"The connection to the previous incidents is being investigated." Royman said, a bead of sweat forming at his temple.
"We all read about what happened during Monster Feria." Hephaestus spoke next, her single visible eye locked onto the elder elf.. "The same species of creature and even the same way it emerged. This isn't a coincidence. Whoever is behind this demonstrated that they can deploy these things anywhere in the city, at any time, in numbers that overwhelm our response capabilities."
"And then something killed them all." Takemikazuchi said, his arms folded across his chest. The God of War's expression was unreadable. "Simultaneously. Every single one."
The room fell into a tense silence as the conversation arrived at the question everyone had been circling.
"Let's address the Alv in the room, shall we?" Hermes said, tipping his feathered hat back and leaning into his chair with a smile, showing how he was thoroughly enjoying himself. "Something happened on top of this very tower yesterday. I don't know about the rest of you, but I felt something... unpleasant right before those creatures died."
The reaction was immediate.
"Unpleasant is underselling it." Miach said, the normally gentle God of Medicine looking paler than usual. "My entire Familia collapsed. Naaza was on her knees for a full minute afterwards. Whatever that energy was, it hit every person in the city."
"My children experienced the same." Takemikazuchi confirmed, his voice measured. "Every emotion you'd rather not feel, compressed into a single moment. It passed quickly, but the impact was severe."
"My girls felt it too." Ishtar said, and for once, her amusement had dimmed. "Several of my Berbera were temporarily incapacitated. Whatever it was, it bypassed every form of magical resistance we have."
"It wasn't magic." Loki said, relaying Riveria's words casually. "At least, not any magic that my Vice Captain recognises. And Riveria Ljos Alf has forgotten more about magic than most people will ever learn."
"Then what was it?" Apollo pressed, his curiosity now carrying an edge. "A divine ability? Did someone use their Arcanum?"
"If a God had used their Arcanum, they would have been sent back to Tenkai immediately." Hestia said firmly from her seat. The small Goddess had been quiet until now, her twin tails framing a face that was trying very hard to look composed. She had felt the pulse too, and it had shaken her more than she wanted to admit. "That's the rule. No exceptions."
"Then it wasn't Arcanum." Apollo conceded. "Which makes it even more interesting. A power that isn't magic, isn't Arcanum, and isn't any known combat ability, yet it was strong enough to make every God and mortal in the city feel like the world was ending for three seconds."
"And then killed fifty monsters." Hermes added helpfully.
"Yes, thank you, Hermes." Apollo said drily.
From a seat near the far end of the table, partially shrouded in shadow, a figure spoke for the first time.
"You're all overthinking this."
Every head turned.
Sukuna sat with one leg crossed over the other, his arms folded inside the sleeves of a fresh kimono. The tear on his shoulder from yesterday had been replaced, and his expression carried the particular blend of boredom and disdain that he wore.
Most of the Gods in the room only knew him by reputation, the newly descended deity from the Far East who had registered an empty Familia and sold potatoes. His attendance at the emergency Denatus had drawn raised eyebrows but no objections, as he was a registered God with every right to be present.
"And what would a newly descended god know?" Apollo asked with a condescending smile.
"A God that was actually in the city when it happened, instead of hiding in my manor." Sukuna replied without looking at him. Apollo's smile stiffened.
"Please, continue." Miach said, gesturing to Sukuna.
Sukuna glanced at Miach, then at the assembled Gods, and let out a breath that communicated exactly how little he thought of the collective intelligence in the room.
"Fifty monsters attacked the city. They were killed. You're all sitting here debating the method instead of asking the obvious question." He unfolded one arm and pointed downward. "Where did they come from? And why now?"
"We've been discussing—" Royman started.
"You've been discussing feelings." Sukuna cut him off. "Whatever energy killed those things is irrelevant if the things keep coming. You're treating the symptom and ignoring the disease."
The room went quiet as several Gods exchanged glances.
"He's not wrong." Dionysus said, swirling his untouched wine. "The creatures are the pressing issue. Understanding how they were eliminated is secondary to preventing the next attack."
"I disagree." Freya said.
Her voice was soft, but it carried across the room with effortless as someone who never needed to raise her voice to command attention. The Goddess of Beauty sat at the centre of the table, her silver hair framing a face of impossible perfection. Her violet eyes were fixed on a point in the middle distance, as though she were looking at something none of them could see.
"The method matters." Freya continued. "Because whoever or whatever eliminated those creatures did so from the top of this tower. My residence occupies the upper floors of Babel. I was present when it happened."
The room went very still.
"I did not see a person." Freya said carefully. "The rooftop access is restricted and was empty when my children checked afterward. But I felt the energy pass through my floor on its way upward. It was..." She paused. The pause itself was striking, because Freya wasn't one to hesitate. "Unlike anything I have encountered in my existence."
"Can you describe it?" Shakti asked.
Freya turned her violet eyes to the Goddess. "It felt like the opposite of a soul."
The silence that followed was absolute.
"Every soul I have ever seen carries light, even the damaged ones, even the corrupted ones." Freya's voice was measured, each word carefully chosen. "What I felt yesterday carried no light at all. It was defined by absence. By negation. As though someone had taken every positive quality a soul possesses and inverted it."
Hestia's face had gone white. As the Goddess of the Hearth, she was attuned to the warmth of souls more intimately than almost any other deity. What Freya was describing sounded like the antithesis of everything she represented.
"You're saying something without a soul killed those things?" Ganesha asked, his usual volume subdued for once.
"No." Freya said. "I'm saying something with the opposite of a soul did. There is a difference."
The room erupted.
Gods spoke over each other, some demanding clarification, others dismissing the claim, and a few sitting in troubled silence. Royman tried and failed to restore order.
But Loki noticed what most did not.
She noticed who Freya was watching her while she spoke.
The Goddess of Beauty's revelation wasn't aimed at the assembly. It was aimed at one person. Freya was testing Loki's reaction, searching for the flinch, the moment of recognition that would confirm what she already suspected.
Loki gave her nothing.
She sat with her arms crossed, her expression still, offering no more information than a stone wall. She'd been playing this game with Freya for fifteen years. She knew the rules. The moment she reacted, the moment she revealed that she understood what Freya was describing, the balance would tip.
She sat with her arms crossed, her vermillion eyes half closed, wearing a neutral expression to mask herself.
Because that was what this was really about.
It didn't come to the Violas or the mysterious energy at the end of the day.
It was about power.
If the force that killed fifty monsters in a heartbeat belonged to the Loki Familia, the balance of power that had held Orario together for fifteen years would shift dramatically. Loki would possess a weapon that Freya couldn't match, that no one in the city could match, and every alliance, every negotiation, every quiet agreement between the two Familias would need to be recalculated.
Freya knew this. So did Loki.
"Perhaps," Hermes said, his voice cutting through the noise and chaos, "we should consider that this city has acquired a new resident with capabilities outside our current understanding. Someone who arrived recently and has already demonstrated unusual abilities."
Several heads turned toward Loki.
"Don't look at me." Loki said with theatrical innocence. "My newest member is a Level 1 with flat stats. He can barely read Koine. If you're suggestin' he climbed to the top of Babel and killed fifty monsters from there, I'd say you've been drinkin' somethin' stronger than Soma."
A few Gods chuckled. Hermes smiled but didn't press further.
But Freya didn't laugh.
Her violet eyes stayed on Loki for three more seconds. Then she smiled, the type smile of someone who had received exactly the answer she expected, and leaned back in her chair.
Sukuna, from his corner, watched the exchange with an expression of supreme disinterest. His eyes, however, tracked every reaction, every glance, every subtle shift in posture.
The Brat had just made himself a variable in an equation that had been balanced for fifteen years. Whether the Gods discovered his identity tomorrow or in six months, the result would be the same. Every faction in Orario would want him, fear him, or try to 'remove' him.
'Fool.' Sukuna thought, though even in his own mind, the word lacked its usual venom.
"Regardless of the source," Dionysus interjected, steering the conversation with a diplomat's precision, "we must address the immediate threat. The creatures came from below, through routes that bypass Babel entirely. If they can do it once, they can do it again. I propose a joint investigation between the major Familias to identify and seal these routes."
"Seconded." Hephaestus said immediately.
"My Familia will participate." Ganesha declared, his energy returning. "WE WILL—"
"Thank you, Ganesha." Royman said quickly. "The Guild will coordinate the investigation. All Familias willing to contribute should submit their available personnel to the Guild office by end of day."
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Authors Note:
More to come next chapter