Danmaku, my skills refresh weekly.

Before the campaign against Leviathan began, the Familias of Osiris, Set, and Sobek often overestimated their abilities and caused trouble for Hera's Familias, but without exception, they were all brutally defeated.

In particular, the Osiris Familia, including level 6 and even level 7 powerhouses, were mercilessly crushed by the Empress, turning into withered bones in the earth.

"I didn't expect that even after all this, those guys would still be so incorrigible..." Hera's smile grew increasingly cold. She had no intention of paying attention to these ants, but she gestured to her follower with her eyes.

The man lowered his head, bowed, released the massive twin blades he was carrying, and silently left the guild hall.

Someone recognized her...

That was a level 6 officer, codenamed "Cancer" Aqiu Ben.

The adventurers in the guild remained silent. Even though the main force of the Familia was on an expedition to gather anti-poison equipment to fight "Behemoth," there were still powerful level 6 Familia guards on the ground.

Level 6 is everywhere, and level 5 is as common as dogs; this is the current state of Zeus and Hera's Familia.

“Hera…Lady.” With the help of many guild members, Royman stood up and went to Hera to complain:

"Metluth went too far, daring to hit someone, she must be severely punished..."

"Oh?"

Before Royman could finish speaking, Hera's sharp eyes, like knives, swept over the plump elf: "How do you intend to punish me? A fine? Or exile?"

A murderous intent swept over...

“I…” Royman’s body stiffened. He gave himself a wry smile and said with a grin, “That’s my honor… Please give me a few more punches…”

Just then, Dean Kate burst into the guild hall, puffing out his beard and shouting:

"That little brat stole all the goods from my shop! It's outrageous and has no manners!"

“Deankat… do you think our Hera Familia can’t afford it?” Hera smiled slightly. “Or should we just sell all our materials to Mih from now on? It doesn’t matter who we sell to.”

“Um… Hera.” Deankat, upon seeing the person in question, adopted a dramatic expression and said, “Some of those elixirs were intended for the later expeditionary force, but now…”

"Then we'll take care of it."

"...About that brat beating me up?"

"Oh? It seems you want to end your journey to the lower realms early." Hera glanced at another guard beside her.

"Ah, no, no, no... I just came to talk to you about the materials. We can make the missing parts later." Dean Kate waved his hands repeatedly, leaving behind a sentence before running away faster than a dog.

"Lady Hera?" the guard reminded her.

Hera waved her hand: "Never mind."

Her mind wasn't on these ants, but on the changes in Metluth.

That magic that allowed her to fly—she couldn't be mistaken, it seemed to be the magic of [Silence]. How could Metlujah use Alfia's abilities? And, Grace's perception was a bit strange.

Next, she will go to the underground city.

Considering the girl's sudden acquisition of magic and her eagerness to try it out, Hera sensed that things weren't so simple.

Based on the information from the young nuns in the church, the only thing Hera could confirm was that Metluja's health seemed to have improved considerably. At least she was out of bed, able to run and jump, and was no different from an ordinary person.

From this perspective, the change should be considered "good".

As for other 'accidents', they were nothing to Hera.

"Go and check on Metluth for me. Observe her changes."

"Yes." The guard nodded and left.

……

the other side.

Underground city.

Ciel controlled Metluth, who sat on her wand and rammed into the weak little dog-headed people along the way.

With her [Steel Body H] defense, plus the [Crush] and [Heal] abilities, Metlugh can easily crush all monsters above the 10th floor with just her physical body.

Metluth's body is not weak; the problem lies in her physical strength and illness.

Regarding diseases...

Her condition is different from Alfia's. Alfia's serious illness, which is at level 7, has completely transcended to another level as she repeatedly breaks through her limits and weakens again and again.

Although Alfia may not appear to be as terminally ill as Metluja, her condition is actually far worse.

However, the negative effects of Metluja's disease are weakened by the [Abnormal Resistance E] state, which is sufficient to resist Alfia's serious illness.

At this stage, apart from lacking "physical strength", Metluja is much "healthier" than Alfia was back then.

This is the source of Ciel's confidence to choose something slightly 'extreme'.

Inside the labyrinthine tunnel, monsters bumped into Metlujah, only causing her skin to turn slightly red. She quickly recovered thanks to the [Healing] effect.

The effect of [G] is enough to allow Ota to unleash the "Absolute Defense" trait. Although Metluja, who is only one level below him, cannot withstand level 6 or 7 attacks without taking any damage like Ota, it is still a piece of cake for her to crush goblins.

Fels, who had been observing from the sidelines, also raised a question: "Isn't it too risky to challenge the floor master right away?"

Charles's expression turned serious: "You have absolutely no idea what 'cheating' means. Nor do you understand what Alfia's ability panel actually signifies."

and……

Charles was well aware of Alfia's condition at the time.

It's a brutal battle against disease, where you upgrade your physical condition to improve it, but upgrading your condition can worsen it. Therefore, you must ensure that the rate at which your physical condition improves far exceeds the rate at which your condition deteriorates in order to prolong your life.

"Leveling up is not as simple as it seems; it requires being ravaged and bloodied, and traversing countless deaths. Leveling up is not such a simple matter."

next second.

Ciel then demonstrated the most terrifying strength Metluth possessed at this stage.

The fifth level of the underground city.

A massive magic circle, spanning a hundred meters, unfolded beneath Metlujah's feet. Ciel poured an endless stream of spiritual energy into the circle, refining magic power and maximizing the efficiency of his spiritual energy. Then, he expanded the range and amplified the power, and an astonishing number of [Gospel] spells struck 'all' monsters on the floor in succession.

Magic circles can provide various benefits when using magic, such as enhanced power, expanded range of effect, and increased efficiency of mental energy. They are proof of a high-ranking mage who has obtained the "magic" ability.

"Magic C" is the only first-level rank in the world. Among the "development abilities" that are even more difficult to improve than ability values, the "magic" effect of this level appears at level one, which is practically no different from cheating.

"The magic's range is 2000 meters, and the destructive radius of the Gospel is 10 meters in diameter. Killing a level 1 monster consumes very little magic power; even if you pour all your magic power into it, it will be instantly replenished under the effect of 'Healing D'."

Next up are [The Performer] and [The Overlord].

The former provides target acquisition and aiming capabilities far exceeding the range of magic, while the latter offers more powerful area-of-effect burst damage.

Once the monsters on the fifth floor hatch, they will be precisely hit by the Gospel and blown to ashes.

Charles explained his plan:

"Of all the stats, magic power is the most difficult to increase, but also the easiest. As long as you keep casting spells and destroying monsters, you can steadily increase it."

"Among them, short spells are more practical than long spells and can be used more often in battle. Therefore, mages with short spells will grow faster than other mages."

"Furthermore, the constraint limiting the growth of 'magic power' is 'mental strength.' An adventurer can only cast a limited number of spells per day, but Metruia does not have this limitation."

"The 'Healing D' ability, which requires at least level 6, provides a considerable amount of mana recovery for a level 7 mage; for a level 1 mage, it's practically unlimited mana."

As Fels listened to Charles's analysis and looked at the dungeon in the image where not a single monster could be found within a kilometer radius, he fell into confusion.

A word popped into her head—fried fish.

Or to put it another way, a "full-screen instant kill"!

Soon, Metlugh's maze progressed from the fifth floor all the way to the eleventh floor.

The area of ​​this floor is still smaller than the area covered by Metluja's magic.

In the more spacious floor, Fels could clearly see shockwaves falling from the sky and monsters collapsing one after another.

When Fels saw the little dragon emerge from the mist and be shattered by Metluja's 'vibration' punch, astonishment crept onto his face.

"This... hasn't been used yet with [Holy Bell Tower], has it?" Fels calculated based on the maximum output that Metluja could unleash:

"The maximum value of a single-shot Evangelism is already enough to destroy most level 2 high-rank monsters. And just a graze will cause physical impairment and render them unable to move."

"This is the true value of Alphia's stats. Once her magic power cap increases, her destructive power will be even greater." Charles looked at Metruia, who was automatically grinding monsters on the 11th floor, and turned away with temporary relief.

"Let's leave it here for a while." Having learned from her previous experience of fainting, Ciel estimated Metluja's stamina limit, gave her some stamina potions, and then turned to the sleeping Cassandra, gently shaking her awake.

Do you have any strange dreams?

Cassandra shook her head in confusion: "Not for now."

"Really?" Charles was somewhat disappointed.

"You're disappointed that you didn't dream of a disaster?" Fels asked curiously.

Ciel sighed: "What do you think I did all this under the guise of Metluth?"

"Change the future?" Fels realized something.

“Yes, when Alphia impersonated Metluth in the War Game, the audience directly referred to Metluth as the ‘witch,’” Ciel explained. “On one hand, I wanted to associate the past Metluth with the rumor of being a ‘witch,’ connecting the past and present to deceive the world.”

"On the other hand, it also tests whether the 'present' will be influenced by the 'past.'"

"It seems there's good news and bad news at the same time," Charles said with a wry smile.

Fels' thoughts raced: "The good news is that the world didn't collapse because of this, which means that your actions were how history should have unfolded."

The bad news is, is it possible that "now" might be unchangeable? Is everything we do now already written into history?

Charles nodded. "I thought I'd gone far enough, but it seems it's not enough... It might need to involve something truly altering the world's axis to affect the 'present'."

"At the very least, I plan to have Metluth have you make the 'Hermes Boots,' so you shouldn't have any memory of that."

Fels comforted him, "Perhaps the skill's effect made me forget."

“Perhaps.” Charles stared at the dungeon on the screen, his eyes gleaming. “But I’m more inclined to believe that a branching timeline like Bell’s will emerge. After all, our involvement will definitely affect Bell’s birth time.”

Whether a person is male or female depends on chromosomes; it's entirely a matter of probability.

Fels pondered for a moment:

"In other words, we now control three threads: the past, the present, and the future."

"The 'past' is the starting point of everything. It branches out into two lines: the 'Charles Line' and the 'Belle Line.' Because the future Belle's worldline is parallel to ours, and because of the vortex of chaos, she influences the 'present' Charles Line, causing Chare to come into contact with Alfia and then decide to try to interfere with the 'past,' thus creating the 'Belle Line.'"

This creates a logical loop.

Ciel nodded: "Everything we're doing now is filling in the gaps in 'time logic,' trying to break Metluja's 'inevitable death' fate. But simply following the established procedures might not be enough."