"Tsk tsk, the leader of Evilus must be losing his mind."
Loki let out a laugh.
Thinking about it carefully, if a grand gift you handed to someone ended up becoming the very obstacle stopping them from attacking you, that really would be miserable. Loki could already picture that guy looking like he wanted to puke but still having to swallow it down.
"Hmm… I think he'd be telling himself, 'This works for me. If I hold the line, I can drag the Guild to death.'"
Bell agreed with Loki inwardly, but still voiced the kind of thought Evilus would fall back on now that they'd been pushed into a corner.
"...Hiss."
"They're that optimistic?"
Loki sucked in a sharp breath. If those guys were really thinking like that, "optimistic" was the only word for them.
"They know their location is blown. They know their trump cards aren't even fully hatched. They know the invasion team is almost assembled. And they still think they just have to stall to win?"
Maybe she just couldn't stand Loki's smug face anymore, because Hestia cut her off right there.
"Loki, if Bell wasn't quietly working from behind the scenes, do you think they'd still have a chance?"
"..."
Loki's mocking, triumphant expression froze on the spot. She glanced at Bell, then imagined what would happen if the Guild contacted them to attack the hidden floor without all of Bell's preparations.
They'd be entering enemy territory with zero support. Every trap would trigger at once, splitting the assault team apart, each member hunted down one by one. Once Evilus stalled them long enough, the "Spirit Elite" would hatch and join the fight, pushing the already desperate team even further into a corner. Casualties would be inevitable.
"...Damn!"
The image in her mind made Loki flush and spit out a curse.
No matter how she pictured it, she could only see her children getting separated one by one by the hidden floor's traps and getting taken out individually. And Evilus' suicide soldiers—those maniacs who didn't care about their own lives—were the deadliest of all.
Once they charged into the assault team, it would be one big boom. Even with a solid frontline, no one could withstand a dozen booms going off at once. The moment the frontline cracked, the rear would collapse even faster.
"No matter how talented my kids are, they can't hold out against an assault like that."
Hephaestus shook her head slightly, giving Hestia a reproachful look for bringing up that "what if."
"Indeed. Even the best-trained adventurers would be staring at an unavoidable death in that kind of situation. Picture a swarm of suicide soldiers rushing in with flaming stones."
Even Hephaestus felt her scalp prickle at the thought. Her children definitely couldn't handle something like that.
"Out of all the familia, probably only Freya's children could still come out on top against a pack of suicidal lunatics."
It was meant as praise, but it only made Freya feel uncomfortable.
"I'll accept the compliment, but don't treat my children like a bunch of freaks who're used to fighting madmen. They… well, let's just say they deal with things a bit harder than others on a daily basis."
Even Freya felt her own words were less than convincing. Given how unhinged her children could be, any normal person joining her familia would probably disappear without a trace the next day. Not for any particular reason—just because her children were overwhelmingly jealous and possessive.
Every day for them is actual combat, driven entirely by the mindset of "I'm going to kill you" and "Freya-sama is mine alone." When they strike, each one is more vicious than the last. They're aiming to kill, plain and simple. Because of that, Freya can only restrict who is allowed to join her familia.
Ordinary children shouldn't join at all. Otherwise, the atmosphere alone would drag them to their deaths.
"Hephaestus, just stop."
Artemis, who had been listening for a while, let out a sigh.
"Freya's children can hold out for a while in that kind of situation, but once the 'Spirit Soldiers' arrive, even her children will take losses."
"Those 'Spirit Soldiers' are almost all illegally hatched. They have no rationality whatsoever, yet their numbers are terrifying. Who do you think could possibly withstand that?"
"And they aren't your normal Level 5s either. They're Level 5s with bodies tough enough to resist a First-class weapon, and on top of that they have powerful regenerative abilities."
"How do you fight something like that? Ordinary children don't stand a chance."
Artemis felt that any child who stood against the 'Spirit Elite' deserved an award for bravery.
"True. If all of them have those traits, then once their numbers grow, there really would be no way to fight them."
Among the gods, Loki was one of those who had dealt with 'Spirit Embryos' the most. Her own children had fought those things directly.
Without a First-class weapon, you couldn't even scratch their skin. It was nearly impossible to deal any real damage.
And that was without even mentioning their strong regenerative ability.
If anyone knew the truth best, it would be the person directly involved.
"Bell, do those 'Spirit Soldiers' have the same traits as the Monsters created by the Spirits?"
Bell, being asked, gave a small nod.
"Since they're creatures hatched together with humans from the 'Spirit Embryos', they naturally share traits similar to those man-eating flowers. But they probably don't have strong regeneration."
The other traits existed, but regeneration likely didn't.
"Why not?"
Loki became a walking pile of questions, determined to understand the reason.
"It's actually very simple. It's not that they don't want them to have it, but fundamentally, they can't."
The regeneration trait works through a conversion between magic power and flesh. With enough magic, regeneration can reach extraordinary levels. But activating that trait consumes a massive amount of energy. And 'Spirit Soldiers' simply don't have enough energy to make regeneration function.
Bell pointed out the biggest issue with regeneration from an energy standpoint.
"Spirit Soldiers are created for combat."
"All the energy they have needs to be invested into fighting. So why would a Spirit Soldier need regeneration, a trait that devours energy? To weaken its own combat ability? To drain an endurance it doesn't even have?"
"Whew…"
Hearing this explanation, Loki finally relaxed a little.
"That's good. If they really had that troublesome trait, my children would be in serious danger during the campaign."
...
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