Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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Meanwhile, a five-person scout squad sprinted through the streets of the East District.

The team included a Pallum, two Chienthropes, and two human women with bows and crossbows. They wore elite stealth gear, different from the rest of their Familia—and it made them stand out right away.

"Seriously, why are we scouting this again? Didn't we already clear the area?" Luan grumbled from the lead.

"The enemy slipped into the South District," one of the human women replied sharply. "We swept the East, West, and North. The South is the only blind spot left. It was a tactical oversight. Instead of whining about it, let's fix the mistake."

The abandoned city was huge.

With a hundred members busy setting up a perimeter, the Familia had only done a quick sweep of the four main districts. The secondary scout unit was meant to search more carefully. No one thought the Hestia Familia could move from the East to the South without being noticed.

Now, finding their stronghold was the top priority.

"I know, I know," Luan muttered, keeping his pace.

Because he was a Pallum, his keen senses and small size made him an excellent forward scout. He could easily check the empty streets for any movement.

But while the Apollo squad checked each house—they walked right into a trap that was waiting for them.

"Huh?" Luan paused.

He climbed the wall of a nearby house to get a better view, but then he froze. A loaded crossbow was pointed straight at his face.

"A crossbow trap?" His eyes widened.

The moment he spoke, the tripwire snapped.

Twang.

The crossbow fired on its own. A small pouch tied to the bolt flew into the air, burst open, and dropped three or four small round pellets onto the cobblestones below.

"Are those... Monster Repellent items??"

The two Chienthropes stared at the broken pellets in horror. Monster Repellent was a strong-smelling item Adventurers used to keep beasts away during a retreat.

As soon as the pellets broke on the ground, an awful smell filled the air.

"Gah...!"

"URK!"

Chienthropes had very sensitive noses. The strong smell hit them hard, and they dropped to their knees, gagging and unable to move.

"IT REEKS!" The two human women scrambled backward, covering their noses.

Luan, who did not have sharp animal senses, avoided most of the strong smell. The three of them quickly backed away, breaking their close formation.

"Dammit, it's an ambush!" Luan shouted. His first instinct was to retreat, and the two archers had the same idea.

"Going somewhere?"

A voice drifted from the shadows.

Down the alley, the wooden door of a nearby house creaked open—and Liliruca Arde stepped out into the street.

"I figured it would be you guys," Lili smirked. "Honestly, I was hoping you wouldn't show up. But here you are."

She raised the custom-built hand crossbow mounted on her wrist, leveled it at the two women in a flash, and squeezed the trigger. Instead of standard bolts, the weapon spat a cluster of custom-forged miniature throwing blades.

'What the hell?' Luan stared at the weapon.

Wasn't a rapid-fire weapon like that almost against the rules?

He scrambled out of the way, and the two women dove in opposite directions to avoid the spread.

But the flying blades were not aimed at them. Instead, they curved down and hit the two Chienthropes who were gagging on the ground. Both were knocked out right away and taken out of the game.

"Fast! Is this the Little Light?"

The two Apollo archers started to sweat. They thought the Supporter-class Level 2 would be an easy, non-combatant target. They had badly underestimated her.

"She's using a crossbow too! This perfectly mirrors our plan!" the other woman panicked.

This wasn't how the script was supposed to play out. Weren't they supposed to be fighting with regular swords and daggers?

"Of course it mirrors it." Lili followed their movements easily.

The strong smell of Monster Repellent stuck to their clothes, making them easy to track. She walked around the corner and heard their panicked whispers.

"You went out of your way to sabotage the Hestia Familia. Did you really think we wouldn't do our homework on you? We aren't the type of Familia to sit quietly after getting stepped on. Our Captain's policy is an eye for an eye. You target our weaknesses, we dissect your entire playbook."

As Lili spoke, she raised her hand crossbow again.

Thwip.

A miniature blade snapped forward and caught one of the archers square in the chest—a clean, instant knockout.

"Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. I expected a larger welcoming party." Lili looked at the last two standing, Luan and the remaining archer, a textbook scout pair.

"I figured you'd send at least six to eight people for reconnaissance. But I suppose after losing over a dozen men and a Level 2 elven mage in the opening clash..." She smirked. "Did you reassign the bulk of your forces to form a defensive line between the East and North districts?"

Lili's tone was dead serious.

Luan and the archer stared at her in shock. She knew all about their tactical plans. That was supposed to be top-secret information, but this Pallum Supporter was repeating it back to them like it was nothing.

"DAMMIT! LUAN, RUN! FALL BACK AND REPORT!"

The archer turned to the Pallum. She knew he was not good in a fight, so she had a better chance of holding off Lili and giving him time to report the huge intelligence leak.

"Got it!"

Luan did not hesitate at all. He turned and ran. The five-person squad was down to two, and he was not helpful in a fight, but his small size made him a great runner.

"Not bad. The Apollo Familia has some grit after all."

Lili did not make fun of the archer. Instead, she looked at her with real respect. Standing your ground to help a teammate—even when the odds are bad—was a brave and honorable thing to do.

The archer quickly loaded a specialized, Goibniu-forged blade into her crossbow.

Lili raised her wrist mechanism and returned fire.

The two traded a rapid volley of flying blades in the narrow alleyway, ducking and weaving behind stone walls to avoid the lethal projectiles.

But they were both running out of ammo. When they ran out at the same time, both women threw aside their ranged weapons, pulled out their daggers, and charged. The quiet alley suddenly turned into a fierce close-range fight.

Meanwhile, Luan was sprinting for his life. 'Lord Apollo's flawless strategy... how the hell did they see right through it??'

His mind was spinning. A careful perfect plan was falling apart because of a few rookies.

"I have to warn Daphne!" Luan gasped, pushing his legs to their limit.

Then he sprinted past a blind intersection, and a foot casually extended from the shadows of the brick wall.

Luan's short legs hit the tripwire exactly. He lost his balance and fell face-first onto the cobblestones.

"What the f...??"

He groaned, his head spinning. How did he trip?

He barely had time to look up before he heard a cheerful voice.

"Hello there, Mr. Pallum~"

Yui Hirasawa beamed down at him. Before Luan could even process her presence, she tossed a lasso cleanly over his torso—pinning his arms to his sides.

"I've got him, sis!"

Ui rushed in from the other side and quickly wrapped a thick rope around his right wrist, pulling it tight. In just a few seconds, the two sisters had him pinned.

Luan started struggling right away. Yui and Ui were new Level 1s, so they didn't have the strength of a seasoned Adventurer like him. He pulled hard, almost dragging Yui off her feet.

Right as he was about to break free, Nodoka Manabe stepped out from the shadows in the alley and calmly pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Mr. Pallum, I highly recommend you stay exactly where you are. Otherwise, I really don't mind severing your arm."

When Nodoka saw her best friend being pulled around, she acted right away. She stepped up, pointed her standard longsword, and pressed the cold blade against Luan's neck.

Make a move, and you lose a limb...

The threat couldn't have been clearer.

Luan stopped moving. Three people just to catch one scout? That seemed like overkill.

"I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER!" He dropped his resistance.

"Good choice. None of us have ever actually drawn blood before. Please don't make us start with you."

Yui gave him a goofy, innocent smile while she tightened the ropes. The way she looked so cheerful while threatening him was honestly scary...

When Luan realized they were total rookies with no combat experience, he shivered.

Every veteran Adventurer knew that rookies who hadn't seen blood had no restraint at all. If they panicked and swung that sword, they wouldn't just scratch him—they might actually cut off his head.

"Let's go, Mr. Pallum."

Yui and Ui made sure his ropes were tight, and with Nodoka's blade pointed at his back, they led the captured scout back to the ambush site.

By then, the dust had settled. Lili stood alone in the alley, with the enemy archer knocked out at her feet. She looked up as the three girls came back with their captive.

"Oh? A successful extraction. Hello again. Fancy meeting you here." Lili flashed a wicked, mocking grin.

Now, two Pallums were facing off. The irony was obvious.

"Do whatever you want with me," Luan groaned, giving up completely.

He saw one Level 2 and three Level 1s—a team just like his own. But his side wasn't going to win this War Game. The Hestia Familia had a clear tactical advantage—and this Pallum had completely outsmarted the Apollo Familia.

"Brave words." Lili gave him a thumbs-up. "I like your attitude."

Even as she complimented him, her hands kept working. She grabbed the end of the rope from Yui, tossed it over a sturdy wooden beam sticking out from the alley wall, and yanked Luan up off the ground.

"HELP!" Luan thrashed wildly in mid-air.

Holy shit! Was his kin really this ruthless? Was she going to hang him? Getting killed by a noose in a War Game would be the worst kind of humiliation.

"..." Nodoka adjusted her glasses and watched him dangle without a hint of sympathy. She let him panic for a few seconds, then decided he was ready to be questioned.

"I may be a rookie, but I'm well aware of Orario's rules. I won't interrogate you about the Apollo Familia's tactical deployments," Nodoka began calmly. "My only question is this: how did Apollo discover Yui and Ui? I assume you can answer that."

She was honestly confused about how the Sun God had found her friends in the first place. That was the real mystery.

Getting a god's obsessive attention didn't just happen by accident.

"You were with Apollo that day. You must know something," Lili demanded, giving the rope a sharp tug.

Hanging there with no way out, Luan decided to just tell the truth.

"Lord Apollo was actually waiting to ambush a member of another Familia that day. He wanted to poach an Adventurer, but our intelligence network reported the target had died in the Dungeon, and Lord Apollo was very depressed. Then the moment he saw you leading those two sisters out of Babel, he practically jumped out of his seat. I knew right then. He had locked onto them."

Luan didn't hold back.

He'd been in Apollo's personal group that day and knew exactly how unpredictable his god could be. When Apollo's eyes lit up, it always meant he was after someone else's kids.

"Then why is he so hyper-fixated on targeting Captain August?" Lili narrowed her eyes, pressing the interrogation.

"Because that day, Lord Apollo didn't just spot the sisters. He also witnessed Goddess Hestia physically beating Goddess Ishtar in the street. Lord Apollo was terrified that a furious Hestia would do the same to him. So he meticulously designed this entire War Game to neutralize your Captain and ensure absolute victory without risking a direct confrontation. I just never imagined you'd see through our tactical blueprints this cleanly. Lord Apollo is obsessive. Unless the power gap is insurmountable, he never abandons a target he desires."

As Luan talked, he realized just how bad things were. His team had already lost their advantage. Their whole plan was exposed, and with more than twenty people lost because of bad intel, their group was in serious trouble.

In a War Game, that was a disaster.

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Meanwhile, at the Divine Assembly.

When Hestia heard Luan reveal exactly what Apollo had seen that day, she finally understood why he had bent the rules so much.

"So you were terrified I was going to beat you to a pulp." Hestia sneered.

She had to admit, Apollo's stubbornness was almost impressive. August was the most notorious and scary rookie in all of Orario, but Apollo still set up a War Game just to get what he wanted.

That didn't make Hestia any less angry about it.

"WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SANCTIONED WAR GAME! Physical altercations between Gods are strictly prohibited!" Apollo declared, tilting his chin proudly.

He had seen his scout get caught and questioned on the live feed. He couldn't really blame Luan for talking—the Pallum's life was hanging by a thread, and Nodoka had been smart enough not to ask for any forbidden tactical info.

Apollo's goal was simple: steal the best talent and quickly grow his Familia's power.

He just hadn't expected his perfect plan to fall apart against August, and he definitely didn't think the Hestia Familia would have a Pallum tactician who could outsmart his commanders.

"Dammit!!"

"You'd better pray I don't win this match, Apollo. Because the second it's over, I'm going to beat you senseless." Hestia glared at his punchable face.

If she'd known this was his real reason, she would have punched him at the very first Denatus.

All the other Gods suddenly understood. They'd all wondered why Apollo, who was known for chasing top talent, had ignored someone as strong as August and focused on two rookie sisters. Now they knew the real reason.

"That really is classic Apollo."

"Speaking of which... wasn't Ishtar literally beaten to tears that day??"

"Yeah, I heard she was sobbing the whole way back to the Pleasure Quarter!!"

Hearing her name dragged through the mud, Ishtar, watching from her own quarters, went red with fury.

"That bastard Apollo! You were spying on me too?" She ground her teeth. "Just how many of you parasites saw me crying??"

The entire pantheon had practically bought front-row tickets to her lowest moment.

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