Chapter 130: Deja Vu
Time passed, and the war with the Rakian army finally came to an end.
Rakia's true objective for this invasion was to capture Welf, using the massive frontal assault as a decoy. Rumors of Welf's existence had reached Rakia after his spectacular display during the War Game. Learning that a Crozzo capable of forging Magic Swords was living in Orario, Ares had launched the invasion, desperately hoping to reclaim his nation's lost military glory.
While the Orario forces were distracted by the advancing army, Welf's father, Will Crozzo, and his grandfather, Garon Crozzo, infiltrated the city with a covert strike team. They successfully made contact with Welf, but Finn had already seen through their scheme. Finn had secretly arranged for the Hephaestus Familia to use Welf as bait, perfectly trapping the Rakian infiltrators and handing them over to the Guild.
Everyone assumed Ares would give up after that failure, but the God of War instead personally infiltrated Orario. In an astoundingly reckless gamble, he plotted to kidnap Welf's patron Goddess, Hestia, to use her as a divine hostage to force Welf's compliance. While everyone believed the absurd plan was doomed to fail, Ares actually succeeded in capturing her. The sheer audacity of the move had completely blindsided even Finn.
Hestia was dragged outside the city, but Asfi managed to pinpoint her location. Bell and Ais immediately moved to rescue her. Despite getting caught up in a few unexpected accidents along the way, they successfully retrieved Hestia and returned safely to Orario.
Shortly after, Ares was captured by Finn and the other executives in the courtyard of the Guild Headquarters. Orario demanded massive war reparations from Rakia, along with the immediate revoking of the Falna of every Rakian soldier taken as a prisoner of war. Ares fiercely rejected the terms at first, but after Loki threatened to forcibly deport him back to Heaven, the God of War wept tears of blood and agreed to all of Orario's demands.
"So you're Ares."
"W-Who the hell are you…!?"
After Loki finished her 'negotiations'—which were essentially just brutal threats—Reborn approached the captive God to interrogate him about Celua. Seeing an infant speaking with the authority of a mob boss left Ares completely bewildered.
"I'm Reborn. You're going to answer my questions without lying. If you refuse, I'll force it out of you."
"Fuahaha!! And what exactly do you think you can do!? Did you honestly believe I would bow to the threats of a mere infant!?"
"Stop whining."
"Guhh!?"
"Lord Aresssssss!!"
He doesn't even hold back against a God!! Irritated by Ares's defiant attitude, Reborn mercilessly kicked the God in the face. Seeing their divine patron physically assaulted, the captured Rakian soldiers screamed in horror. Tsuna stood nearby, completely stunned that Reborn hadn't shown the slightest hesitation in kicking a higher dimensional being.
"Y-You bastard!! Striking a God like me…"
Before Ares could finish his sentence, a bullet grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.
"I'm giving you an order. Don't think for a second you have the right to refuse."
"How dare you strike Lord Ares!!"
"You deserve a thousand deaths!!"
"You're a dead man!!"
Despite being surrounded by the executives of the Loki and Freya Familias, seeing their God humiliated was too much for the Rakian soldiers to bear, and their bloodlust flared violently.
"Shut up."
"""GYAAAAAAAH!!"""
"""""…"""""
Reborn casually pulled a massive bazooka out of nowhere and pulled the trigger. A massive explosion rocked the front courtyard, sending dozens of Rakian soldiers flying through the air.
The sheer, unhinged brutality of Reborn's methods left not only the Loki Familia but even the ruthless Freya Familia completely appalled.
"Now then. Are you ready to answer my questions?"
"Hiiiiieeeee!!"
When Reborn shifted his dark, soulless gaze back to Ares, the God of War shrieked in pure terror.
"L-Loki!! Do something about this psycho!!"
"G-Get off me!!"
Genuinely terrified that the baby might actually deport him, Ares burst into tears and desperately clung to Loki's leg, begging his bitter rival for salvation. Loki tried to peel him off, but driven by absolute primal fear, Ares exhibited terrifying grip strength and refused to let go.
"W-Wait!! We'll handle the interrogation!! Just please, don't hurt Lord Ares anymore!!" a Rakian commander begged.
"You should've just said that from the start."
"""""GYAAAAAAAH!!"""""
Why did you shoot again!? Another explosion engulfed the courtyard, sending a fresh wave of soldiers rocketing into the sky. Everyone present stared in absolute horror, completely unable to comprehend why he had fired the bazooka after they had fully surrendered to his demands.
"W-What do you want to know…!?"
"Speak up, I can't hear you."
"""""GYAAAAAAAH!!"""""
"You're taking this way too far, Reborn!!" Tsuna finally yelled, unable to watch the one-sided massacre any longer.
"Don't talk back to me."
"Buh!?"
Having casually pulled the trigger a third time, Reborn silenced Tsuna's protests by dropping an axe kick squarely onto his student's head, smashing Tsuna face-first into the dirt.
"I told you before. You're just the student. Don't you ever talk back to your home tutor."
"Owowowowowow!!"
Reborn stood on Tsuna's back, twisting his arms into a brutal submission hold. Unable to bear the agonizing joint pain, tears pricked Tsuna's eyes.
"Ottar… am I dreaming…?"
"…I understand how you feel, but this is reality."
Watching a mortal casually assault Gods and terrorize an entire army with such unapologetic violence was a first for Freya. She genuinely wondered if she was hallucinating from fatigue, but Ottar flatly crushed that hope.
─────
Afterward, the Ganesha Familia conducted a thorough interrogation regarding Celua, but they found absolutely no leads.
Over the next few days, the Guild systematically revoked the Falna of over ten thousand captured Rakian soldiers. Once the process was complete, Ares and his humiliated army returned to Rakia. As a side note, the sheer trauma Reborn had inflicted on Ares guaranteed that the God of War would never attempt to invade Orario again.
"We interrogated Ares and all of his commanders, but none of them knew anything about a merchant named Celua."
"I see."
"So it was a dead end."
Hearing Shakti's report, Tsuna and Reborn both wore expressions of disappointment.
They were currently assisting with the post-war cleanup. Having fought an army of 30,000 for several days, the battlefield was littered with massive piles of discarded weapons, requiring a massive logistical effort to recover them all.
Well, it was a long shot to begin with. Besides, there was a good chance Rakia already knew Tsuna was fighting here after the War Game, Reborn rationalized internally.
Though he looked disappointed on the surface, Reborn had fully anticipated hitting a dead end. He instantly shifted gears, moving on to their next move.
"To think we couldn't find a single clue. How frustrating…" Shakti sighed.
Shakti had witnessed the terrifying effects of the cursed rings firsthand. If someone else purchased those rings from Celua, they could unleash a devastating threat upon Orario. For Shakti, who served as the commander of the city's military police, letting a threat like that roam free was unacceptable. Coming up empty-handed left her feeling incredibly conflicted.
"We might not have found any clues, but something is definitely going to happen soon," Finn said, walking up to them with his spear resting on his shoulder.
"Is it aching, Finn?" Tsuna asked.
"Yes. Even though we crushed Rakia's invasion, my thumb hasn't stopped throbbing. In fact, the aching is even stronger than before."
"Your thumb?" Shakti asked, confused.
"Whenever something major is about to happen, Finn's thumb starts to throb," Tsuna explained.
"So it's his intuition."
"Exactly. Though it doesn't tell me exactly what is going to happen. But there is absolutely no doubt that something massive is coming."
─────
Kingdom of Rakia.
"It seems their little farce of a war is finally over."
"Is it time?"
"Yes. The stage is set."
Deep beneath the Kingdom of Rakia, in a massive, artificially constructed subterranean facility, stood Celua and a mysterious man. Above them, a complex, sprawling network of massive pipes ran across the ceiling, all connecting to a single, ornate coffin resting in the center of the room.
"Let's get this started before Ares and the others get back," the man urged.
"I know, you don't have to tell me," Celua replied coolly.
With a pull of a heavy lever on the wall, the grand resurrection sequence began.
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