Danmachi - Infinite Mana System! - Chapter 137 -Battle of the Xenos in Orario 02.

“Lucius! What is this?” Riveria shouted at Lucius while he still kept the Vouivre trapped in his spell, struggling to escape.

“Who is that…?” Lyd asked as Lucius restrained her. He didn’t recognize this xenos, but Lyd knew she was one of them and seemed quite frightened.

“She’s the Xenos who went mad, provoked by Dix. She’s been trapped in the cages all this time, just like I told you. Can’t you do anything to calm her down?” Lucius asked, holding her with some difficulty.

“We’ll try!” Lyd said immediately, approaching the creature.

“Damn…” Lucius muttered, hoping Lyd would handle the Vouivre. His frown deepened as more and more adventurers appeared, and matters worsened when Shakti and the other adventurers from the Ganesha Familia showed up moments later.

“Lucius Drakenar! What is happening here?” she exclaimed, pointing her spear at Lucius and the others, trying to make sense of the scene with so many monsters armed and armored, one of them even speaking to Lucius.

“Don’t attack! I’m handling the situation!” Lucius shouted, his voice echoing as Lyd tried to calm the beast with its injured shoulder.

“What should we do, Captain?” Tione asked, waiting for Finn’s orders.

“This is very strange, but be ready to fight at any moment. There are too many monsters over there, and they’re with the Hestia Familia,” Finn said, and everyone nodded while Riveria frowned.

“Lucius Drakenar, you are accused of disturbing Orario’s peace and bringing monsters to the surface. I will not accept that you are ‘handling the situation’!” Shakti declared, concluding that Lucius was involved in some illegal activity by bringing multiple monsters to the surface. As many Ganesha adventurers prepared for battle, the xenos raised their weapons in response, prompting other adventurers, not from the Loki or Ganesha Familia, to prepare for combat as well.

“What do we do, Bell-sama?!” Lili asked, worried as the situation turned increasingly unfavorable for them.

“We’ll help Lucius’ friends!” Bell said, his brow furrowing as he noticed Aiz’s sharp gaze toward their group while she prepared to fight alongside her familia.

“Yes, let’s fight!” Welf shouted, raising his sword, and others followed suit, though Cassandra looked terrified at the scene next to Haruhime.

“What’s this? We’re in the middle of something here, don’t come at me with this nonsense,” Lucius said angrily, still holding the Vouivre and unable to divert his attention as conflict loomed.

The tension in the air was palpable, and things only worsened when something else happened. A new roar sounded, and some adventurers fled, running from the streets the xenos had come from. They ran in panic, seemingly escaping from something.

Then Asterius himself emerged behind them, and everyone watched as he mercilessly lifted an adventurer and cut them down, blood splattering everywhere. The beast stopped, looking satisfied that he had finished off nearly all the adventurers he had encountered there. He hadn’t killed them all because they had closed the gates, trapping him in the street, while only a small group managed to escape with their gods.

The sight of adventurers being massacred by the minotaur wielding a sword quickly made all the adventurers present classify the monsters as enemies, even though the Hestia Familia was among them.

“Stop the monsters!” Shakti immediately shouted upon witnessing the scene, and everyone charged at them, while the opposing side prepared for battle.

“I have no choice!” Lucius exclaimed as he released the Vouivre. She quickly broke free and ran off, while Lucius turned his attention to protecting the xenos amidst the onslaught of adventurers rushing toward them.

As the adventurers advanced, Lucius teleported to the front of the group, mid-air, and unleashed a barrage of temporal spheres, trapping all the Ganesha adventurers and others, leaving only Shakti unscathed.

“Lucius Drakenar! What are you doing?” Finn asked angrily. The Loki Familia hadn’t attacked yet, but he frowned as he watched Lucius holding all those adventurers suspended in the air with his spheres.

“I can’t let you attack these xenos,” Lucius said firmly, his gaze shifting between Finn and Riveria, who was glaring at him with a furrowed brow.

But he had no choice. He couldn’t allow the xenos to die, nor the Vouivre. He had to protect them. They had helped him in battle, and even if it meant becoming an enemy of all Orario tonight, he would do it.

“Lucius, you must have an explanation!” Riveria exclaimed, looking seriously at him.

“Yes, those adventurers that the Minotaur killed were... Hm?!” Lucius was about to explain when a sword whizzed past him, missing by mere centimeters as Aiz attacked without warning.

“You again!” Lucius shouted angrily, teleporting away. In doing so, he released all the adventurers trapped by his magic, unable to maintain the spell any longer.

Before he could react, the adventurers immediately rushed toward the xenos.

“This is beyond talking now,” Lucius grumbled, retreating to his family’s group alongside the xenos who had yet to engage in combat.

“You, go after the Vouivre and try to calm her down! I’ll hold them off!” Lucius instructed urgently. His family and a portion of the xenos nodded and began chasing the creature through the city.

“This can’t get any harder…” Aisha muttered as Ryuu stood silently beside her.

“Lucius-san…” Haruhime murmured, watching Lucius charge at some adventurers attacking him at that moment.

‘The warrior from my dream…’ Asterius thought as he stood at a distance, watching the others chasing after the Vouivre. His eyes caught sight of Bell’s white hair as he turned his back, seeing him for the first time. It ignited a flame of battle in Asterius’s heart. His dream was so close now—he had finally found his destined adversary.

HOOOOOOOOO!!!! Asterius roared loudly, drawing everyone’s attention as he bent his knees to charge after Bell. Nothing else mattered to him anymore.

He began running, barreling through an adventurer fighting another xenos. He struck the adventurer with a blow so powerful it sent them flying backward, crashing into a house.

“What is that thing?!” adventurers shouted as they watched more and more of their comrades being struck down by the Minotaur, hurled like ragdolls.

“Someone stop that thing!” an adventurer cried out just as Asterius was about to attack them. Suddenly, the Minotaur’s massive weapon clashed against a slender sword. Standing in his way was none other than Aiz, blocking his path.

“...” She remained silent, bracing herself for the fight. Asterius, determined to pursue his dream, looked at her with a challenging gaze, roaring in his beastly state as he raised his enormous sword.

Lucius hovered in the air, surveying the scene and preparing to strike, when Shakti appeared in front of him with her spear. He teleported away to evade her attack.

“It won’t be like last time,” he remarked, ready to face her head-on this time.

“You’ve become a criminal of Orario, Lucius Drakenar,” she said firmly.

“We were fighting against Evilus, waging a battle you incompetents never truly took on!” Lucius exclaimed angrily, fed up with the ridiculous accusations.

Shakti raised an eyebrow at his words but had to dodge as Lucius unleashed bolts of lightning at her, forcing her to use all her agility to evade.

“Lightning… Are you some kind of Sith Lord?” she asked.

“That’s right, you fool,” Lucius retorted, still in a foul mood. He disappeared from her view, reappearing beside her and firing a lightning bolt at point-blank range.

The captain of the Ganesha Familia had no time to react. The blast sent her flying backward, crashing into a shop and blowing apart the storefront.

Amid the wreckage, Shakti reappeared moments later, battered but furious, charging at Lucius with renewed determination.

He grabbed his sword, crossing blades with her as his status began to rise, his body glowing in different hues from enhancement magic boosting his strength and speed.

“You’ve really changed…” Shakti admitted, still struggling to process how this foolish adventurer, whom she had easily struck down just a few months ago, had become so strong that she couldn’t even scratch him now.

“We have to finish our fight. My friends need me,” Lucius said, as more and more adventurers clashed with the xenos who had stayed behind. Meanwhile, Aiz had begun battling Asterius, with other members of the Loki Familia, like the two Amazons and Bete, joining the fray.

“Hm?” Shakti quickly noticed Lucius shifting positions using teleportation, aiming for her with another attack. However, at that moment, a magic spell shot toward where he was about to appear.

He immediately adjusted his position again, reappearing in the air. Shakti leapt back to avoid the spell herself, as it obliterated the ground where she had just stood.

Lucius turned his focus away from Shakti, directing his attention toward Finn, who stood with his spear raised. Gareth was on another rooftop, hammer in hand, ready for battle. The caster of the earlier magic was none other than Riveria, glaring at Lucius with a deeply furrowed brow.

“Lucius! Stop this!” she exclaimed, her tone pleading for him to end the confrontation.

“If I stop, Riveria, people I care about will die. I can’t let them die anymore,” Lucius replied calmly.

“You’re willing to become an enemy of Orario, Lucius Drakenar?” Finn asked from a distance, as Shakti readied herself for another fight.

“Yes…” Lucius responded calmly, despite the fact that he now faced three Level Six adventurers and one Level Five standing against him.

“Then the Loki Familia will fight,” Finn declared and shouted, “Everyone, I declare Lucius Drakenar an enemy!”

He addressed his familia, his voice resolute. Riveria looked the most affected, her face filled with conflict, but she had to follow her captain’s orders.

Lucius sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before reopening them, a look of determination in his gaze.

“So be it. I will be your enemy,” Lucius said. After all, it was pointless to explain that he was in the middle of a battle against Evilus and couldn’t reveal the truth about the xenos. He prepared himself to face them all, even though among them stood his own wife.