"Hmm, such decisiveness is truly rare among the children of Genkai. So young, yet already quite strong—his talent is no worse than Alfia's."
Only Hera could say something like that. If any other god dared to speak such words, it would be blatant provocation.
Zeus's face twitched. He could see that Loki's child was gifted, but to compare him with Alfia? That was far too much.
After all, Loki's child had been born while they were still in Orario.
Reaching Lv.6 in just over a decade was impressive, but the gap between that and Alfia was still enormous.
Alfia had reached Lv.7 in less than ten years.
She had even fought the strongest Empress of Hera Familia while still at Lv.7—something that Loki's child could never hope to do.
But Bell… that kid was different.
Zeus couldn't help propping his chin in thought.
"Hera, do you remember Bell's methods?"
"Which one?"
"The one where he controlled the Spirit Soldiers."
Hearing this, Hera seriously thought back to what she had seen, then shook her head.
"That child didn't act just now. It must have been at least three days ago, when he discovered that hidden floor. It's hard to determine afterward what method he used."
"Though it did seem a bit like a 'Tamer'."
Zeus nodded slightly. It did look a little similar, but in the end he dismissed it.
"Possible, but unlikely. We've watched him grow. No one knows better than us whether he has talent in that direction."
"And he controlled fifty-four Spirit Soldiers, all at least Lv.5. Even the best Beast Tamer couldn't pull that off."
A 'Tamer' could tame monsters and turn them into weapons, but the profession was extremely competitive—magical beasts were notoriously difficult to tame.
And there were limits to what a 'Tamer' could manage. Once the number of monsters exceeded a certain point, a single person simply couldn't control them.
"Not to mention those Spirit Soldiers have the risk of being taken over by the fairy spirits themselves. For an ordinary Tamer, taming those things would be far harder than taming any single monster."
Earlier, the fairy spirit had clearly been terrified, refusing to project its soul into those soldiers—at most shifting its view toward the Guardian instead. But just the possibility of such control made the Tamer theory far less convincing.
Zeus had other reasons as well.
"And look at Bell's demeanor. Nothing about him suggests he'd become a Tamer."
This was the first time Zeus had seen Bell's growth directly since the boy left the village, but it was precisely his bizarre, unreasonable rate of growth that convinced Zeus Bell was absolutely not a Tamer.
Thinking of Bell's earlier series of maneuvers, even hiding everything from the gods, Zeus's expression turned strange.
"If I didn't know he arrived in Orario less than a year ago, I'd almost think that kid really was 'Enyo'."
A fleeting daze crossed Hera's beautiful face.
But following Zeus's logic—setting aside everything else—what Bell had done did indeed resemble a deeply concealed "Enyo."
He toyed with Evilus, turned the fairy spirit's trump cards into his own, and even orchestrated this crucial assault on Evilus entirely by himself.
That level of deliberation and capability really did make one suspect he might be the true "Enyo."
"Lady Hera, did the Sword Princess head in the same direction Bell went?"
The question immediately drew Zeus and Hera's attention.
...
The room strewn with corpses was filled with traces of "sacrifice."
Dozens of platforms stood there, as if something had once been placed upon them.
Ais took note of the sticky residue clinging to the edges of the platforms, as if something had been born from them.
'Is… that it?'
The image of the "Spirit Soldier" surfaced in Ais's mind.
Since she'd run into one at the entrance earlier, she couldn't help thinking this might be the room where those "Spirit Soldiers" were hatched...
If so, the scattered chunks of flesh on the ground were probably the feed prepared for them.
Ais glanced at the flesh once more, her brows tightening. She didn't stay in the room any longer and stepped back outside.
"Haa…"
She drew in a deep breath, clearing away the nauseating smell from the incubation chamber.
'Then the marks outside were also left behind during a fight with the Spirit Soldiers?'
She recalled the several-meter-long sword gash near the entrance.
But who could've made it?
A moment later, the most likely person came to mind.
Bell Cranel.
'So he didn't leave.'
Ais had thought he'd already departed at the entrance. She hadn't expected him to still be here.
But thinking back on Bell's previous actions, it actually made sense.
'I wonder if I can find him.'
With that thought, Ais didn't linger. She moved quickly down the path.
This time, she wasn't just exploring the hidden floor—she was also trying to track where he went.
With that shift in her thoughts, her destination changed slightly.
...
At the far end of the path, Bell stood before a secluded hidden room.
"So this is the place. Really buried deep."
Suddenly, the wall of the hidden chamber trembled and slowly opened.
Bell stepped inside. Someone was already waiting for him.
It was a man with long, messy hair. His body wasn't particularly strong, but beneath the hair, his eyes were filled with madness.
And most striking of all was the crimson curse in those eyes.
"The curse of Daedalus, huh. Someone actually keeps clinging to that."
Bell shook his head slightly, a mixture of disdain and incomprehension.
"You… It was all you…"
The man's wild eyes stayed fixed on Bell.
"You found the last floor… and now even this one…"