Ardi had already subdued one of the people near the trapdoor and was chasing the other between stacks of crates.
Rather than joining her, Rayleigh looked toward the opening they had been trying to reach.
The underground signatures had stopped moving.
That was more worrying than if they had continued running.
"Shakti, keep everyone here. I'm going below."
Ardi heard him and immediately changed direction. "I'm coming."
Rayleigh did not object.
She had more experience fighting beside him underground than almost anyone in Orario, and Nejibana gave them an answer if the lower route was flooded or trapped.
They reached the trapdoor together.
Rayleigh opened it carefully.
A ladder descended into darkness.
The air coming up smelled of wet stone, oil, and something chemical enough to sting the nose.
Ardi frowned. "That isn't sewer water."
"No."
Rayleigh drew Ruri'iro Kujaku before descending.
"Bloom in a frenzy, Ruri'iro Kujaku!"
Lapis-colored vines spread from the transformed blade and flowed down the ladder shaft ahead of them, touching the walls and floor as they went.
Rayleigh did not use the Zanpakutō to drain anything; he let the vines function as extensions of his senses instead, feeling every vibration that travelled through them.
Three people waited below.
Two near the corridor entrance.
One farther back.
The nearest pair attacked the moment Rayleigh stepped off the ladder.
The first man thrust a spear toward his chest from the darkness.
A vine snapped around the shaft and pulled it sideways before the point reached him.
Rayleigh stepped past the weapon, drove his shoulder into the attacker's chest, and sent him crashing into the wall.
The second threw a glass bottle at the floor.
Rayleigh saw the liquid inside and raised a barrier before it shattered.
"Bakudō #39: Enkōsen!"
The circular shield formed between them as the bottle burst.
Thick green vapor spread against the barrier and rolled back toward the thrower instead.
The man cursed and retreated.
Ardi emerged from the ladder behind Rayleigh, took one look at the gas, and drew Nejibana.
"Rankle the Seas and the Skies, Nejibana!"
The sealed sword transformed into a trident as water gathered around its prongs.
Ardi swept the weapon once, creating a controlled current that pulled the poisonous vapor away from the corridor and compressed it into a narrow stream before forcing it into an empty drainage channel.
The entire exchange took seconds.
Rayleigh dropped Enkōsen once the air cleared and restrained both attackers.
The third person was already running deeper underground.
Rayleigh followed.
The passage ended in a chamber that had once been part of Orario's old drainage system. Most of the original brickwork had been covered with shelves, supply crates, and rough maps pinned to the walls.
The fleeing man stood in front of one of those maps with a torch in his hand.
He did not aim it at Rayleigh.
He aimed it at the documents.
"Don't."
The man smiled, then dropped the torch.
Rayleigh moved first.
"Bakudō #37: Tsuriboshi!"
A star-shaped net of spiritual energy spread across the floor beneath the falling flame and caught it before it touched the oil-soaked papers.
The man stared.
Rayleigh used Shunpo to cross the chamber and punched him in the stomach hard enough to fold him over.
Ardi arrived just in time to watch the prisoner collapse.
"You could've done that upstairs."
"There were more witnesses upstairs."
"That has never stopped you before."
Rayleigh ignored the comment and moved toward the wall.
The maps were the real reason anyone had tried to burn the chamber.
Several showed Orario's outer districts, marked with storage depots, taverns, abandoned houses, and Guild patrol routes.
Others traced portions of the old sewer network beneath the city.
One map was different.
Rayleigh stared at it longer.
Knossos.
Not all of it.
Nothing close.
But enough.
Several old entrances had been marked in red, including two the Guild believed permanently sealed after the earlier operation against Valletta.
Beside them were dates, supply quantities, and short handwritten notes.
Ardi stepped closer and read one of them.
"They've been checking these routes for more than a year."
"Yeah."
Another note showed that one entrance had responded to something called Phase Three six months ago.
Rayleigh's eyes narrowed.
He reached toward the map without touching it.
"Don't move anything yet. Fels needs to see this exactly as we found it."
Ardi's expression became grim.
"You think Valletta has been trying to get back into Knossos?"
"I think she never stopped."
Rayleigh looked around the chamber again.
The supplies upstairs were enough for a network.
The maps below were enough for a plan.
Monsterphilia had not been the beginning of anything. It had simply been the first time Valletta chose to make noise.
...
Fels arrived less than an hour later with a sealed Guild team.
The mage spent several minutes examining the maps before speaking, while Shakti supervised the removal of prisoners and dangerous materials from the warehouse above.
Rayleigh remained beside the largest Knossos map.
"Can any of these entrances still work?"
"Most should not. The routes marked here were sealed after our previous operation, and several were collapsed from the inside. However, Knossos was built over generations. A sealed entrance does not necessarily mean the passage behind it is gone."
Fels pointed toward the note marked Phase Three.
"This concerns me more."
Rayleigh agreed.
"What does it mean?"
"I don't know yet."
That was not the answer he wanted, but it was better than Fels pretending.
The mage examined several smaller notes around the same section.
"Valletta appears to have been testing something against the sealed doors. There are records of vibration, magical feedback, and changes in pressure beneath three locations."
Ardi joined them after finishing upstairs. "Could she be trying to break through the Orichalcum?"
"Unlikely. Even Ottar cannot simply smash those doors apart. If Valletta found another method, it would probably involve the mechanisms Daedalus built into the labyrinth itself."
Rayleigh remembered Merek, the old reader who had helped them understand Valletta's previous attempts to manipulate Knossos.
"Then we ask Merek."
Fels turned toward him.
"That was my thought as well."
Rayleigh looked at the map again.
For three years, Valletta had been quiet enough that everyone assumed survival was her greatest achievement.
Apparently she had been using the silence.
He folded his arms.
"I'm not spending another year chasing rumors through sewers. We have her people, her supply point, and a record of which doors she's been testing. This time we work backward from the network until we reach her."
Ardi's expression sharpened with immediate agreement.
Fels remained more cautious.
"That may take time."
"I know. I'm saying we keep pressure on it instead of waiting for her next festival."
The mage gave a slow nod.
"Then we begin here."
...
The raid ended shortly before sunset.
By then, the Guild had confiscated enough weapons, poison, forged documents, and explosive material to supply a small war.
Eleven prisoners were taken alive, including both upper-class adventurers, while the remaining warehouse workers were being separated and questioned to determine which were actual Evilus members and which had been hired without understanding what they were moving.
Rayleigh returned to Hephaestus Familia only after Fels promised that nobody would start opening old Knossos doors without telling him first.
He intended to go directly to the forge.
Instead, Cassandra was waiting outside.
She stood beside the workshop entrance with Yumeutsutsu resting across both hands. Three faint red petals clung to the scabbard before dissolving into light.
Rayleigh stopped.
Cassandra no longer looked like the frightened girl who apologized before every warning.
Three years in Hephaestus Familia had not made her loud or particularly confident around crowds, but she had learned to trust her own instincts enough to speak before someone else gave her permission.
"I was looking for you."
Rayleigh glanced at Yumeutsutsu.
"You had a dream."
Cassandra nodded.
"It started during Monsterphilia, but I couldn't understand enough of it to say anything useful. Last night it came again, and after you raided the warehouse today, part of it changed."
Rayleigh opened the workshop door and let her inside rather than discussing it in the corridor.
"What did you see?"
Cassandra rested Yumeutsutsu on the nearest workbench and took a moment to gather the pieces before answering.
"I saw a door beneath the city. It was already cracked, but nobody standing around it seemed to notice. Valletta was not beside the door. I never saw her face anywhere in the dream."
That distinction mattered.
Rayleigh waited.
Cassandra's fingers tightened slightly around the scabbard.
"There was someone else on the other side."
The workshop went quiet.
Rayleigh's expression changed.
"Someone?"
"I don't know who. I couldn't see them clearly, and I don't know whether they were a person, a monster, or something Yumeutsutsu was using as a symbol. I only know they were waiting for the door to open from inside."
Red petals appeared once more along the edge of Yumeutsutsu's scabbard.
Cassandra watched them fade.
"When I woke up this morning, the dream felt distant. After your raid, it became clearer."
Rayleigh thought back to the map beneath the warehouse.
Phase Three.
Sealed Knossos entrances.
Pressure changes beneath the city.
Something waiting on the other side.
He reached for his coat again.
Cassandra looked at him. "Where are you going?"
"To tell Fels that his evening just got worse."
He paused before opening the workshop door and looked back at her.
"And you're coming with me. If that dream changes again, I don't want to hear about it tomorrow."
Cassandra nodded, picked up Yumeutsutsu, and followed him out.