Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Therefore, even with nearly fifty factions entering this place, there is still plenty of space to spare.

The group that proposed using this ruin as a potential battlefield—the same group the guild initially consulted—was the Hermes Familia. This neutral faction, whose main interest lies in exploring ruins, also conducts field expeditions to gather information and treasures related to the "Ancient." Since all ancient-related data within this city ruin has been recovered, its "empty shell" makes it a perfect venue for "factional wars."

All around were half-ruined stone pillars and walls, casting shadows under the sunlight.

And there are also many silent, abstract statues with half-destroyed faces or missing arms.

The ruins of the large bathhouse, now devoid of roof and walls, have been transformed into a vast, clear spring by the rainwater that has accumulated over the long years.

Throughout the ruins, one can find various rune stones depicting gods wielding spears and giant wolves, rendered in white and gray. These precious stones, which should have possessed cultural value, are beyond detailed analysis due to damage caused by monsters. The valuable burial goods hidden within the tombstones were stolen by thieves.

This place serves as a symbol of destruction and decay.

The solemnity of history and the desolation of being forgotten by the times sway on the scales.

After glancing at the scene briefly, the adventurers immediately averted their gaze and became more alert.

The city, which once enjoyed great prosperity but faced destruction, will once again become a fierce battlefield.

"Are there enemies?"

"No, it seems the other side hasn't reached the border between the east and west sides yet."

"Report to headquarters first! Continue moving!"

Adventurers belonging to faction alliances continued to move.

Led by Luvis of the Modi Familia, a large number of "scout forces" were scattered throughout the city ruins.

"Lady Lily, we haven't spotted any enemies on the southeast side. I think they probably haven't reached the eastern area yet."

"Understood, my lord. The rest is up to the garrison. Please move west and investigate the ruins directly ahead. If it's Lily, we'll send someone to guard that spot first."

"receive!"

After the crystal gave its command, Lily issued the instructions.

The eastern side of the ruins falls within the territory of the faction alliance, specifically near the center—

There was a market ruin with rows of stone pillar bases, and Lily set up her temporary base here.

Several crystals—"oculus"—were placed at the base of one of the stone pillars, which was about the same thickness as a tree stump.

This scene was remarkably similar to the "command post" Hestia had set up atop the tower during the siege of Labyrinth Street (Daedalus Road). Lily unfolded the map of the ruins, received reports from various units through the Eye Crystal, and smoothly issued various instructions.

"Miss Lily...you haven't rested at all since just now, constantly listening to everyone's reports. Aren't you overworking yourself?"

"The others have to fight monsters called the [Freya Familia], so how can Lily, who can't fight, complain about being tired because of something so trivial!"

When Chigusa, who was acting as a guard, saw several eye crystals glowing one after another and heard the voices of adventurers, she suppressed her dizziness and asked with concern. However, Lily did not even look at Chigusa and continued to concentrate on writing her notes.

Although this place is called the "headquarters", in reality only Lily and Chigusa are located in this market ruin.

The reason is that they had to send people to protect the gods who were hiding, so they couldn't assign too many people to be Lily's guards.

Once Lily falls, Aisha, Daphne, or Tsubaki will take over command.

For the faction alliance, losing the commander-in-chief (Lily) is not the worst-case scenario.

What they absolutely must avoid is failing to discern the enemy's strategy in order to protect themselves.

Therefore, Lily responded loudly to Chigusa's words, implying that they should not mistake the first priority.

However──

"Hey, little people! We haven't seen any enemies in the center! What should we do next!?"

"Little Riko, we haven't seen any enemies on the northern outskirts, so we shouldn't need to worry about them flanking us."

"We'll begin our invasion of the enemy's western flank from the border! Is that alright?!"

"What's wrong, Commander! Give the order immediately!"

(Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...!! No matter how hard Lily tries to be strong, the amount of information is still far beyond what Lily can handle!!)

Despite Lily's strong sense of mission to fulfill the task, her true thoughts were quite the opposite.

Not only Perth's deep voice, but also the voices of Welf, Amazons and elves coming from the glowing eye crystals, made Lily want to scream and grab all the eye crystals to throw them away.

Faced with this situation where she needed to command multiple troops simultaneously, Lily couldn't help but feel resentful towards the "Hero" who had calmly and confidently commanded, "You must do it, and I believe in you."

(But Lily absolutely has to do it...! After all, Lily is so weak, and this is the only part she can help Lord Bell and the others! Besides, she can't rely on Lady Daphne's power!)

After undergoing the "Expedition" in the lower levels, Daphne has risen to Lv.3, making her a very valuable high-level combatant in the faction alliance.

Therefore, how could we allow her to assist Lily?

Since I have made up my mind to take on the command position, I cannot give up easily.

Lily, her eyes bloodshot and her brow drenched in sweat, gave instructions to the adventurers in a manner that even Chigusa found frightening, and then copied the information she received onto another piece of parchment next to the map.

"To reiterate, the scouts' primary task is to scout out the 'enemy forces' and locate the 'Goddess Freya'! Avoid combat if possible! The most important task is to gather intelligence!"

Lily picked up a fist-sized eyeglass and spoke in a clear, low voice.

For this competition called "The Game of Seeking Gods", Lily will focus on "offense".

The evidence is that the ratio of scouts gathering intelligence to the garrison preventing enemy attacks was seven to three.

Frankly, the faction alliance was no match for the Freya Familia's attacks.

Even Finn, belonging to the largest faction in the city (the Loki Familia), advised the first-class adventurers (Otto and others) and the fierce warriors to "do everything possible to avoid" the attack. Even if the adventurers worked together, they had no chance of winning; the enemy's attack was like the end of the world.

In other words, a passive defense means certain defeat.

Lily, who understood this, firmly believed that attack was the most effective defense—hoping to put the enemy on the defensive and never allowing her side to become passive.

(First and foremost, it's about gathering intelligence! Such as the enemy's movements, deployments, and numbers! No matter how cleverly Freya's hiding place is concealed, or how many traps the enemy sets along the way, Lily can only deduce her location based on their deployments!)

Although Lily didn't say it aloud, she felt that losing the scout unit wouldn't matter.

To put it another way, it means she was prepared for the inevitable sacrifice of friendly forces.

This is because "encountering the enemy" is equivalent to "being defeated".

Even if both sides are at the same level, the faction alliance and the Freya Familia are still far apart in strength.

If discovered by the enemy, the scout team would inevitably be wiped out.

"Huh!? So Miss Lily is treating all the scout units as expendable pawns...?"

"This is because no matter what tactics are used, it will eventually turn out this way, and I would do the same if I were in command."

Here in the central area of ​​the ruins, some distance from the market site, Daphne, who was in charge of leading a garrison, covered one ear with one hand as if annoyed by the noise, and explained to Cassandra.

"If we want to win this 'game of finding the gods,' we must allocate manpower to scouts and reconnaissance, because we must find the enemy's chief god on such a vast battlefield."

However, if it's a monster army (Freya's Familia), with a little more time, there is also a victory condition of "annihilating all the Familias of the faction alliance," but Daphne decided to omit it.

"Once we know the location of the enemy's main god, no matter how fierce the enemy's offensive, we can still counterattack. Since we are focusing our forces on offense, our defenses against the main god will inevitably be weaker."

"Um... because the Freya Familia needs to locate the Alliance Gods during their attack, their fighting force will definitely be scattered... and Miss Lily is trying to exploit this 'weakness'?"

"exactly."

Daphne glanced at the crystal hanging at her waist, and considering Lily's current mood, she hesitated for a moment before speaking:

"If we try to minimize our losses, we will absolutely not win this battle."

"Is it like letting someone cut off your own flesh to sever the enemy's tendons and bones in one fell swoop?"

"That's right, that's what Lady Lily said. To be precise, not only our scouting squad, but even the gods like Takemikazuchi are 'bait'..."

Sakura and Mikoto, members of the scout unit, talk to each other as they speed through the forest.

—We can only manage to pierce the enemy's heart in one go while we are being shredded.

—No matter how much pain and screams will occur during this period.

After the format of the war game was finalized, Lily said this in front of the Hestia Familia. Even without consulting Finn, this junior commander had already discerned the direction of the battle.

Sakura looked on with admiration, while Ming, standing beside her, stared straight ahead and said:

"Lady Lily hopes that we can capture the goddess Freya before the last god falls—even at the cost of our lives."

"That being said, the priority order of the troops seems to have been decided long ago."

"She's a lot like Finn in this respect, full of clever tricks... no, I should say she's very resourceful."

After Aisha the Amazon finished speaking, Chun the half-dwarf chuckled softly.

Because the number of eye crystals is limited, it is clear that Lily had carefully selected the recipients of the precious "communicator," including Aisha, Daphne, and Ming.

Since it bears the name "Alliance," it is clear that this is a large-scale force. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, there will inevitably be people who disobey the commander's (Lily's) orders. The "Goddess Alliance," which intends to take the Queen's (Freya's) head out of personal grudges, is the best example.

Lily took all of these factors into consideration before entrusting the Eye Crystal to trustworthy people—especially Aisha and her group, who had a high chance of becoming a "trump card" or "key to victory."

"We'll stay in a location where we can clearly see the surroundings to command... no, I should say monitor the troops and report the battle situation back to the little guy. In short, we'll be like centurions in the army."

"Since I'm not good at commanding, I'll be responsible for fighting on the front lines. I'll leave that part of the work to you, [Antianeira]!"

"You're one of only two Lv.5s on our side, so please take on more work, [Cyclops]..."

"You're supposed to be the leader of a [Family], aren't you?" Aisha was dumbfounded and retorted to the extremely irresponsible Tsubaki.

Aisha sighed first, then turned to look at the blacksmiths waiting behind her—after confirming the presence of this "artillery force" carrying a large number of "magic swords," she said to the eye crystal in her hand:

"Little one, there's absolutely no movement in the center of the battlefield... and it's eerily quiet."

(None of the units detected any trace of the enemy...?)

The site of the market where the main camp was located.

After receiving the report from Aisha and the others, Lily fell into deep thought under Chigusa's watchful eye.

(Could it be that the other side has decided to lie in wait...? But even knowing there's danger, we have no choice but to send someone to spy!)

Despite feeling somewhat resentful, Lily still issued orders to the various scout units to advance into the enemy's territory.

(Thanks to having all of Lord Fels's Eye Crystals taken from him, we have a significant advantage in information transmission! On the other hand, the Freya Familia is more prone to information leaks the further away the troops are from their commander (Lord Hedin)! Even first-class adventurers cannot change this!)

Lily firmly believed that a weakness would inevitably emerge that they could exploit... or rather, she prayed that it would.

Even if they can communicate using magic stone communicators or light, they still can't actually talk to each other, and sometimes the terrain makes it impossible to communicate. In a competition like the "God Seeking Game," having an "Eye Crystal" that can help people overcome the two major obstacles of time and distance is almost unfair.

(This game of "hide-and-seek" covering the entire island is, in essence, an intelligence war! It doesn't matter how many battles we suffer in sporadic skirmishes, as long as we win the "key" battle!)

Even if the members of the Freya Familia are able to make their own judgments and take action after they are far away from Hedin, the faction alliance has a large number of members. As long as they take advantage of the time when the decoy troops are holding back the enemy, they can immediately attack Freya's hideout and the alliance will have a chance of winning.

(Once we confirm the enemy's deployment, we no longer need to hold back. We should immediately deploy the artillery unit carrying the "Krozo Demon Sword," our strongest support (Lady Haruhime), and our trump card (Lady Bell)! The longer we drag this out, the more disadvantageous it will be for us! We must seize Freya's "Flower" before we lose our forty-six deities...!)

Lily thought of Haruhime and the others who were waiting for orders, and clenched her hands, which were covered in an uncomfortable sweat.

Just as Daphne and others had guessed, Lily's strategy would come with serious sacrifices.

Even so, Lily still wanted to clarify the "correct game".

How many troops (soldiers) are deployed in which area, and where is the goddess (queen) hiding?

Where is the chariot (castle) that can overcome all obstacles?

Where are the black and white elves (bishops) who can bombard from a distance?

Where are the little people (knights) who cause trouble through their own actions and cooperation?

Is the strongest warrior (king) responsible for protecting the goddess (queen)?

This intelligence must be obtained as early as possible and then used for analysis. Even if the scouts are annihilated by the enemy, as long as they leave behind intelligence, its value is comparable to a mountain of gold, and it may even become the key to changing the course of the battle.

Therefore, Lily puts on the mask called "Cold Commander" to completely suppress the guilt in her heart.

However, Lily felt that no matter how much she grew, she could never match Finn's ruthless side as a commander.

There is nothing unusual on the north side.

No enemy invasion was detected on the south side.

"Let's keep moving forward!"

Contrary to Lily's anxiety, the battlefield was unusually quiet.

At least the faction alliance must remain silent.

In order to discover Freya as soon as possible and to track down the enemy forces that came to capture our gods, a large number of scouts moved quietly or lay in ambush at various locations.

When will this silence finally be broken?

As the commander-in-chief, Lily's heart pounded harder and harder over time.