AN: This would work way better as a series of animated shorts on YouTube, but that isn't an option for me. Oh well.
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War Games gone wrong.
Prologue.
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It was a few days after the battle with the Black Goliath on the 18th floor, and Bell Cranel had become the talk of the town. He was just a rookie, but his feats were astounding, and they just continued to pile up. So much so that some gods and goddesses wanted him in their familia, regretted turning him away, and were willing to go out of their way to get him. But none more so than Apollo, who had plans to betray his fellow goddess Hestia, destroy her familia, and claim Bell for himself.
During their latest adventure, Welf Crozzo had levelled up, and now the team was heading out to celebrate. Welf chose the place, a small tavern on a back street called Hibachitei, the Flaming Wasp. (Which coincidentally is how I prefer wasps.) Hestia was going to go with them, but Lady Hephaistos was angry at her for ditching work in order to save Bell, and wasn't going to let her get out of work to join them.
They were having a pretty good time, eating, drinking, and talking about the recent events. But then some prum jerk starting making fun of Bell. He tried to ignore it, but then the asshole crossed the line by insulting Hestia. Bell almost smashed the runt's face in, but Welf beat him to it and knocked the jerk out with a kick.
The prum's friends then got up and a brawl broke out. Bell and Welf were outnumbered four to two, and their foes were armed with mugs and bottles, but both of them were at level 2 and got into a basic formation, and thus they were able to handle them. Their two-man cell were able to overpower and defeat their four-man group. But then the last of the prum's friends got up and joined in. The man was Hyacinthus, an adventurer at Level 3, and he was so fast and so strong that he instantly crushed Welf and then Bell, and made it clear that he did so with ease. He was about to finish them when the werewolf Bete from the Loki Familia stepped in and put a stop to it. Everyone left after that.
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Not long after that, the 'Celebration of the Gods' was held again. The Celebration of the Gods was a party for deities, by deities. Only deities could attend, and they were mostly held so the hosts could show off how successful they were. It had been a month and a half since the last one held by Ganesha, so it was no surprise that another one was about to be held. But this time it was held by the Apollo Familia, and Apollo decided to change things up a bit. This time deities were required to bring one member of their familia.
The party went well. It was a fancy ball, there was great food, the gods and goddesses got to introduce their children to the other gods and goddesses, and Bell got to share a dance with Aiz Wallenstein. A dance that both Hestia and Loki had to be forcefully kept out of. Then it suddenly came crashing down.
Apollo falsely accused Bell of attacking one of his children. He put on an obvious, over the top performance, he had the prum from the bar wrapped up like a mummy, the prum put on an obvious, over the top performance, he had hired a bunch of people to claim to be witnesses, all of which claimed to have been there, said Apollo was right, and all were wearing expressions that screamed otherwise. Their lies couldn't have been more obvious if their noses were growing. It was almost laughable. But then Apollo demanded compensation and for Hestia to take responsibility for Bell's actions.
Hestia refused.
Apollo responded by declaring a War Game. A War Game was a staged battle competition between familias with high stakes, which was broadcast over all of Orario via magical mirrors that floated in the air. The conditions for the battle were decided on before hand, and it could be any number of scenarios, like a one-on-one duel in a stadium, a series of fights until one side was defeated, etc, and things tended to get so serious that combatants have died in them before. It was always a big event that the whole city got excited about.
Apollo then said that if his side should prevail, he demanded that Hestia surrender Bell Cranel to him. Hestia was furious, flat-out refused, and them took Bell and stormed out.
But that wasn't the end of it.
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The very next morning, the Apollo Familia attacked. They launched ranged magic attacks, blew up Hestia's church, and pursued them all over the city. They were relentless, they were everywhere, and they had help from the Soma Familia. Hestia and Bell's allies caught wind of it and showed up to help, but they were still outnumbered and had to run and fight without rest. They took many hits, Lilly was taken away by the Soma Familia, and finally Hestia had enough. She had Bell take her to Apollo's home, where she slapped him across the face and accepted the War Game challenge.
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Hestia stalled as long as she could, as Bell trained to get stronger. But she couldn't hold out long, and at a meeting of the gods they decided on a draw to determine how it would go down. It ended up being a 'Castle Siege.' Where one familia would fortify themselves within a castle while the other laid siege to it. Both attacking and defending required large numbers, giving Apollo a blatantly unfair advantage, as Hestia only had Bell at the moment. And to make matters worse, he took the defending role for himself, giving him the location advantage. It was so one-sided that the other gods wanted to at least allow outsiders to participate to assist Hestia. Apollo was against it, but he caved slightly when Freya mocked him, his children, and his love for them by pointing out that they were too weak and afraid to face more than one opponent. But even then his pathetic cowardice shone through as he only allowed one outsider, and that one outsider had to be from a Familia outside Orario, and outside Orario, adventurers above Level 2 were basically unheard of. The gods didn't press the matter any further than that.
When Bell's friends found out, Welf, Mikoto, and Lilly switched familias to help him.
When Bell heard, he already had a plan to win. But this time it came in the form of an old friend from outside of Orario that no-one would ever see coming.
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The day of the War Game came. The city was active with excitement. Bets were placed, nearly all of them on Apollo to win. Only one guy put a large bet on Bell, and everyone thought he was crazy. But the battlefield itself was calm and quiet.
The bell signalling the start of the competition rang out.
The Apollo Familia was hanging out lazily in the castle, cocky and sure the Hestia Familia wouldn't try anything serious until the last day, as they didn't have nearly enough members to attempt a direct attack. They had no idea what they were in for.