Chapter 3: False Hope
Bell wandered aimlessly around the shopping district of the city. Nearly a month had gone by since his promise with Hestia; level up one more time before asking Aiz Wallenstein out.
"Easier said than done." He sighed to himself.
"What's easier?" A voice asked.
Bell jumped after hearing the voice and quickly turned around, his hand reaching for his knife. It only felt natural to him considering the many familias he's made enemies with. He knew he also had several allies as well but the chances of them to show up and support him were low.
Bell's eyes soon met a pair of light gray eyes. Syr nearly fell back after the strong intimidation Bell gave her. Bell immediately went red with embarrassment as several onlookers watched the two.
"S-Syr?" Bell questioned. "What are you doing here?" He dumbly asked.
Syr looked at him confused as she continued to sit on the ground. The bag she had in her hands was ripped and torn with several vegetables lying across the ground. The people looking at the two gave a small glare towards Bell before continuing their own errands.
"I was just getting some groceries for the pub." Syr replied, standing up with Bell's help. "But it looks like Momma Mia won't be able to make her veggie souffle now." She sulked.
"Veggie souffle?" Bell asked but shook his head and immediately bowed before her. "I'm sorry!"
"For what?" Syr asked. "It was my fault for startling you; especially with the enemies you have." She gave him a small smile while placing her hands in front of him as to not attract any more attention.
"B-But I ruined your groceries." Bell pointed out, looking at the dirty cabbages and tomatoes lying on the ground.
"It's nothing really." Syr smiled. "To be frank, they were last minute ingredients and weren't the best of the pick."
"Is there anyway I can repay you though?" Bell asked.
Syr put a finger to her chin as she looked up in the air and began to think long and hard. Soon, she smiled after thinking of something that seemed to be clever as she focused her attention back onto Bell.
"I know what you can do."
Bell groaned as he carried the large boxes up the stairs. Several hours had passed since he accidentally knocked over Syr and to make up for the vegetables he ruined he was to carry all of the food supplies for Momma Mia up the stairs from the basement. To him, it sounded easy, however, he slowly realized that the boxes were heavier than his strength could carry.
"Why do these boxes feel like there's armor inside them?" Bell asked, tears starting to run down his face from the pain of carrying each box.
"Probably because you've grabbed the box with armor in it, Bell-san." Ryu said as she looked at him from the top of the stairs.
Bell let out a small sigh before slowly making his way downstairs. He had hardly made it halfway and all it took was for Ryu to correct him in his mistake.
"Why is there armor here in the first place?" He thought.
Ryu soon joined him downstairs as he set the heavy box down. She slowly opened it, causing a small amount of dust to poof out and get into their faces.
"I suppose you're wondering why I have these down here." Ryu said, not even looking once at Bell.
Bell's attention was caught from her question. She was right, why is there armor down in the basement of a pub?
"Remember the story I told you about back in the 18th floor of the dungeon? Well this is what's left of the armor I managed to salvage from our guild." Ryu began. "However, I must not sell this armor….not yet at least."
"What do you mean by that?" Bell asked confused.
"A former member of my family told me this armor posses the hearts and souls of everyone and that only one person who is able to achieve a higher status than themselves."
"A higher status than themselves?" Bell repeated. The words sounded strange to him.
"Anyway," Ryu closed the lid to the box. "You should probably get going with those boxes. Syr will be disappointed if it's not done and Momma Mia will be even more disappointed."
"R-Right." Bell sighed. "Wait! I have something to ask you." Bell suddenly remembered just as Ryu started walking up the stairs.
The elf turned around, her uncaring eyes focused on him as she waited for him to speak.
"I-I was wondering if you knew of anyway of leveling up fast?" Bell asked embarrassed.
"No." Ryu said before leaving.
Bell sighed once more after the door closed behind Ryu. "Some help that was." He quietly told himself.
As he began walking towards the boxes of food, his eyes caught onto the box of armor that he had accidentally carried. Looking around, he shrugged his shoulders and opened the box. Inside was a small breast plate that was dusty and needed a good shining. Underneath was a book in written in a strange language he never knew before.
As he continued to rummage through the box, a soft voice whispered into his ear. Bell jumped but assumed it was his imagination. However, the voice spoke again, a strange language he couldn't understand.
"What did you say?" He asked in the open. "Is anyone there? Ryu? Syr?"
Bell looked around the room before a small bluish purple light shined from inside the box, nearly blinding him. Bell looked inside to find the book had opened on its own and this time he could read the language clearly since it had changed to his own native tongue.
"Did this book just change?" He questioned.
"Bell…." The voice whispered.
"Who's there?" Bell asked, becoming a little more frightened.
"It is I, your friend." The voice said.
"My friend?"
"Yes…" The voice continued in it's soft spoken tone. "I heard your problem and I can help."
"Really?" Bell asked excitedly.
"Yes but first you must free me from this book?"
"Wait, why are you trapped in there in the first place?" Bell asked.
"Nevermind, just rip out two pages from this book and I'm free." The voice commanded.
"And if I free you?"
"Then I shall help you gain the next level." The voice said.
Bell took a moment to think about his decision. Something about this book was off but if it was bad Ryu surely would've warned him. Soon, without thinking, Bell found himself ripping out two pages from the book.
Suddenly a bright yellow light burst from the book and created a hole through the ceiling, destroying Momma Mia's resturaunt. A large pillar came crashing down as Bell jumped out of the way, leaving behind the book to be crushed as several more pieces of large wooden came falling.
Bell jumped all around until the rubble stopped falling. Just as he caught his breath, a ominous feeling overcame him as he turned around to find a young man standing in front of him. The man looked no younger than his early 20's and had white messy hair and yellow eyes. His choice of clothing consisted of a black sleeveless shirt and black pants with a long red scarf wrapped around his neck and waist.
The man looked at both of his hands, a feeling of excitement overcame him as he began laughing uncontrollably.
"I'm free!" He laughed. "After all these years I'm finally free!"
"Who are you?" Bell asked.
The man looked at Bell, a thought appeared in his head as he nearly forgotten about the adventurer that had released him from the book.
"I'm Kiiro." The man replied. "But you may call me your new ruler."
"New ruler?" Bell questioned.
"Correct!" Kiiro happily said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business to do."
"Wait!" Bell shouted before the man could take off. "What about my level?"
Kiiro looked at Bell, confused by his question before remembering what he said earlier.
"That? I lied." Kiiro said.
"What?" Bell sounded surprised.
Kiiro turned his back to him as he looked at the daylight that broke through the pub.
"Kid, this world is nothing more than a demon's world." Kiiro said. "And demons need to be free, but these animals called 'humans' are slavers and need to be put down."
"Put down?" Bell asked. "I-I don't understand."
Kiiro smirked before turning around and lifted his left arm as it began to turn black with spikes and a yellow glow began forming around it.
"Understand this kid!" Kiiro began chanting. "I am Kiiro, the Yellow Demon God, and I will destroy this world in order to free the enslaved creatures below the dungeon."
Before Bell could get any words out, Kiiro quickly rushed him, to fast for his eyes and slammed the back of his demonic arm against Bell's head, causing him to crash into the wall and cause the ceiling above to fall on top.
Bell dizzily looked up to see Kiiro mention something before jumping through the hole the light made. As Bell slowly tried standing up, his arm couldn't move as he attempted to push some of the collapsed pillars on top of him only have more land on top of him, knocking him out.
Hey there guys. Sorry this took so long to update. I recently, well not so recently now, lost my notes I had written for this story so I'm sorta writing from scratch. And to make matters worse was I had a huge writers block and couldn't come up with anything but after listening to some Japanese music as my source for writing, I managed to create a whole new plot line that will still center around Bell trying to win Aiz and level up. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and expect more next week hopefully. Heiwa!