Post-posting note: Thanks Golden Nova for helping me realize a major loophole in this story. I completely forgot about the fact you needed to have a Familia's blessing to have Falna and gain Excelia. so the bottom part of this chapter has been re-written.
Welcome to a new chapter Guardians! Sorry, the wait took so long. The plan is to update this story twice a month, so look forward to that later at some point. Thanks also for all the reviews and follows! In this chapter. Matt meets world. I hope you all enjoy and I hope everyone is staying safe in these trying times!
I don't own Destiny or Danmachi!
Without further ado-
The Light below chapter 2
"The recruits have no excuses. Look at you! At what one Guardian can do, with nothing but their Ghost, their weapon and their Light." – Lord Shaxx
- Northern Plains -
Matt groaned as he sat up and rubbed some dust off the visor of his helmet. He stood up and stretched out his limbs before taking a moment to look around the crater that he had created on landing. The hole must have been at minimum two-hundred meters across and about 15 meters deep. The trees that were visible at the crater's edge had also been signed, and he could see that there was a trail in the dirt where he had slid when he landed.
He sighed as he remembered the events of last night. The last thing he had heard was the voice of a Vex he thought long dead before he was launched to this location. He recalled calling upon Thundercrash to land safely as he was approaching the surface at a breakneck velocity.
Matt quickly summoned up Charles to double-check that he was still in touch with the Traveller. Charles appeared in a blink of dust before looking around the crater.
"Well, Matt. You always do have an impact."
Matt chuckled at the Ghost's greeting
"You think anyone would have noticed?" Matt responded
"What? No way." The sarcasm dripping off Charles was hard to miss.
They both spent another moment looking around the crater before deciding they needed to find out where the Vex had deposited them. Charles vanished back into his Guardians mind as Matt jumped out of the crater before him, and Charles spent a moment looking at the landscape that greeted them.
Matt found himself standing on the lisp of the crater, which was high up on a mountain.
Rolling green hills off in the distance intertwined with cliffs. Fields and rivers scattered across the landscape. On the edges of the horizon, he could also make out extensive forests. One thing that immediately caught Matt's attention was a dark shape rising up into the sky.
He couldn't get a clear enough view, so he pulled out his Whisper of the Worm to get a better look. The 4.5x magnification on his rifle certainly helped. It looked very different from anything else he could see. It had a structure to it and distinct shape. It was most definitely created by something or someone.
He put away whisper as Charles' appeared once again.
"Guardian, I have performed a preliminary scan of this planet's biosphere, and although similar to Earth, I'm detecting no traces of the Travellers light or the Darkness here." This comment caused Matt to stop for a moment and turn to his companion.
"Then how are you still functioning?"
"I don't know…there seems to be a strange sort of energy in the air that is powering you and me."
Matt grumbled to himself. If Charles honestly didn't know something, then they were in deeper shit than Matt initially believed.
"Guardian, I believe the best course of action would be to reach that structure and see what we can find out and where exactly we are."
"I agree. Charles, bring out the sparrow, and we'll get moving". Charles obliged and vanished into Matt's head before summoning the Tilt-fuse sparrow.
The green and black sparrow materialised before Matt. He hopped on and proceeded to speed down the hill towards the town he saw in the distance, leaving behind the crater from his impact.
- Orarian countryside -
The river water was kicked up, and critters in a nearby field were startled as Matt sped across the landscape at over two-hundred kilometres an hour, cutting a path through the countryside, he was determined to reach the settlement by nightfall.
The problem was the rugged and untamed terrain made sparrow riding dangerous; there were times where Matt had to hop off the sparrow and run. Chasms, dense woodland and cliff walls often proved themselves a worthy adversary for Matt. Even with his Lion Rampant boots on, and his enhanced mobility, Matt still ran into issues at times, and it took some unique problem-solving at times to get around such obstacles.
Matt thought it was comparable to that time he had acquired Risk Runner after Cayde had passed on, or when he had to try and scale the cave walls during Last Wish.
As Matt continued to speed across fields, Charles was continually updating him on the situation they were in. So far they had found out they also had no satellites in orbit anywhere, no transmissions incoming from Rasputin. Charles couldn't even find a trace of any technological disturbances in the air, apart from that false Light that was interfering with his systems earlier.
Matt looked up into the clouds; he could see the suns golden rays set the sky alight, the warmth of the colours around him, serving to calm him. He needn't panic. Matt and Charles had been on other such wild journeys and done things unimaginable to the ordinary person. If they had to spend years if not decades stuck on a planet trying to find their way home, then so be it. His Titan brother in arms Saint-14 had done it, who's to say Matt couldn't?
Matt punched the accelerator on his sparrow once again and lost himself to the power of the vehicle. He couldn't lie to himself, Matt was actually a little excited. He hadn't been in a situation like this in a long time, and he was hoping his new adventures here would be a joyous one.
- Orario East gate -
Matt had been standing under a tree that was a couple of hundred meters away from the city's walls for an hour now simply observing the caravan parties and people who entered the city. He had arrived here earlier on the sparrow and dismounted once he noticed the increase in farmland and was clearly close to civilisation and he didn't want to risk scaring any locals away with the sparrow. Judging from the archaic-looking directional signs and flagstone road, Matt could have guessed he wasn't exactly in a very developed country.
As Matt walked just off the edges of the road, he had found, he began to notice more traffic picking up, and It was all coming from or going towards the city underneath the giant spire. He had gotten within view of the city's walls and decided to wait and see what customs were here before making a rash decision.
From what Matt could see There were merchants, people with weapons (Who Matt assumed were this worlds guardians) and only people doing their rounds.
Regular guard patrols created a sense of safety for the people entering the city, even if at times there were queues created which stretched on for hundreds of meters. One other important factor that Matt noticed was that everyone had to pay a toll. Ranging from a few coins made of what seemed to be copper, all the way to sack's of gold coins.
Matt decided that he had enough of watching. He pushed himself off the tree and started walking towards the gate, with legendary shards in hand. Matt hoped they would take this as payment. The last thing he wanted to do was start a conflict with the guards. It would only end badly for them and the city.
Jorgen had been a city guard for years now. He had fought bandits, weaker monsters from the countryside, he had argued with merchants and adventurers from all over and seen more shit in his life than most people inside the city would've.
He hated this job most of the time; it was a pain in the ass for people like him. Most people were entitled and continuously believed that they were right. What made him stay in the job? People who were ex-guardsmen always asked about what made him stay. Jorgen's answer was still the same.
"Stories", The stories of all the different people he had met, stories from different walks of life, areas of the world. They always enthralled him, and he loved hearing new stories of amazing adventures and tall tales. He was still on the lookout for people who looked like they had stories to tell.
So when he saw a figure approaching out of the darkness of night, with armour that was glowing. He was immediately interested. Obviously, the city came first, however, and it was his duty as a guardsman to protect the city form any unknown beings who would do it harm.
He alerted his fellow watchman to get and get help in case this thing was a threat. He lowered his spear ready for anything, determined to do his job.
As the figure got closer, Jorgen got even more nervous. He could see much more clearly what it was. It was something in a suit of armour. However, the suit was unlike anything he had seen before.
Glowing wings adorned its helmet, and they were regularly cycling between Orange, Purple and Blue. He also had wings coming off his pauldrons, cycling through the same colours as his helmet. Golden and white plates made up the chest plate, gauntlets and leggings. A black undersuit was visible beneath the armour that it was wearing.
It was already a very imposing figure, but as Jorgen continued to examine the thing, he noticed just how gigantic he was. The figure stood well over two meters tall, closer to three actually.
It stopped a hundred meters from the gate.
Jorgen lowered his spear. The tip pointed towards the creature. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as he stared right into the creatures visor; it made no response.
Footsteps and clanking armour came from behind Jorgen, and he quickly turned his head to see his fellow guardsmen coming with spears and swords. It didn't make him feel any less nervous.
The tension in the air was thick, and neither party made a move or advancement towards the other.
Matt decided to be the one to break the silence.
"Greetings!" He called out. Jorgen and the other guards all looked at each other with confused looks on their faces.
"Can you understand me?" Matt hoped they could. Otherwise, this was going to make his life a lot more complicated than it was already going to be.
The guards, once again, only stared at him and looked even more confused.
Matt raised his hands up in the neutral gesture of surrender before pointing at the city gates. 'For the love of god tell me they understand this.'
The original guard Matt had first seen looked at him before looking back at the city, and he proceeded to lower his spear.
"Charles, when we get inside the city, see if you can try and find out what language they speak," Matt told his Ghost.
The guard spoke briefly and swiftly with each other for a moment before one of them motioned to follow. As Matt walked past the guards, he could feel the nervousness from them, and when he entered the gates, he turned around towards the original to guardsmen and flicked two legendary shards at them, before following the guard who'd signalled him.
Jorgen looked at the purple crystal that the stranger had given him, and it glowed in the torchlight the same way that the stranger's armour had, seeming to emit it's own warmth and light occasionally. He had never seen a crystal-like this before.
He pocketed the crystal after observing it for a bit longer. He could take it to Hephaestus Familia and have it appraised at their workshop, but until then he still had a job to do. Looking to where the stranger was being taken to, he knew one thing for sure. The guild was going to have their work cut out for them.
- Orario inner-city -
Matt had been led through the city, for quite some time now. Charles had been trying to decipher the writing on signs and through the few people that he heard talking, but without a more solid base for the language, it was a struggle.
While Charles was doing that, Matt was idly thinking about everything that he had seen so far. Shops, taverns and motels remained open this late. People lounged on benches around and strolled through the streets, Food stands were selling all kinds of goods he hadn't eaten or seen since before the Red War. All the noise and relaxation stopped, however, when he seemed to walk by. His mere presence seems to cause discomfort for most of the people they walked past.
Untrusting looks and pause of chatter. Maybe it was how large he was and the armour that Matt currently had equipped (He told Charles no need to be extravagant, but the little Ghost had insisted on first impressions being important. Hence the solstice armour he was wearing)
Perhaps his light just caused people discomfort as it was an unfamiliar presence in the air around him and if Charles was correct, might interfere with those who could use the unknown essence in the air.
Whatever it was, Matt knew for a fact that the eight guardsmen walking around him probably reinforced the idea he was something dangerous.
The escort he had eventually stopped in front of a stone brick building which had colourful banners hanging off it. The lead guardsman gave one last look at Matt before signalling him to enter.
Then they left. Matt stood there looking at the doorway before deciding it was the best course of action to do what the cities authorities had told him too.
He pushed the door open and entered the large building, and he took a step inside. The moment he did, a young child with silver hair and red eyes bumped right into Matt's heavily plated thigh. The boy stumbled backwards and fell over before he looked up at the enormous armoured figure before him with wide eyes. Matt quickly reached down and held a hand out to the person he had knocked over on accident. The person on the ground cautiously accepted Matt's offer, his hand encompassing the child's own before Matt yanked him to his feet. He gave the boy a nod before continuing into the rest of the building.
Once Matt was inside, he looked around and saw that he was in some kind of office or bank, people handed crystals into the tellers and received gold in return.
'Actually Matt I think this might be a bounty hall, I've had enough time to decipher the language, and it seems to be a variation of Japanese, the pre-golden age version. I'll need some more writing to fully figure it out, but that shouldn't be too hard once I do'. Charles projected into his mind
Matt had to take a moment of pause to think about that. A pre-Golden Age language? That was unexpected. Matt chose not to dwell on it. Although it intrigued him, best leave the job of wondering about things like this to the warlocks or his Ghost
Someone coughed in front of him to gather his attention, and he noticed he was still in the doorway, he moved aside once again, clearing the way for people. Back in the tower, he was tall and broad even for Titan standards, some had theorized his origins to be that of a golden age bodybuilder, but Matt had never really figured out what his actual roots were.
A brown-haired girl with glasses and elf ears wearing a suit walked up to him and asked him a question knocking Matt out of his stupor. Matt just tilted his head to signal confusion and shrugged with his shoulders. The girl sighed before running back behind the counter and procuring a book. She waved at the sofa's nearby and Matt got the idea she wanted him to sit down with her.
As he sat down on the green sofa, he could hear it creak under his weight, but it held firm. Matt looked back up at the girl who sat opposite him, and she smiled nervously. She opened the book for him to see, and it appeared to be a story of if the pictures were anything to base that idea of. Matt quickly let Charles materialize into his hand before the Ghost scanned the book flipping through the pages to make sure nothing was missed.
'Alright Matt, I've mostly figured out the language, I'll translate everything through our neural link'. Matt blinked as the new language became clear to him. The written characters making perfect sense to him. "The things the traveller can do…"
"Pardon me?" the girl across from him asked. Matt didn't realize he had said that out loud.
"Apologies, I was just thinking about the story in the book" even though Matt spoke in English he knew the other parties were hearing his voice in their language. The girl winced as he spoke. A Titan's voice did have that effect he supposed.
"Now then Miss, what were you asking me earlier?"
"Wait, you can now understand me?" The girl looked at him, confused.
"Yes, my little companion has helped translate the language for me." Charles materialized in Matt's hand again before giving the girl a polite bow and vanishing again.
"Well, I asking for your name, sir." The girl responded in kind
"Ah, my name is Matthew 'Wayfarer'."
"Wayfarer is your last name?"
"No, it was a moniker given to me by my old comrades, but it has stuck ever since. Although I prefer to be called Matthew." The girl acknowledged this with a nod and wrote something down on a small scroll that Matt hadn't seen her procure.
"Well Mister Matthew, I am Eina Tulle, Half-Elf. Your presence has caused quite a stir in Orario. When a guardsman comes to the guild telling us about a powerful unknown at the gate, you immediately sparked interest within most of the pantheon" Matt looked at her slightly confused
'Pantheon? Elf? Charles did that translate correctly.'
'Yes it did Matt, it seemed I would have some more reading to do if that pantheon is the same one we are both thinking of.' The amount of pre-Golden age terminology being used was definitely surprising to Matt.
'Just where did the sundial send me to?' How he wished Saint or Osiris were here to explain this to him.
"Apologies, my presence tends to do that to the normal citizen" Matt gave a neutral response.
"Yes, well, the guild has an offer to you," she stated.
"An offer? Explain."
"The guild would like to appraise your strength. We cannot check your level as that would require our god's blessing, which isn't something that we give out so easily. However, the magic that can be felt coming from you is different from most other Adventurers who have come to Orario and we would like to see why."
"Light" Matt quickly interjected.
"Pardon me?" Eina looked confused
"Your term for magic, It's called light to me, and I would prefer it to be referred to as such" Matt looked through his visor dead into her eyes. He was rarely serious, but in his world, Magic was used to refer to the evil actions of the Hive and their gods. To have his light brought to there level was an insult to the Traveller.
"Sorry your Light, but the offer remains the same"
Matt thought about this for a moment, he had no idea what levels were or Adventurers, although, he could probably make an educated guess. If they wanted to see his light...
"I will accept this on two conditions." Eina's eyes sparkled, she might have just come across the deal of a lifetime. She wasn't lying about what she said earlier, how his power was different. Even she could feel the pure unadulterated Magic that rolled off Matt.
"I want access to a library after you have appraised me". Elina looked at Matt with a poker face.
"That is all for the first?"
"Yes, I do not care so much for materialism; however, my companion seeks knowledge." Elina thought for a moment before responding.
"The second condition?"
"My powers remain strictly confidential to the guild unless I willingly show others"
"Very well, give me five minutes then I will come back to get you for your appraisal."
Elina quickly dashed off back behind the counters until she was out of sight.
Matt let out a sigh as Charles voiced his concern on Matt agreeing to such terms.
'Matt I don't think revealing our power so early is a good idea, what if they use the knowledge of your light with bad intentions.'
'Charles, they are going to find out sooner or later, and besides, you said you wanted more written material, didn't you?' The Ghost had to concede that point. He had asked, and Matt had delivered.
'Just be cautious Guardian.'
'Always Charles.'
Elina came back approximately five minutes later along with lots of other guild staff and started ushering everyone out of the guildhall. No matter the party. Even Ais's party was told politely to leave temporarily. Ouranos had strictly ordered no one was allowed in the guild building until the appraisal of Matt was finished.
As groups were lead out, they all looked at the three-meter tall giant in suspicion. Matt could easily overhear whispers from them but chose to ignore them. What others thought of him he didn't care for as much as he used to. Constant berating from the Last City's citizens had hardened his outer shell to verbal taunts.
"New…venturer'
"Rich…noble"
"level…"
Matt closed his eyes again, waiting until it was his time to be called on.
Elina eventually delivered, and soon the guildhall was empty. She wasted no time leading Matt down a staircase at the back of the hall to which he found himself in a large empty room with training dummies at the back. The size of the room was similar to a gymnasium back in the old Earth schools. It was just him and Elina in here as well. Matt looked at the dummies before realizing what he wanted Elina to do.
"I assume those will be my targets?
"Yes, demonstrate your strength and do not worry about holding back, they have been woven with mithril thread as has this room. They are almost unbreakable"
'Guardian, any ability you use will be enough to destroy those, my scans have shown that mithril is extremely strong, but not strong enough for your light.' Charles whispered into his ear
Matt nodded before letting out a long deep breath before letting out a whisper. "Strive for honour" Elina turned to him curiously, she could see Matt raised his left hand before a blinding bright light caused her to shield her eyes. He finished his cry "STAND FOR HOPE! CODE OF THE AGRESSOR!" and a wave of energy was released. The battle cry was never necessary when he called upon the travellers light, but he knew it inspired courage and hope in whatever allies he had in battle. It had become a tradition to him decades ago.
High above the room in the city of Orario. All of the gods felt the wave of power that pulsed out from the guildhall. Some of the weaker gods like Hestia shivered, while gods like Freya merely looked towards the building in interest.
Elina however, was much closer to the source. The wave hit hard and caused her to stumble back and fall against the wall where she collapsed. The energy was so pure and strong, like the gods itself, to be in its mere presence caused her to feel nauseous. When she was finally able to open her eyes once more she could see Matt was stood in place glowing dark purple with a shield in the left hand.
"Now Miss Elina, witness the power of a Guardian." With that said Matt threw his Sentinal shield at the first of the three dummies, instantly he threw out his second shield at the second dummy. The moment his shield's collided, they ricocheted off the targets and completely annihilated the mithril reinforced dummies. Matt's light died down and the shields vanished as the air returned back to normal, Matt stood there staring at the area where the targets once were before he slowly craned his head down to look at Elina."Elina, are you alright?" He reached down to pull her up, but she rejected his hand and stood herself up, propping her shoulder against the wall. Matt could see she was still sweating profusely.
"I...I..I'm fin-fine" She stuttered out, still refusing to look at Matt.
"Take a deep breath and calm down" Matt instructed her.
Elina took a second...or ten to calm herself. When she stood up and patted herself down she turned to talk to Matt.
"I just simply wasn't expecting that much power. I haven't sensed that much in...well forever really" she let out a deep breath thinking about what she'd tell the guild master. She probably wouldn't need to say much, Elina was sure that Ouranos felt it.
"Well Mr Matthew please make your way up to the reception area again I will see you shortly" Elina gave a polite bow as Matt left.
When Matt was back up in the lobby he brought out Charles, he had a question in his mind. "Charles, why did she react so violently? The citizens of the city never had that reaction"
"I believe it's because of the Last City's location. Under the traveller it's power is constantly flowing and as such, I imagine the humans on Earth built up a sort of immunity to it"
Matt let out a lopsided smile at his companion. "Well, they better start getting used to it. I get the feeling we are going to be here for a while"
Charles simply tipped his shell in agreement.
Elina came out not long after. After a couple more minutes of small talk, Elina gave Matt a few gold coins and told him that it was getting late and that if he wanted a place to stay, The Hostess of fertility had good rooms and food. There was also a small library which is what he wanted initially.
Matt thanked Elina before heading back out form the guildhall on his way to the Hostess and resigning himself to a long night of study with Charles.
Elina slumped against the closed guild doors, calming her nerves before going to see Ouranos.
When she opened the door to his chambers, the god looked at her expression with worry.
"I assume you felt it?" Elina asked her god
"Yes, I thought you were joking, but no." Ouranos said to her seriously.
"We need him in our Familia, we are looking at a potential level 10"
Post posting note: Fixed up the end of the chapter and the appraisal scene! hope you enjoyed the change, sorry for the massive mistake!
Huzzah! Matt's first level eight or nine or ten in Danmachi's history (which isn't surprising considering he has slain literal gods by himself!) Some of you might be against how OP he is. To that, I say 'Tough.'
On a side note, Charles learning the language instantly is in fact, cannon as in the destiny game and story we see that the ghosts often act as translators for languages like the Hive texts. Seeing as Japanese is just a Golden Age language, our Ghost would have nearly no problems distinguishing it.
Also, masterwork solstice armour is impressive, but the cycling of colours is due to how strong Matt is and how he has an affinity with all the subclasses (Which are even stronger now the air. is full of potent mana)