Danmachi: Heroic Will
Rated; M (Blood/Gore)
Disclaimer; I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Ōmori, all rights go to him
Summary: 8 Years after Bell Cranel becomes an adventurer, everything he has built as well as love has fallen after the mysterious awakening across the globe. As a final resort he managed to travel back in time to right before he started his march to the great city of Orario to become an adventurer. Follow Bell Cranel as he fights for a future where everything that he holds dear may survive and faces supposedly impossible odds to achieve his goals.
18: Revelations
Bell's POV
=Dungeon Floor 19=
"Wiene?" My voice sounded fragile, as well as disbelieving. This couldn't be possible, could it? She looks just like she did in the future, but that means she is early. Shit, my intuition about time speeding up seems to be more and more likely. The Spells descriptions from Kentaro Ayers did state that time was fragile, yet defensive. Maybe this is what they meant. Time may change, but it also fights back, trying to mitigate your efforts. So now I have a new enemy, both the damn Kyros as well as fucking time itself.
I mentally shook my head, I will have to think about that later. Now I have to deal with the unbelievable situation in front of me. Wiene, alive and well before she's supposed to be born.
Said girl, just looked confused before trying to back up. I reached for my belt as she made a wailing sound as if she thought I was going to attack. I simply pulled a healing potion from my pouch and pulled my hands up in the air.
"Hey, hey, I won't hurt you. This here" I showed her the bottle of health potion "This is a health potion. I'm just going to pour it on your wounds, that will heal them, Okay?" Wiene seemed to calm down.
I started pouring the red liquid on her wounds, causing them to emit steam as Wiene winced. She looked up at me and opened her mouth, at first she just made weird noises before words came through.
"H-w-wh-why a-ar-e yo...you help me?" I am going to have to teach her how to speak again. Anyway, taking her back down to the village is out of the question, once I left the village, the hole in the water closed. It usually does that until morning, and I can't stay on the 18th floor until then with her. Someone will surely find out about it. I also can't enter the knossos since I don't have a key currently. That only leaves going all the way back to the surface, like the first time. Sigh, seems like I will have to repeat how I handled this situation like last time huh?
I looked down on her wounds, noticing that they were already healed. Damn these potions that Naaza gave me for the war game are the real deal.
"Hey, Wiene. I'm going to have to take you to the surface, Okay?" The addressed girl just looked confused
"W..wh-o i-s Wien-a?" Wiena? Seems she got her name wrong.
"Well, it's Wiene, with an e at the end, and it's what I call you. In other words it could be called your name if you like" Wiene looked ecstatic.
"M-my own nam-e!?" I laughed "Yes! Wiene is also an incredible name, it really suits you" She smiled, seems like she also warmed up to me a lot faster, most likely because I helped heal her, something I didn't have to do last time.
It was at this point that Wiene seemed to catch on to what I said earlier "THE SURFACE!?"
"Oh now you can talk?" I muttered "But, yes, there is no other place I can take you currently, is that fine by you?" She nodded vigorously "Alright, here and don't you dare take it off. It will keep your identity hidden from other adventurers. This is for your own safety, otherwise others would attack you without a second thought, alright" Once again Wiene nodded as I gave her the salamander wool that I had been wearing.
We started continuing forward, avoiding monsters as much as possible, as well as adventurers. Boy, am I going to have a fun time explaining this to Hestia, It sure was fun last time.
We managed to get all the way back to the upper floors by at least 12 PM, for some reason, the dungeon wasn't as active during the night and no one knows why.
By the time we reached the 8th floor, Wiene started to try to talk to me.
"W-w..wha-t is you-r n...ame?" She finally asked huh? "Bell, Bell Cranel. By the way, if you don't want to be called Wiene, that's fine even though it's a beautiful name" Wiene looked up with shining eyes, and shook her head
"No, I wan-t to be ca...l-led Wien-e" We both smiled as we started light conversation as Wiene slowly got the hang of talking again. Once we reached the surface it was completely empty, either everyone was asleep or in the entertainment district. I looked towards the tower again, 'I promise Haruhime, I will save you'.
I was brought out of my thoughts by Wiene tugging at my arm cutely, looking up through her hair and hood, gazing in wonder at the night sky.
"It's beaut-iful" This is one thing I will never get enough of around Wiene, her childish nature when it comes to the surface. In a way, Wiene has always been like a daughter to me, someone I care for deeply, practically raised, as well as I would lay down my life for her.
"Come on Wiene, we need to get home. I'm probably going to get an earful from Hestia and Lili" Wiene cocked her head to the side
"They are part of my Familia, it's like a family and they are probably worried for me" I answered the silent question.
Wiene nodded as she followed me towards the Hearth Mansion, trotting while gripping my sleeve.
Bell's POV
=Hearth Mansion=
I opened the door, and stood still, waiting for it. I could already sense the danger from simply walking inside. The aura that Hestia was emitting was so ominous that I honestly just wanted to run, but I had to face it. I took one step inside before I was tackled by said goddess.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Her ear piercing scream, startled Wiene as she whined and crouched on her knees with her hands to her ears. Hestia slowly cracked her neck as she stared at her, before looking back at me with anger in her eyes.
"YOU WERE WITH A GIRL!" She probably didn't see that Wiene wasn't really the type of 'Girl' that she meant since she was looking down, causing her hood to hide all her features.
"Well, It's more complicated than that Kami-sama, she" I pointed at Wiene as she looked up, causing Hestia to gasp "Is something you would call an intelligent monster" Hestia looked at me as if I was insane. "Intelligent monster huh? What's next? A Loki with big boobs?"
"..."
"..."
"Well… Asfi could probably arrange that" Lili, who had just arrived, giggled at that, before morphing into an angry face.
"Do you know how long me and Welf stood at the plaza waiting for you, and you were with a girl!" I laughed
"Like I said to Hestia, that's no ordinary girl, She's an intelligent monster" I turned to Wiene "Could you close the door and pull off your hood?" Wiene did what I asked
"Why don't you introduce yourself?" Wiene walked up to me holding my sleeve shyly causing Hestia and Lili to growl. Honestly, I never understood how humanoid beings could create such sounds.
"My… Name is Wi...Wi-ene" Hestia's mouth dropped to the ground, Lili seemed to have lost consciousness standing.
"She… She just talked, how the…" I sheepishly smiled at them "You see, she is able to communicate as well as choose if she wants to attack or not. She has emotions, just like us"
Hestia seemed to shift entirely and decided to be a good host or something while giving me a look that made me know I was in trouble now. The look was a silent message, 'We need to talk'
"Hello, Wiene. My name is Hestia, Bell-kun's goddess" She walked up to Wiene as said dragon girl hid behind my back, just peeking out her eyes at Hestia.
"Seems she is quiet attached to you Bell…" Lili seemed to have woken up.
"Yeah, that may have something to do with me saving her from slavery from some adventurers"
"Slavery?" Shit…
"I will explain later, guess it's better to get it out there, sooner than later" Both nodded as I led Wiene to my room, knowing that she would not sleep in any room except for mine.
It caused some debate, but once Wiene had made it clear that she would only sleep in my room, both overprotective girls seemed to give in. After we made sure Wiene was comfortable in my bed, we walked into the large meeting room where all our meals took place and sat down. Me at the center with Hestia and Lili at the sides.
"Explain Bell-kun… NOW!" I sighed, I was about to start before Hestia interrupted "I want to know why you know so much more than you should, all these moments where you make a face where you look like you have been caught stealing a piece of candy" Wait, is she talking about those times I slipped up?
"You clearly know more than you should Bell, for example, you knew what a conversion was while you had only been in Orario for 2 weeks" Lili took the next point "You know too much about monsters as well. I have peeked at your journal. The descriptions as well as monsters you had written down at the time were monsters we hadn't even encountered"
"Also, here is the kicker, every ability you gain, you already use like you have mastered it before. No one is able to do something like that, I mean, you had your new 'Heat tempest' magic for a day and you used it expertly, without any mistakes. Also, with almost everyone you meet for the first time, you act as if you have known them for ages!" Shit… this is not good. I was fidgeting right now, knowing that at this point, I had to tell them, but I couldn't let it spread around. That would cause a mass panic, and honestly, I don't think they are going to believe me.
Well, never hurts to try.
"Kami-sama, Lili, It will take some time to explain, and honestly, I don't think you will believe me, but please, beat with me" Both Hestia and Lili nodded, waiting for my explanation.
"As you both know, my name is Bell Cranel, but I am not the Bell Cranel that I am supposed to be" Now both of them looked confused "I am Bell Cranel, but from 8 years from now, from a time where literally everything has gone to shit"
"Gone to shit? What do you mean?"
"Let's just say that the dungeon showed it's fangs… across the entire world. It produced monsters so strong, that only me and at a bare minimum a high level 6 could fight them. Because of this, Orario was completely decimated, people were slaughtered by them, Lili, Welf and three others where killed by them too" Just reliving these moments were bringing tears to my eyes
"We… were killed?" Hestia asked
"Yes, the entire Hestia Familia was slaughtered by them, everyone except for you and me. We were all forced to escape through tunnels underground that connected to the knossos, an artificial dungeon. That allowed us to escape and run away from these monstrosities, but the only people who survived were the Loki Familia, Ottar, Hestia and me" Their showed sadness.
"Bell-kun" I looked at Hestia "How… How old are you?" I looked down "22 years old, almost 23" A Gasp came out of Hestia's mouth
"So this event happens 8 years from now?" I shook my head "6 Years from now, we managed to survive in the wilds for 2 years, exploring new land, and eventually discover the secret to time travel using S-tier Mystery magic from a master of the type called Kentaro Ayers"
"Is this why your stats are so unbelievable?"
"Kind of, The skills and development abilities seemed to have leaked from my previous timeline, while my status was completely reset"
"What Level were you?" Okay, I was actually kind of interested in their reaction to this.
"Well… I kind of broke all records" Hestia and Lili looked confused
"Just tell us!" Lili looked annoyed
"Alright, alright. I was at the top ends of Level 12" Both of them just froze, looking at me without uttering words. Time almost stopped for these moments"
"Level… 12, that is 3 levels higher than the most powerful adventurer that has ever lived who was a level 9 in the Hera Familia" I chuckled "I know" I pulled a serious face "But it still wasn't enough. Those monsters were incredibly powerful, the weakest were estimated to be level 7-8 while the strongest level 15" Hestia gasped for what? The millionth time.
"I was chosen to return here because of my Liaris Freeze, which is what allows me to surpass anyone" It was Lili's turn to be confused
"Your what?" Right, she doesn't know… "Well, Lili, I have a skill called Liaris Freeze that basically makes my growth ridiculously fast. It's the reason I grow so much faster than everyone else" Lili just made a giant 'o'.
I turned back to Hestia with as menacing of a look that I could give, and it clearly worked since Hestia paled
"You can NOT, I repeat, NOT go around and spread this. That would cause a mass panic and people would just make the same mistakes over again" Hestia impressively hid herself behind a flowerpot. How she did it so perfectly, is completely beyond me.
"I am doing everything in my power to prepare us for the Kyros, the monsters that came from the dungeon. I am not only preparing my level but I am also preparing others, Like training Ais, bringing you and Welf deeper and Deeper, getting our old… my old familia members back.
"Who are they?"
"Well, you know one at least two of them, Welf of the Hephaestus Familia and Ryuu of the Astraea Familia, the other two are Mikoto of the Takemikazuchi Familia, and Haruhime of the Ishtar Familia" Both nodded
"As I said earlier, don't spread this around. Right now only members of the Hestia Familia may know of this information" Both nodded slowly understanding my reasoning from earlier.
It was quiet for at least 5 minutes before Lili decided to interrupt it "What should we do now?"
"Handle the mess that is about to come with the Intelligent monster, but they are called the Xenos" Both nodded
"The main enemy is going to be the Ikelos Familia since they are trafficking monsters out of the city as toys. The intelligent female monsters are being trafficked as sex slaves, especially the cute ones like Wiene" The thought disgusted me, for how many good people there are in the world, they are always outnumbered by the scumbags.
"Anyway, I will handle the first couple of moves, I will have to talk with Ouranos, I can easily sneak in there without anyone knowing. It's about time he also found out about the situation, as well as getting him to work with me" Hestia screeched "Getting Ouranos to work with you? That's a task that is impossible"
"Nope, happened previously when I dealt with this issue, also Ouranos is already working with Hermes and Ganesha. Why do you think that Monsterphilia exists? It's to create a more animal thinking view of the monsters to very slowly making them more accepting of them until they can introduce the Xenos to the public"
"Oh… that actually makes a lot of sense" I chuckled, I looked at the time, it was already 4 PM, I needed to get to sleep.
"Kami-sama, we have to get to sleep, the sun will rise in an hour or so and I haven't slept since last night, she nodded as I moved to walk out of the door. I stopped "Kami-sama, I'm sorry that I lied to you, but I had no way of knowing if it was safe to tell you" She just nodded before I left.
I walked into my room before sitting down on my bed, I looked towards the quiet whimpering behind me, remembering that Wiene was sleeping there. She seems to have a nightmare. Probably about those adventurers today. I pulled myself under the covers and turned her around. I hugged her as she squeezed my shirt. I could hear the whimpering getting louder, as tears started coming out of her eyes
"Shhhh, it's alright. You're okay, I'm right here" Wiene, who was still asleep, gripped even harder and pulled herself as close as she could to me. I tightened my arms around her in a protective manner, to most, this would seem like the actions of two lovers, but in reality, it was the actions of something akin to Father and Daughter.
As the whimpers completely ceased, I cursed the Ikelos Familia and swore to destroy every last one of them for daring to do this to Wiene. As I stared out into the still dark night sky, Sleep was slowly taking a hold of me. Knowing I didn't have long til I would fall asleep, I looked down at the now peaceful Wiene, smiling into my chest. I smiled back as sleep finally consumed me, sending me spiraling right into the world of my dreams.
That's chapter 18, I hope you all enjoyed it. The mention of this Kentaro Ayers will be explored more in the Prequel, I am still planning it, but I got a basic idea on his role in my AU. Anyway, I will jump right into the Reviews.
141: Great Chapter as always. I didn't notice any typos this time which is very pleasant.
Now, I'm quite intrigued with your idea of mixing the xenos arc and Ishtar familia arc, though won't that mean involving Knossos and Evillus as well? Might get a bit complex there.
Personally I would be very interested if you manage to include the melen arc, since Bell will get some eye treats lol (Or perhaps teaching Ais how to swim lol). Though i guess even if you include the melen arc, it probably won't be a joint attack of ishtar and kali familia since ishtar will be dealt in this xenos arc?
Speaking of the xenos ishtar arc, if Bell does fall from grace again (due to the xenos fiasco) won't that impact negatively with Loki familia's invitation for Bell to join the expedition? Like they might doubt Bell or something (hopefully not too bad though) or unless the fight with Asterios might save the day again (well, I'll just look forward to whatever you have come up with I guess).
Also, I'm quite happy that the lap pillow finally happened, the lack of reaction was of course understandable given the circumstances. Hope to see more of their moments in the future chapters of course.
As always, keep up the good work. Looking forward for the next chapter.
Cheers.
Author: Yes, it will involve the Knossos and Evillus as well which is the main reason this arc will be so much longer than the others. Well, your voice has been heard, I will squeeze in the Melen arc right after the 59th floor expedition since that's around the time it happened if I'm not mistaken. The thing you mention about the impact to Bells reputation having negative consequences, it sure will. Also the events of this chapter may also have some negative Impacts.
Ca1Piggy: something seems inconsistent. He has been sparring with ais for a week, but his stats went from 0 to 200 points per category in the update sheet.
you did not give us the emotional response for the lap pillow, uggggg! Bell did not even pet ais' hair!
I have to say the xenos are the least favorite part of the danmachi lore.
Author: Since I cleared up the misunderstanding with Ca1piggy with PM, I will address this response to anyone who feels the same. Bell has been sparring with Ais Since chapter 11. Between chapter 11 to the start of 15 is around 1 week. Chapter 16 to the beginning of the 17th chapter was 1 day, at the end of that day he gained around 200 points in every category meaning he gained that in one day after his level up.
Also the Lap Pillow is meant to not have a big reaction because of Ais still not being that emotional, she is still socially awkward and has the 'I don't give a shit' look.
About the Xenos being the least favorite part of the danmachi Lore, I know that well but at this point, Danmachi won't be Danmachi without the Xenos. Also that is your point of view that many share, but I actually think that the Xenos are interesting, and I plan to expand about it too.
1995hzq: Weine came early, that's nice. Squeezing Ishtar arc and Xenos arc together, like the sound of that. Can't wait for it. Also can't wait for the expedition.
Lastly, has Ais fought the Udaeus already or it didn't happen yet? And the incident in the 24th floor pantry, where Ais and Hermes family investigated, and fought Olivas and Revis? Will Bell be included or has it happened already?
Author: Yes, Ais has already fought Udaeus, I did mention it that Ais solo killed the boss on the 37th floor in one chapter, while the rest of the Familia tried to handle all of the Variant which I will get back to in this Arc.
Yes, the incident on the 24th floor has already happened, I didn't really mention that but anyway, it definitely has happened.
Thank you all for your Reviews, and if anyone has anything they would like to ask, please Review and I will answer the questions as well as I can without spoiling too much.
Hope I see you Wednesday and have a nice day!