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.
23: Captured
Normal POV
=The Knossos, 9AM=
There was no way in hell that Bell could dodge the incoming barrage of attacks from both Phryne and Dix. Two level 5 adventurers against one level 3 adventurer with level 4 stats that has been affected by two curses. It was a matchup from the bottom of hell.
Bell was littered with cuts and bruises from where the blades had either graced him or the dull end had hit him. Not only could he barely see 5 feet ahead of him since his brain pounded like an earthquake, but he also couldn't use his magic for anything. Hell even his Argonaut was sealed since it's part magic since it uses mind power.
Pretty much anything he could use to his advantage had been stripped from him, leaving him completely defenceless and alone.
Fels had recently left, Bell had given him the key to the knossos which meant escape was not an option. The only option he had left was to hope they would not kill him.
"HAHAHA, THIS IS FUN!"
"YEAH, SHOW THAT KID WHO'S BOSS!"
The other lower leveled adventurers cheered as the level 5 adventurers basically used Bell as a ping pong ball.
'Shit! I can't do anything' Bell was trying his best to keep conscious and wait out the effects of the curse since they can't maintain it forever. The only issue is that it was very implausible that he would be able to make it that long.
Meanwhile, on the 18th floor of the knossos, the Xenos had managed to get what they were after and after a short skirmish with the Ganesha familia, they managed to get away thanks to the utter chaos the Black minotaur known as Asterios managed to create as he mercilessly sent adventurers flying left and right.
"Come on! Let's head towards the entrance they were talking about!" Gros, the second in command, ordered as Lyd agreed and led the group towards the edge of the floor.
"LUMINOUS WIND!" The Xenos looked behind them at the loud scream just in time to spot the violent green and white light that spread out and converged at a central target. Some of the Xenos shivered at the thought of being targeted by that and just hoped that whoever it was that was targeted was alright.
Once they turned around again, in front of them, the black skeleton they knew as Fels stood there, waiting for them to approach.
Normal POV
=18th Floor, Near Rivira=
"In the sky of a now distant forest. Infinite stars scattered in the endless night sky" Ryuu, dodged the humongous double bladed axe of the black minotaur in front of her with so much force that she almost sent herself into a tree
"Respond to my foolish voice, give me now divine protection of starfire" She kept dodging, trying to keep the fight away from the unconscious Andromeda.
"Give the mercy of light to the one that abandoned you. Come, wandering wind, the wandering traveler" The black minotaur, rushed so fast forward that Ryuu barley had anytime to lean back on the ground to avoid one of his piercing horns
"Cross the sky and run through the wilderness, run faster than anything else" The minotaur managed to swing his fist back and nearly hit Ryuu, but she back slightly and used the momentum of his attack, to get high up in the air for a birds eye view
"Imbue the light of stardust and destroy my enemy. LUMINOUS WIND!" A lightshow of explosive particles of green and white light, appeared from seemingly thin air and propelled themselves towards the Black Minotaur. The attack forced the Minotaur to back up a little bit to withstand the force of it.
Once Ryuu landed, she looked forward where dust had clouded all view. Once it cleared, she spotted her enemy, with nothing but a few scratches from her strongest attack. Her eyes widened, this monster was simply too powerful for her to defeat. Her magic could barely scratch it and it was one of the long chanting ones.
The black minotaur charged forward once again, but this time was different. It almost seemed to be smirking, enjoying the battle. Was this Minotaur… no Black Bull aware of the battle? Was it fighting for the thrill of it? It almost seemed like it. Once she managed to scratch it, it was almost like it got excited.
The giant battle axe was sent down, plunging into the ground so fast and hard, that Ryuu only managed to dodge fast enough to save her arm, but the shockwave of the wind cut through her flesh and sent her flying through rocks and trees. Not only that, but the ground had cracked open, greeting almost like a small crater in it with pointy rocks peeking up through the surface at the edges of the crater.
Ryuu could not move, the force of the attack completely overwhelmed her and managed to inflict so much damage that her body had no strength left. As she tried to move, the black minotaur had walked up to her, holding his axe in his giant hand.
Ryuu thought that this was her end, that she had finally reached the point where she could no longer squeeze away to keep her life. That was until she was the black bull, instead of plunging the axe down at her, sheathed it on it's back.
"You are a worthy opponent, but you are not the one I am looking for" Ryuu's eyes managed to go wide at the Bull talking and the words it spoke sent chills down her spine. The Bull turned around and left, leaving her alone to her thoughts as she slowly used her Noah Heal on herself. Thank god that she was in a forested area, or it would take a lot longer.
Bell's POV
=Knossos=
I was barely standing up. The wounds that have been afflicted on me are causing so much pain that I feel like I would pass out any moment. It's honestly a miracle that I haven't yet.
"So you are still standing. I didn't give your endurance enough credit, Little Rookie" I could see his grin better than before, most likely since the effects of the curse are wearing off. I could even feel my body getting slightly lighter by the second.
Well, It doesn't matter. I have taken too much damage. Trying to fight back now would be futile, even with all of my remaining strength. The only question that I have right now is why they haven't finished me.
"Wh- Cough- Why haven't… you..- finished me?"
"Oh? Because where would the fun be in that youngster? I'm going to have fun with you back in the entertainment district. Normally you wouldn't be my type, but after I heard you managed to get away from Aisha, I just couldn't resist" The damn bowling head of a monster licked her lips disgustingly. I wanted to puke but refrained from it.
"Like hell… you-you're doing that" Phryne just laughed before she started moving towards me. I backed up slowly before hitting a wall. Before I knew it, she picked me up and turned around before walking away. The bleeding from my wounds were starting to get to me as everything was slowly getting darker and darker. I looked at a specific cage before muttering the name of the person inside
"Wiene…" Everything went black.
Normal POV
=Knossos=
"He's close ahead, I don't know what shape he will be in" Fels told the lizardman who was leading the Xenos and the reluctant Gros towards the chambers where he left Bell.
"Just wondering, Why are these doors opening? Could this be a trap?" Gros was very cautious of the situation because of his extreme disdain of the surface dwellers.
Fels pulled out a key "This right here is a key. Once it gets close to the door, it opens" Gros closed his mouth as they continued forward.
"It's right behind this door here" The door opened revealing the caged Xenos that were still there, the only difference from before is that there was blood spread around the room, almost as if it was a torture chamber.
"The Xenos are unhurt which means that this can only be the blood from Bell's fight, and since he is missing, it's probably his" Lyd and the majority of the Xenos became sad, showing it in their expressions
"Belluchi…"
"Don't worry, they didn't kill him. Otherwise they wouldn't have all left to dispose of the body. Also, take the opportunity to free the Xenos" Every Xenos that wasn't caged went to work, breaking the cages open.
After Lyd released a bugbear Xenos, he went to a cage in the back finding a certain Vouivre in it. He opened the cage by breaking the lock, walking up to Wiene and carrying her out of it.
"Bell… Want… to… help… him" She was clearly weak, drained from all strength, but was conscious during his fight since even in this state, she seemed worried.
Lyd walked up to Fels with the other Xenos once they got everyone out of the cages.
"Alright, good work. Now head back to the villages and lay low until we handle the Ikelos Familia" The Xenos started carrying the weak and turned towards the exit before Lyd asked an unexpected question that froze everyone on the spot.
"Fels… I want to know why Belluchi was here"
"..." A moment's pause "Bell was here to help free the Xenos. He knew about the Knossos and decided to help you all" Lyd seemed conflicted, almost as if he was deciding on something.
"What are you thinking Lyd?" He looked up before asking an unexpected question
"What is the Xenos' deepest desire Fels?" Fels seemed taken aback by the obvious question
"To go to the surface and see the sky" Lyd nodded
"Right now we have someone that has tried to help us, accepted us and even shook our hands in trouble up on the surface… and we will do what? Nothing?" The Xenos around him seemed to get conflicted as well
"I can't accept that, not only can we achieve our greatest desire, but also save the only human to accept us for who we are! I can't accept that we will simply not take that opportunity and also abandon him! How does that make us better than the monsters?" All of the Xenos looked at Fels, then to the stairs at the end of the room, previously obstructed by darkness.
Everyone put the weak back down in one side of the room before Lyd nodded at them before turning to Fels
"We are going up to the surface Fels, take care of these Xenos. We Will save Belluchi, no matter what"
"ARE YOU INSANE!? GOING UP THERE FOR A DAMN SURFACE DWELLER?" Gros screamed at the top of his lungs "AFTER ALL THEY HAVE DONE TO US?"
*Sigh*
"Gros, tell me. If we can't differentiate the surface dwellers that hurt us and the ones that help us, how are we different from them who can't see the difference from us and normal monsters?" Gros choked on his response before muttering a couple of curses.
"Alright, are you all ready?"
"Yeah!"
"Wait!" Fels voice came through, making Lyd look his way.
"It is most likely that Bell has been captured and only the soldiers here going to the surface isn't that great of an Idea. It would be best if you would be at your top strength to get the biggest chance of saving him and getting back safely, so maybe wait a day or two?"
Lyd thought about it for a couple of seconds before sighing once again.
"Alright, we can wait one day or two until we are back to full strength. Bring all of the Xenos back to the village on the 19th floor. We will treat them there" The Xenos all looked a bit sad but followed the order, carrying them out of the knossos with Fels opening the doors for them.
By the time that they reached the Xenos Village, the Ganesha Familia had already taken back control of Rivira on the 18th floor. Ryuu had recovered enough to help Andromeda who had come with her to help on the mission to retake Rivira but got injured.
" … what happened to the bull?" Ryuu looked to the side.
"I am afraid that it got away" Andromeda nodded before wearing a more concerned question
"Have you seen by any chance?" Ryuu's eyes went wide
"Cranel-san was here? I didn't see him at all" Andromeda looked towards the giant tree, wondering if Bell had succeeded or not. Had he managed to get out without being detected? Or had something worse happened?
Bell's POV
=Underground Hideout, Unknown time frame=
"Ughh, why am I always waking up like this?" I opened my groggy eyes and looked around, I seemed to be inside some kind of Cell, to the left of me were some empty potions. I did feel better than before, did whoever brought me he- No, Phryne heal me?
To the right were a couple of vials of Aphrodisiac that have yet to be used. Damn, I started to move around. I now recognized the cell that I was in as the one that Phryne took me to when she took me last time around. She also restrained me like last time, I may not be able to move my arms, but I could move my legs.
I kicked the wall behind me with all of my strength, hearing it crack a little. I did it again to hear a couple of peebles fall off. I looked down to see where they were located and positioned myself to take off my shoes.
Once that was done, I picked one pebble up between my toes, and flung it at top speed towards the containers, cracking two of the 4 open, letting the liquid spill to the ground, making it unusable.
Just one more now. I did the same thing, and hit one of the remaining two vials, but unfortunately, that meant that I had to crack the wall again since the other pieces were too far away to reach, and that would cause more pain than before since my feet were exposed and my shoes were too far away now.
I prepared myself and FUCK! The wall may have cracked, but my damn feet hurt like fucking hell! Once I looked down at them, I could see that I probably cracked the hell of them and caused some internal bleeding.
Shit, there goes my escape anyway. Either, way I needed to use the peebles that fell out now to crack the last vial, otherwise I am royally screwed.
I picked one up, even though it hurt like hell again and flung it, barely hitting the vial, but managing to crack it enough to slowly spill out from the bottom. That's good enough.
*Stomp* *Stomp*
I could hear steps coming, Shit! The vial wasn't empty yet. I picked up another pebble, and flung it full force at the vial, but missing completely. FUCK, ONE MORE!
I picked another one but missed again! NO, ONE MORE CHANCE.
Another one, and thank fucking god I hit it! The vial cracked wide open, sending glass shards everywhere.
"What the fuck was that?" Phryne's voice made me freeze up slightly, I lowered my head and faked to be unconscious. The door to the Cell opened, making a loud noise when she slammed it back.
"What the fuck is this? Why are all of the Aphrodisiac destroyed?" I could feel her death glare aimed towards me.
"Oy! Are you awake, bastard? I didn't move a single muscle, she pulled her fist and hit me on the face, nearly sending one of my teeth flying. I still didn't flinch, just dangled back and forth until I came to a stop.
"Guess not" The amazoness stomped out of the Cell cursing constantly until she was out of ear range.
I looked up at the chains that held me in place, alright, it seems that they are made of normal Iron so… Please let it work
"Heat Tempest" The magic wasn't at full power, but it was enough once I focused it by my hands alone. It melted the iron slowly, burning my wrists making me hiss in pain. It will certainly leave a scar.
Once the Iron melted I dropped to the ground and quickly got the remaining melted metal off of my wrist. I took a look at the wound, noting that it had burned through a little of my flesh, but not too much. A healing potion from Nazza should be enough to remove any possibility of infection.
I limped towards the door, activating my magic and melting it down, allowing me to escape through the same way that I remember Haruhime leaving with me last time. The tunnel was long and it would most likely be a long way until I get to any shop to buy potions for my wounds
Damn that wall for being so hard, if only I could hav- Wait! Why the fuck did I not use my magic to fling the vilas into a wall! I'm an Idiot!
Normal POV
=Top of Babel Tower, One hour earlier=
"My Lady, it seems that the boy had been captured by Phryne Jamil. Allen managed to overhear Ishtar Familia talking about it. From the sounds of it. It has been a while since it happened" The goddess of beauty looked down towards the disgusting soul that she remembered was Phryne, walking closer towards the Pure starfire one that she has come to love with cold eyes.
"Tell Allen to assemble the troops. I don't care if it's Ishtar's doing or not, but if one of her prostitutes touches my toy, then I will have no mercy" Ottar nodded and left to follow his goddesses wish.
"Ishtar, you have finally crossed the line in your little game" She stood up, taking one last look out towards the city. Locking her eyes back towards the young white haired boy that was currently underground.
"I'm coming, my love" She turned around, and left with a small smile of anticipation on her lips
That's chapter 23 Hope you all enjoyed. I haven't really got much to say, so let's jump right into the Review responses.
Rambukala: Congrats on reaching 100k Words!
Author: Thank you! But the story is far from complete, I actually think I have to readjust my estimate of how many chapters there are going to be. It's going to take quite a while to get to the end phase.
Ca1piggy: lap pillows are not distractions but the ultimate prize!
After the lap pillow main event, fels probably the one to let the cavalry in in the form of the xenos to help. presume he has the key.
but for Freya to get involved, it looks like Bell needs to get captured or sort of get captured. hard to believe another xenos trip to the surface happening.
Author: 'The Ultimate Prize' What are you going on about? When you have a story that will most likely be really long, using time on the lap pillows will just make the story unbearably long!
Unfortunately, no Cavalry in time, with all of his tricks compromised, there was nothing Bell could do so he could not even buy time. You were right about Fels having the Key though.
Well, Freya is getting involved, after all, no matter how 'womanly' she is. She is itching to fight Ishtar and get rid of her. This is kind of an excuse. Also the Xenos trip to the surface is happening.
141: Gotta admit, this is quite surprising lol. Dix and Phyrne double teaming Bell? Chaos it is. Still, wonder if Thanatos and Valetta will get involved as well. Not to mention Ishtar's Bull of Heaven (that demi spirit i think?) considering how messed up the timeline is now in the story, chaos seems bound to happen. Really looking forward for the next chapters here
Well, they are working together, so why not double team? Anyway, sorry to say that I have no plans to include Thanatos and Valetta in this story as well as Ishtar's Bull.
Ohhh yeah, chaos is happening alright, we're just at the beginning and things will spin out of control real fast.
Temsen: Why do I think the vial is going to hit Ais...?
Oof. That escalated quickly. Two level 5's and a magic debuff. He'll need some reinforcements, Asterius maybe?
Author: ehhhh, About that Vial and Ais…
Yeah, the magic debuff/Curse is kind of Bell's big counter. He uses a lot of mind power and the magic debuff generally disrupts an adventurer's usage of mind which is something Bell uses a lot.
Unfortunately, you won't see Bell meeting Asterius just yet.
JintoLin: So the time has finally come that the timeline got fed up or just annoyed with the many changes that happened which is why you don't want to advance things too quickly or "this" happens (Or because of plot reasons). I do hope Bell can get out of this with as little collateral damage as possible
I often see people mention this grammar what is that? :P If there are big mistakes i never noticed them OR you have an amazing Beta that fixes all of it before hand
Glad to see Bell be able to escape from Aisha and her crazy group thou Lena was one of the side character i did like but was good to see Bell give Haru much needed hugs
Author: The timeline is fed up alright. Time really doesn't like changes and just goes berserk after a while.
Well, Bell got out of it with barely any collateral damage… except for being captured and getting his ass beaten.
When it comes to grammar. I don't have any descent from an english speaking country and learned everything I know from my school, but I have to say that I take pride in that I am pretty good at English, managing to get a B in IGCSE English, first language from Cambridge university. Also, I do have someone that reads through my texts, but they usually don't find any big mistakes. Just small ones that help make the text feel more flowing and natural.
DeathLock: wow it's amazing how you managed to keep bell just as beta as canon , well done dude, i just don't get why the whole "he snapped out of depression and cruelty of the death of his soulmate in 1 year(bs)" if u wanted him to still be a beta , and what's up with the inconsistency this chp...his "daughter",that u obviously used to make the plot harder{by kicking her back to her hole in 2 days "cuz he just cant protect his own daughter(bs again)", is in mortal danger but he decides to just be a beta and chill for hrs with someone he could have saved at anytime...and that is just this chp, is so artificial when u already was making it look natural with the dungeon, so why…
Author: I understand how you feel. I am still relatively inexperienced in writing plots, and all I can try is to make everything feel as consistent as possible. Bell did leave Wiene in the dungeon because he couldn't protect her on the surface. Sure Bell ca almost anyone, but imagine having to fight multiple familias at once with a bunch of level 5 and 6 adventurers. It would be impossible. In his situation, there really was no winning.
Also Bell has seen so many timeline changes that he didn't know who to go to. Haruhime or Wiene, with Haruhime being closer. Anyway, this is really good feedback on my storytelling and will probably help me with getting my future stories more consistent :)
That's all for the reviews and I hope to see y'all next chapter!