A/N

To address a couple of reviews:

afreask: No Aiz isn't pregnant, that was covered in the first chapter. If you remember, Riveria gave her some special tea to stop that from happening.

A couple of you really didn't like Emma's skill, one person even calling it retarded. Heh. Well, I didn't make it up, it's on the Wiki if you want to look. Also, you don't know what or how I'm going to deal with it. As you find out in this chapter, Emma's skill has consequences.

Aiz's love awakens chapter 28

Emma held up her hand.

"FIREBOLT!" She screamed at the top of her voice.

The massive beam cannon that was Bell's Argonaut enhanced firebolt flew out of her hand instantly vaporising Goliath.

Emma didn't get to see what happened though, the power was far too much for her to control, the brightness of the firebolt instantly blinded her. Her arm snapped upwards as the recoil from the attack hit her. The electric blue flames of the firebolt carved a massive chunk out of the dungeon. It had penetrated the end wall above the ramp to the eighteenth floor, destroying it completely so that once everyone could see again, they had a perfect view of the forest and crystals of the eighteenth floor. As her arm shot upwards, most of the ceiling was carved away opening up to the sixteenth floor above. The recoil tore her arm backwards, dislocating it and breaking several bones as it twisted unnaturally. Emma flew back into the wall with an almighty smash cracking every bone in her body. She dropped down to the floor, unable to support herself with her broken limbs, coughing up blood as she fell. After a second, she passed out with a mind down. The pink glow vanished around her and Bell as his status was returned to him.

"EMMA!" Primo screamed, having been standing behind the girl at the back of the room, she had seen Emma fly back impacting the wall with an explosion of dust and rock.

"RYU! CHECK EMMA! I'LL CHECK BELL!" Lili shouted knowing that Ryu was the only person on the team with the ability to heal with magic.

"Right." Ryu responded to Lili's order, running over to the fallen girl as quickly as she could.

"You back with us now Bell?" Lili asked as she looked down at Bell who was still lying at her feet, only to find there was no response from him. His eyes were closed and he looked rather pale.

"Shit." Lili muttered as she bent down to check his pulse.

"Thank the gods." She felt overwhelming relief as she placed her fingers on Bell's neck finding his heartbeat was as strong as ever. She pulled back his eyelids and seeing Bell's eye's rolled back, confirmed that Bell had suffered a mind down as well. Checking him over, she couldn't find any injuries on him whatsoever. Bell seemed fine, just deeply asleep.

"This is bad." Ryu muttered kneeling next to Emma as she checked her over. Primo stood next to the twisted and crumpled heap that was the new Hestia Familia member.

"Is she… is she still alive?" She asked in a quiet voice, dreadfully concerned for her friend.

"Yes, but treating her will be difficult, we can't move her with all these broken bones."

Emma coughed in her sleep, more blood coming up from her internal injuries.

"Not good." Ryu muttered again. She knew full well they could not give Emma a potion in her condition. Her limbs needed to be splinted and the bones set correctly, if she was given a potion at this moment, her bones would not set correctly and she would be crippled for life, her limbs deformed.

However, if her internal injuries were not treated soon, she would die from internal bleeding.

"The song of a now distant forest. The nostalgic song of life. Please bring the mercy of healing to those that seek you. Noah Heal!" Ryu quickly chanted her healing spell, concentrating the magic only on Emma's chest and stomach, willing her magic to heal inside her, while not effecting her broken legs and arms.

"Haruhime." Lili began shouting orders again as she dropped her backpack and began rummaging through. Lili kept everything that could possible be needed for an adventuring team in the dungeon. Splints and bandages to bind broken limbs were a given in Lili's collection. "Give Bell a mind potion, see if you can get him to wake up."

"Yes Lili." The golden haired Renard replied, pulling a high potion from her belt.

"Welf, Mikoto, guard the entrance and keep an eye on the ceiling, we don't want monsters dropping onto us right now."

"Gotcha." Welf replied and moved to guard the entrance from the sixteenth floor.

"Yes Lili-dono." Mikoto responded instantly to her orders, standing with her back to Welf, keeping a wary eye on the hole in the ceiling above.

The only reason Emma had survived the violent impact with the wall was due to the fact she still had Bell's status until the moment she passed out. His overwhelming endurance stat was the only reason she wasn't a bloody pulp of mangled flesh that it should have been.

"What's her status?" Lili asked as she ran to Ryu carrying the splints and bandages.

Ryu almost had tears in her eyes. Each of Emma's limbs were broken and twisted in ways that the human body was never meant to be.

"I don't know where to start." Ryu said with tears in her eyes as the green light of her magic glowed over Emma's chest.

Lili winced as she got closer and saw how mangled Emma's limbs were.

"A high potion first." Lili said as she pulled one from her belt pouch. "She might die from a mind down, considering what just happened." She tilted the girls head back and massaged her throat as she poured the potion between her lips.

"Good, she swallowed. At least her body is responsive enough. Roll her onto her back, then we straighten and splint her limbs."

Ryu nodded and gently rolled Emma over trying to avoid causing any more injury to the poor girl who was lying half dead in her arms.

Lili shuddered as she tried to straighten one of Emma's legs out. The bone had shattered completely, making the limb move like jelly. It was an unnatural sickening feeling making Lili want to throw up as she did her best to heal the girl.


"What the bloody hell was that?" Bors shouted at the top of his voice. He'd been sitting with Mord that afternoon, enjoying a quiet drink of the honeycloud mead that was brewed in Rivira. They were both sitting at one of the outside tables in front of one of the tavern's in the dungeon town when a giant flash of light illuminated the floor followed a second later by a tremendous explosion.

"That was Bell's attack." Mord replied with a frown, having witnessed Bell's Argonaut attack several times already. "But that was out of control even for him. Crap, there might be trouble Bors, I'm going to check it out."

"Ill gather up some lads and follow you in a moment." Bor's replied as Mord stood and ran to the entrance of the floor.

"Right." Mord nodded back. "This could be bad, bring the best you have."


"Master Bell, please wake up." Haruhime was almost crying, Bell was completely unresponsive. She knelt with his head in her lap and stroked his hair, trying to hold back her tears. She had given Bell two high potions, but apart from swallowing them, he didn't respond to her at all.

"Welf? How's it looking?" Lili did not take her eyes from her task as she asked and straightened and splinted Emma's other leg.

"All quiet, no signs of any monsters." Welf replied, keeping his eyes alert as he guarded the entrance.

"Good. Ryu, head to the town and see if they have any stretchers or a litter, we need to get them off this floor and down to the eighteenth as quickly as possible before any monsters do decide to show up."

"Understood." Ryu replied stoically, she had done all she could with her healing magic for now. Emma would live, but to repair her broken limbs would need professional care on the surface, before any further healing could be performed.

She took a quick glance around, making sure everyone else was OK before standing and running down to the next floor.

As she hit the ramp, she was surprised to find Mord standing there looking at the destruction with awe, his mouth open wide. There was no wall above the entrance any more, vaporised by Emma's attack. His head stretched up and up as he took in the sight, realising that the entire chamber had been blown away and standing at the bottom of the ramp, he could see all the way up to the sixteenth floor.

"Mord!" Ryu called out snapping him out of his shock and awe.

"Huh? Aren't you the Elf girl from the pub?" He asked with a tilt of his head. He wasn't sure though. He hadn't seen Ryu since she had joined Hestia Familia, all the time he had known her, her hair had been dyed green as part of her disguise as she hid from bounty hunters who were after Gale Wind.

"Yes, but that's not important right now!" Ryu responded with an exasperated voice. "Bell's down, we need stretchers, right now!"

"Bells…. Down?" He asked with confusion. That didn't make any sense, Bell was level seven, the whole city knew that, everyone had witnessed him go toe to toe with Ottar. Nothing should be able to take Bell down. Mord couldn't understand.

"Bell… Cranel?" He asked, his confusion confounding him.

"Mord!" Ryu shouted, she almost wanted to slap him.

Mord shook his head and looked at Ryu, seeing the urgency in her eyes.

"Right. We have some back at town, come with me."


Aiz blitzed her way through the dungeon at record pace, enhanced with her tempest she swept through the dungeon like a literal hurricane. Small tornado's were left in her wake as she ran as fast as she could. There had been no sign of Hestia Familia anywhere as she dropped down through the floors. Every time she came across a party of adventurer's she would stop and question them for a moment. But very few she encountered were returning from the lower floors, most hadn't seen Hestia Familia at all that day.

She finally encountered three hume bunnies on the tenth floor and stopped briefly to ask them too.

"Ahhhh!" Kaede jumped as a green whirlwind suddenly stopped right in front of her and a golden haired knight in silver armour appeared in her vision.

"Hestia Familia? Bell Cranel? Have you seen them?" Aiz almost demanded in her desperation.

"Y-Y-Yes!" Kaede answered nervously, standing before her was the legendary sword princess, Bell's girlfriend. Just like all first class adventurer's Aiz's aura exuded the power of her level six status. Kaede was rather intimidated by the desperate girl standing in front of her.

Aiz grabbed Kaede's arms. "When? Where?"

"F-f-f-f-fourteenth floor. About six hours ago, they saved us from a monster party, they were heading down, but there was some kind of explosion in the dungeon a few hours ago, it shook the entire floor we were on."

"Thank you!" Aiz said briefly, before wrapping herself in her wind again and vanishing from the three girls sight.

"She looked worried." One of Kaede's friends said as the sword princess vanished.

"I hope Bell's OK." Kaede replied, she really wished she had her Bell plushie with her at that moment.


Aiz stopped for a moment and looked around in awe as she saw the destruction of the chamber containing the wall of sorrows.

"Looks like Bell was here. I don't know anyone else who could have done this. But why? This was overpowered and out of control. That's not like Bell at all."

Frowning at her confusion, Aiz swiftly concluded that although Hestia Familia and Bell had been here recently, it was obvious they were not any more. She glanced once again at the damaged walls, seeing where the dungeon had naturally began to regrow itself. Judging from the pace of the regrowth, this had happened only a few hours before.

Still, with no sign of Hestia Familia except for the destruction, Aiz wasn't sure what to think. There were no bodies or equipment lying around, Aiz could be sure that they had survived whatever encounter they had. She did grow a little worried about the size of an impact creator on the back wall though. It was obvious someone had been thrown hard into the wall. She frowned again seeing that. She knew Goliaths strength and it wasn't enough to cause that level of destruction. Fear rose in her again as she looked, even Bell would have been injured being struck that hard. She desperately hoped that he was OK.

She turned and ran down to the eighteenth floor, wrapped in her wind.

The first place she checked was the Loki Familia camping ground, she knew that Bell knew about it and he might have led his party here if some of them were injured.

Night had fallen and the eighteenth floor was dark, but the camping ground was deserted, no sign of anyone. Aiz was sure now that something had happened to them, there was no way they would have continued further into the dungeon, especially since they had intended to return that evening. She needed information and needed it fast. There was no way the people of Rivira wouldn't know what had caused the destruction of Goliath's chamber. Since there was no wall between the seventeenth and eighteenth floor right now, every adventurer on the floor must have seen and heard what happened.

She ran to the town as fast as she could.

"GAH!" An adventurer who was guarding the entrance to the town shouted out loud as Aiz dropped from the sky and suddenly appeared before him. Rivira had taken to posting guards for the town after the attack by the Xeno's. The intelligent creatures were still not public knowledge yet, very few knew what had actually happened and since Rivira had almost been destroyed twice in the last few months, the town was very wary. Hashana had been murdered by Revis, Violas had attacked and the town was mostly destroyed by magic. After rebuilding, the Xeno's had attacked. Rivira was very much on edge for the last few months.

"Hestia Familia! Have you seen them?" Aiz shouted at the poor guard, now very desperate.

"Villy's inn. They carried two of them here on stretchers." He replied quickly overcoming his shock when the sword princess suddenly appeared before him.

"Thank you." Aiz said briefly, before leaping into the air again.


The door to Villy's Inn burst open with a bang as Aiz flew through it entering the tavern that was carved into the rock of the eighteenth floor.

She glanced for a second then let out a cry of relief as she saw Welf, Mikoto, Lili, Ryu, Primo and Haruhime all sitting around one of the pub tables. She immediately noticed that Bell wasn't among them.

She took the few steps towards them then slammed her hands down on the table.

"Bell. Where is he?" She demanded.

"He's fine Aiz." Lili replied to the girls obvious relief. "He suffered a mind down, that's all. He's asleep in his room."

Aiz's hand clutched at her chest as she let go of her grief and worry.

"Thank the gods." She muttered quietly. "What happened?"

"We found out what Emma's skill does while Bell was fighting Goliath." Welf answered her. "It transfers someone's status to her, she went mind down afterwards so we don't exactly know what happened. Bell lost his status and couldn't stand up due to the weight of his armour. Emma…" Welf shook his head and trailed off. He had never seen anyone quite as injured as the poor girl was now and live.

"Emma used his Argonaut skill." Ryu continued speaking for Welf. "But she couldn't control it."

"Yes. I saw the damage to the wall of sorrows." Aiz replied.

"Emma's in a bad way. Lili is surprised she survived." Lili continued. "We would have brought her back to the surface right away, but Bell went mind down too. We thought it best to let him recover before we tried to return."

Aiz let out a sigh. She didn't need to worry, from what Hestia Familia were saying, Bell was fine.

"Where is he?"

"Come with me." Haruhime said standing up. "Ill show you."


A week later…

Emma finally began to return to the waking world. She had been asleep with a mind down for a week solid, with no sign of her recovering at all. As her mind finally began to waken, like all people waking from a deep sleep, she only began to feel sensations first. She felt uncomfortable, her limbs were cramped due to lack of movement. Instinctively, she tried to roll over in her sleep and get more comfortable.

"Uhhh…" She moaned quietly as her mind began to wake up faster, now quite aware that she couldn't move. Her eyes flickered open and she tried to look around, only to find she couldn't even move her head. She glanced around for a moment to find she was in her bedroom at the Hearth Mansion. It was mostly dark, only a single magic stone lantern lit the room and it was turned as low as possible. She could just see enough of the window to see it was night through a small gap in the curtains.

As she struggled to understand what was going on and why she couldn't move, her last few waking moments started to come back to her. Watching Bell fight the Goliath. Taking his status, picturing a hero then…

"Firebolt!" She remembered screaming firebolt, but then everything went black.

Her eyes began to get used to the dark after a few minutes and it became easier to see everything in her room.

As she glanced around, she saw Primo curled up asleep at the bottom of her bed, just below her feet. Hestia was sitting in a chair next to her bed, also fast asleep, drooling into … She gave a double take for a second. Hestia was hugging a Bell body pillow. Emma had no idea such thing existed. Now that she could see, she looked down at herself, trying to understand why she couldn't move. She quickly found her answer, her entire body was in a plaster cast. Her arms and legs held in position with wires hanging from a frame around her bed, her neck braced so she couldn't move her head.

But more important that an of that she was desperately thirsty.

"Goddess." She croaked quietly. It was difficult to talk, her mouth was dry and it felt like her tongue was made from sandpaper.

It took a half dozen more attempts at calling Hestia before the little goddess finally began to stir.

"Hmmmm…?" She turned in her sleep for a moment, but rolled onto the floor landing on her Bell body pillow with a thump.

Luckily for Emma, the sound of a goddess falling on the floor was enough to stir Primo, who sat up with a yawn, rubbing her eyes and blinking like an owl in the dim light of the room. Emma felt her stir on the bed and called out as loudly as she could.

"Primo…" She croaked quietly.

"Emma?" Primo asked, still half asleep, then the reality hit her and she was instantly awake.

"EMMA!" She shouted at the top of her voice.

"Water." Emma croaked again.

"Right!" Primo responded, trying to hold back her tears. Naaza had explained that it was difficult to keep someone asleep for this long adequately hydrated. All the Familia had taken shifts looking after the girl for the last week, so Primo knew what to do.

Next to the bed was a jug of water and a soft sponge. Stepping over the sleeping goddess on the floor, Primo soaked the sponge and held it up to Emma's lips.

"Gently." Primo said quietly as Emma sucked on the sponge pressed to her lips. "Drink slowly. If you drink too fast your body can go into shock and die."

Naaza had been very insistent about making sure everyone in the Familia understood this. Treating someone recovering from dehydration like this had to be done very carefully. The bodies balance was delicate, if too much water was taken in too fast, it would upset the level of … Primo frowned as she tried to remember the word Naaza used. Electrolytes she recalled after a moment. Naaza had explained that it was the level of salts in the body. Rehydrating someone like this had to be a careful balance of salty food and water. If they drank too fast without replenishing the lost electrolytes, the body would go into shock and die.

Emma tried to nod as she sucked on the sponge, but her head was restricted by the neck brace. All she could do was make a "Hmmm." noise to respond.

Primo couldn't hold back the tears now. "You have been asleep for a week Emma." She said between gentle sobs. "I wasn't sure you would ever wake up."

"Neither was I." Hestia said as she peeled herself off the Bell body pillow and looked up at Emma lying on the bed.

A relieved smile covered her face. Neither Hestia nor Primo had left Emma's side for the last week. The rest of the Familia had joined in shifts, relieving the burden by caring for the girl while they slept or rested, but Hestia and Primo never left the room.

"Welcome back Emma." She said, standing up, giving the girl a reassuring smile that everything was OK.

"Bell…?" Emma asked weakly. The last thing she remembered was Bell struggling to breath at her feet as he described how his Argonaut skill worked.

"He's fine." Hestia replied, placing a hand on the girls cheek. "They are all fine. Your the only one we are worried about."

Emma closed her eyes in relief for a second a slight smile appearing on her lips.

"Still thirsty." She croaked again. She spoke a little louder now that her mouth had some moisture in it and didn't feel like sandpaper any more.

"Only a little more for now." Primo dipped the sponge in the water jug again, soaking up some more of the liquid.

"Take it slowly." She said gently as she held the sponge up to the injured girls lips once again.

Remembering Naaza's instructions, Hestia stood up.

"Primo, give her a little more water, Ill go and get the rest of the stuff Naaza told us about."

"Yes Goddess." Primo said with a serious expression of concern on her face.

"I'd give you a hug, but…" Emma said weakly as she looked at her suspended limbs and body cast.

Primo gave a relieved smile. The fact that Emma had tried to tell a joke almost broke her heart. She had been so stressed and worried for her friend over the last week. Naaza couldn't say how long it would take her to recover. Bell had been fine after a good nights sleep, but he had only lost his status on a temporary basis. Emma as a new adventurer had a massive shock to her system. Bell's body and mind had time to get used to each level up, time to adjust and understand the difference's such power brought. Emma had instantly become level eight having only had a Falna for two day's, overloading her mind and body with a power she couldn't control. Once Naaza had heard the story and understood, she said that it was impossible to know how long Emma would sleep for or if she would ever wake at all. What Emma had done was unprecedented, Naaza had never heard of anything like it before. All she could do was reassure everyone that her body was healing and there would be no permanent damage. Working with Airmid they had managed to set her bones, but this had required several operations over that week. Each limb needed to be cut open so that the twisted and smashed bones could be put back together. The surface wound was then closed with a potion, but the damage had been so severe that Emma would need to heal naturally. She would need to spend another six weeks in the body cast and would have to take it easy for another month after that before she could do anything strenuous. She wouldn't even be allowed to train, the risk of breaking the newly healed limbs was just too great. Naaza had reassured the Familia that when it was time for Emma to have the body cast removed, she could then drink potions to speed the recovery of her injuries, but that wouldn't help with the muscle atrophy that would be the result of not moving for six weeks in a row. Emma would require the next month after to gently build her strength up again until Naaza was satisfied that she would not injure herself in training or joining the Familia in the dungeon.

"More water?" Primo asked, but Emma had already fallen asleep again.


A few hours later…

Emma began to stir again as the bright light of the room rose her from her sleeping state. As her eye's flickered open this time, she realised it must be day now as the room was bright with sunshine. Her curtains were open illuminating the room and a soft warm autumn breeze gently tickled her face from the open window.

It was a nice way to wake up she thought for a moment, before realising again that she was in a full body cast and couldn't move.

"Your awake." She heard Bell's voice and swivelled her eyes to look at him, sitting next to her on the chair she had seen Hestia asleep on earlier, his trademark smile on his face.

"How are you feeling?" He asked gently.

Emma gave a slight snort of amusement at Bell's question.

"Peachy." She rasped with a dry throat, a small smile on her face.

Bell gave her a grin, pleased that she could display some humour despite her terrible condition.

"Water, please." She asked quietly, frustrated that she couldn't move any part of her body.

Bell nodded and dipped the sponge into a jug before offering it to the girls lips.

Emma sucked on it for a second.

"Taste's funny." She said weakly.

"It's a mix of salt and sugar in the water, Naaza said this was best for you."

She tried to nod, only to once again find she couldn't move her head, instead she simply accepted Bell placing the sponge on her lips again and sucked on the fluid.

"Do you remember what happened?" Bell asked gently, as he pulled back the sponge and dipped it in the mixture again.

"Yes…" Emma began to slowly reply. "Everything up to the firebolt, its all blank after that."

Bell nodded and held the sponge to her lips again.

"The firebolt you launched was more powerful than you could control." He began to explain to her what happened. "You destroyed the Goliath then carved a massive hole in the dungeon. It broke through to the eighteenth floor and all the way through the ceiling to the sixteenth. You didn't expect the recoil from the attack though."

Bell frowned at himself for a second. This was his fault, at the time, wheezing on the floor struggling for breath, he hadn't thought to warn Emma to brace herself for the power of the attack.

He shook his head at disappointment in himself.

"You flew back into the wall, which is why your so injured. Naaza says you will be fine, but your going to be resting for a long time. She said that almost every bone in your body was shattered at the impact."

"How long?" Emma asked as Bell went to dip the sponge once more.

"Six weeks in the body cast."

Emma groaned at his reply. She had only been awake for a few minutes but not being able to move was agony for her. Six weeks stuck like this? It sounded like hell.

"Then another month recovering. Your muscles will waste away a bit over the next few weeks. Naaza says when she can remove the cast, you will be very weak despite having a Falna. Your bones will be fragile and it will take some time to gather your strength again."

"I won't be able to train?" Emma asked, disappointed that she would be out of action for so long. Despite the rather catastrophic end to her first time in the dungeon, she had rather enjoyed her experience. Watching Bell and the rest of Hestia Familia fight together had been awe inspiring, she wanted to catch up to them as soon as possible.

"No, not until Naaza says your OK." Bell said with a shake of his head.

Emma let out a gentle sigh.


Over the next few weeks, Hestia spent most of her time in Emma's room caring for the girl. She mostly spent her time reading to Emma as the only thing the poor girl could move was her eyes, she had to be helped with everything.

The worst elements Emma found to the recovery process were the fatigue and boredom that came. Fatigue due to the immense stress on her body meant she could fall asleep at any time, simply exhausted. Hestia had gotten quite used to Emma randomly passing out as she read to her. The boredom came from the frustration of not being able to move or do anything for herself. However the whole Familia made an effort to keep her as comfortable and entertained when they could. Haruhime would read Hero stories to her, Bell would tell her the same stories, but they were always different. Sometimes just in subtle ways, others were radically different. Especially the Argonaut tale, Bell's version was very different from the official one. When Emma asked why, Bell explained that he only knew the stories his grandfather had taught him as a child, but he didn't know why they were often different from the ones printed in the Dungeon Ortoria that Haruhime read from. Hestia, Emma found to her amusement had a real thing for romance tales especially tragic ones or ones about forbidden love. A particular favourite of hers was about the forbidden love of an Elven princess and a dwarf warrior who had saved her life. That particular tale had both Hestia and Emma in fits of giggles, until things began to hurt to much from laughing so hard that she had to get Hestia to stop and let her get her breath back. Overall, she got to know the Familia very well during her period of recovery, hearing their past's and more detailed accounts of the dungeon adventures they had been on. Primo came every day after a trip to the dungeon, excited to tell her friend about the adventures she was missing.

Overall, Emma thought as she slowly healed, despite the condition she was in, she knew she would recover and was glad she had joined this small Familia.


As Emma healed over the next few weeks, Bell continued his training regime with the rest of Hestia Familia, especially concentrating on Primo and her magical skills. He was pleased to see their rate of growth. Just like Lefiya, all they needed was solid training and a good push. It certainly seemed to Bell that his goal of getting everyone to level three by the end of the year was possible.

He had a small argument with Hestia one evening, when he refused a status update as he wanted to slow down his rate of growth. The argument hadn't lasted long though. Hestia had been quite explicit when explaining to Bell exactly what she saw whenever he got a status update. There wasn't a chance in hell that she would allow him to go several months without one, as she was not going to sit through months of bedroom antics with Aiz in one sitting. Bell would be getting daily updates whether he liked it or not. He had finally relented when she pointed out he would be earning excellia regardless and all deferring an update would do was disguise his progress. There would be no difference between daily updates with small progress or monthly with big jumps, in the end it was all the same. The only difference was how much Aiz and Bell love Hestia would have to sit through in one sitting.

Accepting the fact that he would grow rapidly no matter what he did, Bell decided to spend some time concentrating on training Aiz and Ottar.

Ottar had quickly agreed to joining Bell and Aiz in training in the dungeon. He had been stuck at level seven for over seven years now and despite maxing out all his stats, he had yet to find a fight worthy of a level up. Bell's rapid growth and his desire to kill the one eyed black dragon with Aiz had inspired the giant Boaz. A new found passion for adventuring had awakened in him after his fight with Bell, he was almost, not quite but almost happy to watch Bell surpass him as they trained with Aiz in the dungeon.

Every two weeks the trio ventured to the thirty seventh floor and spent hours fighting in the colosseum until the knew they were facing exhaustion and would fight their way out while they still had a chance.

Today happened to be one of those days…


"FIREBOLT!" Bell roared vaporising four Peluda's that had just finished spawning in the room. He wasn't really fighting for himself though, he was watching Aiz and Ottar's back's as they fought in the centre of the room. He had already exceeded the skills needed to survive fighting in the colosseum, he could solo it all day without breaking a sweat, especially with his stupidly overpowered magic. He was only there as backup in case Ottar and Aiz got overwhelmed.

Ottar and Aiz stood in the centre of the room, attracting as many monsters as they could. Bell simply kept watch, bouncing around and herding the monsters towards them. He would only intervene if a serious threat occurred. A Peluda's spine could be fatal for any of them still, despite their high resistance stats. His main job was to deal with them before they had a chance to attack the pair fighting in the centre. He would keep an eye on the pair though, ready to jump in at a moments notice if either of them got overwhelmed.

Both Aiz and Ottar were having a great time though. Ottar knew this wouldn't be enough to push him to level eight, but he also knew that he would need help if he wanted to take on Balor again. He still wasn't strong enough to solo the giant beast, but was beginning to suspect that Bell already was. Aiz's own level six stat's were raising quickly too. Being pushed by Bell like this was exactly what she needed. Despite the rest of her Familia being there to help her train, she needed this extra hard push to force her to grow and she knew it. Every time she fought in the hell-scape that was the colosseum with Ottar at her back and Bell bouncing around like a ping pong ball, she had a massive grin on her face. She was fighting with the two strongest men in the world and they were both pushing her, encouraging her to get stronger. It was exactly what she wanted, what she needed.

She had just finished off a group of Obsidian soldiers and was taking a moment to recover her breath before the next wave of monsters approached when Bell dropped in front of her unexpectedly.

"We need to get out of here now!" He said with an urgent voice.

"Ottar!" He shouted getting the Boaz's attention, he glanced over his shoulder at Bell for a second as he cut a Lizard man elite in half.

"Something big is coming, we have to leave now!" Bell shouted over the din caused by the monsters all around them fighting.

"Understood." Ottar replied and the three started to make their way to one of the bridges to exit the colosseum.

"What is it Bell?" Aiz asked as she began to clear a path through a group of skull sheep.

"I'm not sure." Bell replied as he smashed a barbarian in the face with his fist. "Let's get out of here first. Whatever is coming is very strong, we don't want to try and face it in here."

Aiz gave a nod in reply and concentrated on the fight at hand.

It didn't take them long to carve a path to the exit, but this was the colosseum, so for every monster they killed another was spawned. Twenty minutes and several hundred monster deaths later, they were standing outside at the entrance as Bell looked around, trying to work out what his sixth sense was warning him about.

"UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!" A roar echoed around the dungeon.

But it put a massive grin on Bell's face.

"Asterius..."