Rating: M (Mature [18+])
Warning: Death (s) of Character (s)
Categories: F / M, F / F, M / M, Multi
Fandoms: Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか / DanMachi — Funjino Omori
Relationships: Lugonis Cranel / Demeter, Bell Cranel / Artemis, Bell Cranel / Freya, Other Relationships To Be Added...
Characters: Arethusa, Artemis, Apollo, Bell Cranel, Demeter, Hades, Freya, Lugonis Cranel (OC), Minos of Arcadia, Other Characters Names To Be Added...
Bloody Roses
Prince Jae
(Long Version) Summary:
Bell Cranel has lived his whole life in solitude among the roses he so despised and, at the same time, he loved. Day after day taking care of the lonely garden his mother left behind for him... A home he never truly understood.
But, what happens when the scent of a rose proves to be deadlier than the strongest poison in the world? Who would risk themselves to get a glimpse of those bloody roses? The answer was one Bell Cranel was not ready to receive.
Notes:
The story takes place in an Alternate Universe, where things are different. It is an attempt to create a more realistic universe and without so much use of magic or impossible elements.
Warning!
What you are going to read next is fanfic — a modification, or total change of a story. It needs a story already written to work, probably a commercial one. The additional content provided by the fanfic is entirely my own but free for use, as it is made by one or more (fanatic) writers/readers for the enjoyment of the forum community.
"Look! The petals that were carried away are returning now but they lack their fragrance. Do you know? I've always been living among these poisonous roses. But... For the first time in my life, I find them... beautiful." — Pisces Albafica.
CHAPTER 1-1
Roses Are Red...
"We should return now," Mintaka suggested as the trees turned darker as they walked through the forest. "Monsters are probably hiding."
"Are you afraid of mere beasts?" Bellatrix the amazonian asked, slightly showing her upper teeth while smiling teasingly.
"Beasts are beasts," Mintaka answered. She didn't bite the bait from Bellatrix. She was one of the eldest of the hunting group but she barely suppressed the twenty-five name-days of age, and she had seen many come and go. "We don't have to deal with them right now."
"And are you sure they're hiding?" Bellatrix asked slowly. "What proof do we have?"
"Saiph followed them," Mintaka responded. "If she said that they are hiding, I don't need more proof."
"My best friend used to tell me that beasts are no smarter than newborns," Saiph cut in. She knew that sooner or later she would be dragged into this little fight. Although, she would have liked it to be later than sooner.
"My late husband used to say the same to me, Saiph," Bellatrix answered. "Never believe whatever a man says to you when he's trying to lure you. Even from hiding beasts, we can get something good." Her voice echoed a bit too much amidst the woods.
"We still have a long way to go," Mintaka announced. "Eight hours, it may be nine. And it's night time already."
"Like every day at this hour," Bellatrix added after glancing without any care at the sky. "Do you fear darkness, Mintaka?"
Saiph perceived the tension around Mintaka's lips and the barely held rage under her eyes, below that thick green wool hood. Mintaka had been serving for their Goddess Artemis for at least eleven years, a great part of her childhood and all her adult life, and she wasn't used to getting laughed at. But that wasn't all of it. Saiph could forefeel something more besides wounded pride coming from the older huntress. Anybody could touch the tension coming from her… it seemed more like, horror.
Saiph shared the same uneasy feeling. She had four years of being in Artemis' hunting party. The first time she had been sent to scout far from the group, she remembered those old stories and her insides revolved. Later she would laugh it off. Now she was a veteran from one hundred scouts, and the seemingly endless extension of dark woods that the folk dubbed as the Haunted Emerald couldn't scare her anymore.
Until this night. This night possessed something different. The darkness carried a strange air that made her skin crawl. They had been walking Northway for nine hours, then northeast and north again, always getting distant from their Familia, and following the trail from some interesting monsters. Every hour had been worse than the last one, and this one was the worst of all. The cool wind came from the north, making the trees' whispers as if they possessed life. During their whole journey, Saiph had felt that something was watching them from afar, something hungry and unsatisfied that brought no good. Mintaka had felt it too. There was nothing else that Saiph wished more than to run back towards the security of their encampment, but it wasn't a feeling that she could share with a commander.
And less with a commander like her.
Bellatrix was the smallest daughter from an old amazonian family with too many heirs. She was a young girl nearly reaching the ten-and-eight name-days, beautiful, with purple eyes, well mannered and curvaceous like a goddess. On top of a piece of trunk, she raised above Saiph and Mintaka, who were just resting their backs against some trees. Black coloured leather boots and she wore dark brown wool breeches, black gloves of leather, and high-quality studded chainmail over plenty of layers of brown and green wool and boiled leather. Bellatrix had been serving for less than a year as Huntress of Artemis Familia, but she had prepared well for this work without a doubt. At least regarding clothes.
Her bow was her pride and joy: made from iron-yew, thick, smooth and white like the moon.
"I bet she searched for it on her own," Mintaka managed to say that day in the encampment, while they were drinking wine. "I'm sure our greatest amazonian cut the tree with her own hands."
'It's hard to follow the orders from the very woman you make fun of,' Saiph thought about it as she caressed her arms to get some heat flowing. Mintaka must be thinking the same.
"Lady Artemis said that we follow their tracks, and we have done just that," Mintaka said. "They're hiding. They won't bother us again. There's a long journey to return. I don't like this climate. If it starts raining, we'll take at least fifteen hours to get back, and rain is the best that we can come across. Have you seen a thunderstorm with rain, Bellatrix?"
The young huntress seemed to listen to her. She observed the rising darkness from the twilight with that characteristic look on her face, between bored and distracted. Saiph had been working the right amount of time with the amazonian to understand that this was one of those times that she shouldn't bother her when she had that expression.
"Go and tell what you say, Saiph. Every detail. Don't leave anything unsaid."
Saiph had been a huntress on her own before joining Artemis Familia. Well, she had been more like a robber. The guardsmen from Orario had caught her with her hands soaked in blood in the woods near Orario, while she had been taking someone's life, and she had to choose between joining Artemis Familia or losing her hands, and probably something more. There was no one else who could move and be as stealthy as Saiph, and the huntress of Artemis didn't hesitate to exploit her trait.
"The nest is three miles away from us, passing through a river and a small path of stone," Saiph said. "I got as close as I could. They're eight, bloodsaurus and firebirds. No hellhounds, at least I saw none of them. They seemed to be resting together against a rock. The water had covered the ground, but I saw them. There aren't bodies, but there are marks of where a feast took place, clear to see. No one move, I watched them for a while. No awake beast is this peaceful.
"You saw blood?"
"I'm not sure," Saiph admitted.
"And weapons?"
"Some swords, and a bunch of bows… I saw a battleaxe of two edges, it looked very heavy, a good piece of steel. It was on the ground, near a bloodsaurus."
"Do you remember which position the beasts were in?"
"Some of them were laying against each other," Saiph answered, shaking her shoulders. "Most of them, splattered on the ground. As if asleep."
"Or dead," suggested Bellatrix.
"Asleep," Saiph insisted. "There was a firebird near a treetop, half hiding amid the branches. Probably overlooking or guarding. A smart one." She smiled. "I was careful enough to not let it see me. When I got close, I saw it didn't move." Annoyed, her skin crawled.
"Are you cold?" Bellatrix asked.
"A bit," Saiph whispered. "The rain, Bellatrix."
The young amazonian faced the eldest of the group. The leaves that the rain managed to take down passed whispering around them, and the instinct of Bellatrix was alarming her about any possible danger.
"What do you think they are doing, Mintaka?" Bellatrix asked with an uncaring tone. She adjusted the leather around her bow of iron-yew.
"Resting," Mintaka answered with strong certainty. "I've seen monsters take short rests in my last scout and the scout before that one when I was still leading this group. Everyone in the group talked about how strange it was to see a fifteen feet tall monster taking a moment to rest, and it was rare to hear them snoring too, but they are very conscious of their surroundings. They know how to attract inexperienced hunters like Saiph when she's hunting animals, at the beginning, they pretend to be normal and unaware, they will try to lure us out and make us vulnerable, they will be waiting for us, and they probably know we're here. But it's just an act. And they perform it well, they damn well how to act. There are a few scary things compared to prepared monsters. It's better if we just leave them for the moment, go back up and attack them. It's safer this way. First, we must go back with Lady Artemis and tell her about our discovery and tell her about their strength, the species, and just then we'll act. We'll wait."
"So eloquently, Mintaka," Bellatrix said. "I didn't expect you to talk so much."
"I know when to stop, Bellatrix," Mintaka took off her hood from her head so Bellatrix could see very well the scars that adorned her face, near her eyes. "My left eye, two toes, and my right ear. I survived. We found my best friend dead with her body barely recognisable."
"You should use more armour," Bellatrix nodded while shrugging her shoulders.
Mintaka glared at the young amazonian and the scars on her face seemed to blush a deep-rose colour, the same one that the healer Ilyana had to stitch.
"We'll see how much armour you can wear when you fight a group of monsters on your own." She quickly covered her face with the hood and dropped her shoulders a bit, silently and forceful.
"If Mintaka says that they're waiting for us…" Saiph tried to say.
"Have you done any guard duty in the last hours, Saiph?"
"Yes, Bellatrix," There was no hour she didn't do some fucking guard duty. What was she trying to achieve?
"And how's the sky?"
"It's raining," Saiph said, frowning. Now that Bellatrix noted that, it was clear to her. "If the sky is raining, they can't smell our scent. They don't know we are here."
"Very smart," Bellatrix nodded. "The last hours we have been walking with some bits of rain, though some rivers, I don't recall that the wind blew in that direction or for our smell to be detected. I remember that they are monsters with fire properties, and they are exposed to the rain and they are resting." The smile on her face couldn't be any more genuine. "Lead to that nest, Saiph. I want to see those monsters with my own eyes."
And there wasn't anything else to talk about. The order had been said, and the honour compelled to follow it.
Saiph started the walk on her tired feet, choosing the stealthiest way through the bushes and trees. The past night had been raining for a long time, and there were rocks, roots and some depressions hidden trying to catch any uncaring or unaware. Following her right behind were the amazonian beauty Bellatrix wearing her expensive black boots. Her boots weren't the ones commonly used for a scouting expedition, but nobody told that to the amazonian beauty. Mintaka was close behind. The eldest huntress whispering some words to herself as they walked.
It was already night. The sky was clearing almost turning into a dark purple hue, like the colour of an old bruise, and it turned black. The stars started to appear and the half-moon too. Saiph thanked the dim light to any god.
"I'm sure we can follow a better way," Bellatrix said when the moon shone in the sky.
"With those boots of yours, it's impossible," Saiph said. The fear had made her insolent. "Does the amazonian want to lead the way?"
The beautiful Bellatrix kept her words.
And somewhere in the deep woods, a wolf howled.
Saiph took a moment to rest under the protection of yew, and she pressed her back against the wood.
"Why did you stop?" Bellatrix asked.
"We should go more cautiously than before, Bellatrix. We're near, crossing that rock over there."
Bellatrix took a moment to think, glancing towards the horizon with her uncaring expression. The wind blew through the woods. And the thick deer cape danced in the air behind her.
"There's something off here," Mintaka whispered.
"Really?" the amazonian asked with that irritating smirk.
"Don't you see?" Mintaka asked. "Hear through nature."
Saiph was able to notice it. She had four years under her belt as a member of Artemis Familia, y she never had feared. What was going on?
"The wind. The whispers through the trees. A wolf. Which of those noises scare you the most, Mintaka?"
Noticing that Mintaka didn't answer, Bellatrix walked past Saiph with elegance. She dropped her backpack near a tree, far away from the others, and unsheathed her longsword. The pommel shone with the countless pieces of jewels, and the light of the moon seemed to flow through the polished steel. It was a magnificent blade, forged in the City; and it was new. Saiph thought that no one had wielded it before with rage.
"Here the trees are too close," She warned. "Your sword might get caught tangled by the branches, Bellatrix. It's better to go with a knife."
"Whenever I need any advice, I'll ask for it," the amazonian replied. "You stay here, Mintaka, watch over our stuff."
"We're going to need a bonfire," Mintaka dropped her luggage. "I'll make it."
"Are you completely insane, old woman? If monsters are haunting the woods, the last thing we need it's a bonfire."
"The bonfire will keep at bay some beasts," Mintaka responded. "Bears, wolves and... and other things.
"No bonfire," Bellatrix tightened her lips.
The hood shadowed Mintaka's face, but Saiph could distinguish a hard gleam on her gaze directed to the amazonian. For a moment, she feared that the eldest might unsheath her sword. It was a small and ugly blade, with the handle's colour worn due to the sweat and dents on the blade from many years of constant use, but Saiph wouldn't have betted anything for the life of the amazonian in any case that Mintaka decided to swing it.
"No bonfire," Mintaka murmured, clenching her teeth, lowering her gaze.
Bellatrix considered this as an acceptance and turned around.
"Lead the way," She said to Saiph.
Saiph started walking towards the bushes taking a higher ground by passing through a narrow path where she could take an advantageous position near a guarding tree. Under the thin layer of puddles, the soil was wet and muddy, slippery, plagued with pebbles and hidden roots with which anybody could trip over. Saiph made no sound as she walked. Behind her back, she could hear the soft jingle of chainmail coming from the amazonian, the crushing sound of the leaves and curses under her breath every time the sword got tangled by the branches and her splendid longbow got caught too.
The gigantic tree was near the cliff, the same place Saiph remembered, the branches a bit lower than the common. Saiph laid face down on the puddles and mud, sliding under the branches to get a glimpse of the clear area down below.
Her heart skipped a beat. For a moment she forgot how to breathe. The moonlight illuminates the clearing, the crimson colour from the corpses, the myriad of weapons, the great rock and the flowing river. Everything was as when she discovered it hours ago.
They were nowhere to be seen. All the monsters disappeared.
"For the gods!" She heard behind her back. Bellatrix had just cut off a branch with her sword. She was near the guarding tree, handling her blade by her bow resting across her chest; the stars shone on her amazonian profile so anybody could see her.
"Get down!" Saiph whispered, hurriedly. "Something's wrong."
Bellatrix didn't move. She observed the empty clearing near the cliff, and she laughed.
"By the looks of it, your beasts decided to play hiding before we arrived."
Saiph kept her mouth shut. The words were unable to cross her mind. That was impossible. She scanned the area once, twice, thrice with her gaze. A single and big battleaxe of two edges was still on the ground where she found it the last time. A weapon of great value…
"Get on your feet, Saiph," Bellatrix ordered. "There are no monsters here. I don't want to see you hiding under a bush." Saiph followed the order reluctantly. Bellatrix gave her a disapproval look. "I don't think of failing my first scouting and being the laughing stock of Artemis Familia. We'll find those monsters, whatever it takes." She looked around. "Climb that tree over there. Come on, fast. Let's see if you can see them from there."
Saiph turned around without saying anything. It was futile to discuss. The rain poured and it nailed her bones. She neared the tree, the greyish-green tree, and she started to climb. Her hands became sticky by the sap before she disappeared amid the branches. The fear was eating her bowels as if she had eaten something rotten. She murmured a prayer to her goddess and unsheathed a dagger. She held it with her teeth to keep climbing with her hands. The taste of cold steel gave her some kind of comfort.
Suddenly, she heard the voice of the young amazonian at the tree's bottom.
"Who is there?"
Saiph noted the certain insecurity although she tried to sound menacing. She stopped. She listened. She looked.
The woods gave her the answer: the whispering amid the leaves, the flowing water from the river, the estranged sound of an owl hooting through the rain…
The monsters made no sound.
Saiph detected movement from the corner of her eyes. Clear shadows sliding through the woods. She stretched her head and saw another darker shadow in the darkness. It disappeared in an instant. The rain shook the branches softly and made them scratch each other with wooden fingers. Saiph breathed in to scream a warning, but the words were cut off from her throat. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it was just a bird, the reflection on the puddles, a mirage from the moonlight. After all, what was that she saw?
"Where are you, Saiph?" Bellatrix asked from below. "Do you see something?" She walked with caution, suddenly she was on guard, sword in hand. She must have noticed their presence without seeing them. "Answer me! Why is that it smells so foul?"
It was true, the air smelled rotten. Saiph, shaking, held stronger than before against the tree bark. She pushed her face against the tree. She felt the bittersweet and sticky sap on her cheek.
A shadow emerged from the darkness of the woods. It rose before Bellatrix. It was tall, strong and bulky like a bull, with flesh red as blood. Its scales seemed to change colour every time it moved; in an instant, it was a bright red like a ruby, and then it turned into a dark red wine or changed into a crimson-red like blood. The changing colours and shadows danced with every step it took, as whenever the moonlight hit the water.
Saiph heard how Bellatrix let out a whine.
"Don't get closer," The young amazonian said.
Her voice sounded high pitched like that of a child. She accommodated her longbow behind her shoulders to have more liberty to move her arms during the duel, and she grabbed her sword with both hands. The rain ceased. It was cold, very cold.
The Bloodsaurus slid forward with silent steps. It had on its claws bits of flesh and blood pouring down as Saiph had never seen before. On the pieces of human clothes hanged. It was like a bloody warning, a sign that they should run away. That monster growled a deep growl that sent shivers down her spine, and Saiph didn't know why she understood the meaning behind the guttural howl.
"Come on then, let us dance." Bellatrix faced it with bravery.
She raised the sword over her head, challenging it. Her hands trembled due to the weight, or maybe because of the fear. But Saiph thought that in that instant she didn't look like a youngling but a full-grown woman of Artemis Familia.
The Bloodsaurus stopped. Saiph saw its eyes; red, darker and redder than any colour, like that kind of red coming from a ruby. She saw the shaking sword over Bellatrix's head and noticed how the moonlight polished the blade. For a moment, she dared herself to keep her hopes up.
They came out from the shadows in silence, everyone similar to the first one. They were two… three… four… five… Maybe Saiph managed to smell the putrid smell coming from them, but she didn't saw nor hear them when they approached. Saiph had to scream a warning. It was her duty. And her death if she decided to do it. She trembled, she held tight to the tree and kept her mouth shut.
The sharp claws swung in the air.
Bellatrix stopped it with steel. When the blades clashed, no sound was heard of metal against claws; it was just a vibrant and humming sound, a bit higher from what she could hear, similar to the scream of wounded prey. Bellatrix stopped the second slash, and the third, and then she took a step back. Another trade of blows and she took another step back.
Behind it, to its left and right, the witness watched patiently, silently, emotionless, the colour of their ever-changing scales make them look like flowing lava. But they didn't try to meddle.
The blades clashed once again, and again until Saiph felt the growing desire of covering her ears to ignore the anguished cries from them. Bellatrix huffed tired, her breaths coming out like puffs of white smoke lightened by the moon. Her blade was covered in blood -human blood; the Bloodsaurus claws shone crimson-red.
Then, the deflect from Bellatrix came a bit too late. The red claws cut through her chainmail under her armpit. The young amazonian shouted with all her strength out of pain. The blood poured from the metal rings. Vape coming from the wounds due to cold temperature, and the red droplets dyed the puddles. Bellatrix covered her wound with a hand. Her glove got colour red.
The Bloodsaurus growled something that Saiph translated as mockery; its tone like a crushing leaf in summer, and the pitch sounded insulting.
"For lady Artemis!" Bellatrix screamed using every bit of her strength.
And she launched herself with a battlecry, swinging her bloodied sword with both hands and letting her attack be known in a furious arc parallel to the ground. The Bloodsaurus stopped the blade by grabbing it with its snout.
When its teeth touched the blade, the steel shattered into millions of pieces.
A scream woke the animals in the night woods, and the fragments of the sword came pouring like a rain of needles. Bellatrix fell on her knees crying, and she covered her eyes. Blood oozing out from between her fingers.
The watchers, the monsters, jumped at the same time as if a signal had been given. Claws and teeth aiming and nearing in deathly silence. It became a rageless butchery. The sharp ends cut through the chainmail like butter. Saiph closed her eyes. Below her, growls and howls were heard as jingle bells.
When she gathered the courage enough to look down, a lot of time had passed, and the cliff was empty.
She held strong against the tree, barely breathing, as the moon continued her journey on the dark sky. In the end, with her aching muscles and her fingers burning due to the stress, she climbed her way down the tree.
Bellatrix's body laid face down on the puddles with an outstretched arm. The thick green hood was torn apart. There she laid, dead, she realized that he never had looked this young. A girl.
She found mere meters away what was left of the sword, with the broken edge and twisted as if thunder had struck a tree. Saiph kneeled, looked around with caution and she picked it up. The sword would be the proof she so needed. Mintaka would understand the reason, and if not, their goddess Artemis, or maybe their captain Arethusa. Would it be that Mintaka was still waiting with their packed stuff? She needed to hurry.
Saiph stood up. A Bloodsaurus stood beside her.
Its scales were shining a darker red; its snout, a bloody mask. It had a unique scar running through its left eyebrow, and it seemed that whatever made that scar had also taken his sight.
The right eye was wide open. The pupil shining a dangerous scarlet. It could see.
The sword slipped from her finer. Saiph closed her eyes to pray. Long and sharp claws caressed her cheek and then got closer to her throat. They were cold and easily one of the sharpest things she had felt, and they were sticky because of the blood, but their edge tightened around her neck.