QUICK WARNING: Spoilers going up to SO Vol 12. You have been warned.
Edited as of April the 4th: I forgot development abilities existed. Many thanks to Drake Atlas for pointing it out.
Riveria Ljos Alf stumbled into the Hostess of Fertility, a bar that had grown famous across Orario for the quality of its food and the beautiful waitresses that served the customers.
"Mia, one ale." She sighed as she sank into one of the chairs on the counter.
"Riveria, eh?" The large woman at the counter let out a hearty laugh, "Alright, alright. One ale, coming right up!"
The green-haired elf sighed again as she rested her head on the counter.
Mia slammed the mug of ale down on the table with a large thud sound, jolting Riveria upwards as she clutched her ears.
"Well?" She questioned, "What's the problem?"
Riveria looked away, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't give me that bullshit." Mia sighed, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her up, "Normally you'd be here with your familia, and you wouldn't be acting so moody."
"I–I've…" Riveria sighed and placed down the mug, "There's just a lot on my mind right now, and I need some time for myself."
Mia nodded in understanding, before leaving her alone.
Riveria sighed again before taking a large gulp out of her mug.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Someone pulled up a chair beside her, and she nodded without turning to look.
The person's facial features were perfectly hidden by a large cloak that covered his entire body.
"Ryuu-san, I'll have the usual." He (?) told the green-haired elf waitress, who nodded before heading to the kitchen.
Apparently, he was a regular customer.
A little while later, a simple meal of rice with miso soup was served.
"Thanks." He picked up a spoon and began eating.
"Hey, Miss." He spoke halfway through eating, "Are you okay? You look troubled."
Riveria shook her head before sighing again.
"I'm fine." She took another drink.
"Well, I can't say I understand what's going on." The person spoke, "But I've been in a similar state before in my life, where I felt like the whole world was against me."
The one part of his body that she could see clearly – one of his hands – clenched itself tightly.
"But I got over it." His voice was sad, "Because when you think about it, a lot of the time, there is no single person at fault. For me, no one was at fault."
He stood up.
"Riveria." He spoke as he turned around, "Don't blame yourself for it."
He left before she could respond.
Huh? Riveria wondered only after he left, Why does he know my name–
She leapt out of the chair, pausing only to take out a pouch of valis and ran out of the tavern.
She shoved the door open and looked in both directions, but there wasn't a single person in sight.
"Bell!" She cried out, "I–"
"Riveria."
It was a small whisper. Quiet, but not so quiet that she couldn't hear it.
She looked around to try find the source, but to no avail.
"You need not to worry about me."
She looked up, seeing the same person who had sat beside her moments ago sitting on one of the rooftops.
"Thank you."
And with that, he disappeared.
–––
"You gave your identity away." Ouranos spoke as he entered the chamber. It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"I did." He said without remorse, making no attempt to hide it. There was no point, anyway, "I have faith in her not to share it."
Ouranos nodded. Not necessarily in agreement, but out of understanding.
"How fares the situation with the Xenos? Any developments?" He questioned.
"Unfortunately, no." Ouranos sighed, "I've ordered them to make periodic appearances in the dungeon, but the general sentiment amongst adventurers is still unchanging."
Bell sighed, "People are hard to change… but if we want peace, we have to keep on trying."
Ouranos smiled, "This is why I am glad that you decided to help us. It's rare that you meet someone who genuinely cares."
Bell only gave a small smile.
"And I'm glad that you chose me as well."
The shadows twisted and contorted until the familiar figure that was Fels appeared.
"The Xenos have safely returned to their refuge without issue." He informed them both.
"Thanks a lot." Bell smiled, "Well…"
He thought for a moment before smiling.
"I haven't seriously gone into the dungeon to increase my status in a long time… I might be a bit rusty." He swung his arm in a circle.
"Rusty, he says." Fels sighed, "The same person who just slaughtered a gigantic horde of monsters in the colosseum without trouble."
Ouranos looked at him, then to Bell.
And the aged god sighed, once again.
–––
Shit, shit, shit.
Bell repeatedly cursed in his head even as he continued to parry attacks from a small dagger.
His opponent was fast. Faster than he was, and much stronger too.
In pure terms of stats, they would have been at least a level higher than him – so, a level 6. At the minimum.
But due to the freaky regeneration capabilities, he would have to place it even harder.
Why me?
–––
It had started out normally. A regular trip down the dungeon.
He had made it down the floors without contacting any adventurers and was killing a swarm of monsters in the middle floors.
Then he heard a scream.
He instantly tore through the horde, trying to find the source. What he found was a large swarm of plant monsters – Violas, he reminded himself – eating a pair of adventurers.
He quickly cut them down, but the adventurers were already gone.
And that was when he saw, out of the corner of his vision, just the slight movement near one of the cave walls. Without hesitation, he drew one of his several blades and threw it, impaling what seemed to be a cloak against the wall.
He felt something shift, and swiftly threw another blade in the space beside the cloak.
Whatever was hiding under it decided at that moment that it would be safer to discard the cloak and escape. With a quick utterance, it launched a smoke bomb before trying to fade away.
"I won't let you." Bell snarled as he dashed into the smoke, trying to search for the figure based on the sound of its footsteps, quiet as they may be.
He brandished his cloak, and from inside it, a pair of daggers flew out, flying through the mist.
The next moment, he heard it.
The sound of a blade impacting flesh.
Without any hesitation, he drew another blade and charged.
–––
Filvis Challia – Or Ein, as she went by – hid herself behind one of the dungeon walls, panting for breath.
What had been a routine trip soon devolved into chaos, when the adventurer from Ouranos had found her.
"If you see Ouranos's dog, escape. You cannot defeat him."
Or so Enyo had warned.
With that in mind, she continued running down the smoke filled corridors.
By the time she noticed something was off, a knife had already impacted her in the back.
"Found you." In front of her, a white haired elf blinkered into existence.
–––
"Red and black mask…" Bell took in what he could see – Well, what he couldn't see may have been more accurate, "You must be Ein."
The masked figure leapt back, but was too slow. Bell's blade met with Ein's shortsword, knocking the latter back.
They're a lot weaker than I would've thought. Bell realised, something is wrong. There's no way Enyo's most trusted aide would be this weak. But… I'll take this opportunity for what it's worth.
He followed up with two more strikes from different directions, cornering them against a wall.
"Dio Thyrysus!" Ein called out, raising a wand. A bolt of lightning flew out of it, hitting the wall where Bell was standing just moments ago.
They leapt back, trying to create a few steps of distance from him.
"Too slow." But he was already in motion. His sword slashed them across the back, sending them stumbling forwards, "Sword art: Zenith–"
The figure panicked… for a moment. Then, they opened their mouth under the mask and cried out some sort of spell, "Cancel!"
The next moment, Bell found himself being launched across the cavern. He flew for several meters before smashing against a wall.
"A limiter?" He wondered out loud as he picked himself off the ground.
The blow was several times harder than what he expected. From what he could tell, their strength had doubled, if not more.
This put him in a truly precarious situation.
He estimated his opponents strength to be around level 3 to 4, and if that doubled…
He was only a level 5, after all.
He didn't fail to notice how the wounds he had dealt had already sealed up.
–––
Lefiya Viridis cheerfully walked down the streets of Orario, a potato snack in hand.
"Filvis-san, and this is–" She turned around to face the black haired elf walkign beside her.
But no one was there.
"Filvis-san?" She cried out in confusion.
One orange haired elf was left standing in an empty street.
–––
Their blades clashed for the umpteenth time.
Cracks had already began running up the side of his second-last blade.
Across the hallway, three swords – high quality ones, no less – were strewn across the ground, already broken.
As Ein thrust forward with their dagger, Bell rolled to the side, swinging the blade across the ground.
Reacting a moment too late, the blade managed to leave a gash in Ein's shin.
As they stumbled backwards, Bell immediately leapt forward, his blade slashing downwards. As the two weapons met again, he loosened his grip and ducked down.
The blade carved an arc through the air as it left his hand, lodging itself in the ceiling.
With a single shake of his robe, a knife fell into his palm, and he thrust forward.
Got it! He cried out in his head.
By the time Ein had realised what was going on, Bell's dagger was merely centimeters from hitting the center of their abdomen. He could see them panicking. There would be no way for–
"At the end of the illusion, the spirit returns, forming an unbreakable bond!" The words seemingly shot out of her mouth, the speed at which they had cast the spell far surpassing any spellcaster he had ever seen before, "Einsel!"
Their image flickered before it seemingly split.
A doppleganger spell?
It was certainly outside his expectations.
His knife sunk into the doppleganger, instantly shattering it.
But, it seemed that none of the damage had been transferred towards the original.
"Tsk." He clicked his tongue and leapt back.
"Sweep, holy staff of crushing evil." Ein casted, "Dio Thyrsos."
Bell reached into his cloak and threw a single green gem in front of him with all the speed he could manage. It instantly emitted a barrier of magic energy, blocking the blast for enough time for him to roll out of the way.
"To think I had to use Fels's barrier stone so early…" He sighed in annoyance, "What a dangerous opponent."
Barrier stone.
One of Fels's unique items. A single use magic item that would cast a barrier to block most spells.
He only had one of them, and he had already used it.
He reached to his side and pulled out his last blade, maintaining a distance as he kept it raised.
Looks like I'll have to retreat here… He concluded, I can't beat this person in an extended fight. But before I do so–
He crouched down into a fighting stance.
I'll at least figure out their identity.
–––
Right? No, wait– Another blow hit him on the side.
His opponent clearly was self-taught, most likely by fighting in the dungeon. However, that meant that the movements were erratic and unpredictable.
It didn't matter much to him, though. The main problem was still the massive gap in their falna.
Two strikes from the left, then one from the top.
A single change in the blades grip and a slight shift in their step gave away their next steps.
Parry the strikes with a downward stroke and then dodge to the side.
Metal clashed against metal.
Then– Shit!
He made a single mistimed strike. Capitalising on that, his opponent slashed forward. He only narrowly avoided it by pushing off the ground and twisting around in midair, but his cloak – and all the items that he stored within it – were now out of his grasp.
"Dio Thyrsos!" A blast of lightning incinerated the piece of cloth, permanently keeping him from using it.
"No more tricks now." Ein growled, charging.
He found himself being thrown around the room like a ragdoll, his fast reflexes being the only thing that was keeping him alive.
This is going nowhere.
Bell changed his grip along his blade, putting two hands on it.
He had purposely had his blades made so they would be able to fight with a one handed fighting style and a two handed fighting style, allowing him to transition with ease.
One handed blows are too light and are easily deflected, He had realised, even uses both hands, I can only barely keep up.
They traded blows once again. Bell found that even the high quality katana in his hand was starting to break, small parts of it already falling off.
One chance.
Steel clashed again.
I have one chance to make this work.
As Ein rushed again, Bell–
Mm, if Riveria could see me right now, I bet she'd give me a good scolding later...
– dropped his sword and leapt forward, directly into the path of the blade.
Due to the way he moved, it sank into his left arm.
Without even wincing, he slammed his right hand into Ein's mask, shattering it.
Red eyes.
The female elf was a person with red eyes and black hair.
She looks just like–
A single moment of hesitation–
The girl grabbed his hand and flipped it over her shoulders, slamming him on the ground.
– was enough for him to lose his advantage.
He blacked out.
–––
He woke up to an excruciating pain in his stomach.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
"Finally up, are you." It was a low monotonous voice that spoke in front of him.
Ein was sitting on a large rock, mask off and staring at him.
"Don't bother trying anything." She spoke, as if she could read his thoughts.
He looked down and realised he was pinned to a wall by a gigantic blade that seemed to be made out of some sort of fleshy, plant-like substance.
"What are you planning on doing to me?" He questioned.
"I could kill you anytime, and you dare to ask me questions?" The girl laughed at him as she twirled a knife around in her fingers.
"Exactly. You could have killed me anytime. Unless…" He tried to smile, but the pain in his chest made it hard, "You're under orders not to."
"Good job. Want a cookie?" Ein replied sarcastically.
She's waiting for something. No, someone. Probably Enyo. He deduced, I'll have to escape before they get here.
I'll have to get away from here... I need...
A distraction.
What could work?
He saw a small flash of light.
A shard of his broken blade, near his foot.
This will have to do.
"Hey, Ein." He began, "I have to ask you, why do you fight for Enyo? What does constantly killing people bring to you?"
As quietly as he could, he nudged the blade closer with his foot.
Ein didn't answer, but hesitated for a single moment.
With a flick of his foot, the shard darted through the air and hit the ceiling.
Ein looked at him in surprise for a moment before scoffing.
"What were you trying to achieve with that?" She asked. It was less of a question and more of a statement.
He only smiled in response and looked at the ceiling.
Crack.
Ein looked up.
"Oh shit–" She yelled out in anger and surprise.
Crack.
A large portion of the ceiling collapsed, large chunks of rock raining down.
He only had time to stretch out his hand before his body was buried by rubble.
–––
Fels felt the barrier stone break.
He dropped the item he was tinkering with onto the workshop table, transmitted a short message to Ouranos through the occulus and left as quickly as he could.
Please, let me get there in time...
–––
Fels found Bell in the exact same cavern.
Well, he found his arm, to be precise.
He managed to pull the half-dead elf out of the rubble after some painstaking effort, before picking him up and exiting the dungeon.
–––
It took him a week, and more potions than he could count, before he had recovered enough to move properly.
During that time, he had recounted his experience to Ouranos and Fels, twice, and he had played the scene over in his head even more.
"How can I win next time?" He wondered out loud, "The main difference between us was… the difference in status, and the unpredictability of her fighting style."
"I can overcome that status difference with my next level up… which I'll have to get soon. But the fighting style… I'll have to come up with an entirely new one…"
He stood up.
"Ouranos." He spoke, his voice solemn, "The next time the 37th floor Monster Rex spawns… I'm taking it down. I don't care how it happens, but I need to kill it if I want to continue helping."
I can't keep on losing. I refuse.
–––
"Please keep a watch on the doorway. We can't have anyone seeing this." Bell spoke to the Fels, as he stepped past the large doorway.
For good measure, he cut off a large shard of the crystal and lodged it in the floor, blocking most of the corridor.
"Try not to interfere… I don't want to take chances." He spoke as he stepped into the hall, drawing one of his several swords.
He emerged from the room half an hour later, body covered in blood but a smile on his face.
–––
Bell gripped the piece of paper in his hands tightly.
No, tightly would not be the correct word. His grip was so hard that it would be no surprise if the paper ripped in half.
He looked – glared down at the piece of paper with undisguised rage in his eyes.
"What…" He growled, "What the fuck is this?"
Bell Cranell
Level 5
Strength: S 999
Endurance: S 999
Dexterity: S 999
Agility: S 999
Magic: S 999
Swordsman: A
Abnormal Resistance: H
Magic Resistance: I
Hunter – Human: B
Spells: Sword Zone.
Skills:
Kinslayer.
–––
AN: Why yes, no level up for Bell and a skill that pisses him off more than you can imagine. I'm such a good person. Anyway, sorry for not updating in so long. A combination of life and my lazy nature kept delaying this chapter. But it's done now! I was mainly experimenting with writing fight scenes this chapter as it's something I've found myself lacking in for a while.
Now, onto the review responses (I'll only be responding to the ones that raise questions or interesting points, since there's no real point in responding to the one-liners. Sorry.):
the-lost-memories6: Yeah, there are a lot of canon changes, but I'll try to point them out just to stop any confusion in the future.
vanhellsing9000: I've never been a fan of harems, so, no harem. Sorry. How it will end up will probably be different from what you expect, though.
David Alejandro Gmez Fernandez: It wasn't, no. But I'll answer that in a later chapter.
Brady: I really forgot about the point with Wiene xD... let's just say that she was given the same name in this universe as well? (Although I'm not really sure how that would happen to be honest.) And no, this story takes place pre-danmachi, there's a lot of changing going on.
muqrisharun1: That's a nice point that you've raised. I intentionally chose the colosseum as an example of what Bell used to be – an army killer of sorts. Since the whole idea of the colosseum is that there's a never ending flow of monsters, I just thought it would be fitting.
Anyway, thanks for reading the chapter, and I hope to see you all (fairly?) soon. I might go back and make some changes later, I dunno. Bye for now.
P.S: I just want to point out that Bell's spell was not inspired by unlimited blade works but instead by the idea of what Ryuu abused against Filvis in volume 12 with a never ending stream of disposable blades. But now that you raise the point, there are a lot of similarities...