Sorry for the additional update, just correcting an error where I mixed up Tione and Tiona. Thank you to the reviewer who spotted it.
A hard Armoured charged at Zagreus, compacting into a heavily armoured ball that rolled towards him.
He could have dodged in order to attack the exposed and unarmoured flanks, but frankly couldn't be bothered. Instead, he lifted Stygius, and brought it down with all his strength. He was strong enough, and Stygius sharp enough, that it would be easy.
The blow stopped the Armoured instantly, and carved straight through the armour-like plating that covered it with ease. The dead monster fell away, very nearly split in two down the middle. He then swiped right and severed the head of a Lygerfang that had been dead-set on going for the pair of gods and their escort.
He knew the three of Takemikazuchi's Familia could have handled it, as could Asfi, though it served him as a nice little warm up. He'd been told that there may be a large, powerful monster before the stairway to the next floor known as a Monster Rex, and in all honesty, he was excited to fight the thing.
Hestia and Hermes had been whispering to one another for a while now, and though they kept quiet, it wasn't difficult for him to pick up, nor, if the twitch of her ears at the name of Bell Cranel was any indication, was it difficult for Ryuu.
Hestia had been pressuring Hermes to find his real motivation for offering his assistance, and while he insisted his desire to assist both Hestia and Zagreus was real, he admitted that he was doing it as a favour for Bell's grandfather, who had supposedly faked his death in order to 'take care of something important'. They had also come to the conclusion that in order to survive, Bell's party must have pushed deeper in order to reach one of the Dungeon's safe zones, the Eighteenth Floor.
Finally, they reached the end of the seventeenth floor, and stood in front of the renown 'Great Wall of Sorrows' was the first Monster Rex of the Dungeon.
The Goliath.
It was a well muscled humanoid with grey skin and long white hair. It stood about one and half times the size of his father, a bit under four times his height.
Its red eyes opened and glared down at them, before it let loose a deafening roar.
Zagreus couldn't hold back his grin, his casual demeanor a stark contrast to his shaking goddess and lower levelled escort. He turned to Ryuu.
"Mind if I take care of him? I've been itching for a good fight. You can take them on ahead." He tilted his head and the divine pair and other adventurers.
"Understood," the elf girl whispered, nodding. She began moving towards the cluster of adventurers, before pausing and offering a glance over her shoulder. "Good luck."
"Thanks," he said with a laugh, "but to be honest, I don't think I'll need it."
Without another word, he charged.
The first thing he noticed about this monster was its speed. This was, as Hermes had described, a Level Four equivalent monster, supposedly with strength and speed at a similar level to himself, Asfi, and Ryuu.
Supposedly was the key word. In reality, while far faster and far stronger than anything else they'd come across, it couldn't compare to himself or Ryuu. Asfi may have struggled to defeat it by herself, but to him, someone well practiced in defeating enemies far stronger than himself, it was rather easy.
Not easy, easy, but not a fight to the death like he was more familiar with, as when he engaged with his father. If he were to compare it to a familiar fight within the Underworld he knew, he'd rate it similar to fighting Megaera or her sisters, though a little tougher.
It took him some time to whittle the Goliath down. Its hide was tough, its bones tougher, and he was cautious to avoid its powerful swings that would no doubt be rather painful to be on the receiving end of. After swing after swing into the monster's thighs, it had fallen to its knees, where he then kicked it harshly in the back to knock it down, before Dashing straight through it to viciously stab Stygius through one of its red eyes.
With the Goliath dead, Zagreus leapt onto its back and stabbed Stygius down between its ribs, before he began cutting the flesh away. After a couple minutes, he exposed the monster's magic stone, and reached into the gore to take hold of it, and rip it free. It was large, much more so than the small shards of the monsters found on the upper levels, and larger than the three-ish clech spheres of the tougher monsters in the Middle Floors. This one was almost the size of his fist.
As soon as the stone left its body, the Goliath began to flake away into ash. Zagreus jumped back down to the stone floor, and tossed the magic stone from his right hand to his left in order to flick what blood he could free from his arm.
He stored the magic stone within himself as the last of the Goliath deteriorated, letting out a sharp breath.
"Well, that was fun. Time to meet Lady Hestia's child."
The eighteenth floor was something else. For one thing, from what he could see, the entire floor was a single, gigantic cavern. The roof glowed a bright blue reminiscent of the afternoon sky, though he could just pick out the rugged surface made from innumerable glowing crystals.
He followed the footprints in the dusty road further into the Eighteenth floor, before tracking it into a forest. Before long, he broke into a clearing, and found the Search and Rescue party he'd been a part of speaking with another three Adventurers.
The closest was a small girl, even shorter than Hestia. If he were to hazard a guess, Zagreus would say she was a pallum. The furthest was a tall man with deep red hair and tanned skin. Finally, in the middle was a boy with stark white hair.
Bell Cranel.
Ryuu was first to notice his approach. She spotted him in a quick, surveying glance, before turning to him more fully and offering a respectful nod.
"Hello, all," he greeted once he got close.
"Zagreus!" Hestia gasped. "Are you alright?"
He lifted his left hand to pat the top of her head. "Of course, Lady Hestia. It was quite the fun little engagement, though I do wish it was a little smarter."
"Was it really that easy?" she asked, eyes sparkling with wonder.
He chuckled. "As I'm sure you're aware, I've had quite a bit of experience vanquishing foes larger than myself." Zagreus turned to face his Familia member and offered his hand. "And you must be Bell Cranel! I- er…" Zagreus quickly retracted his hand when he realised it was still rather thoroughly caked with monster blood all the way up to his bicep. He wiped what blood he could from his hand onto his toga.
"Sorry about that," he said, offering his hand again. "I'm Zagreus. It's a pleasure to meet you, mate. I'm sure Lady Hestia has told you about me."
The boy took the hand cautiously and shook it, sporting a bewildered expression. "I-it's nice to meet you too, Mister Zagreus, b-but, um, my goddess hasn't said anything about you…"
Zagreus turned to face his patron, raising an eyebrow.
Hestia gave a sheepish laugh and smile. "Sorry?"
He rolled his eyes."Would you like to do the honours, or should I?"
"Oh, oh! Me!" She turned to Bell, hands on hips and a very smug smile planted on her face. "Bell, meet the newest member of our Familia, Zagreus!"
Bell's eyes widened. "G-Goddess! You got a new member for the Familia? That's amazing!"
"I did! Feel free to praise me more! He's super strong too, but he's new to Orario so make sure you take care of him!"
Zagreus scoffed. "I'm really not all that special," he denied.
Bell turned back to Zagreus with a blinding smile. "W-welcome to the Familia Mister Zagreus! I'll be sure to show you around, and you can join my party whenever you want to! B-but, um, if you don't mind me asking, why did you a-arrive after everyone else? A-and Goddess! How did you get past the Goliath!?"
"I can answer both of those, mate. I stayed behind and killed the Goliath."
Bell and his party gaped at him. "Y-you mean, you fought the Goliath by yourself?!"
"I'm sorry, but there's no way a newbie can defeat a Monster Rex!" the pallum girl exclaimed.
"Hm? Oh, new to Orario, not new to fighting. It was a pain to get the magic stone out of it, hence-" He gestured at his blood smeared right arm.
"It's not recommended to fight the Goliath unless you've got a bunch of Level Threes!" The red haired man exclaimed. "To fight it by yourself, you'd need to be at least Level Four!"
"And if you really defeated it, where's the magic stone? Lili doesn't believe you!"
"It's here." He extended his hand and conjured the stone into it.
The pallum girl, Lilli, he assumed, jumped back as if struck, while the males of the party gasped with widened eyes.
"Where did…"
"One of my skills," he answered easily.
A moment later, Bell stepped forward, and bowed a full 90 degrees.
"Thank you for joining our Familia, Mister Zagreus! I will be in your care!"
Zagreus laughed and ruffled Bell's hair. "I may be a good fighter, but I'm afraid I'm not much good at anything else." He pulled the boy up and put an arm over his shoulders, offering a wide grin. "I'll need your help at least as much as you'll need mine. But we're a Familia now, so let's just agree to help each other. That sound good, mate?"
Bell smiled. "Yes! U-um, this is Lilli and Welf, the other members of my party."
Zagreus released Bell from his hold, and offered his hand and an easy smile to the still suspicious party members.
The man, Welf, took his hand and shook it. "Welf Crozzo."
Zagreus smiled. "Pleasure to meet you. You two have been taking care of Bell, right?"
They nodded slowly. "Thank you," he said sincerely, bowing his head. "I know Lady Hestia would have been upset if her precious little baby got hurt."
That comment earnt him a bark of surprised laughter and a quiet giggle as Bell and Hestia stammered, faces going red.
He turned to Lili and offered his hand. She took it, and gave him a smile. It would seem his remark had done its job at relaxing the atmosphere.
"Liliruca Erde," she introduced, expression turning more serious. "Please take care of Bell, Mister Zagreus."
"Of course, Miss Erde. You can count on me." He clapped his hands together. "Right! So, what's the plan now? Are we headed back to the surface?"
Bell's expression turned thoughtful. "We were planning to wait two days for Loki Familia to move to defeat the Goliath, but you've done that already. We could go, but we were all injured, and e-even though L-Loki Familia used healing magic on us, w-we'd probably still just be dead weight without time to recover."
"Then we can just wait here and rest up for a couple days," Hestia declared, lips pursed. "We can ride the work of the Washboard's family."
"S-sorry to make you wait, Goddess."
Hestia turned away to hide an eyeroll. "It's fine, Bell. I don't mind waiting for a little bit to make sure you're okay."
"Then, considering we're staying here," Hermes piped up, "why not do some sightseeing?"
"In the morning," Hestia agreed. "It's starting to get dark."
She wasn't wrong. The 'sky' of the Eighteenth was turning a deeper blue as many of the crystals began to dim. Bell's party led them all back to the tent Loki Familia was letting them use. Waiting there were three adventurers. A pair of amazonian twins, and a human girl.
"A-ah, this is Tione and Tiona Hiryute." Bell gestured at the amazonian girls. "And this is Miss A-Aiz Wallenstein. Of the Loki Familia." He turned back to the Loki Familia members. "A-and um, these are some of my friends who came to try and rescue us."
The three girls looked between himself and Ryuu suspiciously. Bell was in a difficult spot, attempting to alleviate suspicion without drawing attention to the divine pair. If they were discovered, it would raise many not easily answerable questions. He would try to get their attention on him, give the poor boy a break.
"Zagreus. It's a pleasure to meet you all." He stepped forward, offering what he hoped was a warm smile. "Thank you for helping out Bell and his party."
"No problem Mister Zagreus!" One of the amazonians, Tiona, said, offering a mock salute. "Say, I haven't seen you before. How do you know little Argonaut?"
Argonaut? As in, one of Jason's crew? She'd looked at Bell pointedly, so it must have been some kind of nickname.
"I'm the newest member of Bell's Familia. Joined yesterday."
"Wait, so you came down to the eighteenth floor on your first day in the Dungeon?!" the other amazonian, Tione, asked.
All three's eyes were on him now, and Bell breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
He nodded. "That's correct. Though, to be fair, I've been fighting for some years before coming to Orario."
"Even so," Aiz said quietly, voice nearly a whisper, "monsters outside the Dungeon are much weaker."
"And you need to be at least Level 2 to reach the Safe Floor!" Tione continued.
"Where I came from, a place called Tartarus, the monsters were just as strong."
"Huh? No way!" Tiona exclaimed excitedly. "I've never heard of this place!"
He laughed. "I'm not surprised. The problem is that while the monsters are strong, they've no magic stones. The only reason anyone would fight them would be to become stronger. I've reached a point where I can defeat anything Tartarus has to offer."
The amazonians huffed, looking disappointed. Presumably, they'd deemed that he was a Level 2, and so Tartarus could only be filled with monsters up to his capability; far too weak for these seasoned warriors.
"No magic stones? What kind of monsters don't have magic stones?"
"Well, we called them Shades. Some say they're warriors, brought from the land of the dead to guard the gates of Tartarus. And there was none more dangerous than the Lernaean Hydra. Legend has it that it was first slain by the hero Heracles, the second of his Twelve Great Labours, and it was then banished to Tartarus, where it regrew as an immortal skeletal monstrosity."
Woops. He'd dipped into his dramatic storytelling habit, though by the sparkle in her eyes, and the grin on her face, Tiona didn't mind.
"Twelve Great Labours?! That sounds so cool!" she exclaimed. "You have to tell me more about this Heracles!"
He laughed. "Sure. I know a number of other hero stories too, and I wouldn't be opposed to sharing. But perhaps tomorrow? It's getting late, and I'd like to rest."
The amazonian looked disappointed, but conceded, and allowed them into the tent.
Tiona was quick to find him in the morning, with about a thousand questions ready to fire at him, while her sister followed close behind, curiosity brewing. The first of many was demanding to know more about Tartarus, and his life before Orario. He was happy to humour them, not so much as changing details, but phrasing them in ways that wouldn't get him revealed. It was a risky game: the type he loved to play.
They had, of course, wanted to know where Tartarus was. Obviously he couldn't tell them the truth, so he'd deflected. "Tartarus, as it was, has been gone for a very long time. You can't go there anymore."
The twins had sat on either side of him as they ate breakfast, drawing the envious ire of many of Loki Familia's male members. Not exactly surprising, the pair were stunningly beautiful, though he'd lived his entire life surrounded by the beauty of the divine. Something like this wasn't enough to phase him in the slightest.
The pair were fun. They both conversed with an excited energy that he enjoyed being a part of. Plus, the novelty of being free to discuss things with new people was yet to wear off, and likely wouldn't for some time. One could only be trapped in the Underworld with just a dozen of its denizens to speak with before the majority of conversation topics became exhausted.
After breakfast, they decided to explore the town of the eighteenth floor, Rivira. When he'd asked why Loki Familia had camped in the forest instead of getting lodging within the town, Tione had explained that because it was so difficult to reach this floor, that those who lived here could charge far, far more than would be acceptable on the surface. For a raiding party as large as Loki's, the cost would be impossible, even with the extraordinary quantity of magic stones and other drops they could collect from the Lower Floors.
They walked along the path around the edge of the glittering lake toward the large, felled tree that served as a bridge to the middle island that housed the town of Rivira. Before long, they reached it, and crossed quickly. Or, most of them did. Bell lagged behind, assisting Hestia across. The tree was well travelled, but was thin and without any form of guard rail, and was difficult to traverse without the agility and balance that came with experience adventuring.
The path up to the town was a steep one, wrapping around the cliff to reach the top most point on the island. The cliff looked out over the lake, and further, the lush forest and bright, glowing crystals that lined the domed walls of the eighteen floor.
It was quickly cementing itself as one of Zagreus' favourite views. It didn't quite have the same enrapturing beauty of the pinks and golds and blues of sunrise over the frozen ocean that he experienced with his first successful escape, but it definitely came close.
The town came ever closer, not much more than a collection of rough wooden shacks arranged down the path, surrounded by a haphazard wooden fence.
"Keep an eye on your wallet," Tione warned. "The absurdly high prices isn't the only way they'll try to rob you."
He snorted, before lifting a hand and conjuring the pittance of Valis he had on him into his hand, before clenching his fist a moment later and returning it to within himself. Zagreus grinned at her shocked expression. "Won't be a problem for me."
With that, they stepped through the small wooden arch into town, ignoring the text carved into it.
'Hello Friends, Welcome to Rivira!'
Hello again.
Just gonna say now, there won't be any pairing for Zagreus in this fic.
We get to see some of Zagreus' strength too. I want him to be strong, but not so strong as he just solves every issue that comes up. Fortunately, the power scale in Danmachi is very, very wide. Some details later on will be adjusted in order to fit to Zagreus' strength, so don't be surprised if encounters go differently, or if new ones appear.
Don't think I've got anything else to say, so see you next week.
Twitter and Discord on my profile, as always.