A week had passed since the monsters attacked Orario and the citizens were still busy cleaning up. The area around the hole in the wall was leveled in Bell´s fight with the alpha monster, but nobody even dared to blame him for that.
If Bell hadn´t fought against the monster, while Ais blocked the hole, who knows what they would have done. The gates were guarded by groups of the Freya, Loki and Ganesha Familias, while the best craftsmen were busy fixing the gates.
Even for autumn conditions it was not light enough, dark clouds hung continuously over Orario. Furthermore, the goddess Freya had reported that dark clouds were also gathering far behind the Beol Mountains, as she could see from her room at the top of Babel.
So far they got no message from the scouts they had send to the north. The guild handed out one quest after the other, the Demeter Familia had returned to their fields, but were guarded by the Hestia aliance, since the big Familia´s were bound with the city´s defence, the only exception was their captain.
After the first shock was gone, Bell had visited the guild, te pub and the Stardust Garden, making sure that his friends were unharmed. He saw flowers put down at the entrance to the Stardust Garden, many citizens thanked the Astrea Familia for giving them shelter. After making sure she was okay, Ryu told Bell that Astrea had a small breakdown after the incident,
all these bad memories from the past came up again and she had hugged her three children in her wish to protect them.
Changes happened in Orario after the attack, there were houses and small Mansions that weren´t used currently. To everyones surprise and maybe to make up for what she did about a year and a half ago, the goddess Freya bought many of the free houses and gifted them to the people who had lost their homes.
When she was asked why she did that, she only said two things.
"I am a goddess of love."
And.
"The monsters destroyed the safety of the city, which is my home, so they took something from me and I won´t allow any disturbance in my home!"
Some had the guess that she used her queen-like behaviour to cover for her worry about the citizens. And something else happened, which wasn´t really something else, but everyone who knew this thought it was something different.
The day after the incident, the silver haired young woman Syr had visited the church again. She talked to Mia and the children, explaining to them that she had finally saved up enough money to give them their surprise.
She had talked to a "friend" and bought a small Mansion closer to the center of the city. It was a gift to Maria and the children, the new Orphanage. Maria had tears in her eyes when Syr told her that and at first said she could never accept this.
But Syr had a surprisingly motherly smile on her face and told her to do it for the children. The Mansion was pretty close to the pub and Syr told them in case something dire happened, they should ran to the pub immediately.
When she returned to Babel later, she was asked something by the one person she could always open up to and show her true feelings.
"Mylady?"
"Yes, Helun?"
"May I ask...why did you bought the Mansion for the orphans?"
Freya smiled and waved Helun to come closer, gently petting her head.
"My dear Helun, I didn´t bought anything."
"But you.."
Freya...winked. "Syr bought a Mansion, not me."
Since the incident, Freya was more open with her desires and feelings of her other half. When the monster attack came, Freya was frightened to her bones, not for her life, but fearing what she could see if she came to the church too late.
Now she was more calm about the situation, especially since a Familia member would always be close when she was working at the pub. Syr even convinced Mia to let two of the children, Fina and Roux, work part time at the pub, they trained to become waitresses in the future, and had the chance to earn pocket money.
Freya never did something with only one thought in mind, she had multiple reasons to do this. The sight of the two young children were balm for the soul of the customers and the other employees of Mia. Roux and Fina would tell the other children stories about how fun their work was, which helped them to focus on something else than the dire situation.
Whenever their shift was over in the early afternoon, Mia sent Syr and one other waitress with food to accompany the children home, Freya paid for the food. Over time, she would do her best for the orphans to find jobs and get a stable life. Since Syr couldn´t have children on her own, she cared for the orphans very much.
It also helped her and another person to ease their mind, the goddess Astrea. Syr had taken a liking to her and "allowed" Astrea to take care of the children too. This also meant that the Astrea Familia would have an eye on the orphanage, and Syr got the chance to visit the new orphanage together with Ryu.
So she still did things out of her personal interest and fun, but also to take care about others. The whole incident with Ais and Bell back then and the fact that it was them who saved her had changed Freya quite a bit.
But not everything went so well for Freya, to the surprise of her children...she had cried when she heard about Dvalinn.
Freya had visited the dead prum together with his brothers, she had knelt down next to him, carressing his cheek while her tears fell on his chest.
"I´m sorry...I´m so sorry..."
She mostly did what she wanted and showed her children a special kind of love, which they loved her even more for that. But losing a dear child of her...hurt.
"Grer...Berling...Alfrigg...I´m sorry that you had to fight separate from each other...this won´t happen again."
Freya turned to the three prums and they looked grim by the sight of endless tears running down her cheeks. She had pulled the three prums into her arms and cried with them over the death of their beloved brother. But Freya was still Freya and she also helped the three grieving brothers to heal their wounded hearts and comfort them, with her body in her very unique way during a night...all at once.
.
.
"What do you think, Ais?"
"I feel really uneasy...the disgusting wind is still there."
Both stood on the northern wall, a bit away from the hole, since dwarven craftsmen were busy repairing the wall. They also worked at the tower but Bell and Ais didn´t had any idea what they did there. Bell had greeted one of the workers he knew, an adventurer called Dormul Bolster from the Magni Familia. He was surprised at first that the Magni Familia did most of the repairs and had plans to increase the defense.
But Dormul explained to Bell, that there existed nearly no dwarfs that weren´t excelent craftsmen. Ever since the fight, Bell and Ais were constantly together, they slept in her room or in Bell´s at night, changing the location each day to be with their loved ones.
"So this isn´t over."
"No, I have a really bad feeling about this."
She felt a slight touch against the back of her fingers, soon her fingers entangled with Bell´s and they looked at each other.
"I will protect you, Ais."
"And I will protect you, Bell. We will protect this city together."
Since he thought it would be important, Bell had talked with Finn about the visions that Cassandra had lately. Finn had visited the Mansion together with Riveria to talk to Cassandra. The young woman was really nervous at first, but also...happy...that someone important believed her.
Finn and Riveria listened to everything she had to say and asked her to tell them everything in case her dreams changed. As always, it was Finn´s job to form a tactic for his Familia, and not only his own, the leader of various Familia´s talked to each other. Shakti became a familiar sight at the Twillight Mansion, Ganesha was worried about the citizens.
Even Ottar met with Finn once, at first he didn´t wanted to do it since it didn´t concerned him, but when he did that, Freya used her secret and most efficient weapon against Ottar...she pouted.
Ganesha also talked to Hestia and they took turns in guarding the Demeter Familia. And another face was seen often at the Hestia Mansion, the elf Laurier. She was one of Hermes´ children and her god sent her when he had no time to deliver a message to Hestia.
Hermes knew that Laurier was in love with Bell, a fact that didn´t changed even after he had promised himself to Ais. While she would never be together with him, Hermes wanted to do something good for his child and at least let her spend some time with Bell, as short as it may be. The gods met nearly every day for emergency Denatus´, discussing the situation.
"Ais, how about we´re going for some snacks?"
Bell always knew how to cheer her up. Both didn´t had any jobs in the city so they spend their days to train with each other, to get as strong as possible. Ais and Bell didn´t knew it, but Riveria and Finn were concerned about one thing that Cassandra had mumbled.
"The heroes fate..."
She didn´t talked about one hero, but two...and the fate of the heroes was also their goal and the destiny of their journey. Which meant...heroes always got into dire situations and had to fight the most horrible monsters. And they were worried about their "Princess and her rabbit".
.
The mood in Orario wasn´t good for most of the people. Some didn´t paid much attention to the dark clouds, but they were hard to ignore since they spread further and further. For days now, no one in Orario had seen the sun, except for an hour when she rose or went down again.
The people continued with their lives since there wasn´t much they could do. One good thing helped to lighten the mood a little bit, due to patrolling adventurers, the crime rate in Orario fell. What also didn´t helped, in two months they had planned to have a great festival to celebrate the descending of the gods again.
Both strolled through the streets until they arrived at the potato snack stall. The potato snacks were one of the few things that lightened the mood in the city. And despite all things that happened lately, Ais looked really forward to eat her beloved snacks.
Lately knew creations were made, some with finely minced chicken, pork of beef existed now. The old lady and Hestia were masterful in creating these, and Ais was really in love with the snacks. The crunchy texture, followed by the juicy insides and the taste on her tongue...heavenly.
And when she kissed Bell after their lunch, the taste of his lips mixed with the ones from the potato snacks...it was only better. Ever since she had her first date with Bell...even when both didn´t realized back then that it was a date...the potato snacks only tasted better. The old lady had told Ais that this was because of a secret ingredient that her snacks contained since then.
When Ais tilted her head in confusion, the old lady only whispered. "Love."
Ais had squeaked and got red, even more when Bell asked her what was wrong.
Ah...I have waited for this...
Ais´ stomach growled when Bell gave her the first potato snack and saliva gathered in her mouth. For her, potato snacks were more than a snack...they were part of her life.
Mmmmnh!
The first bite...it was always the best...especially... The people around them could only glance shortly at them, they were well known in the city and held hands while they ate their snacks.
They are so cute...
The sword princess´ boyfriend...so hot!
Dear gods...I wish I was her...
.
While they looked carefree, Bell and Ais were always ready to act, but in fact they were relaxed. Experienced adventurers learned pretty fast that it only lowered their efficience if they were tense and on high alert all the time.
Many citizens had problems to sleep these days, the adventurers didn´t since they were used to such a tension. The hostess of fertility was an anchor for many people, they continued their service with a smile, and lately, the pub´s idol Syr had started to sing in the evening. She would stop her work for a while and sing in her lovely voice to calm the customers, some only came to hear her sing.
But...the always happy Ahnya...also did that one time. The customers covered their ears and cried out in horror...with one exception, a adventurer from the Ganesha Familia loved Ahnya´s singing.
So went the week by and eventually the night of the seventh night came. Seven was a lucky number for most of the people, but not this time. Over the last days, the most sensitive people had felt a slight shaking from the ground from time to time, but is wasn´t the feeling as if the dungeon shook. The few adventurers that still went into the dungeon had reported that it felt strange down there, as if the dungeon...went silent.
The monsters inside re-spawned way slower than usual, some Floors remained empty for a whole day until the first monster came back. This situation was more dire than it sounded, no monsters meant no income for many people. And the people needed money, the continous flow of wares and food in Orario went slower, many bought as much food as they could to stock up, at least the food that they could.
It was lord Ganesha who gave speeches to the citizens and adventurers that they shouldn´t panic. The great Familia´s stood upright to their oath and would protect the city. Citizens felt hope rising when they noticed the figure that approached and stood next to Ganesha, the goddess that was missed by many people, Astrea.
The goddess swore to the people that her Familia would help the great Familias like they did in the past, they would protect the people and the justice of Orario. They went a step further on the next day and brought their captains with them, Astrea had convinced Ryu to use the old armament that she didn´t used for years. The people got hope when they saw her like this, while Ryu felt unwell like this, it got easier when Syr joined them.
Many people saw Syr fearless back then, helping the people even shortly after explosions happened in the dark times. When it was needed, Syr even sang in front of many people, her voice was amplified through magic items. From the third day onwards, Syr sang for the people every day, in the pub or in front of Babel.
Some people needed to see courage, some the cute waitress or the gorgeous goddess of justice with her overprotective captain, whatever it was, the big Familias showed it to them, to give them courage.
Hestia fought in her own way, she wore the mascot outfits from Jaggarmaru-kun, which she had to let open at the front a bit, due to her rack. The small, cute goddess also cheered up many people. While the weather was against them, the gods and adventurers of Orario fought against the rising depression and bad mood.
"Hm?!"
Bell startled a bit when he woke up from someone knocking at the door.
"Argonaut, Ais, we need you, hurry!"
Ais blinked sleepy and tried to look at Bell with unfocussed eyes. "Bell?"
"Ais, wake up."
"Breakfasht?" She mumbled slightly.
"Ais?"
"I want a burger..."
"Ais?"
She blinked again, slowly getting awake. It was the worst moment to wake her up, she had fallen into deep sleep and was now woken up again suddenly. Tiona eventually opened the door bit by bit, despite her cheerful, carefree nature, she was surprisingly considerate. When enough light fell into the room so she could see that Bell and Ais woke up, Tiona closed the door again.
"It is important, please hurry."
Ais grumbled, she didn´t liked to be disturbed when she had fallen asleep, snuggled up to Bell. Both climbed out of the bed and started to change their clothes, with a glance to the clock, Bell noticed it was only barely past midnight. After making sure they were dressed properly, they went to the door.
"Bell, wait."
"Hm?"
He turned around to see her serious face.
"Bell, I have the feeling that when we are going through this door, things will start to become messy."
"So?"
"So..." She got closer to him and had this special look in her eyes.
Their last chance for a calm, loving kiss in a while...also they always kissed when they got up from bed, it didn´t needed to be morning for that. Eventually they left the room and Ais closed the door, a nervous looking Anakity waited for them outside.
"The captain wants to see you, everyone shall come into the big hall."
Anakity didn´t looked to happy either, not only because they all knew how an emergency situation started, but because she and Raul had cuddled while they slowly fell asleep on their own and now had to get up aagin. They followed the hallways of the Mansion down to the great hall, that was used for celebrations or dire situations that the whole Familia needed to hear.
Most of the members of the Loki Familia were present already, and most of them looked tired. Bell notcied someone with blue hair at the end of the hall, a woman with glasses.
Ms. Asfi?
That meant...the scouts were back. Loki, Finn, Gareth and Riveria were at the end of the hall, together with Asfi and someone else from the Hermes Familia, the scout Lulune. A few turned around sleepy when they heard the door getting closed behind them.
"Captain, we´re all here!"
Raul walked from the door to the table that the other high executives were standing in front of. Lefiya sat behind Riveria and wrote everything important down that would be reported. During the meeting, Bell would keep an eye on Lefiya on the side, amazed by the sheer speed that she showed while writing stuff down.
Finn went a step forward and the first three rows sat down on the chairs next to them, it would be more polite to stand, but then the ones in the back wouldn´t be able to see Finn.
"Everyone, thank you for getting up at this late hour. I wouldn´t have called for you if it could wait, but the situation is dire. The scouts from the Hermes Familia have returned and told us what they saw."
He stepped to the side and Asfi came forward together with Lulune.
"I will come straight to the point Loki Familia-"
She stopped for a moment when she noticed Bell. "And Bell Cranel."
"We followed the signals that Lulune catched with her tools and went past the Beol mountains on the east side. As you may have noticed already, dark clouds gathered up in the sky. They all come from the north and we saw their source. I don´t know how to describe it for real what we saw, it was like an enormous cloud of blackness crouching over the land. The cloud went up far into the sky and spread from there, and it moved forward. It was not very fast but it devoured the land and we noticed movements. Dozens and dozens of monsters that we saw during the attack of Orario moved in front of the cloud. And they all march to the south...to us."
Lulune took over. "I used my field glasses, Asfi held me while she flew in the air. I looked at Melistora and while it isn´t that bright in the north due to the clouds, I saw that the monsters ignore the city. They could easily go there and wipe out the city, but the monsters doesn´t seem to care, they don´t move away from the cloud and march at it´s edge forward. From what I saw, there was one of those you described as the alpha creature and the others only smaller ones. The ground shook and I heard some roars...from the cloud. I dare to say, something is inside that cloud, something big."
Asfi continued. "From what I saw from the sky, the land that is touched by the black cloud dies, every plant turned black and have withered. When the wind turned, we noticed that sour smell. So it is pretty safe to say, this is a giant cloud of Miasma...and it is moving towards Orario."
Before silence could fall and everyone becoming busy with their thoughts, Finn continued.
"Everyone ears up!"
He knew how to stop them from becoming uneasy.
"We are the Loki Familia, one of Orario´s strongest Familias! We are the sword that pierces into the enemy, we have saved Orario multiple times and we will do it again! As you all know it, the defensive of Orario is currently not able to withstand a second attack.
But we won´t wait like small mouses untilt he cat comes to get us! The guild already gave us a free pass, we are leaving Orario and march towards the black clouds. We will attack the monsters when they come around the Beol mountains, before they can spread again and attack Orario. No one else can do our job and we will succeed!
This is an extermination mission, we will slay all the monsters and reveal what is inside that cloud!"
Loki took over. "I received a message from Ouranos. "The time has come Loki Familia, save our city and the world once again!""
Finn smiled wryly. "Normally I would give you all time to ask questions, but we are too many at the moment so please spare me this time. Again the fate of Orario...no...the world lies in our hands.
If these monsters reach the dungeon it can only mean total destruction, that´s not an exaggeration. The whole world is in danger again and we will face this danger! You may think it is unfair, you may think others should also go, but we...the Loki Familia...are the only ones who can do this!
The Freya Familia will stay here and protect the city, the Ganesha Familia will take care of the citizens, no one else can go, only we do. And if the leader of these black monsters is inside that cloud, whatever it might be, we will face it!"
Finn got louder and louder the more he got into his speech. "Some of you don´t want to go, don´t want to be in this danger. Many of us are afraid of this weapon of mass destruction that we have nearly nothing effective against, some are uneasy. But, we must rise to the challenge! Let all the people and gods in Orario be our witness, we will defeat this threat, show them we are the strongest again and their saviors!"
Bell heard the windows rattle, the wind outside got stronger. Strong gusts of wind swirled around the Mansion and let the flags with the famila´s coat of arms waved vigorously. Finn walked slowly from left to right and back again, holding the shaft of his spear and tapping his shoulder with it by each step. The light of the magic stone lanterns in the room shone on the tip of his spear. The wind let the windows rattle louder, Finn paid no attention to the wrath of the elements.
"Do you hear that?" He asked calmly.
Silence answered him, some of the Familia members and Bell looked to the others confused, not sure what Finn did right now. All eye were on him.
"Do you hear that?!" He yelled out.
The adventurers closest to him startled a bit from his behaviour.
"Answer me!"
"Y-Yes, captain." A Familia member in the front stuttered slightly.
Finn continued to walk back and forth. A strange noise came from him, it took a moment until they noticed that he chuckled. After a few seconds he started to laugh, laughed louder and louder while he raised his spear.
"Do you all feel as offended as I do? They are offering the same trick against us again?!"
He turned to the Familia again and while he stopped laughing, he still sounded amused.
"This is what they send against us? More small monsters, a big monster and Miasma? Again? We are defending the center of the world, the strongest city in all of the lands. Every monster that attacks this city get´s slain, we are dozens and dozens and stand shoulder on shoulder. We have weapons without count, our courage and honor are without question, our hearts pump bravery into our blood!
And this is how they attack us again?!"
"My friends, fellow Familia members..." Finn winked to Bell for a moment. "An army of weak monsters is approaching our city, so weak they need to use Miasma or they stand no chance against us. Forgive me when I have to order you to sully your weapons with their blood, to waste valuable arrows and bolts on them. To unleash your magic against such filthy creatures, when they are writhing and moaning in front of you."
Finn stopped for a moment and lowered his spear...it looked almost like he was bored by the thought of the threat. All of his attention was on the weaker Familia members.
"I heard whispers in the hallways, in the city. A name that is getting whispered in fear, a name of the past. Do you know it?"
"Yes..." A few voices answered him.
"Do you know the name?!" Finn yelled again.
"Yes!" A choir answered him.
"They say it is the Behemoth and it´s offsprings! That Behemoth! The titan class monster from the past that was slain by the Zeus Familia!"
Bell got goosebumps when he heard that name, especially the one from the Familia.
"We may face it or not, but I tell you the Behemoth is dead! There might be a big monster inside the cloud, but we will face it! This is the hour of our destiny!"
The voice of the prum got louder and louder.
"Never before in life has a fight been so significant. You have never fought the way you will fight now! No duty has ever been so important, no fame has ever tasted so truly! WE are the sword of Orario! On this day we carve another legend into the anals of this city and the body of every monster that threatens us! Will you march with me and hold out?!"
Slowly there was a real cheer that shook the air in the room, Bell couldn´t held himself back and cheered with them.
"Will you hold out with me?!"
More cheers filled the room.
"Daughters and sons of Loki! Our blood is that of heroes! Do these monsters dare to attack our city? To desecrate our holy ground? To attack our citizens? We will crush their bodies before the evening dawns tomorrow!"
A wave of noise filled the hall, Finn raised his spear to the ceiling.
"This is our city! Our world! Say it! Shout it out so that these monsters can still hear us behind the mountains! Our city! Our world!"
""""OUR CITY! OUR WORLD!"""""
Laughing again, Finn turned into the direction of the mountains.
"You bloody monsters! Come to me! Come to all of us! You will die in fire, ice, thunder and blood!"
""""FIRE, ICE, THUNDER AND BLOOD!""""
One by one, the members of the Loki Familia raised their weapons to the ceiling, it was custom to have their weapons with them at an emergency meeting. Bell´s goosebumps got stronger when he raised the Hestia Knife next to Ais with Hurricane, it felt like electricity filled the room.
Finn waved his spear as if he wanted to give the order to attack.
"For the Loki Familia! For the people! For Orario!"
""""FOR ORARIO!""""
"Louder!"
""""FOR ORARIO!""""
"They can´t hear you my friends!"
""""FOR ORARIO!""""
"You inhuman scum come to our walls! Die on our blades, by our arrows and spells! We are the Loki Familia and we will destroy you before you reach our walls!"
""""ORARIO! ORARIO! ORARIO!""""
Bell got caught in the wave of excitement, he chanted with them.
.
.
The Loki Familia...
.
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went to war.
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Authors Note: For your information, I will put the Blood of Zeus story on a hold for the next two weeks. I will use my vacation to push this ark forward a bit, so you will see how this ark turns out.