Hi everyone, sorry that it took a hot minute for me to update I was trying to figure out how I wanted to play out the next few chapters and I lost the inspiration to write for a little bit, but anyway here is the 4th chapter I hope you enjoy it.
A few days had passed since Lucifer and Bell had registered with the guild, the duo ended up finding more permanent housing in an old abandoned church, along side a certain twin tailed goddess, she had invited them to stay with her after hearing overhearing Lucifer tell Bell that they were going to need find a more permanent place to stay after which they came to an agreement, and once introductions were over they knew the goddess as Hestia, goddess of the Hearth. Though she was taken aback after finding out who Lucifer was she quickly got over it and accepted him, much to Lucifers relief. It was currently early in the morning and Lucifer had just finished updating Bells status, "Well Bell your growing slowly, but surely." he said while handing him his status sheet, Bell took and looked at it while smiling and said "Look Lucifer-sama my agility reached H."
"Yes, Bell I saw." He told him "But stay quite Hestia is still sleeping."
"Right sorry." Bell said his smile faltering a little. "Whats wrong?" Lucifer asked him.
"Well kami-sama is sleeping on the bed and me on the couch but you're sleeping on the floor, are you sure you don't want to switch places with me? He responded, Lucifer looked at him before letting out a small sigh "Listen Bell, Hestia is a goddess it wouldn't feel right making her to sleep on anything other than a bed and you're an adventure you need to be in the best shape possible and besides the floor isn't that bad." Lucifer said while putting on his best smile, 'My back is killing me though' "Now get going the dungeon isn't going to conquer itself." Bells smile brightened "Yes, Lucifer-sama." he said standing up and getting his gear on "I'm off." he said running up the stairs "Stay safe." Lucifer yelled up the stairs, Lucifer heard the doors of the church close as Bell run off to the dungeon, 'I suppose I should get ready for work' Lucifer thought as he walked over to Hestia. "Hey it's time to get up." he told her while shaking her lightly.
"Hmm, where's Bell-kun?" she asked groggily. "He just left." He responded.
"WHAT!" she yelled while bolting upright "I thought I told you to get me before he left!"
"Well he ran off after I finished after updating his status, not much I can do about it now." he said
"Hmph." she responded while crossing her arms. "Look get your stuff around, we need to get to work." Lucifer said as her began walking away "I'll be waiting for you outside."
A few minutes passed as Lucifer was waiting outside the church, and he took it as an opportunity to clear his head, 'What am I doing, I know this isn't going to go over well with dad, he'll probably send Micheal to try and get me to go back, if that happens I suppose Hestia can become Bell's patron deity. "Lucifer!" Lucifer was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Hestia calling his name. "Sorry, I was thinking." He told her "Well alright, lets get going or we're going to be late.
Lucifer and Hestia were currently working at the potato snack stand, with Hestia handling the customers and advertising while Lucifer was cooking and preparing the potato snacks. "Bouquet of the Gods?" Lucifer questioned "Yeah, apparently it's being held in a couple days by Ganesha and I was wondering if you were planning on going?" Lucifer stopped what he was doing to think about for a moment 'I suppose I should go and let the other gods know that I'm here' "Well if you're going, I guess I'll tag along."
"Great!" Hestia responded excitedly, the next few minutes were spent in silence before Hestia wondered out loud, "I hope he's doing okay."
"Who, Bell?" Hestia nodded, Lucifer began to ponder for a moment.
"AAAAAAAAA" Bell was currently running for his life from a minotar, 'WHY IS THERE A MINOTAR ON THE FIFTH FLOOR' Bell screamed internally, while externally he was just screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAA" Bell was barely outpacing the monster that was giving chase, he managed to round a corner only to face a dead end, turning around he saw that the minotar was right in front of him and all Bell could do was cower in fear and wait for his demise.
"Eh, I'm sure he's fine." he said "Well if you say so." she responded. Lucifer and Hestia spent the rest of their shift tending to customers which wasn't that much longer about half an hour, when they were finished they started heading home but not before Hestia took some of the leftover potato snacks with them, most of the walk was spent in silence, so Lucifer was about to began a conversation with Hestia but before he could he felt what like a pair of eyes briefly flash upon him, he quickly turned to look for the owner of the gaze but couldn't find them. "Lucifer are you okay?" Hestia asked a bit worried "Yeah I'm fine, I though I felt something." he responded.
"Oh okay." she said not fully convinced
"Look I'll be fine, lets get back home before Bell does." He said with a smile.
"Well alright." she said sounding a bit more cheerful at the mention of Bell. They continued on with their walk but Lucifer could only think about the stare that he felt 'That felt all too familiar, even after all this time she's still after me huh?' Lucifer thought worriedly.
The two were currently at home setting the table for dinner, courtesy of Hestia of course, when they heard the church doors opening soon followed by footsteps coming down the stairs to reveal a white haired adventure. "I'm home!" he said, "Bell/ Bell-kun." they said at the same time. "How was the dungeon?" Lucifer asked.
"It was good, I almost died." he said.
"WHAT!" Hestia yelled while checking Bell for injuries.
"I'm fine Kami-sama." Bell said while smiling nervously, Lucifer let out a small chuckle at the scene. "Heh, well come get something to eat and tell us about it." Bell obliged and then started telling them of his encounter with the minotar to being saved by the Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein, to him running away covered in blood. Hestia was upset about Bell falling in love with Ais Wallenstein, while Lucifer was laughing about Bell running away covered in blood, both of which caused a reddish hue to cover Bells face. "HAHAha.. heh, sorry Bell but that was really unexpected, I bet she's wondering why you ran way from her." Bell appeared to sadden a bit at the comment, Lucifer noticing spoke again "Bell it's okay, any number of people would of done the same thing, and as unlikely as it is the next time you see her try to apologize and thank her." Bell cheered up after hearing this, Hestia on the other hand was not doing so well, "Either way I would prefer it if you stay away from this Wallenwhatsit, I mean there might be a girl that already likes you and she might be closer than you think." Hestia stated a but hopeful, Bell being oblivious said "The only girls I know are you and Eina-san." Hestia seemed utterly defeated at the statement and Lucifer could only sigh at the sad display. "Hestia why don't you get ready for bed while I update Bells status?" Hestia nodded her headed although a bit dejectedly and headed upstairs, while Bell removed shirt and turned his back to Lucifer, he pricked his finger and a drop of blood fell on Bells back and the roomed was enveloped in a red glow. As Lucifer was updating Bells status he asked a question "Lucifer-sama is Kami-sama mad at me?" Lucifer looked up for a moment before saying "No, though she is upset."
"Why, did I say something to upset her?" he asked worriedly.
"Bell, if you want to get anywhere in life then you need to be able to understand the feelings of the people around you." Bell could only offer a confused look. "It's fine if you don't understand right now, all you need to worry about right now is that Hestia isn't mad nor will she be upset forever."
"Yes, Lucifer-sama." Bell said seeming a little more cheered up, content with their talk Lucifer turned back to updating Bells status and remained silent until, "Eh?" Lucifer let out a small noise of surprise. "Is everything alright Lucifer-sama?" Bell asked "Yeah, everything's fine." Lucifer responded 'though you are full of surprises Bell' Lucifer pressed a piece of paper against Bells back, copied his status and then handed it to Bell, he seemed disappointed at the lack of improvement, his eyes wandered to the skills and noticed a smudge, "Lucifer-sama what's this under my skills." he asked excitedly "Hmm, oh that it's nothing just a mistake I made." he said flatly "Oh." Bell sounding disappointed.
"It's fine you'll get a skill soon enough, now get ready for bed I need to talk Hestia." Lucifer said to which Bell nodded and started to head upstairs at the same time Hestia came down, to which Bell apologized to, Hestia walked over to Lucifer and asked "Why did Bell apologize?"
"I had a small talk with him, anyway that's not what's important right now, this is." he said while handing her Bells status sheet, Hestia took it albeit a little confused looked it over, she didn't notice anything unordinary until she noticed the smudge, "What's this?" she asked. Lucifer responded by touching the paper and pouring a small amount of his arcanum into it to reveal what it was.
Liaris Freese- Single Minded Pursuit, Rapid Growth and Development depending on the strength of the users feeling.
Hestia stared at the paper in disbelief, "What is this?" she asked. "I don't know but if anyone were to find out it would practically be a free for all amongst the gods, so for now we should keep it a secret even from Bell." Lucifer said. "I understand, but why are you sharing this with me?" Hestia questioned, Lucifer thought for a moment, "It's because I trust you, and as we both know my presence here is causing many heads to turn and in the event I'm forced back to hell, I want you to look after Bell." Hestia was taken aback by Lucifers statement, as she didn't realize how he felt, "Alright, you have my word as a goddess that if that should happen I'll take care of Bell." she said smiling, "Thank you." he said smiling as well.
The next day passed rather uneventfully, with Bell heading to the Dungeon and Lucifer and Hestia going to work, at the end of their shift their coworkers invited them to a party to which Hestia accepted but Lucifer declined, when asked why he said, "I'm expecting a message from someone and they won't be happy if I'm not there to respond." At that Hestia understood what he meant and Lucifer started heading to the church. Once he reached it he went inside and headed downstairs and waited, it wasn't long before a divine mirror in front of Lucifer and a someone appeared in it, but before Lucifer could say anything the figure lashed out, "YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" despite the outbreak Lucifer remained unfazed, "Well hello to you to, Hades." Hades was sitting upon a black throne wearing equally black armour with dark red hair that seemed as if it was on fire, and piercing blue eyes. "Do you know what you caused when you left?" Lucifer already knew what was happening but decided to play dumb if only to annoy him. "If I had to guess most likely a territory war." Lucifers trick worked as Hades had another outburst. "YES, the whole underworlds looking to get a piece of Hell."
"Who are the main contenders?" Lucifer asked.
"Anubis and Hel were the first ones to take action." Hades said clearly upset.
"I'd bank my money on Anubis, I've always liked him." Lucifer responded.
"I'M NOT ASKING FOR YOU OPINION, I'M ASKING YOU TO RETURN." Hades yelled.
"That's going to be a no from me." Lucifer said "And besides I have a familia now."
Hades was surprised by the last statement, "Who the hell (pun not intended) would want to join you?"
"His name's Bell Cranel, he's a good kid, oh get this he want's to be a hero." Lucifer said.
"You didn't trick him to join you?" Hades questioned.
"Nope he joined me willing even after finding out who I am." Lucifer stated proudly.
There was a moment of silence before Hades erupted into laughter, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, So your telling a kid that wants to be a hero hahaha decides to join a devil? HAHAHAHA, That's the funniest thing that I heard this millennium!" "I know right. I had the same reaction when he told me." Lucifer said. "But back to the at hand, I have no intention of returning so you can tell Beelzebub that he's in charge." Hades could only sigh before speaking. "Very well, but this won't go over well with those warring over your territory." Lucifer nodded. "If that's the case tell Beelzebub that he has my permission to use the horseman if necessary, I'm sure War is itching to let loose."
"Alright, good luck Lucifer I'm sure you'll need it." Hades said.
"Yeah thanks Hades, I hope we can see each other again under better circumstances." Lucifer replied.
With that the mirror closed and Lucifer was left staring at an empty spot in the air, he stayed like that for a minute before the noise of the church door opening caught his attention turning around he saw Bell coming done the stairs. "I'm home." he said cheerful as always. "Welcome back." Lucifer said happy to have something distract him. "Where's Kami-sama?" Bell asked. "Oh she's at a party with our coworkers." Lucifer responded. "You didn't go?" Lucifer shook his head. "No, there was something that I needed to take care of first, but I'm done now." Bell seemed to brighten up at this. "Well if that's the case why don't you come with me somewhere, there's this pub that I was invited to." Lucifer thought for moment before, "Yeah, I'll tag along." "Great! Let me get ready real quick." Bell responded excitedly.
The pair were standing outside the pub The Hostess of Fertility, "Hmm, I've been meaning to come here." Lucifer said, before Bell could responded a silver haired waitress called out, "Ah, mister adventure, I'm so glad you came." "Thank you for having me, I brought someone else as well if you don't mind." The waitress looked at Lucifer and looked taken aback a bit for a moment but recomposed herself. "Of course that's fine, the more the merrily, right?" The waitress lead them inside, to say the was lively was an understatement the pub was packed full of people from all races all celebrating for one thing or another, the waitress lead them to the bar upfront which was being headed by a rather burly woman. "Mama two more customers." The waitress said. "Well sit them down here, the last tables we have are reserved." The woman responded. "Well take a seat here Mama here will handle your orders." The waitress said. "Oh, I'm Syr Flover can I know your names?" Bell was the first to introduce himself, "I'm Bell Cranel, nice to meet you Syr-san." Syr the turned to Lucifer who let out a sigh. "No way around it, huh? Nice to meet you Syr I'm Lucifer." After saying his name the people in their vicinity stopped all they were doing and looked at the trio. Syr appeared to be unfazed by this revaluation only said, "Nice to meet you Lucifer-sama."
"You don't seem to care about who I am, do you?" Lucifer asked.
"I meet a lot of eccentric people here." Syr said. "So meeting the devil isn't the strangest thing to happen."
"Well alright." Lucifer replied, 'This girl is a strange one' he thought, Lucifer went to sit at the bar with Bell noticing the other patrons moving further away from them when they sat down.
Bell was currently panicking due to the sheer amount of food that was being placed in front, "So you're Syrs cute friend, huh? My name is Mia Grand, but you can call me Mama Mia most everyone does." the woman now know as Mia said. "Well um, Mia-san I didn't order any of this." He said smiling nervously. "Nonsense a growing boy like you needs to eat as much as possible." Mia respond. 'How much is this going to cost me' he thought whilst looking at the menu to add up the cost, which ended up being. "12-1200 valis!" Bell couldn't contain his shock. "It seems I'll be getting bigger paycheck then usual." said a smiling Syr as she passed him, Bell could only look at her dejectedly before hearing Lucifer chuckling next to him. "Looks like someone played you Bell." he said smiling. 'That's all the money that I made in the dungeon today' "Think of it this why Bell." He heard Lucifer talking. "That we're celebrating you surviving that minotar attack." When he put it that why Bell couldn't help but smile. "Right." Bell began to devour the food that was in front of him with a more happy expression.
"So Hell is only a part of the Underworld?" Bell asked. "Yep, each god and goddess off the underworld is in charge of a different section of it with Hades being the overall head honcho of it." Lucifer was currently explaining to Bell how the Underworld worked. "Hell is meant to punish the souls that did bad things in life and once their sentence was up they're sent up to the Well of Souls to await reincarnation, I found it quite enjoyed it actually." Lucifer said who seemed to be reminiscing something. Bell looked nervously at Lucifer before asking. "If you enjoyed it why did you leave?" Lucifer thought for a minute before he answered, but before he could say anything a brown-haired cat person made an announcement. "Moewma the reservations are here, nya." Everyone turned to look at the arriving party which was being leaded by a red haired goddess who was followed by a blonde prum, a green haired elf, a dwarf, two amazonian twins, a gray haired werewolf, and then a blonde woman that seemed to slow the world down for Bell, who couldn't help but stare. "You're drooling." a voice said snapping Bell out of his trance. Bell turned to the voice finding it was Lucifer and began blushing. "So that's Ais Wallenstein, I can see why you fell for her." He said. Bell blushed even more.
The Loki familia was currently celebrating the finish of their expedition, even though it ended failure everyone was in high spirits when a loud and bashful werewolf who was obviously drunk begin talking. "Hey, Ais tell them what happened the other day." "What are you talking about Bete?" the swordswoman asked. "Yeah, what are you talking about?" asked one of the amazonian twins. "If you won't tell them, then I will." the werewolf said. "Okay as you all know minotars escaped from us on the 17th floor, well one of them had made it all the way to the 5th and was chasing a beginning adventure around and had him cornered when Ais saved him, but what happened next is the real kicker, when the ashes of the monster cleared you could see the guy covered in the blood of it, I swear he looked just like a tomato, and what does he do to thank her? HE RUNS AWAY SCREAMING HIS HEAD OFF HAHAHAH." with Bete finishing his story the entirety of his familia burst into laughter, with the exception of the three leaders and Ais. "Bete." the green haired elf spoke. "You seem to forget that it was our fault that the minotars got loose and it was our fault that he got caught up in our mistake."
"Oh shut it, you old hag! Don't get mad at me for making fun of a weakling, cause that's what he is." the werewolf spat. The elf could only let out a sigh. "Hey Ais if you had to choose, who would you rather by your side me or that weakling?" Bete asked. Everyone was taken aback by his question. "Bete your clearly drunk for you to be asking this kind of question." an amazon said. "SHUT IT TONIA, Ais someone like that doesn't deserve to be by your side, so I'll ask again who would you rather have?" Ais only stared back, but even to the causal observe they could feel the tension, which continued to rise until it was cut by a voice calling out. "Um, I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something." Everyone turned to the voice, to face a white haired boy.
As Bete was telling his story, Bell was freaking out for obvious reasons, which only worsened due to everyone laughing, but it reached it's peak when Bete asked his question to which Bell wanted to run away and he almost did when a hand was placed on his shoulder. Looking over he saw Lucifer looking at him. "Don't." was the only thing he said. "But he's right I'm weak, I don't deserve to be by her side." Bell said on the verge of tears. "Then prove him wrong." Bell looked at him with surprise. "Prove that you are strong, stronger than anyone here." Lucifer told him. Bell looked at him as tears were rolling down his cheeks. "Yes!" Bell responded. "But that doesn't mean you can be reckless, if I find out you died in the dungeon due to you messing around, I'll drag your soul to the deepest parts of Hell as punishment." Despite the threat Bell could only smile as he was wiping his tears. "Yes, Lucifer-sama." "Now get going." Lucifer said. "Hmm?" Bell let out a sign of confusion. "I did say to thank and apologize to her when you got the chance." He said with a mischievous smile.
"Who the fuck are you?" Bete asked. "Uh, B-Bell Cranel, I'm the adventure mentioned in the story you told." he responded nervously. This surprised most if not all the Loki familia members present, "Well what the fuck do you want?" Bete questioned again. "N-nothing, I just wanted to thank Miss Wallenstein for saving me and apologize for running away when she did." Bell once again surprised the Loki familia, but before they could responded Bell turned to Ais, bowed, and said. "Thank Miss Wallenstein for saving me words can't describe how thankful I am, but I also apologize for running away when you did." Bell stood straight up again only to meet the shocked faces of the Loki familia members, and before anybody could respond Bell quickly dismissed himself. "Well I should get going, I hope you all have a good evening." He then turned to leave and left the pub. Bell outside quickly found Lucifer waiting for. "So how did it go?" he asked. "I left before the had a chance to respond." Bell answered honestly. "I guess that wo-" Lucifer was cut off as Bell hugged him. "Thank you." he said. Lucifer looked at him before returning the hug. "You're welcome." he said. "Now lets go home you're going to have a hard time in the dungeon if you don't get any sleep."
"Yes Lucifer-sama."
Back inside the pub the Loki familia was getting over their shock. "What an interesting young man." the prum said breaking the silence. "Yes, indeed even though the minotars were our fault he still apologized, he is most interesting wouldn't you say Ais?" the green haired elf asked. Ais was staring at the entrance where Bell had just left. Turning around she had an expression that surprised her familia, she was smiling. "I guess that answers Betes question." the elf said. Ais realizing what she was doing returned to her usual stoic face, though with a slight blush, much to the enjoyment of her familia apart from a certain elf and werewolf.
Wow that took awhile to write I started at the end of November and finished on Christmas, speaking of which Merry Christmas or whatever it maybe you celebrate this time of year. Anyway I'm sorry if it feels like I forced Hestia into the story but I couldn't find a way without doing so. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter despite its shortcomings, I wish you all a Happy New Year and a good day.