The Old Church

No one was here.

Heracles didn't even need to check inside the building to know this.

He did not sense the magical energy of Chiron nor did he feel the presence of a Goddess that would signify that the alternate version of his aunt was here, and his connection to his master pointed him in the direction of the city.

He wondered where they had gone for a few seconds before only vaguely remembering the encounter with the waitress girl earlier that morning through the fog in his mind. He then wondered why they didn't wait for him, but it didn't last long.

It was already well into the night when he had exited the Dungeon and his… appearance was bound to attract attention that they didn't want during their meal. He realized this, and quickly accepted it.

Plus it wasn't as if he was going to eat anything even if he did go with. Ignoring how he didn't know what the local cuisine was like, Servants didn't need to eat food or drink so him eating would only be a waste of money that they were in need of.

So he waited for them to return. Standing guard outside the main entrance of the Church, his newly acquired Axe-sword planted in the ground. If someone approached him not knowing who he was, he would be mistaken for a statue, with the only hints of that not being the case being his odd placement outside of a church and his black hair that moved with the wind.

Of course he knew standing guard wasn't something that needed to be done, at least not yet into his summoning anyway. This world seemed peaceful enough, disregarding the Dungeon, and his master and aunt weren't the kind of people that would have many enemies. It was just something to do as he waited for them to come back.

He wouldn't have to wait too long though, as the sounds of running footsteps and heavy breathing came into ear shot for him.

Looking in the direction of where the sounds were coming from, Heracles saw Hestia and Bell running toward him. He silently watched as they rapidly approached him, wondering why they were in such a hurry and where Chiron was.

When they did eventually make it up to him, the two were mostly out of breath from the running, Hestia curled over with her hands on her knees. Bell usually wouldn't have been so exhausted from the run, but the brutal training that Chiron had put him under meant his body protested and more exercise.

"Huff… Heracles… you're here….good…" Hestia said in between her exhausted pants.

"Where did you get that… sword?" Bell asked as he finished catching his breath and taking notice of the landform weapon Heracles now wielded.

In response to the question, Heracles simply stared down wordlessly at Bell, making the white haired boy somewhat uncomfortable.

"Ooookay…" Bell said as it occurred to him that he didn't even know if Heracles could even understand him much less how Heracles could actually communicate such a thing.

Meanwhile, Heracles was legitimately thinking how he could tell his master how he had gotten the axe-sword.

"Doesn't it look like one of the landform weapons that you said the monsters use?" Hestia said as she finished catching her breath.

"Hey yeah, you're right." Bell said, realizing that Hestia was correct, the rocky look of the weapon suddenly clicking into his head.

Though Heracles was no longer looking down at his master and goddess as the minor mystery was solved. He was looking down the street they had come from expectantly. Clearly, he had noticed the absence of his teacher.

"...Do you think we should tell him?" Bell said quietly to Hestia, but not so quietly that Heracles was unable to miss it. Even with the madness gripping his mind, he would not be the legendary hero he was known for without his sense being at the very peak of humanity's limits.

"I mean, is there a point?" Hestia said back to Bell just as quietly. "I'm not even sure that he understands us, but even then do we know how he would react? I mean Chiron is currently with people who might be enemies, and his class must be called 'Berserker' for a reason."

Heracles' interest rose in response to the alternate version of his aunt's words. What had he missed while he was in the Dungeon? What possible enemies could Chiron be with at this moment?

"I guess you have a point… I just hope whatever Chiron's doing right now just stops this before it becomes a big problem."

It was times like this where Heracles cursed whatever mage, omnipotent being, or force of the universe had decided to make the Berserker class and how Madness Enhancement work the way it did, plus Hera for forcing him to qualify for it for good measure. He wanted nothing more than to ask the two what had happened and who Chiron was with. However, he struggled to even move his facial features in a non threatening way, let alone saying anything that wasn't just animalistic growling.

It was then that Bell and Hestia realized that he was looking down at them and promptly stopped their quiet conversation.

"So, uh, I think we should probably try to go to bed." Hestia said awkwardly after a few seconds.

"Huh? Shouldn't we wait for Chiron to come back?" Bell asked, confused and slightly surprised by the suggestion of his goddess.

"And what good would that do Bell?" Hestia asked back. "It's late at night already, and we have no idea how long whatever Chiron is doing is going to take. At least if we go to sleep, you get to rest up from that hell he put you through earlier today." she finished as she poked him on the cheek, where a bruise was still healing, to prove her point.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point." Bell said with a sigh after a slight wince from having his bruise poked, gently rubbing his cheek with one hand."

"Alright then, it's decided! You're sleeping in the bed with me!" Hestia said as she grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him through the Church's doors.

"Huh?! Where did that come from Goddess!?" Bell yelled out in surprise as he was dragged away by Hestia, with the church doors closing behind him.

…

...

...

Heracles could not use his mouth and he must sigh. Or scream. Screaming would be nice too at this point.

So right now, Chiron was with someone, talking about something they had no idea about, and the alternate version of his virgin goddess aunt was currently trying to sleep with his master, who was still essentially a child. And all the while, he was left with nothing to do, but wait and hope whatever Chiron was doing ended well… whatever that was.

Heracles did the closest thing he could to a sigh, which was huffing out a decent amount of air that came out as practically steam as he returned to his original position. Regardless, even if he didn't know what Chiron was trying to do, he knew he would succeed. Afterall, he was the immortal centaur that had been blessed by the gods and who had trained a countless number of heroes, it was only a matter of time before he accomplished whatever his goal was.

Twilight Manor

"Now then, I believe now would be a good time for you to introduce yourself." Finn said, the captain of the Loki Familia seated in his chair looking at Chiron with interest.

After confronting the Loki Familia, and showing them the picture of Heracles, Chiron had been quickly brought to the home base of the Loki Familia, the Twilight Manor to be questioned about his knowledge of the supposed unknown monster that had managed to "defeat" two of their strongest.

Admittedly, Chiron had honestly been tempted to ask them to talk right there in the Hostess of Fertility for a couple of seconds, but decided against it. While it would've allowed for more people to learn about Heracles and how he didn't mean harm, it also meant that more people would learn that there was a person out there who could go head to head with two level fives at once before even being given the Falna. Not only would that probably embarrass the Loki Familia in some way, it also meant that Heracles, along with the Hestia Familia, would garner unwanted attention. Neither of which Chiron wanted at the moment.

"Who the hell cares about who he is! Just get on with it and tell us about the damn monster!" the voice of Bete said off to Chiron's right before he could speak, who was leaning against one of the bookshelves in the room with his hands shoved into his pockets.

Alongside Chiron, Bete, Loki and Finn, there were a grand total of seven people in the room that Chiron assumed was Finn's office.

In between Chiron, who was standing in the center of the room, and Bete was the dwarf Gareth. He was seated in a custom made chair that was perfectly sized for him. He was visually the oldest out of everyone in the room, with long brown hair with a beard that most people would think of when imagining a dwarf. He was dressed somewhat casually, without any armor on and was relaxed in his seat, but his brown eyes lingered on Chiron with interest.

On the other side of Chiron, Riviera stood with her arms crossed together. She was also the archetypal image of what one would imagine with when imagining an elf mage: dressed in a dark green dress with a white cloth draped over her shoulders, long jade green hair that was tied into a tail that reached her waist, with two pointed ears peeking out from it. In contrast to the relaxed seating of her dwarf comrade, she stood straight in a professional manner, though her jade eyes also watched Chiron closely.

Next to her, stood Aiz Wallenstein. She, like everyone else in the room, had her eyes on Chiron, but there was a sort of visual interest in her eyes that the others lacked aside from Bete. Chiron supposed that it had to do with the same reason why both she and Bete were even allowed here while he had seen others denied the privilege, most notable a pair of amazons that looked similar and the orange haired elf.

That reason being was that they were the only two that had fought against Heracles. It wasn't a very long fight from what Chiron could tell, but the experience had clearly given them a vested interest as well as the right to participate in the subject at hand. That and they were really the only ones capable of fact checking of what Chiron was going to tell them.

"Have a little patience Bete, I'm sure he'll get around to it." Loki told the werewolf from her position sitting on Finn's desk, causing him to scowl.

"Please, feel free to begin." Finn said with a sigh before Bete had a chance to rebuke his patron goddess.

"Very well, though allow me to offer my apologies for waiting this long to introduce myself." Chiron began, bowing his head somewhat to be polite. "Though I usually prefer to go by Archer for those who aren't close friends and family, you may call me Chiron if you wish as a sign of goodwill. I am a level one adventurer and captain of the Hestia Familia."

"Hold on, you're part of that pipsqueak's familia? Firstly, gross. Secondly, last I checked, she only had a single member and you don't fit his description." Loki said with a sour expression adorning her face, as if she had just eaten something foul or heard a bad joke. She didn't care about Hestia in any way, shape, or form, but she made sure to keep a close eye on her, if only to have more ammunition to make fun of her the next time she saw her.

"Yes, the Hestia Familia did only have one member, before me and my student joined it yesterday." Chiron responded quickly, not exactly surprised Loki would recognize the name considering what Hestia had told him about their relationship earlier. "It isn't surprising that you haven't heard about that since we only officially registered at the Guild earlier this morning."

"Student you say? That would imply that you are a teacher." Riviera noted with a raised brow.

"Indeed I am." Chiron responded without missing a beat. " I consider myself a teacher first and foremost, and have taught more than a few students in my time."

"A teacher to an adventurer, let alone the captain of a familia, is an interesting career decision to say the least." Gareth said, running a hand through his thick brown beard, prompting Chiron to let out an amused laugh.

"I suppose it is from an outside perspective, but I assure you that it is only natural considering the nature of what I teach."

"I suppose that then raises the question: what is it exactly do you teach?" Finn asked a sense of curiosity and interest in his eyes at the prospect.

"The skills necessary to fight, a strong morality, and a sense of conviction amongst other things. I suppose the simplest way of putting it would be that I teach them how to be warriors, or even how to be heroes if I may be so bold." Chiron said, causing most of the rest of the other people in the room to look at him with a new interest or curiosity. It wasn't every day that you met someone who made such a claim after all.

"As fucking fascinating as this is-" Bete began, his tone dripping with disinterest and sarcasm, "I fail to see how this had anything to do with the monster."

"It actually has everything to do with it." Chiron said in response, his eyes briefly flickering over to Loki as he did. The presence of the goddess complicated the situation, the ability to instantly tell when one of their "children" is lying making it where he had to be extra careful about what he said. Of course, him not only being of divine blood but also a Heroic Spirit from another world may make it to where it did not work on him, but now was hardly the time to test such a theory. "Afterall, that 'monster' is my student."

The atmosphere in the room quickly changed in reaction to what Chiron as the curiosity that everybody had been looking at him with turned into something similar to suspicion.

"I'm afraid you need to explain what you mean Archer." Finn said, his tone a bit more serious than it had been before.

"I mean exactly what I said, that the 'monster' is one of my students." Chiron said without before continuing as several of the occupants of the room opened their mouths to say something. "But to make things clear despite what his appearance and disposition, he is not a monster and what is going on is a misunderstanding."

"Bullshit!" Bete called out in response to Chiron's claim. "Both me and Aiz clearly saw that thing and there is no way it was anything but a monster!"

Chiron didn't respond to Bete's outburst, instead he only looked at the goddess in the room. "A mortal cannot lie to one of the gods. If there's any doubt that what I say could be a lie, then you merely have to check with your own goddess."

"...He's not, everything he's said so far has been the truth." Loki said when all of her Familia members' attention had been pointed back to her. "But you better explain yourself carefully right now."

"That was the plan from the beginning Goddess Loki, and I certainly will." Chiron replied before turning over to Ais, who had yet to say anything since Chiron had said anything. "But first, I think it would be better if Ms. Wallenstein could give a detailed description of what happened first."

Chiron's request surprised and caused most of the inhabitants of the room to raise their brows, not knowing what Chiron was getting at, not least of which Ais herself. She didn't have any problem with it, but she wanted to make sure it was alright with her own Familia first. When Finn gave her nod in response to her looking at her, she took in a breath before beginning to retell the run in with Heracles from her perspective.

"I chased a minotaur that had escaped up to the Fifth Floor when I heard an unfamiliar roar that sounded unlike anything that should've been up on the Upper Floors. Investigating it, I found a boy being attacked by the monster, or I suppose I should say, your student, and immediately went to rescue the boy. When I had made sure he was safe and after he ran away, " Ais made sure to breeze past that point since remembering it stung a little since it was clear that he had run away from her just as much as the monster, "I had engaged him in a fight, where it spent most of its time dodging my attacks. It wasn't until Bete had arrived to help that it made its first attack by throwing us into each other and running away while we recovered. We chased after him but had no luck in finding him."

"Thank you Ms. Wallenstein." Chiron said, bringing everyone's attention back to him, though Finn's eyes lingered on Ais for a second longer than most. She had mentioned the detail about Heracles not attacking her before when she had originally reported it to him. It wasn't something that had caught his attention before, thinking that the "monster" had been overwhelmed by Ais and was only capable of focusing on defense, but now something about it made it stick out to him.

Of course, Chiron was also legitimately grateful for the Sword Princess explaining the scene to all of them. Not only that it allowed everyone present to have that information fresh in their minds, but also because, had she not, he wouldn't know.

He didn't have time to ask for any details that Bell did know, not that he would know that much, and, even if he had gotten the chance to, asking Heracles would have certainly been an exercise in futility. But now, having gotten all the information on the event from the perspective of the Sword Princess and his own knowledge of his students, he had a solid idea of what happened exactly.

"So then, allow me to start from the beginning to clarify how this misunderstanding came to be." Chiron began, clapping his hands together as he did. "Like I said before, my student is human, one that I have known since he was a young boy. Like myself, he has two names, the name he prefers to go by when not with close friends, Berserker, and his real name, Heracles. From now on, I'd prefer you use either one or the other."

Most of the Loki Familia members would raise a brow at the odd name that was Berserker, but didn't question it. After all, they were dealing with someone whose prefered name was "Archer". Those who cared to guess why, mostly Riviera and Finn, assumed it was because of some cultural reason from the village they were from.

"Yesterday, me and him arrived here in the city, though before we came here we were 'separated due to an unfortunate incident' last we met." Chiron continued, sending a discreet glance in the direction of the goddess in the room. Chiron knew that he was going to have to be careful how he said things with her presence. He didn't know that being a Divine Spirit or a Servant himself would allow him to be exempt from the lie detecting abilities, but now was certainly not the moment to test any such theories out.

So right now, he had to rely on half truths and being as vague as he possibly could on certain subjects. So far, Loki didn't seem to be alerted to anything at the vague reference to his own death being the reason he and Heracles weren't together, which was true in a way.

"So you're saying when Berserker arrived at Orario on his own after you were separated and somehow made his way to the Dungeon without even being seen by anyone?" Riviera gave a mostly rhetorical question to Chiron to see if she was following what he was saying so far.

"Berserker can be very sneaky when he wants to be." was the only response she got from the teacher of heroes, causing Riveria to raise a brow before looking over at Loki, who promptly gave an exaggerated shrug with a slightly confused look on her face, meaning he was telling the truth.

"But why would he immediately go to the Dungeon? And you still haven't answered what's the deal with his appearance and temperament if he really is human." Gareth said as he groomed his thick beard.

"Well, not even I can say for certain why, when left to his own devices, he would be drawn to the Dungeon. However, in this specific instance, it might have something to do with a kind of sixth sense Berserker has." Chiron said, ignoring the urge to look back at Loki to see her reaction from how close he had come to lying.

"'This specific instance' you say? And could you elaborate on this sixth sense?" Finn asked, interested in what Chiron had to say.

"I will, but this is as good a time as any to explain the reason behind Heracles' appearance and the source of this confusion." Chiron replied, visibly peaking the interest of all the other occupants of the room as he began. "Berserker is under the effects of something of a curse called 'Madness Enhancement'. In addition to the more monstrous appearance, it enhances the physical capabilities of those affected by it, though it strips them of their sanity and sense of self, as well as most of their dexterity."

Chiron didn't miss how a few of the Loki Familia would cast some glances in the direction of their captain. Though he didn't know it, Chiron's description of the "curse" that affected his student gave a vague reminder of the Hell Fingas spell that Finn used to a similar effect. Though this Madness Enhancement seemed like a more extreme version of the spell.

"So in simpler terms, it is a curse that turns people into monsters?" Finn asked Chiron for clarification, ignoring its similarities to his own spell.

"That is the general idea of it, yes. Though the potency of it can change depending on the strength of the curse and the character of the person being cursed. A lesser man would completely lose themselves no matter what, and others have been known to become obsessive over something rather than monstrous or insane."

"So he's just some insane idiot, big deal." Bete said, cutting into the conversation once again in his usual hostile and angry tone. "Just because he's cursed or something doesn't change the fact that he's just as dangerous as a monster!"

"Yeah I got to agree with Bete here." Loki said as she leaned against the palm of her hand. "He's basically a monster in all but species and we're lucky that Ais was attacked."

Despite the words of the goddess, Chiron simply smirked before crossing his arms. "I think you missed something important I said when I was describing the Madness Enhancement. I said that 'a lesser man would completely lose themselves'. However, Berserker is many things, but a lesser man is not one of them."

"Oh? Do go on." Finn said as Chiron rose his interest.

"I said earlier that one of the reasons that Berserker could've gone to the Dungeon on his own was due to a sixth sense of his, correct? To elaborate on that, Berserker has always had a supernatural sense for knowing when danger was nearby, and he has always used it to save others, such as the many times he had to save some of my other students when wild monsters got too close. And despite the Madness Enhancement, he has kept this, because the first thing he did in Orario was save a level one adventurer from a minotaur on the Fifth floor."

A revelation visibly dawned upon all of the members of the Loki Familia at Chiron's words. It wasn't something that Chiron could possibly know, but they knew what minotaur he was talking about. On the return from an expedition to the Deep Floors, the Loki Familia had accidentally caused a large herd of minotaurs to run from them and up to the Upper Floors. They had spent hours hunting down each one they could and killing them before they could hurt anyone, however, they had lost track of one of them because of Ais' run in with Berserker.

They, of course, had searched for both it and Heracles in the following hours, but it had obviously stayed missing with no sign of it. Now, they had discovered what had happened to it, and it was Berserker that had saved a novice adventurer from their mistake.

Chiron didn't know what the revelation that was sweeping throughout the room was, but he didn't question it and simply hoped that it worked to his favor.

"But that doesn't answer one thing." Riviera said, bringing all the attention in the room to her as she spoke, "Even if he did kill the minotaur, it still doesn't explain the fight he had with Ais."

"Except he didn't fight Ais." Finn said, interjecting before Chiron could even open his mouth to answer the elf, causing all of the members of his Familia to send him questioning looks toward him.

Finn ignored them for the most part as he looked over to the Sword Princess before continuing, "Stop me at any point if I am wrong, but you were the one to attack first. While you continued to attack him, he focused only avoiding them with no attempt to counterattack. Even when he did finally throw you into Bete, instead of taking the opportunity to attack two downed opponents, he took it to safely retreat without causing any injury. Am I correct?"

"... Yes. Everything is correct." Ais responded, and despite her typical monotone expression and tone, it was clear that a realization was coming over her.

She wasn't the only one either.

As Finn went back through the events, all of them came to the same conclusion. Despite Heracles' "curse", all he had done was defend himself without causing any injury to the best of his ability. Meaning that they were the aggressors in this incident. A stark contrast to their original idea of an unknown monster attacking one of the executive members of their Familia, or even someone from an enemy familia attacking Ais that they had thought of during this very meeting.

"It would seem you were correct Archer." Finn said after waiting a few seconds for the realization to fully sink in for everyone. "This really is all the result of a misunderstanding, one that we owe you and your student an apology for."

"Speak for yourself." Bete quietly and grumpily mumbled to himself, only caught by a few people in the room.

"There is no need for that." Chiron said politely with a small smile. "It is a simple mistake that most people make at their first time seeing Heracles. Though instead of an apology, might I instead offer a proposition? One that may benefit both Familias?"

The executives of the Loki Familia would all raise their brows in interest at what the teacher had to offer them before Finn made a gesture for Chiron to continue.

"Although I may now be the captain of a familia, I mean to offer my abilities as a teacher to lower level adventurers. Though, as you can imagine, something like that won't be the easiest to advertise for, and even if I did, there's nothing to inspire faith in my lessons from adventurers as someone not even from Orario. Originally, I had been hoping to prove my capabilities by teaching another member of my Familia, the same boy that Heracles saved from the minotaur, but I have a new idea. Although I admittedly don't know how much I can do for the more experienced of you, if you can bring some of your less experienced members, I can teach them a few lessons for free. If the results prove satisfactory, you can put in a good word on my behalf for future customers."

As Chiron finished giving his offer, Loki, Finn, Riviera, and Gareth all looked at one another as they thought it over in their own heads. It was indeed a very sensible offer that benefited both sides and had very few cons, if any at all. Chiron would get free publicity while the junior members of Familia could learn a few skills if all goes well.

"An interesting offer to be sure, one we will certainly give some thought to." Finn answered after a moment, when the four seemed to discuss it wordlessly between them.

"Fantastic!" Chiron said happily, hopeful that they'll accept the offer for the extra revenue that such a thing could bring to the destitute Hestia Familia. "If there's nothing else, I would like to return to my familia since I'm sure they must be worried about me right now."

"Actually there is one more thing." Finn said. "There is one more question I would like to ask."

"Hm? Well, if I can answer it, I would be more than happy to answer it."

"Well, how is it Berserker came to be under the effects of such a curse?" Finn asked with interest at the answer. "Such a powerful curse certainly isn't something that you encounter every day and I can't imagine why you wouldn't have cured or removed it if you could."

Chiron had to will himself not to catch his breath, tense, or give any visual kind of response to Finn's question. Of all the questions that could've been asked during this meeting, this was not the one he thought would put him in a corner. Afterall, with Loki here, he could risk saying he didn't know, and he most certainly did know the exact reason.

"...Well as for the idea of a cure, I can say with some certainty that such a thing would be extremely difficult to come across if it really does exist." Chiron said after a second, contemplating what he should do. He had an idea of what to do, but it most certainly would be cutting it close.

"And why is that?" Gareth asked this time, stroking his beard once again as he talked.

Chiron let out a sigh before he spoke, hesitant to try it, but he couldn't think of anything else, "Because the curse was put on him by the Goddess Hera."

Surprise visibly flashed across the faces of everyone in the room at the identity of the person behind Heracles' Madness Enhancement.

"You mean the old queen of Orario? Why would she do such a thing?" Riviera asked, being the first to recover from her surprise.

"Yeah. I don't see the old bitch doing anything like that. Sure she had a bit of cruel streak at times, but she never did anything evil like that." Loki said, thinking back to the days when Orario was still ruled by the Zeus and Hera Familias.

"Perhaps after being driven out of Orario and falling from power, she grew bitter? All I know is that the Hera that you once knew is the one that I know are different people." Chiron said, watching Loki's reaction carefully to see if what he said set off whatever lie detector the gods had. So far so good. "As for why she would do it… let's just say she and Heracles have never had what could be considered a good relationship. I won't say any more, because it isn't my place to talk about the personal history of my student."

"Hmmm…" Finn said, thinking about what Chiron had just told them. Hera had been missing since being expelled from Orario, with many doubting that she had even remained in the Lower World. The fact that Chiron and Heracles knew her somehow was of some interest to him. "Out of curiosity, do you know where she is right now?"

"No, I haven't seen the Goddess Hera in quite sometime now. I have no idea where she could be."

"Hmm." Finn hummed in thought once again before continuing. "Very well, then I believe that is everything. Bete, you're free to go do whatever you want, and Ais, can you show our guest the way out?"

"Finally." Bete said grumbling, quickly making his way to the exit of the room and making his way out as Ais nodded and went to stand by the now open door waiting for Chiron.

"It was a pleasure meeting you all, and I do hope you give some thought to my offer in the near future." Chiron said, giving a small bow of farewell to Familia executives and their patron goddess before leaving.

"We certainly will." Finn said in farewell as the others waved the teacher goodbye with Ais closing the door behind them, leaving them alone to think about what had just happened.

"Well that was certainly interesting." Loki said leaning back on the desk as she looked up at the ceiling of the room.

"A bit of an understatement, don't you think?" Gareth said bluntly, giving Loki a deadpan look.

"Indeed. It seems the Hestia Familia has gained some 'interesting' additions as you would say." Riviera said, giving her own thoughts on the matter and quoting her goddess, who was currently grumbling in an irritated and annoyed manner at how Hestia somehow managed to get them.

"Certainly a pair to keep an eye on in any case." Finn replied as he looked down at the sketch Chiron had drawn of Heracles that had started this whole event, which had been lying on his desk the entire time, his brow slightly furrowed.

"Is there something wrong Finn? You seem to be thinking about something." Loki asked, leaning back further to look at the drawing herself.

"Just having a slight realization, and regretting not asking a certain question to Archer while I could."

"Would you care to elaborate? It won't do you any good to keep those thoughts bottled up in your head you know." Gareth said with a brow raised as he continued to run a hand through his beard, curious as to what his captain was thinking about.

"How much does 'Madness Enhancement' increase your strength?" Finn confessed, cupping his chin in thought still looking down at the sketch.

"You're referring to how Berserker was able to hold his own against Ais." Riviera said, in a statement rather than asking a question.

"How is it that he was able to fight against a highly regarded level five? Especially if I'm right in thinking that he didn't have a Falna at the time."

"Hold on, what makes you think he didn't have a blessing? Didn't Archer say that they both joined that little shrimp's familia?" Loki asked, not following her captain's line of thought.

"Yes, but they were separated at the time. Without his teacher around to negotiate for him, I have a hard time seeing him joining a familia by himself. Plus Archer mentioned the other member of the Familia was the boy Berserker saved from the minotaur, wouldn't it make sense that the Goddess Hestia would allow them to join in thanks for them saving him and with them having nowhere else to go?"

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Loki said, seeing Finn's line of thinking. "But I guess that also brings up the question how strong Berserker would be without the Madness Enhancement?"

"I see what you're saying. Even if the curse gives him a massive boost to his physical capabilities, that strength has to come from somewhere and is probably proportional to his strength before the curse." Gareth said.

"Archer did say that Berserker used to save his other students from monsters. Even if monsters on the surface are weaker than those in the Dungeon, there aren't many people out there that could survive fighting them without the Falna, and he said it as if it was something perfectly normal for him." Riviera said, cupping her chin in thought.

"Hmmm." Finn hummed in thought as he leaned back in his chair thinking. "Certainly a pair to keep an eye on indeed."

Entrance to Twilight Manor

"Thank you for the assistance ." Archer said politely as they reached the main entrance to the Loki Familia's home.

"It was no problem." Ais said in her usual tone her eyes snapping up to meet his eyes after staring at the horse tail for most of the walk to the entrance. She wanted to ask about it, especially with how it moved several times during the walk, but didn't want to be rude. Sure there were numerous animal people out there, Bete as a werewolf being the primary example, but she had never heard of any of them having horse tails.

"Once again, it was a pleasure to meet you." Archer said, bringing a hand to his chest as he gave a small bow once again. "Farewell."

"Wait." Ais said as Archer turned around and began to walk away, only to stop and turn around to see what could only be described as a shy Ais, as her hand rubbed her other arm. "Your student… Do you think I offended him by thinking he was a monster? I can't imagine what it would be like to live like that. And that boy, the one he saved from the minotaur, is he alright?"

"I wouldn't worry about that." Archer said, turning around to better face Ais with a comforting smile. "Berserker isn't the kind of person to hold a grudge over something like that, and he's perfectly fine, more than fine in fact."

"Oh I see, that's good." Ais said, with a small amount of relief that there would be no hard feelings from Berserker and the whitehaired boy was fine. Still though… that didn't mean that she didn't want to apologize for both of them. Plus she wanted to make sure the whitehaired boy wasn't afraid of her.

"I know." Archer said suddenly, breaking Ais out of her thoughts. "If your captain accepts my offer, why don't you come with them? That way you can see them in person, and say what you want to."

Ais blinked, surprised at Archer's sudden invitation and his seeming ability to hear what she was thinking. Was she really so easy to read? Well, even if she was… "Yes...I think that would be nice."

Archer gave Ais one last smile before saying, "You're a good person, Ais Wallenstein, and I look forward to seeing you again."

With his farewell given, Archer would turn around once again before beginning to walk away once more. Only this time, Ais did nothing to stop him as he walked away. She only closed the doors to the Twilight Manor.

"Ais!" cried out one of the familiar voices of the Amazonian twins of the Loki cried out nearly as soon as the doors clicked shut before she could feel two arms wrap around her in a tight hug.

"Tiona!" Leifya called out, clearly wanting to chastise the Amazonian for her greeting of Ais once again before collecting herself and greeting the Sword Princess, "Oh, Hello , are you doing alright after that weird meeting?"

"Speaking of which-" Tiona's older sister, Tione said as she walked into view from behind the orange haired elf. "What was that about? Whatever it was, it had you and Bete on edge."

"It's kind of a long story... and I don't think I'm allowed to say all of it." Ais said as she gently pushed Tiona once her hug had tightened.

"Maybe you can tell us about it tomorrow? Or at least the parts that you don't think would get us in trouble?" Tiona suggested putting her hands behind her head now that she was no longer hugging Ais.

"I don't think we have anything going on tomorrow, but I would still double check with the captain. Don't want to do anything that will get him mad at us do we?" Tione said, causing her sister to roll her eyes with the tone she took when she mentioned the captain.

"Right… I'll be sure to ask him." Ais said as the group of four women began to walk away from the door.

The Church

Bell began to stir at the sound of something sizzling, and he only began to get up as a delicious smell began to float through the air.

He let out a groan as pushed himself up off of the couch, having managed to talk his way out of the sleeping in the bed with Hestia. His body was still a little sore from the training Chiron had put him through yesterday, though most of it was gone.

Looking around for the source of both the sizzling sound and the heavenly aroma, but was unable to find anything. Getting up from his improvised bed, Bell would use his nose to follow the scent up the stairs of the Church. Opening the door to the basement, Bell would immediately see Chiron, sitting down on the floor of the church in front of a fireplace. Set on the fireplace was a pan with a couple of eggs that were the source of the smell.

"Good morning master!" Chiron said, hearing the door open and seeing him come out from the basement.

"Chiron! Are you alright? Did everything go well with the Loki Familia? … Wait, where did you get those?" Bell asked with some concern before gesturing to the eggs that Chiron was cooking and the pan he was using to cook them.

"I'm perfectly fine, and it went well with the Loki Familia. Though I would like to wait until Goddess Hestia wakes up before I go into details about it." Chiron answered as Bell sat down next to him. "As for where I got these, when I got back from talking with the Loki Familia, both of you were fast asleep. I thought it would be a nice idea to make you two breakfast so I spent just enough spare valis to buy the pan and then spent a few hours looking for any wild bird nests in the area for the eggs."

"Does Heracles know you're back?" Bell asked as he looked back down at the eggs, wondering how much longer they had until they were ready.

"Of course, I made sure to let him know of the situation when I got back, though I'm sure that was mostly unnecessary since you and Hestia probably did it when you got back."

"Right…" Bell answered in an odd tone that made Chiron raise a brow as Bell looked at the door that Heracles should still be standing in front of. "So do you think he can understand everything we say?"

"Well, I don't know if he understands everything, only Heracles knows that for sure." Chiron said as he put one of the eggs on a plate that Bell recognized as being one of the ones he and Hestia usually used. "However, I know he understands quite a lot despite everything, he just lacks a way to truly respond to it. But even if I'm somehow wrong due to wishful thinking, I know whatever part of Heracles that the Madness Enhancement hasn't corrupted would still appreciate the attempt."

Bell was silent as he took the plate of eggs, his eyes moving back over to the door of the church. He wondered what it was like to be in Heracles' position, where most people were too scared to even approach you to talk and the few that did didn't even know if you were capable of understanding them. It must be a very lonely existence.

As Bell took the first bite of his eggs that Chiron had prepared for him, he made the decision to try and talk to Heracles more often.

Bell and Chiron talked for a bit longer before Hestia woke up, stirred up by the same smell that Bell had been. After getting her own eggs, Chiron told everything that had happened with the Loki Familia. Although they were both happy that they were able to avoid any sort of conflict, Hestia was still a bit upset at the offer that Chiron had given them for free lessons.

"I want to have as little to do with that disgusting goddess and her Familia as possible." Hestia said, her face scrunched up in disgust.

"Come now goddess, if my services were recommended by a familia as highly regarded as the Loki Familia, then it will become a lot easier to find work." Chiron responded with the same patient smile he had when talking to the two. "And if you keep making that face, then I'll start to think that it's from the quality of my cooking rather than having anything to do with Loki."

"Uh, sorry?" Hestia said, caught off guard by the teasing, though she didn't say anything about the early subject. Just because she recognized that Chiron had a point didn't mean she had to like it. "Seriously though, I didn't know you could cook."

"Well it's not like it will stand up to any professional chef, but living out in the wild on my own would be much rougher had I not known how to cook." Chiron said with a large dose of humility. "Oh, by the way, when you got back, did you check on Bell's status?"

At the question, both Bell and Hestia swallowed whatever eggs they had in their mouths before looking at each other.

"No." Hestia said with a shake of her head. "With all that happened last night, we kind of forgot to do it."

"Understandable. Personally, I'm happy with that, I wanted to be there to see the results of his training myself." Chiron responded.

"Should we do that now? We don't have many more eggs left." Bell asked, seeing how they were almost done with that breakfast.

"In a second, there's something of a theory I want to test first." Chiron answered before turning around towards the front entrance of the church before yelling "Heracles, could you come here?"

Less than a second after his teacher called for him, the door opened to reveal Heracles coming in and slowly walking to them.

"Goddess, could you check Heracles' status first?" Chiron requested, to which Hestia, who gave a nod before putting her plate down and going to get her needle and a piece of paper.

When Hestia returned, Heracles knelt down onto his knees with his back turned to Hestia when requested to do so. When Hestia finished, she gave the piece of paper to Chiron and Bell as she spoke, "Everything looks pretty normal… well, as normal as it can be when in reference to Heracles. What was that theory you wanted to test anyway?"

Heracles.

Level 1

Strength: I00- I95

Defense: I00-I50

Dexterity: I00-I15

Agility: I00-I09

Magic: I00-I00

Magic:

God Hand- Ability to regenerate and heal all wounds, and revive from the dead eleven times. All attacks under a certain level and rank are ignored, and also gains resistance to attacks he has encountered before, regardless of if it took a life. (Lives can also be regenerated if given enough time and magical energy)

Skills

Madness Enhancement- Increases Strength, Speed, and Durability to inhuman levels at the cost of mental capacity and Dexterity.

Nine Lives (Sealed due to Madness Enhancement)- Any weapon wielded by the user becomes the ultimate type of that weapon. Adapts and changes based on what opponent is and what weapon is being used. Can range from a series of nine simultaneous attacks at a single target to a hundred slashes launched at the same time capable of destroying armies and fortresses, and beyond depending on what the opponent is. If the target has the capability to resurrect upon death, it is ignored and the target stays dead due to the characteristic of "killing something no matter how many times it resurrects".

Valor/Bravery (Sealed due to Madness Enhancement)- Negates all forms of mental interference such as charms and dazes. Increases melee damage.

Battle Continuation- Ability to ignore fatal wounds and continue fighting.

Mind's Eye (False)- An Instinct to avoid danger that can be honed by experience.

"I was worried that the excellia wasn't going to work for Heracles or me, but it appears that the worry was unwarranted." Chiron said, a large smile on his face as he looked over the parchment.

"Why wouldn't excellia work for you?" Bell asked, clearly confused as to why Chiron thought was the case.

"It has to do with our nature as Servants, and to a lesser extent, as Heroic Spirits." Chiron began, taking on a lecturing tone as he caught Bell and Hestia's attention. "See, since we are the shadows of those that had made their mark on history. As a result of that, in addition to being weaker than we were when we were alive, we can't naturally grow stronger or learn new skills or abilities, it's one of the greatest weaknesses of Servants. However, excellia is evidently a loophole to this."

Bell and Hestia listened with interest to Chiron's explanation, and were subsequently amazed by the implications of what he said.

"Wait, you and Heracles were even stronger than you are right now?" Bell asked, his eyes fool of wonder.

"Yes, by quite a larger margin too." Chiron said, slightly amused at Bell's reaction. "I believe it varies depending on the case on how much exactly, but sufficient to say, if Berserker Heracles was to somehow fight a living Heracles, well… it wouldn't be much of a fight to be honest."

In contrast to the amazement that Bell displayed at the power of the heroes from another world, Hestia could only sigh in slight exasperation at how absurd this world must be just to handle them.

"Bell, it's your turn." Hestia said, as Heracles got up off of his knees.

"Oh, right!" Bell said as he turned around while grabbing the hem of his shirt and raising it up so that Hestia would have access to his back.

As Hestia pricked her finger and the drop of blood fell down onto Bell's back, the blue light of the Falna once again filled the church as she checked over his status. However, unlike with Heracles, Hestia let out a loud gasp of disbelief, making everyone jump as she grabbed Bell's back, causing the boy to yelp.

"... Is something wrong goddess Hestia?" Chiron asked after a second to see if everything was alright. In response, in a manner similar to how she had reacted to Heracles' status, Hestia put the status onto another paper before wordlessly handing it over to Chiron so he and Bell can read it once Bell put his shirt back down.

Bell Cranel

Level 1

Strength: I82-G212

Defense: I13-F370

Dexterity: I96-H160

Agility: H172-G230

Magic: I50-D621

Magic:

Servant Summoning LV 1: Summons a Heroic Spirit in one of the Seven Standard Class Containers. One Servant per class each and each Servant requires a constant stream of mana to maintain them. (2/7 Servants summoned).

Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time.

Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.

Raise a wall, against the wind that shall fall. Close the four cardinal gates.

Come out from the crown. Rotate the three-branched road reaching the Kingdom.

I shall declare here.

My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny.

Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail.

If you will submit to this will and this reason… then answer!

An oath shall be sworn here!

I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell!

From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Protector of the Heavenly Scales!

(Open)

In response to seeing his own status sheet, Bell let out a sound similar to the one that Hestia had made a few seconds ago as he tightly held the paper and stared at it in complete disbelief. Even Chiron was caught off guard by the massive increase in each parameter, which made the numbers Heracles grew with seem small in comparison. Of course, Chiron quickly began to rationalize it in his mind.

Of course Bell was going to have a bigger change than Heracles no matter what, excellia worked off of how much effort and work you put into a task. Heracles, being leagues stronger than Bell, was going to have much less effort in defeating something than Bell was, meaning Bell just had more room to grow. However, growth this fast was not normal, it couldn't be, not with the number of level ones in the Dungeon city.

Magic was hardly a surprise in how much it grew, considering that Bell not only had two Servants connected to him, but that one of them was essentially an open faucet of mana. However everything else didn't make sense. Even with Chiron's personal training, Bell's stats shouldn't have grown this much. There had to be something else, some other factor that allowed him to grow this much.

"Ugh, you two haven't even been here for half a week and your absurdities are already rubbing off on Bell!" Hestia said with an exasperated sigh, bringing Chiron and Bell back to reality. "It's too early in the morning for this, and I don't have the time for this."

"Do you have someplace to be Hestia?" Chiron asked, catching the latter statement.

"Actually, yeah I do. The gods have this party every month or so, and it's tonight so I have to go get ready for it. I also have some personal business so I'll probably be gone for a few days." Hestia explained before turning around to go get ready, until stopping in her tracks at what Chiron said next.

"Well, I hope it can wait for a while longer. Otherwise, you'll miss the opportunity to meet the newest member of the Familia for a few days."

It took a few seconds for what Chiron said to process for both Hestia and Bell, but when it did, it garnered an immediate reaction.

"Wait, are we going to summon another Servant?" Bell asked excitedly, his eyes gleaming in excitement and anticipation, especially when Chiron gave an amused nod.

"Hold on!" Hestia said before Chiron could say anything in response. "Isn't this a bit too fast? I wanted to ask this last night too, but you said that getting too many servants too fast is dangerous for Bell?"

"Well yes, and that hasn't changed." Chiron said in response, causing some of Bell's excitement to diminish slightly before Chiron went on to explain. "However, since I am in the Archer class, I have something called "Independent Action". To avoid a long explanation, you can think of it as something similar to Madness Enhancement, but instead, it allows me to go long stretches of time, days even, without receiving mana from my master. With some liberal use of this, it can allow Bell to support three Servants for the price of two. That being said, I still wanted to see how well his magic stat grew to be on the safer side of things."

"And you think it's enough that summoning another Servant won't put me in danger?" Bell asked, his earlier excitement slowly coming back into his voice as he spoke.

"Yes I do." Chiron said, sending a smile Bell's way. "In fact, unless the Servant is a mana hungry one, I may not even use my Independent Action that much."

"... Ok, if you think it's safe enough, then I guess it would be alright to summon another Servant." Hestia relented after a sigh, not having the heart to deny Bell with how happy he was at the idea of meeting another legendary hero from another world with Chiron's assurance of it being safe.

With the permission of their goddess, Chiron and Bell were quick to clean up the meal that they had all eaten and cleared up an open space for them to cast the spell. When they were done Hestia and Chiron stood back behind Bell near the altar of the church while Heracles stood in between both them and Bell. With everything ready and prepared, Bell took a deep breath to calm his excitement before beginning the chant to summon his new Servant.

" . .Fill…" Just like the last time, as soon as Bell began the chat, a strange magical energy filled the air. A bluish white light appeared in front of Bell as the same magic circle formed from it. The air would be kicked up into a wind as the chant continued, growing more powerful along with the light near the end until, eventually, the light became blinding for everyone.

Unlike last time, Bell had braced himself for the exhaustion that would come with summoning a Servant so would not fall to his knees. As the light faded away and the wind died down, they all waited with anticipation as to see what kind of Servant would be the one summoned this time. And when they did see him, Hestia and Bell could immediately tell from a glance alone that the man could not be anything less than a great hero.

Chiron, however, had a different reaction. He didn't need to see him to know the man was one of the greatest of all the heroes. Afterall, he trained him. So when he saw him emerging from the fading light, he could only grin at his luck of not just having one of his greatest students, but both of them.

The man himself stood alone in the dying light, dressed in a silver and black armor that was in a style vaguely similar to the style of dress Chiron wore, with the image of an eagle featured proudly. An orange scarf was loosely tied around his chest, making it the only thing of color he wore against the balck and silver of his armor. His bright green hair stood spiked up except for a single bang hanging over the left side of his face. He was handsome and well built, there was no doubt about that, and very little doubt that some girls and goddesses would flirt with him as soon as he was out in public on his own.

"I don't know who you are, but whoever you are, you just hit the jackpot of Servant summons!" the newly Servant says with his eyes closed, a proud smirk displayed. When he next spoke, he opened his eyes, revealing two yellow orbs with the clarity and sharpness of a raptor. "Servant class...Rider. True name… Achilles!"

Just as a heads up, this is the last Greek Servant, it just so happened that three of my favorite Servants are Chiron and two of his students. Expect the next one to be awhile in the future and be something else.