Hello everyone.

Well, here we are the last part of the fight. I had to think of a way to write this part and just bring out the image I want, in writing. It's not an easy thing translating from one thing to another.

So, here is the chapter. I will write a few things on the A/N in the end.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi, nor the characters

Chapter 13: Freedom
Flashback, one week ago in Hestia's Church
Bell and Hestia were on the table, staring at the map. They were going through last minute planning.

"So, Artemis just placed her essence on that spear, to guide the person to kill her and the creature holding her hostage?"

"Yes. That spear is known as Orion, I believe in your language it is 'They who pierce'."

She frowned hearing this, understanding the implication of the spear "I see."

"She will tell her familia is waiting there, but…."

She knew what he was going to say "They are waiting for her in the Heavens."

She looked sad. "So, they are dead."

He nodded. "They died protecting her, but she didn't escape. She was devoured by the monster and will, eventually, learn how to use her Arcana to unleash her dangerous attack."

She then went over and held his hands "Will this plan work? Will it free her?"

Bell looked at the paper of his stats, and stared at it. "I have to make it work. I can't make a mistake on this one, otherwise, Artemis would be back in Heaven." He didn't want that to happen this time. He wanted to save her.

He can't make the same mistake after what happened with Mord and Raul.

Flashback End
"That's Lady Artemis!" Eli pointed out.

They were horrified watching her inside of the monster as it gave a loud screech. They turned to see a bright light around the other Artemis and she was disappearing "Please….Orion….Save Me…..Free Me….e…e…e.."

She was then gone with a small whisper "save me"

The creature made clicking noises.

"Everyone, stay back." He began to step forward as the others watched on. "Alright you leech of a monster, I will free Artemis and I will put you down, for good!"

Its tail went right after Bell, but he rolled to the side and took Hestia's knife out. He went to hit a few places and saw it wasn't enough. "Firebolt!" It hit the side of it and it flinched.

The creature charged an attack and Bell stood back, raised his hand and prepared a magic shield.

Antares released a large crescent like beam and released it.

It brings a large barrage of the familiar arrow attacks as Bell had his magic shield up. It managed to hit various places as the ground where Antares and Bell stood collapsed and both fell.

"Bell!"

Orario, Tower of Babel
"You know Frey Frey, I don't like the looks of the moon at all." She looked at it.

"Me neither. It is getting familiar in its form."

She nodded "Arty seems to release her Arcana soon, but for some reason, something about it is off."

The goddess of love stared at it and her eyes narrowed it "Controlled?"

Loki looked at it "It is. Whatever the thing that is controlling Arty is the reason why those monsters are going insane in the Dungeon."

"I hope My Odr puts a stop to it."

The red haired goddess nodded "Come on Mr. Rabbit, you have to stop that bastard!"

14th Floor

Both Ottarl and Finn were wondering when the waves would end. Sure they can keep fighting, but how long, before they become overwhelmed.

"You know….this is getting ridiculous…."

"Indeed…."

He saw a minotaur charging at him and just headbutted it. It went into pieces.

They noticed their familia reached them. Tione went toward Finn "Captain, we are clearing as much as we can, but more of them keep appearing. Although the first few floors are contained, the rest of the floors are becoming somewhat difficult to hold on to."

"Understandable. We will have to keep pushing and contain at all costs…."

They nodded as they tackled further, all while planning to hold the line.

Outside of the Dungeon, the Ganesha Familia were dealing with their problems, namely some monsters on the streets.

Each monster was coming out of the sewers, but the adventurers were able to take care of them.

"We need to move to the Deadalus District, this place is cleared!"

He nodded and went there. As he reached there, he was surprised at what he was watching: some of the people were fighting these monsters back. Of course, some of those monsters were not found on the Floor 10, but they are fighting them back with weapons and traps. Even some interesting weapons they are using.

One of them carried what looked like a small portable rocket. It released it and it blew a group of goblins to pieces.

He shook his head and went to help them out. "I swear that kid had something to do with this. Not going to lie, he is the best thing that has happened in Orario in a long time."

He took out one monster and then moved to the next one, trying to get through a door of a home.

Ruins
Bell felt a bit groggy and shook his head. He looked around and took the spear out, just in case. Not far off, he saw the dead bodies of Artemis' familia. They had been dead for a while and felt bad for them.

"Don't worry, I will take care of Artemis."

He looked ahead and went face to face with the monster that is controlling the goddess of hunt, one of the three virgin goddesses.

Hestia and the others groaned and looked around from the damage that was done.

"Mom, are you okay?" Eli went to check up on her.

"Yes, sweetie." She got up and went to check up on the others. They were getting up and looking around for any trouble.

"Where is dad?"

Welf looked at the hole that was made "I do believe he is down there with the creature."

Hestia closed her eyes "It seems Bell would know what to do at this point to free Artemis."

Lilli looked at her and said in a little voice "Please don't tell me he is going to…."

She didn't answer.

Bell found the large monster and went to check on one more weapon on him and saw it was still intact.

"Here goes nothing."

He focused on his Argonaut skill and put the spear away. He then used Hestia's knife and went right at it. He began to hit on an open spot as it took a claw out. He noticed it was slowly regenerating. He dodged the other claw going after him, and rushed to cut the other one.

Antares was trying to kill this human, but it seems to be fast and cutting off his limbs. It knew it wouldn't matter, it would just regrow.

Bell thought he needed time to charge, just enough to land the blow of killing the monster and then start the second part of the plan. He kept moving and cutting some limbs off, all while waiting for the moment for his strike.

Unknown to both of them, Hermes was watching and was surprised how the white haired hero was hanging in there. "Zeus, you would be proud how far he has made it. And now he is about to make a tough decision. I would have found some way to do it, but even I am not worth carrying that spear at all."

He watched for a while as Bell backed in a distance from Antares as it was just regenerating once more. He grabbed the spear and it was glowing from the Argonaut skill already powered up. He took a deep breath and he threw it.

The spear gave a direct hit and it shattered Antares to pieces.

Bell closes his eyes.

"Great Divine, I ask you for your plea."

He took out the jagged knife from one of his holsters.

"Free this being from a curse."

His body began to glow as did the unique dagger.

'As I write these words, this is only good for one use. Anymore to be used, and the soul would cease to exist, as trying to use something against nature just to abuse it would render the Fates to intervene. That is one reason why I write this and hope the person understands that this power is only if the powers are divine in order to free a curse.'

Bell remembered those words that were written in the book. He knew that this power is a risk, but he had a good reason to do it.

He looked at the goddess. A goddess that never asked to end up being leeched off by a monster. A goddess who landed on the lower world, trying to understand what love is. Something that each god grew curious about in the lower world.

He launched right at her as the knife was glowing.

"Rag Thain(*)!"

Bell then stabbed Artemis right at her chest and a bright white light came out.

Hermes stared and at first saw the familiar pillar of light, whenever a god was greatly harmed. However, he noticed something was off about it. He couldn't see Artemis ascending.

Inside of the white pillar
Bell opened his eyes and looked around. He was in an open field and the sky was still night with the stars being far brighter than ever.

"Orion."

He turned to see Artemis in a white dress. Did he fail?

"Artemis."

She went over and held his hands "You severed the connection of Antares, making the monster cease to be for good." Few tears were coming out "I'm free to love you now, Orion."

He wiped her tears off.

"I remember that dance, those feelings, everything leading up to the point of you using my spear. That love, it is a wonderful feeling. Far greater than anything I felt." She got close to his face "I love you, Bell."

Bell was in near tears "I love you, Artemis."

"Let's love each other now, and beyond life."

They began to glow white as she kissed his lips.

Outside of the pillar
Hermes felt confused by this. He doesn't understand what is going on and why he can't see Artemis ascending in the Heavens.

As it cleared out, he was in disbelief.

In the center of what Antares were, now gone. The only thing left is Bell, kissing a naked Artemis on the lips, holding each other.

The kiss ended and Bell stared at the beautiful blue eyes of Artemis. He saw she was naked and wrapped her around with his white cloak that he still had with him.

Hermes was in shock.

"No way…..he saved her….he found a way to save her and got the girl…."

Then the look of shock turned into a big smile. Bell did two impossible tasks.

He managed to destroy Antares, thus freeing Artemis.

Artemis fell in love with Bell, and vice versa.

Zeus might end up having a heart attack at first with what Bell did, but after learning that Artemis loved his grandson. He would be in shock, but then would brag about doing the impossible.

Hestia went over and saw Artemis still around. She ran right toward them and hugged both of them as tears were running down her face. "You did it!"

Bell chuckled and Artemis giggled.

The others were surprised to see he managed to free her.

Eli saw Artemis and said "Does that mean she will be my mom or aunt?"

They would rather not answer that yet.

In Orario
The monsters seem to fall back and are now back to as normal as they can get.

Both Finn and Ottarl looked at each other, then looked back. "Huh…interesting." Finn noticed that Ottarl was heading out. He had a simple smile "Heading back to report?"

Finn then turned to the others "Let's head out!"

They nodded and left. Aki walked a little slower, angry at herself that he got away. She wanted to find him more, but knew he was already long away.

"The next time I see you, I will make you suffer."

Within the Dungeon, on the 18th floor. The man took his mask off and walked for a while. He spotted a familiar one armed adventurer, and looked at him.

The cat man looked frightened who he saw "Fuck….you again?"

"Yes, me again, Jura." He looked around and smirked "Oh how the mighty have fallen."

"Piss off! I got the message from your boss. He wanted me to tell you that a few familia members were taken and would be placed in the experiments."

He hasn't changed his expression after hearing this "Is that all?"

He went to pour a drink for himself "Daedalus is impossible to overtake." He took a drink "They seem to know how to defend themselves, to the point of some members either getting captured, killed, or injured."

This raised the man's eyebrow "I must admit, this surprised me."

"Yeah, whatever. You got your message, now let me rest."

He stared at him and had a sly smirk "The Gale is still looking for you. I suggest you start digging your own grave, because the bitch will skin you alive and wear you around like a coat."

The older cat man shivered as he heard him laugh. "Fucking asshole."

The other man though looked ahead "Beasts like him should watch his betters. His usefulness is coming to an end." He then had a sly smirk "An anonymous tip would be enough for Gale to find him and get rid of him. Heh, an elf killing a beast. A tale as old as time: have someone do your dirty work."

On the top of the Babel, Loki and Freya smiled.

"Looks like Mr. Rabbit did it."

She smiled and nodded "Oh yes he did. I saw the pillar, but no goddess heading up there?"

She agreed on that assessment and had a puzzled look "Wonder what happened all the way in the ruins?"

She went to serve two glasses of wine and gave one to Loki. "We will find out in a week." She raised her glass "A toast for Bell."

She nodded and nothing but the clink of the glass was heard.

Unknown Location
A goddess with long golden blonde hair and green eyes, stared at the sky. She felt confused at what she witnessed.

"A pillar of light, yet no ascension of any gods….strange. Very strange."

She stared some more at the sky and grew more curious at the cause. She did have an idea where it might be and went to retrieve a map. She looked all over the map and smirked. She pointed at it.

"There we go."

She heard someone coming into the room "Enter."

Two men entered. Both on one knee, bowed "My goddess, we have managed to bring two more refugees."

"Excellent. Now I need you two to do me a favor."

This was their chance to please the goddess. "Anything."

She then began to explain on investigating an incident she spotted from a great distance and they agreed to head out.

"Let's see what caused the pillar to appear."

To be continued.

A/N:

So, Artemis is saved and will end up being in Orario.

I will write one more chapter, and then write a flashback on what was going on the weeks when Bell was gone. This will give a better idea of what will happen later on in the story. It may take maybe a few chapters and then we will move into the next arc.

Now, my other story, Path of a Hero. I have been writing the chapter, all while adding a few more things. I do believe the Lilli arc would be a few chapters, and then moving to the next part, where it will slightly diverge the path on the canon story, for reasons. A lot of things will be covered.

That is all I have, and hope you all have a good day.

Next chapter: A hero's return, Artemis rewards Bell, and a chat with Aisha. Don't miss it.