Freya backed away from the towering monster before her, it was a wonder that she wasn´t hit by any of the debris that shot through the air when it had rammed right through the wall. Her scream of fear wasn´t an act, she had seen many things in her long life as a goddess on the surface.
Back at the Monster Philia she stood in front of a monster, the Silver back, but even that monster fell victim to her beauty. This black beast in front of her was pure terror in physical form. Her scream was half fear, half indignation, this monster dared to roar and threaten her! But she was also in fear about Maria and the orphans, she really cared for them...or rather Syr did, and ever since the incident, Freya had become more honest to her feelings as Syr.
The four red eyes of the monster were focused on her as it made another step forward, opening it´s maw wide to scream at her. The creature's breath smelled disgusting ... and saliva hit her in abundance ... This could be the moment that would send her back to heaven...but she wasn´t ready for that!
In the last year her life had become more interesting, she wasn´t bored anymore! Freya went on parties with Demeter, one of her few real friends among the gods. She even helped with the field work as Syr...and it was fun! Lately "Syr" had even introduced her boyfriend to her friends at the pub, showing that she was over Bell!
The eyes of the monster squinted as it ducked down, readying itself to jump at her, surely planing do devour her whole.
I have to ru-
The most cliche accident possible happened to her...right when Freya turned around to flee, she stumbled and twisted her ankle. She fell to the ground and yelled in pain, holding her red ankle.
"Grrrrrrr..."
Thick threads of saliva dripped from the monster's mouth, Freya was used to man acting like that towards her, but not monsters!
I don´t want to go like that!
There was no chance to escape...the monster jumped forward.
"Aaaaaah!" Freya acted by instinct, raising her right arm to protect her head.
The raised arm protected her from getting blinded, before the monster could close it´s jaws around her, a massive lightning strike crashed into the monsters head from the side.
Hedin?
"GET AWAY FROM SYR!"
The lightning continued, she had never seen a lightning that thick. Bell came down from the sky...or rather the wall and held Olympus pointed to the monster, unleashing all of it´s magical charges at once to protect her.
His expression was murderous, the monster was thrown to the side, screaming in pain when the lightning fried the right half of it´s face, thanks to his upper level six status, he was strong enough to hurt it.
Bell raised Olympus over his head and through it, the sword spun on it´s own axis and sunk itself into on of the the monster's right eyes.
BELL?!
Freya could only stare with an opened mouth as Bell landed in front of her, holding his knives in his hands, particles of light shimmered around his hands.
"Syr! You okay?!"
"Bell!"
He came to save me...after all what I did!
Bell and "Syr" were still really good friends...but that he did that right now shook Freya deep inside her. The hole in the wall didn´t remained empty, smaller monsters charged through it, they looked similar to the big one, but only had two eyes and no horns.
Due to their smaller build, these things seemed to be faster and they lost no time. The first one charged at Bell with a roar, the maw wide open and showing way too much teeth, even this one was still at least two meters tall.
"Get Syr out of here!"
Bell ducked under the snapping jaws and rammed the Hestia Knife upwards, freeing it in a slash, dark red blood gushed out of the wound, but only because the scales were softer here. He whirled Hakugen around and rammed it into the right eye of the monster, in a reaction it threw his head to the side and tossed Bell with it.
Who does he mean?
A second monster charged at...her. It looked like Bell was only in the way, the monsters were fixated on her...maybe they sensed what she was. Bell was bound by the first one and couldn´t react in time to save her.
Oh no! "Bel-!"
Like a flash of gold and green, something came from above and slammed into the monster. Freya´s eyes widened by the scene before her, Bell was tossed from one side to the other while he held his grip on the monsters head, getting bathed in it´s blood.
Just in the moment that the monster jumped at her, Ais Wallenstein came from above, ramming her sword into the monsters neck in an angle forward, piercing it´s brain. Even when Ais never fought against this type of monster before, even when monsters had sometimes abnormal bodies, like plant types...there were still mortal creatures and bound to a few things, some rules applied to them. Ais once saw Gareth hacking his giant axe from behind into a monsters hamstrings, the monster stumbled and fell down, dragging the now useless leg behind, he had later explained to her that monsters with physical bodies had weakspots like every other living being and that some just applied to every one.
So Ais knew that a monster that was covered in scales had weakspots where the scales neeeded to move, like the neck or nape, thankfully this one didn´t had a horn shield to protect this area. "Hurricane" pierced the scales and the brain, the monster´s scream changed into a screech and it twitched in spasms, Ais ripped her sword out and the monster collapsed, a few meters in front of Syr.
For the first time, Freya saw Ais Wallenstein in all her glory, dust filled the air and made it hart to see more than a few meters, but the wind that embraced Ais like Bell would do, parted the dust and let a single sunray fall down on her, her blond hair shone golden like the edges of Hurricane. She had landed on her right knee and now threw her hair backwards to get it out of her face, standing up.
This was the girl that Freya had given so much pain, was so jealous about...and now she rescued her from getting devoured. Ais looked at Freya with her golden eyes, looking worried, before she whirled around and charged another monster that came through the hole.
"Get her to safety!"
Who are they talking to?
Freya startled when something hit the ground next to her, growling.
"Don´t order me around, damn rabbit and girly!"
"Allen!" Syr yelled out in relieve.
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Allen Fromel had monitored his lady on this day, whenever she was away as Syr a member of her Familia watched over her, if she wanted to or not. But ever since that wargame...and what happened afterwards in the Familia, they kept more distance to her, she demanded more freedom. Allen wasn´t angry about that, Freya was grace when she told her children about the change she wanted to have, just like Allen wanted his goddess to be. And something else had changed... Ais and Bell had noticed Allen due to their sensitive senses as adventurers, they knew that he knew Syr. A few weeks ago, they had seen Syr with Allen at her side in the city by chance.
"Ehehe, good morning you two!" Syr beamed as usual.
"Syr, good morning."
"Good morning, Ms. Syr."
Both couldn´t help but glance at Allen, who pretended to not notice them.
"Ooooh right! I haven´t introduced you, this is Allen...my boyfriend!"
"Ha?!"
"Oh?" Ais tilted her head.
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Freya kept the lives of Freya/Syr and Syr/Freya apart, when she was Freya she still behaved like her in her queen-like style, except when she went with Demeter to a party...there she was more free, more close to Syr, so much that she and Demeter jumped into a pool once together at the party...fully clothed of course.
But when she was Syr...Freya wanted to be loved in another way, not worshipped like a goddess...but loved. And Allen...was surprisingly the right person for that, Freya knew for a long time that Allen was something that the gods called a "Hyper Tsundere", he wanted his goddess to be happy and graceful...but he also wanted Syr happy.
And it gave Allen an excuse to be around the pub a few times, he wanted to keep an eye on his little sister...not that he would admit that ever. And Syr could be there for Allen, help him when he was stressed or just give him company.
One evening, the girls at the pub had their usual card play evening, since she had started to work there, Helun had joined them and became good friends with the others.
"S-Syr...i-is it t-true...y-you have..a...b-b-boyfriend?" Surprisingly it was Ryu who asked that first.
"Hehe...are you worried, Ryu?"
"Of course!"
"Ehehe, you´re so sweet...don´t worry, he is really nice."
They bombarded her with questions...how Freya had longed to have this talk with her friends. Even Ahnya and Lunor had started to flirt with guys for themself...well flirting was too much in Ahnya´s case.
Syr raved about her boyfriend, how nice and caring he was. Ahnya looked a bit uneasy, she was happy that Syr had found someone...and that her brother found someone...but she didn´t understood how they found each other...she was still happy...Ahnya loved her brother.
"Nya..." Chloe had a naughty smirk on her lips. "And is he gentle with you?"
Ryu, Helun and Lunor looked shocked by that question, Ahnya confused.
Syr blushed heavily. "O-Oh...ahm...I mean...he is...gentle."
Then her smile changed. "And it feels so good...one night he-"
"Meow don´t want to hear nyat!" Ahnya covered her ears, that was something a little sister didn´t wanted to hear about her brother.
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Allen didn´t gave Freya time to get the situation, he crouched down next to her and pulled her onto his back, giving her a piggyback ride. He dashed off without looking back for a moment, he wouldn´t thank Bell and Ais for protecting Freya...but they rose a bit in his oppinion...now they were on par with cockroaches for him.
He moved faster than any monster that attacked the city could, Freya noticed smoke and dust rising from everywhere in the city.
"What is happening?"
"Monsters attack the city! I bring you to Babel!"
"No! Bring me to the Orphanage!"
"What? Don´t be stu-"
"Allen! You bring me to the Orphanage or I will hate you forever!"
Freya had a special way to talk with him, especially as Syr, it sounded less harsh than somebody would think since Syr just talked like she talked. But he knew she would get her will, so Allen turned into the direction of the Orphanage. Even when Syr still sounded cute,
it wasn´t a hollow threat, Allen knew how much she loved Maria and the children in the Orphanage, not entirely because she was a goddess of Fertility. They would arrive in under a minute and Allen Fromel would protect the church against every single monster that would come near.
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The monster that Bell was fighting with was taller than he was and had a few tons more mass, but he was an upper level six adventurer and his status made him stronger than his enemy. He didn´t knew where the magic stone was, but Bell knew the rules for living beings as well, in a quick movement he cut open the throat of the monster and rammed Hakugen into the eye as far as it would go, with a rattle the monster collapsed...and didn´t turned to ash.
"What?!"
"Bell!"
Ais got up from the monster that she had killed, the corpse also remained, the dust from the broken wall filled the whole area, he could only see Ais barely since the hole in the dust cloud over her closed. Bell freed his weapons and ran to her side, howling came from the hole and more monsters came.
"We have to hold them back! Don´t let them in the city!"
"I´m at your side my love!"
They showed each other a short, wild smile before they readied themself for the onslaught. The ground started to shake and the rubbel on the side moved, the giant, horned head of the first monster appeared again...Olympus still stuck in one of his right eyes...it didn´t died from that even when the right half of it´s head was smoking, raw flesh.
"Groooooooooooo!"
"More good news!"
"Can you fight it alone?!"
"We will see!"
Bell turned to the stomping giant, eight tons of anrgy, muscular meat and scales roared in imperial wrath and charged towards them. He moved away from Ais, who would defend the hole against the smaller monsters, the stomping alone created a local earthquake.
Due to Bell´s immense luck...he faced the Alpha monster of the attack...alone. A monster that could easily be compared to a Floor Boss...as strong as one from the 40th Floor.
And the monster looked more angry than in pain about the sword in his eye... Blood dripped from it´s eye and the raw side of the head, Bell was as amazed as he felt sick. The full power of Olympus´ lightning had hurt this monster badly...but even only badly, inside the dungeon he could wipe out many monsters with that attack, using all charges at once.
With a titanic roar, the monster charged forward, Bell lost no time and ran towards it. Taking it head on would be dumb and Bell´s strong side was his speed anyway. There was a limit how fast this enormous beast could move, Bell ducked down under the swing of it´s right claw and slashed with his Knives, the black one did nothing, but Hakugen at least scratched the scales...
It seemed the purity that was part of Hakugen could damage the monster, but it was too small.
Bell slided between the legs of the monster, but had to jump to the side when the monster suddenly dropped it´s whole body to the ground. The beast was smart and gave Bell no chance to stay under it. It whirled around and the enormous tail threw debris left and right, Bell coughed again and again, his eyes burned.
The hero stories from the past never spoke of dust, in the dungeon it was something else, but the destroyed wall and houses had filled the whole area with dust and smoke. Bell couldn´t see Ais and due to the extreme noise from the monster, he couldn´t hear her either, but he was sure she was okay. That to say, Bell was beyond furious, monsters attacked Orario, one had threatened Syr´s life!
And what made it only worse, that it happened on this very day, during the fight he had to be careful how he moved. In the backpocket of his belt, Bell carried a small box...with a ring in it. On this very day, Bell Cranel wanted to knell down and ask Ais if she wanted to marry him... It had taken him a long time to gather his courage, he knew that she loved him...but proposing made him nervous.
He focused on the weakpoints at least he wanted to, but this monsters body was strange. The neck was covered by thick horn shields, from the shoulders and hips horn combs grew to cover it. This monster was armored from snout to tail tip. He had to jump away when the long tail wiped at him, this was the monsters only fast weapon.
The air stank more and more, the blackness from the outside slowly came in through the hole, but was stopped by Ais´ wind magic that whirled around her, only the smell came. It seemed to be nothing too dangerous, since Bell and Ais were unaffected by it. Just barely, Bell heard screams and weapon sounds from the city, so people were getting attacked...and adventurers fought back.
Change of plan!
Bell rememberred the advices from Ais and Ryu everytime he fought. He analyzed the situation, using the terrain was impossible due to the mass of his enemy. His weapons were too small to really wound such a beast, so he needed his sword back.
Bell sheathed his knives and ran, there was a collapsed house in front of him, the monster followed. He ran up a broken wall and kicked himself from the wall right in the moment that the monster slammed into the house. It´s mass forbid it to stop itself. There was something that only a few adventurers in Orario could do and no one as good as Bell. He escaped the snapping maw and grabbed the hilt of Olympus, the monster screamed in rage and pain, shook it´s head from one side to the other and rammed into another house. Bell gritted his teeth and used short chants of Argonaut for his feet and hands, two seconds were enough for him and he started to pull with all of his enhanced strength. Now the monster really screamed with agony, Bell´s muscles bulged and then with a jerk and a shower of blood the sword came free. It was quite fearsome, that not even such a wound killed this monster. Bell jumped backwards and shook his sword free from blood, these monsters seemed to be different from the ones in the dungeon.
Lowering his stance and grabbing the sword with both hands, Bell awaited the roaring beast.
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All over Orario, monsters attacked the people in the city, running after them and ripping them apart. Normal citizens and low leveled adventurer had no chance against the monsters. Bell and Ais were so lucky to face the leader of the attack, it was better them than other people since they at least had a chance. The ones that rammed through the gates were weaker than the Alpha, each could be compared to a level six adventurer, there were eight of those and only one of them was stronger, the Beta.
The smaller monsters were between level two and three. Every person who couldnt fight them fled as fast as they could, many Familias opened their gates and let the people inside...but some locked themself up, many adventurers only cared for themself or their Familia´s. Some just were unlucky and couldn´t fall back to their friends, so they had to do something alone.
"Aki!"
"I´m here!"
Anakity and Raul from the Loki Familia fought side by side against three of the lesser monsters, protecting citizens behind them. They were on a date, finally admiting openly that they were a couple, thankfully they carried swords with them.
These two were a perfect team when fighting together, both evaded together or blocked for the other, protecting the one they loved, but not to the cost of their lives, both had promised each other to go back to the Mansion together.
One monster was already dead and only three remained...the street was a blood bath...ten people had found death until they managed to arrive. The people behind them covered down and wimpered, they feared for their lives.
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"Viana! Ciel!"
"At your side, Captain!"
The slowly growing Astrea Familia protected the entrance to the Stardust Garden, many people passed behind them and fled inside, Astrea arranged the shelter inside. For Ryu there was no falling back, she would protect her "Mother" with everything she had, she just knew that Alise and the others were watching her right now.
While Ciel was not the best fighter, she could use protection magic and healing magic, Viana and Ryu lost count how many times the magic stopped a monsters attack. Ryu´s new sword "Justice Lumina" was anathema to the monsters, their scales and flesh smoked when she slashed them, easily dealing mortal wounds.
Viana whirled her strange spear around, it sung in the movement due to the way the wind moved through it, she wasn´t as strong as Ryu, but a true master with her spear...and the poison she used did it´s job, a few monsters doubled over in agony due to that. Ryu didn´t liked the weapons of her fellow Familia member, but it was effective.
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"Out of my way!"
An armored boot cracked open the skull of a lesser monster, sending it flying into the next one.
"Dooooryaaaaa!"
Bete was amazed how strong Lena was, she grabbed a lesser monsters hips, pulled it up and whirled herself around, breaking the spine of the monster in a perfect german suplex. Lena didn´t used weapons, her gorgeus body was her weapon, she fought with hands and feet and that truly fearsome.
"Beeeeteeee! Did you see that? Are you impressed?"
"Yes, yes! Very!"
"Hehe...so you will final-"
"Lena!"
Bete suddenly pulled Lena into his arms and jumped up, smashing the skull of another monster that attacked from behind. He had protected Lena...Bete was afraid to lose her.
"I´m so haaaappyyyy!"
"Let go of me!"
"Never! Make me a baby, now!"
"Not now!"
"Hehe you didn´t said no in general!"
"Give me a break!"
Together they killed all of the monsters that attacked them, they protected a shop filled with many citizens. Lena had the time of her life, it was a dream for her to fight together with Bete...and that their date even changed into that was only better!
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"Asfi! You can do it! Everyone, give your all!"
Hermes cheered for his children who did their best to protect their home. It wasn´t his usual cheerful nature, Hermes was all too serious when he cheered for them.
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All over Orario the adventurers defended themself against the monsters...the lesser were not much of a problem...the leader monsters were. Tione and Finn fought together against such a leader, it was easily as strong as them, but much larger and heavily armored.
They drew the attention of the leader to buy the normal people time, Finn analyzed the situation and already worked on a strategy. The Loki Familia had a responsibility, as soon as they got aware of the attack they acted. Gareth would protect the Mansion together with a few of the weaker ones from the Familia. Riveria, the mages and the stronger adventurers formed kill teams and advanced into town.
The sight that awaited them left some gagging...corpses that were ripped apart of halfway devoured lay around...blood splattered over the walls, three additional times they saw pillars of light shooting into heaven, the monsters searched the gods before every other prey.
When she saw three children running crying down a street, followed by a monster that...had the corpse of the mother of those three between it´s teeth...something snapped in Lefiya.
"DIO THYRSOS!"
The quick chant exploded in a ray of golden light and shot right through the head of the monster, sending it stumbling to the ground, the children were caught by two Loki Familia members and brought to safety. Lefiya cried openly about the scene in the city, but only double her efforts to save as many people as possible.
The Freya Familia had formed a cordon at the main place of Babel, the high executives protected the entrances to the place, each of them fighting alone. Ottar went into the city to search for Freya, slaughtering monsters left and right when they came into his way, he knew Allen would protect her with his life, but they never took risks when it came to Freya.
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In all of Orario there was only one monster that was truly unlucky...because it ran into the worst possible direction.
"Mmmmeeeeeoooooow!"
Ahnya´s golden spear pierced through the forehead of a lesser monster, it´s eyes glazed over and it sank down to the ground, with a few jerks Ahnya could free her weapon. Chloe, Lunor and Ahnya were outside of the pub and protected it with all they got.
Helun was inside the pub and did her best with the other waitresses to calm the people down and helped the wounded. The three outside still wore their uniforms, but each of them used their usual weapons. Ever since the Gulliver brothers had attacked the pub, they had their weapons behind the counter.
Chloe and Lunor were level four, Ahnya thought she was level four but was actually five, Freya had sneaked into Ahnya´s room at night after she got heavily drunk and updated her status in secret, she wanted to protect "her cute, little kitten".
Not only lesser monster but actually the Beta of the attack had charged to them...and towards a true monster.
"Grrrrr!"
"Yeeeeep!"
The monster tried to get up again and again, Mia had a truly fearsome face, her expression had darkened in anger and she held the monster a bit under the head, both of her arms around it´s neck. No one had ever seen Mia that angry, these monsters threatened her pub, her customers and her girls!
With a grim expression, Mia jerked her arms and with a loud crack, the monsters neck broke, it immediately went slack. Mia let go of the monster and jumped onto the next one.
"Don´t let them get through to the pub! I will take every repair cost from your payment!"
"""Yes Mama Mia!"""
There was only one person in Orario that was stronger than Mia...maybe, and that was Ottar. She didn´t knew it herself, but Mia actually was above level six. Freya had used magic items to make herself invisible, muffle her sounds and the feeling of her touch, when she sneaked into Mia´s room at night, fearing for her life.
Well not actually her life, but Mia would surely squeeze her head in an iron grip if she would catch her. If Mia wanted to or not, Freya had updated her status as well, that Mia had reached level seven was no surprise for Freya. After the wargame, Freya showed her caring side for her loved ones much more openly...she didn´t wanted to lose Mia.
She would accept it if Ahnya and Mia would hate her for that...but they were her cute, little ones...Freya just couldn´t help it.
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Orario got surprised by the attack, but it reacted and fought back, defended itself. The fight was still possible...until the second wave of monsters arrived...
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It stinks!
Ais jumped left and right, whirling around as fast as she could, no monster that came past her lived very long. She did her best so that her beloved could focus on the fight against the leader monster, if she would see an opportunity, Ais would jump to Bell´s help so that they could defeat it together. But her job in defending the hole in the wall was significant...or these monsters would get into the city. While her wind held back the black fog, the smell got stronger and stronger...Ais swore she could feel the ground shake again...and not from the leader monster.
Right when the next monster collapsed groaning...Ais stood on a small hill of corpses already...something big marched through the hole.
What the!
It looked nothing like the other monsters, except that it was black too and covered in scales. The head was short and wider than the smaller ones, the body was heavily armored and looked a bit similar to a turtle...but there wasn´t a shell on it´s back, but a Horn plate ... with six large horn vents...each producing that black fog.
The stench only got stronger...Ais had a guess what that black stuff actually was.
One of the worst abilities that monsters could have...
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Miasma!
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Authors Note: So as you see the enemies in this ark will be monsters and not people this time. Tomorrow I will sit down for the next chapter for "Blood of Zeus" with Riveria, should be finished around Tuesday, maybe wednesday noon, then the next for here again.
For the Ero version, I will not stop it completely, sometimes there will be a new chapter but not so often. Also I can say, I will have three weeks vacation starting at the 8.11. or 11.8 depending what you read first, month or day. So many chapters for both main stories and two or three for the Ero version.