The battle of Orario was over, the last monsters defeated. With the death of the hydra, the monsters Lost cohesion and just charged blindly into the adventurers. Most adventurers didn´t had the energy anymore to be happy, they just sank to their knees and thanked the gods that it was over. The gods and citizens of Orario cheered loudly when they saw the Hydra exploding, after everyone collectively held their breath when they saw Bell being devoured.
Like a sign from heaven, when Bell had passed out, his head resting on Ais´ thighs, the clouds opened a bit for the first time in days and a single ray of sunlight fell on those two. The Loki party, as well as Ahnya and Mia came to them, Ottar and Allen returned to their goddess.
"Ais, Argonaut, that was amazing! You two saved us!"
Tiona looked tattered but smiled happily.
"Ais, how is he?" Finn looked worried.
"Unconscious."
"Nyite hair..."
Now they all noticed Bell´s missing arm.
"Ais..."
Ais looked up when she heard Tione´s voice, she held something in her hands, the remains of Bell´s arm. The armguard was heavily damaged, the knife with it´s scabbard shattered and the arm...it was better not to look at it directly.
"We have to bring him to Amid and the hospital."
Finn nodded to Gareth, who went to pick up Bell.
"Gareth...please be gentle with him..."
"I will, Ais."
They all could easily see how worried she was about him. Bell didn´t only looked horrible, but half dead.
"Hurry now."
As careful and gentle as he could, Gareth picked up Bell´s tattered body and held him to his chest.
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Amid tried to hold her mouth closed while she worked in silence. The whole staff of the hospital was at work, many of them as quiet as her. She didn´t tried to hold her mouth closed because the sight made her sick, but because she had a small stone in her mouth.
Amid was used to potion overdose and the hospital had their own small magic items that helped the healer to continue their work even when they had to drink potion after potion. Ever since the beginning of the fight, Amid was constantly working and even now that the fight was over, she got no rest.
There were other healer who could take over for her, but this special patient needed the best healer they had, the "Angel of Orario" how Amid was called often.
The Loki Familia had brought their wounded members to the hospital, but the worst of them was Bell. Hestia sat outside since all of her children had collapsed from exhaustion when they finally got some rest. They all went home, showered and fell into their beds, their gods watched over them.
So while Miach and Takemikazuchi did some housework and watched over the sleeping children, Hestia ran to the hospital. She had screamed and cried when she saw the Hydra swallowing Bell and biting his arm off. Hestia told herself that they would help Bell like they did when he returned from the 37th Floor.
But one look from Amid was enough to tell her otherwise, Bell´s arm couldn´t get re-attached and healed. Hestia knew that there were many adventurers with prothesis, but she hoped Bell would be able to take it. Her poor, pure, innocent boy had his first permanent wound from adventuring. But even then...Hestia couldn´t be more proud of him...for risking his life for the woman he loved so much. Of course Hestia wasn´t angry at Ais, how could she. Ais had watched over Bell until Amid told her she couldn´t come inside the operating room, only then Ais had allowed a female healer to take care of her.
"Lady Hestia...please watch over him...yes?"
"I will, little Ais."
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They had taken off Bell´s armor and clothes, his body suit was half dissolved by the acid, but the golden armor was surprisingly fine. All of Bell´s armor parts and weapons were put into a corner of the room. His now naked body lay on the operating table. The other healer washed his body with potions to heal acidic wounds, it was a wonder that those wounds weren´t worse.
"To shink he got shwallowed by shat beasht..."
They could only mumble due to the stones in their mouths, they had to deal with this problem for another five minutes. Amid klicked her tongue when she looked at Bell´s left arm, he had used his magic to cauterize his wound, but she had to clean it, partly open the wound and close it correctly. Amid already prepared his arm for a future prothesis, it was better to do it now.
He was lucky if I dare to say this...
At least the hydra had bitten off his arm below the elbow, that would make the prothesis easier.
"*Ptui* Amid!"
"Hm?"
"The potions and magic aren´t working on his body! He isn´t healing properly!"
"*Ptui* Let me see."
They spit the small stones they had in their mouths into a metal bowl. While he was lucky that he didn´t got wounded even worse, Bell´s body hovered between life and death. Even Amid´s own healing magic only managed to heal a few of his wounds, there were just some things that needed time to heal...but Bell didn´t had this time.
He could die...I can´t let him die under my hands!
Amid never gave up on a patient, she fought even until the last moment. While that was her best characteristic, it also let her suffer many times when she lost a fight. But that was a healer´s lot. Amid was called the "Dea Saint" for a reason, she saved more people than any other healer of the Dian Cecht Familia.
I will not let him die!
For hours they worked on Bell, healed what they could but they only managed to hold his life steady, they didn´t won the fight. Amid only glanced to the clock shortly, the day was almost over and about to get taken over by night again.
She really needed some sleep...but she had to help Bell...
Sleep...rest...Wait!
For a moment she stepped back from the bed and looked at Bell´s body in thoughts.
"Amid?"
One of the other healers looked at her.
"I have an idea."
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Amid made sure the door was locked after the last healer left the room. They had taken care of Bell while Amid took a shower and prepared something. She had never before tried what she would do now, but according to some old texts, it was almost a "Wonder"...or more a "Miracle".
Ever since the time when the gods came down to the service...or maybe even before it, healers had worked their magic. Back then the healing magic was far weaker than today with the Falna, except for some beings like spirits. But they had worked on technques, those clerics of old, and some of them were called Miracles.
Said to be given by the gods before they even came down, the clerics had to do things of "Meaning". Many things had "Meaning" when it came to the gods, numbers, dates, actions, and conditions.
Amid was the strongest healer in Orario, probably in the whole world, so she wanted to use the mightiest known miracle. Known was not really a good word, since only very few people knew of this. One of the conditions of the miracle was the number seven, as it was considered a lucky number.
Objects of meaning and function had to be placed nearby, so Amid used seven healing stones that hummed silently. Moments had also meaning, it had to be during the night to do it.
And another thing had a strong meaning...purity.
After the door was properly locked, Amid walked slowly towards the bed that Bell was sleeping in, covered slightly by a blanket. She looked down to him while she started to open her robe. One by one her clothes were taken off, folded and put onto a chair. Eventually Amid became fully naked, covering her chest, crotch and the silvery bush with her hands, even when Bell couldn´t see her.
The Miracle of Healing demanded to "Share the bed with a pure virgin". No thoughts of lust were allowed, it had to be a healer since the healing magic would be channeled through Amid´s body.
She would go very far to help someone in danger, but it was the first time doing this. Sharing the bed of course didn´t meant to make love, she basically just had to sleep at Bell´s side.
Amid still was very embarrassed when she lifted the blanket and climbed into the bed. She was on his right side, so that she wouldn´t move his wounded left arm. Her face got even more red when she lied down and snuggled up to him, her chest touching his body.
Her biggest problems, to be naked and touch the naked body of a man with her own...especially the man that drank her bathwater once...was also the best condition for the ritual, that she felt embarrassed from it, that made sure the didn´t had feelings of affection towards him.
A man´s body...so hard trained...muscular...I have to focus...
She put her head on a small pillow next to his chest and put her right arm around his waist, making sure only to touch his stomach, more body contact wasn´t needed and Amid was glad about that, since it was the first time she would sleep next to a man in a bed, and both of them naked.
So tired...
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Nnnnh...
Everything was dark and hazy in his mind, he fealt heavy, his left arm really light, but as if he couldn´t move it...his fingers itched.
Bell blinked slightly, only darkness was around him.
Is it...night?
He wasn´t fully awake...this room looked familiar, Bell couldn´t move his body, he was too exhausted and a familair feeling stopped him from moving. A body was next to his, a warm, soft, naked, female body that hugged his own and breathed peacefully while sleeping.
A...is...?
Bell blinked two times...while it was dark...he could have sworn...the hair was...silver.
His eyes closed and he fell asleep again, not sure if he was awake or had just dreamed.
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"Is he awake now?!"
"No Sword Princess, he is still sleeping."
Amid had checked on Ais in the morning. After waking up next to Bell, Amid carefully pulled the blanket away and checked his whole body...it really was a miracle. In only one night, most of the wounds they couldn´t heal were gone. Smiling relieved, Amid started to dress herself again, keeping one eye on Bell to make sure he didn´t woke up in the wrong moment.
Right now they were walking slowly from Ais´ room to Bell´s. Since she wasn´t that badly wounded, Ais could leave her room already...and she wanted to stay at Bell´s side. She had promised to him that she would be there when he would wake up.
"What about the others?"
"No one from your Familia is badly hurt, Vanagandr protected many of them."
Ais smiled when she heard that, Bete had really changed.
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"So, how is your leg, Lena?"
Aisha crossed her arms under her chest and looked at her friend, who sat in a hospital bed.
"The healer said I should be able to walk normal again in a week, it wasn´t thad bad."
Samira, who was also there looked at Lena´s body. "You sure were lucky."
"Hehe!"
"What are you grinning for?"
"That wasn´t luck, Samira...that was my man!"
"Ho?"
The three amazons were interrupted when they heard knocking from the door.
"Come in."
Samira and Aisha raised their eyebrows when they saw who came in, a familiar werewolf...with a bouquet of Myosotis flowers...Lena´s favorite flowers.
He didn´t paid much attention to the two other amazons.
"You better?"
"Jup!" Lena grinned.
"Here are your flowers, good to see you are awake."
Bete carefully put the flowers on the blanket above Lena´s legs, waved over his shoulder and left.
Aisha wanted to say something but just smirked when she saw Lena´s expression. The young amazoness took the flowers and smelled them, smiling overjoyed.
Samira grinned. "You look like a pure Maiden in love, Lena."
"Hehehehe...jealous?"
"Not necessarily."
But Aisha and Samira were really happy for their friend, that she had found someone she really loved. Lena smelled the flowers again with closed eyes and leaned back into her pillow...she was deeply in love.
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Ais opened the door quietly and looked inside, sighing relieved. Bell was still asleep, but he looked much better than the moments after the battle. A few bandages and band aids were on various places of his body, but less than she had thought. The stump of his left arm was covered in bandages...it hurt Ais to look at it.
My poor Bell...
"You can go in, Sword Princess, I will bring your bed later."
"I can stay with him?"
"Would you listen if I ordered you not to?"
Ais thought for a moment, then shook her head.
"I thought as much, but you will need to help him. If he panics because of his arm, try to calm him down, panic is a normal thing at first."
"What about a..."
"We will start to work on it soon. I will do my absolut best for his prosthesis."
"Thank you, Ms. Amid."
Amid nodded and left, she had to look at her other patients.
Ais entered the room as quiet as possible, the seven healing stones were still placed on small tables and shelves around Bell. She limped slightly, Ais too had received her share on injuries...but not as much as Bell had.
To see Bell wounded like this hurt her, especially his left arm. And it hurt even more that he lost half of his left arm to protect her and save her life. For Bell it was a natural choice, because he wanted to protect the woman he loved.
But for Ais it was also hard to see the man she loved to get injured like this.
A chair was next to Bell´s bed, as Amid had told her, Hestia had visited Bell and sat next to his sleeping body as soon as Amid had allowed it.
"Bell..."
Ais sat down on the chair and gently took Bell´s right hand. Just feeling his hand helped to ease her worries a bit. Bell was hurt...badly injured...but he was alive. No matter how long it would take for Amid to finish his prosthesis...Ais would help Bell until then.
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For the rest of the day, the other healers took care of the patients, so Amid had enough time to go to a special room of the hospital...a laboratory. This was the room in which they produced the prostheses.
Instead of her usual hospital clothes, Amid put on a lab coat and sat down at the work table. It was unusual to start so early with the work, but it was a special case. Amid had already measured Bell´s body to know how long it had to be an other things.
"Amid Teasanare."
A voice sounded from a corner, no one stood there but after a few seconds, a strange sound came and a figure in a long, black robe appeared. Everything was hidden, not even the face visible.
As if waiting for a dramatic pause, after a few seconds the figure pulled back the hood ... and revealed a skeletal skull.
"Ah, Mr. Fels, what brings you here again?"
"You are the only person I know who reacts so calmly when she sees my face ... or rather my bones."
"I am a healer and a doctor, I can´t freak out over the sight of bones."
"And that I am a living skeleton?"
"I have seen stranger things in my life."
"Hah..."
Fels almost looked a bit...disappointed. It indeed wasn´t the first time that Amid met him, Ouranos had asked him to talk to Amid one day, due to her positions she might face some special encounter one day.
"Returning to my question since I have a lot of work to do, what brings you here?"
"Bell Cranel´s arm."
Amid raised an eyebrow as if she wanted to say "Go on".
"I would like to assist you in creating a new arm for him."
"I can to that very well on my own, it isn´t the first arm I create. Or is Bell Cranel special to you?"
Next to Amid was a bowl with liquid adamantit in it. It wasn´t a process like forging a weapon or armor, this here was pure alchemy.
"I want to try something, Amid Teasanare. And also, yes Bell Cranel is special to me. We have high hopes for him and I would feel sorry for him to need a metal arm at his age."
"But he will get a metal arm, what else could it be?"
"Do you have the organic remains of his arm here?"
"Of course."
She tapped on a sealed box on the table.
"Good, we will need it."
Fels took out various things from his robe, tools that even Amid had never seen before.
"What is this?"
Fels...grinned...as much as a skeleton could grin.
"You have to know, I am a master alchemist...It would not be an exaggeration to say, the best alchemist in the world ... since nobody else had as much time to practice as I did. Nyuhuhuhuhu!"
Since Fels was basically immortal, he was a bit...weird. He reminded Amid a bit of her god...and a few other gods.
Does immortality do this to a being?
"So you have a special creation in mind?"
"Yes...and we will also need this!"
Fels pulled out a scabbard of his robe, a scabbard that belonged to Bell.
"This is Bell Cranel´s shattered white knife, you may know it or not, but it was made from a unicorn horn."
"What?!"
That was outraging! Unicorn horns were so valuable for mages and healer...
"So you didn´t knew."
"How would I?!"
"True...anyway...we will need it."
"I can´t follow you, we can only work with adamantit."
"Not when it comes to me, Nyuhuhuhuhhu!"
Amid sighed, it was always like this with Fels...he was more than a bit strange.
"Please explain what you have in mind."
Fels put down everything on the table and pulled back his left sleeve, revealing his bone arm.
"Don´t tell me a bone like arm?"
"No of course not...even if it would be nice to have a "Bone buddy". No what I have in mind is this, we will create the bones out of adamantit. Then we will grind his knife to powder and apply it to the metal bones, they will turn white like real bones and will work better with what follows."
"You plan to create a real new arm for him?"
"Nearly. I have plenty of special potions prepared that we can use, magical elixirs. We will use his crushed organic arm, my elixirs and the rest of the powder to create something similar to real flesh. At the end we will create finger nails out of remaining parts of the knife."
"I never heard something like this before."
"Well it is an option, we also could create an metal arm, cover it with Auramit to turn it golden. We could build small sinkings in it so he could put in magical stones to use various magics...like a magical gauntlet!"
"Absolutely not, I told you the last time this isn´t something for experiments!"
"Mouh..."
"Are you sure this artifical flesh will work?"
"To be honest, it will not be exactly like his true flesh, but as close as something can get. He will have no hair grow on this arm and it may look a bit lighter than the rest, also I will never get a tan. But...and I think that is the most important thing for him and Ais Wallenstein...it will feel like normal flesh, warm, soft, with a core of hardness, due to the bones."
"This will be a one of a kind arm..."
Fels "smiled". "Bell Cranel deserves it, don´t you think? The arm of a hero..."
Amid nodded. "Allright, let us start."
"Can I build in at least one sinking for magic stones?"
"No!"
"Tsk..."
"Don´t "Tsk" me! This is serious work!"
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Two days later.
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Ais sat at Bell´s side, held his right hand and looked at his face. Except for taking a shower, she hadn´t left the room. Riveria had visited them, as well as Hestia, Loki and one time Ryu.
More visitors weren´t allowed as long as Bell was still asleep. All of them had the same reaction when they saw Bell´s left arm. He had given so much, they hoped he would finally wake up and get better.
Ais was glad to see Riveria, after she heard that she had fainted due to a mind down, she was in worry about her. Hestia cried openly when she saw her wounded child, she always sad when a child of her got hurt...but Bell was special due to being the first.
Loki had hugged Ais one time, telling her how happy she was that Ais was well and her bunny alive.
"Bell..."
She gently carressed his right hand, to show him she was there for him. Ais didn´t knew when, but at some point she started to hum...until she sang softly. It was a song that her mother sang for her when she was still small, Ais really loved that song.
When she came to the end, Ais went over into another song in elvish. Riveria had sat a whole week at Ais´ bed when she was sick as a child and sang it while Ais slept. Later the small Ais had asked Riveria to sing it again, she wanted to know what the song was about.
It was a lyrical version of caring for someone, to hope a loved one got better and would heal. Ais never really knew why, but she wanted to learn this song, both songs were important to her.
Ais closed her eyes, holding Bell´s hand and continued to sing, a pleasant feeling rose in her. Without noticing it due to her closed eyes...something moved around Ais. It looked a bit like the green wind that covered her when she used her Aerial magic...but...this wind...was golden.
She knew that she had spirit blood in her, inherited from her mother...but Ais never really understood what that meant, except for her immunities and her magic. A spirit could do so much more than just use the wind, and Aria was a greater wind spirit.
It smelled a bit like a flower field in summer, the golden wind moved very slowly in circles around Ais. Even she herself got a comfortable feeling, the wind also moved along Bell´s body, touching his skin here and there.
Ais didn´t noticed what she did there, she didn´t knew where it came from...it just happened. Slowly, bit by bit her songs changed...to a chant. Both songs combined with each other, creating a mix of two languages and further into something different.
The words that came out of her mouth were not meant for a mortal being, even elves couldn´t produce these sounds...for Ais...it sounded just normal. But in reality, it was the language of spirits.
She opened her eyes and smiled lovingly while she looked at Bell´s face. Right now, Ais looked almost exactly like her mother did when she had looked at Albert. It was this voice, this language that got Albert´s attention in the distant past. Aria had often sat on her legs, letting Albert sleep or rest with his head on her thighs, while she sang softly to him.
Ais had matured and the inheritance in her blood bloomed more and more due to her love for Bell. With her left hand, she gently stroked Bell´s hair while her right held his right hand, the fingers entangled. The golden wind softly carressed Bell´s body, as if Ais was kissing him lovingly everywhere.
"Nnnn.."
Ais felt a slight touch at her hand, twitching fingers.
"Bell?"
Her voice had a strange tone...like bells in the wind. Many people would cry of joy when they would hear a voice this beautiful. But Ais would only ever talk to Bell like this, this special tone of her voice...the golden wind...her heart...it all belonged to Bell.
While she moved her hands, the golden wind gently moved along Bell´s body, unconsciously controlled by her hands. It all felt so natural, she didn't even wonder where the golden wind was coming from.
His fingers twitched again...as did his eyelids.
"Bell?"
Ais leaned closer and looked at him, their faces only a hand wide apart.
"Nnn..."
Bell...I love you...
She had to do it...she didn´t knew why but it just felt like it. Ais kissed Bell with all the love she felt for him, only a tiny bit did she parted his lips with her own, some of the golden wind moved inside him, healing his body from the outside and inside.
A sigh of relieve escaped her nose when Bell´s fingers closed around her hand and he returned the kiss. In an act of pure love and due to her spirit blood, Ais performed a healing miracle on Bell without knowing it. She basically kissed him back into the waking world...
Amid would probably faint if she would see this, as well as Riveria. Not because of the very loving kiss...well maybe Riveria would...but because of the scenery...Ais looked so much like her mother right now...a true spirit.
Their lips parted and Ais heard Bell taking a deep breath.
Slowly, his eyes opened, unfocused at first but then moving towards her.
"Ais..."
"Bell..."
With another loving smile, Ais leaned down and they kissed again.
I love you, Bell.
I love you, Ais.
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Authors Note: So Bell´s new arm is in progress and Ais changed a bit. Will there be a special reason why she got this new ability right now? We will see...
To answer Rakkerun´s question: I thought a long time about writing a story about BellxRiveria, a very long time. But it just doesn´t feel...how do I say this...right. I want to stick as close as possible to the original story and the characters.
The problem here would be Riveria´s and Bell´s age. For her, he is still a child while she is an adult. I would need to change Bell´s age a bit and the story would need a few years "ingame" to work. Also I didn´t knew how I should approach this.
So everything I can give Riveria is the small story she gets at the moment, but with every chapter I will mention less and less the other girls and focus only on these two. Their story will go on for a while, I can´t say how many chapters but I have plans for every single forest they visit, for the time between the forests and a few very important moments for these two.
Because in a non harem route, I couldn´t bring myself to make Ais so sad that she never gets her bunny, but her "Mom" does. Also I can´t see Riveria doing that, while I could change that she rescued Bell and not Ais...it just doesn´t feel right for me, Bell would need to take a very different path.
So she will have her small story in "Blood of Zeus" and a few important moments later here.