The Cure
DISCLAIMER: Danmachi belongs to its respective owners. Everything that occurs in this story is of my own creation and the characters abide by the fictional laws in the setting.
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Chapter 9: Great Idea, Bad Execution.
Part 11
Bell Cranel barely held himself back when Freya presented her true, naked, self.
The flimsy dress she wore, if it could even be called that, peeled off her person as she climbed onto the table separating them, and as she crawled towards him, her lusciousness temptingly dangling, Bell warned her, again.
"Two seconds."
Freya's silvery irises turned into little hearts, face flushed as her hands found leverage on his knees, and she drew herself closer towards him.
"I can tell you everything you want," Her words, and noise, tried to drown him, "I know everything you're looking for~" What remained of her dress on her lower body caught his knees, and as she draped herself over his chest, the flimsy cloth completely fell off her.
"One second."
Bell's hands were already moving by then, Freya's mouth came sickeningly close to his ear, and just as his fingers were about to curl around her neck, she whispered:
"I can give you the cure you're seeking."
Bell's thumbs stopped an inch away from Freya's throat, his crimson gaze met her silvery heart-eyed pupils.
"Go on."
Freya licked her lips, her fingers clutched Bell's shoulders as she made herself comfortable in his lap before fixing him with her most potent seductive glare, Bell's fingers completely came to rest around her neck and throat and reminded her of just how thin the ice she walked on was.
"I was, oh so sad~ to hear how bad you had it yesterday in the pub," Freya fake lamented, Bell frowned. "Truly a touching tale, a boy discarding his innocence for his mother's sak- urgh."
Bell had warned her, his thumbs pressed painfully into Freya's throat for a second before he eased the pressure and warned her, again. "I am in no mood for your jokes, speak or the next time I won't stop."
Freya coughed and glared at Bell, "What a brute." The thumbs started pressing again, "Fine! You seek a cure for your mother, do you not?"
"Yes, I thought that was quite clear."
"I have heard of such a disease before, many years ago, and there's only one known treatment for it." Freya tilted her head to give Bell another seductive glare.
He noticed her eyes started glowing at the same time her noise became unbearably poisonous to his own, for a second, he glanced down to appreciate the Goddess's exotic body before he snapped out of the trance.
"Freya." Bell growled out loud, and Freya knew she made a mistake when the fingers around her neck started digging into her skin again, "I told you, no more jokes."
"W-wait, I just had to make sur-urgh- can-'t"
Deep breathes Bell, deep breathes. This is your only chance, don't waste it.
Bell eased his fingers open again, and Freya instantly gasped for breath.
"Gah! Must you be so hasty!?" Freya coughed out. "I had to make certain the first time was no fluke!"
"For your sake, I hope it's the last time you try to charm me." Bell was, quite literally, one warning away from truly fulfilling his word on becoming a Godslayer if Freya continued with her eccentricities. "You have heard of such a disease, continue."
Freya scowled, truly not a beautiful face to look at despite her natural beauty that Bell couldn't deny. "There were several women, several years ago, with such a disease and a dear friend of mine asked for my help, I offered the same I did to you, not a proper cure but a treatment to prolong their feeble lives."
Bell nodded for Freya to continue. "Treatment, okay, go on."
"I feel this is a very one-sided exchange," Freya muttered and glanced at herself before coyly looking at Bell, his response was to tighten the grip on her neck yet again, "Right, the treatment. There's a sacred tree over ten thousand years old safeguarded by the Royal Elves of the Earthly World, each leaf of that tree is considered an exotic elixir, the branches having even more potency, what you seek is the branch."
Bell withheld from telling Freya he already had a way to obtain one, if Riveria was true to her words, which he believed she would be. "How do I get a branch, then?"
Technically, he did not lie with his question.
"Through me, of course. I can give you as many as you want, all you have to do is give me a little bit…" Freya wiggled her hips, presenting her cleanly shaved core entrance.
Bell scowled, and tightened his grip on Freya's neck, "Very funny, how do I get one."
"I- me!" Freya coughed out, "I give!"
Bell eased his grip, "You won't give them to me for free, right?"
Freya gathered her breath and gave Bell a withering glare, "No. I made myself quite clear just now. I couldn't get the one you resemble back then, but you? I desire you more than her."
"The one I resemble?" Bell frowned, but he already knew who Freya was referring to.
"A woman considered to be the strongest sorceress of Orario in her prime," Freya truthfully replied, her breath quickly became ragged as she continued, "Oh how I wished to hold her, to feel her magic! Such a divine soul… And you, you resemble her so much…"
Bell tilted his head, before Freya could start to connect the dots he asked, "You couldn't get her, so you want me, then?"
Freya smiled honestly, "Yes. Is that so bad? I will give you everything I have to offer in exchange for your everything."
Bell snorted, "Bad? No, I find your kind being very selfish so it's no surprise to me."
Freya smile widened, "Then?"
"… I'll think about it," Bell played with the truth.
"What is there to think?" Freya sighed out and grabbed her own breast, pink tips pinched between her tips. "You have me at your mercy, and I'm offering what you want, what is there to think about?"
Bell, again, couldn't deny the Goddess exotic beauty, but it was far from what he wanted, no. His desires lay elsewhere, and they were begging him to simply close his fingers and end the life of the one that had caused his mom so much grief.
It would be cathartic, he was certain, but it would also permanently close the path that led to his mom's cure.
There was something else he was thinking as Freya continued posturing her body for him to take, and that was that for all Freya had boasted, she truly didn't know the details of his predicament.
Most likely, she had listened bits of his conversation with Alise and Riveria yesterday and pieced together what she thought would be enough to convince him.
Freya did not know Riveria already offered the same thing as her, the elven tree branch that is, not her body.
Freya did not know who exactly Bell needed the branch for, all she knew was that it was the same sickness his mothers suffered from.
And most importantly.
Freya did not know it was no sickness.
Alfia was cursed.
So, everything Freya had offered to win him over?
It all was useless.
Except one thing.
Herself.
There was a certain merit to having the Goddess with the current strongest Familia at his mercy, however what she asked for was something he could not give her - no, something he would not give her.
But he could play with her.
"Freya." Bell's voice made Freya stop touching herself and give him her whole attention. "Is it me… or is it my magic that you want?"
"… You interest me, but your magic does much more, so both." Freya carefully replied. "If you give yourself to me, I swear you won't lack anything, and I will bring out your true potential."
Perhaps, if he had been an adventurer first and a mom's boy second, he would've taken such a tempting offer, but that was not the case. His lack of an answer drove Freya press herself against him again, her mouth resting over his ear.
"Come with me, Bell Cranel." Freya sensually begged, her noise suddenly becoming even more poisonous than last time, "Give in to m-urgh!"
"I warned you, Freya" Bell's fingers tightly gripped Freya's throat, her own fingers coming to scratch the back of his hands as she tried to ease the pressure to no avail.
"Yo'r ki-ling me!" Freya coughed and continued struggling, but Bell didn't stop.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice your charm, again?" Bell scoffed as Freya's struggled harder, her body started trashing on his lap, but he did not let go. "You came here to offer me what I want, did you not?"
Freya's face started turning purple and she nodded in the positive to his question, her nails never stopping their incessant scratching of his hands around her neck. "S-so-or-ry!"
Deep breathes, Bell, deep breathes.
"Cagh! Ugh," Freya coughed out and desperately gathered air into her lungs, the bit she managed to gather was instantly taken away by Bell throwing her off his lap, her back impacting painfully against the table. "Urgh!"
He had one chance, and one chance alone to obtain what he wanted.
And he was willing to gamble on what he'd seen, and heard, from her Freya's soul during their entire interaction…
Both of Bell's hands found themselves around Freya's neck again, her legs came to rest on either side of his hips, and he pressed himself down onto her, so she felt his weight.
Silver irises met resolute crimson, and Bell felt Freya's heartbeat increase rapidly, the pace matched the strength he was applying around her throat again.
Freya started struggling again, her trashing body held down by Bell against the table, her powerlessness in that situation ringing in the air for Bell to hear…
And abuse.
Airmid said he could interact with the souls directly if he put his entire mind into it, and for his mom, there was absolutely nothing he wouldn't do.
Freya's offer had no value.
But Freya herself had.
And as Freya's physical struggles continued, the Goddess's soul, the upside-down woman bleeding from the heart, moaned out in ecstasy at the treatment she was receiving.
Truly, the foulest, lustful, Goddess he'd met so far.
Freya's irises soon turned into heart pupils again, pupils that threatened to roll into the back of her skull from the lack of air, her throat rumbled with dry moans, her shaved core wetted his pants from the pain and pleasure, and Bell, just before Freya could truly lose consciousness, released her neck.
"Hah, hah, hah, you… you little-"
And he gripped it again.
More struggle, more pain, more pleasure.
"Are- are you- tryi- to ki-l-"
Again.
"St-op!"
And again.
"Gah!"
And again.
"HAH! MHMM!"
And again.
- 0 - The Cure - 0 -
Bell wasn't certain how long it took, but his gamble paid off.
For resting on the table in all her naked, sweaty, wet, glory was the Goddess Freya spasming, her soul connected to his own by a string of blood coming from the upside-down woman's bleeding chest.
If Alfia ever found out Bell had used his magic to tame a Goddess, she would first congratulate him, and when she found out which Goddess it was, she would send him into the afterlife, no questions asked.
Bell was not so different from Alfia when it came to his brutality, after all.
Freya's selfishness was what hastened the curse on his deceased mother.
Freya's selfishness was what drove Alfia to leave the city, exiled.
Freya's selfishness was what made his life so miserable.
Killing her would be too kind for her.
Bell would use Freya's selfishness against her own, her pride that made her act on her own, to present herself in such a vulnerable, exploitable way, her own unfulfilled desires, and foul emotions…
He used her own charm against herself.
And he would use her, just like she had used so many others for her own selfishness.
"Freya."
"Yes?"
"Hand."
Slowly, trembling, but surely, the Goddess exquisite, sweaty, hand found its way onto his own.
- 0 - Chapter End - 0 -
Author's Note: Yeah, uh. Didn't expect that one, did ya? Teehee~