Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not even the soundtracks. Danmachi belongs to Fujino Ōmori, Final Fantasy XV belongs to Square Enix.
Is it wrong to seek answers?
Chapter 23 : Saviors on time
NORTHERN STREET - ORARIO – NOON
"Thank heavens that I could see you, Shakti, now this kidnapper will surely get the shock of his life." Tsubaki said to a blue-haired woman with orange clothes.
"yeah, it was pure luck that I came towards the Guild on the right time, since I've been also been informed about an emergency signal from the Demeter Familia, " Shakti said.
When Miach and Dian Cecht ran towards the Guild building, they saw Tsubaki also running towards them and Shakti, coming outside from the Guild, not only hearing from Shakti about the abduction of one of the Guild Employees but also from some kind of SOS coming from the Demeter Familia.
Tsubaki confirmed that this was no prank since she saw Welf's precious sword inside his home, which he would never leave alone at all. Both gods told Tsubaki and Shakti there were more abductions and that the kidnapper awaits them at the Wheat manor, which was coincidently the Demeter Familia's home. Tsubaki and Shakti didn't wait any longer and started running towards the northern gate.
While they were still running, they suddenly could see 3 familiar figures in front of the visible northern gate.
(OPENING: Promare OST – Gallant Ones by Hiroyuki Sawano ft. Mpi & Benjamin)
OUTSIDE OF THE WHEAT MANOR – WEST SIDE– NOON
"Are you 100 % sure, Bell? " Lunoire asked Bell with an expression like there was a rather shocking revelation.
"yes, I'm pretty sure that was what I and Noct saw on the pictures" Bell confirmed.
"If that's really the case, then maybe we don't need to go inside the manor at all, FOLLOW ME" were Luniore words before they changed the direction they were running.
"How do you mean that, Lunoire ?"Hephaestus asked while they were now running towards west, away from the manor's visible brick wall.
"not far away from here, on the west, there's a storage for fresh barrels of wine installed by the order of lady Demeter, since inside the manor, there wasn't enough space for the barrels anymore." Lunoire briefly explained to the whole group about her thoughts.
"How far is it, " Hermes asked.
"If I'm not wrong … WE'RE HERE" Luniore announced happily after seeing the supposed storage, which made the group immediately slow down.
In front of them was a Dugout, a basement with staircases leading down to the only entrance, a quite large door. They had no trouble since it was open.
"BINGO !" Hermes announced, "seems we're lucky this time" He continued since he saw that the door has been broken recently.
"what are we waiting for? " Mikoto asked impatiently.
"wait" Luniore warned, "if I remember correctly, the tunnels down there could be confusing like a labyrinth" she also insisted.
"which means we have to be careful, right? the enemy might be still around" Hestia declared for everyone still be on alert.
As everyone followed her, Luniore took the lead inside the dugout storage, she also saw that, despite the door being broken, that the stored barrels weren't damaged in any way while seeing that the safety lamp, near the entrance, was still glowing as if someone just recently left the storage.
While still being on high alert, no one could detect any danger coming.
"Bell-dono." Mikoto called him, which made Bell turn.
"why did that Eleazar guy addressed Noct as 'your majesty'? " Mikoto asked, which made everyone stop while they looked eighter to Bell or Hestia.
Bell was about to answer, only for Hestia to look at him with a serious expression, remembering his goddess' order.
"I don't know, " he said with a rather denying expression, which was not only recognized by the other present gods as a lie, but also by the two present female adventurers.
"I understand" Mikoto answered since she realized the qualms on Bell's face. The other two gods also could feel the current fear and discomfort in Bell's soul, so they all decided to remain silent about that subject for now.
After a small walk, they finally saw a door.
After they failed to open it normally, Luniore slammed it with her bare fists.
To their shock and relief, they saw a bunch of people, everyone who went missing.
"They are sleeping ... " Mikoto noticed while stepping inside first.
"No, more likely unconscious, maybe because of that Eleazar guy." Lunoire realized while coming along.
"WELF ! " Hephaestus, Hestia, and Bell shouted worryingly while the three were running towards him.
Both goddesses could see that he was really beaten up like in the picture. But then, she looked towards the other unconscious hostages and realized that Welf was the only one beaten up while everyone else seemed fine. Bell then cut the tied strings on Welf's hands behind him.
Bell then runs towards the unconscious Ryuu and Syr.
"RYUU, SYR !" Lunoire shouted this time while running towards them. She and Bell also cut their strings.
" " L-Lunoire? " " Both asked quietly while waking up, but then both stood up immediately.
"YOU HERE? " Welf called loudly towards his saviors.
"yes, thank heaven we were able to find you so soon, " Hephaestus said happily.
"Ouka" Mikoto called to her friend, whom she also cut the rope around his arm.
"SIR BELL" Lily called to him, which made Bell turn, finally seeing her.
"Lily" Bell called to her while running towards her, also untying her "I'm glad you are fine." he said while thinking what happened to Welf
"Does anyone remember what happened." Mikoto asked for everyone.
All hostages said that while they went home, it suddenly became dark.
"and you Welf, who did this to you." Hestia asked.
"If I remember correctly … "
Welf told them that after it was getting dark around him, that he also once woke up.
A man with a tagelmust on his head and another individual with a purple mark with some eerie design was standing in front of Welf while he was tied up.
The only clear thing Welf remembered about that event was that the tagelmust man, which everyone recognized as Eleazar, said to the eerie masked one that Welf is a Crozzo smith, which for some reason made the purple masked one angry, resulting in beating up Welf, which finally explains the black eye and the wounds around his face.
"Wait, so there was someone else too, do you remember something else? " Hermes asked curiously.
Welf shook his head, "except that the masked one hit me pretty hard, no clue."
"well, while we don't remember a masked one, we saw two other allies of that tagelmust man, which were also familiar to us" Syr announced.
"two more? " Hephaestus wondered.
"it was Jura Halmer from the previous Rudra Familia and Vito from Evilus."
"that Vito? " Bell asked while looking to Syr, who nodded. At this moment Bell and Syr remembered a certain child they once encountered and took care of, and also how the red-haired Vito captured her before they could save her from him.
Meanwhile, Bell, Mikoto, and Luniore started untying all the other Hostages and waking them up. They were all the people on the flying letters from before, as the three adventurers realized
"The Rudra Familia? you mean those who were … " Hermes was about to continue until he saw Ryuu slowly turning angry expression, signalizing that she shouldn't talk any further since Ryuu is very sensitive about that subject, but it was enough for Hermes as an answer
"so does that mean Jura and Eleazar are now members of Evilus? " Hermes asked curiously.
"Very likely, so you already encountered him? " Ryuu asked.
"yes, we came here while the others are now fighting." Lunoire explained.
" " " FIGHTING? " " " Welf, Ouka and Lily asked loudly while the others' ropes were cut by Bell and the other saviors.
OUTSIDE OF THE WHEAT MANOR – SOUTHERN MAIN FRONT GATE – EARLY AFTERNOON
The whole group had trouble dealing with the enemies.
Until now, they were able to kill 10 of the larger thunderbombs, the 'Galvanades' as Noct called them.
Noct was himself also shocked since, with his current strength, he and his current group should be able to deal with the Iron Giant rather easily, but those many Galvanades seemed too disturbing, which is the reason they couldn't activate any more powerful magic while they were fighting.
Allen and Bete complained the most about the situation because they had to fight mostly with weaklings while if their whole Familia would be here, they thought would've finished those monsters already.
Noct took out his third Elixier, using it.
"damn it, half of the Elixirs already gone? " Allen complained after the realization.
"Why didn't you told those two Gods to give you more, I'm sure they wouldn't have mind given the current situation"
"and why didn't you? " Allen asked Bete, provocating him again, in which he succeeded.
"How about we just retreat for a while? " Asfi suggested.
"Are you kidding us, what if they try to attack the mansion or the City gates, both aren't far away after all." Bete told to his group
"I agree, everyone already used most of our provided items." Chloe agreed.
"and someone already used the whole supply, " Anya said to the group before turning towards Chloe with an angry and worried expression.
"not my fault when a certain someone gets caught multiple times in an Explosion, " Chloe said while looking to Anya herself, implying why Chloe has no items anymore.
"at least we could defeat 3 of those purple balls that way, " Anya said since one of those 'Galvanades' was defeated by a combined attack between Anya and her older brother.
"Anyway, I also agree with Andromeda, we should retreat." Naza said to the group.
"it's not possible." Noct said while being lightly exhausted.
"how do you mean that? " Filvis asked Noct.
"If we try to extend the distance, the two big guys there will use their gravity power to pull us back here. "
"and as Bete said, I don't want to know what they will try with the manor if we were about to disappear successfully." Noct explained.
"and what about tempting them away." Filvis asked Noct.
" " " " " "away? " " " " " " everyone wondered about Filvis's Idea.
"if we tempt them, let's say, towards the east, then not only the manor will we safer, but also we could try a new strategy." Filvis suggested.
"so you have something in mind? " Asfi asked her.
"it's only a thought, but it's very risky and we can only do it together, " Filvis said.
"then what are we waiting for, if no one else has another plan" Bete annoyingly suggested, he trusted Filvis since they already worked together once in the Dungeon.
The whole group started running away towards the east. On the way, Filvis explained her plan before they started it.
While Asfi, Naza, and Filvis were busy preparing something with their already provided items and other stuff, everyone else took the task to verbally anger the enemy monsters.
While Noct tried it with insulting gestures, Anya, Chloe, and Bete did it verbally, trying every possible insult which they know. Noct hoped that Hestia and the others are still saving the hostages because he didn't want them to hear which dirty words are used right now, especially since it was his idea, and he also wasn't sure if it will work.
And despite looking towards the loud bunch of adventurers, those monsters didn't seem to have the intelligence to understand what they are trying to tell them.
But still, the two Iron Giants and the Galvanades were now coming towards them, which meant that they successfully tempted them far away from the manor.
Now, expect for Noct, everyone was running away.
What's more, Noct and the enemies were very close. So close that one of the Galvanades was about to explode.
" 'TALARIA !' " Asfi shouted as loud as possible for Noct to listen, while Asfi herself came flying towards them.
At this moment, Noct throws his Balmung sword in the Air for Asfi to take it, which she succeeded.
Then Noct could see an arrow, filled with the now self-made Item by Asfi, flying towards the floor where the monsters were cheek by jowl.
" 'DIO GRAIL !' " They heard Filvis shouting, who also cast a magic spell, which created a while circular barrier around the area where the monsters are staying.
Then, after Noct landed on the floor away from the barrier, he as the whole group felt a rather strong pressure towards the now more bright glowing barrier.
"did it work? " Chloe loudly wondered while looking towards the bright glowing barrier.
Then, after the barrier stopped, they still could see the enemies as if they escaped unscathed.
"damn it !" Bete shouted while Filvis made a shameful expression.
"seriously ?!" Chloe shockingly wondered.
"well, I see now 20, and before, they were 30 purple bubbles, so … " Anya said.
"This doesn't change that much about our situation, " Naza said to them, also rather worried.
It was at this point that the whole group realized that the monsters now had rather very angry expressions on their faces.
Then, the two Iron Giants, not only started to run further towards them followed by the Galvanades, but their left arms started also glowing in red color.
At this point, the group felt a strong pressure, only that instead of being shed away, they were now being pulled towards the enemies.
It was the gravitation powers Noct mentioned earlier, they are using right now, which also made everyone cry a little, even Bete and Allen.
Noct and Asfi were the unlucky ones being the closest to the Iron Giants.
Then, those two monsters stretched their arms with their large swords on each their hands.
Noct and Asfi felt very nervous since right now it was a very hopeless situation, not only because of them both but also since the others were surrounded by the Galvanades.
The Giant started hitting them with their swords right towards their heads.
Noct, anger on his face, closed his eyes, accepting his possible end.
…...
But then there was another bright light.
'so that's it, huh ' Noct wondered before a strong earth slash could be heard.
…...
"didn't expect to see you that hopeless." A familiar voice Noct could hear.
After opening it, his mouth gaped slightly. Not only someone saved him, but that someone also held Asfi on one arm while the other had a sword, protecting him from the one Iron Giant.
Noct looked towards the other Iron Giant, only to see that Asfi really wasn't there anymore.
When he looked straight ahead again, he looked at his savior closely.
While he never saw that silver uniform, but the bright silver hair was very familiar to him, as the voice.
And then it hit his mind.
…...
"R-Ravus ?… " he asked towards his savior.
…...
(ENDING: Jacob Lee – I Just Know (New Immunity Remix) )