Familia of Heroes

by GODZILLA IS THE KING

For as long as Bell could remember, he always wanted nothing more to be a hero, except for maybe meeting a cute girl in the Dungeon. Now after a series of strange and unusually events one day in the dungeon, Bell not only meets a beautiful girl in the dungeon, but the perfect chance to live with and meet some of the greatest heroes of all. Inspired by Heroic Myth by Harouki.

9. Chapter 9

Sorry this took so long, I've been dealing with a lot of things with college and life, so I hope the longer length of the chapter makes up for it (what is with me and writing chapter 9s that are so fucking long?). Once again, I have an author's note at the bottom explaining some of the things I did if I feel like it's worth explaining.

"Hey, I've been waiting for you three, nyaa~!" called out a waitress from the Hostess of Fertility to Bell and his Servants as they passed by the restaurant on their way to the Dungeon. The waitress was the brown haired catgirl that they had seen serve other tables each time they had come to the restaurant.

"Is she talking to us?" Achilles asked, a brow raised as all three of them looked back at her.

"It appears so." Chiron said as the waitress gestured for the three of them to come over to her.

"I wonder what she wants." Bell said, mostly to himself as they all went over to see why it was that the waitress was calling out to them. "Good morning, is there something we can help you with?"

"Good meowning! Sorry for bothering you-nya." the waitress said, making Achilles' eye twitch at the pun and confusing Bell right before shoving a purse into his hands, further confusing the boy. "Please bring that to that klutz girl-nya!"

"...Huh?" Bell let out in pure confusion as he gave the waitress a blank stare.

"I'm sorry, but could you explain?" Chiron asked, clearly as lost as his student was for once, though his patient smile never grew strained.

"Anya, that doesn't explain much, you're clearly confusing them." Another waitress came up to them and said, who all three of them recognized as Ryu from when she had served them a few nights ago.

"Don't be silly Ryu! Clearly, they understand that I want them to bring this purse to Syr, who forgot it when she went to go watch Monsterphilia, nya!" Anya said in response to Ryu, looking really proud of herself as she did. Evidently, she had completely missed Chiron asking her to explain.

"No we didn't." Achilles said immediately, deadpanning. "You just shoved that in Bell's face and asked us to bring it to someone. You didn't even say where to bring it!"

"For future reference-" Chiron said patiently. "It would help more for similar requests if you elaborate a bit more as who you're asking may not always know what you are referring to."

Anya would look up at Chiron with a blank stare, and he wasn't sure if she understood what she meant. But then the Cat girl would give an energetic shake of her head in the affirmative.

"I'll try to remember that,-nya!" Anya said excitedly as she struck a vaguely cat-like pose.

"I could do without the cat noises too." Achilles grumbled under his breath.

"I wouldn't go that far, I think it's rather endearing." Chiron said, catching his student's mutterings while smiling over to him in amusement. To which, Achilles could only give a hapless shrug.

"So, uh, what's Monsterphilia?" Bell asked, still holding onto the purse in the same awkward grip since he didn't know what else to do with it.

"You've really never heard of it ?" Ryu asked, surprising Bell a little that she remembered his name. "I thought everyone in Orario knew about it…"

"I'm actually pretty new to Orario." Bell explained as he scratched the back of his head, feeling a little awkward at the way should put it and that he didn't know some piece of obvious information.

"As are me and Rider." Chiron said, cupping his chin in interest as to what Ryu and Anya were talking about. "So we would not mind an explanation if you could."

"Then let me teach ya-NYA!" Anya declared excitedly, bringing everyone's attention to her, as Achilles could only silently wish she would stop talking like that. "Monsterphilia is a super big event that is held every year- nya! They rent the entire Colosseum and tame monsters captured in the Dungeon!"

"What… tame!?" Bell said in shock at the new information, surprised that such a thing was possible and shocked that he hadn't heard of such a thing before.

"It's not unusual, even you, white head, must've experienced it-nya." Anya said despite Bell's surprise. "Like the moment a defeated monster gazes up at you as if it wants to join you."

"Nope." Bell said immediately and without hesitation, a little weirded out that something like that could even be possible. "Well, I haven't seen it before."

"Usually the monsters are dead before we can even see a look like that." Achilles stated as he looked up in thought, trying to think of anything he saw that was like what the cat girl described.

"I guess that's true." Bell said in some mild realization.

"A taming skill is a genuine skill." Ryu interjected. "Even if it does largely depend on your natural ability."

"Still, with an ability that rare, I can certainly see why putting on such a show would be something of a big event that most people would like to see." Chiron said with an impressed tone, since the ability to tame monsters was rare even in the Servants' world. "Though, if I may ask, why are you asking us to bring Ms. Flova her purse? Couldn't one of you do it yourselves?"

"She ended up forgetting her purse after promising to buy us all souvenirs. What a clumsy girl-nya." Anya explained, making Ryu give the catgirl a dark look.

"Like you're one to talk." Ryu said to herself before looking back at the three members of the Hestia Familia. "We can't go give it to her ourselves because we're too busy getting ready for today, so we would really appreciate you taking care of this for us."

"I understand, although…" Chiron said to Ryu before frowning and looking at Bell. "Normally, we would be happy to help, but we were going to the Dungeon today as a sort of test to see how Bell has been doing with his training."

"Oh yeah." Bell blanked in remembrance, he had been a little caught up in thought about his interaction with Heracles this morning, his dream, and the information about Monsterphilia, he had sort of ended up forgetting why they had been going to the Dungeon today. It didn't help him that going to the Dungeon was just part of his routine at this point. "Sorry about that."

"I see." Ryu said with a small frown, clearly a little disappointed. "I guess we'll have to wait until Syr realizes she forgot and comes back or one of us takes a break to go give it to her."

She wasn't the only one that was disappointed either. Chiron didn't miss how Bell seemed a little down after the reminder that they had something that they had to do. He had probably wanted to see the monster taming display.

The Archer Servant could hardly blame him for it since he could hardly deny that he was curious about seeing it for himself. Though Bell was probably just as disappointed that he was unable to help.

Achilles, meanwhile, seemed disinterested in such a thing, and was only barely listening in just to see where he would end up going. Knowing how hot blooded he was, Chiron wouldn't be surprised that Achilles found the idea of simply watching another tame a monster boring, and would instead prefer to be in the Dungeon fighting them. Afterall, even if the monsters couldn't hurt him, the act of moving and fighting would naturally be more appealing to Achilles than sitting and watching.

Chrion would let out a sigh after a couple of seconds of thinking.

"Rider, while me and Bell are returning Ms. Flova's purse, you can venture down to the Middle Floors if you wish." Chiron said, causing both Bell and Achilles to light up for their respective reasons. "Just do not try picking a fight with the Monster Rex."

"Wait, really?" Achilles and Bell both said in surprise and excitement, with Bell looking up at Chiron hopefully while Achilles grinned.

"Not that I'm complaining, but didn't you want to check how Bell was doing?" Achilles asked, his grin still present and he very much wanted to go down deeper into the Dungeon to encounter more interesting monsters, but was still curious as to why his teacher had changed his mind.

"We can always do that tomorrow, and it's not everyday that one gets to see a display like the one described by Ryu and Anya, was it?" Chiron explained, stopping for a second to make sure he had heard the name of the catgirl correctly. "Besides, since Goddess Hestia hasn't been able to update his status the last few days, if we do it now, it wouldn't show his full degree of growth. I had simply wanted to see how fast he learned without it just to see."

"Guess you're right." Achilles said with a shrug as he began to walk away, his grin ever present as he waved back at them in farewell. "Enjoy the show then! See you two back home once I'm done!"

"Have fun, Rider!" Bell yelled back as he and Chiron returned the wave.

"...Mr. Archer, not to question your judgment, especially since you're doing us a favor by going to give Syr her purse, but do you really think that's a good idea?" Ryu asked, making Chiron and Bell see the frown she wore as Achilles walked away. "The Middle Floors are very dangerous. Even if Rider was a level 2, I would've still recommended going down in a party rather than on his own."

"I appreciate the concern for my student's safety, but I assure you that you don't have to worry about him." Chiron said, giving the elf his calming smile, as if to relieve her worries a bit.

"If you say so." Ryu said with a sigh, clearly not quite convinced but letting it be as Anya began to speak up.

"You really need to relax some more, Ryu-Nya! Archer seems like a smart guy who knows what he's doing-nya!"

"Well, I guess we should get going if we want to find Syr." Bell interjected, with Chiron nodding in agreement as they began to head in the direction of the Colosseum.

"She left only a little while ago, so you should be able to catch her if you hurry." Ryu called out to the two of them as they began to head off.

Near the Colosseum

"There's a lot of people…" Bell noted kind of dumbly as he and Chiron walked down the street to the massive arena that was the center of today's event.

"An excellent observation." Chiron murmured in slight amusement watching as the sea of people walked by the two of them as they all went on with their business and enjoying the festival. "Though you shouldn't be surprised. This is, after all, a huge yearly event."

"I guess you're right." Bell said, scratching the back of his head as he smiled, a little embarrassed at his teacher's retort. He was just a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of people that were here. He was a country kid at heart after all, even if he has spent a few weeks in Orario already.

"It's going to make finding Syr a little hard though…"

"Hm, a fair point." Chiron admitted, before gaining a thoughtful look on his face as he pondered the conundrum. "Well, assuming she hasn't realized that she forgot her wallet and went back, it's not a hard guess that she would be at the Colosseum since she came here to watch the monster tamings."

"Yeah, but wouldn't that be where the most people are too?" Bell asked, frowning a little at the problem.

"That won't be a problem, so you don't have to worry about that." Chiron answered in an unconcerned fashion, elaborating when he saw Bell's look of slight confusion. "I'll be able to pick out of the crowd as long as I can see her thanks to my enhanced sense of sight."

"Oh, that's really cool!" Bell said, clearly impressed by the senses of the Archer Servant. He had been about to ask more about the sensory capability of the Servant, but as he went to ask more, a familiar voice interrupted him.

"Bell!" Hestia's voice called out through the crowd, surprising both Bell and Chiron as they turned to see the goddess of their familia stick out of the crowd.

"Goddess!" Bell said in complete surprise at seeing Hestia here of all places for three days. "Why are you here?!"

"Isn't it obvious? I was looking for you!" Hestia said happily as she approached Bell before noticing Chiron's presence, not having been familiar enough with the Servant to recognize him from the crowd. "Oh, hey Archer. You haven't been treating Bell too badly these last few days have you?"

"No more than I would with Berserker and Rider, I promise you." Chiron said with a tone of amusement and a small light hearted laugh at the suspicious way Hestia looked at him, which wasn't alleviated by his answer. "Though it's a pleasant surprise to run into you here, have you been well these last three days?"

"Mhm, sure, and yes I have been." Hestia said in a tone that made it clear she was still suspicious of Chiron's answer before dropping the subject now to look around them. "Speaking of those two, where are they? Is Rider somewhere around?"

"Unfortunately no. Berserker stayed back at home like usual and Rider went down to the Dungeon on his own since he wasn't interested in the Festival." Chiron answered the goddess.

"Really? Oh well, I guess I'll see them later." Hestia said, clearly a little disappointed that the rest of her Familia was not present.

"Does that mean you're done with whatever you were doing, Goddess?" Bell asked excitedly, happy with the prospect of having Hestia come home after her three days of being away.

"Yep!" Hestia proclaimed, happy with Bell's reaction at the news that she was coming home.

"Excellent news! Though, Goddess Hestia, if I may, what is that you have?" Chiron asked, taking note of the sash that Hestia has around her torso.

"Oh, this? You could say it's a gift that I got for Bell!" Hestia answered happily, causing Bell to light up.

"A gift?" Bell asked in a tone similar to if a child was told the same thing, something that made Hestia let out a small giggle.

"Yep! But that's a surprise for later!" Hestia said with a slight giggle, which only got stronger seeing Bell slouch slightly in disappointment at the news that he was going to have to wait.

"Something to look forward to then." Chiron said, patting Bell on the back gently to help cheer him up. "But for now, we were in the middle of something before we happened to stumble across you, Goddess. I hope it's not any trouble if we try to finish it as you joined us?"

"Oh? Sure, I don't see why not, as long as I'm with Bell and you!" Hestia said, clearly in an oddly good mood from being reunited with her Familia. "What were you doing anyway?"

"Do you remember Ms. Flova? The waitress from the Hostess of Fertility?" Chiron asked as he gestured over to Bell, and the young Master in term brought out Syr's wallet to show Hestia in response. "She seemed to have gotten caught up in the excitement of the Festival and forgot her wallet."

"Her friends asked us to bring it back to her." Bell finished the explanation, putting away the wallet as Hestia frowned a little, her good mood dampened a little at the mention of the waitress that had been friendlier with Bell than she would have liked when they had all eaten at the dinner.

"...Well, I guess it's alright, as long as we are only around her to do that, I guess it's fine." Hestia said, crossing her arms. "And if she doesn't make any moves on my Bell!"

"W-what' is that supposed to mean?" Bell asked, not getting what Hestia was hinting at.

"Yes, well, I promise that once we give Ms. Flova her wallet, we can spend the rest of the day enjoying the festival." Chiron said, though he was giving Bell a look that was caught between amusement and wondering if he should come up with a sort of lesson about the meaning of those kinds of statements for the future .

"Alrighty then!" Hestia said, before she reached out and grabbed Bell's hand, causing the boy to let out what was essentially a yelp before she began to walk away, bringing Bell along with her, who was too surprised by her grabbing his hand for him to even try to resist. "Let's go get something to eat!

"Huh?!"

Chiron would let out a small chuckle at the sight as he trailed after them. He couldn't tell if Hestia was purposefully changing the subject away from finding Syr for a little while or if it was just the whims of a hungry goddess. He'd let her do what she wanted as he looked around them though, since she was so happy.

Not like they couldn't look while they ate after all.

Later

"Come on Bell! Just have a little bite!"

"Goddess! You know I can do that!" Bell said, embarrassed at the idea, even if he felt uneasy with the concept of eating the food that belonged to a god.

"If you're so insistent on sharing goddess, I don't suppose you would mind if I had a bite out of yours?" Chiron asked, giving his Master some reprieve and smile growing a bit more amused as Hestia looked up at him in mild irritation.

"What happened to 'not requiring food of any kind'?" Hestia asked sarcastically, quoting his earlier statement when he was asked if he wanted any, which Chiron had declined.

"I still don't, but I still have taste buds and I'll admit I'm curious as to how the food here tastes." Chiron replied, a warm feeling welling up in his chest alongside amusement.

He had never really interacted with Hestia back in life, or any of his other Olympian half siblings for that matter, not nearly to the extent of Artemis and Apollo at least. So, while this small goddess whose Familia he was a part of, wasn't anywhere near the same as her and was an alternate version of her, it felt nice to actually act normally with one of his siblings. It was a refreshing experience that he didn't get a lot of.

"Look! You can have some of mine, goddess!" Bell said, stretching his share of the food that he had gotten from one of the many food stalls around the colosseum for the festival.

"That works for me!" Hestia said happily before she leaned forward and took a bit out of the food.

Chiron would take the opportunity to look around them for any signs of Syr, even as Bell turned red at noticing that some of the food was on Hestia's cheek. His eyes searched every area of the food stalls, looking for any sign of Syr's silver hair, but having no such luck. He frowned a little from the lack of success as his eyes drifted to the Colosseum, where he could already hear the cheers of the crowd

It looked like that was the place that they would find Syr, if they would find her at all.

"So we're looking for Ms. Chatterbox right?" Hestia asked as they all began to walk in the direction of the massive arena. "What if we end up walking past her and she ends up in an area we just looked?"

"Hopefully that doesn't happen but I can't deny that there is a possibility that may end up being the case." Chiron said as he looked up at the colosseum, wondering if he would have a good line of sight to the food stalls from the upper ring of the arena.

"Great. As if having to look for her wasn't bad enough." Hestia practically grumbled, a little irritated with the state of affairs.

"Don't be like that, Goddess! We ran into you, so maybe we'll get luck-" Bell said, trying to cheer her up before he was suddenly interrupted as Chiron suddenly came to a dead stop.

Then without warning before they could ask why he stopped, someone would scream further down the street, and as they both turned to look in its direction on reflex, Chiron suddenly took off past the two of them, surprising them and nearly making them drop what remained of their food in surprise.

The Archer Servant moved at a speed that neither of them were able to properly follow, even when they hadn't been surprised by the sudden burst in movement. But before they had even fully processed what was going on, the reason for his sudden action and the earlier scream became visible. A large green hand would grab the corner of a wall as the bulky frame of a monster with a pig-like head rounded the corner and came into view for Hestia and Bell.

But the Orc didn't even get a chance to look around at the street before Chiron was up on it, stopping in front of it, arm pulled back with its hand clenched into a fist. Before the Orc's eyes could even widen in surprise, the fist was slammed into its stomach with enough strength that despite the size difference between it and Chiron, its feet was carried up off of the ground. Its fat did little to mitigate the damage of the punch and its mouth opened as a silent gasp forced its way out.

As the Orc was blown back from the strength of his punch, Chiron would rapidly but intently search the monster over. He was quick to find his target, and he would quickly leap towards the orc, fist extended back. Before the Orc had even touched the ground again, Chiron was upon it, throwing his fist forward and slamming into the chest of the Orc.

The strength of the blow would've been more than enough to send the Orc flying back into the ground, which would've been more than enough to destroy the street. That is, if it hadn't been for the fact that the punch had destroyed the magic stone by practically cratering its chest. With the core of its being completely destroyed, the Orc would instantly turn to dust before even touching the ground.

Bell, Hestia, and everyone around them could only blink as they processed what had happened as Chiron landed on his feet, Chiron's dispatch of the Orc taking place in little more than the blink of an eye.

"Wow…" Hestia said, still running through what had just happened in her mind to see if she could properly understand what had just happened. "... are we sure he's supposed to be an Archer?"

Bell didn't respond as he showed a bizarre expression on his face as he went through a set of mixed feelings.

On one hand, he had no end of joy and awe of seeing the performance of a Servant without them holding back. And he couldn't deny a sense of childlike excitement of seeing the capabilities of a hero, even if Chiron himself didn't consider himself one. And the knowledge that it was this man that was training him to become a hero himself filled him with a sense of pride and hope.

On the other hand though…

It showed just how much Chiron was holding himself back during their training sessions. So much so that even having spared against him, he still couldn't have even followed his movements just now. Dread for when he eventually got to the point where Chiron would raise the level of his spars was the only thing that could follow from that realization.

"Bell!" Chiron called out back to the Master, snapping him out of his dreaded thoughts of the future as he looked towards the Archer Servant. "Keep Hestia safe, and tell someone from the Ganesha Familia or the Guild that an Orc had managed to escape somehow. I'm going to look and see if any other monsters are loose"

"R-right!" Bell said, responding on reflex before Chiron departed without another word, leaping up and landing on the top of a nearby building in one jump before he leapt to another roof and out of sight.

Though Bell could've sworn that he saw an odd light coming from around Chiron's hand just before he was gone completely.

"Well, this wasn't how I thought we'd end up being alone together..." Hestia said to herself, eyes still where Chiron had disappeared over a roof.

"W-what's that supposed to mean?!" Bell said, not getting the meaning behind the goddess' words, but blushing nonetheless.

"Oh, nothing."

"Wha- nevermind." Bell began, but stopped himself, shaking his head, knowing now wasn't the time to talk about this kind of thing with the goddess. "I think we should keep going to the Colosseum. Someone one from the Ganesha Familia should be there right?"

"They should be, at least." Hestia responded, agreeing with Bell's logic since the Colosseum was the heart of Monsterphilia, and the Ganesha Familia was the one who threw the festival. If not them, than a representative from the Guild to monitor everything

At the very least, it should be safe there since other adventurers had to have come to watch the monster timings.

Little did they know though that, on their way to the Colosseum, they would encounter a monster that was even more ferocious than an Orc…

Elsewhere

Lefiya let out a heavy series of breaths as she struggled to keep up with Tione and Tiona as they ran toward the explosion.

This Monsterphilia had not been the best for the orange-haired elf. First Loki had commanded Ais to be her bodyguard for the day, taking away her chance to be with the Sword Princess by herself. Then the monsters captured by the Ganesha Familia somehow escaped and went on the loose while she and the Hiryute sisters were waiting for Loki and Ais to come to the Colosseum. And now, after Ais had apparently volunteered to take care of the escaped monsters, she and the two Amazons were trying to keep up with the Sword Princess as she dealt with the monsters.

But a new kind of monster that Lefiya had never seen before had erupted out on the street, although looking at it, Lefiya was reminded about the caterpillar-like monster that the Loki Familia encountered on the 50th Floor during their last expedition. With Ais too far away, the only ones that were capable of beating a monster of that level nearby were the Amazon twins of the Loki Familia. So they rushed to where the monster was in hopes of stopping it before it could hurt anyone, with Lefiya following after to provide support.

Two lower level adventurers screamed in fear as they seemed to have become the center of attention for the snake-like monster. They stumbled back as the unknown monster shot out to attack them. It would've probably killed them in that single hit had it not been for the intervention of Tiona and Tione.

The two Amazons leapt forward, and in sync with one another, smashed their fists down on the monster. The power of the blow slammed the monster down into the ground, stopping it and allowing its previous targets to get away. The sisters then leapt back before cradling their fists in pain.

Despite the power of their punch, the hide of the monster proved to be unexpectedly tough. It quickly got up from where it had been slammed into the ground with no sign of any visible damage from the attack.

"It's hard!" Tiona cried, still holding her fist in mild pain.

"We won't break through its skin with just our fists!" Tione yelled out in equal parts realization and frustration as the Monster looked to prepare for it's next attack.

"Ah geez, we really should've brought our weapons!" Tiona yelled back before the monster shot out at them and they jumped out of the way.

Even if they weren't able to properly kill the monster without the use of their weapons, the sisters had several advantages of their own which made things more than a little difficult on the part of the monsters. For starters, while their fists weren't enough to kill, or even really hurt the monster, they were enough to redirect and even block the monster's own attacks. Second, they were much smaller and much more agile than the monster, allowing them to easily evade the attacks.

In a situation like this, where both sides were almost uniquely suited to dealing with the other, it only took minimal interference from another party to drastically swing the tide of the battle.

"Now, while I have the chance!" Lefiya thought to herself as she prepared to cast a spell and attack the monster while it was distracted fighting Tiona and Tione. Although she was only a Level 3 Adventurer, Lefiya could still outclass the Level 5 Hiryute sisters in raw power thanks to her skill in magic. However, as a bit of a trade off, it took valuable time for her to prepare even her weakest spells in combat and she was almost completely vulnerable .

"Unleash the one light, let the trunk of the Holy Tree be my expert bow. Attack Fairy Archer, shoot your arrow that strikes true!" Lefiya chanted, using the spell with the shortest chant that she had. This meant that it wasn't going to be all that powerful in comparison to her other spells, but it still should be enough to deal with this one monster, especially while it was distracted-

All of a sudden, the head of the monster would jerk away from Tiona and Tione and towards her.

Lefiya would freeze as the monster took notice of her, resulting in her spell failing before it could be fired off. The ground beneath her feet would crack as something seemed forced its way out from under it. Lefiya wouldn't even be able to let out a yell as the thing erupted out of the ground towards her, with apparently enough force to create a cloud of dust that momentarily obscured her from view.

"What is that? Its tail?!" Tione yelled out in shock at the attack on Lefiya.

"Lefiya!" Tiona called out to her fellow Familia member in concern that she might be hurt.

But before either of the sisters could go to see if Lefiya was alright, the dust would clear and their eyes would widen in what could only be complete shock.

Lefiya could be seen having fallen backwards on reflex to the monster attacking, her eyes shut as she braced herself for the feeling of pain. But to her surprise, the feeling would never come. When she slowly opened one of her eyes to see what happened, they would both immediately shoot open and she would crawl back a bit on reflex at seeing the tail of the monster right in front of her face. It was thrashing wildly, trying to get closer to her and land the desired attack, but something was holding it back.

A deep growling sound was heard, just before the large hand that was holding the monster's tail back clenched tightly around it. A green liquid would sprout out from between the tightening fingers as the unknown monster's tail, whose skin was capable of taking blows from the fists of powerful level 5s, was crushed under the strength of the grip. The end of the tail that had been trying to strike Lefiya fell limply, only held up by the hand that had crushed it before even that had let go, letting it fall to the ground.

The owner of said hand, someone or something could only be described as a dark giant of a monster, would then rise up from its crouched position and look back at Lefiya. The young elf being unable to repress the flinch or the surge of fear that ran through her as yellow eyes that somehow seemed to give off a red glint of light landed on her. The eyes would linger on her for several seconds, looking her over as if they were searching for something.

The movement of the new monster species then garnered Lefiya attention. It's bulbous head seemed to split apart to reveal flower-like petals ringed around what would look like the head of a venus flytrap, were it not for the inner set of human-like teeth. The flower monster would then let loose a roar directed at the Giant.

"It bloomed?!" Tione couldn't help but note in shock as more tails, or perhaps vines would be more accurate, erupted out of the ground around her and her sister.

"It was a freaking flower?!" Tiona yelled out in shock at the realization of the monster's true nature.

Another growl would escape from the behemoth's throat, answering the roar from the flower as it's skin darkened even further and a red light glowed from under its skin. Lefiya let out a small yelp as air seemed to rush away from the Giant. It's growling continued to grow louder as its grip tightened around the handle of its landform weapon until it became a full fledged roar.

"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH"

The sheer power of the roar stunned even Tiona and Tione, and even the strange flower monster seemed to retract a little in fear.

Before it could recover, the Giant seemed to disappear from sight for Lefiya as it surged forth, moving with a surprising amount of speed and power. The paved ground beneath it was destroyed by the charge, unable to handle the strength behind each footstep of the Giant, rapidly closing the distance between it and the plant monster before it could react.

The Flower would only be able to react near the end of the rival monster's charge. It would leap forth, its dual mouths opened to bite the Giant. But before it could come into contact, the Giant would swing its massive Axe-sword down on the Flower.

The sheer weight of the landform, combined with the speed and power it was swung with, seemed to obliterate the upper half of the monster. The hide that had gone undamaged by hits from Level 5s, hardly slowing the massive weapon. It would go all the way through before slamming the ground, creating a powerful gust of wind that blew away the dust that the Flower became upon the destruction of the Magic Stone that was within its mouth.

Lefiya was stunned at the display of strength from the Giant. The Flower had given Tiona and Tione trouble while they were working together to defeat it. And this new monster had defeated it with a single strike from its massive weapon.

Granted, Tiona and Tione had been fighting it bare handed. If either of them had their weapons, there was little doubt that either of them would have accomplished a similar feat, especially if Tiona had her Urga. And if they had kept going, the Flower would have eventually been defeated by the two of them.

But neither of them had their weapons. And now there was a monster in front of them who was easily at a comparable level to them with their equipment. Unlike against the Flower monster species, if they were to engage the Giant at present, there was almost no way that they could avoid injury, they may not even be capable of defeating it.

"Lefiya!" Tiona said, bringing the young elf back to reality to see that the Hiryute twins had rushed over to her to make sure that she was alright. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm not hurt or anything, s-somehow." Lefiya said shakily as Tiona helped her back onto her feet.

"Well that's good, but…" Tione began before looking back towards the Dark Giant, whose skin had lightened after killing the flower like new species and no longer had the red light under its skin. "How the hell are we going to handle that thing?"

The thought sent a chill down their spines. The thought of fighting a monster such as the one before them without their weapons was not a pleasant one after its display of strength. But if they left to go get some, there was no telling what the monster would do in the meantime or what damage it would cause.

"What's going on here?" a familiar voice asked, instantly catching the attention of the members of the Loki Familia as they quickly turned to face it.

"Ais!" the three of them said in surprise as the Sword Princess gently made contact with the ground.

"I heard fighting and came here to see that you three are here." Ais explained, tilting her head slightly as she wasn't certain about what was going on.

"Good thing you're here!" Tione said as she approached Ais along with Tiona and Lefiya. "We were fighting a monster that escaped the Ganehsa Familia when that thing showed up, and we don't think we can beat it without weap-"

"It's him." Ais said in surprise as she looked where Tione was pointing, interrupting the Amazon.

"Wait, Ais, do you know what that monster is?!" Tiona asked, surprised by Ais' reaction to seeing the monster?

"Sort of." Ais said, feeling a little awkward at the intense looks she got from the three other members of the Loki Familia. "It's a bit of a long story…"

While Ais explained what she knew about Heracles to them, and informed them that the man from a few days ago that Finn and the others had talked to had come to talk about him, Heracles had not moved since killing the strange flower monster.

He stood completely still, staring off in a seemingly random direction, but he knew, through his connection to his Master, that it was in the direction that Bell was in. And through that connection to him, he had felt that Bell had been in danger, but at the moment, that wasn't the case anymore. Not in anything immediate at least.

He had originally been on his way to ensure that his Master was alright when he had practically stumbled upon the battle against the new monster species. Luckily he had when he did. If he had arrived even a second later, then the young elf might have been seriously hurt.

"Excuse me… Berserker?" an unfamiliar voice said in a slightly uncertain tone, surprising Heracles a little with the use of his class name as he turned his head slightly to see Ais looking up at him.

With some modicum of surprise, Heracles quickly recognized her as the girl he had "fought" soon after he had been summoned almost a week ago.

"I wanted to apologize for attacking you before in the Dungeon. I jumped to conclusions without knowing everything, I'm sorry." Ais said, trying to keep the embarrassment of her mistake out of her voice as she bowed her head. "And I want to thank you for protecting Lefiya before I could arrive."

Ais kept her head bowed for a second as a sign of sincerity, even as she felt Heracles eyes on her. A part of her still recognized him as some sort of monster despite knowing the general idea behind his situation, so she felt tense intentionally taking her eyes off of him while being so close. It was then while she was distracted, both by the worry that he wouldn't accept her apology and keeping the thoughts of him being a monster out of her head, she was caught off guard by the feeling of a large hand gently patting her head.

Looking up in surprise, she saw that Heracles had done so without a change in expression, though quickly retracted his hand when she looked up at him. He had done it as a way to convey that he had accepted her apology since verbal communication wasn't an option. Now though, he worried he might have made things awkward or even insulted her by the gesture somehow.

It was then that, while the two were staring at each other, not knowing what else to do at that moment, Ais had a bit of a random and odd thought. Between his manner of dress, muscular form, and darker skin tone (albeit darker as in it was a dark shade of gray, rather than the more natural brown tone), had it not been for his Madness Enhancement giving him a monstrous aura and appearance, Heracles would've looked a lot like something of a male Amazon if such a thing was possible.

Speaking of Amazons...

"That last part goes double for us!" Tiona said, butting into the conversation with a wide grin. "We really appreciate it!"

"What the idiot said." Tione said, joining in as well, though she still kept an eye on Heracles from a bit of a distance.

Even though they had been told the general idea of Heracles' situation by Ais, they had still been a bit cautious about him as Ais had made her apology to him, but the action of the head pat, something that no monster would ever do, allowed them to lower their guard. They were, of course, still cautious and not completely relaxed. Tione especially was clearly more on guard than her carefree and easy going sister.

Heracles would stare at the twin sisters silently for a few seconds. Like the other times he had seen the race in the summoning, some part of him instinctively recognized the two of them as Amazons, despite the differences between them and the ones he knew in life. But despite those differences, seeing them always caused some vague sense of nostalgia to wash over him, despite the… less than pleasant experiences that he had with his world's Amazons.

So seeing them and other Amazons allowed him to temporarily distract him from the omnipresent rage and madness that were innate to the Berserker class, something he was always grateful for.

Movement from the side grabbed Heracles' attention, diverting his attention from the three girls in front of him to Lefiya, who had hesitantly approached now that the rest of her fellow Familia members did. The young elf mage gave a light flinch as his gaze landed on her, feeling like a monster from the Deep Floors had suddenly turned its attention to her before attacking.

"I-I wanted- Thank you for helping me earlier!" Lefiya all but shouted, trying to get her message out before it became incoherent from stuttering in fear of him.

Heracles gave an inward frown at the reaction. He knew that his appearance as a Berserker was a monstrous one that was capable of scaring people, but he didn't like it. Lefiya looking like she was around the same age as his Master made it all the worse.

But he wasn't able to even contemplate how to respond to her in a way that might alleviate her fear of him when the earth beneath them began to shake.

Reacting on his finely honed instinct, Heracles leaped backward just as something erupted out from under the ground he was just was. His skin darkened once again and red light shone from underneath his skin activation of God Hand just in time to stop an attack from another one of the flower monsters shot up to bite at him, the teeth becoming unable to bite through his skin. With a roar, Heracles would once again swing his Axe-sword, all but obliterating the flower head of the monster with the sheer weight of his weapon and power of his swing.

But the fight was not over because more monsters would shoot out from the ground as he landed. Not counting the one he had just killed, Heracles counted five in total of these monsters. And almost as soon as his feet had touched the ground, all of them immediately shot forward to attack him.

"Tempest!" Ais said as she leaped forward, her wind surrounding her and propelling her faster. She had been about to strike at one the unknown monsters, but was caught off guard when it suddenly changed direction to attack her instead. She was quick to recover, however, and whirled around and slashed her sword at the monster.

The sword she used was not her Desperate, which had needed maintenance after the Loki Familia's last expedition into the Dungeon. So for the time being, she was renting one from the Gobinu Familia. It was not of the same quality as her usual weapon, but despite that, Ais was still able to slice through the monster's hard skin and kill the flower.

"There are more of these things!?" Tiona yelled out as she slammed her fist into one of the flowers.

"Where did the Ganesha Familia get these things?" Tione questioned as she knocked one away as well.

With the other monster's distracted by the Loki Familia members, there were only two of the unknown monsters charging Heracles left.

As they approached, Heracles would let out a deep and threatening growl as he raised his Axe-sword above his head. When the first of the Flowers got within range, it was quick to meet the same fate as the other two of its kind that had fought Heracles so far as the hero let loose to overlapping slashes with his weapon. The result of which left little remaining of the monster, even as it turned to dust with the destruction of its magic stone in its upper jaw, which Heracles had noticed one of the times the monsters had opened their mouths to bite at him.

The second one had been close behind the first, so much so that when it got close enough to attack him, it got inside the guard of his Axe-sword while Heracles had disposed of the first one. With no time to twist his weapon around to cut the monster with the sharp side of it, alongside the knowledge that such an attack wouldn't be very effective with how close the monster was, Heracles opted to instead smash the back side of the Axe-sword into the monster. The attack carried with it such an extreme amount of force that the flower monster practically flew back away from him, but, to Heracles' surprise, the monster would not be killed by the attack.

His mind flashed back to the punches and kicks done by the Amazons, and how despite the obvious amount of strength behind those blows, they had done no damage to the monsters. Between that and his own attack just now, it seemed blunt forms of attacks were simply ineffective against these monsters. Not wholly dissimilar to Heracles' God Hand and how it will behave against attacks he encountered before and gained resistances to.

Heracles' mind wouldn't maintain those musings through the Madness Enhancement beyond the conclusion that blunt attacks weren't effective for these monsters. To him, the only thing that mattered was that he should focus on other forms of attack or try to blow through that resistance with all his strength.

Putting that aside though, Heracles would let out another roar as he leapt off of the ground after the monster while it was still stunned from the attack. He pulled his weapon back and over his head, ready to drop it upon the monster and finish it off-

"Sniff…"

Heracles suddenly stopped his attack, arm seemingly frozen in place upon hearing the sound, coming from the box behind the monster. This reaction gave the monster enough time to recover from his earlier blow, and would open it's venus flytrap-like mouth to snap at him. The attack would bring Heracles back to reality, but instead of going through with slashing down with his Axe-sword, he would snap his leg out in a powerful kick.

The force behind it was more than enough to knock the monster to the ground while also propelling Heracles to the side from the force of his own kick. Immediately upon touching the ground, Heracles would shoot forward, the stonework beneath him breaking under foot as he moved. However, he would not move to finish off the monster, instead moving to the box, or behind it rather. When he passed it, his arm that didn't hold his weapon would shoot out, scooping something up and holding it in a protective grabbing.

"Hey, look out!" Tiona called out to him, catching his attention in time for him to see that the monster she had previously diverted had seemingly lost interest in her and once again went to attack him.

Rather than take the monster head on like he previously had with the others, Heracles' legs would tense before leaping into the air just as the flowery head dived towards him to snap at him. The jaws of the monster easily carved through the ground that Heracles had been, and before it could recover around, Heracles would whirl in midair, bring his Axe-sword around to cleave through the Monster and kill it. But, while not lacking in any of the power, the attack was slower than all of his previous ones, allowing for the monster, with it's agile snake-like body to avoid the strike.

On top of that, the instinct of Mind's Eye (False) screamed at him in warning of incoming danger. Quickly raising his head up in the direction of what his instinct's warned him of the danger coming from, Heracles would see another one of the monster's charging toward him. In response, he would raise his Axe-Sword up in a defensive fashion.

The monster would slam it's head into the landform weapon, carrying with enough force to push the airborne Heracles back towards the ground, but would not be able to break the massive weapon or Heracles' guard. When Heracles' came back to the Earth, he dug his feet into the ground with all his strength, practically stopping dead as the monster was no longer able to push him back. Letting loose another powerful roar, Heracles would throw the monster back, raising his weapon up overhead in the process.

He would then try to slam his weapon back down to utterly destroy the monster, but his attack once again proved to be too slow. The flower monster managed to wrangle it's body out of the way, causing it to slam down into the ground, destroying the stone work completely. A growl erupted out of Heracles' throat as he dragged his weapon through and out of the ground in a diagonal slash.

It would prove just as effective as his last attack, however, as the plant monster would pull back. And before he could press the attack, the other two monsters had recovered and began to swarm him. Heracles was forced to go onto the defensive in the process.

"What's up with him!?" Tione asked as all of the monsters present had all of their attention on Heracles, her and Tiona. "He was handling these things fine before, why is moving so slow now?"

"I think he grabbed something from behind that box just now!" Tiona responded, having caught sight of the action as her monster had been heading towards him as he did it.

"Why would he do that in the middle of a battle?" Tione yelled back, confusion evident, to which Tiona could only shrug helplessly, not knowing the answer.

Meanwhile, Ais would already arrive to help Heracles, being able to move much faster than either of the sisters with the assistance of her wind. The three monsters were circling around Heracles in a predatory fashion, snapping at him whenever he was distracted by one of the others. Since it became apparent that his attacks were now too slow to hit these monsters for some reason, he was now focused only on evading and blocking the attacks of these monsters.

But despite the fact that none of them had yet landed a hit on him, Ais frowned seeing his movements. She thought back to their brief fight in the Dungeon, and comparing the way he moved to the way he did back then, it was clear he was moving slower than back then. Such a realization could only make her wonder one thing: why was he holding back against these monsters?

She wouldn't have to wonder for long, as the answer would soon make itself clear to her.

When she was still on approach, one of the monsters had snapped at Heracles, from the direction of the arm he was using to hold whatever he had gotten from the box. He managed to avoid it still though, but the way he swerved around revealed what it was that he was holding. And upon seeing the terrified Chienthrope child that he held tightly to his chest with his arm, Ais' eyes would widen with surprise and realization.

The child must've hid behind the box during the chaos when the monster first appeared. Heracles had noticed her hiding earlier and had grabbed her in case more monsters showed up or she caught in the crossfire of fighting them. However, he was unable to move to his full capability as the child's body would not be able to handle the force of his speed and agility, hurting or even killing her.

Suddenly understanding why it was he was holding himself back, Ais would increase the output of her wind to make her go even faster to help him. But as she did, one of the flowers would once again unexpectedly shift its attention onto her like the one before had. It didn't catch her off guard though and she was quick to pull her sword back to thrust it at the monster.

But despite the quality of her temporary sword, it was no replacement for her indestructible sword Desperate. She had already been using the sword for several days now and against the monster earlier. Ais was never good at holding back her strength, and after all of the strain it had been through over the last couple of days, the blade could no longer handle it.

The thin metal of the blade broke against the hard skin of the monster upon meeting it. Ais' eyes widened as metal fragments of the blade fell uselessly to the ground, all she could think about was how Goibinu was going to yell at her for breaking the sword he had given her. All the monster could think of, however, was chowing down at her as it leapt at her.

The sight of seeing the monster's open maw rapidly approaching her would bring Ais back to reality, and she would slam the still intact hilt of her sword into the monster's head. The blow would've been enough to kill even a monster on the Deep Floors, especially as it had been enhanced by Ariel, but just like all the other blunt attacks these monsters had received, it showed no sign of damage. However, it did stun it for long enough to get out of range of its attacks before it could recover, and with her gone, it would once again fix its attention back to Heracles.

Meanwhile, Heracles saw the way that Ais once again attracted the attention of the monster. Something that was rather odd because since they had arrived, these monster's seemed to have only had eyes for him. Even when Tiona and Tione had attacked them, they had mostly gone ignored in favor of their attention remaining on Heracles.

That raised the question of what exactly was the difference between them and the Sword Princess that she was able to grab the attention of the monsters while Tione and Tiona were unable to. But even while he was forced to block another bite from one of the monsters that still focused on him, the answer soon came to him. He remembered how the first of these monsters had immediately gone after Lefiya after she had begun casting her spell, and he was quick to realize what that meant.

"Oh, I see! Ais, magic!" Tione called out as she and Tiona finally arrived, seemingly coming to the same conclusion that Heracles had. "These things react to magic power!"

"Come on! Pay attention to us!" Tiona yelled in frustration at the monsters, even going so far as to pull at the base of one of them.

As Ais took in this information, Heracles would've swore if he could as he realized he may have walked into a mistake due to a lack of information.

If they really were attracted to the magical energy, then it really was little wonder why they were so intent on going after him considering his nature as a Berserker Servant. Heracles was essentially a walking faucet of magical energy, and with God Hand activated only making that even greater. These things were attracted to him like a moth was to a light or metal to a magnet, and he may have even been the reason why so many were here in the first place.

But that also meant that, his act of picking up the child he now held onto protectively as a way to ensure she stayed out of danger if more monsters showed up, only put her in the center of their attention. He couldn't simply toss her to safety either, not able to trust himself to be able to hold back enough to avoid throwing her too hard with his Berserker state of mind in the middle of battle. He doubted the monsters would be willing to let him hand the girl over to one of the Loki Familia members either.

He couldn't help but let loose another roar to signify the frustration at his decision as he swung his landform weapon, feeling the child clinging tightly to him in fear as he whirled around. This time, it managed to clip one of the monsters, but it did little damage. The attack only took off one of the petals that surrounded the monster's head.

… He did have one option he could do though, but it was something of a bet. It was something that he didn't exactly like. However, if he wanted to at least raise the chances of getting an opening to give the girl to someone else, and therefore safety, it was a chance he had to take.

Meanwhile, Lefiya watched from a distance in disbelief, seeing Heracles fight on the same level as some of the strongest members of the Loki Familia. It was certainly a sight to see, but amongst the feelings of surprise and the usual awe that came from seeing a fight on that level, she could feel a darker feeling building up within her, one that she was unfortunately used to. Because as her fellow Familia members and this strange cursed man fought these monsters while she could only watch, she couldn't help but feel completely useless.

"Is that Berserker!?" an unfamiliar voice called out, bringing Lefiya back from her feelings of self-loathing to see that it was a half-elf dressed in the standard uniform of the Guild that she didn't know, with a frightened expression on her face. "W-what is he doing here?!"

Eina had been assisting the Ganesha Familia with the escaped monsters, actually having been the one to request assistance from Ais in the first place. She had previously been following Ais from a distance to see if there was anyone who needed help after the Sword Princess had blown through to deal with the monsters. But she had no way to predict coming across Heracles fighting the monsters alongside the Loki Familia.

"You know who he is?" Lefiya asked in surprise, bringing the Guild advisor's attention to her.

"Y-yes, he's one-" Eina replied after blinking, surprised by the sudden question, but the splattering sound of liquid hitting the ground caught her attention and she would stop dead as she turned her head to see what had caused it, the sight making her and Lefiya's eyes widen.

During the short time the two had talked, one of the monsters had gotten a lucky bite in while Heracles had been distracted dealing with one of the other two, managing to bite the arm that Heracles was using to hold the Chienthrope child. Normally, this wouldn't have been any concern to the Servant, as God Hand's defenses would render an attack of this level meaningless. The teeth shattering against his blackened skin without doing any damage.

But in order to reduce the output of his magical energy in the hopes of lessening the attention he received from the monsters, Heracles had deactivated God Hand and its defenses.

So now nothing was stopping the teeth of the monster from breaking his skin and digging into his arm. There was a brief splash of blood from the Servant that fell to the ground, painting some of it red. None of it would splash onto the child, fortunately, but she let out a whimper at the sight of the monster so close to her, causing her to cling tighter onto Heracles as she tried to get as far away from the jaws of the monster as possible.

But despite the pain that must have come from a monster's jaw digging into his arm, Heracles did not seem affected by it as he raised his other arm that held his weapon. His intent to finish off the monster while it was stuck on his arm. But then one of the other monster's took its chance and sunk its teeth into his arm.

The act wasn't enough to stop Heracles' arm from descending with his massive weapon in tow, his arm yanking itself out of the monster's jaws. However, not only did this end up tearing a bloody chunk out of his arm, it ended up slowing his attack. Enough that the monster he was targeting to begin with was able to pull away from the attack and avoid it.

With that attack once again being dodged, Heracles would try to keep the momentum of it to whirl around to attack the monster that attacked him from before. But he was once again hampered by his need to hold back to avoid hurting the child he was defending, the monster's snake-like body managing to pull back just enough that the Axe-Sword would blow by.

Heracles let out a loud growl, steam blowing out from the corners of his mouth, a testament to the growing frustration as the situation went on.

"Get away from him!" Tiona yelled out from behind him, prompting him to turn around just in time to see her slamming her fist with all of her strength into the bottom of the jaw of one of the flower monsters, which had been going to attack him too close to the child for comfort.

The blow once again caused no damage, but it had enough strength behind it that it successfully knocked the monster back and was able to force the monster away from its attack. It let out an indignant roar at the Amazon at the attack, but it was soon interrupted once more when Tione's foot was slammed into where it's jaw attached to the rest of the head. Stunned by the follow up attack of the twin, the monster would hit the ground and briefly lie there.

Seizing the opportunity while it was down, Heracles would raise his Axe-Sword with the internet to finish it off before it was able to recover.

But before he could, the roar of Mind's Eye(False) would go off, warning him of an attack that was coming from behind. He would then veer around on his heel, shifting his hold on his weapon to a guard just in time for the monster to slam the mass of its head into the landform weapon. Heracles' feet would dig into the ground, cracking the stonework beneath them, preventing the monster from even pushing him back.

Though in fairness, it didn't get much of a chance to. As, hardly a second before it threw its weight against him, Ais would suddenly appear from above and forcibly landing on it as she slammed the bottom of the destroyed sword's hilt, forcing it to the ground.

The battle would continue to go on like this, with Heracles holding himself back in order not to hurt the terrified child he was protecting as the monsters insistently continued to attack him while he was distracted, often interrupting and preventing him from finishing off one of the other ones. Ais, Tione, and Tiona would continue to support him, often striking the monsters with enough force to interrupt attacks that focused on Heracles. But, without any proper weapons, the three were unable to kill or do any real lasting damage to the monsters, and even without out God Hand active, Heracles was outputting enough magical energy that they were unable to distract them long enough for him to get away and safely put the child down, Ais' wind only surviving to momentarily side track them when she got close.

And all the while, Lefiya watched from a distance.

Feelings of uselessness and self-loathing flooded the young elf as she continued to watch her familia members fight the monsters alongside a stranger who seemed just as monstrous as their opponents. But then, not only had he already saved her from being injured or killed by the monster and was defending a child with his life and body, but had been grievously hurt in the process. Not only did blood drip down onto the ground from the bite in the arm, but as the battle continued the monsters would get more openings that the Loki Familia members fighting alongside him would be able to cover. Resulting in Heracles earning another wound as the monsters easily broke through his skin without God Hand's defenses.

And Lefiya could only watch from a distance in safety and completely useless.

Next to her, Eina would let out a pained sound everytime Heracles was bit, almost as if she had been the one to be wounded instead of the Adventurer that was under her care, which only worsened how Lefiya was feeling in that moment.

"I'm useless…" Lefiya muttered to herself, unable to look away from the fight in which someone else was fighting alongside her familia members instead of her, even being injured and hurt in the process while she stood off on the side unable to do anything. "I'm so sorry…"

"We'll protect Lefiya, no matter how many times." echoed words from Ais, said during a quiet moment in the last failed expedition of the Loki Familia to the 59th floor. The calm, kind, and patient voice contrasting the fierce, focused, and frustrated expression of the current Ais as she fought to get the monsters' attention off of Heracles so he could get away from the moment.

"I'm sorry for always holding you back…" Lefiya muttered again, this time, not to herself, but to Ais, Tiona, Tione, and all the other members of the Loki Familia that had protected her, and in an extremely special case in thanks for saving her, Heracles.

"So that the next time we're in trouble…" the echo of Ais' words continued on, as did the fight before Lefiya. Though at this point, it was hard for Lefiya to keep watching thanks to the tears in her eyes.

Once again, one of the monsters was knocked down, this time by Tione throwing a devastating but ineffective punch. Once again, Heracles saw the opportunity and went to capitalize on it, rearing his massive landform weapon back in order to swing it down and bring about the monster's execution. And once again, as he did, one of the other monster's would attack him while distracted by the other one.

Heracles sensed the attack coming, quickly shifting his focus, grip, and stance in order to defend from the attack, which was directed uncomfortably close to the child in his arm. The force slammed against his weapon, the monster's jaw clamping on the dull half of his weapon, making the girl yelp in fear at the sight and Heracles to bear his own teeth at it in warning and in threat. But then, the first monster would recover faster than expected.

It had already been essentially at Heracles' feet, so between how close it had been and the speed at which the monsters moved, it was now in a near perfect position to attack him. Mind's Eye (False) practically blared at him in warning of the attack, allowing him to look down in time to see the monster's open jaw shooting straight up toward his face. Ais, Tione, and Tiona were too far away to assist, the three of them keeping the third one busy, and without them, there didn't seem like anything Heracles could do in order to stop it without giving an opening to the one that he was already dealing with or letting go of the child.

And as the monster rose up in a serpent-like strike, Lefiya almost closed her eyes to avoid the sight that would follow, but she would not and she would see red blood flying out into the air…

"...It's Lefiya's turn to save us."

But the blood had not been from a lethal bite to the skull or neck as Lefiya and Eina had feared as they had watched. Instead, Heracles had managed to jerk his arm holding his Axe-sword down enough and in time to block the bite. Yes, it meant his arm would receive another deep wound, this time on his upper arm near the elbow, but it meant that the potentially lethal attack had failed.

But Heracles wasn't one to stop there.

In a move that would impress even the captain of the Loki Familia with the skill and dexterity required to pull it off, along with the resourcefulness to even think of such a thing on a spot, Heracles' would let his weapon go.

Using the monster's own grip on his arm against it, Heracles would swing the arm out and grab hold of its vine-like body. Then with a mighty roar, he would throw the shocked monster forward into the one that had been biting onto his weapon, which had been caught off guard by him suddenly letting go, causing it to fall forward as it suddenly was left to hold the massive weapon's weight all on its own. But it was forced to let go, along with the other one's bite on Heracles' arm as they were thrown into each other.

Not wanting to lose momentum though, especially since the Loki Familia members he was fighting alongside still prevented the third monster from interfering, Heracles grabbed the handle of his weapon in midair with the same movement that he had used to throw the monster. Taking a step forward, Heracles would spin around to build speed in a devastating sword swing that destroyed the ground it passed through from how wide it was. And just as it destroyed the stone ground, it easily slashed through the hide and "flesh" of the monsters.

It hadn't killed either of them. Heracles was still holding on to the child, meaning he still couldn't move with the sudden speed or force that he had needed to in order to do that. The monster's had also recovered remarkably fast, allowing them to maneuver their nimble, thin, snake-like bodies to avoid a lethal blow, but not enough for them to escape.

One of them, the one that had bit Heracles' arm, had only been clipped, but the sheer force of Heracles' swing meant that clip had taken out a grievous chunk from the main bulk of the monster's body around the length from Lefiya's hit and shoulder. The other one had been unfortunate enough to have been caught in the length leading up to the side of its face. Not only was there a long wound leading up to its head along with about half of the petals of the flower being destroyed, but its lower jaw now also only loosely hung from one side of its face.

And Heracles glared and snarled at both of them as they retreated for the time being, face one of grim rage and determination as he held the child.

Ais' earlier words, along with Heracles' display of resilience in the face of such odds, suddenly cast away the feelings of doubt that haunted Lefiya. She blinked away the tears from her eyes, gaze hardening into one of determination. She ran forward, surprising Eina next to her who seemed to remember where she was after Heracles took several wounds, and the half-elf would try to call out to her but would ultimately go ignored by Lefiya.

She ran out to the middle of the plaza that had become a battleground, out some distance from where the fight was continuing on. And as she took a deep breath in, preparing for what she was about to do, and began to raise her arms. The movement would catch the attention of Ais, Tiona, and Tione, who were surprised to see the young elf, with that surprise only growing as magical energy began to gather around Lefiya and she began to draw magical runes into the air itself.

"In the name of Wieshe, I ask, those from the forest, proud brethren, respond to my voice and travel across the grassland. The connecting bond, the heavenly vow, turn the circle in a whirling dance. Arise, fairy wheel."

She didn't deserve to fight alongside them. Not Ais, not Tiona or Tione, and not along with the rest of the Loki Familia. She didn't even deserve to fight alongside "Berserker", this strange man who was apparently cursed by a goddess to be a monster for a reason she didn't know, yet was here willingly sustaining wounds and losing blood to defend a small girl.

But there was something else she also knew.

If she was to simply wait on the side lines as they fought before her, and she was able to help them, how was she ever going to be capable of being worthy enough to fight alongside them?

"Please… lend me power, ELF RING!" Lefiya called out as she finished the chant, allowing for the magic circle to finish forming around her and a ring of light to surround her, causing a powerful gust of wind to blast out from her at the activation of her skill from the amount of magical energy she was now conjuring.

Enough magical energy to grab the attention of the plant monsters.

"Wha-" Tiona let out in surprise at feeling the level of magical power coming out from their junior familia member.

"Lefiya!?" Tione said, matching her twin sister's shock at the display. "What amazing magical power…!"

They weren't the only ones surprised. Heracles had also been caught off guard when, in the middle of stretching out to bite him, the monster's flowery head suddenly changed its direction entirely and began charging off in a completely different direction. His eyes would follow the direction they were heading in, only widened when he saw Lefiya and the amount of magical energy that surrounded her.

As the three monsters rapidly approached Lefiya, they would open their ugly maws, bearing their disturbingly human-like teeth at her. But Lefiya wouldn't flinch at the sight. She wasn't even afraid.

After all, there was no need to be afraid when she had three of the strongest Adventure's in all of Orario to protect her.

"Calm down!" Tione called out as her fist was slammed into the jaw of one of the monsters to the left, the one that now had a chunk missing in its side from being clipped by Heracles' sword.

"Ready, set, and-!" Tiona said right before slamming her foot into the back of another monster's head, the one whose jaw was loosely attached on one side, sending it face first into the ground, breaking the stone work behind it.

Meanwhile, Ais slammed the hilt of the broken blade into the final, knocking it off course and away from Lefiya.

"White snow, harbinger of the end, come forth twilight, envelop me wind. Close off the light, chill the earth." Lefiya began to chant once more, beginning the incantation of a very special spell, one that Ais, Tione, and Tiona would quickly recognize as it went on.

"Let loose your blizzard, third true winter, my name is Alf!" Lefiya continued, the finale of the spell rapidly approaching as the final line of the chant was close. But the heads of the monsters would once again fix onto Lefiya. The ground in front of the elf would crack in three places as the tails of the creatures popped out of the newly made openings they had made, seeking to impale Lefiya on them.

Lefiya saw what the monsters were doing though and had prepared to twist her body to avoid the coming strikes without moving from her position and ruining the casting of her spell. It would, however, prove unnecessary.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!" Heracles roared out as he reactivated God Hand, causing an influx of magical energy and red light to blare out from within his body.

He had kept his distance away from Lefiya and the rest of the Loki Familia, unsure of the shape the spell that Lefiya was casting would take and not wanting to unknowingly get caught in the blast of the spell with so much magical power behind it. But he had seen the tails begin to emerge out from the ground to strike at the mage from where he was. He was too far to try and stop them like he had before when he had joined the fight.

But there was something else he could do.

Stabbing his Axe-sword into the ground so he could use his now free hand to protectively cover both sets of the Chienthope child's ears, Heracles would take a deep breath in. Then, he would let loose the loudest roar he was capable of mustering as his skin darkened in contrast to the inner red light within him growing brighter. The combination of the sheer strength of the roar and the amount of magical energy that now flowed out from him with God Hand's activation proved enough to completely bring the attention of the monster's back to him, causing their heads to turn back to him and their tail to suddenly go limp before they could even touch Lefiya.

That was until Lefiya had finally gathered all of the magic power necessary to complete the spell and the white light of the magic circles and runs surrounding her would begin to grow brighter. The monsters would quickly look back to Lefiya before they could even begin to move back to Heracles, only for them to see three magical constructs in the shape of snowflakes floating around Lefiya. And from them, a blinding white light would shoot out as Lefiya called out the name of the spell that belonged to her mentor, the strongest mage in all of Orario.

"Wynn Fimbulvetr!"

The white light would completely subsume the monsters, almost causing them to fade from view as the light blanketed them. When the spell was finished, the light finally fading away into nothing, only then would the monsters become visible once more and the effects of the spell seen. And it was quite the effect to see.

In front of where Lefiya stood, thick layers of ice encased the monsters in their entirety. Not only that, but the absolute zero temperatures of the spell had almost assuredly frozen them completely to their cores. Meaning that the fierce monsters were now little more than large scale ice sculptures with no chance of still being alive.

That didn't stop the other members of the Loki Familia from shattering them to make absolutely sure of that. Could never be too careful when it came to monsters of a brand new species after all.

As they did that, Heracles would calmly watch from where he was, the light from under his skin dying with his skin returning to its normal pigment with the deactivation of God Hand. The fight was finally over and now all that was left was for him to calm and let the rage of battle leave him. That was also made pretty easy as, thanks to the aforementioned of the shattering of the monsters causing the slow fall of ice crystals to fall around in the area around him.

What defined a "A-rank attack" was fairly vague aside from it being exceptionally powerful and was dependent on the characteristics of the person or weapon as much as the attack itself. What didn't help with determining what was and wasn't an attack worthy of the A rank was that it differed on the type of attack. Despite that fact, from his immediate instincts of the attack and his own expert opinion, that spell casted by Lefiya almost certainly was one.

And that meant that if Heracles would've been hit by it, God Hand's defenses would've been unable to defend him and it would've been exceedingly likely for him to lose a life. Possibly multiple at once if the spell was strong enough.

Heracles' would look away from the still falling ice crystals over to where Lefiya was, talking with the rest of her Familia members present, including now what must have been her goddess going off the divine aura that came off the red haired emotion. The elf was young, around his master's age, only a couple of years older than him at the most. But despite her youth, she had an exceeding amount of firepower that left him only impressed.

"Berserker!" Eina's voice suddenly came, surprising Heracles as he turned to face where it had come from to see his Guild Advisor running toward him.

"Are you alright? Oh, you're not hurt too badly are you?" Eina said she got close enough to him for her to check his wounds. "What were you thinking?! You may be strong, but you're still level one! It was foolish of you to fight those things that were giving level 5 adventurers troubl-"

As Eina spoke, her tone gradually turning to that of a lecturing one, Heracles simply stared at her in an emotionless manner, being unable to talk or even emote in order to properly give her some sort of response. That was into the sound of a whimper that would interrupt her and bring both of their attention to the young Chienthrope that Heracles still gently held. The monster's may be dead and gone, but the fearful emotions that they inspired in the girl were still present for her and Eina's tone hadn't helped her.

The sight of the nervous girl would make Eina freeze for a second as she closed her mouth. She had gotten caught up with making sure that Heracles was alright before going in to berate him for participating in a fight that was quite literally above his level that she had almost forgotten about the girl. Putting it aside for now though, Eina would calm herself as she put on the best smile that she was able to muster.

"Hello there sweetie, are you alright?" Eina asked gently, putting her hands on her knees as she bent down a little in order to be at the girl's eye level. The change in demeanor would immediately have the effect that she was looking for, the girl calming somewhat and not holding onto Heracles quite as tightly anymore. She would then give a cautious nod to Eina, but before either of them could say or do anything more, another voice would cut in and join the conversation.

"So you're this 'Berserker' I've heard so much about, huh?" Loki said as she walked up to Heracles and Eina, causing the half-elf to jump in surprise at seeing the goddess suddenly approaching with Lefiya and Ais alongside her while Heracles simply looked up at her, causing her to flinch lightly at the intimidating gaze. Heracles also mentally noticed that Ais now had a new sword to replace the one she had broken during the fight with the monsters. He wasn't sure where or how she had gotten it but he felt it was likely that it had something to do with the goddess that now stood in front of him.

"Sheesh! I can see how Ais thought you were a monster at first." Loki said as she put a hand on her chest to steady her heart as the aforementioned Sword Princess give her a dirty look from behind as Heracles look around briefly to see where the Amazons had gone

He hadn't heard Loki having sent them to head into the sewers to investigate if there were any other monsters in them as she and the other two girls went to check Heracles out and thank him for his assistance.

"Well, anyways, I just wanted to thank you for helping my girls out. Especially for saving Lefiya from getting hurt from those things." Loki said, grinning a little to hide her nervous at experiencing Heracles' monstrous aura for the first time

"Y-yes, I'm very grateful for that!" Lefiya said, bowing down to express that gratitude to Heracles. "Thank you, very much!"

Heracles would stare down at the bowed form of Lefiya silently, wondering how to say that it hadn't been an issue. He wondered if he should give her a head pat like he had with Ais before?

"Heyyy, tell you what!" Loki said with a suspicious amount of energy that got the attention of both her Familia members just before she put an arm around Heracles' back. "How about we bring you back to our place to take care of those wounds of yours to thank ya, what ya say? Oh after we find this little tyke's parents… and I guess we should make sure Ganesha's mess is cleaned up too?"

"If you mean the monsters that were running about, you don't have to worry about that." came another voice, bringing everyone to look where it had come from just in time to see Chiron leaping down from a nearby building, landing smoothly and without any difficulty, bow still in hand but held laxly with no intention of use.

While Heracles, Ais, and everyone else had been distracted dealing with the unknown species of flower monsters, Chiron had been hunting down the rest of the escaped monsters in the surrounding area that he could find. But he had been drawn here after the release of so much magical energy thanks to Lefiya's spell, and arrived in time to hear Loki enough to make a comment.

"Goddess Loki, Ms. Tulle, Sword Princess. A pleasant surprise to see you all, but may I ask what's going on to have you and Berserker here?" Chiron greeted as he approached everyone before noticing Lefiya. "And I'm sorry young lady for not greeting you properly, but I don't believe I caught your name when we last saw each other."

"Uh, Lefiya! It's Lefiya Viridus!" said the orange-haired elf out of reflex, surprised at Chiron's sudden appearance.

"Likewise for you, Archer." Eina said, returning Archer's greeting, though she was a bit surprised at Chiron's mention of having seen the Loki Familia already, but figured now wasn't the time or place to bring it up.

"Yo, Archy!" Loki greeted Chiron, making him raise an amused eyebrow at the nickname. "And nothing much, but one of those monsters that got out was tougher than expected and we were going to bring the big guy here with us back home as thanks for helping us deal with it. Give his wounds the top quality care you know?"

Chiron would give a small blink in surprise before looking back at Heracles to confirm what she had just said, and sure enough, there were numerous wounds covering Heracles' body.

Chiron knew that the defenses of God Hand weren't perfect and that attacks of a high enough rank could bypass it. But it was surprising that a monster of such a level to do so would be here at such a time. Which was the only explanation that he could think of to explain those wounds that he could think of without the important information of Heracles having deactivated God Hand mid fight.

Despite that surprise, Chiron's smile would soon be back as he spoke next.

"Well I'm sorry we're going to have to decline your offer. Berserker won't have any wounds to treat soon after all."

"Eh? The hell do you mean by that- Whoa!" Loki began to ask Chiron in confusion before jumping in surprise away from Heracles.

The act would attract the attention of everyone else before they saw what had surprised Loki so much and what it was exactly that Chiron had meant.

Everyone saw that Heracles' wounds had been smaller than they had been when last they looked, with some of the smaller ones that they were sure had been there before, now gone. Nearly immediately after that, they all realized with some slight surprise that the chunks that had been bitten out of his arm were closing all on their own. It wasn't instant but it was fast enough for them to notice and that all of his wounds would be gone without so much a scar within the hour.

It was a little visually disturbing to see the movement of inner muscle and sinew growing and joining together, enough that it made Eina and Lefiya turn a little green, but no one there couldn't say that there wasn't a grim sort of fascination in them.

"Let me guess, another feature of this 'monster curse' of his?" Loki asked, being the first to have seen it and therefore the first to recover from it and bringing everyone's focus back from it.

"Madness Enhancement." Chiron corrected, smiling slightly turning to a smirk as Loki groaned a bit in irritation.

She had meant what she said about wanting to have made sure Heracles' wounds were properly treated as thanks for helping her girls out in the fight, most likely by having Riveria heal him with her healing spell. But she was also going to have taken the opportunity to see if she could try and poach the two new but strong and capable Adventurers from Hestia and get them to join her own Familia. Lefiya and Ais had almost definitely realized that simply from her tone of voice that usually meant she was up to something.

Now, however, not only was that opportunity now lost, she was only further wondering how that lazy runt of a goddess Hestia could have gotten so lucky to get her hands on someone like the Berserker Servant.

And as she went down that path of thinking, no one noticed that Chiron didn't actually answer her question directly.

"Excuse me sweetie, but could you come with me?" Eina said, not paying any mind to the schemes of the Goddess and Chiron's expert diversion in favor of the little girl that Heracles still held. "I'm sure your parents are really worried for you with everything that's happened."

However, as Eina leaned forward to take the girl, she would pull back away, pressing closer to Heracles to try and avoid Eina taking her. The act surprised Eina, and she briefly wondered if the young Chienthrope was still nervous about her from when she had been going to scold Heracles for, what she thought, getting in over his head while fighting alongside the Loki Familia. But that thought didn't last long as she realized the actual reason.

Despite the monsters having been killed, their nature of burrowing up from the ground and them being a complete unknown still scared the child. To her, another one of those monsters could erupt out of the ground without warning. And despite his monstrous aura and appearance, having seen the extent he had gone to protect her, being in Heracles' arms gave her a strong sense of safety.

As Eina grappled with this conundrum, Chiron caught sight of it and smiled at it for what it represented.

The Archer Servant would then begin to walk towards Eina and Heracles before crouching down a little to be at her eye level. The action would bring the attention of the Loki Famila to the bizarre situation. Realizing what the problem was and curious as to how the Hestia Familia captain would handle it, the Goddess and members of the Loki Familia would watch with interest as to what he would do.

"Greetings, Little one." Chiron said in a gentle voice, catching the attention of the child, who would look up into his emerald eyes. "I trust Berserker has been keeping you safe?"

The young Chienthrope would stare at Chiron for a few seconds, not sure what to make of the Archer Servant for a few seconds, but his calm and serene nature was able to put her at ease, earning him a nod from the young girl once she realized he was talking about Heracles.

"That's excellent to know." Chiron said, a smile growing a small amount at the girl's answer. "But you know, this area isn't entirely safe yet. Monsters are still running around, and Berserker can help deal with them but he won't be able to go all out as long he's still making sure you're safe. And I'm certain you must be worried about your parents as well."

The child's expression would sour with a sad frown. A part of her knew that Chiron was right, and she did want to see her mother to make sure she was alright, having been separated from her in the chaos brought about by the monster attack. But she was still hesitant to leave the safety that Heracles provided.

"But, there is something you can do to help pay him back for keeping you safe." Chiron said, seeing the girl saddened, getting her attention once more. "I don't know if this will surprise you, but most people are afraid of Berserker due to his appearance."

The girl would blink at Chiron in mild surprise at his words. She would then look up from her position in Heracles' arm to get a good look at him. Although he had been holding her for the majority of the battle, she hadn't been able to see his face very well thanks to the intensity of the battle and her attention mainly being on the monsters.

Heracles would look back down at her as she did. And as he looked back down at the comparatively small child in his arms, his gaze would- well, it didn't necessarily soften, the Madness Enhancement making such a change in expression difficult, but it didn't seem quite as hard as it usually was. It was still an intimidating gaze for most, but it was not the fierce and monstrous snarl that she had caught glimpses of as he fought the monsters and she could still only associate him with protection and safety.

"However, if you could tell your parents and your friends how he protected you, it will go a long way to make everyone more comfortable around him. At the very least, you might be able to show them how brave you are to approach him so easily." Chiron explained, watching with endearment as the girl's eyes seemed to shine a bit at the thought of impressing her friends and family. "But we have to first make sure that we get you to them, and that's where this nice lady comes in."

Eina would wave at the girl as Chiron gestured over to her, directing her gaze to the half elf once again.

"She can help you find your parents, who are no doubt looking for you as we speak, and Berserker doesn't have to worry about you as he fights."

The girl would look up at Chiron and Eina with hesitance. She understood what she was getting at, and she did want to go see her parents again. But she was still hesitant to leave the safety that Heracles' provided as long as those monsters that erupted out from seemingly nowhere.

But she also knew that, despite the safety that he guaranteed her, she also knew that she didn't want him to be hurt defending her again and that she didn't want to make her parents worry.

With one last glance towards Heracles, she would look back towards the Archer Servant and the Guild Advisor as she nodded towards them. The smiles of both the adults were gentle and calm, helping her feel better about her decision. And this time, when Eina reached out to take her from Heracles, the girl wouldn't pull away.

"The two of them seem to be surprisingly good with children." Ais commented out loud as Heracles, with remarkable gentleness despite his… disposition, helped transfer the young chienthrope from his arms to Eina's.

"Well, at least for Archy, it isn't much of a surprise, comes with the territory of being a teacher worth their salt." Loki retorted with a shrug, though she found her gaze wandering to the other member of the Hestia Familia in view. "Though yeah, the big guy is a bit of a shock."

"He's a teacher?" Leifya asked curiously, making both Ais and Loki look at her in slight surprise before they remembered that she wasn't there when Chiron had talked to the top executives of the Loki Familia over Berserker.

"Goddess Loki! Sword Princess!" shouted a member of the Ganesha Familia as he ran to approach said goddess, preventing her from explaining what exactly Chiron was.

"Oh hey, how's everything going with the monsters?" Loki asked the Ganesha Familia Adventurer as he approached.

"Well, most of the monsters have been taken care of." He answered, surprising those of the Loki Familia, prompting him to explain. "While the Sword Princess was busy here, almost all of the other monsters were killed by an unknown, highly skilled archer."

At that, the members of the Loki Familia shared a brief glance, as they saw, out of the corner of their eyes, the longbow that Chiron still held and remembered what he said when he first arrived.

And while most of the monster's weren't anything too impressive for that of a skilled level 5 like Ais, they also knew some of the monsters were orcs and sword stags. The kind of monsters that a newbie adventurer like Chiron wouldn't normally be able to beat on his own in such quick succession. It was something to investigate at another time, but it seemed that while he wasn't as visually imposing as his student, there was more to the teacher than meets the eye as well…

"Though there's been reports of an unknown kind of monster running around that doesn't match anythi- AH!" the Ganesha Familia Adventurer continued, not noticing the looks that the Loki Famila gave amongst themselves, but did notice the dark, statuesque giant that matched the description of the mentioned monster.

"He's harmless, don't mind him." Loki said bluntly, waving off the surprise and fear of the Ganesha Familia member at seeing Heracles. "Are there any other monsters that are still running around?"

"H-huh?" the Ganesha Familia Adventurer let out as he looked back to Loki in complete bewilderment at her nonchalant attitude and what she said, thinking it has to be some kind of strange joke. That thought went out the window when he saw her waiting for him to continue, arms crossed as she looked at him in an impatient manner waiting for him to continue. He wasn't sure how to properly respond to it at first as it seemed completely nonsensical to him.

But then again, as a member of the Ganesha Familia, he was already fairly used to dealing with seemingly nonsensical behavior from a god, so he knew from experience that it was probably just better to go along with what she said rather than question her.

"Uh- Well, then the only one left then is a Silverback-"

As the Adventurer continued, suddenly, Heracles' head would jerk in a seemingly random direction from where Eina had walked away with the child to go find her parents. Chiron noticed this and would go to ask what was wrong, but before he could get out Heracles would suddenly leap into action. The Berserker Servant would charge forward at full speed in the direction that he suddenly looked to.

The sudden whirl of action from him, would interrupt the Ganesha Familia member and catch the attention of the Loki Familia, who looked back in surprise towards Chiron and him as Heracles leaped up to the top of a nearby building.

"What the heck's his deal?!" Loki called out towards Chiron, but the Wise Sage was for once without answers to the questions, exemplified when he only gave a brief glance towards the Goddess before he took off himself in pursuit of Heracles.

"Ugh, one thing after another today!" Loki grumbled in annoyance before turning towards Ais and Lefiya. "Ais go see what's going on with those two, me and Lefiya need to make sure the Ganesha Familia doesn't attack the big guy by mistake!"

But Loki hardly needed to say anything before Ais took off after them, leaving Loki and Lefiya behind to deal with the very confused Ganesha Familia Adventurer.

Rooftops

Heracles ran across the tops of the many buildings of Orario, rushing toward his destination as fast as he could.

He had felt it again. The connection with his master screaming at him that Bell was in danger again. He didn't know why he was, but he just knew he was. Chiron wasn't there with him, and he didn't know if Achilles was there if their shared teacher wasn't. Meaning he had to rush to where Bell was to ensure his Master's safety.

As he did, Chiron and Ais followed close behind him.

Ais quickly found herself no longer wondering how it was that Heracles was able to escape from her and Bete so easily during their first meeting, even if he did have a decent opening. She already knew that he was far more agile than his massive size would lead one to believe, but his run across the rooftops of Orario showed it off all the more. She even found herself having a decent difficulty keeping up with him without the use of Ariel.

That difficulty only increased when they had stumbled into Daedalus Street, where if she lost sight of him, it would be unlikely for her to regain sight in the maze-like and confusing layout of Daedalus Street, where even running atop the buildings did little to mitigate the confusion. But Heracles didn't seem to be affected by it, continuing his run without slowing to consider which way to go as he twisted and turned in the streets with complete confidence in where he was going. Ais could honestly say that it impressed her, whether it was some sort of instinct or some absolute sense of direction.

But even as she had to give Heracles her focus in order to keep up with him, she didn't let the fact that the supposedly level 1 Adventurer Chiron was easily maintaining the same speed as her for so long…

Suddenly though, a few seconds after Heracles leapt up to the top of the building, once again seemingly at random as he somehow navigated the impossibly confusing streets, would come to a dead stop. To Ais, the stop happened for no discernible reason as far as she could tell, similar to his sudden run to begin with, but it meant that she and Chiron could finally catch up to him. Which the two of them did at roughly the same time, despite the apparent gap in Levels between the two of them.

"Why did he suddenly run here?" Ais asked, giving voice to her confusion as she looked around the top of the building and the neighboring ones to see if anything would have brought Heracles here in such a hurry.

"Ms. Wallenstein, I believe I mentioned Berserker's 'sixth sense' a few days ago during our discussion on his 'condition', no?" Chiron said to her.

"... I think you did, it sounds familiar at least." Ais said, thinking back to the meeting between the captain of the Hestia Familia and the top executives of the Loki Familia to remember that Chiron had indeed mentioned that Heracles had something like that when it came to being aware of danger.

"Well then I believe this case can be used as excellent evidence of that, if you didn't believe me from words alone." Chiron said, making Ais realize that both he and Heracles were actually looking down from the roof into a rather large dead end area between the building they were standing on and two others.

But really caught her attention were the two forms of two people that were at the end of the dead end. One of them was a goddess, she could tell that much from a difference, but it wasn't one that she recognized from anywhere. The same couldn't be said for the other one though, the white haired boy that was crouched on his knees, as the light of the Falna glowed from his back.

Ais would let out a soft gasp of surprise upon recognizing the boy, remembering him despite the brief interaction with him that she had on that day. However, before she could say or do anything with this information, a loud roar, echoing from the entrance of the dead end, would catch her attention. When she went to look at what had caused it, she saw a monkey like monster, a Silverback, the last monster that had escaped from the Ganesha Familia, barreling as fast as it could towards the boy and the goddess.

Seeing this, Ais would quickly go to grab the hilt of her sword as she took a step forward, intending to kill the Silverback before it could get too close to hurt the boy or the goddess.

But she was stopped as Heracles would raise the massive landform weapon of his in front of her.

"Huh?" Ais let out, managing to stop before she walked face first into the hard stone of the weapon that now blocked her, looking up at Heracles in shock that he would block her rather than leap in along with her to defend him.

But she would see that he wasn't looking at her. Instead, he stared down at the street in an intense focus. With his gaze being locked squarely on Bell.

Despite the reason he had rushed here in the first place being that he had sensed that Bell had been in danger through their shared link, he could tell something was different than a few moments ago. Heracles couldn't tell if it was because of the boost in his stats that he was receiving from having Hestia updating the status of his Falna or that strange knife in his hands that he hadn't had before, but the look Bell had wasn't that of a scared boy. It was the look he had seen in other students of Chiron, other heroes, and one he knew he himself had during countless points in his life.

That of a determined will to fight, and to win.

"He wants to see how Bell will do." Chiron said, answering Ais' unsaid question as he notched an arrow into his bow, eyes locked onto the charging monster aside from a momentary glance towards Heracles.

It wasn't unusual for Servants to detect when their Masters were in danger of being killed, but that usually happened when the Master had already been injured or was on death's door. Bell seemed like he had taken some hits but it wasn't anything life threatening yet, and Chiron himself hadn't sensed that Bell was in danger. But Chiron couldn't tell if this was a product of Heracles quality of a Servant or it being further evidence, along with the odd level of detail of the dream that Bell had earlier that morning of Heracles' life, that he and Bell had a significantly strong bond as a Servant and Master.

"Bell?" Ais repeated in question, before realizing that it was the name of the boy, remembering how Chiron had said that he and Heracles had joined his Familia after saving him from the minotaur a few days before.

"You don't need to worry." Chiron continued as he pulled the arrow back, knowing that the Sword Princess was smart enough to figure out the name from the context. His eyes intently searched over the Silverback over, causing them to glow softly as his vision was enhanced beyond any normal sight, allowing him to easily find the magic stone of the Silverback. "I'll kill the monster immediately if I feel he or Goddess Hestia are in any danger."

Ais opened her mouth to say something, probably in objection to the situation, but would close it. She recalled the Ganesha Familia member saying that most of the other monsters had been killed by an unknown archer and noticed Chiron's confidence in his stance and his focus. Chiron had killed the other monsters despite being only a Level 1 Adventurer that had only arrived in Orario a few days ago, then she was confident that he could easily kill the Silverback.

Meaning that he could easily save Bell or Hestia if the need arises, just as he said.

She still didn't like it, the feeling of simply waiting on the sideline, but the information would allow her to feel content enough with the situation that she would go along with it and not intervene.

Finally, Hestia would finish updating Bell's status, signifying it with a slap on the back and a "There you go!".

With the all clear given by his goddess, Bell would leap into action, shooting up from his crouched position as he ran full speed toward the charging Silverback. He could immediately feel the difference brought about by the status update as he ran ahead, far faster than he had ever run before in his entire life. With the increase in ability and the belief of his Goddess, he knew that he could do this.

Especially since he already knew a sure-fire way of winning against this monster.

Eina's words from one of her lessons echoed in his head. Reminding him of the one weakness that every monster had, even a dragon from the Deep Floors. That if you destroy the Magic Stone of a monster, it will immediately die.

But then, as he neared the monster, his newly given knife poised and ready to stab at the monster, a different memory of a different lesson came to him.

"Master, I've noticed that you have something of a habit of." Chiron said crouching down as he knelt down by a very much in pain Bell, that laid down on his back after just having been flipped and slammed down by his mentor and Servant.

"Y-yeah?" Bell asked, wincing slightly from the pain that was blooming across his back side.

"You seem to immediately lunge at every opening that you can see. Not to say that it's a wholly bad thing, as it does mean that you're paying attention to your opponent enough to see those openings in the first place. An important skill to have, to be sure." Chiron began, talking as Bell struggled to get up in a seating position and to look at Chiron as he continued. "But it does have its problems."

"Like?" Bell asked carefully, paying complete attention to what Chiron was saying to see the insight from the Teacher of Heroes.

"It's reactionary. You allow your opponent to take the initiative and hold them off until you see your opening to strike. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not ideal for your usual choice of weapon." Chiron continued before pausing as he looked down at the ground before picking up Bell's knife. "A knife doesn't have the reach of a spear or even a sword, meaning you'll almost always find yourself at a disadvantage in that aspect of a fight. As a result, your only recourse is to get close, but that won't always be an option if your opponent can keep you at a distance while they can attack from out of your range. Most who use a knife generally get around this by ensuring they have the initiative in the fight to outmaneuver and make their own openings, but I've already said how you tend not to unless it's the opening move."

Bell didn't say anything in response, simply looking at the knife Chiron held as he took his words in to understand the meaning behind it.

"And then there's the other issue." Chiron continued, bringing Bell's attention back to him. "You always go for every opening once you see it."

Chiron would pause for a second, flipping the knife in his hands to point the handle back toward Bell.

"Your fighting style is almost purely reactionary, and your first reaction upon seeing an opening is to go for it without any hesitation or thought of if you miss or if it was a false opening that your opponent made to lure you in. And thanks to your overall lack of reach, you'll have little in the way of leeway if it was a trap or you miss and give your opponent the chance to counterattack. Not every open door has something safe waiting for you on the other side."

The memory would immediately spur a series of thoughts within Bell's head that each lasted less than a second as he ran through everything he could think of about the Silverback, even as he still moved towards it at full speed.

He knew that he was going for the Magic Stone, to kill the Silverback in one strike, but was he absolutely confident that he could do it?

Based on his lessons from Eina, he was reasonably certain that the Magic Stone was located in its chest, but that was it.

He may have had the location narrowed down to a specific region, the chest was still a relatively big area in comparison to the thin and relatively small knife. It was absolutely possible for him to be wrong about the location of the magic stone. And if he was wrong, well, he would practically be in the face of a very pissed off Silverback

These thoughts would make him change his mind on taking the Silverback in a head on assault being a good idea, but his momentum was already carrying him forward and the monster was rapidly closing the distance already. So he didn't have much time to think of anything else. He was almost forced to bet on the stab anyway, simply because he didn't know what else he was going to be able to do.

But then, another memory would pop into his mind. This time, not of a lesson or a lecture, but of the dream that he had earlier this morning. Of the way that Heracles had fought against the Gigantes.

Before Bell even really knew what he was doing, he found himself mimicking the movements of the hero.

As the Silverback threw out its arm, intending on punching Bell aside or even killing him with the punch, Bell would duck under it. Using his smaller size in comparison to the monster to his advantage, the long arm of the ape-like monster harmlessly flew by over his head as his momentum continued to carry him forward. Changing his grip on the knife that Hestia had given him minutes ago slightly, Bell would then whirl around, knife extended out to slice through the back of the Silverback's lower leg, nearly dead on with the heel.

The maneuver that Bell pulled had shocked the Silverback, and prompted it to let out an angry growl at the pain it felt as it quickly turned around to face Bell as their respective momentum carried them back from each other. The Silverback would then pull one foot back, intent on stopping its own momentum so it could leap forward at Bell once again before he could recover. It didn't notice that in the movement, however, that the leg that it had used was the same one that Bell had ended up cutting.

"I guess it's your turn for a question, right?" Achilles asked, voice echoing somewhat in the stone corridors of the Dungeon's Upper Floors.

It had been during the time the two of them had gone into the Dungeon together over the three days while Hestia was gone. Achilles had gotten bored once again while watching Bell kill the various monsters of the Dungeon they encountered, even the novelty of the War Shadows on the Sixth floor had worn off after seeing them so much. Left with little else to do aside from fighting the monsters himself, which wouldn't do much of anything to alleviate his boredom, Bell had suggested that they trade questions to pass the time.

"Yeah. Actually, I have one I've been wondering about for a while." Bell said before going on to ask the question. "You mentioned a 'toedon' or something being named after you when you were su- when we met. What does that mean?"

"Oh that?" Achilles responded with a slight huff of amusement at the way Bell rephrased his statement midway at remembering where they were. "A tendon is basically a muscle that connects to other muscles that allows you to do things like move correctly… or at all."

"Huh." Bell blinked at the lesson in biology before looking at his arm and moving it around in different ways to see if he could feel the tendons. "So why was it named after you?"

"Well, you remember reading my status sheet? And how if not only is my heel the only place I'm vulnerable against things lacking Divinity, if I'm hit there at all I lose a lot of my powers?" Achilles asked back, looking back to see Bell nodding. "Well the 'Achilles tendon' is in your heel and connects your foot to the rest of the muscles in your leg. You'd have to ask Archer for specifics, since he would obviously know more than me, but if it was damaged not only would it hurt like Hades, you'd definitely have difficulty standing or walking on that foot. I think you still can, just not how you would usually."

"...It has to be weird having something named after your biggest weakness." Bell said a bit absentmindedly, suddenly mindful of the muscle in the back of his heel.

"Well, I can't really say it doesn't fit as a name." Achilles said a bit awkwardly, thinking about how Bell had no idea the extent of fame for that weakness was. "... But I can't really say you're wrong either."

The Silverback let out a surprised noise when, instead of slowing down as its back foot held against the stone to grind its momentum to nothing, it would finally process the pain of the cut and notice the wound in the first place. On top of that, thanks to the severing of the ever important tendon, its foot wasn't able to maintain the necessary position, essentially going limp, even as the Silverback's weight was being put upon it.

With too much of its weight being supported by a faltering leg and its momentum still carrying it, the ape-like monster began to fall backwards. Unable to stop it, it would try to cast its arm out to catch itself before it hit the ground.

And it was at that moment that Bell found the opportunity that he was wanting.

Seeing that Silverback was too distracted to be able to stop him and possibly crippled to chase after him (he never did ask Chiron for the specifics of what cutting the tendon meant), Bell rushed forward again, rapidly closing the distance. He took the knife that Hestia had gifted to him in both hands, and thrusted it with everything he got. He was still only guessing where the magic stone was, betting that it was in the center of its chest, the same place he was targeting before.

Only now, there was almost no chance of the Silverback counter attacking if he ended up being wrong.

The monster ahead of him barely had any time to react as he ran towards it. It hardly had enough time to look up towards him as it heard the sounds of his movement. It didn't have any time for it to widen its eyes as the knife was thrusted at it, penetrating its skin, sliding past its ribcage, and breaking its magic stone in two.

The Silverback had already been falling backward, so with it going limp with the destruction of its magic stone, and with how much momentum that he had, Bell would end up barreling over the monster once it had fallen back even further. He then rolled along the street for a small distance, landing on his back against the stone paved street. But, thanks to a certain centaur, Bell had gotten quite a bit of experience having his back slammed down after having multiple training sessions with Chiron, so he was quick on the recovery, rolling back onto his stomach in order to look up and see if he had missed and the Monster had survived.

But it became clear that he needed have bothered.

As when his eyes landed back onto the Silverback, he would see that the monster lay limply upon its back unmoving. A second later, it would let out one last dying breath before its body began to disintegrate into white dust, a clear sign that he had gotten lucky and had managed to find and destroy the magic stone.

Silence seemed to fall over the lonely dead end of Daedalus Street following the death of the monster, as if everyone processed the victory of the young Adventurer. It didn't last for long though, because as Bell managed to get back onto his feet and collect his knife, a loud cheer would be let out from the residents of the various buildings that flanked the dead end. Bell couldn't help but look around him, in shock that not only were people cheering for him, but that he had managed to come out victorious. As he began to properly process it though, a large smile would begin to grow across his face.

And he wasn't the only one that was smiling either.

Chiron could feel the corners of his mouth turn upward as he smiled with pride as he lowered his bow.

His master had surprised him. When Bell had initially charged the Silverback, he had of course known what he was going for and that it was going to work thanks to his knowledge of where the Magic Stone was. The idea had been a solid one, but the centaur couldn't help frowning that Bell had simply resorted to a reckless frontal charge with no fall back if something had gone wrong.

But then, as Chiron was thinking of lessons to correct such behavior, Bell had suddenly changed his tactics. It was rudimentary to be sure and obviously thought up on the fly, but it was leagues better than simply charging a monster head on with no guarantee of success or back up plan. It was so unlike Bell's usual, reactionary fighting style, and Chiron couldn't help but think back to that talk about Bell's fighting style earlier in the week and wonder if that had anything to do with it.

"He's a fast learner." Chiron thought, pride at his student's performance making his smile just a little bigger

The thud of heavy footsteps would grab Chiron's attention, allowing him to look over and see Heracles would begin to walk away.

"Heading home, Berserker?" Chiron asked, knowing that he wouldn't get any kind of verbal answer in response. Not that he needed it, he knew his student well enough that he was leaving since his presence wasn't needed anymore and he didn't wanna ruin the moment by scaring the currently cheering people with his appearance once they took notice of him.

Nonetheless, he did get a soft growl as a seeming response to the question despite Heracles not turning to face him at all.

"I should probably be going too." Ais said, bring Chiron's attention, surprising the Archer Servant, who turned to face her just in time to see her already turning to leave.

"Is that so Sword Princess?"

"Yes. Loki and the Ganesha Familia should know that the final monster was defeated before they start searching for it." Ais explained, which was the truth, earning her an understanding hum from Chiron, but there was something else to it.

She threw a glance over her shoulder, looking down at the white haired boy that still seemed at awe so many people were cheering for him.

She flashed back to nearly a week ago, when she had "rescued" him from Heracles as a newbie adventurer that had nearly been killed by a minotaur. It was hard to believe that he had gone from that to defeating a monster that came from the Eleventh Floor. Her eyes briefly drifted over to the Archer that was still crouched in front of her. Was his teachings really the thing that was responsible for such rapid growth?

Alongside that, she felt the desire to apologize for putting the boy in danger with the minotaur. But, as he seemed to relish in an impressive victory against a foe that normally would've been beyond his level, it didn't quite seem like the time. The apology would have to wait.

Chiron would raise a brow as Ais turned away to leave, leaping from the roof of the building to that of another one. He couldn't say for certain if or what it was exactly, but there seemed to be something more behind that last glance. He didn't know what though.

But he didn't have much time to dwell on that thought before his instincts seemed to go off and he suddenly had the feeling that someone's eyes were on him.

Reacting mostly on instinct, Chiron was quick to rapidly look around him for anything that was out of place. It was then that he caught sight of something on a building taller a small distance away. It looked like the outline of someone, but thanks to the angle of the buildings, he was unable to see more than a glimpse, even with the supreme eyesight of the Archer class.

He tensed for a second, ready to go race towards where the figure was, to investigate who it was that was watching him, or even possibly Bell and Hestia, but was stopped just before as Bell let out a worried cry.

"GODDESS HESTIA!"

Chiron looked back down at the street on reflex at the yell, seeing Bell running towards an unconscious Hestia that lay face down in the street.

Chiron let out a minor curse, not knowing how Hestia had fallen unconscious since he had been watching out for any threat. He would briefly look back to where he had seen the figure, wanting to know who had been watching them and if they had anything to do with what had happened to Hestia. But the wellbeing of the goddess of his familia took priority.

"Hold on a second Bell." Chiron said as he leapt down from the roof as Bell picked the unconscious Hestia up off the ground in a bridal carry.

"A-archer?!" Bell said, completely caught off guard and surprised at the appearance of his Servant.

"Let me see the Goddess." Chiron said, ignoring the surprise of his Master for a second in favor of seeing what was wrong with Hestia.

On reflex in response to how serious he was, Bell would do what the Archer Servant said, turning a little bit to allow for Chiron to see the goddess in his arms better. Chiron would look Hestia over intensively, looking for any visible wounds or bruises that would hint at someone attacking her to knock her out, but he would find nothing. His eyes would then glow slightly, his vision changing as he looked for any signs of inner wounds or poison of some kind, only to let out a sigh of relief a second later.

"There's nothing to worry about." Chiron said, his worry washing away and his normal calm attitude returning, which had a visual effect on calm Bell down. "It appears that Hestia hasn't slept in some time, and merely passed out in exhaustion after all the excitement was over. All she needs is a little rest and she'll be fine."

"Thank the gods." Bell said, sighing heavily with an immense amount of relief that Hestia hadn't gotten hurt before realizing something. "Wait, how long were you here? Did you see what happened with the Silverback?"

"Yes, and I'm very proud of the way you handled it." Chiron answered, smiling at Bell as a well of pride welled up in Bell at the praise of the teacher of Heroes. "We'll discuss it later, but we should go to some place where the Goddess can rest first."

"Right! Uh, I guess that means we should go home, but could we go by the Hostess of Fertility first?" Bell requested before explaining why Chiron gave him an inquisitive look. "It's close by, and I want to see if Syr's there to make sure she didn't get caught up in… everything."

"Not a bad idea at all then! And while we're there, we can at least make sure to return Ms. Flova's wallet, even if she isn't there." Chiron responded with a smile, happy to see Bell being mindful about others.

"Yeah, hehe… I honestly forgot about that with everything that happened…" Bell responded as he and Chiron began to walk away, laughing awkwardly as he remembered the specific thing that had gotten them into this mess.

Hostess of Fertility

"Holy Hades I missed a lot." Achilles said as Bell walked back into the room where Hestia was resting, Chiron having explained the events of what happened during Monsterphilia as Bell stepped out to have a talk with Syr.

The original plan was that they would only briefly visit the restaurant, to see if Syr had returned in their absence, ensure her safety, and return the wallet even if she wasn't there before they had gone home. However, it had changed a small bit when Syr insisted that they stayed there for a little while for Hestia to rest. Paying them back in apology for essentially being the reasons that they had gotten into the mess in the first place.

They had accepted it, if only because the bed of the room Syr was offering was in all likely a better one than the one that the ruined church they called home and would help Hestia rest better.

Achilles had arrived a few hours before. Having finished collecting a decent number of Magic Stones from the Middle Floors to warrant returning, and of course passing by the restaurant on his way back home. Chiron had been waiting outside for him when he did, and had gotten his attention to bring him in.

"Yes, it certainly was unfortunate timing, all things considered." Chiron said in response to Achilles reaction that the news of what had happened.

Then again, a small part of him would think back to that figure that he saw on that building just after Bell had defeated the Silverback and that feeling he had of being watched. A small part of him wondered if it really was just a case of unfortunate timing. But he also knew that part of him was in all likelihood just a bit paranoid.

The members of the Hestia Familia had yet to really make a name for themselves, aside from hopefully the news that Heracles wasn't a monster and wouldn't harm anyone outside of self defense. That of course was likely to change, especially now that news that they had assisted in solving the matter would get out, which Chiron was hoping to make use of to promote his Adventurer Lessons. It was likely they would make enemies as they grew in strength and fame, but this was definitely too early for that kind of thing.

If that figure atop the building really did have something to do with the monster's being released, then it was likely that they had gotten their attention thanks to their participation in slaying them.

Of course, he had no way of knowing about the divine nature of the figure or their desire for a certain white haired adventurer…

"Well don't I feel useless now." Achilles said with a sigh, propping up his fist to lean against it. "The one time I'm not here is the one time something happens."

"At least you got a lot of good Magic Stones!" Bell said, joining into the conversation, hoping that the last remnant of the blush he got from what he was almost certain was Syr teasing him as he attempted to make Achilles feel better.

Even he had to admit it didn't mean that much, but it was a true point. Between Achilles not being held back by having to keep an eye on Bell while letting him doing most of the work and the fact that all of the Magic Stones from monsters in the Middle Floors would be worth a lot more than on the Upper Floors to begin with, Achilles had easily earned more money than they would've gone together for several days. Which was rather important for a Familia as poor as the Hestia Familia was.

Achilles shrugged at that, seeing Bell's point, but it did little to really make him feel better.

"I trust you at least appreciated seeing the new and stronger monsters than the Upper Floor provides?" Chiron asked, knowing that his student would've enjoyed such a change of pace with how bored he knew Achilles was in the Dungeon usually.

"I guess." Achilles answered, scratching the back of his neck a bit as he thought about the answer. "I mean, seeing the hellhounds was kind of cool, even if they aren't like the ones back home. I also got to fulfill some childhood fantasies pretending to be Thesus whenever I saw some minotaurs, so that was admittedly fun. Though I did feel a little… odd when having to kill the rabbits, the Almiraj or whatever."

"Oh? Why is that?" Chiron asked, though he didn't fail to notice the way Bell seemed to stiffen slightly at the mention of the minotaurs.

"...You'll understand when you see them."

"Why are you looking at me?" Bell asked, a little uncomfortable with the way Achilles was looking at him.

"You'll understand when you see them." Achilles repeated and not looking away from Bell, not helping the Master as the Servant could no longer unsee the resemblance he had with the rabbit monsters.

"On another note, Master, did Hestia tell you where she got this knife?" Chiron said, changing the subject of conversation as he held up the black knife . "And while we're on the subject, did she manage to say anything about how much your status increased before she passed out?"

"I don't think so." Bell answered, a little uncertain as he thought back over the course of the day with Hestia, and not recalling. "I didn't really have the time to ask with the Silverback chasing after us. But the knife has the Hephaestus signature, I don't know how she could've bought it though with how expensive their weapons are…"

"I'm going to have to talk about it with her then." Chiron said with a sigh as Bell took the knife back.

Bell was right about how expensive the knife was. Chiron had glimpsed the prices of other Hephaestus weapons in the windows of shops that he had passed, and if the knife that Hestia had given Bell was around the same price, than it was worth more than all the money the Hestia Familia had earned since the summoning of the Servants. It wasn't the kind of purchase a smaller Familia like theirs should be making, especially when they were saving up to get a larger home in order to house more potential members.

Still though, she had gotten the knife at a fortunate time, considering Bell wouldn't have been able to defeat the Silverback without it and he had broken his old one fighting the monster. And Chiron had seen that it was certainly a top quality made weapon. He could tell that the weapon would certainly be of use to Bell if they were to keep it, if it didn't hamper his growth, but the question was that could they afford it?

"On another note, I think you should get some rest as well." Chiron said, surprising the young Master.

"Huh?"

"It was a long day for you, and you must be tired after having to fight the Silverback for most of it."

And his words did ring true to Bell. Even after receiving, what he could guess, a massive status update, his body still ached from when he was running away and the hits he had taken from the Silverback from before the status update. Not as much right after a training session with Chiron granted, and not as much now that his Endurance Stat had risen to some degree, but he could still feel the aching.

"I'm a little bit I guess, but I don't know if I can relax until I know Hestia is alright…" Bell said, even as he could feel his body get a little heavier as he took notice of how tired he was.

"I'm sure Lady Hestia will appreciate your concern, but I did already tell you that she was fine and is simply exhausted." Chiron replied.

"Hey, if it helps-" Achilles said, joining in before Bell could respond. "I'll wake you up as soon as she does."

"...Alright. I don't know how much sleep I'll get though." Bell said, relenting with a sigh.

"Every little bit helps." Chiron said with a small smile as Bell went over to the nearby wall and sat down, back leaning back against it as he closed his eyes.

He could hear Chiron and Achilles' voices as they talked about something, but they were distant. Not just because they were purposelessly trying to be quiet for the benefit of Hestia and his rest, but because as he closed his eyes, the full weight of his exhaustion from the day would hit him. Within minutes, Bell would fall asleep-

Only for the sound of thunder to make him jump and make him open his eyes, only to be dumbstruck by the state of his surroundings.

He was no longer in the windowless bedroom of the Hostess of Fertility. Instead, he found himself in a wide open grassland, with dark, stormy clouds covering the sky overhead. And in the center of the plains, was a familiar stone house.

Despite the shock, Bell had already realized what was happening before hearing the loud 'twang' of a bow that echoed throughout the fields. His confirmation of it was when he turned around to see the source of the sound, to see the Heracles as he was in life. This was another dream like the one he had before.

Though even as the feelings of excitement ran through Bell, as he wondered what ancient story of heroism would play out before him, he noticed that it wasn't Heracles that held the bow.

No, instead, the one holding the weapon was the boy younger than even Bell that he recognized as Heracles' son, Therimachus. Going off the boy's age, it was clear that some time had passed since the end of the last dream he had. He couldn't be sure how much specifically, but he could tell that it was probably more than a year.

"Good shot." Heracles said, smiling with pride at his son's aim as he looked towards a target that was some fifty yards away that had an arrow stuck along the second ring.

"I didn't hit the center though…" Therimachus said with disappointment as he lowered the bow, prompting Heracles to pat him on the back.

"No, but it was your first time shooting at this range and you got closer than I was expecting."

"...How close did Hylas get on his first timing shooting?" Therimachus asked hesitantly, unable to look at his father's face as he asked the potentially loaded question.

Heracles would frown at the question. Even after more than a year, Hylas' absence was still felt in the small home of the Son of Zeus. It was only natural since Megara and Heracles had practically considered him an adopted son and their children, in turn, saw the young boy as something of an older brother. That didn't change the fact that Heracles couldn't help but remember his failure to keep him safe any time that he was mentioned.

Still though, Heracles couldn't blame Therimachus for wanting to know how he compared to him.

"It's been awhile, but I think he hit the third ring when I first had him shoot at this range." Heracles said finally, looking off at the target and trying to ignore the feelings of sadness and frustration that seemed to come up whenever the subject of Hylas did.

His answer would surprise Therimachus as he looked up at his father in surprise, before a proud smile broke out across his face at the knowledge. He then opened his mouth to say something more, but then Heracles would turn his head to look somewhere off to the side. Following his father's line of sight, he would see the sight of his mother approaching.

"How's the training going for you two?" Megara asked as she got closer, smiling as she saw Therimachus smile at the sight of her.

"It's going good!"

"Therimachus is doing good with the bow, as usual." Heracles said, giving a smile of his own with the praise causing his son's smile to grow as well.

"Something I'm certain that causes you no end of pride." Megara said, knowing that Heracles would love the fact that his son was doing well with his own preferred weapon. "But I actually came out here to ask how much longer you plan on going?"

Heracles' smile would turn into a small frown of thought as he knew what Megara was talking about, looking up to the sky and the dark clouds above.

"I think that'll be it actually." Heracles answered as he looked back at Megara and Therimachus. "End the training off on a good note from today. Especially since I don't like the look of those clouds."

"Aw." Therimachus said, disappointed with the news that his training was going to be cut short for the day, especially after he felt he was getting into a good groove and wanted to see if he could hit another shot like the one he just had. "Couldn't Grandpa Zeus have the storm happen tomorrow?"

Lightning would flash across the sky and a loud rumble of thunder would echo from the heavens, making the young boy yelp in surprise.

"Now Therimachus, what have I told you about referring to the gods?" Megara said, frowning down at the young boy.

"...To not question their will and give them your utmost respect even if I'm related to them." Therimachus said, not enjoying the way Megara's voice turned into her "lecturing" tone.

"That's right! Now go back to the house to help your brothers get everything inside and out of the rain." Megara said, to which Therimachus could only nod before going to do as his mother told him before.

All the while, Heracles looked up towards the sky where the lightning had just flashed.

Despite how cautious and strict Megara was about that stuff, Zeus didn't usually respond at all to his or his sons' complaints about the weather…

"Is something wrong?" Megara asked, seeing the way Heracles was looking up toward the sky, her voice bringing his attention back down to earth.

"No, nothing, just…" Heracles began before trailing off a little, sighing as he did as he thought about what he wanted to say. "I don't know. I've had a bad feeling all day for some reason, and there's something odd about these clouds that I don't like."

"They look the same to me as any other storm clouds." Megara said, frowning in confusion as she looked up towards the sky to see if she could see what Heracles was talking about before giving up with a shrugging. "Guess I'll trust your expertise as the son of Zeus."

She jumped as another lightning brightened the sky and more thunder came right after, louder than before.

"... I guess your feeling might just be that it's because it's going to be a bad storm, huh?" Megara said slightly unevenly, looking up at the stormy sky nervously, thinking that she should take the same lesson she constantly tried to give her students.

But Heracles didn't respond to her at all.

He stood silently, stiffly standing out in the field and staring out into the distance of the plain. His silence was uncanny, and the only thing that Megara could hear in response to her statement was the wind blowing across the fields.

Bell could feel his excitement for the dream begin to die away as he felt a pit open in his stomach. Heracles' sudden behavior was sticking him as odd for some reason, unsettling even as something in the back of his mind, some instinct, told him something was wrong. Heracles' large stature, which could always be and frequently was intimidating, became all the more so as he stood as still and as silent as a statue.

"...Heracles?" Megara asked nervously after a few seconds of her husband not responding to her at all, the unsteady tone of voice letting Bell know that he wasn't the only one feeling nervous with the hero's behavior. "Is something wrong, Dear?"

Once again, Heracles would prove unresponsive, and his silence would continue to unnerve Bell and Megara.

Hesitantly, Megara would open her mouth to say something else as she took a step forward-

Only for her to suddenly be lifted up off of the ground as her foot left the earth.

A gasp would leave Megara and her hands would go to grab at the wrist of the hand that now held her up by her throat on instinct, even before she realized what was happening and that the hand belonged to her husband.

"H-H-erac-les?" Megara practically gasped as she suddenly realized the difficulty in breathing, her voice containing as much shock, fear and confusion as Bell felt as he could only watch.

It was only then that Heracles would finally turn his head to look at her, and Megara's eyes could only widen as she met Heracles'. They were not the ones, filled with love and a gentle kindness that contrasted his powerful strength and body that had always met hers before. They were dull and almost blank as they looked back at her, aside from a growing display of anger as his lips pulled back into a mad snarl. It was a sight and expression that was completely unfamiliar and almost unrecognizable to her husband.

But Bell, as he watched on with horror and shock as some part of him seemed to realize what was about to happen before his eyes, recognized the look in Heracles' eyes.

It was the same look the Master saw whenever he looked into the eyes of his Berserker Servant.

What followed would later be remembered as a blur to Heracles as he recalled what had happened while he had completely lost himself to an unstoppable rage and insanity.

But that would not, could not, be the case for Bell as he had no choice but to watch helplessly as what took place before him. Unable to do or say anything as he watched in just as much terror in confusions as Megara and her children as their father, without warning, went on a complete rampage. And the results of that rampage, was not something that Bell was ever going to forget.

"-ell, Hestia woke up." Bell heard, as soon as he was awakened from the nightmarish dream by a shake to the shoulder. It was Achilles, fulfilling his earlier promise to wake him up when the Goddess did.

But Bell didn't immediately recognize the voice, or properly process what was going on, as he jolted awake, grabbing the hand on his shoulder out of reflex as he stared up at Achilles as he recognized the Rider Servant and where he was.

"Did I shake too hard or someth-" Achilles began to ask, surprised by Bell's reaction, but interrupted himself as he recognized the terror that was in Bell's eyes.

But he didn't get a chance to say anything else or ask what was wrong before his mind unconsciously thought back to the dream, and the images of what he had just seen began to appear in his head. As he ran through them all, Bell began to breathe much faster and heavier than normal as his hands went to each side of his head and began to hold them tightly. Tears welling up in the side of his eyes.

"Master!" Achilles called out, realizing something was wrong as Bell began to hyperventilate, getting the attention of Chiron and Hestia, who were previously talking about the knife.

"Bell!" Hestia called in concerned as she saw Bell crouched over against the wall.

"What happened?" Chiron asked Achilles, rushing over to his Master and student, looking Bell over to see if he had been hurt somehow.

"Hell if I know! I just woke him up and he started hyperventilating!" Achilles answered, trying to think of what could be the reason behind what was essentially a panic attack for Bell.

"Why?" Bell asked suddenly between breaths, voice unsteady as tears began to go down his cheeks, getting the attention of Chiron and Achilles as he looked up at them. "W-why did he k-kill-"

Even though Bell wasn't able to finish the question, it had been enough for the two Servants in the room to realize what had happened, it dawning on their faces.

"... Shit, he saw that." Achilles cursed aloud, a hand going to rapidly scratch the back of his head as he thought about what to do with this complicated mess of a situation.

"What? What did he see?!" Hestia asked, now being the only one in the room that wasn't aware of what was going on, her concern for Bell evident.

"...I'll explain in a second, Goddess, but we need to wait for Bell to calm down first." Chiron said gently to Hestia as he crouched down, putting an arm around Bell's shoulder gently hugging him. "Achilles, could you go by the door to make sure no one listens in?"

"... Yeah, yeah I can." Achilles said with a sigh, wishing he could do something more to help, but he also knew that he wasn't really good at comforting others.

As he walked over to the entrance to the room, putting his back against the door as he kept an ear out for any sign of footsteps or anything else that could mean someone was listening in, Hestia would frown as she saw the crying Bell. Knowing that she couldn't just lie in a bed as her precious Bell cried in despair at some sight, even if she should rest after passing out in exhaustion, she would push herself up off of the bed. Chiron would give her a glance as she went around Bell, but wouldn't say anything as she gently wrapped her arms around Bell's neck and tightly hugged him from behind.

The effect she had would be clear immediately, as Bell would calm a noticeable amount. Still, even with Hestia's comforting presence and the calm aura that Chiron had, it still took quite a while for Bell to calm down completely. It was only when the rapid breathing would slow down to a normal point and there weren't any more tears that Chiron would pull back, looking down at Bell with a gentle expression on his face.

"Are you alright now, Bell?" Chiron asked, choosing to use his name rather than his title of Master since he believed he would respond better to it in this situation.

Bell would respond with a slow nod, not trusting himself to speak out loud just yet.

"Could you explain what just happened now?" Hestia asked, still confused about everything that just happened and wanting to know the reason behind it, even though her focus was still on Bell to make sure what just happened.

"Yes, of course." Chiron said with a nod, as he pulled back, running a hand through his hair as he tried to think of where and how to explain everything to Hestia and Bell. "I can explain the how and the why later, but for now Goddess, just know that all Masters will see the life and memories of their Servants, thanks to their connection. And right now, Bell saw what was undoubtedly the worst moment in Heracles' life."

Hestia didn't say anything, but thought about the meaning of what Chiron had just told her about as she looked at Bell. She put what she thought about the idea away for now, even if she now understood better why Bell had such a reaction. In this world and theirs, in every world, a hero was defined by their suffering and the tragedies they endured just as much as their feats and abilities.

And she knew that, according to Chiron, Heracles was the Greatest Hero of Ancient Greece, and that could only mean he must have had a tragedy to match if Bell had such a reaction.

"I said before that Heracles was a demigod, but did I ever tell you two who his father was?" Chiron asked, not recalling any time that he had, the closest thing coming to mind was that close call when he and Heracles had first met Heracles.

"Zeus." Bell said softly, surprising Hestia as she was thinking back. "I- I don't know who that is, but he was mentioned a few times in the d-dreams."

"Wait hold on, that old perv is Heracles' dad?!" Hestia asked, flabbergasted at the idea and the idea that, even if it was an alternate version, she couldn't tell any familial resemblance between Heracles and the old man she knew from her home province in Heaven.

"I suppose it's only natural that you would know this world's version of him." Chiron said, though he couldn't resist the urge to sigh at her descriptor of Zeus.

Seems that some things never changed, no matter what world you were in…

"To the point at hand though, yes, Heracles' father is Zeus, King of the Olympian Gods and the God of Lightning. That fact is both one of Heracles' greatest strengths… and the cause of almost all of his suffering."

"How come?" Hestia asked, a little hesitantly, not sure how being the son of a god, let alone the King of Gods, could lead to pain.

"Tell me, what is Zeus' relationship with the Goddess Hera like in this world?" Chiron asked looking over to Hestia, surprising her as she was suddenly put on the spot.

"Huh? Well, um, it's been awhile, but they were really close, although Hera usually got really annoyed whenever Zeus did something perverted- oh, don't tell me…" Hestia began, thinking back to millennia ago when she had last seen those two, before something seemed to click together and she got an idea where Chiron was going with this.

"In our world, Hera was Zeus' wife, but Zeus' eyes would frequently wander to other women." Chiron continued, ignoring Hestia's grumbling as he looked Bell in the eyes. "Hera could do little to Zeus, so whenever Zeus spurned her, she directed her anger and jealousy to the woman who had caught Zeus' eyes and their children. And she always seemed to have a special hatred for Heracles…"

Bell's eyes slowly began to widen as he realized what Chiron was getting at.

"But- but that's not fair!" Bell said, his voice coming out in an almost uncharacteristically angry tone at the idea that the scene that he had bore witness to was the result of jealousy from something that none of those in it had any control over.

"No, it's not, but the gods are cruel, Bell. That is something that is true in both this world and ours." Chiron said, shaking his head lightly, countless stories and myths coming to mind about humans suffering due to the whims of gods across just as many cultures.

"Tch, that's putting it lightly." Achilles grumbled under his breath as he still kept an ear out for anyone by the door, not wanting to change the discussion at all, but not being able to stop himself from making such a comment. Not after his life and even his death had been so controlled by the actions and machination of the gods, along with everyone else that had been a part of the Trojan War. A war more than any other that had been meddled with by the gods, with some even coming down themselves to support their chosen side, and had even been inadvertently caused by a dispute between three goddesses.

Hestia might've felt a small bristle under her skin, being a goddess herself and could thus fall under that statement, but even if she had, she wouldn't be able to refute it. Although she wasn't one herself, she knew of gods that cared little for the lives of those in the Lower World, those that only saw the children of this world as little more than toys for their amusement. From the conversation so far, she could guess that those kinds of gods existed in their world.

Bell opened his mouth to say something, but could only close it when nothing came out. His entire life, he had only known the gods to be benevolent beings separate from normal people that were supposed to be respected. But he didn't know if he could ever truly respect a goddess that would cause what he had just seen for such a petty reason…

"I-...I don't want to hurt Bell, but- I still don't know what happened or what he saw." Hestia said, glancing at Bell worryingly, hoping if by asking the question, she didn't make Bell go through what he had just seen again and cause another reaction like the one he had originally. "What did Hera do?"

"... Goddess Hestia, have you ever wondered over these few days since me and Heracles were summoned, what would've qualified Heracles for a class such as the Berserker class?" Chiron asked after looking over at Bell for a second for approval of answering that question, which he had gotten via an unsteady nod.

"I, N-no, not really. It just wasn't something that ever really came to mind…"

"The Berserker class is that one for the Heroic Spirits recorded in the Throne that had at some or multiple points in their life gone insane, displayed inhuman or monstrous characteristics or behaviors, or, in some cases, were born or transformed into monsters." Chiron explained making Hestia pale a little at the description of the class, the very idea of it clashing with the title of "Heroic Spirit" to some degree.

"And unfortunately, fueled by her jealousy and hatred for Heracles as a child of Zeus, Hera would make him go insane and commit actions that would bring him pain… including the murder of his own wife and children at his hands."

Chiron's revelation of what Bell had seen had made all hints of color disappear from Hestia's face. As a goddess whose domain included the concept of family, one would struggle to think of something more horrifying to Hestia than the idea of forcing someone to kill their loved ones. Some part of her reached a sort of understanding of why Bell had reacted in the way that he did and to that extent, but most of her focused on dealing with the sheer shock and disgust that came at the idea.

"You don't need to worry about him… doing something similar." Chiron said, choosing his words carefully at Hestia's reaction and the way Bell closed his eyes and winced, as if being reminded of what he had seen brought him physical pain. "For better and worse, fortunately and unfortunately, being in that state of mind is something he is used to, and he now has a solid grip on himself to restrain himself against any actions that would bring harm to those that don't deserve it."

Knowing the two of them, he knew the assurance of that statement would probably be unneeded. Even with this revelation, he knew that neither of them were the type to doubt Heracles or worry that something might happen if it hasn't already over these past few days. But it was something that he thought was worth saying nonetheless.

"I had been wanting to tell you beforehand, in hopes that you could brace yourself, but I wanted to do it in an environment where it could help lessen the impact. Especially after your dream with the Argonauts this morning." Chiron said somberly as the two processed everything, Hestia not even being able to react to the name or question what he was talking about. "But between the release of the monsters and you having it so soon, there wasn't any time."

The room was silent for a little while after Chiron finished, no one quite sure what to say or do after everything that had been discussed. Chiron and Achilles could only wait until Hestia and Bell were done with their thoughts and processing what they had learned. They knew that they would have to wait especially for Bell to be ready to talk, not just because he had practically lived through the event, but, by the look of his face, the guilt of having said Megara's name to Heracles this morning was practically crushing him…

"...So what now?" Hestia asking, of course being the first out of the two to recover, her question showing that she had no idea what to do after having such a bomb dropped on her without any real warning.

"We continue on as normal for the most part." Chiron said, sighing heavily. "I know that will probably be hard to do for a while, but there isn't anything to do. I'll still train and teach Bell, and Bell will go down into the Dungeon with Achilles. The only thing that will really be different is that, at first, we'll send Heracles into the Dungeon more than usual, not only to gather more magic stones to support the Familia, but to also keep him out of sight for Bell-"

"That's not fair!" Bell said, suddenly, interrupting Chiron. It was something he would normally never consider, out of respect for Chiron, but he just couldn't sit silently as Heracles was, in his eyes, once again being punished for something that he had no fault for. "You don't have to-"

"Bell." Achilles said, interrupting Bell, just as suddenly as the Master interrupted Chiron, his serious tone and expression being enough to stop Bell's statement dead. "I had grown up hearing Heracles' stories, and it was still years before I could ever really see him the same after learning about this. And I had only heard about it, you saw it. Can you really say seeing him in that state won't affect you just after that? And yeah, as utterly fucked as it is, the Berserker class is essentially him being stuck in the same state as he was when he was cursed by Hera."

Bell didn't say anything after that. Because what was there to say to that? All he could do was clench his fists and grit his teeth, knowing that Chiron and Achilles were right.

"It'll only be a few days, I promise, Bell." Chiron said, sighing heavily as he got up from his crouched position and went to the door, going to ask the staff of the Hostess of Fertility not to bother them for a few hours and to go tell Heracles about going into the Dungeon, so he wouldn't be there when Bell and Hestia went home. "Just seeing him won't cause you any pain."

Bell didn't react to Chiron's words. He didn't react as he passed Achilles, who let him pass to open the door and leave the room, even as the two Servants shared a glance, an unspoken order and promise from the Rider Servant to keep an eye on them being exchanged. And had no other reaction other than calming down somewhat as Hestia once again wrapped her arms around Bell's torso as she pressed against him.

"It'll be okay, Bell. You don't have to worry." Hestia said softly, though it was unknown how much her later statement was for Bell or for herself.

Bell didn't say anything, focused more on keeping his eyes shut to keep the tears from falling as he felt nothing but frustration for not being able to do anything to help Heracles. What didn't help matters was that, as his eyes were shut, he was unable to stop the images from popping into his head. The sights of what he had seen in the dream.

The sight of a mother going limp after a sickening snap…

The sight of a young boy being carved into Bell's head as an image of what had happened to the human body if Heracles didn't hold back his strength before he could even react…

The sight of another son reaching out for his father, even as confusion of what was happening set in and the flames he had been thrown into engulfed him…

The sight of Therimachus being run through by a sword against the wall. His expression conveying the utter shock and horror of everything that he had witnessed more than the pain of a sword impaling him as the last thing he would ever see was the mad expression of the father driven to insanity…

But, perhaps the image as or more striking than all of the others, was the sight of a father having just come to after what he had done. Crouched down with heavy tears running down his face as he cried, holding on tightly to the dead body of his son. With the last thing Bell saw of the dream being Heracles crying out in utter despair, confusion, and horror over what had just happened to an uncaring storming sky.

God Hand being a thing that Heracles can turn on and off is never directly said as far as I can find or tell. However, it would make sense that he could and it being signified by his skin darkening and the red lights, considering that a normal wolf was able to break his skin in Unlimited Blade Works. I know the nature of A-rank attacks are, like I said in this chapter, a bit wonky depending on the exact attack, but you'd have your work cut out for you if you want to convince me that is one. If nothing else, just chalk it up to my head canon.

Speaking of which, that whole scenario is the way I sort of rationalize how Heracles knows and can tell when his master is in danger seemingly better than other Servants. Diarmuid's master had been shot by a Origin Bullet and was vomiting blood before he realized he was in danger versus Heracles rushing to Illya's defense after she was assaulted "a little" by wolves.

You guys remember the fact that Chiron basically has X-ray vision? I forget that sometimes too, but then I remember how he used it in the fight between the Black Faction and Adam/Keter Malkuth.

Bell's fighting style being described as "reactionary" is based on a line from Ais when she first trained him, I just took it a little farther than that since I don't think it conflicts too much with how he fights as a beginner. It certainly doesn't stay that way, especially when he has his hands on a sword like in the minotaur fight, but like I said, he's a beginner.

The original plan for the Heracles dream, by the way, was that I keep going, describing Heracles coming too and realizing everything that happened before breaking down crying with a dead/dying Therimachus in his arms in the same way as the brief shot we get in the Heaven's Feel movie. But after discussing with my Beta Reader about it, we agreed that the chapter flowed better without it for the most part and the details were mostly unneeded. If I ever do a rewrite for this for whatever reason in the future, I will definitely include that scene.