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.

10. Chapter 10

So you all made it abundantly clear that most of you want this story to have absolutely nothing to do with OCs. Alright, good to know, I will try to find as much information as I can on the characters of Orario Rhapsodia. Anyway, make sure to read the Author's note at the end since I'm going to have a few things to say, hope you enjoy and I apologize for the wait. Also, the fic is likely to be updated every so often as I go back and change some things here and there, like making corrections to mistakes (thank you Daimon Agafo for pointing them out) and

"Bell, look out!" Achilles shouted out, making Bell jump in surprise as he noticed the War Shadow leaping out at him from where it had hidden in the ground.

Bell tried to leap back in avoidance of the attack, but he ended up stumbling over the rocky and uneven ground of the Dungeon. He let out a yelp as he began to fall back over the trip. Even as he began to process the sudden effect on gravity, the darkness that made up the War Shadow's body began to dominate his vision as it got closer and closer.

But just before it got too close, a green flash of light would dispel the shadow of the monster as it went straight through the red light of the War Shadow's eye.

Bell would let out a small grunt as he landed on the hard, stone ground, as the magic stone from the now deceased War Shadow landed in between his legs, bouncing somewhat. Blinking a bit as he realized what happened, Bell looked up from where he now sat to see Achilles standing before him, spear now resting on his shoulder as he looked down at Bell in a concerned manner. Bell let out a small, awkward chuckle as a hand went to scratch the back of his neck.

"Uh, Thanks for the help." Bell said dumbly, not knowing what else to say even as Achilles continued to look down at him.

"You know, for a guy who had such a huge status update so recently, that was pretty shit." Achilles said bluntly, causing Bell to flinch at the way he said it, arm dropping and falling onto his leg.

"... I didn't really sleep that well last night." Bell said quietly, no longer able to look up at Achilles, not wanting to see the hero look at him in disappointment for slipping up badly. "...and the night before."

"...Yeah, well, can't really blame you for that." Achilles said, sighing heavily, knowing the exact reason why he couldn't have slept well.

It had been a somber past two days for the Hestia Familia since the incident of Monsterphilia. The victory that Bell had received over the Silverback had been vastly overshadowed by the event he had seen in the nightmare that had happened that same day. And it had cast its shadow over the days that followed.

Even learning that, later on when Hestia had been asked about how large the update to his Falna had been, his total status had risen by nearly nine hundred points over the three days that she had been gone, had only served to temporarily cheer him up. Granted, a little less than a quarter of that nine hundred points had gone straight into his Magic stat. Not exactly a surprise, considering that, even if Chiron was making liberal use of his Independent Action skill to help ease the amount that Bell needed to supply and the Servants weren't usually doing anything overly strenuous (Heracles part in the Monsterphilia incident being probably the sole exception), he was still essentially supplying the magical energy for three Servants with help from Hestia through the Falna they all had.

Not surprising, but it did mean that a large bulk of his massive boost in stats had gone to essentially ensuring that he didn't pass out or die if one of his Servants did too much for too long. Afterall, he had no spells other than the one to summon Servants to otherwise make use of that impressive magic stat. Still, having more than six hundred points going into the other four stats was nothing to sneeze at either.

The knife that Hestia had given him was in a similar position.

Because, while Bell had been incredibly touched by Hestia's desire to help him and what she had done in order to get the knife, it had only been for a short while before both of them had once again noticed the absence of Heracles. And that would only mean they remembered what that absence meant. So it hadn't been long before the somber tone returned.

It wasn't that he didn't still appreciate the knife, it felt perfect to him in every way that mattered and it was a weapon made by Hephaestus herself. It was just that it was hard for him to feel truly thankful for the time being. Not while those images were still so fresh in his mind, and he wasn't able to even look at one of his own Servants.

"Look." Achilles sighed, as he crouched down to be at eye level with Bell. "Archer doesn't want me to do this, but let's be real here, you look like shit walking on legs."

Bell couldn't stop the minor flinch that came from the way Achilles described him, but he could deny the accusation at his exhausted and disheveled appearance.

"He'd rather you do it all yourself, since it will help you grow faster, but for today, you let me handle most of the monster hunting and magic stone gathering."

"...Am I really doing that bad?" Bell asked, frowning at the thought that he was behaving so poorly that Achilles was feeling the need to step in and do everything himself.

"What the fuck do you think?" Achilles asked rhetorically, hand leaning out to flick Bell on the forehead, causing the whitehaired boy to yelp as a hand went to where he was just hit and to rub the now sore spot on his head. "And the faster we get a decent amount of Magic Stones for the day, the faster we can get the hell out and back home so you can sleep."

Bell frowned a little at the idea, even as his hand continued to rub his forehead in an attempt to sooth it. Although he appreciated that Achilles was looking out for him, he had no real desire to sleep despite how tired he felt. Not when, everytime he closed his eyes, it was only a matter of time until he saw those sights again.

A fact that had made yesterday's lesson with Chiron almost as bad as one of his sparring sessions…

But he could also tell that Achilles wasn't going to let up on this, so there really wasn't much of a choice here for him.

"Alright, fine..." Bell said, sighing, causing Achilles to smirk a bit in victory, even as he hopped back to full height.

"Then come on then." Achilles said, stretching out a hand to help Bell get up. "Like I said, the faster we get this over with, the faster you get some sleep."

Bell would outwardly smile back at Achilles as he wordlessly took the Servant's hand and his help to get back onto his feet. On the inside though, he hoped that it would be a while until they encountered another monster. Afterall, with Achilles' abilities, that was going to be the only way it would delay going home even just a little bit longer.

And Bell still wanted to delay his much needed sleep for even just a little bit longer, not knowing if he would have another dream of Heracles' past, and if it was, what sights he would have to see…

The Old Church

"I still don't like this…" Hestia complained as she lounged out on the sole bed in possession of the Familia.

"So you've told me." Chiron retorted from where he sat on the couch, not looking at her in favor of looking over the packet in his hand in thought, cupping his chin slightly.

"And yet, you're still letting this thing happen." Hestia said, pouting slightly as she gave a half hearted glare as she still laid upon the bed, her body sore from having to work so much in her new side job working in the Hephaestus Familia stores.

"Only until the sight of Heracles doesn't have a negative effect on Bell." Chiron retorted, flipping the page in the packet to begin looking over the next page, repeating the same thing he had said to her over the past two days whenever she had complained over the current situation.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Hestia grumbled, sinking into the bed slightly more as she was unable to counter it as usual and knowing why Chiron was doing what he did.

But even if she understood why it was happening, it didn't mean Hestia had to like that it was happening.

Afterall, even if all that was happening was that they were sending Heracles into the Dungeon more than they would usually want, it was still essentially punishing him for something that he, in no way, had control over. It was something that Hestia knew that the big guy didn't deserve and he was probably suffering enough, just being in the state that he was in thanks to the class he was summoned as. It also felt like she was essentially choosing between her children.

Because, even if Heracles was more visually intimidating than even some monsters, he still had her Falna. He was as much Hestia's child as much as Bell was. Being a demigod or a Heroic Spirit from another world didn't change that in her mind.

But she also knew that Chiron, of course, wasn't exactly fond of having to essentially choose the needs of one of his students over the other either. It was a situation that no one was particularly happy with, and Chiron was simply doing what he saw as the most practical option to do in the meantime. However, it just so happened that he was the only one who she could really complain to about everything at the moment.

"Could've at least talked to me about it before going ahead and making the decision on your own. I am your goddess after all." Hestia said, all but grumbling into the bed, but Chiron was still apparently able to understand her just fine.

"Not to be rude, Goddess, but should you really be complaining about that after getting that knife?"

Hestia froze for a second at Chiron's words. A second past before she shot up onto her knees and pointed at Chiron in defiance.

"I-I already told you that was a personal favor between me and Hephaestus! I-it has nothing to do with you guys! I'll pay for it all myself!"

"Two hundred million valis, Goddess." Chiron reminded her, knowing from the heavy and defeated sigh that Hestia had simply lumped down in depression at the reminder of how far into the red she was and how long she would have to work in order to pay it off.

The Servant hardly even needed to remind her that they were still working towards saving for a new home for the Familia.

"Ugh." Hestia groaned out, falling forward back into the bed.

Chiron, meanwhile, would let the goddess have her moment of depression as he finished the last paper in the packet he had been reading through. When he realized that he was finished with it, he would set it back down on the table before grabbing another similarly sized packet from a stack next to it and begin to read through it. As he did, Hestia would hear the ruffling of the papers, and poke her head upwards to see Chiron going through what was the fourth packet he had started to read through since coming home randomly.

"Soooo, what's with all of the paperwork?" Hesita asked curiously, wanting to know what the captain of her Familia was up to and why he was going through so many documents.

"I trust you'll recall that, in order to help support the Familia, I would offer some lessons to Adventurers of other Familia's to help them get started or improve for a fee." Chiron said, prompting Hestia to give a small nod as she did remember Chiron saying something about that before she had left for the Banquet of the Gods. "These packets are the first forms of those that want to try a lesson that me and Ms. Tulle have put together."

"If they're that thick, I can see why they took so long for them to get through." Hestia deadpanned as she stared at the girth of the packet of documents, even as Chiron flipped through it.

"Most of their size comes from legal formalities that Ms. Tulle felt it would be safer to add since nothing like this service had been attempted by anyone outside the Guild before." Chiron responded, waving Hestia's comment off as most of his focus was still on the papers. "The only part that those who want to apply a lesson need to fill out, aside from the occasional signature, is basic information of their capabilities, preferred weapons and style of fighting, and any comments of what they're hoping to learn from the lesson. As for why they're being finished now, I imagine they felt compelled to try it as a sort of investigation after news of mine and Heracles' parts in the incident during Monsterphilia."

"Hmmm." Hestia hummed out in recognition of what Chiron was saying, but she didn't really know what else to say about it. She of course knew about everything that had happened during the festival from the perspective of the Servants, with Chiron having told her everything. Bell hadn't been around of course, thanks to Heracles' central part of the story, and neither the Sage or the Goddess had wanted to talk too much about Heracles around the Master for the reason of the elephant that had been in the room for the past few days.

The discussion then hit a sort of lull, as Chiron's focus remained on the forms for the most part and Hestia had run out of fuel for the conversation.

Chiron did, however, spare one glance toward Hestia, even as she fell back lazily and stared up at the ceiling. There was something that had been on the mind of the Archer Servant over the past few days that he had wanted to ask Hestia about. And it was something that was becoming harder to ignore

It was undeniable that Bell seemed to have an absurd rate of growth. At first, Chiron hadn't thought much of it, having only seen his first couple of status updates and nothing else for comparison. But, looking through the packets that were in his hand, and seeing the statuses of Adventurers that have had far more experience than his Master with less overall stats than him still, it was impossible to not notice it for what it was.

From what he had seen, Bell hadn't been doing anything particularly special to promote such growth, and although his teachings were legendary, Chiron wasn't about to think they alone were the sole reason. That left the only one who would be liable to know anything about it to be Hestia. Doubling down on his suspicions would be the strange scratches that would always appear on the papers showing Bell's status updates, and not on any of the Servants'.

But despite his belief that Hestia was hiding the reason behind Bell's growth, Chiron would wait to ask. He trusted that if Hestia hadn't told him or anyone else about such a thing, there had to be some sort of reason for it. Besides, Chiron wasn't one to stick his nose into other people's business if it didn't it wasn't necessary. And living in Greece during the Age of Gods meant that he knew full well not to when the person at hand was a Goddess.

If the level of growth continued well past the point of what was essentially considered sane or normal, then Chiron would ask Hestia if she knew the reason behind it.

That being said, Bell's growth had slowed down a considerable amount over the past few days.

With Hestia now being back, that meant that Bell could receive daily status updates, and the amount he was gaining now compared to what he had to be getting per day over the three days she had been gone, was noticeably less.

And that wasn't the only area Bell had suddenly seemed to have difficulty.

Inspired by the Monsterphilia incident and the Silverback, Chiron had, the day after, decided to take it easy for the most part the next day, opting to give Bell a lesson rather than a sparring session. Albeit, a very important lesson.

Not wanting a repeat of the event to ever happen again, in which Bell was in mortal danger and none of his Servants were with him for some reason, Chiron had wanted to teach him to communicate telepathically with his Servants. It was the preferred alternative to him having to use one of his ever important and valuable Command Seals to summon one of the three, but even Chiron had to admit the lesson had been a rather ambitious one. In his world, it was an ability reserved only for the most talented of magi.

But Bell had already proven himself to be a fast learner, so it wouldn't have surprised Chiron if the boy had managed to pull it off, like he had when Chiron had taught him about the connections between the Master and Servants. Even if he hadn't though, the main goal was to simply provide the groundwork and the idea of what to do for when Bell's ability had grown to the point that he was able to do it. But even that had proved less than fruitful.

For every time Bell had closed his eyes in order to focus and to try and do as Chiron described for him to do, it hadn't been long before his eyes snapped open without anything having been done and having gone pale.

And Chiron knew fully well why. He also knew that it was probably for that same reason that Bell's growth had slowed. Because although his capabilities had remained unchanged and his desire to be a hero was still there, it was undeniable that his drive had taken a hit.

Thinking about it, Chiron had to resist a sigh as his focus returned to the forms that were in his hand and on the table. He had known that, when Bell and Hestia had learned of the fate of Heracles' family, it was going to be a rough patch, whether it had been through the dream or one of his own lectures. That didn't change the fact that it saddened him that it was having this much of an effect on his Master and student, while also meaning that he had to send one of his star pupils away for long stretches of time.

He recognized that there was nothing he could really do about it, however, lest he cause Bell any pain by letting him see Heracles in the state of his Berserker class and further remind him of what he had witnessed. He could only wait for things to go back to normal.

Chiron only hoped that the wait would not be a long one as he continued going through the forms…

The Eighteenth Floor

Something had happened…

Heracles couldn't tell what exactly, but he could tell that something had happened.

It was impossible for him not to notice. With the way that Chiron had come home to the Church alone and had told him that he needed to go hunt for and collect Magic Stones immediately. And then when Achilles had met him when he had returned, taking the money he had exchanged for what he had gathered and then told him to go back and do it again.

He had done it, of course, but he had noticed the hurried way that Achilles had told him to go back to the Dungeon. He had also noticed that, in the past two days, he had not seen Hestia or his Master at all despite being able to sense where Bell was and having seen Hestia with Bell before so he knew she was home. And with Achilles' and Chiron's behavior, that had hardly felt accidental.

So something had happened. It must've been after he had gone home after witnessing Bell's victory over that Silverback. That was all he really had in terms of concrete information.

But, though the vast majority of his sanity and reason was stripped from him, he was hardly stupid.

He knew and trusted Chiron with his life, and he had a pretty good understanding of Achilles from what he knew of the Hero of the Trojan War and how he had seen him behave. Neither of them would practically hide him away for no reason. And that could mean that whatever had happened, had to do with him specifically.

And if it was something that would make them think that he should be away from Bell for some reason, well, he couldn't be entirely sure, but he had a pretty big hint…

"Megara-, uh, your wife is very pretty!"

As much as it had hurt to suddenly hear the name of his first love so suddenly, Bell had to have learned about that name somehow. It hadn't been from Chiron or Achilles, judging from their reactions he had seen of them as they had heard the name at the same time he did. Besides, the way he had described her as 'pretty' meant that he had seen her, which could only mean…

Bell had dreamed of his past.

Heracles let out an inner, mental sigh as the answer became obvious to him, walking through the corridor that was the connection between the Nineteenth floor and the Eighteenth floor. He didn't know what event Bell had dreamed of specifically that would make Chiron and Achilles so careful of letting Bell see him, there unfortunately wasn't exactly a short list thanks to the machinations and curse of Hera, along with some own moments of anger from him. Diomedes being a primary example of that latter category, which, even if the sick bastard had deserved what he had gotten coming to him, he could more than imagine Bell being scared of him if he saw that incident.

But, knowing the quality of his luck, despite his Luck parameter being ranked B of all things, he was willing to bet on the worst outcome.

The night that had haunted him for his entire life and had single handedly changed the entire course of his life…

Another mental sigh came, and he got the feeling that was probably exactly what had happened.

What made it worse was that before whatever happened, had seemed to be getting comfortable with him. Now, he was being kept separate from Bell, most likely because, if he was right about him having dreamed of that night, the mere sight of him would terrify Bell. He could only hope that he was wrong though, that he was overthinking it, and whatever had actually happened wouldn't cause much damage to the relationship with his Master.

The air would open up as he left the wooden corridor, emerging out from the whole in the tree that was the entrance to the 19th Floor below, allowing him to see the Dungeon paradise of the Eighteenth Floor and over to the town of Rivira at the lake west of the tree.

Heracles contemplated whether or not he should go about trying to conceal his presence and avoid sight from the Adventurers of the Dungeon settlement, but ultimately didn't really feel the need.

One of the only things from the past few days that could be called a positive is that the people of Orario no longer looked at him as a monster. They were still certainly intimidated by him to be sure, especially if he stared at them for too long. However, enough had probably seen the posters telling people about him, and the news had spread of what he had done during Monsterphilia, potentially by the girl he had saved, that it was known that he wasn't a danger.

That didn't mean he was comfortable going to Rivira just yet, as uncertain as he was about the speed of such information making it through the Dungeon. It simply meant that he didn't feel the need to make an effort to conceal himself. It was tempting fate a bit more than he was willing to go to what was essentially a rogue town.

It also helped that the light of the thousands of crystals that nearly completely covered the ceiling of the Floor was dimmed to practically nothing. Meaning that "night" had come to the Dungeon Safe Zone, and most denizens of the Floor, monster and adventurer, would be asleep at this time. Bringing the odds of him encountering anyone as he trekked through the Floor to its exit to near zero as long as he stayed clear of Rivira.

With that decided, Heracles resumed his journey back to the surface, his bag of Magic Stones in hand as his footsteps slammed down against the ground.

But Heracles would not get very far. As, when he was maybe a quarter of a way to the exit of the floor from the Central Tree, Heracles would hear an echoing sound, like that of broken bells, that made him stop dead in his tracks. Any thoughts of what was going on with the rest of his Familia was put on hold and any lingering thoughts about running into adventurers were cut short as Heracles once again turned in the direction of Rivira.

Despite the distance, he could already see the plumes of smoke rising out and see the vague outlines of the source of the sound that had grabbed his attention: a horde of the same kind of monstrous flowers that he had fought against two days ago during Monsterphilia.

His body moved before he had even fully processed the sight he was seeing. His leg tensed before Heracles leaped, shooting towards Rivira at full speed. Even when his mind had caught up with his body, there was no hesitation in him as he charged towards the Adventurer town.

His concerns about how the Adventures of the town would react to him were forgotten about. He didn't give much thought about why or how that many monsters had suddenly appeared in the Dungeon Safe Zone and was now attacking the town. All that mattered was that a town was being attacked by a massive horde of monsters, and he was close enough to help.

Rivira

The attack by the monsters had caught everyone in the town of Rivira off guard.

The entirety of the town had been in the center of town in Crystal Square due to circumstances that had centered around the murder of a High Class Adventurer and the search for the murderer. But that search was quickly forgotten as the horde of carnivorous plants rapidly approached and panic would set in. Screams of terror could be heard as some of the adventurers that were present panicked at the sight of such a number of high level monsters suddenly attacking out of the blue, fleeing from the townsquare in search of some sense of safety.

It wasn't all hopeless panic, however. While a decent chunk of them had fled, some of the sterner Adventurers had already started to come together in order to fight back against the assaulting monsters. Even so, they were little match for the flowery man eaters that could each give trouble to Adventurers Level 4 and up, but the denizens of Rivira had one one streak of fortune going for them that allowed them to at least hold out.

It had just so happened that, due to completely unrelated circumstances relating to having to pay some serious bills to pay, several of the Loki Familia's heavy hitters had arrived in Rivira earlier in the day. They had ended up getting caught up in the mystery of the murder, and had not only ended being one of the main reasons why everyone was in the center of town but there along with them. And although they had been mostly caught off guard by the sudden attack of the monsters, as explorers of the Deep Floors, they were used to having to react to unexpected turns and situations appearing out of the blue within the Dungeon.

As a result, under the Captain of the Familia's orders, Tiona and Tione had charged straight into the horde of monsters. They were the same kind of monsters they had fought only two days ago, however, there was one important difference between now and two days ago. Both of the Amazons were in possession of their weapons.

As a direct result, the two of them were easily able to quickly dispatch each of the plant monsters one after another, a stark contrast to the difficulty they had a few days ago when they were only fighting with their bare hands.

The High Elf Riveria's voice echoed throughout the Square as she began casting her spell. The purpose of the spell was two fold. The first reason was obvious, to cast a spell with enough power to immediately blast away a huge portion of the attacking monsters. The second was only known to those who know about the monsters' attraction to magic: to grab the attention of the horde rather than it being on the still panicking Adventurers who were unable to defend themselves for the monsters and lead them to those who were organizing to fight back.

Meanwhile, the Captain of the Loki Familia, ran through the horde himself. The tips of his spears flashed as with highly precise and powerful thrusts, he would kill each monster he came across with a single thrust before moving onto the next. The sight of the pallum killing such strong monsters so easily despite how small he was in comparison was awe inspiring to the average adventurers that were watching him perform such a feat, but that was hardly the only thing that Finn was doing.

Even as he thrusted his spears with pinpoint precision into the location of the carnivorous plants' Magic Stones, killing them instantly and causing their bodies to turn to ash, Finn's eyes ran through the battlefield rapidly, observing and analyzing the battle as it progressed. It hadn't taken long for him to realize that a Tamer was behind this. As terrifying as such a thought was, of someone actually being able to control this amount of monsters, it was the only way to explain the coordination that the monsters were displaying, along with how they had concealed their presence in the lake.

So the question wasn't if there was a Tamer, it was why they were doing this? Why were they attacking now? Were they the same person as Hashana's murderer? Where in the world had they managed to tame this many monsters without anyone noticing?

All these questions and more were running through Finn's mind at lightning speed, even as he ran through monsters with his spears and shouted orders to any adventurers he had encountered in an effort to better organize a force capable of repelling, or at least holding off this many high level monsters until Riveria's magic was casted. At the moment, until an opportunity occurred or something happened that would change the situation, it was the best that they were able to do.

But something would happen.

As Finn ran along the edge of a cliff that overviewed the majority of the town and flanked Crystal Square, a massive impact could be heard as something seemed to have landed in the town. The Captain of the Loki Familia would come to a stop as he looked over to the site of impact, surprise clear on his face. For a second, he couldn't tell what had landed in the town of Rivira as a thick cloud of smoke and dust had been kicked up by the landing.

But it had only been for a second. Immediately afterward, the smoke and dust obscuring his view was blown away from within as whatever it was that had landed let out a powerful roar. A roar that could clearly be heard from Crystal Square, even if one did not have the enhanced senses of a Level 6 adventurer.

"RRRRRAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH"

With the force of the roar having blown away the smoke, Finn was able to see its source, only to be caught off guard by the sight of what could only be described as a dark giant of sheer power. Red light glowed from its eyes and underneath its darkening skin as its lips pulled back into a fierce snarl, creating an intimidating display that would leave even most High Class Adventurers utterly terrified. Even Finn was unable to deny that he had been completely without fear at the roar.

The Giant would then shoot forward, at a speed that Finn would've had a difficulty following had he not been as far away as he was. It shot towards a group of the plant monsters, which had also been stunned by the Giant's sudden appearance and roar and had turned to face it. But none of them had the time to process the arrival of the Giant before, with one swing from its fearsome landform weapon, the monsters were all but obliterated.

But the roar hadn't just gotten the attention of Finn and the monsters, a large group of which had begun to final process its presence and began making their way towards it.

"Holy crap!" Tiona's voice called out from nearby, getting Finn's attention as he looked in the direction it had come from to see the Amazonian twins on a nearby and slightly lower cliff. "Is that Berserker?!"

"What is he doing here?" Tione asked in disbelief at the presence of the dark giant, even as he began to engage more and more of the monsters.

"Berserker?" Finn repeated the name curiously, which seemed to make a realization click together in his head.

He remembered, to what was nearly a week ago at this point, when Chiron had come to the Twilight Manor in order to clear up a drastic misunderstanding before a potential conflict could brew between his and the Loki Familia.

Looking back at the Giant, even as he moved with speed and agility that nearly boggled the mind considering the massive size of his body, Finn would try to focus in on his face during the rare moments where he was slow enough that he could get a good look. Thinking back to the drawing that Chiron had made of him to get the Loki Familia's attention, Finn began to see the resemblance. Even if the drawing had featured a serious and stoic expression, and the face that the Giant had was that of a growling, snarling monster, there was little doubt to Finn that it was the same person.

"...Well I can certainly see why Ais and Bete thought he was a monster at first." Finn thought out loud, as he watched Heracles, in a rather vicious display, grab hold of a nearby monster before crushing and tearing off its jaw.

And it was a true statement. Even having known the truth of his "condition" before ever having known him, it was hard for Finn to believe that the roaring giant that fought with a ferocity that put even monsters of the Deep Floors to shame was even human. Still, he knew from the discussion with Chiron that, despite his appearance and brutal way of fighting, he wasn't a threat to any Adventurer in Rivira. He was here to fight the carnivorous plants, and they could get all the help that they could get.

That being said, there was something that bugged Finn a little.

It was quite the coincidence that he had arrived when, only two days before, he had fought alongside these same kind of monsters during the incident at Monsterphilia, alongside Tione and Tiona no less. Finn could see a large bag of some kind hanging from his waist, attached to the belt of the armored skirt that Heracles wore. He could see that the occasional monster that attacked, out of the rare minority that even had time to understand what was happening before Heracles' attention was turned to the monster that was no longer long for this world.

From what little they knew about this new monster species, specifically how they were attracted to forms of magic, Finn thought that it wasn't out of the question that the contents of the bag were magic stones. They hadn't yet had the chance to test whether or not the monsters were actually attracted to magic stones or just pure magical energy, that he knew of. However, the theory was there, and it certainly made enough sense to Finn that he wouldn't doubt it.

But could that really be it? That this man had been farming in the Dungeon, only to encounter these same monsters that he had fought on the Surface not even two days ago? It was a coincidence to be sure, but was it much more coincidental that Tiona or Tione having what was essentially the same thing happening to them?

"What in the name of the gods is that thing?!" Boris called out in what can only be shock and horror as he just now reached where Finn stood to see what was going on, only for him to be blown away by the sight of Heracles.

The appearance of who was essentially the leader of Rivira quickly got the attention of Finn, who was quick to push away his thoughts of any possible connection between Heracles and these monsters. Even if there was any connection between them, it didn't matter for the time being. There were enough of the carnivorous plants to legitimately threaten Rivira and he had no idea if their tamer had any other tricks up their sleeves, and he, for whatever his reason for being in the area at this time, was here to help.

"Boris, make sure everyone knows that that man there is on our side." Finn said, turning slightly to face the big, burly eye-patched man as he gave his orders, causing him the Level 3 Adventurer to give a flabbergasted look. "Tell them to do their best to avoid attacking him and to focus on the unknown species."

"Finn, have you finally gone insane?!" Boris all but screamed at the Captain of the Loki Familia, unable to even entertain the possibility that what Finn was saying was any kind of serious.

"Well, it's either that or you can run the risk of having him switch his attention from the monsters to you and your men in anger for attacking him."

Heracles then let loose another powerful roar as he proceeded to kill several of the unknown species with a single powerful strike, which had so much strength that it had essentially caused an explosion when the landform weapon slammed into the ground, shooting a plume of smoke into the air.

"R-right!" Boris said immediately, turning so pale at the very idea of what Finn suggested to such a degree that the pallum had to resist the urge to give an amused smile and laugh despite the situation.

But even as Boris ran off to go give Finn's orders to the other adventurers, Finn returned his attention to focusing on the problems at hand.

"That's enough watching you two!" Finn called out to the Hiryute siblings, getting the attention of the two amazons. "Stay focused on protecting Riveria and the other Adventurers, but give him a hand anytime you're able to!"

"Gotcha!" Tiona said excitedly as leaped back into the action, Urga's blades flashing with silver light as they sliced through yet another of the monsters.

"Understood, Captain!" Tione called out after her sister did, spinning her Kukri knives in hand she would go in a slightly different direction as Tiona as she cut a monstrous flower into ribbons.

Finn had been about to leap back into the fight along with them, but then, a unique sight would get his attention.

As the Berserker Servant ran through the town of Rivira, cutting monster's down faster than the average adventurer's eyes could see, the sight of him would of course terrify the denizens of the Dungeon town. That was why Finn had told Boris to spread the news that Heracles was on their side, to avoid the already panicking adventurers from doing anything rash. But that information took time to spread, especially in this environment.

As he rounded one corner, sending one of the plants to the ground with a fearsome punch that before stabbing through its head with his landform weapon, Heracles had surprised a group of adventurers that had been running in his direction to escape from the horde of the other carnivorous plants. At the sight of him, no doubt thinking that he was some other kind of monster amidst all of the pandemonium and chaos of the situation, one of the adventurers had acted on instinct and shot an arrow at him. Finn held his breath for a second as he saw the arrow traveling through the air, hoping that Heracles would be able to dodge it or that it would at least not cause him a serious wound.

What happened instead, however, was that, as Heracles was distracted by another of the flower monsters attempting to attack him from behind, the arrow would hit him in the back. But rather than the arrow breaking his skin, to impale itself in his flesh, the arrow would break against his skin without even so much as scratching the skin. Heracles didn't even react to the arrow as his Axe-Sword blew through the monster's body, killing it instantly; it was questionable if he was even aware of the arrow in the first place.

The events took place so fast that the lower leveled adventurers didn't even have time to really realize what had just happened, but Finn was able to see it all.

Blinking at what he just saw as Heracles charged into another cluster charging group of the flower monsters that were heading towards him, for it seemed that everyone of the monsters whose attention wasn't on the magical energy given off by Riveria's spell were heading towards him, Finn's mind went into overdrive to explain what he had just seen.

It wasn't entirely unlike what had happened when a higher level monster was struck with a weapon of a much lower level, and Finn knew that the "Madness Enhancement" that Chiron had spoken of essentially turned Heracles into a monster. So was it just that the arrow was just too low a level to hurt a "monster" of his level? Even so, it didn't even seem like Heracles had even noticed the feeling of the arrow breaking against his skin, and that would only bring up the question of what that level was.

It also seemed to contradict the information he had received from Loki, Ais, and the Hiryute twins of the way he had been injured during Monsterphilia defending that girl. Of course, the unknown species of carnivorous plants were of a fairly high level, being around Level 3 or 4, so was that it? An attack from a seemingly random adventurer fleeing from these monsters was unlikely to be at the same level.

…but the way Finn's thumb throbbed seemed to suggest that it was a bit more to it than that idea.

The Hero of the Pallum would shake his head, getting rid of any more of those thoughts before they could continue.

Although it seemed that the mystery around this strange "Berserker" and what he was truly capable of only seemed to grow each time the Loki Familia ran into him, now wasn't the time to dwell on it and to try and think about it. As tempting as it was to go down that mental rabbit hole of questions, he needed to stay focused on the situation. Gripping his spear in hand, Finn would only give the monstrous man one more glance before Braver pushed the last of his thoughts about him that didn't pertain to the situation out of his head before leaping back into action, immediately taking out another of the flower monsters with another ultra precise thrust.

The Old Church

Bell rolled from one side to another, trying to get comfortable on the couch. The lights were off in the basement of the, and the only one that was in there was Hestia, who was sleeping on the bed.

Achilles had made good on his promise, which had been practically a threat, all but forcing Bell to get some sleep the moment they had gotten back from farming in the Dungeon. Chiron had agreed with Achilles, seeing just how tired Bell was, and he might've honestly given a fully out lecture on just how detrimental the effects of exhaustion was on performance of any kind, least of all adventuring or heroism. However, he stopped himself from doing so knowing just how tired Bell was.

Not even Hestia would come to his salvation. Not only was the goddess tired and interested in going to bed herself after her day of work, but she couldn't bear to see the state that Bell was in either.

With all three of them united against him, there wasn't anything that Bell was able to say that would allow him to get out of going to sleep.

So there he was, rolling around on the couch, trying to get comfortable as he struggled to get any form of sleep in the middle of the night, unable to see much else of the room with how dark it was. But despite how much his Servants and his goddess wanted him to get some sleep, despite how exhausted he was, it was so for a fruitless endeavor for the same reason it had been the two nights before. Try as he might, the images of what he saw the last time he had gone to sleep had continued to haunt him, and he would always see them whenever he was on the very verge of unconsciousness.

Still, there wasn't anything else he was able to do besides that. He was reasonably certain that, if he tried to get up and go back to the Dungeon, or really anything, Achilles was just going to knock him out. Chiron might want to try something else, but Bell knew he probably wouldn't be fast enough to stop Achilles.

Though, at this point, he was tempted to get up and do just that.

It was certain to hurt, a lot, but it would probably beat rolling around on the couch for hours on end and nothing else to do. Not to mention the repeated cold sweats anytime he closed his eyes for too long, when he was trying to force himself to sleep. It was honestly hard for Bell to really tell which was the worse of the two options he had.

A momentary and silent debate would occur in Bell's head as he thought about the two options. Ultimately, he came to a decision to give the normal way another try. If it failed this time, well, then he would go to his Servants for help in this particular endeavor.

Bell took in a breath to brace, preparing for the event where he would once again see those horrific sights as he closed his eyes. Fortune seemed to smile on him at that moment, however. It was at that moment where a new type of exhaustion would hit Bell, one unlike the physical one he already had, it was a magical one. One caused by a certain Servant suddenly entering a battle suddenly hitting him.

With the two waves of exhaustion suddenly hitting him all at once, Bell was finally able to cross the barrier he had been trying to cross for the past several hours.

"Heracles."

A voice said, echoing throughout an unfamiliar hall, making Bell jump as he realized he was once again dreaming of his Servant's past.

As he dealt with the differing and conflicting emotions that the realization brought, Bell couldn't stop himself from looking toward the source of the voice and where he was.

He was in some kind of temple, that much was obvious with the way the pillars and walls were engraved in symbols and iconography, along with the statues that all seemed to be of the same figure. Who or what that figure was supposed to be, Bell had no chance of recognizing it, considering that it was a temple from an entirely other world. He could only make the guess that it was a god.

The source of the voice was a cloaked woman, sitting on the other side of a fire from Bell on a wooden stool. She was on an altar of some kind, slightly elevated by a small set of stairs that led to her and, behind her, the largest of the statues of the god. The woman, despite not looking out of the ordinary, had a strange aura about her that intimidated Bell along with the way the cloak covered the upper half of her face in shadows.

"The gods have declared that, in order to redeem yourself, you must go to your cousin, King Eurysthesus." The woman continued, her voice echoing ominously in the large chamber of the temple. "Under his command, you will complete ten impossible tasks, ten 'labors'. Only then will you find redemption for the murder of your family."

Bell's breathing would catch as he heard the woman's words. It was only then that he felt a presence "behind" him. He would turn around to see the person that the woman had truly been talking to: Heracles.

Only, it wasn't the Heracles that Bell knew.

It was not the young hero that carried with him an aura of divine energy, confidence and skill that Bell had seen aboard the Argo. Nor was it the Heracles that his Berserker Servant was a representation of, the insane and enraged Heracles that was more monster than man and whose aura reflected as such. He wasn't either of those, this Heracles was the very picture of a broken man.

His long black hair that always seemed to have a life of its own, moving and floating despite the direction or speed of the wind itself, was completely absent of that life. It now rested like normal normal hair, hanging from his shoulders and from his head, partially covering his face. It was only through that hair that Bell could see Heracles' eyes.

They were half lidded, and heavily red around their edges, evidence of the nonstop tears he had for days, only stopping when it seemed that his body had run out of water to make any more. They were nearly completely unfocused and seemed to give no light of their own, almost as if they were the eyes of a dead man. The only sign of life they had was the way they moved up from the ground to look at the woman when she had said the word "impossible", but they were still dead eyed. It was also the only reaction to show that he had heard her at all.

Furthermore, despite the fact that his size had not changed, aside from the loss of weight that came with not having eaten much in days, Heracles seemed so much… smaller.

The presence that he gave off, the air he gave off that made him seem even bigger than he already was, was gone. His once broad and proud shoulders were hunched, supporting two limp arms that seemed to have no strength in them. The Son of Zeus lacked the strength or will to even hold his head high, instead having it hang forward in complete and utter defeat. It seemed as if he was simply waiting for, wanting for death to take him, even as he stood there.

At the sight of Heracles' appearance and state, Bell almost felt physical pain as guilt of ever having been afraid of him stabbed into his heart. It would've been painful to see anyone in such a state, but after seeing him during his time with the Argonauts, his heroism and his strength when fighting the Gegenees, it was all the more heartbreaking to see.

It would only get worse if he were to know what had happened between what had led to him there and now.

For more than a day, Heracles had cried in the now dead house of his home, holding on to the body of his sons and wife as he was unable to do anything else but despair with the death of his family. For another day after that, he had simply sat there unmoving amongst the remains of his family in shock as the realization that came to him that, despite having no clear memories of it aside from the most nightmarish and foggy possible, what had happened had been by his hands. It was only on the third day when Heracles had finally moved from that spot, only to try and kill himself out of shame and in despair.

It had only been thanks to a surprise visit by his twin half-sister, Iphicles, that he had been stopped.

Iphicles had, of course, been horrified by the knowledge of what had happened, but she had just been horrified by the state of her older brother. Despite what had happened, Iphicles couldn't let her brother kill himself. It had only been through their bond as twins that she had stopped Heracles, since there was no way Iphicles could stop him physically.

After Iphicles had helped give a proper burial to Megara, Therimachus, and the other two children, the younger of the two twins had all but begged Heracles to seek the forgiveness of the gods. She saw that Heracles was completely inconsolable in his current state, but Iphicles couldn't allow her brother to wallow in despair. Not when she had looked up to her brother with nothing but pride her whole life, since the day Heracles had killed two serpents that had nearly killed the two of them as newborns.

And so, here he was. Standing before an oracle capable of communing with the gods themselves to discern their will, in order to find some way that he would be able to redeem himself. In their eyes at least…

Heracles doubted that, no matter what he did or what he achieved, he would ever feel "redeemed".

Heracles didn't say anything, or respond at all to the words of the oracle, other than to begin to turn and leave the temple. But as Bell watched him do so, the surroundings of the dream would blur together and begin to change. Before long, Bell was no longer within the inner hall and chamber of a temple.

Instead, he now stood behind Heracles in what looked like a lavish and grand throne room. Armored guards lined the room, standing next to imposing pillars that were finely made banners hung from the pillars, displaying the emblems and symbols of the kingdom in their weaving. One the other side of Heracles from Bell, there was a large, bejeweled throne, and a top it, a man dressed in fine red and purple clothing with a crown upon his head as he looked down at Heracles, expression one of amusement to reflect the utterly dejected hero's.

"So, you've finally done it now Heracles, haven't you?" the King said in a mocking tone as he looked down upon his cousin, seemingly taking no end of joy in the sight of the almost lifeless Heracles. "You've finally come under my beck and call? And all it took was you showing your true nature, monster. Now here you are, begging for your 'redemption' from the gods"

As Eurystheus began to mock Heracles, greatly enjoying the prospect of having control over the hero, the target of his humiliation gave no reaction to the insult. His gaze remained downtrodden and lifeless, remaining locked on the ground. He was generally unreactive to the words of the king and cousin of his, nor did he react as he heard the mumblings of the guards, their words matching the attitude of their king.

"This is the famous 'hero'? What a joke."

"Don't know why, but I guess he stopped trying to act like a hero and let out his true nature."

"'Redemption'? Don't make me laugh. Such a thing is an impossibility for a monster like him."

Bell could feel the astral form of his molars grind together as he tightened the grips of his hands together. He knew he would say or do anything while in the dream, but that didn't stop the feeling of anger at both the king and the guards for what they were saying. Any thoughts of the sights that had tortured him so much for the past few days were gone for the moment as the feeling of anger at these men for mocking a man in such a state.

The boy was the only one out of the two that could have such a reaction. The most Heracles would have was a sideways glance towards the one who had spoken last that had only been a moment long. Though it had still been enough to make the guard visibly stiffen in fear of him giving any more a reaction, but there would be none.

Heracles said nothing. He made no attempt to defend his honor as a hero or to deny what anyone in the room said about what his true nature was. Because after what he had done, he had lost any such honor and believed them to be correct as to what they said.

"So then, I have to give you ten impossible tasks, huh? Or I guess I should refer to them as 'Labors' as the oracle said?" Eurystheus mused aloud, bringing Bell's and Heracles' attention back to him, Heracles actually looking up enough to look Eurystheus in the eye this time.

And the sight of the lifeless eyes of the hero would only cause the king's sick smile to grow.

"Ah, there's so many things that I could have you do. There supposedly isn't much that a monster like you can't do, now is there?" Eurystheus continued, cupping his chin as he continued to look down on Heracles, no doubt thinking of a task that would cause all the more suffering on his cousin.

Bell didn't know about it yet, as he would need to hear of it from Chiron or Achilles, but the feud between Eurystheus and Heracles had been one going on practically since before they were born, albeit heavily one sided.

It began when Eurystheus had practically stolen Heracles' birthright to become the king of the nation he now ruled over, only having gained it thanks to the divine meddling of a certain goddess that had delayed Heracles' birth. Heracles had never particularly cared for the idea of being the king though, letting his cousin have the crown without a fight, something that likely would not have changed even if they had been aware of the intervention of the gods. That had only incessed Eurystheus though, as his cousin would only grow more and more jealous of Heracles' strength and prowess as a hero as time went on.

It led to a fierce and well known hatred for the Son of Zeus, but one that Eurystheus was never able to properly act on. He had been far too afraid of being on the receiving end of that great strength and skill that he was so jealous of. That was, with what was practically a gift from the gods themselves to him, until now…

"Ah, I know just the thing for you to do first." Eurystheus said in satisfaction, gaining the attention of all in the room as he sat up in his throne in preparation to give his order. "For your First Labor, Heracles, I order you to slay the Nemean Lion."

As the king said the name of the monster the air changed in the throne room in a way Bell hadn't been anticipating. Advisors in the room and even the guards that had quietly mocked Heracles let out audible gasps at the knowledge of what the First task he would have to do. Heracles meanwhile, only had one thought as he looked into the sadistically satisfied and gleeful eyes of his cousin.

He had certainly wasted no time in trying to get him killed.

Rivira

Heracles used one arm to cover his face as a massive pillar of flame erupted up from the center of the town. Even from the distance that he was at, the heat wave that came from it was intense, especially as more pillars erupted near by him, under some more monsters. With a single spell, the majority of the attacking monsters had been incinerated.

There were still more, to be sure, flowery monsters that had been underground at the activation of the spell and monsters that were still coming up from the bottom of the lake that Rivaria was built against, but it was still beyond a doubt an impressive display of magic. Though, considering the sheer amount of magical energy that he had sensed building around her, it was hardly surprising to Heracles. The spells that were found in this world were quite the sight to see, at least going off this and the spell he had seen from the younger elf during the events against Monsterphilia.

This one seemed to be even stronger as well, even with how far away he was as well.

He was currently in the North Western part of Rivira, closer to the edge of the Dungeon Town than he was to the center, where the epicenter of the spell was. Though it wasn't as if he had found himself so far away by accident. There had been little reason, after all, to stay near the center of town.

Despite a decent majority of the monsters having been heading towards it, attracted by the magical energy of the very spell that had just been cast to incinerate the majority of them, his presence was overkill.

Not only were most adventurers that were in the town seemingly beginning to recover from the surprise of the attack and organize to defend themselves from the monsters, but it appeared that they had other powerful fighters capable of dealing with the unknown species of monster. The more surprising pair were the two amazons that he had encountered a few days before during Monsterphilia. Now armed with their weapons, a pair of twin daggers for one and a massive double bladed sword for the other, they made quick work of the monsters..

Then there was the small, young looking spear man. At first glance, Heracles had thought him to be a child in the middle of the battlefield, and had been about to make his way over to try and bring him to safety. That perception had been completely destroyed when the "boy" leaped from monster to monster, killing them with a singular thrust from his spear that targeted their Magic Stones with clear experience and skill that contradicted the youthful appearance.

Heracles wondered if the boy was actually one of the other species in this world that the Grail supplied him with information of, a pallum. Although he had yet to really see much of the race, Heracles wouldn't have doubted that he was one of them. It would certainly explain his ability despite how young he appeared to be.

But, whether he was a pallum or not, between him, the two amazons, the powerful mage he sensed casting the spell, and even the organizing adventurers, it was clear that the center was practically safe regardless of his presence.

So Heracles had taken it upon himself to venture away to deal with the monster's that were too far to be attracted to the magical energy that had been gathering in preparation for the massive spell. There hadn't been many adventurers this far away from the center of the town for reasons that Heracles had no knowledge of, so he hadn't needed to worry about holding back to avoid hurting anyone with collateral damage. Now, between the use of the powerful spell of fire and his own efforts, there were few, if any monsters that were in the area.

If he waited, there was no doubt more of the carnivorous flowers would come to him, attracted to the magical energy his body was made from. It was all the more certain now that the spell that had been building was finally cast, meaning that he was the only substantial source of magical energy in the area. But, as he was as a Berserker, he had little such patience, so he was already searching for the closest remainder of monsters to go into.

It was then that Heracles heard the loud sound of the crash. Looking to where it had come from, a dust cloud and the broken-bell like sound of one of the roars reached him. Were there people over there, fighting more monsters that had been out of range and, therefore, unscathed by the spell?

Heracles flew into action, leaping out in that direction to assist those that had seemingly been left to fight on their own for who knows how long.

As he approached, the sounds of fighting did indeed begin to reach his ears, but there was something odd about it. The sounds he was hearing didn't match the sounds of metal cutting or failing to cut the skin of the carnivorous flowers. It was the sounds of metal against metal, a sword clashing against another sword.

Cluster Street

Lefiya's hand rested on her throat, the pain of it nearly being crushed still present as she only just regained her breath, still feeling the phantom sensation of the murder's hand trying to kill her. Lulune was completely unconscious, having been knocked out trying to save her from that fate, only to be knocked aside into one of the stone walls that lined the path. Neither the pain or the unconscious chienthrope, however, were the center of her attention.

That was the fight that she was watching take place in front of her in disbelief.

Two swordsmen were clashing in front of her, were moving faster than she could follow, and thanks to the various crystals, it was almost as if there were entire armies fighting each other. The first of the two was none other than Ais Wallenstein, having arrived just in time to save Lefiya from being choked to death by her opponent. Said opponent had turned out to be none other than the murderer that they had been hunting for for the majority of the day with the rest of the Loki Familia that was fighting in the city, having escaped their attention by not only dressing in the armor of her victim, but also wearing a mask made from his very skin in order to hide her gender.

Now that her identity was revealed, she had ditched the armor, complaining about how uncomfortable it was as she did, but the mask made from the Adventurer Hashana's face remained for the time being, though that was unlikely to be the case for much longer. Its anti-deterioration agent, Poison Vermis venom, if the murderer was to be believed, was already wearing off, so it was only a matter of how long could it still remain intact in conditions such as a fight as fierce as the one she was fighting against the Sword Princess.

But the real source of horror about her for Lefiya, more than even how disturbing it was for someone to go around wearing the mask made from the skin of her victim, was that she was fighting Ais Wallenstein on even ground.

Ais was famous, almost the world over, for her skill with a sword, known to be one of the strongest adventurers in all of Orario and, therefore, the world. But taking place right in front of her, the Sword Princess, was slowly but surely being pushed back by her opponent. The members of the Loki Familia that were in Rivira had known that the murderer was going to be much stronger than the average adventurer, considering that she had killed a Level 4 adventurer without him even being able to fight back, but for her to be this strong?

But despite the shock of the situation, Lefiya would shake her head as if to clear her head of disbelief. Knowing that she had to do something more than just watching, the young elven mage managed to get up to her feet. Swallowing down her fear, Lefiya would take a breath in, and begin to chant the cast for one of her spells.

"Unleashed streak of light, bow limbs of the holy tree. You are an expert of the bow." Leifya's voice rang out, echoing in the practically corridor of Cluster Street, it was impossible for either of the combatants not to have heard her, or noticed the magical ring that formed around the young elf and the magical energy that began to build.

"Shoot, sniper of the faeries. Penetrate, arrow of absolute accuracy." Lefiya continued as, even as the fight in front of her began to change.

With the knowledge that magical support was coming in, the goals for Ais and the murderer changed drastically. With no knowledge of the nature of the spell that was about to be shot on her, the murderer was clearly attempting to break away from Ais in order to stop Lefiya or, at the very least, get out of range of the spell. However, Ais' goal was now to keep her from doing either of those, and although the Sword Princess had slowly been pushed back, whatever gap in skill or strength there was wasn't enough that the murderer was able to get away from her in time.

"Arcs Ray!" Lefiya called out, completing the spells cast as an arrow of light fired out from the magic circle in front of her.

The spell that she had used was nowhere near the same level of power as the Wynn Fimbulvetr she had casted during Monsterphilia. Which was a good thing in this case, since most spells would've run the almost certainty of hitting Ais. Instead, the nature of the spell that she decided to use was one of precision, locking onto Lefiya's target before tracking and following it until it hit, with there being no way to avoid it.

Hearing the completion of the spell's cast, Ais would cease her assault on her opponent as she jumped out of the way of the spell's path. There was little point in preventing the woman from getting away now. No matter what she did, Lefiya's spell was going to hit her.

But it seemed that the murderer had no intention of trying to avoid the spell.

Lefiya and Ais watched in complete disbelief as the woman outstretched her arm toward the beam of pure magical energy as she caught it with her bare hand. It was hard to see for them, thanks to how blinding the light from the spell was, but they could see that, even as the gauntlet that covered the hand broke away, the hand holding back the arrow of light was completely unaffected. With what looked like no small amount of strength, the woman would swing her arm around, redirecting the small straight into one of the stone walls that flanked Cluster Street.

The blast of the spell's resulting collision with the wall would create a powerful shockwave that flew out from the point of impact. Lefiya would let out a cry as she was swept off her feet and was carried back by the shockwave, with the unconscious body of Lulune facing something similar. Ais had managed to avoid getting swept away by the blast, but the High Level 5 had not only been knocked off balance by the shockwave still, she had been distracted by her Familia member being blasted away.

As she regained her balance and began to call out in concern for Lefiya, the woman would see her opening to attack Ais while her guard was down.

…But she wouldn't get the chance to act on that opening.

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH"

Came the deafening roar, catching the participants of the battle off guard at the announcement of a sudden new addition to the fight.

Each of the women there froze as they heard the roar, even Lefiya as she recovered from on the ground. Ais and Lefiya, on reflex, would look upwards, in the direction that it had come from. The unknown woman, however, would act on a sudden survival instinct, leaping away from where she was.

The only reason she managed to avoid the strike that came from above as Heracles landed from his leap into the battle was that she had already been preparing to leap at Ais.

But even then, she had only just barely managed to avoid the body of the massive axe-sword slamming into the ground where she was. And she could do nothing to avoid the shockwave that came from a blow so powerful as it destroyed the stone floor of the Dungeon, sending her flying back. The murderer was quick to recover, managing to land on her feet, but it was clear that she had the air knocked out of her by getting hit by the brunt of the shockwave.

Heracles would let out a deep growl, lips pulled back in a snarl as his eyes were locked onto the woman, whose eyes widened in shock at the sight of him. He could tell that she was strong, having managed to get a glimpse of her fight with Ais and her catching and deflecting a ray of magic, but there was something wrong with her. The Servant couldn't tell what it was exactly, but from the moment he had laid eyes on the woman, he could tell something about her that was unnatural.

And if she was fighting Ais then, well, it was unlikely she was on the side of anything good.

Heracles would let out another roar as he shot out towards the woman, pulling his weapon out of the ground and rearing it back to swing at her once more. The woman, although caught off guard by his sudden arrival and attack, made clear with her eyes wide behind her human skin mask and bandages, would put that aside for now as she gripped her longsword. Once again engaging in a fierce duel, a flurry of weapons clashing in the corridor of Cluster Street.

Ais would watch for a few seconds, eyes wide at seeing Heracles suddenly appear and begin to engage the murderer, but would soon turn away. It wasn't that she didn's want to jump back into the fight in order to support Heracles bring down the murderer. But there was something else that she had to do.

"Are you alright?" Ais asked in concern as she went to the elven mage, helping Lefiya back to her feet.

"Y-yeah-" Lefiya said, stumbling slightly over her own words, still slightly in shock from someone catching one of her own spells with their bare hand, alongside the surprise of what was currently going on. "W-what- what is Berserker doing here?"

"I'm not sure, but-" Ais responded to the question that Lefiya asked out of shock as the mage stood up fully, but would stop herself as she looked back to the action that was taking place nearby, only for disbelief to seemingly make the sentence stall out in her brain. It was a state that Lefiya would soon match as she followed the Sword Princess' gaze

In the span of time that was less than minutes, the mysterious woman had gone from fighting Ais, to fighting Heracles. Like the first fight, the movements of the two participants were so fast as to be a blur to Lefiya, or even so fast that the young elf could only see the shadow of the movement with only Ais capable of properly following it. However, there was little else in common between the two duels.

The duel between the Sword Princess and the mysterious murderer had been more or less a stalemate between the two, although there was no denying that Ais was slowly being pushed back by the brutal strength of her opponent. In this one, there was no such power dynamic between the two participant fighters. Between the two fighters, there was a clear divide in power and it was not in favor of the murderer.

The woman would visibly grit her teeth in effort as she struggled to avoid the massive weapon being swung at her with the intent to kill. She had given up on trying to counterattack or to take the initiative in any way, or, rather, she had realized that it had never been an option to begin with. Heracles' onslaught of attacks was carried out with such speed and ferocity, it was all the woman could do to avoid the swings from the Axe-sword.

She moved with agility that was at a level above even when she was fighting Ais, a realization that might've caused a blow to the Sword Princess' pride at the knowledge that her opponent had not gone all out during their fight. However, even with her true agility on display, that alone didn't allow her to avoid the strikes. Her smaller size in comparison to the dark giant, allowed her to narrowly weave between the wide swings. She stayed close to the ground and walls of Cluster Street, slowing each swing enough for her to avoid as the landform weapon had to drag through the terrain of the Dungeon.

Even with her ability and these factors that were in her favor, it was still clear that she had to give it her all in order to avoid the swings of Heracles' weapon. And avoiding the swings was her only choice, as all of her instincts were telling her that taking a direct hit was not an option. Even if she was to block it, or even if it was only a graze, she could tell from the strength that was behind each swing of the weapon that there would be a cost from making the mistake that she could take it.

As if to prove the point, another swing would come, and it would get closer to her than most of the others. Despite not hitting her, she would not go completely unscathed as an aftershock of a sort would follow from having such a large object being swung at such a speed. The intense air draft that followed would practically tear apart what remained of her disguise, bandages and human skin being ripped away from the woman's face, allowing for the first actual look at appearance.

Blood red hair flailed widely as the mask hiding it was torn from her head and destroyed as green eyes winced at the feeling of the harsh air current and how close the Axe-sword came to take her head off.

The fight had not even lasted a minute in total so far, and yet, it seemed that the victor had been decided since before it had even started.

A chill went up Ais' spine as she realized just how strong Heracles was. She had already known that he was strong from when she had first met him on the Fifth Floor, when he had easily managed to hold off both her and Bete before escaping. But for him to be this strong? Immediately putting an opponent on the ropes that she, going all out short of the use of her wind, could only force into a standstill? And to let it not be said that the red-haired woman had evidently been holding back in their fight as well, and seemed to be going all out in the short duel with him.

"He's strong. Much stronger than me." Ais thought, a sinking feeling appearing in her chest, the realization rousing two dominant emotions within her as she could only wonder how he was that strong: her hatred of losing and her desire to grow stronger.

Was it simply because of the curse that was upon him? The Madness Enhancement that made his existence closer to that of a monster than that of a human? Or was it something else? Did he have something beyond that, which Ais simply lacked?

"Ais!" Lefiya said to her, in a tone of surprise that managed to rouse Ais out of her thoughts as she looked to the young elf to see what was wrong, only to see her pointing at something.

Following her direction, Ais' eyes would widen as she saw that what Lefiya was pointing at was the Jewel Fetus, the strange item Lulune had received from Hashana before his murder and presumably the item that his murder had wanted. Lefiya must have dropped it when she had been blown away as her Arcs Ray had been deflected. But that wasn't what made the mage so worried.

It was no longer calm or quiet, its eyes were wide open, staring dead on at Heracles, not unlike it had when Ais had held it earlier. However, unlike before, it and the orb that it sat in were now rapidly vibrating, causing the jewel shell to crack slightly. And out of those small, nearly minuscule cracks, a strange, dark shadowy like substance would leak out, one that seemed to be soaked in a strange magical energy that left Lefiya, and even Ais, uneasy.

Ais would shoot out, moving to stop whatever it was that the jewel was doing before it could finish. She didn't know how she would do that, her first instinct was to want to destroy it with a single strike of her Desperate but she wasn't sure if that was a good idea. All she knew was that she had to try and stop it, the feeling she got from the shadow told her that whatever was happening, it wasn't good.

But, whatever it was that she was going to try to do, it would be too late.

Heracles roared as he slammed his Axe-sword down once more, sending debris that had once been one with the rock floor and crystal shards flying. The red haired woman would grunt, feeling the shards and rocks hit and bounce off of her, gritting her molars together in frustration at her inability to do anything more than narrowly survive a guaranteed death at the hands of the monstrous giant. It was only when she opened her eyes did she realize the mistake she had made.

In order to avoid the last attack, she had jumped to the side, out of the way, allowing her to avoid the main force of the blow. What she hadn't anticipated, however, was that blow would have enough strength to be equivalent to a bomb going off. Meaning that, although she managed to dodge it, a shockwave of it hitting the ground had been created, one enough to blow her back and higher into the air than she had meant.

Just high enough that she wasn't going to come back in contact with the ground for a second longer than she had wanted, but a second of being unable to move in the air was a second too long in this battle.

And her opponent was already on her.

Death flashed as Heracles dashed in front of her, Axe-sword already pulled out of the ground and ready for the swing that would end this fight and her life. Blocking would be meaningless, her longsword would shatter under the combined momentum of the weapons sheer mass of the landform weapon and the wielder's strength, and her limbs wouldn't fare any better. As she ran through everything she could possibly do, trying to think of some way that she would be able to escape from this blow that was to bring guaranteed death if it so much as grazed her, Heracles would swing his weapons faster than the eye could see.

But then, every instinct in Heracles body along with the inbuilt danger system of Mind's Eye (False) began to scream at him that something dangerous was on its way. Reacting on those instincts before what few thoughts were capable of forming in his insanity driven mind could process what would happen, Heracles would redirect his Axe-Sword midswing in order to block whatever attack was coming his way in its tracks. Only for his feet to lose contact with the ground as he was suddenly blasted away by the sheer force of whatever had hit his weapon.

The shock of the sudden attack and its surprising amount of strength would be enough that his eyes would widen, momentarily loosening the vice grip the Madness Enhancement had on his mind. While it was loosened, Heracles' mind went into overdrive as he tried to figure out what had just happened and what was capable of hitting him with such force. He was also quick to inspect the state of his weapon, to see if it had been damaged at all by having such an attack strike it, and he would be shocked to see that a strange black arrow had embedded itself part way into the stone weapon.

But it was the design of that arrow that was truly the shocking part, because it was, even as covered in that magical darkness as it was, one that Heracles recognized.

The alarms of Mind's Eye (False) would once again begin to blare, warning him of more incoming danger. And, as he looked in the direction that he was warned that they were coming from, his suspicions would be confirmed. Even as he flew back through the air, he would see what looked like to be a solid shadow that had a feminine outline, a bow drawn with another arrow at the ready and aimed at Heracles.

It was a Shadow Servant.

And Heracles dreaded the feeling of familiarity he felt as he recognized the woman's outline, even if she didn't have the feline ears and tail when she had sailed with him on the Argo.

But, despite that, the Madness Enhancement would once again take hold as he recognized both an enemy combatant and a threat. His thoughts and feelings about the basis of the Shadow Servant were pushed down by the dark madness, as were any questions about how or why a Shadow Servant had been summoned or why it was there. All that mattered was a new target for him to fight.

Even as he flew through the air, Heracles would swing his leg downward, dragging it through the ground, slowing him down as he twisted around as he lashed his Axe-sword outwards, deflecting the incoming arrows out of the air. As his momentum came to a stop, Heracles' gaze would lock dead onto the Shadow Servant. Before it was capable of notching another arrow at him, Heracles would suddenly leap towards it at speeds that seemed to be beyond the capabilities of a human as he all but seemed to appear in front of the Shadow Servant, Axe Sword raised.

But the mind boggling speed he had displayed had not been enough to catch the Shadow Servant off guard. It's base after all, none other than the Huntress of Arcadia: Atalanta. A heroine whose instincts were just as keen and sharp as a wild animal and one who not only possessed A rank agility as a Servant, but was also among those in the Throne of Heroes that could be counted on one hand that could pose a challenge for Achilles' title as "The Fastest Hero".

Even as the massive landform weapon began its fall on top of her, the Shadow Servant leaped backwards, flipping in midair so that the bottom of her feet would land on the cliff face as Heracles' swing was completed. As the Landform Axe-sword shattered the stone ground that the Shadow Servant had just been, Heracles was already looking up to where she was now. Before he could move to go after her though, the shadow of the huntress would pull back two arrows, notching them in her bow as she leaped from her position on the cliff face.

As she moved through the air, she would shoot off both arrows at Heracles from behind him, but she had been unable to pull her arrows back in her bow in order to shoot it off in time. As a result, the shots were nowhere near the full strength of her bow, so they simply broke against Heracles' skin without any damage as they failed to break through God Hand's defense. Heracles let out a threatening growl as he followed the path the Shadow Servant took, twisting his neck around as he turned his head to ensure that his eyes remained locked on her form.

The growl then turned into a roar as he once again jumped as he realized where she would land on the other cliff, but her foot had hardly touched the ground for an instant before she jumped away. She leaped from rock to rock, what instincts and skills of the great huntress that were within her shadowy form allowing her to move across the uneven and dangerous terrain with possibly even more ease than than an average person walking on a sidewalk. This speed and agility allowed her to stay just a step ahead of the strikes of Heracles as he chased after her, not allowing her any opportunities to draw her bow to its limit.

Of course, as the battle between Heracles and the Shadow Servant of Atalanta began, it would be little more than a blur to those who were watching, if they could even follow the movements at all.

That's why Lefiya was stunned as, from her perspective, the dark shadow that had been surrounding the Jewel Fetus and Heracles had seemingly disappeared within the time she had blinked, only for the effects that they had on the environment to suddenly occur without warning. A yelp would escape from her as the air suddenly flew into action, winds blowing fiercely from the aftereffects of beings moving so fast and so intensely. She would use her arms to cover her eyes and face, making sure nothing would fly into them, even as she tried to comprehend what had just happened.

Ais would have a similar reaction, being much closer to the Shadow Servant of Atalanta when it had suddenly taken off with the speed of the rocket, but unlike Lefiya, she had also been at a level where she was able to glimpse the shadow of the action that had just occurred. She hadn't been able to completely catch all of the details, but she had been able to see how Heracles had been attacked by the strange "Shadow" before he responded by going after it in earnest. Even still though, she was still confused as to the exact nature of what or why it had happened.

What was that shadow? Why had it attacked Heracles? How strong was it if a single attack like its initial one had sent Heracles flying back so far even after he had blocked it?

These questions and more rang through the Sword Princess' head as she tried to understand the nature of what had just happened in front of her. She was quick to look back toward the Jewel Fetus to see what its status and condition was. At the very least, she was making sure that it wasn't about to spawn another one of those shadows.

That fear was relieved as Ais saw that the fetus in the crystal shell had calmed down. It was no longer shaking, or moving at all for that matter as it seemed to return to its dormant state. The minuscule cracks in its shell were still there, but there was no longer anything leaking out of them, ominous shadow or otherwise.

She looked down at the thing uneasily, with the need to stop… whatever it was it was doing gone, so too was the desire to interact with it. She remembered what happened the last time she had tried to hold the thing, and just remembering the feeling that she got simply having it in her hand and the strange feeling that it had caused that had made it difficult to even breath for a short while. It wasn't an experience that she was exactly excited to go through again, so she naturally had an aversion to coming back into contact with it again.

But there was someone else there that had feelings that were quite the opposite of the Sword Princess' feelings of the orb.

"I'm not entirely sure what that was about…" The red haired murderer said, having taken a second to completely recover from the mental shock of coming so close to death, only for it suddenly disappear essentially, as she returned to the task at hand. "But I guess I need to finish this before whatever that thing was comes back."

A time limit had suddenly appeared for the woman. There was no mistake, she was strong, being able to push even Ais back when she had evidently hadn't been going all out, and she was clearly confident in her abilities as well. However, it was just as clear that she was no match against Heracles as she almost certainly would've died had the fight not been interrupted at the last possible second. If she was still there when he came back, she doubted she would be so lucky as to have anything similar happen to save her life.

And a chill went down the spines of Ais and Lefiya as they realized the unspoken message that came with that knowledge: she was going to take this seriously now.

They had barely been able to handle her when she hadn't seemed to take them completely seriously. From here on out though, she wasn't going to leave anything to chance in order to avoid encountering that monster while she still had a job to do. And that meant removing any obstacles that stood in the way of that job as fast as possible, obstacles like them.

Ais grit her teeth, tightening her grip on Desperate, bracing herself for another fight as the woman took a step toward them. If she had fought like she did during their brief exchange earlier, then defeat was certain and it was unlikely that she and Lefiya would last until Heracles returned or they received support from the other members of the Loki Familia when they found them. But, then again, it wasn't like she had truly gone all out in their fight either.

"Tempest!" Ais called out, releasing the power of her wind as she shot forward as fast as she possibly could before the woman could make a move.

Typically, Ais didn't like using her wind against other people. It was always something that she felt was practically unfair to use in duels due to its nature. It was why she hadn't used it in her first round against the red haired woman.

However, from what they had seen of her capabilities so far, from her already pushing Ais back when not fighting seriously, to her catching a magic spell with her bare hands, to the speed she had demonstrated when avoiding the powerful strikes of Heracles, Ais was willing to make an exception. It was, after all, the only thing that would give them a chance of beating her on their own. And even then Ais wasn't sure that it was going to be enough.

The woman's eyes widened in shock as Ais moved with speed that had been absent in the earlier fight. She managed to block the strike with her longsword, but she hadn't anticipated the strength that was behind it. Empowered by the currents of emerald wind that circled around her body, the blow would knock her back as she lost her footing on the ground.

Ais would frown at the results of the attack, since the enhancement brought about by Ariel proved nowhere near as decisive as she was hoping. She had been hoping to at least score some kind of wound on her from the surprise of suddenly moving so much faster in hopes of slowing her down somewhat for the rest of the fight. Even still though, the woman proved capable of blocking her strike.

"...Just one thing after another, huh?" the woman said, having come to a stop from the sudden push back of the sword strike. However, despite the words being that of frustration, there wasn't any such emotion in her words. Quite the opposite in fact because, as the woman's emerald eyes remained locked onto Ais, the tone she had seemed to contain some sort of excitement.

And then, she said what was potentially the most shocking and earthshaking thing that would happen to Ais that night.

"That wind… So then, you must be Aria."

The world came to a screeching halt for the Sword Princess upon hearing that name, a name that no one other than the top executives of the Loki Familia should know. It caused any and all thoughts that Ais was having to suddenly cease as she struggled to deal with the shock of hearing that name and attempting to comprehend how she could possibly know that name. It was so bad that she almost didn't hear Lefiya's nervous voice.

"Ais…?" Lefiya asked hesitantly, concerned for Ais at seeing her completely freeze up in reaction to the words of the red haired woman. Her surprise at the reaction of the Swordswoman that she so admired made her stop in her tracks as she went to retrieve the Jewel Fetus.

But no one else could say or do anything else as suddenly the fetus within the orb sprung into action once again, its bulging eyes locked onto Ais and, more specifically, her wind. It would release a piercing shriek that took each of the girls there off guard as it began to writhe and shake violently and intensely, even more than when it had produced that "shadow". Then, it would slam against the crystal-like shell that encased it, not breaking or even cracking it like before, but propelling it forward like it had been launched from a cannon, straight towards eyes.

Her body reacted on instinct as her mind was still caught on what the woman had said and processing what was happening. She quickly threw herself to the side, managing to avoid the barreling orb as it shot past her, the image of the thing's bulbous eyes staring straight at her sticking in her mind.

Even though it had missed its desired target, there was no way for it to stop or change direction in midair, the almost alien creature could only continue in a straight direction from where it had shot itself in.

When it came to a stop, it did hit something though: the corpse of the plant monster that Ais had killed whose death had been what had gotten Heracles' attention in the first place. The orb containing the fetus shattered when it had hit the corpse, right before the fetus itself burrowed into the body of the plant's body out of sight of those watching. And then, the corpse, or at least, what should've been a corpse began to convulse as it began to change.

?

Bell watched as Heracles stepped off of the cart that had brought him to his destination. Little had changed about Heracles' appearance since the last scene that Bell had watched, however, there was an important difference that was worth mentioning. His bow was slung over his back, along with a quiver of arrows as a normal sword hung from the side of his waist.

Maybe it had been because of extra time had passed, that he had some sort of task that he could focus on instead, or even just the presence of his weaponry, but Heracles didn't seem to be as in despair as he was before the oracle and King Eurysthesus. At the very least, he was doing the tiniest bit better, keeping his head up rather than hanging it low as he walked, but Bell's heart would still ache as he noted that it was still nowhere near as high as it was before. Ultimately though, Heracles was and clearly came off as a man that was broken by his own grief and despair.

"Are you the… hero, Heracles?" an older man asked as Heracles began to walk away from the cart that he had arrived in, bringing Bell and Heracles' attention on to him.

Bell felt a flash of anger and indignation on Heracles' behalf at the way the man hesitated in calling Heracles a hero. What had happened wasn't his fault! It wasn't right to blame him for it, and he was clearly suffering from it.

But, those emotions would leave him just as fast as they came. No one in this land seemed to know that it was Hera's fault that Heracles had gone mad, not even Heracles himself. Without that critical piece of information, they had come to the only conclusion that made sense: that Heracles had done it himself without any case of divine meddling.

Besides, from the uncertain way that the man had said it, it was clear that the hesitation came from Heracles' appearance rather than the cruel idea of believing him to be a monster, like the king Heracles now found himself under the command of and his guards.

And on top of that… he wasn't doing much better than Heracles in terms of appearance.

Once fine clothing hung off his form, dirtied and stained to make the patterns sewn into them unrecognizable. On top of that, it was clear that the man was not very well fed, being noticeably thin, causing him to look nearly skeletal as it contrasted with the way his clothes hung off of him. Bell knew that he was in his later years, but the state of his appearance was in, Bell could almost believe that he was more than a century old.

"...Yes, I am." Heracles responded, almost hesitantly, in large part thanks to his own state of distress, but also because he was surprised at the state of the man's health.

"Excellent!" the man all but breathed out in relief, before breathing in to compose himself. "I am the head priest at the temple here, and I welcome you to Nemea."

Heracles' eyes would widen a marginal amount as the elder man introduced himself. He would look him back over with the new information, but there was still too big a disconnect. It was almost impossible to believe that a high ranking priest would ever be in such condition as long as they were in service to the gods, even in a relatively small village like Nemea.

"I know my appearance might be a bit surprising and leave a bit to be desired, but if you'll believe it, I'm one of those that are better off of us, I assure you." the priest said, noticing Heracles' surprise and letting out a humorless laugh as he did. "Hopefully though, you'll be able to solve the cause of that. Now, if you would just follow me."

Heracles would frown slightly as the priest turned to begin leading him into the town itself before following after him. It seemed that the priest already knew what he was here to do.

The Nemean Lion. There wasn't a hero or hunter in all of Greece that hadn't heard of that name. A Divine Beast that was the child of Typhon and Echidna, making it a full blooded sibling to the legendary guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, and a remnant of the Age of Titans.

He and Atalanta had talked about it briefly during his relatively short days on the Argo while they completed their respective tasks, a joke between them at the idea of seriously hunting it. Jason had complained about it as he mentioned that no small number of would-be heroes and demigods that he had wanted to invite to the crew of the ship had gone to hunt the beast. Their fates were obvious as the lion remained for him to hunt as the first, and likely last, of his Labors.

Eurystheus' hatred and jealousy of him was obvious and well known, but even Heracles was surprised with how fast he had been sent to die.

It was a monster without a true equal in the world, even the legendary Chimera, a monster so renowned that its name would echo and become the namesake for an entire species of monster, was secondary to it. With the mountain of bodies of potential and proven heroes, it was considered tantamount to suicide to fight the beast. And here he was…

But that wasn't on the forefront of Heracles' mind as he walked behind the priest through the village of Nemea.

As Heracles followed, he and Bell would look around to see the state of the small village. Vines grew across the walkways and the various homes and buildings, which seemed to be nearly decrepit with how much disrepair that they have seen. And there was something else too.

Nemea wasn't exactly what was considered one of Greece's metropolises, being a relatively small, rural village in the almost untamed wilderness. That being said, even as they walked through the heart of the village, there was hardly anyone that they could see. And the few that they did end up seeing, in states of hunger and starvation that were just as bad, if not worse than the priest, just like the older man had said.

"As you can see, life here has been made… difficult by the Lion." the Priest began as they neared what looked to be a modest temple near the center of the town. "With traders too afraid to come near our town at the threat of the beast, and our own hunters and farmers being too scared to leave the town out of fear of venturing too close to its territory, food has been in rather short supply."

"... I didn't know it was this bad." Heracles said, as he looked at the state of the villagers and their homes. Though, as they approached the temple, he would note that, while even the buildings by the temple seemed old and were partway covered in vines, the temple itself was in pristine condition in comparison. Maybe it was just that what the villagers had chosen to dedicate what remaining energy had to keep well maintained so as not to incur the wrath of the god it was dedicated too, but something told Heracles that the idea didn't seem quite right.

"I can't say I'm entirely surprised." the Priest said as he stopped at the steps leading to the temple as he turned to face Heracles. "Most people only focus on the lion and the glory to be had if they were to slay it, rather than the effect it has on those like us. Not that we would really mind as long as they had actually gotten rid of it, but you already know how that's gone… Most of us have lost hope that anyone can kill it."

The priest would take in a breath as Heracles looked down at him, before the elder man would look back up to him and speak.

"IfI'm speaking truthfully, Heracles, I don't care what you've done. I don't care if you are as the rumors now say you are, a monster rather than a hero. My people have been suffering at the hands of that beast for too long, and it doesn't matter to me if it's a hero or another monster that finally kills it. All that matters is that you are strong, stronger than any hero that was on the Argo, and if you're not able to kill this lion, then no one is."

Heracles didn't respond to that. How could he? This man had just proclaimed that he was the only hope left for this entire village, and here he was, having come here fully expecting him to die, a part of him even welcoming it.

Heracles could only look away from the man as he looked in a random direction, just trying not to meet the man's eyes.

But it was then he would see something that had caught his attention.

"...What are they doing?" Heracles asked, almost hesitantly, prompting the priest and Bell to follow where he was looking.

There was a gathering of children nearby, most of them looking to be in the same state of starvation, but a few of them seemed to have gotten lucky and either had parents that were better off or that were more willing to starve for their child to eat. However, there was tension on each of the faces of the children in the group as they all looked down at the bowl sitting on the ground in front of all of them. One by one, each of the children put their hand in the bowl on a pedestal and pulled what looked to be a coin out, and one by one, when they would look at it and the relief of what they saw would be visual.

It was not the usual gathering of teens or young kids, there was something serious going on there, serious enough that even the youngest of those children recognized it. As the priest noticed what Heracles was looking at, a sense of foreboding went through both him and Bell.

"They're… deciding which of them will be the next sacrifice after you if you were to fail."

A chill went down the spines of both Bell and Heracles, at the man's answer that had no emotion to speak of.

Both Bell and Heracles would slowly look over to the priest, a horrified expression on their faces as they looked at the man, who was still looking over at the group of boys. Shock ran through them, and neither of them were properly able to comprehend what they had just been told. It was Heracles that was the first to recover.

"...They're doing what?" Heracles asked, as soon as he could, shock and horror giving way to a slowly building anger.

"Exactly what I said they were doing." the priest said, unafraid of the undertone of anger he heard in Heracles' voice. "Did you think the lion doesn't come near because we can fight it off? Our weapons and armor are useless against the beast, and mighty demigods have proven to be unable to even scratch its hide. What hope can we, as mortal townsfolk, have against such a monster? The only choice we have is to make offerings to it as a Divine Beast, to keep it fed and full so that it stays away from our town and accept what traders make it to the town in that time."

"But to sacrifice children?!" Heracles countered, anger briefly managing to overcome his grief.

He was unable to counter the points the priest made. The people of Nemea didn't stand a chance if the lion were to attack them in earnest. If even half the stories he had heard of the legendary durability of the Nemean Lion's hide were true, then any attack they threw against it would be no more effective than rain water would be.

But that didn't mean he could just accept what was happening right in front of him.

"...Pardon me, but are you really one who can make such a statement right now, Heracles?" the priest asked as he looked back to the hero,

The return question caught Heracles off guard, making it seem as if the hero had taken a physical blow. After a second, on reflex, he would open his mouth to say something to counter the priest, but he could only close it when nothing came for him to say. A wave of frustration, grief, and guilt would hit him, and the hero could only grit his teeth and clench his hands into fists.

The sight of which would only make Bell's heart clench in sadness at seeing the hero in such a situation.

"But, if it would make you feel better to know-" the priest continued, getting Bell's and Heracles' attention once again. "We haven't fed any children to the lion yet, and if the stories of your strength are true, then there's a chance that we won't at all."

Relief would fill the hero that was there in flesh and the hero in training that was spectating. Though the fact that sacrifices have still been made and the lives of innocent people have still been lost, at least none of them had been children. It was a small comfort, but it was one that brought an immense amount of relief.

…But that would only lead to another question.

"...Then why-"

"Why are we going to have to now? Why are they deciding between them while you are here?" the priest interrupted Heracles, asking both of the questions that the hero had been going to ask before him.

"It's because, quite frankly, we've run out of adults to spare. We're only a small village, no great city state like Thebes or Athens, how high do you think our population was before the Lion came? How often do you think we've had to cull that number?"

As the priest began his answer, Heracles thought back to when they were walking through the village. He would remember the small number of people that he had seen walking through, smaller even than he had been expecting for a village like Nemea. He had thought they had been busy in the fields or hiding in their homes out of fear, but it seemed there was a much darker truth than that.

"After all that we've given to be devoured, the only ones that are left are the ones that are most essential to keep the village going. I would've volunteered myself, if only to save at least one of those children, but there is no one else here who knows how to properly honor the gods. And if the gods are not properly honored…"

"Have you not tried to leave before?" Heracles asked as he let what the priest left unsaid remain as such.

"Yes, we have…" the priest said sadly, likely remembering one of those attempts. "We've tried a number of times, but anytime we've tried to leave in decent numbers, the Lion was quick to run us down. The only thing that seems to keep it away is that it does not seem willing to go near the temple here. A small blessing from the gods, the only thing that shows that they have not completely abandoned us."

He paused for a second in his talking to look back at the gathering of children, at the gathering of potential sacrifices to the Lion. After a few more seconds, he was ready to continue.

"As for why they're still deciding even though you are here… They've gotten their hopes up before. Seeing brave and powerful heroes claiming to be the child of a god parade through the town announcing that they'll slay the beast, only for all of them to fail and one or both of their parents to be devoured. They've no reason to believe this time will be different. They've completely given up hope."

As if on cue, one child, a young boy that was barely even half Bell's age reached into the bowl and a look of fear would dawn on him as he saw what was in his hand, a rusted, damaged, coin with a hole punched through it. The meaning of the coin was obvious as tears welled up in his eyes and he fell to his knees crying at the lot he had been given. Some of the other children would go to try to comfort the child, others looked at him with sympathy and pity, but most were clearly relieved that it was not going to be them that was to die young.

Heracles looked upon the scene in silence. Something stirred within him as his gaze was locked on the child who had drawn the old and rusted coin. His fists clenched into fists as a unique kind of frustration filled him. Frustration that the people here were suffering so much and that, so far, nothing was able to have been done.

Could he have done something about this had he known about the true condition of these people brought by the lion? If by some miracle he did win this coming fight against one of the most feared monsters in all of Greece, could he have done it before? And spared these children, as well as all the people in this town such suffering?

But would he have ever done it? Going on the Argo, a ship filled to the brim with heroes, was one thing. But this was talking about fighting one of the worst monsters in all of Greece at a time where his family was still-

…

…Things had changed, however. Admittedly, he was uncertain if he would've fought the lion, simply out of fear of leaving his family without a father and husband. Now? He didn't have such a reason not to fight anymore.

But, first things first.

Heracles took a step forward without a word as he began walking over to the group of children. The sudden movement took the priest off guard as Heracles walked past him. The older man would ask after Heracles, wanting to know what he was doing, but Heracles didn't respond to him at all as he continued to walk toward the group of children.

As he approached, the children would quickly take notice of him, their feelings of pity and relief at the situation being interrupted as they looked up at Heracles in awe at seeing a man that was built like the Son of Zeus, even in the condition that he was. He didn't stop though, Heracles would walk past them while still making sure not to step over any of the children who had yet to take notice of him.

Not that there were many of them. Even in his diminished state, Heracles' presence wasn't something that could easily be missed if he did not make the active attempt to hide. So the only one of the children was the crying boy that had been selected and those that were more focused on comforting him.

Heracles would stare at the sight for a second longer, before turning his head towards his goal: the bowl that the children had been drawing from. It sat on the pedestal, it and the other coins inside it momentarily forgotten as the boy cried to the side of it. The rusted broken coin he had drawn lay in front of him, having dropped it when he fell to his knees to cry.

At this point, he was the only one of the children that had yet to notice the hero in front of him. He kneeled on all fours, head facing downwards as tears fell from his eyes onto the ground. All he could do was stare down in despair down at the stones that made up the pavement of the ground behind him-

Suddenly, a golden coin bounced down between his arms, a metallic ring sounding as it bounced and rolled before falling flat. The boy, in surprise, would blink a few times, clearing some of the tears from his eyes to make sure that what he was seeing was real. Then the sound of another movement came, making the boy, still confused as to why the coin had been dropped before him, look up to see what that movement was. He then let out a small grasp at the sight of Heracles standing back to his full height, having just crouched down to grab the old, rusted coin that the boy had drawn.

Neither the boy or Heracles said a word as they briefly looked at each other. The boy was too stunned and unsure of what was happening to even say anything to the hero, and Heracles simply chose to look down at the boy, eyes filled with something that the boy, or any one else in the small village had not seen in a long while. A fierce determination.

Without saying anything, Heracles would then suddenly turn and walk away, the children would once again clear out of their way, but all of them would stare in awe at his back as Heracles departed.

"Would you mind telling me what that was all about?" the Priest said as Heracles got closer once again and even walked past him slightly.

"...You said that those children didn't have a reason to hope anymore." Heracles replied, not looking at the priest, but clenching his hand tightly, the same hand that held the doomed coin. "I was giving them one."

The Priest was stunned at such a statement, along with the tone he had said it in. It wasn't a tone that a broken man that arrived in Nemea was properly able to muster, and it caught him off guard at hearing it so he couldn't give any response to it. Not that Heracles was going to give him the chance to.

Before the Priest could even begin to wonder what exactly had changed about Heracles to allow him to muster such a tone, Heracles began to walk away. There wasn't any reason for him to stay and talk after all. He had a Labor to complete.

And as he walked away, leaving the Priest in a stunned silence to watch him walk away, the Priest wasn't the only one that was watching him.

Bell stared at Heracles back as the hero walked away, his massive form slowly growing smaller. He knew the dream would soon shift to follow him soon, but that wasn't what Bell was focused on. No, what he had his focus on was the plethora of emotions that were welling up within him at the scene he had just witnessed and Heracles.

It was not some grand battle like in the first dream where he witnessed Heracles hold off the army of the Gegennes on his own, but that didn't change the fact that it was still just like a scene out of the stories that he had read as a child. In the same vein as the speech Argonaut, the one from his world, had given when he announced that he would defeat the Minotaur to the people of the town. One that showed the other role of a hero outside of battle: to give hope and to inspire others.

But alongside the feelings of awe and childlike joy that the scene brought, there was another feeling in Bell that came from a slightly disconnected realization.

Because as Heracles walked away, Bell noticed something. That while he may never be able to get over the grief and guilt of what had happened to his family, there was a huge step taken just now back towards who he had been before. For the first time since the dream had started, he saw Heracles hold his head high once again.

The Eighteenth Floor

Heracles ran through the wilderness of the Dungeon Safe Zone. His footsteps echoed throughout the otherwise silent jungle made by the Dungeon as he rapidly chased after his target. All of a sudden, he came to a brief stop as his instincts and Mind's Eye (False) screamed at him of an approaching danger.

He swung his massive landform weapon, shattering the dark, shadowy arrows out of the air before they could come into contact with him. Within the same breath of the swing, Heracles let out a growl before shooting forward at full speed towards where the arrows had shot out of the forests in pursuit of his prey. The madness that gripped his mind not letting him even appreciate some sick irony that his prey was one of the greatest hunters in all of human history, or a shadow of her at least.

A perfect example of why she occurred was when Heracles had managed to close the distance enough between them while the shadow had pulled another arrow into her bow. She was forced to loose it prematurely, however, When Heracles grew too close and it became clear that she wouldn't be able to pull the arrow back in time anyway. Unlike with the two previous arrows, Heracles didn't even bother deflecting this one as it broke against his skin.

Instead, he lowered his massive weapon to have gone through steel without slowing, cleaving through the ground that she had occupied not even a millisecond before. In the span of time it had taken Heracles to lower his weapon to the ground, the Shadow Servant had leaped upwards, using Heracles' shoulders as a foot step to leap further away while he was still carrying out his attack. She would then swing back around while still in midair, rapidly firing off more of her arrows, which shattered and bounced off of his God Hand defended skin.

Heracles let out another monstrous growl, as he quickly turned, pulling his Axe-Sword out of the ground before once again charging after her. But the Shadow Servant was already gained distance, quickly leaping to and fro branches in the trees and crystal outcrops, making use of the environment to keep her distance away from the raging Berserker who was slowed by it enough that the distance he tried to close only grew.

And that little engagement was a microcosm of the entire fight.

Heracles, even while slightly hampered to some minor degree by the Madness Enhancement with his loss of dexterity, was hardly slow. Not only was his Agility still ranked A as a Berserker, but in life, he had been able to keep pace with the Sacred Hind of Artemis, a Divine Beast fast enough to outrun his own arrows. Despite that, Atalanta was still faster than him.

A Shadow Servant may not have access to the True Self's Noble Phantasms, but they still have access to their base parameters as well as their skills. So not only did this Shadow Servant also have A ranked agility as well, but was also in possession of the Crossing Arcadia skill, which meant that not only was she not hampered by the rough and wild terrain of the wilderness but it could be argued that it helped her if anything. The latter was not something that Heracles was in possession of.

She may not have been as fast as Achilles, with his godspeed and instantaneous movement with Dromeus Komētēs, but she wasn't exactly far behind. Maybe a breath or a step slower than the fastest hero. Which meant that she was just fast enough to stay ahead of Heracles, especially in this terrain that they found themselves in, where his movement and massive swinging attacks could be slowed by the hard foliage around him.

All this to say, while Heracles was fast enough to keep up with the Shadow Servant, he wasn't able to catch her.

And while this was a frustrating in its own right, there was a distinctly positive aspect of this chase that was in the favor of Heracles.

While most of Atalanta's attacks and even her Noble Phantasms weren't A rank, and therefore couldn't penetrate through the defenses of God Hand, Atalanta did have something that could. If the Shadow Servant could draw her bow, the Tauropolos, back to its limit, her arrows could be shot with a strike force that exceeded even A rank. If she could do that, then even God Hand's defenses would be meaningless in the face of such an attack and be enough to kill him.

But that was only if she could. As long as Heracles kept the pressure up on the Shadow Servant, she would be unable to have the time to pull the bowstring that far. Putting them in a sort of stalemate where Heracles wasn't able to catch the Shadow Servant but neither could the Shadow of the Arcadian Huntress harm the Berserker Servant. So it became a battle of endurance between the two, where Heracles needed an opportunity where his prey made a mistake he could capitalize on and the Huntress had to wait for an opportunity where she could shoot her killing shot. 0

However, if this Shadow Servant had the barest trace of sapient thought, even she had to know that there was no way for her to emerge victorious from such a fight. Not only was the number of beings out there capable of even competing with Heracles in a battle of endurance slim and were in the ranks of gods, but even if she did get such a shot off, it would not be the end of it. Even if she did kill him, God Hand would bring about his return, and then the effectiveness of her arrows would be brought into question thanks to the resistances he would gain. Even if he would rather avoid that outcome for fear of what she would get up to while he was regenerating, there was no way she would be able to get through God Hand enough to take all of his lives.

So long as nothing changed, it would be Heracles victory-

"OOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOO!"

A deafening roar echoed throughout the forest and a shaking of the earth beneath him caught him off guard as he momentarily ceased his pursuit of the Shadow Servant to see what had caused such an emotion. Upon laying eyes on such a creature, however, he was momentarily surprised at the sight of the bizarre monster that met him. It may not have possibly been the strangest creature he had ever laid his eyes upon, the Ladon almost certainly had that prize and title, but it was still unlike just about anything that the hero had seen in either world.

That wasn't to say that it didn't have similarities, indeed there were similarities to the plant monsters that he had been fighting before. Part of it was in the overall color palette, but also because it seemed that there were numerous of those very monsters attached to the main body, forming what were essentially tentacles that ended in the plants' carnivorous heads. So it was fair to say that this monster was similar to the carnivorous plants in a few ways.

However, what truly made this monster a strange sight was that, just above where all of the "tentacles" met and joined together with the main body, was a humanoid female figure. Not to say it could ever have been mistaken as a human. It was far too large even as it lacked a real lower half as it joined into the rest of the monstrous body, and its face lacked any orifices other than its mouth. As if that wasn't enough, its skin was also green and had the same vibrant color scheme as the carnivorous plants.

Making sense of such a bizarre creature took Heracles a moment of simply looking at it. It was only after getting a good look of it and understanding what it was that Heracles realized that he was back in the general area of Rivira. That as he chased the Shadow Servant through the wilderness of the Dungeon, they had largely ooped back to the Dungeon Town.

Had the Shadow Servant meant for that to happen? Since he was chasing her, she had largely been in control of where their path had taken them? Was it even capable of such thought, and if it was, what purpose could it have in doing so?

A series of flashing lights caught Heracles' attention then, and focusing on them, he would be able to make out their sources. There he would see that the flashes were coming from the members of the Loki Familia as they fought against the monster. From where he stood, Heracles could see each of the members as they fought. He could see Finn, Tiona, Tione as they swung their weapons, cutting through the plant's legs, and he could see the two elven mages as they appeared to be setting up for something.

What he couldn't see was Ais and that red haired woman Heracles had been fighting before the Shadow Servant appeared. He imagined they were in combat, but the angle he was at didn't allow for him to catch sight of either of them, so they were obstructed somewhere. He didn't like that, not knowing if the Sword Princess was hurt or in danger, and he also didn't like that, so far, it seemed that the Loki Familia seemed to only have minimal success against the monster. Sure, they were doing some damage, cutting through the monster

A frustrated growl escaped him at the sight. He wanted to go back and help them to make sure that no one got hurt, but he couldn't do that, he had his own target to hunt and he was the only one that was capable of stopping the Shadow Servant in this circumstance. So he would have to put faith in their own strength and teamwork as he worked on hunting his own prey.

Speaking of which, the commotion brought about by the sight of the strange monster, had caused him to lose sight of Atalanta's Shadow Servant. He needed to quickly find her again, before she could get the opportunity to do something. For all he knew, she was lining a full powered shot that was aimed directly at him-

Heracles tensed as he suddenly sensed the buildup of magical energy. It wasn't the magic of the Elven mages as they both simultaneously prepared their spells, the magic in the air creating their magic circles as they chanted. No, this kind of magic was completely different from either of their spells, and it was far more like the energy that made up his own body: the build up of a Servant preparing a massive attack.

Following the build up at his source, he was quick to find the location of the Shadow Servant, the darkness that made up her body and the green glow of her charging the arrow in her bow standing out against the crystal outcrop that she had stationed herself at as a sort of snipers nest. Heracles gripped the handle of his Axe-Sword tightly and was about to fall into a defensive stance in order to try and deflect the upcoming shot, but then realized something. He realized that, just in the nick of time, the bow was not aimed at him.

Had he realized even a fraction of a second later, Heracles probably wouldn't have made it to save the life of Riviera. He leapt from his position in the forest with all the speed and force of a rocket, leaving where he left a crater, and narrowly making in time to swing his weapon at the arrow Atalanta's Shadow Servant had loosened at the High Elven mage, destroying the projectile in midair. While still in the air, Heracles hazarded a guess back toward the Loki Familia to see if they had noticed that one of their executive members' lives had been in danger.

They didn't, as far as Heracles could tell. Not only were they focused on the huge monster that had seemed to come from nowhere, but Atalanta's shadow was too far away, well on the other side of the Rivira. They probably wouldn't take notice of the sniper until one of her arrows made it to them, and by then, it would be far too late for at least one of them to make it out alive.

But Heracles had something else to think about as he landed in the village with what might as well have been a minor explosion, sending out a plume of smoke and dust.

Riveria had been no threat to the Shadow Servant when the Huntress' arrow had targeted her. Her magic would probably be enough to wipe any remains of it if it struck her, sure, but Riveria wasn't targeting her, she didn't even know the Shadow Servant existed. The only one that had both the power and the intention of bringing harm to the Shadow Servant was Heracles, but it had targeted Riveria even when Heracles had partially left himself open to a full powered shot. Such a thing made no sense aside from one single possibility and explanation: the Shadow Servant was defending the strange monster and was targeting what it considered to be the biggest threat to it over Heracles.

Why it was doing that, Heracles didn't know. He could only guess that both the Shadow Servant's summoning and the appearance of the monster were connected somehow, and that now the Shadow Servant might consider the monster something akin to a Master for it. It was the only thing that made sense to Heracles, even though he couldn't think of anything that would connect the two in such a way.

Of course, he had earlier been too focused on the threat of the Red Haired woman to take notice of the strange orb that the Shadow Servant had emerged from or known that after he had left to fight her, the orb would bring about the birth of the huge monster.

Regardless, the why didn't matter at the moment. If it was defending the monster from the Loki Familia, then it was just another reason to kill it as soon as possible. He could try and think about why it was later.

He prepared to charge. The distance was too great for him to prevent her from loosening another arrow, already he could sense the energy of her charging another shot, but he could try to be as large a threat to make the Shadow Servant focused on him or try and intercept it in midair again. But then two sudden new developments occurred.

First, he would sense that Riveria's magic disappeared suddenly. At first, he was worried that the High Elf had been killed by the monster or something else, but noticed that Lefiya's magic was still building and it realized what it was that the elves were doing. Riviera had been nothing more than a diversion to get the attention of the giant monster, which if its similarities to the plant monster were anything to go off of, was probably attracted to magical energy.

And the second development was that he noticed there was far more magical energy being charged in this shot than the last one. Which could only mean one thing: this arrow was going to be nothing short than a full powered shot. The last one had probably been just enough to guarantee a kill on the elf that was channeling the most magical energy and was therefore the biggest threat against the monster before moving on to the second one, only for it to be intercepted by Heracles in the air.

Now, it only had a single target that was an immediate threat against the giant monster, and while his Axe-Sword was quite durable thanks to its size and mass, it would be debatable if it would be able to stop something that had the strength that exceeded even an A rank attack and concentrated into a single point. Even if he used his own body, he would be unable to stop it, God Hand's defenses would be completely useless as the arrow would shoot right through his body onto its true target. Stopping the arrow from being fired was out of the question either, even if he somehow closed the distance in time, it was likely that the Shadow Servant would still fire the arrow at the expense of her own life if it meant protecting the monster, like a true Servant would to defend their Master.

All this to say that stopping or blocking the arrow in these conditions was out of the question, but there was still one thing that Heracles could do. And so he turned around, turning his back to the Shadow Servant, and he ran. He ran as fast as he possibly could, choosing to barrel through any obstacles rather than waste the small amount of time that he had running around it.

"Fall like rain, burn the savages to ash." Lefiya's voice echoed with magical power as she said the last line of her spells chant before saying the name of the spell itself and letting loose its power. The stratagem had worked perfectly, the monster having been so preoccupied with Riveria's greater concentration of magical power that it hadn't noticed Lefiya at all until just this moment. That was to say, until it was too late to do anything.

"Fusillade-" Lefiya began, saying the first half of the name of the spell that would, if not kill the monster outright, then crippling injuring it and allow the Loki Familia to claim victory against it. That was, if she hadn't been interrupted she would've

"RRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH"

Heracles' roar rang out, interrupting Lefiya as she saw that Heracles was charging straight toward her. For a brief second, the surprise and terror of something like Heracles charging and roaring toward her had made her forget who he was and that she was, bringing her back to Deeper Floors with one of its powerful monsters attacking her. And just like back then, she froze in terror, her spell forgotten and it was only by mage's instinct that she had canceled the spell in a way that it had not caused a Ignis Fatuus.

When Heracles reached her not even a second later, the magic circle wasn't even fully dissipated and Lefiya still hadn't fully processed the fact that it was Heracles, he grabbed her with one arm. He didn't have the time to be as gentle as he would've liked, but he still managed to hold back enough that he hadn't seriously hurt the girl besides making the area where he grabbed sore. And then threw her off to the side, causing her to let out an instinctive yelp from surprise and slight pain from being grabbed.

Then, time suddenly began to move in slow motion for all those members of the Loki Familia that had seen Heracles' sudden reappearance to interrupt the magic spell that they had been relying on for a quick victory. The shock of it was visible on their face as Heracles grabbed the mage and threw her to the side. But that surprise would be nothing for what was to follow, which would be enough for their expressions to contort in no small amount of shock and disbelief.

And none of them would see the coming sight better than Lefiya, who was by far the closest to what was happening, even as the momentum of Heracles' throw carried her back, and that meant that her vision was centered and all but dominated by Heracles. She could see nothing else as he suddenly began to turn in the direction of where he had come from. And then she would only be able to see that, before he could even complete the action- what appeared to be a green ray suddenly pierced straight through his body.

The world froze for a second as the sight of Heracles being completely skewered through the upper heart by some sudden and unknown attack would be the only thing the widening eyes of Lefiya could see. And in that moment, only she would be able to see the red glow that emanated from Heracles' skin and his eyes begin to go dull and glaze over as they seemed to stare back at Lefiya. And then the world would suddenly kicked back into motion the shockwave that came from a projectile moving so fast would arrive, blowing Lefiya back further and causing Heracles body to be carried by the back draft of the arrow, his massive body limp and lifeless as it was carried out of sight.

If it helps at all, I had not originally planned for this to be a cliffhanger, especially with one so big as the one I left it off yet. The reason is, not only was school keeping me busy with my classes, but with the rate I was going, this chapter probably would've been 40k+ and taken another three months. So in the name of drawing a line at the point of absurdity, and giving you all something before the 6 month mark, I've decided to split this up, cliffhanger be damned.

Before I go into some of the usual comments on why I make certain decisions, I'm going to be making a quick announcement of something that I'm working on. I'm going to be doing a personal rewrite of Lostbelt 5 overall since, while I personally really liked Atlantis overall, there were a BUNCH of little things all over Olympus that mad me mad the whole time I was playing it. Some of it was down to me just not really liking Fate's creative liberties of Greek mythology making me want to die, and somethings I legitimately regard as flaws. This is mostly for my own self satisfaction and I'll go over the issues that I had with different things if and when I do it. So if that interests you at all, for whatever reason, let me know.

For those of you who didn't know, I honestly didn't before making this chapter, Heracles' twin brother, Iphicles, has apparently been given the genderswap treatment by Fate. Which I personally think is a choice but I don't really have any other issues with it besides finding it odd, so I'm not going to do anything.

The Apocrypha anime did show Atalanta with the lion ears and tail during a flashback to the Argo, but that's either a mistake done by the people making the anime or because it was part of an illusion done by Jack the Ripper. It 1) directly contradicts other sources stating that she didn't 2) would make no sense since the reason she has them as a Servant is because she was turned into a lion at the end of her myth.

The Heracles story in the dreams is admittedly something I made up (I did say before that I was going to go down my own route with Heracles before), but it was inspired by some story I heard in which Heracles made a bet with a child that was to be sacrificed to the Nemean Lion before he came along and brought it to the extreme.

There might be one other weird decision I've made in this chapter, but I honestly can't think of anything. Anyway, I'll get to work on the next chapter soon so I don't leave you all hanging with this ending for very long.