Chapter 22: Miracle.

Normal POV.

"GRAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!"

Howl.

A skill that all Monsters and Floor Boss posses, this move has two types of effect. The first is knocking out unconcious the user's enemies if they are a weak enough to fight the monster and the second one is Fear. Losing all their will to survive and succumbing to despair.

But the Loki Familia were used to it so they had no problem withstanding it but they had to cover their ears since the sound was so loud that everyone in the city could hear it loud and clear.

Seeing the opportunity to escape thanks to the giant Minotaur, the armed monsters escaped through the underground tunnel to hide and regroup as well as prepare for their return to the dungeon.

"Everyone! Subdue that thing right away! That's no normal Minotaur! We'll be dead if we try to go one on one with it!" Finn ordered. He's not the type of person to panic but sensing that the minotaur is probably as strong as Ottarl who's in the peak of Level 7, he had no choice but to go all out against it.

And he's not wrong with his decision as Bete and Tiona combined was easily knocked out buy just a single swing of it's arms. This angered Tione and made her unleash all of her strength.

"You... YOU GODDAMN BULL!!!!! EAT THIS!!!!" She launched at full speed and throw a barrage of fists and kicks at it's body but as she does so, she noticed something that scared her for a bit.

"Heh..." The monster grinned while taking all the damage, it scared her for a moment and made her stop her attacks. This gave the minotaur the chance to pull his Magic Axe(Magic sword in the form of axe).

Seeing the power that the Magic Axe contains, Riveria decided to step in and put up a barrier. Not to protect their members from the explosion but to contain it to avoid unnesecary destruction to the city.

She succesfuly contained it but it did cost her a lot of her mind as well as sustaining a lot of damage herself and was about to collapse.

Finally, after succesfuly returning the Vouivre back to it's original and small form, Bell decided to move and catch her before she falls to the ground. After seeing her state, he started to blame himself inside his head for what happened to her and the others.

But after the smoke cleared up. He saw Aiz behind the minotaur ready to slice it's left arm with her Desperate. After placing Riveria comfortably to the ground. He charged his argonaut to his feet and launched at her at blinding speed, stopping her attack as well as destroying the monster's Magic Sword.

CLANG

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!? THAT MONSTER WILL HARM ANYONE IT SEES! LET ME KILL THAT MONSTER!! STEP ASIDE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET KILLED YOURSELF!!" She forced her way through and succeeded knocking Bell's sword away.

Finn noticed the sword and felt something about it. When it landed, he finally realized that the sword that the unknown adventurer posses is the sword of their old ally. The captain of Astrea Familia Alise Lovel.

"Don't tell me... Astrea-sama has returned...?"

Aki then followed Aiz and started to also launch her attack towards the minotaur. They did land blows succesfuly but because of it's high status, the monster easily avoided countles killing blows both of them threw.

The giant bull finally unarmed both Aki and Aiz which Finn and Gareth did not expect, but after that he realize something about the giant monster.

"Gareth, prepare. We'll step in and help Aiz and Aki, seeing it's movements and how it fights. I finally figured out why it had trouble dealing with Aiz and Aki. It may have a status on par with Ottarl but it relies heavily on brute strength and battle instinct. That's why even if they are clearly weaker than it, they managed to give it some trouble because of their excellent swordsmanship. Let's Go! l"

"Young girls! Stand back!!!" Both Gareth and Finn launched and headed straight in front of the two girls.

Gareth was the first to attack. He may be slow compared to all the other three but his attacks did put a lot of pressure on it thanks to his unbelievably high strength as well as his tenacity. Even after receiving strong blows, he never budged but instead continued his assault.

"OOORAAA!!!" He tried to slash the minotaur's horn but before he could put a crack on it, the monster threw a punch on his side which he was forced to block.

"Gah!!" The force of the punch was so strong that it sent shockwaves throughout the battle field.

But thanks to the dwarf's incredible endurance, Finn finally found an opening and slashed it's body with his spear.

"Heh..!! GRAAAAAAHH!!!!!" Seeing how powerful his opponent is, the minotaur decided to get a little more wild and fierce on it's attacks but seeing how things might end up. Bell sent a signal to the other armed monsters and together, they threw a smoke bomb.

While the Lizard Man known as Lyd told the black Minotaur to retreat, Bell decided to remain and talk to the Loki Familia about things. Which did not end up well when Aiz attacked him with great ferocity!

CLANG

Their swords clashed around. Aiz launched countless attacks seriously attempting to harm the person in front of her while the said person only defended himself, not wanting to hurt one of his friends and his previous mentor.

"Why... Why did you help those accursed monsters escape!? They bring destruction and sadness to people! How dare you call yourself an "Ally Of Justice" if you're helping those evil monsters do what they want!!?? TEMPEST!! " Aiz activated her magic, desperately trying to over power the unknown adventurer.

"AREN'T WE THE SAME!!?? WE KILL MONSTERS SO WE CAN GET MAGIC STONES AND TRADE THEM FOR MONEY!!?? HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT FROM THOSE MONSTERS YOU MENTIONED IF ALL WE DO IS JUST KILL THEM AND NOT TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THEIR THOUGHTS AND MOTIVES!! WHAT IF ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS TO LIVE WITH US HUMANS AND DEMI-HUMANS!? WHAT IF THEY ONLY WANT TO WITNESS HOW BEAUTIFUL THE SUNLIGHT OUTSIDE THE DARK DUNGEON!!?? CRIMSON LIGHTNING!!! "

Red lightning starts to envelop his sword. Enchanting it and giving it more power to counter Aiz's own magic.

Seeing the chaos in front of him, Finn decided to stop Aiz with the help of Gareth but before he could speak, Aki launched at them at full speed.

CLANG

Bell continued to defend himself from the Sword Princess' fierce attack. He knew that he won't survive it he take this lightly because all of her attacks were packed with an immense amount of killing intent.

Aiz getting irritated broke his guard with one powerful upward swing with her sword. Seeing his guard broken, she unleashed her magic's full power and called forth for it.

"LIL RAFAGA!!!! " She pointed her sword directly towards his chest.

"STOP AIZ!!!"

That moment, all the memories the two of them spent together flashed back to him.

Every moment she teased him, she smiled at him and cared to him. Their dance together, the training, their first date and lastly, the time where he broke his promise to Astrea and showed himself to the one that he loved. The night Aki thought that was just a sweed dream were all real.

Thanks to Fel's magic item that can alter one's memories, Aki could not remember it but for Bell, it was their happiest and most memorable moment.

As Aki pushed him aside, Aiz could not do anything except for canceling her magic. It was already too late since the tip of her blade has already landed on her skin and slowly, it pierced her body al the way to her heart.

"No way..."

"AKI-SAAAAN!!!!!!" Bell screamed as he caught her falling. Her body was covered in her blood with Aiz's sword still inside her chest. Bell tried to pour all the elixir he had but it had no effect.

"No no no... Not like this..!!" Bell immediately removed his mask and hood when he saw that Aki is still clinging to her life.

"Aki-san! Please hold on! It's me Bell!!" He held her tightly as he begged the girl to stay strong. Aki smiled at him and slowly reached out to his face to wipe his tears out.

"B.. ell... I'm gl... ad that I... met you... Again... *COUGH. Please... don't be sad... and please... don't hate... A-Aiz... it was all an accident... and besides... it was my decision to save you with my own life... even though I don't know it's yo-*COUGH *COUGH GAHH..!!"

"NO NO..!! HOLD ON AKI-SAN... DON'T YOU REMEMBER!? THE HOLY NIGHT FESTIVAL WHERE WE MET AND SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER! WHERE WE CONFESSED TO EACH OTHER!!"

"I-I see... So... it was not just... some dream... I'm glad..."

Aki's arm holding Bell's face slowly lost it's strength and is starting to fall down. Bell tried to hold it with his left hand but was slow enough to catch it.

Slowly, all of the Loki Familia executives who got knocked out slowly woke up. Witnessing Bell slowly pulling out the sword on Aki's back. Infuruated, Bete and Tione launched at him but Gareth who saw everything that happened blocked their path.

"OLD MAN! STAND ASIDE! I'LL KILL THAT KID RIGHT NOW!!" Bete drew his magic sword and channeled it's power to his boots.

"HE'S RIGHT!! HOW DARE HE KILL AKI AFTER ALL THE THING SHE'S DONE FOR HIM!!??"

"SHUT UP YOU TWO!!!!" Surprisingly, Tiona was the one who snapped out at them, even though she just woke up. She knew that he's not the one who stabbed her because if he's the one, he won't be crying like this.

"CAN'T YOU SEE!!?? HE'S MORE DEVASTATED TO THIS THAN US!! AND LOOK AT HIS SWORD! THERE'S NOT A SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD ON IT AND THE SWORD THAT HE JUST PULLED OUT OF HER CLEARLY BELONGS TO AIZ!!!"

All of them stood there silently while looking at the boy who's holding Aki's body tightly, praying desperately to the gods who currently holds no power to ressurect the dead.

"I'm sorry..." With that, Aiz ran away from the scene.

Riveria slowly started to approach Bell, while she herself have already recovered some of her mind, it's not on the level yet where she can use her most effective healing magic. Yet even knowing this, she started to sing and a green magic circle slowly appeared under Bell and Aki.

"Riveria, stop... There's nothing we can do now... You that healing magic and potions cannot restore broken internal organs, they might be able to heal the damage it receives but reconstructing them is impossible. Even the mermaid's blood could not do something like that..." Finn reached out to her, tapping her shoulder and looking at the body of their fallen comrade.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Bell let out a scream. A scream full of pain and sorrow in it, the ones who've heard it can't help but also cry and feel sorry for him. Not even Bete was an exception as he remembered what happened to his clan.

Even the newly arrived members of Loki Familia could not help but shed tears after seeing and hearing Bell's desperate scream.

But it's not the end yet.

A giant silver magic circle appeared under Bell. Releasing an unbelievable amount of power around him but when he noticed what was really happening, he started to cry again and embraced Aki.

Aki's body that's currently turning into gold essence slowly became normal again, and all the damage and her heart has started to be repaired.

"O, Untrodden Land, O, Forbidden Wall Today, on this day, I turn my back on the rule of the heavens. Rod of Pius. Bowl of Salus O, voice, you who no powers of healing can reach, I beg of you to wait. Endless tears. The sound of singing scatters and fades. The price has already been paid. O, path of light, receive the prescribed past as sacrifice, I wish for you to illuminate a foolish plea. Oh, I cannot look back. Dia Orpheus! "

As the unknown figure finished it's chant, the sky grew darker before the pillar of silver light errupted and shone brightly. So bright that it could be seen by the whole world.

Everyone who saw it knew one thing. It was beyond any explanation, it was something so divine that only one god could explain what was hapenning. But the other gods who saw this knew what was happening.

"Hermes-sama..."

"There's no mistaking it... It's a Miracle." The god of travel said with a smile as he witnessed the magic from one of the building of Daedalus Street.

Meanwhile, Freya and Ottarl gazed at the beautiful light with serious eyes.

"A magic that surpasses human knowledge I see... So this is your doing huh? Ouranus..." She said as she stood in front of her throne with Ottarl beside her.

As the magic slowly disappears, Aki slowly woke up. When she opened her beautiful gray eyes, she smiled when she saw her beloved Hero gazing at her with tearful eyes. She smiled radiantly at the boy and slowly embraced him gently while placing her forehead infront of his own.

"I'm back... Bell."

As they slowly stood up while smiling at each other, Bell's goddess finally made an appearance. She slowly walked towards their direction and when she's only few steps away from them. She stopped.

"Bell, I'm sorry for entrusting you all of this. I knew from the start that this will happen if you follow your heart, you were bound to fight your allies and the whole city after that. But I did not do anything to stop you..." She slowly removed her hood and revealed herself to the adventurers currently present.

All of them gasped except for Finn who already realized Bell's master. All of them found this impossible because when Astrea left after her Familia got masacred by the trap Evilus set for them, she said that she'll never return.

"Yes, I am his goddess. The one who entrusted him the will to carry on what is right, as well as the sword that my former captain posses, Crimson Order. I am the Goddess Of Justice Astrea."

Yow...

I think this is the most emotional chapter I've ever written.

I also gave Mordred's "Crimson Lightning" to Bell as a enchant magic.

Thanks for reading this and stay tuned for the next chapter. Stay safe guys!