What's good my guys?! Sorry that I'm taking a little slower to update these past few weeks, I've just been quite engorged in other activities, but I've still got some fight in me so no worries! I'm gonna be honest with you all here... I haven't really completely figured out where I want the story to go, but I'll try and discard ideas as we go, the ole' reliable method eh? Anyway, I've gotten a few kind words from a few of you and I just want to say that I'm super thankful that you guys think that my story's decent, hehe. Anyway, that's enough for now. Again, if there's something you guys want to clarify or criticism you want to share, feel free, I'll take it with a grateful heart, now on with the story!

I do not own Danmachi


Chapter XII: Revelation

The day after the following day of the attack, an emergency summons that had been called for by Ouranos, all present gods were called upon to discuss the nature of the attack and any additional information that they've found, having been summoned in Ouranos' chamber. The chamber of the almighty god was dark and crowded, with the lone, revered figure of Ouranos sitting on the throne raised high, a myriad of gods took up a genuflected position towards the god, showcasing their profound and indubitable respect for the old god, inside the chamber, not a single mortal soul was to be found as Ouranos had dismissed Fels and strictly warned him not to eavesdrop on the discussion.

Though, many gods were already present, quite a bit more were still to be found, not that Ouranos was expecting every god that had descended into the lower world

"I wonder if anybody's gotten to the bottom of this yet?"

Hestia murmured to herself, which the red-haired goddess beside her heard

With a smile, she spoke

"Not to worry chibi! My children are working on it! I'm expecting that they'll have some leads by the next few days!"

Said chibi goddess looked towards the red-haired goddess

"Be sure to notify me if anything pops up chopping board, we're in on this too if you haven't forgotten"

She let in a little teasing remark, which caused a vein to pop out of the trickster goddess' left temple

"Hah? Wha'd you say boobs for brains?!"

She was raising her tone in response to the insult when another goddess held out her hand towards her, diverting her attention to the goddess of smithing

"Hestia, Loki, have some restraint, we're in the presence of Lord Ouranos"

The smith goddess reminded them, which effectively shut them up

It was then that many excited voices could be heard, for a single figure was now gracefully walking into the chamber, swaying her womanly hips as her flowing silver locks swayed with her each movement

"Whoa! It's Lady Freya!"

"How've you been Lady Freya?"

"Good morning to you Lady Freya!"

Honestly, the obsequiousness of the deities towards her was slightly nauseating and shallow, there were trying a bit too hard to win her good graces, every move she made was praised and exalted by her fellow gods ad nauseam, she was getting tired of it

She simply returned all greetings to her with a cordial and graceful smile, then her mesmerizing violet irises turned towards the supreme deity who sat on his throne above them

"Ouranos-sama, a good day to you"

The goddess of beauty, Freya, acknowledged the superior god's presence and also announced hers

Ouranos simply nodded in acknowledgement towards the silver-haired goddess, who had taken up a genuflected stance beside Loki, who was also in the same position next to Hestia

"Good morning Loki, a fine day isn't it?"

She quietly greeted the red-head goddess with her characteristic sugary-sweet voice, who did acknowledge her, but wasn't too enthusiastic about it

"Uh huh, morning to you too Freya"

She returned her greeting with little enthusiasm, which made the goddess of beauty pout

"It truly saddens me that you don't look forward to my presence..."

She teased the red-head goddess, who simply sighed

Then, the goddess of beauty turned her head towards the two other goddesses next to her

"Oh, Hestia and Hephaistos! A beautiful morning isn't it?"

She initiated small talk, which both simply responded to her courteously so as to not come off as rude

"Indeed Freya"

Hestia replied

"How've you been recently Freya?"

Hephaistos asked, as Freya shook her head

"Same old same old, nothing notable is happening much which is just boring me to death..."

The goddess of beauty sighed whilst the red-haired smith goddess simply chuckled at her response

Many of the gods and goddesses were chatting and catching up as they haven't had much occasion to do so for quite some time, this resulted in audible chatter and an incomprehensible sea of voices talking to one another, which slightly irked the supreme god of the skies, who raised an arm in response and closed his hand into a fist, which silenced all of their chatter

"Has everybody been accounted for?"

The imposing baritone voice of the supreme god spoke

"Unfortunately, a few fellow gods were unable to come due to circumstances, Ouranos-sama..."

Hermes' tone was professional, controlled and polite, a far-cry from his exuberant and often overly-enthusiastic personality that he commonly showcases to most people, a result of being in the presence of a supreme deity that could literally condemn you to an eternity of punishment and repentance at the slightest infraction should he will it

Said god nodded his head curtly in acknowledgement of the messenger god's statement

"Understandable, but if any of you happen upon our currently missing brothers and sisters, do kindly relay to them the message"

A sea of approvals came out from the group of deities present

"Now then, we shall be quick as there is still much to do..."

He gazed over the other gods for a little bit before continuing

"As you all know, the attack that occurred on the surface of Orario is quite mysterious in nature, not much information has been unearthed so far about who is responsible for such a trespass against our beloved city"

Many nodded their heads in agreement of the supreme god's words while some had preferred to remain silent and just keep on listening, which Ouranos was thankful for

"Now, it has also come to my attention that the Loki Familia's expedition force's retreat back to the surface had coincided with the appearance and attack of the monsters..."

The great god of the skies stiffly turned his head towards the red-haired goddess in question, who wore an indignant expression on her face

"To clarify Ouranos, my children told me that they were forced to abandon the expedition due to renewed activity from Evilus, the timing of their return was simply unfortunate and nothing more..."

The other gods flinched at the casual way Loki addressed the god of the sky, who raised an eyebrow at the goddess

Loki decided that mentioning Evilus to the deities wasn't a breach of security, it might even earn her support from the other Families and even from Ouranos himself, to rid this world of Evilus once and for all was the concurrent wish of many of them since they had inflicted so much death and suffering to an innumerable number of people

The lone god who sat on his throne eyed the red-haired goddess, scrutinizing her for any external signs of deceit, since a fellow god can't inherently tell if the other is lying, not even a god as great as Ouranos

FInding none, he sighed

"It appears that you speak the truth..."

He trailed off

Oh how Loki wanted to respond with a snarky "Well duh..." but stopped herself at the last second as that would be a step too far with Ouranos

So she had simply decided to respond in a polite manner

"Honest as my children's work!"

She smiled at him with her characteristic smile

Chatter could be heard from many deities around her, a wide range of options circulated, from belief in her words to outright calls of distrust for the trickster goddess

"If I may Lord Ouranos..."

Freya raised a dainty arm, earning the god's attention along with all other deities present

"You may speak your thoughts, Freya"

The imposing baritone voice of Ouranos granted access

"I believe Loki owes us an explanation of what exactly had transpired within the dungeon"

With a sinister smile, the voice of Freya spoke, which roused the red-haired goddess

"Pray tell, why would I tell you about that, Freya?"

All sense of decorum was thrown out the window as Loki snarked at the goddess of beauty, who simply kept the smile on her face, unperturbed by the trickster goddess' harsh tone towards her

"My my Loki, have some tact in the presence of Ouranos-sama will you?"

The more she spoke, the more agitated the red-haired goddess grew

Saying nothing against her, she simply remained quiet and glared at the silver-haired goddess

"Enough, the both of you... Loki, I can't deny that I'm also interested in what happened with the expedition force and Evilus"

Ouranos interjected between the two of them, which caused Loki to sigh deeply

"Arg! Fine"

In the end, she told them what had happened, albeit unenthusiastically

.

..

...

..

.

"I see, that is quite unfortunate..."

Ouranos went silent for a bit after learning of the rabbit boy and Lefiya's misfortunate encounter with the red-haired monster tamer of Evilus, the surrounding deities all expressed their sympathies for both Rabbit's Foot and Thousand Elf

"I assume both young Bell Cranel and young Lefiya Viridis have fully recovered?"

Ouranos inquired Loki, which she nodded to

"Indeed, they're tough kids"

Loki replied, which earned the god's nod of acknowledgement

Slowly, Hermes raised his hand, which caught everybody's attention

"Ouranos-sama, if I may?"

With a nod from the god, Hermes sighed in relief

"Hearing about this huge feat from both adventurers, what do you guys say about holding a minor Denatus right now? While we're all here for now"

Most of the deities present in the room could see where he was going with this, and they were in accord

"Hmm... I do think that the recent feats of young Bell Cranel and young Lefiya Viridis are significant enough to warrant new aliases for them both"

Ouranos agreed, which caused a roar of approval and enthusiasm from the deities to break out

"I AM GANESHA!!!"


After the impromptu Denatus had been concluded and the emergency meeting initiated by Ouranos had been adjourned, the chamber of the god of the sky slowly got more and more vacant as the gods excused themselves to go on about their day, except for two goddesses, who'd decided to stay and discuss a few things with the supreme god in private

Once everybody but the three of them were out, Loki and Hestia stared at each other, the goddess of Hearth raising an eyebrow at the trickster goddess, unsure of what she wanted to discuss with Ouranos and her

"So... what'd you want to talk about Loki?"

She inquired as the red-headed goddess remained silent and unmoving

"Loki, what is it that you wanted to tell us that is such sensitive information that you'd wait until everybody has left?"

Ouranos inquired as well, which finally the red-headed responded to

"Sorry... was checking if somebody's still near and listening in..."

Her countenance remained serious, indicating the gravity of the matter

"Out with it Loki"

Hestia pestered, which caused the red-haired goddess to emit a deep sigh

"It'll be quite a story, so I'll start from the beginning, eh?"

The previous day...

"Oi Loki! You better come check this out!"

The voice came from the disembodied head of Bete, which was poking out of the dimensional distortion on the wall

Snapping out of her thoughts, Loki nodded her head as she also slipped into the portal

Landing gracefully on her two feet, she was shocked to see the sight in front of her

Living quarters, with a few sofas flanking a coffee table positioned in the middle of the room, by the walls were a few bookshelves with a modest number of books that were leather-bound and were bereft of titles, there was also, unsurprisingly, a desk with a chair and a few notebooks on top of it

A bed could be found beside the desk and chair, which was neatly made with a dark green bedding

There was also a small kitchen, with an oven and pantry beside it

Thankfully, nobody else was present inside the space, which gave them the freedom to have a look around, though it doesn't mean that they could afford to be careless, as the robed figure or anybody else in that matter could come

"Hell... that weirdo lives here?"

Bete had a look around as Loki started rummaging through the books by the bookshelf, she took out a few books and skimmed through their contents, some discussed psychology, biology, anatomy and physiology of many different species, botanology and even a bit of astrology, nothing out of the ordinary

Bete had a look in the pantry, mostly finding canned food and a few condiments inside

Moving on from the bookshelf, Loki then inspected the desk with a drawer, she had decided to check the drawer first, in which a pen and a small container of ink inside, then she went and had a look through the notebooks position on the top left of the desk


Log XX XX XXXX:

I now wholeheartedly believe that the time is most ripe to inflict destruction upon this wretched city that we call Orario, a cesspool of foolish mortals and fellow gods alike whom are painfully unaware of the higher calling that has been flatteringly entrusted upon our unworthy hands by the dungeon, we shall strike while the iron is hot, at dawn, the incubators shall set free many monsters, which will wreak havoc upon this perverted and impure city.

Log XX XX XXXX:

It's the same day of the attack, the destruction inflicted by the monsters before they were contained by the Freya Familia was more than what was expected, but what is most infuriating is that the Loki Familia had been supposedly forced to return to the surface after a certain Rabbit's Foot and Thousand Elf's unfortunate encounter with our dear Revis, simply thinking about their indiscretion is enough to make my blood boil, but I digress, it appears that the Loki Familia and allies' expedition has been postponed until a later date can be proposed, trying to look at the bright side of things, this can give us ample time to gather our thoughts and be more careful in our movements against them, once they fall, the lesser familias will be no trouble at all for us, but seeing as the Loki Familia possessed multiple strong members, aided by Rabbit's Foot, it seems to warrant asking for assistance from 'The Organization'... I shall discuss our allegiance with Apophis-sama soon within a few days, I will update on how it went soon...

Log XX XX XXXX:

Speaking with the revered Apophis-sama has been a bone-chilling experience, his very presence heralds destruction and suffering, and the surroundings just seem to grow much more dark and sullen with his very presence, his deep basso profundo voice is most alluring yet intimidating at the same time, we have had interactions in heaven before, but every time I speak to him, it feels as if we're speaking for the first time and are merely strangers... I digress, the discussion was a success, Evilus has successfully earned the favor and aid of 'The Organization', they shall assist us in our endeavors and we theirs, things are looking up for now, I'm feeling confident that we'll be able to awaken and unleash Chaos upon this world to begin anew and cleanse ourselves of the sins and misgivings of the old world, before creation, destruction must first ensue


As Loki skimmed through the contents of the logbook, her eyes widened in panic

"Apophis?! That bastard's up to something?!"

She exclaimed in shock, which earned a look from the werewolf beside her

"Apophis? Is that a god?"

He inquired, which Loki nodded at

"Yeah... he's the god of destruction and darkness, he's nothing to be scoffed at... he's easily so much stronger than Freya's favorite kid"

The shock from this revelation nearly made Bete jump out of his skin

"What the fuck?! How is that possible?!"

His curse made Loki raise an eyebrow at him

"How's it possible that a god could be that powerful? Or how's it possible that a god could be battle-capable?"

She asked for confirmation from the werewolf

"Both!"

She chuckled at this, and then answered

"Well, for the first one... since he's not bound by the rules of Orario, or our pledge as deities when we descended into the lower world, he's probably making fine use of his divine power, with that knowledge... if we were to pit him against the captain of the former Hera Familia, which was the only known level nine... Apophis would still come out on top, albeit, a bit bruised and roughed up, but on top nonetheless. For the second question, we aren't called the gods of this and that arbitrarily ya' know? A god of war has to know how to wield and swing a sword ya' know?"

Her answers seemed to satisfy the werewolf, who remained silent as he thought about a situation where he'd encounter such an insurmountable foe, which is very much likely based on what they've found in this little treasure cove

'I-if what Loki says is true... then how the hell are we supposed to beat such a monster?'

Unbeknownst to Bete, his arms began to slightly tremble, the profound realization that they will eventually have to confront such a calamity; and soon it seems, rendered the werewolf shaking from the disturbing thought

The red-haired goddess wasn't faring any better than the werewolf, her thoughts were racing a million miles an hour

'Shit! I thought Apophis was sent back to heaven long ago! I didn't know he was still around and heading some sort of greater organization superior to Evilus... we need to find out more about this organization... but we first should probably find out who the hell that robed creep is and get some answers out of him... it ain't gonna be easy though...'

As Loki was deep in thought, her gaze fell upon a painting hung up on the wall

It was an exquisitely detailed and elaborate portrait of a dark-haired woman who possessed deep-red eyes with small angelic wings standing on a wave from the ocean, directly in front of the sun; casting a silhouette, with a depiction of the earth on her hand, the art piece was also cleanly divided into dichotomies by a fine line that had bisected the woman lengthwise, the left part was dark and gloomy which contained agonized and disturbingly contorted faces, bodies and joints twisted to painfully irregular directions and the heavily bloodied figures of many profusely crying and/or screaming mortals who were depicted to be running from some sort of calamity, there were also creatures with small, grotesque figures of children with angelic wings holding trumpets and/or violins surrounding them, with wicked and derisive grins on their face, it was as if they were making fun of the suffering mortals for their foolishness. The right division was a much more pleasant sight to look at, an endless meadow tinted with a very warm shade of light yellow that was pleasant to the eyes, with more mortals, this time frolicking in the endless ocean of wheat and sunshine, crying their heart out as if to thank the gods profusely for the precious breathe of life they have received despite their unworthiness. The globe in the woman's right hand seemed to glimmer as Loki held out a softly glowing magic stone that she had kept on her in order to better scrutinize the very interesting work of art

"Hmm... this one certainly seems to be very well made..."

Bete gave the trickster goddess a look

"What the hell Loki? Now's not the time to be admiring artwork!"

He barked at his goddess before she raised a singly, dainty finger to silence him

"I may be the goddess of trickery, but I do enjoy myself a good art piece every now and then... and this is definitely made by the hands of a true virtuoso who has perfected their trade... with a single frame, a myriad of stories are told it appears... this artwork clearly shows the dichotomy of creation and destruction, since the frame of destruction is on the left side; and I assume that's how it's to be interpreted, it depicts that before the bliss can be experienced, a calamity must first pass, to experience pleasure, hardship and suffering must come first, lest you won't fully grasp what it means to truly live... also, I assume these grotesque angels surrounding the woman to be her followers, i.e. Evilus and this 'Organization', who will herald the coming of the calamity..."

Bete simply listened to the goddess' interpretation of the painting

"Where are you going with this?"

He was getting more and more agitated by the second

"Ah! I got a bit caught up there hehe... long story short, Evilus and 'The Organization' are both working towards a common goal here... to usurp the current world order and herald a new one under their rule..."

Before Bete could give his feedback, Loki quickly interjected

"But we know what Evilus wants already... what I don't know is why they stayed separate?"

"Tch Perhaps they have different ways of getting things done? Don't know, don't care either!"

Bete quickly shut down the conversation before it could progress any further, then it was then that he noticed something a bit unusual...

"Oi Loki, cast a beam of light on that globe will you?"

He nudged her hurriedly, which surprised her

"Hm? What for?"

She asked as the werewolf grimaced

"Just do it!"

Sighing, she augmented the crystal to beam out a ray of light, then pointed it towards the globe, which then reflected the light upwards onto the ceiling

"So? Now what?"

She asked, to which Bete scoffed at

"Have some patience will ya? I have this vague feeling that we'll find something with this"

He grumbled at his goddess' complaints

Pointing the beam at the globe in different directions, after reflecting the beam at precisely a 90 degree angle, the ray of light bounced off the reflective surface and onto the wall behind them, with the focal point of the ray of light glowing intensely as extensive cracks appeared around it, almost resembling a pattern

Then the wall slowly crumbled into rubble, revealing a sort of small laboratory, with sets of flasks, decanters and Petri dishes meticulously set down on a pristine, silver colored table, the containers held within them a myriad of unknown liquids and/or substances, at the left side of the small room was a coat hanger with a clean laboratory coat hung up along with safety goggles, also beside the silver table was a surgical table surrounded by paraphernalia and unknown apparatus, none of these were notable for them... well perhaps the surgical table was a bit alarming, but that wasn't what caught their attention...

What did get their attention was a large and transparent container cabinet a few feet in front of the table, seeing what they contained, their eyes widened

Within the transparent cabinet could be found multiple containers of incubating monsters of different kinds, the two of them had recognized the fire, lobster and spider monsters being contained, along with a few more monsters of varying kinds, eagle-like creatures with small protrusions on their forehead, great-ape like creatures with a scorpion's stinger, creatures that were a cross between a lizard and a very muscular human, or lizard men, along with many other kinds of creatures...

'Chimeras?'

Loki thought, disturbed as she eyed the contents of the transparent cabinet

"Damn... this guy's something... he made a secret lair inside a secret lair..."

Bete couldn't help but sigh into the palm of his hand, appalled at the discovery

"Apparently they have more toys in their repertoire..."

Loki went towards the cabinet to try and take a sample to take with them back, but she quickly found that she was unable to open it

"What the...?!"

As her hand attempted to grab the handle for the cabinet door, magical inscriptions glowed softly, appearing around the cabinet door in a circular pattern

"Tch! It's magically sealed... move out of the way Loki!"

Bete pushed the red-haired goddess aside as he cocked back a fist

Releasing it, the powerful blow from the werewolf made contact with... a force field?

'What the hell?!'

Bete was taken aback by the unexpected occurence, taking a few steps back as he stared at the magically protected cabinet in annoyance

"Fuck! nothing we can do about it then..."

He sighed, deeply annoyed that he was unable to break through the magical protection, then Loki concluded...

"Well, since we can't take a souvenir with us lest we alert our friend... we'll report these findings to the others verbally... now, how about we get out of here?"

"About damn time"

They had successfully gotten out without betraying their presence to anybody nearby, if there were any


"That is most troublesome..."

Ouranos was now visibly upset and sat rigidly on his throne

Hestia wasn't any better as she digested all of the information the red-haired goddess shared with them

"A-Apophis is down here?! This is really bad!"

She couldn't help but massage both her left and right temple, a massive headache inundating the small goddess

"Indeed, Apophis has been a rogue figure since he has descended here into the lower world, he has no affiliation with benevolence whatsoever, only himself and those of concurrent interests with his own, as Orario currently stands, our very best may not be enough to stand against his might, had only the Zeus and Hera Familias remained..."

Loki eyed the god weirdly

'He dare say that in my presence, this hermit...'

Loki, when the Zeus and/or Hera Familias are mentioned, frowns in displeasure, she vividly remembers how her Familia had formed a syndicate with the Freya Familia to drive both debilitated Familias out of Orario and fill the power vacuum that they eventually left behind, due to the hegemony of both of the former top familias having been toppled, Evilus saw it as their chance to try and take over Orario in order to overthrow and restructure its regimen to their interests and ambitions, but were eventually bested by the full might of Orario, which had severely weakened them, the current congregation of Evilus is nothing more than a hollow shell of its former self. But, there exists a group that is more radical than Evilus, 'The Organization', while Evilus simply wants to overthrow Orario and its allies, to establish a new regimen under their rule, 'The Organization' wouldn't be quite satisfied with such a menial task, led by Apophis himself, the congregation wishes to take over the entire world, as far as the eye can see and beyond

"Are you implying that we bring them back here, Ouranos?"

Loki spoke through gritted teeth, which the supreme deity of the skies noticed, but paid no mind as he very well understood the trickster goddess' resentment for both former familias

"I am not, Loki, I am thinking of an alternative solution..."

His eyes landed on Hestia, who gulped from his steely gaze

"Hestia... your child, Bell Cranel leveled up last week and a half yes?"

He inquired, to which the goddess of Hearth timidly nodded

Turning his questioning stare away from the small goddess, he fixated his stare dead straight, then closed his eyes seemingly as if he was in deep thought, the god of the sky's chamber had stayed silent for a few moments before Ouranos' voice of decisive tonality was heard once more

"I believe that the boy, Bell Cranel, will be instrumental in the downfall of Evilus, 'The Organization', and Apophis himself

Hearing the god speak those words, Loki and Hestia's eyes both widened

"Are you kidding me Ouranos? I know the kid levels up crazy fast but even a level nine would be no match for that gloomy bastard!"

Loki retorted, as Hestia nodded dumbly

"What she said..."

Hestia could only agree with the red-haired goddess' logic

As if he had expected them to contradict his opinion, Ouranos sighed, a rare display from the supreme god

"I understand that it may seem most absurd to you both that a child; a nascent adventurer that's not even a year in his endeavor, would be able to overcome such insurmountable odds, but a vague feeling tells me that the boy is most crucial to the battle against the darkness awaiting its chance to strike... after all, the boy has somehow consistently bested monsters and threats alike that should have killed him many times over"

Both Hestia and Loki sighed, Hestia honestly didn't want to doubt her own child's capabilities, but if what Loki said about Apophis being stronger than a level nine was true... believing that Bell Cranel's strength will prevail is just absolutely absurd

"Well, we shall discuss this at another time, do not shy away from bringing more information to my attention, should the two of you discover anything else, adjourned!"

And with that, both had left Ouranos' chambers to leave the supreme god be

"Oh Gaia... however will we overcome such a challenge?"


-Fin-

Tbh, this was kind of a filler chapter as I originally wanted Bell to interact with Lefiya in this chapter, but I ultimately decided that it can wait until the next chapter, just to develop the story a bit more before we get into the fluff, hehe. Also, I kinda struggled a bit on how I'm gonna break it out that there's another, larger Organization out there aside from Evilus... but I think this'll do, it's not the most poetic/suspenseful way of doing it, but this'll probably suffice for our purposes, also, I'll try to find the willpower to write chapters a little bit more often, not to the point where it'll feel rushed, soooo yeah... that's all I want to say for now... I'll see you babies in the next one!