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"Alright, be quiet," Cranel said they were back in the room ready to listen to the next future event. However, it was only Hestia familia, Loki, and her executives, Artemis, and Ryuu.
"Before we begin, Bell and Ryuu, you should know this will be very hard to hear, ok?" Lion asked concernedly, making sure they knew what she was saying. The only response she got was the both of them nodding.
"So before I begin, let me explain the juggernaut. 'The Juggernaut spawns as a part of the dungeon's defense mechanism every time excessive damage is done to the dungeon itself. It has tremendous strength and speed with razor-sharp claws and armor that can reflect magic. However, it has poor defenses to physical attacks. Its potential varies depending on which floor it emerges, with deeper floors producing stronger monsters. Rather than having a magic stone, it is designed to disintegrate after a certain period of time elapses.' (I just copied and pasted this from the wiki, I did not write this)"
The room, besides the ones who knew, looked shocked. "Why weren't we informed of this!? Loki and Hestia yelled, most others just looked horrified. "Because it would cause panic, hysteria, and fear, all for no reason, since it has only spawned ten times in the last millennia," Ouranous responded.
Everyone nodded understandingly, not agreeing, but understanding.
"So the juggernaut was the name of the creature that killed my familia," Ryuu whispered with a tear running down her face. Bell grabbed her hand to comfort her, and she unconsciously squeezed his hand in return, in any other situation she would have been blushing up a storm, and any other elf would have ripped him apart.
"So what happened?" Bell asked.
(I can't or won't summarize the whole incident, I'm just gonna skip to the fight between Bell and the juggernaut. Also, I'm making the fight how I want it to go.)
"Then the battle began. It was faster than me, stronger than me, has better defense than me, the creature was nearly on par with a high-level 7-to low-level 8 adventurer. (I know I'm making it a lot stronger than it was, but I'll explain why in a minute.) A fun fact about juggernauts is that they spawn on the basis of three things, first the floor, second the damage done, and third the power of the people around it. For instance, if level 1's triggered it on floor 5 it would be high level one, unless they destroyed the whole floor, then which the juggernaut will spawn as probably a level two.
Now, Ryuu and I were on floor (I forgot what floor it was, and I literally couldn't find the answer anywhere online, sorry) and as we fought we knew we wouldn't win, we couldn't land a blow on it, any magic we threw at it threw right back at us. Eventually after nearly two hours of battle and getting kicked around I made a mistake that would prove fatal.
I was tired and I faltered momentarily, but it was just enough time. The juggernaut grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the ground, I was choking, but a part of me knew that it wasn't done with me yet. I felt its claws slowly reach the base of my neck and then pain. Blinding ungodly pain, followed by absolutely nothing. I felt nothing, my whole body was numb. I could still see however and I was staring at the juggernaut holding…" Cranel choked up at this part, it was clear whatever happened was incredibly painful and traumatizing for him. Lion got up and came up behind him, she put his head under her chin and whispered sweet nothings to comfort him.
Taking a deep, shaking sigh Cranel began again, "The juggernaut was holding my spine in its claws. Yes, my spinal cord. It ripped my spine out of my body. And then-it-it snapped my neck. Ryuu told me later that after it threw me off the side of the 'Great Falls.' The worst part is, Ryuu couldn't do a thing but watch." Cranel finally finished speaking, his voice shaky and still clearly tormented by the events that occurred.
"I'll let you all take some time to process, and for some of you, throw up in the bathroom." Cranel directed that toward Hestia, Lefiya, and Haruhime. Everyone else looked like they had just witnessed the horrors of hell unleashed before their very eyes. Though surprisingly Ryuu was crying.
"Ryuu, why are you crying?" Instead of responding to Bell's question she just fell into his arms as he embraced her.
"I-so-so" Bell looked confused as Ryuu was incoherently muttering to herself.
"I-I-I'm-s-so-so sorry Bell," Ryuu whispered with tears running down her face. Bell, was shocked as he had never seen Ryuu ever even remotely similar to this. All Bell could do was embrace her and tell her comforting words. When she finally calmed down enough to speak instead of repeating the same thing over and over again, Bell asked her, "What are you sorry for, the juggernaut incident wasn't your fault."
Ryuu shook her head, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you, twice I've only been able to stand there and watch as the people I love die, and I've been unable to save them. I'm so sorry Bell." She fell into sobs again.
'Wow' was all Bell could think, 'Alright Bell get a grip. You can think about what she said later, right now you need to comfort her! But how?! Ok, we're gonna tell her…ya that'll hopefully work.'
"Ryuu, that's why we're here, isn't it? To fix the future, so these events won't come to pass. We can still change it, but to do so we need everyone, including you. So what do you say, will you change the future with me!?" Bell asked Ryuu with his usual heroically dazzling smile that could blind the sun.
Nodding with tears in her eyes Ryuu reluctantly pulled away from the hug with Bell, already missing his warmth, and the feelings of his strong arms…' Shut up Ryuu!' she internally screamed at herself.
Elsewhere in the theater, Aiz was having a mental breakdown as Aria, Albert, and Riveria all tried to help her.
"I wasn't there to help him. I couldn't protect him when he needed me." Aiz just kept muttering with sunken crazy eyes as she rocked back in forth in the futile position.
"Aiz, sweetheart, he's going to be okay. And not to mention you can protect him this time around, so he won't get hurt, that's why we're here isn't it?" Aria asked softly.
Aiz slowly nodded rising to her feet and still looking traumatized from the knowledge he just learned.
Don't even get me started on the Hestia familia who were sobbing their hearts out for their captain, with Artemis joining them.
Ouranous sat solemnly on his thrown with a downcast expression, for all the pain that poor boy has already suffered on his path, and how much more he will suffer in his journey as a hero.
1 hour later
"Ok, so, I got hurt badly. How did I survive all that?" Bell asked.
"Let me explain, so when you hit the bottom, your Babylon power managed to force itself through the seal, enough came to keep you alive, but not repair the damage. The power of Babylon if you had trained it enough could have saved you entirely, but it wasn't strong enough, and the seal was still in place. So there was a Xenos waiting for you at the bottom, her name is Mandy, and she had some healing magic, that coupled with a couple of the potions I had on me managed to fix my spine, and the Babylon power repaired my neck.
(I know this is completely off-canon, but this is my story! Leave me the fuck alone!)
Mandy begged me not to go up there, she knew I would probably die if I went up there again. I was in such agonizing pain that I could barely move, but I knew Ryuu was in trouble so I forced myself to go. I barely could walk, but I slowly made my way up to her.
When I reached them I could only watch Ryuu fight as I couldn't do anything. But as I saw the juggernaut's clawed hand about to come down on her neck I felt power unlike anything I had ever felt. The power was the power of the heavens, lighting was coursing through my veins, my strikes were as graceful as the wind, and my strikes were as strong as strong as hail. I managed to grab Ryuu out of the way in time, though it was still faster than me, but barely now.
Ryuu and I fought the juggernaut again with renewed vigor. Eventually, I got an idea. I told Ryuu to distract it, and I began charging argonaut, finally after a two-minute charge I saw a weak point in its armor, one place the armor didn't cover, its joint, I fired an argonaut-infused fire bolt at his joint and blew it's arm off. Sadly my arm was all but useless and weak after that, and Ryuu was too exhausted to save me again, so the juggernaut got me. It grabbed me by the arm and ripped me off. No, it did not cut my arm off, it ripped, muscle, skin, and bone, it ripped/tore. And threw my body over the falls. Ryuu jumped after me and grabbed me mid-air and used her body to shield me. So she and Mandy saved me with healing magic. And the fight for our survival began.
We'll finish what happened next in a little bit." Cranel finished.
I'm making this a cliffhanger. See you soon guys.