Bell thought his life would end, the time in Orario was interesting but short. When the Minotaur suddenly appeared on the 5th floor and chased him until he had no way out, Bell tried to fight back, his talon was a strong weapon after all.
A spark of hope bloomed in his heart when the talon tips dug slightly into the minotaur´s chest, scratching it. Then the minotaur caught his arm and broke it.
Never before did he feel such pain, it only increased when the minotaur kept squeezing his arm. Bell screamed, there was no way he wouldn´t scream. His survival instinct kicked in and he tried to stab the minotaur´s eyes with his short sword, but it simply slapped his hand away, shattering the bones in there too.
This would be his end...the minotaur opened it´s maw wide to bite off his head or something like that.
Panic and despair filled Bell´s mind, there was nothing he could do! He wasn´t strong enough for such an opponent.
.
Then...
.
The minotaur suddenly screamed and broke down to it´s knees, a hand appeared, pulling the head of the minotaur back. With a sickening tearing sound, the minotaur's head was pulled back further, the tendons and muscles in the neck tensing and tearing, the skin and fur parting. Bell saw in slow motion how the minotaur's head was simply torn off from behind!
It actually went so fast that the bulky monster didn´t have much time to scream.
Bell got bathed in blood from head to toe, it wasn´t a pleasant experience. The minotaur´s headless body fell to the side, the head remained in the hand that had ripped it off.
Rubelite eyes met green ones as Bell stared at his saviour. It was a woman.
Probably in her mid twenties, with a cold, stern expression on her beautiful face.
She wore a strange set of clothes, so she probably was an adventurer.
She was wearing some sort of very long black stockings that reached just above her knees. Both feet were in short black boots, while the left shin was covered by protection. The gloves appeared to be made of a similar material to the boots, except that the right forearm was covered by protection. She was wearing some kind of black and brown body suit which left her thighs exposed...Bell liked exposed thighs... Her upper arms, shoulders, armpits and collarbone were also uncovered. Her hair was fiery red and short, her eyes like emeralds.
In her right hand she held a slightly curved, black sword, in her left the minotaur's head. She had literally only ripped it off with one hand.
From the exposed areas of skin, Bell could see how muscular she was, but still quite feminine in his eyes.
And beautiful!
Even despite or because of that cold look!
Bell remembered something his grandfather had once said to him, it had a charm of its own when a woman looked at you like that.
Now he understood him!
Not that he was into these things...
The woman raised her left hand, looked into the face of the minotaur, then she let the head fall down.
Bell blinked.
"Th-Thank you..."
Her eyes wandered to Bell´s talon.
"You fought back."
"Huh? Ah...y-yes..."
"Impressive."
Her voice sounded pretty monotone.
Bell gulped. "Th-Thank you again!"
"Mh."
She looked at the weird angle of his arm and hand.
"You´re hurt."
"Yes..." He gritted his teeth.
There was something about him that let Revis feel strange. He looked so innocent...pure...yet at least a bit brave. Her job was to observe the Loki familia and she was already confused by her strange interest in the Sword Princess. So why did she save that boy? Revis had no answer.
"You can´t fight like that."
"No, I don´t think so..."
"Then you will die before you get out of here."
She saw that he became pale under the blood. Revis closed her eyes for a moment, she heard steps coming closer.
"Someone is on the way, you will be safe."
Revis turned around and was about to leave.
"Please w-Argh!"
Bell cried out when he tried to get up, leaning on his broken arm.
"I have to go, remain here."
"Please wait!"
She glanced over her shoulder for a last time, Bell would never forget these beautiful emerald eyes.
.
.
Soon the steps came closer, then a blond beauty with golden eyes came around the corner.
She saw the headless monster and the groaning young man.
"Riveria!"
"Coming!"
The young woman walked quickly around the corpse, stopping next to Bell.
"Are you hurt?" She tilted her head slightly.
Bell groaned, looking at his broken arm and shattered hand...it was quite obvious.
"Yes..."
"Oh..."
Soon other members of the Loki familia arrived. It was Bell´s first time seeing a truly adult elven woman, she was quite the beauty. Her eyes were especially beautiful, not as much as the green ones he saw just moments before, but nice. She got accompanied by a younger elf in a pink dress, with long, golden-brown hair.
The young elf shreeked when she saw Bell in his state.
"Dear heavens! Are you hurt?!"
The adult elf stepped quickly to Bell. "Lefiya that is a foolish question, of course he is hurt!"
Bell tried to raise his arms or get up, but both didn´t work.
"Don´t move!"
The adult elf started to chant magic, soon a gentle light enveloped Bell´s arms. It tingled a lot, but the pain got numb and vanished mostly.
More members of the Loki familia arrived. One of them couldn´t hold back, a werewolf, he started to laugh when he saw Bell kneeling there, red like a tomato. The young elf that had shreeked earlier whirled around and screamed at the werewolf, how he dared to laugh when someone got seriously hurt because of their fault and nearly killed.
A prum with a spear also appeared.
"Riveria, report."
"We got all of them except this one, but it is dead now. The young man here is seriously wounded, we need to bring him back to the hospital."
"Understood, can you move, young man?"
"Yeah..."
"Tiona, help him please."
"Kaay~~"
A young amazoness came forward and helped Bell to get up, not minding the blood.
"Did you kill the minotaur?"
"No, just scratched it.."
"Then who?"
"An adventurer lady, I don´t know her."
She smiled. "Then it´s good that she was there."
"Yeah.."
It took them a while to bring Bell out of the dungeon and to the hospital. The prum of the party insisted they would pay for his treatment, because it was their fault for letting the minotaur escape.
.
.
"How does your arm and hand feel?"
"Much better now, thank you."
The woman in front of Bell was smaller than him, had silvery hair and purple eyes. She was the Dea Saint, the number one healer in Orario. At first a normal healer should treat Bell, even when it was an emergency, since they couldn´t know how badly wounded Bell really was under all this blood. With numb fingers of his right arm, Bell had pulled something out of his pocket when the Loki familia members were gone and showed it to Dian Cecht. The god saw the symbol on Bell´s special coin and understood it. Immediatelly he ordered Amid to take good care of him, he should get all the treatment that was necessary! The Loki familia was paying after all.
At first Bell felt a bit bad about this, but now he had other problems. They took off his equipment, quickly washed the blood off, now he sat here, naked except for the light hospital gown, while a beautiful woman treated his wounds.
"Lord Dian Cecht is right, money shouldn´t be a matter when it was their fault to begin with that the minotaur was on the fifth floor."
"M-Maybe you´re right..."
"Is something wrong?"
"I ahm...it is a bit embarrassing...to sit like this here.."
"Why? I´m a Healer. This is normal, don´t worry, I´m a pro."
A strange spark was there next to her eyes when she said the last words.
It was still embarrassing for Bell, since he was nearly naked, so he tried to change the topic.
"Do you know many adventurers?"
"A large number at least."
"Do you by chance know a woman with short, red hair and emerald eyes?"
"Hm...no, doesn´t ring a bell. I never heard about someone with that description. Did she save you?"
"Yes."
"What kind of weapon did she use? Maybe that will help."
"She had a curved sword in her right hand, but she used her hand to behead the minotaur."
"She ripped the head off?!"
"Yes."
"Hm...then she is probably at least an upper level three...no...more likely a level four adventurer. Minotaurs normally aren´t that easy to kill."
"Hm, are there many lvl four adventurers in the city?"
"No, you could ask at the guild for records of lvl three and above, maybe you will find her notes there."
"Thank you, Lady Teasanare."
She smiled slightly. "Ms. is enough, Mr. Cranel."
"Alright."
"Try to move your hand and arm please."
He did as she ordered.
"Any pain?"
"No, everything is fine again."
"Then stand up and check your legs and feet."
When Bell did that, the hospital gown slipped down and fell to his feet.
"Eek!"
Amid simply leaned down and picked it up for him, not reacting to his naked body.
"Don´t worry, I´m a Healer."
"Mmmh..."
Bell covered himself again, this was the second time now that a woman had seen him naked since he came to Orario...he imagined his grandfather would be proud.
"So, are your legs okay?"
"Yes, no pain."
"Good, then you are completely healed and fit again."
"It really is a fascinating experience."
"I really hope you don´t have to get used to this. Please don´t understand me wrong, but I wish you will never have to come here again."
Her light smile told Bell how he should understand these words.
"Your clothes should be dry now too."
"So soon?"
"We use magic tools to dry them faster."
"Wow, Orario really is a fascinating place."
"Not as fascinating as your home, I might guess."
"Ahm...I d-don´t k-"
"Don´t worry, Mr. Cranel. My lips are sealed, I won´t say anything. But Lord Dian Cecht told me I will now always take care of you when you come here."
"Oh?"
"Yes, because I know how to keep quiet."
"Th-Then I´m looking forward to work with you, Ms. Teasanare."
"I don´t."
"Huh?"
She smiled again, he understood.
.
.
"Mr. Fels, I´m back."
"Welcome back, Bell. What happened to you?"
He explained the situation quickly.
"The Loki familia doesn´t know who you are?"
"No."
"Good. It was a wise choice from God Dian Cecht to give you the best treatment. One can never be careful enough in the dungeon."
"Ms. Teasanare explained the same to me."
"Dea Saint is taking care of you? Good. She is almost as good in healing people as I am. Almost..."
Bell understood that Fels may be a bit competitive in some areas.
"Despite the fact that you got seriously hurt, today was a good experience. The dungeon is a very dangerous place, never underestimate it."
"I won´t."
"Good. Now follow me, I have finished your other two pieces of equipment."
"Oh!"
Bell looked really forward to see it.
Until...
.
.
"Good morning, Mr. Cranel."
"Good morning, Ms. Wind."
"You can laugh if you want to..."
"I would never do that."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
"Mh...I´m sure Mr. Fels had good intentions...but..."
"In my eyes it looks like fine, good equipment."
"Mh..."
"And it will protect you."
"Still..."
"Mr. Cranel, you should be thankful for such fine equipment, now let us start the training, you have to get used to the new stuff."
"Alright."
Since the Talon Gauntlet was bound to Bell anyway, Fels had decided to finally use the rest of the materials to finish the second talon, it was meant as a set anyway. Bell told him he wasn´t sure if he could get used to fight like that, but Fels only showed him a cold stare...at least Bell thought it was a cold stare.
On top of a second talon...Bell had to admit that two of these looked really, really cool...he gave him a helmet. Fels got the idea for the design after he saw the battle helmets that the Ganesha familia used. But Bell´s helmet wasn´t shaped like an elephant, instead it was a complete closed helmet with eagle wings at the front, that started at the nose part and went to the sides. His eyes were covered by special lenses, made from a crystal. At first he thought it would bring problems to breath, but it was really easy. Also it protected his head from all sides.
Bell once read a story about a hero, that had great experience in fighting hordes of Goblins, this story told again and again how important it was to protect the head. At the same time, his sight wasn´t reduced, which was strange when he looked at the helmet. Fels told him the cause for this were the lenses.
To protect Bell from fainting, Fels didn´t tell him how much worth all three pieces were together.
It came close to half a billion Vals...
Fels told himself that Bell would need this equipment, but Ouranos knew that Fels really, really wanted to test out his creations, that was why Bell would also test all kinds of other creations.
"How is your balance now that you wear a helmet and two talons?"
Bell raised the talons, let his fingers move a bit and turned his head.
"I have no problems at all, it is actually easier now to move with two talons than just one."
"Did he tell you how exactly these weapons are called?"
"Ahm...Eternity Gloves."
"Eternity...Gloves?"
"Yes, Mr. Fels said at first he wanted to call them the Infinity Gauntlets, but according to him that sounds...weird."
"Aha..."
"You may laugh if you want..."
"I won´t. Now let us continue our training."
"Understood!"
.
.
Soon the word got around in Orario, that a strange adventurer was mowing his way through the upper floors, wearing a weird looking helmet and two fist weapons. Most people assumed he belonged to the Ganesha familia, due to the weird equipment. When someone asked Ganesha, the god said it was one of his children. Ouranos had talked with Ganesha before, so they could mask who Bell really worked for.
The other gods got really excited when Ganesha told them proud that his identity was a secret. Stuff like this excited the gods to no end! They got curious, judging by the body it had to be a male. They could only say that he wasn´t a beast person. If he were a rabbit person, he could hide his short tail, but the long ears inside the helmet would cause problems.
The lower leveled adventurers that saw Bell thought he had to be a stronger adventurer, due to his harsh training and the weapons, Bell was more than capable of going down to the 10th floor by himself soon. More than one low adventurer got saved by the "Fabulous Haw Boy", how some of the gods called him.
He seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to saving women in distress.
Even when his training with Ryu officially ended after two weeks, they agreed to train together in the morning, Ryu could need a sparring partner, since her friends refused to train with her. And Bell didn´t even complain once, even when she went a bit too far and knocked him out by accident.
The only thing Ryu didn´t get anymore for the training, were minutes to look at her goddess, but that might be better anyway. Whenever Ryu looked at Astrea, she couldn´t stop crying. Syr tried to encourage her to go and visit Astrea during her next vacation, but Ryu lacked the courage for now.
.
.
About three weeks later.
.
.
"Hmmm~~~Hmmm~~~Hmmm~~~ Good morning, everyone!"
Bell grinned happy when he entered the pub through the open backdoor. He got permission from Mia to come earlier, so he could get his breakfast before the store opened for customers. Since he came every day anyway and that more than one time, she allowed that bit of extra service, because he was spending a good amount of money. And her staff members got in a good mood when he came, because he was so polite, friendly and chivalrous. And handsome...
Mia knew that a few of her girls really, really liked Bell, they didn´t have much contact with men after all. So when he gave them a good mood, she was okay with him being here.
When he wasn´t in the dungeon to train, Bell helped here sometimes. Fels told him it was important to do something beside training and doing his work.
And Bell had done something else for Mia.
""""Good morning!~~""""
The staff members were too happy when Bell showed up, it brightened their day.
"Good morning, Master Bell."
"Lily, I told you master is too much..."
"Ms. Syr said that is part of becoming a perfect waitress."
In front of Bell stood the only pallum waitress of the pub and she was only here because of him.
When he went easier into the dungeon due to his hard training and equipment, Bell found himself with a problem. Fels had adjusted the talons for him, so that the blades itself were now pointed like they were Bell´s finger nails, instead of his finger tips. This made it much easier for Bell to hold something. With the talons he could tear a monster corps apart with ease, but it was a disgusting work. The problem was, he often accidentally destroyed the magic stone due to that.
Also, he had to go up and exchange his magic stones too often, but he needed them. So one day when he went to Babel, wearing his talons and the helmet, a small pallum girl spoke to him, asking if he would like to hire a supporter. She wasn´t that surprised or taken aback at Bell´s appearance, words got around that the strange adventurer belonged to the Ganesha familia, that explained everything for Lily. At first it should only be a trial run, but both got along pretty well. When the day ended, Bell surprised Lily even more when he shared their income equally, even adding a bit more to her side, to make up for the bolts she used with her tiny crossbow.
Lily really enjoyed their time in the dungeon together. It was her first time of someone being genuine nice to her, Lily hoped that this wouldn´t be over soon. At first she had actually planned to scam Bell, maybe rob him. But the fact that he apparently belonged to the Ganesha familia stopped Lily, she wouldn´t dare to anger the biggest familia in Orario.
But even when Bell was the probably nicest man on earth...and Lily slowly started to really, really like him, the world just wasn´t a genuine nice place.
So one day while they were in the dungeon, on the 10th floor, a few guys from her familia showed up, had lured them into a trap and were luring monsters towards them, so that they could pick up what they had after the monsters killed them. Lily apologized with tears in her eyes to Bell, saying she never meant to trick him like that.
Bell only spoke three words as his answer.
"Stay behind me."
He had stretched out his talons and faced the monsters. In all the time that Lily went into the dungeon, even when it was never further than the 11th floor, she had never seen something like this.
Orcs, Imps and Killer Ants swarmed towards them. Bell fought like an experienced adventurer, not like a newby that had started only five weeks ago.
All in all, even when the biggest numbers were Imps and Killer Ants...Bell defeated one hundred and twenty-three monsters. Lily helped a bit, but he did the most work. When it was over, a carpet of sparkling magic stones lay around them. Some swings of his talons had sliced two monsters at once, only for the Orcs he had to do more. And Lily saw what Bell could do with his magic, the talons worked wonderful with it, they actually enhanced his fire power a bit. At some point, the flames stuck to the talons.
When the monsters were dead, Bell wanted to turn to the group of adventurers. Two of them were dead already, the others had fled. The monsters didn´t only attack Bell and Lily, non of the attackers made it back to the surface.
Bell collapsed exhausted afterwards, Lily had no other choice but to take off his helmet for the first time when they were together.
Her eyes got filled with hearts when she witnessed Bell´s extremely handsome face for the first time! It wasn´t only the fact that Bell was always so nice to her, not that he had just rescued her or that he was handsome...but Lily fell immediatelly for him!
She saw that he was wounded, of course he would be wounded after such a fight. Bruises, small cuts and other minor injuries. The way he had moved his right shoulder told her that it might´ve been broken. So Lily had used what they had on heal potions. Afterwards she quickly gathered all the magic stones, letting them lay around in such a large number could create an irregular monster.
The way out of the dungeon was dangerous, even with giving Bell stamina, mind and health potions, he was pretty beaten up. They were careful, Bell fought mostly with his left arm, using the right to block. At least they had some luck, a group of adventurers was on their way back from the 8th floor, so they moved with them.
.
.
Things had happened, Lily finally explained everything to Bell about her familia, he promised not to abandon her. Instead he had a good idea, rememberring something that Ryu told him about Mia and the girls that worked at the pub. So Bell had introduced Lily to Mia, talked a bit with the pub owner.
The one who really convinced Mia in the end was Syr. The always cheerful and lively girl looked at first at Bell and Lily, then at Mia with sparkling eyes. Saying a cute pallum girl like her would be perfect in the pub! Lily accepted Mia´s offer then, in here she would be safe, no one would dare to threaten Lily.
Actually...one person did threaten Lily. It was the captain of her familia, that came over after he got the information. To his extremely bad luck, Mia heard how he threatened Lily. That night, Mia disappeared from the pub, taking Lily with her. After she returned, Lily could say nothing, but she cried from happiness. She explained to the others later how Mia took her to her familia´s home, beat the guards up personally, as well as anyone that wanted to stop them. Then Mia barged into the room of Soma and started to talk to the god.
The end of the story was, Soma changed his blessing on Lily´s back, so that she could always change into a different familia if she wished too. And due to Mia´s talk, Soma finally got the whole situation about his familia, he would change a lot, for example changing his captain to someone else.
The god would continue to make alcohol, but no divine wine anymore. He formed a contract with Mia, to deliver the good stuff to her pub.
What was fascinating, Lily never changed her familia, over time she would have a really good god to mortal relationship with Soma, actually starting to like her god and how her familia would change over time.
Bell had asked the head waitresses if Mia´s attack didn´t go a bit too far. But they told him she would only go too far if she took her shovel with her. He didn´t understand what they meant, until Anya explained laughing that they meant a literal shovel...to bury people.
So now Lily was the new waitress trainee, at the same time this marked her mostly retirement of being a supporter. Her supporter skill still helped a lot with her work, making it easy for her to carry heavy stuff. Later she would have a different job in the pub. Lily would do the bookkeeping, create shopping lists, and handle negotiations with the Demeter and Soma familias. She took a lot of work off of Mia's shoulders and would become an essential part of the pub. At the same time, she was overjoyed with the room Mia gave her.
.
.
As usual, Bell got a wonderful breakfast, since he helped from time to time and brought Mia a new very valuable staff member, he got a bit extra for breakfast and a lunch paket for the dungeon. Thankfully done by May...not Syr... Bell could never be mad with Syr, but she really was a horrible cook.
He couldn´t know that, but Syr was mostly pretty clingy to him because he fascinated her.
At first it was when she saw him, never had she seen such a fascinating soul. A pure, clear, white. But it wasn´t only the color that fascinated her, it was the faint aura of divinity around his soul. Whenever she looked at a mortal, she could guess to which god the mortal belonged, there was always a fine taint around the mortal´s soul. But in Bell´s case, it was like a protective aura. Which told her that even a Status Thief wouldn´t reveal Bell´s blessing. And that could only mean one thing, Bell´s lie made it also clear, he wasn´t a child of Ganesha.
But of Ouranos.
Ouranos could use more of his Arcana than the other gods, but he never formed a familia. She had seen a figure with a pretty old soul...for a mortal...that had Ouranos´ blessing once, but now there was another.
It fascinated her and tickled the curiosity.
Even more since Bell grinned so much today.
"Mr. Bell, what happened?"
"Ahm...ahaha...let´s say something good. Sorry, I´m not allowed to say it openly."
"Hm...should I ask Ryuuuuu?" Syr smirked.
"I won´t answer that question, Syr. I´m sorry." Ryu passed them in that moment.
"Mouh, how unfair! Don´t tell me something is going on between you two?!"
Ryu shook her head. "No there isn´t anything, I only train with Mr. Cranel."
Bell nodded.
Ryu was the only person that was allowed to know that he had leveled up. In only a bit over a month, Bell went all the way to lvl two. Ouranos gave him permission to tell it to Ryu, since she continued to train him.
What he wasn´t allowed to tell, was that he got the probably rarest of all development abilities, one that no one ever heard about.
Luck.
Also, that all of his status went past 1000, even Ouranos was surprised. Fels´ eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he heard that.
Then again...no they didn´t. Because he had no eyes...because he was a skeleton.
Ouranos said that Fels made a very good choice.
Bell´s development ability, his unusual status, the Skills "Heroic Desire" and "Argonaut" made him something very special.
So Bell was eager to continue his training and the fighting in the dungeon.
When he had some time off, Fels gave him the communication orb, Bell started to talk with the Xenos Lydo and Ray, he didn´t know who they were or which race they belonged to, but both were quite friendly.
Apparently they were all the time in the dungeon, so Bell guessed they were a special adventurer group.
Fels told him it was still too early to meet them, since Bell had to get stronger first.
But not only to fulfill his dream and secret hero work drove Bell forward. He wanted to become stronger, dive deeper into the dungeon and meet the red haired beauty again. She had to be somewhere!
Little did he know that she was present during his fight against the giant horde of monsters. Revis didn´t even understand herself why she came here, whenever she didn´t have a job to do and had what others would call free time, she wandered through the dungeon now. Often her way brought her to the upper floors, she didn´t understand the reason why the upper floors. But something deep inside her wanted to go here, she often wandered along the 18th floor for some unknown reason, taking a bath in a lake now and then. It helped her to calm down when she took a long bath.
But then her way went further up, without understanding it herself, she looked for the young man that she had saved.
And there she saw him, even when he wore a strange helmet, Revis knew it was him...the talon weapons gave it also away. She stood far enough away so that the fog would hide her, but she watched how he fought. Unlike her urge with the minotaur, she saw no real reason to interfere. But it was fascinating to see him fight. He seemed to be much stronger than during their first meeting and he moved better.
Moved...yes he...he moved...like...like what did he move? Like who did he move? She had seen this before? Just...were? For a moment he whirled around to slash a monster, the travel cape that he had with him flew up a bit.
It was strange.
Revis had a faint memory of seeing someone fight, someone who also wore a cape.
She grit her teeth, pressed her left hand onto her head again, the headaches came more often when she saw him. But she couldn´t look away. In her mind an imaged flashed for a splitsecond. This time it was a female figure, wearing a green cape, who moved exactly like the young man did.
Or was it him that moved like her?
Revis saw how he sliced and diced the monsters apart, never stopped moving, mowing his way through them. And yet, he always moved around the pallum girl, shielding her, protecting her.
Like...like...
"A warrior...of...Justi-Irgh..."
The words came out of Revis´ mouth before she could stop them, she didn´t know why she said that. But she watched until the fight was over, even ignoring the mental communication that rang in her head.
.
.
Bell was glad that Lily fit in well with the staff members of the pub. Since they wouldn´t risk Lily getting attack by someone in the dungeon, Bell went alone again. Fels gave him a special backpack to test, he could fit much more inside than it looked from the outside. It was one of these items that Bell should test for Fels.
According to Fels, it was one of the more safe ones, it only had a chance of roughly five percent to explode out of nowhere...
One day, about a month after Lily started to work at the pub while Bell went into the dungeon, he noticed a smaller familia going there too, a far eastern familia of the god Takemikazuchi. But they went into the dungeon with someone else, a young man with red hair.
Bell looked at them from under his hood, while he moved into the dungeon too. He wondered how far down they would go, today would be the first day when he went into the middle floors...alone!
It was so exciting to fight alone! Of course it was only possible due to his good equipment and the special items that Fels gave him.
The day went much different than he had thought it would be. While he fought with great care and enjoyed the challenge, he heard a ruckus moving into his direction, it were the Takemikazuchi familia and the red haired man. A horde of monsters chased them and it looked like one of them was badly hurt.
"Over here!"
Bell ran into their direction, waving his right talon. With the left he pulled a small orb out of a belt pouch.
"Keep moving!"
The first members ran past Bell, while he activated his magic on the orb and then threw it with all his strength. The burning orb flew into the direction of the monsters and detonated, killing at least a dozen. Then Bell turned around and moved with the group, until they found a spot where they could defend themself.
"Form a defensive circle!"
It became a bit chaotic, but thanks to Bell they managed to hold their ground until they got a chance to break out and flee further up in the dungeon. Bell vanished from the group at some point, when he knew they would make it back.
Why? He still had to hide his identity...also in his eyes it was pretty cool!
A mysterious hero that showed up, saved them and then vanished again!
Very cool!
.
.
There would be two additional times over the course of the next two months when Bell would help this familia.
The first would be a top secret, special and very dangerous mission he got from Fels. For that mission, Bell was given a special pendant that he could use to turn himself invisible. Fels had told Bell that the Ishtar familia was up to something and he needed to hurry and infiltrate a place that was called the hanging gardens.
From what he heard, they intended to perform a ritual. When Bell was far enough, using his talons to climb up the wall, he saw a beautiful, blond Renard kneeling chained down on a place, while a white haired amazon held a strange dagger in her hands. At the pommel of the dagger was what Fels told him, a killing stone. Bell was aware of the tumult in the district, how another familia attacked this place. He didn´t care about that, only to make his move when the time was right. When the amazon dashed towards the Renard, she didn´t saw what she ran into, because Bell was invisible. He punched with his full strength of an already upper level three into her face, catching the dagger and orb with the other talon.
The others could only stare in shock, seeing the dagger float in midair, before Bell closed the talon and crushed the weapon and killig stone.
In the next moment, several orbs hit the ground in front of Bell, exploding into blinding lights and smoke. The amazons were too surprised to react in time, for them it was like Samira had ran head first into a sudden barrier, then the dagger and killing stone got destroyed. Bell didn´t wait for the amazons to react, he turned around, dashed to the Renard, cut the chains apart with his talons and picked her up. She wasn´t glad or relieved, the young woman screamed in horror when Bell jumped over the wall of the hanging gardens, into the depth. He held her close, she clung to his invisible body, then he rammed the left talon into the wall and slowed their fall down, leaving deep cuts. The amazons didn´t have time to chase them, the attack of the Freya familia destroyed everything.
If it were just about getting the Ishtar familia destroyed, Bell could´ve remained home or in the pub, the Freya familia would wipe them out anyway. But he had to rescue this poor girl.
After all, Bell´s motto was. "Because that´s what heroes do."
From what he heard and read, it was the god Thor that spoke this line, Bell really liked it.
After he arrived at the ground with the...passed out...girl in his arm, he soon saw familia faces. In the moment that he put the girl down and let her sit leaned against a piece of wall, thinking what to do next, the Takemikazuchi familia, including their god and the red haired man, came around a corner.
Why were they here? Bell didn´t understand, until...
"Lady Haruhime!"
"Haruhime-chan!"
"Haruhime!"
Haruhime? Is that her name?
Bell backed a bit away, still invisible. The raven haired beauty of the familia was the first to arrive at the unconcious Renard, she cried openly, happy to see the girl. The others surrounded her too, checking if she was hurt.
The god however remained on his feet, turning directly into Bell´s direction.
"Whoever saved Haruhime, I thank this person. We were really worried about her, since we knew her since she was a child."
Can he see me?!
Bell moved a bit, Takemikazuchi´s eyes followed him. But not directly, it took a short moment. Then Bell rememberred that this was a wargod, he probably had fine senses, so maybe he heard Bell or noticed his presence.
He didn´t know if the god could see him, Bell nodded slightly and vanished into the smoke. He had the feeling that the girl would be safe with them.
Haruhime wouldn´t know who saved her, just some mysterious person. Maybe...a secret hero? She liked this idea.
When Bell saw them again, they went into the dungeon, this time with Haruhime and a young amazon with long hair an orange west and a way too short skirt, again with the red haired man. Bell now knew that he belonged to the Hephaistos familia, maybe the familias worked together?
He would find out.
Fels gave him another mission soon enough, apparently the god Apollo had declared a wargame against the Takemikazuchi familia, destroying their home before he did that. He was too fascinated by Haruhime and wanted her as his personal maid. Bell was infuriated when he heard about this, he even asked Ouranos if he couldn´t forbid this. Fels had to explain to him that Ouranos couldn´t do much, since he was so busy with the dungeon. That´s why Bell and Fels were there, to do what Ouranos couldn´t do. The lead god also wasn´t allowed to do something about the politics and shenanigans of the gods.
It was Bell´s job, with Fels´ help, to secretely do that.
Fels worked "behind the curtains". Bell didn´t know that a second god had spotted him in the Pleasure Quarter during the fight. A goddess that could see his soul even when he was invisible. So Freya made the suggestion during the Denatus about the wargame, that Apollo should allow Takemikazuchi a bit help. Apollo allowed three helpers, but one of them would be the party member, Welf, the others had to be from a familia outside of Orario. Since Ouranos was technically not in Orario, but instead under Orario, Bell fit the description. After asking her, using the Dogeza technique and with help from Syr, Ryu agreed too to help, but only in secret.
The gods went nuts during the wargame, since no one knew who the two mysterios people were that helped, especially since both moved very similar.
Bell and Ryu cracked the fortress open, fought against a large number of Apollo familia members and helped the Takemikazuchi familia to get inside.
But to give the fight and a victory meaning, it had to be the Takemikazuchi familia to beat the captain of the Apollo familia.
After he got seriously enraged, Hyakinthos was an evil opponent. It took the whole Takemikazuchi familia to take him down, even when only Ouka and Mikoto were the last ones standing and both close to collapse.
When the battle was over, Takemikazuchi took everything from Apollo and banished him from the city.
.
.
Bell´s first months were very exciting. He was now an upper level three adventurer...or agent.
Little did he know, that his true story would begin now.
It started when Fels told him about another mission...it was time to meet the adventurer group called Xenos. At least Bell thought it was a group of adventurers...
.
.
.
.
Author`s Note: Hello everyone. First I want to say, I know the pacing looks weird and fast, that is because this is the last of the three prologue chapters, the real story starts now. But since you read about the pairing in this story and who the red haired is, Bell had to be a bit stronger than a fresh newby. I wanted to write a bit what he did and how some events changed, instead of just letting the story start at this point.