Chapter One: Memories of a Distant Past
Hestia takes a coin from a small bag, where several other coins are kept, walking to a small chest, so small that it fits in her hands, and opening the lid were two magic stones, not like those left by the monsters of the Dungeon below the city, these stones were polished, clean and from within emanated a small light with an image inside the crystal; they were the invention of a relatively small familia that settled in the southernmost part of Orario; Memorial Stones, a very sophisticated and elaborate way of copying and preserving an individual's memories and placing them in an object that shows said memories repeating or static so that the individual can always remember a unique event in their life.
Hestia possessed two very special people, a boy with white hair and red eyes and a girl with long braided white hair and red eyes, both preserved in the memorial stones.
"Another day without you..." Hestia spoke sadly as she placed the coin inside the chest.
She gazes at the memorial stones when someone knocks on the door to her room
"Goddess Hestia? is everything all right?" A boy asks her from the other side of the door
"Yes, I'm getting ready" she replies without hesitation, trying to hide her sadness.
She closes the box and then grabs the two blue ribbons on the side of it and heads for the door while tying the ribbons in her hair. When opening the door she finds the boy who was waiting for her, a young human of eighteen years. Raux Mellan, captain of the Hestia family
"Is everything all right?" Raux asks Hestia as he sees the sadness on her face and a tear trickling from one of her eyes.
"hm, why?" Hestia wipes away the tear and smiles happily "there's nothing wrong" she forces her smile harder
Raux watches her and just sighs sadly "goddess, why do you keep doing this to yourself?" His voice filled with worry and sadness. Seeing that his goddess didn't understand him he rephrases the question "why do you keep torturing yourself thinking about them? They're gone and left you. goddess please" Raux puts his hands on Hestia's shoulders "leave them behind and stay with us "
Raux genuinely cares about his goddess and wants what's best for her, a year and half ago when he joined the Hestia family he promised himself he would do whatever he could for her and maybe one day...
"Raux…" Hestia starts to speak as she takes one of the boy's hands off his shoulders and places it under her heart "I-"
Click*
"Raux, goddess, are you coming? Are we-" a young chientrope girl enters the hallway and stops her sentence upon seeing the scene in front of her "... S-sorry, I didn't know you- I'll wait with Cort outside !" She says embarrassed and leaves through the same door she entered without hearing the protests of the two "..."
"Um…. Better we… leave to finish this conversation for the night" Raux says embarrassed
"Y-yeah" Hestia replies, her cheeks red with embarrassment 'it's the third time this month alone!' Hestia thinks embarrassed
"Well… shall we?" Raux asks as he steps forward, his hand extended to Hestia, with a smile
"Yes" The hearth goddess responds with a smile of her own and takes her family captain's hand.
"Don't worry goddess, this is not goodbye" their words echoed in Hestia's head
"Yeah. We won't be gone for long. You wait, when we get back we'll be much stronger and more skilled."
With every step, she relived the day her most important people left.
"and we will no longer be in poverty or need"
She was in front of her family giving them one last goodbye until the end of the day, when they would return home.
"yeah. That's a promise"
She walks calmly towards her job, a bittersweet smile on her face and tears threatening to fall from her eyes, like everyday 'yes… you promised you would come back…' She looks up to the sky 'I'm waiting for you.'
two stars still shine in the sky, defying the daylight, both stars shining white 'Bell... Venna...'
Orario, two years ago. Inside the Dungeon
"RAAAH!" A white-haired, red-eyed boy roars as he stabs his Dagger into the back of a monster, a kobold, causing it to collapse into a cloud of black smoke and letting a small purple stone fall to the ground.
"Good Job Bell" a girl who resembles him in all but gender compliments him before throwing her dagger in Bell's direction
"Oh!" Bell quickly ducks to avoid the weapon and then hears a groan and looks back, seeing a goblin with the Dagger stuck in its head "could you have warned me?" He asks indignantly before throwing his own dagger at the girl and taking hers.
She grabs the Dagger and blocks the attack of another goblin that was behind her "and what fun would that be?" She asks with a certain humor in her voice, disregarding the precarious situation they were in.
"You. don't. have. Sense of humor" Bell complains between attacks on two goblins who tried to attack him by surprise
"So why are you smiling?" She asks looking at Bell as she dodges a goblin
"I'm not" Bell denies despite the smile actually on his face "your voice is funny, that's all Venna"
"Ah! How dare you? My own brother!" Venna pretends to be offended.
"What it's truth"
They both continue to exchange words as they fight the monsters, slowly walking until they bump into each other's backs.
"Aaand we're cornered" Venna comments sarcastically
"You don't say it" Bell retorts with an impassive face.
Venna looks over her shoulder at her brother "we can fry these clowns" she speaks suggestively to something they both understand
Bell on the other hand makes a disgusted face "I'd rather walk home and not drag myself" he grumbles without taking his eyes off the monsters in front of him
Venna turns around again to face the monsters and smiles "Come on 'Bell-kun', we can handle this group without much effort. the most we can end up is tired and dragging ourselves home" she says with certainty in her voice
"I'll rephrase: I don't want to carry you on my back home, again" he says in a definitive tone of voice ending the conversation and muttering "You're too heavy" before running towards the monsters, leaving his sister wondering what he had muttered, until she understood her brother's words
A goblin jumps out trying to catch Venna off guard but Venna steps aside and stabs her dagger into the monster's eye effectively killing it.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?" Venna screams in revolt charging at the monsters, her fury matching, if not surpassing the fury of the monsters around her.
Bell continues to fight despite the chills that run up his spine at the sound of his sister's angry voice; dodging a few more monsters bell looks at the tunnel ahead of them both; it was the entrance to the room where they were both in the dungeon. both they and the monsters entered through that passage but the dungeon, though made of stone and earth, is a living and cunning creature, never to be underestimated or mocked; many adventurers have lost their lives entering the dungeon carelessly, for this reason and also because he is not alone, Bell watches every passage he and his sister crossed so that no monster comes from behind and catches them off guard.
"BELL CRANEL!!! WHAT DID YOU SAY???" Venna bellowed in fury as she fought the monsters, dealing clean blows to anyone who got too close.
Bell shuddered and was silent, it was better not to force it or she would get annoyed more, it would be better to change the subject while he could.
"!" Bell hears a sound coming from the walls of the cave 'Oh no… the dungeon is creating new monsters!' and to his misfortune, more goblin and kobold monsters emerged from the walls, breaking through them as if they were nothing.
Yes… the dungeon is a living creature, capable of producing monsters from within its walls and in a variety of types of monsters… and for that reason it is also known as "Mother of monsters"
"Venna!" Bell screams with fear and concern evident in his voice.
His sister slashed the throats of two monsters before turning to him, surprise in her eyes to hear her brother's worried voice; he points his hand to where the monsters are and she understands what he's saying: more monsters have emerged from the dungeon walls.
"We have to do this!" She screams with purpose
Bell dodged a kobold's clutches and ran towards her, now was not the time for arguments, they had to. Use her ace.
Grabbing Venna's hand, Bell tucks his dagger into its sheath and raises his hand in the air. "Ready?" He asks rhetorically as he extends his other hand towards the monsters in front of them.
With a smile she puts down her own dagger and responds by pointing her free hand at the monsters behind them "Ready!"
An arc of electricity runs through both of their upraised hands, down their bodies before flowing into their outstretched hands, both of them screaming:
"Twin Thunders!!!"
"Twin Thunders!!!"
Lightning shot from their hands, the arcs of electricity cutting through the bodies of the monsters around him, causing them to explode in black clouds that quickly dispersed.
Both twins stood like this shooting lightning bolts from their hands for a minute or so before dropping to their knees on the floor, dropping their hands, their breaths heavy.
"...we...did..it!..." Venna weakly exclaims.
"...Yeah..." Bell said before falling to his side, exhausted "but now... we'll have to rest... until... we regain our strength"
"Yeah…" Venna falls to her side before turning around and looking up at the cavern ceiling, her face turning serious "So… how far did we go today?"
Bell turns around and frowns before muttering
"...I don't speak mumbles" Venna complains with a frown.
"Third floor… like last time…" Bell speaks up, disgust evident in his voice.
"WHAT?!?!?!" Venna angrily exclaims "Third? again? ARGH!"
"yeah…we only went down to the third floor like the last 5 times in the last three weeks" Bell agreed without even moving, using magic was even more exhausting with the spell he and his sister had known since childhood; but now was not the time to think about it, the dungeon awaited them "Let's go"
Bell stood up and extended his hand to Venna. she huffed but grabbed the hand and stood up too, they had to collect the magic stones from the monsters they defeated; the magic stones… wonders hidden in the bodies of monsters, even the smallest of these small purple stones contained a natural amount of magic capable of powering various magical devices in the city above the dungeon.
"right. we collected them all" the brother said happily as he collected the last magic stone
"yeah…" Venna says dejectedly
Bell understands what her sister means and just sighs before approaching her "look-"
"it doesn't even start" Venna says bitterly, already waiting for the sermon, turning her back on her twin
"..." the twin held back from retorting his sister, instead, sighing he grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around "I was going to say that maybe I overdid this cautious proceeding thing" Venna blinks in surprise and disbelief. "I think today… we should go deeper, you know… get acclimated to the next floor" Bell finishes his sentence rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
Venna smiles happily before hugging her brother. "You are the best big brother in the world"
"But wasn't I the oldest 'just for a few seconds'?" Bell asks mischievously receiving a light punch to the stomach.
"don't push it" Venna scolds him but still keeps the smile before moving on "let's go"
"right" Bell replies before following his sister
some time later "..."
"... there's something very wrong" Venna says finally stopping to walk and checking the environment around her
there were no major differences from the third floor to the fourth but it was evident that monsters would be present and even more, there would be many ambushes by the hands of war shadows, monsters known to be experts in ambushing
"Venna.. don't forget that stronger adventurers pass through here too so they can get to the lower floors, they may have killed all the monsters that got in their way and that's why it's so calm" Bell tried to calm his sister but he too couldn't help but feel something was wrong, they were both supposed to have found something now
"Bell… fine…" his sister tries to counter-argument but leaves the idea aside, they both have to move on
Both continue walking through the tunnels until they reach a crossroads with several tunnels, when they see a small green monster, a goblin, approaching fast, both prepare to fight but the goblin just runs through them.
"..." Bell looks to where the goblin fled and doesn't see him anymore "he..."
"Just ignored us and left?" Venna completes the equally confused sentence. Dungeon monsters never run away from novice adventurers like them, only from veterans and they always descend to the deepest floors of the dungeon
Then several monsters came from the tunnels ahead of the twins. They both armed themselves for battle, expecting the worst, however the monsters ignored them and passed them by; while it's impossible to say that for sure, Bell and Venna were sure they saw fear in the eyes of the monsters that ran past them. The brothers turned to see the last of the monsters disappear into the darkness of the tunnel behind them, and then they both felt… uncontrollable fury coming from the tunnel halfway there.
"B-bell?" Venna called her brother, frightened
"Did you… did you feel… too?" Bell asked, swallowing hard.
A supernatural force was in that tunnel... and the mere presence of that force was enough to scare the monsters away...
"Venna..."
"Bell… I think it's better… we-"
"Let's investigate this"
Venna twisted her neck with such force and speed that anyone else would believe she broke it; the look of disbelief on her face said what she thought
"Venna… I…" Bell tries to reason with his sister but sighs before saying "Venna… we don't know what's at the end of this tunnel but we can't let this chance pass us either. What if it's a unique monster? Or is it a veteran adventurer injured who is using a Skill to protect himself? We have to go"
Venna tries to counter the possibility of it being an adventurer's Skill but can't. Skill are unique powers developed by adventurers based on their experiences making the idea sound right; on the other hand, the mere idea that there is an unknown monster in that direction already makes her completely rethink the idea of moving forward.
Even so, if she doesn't follow him, Bell will most likely go alone and she wouldn't forgive herself if something happened to him.
"*sigh*...okay...we'll go together then. Don't even think I'm going to let you walk into a possible trap just so you can play the hero- or whatever that bullshit grandpa was trying to teach you" Venna spoke to a little apprehension at first but soon got annoyed by mentioning a certainty past situation
"Haha… come on, Venna… I don't think as such anymore…" Bell defends himself a little embarrassed to be reminded of such a time
"Hmph, right" says Venna suspiciously "let's go!"
"C-calm down there!"
Both brothers make their way into the dungeon, arriving at a cave with no exits and inside, something that will change their lives forever.
"...Be-Bell... am I freaking out or is there really... a... weird... thing... here in this cave?" Venna spoke with an emotion not normally associated with her courageous and fearless personality; fear
"I was going to… ask the same thing…" the twin replied equally scared.
In front of both of them was what they would later come to know as a Warp Gate; a strange sphere with spiraling energy and ancient magic that allowed the wearer to cross between different worlds. But the twins didn't know that. Both were astonished to see such a thing, but they both could feel, that same supernatural presence was coming from within the strange distortion in front of them. the male twin steps forward before his sister grabs him by the arm and then smacks him on the head
"What do you think you're doing?" Venna asks irritably but you can hear the concern in her tone of voice.
"Ouch..you really needed to do this?" Bell asks as he massages the small bump that has formed on his head.
"Don't change the subject!" Venna screams as she points at her brother and then looks away and points at the distortion "what do you think will happen if you get close to this thing? For all we know it could be a rare monster!"
Bell looks between his sister and the distortion and after a few moments
"If it's a monster… why hasn't it attacked us yet?"
Venna tries to think of a reason but can't find it and hits again.
"It doesn't matter! Still this thing is dangerous" she counters "we should turn around now and report this to the guild"
"..." Bell doesn't say anything but looks at his sister intensely.
"..." she looks away, knowing what her brother would say "you're going to touch this thing either way aren't you?" She asks sarcastically, knowing the answer
"No" Bell's answer makes Venna turn her face back to him in complete surprise "I know there's something there. I can't say how but… I have this feeling… this feeling, right here in my heart, that there's something calling us"
"We?!?" Venna is surprised by the answer
"Yes…we" Bell grabs his sister's hand and places it on his chest "I can feel it" he then puts his own hand on his sister's chest so he can feel her heart "and I know you feel it too. Venna, we don't really know what this thing is but it called us here that we are both needed"
Bell lets go of his sister and walks away from a look of determination and courage "I will only approach if you go with me"
Venna stands motionless, in disbelief at her twin's words and actions, but still feels touched and joyful knowing her brother would give her the final word, something he only does when something is really serious and that's a serious situation. .
The twin starts to ponder and can't deny that she felt something calling to her since she entered the cave, that something didn't look like fear but she wanted to attribute this to the abnormality of the situation; however something in her heart told her that there is no danger and that she must go ahead, making her look at her twin with determination and courage.
"Okay, let's go" she says before grabbing her brother's shoulder "If we find something terrible or a dangerous monster that we can't beat, I'll kill you myself" she says seriously
Bell looks at his sister, startled until he realizes her gaze doesn't hold the threat, then with a smile, turns to the strange distortion.
"On three we advance," he tells his sister, more to prepare than to warn her.
"Right. One… Two…"
"Three!"
Both brothers leap with their daggers in hand, going above the distortion hoping that it will reveal itself as a monster, but instead the distortion revealed an image of a destroyed wasteland; before the two could understand what it was, gravity started pulling them back down, straight into the distortion. They both passed through the distortion without any resistance and upon being completely swallowed, the distortion closed, taking the two brothers of this world with it.
