Introduction
Returned
The rattling victory roar of a violent beast.
The thudding sound of heavy fists striking flesh.
The crunch of a skull shattering.
A flash of blue and yellow. The sound of slashed flesh. A spray of hot blood across the wall.
The sharp inhale of breath from shocked lips.
A blade clattering to the rocky ground.
The clank of knee guards striking the earthen floor.
A whisper.
"No. I'm sorry"
A tear falling to the dirt, crystalized in it's fall.
A failure in duty.
A needless death.
Hestia was the first to know that Bell had died. Her lovely Bell had perished alone in that evil place. How foolish she had been. She jumped off of the shoddy couch in her home beneath her derelict church. Tears poured from her eyes as an anguished wail akin to that of a dying beast escaped from her lips. It sounded again and again as she tore through the basement to the stairs.
Pain tore her heart apart, and it felt as if her soul had been yanked from where it resided within her.
"BELL NOOOOOOOOO" she shrieked as she ran barefoot down the streets of Orario, a long trail of snot and tears lining the sides of her face and the road behind her.
She drew the attention of God and Man alike, yet she cared little for the eyes focused upon her.
She arrived just in time to see the lifeless remains of her Bell being carried on a stretcher by the sollemn Aiz Wallenstein and a guild employee.
Bell was her only familia member. Her love.
"NOOOO" Her wail doubled in intensity as she ran towards the dead young boy. Swatting the adventurers aside, Bell's stretcher fell to the tiled floor with a thud, and a small splatter of blood dribbled to the white floor, staining it in her mind forever.
"Who did this?" She whispered once.
"Goddess?" The hesitant voice of Aiz sounded next to her.
Seeing Bell's complete horrid condition, she snapped.
"WHO DID THIS?" Hestia's voice tore through the guild building like a burst dam.
Paying no heed to the laws of the Gods, a shockwave of immense wrathful power originating from her threw aside every mortal in a two hundred meter radius like they were made of dust.
The very buildings shook violently as Hestia's blinding flash of power intensified, alerting every God and Goddess in the city that one of their own had gone wild.
"WHO DID THIS?" Hestia's voice turned from anguished cry to resonating thunder that was heard across the city in all directions.
Two days later
Hestia's church bedroom
Bell awoke with a desperate scream for help, desperately bringing his hands up in front of his face to block an attack that never came. It took him a moment to realize that he was no longer in the Dungeon. Panting heavily as phantom pains throbbed in his head and chest, he looked down at his chest where he was certian he remembered the minotaur punching a hole clean through.
Panic bubbled up again in his chest, and he shivered as he looked around.
He was in a bedroom, that much was obvious, and it was vaguely familiar to him, but for the life of him he couldn't remember why. There were clothes haphazardly strewn across the dresser next to the bed, and he understood they were his, but he wasn't completely sure. It was as if this was some place he was supposed to know, and he did, but at the same time it felt slightly foerign. Like things weren't exactly where they should be. Not because of someone interfering or throwing things around.
No, this was more esoteric, as if reality itself were slightly off kelter.
For just a moment, he felt like the world around him was drenched in darkness and something terrifying was watching him. Something that had brought him back here.
Then, the vile yellow eye of a snake burned itself into his vision, and Bell blacked out for the breifest of moments.
Then the feeling disappeared and everything was right again.
After recovering, he felt everything coming back to him. This was his home with his Goddess Hestia and he was alive. His racing heart began to calm.
Rolling off the bed, he found he was wearing nothing but his underwear and pants. That was better than nothing. It also seemed that his body was fully healed. Walking over to the bathroom, Bell looked in the mirror.
The only thing that was odd to him was that he looked slightly taller than his previous height, but he must have been imagining it.
Turning away, Bell let out a sigh of relief. However, what he did not see was that just for the briefest of moments, his reflection did not turn with him and instead became a tiny black snake with yellow eyes that slid from the mirror onto the sink and observed him silently before silently sliding into a small hole on the ground near the wall.
The mirror then turned back to the actual reflection he would have.
Slightly earlier that day
Hestia sat in a cell made of divine metals meant to hold even the stronger Gods and Goddesses. She looked emptily and broken at the cold unfeeling bars that imprisioned her. Shackles attatched to her wrists drained her divine power.
The fight between her and Loki replaying fresh in her head.
She would have smote the whole Loki familia if not for the near instantaneous arrival of Loki followed shortly by a host of other Gods and Goddeses meant to subdue her mad raging assault.
What was once a playful rivalry had turned viciously violent, and all the nearby mortals were but sand in the storm of Godly power that Hestia and Loki unleashed upon eachother, upturning buildings and flattening the land as they fought.
It was only due to Ouranos's quick intervention that the fight did not claim any lives. As such, Hestia and Loki stood trial.
The consequences were swift, and justice was served.
Hestia was sentenced to return to Tenkai for a year to reflect on her actions and if she were to return afterwards, she could not have a familia for forty years afterwards. It was quite lenient as the situation was softened by the testimony from Hephaestus and a few other Gods who had taken pity on her plight.
So now she could do nothing but wait to be escorted back to Tenkai, her will crushed and her heart broken.
That was untill she felt something she could neither believe or comprehend.
Bell's falna had reactivated, and she felt her spiritual bond with him rekindle. Falling back in a dizzy stupor, she could do nothing but laugh madly, repeating Bell's name over and over.