Authors note: I need to stop having ideas while I'm working on chapter updates. Especially ones like this that make me want to write them XD
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Zeus, God of Heroes, the one who once led the greatest Familia in all of the mortal world, blinked in shock as he found himself standing in sterling halls of marble and gold.
Tenkai. The world of the gods.
"No. . . No, no no!" Zeus yelled in a panic as he ran down the hall.
Other gods saw him, and many moved to greet him, yet they got out of the way when they saw his face. He ran as fast as he could, turning down the halls and toward one great gate. Yet when he reached, his body simply crashed into it, and the gate would not budge.
It would not let him in.
"No, no, I need to-"
"Zeus, you just came back. You can't go back down again so easily. You know the rules."
Zeus turned to see a tall older man standing nearby. He was wearing dark grey robes with black accenting, and his black hair framed a sharp face devoid of hair, and dark amethyst eyes.
"Hades," Zeus muttered before panic again filled his face. "You don't understand, I need to, I can't leave him he's-"
"Zeus, calm down," Hades said as he stepped up to him and offered a hand. "Calm down, and explain, what is going on."
"I, I can't, time is-"
"Of the essence," A new voice spoke up, making both Zeus and Hades look over to see a young god standing nearby. He was an odd one. Androgynous face, long silky hair, a lithe yet chiseled body barely covered by loose robes. The man smirked as he sauntered over. "After all, that little mortal Ward of yours is in danger."
"You were watching . . . . Eros?" Zeus asked in surprise.
"I was. Most stopped watching you after your Familia broke up, but I continued," Eros said as he and Hades helped Zeus to his feet and led him over to a table. "That boy, he is your final piece to your last plans, isn't he?"
"He, He is. He should become a Hero to-"
"You want a boy of barely twelve who you have only taught with stories of heroism and harems to become a true hero?" Eros asked with a smirk. "If you ask me, you have been setting him up for failure."
"What!? I only want what is best for Be-"
"For your plan, right?" Eros interrupted with his continuing smirk. "As I said, I've been watching. For a long time actually. A child like that, he reminds me of an old soul, of an old Hero. A very old hero."
Zeus Bristled and sat up straighter, anger clearly creeping into his expression as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Telling him stories of heroism, pushing your perverted ideals onto him, yet never letting them actually grow into anything. He's an idealistic young boy with the desire and drive to become a true hero, yet he has no skills to speak of, no knowledge to fall back onto, and no understanding of the world or others. Honestly, being capture by bandits is likely a gift in disguise. He'll either be sold off as a laborer into slavery, or made into a bandit."
"I won't let that happen!" Zeus declared as he stood up angel. "Those thugs ambushed us, if I don't save him he'll-"
"Become the opposite of a hero, or become a slave in some far off labor camp," Eros said with a smile. "And how are you going to save him? You were killed by an arrow to the back, and you cannot go back down to Gekai for another thousand years at minimum. Are you going to beg someone else to go down and save him? Going to try to make another follow in your plan?
"If, if I have to I'll-"
"Do you think you'll be allowed to when Hera hears you are back here?" Eros said with a wide smile. "Enough people saw you come back and run through the halls. Word is already spreading."
"I-"
"Eros, stop stringing him along and get to the point," Hades said with a shake of his head. "You are offering to help, are you not?"
Zeus looked at hades, and then at Eros in shock. "No, absolutely not."
"Oh, you don't want help?" Eros teased. Weren't you wanting to find someone to save your little untrained pawn?"
"You will just corrupt him."
"Oh absolutely!" Eros agreed with a smile. " but corruption is not a bad thing. It is not like the evil of the dungeon, of monster, it is the evil of humankind. It is witnessing the dark side of mortals and gods and deciding where you stand. It is learning of these, and using the knowledge to your advantage. I'm offering to save him, and to actually teach him things he can use."
"You would destroy him," Zeus declared seriously. "Bell is an innocent boy with a heart of gold, a soul more powerful than-"
"Yes, the soul of a true hero," Eros interrupted as he leaned back in his chair and began twirling a Locke of his own hair. "The soul of a hero, with aspirations that would see him being blind to what a hero must fight against for too long, I would wager."
"Zeus, If Eros is offering to help, why refuse him?" Hades asked. "Who else would you ask that currently stands in the heavens?"
"I . . . . You,"
"I have no desire to go down to the mortal world. I have work I am happy to do up here," Hades said with a shake of his head.
"Then . . . Poseidon? Hestia? Rhea?"
"Poseidon would never follow your plans even remotely," Eros said with a smirk. "And Rhea does not pick sides, you know that."
"Hestia may work," Hades said with a nod. "But she has never once gone down to the mortal world. She would struggle in it more than others would. For all she is, she is far too forgiving, to innocent. To nice. Loki and Freya would destroy her the first chance they got, and she would have no skill at training a mortal in any way.
"She would offer love, a family," Zeus pressed hopefully.
"She may also become obsessed without realizing it," Hades said, making Zeus glare ay him.
"Whose side are you on Hades?"
"Neither. I am merely stating facts. There are far worse people to help you than Eros."
"But he would corrupt Bell into-"
"Into what, hmm?" Eros hummed. "I am Cupid, I am the Erotes, I am Eros, God of all forms of love, of lust, of things that lead to and way from these things. How many great heroes of the past were pressed forward due to their feelings for another? How many kingdoms have been felled by desires? How many others can say that they truly understand mortals like I?"
" . . . . But-"
"Look Zeus, I've been watching you and that little rabbit, I've pieced together some of your plans, and I can teach the child skills, and perhaps even give him abilities that will benefit him. Are you going to so no when I am offering to help you?"
"You can't use Arkanum down on the mortal realm, you know that Eros."
"Oh, but I can to some extent," Eros smiled. "Remember, my powers are directly connected to mortals desires, so my power would flow far easier to them, without so much Arkanum needed. I can bless him before I even give a Falna."
"You . . . . . . Bell will become different."
"All mortals become different over time," Eros said with a smile. "Each meeting, no matter how major or lesser, changes them. It is why we love them so. Unlike us, they can become whatever they want."
"They can . . . but. . ."
A distant sound could heard through the halls, making Eros smile. "I believe that noise may be Hera."
Zeus immediately looked conflicted and deep in thought. He was limited in his options but this seemed far too good.
No, it was too good. Despite being a God of love and lust and being considered as such, Eros was a manipulator on par with many gods of trickery and manipulation, his means were just so different that most did not see it. Didn't want to see it. Couldn't see it.
"Fine," Zeus said with a resigned sigh.
"Fine . . . what?" Eros asked with a smile. "I would like to hear you ask me, you know."
Zeus tensed, recalling one of the reason why he personally did not like Eros very much. But, this was an answer to his worries, even if it would change things. "Fine I . . . please, Eros. Go down to Gekai, and Save Bell Cranel. Help guide him forward, and save the mortal world."
"Of course," Eros said as he got up from the table and tuned toward the gate to Gekai. "I'll save the little rabbit, and help him learn how to be a hero and conquer his foes, and allies alike."
"That isn't-" Zeus began to say, only to be gun off as he heard a growl coming down the halls
"ZEUS!"
"Well, I'll leave then," Eros said with a smile as he approached the gate with a wave. "Don't worry Zeus, I'll turn him into an excellent hero," Eros claimed as he stepped up to the gate and passed halfway through it, looking back at Zeus with a lecherous smile. "Or maybe, a Heroine, who can say?"
"What? Eros that isn't what-" Zeus began to say as he walked toward Eros and the gate.
Only to suddenly feel a hand grab his shoulder. A hand that felt familiar.
"Zeus. How nice of you to finally come back."
Zeus did not turn around, but instead swallowed. "Hera."
"Right, By Zeus, have fun with your wife!" Eros said knowingly as he entered through the gate, and began heading down or the world of mortals. Gekai.
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Bell was conflicted as he sat in a cage of wood with his wrists and ankles bound. On one hand he was now a captive of bandits who seemed to be arguing about whether they sell him to a slaver or so something else with him.
Yet on the other hand, he just watched his own grandfather be hit in the back by an arrow and turn into a pillar of light, leading him to realize the most shocking thing.
That his grandpa had been a god.
It was not something easy to take or understand, but the proof had been there right in front of him, and it was the only thing the bandits who captured him could talk about.
That they had killed a god.
"Is grandpa, really gone?" Bell found himself muttering in worry. What was he supposed to do now anyway? Escape? He was tied up and bound, and in a cage, could he even escape? Even if he did, they were in the mountains, days away from any town or village, let alone a city. He had done some hunting with his grandpa, but he had never done it alone before.
Could he even survive on his own without help?
Bell blinked as he smelt something sweet on the air and looked around. The only trees around the bandit's camp were needle tree's, and there wasn't much in the way of flowers anywhere, so where was the sweet smell coming from?
Then, he could see a strange faintly pink fog drifting into the camp. The bandits seemed to ignore it, or did not notice it. They were too busy congratulating themselves for killing a god, acting like it made them special in some way. Acting like it made them more powerful, like if they could kill a god, they could beat adventurers.
"Hahahaha, next time we find a town, we should make some of the ladies serve us as they should, right?" one of the bandits said with a laugh as the pink mist almost seemed to glitter around the whole camp.
"Nah, we'll just have you make us feel good right?" Another said with a laugh, sounding very drunk "Hey, when you going to tell us you were a woman, anyway?"
"What? Don't you mean when were you? I'm no woman. Where have you been hiding those tits anyway?"
"Wha, wha'yu talkin abwuuwwaa," one bandit suddenly spat out his drink as if he suddenly became sober. Then standing up to find that he now did have a huge pair of breasts on his chest, and his hair seemed to be getting longer by the second. "Wha, what is going on?!"
"Huh, here did my muscles go!"
"Holy fuckin, why do you have-"
"Why do you-?"
"What is wrong with my voice, this feels, something is wrong!"
Bell blinked as he stared at the bandits who mere moments before were partying and merrymaking. Now, instead of bandits, they were starting to look like a bunch of women wearing ill-fitting clothes. Many of them were groping themselves in confusion, while others were pointing and staring at others unsure what was going on.
"What, is happening?" Bell asked as he shifted to try to get a better view but instead felt his own body felt odd. And quickly noticed it was not just the bandits who were changing. "Wha, why do I, is it the mist?"
"Very good guess, you think quickly. That's a good trait."
Bell turned to see a tall man standing beside his cage, and this one was not a bandit. He was wearing bright purple pants without shoes, and was shirtless, revealing a lithe yet muscular body. Hi face looked like a women's, while long silky whitish yellow hair framed violet eyes.
"W-who?" Bell asked as a bunch of groans and pained moans pulled his attention back to the bandits to see many of them falling over and grabbing their stomachs in pain. "What, is going on?"
"Simple, I merely made their genders swap, and just happened to shift around their bodies clock so today is a particularly painful day for them," The man, whose voice sounded almost feminine, said with an odd sweetness to it. "As men who have never felt a woman's pain, it is far more than they can deal with, though I hadn't intended you to be effected by the first spell."
"Wait, am I going to-"
"No, you will be fine, I didn't aim that other part at you," the man said as he pulled out a crowbar and smacked the lock off the cage. "Honestly, you shouldn't have even been turned into a woman, so ghe fact you have tells me you likely have an affinity for magic and effects like it."
"Who, who are you?" Bell asked as he shifted towards the door as the unknown man opened it and held out a small knife and let it slid under the rope between Bell's wrists, freeing them from their constraints.
"Well, I'm an acquaintance, sort of a friend of your grandpa," the man said as he knelt down and helped cut the rope around Bells ankles.
"Then you are, a, a god?" Bell asked awkwardly as he crawled out of the cage and stood up, finding his balance strange, like standing felt wrong.
"Just as he was, yeah," The man said with a nod of his head. "I'm known by many names, Cupid, the Erotes, but you can call me Eros, God of Primordial Love, Sex, pleasure, desire, Gender and a whole lot of other currently unimportant facets," Eros then smiled. "Do you want to know?"
"Um, know what?" Bell asked as he tried to step away from the cage and almost fell over, his balance still feeling strange.
"What your grandpa's real name is of course. Do you wish to know who he is? What stories he has already forged in the past?"
Bell looked at Eros and went wide eyed as he realized what he was being asked, and what it meant. His grandpa was a god, meaning, he likely had given Falna to people before. How many of the stories of adventurers he had told him over the years, had been heard from the people that he resided over in the past?
Did he want to know who his grandpa was?
Did he want to know, how many great heroes had come before him, under his grandpa's care?
Did he, really want to know any of it?
"No . . . . I, don't need to know," Bell decided with a shake of his head. "I'll find out eventually, on my own."
"Good."
"Um, may I ask, why you are here?" Bell then hazarded, only to raise a hand in front of himself defensibly, noting that his arms looked a bit thinner than before. "Not, that I'm upset you helped, I just-"
"I'm here for you actually," Eros said with a smirk as he snapped a finger, the pink fog around them then dissipating to allow Bell to see that the entire Bandit camp had been turned into Women, and all of them seemed to be writing on the ground grabbing their stomachs. "Your grandpa did not intend to leave you so soon, but when a god is killed down here, it's not so simple to come back down again. I offered to come down and help you out. And to train you."
"Train me?"
"Yes," Eros said with a nod. "Your grandpa was raising you, but he did plan to begin training you soon enough."
"For what?"
"Why, for becoming an adventurer," Eros said with a smile. "That is, if you want to become an adventurer?"
Bell would always remember the stories that his grandpa had told him for years every evening. Stories of great heroes fighting against evil monster, of heroes saving princesses and town in equal measures. Stories of going on adventures and becoming a true hero. He had heard so many storied of adventurers, of heroes, of adventurers, it was something he had wanted to do as long as he had thought of it.
"I do. I want to become an adventurer!" Bell proclaimed strongly.
Eros looked at bell and smiled. "Good, then let us proceed!"
