Change of Fates

by Ventanus

A single question at the right time could change the fates of not one, but many people.

52. Back to Orario

"Oho? So you have put your eyes on the lovely supporter of your familia and now you want an advice from this old man, hm?"

Zeus grinned while he sat alone with Luan a bit outside of the village.

"Yes, I do! I know that she as a saint is only to be admired, but I can´t deny my feelings!"

"Oh, she is a saint?"

"Yes! The very image of a saint! Many pallums in Orario look up to her ever since the wargame!"

"And so do you?"

"I do! But it is more than just that!"

"Hah, young love. Listen closely, this old man will help you with some good advices!"

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In the village, Lily felt a chill running down her spine.

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Zeus made a serious face. "First things first, don´t follow her, it has to be your goal to stand at her side or be able to stay in front of her to protect her."

"I will do my best, that´s why I chose my mace and the shield!"

"A good choice in general, but there is a problem. Don´t be mad when I mention it, but the range is not good and the shield too small, since you´re a pallum. I would recomment something else, also to match more with her appearance."

Normally Luan would be extremely offended by such a statement, as would be most pallums, but the current matter was too serious.

"What would that be?"

"You surely have heard about Loki´s Braver and Freya´s Bringar, right?"

"Every pallum in Orario has."

"From what I know, Braver and one of the Bringar use spears, as does your lovely saint. One uses a Greatsword, one a battle axe, one a hammer. All weapons that have a long reach."

"And you would advice me to use one too?"

"I do. You read the book about the Knights of Fianna, right?"

"Yes, it was amazing! It moved me so much!"

"And you read that all of them used spears, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Don´t you want to be a knight for your saint?" Zeus smirked.

"I do! I want to be her first and...maybe only knight."

"Hehe, so you want the admired saint for yourself. I´m impressed, Luan!"

"But, a spear as a guardian...I don´t know."

"Did Bell ever tell you the story about the Golden Guardians?"

"I heard a bit about it, they were the guards of a king of old, right?"

"Indeed, all of them used the weapons that were the best for them, but the most used were halberds or how they called them "Guardian Spears". They looked quite different from a normal spear or halberd. Instead of an axe head at one side, they had a pointed tip that had a sharp edge only one one side of the blade, you know, like some curved swords."

"Hm, a Halberd..."

"The perfect weapon for a guardian, you could even use it with a shield in some cases."

"Hm."

"Just imagine it. Your saint kneeling on the ground, her battle outfit tattered, she is staggering because she is exhausted and monsters charge at her. Then you, as her trusty guardian and first knight stand in front of her with your guardian spear, wearing a full plate armor and shielding her against everything that is coming at her."

Luan´s eyes shone when he heard that.

"But I don´t know how to use such a weapon."

"Then better start to train as soon as you come back to Orario. A halberd or special guardian spear will also help you in the dungeon against some monsters. Since such a weapon has a longer reach than Bell´s sword for example, but is better for hacking than Liliruca´s spear. A party should have all kinds of weapons to deal with all kinds of situations. And with such a weapon you could deal with various situations."

"So I would become an important pillar?"

"For the party or your saint?"

"Both!"

"Hah, that´s the spirit! And of course you would!"

Luan looked with beaming eyes up to Zeus.

"Please teach me more about this and women, master!"

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Lily felt a shiver again, was she getting cold?

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While Zeus taught Luan a lot about women, how to compliment one and how to court one, the others were busy too. Soon they would leave the village, all of them had enjoyed their stay so far.

Lena worked with the butcher to prepare the meat for the journey back. Thankfully the serpent meat wouldn´t spoil so easily. But the butcher was nice enough to also prepare some beef for some, as a thank for killing the serpent.

Mikoto and Chigusa spent some time alone with Ouka, while Haruhime and Lefiya accompanied Bell as he trained a bit more with his new magic. He used the last version of the magic, that had a longer cooldown than the other versions. Normally he could use this magic every five minutes, but the last version could only be used once every twenty-four hours.

Cerberus.

Unlike the attack spells, Cerberus acted like a guardian, protecting the group. Due to the three heads, Cerberus could easily see all the dangers around it. Since it would protect mostly the vulnerable ones that used ranged weapons or magic, Cerberus would stand close to Haruhime and Cassandra.
Haruhime was overjoyed to have such a legendary, mythic creature as her guardian from time to time.

But unlike in Bell´s dreamland, Cerberus didn´t act like a giant, three headed dog, it showed no emotions and just stood guard, probably because it was a magic spell. Bell couldn´t know that Sowak cursed in a cute and child friendly way when he summoned Cerberus and the dog suddenly vanished in the dreamland. Sowak fell backwards onto the floor, since she had cuddled just a moment ago with the giant guardian.

While they enjoyed their last morning in the village, things happened in Orario too.

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The Stardust Garden was mostly empty, most members of the Astrea familia were in the city, as well as the Ganesha familia. Things slowly got ugly in Orario. For one and a half weeks now the dungeon was empty, no monsters appeared, all minerals, crystals and other things had been farmed and it needed time for them to grow again. For small familias things got soon really dire, the source of income for new adventurers was gone.

While this was a problem for new adventurers, they could manage to do something else. Demeter could always need more hands, especially after not just a few of her familia members died in Knossos. The vice captain of the Demeter familia currently managed everything, since Demeter was heartbroken and unable to show herself much in public. She spent most of her time in the Dian Cecht hospital, comforting and caring for her children, Persephone more than the others.

Demeter fed her child, since she had only one arm left, but the hand was gone. She washed her and helped her with everything, Demeter refused to let anyone else do this. Demeter had talked to Dian Cecht and told him no matter what it would cost, Persephone would get a silver leg, a silver arm and her missing hand replaced with a silver hand. While the situation was dire, Dian Cecht smelled a huge profit, but he didn´t dare to mess with Demeter and ripp her off. While Demeter was a friendly and caring woman, she could get extremly angry and dangerous.
Also, Freya had talked to Dian Cecht, she would cover at least half of the cost for Persephone´s treatment. It hurt Freya to see Demeter suffering so much.

Amid worked day and night to create more of the magical silver, the first thing that Persephone would get was a new hand.

The whole Demeter familia awaited the return of their captain and goddess.

While new adventurers took all kinds of small jobs in Orario, for upper adventurers the situation was even worse. The Loki familia had to pay off their debts to Hephaistos and Goibniu, so their members went into the dungeon, deeper and deeper, until it was completly cleansed down to the 37th floor. Even the coliseum was now empty, since the monsters had slaughtered each other, but no new ones appeared. There were tons of drop items there, some rotting, but the Loki familia took all they had, with help of a few members of the Hephaistos familia.

It was an incredible haul, but unfortunaley, items from the 37th floor weren´t that much worth for a familia like Loki´s, some of her children had debts into the millions of Vals. Ais more than any other, but she couldn´t go into the dungeon, she was still heavily injured. Also her armor and sword were destroyed...as well as something else. For Riveria it looked like something had broken in Ais, that she lost something. Hope, her goal, determination, will to fight...everything got destroyed by the cursed creature Revis, who was still on the run.

No one also saw the black Drakonid again, it had vanished somewhere deep in the dungeon.

So, due to the flow of money getting close to zero, some adventurers got into a really bad mood, had problems and got into trouble. And some...already went to crime. That was why the Astrea and Ganesha familias were inside the city in huge numbers, to prevent a second Dark Age.

The Dark Ages...it almost felt like they were back.

A huge plume of smoke rose from Orario's industrial district. A magic stone factory was still burning. The fire was mostly contained, but the factory was destroyed.

Evilus was on the rise...

At least that's what some people thought.

In fact, it was a few remaining members in the city who carried out their final orders after the fall of Knossos, the disappearance of Thanatos and Diyonisos.

Tabularasa protocol.

They should attack everything, cause chaos and so on. Just like in the Dark Ages.

Only there weren't very many of them and their attacks were limited to a few places. The Astrea familia was the first to react.

And they acted with horrific brutality and mercilessness against the Evilus members.

No mercy was offered or given.

Evilus was exterminated root and branch, the ground burned and salted.

The only ones who were spared were those who were not attacked in the first place and who went out in public and surrendered after the fall of Knossos.

The Astrea familia acted so hard to show the citizens of Orario one thing.

We are here!

This won´t happen again, we will protect you and this city!

When the factory exploded and fire washed everywhere, the Astrea familia was already there, but came too late to prevent the explosion. Many people, workers and citizens alike saw the explosion, how the fire washed forward.

And a single young woman, with flaming red hair steppd forward, right in the way of the Tsunami of fire. Flames rushed out of Alise´s hands, legs and her back, forming the flaming wings that got her the alias Phoenix.

Alise´s magic absorbed the tsunami of fire, swallowed it all, while Alise pointed her sword upwards into the sky. When she used the command word, a pillar of fire shot into the sky, since she had to let go of the fire, but this way it didn´t hurt anyone.

Unlike Bete´s Hati, Alise´s magic didn´t absorb all kinds of magic, just fire, no matter if from a natural source or magic. And she could only absorb a certain amount before she had to release it into an attack.

With the wings on her back and the sword in hand, Alise was the very symbol of her familia.

Only members of the Astrea familia knew that the flaming wings could also change into a different form, due to a new skill that Alise got. But what it was remained a secret outside of her familia.

The Ganesha familia was fast to arrive and helped the Astrea familia with the factory. Thankfully it would be the only factory that Evilus got.

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So while the Astrea and Ganesha familias were in the city, only two members with the blessing of Astrea on their backs remained in the Stardust Garden. Viana protected the home while the others were out and Alfia really shouldn´t go into the city at the moment.

But in front of the grounds of the Stardust Garden were two guards of the Ganesha familia, they had accompanied their god here. Shakti was more than enough to command the familia in the city and Ganesha wanted to visit Astrea.

Alfia closed her door after she finished her current notes and slowly walked through the mostly empty house. She could hear the slight noises fromt he garden, where Viana walked in full armor and with her spear in hand around the house, sometimes outside of the fence. She was very serious about her guardian duty.

Lately Alfia had time to think about something, in a wide sense it was of course about Bell again.

It was always about Bell.

But this time it was also about the Astrea familia, because they were needed in the future, so that Bell could lead a peaceful life one day.

She knew that Astrea was in the living room, but Alfia was a bit distracted by her thoughts. When she arrived there, Alfia saw something that she probably shouldn´t. Ganesha and Astrea sat on the couch, he had put an arm around her shoulder and she leaned against him. And Ganesha wasn´t wearing his mask, like this Alfia was one of the few people who had seen Ganesha without his mask.

And dear heavens was he handsome! Even more than Miach!

Not that it affected her emotionally in any way, but she noticed on an intellectual level that Ganesha was a very attractive man.

And Alfia noticed something else, Astrea and Ganesha had tears running down their cheeks. There were a few pictures in front of them on the table. One was showing the Astrea familia of the past, with all members alive. Ganesha had a huge picture of his whole familia from the past and one special one on the side, showing a teenage girl with cerulean hair.

The two gods were mourning their deceased children again, Alfia knew that Astrea did that pretty often. It had surprised her at first, because she didn't have a very high opinion of gods. But while Alfia often enough made fun of some efforts of this familia or talked back a lot to Astrea, she would never make something like this bad.

The expression in Astrea´s face cut deep into Alfia´s heart. Because what she saw in front of her was a grieving mother, who mourned the death of her children, who died ten years ago. And it cut so deep into Alfia´s heart, because she feared that one day she would be in Astrea´s place. Losing Bell was the greatest horror imaginable to Alfia and she tried her best not to imagine it.

Losing Bell would destroy Alfia, break her.

And Ganesha was the same about his children, every child he lost carved a wound into the god´s heart. Alfia knew that there were gods who wouldn´t suffer so much, but these two were different.

Astrea noticed it when Alfia appeared in the door.

"Oh, Alfia.."

Normally it wasn´t like Alfia to apologize, but the moment was different.

"My apologized, Goddess Astrea, God Ganesha."

It was one of the few times that Alfia called Astrea by her name, normally she just called her "Goddess of Justice".

The goddess wiped a few tears away from her chin, her cheeks were wet, but she didn´t move away from Ganesha.

"It´s alright, Alfia...is there something you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something, you too God Ganesha, but it can wait, I don´t want to disturb you further."

Ganesha slightly nodded. "Is it important?"

Alfia nodded. "Yes, but it can wait a few hours."

Astrea and Ganesha looked at each other, then the goddess nodded.

"It is alright, please tell us."

"I would like to use the arena one of these days, together with your familia, Goddess Astrea. And a few members of your familia, God Ganesha."

Astrea smiled wryly. "They are also your familia now, Alfia."

Ganesha looked serious. "For what reason do you want to use it?"

"I want to show them something important, that they have to know."

"And what would that be?"

Alfia´s face was dead serious. "What true power and fear feels like."

Ganesha frowned slightly, Astrea looked a bit worried.

"Why? And how?"

"When we fought in the dungeon during the dark times, your children caught a glimpse of true magical power, but only a glimpse. I want to show them what it feels like when I am at full power and chant my strongest magic, I won´t unleash it, otherwise I would wipe out Orario."

It was a simple statement, which made it even more frightening.

Astrea looked concerned now. "I can´t see a good reason for that."

"You are aware that my old familia...that I...killed the Leviathan. While Zeus´ boys slew the Behemoth."

"We are aware."

"I unleashed my strongest spell at full power into the Leviathan and killed it this way. And now be aware that the One Eyed Black Dragon took this spell to the head and survived, not even badly wounded."

Both gods went silent.

"And now imagine what it feels like in your heart, when you use the strongest you have against a monster and it does nothing. This monster made even scream the Empress in fear and let her cry for her mother to save her and I don´t mean Hera with that."

Ganesha showed a grim expression. "But our children faced strong monsters and enemies in the past...like you."

Alfia nodded. "I agree, but nothing of this scale. One day Orario will have to fight against the black dragon and they have to be prepared what it means to do that. Compared to our familias, Orario´s strength is nothing, you only have one level seven. And we didn´t lose to the black dragon, we got wiped out."

Astrea gulped slightly. "But you were exhausted from your fights against the other two."

"Enough time had passed for us to recover as much as necessary. We still lost without a chance and now don´t forget the black dragon only has one eye, while the Behemoth had four, the Leviathan had other ways of sensing everything around it. So while the black dragon always had a blind sight, we were nothing against it."

"It can fly."

"But it is bigger than a house, this monster can´t dodge incoming attacks...it doesn´t need to dodge them."

"So...you want to give our children a push forward again?"

"If you want to call it like that, Goddess of Justice."

Astrea smiled slightly, now Alfia was back to her usual tone.

Alfia´s eyes wandered for a short moment to the pictures.

"So that they can take on this fight...and not more of your children have to die..."

Even Ganesha couldn´t say a word, the god felt that Alfia spoke the truth.

"God Ganesha."

"Yes?"

"Could you put your mask on again? It is really distracting to see your real face!"

Astrea chuckled slightly. "I told you, Ganesha. You´re too handsome."

The god smiled slightly and put the mask back on his face.

"It would be the best if Freya´s and Loki´s children could see this too. But we can´t risk them seeing you."

"They will feel it, all of Orario will feel it."

Ganesha nodded. "Then I will talk to my children, so that they spread the message we just train and a spell went a bit out of control, to prevent any panic."

For a moment, the sturdy god looked at Alfia, then at the pictures of his familia and Ardee.

"You have my thanks, Alfia. But you said we might have to face the dragon, won´t you help?"

Alfia didn´t smile or show any other emotion. "I doubt I will still be alive when the time comes. That´s why I want to prepare Orario as best as possible."

Astrea looked at her like a mother. "For Bell, right?"

"Always for Bell, he is my everything."

Ganesha slowly understood what had changed Alfia, who had changed her.

Astrea showed her a smile. "My choice with you was the right one, Alfia. What you did back then was horrible, but like Alise, I understand you."

"We did what we had to, to prepare Orario for the horrors and the terror. I just wish I had killed Valetta myself back then, I hated that woman."

"I see, you have your very own sense of justice."

Alfia´s expression contorted. "Don´t throw me in the same basket as your children, Goddess of Justice!"

Alfia left the room with an agitated face.

Ganesha looked confused at Astrea while he took the mask off again. "What was that reaction just now?"

"Alfia is like that, she doesn´t like to get compliments. She secretly helps my children in many ways that they don´t see or still have to notice, but she doesn´t want them to thank her for that."

"Is she...a Tsundere?"

Astrea shook her head. "All she does is for Bell and Bell alone. She doesn´t want anyone else to thank her or look up to her, Alfia has chosen to become a true evil, she strongly believes that she can never be redeemed, should never be redeemed. And she doesn´t care about that, as long as Bell is well."

Alfia´s nature let her just care for others so that it would help Bell, she was unable to truly care for the Astrea members, even when she did it in her own twisted way.

"To think the fearsome Silence became such a caring mother.."

Astrea chuckled. "I think it´s quite cute to see her like this."

Of course Alfia heard what they said. She wanted to return and say something, but then her skill reacted. The one that let her feel in which direction Bell was. For the last week it was always the same direction and roughly the same distance. Alfia couldn´t tell how far away he exactly was, but she had a feeling when he got closer or further away.

And she felt it.

Bell was moving, he came back to Orario.

Finally.

She would finally see her beloved son again. And she could refill her energy, Alfia never made a joke when she said Bell gave her the energy to live. Alfia could feel herself getting weaker when he was away for a long time.

When she got back to her room, Alfia opened her window.

"You noisy dark elf, can´t you walk a bit more quiet or take these plates off?! And next time be more quiet in your workshop!"

Viana startled when the window suddenly opened and Alfia appeared. The dark elf couldn´t handle it when someone spoke so suddenly to her like that, she was pretty similar to Hogni Ragnar in that way...then again both were dark elves. She wasn´t able to give a good answer right away, Viana had to think about one before that. Often enough when she talked to someone and couldn´t come up with a good reply, much later when she was in her bed or under the shower she finally found an answer.

At least when she was alone in the shower, Viana was able to win in an argument...

Before Viana could answer, Alfia closed her window again and pulled the curtains in front of it.

The dark elf shivered slightly. "The demon queen..."

The window opened slightly again.

"I heard that!"

Viana fled when the window closed again, she tried to be more quiet. Alfia seriously scared her.

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After preparing everything and giving Bell all the time in the world to wish his grandfather goodbye, they went on their way to Orario.

For some reason, Mikoto, Chigusa and Ouka were all very red and didn´t say much. Haruhime knew exactly why, because they made the same kind of faces that she, Lefiya and Bell had done after their first kisses!

Haruhime was happy for her friends, they deserved this happiness. And Takemikazuchi looked like a proud father, his children made important steps forwards to become fine adults. Naza looked very pleased with their vacation, she was able to spend a lot of time with Miach alone, enjoying time with her lover.

Luan looked determined and walked next to Welf, talking to him about a new weapon.

"Hm, a halberd or guardian spear you say."

"I believe boss Bell has a picture of such a spear in one of his books."

"Hm, I will take a look at it, but we will need materials for that."

"I believe the material in the forest that boss Bell talked about will be perfect."

"True, I can´t wait to get my hands on this stuff."

So far it was planned that Welf, Luan, Lily, Daphne and Cassandra would travel to the Forest of Elan that Bell told them, to find Oathtree Walnut and Valorian Steel. It was really important for Luan to get a weapon made from these materials, since in ancient times the spears of the Knights of Fianna had also been made out of it. Lily wanted a new spear, since her old one had been destroyed by the Goliath, also made of these materials. Her reason wasn´t the same as Luan´s, she didn´t really care about the symbolic theme.

It was a bit strange that she didn´t care about all these things much, yet she was the rising symbol for all Pallums in Orario and the lands.

While they talked, Bell, Lefiya and Haruhime had an important dicussion.

Currently, Haruhime walked on Lefiya´s right side, while Bell was on the left, with four people in a row. Two Lefiyas walked next to each other, she had used her magic again to train it a bit and for a different reason.

Ever since Bell had saved Lefiya from the Violas, there was a difference when she used Filvis´ Einsel. Instead of looking exactly the same, the Lefiya that appeared due to the magic had still long hair, while the original one had short hair.

"What do you think-"

"-looks better? Short-"

"-or long hair?"

"Hm, this isn´t an easy answer. Both have their benefits."

"You mean like drying faster after washing it?"

"Or reducing the risk of getting caught at the hair again?"

Bell shook his head to the questions of the Lefiyas. "The short hair shows your nape in a really nice way."

Haruhime nodded in agreement with Bell. "Also we see more of your ears this way."

"And your waist from behind."

"As well as your shoulders and back."

The two Lefiyas both got equally red when they heard how their lovers praised her body like that.

"I-Is that really what you two think?!"

Bell nodded. "I really like the sight of your nape."

Haruhime chuckled. "And your ears are really cute."

""Mmmmh!""

To hear such open praises about her body let Lefiya feel flustered, even when she felt the same about them. The sun was high up in the sky, Haruhime had stretched her tails and let each of them move alone, so that they could be in the sunlight as much as possible. Even she herself couldn´t say why this felt so good, but it did. Lena had joked that maybe Haruhime needed to absorb sunlight for her magic.

Said amazon currently had an enormous backpack with her, Lily gave it to her for the travel back and Lena insisted on carrying the meat by herself. There were a few extra layers and two small magic items, to protect the meat from getting warm.

All of them had been surprised how delicious this serpent meat actually was, but maybe it was just because Lena knew how to cook it.

Lefiya felt the eyes of Bell and Haruhime on her for a moment again, with red ears she covered her chest and behind out of reflex.

"Don´t stare-"

"-so much...it´s-"

"-embarrassing."

It was really strange to hear the two Lefiyas talk in turns. She knew where her lovers were looking at for a moment. Eating much more meat really let her body fill out in all the right places more. So much that Lefiya got trouble with her brassiere! Now she had to buy new ones! And due to her butt getting a nicer shape, it felt like her skirt got a bit too short, even when this wasn´t really the case.

.

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They continued their way until night started to come close, so they set up their camp. After having their dinner, a more serious matter came up in the camp, at least for some of them.

Haruhime and Lefiya held a war council, supported by the women of the group.

When they returned to Orario, Lefiya and Haruhime would face Alfia in a special competition or maybe a duel. Before they went to meet Zeus, Alfia told them the time was there, she wanted them to fulfill their promise.

To face Alfia, so that she might or might not acknowledge the two. She had started to open up a bit to them, but she was still Bell´s Mom and they the two girls who wanted to steal him away from her. At least in her eyes.

So they would duel Alfia in various ways. The whole competition would take a week. Alfia told them she would drive them beyond their limits, to the infinity and even further beyond.

Bell had tried to argue this wasn´t necessary, but for Haruhime and Lefiya it was incredibly important to get Alfia´s blessing on their relationship. Both could understand how hard it was for her, especially since Bell had two lovers. After getting to know that Zeus was Bell´s grandfather, they guessed that Alfia feared Bell was about to build himself a harem.

Not that he would ever do that, in the beginning he already felt bad enough for looking at more than one girl with loving eyes.

While they held their war council, the others would help them in a few ways that were allowed as much as possible, Lefiya rememberred a few moments before she fell in love with Bell and Haruhime, maybe it was fate? Whatever it was, Lefiya was happy about it, she really loved both of them. Sometimes it was nice to lose herself in her small daydreams.

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Following Finn´s and Loki´s orders, most of the Loki familia were also in the city, just in case other last Evilus members showed themself somewhere, but it looked like it were really just a few, hidden, last members that sacrificed themselves.

Bete was pretty pissed, mostly because he was worried. He couldn´t believe that he was so worried because he didn´t see Lena for a while now. She had constantly annoyed him in the past, he often enough snapped at her, but now...he even missed her. With his hands in his pockets, he walked through Orario, looking left and right, letting his ears guide him. On this day alone, Bete beat thirteen adventurers to a pulp, who started to commit crime to get their hands on money again. Thankfully soon enough members of the Ganesha familia arrived and Bete handed the criminals over to them. Orario felt pretty unpleasant these days and he even saw a large number of amazons on the streets. Since the adventurers didn´t get much money anymore and no new magic stones came from the dungeon, the flow of money in Orario started to stop. Which was an enormous problem for the new Entertainment District. For half a week now they didn´t have any customers, since the adventurers had to focus on food with the little money they had left.

He wondered how long the dungeon would be like that and hoped it wouldn´t be too long. Otherwise his familia would get huge problems, the dungeon was their source of income after all. Tiona and Tione had checked the guild and told their familia that all quests on the bulletin board were gone. For once the adventurers moved en masse out of Orario to take on quests, they had to make money somehow. He wasn´t only worried about his familia, he was a tiny bit worried if Lena would get trouble, if her familia had enough money. Whatever the reason was why he was started to get worried about Lena again and again, he couldn´t do anything against it.

So he continued his rounds through the streets, looking for trouble.

Most of the Loki familia was in the city, but not all of them.

Riveria currently couldn´t really move and she didn´t want to. Since Ais was still recovering and had trouble with her Depth perception, she helped her as much as possible. But currently Ais had a small breakdown again, clinging to Riveria´s chest, hugging her as good as possible with her broken arm, crying like a small child. It broke Riveria´s heart to see Ais like this, her feelings for this blond girl ran deeper than for the other young members of the familia. For all of them, Riveria had become the familia´s Mommy. But for Ais, Riveria was her foster mother.

Riveria gently stroked the hair of the trembling girl, who was searching for motherly comfort. The adult elf often didn´t know what to do, in the past he asked Rose for advice, who scolded her that she herself was a pure maiden without a boyfriend, how should she know how to comfort a child? Ais was now a young woman, but Riveria knew the truth, inside her Ais was still a helpless, young girl. Often she had thought if she had any right to comfort Ais like this, she wasn´t her mother after all. But Ais needed this...and Riveria needed it too. While she didn´t have a partner, nor the desire for one, this here...this felt nice.

"Oh Ais..."

"*Hic*..Mom...*Hic*..."

Should she allow Ais to call her like that? But this girl needed a mother figure more than anyone else.

"My little girl..."

Riveria felt how Ais´ hug tightened slightly. There were wounds and scars that even Amid couldn´t heal, those in Ais´ heart. Riveria returned Ais´ hug.

"It´s alright, I´m here."

"Don´t leave me..."

"I won´t, I will stay with you, Ais."

Riveria remained at Ais´ side for hours. Thankfully Gareth took all of Riveria´s duties as the vice captain for the time she cared for Ais. All of them were worried about their "princess", but only Riveria managed to get through to her.

Loki tried her best to curse Revis for everything the creature had done to Ais.

.

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Deep inside the dungeon, two extremely violent monsters stared at each other. Revis´ body was a mess, parts of the green flesh armor couldn´t be removed aynmore, she was a disgusting sight. After striking down Ais and getting bombarded with magic, she fled into the dungeon, Knossos couldn´t be saved anymore. And in front of her stood the black drakonid, his claw opened and closed again and again, the desire to rip and tear was overwhelming for him. Something felt strange around this black monter, Revis felt the Nega-Divinity, even when it was too weak currently to affect her much.

And she knew that Fafnir was weaker than her...for now.

"You ate Enyo?"

Fafnir bared his way too many fangs and growled...it was his way of smiling pleased.

"What are you?"

"Mother´s child. Her favorite child!"

Revis knew who he meant with "mother".

Enyo..Diyonisos..had given her orders, but mostly she cared about the demi spirits. All of them were dead now, two killed by this very monster in front of her.

"Mother wants to talk to you."

"What?"

"Follow or die alone."

The massive monster turned around and walked into a direction, Revis didn´t really know what to do. In the end, something inside her told her to follow Fafnir. Maybe she would find a new purpose, wherever he intended to bring her.

Fafnir growled again out of his chest, he would allow no one to take his place, he was mother´s favorite child! And he would keep this spot!

His mind was constantly changing, the cunning nature of Dionysos affected the monster, making him smarter and smarter, able to form strategies aside from running amok.

After he fulfilled his task and mother was very pleased with him, the plans would continue. Mother had a lot of things planned...and he was the most important part of it.

Only two things drove Fafnir forward.

To please his mother, so that she would love and praise him.

And to get revenge on the one who had killed his first incarnation...the white haired mortal.

But for now the time for fighting wasn´t there, many things had to be done. At first to find and bring Revis to a certain part in the dungeon, where she could hear mother´s voice.

Then...he would go to the water capital.

A jolt of joy ran through his body and scales. Mother had allowed him to hunt, kill and devour all mortals that he found, as long as they weren´t stronger than him. Fafnir could feel that.

And thanks to "Chaos Eater", he would continue to grow stronger.

And mother had already a plan to let Fafnir devour another god, he looked forward to it...gods were tasty.

If he would manage to fulfill this task, killing this specific god would cause sheer chaos to a part of the world.

Fafnir lived for chaos...and slaughter.

.

.
During their camp time, Haruhime giggled while Bell and Lefiya were busy combing her hair and tails, telling her how good they smelled again.

Lena sat nearby and took care of her equipment, glancing to Lefiya.

"Hah...you elves are really unfair."

"What do you mean?"

Lena pointed with the back of her knife at Lefiya, she was currently peeling apples.

"I mean look at you! You just start to eat more meat and your body fills out in all the right places. Your breasts have grown, your butt is more shapey, your thighs are nice to look at, yet you don´t get any fat at problem zones! It´s unfair!"

Lefiya showed Lena an icy glare. "I would appreciate it if you wouldn´t talk about my body like that."

"Still...I wonder how the gods will react in case all of your familia members elves start to develop their bodies like that. They might curse Lady Astrea for getting all the curvy elves."

Lefiya growled. "Last warning."

Lena sighed. "Hay hay..."

She continued peeling apples. They had a lot of them. While they traveled, a cart came into view, moving into their direction. On top of it were a human man with silvery hair...and a goddess. Bell had never seen such a goddess before, she wore a kind of blue dress, had chestnut colored hair, wolf ears and a tail. He heard that some gods looked like beast people, that even in Orario there was one who lived and ruled over the giant graveyard, Lady Anubis. But he had never seen her or any beast kind god.

Well he saw a drawing of Amaterasu once.

The man was a merchant and the only member of the godess´ familia. She even had a title, the wise wolf. Since she worked with the man, she had asked them if they wanted to buy something. They had fresh apples and ermine skins, she swore they were fresh too. Told them to smell the skins, they smelled like apples too. The goddess told them that the skins were fresh and the smell was the proof. Since the ermines had eaten the apples and just got skinned recently. The man didn´t say much and just let his goddess work.

The skins would probably sell well in Orario, but they traveled into a different direction. And they could use the skins for other stuff, like making clothes. Since they were so fresh, they bought the skins and two dozens of apples. The goddess looked very happy. She waved them goodbye and the cart continued it´s way.

Bell was surprised that such a small familia existed and traveled the lands as merchants. He also wondered if they weren´t afraid of wild monsters and bandits.

Miach just told Bell one thing.

"Trust me Bell, they won´t have problems. You really don´t want to mess with this woman."

"Is she strong?"

"And scary when she gets angry..."

.

.
Two days later they finally were back in Orario, Alfia got more and more restless when she felt that Bell was getting closer, finally she would have him back.

.

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A spartan trial awaited Lefiya and Haruhime.