Dungeon Seed

by bluminous8

A new seed is found in the dungeon. Will the adventurers of Orario nourish the seed to be their savior or will it be the cause of the city's downfall?

Dungeon Seed

By: bluminous8

Author's note: Yes, it's Kira Jesus Yamato. Also, hi!

Volume I: Archangel

Alert!

Proximity warning!

Critical systems failure!

Red and yellow warnings flashed on the pilot's display while a series of explosions rocked Kira Yamato violently against his cockpit. The Freedom's head had been blown off a moment ago, causing him to go blind inside his cockpit, with the head containing all the cameras and sensors.

A beam saber slash from Rau Le Creuset's Providence that he narrowly avoided getting impaled earlier gave him a narrow window into space that could still give him a visual reference.

He pushed the pedals with his left foot and the Freedom's boosters flared back to life as he calculated the best possible outcome with this deadly duel. His mobile suit sustained too much damage, and the GENESIS weapon was recharging again. This time it was aimed at the Archangel and the Eternal where she was on board after it had obliterated the Earth alliance Force's main base on the moon.

He could not, would not allow her to die. The perfect coordinator let out a grunt as his body slammed back to his seat the Freedom accelerated far past the normal tolerances designed even for enhanced humans.

Lacus Clyne, on board the Eternal, stared in horror as she watched the headless Freedom ram into the larger Providence, causing both mobile suits to spiral into the the tip of the Genesis weapon's spire. Her ship, along with the Archangel and the Orb and Zaft ships that gave their aid were now trying to move out of the massive weapon's projected strike path.

It was futile, since they weren't as nimble the mobile suits they housed, but they still rushed in desperation to avoid the deadly ray of energy that will be directed at them.

"Kira!" Lacus again tried to reach her friend, but with all the space combat happening around the vicinity, communications were unreliable and the Freedom was right in the middle of it. And with the massive energy surge that Genesis weapon was building up, any hope of establishing direct communications with any of their mobile suits in the area was abysmal.

The Providence blasted one of the Freedom's arms from one of his Dragoons, but the remaining arm had a death grip on the Providence's head, obscuring Rau's vision. Kira gave a bitter smile, knowing Rau would not be able to hurt and manipulate anyone ever again for his twisted sense of duty. At his last moments before his death, he felt a hot sensation from the ring that he wore around his neck with a silver chain. Lacus gave it to him before they deployed for the final sortie, as way to express her feelings towards him. In turn, he promised to return back to her.

He felt regret no at not being to fulfill his promise to her, but he was satisfied knowing she would live through this. The world needed her more than a mobile suit pilot. He felt intense heat and a bright light burned his eyes despite closing them and then he felt nothing.

Floor 27 , The Dungeon, Orario

Alice Lovell stared at carnage before her. Body parts, torn and broken and crushed that belonged to what a few moments before were adventurers. A decapitated head with a confused expression, a leg, a whole torso of an adventurer unfortunate enough to be caught by this… terror of a creature before it decided to remove all of the poor adventurer's limbs all at once. It then bit the werewolf's head as he continued to scream in absolute terror before he was silenced with a sickening crunch.

They were a rival group composed of Evilus adventurers, yet even she did not want her hated enemies to suffer such a fate. Kill them yes, but to desecrate their remains like that? She had seen better preserved bodies in the dungeon after they were ambushed by the various monsters.

Her own familia also suffered considerable injuries, with her vice-captain Kaguya's arm barely hanging on to her body after that monstrous terror of a creature attacked her.

"Captain!"

Alice turned her head to Iska and saw her carrying Lyra. The poor pallum was barely breathing after the creature jumped on her, with her armor and shield saving her life instead of being crushed like a fruit by its enormous strength.

"Bring her to the back!" Alice yelled and she prepared her sword once more. "Ryuu!"

"Yes captain!" Ryuu Lion did not need further orders and began to chant her magic to try and stabilize her friend before they could get better help at the surface, if they could survive this.

Alice grimaced, she herself suffered a few deep wound after the strange creature stabbed her leg with one of its sharp claws. She could barely stand as it is. If she hadn't dodged at the last moment in the last engagement with the creature, she knew it would have ripped her heart out of her body.

Her familia had encountered numerous close calls over the years, but never at this extreme level. Those battles, as dire as they were, did not have this feeling of absolute death and terror.

The creature finally turned towards their familia after it finished killing everyone on top of the ridge where the Evilus camp was located. It looked like it came from the deepest parts of the dungeon, its unnatural red eyes and skeletal body primed to jump the distance towards their battered group.

Alice sensed Kaguya moving to stand beside her, as the rest of the familia who were able to stand tensed in anticipation for another deadly attack. She glanced at Kaguya and she nodded with conviction, despite the unimaginable pain she knew her vice-captain was feeling at the moment. That nod meant that she was prepared to die, and at least give the rest of their familia a fighting chance, like she was planning to.

Her sword Crimson Order flared to life as she activated her enchant magic on her right hand and focused the summoned energies through the blade. Her left hand snapped loose the necklace she wore that contained a ring through its leather cord and quickly tossed it back behind her where she roughly guessed Ryuu's position, refusing to take her eyes of the creature.

Her Goddess gave it to her as a gift, years before when she became captain, claiming that it gave luck to those who wore it. She knew that of all of her familia, the blonde elf had the greatest chance of surviving with her speed and agility. It was morbid of her to think so rationally, but she wanted her goddess to give the future captain the same ring after she perished. It would be the start of a fine tradition.

The creature stared at her actions and for a moment, its menacing gaze moved to the ring she tossed up in the air. She intended it to arc behind her to where she knew Ryuu was, when a strange, overwhelming light burst from the ring. It suddenly hovered above their familia, kept in place by an unseen energy.

A deafening noise soon followed that caused everyone to flinch, and even the strange creature was affected as it crouched lower to the ground in what was a clearly a defensive posture.

Strange ribbons of energy of various colors and intensity burst out from the ring faster than she could blink. The powerful ribbons of energy intensified like an eruption from the center of the now glowing ring and filled her vision at its intensity. A steady hum was heard by everyone, the ring acting like a portal and the strange energies it unleashed headed straight for the creature in an instant.

Alice gasped in surprise and jumped further back, Kaguya mirroring her actions as the creature almost dodged the sudden attack. It truly had unnaturally quick reflexes, but even as fast as it was, it was unable to escape damage as the Astraea familia captain noticed its tail and a part of its leg was missing. It screeched in pain and tried to move again, but the ribbons of energy bursting from the ring intensified again and engulfed its entire body. The energy grew brighter and finally, Alice covered her eyes as dust and wind battered the area like a raging storm.

With a final, horrible sounding shriek, the monster finally vanished from the onslaught and the strange energies from the ring slowly weakened until it finally stopped, although the figure that seemingly warped through the ring surprised the captain. Ahead of them, the whole hill where the creature once stood was now empty of any structure, and the forest with the enormous tree trunks had just vanished.

A strange silence descended upon them, and Alice knew without a doubt that there was nothing alive in front of them. Everything on the path of the strange storm of energies they had just witnessed was simply annihilated that not even ash remained.

The Astraea familia members stared in silence for a moment dumbfounded by the quick events that happened, until they snapped out of their shock when they heard the ring that still hovered above shatter. The once beautiful silver ring, now blackened by the intense energies that ran through it, burst into millions of pieces and slowly rained down on the familia like sand.

"What…." Ryuu Lion asked as she moved towards the group, unable to even put into words to form a question on their current predicament. The others slowly gathered closer, each and every member of the familia experiencing some form of numbness and shock.

Alice, as the captain, gathered herself and took out their highest rated healing elixirs and headed to Kaguya, who by sheer strength of will was still standing, gingerly holding her arm with the other and trying to stem the blood from the extremely deep wound.

"Try to stay still, Kaguya" Alice murmured and splashed the precious elixir into her friend's shoulder, hoping that it was enough.

"Yes captain." Kagura replied and bit her lip as she heard the sizzling sound of the elixir taking effect on her flesh. Slowly, the deep wound closed and the swordsman finally relaxed, no longer in danger of bleeding to death. "How are the others?"

Alice glanced back after she emptied the elixir on the wound and grabbed another, this one for Kaguya to drink. While the surface injuries seemed to have healed, she knew fixing bone and muscle was another story.

"We're all alive at least." She observed, as she watched Ryuu and Celty move around the other members of the familia, healing their wounds with magic or by potion. She was distracted from her observation by the sound of someone groaning, male by the sound of it. She realized they had a… visitor that appeared after the strange series of events that led to the destruction of the mysterious and deadly creature.

Alice slowly limped towards the figure, finally taking time to observe their strange guest. He was obviously male, wearing strange armor that covered his whole body and head. It was colored mostly in blue and white, with a bit of red on his pauldrons. Alice turned the man over and realized that his helm was strange as well, the front covered in shattered glass of all things. She wondered how such a fragile material would offer any protection to an adventurer.

The young man had an expression of deep pain on his bloodied face and she tried to remove the strange helm from the rest of his armor. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she realized that the helm was locked into the armor like a screw. She gently tried to twist it off and finally succeeded after a minute. Brown hair greeted her eyes and Alice stared thoughtfully at the young man, she judged him to be around their age and slowly carried him back to their group and laid him down beside Kaguya.

"Who is this captain?" Ryuu asked, staring intensely at the figure. They had nearly died a few minutes ago, and she was wary if this person was another threat to her familia.

"No idea." Alice casually replied with a shrug. "He came out of the ring our goddess gave me, so he might be connected to what happened."

"Do you think he's responsible for the appearance of the strange monster? Ryuu asked carefully, her hand suddenly resting on the handle of her sword.

"I don't think so." Alice shook her head and finally sat down as the healers of the familia finally finished applying emergency potions to the most serious wounds on their members. It was her turn and extended her leg for Ryuu to treat. "That ring and whatever magic it stored within it saved us. You know we would not be able to survive against that monster. Even the Evilus members were surprised by its appearance."

Alice breathed out finally relaxed as the throbbing pain on her leg slowly eased as the elf's healing magic took effect and continued. "At the very least, we shouldn't accuse him of that, since he appeared after the monster was already summoned, and I saw with my own eyes he came out from the ring itself. We have to keep this whole business a familia secret."

Ryuu simply nodded and stole another look at the human male and then continued healing of Alice's other wounds while Kaguya moved towards them, the effects of the elixir finally doing their work.

"How's the arm, Kaguya?" Alice asked.

"I can move it at least." Kaguya flexed her fingers, and stared at her hands with a frown. "My grip is considerably weakened. I won't be able to hold properly."

Worried that her arm may not heal enough to be useful again, but glad that she still had an arm and breathing, the vice-captain looked for a distraction and glanced at their strange guest. Her eyes squinted at something familiar written on his armor. It was hard to read, since the complex characters of the written language of her homeland were carved within the armor. She had never seen such complex artistry, before using her country's language.

"Yamato Kira." The vice-captain whispered.

"What?" Alice asked as she stared between her vice-captain and the unconscious male with the strange armor.

"I think that's his name. Kira Yamato." Kaguya traced her fingers on the familiar kanji. "It's the written language of the far-east, and he certainly looks that he can be from my country, but that clothing though…"

"We have many questions that needed answered, but right now we have to leave the dungeon and talk to our goddess and keep these events to ourselves." Alice said and stared at her familia, and noted that all of them seem to be healthy enough to travel.

"Neze, Iska, circle around the evilus camp and see what evidence we can collect. " Alice ordered, and the two members in question nodded and left. "Noin, Asta, take the lead to the eighteenth floor, we will spend a few hours there resting before moving back to the surface."

"Yes captain!" Noin replied and headed to the exit to scout ahead. The rest of the group formed a make shift stretcher and placed the unconscious Kira Yamato on it. Securing his body to the stretcher with rope, the familia slowly headed to the now cleared tunnel.

Stardust Garden, Orario

The goddess Astraea finally released a sigh of relief when she heard the sound of her children coming inside their home. They were usually a noisy group, full of laughter, teasing and wild antics, and that sound served to give some comfort to the goddess that her children were once again home and safe after entering the dungeon or conducting their patrol of the city.

"Welcome home!" Astraea beamed as the group slowly trudged in. The goddess's smile slowly vanished as she noticed the bandages, the tears and dents on their armor and clothing. She most importantly did not miss the still shocked demeanor on some of her children's faces. "Alice? What happened?"

Her captain slowly moved the body of a young human male to one of their large couches, causing the goddess's eyebrows to shoot up and her mouth to open in surprise. Her captain finally turned to her and gave a small warm smile and collapsed on her favorite spot on the couch. "You could say, everything happened, Goddess."

The other familia members followed their captain's actions and moved to their usual spots, mentally and physically exhausted by the series of events that transpired. Slowly her familia began to share their story.

Astraea stared at Alice after the lengthy explanation from her captain and her other children, utterly surprised with the events that happened in a single day. She was a goddess and even she was surprised by what her familia encountered. But most of all, what disturbed the goddess of justice the most was that her entire familia was almost wiped out. She reached out and stroked Alice's head and patted Lyra's knee, the two having transferred to her side of the couch after sharing their own experiences to seek some measure of comfort.

"And then after the Dian Cecht Familia took a look at Kaguya and this Kira Yamato, you decided to bring him here?"

"Yes goddess." Alice answered. "Of course, we had to bring him here! He just magically appeared from the ring that you gave me! Maybe he can give us the answers when wakes up! What's up with that ring anyway? I didn't know it was a magical artifact!"

"I didn't either." Astraea confessed to the shock of her captain. "I bought that ring a week after I just descended from heaven from a merchant. It was the first thing I purchased in this world so I always kept it with me. It always brought me luck, and that's why I gave it to you when you became captain of the familia."

"It certainly brought us luck today. That artifact must have been powerful." Alice mused. She shifted and sat up, staring at the unconscious teen peacefully slumbering in front of them. His face had finally relaxed after the healers from Dian Ceht gave him a series of health of mind potions to heal his injuries.

It was only a matter of time before he woke up and Alice felt that it would be better if this Kira Yamato woke up in their residence where they can have privacy rather than the noisy wards of the guild hospital. She grabbed the strange clothing he wore and presented it to Astraea.

"Are you familiar with this goddess?" Alice asked. "I've never seen this type of material before."

The blue and white flight suit that Kira wore was intact, though it was plain to see that there were severe burns and damage on some parts of the suit. The helmet was in even worse shape, as if it was bashed repeatedly bashed on some hard surface causing dents and scratches on its previously smooth surface.

Astraea narrowed here eyes as she rubbed her fingers on the strange material and shook her head. "I've never seen this type of fabric before, or this material." She tapped the hard polished ceramic composite attached on the chest.

"So do you want me to wake up our guest, captain?" Neze Rankett asked, her ears and tail twitching in anticipation for some answers they desperately needed to hear. They all felt the brush of death, and she wanted some sort of resolution from it. Why did that monster appear? How did a simple ring obliterate such a powerful beast in one strike? And how did a boy just appear inside the depths of a dungeon? "I'm sure it will be safe, he doesn't even have a falna on him!"

Kaguya, her arm bandaged and in a sling, shrugged and gave a nod to Alice. "I'm fine with it."

Ryuu folded her arms then also nodded, agreeing with the werewolf. The other familia members showed their agreement as well and positioned themselves closer to the couch where Kira Yamato was sleeping. Astraea moved closer to the prone teen and gently patted his shoulder, trying to wake him.

"Can you hear me, Mister Yamato?"

"Shhhh! He's waking up!"

"Oh wow! Such strange eyes!"

"Purple!"

Kira Yamato finally stirred and his eyes blinked rapidly, adjusting to the brightness of the room. His vision cleared after a few moments and the shapes around him formed into a group of strange women, in various shapes and sizes and colors and… species. He stared in bewilderment as he turned his head around before he finally focused on the strangely beautiful woman nearest to him with brown hair and gentle eyes.

He tried to answer but he swallowed and realized his throat was dry. "Water?"

A woman with red hair handed him a ceramic cup and helped him to sit up. He carefully drank the contents slowly both hands holding either side of the cup and relished the cool and refreshing feeling. After emptying the cup, he glanced at the red haired woman and observed her. "Thank you. Where am I? What happened?"

"We were hoping you can answer that." The red haired replied. "To answer your first question, you're in our home. We brought you here after we found you injured. Now can you tell me who you are? What's your name?"

"My name?" Kira Yamato stiffened, the perfect coordinator's brain confounded by such a simple question. He knew a lot of things, but he didn't even know his own name. His breathing started to quicken and he looked around, fear clearly written on his face. After a moment he closed his eyes and took deep, slower breaths. "I can't remember my name… Who am I?"

He noticed the other women around him exchange looks, while the red haired woman stared at the woman closest to him who gave a brief nod.

"Can you tell me where you came from then? Alice asked, having a suspicion on the condition of their guest. Their goddess had already confirmed that he wasn't lying and he wasn't putting up an act.

"I also don't know." Kira replied, and gripped the blanket that covered him tightly. "Where exactly am I?"

"We're in my home, Stardust Garden." Astraea replied kindly and laid a hand gently on his arm to calm him.= to the surprise of some of the familia. "My children found you in the dungeon under strange circumstances, Kira Yamato."

"Kira Yamato. Kira… Yamato." The coordinator whispered, feeling the words strangely familiar to his lips. An intense memory flashed before his eyes and a blinding headache hit him, causing him to grab at his head and pull at his hair to distract himself from the crippling pressure in his head. Beams of light, countless stars, screams of death, floating bodies and blinding light. Darkness. A beautiful girl with pink hair.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Alice quickly moved closer to the clearly suffering teen, but stopped as Astraea gently patted the boy on his head, her fingers threading through his scalp to give some relief to the headache he was experiencing.

"What did you see?" Astraea murmured. She was hesitant to continue to ask her questions, but they needed answers quickly.

"Countless stars." Kira gasped as images he couldn't relate, understand and comprehend continued to flash before his eyes. "Stars. Endless Void… Coldness…Thousand of… lights. War and Death. And her."

Astraea sucked in a gulp of air and stared at the young coordinator, while her children grew quiet and stared uneasily at each other. "You came from the void? Among the stars?"

"I... I'm not sure." Kira replied, the dizzying visions finally dying down. His fingers gripped the the pillow on his lap, dizzy from the experience. He took deep breaths to calm himself and opened his eyes to stare at the woman in front of him.

"I just saw that I was there." Kira stared up at window and at the night sky, where the stars were shining bright amidst the void. "There was a battle… I couldn't understand it. There was so much chaos."

"If you were up there, then I'm beginning to understand why you were wearing this when we found you." Alice showed to the coordinator the blue and white helmet along with the suit. "You must be suffering from some sort of memory loss after what you experienced. When we found you, it was pretty obvious that you just came from a battle."

"Who are you people anyway?" Kira finally asked. He was pretty sure these people were the ones that rescued him, judging from the clothes he wore before this strange set of white pajamas he was now using.

"I'm the Goddess Astraea." The woman closest to him introduced herself and her hand waved to the women around him. "You are in my home, and these are my children, my familia."

"I'm guessing you're not their real mother." Kira stared at the beautiful woman. He knew she was beautiful, but he thought she was a bit vain to outright introduce herself as an actual goddess.

Astraea giggled and her smile grew, ignoring the muffled giggles around her. "A god or a goddess calls their followers who take up their blessing, children. That's why we call ourselves a familia."

"Wait, blessing? You're a real honest to goodness goddess?" Kira stared hard at the woman, and noticed no one was laughing. She looked like an ordinary if not beautiful human woman in his eyes.

"I am." Astraea replied proudly. "I am known as the goddess of justice and freedom…"

At hearing her words, an image of two imposing figures flashed before Kira's eyes. Two behemoths, brimming with power, one red and the other white with blue wings. Twins. Kira shook his head in confusion. "What does a blessing mean?"

"A blessing means being empowered by a god or goddess' divinity. That blessing is called a falna, and with it you can grow stronger continuously." Alice answered. "I'm the familia's captain, Alice Lovell. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Kira answered politely, unsure if he should call her by her name or position. A specific word caught his attention and asked. "What do you mean by getting stronger?"

This time it was the black haired woman that had her arm on a sling that answered. "It means that through the blessing our goddess has given us, we gain excelia. And before you ask, excelia are the life experiences we accumulate, be it through training, battle, or some other form of craft that we focus on. With enough high quality excelia gathered, a person with falna can evolve to the next level, getting stronger in all their parameters."

Kira nodded, his mind automatically analyzing and considering this new information. "What happens to me now? I don't have any memories aside from my name."

"That's what we're here to talk about." Astra finally spoke. "Your future, here in the center of the world, in the dungeon city of Orario."

Goddess Astraea's office, Stardust Garden, Orario

"What's our plan with him?" Ryuu asked her familia captain. Her goddess encouraged everyone to rest after getting a few answers from their guest. Despite the healing magic and potions, sleep was still the best cure to heal their bodies and minds. Kira Yamato was still healing and Alice offered a spare room for him to use.

"I have no idea. We could let him stay for a few more days, set him up with some simple armors and weapons with a small bag of valis, but after that?" Alice sipped her tea and turned to her goddess and waited for her decision.

She noticed Astraea was strangely pensive after speaking at length with Kira. By now everyone in the familia understood that he was not part of any Evilus plot to wipe them out, and he was far from the usual male adventurers they encountered.

He was soft spoken, respectful and clearly polite. That was primarily the main reason why the rest of her familia did not worry about a male inside their residence. Contrary to popular belief, their familia were not man haters.

"He's a child from the stars." Astraea replied, her gaze still on the night sky through her large window. "Clearly he came from a different world."

"Is he even human?" Ryuu asked.

"He is." Astraea nodded. "Before I descended to this realm, I knew of a few worlds that were only inhabited by humans and nothing else. Although I admit I am not familiar with Kira's armor, it's clear that he came from a far more advanced civilization than ours."

"How advanced?" Ryuu asked, clearly intrigued. "Are their magic even more potent than that of the elves?"

Astraea finally turned from watching the night sky to her two children and shook her head. "Not in magic, but in technology. Kira's… armor and helm are made of materials not magical in nature, and yet the quality and composition is simply astounding. I have a mind to show them to Hephaestus to learn more, but I need to ask Kira's permission first. There's also the decision if we would keep Kira's origins a secret if we showed his armor to the Hephaestus."

"I prefer to keep his circumstances a secret." Alice folded her arm as she replied. Her usual cheery personality dampened by the near brush with death her familia experienced. "We need to focus more on Evilus and their attempt to wipe us out. We need to respond."

"I agree captain." Ryuu replied immediately. "We have recovered a few clues from the remains of the enemy camp that survived that magical attack."

The blond elf produced a few empty and broken elixir containers. "They came from the same supplier, I think it's time for an interrogation with a certain merchant."

"Let's do that this week then, once we're all back to full health." Alice agreed. "Anything else they found?"

Ryuu hesitated and brought a package wrapped in leather and placed it on the desk. "Neze nearly missed this, it was almost buried among the rubble. Captain, it's a drop from the creature."

Alice narrowed her eyes and removed the leather and finally stared at the monster drop. She suppressed a shiver and observed the long dark gray claw that seemed to absorb light around it rather than reflect the light from the lamps around the office.

Her hands shook a bit as she reached for the claw and gently ran finger on its sharp edge. She gasped in surprise when her skin was immediately cut. She barely applied any pressure to the edge. The claw was narrow and long, perfect for stabbing through armor and slicing through adventurers.

"That creature that appeared, I think it was meant to hunt adventurers, goddess." Alice murmured. "It was as fast as a level six, and with its strange skeletal armor reflected every spell we used on it."

"It was also cunning and it adapts to tactics quickly." Ryuu added. She remembered the creature had systematically focused on the melee combatants first, preventing their range and support members to give aid. It would then jump quickly to the healers before using its armor to allow the magic spells cast directed against it to backfire on their casters. "If it weren't for your actions captain, I think our familia would be wiped out."

Alice weakly smiled, as tears finally formed but she refused to let them fall. She was just so happy that they had all lived. "All the more reason to help Kira then, even if all of this was just a lucky accident."

1 week later

Practice Yard, Stardust Garden

The vice-captain of the Astraea familia continued her practice swings with her wooden sword, mindful of maintaining her balance and breathing. She finished the exercise by putting all of her considerable strength into a single swing to test the state of her injury. The force of her strike caused a strong breeze to erupt around the yard. Leaves and dust flew around, while the trees and bushes around her swayed with the wind.

Kaguya placed the sword back to a nearby rack and massaged her shoulder injury with her other hand. Overall, she was satisfied with her progress, with her strength slowly returning to her almost severed right arm.

She was lucky. She knew that Alice's quick actions at using the expensive high grade elixirs had saved her arm. The hospital staff at the guild had told her that without it, she would have surely lost her arm and she would be stuck using a prosthetic limb.

Swish

Swish

A familiar sound caught her attention and she suddenly felt guilty, as she spotted their familia's guest with a broom, trying to again sweep the yard littered with new leaves. He was truly the perfect houseguest, at least in her opinion. Kira was clearly raised in a culture similar to her own, using polite words and mannerisms. She wondered about his story, of a world filled with only humans that conduct war among the stars.

"Kira!" Kaguya called out to the young man. "Don't bother with this section of the yard, I'll help you."

"It's fine miss Kaguya!" Kira replied. "Just leave it all to me!"

Kaguya shook her head and grabbed another broom and started to clean her own mess. "If I leave it all to you, you will be late for breakfast again!"

She noticed the boy just gave her a small smile and didn't bother to say anything. That was what she also liked about Kira. He knew when to just let the other familia members including her to do their own thing, rather trying to impress them on purpose.

He was not pretending to be anything. He just did his duty with the very best of his ability. It was clear from the first time they spoke with Kira that he was a very calm, well mannered person. It was her first impression of him, and this time around, first impressions did last after a week of observing the young man.

She noticed he was prone to staring at the sky when he wasn't busy with chores, a somber expression on his face when he thought no one was paying any attention to him. She couldn't blame him. With his lost memories he was clearly struggling to come to terms with it, but was still making himself useful in their home despite his situation. It was something she admired about the boy.

At first, there was some wariness among some of the familia about this man suddenly sharing their home with them, but as the week progressed it was clear that he was not your typical male adventurer that they were used to. He also used the spare guest room located on the grounds. It had its own entrance separate from the main house and with he had his own bathing facilities to use, well away from the second floor where the girls had their own rooms.

With her trained eye, Kaguya observed Kira's movements with the broom, and even with such a simple and mundane action, she noticed his efficient movements. He learned fast. It took just simple instructions from the familia for him to understand the nature of the task assigned to him.

Suddenly curious about his potential, she quickly finished sweeping her side of the yard and headed back to the weapons rack to grab a couple of wooden practice swords. As Kira put his own broom away, she suddenly threw one of the wooden swords in his direction to observe his reflexes.

As expected, the teen only needed a moment to understand what she had done before he moved his arm and caught the thrown wooden sword by the handle.

"Miss Kaguya? Why did you throw your practice sword?" Kira asked as he held the bokken awkwardly with his right hand.

"I'm still conditioning my arm, and I'm curious if you're interested in using how to use a sword." Kaguya replied. "Are you interested?"

"If you're sure, I'm fine with it." Kira shrugged. As he grew more accustomed to his chores it took him less time to finish them and had plenty of free time. He moved to the center of the practice yard, in view from inside the Stardust garden's main lounge.

"Then follow my example." Kaguya taught the teen how to hold the sword properly and slowly led him to a series of movements and stances. She observed him from the corner of her eye and realized that she did not have to give advice about his footwork. He was already copying every minute detail of her body's movements, right down to the tiny shifts in weight with the movement of her feet. "Good. Again."

"Okay try to copy this next set, it will be faster than previous one."

"Okay."

At the lounge, Astraea with the rest of her familia were busy preparing breakfast when they heard their vice-captain's voice echoing through the still morning air.

"Good!"

"Now faster!"

"Even faster!"

Ryuu, intrigued with the sounds of wooden swords clashing, moved to the open door and her eyes widened in surprise. Kaguya was sparring with Kira, though their movements were still slow compared to her, it was impressive nonetheless. It looked like Kaguya had taught Kira a good grounding of the basics of swordsmanship, judging by how fluid and quick the brown haired boy's movements were. She wondered how often the two secretly trained, since she never saw Kira practice with a weapon before.

Their wooden sword dance continued, until Kaguya increased the pace. Caught off guard, Kira struggled to keep up until his bokken flew out of his grip.

Kaguya, breathing lightly, patted Kira on the shoulder and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She gave her newest student an approving smile. "Very good Kira! Excellent! How did you find the exercise?"

Kira, breathing heavily just nodded, unable to speak due to the intense physical exercise. His amrs ached and he shook them to get some feeling back in his hands. He never realized that Kaguya's morning practice held such complex movements that demanded complete mastery of one's body. From afar, Kaguya's movements looked simple enough as he the swept leaves every morning. The thought of her exercises being simple was shattered upon finally experiencing her work-out first hand.

"Are you interested in joining me every morning?" Kaguya offered. She was amazed at Kira, she have never seen such aptitude in any of her students before.

"If it's no bother, I'd be happy to."

"It's no bother." Kaguya replied firmly. "Now, get yourself cleaned up, breakfast is waiting."

"Yes Sensei!" Kira replied with a teasing grin and headed to his own quarters to freshen up.

Kaguya shook her head and headed inside the lounge where she knew her familia was waiting. They couldn't have ignored the racket they made in the practice yard.

"Taking another student again?" Alice teased. "I didn't know you were training our guest. When did you start?"

"We started this morning." Kaguya sat herself on the stool facing Alice, a cool glass of water waiting for her. She gratefully took it and finished the drink within moments.

"This morning? But…" Alice widened her eyes.

"He's a quick study. Very observant too." Kaguya added. "I didn't have to tell him half of what I usually tell my usual students, he just observed my own movements and applied into his own."

"That's… impossible." Ryuu interrupted. "He's picked up that much already after one session?"

"He did." Kaguya agreed with a happy and proud smile. It was strangely exciting for her to see her newest student grow right before her eyes. It was like watching flowering bud bloom in mere moments unlike the usual days it would take, with time suddenly moved at an accelerated pace. "I never had such a student with that potential before. I told him that he's welcome to accompany me in my morning exercises while he's staying with us."

Astraea, quiet and observing in her own corner of the lounge, reviewed what she had seen in Kaguya's impromptu lesson on the basics of swordplay with their guest. Though she showed her new student the very basic movements and stances, Kira had quickly memorized, adapted and modified it for his own, in a single session.

That aptitude was unheard of, and the goddess wondered if this was one of the inherent abilities of a child from the stars. They were almost like gods if it was true. She wondered what would happen if Kira, with his already incredible learning aptitude was given a falna as well. That would make for a formidable adventurer, no matter what his level was. Did she dare to bring him in to the familia?

2 weeks later

Practice Yard, Stardust Garden

If Astraea didn't know better, she would have guessed Kira already possessed a falna. He was too fast, too quick, too analytical, too observant… it was simply overwhelming. Even Kira's new sensei was caught off guard when in the previous week, she encouraged him to improvise in his movements.

With her already high expectations, Kaguya was dumbfounded when her prodigy of a student started to utilize and modify swordplay in their daily sparring sessions to counter her usual patterns.

And he was getting stronger too. It was not noticeable at first, but with just a few weeks of training, Kira had already started to develop the muscles necessary to keep up with his sparring with Kaguya. Was this his version of a falna? She returned her attention to the spar where Kaguya, limiting herself at the appropriate level for Kira, continued her assault of the boy, testing his own defenses.

Kira smoothly backed away from the powerful strikes, his mind awhirl with information. He realized that Kaguya had a tendency to perform a combination of four sweeping strikes before moving back to rework her stance. After she finished adjusting her footing, she usually started with an overhead two handed chop before feinting and then used a quick slice to the knee to force him to jump or move back. That was then that she would utilize her speed and finish him with a swing to his torso.

The coordinator struggled to maintain his defense from his sense's onslaught, and when he finally recognized the familiar combination of powerful sweeping strikes, he decided to make his move.

One

He ducked below the swing aimed for his neck, and then shifted his torso and moved his right foot back, and let the second strike miss him by the smallest of margins.

Two

He felt his robes flutter as the second swing passed him and he quickly moved his right foot forward, this time twisting his body in the opposite direction.

Three

The third swing passed by as expected, almost in a perfect mirror copy of the second swing. The fourth, he knew would be the hardest to dodge. She had a tendency to either move high or low, depending on what she felt like doing. He noticed her eyes shifted to his feet for a moment out of the corner of his eyes and he decided to angle his sword for the upcoming parry.

Four

Kaguya's wooden blade swung towards his knees and at the last moment he moved his sword to redirect the trajectory of her own swing. The expected impact was stronger than expected, and he compensated for it by adjusting his grip and sliding his right foot forward.

The clash of their wooden swords caused Kaguya's blade to bounce wide, while his own was moved into the perfect position he needed for a counter attack. He swung the already perfectly positioned bokken towards his sense's side, adding strength to the strike as he stomped his left foot forward, gathering strength to his own attack.

His blade moved closer to his opponent and he noticed her eyes widen in surprise before he felt a tremendous impact and heard the sound of shattered wood before felt himself tossed across the yard. He rolled a few times on the dirt until finally he rolled to a stop on his back, staring at the sky.

"Kira!"

"Hey Kaguya! Wasn't that a bit too much?"

"Quick! Bring some health potions!"

"Are you alright Kira?"

Kira heard the commotion and he slowly sat up, grinning despite the scratches and bruises he gained. That was exhilarating!

His sensei on the other simply shook her head and moved towards him.

"Are you alright Kira?" His sensei asked. "I apologize, I didn't mean to hit you that hard. You surprised me with that last exchange."

"I'm fine sensei, I'm sturdier than I look." Kira replied and he jumped to his feet to show he was okay. "My bokken though…"

He glanced at his broken practice sword and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"That's on me Kira." Kaguya replied. "I forgot I was sparring with someone without a falna at all. That was an amazing by the way, even if I was holding back, you still managed to counter my technique. How did you do it?"

"I just observed your technique and looked for a pattern that will allow me a small window of opportunity to hit you." Kira shrugged. "If you were using your usual strength and speed, that window would be too small for me to take advantage of. But since you were holding back, I tried something a bit more reckless."

"Patterns huh." Kaguya mused. Her student was simply incredible. She knew in her own mind that she sounded like parrot by now, but there were no other words to describe him. Three weeks in and they were sparring like they were master and student for years already, and that was not just possible! "Come, it's time to freshen up, and after breakfast let's discuss some changes for your physical conditioning."

"Yes sensei." Kira replied. He moved to the now familiar path towards his own quarters. He liked the room the familia had lent him. It was technically attached to the house but it has its own entrance and bathing facilities, though it was far smaller than the large bath he knew existed for the girls. Unknown to the coordinator, his departure led to quite the conversation among the familia about his future.

"I want him." Kaguya turned to her goddess once she heard the sounds of Kira's footsteos disappear. "It would be such a waste of talent if he were to join another familia."

"I agree with Kaguya, goddess." Alice added. "I know we usually don't take men in, but Kira's different, and I'm sure the rest of our familia will agree with me that he's not that type of adventurer."

"I don't know… he seems alright, I guess." Celty, the other elf in their familia reluctantly agreed. She had been keeping a sharp eye on the man's behavior and so far he had been an exemplary house guest, words she would not have believed herself of a man being their house guest. And she had never before seen her vice-captain this eager and warm to another male before, so it meant Kira Yamato was someone truly special. "He has, very clean habits, for a man that is."

Ryuu agreed with her fellow elf, as she noticed Kira's hygiene habits were on par to even her. He washed his own dishes, did not make a mess when eating, and he takes baths often and didn't even once attempt to sneak into the second floor where they all slept.

Already she was getting used to seeing him more often, her guard around him lessening as time passed. It was the same for the rest of her sisters in the familia, gone were the days that a sleepy familia member would be surprised at seeing a man inside their home, sweeping leaves early in the morning.

"He's very diligent in his assigned duties as well." The blond elf added, causing the other familia members to add their own opinions on the brown haired young man.

"Well, what do you think goddess?" Alice finally asked, after hearing the consensus of the familia.

Astraea was carefully listening to her familia and finally turned to Alice to respond. She had been thinking for the past three weeks about this exact situation, and how to breach the topic of allowing a man into their familia.

Worried about how her children would react to her proposal, she was pleasantly surprised by this sudden turn of events. It looked like she didn't have to convince anyone, and by simply giving her girls the opportunity to see their guest's honest and kind nature, allowed her to move on with her plans without any objections or dissent. A united familia was stronger after all.

Perhaps this was the beginning of a new era for her familia, where the criteria for her future children will not be limited by gender alone, but by their own nature and compatibility with the values the familia practiced.

"Very well." Astraea replied with a warm smile that caused some of her children to brighten up and excited at the prospect of a new type of familia member. "I will ask Kira if he's willing to join. But remember, it's his choice if he wants to join us or not, and we will have to respect his decision."

Kira's quarters, Satrdust Garden, Orario

Kira groaned with satisfaction as the hot water soothed his aching body. The last sparring session with Kaguya was the most intense yet, but he felt that he had reached a new milestone in swordplay.

He already spent a month in their home, and he was astounded by the familia's generosity towards him. He was allowed to go out and accompany Asta the dwarf to buy supplies and food regularly and he was not treated like some prisoner. He could freely watch the girls practice their own skills and magical spells in the training yard. The food they all ate was filling and delicious. He could already feel his body getting stronger by the day since he woke up in this strange world.

He was still confused by his lost memories, but at least he now knew his real name. It was carved on the chest armor he found inside the dungeon after all. When he tried the suit out of boredom one night, he found that it fit him perfectly like a glove. By at least knowing his name, he would just have to form new memories and start from there.

During the first week since he awakened, he would spend his nights wondering what type of person he was before he lost his memories. Was he a good person? What were his hobbies? Did he have a family? Friends? And who was that girl with the pink hair? Alice said that they found him wearing his battle armor, and he wondered if he was fighting for the good or the bad side in the war among the stars. He had so many questions about himself, but realized trying to think back at his past life was futile, thanks to the stoic blonde elf of the familia. While he interacted with Kaguya the most, he made his first friend in Ryuu Lion.

It was three nights ago since they gave him in this room, and he woke up feeling thirsty thanks to the unnatural hot season that descended on Orario. He was returning from the kitchen after getting a pitcher of water to take with him to his room when he was surprised to hear Ryuu's voice from the dimly lit yard.

"Mister Yamato."

The young coordinator quickly turned to the source of the voice and found Ryuu wearing a green cloak a few meters away from him. He knew he didn't see anyone on the yard when he went out of his quarter to get to the kitchen. He wondered what she was doing this late at night and wearing that outfit.

"Miss Lion!" Kira steadied the water pitcher than came close to spilling its contents after his quick movement. "I didn't realize you were there! What are you doing up at this late hour?"

"We were on patrol." The elf replied simply. She glanced at the water pitcher on his hand and nodded to herself. "It is good to drink water before you sleep Mr. Yamato, the nights in Orario are getting warmer as the summer season progresses."

"Yeah, I think it's getting warmer by the day." Kira replied. He noticed movement at the corner of his vision and saw two shapes jumping down the roofs of the neighboring structures until they disappeared from view. "What was that?"

"That was Iska and Neze." Ryuu replied. "It's their turn for the patrol. I'll head in as well, sleep well Mr. Yamato."

"Miss Lion?"

The elf stopped and stared at the coordinator curiously. "Is there something else?"

"Is it possible… to speak with goddess Astraea at this time?" Kira slowly asked. He realized that of all the people in this house, maybe an immortal goddess could give him the answers to the thoughts that were troubling him. He wanted to speak alone with her, but realized Astraea's schedule was far busy, especially after the events that happened in dungeon.

She was often gone from the house, negotiating with her fellow gods about joint operations against suspected Evilus bases or attending the parties that various gods and goddesses organized.

"I believe she's sleeping at the moment. Why do wish to speak to her? Could it not wait until morning?" Ryuu asked sharply.

"It's just that there are some thoughts that has been bothering me since I woke up in this world." Kira shrugged and continued back to his quarters. "I'll wait for another time then. Thank you miss Lion."

The elf stared thoughtfully at Kira's back before she decided to extend a proper welcome to their guest. "Kira, please join me in the kitchen."

"At this time?"

"I usually eat a simple meal after a long patrol. I'd be happy if you can join me." Ryuu replied. She headed to the kitchen and removed several food containers from the ice box. Her ears picked up Kira's footsteps and resumed her tasks, and a few minutes later two plates of heated flavored bread were on the table.

She raised her eyebrow at Kira when he rained standing until he realized her intention and sat across from her. Satisfied, she began to bite on the bread while Kira poured two glasses of water from the pitcher he carried earlier.

"So what has been bothering you mister Yamato? She finally asked after she finished her bread.

Kira had also finished his portion and after drinking his water he hesitated to answer. He glanced at the blonde who was staring intently at him and looked back at his hands. He took a breath and finally let out the questions that have been disturbing him for the past few days. "I don't know who I am and it still bothers me. I don't know how I should act and behave."

Ryuu frowned and drummed her fingers across the wooden surface. Clearly the man in front of him was suffering from some inner turmoil. It was understandable of course, with the loss of his memories and his sudden appearance in their world. She could not give him any proper advice since she couldn't fathom his situation. She could only give him her truthful observations.

"You've been behaving incredibly well as a guest of our familia." Ryuu said after a moment. "I have not heard of any criticism of your actions from any of our members. Do not worry mister Yamato, you will eventually come to your own."

She offered him a rare but simple smile to encourage him.

"I don't know if I'm a good or a bad person." Kira whispered. "I have flashes of some of my memories. I was a soldier. I don't fully understand what I saw in those memories, but I remember that I felt guilty."

Ryuu leaned back, surprised by his admission. "You were a soldier Mr. Yamato, you shouldn't be too harsh on yourself with these memories you can't even understand completely. What if you were fighting for what you claim is the good faction? Will that make you feel better?"

"No. I guess I felt guilty because being part of a war means I must have hurt or even killed people, and I don't like that." Kira admitted.

"This might sound harsh, but what you say sounds very naïve to me." Ryuu replied in a firm tone of voice. As expected, their guest pulled back from his seat, a visible pained expression on his face. She continued on, knowing that he needed to hear her words.

"The Astraea familia stands for justice. And to achieve that justice, one must be willing to fight for it." Ryuu stated, her eyes brimming with emotion. "It is naïve of me to dream of peace and justice yet not act upon them. That would be foolish, and you do not seem to me like a foolish man, mister Yamato."

"Kira would be fine, miss Lion." Kira replied. He pondered and words and realized what she said made some sense to him. The sense of guilt he felt based of these old memories of his was misplaced, and he resolved to find out who he was on this new world. It would be a new adventure to him. He gave the elf a slight smile as his face and body relaxed. He didn't know what he will be, but he was content to find out and enjoy the journey of self-discovery.

"That would not be proper, mister Yamato." The elf replied, though she gave him a simple nod to soften her answer. She took both their plates and headed to the sink to wash them. "I suggest you rest, you will need your energy if you're going to practice with the vice-captain tomorrow."

"Of course. Thank you for your kind words, I believe they will help me sleep better tonight." Kira replied and with a simple nod he headed out of the kitchen and into his quarters. Despite the warm night, he felt a bit more refreshed.

It would become a common routine for them, and he enjoyed speaking with Ryuu with her direct and analytical personality. He learned more of Orario and its history not written on the books from the elf. It was also with elf that he first admitted the hazy memory of a beautiful girl with pink hair.

He was roused from his musings at the sound of laughter he heard at the yard. Realizing that he was sitting inside the tub longer than expected, he hurried in taking a bath and rushed to get ready.

It was fun and exciting, he mused, as he discovered his new preferences. He realized he prefer taking long soaks in the tub, and enjoyed the warm water to shower with despite heat. He liked to observe people and hang in the background, rather than being the center of attention. It was not hard to do, as the Astraea familia was very energetic in their social interactions. There was hugging, fighting, teasing and even pranks, all of it to give the Stardust residence an inviting and warm aura.

He had interacted with all of the familia at a daily basis, but four people stood out the most to him. Alice Lovell of course was number one. Despite being the captain, he noticed that she was very easy going and lax at home. Often she would find ways to tease their too serious of a teammate Ryuu Lion, who in his opinion needed to relax more but he enjoyed their late night conversations. He liked the blonde elf's straightforward and honest personality and intelligence, and liked how she took to her duties in an efficient manner.

Neze Rankett on the other hand was a hoot. The werewolf, or beast human woman if he were to be technical about it, always teased her fellow familia. No one was safe, even their captain, as she would often comment on their weight, appearance or what they were eating.

He was particularly amused when the werewolf told Kaguya that her kimono looked to be a bit too snug, and implied that she enjoyed eating those fried potato snacks a little too much to be healthy. The result was a riot, with the vice-captain instantly chasing the werewolf around the lounge, trying to hit her with pillows that she could get her hands.

Gojouno Kaguya, or miss Kaguya as she asked him to call her, was the one he felt the most connection with, different from his friendship with Ryuu. With mannerisms similar to hers, he found her presence comforting and familiar. She had grace and elegance in her movements, and it was natural and effortless in his eyes.

Her sword techniques were a sight to behold, and he couldn't wait to see her movements without holding back, something she promised when she mentioned she would spar with Alice tomorrow. As the vice-captain of the familia, she was more of the disciplinarian of the group, and she was the one that assigned the roster and schedule of the patrols.

Kaguya was also monstrously physically strong despite her slender and noble appearance, when she casually lifted a massive boulder that Kira estimated to be at least two tons. Without any visible strain, she carried it towards the corner of the yard where Astraea wanted to plant flowers around it with the granite boulder acting as the center piece.

It took Alice's laughter to snap Kira out of his daze and realized he had been staring for a minute with his mouth open. Ever since that casual display of strength, the coordinator realized how much his sensei was holding back to not just simply turn him into mush, and he admired her restraint and control even more.

"There you are! Hurry up Kira! Breakfast is almost finished!" He heard Alice waving him over and he hurried over.

After a pleasant half an hour of eating he was surprised when he was suddenly invited by Astraea to her office in the second floor. He had never been up to that area before, but he was suddenly worried about the implication. Were they now asking him to leave?

He tried to repay their generosity by doing his chores diligently, but weeks in, he still did not have any concrete plans for himself. If he were asked to leave, he decided he would try for a simple trade at first, perhaps be a simple fry cook of those fried potato snacks. They were certainly popular with both adventurers and regular people. He tried to ignore the thought that he would be alone but hoped to see the girls of the Astraea if he met them on their patrols.

He was already planning where to live, and he wondered if he could borrow one of the spare tents that the familia used when they went deeper into the dungeon. He would find an abandoned lot, and start from there.

He followed Alice up the stairs with Kaguya trailing behind him, and was quickly led to an elegantly adorned room, with large windows to let light in, cozy couches and a simple but functional desk at one side of the room. Astraea was seated on the couch facing the window, and she turned at the sound of their entrance and smiled brightly and clapped her hands. That caused some confusion with Kira.

"Kira! Come in and have a seat." Astraea beamed and patted the spot on the couch beside her while her other children moved to sit on the couch opposite theirs.

"You called for me goddess Astraea?" Kira asked.

"Yes Kira." Astraea nodded, her smile not diminishing. "We would like to ask you a very important question. This is something related to your future in this world."

"We?"

Astraea leaned forward and placed her hand on top of his. "I, Astraea, goddess of justice and freedom, formally invite you, Kira Yamato to join us as part of the familia."

Kira's eyes widened in surprise and leaned back, but his hand remained underneath Astraea's. He looked to the officers and only found cheerful and encouraging smiles. "Me? Are you sure?"

"A hundred percent sure." Astraea replied proudly. "I have been considering the matter for weeks, but then realized my children were also thinking the same thing."

Astraea gave a look to her officers and Alice and Kaguya only responded with smirks on their faces.

"You're not asking me to move out?" Kira asked.

"Why would we do that?" Alice asked, laughing on the couch. "We like you. That's why we're asking you to join us."

"Why invite me?" Kira asked, still refusing to believe this was happening. He had thought he would be politely asked to leave, but this was not included in the scenarios in his head! "Don't you only accept women into your familia?"

"That was before." Astraea replied. "This is now, a new era in my familia's history and I'd like you to be a part of it."

"Besides, you're a good and kind person with a strong sense of justice." Alice added. She crossed her legs and leaned back into the couch. "I can just tell, and my instincts never let me down."

"And I have never seen such a strong potential for swordsmanship before in my entire life." Kaguya stated. "If you join Kira, I promise you that I will hone you to be the sharpest blade."

Hearing such words, Kira was overwhelmed in happiness. He refused to let the tears he knew that formed in his eyes fall and turned to the waiting goddess.

"If you will have me..." Kira started with a shaky voice. "… I will gladly join your familia, goddess Astraea."

2 days later

I am Ganesha! Manor, Orario

"Astraea! Is it true you finally removed that rule from your familia?"

Astraea looked up from the report she was reading and noticed a red headed girl walk towards her spot. She was meeting with Ganesha about the results of the operation last night that was conducted by their familias. The matter was extremely sensitive, and couriers and letters could be stolen and that was why she was reading the report inside Ganesha's own office.

The masked god suddenly felt the urge to shout that he was Ganesha, and out of respect to what she was doing, he left the office and was now on the yard in front of the massive house, shouting his traditional slogan. She could still hear his proclamations, but used to his antics she continued to read the report written by the ganesha captain, Shakti Varma. Thus she was surprised to see Loki walk inside the office. As an ally to the ganesha familia, Loki sometimes visited the large manor to conduct her own business.

"Loki, this is a surprise."

"Yeah, yeah." Loki carelessly sat down on one of the couches and yawned. "So, what about it? Are the rumors true?"

"What rumors?" Astraea asked. She carefully placed the reports back in the order that they were filed and decided to finish reading through them tomorrow. Teasing Loki was far more entertaining, and she was curious about what sort of rumors had formed from her decision to accept Kira."There are plenty of rumors in Orario these days, Loki."

"Don't play coy with me." Loki snorted. Her one eye opened a little, a sign that she was indeed serious about her question. And that meant she was curious about the newest member of her familia. That wouldn't do, and she decided to nip this in the bud before the red haired goddess formed any ideas about any war games.

"If you're talking about my familia accepting a boy, then it's true." Astraea replied. "My familia found him lost and wounded and took pity on him, and decided to give him aid. His kind and polite nature has made my girls accept him easily."

"Huh. I thought your children were all man haters." Loki mused. "Where did he come from then?"

"My vice-captain Kaguya said he was probably raised in a culture similar to hers." Astraea answered with a slight shrug. "And his name is Kira Yamato."

"From the far east then." Loki stood up, apparently satisfied with the information she got. "So are you going to accept boys from now on?"

"I have decided that the new potential members need not be restricted by their gender to have a home in my familia." Astraea replied. "If a male adventurer fits the criteria to join, I'll happily accept him. Are you satisfied?"

"Sure. Good for you though, maybe this is chance for you to increase your familia's standing in Orario, and be a part of the big girls club." Loki teased.

Astraea raised an eyebrow. She was already part of the big girls club, and her familia was considered one of the top familias in Orario. They did not have many members, focusing instead on quality rather than quantity. The goddess of mischief laughed at her own joke and quickly moved to the door. "See ya soon Astraea. I thought it would be more exciting than this. Now I'm bored."

Astraea stared at the retreating figure and she sighed. It was really convenient for her that the world Kira came from shared some similarities with the far-east, and his true name really helped sell the half truth to give some cover to their secret. She remembered the day she gave her newest child her falna, and still couldn't believe at what she saw.

He was sitting on a stool in front of her, his shirt neatly folded beside him. They were alone inside her office since she asked Alice and Kaguya to give them privacy. They of course understood and left without any comment and gently closed the door behind them.

"Just relax Kira, this wouldn't hurt at all." Astraea stated, and with the needle beside her, she pricked her finger and poured a drop of blood into his back. She placed her hands on his back and felt a tiny portion of her divinity transfer to her newest child.

Black ink formed on his back like a tattoo, forming the wings of justice sigil. Feathered wing patterns formed symmetrically across his broad shoulders and Astraea for some reason realized that they somehow suit him, like he was always meant to have wings on his back.

A swirl of black substance began to form on the center of his back, showing the goddess the information of Kira's potential and strength of his soul. She blinked her eyes and decided to transfer the information to a piece of paper. Perhaps she misread it with all the new ink lines forming in his back?

She read the piece of paper with the transferred information. She then read it again to confirm what she had just seen. She read it again for a third time to be sure, and this time she compared it with what was written on Kira's back to make it absolutely sure that they were the same. They were.

"Goddess, is it finished?" She heard her newest child ask and that knocked her out of her stunned daze. She showed the paper to her child and waited for his reaction.

Name: Yamato Kira

Level 1

Age: 16

STR: I0

END: I0

DEX: I0

AGI: I0

MAG: I0

Skills:

The Ultimate Coordinator (Newtype)

(Increases senses and has rapid information processing ability. Increases all parameters in all aspects. Grants danger precognition and long range telepathy.)

Ace of the Songstress

Enables targeting precision with any weapon and increases spatial awareness and adaptability

Spells:

Seed Mode (Activated upon will.)

(Enters a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability)

Kira looked up at her new goddess and croaked out a single question. "Is this real?"

"I AM GANESHA!"

Astraea sat up and glanced at her fellow god. She shook her head and stood up, preparing to get home.

"I passed by Loki. Did she bother you?" Ganesha asked.

"She was just curious about my newest child. It looks like the rumors even reached the Twilight manor." Astraea replied. "It looks like she was unable to ignore her curiosity, or greed."

"She's not satisfied with that gem of a girl she discovered a few years back?" Ganesha laughed and sat down on his special chair. It had a weird design, with its back rest mimicking the head and ears of an elephant, while the arm rest was carved to look like two ivory tusks.

The gem of a girl in question was a girl named Ais Wallenstein. She was already a level 3 adventurer and she was only twelve, and it caused great sensation among the gods at the news of the young girl's accomplishments. If it weren't for the sheer power of Loki's children, she knew many would have challenged the goddess of mischief for Ais.

"You know her, she's always planning for something." Astrea sighed. "I need to get back to Stardust Garden. Let's meet again tomorrow?"

"Of course!" Ganesha happily replied. "And I will visit you this time, I'll bring Shakti with me with the documents to review."

"It looks like Loki's not the only one curious." Astraea teased. "Very well, I'll wait for your arrival then."

"I AM GANESHA!" Ganesha laughed, but he looked like he was clearly unbothered by being caught. "I'll have some of my children escort you, Astraea. It's getting dark."

"Thank you." Astraea accepted the offer and left the large office. The walk back to Stardust Garden only took less than half an hour with her escorts' help and she used that time to casually observe the city. Things were getting better, she noticed. More shops remained open despite the setting sun, no longer afraid of the attacks by Evilus members. They just needed just one last push, and she knew for certain they could remove the traces of that organization from the city.

Once she reached her home, she thanked her escorts and headed inside, eager to see her children. As she reached the lounge, she noticed that her newest child and her vice-captain were missing. Ryuu, observant as ever, quickly noticed her and made her way to her goddess.

"Welcome back goddess! Great timing, dinner's about to be ready." The elf said dutifully.

"Thank you Ryuu. Where are Kaguya and Kira?" Astraea asked.

"They visited the guild to have Kira registered this afternoon. I remember the vice-captain mention that she will take him to the smiths after that to get a proper weapon for his first dungeon lesson."

"I see." Astraea sat down on her usual chair at the head of the table. "And I also noticed that you're calling him by his first name."

"Well he is part of the familia now and I enjoy our conversations." Ryuu replied with a hint of red dusting her cheeks. "And Kaguya suggested that I participate in the sparring sessions with him. It will be awkward if I keep addressing him in such a formal manner when we're talking much more frequently."

"And I'm happy that you already consider him as a friend then. " Astraea stated. "How was your first sparring session with him?"

"He's certainly talented, though he still has a long way to go." The blonde replied. "Although, skills wise, he's nearly there goddess. He has the basics down. It's just a matter of gaining experience and learning to adapt."

The elf grew quiet for a moment in silent reflection and stared intently at her. "Whatever skills he posses, they're... scary. I did not realize until minutes into our sparring that he had already adjusted his technique for me compared to the vice-captain's. He compensated the differences in Kaguya's style compared to mine, no matter how similar ours were."

Astraea thoughtfully nodded at that statement. Ryuu was indeed correct, and it was understandable that she considered Kira's skills to be scary. After sharing his status page to Alice and Kaguya, the three of them decided to limit the knowledge of Kira's skills even to the rest of the familia. It was that dangerous.

He already had two developmental skills and a silent, will activated type magic. From the moment she observed Kira she knew he was special, but she didn't realize how amazing his capabilities were. His potential was absurd, and she wondered if it was the same for the rest of Kira's people.

No, she thought after a moment. She remembered his skill called the ultimate coordinator. The skill meant there were others of these coordinator humans, and he was at the very top. The ultimate. She thought that maybe his people were some form of humans that had the blood of the divine with them that granted them such skills, and that Kira was simply very lucky that he was born with even more divine blood within him to grant him the title of the ultimate coordinator.

The names of his skills gave a somewhat better picture of the world Kira was from, and the person he was before he lost his memories. Like the second skill, called the Ace of the songstress. She knew the term ace of course, but it was rarely used in Orario. Being called an Ace meant Kira was an elite soldier, a warrior without peer. His past self had defeated so many opponents and survived that it even imprinted into his own soul, enough to become a skill when he received her falna.

He must have been a well known figure or a famous warrior, the goddess mused. She was curious about the term songstress though. Was the songstress Kira's leader? His queen? She had so many questions but she did love a good mystery.

The young man that was so often in her thoughts these days finally appeared with Kaguya. He took a seat beside the vice-captain and she was happy to note that he engaged readily with the rest of her familia when they asked him questions.

Another surge of happiness coursed through her when she saw her girls become more comfortable with their new familia member. Neze was already probing Kira, looking for his triggers so that she can tease him like she does with the rest of her familia sisters.

"No!" She heard Kira yelped in denial. "We did not go on a date!"

"Are you sure?" The werewolf asked. "It certainly looks like it though. Both of you clearly enjoyed your outing."

Kaguya, already used to the werewolf's antics, decided to play along. "Don't worry Neze, Kira was a perfect gentleman during our date, I mean outing."

"Miss Kaguya?" Kira stared dumbly at the raven haired woman.

"What?" Kaguya feigned being hurt. "Didn't you enjoy our time together?"

"Of course I did!" Kira replied immediately. "Wait no, not in that way though!"

"In what way then, Kira?"

"What do you mean in that way?"

"Girls, enough teasing of poor Kira." Astraea decided to save her only male child while trying to hide her amusement. She finally found something the seemingly perfect human boy's was bad at – talking to women. And look, he's a new member of an all-girl familia. Isn't fate strange that way?

Astraea resisted the urge to giggle and resumed eating, though she noticed some of her children had come into same conclusion that she had, judging by the hidden smiles they were now sporting while eating and chatting. Meals with the familia will be even more entertaining from now on, and Kira's blushes were adorable. The dynamics certainly changed with a man around and it was refreshing. It proved true when Ryuu unexpectedly joined in on the fun.

"Won't she get jealous of your date Kira?" Ryuu asked innocently.

Astraea suddenly coughed while the rest of the familia stared at both Ryuu and Kira. Wait! What?

"You have a girl Kira?" Neze teased. "Do I know her?"

"Ohhh our Kira here got himself a girl! I didn't know you work this fast!" Alice added.

"You will introduce her to me, Kira." Kaguya stated.

The coordinator shrunk in his seat as his familia continued to press him for details. He glared at the blonde elf. "I should not have told you that."

Ryuu, thoroughly amused at Kira's flustered look, finally took pity on him and decided to answer for her friend.

"Kira does not have a girlfriend." Ryuu said in a voice loud enough to be heard by everyone on the table. "He mentioned to me that he remembered a pink haired girl."

"Do you remember her name?" Astraea asked.

"No." Kira replied wistfully as he remembered the angelic face from his memory. "She was just there, staring at me with a beautiful smile. It's the one memory that makes me happy, compared with the rest."

"I never knew you for a romantic, Kira." Astraea giggled. She wondered if the pink haired girl was the songstress mentioned in his skill. "A lost love perhaps?"

"I don't know." Kira replied and looked down at his plate as he blushed. "But I know I'll never forget her face."

1 week later, First floor, The Dungeon

"Are you ready for this?"

"I'm ready vice-captain." Kira replied. He wore light armor, rated until the fifth floor with a simple shield and short sword. He had a pair of daggers to act as a secondary weapon tucked inside the vambraces of both his arms, and a short knife for carving up corpses for the magic stones strapped to his lower left leg.

"Then good luck and remember, do not hesitate." Kaguya stated. "Do not become complacent, and do not underestimate the dungeon."

"Yes vice-captain, I understand clearly." Kira moved down the floors after a solemn nod from his sensei and descended the dungeon. It was time to test the skills he was taught for many weeks.

The coordinator walked confidently along the wide corridor on the first floor. He noticed other adventurers turning into a slightly wider path where he knew led to the second floor. He continued straight ahead, his mind comparing his mental map from the books and illustrations to what he now observed. There were slight discrepancies, but overall he was satisfied with the accuracy of the first floor map he was shown by the guild. Maybe he could make a more accurate one for his familia.

He spotted a goblin alone in a corner and headed straight to it in confident strides. The goblin finally noticed him and ran towards his position while the coordinator observed and analyzed the small creature's movements. It had large eyes and sharp teeth and he noted its clawed hands can also cause quite a bit of damage.

Kira quickly stepped diagonally forward, and his short sword sliced through the goblin's neck as he passed by it in a blur of movement. A moment later it fell to its knees and toppled forward, its head separating from its body.

He observed his surroundings first, making sure he was alone before he knelt beside the creature and used his cutting knife to get the monster stone inside of its chest. Once he felt his knife reach the stone, his knife twisted in place, causing the magic stone to pop out of the stab wound. Once the stone disappeared from its body, the goblin corpse vanished, bursting into dust.

Kira took a moment to observe his first ever formed monster stone, and then carefully tucked it inside his inner pocket. He decided he would not sell this one and keep it as a memento. He smiled briefly when he realized this new self was a bit sentimental. He wondered what else would he would treasure in this new world?

He spotted a pair of goblins further down the corridor and calmly headed towards their direction. Today was about testing his limits and apply the training and lessons he received. He quickened his pace and as the pair of goblins finally noticed him, they were unable to avoid his instantly lethal decapitation strikes.

As Kaguya advised, decapitations were the best solution for instantly killing monsters unless they had some form of rapid regeneration.

Kira methodically explored the first floor of the dungeon, as he compared the patterns of the maze like corridors to the mental map he had memorized. He had killed 61 goblins and harvested 52 stones in total. The other nine stones were unfortunately destroyed by his attacks when he was ambushed a few times by roving packs of goblins as he went deeper.

He needed to use a health potion to heal a long wound he received on his leg from one particularly large and armed goblin. He failed to account for its much faster movements compared to its peers when he was ambushed near the entrance to the second floor.

Kira took note of location and he started to move through the maze like corridors, his route he knew to be the most efficient path back to the surface. He was not surprised when he saw his sensei calmly leaning against the wall when he turned to the main corridor. They told him that they would be discreetly observing his first dive into the dungeon.

"So how did I do?" Kira asked.

"You grew complacent in the end." Kaguya replied after observing her student for a moment. She moved closer and patted his shoulder. "But your performance overall was… acceptable."

"I'll do better next time." Kira suddenly used his sword and stabbed a goblin hiding on a ledge, the tip of his sword buried in its chest. It screamed in agony, and with a deft flick and a twist of his wrist, the tip of Kira's short sword pulled out the monster stone. He quickly caught the stone with his free hand and promptly tucked it inside his now bulging pouch. Fifty three.

"And what about my overall pace as I hunted? Was I too slow?" Kira continued his conversation with Kaguya as if it was normal to casually talk, while dealing with goblins and treating them like flies to be squashed on the wall. "I was really curious if the goblins on the deeper levels will be stronger and also the kobolds..."

The pair finally reached the surface and joined the queue to where they can exchange their monster drops and stones for valis. After telling Kira that she would wait for him outside, Kaguya quickly moved to a spot near the fountain where independent supporters usually gathered. There she noticed Ryuu trying to stay cool under the shadow of a large flowering tree.

"What do you think?" Kaguya asked. She was trying calm her nerves and it wouldn't be proper for her student to see her so flustered. She remembered her lessons many years back and took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to release all the pent up energy that had been building since this morning.

Her fellow familia member unfortunately lacked her own control of her emotions and continued to fidget in place, clearly showing she was nervous. It was understandable of course, with what they had witnessed this morning.

"It's not natural." Ryuu shook her head. "He's too… perfect. It's irritating."

"I thought that he will be fine but still make some mistakes but…" Ryuu trailed off, unable to even put into words what she had witnessed.

Kaguya laughed softly in agreement. It was irritating indeed, but it was not directed at their male teammate. The teen never got lost, and never lost his composure. His movements and attacks became smoother as he fought more goblins while he adapted to their tactics. Even with being injured and ambushed a few times, he never panicked and always used his unnatural knowledge of the first floor to create space between himself and his enemies.

He knew where to run and set up ambushes of his own and when to take quick water breaks. He acted like a seasoned warrior, instead of a bumbling, day old adventurer. She remembered her own first day in the dungeon and fought a blush in embarrassment when she compared it to Kira's performance. There had been moments of running away, getting over confident, getting lost, forgetting to harvest the magic stones from the corpses and a lot more. That was what was irritating to her and she knew Ryuu was thinking along the same lines.

Kaguya finally decided to form a rotating team around Kira since he will now regularly dive into the dungeon. She knew Kira would benefit from observing his fellow team mates and apply what he thought he could use into his own arsenal of skills. She hoped in turn that upon seeing Kira's performance, her fellow familia members would feel what she was experiencing right now. Inadequacy.

They became too complacent and lax in their training, she realized. Even Kaguya admitted to herself that she hadn't been pushing herself as hard as Alice, and the results spoke for themselves. She knew Alice will reach level five within the year, while she was still struggling in her level four status. Maybe Kira and Ryuu will and help her with that, she missed sparring against multiple opponents anyway.

1 month later, Eleventh floor, The Dungeon

"On your left!"

Astra Knox immediately jumped back as a massive fist hit the ground where she stood a moment ago. She hit back with her axe and scored a glancing strike at the silverback that attempted to ambush the young dwarf. Powerful fireballs hit the wounded silverback and it quickly dropped to the ground, dead. "Thanks Celty!"

"No problem! Just watch out when they try to use the walls to jump on you!" The elf replied.

On her left, Ryana Leitz, one of the older members of the familia and the one holding the center of their formation, quickly disposed of the two opponents in front of her with quick thrusts of her spear into their head. Their mage support and the person they were guarding, Celty, took the brief lull in battle to drink a mind potion.

The dwarf really liked this new unit rotation that her familia was experimenting with. She was only a level two, but her strength with her axe proved more than a match to the silverbacks and the hard armoreds. Ryana, as a level three, was perfect as a reliable center for their formation. The woman's spear allowed for reach and hit monsters in their vulnerable areas to keep their group from being overrun.

Celty, their unit leader and level four mage support, ensured a balanced offense and defense. Technically, the floor they were fighting now was too easy for Celty, since she was part of the familia's elite deep dive unit along with Ryana. Astra knew Celty's role was to make sure they were safe in case something went wrong and observe their performance.

They were also preparing this particular unit to get used to working together and protecting their eventual mage support, Maryuu.

Astra thought they were more than ready, even with the new addition with Kira now holding the left side of their formation. Initially, she thought that he would be a liability she needed to keep an eye on, but as they went deeper, she was surprised that he was keeping up with them, and holding his own as a level one.

"Alright, let's take five!" Celty announced as they finally cleared the area of monsters. Kira, as tradition for the lowest members of the familia, immediately took out his cutting knife and began to extract the stones from the monsters closest to him.

"How's your stamina Ryana?" Astra sat beside the woman while she kept an eye out for surprises. She estimated that they had been in the dungeon for nearly 6 hours, and she was getting hungry. The rice ball snacks and dried meat they brought with them were not doing it for her.

"I'm alright Astra. I'm mostly keeping an eye on Kira." The brunette replied. They both watched the young man as he carved the stone out of the corpses. "I thought our pace will be slower, but we're actually ahead of our schedule."

"Turns out Kira's a good supporter as well." Astra joked. Kira was annoyingly good at whatever he does.

"He's just efficient in what he does." Ryana observed. "Though I noticed him struggling a little with his primary weapon."

"How did you notice? He seems fine to me."

"That short sword is on its last legs." Ryana stated. "He's trying to make it last longer but he already exceeded the sword's capabilities."

"That's his third one already! Isn't his new set rated even for the minotaurs?" Astra asked. She couldn't understand how quickly Kira went through swords that fast.

"It's how he fights and how his body moves." Celty joined the conversation. She had observed their new teammate for weeks and began to realize his explosive growth early on when he started sparring with their vice-captain. It was even more obvious when she observed his movements and fighting style inside the dungeon. "The quality of the weapons sold at the usual shops simply wouldn't last a month with how Kira progresses as an adventurer."

"So a durrandal type weapon then?" Ryanaa mused. "That's going to be expensive."

"Not quite at that level yet." Celty replied. She paused for a moment and realized a possible solution to Kira's current dilemma. "But I have an idea, and it's going to be cheaper than those durrandal enchanted weapons."

"You mean…" Ryanaa's eyes widened.

"We're not using it." Celty replied. "It's going to be cheaper as well, judging from the amount of swords he will eventually ruin. Besides, who is better to use that drop item and turn it into a weapon, than him?"

Astraea Familia

Captain: Alice Lovell (level 4, human)

Vice-captain: Gojouno Kaguya (level 4, human)

Neze Rankett (level 4, beast human)

Ryuu Lion (level 4, elf)

Celty Srowa (level 4, elf)

Noin Unic (level 4, adventurer)

Ryana Lietz (level 3, human)

Lyra (level 3, pallum)

Iska Bra (level 3, amazoness)

Asta Knox (level 2, dwarf)

Maryuu Reage (level 2, human)

Yamato Kira (level 1, human)

Astraea's office, Stardust Garden, Orario

Name: Yamato Kira (3 months after being given a falna)

Level 1

Age: 16

STR: D 512

END: D 520

DEX: D 572

AGI: D 524

MAG: E 422

Skills:

The Ultimate Coordinator (Newtype)

(Increases senses and has rapid information processing ability. Increases all parameters in all aspects. Grants danger precognition and long range telepathy.)

Ace of the Songstress

Enables targeting precision with any weapon and increases spatial awareness and adaptability

Spells:

Seed Mode (Activated upon will.)

(Enters a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability)

"I have to say Kira, you balance your status very well." Astraea commented after giving her child an update to his falna. She watched as he put on his usual gray shirt back on.

"Thank you goddess." Kira replied. "I don't think I'm doing it on purpose, it just comes naturally to me."

"Yes, I agree." Astraea hummed while she considered what she saw when she updated his falna and the memories and experiences that came with it. His movements really utilized all of his parameters to their limit, and they were all so coordinated perfectly. He was constantly pushing his body to his current limit, causing his falna to rapidly acquire quality excelia.

And his body with his newly defined muscles reflected that. "Keep it up Kira, and as soon as you reach level two, I'll allow you to join the patrols and more importantly, the deep dive team."

"You mean…" Kira's eyes widened as he understood the implication of his goddess' words. He always felt a yearning to join the group whenever he watched his familia's elite prepare for the deeper expeditions.

Alice Lovell, their cheerful familia captain, would always be seen practicing her sword skills at night before the expedition, unable to contain her excitement. In contrast, Kaguya as vice-captain would be the one two actually handle the preparations for the expedition with Celty, the two often found pouring over lists that they would need.

Ryuu, along with Neze would be tasked with handling the negotiations with the guild, as well as conducting last minute purchases of supplies needed. Noin usually visited allied familias to ask if they have any requests that the team can acquire along the way, for a price of course. Ryana, the last member of the deep dive expedition, would mostly handle the transport of their equipment and packing of tents and individual packs.

These seven were what the rest considered the familia elite, and whenever they were in the midst of an expedition, it was usually Lyra who would take command of the rest of the familia.

"And I know you're constantly having troubles with your equipment." Astraea continued. "So when you level up, I have a reward that will be ready for you when you accomplish that feat."

Kira nodded in excitement, and determination welled up within him at hearing the challenge. A good part of the valis he earned these days went into the repair and maintenance of his weapons. Most often than not, he would need to purchase a new one, and quality weapons in Orario weren't cheap. It was a constant frustration he had to deal with, and he longed to have a weapon like his captain's Crimson Order or Kaguya's Higanbana. First class weapons that he did not fear would break at a crucial moment in combat.

It came to the point that Kira would on purpose hit a monster with the section of the blade that didn't have chips or cracks, just to preserve his weapon a little bit longer. On the other hand it gave him a new challenge, and was forced to adapt to new fighting styles to compensate for the inherent weakness of his weapons.

After watching her child leave, Astraea pulled the cabinet built under her desk and admired the craftsmanship of the katana and its sheath. The yet unnamed sword lay there beside its scabbard, resting on a purple pillow, waiting for its eventual owner to claim it. The dark gray blade, polished in a matte finish had an ominous aura.

Its design seemed plain and simple at first, until you stared at it longer and notice the runes painstakingly carved along one side of the blade all the way to the tip. The hand guard, usually called tsuba by Kaguya was colored red by its maker, in a pattern of feathered wings circling each other. The wings of justice design was used in every part in its construction and Astraea was pleased that Hephaestus remembered her request.

3 months later, 14th floor, The Dungeon

Revenge was the farthest from Ais Wallensetin's mind at the moment. All she felt was fear, terror and most of all regret. Regret at not listening to Finn and Riveria. She snuck out early in the morning when most of the executives were asleep and the guards were the least vigilant. She thought that with her newly promoted level that she could kill the goliath before the eighteenth floor on her own, but she soon realized she couldn't even reach the floor solo.

Usually it was a breeze to reach the safety point, but as she began to be assaulted by wave after wave of hellhounds that she soon realized the value of a team. A team allowed her to take breaks, to carry more health potions and most of all, to guard each other's back in case of ambushes.

She deftly jumped back to avoid the barrage of fire from the hellhounds and ran again, hoping to lose them in the twists and turns of the corridor. She was getting tired. She tried to reach the upper floors but soon realized she had made a very crucial mistake, she was lost. She was hoping that she could find an area where she could even for a few minutes, but the dungeon had other plans.

Cracks began to form along the walls and soon a new pack of hellhounds started to emerge. The sword princess quickly emptied her last remaining health potion and ran, hoping the wound on her right arm would heal. Unable to use her stronger right arm for fighting, she held her broken sword on her left, but that severely limited her combat strength.

It was all going well at first, and this wasn't the first that she snuck out on her own to go to dungeon. It was only when she encountered a herd of minotaurs on the fifteenth floor with bodies of dead adventurers among their feet that things went south.

They had surrounded her, and a strange red minotaur manage to slip past her defense and used its own weapon to shatter her long abused sword. The landform weapon of the minotaur managed to slice her arm despite her quick reflexes and if it weren't for her speed she knew she would have joined those dead adventurers to rot.

Despite her injured state, Ais managed to shake lose the monsters chasing her and she ran back up to the fourteenth floor. It was there that she realized that with a broken sword and injured arm, that she could die. The twelve year old screamed in pain as a fireball she thought she dodged glanced at her leg and she backed up against the wall, holding her broken sword with her left hand in defiance.

Six hellhounds surrounded her, and she closed her eyes when the pair closest to her began to prepare fireballs from their mouths. She opened her eyes when she heard pained yelps from the hellhounds and saw the two closest to her had a pair of daggers stuck in their eyes to the hilt. The two hellhounds soon fell to the ground and burst into ash. The remaining hellhounds looked around in confusion and from the haze a figure soon appeared.

Ais' eyes widened when she noticed the figure that appeared among the hellhounds. Her trained eyes noticed the quick and efficient movements as her rescuer quickly targeted the hellhounds' necks, decapitating them in quick slashes. The figure wore a red cloak made of salamander wool, usually standard equipment that was required in the floor to deal with the hellhounds in the middle floors.

What made the cloak stand out though, was the white pattern of stylized feathers printed on the material. It made the design stand out clearly against the deep red of the cloak.

She watched as the figure kneel down and retrieved his thrown daggers, and she realized that she knew the white feathered wings symbol with a sword in the center. Her rescuer was part of the Astraea familia, one of the familias they had an alliance with. She breathed a sigh of relief, only to freeze when she felt herself being lifted by a pair of strong arms. Soon they were running quickly down the corridors into the direction of the upper floors.

"We need to leave." She heard the figure say, and she realized that her rescuer was a man. She cradled her injured right arm against her chest and stared at her rescuer's face. A pair of amethyst eyes with a youthful but handsome face looked back at her and gave her a firm nod. She smiled weakly in response, unable to speak at the moment but settled down and relaxed in his arms. This adventurer, she knew was strong and she was safe.

There was uproar in front of the dungeon as adventurers and guild staff were disturbed from their business upon the sight of the executives of the Loki familia marching into their direction. At the very front of them was Loki herself, a worried but determined look carved into her usually carefree and aloof face.

The goddess quickly marched to a guard whom she knew recorded every adventurer that passed in and out of the dungeon's entrance.

"You!" The goddess of tricks and mischief pointed an intimidating finger at the poor guard. "Have you seen the Sword Princess pass here?"

The guard noticeably swallowed and shook his head. "I'm sorry goddess Loki, but I haven't seen her pass by. I just took my shift ten minutes ago, and the guard I replaced did not mention any notable adventurers that he'd seen in his shift, including the Sword Princess."

Behind Loki, Finn and Riveria exchanged worried looks, they knew a guard's shift usually lasted for six hours, and that meant Ais was still inside the dungeon.

Riveria quickly asked for the book of records from the guard and flipped back several pages. She quickly showed the date and time she was looking for to Loki and the goddess bit her lip with worry.

"Here, the brat went inside at four in the morning." Loki muttered. She quickly tossed the book to the guard and faced her children. "It's nearing three in the afternoon, and that means she must have run into trouble. Finn, get her back quickly."

The pallum nodded and began to relay orders to his subordinates to coordinate their search. He was interrupted when he heard a commotion at the entrance and glanced at the direction of the noise. His goddess meanwhile leaped into action and ran towards a figure the pallum noticed was carrying their missing familia member in his arms.

"AIS!" Loki yelled with relief and worry as she ran to her child. The stupid brat usually came back from her often unapproved solo dives into the dungeon before breakfast at ten, and after she missed lunch that the goddess started to fear for the worst.

"She's suffered a few injuries, but she will be fine, goddess Loki." A young man in a red cloak quickly handed the girl to a worried Riveria while Loki quickly inspected the girl for injuries. Ais meanwhile tried to push the goddess's away from her face as she tried to hug her child.

Finn stared at the young man, and carefully observed Ais's rescuer. A slight breeze lifted the red salamander cloak the adventurer wore over his armor and for a moment he caught a flash of white on the red cloak. The pallum quickly breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward, with a hand extended. He suddenly understood who this person was, and he was grateful that it was their familia that rescued Ais.

"Thank you for saving young Ais here." Finn said as he shook the young man's hands. He looked around at the commotion building at the entrance and decided they needed more privacy. "The Loki familia thanks you for your assistance. In gratitude for your actions, I would like to invite you for lunch in the manor."

"You're welcome, it was the right thing to do." The young man looked around, obviously not used to being at the center of the attention. "I'm not sure about that lunch though, my goddess is expecting to be back soon…"

"Don't worry about that." Loki quickly stepped in and placed an arm around the young man's shoulder and slowly guided him away from the dungeon entrance while the rest of the familia surrounded the group. "I'll even send word to your goddess, and invite her too! Now let me tell you about our chefs in the manor, they're some of the best in Orario!"

"Uh… really?" The man subtly tried to get out of Loki's arm without being rude but the goddess was already used to such actions from her children and just tightened her arm around the young adventurer.

"Really!" Loki nodded. "In fact they make far east dishes really well! You do east sushi back in your homeland, don't you? I'm sure you will enjoy it!"

"Ah thank you goddess Loki. You don't have to…" Kira began but was interrupted again.

"Nonsense!" Loki stated. "It's the least that I can do for what you did to Ais."

Ais meanwhile just stared at her savior's back, the feathered wings of white bright against the sun.

"Angel" The sword princess murmured softly.

Twilight manor, Orario

Lunch was a strange affair inside the Twilight manor, Kira decided. Thankfully Loki's messenger reached Astraea quickly and she sent the captain, vice-captain and Ryuu to accompany him to the impromptu lunch.

While they waited for the chefs to prepare the food, Loki and the executives asked him question after question, some not even related to the sword princess rescue.

"What do you mean you're just a level one?" Bete Loga demanded. The brash level four werewolf leaned closer and squinted his eyes at the coordinator. "I don't believe you. No level one solos the middle floors."

"This one does." Kira's captain replied proudly and patted his shoulder. "And he's not battling there anyway, he was collecting some ingredients for a mission. But we expect Kira here to level up soon."

"Really?"

"Wow! Ais! He's looking to break your record!"

"How long have you been an adventurer, Kira?" Loki asked. She had been staring at the young coordinator for a while, carefully listening to his answers.

"Roughly six months, goddess." Kira replied.

"Hmmm not bad." Loki replied. "And you said you were a soldier before you received your falna. It really wouldn't be shocking if you reach level two in say… another month?"

"That's about right." Alice nodded. "And we're going to throw a party once he reaches that!"

"Why don't we celebrate together then captain?" Kira decided to tease Alice, since he knew she was on the brink of leveling up as well, and it wasn't a secret in Orario.

"It's about time that the Astraea familia started having first class adventurers within its roster." Finn stated happily. "I for one will feel better that we have such strong adventurers patrolling the city."

"Well expect more to appear in the future." Alice replied while she stared at her vice-captain and Ryuu. She knew they were pushing themselves in training ever since they met Kira.

"So what do you want for a reward, kid.?" Loki finally asked, while she pointed the mug of ale at the coordinator's direction. "You saved Ais and risked your own life from what she said."

Kira stared helplessly at Alice and thankfully she got the hint.

"Our familia does not really ask for any reward after doing a good deed." Alice stated. "Kira here simply demonstrated by his actions that he does belong to a familia led by the goddess of justice."

Lunch began, and for once the Loki familia were behaving, and it was mostly due to the presence of their guests. The amazon sisters Tiona and Tione were having a pleasant conversation with Alice, with the Astraea familia captain sharing stories about her patrols in and out of the city. Kaguya was deep in a conversation with Ryuu and Riveria about the various monsters in the dungeon while Finn along with Loki continued to speak with Kira about his own impressions of Orario.

Soon, the trio of guests had left and Loki finally opened her eyes and stared at her youngest child. "Ais, my office."

Loki's office, Twilight manor, Orario

Ais continued to stare at her lap. She had received multiple scoldings before, but this time was different. This time she felt shame.

"I really don't want to tell you I told you so." Riveria said and rubbed her forehead. "Hopefully this time you will listen and respect our orders, now that you've seen the consequences of your actions."

"Yes mama."

"And please understand how incredibly lucky you were." Finn interjected quickly before Riveria could respond. Honestly, the elf should just accept the nickname. He stared straight into Ais's eyes causing the younger girl to straighten up at being addressed so firmly by her captain.

"Number one." Finn moved to sit in front Ais while he held his index finger in front of the girl. "Someone actually bothered to rescue you, and found you far away from the usual passages of the floor. If Kira Yamato was not there collecting the ingredients that are known to appear in that area you ran to, I wouldn't even know if the familia will ever find your body."

Ais shuddered at that statement and tears started to form around her eyes.

"Number two." Finn raised another finger beside the first. "The adventurer that rescued you had good intentions and was noble in his actions and character. He quickly took you away from danger and applied first aid to your most serious wounds and even gave you water and food."

Ais nodded at that, and remembered the memory of Kira giving her delicious rice balls and dried meat whenever he found an appropriate area to rest. The cool water on her parched lips and throat only served to invigorate the girl and the fear and terror she initially felt inside the dungeon after the experience with the monsters gradually faded. "He was… generous."

"I don't need to remind you then of what would happen if you were found by a an adventurer with less than noble intentions?" It was Riveria that spoke and Ais quickly nodded in agreement, understanding the message in the elf's questions.

She refused to think of what would happen to her and firmly thought of her savior to ward off the bad thoughts. She had heard of whispers of what happened to certain women deep in the dungeon.

"And finally number three." Finn raised a third finger. "He was a member of the Astraea familia. If it was any other familia aside from Ganesha's we might have been paying for your safety with millions of valis. It would be a realistic scenario that we might participate in a war game for you. I know of a few familias who have no qualms in kidnapping and forcing their god' falna on you."

"Do you understand now how lucky you are Ais?"

"Yes Captain, I do."

"So will you still insist in disobeying my orders and ignoring our advice?" Finn asked.

"I'll follow your orders and behave from now on, Captain… and I'm sorry." Ais whispered.

"Good, you're forgiven. I'm glad it all turned out good in the end." Finn gently patted the girl on the head and moved back and faced his goddess. "How do we repay him?"

Loki hummed as she thought for moment, and stared at her cute child. "Ais, what did you say about Kira Yamato again? About what you said about him, when he appeared and killed those hellhounds that cornered you."

The blonde princess had a noticeable blush. "I said that he was like an angel."

3 days later, 15th floor, The Dungeon

"I found it. It's on a lower tunnel and it has an axe now." Ryuu reported.

Alice nodded and barked orders. "Kaguya, Neze, follow Ryuu to the monster. Celty follow them and prepare the elixirs."

The mentioned adventurers nodded and moved to follow her orders. She turned to the rest of the familia and grinned. "Everyone else, follow me and maintain a perimeter once we reach the area. Ready Kira?"

"I'm ready captain." Kira replied. They had been hunting this particular monster since Alice heard of the sword princess' story about a particularly strong minotaur that broke her blade and injured her arm. Strengthened species were a big danger to regular adventurers and the appearance of one changed the danger rating of the floor it inhabited. Kira learned that his familia and Ganesha's made it a priority to hunt these type of monsters whenever they hear news about them.

Soon they reached the area wher Ryuu found the minotaur. The other familia members were already standing guard, and a few dead regular minotaurs littered the passage. Neze was already in the process of collecting the stones from corpses.

The familia decided, with Astraea's permission to let Kira attempt to kill the red minotaur. His parameters were all in the S rank aside from his magic, and Alice was hoping that short of a monster rex that this would be the best option for Kira to gain high quality excelia.

Astraea noted that Kira's progress was slowing down, despite the increase in the monsters he killed and the valis her contributed to the familia. She had been amazed after every update of Kira's falna that there was still no option to level up despite his parameters reaching the S status. Normally it was enough for a level one adventurer to level up after killing a minotaur or a silverback, but Kira was far from normal.

Kira observed his opponent from a distance and noted its strange appearance compared to regular minotaurs. Instead of the usual black, red fur coated its body. It was more muscular as well, and its horns were longer.

The menacing axe it carried had blood stains on its edge, meaning this particular monster either found a weapon or killed its owner and decided to use it for its own. It was moving around its chamber when it suddenly stopped and its head turned towards their direction. Kira realized that it had sharper senses as well. Taking a deep breath he unsheathed his short sword and took a step forward. This was his moment.

The red minotaur let out a deafening bellow that shook the chamber it was in and mirrored Kira and charged as well. It lifted its two headed axe and swung, and Kira narrowly avoided the surprisingly fast swing. He countered with a slice of his sword that left a shallow cut on the minotaur's chest.

Soon Kira and the minotaur clashed again, and the coordinator realized that while he had the advantage in speed, his opponent was far stronger. He knew he could not fully block an attack from the minotaur's axe or its punches, judging by the wind that ruffled his hair or his clothes when he dodged the attacks by the narrowest of margins.

He quickly discarded his small shield and threw it into the minotaur's face when it was about to swing its large axe again. The shield hit the monster right on its snout causing blood to spring from its nostrils. The coordinator drew his spare sword he brought particularly for this battle and charged again.

Kira quickly formed a pattern of counter attacking after an attack from the minotaur. It would take mighty swings with its axe and Kira would dodge and attack the minotaur's arms, targeting its hands and wrists. He wanted to remove the monsters' ability to use a weapon, but it was proving sturdier than expected. He was sure his blade dug deep into the fingers of the minotaur holding the axe, but its strength was unbelievable and swung the large weapon like its finger weren't nearly severed.

Making a quick decision, Kira decided to change his strategy and analyzed the monsters stance. Instead of counter attacking, he attacked the same time the minotaur did and jumped quickly. He kicked the minotaurs bloody snout, and narrowly avoided its horns when it shook its head in pain.

Falling down to the ground, he twisted and rotated his body to generate power to his attack and directed his blade straight at the damaged fingers. His swing proved true and the minotaur bellowed as the axe fell to the ground along with some of its fingers of its right hand.

Quickly taking action, Kira kicked the axe by its handle far into the chamber, out of sight and reach of the minotaur. The monster, leaking blood from its body suddenly entered a state of rage and with sudden agility moved closer to Kira despite his guard being up and swung its mighty left fist towards the coordinator. He had only a moment to raise both his short sword and cross them together, their sharp edge pointing forward as the fist slammed directly into them.

Kira felt the breath from his body forcefully expelled as he flew across the chamber. He hit the ground hard and coughed up blood and he was sure one or more of his ribs were broken. His arms felt numb but he was grateful that they didn't seem to be broken. Struggling to stand up, he used one of his swords that thankfully were still in his as a cane to help support his body.

He heard the shouts of his familia but ignored them and focused on his opponent. He knew that he could not last much longer, judging from his pained breathing and moved in a stance with his knees bent and his swords to the side as he prepared for the final exchange of blows with his opponent. He wanted to end this now.

His pupils shrank and his iris widened and he felt the pain in his chest disappear. He crouched lower to the ground and suddenly he ran to the minotaur in full sprint. The minotaur responded at the challenge and ran as well, using its arms to help it move faster and pointed its massive horns to the coordinator.

Moments before they clashed, Kira jumped forward, his body like a spear in the air as he started to spin. The horn that was supposed to impale him missed in time with his rotation, while his arms flashed out as one blade suddenly appeared and hit the minotaur in the neck. The swing was swift and precise and reached halfway down the minotaur's neck. Kira's rotation in the air continued and forced his other arm and his other blade to hit the exact spot where he wounded the minotaur moments before. This time the second blade swung all the way through the neck, moving past dense muscle, flesh and bone.

Kira continued his spin as he flew over the minotaur and landed on the ground on one knee. He used both swords to support himself as he struggled to remain upright. He bowed his head, suddenly feeling all the aches and pains and tried to take deep breaths but the stabbing pain in his chest made it difficult. With a loud thud the head of the red minotaur fell in front of him.

Suddenly he felt himself being pushed to his back as a bottle of health potion was forcefully pushed to his lips. He felt strong but gentle arms support his back as he swallowed the green liquid.

"That was reckless Kira!" He heard Ryuu and looked up to see her kneeling beside him, her hands glowing as they were pressed on his chest. He didn't even hear her magic chant to activate her Noah heal.

"But effective." Kira heard his captain from his other side. "Well done Kira, but you scared the hell out me for a second there."

"Glad to hear it captain." Kira slowly replied. His head was still ringing from the minotaur's hit earlier and he felt dizzy, though he felt better when he drank another potion supplied by Celty.

"That skill of yours must have consumed a lot of your magic." Kaguya observed. "I've seen you use it before, but you must have put all of your power into it, to see you this close to passing out."

"I did." Kira slowly moved to sit up now that was breathing better, helped by Alice, her arm was still behind him, supporting him. "I decided to finish the battle and win no matter what with the final exchange of blows, and my skill must have responded to my will."

"It surely responded." Celty replied as she moved to stand. "You've consumed the mind elixir just to keep you from passing out."

"Thanks Celty." Kira replied. He looked around and saw some of his familia were still maintaining the perimeter far outside the chamber though they waved at him when they noticed him looking at their direction. He weakly waved back. "Did the minotaur leave a drop item?"

"Yeah, this." Neze showed the group two broken pieces of the horn, though it was colored red instead and of the usual black. "It could be useful to turn them into a pair of daggers."

"Let's discuss that later." Alice decided. "Everyone! Let's pack up and get ready to go back to the surface!"

Astraea's office, Stardust Garden

Kira took a nap for a few hours after a quick meal, letting the healing potion fully work on his body before he decided to visit Astraea and ask for an update. The goddess was already waiting for him and it seems she was as eager as he was, since she had her silver needle and a piece of paper in her hands.

Alice and Kaguya were equally as eager since usually they give Kira and Astraea some privacy whenever he had his falna updated. They were still inside Astrea's office, sitting on one side of the couch and silently asking Kira to stay with pleading expressions on their faces.

"It's fine, captain, sensei, you can both stay." Kira answered the silent request with a smile and moved closer to sit in front of Astraea, his back facing her. He removed his shirt easily, silently impressed with Ryuu's healing abilities as he felt no pain from his chest. He stared at his officers, noting the slight blushes that appeared on their faces but chose to ignore their reactions. He was teased mercilessly before, and he decided to fight back. Besides, they all knew it was all harmless fun in the end.

"So bold, Kira." Astraea teased her child as she began to update his Falna.

"They have to get use it eventually." Kira replied and gave Alice and Kaguya a wink. His captain's smile merely widened and Kaguya merely raised a manicured eyebrow in response.

"That's true though, especially if we started to accept more men like Kira here." Alice replied. "But I'm not sure Ryuu will be ready for that yet."

"She won't be for some time." Kaguya added. "That girl is painfully shy. It's already a miracle with how at ease she is with Kira."

"And I don't think our familia will be joined by other men in the near future since the standard we set is Kira." Astraea finally finished updating his falna and placed the paper containing his information on the desk in front of everyone to see. "And Kira is as rare as they come. Congratulations."

"You did it Kira!"

"Congratulations! This is unbelievable!"

Name: Yamato Kira

Level 1 2

Age: 16

STR: SS 1009 SSS 1112

END: SS 1021 SSS 1150

DEX: SSS 1154 SSS 1220

AGI: SSS 1132 SSS 1209

MAG: A 892 S 942

Skills:

The Ultimate Coordinator (Newtype)

(Increases senses and has rapid information processing ability. Increases all parameters in all aspects. Grants danger precognition and long range telepathy.)

Ace of the Songstress

Enables targeting precision with any weapon and increases spatial awareness and adaptability

Spells:

Seed Mode (Activated upon will.)

(Enters a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability)

Voiture Lumiere (Activated upon will.)

(The Wings of Light. Converts magic into light pressure that forms on the back and increases mobility and movement.)

Developmental Abilities

Spirit Healing I

Hunter I

Abnormal Resistance I

Swordsman I

"You can choose two developmental abilities as well." Astraea added. The goddess' happiness was palpable. Her divine aura was slightly showing, causing her skin to glow and her strands of her hair to float with unseen power. It indicated she was feeling strong emotions though it did not scare any of her children. Soon Astraea took a deep breath reigned in her power.

"I apologize." Astraea stated though her smile never dimmed. Unable to control herself anymore she reached out and hugged her newest child, as tears now began to fall down her face. "Thank you Kira, thank you."

Slightly puzzled by their goddess reaction, Alice and Kaguya shared a glance with each other and stared at Kira, clearly asking for an explanation.

The ultimate coordinator decided to respond by closing his eyes while he was hugging their goddess. He knew deep in his heart why she was happy, since he manifested Astraea' symbol, a true honor for any mortal towards their goddess.

Wings of light suddenly sprouted from his back, and he heard Alice and Kaguya's audible gasps of surprise. His feathered wings of light responded to his will and hugged his form and his goddess, while small feathers fell down the floor, breaking into motes of light before disappearing. Feeling the strain in his magic, the wings of light slowly vanished, ending the magnificent display of his new power.

"Just wow." Alice said dumbly and she suddenly found herself sitting on the ground with her mouth open. "What was that?"

"You read it didn't you?" Kaguya answered though she too was a having a hard time controlling her awe. "Voiture Lumiere, the wings of light."

"I know I read it!" Alice argued back. "I just didn't realize it will be like that. I thought it would be similar to Ryuu's Luminous Wind. I just never expected Kira's skill to be so… majestic."

"It certainly is." Astraea replied, having seen and feel Kira's wings wrap themselves around her. She grinned and looked back at her child and with a last hug she stepped back and continued with the updating of his falna. "So what will it be Kira? What do you choose for your developmental abilities?"

Kira already knew the answer as soon as he saw the paper. He had already felt some inadequacy during combat and felt that these two would help him in his growth. He hoped that the swordsman ability would appear, and was pleasantly surprised when it did manifest. The second was just another bonus, and it would suit him well with his newest magical power. "Please pick swordsman with spirit healing, goddess."

"Good choice." Astraea commented. A moment later the update was finished and a new sheet of paper was placed on the table.

Name: Yamato Kira

Level 2

Age: 16

STR: I 0

END: I 0

DEX: I 0

AGI: I 0

MAG: I 0

Skills:

The Ultimate Coordinator (Newtype)

(Increases senses and has rapid information processing ability. Increases all parameters in all aspects. Grants danger precognition and long range telepathy.)

Ace of the Songstress

Enables targeting precision with any weapon and increases spatial awareness and adaptability

Spells:

Seed Mode (Activated upon will.)

(Enters a state of enhanced awareness and peak physical ability)

Voiture Lumiere (Activated upon will.)

(The Wings of Light. Converts magic into light pressure that forms on the back and increases mobility and movement.)

Developmental Abilities:

Spirit Healing I

Swordsman I

"And as promised for reaching level two, here is your reward." Astraea placed a purple pillow on the table where a sword and scabbard sat. "Go on, take it Kira."

With a grin, Kira quickly took the katana and wrapped its arm around the handle. He admired the blade and when he tested its balance, he found it to be perfect. After a couple of practice swings, he took the scabbard and slowly sheathed the blade inside it. He quickly attached the scabbard and attached its rope to his waist. "Thank you goddess! It's perfect!"

"I'm glad you liked it!" Astraea clapped her hands. "Hephaestus certainly enjoyed creating your sword. What would you name it?"

Kira took the sword once more from its scabbard and admired the sword's geometry and feel. After taking a while finally removed his eyes from the blade and stared at his goddess. "I'll name the sword Providence."

"It's a fitting name, especially with the events that led you to me." Astraea replied. "I think we're late for a celebration! Everyone head down!"

The trio quickly followed their goddess to the lounge where the rest of the familia waited. Kira happily accepted the congratulations with good cheer, and even the teasing. Today couldn't be more perfect for the coordinator and he spent the rest of the day in a good mood.

The familia was the same, they were extremely proud of Kira's accomplishments and he now held the record for the fastest level up in Orario's history. Alcohol, rarely served inside Stardust Garden, flowed freely tonight, thanks to Neze who bought a few barrels from Mia Grand of the Hostess of Fertility. The party lasted into the early morning with some funny incidents, including a drunk Ryuu who started arguing with a tree.

Two day later,

Denatus meeting, Tower of Babel, Orario

Gods and goddesses mingled. They were usually grouped by their factions and allegiances, though those with the most powerful familia usually remained seated, allowing the other gods to come to them to initiate conversation.

It was a generally relaxed affair, though sometimes it became heated when the subject of giving an alias to their children becomes the topic. Sometimes the gods took their duties seriously, but more often than not they strived to give the most ridiculous name to the other god's children purely out of amusement. To the bored gods and goddesses, the more ridiculous the alias, the better.

"Fuck No!"

"All agreed to the name the mighty morphing manager?"

"Aye!" Came a chorus of agreement from the gods.

"Motion passes!" Hephaestus banged the wooden gavel on the podium, causing the god of the newly named child to cry.

"Next is the amazoness twins from the Loki familia, Tiona and Tione Hiryute."

"You jerks better give decent names!" Loki growled from beside Astraea.

"D cup and A cup!"

"Warrior of flatness!"

"Denied!" Loki yelled and stared ominously at the two drunk gods who continually kept giving bad names the whole morning.

"For Tione, what about Jormugand?" Ganesha suggested. "I saw her crushing a monster before, like a snake killing its prey."

"Huh that's not so bad." Loki mused. "And what about Tiona?"

Another round of insulting names was suggested, but no one seems to be able to agree on anything. Finally one bored god who was getting irritated since he had other appointments to keep finally spoke up.

"Just call the amazon, amazon!"

Almost the entire denatus laughed at that statement and the name was quickly approved despite Loki's protests.

"This is the last item for today." Hephaestus looked at the remaining sheets of paper and the gods and goddesses perked up, knowing they could go back to their children soon. Astraea resisted the urge to bite her nails and projected the calm and serene goddess of justice she was known for.

"From the Astraea familia, the new record holder for the fastest level up at six months and three days, Kira Yamato." Hephaestus declared causing the divine assembly to talk among each other while they stared at Astraea.

"Recold holder?"

"He beat the sword princess' record?"

"Wait did Hephaestus say he's from Astraea's familia?"

"That Astraea familia?"

"He or She?"

"Hey Astraea's taking men in now? I never thought that would happen."

"Maybe she took him in as a boy toy."

Hephaestus banged the gavel to gain the crowd's attention. "Any suggestions?"

"Supah player!"

"Heartbreaker!"

"JesusYamato!"

"Harem King!"

"GigoLord!"

That caused a round of laughter and Astraea immediately countered before it could gain any traction. "Denied!"

"Hey it's funny! C'mon Astraea, lighten up!"

"Still denied!" Astraea stated louder, struggling to maintain her composure. If she broke now, she knew Kira would be known as the GigoLord.

"Give the lady a break, ya know? Loki suddenly spoke to the assembly. "She's working so hard to give peace and order to the city, and this is what you do to show your gratitude? And to her first male child at that?"

The crowd's energy soon died down at those words and Astraea gave the goddess beside her a grateful look.

"As if you could do better." The god that originally proposed the name gigolo scoffed and crossed his arms.

"As a matter of fact I think I have the perfect name." Loki smugly replied.

"Well what is it then?"

"I got the idea when young Kira rescued my child from certain death inside the dungeon." Loki briefly gave Astraea a look before she continued. "She mentioned seeing the Astraea familia emblem on his back as he came to her rescue."

"So what's the name."

This time, Loki's gaze didn't move from Astraea as she replied to the demand. "Archangel."