Wizard of Orario

by Xane Dragon

Harry Dresden is banished from earth thanks to a death curse. When he returns, he finds himself alone in a world that has changed in more ways than one, and few of them good. So, he goes back to his familiar job. He doesn't do parties, love potions, or magic tricks. But he can find people, even when they're lost in a dungeon.

10. Chapter 10

Depression.

It was a mortal experience I was well acquainted with in every personal sense.

Letting Ryu talk with Alise had been a huge mistake.

Ryu had been getting so much better over the years after coming to me than when I first found her in an alleyway, just bleeding out and waiting to die. After years of helping her manage, of getting her up, of making her functional again, I knew she was just holding herself together, but had thought the lingering questions and doubts about her past could be dealt with. By talking to the redheaded woman before her soul was processed, Ryu could face certain things about her past that she hadn't been willing to before. At the very least, she would have been able to take the next step forward.

Ryu blamed herself for the woman's death, and only Alise herself could actually talk to her about that.

But depression wasn't just some misshapen idea caused by a tiny little misunderstanding. It was a state of being. The mindset that Ryu had spent years climbing her way out of came up with a new reason for its existence at the last second, and pulled her back down into its dark depths. Something far worse than her friends all dying because of her incompetence or cowardice, or whatever other stupid reason that Ryu's mind had come up with to justify the self loathing that permeated her soul.

I sat on the ground across from my precious little elf as she had her knees pulled up to her head and was practically curled up in a ball. I didn't care what the mark on her back that went all the way down to her soul said. Ryu was mine.

I couldn't attack how stupid her thought process was. The idea of a god hating a child in such a state was impossible. But telling her that as things were was just one friend telling another what she needed to hear. It wasn't a divinity authority figure calling Ryu out on her bullshit.

"What makes you say something like that, Ryu?" I asked her gently.

"Lady Astraea," she told me before pausing. "She told me to…give up on justice, when I came back and told her about everyone else how they died. The Goddess of Justice told me to abandon it, just as she abandoned me."

I grit my teeth but didn't let my anger show. It was something I had known for years, worked out on my own through snippets of conversation Ryu had with others and long talks with myself. But hearing it from her lips made my fists clench. "One stupid goddess does not dictate the opinion of the Heavens," I told her simply. It was something written by an elven woman considered to be one of the three greatest poets in history.

Ryu was quiet for a few seconds before she snorted. It didn't have any scorn to it, but it still told me what she thought of the idea. "Syr, you can give me all the quotes you want, but at the end of the day, you're a waitress."

I sucked in a deep breath. If Ryu wasn't going to listen to her own arguments, then…

I hesitated and gulped. My most deep seated fear clawed its way up to perch on my shoulder. It told me what I was about to do was a mistake. It would destroy what we had. My life, my friends, my sanctuary from being…her…

All of it would be gone.

But…if it helped Ryu take just one step forward…

She's already started to figure it out, I told myself. It's already over anyway…just use this last little moment and tell her…HELP HER YOU COWARD!

Fear flooded my body and I felt my hand shake as my voice cracked. "R-Ryu, I-"

"Got breakfast!" a young voice called out as she entered the tent, and I found myself looking up at Hestia in disbelief as she brought in a pair of bowls. "It's uh…well, stew…again. Uh, I guess armies don't carry a lot of variety when they're exploring the dungeon."

Now, being a goddess, I knew how the universe worked. I knew there were certain complex forces behind the scenes that tended to work probability in rather fantastical ways to help build tension and create these kinds of scenarios. It was the kind of thing that set Knights of the Cross to their appointed task back in the good old days, and like just about everything else in the universe that had to be remade thanks to the Outside, we had put in our own system of karmatic operation to keep the universe balanced and interesting.

Which meant I also knew who was responsible for what just happened. So, the first chance I got, I was going to beat Hermes bloody!

But, the system of divine beings worked in mysterious, but not completely intelligible ways. Once I got my flash of anger under control, I could easily see what was being presented to me. Ryu needed to talk to a god to dispel the false image of the one she had created inside her head, and one literally just walked into the tent. One that had personal experience that would be useful to our current predicament.

When Hestia gave me my food, I did the equivalent of holding up a giant sign to help Ryu get a hint. "Lady Hestia, did you know that Ryu is Familia to Lady Astraea?" I asked, making the elf's head come up in a jerk of motion.

"Seriously?" the little goddess replied before her eyes brightened as she handed Ryu a bowl of whatever passed for food in the Loki Familia. "Wow! I didn't know that! What're you doing in Orario then?"

The haunted look in Ryu's eyes doubled, and she drew in on herself. "Syr…"

I grit my teeth to steel my resolve. What came out of Ryu's mouth sounded almost like a whine. I hadn't heard her talk like that for years. "Hey, aren't you uh…connected to Lady Astraea, somehow, Lady Hestia?"

Hestia stared at me with a blank expression for a few seconds. "Well, yeah. Back in Heaven, me Artemis, and Astraea were part of the virgin goddess club," she said before giving a nervous laugh. "Although, the degree of our stances on men differed. I'm more, you know, chastity. Don't even get me started on Artemis! But, Astraea was more 'well, the kids can have relations when they're ready because they need to make more mortals, but gods and goddesses should be the epitome of purity!"

Which made Ryu pull back in on herself even more.

I had to stop from throwing my bowl at Hestia. If I stuck around too long, I probably would. So, I stood up. "Ryu needs to speak to a goddess. I've tried to talk to her about this stuff, but…" I paused and sighed. "Ryu, tell her what happened. I'm going to eat and find out where we can take a bath."

And then, I barely ran away from my suffering friend.

-Hestia-

I gave the Syr girl a confused look as she left the tent, not sure what to make of her. She wasn't a normal mortal, that was for sure. Thanks to the prep I received back in Heaven, I knew there were a few other things running around Orario that didn't really fit in anywhere else, but the general rule of thumb about them was to ignore them as long as they behaved themselves or didn't cause too much trouble.

Like the Winter gnome that Lilly used to sell stolen things to. At least, I hoped she was done fencing stolen goods. I…would need to ask her about that later, directly.

Still, Syr seemed human. And without the help she was able to bring to the table, Bell would have died. I owed that girl big. Even if she hadn't technically called me on that debt. Talking with her friend was the least I could have done.

So, I looked over to Ryu and had to hold in my wince. The poor child looked like the picture of absolute misery. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes sunken with little bags beneath them, and there was some nasty-looking stuff on the cape I remembered her wearing on the way down to this floor that had been tossed to the side. She needed a bath, food, sleep, and about a week of pampering by her close friends if I was any kind of judge.

But, all she had was me. I probably wasn't the best goddess for this. Bell had faced trials, but not much had really affected him for too long. He was still at that innocent age where he could shrug off most problems and keep going thanks to the invincibility of youthful naivety.

But, I was what was here, and I had been asked by someone Bell owed his life to. So I was going to do the best job I could!

"So…I guess I should ask," I began nervously as I looked at the meal that was still sitting on the ground. "Why are you in Orario instead of with your goddess? Because, guessing by your job and how Bell was surprised to see you last night, you've been here for a while."

The child sat there silently for a full minute, making me wonder if I needed to be a bit more forceful. But before I could repeat myself, she spoke. "I was excommunicated by Lady Astraea."

I blinked as my divine senses tickled the back of my mind.

That sounded pretty serious.

Sort of.

Excommunication was what happened to mortals when they got kicked out of their familia by their goddess. The reasons differed, according to the god who was in charge of the group. Sometimes it was super serious, and sometimes it was just the actions of a petty god who wanted to be a jerk. They didn't unlock the falna and they wouldn't update a child's status. It effectively froze the child at their current point of development. There was a magic item that could get around it in a way, but I didn't know all the specifics since it was very illegal.

There was also something odd about what the girl said. But, it made me see why Syr wanted a goddess to talk to her.

I worked hard to keep my face clear of any condemnation as I let Ryu's words hang in the air for a moment. Astraea was a strict goddess and had an equally rigid moral code. But she wasn't a heartless tyrant. If I had to equate her to something, it would have been a strict mother. Astraea believed in discipline and keeping things in order, but not to the detriment of the good that structure was supposed to achieve. She was a goddess of justice, not blind adherence to a legal code.

So, it didn't make sense to me that this child suffering in front of me would have been tossed aside.

I needed to know more. So, I got a little closer to the poor little girl and sat down before taking her hand while trying to project as calming a presence as I could. Ryu didn't need condemnation. She was already beating herself up enough over it. "Why is that, my child?"

Ryu almost pulled away from me like a beaten animal, but I held on firmly.

"I've done things…horrible things," she told me.

Which I could have seen the moment I came into the tent. The girl was being eaten alive by guilt. I honestly wished that someone else was here to talk to her, any other deity but me. I might have been thousands of years old, but I was a reborn goddess. I was still trying to figure out just who Hestia was. Helping a mortal going through her own crises of morality, faith and identity seemed a bit much for an immature goddess like me.

But, the only other divine being around right now was Heremes. Who'd probably try and get a rise out of the girl by groping her.

And I had already made my mind up to try and help Ryu, so that was what I was going to do!

"I'm not here to judge you," I told her. "But I will listen. Tell me, what kind of things?"

Ryu sat there for several seconds before finally speaking. "I've killed people, and in so many dishonorable ways. I stabbed them from behind, used poison, and burned them alive. I murdered so many that I lost count."

I tensed at the truthful statement. That was…bad.

Some gods took a very laid back view of mortals dying. Mortals died all the time after all. By the end of the day, there were probably going to be one or two thousand dead bodies more than there were at the start of the day. That was the only part of such a philosophy I really understood, though.

Who died. How they died. Why they died. I still considered all of that important information that needed to be taken into account before I decided if a mortal life was worth mourning over. Most gods called me stupid and naive because of that, but I was still pretty young.

And that was information I needed to know now, before I could help the girl in front of me. Because despite what she had just told me, Ryu wasn't some kind of heartless killer.

"Why," I asked.

Ryu looked up at me. "Hm?"

"Why did you kill them?" I asked.

She gulped and her eyes looked around the room. "Because…those were the only ways I could."

I frowned at the girl, and she flinched as if struck. "That's not what I asked," I told her. "I want to know why you thought those people needed to die."

"Because…I was angry at them," she told me in a half-truth. When I didn't let up and asked her the reason for her anger, Ryu closed her eyes and shivered. "They killed Alise. They killed my family."

When Ryu said that last part, I finally managed to put two and two together. "They were Evilus," I surmised. I had heard stories about that group from other gods. They had caused a big mess in Orario a few years before I came down from Heaven, but were eventually stopped by the top familias in the city. The head god was sent back to Heaven as punishment, but the others just kind of melted into the background.

That's all the gods would say on the subject officially, although theories abound during our meetings, and were passed around in taverns. Some thought the other gods got swallowed by the dungeon. Others thought they just ran out of familia and were hiding somewhere. There were farms in the world hundreds of miles from civilization where someone could live a hundred years without seeing another soul. Others believed that Evilus had just been a big game to them, and after their fun was over, they went to find somewhere else to play.

"Not all of them!" Ryu told me with the most amount of emotion I had seen her speak with since coming inside the tent. "People who traded with them, informants, delivery men who they used to get their items to the surface. I tracked those people down and killed them too so I could weaken the organization by going after their supply lines."

Another thing about all of this clicked in my mind as I listened to the girl talk about what she did. "Aren't you being just a bit pretentious?" I asked.

Ryu sat with her mouth open just a tiny bit in front of me. "What?"

I kept my voice as gentle as it could be as I laid things out for her. "First, you tell me about how you fought people in dishonorable ways. Then, you go on about how you killed a bunch of people who were either well beneath your level, or lacked a blessing entirely, considering your job description for them. Are you really angry at yourself for killing them, or are you angry at yourself because they didn't die in some big fancy battle?"

When Ryu just stared at me some more, I kept going. "Evilus was, well…evil. They killed dozens and dozens of women and children. I heard they burned entire city blocks in the beginning. But you don't agonize over killing those guys, you agonize over killing their supporters, the people bringing the murders daggers to cut people's throats. They're just as guilty for keeping the killing going. But you seem to think they deserve an honorable duel when they'd shoot you in the back before it even started."

"Just because people are wrong, doesn't give me the excuse to act the same way," Ryu told me. It had the feel of someone else's words.

It was a sound argument. Too bad for her I had heard the counter to it. "But you did act the same way as the bad guys," I told her. "Because you're not an idiot. If you had decided to play by the rules, you would have gotten killed. Oh, you would have been a 'good person' if you had fought Evilus head on and got to pat yourself on the back for how moral you are up in Heaven before you waved to all the people you failed to save. And if that's why Astraea excommunicated you, then there is something seriously wrong with that woman."

Ryu flinched and broke eye contact with me. "Well…um…she…Lady Astraea…that happened…after she…left me in Orario."

I frowned at the tingling in the back of my head. "Go on," I prompted.

After she took a few seconds to breathe, Ryu continued. "When Alise and my familia died, after I met with her and she told me to give up on justice…she excommunicated me and left the city."

The little tingle in the back of my mind returned. "So, you told her what you were going to do, and she kicked you out for planning a revenge spree?"

"Well…no…I didn't tell her what I was planning," Ryu told me. "But…she knew. That's why she left."

I waited for Ryu to continue. When she didn't, I decided to just hit her with the facts. "You're lying."

Ryu's head shot back up to look at me with wide eyes. "W-What?" she asked before rising to her feet. "No, Lady Hestia, I assure you, I'm not. I would never…"

Before she could start ranting out of control, I held up my hand. "Gods can detect lies," I told her before I also got to my feet to look up at her. I really hated being so short sometimes. "Down here, without our full power, it's like an annoying buzz in the back of our heads. If I was in Heaven, I would have been able to see exactly what the falsehood is about and help you sort it out. But down here, all I can do is detect mortal bullshit. Which your explanation is, by the way."

"But, Lady Hestia. Why would I tell you everything I did, and then lie about anything else?" Ryu asked in a pleading tone.

Was she thinking I was condemning her?

I tried to remember the tone I used and got a little uneasy. That hadn't been my intention at all! I knew I was still too young for this stuff.

"You misunderstand," I told Ryu as gently as I could before I took her hands in mine. "The lies I'm hearing from you, they are ones you are telling yourself. I don't know what happened to you and Astraea. But, I think you've been beating yourself up about it for so long that you've turned yourself into some kind of evil villain to justify your own self-loathing for actions you took that, while deplorable, were ultimately necessary."

Ryu was quiet for several seconds as she hung her head. "You think…I should try to forgive myself?"

That was a tricky question. It was certainly possible, but…the core of Ryu's problem was that it wasn't her forgiveness that was needed. "I think you should go and talk to Astraea, to see if you need to be forgiven."

-Dresden-

I was sore, I was tired, and I was cranky. The whole angry wizard trifecta resounded throughout my body as I made my way to Captain Shorty's tent to tell him what every other member of his own little army that had been there could. All I wanted to do was curl up in a blanket, close my eyes, and go into a nice little coma. But instead, I was being marched to the middle of camp, with a stupid little elf girl turning around every few moments to look at me with a frown before she gave me a raised nose, like she was trying to look down on me despite the massive height disadvantage.

The stupid little brat needed to be put in her place. With my rings charged from all the dungeon crawling, I could shove a force blast up her nose the next time she did her smug little thing and watch her brains splatter all over the two nearly naked girls flanking her. It would be so gratifying.

So, I made a fist and…realized what I was doing.

Hello Winter my old friend, I see we meet again, I thought to myself as I recognized the animalistic desire to put down the smarmy little girl who was challenging my authority by her actions. So, I took a deep breath, and very slowly, put the wolf back in its cage.

The complete lack of Syr's presence added weight to the idea she was responsible for the thing's silence over the past few days. Even when we were on the way down, the killing instinct of Winter hadn't reared its ugly head despite all the adrenaline, scantily clad women and literal tail I could have been chasing on the way down.

Still, I did have to throw the Mantle a bone. Challenges needed to be answered. "Hey, shorty! What's up with the way you keep looking at me?"

Lefiya jumped a little at the words, or maybe my tone. "Oh! Um…I just…" After getting herself under control, she gave me one of those too large smiles with eyes that were half closed before she looked away. "Oh, I was just thinking, those quick spells of yours might have looked very nice, but they really aren't all that powerful. I mean, can you even call yourself a mage when all you can do is take out a single monster?"

I was surrounded by her allies, so now wasn't a good time. But…tomorrow, when they weren't expecting it, a little spell, a quick long-range curse or the like using a strand of hair that should be easily procurable, and all of her friends could find her dead in her bed with her…heart…

With an effort of my lowercase, non-magical will, I banished the disturbingly satisfactory sight of her corpse with blood running out its mouth. But, I wasn't just going to let some child talk down to me. She wasn't Molly, she hadn't earned that right. "Tell me," I said as I kept my tone bored. "Do you try to use the magic your god gives you to justify being Loki's little sex toy?"

The entire group turned and looked at me in shock while the little elf just sputtered. I had seen how she responded to the goddess's attention back at the tavern the day they had left. Loki had been on Lefiya so much that had the goddess still been a god, I probably would have put her down. Everyone else had done their best to ignore it, but I could tell it had really gotten to most of the girls sitting around the table. Everyone at that table depended on the goddess for the power they used that gave them their fame and wealth, making them little more than her toys to play with as she saw fit.

I was getting dirty looks from the three girls. But Lefiya became a stuttering mess. "W-W-What was that?" she said before her face became completely red.

"That was uncalled for, Mr Dresden," Tione told me.

Tiona gave an uneasy groan. "Well, Lefiya just needs to learn to smack Loki down like the rest of us do."

"Whatever, I'm not going to just stand here and be silently insulted." Especially since a continued challenge would bring about the urge to meet it. I was already wanting to smack that stupid skank with the big boobs down for daring to call me out. "I'm going to find somewhere to get some sleep," I said before I turned around to walk away. "Later, squeeze toys!"

"It! You! That!" the little elf said as I walked away from her, my inner best satisfied at the third degree burns covering her skin. At least, until I felt a buildup of magical energy from behind me. "Unleashed streak of light, bow limbs of the holy tree."

I turned back around in disbelief as the girl's mystical array formed at her feet. It would take more than just seeing it twice to confirm, but it seemed like whatever power she was manifesting overlapped on itself within the confines of the magical crisscross of lines to feed on itself and increase its power.

"Lefiya, what're you doing?!" Tiona yelled in surprise as she jumped back.

The little elf ignored her and just kept going. "Shoot sniper of the fairies."

Like last time, I felt a tiny bit of her magic attach itself to…the air slightly to the left of my head. Meaning that she wasn't some homicidal maniac that tried to kill people for calling out the fact she was willing to sell her body for power. That fact stopped me from putting the thing on her chest and going with a much less lethal response than tricking the girl into killing herself with her own spell.

It…honestly reminded me of…well…me. How many times had I nearly lost my top at someone old jackass and nearly went Vesuvius on members of the White Council, Wardens…Mab?

Hell, I would have actually aimed at them, not used my magic in some scare tactic.

The array beneath her feet was intricate, complex, a little dazzling…and I could tell at a glance very fragile. It wasn't meant as a defense, just a means of pumping up as much raw power as fast as possible and throwing it out in a single direction. Hell, that was probably the point of the magical targeting assist. Without it, the spell might fly off in some random direction or disperse into multiple ones.

But, before she could get to the third line, I just cast out my hand and threw a magical rock through her lovely stained glass window. "Disperdorius."

The girl's magical array shattered with an impressive light show that left some of the ground smoking and everyone shielding their eyes. When the flashbang had ended, Lefiya was left standing in shocked bewilderment. "M-My magic…circle…"

I blinked at the description. Was that what the gods were having kids call arrays these days? In my day, magic circles were the things you could lock magical things away behind…which probably explained why the gods had decided to throw out that page when writing the How to Cast Spells for Dummies book. Couldn't have something that was super basic be widely known if it could be used against you.

"Leifya!" Tione yelled, making the girl jump. "What the hell were you doing? Trying to kill him?"

The elf jumped away from the older girl. "What? N-No, I was-"

Before the lecture could begin, I let out a loud laugh that one of those annoying goody two shoes heroes from a Saturday morning cartoon show would have used. "Ah-Hahahaha!" I said before I used my superior reach to grab her head and ruffle her hair like I had seen some older people do to younger ones in town. "I like you kid!"

The tension in the older amazon melted away and she just gave me a confused look, while Tiona gave me a giggling grin. "Yeah! She's just a little high strung."

"Um…I…um…" Leifya stuttered with a blush on her cheeks that I noticed when I took my hand away. Then she gave me an uneasy look, and forced out a few nervous laughs.

Tione groaned. "Okay. Now, can we get going to see the commander?"

"...oh right," I said before I looked at the girl that was supposed to be the reason I felt so insulted that I left the group of kids to go curl up in my blankets somewhere. "Fine."

-Syr-

Thirty seconds after I left the tent, the rest of my girls were there at the tent with Ais Wallenstien and a small bundle of clothes, along with some bathing products. "I didn't know your size, so I got a collection of things from my tent," she told me simply before holding them up.

I sucked in a deep breath and went with something the older amazon sister would have probably put on. Unfortunately, the young elf's clothes were a bit too small, and what had obviously come from Wallenstien's trunk wasn't big enough in the hips. "I guess this will have to do," I mumbled as I took Tione's clothes. From the looks of things, they were a little adjustable to compensate for all the big moves she did, so I could fill them out well enough after tightening the strings.

Then, I decided to be petty. It wasn't proud of it, but it's what we gods did from time to time. Ais had never really shown me any animosity, but she was in my way. "Do you know where I can get cleaned off?" I asked. "I have a date with Bell later today and I want to look my best."

The girl blinked. Internally though, I could see her soul become a little cloudy. "You're…going on a date with Bell Cranell?"

"Yep!" I said with a smile. "We agreed to go on one days ago, and I've never been in the dungeon. So I'm really excited! Say, Ms Ais, you've been here lots of times, right? Where would you say has the best view? I want something romantic so we can have a perfect memory of our first kiss."

I could practically see the gears turning in the girl's head as she tried to speak. "Oh…I think," Ais said before she trailed off as her emotions warred within her. Syr had never actually done anything wrong to her before, after all. In fact, I was an especially sweet girl that had always treated her familia with the utmost respect.

If she stood in my way, I could easily make things turn out to look like she was just another bully with a falna and completely destroy any chance she had with Bell.

Ais's eyes went down to the very sexy outfit she had given me herself, and I could see her worries increase before her determination and basic morality fought back. I personally hoped she tried to trick me. I would not only be able to see through it, but someone like the simple girl in front of me would agonize over her choice to do something 'bad' for a good long time.

"I know of a fresh spring we can go to," she finally said, her morality winning out with the honest reply. "The girls in the familia use it to bathe when we come through here often."

I…gave out a tiny sigh of defeat. "Thank you Ms Ais. "Lead the way, please."

As we left the camp, the rest of the girls joined us.

"Should we even both-fur with a bath?" Chloe asked before sniffing her hood. "Even if we get clean, our clothes still smell funky, meow."

Lunoire laughed a little. "This is one time, I do not envy those senses you guys have."

I looked back to my three girls and noticed something odd. Rather than join the conversation, Anya was giving me a considering frown. It made me pray she wasn't up to something. That girl could get the silliest ideas in her head, sometimes. "Something wrong, Anya?"

The catgirl let out a startled meow as she jumped back. "Oh! Uh, just um…thinking."

"Don't strain furself," Chloe warned her with a little laugh.

I gave the black haired catgirl a little frown. Anya was a bit ditzy and missed a few things, but I didn't like people calling her out on it when she wasn't making any mistakes. "Girls!" I told Chloe in a warning tone.

We got to the little collection of ponds and the stream Ais had mentioned previously rather easily. Which probably was why the Loki Familia decided to camp in the clearing they were at. Easy access to fresh water was one of the top factors in deciding just about any military encampment. However, I got a little confused that after we picked which pond to bathe in, Ais didn't just crawl back to her camp. Then, when she started taking her clothes off like the rest of us, I started to become suspicious.

"Is everything alright, Ms Ais?" I asked as I slipped off my top, then started to work on the bra I had on.

She looked back at me as she worked on removing her boots. "I came with you. I might as well bathe as well. I was in the battle too, after all."

In the battle, but hardly affected. I had been splattered with some guts from the psychopath spouting Outsider propaganda despite Ryu shielding us both with her cloak. But, it wasn't like I had any reason to turn her away.

Which meant that after a few seconds, most of us were naked and getting into the pond. I found the water pleasantly warm, which was a surprise when I considered our location. Logically, the warm water made no sense. It should have been nearly frigid, considering the lack of real sunlight or warmth from the fiery space ball. Was it some sort of magical effect that came with the dungeon creating a safe place for travelers to rest?

Now that I was actually inside the dungeon, I wanted to actually investigate just why places like this existed. The dungeon itself made sense, if you were in the know. As Dresden would put it, the place was a death factory that churned out top tier killing machines from top to bottom, with the power to spawn them easier to channel the deeper someone went. So safe zones, places where people could rest and even prosper didn't make any sense.

"I'll take care of our clothes," Anya called out from her place outside of the water as she gathered up everyone's things.

I turned to tell her not to bother, but stopped when I noticed her picking up my underwear and putting it just a bit too close to her nose. "Anya?"

"NYAAAA!" the kitten cried out in surprise as she jumped a good three feet in the air before coming down to turn around and look at me like I had caught her committing murder. "Syr! Um…y-yes?"

As if I didn't have enough on my plate with Ryu having a mental breakdown of some sort, now Anya was freaking out over nothing. Plus, there was the whole fact that any plans I had for Bell and any hope of future happiness as my one true wish could finally come to fruition were all about to be decided in less than three hours.

But, I couldn't just ignore my little kitten either. I had known her since she was three years old. I had held her in my arms and rocked her to sleep every night for weeks when I found her and her brother during one of my first vacations from Orario. If I had been a real mortal, I probably would have considered her my daughter rather than Syr's unofficial baby sister.

"Is everything okay?" I asked as I watched her soul cloud over with a storm of unease. There was definitely something bothering my kitten.

Anya opened her mouth, and then froze. "Um…ah…" she said before looking around nervously.

Before she could answer, Chloe came up behind me in the water. "Anya fur-get whatever it is you're up to and get in here already!"

"Yeah, we have to follow Syr around on her date!" Lunoire added a second later, which made me turn around and give her a look of disbelief. "Oh please, like you actually thought we were going to sit around and do nothing when you were finally interested in a boy."

-Bell-

Morning came, and I left the tent with Lord Hermes and Welf in time to see Ms Ryu and Ms Syr going into theirs. The game Hermes kept us up all night playing was interesting, if a little inaccurate when it came to monsters and the dungeon. Although, if I had known about it before becoming an adventurer, it would have definitely been something I would have begged to play with the other children around the farming village where I grew up.

"So boys, are we going to head out and grab something to eat?" Hermes asked as he came out of the tent and adjusted his hat.

Before I could answer, the sound of little feet on grass caught my attention, and Lilly got to me the moment I noticed her. "Master Bell, let's go find some food before all the good stuff is taken!" she said as she grabbed my hand.

I was about to agree, but when I saw Mr Dresden head off with a group of the Loki Familia, and Ms Ais head away from them but still somewhere into the Loki camp, I paused and looked to the god. "Where are they going?"

"Good question," Hermes said before looking over to his familia captain I had been introduced to the night before. "Go find me an answer, Asfi."

The blue haired woman with tiny bags under her eyes gave her god a sigh before turning around and walking off in the direction of the others.

"Now that we've got that taken care of," Hermes said before he put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me away from Lilly. "Bell, there actually is another reason I came into the dungeon other than to save you. It's something I need your help with. Something only you can do for me. Can I count on you?"

Lilly let out an annoyed sound. "Can it wait until after breakfast?" she asked.

After giving the small girl a very dramatic sigh, the god hung his head. "Hmm, I suppose moving too soon will risk discovery," he admitted before crouching down to look Lilly in the eyes. "Can you and Welf go and get us some food, then? We'll wait here until we can't wait anymore."

Lilly gave Lord Hermes a confused look, but didn't question the god before she slowly turned around and walked away to ask where the food was along with Lady Hestia.

I turned and looked at the god in confusion. We had talked a great deal the night before since he could carry on a conversation and act as the dungeon's master at the same time. According to him, Lord Hermes was an old friend of Hestia's in Heaven who just got back to Orario after checking on interests elsewhere. After he had found out about me being lost, he and his familia captain had set out to rescue me with the others.

I had heard from Ms Ryu what had happened with the Goliath, when I had been too focused to look back. However, I do remember someone shouting something, and a massive pressure pushing me forward and into the entrance of the eighteenth floor before passing out. I think I had seen someone at the bottom of the floor too, but my memory got a little hazy after the explosion. So that could have just been my imagination.

Once we were alone though, he leaned in on me again. "So, I hear you and Syr are going on a date, today."

My mind quickly became a jumbled mess as I was reminded of something that had been completely forgotten about. Ms Syr and our date, that really was today! How could I have forgotten about our date?

What were we supposed to do?

What was I supposed to wear?

Where were we supposed to go?

I might have had some idea in Orario, but I hadn't even been conscious on this floor of the dungeon as much as she was!

Then, Lord Hermes patted me on the back. "Alright then Bell my boy, I'll show you something that will make those jitters you've got about this date of yours completely vanish!"

-Asfi-

When I got to the command tent after making a quick stop to get some food that I had time for thanks to a slight altercation involving Mr Dresden, the three senior members of the Loki Familia were already there and only looking slightly disheveled from being called in for a meeting at daybreak. That was the point in which the man in the lion's mane coat walked in with three of the women he had come back with at dawn.

Nobody minded my presence since nobody knew I was there. Unlike Me Dresden and his one-time use potions that only lasted a short duration and might have caused memory problems for the people it affected since I couldn't bring to mind a single conversation anyone in the rescue party had in the dungeon until Syr had appeared, the Helm of Hades that I invented granted the wearer an unlimited amount of invisibility for as long as it was worn. It was one of my secret inventions that even the Guild had no idea existed.

Having an item everyone knew let you turn invisible half-defeated the purpose of such a thing.

The recounting of what happened didn't take long, and when it was done, Finn was looking at one of the magic stones that the monsters in question had dropped. "Why is it yellow?"

"Summer magic," Dresden told them absently. Then, when everyone looked up at him, it took him a moment to realize it. "What? You guys weren't listening when Hermes was trying to bait me in on this? The normal magic stones that come from the dungeon have a certain magical signature that when crystallized, makes a purplish-pink rock. This one is yellow because it's mixed in with magic from a different source. Probably a fairy, or spirit, as you call it. I'm guessing the infusion of that type of magic combined with a normal plant made the man-eating fly trap what it is and why some of it sticks around after it dies. Can I go now?"

The three leaders of the expedition shared an uneasy look.

"Should we ask him?" the dwarf said.

Riveria "I told you what he told me."

Finn crossed his arms for a moment and thought about the questions his comrade proposed. "I suppose if there is an imminent threat, it would be stupid not to ask the scholar well versed in the subject matter," he said before looking at the man with the staff. "Although I'm curious, you know why the monster doesn't completely disappear?"

"Sure," Dresden told them with a little shrug. Then, when nobody spoke again, he let out a tiny groan. "Oh, you want me to explain it. Okay so…the monsters in the dungeon, even though they're ripoffs of just about every bad fairytale I've ever heard of, they're all made of the same stuff. It's called ectoplasm, think of it as a magical building block that gets turned into whatever the person or creatures wants it to be. In this case, the dungeon wants to make a monster, pumps out the required amount of mystical energy that crystallizes to form its core, and then spits it out of a wall. The magic rock keeps the thing going. The plants though, they're…maybe ninety-percent ectoplasm with some physical substance from this world thrown in to control it, or anchor it, or force it into the shape the uh…gardener wants them to be. I'd have to see the creation process to be sure."

Riveria raised an eyebrow. "Gardener?"

Dresden gave them another shrug. "Well, somebody's got to be making these things. What else would you call him?"

"Mr Dresden," Finn spoke up. "Do you have any insight on how this process of monster creation might work?"

To which Dresden gave snort. "What're you kidding me? I don't have a clue. I'd have to see it to examine it. There's a reason monsters come out of the walls instead of just appearing from thin air. They'd be a lot easier to kill if you could see how they're made."

From my place of hiding, I fought the need to make a sound of agreement while the three members of the familia nodded. Then they shared another look. "Should we ask him about the…seeds that we saw?" Gareth finally asked the little man.

"You are returning to Orario, correct?" Finn asked the much taller man.

Dresden sighed and slumped. "As soon as I get some sleep. And you guys murder everything on the way up so I don't have to."

The conversation took an unexpected turn when there was a small commotion outside the tent, and the girls that had escorted Dresden in gave way for a man with silver hair and wolf features on the top of his head and tail. Bete Logia had been absent when we arrived at the camp. I had heard he had been sent back to Orario to gather medical herbs as well as completed potions to neutralize the toxins in the bodies of several of their members. The fact he was back meant that they would probably be moving out in an hour or two.

"The hell is this guy doing here?" he practically spat at the tall mage after giving him a once over.

Standing back from the group, I might have been the only one to notice it, but there was an odd change in Dresden's stance when the werewolf spoke. It was like a switch was flipped, and the man's very presence changed from one of a normal person to that of something more…feral. His knees bent just a bit, shoulders became more hunched over, and there was a distinct drop in the air temperature.

"I'm teaching people who don't know better how to behave," the man said in a cool tone that sounded completely different than his usual way of speaking. "Do you need an obedience lesson?"

Insulting the werewolf was not a choice any sane person would have taken, had he known anything about the man. Bete Logia was the kind of person who loved to pick fights, and had gone from bar to bar not too many years back, sending whole famila to the Guild's infirmary. He had been restrained a bit by the Loki Familia, but it was a rather weak leash that tended to slip more often than not.

Bete let out a low growl. "What was that?"

"I'm insulting your manners, and your intelligence," Dresden told him before sighing at the man. "Now, I mean. You were being all threatening at the bar too, and since you're doing it here as well, I thought I'd…well, put you down. I'm equating you with a dog, by the way. A rabid one that doesn't know how to behave. That's how the insult works. I wanted to make sure you knew that in case you were too stupid to figure it out."

Finn cleared his throat. "Alright, that's enough of that," he said in an annoyed tone before giving the much taller man an annoyed frown while Bete practically seethed. "Mr Dresden, you can take your leave. I'll need to speak with my goddess before we consult with you again."

-Bell-

The children of the gods were meant to serve them. This was the fact of life for every mortal on the planet, regardless of their race. So, after Lord Hermes let me get something to eat, he took me away from camp while asking Welf and Lilly to remain. Which, I suppose was a good idea, as they would be able to tell my goddess that I was fulfilling a special request from a god.

"What is this special task you have for me, Lord Hermes?" I asked as I made sure to keep an eye out in the woods we were traveling through.

Was there a special monster he needed slain that the Loki Familia was unaware of? The floor didn't spawn monsters, but I had been warned several times by the Loki Familia that monsters were able to wander up from the next floor down. So I kept up my guard and my hands near my knife.

He put his fingers to his lips, confirming my suspicions. There was a monster prowling around that he needed me to slay!

So, when Lord Hermes motioned to the tree in front of us and then to one of the larger branches, I nodded in understanding before helping him up, then using my newfound strength as a level two adventurer to pull myself up as well. Using an expert level of stealth that probably came from being hundreds of years old, the god carefully moved out on the branch, and I followed.

Once we were out as far as he would let us go, Lord Hermes carefully got into a crouched sitting position that I did my best to mimic and after putting his gloved finger to his lips again, motioned to the area below us. I nodded in understanding that the target was below us, so I looked down to size up the monster and…did my best not to choke to death on the nervousness that made its way up my throat when I saw what was below me.

Women.

Five very beautiful women were in a small pond beneath me.

Some of them were holding washcloths, while the cat girls and another had their hair covered in suds.

They were also very naked. All of them.

All of them were also girls that I knew. There was Ms Lunoire over to the right side of the pond, while Ms Chloe and Ms Anya were washing their hair…along with Ms Syr. To make matters even worse, and even more dangerous than worse, Ms Ais was there too!

"Wha-Wha-What? L-Lord Hermes?" I finally managed to ask as I just barely managed to get my mouth under control and keep my voice down. "What is this?"

The god gave me a soft chuckle. "Come on now, Bell. Haven't you ever heard that when women are naked, it's a man's responsibility for men to sneak a quick peek?"

"N-No!" I exclaimed through gritted teeth before my eyes tried to wander back to the sounds of laughter and splashing that was going on beneath me.

Lord Hermes gave me a little smile. "Really? Are you telling me that nobody taught you that spying on women is how a man shows his true feelings?"

I…blinked. Because someone had taught me that when I was younger. My grandfather, to be precise. He had even used those exact words. According to him, it was all part of the ultimate romance.

It was also the reason I received my first spanking ever from the neighbor when I tried to look at his daughter in the bath. Grandpa never told me that I needed to worry about being caught, so I hadn't bothered trying to hide when looking in through the window. It was also my first lesson in what a degenerate Grandpa was, and that I needed to run away as fast as possible from an upset woman to avoid excessive amounts of pain and long recovery times.

The question of whether Hermes had actually known Grandfather, or maybe even my parents as well, was put on hold when my brain reminded me of the several beautiful women and the danger I was in. I looked over to the god and grabbed onto him. "Lord Hermes, please. We need to get out of here right now."

"Hmmmmm," Hermes sounded as he considered my request. Then, he twisted his arm in an unnatural way and… "Nah!"

There was a small push, and I lost my footing before I felt the invisible force that ties all things to the earth pull me off the branch. At which point…I thought it was a good idea to scream.

-Syr-

I studied my sort-of-enemy-but-more-of-an-obstacle as she ran her washcloth over her skin while I worked to finish cleaning my hair. Being a goddess meant that getting rid of such things was rather easy, but I liked washing my hair. It always felt especially freeing thanks to how scrubbing my scalp tickled certain nerves.

As for the object of my observation, she seemed blissfully unaware of my examination as I compared the two of us physically. When it came to her body, Ais was extremely athletic, but the blessing had saved her from ending up with an olympic gymnast body. Meaning that she still had an average pair of well-formed breasts instead of a washboard chest, despite years of training her body for mobility since her age was in the single digits.

Syr's body was superior though. I had better curves, a tiny bit more fat in my cheeks to give me that perfect balance between cute and sexy that let me pull off my innocent routine oh so well, as well as a fuller butt. It was nowhere near as perfect as my real body, but perfection was the problem with my 'old model' that made me downgrade to the mortal one.

The real problem with Ais was…I didn't want to get rid of this particular obstacle. I had sent my familia against her two times so far, and neither time did I give them orders to do more than harry the girl a bit. No orders to kill, hurt, or maim, just something to make her time with the boy I had my eye on a little less pleasant.

Things would be a lot easier for me if I didn't have my stupid mortal morals in the way and just thought of the short-lived beings as toys to play with sometimes. It would completely defeat my end goal of forming a joyful romance, but at least I wouldn't have to deal with trying to obtain it anymore.

I blinked at that train of thought and groaned. Oh great, I'm getting all 'if only I cared about only myself, things would be so much better' again, I told myself with a frown. How long had it been since I last went through a selfish phase? Four-hundred years? No, it was six.

The whole thing had just been an endless orgy, with all of my little followers charmed into providing me with everything and me pushing the limits of what I could make them do. Then, that girl Helen had gotten pregnant by one of my side toys I just told to go satisfy himself with a maid because he got boring. Even at my most selfish, I couldn't deny the needs of a newborn human child.

It had been the first time in eons I had encountered a newborn baby. The first of our children, rather than the Almighty's. He had been loud, and ugly, and so fragile I had been terrified of breaking him. But…it made me realize just how precious our 'toys' were, and started me on a very long journey of truly enjoying life while I looked for the one man in all of existence that could give me the feelings I desired.

Then, I ran into Hera and got stuck in the cesspit that was Orario a few hundred years later.

Even after helping to make the place slightly livable, I despised that woman for what she did to me and still didn't know if I let her off too easy, or if sending her back to Heaven would have been less punishing than the command I placed on her after winning our war game.

Forever alone, or forever tethered to a man who would never love her back. Which was worse?

I leaned back up against one of the rocks that formed the edge of the pond we were using and…

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

…blinked when my little rabbit of a boy fell out of the sky to land in the water at about an even distance from every single woman in the pool.

Bell struggled under the water for a moment before coming up for air, which meant I had a good two seconds to look up and see a god very carefully trying to hide himself from detection. It also gave me plenty of time to come up with a proper response to the intrusion.

I could play the bashful girl that did her best to preserve her modesty, but that idea died rather quickly when my real self just laughed at the image of me acting like the innocent maiden. Besides, it was much too passive and meant I would have to throw away a myriad of opportunities.

No, the best thing to do now was to strike at the poorly wrought bond between Ais and Bell from her end. Instead of getting him to remove her from consideration as a love interest, I could make Ais think Bell was a little pervert who thought women didn't deserve any privacy. Then, it would be child's play to paint myself as sympathetic and forgiving while also planting the seeds to mold any future actions to be more to my liking.

Bell came up for air almost three seconds after he went down, and I didn't waste a second after his landing by letting out a little scream and moving to cover myself as if on reflex. "Girls quick, grab the peeper!" I yelled in mock fear at a much higher pitch than normal.

My kittens may have been surprised by the fall as well, which made me wonder why their noses didn't detect his approach, but they were still level four adventurers. The two of them reacted with lightning speed and restrained the boy from each of his sides while using one of their hands to cover their nipples.

"Okay perv, what're mew-nyah?" Anya asked when the water calmed and she got a good look at the boy in his white armor and gray undersuit.

"And I thought mew were a good boy, meow!" Chloe scolded him from the other side.

Lunoire got behind Bell and cracked her knuckles, making him go stuff for a moment.

Bell just let out a squeak when after his whole body tried to move and found itself unable to break free of the catgirls. "What? No! That's not-I," he said in a jumbled word salad as his head darted all around before settling on someone other than the three women in his immediate facility. "M-Ms Ais?"

Showing more emotion than she had in probably years, I watched the Sword Princess's face gain a small blush as she covered her crotch and breasts before sinking into the water low enough to distort the sight of both.

"Bell," I spoke up, grabbing the boy's attention. He turned his head to me. Then, his eyes slowly wandered down to my chest thanks to the fact I had stopped covering it to put my hands on my hips in a more scolding pose. I let him see everything. It would help fuel his future desire for me, but the little frown on my face that he noticed when his head shot back up to my eyes after going down far enough to see my crotch made him freeze. "Would you please close your eyes?"

The boy let out a choking sound and quickly did as he was told before stuttering. "I-I'm sorry!"

"That you got caught, you mean," Lunoire said.

As Bell winced again, the sight made me let out a genuine giggle, which turned into real laughter a few seconds later. "Oh-Okay girls, I think that's enough scolding," I told them before sighing at the whole predicament and turning to look at the woman who wasn't mine. "Ms Ais, can you go fetch our clothes and towels?"

Ais gave the girls around Bell a wary look, but nodded and did as she was asked. The girls didn't let him go, and we led the boy to the edge of the water before pulling him out and having him sit down while we all got dressed in either mostly clean clothes, or an extremely skimpy outfit that I needed to wear an extra layer of a skirt to keep people from thinking I was completely bare from behind.

"Why didn't either of you detect him?" Ais asked the girls after they rinsed their hair off and took their clothes from the girl.

Both of them shared a look, then pointed to their heads. Chloe was the only one who answered verbally. "Shampoo. It made it hard to smell anything."

Once we all finished getting dressed, and the girls pulled out their weapons, we gathered around Bell again with a good five feet between him and each of us. "Okay Mr Bell, you can look again."

"My Syr, I-ahhh! W-What are you wearing?" he asked in shocked surprise.

I giggled a little and smiled. "Do you like it?" I asked before I hopped up and down just a little to let my boobs bounce. "One of those nice amazon girls loaned it to me when my dress got dirty last night! But, you shouldn't change the subject, Mr Bell."

"Yeah!" Anya agreed before she pointed her spear right at him. "Syr said you deserve a chance to explain, so talk!"

On the opposite side of the boy from me, Ais gave several nods. The poor girl was just begging him to give her an excuse to forgive his actions.

"Well, Lord Hermes-" was about as far as Bell got before I was betrayed by my girls and they all let out a collective groan.

"Did he get another patsy again?" Anya complained.

"That god really twists my tail!" Chloe added.

"He must have snuck away from Asfi," Lunoire groaned.

Ais looked around wildly at all of us. "What about Hermes?"

I took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. It looked like any hopes I had of ruining Ais's little crush on Bell weren't going to be coming to fruition today. "He's an annoying god that abuses the fact that gods can get away with non-violent crimes most of the time. Lately, whenever he bothers us like this, there's usually another guy he gets to act as a distraction so he can get away," I explained before a real concern came to mind. "Um…can you girls go find him? As much of a pain that he is, this is the dungeon. I don't want anything happening to a god if he wanders across a monster."

The girls shared a look of concern before they turned their attention to Ais. "Make sure she gets back to camp safely?" Lunoire asked.

When Ais nodded, the girls scattered and were gone from view a second later. Leaving me alone with the boy I liked, and the girl who stood in my way. If anime hadn't been a dead art form for eons, I would have thought I was the main character in a romantic comedy.

"So," Ais spoke up as she looked back at Bell. "Why did you agree to look at us naked along with Lord Hermes?"

I looked over to Bell when he started stuttering again and giggled. It wasn't outright scorn, but I would take what I could get. So, before he could answer, I put a stop to my laughter and addressed Ais. "Oh, let it go just this once Ms Ais. As they say, boys will be boys," I told her before turning my attention on said boy and banishing all of my mirth. "But seriously Bell, you shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff."

Ais nodded at me. Although even I couldn't tell if she was agreeing with me or just confirming she heard my suggestion before she started leading us back to camp.

"But Ms Syr!" Bell started.

I didn't let him finish. "I know it seems harmless," I told him before taking his arm in mine. "But it's disrespectful, Bell. And if you're willing to violate our privacy now, what happens in a few years when that gets boring? Are you going to move on to grabbing girls in sensitive areas, like Lady Loki does?"

In front of us, Ais made a fist hard enough to pop her knuckles.

Which made the boy's back go rigid. "N-N-No! I would never do anything like that," he said before he looked away from me in the way humans did whenever they were remembering something at an inopportune time. "Um…intentionally."

I didn't take the bait. Instead, I just put a bit more skip into my walk than was usual, and let the borderline swimsuit I got from Tione show off how bouncy my breasts could be. After just a few seconds, Bell gulped and his eyes wandered towards my chest several times to watch them move as they tended to rub up against his arm.

When we got back to the camp, the whole place was a hotbed of commotion. Tents were being put up, several of the mid-level adventurers were giving orders and doing inventory checks, and there were a few I was positive I didn't see the night before. Which meant they had probably been in the sick tent.

Which reminded me, I needed to check on Ryu.

"One second Mr Bell," I told him before giving the boy a smile. "Let me just take care of something real quick, and then we can head to Rivira!"

I left him with a confused look and heard him as Ais what just what Rivira was before I came to one of the two tents still standing. When I peeked my head in, I saw Hestia was still there, and my little Ryu was out cold with her head on the goddess's lap. "How's she doing?" I asked before getting in and closing the tent flap behind me.

Hestia looked up and tensed before glancing back down at her. "She's been asleep for half an hour," she said softly. "Mental exhaustion. Say…um, Syr…does she really think Astraea excommunicated her?"

A snort escaped my mouth before I sat down and checked that Ryu ate all her food. "Yeah, and nobody's been able to convince her otherwise. Even if you look at the timeline and show her exactly how it makes no sense to be banished by a goddess before you do anything wrong," I said gently before smiling at my little elf. "Silly little girl."

"Hey Syr…" Hestia said as she looked up at me when I stood up with the empty bowl of food. The last thing I wanted was one of Loki's goons coming in to disturb my girl's sleep.

When I looked back at the girl, Hestia started getting nervous. She looked around the tent, and the back to me. "Um…what-"

"Have you talked with Dresden yet?" I asked before Hestia could voice a question I knew was coming.

Hestia paused for a moment. "No. I've been getting food all morning."

"I'll send him in here on my way out," I told her before leaving the tent. The bowl was quickly handed off to a Loki Familia member before I skipped over to Bell and took the boy's arm. With Ryu taken care of and the girls out of the way with how they were hunting Hermes, I was finally free to pursue my other goal since reaching the eighteenth floor.

"Okay Mr Bell, it's time for you to fulfill your promise!"

-Dresden-

Despite the chaos that followed me leaving the command tent, I found my refuge from all that was going on still standing. I got closer, and closer, and right before I could get within reach of the tent…

"Mr Dresden, could you go and talk to Lady Hestia? She uh…has some questions for you," Syr told me, snatching away my much needed rest before she put a hand on my back.

I looked back at the girl and…blinked. "Um…what're you wearing?" I asked, barely noticing the boy with the white hair standing behind her.

Syr giggled before swaying from side to side in a way that made her breasts do the same in a more exaggerated way while also swishing the tied up cloth that made her outfit street legal so that it gave anyone who bothered to look a full view of her butt. "Do you like it? It's very breathable."

I saw Bell's face turn red and sighed. "Where's Hestia?"

"In my tent, with Ryu," Syr explained before she leaned in just a bit closer. "You can let her know everything, okay?"

Before I could ask if she was talking about the goddess or the elf, Syr turned around and took off with her boytoy, making me feel as if I should say something to her as they departed to put a kink in whatever plans she had. But, those thoughts were put to rest when I realized something. Syr had come up to me looking like a little piece of meat just begging to be devoured, and I hadn't gotten a single supernatural urge to rip off her clothes and take the little girl to my bed. Hell, she had even outright told me what to do, and my magical objection to authority other than Mab's hadn't kicked in either.

Both of which were driving forces of the Winter Mantle. Which all but confirmed my theory about her and the magic Mab had put on me that gave the caveman side of my brain steroids. Which I suppose was good, if worrying. If I came to depend on her too much and there was a prolonged period when I didn't get any, the Mantle might very well take me unaware and take over to the point I couldn't put it back in its cage.

I put those worries to the side for a moment, and walked over to the girls-only tent to open the flap and walk inside. Ryu was sleeping peacefully, but Syr had mentioned her too, so I didn't think much of letting her in on the conversation if she woke up. "So, here I am Hestia. As promised, what do you want to know?"

The little goddess looked up at me, then back down to the elf in her lap. "Well…as long as she's sleeping…" Hestia mumbled before looking up at me. "So, how in the world do you have a spirit, and what's a human doing as part of the Winter Spirit faction?"

"Oh, that's a bit of a story," I said before I sat down. "Have you ever heard of the Winter Knight?"

Hestia frowned as she kept her eyes on me. "No," she told me simply. Then, she frowned and looked down at the ground between us. I saw her eyes move, and could almost see the invisible book she was skimming through. "Wait…that's from way back…ugh! They started doing that again?"

She looked back up at me and her expression only got worse. "So, you're a spy, or something?"

"...or something," I said before I frowned. "Honestly, the whole Winter thing has gone a bit stale. The reason I joined up isn't really a thing anymore, but I'm supposed to keep working for Mab? But I've been told she can't touch me in Orario, so here I am."

"Why did you join Winter," she asked.

"Monsters took my daughter. I needed to save her. For that I needed power and connections," I answered simply. "Mab gave them to me. When I was done saving her, she started pulling the strings that came attached the the deal."

Hestia looked at me for several seconds, then sighed. "Well, I suppose I can't look down on you for something like that. So, you got an intellect spirit and power," she said before frowning. "Huh…I didn't think that thing they used was like our falna. Guess they upgraded it in the past few years."

When nothing else was forthcoming, I rubbed my head. "Anything else?"

"Your spirit," Hestia said with a little frown. "Which one is she?"

I blinked at the question, then tapped the armband under my coat. "Hey, Bonnie, come on out."

"Okay, but you asked for it," her voice replied before there was a muted flash of light under my arm I was barely aware of through the coat, followed by the appearance of my daughter, this time in her flaming wings mode.

The appearance of Bonnie made Hestia freeze. Her expression very slowly became one of open-mouthed shock before she sped back up. "YOU!" the goddess exclaimed, making the elf resting in her lap wake up with a start. "You're that little pervert that was always helping Zues and Hermes peep on girls in Heaven!"

I blinked in confusion. "Um…what?"

Ryu came awake with a look around. "Hmm? What…happened?"

Bonnie crossed her arms and sniffed indignantly, completely ignoring the elf. "They and others traded for my services, fair and square."

A much deeper feeling of dread filled my gut before I looked over to my daughter. "Uh…traded what, exactly?"

"Stories," Bonnie told me simply before shrugging. "Hermes practically invented Greek Mythology, and Zues was almost there from the start. Besides, assisting gods in getting a good look at all the girls in their birthday suits is a sacred duty!"

As I looked up at my daughter in horror, Ryu rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around before settling on the fake angel floating in the air. "Um…do I even want to know?"

-Ais-

I felt…strange.

My chest felt constricted, despite my loose clothing and lack of armor. It wasn't actually harder to breathe, but…it felt like…it should have been?

Confusion clouded my mind as I walked around, lost on what to do. The camp had been put away and everyone was making for the exit. I knew I needed to catch up with the supply wagon to get my armor and weapon, but…I wanted to go back to the little town and…

Um…

I…didn't know…

Follow Bell, maybe?

Rivira was dangerous at the best of times and new adventurers always needed to stay on guard. The first time I had been, a merchant had tricked me into spending all my money on special 'dungeon potatoes' that were simply normal spuds grown on the surface and sold down below. If someone didn't watch out for him, he'd fall prey to something far worse than a minotaur.

After following the members of my familia into the boss room, I looked around the crowd until I found Riveria while everyone was listening to Finn give instructions. I didn't bother to listen. Everything past the floor boss would be taken care of by the backup squads so they could get some experience.

So, I walked up to the woman. "Riveria? I think something's wrong with me."

The woman who had looked after me since I was seven turned around. "What is it, Ais?"

"I…think I'm sick," I told her after thinking about it for a second. That was the only thing I could imagine the problem being.

Riveria put a hand to my forehead and frowned. "No fever," she mumbled as everyone around me started to take up different positions. "Did you eat something from that town?"

I shook my head.

"Deal with a monster in the woods?"

I shook my head again.

"Okay, what are the symptoms, and when did it start?" she finally asked.

I thought back for a moment. "Hmmm. There's a tightness in my chest," I told them before touching the area in question. "And I started feeling it…um…when I saw Bell Cranel and that girl from the bar leave for the city o-on their…date."

For some reason, everyone left in the cavern, which were most of the high-level people I worked with, turned around and gave me wide-eyed looks. Lefiya looked like she was about to cry for some reason. Then, Riveria raised her hand and giggled a little. "Is that a fact?"

"...are you fucking shitting me?" Bete yelled.

-Anya-

Me and my friends stood over the god that we had managed to catch after hours of searching as he sat on the ground between us, a goofy smile on his face.

"Come on now girls, you can't be too mad, right? A little peeping never hurt anyone!" Hermes told us as he tried to move his arms. The scarf we had tied into a knot around them kept the god's hands behind him.

I didn't bother to listen to Chloe's reply before I went back to a neary fallen branch and sat down. Dealing with another god's pranks was too much for my mind to handle at the moment. I needed to focus on what was important.

After what Lady Hestia had said last night, I thought back to all the times I had done my chores for Mama Mia, all the extra jobs that living at the tavern put on my shoulders that had nothing to do with running the business. I needed proof, just one moment to tell me the thoughts going through my head were my usual stupid nonsense.

But, I couldn't find a single one to tell me I was wrong.

All this time…I had been a stupid kitten.

"Anya, come on. We got to take this guy back to his captain," Lunoire called out.

I looked up at my coworkers in confusion. "Huh?"

"Lord Hermes," Chloe said before she got the god to his feet. "We need to take him back to camp."

I blinked. "Right," I mumbled before I fell in behind them.

Hermes said some more things, something about his hands. I…looked at his scarf and frowned.

Then, I reached forward to undo the knot and take it off.

"Why thank you Anya," Hermes told me in a happy tone. "I always knew there was a reason you were my favorite."

The god held out his hands, obviously wanting the scarf.

I lifted it up and took in a deep whiff. My superior nose told me there were tiny bits of strew from breakfast, some of Asfi's scent, a bit of pollen from a flower, the smell of insects, and a dozen other natural things that nobody besides someone with heightened senses pushed even further by the blessing of a goddess could detect.

Hermes cocked his head. "Uh…Anya?"

I lowered the scarf and stepped forward to sniff the god. He had a scent. It was like most human's smelled like. Not as sweaty though, and not like an old man either. A normal, healthy, human.

But, his scent wasn't on the scarf.

-Bell-

The brand new city before us helped me keep my eyes off Syr's boobs. Which was really hard, because they were very nice boobs. And Grandpa always said that the bigger the chest, the bigger the girl's heart. So, I needed to find a girl with huge breasts if I wanted a life full of love.

Which…I guess Goddess Hestia proved.

A giggle came from Syr, and I looked up from her chest, realizing that my eyes had drifted back to them again. "Do you want to touch them, Bell?" she asked with a mischievous smile.

I brain went blank. Thoughts no come fast. "Um…ah…that…"

My squeaky voice got a laugh from the girl. "Okay, I'll lay off the teasing," she said before looking down at herself. "It's not like I didn't know that was going to happen with what I have on. Although, I would have thought you would have been a little more interested in the city."

Right. The city. City good!

I looked back at Rivira, the city under the ground. The only municipality in all of the dungeon. The oasis of peace in a massive wasteland of danger.

It was a total dump.

The town was composed of some two to three dozen buildings that were little more than boards hammered together to create little boxes and a ramshackle wooden wall of planks that a strong wind could have probably knocked down. Calling it a city was an insult to society as a whole. Shanty town would have been the appropriate descriptor.

Then there were the people. Adventurers were always a mixed bag when it came to looks, personality, morality, and just about every other measure of a man. The people of Rivira skewed greatly towards the 'not allowed in polite society' edge of the measurement stick. Some barely had any clothes on at all and there were other things about several of them that made me feel uneasy.

Not that all of it was their fault!

Like, there was a cat man I saw walking around with only one ear and missing an arm. I felt a great deal of sympathy for him, but at the same time…well…it was almost like he went around showing his amputation off. That was kind of…gross.

"I was interested until I saw it," I told her with the disappointment evident in my voice.

Syr let out a little sigh as well. "I know what you mean. I wanted to experience it so badly too. But I guess that monster attack they had a few weeks ago hasn't enabled them to build back up," she said dejectedly before grabbing onto me again and practically holding her arm in the gap of her chest. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to focus on you then, Bell!"

I gulped. "Um…that's…um…"

"So, why did you become an adventurer?"

The question made my brain stop focusing on how close my hands were to Syr's breasts and turn to examine her words. "Oh, that…um, my Grandpa always told me stories about Orario," I told her with a little smile as I remembered the man who raised me. Considering what was happening, he was probably cheering me on from the afterlife. "He said that Orario was full of money, adventure, and women, and if I wanted to be happy, I needed to find a familia with a beautiful goddess, and devote my life to her."

Syr let out a tiny laugh. "I like the way your grandfather thinks," she said with a smile before a frown crossed her face. "So, why Hestia? I don't want to speak ill of her or anything, but…her familia isn't exactly what I'd think of when the words fame and fortune pop into my head. She's basically the opposite of that."

I reached up to scratch the back of my head nervously. "Ehehe, yeah. I love my goddess, but I'll admit that she wasn't my first choice," I told her before a bit of sadness crept up in my heart. "I actually tried to join a lot of familia. But, they all rejected me. They said I was too young, or too weak, or I didn't have enough experience."

Then, I felt Syr's grip tighten around my arm a little. "What about the famous ones? You know, Ganesha, or the Freya Familia?"

"Oh, well…I read the Ganesha Familia takes everyone, but they're more of a civic guard than an adventuring force," I told her before becoming a little nervous. "And…I did try to join the Freya Familia, actually.."

All of a sudden, Syr's grip tightened to the point her nails threatened to dig their way through my clothes. "What happened?"

Feeling a little nervous, I let out a tiny laugh. "Well, I was told that Lady Freya was in Babel Tower, so I climbed all the way up to the top floor to try and meet with her and ask for her blessing," I said as Syr turned her head and looked at me in utter disbelief. I knew it was rude to intrude on a goddess's residence, but I hadn't known that at the time! "But when I almost got there, I saw a tall imposing giant of a man standing guard. He was so frightening, I couldn't even approach. S-So, I just turned around and ran away."

Syr's entire body twitched along with her eye as I felt her fingers nearly tear through the protective clothing under my armor. "I…see."

-Ottar-

It was a hard life, being the strongest warrior in Orario. The gods had given me the alias of The King and I had to constantly keep my body in peak condition to deserve it. However, the title of the strongest also gave me the privilege of basking in the presence of the most kind, beautiful, and gentle creature alive. Even a stand-in was an honor, since nobody could tell the difference most of the time.

But not all the time.

Several hours ago, when Horn revealed that she had been taking our lady's place for the better part of twenty-four hours, she informed the top members of the familia that our goddess had let her mental barriers down to enact some kind of ritual on the eighteenth floor. Our goddess was above the law, so her venturing into the dungeon itself wasn't the problem. But, having her near such danger was unacceptable.

For the first time since she had dragged me out of a pile of refuse as a starving young child and held me close, I was going to have to deny her a wish.

Then, a sixth sense that I had developed through countless battles went off inside my head. A spark of real fear ran down my spine and wormed itself all the way to the depths of my heart. It affected me so, I actually stopped running for a moment.

"Hey Meathead, get your ass in gear!" Allen called out, the man hailed as the fastest warrior in Orario. "You're falling behind!"

And then, I shook off the immense wave of fear and continued on. Still, I couldn't help but wonder what could have caused me, the greatest warrior in the City of Heroes, to feel afraid.

-Syr-

I'M GOING TO MURDER HIM, I told myself as I panted raw hatred through my clenched teeth over and over again.

Ottar, my best warrior and pride of my familia in so many ways. If it wasn't for him, then Bell would have already been mine! He literally would have just walked right into my lap and then my bedchambers! This was a sin in which there was no forgiveness for!

"Ummm…M-Ms Syr?" Bell asked, drawing me out of visions of just how many pieces I was going to have the boar-man torn into when I got back home.

Which made me take a deep breath through my nose to help calm me down.

I did my best to try and think of how doing things like this was better. Which…at the very least, it was a bit new. I had never pursued a man as Syr before. My mortal identity has always been the basis for an experiment to see if I could truly change who I was, and later a pressure release valve, as well as a method to move about without my divine aura influencing others. But now, I would get to see if someone could love me for me.

No goddess, no history, no wealth.

I took in another breath and let out a tiny sigh. "Drop the Ms, Bell. And I'm sorry, I got a little distracted," I told him before giving the boy a little laugh and leaning up against him. "So tell me, after you joined your familia, what was your first time in the dungeon like?"

"Oh! Well, I went down after a few days of lessons from my advisor Ms Eina, and I was so excited. Then, I was a little bit scared. I ran into a goblin, and it took me nearly half an hour of fighting before I beat it," he said with a nervous laugh that made him look so cute. "Then, I got so excited, I actually ran back to tell Goddess Hestia all about it and forgot to take the stone with me."

A tiny laugh escaped my lips. That really did sound adorable!

We moved through the pathetic walls that would have stopped absolutely nothing and I looked around at the ramshackle of a town as we continued arm and arm. It really was quite disgusting. I wished we had gone somewhere else.

Since it wasn't going to be a distraction, I tugged on the boy's arm.

"What is it?" he asked.

After a moment of looking into his clueless eyes, I let out a sigh. "I take it your grandfather never told you how to go on a date, did he?"

Bell became a little more nervous before he looked away and scratched his cheek. "Um…well…his advice about girls lay in…other matters."

I gave him a little sigh before smiling just a bit. "Okay then, I'll tell you how this works. I asked you something about your past, now it's your turn to ask me. That's how dates work, Bell. We get to know each other on a deeper level, enjoying each other's company, learning about our past, figuring out shared interests," I told him with a little smile.

"Oh…um…then…uh, how about your past…then?" he asked nervously. It was painfully obvious that the boy was completely at a loss.

After thinking for a moment, I decided to go with the one I usually told everyone. "Oh, it's nothing special. I was born in Orario several years ago. Things were much…darker, back then. I don't remember my parents, and the memory of my first moment alive was at an orphanage on Daedalus Street," I told him before looking down at the ground.

Bell looked over to me in surprise. "Really? I never would have thought…which one?"

"That's why we're on a date, Bell," I told him before letting out a sigh. "And you wouldn't know it. An evil woman who belonged to a criminal organization burned it down." Then, I gave him a little smirk. "So, you're not going to be getting any embarrassing stories about me when I was young."

His eyes widened, and a little blush covered his cheeks. "Is that why you've never joined a familia?"

I shrugged just a little. "Eh. I've had offers. But, the adventuring life just isn't for me," I told him before looking around the area. "And after the past two days, I can say that with certainty. I'll take Mia's cooking. So you can keep your dank caves and dangerous monsters, thank you."

We walked around a little bit more, and something caught Bell's eye. When I looked over to what he found, it made me frown just a little.

"Two thousand valis for a whetstone?" that smith he had recruited to his party the other day yelled as he stood at a tiny shop and glared down at the adventuring merchant sitting on the ground.

But, he wasn't the only distraction. The little thief Bell had taken pity on was with him and looking at another item that was being offered. "You want twenty thousand for this mangey backpack?" Lilly asked in a heated tone.

A second later, I was standing alone on the street when the boy ran over to them alone. "Welf, Lilly, what're you doing here?"

"Hm?" Welf said as he looked back at the boy. "Oh hey Bell, we're just getting some stuff to help with the journey back."

Rather than just be forgotten, I walked up to the two distractions. "Why are you two buying stuff like this when my friends will be taking us back up?" I asked.

The other two members of Bell's party turned around and gave me an odd look. Welf was the one who spoke. "What're you doing here?"

I gave a dejected sigh. "Well, I'm supposed to be on a date," I told them before I looked at the boy who had abandoned me the moment he saw something shiny. "Right, Bell?"

"Um…" he nervously replied.

Welf winced, and I saw Lilly become conflicted. I wasn't blind. I knew she had a bit of a crush on the boy as well. But at the same time, without the people I brought to the table, they would have all been a stain on Goliath's foot. Possessive as she was, the girl wasn't going to mess with me for one day. Tomorrow was another story, but today was mine.

"We uh…better be heading back to camp," Welf told Bell before he grabbed the girl. "Come on Lil'Bit."

Lilly gave me another look that was more adversarial than the one a moment ago, but she didn't complain after buying the small backpack and heading out.

Once they were gone, Bell turned back and looked at me. "Uh, I think I should apologize."

I sighed and shook my head. "No," I told him before leading him away from the stall by grabbing his hand. Once we got out of the way so the man couldn't gripe at us for blocking the way of nonexistent customers, I looked back at the boy. "Bell, are you interested in me at all?"

He froze and started to get a little nervous, looking away from my eyes. "Well, to be honest…there is someone else…I…"

"Yeah, I know. You have a thing for Ais Wallenstein," I told him. Then, when he looked over to me in surprise, I rolled my eyes. "I'm not blind. But I'm also not just going to sit around while a guy I like makes eyes at another girl without giving it a try."

Bell shifted his feet around a bit. "But…M-Ms Syr…I don't…"

I raised an eyebrow. Now, we were coming to the real reason I had dragged him onto this date. "What? Love me?" I asked, getting the boy's attention. He looked at me with wide eyes, and I snorted. "News flash Bell, I don't love you either. And you don't love Ais, for that matter."

"What?" he replied before giving me a little frown. "Now wait a minute-"

"Where was she born?" I asked before he could continue.

Bell stopped. "Um…"

When he couldn't answer, I went on. "Okay, why did she become an adventurer?" I asked. "That's a shared interest you have, right? Did you talk about anything like that with her?"

The question had the intended effect, and Bell turned his eyes away from me. "I um…never…asked."

"Well, you have spent time with her, right?" I asked.

That, Bell jumped on. "Yes! She trained me for a little less than a week before I leveled up!" he said. "We practiced on the wall, and she showed me things, like how to relax for a quick nap, gave me tips on how to fight, and a bunch of other things!"

I gave him a little nod as, like I hoped, I got his spirits raised up. "Okay," I said before I moved to crush them. "So, she must have asked you about things, right? Like I did, she took an interest in you on a personal level, asking about your family and stuff?"

Bell froze. "Well…um…" I could almost see his dreams shatter before he answered. "No."

I reached out and took the boy's hand gently to lead him further down the road. "Bell, I'm not going to say don't give up." It would make me sound too mean. "But, are you sure Ais is interested in you the way you are in her?"

"I…I…it's probably just because I'm only level two, and she's level six," he told me.

At that, I raised an eyebrow. "So, if I was level seven, would you be interested in me all of a sudden? My personality, appearance, likes and hobbies, they only matter if I'm a high-ranked adventurer?" I asked. But before he could answer, or even work through the confusion I saw swirling in his mind, I kept talking. "Bell, when was the first time that you became interested in Ais?"

The question helped him focus. "It was…when she saved me from the minotaur. She looked so amazing, and-"

I didn't let him finish. "So, you felt grateful," I told him before smiling a little. "I am too. You would have died and I never would have met you. And I bet she looked really cool, killing a big powerful monster you never even saw in person before. But Bell, what you're feeling, it's an infatuation. Ais, she's cool, and she's nice and a good person that's willing to help others like when she trained you. I'll one-hundred-percent agree with you on that. But that doesn't mean she's looking for a relationship with you, or anyone else."

As the boy started to get depressed and slunk down just a bit, I decided to throw him a bone. "Look, I'm not saying it's impossible that you two do get together. That's a big maybe in a future that hasn't been written. But I'm here now, trying to kindle something beyond friendship for us. Don't just throw me away for a girl that you haven't had one real conversation with, despite spending days together!"

Bell just stopped moving in front of some doorway. His eyes became unfocused, and I could see he was a million miles away. I actually felt a little bad doing this to him, but I wasn't about to have some little infatuation ruin what could be my one chance to fulfill my greatest desire. "Is there really…nothing…ther-" he said before someone coming out of the doorway nearly knocked Bell over.

The interruption shattered his train of thought, and I glared at the burly unkempt adventurer who was responsible. I had seen him before in the bar. He was a level two, but one of the 'working man' adventurers that really wasn't an adventurer at all. He didn't challenge himself, he didn't try to get into the histories, he barely even risked his life. He was just a…magic stone miner.

Still, I remembered his name was Mord.

Bell stumbled forward from the impact, and Mord turned around away from the door where I heard some other voices talking to him before he looked at what he'd done. "Huh? Wha-what the hell? What's the Little Wussie doing here?" he demanded in an angry tone.

After getting his footing back, Bell looked towards the other man. "Oh, excuse me, sir."

"What the hell do you mean, excuse me?" Mord demanded, his loud voice drawing attention from the open area of the town. "I asked you a question! What the hell is a little punk like you even doing here?"

My expression fell to one of distaste as he practically oozed anger and jealousy. That was the real problem with people like Mord. I could at least have some respect for the magic stone miners that did their jobs, cashed in their rocks, and went home to feed their families. It wasn't what a divine blessing had been made for, but they provided for others and the city as a whole. But people who hate those more successful than them simply for being more successful and without trying to use that emotion as a drive to better themselves, they quickly became scum.

When Bell simply looked at the man in confusion as the two men who followed Mord out of the establishment I sighed and stepped forward because it looked like the poor boy hadn't encountered enough people like them. As much as it turned my stomach to think about, Mord was the average kind of adventurer in Orario. A man with a little bit of power that hated anyone who climbed the ladder higher than him.

"We're going through the town, same as you, sir," I told him as respectfully as I could. Which wasn't much. My tone was so neutral that Mama Mia would have scolded me and any tips I was expecting would only be about half of what they could have amounted to.

Mord turned to look at me with a frown. "Who the hell are-hey! You're one of those bitches from the bar!" he yelled, drawing in more people to the rather circular town square as more and more people started to wander over in wonder of what was going on with this commotion.

I grit my teeth and let out a long breath through my nose to keep my expression neutral. "That's right."

"I still owe you for what happened at the pub!" he said before there was a blur of movement.

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground and stars were dancing in half my vision. I was stationary, but the world was still spinning a bit. Part of me knew that if my mortal form hadn't been based off a level one adventurer like Horn was when she got her transformation magic, that blow would have broken bones and maybe even cost me an eye. As it was, half my vision was a little wonky.

"MS SYR!" I heard Bell shout, and found myself disappointed that he had gone back to using the prefix to my name.

"Grab her!" someone, maybe Mord, yelled.

I found myself yanked back to my feet and something cold, hard, and sharp held against my cheek. It took me a second to realize it was a dagger. One of the men who came out of the bar talking to Mord had a hold of me. He was a large man with barely anything on his chest at all, just the equipment he needed to hold the shield he had strapped to his back in place.

Bell took up a fighting stance. "Let her go, right now!"

"Or what?" the man holding me said as I felt the knife slide across my skin, opening it just a little and making me wince at the pain.

Bell froze as the crowd that had grown to such a size that it now nearly filled the center of town laughed at the scene. Mord, for his part, grinned. "There's no laws down here, boy. Down here, it's survival of the fittest. Only the real adventurers get to say what happens here."

The statement just had Bell glaring at the man with an open mouth before he got control of himself. "What in the world is wrong with you?" he shouted.

"Nothing's wrong with me," Mord yelled. "You're the one that needs to be taught a lesson. Walking around like you're hot shit! Thinking you're better than everyone else because you cheated to level up so fast! Some of us work our asses off for years before we get here, and you're strutting around town with some girl on your arm like it's nothing!"

I took in a breath through my nose before getting my emotions under control. "So you blindside us, take a hostage, and threaten one of us while another has a knife to her face?" I asked evenly. "Now, put away your weapons, walk away, and this will be the end of it. If this goes any further, I will not be able to stop you from suffering rather terrible consequences."

The man holding me tensed a little from nervousness. "Uh…Mord? Maybe we should-"

"SHUT UP BITCH!" He yelled. "I'm the one in charge here, so what I say goes!"

I sighed again, in disappointment this time. Then I looked at everyone else that was gathering around. "And the rest of you?" I asked as I looked around. I didn't put much effort into the plea because I could already see that not a single one of them was going to do the right thing…except for the boy in the center.

"Now wait a minute!" someone from the crowd called out.

The voice that cut through the din of people and started quieting people down caught me by surprise. I blinked when I saw a man with only one eye and a bare chest underneath his leather vest push some people aside as he walked into the growing ring of people with an axe slung over his back. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Piss off Bors!" Mord yelled. "I'm just settling a disagreement with a fellow adventurer."

Bell cleared his throat. "Um…who are you, sir?"

Bors looked at the boy in question. "I'm the boss of this place, boy! Who're you supposed to be?"

Mord didn't give Bell a chance to answer. "He's Little Rooke, some stupid punk who cheated his way to the fastest level up, then cheated his way down here too! I'm just putting the little brat in his place!"

After a second, Bors looked at me. "And the girl?"

"Ugh! S-She's just his bitch!" Mord told him. Then, after recovering, he pointed at Bell. "Look, I got a problem with him, and I'm settling it the Rivira way!"

A cheer went up from the crowd and I got a bad feeling in my stomach when the man who was supposed to be in charge of things down here as well as the representative to the Guild got a sour look on his face. He wasn't going to be able to do anything to stop the mob.

"Two men enter! One man leaves!" Someone yelled.

I blinked. That…sounded familiar.

Several more took up the chant. "Two men enter! One man leaves!"

Oh, by the runes, I thought to myself with a groan as I slumped when people started pumping their fists along with the words.

"Two men enter! One man leaves!"

Mord laughed and nodded his head before cracking his knuckles.

"Two men enter! One man leaves!"

Bell looked around, completely confused. "Uh…"

"TWO MEN ENTER! ONE MAN LEAVES!"

"What's going on?" he yelled out.

"TWO MEN ENTER! ONE MAN LEAVES!"

Bors held up his axe, and the mob cheered for several seconds before he lowered it. "Form the square!" he called out. Then, less than a minute later, the crowd moved about and rearranged themselves so that they had turned the town square into…well, a square. "Up there, they may solve things with their words and their laws and their money. But down here, we settle things the way the gods intended, with our FISTS!"

The crowd cheered, and I sighed. Gods were makers of civilization. While we did tend to get violent more often than I would have liked, solving conflicts through communication and deals was what we were mostly about.

"Huh?" Bell said as he looked around widely. "What? I don't-WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!"

Bors gave Bell half a frown with his one good eye, but didn't stop the pageantry. "In this corner," he yelled before pointing to Bell, who was actually standing on the left side of the square between two corners. "We have Bell Cranel! Christened by the gods as the Little Rookie! Accused of insulting us all with his cheating!"

Then, Bors turned to Mord. "And in this corner, we have Mord Latro. Hailed by the gods as…uh…" The man paused and looked around for some help.

"Oh for the love of-It's Rabid Dog! You know that!" Mord yelled.

Bors cleared his throat. "Ahem. Accused of…uh…kidnapping?"

On the other side of the ring, Bell gaped at the announcement. "What do you mean, accused? Ms Syr is RIGHT THERE WITH A KNIFE TO HER FACE!" he yelled before pointing at me.

Completely ignoring the boy, Bors went back to announcing. "The two of them will settle their dispute the way that adventurers should! IN MOR-TAL KOM-BAAAAAAAAAT!"

I had to hold back a groan as all the children around me started stomping their feet and making all sorts of noises that mimicked that stupid song from long ago. As Bell was explained that if he defeated Mord, I would be let go and he would be left alone, I was left wondering how that stupid Japanese god Raiden's little pop culture ceremony was still around after Loki kicked him out of Orario.

With little else to do, I sighed in boredom as…

Wham.

POW!

CRACK!

Bell ducked under the man's first punch to land a blow to his ribs, then grabbed his wrist before striking Mord in the jaw to make him take a knee on the ground. Then, with the man's arm fully extended and held by the boy, he brought a fist down on the back of the guy's elbow, shattering the bone right at the joint.

"Ahhhhhh! My arm!" Mord yelled as he barely stopped himself from planting his face in the dirt. "He broke my arm!"

Then, Bell let out a sigh and looked over to Bors. "Can I have Ms Syr back, please?" he asked before turning his head back to Mord. "I feel kind of bad for picking on someone so weak."

The crowd stopped making noise. It was all over so fast they couldn't even finish more than a few bars of imitation music. With some of the crowd still mumbling in confusion, Bors walked up to the boy. "Uh…you got to finish him, kid."

Bell blinked and looked over to the man that was struggling to get on his feet. "Um, I think he is finished."

"No, I mean…" Bors slid a finger across his neck.

Bell just gave him a blank look. "...I don't get it."

The man with only one eye groaned. "What are they teaching you kids these days upstairs?" he groaned before becoming a little irate. "I mean you got to kill him!"

"W-Wait! I can still-" Mord managed to say before he fell on his face. From the way he was breathing, I was sure Bell had broken a few of his ribs as well.

"WHAT?" Bell yelled in indignation. "I'm not going to kill a man just because he-well, what he did was really wrong, but Syr isn't dead!"

Mord rolled onto his back and fought for breath as he pointed to Bell while Bors backed away from the boy. "See? What did I tell you? This brat looks down on us, including our sacred rites! GET HIM!"

After a short delay and some grumbling in the crowd that didn't sound good, one of the men ran in to attack Bell from behind and ended up with his nose broken when the boy with the white hair spun around to backhand him. Then, two more broke the living barrier to go after Bell, and he barely fought them off in time to take a punch to the face from another assailant. Within seconds, now that there was an opening, there were a dozen brave men on top of the boy, trying to beat him to death.

I stood frozen for a moment as I watched a mob of people attack a child for standing up for what's right. The one person among all the scum below the bottom of the earth had done the right thing, and now they were going to kill him for it.

So, I decided to stop them.

As a goddess of love and beauty, I could bend people to my will with ease. Those like me called the power Charm, because instead of outright forcing someone to obey my will, I took away their ability to dislike my commands. People under my power did what I said because they wanted more than anything to make me happy.

For hundreds of years, I had used it on anyone and everyone I came across because…that was what I did. I saw nothing wrong with it. How many millions of people were sad and empty simply because they didn't have something to give their life meaning? My very presence gave them that, and my Charm made sure they were happy serving me with all they had.

It was only until I came across a serene landscape of flowers that I realized how empty it all was. That was also when I met Mia; the Mama came later. She had found me crying over the natural beauty of the land, and when I tried to charm her…well…she punched me in the face.

I had never considered the fact that someone might not want to serve me, the Nordic Goddess of Love. At least, not any of our children. Even the original batch had all but fallen over themselves to give me everything I ever wanted by the thousands and millions.

After that, I merely enthralled men and women with my beauty and presence, which by itself was borderline mind control. Then, Mia departed from the familia and I went with her as Syr to perform an experiment. The experiment eventually failed…mostly, but what I learned while living as a mortal without the allure that got everything I wanted in the world before taught me just how important the ability to say no to a goddess of love was.

So, I only used my Charm as a supreme punishment, or in life or death instances.

Like what was going on before me.

I sucked in a breath and reached down past the false skin that covered me and to the very core of my being. Perhaps the man holding me felt a tiny bit of my presence, because he tensed and I had to move my head just a bit to keep his knife from digging into me as I spoke. "Stop this at once!"

Everyone in the town froze mid-action as the air reverberated with my divine power. Their eyes glowed a light pink to someone like me, who could perceive the power of a goddess. I pulled my arm away from the man holding me, and walked up to the frozen crowd. "Move."

All of the children cleared out of my way, and I walked through them to find the little boy laying down in the dirt. He was covered in bruises and cuts, barely conscious. I knelt down to put his head in my lap and inspected Bell to see he was barely conscious. There were broken bones, cuts that would have needed cleaning, and an eye that threatened to swell shut soon, but he was alive.

"Ms Syr?" Bell asked in a whisper.

I gently ran my hand across the beaten child's face and knocked some of the dirt out of his hair. "It's okay Bell," I told him before I sucked in more air to do the hardest part. Making these fools obey was distasteful, but twisting Bell into nothing more than a little toy sickened me. "Just forget about all of this in a minute."

With a time limit in place, I held up a hand. "Healing potions."

When I was given too many to hold from I don't know how many people, I just let the spares fall before I opened two and poured them down Bell's throat. Then I splashed one on his face to disinfect and close his wounds before I covered his eyes with a hand as the magical liquid started to take effect.

"Now," I began as I began to work up the rage that I would need for my next command. One word, and they would all die. Their hearts would stop. Their brains would rupture. A few of them might even have to slit their own throats, but if I told them to, every single child in the area around me would be dead in seconds.

It was what they deserved.

Not a single one stepped in to save Bell.

Worse, they actually tried to kill him.

My hands shook with rage at the thought of how all the trash standing around me nearly killed a child. But, if I were to order their deaths in front of him when Bell himself refused to kill the one who started all of this out of petty jealousy…

My anger built up even more, but I honored the child's wishes.

"LEAVE!" I screamed in rage at all the adventurers around me while keeping Bell's eyes covered to protect him from the command while my divine power swept over them all.

Instantly, every single person in the underground city that had gathered to watch the battle and everyone from beyond turned to run. Even Mord, who had a crippled arm that would need heavy treatment ignored his pain as he stood up to follow the mass exodus of the city. Dozens upon dozens ran as fast as they could, and because of the nature of my command, they wouldn't stop for anything until they got to the sunlight.

As the whole underground city emptied out, I looked down at my boy and blinked when I saw his wide open eyes. Then, he sat up and looked around in confusion. "M-...Syr, w-what did you do?"

I…blinked. That wasn't how things were supposed to go. "Uh, what do you-"

"And forget," Bell repeated, making me freeze. "Forget what? What did you want me to forget?"

Shock made my mouth drop. What he had just done, it wasn't possible. There was no resistance, no attempt to even fight my words, Bell had completely ignored my command!

I could barely think. "What? It? How did you?" I managed to ask before it sounded like something crashed into the floor from above and the ground beneath us started to shake. Even in my mortal form, I felt an intense aura of evil permeate the atmosphere and looked up as the crystal sun overhead broke apart in the center to release a large form from the ceiling that fell along with several crystals as the remaining ones dimmed until the cavern went from midday to late evening in luminosity.

The thing that fell with the crystals was huge, at least twice as large as the floor boss that had been defeated on our way here. Despite its massive size, it would still take several seconds to reach the ground.

Which meant we needed to run immediately. Since it was positioned to land right on top of us.