Hello, everyone, I hope all is good and well with you so far.
First things first, some review answers!
CrazyMax1: Well, either you are a prophet or lucky, but your wish came true within the hour because I had that planned anyway. But thank you for your contribution to ideas!
For'Sleep 3rd: Yes, but some of the strength was sapped away as to ensure Kaida still falls within the realms and logics of the world. Hence why her DF powers are gone. However, there are other strengths to her yet to be revealed.
Hahal: And you would be right for almost every case, but when a transcendental being with power over all reality decides to change the rules once or twice, exceptions happen. Kaida was given that exception by the deity. This was decided in order to be able to gouge her strength compared to the known cast of Danmachi. However, Level and Stats are not all there is to it, and even with the status decidedly revealed like this, she still packs more of a punch than it shows.
Nikkless: A pity indeed, but Kaido at 100% strength would solo the entire world and thats a bit too boring. It was an entertainment choice to nerf her somewhat, I hope you understand!
Now that the reviews with questions have been answered, enjoy the reading my dear... well, readers!
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Monsters, Gods with Arcanum etc. talking"
Premise:
Some time passes since the reform was accepted and Kaida is given her first proper challenge: Making sense of everything that she is and has done in front of journalists
Ever since the fated day where Kaida managed to gain an audience with Kali and pass her reform with successful argumentation, 4 months had gone by. 4 months of slow but very deliberate and strategically sound changes to the overall militant structure of Telskyura to ensure no more traumatized youths have to kill each others before they even learn the alphabet. A step forward in terms of modern morality, as far as Kaida was concerned, and a big step at that, but one that was necessary in her eyes.
Currently, she was sitting in the VIP booth of the Arena alongside Kali and the Kalif sisters, observing a training curriculum proposed by Kaida amongst new recruits who were freshly taken in for this new approach, this new doctrine to the path of strength. The reason why every important person was watching was because they wanted to see for themselves if this truly gave better results or not. Basically to judge if they are going to regret this or not. A common thing amongst all types of investments.
However, there was one thing that was different for Bache and Argana, which was they had their eyes entirely closed. As for why...
"You sense it?" Kaida asked the two sisters while smirking ever so slightly while eyeing the recruits, using her Observation Haki to gouge their emotional states and their current moods.
"Indeed" Bache conceded and smiled lightly herself. "Happiness. Much of it. These children are happy to do this given the alternative, and it fills them with motivation to show results. Most of them are at their limits, but push past it for your sake"
"Heh, sentimental crap turned not so useless after all" Argana chimed in with her cocky tone, clearly much less jovial about it.
The context was that Kaida had taught the sisters the basics of Observation Haki and was using this as a means to gouge how far they have come by having them make observations using only their Haki. Haki was learnable by anyone, after all, something that applied to this world too she found out. Whether that is blessing or curse remains to be seen. But one thing was certain, the Kalif sisters were both decently talented at it, as they got the basics down in just a few months.
"People seriously sleep on how talented these two are simply because they are not in orario. Ridiculous" Kaida thought to herself before slowly clapping her hands together. "ENOUGH. You have shown promise. Take a 15 minute break before we resume. Drink lots of water, and avoid laying down" She instructed, allowing the youths to rest for a bit and recover some of their endurance and strength. After all, they had been at it the entire morning, and based on the suns position, it was noon by now. 6 hours of rigorous training was bound to create results, however, and 6 more hours will certainly contribute some more.
"Can't wait to update their falnas today, huh Kali?" Kaida questioned, seeing her goddess being positively giddy in her seat, shaking back and forth impatiently like a child high on sugar ready to run the zoomies. "You know you still have a few hours of wait, right?"
"Waah i don't care! I can feel it through the connection of the falna! Your method works!"
Indeed, Kali had ended up revealing something to Kaida that was a big shocker to her. The Gods could, if they choose so, amplify their connection to the Falna they have given and engage in something that is equivalent to communication with it to gouge information. Normally this connection is very mild and passive, mostly allowing to sense simply whether or not the bearer was still alive and their general location, but deepening the connection was capable of remote scouting for progression and accurate pinpointing of the location. However, doing so is risky because it requires the use of a smidge of arcanum, not enough to rile up the dungeon, but it was still a forbidden act so Kali had to ask Ouranos for permission via Divine Mirror, which was like a two-way transmission, and luckily he granted it to her, but with limited use per week.
"Also, Kaida, should you not be getting ready? Pretty sure all those maggots outside are getting restless and close to storming this place" The Goddess voiced, refering to a large crowd that was gathered outside the colliseum. A crowd of journalists and people all over the world who wanted answers.
In the months, news of Argana's one hit defeat leaked past Telskyura's borders along with the reform and word traveled across the entirety of the Lower World, reaching every civilized corner. This in turn spurned a large outrage of curiosity and desire for answers, so many familias sent someone out to gather answers, journalists and guild workers went to ensure protocol was not being breached and nothing too extraordinarily illegal occured and some dumb fools had the iron brass balls to try and recruit her in front of Kali, something the goddess did not take too well.
And Kaida had to meet all those people.
Today.
In a few minutes.
With a defeated sigh and a heavy weight that was almost visible to the eye, she got up from her seat and turned towards the exit of the VIP corner within the Arena, going down the intricate, lengthy path of stairs until she was down at the ground level, and later on exited said Arena. She made the way towards where the press conference would be held, which was within Kali's royal palace at the entrance.
A crowd had already formed, most consisting of informants and journalists working for either the guild or news distributing familias like Hermes Familia. Kaida recognized one of Hermes' people, because the blue hair and glasses combined with pointy elf ears were a dead giveaway. "Andromeda herself, huh?" She wondered in her mind before she approached the crowd. In a flash, she was surrounded by the people bombarding her with questions left and right, questions she ignored at first and raised her hand in an open palm gesture to signal them to stop.
"Calm down, everyone. I am not going anywhere" Kaida spoke and finished going up past the crowd to an improvised podium, onto which she climbed onto so she stood before the crowd in an elevated position. "Now, one question at a time"
Despite her clear order, people shouted their questions out in a hurry, hoping to be picked out.
Kaida pointed at Andromeda first, curious to see what her approach would be. The bluenette fixed her glasses and readied a block of paper and a pen. "Miss Kaida, what is your current level?"
"Given I see a few gods in the crowd, they should confirm what I am about to say to be the truth" Kaida started and leaned forward slightly, arms crossed over her bountiful chest. "Level 8 with all stats in the S range."
The crowd was silent for a few moment, waiting for any of the mentioned gods to call her out for bullshit, but nothing. If anything, said gods looked the most dumbstruck because Kaida had said the truth and that was even harder to believe than the possibility of a lie. Eventually, the truth of the silence sunk in and everyone exploded with questions. "How did you get so strong!?" "Were you secretly in Orario before?" "Have you cheated the Falna?" And other questions rained like straight out of a gatling with how rapid it was.
Kaida shut the crowd up with a clap aimed upwards, a clap of such force it created a sonic boom in the immediate vicinity and gave everyone a few seconds of the worst non-painful Tinnitus ever. "I told you, ONE AT A TIME!"
The crowd obeyed, mostly out of fear this time, because Kaida just showed a rather violent tendency to enforce her will and that always brings about fear. "M-Miss Kaida... how did you become so strong...?"
"This body... it has gone through unspeakable hells. I am talking attempted suicide, death penalties, one man wars against armies numbering tens of thousands... It has gone so far that there was even a legend about it. On Land, Air or Sea, if it is a one on one, Kaido will win" Kaida recalls the memories of Kaido's life that were given to her as part of the know-how of her body's abilities and history, and responded to it, careful to talk in third person with her body as the subject to evade any possibility of lying, since it was Kaido's body, but not Ashrah the occupant of the body, that went through these trials. So she spoke the truth as technically accurate as possible.
And indeed, the gods were once again dumbfounded beyond words, and the same reaction of silence followed by an explosive overreaction followed again. "What do you mean by Suicide attempts?" "How many wars did you fight?" "Did you solo all of Telskyura too?"
"SILENCE!" Kaida shouted, reminding the crowd once again of her temper. "By Suicide Attempts, I mean just that. Leaps from tens of thousands of feet in height, a dive into an active volcano. As well as voluntary death penalties. Hanging, Impaling, Beheading via Guillotine... everything, really. But no matter what, this body always persisted, continued and grew until it became what it is" She voiced, sounding halfway proud and somber about it.
Kaido was a rather tragic character all things considered. So bored and tired of living he sought immoral methods to create enemies in the vain hope they would defeat him, and the cruelty he more than willingly committed for the sake of his lone ambition. To Ashrah, the human person who now occupies his genderbent body, it was a tale of depression in all the worst ways, the desperation and the lengths people will go to for the sake of escaping it. Many others might just think Kaido a cruel beast, but Ashrah had a glimmer of sympathy for him.
That however went lost on everyone... except Andromeda, who picked up Kaida's somberness with a raised eyebrow, noting it down on her block of paper before putting it away.
Then, one question came that everyone wanted to ask, but no one dared to for the potential consequences it may have. But one brave soul, a no-name journalist from outside Orario spoke it. "If you are Level 8, aren't you the strongest now?"
This question was terrifying for a number of reasons. The strongest of this generation was Ottarl, captain of the Freya Familia, a Boaz (Bear Anthropomorph) of very muscular and tall stature mostly known for a one-bladed Two-hander shaped like a Shark Fin. Further underlined was his status as strongest by his adventurer-epiphet, which is often translated either as 'King' or 'Warlord'.
"Heh, maybe I am" Kaida started with a toothy grin, uncrossing her arms and placing them against the podium, leaning forward. "Ottarl currently holds the title, but I have no intention of taking it from him. However, if he wants to fight me to affirm his status as the strongest, I say let him! Come, 'Warlord' Ottarl, if you need to prove to yourself that you are the ruler of Adventurers, I am right here! Or wait for me to come to you, as one day, soon, within the year even, I will come to Orario!"
The announcement gripped everyone tightly. Anxiety but also excitement swelled in everyone, so eager to see the outcome, yet also fearful for the collateral, the sheer range of the fight, and the potential of being held accountable by Freya for provoking it to begin with.
Nobody knew what would come out of their clash. Status wise, Kaida would prevail, but Ottarl is a seasoned veteran with decades of experience, and he could win through wit and grit.
Cassandra was shaking and shivering in her sleep, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead as she had a nightmare about a new vision
Beware the Queen of Beasts! Know your sacrifice, woe your ambition.
Kneel and submit or face destruction.
Know your enemy, know yourself,
for you shall-
"Oi..." Suddenly sounded within Cassandra's mind and the vision, which were usually only fleeting, unclear images, became a very clear visage of Kaida, turning towards her with an angered expression. "Who said you could look into my future?" Kaida spoke and reached an arm out towards the point of view Cassandra's imagery had.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Cassandra awoke with a scream for dear life, shaking and hugging her pillow.
"Wha-!" Daphne, sleeping in the bed next to her, awoke due to the scare of the scream. She quickly shot up and took her rapier, thinking something terrible, but only saw Cassandra in the room with her. "Cassa-" she began, but stopped, seeing the sorry state Cassandra was reduced to. She hugged her knees to her chest, she was wiggling back and forth and seemed almost catatonic, looking ahead with no reaction at all and only whispering "The dragon is coming, the dragon is coming..."