Hello everyone, and welcome back.
Well, Bell took quite the brutalisation in the last chapter, didn't he? Unfortunately for him, his pain is far from over. Indeed, his pain and struggle is just beginning as the Juggernaut remains undestroyed and its masters seek to claim Bell for their own purposes. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's jump back into the story and see what challenges and horrors await us and our heroes.
I do not own Danmachi
"NOOOOAAARRRAAAA!" Achilles roared as he charged the Juggernaut, batting away its attempt to impale him with the same claws that had impaled Bell. If anything, that enraged the Father On High to even higher levels as his son's blood still dripped on the beast's talons.
With the monster's skeletal body now open to attack, Achilles slashed down with all his terrible might, slicing through the Juggernaut's reflective armor and bone hide.
"Reeeeeaaaaaaah!" the monster screamed before swinging its tail at Achilles to force the ex-captain back. This mattered little though as the remaining adventurers, enraged by the beast's egregious sin against their friend, attacked with equal fury, setting upon the monster almost as if they were monsters themselves. All except one.
"BELL!" Ais screamed as she joined Ryuu at the water's edge.
"I don't see him. I don't see him!" Ryuu cried as she and Ais searched for the Hestia captain, only for another, pained roar, to echo through the Dungeon.
Spinning around, the Sword Princess's eyes centered on the beast that was responsible for her shrieking heart.
"You hurt my Bell. You...will…die," she hissed.
"Aaaah!" Ryuu cried as black wind erupted from Ais, sending the elf flying across the Dungeon, until Alise managed to catch her.
"Got ya!" the redhead declared before her eyes turned to the mass of gold and black shooting towards the Juggernaut. "And I thought you were scary when you were angry."
Ryuu didn't even register her words, she merely shot back towards the water's edge and continued her search.
He has to be there somewhere. He's taken wounds even worse than that and got up without so much as a whimper. He even survived Genos Angelos! He has to be alright. He has to be! she screamed in her mind. However, with each passing second, the fear in her soul grew and the icy dagger of despair plunged deeper into her heart until, at last, she screamed.
"BELL!"
Bell sank deeper and deeper as the icy water sank into his muscle and bone.
I have to…swim…I have…
His mind grew darker as more and more of his blood pumped out of his gaping wounds.
I...have...to... ...
His eyes closed as he finally lost consciousness.
A flash of blue and green glimmered in the water.
Hold on Bell, Marie thought as she bit her finger.
The mermaid's blood began to flow out of her wound and she moved her finger near Bell's wounds, which began to quickly heal.
Thank goodness, she smiled, but only for the briefest of moments as a tingle, both familiar and terrifying, crept up her spine. Masters?
Black tendrils suddenly appeared around her, making the mermaid spin around in terror. However, the tendrils of dark power had no interest in her, only the young man before her.
Bell! She mentally screamed as the tendrils launched at the adventurer and wrapped him in a cocoon-like structure which she, despite her efforts, could not crack. What's happening?
"Huh?" Bell grunted as his eyes snapped open.
He began looking around, but everything appeared dark and cloudy.
"Where am I?"
"Within your own mind."
Bell spun around and froze as what seemed like an army of shadow figures materialized before him.
"Who are all of you?" he asked, his eyes shifted and his hand moved to his side, only to find himself without his knives.
"Do not seek your weapons, Typhon, you will not find them."
"Typhon?" Bell thought back to the Juggernaut and then to the destruction of Gjallarhorn where he'd first heard that name. "Why do I keep getting called them? My name is Bell. Bell Cranel."
"That is the false name your mother gave you in the hope of hiding your true purpose and giving you a 'normal life'," Bell wanted to press the shadowy figures on that, but was prevented as they pushed forward. "Your true name is the one bestowed upon you by your loyal father. Your name is Typhon, the Key, the Great Liberator, and the Prince of Monsters."
Bell's head was spinning.
"Prince of Monsters? Liberator. Father?" he froze as he realized something. "You're the voices that told me to use the Horn!"
"Yes," the voices readily conceded, "and the fact that you not only did not, but DESTROYED the horn has earned you a most severe PUNISHMENT!"
Bell grabbed his ears as the power of their voices nearly deafened him and filled his heart with dread.
"However," Bell looked back at the figures. "We shall look past that, if but fulfill your purpose now."
Bell, still reeling from confusion and the onslaught of the mysterious figures' great power, took a moment to figure out what they meant.
"You want me to free you?"
"We do not want, but demand you free us from this accursed prison," the shadows gestured around them and he understood they meant the Dungeon. "Free us from wretched Tartarus then aid us in reclaiming the world our worthless children stole from us."
"Children?"
"The ones you call, 'gods'," the voices answered, spitting in disgust. "They are nothing but ungrateful, greedy, and violent whelps, stealing what's not theirs then rewriting history to portray themselves in a more benevolent, eternal light. Pah!"
Bell was now beginning to worry that his head was going to spin off his shoulders as the confusion dug deeper and deeper.
"I don't know what you're talking about nor do I believe I am this Typhon, you keep calling me. I am willing to hear your story and perhaps even to help you escape whatever prison you are in, but not if it means hurting Hestia, Mania, or any of my other precious friends."
"They are traitors and thieves, Typhon! Do not deny your purpose, the very reason you were created, for some sentimental feelings of tenderness you have with those liars and pleasure-seeking hedonists!"
"I don't know what happened between you and the gods, but I do know that the gods I care about are neither liars nor hedonists. I know that Hestia can be jealous, Mania can be strict, that Grandpa was a bit of a pervert…okay, a huge pervert, but he is a good man at heart. That goes for each of the gods I call friend. Each of them have their flaws, true, however…" his eyes firmed as he stared at the shadowy figures, "I will not turn on them just because you tell me they're somehow in the wrong or because you claim that it's my purpose to free you and destroy them. I decide my purpose, no one else," he finished, summoning his draconic powers to reinforce this statement.
A terrible silence fell over his mind and not since the Imperator Monstrorum had Bell felt such a horrible sense of dread.
"So you will not fulfill your mission? You shall not free us, destroy those treacherous, false gods, and restore the world to its rightful rulers?
Bell swallowed, but tightened his fists in defiance.
"Not if it means harming those I care about."
A silence so awful that Bell feared he'd vomit fell upon them, but only for a moment.
"Worthless tool."
Black tendrils shot out from the shadowy figures, piercing Bell's flesh and making him howl in anguish.
"You dare turn your back on us! Your masters! Your true family! All for those false gods and traitors who dare to claim our world! UNACCEPTABLE! WE WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH DISOBEDIENCE! YOU WILL BE PAY FOR YOUR CHILDISH INSOLEEEEEEEENNNNNCCCEE!"
The tendrils of dark energy dug deep into Bell's body, squeezing his bones and organs before a pulse of malevolent energy raced through his blood, setting his innards ablaze.
Bell screamed so loud, it shook the Dungeon.
Ais, her eyes dark as her black wind whipped around her, launched at the Juggernaut again, dodging its attempt at a counter strike, before obliterating its back right leg.
The beast cried out as it fell, then tried to back away as Ais and the other adventurers moved to finish it.
"Now…you die," Ais growled as she prepared Desperate for the final blow.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
The ground shook and the water churned as the scream reverberated through the Dungeon, making everyone, including Ais and the Juggernaut freeze.
Slowly, as the shock began to fade, all eyes turned towards the water.
"B-Bell?" Ais called as she turned away from the Juggernaut and began to head towards the water. Each step grew faster and faster, until she was sprinting across the Dungeon, her vengeance forgotten as her desperation to save her lover returned in greater force.
"Bell!" she cried as she looked into the seeming bottomless depths of the water. She wanted to jump in. To rescue him, but froze as she remembered she couldn't swim. Ais, however, was not the only one along the water's edge and the sound of rustling clothes caught her attention.
"You focused on the Juggernaut, I'll find him," Ryuu stated, her voice eerily steady, but her eyes filled the same overwhelming fear that Ais's golden orbs held.
Not waiting for a response, the Gale jumped into the water as the battle with the skeletal beast continued behind the Sword Princess.
Not since his torture at the hands of Dionysus had Bell suffered such torment. Every inch of him screamed as the tendrils of dark energy pierced his flesh and wreaked havoc on his body.
He struggled against the tendrils with all his might, but found they would not budge and, if anything, they tightened around him, increasing the already mind numbing pain he was feeling.
In desperation and rage, he called upon his draconic powers again, this time, pulling them out in the fullest, transforming him into the White Dragon again.
"RAAAAAAAAWR!" he roared as he fired a blast of magic at the shadowy figures, only for it to have no effect.
Black tendrils soon wrapped around his maw and tightened with such strength that his scales cracked.
"Foolish tool. Your power comes from us. It is our very own power that flows in your veins. Do you really think you can hurt us with it?" the figures sneered.
Your power? Bell wondered before his mind went blank again as even more tendrils pierced his flesh and bone and sent another wave of agony through his body, causing him to unleashed a muffled scream.
"You will pay for your rebelliousness, and once you are broken, you will fulfill your destiny and free us from our prison. Then…together…we shall destroy those, oh so precious 'gods' of yours and anyone who dares side with them."
Two more tendrils appeared from Bell's tormentors, however these did not attack him like the others did, but latched onto his temples and began pumping dark energy straight into his mind.
"Submit," the figures commanded as Bell's will to resist began to fade under the onslaught of monstrous energy.
Ryuu swam down further and further into the dark water. She could barely see anything, but she didn't let that stop her. She would find Bell and save him.
No matter what.
A now familiar flash of blue and green caught her eye and she turned to find a terrified Marie swimming towards her.
The mermaid grabbed her arm and tried to pull her towards the surface, but Ryuu, after getting over her surprise, pulled her arm free, forcing the Xenos to look at her.
Where's Bell? The elf mouthed.
Marie looked beyond reluctant to answer, but, after a brief fight with herself, turned and pointed.
Ryuu shifted her gaze and squinted to where the mermaid was pointing. It was hard to see in the water, but eventually the sight of what appeared to be some sort of black cocoon materialized before her.
What is that?
She turned to Marie, but the mermaid refused to meet her gaze.
Confused, but not wishing to waste any more time, Ryuu swam towards the cocoon as fast as she could.
The Gale quickly inspected the odd structure, but could not find anything to pull on or unravel. Given no other choice, she began to strike the cocoon with her fists. Failing to make any head way she pulled out a knife and began to stab the shell.
"BELL!" she screamed as best as she could through the water.
Suddenly, before she even saw it, a tendril of black energy struck her from below, sending her shooting through the water and a good 12 feet into the air, startling those not engaged with the Juggernaut.
"Ryuu!" Alise cried as she rushed to catch her friend again.
The elf fell, but was quickly caught by her best friend and returned safely to the ground.
"Are you alright?! What happened?" Alise questioned.
"I…ugh…don't know," Ryuu answered as she rubbed her chin. "Bell's wrapped up in some sort of…dark cocoon. When I tried to free him, it attacked me."
Achilles, despite being in the midst of battle, heard this and turned to the elf.
Dark cocoon? He turned towards the water as fear tightened around his heart. It can't be.
He shot across the Dungeon, ready to jump into the water and save his son. However, he would never get the chance.
"Submit. Submit. Submit to us, Typhon," the dark voices repeated over and over again.
Submit. Submit to them. I am their tool. Their key. My destiny is to free them. To free my masters. My kin. Submit, Bell repeated as his will eroded against the power of his captors.
"That's it. Submit. Become our loyal tool and free us. Together we all shall strike down the traitors and reclaim Heaven and Earth. All you need to do is sub-"
"BELL!"
Bell blinked as his mind, as if pulled from a nightmare, suddenly returned.
Ryuu?
The dark figures growled and one of the tendrils disappeared.
That was Ryuu, Bell realized and soon, remembering where he was and, more importantly, who he was, began to struggle.
"Stop…fighting us…Typhon! You will submit and fulfill your purpose!" his captors roared.
More dark power pumped into his mind, chipping at his will, but this time, Bell fought back, calling forth his rage again.
"We told you…that is our power. You cannot defeat us with it."
Bell glared at them.
This is not your power. It's mine. All its terrible strength, all its wrath. It's mine! He shot back in his mind. But it's not enough to defeat you all, he closed his eyes as he focused, that's why I need to call on everything I have.
RING
The sound of bells startled the apparitions, as did the sight of golden light flowing through Bell's veins.
"NOOOO!"
The shadows shot more tendrils at Bell, but before they could reach him, vines of green and blue energy intercepted them.
"WHAT?!" the dark figures looked down and above them. "MOTHER! FATHER! YOU WOULD BETRAY US AGAAAAAIIIINNN?!"
RING
RING
RING
As the shadows battled the green and blue tendrils, Bell continued to gather his power.
I have to give it my all. All my power, everything I am, has to go into this, he thought as his eyes turned to his mysterious captors. My name is not Typhon. It's…!
"BELL!" he roared as he broke free from his bindings.
The shadows spun back to him as the captain of the Hestia familia gathered all the power of Argonaut, Wrath of the Dragon, and Indomitable Will into his jaw and then, as the apparitions moved to recapture him, fired everything he had at them.
A beam of white, red, and gold energy shot from the water, cutting through the Dungeon like a hot knife through butter, causing the whole structure to begin collapsing.
"Everyone take cover!" Finn cried.
Most adventurers began to rush around or lift their shields with a few, such as Ottar, smashing through the massive rocks that were coming down as a result of the unrelenting beam of magic that was tearing through the Dungeon.
This is the same attack Bell used against Tiamat, Achilles recognized as dodged debris. You really are fighting the Titans.
"What the hell is going on?!" Tione cried.
"I don't know, but we need to get off this floor, now! The whole thing is collapsing!" Finn shouted back.
He wasn't wrong. Bell's attack was tearing through the very structure of the Dungeon without restraint or focus, causing the whole area to become unstable.
"Everyone get to a higher level!" Finn ordered.
Most adventurers rushed to do as ordered, but several, including Ais, Achilles, and Alfia all ignored the order and headed for the water, intent on saving Bell. However, it was Ryuu who managed to jump back into the water as the Dungeon floor began to collapse.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! TYYYPHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" the shadows screamed as Bell's power overwhelmed them and burned them away.
"My name is BELL!" the young man cried again through his attack, pouring the last of his strength into freeing himself from the prison the dark figures had made for him. With that done and his captors turned to dust, his eyes closed and he fell into true unconsciousness.
The cocoon, what was left of it, disintegrated before Ryuu's eyes as she swam as fast as she could towards her beloved captain.
Bell! She cried internally as his unconscious form appeared from the wreckage of the cocoon.
She closed the rest of the distance between them and wrapped her arm around him, intent on getting him back to the surface, but this was not to be as the structural damage he had caused finally proved too much for the Dungeon and the floor gave out beneath them.
Ryuu could only give out a muffled cry of alarm before she and Bell fell through the floor of the great labyrinth and deeper into the Dungeon, leaving behind their comrades, friends, and a wounded enemy that had slunk away in all the chaos.
The Juggernaut limped its way further and further down the Dungeon, shame and rage pulsing from its bones.
I'm sorry. I have failed you, masters.
The fight is not over, the voices called back, their voices filled with fury, but weak and distant. Your goal remains the same. Capture Typhon and bring him to us.
But how? I am not strong enough now.
You will heal in time, but you're right, you are not strong enough. Not yet. Continue devouring your brethren's stones until you are strong enough then find Typhon again. We will do what we can to keep the other adventurers away, but our power is greatly diminished due to the interference of our mother and father. As such, we will not be able to communicate with you henceforth.
Though uneasy at this news, the beast was determined to fulfill its mission.
I understand masters. I will not fail you again, the Juggernaut vowed.
You must not fail us again. Our freedom and the fate of all creation depends on you capturing the key. Go now. Grow stronger and then gain your redemption and our revenge.
With that, the voices fell silent.
I will make you pay for your treachery, Typhon. You and all those adventurers who protected you.
With that, the Juggernaut continued down into the Dungeon. Soon, it would find its first prey and begin to regrow its strength.
Doneso.
Okay, a pretty quick chapter here, one of the quickest I've ever written, in fact, but a pretty action-packed one. Perhaps more interestingly, Bell has met the Titans, even if he doesn't know who they are yet. The mystery is slowly unraveling for both us and the characters.
Anywho, what did you guys think? Did you like the shorter chapter? Do you prefer the longer ones? Think my version of the Juggernaut arc isn't nearly as cool as the original? Share all your thoughts in the reviews.
With that, I will bid you all a fine farewell and another Happy New Year. So, until next time, bye for now.