36 Chapter 35: A Way Back

"Loki, Finn and everyone. Did you all survive the destruction of Orario? Where is this place? Did you rebuild a new base outside of Orario?" Ray asked.

Riveria, Finn, Loki and Ais stare at Ray with a questioning look.

"How did you know our names?" Loki asked first, and it seems like that Ray knowing their names is more important than the fact that Ray just told her Orario was destroyed.

"No no no Loki-sama, you totally missed the main point here. What do you mean that Orario was destroyed!" Riveria ask her own question.

Ray however is feeling confused on why they reacted like this. Only a few seconds later Ray was able to figure out the reason. This world might be Danmachi but it could be another Danmachi of another world branch where he never came to the world.

Ray wanted to create an excuse but his brain is excruciatingly slow. He basically looks dazed like he was daydreaming while his brain is working overtime to form an excuse. His brain cannot keep up and his heart literally bursts the vein in his head, trying to keep up with the increasing oxygen demand of his brain.

A sharp headache assaulted his head which caused Ray to cringed and massaging his head to soothe the pain. Ray didn't know that he was drugged by Flora and he assumed his situation is suffering similar cases like his body.

He knew that he messed up because he didn't take precautions to confirm his surroundings first before blurting out sensitive information. However, with Loki's curiosity, there is no way she will let him go without getting all the information she wanted and Ray has no ability to resist given his current situation.

He should just confess the truth and they probably take him as an insane man's rambling. But, he didn't do that and chose to run instead even when there is no reason for him to do so. Perhaps out of defiance as Campione would and should when dealing with god. He instinctively refuses to cooperate with a god which he is usually able to control, but now, he simply didn't have the luxury of it.

He used Quickening rank EX to turn into a mist and reappeared dozens of meters away through the door since the room didn't have a window. He used it several more times until both his stamina and mana hit rock bottom.

He takes out the Hades Cap of Invisibility to hide himself from the eyes of his searcher. In the meantime, he quickly rummages GoB and finds any elixir or potions that can heal his depleted mana and stamina. Only after that he continued to move away from the eyes of people and especially the one on top of Babel tower.

The Loki familia mobilise all its members to search for Ray and leave no stone unturned. Yet still failed to find the escaped person. When Bete found his trail of scent, it ended on the first floor of the dungeon before they hit a dead end.

The mysterious information told by Ray remained unsolved and definitely caught the attention of Ouranos.

…

(1 month later)

Ray had recovered back to his normal strength. He roamed the dungeon and avoided the surface. If the Tartarus and Eros can feel him, there is a 100% chance they could be here too.

He feels very guilty for the destruction and death of many innocent people because of him last time. He isn't going to let it happen again. Thus he survived solely in the dungeon. Food was never a problem for him with GoB but the nature of most of his power meant that the dungeon could feel him and think of him as a god.

After learning it the hard way with 3 Juggernaut sent after his ass, Ray definitely will not use any abilities that have divine power or antagonize the dungeon.

All of his skills render unusable other than UBW and other normal skills unless he wants to meet Juggernaut again. The three Juggernaut last time lowered the traffic into the dungeon to near halt only high class adventurers were allowed to enter and investigate. One of them is Bete Loga.

Ray was thankful to the Cap of Hades which saved him from all those investigators and Juggernauts. However his smell isn't covered by the Cap of Hades and Bete almost caught him but he escaped deeper into Great Fall or floor 25 where water covered every corner of that floor and provided coverage to his scent. Most monsters cannot perceive him anyway which allows him to relax as long as he has Cap of Hades on.

While he is in the dungeon, he doesn't stay idle and continues to raise his levels and gain exilia. He managed to level up himself by stimulating his divine power to raise his level but he also attracted Juggernaut by doing so. Due to that, Ray will travel to floor 35+ where no adventurer will ever venture into unless in a big group. He will level up there before playing hide and seek with the Juggernaut using Cap of Hades.

While he continues to prowl the dungeon, he slain Amphisbaena, the monster rex of floor 27 that happens to respawn in an interval of a month.

He also met the Xenos trafficker Ikelos familia. There isn't any mercy reserved to them when Ray silently waits and slaughters them in one swoop using his restricted power that triggers the Juggernaut spawning. During the chaos, Ray freed those Xenos before leading the Juggernaut into the man-made dungeon, Knossos.

Knossos is an artificial underground labyrinth which connects the dungeon and Daedalus Street, effectively serving as a second entrance to the dungeon. Knossos isn't within Ouranos' protection to prevent the monster from escaping the dungeon. The effect of Ray bringing a level 5 equivalent monster rex caused pandemonium in Daedalus street when the previous 1 Juggernaut now is 5 Juggernaut.

The dungeon probably felt that Ray didn't immediately escape as usual using Cap of Hades and decided to end it once and for all. The dungeon spawns 4 more Juggernaut to pursue Ray.

Ray cannot just escape again because the Juggernaut is basically on the surface and there is nothing that will stop them from rampaging on the surface. Ray decided to take responsibility for his actions this time.

Since Knossos is outside of the Dungeon now, he is free to use his other powers without the dungeon dropping more Juggernaut on him. Even if it did, the path that connected the real dungeon to Knossos had already been destroyed and caved in.

That night, the whole Orario saw powerful lightning bombarded the Daedalus street with apocalyptic might. Many temporarily turn blind and deaf when lightning strikes. The remains of the battlefield are 5 large chunks of Juggernaut's magic core inside a crater.

…

While many are still distracted by the 'firework' I created when killing the Juggernauts using the divine weapon, Master Bolt. I hurriedly returned to the dungeon before troublesome gods detected me.

When I was about to pass through the entrance between Babel tower and the dungeon, I was repelled by a great force that threw me several meters into the air and landed near some who were sitting on a bench.

"Yo, Ray. Nice to meet you again."

"Loki" I sigh in exasperation as I utter the redhead goddess' name.

"Glad you remember my name. Though, you are under arrest by Ouranos' decree." She said while having a foxy grin on her face.

"Shit" I cursed out as Ouranos allowed the gods of Orario to temporarily use Arcanum just to apprehend him.

…

After a while, I was dragged into the hidden room in the guild where Ouranos is, like a medieval criminal. Around me are a few gods like Loki, Ganesha, Hephaestus and Hermes.

For the latter one, I know he isn't the same god from Campione world, however my instinct being an instinct instead of intellect, categories them as the same thing. Thus, my beastial instinct enhanced by my Campione perk now keeps flaring killing intent at Hermes. This increases the tension in the room and I have to actively suppress myself from pouncing on Hermes.

The gods didn't seem to join in to participate in the incoming interrogation but each of them are holding some kind of weapon except Hephaestus that is powering the chain that chained me down.

"Before we start, anything spoken in this room will stay in this room." Ouranos stated and the other gods nodded.

"Then, answer me otherworlder. Previously you were weakened and I couldn't notice it but now I definitely can feel you are foreign to this world. Even the scent of cosmos is ever present on you, more than simply entangled by one. Are you a threat to Orario and this world?"

"No" I answered quickly but calmly.

"Hmn, I see. Hephaestus, you can remove the binding now."

Hephaestus immediately dismissed the chain before joining the other gods at the side.

"Then, answer me again child, why are you avoiding us and choose to wander in the dungeon instead."

I had decided that Ouranos is trustable since he simply has no motives or any ambition unlike the other gods. He simply is an impartial ruler that puts down rules for the gods and prevents monsters from reaching the surface using his divine power. If there is anyone that can help his situation then it's definitely Ouranos.

He asks Ouranos if they can talk this just between themselves and Ouranos agrees and dismisses the other gods. Loki and Hermes are unwilling to leave but leave after Ouranos asks them to the second time.

When it was just the two of us, I explained to Ouranos that I am a person traveling from another world and stopped in Orario for sometime but my presence was detected by Tartarus and Eros who soon proceeded to attack me which resulted in the destruction of the mortal world.

Ouranos surprisingly just believed my words when gods were unable to determine if I lied or not after becoming a Campione.

Then I continue with the part when I fled Danmachi to another world but there, the god of that world kidnapped my lover which caused me to fight the gods there and then that led to the present time.

"I see…" Ouranos nodded and thought something in his mind.

"Then I assume that you will leave this world immediately if allowed or assisted?"

"Yes, undoubtedly I will leave immediately to reunite with people."

"Then let me present you a choice then, Ray. I will assist you to leave this world and obscure your presence from other troublesome gods that will target you. However, I require you to complete a task for me."

"May I hear what the task entails?"

Ouranos then explains that there is a dangerous monster called Antares that is sealed in a ruin somewhere. He needs my help to vanquish that monster since I told him that I killed god in Campione world.

This task is the Artemis side story in Danmachi the Arrow of Orion. This should be quite easy of a job for me, a piece of cake when considering my skill set. The only reason Ouranos wants me to do this instead of this world's Bell Cranel is because there is significant lower risk if I am the one handling the task.

According to the original canon, the only thing that can kill Antares is the spear or very large arrow called Orion, They Who Pierced. The arrow is a god killing weapon of the Danmachi world but using it to kill Antares will inevitably kill Artemis too since real Artemis is already being devoured by Antares.

"I will complete this task." I finally answered back to Ouranos after much thought.

"Great, I will await your success." Ouranos said before the meeting was adjourned.

—————

2k words

(Sorry it's very slow and short. Got too focused on the new one but this one isn't dead yet. I have to pirate the Arrow of Orion movie and watch it again to get an idea what I am writing.

I was confused about the Arrow Orion, how does that Arrow appear? Did Artemis create it just to kill Antares? But she was devoured by Antares. Perhaps she managed to split away from her body and form the Arrow when Antares devoured her?)

(Almost forgotten, snag Artemis or not?)

Yes

No