Home Sweet Home
Shout out to my new Patrons:
tomakin flashian
Snir Revach
TheHealerOfPleasure
Germayne Martinez
Jazper Hemsath
Victor Weismann
You're all bloody legends!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~I showed you~
~I'm growing~
~The ashes~
~Fall slowly~
~As your voice~
~Consoles me~
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(General POV)
"Finally that's done." Steve said as he walked out of the guild and stretched his arms. "Who knew reporting on a new monster alone takes so much time, let alone two? Oh well, time to head home I guess."
Bathsheba who had been resting with her head on her paws outside the guild got up and shook her head a bit to wear off the fatigue before falling in line with her Papa's footsteps.
"I wonder how Ptah has been since I've been gone?" Steve wondered. "I really hope he hasn't been working on his terrible statues again."
Bathsheba grunted.
"Yeah, I think so too. Considering how weirdly obsessed he is with those abominations, it's more than likely he's blown all the money I left with him on new materials. But the again, it always best to assume good of people until proven otherwise. So let's just wait until we get home to cast our verdict shall we?"
The two crossed out of the guild street into the main street and began heading south east of the city where the grotto was located. As the two were passing by a set of taverns, there came a cry of 'Thief!' in a woman's voice from a turning right in front of them. Steve could hear hurried paddings of footsteps before a man rounded the corner, not expecting to see Steve right in front of him.
The vagabond smashed right into Steve's armour, feeling like he had run into a wall of steel as Steve did not even move from his place. A white pouch of money flew from his hands as they flew to grasp his smashed, bleeding noise and he fell onto his arse yelling in pain.
Taking a closer look, Steve saw that it was not really a man. To be more accurate, it was some kind of beastman, if he had to guess some sort of dog one. The guy looked up at Steve enraged.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" He shouted.
"I don't know. Aren't you at fault for not looking where you're going?" Steve asked. "You know, when you turn a corner, to be on the safe side you have to do it on the outside of the turn. Not the inside, because then you won't have nearly as enough time to react when someone just happens to be walking in the opposite direction. As evident by what just happened."
"The hell are you yapping about?" The guy growled before they both heard an even lighter pattering of feet headed their way from the same turning and the guy got up in a panic. He snatched up the pouch from the ground and withdrew a knife. The sight of this instantly set Bathsheba growling, making the whole street rumble with her threats as her hackles raised at the dog pointing a weapon at her papa.
The vagrant stumbled back a bit, apparently being so out of it in his pain or his hurry, he hadn't noticed a wolf about the size of a small elephant standing behind Steve. He took off running in the opposite direction but he did not go five steps before he felt a metal hands grab the hair on the back of his neck, right where the hairline met the nape and lift him up effortlessly, just in time as a girl slid round the corner.
There she saw the thief who had stolen her money, hoisted up in the air by an armoured stranger who was glowing with a peculiar light and a large black wolf behind him. She stumbled back a little bit in slight shock at seeing the animal, but the presence of the armoured man outweighed that of the animal, and clearly he had apprehended the criminal. So she decided to offer her thanks.
"Thank you very much, kind sir."
Steve who had been staring up at the the idiot in his hands was in the middle of wrenching the knife from his hands (breaking a few of the man's fingers while doing so). He'd noticed when she rounded the corner but held off greeting her until he secured the weapon. Hearing her thank him, he turned his head in her direction.
"No problem, I've got...him..." Steve trailed off as he got a good look at the girl in front of him.
As it was soon to be evening and it was starting to get a little chilly, she was wearing a cloak. But seeing the iconic uniform and the exact depiction from the anime, it could not be mistaken who this girl was.
A green waiter's dress with a white apron thrown over it, black legging type of trousers and female workers boots on. A head of grey hair with the same coloured eyes, and an overall cute face that had the image of not so much a pretty girl but one that leaned more on the adorable side, like the face of a child on a woman. Yet even in that, there was some unseen, unmistakable erotic charm that felt alluring, off-putting and more importantly to Steve, warning. Warning because he knew who this girl was.
"Thank you." She said again. "He was resting up against wall looking sick. When I went to go check what's wrong, he sprung up and snatched the pouch from my belt and ran away."
"...Well I've got his knife now, and your property is in his other hand I believe. Just take it from him."
The girl nodded in thanks and tried to pull the pouch out of the guy's hand. When the dog man refused to relinquish it, Steve harshly twisted the hair he was holding him by and the man loosened his grip while screaming in pain, allowing the girl to safely take the pouch back from him.
"Why would you even walk up to a guy dressed like this, slumped in the middle of the street?" Steve couldn't help but ask.
"He's one of the semi-regular customer's at the pub I work in." The girl explained. "So I couldn't help myself but to check on him since I've served him personally several times before."
"...Pub?" Steve said, deciding to play along after he spent about a minute's worth of contemplation with his accelerated thinking in about a single moment. He decided to play along for now.
"Yes, the pub." The girl pointed opposite them to a road that split off from the main road. "Right down there. It's called the Hostess of Fertility...Benevolent Mistress by some but the previous name is what's written on the sign. Don't tell me you haven't heard of it before."
"Well I'm still fairly new to Orario." Steve said, making sure to avoid saying no, just in case this girl was actually who he thought it was. Lies would only make her suspicious. But he didn't want to say yes either because...well, just because.
So he took another route of reply.
"You are?" The girl questioned as she looked at his armour. "Are you an adventurer perhaps?"
"Wasn't it obvious?"
"I doubt you could be new to Orario with such a fine set of adventurer's gear like that." She said suggestively, like he was making it up but she already knew it wasn't the case. "Trust me, I serve adventurers all the time and what you have right now, could take years of saving up to buy it."
"Last time I checked, we were complete strangers." Steve said. "I wouldn't go around necessarily telling my life story to a stranger now would I?...not to mention your prying is not all too polite Miss..."
The girl blinked for a moment, confused before realization lit up her face and she put a hand to her forehead.
"Oh right! We haven't introduced ourselves. Okay, my name is Syr Flover." Syr bowed a little. "I'm a waitress at the Hostess of Fertility. "She held out both her hands, as if asking for a hand shake with just one of his hands.
"Sweetheart." Steve said to Bathsheba. "Hold this please." He tossed the man over to her and the giant wolf captured the man's entire body in her jaw and the dog man screamed in terror as Bathsheba applied the slightest bit of pressure and her sharp teeth dug into his skin.
Steve shook her hands with his right one. "Stephen Hewer. And as we've already established, I guess...I'm an adventurer."
"Pleasure to meet you Stephen." Syr smiled while shaking his hand as she looked over at Bathsheba treating the dog man a little bit like a chew toy a little timidly. "Er, you have a...f-friendly companion over there. Is she a wolf?"
"Yes, kind of." Bathsheba growled at him in indignation. "Okay, calm down girl. She's a Warg, a superior species of wolf." He looked back at his mount. "You happy now?"
"Well, she seems friendly enough." Syr smiled nervously before she fixated on him. He noticed her eyes were fixed on his chest mostly and her eyes squinted ever so slightly before a look of confusion appeared on her face. Her eyes travelled upwards until they reached his face, and her eyes widened as he saw her eyes rested not on his own, but a little ways above them.
"Something on my face, Miss Syr?"
She snapped out of her trance. "Oh no, no of course not. It's just...I've never seen anybody like you around here before. May I ask where you are from? If that is okay with you of course."
"I lived in a desert country about half my life." Steve said. "So if I'm a little darker than most people around, accredit it to that."
"Yes, sure." She said, her eyes still not coming away from his forehead. "Oh, I should repay you for helping me out here!"
"Unnecessary." Steve said. "I'm going home anyways."
"No, I insist." Syr gripped his arm. "Mama Mia would yell at me if I didn't bring another potential customer to the pub."
"What?"
"Nothing. Come to the pub tonight. We've heard that the Loki Familia have just recently come back from their most recent expedition and they always come to our pub to celebrate. So we'll be cooking up a storm of food. Come to the Hostess tonight and I'll serve you personally."
"Not much of a payment since I'd still have to pay for the food." Steve pulled his hand out of her grasp. "Thanks for the offer." He turned and began walking away.
"It'll all be on me." Syr said, making him stop in his tracks. "Come on, it's the least I can do."
"...They say there's no such thing as a free lunch." Steve said. "But any man would be mad to refuse a free dinner." He turned again to smile at her. "Sure, I'll see if I can pop by, depending on my god's mood."
"It's sorted then." Syr crossed over the street into the one leading up to the hostess while waving back. "I'm running late now. We'll get to know each other better later okay. Remember, you promised." She disappeared into the West street.
Steve lazily waved a hand as Bathsheba strolled up to him and snorted again with the vagrant still in her mouth.
"No Bathsheba. That one is not what she appears to be. Be careful around her."
'whine'
"I said no. Yes, I accepted her offer because I'm fairly certain I can hold myself against anything she tries to do. But you don't have the same protections I do and she does as she pleases. I don't want you falling victim to any of her games. So steer clear of her. And by the way, spit that out."
Bathsheba dropped the thief from her mouth and before the man could make any nose, Steve's boot stamped on his head, burying his face in the stone and knocking him.
"Not our problem anymore." Steve said. "Come on, let's go. We've been held up enough already." They walked for a bit before Steve realised. "Hang on a minute. I swear that woman is always guarded closely at all times. How would a thief have been able to take anything from her at all? Have we...were we...set up?"
---
(??? POV)
From behind the wall, grey eyes watched him leave as briefly, a purple sheen sparkled over them. She could not understand what she was seeing. All living things had a soul, and given her history, she was an expert when it came to seeing them and judging them for who their bearers were on the basis of the image of their souls.
The soul would always fill the vessel with its presence but its point of origin would always be the chest, nearest to the heart which served to pump life throughout the body. But that was not the case for this stranger she saw. Momentarily she had assumed that he had no soul because the space in his chest was empty even though she could see some sort of presence. Following along the wispy trails, she had found that instead of the soul's point of origin being in his chest, instead it was somewhere else.
Inside his head.
And for the life of her, she could not figure out what that soul looked like. It was an array of far too many colours and images that it had left her in a daze long enough for him to notice her acting weird, which was very unbefitting of her. She was very careful with how she observed people.
But his soul had been a whole jumble of things at once, confined in such a tiny space in his head that she had to focus to be able to see anything proper and had only just started to make some things out before he distracted her. Even now she still couldn't tell what she was seeing. Only that colours of all kinds plus colours she'd never seen before were assaulting her eyes with bright light each.
She'd have to spend more time in an opportune moment to make out what she was witnessing, and see what she was to do with him. He did not carry the presence of any beginner adventurer even if he was truthful in saying he was new to Orario. It always was good to keep track of any powerful outsiders, just in case they were remnants from the Familia of her old rivals and tormentors, Zeus and Hera, cursed they both be.
Taking their children for her own was a way to one up those backwards crones, and she took much pleasure in doing so. Of course, that was only a small part of her interest with this new sudden specimen she'd bumped into. She couldn't wait to see what more she could find out of him...and to unravel the mysteries of his soul that was blinding her so much...followed of course by trying to see if she could take him for herself should he prove worthwhile.
Or should he prove to be something even more precious.
---
"Ptah!" Steve called as he pushed the heavy door open to the grotto. "I'm back!"
He stopped dead in the doorway as he was greeted by the sight he did not want to see. Dozens upon dozens of statues lined up in rows in the lobby area. Except this time...they were not so bad. In fact, they were quite decent, looking more like actual people than horrific alien abominations. Steve turned his head to the far doorway as Ptah came strolling in with another statue heaved on his shoulder.
The Egyptian god caught sight of him and stopped.
"Oh, hey Steve. I thought you were coming today, but what took you so long?"
Steve didn't answer as he surveyed the room again.
"What...happened here?"
"What do you think? I stocked up on new products."
"Where do you even get the materials?"
"I have my resources." Ptah said as he set the heavy statue down with a thud. It was surprising how a body that small could uphold such a heavy statue. Ptah rubbed his hands as he looked over his new batch. "So what do you think?"
"...I'm not happy you broke our agreement on no more statues...but I have to say they're much better right now."
"Unbelievable." Ptah said as he rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I have to dial back on my skill just because your feeble minds cannot comprehend true beauty, and I'm forced to make dissatisfactory pieces which is apparently appealing."
"It's nothing to do with you being on some other level of intellect Ptah. But anyway, enough of that. I've just come back from my dive and I want to sleep in a proper bed again."
"How'd it go by the way?" Ptah asked as Steve walked past him.
"Really well. I reached floor 50." Steve said as he opened the door.
"Oh right, floor 50." Ptah nodded and looked away before shaking his head, rethinking over and then realizing what he heard. "WAIT! FLOOR 50!"
"Yep. Don't make me say it twice."
"And you're okay?"
"I was with people alright. I joined another Familia on their expedition. I'm confident I could have gotten down there by myself, but I couldn't help but tag along with them."
"Really?" Ptah raised a brow. "You didn't strike me as the type."
"The type of what? What type?"
"Nothing. So whose Familia did you link up with?" Ptah asked.
"The Loki Familia."
Ptah scowled and looked away with a huff. "Of course, it had to be the washboard." Ptah grunted. "Who else's Familia would it be?"
Steve looked at him confused. "Sooo...do you two know each other?"
"Know each other?" Ptah asked rhetorically. "I would say that it's a little more than that."
"How?"
"Oh you don't want to know." Ptah grumbled as he folded his arms and scowled at ceiling as he reminisced old times. "But I assure you whatever it was, she was the one to start it. Her with her constant pranks and her pesky pets. If I hadn't raised my voice when I did..." Ptah looked back at Steve. "...then Evilus would probably have had another goddess on their side."
---
(Twilight Manor - Loki Familia Home)
Finn, Riveria and Gareth all sat around the table in Finn's office as their eyes went wide, glossing over every fine detail in the compiled report they'd just made. Their goddess, Loki was sat on top of Finn's desk, swinging her legs back and forwards.
"This is just insane!" Gareth said. "We didn't fight a single Monster rex nor did we go beyond the 50th floor. But this much improvement? I haven't been able to gain digits like these since I was a young adventurer!"
"It does not apply so much for me, since I barely did any fighting at all." Riveria said. "He always took me out before I could do anything but as a result, my endurance has gone up a bit."
"My strength and endurance have both gone up." Finn said. "But my Dexterity is the thing that has risen the most. Ten entire stat points. That's amazing from one spar alone."
"It doesn't compare to Ais though." Gareth said as he pushed over Ais's updated status sheet. "Out of all of us, she is the one that has risen most rapidly. In terms of experience and Falna building, she's benefitted most out of this expedition."
"Not to mention the insane amount of profit we made on this expedition, even though we gave so much of it away to Steve." Riveria said as she picked up another paper. "1.17 Billion Valis? And the majority of that came from the excess drop items."
"It's probably the first time we actually made monumentally more from an expedition than we spent on it." Finn said. "And as for the drop items, I'm still having trouble understanding how we got so many."
"I would like to point out it was Steve most likely the cause behind this." Gareth said. "Remember every stroke of his weapon? Almost every single time he was ripping drop items from monster smoke whenever he killed one."
"Ugh, I hate this formal report language." Loki said as she threw aside the report, gripped the edges of the desk in her hands and leaned forwards. "So tell me straight from you guys, who is this Steve?"
The executives looked between each other, silently debating who should be the one to start off telling Loki about their new ally. Unsurprisingly, the responsibility fell upon Finn. He supposed it was only appropriate that it was him as he was captain.
From a principle perspective that is. It didn't mean he had to like the job.
"He's a relatively new adventurer we first met on the 17th floor, right outside the boss room." The Pallum began.
"Mhm." Loki hummed as she leaned backwards this time to be level with Finn, already intrigued.
"I should note that before we got to that floor, we were not encountering any monsters whatsoever in the upper floors. Instead we were finding only carnage and destruction which we assumed was preventing monsters spawning. It just so happened that a Variant Goliath spawned, so we decided to rush ahead of the supply teams to deal with it. But by the time we got there, it was already taken care of, by an adventurer in glowing purple armour, complete with a flowing black cape."
"Interesting." Loki smiled. "How powerful was he then, if he could take on a Goliath Variant by himself?" Gareth began snorting into his cup, causing the goddess to look in his direction like he was a weirdo. "What's so funny? What did I say that was so hilarious?"
"It's just that, defeating a Variant Goliath is but the tip of the iceberg Loki." Riveria said. "This adventurer, though he was new in the dungeon was clearly a veteran monster killer. And the power he was radiating was suffocating. Naturally we didn't lose sight of him so easily. We followed him down to the 18th floor, where he introduced himself as Stephen Hewer, an adventurer that had only just come to the city the day before."
"At first he didn't want to reveal his level and his Familia." Finn said. "Which obviously was just super weird in our eyes. I decided to invite him along on our expedition. It was clear by his handiwork in the previous floors that he was not just suited for those ones. His power was more befitting of the lower floors. This was what I reasoned with when I invited him, claiming it would be for the best of all of us."
"The kids took to him immediately." Gareth smiled. "With the exception of Bete of course but he doesn't befriend anybody. Tiona in particular was quite taken by him."
"Really? How so?" Loki asked.
"She was completely smitten at first glance." Finn said. "And the feeling was mutual instantly."
"What?!" Loki half-shouted. "Tiona? With her chest? How did she manage to secure a man's feelings?"
'Are you really one to talk?' Gareth thought as he raised a brow and sweatdropped.
"More than that, one of my girls has been seduced by this suspicious fiend." Loki clenched her fist. Tiona had been a comrade of sorts to her since they both suffered the same affliction and had built a bond over it as chestless, loveless background girls, something they had formed a special bond of their own over. But Tiona winning the feelings of another put that duo down to one member, now that Tiona had apparently secured a love interest.
Loki couldn't help but feel jealous and abandoned.
"Anyways." Finn continued. "We took him along after we camped in the 18th floor for the night. Thanks to him, we were able to make it to the 28th floor before the day had even gone. That was because he fought ahead of the vanguard...and he slaughtered every monster he came across with ease. Now that's not really much of a big feat since we can do the same. The Middle floor Monsters aren't all that powerful to us anymore. It's when we got to the Lower Floors, that we began to suspect his strength was a little more than we estimated."
"Why?" Loki asked.
"It's because he dealt with Amphisbaena alone." Riveria replied. "Now singular challenges against the monster rex is not something that we haven't done either. But the way he did it, plus the things he had at his disposal. He manhandled the dragon like it was a common house lizard, literally tore it apart before bisecting it in its own bath."
"What did he have at his disposal then?" Loki asked. "Some special kind of weapon?"
"Loki." Gareth said, making the goddess look at him. "This guy was carrying magical equipment. Every. Single. Piece."
"Magic weapons?" Loki said as she quirked an eyebrow. "He must have some shady connections then. You can't get magical weapons except on the black market nowadays. If not, then the ones not in the market are held securely in the guild, right under Royman's fat ass."
"Loki, he didn't just have magic weapons, his armour was enchanted too." Gareth raised his hands up and down to emphasise the point.
"What? Don't be absurd. Those would be magic items then, not armour." Loki put a finger to her chin. "Isn't Hermes' captain the best magical item maker in Orario at the moment?"
"He made them himself." Finn said. "And we know he did, because we've seen him do it."
"And I suppose he is where you got that fancy new spear of yours?" Loki nodded at the corner where Fleinn'leptr was leant up against.
"Yes but we're coming to that." Finn said. "As we were saying, he handled Amphisbaena with ease. His boots had an enchantment on them that formed ice beneath his feet as he ran across the water. He did this around the monster until he cornered it and it had little space to swim in. After that he tore it apart and let its corpse sink into the water."
"We noticed that he did it with just as much ease as he handled Goliath." Riveria continued the story. "So we began to think that he was supposedly around the level of our core members after all...until we got to the 37th floor."
"And let me guess, he took out Udaeus alone as well?" Loki jokingly guessed, albeit correctly.
""Yes"" They chorused, taking Loki aback for a moment.
"This time he went about it a cautious way." Said Riveria. "Get this. It turns out Udaeus has a sword. We theorize that it only pulls out the weapon when challenged by a single adventurer. We won't know for sure until the next time we encounter it. Udaeus pulled out a bone sword from the ground while he drew his own and began engaging in swordplay. Loki, we could FEEL the power behind Udaeus's blows...and Steve's were stronger."
"He killed the bony bastard and sent him back down below where he belonged." Gareth said. "After that, Ais challenged him to a spar in the safety point."
"My Aisy-poo challenged him to a fight?" Loki gasped before laughing. "Well, if it's a new adventurer with just raw power on his side, then surely Ais defeated him right. Skill beats power any day after all."
"That's not actually always true Loki." Finn said. "But contrary to your belief, and what we had hoped as well, Ais lost...badly. He's not just a power orientated fighter. He possesses skill, finesse, and accuracy and swordsmanship that far surpassed anything that Noir, Bara or Dain had ever shown us." Finn said this last bit with a bit of gloom.
Everyone in the room had a monetary silence in memory of their fallen comrades. Those three adventurers had been the backbone of the current three elders. They had taught them all means of combat they knew today, and the three had sacrificed their lives in the Great War so that the rest of the Loki Familia could live. It cut into Finn most of all, the loss. Even back then he was captain and yet he could do nothing to save the people he had taken as parental figures. He could do nothing but watch as those three honourable adventurers, more than willing to do away with themselves and their own lives and act as meat shields so the younger generation could survive and thrive after wards.
That was why it hurt the elder three more than anyone else when it came to Steve's existence. Their three teachers had sacrificed themselves so that they could become stronger and yet here they were seven years later still bumbling around at level 6, when an unknown adventurer who had never stepped foot inside the dungeon was now revealed to be a level they could only dream of at the moment. The highest level ever achieved in adventurer history. Only one other than Steve had managed to reach it and they died long ago.
"Ais lost and he had treated like it he were training a novice that had only just picked up the sword." Finn continued. "It got so bad, Ais somehow managed to activate her 'Avenger' skill." Loki's eyes widened. "Yes, for the first time in years. But even then, despite that Ais was getting both faster and stronger, it made no difference to him. In the end he defeated her with perhaps even more ease than he did the monster rexes."
"Obviously, to be able to to just outstrip Ais like that on a whim..." Gareth said. "...we concluded that he had to be even stronger than us, since even we can't just dismiss Ais's powers and skill like he did. We estimated him to be Ottar's level. No one has seen the King release his true power since the War, so we estimated that he would be a rough equivalent."
"We were wrong." Riveria said. "Because what he did next, we know for a FACT, that Ottar cannot do the same."
Loki was about to say something but Finn saw it coming.
"Balor." The Pallum said grimly. "He took it on alone. It was at this point I snapped and I just couldn't help but try and dig some rationale, some explanation behind why he was undergoing such suicidal tasks. He said that he had been an explorer, experimenting in different arts and skills which he now uses to be an adventurer. Loki, he's a warrior, a smith, an alchemist, a mystic and a mage to boot. And magic was what he used to take out Balor."
"Not before testing the grounds with Balor, by taking one of its blast attacks head on." Gareth said. "But the spell he used to kill it off...Riveria knows the details."
Loki looked at the elf expectantly.
"I honestly don't know what that spell was." Riveria threw her hands up in surrender. "I have never seen a spell like that ever. I don't think it can even be classified as elemental. It was so destructive...and funniest of all is that I asked around our Familia about what they saw of it and some of them swore upon the Falna that they couldn't see him do anything. They only saw the aftermath of the spell."
"So what did you see then?"
"I...I...well...I don't know." Riveria surrendered. "Put simply, it looked like he combined an orb of some blue magical power with a red orb of some magical power. They fused to become this purple ball which he launched at Balor. When he did, it swelled to the size of a mountain, and not only took out Balor but created a hole in the Dungeon wall about the same size of the Amphitheatron, by my estimation. I have never felt such power nor seen such devastation before. It felt hundreds of times more powerful than my spells. Worse than that, the spell was so devastating, it actually weakened the 49th floor, eventually making it collapse and crash on top of the safe zone." Riveria said.
"How did he manage that?" Loki's eyes were wide.
"We don't know. We weren't there at the time. He was apparently fighting some new monster and the consequential brawl destroyed what remained of the boss floor." Gareth said. "We knew by then that Steve was way above Ottar even. There was no way he was level 7 while doing stuff like that. it's beyond powerful or crazy, it was just absolute..." Gareth struggled to find the right word.
"Chaos." Riveria suggested.
"Yes, that's the one."
"After that Gareth decided he wanted a spar." Riveria glared at the dwarf. "So we challenged him but the entire vanguard ended up fighting him. We all lost bitterly." Riveria grimaced as she remembered how useless she had been in that fight. Steve had kept his eye on her the whole time, not allowing her to take any significant action. She understood now that she had only been able to use that fire spell because he allowed her.
"After that he enchanted our gear for us." Finn said as he held his hand behind him and flexed his fingers. Fleinn'leptr jerked before flying into his palm. "He actually broke my old Fortia spear in the spar so he made me a new spear right there in the 38th floor. And we agreed upon an alliance."
"An alliance." Loki raised her brow. "You never agree to things like that Finn. Why him?"
"Because he showed us a level of power unseen before in history." Riveria said. "We thought we had him because we were keeping an eye on him. The truth is that he could have taken us ALL out at anytime if he wanted to but he didn't."
"Did he say what level he was in the end then?"
"Yes." Finn said grimly. "He's the first child ever in his Familia and currently the only one. And...he's a level 9."
Loki leaned backwards in shock before laughing.
"Pfffft, whatever! There hasn't been a level 9 since the Hera Familia. Like he was telling the truth!"
"I'm inclined to believe it." Gareth said. "After what I've seen from him, I'm actually surprised that level 9 is the only thing he is. I would have thought him to be the first level 10."
"And you didn't think to recruit him!" Loki pulled on Gareth's beard.
"Tiona tried her earnest." Riveria said. "But he's very loyal to his god. He refuses to leave. Personally I think it's because he himself wants to be the beginning of something new. The first member and captain of a new Familia so to speak, and not piggy back on the rest of our reputations. An understandable sentiment. I can agree with it."
"We don't seem to have any chance of anything going bad in this alliance." Gareth said. "Especially considering both Tiona and Ais are obsessed with him now. Romantically so."
"WHAT!!!" Loki shrieked. "HE'S CAPTURED THE HEART OF 'MY' AISY-POO!"
"Is that really all you care about at this moment." Riveria nursed her ears, being the one with the most sensitive hearing.
"Of course! Men are wolves and that wolf is trying to take my adorable Ais away from me. I swore anybody who did that, I would rip them to shreds." Loki clawed at the air like a cat while baring her teeth in rage. "Tell me what Familia he is from!"
"What?" Finn asked.
"How can he ask for an alliance but not state what Familia he's from? Come on, what was his god's name? I'll go over to them and give them both a piece of my mind!"
"What did he say his name was again?" Finn thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, he said his god's name was Ptah."
Loki instantly stopped raving and blinked. "Come again." She said.
"Ptah." Riveria repeated. "Do you know them?"
...
Loki went white as a sheet much to the surprise of the others in the room.
"Loki, are you alright?" Finn asked.
"Ptah's in Orario?" Loki whispered. "Why did nobody tell me about this?"
"...Is he someone bad?" Finn asked, feeling confused and very concerned.
"NO!" Loki waved her arms frantically. "PTAH'S THE LAST PERSON TO BE BAD GOD!!!" Loki then noticed how loud she was being, coughed into her fist and calmed down. "It's just that...he and I don't have a good history exactly."
Riveria narrowed her eyes at the red-haired goddess. "What did you do Loki?"
"It was just a little prank!" Loki protested. "I didn't think he would blow it all out of proportion like that!"
...
What Loki called a 'little prank' would have been something the mortals would have outright called the end of the world.
To summarise, Loki had unleashed Ragnarok upon Ptah's temple back in heaven while the Egyptian was lazily sleeping around as usual. Loki was a young goddess at the time, still very much following her nature and not restraining herself like gods learned to do later. She was a notorious trickster and prankster and always disturbed the peace wherever she went.
Ptah had been so pissed the day his temple had come down on his head, all it took was but a single word from him and all the nine Norse realms, from Asgard to Vanaheim had been swimming in fire and water. Odin had become no more than a bitch, begging Ptah with his face in the dirt for forgiveness for Loki's prank.
But the shrewd Egyptian god refused their apology and for 100 million years, the Norse realms of heaven stayed the way they were until Ptah woke up and undid it all again. In the time between, many of the other gods like Thor and Hel sent their armies and even challenged Ptah himself to remove the curse he'd placed on their lands. Needless to say, they were sent back crawling on their naked arses each time.
In fact, the one who had placated the whole matter had been Freya, ironically. It was no secret to the gods that Ptah was crushing bad on Hephaestus. At least it was obvious to everyone except Hephaestus herself. Freya had set the two up on something that was supposed to be a date, but Hephaestus had just thought it was a day where she could learn from the older god newer ways of smithing and making weapons.
Ptah had been bummed out that Hephaestus misread his intentions but nonetheless had been so thankful to Freya that he undid his curse instantly when he asked her what she wanted in return after his day-out was over.
Of course Loki had all kinds of fingers pointed at her for what she did and to this day Odin was still pissed with her.
You'd think Ptah would be feared because of this right? Well, no. He was known to be an all round chill dude. The only times he got seriously ticked off was in one of two scenarios; either he got woken up from his sleep or somebody broke one of his statues. Since Loki had been the one to set the Armageddon upon Ptah, she was the one who remembered best how terrifying the Egyptian Primordial could be when ticked off.
Even Apophis, the most vile and hated of the Egyptian gods made sure to steer clear of Ptah's path when he could.
Hearing that he had been in Orario for some amount of time, and Loki hadn't even known about it, kind of scared her. And again, it made sense if he was the one who had claimed such a valuable chess piece such as this Steve her children were talking about. The strong attracted the strong after all.
She just hoped that she did not run into Ptah anytime soon. There was another reason why he was still mad at her even after all these years. It wasn't just because of the 'prank' she pulled on him, but also because of her rivalry with another goddess who happened to be a good friend of Ptah...a goddess almost as lazy and quick to temper as he was...a black haired, twin-tailed goddess who protected the Flame of Olympus.
---
Ais wriggled her toes over and over as she sat on her bed in a foetal position, clasping tightly on the piece of paper in her hands. It had been some time yet since Loki had done a status update on the girl earlier on in the day but the kuudere could not let go of the copy of the status sheet. For years now she had been pent up, frustrated to the point of nearly crying because she had hit a wall. No matter how hard she fought, no matter how many times she went into the dungeon, she could never progress much.
For three years she had been stuck on level five. Being called the Pride of the Loki Familia really meant very little to her. All she cared about was strength and anybody who could give it to her or show her the way to it. She didn't mind if it was a hard or easy path, as long as she could get stronger. But everything in the last three years had been fruitless as she didn't have an overwhelming opponent she could face to quickly raise her stats for her, like the three elders were for her when she first joined the Familia.
But now...
---
Ais Wallenstein
Level: 5
STR: 493 E - 571 D
END: 431 E - D529
DEX: 774 B - 803 A
AGI: 788 B - 850 A
MAG: 809 A - S916
---
Never at any point in her life had she had so much progress in a singular fortnight like this. And she knew she could credit it to him. He had hurt her, scared her, overpowered her. But even she was not such a simpleton that she didn't recognise that throughout their own fight, she had improved greatly because he was also guiding her, teaching her.
And when it was over, he did not kick dirt over her and walk away like many others had since they got their pleasure of felling the Loki Familia's infamous prodigy. He had been compassionate and he had healed her from his own expense when she could finally no longer fight. He had been the one to set her Avenger skill off, and he had been the one to tame it as well, letting her keep her rage but making her fight in a way that allowed her to focus it.
And as a result, where she would only trudge up by two or three points, she had crossed over into the next hundreds. And he had inspired her. Watching his fight as he did made her excited to no ends. She admired him for the fact that in any situation, with any weapon, against any monster or opponent, he was always a step ahead. He didn't just need to use his raw power to overwhelm his opponents. he had plenty of skill too given how he made Finn dance in their fight.
But when he did show his raw might, he was just so suffocatingly powerful that her senses would become intoxicated with the presence he carried. To learn he was FREAKING LEVEL 9!
Ais had no reason to distrust him. She believed him one hundred percent. More than that, he had made her stronger as well by giving her a weapon upgrade too. Now she wouldn't be hindered by so fragile a weapon anymore.
To realize how far above he was her and her Familia had been a shock but a welcome one. To her he was a target, a threshold, a goal. She didn't want to be walking under his shadow all the time. She wanted to become just as powerful as he and stand side by side with him, and force him to acknowledge her. Just the thought of him made her fired up and made her want to go and fight him again.
He really was inspiring...not to mention all the other things too. He was strong, kind, powerful and generous. But did not hesitate to reprimand people when they were rude or encroached upon his privacy and his dignity. He was everything she wanted to be and had everything she wanted...and his image was what made her strive to be like him.
Just like a hero.
Her hero.
Her dream.
Her mother had prayed that she would find someone like that. Was Steve the person her mother had been talking about? She knew Tiona was chasing after him as well...something she didn't necessarily like or mind for some reason. Surely that was a sign right?
Oh she was bad at feelings. But she knew for sure that her feelings for him were not ordinary. Even now he plagued her thoughts. How much she wished now that she could have gotten an address or something from him so she could go and visit him. Now she was stuck having to wait until she could see him again, and oh was that just agonising!
Her very soul pulled for him, wanting to know where he was and wanting to be with him. Because she felt like he was the answer to all her problems, despite his continuous insistence that he was nothing like she imagined and that she had the wrong impression of him, that he was not a hero and that he could be just as bad as the next person. But her heart told her otherwise.
She looked out of the window to see the last beam of sunset disappear and the world was bathed in the oncoming embrace of the night. She sighed, got up and flung open her closet sifting through her dresses. They were going to celebrate in the Hostess of Fertility today like they always did after an expedition. Perhaps it would take her mind off of things for a while.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment and Review!
Discord: discord.gg/VYMTfns8
Read ahead on Patreon:
Patreon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi
For commissions:
Ko-Fi/ vulkizarozoromi