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depart

The loud bang released by the burst sound halted the fight ongoing at the edge of the settlement. All wolves and kobolds looked towards the sound origin. When they saw four of their own headless, they angrily howled one after other before being abruptly cut by a similar sound happening further.

At first, none understood what was happening; all they could see were their kins being slaughtered. This was until Alex kill all the feasting kobolds. The new situations completely changed the game. The northern wolves, now free of needing to kill the plunderers, turned to the kobolds.

The kobolds turned rabid at sight, threw themselves at the wolves before the two groups could assault each other, a line of arrows formed between the running packs. Before they could understand that the action was human-made, a burst of red light flashed.

Each time a group of wolves or kobolds were near them, Alex would trigger the core's stunning effect. Alaya witnessed with awe as any monsters or creatures caught in the range of that red dome of light crumble on the ground, unmoving.

Now knowing the danger of those sticks, all monsters and creatures turned to their origin. Seeing a prey, alone, rushing to them, all formed a single group and ran to it.

The group wasn't born of unity, just anger and hunger. The first to kill it would be able to claim the prize.

Facing the incoming force, Alex didn't stay idle. Aiming at the group's exterior rear, Alex fired arrows after arrows, taking down a creature with each. Due to his actual situation, Alex's fire all his runecores arrows into the groups feasting and stun the rest.

Even with 'just' arrows, Alex mowed down in the incoming force with ease. Alex wasn't sure, but the creatures seem easier to deal with than goblin. All they did was to throw themselves at him.

By the time they crossed the five hundred metre, the groups of two hundred had significantly reduced. Running at breakneck speed, the wolves were the first to arrive, barely fifteen seconds later. If it weren't for Alex also moving at the last second, he would have been overwhelmed by the fifty wolves pouncing on him.

~~~

Aiz and Alaya, who stayed in the settlement after seeing, the monsters distance themselves from them, looked with a little awe and wonder at the deadly game of tag ongoing in the valley. While Ais had sparkly eyes at sight, Alaya was thrown off guard by the stranger's skill and agility.

Not only he was keeping his distance with them, but he would take potshot every three or so second, bringing down kobolds or wolf, this without stopping! As a huntress, she knows full well that the skill and stamina need to pull something like this was outside the common people.

"Mama?" The sound of her daughter's voice broke her of her trance. Lowering her head to her daughter, still in her arms, she tilted her head.

"Hm?"

"Can Ais ask big brother to give Ais wolves pelts?" Hearing her daughter, Alaya raised her gaze back at the still evading man killing the monsters.

"Perhaps, Mommy will need to ask the elder and big brother first, but why not? He seems strong enough."

"Hm!" Hearing her mother acceptance, Ais hummed happily, returned her gaze full of wonder to her new big brother. 'Bring Ais a lot of pelts, big brother.'

~~~

On Alex side, CS felt something tingling in the back of his mind. Using the peripheral gaze of Alex, he caught the two looking at them. When he saw the awed gaze of the little girl, he dismissed it at first. This, until catching the inquisitive look of the woman seeming her mother. Looking closely back to the girl, CS caught another emotion in the little girl's no-so-innocent-anymore gaze. Knowing Alex luck, he couldn't help but chuckle but kept quiet, expecting a good show.

~~~

Say recipient was completely unaware of the various feeling he was triggering. As his mind was focused on a single task, Alex kept running and firing arrows at his pursuers. Had it been another, the kobolds and wolves would have either caught up or abandoned, but with each death, their primal mind was pushing them to avenge their fallen kins, sinking them deeper in a mindless rage.

But the situation wasn't the same at the horde invasion. Now, Alex had proper armour, but more importantly, a large amount of study equipment. Added to that, with his large amount of arrows at his disposition, the situation had a foregone conclusion before it even started.

Not knowing the surrounding ground around, Alex kept within the valley, with sufficient distance from the settlement, to avoid some doubling back and attack it again. When he was left with less than ten pursuers, Alex stored his bow. Turning around, he shot to the group, firing, throwing knives in their midst. By the time the group were to clash, Alex was left with just a single wolf.

Without surprise, Alex blade sank in his head, killing it in its jump, his form crumbling at Alex's feet.

~~~

While Alex was slowly cleaning the battlefield, the remaining of the Hunter tribe assembled, warned by Alaya that the threat was cleared. Rather than rejoice, the tribe started to gather the fallen for those lost before Alex could be here. Most of the corpses where already savaged before becoming cold.

Thankfully, none of the monsters had attacked the house, choosing to feast on the easy prey rather than risk their lives for the ensconced one in their home.

For the initial population of 756, the tribe had dwindled to barely 459, leaving mostly elderly, women and young children. With the few young boys still alive, their bloodline was now in danger of extinction. They had long since faced the constant threat, but never before it they been dealt such a blow.

The elders know that useless in merging their blood with outside, the lineage would soon vanish. It wasn't racist that stopped them to do so before, but the Tribe had its pride. They add survived until then, from an era before the gods descend!

To give up now and connects on gods who did nothing to help them before? Their price won't allow it.

Like therianthrope, the hunter tribe was the only human group to possess a might vastly superior to the other, and gods had long since lusted after them. Knowing the nature of those gods, the elders had forbidden a member of the tribe to rejoin another god that the goddess they venerate. They did not hide the truth but instead spread it, knowing that banning something would only push the young to break the taboo and go for them.

~~~

With the high belief instilled in them at a tender age and their traditions, none had been willing to renounce their goddess to join others. If the Hunters tribe were to a day descend from the mountains and join Orario, it would be to regroup under a unique banner and none other.

They didn't receive words of their goddess descending until then, thus remains, even knowing that they were at risk.

When the elders heard of Alaya, and more particularly Ais wish, they were torn. On one side, the stranger had saved them, but on the other hand, he wasn't one of them. It was possible, an event nearly sure that they wouldn't know the signification of offering pelts to the girl.

This wouldn't even matter if the stranger was already affiliated with a god; they wouldn't let their own go back with one of their daughters.

While few kept an eye on the stranger roaming the valley, collecting his spoil of war, the rest of the tribe prepared the funeral rites.

~~~

Once down with his cleaning, Alex looked from afar at the Tribe processes to burn the dead on high pyres; what caught his gaze was the lone carved statue overlooking the ceremony.

Alex knows too well those features expertly carve in the whitest wood he saw, briefly mistaking it for bones.

'What was the chance?'

-Far too few. Who know gods here had some relations with your world, but to think that their the same? Either they manifest on different planes, or they can travel between a vessel or share so sort of spiritual link.- Mindlessly thought CS, his mind trying to discover which possibly had the best chance to be exact.

Both were interrupted by the slow, steady guttural voice raising from the settlement. When Alex turned to the burning pyres, he saw that all the elder were intoning a funeral song, but more than the song itself, it was the magic and words which attract him.

The song was made in the old northern tongue. With every world, building magic raise in intensity until soaking the statute.

Like his nuptial ritual, the statue animate before lightly opening her mouth. From the pyres, moths of lights risen, twirling, until entering the mouth of the wooden goddess.

Without realising, Alex had been caught in the old song and rejoined the elder. With his addition, the thick magic already present in the air exploded to a new high, turning the stiff, barely moving statue into a life-like, animated one.

The eyes, previously deprived of life lighten, before gazing down on the one underneath.

~~~

Overwhelmed by the sudden situation, the settlement had become dead silent, the elders frozen stiff at the presence of founding themselves in front of their goddess.

Skadi briefly looked around before waving her hand, calling to her the remaining souls of the fallen, welcoming them in her halls, before turning to the one present.

"Dromaldr, your presence here surprise me. Why are you here, child?" Asked the goddess, must to the shock of hearing her voice for the first time, along listening that the stranger was a direct child of their goddess. Even if they were thinking of is as blessed, the previous problem solved himself and became more complicated at the same time.

"I came to our land after hearing the howls of the wolves. Winter had started, and the packs are on the prowl; their numbers could threaten those at the feet of the mountain, so I came here to take care of them."

Hearing Alex spoke of slaughter as if it was his duty brought pain to the goddess. While they were hunter, they never were the ones to threaten the balance.

"I fear you lost your way, child; the recent exposure twisted your view; sending you here was a bad choice, one I should have seen," Softly said sadly. "We are hunters, but not butchers, what of the cubs and mother, waiting for the return of the pack to bring them substance? How the forest and mountains will keep their balance with their guardian gone? No, you had gone to far this time."

Hearing the deep emotions and reproach in his mother voice, Alex felt like someone had torn something vital in him. Not knowing what to do, he could only lower his head in shame.

~~~

Seeing Alex so heartbroken was a tearing Skadi heart too, but she must steel her heart and bring him back on the right path before he falls into the darkness and succumb to the sweet words and false promise of powers.

She thought that bringing him her would be good for him. All she wanted was for him to live a quiet life. A life free of worry, until founding the drive to seek power, without falling for it. She had underestimated this world. As if feeling her intrusion, it had sent waves of the monster as soon as he arrives, hoping to drown him.

In few weeks, and with the still lingering hatred he had for magical and goblin, the slowly dying amber of wrath had flared into a burning blaze, threatening to consume him.

"I will give you the last chance. You will be free from your shackles I imposed on your power but sent to a world where those powers are meaningless for those seeking balance. You will hopefully relearn to live as you have until stepping into this backward society that infected you. I know you will always remain a hunter, as you should, but you will also need to become much more this time. The world you will go to will face a world-ending situation soon; your task is to clean it while providing for the survival of mankind there. Go gathers your belonging and fetch those you're wronged. While the Northern wolves of this mountain had no future here anymore, your land lack of a dominant hunter in its mountains. I will bring the rest of the tribe with me back there. They will raise the cubs and shall perpetuate your tradition. Hunters will return in Evans land.

~~~

Knowing this wasn't a simple command but order, Alex immediatly depart, tracking the scent left by the pack to found the cubs and their mothers.

While Alex was gone, Skadi turned to the hunters, still frozen solid a the revelation. Once again, Skadi was sad to witness, to which point the gods of this world had pushed her children. Even her incarnation disappointed her. She chose to abandon them to their fate, keeping to the world above, not bothering anything other than her egotistical whims.

"Skadi-sama, are we really to go elsewhere?" Asked Aiz innocently. While still young, she perfectly knows who she was speaking. SHe only dared to do so because she was unwilling to separate from her new brother.

To her side, Alaya could only sight in defeat, knowing that her daughter shared the hunters' temperament. Once she found her mate, the women of the tribe would let nothing to separate them from it. For male, it had never been an issue before. As the male, empowered to saw him worthy contributing to the tribe, would do their utmost to please the female and be found worthy by the tribe laws.

The only pre-requisite for them was to hunt and brought pelts of defeated prey. This worked as dowry for the female that chooses them, along with proving to the tribe that the male would sustain his new-to-be family.

Another one was intercourse was forbidden until of age, at fifteen. As the female and male bound young, those years were to consolidate the bond of husband and wife while pressuring the couple and see if the relationship was solid enough to hold through time. If the union were consummate before time, the two would become a pariah and lost all place in the tribe, as they showed that they weren't trustworthy.

~~~

Hearing the young girl, Skadi know of the situation she would be put in. Smiling softly, she signs for the little girl to come nearer. When Aiz was just a few centimetres from the goddess, Skadi lower herself and whispered in Aiz hear.

None hear the words of their goddess, but seeing the surprised, frowning, then large smile on the face of Aiz, Alaya know that her little girl would not go with her in this new land. While saddening that she would be separated from her daughter, she was happy that Aiz had finally found a mate, being the last girl of the tribe to founding one.

She had found her own at five, barely a year younger than the average age, and a lived with her mate since then. With her gone, her parent had another daughter, who followed her footstep six years later.

SO was the tradition of the tribe. Due to low fertility, the couple had ever only a single child at the time and wouldn't have another one before the first found a mate. With Aiz gone, Alaya would be able to nurse her mate back peacefully and, perhaps, give Aiz a brother or sister.

~~~

"Skadi-sama, is it wise to let Aiz follow him? I know she his not mature yet to partake in, but what of the young?" Asked worryingly, the eldest female of the tribe, leader of the tribe until her death.

"Alexander is but the last of his kin, my child, my blood." Said her, making all tribesmen gasps at hearing that the young share more than a mere blessing but bore the blood of their goddess. "While seeming old, he isn't older than twelve. More so, he had a duty toward me to rebuild his clan. To do so, he will need a mate. Only those blessed by the nuptial ritual would become his mate and be able to bore offspring.

To become his third mate, Aiz needs to obtain the blessing of his first mate. She had accepted to be sent with you all and start to know her, along with Alexander second mate. If she can obtain her acknowledgement before Alex enter the same world, she will become his third one. During this time, she will learn to know him through them." Smiled Skadi, easing the worry of the tribe elder.

Aiz couldn't become his other than through a nuptial ritual oversee by Skadi. As the island was in a separate dimension, all was on hold until Alex return. If approved by their goddess and Alex mates, they did not need to fear breaking their traditions. That Alex wouldn't know Aiz until she learned to know him and had his first mate's approval was also good for them. While some may be bothered that Aiz wouldn't be the only mate, the elders know of the burden and responsibility that weight on one shoulder to brought its clan back from the brink of destruction.

Her words given, Skadi took the settlement with her as she vanishes from the world of Danamchi. Alex, too, would be sent to his new world once he gathers all his belonging, the wolves having already been moved by Skadi, who felt them through Alex and bring them to the mountain of Evans island.

later than I expected and far shorter too, but here is the end of the danmachi arc. Starting tomorrow, we started the HOTD part. We will not enter the cannon immediately, I send him a little before for him to settle and hopefully integrate into the background before everything goes pear-shaped.

For now, I planned a partially AU arc and said no further, you'll see soon.

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