Denatus (Part 3)

"Well then, let's carry on shall we? Time for the naming ceremony."

Almost instantly, a strange sense of tension gripped the room. The moments the words had passed from Loki's lips, the expressions of the deities who'd yet to participate in the conversation grew pale.

The young, busty goddess next to Hephaistos included. Loki smirked together with the Denatus regulars, the lot of them boasting their most depraved smiles of the day.

The real feast, the farce, was about to begin.

"All reports have been shared proper, yeah? Then let's get started! Lesse now, our top batter for today is...Ceti of Ceto Familia!"

"P-please go easy on me."

""""""""""""""""""""Denied!"""""""""""""""""""""

"Noooooooooo-oooh!"

It was time to bequeath Aliases upon the newly leveled up adventures— the monthly naming ceremony.

Every adventurer's official nickname was decided at Denatus from Ais Wallenstein's "Sword Princess" to Ottar's "King". These aliases, as they were called, were names bequeathed by the gods, acting as a symbol of strength and renown of the chosen adventurer.

Those on the lower world who'd yet been able to attain one of these refined names from the deities viewed the aliases with awe, respect and envy.

"All right! Adventurer Erika Rosalia...nickname, Violante!"

"Nooooooooooooooo!!"

However, the gods themselves did not view this venerable discussion with the same excitement as their arguably old-fashioned children. In fact, they wanted to avoid it like a plaque.

The majority of the aliases born from the naming ceremony names of complete and utter tragedy meant to make the adventurer's patron deity writhe and cry in discomfort.

For a god to see the child they had so carefully raised received a stigma-inducing name that would become that would become the butt of every joke— it was enough for them to pass out in agony. There was no greater torture than existence.

For the especially mean-spirited deities, seeing an adventurer all proud and haughty about their freshly minted title while their patron deity squirmed in torment was one of the greatest pleasures all over the world and exactly why they couldn't stop.

As Loki filtered suggestions, took votes, and finally handed down each names— or perhaps death sentence would be the better phrase— to its unsuspecting adventurers, the patron deity in question howled and wailed in utter despair.

"Have we decided on a name for Mikoto Yamato yet? If not, let's hurry it up!"

"Not yet! I haven't get rid of my karma and suffering from the last ceremony — Angelic Code, the Eternal Virgins Revelations!!"

"Jeanne of Yamato, the Divine Wind of the Far East!"

"Saint Tail, the Holy Spy!"

"You fools! The only real choice here is Salty Angel, the Lovingly Raised!"

"Stop it, stop it, stop iiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttt!"

The round-table debate was really hitting the climax now as the patron deity of the poor hostage adventurer wailing in horror. He was Takemikazuchi who has black hair and black eyes. His hair is in a style that was common in old Japan. Takemikazuchi wears clothes that are also based off the same time period.

'Mikoto! I'll do whatever it takes to get you an acceptable alias.'

Loki turned away her gaze away as the twin-bunned god brought his hands to both sides of his head with great gulping sobs. Loki turned her gaze towards Dionysus who was remaining his silence.

Dionysus was a beautiful man of medium height with medium length blonde hair, emerald eyes, and long arms and legs. He wore a violet suit matching his long-sleeve coat, pants, shoes, a yellow button shirt inside, and a white cravat around his neck.

Catching her gaze, Dionysus simply shrugged. His subsequent sigh seemed to state the obvious— that their efforts had achieved nothing.

"Dionysus, you're looking pretty smug over there. Care to join the conversation?"

"Yeah! You actually decided to attend for once, so why not toss out a suggestion, hm?"

"We've got quite the task in front of us. Coming up with an alias for that rookie Mikoto who's everyone had been talking about."

"Oh, let me think." Dionysus replied instigation upon his fellow deities.

'Please! Dionysus! Please!'

Takemikazuchi sent various hand signs to Dionysus pleading to give a proper alias. He even had some tears in his eyes.

All eyes on him, he took a glance at the paper on the table and the profile the Guild had created in preparation for her naming. The parchment a beautiful girl from the Far-East with jet black hair.

Dionysus smiled so sweetly.

"Zetsu Ei...How about Zetsu Ei (Eternal Shadow)."

"Dionysus! you bastaaaaaaaaaaard!"

Once again, the month's Denatus didn't disappoint many gods.

"All right, then! Mikoto's title is now...Eternal Shadow."

"No objection here." "None from me!" "Sounds good!"

"No, no, no, nooooooooooooooooo!!"

The warrior god let out a defeated cry as the votes were cast, solidifying Dionysus's proposal. Soon out-of-control laughter from his fellow deities followed. As the grand circus claimed its newest victim, Kronos thought to himself that he would be having fun soon as well.

Once the small to medium familias had done their time in the lower reaches of hell, the names of the newly leveled up adventurers from the elite familias would be next. The abhorent aliases would decrease remarkably, no doubt to keep the fights from breaking out among the most influential gods and goddesses of the city as their as their second-tier-plus adventurers were considered.

Hephaistos Familia, Ganesha Familia, and Ishtar Familia had names on the list.

"Let's steer things back on my track, yeah? Next is" she said with a snicker.

"A big name...my very own Ais!"

"The Sword Princess arrived at last."

"Still as beautiful as ever, to boot."

"Level 6 already, impressive..."

Loki's own follower was up, and all eyes were on her. It was her golden haired, golden eyed swordswoman, boasting the same level of fame matching the current apex of Orario.

Considering the insane progress she had made in a little over ten years, simply mentioning the girl had been enough to reinvigorate the room.

The Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein, had finally joined the ranks of level 6.

"The little lady had really outdone herself this time." One of the deities smiled, seemingly overcome with joy, at the sight of the Sword Princess' achievement on the parchment in front of them.

The last part of the report was reserved for her background details regarding her level up, which was her victory over Udeus, the monster rex of the 37th floor.

To defeat a floor boss single-handedly was a mighty feat which put the whole room in a state of fevirish elation.

"That's amazing she's probably more amazing than Ottar-san!"

"Nah, Ottar went on an expedition on his own and half killed a Balor so he's still much more amazing."

Words of praise and admiration flew back and forth around the table. Even the young goddess sitting alongside of Hephaistos found herself groaning in spite of herself at the sheer magnitude of the young's adventurer's feat.

"Leaving that aside, let's talk about her Alias."

"Do we really need to change it?"

"Indeed."

"How about...something like Sword Saint?"

"Sword...Saint?"

"Don't really seem to fit her though, don't you think?"

"Regardless her alias should be is...OUR WIFE!"

"Yeah!!" "It's perfect!"

The general ruckus showed no signs of waning, and the gods proceeded at once with the naming, fully prepared to change her alias from Sword Princess into Our Wife.

Until.

"I'll murder every last one of you."

The suggestion was immediately rejected by a single glare from Loki.

"W-we're so sorry!" The deities chorused as they asked in forgiveness. Afraid of incurring the wrath of one of the most influential god of Orario, their fear to be sent back to heaven was enough for them to kneel in their knees.

"Ais will remain the Sword Princess. Seriously you guys should choose your fights carefully and the next adventurer is."

Turning over the next parchment, her brows furrowed looking at the profile reflected in her eyes as she saw the Hestia Familia beneath his image.

'That shorty brat's child did really managed to rank up, huh?'

Honestly, it wasn't too big of a surprise, considering the small goddess herself was participating in the month's Denatus but it didn't mean Loki had to like it, definitely not.

'A month in a half? What in the world?'

She wondered as she glanced at the "days required" section from the short summary of information. The sight of it had her inwardly groaning.

'Ais's record aside, This is impossible! There's no way he could done this in only a month and half!'

She thought back eight years ago, when a certain 8 year old girl rose to a level 2 at an absolute outrageous pace. She only needed a year. That was how fast Ais Wallenstein had done it, and that was an incredible feat, setting a record that had yet to be broken by anyone else in the world.

That was until today.

"A new record holder."

Whispers of the gods flew back and forth across the table. Unknowing to everyone, the God of Messenger's held the parchment with shaky hands. A smile formed in his face as he surveyed the parchment in his hands.

Shooting a glance at Hestia, Loki slammed the table and rose to her feet.

"Before we get to the naming, I wanna ask Itty-Betty a question." Loki stated looking straight at Hestia, ignoring the reaction of the god's around her.

"What's the deal with this rank up? It took my Ais a year! A year!"

Her voice was as intimidating as possible and she didn't miss the way the throat of the goddess with a tiny gulp in response.

"This isn't how our falna works."

As Loki was about to interrogate Hestia about this, a god raised his hand which caught all of the deities' attention.

"I'm sorry to disturb but I think you need to look at the last one as well."

All the gods followed what he said and looked at the parchment. Like a bomb has exploded, all of the gods exclaimed in surprise including Loki who was intimidating Hestia.

"Wh-whaaat?! Rank up in just 2 weeks?"

Unlike the rest of the gods, a single deity revealed a grin as he had been waiting to see their reactions all this time.