CHAPTER 158(Defense Council Meeting)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

"I really hope this works," Hephaestus says. Leaning forward and resting her elbows on her desk.

"Trust me, it will," Freya responds to her sister. "As far as anyone knows Ottar is the only level seven in Orario right now, I'm essential to any plan they make so they won't mount an offense without me, if that changes I can just tell them Allen is there too and stay on top," she casually mentions.

"Why not just side with us to save your loverboy?" Tsubaki asks, looking across from her chair toward Freya.

"Because my adventurers see the dungeon as the only way to become strong enough and win my favor," she shakes her head in disappointment. "If I side against Orario it could get Ouranos involved, and if I get banished many of them would surely leave my familia to continue training in the dungeon. All in hopes of becoming strong enough and reuniting with me later," she says.

Hephaestus releases a deep sigh as she sits back in her chair. Bags under her eyes as she passes a hand over the thin folder of papers on her desk. "Alright, politics is your thing, not mine, so I'm trusting you here...but one question if you don't mind."

"What is it?"

"Why help us at all? If I don't play along with whatever they decide today then my familia can get disbanded and those three are banished, you'd get your happily ever after if you leave Orario with him," Hephaestus points out.

"That's simple really," Freya rises to her feet and the other women follow her lead. "If anyone but him tries to stop his adventure...well, you know how he deals with the things in his way. Stopping his 'adventure' has to be his choice unless you want it to be messy," she says.

"Right, we'll see you at the meeting then," Hephaestus says. Freya gives her a small nod as she and Ottar quickly exit the office to make their final preparations.

Walking over to the small bar in her office Hephaestus pours herself a hard drink and downs it in one quick motion.

"You shouldn't drink that on painkillers," Tsubaki points out.

"I've got bigger things to worry about than the pain of using the potion," she refills the glass and turns around to lean on the bar as she addresses Tsubaki. "I really thought she'd know something..."

"I guess they really haven't spoken since the new year festival. Any luck with the Message Rings?"

"None, he stored them all in his inventory so technically they're in another dimension. A pocket dimension but another dimension no less," she explains.

"Talk about a stressful two days huh, now if we don't bend over backward for the guild Ouranos might disband us for threatening Orario," Tsubaki shakes her head and walks over to Hephaestus. Taking the drink from her goddess she shots the entire glass. "You don't pay me enough to deal with those three," she hands her back the glass, and walks over to the desk to pick up the folder.

"Even I don't get paid enough to deal with this shit," Hephaestus says.

Putting the glass back beside the bottle of liquor Hephaestus leads Tsubaki out of her office and down the halls of floor 50.

Walking to the elevator they both make their way down to floor 30, the main meeting floor for the gods. In this case, the pristine white floor would be hosting mortals as well because of the nature of this event.

"Babel really feels weird when its empty," Tsubaki says as she notices the floors to be empty as they pass by them. Seeing them through the small window of the elevator.

Where Hephaestus familia's shops were usually crowded with people on these floors the hallways were completely abandoned. All the stores were closed, most of the smiths were either in Hephaestus's complex in the city or stuck in their apartments in Babel, tightly guarded by Ganesha familia.

"Well, at least our familia is just a collection of independent people, they'll get over it," Hephaestus says. "If something like this happened in most familia's I'd have no choice but to expel all three of them to prevent our teamwork from falling apart... for our smiths, this is just an inconvenience since they shouldn't really care," she breathes a sigh of relief as they exit the elevator and walk toward the meeting room.

Pushing open the smooth white stone doors, Tsubaki leads Hephaestus into the meeting room to see familiar faces sitting around a large table.

Loki, Ganesha, and Freya were seated spread apart from each other with their captain to their right and vice-captain to their left.

Seeing four empty seats opposite each other Hephaestus walks over to her chair before addressing the room.

"I'm sorry for any trouble my children caused your familias. I hope you can all understand this wasn't my doing," she says before taking her seat with Tsubaki beside her.

"Hmm," Ganesha folds his arms across his chest, turning to address the newcomer. "Hephaestus, you and I have always been friends. But this is unforgivable, my precious children," he looks away in a dramatic fashion, wiping some tears away as they flow down his chin from under his half mask. "This cannot be forgiven so lightly, I must have justice for this atrocity!" he cries out, rising to his feet and shaking a fist at the sky. "I am Ganesha," he quickly mumbles out before dropping back down into his seat.

"I'm with Ganesha on this," Loki taps her fingers on the table as she turns toward Hephaestus. "You know I've got love for you Phae-Tan, but some of my babies got really hurt. My favourite doll locked herself in her room since that fight!" she cries out with crocodile tears at the edges of her eyes.

Finn only frowns beside her as he looks down at the folder in front of him. Similar to the documents brought to the meeting by every attending familia.

"How pathetic," all eyes turn to Freya as she leans forward to challenge Loki. "And how is it that you raising weak-willed people is Hephaestus's fault exactly, Loki?" she asks with a sweet smile.

"Oooh?" Loki's head whips between Hephaestus and Freya. She felt her Trickster Intuition acting up, warning her something was off. "You defending your man Freya? Figured you'd want me to kill this one like all those others that you broke up with back in heaven," she says.

"Not at all, I'm not the 'spoiled brat' you two had to coddle in heaven. I can handle my own man problems. But you can't blame your familia's shortcomings on other people. He's only been here for almost 11 months, your familia has had over two decades just like mine to consolidate power. We can't blame him for our wasted time," Freya says.

"Hmmm, you saying you aren't here to try and help him?" Loki stands up and leans on the table, giving Freya a perfect angle to see just how flat she was.

"I don't even think about him at all," a bold lie, especially when she was actively playing with the message ring on her finger under the table.

Shaking her head at this Hephaestus claps once to get everyone's attention. "Can we please not make this a personal issue. You all read the official statement. They went against my will to do this so no gods were behind this," she says.

"It---" the doors swinging open caused Loki to cut her sentence short as they all looked to the newcomers.

Strolling into the room without saying a word came Ouranos and Royman, the oldest god wore his standard white robes with his grey beard long and wild.

Sharing a short greeting both he and the guild master took the final two seats.

Hephaestus and Freya share a concerned glance for barely a moment, immediately understanding what the other was thinking. Not even they could lie in front of Ouranos, they'd have to completely play along in this meeting.

"I wasn't expecting you to be here in person Ouranos, to what do we owe this miracle?" Freya asks.

"Hmm," he gives her a bored look before turning his gaze to Hephaestus. "I'm here to prevent a war game between Hephaestus and Ganesha. Quite frankly, you two," he gestures to Loki and Freya, "can be replaced. But Hephaestus and Ganesha are essential for maintaining order within Orario with their manpower and items."

"No need to be an ass about it," Loki grumbles.

Ouranos shakes his head at the tricksters pouting, "stong adventurers can come and go overnight, but large systems supporting the city must be preserved, now. Royman," he signals for the guild master sitting beside him to officially begin the meeting.

"Thank you, Lord Ouranos," the fat Elf opens up a set of documents on the table. "The official monetary fine on Hephaestus familia has been decided at 75% of all banking assets across the entire familia," Royman says with unshakeable confidence before closing the documents once more.

"That's too much!" Hephaestus blurts out. "The calamity punishment is only half all assets," she reminds everyone.

None of their expressions show sympathy for Hephaestus as Royman responds.

"Lady Hephaestus, a calamity is a disaster caused by a god. This is much worse, your adventurers directly disobeyed you. If this were a calamity your familia would be disbanded," he calmly says.

"You little sh---"

"Hephaestus," Ouranos cuts her off. "This decision has already been approved by me. If you have any issue direct your complaints toward me," Ouranos narrows his eyes toward her dangerously.

Hephaestus narrows her eye at Ouranos but relents. Reluctantly sinking back into her chair and gesturing for Royman to continue.

"This fine will be enacted after the fees for healing, repairs, and rebuilding of all affected parties is deducted," he says.

Tsubaki gives Hephaestus a concerned look at this.

"Royman, if my estimates are correct from what I've heard this might put me in the red, I've got my annual shipments coming in from all over the world this week that I need to settle," Hephaestus says.

Ouranos speaks up, "that is not our concern. As the now formerly most wealthy diety in Orario I'm sure your business mind will solve this issue," he says.

Grumbling a bit Hephaestus melts down in her seat and holds her tongue, not having much of a choice but to accept this punishment.

"Good," Ouranos then turns to Finn. Under the gaze of the most powerful god, the man feels as if he was naked to his eyes. "Braver, you will be leading the arresting team should Hephaestus's wayward children return," Finn responds with a stiff nod.

"Now, Ganesha, give us the full report of that night's events," Ouranos orders.

"My captain compiled all the evidence we could find, Shakti, take it away," Ganesha folds his arms and sits back in his chair as Shakti stands with the folder they brought open before her.

The tension in the air became much sharper as she prepared to read the full investigation for the very first time to people outside the guild.

Hephaestus shares an uneasy look with Freya, the latter only gives a small nod. Loki makes no show of her suspicion of her sisters as she notices this small gesture, deciding to just play along as a trickster should.

"Right," Shakti begins her report. "At 2 A.M. Thalie began a frontal assault on the guild prison manned by Ganesha familia. There were no reports of interrogations of any kind, all accounts show that she rushed to the records room before descending to the holding cells. At that point, our adventurers were able to evacuate and form a perimeter. They fired the flare and everyone arrived before she got out," she says.

"Casualties?" Finn asks.

Hephaestus wanted to hide behind something at the thought, and knowing Thalie...this was a given.

Ganesha slams his hand down on the table, frowning directly at Hephaestus, "She killed 11 of my precious children!" he cries out, Shakti puts a hand on his shoulder to guide him back to his seat. But from the glare she was sending Hephaestus it was clear she wasn't any happier than him.

"Continue the report," Ouranos commands.

"Right," Shakti schools her features and turns back to the paper. "At that point the first responders were Yang Shen and Welf Crozzo, they were allowed to descend and investigate---"

"You just let them walk in after she attacked you?" Freya asks.

"Well, we couldn't stop them, and I've worked with Yang before. He's usually quite reasonable. We assumed Thalie must have been rogue since Hephaestus would never betray our familia, much less Orario. While our suspicions were correct, we didn't foresee Yang and Welf joining her and turning on us," Shakti says.

"That makes sense," Finn adds. "Yang's actually pretty relaxed, at least when he isn't on a mission of some kind. Even if you tried to stop him, assuming he really didn't know what was going on it would have only stalled a few seconds at best," he concludes.

"He must have had a good reason for doing this," Riveria finally speaks up, in defense of Yang no less. This earns an amused smirk from Freya as she spares the Elf a glance.

"Continue the report," Ouranos says.

"Yes sir. Whilst Thalie and Welf were trying to get to one of our prisoners in the middle floors of the prison, Yang was... 'Stalling' the adventurers outside. At that point I believe we all know what happened," she says before taking her seat.

Freya chuckles quietly at this, " 'Stalling', that's a nice way of putting it."

"What were they after?" Finn asks, deciding to keep everyone on topic.

Without even looking at her notes Shakti responds, "we believe his name was Gorn, a low-level member of Adrestria familia, we can't be certain if he's the one they were after," she says.

"Why the uncertainty?" Hephaestus asks.

"Uh, well," a disgusted look appears on Shakti's face. "It's difficult to identify a body like that, it was like she slammed him against the cell until all the walls were a solid red...he was like burger meat," she says.

"So, Yang is the nice one...that's a relief," Finn says.

"Hmm," Ouranos strokes his beard as he gives the matter some thought. "As unlikely as it is, I believe it best to discuss a plan of action should they return and not wish to follow our rules. We cannot allow any adventurers to break the laws set by the guild, one instance is all it takes for control to slip then this city becomes chaos," he says.

"And that's what this is for, right?" Hephaestus asks, holding up the thin folder she brought to this meeting.

"Precisely, hand it over to Braver so we may verify the contents with you," Ouranos says.

Reluctantly Hephaestus slides the folder across the smooth stone table, Finn wastes no time in reading the contents to himself.

"Anything interesting?" Freya couldn't help but ask. Truth be told she rarely if ever speaks with Yang about his adventuring and fighting ability, but now Finn was holding documents with all the answers to those unasked questions.

"Let's start with Thalie," he looks toward Hephaestus. "You describe her as the best fighter amongst them. Her magic allows her to...put all her physical power into one large attack?" he asks.

"As far as I know, she made a breakthrough with it but I don't micro-manage their team," Hephaestus says.

"Finn," Riveria speaks up. "Tiona mentions Thalie moving like an arrow against the Balor, it must be something like a burst of energy in one direction. Not all that unique in terms of enhancement magic," she says.

"Hmm, alright," his eyes roam to the only other notable thing on the page, her weapon. "Liberty, the golden dragon spear. Only activates for Thalie, magic enhances all the qualities of the spear to unknown degrees...is that all?" he asks skeptically.

"Yes that's all, she can also sense it no matter the distance between them, so I don't recommend trying to hide it from her," Hephaestus says.

"Too bad it only works for her," Allen says from beside Freya. The man could use something like Liberty at his side since Yang broke his last spear.

"Mhm, a billion valis weapon indeed," Finn couldn't help but also imagine having something like that instead of his first-class spear.

"It's the least powerful of their main weapons, but try taking it and it's certainly the one that will do lethal damage," Hephaestus says warningly. Thalie wouldn't be as tolerable to sticky fingers as her allies after all.

"Alright," Finn switches to the next page, "Thalie was standard at least, now the smith."

"Tch, doesn't matter. Just give some of the weaklings to deal with him while we take down the other two," Allen says.

"Evidence says otherwise," Shakti says while placing what looks like a short metal bar onto the table.

Finn stops reading the document and gives her a strange look, as does everyone else.

"That's magical, I can feel it," Riveria says, giving the bar a scrutinizing look.

"Yes, this is from the cell we found the prisoner in," she points to the melted ends of the metal rod. "It's adamantite and Mythril, enchanted to absorb magic, and any tampering with it was supposed to trigger an Orichalcum door to seal the room. "

Even if an adventurer could break Durandal, Orichalcum was another beast entirely, the most expensive alloy in the world, an ageless material that never breaks. The only downside being it can only be made into large items, the smaller it is the closer it is to just regular Adamantite. Best used for indestructible and magic-resistant walls and doors.

"Then how did they get into the cell?" Riveria asks.

"Simple, the Orichalcum never dropped, he cut through the enchantment. We brought in mages from Althena just for that facility and he cuts through it in a few minutes," Shakti groans.

"That makes him an enchanter," Riveria points out.

"And a Magical Swordsmith, and an Item Maker, and who knows what else," Freya says. With a teasing smile, she turns to Hephaestus, "you've got good taste at least," she almost laughs as Hephaestus's face shows the slightest shade of red.

"That explains this at least," Finn waves Welf's page around before putting it back into the folder. "It only had two things, his level and his weapon, Mosoka. All it says is the sword shoots fire," he releases a relaxed sigh, alteast this one was simple.

Looking across the table from his seat, Ouranos sees the reluctance in Hephaestus.

"Hephaestus, is there something you'd like to share?" he asks.

"Hmm, well... I don't exactly know what Mosoka can't do," she says with some apprehension.

This earns confused looks from everyone.

"What do you mean?" Ganesha asks.

"Well, he said it does a lot of stuff---"

"I saw him kind of fly with it," Shakti adds.

"Right, but it's all just fire stuff since that's the element of it," Hephaestus says.

"C'mon, do you at least know all the stuff Yang can do Phae-Tan?" Loki grumbles out.

"That's not fair, he does a lot of things, nobody can keep track of all that," Hephaestus first back.

"Do you at least know what his weapon does?"

"I've never actually seen it active, he doesn't use the magic side of it above floor 50," she says.

"Loki please," Freya interjects between her sisters. "The Trifecta are completely self-sufficient, quite frankly they only need Hephaestus as a glorified level-up device."

"HEY!" Hephaestus cries out in disbelief.

"Freya has a point," Ouranos speaks up. Everyone turns to look at him. "Seeing as Hephaestus has gathered a force capable of wiping out any city-state in the world, and neglected to give them proper supervision. It's best we treat them as their own familia, much like the divisions of Ganesha familia," he says. Freya feels a pit in her stomach at this decree, Ganesha and Shakti share a victorious look as they hear this.

"Hmm, does that mean---" Hephaestus words were cut off.

"AFTER, you pay your fines, your negligence must be punished Hephaestus, now let us move onto the final member...Yang Shen," he says.

"Right, holding all the records up to his current level. Controlling Fire, Water, Cold, Lightning, Wind, and Earth. Capable of breaking Durandal with his bare hands and rapidly healing, his weapon is unknown, listed here as the 'Elementalist Switch-Axe'..." Finn puts the paper away and takes his seat once more.

All eyes look toward Hephaestus for some elaboration.

"Uh-huh, it's a fancy Great-Axe. According to Welf it's well over two hundred pounds, too heavy to use, and takes too much magic to activate. But Yang somehow did it, it's more like he bound three magic swords together to make it honestly," she says.

"Why wasn't this weapon documented with the guild?" Royman asks.

"Welf wasn't done studying it, we still don't know the upper limits of it or even all the functions," she says.

"That seems to be a trend with their weapons," Riveria points out.

"They can't exactly stop every three floors and make new weapons," Tsubaki snaps at them. "They need things that they can rely on."

"True," Finn raises a finger to his chin. "But this leaves me even more worried. If he held back this much I can't imagine how powerful he is, certainly beyond a level seven."

"Mhm, but that worked out for us at least!" Loki reaches out and wraps as an arm around Finn. "My baby boy here got to level 7 after that last fight!" she announces proudly while patting his head.

Everyone in the room looks at them with some form of shock and surprise. All but Ouranos and Royman.

"Well, whaddya think of that huh Freya! My baby Finn is coming for that top spot!"

With a bored look, Freya only gestures to Allen beside her, "do you really think you're the one new level-7 in the room Braver," she gives them a soft smile.

Loki's smile drops as she glares at Allen, then silently sits back in her chair, mildly embarrassed. Just when she thought the power balance was evening out, Freya just keeps ahead.

"Hmm," Finn gives Allen a calculating look. "If we both leveled up, our feat must have been damaging him then... but if he's that strong for it to level us up, is he still level-7?"

All heads turn from Finn to Hephaestus once more.

"Yes, he is level-7. He hasn't even been on a real expedition since he leveled up," she says defensively. "Jeez, it takes more than two weeks to hit level-8 you know."

"Does it, for him?" Loki asks.

"What are you getting at Loki?" Hephaestus narrows her eye at the trickster god.

"Well, this new kid just shows up and breaks every record. And clearly, he isn't rushing his level-ups as soon as he hits 500 in one stat like most idiots. So what's the trick?" Loki asks directly.

"I don't know."

"Liar."

"I don't know Loki."

"I don't believe you," Loki scowls at Hephaestus.

"Enough!" Ouranos raises his voice slightly, the entire city feels a sudden pressure on them as this one-word booms out. "Hephaestus is telling the truth, she doesn't know what makes him so different," he confirms.

"Hmm, fine," Loki sits back in her chair.

"Now, let's discuss what should happen if Yang and his team decide to cause chaos when they return," Finn says.

---After The Meeting...

"Can you pour me a drink?" Hephaestus asks, laying in bed under her blanket. Tsubaki was sitting at the foot of her bed reading over the minutes from their two-hour meeting.

"No, you can't drink with those painkillers," Tsubaki gets up and pours herself a glass of wine.

Taking a sip of her drink Tsubaki.

"You're so mean," Hephaestus groans as Tsubaki climbs into her bed, earning a confused look from the goddess. "What are you doing?"

"Going to bed, that's what people do at night," Tsubaki says matter-of-factly.

"In my bed?"

"Mhm."

"Why?"

"I'm used to Thaile walking around the apartment, feels weird without her there..." Tsubaki confesses.

"Awe, you miss her, that's cute," Hephaestus says.

"Drop it."

"No, I think it's adorable, she's just a bit...lost right now," Hephaestus says.

"Mhm, hopefully Yang can bring her back," Tsubaki says as she turns on her side.

"He's a softie," Hephaestus chuckles lightly. "Willing to sacrifice so much to get home, but I don't think he'd let them die, even if it gets him home," she says.

"What about Welf, your loverboy is a traitor, what's the plan there?"

"Ugh," Hephaestus groans and covers her head with the blanket. "I don't wanna think about that right now, when we pay whatever fine the guild throws at them after the trial we'll deal with that," she says.

"Bad news for you then," Freya's voice calls out as she enters the room.

Both women sit up in bed with confused expressions as they see her.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in here? What the hell?" Hephaestus blurts out.

"The door was open, and Ouranos doesn't plan to just slap you with another fine for this," Freya says as she walks over to the bed and sits down.

Raising a brow at her Hephaestus gestures for her to go on.

"Ouranos lets Ganesha have separate divisions because of how large his familia is, he can't punish hundreds from an essential familia if a few dozen act out," Freya explains.

"Uh-huh, I know that, what's your point."

"It allows him to...remove, an entire rotten set of adventurers, he plans to do that with your Trifecta,"

"That can't happen," Tsubaki says. "If they actually try to kill them Yang is gonna crater the city."

"Obviously, but now we have three level-7s and they think we can take him. I'm not entirely willing to bet we can but...collateral damage," Freya says as she shoves her way past Tsubaki and gets under the blanket.

"So what's the plan?" Hephaestus asks.

"They're gonna come back and just surrender, that way the guild knows you can still control your adventurers and no more people need to die," Freya says as she gets comfortable under the blanket.

"Mhm, I figured that was their plan anyway," Hephaestus says.

"Yup, and if we really need to he can just kill some people and be done with it," Freya says.

"That's definitely not gonna happen, you've met Yang, right?" Tsubaki asked.

"Sigh, he's too soft on people, I expected my Odr to be more...like a war god."

"Uh-huh...and why are you still here exactly?" Tsubaki asks, seeing Freya getting ready to sleep. Looking next to Freya, Hephaestus was already closing her eyes to rest for the night. "And why are you just going with it?" She asks Hephaestus.

"SIster stuff, you get it..."

With a defeated sigh Tsubaki just lays down and gets comfortable. "Don't touch me in my sleep or anything."

"Please, I'm not Loki...and you're not Yang..."

END CHAPTER---

Finn and Allen level-7 now :)