C151: Unifying the Citizens
Alt Title Teaser: Backhanded, Scissors
Overall Word count = 2660 on 10/20/2024. Longer than I expected.Thought it would be around 1.6k again but I was wrong
Apologies if this chapter is slightly delayed. It's BOYZ night and I care about that more than this novel. I'm sorry but it's the truth.
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The room falls into silence as only the sound of crickets in the distance can be heard. Nobody really knows what to do next as on one hand, Hephaestus and Ganesha are happy to see Ouranos but shocked at Axel's actions of slapping some unknown woman away.
Raikou is instead split on how she should react. On one hand, she is panicking because she was at least able to recognize Alaya before he slapped her and now wants to protect him from her.
On the other hand, She absolutely wants to fuck his brains out for fulfilling her primary bucket list objective, "Slap Alaya in her bitch face".
Yet something far stranger has happened than she expected. Alaya simply got up, dusted herself off and then back in through the hole she went flying through.
"Now that that has been dealt with, perhaps we can proceed on the next steps to take."
"Im fine with continuing our current operations" Axel states, clenching and unclenching his hand as if just waiting for an opportunity for maximum fulfillment. Raikou has to intervene by stepping besides Axel and holding his hand but her touch is affectionate but loose. As if making it easier for him to easily escape her grip and continue 'the lord's work'.
Alaya lowers her head with eyes closed. Axel can sense magical energy spreading out from her before after a minute she raises her head and steps towards the map and sets down pins on where the other camps are in the surroundings.
"The best course of Action is to gather all the people and all them to regroup then perhaps rebuild the city so that they may get their homes back. Otherwise they will go off in all directions. Lost and Hopeless, we must bestow them this hope that everything will be fine now" Alaya proposes a plan of how to proceed but then the Four other gods (Ganesha, Hephaestus, Ouranos and Hermes who somehow popped up with his captain) begin to theorize on the best course of action.
"Is the existence of Orario even necessary for the citizens or is that only for your existence, playing house with your familias?" Axel questions, as without the Dungeon, the so-called dungeon city is no longer necessary nor profitable anymore.
"But who will then stop Ares from trying to dominate the world?" Hephaestus can't help but ask.
"From what I've heard, his own intelligence. He will happily welcome all the citizens here even if they are weak. He has no reason to kill anyone here since his entire reason to conquer Orario was for the dungeon but it's gone now, so the city and it's magic cores business is all gone. Except with me"
Axel extends his other palm and before everyone's gazes, a light envelopes his hand as his magic is condensed into a lovely blue topaz crystal gemstone.
Ouranos who looks a bit more aged due to the recent excitement extends his hand to pick up the gemstone and examines it for a good while before concluding that it's a more stable version of the regular monster cores. This stability entails that mages can actively recharge these cores should Axel allow it but they don't know the fact that Axel can control whatever the crystal inhabits.
Since the crystals carry his will, he can easily create a portal to them or just teleport over with his second magic. Gaia could not do this and thus had a total information blackout for wherever her cores ended up at. Sure she could have caused mayhem there but she would never know how much she actually got to do with no spatial affinity.
"Then what is your proposed course of action" Alaya can't help but ask since with his now total lack of humanity, she cant read his thoughts anymore.
"Two things really, First this" he backhands Alaya out of the tent again, he takes in a deep breathe at the pleasant sensation that flowed through his body and soothed his formerly fractured soul.
"Second step is I make portals to all the camps to reunite people and we hold a public conference, a Denatus of sorts with all groups. If it grows too rowdy then I can have everyone write down the name of a person they would want to represent them and then hold a smaller council that way. This lack of information is the primary source of their fear. On my way here, most of the citizens were jittery and collapsed randomly even though I can tell they all have the necessary tools to be comfortable."
"Hmm, I am Ganesha. Gathering everyone would indeed be a valid first step. But what will be done against our lovely savior up top." the god asks while pointing out through the higher up second hole in the tent that allows a good view of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to be visible.
'Sigh' Raikou sighs in annoyance as she volunteers her efforts, "ill try to haggle with Semiramis to see if she can let everyone off and not hold them prisoner for some reason." The others nod at her words and Axel tells her that he will keep an eye on her and save her if negotiations fail but then teleports her over to the floating magic island of purity.
Axel excuses himself while Alaya finally makes her back to the tent. She gives a wide berth to Axel to avoid being launched again. Who knows, she might end up at the Hanging Gardens too with how he is increasing the power of his strikes.
Axel teleports over to the north side where the Loki familia are in charge. Well mostly Finn/Dim and Lily/Fianna. Loki herself is sort of in the background and trying to comfort herself about losing her precious wine collection within Ais' bosom. Yet the air headed girl just runs away from her goddess and hides behind Lily, using the Pallum Goddess as a shield against the perverted trickster.
Of course there are many other gods scattered around that lived near the second strongest familias home (Axel and the Miyamoto familia took first place after Antares but not officially. That only happened after Freya collapsed her familia). The most noteworthy is the Dian Cecht familia with Airmid Teasanare helping out where she can but she has her limits from the number of injuries she has to heal.
In second place of importance is likely the lovely Aphrodite and Kama goddess butting heads in front of their neighboring tents. Aphrodite the green-eyed, golden haired goddess with her exotic dancer style clothing makes many onlooking mens eyes widen as they fall into the concept of "medium is premium" but in contrast to her. Kama, the red-eyed, silver haired goddess with very form fitting thin fabric dress leaves nothing to make guesses on as her only modesty is in regards to hiding her three sweet spots behind leaf like slips attached to her dress embodies the concept of "Oppai is truth".
The only reason the two groups don't get into fights is because Lily has already hit both women on the head and glares at them whenever they are close to fighting. Yet through these interactions, a third group of perverts interested in Lily arise and give her a headache as they chant "Flat is justice". The Pallum population, at least the younger members who only got stronger because of Lily's blessing somehow got roped into it but remain ignorant of the human meaning of this statement as they simply chant it while supporting Lily in suppressing the two lustful goddesses.
The only thing preventing Lily from actually going back and smacking everyone upside the head is that she can actually feel the genuine effort from the children in supporting her, something she received very little of when she was growing up due to her family being split apart and destroyed because of Soma's wine.
While a large group of eyes is gathered on the half fighting/pushing event regarding boob size. A split in the very air appears and when it is widened, all lay eyes upon Axel who walks out of it before it is closed behind him.
"Howdy. Just letting you all know I'm holding a 'city-wide' meeting over at the West side camp where Ganesha is set up. This will involve the livelihood of all citizens of Orario and its gods. So it's best to come on through the portal" He goes on to create a much larger hole in space where everyone can see the other side instead of swirling energy like it was a moment ago. They can see a brief overview of the West side camp as the portal is a bit of distance away so it doesnt immediately get overcrowded by fitting everyone in the same space.
Just before he teleports away though, he is both asked a question and he unleashes a wide scale healing spell on everyone, saving Airmid from 'mind down' as well as mental exhaustion like Heath Velvet (Freya's designated healer) usually suffered from before.
"Sire, which do you prefer, Small busts or large busts?"
"All size makes my wood rise" he responds while getting a look of enlightenment on the faces of many listeners yet his next words would make his father proud.
"but if I had to be physically crushed to death under a pair of breasts then let them be big enough to make a cow-girl blush in shame" The sparse cow-girls amongst both lust goddesses entourage get tons of looks as many focus upon their mighty chest clouds, they blush in shame as even they couldn't help imagining: crushing someone to death under their breasts and are saddened that such a reality is not possible for them due to how soft they are as well as their abundance of milk, making them quite squishy too.
Axel then disappears to the South to repeat the process by telling the Serenity and the oni's of the circumstances and telling them to join up at the West after giving the nubian assassin a loving kiss and a spank on her ass.
He then teleports over to the East side after casting a healing spell here to save the actual Heath Velvet from further pain of healing as she is swaying from exhaustion until one of the gulliver brothers puts her on a stretcher.
Axel appears just outside the giant stone and wood barrier that han/Huwawa had made, there are tons of cracks along the top as they had stopped a bunch of falling rocks from Gaia when she was rising up. Also some of their attacks had caused random rocks to fly quickly at differing speeds. Some landed here and nearly pierced through the defenses.
Axel simply uses [Earth Manipulation] an extension of his [Magic Manipulation] to sink into the floor, move forward and then rise back up once he is inside the barrier.
His sudden appearance catches many off guard but Han is there to calm everyone down as he rises from his seat and waves Axel over. He must have sensed Axel's use of earth magic as the avatar of the earth and forests.
Han begins showing Axel around and the humanoid slime notices that many of the people have bandages on or have been recently healed based on their slightly exhausted vitality.
"Who's the healer in this area?" he inquires and Han answers that he doesnt know who it is but that the three from the knights group recognize them and can seemingly be considered old friends. He also mentions that the group had begun lightly joking around.
The duo walk past a small line of people who are injured and Axel extends his hand and green light shines from it as it strikes them all to cure their injuries. They give their thanks and bow before returning to the others in the cave entrance where Hans barrier is covering.
The duo enter the end of the cave where a small hospital is set up with the cloaked woman examining their current patient. Nearby the trio of Mordred, Morgan and Artoria are seated and resting with their battle gear still on while they chat with each other while the doctor sends a few words their way when they can.
Morgan is the first to notice Axel's existence due to his immense magic power which he does little to stop it's flow, only holding back enough to not harm anyone with it's dense pressure. Artoria notices him next and gives him a nod and doesnt say much yet she seems to let out a sigh of relief at seeming him all healthy and right.
Mordred soon notices his presence as she audibly calls out to him with a wave. "Hey Axel, everything is alright out there now?"
"Mostly, the city is gone and so I'm gathering its people for the largest scale Denatus that I can. We should head over their now to avoid wasting time as the faster we gather everyone and make some proper decisions, the faster the people can either begin rebuilding their home or move somewhere else" He explains and walks over to the cloaked healer who is currently cutting up some bandages as they apply it on the patient. He raises his hand to cast a healing spell when his arm is slapped away by the cloaked figure.
He frowns at the situation until he hears the person's voice, "Do not so casually steal another's patient when they are in the middle of a treatment, especially with such a casual usage of healing magic"
"I apologize but I felt that the current situation requires some speed. I did not wish to overstep my boundaries onto another healer's patient" he says as he can understand that the person in front of him was not from Orario based on their scent and is willfully helping them. He can respect them enough to apologize if he accidentally overstepped his boundaries.
"I am not a healer, I am a doctor. We have no need for healers here. Go back, the people here will come when they are ready"
"I would respect your authority but I don't even know who you are, as such you are no more than another civilian here that should be moving over to the West side along with the others." he raises his hand again
"I see that someone like you would never understand a proper doctor, especially when your not human" Just then, the scissors in their hand is raised up and stabbed into his face. Burying itself all the way to the hilt . The hidden strength of this wandering immortal who seeks to save lives is quite underestimated.
Axel crumples to the floor before the realization of their actions kicks in over their supposed grudge[1] against the 'ugly' healer.
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Alt Title: Second time better than the first, Denatus, Doctor's Scissors
Drop a comment if you enjoyed the chapter or didn't, I read them all anyways and I might respond if you have any questions that I can answer.
[1] So for a bit of custom backstory, I made it that Florence Nightingale gained her passion for the medical arts after a quack healer had their spell backfire and kill her childhood friend. She then went on to later kill this healer and steal his medical notes to train herself in the physical art of medicine and health to later serve as a Saint healer, forever wandering around as atonement for her sin of murder while she saves all that she can. Her trauma kicked in due to Axel's nonchalance and carefree magic usage.