Chapter 38: 38 – Is it wrong to change the story?

This had the makings of 'big plot event' written all over it.

Carefully following behind Ryuu, I held one of my stone swords in my right hand while I prepared to summon the slabs in case of an ambush.

A disturbingly moist atmosphere, as well as a disgusting warmth in the air. While the path ahead looked normal with the ball of light Ryuu held to illuminate our way forward, it felt like we were walking into the bowels of a beast.

Silence. Neither of us spoke, both focused on our surroundings and the current situation.

Ryuu advanced with the ball of light floating in her left hand while she held my wind magic sword in her right. Her ears also twitched occasionally, as if listening to things in the distance.

Did elves really have better hearing, or was it just a habit? Maybe she trained her hearing while adventuring or had a related skill?

Something to look into later.

But whatever the case, Ryuu was more experienced at keeping track of immediate dangers and signs of traps. Because of that, I shifted my focus to analyzing the situation instead with my own unique perspectives.

First of all, it turned out that this situation wasn't as simple as it appeared. Granted, I already knew that since it seemed like a flag from the start, but I didn't think it was *this* big of a flag.

For the warp point tab to change to 'Great Quest', something important was going to happen.

From the setup, I had a feeling that it was the awakening of a great sealed monster who had either trapped a princess/goddess. Especially since that voice called me 'Orion' and asked to help.

Now, normally I would ignore this. After all, I was walking straight into danger and the unknown in a place that I had ZERO information about. All the prep work I did beforehand to account for the Dungeon's variables were worth nothing here.

It was practically suicide.

However, I had a reason for this madness.

First, Ryuu was here and equipped with the insane wind magic sword Welf made. Considering that she had magnitudes of mana more than me, I was confident she could rip this place apart in a pinch if it was needed. Especially since she seemed to intuitively know what the sword was capable of.

Must be an elf thing. They were supposed to be in tune with nature or something, right?

Right.

Anyway, that was the first reason.

Second... This entire development reeked of a setup by a malicious god or some dark organization. Especially since it involved the disappearance of an entire familia.

I didn't know exactly what they wanted, but it was definitely meant to lure 'someone' out.

Wasn't me though. After all, no one could predict the trump cards and things I had locked in my head except for me. Although I might seem ridiculous for a fresh adventurer, I was still just a fresh adventurer. As a result, nobody would account for me being able to interfere in their plans.

Especially crossing Orario at practically mach speed and having fast travel.

If I had to guess... This quest was probably meant to lure out someone from the Loki or Freya Familia.

Freya and her Familia were obviously preoccupied at the moment. The Loki Familia though... If I remembered right, they had been recently involved with a failed expedition. This was probably related to that.

Either way, my gut... or maybe 'Compilation' was telling me that leaving this alone was a bad idea. I didn't know exactly what was going on here, but I felt like leaving it would cause the Dungeon to act up in some way. ESPECIALLY if it was labeled as a 'Great Quest' by my skill.

So if I left now, odds were high Orario would get overrun by a Dungeon Break or something, and that was definitely not something I wanted to deal with.

Third, and most importantly... This trip was meant to vent some steam anyway. And what better way to do that then to throw a wrench in a hidden god/organization's plans?

Nothing here could hurt me. I didn't see anything strong enough to beat Ryuu, and I also didn't see any signs of crazy anti-physics magical barriers.

I had battle plans A-Z to fall back on, and in the worst case scenario, I could grab Ryuu and run.

So... there were only benefits to this excursion.

...Aaand that's a flag.

Alright. Remember the protocol. We purposefully trigger flags in order to guide the narrative and then break out of it. And the first thing to do in this situation...

"Don't you think it's too quiet, Ryuu?" I looked around, staring at the lack of any sort of ambient energy except for Ryuu's light and said, "This atmosphere's too eerie."

Ryuu pursed her lips and then said, "I agree. But-"

A sudden 'squelch' in the distance, followed by the sound of something dropping to the floor.

At the same time, a crimson light emerged up ahead, quickly racing towards us.

It felt weak, about the same level as a goblin. But...

"What the heck?"

I tilted my head and stared at its mana core.

Like all monsters, it had its mana gathered at a spot on its body. And because this place wasn't like the dungeon with all sorts of weird ambient energies, I could clearly see it.

A pulsing crimson crystal-shaped core in the middle of the creature's body. But that core...

"...Is that divine mana?"

It was similar to how Tia and Freya felt. But it was different too. Twisted.

In a vague sense, it was like Fina's mana which was half of mine and half of Tia's. But that monster's mana felt like it was parasitizing divine mana and corrupting it instead of harmonizing and synthesizing to make something new.

Ryuu didn't respond to me. Instead, she swung the sword in her right hand.

A flash of green light, followed by the sound of screeching wind.

For a split second, I could see the creature's body in full.

It was definitely a black scorpion like the quest flier described.

And beyond the scorpion, I could see other things. Stuff the quest flier didn't describe, but stuff that drew up some unpleasant memories.

"...Oh god. PLEASE tell me we're not dealing with an Aliens situation here..."

Ryuu lowered her sword and turned back to look at me. "Alien?"

I shook my head and said, "Just... Whatever you do, make sure to not let them pounce on you. Or get near your lower body. Or your mouth. Or your behind." I paused and said, "Actually. Scratch that."

I stepped in front of Ryuu and said, "Throw some light down there, would you?"

She blinked but then nodded. "I can do that. But what-"

"We're speedrunning this. Run in, blow the place up, and run out."

Ryuu blinked again and then said, "...Are you confident in your abilities?"

"Just be prepared to let it rip with that sword when I give the cue. Now..."

Soft 'cracks' echoing in the distance. Not only that, but a few 'squishy' sounds emerging as well from the darkness far ahead.

...I swear to god- No, I swear to the heavens, if there's some X-rated stuff up ahead, I'm going to pull a Welf and create a paradox blade to rip this place in half. Not sure how it's going to happen, but by the root of existence, I'll *make* it happen.

"...Kindly light the path for us, Ryuu."

Ryuu stared at me again, but then nodded and did a quick chant before shooting a ball of light up ahead.

When it did, I saw a horde of scorpions race forward, covering the walls, floor, and ceiling. Just like a scene out of the Mummy or something.

Ryuu paled.

I did my best to not flinch. Instead, I swept out my arm and unloaded my stacks of stone swords I crafted just for a situation like this.

Explosions. Shrill screeches, echoing in the confined space. Bits of black chitin flying all over the place, as well as purple smoke. Not only that, but my inventory quickly filling up with crimson shards of magic stones which I promptly crafted into more stone swords.

And for good measure, I threw out the stone slabs behind us, using them as a makeshift shield to prevent a back attack... and a 'back' attack.

I glanced at Ryuu and said, "Let's go. I'll lead the way this time, but tell me if you see something wrong."

"...Are you *certain* that you're human, Bell?"

"Honestly, no."

I never did read past the first few chapters of Danmachi. Maybe it turned out that Bell was secretly the grandson of Zeus or something and was part god.

That'd be an interesting twist. Would also explain a lot about what I could do.

"Either way." I turned my attention back forward and said, "Let's hurry this up. I need to make dinner for the family still... Oh. Did you want to come over?" I glanced back at Ryuu and said, "Fina would be happy, and Tia needs some more friends too."

Ryuu stared at me and then sighed. "Both Syr and myself have become wrapped up with a troublesome man, haven't we?"

"...Again, I'm taken and I would very much like for this to stay platonic."

Harem antics were bad civ IRL. Never worked out very well... Also wasn't fair for everyone involved.

Ryuu laughed and then threw out her light ball, making it float in front of us. "I think you will have better luck slaying the One-Eyed Black Dragon at this point then to keep all your relationships with women platonic, Bell. But you can rest assured." She smiled and said, "I will respect your wishes."

"...And I'm going to need to take active steps to break that flag in the near future, huh?"

"Pardon?"

I sighed and said, "Nothing." I turned back around and continued with my Gate of Babel-On barrage.

Totally unrelated to a certain King of Heroes.

Walking forward, I recollected the broken blades and crafted new ones before going on my way. "Let's just find the source of this mess and get rid of it already."

Hopefully it was just a giant cursed monster and not some crazy boss that had devoured a goddess or something and could use Arcanum with impunity-

Wait.

Didn't Welf make a weapon that could do that? The whole shooting around Divine-level attacks and stuff. That was why Hephaestus sent him off to join us, right?

I sighed.

Well. Can't say I'm happy to see that my paranoia was justified, but I'm definitely happy that I prepped Plan G. Now, hopefully...

Actually, let's just shut up and stop raising flags.

Yeah. That's the smart thing to do here.

xxx

Waves of scorpions. Not only that, but scorpions that seemed to grow stronger the more of them were killed.

Thankfully, they weren't facehugging monstrosities. They were still pretty grotesque though.

I shredded another batch of pulsing hives with a barrage of stone swords, shuddering at the chitin and gore flying all over the place. "Really need to pick up some proper magic..."

Times like these made me want to burn the place to the ground with righteous fire.

...Hm. Maybe I should look into making a flamethrower at some point- Ah. No. Bad idea to introduce guns and modern weaponry into a fantasy world. Next thing I know, I'll have to be facing enchanted railguns or something... Hard pass on that.

Ryuu flicked off a bit of scorpion blood that splashed on her cloak and frowned. "Odd."

I gave the area a once over before glancing back at Ryuu and saying, "What's odd?"

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"Even monsters on the surface should vanish when their magic stone is destroyed. But these are persisting."

"Mm." I glanced up ahead at the swirling mass of distorted mana behind a pair of looming double doors. "Probably because of whatever's waiting behind there."

Ryuu glanced towards the doors and then slowly nodded. "It appears so." After saying that, she looked at me and said, "Shall I take the lead? If it is a powerful enemy, it will be dangerous for you. While your ability to fire swords as arrows is useful against these weaker monsters, if the foe is higher leveled, you will be instantly cut down."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that fact. That's why we're not fighting." I swept all the random scorpion shell bits into my inventory next to the glittering fragments of ore that fell from the Dungeon walls in my pitfall incident.

Ryuu blinked. "We are not?"

"Nope." I opened up my fast travel menu and got it ready. After that, I checked the ring that Fina gave me.

It was plain. My adorable little princess wasn't the best craftsman. But she had definitely packed all her emotions and feelings into it. Not to mention her literal divine talent.

A scary amount of fire mana was sitting in it. Since it was Fina's, it wouldn't hurt me. And I could already feel it responding to my will.

After making sure of that, I looked back at Ryuu and said, "We're going to hit hard and get out of here. You know how to use that sword to its max, right?"

Ryuu glanced at the wind magic sword I loaned her before nodding. "I should be able to."

"Alright. Then..." I walked around to her left side and held out my right hand.

Ryuu stared at me, looking down at my hand.

"It's going to be tough getting out of here if I'm not holding onto you. And since you're using your right hand... You don't mind, do you?"

Ryuu stared at me and then sighed before grabbing my hand. "Perhaps I should expedite my plans to join your familia, if not just to have Lady Hestia scold you more."

"Can't help being a super charming guy." I smirked for a bit before wiping it away and focusing. I held out my left hand, focusing on the mana in the ring. "Now... Wind and fire make for a big explosion. It should be enough to get rid of whatever's inside there. You lead with the big wind slash, I'll follow up with a surge of flames, and then we bail and head back just in time for dinner. Sound good?"

"Coming from anyone else, it would sound ridiculous." Ryuu tightened her grip on the magic sword, causing it to start glowing a light green hue. "But considering every other thing about you... I suppose it is fine."

"Well hopefully things get less ridiculous soon." I glared at the door and said, "Seriously want to just have some nice and calm days with the family. And that date with Tia. Still owe her one, along with a good cuddle."

Ryuu raised an eyebrow and said, "You are quite a cruel man, aren't you?"

"Well, I've always been partial to the idea of world domination considering how dumb the populace can be... But that's a conversation for later. Ready?"

The light on the magic sword amplified, turning almost blinding. After that, Ryuu nodded. "I am. Are you?"

A soft chime echoed in my head. I wasn't sure if that was because a skill was being activated or if it was just my imagination. But I felt the ring on my finger start heating up and vibrating, as if itching to show off its might. "Ready as ever. Now, I'll blow the door open on three. After that, we execute."

"Understood."

I nodded and then pulled out one of the giant slabs, aiming it at the door.

"One."

Ryuu stepped forward, aiming the sword at the door.

"Two."

I started looping the giant slab for more speed and didn't stop until it turned into a gray blur. And then...

"Three!"

A giant explosion. The stone slab flew forward, piercing through the doors.

A shrill and ominous roar, like something straight out of Dark Souls.

For a split second, I caught sight of a black and red scorpion creature with all sorts of weird pulsing tendrils.

But just for a split second.

"Hah!"

Ryuu swung the sword. A surge of light and wind flew out, aimed at the creature.

Seeing that, I flung out my hand and released the flames itching to-

A sudden screech- No, a bird cry.

With it, pure white flames flew out to join the winds that Ryuu released. Flames that were definitely carrying traces of divine power that perfectly melded with the maelstrom Ryuu caused. And one that was quickly eating up all the other mana in the vicinity, including the corrupted mana.

Ryuu's eyes widened and she instinctively pulled me close, stepping back.

As she did that, I opened up my fast travel menu.

The mana was pulsing, threatening to explode.

Seeing that, I instinctively reached out and tried calming it down with Energy Manipulation.

It paused. Just for a brief moment.

With that bought time, I warped back to the church.

Bright light. Heat and harsh winds. An explosion. For a split second, I thought we wouldn't make it. Especially as I saw a large glittering boulder fly towards us.

And then I was standing in the church courtyard, hugging Ryuu.

Ryuu blinked, still tense with her sword raised.

We both stood there for a while. I wasn't sure about Ryuu, but I was definitely dumbstruck at the combination attack there.

Fina. Princess... Your fire is scary. Please don't use it on people.

"Daddy?"

I flinched and immediately jumped away from Ryuu. After that, I checked the surroundings.

The familiar church courtyard, tinged orange from the setting sun.

My adorable daughter sitting on a boulder nearby, hugging a lion plushy.

...And Tia sitting next to her, holding an open book. One that she closed when she saw Ryuu standing there.

I sighed.

Freaking MC aura. Out of the plot and right into the romcom antics...

xxx

The depths of the corrupted Elsus Ruins. Once upon a time, it had served as a seal, keeping the terrifying monster known as Antares sealed away and its powers suppressed. But recently, it had managed to regain its power and break free from its bonds. Not only that, but in the process, it wiped out the entire Artemis familia and devoured Artemis herself to use as its core.

A threat to the world itself. With having taken in Artemis as its core, Antares was a monster that could freely use Arcanum and divine powers in the lower realm with impunity. Unless a god was willing to act as a sacrifice, Antares would be unstoppable.

A 'quest' that ended in tragedy. There was no way around it. Even if Antares was slain, Artemis would have been slain as well, killed instead of simply sent back to Heaven.

And in one timeline, the result was just that. Bell Cranel managed to slay Antares with the help of Artemis, who managed to sneak away a tiny portion of her power to seek her 'Orion' who would be able to defeat Antares. But at the end, Artemis's death was unavoidable. No matter how much Bell wished otherwise.

But here...

Within a sea of pure white flames and swirling emerald winds, a beautiful young woman slowly stood. Her long blue hair shifted as she did, swaying along with her pure white dress.

She looked around the rooms, her eyes staring absently at the flames before focusing on something. A faint ripple still left floating in the air.

Faint voices echoed from somewhere beyond it.

One was familiar. An energetic and bright female voice that tugged at her heart.

Another was vaguely familiar as well. A male voice that was a bit nonchalant but also confident. And the one belonging to the man who freed her.

Hearing that, the young woman reached out her hand and stepped forward. And then-

"W-What the hell?"

The surroundings changed. The flames and swirling winds vanished, replaced with fading sunlight and a gentle breeze.

"A-Artemis?! Bell! Explain yourself!"

"What do you mean explain myself?! I don't even know what the hell's going on in my life anymore! Argh..."

The beautiful young woman blinked and then turned towards the voices.

A shorter young woman with silky black hair and bright blue eyes stood next to a tall man with pure white hair and crimson eyes.

She didn't recognize them. But... "Um." She tilted her head and said, "Artemis... Is that my name?"

Silence.

And then the man covered his face with both his hands and groaned. "God *fu-*"

"Bell!"

"*Freaking* dammit! I should have realized something like this would happen when that monster looked like a knock-off Zelda boss."

'Artemis' blinked and then tilted her head. "Zelda? Is *that* my name?"

Bell lowered his hands and then groaned. "No. Just..." He turned to the short young woman and said, "Could you help sort her out, Tia? I'm going to go cook and let off some steam."

xxx

Back at the Elsus Ruins. Or rather, at the smoldering mess of what used to be the Elsus Ruins.

There, a pair of robed figures stood.

One of them, a masked man with more masks hanging from the front of his robes, tilted his head in thought.

The other, a woman bearing a crimson mask with black geometric patterns reminiscent of tree branches, bowed her head and said, "Apologies, Master Enyo. It seems that an unexpected variable emerged."

The man waved his hand and said, "It's fine, Ein." He rubbed his chin and said, "This is interesting." He stared at the few white flames lingering around the edges of the ruins and said, "An amusing side project resulted in such an unexpected finding." He crouched down and reached out to the white flame.

"Master Enyo!"

Enyo waved her off and then scooped up a clump of dirt that still held the flame. "Hm. It has dimmed, but it burns pure, just like the Eternal Flame. And yet, it is clearly mortal in nature. Although..."

The white flame suddenly surged in strength before dying down, turning back into a small ember.

Enyo chuckled and then held up his hands. Emerald vines sprang forth from his sleeve before wrapping around the ember. After that, the vines shimmered and turned into a crystal, leaving a glowing white ember encased within. He stood up and then said, "Ein."

The masked woman bowed her head. "Yes, Master Enyo."

"I will be occupied for a while experimenting with this new toy. You are free to do as you please until I send for you again."

"Understood."

Enyo stared at his new crystal and said, "With this... the orgia I planned will be quite the sight to behold." He chuckled and then started walking off.

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