"Hmm, let start from the beginning, I"m Hestia, a G.o.ddess who ascend to the lower world in order to experience, like the other G.o.ds, and create my very own Familia!""What type or Familia do you seek?"
"Hum?"
"So G.o.ds have ascended here, only to turn their "children" in nothing more than a puppet, some seek adventure and became expedition Familia and the like. While I know you are moved by your divinity, if it sealed as you pretend, then I can only think that you follow your own heart. That why I didn"t visit Familia like Ishtar and those in Dedalus Street, thy are nothing more than monsters using us as p.a.w.ns.
A Familia shouldn"t be like that but the embodiment of its name, a real family, one you chose, and growth alongside. I know what you will ask me but I have my own condition."
Hestia was shocked by his view on G.o.ds but couldn"t help but agree, she herself hadn"t felt the pull of her divinity ever since it had been sealed when he learned of his definition of Familia, she was elated. Being the G.o.ddess of hearth and family, she shares the same through and has been dreaming of creating her own true family, not a simulacrum like some here.
When she heard that he had conditions, she nods eagerly at him, giving him her support to not just be a p.a.w.n but an active partic.i.p.ant. If he was to became the first of her Familia, he would become the captain, shaping alongside her the direction they wish to take.
"I quite simple. I won"t accept stray into the Familia, if we are to build one, bad apple can"t be introduced just because they want? We will only allow those with the same belief. If we start to accept all those that aren"t wanted from the others we will be no different from the shadier ones, worst, nothing says that they wouldn"t betray us.
We need to put boundaries now. Even alone, I am more than enough to take care of both of our needs. If you truly wish for a real Familia, it not the number, but the individual worth of each number that count."
Had it be another one, she would worry about having only him/her in the Familia, but after seeing Alex take out that much money, she knows that he hadn"t lied. More so, he had constructed his own house. Just that would mean that they have a roof above their head, and only need to worry about food. She was about to speak but he stops her.
"Before you make your choice, let me show you the house. If you see what I am capable of, it should allow you to properly think about it, ok?"
"Hmm, I leave it to you then, show me around!" Says her with a refreshing smile, making a smile in kind.
So he does exactly that. Looking around, she couldn"t really see anything different from any other house, but it changes when she was lead to the kitchen. Here she so thing similar yet different, everything was made with magic. While the rest of Orario need to constantly look for any mishap when cooking, he wouldn"t because is tools, unlike others, are stable, be it temperature or fuel. No need for wood, all were heathen by strange crystals.
Even his pantry would be able to stock meat in a long time if she understands what he was saying. When she sees the bathtub and shower, she couldn"t help but say that she didn"t have to see any well outside, so he leads her outside, showing and explaining to her what was the use of the two tanks.
Her mind was blown away by all of this, she now understands why he was this sure, he had means and tools that not even the top Familia had at their disposition, all he would need was do go to the Dungeon to gather few crystals to make everything work.
She also understands the amount of faith he was putting in her by showing and explaining it to her. As they return to the house, Hestia takes his hand, leading him to one of the chambers. Understanding her silent action, he takes off his gambeson and lay down on his belly. Straddling his waist, he lost himself for a second in the soft feeling of Hestia"s rump on his bare flesh.
p.r.i.c.king her finger on a needle he give to her when she asks for one, she let fall a single drop of her blood on his back. The instant the two came in contact, it creates a ripple pattern before sinking in his body. Closing her eye, she let her instinct guide her.
This was a particular moment for both of them, one was receiving his first-ever Flana while the second bestowed her first one. This was an experience unique to each G.o.d, and each child reacts differently. So when the connection between the two deepens more and more, sinking further than the habitual Flana does, none of them react.
It was when they feel that they have touched upon something personal to them both, that they understand it wasn"t normal. She was about to retract her consciousness, but when she feels Alex giving her permission, she eagerly immerses herself totally.
Their surroundings vanish, leaving them into complete darkness but they could feel the other near. The darkness soon where partially banished when two sources of light appear.
The first under the form of a spectral creature in an emerald hue, the second, like a burning white flame with a blue edge. They then know that it was Alex"s soul and Hestia"s divinity. They could feel the two call each other but still keeping their distance as if waiting for something.
Alex knows from his experience of the Harry Potter world that it was either a parallel world or it was different from the known story. It didn"t take a genius to know it was the same case from this one too. The fact was things were different from the LN. He had never heard of those monster parties and swarm from it, nor that connection he had felt with Hestia when he had first seen her, and who was still present until now.
Knowing this and feeling that he could thrust her he let it flow.
Hestia was lost, she didn"t know what to do as her instincts tell her to simply wait, that she had made the first step and it was his turn to make one toward her. Before her worries could totally take control of her and made her an irreparable mistake, she feels herself being pulled into something.
The darkness exploded, like shattered gla.s.s in million of shards, and memories start to appears. Even being upside down she could perfectly understand them. She sees them visit the house, the meeting with Hephaistos, his fight into the dungeon with the swarm. His last week before his apparition in the forest. She laughs at Zeus" demise, being killed and send back to heaven by a rock as he was peeping on ladies bathing in the river. Her laugh dies in her throat as she sees him appear from another world, the end of Voldemort, the magical world, the girls, his stay in that horrible prison, his fight against adult without help.
The Basilisk terrified her while the treatment of the Dursley, apoplectic. His life in the tube, under the experiment of the Germa 66, and perhaps the most horrifying part, his stay in utter darkness, alone for eons. She didn"t have means to measure the time there but she feels that his soul was at least as old as her, only that he never know the warmth she had in heaven, after his first death.
She understands now why their soul was calling to each other. Both seek the same thing, a family. While her cames from her divinity, him was from his deepest wishes and hopes. Both wanted to found that very sacred flame that burns in the hearth of the true family.
Then came the time for her to chose, would she wrap him in her flame, heating him from within? Giving him the means to spread his wing, for perhaps one day flee far away? Or would she chose neither of them, but stand at his side, both feeding and growing stronger, from the other, of this sacred flame burning in everyone.
She heartily laughs at this immediately making the choice that would change the lives of countless.
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In another part of Orario, it was a group of seven that was introduced in their G.o.ddess room. After being able to settle down the pouting Tiona when she was unable to obtain the cute Alex"s plushy, they have a search around for a time before understanding that he had used this opportunity to vanish from their sight. Since they were their already, Finn leads them in order to explore the surrounding recorded on the map.
He was astonished by the excellent cartography skills of Alex who have to reproduce every curves, b.u.mps, and hole of the hallways and chamber. He knows that those skills were waisted on the firsts floors, but on the lower? Their expedition time could be cut off from hours if he was able to cartography them with the same realism.
The map of the guild where trash beside him. This only confirms to the Pallum that they need him, even as level 1 he would only need a bodyguard to create maps for the Familia, before being correctly trained. With a few years, he knows that the Familia could gain yet another powerful exclusive. He only needs a glance to see that the two other top where thinking the same.
When they return to the surface, they tores through the way until their house. Seeing the serious gaze of the three while Tiona was still sneakily trying to obtain the tightly guarded plushy, Loki made them enter the room.
"So?"
"The rumored adventurer was in fact the same as the one we were looking for."
"Oh?" She imperceptibly straightens at this. He pa.s.ses the map to her.
"This is a map of the first floor, parts never explored before." Say Finn when he sees her puzzled face. "He had created it under few seconds before vanishing and after fighting a swarm of goblins, alone."
"A swarm, not a monster party?"
"They were more than two hundred of them."
"What?! Do you say he fights more than two hundred goblins alone? What kind of monster he is?"
"A therianthrope, one I never saw before, just for that, G.o.ds will try to take him in. He seems of an agility type." Gruffly says Bete.
"He also uses a lot of enchanted weapons, I don"t know were he obtain them, but they are a completely new type of weapons. Even his equipment his enchanted. This is not gears a simple level 1 could buy and maintain, if I were to be truthful, it more a level 4 equipment, even then only the top family would be able to have sufficient connections to set up such a thing."
"So that is? He no more than a paper tiger then?" Sigh depressively Loki at that news.
"He is far more than this." Immediately say, Finn.
"What do you mean?"
"None, he receives not a single wound." Say Finn seriously. "He faces front off more than two hundred of them in close range and at best have his clothes scratched."
"I really have been tricked. But not all is ..." Making Loki look at him and then the map, before sighing.
She abruptly raises and darts to her window under the puzzled gaze of her children. This same reaction was shared by all the G.o.ds in Orario when they feel the flare of a strong arcana being released and sealed as rapidly that it appears. Of all, only a certain redhead has a hunch of who was responsible for this.
"Congratulation Hestia. I await with impatience your Familia history."