(3rd person PoV)
"There she is. Getting taller helps us too, it seems" Henryk found her, Hestia, but she had an extra thing that was not there in the show. 'Is that a shield? So she requested it for me?' Henryk felt a bit guilty adding to her debt to Hephaestus. 'I can always ask my children for help with the debt of my goddess, a debt that I caused her to make worse'
"Henryk, where are the others?" She looked around, trying to find where Ray is. The others were also missing.
"I had them enjoy the festivities in their chienthrope forms. Our healers and poison masters wanted to chill at home. As for Ray" He pointed a finger up. Ray was fully enjoying the sky. She was doing some aerial maneuvers while singing a melody. Some people forgot that a monster was the one doing this. It was a truly enchanting performance.
Of course, this was announced to be approved by Ganesha beforehand. It was introduced as part of the festivities, so none could interrupt her fun on her day of freedom.
Well, some self-righteous level 4 tried taking aim at her. Keyword tried. That adventurer was almost at risk of becoming public enemy #1 for the rest of the month, at least. Nobody appreciated him aiming at the festival's best singer yet. Among them were some level 3s and many level 2s who were enjoying a day to decompress from days on end fighting in the dungeon.
Henryk threw a stone at the guy's head from behind cover.
As for Fey, who was with Tiona right now, she was getting petted by anyone passing by. She enjoyed the welcoming gazes and their affections.
"Small Fey's cute, after all~!" Fey was joyfully accepting affection from others today.
(Line Break)
"... A beautiful melody, truly" A blind old woman said. She appreciated the sound of Ray's melody.
"Oh! Before I forget!" Hestia undid the tie for Henryk's shield.
"This is yours, Henryk. Take it" Hestia unwrapped it as she presented it to him.
"This's art. Are you sure this isn't some form of weapon solely for display? It's too fancy" Henryk graciously accepted the gift.
"It's for dungeon use. I went to great lengths to-" Henryk interrupted her.
"Get indebted to lady Hephaestus" He acted like his words were confirmed only then, after Hestia's turned startled at the other goddess's name. "I'll pay for mine. I'll talk to captain, see if he'll pay for his" Henryk knew where the weapon would come from the moment he saw her. He still looked at Hephaestus's signature to give himself a reason to say it.
"I was the one asking her for this. I won't have my children pay the price of my personal requests"
"I'll still repay you, even if it was in a roundabout way" Henryk marveled at the craftsmanship, at the depictions of his little girl and his lover etched onto the shield. "Thanks" His heart swelled as he thought of handing this shield down as the family heirloom for generations to come.
'Melia, come. I have something for you to keep' He gave her his shield, which was wrapped in its cloth again. He wanted it where it was kept away from prying eyes, and where was better than a place no eye could peer?
"You stubborn child!!" Hestia's face devolved into a pouty frown with comical horizontal black lines all over the top half of it.
"You should go give captain his too. He'd be happy to receive it" Henryk left her to search for Bell on her own.
Henryk called Ray back down to start moving to the next location.
As they walked, Henryk tried many things with Ray. Crapes with different flavors, potato snacks with different fillings, biscuits and cakes were among the things they ate. They also ate a healthy adventurer-amount of meat. Ray especially liked chocolate and fish dishes. Beef came close, but fish tasted better to her.
"Ray, I'll be waiting here for now. Could you go to Sir Ganesha and tell him what we agreed on?" Henryk said, finding it to be time to move. 'We should be able to prevent the Violas from dealing as much damage to the city as they did in canon'
"... Be safe" She flew above the stands and into the place Ganesha was watching the colosseum from.
"Ganesha, I have a message to deliver" Ray said as she landed in the little terrace where Ganesha's throne was placed.
The few guards on the terrace held their weapons in a ready position.
"I, Ganesha, welcome you and was waiting to hear your message" Ganesha signaled the guards to stand down. Upon a closer inspection, they noticed the necklace that was given to her as a means to allow her to stay on the surface. They stood down.
"It is private" Ganesha allowed her to whisper it.
"Henry says that he wants you to push back his turn to next year. He wants to do something else now. Also, prepare every hand you could. Monsters are going to show up in the city, ones that look like plant/tentacle hybrids, as he describes them. They could be violas. As for the silverback, he is taking it"
"Haha! Young men like him sure are busy! Let him know that it will be done! His turn will be delayed!!" Ganesha allowed it. 'Let the whys be asked later' Ganesha's eyes behind the mask spoke of his willingness to help for the sake of the well-being of the people before him.
(Line Break)
"Wait up!" Henryk called for a cloaked figure's attention and closed his eyes.
"Oh?" The figure turned around and stood there.
"Lady Freya, I want to propose a deal" Henryk said, daring to approach after what he did last time they met.
'He knew. He, somehow, knew it was me under the cloak' "I'm listening, young man" Her voice told of her casual feeling about this situation. She was calm and relaxed even when she was discovered.
"I won't tell you how, but I know why you want to release monsters into the crowds outside the colosseum. I want to limit that. By taming a monster and giving it directions towards the goal you wanted, I could mask your involvement in this, and the challenge would be much higher for my captain. No other monster should be let free either"
'This is interesting! I want him even if he was not my Odr!' "So long he goes through a challenge to break his limits and grow" She went forward and put the guards to 'sleep'.
Henryk found the silverback. He was preparing for this day since yesterday.
'Noland, a silverback stands in front of me, target it with [Gjallarhorn Howl]' A thundering howl was heard throughout the city.
The silverback wanted to roar or do something else by opening its mouth. Henryk did not find out what as he threw magic stones inside its open mouth one after the other every time the mouth was opened.
Once it was tamed, he fed it a silverback's magic stone. It started to lose some of its visual muscle mass. Its muscles looked leaner, and its overall appearance resembled a hairy chimp that has slightly longer legs. Its fur was mostly white.
What little was not white was around the collar bones and outlining its arms' muscles. Those were minty-green. Its skin became a healthier brown, as opposed to the dead skin-like gray it was before. The eyes became balls of raging green flames. Thankfully, the unknown flames did not overflow from the eye sockets and stayed contained.
(AN: Refer to the silverback illustration from the manga for the general build without the tattoos)
'Interesting. So that is how his taming works. It could be the reason his monsters display a different behavior as compared to others' Freya analyzed what she could see.
After looking at his status, Henryk gave him the name Silvius.
(Line Break)
Name: Silvius
Variant: Life Essence Guardian
Level: 2
(Empty I0 stats)
Abnormal Resistance I
Skills:
Xenos
Humanification
Poop Throw:
You can grab and throw poop from 'somewhere'. The ones you throw cause your opponent to get poisoned and to feel highly nauseated by the smell.
(AN: Don't pop your eyes on that. Everyone who was actually reading what monster was being tamed should have seen this coming. This is a reference to the guardian ape's move from Sekiro)
Origin of Druidism:
You can convert mind to life essence and control it. This skill prevents you from gaining any magic spells and removes already existing ones.
This skill is special. It could be taught by giving a part of your being.
Guardian of Forests:
As a guardian of forests and their wellbeing, you get stronger fighting on forest terrains.
A Forest's Grievances:
If a forest you were in got hurt, you know where the culprit is as long as they are still inside it.
(Line Break)
"Welcome to our family, Silvius" Henryk caressed Silvius's face softly.
"grrrrr" Silvius leaned into it.
The visor, vambraces, chestplate and greaves were all strapped tighter to put them back on for intimidation factor.
"Go! Follow a teenager that looks like an almiraj and act as if you want to kill him! If he was accompanied by a black-haired woman, act like you're focusing on her! Only act! Leave them alive and relatively uninjured! Your mission's only to test the boy! Go, Silvius! And remember to cause no damage to property, aside from destroying empty creates and the pavement!" Henryk shouted that last thing as Silvius already went out. He rushed out in search of Bell.
He found Bell standing beside a stall near the gate he went out from, along with Hestia. They were arguing until, "ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAR!" Silvius roared as he hung from the gate's frame.
"A monster?" Hestia took a step back in worry. "Is it looking directly at me?" Bell did not even attempt to talk. He dragged her away by the hand first then asked his question.
"Lady goddess, why is that monster following you? Do you know him?" Bell asked as he dragged her into a random alleyway. He felt like he asked a stupid question when he remembered this moment later.
"No! We didn't meet before!" They went through the alleyway to try and lose the monster because it would have a hard time fitting inside. They were unsuccessful, as Silvius was smarter now. He strait jumped up the building, did not even try to grab them through such a small gap.
They exited the alleyway only to find themselves at the entrance to the infamous, maze-like St. Daedalus.
'Daedalus street?' Bell looked behind and found the ape monster following them from atop the roofs.
Bell steeled himself and continued dragging Hestia inside a set of twisting and turning alleyways. They reached an open area, where Silvius fell from the sky, creating a shockwave that separated them. Unlike in the show, where Silvius was a simple monster, here, he was concentrating on his objective. He directly went to Hestia, rather than look between the two and then decide.
"Lady goddess?" Bell looked in horror as Silvius inched closer to her. Silvius issued a low bellow that reminded Bell of the minotaur.
'It is scary. But... I am a man! Move! Move!! Do not leave this girl behind!!' But he still moved, fueled by the fear for his goddess's safety and the feeling of responsibility Zues's words instilled in him. Bell jumped on Silvius's bent knee and tried to strike the spaces between the metal parts covering him.
Silvius put one of his vambraces in the way of the strike. The knife broke, diminishing Bell's hope of being able to defeat the monster. Silvius then slammed his forearm into Bell, sending him flying into a wall.
Bell got up immediately, grabbing a magic stone lantern that has fallen nearby, throwing it at Silvius. The lantern exploded into a blinding light right in front of Silvius's eyes. It blinded him just long enough for Bell to grab Hestia's arm and resume running away.
Silvius sat there as Bell and Hestia entered one alleyway after the other. He was calmly listening to their footsteps to know the general direction while regaining sight in his eyes. They ran and ran until they reached another clearing.
"Lady goddess, we should escape through the sewer entrance over there. The monster should not be able to follow" They ran towards it. Bell let Hestia through, but he then closed it on her. He left her on the other side.
"Bell?" Hestia had a worried face.
"I am sorry, lady goddess" Bell's face displayed a saddened and surrendering smile, a smile of someone who knows the harsh truth and is accepting it. "I will buy you some time... lady goddess, you should escape during that little time, please"
"What are you saying, Bell? Open this gate now!" Hestia rushed to the bars of the sewer gate, grabbing them with the desperate hope that they would disappear. She wanted them to; so she could forcefully grab Bell into the safety she was pushed into. She did not want him to get hurt.
Bell turned around with a shadow covering his eyes.
"Lady goddess, I do not want to lose another family" He looked once more at the sky and ran to where Silvius was.
"Bell?! BEEEEEEEEEEEEELL!!!" Hestia screamed her lungs out to no avail. Bell ignored her calls and rushed his way forward, even if it meant his death.
'Follow Bell' Silvius received his new command. Henryk was following them all the while from the start. He was flying high in the sky, sitting on a rope hanging from Ray's talons. They tested, and it turned out that this method was more comfortable for Ray on extended flights.
'Is this my purpose?' Silvius had a thought to himself.
'He may have thoughts of why he has to do this by now' Henryk guessed right.
'Silvius, I will answer all the questions I can later. Forgive me, I'm forcing you to do this first thing after gaining control of yourself' Henryk apologized for pushing this kind of task upon Silvius.
'That man, he is apologizing... I will hold him on that promise' Silvius looked up at Henryk for a bit and was about to run to where he thought Bell was.
Bell found him and unsheathed another knife. Silvius launched an attack after the other using his chains. A fountain was destroyed, along with the paving of the road under their feet. Bell was doing an amazing job of avoiding the attacks themselves, but shards of the broken paving flew with each hit. Some of these shards grazed him, littering him with superficial injuries.
Silvius aimed one of the chains directly at him this time. Bell could barely deflect it at the cost of his knife braking. He dived into another alleyway. This alleyway, to his dismay, was wide enough for Silvius to follow him in with no problem.
'Intimidate and taunt him a little' Henryk told Silvius.
As they entered the alleyway, Silvius started to flail the chain in Bell's general direction. It destroyed a great deal of the narrow passage.
Bell found himself standing on an elevated bit of the alleyway that led to a clearing of lower elevation. He jumped down as Silvius tried to hit the ground near him with a chain.
Silvius jumped in front of him in an attempt to stop him from running away.
Bell tried to reach for the stairs to the side, to get back out of here and continue to distract Silvius for more time. Silvius slammed a chain on the creates between Bell and the stairs to halt his dash. Silvius slammed his chains on the ground in front of Bell's feet, making him fall to the ground, his back on a wall.
Bell gritted his teeth in pain, but his face changed into a victorious, yet sad smile. 'I wonder if lady goddess could escape into safety by now'
Silvius got closer to him, reminding Bell of the minotaur by the way they walked and their hulking builds. Bell's twisted into a fearful smile, as he stood up shakily, still backed into a wall. With his now sorrowful smile, he said, "Miss Ais will not come this time, right?" Silvius huffed at him.
'I wanted to see her, but... Maybe it is my good luck that she would never see me in this state again' Silvius breathed right in his face. He then raised his head to the sky and roared.
(Line Break)
(Back with Ganesha, just as Ray left them)
"Monsters escaped? What about the guards?" Ganesha asked his familia member.
"Only the silverback escaped, sir. As for the guards, all seem to have their souls robbed off them in some way" A familia member said, remembering their eyes, glazed-over and unfocused.
"Probably, someone from the outside is responsible for this. But-" Another member started explaining before Ganesha talked over them.
"We can care about that later. Are you sure that only the silverback escaped?" He asked, fully knowing that Henryk would have not let another get out of there. He asked to make sure that no unexpected factors interfered in that.
"Yes, sir" Member#1 confirmed. He was relieved to hear that.
'We could mask this by saying young Henryk tamed another monster from our collection after an agreement, since that is truly the case. Since he kept his word of taking the silverback and nothing else, this Ganesha will help him if the public were against it' Nobody knows why he calls his own name even in his thoughts. Rather, nobody knew he even did that.
"Our familia's emergency squad took action immediately" Memeber#2 said.
"We cannot deal with the other problem on our own. Other familias will be requested to help us. Ask the other gods and goddesses here for help. They should be on the ready to evacuate the citizens for whenever and wherever monsters appear" Ganesha left his throne and gestured with his right arm in an authoritative way.
"Please wait! We, the Ganesha familia, were the ones to let the monster escape! And it is our task to keep public safety for the other problem that was reported by the siren! We should be the ones to protect people from the threat you were told about minutes ago!" Member#1 said in petty pride.
"We would feel humiliated if we had to rely on the help provided by other familias!" Member#2 stepped forward to follow in Member#1's words.
"I am Ganesha, god of the masses!" Ganesha shifted his outstretched arm, with his palm opened wide, to prompt the two of them to look at the crowd.
"The most happiness we feel is when we see our children smile!" He balled that hand in front of his heart and pointed his thumb at himself, to make a point of his words.
He then balled his hand firmly. He moved his arm so that his upper arm and forearm were nearly vertically parallel to each other. His standing and determination were seen in his stance and expression.
"The safety of the masses is our utmost priority!" He was reprimanding them in a softer way, which both understood.
"We are really sorry!" Both members apologized for their wrong thoughts. They corrected their stances too.
"To avoid public panic, we will let the festival continue! Do not let this problem get any bigger! Go!" Ganesha also signaled that order with his right arm.
"Yes sir!" Both members replied.
'What are they aiming for? Is it a cover attack to mask something else? Or is it to spread random chaos? I will have to ask young Henryk, since he knew they would appear today' Ganesha wondered as he looked at the people in the colosseum, cheering, unaware of the danger that edges others outside.
(With Hestia, after she was locked in the sewers by Bell)
'I have to find a way out! Bell... I want to help Bell!' As she ran for a while, she tripped on a jutting pebble and fell. She righted herself and readjusted the cloth holding Bell's new knife, remembering what Hephaestus said as she looked at it.
(Flashback)
"Okay, Hestia, listen well. The hieroglyph writing that I wrote on those weapons gave them a status of their own. They are alive... the weapons" Hephaestus was solemn in her words.
"Alive?" Hestia was puzzled. 'When was that a thing?'
"When they fall in the hands of their new owners, your two children, life will spring in them for the first time, and they will grow with them" Hephaestus said before affirming. "Just be sure that the children each weapon is supposed to be for are the ones touching them first after you"
"Do these knife and shield have this kind of power?" Hestia looked back at them in wonder.
"Yes. In other words, they are perfect weapons for new adventurers" Hephaestus said.
"Amazing! As expected from heaven's best smith, Hephaestus!" Hestia complimented her.
"Praising me will not drop a valis out of your debt" Hephaestus busted her attempt.
"Che!" Hestia clicked her tongue. She was still smiling.
"Although, in my opinion as a smith, those weapons are dangerous, in a danger league of their own. Do not ask me to make another like them, okay?" Hephaestus smiled softly.
"Thanks!" Hestia bowed one last time before going out.
'I will have Takemikazuchi down on his knees, apologizing for corrupting Hestia' Those dark thoughts were not apparent on her face.
(Flashback End)
Hestia stood up and continued running through the place, trying to find a way out. If she could find Bell and give him his knife and a status update, her child could most probably defeat the monster.
'But hold on?! Doesn't that monster feel different? It feels as if it is toying with us with no real intent to harm us! And that weird silverback-like appearance! HENRYK! He sure did something!' She figured the situation out. Monsters that looked like the dungeon-born ones but had different traits and body shapes, those were characteristics of Henryk's children.
'I'll have to grill him with a scolding later!' Hestia's determination to pay him back burned like nothing before it. She would play along for now, as she could see the growth opportunity for Bell, but Henryk would have to answer for this.