After completing the "Unsealing Ritual," Bell clearly felt his strength and magic suppressed deep within his body. It was as if countless chains wrapped around him externally, sealing that dormant power completely.
"The Falna System is really a bit overbearing."
After checking his own condition, Bell couldn't help but mutter.
"That's because it was deliberately designed to impose limits on the children of Genkai. Without the restrictions of the Falna System, would the children of the lower world truly treat us—gods whose power has been sealed—as gods?"
Freya's words made Bell fully agree.
Without the Falna's constraints on adventurers, surely some would have already run wild.
The reason Godslaying remained taboo was precisely because the restrictions prevented adventurers from attempting such things. Once someone killed a god and was marked on the gods' blacklist, the future that awaited them was obvious.
"It seems the gods really prepared thoroughly. Without deeply understanding the state of the lower world, they wouldn't have created such measures."
Bell couldn't help but admire how farsighted those gods were—those who saw straight through the hearts of people. Without their insight into how much darkness existed among the children of Genkai, countless Godslayer incidents would have unfolded long ago.
"So the original purpose of 'Disassociation' wasn't to retire adventurers, but to ensure that those who committed grave crimes would be reduced to helpless remnants, right?"
If the Falna System had that many internal functions, Bell could reasonably suspect the original intention of "Disassociation" had never been to simply sever an adventurer from worldly conflict.
"Indeed."
Freya didn't deny it. "Disassociation" had originally been created to punish adventurers who committed serious sins and refused to repent.
"But Bell, you're probably the only person who would use the Disassociation punishment to sever yourself completely from the Falna System."
That made Bell feel a bit embarrassed.
But it wasn't something to be proud of. If the gods who developed this function learned that someone treated a punitive mechanism as a ritual for completely escaping the Falna's limits, they would surely be speechless.
Still, now that things had reached this point, Bell found himself grateful to the god who had proposed the Disassociation function—if his guess was correct.
"Maybe this function was developed specifically for me from the very beginning. Using Disassociation as punishment feels too forced anyway. And I doubt many adventurers have ever actually been punished with it."
"Creating a function for just a handful of cases? Even coincidences have their limits."
Bell let out a silent sigh.
The goddesses present seemed to reach the same realization.
Indeed, developing such a powerful "Disassociation" function for only a tiny number of adventurers seemed absurd. Not to mention that using the function required the Familia God to directly perform a ritual—wasn't that even more unreasonable?
It was hard to imagine a Familia God needing such a mechanism to punish a child.
Thus, the function was most likely never meant to punish adventurers at all but was specifically created so Bell could one day break free from the Falna's restrictions.
Bell couldn't help but feel a wave of emotion.
"Everything has been within Mother's plans."
"So my earliest assumptions about her actions were completely right. Mother was always expecting me to walk a much longer path."
Only by assuming that his initial guesses were correct could he arrive at this conclusion.
Everything had been guiding him to this point. Every arrangement had been to set him on this path.
At this moment, the influence of the Falna System was completely shed. The chains around his body sealing his power were a form of punishment, but also a measure to temporarily restrain the strength he had tempered until now. When the moment of ascension arrived, those seals would break anew—none of his efforts would be wasted.
"Next comes the ascension ritual."
"Wait, Bell."
Just as Bell was about to head outside, Hestia called out to him.
Bell turned, puzzled, and Hestia explained why she stopped him.
"Bell, this time we'll perform the ascension ritual at home. In fact—right here in the living room."
"This time, we don't need your protection. We want to be right beside you and witness the entire process of your ascension."
"..."
Bell couldn't help but feel a bit helpless at that reasoning.
"Hestia, the ascension ritual may not finish today."
Bell had no way of judging the ritual's duration. This was his first experience with it, after all. But one thing he could be sure of: the process would likely take more than a single day.
"It's fine. We've already prepared for that."
Hestia puffed out her chest proudly. She wasn't acting on impulse—before today, she had already discussed everything with the rest of the household.
...
"Exactly."
Loki's lips twitched as she glanced at Hestia, who was deliberately showing off her figure. Loki felt that Hestia's unconscious behavior always seemed intentionally provocative. Still, this time, she agreed with Hestia's plan.
"For today's ascension, the little runt ran around rallying all of us just so your ritual could be held at home instead of outside."
Hephaestus walked up to Hestia and placed a hand on her head. "This little idiot said, 'Last time Bell explored the inner side of his soul outside, I felt like he was lonely. So this time, the ascension must be done at home.'"
"Even though she always makes strange decisions, I'm on Hestia's side this time. Last time you explored your soul out of concern for our safety. But this time? Are you still thinking you need to protect us?"
That was exactly what Bell had been thinking—but he swallowed the words. Hestia and the others had clearly prepared thoroughly.
Yet Bell still had some concerns about the ritual. Last time, it had manifested a Laḫmu. Who knew what might appear this time?
But faced with these five goddesses, Bell couldn't bring himself to refuse.
"...Alright. I'll prepare for the ritual now."