Chapter 394
Watching the silverback inching towards his goddess, Bell forced himself to act.
Breaking all of his limits, he ran, closing the distance to his goddess in less than a second.
He pulled on her petite frame, saving her from the clutches of the beast and held her tight. Immediately after, he burst into a full sprint towards the road.
At least, he thought it was a road.
Sadly, it was a sharp stairwell, and moving at full speed, he tumbled down the stone steps.
The world spun again and again, a scream stuck in his throat.
“Are you okay?” Bell asked, his goddess his main priority.
“Yes… I’m fine.” Hestia replied, but Bell didn’t believe her.
Hestia looked dizzy, her head flopped around, but her voice was clear.
Relief momentarily flooded his expression.
But that relief soon turned into wariness.
“Why are you here?! I told you to run away, far away! Now, luring it away was meaningless…!!” Bell asked.
Hestia’s clothes were soaked with sweat.
‘Did she run around Daedalus Street looking for me?’ Bell wondered.
Hestia had no idea where he was going, nor did she know her way around Daedalus Street, so how did she find him?
In truth, such a feat was extremely difficult.
All Hestia had going for her was the faint general direction of Bell through their Falna connection.
Even with that, it would have been very difficult to cross the labyrinthine street, especially considering the distance Bell had run, which was quite far.
However, due to the subtle yet unseen manipulation of her movement by Draco, Hestia was able to find Bell.
Sadly, this was a fact that both Bell and Hestia would never know, unless Draco revealed himself.
“… You really have no clue, do you?” was Hestia’s reply after catching her breath.
She wiped her sweat covered face with her right arm and gave him a bright smile.
“I can’t just run away and leave you behind, now can I?” Hestia said.
“You want to protect me? Right back at you.”
She didn’t stop there.
“You made a promise, right?”
“Ah.” Bell gasped.
He remembered a promise that he should never have forgotten.
He recalled the promise: “Please don’t leave me alone.”
He broke that promise when he gave up.
He was about to leave Hestia on her own.
“… But, like this, both of us will…” Bell’s words trailed.
Sensing that he couldn’t finish his sentence, Hestia put on a serious expression and said in an equally strong voice: “It’s too early to give up, Bell.”
“Eh?”
“I have an idea.” Hestia said, reaching into her robe and pulling out a small case.
But before she could unveil what was in the case, she gasped, her mouth half open.
Bell followed her eyes to the top of the stairwell.
A wild silhouette was charging right at them.
Reacting quickly, Bell grabbed Hestia and jumped.
The silverback landed hard, turning the spot they had just inhabited into a crater.
They had to get away quickly.
“Sorry to be rude, goddess!” Bell said.
“Wahh?” Hestia gasped in surprise as Bell held her in his arms, completely violating all manners.
He was carrying her like how heroes carried princesses in stories.
Her face was bright red against his chest.
“Sorry, Bell. I know this is hardly the time, but I’m sooooo happy right now!” Hestia said.
“What the heck are you saying, goddess?!?!”
They were inches from death, and she was happy?!
He couldn’t understand at all.
Taking advantage of the situation, Hestia swung her arms around his neck.
Bell, misunderstanding her action as fear, tightened his grip on her body and ran.
He ran and kept running until they hit a dead end.
Three tall houses surrounded them, and there was only one road.
There was no point turning back.
The monster had them cornered.
Bell set Hestia down before taking a quick look around.
Several of the residents were looking down at them.
They quickly hid when they noticed he could see them.
‘I know that they aren’t helping us because they’ll get dragged into this situation and possibly eaten. I don’t blame them for hiding. After all that running, we can’t get away.’
Hestia, on the other hand, was scratching her chin, thinking of something.
She recalled that on her way to find Bell, she kept seeing arrows pointing in the right direction. At first she thought it was done by the locals, but something seemed off.
Underneath and above the arrows, she kept seeing the same three words: “Update, Weapon, and Fight.”
These words didn’t make sense when considered without context, but in their current situation, these words seemed to have meaning.
‘Is it just coincidence?’ Hestia pondered, but soon dismissed the thought.
She wasn’t good with thinking about complicated stuff, so she didn’t bother delving down that rabbit hole.
“This is good.” Hestia finally spoke, much to Bell’s confusion.
“EH?!”
“Bell, you will slay that monster.” Hestia suddenly declared.
“Huh?!”
“I will update your status right now. You will use up that power to take it down.”
‘Sure, she could update my status, and I would stand a better chance in a fight than before. However… it won’t be enough,’ Bell thought.
He had actually considered fighting several times, but with a broken weapon and weak strength, how could he fight?
“… I can’t, goddess. You saw it, too, right? I can’t scratch that monster. Even if I got a little stronger, I wouldn’t be able to land a killing blow,” Bell said.
“What if your attack got stronger?” Hestia asked.
“Eh?”
“Could you slay it if you could do damage?” she asked before opening the case in her hands.
She removed the contents and held it out in front of him.
A black knife encased in a black sheath rested in her palm.
Bell slowly reached out to take the weapon from her.
He stood there almost in shock as he took the blade from its sheath.
The handle and sheath were black; the blade was no exception.
The black knife didn’t curve like a claw.
It was straight as an arrow.
Plus, a series of complicated markings decorated the edges.
It started glowing a deep purple in his hand, almost as if the “knife” was responding to his touch. Bell stood there, admiring the weapon and its beauty.
It felt sacred, as if it was created by the gods themselves.
He looked back up at Hestia, her crystal-clear eyes meeting his.
“Bell, what happened to the boy I knew? Didn’t you go deep into the Dungeon looking to pick up girls just a few days ago? What happened to the Bell who swore to get stronger, to never give up on his dreams? Where did he go?” Hestia said, trying to lighten the situation.
Right now, what Bell needed was courage.
“I’ll help you win. I’ll make you win. You might not believe in yourself right now. How about believing in me? And I believe you can do this.”
Hestia put her hand on his back and put all of her strength into a big push, giving him a boost. “Now, go!”
With those words, Bell’s perception seemed to narrow to a very thin line.
His heart beat in his ears.
His feet were enveloped in heat.
But his head was clearer than it had ever been.
He crouched down and took off his battered armour, except his inner shirt, while Hestia updated his status.
His body was ready to take off at a full sprint.
Power filled his legs, his left knee up and ready to blast off.
“GYAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”
The monster had reached the middle of the road.
Its enraged howl echoed down the long street.
Victory was a long shot.
Bell himself wondered if he really had a chance.
Even if he didn’t believe in himself, Bell decided to put his absolute faith in Hestia’s words.
He sprang forward, his goddess’s encouragement filling him with a surge of determination and courage.
The Silverback fell silent.
Bell had never moved this fast; a six-hundred-point status increase had granted him speed unlike anything he had ever experienced.
Despite the distance still separating them, the Silverback realized in that moment that it wasn’t fast enough to defend against a killing blow.
In the heat of the moment, Bell remembered Eina explaining the basics to him, her finger pointing for emphasis.
He could hear her voice clearly, telling him exactly what to do next.
He focused on the one place that made a monster a monster: its "core."
Bell locked onto his target….a single point on the beast's chest.
The monster charged, its heavy feet pounding against the street, its massive arms shaking lightly in the air.
Bell used what little time remained to line up his strike, his eyes narrowing on that one spot.
His new knife blazed with a purple hue in his grip.
All the power gathered in the blade, all the strength in his body, and every last drop of his energy poured into this single thrust.
Muscles tore and bones cracked as Bell’s dagger pierced the monster’s chest, his own body following through like a spear.
“GRAAAHHH!”
The black blade struck the monster’s chest head-on.
Bell felt the dagger hit something far harder than flesh or bone, a sensation that sent a jarring shockwave up his arm.
The Silverback’s eyes went wide as its massive frame began to topple backward.
Bell’s momentum carried him up and over the monster.
He let go of the knife and went flying, unable to slow down.
He hadn’t prepared for a hard landing, having focused everything on the finish, but his body reacted on instinct.
He curled into the air like a boomerang, hitting the ground before he had time to take another breath.
“Gah!”
He hit the road rolling, finally coming to a stop after several somersaults.
Bell stood up, starry-eyed and dizzy, taking several deep breaths before turning around.
The Silverback lay on its back, its limbs sprawled across the middle of the road.
A piece of the monster’s body began to collapse around the black blade standing upright in its chest.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still.
Then, the magic stone at the monster’s core shattered.
More of its body caved in before dissolving into ash.
The remains flickered briefly before being carried off by the breeze, leaving no trace of the beast behind.
Clack!
His knife and the monster chains hit the stone road as the last of it vanished.
The weapon lay in the middle of the street, still glowing with a faint purple light.
Cheers suddenly erupted from all around him.
Bell’s battle with the Silverback had moved the residents of Daedalus Street, who had watched the struggle from a safe distance.
People who had been hiding in the shadows and behind barred windows now emerged from the stonework in droves, clapping and cheering at the top of their lungs.
A smile spread across Bell’s face amidst the applause.
He looked back toward the end of the road to grin at his goddess and shout that he had done it…..but then he saw her.
Hestia had collapsed on the ground.
Bell’s face turned pale, and he broke into a cold sweat.
He snatched up his knife and ran to her aid.
Her body was limp in his arms, her eyes closed tight.
His face turned an even deeper shade of white as he picked her up gently and ran out of the alleyway, pursued by a glorious send-off of cheers he no longer heard.
………………………………………………
“I failed to hurt Hestia… but what’s done is done,” a voice drifted from the roof of a house overlooking the dead-end road.
Freya was speaking to herself.
She had been watching Bell from the best seat in the house, her silver eyes locked onto the boy as he held Hestia tightly against his chest.
At first, she felt a flicker of disappointment that things hadn’t gone exactly as planned, but she soon smiled up at the blue sky.
“Congratulations, Bell. You still have a long way to go, but… fufufu, yes… you were quite heroic.” She paused, turning slightly.
“Don’t you think so too, Draco?”
Directly above her, Draco sat perched, his tail lazily swaying in front of her face.
Freya reached out a hand to touch it, but Draco pulled it away.
“No touchy,” he said.
“Hmph,” Freya scoffed.
“By the way, why did you interfere? I don’t recall you having any meaningful connection with them.” She asked.
Draco didn’t answer immediately.
He knew that lying to a goddess was a pointless endeavor, so he chose his words with care.
“Perhaps because i can see his potential to become the second-strongest adventurer in the world” Draco replied.
“Why not the best or strongest?” Freya asked, a grin dancing on her lips.
“Because I exist,” Draco replied, his tone firm.
It was spoken not as a boast, but as an absolute truth.
Before Freya could say another word, Draco vanished, leaving the scene with a tremendous gust of wind.
“Interesting,” Freya muttered with a smile, shielding her eyes from the heavy wind his departure had kicked up.
The hood of her cloak had slipped down, but she didn’t bother to replace it.
Freya watched Bell run toward the exit of the street, making a beeline for the exit.
She squinted her eyes and turned to leave, her silver hair sparkling in the sunlight.
“Let’s play again, Bell.” She said, her last words left adrift.
A/N: Feel free to read ahead on pat3on, donate and read 2 extra chapters as a free member.