__Several weeks ago__
Travelling to the Ersos ruins, the Artemis familia made it to the edge of the continent after an arduous journey.
"Listen, everyone. We're taking care of monsters. Don't let your guard down, Lars-san gave us these useful artifacts too." Rethus gave them the earpieces.
"Orion-sama is so cool, this is gonna be so helpful for us." Lante fidgeted around, imagining the dreamy Orion.
"Lante, how many times do I have to tell you? Lars isn't Orion." Artemis sighed.
"Hmm? Really? Then why did you give him an earring made personally by you? I thought you disliked romance?" Lante raised a brow at her.
"T-that's... That's just a sign of our friendship!" Artemis blushed.
"Love starts with friendship, Artemis-sama." Lante countered.
"Okay, okay, stop. We will not be talking about this right now, when we're so close to the ruins." Rethusa pulled Lante away.
Artemis then remembered another friend of hers. She always tried to make her experience love; Aphrodite.
__Tenkai__
"Artemis, why are you a stalwart hater of romance and love?" Aphrodite, a blonde woman with verdant green eyes asked her.
"This again, Aphrodite? I am the goddess of purity. Even friendship with the opposite sex would eventually lead to taint." Artemis had a strict point of view.
"Ehhh!? You'll never get a boyfriend at this rate." Aphrodite looked at her like she was missing a lot.
"Not like I needed one, Aphrodite. How many times must I tell you that?" Artemis sighed.
"Well, you haven't experienced it of course! So I want you to fall in love, feel all tingly inside whenever you see your lover, bask in their warmth, kiss each other." Aphrodite swooned at the thought of it.
"K-kissing? How lewd, you'll get pregnant." Aphrodite craned her neck towards her and she looked at her like she was an idiot.
"Have you heard about the birds and the bees?" Aphrodite asked her and Artemis shook her head.
"Listen closely alright." Aphrodite winced and she started to whisper to her.
After every sentence, Artemis started to get redder and redder. Until she looked like a tomato near the end.
"H-how shameless! You've corrupted my ears, Aphrodite!" Artemis glared at her.
"That's how kids are made, silly." Aphrodite sighed at her.
"Listen, Artemis. I want you to roam the world. You can keep being the huntress or whatever. But when you find someone.
A person that you are comfortable around, someone that brings the best in you. A person that you want to be with, do not hesitate." Aphrodite looked at her seriously.
"Because once you do, you might never have the chance to hold them, make delightful memories with them. And lose them forever, which you will regret for an eternity." Aphrodite knew how she is.
Artemis would most likely find someone like that, given how big the world is. But when she loses them, she will never see someone who will make her lower her guard ever again.
"T-this is none of my business Aphrodite, I will never engage in such acts." Artemis was stubborn.
"Let's see." Aphrodite smiled at her, as if knowing something that she doesn't.
__Artemis POV__
"So this is the Ersos ruin huh?" Artemis looked at the gate of the ruin.
"Let us enter, Artemis-sama. Please be careful." Rethusa went head first as their captain.
"This place is quite creepy." An amazon shivered at the feeling of the temple.
They saw depictions of a large scorpion monster being sealed by the fairyfolk as they made their way in.
"I have a bad feeling about this, everything is going too smoothly." Artemis frowned.
The heavy set doors then closed shut behind them.
"Prepare for battle!" Rethusa shouted and the huntresses went into position.
The temple shook and they suddenly saw something move in front of them.
Its black shell started to glow a crimson red. The glowing lights looked like circuits and something like a red eye shone ominously.
A roar made them freeze and the huntresses has never seen something quite like it before.
A scorpion-like monster, armored heavily by a black shell.
Rethusa quickly barked orders. "Fire your bows at it!"
Everyone began shooting at the thing, but their arrows just bounced on its carapace.
"W-what is that?" One of the huntresses asked, before being hit by one of its legs.
She crashed onto the wall and her eyes turned hollow immediately.
Chaos broke out instantly as they tried to fight the unnatural beast.
"Lante! Bring Artemis-sama outside! Quick! This thing is too dangerous!" Rethusa ordered through their comms.
"Yes! Artemis-sama, come on!" Lante pulled her goddess towards the heavy set doors. But they were unable to open it.
The two pushed it with all their might, but they couldn't make it move, even a smidgeon of movement was impossible.
"W-we have to help them! I'll use my arcanum!" Artemis saw that more of her huntresses started to die.
"Artemis-sama! Use your arcanum to escape! You have to!" Lante grabbed her shoulders.
"What!? Don't be foolish! I must save you children!" Artemis denied her.
"No! You finally met Orion-sama! Listen to me, Artemis-sama! Love is a beautiful thing, Orion-sama is just a mortal. You must experience it with him." Lante brandished her weapons.
"We will buy time! Open it now! You can't use enough of your arcanum to help us, you'll be sent to tenkai immediately." Lante smiled at her.
Artemis tried to reach out to the young elf, but she already entered the fray.
She could feel the door react to her arcanum, but instead of opening it. Tendrils appeared and it grabbed onto her.
The monster focused on her and the huntresses noticed.
"Artemis-sama!" Lante tried to hit the tendrils, but they were too hard.
"Leave me! Run for your lives!" Artemis shouted out.
But they were stubborn, dropping one by one due to the monster that saw them as troublesome flies.
Lante got hit by its claw and she flew towards Artemis.
"My goddess... Please. Promise me that you would at least meet with Orion-sama one more time. Use your arcanum, to experience how beautiful it is to love someone." Lante was bleeding heavily.
Her bones were crushed and she couldn't even move anymore.
"Save your breath Lante!" Artemis gritted her teeth.
"Promise me." Lante smiled at her. And Artemis nodded subconsciously.
"I'm glad." Lante went limp and Artemis couldn't even express her rage as a shadow loomed over her.
The monster enveloped her in its shell and everything went dark after that.
'I must go to Orario! I need to ask for help!' Artemis could feel her arcanum get absorbed by the monster.
So she split all the arcanum she had left to another body and ordered it to seek Orion. A divine construct formed outside of the temple, embedded on crystal.
And a split body formed with the last vestiges of her divine energy.
'Orion, my last hope.' Artemis lost consciousness as she got encased in crystal.
__Present__
"Tch, I knew this wasn't going to be simple." Lars clicked his tongue.
"Orion, the arrow chose you. Please, avenge my children." Artemis begged him.
"Don't worry, I will. But what about you, what will happen to you?" Lars asked as she most likely got absorbed by the monster.
"I... I am a goddess, I will return to tenkai." Artemis said morosely.
"That's it? You'll just die? I can't accept that. There has to be another way." Lars frowned.
"Orion! Please..." Artemis grabbed his arm as she looked downwards.
"I hate it! I don't want to go! I want to experience this wonderful feeling while being with you!" Artemis started crying.
Lars went quiet. "But what can we do!? It already absorbed my arcanum. My mortal body is basically dead..."
Artemis caressed his face. "Remember that love story you told me?" Artemis looked at him, her eyes full of hope.
"I am immortal, forever static, unchanging. Lars... I have been in existence for eons. Time is nothing for me. I will wait for thousands of years until you reincarnate.
I will wait in heaven. No matter how long it takes..." Artemis begged him to end her along with the monster.
Clicking his tongue, he pushed her away softly. "I can't do that." Lars frowned.
"Why? Because I'll beat the shit out of it. And Airmid's healing is so strong that even when you're basically half-dead, she can revive you." Lars was stubborn.
"Why... Why can't you just give me what I want? I can't let you die... If your soul gets extinguished by my arcanum, I will lose you forever!" Artemis couldn't understand.
"You gods and deciding things without looking at it in our point of view. I can't accept that!" Lars argued.
"Mortals are selfish! Even moreso than the gods. If you want something, don't give up on it. That's how humanity thrives in this cruel world." Lars furrowed his brows.
"And what I want, is you to not die right now. Your familia... Is already gone, they might not be close to me, but they sacrificed themselves for you.
Do you not care about their sacrifices?" Lars chided her and she looked down in shame, not thinking of how her children died for this opportunity.
"Trust me, I'll take care of this. A monster that can use your arcanum? What of it?" Lars dismissed it and Artemis got anxious.
She was about to talk again, but he kissed her. "Shut up and listen to me, I'll kill it without killing you."
"Lars..." Artemis saw him walk away and she apologized to her children.
"Thank you for opening my eyes... My children, I am forever in your debt for giving me the push to pursue this endeavor." Artemis thought of Lante.
"Lars! Save me! Please!" Artemis shouted and he waved his hand.
Hestia appeared and she had a dark expression.
"Artemis... Don't give up, he's a capable child. He will save you." Hestia was uncertain, but he's the only one that can do something.
"Hestia, I believe in him. After all, he's my Orion." Artemis looked at his direction fondly.
"He's also surrounded by capable children. Let us wait and see what he will do..." Hestia prayed that he would succeed, for her friend.
__Ersos Ruin__
Everybody arrived near the ruins and the forest looked like it was withering.
"This... The forest looks like its life force is getting absorbed." Ryuu frowned upon seeing what was happening.
And it pained her to see a forest die. "Then we can't wait, it's most likely absorbing tons of life force to take over the world." Lars squinted his eyes.
A monster with the trait of being able to absorb energy will accumulate it to the maximum. Not to mention that Artemis' arcanum is being used by it.
"From above!" Hestia felt Artemis' arcanum activate and a volley of arrows made of energy rained down on them.
Lars used his psychokinesis to make a shield above them and he gritted his teeth.
There's too much, so he had to make the barrier larger. And with its divine nature, his mana was used up a lot.
"Hah, hah, what gives?" Lars frowned. "It must have felt my arcanum... And it wants to shoot me down before I have the chance to free myself from it." Artemis explained.
"Then let's hurry everyone, this will be a mess." Lars sighed.
__Orario__
Lights were congregating in the skies. And the monsters in the dungeon were rampaging.
"What is that? Another moon?" Riveria asked, but Loki opened her eyes and she frowned heavily.
"That's not a moon, mama. That is arcanum, shaping up to be a bow. Heaven's strongest arrow." Loki started sweating.
"Artemis-sama's arcanum!? But how?" Riveria was shocked.
"We do not know, but one thing we do know. Is that's bad news, that will wipe out all life here in gekai." Loki was nervous as hell.
__Dungeon__
"Lars... Not coming. Hungry... Need, magic stones... To evolve." Ley hasn't seen Lars for more than a week now.
"Must... Become, human." Ley's turquoise eyes shone. It then felt that the monsters were agitated in the dungeon.
"No choice... But to fight." It started going to the upper floors and Ley arrived at the 49th floor.
The dungeon spawned all of its monster rexes and tons of the mobs all at once.
An army of fomoires and the Balor saw it from afar.
"Evolution... Near... Slaughter." Ley's chest glowed a brilliant sapphire blue.
It then began an unstoppable rampage, to level up.
__
Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.