C119: End of the Abyss P1
Overall Word count = 1424 on 7/26/2024.
A/N: Alright everyone, we have reached the final segment of Danmachi. The remaining arcs chapters will all hold the same title except numbers. Then we will be traveling to a few small scale worlds for fun before settling down in Fate. Something to look forward to.
P.S. No, I am not lacking chapter titles. Original title for today was "Growth" but I felt that now would be a good time to start the final arc.
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Axel awakens in bed with Freya, he has a perplexed expression on his face as he processes what had happened the past day. He raises his right hand from out around Freya as he gazes upon his palm, or more specifically the ring on his finger.
Yes his whole 3 days that he was gone, he had been experimenting with all his powers and energies. It was unlike before it was much more complicated to create, mostly due to three reasons.
The first is that he now has a second source of rage which came from the spartan Kratos. His ability was unique from Asura and Axel had to ensure that they remained separate even though they utilized a similar source, which is his own negative emotions with hatred and rage being the focus.
With the continued topic on the Spartan Rage. He had spent a whole day, coming up and creating a secondary energy source technique for the rage as its utilities are too many and not just two paths (strength and endurance) like with the Asuran Rage. As such, he was meddling around to figure out how to have his own Nen be used as an alternate power source for the spartan ability. He created a Transmutation/Conjuration ability called Rage Maekr.
It's a tiny puppet that his new ring would create that would channel any excess nen of his into the emotion of rage and store it for the Spartans' ability use. This took a while to create on it's own as a nen ability but the real trouble was integrating it within the ring.
The third reason the ring was so complicated and took even longer to make, which was why he only returned on the third day but if he continued to fail then it would have taken longer. The soul Wavelength, Meister and Weapon coming together. The proper status for his soul related ability. Integrating that into the ring took the most for its own many numerous reasons but thankfully he had a proper scientific assistant who had been working on this for a very long time even before he went on this trip.
Yes, Professor Stein had been learning Axel's magic, attempting to develop his own magic symbols and spells for soul magic within the mindscape, all so that it could finally be integrated into the ring. Of course there were bumps on the road as many of the symbols were just purely incomprehensible or couldn't sync up with the other abilities. This sync error was the reason that Axel stayed the extra two days in the world of rings, forging and forging until he finally got his current prototype.
As for the esper ability, it was seamlessly integrated since it uses his 'mind' to generate it. As such he now possesses a ring that holds all of his abilities in it. He can truly fight for days now even if he uses his strongest moves multiple times in a row and that is all due to the soul magic he got his hands on.
He/Stein was able to create a sort of soul rejuvenation spell which not only does the effect that he planned for the ring which is regathering energy to keep him energized. Yet it also serves as a soul healing technique. This allowed him to challenge the town's ghost he had inside his mind. He has gotten very close to beating the ghost as he has already gotten used to its movements and predicting its behavior but he is just a bit off from defeating this ghost.
Perhaps if he could actually neutralize the method that the ghost uses to split his body into chunks, instead of just regenerating the split parts then he would succeed but he has no luck with that aspect yet.
A few minutes pass and Axel puts his arm down and begins to slink out of bed as he needs to go check on Sabrina and Syr. He finds them in Syr's room, the two cuddled together. A small maelstrom surrounds the two as Sabrina's power gradually grows stronger. Luckily Axel set Syr and Freyas rings to be equal to his current maximum output. So technically syr is draining Sabrina faster than Sabrina is overall.
Yet their methods are different which allows Sabrina to be safe as she is held by Syr. Sabrina drains from the entire environment. Like an ethereal cloud that absorbs all around her while Syr only takes in what touches her which is the air, ground and Sabrina. While Syr is draining Sabrina faster, the baby girl takes in more from 'everywhere'.
Axel is quite curious on what Sabrina is actually doing with all the energy she is absorbing but his magic is all blocked from scanning her just as it is from anyone trying to scan him. He lets out a quiet sigh at the situation before it turns into a gentle smile and approaches the sleeping beauties, to stroke the cheeks of both Sabrina and Syr.
Afterwards he excuses himself to the backyard where he begins to exercise, mentally and physically, until it's breakfast time and he helps Raikou and the others to make it. Though he did excuse himself when they all discovered Freya's transformation and saw the ring. Many of them squealed in excitement for the both of them though the other ladies that Axel has been with are slightly jealous they never got a proper ring.
At least until it's revealed that Axel got them rings so that they could touch Sabrina. They turn to look at Axel who has Sabrina sitting on his back with the hammock carrier wrapped around her, locking her in place as he does push ups. Sabrina seems to cheer as she rises up and down, supporting Axel in his actions.
After breakfast, Axel meets with Haruhime and Aisha and tells them how he is planning to return to the dungeon but by himself. Both the ladies are pregnant and while Haruhime is not too obvious yet, Aisha is well into being near to giving birth. Aisha nearly declares that she would go with him and just give birth in the dungeon if nothing else. She has full trust in Axel to keep her safe and while Haruhime, who is noticeably nervous, also seems to agree with the idea and pitches in that she doesnt want Axel to go alone.
In the end he shakes his head while saying, " We have already lost all our progress due to the dungeon floors retreating one by one. It has been reported that the 50th floor has become the 14th floor so far. Ill need to run a ton to catch up where we were before but that will all be foreign ground and I already have to worry about Sabrina in the dungeon in case she wants to take revenge or something."
The two gradually understand his argument until he mentions bringing Sabrina inside. The other women who were hiding to the side to overhear their conversation rush out and all proclaim that he is not bringing the baby inside the dungeon.
"The dungeon region has been decreasing since the day Sabrina was born" Axel makes his first argument which immediately shuts down the words of half the women. They are about to decline further when Axel throws in another fact.
"In just about a week, most adventurers are already out of the job or have changed professions into miners so that they can create a simple tunnel to get to the deeper floors where the dungeon is now. As for those that didn't quit, they spend hours at a time traveling to floor 38 now just to fight goblins and other small critters. The stronger ones have to travel even deeper for the slightest progress in their falna" He describes the current changes to the dungeon and all the adventurers.
"I'm going to end the dungeon."