C54: Bell's awakening, Aftermath, Alaya
Word count = 1856 on 3/20/2024
"So Bell, when are you going to put the moves out?" Axel asks
Bell's face lights up all red, "Haa. what do you mean?"
"Well, based on that shade of red, you already know what I mean. But to clarify. You already have a loving beautiful goddess who seeks the attention of her dear first child. Lily herself already admires you beyond saving, and now you have two cute huntresses possibly living in your own home." Axel's every word causes Bell to constantly jump around like a rabbit or twitch around nervously.
"You might not know this Bell but the Artemis familia pride themselves on not relying on a man or even being near them. They aren't foreign to concepts of love or desire for the other sex but Artemis herself had supposedly made a rule that if her huntresses wanted to be with a man then they would have to leave the familia. Quite Harsh, no? So if you claim your goddess, be sure to go after Artemis next so that she breaks her own rules and kyrene is freed up for you as well"
"What are you saying? A mortal like me cant be with a goddess. That doesnt make sense. We will eventually fade and only hurt the goddesses if I do this." Bell denies the possibility of this when Axel places his hand on Bell's shoulder with a cocky grin that seems to irk Bell for some reason.
"Does that mean Hestia is available for me to claim?"
After saying this, the aura on Bell changes as he exerts his full strength to grip Axel's arm. Bell simply stares with an emotionless expression on his face, staring into Axels face as the cocky grin morphs into a silly smile.
Axel is unharmed by the grip as he taps on Bell's shoulder while saying, "it seems your body is more honest than your mouth." His words throw Bell into a stupor as he begins to bend over, up and down, over and over again as he apologize.
Axel slaps his back while he is bent over which makes him almost fall over. "Don't you know the world we live in? Humans have the possibility of becoming immortals and saints. These are historical heroes who ascended to half divinity. Can you not be with your lovely goddess if you become one as well? As a mortal you should strive to live your life to the fullest. At the very least confess your true feelings to your goddess. If she responds in kind then you will feel happier. And if your feelings don't match then at least you make it clear and deal with the heartache later."
He finally ends his spiel as the trio of Axel, Bell ,and Welf who have been watching the speech from Axelin a bit of self reflection arrive back at the Orario gate. It had been opened as lower level adventurers are rushing out to hunt down the retreating weakened scorpions. The Freya familia also began to retreat to the city. They have plenty to ponder about how they might be worthy of staying by their goddess' presence. Ottar himself is feeling a strange emotion himself and realizes that he has degraded after felling Zell a few years ago.
Each person has varying expressions and thoughts of the future. Axel soon splits from his group as he begins heading home. While most of them were not very active as they were stopped fairly early near the city walls, they had still fought. Axel is a bit tired after the hard fought fight. While He may not have been injured, using up so much energy on the Radahn shade only to regain it and then spend it again leaves him a bit lethargic.
It takes him a while to arrive at his home and finds Raikou standing before the gates with a stranger next to them. They are wearing a cloak and hand over a letter to Raikou who quickly rips it open and starts to read it as the stranger walks away. Axel feels some fear from this person even though he couldn't make out any of their features. Raikou has a furious expression on her face as she is reading the letter that holds the guild insignia on it.
"Goddess, is everything alright?" He simply asks as he comes closer.
"My darling boy, why did you have to show off so much in that battle?" She says with a few tears in her eyes as she cups Axels face in her palms and drags his head into her toasty bosom. She holds him tight as if whatever she had just read would separate them or something. Axel breaks out of the tight grip as he holds Raikou to his own chest.
"What happened? Who was that just now?" he asks but Raikou only shakes her head and she unwillingly hands over the letter.
"Dear Axel, I hope this letter finds you in good condition. My name is Alaya, I write this to inform you that mortality is not a limit to you as it is to others. As such, I must ask that you follow the standards of all immortals. Faith and prayer shall seek you out as a result of this battle. To prevent your early ascension as the limiting of your growth. Please read below for a seal that shall limit your strength to A class stats with the exception of Endurance."
"Afterall, I do not wish for you to die for any reason but to nurture your strength. A time shall come when you reach the limit and that is when the seal shall unravel. This seal wil allow your body to better handle your own rapid growth as your stats will still grow normally but there will be a limit to how much you can exert each level. "
"Sincerely, Alaya, Spirit of Humanity"
Axel finishes the letter and a look of understanding flashes through his mind. He has had a smooth track of growth, it should be expected that he would eventually reach a limit or some sort of pressure. But this is good for him too as the seal should allow him to still gain stats from weaker monsters depending on how his soul responds to the seal. He shows no fear as he begins to read the next lines.
"Glorious Moon,
Fallen Sun,
Gather the 10 keys of Dusk to unveil the gate to Eclipse,
Beyond the blind light do the seasons show their blessings,
Summer strikes the match for grave heat,
Fall descends the twilight of the great harvest,
Winter shackles the unrestrained,
Spring clears the plate with fresh dew and new growth,
cleanse what is and shall be,
until the limit can not stand thy glory. "
From the letter itself, a golden glow emanates as a chain shoots out to wrap around Axel's neck. This chain melts into his skin as his magic stat is sealed. From that chain, the next shoots out and wraps around his forearms as his strength is sealed. The third chain then shoots out and wraps around both his legs in a number 8 form or infinity sign as his agility is sealed. The 4th chain wraps around his waist as his dexterity is sealed. The 4 chains glow red as Axel feels the drain in his power from the seal activating.
He can even feel his connection to his 3rd and 4th shade weakening but that could be due to him barely having enough mind to even activate them in their shade forms. Axel has his teeth grit hard as the pain of weakening like this exhausts him and he collapses into Raikou's embrace. (Explaining my reasoning here)[1]
"A mortal should not be experiencing this. If he can only ever utilize a certain amount of power then why seek higher power. He may choose to simply level up after reaching that limit as any more is wasted effort." She plants a kiss on his forehead as she whispers, "I can only hope that you don't fall into this tragic fate and retain your powerful spirit." She brings him inside to rest. She then goes to retrieve the monster core of Antares as that realistically belongs to either Axel or Bell and it's up to them to decide.
Axel sleeps for multiple days due to the seal and Orario seems to regain it's previous atmosphere or even grow more jolly in their realization that a grave threat from ancient times has been vanquished. This is further exemplified by the fact that pretty much no adventurers died and no damage was done to the city. Thousands of monster cores had also circulated throughout Orario that for a while Vali was deemed useless and crystals were the true currency but the judgment factor of value was not unified and in certain areas of the city, chaos arose.
The leader of the guild, the mascot pig, naturally couldn't let such wealth accumulate too much as contacted old businesses that Orario had worked with before in regards to crystal sales. They had split due to these companies setting unrealistic goals due to their greed getting ahead of supply and thus they failed to meet their own demands, nearly falling apart. Royman mardeel offered an olive branch to help restore Orario to its proper order within the next week. Meanwhile Axel simply slept peacefully. His physique is adjusting to his new limits.
In a hidden passageway that reveals a lone throne with an old man sitting in it, the previous stranger who delivered the letter arrives. The old man who is Ouranos eyes the approaching figure that then silently bypasses his seated form as they merge back into the shadows of the wall.
"It's a rare occurrence for you to make a move yourself. What caused such an occasion?" Ouranos asks.
"To protect the seed of the future from himself. 3 fatal dungeon incidents in just a few months. The child will have to adapt otherwise the dungeon will keep creating more monsters to face them until they die." Alaya speaks grimly as they start to meditate.
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[1] Yes, I know EVERYBODY hates when the mc seals himself away or chooses to subconsciously weaken himself for any reason but his progress has been too smooth and just in terms of soul frags, what other people/beings could possibly be on the same level as Asura, Radahn or anything else? This provides an opportunity for weaker major soul frags with more diverse powers to jump into the pool. It's like a soft reset where the foundation of strength was set and the next levels will each get their frags. Afterall, Radahn showed up at peak of 3 which means that next frag will show up much later in stats like it was in the beginning.
I also felt that I was not adding enough interaction between characters so i will be trying The Character of each character, so we actually get some emotional progression and not just power.