4,240It was chaos, all of it.
And…the worst part was that Hephaestus could hardly remember it all in her daze.
After Archer's revelation, Hephaestus had frozen stiff, mind ringing hollow.
S-She should have known it all along. No, she did. She'd just refused to see it.
Hephaestus had witnessed project Pandora first-hand and knew better than anyone else that the being born of her folly could not have lived in that infernal fire touched by the darkness of the malignant darkness in her eye.
Hephaestus's 'Pandora;' the child born of her own hand and blessed with her divinity and divine aspects, had already died. All that remained was an echo and the memory of having created him. Any other specifics were oddly absent from her mind despite how thoroughly Gods were said to remember.
It didn't make sense!
Fury like no other welled up from within her, but upon recalling Shirou's face, the fires were doused with bitter remorse and concern. She was distraught, her composed demeanor a fraud and sham of her inner turmoil.
This suffocating feeling of wrongness welling up from within her, it must have been what the other Gods were feeling.
Hephaestus did not have to look far to catch a glimpse of Apollo who refused to leave the temple of Epidaurus where his son was killed once more in divine lightning. All that remained was a fragment of a grail Hephaestus's divine eye could interpret granted wishes. Whether Shirou and the others needed that piece yet or not, none were about to readily take from a grieving father.
But Hephaestus spotted something more.
Apollo's bloodshot eyes, and his slow fading expression as the last of his child's existence faded away into embers, gave way to unadulterated conviction. There was something growing within the Sun God's bloodshot eyes, and the grip he had over the fragment his son had collected to clear this Dungeon's floor was white-knuckled.
If Hephaestus thought more deeply into the matter, she would have caught onto what the Sun God must have been thinking, but she didn't. Instead, she stared at her own shaking hands and the blood still on them from when she'd helped to support Shirou from his injuries prior.
From the moment Shirou's companions took him from her hands, Hephaestus could not take a single step forward.
Did she even deserve the right to follow after him when it was her failure that led to his ruin?
Rain fell over Hephaestus's face from the lingering storm atop Epidaurus before she felt a pressure on her shoulder. Tsubaki had placed a hand on Hephaestus.
"We should leave," Tsubaki whispered. "Everyone else is already departing. The lower floors of the Dungeon…they're more than I had ever expected them to be. Even Apollo's son perished in the depths. A spirit- no. A DemiGod like him fell here."
"What are you trying to say Tsubaki?" Hephaestus lowered her tone, still not turning her head to address her Familia member.
"The Dungeon is dangerous. A Demi-God died." Tsubaki emphasized. "...but yours still lives."
"..."
"I don't know what the deal is between you and your own child, but what do the words of the Son of Zeus matter to make you falter now? I honestly don't get all the complicated crap with Spirits and shit, but Hephaestus. Look. At. Apollo."
"..."
"Stare long and hard, and remember that your son intends to go deeper into the Dungeon. Apollo's kid is already gone. Apollo can't do anything about what happened anymore, but what about you?"
Hephaestus pursed her lips. Guilt or not, was it worth distancing herself when her son was in danger? This Dungeon was a hellhole she would much rather Shirou and the others stay away from. With Caster gone, death was now permanent.
"Now look at Thetis." Tsubaki continued.
Hephaestus turned her eyes. Few if any Gods and their Familia remained after Shirou and the others had left including Hestia whom Bell had to carry out on his back while she remained inconsolable. Freya stood silently brooding while Loki had already run away from the Dungeon after accosting a scared Iris. The last to remain was Thetis and Peleus.
Tsubaki shuddered while referring to the Water Goddess and her Captain.
"That's the expression of a woman who doesn't care what she has to do to keep her child safe."
The animosity Thetis was directing at Apollo was genuine. She was still around because Apollo was still around. The only reason Thetis wasn't acting on her impulses was because Peleus was stubbornly dragging her away.
"Now look at you," Tsubaki said, jolting Hephaestus' attention back on herself. "Will you continue to just stand in place?"
Hephaestus balled her hands into fists, eyes raising. "You have quite a mouth on you, Tsubaki."
Tsubaki crossed her arms and scoffed. "That's why I'm the captain. Someone's got to snap fools out of their trance when they are too absorbed in their work and thoughts."
Letting out a long sigh, Hephaestus thought deeply of her own sins, but then weighed them with the chance of Shirou dying again. A laugh escaped her mouth.
Truly. There was no comparison.
"Tsubaki," Hephaestus called.
"Yes?"
"Have someone monitor Loki. I didn't like the look she had in her expression."
As one of Orario's current dominant forces, there was too much to risk if Loki went unstable.
Not when it became clear that Shirou had a way to commune with Spirits- DemiGods and summon them.
No doubt, that would be what Gods with forgotten children would focus on rather than Caster's death or the dangers of the Dungeon.
The Supreme God that presided over the Dungeon in Orario had a headache, one that he knew he would have no chance to resolve.
Ouranos was an aged God with weathered features and a long beard that fell just short of his chin. He wore a simple dark cloak and had long white hair that draped past the hood he had pulled up over his head.
Placing a hand over his face, Ouranos rubbed at his temples while another God with a cowboy hat and long gold bangs, gingerly flipped a coin in his hand from the other side of the room.
Heads. Tails. Heads. Heads.
The constant sound of a coin flipping and landing on the God's hand echoed in the quiet space, but Ouranos did not fail to spot the tiny flickers that appeared over the God's expression every now and then.
Ouranos was tired of it all. The past few weeks had been plaguing his mind like none other, but Ouranos was nothing if not sharp.
"Do you doubt me too, Hermes?" Ouranos asked, his voice reverberating in the enclosed room.
The sound of Hermes flipping a coin ceased altogether, silence stretching through the area.
"See Ouranos, we have a working relationship. You preside over the city and Dungeon, and I deliver messages. Simple as that, but lately…hm." Hermes pushed the front of his cowboy hat over his head. "We have our secrets, I know that, but you see when faces of children I should know keep popping back to mind again and again, and I have trouble even trying to recall concrete details, a man starts to wonder."
Hermes flipped a coin again.
Tail. Tails.
And again.
Tails.
Hermes pauses, staring at the results of his flips with grim amusement.
"It doesn't add up does it?"
Ouranos did not answer.
Hermes crossed his arms and pushed off the wall where he was leaning his back. "You may see everything, hear everything, but there are limits. I don't like it when another God tampers with my own thoughts. I have doubts, Ouranos, but I won't let them interfere with business until proven true."
A heavy sigh escaped Ouranos's mouth, his hands steepling together, and his shoulders hunched as if burdened by the weight of the world.
"One should stop to consider the bliss of ignorance, or consider whether there's an overarching reason for deception. One as shrewd as yourself should understand, shouldn't you, Hermes?" Ouranos said with a weary voice.
"True or not, but whose choice is it to decide that?" Hermes shrugged before walking out of the room. "Gods are petty. We both know it. Good luck explaining 'reasons' to a bereaved father and anxious mothers. They're coming. It may not be now, but I can sense it."
"..."
Hermes vanished in a swirl of divine wind and lingering feathers.
Left on his own, Ouranos shut his mouth and clenched his jaw. He was waiting for Fels to return with news about facilitating a meeting with the Spirits known as Demi-Gods that have arrived in Orario.
In the end, there had been a reason for everything in regards to Orario's cycle of rebirth, and the infertility of the Gods.
What Ouranos needed now was their help.
While most Gods were made to forget, Ouranos still remembered.
It was not the Gods that had led the times, but the heroes that led Quests or rebelled in their name that changed the tide of history.
Now was the time to reveal the true meaning of the Grand Quest and the Dungeon.
The Grand Dungeon and the end of the first epoch.
Trees toppled as Rider pulled back his lance with a single arm. The simple thrust he'd delivered with his lance had carved up a sizable portion of the make-shift training field around him. To be more accurate, it was a clearing in the woods that reminded him of his days training under Chiron.
He was thinking.
New realities had come to fruition upon reaching the lower floors of the Dungeon, and even Caster had perished.
Rider had never really considered the aspect of death in this world based on the overall level of its inhabitants, but perhaps he now had to reevaluate his prior misconception. It wasn't that he feared death of any sort, but rather, he felt as if there was something to look forward to.
Saber had said that the Dungeon would help to grant their wishes which would explain the purpose of their summoning, but Rider did not care. Rather, he felt an inexplicable excitement welling up from within him at the thought of a worthy challenge.
The only hesitation causing doubt in his mind was the expression his mother would make if he went out in another blaze of glory. His whole life had always been a shooting star, and when the speeding comet eventually slows down and cools, it too will be dragged to the ground.
Pulling back his lance, Rider repositioned it beside him and leaned his weight on it. Closing his eyes, he pictured what was to come for him in the Dungeon's lower floor, and ended up scratching his temple.
'What exactly was his wish?'
"Tch,"
In life, Rider had gone out the way he wanted. In his anger he'd committed acts that bore the seeds of regret, but if asked if his entire life and journey was a mistake, he'd never renounce it.
By now, that Fels fellow had already left the abandoned church after encountering Assassin. It wasn't as if the others hadn't sensed the intruder, but when the entire team could single-handedly neutralize any threat below a God's level, it felt rather meaningless to all be up in arms. Assassin could handle it and the Master. Besides, Fels had extended an invitation rather than pursued a path of violence.
Shirou would deal with the invitation once his body was recovered.
For the time being, all Rider and the others could do was wait. Servants could act on behalf of the Master, but the Master still made the overall decision. Until Shirou awoke, they would be on standby.
As for why Rider was out training on his own, he just didn't want to stay behind at the abandoned church.
Rider wasn't a liar. He was an honest warrior.
It would be difficult for him to maintain a straight face once Hestia returned, still caught up in the turmoil of an alternative version of herself.
Rider would just rather not be there, and he assumed it was the same for others because only Saber remained to keep watch over Shirou in the abandoned church while the rest moved on standby.
Rider wasn't going to lie, but he'd been hoping for another spar with Archer, or at the very least, Karna seemed just as phone. However, both declined his invitation, citing that the matter could grow out of hand while the Master was unconscious.
Should Shirou not wake up in time, Archer would take his place in meeting Ouranos.
As for the others, they would secure a perimeter around the abandoned church. The Valkyries would make sure of it.
The rustle of leaves alerted Rider to a presence that caused the edges of his lips to tug upward.
Clever girl had managed to sneak quite a close distance to him, but instead of pursuing a sneak attack, she had boldly announced her entrance by the echo of two large thumps.
Rider stared up at Penthesilea who wore a silver helmet and leisurely lifted two massive metal spiked balls attached to chains around her forearms.
"The fiftieth challenge!" Penthesliea boldly declared.
Rider opened and closed his mouth before showing his teeth. This girl was just as headstrong and obtuse as the woman he remembered. Even after seeing what he and the others had achieved by breezing through whole sections of the Dungeon alone, she still had the guts to keep challenging him.
Craning his neck to the left, a gust of air gingerly passed Rider's cheek as a spiked chain ball brushed past him. The clinking chains attached to the ball rapidly tightened and recoiled in an attempt to wind the attack back around Rider's neck, but Rider vanished from his spot and appeared nonchalantly behind Penthesilea.
"Remember to break habits before they can be exploited," Rider reminded, as he positioned his leg behind Penthesilea's knee. "You tend to stare too eagerly at where you intend to throw your weapon."
Grabbing one of Penthseliea's arms, Rider pivoted and threw Penthesilea over his shoulder.
In a starting feat of flexibility and core strength, Penthesilea wrapped a chain around Rider's waist and secured herself to him. Letting go of her weapons, she attempted to grapple Rider down with her Amazonian strength but quickly fell into a predicament.
"Huh?" The Amazon Queen made a sound she didn't know she could make. Her muscles bulged beneath her lithe physique, but Rider did not budge.
"Do not grapple when you are too weak. Would a monkey grapple a gorilla?" Rider flicked Penthesilea on the forehead and sent her tumbling back in a stupor.
The pain was negligible, but the force of the 'attack' was real.
Penthesilea choked a gasp as the wind was knocked out of her.
"N-Not like this. FIGHT ME SERIOUSLY!" Penthesilea roared in embarrassment.
This Pentheseilea was young, and far more immature than the Amazon Queen Rider remembered facing and falling in love with, but the foundation was there. She just didn't know how to utilize all of her inborn strength.
"Make me," was Rider's blunt answer.
"..."
Penthesilea stewed, letting Rider's mind wander.
The abrupt challenge had helped Rider focus more than anything else. Regardless of what lay in the dungeon, or how his mother would react if he died before her eyes again, Rider was a hero that lived in the moment.
He was never one to focus everything on the future. If he was, he'd never have chosen to follow through on the prophecy made in his legend.
He would not over complicate things.
-!
"Not good enough."
Rider grabbed Penthesilea's ankle from an unsuccessful kick, and threw her back from where she'd pounced on the ground.
The Amazon Queen glared, rubbing a scuff of dirt off of her cheek before standing back on her feet.
"Bastard," she scoffed.
Rider grinned.
For now, this was enough.
/-/
Shirou woke up on the morning of the fourth day.
Thanks for reading! And Thanks to my newest patrons: Frank, Superpenguin, and Stardhero2king
Sorry for the smaller update, I just had to rework the plan I had for this arc to fit in line with what I intend to do for the story's final arc. It took more time brain storming than it did writing, but this will be updated again next week.
Cheers!
Free web novel :[The Apostate in Grim Fantasy] (For those that asked, the web novel is available on webnovel and the patron main page, leave a review if you'd like! New goal is 20 reviews)
Next update: To be announced
P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious
Book links:
Fatedlegacydark
New Book: Out on Amazon (Remove dash on link)
Survivor's Log Reflection: Amazon.c-om/dp/B08VDDGN7Z?