After their dinner, Yoruichi asked, "Isn't it about time that you tell us what we're supposed to defeat? It's related to those monsters we encountered earlier, right?"
Hermes nodded and started speaking, "It all started with the confirmation of monsters in abnormal numbers. Many Familia's were assigned to locate the source of the problem, but all of them disappeared without a trace."
Hermes then looked towards Kisuke and continued, "All of them seem to have gone to this particular seal heritage site at the edge of the land, the Ruins of Elsus."
"Ruin of Elsus, you say? The place where the monster, Antares, is said to be sealed by great spirits of the past?" Kisuke asked.
Hermes nodded, but instead of him, Artemis took over and continued, "A monster that rotted the land, tainted the sea and decayed the forest. It took the life out of every living thing. In ancient times, the monster was sealed away by the great spirits. They called it Antares."
While looking at the bonfire, Artemis continued, "But it was regaining its power, gradually and quietly, in the deepest depths of the ruin... After a long rest, it finally broke the seal."
"The seal is broken, is it? Then the fact that this 'trip' was approved by the Guild..." Yoruichi muttered.
"It's as you've guessed. Orario took this case seriously and asked my Familia to take this quest. I also met Artemis who was also on her way. Together, we went back to Orario to recruit more Adventurers." Hermes added.
Yoruichi then continued, "Then, don't you have a better chance to defeat it, if you recruit the stronger Familias instead of us? Remember, we're just a bunch of Level 2s."
In response, Artemis just shook her head, "It doesn't matter." She then looked towards the spear on Kisuke's back, "We cannot defeat Antares without the spear." Finally, she looked straight to Kisuke, "And the spear has chosen you."
'So in other words, this Antares can't be defeated without the spear? But as far as monsters were concerned, all of them should be vulnerable to the residents of the Lower World no matter how strong it is. If this spear is really Artemis' Divine Weapon and only by using it, we could defeat Antares, then that one possibility is almost set in stone.' Kisuke then looked straight towards Artemis, 'Well, I'll figure it out once I've seen this Antares.'
Mistaking Kisuke's expression as worry, Hermes tried to console everyone, "No need to worry! Everything is going to work out just fine with the legendary spear~! We have a long day ahead. Let's go get some sleep."
.
.
.
During their night, Hestia and Artemis wanted to sleep together and talk about all sorts of things. At one point, their conversation went to Kisuke himself despite Hestia trying to avoid the topic, "So he just left you alone to tend to the shop?"
"Yeah! He left me alone in his destitute shop where anyone hardly comes! I'm still wondering why he's still running that shop when it's always in the red!"
Chuckling, Artemis replied, "Well, maybe he really likes running that business?"
"Even running an always red business should have its limits! Though I really wonder why there are so few customers. The sweets are good, after all. I can't think of any reason aside from Kisuke being cursed."
"I-it's that bad?"
With a very serious expression, Hestia replied, "It's that bad!"
Artemis couldn't help but laugh as she imagined Kisuke's situation. A few seconds later, she suddenly said, "Still, I'm surprised that you decided to start your own Familia."
With a smug face, Hestia replied, "They're the greatest children I could ask for~!"
"Hestia..."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"How do you feel about Orion?"
Thanks to that question, Hestia panicked and blushed as she tried to answer fast, "H-how!? Well... I think he's a very dependable and adorable child and um... Honestly, he's a bit more than that..."
After finishing her words, Hestia covered her face with her blanket. In all honesty, Hestia herself didn't know how she really felt about Kisuke. At first, she never thought that it was possible, since Kisuke already had so many women beside him. However, as the two of them interacted and spent time together, Hestia learned how to have fun and started to enjoy his company more and more.
From the start, Hestia already warned herself to not to fall for the guy and always thought that it was actually impossible because, despite how she looks, she was very possessive and didn't want to compete with others for affection.
However, these days, despite telling herself that this wasn't right, Hestia didn't know exactly what to think of Kisuke as sometimes, she would feel jealous when she saw him spoiling his girls and working hard behind the spotlight for their sake. Slowly, she also started to want the same thing.
Although she wasn't sure how she really felt or didn't want to acknowledge it, she could be very sure of one thing, "...He's someone very important to me."
Artemis smiled gently, "I see." She then closed her eyes and continued, "I think I know why. I also feel a little strange when I'm with him."
Hearing that, Hestia immediately sat up, "Eh!? What do you mean!?"
Artemis answered calmly, "I don't know how to describe this strange feeling."
"K-Kisuke is in my Familia though!"
Confused, Artemis said, "I know that."
"Then you're not supposed to feel that way!"
"Why?"
"B-because..." Hestia tried to think of an answer but failed, "Ah... Just because!"
"You used to not allow those feelings to get to you, Artemis!" Hestia added.
"Is that right?"
"Ugh... You were so against romance before!" Hestia sighed, but she suddenly remembered something, "Artemis... Where's your Familia?"
"They're not here, but they're waiting for my return..."
Hestia already had a few suspicions regarding Artemis' situation, but she couldn't be sure. She was also sure that her current state was also due to her Familia. Hestia hugged Artemis and whispered, "You've changed..."
"Maybe I have..."
"Yes... And we're supposed to be unchanging Deities. But you've changed."
At that point, Artemis didn't speak another word and just turned off the light of the magic lamp so that they could sleep. She then returned Hestia's hug and closed her eyes while apologizing to her in her mind.
Hermes, who was tied up to a tree by Artemis and Hestia silently eavesdropped on their conversation until they both went silent and the light disappeared. He then looked towards the moon before muttering, "Life is full of surprises..."
"I do agree on that assessment." From the bushes, Kisuke suddenly emerged. But before he spoke up, he used magic, so that Artemis and Hestia wouldn't be able to hear what they were talking about.
Hermes was a bit surprised when Kisuke suddenly appeared, but he immediately sported a smile, "You're still awake? Tomorrow will be a long day so it's better to rest up early."
"You don't have to worry about me, Hermes-sama. I'm just wondering about a few things."
"Oh? Is it about the topic that Artemis and Hestia were talking about just now? Hehe, you lucky bastard."
"Lucky? I don't know what you're talking about. If it's about eavesdropping them, I didn't do it. I took care not to hear anything they talked about. It's my respect for Hestia-sama."
Hearing that, Hermes' mouth twitched, "D-don't make me look so bad... Ehem... Anyway, what were you wondering about? Maybe I could help you?"
"I was just wondering about the spear's real identity."
Without hesitation, Hermes replied, "Real identity? It's a legendary spear from ancient times that is capable of slaying undefeatable monsters."
"Is that so? And here I thought, instead of a spear, this thing sure looks like an enlarged arrow."
"..." The smile on Hermes' face disappeared, "If that is indeed that case, what are you going to do about it? There's no changing that it's needed to slay Antares."
Instead of a vague question, Kisuke suddenly went straight to the point, which caught Hermes a little off-guard, "And why is it Artemis-sama's weapon?"
With wide eyes, Hermes hurriedly looked towards the tent where Artemis and Hestia were resting. Specifically, he was a bit worried that Hestia heard Kisuke. "Please rest assured. I used magic so that they wouldn't hear what we're talking about. Although you just confirmed my suspicions.", said Kisuke suddenly with a grin.
"Goddammit! I've been led on again? Just what the hell are you? I'm pretty confident with my negotiation skills and you just keep stepping ahead of me! You're destroying my confidence here, you know!?" Hermes lost it.
"I'm flattered with your compliment~."
Hermes could only sigh, "Whatever you're wondering, you'll get your answer once we've arrived. You don't have to worry. It's really possible to defeat Antares."
"I'm not worried about that. But I guess you're right that I'll have my answers once we're there." Kisuke then started walking away while muttering, "Really? At what cost do we need to kill that monster?"
Hermes could only stay silent after hearing that.
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Editors:
28th00: Alex just dropped dead halfway through the chapter, like I did yesterday… Woah. BESTIA! DON'T FALL TO THE DARK SIDE! On a side note, doesn't she have incredibly bad experiences with the majority of male gods? A few are her friends and really nice, but then you have the other half being Apollo and others like him (Good thing she's OP in Heaven, huh?). So the fact that she's pretty much getting everything she wants/needs from Kisuke and his girls, including immense respect, would grow on her pretty fast. I think the most important part is her divinity being Hearth and Home, Aka, Family. They're like a family, and she absolutely LOVES that.
Alexander: I had to stop midway because my lunchbreak was over. Also, I live in Germany (UTC +2 in the summertime).
As far as Bestia goes…Holy flying macaroni, that was a blow out of nowhere.
But, I'm with you. A cozy and interesting family equals her paradise. Also, even if she complains a bit about the shop, a workplace where she doesn't have to work her ass off should be right down her alley.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!
Thank you very much for support and reading this novel until this point!
I really appreciate it!
I hope you all a wonderful New Year's Eve and have a great year ahead~!
The next morning, the group continued their journey while being strangely quiet. A few hours later, they went through a long and wide ravine, before reaching the area where the Ruin of Elsus was situated.
As they got off the steep rocks, a silent and decaying forest came into their views, "What happened here?", muttered Hestia.
Instead of green, the leaves of the trees were in a deep shade of purple with some of them even blackened, while the branches and trunks were dried up.
"The forest... It's dead." Yoruichi replied to Hestia.
Hearing the words, Artemis explained to them, "This is Antares' handiwork." She then pointed towards a certain direction and said, "And that is the Ruin of Elsus."
The group looked towards the direction she was pointing in and saw some stone buildings with a narrow tower in the middle of it.
However, at that moment, a super high-pitched sound rang into everyone's ears and Artemis suddenly clutched her chest in pain, "Artemis-sama?" Kisuke checked on her but couldn't find anything wrong in that instant.
The next second, Kisuke and Yoruichi suddenly felt some strange energy gathering above their heads and both of them looked up in a hurry before shouting, "Incoming attack!"
Streams of light manifested on top of them and started to drop down, "N-no way..." Hestia shuddered at the sight of those lights, as a certain possibility solidified in her mind. Thanks to Kisuke and Yoruichi's awareness, they were able to dodge the attack. However, despite getting an early warning, Hermes failed to control his wyvern in time and was caught up.
Kisuke and Yoruichi hurriedly followed the crashing wyvern and disembarked near it, "Hermes-sama~! You alive~?"
"S-somehow..." Hermes replied, although his wyvern took a hit and wouldn't be able to fly.
"And? What was that light?", asked Yoruichi. Her question was intended for Artemis and Hestia.
Hestia only stayed silent while Artemis replied but didn't really answer the question, "I think it was me... No, it's the spear that it wanted."
"So it's Antares' attack?" muttered Kisuke as he pulled out his sword to prepare for the growing number of monsters, which were surrounding them, "It's the same kind of monster, but they're evolved? Now that's something."
Different from what they encountered yesterday, the scorpion monsters now had larger bodies and grew a single eye in front, which probably served as Antares' eyes.
Hermes panicked and hurriedly joined everyone as he couldn't fight. However, he suddenly saw how Kisuke and Yoruichi took their weapon back, "What are you doing?"
Kisuke and Yoruichi didn't reply to him but he still got his answer a second later, "Come, wandering wind, the wandering traveler. Cross the sky and run through the wilderness, run faster than anything else. Imbue the light of stardust and destroy the enemy."
A green silhouette then went above the group and released green glowing orbs towards the monsters surrounding them, "Luminous Wind!"
The glowing orbs consisted of compressed air and exploded on contact. They annihilated the monsters around them, saving Kisuke and Yoruichi from the further effort of killing them.
The green silhouette landed and turned to them, "Are you alright?... Hmm? Urahara-san."
"Yo~. Fancy meeting you here, Lion-san~." Kisuke greeted her.
Ryuu approached the group and continued, "I didn't expect to meet you here. My assistance must have been useless."
Kisuke shook his head, "Please don't say that. Thank you for helping us." Kisuke then faced a certain direction where few more people were coming, "So the Hermes Familia hired you?"
Ryuu nodded and confirmed it, "Yes. I've been asked to accompany them in this troublesome quest." She turned in the same direction as Kisuke, "They are also here with me."
Beyond the dead trees, several members of the Hermes Familia, led by Asfi, appeared. But instead of greeting the group, Asfi gritted her teeth towards Hermes as she approached him, "...Hermes-sama..."
Hermes, who was about to escape, stopped his attempt when he heard his name. He turned towards her and said, "H-hey Asfi. Good to see ya!"
But Asfi wasn't buying any of that, "You're such a blockhead!" She yelled to his face, "You went back to Orario, leaving us all behind in this ruin!"
While raising both of his hands in surrender, Hermes tried to explain himself, "R-relax, Asfi. I needed to find the chosen hero for the spear."
"That doesn't justify your actions!" Asfi retorted. Ever since Hermes left, she had been worried about him, since he didn't bring any bodyguard along.
Coming to his rescue, Artemis spoke up, "Please let Hermes go for that one, Asfi."
Hermes sighed in relief as Asfi left him alone and turned to Artemis, "Artemis-sama..."
It was then, that she finally noticed who Hermes brought with him from Orario and who the chosen hero was, "I-it can't be... Kisuke Urahara... You're the one who pulled out the spear?"
"It's nice to see you again, Andromeda-san~." Kisuke greeted her.
Asfi hoped that someone who could pull the spear out would be from a strong Familia, so that it would be easier for them. However, she rather prefered an obscure and weak Familia to pull it out than Kisuke, since it was already guaranteed by both Hermes and Artemis that whoever could wield the spear should be able to defeat Antares. Although Kisuke was strong, probably stronger than she imagined, Asfi didn't like Kisuke very much. In fact, she was scared of him.
After the incident on the 18th floor, Hermes immediately brought them to this ruin, after having a meeting with the Guild, as an additional penalty for bringing a Deity into the Dungeon. But while they were traveling, Asfi dedicated some of their members to investigate the origin of the Hestia Familia.
However, the outcome was less than satisfactory. Kisuke's group came to Orario not long ago and because their group was eye-catching, it should be easy to trace where they came from. But the truth was far from that. Every village nearby Orario where they could have stayed or resupplied was investigated, but not one of them witnessed Kisuke's group. From this result, it would appear that Kisuke's group suddenly surfaced in Orario without any sort of origin.
Given the fact that Kisuke and his group really were just Level 2's, according to the Guild, yet could sneak up and intimidate a Level 4 like her, it scared her more than those who were actually stronger than her.
"You preferred to have someone else pulling out that spear, right?" Kisuke suddenly broke her line of thought.
Asfi shuddered and Hermes came to her rescue, "Now, now, Kisuke-kun. Please don't bully Asfi-chan too much." He then turned to Asfi, "You too, Asfi. Don't be too nervous. We're here for Antares."
Everyone from the Hermes Familia was confused at Asfi's reaction, but they couldn't ask about it now. Instead, they greeted Yoruichi since they were familiar with her as the one who saved them on the 24th floor against Olivas Act.
"So, Asfi. What's the situation?", asked Hermes.
Asfi nodded at him and answered, "It's getting progressively worse. Decay is spreading in the forest and the monsters' numbers are only increasing. All villages in the area were attacked and razed."
"How about the strike plan?"
"All plans ended in failure before the gate.", explained Asfi.
"Gate?", asked Kisuke.
"Yes. It's blocking the path towards Antares." Ryuu answered.
"You cannot open it?"
Ryuu shook her head, "We're not enough."
"Then what's the plan?"
"I can open it." Artemis suddenly answered.
Everyone looked at her, but before anyone could ask any question, Hermes clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention and said, "Alright. Before anything else, let's go to camp. There, we rest and plan our next steps in greater detail."
The Hermes Familia then led the group through the forest. As they went through the dead trees, Kisuke examined them in detail and figured that not just the Mana, but also the Ki was absorbed, 'A monster that is capable of utilizing Ki, huh...'
Along the way, Hestia called out to Artemis and brought her away from the group, so that no one would be able to hear what they were about to talk about.
Kisuke saw them going away and Hermes approached him, "Are you going to listen in this time?"
Kisuke watched how Hestia confronted Artemis before replying, "No need. I can already guess what they're talking about."
"Then you're already aware of what we're asking you to do?", asked Hermes again.
"Well, after all those clues, it was pretty easy to guess."
"Hey, even with all those clues, it should still be hard to come up with the correct answer!", exclaimed Hermes before asking, "So? What's the giveaway?"
"The fact, that the welcoming attack, which we received, had the same aura as the arrow and Antares' apparent interest in it, solidified the possibility in my mind."
Hermes sighed at his answer, "I never thought that you could sense that much. That's a Divine Weapon, you know? It should be almost impossible to sense its aura by those from the Lower World."
Kisuke grinned at him, "It's as you've said, it's almost impossible. Too bad, I'm not included in that 'almost'."
Hermes then turned around to follow Asfi towards the camp, "Either way, there's nothing else we can do. But don't mistake this as killing a Deity. In any normal situation, if you were to do that, you'd be punished."
Kisuke didn't say anything when Hermes left. Yoruichi approached him a few seconds later with a question, "Are you going to do it?"
With a smile, Kisuke replied, "Yep~, but not the way he's expecting it~."
"Just keep in mind that you'll be revealing your real abilities to him."
"No worries. I don't plan on showing him anything. He can guess, but he wouldn't have any evidence. That's the reason I asked for his favor."
"I see. Planning from the start, huh. Well, I'll take care of Hestia-sama's safety so you can keep your mind off that."
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Editors:
28th00: This time you poofed 80% through it! Hestia and Artemis are gonna have some emotionally charged talks right now I assume. All I know is that lots of patting will happen in this arc, for Phis-chama is on the horizon and she is the QUEEN OF THE LAP(even if it doesn't really apply to an asexual entity)!
Alexander: Ahahaha #sweat dropping#. I'm currently sitting with my family. Because it is so freaking hot, we are eating our dinner in the evening. Before you complain that dinner is always in the evening, what I mean to say is that the main meal of the day is normally at midday. At least for germans.
28th00: Psst, comment on Phis-chama… I was just gonna edit this in reply to that. Oh well, time for a messy editor corner thingy again!
Alexander: Don't bother to do it. It is a part of our fun after all. Though I do wonder, when comes the day, that the editor corner becomes even longer than the actual chapter.
As for Phis-chama, I don't care whether or not she has a gender. She's cute, so it's fine.
28th00: Agreed, she's cute, so it's fine. I feel like that'd happen if any of my talks with g0yya were documented in the corner… They've gone on for like 4 hours at a time before. We still don't have a "Phis-chama's Wonderful Delicacies" chapter segment though. It's sad, truly, that we don't have our gratuitous Japanese cooking sections where Japan is #1 that is standard in Isekai series', truly. It'd be like 3 paragraphs of her analysing and reacting to a cookie, then her saying "Crunchy." or something like that…
Alexander: Sounds like a good theme for some bonus chapters. Also, how about a reaction chapter for Ais and Riveria about fast food. They would be mind blown.
28th00: I've already been told directly that "I'd love to do that, but there's no way in hell I can come up with enough descriptions to fill out multiple paragraphs on Ophis eating a cookie." I kinda wanna see Riveria's reaction, since Ais would become a vacuum if her eating her bodyweight in Potato Puff's is truly a thing she does daily… Riveria has to watch her waistline, definitely, totally.
Alexander: Well, I dare say that we've read enough of that stuff to help him with describing the sweets from Phis-chama's point of view. He just has to write "(Please insert here your, at least 100 words long, description)".
28th00: I would never do that. That's far too much effort. I'm done with this chapter and this is almost a full page of the corner, wait… It absolutely is a full page. Oh no. Remember when we were told "Keep it 1 line or less"? Yeah, me neither.
Alexander: Uupps, my bad (muahaha). Well, see you in the next chapter. Most likely tomorrow. My regards to author-san.
Goyya: You people...
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