But it's not a one on one but two on one. Bell and Ais with level boost vs Ottar.
I seriously doubt that a fresh level 5 Bell boosted to fresh level 6 even with the absurd stats he had per level can be of help in a fight against Ottarl.
The level boost can be just used on a person at a time, has a cooldown time and it is doubtful if they will dare to show the level boost in the middle of a war game where the whole of Orario's adventurers and Gods can see it.
How about Kokonoe? The one she got from Grimiore the Aisha stole, it can level boost many at once.
Does anyone know if the High Elf's Departure Side Story was published in an official book? I'm trying to find it, but I don't seem to be able to have any luck.
May be that you need a newer phone, I couldn't even find it in the store on my old phone, now no problem. Still haven't DL'ed it, I really don't need another time and money sink. ^^
Ok per the new anniversary event. Hephaestus and Aphrodite dated in heaven at least until Aphrodite cheated on her royally pissing her off. Aphrodite is scared to death of her.
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Higurashi: Its a bit like watching a trainwreck, except you keep getting to see different trains wrecking with roughly the same passengers, into a variety of different objects. Also, the trains are driven by monkeys. On LSD.
Seriously, five hours. You have got to be kidding me. I'm posting summaries as I go today:
Right, let's see what I got for the first hour worth of content.
Spoiler:
A bunch of quests have been coming in to leave the major Familias too busy and out of the city so there's a lot of cartoonishly evil bad guys, which is lampshaded.
Most of the goods are being bought up in preparation for a celebration for guests at the behest of the gods, as they welcome Rhea, Illia, and the other priestesses.
Illia and the Priestesses get lost because they're a bunch of country bumpkins essentially and Bell happens to save them.
They then promptly fangirl over Hestia while treating Bell like dirt, which Hestia outright calls it that she got the Harem this time.
Heading back to Hestia's Familia, they explain Prometheus has invited Hestia and Heph to come to Olympia (and you can tell by their reactions this is big news), and the children get excited because its basically a land of heroes from the Age of Heroes that is so secluded that no one has been there before in modern time.
Of course, Bell and the others are told they can't go by the Priestesses and apparently back in Olympia Bell is considered something of a black sheep who mooches off his Goddess and has her work at a snack stand.
Hermes pops up to tell them that they're going along with him and Asfi so they gear up and head out. He also drags along Ryuu and the Amazon for bodyguard work. Lili doesn't bother running interference between Bell and Hestia because the priestess are doing her job for her.
They ride for Seven Days with the note that it would be longer without a magic item until they hit a barrier that can only be crossed with the blessing of god of flames and enter into Olympia.
The girls put on a performance song for Hestia to welcome her but it sucks because its the first time they had to do this for visitors in thousands of years so they dug up ancient texts for references.
The Aethon shows up to take them to the Great Temple to explain the situation.
Second Hour Content:
Spoiler:
Aethon tells them the Temple of Olympia was where the Flame of Heaven fell to destroy demons and banish monsters and the ground to keep it there. However, the flame is contaminated and needs to be sanctificed, hence why they need either Hestia or Heph to deal with.
Hermes explains it is the Primordial Flame which existed in Heaven under the watch of the Great God, but Prometheus swiped it because he saw too far into the future and saw too many people dying and not enough heroes. So he decided to give them the flame as a weapon against the monster, instead of a tool of cultivation. Think the opposite of Thantos in that too many children were dying and he decided to give them all a bazooka without military training. But Zeus told him not to because he was rushing things by giving them the eqivalent of a nuclear bomb, since its basically a Demi-Arcanum and a regular one can wipe out the planet if they wanted, but was too late to stop it from falling where they fought.
So the flame fell and Epimetheus used it to drive off the monsters. Every Priest and Priestess of Olympia are bestowed with parts of the Flame of Heaven when they get a Falna from Prometheus, who apparently got stuck on babysitting duty because this was his mess. However, the flame got corrupted and they only realized it a couple of years ago as it spread across the land as it releases monsters, causes earthquakes, poison, and it has been spreading. That's why all the new quests have been going out and if it isn't dealt with its going to swallow the entire world, hence why they need Hestia or Heph.
At this point the group pieces together since its a problem involving the Heavens its going to take a God to deal with it, but Ryu already questions that if the Gods are forbidden to use their Arcanum how are they going to deal with it? Aisha already smells something being off about it because Prometheus isn't showing his face to explain himself. Turns out they don't know where he is, with no one having seen him even when they receive orders from the equivalent of an IPad.
But Hestia simply says she knew what to expect when she took the request and Prometheus was always like that even above, with the only one who having interacted with him being Zeus. He is directly compared to Enyo by Hermes or Asfi, which means it takes place before Nidhogg and that reveal. She then goes to see the flame and decides that yeah, she's going to have to deal with this, immediately telling Bell that she can handle it when he gets nervous it might be difficult and gets lovey-dovey with him only for Lili to decide to run interference this time.
As they get ready to leave, Aethon tells them never to go outside at night because the miasma comes out then and its bad for them due to the flame. The group also sees torches scattered all over the city, adding to the beauty of the scenery as the city turns orange in the setting of the sun.
The next day they go get a tour of the city and Lili gets in a burn that the Priestess' naming sense is as bad as Welf's. Ilia blames Bell and he outright thinks she's going to become the next Lefiya, so I'm naturally going to borrow that at some point for the Siblings fic. Hestia tells her to stop acting Tsundere with her Bell, and thus the threesome runs off while everyone else is embarrassed or laughing before they split up.
We get some lore dumping about the cultural differences of Olympia, such as how the gods don't play with their children and how they don't use Valis. Lili also notices the torches scattered everywhere and how they never burn out, which is because it has the blessing of the flames rather than magic stones and keeps the miasma away from the buildings. They worship the flame like character from Dark Souls or a Pyromancer, basically. Then there's an adorable little girl who will do anything for her sick sister named Cyan that mistakes Lili for a boy as Hermes and Rhea acts suspicious.
Ryu and Aisha visit the only smithy in Olympia and they use the primordial flame to forge their weapons in perfect sync with each others. Welf is impressed, Heph is mostly interested in how they are using them to forge weapons. They have some power inside of them despite not being magic swords, with her basically calling the weapon itself a piece of the flame. Then she hurriedly leaves for reasons that are clearly suspicious.
Bell, Hestia, and Illia are easily the most lax of the groups as they just do regular sightseeing. Hestia places emphasis on her wanting to make memories with Bell, but Ilia is basically running interference to where I'm not sure she doesn't want to sleep with Hestia. So exactly like Lefiya regarding Aiz. Bell puts up with it until she claims the other members of his familia are taking advantage of Hestia, at which point his backbone shows and he tells her to chill it. They're about to have a shouting match until Hestia puts her foot down and tells them to act their age. Then she trolls Ilia and has her take them where Bell wants to go, which is naturally any place linked to that ancient hero.
She takes them to the ancient temple they were at before and explains more about it. The guy has his Flame Sword stored there, so naturally Bell fanboys over it since the hero was around before Argonaut and Fianna. Ilia explains the sword is a divine treasure that allowed him to use the flame and he went around as the Hero of Hope in the ancient tongue of Olympia, since back then the land was considered the Pithos of Disaster. So they prayed for Elpis (Hope) and he showed up.
And according to Aethon, he was known as Epimetheus the Defeated, an unsuccessful hero. He gave them hope and dreams, but he accomplished nothing. He survived but everyone else around him died, meaning all his actions were for nothing. Bell is basically left speechless and Hestia goes Mama-mode to to salvage his beliefs by pointing out he stood up to monsters like Behemoth and Leviathan.
Aethon points out he still screwed up compared to Hera and Zeus' Familia and he was nothing but a clown, but Bell burns his past life as Argonaut by saying he liked Epimetheus more as a hero. He and Aethon are basically establishing themselves as rivals at this point, but Ilia pulls him away before he can do something stupid while Hestia has a little chat alone with Aethon. But Aethon runs off before she can question him.
Likewise, Ilia explains to Bell never to mention the ancient hero inside of the shrine since it turns out Aethon is a blood relative of Epimetheus. Hearing of his ancestor only further torments him knowing he was a failure. Bell feels a little bad about it and Ilia accidentally cheers him up, so he asks her if she was trying to comfort him. She immediately goes tsundere mode and states that the information he has isn't normally found in ordinary literature. Basically, having Zeus as a Grandfather pays in dividens in obscure knowledge. Then Bell just outright asks why she hates him and she states it'd be better if he hates someone who already hates him.
Then Aphrodite shows up, whom they call the "Invader", and tells them to surrender the land to her. Her children break through the wall and graffiti it proclaiming their love of her like a discount Freya Familia, and she starts charming all the nearby men and women despite the fact that they bring blindfolds and earplugs to try to block her out. Then Mikoto and Haruhime get charmed, which is black humor considering Ishtar's behavior, and Hestia sends Bell to kick the others out because she knows he's immune to Charm (while he does not know) and if he doesn't make it fast Heph is going to become a second problem.
Third Hour Content:
Spoiler for Third Hour Content:
Bell cleans house because he's Level 4 or so and these are a bunch of pretty boys. Then Aphrodite thinks Bell is blind, which is why he's immune to her Charm when Hephaistios comes over to say hello. Turns out the two dated and then Aphrodite cheated on her on, so while Welf is questioning his chances with Hephaistios the cheating ex-girlfriend runs away because... well, her pissed off ex-lover is there. She's apparently as powerful as Aphrodite and Ishtar but more pathetic. She also tried to hit on Hera and bickered with Artemis, the mention of which immediately grabs Bell's attention.
Anyway, they don't know why she's been attacking them but she's been NTR'ing the members of the Temple and something needs to be done about it. Welf cares more about his romantic rival and when called on it, he points out Lili and Haruhime would also be concerned if Bell's Ex showed up.
Meanwhile, Bell is depressed over the mention of Artemis because he feels guilty about what he did and questions if Aphrodite would hate him for killing her (they cared for one another despite fighting). Hestia shifts his attention to the moon above as they discuss Artemis and basically foreshadow the upcoming twists as Aethon acts shady enough that you know he's the bad guy right away.
The next day they are assigned to escort Hestia to the Sanctorium. Its the equivalent of the Dungeon in Orario and has an altar inside of it. Hestia's children want to escort her, but the priestess' state they can't until Hestia throws a fit unless Bell comes too. The other gods tell them to just let her bring him along since it'll be a two-day or so trip down there, meaning Hestia gets Bell all to herself for a few days. More hints are dropped that basically this is about to end poorly as Hephaistios and Ilia both look guilty.
Ilia remains guilty looking as she guides them and explains it was built before the city above and was filled with fire monsters made from the Flame of the Heavens called Flammagons that the priestess' normally fight. Bell compares their magic to that of the higher-tier adventurers and is told he can't fight because only the blessing of the flame can harm them. But Bell's a child of Hestia so his Firebolt and Hestia Knife works just fine.
Back on the surface, Lili runs into Cyan again who continues to buy flowers for her sister and the vendors start repeating the same lines they did before, which Ryuu immediately picks up on and feels is wrong. Hermes gives the others busy work to go beat up Aphrodite and gets permission from Rhea to head out. Since Hephaistios' anger basically nullfies her Charm ability due to her cheating-ex being terrified of her, she goes along as well. Of course, Asfi knows he's doing it to get in their good books in order to unravel a secret or two by talking with Aphrodite.
Outside of the city they haven't run into a single monster since apparently they were all exterminated by Epimetheus, which contradicts what we know about him from the previous discussion. Asfi basically states that his tale was a depressing tragedy, in contrast to Argonaut being a comedy. Of course, considering the whole thing about Argonaut from that event we know there's more to it.
They find Aphrodite because she's an drunken idiot and has her Familia serenade her loud enough that everyone can hear her from a mile out. At least she doesn't seem to be sleeping with every guy she charms. Of course, then they get caught because they were so loud that she could hear them and she passes it off as being a trap she planned when she's so smashed she can't even use her Charm. So while their children fight, Hermes and Hephaistios go to have a chat with Aphrodite.
They skip to the point in that she's basically soft-balling them because if she really wanted that city she could Charm everyone. She explains that things aren't as they seem when we cut back to the battle and some kind of screech rings out when there aren't supposed to be monsters. Then the screen glitches out as what look like fire-versions of Wall Shadows pop up and Rhea basically states they weren't supposed to appear already before those monsters start swallowing the Soldiers into the flames.
Aphrodite immediately takes her children and run away before they get caught while the Orario group uses magic to fend them off. Then Rhea tells them the truth that those creatures are Flammanoids, creatures that are created by the contaminated flame that targets humans and essentially consume their souls. You deal with them with magic, or a really strong flame, and from a distance unless you have a death wish. Olympia is basically the only safe area on that island.
At this point, Ryuu and the gods are wise enough to peg that something is still off considering she knew about their existence but didn't tell them about the creatures. Aisha and Asfi thinks they might have just been hiding it to save face, but Ryuu believes that its because they came out at night rather than the day and decides to go searching at night to confirm her suspicions. Then Hermes has Asfi and Hephaistios help him track down Aphrodite while using Ryuu as a distraction since he figures all those tour guides were meant to lead them along.
Back to Bell in the Fake Dungeon, he's basically doing all the work because he's a Level 4 and they need to cast their spells. Ilia continues to look guiltily at Bell before they move on. Bell references Knossos before they all decide to take a little break in an alcove spring, which basically guarentees fanservice later on.
Hestia and Bell have a moment where he thinks back on Artemis and Winne, and Hestia tells him she's proud of how he had grown. His growth was the reason that she decided to go through with it because now she's sure he and the others will be fine without her. The two them basically confirm they really like each other as family.
Fourth hour.
Spoiler:
Then the Priestess' send Bell to cheer up Ilia by making her mad. They explain her backstory, namely that she feels inferior due to being clumsy and not receiving the proper education as she wasn't born in the city. She was found outside and covered in burns with amnesia and she's not good with the flames even with the blessing.
Fanservice happens because of course it does and Bell peeps on the girl his age before monsters come in. She gets saved by Bell and we get more fanservice as she wears Bell's oversized shirt, but she refuse to let him leave since she'd be embarassed if anyone else saw her. Then we get an explanation on how they get their Falna by basically being drugged with incense in the monument chamber so they don't see him.
She also explains that they obey the oracle no matter what as in the country you are not allowed to make a mistake. If the oracle says to do something, you do it. That's why they became Vesta's Priestess, the oracle said to do it. They live by commandments rather than anything else because Olympia is nothing more than an apparatus to manage the Flames of Heaven.
Bell doesn't get all of it, but he invites her to come back to Orario because he thinks she'll be happy there. It breaks through her Tsundere walls as she basically vows to follow him back and serve him for the rest of her life as penitence for her sins. So she begs him not forgive them for what's about to happen.
The others are still sneaking around via knocking out the guards, but a masked figure asks them if they are prepared to go any further. That Elf and Amazon recognize he has divine power and he was more than capable of stopping them. But asks if they were prepared to unravel the dark mysteries and introduces himself as Chylos while terrifying everyone to the point they are about to crap themselves because they realize he's probably on Prometheus.
Anyway, he let's them do as they wish before heading off. Then they realize the torches around them are creating the barrier they had seen before, creating an illusion of normalcy. They see the world around them is a ruined, chaotic wasteland filled with the Flammanoid as the Priestesses and Soldiers use their weapons to fend them off. This was what happened every night when they were on the inside, sheltered by the torches and ignorant of the truth as Rhea appears.
Lili and Haruhime are about to get killed when Rhea calls out to the Flammanoid by the name of Cyan. Then, after they put down the berserk ones, Rhea tells them to go back to the Inn and pretend to not see anything for now. She promises to explain it to them in the morning at the same time and same place as before.
Rhea and Aphrodite explain that the country was finished around 300 years ago. The only people left alive are a few soldiers and priestesses thanks to their Falna, less than 200 in total. The rest were Flammanoids consumed by the flame, around 50,000 in total including Cyan and Ciate, who were Rhea's daughter. Worse, they are technically still alive since their souls are trapped in the flame so they are basically dying and reviving without the chance of reincarnated. They've been basically fighting an endless fight every night for centuries, with Aphrodite trying to save the living ones since the Flammanoids are gathering souls to fuel the flame.
Since the flame left heaven, which was a perfect world, and entered into an imperfect world, which stained it until it reached the limit, they need to return it up above. That is why they need Hestia and why they revere her so much. But when Lili brings up they could have asked first, Aisha believes they still have something to hide. So then we get to the meat of it: what will happen to Hestia in order to purify it. Rhea can only apologize, just like Ilia did.
Afterwards, back with Bell, he figures out something is wrong since everyone is being quiet. Then they enter the altar and its basically the mouth of a volcano. That's the Primordial Flame in its current form, making it a Pithos. Hestia reveals that the flame they saw above was nothing more than the cleaner parts of it and she expected this. 3000 years of human negative emotions turned it dangerous, but Hestia doesn't blame them since the humans couldn't do anything about it. Now she needs to deal with it before it spreads over the world.
Bell doesn't fully get it, but he knows that this will end poorly and asks her what will happen to her as she's surrounded by flames. She brings up its just what happened to Artemis, but she's the Spear this time. She's basically going to die here to deal with this.
Final Spoilers:
Spoiler:
Bell flips out as Hestia then says goodbye and lets the flames consume her before the entire barrier comes crashing down to show the destroyed cityscape. The other gods then elaborate for Asfi that to send the Flame back up to Heaven to sanctify it, they need to be burnt away with the life of the Gods. Using their Arcanum would just have it be absorbed, so Hestia has to die with it. They all knew it was going to happen but kept quiet from the children.
Hermes also explains this is why they put rules into place when it came to interacting with the Lower World. You can't use divine power carelessly in an impure world. The compensation for their mistake is the life of Hestia. They're not happy about it, but they've got no other alternatives and Aphrodite wants to save the Lower World because its what Artemis wanted.
Bell wakes up with Ilia and the priestess on the top floor, unburnt because Hestia's Flame protected them. But then the Olympian Guards attack Hestia's children on orders to kill them from the oracle. Rhea and Ilia are really not comfortable with the idea, but then we hear it came from Aethon so they don't interfere with Hestia. Rhea then turns on them because even if it goes against her morals, her children are suffering. Also Aethon goes full villain mode.
So you have a bunch of warriors and fire mages going against Bell and a couple of other Level 2 to 4s. Bell holds out reasonably well, but then the priestess' turn on Bell as well. Ilia basically calls them out on it considering they just took his Goddess away from him, but Bell blows the ceiling down with a Argonaut-charged Firebolt to get free. Likewise, Asfi comes to rescue the others and draws the attention of the Flammanoids as a distraction to get to Hestia.
Bell doesn't hold a grudge against Ilia even after her confession, but he refuses to give up on finding some way to either tip the scales or destroy them. She basically decides she's going to follow him because all of this is wrong and I'm pretty sure that she's fallen for him. I'll give him credit, he earned it with that speech. Welcome to the Harem, you'll find space between Haruhime and Lili.
Hestia is in the Maroon Room, using the flame to create an egg and store divine power inside of it according to the oracle. She is changing herself to become capable of handling the Flame of Heaven and by the time they regroup, her previous form is sealed within it. Then Aethon shows up and reveals he tampered with the oracle because them interfering risks the world and, credit where its due, he has a point. But at the same time, Lili sees through his lies and that he's enjoying their suffering so screw logic. He basically wants to open Pandora's box and spread it across the world, so they get ready to kick his teeth in. But...
Then Hestia is reborn as Vesta and further shakes her children by questioning what was Artemis' sacrifice for if she can't do the same. There are countless heroes and sacrifices, so what's one more among them? Then when they still refuse to leave her to her duty, she puts them in their place and then takes her blessing away. Without their Falna they can't use their Magic and are basically just ordinary people, so they are officially screwed.
Thankfully she hasn't gone evil and doesn't accept Aethon's offer to take their place. She just needs the formation for the flame, which is due to having a hearth using the torches scattered around the city. So all that's left is to make a shrine. She then bids her children goodbye before sending them away and erecting a barrier around Olympia to serve as the Altar.
So Part 1 ends with all of the Hestia Familia, minus Bell, outside of the barrier and forced to rely on Apollo (and his remaining Captain) for help, who apparently still has the hots for Bell. And Bell finds himself separate from them without his weapons, armor, or blessing and no hope at all... then Artemis shows up.
You know, I like this story. I understand why everyone is doing what they are, except Aethon. Ilia's tsundere behavior is because she doesn't like the thought of taking Hestia away from her children and wants him to be mad at her. She's perfectly willing to offer her life as payment, even in service to him, in atonement. I hope she lives through this and joins the Familia, but I won't hold my breath.
Rhea was also completely sympathetic and I completely understand why she turned on the party. It wasn't something she wanted, but her daughters are going through a living hell for 300 years. What's a few more sacrifices on the pile?
Hestia is even in character. She's always been a loving character and does what she thinks is best for the children, even if they themselves don't like it. Her sealing their Falna and sending them away removes them from the fight because it needs to be done, lest everyone keep trying to make her stop. I mean she knew what was going to happen and she was ready to accept it for the sake of the world with her last moments prior being to make as many happy memories as possible and reaffirming her love for him.
Ahh... this was magnificent. It's things like this and Argonaut that get my blood flowing. The tale of a hero in the making. Will the tragedy consume him or will he emerge victorious at a great cost?
Has Artemis been mentioned in the books? I've always been curious if the movie was canon.
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Higurashi: Its a bit like watching a trainwreck, except you keep getting to see different trains wrecking with roughly the same passengers, into a variety of different objects. Also, the trains are driven by monkeys. On LSD.
Is there any other adventurer, other than Aiz, that has or may have spirit lineage in them? Someone once brought up Bell being connected to spirits than gods (still arguing currently). If so, why were his mom and aunt cursed? Do spirits and gods have a bad omens with each other?
Artemis was not really mentioned in any significant way in the main Danmachi novel, Sword Oratoria and Familia Chronicle. However, there is a special story called One Love which was written about her and Aphrodite. It was given out during the screening of Arrow of Orion.
Is there any other adventurer, other than Aiz, that has or may have spirit lineage in them? Someone once brought up Bell being connected to spirits than gods (still arguing currently). If so, why were his mom and aunt cursed? Do spirits and gods have a bad omens with each other?
The obvious one is Welf. If they are talking if Bell is connected to Spirits then it'd be through his previous life as Argonaut, who made a contract with Jupiter the same way Welf's Ancestor did with Urus. Spirits are considered the favored children of the gods, who helped Adventurers because the Gods said so. There is no bad omen between them.
It's just likely Bell's mother side of the family were just unlucky or if they did have Spirit's power somehow it exacted a toll on them the same way Jupiter did on Argo.
The obvious one is Welf. If they are talking if Bell is connected to Spirits then it'd be through his previous life as Argonaut, who made a contract with Jupiter the same way Welf's Ancestor did with Urus. Spirits are considered the favored children of the gods, who helped Adventurers because the Gods said so. There is no bad omen between them.
It's just likely Bell's mother side of the family were just unlucky or if they did have Spirit's power somehow it exacted a toll on them the same way Jupiter did on Argo.
Is this why Hermes take notice of Bell because he is the reincarnation of Argonaut?
Yeah, he really goes into obsession mode when it comes to Bell becoming hero. But, I kinda wonder why it is Bell's connection to Zeus? I know Zeus has one of the strongest familia at its peak but why the connection to Zeus made Bell the largest prize to Hermes??
Has Artemis been mentioned in the books? I've always been curious if the movie was canon.
Artemis is mentioned in the novels, but simply as being one of the 3 "virgin goddesses" like Hestia.
I don't think there was any mention of her in the human world.
Her existence itself is canon, but that's it. The movie is not canon, and it was confirmed by the author in a tweet back then as well iirc.
2021-06-11, 14:57
