[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Interlude: The Goddess of the Hearth (4)

"That is..." Aiz murmured, narrowing her eyes as she looked down the street, taking a closer look at the monster. Hestia tried to follow her example, but it quickly proved hopeless. She could make out the general outline—a massive plant, a strange and gaping mouth, and long stems—but the creature was waving through the air too fast to truly be seen, even with its enormous size. It was a blur of motion tearing apart the surrounding street, mouths ripping away parts of buildings and tossing them aside before moving on to—

"Aiz!" Loki shouted, but the Sword Princess was already gone, vanishing from her place beside them and appearing amidst the plants.

"Tsubaki, you too," Hephaestus said a moment later, quickly recovering from the surprise. "Prioritize the safety of the civilians and protect them until the Sword Princess is done. Freya, are any of your—"

Hephaestus cut herself off as she turned and saw a darkly armored cat-person standing at Freya's side, eyes on the monster as he stood protectively between it and his goddess.

"Ah, you're here," Hephaestus said, looking at the man. "Then can you assist them as well. If I'm not mistaken you would be a...Level 6? If you were to..."

She trailed off and frowned when it became obvious she was being utterly ignored by the man, who didn't so much as twitch at the sound of her voice, causing Hephaestus to frown.

"Allen," Freya said after a moment, giving the man a dazzling smile, at which point he took a slow breath and stalked forward.

"Thank you," Hephaestus said, still frowning slightly, but this time at the monster. "With this, there shouldn't be any problems, at least as long as it's alone. But...for something like this to be here..."

"Girl!" Loki shouted again, piercing gaze still locked on Arde. "What's going on!?"

"That...that was the creature we encountered on the sixth floor," She said, eyes wild and wide as she stared at the monster, but voice bizarrely steady by comparison. Hestia didn't bother focusing on the fight itself, simply because she couldn't see any of it, instead looking towards the younger girl. "It attacked us from above, breaking through the ceiling. We thought...at first we thought that it might have been something the Ganesha Familia captured, but—"

"Ganesha wouldn't bring something like this to the surface," Loki said, giving the monster a glance. "And he certainly wouldn't let it get away without doing anything about it. But for such a powerful monster to have made it too the surface...Freya, do you recognize that monster? Do you know what floor it spawns on?"

"No," Freya answered simply, but that reply said it all, as did Loki's swearing.

"Girl," Loki said, looking back towards Arde. "What else? Something about a Goliath?"

Arde nodded quickly.

"It, it spawned on the eighteenth," She said.

"She's telling the truth," The man named Bors stated firmly. "A Goliath spawned from the sky of the eighteenth, but it was different—it had pitch-black skin and red eyes and it was bigger. In all the time I've run Rivira, nothing like that thing has ever appeared, but..."

"Damn it all," Loki growled, eyes flicking between them. "Uranus, what are you doing...!?"

"Percy," Hestia interrupted, voice desperate. "What happened to Percy? He was with you, wasn't he?"

Arde seemed to tremble slightly at that question, hunching her shoulders.

"He sent me," She began before her voice cracked and she swallowed. "He asked me to make sure everyone else got out of the Dungeon safely and...and to find help."

"When the Goliath appeared, it was blocking the way out," Bors explained, apparently oblivious to the magnitude of what was happening. "The kid stayed behind to distract it and buy time for everyone to escape."

Hestia's eyes went.

"He's down there!?" She all but shrieked. "Alone!?"

Bors shook his head.

"The Crozzo stayed down there with him," He said. "Said he was gonna make a magic sword."

"Welf," Hephaestus murmured, followed by what Hestia assumed was a curse—but she was beyond worrying about that right now.

"He's alive," She said instead, heart pounding a ridiculous tempo in her chest, and yet the words were a relief. He was still alive—even with all of that, he was still alive. Percy was the only person in this world to whom she'd given her Blessing and she could still feel the ichor she'd engraved into his Status and soul, so he had to be. "I can feel him; the Blessing I gave him hasn't disappeared."

Hephaestus frowned, furrowing her brow for a moment before nodding as well.

"It's hard to tell because there are so many, but the total number of contracts I have hasn't decreased," She said. "Welf must still be okay, too. On...on the eighteenth floor."

"Oi, you," Loki said again, still entirely focused on the girl. "Why were you lot in the Dungeon in the first place? After what happened yesterday, haven't you ever heard of taking a break!? Gah, you're reminding me of Aiz!"

"Loki, this isn't the time," Hephaestus snapped before shaking her head. "Once we're finished here, I'll send Tsubaki down to the eighteenth. Loki, Freya, can you help me again?"

"Ugh," Loki said, growling. "This is becoming a trend and I don't like it—but Aiz will help if I want her too or not, damn it!"

In her periphery, Hestia noticed that Freya hadn't answered immediately, instead turning her gaze to the ground and staring at it intently.

"Perhaps we should inform the Guild," She proposed after a moment. "If the Dungeon is behaving irregularly, it may be for the best if at least Uranus was notified—and if he allowed it, it would be possible for us to see what was happening."

"Good idea, Freya," Hephaestus replied, shoulders abruptly falling as if in relief at the idea—that one way or another, they might know. "Freya, I know it's a lot to ask, but could you...?"

"Certainly," Freya answered with another dazzling smile. "I wouldn't have proposed the idea if I hadn't intended to help."

"Hestia," Hephaestus placing a hand on her shoulder even as she nodded her thanks to Freya. "Come on; there's nothing else we can do here. We should hurry."

No, Hestia thought. There was something she could do. In fact, there was something only she could do. The mere idea was frightening, the knowledge of the risk like a chill up her spine—but so be. Wasn't this what she wanted? A chance to help in some way, shape, or form, instead of forcing him to bear everything on his own?

"I've heard of you," Hestia said, shifting her gave even as she shook of Hephaestus' hand. "Percy's friend, Mrs. O'Leary. He told me about you, but this is the first time we've met."

The dog, naturally, didn't answer, but its glowing red eyes shifted towards her with more intelligence than any normal animal—and since ach of those eyes was larger than her entire head, she fought not to swallow, steadying herself with a slow breath.

"I can help him," She pleaded, voice at once desperate and firm as she clutched the case she was carrying closer. "Whatever is happening, I can help him, I promise, if I could only reach him."

"Hestia, what are you talking about?" Hephaestus asked with a concerned voice.

"Oi, shrimp, have you snapped? What are you getting at?"

"Percy said you could..." She trailed off and swallowed again before straightening and meeting the hound's giant eyes. "Take me to him, please—and I'll save him, one way or another."

Mrs. O'Leary blinked once and tilted her head.

"Mrs. O'Leary," Arde said, still on her back, but seeming to catch on because she jolted in place. "You can't! You just—"

Hestia didn't hear the rest of what she had to say because Mrs. O'Leary released a deafening bark—and then turned into a river of flowing shadows that consumed her. Abruptly, she was falling at a ridiculous speed, plummeting who knows how far in a world that was suddenly dark and quiet and cold, absent of anything but the rush of wind and the breath of some great beast.

Then, there was light. The sky was filled with the colors of the setting sun, yet off, somehow, and she didn't recognize where she was. It was a dark forest of some kind, except it looked like a series of disasters had swept through, shattering everything but the lake before her and the cliff beyond it.

And on that lake was a person she recognized all too well. Percy stood on the water, remaining still even as it swirled violently beneath his feet, the rim of a whirlpool. Before him was by far the largest creature she'd seen since coming to this world, like a man with red eyes, but blown up to the size of the house. From what she could see of him, he must have been thirty-five to forty feet on solid ground, but currently it seemed like he was being swallowed by the whirling lake. He seemed to be bound by chains of water and yet he was burning, the whole of his body covered in bright, bright green flames that seemed to melt away his flesh—and yet, that didn't seem to be what he was concerned with. She couldn't see anything beneath him, but something seemed to be pulling at him and at her with immense, unspeakable gravity.

"Percy," She murmured in amazement, watching his back as he seemed to pull down the Floor Boss, matching it as an equal—

And then he suddenly began to fall.

"Percy!" She shouted, helpless to do anything—but something dark and shapeless lashed out, piercing through the water and quickly drawing back. Only when it was still could she see it, and 'it' was an appropriate word. It was a three-dimensional, amorphous shadow, lacking any true shape, and she wouldn't have recognized it at all, if it weren't for the shadow that it somehow cast. That seemed to retain the shape of a massive hound, despite its 'body' lacking any such structure and seeming barely solid.

"M...Mrs. O'Leary...?" Percy asked, seeming disoriented as he was abruptly deposited on the shore. He shook his head, pushed himself up with one arm, and looked at them, green eyes looking baffled and confused. "Hestia? Why are you...?"

He stopped himself, closing his jaw with a click as his eyes suddenly grew wide.

"Hestia, you can't be here," He said urgently. "You have to go—take Mrs. O'Leary and..."

He stopped again, looking towards his friend and then reaching out to her, fingers stopping just before they touched her now shriveled and vague shape. For a long, long moment, he seemed speechless and lost, the constant mask of certainty and confidence he'd worn since the day they met abruptly and unexpectedly falling away. In its place, there was nothing but an empty and lost look and a growing impression of fear. He swallowed, eyes darting between them and then towards the Goliath, chest beginning to rise and fall more and more quickly.

"Hestia..." He whispered, eyes meeting hers. "You...you can't...I..."

She wasn't sure what he was trying to say. She doubted her did, either.

"Percy," She said. "I came to help you."

"What...?" He replied before shaking his head again. "No, Hestia, you can't, you...try and make your way up to the town on that cliff. Welf is there and he—he'll protect you. I'll hold this guy here until help arrives, you just...just get away from here as fast as you can, alright?"

"Idiot," She said, looking at him. "You can barely stand, much less fight."

"I just...I just need to catch my breath. This is nothing, Hestia. I—"

"No," She said. "This time, I'll be the one to give you strength."

With a quick movement, she opened the case she'd somehow managed to hold onto this entire time and removed the shield from within, passing it into Percy's seemingly numb hands.

"A...shield?" He asked, looking at it as its surface began to glow a dark purple color. "What? Hestia, I don't—"

"Trust me," She said, cutting him off. "You said you did, didn't you? Then...prove it to me now. I will get you out of here safely."

Even if I have to use my divine power to do so. If it was a choice between leaving this world and watching her only family die, then she...

"I..." Percy began to say before looking behind him. The lake had settled for the most part, but the Goliath was stirring it with its thrashing, the green flames around it still burning as it roared. But...they seemed dimmer now, somehow. "I trust you. If you have something, I'll go along with it. But...Hestia, you have to—"

"Hush," She silenced quickly, turning him around quickly and biting her own thumb as hard as she could, pushing down until she drew blood. "Let me update your Status."

"This really isn't the place, Hestia...!" Percy tried, eyes focused on the maddened Goliath as if expecting it to turn on them at any moment—which is just might. But Mrs. O'Leary didn't look like she could carry them and Percy looked like he could barely walk, so they didn't have much choice in the matter, so she ignored it and pressed her fingers to his back.

The moment she did, her eyes widened. Using her ichor, she touched his soul and drew out the story within, drawing it up to the surface and inscribing it as Sacred Runes, but...his Status...

What did she miss? What happened in the few days she'd been away? Or...was it because he was a demigod, something naturally outside normal human limits and divine? But even if that was the case...

Percy, you are...

XxXXxX
​

Perseus Jackson
Lv. 1
Strength: SS 1054
Endurance: SSS 1301
Dexterity: S 963
Agility: S 932
Magic: SSS 1329
Hero: H
Mystery: H

Magic:

Blood of Poseidon: Instant Magic.

Flesh of Poseidon: Auto-Magic.

Spirit of Poseidon: Auto-Magic.

Skills:

Despair: Greatly increases the encounter rate of monsters. Effect increases as condition declines.

Hope: Provides benefits in dangerous situations. Effect increases with danger.

Argos, <The Loyal, Enduring Hound>: Allows the user to continue fighting until death. Prevents the user from succumbing to the effects of Abnormalities until the end of battle.

Pythias, <For Another's Life>: User dramatically improves in all areas while fighting in defense of another.