Infernal Descent (Danmachi x DMC)

Chapter 5: Apollo Invitation

Bell and Eina bid their farewells, but Eina was eager to ask him more questions. Bell, however, seemed tense for some reason. He made his way through the lobbies, raising his hand to open the door to leave, then stopped abruptly.

Sensing two presences behind him, one more powerful than the other, Bell remained quiet. The stronger presence emanated control and calmness, while the weaker one lacked control altogether.

"Bell Cranel, am I right?" Bell glanced over his shoulder to find the source of the words as a lady with short hair, adorned with an emblem on her uniform had spoke.

A bow and arrow in front of a sun... the insignia of the Apollo Familia, as Eina had shown him. "What if I am?" Bell responded, his gaze fixated on the emblem.

"H-Here..." The girl with long hair bowed, extending her arms forward to offer a letter, elegantly sealed with the symbol of the Apollo Familia. It was evidently an invitation of some sort.

Bell studied it for a moment before closing his eyes, taking the letter, and tucking it into his coat. "The name is Daphne. That's Cassandra. As you can see, we're from the Apollo Familia" the girl with short hair introduced herself and her companion.

Still with his eyes closed, Bell turned to leave again before they continued to speak. "W-Wait! D-Don't you want to k-know what the letter is about... I-if you don't want to know, that's okay..." the shy girl spoke, prompting Daphne to smack her head with an open palm.

Before Bell could take another step out of the establishment, Daphne stepped in front of him. "You must inform your goddess. Got i-?" But before they could finish their sentence, Bell disappeared, leaving the duo confused as they looked around for him.

"Foolishness. It was clear what their intention was with the letter" Bell muttered to himself as he stood upon the roof a few blocks away from the adventurer guild, observing the confused duo before making his way to the church.

The fact that the Apollo Familia would invite them to a party had already revealed their intentions. "To think such a god is so foolish that he would attempt such an act," Bell groaned to himself as he stared up at the stars.

"However... this will be troublesome."

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"So... an invitation to the Celebrations of the Gods...?" Hestia whispered, with her hands on her chin thinking as she had just read the envelop that was given to Bell by the members of the Apollo Familia, While Hestia was thinking with a slight worried.

Bell had not a single expression to reveal he was scared or nervous like he would normally be and instead of panicking about it, He was sitting quietly and calmly sipping on tea and taking small bites out of the Jagamarukun that Hestia brought back from a long day of work.

"It's been about a month and a half since Ganesha held one... I imagined someone would organized something soon...?"

The celebration of the gods is a party for deities by deities, So far what Bell heard from Hestia and drunken talks from the gods of the lower ranking Familia's, It was a party hosted by a god to brag about their Familia's influence and power, but its basically a place for the gods and goddesses to have entertainment, Normally there might be one every per month and most of them were being hosted by Ganesha though from Hestia expression, Bell could tell The Apollo Familia hardly ever hosted one themselves and the one time they did, it was to brag to other gods about one of their battle parties successfully slew the Goliath on level 17. The guilt gave them a D ranking due to the feat but the Hestia Familia was never treated like that as due the boss being a speical species, There was some sort of 'Gag' order to make everyone to not speak about it.