CHAPTER 165(Broken & Caged)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

"Has anyone been allowed to see them?" Ganesha asks.

"No, no visitors, and only our level fives have been carrying their food... well, Welf's food. Yang's been fed liquid nutrition through I.V.s, he hasn't woken up yet," Shakti responds.

Walking side by side with her god they descend into the prison, a guild employee behind them with a notebook in his hands acting as their scribe. Descending to the second floor where Welf resides to begin questioning.

"I didn't expect to leave the Denatus to find this, but we should act quickly. It'd be best to have the trial done before Yang wakes up," the god says.

The guildsman readies his notebook as they arrive at the cell.

They see Welf sitting on the bed leaning back against the wall. Exhaustion on his face as he lifelessly stares at the far wall, he doesn't even react to their presence.

"Crozzo," Shakti growls out, his head lazily turning to look at them. "Lord Ganesha would like a word with you."

His eyes move from her to the tall man wearing an elephant half-mask on his face.

"How can I help you?" his voice cracks as he speaks, bloodshot red eyes moving over to the god beyond the bars.

"I have questions about what exactly happened. Your allies are in no condition to be speaking so you'll have to answer. Everything you say will be presented at the trial," Ganesha says.

Welf notices the guildsman standing behind them, with a deep sight he moves to sit at the edge of the bed. Knowing lying to a god was impossible for anyone aside from Yang, Welf decides to get it over with, "Alright, ask your questions."

"Thank you," Ganesha quietly says before clearing his throat. "Why attack this structure. You had to know that guild buildings are off-limits no matter the familia. So why commit treason by attacking it?"

"It had the information we needed, nothing personal we just needed something from here."

"Gron?"

"Yes."

"What did you want from him?"

"..." Welf doesn't answer, choosing to silently stare at Ganesha.

"What did you want from him?"

"..." Again, no answer. Not being able to lie doesn't mean he had to speak after all.

"Did you cause problems for Orario?"

"No, we didn't. That wasn't our intention so we made sure that wouldn't happen," he says.

"Thank you, that's one less thing to worry about. Thalie killed eleven of my children, do you agree that was unnecessary?"

"Mmm, yes," he says hesitantly. Thalie was always rather, violent, with her methods. A trait clearly inherited from Adrestria.

"And what caused Thalie's injuries?"

"She got into a fight with some adventurers, one of them hit her in the face with a great-hammer, one of them slashed her open and tried to gut her... the same person I think, a Dwarf," Welf says. Having the guild know Terk was a Dwarf would cross Rakia off the list of possible places they went since they only allow humans within, nobody could have known about Adrestria's captain.

"Hmm, and where did you go?" Ganesha finally asks, the question everyone wants to know.

"Outside of Orario, mostly camping," Welf says.

"Where did you go to have this fight?" he asks again, a bit more forcefully this time.

"Followed a road for a while, usual travel stuff."

"What was so important you had to kill my children and break into here! Where did you go and what did you do?!" the god's patience runs out.

Welf fixes him a bored stare, "we went places and killed people, that's all."

Taking a deep breath and feeling Shakti rest a hand on his shoulder Ganesha continues, "Fine, what caused Yang's injury, he's missing a hand?"

"He tripped and it fell off," Welf says.

Ganesha narrows his eyes beneath the mask, not even needing his divine sense to know that was a lie.

"One of the most powerful adventurers in the world left Orario then came back with a missing hand, we need to know how that happened. Anything that can hurt him to that extent is a national threat, now. How did he lose his arm?"

"..."

"Mmm, I see. Then can you at least tell us if it was the One-Eyed Black Dragon?"

"It wasn't, we didn't go hunting that thing, we aren't dumb," Welf says.

"Alright, that's a relief. Final questions..."

"What is it?" Welf asks.

"Did you have contact with anyone in Orario while you were away, did anyone know that you were planning this?" Ganesha asks.

"Nobody knew this was going to happen, not even us. And our team message rings were stored in Yang's inventory the entire time so Hephaestus couldn't talk us out of it. When he went down they got locked in there until he wakes up," Welf speaks only the truth, all facts but not exactly what was asked.

"And finally, the 'Elementalist Switch-Axe', where is it. We only recovered Liberty and Mosoka and locked them in the guild vault, where is Yang Shen's weapon?"

"Same place as the rings, he never really takes it out unless it's a massive monster or we're below floor 50 so it wasn't out when we were traveling, got locked away with all our stuff," Welf explains.

"Alright, that's all. The trial should be in a few days, get comfortable," Ganesha says as he turns to exit the cellblock.

"Not much else to do here..." Welf mutters as he lays down on the bed.

---Later That Day...

"Three hundred seventeen, three hundred eighteen..." Welf counts the bricks of his cell again and again, mind tormented by guilt and boredom as he sits against the wall.

With an exhausted sigh he holds his head in his hands, "this could have gone better, how am I even supposed to face Hephaestus now," he mutters.

Closing his eyes he focuses, envisioning the heat of his forge reaching his face. Red hot ingots ready to be molded. The weight and feeling of his hammer in his hand. Lines forming on a page as completes sketches. Bones rattling when he hammers away at the metal, trying over and over to make something that would be fit as an apology to Hephaestus, something that would show the woman he loves, the goddess he loves, just how sorry he was, just how much he still cares for her.

Swords...no.

Shields...no.

Spears...no.

He needs something else, he needs to take the next steps to show her the fire in his heart, he needs something otherworldly and magical.

He begins imagining things Yang described, weapons of death and destruction that need to be reloaded like a crossbow, but much more vicious. Weapon unfit for the lower floors just as arrows become useless past floor thirty.

He pictures armor, less clunky, more subtle. Smaller plates interlocking, better material. He was an enchanter now, enchanted individual plates?

'That makes it easier to repair, easier to make than standard armor, Yang has sketches and ideas in that book, I need that book, I can make wonders with that book...a book of wonders,' he thinks to himself before shaking his head, 'Hephaestus said no influencing the world with his knowledge...but maybe I can just use some of the ideas for our team, just for us. That should be fine anyway, just to---'

"As you can see he's well taken care of," Shakti's voice interrupts his daydreaming.

Turning his head he sees Hephaestus and Shakti looking at him through the bars.

"Mhm, good," Hephaestus says. Her face shows no emotion at all, the sight hurts his heart. His passion flares up, determined to make this right with her.

He leaps out of the bed and takes a step forward, calling out to his love "Hepha---". But she raises a hand, stopping him completely and silencing him, with one little gesture, he feels cold and alone, more than an eternity in this cell could ever do to him.

His face went from hopeful to despair in a flash. Shoulders slumped as he looks down at the floor, feeling his eyes becoming more and more watery. He wanted to be mad at Thalie, but he knew he couldn't be, this was his idea after all, he suggested they both join Thalie...now he needs to live with the consequences.

He hears the telltale sound of her shoes against the stone as she walks away, heading to the lower floors to check on Yang.

"Fuck..." he admits defeat, for now.

Entering the lowest level of the prison Hephaestus notices the cells here are different. Large, widely spaced out, empty.

"Why is this floor different?" she asks Shakti.

"This floor has never been used, these cells are built for first-class adventurers especially, but those types tend to either be slippery or go down fighting. Not to mention they never really have to break laws to get anything they want, so we never had to use them before," she admits.

"Mhm, you first-class adventurers are something else, but how is he?"

"Alive and well, I think..."

"You think?"

"We can't exactly go in and check, we only have level fives in Ganesha familia," she reminds the goddess.

"Yang isn't violent, he's reasonable."

"I'll take your word for it," Shakti says as they arrive at the last cell, guarded by two level-five adventurers holding spears.

"What..." Hephaestus isn't quite sure what she's looking at. A metal sarcophagus with chains holding it in place and I.V.s running into it. "Why is he in that!"

"We---" Shakti takes a step away from the enraged goddess. "We had this made for him after the council concluded he'd return. He's perfectly safe inside and we keep him hydrated and nourished I assure you."

"That's not the point!" Hephaestus points angrily at the contraption as she gets in Shakti's personal space. "WHEN he wakes up, he'll be confused and scared. What do you think happens when someone like that is confused and scared? He won't be able to understand what's going on because he---" she stops herself from talking. "Because of his injury..." she couldn't tell them touching divinity scrambles the mind for a bit, breaking people down to base desires...assuming anyone survives.

"U-uh, lady Hephaestus I assure you he will be fine, we'll call for you when he's awake. Although if you were to remove his falna we wouldn't have this problem," Shakti points out.

"Psh, I remove their falna and some idiot with a knife kills them, never gonna happen. I'm leaving their falna for their own safety, now escort me out, Tsubaki doesn't like waiting," Hephaestus says, turning on her heel and storming off.

"Of course Lady Hephaestus..."

"I like you Shakti, but for your sake don't do anything else like this. I'm sure Freya already wants you dead along with your entire familia and Ganesha for putting Yang in that thing, don't push her any further," Hephaestus says.

"Hmm, I thought they broke up, didn't they?"

"They did, but just because you break up with a goddess doesn't mean she's done with you, and Freya was always a petty, vengeful little brat..."

---Babel Hospital...

"Might I ask what caused this?" Airmid asked. "Her injuries are...extreme, knowing what caused this could help with any future treatment."

Looking at the doctor then back to Thalie resting in the hospital bed Hephaestus only shook her head in disappointment, "A fight, just a fight, with a big hammer," she says.

"Ouch."

"Yeah, ouch, how bad was it when she got here?" Hephaestus asks.

"Honestly speaking Lady Hephaestus, she should have died within a day of those injuries, her insides needed to be...moved around. She was malnourished and dehydrated, not to mention she literally didn't have enough blood to live, I don't get how she survived," Airmid says as she looks down at Thalie with wonder and amazement in her eyes. A miracle was laying out in front of the doctor, if she knew how Thalie did it, maybe she could save others.

"That's easy," Airmid's head snaps to Hephaestus. "Because she's stubborn, tough, spiteful and a real pain in my neck, but she mostly survived out of spite I'd bet... but causing me stress seems to be a running trend in her team lately. Either way, you can't kill someone built for war so easily..." Hephaestus says, a frown on her face as she looks at the mummy in the bed.

"Built for war?"

"Mhm, no matter what you do, seems you can't change the intent of creation. I should know, I'm a god of that," Hephaestus says as she walks out of the room.

The words left a bitter taste in her mouth. Intent is what made the Blacksmith ability and all like it work, she knew what Thalie was made for, she foolishly tried to change her intent, to separate her from Adrestria, and she failed.

And now it could cost her three lives, including the man she'd recently come to love...

END CHAPTER---

Volume 4 was supposed to end this week but I'm not sure about that anymore. My writing style is super long-form, we're almost at 400K words already :/