Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Divine gaze

While there was still a minor odor in the area it was far more reasonable than it used to be. From the guild I headed to the hostess to drop off the food container and to my surprise found Bell there.

"Let me guess, Syr dragged you in and tricked you into buying food right?" I asked with a smirk as I took a seat at the same table.

"How'd you know?" he asked surprised.

"She got me the same way after my first delve, girl seems to know when you've got money on you for some reason." I said with a chuckle and Bell paled and looked very uncomfortable.

It took me a moment to realize he wasn't looking at me and awkwardly turned around to find Syr standing there with a very unfriendly smile. 

"I'm not apologizing!" was the first thing that came to mind and I said out loud.

"Oh that's fine, hey mama Mia! Alex here ordered the special! With wine!" she called out without looking away and now it was my turn to pale.

"Aye coming up!" the dwarven women called with a amused look.

The meal was great and frankly way too much for me to eat alone but gods damn was it fucking expensive as I lost all of my money and ended up having to volunteer another week of free improved ingredients to pay for it.

'Lesson learned I guess, even Syr has a mean side to her.' I thought with a sigh as we headed home to give some of the food we had to Hestia.

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(POV Freya)

I remember it vividly, the day Alex introduced his existence to me. I was using Horns skill to take on the form of Syr that allowed me to search for my Odr without my charm ruining it. Mia had sent me out to gather ingredients for the days meals and I was on my way back when he bumped into me. At first I was too focused on collecting the fallen ingredients that had been damaged from the impact to notice but after getting a good look at him he was a surprisingly plain looking individual.-

Neither handsome nor ugly but someone you'd blur out on the street if you weren't careful. Alex himself though left a deep impression on me for two main reasons, his soul and his force of personality. He just had this way of acting that you couldn't help but get pulled into and before you knew it following alongside. He was mad without a doubt as there was this strangely enticing mix of impulsivity and paranoia to everything he did that was hard not to be interested in. His soul was what truly drew my interest as it was like an abyss that devoured everything yet was not evil somehow. I remember how my heart would race just looking at it as I felt as though one wrong move on my part and that abyss would gobble me up, it is intoxicating.-

His magic was also not as simple as he made it appear at first glance. There was something about it that made me nervous for some reason and the things that could truly accomplish that were few. It was a beautiful manifestation of blue and black flames that I theorized might be transmutative in nature and thus dangerous for us gods. It was something only us older gods knew but with our divinities restrained in these mortal frames we were very susceptible to transmutation as while not our divine forms these bodies were tied to them.-

What this meant was that if we were transmuted as we currently are there was a high chance those changes would appear on our divine forms as well. To be honest I was quite hopeful that Alex may be my destined Odr and worked to draw him closer to myself as Syr for that goal. At first I simply tried to make him food for his trips to the dungeon but to my surprise he was rather blunt about telling me my food wasn't all that good. But then he'd turn around and give me advice on how to improve.-

It was an new experience for me like nothing I had experienced before. A strangely enticing mix of soft and hard that led to personal growth. You can imagine my shock to find that I, a goddess of beauty and war, had actually started to get good at preparing meals for someone else. I was nowhere near as good as the others at the hostess but I was getting better over time. Perhaps no one had noticed it but Alex reminded me of Alfia the silence in terms of talent as he was rapidly growing more powerful.-

As if fate itself had conspired to confuse me though another anomaly had appeared in the exact same familia as Alex. Bell Cranel was best described as "cute" more than handsome as he was pure, too pure. His soul was the polar opposite of Alex's as it was the purest white and radiated outwards in a blinding manner. Seeing them sitting next to each other frankly caused me to freeze up as my mind simply couldn't understand what I was looking at. Polar opposites yet in perfect harmony as if their very essences weren't poised to clash violently.-

It was beautiful in a way I can't even find words to describe. Meeting Bell Cranel had thrown my mind into disarray as Horn had needed to take my place as Syr for a few days after that much to Ottars concern as he wanted nothing more than to help me but was helpless for all his power to do so. I had two candidates for who might be my Odr at the same time and I was stuck on how I should handle this matter. If there was only one I could slowly groom them for the role they were destined to fill while getting close to them as Syr but for two that simply wouldn't work.-

Sure I could engineer events to spur their growth but as for getting close to them there was no way I could get both and the prophecy was clear that I only had one Odr. I had to figure out which it was or perhaps I had to choose? Prophecy was tricky like that so it was possible that is the case just as it is equally possible that I was wrong. Assuming I did have to choose though I would probably pick Alex as what I can see of him clashes less with who I am then Bell.-

I am a goddess of beauty and war so I was not some pure maiden filled with virtue that would pair well with Bells innocence. In recent days Alex has concerned me greatly as I saw something i was very familiar with from Ottar himself, a strained vessel. A unique state where an adventurer has pushed their vessel beyond the safe limit and as a result has strained it to keep itself intact. In a way it is a bit like filling a balloon and then adding more air to it as at some point the balloon will pop if you add too much.