Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Another Member
(This chapter was uploaded on Tuesday 21/November/2023 8:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)
Let me apologize. I made the mistake of labeling this day as day 7 after the minotaur chase. It was day 8.
I also changed how Meteria's body is reconstructed. You can skip it when you notice the (WARNING! SKIP TIME WARNING!) thing. The skip will stop once you see the (Skip is over) thing.
Though, be warned. You will be skipping some dialogues and interactions if you do that.
(Line Break)
('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the notes at the end of the chapter.
"..." small moment of silence
"Talking"
"He-" Someone was interrupted.
'Thinking'
[Skills' names, chanting and spells' names]
Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.
(Line Break)
"Ah! Why's Hestia's height different?" Norman remembered the discrepancy of Hestia's abnormal height. Even in fanfictions, her 'short stack' height was stable.
"One of Fey's skills allowed us to trample all over Loki by making my lady taller than her. Loki lost to our lady at every front on their last gathering party, the one before the Monster Feria"
"Approved. It'd have been a sight to behold. It's a great loss for me not to see it first-hand"
They made their way upstairs after that.
"Now, let me introduce him to you. This chump's Norman Arden"
Norman has dark-brown hair and green eyes coupled with a plain face. His shoulders are slightly broad. He made sure his muscles did not inflate to some disgusting proportions as they remained lean to some extent. He was not as tall as Henryk, standing only at 1.85 m.
The only thing girls in the other world discussed about him was his wealth, resulting in him staying single to avoid moneygrubbers who would have left him for another wealthy person after getting all they could from him.
As he was getting introduced, Norman wanted to make sure of something.
"Fey, you understand what I say completely, right?" Norman said.
"Fey does!" Fey's tongue was slowly creeping out of her mouth.
"Hold Henryk in place for me. I need to ask something without him shutting me up"
"What are you gonna say? Hmm?"
"FEY! LICK 'EM!"
"Like my girl's gonna li-"
"PAPA!" Fey tackled Henryk and made it impossible for him to issue a sound by covering his head in her feathers.
"Ray, was it? I've a question for you. Did Henryk get anywhere near as much as a drop of alcohol?" Norman's voice conveyed his worry.
"Not yet" Ray saw no reason to not answer that question. She was genuinely curious about what Norman was going to say after that.
"Good to hear. Now, make sure he never gets near any for an eternity, alright?"
"Why is that? Is there anything bad about him drinking alcohol?" She wanted to see his drunk antics for once at least, maybe have him be bolder and confess things without reservation.
"The first and last time he drank alcohol, he almost brought an entire nation to its knees. You don't wanna know how he did that alone; it was like a natural disaster struck them. Nobody knew what or how, all they knew was to pray to whatever higher force's up there to rescue them. Good thing he managed to knock himself out before wiping them clean off the world's map.
Let me repeat that. Never, under any circumstances, allow Henryk near a drop of the stuff"
Ray retracted her previous thoughts. If he did that without falna, what would he do now that he has it? It might be for the best he does not get any alcohol.
"Aha! So, that's why you didn't allow me to drink any!" Henryk squeezed his head out and talked. Fey forgot her original purpose and succumbed to Henryk's head pats.
"Henryk? Are you human?"
"That's of course, my lady. Like I said to Ray yesterday, I'm just not 'most people'"
"Forget that, when am I getting my falna?" Norman dropped a metaphorical bomb in there.
"Really? You will join our familia? Really really? Are we getting our third member this early? Aren't we lucky?"
"Yes. Yes. Yes yes. Yes. And, yes" Norman gave her as many 'yes's as her questions.
Hestia mustered the strength to drag poor Norman down the stairs again, with his behind slamming to every stair on the way down.
He was very sore by the time she threw him face down on the bed and gave him his falna with him not being able to follow.
"Did our lady just do that? He might be injured after slamming into too many stairsteps. Alex, do you think you can heal him for me?"
"I will gladly do it, glorious father"
"BELL! HENRYK! COME DOWN NOW! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS UNREALISTIC LOAD OF BULLSHIT!"
"Noble father, are we allowed to go to the dungeon? We still have to gather a lot of money and magic stones"
"Wait for us. We should be over with this shortly" Henryk said as he descended the stairs, following Bell.
(Line Break)
Name: Norman Arden
Familia: Hestia Familia
Level: 1
STR: I0
END: I0
DEX: I0
AGI: I0
MAG: I0
Magic:
Antithetic:
This magic will influence a magic/skill and make it do its opposite or something completely different to what it originally was. Using this spell on an already affected skill/spell will return it to its original state. The consent of the magic/skill's owner is required. This spell could not be applied to itself.
Chant:
Your existence is already in shambles. You are rejecting yourself. You want to become something that defies your values. Change to your opposite.
(AN: Does it sound good? It is staying, by the way. I am asking to see if I can make a joke on how cheesy it sounds later)
Skills:
Revival of the Dead:
Any one creature could be revived without any restrictions or any complications. There is no price to pay. The limit is one revived creature in a month. The only condition is to have a part of the deceased's body.
(Line Break)
"What about my privacy? Has it been burned and had its ashes buried six feet under?" Norman accepted it since Henryk trusted Bell, but he still complained.
"No. Your privacy's ashes have been scattered to the winds" Henryk said as he showed Norman's status to Bell.
"Well, ain't that stupid? He can revive the dead" Henryk had an idea. A skill's description is absolute in what it said. If it said that a person could be revived with only a part of their body in hand, Bell's anything could be considered a part of his parents' bodies.
"Now, we should wait with them, little bro" Henryk finished his words by holding Bell's shoulders from behind and pushing him towards the stairs. He sneakily gave Norman a hair from Bell's head.
"They left, huh?" Norman had a serious expression while he gazed at the hair Henryk handed him.
"What's that you are holding?" Hestia looked at it. She saw the softest looking hair she ever saw, just like snow.
"Bell's hair?" Her raised eyebrow was a question in itself.
"Are you ready for a biology lesson?"
"Why?"
"Henryk left me this after remarking that my skill could revive the dead"
"Bell isn't dead, Norman" Hestia frowned.
"Don't give me that look, Hestia. The person he wanted me to revive was probably Bell's mom"
"But how?" Her frown went away, and she was now sitting there, puzzled.
"You see, the thing called bloodline is actually scientifically called genetics. Those things're passed down from parent to child. The question is, are genetics a part of one's body? Yes, they are. Parts of Bell's parents reside in him. I can use these parts to activate my skill on a target that's not necessarily in front of me"
"Oh! That's what you were saying then! But wait! Is it really okay to revive her without Bell knowing?" She was getting worried about her child.
"Well, he's gonna get too emotional and may make the wrong decisions in the dungeon. We'll slap him with reality tonight if we could. There's no place for him to make a mistake then.
But really. That Henhen's too sympathetic, isn't he?"
"Is it about losing his parents? I remember him telling us that"
"Well, he wants Bell to experience what a mother's warmth feels like. That's simply it"
"Will you do it?"
"I wanted to reserve it for him, to keep him alive. But since he wanted another person revived, I will just leave him to next month if he died"
"You... speak about death lightly"
"Well, both of us already died once, Hestia. We know how it feels. Now that I think about it, Henryk doesn't remember it, probably. Bell's mom, Meteria, had a chronic illness right at birth. My skill's description says that the revival will deal with any complication. I guess she got lucky" Norman explained and then activated his skill.
Henryk took the hair because the skill did not specify which part was needed. If Bell's hair was part of him, and his body consisted of half from each parent, then one of the two could be chosen that way, even if their bodies do not exist anymore.
In the same sense, an ancient person from thousands of years ago, or even further back, could be revived the same way.
(WARNING! SKIP TIME WARNING!)
The process started.
It started by the formation of the bones. A few shrapnels formed independently. They gravitated towards each other and formed the skull.
The spine was formed next, vertebrae by vertebrae. After that, the collar bones were formed. The ribs, the hip bones, the thigh bones, the leg bones, the feet bones all formed one after the other.
Her shoulder joints and arms were formed next. After that, the finger and toe bones formed.
"That's creepy to watch, ain't it? I'll be out with the others. See ya! Just remember to give her your falna just in case!" Norman left Hestia alone to see this disturbing process.
"Traitorous child!" Hestia chided him as he went out, daring to tell her what to do.
But now that she thinks about it, what he said is a good choice to make. Giving Meteria a falna might help her with her illness.
Hestia stayed there and watched as Meteria's flesh grew over the exposed bones. The other things started forming at the same time as the flesh.
The brain and spinal cord formed inside their bones. The nerves and all types of blood vessels that spread throughout the body formed before flesh could cover them.
It looked like a variety of worms, thousands of them, were crawling out of the little flesh that was barely enough to cover the bones. They stayed suspended mid-air.
"Good thing I saw things similar to this before. I can stomach it" Hestia was trying hard to convince herself that she can pull through while watching the entire process.
"By the way, a meal's ready if she's awake" Norman put some food near the door without looking at Meteria's reforming body. Henryk prepared the food with the thought that her body was weak and would not be able to handle everything.
Hestia watched as Meteria's flesh stopped there when it was the organs' turn to form.
The throat formed, then esophagus and windpipe extended together. The eyeballs, the lungs and the stomach formed after.
The eyeballs started moving around in a panicky manner. It was as if Meteria was awake and afraid, always watching her surroundings, searching for a danger of her mind's creation.
"Hello?" Hestia, worried that she might try moving and hurt herself, decided to go near her and say hello. Hestia wanted to calm her down.
Meteria did not hear her since her eardrums were not there. As she wanted to know what this unknown woman (Hestia) was saying, Meteria's ears and their functions were restored next.
"Can you hear me?" Hestia was growing worried as she saw Meteria's eyes shifting everywhere, turning red from the lack of tear glands.
"You can calm down, child. Your body is being restored from the dead, from nothing, back to life. You may feel a great deal of pain now, but if you endure it, you can meet your son again. Stay strong, child" Hestia put on her warmest smile as she tried comforting Meteria.
Now that Meteria was aware of her surroundings, her desires started fueling what has the priority to form.
The muscles around her lungs grew such that she can talk. That was in response to her son being mentioned.
"Can...?" She wanted to say more words, but her condition was not the best.
"Yes, you can. Just wait for the rest of your body to come together" Hestia's worry became less as everything stopped and the reconstruction was focused on Meteria's head.
The muscles covering the skull and the ones holding the face together formed. The skin and the glands formed next. Her eyes became watery, not from the pain, but the happiness that she could see her precious child she was separated from.
As she cried, her hair grew long. Hairs as white as snow sprouted from her fair skin and reached far. It was long enough to be called a mess.
Hestia patted Meteria's head as Meteria whimpered, for she could not even cry.
The intestines extended from the stomach next. Her kidneys and the things connected to them also grew. After that, her liver and pancreas grew back.
Now that most of the bigger things grew back, the flesh that has stopped growing until now started to grow over what formed and covered them. In between the muscle fibers, there was space for the things that still do not exist.
(Skip is over)
"I will give you my falna, if you allow it. That might help with your illness, as I was told" Hestia Asked her.
"Hera?" Meteria was more relaxed now.
Now that most of her body's functions were restored and running correctly, her pain receded. The only pain she felt now was one she was familiar with, one which she felt her entire life, the pain her illness caused her.
When Hestia offered her falna, Meteria asked about where Hera was.
"Hera? She is wandering around, searching for Zeus if what some people say is true. Was she your goddess?"
"Yes" Meteria kept to simple answers as she was still tired. The thing keeping her awake was the desire to see her dear Bell.
"Sorry to say this, but Hera won't be welcome inside Orario if she returned, not after over a decade of absence. I will give you my falna in her place"
"Alfia?" Now came the turn for her twin sister. Alfia's situation was bleak, with her suffering the same illness. She wanted to check on her if she could.
"We can ask about Alfia later. For now, we should give you your falna. When you have more time, we can search for their news together?"
"Falna" Meteria's eyes gained a sharp edge to them. She was determined to see Bell, ask about her twin and her goddess, then live happily with them for the little time she was given.
"One falna coming right up!" Hestia gently helped Meteria flip on her front so she could reach Meteria's back.
(Line Break)
Name: Meteria Archibald ('1)
Familia: Hestia ('2)
Level: 1
STR: I0
END: I0
DEX: I0
AGI: I0
MAG: I0
Magic: None.
Skills:
Convalescence:
While the holder of this skill is sick or ill, they will be subjected to an enhanced natural recovery both physically and mentally without the negative effects of their sickness/illness. The recovery will at most take a day of rest and lying in bed.
Mother Power:
When the holder of this skill is taking care of their child, there is nothing that can stop them no matter how impossible it must have been. ('3)
(Line Break)
"Pff!" Hestia put a hand on her mouth to muffle a laugh.
"What's funny?" Meteria strained herself a little by saying more than one word in one breath. She did not know what was funny that Hestia laughed at it.
"Nothing... pff... One of your skills is called [Mother Power] .... Pffft! Hahahaha! I can't! I didn't think I would see the day!" Hestia continued laughing at the name of that skill.
"Sorry for that, Meteria. The skill's name is a thing my colleagues were throwing at each other as a joke in the past. Now, let me copy it onto a piece of paper for you to see then help you to your back. It's not healthy to press your weight on your lungs" Hestia said that as she was already printing Meteria's falna on one of the falna sheets.
Hestia sat Meteria up, supported by the headboard to her back.
"?" Meteria gave Hestia a questioning look.
"One of my children prepared you a meal light on the stomach, said something about you needing the nutrients" She brought the plate of food to the bed and helped Meteria eat.
"Bell"
"You want me to tell you about Bell?"
"Yes!" Meteria's face brightened up.
"Where do I start? ... Oh! Should I start from when I first met him?"
Meteria was lulled to sleep while hearing stories about her son. It was a mere few hours before the return of the party from dungeon diving at dusk.
(End of Chapter)
'1:
Archibald: A surname derived from the Germanic name Ercanbald, composed of the elements erkan meaning "pure, holy, genuine" and bald meaning "bold, brave". The first element was altered due to the influence of Greek names beginning with the element ἀρχός (archos) meaning "master". The Normans brought this name to England. It first became common in Scotland in the Middle Ages.
'2:
I know. Meteria was originally a member of Hera's familia. But, you know? The neat thing about falna is that it dissolves once the person carrying it is considered dead.
An instance that proves this is when Hestia said that she still feels the falna she gave bell, signifying him as alive. That hints at the surety of the link between a falna's existence and its carrier being alive.
This is also the reason why her stats reset... if she got any...
For those wondering, yes, Alfia's status resets as well.
'3:
MOTHER POWER GO! The same thing that Fujino Oomori said to be able to extend Alfia's life if she stayed with Bell, it makes an appearance here. Meteria will not be combat-oriented, she will be son's-safety-oriented.
Some of you might have noticed how Meteria's mode swings a lot during the time she interacts with Hestia. That is in part due to her body's hormones not being balanced like a usual human.
Biologically, hormones control how we feel. An imbalance of them could cause those mode swings.
As for the times her mode calmed down, it was because the body was restoring the needed things that will stop any self-damage when that happened. Glands responsible for the hormones that will complete a balance get formed as a priority.
Because those glands balance one side and destroy the balance of another, Meteria's temper flared up and calmed down multiple times.
One last thing, whenever the day changes, I will specify it within brackets.
Have a nice day, ladies and gentlemen.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone