Chapter Text
·· Akasha ··
“Star Aegis! Ataraxia!”
Even under the power of my buffing spell acquired at Level 10, this monster was still breaking through my full incantation barrier stacked on top of Alfia’s magic nullification. I grimaced as the flames from its breath crashed into the barrier and went all around it.
“Grand Aegis!”
Regina’s barrier helped a lot, but even that couldn’t stop it for long. It was all I could do to speed through the incantation and add another of my own.
“Regina, we need to retreat! It’s too much!”
The old woman who could easily pass for twenty-five nodded solemnly. Regina Alytos the Empress, Captain of Hera Familia... and my grandmother. Level 9, the strongest mage in the world after me. I’m not a pure mage, but I had two major advantages.
My stats are higher, and I’m Level 10. The world’s first.
And even our combined defensive power could not stave off the Black Dragon’s breath attack. It was trouble enough that we were pushed into this raid before we were ready... Alfia and Zald were not at full power after the Behemoth and Leviathan raids. I never should have let them take front and center against those black beasts. I should have done it myself.
But it’s too late now. This rushed raid has cost us dearly.
Maxim lost his left arm, and most of our fighters are dead. All that remains... myself, Regina, Maxim, Zald, and Alfia. Even Lysianthus, the one person in this familia who was kind to me these last ten years, didn’t make it.
Desperate for an opening for the last of us to retreat, I ran through the incantation for my lightning attack magic and held my blade up. Once I finished, I called the name of the spell, “Divine Lightning!” and a single massive lightning bolt dropped directly on top of me, absorbed into my sword.
I jumped into the air and swung my blade toward the dragon, discharging a massive arc of light-empowered lightning, buffed by the illusory temple created from my fourth magic, Heaven’s Anthem. “Astral Rend!”
The dragon had run out of breath and needed a moment to recharge, an opening I made damn sure to capitalize on. My afterglow attack slammed into the monster, cutting it from its upper chest down its belly a ways.
“You wounded it!” Regina called out from below as the dragon roared in pain.
“That’s our cue! Get out of here!”
We both turned and ran. Zald and Alfia were on the ground at the back. I scooped up Alfia as we ran, and Regina grabbed Zald since Maxim had lost an arm.
“That monster’s power is extraordinary,” Maxim said as we made it outside the barrier. Our supporters were waiting behind its safety back at our camp.
“What happened?” asked my boyfriend, one of our supporters.
I shook my head. “We failed.”
“Akasha?” he said, holding his hand out to me as I sat Alfia down. Her boyfriend, another of our supports, immediately set to work bandaging her. She was wounded with some light burns, but she’d be okay.
“Hold on, Kallen,” I said as I ran through the incantation for my healing spell. “Holy Hands.” My white healing magic blanketed my sister, and the burns on her arms disappeared. “That should also take the edge off of her condition.”
“Thanks, Akasha.”
Normally, I only used the spell key for my healing and barrier magic. The full incantations were never necessary.
Until today. And it wasn’t enough.
Thankfully, my full incantation healing magic was enough to heal Alfia’s wounds. I left her in Kallen’s care and turned to smile at my own boyfriend, but stumbled toward him instead. He managed to catch me. His arms felt warm.
“Easy there,” he said. “Sheesh, you’re worn out.”
“Ehehe...” I chuckled weakly as he sat me down carefully. “The dragon made that skeleton thing look like a joke.”
“What?” Regina gasped. “You mean that creature you found on floor 75?”
“Yeah. I fought for my life against that thing, but it was nothing. Heh... the skeleton thing reflected my Divine Lightning back at me, but I could still block it with Silentium Eden. The dragon’s breath attack though...”
I shook my head.
“It was that powerful?” Cade, my boyfriend, asked.
“Yes,” Regina answered. “Our combined defensive power was not enough, even casting multiple times.”
“What? That’s insane!” Cade sat down with me. “There’s no way you can beat that thing now.”
“Yeah, that’s right. There’s no way. It killed everyone except us five. It’s going to take a decade or more to rebuild a fighting force powerful enough to take that thing on... and I’m definitely going to need to be Level 12... but I don’t know how that’s even possible.”
“For now...” Maxim said. “We go back to Orario and rest. There’s nothing more we can do right now.”
“Agreed,” Regina replied. “Akasha, Alfia?”
“No arguments here,” I said.
Alfia only nodded along. She was more exhausted than me. Since using Genos Angelus against the Leviathan, she’s been struggling with the disease. It was all we could do to acquire sacred branches to stave it off.
“It took a full-powered Astral Rend under Heaven’s Anthem and Astral Lumination to do any damage at all to the dragon. Even my normal Astral Rends couldn’t scratch it. But that gives me an idea of how powerful it is.”
“What’s your estimation?” Regina asked.
“Level 13.”
· · ·
“Get the hell out.”
“You’re no longer necessary.”
Comments like that hurt, especially coming from a pair of goddesses I had a high opinion of.
“Loki, Freya, watch your mouths,” Hera countered.
“You’re washed up,” Loki added. “You have all of two capable fighters left, and Zeus has zero.”
“It’s time you left things to us,” Freya said. “It’s over.”
“We may have only two capable fighters left,” I said, stepping forward, “but don’t forget who we are. I alone am more powerful than the rest of your familias combined. You stand no chance in hell of beating that monster.”
“Akasha’s most powerful attack barely scratched the dragon,” Hera added. “We-”
She stopped short after Zeus rested his hand on her shoulder. “That’s enough.”
“Zeus, what are you...”
He was just silently shaking his head.
“You’re not being serious.”
“I am. We’ve been at this for a thousand years. It’s time to let them take over.”
I saw a look on my goddess’s face I’d never seen before. She accepted Zeus’s words and backed down.
“What?” I said. “We can’t leave it to them. The strongest they have are a handful of Level 5s and a Level 6! That number only goes up by one if you count Mia Grande. And it’s taking them years to rank up even once at low levels. They’ll never grow enough to beat that thing!”
“Please, Akasha. Let it go.”
I shook my head. “This is ridiculous...”
“There’s nothing more we can do now.”
I sighed and just walked out of the room without another word. They accepted our defeat. Perhaps it was time to move on. I wasn’t ready, but it looked like there was no choice. Alone, I would never be able to fight that thing.
Disgruntled, I went straight to the familia compound to check in on my sisters. Alfia was resting in bed with Meteria. Both were sick with the genetic disease that afflicted our family. It had skipped a couple of generations, so we thought we were rid of it, but it afflicted both of my little sisters after skipping over us since Regina.
There was no cure, save one. And I was the only person who could do it. Yet if I did... I would lose all of my power. My Level 10 status would reset all the way back down to nothing, not even Level 1. My falna would just be gone, no blessing at all.
Apparently, I’d keep my status in the background with my magic, skills, and development abilities active once I gained a new blessing, but there was no way to know for sure how it worked.
Meteria and Alfia both demanded that I never use it. But I was getting desperate. Alfia was getting worse after using Genos Angelus, and Meteria has been bedridden for years. I feared for both of their lives.
““No!””
Both of them vehemently denied me again. I would only take no for an answer for so long, especially with Meteria being pregnant.
I didn’t want to argue with them, so I just laid down and got some rest myself.
· · ·
When I opened my eyes again, everything was different. As I rose up, I immediately noticed that my sisters were gone, but when I tried to call out for them, I couldn’t make a sound.
What? I can’t speak?
“Elysia, how are you feeling?”
My vision shifted to the left. There was a familiar chestnut-haired woman sitting next to my bed. “Oh, Mother. You didn’t have to sit up on my account.”
The woman reached over and patted my head. Her touch felt warm. It was something I was unfamiliar with, having grown up without parents and only a few memories of my mother when I was very young.
“Of course, I did. You’ve been asleep for days!”
For days? Who is this Elysia person?
“It’s okay. Aunt Hestia treated me this time, so it was only a matter of time before-”
That’s my voice speaking. But why did it cut off?
“No, you’re right. I’m sorry, Mama. Thank you for worrying.”
My vision shifted upwards a bit and I finally got a good view of the woman sitting next to me.
Lady Astraea? And did I call Lady Hestia, Aunt?
I was calling goddesses... Aunt and Mother? For some reason, it didn’t feel wrong. But a mortal calling a goddess like that...
“It’s okay, my sweet daughter. The important thing is that you’re recovering and feeling better.”
DAUGHTER? What kind of crazy lucid dream is this? I’m dreaming of being Lady Astraea’s daughter?
“Thank you, Mama. I love you!”
“And I love you, Sia!”
The thought made me feel warm, but it also made me feel anxious. How could I dare dream of my role model like that?
But I’ve heard of that name before... Elysia. I’ve spoken to Lady Astraea a few times in the past. She told me about Lady Elysia once, that she came to the lower world a long time ago, but disappeared. She never went back to Heaven. Did Lady Astraea tell me that Lady Elysia is her daughter? What about the relation to Lady Hestia?
As my thoughts began to race, I woke up for real. My racing thoughts had driven my body to breathing hard.
“Aka?” came Meteria’s voice.
I looked over and saw my little sister’s cute face looking back at me. “Hi, Ria.”
She giggled. “You look like you were having a crazy dream.”
“Ehehe... just a bit.”
“What was it about?”
“I’m... not sure, really. It was strange.” I told her and Alfia, who was quietly lying on Ria’s other side, all about the dream.
“So in that dream you were in Lady Elysia’s point of view, but you’ve only ever heard about her once? I’ve never heard about her before.”
“What’s stranger is that I was calling Lady Astraea my mother, and she was calling me her daughter.”
“But you don’t recall Lady Astraea telling you that before?”
“Uh, uh. Not once. She did refer to Lady Elysia fondly, but she never told me that.”
“Maybe you should try speaking with her about it. People have had prophetic dreams before.”
“I don’t know. The whole thing felt real... not like a regular dream. It felt... like I was living it. And it felt... like that’s how things are supposed to be.”
“Our family is very justice oriented, you more than anyone. Lady Astraea is the Goddess of Justice, and you’ve even called her your role model before. It couldn’t hurt to at least talk to her.”
“Yeah, maybe. I’ll give it some thought. But we’ve gotta figure out where to go, too, so there’s not really time for that right now. I’ll have to come back to Orario later to talk to her.”
“Oh, right. You mentioned that when you got home. I can’t believe our familia is being run out of town... it sounds like an unbelievable joke.”
“Those goddesses are being too noisy,” Alfia said. “Any one of us could put their familias in their place.”
“You need to take it easy, Fia,” I said. “Leave that kind of thing to me and focus on resting. If you two won’t let me cure you with Benediction, then you have to get plenty of rest.”
“Never,” Ria said. “Your levels are too important.”
I laid back down and rolled over, facing away.
The two of you are more important to me than some silly status. I can get levels back... but once you’re gone...
I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes, but fortunately I slipped back into sleep quickly.
· · ·
Two days later, we left for Oakvale. My sisters and I, together with our boyfriends. Grandma Regina went with Lady Hera, and Lord Zeus went with Maxim. Uncle Zald just kind of wandered off on his own, but said he would visit.
We had to take a carriage out to Oakvale, the small town where we were going to live from now on. After ten years, it felt strange to be leaving Orario. It felt awful. We defeated the Behemoth and Leviathan, but get run out of town after losing to the Black Dragon? We still have our strongest members!
But I missed our fallen comrades.
Even that stupid Pandora that gave me so much trouble. I missed Lysianthus the most. It didn’t feel real that she was gone.
One day into our trip, I hopped out of the carriage and ran ahead, piggybacking Cade along with me, to find a place to buy before they arrived. If we couldn’t find a place in Oakvale, I wanted to know before they got there so I could figure out where to go next. I’d go to every town nearby to find a place if I had to.
If I couldn’t find a place, I’d just buy a plot of land and build a house.
We couldn’t find a house the first day of searching, so Cade and I had to stay at an inn.
“We’ll find a place, right?” I said, cuddling up against his chest. My Level 2 boyfriend was very good at comforting me through my worries. Lying next to him was one of the few places where I could be vulnerable and feel safe. The only other was lying next to my sisters.
“Of course, we will,” he affirmed. “We’ll have to look around, but we’ll find somewhere. We’ll have our own home real soon. Just you wait, Aka.”
I smiled, my face partially buried in his pecs. “Yeah. I love you, Cade.”
“I love you, too, Akasha. Go to sleep. You deserve a good rest.”
I did sleep — and somewhere in the night, a dream found me again. A garden this time, bright and impossibly beautiful.
Is this what my brain thinks Heaven looks like?
“Are you sure, Sia?”
Oh, Lady Astraea is here.
“Yeah. I’m going to Asgard for a visit. I want to spar with Thor.”
Lord Thor?
Lady Astraea giggled next to me. “Alright, Sia. Enjoy yourself, okay?”
“Always!”
I woke up quickly that time. Or what felt like quickly. It was the middle of the night and Cade was still sleeping.
What are these dreams?
I pushed the thought away and went back to sleep.
· · ·
The next day, we found a house to buy. We went to check it out, and it had plenty of space for all of us, so I bought it right away. The seller was surprised when I paid in one lump sum. It wasn’t all that much, though.
Only a few hundred thousand valis!
Prices in the countryside sure were cheap. But I guess the threat of monsters nearby drove the prices down, not that that would be a problem for us.
“Feels weird, doesn’t it?” Cade said, testing the weight of an empty bookshelf against the wall. “Just buying a house. Like normal people.”
“We are normal people now,” I said, though the word tasted strange in my mouth. Ten years an adventurer, and now I was haggling with a shopkeeper over curtain fabric.
He laughed at that, and for a moment it was easy to forget everything it had cost us to get here.
Cade and I spent the next several days getting the house ready, and after about two weeks, the others arrived. We had a fully decorated house waiting for them, stocked up on groceries and everything.
“Wow... you two really went all out!” Ria gasped as she walked through the place. Her enjoyment was cut short by a coughing fit, which I immediately did my best to alleviate with my healing magic.
My healing magic could only take care of the symptoms. It couldn’t stop the disease.
A few days after we got settled in, we found out Alfia is also pregnant! She confessed to some hot nooky in the hot spring in the middle floors.
I mean... me, too, but I’m not telling. Heh. I’m not pregnant, so...
After thinking about it for a few days, the idea of having a baby sounded exciting. After dinner, I decided I’d talk to Cade about trying. But the boys wanted to out to the pub for a drinking night, so I had to wait.
Ria gave her boyfriend an earful for it, but she was just jealous because she couldn’t do that even if she wasn’t pregnant.
Alfia didn’t care either way, and just shrugged at Kallen, saying “Have fun, but don’t come home all noisy.”
I wanted Cade to have fun and encouraged him. “Don’t let your brothers drink you under the table, okay?”
“Pfft, never!”
“Have fun, love.”
“See you later tonight. But don’t wait up if you’re tired. I’ll just sleep on the couch if you’re asleep when we get home.”
I shook my head. “Uh, uh, come to bed when you get home. If you’re sober, I wanna talk about something. But if not, then tomorrow sometime.”
“Oh? What is it?”
I shook my head again. “It’s nothing to worry about. Go enjoy yourself tonight. There’s no hurry for this conversation.”
“Alright. See you tonight, Aka.”
But they never came home. I stayed up, and began to worry when it got past their usual time to come home. They typically stayed out late, but they always came home around the same time.
But hours passed and still nothing. I ended up falling asleep on the sofa waiting.
· · ·
The next morning, the pub owner knocked at our door. At first, I was asking myself why the boys were knocking, but it wasn’t them.
“The neighbors said they saw those boys here the other day, so I thought I’d try here. Do you know a young man named Cade Cranel? And his brothers?”
“Yes, Cade is my boyfriend. Did they get into trouble? They never came home last night.”
He didn’t answer at first. My sisters approached from behind by the time he spoke up.
“I’m afraid so. The Pub Killer came to my pub last night. I’m so sorry. They stood up to the man, but he was too strong. Those brothers are dead.”
I felt my heart drop.
“What did you just say?” Alfia asked, her voice weak. Meteria couldn’t get a word out, and neither could I.
The man explained everything. I got properly dressed and headed out with him to check the bodies. I was hoping he was mistaken, that the boys had simply gotten too drunk and were passed out on the side of the road or something.
But no. Their corpses were on the floor at the pub.
I dropped to my knees in front of my boyfriend’s dead body. “Oh, Cade...”
“Is there anything I can do?” the pub owner asked.
I stood up, wiping the tears away. “Is there a burial service in this town? We’re new here, so I don’t know what all is here.”
“Yes.” He gave me directions and I headed straight there.
“Can you take them to a familia memorial site?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the clerk confirmed. “We just need to know where.”
“It’s the Zeus Familia memorial site, not far from here. Maybe three hours by carriage?”
“Did you say Zeus Familia?”
I nodded. “Yes. I’m... was an executive of Hera Familia. We uhm... we retired recently.”
“Oh my gods... you wouldn’t happen to be the Astra Blade, would you?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Who in the world would dare lay a hand on...” she trailed off, but I knew what she was saying.
I only smiled and said, “Someone who has no idea what they’ve done.”
After arranging the burial, I returned home and updated my sisters. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
· · ·
Later that day, I went back to the pub to talk to the owner about the Pub Killer. I got as much information as I could and headed to the next town over, Westbrook. I planned to wait at that pub for the next few nights until the Pub Killer showed up.
Three nights, he didn’t show, but on the fourth night...
“Hand over all your valis, old man.”
I glanced over at him, and he noticed. “Mind your business, woman.”
“Are you the Pub Killer?”
“Yeah, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of this.”
The instant he turned back to the owner, I unsheathed my sword, Starlight, and put it in front of his face. “I imagine you’ve widowed many women by now. Your mistake was widowing me and my sisters.”
“That’s Starlight!” “The Astra Blade?” “The world’s strongest adventurer?”
The man’s eyes looked as if they would pop out of his head. The moment he figured out who I am, his face was overcome with fear.
“You know, I just moved out here after a failed raid on the Black Dragon. Turns out we weren’t strong enough to take on that monster. But you wanna know something? I managed to wound the beast. How about it, Mister Pub Killer? Want to taste the power that put a wound on the One Eyed Black Dragon?”
He turned and tried to run, but he made it all of three feet before I planted him firmly on the floor with my foot on his back holding him down.
“Oh, no you don’t.” He squirmed and squirmed, but he couldn’t budge my foot. I quickly tied him up before moving my foot, then I reached down picked him up by his neck. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you. You have done some atrocious things, and you’re going to answer for them.”
I reached into my cloak and pulled out a small bag of valis.
“Hey owner, here.” I toss it to him and added, “That’ll cover my tab and buy drinks for everyone here. Use the rest for your shop.”
But he said, “This is far too much, miss,” while looking into the bag.
“It’s fine. I got what I want. Like I said, use the rest for your shop.”
I left without another word and dragged the man back home and planted him in the dirt in front of my sisters.
“So this is the noisy brat that did it.”
“Hey, let me go!”
“You still haven’t figured it out?” I said, gesturing at Meteria. “You see that? My sister has a baby coming. How does that happen? You ever think about the women and children that the men you killed might leave behind?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
I pulled out the bottle of status thief I had, pulled his shirt up, and poured a drop on him. “Ganesha Familia. Level 3.”
“What? You can read my status?”
“You’re out of your league,” Alfia said. “Just be quiet and make no noise.”
“Ria, Fia, what do you want to do with this man?”
Meteria turned her back. “I don’t want to see that man again. Do what your justice demands, Aka. Just come home quickly so we can give the boys a proper funeral.”
“He deserves death for all the noise he’s caused,” Alfia said with a smirk, scaring the man more than I did. But she dropped her smirk, turned around, and took Meteria’s hand and said, “Aka, I know what you’ll do with him. We’ll see you in the morning,” before leading Meteria inside.
“Actually, after I drop him off in Orario, I’m going to visit Lady Astraea.”
“About your dreams?” Meteria asked, just before going inside.
“Yeah.”
Both of my sisters smiled. “Alright then. Take your time. We’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah, see you soon.”
They went inside.
I picked the man up and started down the walkway to the road. As we reached the road, he said, “What are you doing with me?”
“I just said I’m taking you to Orario. You’ll face Lord Ganesha.”
“W-what? N-no! You can’t!”
Ignoring him, I activated my magic, “Astra Lux,” and bolted toward Orario.
I took him straight to Ganesha.
“I want to speak to Lord Ganesha privately,” I said as two of his familia members brought me in front of him.
“We cannot-”
“So be it,” the god said. “I will allow it, for I am Ganesha.”
On his command, they left us alone, and I threw the man down in front of him. “Have you heard about the Pub Killer, Lord Ganesha?”
“Indeed I have.”
“This is him.”
“Miss, may I ask who you are?”
I nodded and pulled my hood back so that he could see my face.
“Miss Akasha!”
“I had no intention of stepping foot in Orario anytime soon after everything that happened, but this rogue child of yours has become a problem. My sisters and I had just started a quiet life in the countryside, and this man on his way from town to town stopped by our town. Our boyfriends were in the pub the night he came through and were killed by him, among others.”
“I will take care of this, Miss Akasha.”
“So long as he faces justice. He’s lucky to still hold on to his life.” I looked down at the man and he froze. I knew the coldness in my eyes, because I felt the coldness in my heart. “That our children will grow up without their fathers caused me to waver. But revenge is not just and death is too easy for a criminal. You’ll face justice.”
Ganesha walked up to the man, pricked his finger, and dropped his blood on the man’s back. Only instead of updating the man’s status, he sealed the man’s Falna.
“Lord Ganesha, I would like you to keep the fact that I came here a secret. It doesn’t need to be me that brought this man to face his god.”
“Indeed it doesn’t.”
“Thank you, Lord Ganesha. I’ll be returning to my home now.”
“Miss Akasha, as this man’s deity, I am deeply disappointed in what he has done. He is my responsibility and I have failed him and those his actions have affected. No amount of apologizing can return fallen loved ones. If there is something I can do for the living loved ones, you may call upon me whenever you need it, be it now or in the future.”
“Thank you, Lord Ganesha. For now keeping my identity a secret is enough. Perhaps I may call upon your offer if my children come to Orario in the future. And you have my condolences for this man.”
“What do you mean?”
“You say he is your responsibility and you failed him. While that’s true, everyone is responsible for their own path as well. He failed you as well, Lord Ganesha, and disgraced your blessing. Where he could have sought your guidance, he chose otherwise.”
“You are correct, Miss Akasha. You are a child wise well beyond your years.”
I smiled. “Be well, Lord Ganesha.”
“I shall, for I am Ganesha.”
I chuckled and left.
· · ·
This story was originally posted on another site around March 2025. I’ve since added the prologue and the story is up to ~Ch74 as of time of uploading it here. I am in the process of revising the story and I’ll be posting the revised chapters here as I go. Right away, I’m posting the prologue, now split into 3 parts and labeled Chapters 1-3; and the original Chapter 1, now Chapter 4.
Thanks for reading!
Updated: 2026-7-27