Chapter 3 - Side Effects

The next few days I spent hanging around the village playing with Bella and other children. I really wanted to go out and train, but I had concerns Bella would follow me again. Due to the lack of training, my main issues was I might accidentally hurt Bella while trying to protect her from an enemy. Once I was sure Bella was comfortable with me heading into the forest alone, I went out to train by myself.

Reminding Bella not to follow me before leaving, she promised to stay away after her experience with the goblins. Going an hour away from the village, I was confident that I was far enough away from everything to train safely. There were no villages nearby, and there was two mountains between my village and I so it was a good training area.

"Alright then!", I chuckled with a grin, "Let's do this!"

Summoning Divine Axe Rhitta to me, I caught the axe and almost collapsed under it's weight. Dropping it before I did, I watched the surrounding area cave in under its weight.

"Right...Rhitta is the heaviest of the Divine Weapons.", I stated recalling that fact, "It weighs almost three tons...that's way too much for me in my current state. I wonder if my other two Forms can lift it?"

Starting out with my Angelic Form, my body grew to a towering eight feet tall. Realizing that Clark had altered my size by a large margin, I grinned as I was excited to reach this height in my Base Form. Grabbing Rhitta again, I was easily able to lift it this time though it was a bit awkward to hold.

"Nice!", I laughed swinging it around to adapt to it, "It also seems like my wings are made of blue flames instead of feathers too, that's a nice touch. Blue is my favorite color so that works out perfectly for me."

Noticing that my shirt was gone, I saw blue flames pouring out of several parts of my upper body. Not feeling any pain, I assumed the appearance was for aesthetics which was fine by me. Seeing the weapon absorb the energy I was radiating into itself, I decided to use one of my more basic attacks as a warm up.

"Cruel Sun!", I said forming a small two foot sun in my hand.

Noticing that it was again bright blue, I focused on it to see if I could change the color. Sure enough I could change it to any color I wanted. The amount of heat it gave off depended on it's color as well. A Red sun was colder than a Blue sun, above a Blue sun was an Ultraviolet sun which was much more difficult for me to maintain. Not only that, the Ultraviolet sun was invisible to anything that couldn't see Ultraviolet light...meaning most humanoid creatures wouldn't ever see it coming, but they would certainly feel the heat it gave off. Just holding that sun in my hand was enough to turn trees into ashes within a second.

"Damn!! This is fucking amazing!!", I chuckled launching myself into the air, "Alright, next up is a live test!"

Forming another two foot Blue Cruel Sun in my hand, I launched both down into the valley were I had been standing. Seeing them scorching the forest as they flew down the hillside, I proceeded to use Pride Flare to see what would happen. Instead of a normal explosion, the Blue suns erupted into a massive fireball that swallowed the entire valley in seconds. Containing the blast from going any further, I looked at my hands in shock.

"I should mention this now since you have knowledge Mael and Escanor didn't, your power is substantially higher. You can change the color of your Suns because you understand the principles of what changes a stars color. Since they used it solely from a magic perspective, their suns were the same color as the only star they knew.", Clark told me telepathically, "Needless to say a Greatest Sun would be enough to power to burn the atmosphere away in seconds."

"That would have been helpful to know before hand!", I groaned, "I just burnt the valley away..."

"Meh it's not a big deal, the forest will come back in a few decades.", he chuckled.

"That's true...I am glad I found out here because this could have been very bad if I used that in the city...", I gulped, "There is no do overs."

"That isn't necessarily true, you have the power to resurrect people.", Clark reminded me.

"Oh!! I completely forgot about that!! Still though...I have to be careful about that.", I replied, "If I do it once, a lot of people are going to start coming to me for resurrections. Anyways, thanks for the heads up."

Deciding to stick to yellow suns in most combat situations moving forward, I started practicing my attacks for a while. I needed to learn to hold back quite a bit as currently my attacks were enough to easily kill anyone on this planet. Since I didn't want to be labeled as a killer, restraint was key...unless someone wanted to push my buttons or targeted Bella. At that point the kiddy gloves would come off, and they would be in the hospital or a shallow grave. Halting my Angelic training at around midday, I switched to my Demonic Form next.

Unlike the Angelic Form, this form had a single pair of large black raven wings. Each feather was made up of Dark Matter, and I seemed to have a vague connection to each one of them. Using my wings to hover there for a bit, I looked over my body for changes. Wearing all black robes, there were several spots where my blue flames poked out through the robes. In addition, my hands were covered in metal gauntlets and a hood hid a portion of my face. Using a mirror to tell if someone could identify me, I realized my skin was almost blue in color and my eyes glowed blood red.

"Not bad, this is definitely a Fallen Angel look but I can work with it.", I chuckled with a smile, "The three forms look completely different so I don't have to worry about someone recognizing me."

Flapping my wings again, I consciously let several of my feathers go. Watching them slowly fall to the ground, I reached out to them mentally and the froze in place. Seeing several feathers immediately take their place on my wings, I focused my attention on the the hovering feathers. Moving my eyes around the area, the feathers followed my gaze almost instantly. Willing them to attack a boulder below me, they shot away faster than bullets and turned the boulder into rubble. Every single one of them was strong enough to smash the stone to bits with ease. Waving my hand, the feathers erupted into small Purgatory Flames which devoured the stone and the surrounding area. With a snap of my finger the flames went out leaving nothing behind.

"Interesting, so they function like Monspeet's Gokuencho...", I stated with a smile, "A deadly power indeed, but it's a lot more taxing than it looks. This will require training if I am to use them subconsciously and on more than one target."

Focusing on training my Dark Matter manipulation for the rest of the day, I headed back home when the Sun started to go down. Landing in the forest a few miles from the village, I changed back to my Base Form and ran the rest of the way back. Finding Bella waiting for me, she wore a big smile on her face.

"Welcome home brother!", she laughed.

Stopping in my tracks, I looked at her with a smile. Honestly, being welcomed home was something I didn't think I would miss but I did. Whenever I came home from practice or came home late, Jane had always been there to welcome me home. Seeing Bella do the same thing she did...it made this world feel a little bit more like home.

"Did you find anything cool out there?", she asked me as I started walking towards her again.

"Nope, I just went out to practice. Being an Adventurer is going to take more than book smarts and a dream.", I chuckled, "You should start thinking about it too."

"I am!", she pouted, "Grandpa won't let me go out and train though. I have to stay in the village because the monsters in the forest will eat me. He says they don't like to eat boys so that is why you can go."

'Ah...now I get why she thinks like that. Zeus can't tell her the real reason because she wouldn't understand it. We don't need a Goblin Slayer situation happening on this world...', I thought patting her on the head, "Maybe I can take you into the forest once a week to train with me."

"You mean it!!", she said with excitement, "Oh boy, I can't wait to beat up some mean old goblins!!"

Telling me all the dreams she had for her future, I walked behind her listening closely. Walking into the house, she ran off to get washed up for dinner.

"How was it out there?", Zeus asked, "Find anything exciting?"

"Yep, I practiced out in the forest so I didn't hurt anyone. I made sure to go far away so no one finds me.", I assured him.

"Good boy, it's very peaceful here and these old bones of mine like the peace we have here. Last thing I want is for the loud and noisy people from the city coming out here to scout you out.", he chuckled.

"You sure it's not because you enjoy peeping on the neighbors?", I jabbed.

"Ugh!!", he gulped, "You...you knew that?"

"It was pretty obvious that you look over there at the same time every day. Bella may think you are eyeing their chickens, but you don't need binoculars to do that.", I teased him.

"How about you not tell anyone that, and I won't stop you from taking Bella out training once a week?", he offered.

Shaking hands with him, I secured Bella's training for the time being. Running back into the kitchen, Bella asked what was for dinner. Telling her that we were have a roast, Bella's eyes grew huge as she saw the meat in the Dutch Oven. Having never seen that amount of food in one place before, she was very excited about it.

"Are we going to be able to have seconds?", Bella asked.

"Of course, you can probably have thirds and fourths too.", he chuckled.

"Yay!!", she shouted.

Sitting down at table to eat together, the three of us savor the taste of the venison and vegetables.

---Orario, Thanatos Familia Home---

Pacing outside their God's room, several members of the Familia waited for the diagnosis from Dian Cecht and Miach. Usually the two men would never have worked with each other, but today was a unique situation. Over the course of the past few days, Thanatos' health had started to fail him for some unknown reason. His Familia had checked everything he had been eating and drinking to ensure that he wasn't being poisoned by someone, but had yet to find the source of his declining health.

"This just doesn't make sense...why is his health failing him!?", Valletta growled, "I just don't understand, we have tasted all his food and drink before he eats. There is no poison in it!!"

"Captain, please calm down...", several of the other members pleaded.

"Yes, calm down. We aren't even sure if it's poison yet.", Freya said waiting for the two Gods to come out of the bed chambers, "The whole city is in lockdown right now because both Apollo and Thanatos are ill. Apollo is faring better than Thanatos, but both of them are extremely weak right now."

"I tend to agree here, if someone is trying to pick deities off we need to think rationally.", Loki stated unsettled by the current situation, "We have people patrolling the streets looking for any suspicious characters, but so far we haven't found anything."

"Are we sure it's not Ares?", Belldandy asked, "It's getting close to his next campaign."

"Ares is a straightforward guy, using poison isn't something he would approve of.", Loki refuted knowing him well enough to say that, "We have also eliminated the chances that it's aimed specifically at Orario. A several other deities around the world are also unwell."

"What's troubling is, all of them have ties to the same power sources.", Freya pointed out, "All of them are tied to the Sun or Death..."

Realizing that point, some of the deities started to think one of their own was the culprit.

"That's true, but all of them are being affected. It's not like one is noticeably better off than the other.", Loki said leaning back in her seat, "It happened all at the same time...could it be the Evilus?"

Dismissing that possibility, the scale of this operation was far to big for them. As the group of Deities tossed around more ideas, Astraea returned from a meeting with her Familia. Informing everyone that the situation outside hadn't changed, there was a sense of unease in the air. The fact that two prominent deities were bedridden terrified them. If this was a new disease that only afflicted deities, if it turned out to be fatal, they would end up having to wait in Heaven for several thousand years before being able to come back if they got sick. Just as they were about to continue their discussion, Miach and Dian Cecht came out of Thanatos' room.

"How is he?", Valletta asked nervously.

"He is stable now, but is very weak.", Miach stated, "My potions and Dian Cecht's medical knowledge aren't working. There are no signs of poison or toxins in his system...there just doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him that we can see."

"There has to be!!", she shouted, "A perfectly healthy person doesn't just collapse in the middle of the street!!"

"We are sorry, but we can't see what is causing his illness.", Dian Cecht admitted.

"That's because he isn't ill.", a voice said entering the room.

Walking into the room, all of the deities present stood up when they saw who it was.

"Lord Ouranos!", they stated bowing their heads politely.

"Forgive me, but do you know the cause of our God's illness?", Valletta pleaded.

"It isn't an illness as I said, something is syphoning their divinity.", Ouranos told everyone.

"Say what!?", Aqua coughed after choking on her sake.

Reminding them of the creation of this world, Ouranos stated that the Gods ended up in a similar state back then. Recalling that, many of the deities had completely forgotten about it because it had happened so long ago. When they realized the similarities between now and then, their expressions soured. Neither of them had used any divinity when they passed out which left only that as the reason.

"Who could take a God's Divinity?", Astraea asked, "Surely a moral couldn't withstand that power, and none of the deities similar to them are growing any stronger. All of them are weakening...could this mean the Labyrinth may be bring a fourth trial?"

"Don't say that!!", Loki shouted, "We can't even beat the third one, and here you are sayin stuff about a fourth one!! Are you tryin to jinx us!?"

"It is doubtful, the situation down there hasn't changed. If it had, the Adventurers would have reported it to the Guild.", Ouranos refuted, "No, I think something never before seen has happened. As to what is siphoning power away, I can't say. What I do know is, with the number of deities affected...that means it is going to be on our level of power."

"Agreed, I think we should also contact other deities that don't live in major cities. It might be afflicting more deities than we realize.", Hermes said worried about his friend currently hiding in the boonies.

"That is a fair point, start spreading the word now.", Ouranos stated, "Slowly begin lifting the lockdown so the public doesn't become alarmed. This information can't be shared publicly, ensure that you keep only those necessary informed."