Danmachi - Infinite Mana System! - Chapter 148 - Lucius' Trial 02.

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Orario.

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“Neteru Netjer Isfet?” someone asked, confused.

Most of the gods were baffled by this; no one knew exactly what it meant.

“Are you serious?” Freya’s voice rang out, somewhat alarmed, which was surprising, breaking the image of control and calm usually held by the goddess of beauty.

Lucius observed this, imagining that she must know something about them, though certainly far from fully understanding the organization. But apart from Freya and Ouranos, who looked at him with astonished eyes, no one else seemed to grasp the meaning of this name.

“Hey, Freya, tell us what exactly this is?!” Loki exclaimed immediately, seeing the woman from Orario’s most powerful family lose her composure at just a name.

“...” Freya couldn’t even look at Loki; her gaze remained fixed on Lucius, her brow slightly furrowed.

“This topic is forbidden.” Ouranos’s voice resounded once again, with an air of authority.

“Why? We want to know!” the gods quickly demanded, believing no knowledge or information should be withheld from divine beings.

“About that, it’s not a topic we can discuss, not yet anyway. Let’s continue with the trial.” Ouranos spoke in a firm tone, silencing the room. “Well, we can proceed with the questions...” she said.

“I want to know about the monsters he helped... What are these Xenos?” someone asked, addressing a matter everyone was interested in.

“Yes!! We’ve heard they can talk and use weapons like adventurers!” another said.

Lucius sighed at this. “You’re right... They are developed monsters born from the Dungeon,” he said plainly, as people should already start understanding what they are since they’ve been hidden for over 15 years.

Ganesha and Hermes were the only ones aware of their existence, although neither had had direct contact with them. Neither they nor even Ouranos tried to stop Lucius from continuing to speak about the Xenos, so he went on.

“So, they’re variables?” a god asked.

“It’s not that simple. They’re intelligent monsters to the point of creating their own society, like me or any mortal,” he explained.

“How is that possible?” Loki was surprised as everyone paid full attention to Lucius.

Even Hestia knew little about them, beyond the fact that Lucius was protecting monsters in the city as she rushed to the scene.

“I’m not entirely sure... but I have a theory I developed after meeting them,” Lucius continued, as everyone listened. “I believe the Xenos are adventurers who died inside the Dungeon and were reincarnated as monsters. I don’t know exactly how the matter of souls moving to the other world works... but everything indicates they were adventurers...” he said, causing the hall to erupt with people becoming alarmed by his words.

“You’re saying they are our dead children from that damn Dungeon!” a god cried out.

While no one without exception gazed at Lucius with slightly disturbed looks, some seemed to be in a crisis, even Ouranos looked surprised this time.

“I know it’s difficult... but that’s what I believe... I know because the Xenos report memories of seeing the surface, vague memories of fighting alongside humans against Dungeon monsters. The Dungeon wants them dead too... as far as I know, because monsters also see them as enemies,” Lucius said as a series of discussions broke out while he waited.

These revelations were shocking to them, so naturally, the reaction wasn’t small.

“He’s saying our children can become monsters!”

“This can’t be real, does it mean the Dungeon can trap the souls of adventurers?! Does it mean they don’t have the right to go to the other world and rest for eternity?”

“Ouranos, did you know about this?!”

“Does it mean I might not find my lost children in the other world!?”

Things seemed to spiral a bit out of control as shouts and questions continued for some time.

“I don’t think everyone would be trapped by the Dungeon. There are a hundred thousand adventurers in Orario, and tens of thousands of them have died since the first Xenos appeared over 15 years ago... It doesn’t add up with only about a hundred Xenos being created... It wouldn’t be that easy. Anyway, what I mean about them is that they are my companions, and I trust them; they are not evil,” Lucius concluded.

“But yesterday, there was one attacking the city?!” another accused.

“Thanks to the members of Evilus who drove one of the Xenos insane while it was caged… but I made sure she didn’t hurt anyone. She is a victim of circumstance… and even though it caused the whole conflict, I don’t regret fighting Orario’s strongest forces to protect an innocent,” Lucius said.

The gods began to debate, while Hestia seemed to have tears in her eyes at this. “My child is very loyal to those he trusts…” she murmured beside the goddess of the forge, who sighed but did not disagree.

“But they’re still monsters, aren’t they? They should send teams into the Dungeon to exterminate them!” Lucius heard a god say before he was startled, looking to the side as all the gods stopped arguing and stared at him in alarm.

Lucius was glowing, as if his power was on the verge of exploding at any moment, becoming a threat to all the gods. The only thing stopping this was the shackles, which were reaching their limit as he struggled to hold back his rage. “Dare to suggest something like that, touch any of my friends, and I won’t care if you’re a god. I will kill you,” he simply declared.

“…” The whole place fell into a stunned silence at these words. Such a statement coming from a mortal to so many gods was something that had never happened in this world, and everyone without exception stood open-mouthed.

“Lucius…” Hestia could not have imagined Lucius would be so bold. Demeter, Aphrodite, and even Artemis stood with their mouths agape.

“Hahahahaha!” Laughter broke the silence as Freya chuckled, clearly amused.

“Truly interesting, very interesting! I admire your resolve, Lucius Drakenar,” Freya seemed genuinely entertained by his boldness.

“He threatened me?! A god, being threatened by a mortal?!” the god threatened by Lucius shouted in indignation, also breaking the silence, but everyone could see his fear.

“Shut up if you want to make a decent suggestion; don’t talk nonsense, you idiot,” Loki said, leaving that god even more stunned, although Finn, the captain of Loki’s familia, wasn’t entirely convinced of Lucius’s words, yet she seemed willing to give him a vote of confidence.

“Let’s calm down, including you, Lucius,” Ouranos spoke as the mediator while looking at Lucius, who gradually calmed himself, easing his power.

“Ouranos… you knew about these Xenos, didn’t you?” Loki asked him.

He looked at her and nodded, revealing this for the first time to another god. “Yes,” Ouranos confirmed.

“How long have you known about this?!” another god asked.

“For over 15 years, ever since the Xenos first appeared…” he said, letting another round of arguments begin.

“You should have informed us!”

“Why does the Guild keep hiding valuable information from us?!”

The argument continued for some time before things quieted down.

“Silence…” Ouranos struck his gavel on the bench as the gods stopped speaking to listen to him.

“I didn’t inform you because I feared exactly this reaction… Some of you already want to exterminate them, and I won’t bend to that, as I have known them for over 15 years, and we have a mutual understanding. They have been helping many adventurers in recent years without anyone knowing, because the reaction is quite obvious, which is why we concealed this information,” he said.

“But they are monsters!” a goddess spoke up.

“They hurt several adventurers yesterday!” another god added.

“Yes, my child is gravely injured! They are dangerous!” said another god.

Lucius was now quiet, but pleased that none of the gods he knew were in favor of extermination just because they didn’t want monsters acting like any adventurer. Humans fear what they don’t understand, but Lucius could see that even gods behave this way.

“Well… how about we take a closer look at these monsters…” someone stood up at that moment—it was Hermes, as all the gods turned their attention to him. Enjoying the spotlight, he adjusted his hat with a smile on his face.

“Observe. This was recorded by my daughter yesterday,” he said, and with a snap of his fingers, a large screen appeared between Lucius and Ouranos on one side, and all the gods on the other, allowing both sides to view the same scene.

It was the scene where Lyd fought an adventurer and won, but did not kill him while the adventurer begged for mercy. All the gods were quite surprised when Lyd, a lizardman clad in armor, dropped his sword and extended his hand to help the human up.

“We are not your enemies… We don’t have to be like this…” he said to everyone, while all looked on in astonishment, even Lucius was stunned by this scene, which he did not know about.

The adventurer seemed to raise his hand, and in the next moment, the gods cried out in shock as he drew a dagger and stabbed Lyd in the chest.

“Die, you monster!” the adventurer shouted with pure hatred.

The scene ended when another Xenos struck the adventurer as Lyd screamed in pain.

“Cowardly scum,” Lucius spat on the ground, his voice breaking the silence of the room. Lyd’s noble action had been remarkable, but being attacked like that enraged Lucius.

“It seems we have some adventurers who act like bandits…” Hephaestus couldn’t help but comment in the silence. Monster or not, that scene had certainly left her with a sense of disgust.

“I didn’t know you had such a child; what a disgrace!” a god pointed at one of the gods who had complained about his children being in the hospital. It was a shame even for him, as he furrowed his brow.

“I didn’t know this had happened! I will expel him from my familia immediately! I don’t want such children!” he exclaimed angrily, seemingly caught off guard by the embarrassment he was facing in front of all the other gods who looked at him with disdain.

“Maybe they aren’t so bad… didn’t they help fight against that monster…?” someone raised their voice.

“Yes… but it’s still strange… monsters behaving like this, being born from the Dungeon, it’s too surreal to believe… Should we now check if each monster is a Xenos or not?” someone raised an important question.

“I am Ganesha! Xenos are gentle… they don’t fight against adventurers, after all, when have we heard about monsters wielding weapons besides a few exceptions of variables?” Ganesha spoke for the first time.

“Either way, let’s decide what to do with these Xenos…” someone asked Ouranos to initiate a vote.

Lucius was still surprised by Hermes’s maneuver; he had practically shifted the majority of the gods’ opinions regarding the Xenos.

Quickly, a vote began as everyone decided with a board in hand. Once the boards were raised, there were two options—combat, or attempting to understand more without killing them, as some had planned.

With the exception of five gods, all decided that more study should be done before making a decision, which was good. Perhaps this was the first point of acceptance the Xenos would gain from the world and a chance for possible coexistence.

“Well… now that we’ve resolved the matter of the Xenos, let’s move on and discuss the actions of Lucius Drakenar,” Ouranos spoke again as everyone’s attention turned to Lucius at that moment.