Silence lingered after his question.
Ishtar, who had been filled with smug satisfaction mere moments ago, felt an involuntary tremor race down her spine. That voice. That stark white hair.
Don't tell me...?
She crushed the thought before it could take root, shaking her head to dispel any speculation that this could possibly be 'him'.
Her signature smirk returned, sweet and venomous. Puffing out her chest, she leaned forward, her voice dripping with fake outrage.
"Bell Cranel." She dragged his name out, mockery plain in her voice.
"How dare you sit inside Babel when every mortal is strictly forbidden from entering during a Denatus? Have you lost all sense of right and wrong?"
Her tone was a masterwork to evoke sympathy—fragile calm mixed with terror, each syllable tugging at the hearts of many male gods nearby, stirring their need to protect her.
Bell turned his gaze toward her.
Ishtar glared back, though deep within her eyes, calculations continued.
"Tell me... what am I sitting on?" His voice was calm, as if he were chatting about the weather.
"A stair, obviously." Ishtar answered without hesitation.
"Where did this stair come from?" He asked, his eyes pinning her in place.
"Outside of Babel." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Then, where am I sitting now?" Bell asked, his gaze sweeping across every god present.
Ishtar opened her mouth to answer, because of course she knew the answer, it was simple—
"Outside... Babel."
Her voice became a whisper by the end, those words leaving her mouth before her mind caught up to their implication.
Ishtar's cheeks burned as if she had been slapped hard across her face, without a single hand being raised.
Freya chuckled from somewhere behind. Loki's mouth twitched, a smirk cracking through. Astraea nodded with a small smile. Hestia tried hard to muffle her laughter.
"That's enough. If you think you can intimidate us, mortal, then you're wrong." A male god near Ishtar finally gathered enough courage to stand and declare.
"Intimidate?" Bell raised a single eyebrow.
"You all seem to have a misconception... If I really wanted to intimidate you, it would look something like..."
Embers of gold began to flicker around Bell's seated form, the same flakes every god had watched fall over Orario after his golden pillar.
They were not being released from a sword this time.
They were bleeding out from his very pores, shedding from his skin like golden cinders.
Hogni moved ahead of Freya on instinct, sword raised—the blade recoiling from those embers as if it wanted no part in this. Bete's tail went rigid, canines bared, claws flexing uselessly at his sides.
Every god remembered that pillar and felt their hearts leap into their throats.
If he released that here... inside Babel, then—
There would be no then. Every god in this hall. Babel itself. All would be simply... gone.
The god who had declared they wouldn't be intimidated was already shaking, his knees threatening to fold beneath him.
Those who had been chanting for Bell's execution moments ago couldn't even open their mouths, as if someone had welded them shut.
"But... I'm a civilized person." The embers dissolving like an illusion around him. "I don't usually resort to threats and intimidation against others."
Shaky, fractured sighs of relief rippled through the hall.
"Though all of you still want me executed, right?" Bell asked.
Clank
Steel hit marble.
Fragments of a sword clattered against stone—pieces that had been buried in his back, pushed out by [Super Regeneration], flesh knitting closed behind them as they fell.
He didn't even flinch.
Astraea rose from her seat, walking forward with hurried steps. Hestia followed.
"Loki... how should I deal with this?" Bell's gaze landed on Loki.
Atmosphere shifted. Not from fear this time, from interest. Every god suddenly understood that this mortal wasn't just enduring their judgment. He was playing the room. And he'd just chosen Loki as his piece.
Loki put a hand on Bete's shoulder and spoke from behind him.
"Kid... a one-sided vote without taking the other side into consideration would make people call us gods partial and unjust. So... I suggest we all back down and resolve this like every conflict in Orario is resolved."
Freya continued from there.
"Through a War Game."
Bell shifted, straightening his spine.
Astraea had reached him by now; she bent down and sat on the stair beside him, her hands already wiping any leftover blood from his forehead.
Hestia sat on his other side, wrapping her arms around his and burying her face in his shoulder, as if trying to absorb half of his pain.
"What do you say, kid?" Loki asked, waiting for his reply.
"You mean to say that Bell should have a War Game with the Familias of every single god who wants him executed?" Hestia asked, pulling her face back to give Loki a pointed look.
"I'm just suggesting it, shorty." Loki turned her face away, whistling as if this matter no longer concerned her.
"I have a better idea."
Bell's words made every eye in the hall snap to him.
"What do you mean, kid?" Loki asked for everyone else.
"You gods like to be entertained and solve your disputes with War Games, right?" Bell softly grasped Astraea's hands, lowering them from his forehead.
"Then let's have a War Game unlike any before. A War Game encompassing all of Orario. A Grand War Game."
Some assembled deities, who had been bored out of their minds moments ago, felt their eyes shine at his words. Freya's expression became intrigued. Hestia snapped her head back toward Bell. Astraea's eyes widened. Hephaestus wrapped her arms around her waist.
"Explain..." Anticipation oozed from Loki's eyes, the trickster within her awakening in full force.
"Let's turn Orario into a city-wide colosseum and have a free-for-all. The last one standing wins the War Game."
"..."
"..."
"Hehehehe~" A creepy laugh started to leak from Loki's lips, her body shaking with anticipation.
Even a gentle goddess such as Demeter felt curious about what a city-wide battle would look like.
Freya asked at that moment, "What about the stakes of this... Grand War Game?"
Bell let them digest his words, while his other hand eased Hestia's grip from his arm.
"The last one standing can wish for anything from the gods."
That made even Bete and Hogni pause for a fraction of a second, their heartbeats accelerating.
"Where do you come in all of this, Bell Cranel?" Ishtar asked, trying to bring everyone's focus back on track.
"Simple... If I can't win, I'll exile myself from Orario. But if I win, I want a whole district of Orario under my Familia, and most importantly..." He patted Hestia on her head, while his other hand came to rest on Astraea's shoulder.
"I want all those who made my Goddess cry to be at her beck and call until she forgives them herself."
A few gods were about to protest.
"Or..."
Bell rose from his stair, taking a step toward hundreds of gods.
Drops of blood beneath his feet dissolved into black particles, floating upward to spread across the ceiling like ink.
A dark abyss opened overhead.
"All of you... unseal your Arcanums and come at me. All at once."
Two maroon eyes opened from within that abyss, looking down at the assembled deities.
Bell cracked his shoulder.
"I'll at least take a dozen or more of you down with me."
He stood his ground, waiting.
No god came forward for a fight. Their spines seemed glued to their seats, eyes staring above with uncertainty.
They were not scared of Bell.
They were scared of the unknown he represented.
"I thought so."
He turned and sat back down, the vortex vanishing from above them.
Silence fell once again.
Absolute, this time.
...
..
.
***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
Grand War game.
Its still a bit away, but will come with time.
...
So... don't tell me that Bell is only a brute who knows how to throw punches and headbutt others like a Spartan. Bro is also smart and more politically savvy, at least more than the original... I hope. Besides, this War Game has more reasons that benefit Bell if it happens. It'll be explained in the coming chapters.
So... which was better, brawling like a Spartan climbing a hundred stairs or slapping Ishtar without moving a finger and outmanoeuvring these gods by grabbing their carotid artery, aka their boredom alongside well placed threats in between?
...