Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

The final day of the Denatus was far more laid back than the previous two days and, after spending the morning in the discussion, the godly assembly had moved on to the final topic and has started to assign aliases. Since gods were typically very gossipy and liked to fool around they quite enjoyed assigning aliases to Adventurers and often chose things that weren’t always that appropriate in order to ’tease’ them and encourage them to work harder. The exceptions were in the cases of Adventurers that had noteworthy achievements, had set records, or were from powerful Familia and had their god’s backing to get a ’normal’ name. A good example of this was Finn, from the Loki Familia, who had joined only after having Loki vow to ensure his alias became ’Braver’ so he could assume the mantle of the Pallum’s hero.

As he was a ’hot topic’ right now, Vahn had actually been the first person brought up when it came to the discussion of aliases. Since he belonged to the Hestia Familia, she had been given an opportunity to pitch a name before the floor was opened for discussion and voting. Hestia had already discussed the matter with the other goddesses, so when she was put on the spot she stood up proudly and said, "I put forth the name ’Aldrnari’ as Vahn’s alias. Vahn’s affinity with fire is incredibly high and he can also be easily associated with someone that nourishes life after the efforts he has put into resolving the issues with infertility in the various races. It also ties him to his [Master Smith] skill, since it isn’t incorrect to say he breathes life into his creations as well."

Shortly after Hestia’s words finished, there was a great deal of support for the name from the majority of goddesses present. Although it was almost a confirmed matter, the topic was still open to discussion for the sake of formality and several gods tried assigning somewhat derogatory names to Vahn but they were all shot down quickly. Though they were just trying to be snide, they had very quickly been ’marked’ by Hephaestus, Loki, and Freya as ’problems’ that needed to be dealt with in the future. Even though they expected some backlash from Vahn’s ’exploits’, it was still very annoying to see relatively obscure, weak, and arrogant gods making trouble when Vahn clearly had far more support behind his back than they could afford to offend. Unfortunately, it was the nature of many gods to act without consideration for consequence and now they would have to pay the price. Ouranos had seen this as well, but he had decided not to take sides on the matter and allow the Alliance to remove some of his future problems for him.

After Vahn’s alias became ’Aldrnari’, it was decided that the other members of the Hestia Familia would receive aliases as well, since they had lost their previous ones after changing Familia. Ryuu was still a fugitive under her original identity, but that wasn’t known amongst the godly community and her new alias became ’Zephyr’ after a bit of discussion regarding her capabilities. As for Aki, she got a rather unfortunate alias as ’Wandering Cat’ because she had left the Loki Familia very recently. There wasn’t much known about Mikoto, so she received the alias ’Earnest Blade’ after the gods learned of her personality. In the case of Fenrir, even though she was technically a monster, this was a relatively well-kept secret so they managed to get her the alias ’Vanargandr’ after Loki pushed for the name earnestly. Loki had originally wanted to give the name to Bete when he obtained Level 6 because his current alias was actually ’Fenris’, which was very similar to Fenrir. Now, however, she wanted to secure the name for Fenrir because she thought it was far more suitable for the somewhat unruly wolf girl.

Once all the members of the Hestia Familia got their titles, there were a few more Adventurers who had been brought up, including Lili who had achieved Level 2 not long ago. She had yet to awaken her Innate ability, but Hephaestus had learned about it from Vahn and decided to tempt fate a bit by trying to secure her the alias ’Atlas’ after discussing Lili’s relatively rare skill [Artel Assist]. Unfortunately, the name was considered ’too impactful’ for someone that didn’t have any achievements as an Adventurer. Instead, since she had been a support for so long, it was eventually decided that her alias would be ’Super Supporter’ since she had the ability to carry ridiculous loads. Hephaestus tried to take a stance on Lili’s behalf, but Ouranos eventually dismissed her attempt and told her to encourage Lili to try harder to earn the alias herself if she wanted it. Regardless of how ’strong’ Lili became, it would only breed discourse and cause people to complain unless she proved herself worthy of such an alias.

The banquet discussing aliases lasted for nearly two hours before every Adventurer that had recently leveled up received an alias of their own. When the godly congregation was finally dismissed, a large number of goddesses gathered around the members of the Alliance and began trying to arrange meetings or to try and get their names added to the nonexistent ’list’ they assumed would be going around. Loki took charge to reign in the wild goddesses and explained that the procedure wasn’t easy to perform and required a number of resources and time to set up. They also needed to screen each goddess privately and have them take their vows if they wanted to move forward and have a child of their own. As for the few that wanted to have Vahn’s children specifically, that was another matter entirely and many of them had been set aside for the time being after pointing out the fact that Vahn was about to marry Hephaestus after New Years arrived.

As for the ’list’, there actually was one going to be created but it wasn’t any of the new goddesses that were placed at the top. Freya had secured the spot for herself in order to strengthen the bond of the ’Tripartite Cooperative’ and had intended to choose one of her children as the father, with the candidate at the top of the list being Ottar. It was a well-kept secret, but Ottar was actually a partial demigod with a blood purity of 25%. His father had been a demigod born between the union of a god and a human woman while his mother had been a Boaz p.r.o.s.t.i.t.u.t.e that had coincidentally gotten pregnant after several sessions of lovemaking between the two.

Freya had learned of Ottar’s birth and secured him early on in order to nurture him into being the ’ultimate warrior’. With her care, he had grown to become one of the most powerful Adventurers in the entire world and currently holds the alias ’The King’ after reaching Level 7. Though he likely had several decades left to become even stronger, Freya wanted him to devote some of that time to raising their child in order to be his successor in the future. The child born of their union would also be a demigod, but the purity of their blood would be 62.5%, much higher than Ottar’s own purity.

After finally breaking free from the horde of goddesses, Hestia left Babel tower with Hephaestus, Loki, and Anubis as they made their way toward the Hearth Manor with an escort by the Loki Familia who had been prepared to receive them. Along the way, the goddesses talked about various matters that needed to be dealt with in the future including the procural of the land around the Hearth Manor for the Alliance. They had already purchased the majority of the surrounding properties, but they were now talking about building various residential houses and facilities before turning the entire area into the headquarters for the Alliance. With the Hearth Manor as the core, each core member of the Alliance would have a Manor of their own surrounding the area and it would become a central hub for their future cooperation.

This would prevent any other Familia or organization from treading into the territory and would allow them to greatly enhance the overall security of the region just like things had been arranged for the Hephaestus Familia workshops in the past. With Eina as the liaison, there was even going to be a private Guild branch established within the Hearth Manor itself to serve as a direct line of communication between the Alliance and the Guild. Since their combined might was inarguably the greatest within the City, there was a very high chance they would be the first to be contacted in the event of an emergency.

The goddesses didn’t mind this too much as it would give them leverage to use against the Guild for any future projects they want to bring forth. It also increased the reputation of the Alliance while having the dual purpose of expanding their authority and protecting the Hestia Familia at the core. Though it hadn’t been discussed with Vahn yet, there was even a move to have the Hostess of Fertility itself relocated to the area since they would be able to receive the patronage of the literal thousands of members within the Alliance that would be staying nearby. With Freya consenting to the idea, Mama Mia had no reason to refuse the move and didn’t oppose it since all the girls within the pub were already ’taken’ by Vahn and it might cause problems in the future if they were split up. There was also a very high chance that many, if not all of the girls, excluding Syr, would end up joining the Hestia Familia in the future. As for the new location, they had already started construction on the new Hostess of Fertility almost directly across from the main gate of the Hearth Manor so that it would be easily accessible by those heading there in the future.

As for the source of Mama Mia’s headache himself, Vahn was just beginning to leave the Dungeon after Haruhime successfully completed hunting one-thousand monsters consecutively without assistance. Even after she had cleared the required amount, Haruhime wanted to stay inside with Vahn and spend some extra time together until the early afternoon had approached and they enjoyed a light lunch. By the time they had left, Haruhime had cleared all the way to Rivira on her own, even though she was still only Level 1. It wasn’t that she wasn’t prepared to be Level 2, as her parameters had all increased greatly in the short three days they were inside, it was just that Vahn wanted Hestia to be the one to perform the final ceremony. She had never helped someone level up before and Vahn was somewhat worried that he would ’invalidate’ her purpose as the goddess of the Familia if he became the one responsible for training and updating everyone’s blessings. There was also the fear that, like himself, he wouldn’t be able to allow the girls to pick the Development Abilities when they leveled up.

The trip back to the surface didn’t take long, as the stairs leading up only took about a half hour to walk if you took your time, and it was only around 2 PM by the time Haruhime and Vahn returned to the Hearth Manor. Vahn had noticed an incredible amount of construction crews working in the area and the entire district around his home had become abuzz with various people running about performing their duties. As it was one of the ’high-end’ regions of the City, there typically weren’t many people in the area in the past, but now there were thousands of people going about their business. When he approached the actual gate of the Hearth Manor, there were a large group of people surrounding it and trying to gain access to the interior but were barred passage by the formation protecting it.

Vahn frowned because he could see several grey auras with a few black ones mixed in with the other relatively warm colors of the group. Though they didn’t make up the majority of the crowd, there were a number of people with obviously malicious intentions ’hiding’ amongst the rest of the people gathered outside. Unwilling to deal with the situation from the outside, Vahn picked up Haruhime before using Shundo to jump over the wall surrounding the Manor and heading inside. His presence had been noticed by the crowd since the gate was a straight shot to the front door but Vahn just ignored them as he set Haruhime down and walked through the front door. He wasn’t going to enter through the back door of his own house just because there were a few people blocking the gates.

Soon after he entered inside, Vahn heard the pitter-patter of footsteps before he saw two people he hadn’t quite expected to see running toward him with somewhat fervent expressions on their faces. Vahn opened his arms to catch the two girls, one laughing, the other crying before he kneeled down so they could put their feet on the ground as he asked, "Lili, Nanu, what are the two of you doing here? What’s going on outside?" The one to answer his question had been the beautiful and exotic goddess who walked out from the corridor leading to the study as she said in a gentle tone, "Master, everyone is waiting for you in the study. Please bring those two with you...Haruhime, you should take this time to go and get cleaned up."

Haruhime observed the beautiful goddess with suspicion before seeing Vahn nod his head so she walked off to the side after bowing politely and excusing herself. Since they were very light, Vahn picked up the two small girls and asked, "Anubis...I’m guessing things went well at the Denatus?" while he was investigating the interior of the Manor with his domain. He could tell there were a number of people present and was able to intuit that the restrictions placed on his cooperation with the Alliance had probably been removed. From within the study, Vahn could detect the presence of three other goddesses, likely Hephaestus, Loki, and Hestia, alongside more than a dozen other presences all gathered together. Answering his question, Anubis bowed politely and said, "Yes, Master, everything will be explained by Hephaestus-sama, Loki-sama, and Hestia-sama. Please come this way..."

Vahn nodded his head before carrying the two girls along with him into the study as Anubis fell into her formerly reserved spot at his left, slightly behind him. Of course, Vahn also recalled the very recent experience where he had taken her for a ’walk’ and couldn’t help but feel a little fl.u.s.tered before stepping through the threshold of the door and being greeted by a plethora of beautiful girls. Vahn habitually smiled at the site before turning his attention to the small goddess walking over to him with a massive grin on her face. Before anything else was said, Vahn’s expression turned soft and he said in a gentle tone, "Hestia, I’m home."

(A/N: ’Aldrnari roughly translates to ’Life-Giving Flame’, or ’Flame Which Nourishes Life’,’RIP Lili’,’Vahn’s Domain’)

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