7th Heaven Chronicles

7th Heaven Chronicles

Chapter 4

The Five Construction Principles have been established so that the five elements: environmental protection, safety, speed, economy, and aesthetics, conform with a balanced regular pentagon.

 

---7HC---

 

Vesta District
2 weeks later
Morning

 

“Home is where love resides, memories are created, friends always belong, and laughter never ends.” Seven said as she wrote in her notebook the same sentence.

It’s been two weeks since the fiasco of their first dungeon delve, and things have been quite trying as of late with people trying to recruit her away from Hestia Familia. Everyone doesn’t believe that Flower was the captain and focused on Seven being the one; when she was out, she was suddenly accosted by a dozen Deities and other adventurers, all wanting a piece of the ‘super rookies’ as they have come to call them.

The trio was easy to spot now with their enchanted cloak that hid them from the eyes of their enemies and with the blue and white flame symbol of Hestia embroidered on its back. Seven dumped all the public relationships on Flower for a reason, since their ordeal in their original world she found herself becoming more… antisocial, at least that was the part of her that had merged when their benefactor had revived her and allowed her to take back Wolf and Flower from the river of souls.

Seven closed her notebook and put her richly decorated black and red pen in its case. It was time to go outside and continue her routine, she was on the final stretch for the ritual to demolish all the buildings and roads on their land. From her bedroom, Seven took a five roll of D-size paper for architectural design to draw the plans she had in mind for their future home. Putting on her utility belt with her enchanted tool, the dark haired woman began to hum as she took her bag and loaded it with her reagents, then exited the mobile home.

She passed through the living room and saw that Hestia was still sleeping on the sofa facing the Crystal TV. Seven laughed as she looked at the unladylike posture her goddess was in and closed the door. They’ve been spoiling her for a while now, but she always took care of them by doing the chores they couldn’t do while they went to the dungeon or work like Seven often did to get them comfortable.

Seven’s red eyes settled on the abandoned church and she walked toward it at a slow pace. The sky was blue and the clouds obscured the sun a bit; Seven thought that they really needed to study the calendar in this place and invent a clock tower to be able to tell the time. Even a solar clock would be good and cheap to make.

As she entered the church, Seven directly went to the altar, where some of her stuff could be found. Her footfall echoed in the now cavernous space. After cleaning the interior, she had transmuted every debris or destroyed furniture into raw materials; sitting at where the pews should have been were rows of wooden planks and bricks. All the glass from the windows was turned back into sand and stored in metal cases for later use.

Transmuting materials was a cheap way for the nascent Familia to save up on money. The project for the Vesta District would otherwise be too costly for them; Seven estimated the price to make their HQ to be 150 million Valis.

But thanks to her Demi-Servant nature, Territory Creation and Inherent Wisdom skill, she obtained knowledge pertaining to enchanting, thaumaturgy and Alchemy that should lower the cost of building their headquarters; doing things as if it was from FMA was easy for her now. Alchemy, the mystical art of manipulating and altering matter by using natural energy. And in order to begin an alchemical transmutation, a symbol called a Transmutation Circle is necessary. That is why she created her laser tools with her Item Construction skill able to engrave alchemical circles into any kind of materials. 

Today was the day where Seven will return her land to nature by using the Ley line node under the church and take ownership of it. She had already linked every ruin, building, and road, and set limits to the alchemical ritual to not destroy the rest of the city. Wolf had patrolled the area for the last four days to take care of any squatters and kick them out to not be caught in the ceremony. Hestia and Flower were needed to bless the land and take control of it to place an intent ward on it. Then, only then will they be able to start building their headquarters. 

Seven, Flower and Hestia have decided to start with the basement and foundation of the Vesta tower and its surrounding buildings and annexes. Underground facilities and escape tunnels have been planned as well. The dark haired woman took the rolls of paper from her bag and started drawing the plans.

The tunnels will have to connect to the sewers of Orario. It was Wolf's idea to have safehouses everywhere in the city linked to the tunnels to then go back to Vesta District. This plan is already about to bear fruit, Flower bought four houses and warehouses at cardinal points in the city, and now it was going to be Seven’s job to make them come true. 

The dark haired woman showed a really scary expression as she drew the schematic of the basement; she was getting annoyed by the other women adventurers and some of the goddesses Wolf was being pursued by. Fortunately, Parkour was a thing and all of them were unable to follow Wolf as he escaped from those sows in heat through the urban maze of Orario city.

The only decent people they've met are from the Guild, the Miach and Takemikazuchi Familias who Hestia was friends with. Drinking and partying with the members of those two Familia had been a blast, there were talks of joint expeditions going on between the Familia’s captains and their respective gods. Seven was happy to have left the captain’s position to Flower, there was no way that she would have been able to do all this. She could lead a group of people and run a bar or restaurant, but not the kind of organization that supports hundreds of mercenaries.

Speaking of Miach, Seven had gone to his Pharmacy with Flower and bought all his stock of potions and ordered more to be made. After long nights of study in her mobile workshop, Seven understood that the health potion from her original world and from Danmachi were completely different; her world’s potions were million of time more effective, she then decided that to not attract attention of the medicine Gods, she will have to dilute the potions she desire to sell in their own Pharmacy, making them less effective by fifty percent, but they would still be more powerful than anything on the market.

They were already in the sight of everyone after having caused the monster flood and quelled it in the dungeon, they didn’t want any of the Medicine gods to gun for them for killing their businesses. Seven made a terrifying grin as she thought, *Not that it would be difficult to do* 

While her thoughts are with her Familia, Seven was finishing drawing the basement and sub basements that she wanted to add. It was mainly a storage and a wine cellar; below those they needed training facilities, conference areas, Seven’s workshop and some laboratories… and the wardstone chamber linked to the Ley line node.

After inspecting the schematics, in Seven’s thoughts she quoted a wise man's saying, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Seven nodded and rolled the paper to put it in her bag. She spread another sheet and began to think about how the Mage tower, Manor and the houses and annexes around it needed to be built. 

If you're building a house from scratch, you look into making it as convenient and useful to you as possible, while including themes and styles and designs and whatnot you want or enjoy.

Seven took a lot of things into consideration, *Open spaces, perhaps an underground pantry to keep stuff in, another workshop (more public), stables for riding animals, a balcony because I enjoy the weather here.* 

But half assed considerations are not worth it either. What's the use of a small balcony if you can have a glasshouse in your tower and a gigantic idyllic garden where you can bring your dates for fun or host parties? She couldn’t know what time it was, but from the sun beating on what should be the skylight -she transmuted the crystal it was made of back into their raw components- but Seven felt that she was finally ready.

“Vesta District will be born tonight, but first, I need to…” Seven held her hand before her and the crystal pieces on the altar began to glow blue.

This was going to be a delicate ritual and if she failed she would destroy the land. The block of crystal cracked into five pieces and Seven let them fall on the altar, she took one of the pieces and began charging mana inside. She didn’t know for how long she spent loading her mana inside the crystal lattice in each piece, but the sun was already setting when she finished.

“Seven, are you here?” A familiar voice called out to the budding Magus.

Seven let go of the crystal that was now full of yellow mana; she looked at the entrance of the church; there stood her Goddess, she wore a blue and white dress that was showing too much cleavage. Seven smiled at her and made signs to come to her. “Hestia, come here I need you.”

“Eh?” The goddess jumped and ran toward her; when she reached the altar she looked at what her child had been doing. There was blood on the altar…

“Come help me with this.” Seven asked, or did she? It sounded like an order to Hestia.

The dark haired woman seized Hestia by the shoulder and then presented her with a needle. “I need a drop of your blood, I already got mine and the other’s samples.”

Hestia became a bit unsure, Seven could do a lot of damage with access to godly ichor. “What are you going to do with this?”

With a smug voice, Seven answered, “Taking over this place with a ritual and only allowing certain people inside. Next, we are going to make a home.”

Hestia perked up at this; the mobile home was cozy and all, but a Goddess like her should have a house or temple to show off her power. The tiny goddess took the needle and pierced her index finger with it. “Very well, here.”

The golden ichor pooled in the middle of the altar between the five thaumically charged crystals. Blue-white light spread from the altar and…

RUMBLE. RUMBLE. RUMBLE. Everything began trembling around them, and a flash of light engulfed everything, Seven was smiling when the white light took her and hestia inside it.

 

---7HC---

(Eina)

Babel
Evening

Eina finished her tour in Babel, she hated having to do the inventory of the equipment inside the Hephaestus Familia's stores that the Goddess of Smiths allocated to the Guild, shouldn’t the Hephaestus Familia do that themselves? But she was too serious and responsible to shirk the work. The Goddess of Smiths had entered into a deal with the Guild to provide starter or replacement weapons for the newbie adventurers for cheap. 

Often, they receive the failed products of the smith's. The guild has to check and test those weapons or armor pieces; each step of the manufacturing process was noted down and the guild approved Smiths with an appraisal skill checked with Eina if the products were viable and ready for use.

Today they found at least fifty weapons that would have broken on the dungeon’s first layer, Hephaestus dismissed the lazy smith's immediately. The goddess didn't allow for mistakes like these to tarnish her reputation.

Eina was exiting the tower when she felt everything shake around her. RUMBLE. RUMBLE. RUMBLE.

White and blue light speared into the night sky, like a beacon. Eina focused her emerald colored eyes on the western part of the city and felt the wave of mana coming from there. The brown haired Half-Elf wasn't a Mage but she had the potential to be one and her mana sense was sharp that's why the immense power being used right now shocked her to her core.

People around Eina pointed fingers or cried out as they looked at the beacon of light in the horizon. Eina decided to run toward the Guild HQ and to grab someone in charge to go see what was happening!  

RUMBLE. RUMBLE. RUMBLE. The Half-Elf maiden almost fell as another shake happened, she held on until it stopped, then ran again.

Later when she reached Pantheon, the light was still in the sky and the guild staff was outside the HQ looking at it. She noticed her colleague, Guts, with his giant sword on his back. Some adventurers were running in the direction of the light with crazy smiles. Her uniform somewhat rumpled and her face a bit sweaty, Eina called out to the others. "Everyone! Do you know what's happening?!"

The pink haired, Misha, turned to Eina and ran toward her and looked relieved to see her. "Oh, Eina. You're back and safe." Then she turned to the beacon of light and said, "The sky has been this way for twenty minutes already and Guts and some gods have dispatched people to see what produces this."

The Half-Elf held onto her colleague's arm as if she sought out her warmth, and began analyzing the situation. "The light comes from the... less glamorous part of the city and we know there's only a bunch of trouble makers there."

Guts who had been silent for a while shouted, "It’s the Hestia Familia! I am sure of it!"

A silver haired elf, named Sophie snorted at him, Guts had become rather obsessed with the Hestia Familia as of late, calling them never-do-well and punks. "Come on Guts, this can't always be them! I mean Orario was a pretty rowdy city before they came in."

The Werewolf turned to the elf. "You're wrong! They've been creating problems in the streets for the last two weeks, picking fights too!"

Eina couldn't begrudge the Hestia Familia members from picking fights or running away from the other Adventurers or gods pursuing them. The absurdity of those bored Deities was sometimes too much to bear. The Half-Elf sighed at Guts, Sophie only knew how to fan his flames. 

"Fights that they finished." Sophie added unhelpfully. The young guild advisor was a known fan of the man called Wolf from the Hestia Familia. She often gushed about how strong and attractive he was.

"Don't you think you two are exaggerating too much?" Eina asked them.

"Nope." Sophie laughed.

Guts glared at the two women. "Mark my words, I will laugh and say 'I told you so' later." And he walked away toward the light, Sophie and Eina decided to follow him.

A large number of adventurers moved with them, Eina recognized the Loki Familia more famous members such as Ais Wallenstein, Bete Loga, the werewolf, and Riveria Ljos Alf, one of the top ranked Elven adventurers in the city and one of her distant relatives. When they arrived at the location of the beacon, they saw a great white wall standing in what should have been a ruined part of the city. 

A thick twenty meters tall curtain wall replaced the original vision of desolation, with flanking towers; there were a few doors in the wall, as well as the main entrance that consisted of tall gate towers with thick iron studded doors that were protected by a black portcullis.

"Oh Dear, has this always been there?" The silver haired guild staff were mystified by the sudden appearance of this fortress.

"No, Sophie." Eina shook her head, not understanding what was happening  right now.

"Since when do we have a castle wall inside Orario?" Misha asked, but before anyone could answer her the earth shook yet again.

RUMBLE. RUMBLE. RUMBLE. Under their eyes, the curtain walls gained battlements, rows of tooth shaped parapets and round towers. The walls became smoother and the symbol on the front gates changed to become that of a flame in a brazier. As this was happening, Eina realized, "Someone is building this place with magic!"

Misha staggered at this declaration and immediately denied it. "What? But that's impossible!" 

"Clearly not!" Sophie could feel the mana oozing from the place, it was obscene.

Guts, who stood at their side, understood why Misha was confused; the general understanding about magic was thus: There are two different types of magic; congenital magic, magic based on one's own ability and race, and acquired magic, magic based on the Falna given by the Gods and Goddesses. From the rolling wave of divine energy everyone could feel coming from the walls, a God or Goddess was using their Arcanum. Magic on this scale shouldn’t be available to humans.

Descended Deities are forbidden to use their powers, only in certain conditions could they use their arcanum; for things such as divination mirrors, abilities like this were used to broadcast War Games for example. To the elves there, the magic in the air wasn’t only godly, but of the earth, and principally attuned to nature. It was like feeling a spirit working over the land.

Eina then saw as the light simply dimmed and the sky gradually darkened. “The light stopped.”

Once the light was extinguished Eina saw Bete Loga jump from his position after a running start and try to pass over the fortifications. Bete has gray colored hair, along with amber eyes, as well as a sleek tail. He has a blue tattoo on the left side of his face and a muscular physique. But Eina hated men who had no notion of fashion, and Bete was clothed like a barbarian.

His companions cheered for him, but made horrified cries when they saw the Werewolf smack against something invisible. Thump!

WOOSH!! The werewolf was knocked back to the ground as if a giant had swatted him away. "Aaaaah!"

Slam. Eina looked horrified and shocked, there were magical defenses over the physical ones! 

"Bete!"Bete's familia members ran toward him and were all over him to see if he was okay.

Loki was the first to reach him and help him up. "Are you alright?"

The werewolf coughed, he hadn’t been hit like that since he was a fresh rookie clubbed by an Orc. "T-there’s some kind of barrier over the ramparts."

Eina followed Guts who started toward the poor level 5 werewolf and caught him by the neck and looked him in the eyes. "Who told you to jump from there? This is clearly a magical construct, who knows what might have happened?"

Guts was right, Bete might have been killed on the spot. Bete glared at Guts and made him let go of him and shouted, “You wanna go?!”

Guts sniffed at his fellow werewolf with disgust and was about to tell him off some more when the sound of someone bouncing off something rang and they heard a cry. “Kyaaa!”

Everyone turned in the direction of the scream and saw a downed Goddess of Tricksters in the same crater Bete’s fall had created in the cobbled ground. The goddess wore tomboyish attire, with light red hair tied in a simple ponytail and red eyes. 

"Goddess Loki! What happened?!" The Half-Elf asked as she was being helped by her Familia members.

“An excellent question.” Guts intervened.

In a defensive manner, Loki who for once had her eyes open said as she looked at the Fortress’ gates, "I did nothing wrong! I just tried to pass the gates, oh look! They are opening!"

The iron studded doors were opening without a noise; Loki walked to them and was being stopped by an invisible barrier. 

"Strange, why can't I enter?" The Goddess began beating on the damned invisible obstacle.

Eina followed the Goddess and passed through the gates. "I can pass through them, it must be some kind of defense mechanism against other gods."

That statement was challenged when the God Miach approached out of nowhere and passed through the door with a cart full of boxes. The black robed God began whistling at the walls and continued advancing. There was a long stretch of silence as everyone witnessed the scene.

Everyone then started entering the fortress, weapon ready and surly gaze on. Loki attempted to follow them but was once again stopped, some adventurers got the same treatment as well and stayed stuck outside.

“What the-” Loki looked rather mad and beat on the barrier.

Eina looked at the Goddess with pity in her eyes. "Wait for us here, Goddess Loki."

The goddess slumped on herself. "Aww man."

Bete put a hand on her shoulder in comfort, Ais Wallenstein ignored them and walked inside the fortress. They walked for a while only to be welcomed by the sight of greenery and further to another walled building at the center of the land. They could see a fifty meter tall tower in the middle of the property as well as a house with a really different architecture.

The iron gates of the strange house opened, showing two people exiting it. It was the cloaked Captain and swordsman from the Hestia Familia. The blond one particularly appealed to Eina but he seemed too cold and aloof to her tastes, but she wouldn’t kick him out of the bed. But by the way he was hand in hand with the brunette, any plan of seduction died; Eina turned to Sophie, who didn’t seem to mind that he was with someone already.

The duo finally noticed them. Flower, the green eyed brunette frowned at them. Her expression switched to a grin, a malicious one if Eina could guess. “Oh, hey look Wolf! We have visitors.”

Wolf let go of Flower’s hand and immediately took his great sword in hand. “How did they enter?” The man was wary of them, so the other adventurers stopped walking toward them.

“Hello everyone…” Eina heard Flower greet them all with a wave, then her gaze settled on the god with the cart.  “Oh Lord Miach! I see that you brought the goods!”

The Celtic god strode toward them, his cart trailing on the grass. “Nice place that you got here.” The god of medicine said with a jovial smile.

“We just finished building it-” Flower was speaking but was interrupted by an angry guild advisor.

“Flower, Wolf we need an explanation!” Guts demanded as he walked toward her.

The woman rolled her eyes. “Oh Great, grumpy has come too. Well, I guess you can enter the house for now, Seven will explain what she did.”

She turned toward the house and helped Miach with his cart, Wolf keeping an eye on everyone.

 

---7HC---

 

Vesta Mansion
Hearth Room
10 minutes before the Guild’s arrival

 

It was funny how Seven had expected that the Guild would yet again be coming to them. She had felt them at the entrance of the District and decided to test the intent wards woven into the entire land. It’s the combination of a boundary field, spell and enchantment whose effect is to protect the people bound to the Ward stone; Seven had tweaked it a lot to make those people be members of the Hestia familia.

Hestia sat on the blue velvet sofa facing the fireplace; Seven just finished setting up the fire in the firebox, the flames cracked and sizzled and she smiled in satisfaction. Building everything had been quite taxing. There is a chimney above the firebox that lets the smoke from the fire go outside, the smoke gets filtered and transmuted into oxygen. Hestia Familia was ready for winter, now that they had a house for the Goddess they worshiped and the main executives -that’s Wolf, Flower and Seven- Seven needed to create new houses, barracks, armory and workshops for future members.

Flower already had plans to make the barracks free to live in, but the houses Seven will build need to be rented, as well as the private workshops. It was to motivate the adventurers joining them to do better. The secret vault and armory storage were already built under the mansion and ready to be serviced; Seven will need to prepare suitable arms and armors for the new members, none of the guild weapon starter crap new adventurers received.

“A Valis for your thoughts.” Seven turned to face Hestia who had a teacup in her hands.

The budding thaumaturgist then looked at the floating tea set between them. *Okay, somehow Hestia can control the land and everything on it better than me.*

Seven chuckled at that, and poured herself a bit of tea. She sat at her Goddess’ side, she was really tired… “I was just thinking about what needed to be done. I got all the furniture to craft and the enchantments suite for the plumbing (pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, etc.) to connect to the sewers and-”

Hestia raised a hand and stared into Seven’s eyes, stopping her from continuing speaking and getting too technical. The girl was always enthusiastic talking about her work. “I see… Seven, I order you to take a break. One week without doing anything.”

The thaumaturgist looked at Hestia with horror. “But, Hestia, there's still so much to do!”

The tiny goddess glared at her, the flames in the fireplace grew more from the emotion of the deity. “No but! You’ve done so much already, you always work, work, and work some more! I want you to take a break.” Hestia nodded and put on a serious expression. “Yes, staying cooped up at home and working won’t be good for you, go visit the city, and meet new people.”

The blue eyes of the goddess gained an eerie glow as she stared down her Familia member. Seven didn’t expect Hestia to pull a power play on her like this, was this the territory influencing her? She saw that she couldn’t win, Hestia had the power in the Familia, a slight miscalculation on her part. The red eyed beauty lowered her head and accepted her defeat today. “Yes, my Goddess…”

Hestia smiled again and started sipping on her cup. The two stayed in silence for a while, monitoring the wards connected to their mind now. Hestia was playing with the climate control enchantments spanning the entire district; she understood that those functions were delicate and stopped fiddling with them not wanting to do any damage she cannot take back.

Hestia let the teacup fly back to its saucer and let it float between her and Seven. The Thaumaturgist was looking dejected by the fact that she was essentially benched for a while. The goddess turned her attention to her child and decided to question Seven, Flower wasn’t here to deflect her question. “I have to say you surprised me, Seven. Everything you did, only a deity or a spirit should be able to do it, you know? Are you some kind of spirit or…”

Seven averted her gaze from Hestia’s blue and insightful eyes. She didn’t want to lie to the tiny goddess, it wasn’t yet time to tell her the entire truth. So she decided to tell her only part of it. “I am actually half spirit in a way.”

This was true, she was a demi-servant and considered to be a half spirit because of the power she received from their benefactor by fusing her with Leonardo Da Vinci. Demi-Servants are conceptual humans who have taken the Saint Graphs of Heroic Spirits into their bodies. Seven hoped that Hestia would be satisfied with that.

The Goddess looked at her with her mouth agape, then Hestia began to laugh maniacally. “Take that Loki! I have a special child too!” She whispered with a fist pump.

Seven ignored Hestia’s antics, her sense of hearing was particularly sharp. Hestia calmed down and said with a big smile, “Half? Huh, that’s actually a thing. I had forgotten.”

The dark haired Thaumaturgist nodded. “Yes, my skills about magic come from that part of my heritage.”

Seven could feel as Hestia stretched her awareness, without her arcanum. Technically this land was now part of them and they were at their strongest in the Vesta District, to Hestia it was like everywhere was part of herself. “This land, blessed with my blood, it’s like I’m back in Heaven, I can stretch my will and see and affect everything. This is truly a big gift.”

*She can fly as well, or beat the fuck out of someone, whatever their level is.* Seven continued to list some of the feats Hestia could do on their land in her thoughts.

Chuckling, Seven passed an arm around Hestia's shoulders. “Everything for you Hestia, you deserve it.” She caressed the goddess’ cheek with her fingers.

Hestia immediately reddened from her face to her neckline, Seven found it particularly cute. The goddess slapped Seven’s hand and stuttered, “S-stop  making me blush… okay?”

 In a husky voice, she answered, “I cannot promise that.”

Hestia looked like a cornered animal as Seven’s face approached hers; but fortunately for the Goddess, salvation came when Flower’s shouting voice interrupted them. “Seven, Hestia we have company!!”

Seven cursed in English as she stopped herself. Hestia sighed in relief, but felt somewhat disappointed; then Flower continued to shout with a knowing voice and a chuckle, “I hope you’re decent!”

“I am!! Bring them in!!” Seven shouted back, she didn’t have her cloak with her to hide her essence from a god, but they were on their land and it should be possible to hide this aspect of themselves while being exposed to the naked eye. The trio didn’t want to be under the watchful and sleazy gaze of Freya or Ishtar yet.

Hestia looked at how Seven was clothed, a white shirt showing a lot of cleavage, a black skirt showing a lot of thigh and quality black boots decorated with a wolf running in a flower field, it was beautiful; on Seven’s hands there were simple fingerless gloves as well. Hestia found it weird that the woman hadn’t crammed anything to decorate them; there was a special belt with one pouch, the belt buckle was the Hestia Familia symbol. The tiny goddess always admired how good Seven was in fashioning her clothes, even if some of her designs were so daring…

Hestia used her new awareness to look at the newcomers, she became annoyed when it was the guild again. “The Guild is back, and there’s Adventurers from other Familia with them, should I throw them out?”

Seven thought about it, then shook her head. “Tempting, but not yet, Hestia, let’s see what they want.”

Hestia glared at the entrance to the Hearth Room. “They better not seek trouble or else...”

*Wow, she’s already drunk on the power she received.* Seven looked at the really dangerous glare Hestia threw at the people coming in. She could see them, they advanced within the corridor between the lobby and their current location.

Seven chose to calm down her Goddess before she killed anyone with her intent, the wards were still sensible and learning. “Ah, they would not be able to enter if they sought trouble for us.”

Hestia calmed down, her expression shifted from wrathful to stoic. “Stay by my side, I will handle everything.”

The red eyed beauty turned her head to her goddess and asked, “Are you sure, My Goddess?”

“Yes, I can’t always leave everything for the three of you.” Hestia said a bit sorry that she couldn’t contribute more before; everything had been left to Seven, Wolf and Flower. She had felt a bit useless despite greatly contributing on the domestic level.

Seven hugged her goddess and kept her like this in her arms for a long moment before asking, “Hey, can I kiss you?”

Hestia immediately stuttered, and her face gained a completely red tint. Her fierce frown from earlier dissolved to an expression of embarrassment. “Huh, w-what?”

“Ah too late, everyone is arriving.” The door opened and people began filing in. Seven cursed them again. 

 

---7HC---

 

Wolf didn’t like how some of the people had simply barged in their new home. The white walls of the corridor leading to the Hearth Room were bare of decoration and furniture; Wolf knew that it was a state of being that was temporary as he was sure that his woman was going to whip up something. His woman… he was still not used to being married to Tifa and Aerith; they had spent one hundred years in their benefactor's private world, mourned and mended their relationships after throwing blame at each other for failing to save Gaia. But they got over it and were tried to move on.

The girls turned him into a man after beating the chrysalis off of the boy he was who acted so cocky and headstrong, a boy who had a coldhearted and disinterested warrior persona that he had crafted to protect himself from being hurt by others. They helped Wolf get past his guilt at his own perceived failures to save Aerith and the man, Zack, he considered a brother when they died. Even when she was brought back to life, Aerith had to battle tooth and nail with him, Cloud, to make him go over his trauma that Sephiroth who had sought to destroy his life had deeply embedded into his psyche. He was no longer the somber and brooding warrior that he had been forced to become; with the encouragement from his women and their benefactor, Lilith, he had learned to let go and forgive himself and move on.

Now he had a new life, people to protect and money to earn to spoil his women -even though it wasn’t strictly necessary- but their current predicament made him somewhat overprotective. So many of those people following him would be decent SOLDIERS back home, but Cloud, no… Wolf was confident that he could take them all. Fortunately, Miach was there and Wolf didn’t consider him hostile. Wolf was ready if this situation turned into a fight.

When they entered the Hearth Room, it was to the sight of Seven holding onto Hestia and the Goddess being beet red and looking like she wanted to escape. Wolf sighed, he expected this to happen… Seven has been eyeing the little Goddess since the start and wanted her for herself. It wasn’t bad, he had noticed how Hestia looked at him as well, pretty much every goddess did; Wolf was glad for the cloak masking their soul or essence from the more problematic gods and goddesses in town.

Wolf's voice was strong and firm. “Seven, please don’t put moves on our Goddess.”

Seven crossed her arms and started pouting. Then lifted her arms in the air and said, “But look! She’s so cute!” She poked Hestia’s cheeks.

The tiny Goddess glared at her; Wolf simply sighed and decided to cut short any of Seven antics before Flower joined in. “We will talk about this later, now is the time for business.”

Everyone felt a weight on their shoulders and stared dumbfounded when the Tiny black haired Goddess’ body started to glow with an aura of blue-white flame surrounding her. “I wasn’t aware that we had an appointment with the Guild today.” Hestia began to say, “Nevertheless, I welcome you to our home, do you wish for any beverage, we have food as well.”

Flower walked to Hestia and came to sit at her side, not being burned at all by the flame covering her. Someone wasn’t intimidated, it was the werewolf, Guts. “We didn’t come to have tea with you, Goddess Hestia.”

The room became tense as Hestia focused her gaze on Guts, and the pressure focused solely on him. “Oh, then pray tell what you have come here for?”

Guts formed fist with his hands and his body tensed; he wisely didn't reach for the pommel of his sword at his back as he felt the gaze of Wolf in himself and he felt that despite the difference in level that it would be a terrible mistake. 

“This place created great disturbances in the city, you caused earthquakes for gods' sakes. It spread great panic in the city and caused a lot of unrest!”

Wolf was aware of the quakes, he had felt them as he came from the dungeon with Flower. Some civilians had gotten injured as they panicked like a pack of wild Chocobos. Seven looked somewhat guilty and intervened, cutting Guts rant.  “Ah, that would be my fault, I created the magical ritual and bound the land to our Goddess. There shouldn’t be any structural damages though, I calculated everything to avoid this. So why are you really here?”

No one died, Wolf was sure of that. Just mass hysteria and some cuts and bruises, maybe if the people had been warned this wouldn't have happened. Gut pointed a finger and aggressively said, “You should have warned the Guild that you were going to reshape part of the city!”

Blue eyes glowing like a bonfire, Hestia argued, “We bought this land fair and square, without payment plan or debt I might add, and we are going to pay taxes like good citizens should. We are entitled to build whatever or however we want on our property. Does everyone tell you how they built a house or cabin in Orario or is that honor reserved to us?”

Before Guts continued to dig his own grave, Eina Tulle, one of the most professional advisors from the Guild, cut him and bowed to the Goddess while saying, “I apologize for my colleague’s brashness, Goddess Hestia, but we would like to know in detail what happened for a fortress to have appeared out of nowhere in the city. We need to be able to pacify and reassure the rest of the population, you see.”

Just like that, the tension in the room lessened as if a knife had cut through it. Hestia’s expression became less domineering and her voice became sweet and full of concern. “Oh dear, we don’t want to alarm anyone. I guess I can tell you a bit…"

The goddess put her on Seven’s thigh and patted it. "Let’s say that due to my child’s ancestry, that she can harness powerful magic, you should ask her whatever details you want to know. She’s the enchantress and craftsman amongst us.”

Everyone looked at Seven with an intense gaze full of interest, Miach looked intrigued but not much more than that; the other Adventurers seemed hungry for details.

Put on the spot, Seven crossed her arms and sulkily said to the tiny goddess, “Must I really tell them anything? A thaumaturgist can’t reveal their secret.”

Wolf snorted, yeah everything she did was bullshit in his opinion. She's been recreating appliances from their homeworld, powered by monster cores and she planned to sell some later, the woman had been busy and slacked in her dungeon delving; Seven should have already been level 2. Wolf chose to intervene and convince his girl by saying, “You don’t have to tell them everything, just the broad strokes of what you did with the land and the construction of our home.”

He showed how he had influence on the women like this, some adventurers looked at him askance and were surprised when Seven laughed and agreed. “You’re right Wolf, I don’t have to show them the workshop nor the material and reagents, those are Familia secrets.”

Eina Tulle immediately took a seat and a notepad and pencil, ready to take notes as Seven began to talk shop and about what she did. She basically told them that she created a ritual of ownership and bound the land they bought to their familia and recycled the buildings' materials and transmuted the soil to build everything the people have seen. She spoke of alchemy, science, conceptual magic and symbology; the elves present barely understood what she's been getting at.

The rest of the adventurers tried to parse the information but some seemed to struggle and Wolf and more particularly Flower smiled at their confused expression and glazing eyes. Wolf left everyone to their suffering. He noticed a really attractive blond girl with a nice elfin build standing beside him. She was watching the scene with an indifferent gaze. 

Wolf recognized the eyes she had, he had woken up with them after Aerith’s death long ago. The way she held herself reminded him of one of the most powerful swordsmen he had met in his life, that intrigued him. Her physique, visible and toned musculature and the rapier at her hip showed that she was a speed fighter.

The young woman noticed him staring at her and she began doing the same analysis by looking at him up and down, she focused a lot on his buster sword. There was an awkward silence between them before Wolf strode toward her and held his hand to her. “I am Wolf, who might you be?”

The blonde looked at his hand and finally took it. “Ais Wallenstein from the Loki Familia.”

Wolf took back his hand and after another bout of silence and observing each other he said bluntly, “From how you carry yourself, you are a gifted sword user. Do you fancy a duel? I want to see as many sword techniques as I can and I don’t know what’s used on this continent. You seem to use a speed based sword technique, I haven't fought many of those types of warrior before."

Her indifferent eyes finally sparked with a glow of interest. “Oh? You come from another place?”

He nodded, with a far away look he said, “Yes, our homeland was destroyed and we had to migrate to this continent.”

After thinking about it, Ais said, “I will gladly accept a sparring match with you, send me a letter with the day and time.”

Wolf smiled. “Excellent, I shall prepare an official challenge to the colosseum or at Loki's compound.”

Ais looked at Seven, then at Flower; Wolf found it uncanny how the swordswoman seemed to act like a younger him.

“Can I... give you some advice?” Ais said a bit with a bit of hesitation. 

Wolf nodded, he found it refreshing how blunt this young woman was; he wasn't used to the women in his life being so frank. “I will take any good advice from someone who has been an adventurer in this town longer than me.”

There was the ghost of a smile on her face, she seemed to like that he deferred to her experience. “Your Familia has attracted a lot of attention lately, you are called the super rookies for killing an army of Kobolds and Goblins and now because of this event today... some unsavory characters might target you for the secrets that you possess; your goddess seems to be able to manifest her powers without using her arcanum, the other Deities in town will stop at nothing to know how to do the same, you should start recruiting more members to protect yourselves, I know that you’re strong for a level 1, but you and your companions can’t shoulder everything yourself.”

Ais sighed, it seemed that this has been the longest that she had spoken recently. Wolf smiled at her, the blonde was right, they needed to speed up the recruitment process, people might get ideas… Seven needed to use the book of souls to summon some people. He was happy that his enchanted cloak hid the energy fluctuations hiding his current level of power; everyone thought that he was level 1.

Wolf answered, “I guess you’re right, now that we have a home, we can start recruiting to expand and protect ourselves.”

Ais raised a hand and said, “Good. I’m leaving, goodbye.” She turned heel and left to the room's entrance.

Wolf chuckled as he looked at her departing back and… bottom. He was interested. “Strange girl, but she’s friendly at least.”

Someone tapped him on his shoulder pauldron, he turned only to see Flower glaring at him. “Wolf, if you’re done hitting on the Sword Princess we need you to evict the rest of the adventurers.” Flower wasn’t happy and her tone implied that he wouldn't get lucky tonight. 

He had been so distracted by Ais' presence that he had forgotten about the guild and the other adventurers. “Oh, leave it to me.”

 

---7HC---

 

3 days later

THE HESTIA FAMILIA IS RECRUITING 

 

Adventurers wanted! The Hestia Familia invite you to join them. 

We want more members to successfully tackle the lower levels of the Dungeon.

Health Benefit: We have a mage specialized in healing magic in the Familia and a Thaumaturgist able to craft health potions.

Board and Food are free for adventurers of little means, Barracks and a bath house are available for homeless members!

(Housing rental available for married or conjoined couples)

Training is offered for those not used to fight

25% of your earnings goes to the Familia

Interviews will be held May the 6th in the Guild

Food and drinks will be provided

 

Hestia

Goddess of the hearth and home

First born of the Olympians

Daughter of Cronus and Rhea

 

With an artwork of Hestia wearing a crown and a beautiful dress, pointing her index finger, the poster was displayed in the guild, public boards and in the different bars and pubs all over Orario. Since the emergence of the Vesta District, people have come to know who Hestia was, she was one the newly descended Goddess in town, but she was so powerful that she made big splashes in the city with her new Familia members.

Other Gods and Goddesses didn't like what the poster said, the little big boobed loli seemed to offer better terms than them, others wanted to know how she did what she did without the guild falling on her like a ton of bricks. This recruiting drive promised to be able to install some spies in the new Familia or discover some of their secrets.

Other gods wanted to just amuse themselves in the Vesta District as there were rumors that Hestia’s children were about to open entertainment businesses.