Walking The Wrong Path

Untitled Part 22

"Hey, are you crying?" Finn asked turning to Loki, who was scrubbing her eyes with her sleeve.

"who's crying ya idiot. Me eyes are jus sweating." Loki sniffled. The sight was rather comical and Bell laughed at her antics.

"well then guys. I'll be off, to live with a crap ton of monsters for like a month. Wish me luck." Bell waved as he went towards the entrance of the dungeon.

"make sure to come back idiot." Loki shouted.

"I'll save my best bottle for ya."

And so, Bell walked in. His first goal was the 20th floor, where he would meet up with the Xenos. Since the monsters wouldn't spawn near him because they were afraid of him anyways, he decided to run to the floor. Of course he didn't use REINHERIAR, since that would be a waste of magic, even with spirit healing at his disposal.

It took him a few hours to get there. He had reached the secret entrance, where the boulder was carefully placed, instead of shattering it, he chose to simply pick it up and chuck it right above so that it would land in the same spot after he went in. He walked in to the rather dark and empty room. He already sensed the countless presences of his friends nearby.

" Yo Lyd, how ya been?" he said turning to his left, where Lyd was standing slightly off to the distance. After a moment of silence however, they all emerged.

"Belluchi! It's been a while my friend, you've changed." Lyd said as he walked over and put his arm over Bell's shoulders. It was good to see how he didn't change, Bell barely ever had time to visit them due to the behemoth incident so he hadn't seen them in a while. Everyone came over and greeted him, the final 2 were Wiene and Ray.

"Bell." Wiene shouted as she clung to his leg. She was much too short to properly hug him, but well, he would make do with what he had.

"Hello, Bell san." Ray greeted with a smile.

"hey Wiene and Ray, how are you two?" he asked as he pat Wiene's blue hair. He had missed his daughter figure, truly it had been a while since they saw him, he hadn't changed much physically besides the extra occasional scar that randomly popped up.

"We are doing great." Wiene replied as cheerful as ever. Truly, he felt that he was with Tiona whenever he was with her, not that it was a bad thing of course.

"Oh? Did you grow a bit taller? Wow, you did. Is my little Wiene finally growing up?" Bell said as he knelt down. He confirmed it. When he came last time, with him leaning down, she was the same height as him. But now her height slightly surpassed that. Wiene gave a giggle.

"Bell Cranel." Suddenly a sharp voice interrupted the cheerful atmosphere. They all turned to a figure in the shadows. Bell had a grin across his face, he had sensed the monsters presence since when he arrived. He stood up.

"Asterius." he said turning to face the massive figure that stood over him, now that Bell was taller, the difference wasn't as big yet it was enough to be menacing. Yet to the rest of them, the presence of the two was more or less the same. Their overwhelming auras pouring out of their bodies as if clashing in the close vicinity of each other. "you've gotten stronger." Bell told him with a smirk.

"you grew as well. I wonder who would win if we fought now?" Asterius asked as he blowed out from his nostrils.

"uwaa..." Wiene panicked turning from person to person. She had become aware of Asterius from quite a little after she was saved by Bell, at first she was awkward with him. Yet soon enough, she started acting pretty normally, although he was quiet and serious, he never once told her to go away. Bell started chuckling.

"you're the final boss. My job is not to fight you just yet." Bell replied. Although his words implied that Asterius was stronger than him, the confident look in his eyes said otherwise. Bell never once lost his smile, Asterius turned and went back into the shadows and sat down in his usual place.