Chapter 7-

Black Soul(?)

When Minato awoke, he found himself surrounded in darkness. If he had to describe it, it was as if he were simply floating around in an empty void. The dark reached as far as his eyes could see and it covered over everything like a thick blanket.

"Hey, it's been a while." A familiar voice suddenly said, surprising him.

Minato blinked in response.

One moment, he was completely alone in the pitch black darkness, and then the next moment, he found himself staring directly at a young pale-skinned boy. The boy's black hair was a bit of a mess and his sky-blue eyes seemed to almost be glowing in comparison to their surroundings. It was a face, that up until this point, was one that he wasn't sure he would ever see again.

"Pharos…" He quietly murmured.

The boy in question smiled in response.

"You really are interesting you know." Pharos replied in a merry tone. "That's probably why I like talking with you so much."

"I didn't think that I would see you again." Minato said with a small smile.

Pharos simply laughed at that.

"And why not? I'm always going to be with you, you signed the contract, remember?"

"I guess you're right about that." Minato quietly mused. "I don't suppose that you're here to tell me how I'm going to get back to Tarturus, are you?"

"I'm sorry." Pharos replied as he sadly shook his head. "I don't have the answer to that."

Minato sighed. "I expected as much."

Pharos smiled a bit and stepped closer.

"I'm sure you'll figure out a way." The boy said as he put his hand on his shoulder. "You always do."

Minato gave a bittersweet smile in response.

"You expect too much out of me, as usual."

Pharos chuckled. "You are the 'chosen one' after all."

And then suddenly, the world around them began to fall apart. The darkness was starting to disappear and even Pharos himself was starting to lose his form. Rays of light began raining down from the heavens, striking away at the darkness. Whether he wanted it or not, the dream would be coming to an end soon enough.

"Will I be seeing you again?" Minato soon found himself asking. It might have only been in a dream, but the sight of a familiar face brought a sense of comfort for him.

Pharos just smiled in response.

"Of course."

Then, everything turned a pure white and the world from his dreams was no more.

Minato's eyes slowly fluttered open and were met with the sight of familiar looking red irises. With a sigh, he shoved Loki off of him. The would-be goddess let out a yelp as she was knocked off the bed, falling onto the ground in an obnoxiously loud heap. He rubbed at his eyes for a brief moment before he finally willed his body up, forcing himself towards the edge of the bed. He was never much of a morning person, no matter how much he tried to will it into reality.

Yukari could attest to that, with how often she had to wake him up for school.

"You're so mean, Minato-kun." Loki pouted. "Even after all the trouble I went through to wake you up."

For a moment, he was tempted to ask how Loki had gotten into his room when he had locked the door, but then he realized that it was a foolish question to begin with. She was the literal goddess of the manor, she could probably have access to everyone's rooms if she wanted to. Stifling an early morning yawn, he began to make his way towards his bathroom sink.

It was too early in the morning to be dealing with her shenanigans.

"What do you want this time?" He eventually drawled out.

It was a question that to his annoyance, was one that he had been asking the goddess far too often as of late.

"What do you mean, Minato-kun? Did you forget already?" Loki asked while she laid on the floor with her hands behind her head. "We still have a dumb ero-goddess to question."

He splashed some water onto his face before he turned towards the goddess with a frown.

Yesterday had been rather hectic to say the least, with the sudden monster attacks during the carnival and all. They had tried to seek out Freya later during the day, but the other goddess had been nowhere to be found. Truth be told, he had been hoping that Loki would've forgotten all about the whole thing by now.

Evidently however, she hadn't.

"You can't get someone else to be your escort?"

"Nope!" She replied in an all too cheery tone, "It's gotta be you Minato-kun!"

Minato narrowed his eyes at the goddess, but she only grinned in response.

In all honesty, he knew what game she was playing at. She was still trying to get him to spend less time in the dungeon. He knew that he had been spending an unhealthy amount of time in there, similar to how he had been in the past, in regards to Tartarus. Even still though, he couldn't help himself, not when SEES was still out there fighting without him.

He wanted to get back to them as quickly as possible.

Loki wasn't the type of person that was going to back down when she had her mind made up however. And at the same time, he could see the value in taking a break. There was sound logic behind Loki's plans and his mind agreed with her, even if his heart wanted to do nothing more than to delve back into the Dungeon's depths.

In the end, he found himself agreeing with the goddess. He didn't want to burn himself out after all, Tartarus and the Dungeon were not obstacles that could be overcome in a few days. He was only human and one small mistake because of fatigue was all it took for everything to be over, and then SEES truly would be left to fend for themselves.

His friends would just have to make due without him for now, until he could clear this damn Dungeon.

"Fine, I'll be your escort." Minato eventually replied. "Just give me some time to get changed first."

"Alright!" Loki cheered. "Minato-kun party member get!"

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. What was he now, an RPG character or something?

Once he finished washing his face and brushing his teeth, he made his way over towards his closet and pulled out some of his new adventuring clothes that he had purchased. While he had his school uniform repaired some time ago, it wasn't as if he could just wear the same outfit everyday. The clothes that he had purchased lacked the Kevlar protection that his uniform provided, but had been magically enhanced to make up for it.

As he began to pull up his shirt, he couldn't help but pause when he realized that he had forgotten about something really important.

"Loki, I'm getting changed." He didn't even bother with the honorific.

"Oh, by all means don't let me stop you." Loki replied with an all too-knowing grin. "Go right ahead, Minato-kun."

He gave the goddess a look, and her grin only grew wider in response.

With a shake of his head, he walked over towards the would-be goddess, grabbed her by the hood of her jacket and tossed her out of his room, much to her chagrin. Slamming the door shut, he couldn't help but wonder how someone could be a goddess and such a pervert at the same time. He had only known Loki for a little while and he was already starting to understand what the Sword Princess had to deal with on a daily basis.

Minato couldn't help but pity the poor girl.

It turned out the finding Freya wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be.

Minato wasn't sure where the other goddess had disappeared to the other day, but surprisingly enough, she had agreed to have another meeting with Loki. At the very same little cafe they had met at the last time as well. Evidently, the two goddesses must have enjoyed the drinks that the establishment provided. He was tempted to stop by one of these days just to have a try.

It came as a surprise to him and Loki when Freya had requested that he remain outside, but when Freya's own escort abided by the very same request, Loki just shrugged in response. It was strange, but Freya had seemed strange to him since their first meeting, with the whole refusal to meet his eyes. He wasn't sure if he had offended her in someway or something, but it was becoming very apparent to him that the other goddess did not enjoy him being in her presence.

That was how he found himself standing outside the cafe in the blistering heat, along with Freya's escort.

It would have been fine, since he didn't mind waiting around for a bit, if it weren't for the fact that Freya's escort was constantly sending glares his way. If looks could kill, he would have probably died ten times over by now. The man was obviously not human, judging by the feline-like ears that rested from atop his jet-black hair. Golden-colored irises that reminded him of a cat's were trying their damnedest to burn a hole through the side of his head, and it was starting to get on his nerves.

"Have I done something to offend?" Minato eventually began, breaking the tense silence between them. "If I have, then I apologize."

The other man simply scoffed.

"Your entire existence is an offense. If you want to apologize, then go get yourself offed in the Dungeon already."

Minato blinked at that, not expecting the amount of venom laced into the other man's words.

A frown soon fell upon his face as he drifted back into silence, trying his best to ignore the glare being sent his way. What could he have possibly done that could have drawn such ire from the Freya familia? Minato tried to think back to all the times he had interacted with Freya or anyone else from her familiar and only came up with more questions than answers.

He knew that she had something to do with the monsters escaping during the monster carnival, so perhaps it had something to do with that? He had killed a good deal of those monsters, but so had others from the Loki familia, so why was it that all of Freya's ire seemed to be focused solely on himself? The more he thought about it, the more confused he became, and just when he was about to question the cat-man some more, Loki all but shoved the door of the cafe open in a huff.

"Come on Minato-kun, we're leaving." Loki grumbled as she stormed away in annoyance. "Stupid ero-goddess... Stupid debts..."

Minato only raised an eyebrow in response, before he snuck a quick look at the goddess in question before the door closed. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments, and a myriad of emotions danced in her eyes during that short span of time. The exchange didn't last long however, not before the door to the cafe soon slammed shut. The exchange was brief, but there was no mistaking the look in the goddess's eyes at the end.

It was one of complete and utter disgust.

He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that exactly. Nobody had ever looked at him with eyes like those before.

"Hey Minato-kun! What're you spacing out for?" Loki's voice spurned him out of his thoughts. "Come on, let's get going already!"

It only made him all the more curious as to what he could have done to Freya to deserve such a look. The answer to his question would have to wait until another day however, as Loki had looped back and grabbed him by the arm, forcibly dragging him away from the cafe. It was obvious that whatever had been said during that meeting had put Loki into a bad mood, as he could still hear her grumbling about a 'stupid ero-goddess' even after walking a good three blocks away from the cafe.

"Have I done something to offend Freya-sama?" Minato eventually blurted out, his curiosity getting the better of him.

The red-haired goddess turned her attention towards him and raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? What makes you say that?"

"For one, she avoids me as much as possible." He matter-of-factly listed out. "And secondly, her escort seemed to have a grudge against me as well."

Loki furrowed her brow. "Hmm… Now that I think about it, even that time at the cafe, it seemed as if she was trying to stay as far away from you as possible." She mused to herself, before suddenly breaking out into a wide grin. "Heh heh, maybe she's afraid of you. I should totally use that against her."

Minato let out a sigh.

"I'm being serious here, Loki-sama."

"Fiiiineee. Truth be told though, I don't really know." The red-haired goddess replied with a shrug. "Freya can see into a person's soul however, maybe she saw something inside of yours that gave her a good scare." Loki laughed. "Now you got me even more curious about you, Minato-kun~ What kind of dark secrets are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing important or relevant to you."

Loki only smirked in response.

"Sure, sure. Don't worry, I've got all the time in the world to unravel the secret that is Minato Arisato. Try to keep it fun for me, alright?"

His mood instantly soured at that.

Loki might've had all the time in the world, but time was definitely not on his side. The next full moon was coming soon, and there was no way he was going to be able to clear the dungeon by then. SEES was going to have to get through that hurdle without him. Just the thought of it already filled him with worry.

And it was that worry that drove him to dive right back into the depths of the Dungeon the very next day.

For Lefiya, her magic had always been her source of pride.

As an elf, she was naturally attuned to magic, like the rest of her race. Lefiya however, was blessed in a way that no other elf could compare. An ability that allowed her to use any of the spells of her people, a magic that was unheard of, even among the elves. She was strong when compared to regular adventurers, she knew this, but in order to stand amongst the titans such as the Sword Princess and Nine Hell, it wasn't enough.

She still needed to become even greater.

Perhaps that was why she found herself drawn towards their familia's newest member. She was familiar with him of course, she had been the one to heal him when they had found him half-dead on the 51st floor of the dungeon after all. Everyone knew that he was a level five, a first-class adventurer, and that he was a mage, but nothing more than that. Lefiya had never even spoken with him before, only a few members of their familia could boast that claim.

Minato Arisato was someone that kept to himself. He made no attempts to get to know anyone else in the familia, and those that reached out were only met with curt responses and rejections. In a way, he was almost like a shadow. He was always around where you could see him, but elusive enough that you could never get a proper hand on him.

In spite of that however, it had soon become obvious to everyone else in the Loki familia that he was favored by their goddess. Loki always circled around him, as if she were the moon to his planet, and Lefiya found herself wondering just what was it about him that drew their goddess's undivided attention. Tiona had recently completed a quest with him, regaling everyone with tales of the boy's chantless magic. Ais, when asked about him, had simply replied with the answer that he was strong. Even her mentor and future queen had said, 'His is a magic that is unique, even amongst all of the mages in the world'.

Naturally, as a mage herself, she was curious. And perhaps, deep down inside of her, she was a bit envious. She wanted to know what made him so different, what allowed him to be so blessed, that even the titans of this city had already come to respect him so. Lefiya wanted to know what it was exactly that made him so different, and perhaps just maybe, she could become like that in the future as well.

Perhaps that was why she found herself standing in front of him, blocking his way towards the entrance to the Dungeon.

"Arisato-san!" The words had left her mouth before she had even realized it. "W-would you like to form a party with me?"

She had already prepared herself for the rejection that would come, just like all of the others. Tiona had managed to convince him, but she was a first-class adventurer, and a famed one in her own right. Meanwhile, she was just another weakling that always required protection, as Bete had always said.

"You are… Viridis-san?"

The question hung in the air for a while, before Lefiya finally managed to regather her wits. She hadn't expected him to even know who she was, much less know her name, so it had caught her by surprise.

"A-ah, yes that's me." She quickly replied with a nod.

"Alright, let's form a party then."

Lefiya blinked.

For a brief moment, she was stunned because she hadn't expected him to agree with her request. She had thought that without a doubt, she would've been shot down like all the rest. She wasn't strong like how Ais and Tiona were after all. For him to actually go along with her request, it was an unexpected turn of events, one that she hadn't properly accounted for.

Perhaps that was why her mind had decided to blank out on her right then and there.

At the very top of the tower of Babel, one could see everything that needed to be seen in the dungeon city of Orario.

There was a very specific spot that she favored, one that she would routinely use to spot out souls that drew her interest. The children at the bottom would go about their daily lives, and she would patiently watch on, until a new color would catch her eye. It was a rare feat these days, for a soul to catch her attention, as Freya had seen many a soul throughout the centuries. Colors that ranged from the brightest of golds that her dear Ottar possessed all the way down to the dullest of grays that was so prevalent among the masses.

Bell Cranel's soul was one that had managed to catch her interest.

His was a pure soul, one that was untainted by the world. And yet, why was it that the pure soul she simply wanted to longingly gaze at from afar was always in danger of being tainted by that monstrosity that Loki had recently picked up? Why had it decided to interfere with her plans to polish that pure soul of Bell Cranel's? That thing's taint was so repulsive that she couldn't even bear to look Bell Cranel's way when it was nearby.

During their last meeting with Loki, she had gathered her resolve and truly tried to stare that thing in the eyes. She had dared to look into the depths of its soul, into the dark, and she still couldn't understand just what exactly that thing was. She had seen the souls of heroes, of legends residing inside of that thing's depths. And along with that, there were also the souls of villains and monsters alike, all mixed and mashed together into that cesspool of a thing called a soul.

And as she delved deeper into its depths, she could see the souls of gods and goddesses hidden beneath.

That had been a shock for her. She had seen the soul of what was unmistakably Loki herself, and yet at the same time, it was not. It was a conundrum, and it was one that she didn't understand, nor cared to. How that thing had managed to gather and ensnare the souls of gods and goddesses was a frightening thought, but not one that she dwell upon.

No, all that she wanted was for that thing to keep its taint far away from her pure soul.

Ottar would accomplish his task, she was confident in that, for he was the greatest warrior that these lands possessed. The fallout would be massive, Loki did not appreciate having her toys taken from her before she was finished with them. Orario might not ever be the same again if their two familias were to truly clash. But even then, it was a sacrifice that she was willing to make, all in order to protect that pure soul of hers from that taint.

No, this time it went beyond her own selfish desires.

Rather than a willing sacrifice, it was a necessary one. If that thing truly could absorb the souls of gods and goddesses into its own, then it was a dangerous threat that needed to be put down. Just the thought of that thing spreading its taint, drawing even herself into that cesspool, it sent a shiver down her spine.

Loki really didn't understand just how dangerous that new toy of hers truly was.

Author's Notes- Got into the mood to work on this story again, so here I am!