Raising Hel, in Danmachi.

The forest south of Orario had been cleared—partially.


Not of danger.


That would defeat the purpose.


But of interference.


A wide perimeter had been established, marked by divine authority and Guild oversight. No adventurers would wander in. No monsters would wander out.


Even the gods watching through the divine observation spell didn't know where it was.


Which made what happened next— Ridiculous.


As Hel Familia stepped into view—six figures emerging beneath the canopy—the renard turned casually toward the taller girl beside her.


Lisa tilted her head slightly.


"Do you have eyes on the object that Hermes hid?" she asked.


Silence.


Then Taylor Hebert didn't hesitate. "Yes."


The entire divine audience froze. Hermes choked on his drink. "…Excuse me?"


In the forest, Taylor's gaze shifted slightly, unfocused—like she was looking at something far away.


"It's approximately two-point-three kilometers northeast," she continued calmly. "Elevated position. Concealed within a hollowed trunk. There are guard monsters nearby—likely placed there intentionally. They are being taken care of as we speak"


Lisa smiled.


"Perfect."

Absolute chaos devolved in the viewing chamber


"That's cheating!"


"That's not cheating—how is that cheating?!"


"She just found it!"


Hermes was still staring, cup now on the ground. "…I hid that personally."


Freya's smile deepened slightly. "Oh? Well lets get this started yeah?"

========

The Ishtar familia had just been thrown moments ago.


The closer they got to the southern wall of Orario, the more the air seemed to thicken.


Not with magic. With pressure. Ottar stood waiting. Unmoving an although he tried to look unimpressed his own battle instincts were blaring.


Yet he stood there like a mountain that had decided to take a vaguely humanoid shape.


Ruby Rose swallowed, then forced a grin as she turned to the others.


"You all have your landing strategies, right?" she asked turning back towards her familia, because that felt like something a leader should ask. Probably.


Lisa glanced sideways at Taylor Hebert.


Taylor gave a small nod. "I am capable of getting everyone,"

Ruby perked up. "Oh! That's great—"

"Nah," Yang Xiao Long cut in, waving a hand. "Not needed."


Taylor Hebert looked at her. Yang jerked a thumb toward Lisa. "Just focus on you and the fox girl."


Lisa's tails flicked once. Before looking at the bug manipulator.



"Taylor," she said carefully, "please, please tell me you are not about to do what I think you're about to do."


Taylor smiled.


"You should already know, Lisa."


Lisa physically shuddered. "…Oh no."


She turned immediately, grabbing onto Ruby Rose's sleeve like a lifeline.


"Ruby," she said, voice suddenly urgent, "could you please catch me instead?"


Ruby blinked, tilting her head.


"Uh…"


She glanced toward the edge of the wall.


Then back at Lisa.


"…I'm not sure my landing strategy would work with two people," she admitted. "It's going to be difficult enough already with our limited ammo. Weiss hasn't had time to fully stock us yet."


Lisa stared at her.


"…You're saying no."


"I'm saying maybe, but also probably no."


Lisa slowly turned back to Taylor.


Who was still smiling.


That same smile.


"…I hate this," Lisa muttered.


Behind them, Ottar stepped forward.


The ground seemed to shift with the movement.


Ruby tensed.


"…Oh no."


A massive hand reached out—


Lisa pointed at Yang. "Take her first!"


Yang grinned. "Coward."


Lisa snapped back, "I am a realist!"


Ottar did not care. His arm reached out and Yang was suddenly gone.

==============

Meanwhile, back with the gods—


They had watched the entire exchange.


Every word.


Every look.


Every poor life decision.


And they were loving it.


"I wish my kiddos acted like that," one god laughed. "That looked fun!"


"Oh please, that blonde one is clearly the best—"


"No, no, the quiet one is terrifying. I like her."


"The red one has style!"


"I'm telling you, the fox girl is the smart one—"


Very quickly—


It devolved.


Voices overlapping.


Arguments forming.


Sides being taken over people who weren't even theirs.


On the platform, Hermes leaned back, grinning as he sipped his drink.


"Oh, this is getting good."


Nearby, Freya watched in silence, eyes distant, thoughtful.


Interested, Very interested. But she promised she wouldnt take her granddaughters familia… She would have to visit more.


And at the center— Hel's eye twitched. "Hey! You can't covet my familia!" she snapped.


The air— Dropped.


Pressure flooded outward from her like a sudden, crushing weight.


Not divine power.


Not technically.


But close enough that every god present felt it.


The noise died instantly.


A few lesser gods physically flinched.


Others went very, very still.


Hermes slowly lowered his new cup.


"…Right," he said lightly. "Still her kids."


Freya's lips curved faintly.


Amused.


Hel exhaled slowly, the pressure easing just enough to let the room breathe again.


"Just…Watch the game," she muttered.


No one argued.


They all turned back toward the divine viewing screen—


Just in time to see Lisa screaming as she plummeted out of the sky.


"THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA—!"


She dropped like a stone—


Straight toward the forest floor—


—and then—


Something moved.


The ground itself seemed to ripple.


A massive, chitinous black hand erupted upward from nowhere—


Formed entirely of writhing insects—


And caught her.



The swarm cushioned the impact, folding around her like a living net before settling.


Lisa lay there for a moment.


Alive.


Unharmed.


Staring up at the sky.


"…I hate her," she muttered weakly.


The divine viewing platform erupted.


"WHO DID THAT?!" one god shouted, half-rising from their seat.


"That wasn't magic—!"


"That wasn't a skill I recognize—!"


"All those insects—!"


Hermes leaned forward, eyes sharp now, all humor gone.


"…That's her. The one responsible for the ants in the dungeon"


Freya didn't speak.


But her gaze had locked onto the scene below with intense focus.


"…Fascinating."


At the center, Hel didn't even bother to look impressed.


"She caught her teammate," Hel said simply.


A nearby god snapped back, "With a giant hand made of insects!"


Hel shrugged faintly.


"Yes."


"That is not normal!"


"No," Hel agreed calmly.


"It is not."


A new voice cut through the tension. Soft, an Curious. "…Kelphri?"


Heads turned.


Bast leaned forward slightly, golden eyes narrowed as she watched the screen.

The chamber exploded.


"That's impossible!"


"Kelphri is dead—!"


"She died in the fight against that monster when he sent the plagues that wiped out most the egyptian pantheon!"


"I was there— All those locusts!"


Voices overlapped, rising into a chaotic storm of disbelief and alarm.


Gods who had been laughing moments ago were now on their feet.


Others stared at the screen like it had just rewritten reality.


Hermes's usual grin had vanished entirely.

======


Wind roared past her ears.


The world blurred into streaks of green and brown as Ruby Rose tore through the forest at high speed, petals scattering in her wake.


Taylor's directions echoed in her mind.


Two-point-three kilometers.

Northeast.

Elevated. Hollow tree.


Easy.


Totally doable.


"…Okay, yeah, this is fine!" Ruby called out to absolutely no one, vaulting over a fallen log without slowing. "We just grab the thing, run it back, and—boom—instant win!"


Behind her, distant crashes echoed—other landings.


Probably, Hopefully.


She didn't look back.


Focus. Speed. Win.

====

Wind howled past her—


—and Yang Xiao Long was grinning.


"Oh yeah," she laughed, twisting mid-air. "This is way better than landing normally!"


Her gauntlets roared to life.


A blast—


BOOM—


She fired downward, the recoil snapping her trajectory sideways through the air like a human missile.


Another shot—


BOOM—


She corrected again, angling herself toward the forest below with explosive precision.


No graceful landing.


No careful descent.


Just controlled chaos.


Exactly how she liked it.


Her eyes locked onto movement below.


Clusters. Groups. A lot of them.


"…Found you." Yang said in a singing tone,


Even from this height, she could make out the gathering forces of Ishtar Familia pushing toward the capture zone.


Organized. Expecting a fight, rather than going for the object they were going to guard the capture zone.


Yang's grin turned sharp.


"Perfect."


Another blast from her gauntlets—


She accelerated, straight toward them.

======

Ruby hit the ground with a soft thud, rolling slightly to absorb the impact.


Before she could even get her bearings, one of the humanoid insect constructs Taylor had crafted scuttled up beside her. Its legs clicked softly against the forest floor as it tilted its head toward her.


"Object located," it seemed to communicate, pointing a delicate, jointed limb toward a dead tree surrouned by bushes and vines


Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Right there, huh?"


She adjusted her stance, ready to dash, as the tiny swarm formed a path, guiding her through the underbrush directly to the hidden prize.


Taylor's handiwork, efficient as always, ensured there was no confusion. Ruby simply had to follow.

A single, precise slash of her scythe cut through the thick trunk, and the dead tree toppled with a muted crash.


As it hit the ground, the golden figure hidden within the branches was revealed—Hermes' seal gleaming brightly in the filtered sunlight, impossible to miss now. Ruby took a moment to look around an see several dead dungon monsters dissapating as what appeared to be thousands of bugs actively tried to eat them.


Ruby's grip tightened on the scythe. "Got it," she muttered, eyes scanning the area for any interference. The path to the capture point was clear, thanks to Taylor. So she turned into petals and followed the bugs.


=========

Pyrne was having an absolutely miserable time.


The moment she thought she had a chance to regroup with her familia, the blonde—this impossibly annoying bimbo—plummeted from the sky and went straight into fist-to-fist combat with her. And somehow… she wasn't utterly obliterating the level one. Not even slightly. It was even more infuriating that when she finally managed to land a hit the blonde suddenly started hitting harder.


As Pyrne's familia tried to intervene, a sleek black catkin darted among them, swiping, weaving, and striking with perfect timing. The thing ran interference effortlessly, keeping everyone else at bay so the blonde could focus entirely on their one-on-one fight.


Pyrne groaned, blocking punches while dodging Blake's infrequent precise attacks. It was chaos, executed with surgical precision, and it was absolutely ruining her day.


Then, just as the familia realized the cat was nearly impossible to pin down, half the battlefield was suddenly coated in ice. Pyrne stumbled, unable to get traction, as the relentless blonde pressed her advantage without breaking stride. Nailing her in the face. Said punch could crack stone with how hard it hit an it hurt like a bitch.


The last thing Pyrne saw was a white haired girl step out of the forest as her head rang with a dull thunk as it bounced off the ground like a ball cracking the ice on the floor, cratering the earth below it.

====

Meanwhile, Ruby raced toward the capture point, scythe in hand, heart hammering in her chest. When she finally arrived, the sight before her was both surreal and satisfying.


To her, the world seemed slow. Every detail stood out. Yang had completely dominated the Level 5 in one-on-one combat, fists moving too fast to track yet landing with precision. Blake, mid-shift, had a sword plunging through her Dust clone, moving like a shadowy specter between enemies. Weiss stood slightly to the side, her hands weaving intricate patterns eyes glowing as ice magic reshaped the battlefield, coating half the field in slick, crystalline terrain that left opponents stumbling.


Ruby took a steadying breath, absorbing the chaos her team had orchestrated. She hadn't felt this alive in a while—the thrill of battle, the precision of her teammates, the overwhelming dominance of their coordinated attack.


As she moved through the slowing enemies toward the capture point, the moment shifted. Yang suddenly began to glow, her aura flaring bright, and a horde of thirty or so Amazons closed in around her. Time seemed to stretch, the battlefield entering near-slow motion as Yang activated her Burn state. Every motion of her fists, every step she took, radiated raw power and intent.


Ruby's pulse quickened. There was no hesitation in Yang's charge—she moved like a living force of destruction, each strike perfectly timed, each movement forcing the Amazons into chaos. The air hummed with the energy of the encounter, a tangible pressure that left even the onlooking gods silent in awe.


Ruby gripped her scythe tighter. The capture point was close. With Yang cutting a path through the swarm, Blake covering her flanks, and Weiss reshaping the battlefield, the objective seemed almost inevitable.


Ruby appeared at the center of the drop off point quicker than any human could really register an inserted the seal.


"GAME OVER!" Was announced and the fighting died down.

========

All of the gods in attendance were staring at Hel—some in shock, some in amusement. Even Freya's golden gaze was sharp with interest. No one had expected the match to be so utterly one-sided.


"YOU CHEATED!" Ishtar shouted, her voice cracking with frustration and disbelief.


Hel's crimson eyes gleamed, a mischievous, very Loki-esque grin spreading across her face.


"Prove it."


The words hung in the air, calm and deliberate, daring Ishtar to challenge her, while the gods looked on, fully aware that Hel had already won—not just the game, but every angle of the encounter.


"Let me give you a hint, there are no rules about what I did." Hel states with an even bigger smile looking down on the Whore.