Hello :D. Thanks to Monster756 and CorwinHavens for commenting :3
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Ais froze. Her golden eyes were fixed on the headless body lying on the ice.
Time seemed to stand still, but the atmosphere around her fractured instantly. The emerald current of wind that normally enveloped her began to turn rapidly tinged. The air around her turned black, and her face lost all trace of naturalness, contorting into an ugly expression of rage.
"Tempest: Avenger..."she murmured.
With a burst of dark wind that cracked the ground, Ais shot out again into the attack, hurtling towards the dragon's neck like a projectile.
She wasn't the only one. The rest of the Loki family on the rooftops didn't hesitate for a second.
They all threw themselves at the monster. All except Riveria.
The High Elf stood motionless inches from the pool of blood, her gaze fixed on the corpse. She pressed her lips together. A cold, heavy knot settled in the pit of her stomach.
This was your fault.
It was her magic that had doomed him. Her ice had made him fragile, tearing off his leg and leaving Bell pinned to the pavement with no way to escape.
Although the beast had fired the final beam, in her mind the chain of events was undeniable: she had left him completely vulnerable. In practical terms, her attack had killed him.
Riveria let out a tense sigh and tightened her grip on her staff, forcing her mind to clear. This was not the time for self-flagellation. The din of the fight could be heard a few meters away.
She would join the fight and make amends for her mistake, but first Riveria looked down at the boy's remains.
She would not allow his body to be trampled or melted by acidic blood in the middle of the crossfire.
First she would secure its remains in a place safe from destruction, and then she would unleash his entire arsenal against the dragon.
Tione's Kukri and Tiona's Urga struck the beast's flank simultaneously, but the metal ricocheted in a shower of sparks. Not even Gareth's heavy axe could penetrate. The dwarf's blow crashed against the thick black scales with a metallic clang that shook the ground, sending him reeling backward with numb arms and without having made a single mark.
The only real opening was the bloody crater in the monster's chest.
Finn dodged a swipe that grazed his head, spun around, and plunged the tip of his spear straight into the open wound. The impact unleashed a cavernous roar from the dragon.
The Braver leaped back to gain distance, gritting his teeth. His mind raced, processing the absurdity of the situation. He still possessed great strength as a level 6 gareth even more so, but their direct attacks were useless against the dragon's scales. Yet the boy from the Hestia Familia, with an abysmal level gap, had managed to find the exact angle, the force, and the precise opportunity to tear through that skin and create the only weak point. It was incomprehensible.
Before they could regroup their offensive, a sharp, deafening sound sliced through the sky.
Three meteorites struck the street one after the other. The shockwave shattered the facades of the remaining buildings and sent up columns of dust and emerald fire. From the smoking craters emerged gigantic figures composed of molten rock.
Hellish.
"You're kidding me! More of this garbage right now?!" Bete spat. The werewolf clicked his tongue in fury and flexed his legs, preparing to intercept the golems before they surrounded them.
But the onslaught never came.
The stone monsters didn't even glance at the werewolf. They marched past, completely ignoring Bete, Finn, and the rest of the Loki Familia. With heavy footsteps that cracked the pavement, the three Infernals fixed their attention on a single target and charged blindly at the black dragon.
Finn lowered his spear for a millisecond, surprised.
The confrontation was an absolute massacre. The black beast didn't even adopt a defensive stance. With a single lash of its tail, it sliced the first golem in two, scattering molten rock into the air. Then, a horizontal sweep of its massive claws disintegrated the other two instantly. The infernals were erased from existence in less than a second.
But Finn's sharp eye caught the detail through the cloud of dust.
As the golems were destroyed, green fire erupted, temporarily engulfing the dragon's tail and arm. Now, that area was smoking. The impenetrable black scales, those that had withstood the direct impacts of first-class adventurers without a single scratch, were visibly singed and cracked.
The fire of the Infernals had ignored the physical toughness of the skin.
As the crash shook the street behind her, Riveria finished dragging Bell's body into a half-collapsed alley. She did so with extreme care, controlling the strength of her grip to prevent the remaining frost from further cracking the flesh and bone.
She gently laid him against a stone wall that still stood. Riveria sighed and cast one last, pitying glance at the decapitated remains. It was too cruel an end for a boy who had tried to save his city.
She turned around, gripping her staff, ready to unleash all her fury on the black monster.
Then, a sound behind her stopped her in her tracks.
It was a dull, vibrant crackling, like the fizz of an ember fed by the wind. Riveria turned his head, expecting to see an Infernal rising from the ruins.
What he saw froze his blood in a way that his own magic could never match.
Bell's body had burst into flames.
He emitted a reddish, intense, pulsating aura that completely enveloped him. Riveria took a step back, paralyzed, her eyes wide open.
The ice melted and evaporated in a second. But that was only the beginning.
Before the astonished gaze of the High Elf, the dead matter sprang to life. On the ground, the shattered leg began to rebuild itself.
The bone, muscle, tendons, and skin wove themselves together, closing the wound and forming a completely new limb from the knee down.
From the singed cut of the neck, the spine grew upward with a wet creak. Muscle fibers intertwined at a dizzying speed, followed by the skull, brain tissue, blood vessels, and finally, the skin of the face and the white hair.
The reddish fire pulsed one last time and vanished into thin air, plunging the alley back into shadow. The body leaning against the wall was whole. Immaculate. Not a trace of acid, ice, or blood remained.
Riveria dropped the tip of his cane to the ground, his mind shattered by the impossibility of the scene. Her breath had stopped.
And then, the boy's chest suddenly inflated, drawing in a deep, noisy gulp of air.
Bell Cranel opened his eyes.
Riveria stood with her mouth half open, unable to articulate a single syllable.
In front of her, Bell blinked a couple of times, disoriented. He moved his hands, feeling his neck and the unblemished skin of his face, until his gaze met the elf's.
The expression of absolute shock on Riveria's face confirmed that he was not dreaming or had lost his mind.
At that moment, a cascade of information flooded his mind.
[Divine Blessing of the Next Phoenix]: Allows you to return to life once if you die.
[Divine Blessing of Uranus]: Increases resistance to low temperatures. There is a 5% chance of freezing an enemy upon death. If the statue is destroyed, it splits into multiple projectiles.
[Divine Blessing of Cleansing from Evil]: All physical and magical attacks against opponents or entities deemed evil are increased by 300%.
Bell processed the weight of his newfound abilities in a heartbeat. He braced a hand against the bricks and stood slowly, dusting himself off.
Before the silence between them could be broken, an immense shadow covered the little emerald light that fell upon them.
Bell and Riveria looked up. Yharon's massive head loomed from high above, barely squeezing through the crumbling walls of the alleyway to see down below. Far from inspiring terror, the gigantic dragon let out a sharp, vibrant whine, a trembling sound that exactly resembled the distressed cry of a puppy.
Bell gave a small smile. He stretched his arms upward and began to gently stroke the dragon's snout, rubbing its skin to soothe it.
Riveria observed the scene from a couple of meters away.
She tried to rationalize everything for a couple of seconds. Then, she gave up.
She let out a long, deep sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. That boy already had so many absurd mysteries surrounding him that adding a miraculous resurrection to the list didn't even seem like the craziest thing anymore.
After so many incomprehensible situations, Riveria realized that, somehow, she had become completely desensitized to everything bizarre that had to do with Bell Cranel.
Bell stroked Yharon's skin, but his hand stopped when he felt fresh blood. An irregular hole, about the size of a soccer ball, ripped through the membrane of his right wing. Another deep tear scarred his forearm, raw flesh exposed.
"What happened to you buddy?" Bell asked in a soft whisper.
Yharon lowered his head. His throat began to contract in violent spasms. He released a series of wet noises, having retching fits that shook his entire body until finally he snapped his jaws open and vomited.
He vomited up a well-known human figure, that of Tiona.
The Amazon's lifeless body rolled across the ground, covered in viscous saliva. Riveria snapped out of her stupor in a flash. She rushed to Tiona's side and fell to her knees, beginning to tend to Tiona's wounds, chanting.
As Riveria tried to stabilize her, the elf's face contorted. Tiona had dozens of deep cuts across her body, but the real damage was to her torso. When Riveria touched her chest, her hand sank in unnaturally. Her sternum and ribs were literally pulverized; an impact of immense force had crushed her ribcage inward.
Yharon had one last spasm and spat out the massive double-bladed claymore, which fell with a dry metallic clang next to its owner.
Bell continued stroking the dragon's snout, looking into its eyes. Yharon had at some point thrown himself into the slaughter against the black dragon, stepping in to save Tiona while he was... dead.
Dying.
It had been the worst feeling of his entire life. There was no continuous pain, only a violent erasure, an absolute and terrifying emptiness that made his stomach churn at the mere memory of it. It was an experience he never wanted to repeat.
As he watched Riveria struggle desperately to reconstruct the Amazon's bones, Bell analyzed the new text in his mind.
His original Phoenix Blessing had been used up to restore his head and leg. Because of how it was worded at the time, he always assumed it was just an extra life. A one-time use. But the reality seemed to be that the very instant he returned to life, he had been granted the next Phoenix Blessing.
If this new blessing was consumed, would another with a similar name perhaps appear? Was it an infinite cycle of resurrections?
Bell clenched his fists, feeling the hot, racing beat of his heart.
Honestly, I had absolutely no intention of finding out.
Bell walked towards Yharon and rested his hand on one of his undamaged feathers.
[A/N: I know they're not feathers, but we have to vary the terminology. Actually, I don't even remember if that's what they were called.]
"Would you support me one more time?" Bell asked Yharon.
Yharon let out a small, deep roar that made the air in the alley vibrate. Although Bell was unable to understand it, a pang in his mind activated his Divine Blessing of Context, translating the sound into a clear and direct message.
[Yharon says that his flames cannot penetrate the skin of that other dragon and that it wouldn't be of much help]
Bell nodded slowly.
"I understand. Then I won't force you to participate," he said, lowering his hand.
However, the enormous dragon twitched its neck and let out a hot snort, scraping the ground with its claws. Its eyes shone with stubbornness; despite the wound on its wing and its disadvantage, it wanted to keep fighting. Bell noticed this determination and shifted his stance.
"Good. In that case, stay to the edges and be ready," Bell ordered firmly. "If you see anyone about to fall, pull them off the battlefield immediately. You'll be our rescue."
Yharon nodded as bell hears Rivera completing her chant "Luna Aldis."
A few steps away, Riveria was finishing stabilizing Tiona. The elf looked up from her glowing hands, silently watching Bell converse and reach tactical agreements with a giant monster.
Riveria stood up and tightened his grip on his staff.
"I'm going back to support the others," the elf announced.
"I'll go with you."
Riveria stopped. Her gaze fixed on him, assessing the immaculate body of the boy who, just minutes before, had lain decapitated on the ice.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yes," Bell replied, without a single hesitation.
"Then don't die again."
"I don't plan to."
—
Fun fact: Canonically, Freya was about to take her own life here if not for Hedin's preventing it.