Chapter 505 - 505: Confession

Inside the underground sanctuary of the Guild headquarters, the firelight flickered violently.

"?!!"

The great God Ouranos rarely rose from his divine throne.

His blue eyes widened, the wavering flames reflecting his shock at the unknown.

"Impossible?!"

Fels also stared at the blue crystal in astonishment.

In the image, Bell Cranel, who had already lost his life, regained consciousness.

Flames burned across the boy's body, rebuilding his flesh and blood without harming the emerald Elf holding him tightly in the slightest.

In just a brief instant, Bell's injuries vanished without a trace. Even the arm that had been bitten off appeared whole and intact in the image.

[Resurrection]. The forbidden word flashed through Fels' mind.

Bell Cranel had indeed died. Those were hopeless injuries that even healing Magic could not mend. Yet the instant he lost his life, a strange flame had ignited and brought the boy back through rebirth.

"How can something so absurd happen..."

Ouranos stared thoughtfully at the image, then slowly sat back down.

With only a Level 3 body, the boy had endured everything under the support of countless boosts. That alone was already an unimaginable Great Feat.

Even the Great God had not expected Bell to cross the boundary of death and rebuild his body with fire.

"Ahh..."

Fels stared blankly at the flames of rebirth.

Her skeletal body had no flesh and no throat, yet her bones still let out a stunned murmur.

It was the excited trembling of a [Sage] who had lived for nearly a thousand years.

"Fels, are you thinking of yourself again?"

Ouranos asked softly.

As the great God suppressing the Dungeon, Ouranos was nominally the leader of the Guild, but too many matters were tied up in deep complications. The only private soldier he could truly move with confidence was Fels.

Since taking Fels in, this was the first time Ouranos had ever seen her this excited.

"Ah, exactly. To think someone could surpass death... My Magic has never succeeded once..."

Fels' gaze remained fixed on the boy without shifting for even a moment.

As a skeleton, she had deep ties to the word resurrection.

Fels also possessed [Magic capable of resurrecting others], but for eight hundred years, that Magic's success rate had remained zero.

"Ouranos, what exactly is that flame?"

Fels asked urgently.

She had once pursued the [Philosopher's Stone], only to end up with a monstrous body like this. Now that a miracle was right before her eyes, Fels even felt tempted to abandon everything, rush to the boy's side, and dig out the secrets hidden within him.

"[Fire of the Hearth] could not reach this level. [Primordial Fire] has no connection to Bell Cranel either... If this is related to a God, then the only way to avoid the rules of Divine Power would be for a God of the Underworld to exploit a loophole... To be honest, I do not know the details either."

Ouranos gave up on groundless speculation.

The duty of [God of Death] involved far too many Gods. Trying to trace it back to its source in Genkai would be extremely difficult.

"Was he sent back from the River Styx? I see. No wonder Bell Cranel was able to rebuild his physical body..."

Fels analyzed the details on her own.

Her Magic also involved the River Styx. If it activated successfully, then even if the body were completely destroyed, the soul could be used to rebuild flesh and blood.

"Ahh... I want to cut open his body and have a look so badly..."

In the underground sanctuary where no one else came, Fels kept murmuring to herself.

...

On the 53rd Floor of the Dungeon, a few moments earlier.

Crimson flames burned silently, and Bell gradually regained consciousness.

"Hail Dust!"

Alicia chanted her frost Magic.

Because she had been buying time for everyone and reinforcing the frost barrier nonstop, Alicia saw everything the moment the holy flame began to burn.

She watched the flames spread, and Bell's right arm take shape along with them, not knowing what was happening for a moment.

Alicia simply continued chanting her Magic without pause, her sorrowful song mingling with the hope that a miracle might descend.

The other girls noticed a little later.

"Bell...?"

Ais blinked in disbelief.

The flame burning over the boy's body was pure and beautiful, without the slightest hint of sadness or pain.

His twisted joints gradually returned to normal, and his body, crushed to its limit, regained its healthy form.

The black miasma wrapped around Ais vanished in an instant.

She stayed in the same position as before, kneeling on the ground and staring blankly at the flames on the boy's body.

By contrast, the little Ais in her heart seemed to have tasted the most delicious candy imaginable. She hopped around beside the burning flames, waiting for the miracle's blessing.

"Uu...?"

Lefiya also noticed the change in the boy.

It was the same as back then.

When Bell fought the Black Goliath and suffered a fatal blow, the same flames had appeared on his body.

They were crimson flames that resembled the boy's very existence, flames that made people feel warmth and hope.

"Uu... Bell..."

The person she liked had not left this world. Not only that, the arm the boy had lost was gradually being restored.

After seeing that, Lefiya cried even harder.

She wanted to smile and thank the boy. She wanted to remind Riveria, who was holding Bell. But for some reason, her tears would not stop flowing, and aside from sobs, the only thing that left her lips was the boy's name.

"Bell?!!!!"

Ryuu held the boy's left hand tightly and felt that familiar warmth and touch.

Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision.

Ryuu did not know what had happened, nor did she pay any attention to Riveria's words. The only thing she knew was that the boy was holding her hand.

Bell had not lied to her. He had kept his promise and returned to her side.

Ryuu cried from joy, feeling the warmth of their intertwined fingers as their palms pressed together.

"Bell..."

Ryuu swore silently in her heart that no matter what happened from now on, she would protect this warmth to the very end.

Among everyone present, only Riveria, who had both arms wrapped around the boy and was crying with her eyes closed, had not caught up with the change in the situation.

"Bell... I like you..."

"I was drawn to you a long time ago... sob... After everything that happened, my feelings for you grew so much that even I was shocked by them..."

"I'm sorry. I should have said it long ago... The truth is, what I feel for you can absolutely be called love... sob..."

"Bell... sob... Bell..."

Riveria kept pouring out what was in her heart.

Amid her sobs, the boy answered.

"Yeah. Me too."

Bell lifted his restored right hand and gently stroked her emerald hair.

With his embrace and his warmth, he answered Riveria's confession.

"..."

Riveria froze for a moment.

She seemed to be thinking about whether this was a delusion or a joyful reality worth cheering over.

Surprisingly, this should have been an unbearably embarrassing scene.

But when Riveria reached her conclusion, her embrace instead grew even more intimate.

"Bell, welcome back..."

"I love you... so I will never let go..."