From his vantage point, Draco watched the life-and-death struggle unfold.
Below, Bell Cranel was pinned ruthlessly against a stone wall by the Silverback.
The boy looked fragile, his life seemingly moments away from being snuffed out like a flickering candle in a gale.
To make matters worse, Hestia was sprinting toward them.
It was a move born of desperation rather than logic; in her current state, she was far weaker than the boy she was trying to save.
To Draco, she wasn't a savior; she was a liability.
By throwing herself into the fray, she was inadvertently narrowing Bell's already slim margin for survival.
'Is it because of my presence that fate has twisted this much?' Draco wondered.
He had been careful not to interfere directly, yet the timeline had deviated into a darker territory. Although the knowledge of his "past life" suggested Bell would somehow survive this encounter, the visceral reality before him suggested otherwise.
He couldn't afford to let either of them die due to his own hesitation or a blind faith in a destiny that might no longer exist.
"Well, I suppose Freya won't be too offended by a little nudge," Draco muttered.
He glanced toward a shadowed corner where the Goddess of Beauty watched the chaos with a look of predatory glee.
Invoking a partial transformation, Draco's left hand shifted, his fingers elongating into wicked, obsidian claws.
With a sharp crack, he pried a chunk of stone from the rooftop.
Flexing his shoulder, he flicked his wrist with deceptive ease.
Despite the casual nature of the throw, the stone tore through the air with the speed of a bullet.
WHAM!
The projectile connected squarely with the Silverback's skull.
The stone pulverized into a cloud of fine dust upon impact, the sheer kinetic force staggering the beast.
The monster let out a discordant roar of agony, its grip on Bell loosening as the boy was thrown aside by the momentum.
Gweeeeeee!
Clutching its bleeding head, the Silverback thrashed in blind rage.
It slammed into nearby buildings, disoriented and maddened, eventually stumbling away from the immediate scene.
Hestia, seeing her chance, didn't stop to question the miracle; she rushed to Bell's side, her face pale with terror.
"Hmm. With that much of a head start, he should be able to figure the rest out," Draco murmured, his tail flicking in a gesture of mild contentment.
That satisfaction was short-lived.
A sudden, chilling pressure washed over him.
Draco looked down to find Freya staring directly at him, her silver eyes narrowed in a cold, piercing glare.
He couldn't help but chuckle.
'Oh, how terrifying. But damn, she really is beautiful.' He mused.
He offered a playful wave and a mockingly charming smile.
Freya frowned, her mind racing.
She couldn't understand why this anomaly was meddling in her "test" for the boy.
'Is he jealous?' she mused.
Or is he, like her, captivated by the fledgling's soul?
Realizing she couldn't stop Draco, she turned her gaze back to Bell, choosing to ignore the interloper for now.
.........
Meanwhile, on the dusty streets below, Bell clutched his aching ribs.
The impact of the throw had left him battered, and his mind was a whirlwind of confusion.
He knew someone had saved him...but he couldn't dwell on the 'why.'
If someone that strong was watching, why hadn't they finished the beast?
Why leave him to struggle?
"Bell! Are you okay?" Hestia's voice broke through his spiraling thoughts.
He looked at her, and his heart sank.
She was trying to haul him up, pulling him deeper into the labyrinthine alleys of the Daedalus Street.
Dark thoughts began to cloud his vision.
'I can't protect her. No matter how much I want to, I'm too weak.'
The insults from that night at the tavern echoed in his mind, cruel and biting: Weakling. Fragile. Disgusting. A joke.
He thought he had moved past Bete's ridicule, but in the shadow of a real monster, the words felt like iron weights.
"Gwwwwaaaarrrrrr!!!"
The Silverback's roar echoed through the street, shaking the very foundations of the buildings. The beast was recovering.
If it found them a third time, there would be no miracles left.
'What do I do? How can I save her?'
Then, a grim clarity washed over him.
A simple realization of what a "weakling" could contribute.
If his goddess could get away, nothing else mattered.
"Hey, Bell, what's with that look…?" Hestia asked, her voice trembling.
Bell didn't answer.
He led her toward an intersection where the road sloped downward, revealing a dark, iron-gated tunnel…..a drainage overflow that led underground.
He could see a faint light at the far end; it was an exit.
With a heavy heart, Bell shoved the gate open, pushed Hestia inside, and slammed the iron bars shut before she could react.
"BELL?!" she screamed, her hands gripping the cold metal.
"…I'm sorry," Bell whispered, his voice cracking.
"Please, go on without me."
"Wait….what are you doing?!"
"I'll draw it away," he replied, his resolve hardening.
"I'll buy you time."
He was a decoy.
It was the only role he felt qualified for.
"What are you saying, you idiot?!" Hestia cried, frantically trying to squeeze her body through the bars.
How her signature large breasts and ample frame got caught in the narrow gaps, stalling her escape toward him.
"Open this gate! I forbid you!"
Bell knelt, looking her directly in the eyes.
He needed her to understand.
"My goddess… I can't lose my family again."
He thought of his grandfather, the only family he had ever known, taken by a monster while Bell was away on an errand.
He hadn't been there to help then.
He wouldn't let history repeat itself.
"I'm scared of losing you… of not being able to protect anyone." He took a shaky breath.
"I came to Orario for a lot of reasons, but you gave me a home. You gave me a family. So please, let me protect that."
Hestia fell silent, her eyes brimming with tears.
"It will be okay," Bell forced a smile, one that didn't quite reach his panicked eyes.
"You know how fast I am. I'm an expert at running away."
Without waiting for her to argue further, he turned and sprinted back up the sloping road.
He ignored her cries, wiping tears from his own eyes with his sleeve.
'I'm sorry' he thought bitterly.
'I'm sorry for being too weak to do anything but run.'
.........
Draco continued watching the unfolding chaos, his jaw tight with suppressed fury.
The entire sequence of events was a masterclass in incompetence, and it was grating on his nerves more than he cared to admit.
He could, perhaps, find it in himself to forgive Bell.
The boy was a rookie, a teenager whose naivety was as vast as his lack of experience.
His irrational choices were expected, though part of Draco wished the kid possessed at least a shred more tactical awareness.
But Hestia? Hestia was a different story entirely.
'She's a goddess, for crying out loud,' Draco fumed, his eyes narrowing as he tracked the distant signs of struggle.
'Even if she's currently powerless, she has thousands of years of existence to draw from. How can she be this dense?'
He gripped the ledge, his hand crushing the stone to fine dust.
Bell was currently unarmed, his blade shattered during that pathetic exchange with the Silverback...a casualty of a low-quality weapon and the boy's own lack of strength.
Yet, throughout the entire ordeal, Hestia had been carrying the blade she'd specifically commissioned from Hephaestus.
When Draco had created the opening to help Bell escape, he'd fully expected the goddess to hand over the weapon, giving Bell a fighting chance to mount a counter-attack.
Instead, they had fled like frightened rabbits.
Even then, the tunnel drama had been an avoidable catastrophe.
They could have used the narrow space as a choke point, allowing Hestia the perfect opportunity to update Bell's status or finally arm him properly.
But no.
Instead, they had wasted their breath pouring out their hearts in a dramatic display of sentimentality while the danger loomed closer.
Now, Bell was running for his life, weaponless, and Hestia was huddled in a tunnel with no clue as to where her champion had even gone.
It was absolutely preposterous.
'Back in my past life, watching this on screen, I just thought it was annoying' Draco mused, a grimace forming on his lips.
'Seeing it in person? It's far worse. Honestly, Hestia might be on the same level as Aqua from Konosuba'
With that thought, the frantic energy in his chest finally began to settle into a cold, determined resolve.
He glanced toward the spot where Freya had been standing, only to find the alley empty.
She had slipped away as quietly as she had arrived, likely waiting to see if her favorite little rabbit would survive his own stupidity.
Bell was drifting further into the labyrinthine depths of Daedalus, and if Draco didn't move now, he could lose the trail entirely.
Letting out a breath that carried the weight of his mental exhaustion, Draco vaulted from the ledge.
He landed with a heavy, controlled thud on the neighboring roof before leaping toward the next. He had to reach Bell before the boy's inexperience finally cost him his life.
.........
In the blink of an eye, Bell found himself back at the intersection.
The silverback wasn't there yet, but learning from his previous mistake, Bell retreated into the shadow of a wall.
Keeping an eye on the rooftops, he reached into his leg holster and pulled out a tube.
It was a potion he had received from Miach earlier in the day.
Gulping the whole thing down, the pain he felt melted away, and strength once again surged through his body.
He didn't get to savor the feeling, however, for just then... "Ruaaaa!"
The monster's roar startled him, echoing from the other side of the block.
Quickly, Bell sprang into the middle of the intersection, ensuring the beast saw him sprint to the other side.
"Grrrr…?"
"Hey! Over here!!" Bell yelled, louder this time.
The monster's gaze darted in all directions.
Its primary target, Hestia, was nowhere in sight.
Bell yelled even louder, desperate to command its full attention.
The silverback halted at the intersection for a moment, its head swiveling as it scrutinized all three roads.
It paused, sniffing the air, attempting to pick up the correct path toward the goddess.
Perhaps because Hestia was in the underground drain, or perhaps because Bell was thoroughly bathed in Hestia's scent, the monster couldn't pinpoint her.
"...Gyaaaaaaa!!!" it roared in frustrated rage, its gaze now fixed squarely on Bell.
'It worked! It's coming after me. Time to get out of here!' Bell thought, his heart pounding. Daedalus street truly was a maze.
Everything looked oppressively similar: roads branching in every conceivable direction, sudden staircases appearing out of nowhere.
It was enough to make Bell wonder if he had already looped back through here.
He couldn't even tell which way was north.
As he rounded a corner, he noticed a few red arrows painted on the walls.
These were street signposts, crudely painted by locals.
'They must lead to the entrance of the labyrinth block. The goddess should be able to get out of here easily if she can find one. On the other hand, they might lead to the core of the maze. Either option is safer than being around me,' he reasoned.
So he decided to follow the arrows for a while, a better plan than running aimlessly.
But then he observed another peculiar thing: he was being watched.
There were figures lurking in the shadows, eyes peeking from the windows of their homes.
All their eyes followed the monstrous silverback and him as they tore through the streets….eyes filled with fear.
'Just who the hell is that…?' Bell wondered.
One particular set of eyes, however, was boring into him with an unnerving intensity.
He couldn't ignore it.
This gaze was completely different from the rest; there was no fear.
He felt as though those same eyes had been observing him since the very beginning of the chase. It was also distinctly different from the one who had helped him escape the silverback's grasp several minutes prior.
This gaze was making his skin crawl.
It was almost like they were studying him...
"Gahh?!"
The silverback was upon him before he could even reach the next intersection.
He couldn't dodge the ambush from above and went sprawling down the street.
Rolling, he emerged from the narrow road into a large, open space before finally skidding to a halt.
It was some kind of park, a hub where many roads and stairwells converged.
There was even a shabby-looking fountain in the center, that spewed water into the air. "Gyaraaaaa!!"
The silverback burst through the opening, its form radiating more fury than before.
Losing the goddess had only enraged the beast further.
Yet, despite its blind fury, the monster had somehow managed to figure out how to swing the heavy chains on its wrists like metallic whips.
The combination of its incredibly powerful arms and those brutal metal chains was absolutely devastating.
The first blow, aimed at his head, struck him squarely in the chest.
A shriek of pain tore from his lungs.
He had succeeded in deflecting the chain with what remained of his dagger, but the sheer shock of the impact radiated brutally through his entire body.
Red sparks flew from his ruined blade as the beast pulled back the chain, and in the next moment, he was sent spinning to the ground like a discarded rag doll.
"Ah, gyhhhh?!" Bell choked, struggling to peel his torso off the ground with shaky arms.
This was hopeless; he couldn't even get close to the monster, let alone land a blow.
Bell slowly forced his neck upward, his eyes searching desperately for the silverback.
It stood next to the fountain, growling, a chain held aloft in one massive hand.
It was spinning, and he could hear the chain whistling ominously through the air.
Here came the final blow... or so he believed... but then, "Bell!!"
He heard his name...
Time seemed to freeze.
That voice pierced the fog in his head and gripped his heart with an iron fist.
He raised his head.
He could see clearly again, and what he saw made his blood run cold.
Someone had come to help him.
It wasn't "Ais Wallenstein," but it was someone important to him.
Hestia looked down at him, hunched over, struggling to catch her breath.
'Why? Why did you come back?'
The question resonated, a desperate lament, over and over in his head.
Things had just gone from bad to worse.
The silverback had found precisely what it was looking for.
Its eyes instantly shifted from Bell to its new target: Hestia.
The goddess was a defenceless, hunched figure, gasping for air.
She was an easy target for the silverback.
It sprang into motion a heartbeat later.