Danmaku, my skills refresh weekly.

When Charles saw the two of them, he thought Argo and Crozzo had traveled through time. After figuring out what had happened, he looked at the two idiots with a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

With a helpless expression, Charles walked over to Bell, grabbed the loan agreement, and tore it to shreds.

"Consider this a gift for our first meeting, Belle."

"Eh? Who are you?"

"Your future father."

Boom————

Hera punched Charles on the head: "Don't listen to his nonsense, he's your older brother."

"Big...brother?"

“That’s an unlucky name.” Charles rolled his eyes at Hera, then turned to the stunned Welf, patted him on the shoulder and said, “To pay off the loan, from today onwards, you’ll be working as a blacksmith in the shop to pay it off.”

"Why?!" Welf exclaimed in surprise.

He felt as if he had been scammed in an organized and premeditated manner.

But why?

He clearly saw this guy from out of town who had just arrived in Orario and wanted to make friends with him, so how did it turn out like this?

Chapter 469 The Intelligence Brought by Hera

“The city is full of tricks. If things don’t work out, just go back to the countryside.” Charles patted Welf on the shoulder.

"Who are you?" Welf was taken aback.

“Your creditor…” Charles said, then turned to Bell and earnestly advised, “Hey, when you get to a big city, never wander around like you’ve never seen the world before, or you’ll easily attract bad people who have their eyes on you.”

"And don't talk to strangers casually, because you have no idea if they're pretending to be stupid or if they're in cahoots to lie to you."

Upon hearing this, Welf turned pale: "Damn it, are you in cahoots?"

Bell quickly waved his hand: "No, no, it's really my first day in Orario."

Charles put his arm around Bell's shoulder: "Just remember his lesson. Let's go."

Bell glanced at Hera beside him, followed Charles's pace, but kept looking back at Welf, somewhat bewildered.

"Hey!" Welf reached out, trying to salvage something, but failed.

After Charles left, Hephaestus, who had been observing from the shadows, strolled over. She glanced at the dejected Welf and offered some words of comfort:

"He's right. Orario is a mixed bag. Besides working hard, you also need to understand the most basic interpersonal relationships."

“Lord Hephaestus, I…” Welf tugged at his formal attire, looking aggrieved.

“I’m asking you,” Hephaestus said, arms crossed, “did they force you to buy anything?”

"That's not true..."

"That's good. One should be down-to-earth and not do things beyond one's capabilities. The same applies to blacksmithing." Hephaestus said earnestly.

"Like Fari, you may not like it, but you can't live without it. It's like the magic sword, you may not fight for others, but you can't be incapable of using it."

While instructing her new disciples, Hephaestus's gaze fell upon the three figures who had disappeared into the distance, her eyes gleaming.

……

The headquarters of the West Street Church.

Ciel swaggered in through the door, followed closely by Hera, who was holding Bell's hand.

"I didn't expect this church to still exist," Hera exclaimed, releasing Bell and strolling around inside the church.

Bell looked around blankly, like a curious child.

Just as Bell was looking around, Ciel secretly appeared behind Bell, grabbed Bell's belt with both hands, and yanked it hard.

"Yeah~~~~~"

Bell felt a chill in his lower body and quickly covered his groin, squatting down on the ground.

"Hey, what are you talking about..." Ciel glanced at the chirping sparrows outside the window and rolled his eyes at Bell.

"Big brother, what are you doing?!"

"Let me confirm whether you're a boy or a girl," Charles said frankly.

Hearing the voice, Hera turned around, rubbed her forehead, and said, "You could have just asked me."

“I have to see it with my own eyes. Who knows if Bell’s gender has been concealed by the world’s consciousness?” Charles said seriously. “This is very important.”

Although Hera's appearance largely proves that her actions are indeed influencing the present, it does not mean that she will definitely succeed.

Hera comforted the frightened rabbit and followed Ciel to his room.

Hera sat on the bed, crossed her legs, and analyzed, "Actually, you don't need to care too much about Bell's gender. Judging from your influence on the past, you have already determined Bell's gender in your own way."

Charles was startled, his expression grave: "Have things really come to that?"

Hera blinked: "I don't know what you're talking about, but it's definitely not what you think."

"Oh?"

"Is it possible that it's not Bell's gender that determines the world line, but rather the world line that determines Bell's gender?"

“You know a lot…” Ciel was surprised that Hera knew about Belle, which reminded him that he could continue to plan for the past through the current Hera.

"Tell me, what happened after that? How far along is the plan?"

Hera's expression was serious: "That's why I came to see you ahead of time."

Seeing Hera's expression, Charles realized something and asked in a deep voice, "Has the plan gone wrong?"

Hera nodded slightly.

"After Metluja entered the capital and completed the closed loop, we lost a piece of our memories. I only recently remembered some of them, but these things are enough to raise our vigilance."

"Elaborate."

Hera gathered her thoughts and slowly said:

"First, because you provided information about Behemoth, our losses were reduced. Although in the end, Chardo devoured Behemoth's flesh and blood to deliver the final blow, we found the immortal grass growing in the Black Desert after that, which alleviated Chardo's condition. We also found the black dragon scales scattered in the secluded villages outside Orario. With the flying boots we had prepared, we completed the first phase of our subjugation of the black dragon."

Charles interrupted, "Phase one?"

Hera nodded: "Yes, the first phase. We severely damaged it and at least obtained a lot of materials, but we couldn't break through the bottleneck of self-regeneration, and were ultimately wiped out by that tightly closed blind eye."

"One-eyed... what happened?"

Hera sighed, "It was the wind... a black typhoon that tore apart the Boots of Hermes. We lost our air superiority and suffered a complete defeat. Many died in the final battle."

"The eyes that had been severed have opened, and inside the eyeballs that should have been gone, a blue crystal seals the girl..."

After a moment of silence, Ciel slowly uttered the name: "Arya."

This was the performance Ciel had anticipated, and perhaps Hera was well aware of it as well.

Why would a black dragon, which originally possessed the ability to regenerate itself, become a 'one-eyed' creature? This was something that Charles had previously speculated about.

At this moment, Hera also confirmed this...

"A thousand years ago, before the gods descended to the mortal realm, the Mercenary King accomplished the great feat of wounding the End, piercing the black dragon's eye with his beloved sword."

"In the Age of Gods that followed, we used the power of the great immortal spirit buried in the black dragon's eye to set up a barrier in Dragon Valley, sealing the black dragon outside the range of human habitation, and transforming the entire Dragon Valley into 'ruins.'"

Speaking of ruins, Xia Er thought of the ancient ruins that sealed Scorpion.

That was a seal built by the ancient moon goddess immortals, and as time went by, it slowly broke free, making it necessary to defeat it.

If the power that was restricting the black dragon was the power of the great fairy Arya hidden in its eyes, then perhaps that would make sense.

After the battle with the Black Dragon, Zeus and Hera's Familia weakened the Black Dragon, slowing down its devouring of the Great Celestials. They also reinforced the barrier through the school district, buying the lower realm more than a decade of time.

Herra sighed, "Just as you expected, we still lost. After planting the seeds of victory, we fled back in a sorry state."

Charles grasped the key point: "What about the Empress and the heroes? How much of their fighting strength was preserved?"

Hera said regretfully, "The battle was far more intense than you predicted. We risked everything to create an opportunity for victory in the next campaign. Although the hero and the empress have returned, they are too badly wounded to fight."

She looked at Charles: "So, we sent them to the capital along with Metluja, which is why I was so anxious to find you."

"How much do you really know about the capital?"

Chapter 470 The World's Strongest Being Hijacked by the Heavenly Fire

“Olympia?” Charles asked thoughtfully.

Ciel didn't know much about Olympia, only that its guardian was a hero who had survived for three thousand years, that the Heavenly Fire possessed the property of immortality, and that an outbreak of filth might burn the world. That was all.

Thinking of this, he shook his head: "I only have a basic understanding."

Hera sighed, "The nation of Olympia has long since perished."

"!?"

"The Great Flame, the heavenly fire, had never been able to merge with the mortal realm, always contained by that hero to prevent it from overflowing. But that day still came; it reached its critical point. When the flames erupted, the first to be consumed were the 50,000 inhabitants of Olympia. Only about 200 people, including the priestess, who had received the protection of Abimetheus's 'sacred fire,' hid in the temple and were spared."

"This was probably three hundred years ago."

Sharl imagined the scene of a volcanic eruption and understood what Hera was saying.

Hera continued, "After the filthy fire consumes the inhabitants, their souls are imprisoned by it and live within the capital, repeating the actions they took in life."

"And once we enter the capital, the first thing we'll face is the 'Flame Beast.'"

"The Heavenly Fire is like an underground city, devouring the souls of those who die in the capital, transforming them into unkillable 'Flame Beasts' and 'Flame People,' constantly battling the surviving priestesses and guards. The priestesses who fall in battle also transform into new Flame People. This war has continued for hundreds of years."

"The fire of heaven is thirsting for fuel, and the Fiery People will continue to slaughter the children of the lower realm, harvesting their souls and turning them into firewood. After all, such 'fuel' is everywhere in the lower realm."

Charles sighed inwardly, "Isn't this just like a dungeon?"

Ciel seemed to understand the consequences of not dealing with the Heavenly Fire.

The erupting ash and miasma will take countless lives, giving rise to countless "Flame People" that are impossible to kill, and even devouring monsters to create even stronger "Flame Beasts".

These freely moving fire creatures will gradually burn away the last life in the world, turning everything into a sea of ​​fire.

This suggests that the dungeon might also be another form of "Heavenly Fire".