Raising Hel, in Danmachi.

[AHHGKS]

Hel should eventually tell her Familia that she's Norse and they should be glad of that. Instead of being say a /Greek/ god. Though Tanya and Taylor are probably the only ones that would understand the implications at the moment.

tftc!

 

[Dissimilate]

*evul cackles*.... yessssss yessssSSS!!!! MuahHAHAHAHAhahaahahaaa time to unleash the Tanya on Orario and time to let the world understand the true greatness of grid square artillery saturation!!!!!! Thanks for the chapter!!!!!

 

[Diver]

Tanya's just following her Japanese roots and has found in Taylor both an Idol and a Senpai she wants to notice her… mostly because she too wants to be a god slayer but it still counts. I can't wait to see the meeting between them.

 

[Common]

Taylor sat back against a smooth granite outcrop, casually resting her chin on her hand as she watched Lisa fight for her life against a swarm of oversized dungeon ants.


They were making their way back up to the surface after spending a night on the safety of the 18th floor. The primary objective of the trip was simple: grind out enough excelia to get Lisa closer to leveling up. And since Taylor could effortlessly commandeer the minds of the local arthropods, using the dungeon ants as tailored training dummies was a total no-brainer. Guaranteed, controlled safety—or at least, that was how Lisa had pitched the idea before she was ankle-deep in snapping mandibles.


"Another body has appeared next to our goddess in her bed," Taylor announced offhandedly, her dark eyes tracking the movements of her six-legged puppets. "It appears we are getting a new Familia member."


"You know it's cool your range grew by a decent amount when you leveled up, dear, but it's creepy as hell how you can ju—" Lisa yelped as an ant lightly bit her tail, sending her leaping forward and spinning around to drive her blade straight through the creature's head.


The ant dissolved into dark gray ash, leaving behind a purple magic stone that clattered against the stone floor.


Lisa clutched her tail defensively to her chest, her fox ears pinned flat against her skull as she glared up at Taylor. Sweat slicked her forehead, her chest heaving as she panted.


"—how you can just spy on everyone at the manor from miles away! DON'T DO THAT AGAIN! Although it was harmless because you have complete control, those mandibles can remove limbs, Taylor—and you love my tail!"


Taylor didn't even blink. "I do," she admitted smoothly, a tiny, almost imperceptible smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "Which is precisely why I commanded it to apply the bare minimum pressure required to keep your footwork sharp. You dropped your guard the moment I mentioned Hel's bed."

"Because you casually announced our Goddess is spooning a new dimension-hopper while I'm actively getting pinched by giant bugs!" Lisa shot back, smoothing down the ruffled fur on her tail with exaggerated care. She pointed her short sword accusingly at Taylor's perch on the rock. "And don't deflect! You were definitely using your swarm to peek at everyone in the city."

"Our Goddess wishes to know what our potential enemies are up to," Taylor replied mildly, her expression utterly calm as she leaned against the cool granite. "It's how we caught Ishtar with her proverbial pants down, its how I was able to use that shadow stalker poser to lead Loki around and eliminate most the crime in the city."

Lisa opened her mouth to argue, then paused, letting out a sharp, conceding puff of air as she sheathed her blade. "Okay, fair point, but that doesn't excuse using my tail as a motivational tool!"

"It produced immediate results," Taylor noted offhandedly.

Lisa let out a frustrated, high-pitched scream, unsheathing her blade in a flash and hurling herself back into the fray, hacking through the surrounding ants with newfound, furious intensity.

===========

Weiss sat at her workbench, meticulously grinding a high-grade purple magic stone into a fine powder. She blew a stray strand of white hair out of her face, watching the shimmering dust settle inside her mortar.


She really needed to go back into the dungeon to test her limits, but every time she prepared an expedition, another practical breakthrough kept her glued to the workshop.


The monster crystals were absurd. They were essentially the ultimate universal solvent for Dust—a pristine, magic-conductive sponge. Nearly everything she had spent her entire life learning back in Atlas applied seamlessly here, except with ten times the efficiency.


Dust casting? Effortless.


Ammunition loads for weapon mechanisms? Flawless.


All it took was crushing a raw dungeon crystal and mixing it with a base sample of Dust. Boom—the crystal's latent mana bonded with the element, permanently duplicating the Dust without any degradation whatsoever. Gravity, Fire, Lightning, Ice, Earth—the magic stones assimilated every single property, functioning as an infinite multiplier for her personal stockpile.


Weiss picked up a small glass vial filled with the newly refined Ice Dust mixture, holding it up to the lamplight. The cold blue glow reflected off her ice-blue eyes with a quiet, triumphant shimmer.


"Unbelievable," she whispered to herself, setting the vial neatly alongside her neatly organized array of Dust cartridges. "Dad back home ould have waged a war for a single bag of these stones."

Weiss was just about to seal a fresh vial of Fire Dust when the workshop door was practically kicked off its hinges.


"Weiss! Emergency introduction!"


Ruby burst into the room like a red hurricane, dragging a tiny, blanket-wrapped girl by her sleeve. The small girl was clutching a half-empty porcelain mug like a lifeline, her icy blue eyes glaring with absolute, unyielding annoyance at being forcibly paraded around the manor.


Weiss jumped, almost spilling a newly refined batch of Gravity Dust onto her worktable. She quickly capped the vial, whirling around with a sharp glare. "Ruby! How many times have I told you not to barge into the alchemy workshop while I am handling volatile elemental compounds?!"


"No time for safety lectures!" Ruby chirped, completely unbothered as she pushed the tiny blonde girl front and center. "Meet our brand-new Vice Captain! Her name is Tanya, she's super smart, she hates gods, and she drinks black coffee like a grown-up!"


Weiss blinked, her scowl faltering as her eyes dropped down to the pint-sized stranger standing stiffly beside Ruby. The girl was draped in a spare blanket that looked two sizes too big, yet her posture was so rigidly straight she might as well have been standing at full attention for an inspection.


"A... Vice Captain?" Weiss questioned, eyeing the child with deep skepticism. "Ruby, she looks like she barely reaches my waist."


Weiss flinched back in surprise, because if looks could kill, she would be dead. That was one scary girl.


Tanya didn't yell. She didn't drop her blanket. She simply took another slow, deliberate sip from a thermos.


"Height," Tanya began, her voice dropping into a dangerously calm, authoritative tone, "is an entirely irrelevant biological metric when evaluated against operational competence, combat experience, and administrative efficiency. Furthermore, as your superior officer, I strongly suggest you refrain from evaluating command capability based on physical stature—unless you wish to spend your afternoon filing inventory reports for our entire quartermaster division."


Weiss opened her mouth to shoot back a sharp rebuttal, but the sheer weight of absolute, unyielding malice radiating from the pint-sized girl made her hesitate.

"We have a quartermaster division?" Weiss asks, baffled.


"Thank you for volunteering, Weiss," Tanya stated, her face twisting into an expression that defied all natural biology. Her icy blue eyes dilated into wide, manic pinpricks of pure, unadulterated malice, and her mouth split into an impossibly wide, jagged grin—a monstrous, terrifying contortion of absolute sadistic satisfaction that looked far too large for her tiny face.


SMACK!


Before the terrifying pressure could fully settle over the room, Ruby's hand swiped down, delivering a sharp, light chop directly onto the top of Tanya's head.


"Hey! No!" Ruby scolded, crossing her arms and pouting at the pint-sized Vice Captain like a disapproving big sister. "Don't do that face! You're gonna scare Weiss into a closet, and then who's gonna help us organize the Dust ammo?"

 

[Zetakille]

Oh that last line made me realize: Tanya Degurechaff now has access to RWBY Dust.

I am very afraid.

 

[Dissimilate]

Thanks for the chapter!!!

 

[Gaffhook]

Oh that last line made me realize: Tanya Degurechaff now has access to RWBY Dust.

I am very afraid.

Click to shrink...

I sense magical nukes in the future.

 

[russell Lee clarke]

I sense magical nukes in the future.

Click to shrink...

she could do nuke light already without dust what will she get up to with dust equivalent will be glorious and probably non standard for example gravity dust would get her thinking black hole bombs to literally crush her enemies

 

[bambache]

Whoops!
Weiss committed the classic blunder of setting herself up to be voluntold for paperwork!

"Dad back home ould would have waged a war for a single bag of these stones."

Click to shrink...

 

[WhiteWizardIan]

Looks like we hit 100k words! Great job! Loving this!

 

[AHHGKS]

Weiss should /volunteer/ Blake for the job. After all Blake is effectively a /princess/ so should have some training to handle bureaucracy/paperwork and if she doesn't then it is time for her to learn.

Hmm... I'm wondering if Hel could recruit say Miranda Lawson or Fem! Shepard and they bring their omnitool(s) with them. Omnitools use small amounts of eezo which is effectively the ME-verse version of /Space magic gravity Dust or crystals/ so maybe it would be compatible with the ground up monster/magic crystals?

Miranda would have regrets and probably be wanting to have kid(s) of her own. Fem-Shep would just want to continue living depending on her own personal Bad End ME-verse timeline.

tftc!

 

[Common]

Eina Tulle pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a long, weary sigh as she stared at the mounting stack of paperwork on her desk at the Guild Headquarters. Between Taylor's terrifyingly accurate city-wide surveillance network, the sudden disappearance of Ishtar's influence. The guild was never more powerful than ever. Especially with the Norse alliance that was going to form, according to Lord Oranos, between the Guild, Loki, Freya, and Hel. Although according to the ancient titan that had not yet come to pass.

The heavy front doors of the Guild office swung open with a familiar, energetic bang.


"Eina! Good morning!" Ruby's cheerful voice echoed through the busy lobby, instantly drawing the eyes of half a dozen stressed adventurers and staff members.


Eina perked up, though a small knot of dread immediately formed in her stomach. Ruby was carrying a oversized, bursting backpack stuffed to the brim with casual clothes, dresses, and sewing supplies—a sight that had become a routine occurrence whenever the Hel Familia acquired a new member.


This wasn't unusual anymore. But as Eina leaned over her desk to look down at who was walking beside the scythe-wielding girl, her jaw went slightly slack.


Without a doubt, Hel had brought another monster into the world. A little one this time.


Standing at Ruby's side was a tiny, blonde child draped in slightly oversized clothes, her icy blue eyes scanning the massive high-ceilinged hall and stone reception counters with keen, analytical interest. She was clutching a shiny thermos close to her chest, her posture so unnaturally straight she looked as if she were standing at attention for a formal review.


"Eina, meet Tanya!" Ruby announced proudly, setting the heavy backpack down on the tile floor with a loud, metallic thud. "She's our new Vice Captain! We need to get her registered, get her official Guild card, and then I'm taking her home to try on all the clothes we just bought."


Eina blinked, adjusting her glasses as her eyes darted from the beaming scythe-wielder to the pint-sized stranger. "A... Vice Captain?" Eina stammered, automatically pulling a stack of blank registration parchments from her desk. "Hel assigned a child to oversee your entire administrative hierarchy?"


Tanya lowered her gaze from the intricate architecture of the vaulted ceiling above and leveled her eyes directly into Eina's.


And what Eina saw looking back at her was not a child.


Those icy blue eyes were cold, razor-sharp, and weighed down by something that had seen utterly too much death... Oh, Eina suddenly realized, a spike of panic hitting her chest. Did I just call a Pallum a child? Oops.


"Biological age and physical stature are entirely irrelevant metrics when evaluating command capability and administrative competence, Miss Tulle," Tanya stated, her crisp, sharp voice cutting through the bustling noise of the Guild hall with absolute authority. "I have assumed the responsibility of structuring this Familia's logistics to prevent it from collapsing under operational chaos. Furthermore, I intend to personally audit your Guild's standardized tax codes, as your current processing times strike me as woefully inefficient."


Eina froze, her hand hovering over her quill. Wait—she was a child?!

So why on earth was she talking like a high-ranking Guild Director reviewing a failing branch manager?


"I... I see," Eina managed to squeak out, swallowing down her sheer, mounting confusion as she pushed the inkwell and intake parchment forward. "Welcome to the Guild, Vice Captain Tanya... Let us, um, begin with your formal registration."


"Is there a room where I can sit down while I review the documents?" Tanya asked crisply, her tone leaving zero room for debate.


Instantly, Ruby let out a pathetic whine, her shoulders slumping as she hit Tanya with the ultimate, wide-eyed kicked-puppy look. "Tanya, noooo! We promised we'd go home right after registration so you could try on the tactical coat with all the pockets!"


Tanya didn't even flinch, though her left eyebrow twitched slightly under the sheer, suffocating weight of Ruby's weaponized sadness. She kept her icy, uncompromising gaze locked squarely onto Eina.


"Personal attire is a secondary priority, Rose," Tanya stated with absolute clinical detachment, ignoring the pouting teenager beside her. "Establishing our legal standing and operational framework with the local governing body takes precedence over... pocket capacity."


Eina looked between the terrifying, miniature bureaucrat and the slumping, scythe-wielding teenager, completely baffled by the dynamic. "Ah, yes," Eina cleared her throat, gesturing down the hallway behind her desk. "Private Consultation Room 3 is available. I can bring the full administrative portfolio and tax ledgers directly to you."


"Satisfactory," Tanya replied, giving a sharp, military nod as she snatched up the stack of parchments. She pivoted on her heel and marched down the corridor, completely unbothered by Ruby dramatically dragging her feet right behind her.

==========

The midday sun beat down on the private courtyard of Aphrodite's Olympian estate, where a massive, gilded carriage sat waiting. Attendants were making final adjustments to the trunks strapped to the rear, while a small honor guard stood at attention near the thoroughbred horses.


It had taken days of tedious administrative work—canceling appearances, reassigning local duties, and clearing her schedule—to secure the time to leave. But now, everything was finally wrapped up.


Aphrodite paused on the stone steps leading down to the carriage, sweeping a critical eye over the preparation before looking at the woman standing beside her.


Her Familia Captain stood at rigid attention, impeccably polished armor reflecting the bright light, holding a heavy leather travel ledger tucked beneath one arm.


"The estate affairs are handed off to the local stewards?" Aphrodite asked, adjusting her light traveling shawl over her shoulders.


"Yes, Lady Aphrodite," her Captain replied cleanly, opening the ledger to double-check the final tallies. "All regional obligations in Olympia have been temporarily suspended or delegated. The guards for our transit have been thoroughly briefed, the route through the plains is secured, and we have fresh horses stationed at every relay point between here and the trade roads."


"Good," Aphrodite murmured, stepping down toward the carriage door. "And the discretion of our arrival?"


"Handled," the Captain assured, holding the carriage door open and offering a steady hand to assist her goddess inside. "We're traveling under a standard merchant escort mission for the guild paperwork. Unless someone is looking directly for us, we'll enter the city completely unannounced."

Aphrodite settled into the cushioned bench inside, smoothing down the folds of her gown before looking out the window at her Captain.


"Perfect. The last thing I need is Hermes finding out I'm on the road before I even cross the main gate," Aphrodite said, a sharp, knowing look settling into her eyes. "Let's get moving then. I've waited days to handle this, and I don't intend to waste another hour. How dare my Hephy cheat on me. Hmmph!"

"Understood, My Lady," the Captain bowed, closing the heavy carriage door with a solid click before turning to shout orders to the driver and guards.

With a snap of the reins, the carriage lurked forward, wheels grinding against the cobblestones as the party finally set off on the long road toward Orario.

 

[Common]

I just got my computer working after the PSU kicked the bucket yesterday... this is the second psu ive had die in a few months across the computers in my house, im starting to get worried. Anyways this wasnt profed and im not sure about the quality because when my pc died last night I just went to bed

 

[AHHGKS]

tftc!

 

[demonichero9]

Can I get a TLDR on the Aphrodite situation. I don't recall Hephaestus entering any relationship in this story. What is she talking about??

 

[bambache]

Can I get a TLDR on the Aphrodite situation. I don't recall Hephaestus entering any relationship in this story. What is she talking about??

Click to shrink...

Aphrodite is Hela-jealous.

I just got my computer working after the PSU kicked the bucket yesterday... this is the second psu ive had die in a few months across the computers in my house, im starting to get worried.

Click to shrink...

Hephaestus is getting revenge on you for having a clammy hag cause trouble?

 

[Vasstago]

Can I get a TLDR on the Aphrodite situation. I don't recall Hephaestus entering any relationship in this story. What is she talking about??

Click to shrink...

If I am not misremembering Hela cured Hephaestus' curse and that brought not small amount of rumors which were compounded with the working relationship that Hela developed with Hephaestus Familia and Hephaestus herself. Thus the rumors that both were in a relationship, a romantic and possibly sexual relationship. The rumors got to Aphrodite and now she is jealous and cleared her way to go to her wife and clear out (crash in) the situation.