Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal Chapter 62 62: Divine Judgment

Thank you all so much for the support we've had this week!!

2 CHAPTERS TODAY!!

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

The next morning, Hestia strolled out of the ruined church with a massive spring in her step. She practically radiated smugness. If she could carve the word "Glory" across her forehead, she would have done it in a heartbeat.

Last night had been amazing... August's display of power was so breathtaking that she wanted to brag about it to the entire world.

But the mont she stepped onto the street and headed toward the Azure Pharmacy, a blockade ford.

"THERE SHE IS."

"IT'S HESTIA."

"I KNEW IT."

A group of Goddesses blocked her way, glaring at her with angry, tired eyes. They had seen the huge firebird last night and were burning with jealousy.

"What do you lot want?" Hestia crossed her arms, staring down her peers. "Seriously, girls, what are you doing lurking out here? You look like you've been up all night."

Before the mob could swarm her, Hephaestus, Miach, and Takemikazuchi stepped into the fray.

"We're taking you in for questioning," Hephaestus announced, eyeing the hostile crowd.

She brought Takemikazuchi along for backup. As the God of War, he was the best fighter in the group. Hephaestus thought the jealous Goddesses might lose control and attack Hestia right there, so having soone strong with them was the safest choice.

"You're summoned to the Denatus. We need to talk about you blessing your child with Divine Power."

"I know..."

August had already briefed her. She knew this interrogation was coming. Since Miach and Hephaestus already knew August's origins, she wasn't worried in the slightest.

"Let's get this over with." Hestia marched forward.

Seeing Hephaestus running security, the lingering Goddesses realized their ambush was a bust.

"Dammit! I just wanted to know where she's hiding the child!"

"Yeah! Sa! I want him!"

"If he isn't going into the Dungeon today, I'm going to poach him!"

"Hey, Hestia! Where's your boy??"

The Goddesses scrambled after her, craning their necks. They had camped out all night, dressed to the nines, hoping to 'accidentally' bump into him. Yet the monster rookie was nowhere to be found.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

The group entered the Tower of Babel, bypassing the lower floors and taking the exclusive VIP elevator straight to the divine council chambers.

Hestia remained perfectly relaxed the entire ride up. Nobody said a word.

Once they stepped inside the massive amphitheater—

"HESTIA."

A God called out her na, making everyone in the room look at her. Hestia didn't look like soone in trouble. Instead, she looked confident, as if she owned the place.

'Dammit. She doesn't feel an ounce of remorse!!' the Gods grumbled internally.

Hestia strode right to the center of the room and took the defendant's seat. Hephaestus and her entourage took their respective places in the stands.

Silence blanketed the hall.

"I AM GANESHA!"

The booming, theatrical shout echoed across the chamber. Ganesha, the current keeper of the peace and guardian of Orario, took the floor. His iconic entrance signaled the start of the interrogation.

"I will be conducting the inquiry today," Ganesha declared from behind his elephant mask. "Hestia. Let's address the rumors. You bestowed a blessing upon your Familia child using active Divine Power. Is this true?"

He demanded her reasoning. Why break the ultimate taboo?

Sitting dead center, Hestia didn't hesitate. She gave a firm nod.

"It's true."

The blunt confession sent a shockwave through the amphitheater.

Wasn't she even going to deny it? She had so serious nerve.

"However," Hestia added, her voice ringing clear. "I didn't break our Divine Contract."

"As long as I didn't violate the pact, granting a blessing isn't a cri."

She said it as if it were a simple fact. She hadn't broken any rules, so no one could punish her. She refused to let them boss her around.

Ganesha crossed his arms, nodding slowly.

If Hestia had utilized a divine authority strong enough to grant an active blessing inside Orario, the shockwave of unsealed power would have alerted every God in the city. Yet, none of them had felt a thing. Furthermore, Hestia had been living like a freeloader at the Hephaestus forge ever since she descended. She barely had ti to sneeze, let alone conduct a complex divine ritual under their noses.

Gods had powerful senses that could reach far. A blessing was a direct piece of divine power, very different from a God secretly casting a small magic spell. If she had done it here, they would have noticed.

But the radar was completely blank.

"Very well. My fellow divines," Ganesha addressed the room. "Who among you believes Hestia is innocent of violating the pact?"

He threw it to a vote.

Hephaestus raised her hand instantly.

Miach followed suit.

Then Takemikazuchi raised his.

"Takemikazuchi voted for her??"

"You've got to be kidding ..."

The other Gods whispered in surprise. Even the broke God of War supported her?

The truth was, Takemikazuchi didn't know what the loophole was, but he trusted Miach. If Miach seed sure, Takemikazuchi would support their friend.

Hephaestus voting for her was a given—she was one of the few who actually knew August's secret.

But as the rest of the council hesitated, two more hands shot into the air.

Freya and Loki.

"LADY FREYA??"

The council was stunned.

Loki voting yes made sense in a twisted way. She was a trickster who respected a good hustle. But Freya? The Goddess of Beauty was notoriously cutthroat. Shouldn't she be throwing stones right now?

Seeing the city's two heaviest hitters cast their votes, Ganesha connected the final dots. As the city's protector, so secrets needed to be laid bare to prevent further chaos.

He looked down at Hestia.

"That boy... he is not of this world, is he?"

Ganesha revealed the shocking truth.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT??"

The entire amphitheater gasped. Gods and Goddesses bolted upright, the realization hitting them like a freight train.

Of course...

If the blessing was granted in a different universe—a realm entirely outside the jurisdiction of Orario's Divine Contract—then Hestia hadn't broken a single rule.

"That explains it! That's why her blessing was just a language translation!"

"He didn't speak our tongue! We had to use our own authority just to understand him!"

So Gods had initially scoffed at the rumor. A language translation was a bottom-tier blessing. Why risk deportation for that? But now, it made perfect sense.

But the logical explanation quickly gave way to intense, burning covetousness.

"A brand-new, unexplored universe..."

"And he can travel back and forth at will?"

"That child's world must be incredible!"

The Gods stared at Hestia, their eyes glowing with rabid envy. Drool practically pooled at the corners of their mouths. They wanted a child like that... The value of an interdinsional pioneer was astronomical.

Hestia ignored the jealous crowd. She didn't say if Ganesha was right or wrong. She just sat there, looking smug and giving nothing away.

Figure it out yourselves, idiots.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Ganesha didn't press the issue. He had his answer.

"Moving on. Let's discuss last night's spectacle. The giant bird made of fire." Ganesha pivoted to the next crisis. "Hestia. What was that?"

"Hmph. My child leveled up," Hestia bragged, puffing out her chest.

"That firebird was just the visual manifestation of his new magic."

[Immortal Phoenix Nirvana]. With that auto-resurrection spell, August was virtually unkillable. It was his ultimate trump card.

Of course, she kept the other part of his status a secret: the [Divine Possession] skill. She was still annoyed that August refused to test it out right away. But he promised that when a real fight happened, she would be the first Goddess he called into his body. The idea of fighting together as one made her daydream about romance.

"Hah? A new magic??"

Loki slamd her hands on her desk, leaning forward. "Shrimp, there's a limit to your bullshit!"

"When an Adventurer levels up, they acquire a new developntal skill! Not magic!"

Loki had already been played by Hestia. She was on hyper-alert. She knew the shrimp was an expert at playing dumb.

"Wait. A skill..."

"Hestia, what skill did your child get??"

Loki caught the glaring omission. Hestia had only ntioned new magic. That ant he had likely acquired both a new magic spell and a new skill upon reaching [Level 2]. What kind of busted, generational prodigy was this child?

"Hehehehehehehehe." Hestia just giggled, refusing to elaborate.

That smug laugh was like an itch the other Gods couldn't scratch. It drove them crazy. An Adventurer's skills and magic were top secrets, and even the Guild couldn't make a God reveal them. But knowing this child was so special made them desperate to find out more.

"CO ON, HESTIA! TELL US! IT HAS TO BE SOTHING INSANE!"

"YEAH! SPILL THE DETAILS!"

"WE GO WAY BACK, HESTIA! GIVE US A HINT!"

The amphitheater was filled with a noisy crowd, everyone begging for answers. If August wasn't so powerful, the Gods would have started a War Ga right away to try to steal him. But since fighting him was impossible, all they could do was ask for information from the sidelines.

"Shut your mouths!" Artemis slamd her palm against her desk, shooting a lethal glare across the room.

Artemis's sudden anger made the whole room go quiet. The noisy Gods stopped talking and sat back down. No one wanted to risk a fight with Artemis's skilled hunters.

Ganesha let out a ntal sigh of relief. He owed Artemis one for restoring order before the trial turned into a circus.

"Ouranos. Your verdict."

Ganesha looked toward the massive magical display screen projecting Ouranos, the ancient ruler of the Guild and the ultimate judge of divine law.

Operating from the deepest chambers of Babel, Ouranos weighed the facts.

August was an outsider. An interdinsional traveler. If a God possessed the capability to locate a pioneer capable of piercing the veil between universes, and chose to grant a blessing within that foreign realm... that was simply a testant to their own strategic brilliance.

Ouranos couldn't enforce Orario's laws in a different universe. Cross-dinsional jurisdiction didn't exist.

"Hestia has not violated the Divine Contract. This inquiry is concluded," Ouranos's deep, resonant voice echoed through the hall.

He wasn't going to punish her. A mortal this special brought honor to the Gods. They ca to the lower world to witness amazing things, and August was exactly the kind of person they sought.

None of the Gods dared to challenge Ouranos's ruling.

If there was no violation, there was no trial. But that didn't stop them from suffocating on their own jealousy.

"Then this tribunal finds Hestia..."

"Not guilty."

Ganesha delivered the final verdict. The charges were dropped. What happened in another world stayed in another world.

Hephaestus, Miach, and Takemikazuchi exhaled in unison. The crisis was averted.

"Hmph. As it should be," Hestia smirked. She hadn't committed a cri, so she had zero reason to grovel.

"However, there is one stipulation." Ganesha raised a finger, cutting through her victory lap.

Unless a God was specifically contracted for border defense—like Artemis—Gods were strictly forbidden from leaving Orario's city limits to prevent rogue factions from causing geopolitical disasters.

"You must sign a binding contract."

"You are strictly prohibited from escorting any other God out of Orario through your child's gateway. If another God wishes to depart this city, they must formally petition the Guild and my Familia for clearance."

Ganesha couldn't stop Hestia from leaving, but he could absolutely lock down the rest of the pantheon. He couldn't risk a mob of bored, chaotic Gods slipping into an alternate universe and causing a multiversal incident.

"Oh. No problem." Hestia nodded quickly.

She actually liked that rule. She worried that one of the other Gods might try to sneak into August's world and ruin her private paradise. Signing a contract kept the Hestia Familia's control over interdinsional travel and kept her rivals in check.

If they wanted out, they had to deal with Ganesha's bureaucracy. And knowing the Guild, that paperwork would take a century to process.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

BULK UPLOAD OF 5 CHAPTERS IF WE HIT 1000 POWERSTONES THIS WEEK!!

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

~ If you have so spare Power Stones, drop a few since they help this story to progress.

~ Every 200 Power Stones = Bonus chapter

~ 15 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon

sp-atreon/dragonnx

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)