?? Disclaimer:

  I have no rights to this story - this is obviously fanfiction.

  I wrote this to satisfy my craving because Alise Lovell is my favorite character in DanMachi and I was sad she was dead well before the story began. I'm sorry for any spoilers I'm assuming like me you've read the whole thing.

  DanMachi AU: Crimson Ghosts of Astraea

  Chapter Three – The Deep Fire

  Scene One – Bell Descends Too Far

  Bell’s boots scuffed stone as he pushed deeper than usual.

  The 5th Floor faded behind him, its familiar corridors narrowing into darker halls. The oppressive weight of the Dungeon thickened around him, pressing into his lungs like a storm waiting to break.

  Just one more floor, he told himself. If I stop here, I’ll never change. Heroes don’t wait for tomorrow.

  He clutched his dagger tighter. Hestia’s words still echoed in his ears from the night before: You’re carrying someone else’s will inside you. And Alise’s sharper voice from that hidden alcove: Heroes don’t sit.

  So he didn’t.

  The 6th Floor greeted him with a chorus of snarls. Kobolds and goblins gathered as if the Dungeon itself knew he had overstepped.

  Bell’s heart hammered but he steadied his breath, remembering her lessons: knees low, weight forward, blade angled.

  He lunged — his dagger thrust straight, clean. A goblin shrieked as the point pierced its chest.

  Bell gasped. That wasn’t mine. That was hers.

  Then they swarmed.

  Claws raked his arm. A club smashed his shoulder. He stumbled, grit biting into his palms. Pain shot through him, but he forced himself upright. “Not yet…”

  His legs moved without thinking, sliding into her stance. His strikes echoed her rhythm, each swing almost rapier-like. Brief sparks flickered at the dagger’s edge, like embers caught in the wind.

  But for every clean cut, three more monsters pressed in. He could hear his own heartbeat, frantic and heavy.

  Am I still too weak?

  He staggered back into a corner. Goblins shrieked, kobolds bared teeth, and Bell’s chest burned with the certainty of death.

  And then —

  Heroes don’t quit.

  The words roared in his skull, not his own but Alise’s, fierce and unyielding. The glow surged again, fire lacing his arm. His dagger blazed with a fleeting arc of flame, cleaving through the kobold’s throat.

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  The monsters recoiled, snarling at the sudden blaze.

  Bell gasped for air, blood streaming down his side. He was alive, barely. But the fight wasn’t over.

  Scene Two – Alise Intervenes

  Alise’s POV:

  She cursed under her breath.

  She’d trailed him the whole way, careful not to let her gaze linger, slipping from shadow to shadow. But when he stepped onto the 6th Floor, her stomach turned cold.

  Idiot rabbit.

  Her hand hovered on her rapier’s hilt as she watched him fight.

  His swings were sharper now, his stance corrected — her stance.

  Every flick of his wrist reminded her of Astraea’s lessons, of her own drills. And for a heartbeat, pride swelled in her chest.

  Then the blood came.

  Claws tore his flesh, clubs smashed bone. He faltered under the swarm, and for a heartbeat she saw not Bell but her Familia again — comrades staggering against impossible odds, firelight fading.

  “No,” she hissed, and broke her own rule.

  Her rapier flashed, flames igniting along the blade as she dashed into the fray.

  One goblin’s skull burst under her thrust. A kobold shrieked as her sword arced through its chest, fire blooming from the wound. She moved like a storm of fire and steel, each strike precise, each step confident.

  Bell blinked up at her through blood and sweat.

  “You—”

  “Shut up and move!” Alise barked, slamming her boot into a goblin’s ribs.

  Together, they cut the pack down. Bell’s arms shook, his blade slick, but he followed her rhythm as if tethered to her flame. For every monster she struck, he mirrored her, his body echoing her movements.

  When the last beast fell smoldering, silence crashed heavy in the corridor.

  Alise turned, chest heaving, golden eyes burning at him. “What the hell were you thinking, rabbit?”

  Bell swallowed, trembling. “I… I had to try. If I don’t keep pushing—”

  “You’ll die,” she snapped.

  He met her glare, voice raw but firm. “Then I’ll die fighting. Heroes don’t quit.”

  Alise froze. Her own words. Reflected back at her.

  Scene Three – The Hidden Passage

  They retreated to the alcove, the same moss-lined chamber where they had first spoken.

  Bell sat slumped against the wall, clutching his bandaged arm. Alise leaned against her sword, watching him with a storm in her chest.

  Bell broke the silence first. “Why do you fight, Alise?”

  Her jaw tightened. She wanted to laugh, to deflect, to call him a fool. But his eyes — bloodshot, trembling, yet burning — demanded an answer.

  “I chased justice,” she said at last, voice low. “When I was younger, I thought it was simple. Good and evil. Light and dark. But I learned the truth. Justice… isn’t one thing.

  Everyone believes their own version of it. Some gods mocked me for it. Some adventurers spat at me. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.”

  Bell listened, silent.

  Alise’s gaze dropped to the floor. “And in the end, it didn’t matter. The Juggernaut came. My Familia died. My justice died with them.”

  Bell’s breath hitched. He wanted to speak, but the weight of her words pinned him.

  Then he clenched his fists. “Then let me carry it."

  Alise’s head snapped up.

  “What?”

  Bell’s voice shook, but his eyes didn’t waver. “You said justice isn’t one thing.

  Maybe it’s not. But your fire… it lit something in me. If I can carry even a piece of that flame, if I can fight for it, then maybe your Familia didn’t die for nothing.”

  Silence. The drip of water echoed through the chamber.

  Alise’s chest ached. Damn rabbit. Damn his stubborn eyes. She wanted to tell him he was a fool, that he didn’t understand, that justice was nothing but ash. But the words stuck in her throat.

  Instead, she whispered, almost against her will: “You’re insane.”

  Bell smiled faintly. “You told me that already.”

  Alise laughed once, sharp and broken. Then she sank onto the bench across from him, staring at the boy who dared to carry what she had lost.

  “Fine,” she said at last, voice rough. “But don’t you dare die on me, rabbit. If you do, I’ll drag you back from the grave myself just to kill you again.”

  Bell’s grin widened despite the blood on his lips. “Deal.”