LN Tate no Yuusha CH 10 - Epilog Vol 9 Bahasa Indonesia

Chapter Ten: When Trust is Lost

“You break into my lab and mess with my things! You’re like snakes.”

“That means a lot coming from you.”

“Ha! You’re a persistent fool, aren’t you? Very annoying.”

“Again, you take the words right out of my mouth.”

He was annoyed?  I  was annoyed. I didn’t want to waste any more of my life on this guy!

“You don’t seem to understand how much trouble you’ve made. I’ve come to make sure that you do!”

“Ha! You and your pals are all from a world that is going to be destroyed regardless! I just made good use of it before the inevitable. You should be grateful!”

“No. I won’t let anyone destroy Naofumi’s world, not while I’m around. Give back what you’ve stolen,” Kizuna said, stepping forward.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the grand entrance of our long-missing holy hero!”

“Yeah, Glass and— Well, wouldn’t we all be in trouble if we lost the holy heroes, or the vassal weapons? Who would protect our world from the waves? If you really think that you’re fighting for our world, then you won’t hurt us.”

If everyone ’s theories were correct, then the world couldn’t afford to lose its heroes. That doesn’t mean that he couldn’t hurt us though.

“There will still be three holy heroes left after I get rid of you. We should be fine. Just think of all the research I’ve done on behalf of this world. Once you understand the waves, they aren’t so bad. It’s just an update—an update!”

What the hell was this guy talking about ?! I ’d always heard that we couldn’t let any of the heroes die. The heroes in Kizuna’s world worked the same way, or so I’d been told. Were we wrong?

“Kyo!” Yomogi shouted and stepped forward. “Is it true that you took control of another world’s protective beast and used it to destroy?”

“Huh ?! ” Kyo barked, glaring at Yomogi.

“And did you steal that beast’s energy and come back here? Did you do this to the vassal weapon holder? Did you turn his friends into monsters ?! ”

“Oh enough already! Give it a rest, will you?”

“Kyo !? ”

“Don’t try and instruct me! I always said that you never knew when to shut up, didn’t I? Do you think you’re my mother? Just because we’ve known each other for a while doesn’t mean you’re my wife! ” Kyo shouted at Yomogi, like a dam had burst.

The color drained from her face as she listened to him berate her.

“You’re always so damn annoying! I thought giving you that exploding weapon and sending you on an assassination mission would finally be enough, but now you’ve brought these people right into my lab! You’re such a bitch!”

“You . . . but . . . so these women, these friends of the man with the vassal weapon . . . or of that scientist from another land . . . why did you turn them into monsters? Why did . . .”

“What am I supposed to do with another guy’s used goods? Sure, if some of them wanted to come over to my side, I could have looked the other way.”

Used goods? I could hardly believe my ears. He couldn ’t like a woman that had been with someone else?

“It’s good to see your face again though, Yomogi, don’t worry. When they kill you, I’ll be sure to exact revenge! Everything will be fine!”

Yomogi shook with rage. She ’d believed in him for so long, hearing him say these things must have been devastating.

“It seems I was mistaken about you. I should never have trusted you.”

“Huh? You’re going to kill me know, just because I didn’t say what you wanted to hear? You’re sick! I’m nothing like what you want me to be!”

The more he spoke, the more I hated him. He really knew how to get you in a bad mood.

Yomogi had truly cared for him, worried about him, tried to correct his path when he went off course—and now he was calling her a bitch?

If she was a bitch, then this guy was seriously screwed up.

He was trash, below trash—the scum of the earth. He was the male version of my arch-nemesis , Bitch .

This piece of crap had snuffed out Ost and her mission. I was so filled with rage I could hardly think straight.

Yomogi drew her katana and pointed it at Kyo.

“You think you stand chance against me? Really? I’m a genius!”

“It’s not about winning or losing. I must make up for being misled, for believing a lie and doubting the truth. I must do it for myself. I must see you punished!” Yomogi turned back to face the rest of us. “Kizuna and your friends, and those of you from another world, please, lend me your strength. We must stop Kyo!”

“You don’t have to ask me twice! That’s why we came,” Kizuna said.

“Exactly. Enough talk! Let’s get this over with. A victory tinged with regret for our past missteps—what better way to take this jerk out?”

Sure, there were people like him in the world—people that grated on you every time they opened their mouths. Anytime you gave them the opportunity to speak, you ’d regret it. In a way, he reminded me of the other three heroes. Why did my enemies all share these traits? It was still a mystery to me.

But I knew one thing: there was no reason to let this jerk mouth off anymore. There was only one thing left for us to do. Make him pay!

“What? Well, you’ll see for yourself soon enough. This is the end of you all!” Kyo held out his hand, and all the homunculi, along with Albert and Trash #2, rushed to attack us. At the same time, the book in his hand slapped open, and its pages flapped out and flew around the room.

“Aim for the one in the back!” Kyo shouted, jabbing a finger at Rishia.

“More and more, every time you speak, I lose more patience. I cannot tolerate you any longer!” Rishia shouted.

What now? It was like something snapped in her. Her voice boomed over the chaotic room, like the hero of a story, if there ever was one. I’m going to start calling her “protagonist.”

If only she could figure out how to act like this all the time.

When Rishia got excited like this, she was actually pretty useful in battle. I mean, she didn ’t have a vassal weapon, but she had really impressed me during the last battle with Kyo.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

“Is that your only skill?” Kyo laughed viciously.

“It’s a pretty good one.”

“That flimsy thing won’t do you much good. Hope you have a better plan than that!”

“How’s this?”

Albert, Trash #2, and the homunculi shattered the barrier, but its pieces remained floating in the air.

“Raphtalia!”

“Yes!” she shouted, drawing her katana.

“Oh! You might be fast, but how far do you think you can make it?”

“What makes you think she needs to go anywhere?”

Raphtalia understood what I meant without having to hear it. When the haikuikku activated, she immediately used the speed to cast a spell.

That ’s right—she could use the speed for things besides sword attacks.

“Drifa Light!” she shouted, casting the spell on the floating barrier chards.

“Rafu!”

Oh Raph-chan cast a spell too, and she got the timing just right.

The light flashed over the barrier shards that everyone was focused on, and it was so bright that Trash #2, Albert, and the homunculi were blinded.

“Heh. Is that it?”

“Just wait.”

The shining fragments spun around the room as I raised my shield.

It left the perfect opening for my team.

They say the beginning of a battle is the most important part, don ’t they?

Kizuna and Glass were the first ones to make use of the opening Raphtalia and I made.

“Double Lure Hook !”

Kizuna hit Albert with her skill that doubled future damage, and Glass took a sip of soul-healing water before using her own skill. She used a powerful, fire-based attack.

“Circle Dance Empty Formation: Moon Break!”

Her fan split in two, and she held a half in each hand. Bringing them together over her head she traced out the shape of a full moon, then forcefully brought the fans down.

“Moon . . . Verse!” Albert shouted, as if not wanting to be outdone.

But Glass was much faster.

Her attack met his, tore through it, and kept on going. It slammed into Albert, nearly tearing his shoulder clean off.

“Careful, there! I still have plans for this guy!”

Some pages flew from Kyo ’s book and fluttered over to Albert, where they attached to his shoulder and pulled it up and back onto his torso. Reconnected, he was bathed in a green light.

It must have been some sort of healing spell.

“I’m not going to get outdone by Kiddo and Kizuna! Therese, let’s go!”

“Okay!”

L ’Arc’s scythe flashed and turned into pure energy, while Therese cast and activated a support spell.

“Shining Stones! Exploding Thunder Rain!”

It was one of her best spells.

What? Rishia held up her short sword and filled it with magic.

“Combo Skill! Electric Disc!”

“Hyaaaa!”

Resonating with L ’Arc, Rishia quickly slashed her sword horizontally and neatly slipped it into its sheath.

Enormous discs of electric energy shot from L ’Arc’s energy scythe, and Rishia’s attack followed behind, absorbing the trailing energy and . . . no, it fed the trailing energy back into the rotating disk as it slammed into the crowd of homunculi crowded before Kyo.

The attack was so powerful that it blasted their limbs off.

“My turn!” Filo shouted.

“Wait—you’re on magic support duty. Use your humming fairy songs to back us up. Do you have a song that can speed up magic cast time?”

“Um . . . I’ll try a song I know!” she said, turning into her humming falcon form and flying over to rest on my shoulder.

I thought Kyo would have a snarky comment for us, but instead he realized that Filo was up to something, and he glared at us spitefully.

I was casting Zweite Aura over and over.

I felt like it was getting easier to cast the spell without thinking too hard.

I don ’t know how to explain it in game terms, but it felt like my throat was more open and clear, like the incantation just slipped from it easily and activated the spell.

“Gahhh!”

Raphtalia sliced through the crowd of monstrous homunculi. And whenever Kizuna or Glass left an opening for follow-up attacks, Yomogi rushed in to take advantage.

I was impressed by their coordination.

“You idiots all have to work together, huh? Cause you’re too weak to do anything on your own!”

“You like to pick fights because you have no friends to work together with.”

“Shut your mouth!”

“You first! If I hurt your feelings, why not call for some of your monster women?”

We were like children fighting. Oh well, that’s the sort of thing that happened in fights like these. Then again, we were fighting for our lives—this wasn’t playground fisticuffs.

“Oh that’s right. You didn’t want to bring the women over because you were afraid they’d turn on you once they figured out what you were really like. Just like Yomogi.”

“Shut up!”

Still, I was glad the women weren ’t here. They would just make more trouble and more casualties—both of which I’d rather avoid.

We had a lot to worry about. If the enemy ’s numbers were too large, and if they acted with a lot of coordination, they might be able to attack in ways we wouldn’t be able to handle. Then again, the women might figure things out and turn on Kyo mid-battle, which is probably why he didn’t involve them in this.

Maybe they just weren ’t powerful enough to be much use to him—though with those crazy weapons, they might have been a threat.

Maybe he was trying to keep them from getting hurt, and he was really a feminist like Motoyasu.

Doubtful, considering that he called them used goods just because they ’d been with someone else. I guess he only cared about his own women.

“Okay, so how about I show you some of those same attacks you saw back in the Spirit Tortoise’s core chamber? Or, actually, a lot has happened since then, so I’ll have some new variations to show off. Let’s see how long you can survive!”

“Survive? Ha! How stupid are you? Did you forget that we already beat you once ?! ”

Kyo opened his book and began to cast a spell. A mandala-like pattern appeared on the ground around him.

Suddenly, I felt an enormous, invisible pressure, forcing us to the ground.

I ’d seen this before, the last time we fought Kyo—his obstruction attack.

“You don’t have many ways to get around this, do you ?! ”

He was right about that. Having crossed between worlds, we were a little weaker than the last time. Enduring this gravity attack took all the strength I had. I don ’t think the Demon Dragon Shield was powerful enough.

“That same attack, again? We were weak when we met in the last world, but you know that we are back at full power now, right?”

“It’s a little heavy, but not near enough to stop me from moving. Did you really think that would be enough to stop us?” Kizuna said.

Glass and Kizuna kept approaching Kyo, attacking whatever was in their way. Of course, Kizuna was just supporting attacks.

When they got near a homunculus, she ’d hit it with Double Lure Hook. Then Glass would slice the monster in two.

I was impressed. Kyo ’s spell really didn’t seem to affect them the way that it had back in the battle inside the Spirit Tortoise. It had been devastating then, but I guess it was because Glass and the others were weakened after crossing over to our world.

Still, past victory didn ’t ensure that we would come out on top this time.

“I knew you’d say that!”

Liar! Did he think I wouldn ’t notice how surprised he looked?

The pattern on the floor around him grew larger and brighter.

Hm . . . I could feel the power in the room, like it was filling with the Spirit Tortoise’s energy.

“Ugh . . .”

I cast Shooting Star Shield, and the barrier broke immediately. The shattered pieces flew at Kyo, but they fell to the floor before reaching him.

Just how strong was this gravity field of his? Was it going to crush us to death?

Now Glass and Kizuna were forced to take a knee.

“Aha! This world’s heroes and vassal weapon holders, I’d forgotten all about you. You’re all so weak, I can’t tell you apart.”

Everyone on our side of the battle was forced to the ground. We put both hands flat on the floor and were straining to climb to our feet.

“Ughhh!”

Even Filo fell from my shoulder and struggled to stand against the gravity field.

The homunculi didn ’t seem to have any trouble at all, which made me think Kyo was able to control who was affected by his spell. What could be worse?

“Ugh . . . I can’t move.”

Kyo turned to focus on Kizuna and Glass.

“Looks like this is going to be over even faster than I thought. Are you really going to lose right now ?! To my very first attack? Ha!”

If there was any time to cast a spell, this was it. I could use a skill or two during the incantation.

“Air Strike, Second, Dritte Shield!”

I quickly called for shields to materialize and protect us from the wild attacks of the homunculi, Albert, and Trash #2.

Under the weight of the gravity attack, they weren ’t going to stay in place for very long. Their defense was higher than Shooting Star Shield’s barrier, so they were holding—at least for a little while.

“Your struggles are worthless!”

“You sure about that? Change Shield!”

The shields were already taking a battering, so there was only one thing left for me to do. I ’d change them to the shield I had equipped—the Demon Dragon Shield. It had an equip effect called C Demon Bullet.

C was short for “counter attack,” so I assumed it meant that the shield would fire a magical bullet whenever it was attacked.

The shields instantly transformed, were hit by attacks, and began to fire magical demon bullets at the enemy.

“?! ”

The bullets were made of magic, so the gravity field didn ’t affect them.

They flew in every direction, slamming into the enemies and into the mandala pattern on the ground.

The mandala flickered, and it s effect on the gravity field in the room weakened—that was our chance!

“Heh, I’m impressed. I’ll have to make a note of that one.”

“Don’t get too haughty! Chain Shield!”

Chains shot from the shield, linking all the shields together. Then they spun around the room, entangling Trash #2 and the homunculi.

“Now!”

“Yes!”

Raphtalia drew her charged katana, activating the haikuikku state and using it for a skill.

“Double Lure Hook !”

Kizuna didn ’t let the opportunity slip by—she hit the enemy with Double Lure Hook, which would double the damage from the next attack.

“Nice work, Kiddo! Let’s go, Therese!”

“Yes!”

Lightning struck his scythe again.

“Combo Skill! Electric Disc!”

L ’Arc and Therese teamed up and used a combo skill to follow Kizuna’s attack.

The disk shot over the battlefield, and Raphtalia dashed to follow it. Just before the disk collided with the enemy, she shouted a skill name.

“Instant Blade! Mist!”

It was Raphtalia's most powerful attack, the same one that had killed Trash #2 the first time.

L ’Arc’s electric flying disk crackled with energy—it was their strongest combo skill.

“Gahhh!”

Trash #2 and the homunculi were sliced to pieces and electrocuted at the same time.

Had they just been cut apart they might have been able to regenerate, but with the electricity, it should be enough to end it.

“That’s not all! Ruby Flame!”

Rushing to finish the job, Therese summoned burning balls of magic flame from the accessory I made her and sent them careening into the monster corpses.

“Naofumi! Protect the others!”

“I know! Shooting Star Shield!”

Just as the barrier appeared to envelop us, Glass slapped open her fan and began to dance. She was holding Kizuna ’s hand—they were dancing together.

“Circle Dance Zero Formation: Reverse Snow Moon Flower!”

A breeze lifted cherry blossoms and blew them at the enemy. Therese ’s magic set them ablaze. They burned and sliced up the fallen enemies.

Snow Moon Flower was an area of effect attack, but she could keep it from hurting her allies by holding hands with them.

After all the attacks cleared, there was no trace of the enemies they ’d hit.

“Not bad,” Kyo muttered.

Kyo remained, along with his neo-guardians and Albert, the man with the mirror of the vassal weapons. Everyone else was gone.

Glass was facing Albert, ready to take him on . She could probably handle him on her own. Kizuna couldn’t attack humans anyway, so she was stuck supporting Glass for now.

“Looks like we took care of your little experimental homunculi army, eh? What are you going to do now?”

“Experimental? Ha! I didn’t make these things. I suppose I made some improvements to them, but you just killed the person who made them.”

He must have stolen them from Trash #2.

“He was doing his own research, you know. The things that I make are far more impressive.”

“I bet,” I sighed. I didn’t want meet any more inventions.

But isn ’t it strange that all three of them were researching homunculus? What was going on? There were too many coincidences.

“You must be proud of yourself for surviving my gravity attack, ha! You are so clueless—you’ll see!”

“Kyo! Give it up! You’re finished!” Yomogi shouted.

“Shut up! I’ll kill you along with the others! My research is nearly complete—and you’re all getting in the way!” Kyo snapped, stepping forward and raising his book.

How were we supposed to fight Kyo if he commanded all the Spirit Tortoise ’s energy?

We were weaker than the last time we fought Kyo, but on the other hand, Glass and L ’Arc were stronger. We had a chance. We could do it.

“I’ll make it quick and finish you all off at once. Behold my skills!”

Pages flew from his book and filled the room, fluttering and flapping around our heads before they turned into shining sheets of energy itself.

“You losers can’t cast combo skills without the cooperation of your allies? Pathetic!”

This guy couldn ’t say anything without turning it into some kind of boast.

I was really getting tired of him.

Trash #2 had been the same way. These people were enough to drive me crazy.

“Behold!” Kyo shouted, pointing a finger at Kizuna. “Flame Formation: Magic Explosion!”

Kizuna quickly dropped to a defensive posture. A split second later, I realized why.

Flames appeared around Kizuna and . . . no—the flames were pouring out of her.

“Arrghh! My magic !? ” Kizuna shouted. She was on her knees, staring at her hands. She looked like she was about to collapse. Glass ran over to support her, lifting her to her feet.

“It’s shaving away my soul power, too ?! ”

“Ahahaha! This is my first time using it on a holy hero, but I’m impressed with how well it works!”

I was about to cast a healing spell on Kizuna when Kyo pointed his finger at me and howled, “Don’t bother with that! Rot Formation: Magic Explosion!”

“Ugh . . . ah . . .”

Spiraling wind whipped up all around me, dark and thick with magic power. I could feel it draining my magic away.

But . . . But that was all it did.

“Damn. You’re the type with no offensive magic to begin with. You’re an irritating little bastard!”

“Yeah . . .” I moaned. I took a bottle of magic water out of my shield and drank it, then immediately cast Zweite Heal on Kizuna to heal her wounds.

I had given Kizuna a bottle of magic water before the battle, and she drank it, realizing it would replenish what she ’d lost to Kyo’s attack.

“Ah, I see. Your skill steals the opponent’s magic power, then uses it to produce a spell that hurts its owner,” I announced. It was clever—and hard to counter. The stronger your magic power, the more the skill would hurt you.

It had a weakness though. It wouldn ’t work very well on people without offensive magic to begin with. That was why it didn’t actually hurt me at all.

“What do you think? There’s more where that came from! Let’s see what it does to that foolish spirit who’s been sipping soul-healing water!”

“Glass!”

Kizuna ran to protect Glass.

“Kizuna! Ahhhhh!”

Kizuna was caught right in the path of the attack. She was sliced all over her body. She took heavy damage. Worse than that was she hadn ’t been able to protect Glass from the full brunt of the attack, and Glass took damage too. The attack must have had an effect over an area.

Luckily, Glass didn ’t take so much damage that she was knocked out of the fight, but that attack of Kyo’s was going to become a problem if we didn’t figure out how to deal with it.

It appeared to have a very short cool down time. If he used it in quick succession on us, we ’d end up taking a lot of damage.

It was close cousins with the defense rating attacks I ’d dealt with before. Only that this was for magic.

“Think we’ll just sit back and take this? Ha! Kiddo, let’s do this!”

“Wait, L’Arc! He’s already hit us with magic power and SP attacks! He could have . . .”

“Strength Form Explosion!”

Magic blades of light burst from L ’Arc and spun around him, slashing at him ruthlessly. Knicks and cuts and gashes appeared all over his body. Blood spurt from his wounds.

“Gahhhhhh!”

“L . . .L’Arc!”

“I’m alright! Ain’t nothing I can’t handle—ARGH!” he shouted, swinging his scythe.

The tip swished by Kyo ’s face, missing him by a hair.

“Oh look at you! Not good enough!” Kyo jumped back and sent a stream of pages flying at L’Arc. They slammed into him and sent him soaring backwards, but Therese ran over and caught him before he fell to the ground.

“Whooeee—The Spirit Tortoise energy is great stuff. I can do anything with it! I can use your own strengths against you!”

All he had to do was point at us.

And based on how quickly he ’d been using it, it must not have needed much from him.

The very strengths we needed to beat him powered his attack. He could use them against us!

Luckily, the attack didn ’t seem fatal—yet.

It s attack power must have been based on some kind of calculation that was different from simply taking the target’s attack power as is.

The sort of person that would be most affected by an attack like this would have a special attack power that ignored defense all together. There was no one in our party like that.

I was probably the closest, actually.

The worst part was that Kyo ’s attack actually used whatever trait it was targeting. Not only would the target take damage, but it would also lose the ability of whatever trait had been targeted. It was a really bad combination for us.

If he hit me with it and took advantage of my defense rating, it would leave me unable to defend for a while.

“That’s enough experimenting for now. ” he said. Pages from his book curled up and turned towards us.

He wasn ’t going to send out all those attacks at once, was he?

“Take this!”

I felt an impact jolt through my stomach, followed by a sharp pain that ran through my insides. I heard myself moan in pain. I could hardly stay on my feet. I quickly checked my stats.

It was as I feared. I ’d taken heavy damage. But worse than that, I was left without any defense.

The Shooting Star Shield barrier had absorbed a lot of the direct damage from the attack. Had it not been there, I might have been killed. But, considering my defense rating, the barrier shouldn ’t have been enough to keep me alive. The damage must have been calculated some other way, or I must have been blocking it with some other ability . . . like maybe something I’d gained through support magic, or one of my equipment’s effects.

It wasn ’t an attack that any of us could use, so it was difficult to pin down exactly how it worked. My guess was that the skill was really intended as a debuff , and this attack ability was some kind of side effect.

“Ouch! Owwie!”

Filo and Raphtalia had taken heavy damage. Filo was rolling on the ground in pain.

I ’d been able to protect Raph-chan, so she was okay.

There was only one person who managed to stay on her feet. Someone who se stats were so low to begin with that Kyo’s attack hadn’t managed to do anything to them .

The better your stats were the more damage the attack did. But, it wasn ’t able to deal any fatal damage, and that was its weakness. But it had another weakness—it was no good against people with low stats, against someone whose true power wasn’t reflected in the numbers.

“Ri . . . shia . . .”

Rishia didn ’t look like she’d been hurt at all.

Judging from that, the attack must have only worked on base stats, which are raised or lowered to hurt the target.

It didn ’t work on support effects, or on other, more specialized types of power.

At first glance, it looked like it was invincible, but it had weaknesses—and now we knew them.

As for the weapons, I hadn ’t figured out what it did to them. It was a bit different from the defense rating and defense ignoring attacks that Glass ad L’Arc used. Glass’s stats went up when her energy increased, which is why Kyo’s attack might have been able to kill her. Kizuna had been there to take the brunt of the attack.

Rishia stepped out ahead of Raphtalia, Filo, and I, and glared at Kyo. She was going to protect us.

“You! How can you still be on your feet?”

“Because your attacks are worthless against me.”

“I guess that means you’re the weakest of the bunch! Ha!” Kyo burst out laughing while Albert raised his mirror, preparing to finish her with a final attack.

And the only person that was left to stand against them was . . . Rishia?

“Does it feel that good? Paralyzing your enemies so you can laugh at them? Does that make you feel powerful?” Rishia barked, glaring at Kyo. She drew her sword and leveled it at him. She moved so easily it was like she was completely unaffected by the gravitational field.

“Exploiting the enemy’s weakness and making the kill, it’s sort of the first rule of battle. Don’t you know that much?”

“That is not a battle. That is called trampling on the weak.”

“God, you’re insufferable! Die already!”

Pages shot from his book and folded themselves into the shape of a flaming bird.

“Do not think you can take our lives so easily.”

Moving like a ninja, Rishia dashed left and right, slashing through the flying birds of flame with her short sword. The birds fell to pieces and fluttered to the ground.

“What the hell? You’re really getting on my nerves!”

Yes! It was like this was the very moment that Rishia had been waiting for—the role she’d been born to play. She’d been relegated to assisting the rest of us for so long, but now she was the best fighter in the party.

“You’re so annoying! I can’t stand it! Barking on about justice, you’re just as bad as Yomogi!” Kyo shouted like a spoiled child.

Ha! What a brat!

I climbed to my feet and cast a healing spell.

“I’m not mature yet. I can’t do all that I should, and I always need help. But . . . but I . . .”

She griped the hilt of her short sword and held it out in front of her. She was moving exactly how Eclair did when she used her skills.

She hadn ’t studied and she hadn’t trained extensively. She was just trying to copy what she’d seen.

“If there’s such a thing as destiny, then I believe it is mine to put a stop to your ambitions!” she yelled, rushing forward, the top of her blade glinting in the light.

I cast a support skill just in time to help her.

Then I saw that Kizuna had the same idea, and her skill landed at the same time as mine.

“Attack Support!”

“Double Lure Hook !”

The skills flew at Kyo, they would connect just before her blade hit him. I hoped that my skill hit before the Double Lure Hook skill . If it didn’t, Rishia’s attack would only be strong enough to annoy him.

“Ugh!”

Kyo quickly grabbed Albert and shoved him between himself and Rishia ’s blade.

My skill hit him, followed by Kizuna ’s Double Lure Hook. Finally Rishia’s thrust followed, and her blade slammed into Albert’s mirror.

I felt the force of the impact from across the room.

The vassal weapons, like the holy weapons, were impossible to destroy. If he used the mirror like a shield, he ’d probably be able to fend off her attack. But if her attack was strong enough, it would pierce right through the mirror itself and impale Albert.

Glass had don e that once to me, when she used Moon Break after drinking soul-healing water.

“Ugh . . . ga . . . gagagaga . . .”

Her blade stabbed through his mirror and slipped deep into his chest.

“Ah . . .”

Rishia was stunned at the sight of blood, and stepped back a few feet, speechless.

Blood sprayed from Albert ’s chest, splattering both Rishia and Kyo.

Albert ’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed.

A glowing ball of light rose from his corpse and then slowly circled the room. Then it looked as though something split off from it before the ball of light floated through the wall and left the building.

Was that . . . was that the mirror vassal weapon?

It was like it checked to make sure that the person who held it was really dead before it left for good.

“Unbelievable! I’m supposed to believe that this weak little girl just killed a holder of a vassal weapon ?! ” Kyo snapped, glaring at Rishia. He shot a glance over at Kizuna and me.

I wonder if the Support Attack skill I used was . . .

“It looks like you can use a skill just like Double Lure Hook, Naofumi,” Kizuna said.

“I guess so. And if we can use both of those skills, then we can do some serious damage.”

That ’s right. If it worked the way it seemed, then we could use two multiplying skills at the same time, essentially quadrupling the amount of damage we could do. Pretty damn impressive.

When Rishia was in this awakened state, her attacks were pretty strong to begin with.

“Rishia, I know there are still these neo-guardians around, but focus your attacks on Kyo.”

Kizuna and I waited for the cool down time on our multiplying skills to run out, then prepared to use them again.

Kyo was speechless, like he truly couldn ’t believe what he’d just seen. He glared at us with bloodshot eyes. He looked furious.

Oh man , I’d been waiting so long to see that look on his face! Ha!

“This isn’t over! Not yet! You’ll see what I have up my sleeve!”

Again, pages flew from his book and filled the room. The mandala appeared on the floor around him again, and the gravity in the room began to grow stronger and stronger.

But Kyo was breathing heavily, and it showed. He was trying really hard. Things weren ’t so easy for him anymore.

I became aware of energy flowing around the room. He was gathering more and more Spirit Tortoise energy around himself.

But a lot of the energy flowed into my shield. An icon appeared in my field of view.

“Sorry to say it, but I don’t think that’s going to work,” I shouted at Kyo.

I held my hand against my shield and imagined the shield I wanted to switch to.

I hadn ’t met the conditions to unlock it, but I had to believe that it had been waiting for this exact time to reappear.

Kyo was glaring at me—staring at the shield in my hands.

He ’s seen it before. That’s right—it was the very same shield I’d used to defeat him in the last world!

The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

It was the shield I ’d received from the same being he tortured and controlled, the being whose energy he stole—The Spirit Tortoise. Ost.

Let ’s see if he recognizes it—the real difference in our power!

Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield (awakened) 80/80 AT

 abilities unlocked  : equip bonus: dragon vein protection 

equip  effect: gravity field, C soul recovery, C magic snatch, C gravity shot, life force up, magic defense (large), lighting resistance, SP drain nullification, magic support, spell support.

 special   effect: 20%; mastery level 100

Any trace of exhaustion I ’d had disappeared in an instant.

“Looks like changing weapons will take care of Kyo’s status nullification attack.”

“Ahhh. That’s really good to hear,” Kizuna nodded, pleased with my new discovery. She switched to a new weapon.

If we kept on top of the healing magic, we ’d be able to avoid losing the battle due to that.

But there was a bigger problem.

It didn ’t look like I could use Energy Blast. Twenty percent was not a very big number.

I wasn ’t sure what I needed to do to raise that number, but it seemed pretty clear that I couldn’t use the attack if it was only twenty percent charged.

But there was yet another, bigger problem.

I was concerned about the gravity field listed under its equip effects.

When I focused, I could see a gravity icon in my field of view. It indicated that the current gravity level was very high. I thought hard about lowering the level, and suddenly, all the people that had lost the ability to move climbed to their feet.

“I feel so light!”

“What’s going on? Did you do this, Kiddo?”

“Yeah. Looks like I can control gravity with this shield.”

“Wow! That’s pretty convenient!”

It was. That would take care of one of Kyo ’s most irritating attacks—the one he’d clearly stolen from the Spirit Tortoise.

“See? What do you think? You better keep on generating that gravity field if you want to keep us down.”

“You fool! Don’t condescend to me!” Kyo screamed, his eyes burning with rage. “How long do I have to entertain you weaklings ?! ”

“Oh, calm down. You’re like a little kid that screams when they don’t get their way.”

He was happy as a clam when everything went according to plan—when he had control over everyone. Otherwise, he threw a temper tantrum. How old was this guy?

Kyo tried to use his ability stat-based skill again. But I found that it was relatively easy to dodge. A quickly deployed Air Strike Shield was all it took to block it.

I ’d found a way to deal with both of his worst attacks, so unless he came up with something more impressive, it looked like victory was becoming more and more likely.

I didn ’t want to overplay my hand here, but I felt like it was time for a taunt or two. “Alright then, do you want to hear about all the ways I’m going to make you pay for your misdeeds?”

I used Attack Support to summon the little dart into my hand, and turned to face Kyo.

“Kizuna and I will hit you with these attack multipliers. Once we confirm that they’ve both hit you, the rest is easy. It doesn’t matter who actually delivers the attack—whoever hits you next and . . . boom! That’s it. Maybe it will be Glass or L’Arc. That would be ideal. They could use a stat-based attack just like you!”

For example, we could deal enough damage that he ’d need to use a lot of magic to heal it, but then, we could make it so that the magic itself would kill him.

“It’s really kind of elegant, the way it punishes you for accumulating all this power.”

“You . . . you bastard!”

“Kyo! If you surrender . . .”

It was Yomogi. What was she going on about now? I didn ’t want him to surrender!

Did she think I ’d let him live if he did? If that’s what she thought, I’d have Kizuna remove her from the battle all together.

“I’ll make your death easy.”

I nearly fell over. I liked where she went with it, but she really was like a wild boar.

Comparing her with Glass and Tsugumi, she really stood out—she was different from the rest.

Kyo went on trying to hit Rishia with his special ability and stat-based attack, but it wasn ’t going well.

Pages from his book flew at her, but she was slicing them all out of the air before they could connect with her , even when they approached from behind.

It was like she ’d gained abilities specifically for destroying Kyo.

Her abilities and his weaknesses fit together so perfectly that it was hard to not see an element of fate in it.

“You think you’re so special! You’re nothing but a pissant!”

“Then you’re getting your ass kicked by a pissant!” I shouted.

Kyo stamped his feet in in anger, “Silence! I’ll kill you! How dare you talk back to me like that! ”

This whole time I ’d thought that he had grown extremely powerful because of the Spirit Tortoise’s energy, but maybe the strength he’d had last time was a temporary thing. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like he was still holding back.

“I’m not finished with you yet!” he shrieked, grabbing a strange, creepy looking object from where it hung at his waist. It looked like a bookmark. The moment his fingers touched it, he smiled.

“You’re so proud of yourself because you found a little accessory that made you stronger. That’s not real strength! I’ll show you what real power is!”

He stuck the bookmark into the book of the vassal weapons. The second it slipped between the pages, I felt a great weight fall over the battlefield.

Damn it . I should be able to control the gravity field with the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield, but . . .

“Not so fast!” Kyo barked, and hundreds of book pages plastered themselves all over the surface of my shield.

That ’s all that happened, but immediately a floating “X” appeared over the gravity field adjustment icon. He locked it !?

Worse yet, I could feel the pages draining energy out of the shield.

Damn it! At this rate I was going to be forced to switch to another shield.

“Eat this!”

“Feh! Not so fast!” Rishia shouted. Her movement was clearly slowed by the increased gravity field. Kyo dodged her attacks and the followed up with a barrage of fluttering book pages that sent her flying.

“Dammit! This creep has so many tricks up his sleeve!”

He seemed to have an endless variety of ways to defend himself .

“Ahaha! Weren’t you going to hit me with your little multiplier skill? I’m over here!” Kyo laughed.

I wanted to throw the attack support dart at him, but I couldn ’t even raise my arm.

“Well, you heroes with your holy weapons, and you creeps with your vassal weapons, have been a bit more trouble than I expected. Time to take care of that!” Kyo laughed, pulling another bookmark from his pocket and thrusting it into his book. “I thought something like this might happen, so it’s a good thing I went ahead and messed with your dragon hourglass in advance.”

“What are you talking about ?! ”

He had already done something to the dragon hourglass? How could that be?

“I wasn’t able to destroy the dragon vein defense barrier, but the effect works outside of this building. How did you think I was able to see what was going on over there?”

He was watching through the dragon hourglass? How many secret technologies did he have ?!

“Unfortunately when I use it, you’ll all get a bit of a power boost too. But if I don’t use it, I can’t steal your power—so I guess I have no choice!”

What was he blathering on about? What was going on?

A liquid-filled tank rose up from the floor behind Kyo.

What was it? What was he doing?

His lips moved quickly, he was whispering some kind of incantation to himself.

What was happening? I had a really bad feeling about this.

The incantation itself was very short. He reached out and brushed the tank with his fingertips, and in response the liquid in the tank swirled and vanished, as if he were absorbing it.

Was it magic water? Or could it be . . . soul-healing water?

It looked like the skill was pretty expensive.

“Different world, different reason. Shatter the barrier walls, and summon the great phenomenon!”

“Waves of Destruction! Dimension Wave!”

Crash!

Immediately after Kyo finished the incantation a terrible sound rang out.

“Wh . . . A skill that causes dimension waves ?! What ?! ”

“How could . . .”

“It can’t be! What are you thinking ?! ”

“Kyo! You’re the one behind the . . .”

Before she could finish shouting in surprise, Kizuna and the others vanished from the room.

Chapter Eleven: Sacrifice Aura

Raphtalia, Filo, Rishia, Raph-chan, and I were the only ones left.

Yomogi had been registered to Kizuna ’s party, so had been summoned to the wave along with Kizuna.

Dammit! He ’d planned to split us up the whole time!

A thudding sound echoed in the recesses of my mind—which made me think that this wave was occurring back in the previous world.

“I hope you’re pleased—I used this book to keep your shield from sucking you off to the wave. Hm? The holder of the katana of vassal weapons has nothing to say? I guess it is tied to an idiot from another world, after all.”

So he could even stop the automatic teleport that had tied me to the waves since I found myself in Melromarc.

At least I still had my party members: Filo, Raphtalia, Rishia, and Raph-chan. That was better than nothing.

Kizuna and the others must have found themselves facing down the wave right about now.

“Ahaha! Now I have the stupid Shield Hero to play with! This should be fun!” Kyo giggled. He was acting like everything was going his way, but the gravity field in the room had grown noticeably weaker.

Stats slowly filled my field of view.

Lv 76 + 75?

L ’Arc had said something once about gaining the total levels from both worlds.

Was that the reason I was able to stay on my feet in Kyo ’s gravity field?

Unfortunately, the effect seemed to work on Kyo as well . And he had those stat-based attacks. They had the weakness of not being able to deal a killing blow, but they were still a serious threat.

And we didn’t have Kizuna around to help.

We had no choice but to continue the battle under these new conditions , but I didn’t like the look of things.

At least I could use all the shields I ’d gained in both of the worlds.

But , I still had the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield equipped, with pages from Kyo’s book plastered all over it, so I wasn’t able to switch it out for anything else.

Judging from what he ’d said, I think I was the target of his new plan. Maybe he had set this up so that he could block any of my skills that made use of the Spirit Tortoise’s energy. Then, when I lost, he’d have one hundred percent of the Spirit Tortoise’s energy at his disposal.

He ’d artificially summoned a wave so that he could get his hands on the remaining Spirit Tortoise energy.

What was I supposed to do? How could I fight in circumstances like these?

I couldn ’t use Portal Shield either—the copies of the four holy beasts roaming the grounds made that skill inaccessible.

We ’d have to find some way to defeat him on our own.

“Ahahaha! Look how well it suits me!”

The room was brimming with Spirit Tortoise energy. It spiraled around and into Kyo.

“Ha! Take this!”

Spirit Tortoise familiars (neo-guardian type) rose to their feet and came after us . They were holding weapons that looked just like the holy weapons held by the other three heroes back in the previous world.

This fight was starting to look a lot like the last one, when we ’d met in the Spirit Tortoise’s core chamber.

. . . Except that there were less people on my side now.

“Raphtalia, are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“I’m ready too, master!”

I hadn ’t addressed her, but Filo was in human form now, on her feet, and ready for battle.

She was dressed in pajamas, but I could see the Karma Dog Claws sticking out from the feet. I guess that was the hidden weapon effect.

At least I wasn ’t alone. Time to see what we could do.

The pages stuck all over my shield were draining me of energy somehow. It felt awful . I couldn’t keep using the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield for much longer.

“Uh-oh! Have you started to figure it out? That’s right, I’ll take whatever energy you’ve got in that obnoxious shield of yours! To get the very last drop of it, I’ll have to kill you first! It’s a protective thing, you know, that’s why I needed the wave to break through.”

So this had all been part of Kyo ’s plan. To get at the energy I still had stored in my shield. To get at it he had to summon a wave. If the four holy heroes existed to protect the world from the waves, then he must have found a way to break the rules by intentionally summoning a wave. The heroes were part of the protection, just like the beasts. He’d found a way around it, and now his plan was in motion.

With the wave occurring in the other world, the energy in my shield might be summoned back to the site of the wave, and that was his chance to take it.

That was some plan . How did he even think of it?

The strongest powered-up shield I had at the moment was the Demon Dragon Shield. The world I was in wouldn ’t affect that.

But I had to fight with what I had.

“If you think we’re less capable of battle then you are, you’ll come to regret it!” Raphtalia shouted, switching her katana to the White Tiger Katana.

Exactly. Now we could use weapons that our levels and stats had prevented us from using before.

I didn ’t know what kind of effect to expect from it, but the White Tiger Katana was made from better material than the Demon Dragon Shield, so it was probably a force to be reckoned with. Raphtalia could barely raise it before, but things were different now!

“Here I gooooo!” Filo shouted. She started to gather magic power about her, humming and singing the whole time.

Now that we were connected back to our old world, Filo should be able to use more of her filolial powers. That meant she now had access to an ideal combination of attacks and support abilities.

We ’d lost Kizuna and the others, and Kyo was blocking my use of the Spirit Tortoise energy, but we weren’t going to lose that easily.

“Heh. You idiots! Aren’t you forgetting something?” Kyo shouted, pointing at us.

He was probably going to use his stat-based attack to try and deal some serious damage.

He ’s been powered up just like the rest of us, so it was easy to imagine him having some more deadly tricks up his sleeve.

Once he lowered my defenses, he ’d hit me with a special attack I wouldn’t be able to block . . . . or so I thought. He glanced over at Rishia.

“I guess I’ll deal with the stupid Shield Hero later. I’ll take care of this justice-obsessed wench first!” he said jabbing his finger at Rishia.

But before he could do anything, before he could mutter an incantation, Rishia flew across the room as if she was using haikuikku. She somersaulted and took down a neo-guardian with one hit.

“?! ”

“Why are you so surprised? You seem to think me a fool, and pester me with your little taunts! Now you’ll see how wrong you are!”

Did she know what had happened?

I quickly checked her stats and could hardly believe my eyes.

I expected to find them higher than before, maybe up closer to mine.

I expected to find her abilities improved a bit, but all her stats had risen dramatically—surpassing even Filo’s! They were higher than Filo’s, even when accounting for the growth adjustments from my shield!

If this was what an awakened Rishia looked like, she was a force to be reckoned with!

“What was that? These neo-guardians have the power of both worlds! How did you defeat him so easily ?! You fool!”

“Who’s the fool here?”

Rishia was so powerful now she could probably defeat a hero.

They say that great talents take great time .

Maybe Rishia was the type that grew unbelievably powerful after crossing a certain line. I mean, of course, that ’s what I’d expected this whole time. That’s why I’d spent so much time and energy on her.

Once she hit that line, she was something new, something completely unlike what she ’d been.

The world I ’d been summoned to had a cap at level 100. Apparently, there were similar limitations in place in Kizuna’s world. If Rishia’s power boost came after level 100, then her talents would remain forever inaccessible.

The old hengen muso lady said she had talent, and this must be what she meant. Glass had said the same thing when she saw Rishia in the last battle with Kyo.

But what would Rishia be like when she was fully boosted—when she could use all of her latent talents?

Kyo ’s attacks were at least as powerful as they had ever been, but now she was more than powerful, more that fast enough, to avoid them.

“ARRGHGH! You’re so annoying! Annoying! Annoying!!!” Kyo wailed, pulling at his hair.

When he summoned the wave, we ’d lost half of our allies, but it was starting to look like we were actually better off as things were now. That’s not to say that victory was guaranteed, but his trick with the wave might have been a miscalculation.

“You’re starting to really bother me!”

“You’re the one that did this, so what are you whining about? Now we just need to finish you off.”

“Yes,” Raphtalia said, sliding the sword into its sheath and storing its power.

I didn ’t know how the sword would react to Raphtalia’s new level, but the gemstone I’d set in the sheath was charging up for a haikuikku very quickly.

“Me toooo!” Filo shouted. She was all charged and ready.

Raph-chan sat on my shoulder, chirping for battle.

“That’s enough. I was going to play with you bit, but I’ve had enough. There’s no point in playing games with the likes of you,” Kyo sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, yeah, you’re all leveled up and all—great. But you keep forgetting this one thing, so I guess I’ll have to tell you myself.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“The holy weapons and the vassal weapons in this world can be powered up in the same ways. You spent all that time with what’s-her-face, so you should know that.”

“. . . True.”

I had already figured out what he was getting at, and I ’ll be honest, I was worried. I felt cold sweat prickle my forehead.

Kizuna and the other s had figured out various ways to power up their vassal and holy weapons, so of course they’d shared all that information. It was an obvious thing to do. I’d even had a meeting with the other three heroes back in my old world to share what we knew about powering up.

But until Raphtalia was chosen to wield the katana, the other s had been more powerful than she was.

“To tell you the truth, I’ve been pretty cautious about those stat-based attacks, so of course, I have ways to deal with them. But what about you ?! ”

For a long time, I ’d thought that only L’Arc and the others would come at me with a defense rating attack, so I hadn’t been on my toes. The White Tiger Shield had a parry attack that would mitigate some of the risk. Switching to it would be a good idea.

But I didn ’t want to lose my support effects. There must have been a reason he hadn’t used those attacks against Raphtalia and the others too.

“So here’s the real issue. I pay careful attention to information, you know? So, did you think I didn’t know the power-up methods you and your vassal weapon friends have used? Who do you think defeated Albert, the mirror vassal weapon holder, right from the start?” he said, flipping open his book and showing me a page from it.

“I only learned about the Hunting Hero’s methods relatively recently. I’ll have to add it to the list.”

I knew what he was trying to say.

Kyo knew the power-up methods used by Kizuna, Glass, L ’Arc, Ethnobalt, and Raphtalia. He knew how they’d improved their weapons. He had a vassal weapon himself, and he knew how Albert’s had worked too.

Glass had said that power-ups worked best on holy weapons.

The vassal weapons didn ’t respond quite as well, but still, if he had combined knowledge of the holy weapons and the six vassal weapons’ power-up methods, I couldn’t even guess how much power he would wield.

But then how had we managed to corner him like this?

The only thing I could think of was , and it was just a guess, but based on the how Glass and the others had reacted . . .

“Quit bluffing. The vassal weapons despise you. You think you can command their power?” I shouted, jabbing my finger at him.

He gritted his teeth and said, “Think what you want! Come try me!”

I was right—I knew it. The book of the vassal weapons despised the man that held it.

I didn ’t know how he managed to maintain control of it given the circumstances, but it didn’t look like he had perfect control over all of its power. Now he was trying to make us think that he’d been holding back this whole time. So how was he supposed to suddenly get stronger? He’d have to find some way to boost his powers with some kind of external input. And if that was his plan, he’d try to fill himself with the Spirit Tortoise energy.

“Rishia,”

“Yes! What is it ?! ”

She was still a bit nervous, but she was filled with a burning need for justice and ready to fight.

“Can you pull off the attack that the old lady taught you?”

The old lady could use defense-rating attacks without breaking a sweat. I had a feeling it would do wonders.

“I’ll do my best!”

“Raphtalia, how are you doing?”

“Ready to use a skill!”

“What about meee?” Filo chirped.

“Get ready to attack. You’re more than strong enough.”

“Okaaaay!” Filo shouted. She went on humming a song that raised all of our abilities. Now that she was both a filolial and a humming fairy, she was serving mostly as battle support.

We had plenty of surprises up our sleeves, too.

I couldn ’t use the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield at the moment, and our movement was impeded a bit with the gravity field that Kyo was using. But, we’d received a big level boost, so we could at least move a bit. Now we had to find a way to defeat Kyo, who was high on Spirit Tortoise energy and knew about every power-up method we’d ever used.

We were out of time.

“Die!”

“Air Strike Shield!”

Kyo lashed out with a stat-based attack, but I blocked it with Air Strike Shield. The shield shattered under the weight of the attack, but it stopped it. At least the shields were strong enough to stop an attack.

“Damn! A decent block. You impudent fool!”

“Here I go!”

“Yes!”

Raphtalia drew both her swords at once.

The haikuikku move that activated was twice as powerful as usual, and she dashed around the room at a blinding speed. Pages from Kyo ’s book flapped about the room to block her attacks, but Raphtalia slipped between them easily and dashed forward for her own attack.

“Attack Support!”

I knew that I wasn ’t going to make it in time, but I threw the dart as fast as I could anyway. Rishia dashed off after it, tearing through any pages that got in her way with rating-based attacks.

“Haikuikku!”

Filo shot off behind Rishia.

“Pathetic! Weak!” Kyo thrust his hands out before him, and the pages of his book flapped furiously.

What was he doing ?!

“You’ve already fallen into my trap! Libraria!” he shouted and the room turned black and white, and the sound of a book slamming shut echoed in my ears. “Ahahaha! See how you like this space compression restraint skill!”

Kyo vanished from before our eyes.

But something was strange about it.

We had been in his underground laboratory this whole time, but now we appeared to be in a white room.

Kyo ’s skill had produced attacks that swirled all around us. Birds made of flame and lightning, tornadoes, massive boulders, and a huge particle beam like the Spirit Tortoise had used.

“Ahaha! Take that! Can you block them all at once? Any one of them will kill you! Better dodge what you can!”

Damn it . His skill trapped us in a confined space and bombarded us with attacks. What were we supposed to do?

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The barrier stopped some of the attacks, then shattered, but its jagged pieces remained floating in the air.

The target, I guess, was the whole room.

While waiting for the barrier fragments to shoot off, I blocked attacks with my shield, dodging whenever I could.

It was very difficult to do in such a confined space, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

I took the bioplant out of my shield and forced it to germinate.

It grew unbelievably quickly, and soon it would break the space itself .

“Like I’d let that happen ?! ” Kyo sent a skill hurdling at the bioplant, destroying it instantly. “You know I wondered how you managed to get out of the labyrinth. Now I know. Thanks.”

Damn it. If I didn ’t find a way out we’d be pummeled to death by Kyo’s attacks.

“Hya!”

“Ho!”

“Rafuuu!”

Rishia, Filo, and Raph-chan all tried attacking the walls, but they were only able to make small cracks, which repaired themselves instantly.

Skills and attacks rained down on us the whole time.

I continued to use the sequence of Air Strike Shield, Second Shield, Dritte Shield, Shield Prison, and Shooting Star Shield. It was working, but I couldn ’t keep it up forever.

There must be a limit on how much the space itself can endure. If we could just break through it, we could escape.

The problem was that Kyo continued to reform the walls and send a barrage of attacks at us the whole time. It seemed to me the book pages were producing the attacks, and the walls of the room must have been equivalent to Kyo ’s field of view.

“Raph-chan! Cover that wall with a curtain of smoke!”

“Rafuuu!”

She knew what I meant, and she used her illusion magic to cover the room in smoke . Then she also snuck a hallucination into the center of the wall of smoke.

“You think you can hide? Think again!”

A howling wind blew through the room and took all of the smoke away with it, but the hallucination she snuck into the smoke remained, and for a moment, all the skills rained down on the wrong place.

“Damn! But I’m not done yet,” pretending to be hurt, I signaled to Raphtalia and Rishia with my hand.

I clapped a hand over Filo’s mouth to keep her quiet.

I pointed to my shield, and then I wrote “wrath” in the air with my finger.

Raphtalia ’s eyes grew wide. Rishia was so surprised she audibly gasped.

I was going to burn this whole place down with Dark Curse Burning S, the strongest attack I had, one that left a curse behind to make recovery difficult.

I had to try it.

Raphtalia was shaking her head—she knew how dangerous it was. But I had survived it a few times before.

If I encased everyone in Shield Prison, I was hoping we could all survive. Just to account for the worst possible outcome, I could probably have a protection skill cast on Raphtalia too.

Realizing that I had made up my mind, Raphtalia gave up and signaled to Filo, Rishia, and Raph-chan to follow her and get as much distance as possible from me.

What was the big deal? I ’d done this plenty of times. Just like every other time, I just needed to survive my own attack.

“. . .”

How many times had I let myself use this attack?

It was a cursed shield that I was forced to rely on in my lowest moments—and I was about to rely on its power again.

I wrapped my fingers tightly around the shield grip, closed my eyes, steadied my breathing and changed shields.

Due to the increased amount of dragon core stone, the shield had become more powerful!

Shield of Wrath IV (awakened) +7 50/70 SR

 abilities locked  : equip bonus: skill Change Shield (attack), 

  Iron Maiden, Blood Sacrifice, Megiddo Burst, 

 special effect  : Dark Curse Burning S, Strength Up, Dragon Rage, Roar, Vassal Berserk, Magic Power Share, Robe of Rage (large), Demon Dragon magic power. 

 Mastery level 0

I’d had a vague feeling of dread about using this shield, but I hadn’t expected it to become so powerful!

The appearance of the shield had changed too, growing somehow even more ominous and brutal. It was so large that it was nearly impossible to support with one arm. I think shields like this were called tower shields.

My heart was filled with powerful rage and hate, far more furious than before. And yet my relationships with my friends, my trust in them, my desire to protect them from harm . . . those emotions had grown stronger too. They were strong enough to keep me from losing control over myself.

I didn ’t know what the last two special effects were about, but I was sure they referenced some type of power I’d yet to see—something that might also be more dangerous than anything I’d yet to see.

As for Megiddo Burst, I didn ’t even want to try it out. I wasn’t sure I’d survive a single use.

“Ugh . . .” Filo moaned. Her arms and legs were engulfed in roaring black flames. She was doing all she could to keep control over herself.

But the hatred swirling inside of me was too strong. It was so strong I was going to lose consciousness!

“Rafuuu!”

Raph-chan jumped up on Filo ’s head and started nibbling at her cowlick. Just then, black flames burst from her puffy tail.

“Me too!” Raphtalia placed her hands on Raph-chan and Filo, and closed her eyes in concentration.

I felt the weight of the hatred and rage lessen just a little. They were accepting some of my burden. Just when I ’d thought the flames would consume me, they doused water on my heart.

It felt amazing. Like crystal clear water seeping into a parched throat.

Yes , I could go on.

“Let’s go! Shield Prison!”

A cage of shields appeared in the air around Raphtalia and the others, protecting them from Kyo ’s rain of skills.

The shield suddenly weighed on me heavily, like it had doubled in size. A warped, twisted light emanated from its surface.

“Arrrhhhhhh!”

“What ?! ”

Cursed flames roared and leapt from the shield, burning everything in sight and instantly destroying the space that Kyo had trapped us in. There was a burst and a hiss and we found ourselves back in the underground laboratory.

I turned and was happy to see that the Shield Prison had survived unscathed.

“You broke through my skill. I’m impressed.”

“Of course you are. We tricked you.”

We had time to pull off the attack because he ’d been tricked into attacking the hallucination that Raph-chan made.

“You haven’t come close to seeing the attacks I’m capable of!”

Should I use Blood Sacrifice on him?

No . If I failed in the casting, it would all be for nothing.

It wasn ’t time for that. No, not yet.

Kyo unleashed another attack and the Shield Prison shattered . Raphtalia and the others leapt free and brandished their weapons at Kyo, dashing forward to attack.

“Brave Blade! Mist!”

Using both of her swords she traced a cross in the air and it shot across the room, tearing through the swirling book pages that Kyo sent to stop it.

“Ha!”

Rishia was furiously unleashing the defense-rating attacks that she ’d learned from the old lady.

“Ha!” Filo barked, darting across the room with a spiral kick.

“That old attack? Again ?! You never learn, do you? Constriction: Composition Four!”

Kyo ’s book snapped open and a cage emerged from its pages that enclosed Raphtalia and the others.

He could use his skills so quickly!

“Continuation! False Ceiling!”

Needles grew from the ceiling of their cage and rained down on everyone inside.

“Not so fast! Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield!”

Three shields materialized in the air over their heads to protect them from the rain of needles.

“Haaa!” Raphtalia shouted, quickly drawing her sword and slicing through the cage that enclosed her. She leapt free again and ran for Kyo.

That ’s right. We were stronger than we had been.

We can defeat Kyo. Even without Kizuna!

“You think that will work? You telegraph your moves so far in advance!”

Kyo had boosted his abilities too, and Raphtalia wasn ’t quite fast enough to hit him before he could evade her attack.

We just weren ’t fast enough. The words “attacks don’t matter if they don’t connect” kept running through my mind.

If my friends could charge up their speed attacks, we could probably catch up to him . But, if they did that, while they charged, he’d have time to encase us in that confined space again.

Of course, if he did, I might be able to get us out by using the cursed flames again, but that wasn ’t the sort of plan that would work forever. Just to make things even more annoying, we’d occasionally have to fend off a rogue holy beast copy. And, the neo-guardians that we defeated were regenerating and getting back on their feet.

“Take this! Composition Eight: Divine Punishment!”

The pages of his book flapped wildly when he called the skill ’s name. Then lightning erupted from them and fired straight at us.

It chased us when we tried to evade it! It was homing lightning! It looked like an attack that could be pulled off with magic, which made me think, was there some other aspect to it we hadn ’t seen yet?

“Air Strike Shield!”

“Hah!”

The lightning quickly changed course and avoided the shield that materialized in front of it.

Damn it! What was I supposed to do about an attack I couldn ’t block?

“Shooting Star Shield!”

Raphtalia and the others were doing all they could to avoid the lightning attack. So I quickly deployed Shooting Star Shield to protect them and stop the crackling bolts. Because Wrath Shield IV was so powerful, the barrier was able to stop the attack without shattering.

It didn ’t shatter, but it crackled, and started to glow with heat.

What . . . What was going on?

The barrier itself suddenly shot out glowing orbs of dark flame. They slammed into the fluttering pages from Kyo ’s book, burning them to ash instantaneously.

I was very happy to see Kyo ’s attacks fail one by one.

The orbs were bouncing around, burning everything they touched. The bodies of the fallen holy beast copies, the homunculi, the bodies of Trash #2 and Albert, were all reduced to piles of ash.

“You’re so obnoxious! I’ve had enough! Take this!”

He flipped through his book and something appeared in the air before us. Something that looked just like the head of the Spirit Tortoise.

“Too bad it takes so much time! But you better be grateful! Not many people get to see this attack!”

He was playing it up—it must have been a special finishing move.

Could I block it and survive? I honestly didn ’t know.

“I don’t think so!” Raphtalia shouted.

She dashed at Kyo with Filo and Raph-chan at her side, but he quickly deployed layers upon layers of barriers to protect himself.

Rishia and Raphtalia ’s defense-rating attacks shattered the barriers very quickly, but it wasn’t enough to break all the way through.

And that gravity field was still slowing us down. How did we solve this problem the last time, when Ost was with us?

Could I do it? Could I pull it off?

There was no reason for me to stand there like a stick in the mud. I had time to try . I had to use it.

Sure, I was alone. And sure, I didn ’t really know how to use it, but I forcefully called out the Way of the Dragon Vein incantation.

I concentrated as well as I could, and tried to recall what it had felt like.

Therese had shown me how to guide my power, so I tried to do that the best I could. The shield was the medium and the power was mine. I called for the energy of the Spirit Tortoise, in the air all about us, to help me.

. . . But it wasn’t working.

I felt the shield respond, ever so slightly. I could feel the Spirit Tortoise energy in the room gathering in it.

Maybe there wasn ’t enough power, but I had to try. I called to mind the incantation for All Liberation Aura.

Before I spoke the words, I felt a strong jolt surge up my spine—something I had never felt before. It was like the voice I sometimes heard when using the Shield of Wrath, only different. I couldn’t tell what it was. But I knew there was something deep inside of me—something terrifying.

—You are trying to cast the ancient magic, are you not?

—Your death here would greatly inconvenience me. I suppose I must assist you.

The voice wrapped around my heart, suffocating and powerful. I couldn ’t resist it. Then suddenly the same puzzle that Ost had shown me appeared before my eyes, and began to assemble itself.

—That should be sufficient.

—But the use of my power comes with a heavy price. Be prepared to pay it.

—Do you understand that which you ask?

I had no idea who was speaking to me, but I could hear the voice clearly.

I didn ’t know what the price was and I didn’t know what fate awaited me, but I knew what I came here to do and I wasn’t backing down. Kyo had to pay for his crimes!

I didn ’t hesitate. I was ready to activate the spell.

But before I starting chanting, icons appeared in order to select the target.

What? That normally didn ’t happen until after the spell was cast.

There were three icons, so I could only select three targets.

It was set to cast on myself.

I was going to use All Liberation Aura.

Who would benefit the most from increased stats and abilities?

I could count on Raphtalia , but Rishia also needed an ability boost.

I quickly set the spell to focus on Rishia. Suddenly, my field of view toggled red.

I was getting a bad feeling about this. A feeling that I shouldn’t use the spell after all.

What if I wasn ’t the one to pay the price? What if we all had to pay?

—Tsk, Tsk. Do you think victory comes to cowards?

—The Hunting Hero knew the risks and came anyway.

Damn it! Even if that were true, I couldn ’t ask Raphtalia and the others to suffer.

“Master! I’ll do it! I’ll make up for the turtle lady! I’ll help you and big sis and everyone!”

Filo?

Could she hear what I was hearing? How did she know what was happening?

I guess it wasn ’t that surprising. She’d always been influenced by the Shield of Wrath .

She was right. If I held back, then we might lose a fight we could have won.

I changed the spell to focus on Filo instead of Rishia.

And nothing happened—no red flashing.

It was like . . . like something deep inside me had warned me not to set Rishia as the target. Like my heart had pumped the breaks.

It was time!

“I, the Shield Hero, borrow the strength of the Demon Dragon and the power of wrath to command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength of the dragons, join the power of the heroes with magic, life force, and sacrifice. The source of power that is the Shield Hero commands you. Read and comprehend all that is under the sun, and show your power to me! I command you—give them everything!”

“All Sacrifice Aura!”

Chapter Twelve: A Heavy Price to Pay

What ?! Sacrifice? No! I was trying to cast “Liberation!”

There was no stopping it now. Terrifying black flames burst from the shield and engulfed Raphtalia, Filo, and I.

“Ugh . . .”

I felt my whole body burning, and I could see my HP, my life force, begin to drain away.

Strange black and red particles covered the three of us completely, producing a power from the energy it drained from us.

“What the ?! But I . . .”

“It hurts! But I feel really strong now!”

All three of us felt a rush of power.

“Ha! Powder Snow!”

Raphtalia leapt forward, her blade slicing through Kyo ’s defensive barriers like butter. It was so easy. She didn’t need a follow-up attack—only one slice.

Filo was right behind her, her claws flashing . In an instant, his barriers were all gone. He was exposed.

Then Rishia was on him. She flew at the opening and delivered a solid hit.

“What ?! ”

Taken off guard, he quickly threw up an arm to block her attack. He stopped the attack, but blood gushed out. His arm was broken.

“Arrgh! That really hurt! Dammit! Damn you!”

He pulled a page from the book and tried to use it to cover his open wound, thinking he could use the Spirit Tortoise energy to heal it. As if I would let him.

I ran forward, charging with my shield, bashing through the barriers he’d deployed. He’d used a skill that had taken on the form of the Spirit Tortoise ’s head. At contact, black flames poured from my shield, burning the head and destroying it.

Then I grabbed Kyo by the collar and used skills with my right hand.

“Attack Support! Raphtalia! Rishia! Filo!”

“Yes! Misty Moon!”

Raphtalia lowered her sword then quickly sliced upwards. The blade flashed, and a darkened, ghostly moon-like disc appeared, spinning and slicing at Kyo ’s torso.

Then . . .

“Hyaaa!”

Rishia dashed forward in a perfect emulation of Eclair ’s thrust, her short sword shining.

The sword plunged deep into Kyo ’s chest.

“Hey book-guy! You made the Spirit Tortoise lady cry! Book-guy, say goodbye!”

Filo swiped her claws right through Kyo ’s throat.

“A . . . Ah . . . ARGH ?! ”

Kyo was unable to speak , but it wasn’t over yet!

Spirit Tortoise energy was running from the cuts and wounds all over his body. I used my shield to absorb it all.

“Not done yet!”

“That’s right! Brave Blade: Mist!”

“Haikuikku!”

“I’m not finished! So many great people have died because of you! I will not forgive you!”

I still had a grip on Kyo ’s collar, so everyone was able to make an additional attack.

“Rafuuu!”

Poor Raph-chan . She wasn’t strong enough to join in.

But she wasn ’t content to sit back and watch. She jumped up on my outstretched arm and started punching him in the face.

Yes! I finally had enough power to switch back to the Spirit Tortoise Shield. But it wasn ’t time for that. Kyo was already beaten to a bloody pulp.

“You . . . You think you can . . . I’ll . . .”

“What do I care? You killed my friend Ost! You killed so many! My anger . . . Our anger will wipe you from existence!”

I leaned all my weight forward and threw him against the wall.

“Shield Prison! Change Shield (attack)! Iron Maiden!”

The cage of shields appeared around him and spikes appeared on the inside of the cage closing around him. Finally he was enclosed in a giant iron maiden, piercing him through in all directions.

The problem with Iron Maiden was that it used all of my SP, but with any luck it would be enough to finish him off. Truthfully, All Sacrifice Aura had basically made a drawn-out battle impossible.

“. . . ?!”

Kyo ’s screams echoed throughout the laboratory.

Finally, the iron maiden opened and disappeared. Kyo had been stabbed all over. He tottered, and fell forward.

Ugh . . . I was in so much pain I could hardly see straight. But I couldn’t fall. I couldn’t let myself fall—not while the battle was still on!

“D . . . Damn . . . Not . . . over.”

The punk was still alive!

He clumsily tried to heal his wounds, glaring at us as he did.

All the energy draining from him continued to stream into my shield.

Raphtalia and the others were all exhausted and out of breath .

“It’s over! You haven’t seen anything yet! The forbidden composition . . .”

Kyo held his book aloft—the cover had changed dramatically. It was ominous and frightful.

It must have been his equivalent of the curse series.

Damn it! If he had a stronger attack up his sleeve, we were out of options.

I had already used my strongest support magic—and the Shield of Wrath too!

I didn ’t know what to do—then Ost passed through my mind.

. . . That’s right. She . . . she would want to finish him.

I changed to the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

The indicator that only twenty percent of the necessary energy had charged up suddenly flashed and, as if it knew exactly what was going on, changed to read one hundred percent.

“My strongest attack will kill you all! Revelation!”

“Energy Blast!”

A pedestal formed from magic appeared before me. I set my shield on it and readied myself to destroy everything in my path. I fired Energy Blast!

At the same time, Kyo ’s book opened and creepy white feathers flew from it. They turned and danced in the air. They almost looked black depending on the angle.

Then I knew why. Every feather started firing burning, black lasers around the room.

Then many of the feathers clumped together in one spot, and all their laser beams converged to form a giant black beam that slammed into my Energy Blast beam, stopping it in midair.

Other feathers flew back to Kyo and encircled him, healing his wounds.

The skill was offensive and defensive at the same time ?! It was healing his wounds and attacking us at the same time!

But judging from the way Kyo had avoided using it, and the things he ’d said, I was guessing there was some risk involved on his side.

“Ahahaha! What do you think? You’re greatest move is nothing compared to mine! Ahaha!”

“Damn.”

Slowly, inch by inch , my Energy Blast beam was losing ground.

I focused and gave it all the power, emotion, and determination that I had—but it was still losing to Kyo’s skill.

If his attack broke through Energy Blast, how was I supposed to protect Raphtalia and the others? I wasn ’t sure if my shield could take a direct hit from that black beam of his.

If I lost, if the beam broke through, we would all die. Rishia, Raphtalia, Raph-chan, Filo—they’d all die.

That single thought ran through my mind, and I couldn ’t tell how much time was passing. I was filled with a sense of inevitable loss, of losing things you can’t get back.

Time slowed to a crawl, but my heart was pounding quickly in my chest.

I felt myself slipping into solitude and despair , but then I heard voices calling for me.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

“Master!”

“Naofumi-san!”

“Rafuuu!”

Everyone called for me, rushing forward to support me and keep me on my feet.

That ’s right. I wasn’t fighting this battle alone.

And I . . . I wasn’t about to lose. Not here!

There was a reason I was here, a reason I ’d made it this far.

For Ost , for all those that had been sacrificed to this man’s insanity . . .

And that ’s not all.

It was for those I couldn ’t save, the enemies I defeated, and the friends that fought with me.

I carried all their wishes, all their hopes with me . I had to make sure justice was served.

Just then, a light came flying though the wall and flew into my shield.

Was it the mirror vassal weapon?

Many mirrors appeared in the air around me, concentrating the Energy Blast beam.

“The mirror vassal weapon ?! ”

“Everyone and everything hates you! It isn’t hard to see why!”

A pulse like a heartbeat thumped inside my shield. The gemstone set in its center filled with energy and began to glow.

63% . . . 61% . . . 58% . . . 62% . . . 65%.

The energy was slowly depleted before it stopped and began to rise again.

It was almost like it was reacting to my willpower.

“W . . . What ?! ”

98% . . . 105% . . . 110% . . . 120% . . . 130%.

As the energy level surpassed one hundred percent, the beam grew stronger and thicker, moving in pulsing waves until it began to push back Kyo ’s attack.

“HA! Not yet! That’s not enough to beat me!”

He produced another bookmark and slid it into his book. The number of feathers dancing in the air increased, but it wasn ’t enough to keep up with the rapidly strengthening Energy Blast coming from my shield.

“Haaaaaaaa!”

The pedestal of light was formed of magic, so I quickly sent that energy flowing directly into the attack. Finally, the beam was powerful enough to blast through Kyo ’s attack.

“This is it! It’s over!” I shouted, bracing my back foot and pressing the shield forward.

Raphtalia and the others stood behind me, their hands on my back, pressing me forward, supporting my weight.

“Mr. Naofumi! We’re almost there!”

“You can do it!”

“This is it! We can do it! For Ost-san!” Rishia steadied her footing and launched her short sword at Kyo.

The shining blade flew beside the Energy Blast beam, absorbing it s light. The blade was unharmed. In fact, it seemed imbued with new and furious power.

The shining blade sliced through the remaining black light from Kyo ’s attack before plunging deep into his chest.

The whole sequence reminded me of the battle we ’d already fought with Kyo—the one in the Spirit Tortoise Core chamber.

But there was one important difference.

That time, Rishia had thrown her sword to save another hero . This time, she threw it to defeat Kyo.

“Cough! Ugh! You bitch!”

I didn ’t have time to see how the blade had hit him, how it had hurt him, because at that same moment the energy blast completely overpowered his attack and burst through.

He was engulfed in crackling light. It burned and scorched.

“Gyaaaaa!”

His skill was washed away in a torrent of light. Our attack—and Ost’s too—pierced through his heart.

The beam blasted a hole through the wall that led outside.

Kyo stood before it. Clutching his stomach, he fell to the ground, battered and beaten.

He was a stubborn bastard. I wished the Energy Blast had just vaporized him.

“If he tries so heal himself, what are we supposed to do?”

Rishia stalked over to him and used the handle of her sword to roll him over.

“Ugh . . . you . . . Kill you all . . .”

It didn ’t look like he’d be getting up anytime soon.

Still, I was shocked he was still alive after taking a hit like that.

But he was haggard, and seemed to be hanging on by a thread. He coughed up blood, and his breath was heavy and weak.

He ’d die soon.

“Time to repent. Any last words?”

“Who’s . . . dying? It’s just . . . because . . .”

He didn ’t finish his sentence before he died.

Suddenly the gravity field grew lighter.

It left a bad taste in my mouth—watching someone die.

But knowing justice had been served helped lessen my feelings of guilt.

“I suppose this means we’ve won.”

“I suppose so.”

But the energy he stole from the Spirit Tortoise hadn ’t returned yet.

Had we wasted it? Had it been used up in the battle?

I looked at the book of the vassal weapons.

It rose softly into the air. I thought it would fly off, but it didn ’t.

Instead it shot over to the area where Kyo had originally appeared.

“Rafuu! Rafuuuuuu!” Raph-chan was barking and pointing desperately at the book, trying to indicate its destination.

“Filo, turn back into your filolial form and stomp that whole area flat!”

“Okay!” she shouted, transforming in to her filolial form and dashing forward to cut off the book.

I chased after them both. That’s when I figured out what all the fuss was about soon enough.

There was a tank jutting from the floor, and inside it was . . . Kyo’s body.

There was no way to tell if we ’d been fighting a homunculus this whole time, or if that person had been real and this person in the tank was a homunculus.

But one thing was certain: it was being used for experiments to turn the body into a vessel for the power of the Spirit Tortoise.

“Well, well . . .” I switched to the Shield of Wrath, summoned a blaze of black flames, and snatched the book out of the air. “Look at that. Who knows if this is the real Kyo, or if we just defeated the real Kyo. But I know one thing for sure: I don’t plan on sticking around to see if this thing reanimates and starts that whole battle all over again.”

Raph-chan was barking and pointing, like she could see Kyo ’s soul.

“Rafu,” she chirped, jumping up onto my shoulder and placing her paw on my head.

I could see something. Whatever remnant of his soul that was stored in the book was floating out from its pages and toward the body in the tank. It looked like a ghostly thread floating on the air.

It slowly changed to resemble a person, but it didn’t look anything like Kyo. It looked like a skinny man in his thirties. Is that what his soul looked like?

“Ahaha! You think I’d be defeated so easily? Just you wait! This body is filled with the power of the Spirit Tortoise, and once I join with it, you’re all as good as dead! I’m invincible!”

It sure sounded like Kyo.

The soul is a mirror for the heart—I guess.

“Rishia!”

“Y . . . Yes!”

“Throw an ofuda at that thing, the one you got from Kizuna!” I shouted, pointing at the tank with Kyo’s body inside. The soul was just before it, reaching out its ghostly hand desperately to touch it.

“Kyo! I won’t let you forget what you did to Tsugumi and the other women, what you did to Albert. Have you forgotten?”

Kyo turned around and his face was pale.

He had figured out what I was planning.

“W . . . Wait! I swear! I’ll let you live if you help me! Let’s talk this over!”

“It’s too late for that. I’m tired of dealing with you. Here’s what you would say in my shoes, ‘ You idiot! Why would you believe that? Everyone lies when they are begging for their lives!’”

“Ha!” Rishia threw the ofuda and activated it.

It was a control ofuda, and we ’d already imbued it with a monster. Back in the previous world we called it a Soul Eater.

In this world, they called it a Soul Devourer.

It was the natural enemy of spirits—a monster that fed on souls.

When I thought of Trash #2’s behavior, the concept of homunculi, and that an alchemist could invent spare bodies to be killed, I prepared the ofuda. I had thought, I bet Kyo would make things like that. And I was right!

“Are you kidding me? A dumb monster like that? You think that thing can defeat me?”

The evil spirit—Kyo’s ghost—flew to attack us.

I could see it clearly now. He was nothing but a monster.

“Raphtalia, I don’t know if the vassal weapon will be much use against an enemy with no body.”

“Excellent point. Then I will use a skill, along with the katana I gained from the Soul Eater materials.”

Kyo floated to attack, but he was too slow. I grabbed him, and a pale light flashed from the katana in Raphtalia’s hand.

“Spirit Blade: Soul Slice!”

Sacrifice Aura was still affecting her.

A ghost attack was nothing to worry about. He was just another weakling.

“Cough! I . . . I’ll return. Reborn! Stronger than . . .”

He fell to pieces before he could finish his threat, and the Soul Eaters that Rishia had summoned rushed in for their meal.

The sounds of their chewing and crunching echoed through the room, before they dispersed, satisfied, and floated around us.

He died talking about reincarnation. What a joke.

“Now to take care of this soulless body. If we destroy it, the Spirit Tortoise energy should return to us. “

“Let’s do it!”

“You can do it!”

“Feh . . .”

Uh-oh. Now that the battle was over Rishia sounded just like her old self again.

I was exhausted, and I knew I couldn ’t continue to use the Shield of Wrath IV. I needed to get my strength back, so I switched to the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield and shouted: “Raphtalia! Filo! Destroy everything!”

They nodded, reared back, and ran around breaking everything they could.

His research was gone. No one would be able to recreate it now.

“Ost. I kept my promise,” I whispered, remembering her.

Epilogue: Kizuna Between Worlds

When we killed Kyo and destroyed the body in the tank that was housing the Spirit Tortoise ’s energy, the energy burst free and went into my shield. It took a while for all the energy to make its way into the shield, but it did eventually.

In the meantime, it looked like Kizuna and the others must have finished the battle with the wave, because our levels returned to the way they were before.

The crystal in the center of the shield was now glowing so brightly that it was blinding.

Duty fulfilled. Spirit Tortoise energy recovered.

 Time remaining for special processing to complete repatriation . . . 71:55.

The words appeared before my eyes.

I guess it really was over.

Now that the Spirit Tortoise energy had been recovered, we could only remain in this world for three more days.

When the time ran out, I guess it meant we would be sent back to the previous world automatically.

“Alright then, we’d better get going.”

“Right.”

“I’m tiiiired!”

Everyone seemed to grow even more exhausted at the thought of all the effort it would take to get back to the castle.

“Everyone, what happened?”

“It’s the curse. You’d better not touch us.”

Maybe I was being a little over-dramatic, but using Sacrifice Aura really had lowered all our stats significantly.

Luckily for me, the curse didn ’t touch my defense rating—but all my other stats had fallen. Judging from the numbers, they seem to have fallen to about thirty percent.

Had it only affected me, it would have been the same as Blood Sacrifice, but this time it had affected Raphtalia and Filo too. With how things were, I didn’t think we could survive another fight.

“There’re monsters on the way home, aren’t there?”

“Yeah . . . there are.”

And I didn ’t want to meet them. What if we came all this way, only to die on the way home?

Maybe it would be better to stay where we were until we felt better .

I didn ’t have time to worry about that though, because I suddenly found the book and mirror vassal weapons floating in the air near us. It looked like . . . well, it almost looked like they were thanking us.

They ’d either fly off to find new masters, or stick themselves somewhere and wait for someone worthy to appear, like Excalibur had done.

They floated softly out of the room, stopping and turning to us, as if they were trying to show us the way. Sometimes they would float in front of a doorway and block us from passing through it—but why?

Luckily, we didn ’t run into any of Kyo’s holy beast copies.

We slowly made our way up from the basement and back down the path we ’d used to enter the laboratory.

“Can you use Portal Shield?”

I tried to use it, but it was still being blocked by something.

Wandering around and drawing attention to ourselves wasn ’t smart, so we took our time, moving cautiously. Probably two hours or so had passed when we entered a room with a mirror on the wall. The mirror vassal weapon floated into it and disappeared.

A second later . . .

“N . . . Naofumi!”

Kizuna and the others all stepped out of the mirror.

What had just happened? Had it flown to where they were and brought them to us?

“This mirror just appeared in front of us and . . . Is that Kyo’s laboratory? What happened to Kyo ?! ”

“If we’d lost, you’d probably be fighting him now, no?”

“I guess that’s a good point. Are you okay? You all look exhausted.”

“We used the forbidden technique, and the price we paid wiped us out. Don’t make me explain it all.”

“Are you alright?”

“Not really. Our stats have plummeted. It’s kind of serious. We were just thinking of sticking around and recuperating. Without your help, I’m not sure we can do much else.”

L ’Arc reached out and slipped an arm under my shoulder, supporting me.

Therese and Glass were helping Raphtalia.

Filo was a bit shorter, so Kizuna and Ethnobalt helped her stay on her feet.

“You did good, Kiddo. You beat Kyo without our help.”

“The freak had tons of tricks up his sleeve. It was a pain.”

Yomogi spoke up next, softly, “What about Kyo?”

“He’s back in that room, dead. We killed his soul too—the guy had a backup body prepared.”

“Is that so? I wish it had been by my hand, but thank you.”

The book of the vassal weapons flew around the perimeter of the room once, then slipped through the wall and disappeared.

“It looks like the book and the mirror of the vassal weapons protected you until we were able to meet up.”

Glass nodded. I couldn ’t argue with that. We hadn’t met any monsters and the mirror had brought our friends directly to us.

“Yeah, I guess they did. We didn’t run into any of the holy beast copies—or fall into any of Kyo’s stupid booby traps.”

“That mist that barred our entry seems to have dissipated as well. That’s why we were able to get here so quickly.”

The vassal weapons had been a huge help. I guess it was them showing us their thanks for releasing them from Kyo’s control. Those vassal weapons sure knew how to treat a guy right, unlike a certain shield I knew of.

“Let’s head home. I’m guessing you still have some time in our world, since you completed your mission?”

“Yeah. About three days.”

“Three days, huh? Guess we’ll have to say our goodbyes pretty soon, eh Kiddo?”

“I guess so.”

“I’m not sure this is the best place to have this conversation. Why don’t we board my ship and leave this place?” Ethnobalt said, tapping his staff on the floor.

I guess the guy had managed to stay alive. Even after pulling one of those “don’t worry about me! Go on without me!” stunts.

It ’s better that he didn’t die, right? Whatever. I wasn’t about to disagree with getting back to the castle as soon as possible.

All I wanted to do was get some rest.

It had been one fight after another for so long now.

I didn ’t even know where to start counting the battles I’d been in since we crossed over to this world.

We quickly climbed into Ethnobalt ’s ship and returned to safety.

Once we landed, the mirror of the vassal weapons took off, flying away.

Was it looking for a new master? Or would it stick itself in a boulder like Excalibur, awaiting someone worthy?

As for the country that Kyo had manipulated into war, Yomogi went back to meet with their leaders that very same day and exposed all of Kyo ’s misdeeds. As proof she brought Tsugumi and the other women with her. On top of that, the book of the vassal weapons itself appeared in the capital and played back recordings of all the words Kyo had exchanged with us.

Furthermore, when they lost Kyo, they lost a great deal of their technology too. Apparently, the main force of their army was Kyo ’s holy beast copies . They all went crazy when Kyo died. The war was essentially over at that point. They were at a disadvantage. But when Kyo’s most trusted follower, Yomogi, showed up and started telling them all the evil things he’d done, there wasn’t much left for them to say.

The rest of this is hearsay, but when the country lost their puppet leader, the remaining officials all thought it was their chance to seize leadership, and the whole place fell into chaos.

The three countries that had once owned the book, mirror, and katana vassal weapons were all in disarray. But it if I knew Kizuna and her friends, it wasn ’t hard to picture those countries eventually joining with L’Arc’s in a healing alliance.

But enough about all that trouble—what about our curse?

L ’Arc summoned a specialized doctor to have a look at us, and here’s what he said:

“That’s a pretty bad curse.”

I think someone had said the same thing about me after I used Blood Sacrifice.

When I got back to our world, I ’d have to go to some medicinal baths as soon as . . .

“The only thing that will cure it is time. I estimate it will take at least two or three months.”

“What? Hold on there! Isn’t there a hot spring for this kind of thing? Or some medicine I can use?”

The doctor simply shook his head.

“This is a rather particular sort of curse. Furthermore, if it were to be applied again before you fully recovered, I’m not sure that you would survive the ordeal.”

WHAT ?!

That wasn ’t the sort of souvenir I wanted to take home after all this!

To make matters worse, this time it wasn ’t just me: Raphtalia and Filo were cursed too, and they were very sluggish.

In hindsight, I ’m glad I didn’t use it on Rishia. I didn’t want to think about what would have happened to her.

She probably would have died! Whatever made me stop before using it on her , I was impressed .

“Oh no! I guess there’s nothing we can do about it now, but what a pain,” Kizuna said, like she wasn’t actually worried.

Ha! This all should have been HER responsibility in the first place!

Oh well. I knew the risks when I used it.

“This is the result of availing yourself of the cursed weapon—and to think that you took this burden on yourself for the sake of our world. I cannot begin to express my gratitude,” Glass said.

“You can start by not letting this happen again. There are still three protective beasts in our world. The last thing I want is another Kyo showing up and causing trouble.”

“Naturally, Kizuna and I will fight to make sure this never happens again.”

“Definitely. But you know, Kiddo, I’m sure things will settle down for a while once you return the Spirit Tortoise energy to your world.”

“You think?”

L ’Arc nodded.

“Yeah, at least that’s how it was for us. When the first protective beast fell, there was a while where no waves came.”

“Things won’t go so smoothly if vassal weapon holders invade our world before I get back.”

Why did there always have to be something to worry about?

“Relax. No waves means no visitors from other worlds, so you’ll have a lot less to worry about.”

There were still plenty of things to worry about, but at least I could count on the people back in Melromarc to be on the lookout.

The queen of Melromarc would have spread the word about the Spirit Tortoise ’s possession while I was occupied with Kyo in this world.

“So the Spirit Tortoise is done. I’m just guessing, but that leaves the Phoenix, Qilin, and Dragon. I guess we won’t have any problems until those seals are broken too.”

“Probably. Not that I’m an authority on how your world works, Kiddo.”

That was a good point. Why did I bother asking them anything about our world?

“I guess I’ll just keep hoping that another Kyo doesn’t show up.”

I had no idea how long the Spirit Tortoise energy would keep the waves at bay.

But there were a lot of preparations that we needed to get under way while we could.

We ’d have to collect the world’s armies and find new allies.

I learned a lot of new tactics to counter the threat of the waves during my time in Glass ’s world.

I would have to make sure they were put to good use.

Fitoria was doing all she could to handle the waves that we couldn ’t cover on our own, but if we wanted to survive what was coming, we’d have to find some way to get the world to cooperate.

Just thinking about everything we had to do was depressing.

And worse—we might run into more people like Glass during the wave.

I couldn ’t wait to get back to my original world once all this was over—that much would never change.

The world to which I was summoned was trash, a pile of filth. I couldn ’t wait to leave it—that is, once I remade it so that Raphtalia could live there in peace.

“Sounds good to me, Kiddo! Time for a victory party!” L’Arc said, throwing his hands in the air like a little kid.

“This guy . . .” I sighed.

“What? What’s the problem? Didn’t we just win a battle? Didn’t we just win a war? What’s not to celebrate?”

“Rafuuu!” Raph-chan jumped up on her hind legs and tried to look cute.

I couldn ’t argue with that.

“Fine, fine. You’ll do what you want anyway, so I won’t complain. I’m going to get some rest.”

“Yeah! The soldiers are in the mood for a party too. It’s going to be wild!” L’Arc howled and left.

Whew.

We spent the rest of our time with Kizuna and her friends, drinking the sweet liquor of victory. Actually that ’s just an expression—I’ve never been drunk.

It was nearly time to return to our world.

We made our preparations down in the castle courtyard, and Kizuna, Glass, L ’Arc and Therese, Ethnobalt, Alto, Romina, and everyone else came to see us off.

Kizuna threw her hand in the air and came walking over.

“I guess a lot has happened since we met.”

“It’s only been a month or so.”

“Is that all? I guess it was pretty short.”

“I guess so.”

A holy hero from another world was someone I never should have been able to meet, because of the limitations imposed by our weapons. In a way, it was kind of miracle that we ’d met at all.

“I know we live in separate worlds, but I hope we can keep fighting on the same side. I wish we could form an alliance between our worlds.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t spend all your time fishing, okay? As for your alliance, consider it a verbal agreement. I don’t have any reason to break it.”

All I could do was protect people, after all.

The things we ’d learned in this world shook the mystery of the waves to the very core.

What was I supposed to make of all we ’d heard? About one world extending its lifespan by destroying another world?

“And you open up a little, okay? You can trust people you know.”

“Oh shut up!”

“Raphtalia, please take good care of Naofumi. Just like Glass and I, I hope you’ll keep him close.”

“Yes, I intend to.”

“Filo, Rishia. I wish you both the best.”

“Yup! I learned a bunch of songs here, so Imma keep singing them when we get back home!”

“Yes, I learned a great deal.”

Kizuna shook their hands and stepped away.

Glass came next.

“First we were enemies, then we became friends. Life can be so mysterious.”

“Sure.”

Glass looked at me very seriously, then bowed.

“Thank you very much for finding Kizuna. I do not know what awaits us in the future, but I will do what I can to return the favor.”

“If you have to fight us, next time stop and explain yourself.”

“Is that really what you wanted to say?” Raphtalia scolded me.

“Things can change so quickly. Why keep fighting in the face of ignorance? I’m just saying that if we have to fight, I at least want to know what I’m fighting for.”

There were so many times that I ’d fallen into situations I couldn’t believe. L’Arc and Therese came charging into the conversation, the adventurer, Boy, as cheerful as ever.

“Anyway, let’s stay friends, eh Kiddo? I can’t wait to see you again!”

“I can wait. I hope it never happens.”

If it did happen, it would be in the middle of a wave or some other horrible event.

We had to stop the waves. I didn ’t want L’Arc sitting around looking forward to them.

Therese sighed, “The gemstones you made for me are sad to see you go.”

She was all decked out in the accessories I ’d made for her, and they were all shining in the sun. She looked ridiculous! It was so bright! Stop flashing those things at me!

“L’Arc . . .”

L ’Arc nodded gravely.

“I will. If I don’t, Therese is likely to escape to your world the next time a wave comes.”

“I don’t think she’s that cold.”

I swear , this guy ’s girlfriend was really annoying.

Granted, she had helped us out plenty of times.

“Ms. Raphtalia, Filo, Ms. Rishia . . . I wish you all well.”

“Likewise. Please stay well,” Raphtalia replied.

“That reminds me . . . Boy.”

“You still calling me that, Kiddo?”

“You’re always talking about Raphtalia and the women as if they are little girls—did you ever notice that?”

“I guess you’ve got a point there.”

Kizuna nodded.

“Alright already! Geez! What can I say, I don’t like calling people younger than me by their names, alright ? There’re so many girls around here that it just makes it easier to call them the same thing! What’s the problem with that?”

I kind of did have a problem with it, actually—but it wasn’t worth fighting over.

“Besides, you’re one to talk, Kiddo! You’re always coming up with crazy nicknames for people!”

“So are you.”

“Yeah, yeah, well . . .”

“You finally understand, don’t you, L’Arc,” Ethnobalt said, floating over. “Thank you for everything. For all you did for Kizuna, Glass, L’Arc, and Therese.”

I couldn ’t shake the feeling that he was acting a bit familiar with me. Was it my imagination? No. He was an attractive boy that was actually a giant rabbit. Just like Fitoria, he acted like we’d known each other for a long time.

Filo ran over and clung to me, and Raph-chan hopped up onto my shoulder.

“Muuuu!”

“Don’t worry, Ms. Filo. It’s nothing like that,” Ethnobalt said, smiling softly.

This guy looked like your typical scholar-type.

Maybe he had true powers, like Fitoria, but different, that he ’d awaken to soon.

“I won’t waste the experience that I earned while fighting with you.”

“I hope not. Good luck.”

He turned to Rishia next, “Ms. Rishia, I’ve heard about your amazing deeds in the recent battle. I will work hard to become more like you.”

“Feh . . .” she muttered and her face flushed red with embarrassment. She probably wasn’t used to getting compliments like that.

“Please take this book I found in the labyrinth library. I pray that it will be of use to you.”

“Okay! Thank you!”

If I knew Rishia, she ’d figure out how to read it.

“And . . .” he said, reaching out and taking off a small anchor-like accessory that was attached to the ship vassal weapon, passing it to me.

“What’s this?”

“This accessory was described in a book I found recently. Please take it with you. I think it will prove . . . useful.”

“Oh . . .”

If he was giving it away, there was no reason not to take it.

“If it’s being offered, you’ll take it, no? You’re a merchant, after all.”

“Good point. But if I get going on that, you’ll never get me to shut up.”

“Excuse me. Mr. Naofumi is not a merchant. He is a hero,” Raphtalia corrected Romina and Alto.

“Anyway, take this too—a going away present if you will,” Romina said handing me a bag. It was heavy, and seemed to have all kinds of different things in it.

I took a peek inside and saw that it contained accessories with this world ’s special technologies, such as emulated drop item functions and wave-site-teleporting.

There was a bunch of other stuff too.

These things didn ’t even exist back in our world—they were sure to come in handy.

“I know you threw some other things in there too.”

I guess Romina had me all figured out.

As for Alto, if he smiled and gave me something, I would feel weird about it.

“You seem to think I’m some kind of miser—but you’re wrong about that.”

“Liar.”

“Yeah, that’s a lie,” Kizuna and Glass both chimed in.

But Alto didn ’t back down.

“I was able to make a pretty profit with all the crazy things you’ve been up to. This is in thanks for that.”

“Ah, so that’s what you meant.”

He was like the slave-trader back in Melromarc. He’d eventually seen increased profits because of me. Alto had a reputation for being a miserly merchant, and it seemed to me that he’d earned that reputation.

“Ah, that’s right. Glass—”

I had a book of recipes written in Japanese. I gave it to Glass.

“What is this?”

“I wrote up a collection of recipes that you should be able to follow with the tools and ingredients you’ve got in this world. Have Kizuna read it to you.”

You see , I hadn ’t just been wandering around randomly in a world I couldn’t understand. A lot of the language in my status menu was garbled when we crossed between worlds, so I’d been taking meticulous notes on what effects had stopped working, and about the differences between the items we collected.

Things that I couldn ’t make in this world, because the necessary materials didn’t exist tended to show up garbled.

But we could use soul-healing water just like normal, and I could read it too.

That meant you could make it with materials from this world.

We were going to face tougher battles in the future . She’d need to drink soul-healing water like normal water. So I wrote down the recipe for it.

“This should do the same thing. Try it out.”

“Wow! You’re pretty impressive, Naofumi.”

“You could be too if you ever did anything besides fishing. But actually, you need fish to make that recipe, so she’ll need your help with that.”

To make the medicine that worked like soul-healing water from materials available in their world, they ’d need a certain type of rare fish.

I ’d found it by accident while analyzing a catch that Kizuna had been particularly proud of.

“Thanks! I’ll do what I can!”

“Don’t let this world’s other holy heroes die or anything.”

“Oh . . . right. Yeah, we’ll do what we can.”

We both had problems with our fellow holy heroes, so I knew how she felt. We shook hands.

“And watch out for Alto.”

He was sharp alright .

Who was left? Oh— Yomogi, Tsugumi, and the other women.

“Kyo did terrible things. Leave the rest to us.”

“Say that to Kizuna too. I made him pay for his crimes and his helper too. I even killed their souls.”

“Yeah.” Tsugumi said. She looked like she still harbored negative feelings about me, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been. “If you all hadn’t come, this never would have happened.”

“We won’t be back—feel free to hate us all you like.”

What was with her? Did she come just to whine about us? ”

“. . . Yet, you also saved us all. Thank you for setting———free. Kyo used him even after his death. Thank you.”

A wind blew through at just the wrong time, and—once again—I couldn’t catch Trash #2’s name. I decided to give up on trying to figure out what it was. Tsugumi would probably just get mad if I asked again. And besides, I probably wouldn’t catch it. I decided to just ask Raphtalia about it some other day.

“I wonder if we’ll ever know why he was so obsessed with the katana of the vassal weapons.”

“Hey that reminds me. Did you say that there were some Spirits in your group that went missing?”

“. . .”

Tsugumi said nothing, but nodded.

Some of their bodies had been found in a basement room of Kyo ’s mansion.

Apparently Kyo had taken Trash #2 ’s soul from his body and used it to feed soul eaters.

The Spirits that had followed him around learned of the truth and were all killed for it.

So many people had died. Including Albert, the holder of the mirror vassal weapon, who met the same fate as the rest of them.

“The katana was essential to the wellbeing of the country. But there’s no way for us to know why he was so confident that it would choose him to wield it.”

Raphtalia drew the sword, then held it horizontally out to Kizuna and the others.

“I return this vassal weapon to you.”

Right, I guess she didn ’t have a choice. Even if it had chosen her, we couldn’t take this world’s vassal weapons with us.

We owed the weapon a lot though. It had helped us when we needed it most.

“It doesn’t look like it wants to leave you.”

“And for some reason, it didn’t summon her when the wave occurred.”

Glass and Therese, who was a Jewel, touched the blade and spoke to it, but it didn ’t respond to them.

Kizuna touched it too, and nothing happened.

“It’s no use. It’s hard to explain, but it has a sense of duty to her, and it seemed to have complex emotions. It will not answer to us.”

“Do you know what it wants? Is its will clear?”

“We only have a vague sense of its intention.”

Hmm . . . Did it mean that Raphtalia was going to be able to take it back to the previous world with her?

“Perhaps it feels responsible for Kyo’s actions against your world. Perhaps it wants to fight for the sake of your world—at least until this world really needs it,” Kizuna said.

The katana shimmered with light in response.

“Looks like Kizuna might be right.”

“Hm . . .”

We talked about a lot of things, but we were running out of time.

Soon enough, we ’d run out of time all together.

“Alright!” I barked, smiling wickedly. “We’ll take the katana vassal weapon with us then! You all can just wish you had it!”

“Aww, Naofumi’s pretending to be a bad guy again.”

“Kiddo’s always doing that.”

“He’s actually a really good person.”

Kizuna and her friends sighed as they analyzed me.

Raphtalia just shook her head. Filo looked confused.

Rishia was looking all around in nervous twitches. Raph-chan jumped up onto my shoulder and waved goodbye to everyone.

“I guess it’s really time to say goodbye.”

There were only a few more seconds on the timer.

When it ran out, we ’d be summoned back to our world automatically.

“Our weapons will probably keep us from seeing you again, but we had an alright time while it lasted. Later.”

“Yeah, goodbye. Naofumi, thank you for helping me. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d still be trapped in that labyrinth. We’ll be in different worlds, but we’re heroes on the same side.”

We were all waving goodbye now.

“Naofumi!” L’Arc shouted, loud and clear.

They all waved and shouted together in unison: “Thank you!”

Their words echoed in my ears, but before we could answer the counter ran out, and we were transported back to our world.

We passed through a tunnel with a strange light on the way, but it was over in a flash.

—And we were back in the world we came from.

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Siti Dara

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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