LN Tate no Yuusha CH 5-9 Vol 9 Bahasa Indonesia

Chapter Five: Together, With Conditions

“Let’s head to the castle for now.”

“Let’s lock her up, so we have guards watching her.”

I had a feeling her stats were high enough to break out of a jail cell if she wasn’t watched. In the last world, they would reset your level when you were thrown in jail. From what I could tell, that wasn’t the case in this world.

“We can torture her for information after we get to the castle.”

“You’re really stuck on that, aren’t you? But I guess you’re right.”

“Well, we have a war to win here, don’t we? This girl came after us wielding an invention created by the very enemy we are trying to defeat. This is our best chance to find out what we are up against, isn’t it?”

“I’ll bite my own tongue off before I say anything to you!” Yomogi shouted, and tried to bite through her tongue.

“Zweite Heal.” I immediately touched her face and healed her.

“You’d prevent me from hurting myself? You bastard!”

“Can we gag her for now?”

“But I—maghfm!” I stuffed a ball of cloth into her mouth to keep her from trying to bite her tongue again. Then I realized it had been a dirty dust cloth. The torture was starting early. Oh well.

Yomogi squirmed uncomfortably.

“Good thing we have healing spells,” Kizuna said. She hadn’t noticed that I used a dirty cloth. Raphtalia and Glass noticed though, and they both were just about to mention it . . .

“Alright.”

Just then reinforcements from the castle arrived.

“Ms. Kizuna! Ms. Glass! The hero from another world! Master L’Arc has sent us to request your assistance!”

“What happened?”

“Advance enemy troops are attacking the castle and they are surprisingly strong. L’Arc is unable to hold them off on his own!”

They must have been assassins Kyo sent. He was coming after all of us. He planned all these attacks out in advance. He must have been serious about trying to kill us. I looked over at Yomogi—she looked shocked. Ha!

She came charging after us like a wild boar—hadn’t she known that Kyo had other plans in the works? Kyo had been right to keep it from her. She seemed like the sort of person to run her mouth. He was like a yakuza boss, probably treating his assassins as disposable.

“We better hurry!”

“Yeah . . . But something about this bothers me . . .”

Glass nodded along with me, “I know what you mean. We had best proceed with caution. Something tells me that Kyo has other plans we don’t know about.”

Kyo was smart. He would have thought long and hard about a plan to kill us. Think! What sort of attack would he expect to be effective against us?

If I were Kyo I’d try to use the technology available to me in the country that I had taken control over. This is the same man that invented things that took control of the Spirit Tortoise. His ambition was a forced to be reckoned with—no doubt his actual plans would outstrip whatever I came up with. I was just guessing, but I thought he’d try to do something to disrupt us, to keep us distracted and confused.

If there was one thing I’d learned since coming to this world, it was that the people here were always coming up with inventions to overcome their limitations.

“We’re going to the castle no matter what, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And we’d normally use Portal Shield, or Kizuna’s return transcript skill, right?”

“Yeah.”

I tried to use Portal Shield to teleport to the castle, only to find that something was interfering with it. The skill failed.

“Something is messing with my Portal Shield skill. Better assume that Kyo has a deeper plan than it seems.”

“How are we going to get there in time !? We need to hurry!” Kizuna said, flustered.

Glass tried to calm her down, “Relax. How can we be sure that this isn’t part of his plan?”

“We can’t. But we can’t dillydally either!”

“Kizuna, Glass. Calm down and think. All the countries that Kyo has allied with had vassal weapons, didn’t they?”

Raphtalia had taken the katana vassal weapon from the country that owned it, which had robbed that country of its power. But, the country with the mirror vassal weapon had fallen under Kyo’s control. Was he after the technology in those countries? If so . . .

“What if they are after the dragon hourglasses?”

“Huh?”

“Kizuna, I know you remember what we saw. That guy that was after Raphtalia—hadn’t he invented some way to replicate the dragon hourglass’s teleport ability? What if they are using that to attack us?”

I don’t know how it worked, but they had found some way to replicate the Return Dragon Vein teleport ability. They might have been using it to attack the castle.

The hourglasses were placed in important spots in the national capitals. If they could use this new technology to send as many soldiers as they wanted straight into the heart of a city, then the possibility for destruction was immense. They wouldn’t have to defend themselves on the journey here, so they could dedicate all of their resources to the attack itself.

Granted, I didn’t know much about how wars worked when the soldiers had levels and status magic. But if they could teleport as many soldiers as they wanted past our defenses, then they’d eventually overpower us, no matter how high-leveled we were—the battle might already be over for all I knew.

This was all hypothetical at this point, but I couldn’t deny the possibility that Kyo already had access to the technology that would make it all possible.

“Kizuna, what do you need to use Return Dragon Vein?”

“You need to have visited and registered the hourglass you want to warp to, and you need to be at an hourglass to use it.”

“To replicate it you’d need special materials, and you’d need a certain amount of power to make it work.”

“We thought of that. The security has been strengthened on that account.”

Of course, Glass had thought of that. She wasn’t stupid.

The hourglasses in other countries were all closed to the public. Guards would only allow holy heroes or vassal weapon holders to approach.

“If they’ve broken through the defenses and managed to register the hourglass, we’re in serious trouble . . . it might have already happened!”

“Jewel people have set up a special system to prevent any non-specified persons from teleporting in using the dragon hourglass.”

So that’s how they prevented us from using Return Transcript.

“Whatever the case, I’m guessing the attack on the castle is a diversion. Their real goal must be the hourglass. If L’Arc is busy fighting them off at the castle, the hourglass might not be watched as closely as it should be.”

“Let’s use Return Transcript to warp to the hourglass and check it out,” Kizuna suggested.

“Good idea,” I agreed. “What about her?”

I looked over at Yomogi, who was sitting quietly with an overjoyed look on her face.

“Are you coming with us? If you get lucky, you might even find a chance to escape!”

She didn’t enjoy being toyed with. She leaned forward and struggled against her ropes.

“We don’t want her biting through her tongue before we can get information out of her.”

“True. But, in order to include her in the teleport, I have to invite her into our party. What a pain. Why don’t we just leave her with the soldiers here?”

“I guess so.”

But, I sent her a party invitation anyway, just for the heck of it.

Huh? She accepted?

Well, I certainly wasn’t going to bring her with us, so I immediately kicked her out of the party. Then she whined through her gag and started kicking and squirming.

“What’s going on over there?”

“Nothing? I sent her an invite and she accepted, so I went ahead and kicked her out of the party.”

“If you want to keep her around, we could just bring her with us.”

“Are you serious? She just tried to kill us. You saw that right? Why would we bring her with us?”

“I know that, but . . .”

“Mugh! Mugguh!”

“I wonder what she’s trying to say. What should we do?”

I guess it was worth hearing her out. She couldn’t speak through that dirty old rag.

If she tried to bite through her tongue, or to cast a spell, I could always just jam it back in.

I pulled out the rag, and immediately, she stuck her tongue out at me and glared with spite.

“What? If you’ve got something to say then you better spit it out now.”

“What’s going on ?! ”

“Who knows? It sure sounds like you’re not the only assassin that Kyo sent out tonight.”

“That can’t be! I was the only one involved with this!”

“I guess he doesn’t trust you to get the job done. Either that, or he used you as a distraction.”

That sword she’d had would have exploded and taken her out with it. That might have been his plan from the beginning.

“Let me find out what’s going on!”

“Ha! Do you understand the situation you’re in?”

She tried to kill us in the middle of the night, and now she thought I’d just take her with us so she could satisfy her curiosity?

And yet, she seemed to say everything on her mind, which was a sort of honesty. She was serious too.

“Kyo wouldn’t do that! I know he sometimes has contradictory ideas, but he saves a lot of people! He’s a good person!”

“We must not be talking about the same guy.”

She really glorified Kyo in her head—kind of like what Raphtalia did when she thought about me. I wanted to be the sort of parent that she thought I was.

But Kyo wasn’t like that. I remembered how angry he got when Rishia lectured him. I was pretty sure that he wasn’t the sort of person that Yomogi seemed to think he was.

“What should we do, Mr. Naofumi?”

“Hm . . .”

“If she’ll listen to us, then we might be able to give her a little freedom, no?”

“I guess. And if she tries anything, we’ll just kill her.”

“Ahh . . . Even though I lost the battle, I cannot believe I must suffer through this. I suppose I will have to endure this punishment.”

Seriously, who did this girl think she was?

We didn’t have to do anything at all for her. Didn’t she understand that?

“She thinks that we’re wrong about Kyo, and that he’ll come rescue her before she’s executed.”

“You can read my mind ?! I didn’t realize you had such powers!”

My god she was simple. Even if I had that ability, I wouldn’t have use it to read hers.

“Then let’s make a deal. We’ll take you with us, so you can find out what’s going on. Then when you find out that things aren’t as you wished, you tell us what you know. Deal?”

“Very well. I am a warrior, and I keep my promises.”

She certainly was forthcoming. She didn’t understand the predicament she was in at all, but she couldn’t resist making promises and swearing to keep them.

“Kizuna, Glass, if she tries anything, don’t hesitate to kill her. I’m not feeling merciful.”

“I know.”

“Your name’s Yomogi, right? When you discover the truth, don’t you dare try to escape from it. And don’t think that you’ll get away. If you do, we’ll torture you for information.”

“I wouldn’t!”

She probably wouldn’t. She was obsessed with honor—she lived in a fairytale.

If she decided to turn on us it could be trouble. If only I could have used the slave sealing magic from the last world!

“Mr. Naofumi! Please don’t look at Rishia that way,” Raphtalia scolded me.

How couldn’t I? She was the only one I could still use the slave spell on.

“I bet you were thinking what a help the slave spell would be in this situation.”

She read me like a book. But it really would have been helpful.

“Oh yeah, you said something about that before. So . . .” Kizuna said, running to grab a ofuda from the partially destroyed storeroom, “You can use this control ofuda. I never thought I’d use it, but here we are.”

“Kizuna, would you really . . . ? ”

“Don’t we need it to ensure that Yomogi keeps her end of the bargain?”

Yomogi looked at the ofuda in Kizuna’s hand and nodded.

“I understand. If that will help you to trust our agreement, I will submit to it.”

Huh? That was convenient.

It must have been like the ofuda that had been stuck on Filo back where we found her.

“What is that thing?”

“It’s an ofuda that uses magic to control people. They have a bad reputation. You’ve probably seen them before in . . . Chinese zombie movies?”

Ah . . . those zombies with the ofuda hanging down off of their face or hat. Right.

“The ofuda lends you control over their subconscious. If you’re good, you can even make it so that they can only move when commanded to.”

“Sounds pretty dangerous. What if someone used them to take control of us?”

“It’s possible to resist the ofuda’s power, and luckily, they don’t work on holy heroes or holders of the vassal weapons. But, they can be very dangerous in the hands of a powerful user though.”

These ofuda things might be better than the slave spell I was used to.

“What happens when someone tries to resist it?”

“They have to use all their energy to try and get it off. And while they are occupied, you have a chance to kill them.”

Heh . . . that sounded like the perfect system.

So Yomogi would be under my control, just like a slave, but she could remove the ofuda if she really tried. But it would take time to do so, and I could always finish her off while she struggled with it.

“Let’s set it up so that she can’t get more than a certain distance away from us,” Kizuna said, slapping the ofuda onto Yomogi’s forehead.

I could see that a great deal of magical power was contained in it. It snapped and crackled with electricity, and slowly peeled off of her forehead. Then a magical pattern flickered and glowed on the ground around Yomogi’s feet.

Glass and Kizuna were chanting an incantation, and the mandala-like pattern on the ground appeared to react to it. Finally, Kizuna wrote some characters on the ofuda with blood. Yomogi squirmed with discomfort.

“Now we just need to set the rules and . . . all done. It does draw attention to itself though, so we should try to avoid using it in public.”

“Imagine if people used these things to control their armies.”

“They are pretty tough, but they are weak against fire and water. They’re not as all-powerful as you might hope.”

“If this will convince you to take me with you, then I will not try to remove it. Now then, let’s get going!”

I wasn’t sure if I could trust the ofuda to operate as effectively as the spell I was used to. But then again, we were just using it as insurance against Yomogi’s treachery.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Kizuna said. She started to chant the return transcript incantation.

A moment later and we were all standing before the dragon hourglass.

There were a lot of guards milling about, but I didn’t see any sign of a recent or impending attack. The guards around the hourglass had been instructed to remain cautious, so despite everything happening at the castle, they hadn’t left their posts. They could be counted on for that much.

Back where I was from, you couldn’t really count on guards to stand their ground. If a guard didn’t actually guard anything, then what were they good for?

“Everything looks fine, right?”

“The enemy might be nearby, watching the guards for a chance to strike.”

“Aren’t you a little paranoid?”

“It’s what I would do if I were in his situation. Someone should stay here to keep watch.”

“I’m telling you, Kyo wouldn’t do that! He’s not a coward!” Yomogi shouted.

Glass and Kizuna crossed their arms and knit their brows in thought.

“You’re right. We should leave someone here we can trust. Raphtalia, can you stay behind?” I asked Raphtalia.

“But I . . .”

She was strong enough to handle trouble if it showed up. I didn’t want to leave her behind, but we could count on her.”

“. . . I will stay behind and keep an eye on things.”

“Glass ?! ”

Glass raised her hand to volunteer for the job, and Kizuna yelped with surprise.

We could trust Glass with the job and she was experienced enough to deal with whatever came up. Besides, she was from this world. It made more sense to leave it her hands.

“I believe Naofumi is correct. Kyo has made a fuss at the castle, but if he is truly in possession of technology of the sort you describe, then he may well come after the hourglass. We must ensure its safety.”

“But . . .” Kizuna tried to protest.

Then I added, “If you discover that you need my assistance, tell the guards to fire three flares into the air.”

Kizuna looked at the smoking castle in the distance and nodded, “Okay. Glass, we’re leaving this to you.”

“Chris, protect her while I’m gone.”

“Pen!”

I found it hard to believe that the penguin was going to be much use, but he bowed deeply in response to Glass’s charge and tottered over to stand by Kizuna.

“Alright, Naofumi. We’re leaving Glass behind, so you better step up,” Kizuna said.

“I know, and I will. Let’s go!”

“Alright!” everyone shouted in unison.

With Raph-chan and Filo on my shoulders, I took off running. Everyone followed me.

I was worried that Rishia would trip and fall, but she managed to keep up.

We ran toward the smoking castle. The town we ran through on the way didn’t seem damaged. But it did look like some looters, who had tried to take advantage of the chaos, had been caught and tied up though.

What was going on?

We ran through the castle gates to find L’Arc, Therese, and a number of soldiers fighting. But, what were  they fighting? They were monsters, but they looked like humans, too. The battle was intense.

The castle grounds were filled with smoke, and there seemed to be battle happening everywhere at once.

“Hyaa!”

Therese cast support magic on L’Arc, and he shot a skill at the enemy.

But the monsters were quick on their feet, and they dodged his attack. Were these monsters faster than L’Arc? He had a vassal weapon!

One of them appeared behind him, trying to take advantage of an opening in his defenses. I quickly used a skill.

“Air Strike Shield!”

The shield materialized just in time to protect L’Arc from the monster’s claws. The monster was caught off guard, which left it open for attack—a chance that L’Arc wasn’t going to miss. He swung his scythe.

. . . But the monster dodged again!

“Kiddo! Kizuna!”

“We’re so glad you’re here!”

L’Arc and Therese smiled. They looked relieved.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The barrier appeared and covered us all, protecting us from the monsters. When the barrier appeared, the enemy stopped attacking and stared straight at me.

“Hero from another world! How wonderful to see you!”

Huh? What? The enemy turned and stared at us with hate-filled eyes.

Were we their target?

I looked closer. It was pretty dark, so I hadn’t gotten a very good look at the monsters yet. But they weren’t exactly humans that were turned into monsters . . .

What ?! Their faces were strange—half beast, half human. Their bodies also seemed to be split down the center in human and beast halves.

It looked like they’d been made of two different things stuck together. They were really ugly, to be honest.

The leader of the group looked like it was half white tiger. The other half was a woman with a ponytail. Her human eye was sharp and angular, and the other eye was a cat eye. She wore light armor, and it was torn in places, probably a result of the battle.

The human half of her face was actually pretty attractive.

The other enemy troops were similar, but some of them had feathers and bird-like features, others had tortoise shells on their backs. All of them appeared to be some kind of human-animal hybrid, their hands were like claws.

They were clearly not like the demi-humans back in the world I’d been summoned to. Something about them seemed . . . unnatural. The demi-humans I knew weren’t like that.

Their human parts . . . their faces . . . I felt like I’d seen them before—but where?

“Hey . . .”

“Raphtalia, Rishia, and Kizuna were pointing at the enemy troops, speechless.”

“What happened to you ?! ” Kizuna screamed. But damn it! I still couldn’t figure out who they were.

“Raphtalia,” I said, motioning for her to come over. I whispered in her ear, “Who are these people?”

“You mean you don’t remember ?! ”

“You don’t remember us ?! How dare you!”

The enemy reacted to Raphtalia’s comment and shouted in rage.

They rushed at me, their weapons brandished. One thrusted a naginata at me.

“Uh-oh!”

The barrier shattered, and the pieces floated in the air around us.

I blocked the naginata thrust with my shield and grabbed the handle. The other enemy troops howled with rage and came charging at me.

“Die! Everyone! Massacre them all!”

“That’s right. They’re the ones that came after me and accused me of stealing the katana of the vassal weapons,” Raphtalia explained.

I finally remembered those faces. It was the gaggle of women that had been with Trash #2. They were so loud and raucous that I never did figure out what his name was.

The shards of the shattered barrier flew at Trash #2’s friends.

The charging people weren’t able to avoid the shards. Some of them blocked the shards and kept running. Others had shields like tortoise shells to block them.

L’Arc and Therese didn’t miss their chance. He swung his scythe and she shot magical spells. Raphtalia drew her sword and shot across the battlefield.

It wasn’t clear if Kizuna would be able to damage these half-human enemies, so she was staying back with Yomogi. I tried to keep Filo and Rishia from getting caught up in the fight.

“Go Chris!”

Kizuna picked up Chris and threw him!

Chris spun in circles and shot through the battle, just like Filo’s Spiral Strike attack.

Chris blew right past the monsters, but a lot of their armor and clothing was torn in the process, and blood seeped through the cuts.

Heh . . . So that’s how Kizuna was able to attack.

“Rafu?”

I looked at Raph-chan. Her eyes sparkled with understanding.

She wanted to try the same thing, but she wasn’t strong enough yet. She’d have to stay on my shoulder for the time being.

“Master! I wanna try that!” Filo shouted.

She wasn’t the best melee fighter these days. I thought she’d make a better support fighter. I was hoping she’d have some bird songs with some good effects.

“Not now!”

“But . . .”

“I want you to work with Raph-chan to support the rest of us with magic.”

“Okay!”

With both of them on my shoulders, I continued to block and avoid the attacks of Trash #2’s cohorts.

“Shield Prison!”

The wall of shields bought me some time. I looked over at Raphtalia who had locked swords with the leader.

“What happened to you? Why do you look like this ?! ”

“Isn’t it amazing? After you killed our leader, we were left without direction, and our lands were taken over by another country. We thought it was the end for us, but then Kyo, the holder of the book of the vassal weapons, saved us.”

“What ?! ”

“He doesn’t want to rule over us, he wants to give us the opportunity to exact our revenge. He gave us this power so that we could kill you!”

“But . . .”

“Up until now we could never have won a battle against a vassal weapon, or against one of the holy heroes. So Kyo gave us this power, this power he took from the copies of the Four Symbols, the four holy beasts!”

“And that’s why you look like this ?! ” Kizuna yelped.

A woman nodded.

“Kyo will return us to our previous forms once we defeat you! When we defeat you, all will be returned to how it should be, to how it was!”

“That’s why you must . . . ” they all shouted in unison, charging up for an inhuman attack, “Die!!!”

The tiger-lady was wrapped in howling winds, which flew into her weapon. She charged us.

The bird-lady’s wings burst into flame. She flapped them hard, sending the flames roaring at us.

The tortoise-lady sent huge boulders to rain down on us from above.

The dragon-lady . . . didn’t seem to be there.

“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield!”

I sent out the trio of shields and immediately followed them with Shooting Star Shield, blocking all of their attacks.

Then I focused for a minute and cast Zwiete Aura on everyone, starting with Raphtalia.

“No! Kyo would never do something so inhumane!” Yomogi shouted behind me. She reached out with her good hand and grabbed Kizuna’s shoulder. “Hunting Hero, I have a request. Please allow me to fight with you. These fools that would speak ill of Kyo must be silenced!” She grabbed a sword that had fallen at her feet.

“If you try to attack us, you’ll regret it.”

“I will not do such a thing!”

Kizuna nodded, and Yomogi took off running. She jumped into battle, slashing at the woman that Raphtalia was fighting.

“Stay out of this!”

“Ha! You think I can’t dodge your bumbling attacks?” Yomogi said, jumping back to avoid the woman’s attack and then charging forward again with Raphtalia. “How dare you tell such lies about Kyo! He would never do such things!”

“You’d call me a liar ?! ” the beast-woman shouted. She looked confused by the accusation. “We can bring back our leader if we kill you! You sliced him in two! Kyo can bring back master!”

“He can bring back the dead ?! ”

“Since when did Kyo have that kind of power?”

That would be amazing, really. Was there a deeper taboo in all of creation? I guess you saw it in old RPGs from time to time. But if he could do that, why not send Trash #2 as his assassin?

There was something else, some other layer to his plan.

“The Kyo that you speak of is not the Kyo that I know!” Yomogi shouted and continued her assault. Raphtalia looked confused.

“You fool! You have yet to see my true power!” The beast side of the woman started to glow, then slowly expand, growing larger and larger. I didn’t like the look of it.

I was doing all I could to stop the endless string of attacks coming from the other women. There were too many of them, and they were all pretty damn strong.

It was like the battle we had in the chamber of the Spirit Tortoise’s core. The neo-guardians had been about this strong.

“Tsugumi! Take this!” one of the other women said and threw a spear to their leader, who was locked in battle with Yomogi and Raphtalia. One look at the spear and I could hardly believe my eyes.

“Can it be ?!

The spear looked just like the creepy weapon that Yomogi had been carrying when she tried to attack us back at the house, and now, it was in their leader’s hand.

Chapter Six: The Reformed

“Hyaaa!” The woman named Tsugumi raised the spear over her head and swung it in a circle. She didn’t actually hit anyone with it, but the motion produced a shockwave powerful enough to send Raphtalia and Yomogi flying.

“Ugh . . .”

“Uh . . .”

Both of them took the brunt of the impact, and were bleeding all over.

This wasn’t good. I’d tried to defend them, but I wasn’t fast enough.

Judging from the battle we’d had with Yomogi, I assumed that the spear was making her attacks more powerful. Yomogi didn’t seem as imposing now, without her special sword.

But now Tsugumi was faster and stronger than Raphtalia. Her abilities were on par with Eclair—maybe even better. She was probably as good as Raphtalia had been before she was chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons.

Yeah, she was pretty strong. Those that held a vassal weapon could improve the growth stats of their party members. I was guessing that these women had gotten a boost from Kyo.

They were strong, but that didn’t mean that victory was certain—not yet.

Filo had always been my trump card, the back-up surprise when things got rough for Raphtalia.

Raphtalia had just gotten her hands on the katana recently, and she had already grown so powerful that she was almost as strong as Glass. If this woman was able to send her flying with a simple swipe of her spear, she must have been pretty powerful too.

Considering how easily she’d parried their attacks, we’d be in trouble if she hit us with a skill, or a technique, or whatever. I’d try to block it, but who knew if I’d be able to?

Regardless, there was another problem we had to face first.

“That weapon . . . Kyo must have made that.” Yomogi muttered, her face pale.

Had she finally lost faith in him? Was she just afraid of the weapon? It was hard to say, but she was definitely unnerved.

“Calm down,” Raphtalia said.

Yomogi snapped back to reality, and shook her head, “Where did you get that weapon ?! ”

“Don’t you know? Kyo gave it to me as a way to ensure the departure of the holy heroes and your vassal weapon holding friends.”

Yomogi shook her head in disbelief, “Lies! Even if that’s true, you must know how dangerous that weapon is! Kyo must have given it to you without realizing the danger it put you in!”

“Kiddo, what do you know about that weapon?” L’Arc asked, parrying one of the beast-woman’s attacks.

It wasn’t the time or place to sit down and give a lecture about the weapon, but if it worked like Yomogi’s sword, we were all in serious trouble. We had to find a way to get rid of it without setting it off.

“That thing was probably made with energy he took from the Spirit Tortoise—it’s a monster. It will give you unbelievable power when you wield it, but it has a mind of its own, and pretty soon it will go on a rampage and explode.”

Whether the rampage and explosion were part of the design or a result of an experiment was hard to say. But I was sure of one thing: Kyo had taken the Spirit Tortoise familiars (mimic type) and found a way to turn them into weapons.

“There’s still time! I had one of those weapons too, and it nearly killed me. You have to let it go!”

Tsugumi answered Yomogi’s warning with an attack.

I immediately deployed Shooting Star Shield, and followed that with Air Strike Shield to protect her.

“Ha!”

“Ugh . . .”

The attack shattered the barrier and the Air Strike shield, slamming into my shield with a burst of sparks. Then it broke the defense level of the shield and the armor I was wearing took a little damage. The power of that weapon was monstrous!

We had a real problem on our hands.

“Ha!”

“To prove that Kyo is right, you mustn’t use that weapon! The Kyo that I know wouldn’t want you to do this!”

Tsugumi was off her guard after I blocked her attack, so Yomogi and Raphtalia rushed to attack. But Tsugumi was too fast, and dodged at the last second.

“You’ll die here tonight!”

Damn it . . .

“Second Shield!”

I quickly blocked the attack with Second Shield, maneuvered around her spear, and caught the handle between my arm and torso, pushing her back and off balance.

Luckily, I’d learned a thing or two about fighting a spear-wielding opponent when dealing with Motoyasu. I’d only imagined doing that move before, but it ended up working.

Spears are best for keeping the enemy at a distance, so if you got up close, the spear became a liability—you could only use the shaft.

To a degree . . . I was somehow able to restrain her.

“Not so fast!” she shouted.

Even the handle could be a weapon with the right amount of attack power. It really hurt.

“Therese!”

I didn’t have time to cast spells, so I’d need to rely on Therese for support.

“Great power in these stones, hear my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Give them the power of unshakeable protection!”

“Shining Stones: Hardened Protection!”

Therese’s spell took effect, and I felt my defense rating rise.

The pain disappeared almost entirely. Therese’s magic must have worked by multiplying my stats, so if my defense rating was already high, then her spell worked even better.

“Ah, so you’re tougher now? You otherworldly hero! Kyo said that you were useless aside from defense, but you sure are annoying!”

I guess they’d been gossiping about me. I hope they’d heard about my counter effects.

Too bad she didn’t just drop the spear and run away. I really would have preferred that.

“Master!”

“Rafu!”

Filo and Raph-chan jumped at Tsugumi.

“Hey, what are you—”

“How irritating!” Tsugumi shouted, swiping at them with her beast hand.

“Yikes!”

“Rafu!”

Before Tsugumi could slice at them with her claws they both disappeared in a puff of smoke. Where did they go?”

“That was close!”

Filo reappeared a short distance away, carrying Raph-chan.

“Rafufu!”

I guess they used Raph-chan’s illusion magic to escape just in time.

“Be careful, you two. You’re not strong enough for this yet.”

“We’re okay, master! We can dodge that lady’s attacks!”

I guess Filo could use haikuikku if she needed to. She’d have to charge up her magic power, but she could also fight in that energy-conserving mode that Fitoria taught her.

But this wasn’t the time. The enemy was too dangerous.

“Charge up!”

Both of them jumped onto my shoulders.

“We can get stronger if we ride on your shoulders for a bit!”

Ah, right. That must be what abilities increase while carrying (medium) did.

Hopefully it would come in handy.

“Tsugumi!”

The group of women all focused on me now, deciding I was the leader of the group.

“Better watch out, Kiddo, looks like they’ve got it out for you!”

“I guess so. I won’t make it easy on them!”

“Indeed. We cannot afford the possibility of your loss, Naofumi. I have many gemstones that require your skilled attention,” Therese exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?” I barked. I wasn’t sure I liked the way Therese was thinking. L’Arc better rein her in.

Anyway, back to business.

“Feh . . .” Rishia whimpered, tossing an ofuda.

“Wh . . .”

“What ?! ”

It fluttered helplessly from her hands and hit one of the beast women, prompting a yelp of surprise. It might actually come in handy. It looked really weak and pathetic, so they would probably ignore it—only for it come back and bite them later.

Anyway, I still had a hold on Tsugumi’s spear, but I didn’t know how long I could keep it. With my boosted defense, I was hoping to twist her to the ground. But I didn’t have much hope that it would work. Come to think of it, I don’t think I had pulled it off since the Cal Mira islands.

Regardless, I was thinking it over when Tsugumi tightened her grip on the spear, and its point started to flash behind me. The point of the spear snapped and cracked behind me, and it started to feel like it was burning me.

I’d been through this before! When I was fighting the high priest!

He’d held a replica of the holy weapons. His attacks had burned just like this.

There was only one thing to do.

“Filo! Get out of here and prepare yourself!”

“Okay!”

“Rafu!”

Filo knew what I meant. She grabbed Raph-chan and flew off.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

“Kiddo, are you doing what I think you’re doing ?! Everyone get away!”

“What? What’s happening?” Kizuna shouted as L’Arc pulled her away with him.

“Mr. Naofumi!”

“It’ll be okay! Raphtalia, help protect Yomogi and Filo!”

I hadn’t done this in a long time, but I didn’t have any other way to survive this beast-woman’s attacks.

As for unlocking the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield, I may have finally been able to do it in this world, but the Shield of Wrath was still stronger.

I knew it was risky, but I had to protect everyone from the attack this lady was about to unleash, and I didn’t have any other ideas.

I had to do it. I readied my shield and prepared to use the most forbidden power I had.

The Shield of Wrath—I’m forced to turn to you again.

I didn’t want to do this!

“Wh . . . What?”

“What’s the otherworldly hero up to now?” Yomogi shouted as L’Arc pulled her and Raphtalia out of harm’s way.

“Kiddo just switched to a weapon that will hurt him, but it’s strong enough to stop their attacks.”

“Hurt him? But . . .”

“Has Kyo used it?”

The women regrouped and came rushing at us, seeing Kizuna and Raphtalia fleeing as an opportunity. They attacked in wave after wave.

“Arrrhhhh!”

“Take that! Piercing shot!”

I had my grip on the shaft of the spear, but the spear point pushed against my shield, unleashing a deadly skill. A burst of energy shot out of the spear. But I was able to hold it off.

Like trying to stick your finger in a faucet to stop the water, the energy beams burst out anyway. The light shot through the castle walls, and there was a crater left on the ground around us afterward. But that was the end of it.

“ARRHHHHH!” Tsugumi roared, getting ready to blast me away.

I had to fill her with despair. I had to make her think she had no hope for victory.

The spear started to glow, and the eyeball set in the handle opened and looked around in short, erratic jerks.

“Everyone! Focus your attack on him!”

“Right!” they all shouted together.

“Come at me then!”

If they attacked me, they weren’t going to like what happened next.

I pulled on the spear and spun it around, grazing the rushing attackers.

“Ahhhh!”

“Ugh!”

It had barely touched them, but they took plenty of damage. Luckily for them, half of their bodies had been reformed with monster parts, so they were a bit singed, but they were fine. A little healing magic would heal them.

“You’re damn persistent.”

“All I have is a shield. I have to do what I can.”

Locked neck and neck with her, I was still able to continue to hold off Tsugumi’s energy attacks.

But, finally, the skill seemed to run out of steam. There was a deflating hiss, and smoke streamed from the tip of her spear.

“Give up already!”

I had to get this fight over with.

“No thanks!”

“Then you’ll pay for it!”

I’d pay them back for all the pain they’ve caused—and more.

“Therese! Get a defense spell on us! Filo, you help! Get everyone you can on this! Protect everyone!”

“Alright!” Therese shouted. She called some other soldiers over and they all began to summon a protective barrier.

The flames might’ve been so powerful they would’ve turned everything to ash. But, I’d tried my best during the battle with Glass, and she had survived. So, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t do any unnecessary damage. I used Air Strike Shield just in case.

“Ugh!”

The shield was starting to take over my mind. A deep hatred burned in my head, telling me to kill everyone.

But there were people I had to protect—wanted to protect.

Not only Raphtalia and Filo.

After the battle with the high priest, so many things had happened. There were more people on my side now—more people that needed my protection. The more I cared about, the less I could use this shield.

During the battle with the Spirit Tortoise, Ost had taken the rage and hatred from the shield and made it into power, power that made the shield even stronger.

Yes . . . now my rage had a direction. I didn’t just hate the whole world. It was focused on a single point . . .

To protect my friends, I had to control my rage.

Rage, hate, disgust, loathing, resentment, anger . . .

They weren’t for everyone. I had to focus them on those in front of me.

“AAAAGHHHHH!”

Dark Curse Burning S activated, roaring forth from my shield.

“I thought he could only defend ?! ”

“Haven’t you been paying attention? Of course I can counter attack!”

Black flames leapt from my shield, fanning out before me and rushing over the enemy.

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Arrrughgh!”

I had never felt such power in these detestable flames before. They were stronger than they had ever been, roaring in my ears as they burned everything before me.

“Whoa . . .”

“So that’s . . . That’s Naofumi’s forbidden attack . . .”

“It’s a bit different from yours, isn’t it? Pretty dangerous. Glass needed soul-healing water to stand up to it.”

“Enough chitchat! Fight!”

I felt the hatred wane, but I knew that it would come back. That’s how the attack worked.

Just withstanding it was almost enough to drive me crazy. It was a battle I had to fight with myself. But I had friends now, Raphtalia, Filo, and the others. I had to protect them. It might sound a little cheesy, but if I wanted to protect my friends, I couldn’t allow myself to be swallowed by the hate.

“Damn it! We’re not giving up!”

Even after being hit with an attack like that, she still refused to drop the spear.

How was I supposed to stop someone so obsessed?

Trash #2 was a real creep, from what I knew about him. But if there were all these people that still felt strongly for him, I guess he must have done some good things in his life too. I guess if everything had gone how he wanted it to, his inventions might never have been used, and all these women wouldn’t have ended up the way they did.

Besides, Glass did warn him at the end. Don’t move, she said.

He’s the one who ignored the warning, and that’s why he died. Why did they insist on making all of this our fault?

Ah! The Shield of Wrath was taking over my mind again.

I had to stay on my toes. I couldn’t afford to get lost in the hate.

“More power! More! Enough to destroy these fools!”

The burned enemies slowly rose to their feet.

As if to regenerate what they lost to the flames, the beast side of their bodies grew and spread.

Damn it! How much did I have to burn them to get them to stay down?

“Hyaaaaa!”

Not good! Just like what had happened with Yomogi, the spear was glowing with heat, and tentacle-like vines whipped out and wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm.

But Tsugumi didn’t seem to mind. Maybe it was because of her beast-half?

What was I supposed to do? Kizuna cut the vines last time, but . . .

“Blood Flower Strike!”

Kizuna was on her in a flash. She sliced through the vines and fell back to safety. But the vines grew back almost immediately and wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm again.

Did she really not notice or care what was happening?

The power she emitted steadily grew stronger. I . . . can’t hold it off much longer!

“This is the end!”

The tip of her spear suddenly shot . . . yes, shot stars!

There was no doubt in my mind. This weapon of hers was a copy of Motoyasu’s spear.

This attack was probably Shooting Star Spear.

“Ahaha! That should end it! Die!”

She wrenched the spear free from my grip and pointed it at me, ready to shoot a beam, when . . .

There was an awful sound, like the tearing of flesh.

“Gyaaaaahhhh!”

The smile disappeared from her face as Tsugumi fell to the floor. She wriggled and writhed.

“Tsugumi ?! ”

“What’s happening ?! ”

The other women ran over to Tsugumi where she lay on the ground.

“Ahhh! Ag . . . argh!”

She twitched violently as her eyes rolled back into her head.

Was it the spear that was doing this?

Before I even had the time to wonder, the women that were locked in battle with Raphtalia and L’Arc stopped fighting and began to groan. It was like their medicine had suddenly worn off.

“What the hell is going on?”

“You think WE did this?” The cursed flames had the special effect of delaying any restorative effects for a while—but that wouldn’t have been enough to cause this.

“You don’t think this has anything to do with those creepy animal bodies of yours?” Kizuna asked.

But there wasn’t any time to waste on that.

“Kizuna, they aren’t our biggest problem right now.”

“You’re right!”

The spear was still wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm as she writhed on the ground. It was sucking all of her power, just like it had done with Yomogi. That meant that it was probably just about ready to explode.

Damn it! Did we even have time to throw it?

I was worried about that crystalline eyeball in the handle. It was shining brighter than Yomogi’s sword had, which made me fear that the explosion was going to be bigger than last time.

“Kizuna! Wait!”

“What ?! ”

“Don’t cut the vines yet. It might trigger the explosion.”

I hadn’t known what to look out for during the fight with Yomogi, but looking back on it now, the vines may have caused it.

“Maybe it won’t explode as long as it is sucking energy out of her.”

“Are you saying we should just leave her like this?”

She had a point. If she was twitching on the ground, then she was probably almost out of energy anyway. If we weren’t going to be cruel, we’d have to get them to a safe place before we let the thing explode.

Kizuna and Raphtalia probably wouldn’t like that plan. I wasn’t too fond of it either, but we didn’t have many options.

There wasn’t enough time to have a discussion either way.

“Ahhhh!” they all shouted in pain. Then they crawled to their feet like beasts and began to howl and shout.

Falling on all fours, they started to walk and stalk around the battlefield like the animals they were based on.

“Damn. What the hell is going on with these people ?! ” L’Arc shouted as he worked with Raphtalia and Yomogi to control the raging beasts.

They didn’t move with intelligence, or with a plan, but they were faster and harder to predict than before.

“Fehh . . .”

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan puffed up her tail and cast a spell on the marauding beast women. They all turned to an empty area of the battlefield and rushed to attack it. Raph-chan must have fooled them with some kind of illusion magic. Judging from what I knew about games, illusion magic tended to work best against wild enemies. Of course, on the other hand, there were enemies that it didn’t work against at all.

“Stop! Look at what is happening to Tsugumi! Abandon your revenge and do what you can to help her!”

But they weren’t listening—or they had lost the ability to listen.

“You all better calm down. That might happen to you next. Better to save your strength.”

Then they all seemed to calm down, as if they had lost the will to fight.

“That’s it. The ones that are freaking out the most were the most belligerent ones.”

“. . .”

“Ahhh . . . Ah . . .”

Like a sponge being squeezed, Tsugumi shriveled up before our very eyes. Her cheeks sunk in over her bones, and she looked like a mummy.

It was probably happening because of a combination of two things. The irrational raging that came from her twisted animal side, and that creepy spear thing her hands. Speaking of the spear, I had no doubt that it would explode once it finished sucking the life out of her.

“I can’t use portal.”

But there is another way I can use portal.

The problem was that it only worked with party members, but even if I didn’t set it to teleport myself, I could still open a portal to anywhere I’d been before. I had hoped that I could use it to do something about the spear and Tsumugi, but it didn’t work if she wasn’t already in my party.

And there was another problem. The beast half of her body was related to the White Tiger, which was having a jamming effect on my ability to use portal too.

There was no good way out.

But I had another idea.

“Cast support magic on her! Don’t forget to replenish her magic and SP!”

“What are you thinking ?! ”

“We’re going to bring her somewhere away from everyone and then run for it. If we don’t, that weapon will kill us all when it explodes.”

“But what about Tsugumi ?! ”

“We’ll think of something as we buy ourselves some time.”

But before I could finish my thought, a creepy laugh echoed over the battlefield. It came from the eyeball in the spear.

“You think . . . You can . . . get away?”

The voice cut in and out, but it clearly belonged to Kyo.

He didn’t have to tell me. I knew we were out of time.

“Seems . . . failed . . . plenty to get rid of you . . . still . . . this is the . . . ! ”

There was a deafening clang, and the whole spear began to glow, just like what had happened with Yomogi.

“Kyo! It can’t be! This was your plan all along?” Yomogi shouted, but Kyo’s voice had already vanished. I guess he had cut it off from his side.

The spear was shining much brighter than Yomogi’s sword had. It was definitely about to explode.

“Ha!” Kizuna shouted, dashing forward to cut through the vines.

I couldn’t afford to stand back and watch.

I grabbed the spear and tried to throw it as high above our heads as I could. I knew that it was right about to explode.

We weren’t going to make it. I felt like a soldier trying to throw back a grenade.

What should I do? What COULD I do?

Time seemed to slow down.

Everyone was going to die.

From what I could tell, the monster that took the form of the spear seemed to have died before it could explode. The same thing had happened with Yomogi back at the house. I felt—and I’m not sure why—like maybe I could absorb it into my shield.

Back at the house I had prioritized throwing the sword away, but I knew that there wasn’t time for that now.

There was only one thing left to try. I let my shield absorb it. There was a little resistance at first, but then, as if the shield understood what was happening, it slid in easily the rest of the way.

“Mr. Naofumi ?! ”

“What ?! ”

“There’s no time. I have no idea if it will work, but I’ve got to try!”

“It’s crazy!”

“What other choice do I have? This shield sucked up the light from the last explosion, so maybe . . .”

Right—this spear thing had probably been made from the Spirit Tortoise’s energy. The energy released in the blast was probably returning to the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

A spear icon blinked in my vision. Was it trying to say that there was a foreign object in the shield? The icon was red and flashing.

What if it broke the shield itself? What would happen to me in that case?

I had no idea, but if it would lessen the damage to my surroundings, I had to do it.

“Shield Prison!”

“Mr. Naofumi!”

“Rafu!”

“Master!”

Raphtalia and the others were running over, so I enclosed myself in the shield prison to keep them away. If the shield exploded, it would help with the shockwave too.

“Kiddo . . .”

“Naofumi, you . . .”

“Naofumi . . .”

I heard them shouting through the wall of shields. Then I covered myself with my own shield to protect them from the blast.

I was still using the Shield of Wrath. It was the strongest shield I had, so hopefully it would be enough to stop the explosion!

The red spear icon blinked forebodingly.

The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield icon appeared and began to glow with a faint light, as if it were sucking the energy away from the spear.

It happened a second later. There was a heavy thud deep within my body, and I felt something tear. The spear must have exploded.

“Ugh . . .”

A terrible, creeping feeling coursed through me, like poison was making its way through my veins. Damn. I thought I might die.

It wasn’t like me at all, but I really might end up giving my life to save these people. I’d rather not die if I could!

Shield Prison normally didn’t last very long, but it wasn’t showing any signs of disappearing yet. What did it mean? Either the skill was lasting longer, or my sense of time was slowing down.

If the latter was the case, then it felt like a second had become a minute or more.

Goddammit! It hurt so much. How long did I have to bear it? I felt like I might lose my mind.

The pain was unlike anything I knew, unlike the burning flames of the Shield of Wrath. I grit my teeth against it and eventually, the spear began to glow and melt away.

Was it over?

“Ugh . . .”

I was so dizzy I thought I might fall over.

I felt like I’d been poisoned.

I was lightheaded and I was afraid I’d pass out any second.

There were still problems to deal with. There were still enemies outside of the prison. I couldn’t afford to pass out here. Not yet.

Then I saw . . . a phantom? A hallucination?

Shimmering like a mirage, I thought I saw Ost come running over to help me stay on my feet.

She didn’t say anything, but her eyes told me what she was thinking.

She was supporting me, keeping me awake, and giving me energy.

My feet found their place, and I rose to stand tall.

When I looked for her again, she was gone . . . or maybe she hadn’t been there to begin with. Normally, I would have laughed at the very suggestion that someone had come back from the other side to help me. But this was no ordinary time.

I had to carry out the task she’d entrusted to me.

Which meant that I couldn’t afford to lose here, now, to these people.

The Shield Prison finally vanished, and everyone came running over to me, their eyes wet with tears.

“Mr. Naofumi! Are you alright ? What happened?”

“I’m fine. It was a little rough there, for a minute.”

I’d thought I was going to die. I was still a bit exhausted, but at least I could stay on my feet.

“We still have work to do!” I shouted, and everyone immediately resumed their battle positions.

“Gaahhhhh!”

Tsugumi was back on her feet, freaking out and acting wild. She still looked like she might die at any moment.

“Stop it! Don’t you see we’ve been tricked? Let’s surrender, this is not our battle to fight!” one of the other beast women called. Tsugumi paid her no mind. She went on raging. She looked like she would kill anything that crossed her path.

“Please, we have no right to ask this of you, but please help us!”

I wanted to balk at the suggestion, but before I could Kizuna rushed forward and nodded.

“Fine. We know what it’s like to be used and abandoned by Kyo. And we killed your friend. We have a responsibility here.”

“He got what was coming to him, if you ask me.”

Kizuna held a finger over her lips, as if to tell me to shut up.

Hey now, shouldn’t THEY shut up?

“I realized this during the battle, but you know as the Hunting Hero I can’t damage human opponents, right? Well I also can’t damage demi-humans like Raphtalia. And yet, I can fight against them without any trouble at all.”

“Yeah? Well, they’re sort of just hobbled together, aren’t they?”

“That’s not what I mean. It’s like . . . When you just did what you did to protect everyone, I got the chills from it. I kept thinking that I wanted to protect people the way that you do, that I want to save people. I wondered if there was anything I could do, you know? And then it was like I heard a voice. Like the answer was inside of me.”

Kizuna looked like she was moved by her own speech. But man, she sure did take her time, didn’t she? Get to it already? What happened? I didn’t have time to listen to a whole oration here.

I wanted to say hurry up and get to the point, will you?

Kizuna drew her tuna knife and turned to face the raging Tsugumi.

“My name is Kizuna Kazayama. I am the Hunting Hero, one of the four holy heroes, and I cannot kill a human. On my honor as a hero, I will save you all!”

She quickly shot across the battlefield.

As soon as I understood what was happening, I cleared my head and cast a support spell on her.

“Zweite Aura!”

Soon she was up against the raging Tsugumi. She shouted.

“Break Down! Scale Removal!”

There was a flash, and a crushing sound, and innumerable blades arced through the air, slicing Tsugumi apart.

So many of Kizuna’s skills emphasized her speed.

“Gah!”

Tsugumi went stiff as a board.

“To think I’d . . . If I move I’ll . . . just like master . . .” she muttered.

A second later and all the fur fell from her beast side. The cuts must have gone deeper than that too, because the fur was followed by spurts of blood.

“Ahhhh!” everyone shouted. I ran over to check the corpse.

But . . .

“You don’t need to worry about her. She’s tougher than she looks.”

I was sure she was dead, but she wasn’t. I hoisted her up and showed her to everyone.

Half of her face was covered in lacerations, but she was breathing deeply and steadily.

“Zweite Heal,” I cast the spell over her face.

As the spell took effect, her face looked more and more human. Like the beast side had been killed and vanquished.

The other women came running over, sighing with relief when they realized she was safe.

“It’ll be a while before she’s back on her feet.”

There were still places where she had white tiger parts, but she wasn’t acting strangely anymore.

It would take time to heal her completely, but it looked like she was going to be okay.

. . . And it’s all thanks to our resident Hunting Hero, I guess.

She couldn’t hunt humans, so her attack had only hurt the beast side of Tsugumi. It was like a surgical operation.

But “Scale Removal?” What was that, like cleaning a fish? Maybe she should be the cleaning hero, or the break down hero.

“So do you still feel like fighting?”

I looked over and locked eyes with each of the other women. They slowly sat down and announced: “We surrender. We’ve been used.”

“You probably don’t want to hear it, but you need to think about who you can trust.”

After all I’d been through with Bitch, I knew what I was talking about.

“Anyway, at least you’ll get out of this alive now.”

“. . .”

“Honestly I’d prefer to get rid of you here and now, but . . .”

The women looked shocked and terrified.

“But I guess the commander in these parts wants you all alive. I’m just an outsider here, so I don’t have a say in it.”

Besides, my arms were full with Tsugumi. I couldn’t fight them off now if I wanted to.

Oh well, things could be worse.

“Naofumi . . .”

“Mr. Naofumi . . .”

Raphtalia gazed at me, her eyes filled with emotion.

What, did they really think I was going to kill everyone?

“Rafu . . .”

“I’m tiiiiired,” Filo whined.

“Anyway, let’s talk it through. This is no time to get in an argument,” L’Arc said.

I guess they didn’t want to fight anymore. They just sort of surrendered.

“Kizuna, take care of the others like you did with her.”

“Sure thing!” she said, approaching the women.

Sigh. We would be going to war soon. We didn’t need this crap to deal with now.

“Wait! What about Glass ?! ”

The women snapped to attention when Kizuna asked about Glass.

“That’s right! Kyo’s strategy had . . .”

Oh give me a break already. There’s more?

“He was going to send troops to the dragon hourglass while we attacked the castle!”

I knew it. It was easy to predict his shallow strategy. He did whatever would bother us the most.

“It’s just like you said, Naofumi.”

“He’s driving me nuts. You,” I said, turning to the women. “Can you convince these people to stop the attack?”

They nodded.

“If you betray us, Glass and I will kill you!”

“Let’s get going!”

“Yeah!” L’Arc shouted. “Troops! See to the injured, the repairs and reports! I’m leaving!”

“Yeah well, I guess this is your country after all. It’s no fun to sit around and be attacked, is it? Let’s go finish this thing!”

“Yes. Let us expose the truth to those who are deceived,” Raphtalia said.

“Yes! Return Transcript!”

Kizuna used her skill and led us back to the dragon hourglass.

My surroundings instantly changed to the room that housed the hourglass, and from the room, I could hear the sounds of battle raging outside.

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

Through a doorway, I heard Glass shouting, and saw an explosion of snow-like flower petals. I saw the shapes of people falling.

There were people writhing on the ground. The square had become a battlefield.

Glass was drinking the bottle of soul-healing water I’d left her, and firing off skill after skill.

Kizuna was pretty damn powerful, but Glass could hold her own.

Her abilities had grown even sharper after discussing vassal weapon power-up methods with Raphtalia.

I was glad that Glass stayed behind. That was the right choice.

None of the enemy troops had gotten past her yet.

Kyo hadn’t sent too many of them. He must not have been expecting us to guard it.

Actually, the main attack force at the caste, Trash #2’s women, had been pretty sparse too.

The enemy seemed to have lost its will to fight upon my arrival. Either that or they knew they were already fighting a losing battle by the time we got there.

“All of you, calm down! The Hunting Hero is here to save those of you that have lost yourselves to madness! Stop the fighting now!”

“Kyo is just using us!” the women that had been fighting with us at the castle shouted. The other women fighters who were still engaged in battle turned and replied, “But! But what about—?”

I almost heard Trash #2’s name, but there was a crash nearby that drowned it out. Was I ever going to get his name?

“You know what I’m talking about! Someone here is going to lose it! It happened to Tsugumi back at the castle! She had a weapon that nearly exploded and killed us all! We’re just pawns in Kyo’s game!”

“But . . . But . . .”

"If you want to keep fighting, then keep on fighting. Raphtalia, Kizuna, L’Arc, Glass—everyone. That’s just how they are. We don’t have time to entertain them. Take them alive, or don’t. Try to keep the damages to a minimum.”

“Roger that! We’ll save the chat until we’ve taken care of these guys!” Kizuna shot off like a bullet, slicing through the wild beast half of the women. It was only one attack, but the seemingly immortal women fell to the ground. Those that remained conscious writhed in pain.

A few of them remained on their feet, desperate to continue the fight. Raphtalia took care of them in a flash.

Strength really does come with numbers, doesn’t it? I wanted to get more people on my side.

“What are you after? What were you going to do to the dragon hourglass?”

The captured women turned to their leader, who held out a pendant. It looked like the sort of gemstone that adventurers in this world used to check for drop items.

“He said . . . He said that if we registered the dragon hourglass with this, then we would . . . win . . .”

“I figured it was something like that. He wanted to recreate Return Dragon Vein. Then he could have sent as many troops as he wanted into the center of the castle.”

Speaking of strength in numbers, he could have sent his whole army over. Victory would be all but assured.

L’Arc, Glass, and Raphtalia might be some of the strongest fighters around, but there was a limit to what we could take on by ourselves.

“It was just an idea. I can’t believe he really . . .”

“It’s just like him. He even sent three separate attacks.”

He sent Yomogi to attack us at Kizuna’s house. Then he sent half of Trash #2’s women to the castle, and the other half to the dragon hourglass to try and make sure that he could send even more troops over.

“Anyway, you’re all lucky that Kizuna stopped you. You could have gone crazy at any minute. You can hate us for this if you want, but you should at least realize why your commander died.”

I turned my back on them and continued, “We can probably get you healed with medicine, but I don’t know if the people at the castle will want to help you. Maybe I can figure something out.”

“Aren’t you a charmer, Naofumi?” Kizuna said.

“That’s what so great about Mr. Naofumi!”

“Rafu!”

“It’s one of your best qualities, Kiddo.”

“Shut up already!”

Finally, the night was over. A lot had happened—too much, for my tastes.

Chapter Seven: Barbaroi Armor

I was stuck the next morning trying to figure out how to cure the women of whatever Kyo had done to them.

“. . .”

Tsugumi wasn’t looking good.

That spear had taken so much out of her, it was a miracle she could even stand up. Kizuna had sliced off her beast side. And we kept a consistent application of medicine to the wounds. The scars of her reformed body were slowly starting to heal.

It reminded me of the parasite-like way that the Spirit Tortoise familiars had infected people back in Melromarc.

Tsugumi was silent the whole time, apparently ashamed that we had saved her.

“I don’t have to hear you say it. You know the truth, and you’re never going to escape it.”

“Mr. Naofumi . . .”

I didn’t mind if she hated me.

“But think about this. I know he was your beloved commander, or whatever, but do you really think that he was right about everything he said? Don’t you think that sounds like brainwashing?”

After all, these people chased Raphtalia. They tried to kill her. It was hard for me to believe that their relentless pursuit of Raphtalia was the only bad thing they’d ever done.

We’d only exchanged a few words. But, I was sure they had other plans.

“Shut up!”

“Guess I hit a nerve, huh?”

If I had died without managing to save Raphtalia, would she have ended up like these women?

“Raphtalia, it’s not like you just accept everything I say, right? If I ever lose my mind, and I’m clearly in the wrong, and I start running wild . . . I expect that you’ll be the one to stop me.”

“. . . I’ll do my best.”

I’d like to think that if one, if just one, of his women had told him he was wrong—had stopped him before it all got out of control—then he wouldn’t have died the way he did.

“He was always kind to us, but he was very serious about his pursuit of power and authority. I cannot disagree with you on that.”

“. . .”

He was a weird one alright .

Especially his constant, insatiable need for power. In that respect he reminded me of the other three holy heroes. He was just like them. Whenever he met someone more powerful than he was, he’d call it cheating. When things didn’t go his way, he’d throw a fit.

Back when I played online games, I’d seen people’s jealousy. I had some weapons and items that were limited on the server, and people didn’t like that I had them. They’d go on anonymous boards and post things just like Trash #2.

Yeah, I’d seen that sort of thing before.

People want to be special, want to be chosen, and want to be better than everyone else. I knew how it felt, too. People probably played online games to savor that very feeling—that feeling of being the protagonist. They wanted to be in the center of the action.

But Trash #2 wasn’t from a modern society like I was. And yet, he seemed so easy to predict.

“Excuse me, but . . . Could you tell me a little more about why he wanted to kill me?” Raphtalia asked.

It was still a mystery. He had been obsessed with hunting her down.

“The vassal weapon chose a new master. I’m sure there are plenty examples in the past of assassination attempts on people that were chosen for important roles.”

“Sure.”

I knew all about that—firsthand.

The Shield Hero had been inconvenient for the religious institutions in Melromarc, so they’d tried to dispose of me.

“But then again, I’m not sure if I’ve heard of trying to assassinate someone out of simple jealousy.”

There were still things I didn’t understand.

The katana of the vassal weapon s was like a holy sword. It was stuck in a rock, and only those that could remove it would be able to wield it. I could picture him standing up in a crowd and complaining that King Arthur wasn’t supposed to have Excalibur—that was supposed to be his sword. It was a pretty low-class thing to do.

The master had already been chosen, but he still insisted that it was supposed to be him? It didn’t even make sense.

“We were open to negotiations, you know. It’s not like we want war. Didn’t Glass say that she wanted to end this peacefully?”

“But it didn’t work out that way did it. If it was going to end this way, then I wish she never had been chosen to wield the vassal weapon.”

I guess it went back to that, didn’t it—that was the reason their beloved Trash #2 was dead.

“Why was he so obsessed with it? Don’t you know?”

“I don’t. I’ve been with him since I was very young, but often there were times when I couldn’t understand what he was thinking.”

The more I heard about him, the more mysterious Trash #2 became.

“He seems like the sort of guy that was always chasing women. At least you and your friends made it look that way.”

All of the women nodded along with me.

“He was always meddling in our relationships. Always trying to help! I told him to watch himself time and time again, but he never listened! He was always up to something!”

Uh-oh. I was playing with fire. The complaints were coming quickly now.

So he liked the ladies, was an alchemist that was always working on revolutionary inventions, and was pretty good with a sword.

I guess that’s why they called him a genius.

Wasn’t that enough? If the vassal weapon had chosen him, he’d have to fight in the waves. He should have counted his blessings.

“He used to drive me crazy!”

“Are you going to stop complaining soon?”

I guess their relationship was always on edge.

“But I loved him. There was no one else like him!”

Good thing too. One was more than enough.

Yomogi and Kizuna came walking over.

“So? How does it feel to be used for Kyo’s assassination plans?”

Yomogi shot me an irritated glance.

“I . . . I have to hear the truth from him myself. To that end, I will cooperate with you.”

“You did promise, after all.”

I didn’t want to derail the conversation, so I decided to ignore her self-satisfied comment.

“That’s true, I did. But I . . . I don’t want to believe that Kyo has done these things. So . . . I will believe in the Kyo I thought I knew, and I will share what I know with you.”

She was going to cooperate with us then. And in a weird way, she thought it was in service to the Kyo she’d imagined she was working with the whole time, a Kyo that probably never existed.

“I have heard that Kyo journeyed to another world and caused a great disaster there. Is that a true story?”

“Yeah. That’s the only reason we’re here.”

Yomogi and Tsugumi’s weapons had been powered by an energy I was able to absorb with my shield. In all likelihood, it was the energy he stole from the Spirit Tortoise.

I was probably only able to stop those energy attacks because I had the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.

“He took control over one of our world’s protective beasts, and used it to kill countless people. Heroes aren’t normally permitted to cross between the worlds, but I was given special permission to come here specifically to track him down.”

“He laughed as he piloted the Spirit Tortoise, as he trampled people to death. Glass tried to stop him, and he said ‘ What does it matter? This world will be destroyed anyway!’”

“. . .”

Yomogi listed silently.

I took the time to compare Yomogi and Tsugumi—they seemed very similar to me. They both believed wholeheartedly in whatever their leader told them.

“Hey Yomogi, what’s the Kyo you know like?”

“Hm . . . He’s very intelligent. He travels around the lands asking people about their troubles and then invents ways to solve their problems. He is also very skilled with magic. He saved me once, which is when I came to trust him with my life, and then . . .”

Tsugumi listened to Yomogi explain Kyo’s qualities, and tilted her head to the side in confusion. I felt the same way, really. After all, she might as well have been describing Trash #2.

“Isn’t this great? I think you two will be great friends,” I said.

“No! Do not compare Kyo to the likes of this other man! Get a grip on yourself!”

Tsugumi tried to grab Yomogi by the shirt and they started to scuffle.

I wished they’d give it a rest already. Their battle wounds weren’t even healed yet.

“And yet, it is strange, isn’t it? They seem so similar,” Kizuna said to L’Arc and Glass.

“L’Arc, didn’t you say that you were a good judge of character?” I asked. He had said something like that back in the Cal Mira islands. He’d been talking about Armor, this guy in Itsuki’s party. L’Arc was saying that Armor was going to cause trouble. Still, it had taken him a long time to realize that I was the Shield Hero.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“What did you think when you met Kyo and this other guy?”

“I’ve met a lot of people over the years, and those guys are like two peas in a pod.”

“Right . . .”

L’Arc said he knew, just from talking to me, that I hadn’t raped Bitch.

If he said that these guys were like two peas in a pod, then he was probably right.

Their similarities were getting harder to ignore, even for me.

“Anyway, we’ll have to find out if he’s really working on something that will raise people from the dead. But at the very least, you should realize by now that you can’t trust him.”

“. . .”

They couldn’t disagree. Not after he treated them as disposable assassins and left them maimed. Not after he’d treated them like pawns in his game.

“Don’t you have zombies and things like that in this world? He probably used technology from the four holy beasts to make it look like he can raise people from the dead.”

“Possible. Once someone is gone, they don’t come back. Perhaps this is punishment for our reckless decisions.”

They seemed resigned to defeat. I guess it was a natural feeling to have if you were saved by the very people you wanted to get revenge on. Whatever. We were just trying to get information out of them.

“Yomogi, how did you end up attacking our house?”

“One day Kyo came home, injured and furious, saying that the girl with the fan of the vassal weapons and her friends attacked him. I said I would never forgive anyone that hurt him, and went to grab the weapon he had been developing.”

“Didn’t take you long, did it?”

“He always told me not to use it, but only showed me how to put it away and how to take it out.”’

I could picture it clearly. He understood Yomogi’s personality, so he got her interested in the sword, and let her watch him take it in and out. He guided her actions indirectly—and he didn’t go chasing after her when she left.

If I were Kyo and Raphtalia was Yomogi, I would have stopped her.

No matter how fast she was , I would have stopped her.

And he knew that Yomogi and Trash #2’s women had been captured. He had done and said nothing, as if nothing at all had happened.

“Actually, now that I think about it, the sword was suddenly completed the day that he returned. It hadn’t been the same weapon until that day.”

“And when was this?”

“A little over three weeks ago.”

“That’s right around the time that we came to this world.”

Yomogi was starting to put it all together. She was starting to see what kind of person Kyo really was.

“Anyway, I have to get the truth from him.”

“If what we’re saying is true, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’ll . . .” she curled her hand into a fist, “I’ll make him pay. The Kyo that I know made inventions to bring joy into people’s lives. If he is spreading destruction and pain, I cannot forgive him.”

“Well that settles that. We came here to do the same thing. To make him pay, and to take back the energy he stole from the Spirit Tortoise.”

In truth, we really didn’t have the time to sit around talking this all through. But at least we got a glimpse into just how suspicious the inventors are in this world.

“Kizuna, Glass, L’Arc, keep in mind what these inventors have been up to. If they are all the same, then someone else might try to take up the mantle.”

“Good point. I’ll keep an eye out. We can’t have more creepy characters running around and causing trouble in other worlds.”

“Yes, that is a good point. We should be careful.”

“Yeah. There’s a problem with the vassal weapons, they’re supposed to protect the world. We better get this mess settled.”

“Yes, let’s,” Raphtalia nodded.

I nodded too. Everyone had agreed to fight.

“Yomogi, Tsugumi, do you know where Kyo is?”

Kizuna unrolled a map on a nearby table.

We could start a war if we wanted to, but there was no telling if Kyo would actually come to the battlefield.

He was probably working from a strategic headquarters somewhere. He could be safe in the capital, commanding troops on the front lines. If we went looking for him aimlessly, there’s no telling how long it would take to find him. Alto and some of Kizuna’s other friends were out hunting for his whereabouts undercover, but we’d yet to hear any news.

And I didn’t come to this world to fight a war.

“Kyo’s laboratory . . .”

“It’s right there,” Yomogi said, pointing to the map.

It was far away from the capital. It looked like it was in a village, deep in forested lands.

“A long time ago, he built his laboratory in a sealed mansion here. It’s in a deep forest with fog so thick that anyone who wanders in there gets lost. It's impregnable. You cannot find it unless he’s allowed you to.”

Sounds like he made his hideout in a pretty good spot.

But lucky for us, we had a way to move through the air.

“Alright! Let’s get prepared and get going. We can’t let up on the war effort either.”

“Right. Let’s put an end to all this. It’s up to us, the vassal weapon holders, and the holy heroes too, to punish this creep that abuses a vassal weapon.”

That was what had to be done.

There was going to be war. But if we could sneak over and get rid of Kyo, we might be able to put an end to the war. It all rested on him.

“Oh hey, Romina was looking for you, Naofumi. She’s made a bunch of new stuff.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah, Kiddo. And I got a bunch of material together for you, so get prepared.”

“You’re coming too, L’Arc.”

“Think I don’t know that? Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Boy.”

“Ha! You just remembered that now, didn’t you? Stop it!”

“It’s hard to be serious when Mr. Naofumi is around.”

“I’m just trying to be serious about all this.”

“But sometimes you’re so silly!”

Huh? Had I said something? Whatever. I left Kizuna and L’Arc behind and went to visit Romina.

“Yesterday was pretty crazy, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, we were in a pretty rough spot there.”

If that spear had actually exploded, it probably would have taken a good chunk of the castle with it. Honestly, I was a little impressed with myself for containing it all, but I also knew there had been luck involved, and that we had been very close to disaster.

“So? I heard you put some stuff together for me?”

“Yeah—took me a while too,” Romina said, rummaging through the back of her store and returning with a suit of armor.

It looked a lot like the barbarian armor that I’d left with her. But the coloring was different, and there were patches of black and white fur stuck onto it in various places. The shoulders were capped with tortoise shells. The collar was lined with red things that looked like feathers.

“That’s some impressive looking armor.”

“It is. I used some of the material we had from the four holy beasts—no small cost for that, but I think you’ll like how it came out. It’s a damn tough set of armor. I have to show you this. Take a look at the dragon emperor core stone we’re using here,” Romina said, pointing to a gem set into the breastplate.

It was quite a bit larger than the stone I’d had previously.

It was shaped like a ying-yang symbol, but the black side of it had grown substantially larger than the white side. It looked like a mix between Chinese and Japanese designs. You know those games about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? It looked like something a commander from those games might wear.

“I based it off the barbarian armor you brought in last time—the set that had lost all of its functionality.”

“It looks excellent.”

I was surprised. I didn’t think there was anyone out there that could even repair the armor the old man made for me—much less improve upon it.

“It’s harder than you think, using materials from the holy beasts, I mean. If you don’t do everything just right, the materials can backfire on you.”

“Oh?” I was starting to understand why Kizuna was so impressed with Romina’s work.

“I’m telling you, working with new materials, using new techniques to replicate your last set . . . I put a lot of work into this. Take that dragon emperor core stone there for instance. I had to work out a way to combine the old one with a core stone that Kizuna got a while ago. It’s tough to do even without having the stones interfere with one another, but I pulled it off. The effect is even stronger now.”

“Is that why it looks bigger than it used to?”

“Yes. Those stones are very, very rare—so you better take good care of this.”

“Sure.”

Once I defeated Kyo, I was going back to my world anyway.

What if I couldn’t use this armor once I crossed back over? What if crossing over worlds would cause the name to become garbled in my status menu?

“With any luck, you’ll be able to use it back in your world too, so take good care of it. It won’t be good for my reputation if you treat it like it’s disposable.”

“Sure, right. So what do you call this armor anyway?”

I remember asking the old man at the weapon shop the same question.

Maybe it hadn’t been officially named yet, because it wasn’t displaying correctly in my status menu. Maybe I wasn’t good at assigning names.

“Kizuna suggested the name, actually. She said the last set was called Barbarian Armor, so maybe this should be called Barbaroi Armor.”

“The Barbaroi and the barbarians weren’t really the same thing though . . .”

There were differences, but I guess they were related. For a human-supremacist nation like Melromarc, the god of the demi-humans, the Shield Hero, might as well have been a barbarian deity.

The old man had probably named the armor that way on purpose. It was all a joke to him. In hindsight, it was the perfect set of armor for me.

Barbaroi Armor +2 (cursed)

 defense up: impact resistance (large): slash resistance (large): fire resistance (large): wind resistance (large): water resistance (large): earth resistance (large): HP recovery (low): magic recovery (weak): SP recovery (weak): magic power up (medium): dragon emperor revolt, four holy beasts power, magic defense processing, automatic self-repair, growth power.

There were tons of imbued effects. I’d lost shadow resistance, but I’d gained a ton of new resistances.

There were so many that it would take me a while to research them all. What would happen if I equipped it?

There was one other thing that bothered me. Why was there “cursed” after the name?

“It turned into a really specialized piece of equipment, so I don’t know if you’ll really be able to make good use of it. But I hope so, because if there are problems, I’ll have to remake it.”

“I’m not sure I want to ask, but what do you mean by ‘problems?’ Will I be able to take it off once I equip it?”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have that kind of problem, but it does lay a curse on whoever wears it. I had one of my assistants test it out, and it got pretty hairy there for a minute.”

“Feh . . .” Rishia whimpered in terror.

She was afraid of literally everything. Raphtalia on the other hand looked at the armor with lust in her eyes. Oh, Raph-chan was doing the same thing. I guess that's what you get when they share the same DNA.

“So shiny . . .” Filo muttered. She had that special look in her eyes—the kind that birds got when they found shiny objects to play with.

“Would you like to try it on?”

“Yeah, at least to test it. What do you mean it curses you?”

“I mean it breaks all of your ribs if you try to try it on.”

“That’s one evil curse!”

The armor was starting to sound downright vindictive. I didn’t want to put it on anymore.

“Should I just dispose of it then?”

But the effects were great. Wasn’t there some way we could remove the curse and keep the rest?

“Naofumi, you have really a high defense rating, don’t you? I think you’ll be able to use it without much trouble. That’s why I kept it for you. You might as well give it a try.”

“I didn’t realize I was signing up for a human experiment here.”

“With any luck, this will save your life in the next battle.”

She was right about that. I was pretty sure that the equipment I was currently using wasn’t going to be good enough for a showdown with Kyo.

Tsugumi had shattered my Shooting Star Shield barrier without much trouble at all, which made me think that I really needed to address some recent deficiencies in my stats. Improvement was necessary to survive the coming battle.

And this new armor was based on the design of my Barbarian Armor, which, despite some initial misgivings, I’d really grown attached to.

So I . . . Well . . . Hm . . . It was a very shiny set of armor, but it also kind of looked like it was surrounded by a dark aura. It was like . . . like the sort of change that came over me whenever I used the Shield of Wrath. Maybe.

“What if I try it on and it seriously injures me?”

“We’ll just have to rush to get you treated. I know a good doctor.”

“That isn’t what I wanted to hear. Oh well. I guess there’s no other choice.”

What was it they said? To catch a tiger, you have to go to its lair.

I’d have to rely on my defense rating to get in on, but with it on, I might not be able to unlock new shields.

“If it seems like it’s going to be a problem, take it off, alright?” Raphtalia said.

“I know, I know. You’re the one that looks all excited about it.”

I went to the changing room in the back of the workshop and tried it on.

It seemed fine. . .

But just when I thought there was nothing out of the ordinary, I noticed a flashing icon in my field of view. It said “cursed.” It wasn’t the same as the clock that appeared when I used the Shield of Wrath.

Aside from that though, there didn’t seem to be any other problems. I could tell that the armor was hugging me pretty tight, but with my defense rating, it didn’t feel any more dangerous than a tight belt.

“Well?”

“The size is actually perfect. It is squeezing a little tight in spots, but that’s about all.”

I wouldn’t exactly call it comfortable though. I couldn’t relax. I felt like the armor was looking for a way to take me down, like it would strike if I showed any weakness.

“My assistant had it on for only thirty seconds, and it broke his ribs. So, if it hasn’t hurt you yet, I think you’ll be fine.”

“I guess you’re a good craftsman, but can’t you make armor that isn’t cursed?”

The armor was fine for now, and when I looked at my stats, I was surprised to see just how high my defense rating had risen.

Maybe it was raising my defense rating by percentages or something. Regardless, its effect on my defense stats was far more impressive than any armor I’d seen yet.

It might have worked by multiplying the effect of my shield. Its overall effect was much better than trying to power-up the shields themselves.

“I’d like to see if it increases pressure on the wearer over time. Will you wear it until your departure, so that I can test my theory?”

“Sure.”

There she goes again—using me for her experiments.

“I also have that kigurumi.”

“Oh yeeeah . . .”

I’d nearly forgotten about Rishia’s favorite Filo kigurumi.

I was kind of afraid to see what she’d done with it. But I was surprised when she came back with not one, but two new pieces of equipment.

“I used it to make a new breastplate here. That and . . . well, leftovers, I guess.”

She showed us a pink breastplate shaped like Filo.

The first piece was a pink breastplate that must have been made with material from the chest area of the kigurumi, judging from Filo’s coloring. It also had golden yellow and blue accents, and looked like a refined, high-quality piece of craftsmanship.

“I was focused on the dual nature of her character when making it. The original materials were very strange, so it was actually harder to make this than it was to make the Barbaroi armor. I had to do all kind of research.”

“Wow!”

I was impressed. It looked great.

“What is it called?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Remember when they made a spectacle of Filo, calling her an angel?”

“Well ,. then how about we call it the Angel Breastplate?”

Angel Breastplate

 defense up: agility up (high): impact resistance (low): wind resistance (large): shadow resistance (low): HP recovery (low): magic power up (medium): automatic self-repair, towing ability up, carrying capacity up, awakening power.

It was like she made the breastplate with only the good parts of the Filo kigurumi.

It even looked good.

Judging from what I’d seen of her work so far, I was pretty impressed with Romina’s craftsmanship. That is, if I ignored the somewhat murderous intentions of the armor I was wearing.

“So let’s see what else we have here,” I said, unrolling the left over material from the Filo Kigurumi.

I stared at Romina, and she turned her eyes away from me.

It sure looked like she’d turned the remaining kigurumi materials into Filo pajamas. The head was turned into a hood. So I decided to call it just that, the Filo Pajamas.

Filo Pajamas

 defense up: agility up (high): impact resistance (low): wind resistance (large): shadow resistance (low): HP recovery (low): magic power up (medium): automatic self-repair, traction ability up, carrying capacity up, transforming, type change, hidden power, hidden weapon.

The problems when used in monster form, that the original kigurumi had, were gone completely. What did “hidden power ” mean though?

Did the pajamas change size when you put them on?

“You’ve really outdone yourself with this.”

“Usually, this is how things get degraded, passing through the hands of too many craftsmen.”

“I wonder if Mel-chan would like it?”

“She probably would,” I said. They were really good friends after all.

“Okay, so who is going to equip these things?”

I looked around the room at Raphtalia, Rishia, Filo, and at Raph-chan.

Glass and Kizuna might have been interested too, but they weren’t here now.

Maybe even L’Arc—he might like the pajamas. I’d like to have him try them on, just so I could see that awkward look on his face. If I included some gems, Therese might even be interested.

“I’d like the breastplate,” Raphtalia said.

“You have that miko outfit.”

“And it’s wonderful equipment, but . . .”

I imagined her wearing the breastplate, and compared it to how she looked in the miko outfit. There was no question that she would look better in the miko clothes.

L’Arc must have really used some money on it, as the miko outfit came with some wonderful equip effects.

It didn’t have a ton of abilities, but it wasn’t so lacking that I thought it was worth changing to something else.

She should really stick with the miko outfit—at the very least it was good for my eyes.

“Can’t you make some new miko clothes for Raphtalia with all these same effects? Can you make it in time?”

“Mr. Naofumi, you don’t need be so particular.”

She told me off again! Oh well. I couldn’t help it.

“L’Arc already requested clothes be made for Ms. Raphtalia here.”

Romina already had a miko outfit ready for her. Would the interior be lined with the White Tiger skin?

“I took some cloth I had made from the White Tiger skin and used it to form a miko outfit.”

What now? I couldn’t really appraise the item at all—but I could see its name.

White Tiger Miko Outfit

The colors had not changed much from the outfit she already had.

L’Arc, I have to say, knew what he was doing.

“So that takes care of your equipment, Raphtalia.”

Raphtalia sighed. “I don’t know why you think these clothes are so important, but fine.”

“Rafu!”

Raph-chan leapt across the room and hid inside of the new outfit’s sleeve, then poked her cute little face out from the opening.

Aww. She was so cute.

“Rafu!”

I patted her on the head.

“So both of these . . .”

Raphtalia and I looked over at Rishia and Filo.

Actually Filo didn’t need anything. Looks like we had more than enough.

“Feh . . .”

“What is it?”

Raphtalia and I started whispering.

“Which one do you think Rishia will pick if I ask her to choose?”

“I would assume she’d want the pajamas, no? She said she liked to hide her face, after all.”

I nodded.

“Right, okay then Rishia, you . . .”

“I wanna wear one too!” Filo said, raising her hand.

“You hate wearing armor, Filo.”

“Huh? But there are leftovers!”

She was right about that. The equipment was too big for Raph-chan, after all.

Or actually, maybe Raph-chan could wear the hood. It would probably look really good on her too. Or maybe I could get her a little teapot outfit, and make her look like Bunbuku Chagama .

Oh! I was getting excited just thinking about it.

On that same line of thought, maybe I could get a Santa hat for Chris. Then he’d look just like Pekkul!

“Mr. Naofumi, are you paying attention?”

“Of course I am.”

“You’re acting a little strange. Why are you staring at Raph-chan like that?”

Oh no! She caught me in the act. She could always tell what I was thinking.

“Which one do you want to wear, Filo?”

I had to steer the conversation back on course. Otherwise Raphtalia would keep trying to read my mind.

“This one!”

She pointed to the Filo Pajamas.

I looked over at Rishia, “What do you think, Rishia?”

“Feh. . .”

“You want something you can use to hide your face, right? Filo wants the pajamas, but I can tell her no.”

“But!”

“Fehhhhh!”

“Are you two arguing?”

Alto came walking over from behind Romina’s counter.

So he was here too. I’d totally forgotten about him since he hadn’t shown his face yet.

“I think it will look better on Filo. The breastplate will do more good on this lady anyway.”

“Oh yeah? For a merchant, you aren’t so good at identifying the real problem.”

“What’s that supposed to mean ?! ” he shouted.

“Listen up. Rishia is a shy weirdo. She wants the pajamas because she can use the hood to hide her face. We’re trying to figure out how to divvy up the equipment, but you have to know that about Rishia to understand why it’s complicated.”

He was right in some ways. I mean, if we were going to choose by what looked best, then Rishia should definitely go with the breastplate and Filo should take the pajamas. But considering Rishia’s particular needs, it would probably be best to give her the pajamas and ask Filo to make do with the breastplate.

“Fehhh ?! ”

How many times did I have to tell her not to scream like that?

“Can’t she make do with the breastplate?”

“I doubt it. Rishia would be so embarrassed that she probably wouldn’t be able to focus on the battle at all.”

“Is that so? It sort of looked like you were trying to force the pajamas on Rishia, you know?”

“How dare you. I’m just trying to do what’s best for her.”

“Try all you want, Filo’s already wearing the pajamas.”

“What ?! ”

“Ta-da!”

Filo was standing there in human form, proudly wearing the pajamas. She actually sort of looked her age in them.

“I feel so . . . so alive!”

I hesitantly checked on her stats.

What ?! Filo’s stats had suffered so much when we crossed over to the new world that I hadn’t been able to depend on her for anything. But all her stats had shot through the roof!

What was going on ?!

Then I remembered the list of the kigurumi’s effects.

Was this all because of the type change and shield adjustments?

I recalled a similar effect when Rishia wore the thing.

She’d lost all those boosts when we crossed between worlds, so I guess it was safe to assume that we’d gotten those effects back by remaking the kigurumi here.

“All the more reason to give it to Rishia. Filo, take that thing off! Rishia needs it more than you do.”

“But!” Filo shouted, and quickly turned into her humming falcon form.

When she did, the pajamas changed along with her and the hood rested on her head as she flew around.

“You idiot! Damn! If it can transform like that, then I should have given it to Raph-chan!”

“Um . . . Excuse me! I will take the breastplate, if that’s alright,” Rishia said.

“Mr. Naofumi, please calm down!”

“I didn’t work very hard on the pajamas, but I suppose I’m glad to see you’re fighting over them . . .” Romina sighed, “Maybe it says something about the quality of my work.”

“It’s tough working with customers from other worlds, isn’t it? Remember all the trouble you had with Kizuna?”

“Well she was very particular about her fishing rod.”

Romina and Alto reminisced absentmindedly as we bickered in front of them.

They finally agreed that Rishia would take the breastplate and Filo would take the pajamas.

That stupid bird. Eventually I’d get those pajamas from her and give them to Raph-chan.

Filo! You better stay on your guard.

Chapter Eight: Two Swords

I glared at Filo so she’d know I was serious. Romina and Alto went behind the counter to bring out more weapons.

“Huh? There’s more?

“Yeah, L’Arc had a number of requests, so I did what I could.”

“Wow!”

“Alto put a lot of work in too, so you’d better be grateful.”

I couldn’t help but notice that they didn’t bother to prepare any shields for me. I suppose it wasn’t worth complaining about though . . .

“So what do you have?”

“Naofumi and Raphtalia can just copy what we’ve made here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then try these on for size,” Romina said, and brought out two katana. They were both stored in ornate sheathes. You could tell with a single glance that they were fantastic swords made by a master craftsman. With the appraisal ability I had, I could only see their names.

White Tiger Katana

 Vermilion Bird Kodachi

“These are . . .”

“I made one of them and sold it a long time ago. We have it back, on loan, for now. You can see that it was made with materials from the four holy beasts, which are exceptionally rare. I was lucky to even get the chance to work on it.”

Romina mostly worked on things for Glass, Kizuna, and L’Arc. So, she probably didn’t get to work on swords very often.

“She really worked hard on it,” Alto said.

Romina picked up the White Tiger Katana and pulled it from its sheath. It slipped out with a sharp sound, and it seemed like something flew out of the blade when it whipped past us.

The blade itself was white, polished like a mirror, and the arc of the blade made it appear wider than it really was. It seemed like it was full of light. In fact, I think that it was.

“I think it’s very impressive, but what do you think?”

“I agree.”

It was the sort of blade that you’d get as special equipment in an RPG, like a M uramasa or a Masamune sword. They were normally some of the best weapons in the game.

And these had been made from materials from the four holy beasts!

Were they even able to do that back in the last world?

“The materials are really quite difficult to work with, honestly. It took a while for me to really understand how to use them.”

“How so?”

“Well, I used the skin and bones of the White Tiger. If you add some of the bone to the metal, it will add some effects. The strength of the blade ends up becoming so powerful that you can hurt yourself just swinging it, so there were all sorts of problems.”

“Wow . . .”

“This was the first sword I had managed to craft from it. I still had some materials, so I worked on weapons for Glass and the others, too.”

Did that mean that Glass’s weapons were made out of materials from the four holy beasts? They hadn’t seemed that way to me before but . . .

“They’re still very difficult to work with. I think that Glass first learned how to use Reverse Snow Moon Flower when she equipped the fan made with White Tiger materials.”

That was why she was so strong—her equipment had been better than ours.

“I think she’s using the Demon Dragon Fan these days. She says it’s simpler to use in actual battle situations.”

“Do you have any of those materials?”

“Unfortunately not. I made it from the dragon emperor materials that Kizuna got after defeating him. Only certain blacksmiths are even permitted to work with the stuff,” Romina said, then pointed at my armor, “Kizuna’s fishing rod is made out of material one level down on the quality scale.”

That sounded like a pretty convenient material to work with.

So far all the equipment she was giving us was the same color, a dark shade of black. I was starting to wonder why, but I guess it’s because they were all made out of the same stuff.

“I used it when I made that armor for you too, Naofumi. The Azure Dragon has yet to appear and its location is unknown, so I had to make that part out of the demon dragon materials. And the dragon emperor core stone too.”

“So you didn’t make a shield?”

“I would have made one if I had the time. I didn’t have much material to work with either.”

I wasn’t going to complain, considering how much time and effort she had put into making all these things for us. I was just grateful that I had such a talented blacksmith working for me at all.

I’d have to get a shield some other way. I didn’t want to rely on the Shield of Wrath.

“Of course the katana should go to Raphtalia.”

“Yes,” Romina said, sliding the White Tiger Katana back into its sheath and passing it to Raphtalia.

There was a crackle when she touched it, like static electricity shocking her fingertip, but she gripped the sword tightly and nodded to Romina. Then she changed her vassal weapon katana into the White Tiger Katana.

That was how the weapon copy system worked. Instead of building a new weapon from materials you gathered, we could copy weapons we found in shops just by touching them.

I could do it with my shield, and now Raphtalia could do it because her katana was a vassal weapon.

“So this is the White Tiger Katana. It’s remarkable. I am just leveled enough to unlock it,” she said as she drew the blade. Her hand was shaking.

The blade must have been very heavy. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead with the effort required to wield it.

“How is it?”

“I’ve unlocked the ability to use it, but I don’t think I’m strong enough to wield it well.”

I hadn’t really worried about it too much, but I had shields that were like that too.

Sometimes the skills you needed to unlock something weren’t the same skills you needed to use it well. I had never given too much thought to it—that gap between the ability to equip something and the ability to use it well.

Glass had mentioned a similar problem too. It was an issue you ran into more often when you got better weapons.

“I guess we’ll just have to level up a bit on the way.”

“What kind of skills does it have?”

“Hmm . . . The abilities, right? It has Double Sword.”

That was one of the better abilities.

Raphtalia released her grip on the blade, and another blade appeared floating in the air before her.

She couldn’t hold them both up at the same time, so she held them at her sides and the tips of the blades sliced easily into the ground.

“Hey, don’t go slicing up my workshop.”

“I’m sorry, but they are very heavy.”

“Can’t you switch to a different weapon, at least for now?”

“Um . . .” Raphtalia concentrated. The sword in her hand transformed into something else. Only the sword in her right hand changed to something lighter. Her left hand still held the White Tiger Katana.

Hey, hey! That was an awesome ability!

“Raphtalia, sheathe the sword in your left hand.”

“Alright,” she said, sliding the blade into its sheath. She still held the lighter blade in her right hand.

She could use two weapons at once now. Even though she didn’t always have to have both of them out, she could keep two different swords equipped and switch them out on the fly. Furthermore, she could have one sword out while the other sword charged up for a haikuikku attack in the sheath. It was heavy, and hard to wield, but it was going to make a huge difference once she learned how to use it.

“What should I do with this katana?”

So she wouldn’t accidently cut anyone down, she switched one of them into a bamboo trainer sword. But she was worried about what to do with the blade in her right hand.

“I guess I better make another sheath for that one.”

She’d have to rush and make it quickly, but it would be worth it.

“Ok, next up is the Vermilion Bird Kodachi,” Romina said, handing the next sword to Raphtalia, who quickly used weapon copy on it.

“Man, vassal weapons sure are convenient. You can get a new weapon for yourself just by touching it.”

“Yeah. If you could actually produce the weapon instead of just changing it, you could reproduce weapons endlessly.”

“Right? I’ve thought about that too!” Alto said.

Romina looked concerned, “And that would be the end of my business.”

Hm? Oh right, that was actually a good point. I sure wouldn’t like it if someone found a way to make unlimited potions and medicines. Then again, even if the price dropped, I’d be sure to sell more. So maybe it wouldn’t have that much of an impact on my business.

If it was an ability of mine that allowed it, it would actually make my job easier.

“It wouldn’t bother me. With more products come more sales.”

“I thought you might say that. You really might be better at this than Alto.”

“And what makes you think that?”

“Um . . . I don’t seem to be able to use this one yet.”

Hm . . . It must have been a really impressive weapon.

“At least you have it though. Just switch to something you can use for now.”

“Oh well. Regardless, it seems like I’ll have to do some leveling to make use of these.”

“Maybe, but don’t forget, we’re heading back to our world once we accomplish what we came here to do. Levels we gain here won’t be much use in the long term.”

They would disappear.

“That’s true. But do you think that I’ll be able to bring this with me?”

“. . .”

I really didn’t know.

If she couldn’t let go of the vassal weapon, after we went back to the previous world, if a wave happened in this world, she might disappear before my eyes. I didn’t want that to happen.

“Um . . . Mr. Naofumi?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll talk to Therese and Glass and make sure we figure out a way for you to get rid of it.”

My shield worked the same way—it was like a curse.

It was great that she had this wonderful equipment, but we needed to think about what that meant in the long term.

“It’s so shiny!” Filo shouted. She tended to get excited by shiny objects.

“We’re just borrowing it, so I guess I can’t give it to Rishia for the battle?”

“Sorry, but I don’t think I can allow that,” Alto apologized.

I didn't care. Maybe we could steal it and get away with it.

But if Raphtalia couldn’t even use it, and couldn’t even switch to it yet, then what chance would Rishia have of making use of it? Besides, I didn’t know anyone else that fought with a sword.

“Because we’ve already chosen who will use it,” Alto said.

“What? Who?”

“A friend of Kizuna’s will use it for the coming battle.”

I guess we couldn’t steal it then. Oh well.

But would this friend of Kizuna’s even be able to use it?

It was pretty confusing. If you couldn’t power-up the way that holders of the vassal weapons did, the weapon wouldn’t be as powerful.

“As for materials, come check these out,” Romina said. She took out a collection of materials everyone had collected over time, and I absorbed them into my shield.

And it unlocked a few shields, one of which was from the White Tiger material. The collection of materials wasn’t complete, so for now, all I had was stuff like the White Tiger Pelt Shield.

If only we had the blood and flesh too.

By the way, the stats were excellent.

White Tiger Pelt Shield conditions met!

 White Tiger Fang Shield conditions met!

 White Tiger Bone Shield conditions met!

 Etc . . .

White Tiger Pelt Shield

 abilities locked: equip bonus: Awareness Boost (medium)

 special effects: agility up (strong), impact absorption (medium), parry (medium), support nullification, Wind Pressure.

White Tiger Fang Shield

 abilities locked: equip bonus SP 30

 special effects: agility up (strong), parry (medium), support nullification, wind pressure, White Tiger Fang.

I didn’t like the support nullification effect; it could really affect my role in battle.

As for wind pressure, it was an effect that triggered when I changed shields. It formed a wall of wind. If that wall was powerful enough to block magic and attacks, then I might have been a bit more excited—but it wasn’t. It was just a mild breeze, not good for much. On top of that, it was really loud from where I stood, and it sort of hurt my ears.

The abilities were—if I’m remembering correctly—a bit better than the Soul Eater Shield.

But that support nullification! That was a problem.

Still, after trying it out I have to say that the agility boost was very impressive, and the parry effect was excellent when I pulled it off properly. The shields had great effects too, but they were going to be tough to use.

The Fang Shield had a counter attack. I always liked shields with counter attacks.

But both shields had that support nullification issue.

After those shields, I also received some shields in the Vermilion Bird and Black Tortoise series. But I wasn’t strong enough to unlock a lot of them.

Was my level not high enough? This wasn’t a game, but did I need to level up before the boss?

“And this is just some of the material . . .” Romina said, passing me some black scales and bones and a piece of dragon core that I’d seen before.

I tried putting them into the shield. But the shield sparked and crackled. What was going on? That had never happened before.

Locked.

“It just says that it’s locked, but . . .”

Then I realized , I hadn’t tried to use dragon-type shields since I’d arrived in this world. At first, I’d thought, I couldn’t access them because of my level, but now I wasn’t sure what was going on.

“It’s not working?”

“I guess not.”

Raphtalia absorbed the same materials into her weapon, and she was able to change her katana into a dark, black blade—similar to the weapons that Glass and the others were using.

“Wow! This is incredible! It seems so easy to use, and it doesn’t require a very high level.”

Why? I was getting jealous!

What was the reason for this? Why can’t I do the same thing?

Hm . . . I guess I did have an idea.

My shield wasn’t a weapon from this world. So, it unlocked and produced different things than it would if it were from this world. Considering that, it wasn’t too surprising that there were shields I wouldn’t be able to unlock.

Still, I’d been able to use all sorts of shields, so why was it now suddenly locking anything related to dragons? I had no idea.

Suddenly I felt a pulse run through my shield and armor.

“What?”

My shield crackled and shook in my hand. And then . . .

Demon Dragon Shield conditions met!

A single shield unlocked.

Demon Dragon Shield

 abilities locked: equip bonus: skill: “Attack Support”

 special effect: Dragon Scale (large), C Demon Bullet, all resistances (medium), magic power consumption reduction (weak), SP consumption reduction (weak).

The stats were excellent, and it didn’t have any weird conditions to deal with. It would be easy to use.

And it had these reductions and increased all resistances too. Taken all together, it was probably the most well-rounded shield yet. I could switch to it whenever I was in trouble.

And it didn’t require a high level to use either. This shield was awesome!

“Erm . . .”

“What is it, Filo?”

Filo muttered to herself. She was staring at the shield. Raph-chan cocked her head in confusion, not understanding why Filo was acting the way that she was.

“I dunno, but . . . I feel kind of sick.”

“You probably have heartburn from eating like a pig all this time.”

I wondered what Attack Support was.

I said, “attack support,” and a small, pointed object appeared in my hand.

I held it and looked at it carefully.

It looked like a tiny dart—there was a triangular arrowhead at its tip. It looked like might be made for throwing.

Then it vanished. Is that what this skill did? Make a small mystery dart that vanished in a few seconds? The cool down time was a little long, taking about thirty seconds.

I had no idea what it was used for, but I’d have to try it out later.

“Looks like everyone’s weapons share a sort of unity.”

“Looks that way.”

“Thank you for putting all this together.”

“Oh it’s fine. Besides, you’re out there fighting for me and everyone else. Consider it my thanks for finding and freeing Kizuna,” Romina said, smiling,

Alto added, “If you hadn’t found her, Kizuna would probably have been lost forever. Thank you again. I’m sure that Glass and L’Arc feel more gratitude to you than they can express.”

“Well it just sort of happened by chance.”

I had fallen into the enemy’s trap and just happened to end up in the same place as Kizuna. I didn’t really deserve all this gratitude for it. Though, I guess I did help get her out of that place.

“Anyway, aren’t you about to head into a really tough battle? Leave the weapons up to me! You get out there and do what you came here to do!”

That’s right. It was nearly time for our battle with Kyo.

There was a war going on. We had find Kyo, where he hid in the shadows of the enemy nation, and make him pay for what he’d done.

We were finished with our preparations, and it was time to depart.

The next day, we were making our way to the castle, and found Kizuna and her friends, Ethnobalt, and Yomogi waiting for us.

Tsugumi was supposed to stay behind and rest, but she was there too—standing with crutches.

“Alright, let’s get going.”

“Are we taking the boat vassal weapon as far as we can?”

“Yes. Let’s board.”

“We need to talk strategy. Keep in mind that the vassal weapon holders and the holy heroes are battling together now.”

Yomogi’s hand curled into a fist when she heard that. Considering the circumstances, it was now very clear that Kyo was the true enemy, but a part of her still wanted to believe in him. Kizuna said, “After we find Kyo, maybe we can talk to him, get some answers . . . but then again, that might not work out so well. But, if he’s defeated, Naofumi will take the protective beast’s energy back, then we can put an end to this war.”

“You make it sound so simple. Is that all we need to do?”

Something bothered me.

Kyo was a coward. He was the sort to set a bunch of traps and avoid battle for as long as he could. I’m not saying that I’m like him, but I felt like I could imagine what he would do if I thought about it.

I looked over at Glass.

I couldn’t help but get the feeling that we were missing something—something we needed to defeat him.

I remembered when Rishia threw her sword and it had sunk deep into him—that hadn’t been enough to finish him off. He was a monster.

Even if we used Glass and L’Arc’s best attacks, would that be enough to take care of him?

Another thing: whenever I thought of Kyo, Trash #2 popped into my mind. They were so similar. I remembered him screaming and calling for our deaths, even after we had told him that he’d die if he moved. Why did he do that?

And why were none of Trash #2’s gaggle of women spirits, like Glass?

Huh? Did I just notice something?

There weren’t any Spirits in the group.

Why not? I think there were some the first time we fought, but now they were gone.

“Kizuna, can we just identify all of the attackers from the last fight for minute?”

“Uh . . . Sure.”

I turned to look at Trash #2’s group of women.

“You all liked this guy, right? Why aren’t there any Spirits in the group?”

“There were, before, but they went missing. We looked for them, but we never found them.”

Hm. I felt like a piece of the puzzle had just fallen into place.

“Glass.”

“Yes?”

“Spirits aren’t ghosts, right? They’re not souls, are they?”

“No. There are some similarities, but we are different.”

“Kizuna, there are ghosts in this world, right?”

“Yes. I told you about our fight with the ghost ship, didn’t I?”

Who knows what to make of ghosts and souls? Regardless, it was clear they existed in this world too. If Kyo was the sort of person that I thought he was, he would definitely research them.

“Question: Glass, can Spirits like you see ghosts and souls?”

“Yes, certainly more easily than normal people can, but you can see them too if you use your shikigami.”

“What are you getting at?” one of the women in Trash #2’s group asked.

Glass looked just as confused as they did.

“I was thinking that, when your beloved man died, what if the Spirits that were with you went chasing after his soul?”

“Yes, well . . . there are certainly many Spirits that don’t believe life ends with the death of the body.”

I was right. I had to be right, but there was still something off.

“Can I ask what Kyo does with the people he captures? This world has its own special crimes, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. There would certainly be problems if the people you killed came back as undead zombies, or as ghosts . . .”

Glass suddenly realized what I was saying. Yomogi and Tsugumi did too.

“I think you may be correct. And there’s a good chance that Kyo got rid of the guy you loved, so you’d better prepare yourselves for that.”

Tears came into the women’s eyes, and they turned away from me.

“But if you are so heartbroken that you don’t care if you live or die, you are just creating a nuisance for everyone. I’m not saying he’ll be an undead zombie. But if I’m right, then . . .” I explained what sort of research I thought Kyo was carrying out.

“I heard a similar idea once, a long time ago. But could it really be?”

“I think so. And I played an action game like that before. If you don’t know when you’re going to die, it makes sense to have a line of defense ready,” Kizuna said.

“Aren’t you taking this all a bit far? You’re talking about fairytales now!” L’Arc said.

“You’ve been chosen to wield a vassal weapon, and you’re worried about fairytales? Besides, half of the stuff that happens in this world is straight out of a fairytale.”

None of this stuff could happen back in the Japan I knew, but I was in a fantasy world now.

L’Arc wasn’t convinced, but I was.

Now, we just had to break into Kyo’s laboratory to get the proof.

We had to prepare for the siege.

We boarded Ethnobalt’s boat and took off.

For the first part of the journey, we rode on the mysterious lines that linked the dragon hourglasses. Along the way we ran into occasional groups of flying monsters, and even some enemy soldiers. Thanks to the new accessories I gave to Glass and L’Arc, we were able to defeat them all easily.

The journey was so easy it almost made me worry.

We traveled like that for three days when we found it.

“That’s Kyo’s laboratory over there,” Yomogi said, pointing to the sky above an area of foggy, misty forest.

“Where? Maybe I just can’t see it through all the mist, but it just looks like forest to me.”

“You can’t see it from the outside.”

“We can’t take the boat much deeper into the fog. It’s too dangerous,” Ethnobalt said.

“The mist confuses all who enter. We would certainly become lost within it, if it were not for this bell,” Yomogi said, showing us a small bell.

I hadn’t heard of this special bell yet, but it sounded really important.

Then again, he had been using Yomogi this whole time—maybe her bell wouldn’t work either.

“With this bell, we should be able to see the laboratory shortly after entering the fog.”

“Then I guess we better get going.”

“Very well,” Ethnobalt said.

Yomogi rang the bell.

The boat lurched forward into the fog and mist.

“. . . ?”

Raphtalia looked concerned, but we kept pressing forward. Yomogi continued to ring the bell, and it chimed through the mist.

But then the mist cleared for a moment, and we discovered that we had returned to the place where we originally entered it.

“Weren’t we just here?”

“No, it can’t be! We must have made a mistake. Let’s just try it again,” Yomogi said.

Ethnobalt turned the boat back into the fog.

Once again, a few moments later, the fog cleared and we were right back where we started.

If I were Kyo, I would have done the same thing. I said, “I guess that bell of yours doesn’t work anymore.”

“But I . . . Kyo . . .”

We were stuck. Stuck right before the enemy’s hideout. He really did have a good place set up for himself. Even if they lost the war, he’d be safe in there, safe to go infect some other country for his purposes.

“Isn’t there something we can do to get rid of all this fog?”

“Sure there is,” I said, showing a bioplant seed to Kizuna.

“Naofumi, you can’t be serious . . .” she said, her face pale.

“I am. We set the stats to make it reproduce quickly, then seed the whole forest. The bioplants will take over in a couple of days. Then what good will this forest do him?”

“But you’ll throw the whole ecosystem off balance. What if it spreads over the whole continent?”

That was something to worry about. But we had to find some way to get to Kyo.

We needed to try something, and this was my best idea. Once we took care of Kyo, we could try using it on the war front too.

“There is a chance that it could pollute the continent, but if it looks like it’s going to be a problem, we’ll just have to use magic to burn them all up. We have weed killer too, if we need it.”

Besides, when the bioplants spread, they always had a central tree that controlled the rest of them. If we took care of the master tree, we could get rid of them all in one blow. When I chose the bioplant stats, I could program a weakness into it that we could exploit later on.

“I don’t know. I really don’t think we should use that.”

“There you go, moralizing again. So what’s your plan? I mean, if you know something I don’t, then by all means, tell us how to fix this.”

“But what about the environment?”

Kizuna and I were really snapping at each other now. Behind us Raphtalia and Raph-chan raised their hands.

“Excuse me. Can we try something?”

“You have an idea?”

“Yes. Ethnobalt, please proceed as I tell you.”

“Rafuuu!”

“Very well.”

Our flying ship turned, and once again entered the mist.

After we had flown a little way in . . .

“To the right—now to the left! Yes! Now just keep going straight,” Raphtalia explained.

Ethnobalt listened to Raphtalia and Raph-chan’s instructions, and kept the boat on the course they indicated.

“Angle it to the right. Yes, and now backwards.”

“Backwards?”

“Very well.”

He did as Raphtalia indicated and angled the ship so it would go backwards.

We slipped out of the fog again, but now we found ourselves somewhere new. The wall of fog stood imposing before us, but there was something new jutting out of it: an imposing building. We’d made it.

“Whoa! We did it!”

“The mist reminded me of the illusion magic I’ve been practicing. I suspected there might be a particular path through it, and I was able to find it,” Raphtalia told us.

So it was a maze . . .

It was sending us back to the start every time we hit one of its invisible walls.

Raphtalia and Raph-chan could find a way through because they were good with illusion magic. A lost woods gimmick wasn’t going to work with them on our side!

“Alright, we found the lab, thanks to Raphtalia! Let’s go finish this!”

“Yeah!” everyone shouted in unison.

Ethnobalt piloted the boat into the building’s courtyard, and we found ourselves facing the entrance to Kyo’s secret laboratory.

Chapter Nine: Kyo’s Laboratory

“So this is Kyo’s laboratory . . .”

It looked like an old, very Western-style mansion, which was weird, because this whole country looked Japanese otherwise.

From the look of it, I expected to find his hideout down in a hidden basement chamber.

“This way,” Yomogi said, taking the lead. She had spent a lot of time there, but . . .

“I don’t see any of the rest of Trash #2’s women. If we run into them, I have a lot of questions I’ll want answered.”

“They probably know that we’re here.”

I looked around the courtyard, then agreed.

“They might have been sent out on a mission too. Or maybe they evacuated.”

There was another possibility, but I didn ’t want to think about it.

Could he have sacrificed the women for his experiments? No . . .

“Those with a taste for blood might have been sent out to the war front. But he didn’t bring everyone here to begin with.”

“No?”

“Kyo only brings people he really trusts here. He helps all sorts of people, but he doesn’t like it when people go poking around in his business.”

Of course he doesn ’t; he has a lot to hide. He was like the best student in school, but lived a double life.

“So only Kyo’s most trusted companions know about this place. At least, that’s what I thought,” Yomogi said bitterly. She’d thought she was special.

So we weren ’t going to be able to use the women as hostages, they were all in this together. Kyo must have brainwashed them, just like he had Tsugumi and Yomogi.

“Whatever. As long as Kyo is here, we can carry out our plan. If he isn’t, we raid his laboratory for what we can use in the war, then destroy it.”

After all, he might have run away if he knew we were coming.

“Grrr . . .”

“Don’t you forget, you are helping an enemy nation. You’re not operating on your own, you’re a soldier for us now.”

Yomogi curled her hand into a fist, “That’s cowardly!”

“You don’t think it’s cowardly to try and take control over another country?”

There were people like that, people that believed you could do anything, as long as you thought you were right. It was a convenient, opportunistic way to live. It reminded me of Itsuki.

“Kiddo. Give it a rest, will you? We’ll know the truth once we get in there and find it.”

“Good point.”

I had barely finished my sentence when the roar of a beast echoed through the courtyard.

I quickly turned to the source of the roar, and found myself looking at the same White Tiger copies that Trash #2 had been researching. There was also a red bird, which I ’m guessing was a vermilion bird, and a black tortoise with a snake for a tail.

“Gahhhh!”

Then there were people , people that looked like they had been merged with beasts and were on the verge of insanity. The beast side of their bodies was much larger than the human side, and it had nearly taken them over completely. Their eyes were fierce and wild, and saliva dangled from their gaping mouths.

“There’s the truth for you right there. Kyo isn’t trying to hide it. Looks like we are too late for some of them. Kizuna, can you help them?”

“I don’t know, but I can try.”

Yomogi frowned, “Kyo, how could you do something like this?” She drew the katana that Kizuna had given her.

We were going to support her in battle.

“Let’s go!”

“Gahhhh!”

The beasts roared like a gong initiating battle, and they rushed us. We met them head on, and the battle began in earnest.

“Damn. The beast side had taken over too much. My weapon doesn’t see them as human anymore.”

Kizuna had tried to slice off the beast half of the enemy, bur the holy weapon no longer distinguished between their human and beast parts. That meant that Kizuna was now the strongest attacker in the group.

I ’d seen her abilities before, when we were traveling together. She was so strong that it was like being able to fire off Reverse Snow Moon Flower at no cost and with minimal cool down at any time. As long as she wasn’t fighting other humans, she was a real monster on the battlefield.

She flew through the crowd, slicing them down. When they fell, they looked like they were saying something.

Kizuna, Glass, and Raphtalia had tears in their eyes.

“What is it?”

“They . . . Before they die, they thank me.”

“Dammit! They’re really making this hard!” L’Arc shouted. As understanding dawned on him, he hesitated to fight.

I blocked an attack with my shield and nodded.

“Don’t sympathize or you’ll end up dead. There’s nothing we can do for them now.”

We had a choice between people we could save and people we couldn ’t. I wish we were strong enough to save everyone, but we weren’t.

“Kizuna, you know what’s going on here, don’t you? Back in the world I was summoned to, the Spirit Tortoise familiars infected people like parasites. We couldn’t save them. Some of that might have been the Spirit Tortoise’s doing, but the other half . . .”

She nodded.

“I had really only understood half of your story until now .”

“Kiddo’s world took a really hard beating. You’re right. We weren’t ready.”

“If you still want to try and save them, try to knock them out of the battle, at least.”

Actually they regenerated very quickly, so unless we sliced all their limbs off, they regenerated and came back after us.

There weren ’t any good options.

“Uh . . .” Filo muttered. She looked unnerved. She never was very good with this kind of thing.

I knew how she felt, but we didn ’t have a choice.

“Ha!” Raphtalia swung her sword, then slid it back into its sheath. Then she drew her other sword and dashed through the crowd of encroaching monsters. “Mr. Naofumi is right! We cannot forgive the monster that did this! We must press forward!”

The monsters around her fell to the ground.

She was right. If we hesitated, we ’d be done for. And if we didn’t make it, there would be no one left to stop Kyo.

L ’Arc sighed, “The path forward is covered in blood, but if it means the people’s happiness then we have no choice but to wade through it. I didn’t think the day would come when I’d be learning something from you, Kiddo.”

“Don’t confuse it for wisdom. I just do what I have to, and when someone tries to kill me, I take them out first.”

If I didn ’t, that would be the end.

I ’d done it plenty of times. The Church of the Three Heroes tried to assassinate me. L’Arc and his friends tried to assassinate me. The Spirit Tortoise tried to kill everyone to make a magic barrier.

I had to defeat them all, otherwise there would be no future for me.

I ’m not saying that I didn’t have regrets.

But if we didn ’t keep moving forward, we’d never repay the debt we had to all those who had already lost their lives.

“The reason for Ost’s death is right here. We’ve come to repay that. The enemy might make it hard on us, but there is no going back.”

“That’s just like you, Kiddo. I like it.” L’Arc readied his scythe.

“Agreed. I like it too,” Ethnobalt said, turning his vassal weapon into a much smaller boat.

What was he going to do?

“I may not be the strongest fighter here, but I’ll do what I can to support the rest of you.”

He turned the boat ’s cannons on the encroaching enemy.

“All Cannons Fire!”

There was a deafening blast, and everything went white.

I ’d heard that Ethnobalt’s abilities were very weak, that his attacks were basically useless. And after all the cannons fired, the results supported all that I’d heard.

The monsters and transformed humans turned and smacked the cannonballs down, as if they were nothing but mosquitoes. Ethnobalt rose higher into the air on his boat and waved to us.

“I’ll keep them distracted! Please, hurry on!”

“But . . .” Kizuna stretched out her arm to him, but he was too far away to touch.

The vermilion bird copies could fly, and the white tiger copies were jumping on ledges and trees and swiping at the boat from below. The black tortoise copies were wresting boulders from the ground and throwing them at the flying boat.

I didn ’t want to leave him there. It was like leaving a rabbit surrounded by wild beasts.

“I’ll be alright. I have a vassal weapon, don’t I? Let me do this! I’ll do my best!”

“Ethnobalt!”

“Pen!” Chris bounded forward and leaped onto a white tiger copy, and then a vermilion bird copy, then jumped up onto the stern of the boat.

“Chris.”

“Pen!” he waved down to Kizuna, as if to say, “Leave this to me.”

“Naofumi, please. Protect Kizuna for me.”

“Fine.”

“Feh . . . Are we really leaving him?”

“Yes. Kizuna—let’s go!”

“But!”

“We don’t have the time to sit around entertaining these monsters! Kyo could get away!”

Ethnobalt made up his mind to help us. I had to respect his resolve. And he had Chris with him. If things went south, I hoped he ’d be able to escape.

“Now’s our chance. Let’s go! Let Ethnobalt do what he wants!”

We all ran toward the mansion.

Looking back, I saw Ethnobalt luring the monsters out toward the woods. He was waving to us.

Inside the mansion, it smelled like someone had been there recently. It looked that way too, like someone had set up and been living there for a while.

“You said he only brings his most trusted companions here, right?”

Yomogi nodded, “Yes, and there are deeper chambers of the mansion. He’s more selective about who gets to go in there.”

“He sounds like a typical wizard or alchemist. He must get obsessed with his research.”

“You’re absolutely correct—that’s exactly how he was. I’m confused by why a hero from another world knows so much about Kyo.”

“It’s just a guess.”

I had my sources. I often read about these crazy scientist type characters in manga, or ran into them in games. But Kyo didn ’t match up with those characters exactly. There were still things about him I didn’t understand.

It was like he really thought that his ideas were amazing, and he wanted nothing more than to make sure they became reality.

“Damn. It’s locked.”

“Where’s the key?”

“Right here,” Yomogi said, pulling a key from her pocket and inserting it into the keyhole.

As expected, it didn’t work.

“Were you and Kyo friends or what?”

“What? This key always opened the door!”

She hadn ’t been right about anything yet.

I ’d seen this kind of thing before. Yomogi was the only one in that relationship that thought they were friends—for Kyo it had all been an act.

“Calm down. You know what to do in a situation like this, don’t you L’Arc? Kizuna?”

“Right on!” L’Arc smiled. He knew what I was hinting at.

“Puzzle solving!” Kizuna chirped.

Unfortunately for her, in this case she was wrong.

“Kizuna, you can go hang out in a game world if that’s what you want. And don’t bother coming back.”

“Hey!” she scowled.

I snapped my fingers, and L ’Arc swung his scythe hard, splintering the door.

At least someone understood what I was saying.

“This thing is tougher than I thought.”

“Let’s grab it on our way out. We can probably make a decent weapon out of it.”

“Kiddo, that’s not what I was trying to say . . .”

“Ah . . .”

“Oh come on already . . .” Glass sighed, clearly annoyed.

Raphtalia was confused by everyone ’s behavior, “Shall I slice up the remains of the door a little more cleanly, so they can be easily collected on our way out?”

“Raphtalia ?! ” Kizuna jumped, surprised by Raphtalia’s response.

Raphtalia could be very matter-of-fact about these things.

“Did I say something strange?”

“We don’t have time for that. Let’s just knock this place down!” L’Arc shouted.

He clearly understood the situation.

And he was right. We didn ’t have time to go snooping around collecting things.

“You want to solve puzzles, but that would imply that there are puzzles to solve. You think he left behind keys for us to find? I doubt it!”

Who would do something like that? He ’d have to be crazy to leave clues for invaders to come find him.

No—we were going to break down all the doors, find Kyo, and make him pay.

That ’s why Chris and Ethnobalt had stayed behind—to draw the enemy’s attention.

We just had to smoke him out.

“Actually, knocking down this mansion isn’t such a bad idea. But Yomogi still wants to believe in him, so we snuck in. Let’s just keep moving.”

Yomogi didn ’t like that we’d destroyed the door. She muttered, “If Kyo is innocent, you better pay for that.”

“Sure.”

If there was any grey area left in how Yomogi saw Kyo, it must have been damn near close to black.

The time had come.

“I’m good with this kind of thing.”

“I bet you are. You like to break things.”

“Kiddo, if you think that’s my only talent, you’re very wrong.”

“What else are you good at? You’re not going to pretend to be a strategist now, are you?”

“Well, now that you mention it, I am pretty good . . .”

He was getting harder and harder to take seriously.

“I like adventures, you know?”

“Oh . . . do you now?”

What was I supposed to say? Should I say I ’m good at cooking? Did that matter?

Besides, he didn ’t say he was talented—he just said he liked it. I don’t get it.

“Hey Therese, don’t I always say that I want to go hunting for ruins?”

“You do! But isn’t it better to make new treasures, rather than hunting down old ones?”

“I guess,” he said, looking at me enviously.

“I guess you get your pick of whatever you want, huh? Why do you always get what you want?”

“Oh, that’s just the way it is. ”

I didn ’t understand their relationship at all, but I could tell that they cared for each other.

Anyway, we went through the mansion, breaking down any locked doors that stood in our way.

We ran into some holy beast copies along the way, but they weren’t the enemy we were concerned with, and honestly, they didn ’t put up much of a fight.

With Kizuna on our side, they never stood a chance. She cut them down the moment they appeared. With her tuna knife in hand, she could cut straight through their bones and slice them in half.

“But why are there so many monsters in here?”

We were finding monsters in nearly every room. It was like we were stuck in an action RPG or something.

“Yomogi, where’s Kyo’s laboratory?”

“That way,” she said, pointing.

Along the way there were some pitfalls and traps, but they were all easy to avoid, and simple enough that they wouldn ’t be much trouble, even if we did get caught in them.

I led the way, so any traps that triggered darts or arrows could be blocked with Shooting Star Shield. And if we came across a pitfall, we could use Air Strike Shield to cross it.

There were rolling balls of iron, and guillotine-like blades too. We avoided or blocked them all with ease. He ’d made a real fun house for us, but it just wasn’t good enough.

“This will lead us underground soon, and that is where you’ll find his laboratory. But the underground area is far more subdivided and complicated than the areas above ground. There are many rooms that I do not know,” Yomogi said, looking sick.

I guess I couldn ’t blame her. She believed in Kyo, and now she saw that he was crazy, using copies of the holy beasts to nefarious ends. Furthermore, we were finding plenty of proof that he was behind the twisted beast-human hybrids we’d battled.

I guess I had to hand it to her—she must have been a loyal friend not to give up hope for him, even after he’d sent her on a suicide mission.

She reminded me of Motoyasu in that sense—she picked the wrong person to believe in.

“You . . . You made it this far !?! ”

We entered the underground laboratory and surprised a group of half-human-half-beast hybrids. They seemed to still be aware of who they were. Were they Yomogi ’s friends?

I looked over at Yomogi, but she shook her head.

Then they must have been from Tsugumi ’s group. I didn’t recognize them.

I looked around at Raphtalia, Glass, and L ’Arc, but they were just as confused as I was.

“Wait! We didn’t come here to fight you! You’re being used! We’ve come to punish the same person that makes a mockery of your lives!”

“Silence! If we don’t stop you, Mr. Albert will be killed!”

Who? Wait a second. Who the hell was that?

I ’d never even heard the name. I had no idea.

“Hey Glass, do you know who they’re talking about? Do you think he kidnapped some completely unrelated person just to use them as a hostage to motivate these people?”

I guess he didn ’t really need to limit himself to people involved with us directly.

He could make anyone into his slaves if he had the mind to do it.

“Albert . . . I’m pretty sure that’s the name of the person who wields the mirror of the vassal weapons.”

Ah, right—the guy that Kyo took control of while Trash #2 was chasing Raphtalia and Glass around the countryside. Hadn’t they said he was on bad terms with Glass and the others?

“Al is still alive! We cannot give up while he still lives! We must defeat you!” they shouted. I was only half-listening, as I couldn’t keep my eyes off the strange parasitic weapons in their hands—the very same ones that Yomogi and Tsugumi had held.

They attacked!

“Yikes!”

I immediately used Shooting Star Shield to block the attack. It slammed against it with a loud clang.

Yes , the barrier held. It must have been due to the Demon Dragon Shield and the Barbaroi Armor.

“Those weapons are dangerous! You have to put them down!”

“I wonder if he would make the weapons explode here?”

What would happen if they blew up in this confined, underground space?

If the weapons were at risk of explosion, then it was safe to assume Kyo didn ’t consider this place very important.

Hey wait—didn’t they say that the wielder of the mirror of the vassal weapons was dead? Had that been a lie? There was no way to know . . . yet.

“Kizuna, do your thing on them. I want to see if their weapons will explode.”

“What are you thinking, Kiddo?”

“If the weapons are set up to explode, and if those explosions are as big as the other weapons, then we can infer that Kyo isn’t too concerned with this area.”

“Right—because he wouldn’t want to destroy his own place.”

“Exactly. If Kyo is the kind of person I think he is, then those weapons won’t explode here.”

He wasn ’t the sort of person that would try to kill us no matter the cost. No—he would try to be smart about it. He’d try to get all he could out of the situation.

“What do you want to do about the weapons?”

“You guys should be strong enough to destroy them, no?”

I concentrated and cast Zweite Aura on all of them in order.

The enemies ’ weapons hadn’t been powerful enough to break through the Shooting Star Shield barrier. And we were all powered up now, so we’d have a good chance of breaking them.

“Got it. Let’s do this!”

Kizuna stepped forward and lined up with Glass, who had just taken a sip of soul-healing water. They readied their weapons and dashed forward.

The fight was over in a flash.

Kizuna sliced through their beast halves, and Glass destroyed their weapons.

Battle fans were . . . well, I’ve read that they were historically made out of iron, and used specifically to break enemy weapons.

They were sword breakers.

Yomogi was a skilled fighter, so she ’d been able to parry Glass’s attacks. But, these people weren’t nearly as skilled, and they couldn’t stop her.

And as for Kizuna, even if she couldn ’t attack people, she could certainly manage to break their weapons. That is, as long as she didn’t have to break a vassal or holy weapon.

Still, their weapons were tough enough to give her some trouble.

“Gah ?! ”

“Ugh ?! ”

Their weapons shattered, and the women took severe damage.

The broken weapons fell to the floor. Then disgusting, wiggling tentacles extended from them, reaching out to the women that had held them.

The fallen halves of the weapons reached out to each other, trying to link back up when . . .

“I don’t think so!”

“Hya!”

“Sorry, but I don’t want you using those things. Naofumi, keep the weapons away from them!”

L ’Arc and Raphtalia, followed by Yomogi, rushed forward to deal follow-up attacks, and kicked a weapon at me.

The weapon flew at me and then, as if trying to avoid me, turned in mid-flight before disappearing in a puff of smoke. All that was left behind was the Spirit Tortoise energy.

The weapons must have been made by imbuing monster elements with Spirit Tortoise energy .

When Kizuna and L ’Arc killed the monster part of one of them, the remaining part tried to regenerate the lost half, but we blocked it. Then, the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield sucked up the energy that animated it, leaving only a pile of dust.

“Hey, if you throw them to me they disappear!”

“What ?! ”

“Are you implying there is nothing we can do?”

“We won’t give up!”

The mirror of the vassal weapons holder ’s group of women howled and ran to attack again.

“I don’t think so!”

“Yes, I know that this is not your fault, and that you are not bad people. But you must give up this fight.”

Filo and Therese cast spells at them.

“Forgive me. I know that you are fighting to protect someone you love, but we cannot afford to be delayed any longer. Circle Dance Attack Formation: Flower Wind!”

Glass rushed forward with a final attack that incapacitated them.

“That’s what I thought. Kyo must be here.”

“Agreed. Otherwise all these weapons would have exploded.”

That settled it. He was probably whining and wringing his hands right about now.

“I’m surprised he even thinks he can hold us off for this long. He’s lucky—I’ll give him that much.”

Think about it, we ’re talking about two powered-up holy heroes, and three wielders of vassal weapons. Furthermore, Ethnobalt was still holding them off outside. All together that made for six heroes at once.

Unless he had some genius back-up plan, he ’d probably be thinking of how to escape with his life. And yet, he’d filled the mansion with traps, sent copies of the four holy beasts to meet us, and left behind these human-beast hybrids with their special weapons. What was I supposed to make of that?

“Hey! You better not go in that room!” one of the women in the group shouted.

I was about to say that I would do the opposite of whatever they said, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

I opened the door, then went through a few more doors and found myself standing at the entrance to Kyo ’s laboratory.

“Wh . . . What is this?”

“I could see this coming. You could too, couldn’t you, Glass?”

Everyone gasped.

The walls of the hallway were lined with glass tanks filled with a liquid.

Something floated in the tanks, and it was just what I ’d expected.

They looked like humans, but they weren ’t . . . not exactly. They were the dream of these alchemist-types—homunculus.

“H omunculus . . .” Rishia whimpered , scared by what she saw. The concept of homunculus must have existed in this world too.

The tanks were filled with men that looked just like Trash #2.

There were some other people too, but they all looked mostly the same.

“This is . . .”

One of the tanks held a Trash #2 that had been sliced cleanly in half. Was it the same one that we ’d fought and killed?

“Look . . .” Glass said, pointing to a larger tank at the end of the hall. It seemed more important than the others, like it was a special display.

The attractive man inside had long black hair, and he clutched a mirror at his chest. He looked like he might be Japanese, and in his mid-twenties.

“That’s the holder of the mirror vassal weapon!”

“Looks like he’s being held hostage.”

I barely had time to finish my sentence when all the homunculi and the real vassal weapon holder opened their eyes and stared at us.

“Are they capable of reason? Maybe we can talk to them.”

The tanks shattered, and the homunculi stepped out. I could hardly believe my eyes—real homunculi.

Then again, I ’d seen copies of the four holy beasts, so I expected it.

Maybe they could speak, but had been brainwashed. Or . . .

“Gahhhhhhhh!”

They roared, twisted and strained, and . . . turned into the four holy beasts.

They appeared far more powerful than the hybrid beasts we fought up until now.

But Trash #2 and the holder of the mirror vassal weapon—I guess his name was Albert—hadn’t changed at all. They looked like they were ready for a fight.

Trash #2 lurched forward and stumbled toward us like a zombie. His eyes were completely white, and locked on us.

It was kind of gross.

“Do you think they can talk?”

“Ugh . . . Uehhh.”

It didn’t look like they could to me. He just growled and slobbered like a zombie.

But, as if to show how ready he was to fight, Albert held up his mirror and flashed it at us.

“What’s tha . . . ”

“What ?! ”

Raphtalia and Kizuna both gasped and looked down at their weapons.

“What is it?”

“Mr. Naofumi, the vassal weapon is asking for help. That person holding it has lost more than half of his soul. He’s tied to the weapon by force.”

I didn ’t really care that he’d lost half of his soul—I was more concerned with how he’d been tied to the weapon. What did that mean?

“He can continue to fight with the vassal weapon, even though they are supposed to leave their holder upon death,” Kizuna explained. She didn’t have to explain that to me, but I guess she wanted to make sure everyone else understood.

“These are certain to be Kyo’s most powerful servants.”

I didn ’t like the look of this one bit. Kyo had another one of the vassal weapons under his control. I guess if they didn’t share what they knew about powering up, then the threat . . .

“Moon . . . Verse!”

The mirror flashed, and a shining, moon-like disc of light shot across the hall at us, shattering my Shooting Star Shield barrier easily.

Damn it. Never mind powering up, it looked like he might have been charged or imbued with Spirit Tortoise energy . . . or something.

“Well, well, well. I didn’t think you’d actually come all this way . . . ” a voice echoed. I didn’t like the sound of it.

Behind Albert, the floor shattered and Kyo appeared, standing on a floating platform of light.

He was surrounded by Spirit Tortoise Familiars (neo-guardian type).

He ’d been waiting for us . . . with an army.

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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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