LN Tate no Yuusha CH Prolog-8 Vol 7 Bahasa Indonesia

Prologue: The Search

Filo pulled our carriage across a ravaged land as I looked for the other heroes. How long had I been searching for them?

“Ren! Itsuki! Motoyasu! Time to face reality, guys! Come on out!”

“Mr. Naofumi, can’t you try to sound a little nicer?”

“I can’t help it. We’ve been at this for days.”

In order to explain why we were frantically searching for the other heroes, I’ll have to go back a bit and start from the beginning.

My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I’m 20 years old.

Back in modern Japan, I was a college student with otaku tendencies.

I was bored one day, so I went to the neighborhood library and started reading a book called The Records of the Four Holy Weapons. Before I knew what was happening, I found myself summoned to another world.

The book had been going on about the deeds of four heroes, and I had been summoned to serve as one of them: the Shield Hero.

The new world was under the threat of a horrible destructive force called “the waves,” and it was my job to help defend the world against the existential threat it faced.

At first I was thrilled. The world was like a dream. And I had been summoned to save it! But things didn’t go quite so smoothly—I was falsely accused of rape, arrested, and thrown out into the streets, penniless and alone. To make matters worse, the Shield Hero wasn’t capable of actually dealing any damage to enemies. The tradeoff, however, granted me incredible defensive capabilities.

So that’s how my life in the new world began: framed for a crime I didn’t commit, completely without friends or connections, and without the ability to fight on my own (which meant I couldn’t gain experience or level up).

That brings me to my next point. The world was a strange one indeed. Like an RPG, the people had levels that could be raised by defeating monsters in battle. Whenever your level increased, so did your abilities. It was a world that directly rewarded effort. On the other hand, it also meant that as long as your level was high, you wouldn’t have to exert much effort at all.

Getting back to the story, I saved a little money and bought myself a slave. Slaves were under a special sort of magic that prevented them from disobeying their masters, which I hoped would prevent another betrayal of the sort I’d already endured.

Because all I could do in battle was defend, I needed someone on my side that could take care of the offense. So I added the slave to my party and forced her to fight monsters on my behalf. It was the only way I could gain the experience necessary for leveling up.

I know it sounds a little unethical, but it was the only option I had.

“But this leaves a bad aftertaste, doesn’t it? Something about this doesn’t seem right.”

“I know what you mean. It all feels . . . unfinished. There’s no sense of accomplishment.”

The girl I was talking to was that very slave, the demi-human girl Raphtalia.

Demi-humans were a race of people that didn’t exist back in modern Japan. They were basically humans that also shared features with different animals, usually their ears or tails.

Raphtalia was a raccoon type, so she had tanuki ears and a tanuki tail.

If you just looked at her, you’d think she was 18 or so. With her clear, bright skin and composed, gentle face, she was a classic beauty. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. Whenever a breeze caught her red hair and it streamed out over her shoulders, she looked like she’d just stepped out of a painting.

Demi-humans had another notable characteristic: when they leveled up, their apparent age changed along with their battle abilities. So when I first bought Raphtalia as a slave, she looked like a 10-year-old girl. But as we both leveled up, she grew into an adult before my eyes.

Her hometown was destroyed in the first wave of destruction. A horde of monsters overran the village and killed nearly everyone there. After the monsters left, the slave hunters came. Then I bought her from the slave traders, and we’ve been battling together since.

Then came a time when Raphtalia got the opportunity to free herself from the slave magic. She had grown to trust me, though, and so she decided to remain a slave in hopes that she might earn my trust in return. I told her that she didn’t need to remain a slave, but she insisted.

Anyway, now she’s my most trusted partner.

She had also become unbelievably strong. She had recently defeated a very powerful monster, the Spirit Tortoise.

She was my Raphtalia. I watched over her like a surrogate parent.

She tried very hard at everything she did and was generally a very serious person. Whenever I stepped over the line—which I often did—she was always ready to put me back in my place with a stern word or two. If anything happened, I’d be there to protect her from it. I had to. She was like my daughter.

“Filo, you better help us find Ren and Itsuki and Motoyasu.”

“Huh? But I can’t smell them at all!” the monster pulling our carriage yelled back to me. She was a giant bird-like monster called a filolial. Her name was Filo.

She wasn’t like normal filolials though—Filo could transform into a little human girl with wings on her back. When she did, she looked just like an angel.

Filolials liked to pull carriages. It was instinctual for them. But whenever a hero raised a filolial, it grew into a filolial queen (or king), which was different from other filolials by virtue of its rank and ability.

As for Filo . . . Shortly after Raphtalia decided to remain as my slave, we stopped by the slave trader that I’d purchased her from. The trader’s nefarious business had to be hidden from public sight, so he ran a cover operation where he sold monster eggs in a sort of lottery game. I bought an egg from him and it was Filo that hatched from it.

She was a naïve little girl, a voracious eater that never knew when to stop talking.

When she transformed into her human form, she had blonde hair, blue eyes, and looked like she was about 10 years old. Like Raphtalia, she had a pretty face. Even I had to admit that she was pretty cute.

To sum it up, she was exactly what you picture when you hear the term “lolita angel.” Of course, she was also a giant bird monster that never stopped eating. But that last thing she said was a little over the top, even for her.

“Smell them?” I asked. I had to remind myself that she was a monster, so of course she had a different way of searching for things than humans.

She was a wild thing, but I sympathized with her. It wasn’t fun to keep hunting for people that probably weren’t anywhere nearby.

You see, we were looking for the other heroes, the ones that, just like myself, had been summoned here from another world. Each of them came from a different version of Japan. And each of them already knew a great deal about this new world, because it was similar to video games they had played back in their own worlds. Thinking they knew everything, they got to be supremely overconfident and ended up acting like fools.

When I was framed and persecuted, they seized the opportunity to get rid of me—okay, that might not be fair—but they had ignored the truth when it was staring them in the face. They were a bunch of fools.

The person that framed me and saw to my persecution was none other than the bitch princess of the kingdom. Her piece-of-trash father, the king, helped her the whole time. Eventually, the queen, who was the real monarch of the kingdom, stepped in to clear my name and prove my innocence.

As you might imagine, many things happened to get me to that point. The bitch princess had a younger sister named Melty (Filo ended up becoming best friends with her). Melty ended up being harassed, and we all had to go into hiding. Of course, after we ran away with Melty, it was widely reported throughout the kingdom that we had kidnapped her. Relentlessly pursued, we were able to slowly get to the bottom of the conspiracy that tried to destroy us.

In the end, it was the national religion of Melromarc, the Church of the Three Heroes, that had been behind it all. We had to face the high priest in battle to clear our names, but we were successful. Funny thing—the three heroes I was searching for, at the moment, were the very same three heroes the church worshiped. After all the scheming was made clear to the public, the church lost its reputation and support and it was officially declared heretical by the crown.

“If they’re not here, we’re just going to have to widen our search.”

“You’re right. And a lot of these suffering people are still not safe.”

Once my name was finally cleared, the kingdom started to support me in my efforts to protect it from the waves of destruction. The queen arranged to have me sent to the Cal Mira islands, which were in the middle of an activation event at the time. That basically meant that we could earn double the experience for any battles we fought there.

We went to the islands to continue our training, and we were able to level up very quickly. Before we left for the islands, all four heroes had a meeting to share what we knew about how to power up our legendary weapons. I learned a lot from that meeting, and I was able to put my new powered-up weapon to the test while we trained in the islands.

I guess I should probably explain a bit more about the other three heroes we were looking for. I’ll start with their names and personalities.

I’ll start with the Sword Hero, Ren Amaki.

I think he was 16 years old. He was younger than me, and shorter too.

He had a cool, kind of androgynous face that was framed with glossy black hair. He liked to wear black clothes, so most of his equipment was black too. Maybe it had something to do with his age—a lot of teenagers go through that sort of phase.

As for his personality, he was cool and standoffish—a loner for sure. He was a terrible communicator, which caused me no shortage of strife.

Back in the world he came from, they had games called “VRMMO,” which basically let players completely immerse themselves in online worlds. The game he’d played that was similar to this place was called Brave Star Online.

The Spear Hero is next, Kitamura Motoyasu.

He was 22 years old. So he was a little older than me. He was tall and the most handsome of the heroes. His hair was long and streaked with brown, and—I hate to say it—he really was actually pretty handsome. The only thing you need to know about his personality is that he was constantly hitting on girls. The second he laid eyes on a woman, he lost all self-control. But once he decided to trust someone, he would never give up, no matter how awful they were. That made him do some pretty stupid things in the past. I’m only just starting to understand that he didn’t mean to be as awful as he was. He was just tricked by that woman of his.

Speaking of that woman, she was the one that falsely accused me of rape and had me thrown out in the streets. After my name was cleared, the queen striped her of her princess title and had her name officially changed to Bitch.

According to Motoyasu, the world we’d been summoned to was the spitting image of an online game he’d played in his own world, a game called Emerald Online.

The last hero was the Bow Hero, Itsuki Kawasumi.

I get irritated just thinking about him, but I guess I need to explain what sort of guy he was. I shouldn’t neglect to do that.

He was 17 years old, and was about the same height as Ren.

His hair was styled and fell in soft curls. From the look of him, you’d think he was an artistic, sensitive kind of guy. He wouldn’t look out of place running his fingers over a piano. I suppose that if you only had his appearance to go by, he was an attractive person.

But his personality betrayed all of that. He was selfish beyond belief, and thought he could do whatever he wanted, so long as it satisfied his own puffed-up sense of justice. I could never get along with Motoyasu because of his relationship with Bitch. But taken at face value, Itsuki was the worst person of the bunch.

He’d made so many people cry, one of which is important to my story—but I’ll get to that later.

He insisted that the world we were in was copied from a console game he’d played in his own world, a game called Dimension Wave.

So the three heroes were all very different people, but they each thought they knew how the world worked. When we all sat down together to discuss the best methods to accrue power, all of them had conflicting ideas. The meeting quickly devolved into a shouting match.

Specifically, details they thought they knew about the world didn’t quite line up with what the other heroes were saying. The methods they’d learned in their respective games to power up their weapons didn’t match either.

Each of them was so stubborn that they refused to listen to, much less believe, what the other heroes had to say.

In the end, I experimented with all the methods they’d indicated, only to find that each method actually worked as long as you truly believed that it would. It was a messy answer, but as far as I could tell, it was the truth.

Luckily for me, it was exactly the information I’d needed. When I arrived in this world, I’d been the only hero without any previous knowledge of the world or its mechanics. But because of that, I was the only one that had really studied and practiced. I was able to put all of their individual methods to use, and in the end, I quickly outpaced the other heroes in levels and power.

“Mr. Naofumi? Where do you think the other heroes have gone?”

“We need to get to where they were last seen. It’s still pretty far from here.”

“Judging from reports we’ve received from people in the area, it doesn’t sound like anyone has spotted them.”

“That’s what worries me. Still, they aren’t dead, so they must be hiding somewhere.”

Filo and our carriage kept rattling across the wilderness, following the giant footprints that dotted the landscape.

Thinking back on it, we were already in danger.

When we first left for the Cal Mira islands, we ended up sharing a room on a boat with two people named L’Arc Berg and Therese.

At the time, I’d thought they were typical adventurers, but they ended up playing a pivotal role in the events that followed.

L’Arc Berg (who I normally call L’Arc) was a really friendly older brother sort of guy. His friend Therese was quiet and conducted herself with deference and courtesy. She was like Raphtalia in that way.

Everything was fine until we found a temple under the ocean near the islands. A giant dragon hourglass stood inside, and it was counting down the remaining time to the next wave of destruction. Worse yet, there were only a couple of days to prepare. We quickly told the other heroes, recruited the kingdom’s military and its freelance adventurers, and made a stand against the wave when it arrived.

When the most powerful monster showed up—if it was a game, it would have been the boss—we were able to defeat it without much trouble at all.

But the moment the boss fell, L’Arc and Therese appeared and rushed to attack us. They didn’t just want to win. They wanted us dead.

I still don’t know why. L’Arc had said it was for the good of the world. He’d also said that their mission was to kill all of the heroes.

L’Arc proved to be a formidable opponent. He knocked out all the heroes with one wave of his weapon. They floated in the ocean, unable to move, much less fight. So it was up to Raphtalia, Filo, and I to fight them off.

Surprising even myself, we held our own and even turned the tide. But just when it looked like victory was within reach, a powerful enemy we’d met during the second wave of destruction appeared: Glass. With Glass on their side, we weren’t able to fight for very long and soon were exhausted. Defeat was imminent.

I still can’t believe we actually survived.

Because we’d fought her before, and because of the special abilities of a shield I just happened to have, we were able to hold off Glass and L’Arc. But I don’t know if we could have done it again. They both had abilities that rendered my strengths useless: defense-rating attacks and defense-ignoring attacks.

Because all of my abilities were built around defensive tactics and skills, those two attacks were a serious threat. Luckily, I was able to avoid most of their attacks, but because they moved so fast, I wasn’t able to escape unscathed. It was very dangerous.

There were other problems during the battle. L’Arc had an ace up his sleeve, too. He had a bottle of soul-healing water, which was used to replenish SP, the stat necessary to use skills. And he dumped the whole bottle on Glass. Her power grew exponentially. It was all I could do just to defend my party from her relentless attacks.

In the end, they retreated before they were able to kill us.

After all the drama blew over, I sat the other heroes down for a chat, thinking that I had to impress upon them how useless they’d proven in the battle. Because I was the Shield Hero, it was very difficult for me to take on an offensive role in battle. If only one of the offensive heroes could manage to acquire the same amount of power that I had, the battle with L’Arc and Glass wouldn’t have ended with their retreat. It would have ended with our victory.

But when I tried to talk to them about it, they refused to believe that I could have become as powerful as I was by applying the very tactics they explained. Unable to admit that they might have all been correct, they stubbornly refused to listen to each other and accused me of cheating instead.

I tried to tell them that they had been right, but they were more interested in fighting than they were in actually getting stronger. We had to cancel the meeting.

We did agree to start training when we returned to Melromarc from the islands. It was easy to understand what level you were at. But there were other ways to exercise power as well, like actually learning how to fight. So we agreed to study under a master of the Hengen Muso fighting style. We were all surprised to discover that this master of martial arts was actually an elderly woman.

In hindsight, I should have known that the other heroes wouldn’t take it seriously. By the end of the first day, they were loudly complaining about every aspect of the training. Soon enough, their complaints morphed into straight-up sabotage, and before long they stopped coming all together. They were just about to leave the country for distant, less-troublesome lands when the queen suddenly appeared with a request. If the heroes were able to accomplish the task set before them, then she would permit them to pass through her country’s borders and leave the kingdom for good. That was enough to convince them to accept the mission.

I suppose I don’t need to tell you that this simple mission turned out to be the start of an incredible sequence of events.

The mission sounded simple enough: mysterious monsters were appearing throughout the country—no, the world. We needed to get rid of them.

It turned out that these monsters were really all servants of something much larger called the Spirit Tortoise, though no one knew that at first, because we weren’t able to read the full names of the monsters like we normally could in battle.

The first monsters we came across were giant bats that had tortoise-like shells on their backs. I shared all the information I had about them with the queen and the other heroes, but the other heroes kept their own information to themselves. They acted on their own, in secret.

I suppose it doesn’t matter now. We found out the truth anyway.

Because the monsters were servants, they had to be serving something. That something turned out to be a monster called the Spirit Tortoise.

The other heroes went after the Spirit Tortoise without telling anyone, and the Spirit Tortoise started to advance and invade country after country, possibly in response.

The Spirit Tortoise was so enormous it defied belief. It was larger than a mountain itself, and actually had a mountain range covering its back.

The other heroes had attempted to attack the monster from the front, but that was the last report we received about them before they went missing.

The good news was that, with Raphtalia, my other friends, and the support of the coalition army behind us, we were able to defeat the monster. And yet the blue hourglass that appeared in my field of view, when the Tortoise first awoke, never disappeared when we defeated it. So I felt like we might not be out of trouble.

“Looks like we aren’t going to find the heroes until we get to the place where the Spirit Tortoise was first sealed away.”

“Master!”

I was muttering to myself when Filo shouted and took off running, dragging the carriage behind her at a breakneck speed.

“What is it?”

“I can hear someone screaming off in the distance!”

“Take us there!”

“Yup!” she shouted and kept on barreling down the road.

Sure enough, there was no doubt about it. This wasn’t over yet.

Chapter One: Helping Others

“AHHHH!”

Filo carried us to the source of the screams. There we found a horde of monsters attacking a group of people.

The monsters were Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type). That’s right—even though we’d defeated their master, the servant monsters were still marauding across the countryside.

They were the same type of monsters that we’d first encountered after accepting the mission from the queen. Since then we’d run into plenty of other types, but the bat-like monsters appeared to be the most plentiful.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

“Hyaaa!”

I jumped out of the carriage and ran to shield the people from the attacks of the Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type). I pushed the people back and readied my shield just in time to block a laser-like heat beam a monster shot at them. The monsters had a tendency to focus their attacks on the weakest member of a group, which made it difficult to effectively protect everyone.

“Hate Reaction!” I shouted. It was the name of a special ability my shield had, a skill that would draw the attention of any enemies in the area.

Being a human, I wasn’t able to see how it worked. But Filo was a monster, and she immediately turned to face me, her attention captured by some invisible force.

“Who are you?” one of the people shouted.

“We’ll talk later. If you don’t want to die, you all better bunch up in one place! I can’t protect you if you’re scattered all over the road!”

“Okay!”

The panicking group of people ran to line up behind my shield.

“Perfect. Shield Prison!”

That was another skill of mine. This one produced a cage of defensive shields to surround the cowering crowd.

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

I used three additional skills in succession, placing a few more lines of defense between the people and the monsters. The shields produced by the skills wouldn’t last very long, but it was better than nothing.

“Raphtalia! Filo! Think you can take care of those monsters before these skills run out of time?!”

“No problem!”

“Easy!”

Raphtalia steadied her grip on the hilt of her sword and was in the thick of it in a flash. Her blade caught the light as she furiously beat the Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type) back. Filo quickly transformed into her filolial queen form and slipped her feet into a pair of claw weapons before quickly following Raphtalia’s sword with a flurry of fast kicks.

Both of them were very high-level fighters and had considerable power behind their attacks. If they didn’t hold back, both of them could make mincemeat of a monster with one hit. They didn’t hold back—dozens of the monsters fell with each swing of sword or claw.

The bats were obnoxious because of their chaotic flapping. But they weren’t very intelligent, and they didn’t try to escape or avoid our attacks.

“Hey, big sis!”

“I’m on it!” Raphtalia shouted. A second later and she was spring boarding from Filo’s back to knock a number of the monsters out of the air.

Heh. It was pretty impressive to see.

By the time the Shield Prison skill ran out of time, the majority of the monsters had already been defeated.

“Master! I think there’s a BIG one!” Filo shouted, pointing frantically. I turned to see what she meant, only to see a Spirit Tortoise familiar (yeti type) running towards us. It was another one of the Spirit Tortoise’s underlings, but this kind was much larger and more powerful. It was a giant yeti-like creature, but its back was covered with a large tortoise shell. It stood at least as tall as Filo in her filolial queen form, and its considerable strength was evident by its prominent bulging muscles.

The bat-like creatures were weak enough that an average adventurer would be able to handle a couple of them without too much trouble. But these larger yeti types were a powerful enemy to face. I’d seen very strong adventurers fail to defeat them many times. Anyone at level 25 or so could have handled the bat types, but I don’t think anyone under level 55 would survive a fight with one of those yetis.

Although, come to think of it, the bats always attacked in large groups. Anyone at level 25 would be in real trouble facing down a crowd of them.

That reminds me of another thing I’ve learned since I was summoned to this world. Normal adventurers were only able to get to level 40 here, unless they performed some specific task. If you wanted to level up past 40, you had to procure the permission and support of the crown. Once you had those things, you could participate in a class-up ceremony, which utilized the dragon hourglasses to raise your level limit to 100.

So basically, to survive a one-on-one encounter with a yeti type, you would have to have already been through the class-up ceremony—a relatively rare thing, accessible to only the most experienced adventurers.

Still, weaker soldiers and adventurers might be able to defeat one if they had an organized formation and a solid battle plan, but it would take a long time.

“Think you can take him?”

“Leave it to me!”

“Alright!”

Raphtalia climbed onto Filo’s back and prepared to use one of her killing blows while Filo took off sprinting for the monster, prepared to follow up with furious kicks if necessary.

“Ying-Yang Sword!”

“Hyaaaaaaa!”

Raphtalia’s sword cleaved the beast in two, and Filo’s follow-up attack blasted the monster’s remains far into the distance.

“Whew . . . That should just about do it, right?” Raphtalia said as she jumped down from Filo, slid her sword into its sheath, and began to survey the damage.

She looked unfazed by the battle, which I probably should have expected considering how powerful Filo and her actually were. They weren’t just high-level warriors either—they were skilled fighters.

“Yeah! I don’t think there are any more of those monsters around here!”

“Great. Good job,” I said while walking over to the people that the monsters had been terrorizing. “Are you guys alright?”

“That shield . . . That mysterious power you used to protect us . . . Could it be? Might you be the Shield Hero?”

“I am. So what?”

“Thank you very much! I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come along when you did!”

The people all stepped forward individually to express their gratitude.

“This is a dangerous place. Why are you guys still here?”

“Actually, we were starting a new village here.”

“Ah, I get it.”

We were looking for the other heroes, but in doing so, we were retracing the path the Spirit Tortoise had taken on its rampage. Naturally, we ended up meeting a lot of distressed people along the way, so we’d been taking the time to stop and help whenever we could.

But to tell the truth—and this is pretty common after natural disasters—I couldn’t bring myself to really trust the people we’d been running into. With all the chaos enveloping the countryside, there were definitely robbers and highwaymen out there to make a killing while they had the chance. Many of the ruined towns contained abandoned treasures that attracted thieves and other nefarious types.

“I have to check, just in case. You all, lay out all of your belongings before me.”

“. . . ?!”

The group of people suddenly looked less happy to see me. But I had to be sure. Since I arrived in this world, I’d found myself surrounded by some of the worst, most despicable people I’d ever met—and I didn’t have the time to waste helping a rag-tag team of bandits plunder the countryside.

“We found all of these things ourselves!”

I sighed. I should have expected as much. It was a good thing I decided to act on my suspicions. I mean, who knows what would have happened if I’d turned my back on them? It was a common tactic that these types liked to use. You’d get them out of danger and take them somewhere safe, only to realize they were waiting for a chance to put a knife in you and escape with all your valuables.

It’s easy to imagine that a new fantasy world would be amazing and chock-full of dreams. But this wasn’t that kind of place. It was a rough dog-eat-dog kind of place. Anyone arriving from modern Japan would have a hard time protecting themselves from all the real dangers out there.

Maybe it was the only way that these people had to survive. Even in the modern world I came from, there were countries and places where citizens really had to look out for themselves. I guess I couldn’t blame them.

“Ah, and I guess you think you have looters’ rights to this stuff? Whatever, I don’t want your stuff. We’re going to move on now. So try not to get yourself killed by all the Spirit Tortoise’s monsters.”

One by one, the people unsheathed their weapons and leveled them at me. I summoned all my apathy and turned to leave. The whole region had been thrown into chaos recently. What good did it do us to try and save people if those people all turned out to be lawless bandits?

“W . . . Wait!”

“You’re just going to leave us here?!”

“Who said anything about that? Didn’t I just save you from those monsters? I’m just saying that I’m not going to do any more for you.”

“Damn.”

The crowd all turned to look at the person who seemed to be their leader.

“I guess we better try to make it to safety before the sun goes down.”

There were still a lot of wild monsters roaming in the area. It looked safe for the moment, but they would be back—which reminds me of something I forgot to mention, a really nasty characteristic of these Spirit Tortoise familiars. When they died, their bodies would eventually spawn a lot more of whatever monster had fallen.

When the Spirit Tortoise awoke and rampaged across the world, it destroyed a lot of towns and villages along the way. All the dead things left in its path, including all the people, spawned vast numbers of more familiars.

The coalition army was doing all it could to deal with the remaining monsters, but it would be a while before it was able to get the monster numbers under control.

If anyone were to try and say that some pathetically weak crowd of looters could trek off into a dangerous region like this and get out alive, I’d have to shake my head. No one would say that if they had actually seen the conditions out here.

And there was nothing to be gained by death. Even worse, there was the risk that they might end up as a seedbed for new monsters while they were still alive. That had almost happened to a friend of mine named Keel—actually, he was from the same village as Raphtalia. While he was alive, he had been infected by one of the Spirit Tortoise familiars. Luckily, we were able to save him from death, but he was seriously hurt by the whole incident and was still convalescing.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a HERO? You really aren’t going to help us?”

“I never claimed to be a religious scholar. Besides, I don’t think anyone will mind if I don’t go out of my way to save a bunch of thieves.”

Raphtalia looked a little upset by my answer. Still, she understood that they were wrong, so she didn’t attempt to contradict me.

Filo was just staring up at the sky, completely oblivious.

The very fact that I wasn’t impressed or moved by all the extraordinary things happening around me spoke to how accustomed I was becoming to this world.

Sure, it sounds good to call it “rough and tumble,” but the truth was that this world was a stinking pile of garbage.

“You’d leave us here to die!? You . . . you murderer!”

“Whatever—I’m out of here. Filo! Time to get going.”

“W . . . Wait!”

And they took the bait. I smiled.

“What?”

“We’ll give you this. So please . . . please take us to safety.”

Each of the looters held out a valuable to me.

“I think I’ll take everything you’ve stolen.”

“Oh, um . . . very well.”

“Raphtalia, we better frisk them just to be sure.”

“Understood. You know, I knew it would end up this way.”

Raphtalia said softly as she patted down the looters to make sure they weren’t hiding anything else from us.

But of course they were. Lots of stuff.

“Damn! We risked our lives for that stuff—just to end up with nothing!”

“If you’re complaining, you must be alive, right? Here, climb on up. We’ll take you to safety,” I said, climbing up into the carriage. We left for the nearest village with fortified defenses.

“Have you guys run into any of the other four holy heroes?” I asked the crowd of looters in the back of the rattling carriage.

“Sure haven’t.”

That was the typical response. Sometimes we found someone who claimed to have seen them, but it always turned out to be a false rumor or a case of mistaken identity.

“Actually, I saw someone dressed all in black. He looked like the Sword Hero. I saw him running to attack the Spirit Tortoise,” one of the looters muttered.

“Are you serious?”

“I was focused on escaping at the time, so I can’t say for sure, but . . .”

“That’s fine. Just tell me what you saw.”

“The guy I saw—and I think there was only one—was running at the Spirit Tortoise and swinging a sword. I saw him shouting and charging at the giant monster. I didn’t see anything after that, because I was focused on trying to run away.”

“Where was this?” I asked, unrolling a map.

“Here,” he said, pointing to a town.

It was very close to the last location where Ren had been seen. The looter’s story sounded reliable.

The other heroes had all gone missing in different places, so it wouldn’t be unexpected to have sightings scattered all over the map. Unfortunately, that was exactly what made it difficult to tease out the rumors from the truth.

This story, on the other hand, sounded like it might contain a kernel of truth.

“You didn’t see anyone else with him?”

“I remember the Spirit Tortoise stomping everything, and then . . . no—I don’t remember. I was so focused on trying to get away.”

I had heard a similar story before. They’d said the Sword Hero charged at the Spirit Tortoise from the front. He was bold, or so they said. They hadn’t really been sure, because no one had been able to stop and get a good look at what was happening.

Every time I heard a story like this, the circumstances were always the same. Each witness had been caught up in the chaos and running for their lives when they caught the briefest glimpse of the hero. People mentioned that they had felt a glimmer of hope, a hope that was inevitably proven mistaken when the Spirit Tortoise marched on, undeterred, to destroy their towns and villages.

“That’s just like him, to get people’s hopes up and then not follow through.”

We had to make a small diversion from our course to accommodate them, but we visited a town that had been unaffected by the disaster.

The looters climbed down from the carriage, wearing strange expressions of disappointment.

Ever since we started our search, we’d had to devote so much of our time to helping groups of helpless fools. It was starting to feel like we were never going to make headway on our actual mission.

The seven star heroes had been sent to investigate the lands where the Spirit Tortoise had originally been imprisoned. I’d been waiting for a chance to finally meet them, but it was going to be a while until that could happen.

“Have you noticed that the signs around here use a different writing system than Melromarc does?” Raphtalia asked, pointing to a nearby shop sign.

“You’re right.”

The shield had the wonderful ability to translate speech for me, but it didn’t do anything to make reading and writing any easier. So even though we were still in the same world, there were other languages we had to worry about, too. What a pain. I wanted to yell at them to hurry up and agree on a standard. Though, come to think of it, my own world hadn’t been able to do that either. Oh well, at least my shield made it possible to communicate.

“Let’s leave the carriage at the nearest adventurer’s guild and head back to the castle for the night.”

“Alright.”

We had a number of transport options available to us—including a teleportation skill called “portal.” The skill was only available to heroes like myself, and it enabled teleportation to any place that we had already been. However, the skill did have certain limitations. You could only teleport to a place you had already been, and it had to be a place that you remembered well. Furthermore, the number of places that you could choose from at any given time was limited. Finally, it was impossible to bring any large objects along, like our carriage.

We stopped by the adventurer’s guild and flashed an official-looking document that bore the queen’s signature. When the staff saw it, they agreed to store our carriage without charge.

“Portal Shield.”

A portal to Melromarc castle opened, and Filo, Raphtalia, and the others followed me through it.

“We’re back!”

The unfamiliar town around us vanished and was instantly replaced by a scene we were well accustomed to: the courtyard grounds of Melromarc castle.

Filo shouted excitedly as she jumped through the portal. Then she quickly took off running into the castle interior.

She must have been off to see her best friend, Melty. Whenever she had a second to spare, she spent it playing with Melty.

“Welcome back, Naofumi.”

“How’s it looking? Any updates?”

Eclair and Rishia came walking over from the training grounds.

Rishia’s full name was Rishia Ivyred, I think. Yeah, that was it.

She used to be a member of Itsuki’s justice squad, but the team ended up betraying her and framing her for a crime. It was just like what had happened to me. They did it to kick her off the team.

The reason she had joined his team in the first place was interesting, too. She was the oldest daughter of a ruined noble family. Itsuki swept in to save her from a particularly thorny situation. So even though they’d treated her badly in the end, she didn’t blame Itsuki or look down on him. If anything, she still admired him—maybe even worshiped him.

She was a strange girl. She normally prefaced everything she said with a pathetic whimper and tried to hide the depression evident on her face behind a kigurumi. She didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

“Feh? Did I, um . . . do something wrong?” She asked. At the moment, she was wearing a kigurumi that was based on Filo’s filolial queen form.

“No . . .”

According to the old lady, the master of Hengen Muso fighting style, this sad weakling of a girl had a natural talent for the martial arts. The old lady had taken it upon herself to personally train Rishia.

Sometimes—I mean every once in a great while—Rishia pulled off a set of graceful moves, but she hadn’t yet achieved any sort of consistency.

In my own opinion, she seemed more like an “indoor” type than an “outdoor” type of girl. I figured she would be better at magic than she was at combat.

But like I mentioned before, people had actual stats in this world, and Rishia’s stats were so low it was hard to believe. The first time I saw them, I nearly screamed. So I was really looking forward to the day that her abilities blossomed. If they didn’t, she wasn’t going to be able to participate in any battles.

As for how she looked, well, her face impressed even the lecherous Motoyasu.

She looked younger than she actually was, and her hair was pulled back into an intricate French braid. Even I had to admit that she was just as attractive as Raphtalia and Filo were.

“Master Iwatani? Judging from the look on your face, you didn’t get any good news today, did you?”

That was Eclair. Her full name was Eclair Seaetto.

She was from the noble family that had once ruled the region where Raphtalia’s village had been. She was a master swordsman, and she had agreed to help teach Raphtalia and Rishia to wield their weapons better. To sum up her personality, she seemed to have a stick up her ass. She had long strawberry blonde hair and eyes so sharp they seemed to look right through you. From the very first second you saw her, it was clear that she meant business.

After all, she was a knight of Melromarc.

I’d only met a bunch of jerks since I arrived in this country, but if there was anyone in the Melromarc army that actually behaved the way you’d expect a knight to behave, it was Eclair. While that meant sometimes she came off as too serious for her own good, it also meant that she had exceptional manners and carried herself well.

She never made allowances for others—which was a great thing about her but could also be grating at times. And she had a beautiful face. Between Eclair and Raphtalia, it was hard to say who was prettier. Her skin was white and clear . . . Actually, I guess everyone around me was really quite beautiful, weren’t they?

And she was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. They say that God doesn’t give with both hands—but that’s a lie. Not that I cared. Raphtalia could have been the ugliest girl around, and I wouldn’t have treated her any differently.

“Mr. Naofumi? Are you thinking nasty thoughts again?”

“Of course not.”

Raphtalia was very good at reading my thoughts. Whenever I let my mind linger on something inappropriate, she could tell.

“Yes, well . . . Master Iwatani, I was asking if you had gathered any new information on this outing.”

“We heard some stuff, but nothing dependable.”

“That is too bad,” Eclair said, looking disappointed.

I could understand the feeling. After all the death and destruction that the land had experienced, how would it feel to know that the heroes summoned to save the world had gone missing?

“How many days has it been since we defeated the Spirit Tortoise?”

“About a week. Where ARE those losers?” We’d been looking for them for days. I could understand the difficulty if the Spirit Tortoise was still out there, but we’ve already taken care of that. I expected to know something about their whereabouts by now. Were they hiding in the mountains or something?

“We’ve widened our search area, but at the same time we’ve increased the number of looters and refugees we meet and have to assist. It doesn’t feel like we are making much headway.”

“I understand. If there is anything we can do, Rishia and I are ready to assist you. Just let us know.”

“I know, thanks. But I think it would be better if you helped the old lady train Rishia for now. Keel will be back on his feet pretty soon, and I’ll need your help getting him up to our level, too.”

“Very well. Though I must mention that, as the queen’s guardian, I often have to accompany her out to the Spirit Tortoise mountain.”

I already explained this, but the queen she referenced was the queen of the country that originally summoned me to this world, Melromarc.

She was married to the piece-of-trash king who’d relentlessly persecuted me since my arrival, and she was the mother of the wretched bitch of a princess who framed me. But the queen genuinely wanted to cooperate with me on behalf of the country and for the future of the world. She was very knowledgeable about legends and folklore, and she was fascinated by the waves of destruction. Whenever the waves came, she did all that she could to support me in my battles against them. She’d saved me from certain death more than once, so I tended to leave the strategizing up to her.

She looked like she was only in her late twenties and was exceptionally beautiful. She had a habit of covering her mouth with a folding fan. From the look of her, you would never think it was possible for her to have already had two children.

Both her husband and one of her daughters were the very definition of stupidity. Of the royal family, only the queen and Melty were decent human beings.

“Well, whenever you head out with the queen, leave Rishia with the Hengen Muso lady.”

“Fehhhhhh!”

The Hengen Muso master was actually an old woman that I’d saved once when I was traveling around the countryside peddling wares for cash. Her son was nursing her back from the brink of death, but the medicine he had wasn’t effective enough to save her. I used one of my shield’s abilities to make the medicine better and she was cured. But once she was back on her feet, she was more energetic than I could handle. I started calling her “old lady” back then—and as far as I know, it’s the only name she’s got.

She seemed to know everyone in some way and had apparently participated in many illustrious battles in the past.

The fighting style she employed, Hengen Muso, was thought to have been lost years ago. It was a very wide ranging set of tactics and skills that could be applied to a diverse set of circumstances.

She insisted that Rishia had an innate talent to learn how to use those tactics and skills, so Rishia had been training with the old lady out in the mountains.

“Sounds good to me. I really think that Rishia has been improving lately.”

“R . . . Really?” Rishia asked, looking encouraged.

“Of course you still have a lot to learn. But if you continue to make a sincere effort, I think you will do very well for yourself.”

“Thank you! I will!”

“Yeah, keep it up,” I said, disinterested. I made for the nearest doorway so that I could go pay my respects to the queen. “I’m going to go speak with the queen. Raphtalia. Stick with the others and help them practice their fighting and magic.”

“Understood.”

A whole week had passed since we defeated the Spirit Tortoise. But we still hadn’t found the other heroes. Each evening, after we concluded our search for the day, we teleported back to the castle so I could make my report to the queen. In return, she filled me in on all the reports of the lingering troubles posed by the Spirit Tortoise familiars. From the way things sounded, we still had a long way to go before those troubles were put to rest. So that’s how things stood.

At the time, I had no way of knowing that the very next day would bring enormous changes. Even if I had known, I wouldn’t have looked forward to it.

Chapter Two: Spirit Tortoise Familiar (Human Type)

I expected the next day to be just like the last one—we’d spend all day looking for the heroes, but we wouldn’t end up with anything tangible. But after we finished our breakfast at the castle and teleported back to the town we’d visited the day before, it was immediately obvious that we’d arrived right in the middle of something significant. The streets teemed with a chaotic mass of screaming people.

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Heeeeeelp!”

People rushed past us from all directions.

“What’s going on here?!”

“Mr. Naofumi!”

“Master!”

Raphtalia and Filo called out to me. They were pointing in the opposite direction that everyone was running.

Once, a long time before any of this stuff happened with the Spirit Tortoise, we’d been forced to face the giant reanimated corpse of a Dragon Zombie in battle. The monster was huge, but it wasn’t anywhere near the imposing size of the Spirit Tortoise. So the tortoise was the largest opponent we’d ever faced. But the giant black shadow creature now bearing down on the town was pretty damn close.

I had to squint to make out the details as the beast moved closer to the town.

Spirit Tortoise familiar (amalgamated parasite type)

Gulp. It was one of the Spirit Tortoise’s servant creatures.

What did amalgamated parasite type mean?

The monster stood about eight meters tall—an imposing figure. Judging from the way it looked, it must have been a giant reptile of some kind—something like the dragons you see in fantasy games. It had the muscular, scaled body of a dragon, but the head of a lion, and scythe-like arms that reminded me of a praying mantis.

And it was heading straight for us.

Chimera—that was the word for it. A traditional chimera had the body of a lion with the head of a goat and a dragon stuck onto it. I’d fought one or two before, and those chimeras had snakes for tails.

But this new monster was different. It had the body of a dragon, the head of a lion, and the scythe-like arms of a praying mantis. As it approached, I saw that it had another head—the head of dragon—and that a giant tortoise-like shell covered its back. That shell had been the only consistent characteristic that the various servants of the Spirit Tortoise shared. But what the hell was it?

Just a second now . . . The monster seemed to be dragging something heavy behind it. I tried to make it out, but it was still too far away.

“We’re stopping that thing, now!”

“Yes!”

“Let’s go!”

Raphtalia and Filo shouted their agreement, and we took off running straight for the monster. Filo transformed into the filolial queen form and led the charge.

“Be careful!”

“I will!”

Between Filo, Raphtalia, and I, Filo was by far the fastest on her feet. She also had the strongest attacks. I put my life in her hands, but she wasn’t the most cautious person. She was rushing straight for the mysterious monster. We didn’t even know what sort of attacks it would use against us.

But she was on the beast in a flash, and before I could even blink, she had reared back and delivered a crushing kick to the monster’s dragon-like head. The moment her claws connected with the beast, a huge spray of blood burst from the head. It was torn to bloody ribbons that went flying from the creature’s body.

“Ew! Master! This thing is rotten!”

The Spirit Tortoise could infect dead bodies and use their abilities, which meant . . . it must have been controlling this corpse. We were facing a Chimera Zombie.

“But, um . . . Something’s weird about it!”

“What is it?”

Filo cocked her head to the side in thought, sidestepping a strike from the monster’s scythe-like arms. It was a good strike. The monster was fast on its feet.

“Air Strike Shield!”

I followed the movement of its arms and deployed a magic shield just at the point where the arms were weakest. The joint of the scythe slammed against the Air Strike Shield with a clang, and soft chunks of flesh flew into their air where the bone tore from the arm. The scythe fell to the ground with a loud slam.

“Ew.”

Raphtalia clapped her hands over her mouth. She looked sick.

I couldn’t blame her. It was a really disgusting sight.

“Oh, hey! I got it! Master!” Filo shouted, turning to face me.

“This little guy isn’t rotten! He’s all patched together!”

“What?”

As if it were trying to put my confusion to rest, string-like tendons appeared from the fallen scythe and head. With a crunching sound, the tendons stretched out to the body they’d been torn from, pulled themselves back up, and reattached themselves to the creature.

What the hell was going on?

“This monster . . . I feel like it’s more than one thing! Like there’s more than one? I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep attacking it.”

“What do you mean by that?” Raphtalia shouted. She charged up for a powerful attack, swung her sword down hard, and cleaved the arm of the monster from its body.

At the moment, Raphtalia and Filo were both in the upper seventies, level-wise—so you can bet that their attacks carried considerable weight.

After participating in the class-up ceremony, the highest level limit was moved to 100. It was easy to see how much more powerful they’d become recently.

The arm hit the ground with a heavy thud and then quickly started to wiggle and writhe in the dirt. Raphtalia dashed forward and sliced through the string-like tendon.

I would have been thrilled if that were enough to stop the monster’s strange regeneration, but Filo’s outburst had me suspecting it wouldn’t be that easy.

“Um, you know? When you like, bam crash him, there’s, um . . . more!”

“Can you please do a better job explaining yourself?!”

Filo was unbelievably bad at explaining things to humans. When her friend Melty wasn’t around to translate Filo’s ramblings, it was nearly impossible to make heads or tails of the things she said.

Any attempt to parse Filo’s intentions from her mishmash of words required enormous stores of understanding, trust, and energy.

“Mr . . . Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted, pointing at the severed arm.

I was confused for a second, but then it all became clear. The arm wiggled and twitched, and then a tangled crowd of Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat type) burst from the severed end of it.

Damn! Any attempt that we made to cut this monster down to size only resulted in making more and more of the familiars?! The monster’s name suddenly made perfect sense. It was a parasite amalgamation because the monsters had infected a giant corpse and were controlling it, even as future monsters festered inside!

A week had passed since we defeated the Spirit Tortoise.

The original, dragon-like monster might have died during the Spirit Tortoise’s original rampage, but would the whole corpse have rotted through in a week? If the temperature and all the conditions were right, then it was possible. But that didn’t explain where it would have accrued these other body parts.

It had the head of a lion. Was that part one of the Spirit Tortoise’s familiars too?

“Filo, Raphtalia. If we aren’t careful with the way we approach this, we’re just going to end up with more enemies to fight. But that doesn’t mean we are totally helpless.” I had a hunch that a powerful fire-based attack would be effective against this sort of monster. To put that in modern terms, maybe a bomb or a missile would do the trick.

But I wasn’t in Japan. The closest we could get in this world would be some kind of magic. There was ceremonial magic—powerful spells that had to be cast by groups of people all working together.

If we couldn’t attack it with powerful magic, then we’d have to tear the thing apart and focus on killing each and every monster that emerged. That sounded nearly impossible to me. There was probably some sort of core that we could attack. If we could hit it there, then it might self-destruct.

Yes—that was our best option. We had to go after whatever looked like its weak point.

“Focus your attacks on that moving part there. Where it looks like a lion.”

“Understood,” Raphtalia said and began to focus her magic power into her sword.

“Got it!” Filo shouted, crossing her arms in front of her and preparing to use her special move.

Both of them had mastered a couple of very powerful attacks, and I could really depend on them when push came to shove. As for myself . . . what was I supposed to do?

“Shooting Star Shield!”

I used a skill that formed a protective force field with myself at the center. It was large enough to protect Raphtalia and Filo as well.

That was the first step. I looked around quickly to make sure the townspeople had evacuated the area. They had.

The skies were filling with clouds of furiously flapping Spirit Tortoise familiars (bat types), but we couldn’t do anything about them until we dealt with the enormous monster before us.

That settled it—we had to take down the big guy. But how?

We slowly approached the monster, keeping our eye on all the enemies, and made sure that we got within range of my skills.

“Mr. Naofumi. I’m ready.”

“Me too!”

“Right! Air Strike Shield! Second Shield!”

I used my shield’s skills to produce two magical shields in the air—one at the monster’s torso, one at its feet—to make it hard for the monster to maneuver around the battlefield. I had the ability to make one last shield if I needed to, but I decided to wait and see how the monster reacted.

“Gahhhhhh!” The monster slammed into a shield with its torso and let out a pained cry before it tottered back slowly, thrown off balance.

“Now!”

“Right! Ying-Yang Sword!”

“Spiral Strike!”

Raphtalia and Filo unleashed their attacks on the monster’s restrained lion head. After the strike of Raphtalia’s sword, the beast’s head was nearly torn free of its neck. Filo’s follow-up attack sent the head flying with a spray of blood.

The monster lurched and swayed, its giant body suddenly unstable on its feet.

“Yeah!”

If that had knocked the massive thing down, that would be enough. Tons of bat-type familiars would come pouring out of the corpse, but we’d just cross that bridge when we got to it.

At the exact moment my heart leapt at victory, I heard a woman’s voice behind me. “I truly hate to bear this news, but the monster still stands. See for yourself.”

Whoever was behind me pointed to the object the Spirit Tortoise familiar was dragging.

“That is where it replenishes itself. Watch.”

Just like the voice said, to replenish the missing head, the back portion of the monster twitched, and then a giant eyeball grew out of its body.

Gross.

“That thing in the back is not really the monster’s true form. It is Legion . . . It infects whole groups of monsters and amalgamates them into one beast. If it runs out of something it needs, it simply takes it from somewhere else. To defeat it, you must use a more powerful attack.”

I was still using Shooting Star Shield. It was a powerful defensive spell that would block everything, except my own party members, from passing through it. So there was a problem. How could someone be standing behind me telling me what to do?

Nothing could pass through the force field, so that meant that whoever it was must have materialized inside of it. I quickly turned around to see what was going on.

“You!?”

A mysterious woman was standing behind me. I’d seen her before. Once, just before the Spirit Tortoise started to terrorize the countryside, I’d seen this woman in the castle courtyard when I was standing there alone.

She had shiny red hair tied into a chignon and sharp Chinese-looking eyes. She looked like she could eat another human without batting an eye. Despite having grown accustomed to beautiful women like Raphtalia, this woman’s face was so stunning it was noteworthy.

A strange air of innocence and charm hung unmistakably about her. Anyone would notice it. She wore a heavy robe that completely concealed her body from the neck down—a very mysterious woman, indeed.

She looked like she would instinctively speak in a whisper

Like the queen and Bitch, her skin was healthy and bright, full of hot blood—she looked vivacious, and also like she would have no qualms with using people to get what she wanted. Yes, she gave off the distinct impression of power. And she was standing right behind me.

“Now is not the time for discussion. We must first defeat the foes that stand in our way. I will restrain the monsters, while you finish them off,” she whispered softly. Then she stretched out her hand toward the monster and glared at it.

The beast completely stopped moving.

What kind of magic was that?

“Whoa . . . Um . . . Hurry! Now’s our chance!”

“Understood!”

“Filo! Use a magic spell—the strongest one you know!”

“Okay!”

Filo began to chant the spell’s incantation, and Raphtalia prepared to use Ying-Yang Sword again. They approached the newly immobile monster and unleashed their attacks with remarkable speed.

The monster was slashed to shreds. The shreds fell to the ground and wriggled like snakes, but unlike last time, they didn’t turn into other familiars, and they didn’t reattach themselves to the main body. The mysterious woman must have been preventing it somehow.

“I’m gonna use that powerful spell that Mel-chan taught me!” Filo shouted, sounding impressed with herself. She had been spending a lot of time with Melty lately. She said they were studying.

“Filo, the source of all power commands you. Hear the truth I speak, and destroy them with the angry sky’s fierce tornado!”

“Drifa Tornado!”

So she could use the Drifa class of spells now. Impressive.

I’d figured that Raphtalia would learn to use those spells first, but I guess Filo had managed to beat her to it. Although, come to think of it, Filo had learned to use the Zweite class without having to consult a magic book. I guess she was pretty talented in that area.

The sky filled with roiling clouds, and they spiraled together to form a massive tornado directly over the monster. The howling funnel of wind slowly touched down, sending all the houses in the area soaring through the air.

The debris caught up in the swirling wind ripped and tore at the monster’s flesh. Soon, violent spurts of blood filled the tornado and were carried up into the sky, a red pillar of blood in the wind.

But when the wind subsided, the monster still stood, and the bulk of its mass was still holding together.

“Whew! This is one tough monster, master!”

“Damn. I guess I don’t have a choice then.”

I looked back to see if the woman understood what I was saying, then I slowly stepped forward. I only had one option for a powerful attack that worked over an area. It was my last resort, a special shield that I tried to avoid using as much as possible.

“Raphtalia, Filo, you should get back.”

“You’re not going to . . . Are you sure?”

“It’s too dangerous to let this thing be—I have to take care of it. If we had a group with us that could use ceremonial magic, I might have avoided this, but . . .”

“Please be careful.”

“I know. I won’t let the rage control me.”

We were talking about the Shield of Wrath, a dangerous weapon that ate away at my very heart as I used it. The last time I used the shield’s most powerful skill, I was so badly hurt that I nearly died, and when I was finally able to get out of bed, I discovered that all of my stats had fallen by two thirds due to a curse the shield had put on me. I had only recently recovered from the last time I used it, so you can see how I would want to avoid it as much as possible.

And yet faced with an enemy too powerful for Raphtalia and Filo to defeat on their own, I didn’t see any way around it. I tightened my grip on the shield and transformed it into the Shield of Wrath.

When I did, my field of vision dimmed considerably and I felt a long-slumbering rage and anger begin to stir in the depths of my heart. At the same time, I remembered Raphtalia telling me she believed in me. I remembered her saying that she knew I didn’t commit any of the crimes I was accused of. I felt a tender warmth at that recollection, and I used it to contain the howling rage that was beginning to surface.

The warmth was winning . . . for now.

I saw Filo out of the corner of my eye. Her legs and claws were engulfed in black flames. She shared a connection with the Shield of Wrath, and when the rage grew powerful, it affected her as well.

But thanks to Raphtalia and Filo, I’d learned to control my anger. They’d taught me to stay in control.

I took another step toward the monster. Then another. With each step, my feet felt like they were burning. Soon, I was very close to the beast. I turned to shoot an accusatory glare at the woman. She nodded and slowly lowered her hands.

As she did, the power she’d been using to stop the monster’s movement faded, and it lunged at me, swiping with its scythe arms. I raised an arm and easily blocked its attack with my shield. The moment the scythe connected with my shield, the shield erupted in tongues of black flame.

You see, the Shield of Wrath had a special counter-attack called Dark Curse Burning S—and the monster had just activated it by attacking me. The flames used my own internal rage for fuel, and they leapt from the shield to burn the whole area.

“ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!”

“Guruuugahhhhhhhhh!”

The dark flames from the Dark Curse Burning S enveloped and burned the monster.

Then I saw the monster’s skin buckle and bend, and a flapping flock of bat-type monsters came pouring forth out of the beast. They tumbled into each other in their desperate attempt to escape, but the dark flames found them. When they fell from the sky, they were clouds of ash.

Huff . . . Huff . . .

I waited until I was sure the enemy had fallen before changing my shield back to its original form.

“Oooooh! It kind of stings!” Filo shouted, shaking her hands and feet. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Oh you’ll be fine. I’ll heal you later.”

“Okay.”

First things first—we had to see what we were dealing with. What had happened to the Spirit Tortoise familiar (parasite amalgamation type)?

Part of the corpse was clearly nothing more than ash. Raphtalia hesitantly poked it with the point of her sword.

“It certainly looks dead.”

“I hope you’re right.”

I really didn’t want to use the Shield of Wrath. But what choice did I have? I was the Shield Hero—I didn’t have any other way to go on the offense. So I was forced to rely on the only shield that offered me a way to attack. If there were any other way, I wouldn’t have done it.

“Thank you for restraining that thing. So? Who are you?”

“Mr. Naofumi. Might this be the person you mentioned before?”

“Yeah, the mystery woman that showed up before all this Spirit Tortoise stuff really got going.”

“Hm?” Filo chirped. She’d turned back into her human form and was sniffing at the woman.

The last time I’d met her, she appeared behind me speaking nonsense. She’d asked me to defeat her. What was that supposed to mean? She also referred to me in the strangest way, calling me “he who holds the holy weapon.” My shield even reacted to her presence. There were too many mysteries around this woman. When I turned to ask for an explanation, she vanished—like a ghost.

“Excellent job. You have saved many in this area from certain heartache. And yet . . .” She trailed off, her eyes on the western horizon. The last time I saw her, she’d gazed off to the east. There was only one way to make sense of that—she was looking towards the Spirit Tortoise. “You still haven’t defeated me. You who hold the holy weapon, you must defeat me soon. Already, I cannot fulfill my role, so you must defeat me quickly.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about? Who are you? Explain yourself!”

“He’s right. If you wish for Mr. Naofumi’s help, you first need to tell us who you are. How else will we be able to help you?”

The woman nodded silently after listening to Raphtalia and I.

“The last time I saw you, I was in a rush because there was so little time left to resist. But now I have the time necessary to properly explain.”

“Hey, master!”

Before the woman could start to explain herself, Filo came running over.

“Filo, be quiet for a minute.”

“But you know what? This lady—she’s not human. She’s not even a demi-human!”

“What?”

I didn’t know what to make of what Filo was saying, but I realized it soon enough.

“That’s correct. I . . . I am the Spirit Tortoise. To speak more categorically, I am a Spirit Tortoise familiar (human type).”

Chapter Three: The Spirit Tortoise Reawakens

“What?”

I couldn’t wrap my mind around what she was saying, but we weren’t going to get anywhere if I started out disagreeing with her. At the very least, I reasoned, I needed to hear her out.

“Alright, alright. Let me get this straight. You have time to talk, right?”

“Yes. That is the very reason I came here, but we do not have time to dally,” said the woman—the Spirit Tortoise familiar (human type)—as she gazed off to the western sky.

I wanted to open a portal and take her back to the castle with us, but the cool-down time for the Portal Shield skill was long, and it wasn’t ready for use yet.

We’d defeated the giant monster, but it would be a while before the evacuated townspeople came back.

“Let’s talk at the adventurer’s guild in town. It should be empty for a little while.”

When we got there, the guild was unbelievably quiet.

Any brave adventurers in the area had left to drive the remaining Spirit Tortoise familiars out of town, but that didn’t mean that the whole town was deserted. Someone was waiting to check us in to the guild. After making sure that the building was safe, he set himself to reopening the business. I showed him the document the queen had given me, and he quickly showed us to a small meeting room.

The woman familiar followed us in silence.

We entered the room, chose a quiet place where we could speak for a while, and sat down. Then I started talking.

“Alright, how about you tell us what the hell is going on?”

The woman removed the heavy robe to reveal a Chinese dress beneath it. Her shoulders were wrapped in a delicate shawl. Once again, I got the feeling I was looking at a fairy from Chinese mythology. Her devilish eyes only made that feeling grow stronger. I half expected her to turn into a fox.

“Very well. My original role was to gain the favor of a monarch from the sealed country, in order to bring ruin to the land and end the lives of its inhabitants. I was to collect the souls of those who fell victim to the chaos.”

“Oh, um . . .”

Was I hearing her correctly? Was she confessing to the most nefarious deeds I could imagine? I started to feel strange about our meeting.

“And? Why would you do something like that?”

“To protect the world from the waves of destruction, it is necessary that we build a defensive barrier, and we need a great deal of souls to build that barrier. Of course, it doesn’t matter if they come from humans or monsters.”

“I see.”

The conversation was starting to remind me of something that Fitoria, the queen of the filolials, had said.

“Right . . . Someone who demands sacrifice for the sake of the world . . .”

Fitoria wasn’t the only one who had said something like that. We found a similar message scrawled on the wall of an ancient temple in the city on the back of the Spirit Tortoise. An ancient hero had written it there.

It all pointed to one thing. The Spirit Tortoise existed to kill things so that it could use their souls to create a giant barrier that would protect the world from destruction.

Whatever. To be honest, I didn’t care one bit if the people of this world died. As long as I could protect the people I cared about, it didn’t sound like a terrible option. But I wasn’t going to doom the whole world—especially considering that I’d already battled the Spirit Tortoise to prevent that very thing. Not to mention I’d spent a lot of time looking for the other heroes.

“Okay, I’ve got a question. What does the blue hourglass in my field of vision mean? It says ‘seven’ next to it.”

“It is not one of the dragon hourglasses. It indicates the amount of gathered souls. Seven refers to the power level of the waves.”

The power level? I hadn’t stopped to consider it before, but the waves had been getting more powerful each time they arrived. How many waves had I fought against? There was the first one that came after I arrived—according to everyone else, that was the second wave. Then we fought Glass in the third one. Then the fourth one came when we were in Cal Mira. Yes, thinking back on them, it was clear that they had been getting more powerful.

If it was safe to assume that they progressed in power, then the coming waves must be much more powerful than the first one, the one that had destroyed Raphtalia’s village. And that meant that the Spirit Tortoise must be much stronger than any enemy we’d faced until now, since the wave that came to Cal Mira was only the fourth.

“I am powerful enough to warrant the number seven, yet you stand against me. I believe I can help you.”

“Can you tell us more about the waves? The one in Melromarc should have been the third one, which means that the one in Cal Mira was . . .”

“I don’t know as much as you may hope. I was created to protect the world. So I cannot tell you the exact information about each wave that occurs in various countries. However, I think it is safe to assume that they could not have been above a power level of two or three.”

Damn. That meant that after we struggled so hard to overcome a level two or three disaster, we’d have to find some way to defeat a level seven?

“Some very powerful people came out of the waves and said their mission was to kill the heroes of this world. I’m guessing they are part of the waves too?” I asked, hoping that would get to the core of the mystery. If this was an opportunity to figure out what was going on with Glass and the others, then it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

“I . . . don’t think so. I do not believe that the waves have those sort of properties.”

“Damn,” I muttered. The woman was so suspicious. Was she telling the truth? “Let’s change the subject. ‘Spirit Tortoise familiar (human type)’ is a bit of a mouthful. If you were supposed to win the favor of a monarch, I’m guessing you have an easier name to say.”

“I do. My name is Ost. Ost Horai.”

Ost? I’m pretty sure that meant “east” in a language back in my world. And as for Horai, that probably referred to the name of the mountain the Spirit Tortoise had on its back—pretty simple, really.

“Okay, Ost, so why did you abandon your mission and reach out to us? The Spirit Tortoise broke his own seal and started all this mess, didn’t he?”

“There’s an explanation for that. My true body is the Spirit Tortoise itself, though the situation has become so bad that the Spirit Tortoise is no longer able to fulfill his role in the plan. That is why I have come to ask you, who holds the holy shield, for assistance.”

“And this ‘role’ you’re talking about . . . it’s the creation of a barrier to protect the world? You know we just fought the Spirit Tortoise to prevent him from doing just that?”

“Yes, but you should know that my true body has not been defeated. And since he was awakened, he hasn’t been able to make any progress towards his goal. At this rate, all of those that have been sacrificed for the sake of our goal will have died in vain.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. I was starting to get a bad feeling about where all this was heading.

The heroes couldn’t get along with each other, so Fitoria had given up on fighting the waves and instead had encouraged the Spirit Tortoise to create a barrier to protect the world. And she is saying all the sacrifices up until this point have been for nothing?

“My true body has been . . . it has been taken over by someone else. This person only wants to use me to cause more destruction.”

“What?”

“I do not know what the enemy wants. It seems they are using me as a medium to collect energy, but they have no intention of using that energy to create the protective barrier the world needs.”

“So your seal was broken . . .”

“Yes, but the proper unsealing procedure was not followed. In the original plan, I was to slowly and secretively gather souls. If I were not successful then other familiars would be sent out to gather the souls more quickly. Only if that was unsuccessful was my true form to be revealed in an effort to forcibly gather the necessary souls.”

“So the seal doesn’t really work very well, does it?”

I was asking if past heroes had taken the knowledge of how to break the seal to their graves.

“In order to prevent a plan like that from being carried out, I have been entrusted to supply the holy heroes, and the vassal weapon heroes, with hints about how to unseal the Spirit Tortoise. I cannot allow anyone to unseal my true body if that person is not capable of defeating me in combat.”

“So you’re supposed to look for someone that can kill you?”

“Yes. I was waiting for one who holds a holy weapon to arrive and put an end to my ambitions,” she answered so simply that I was caught off guard. The look on her face made it clear she was serious.

But what was a vassal weapon? I remembered Glass and her friends had mentioned something similar, but I had no idea what it meant. I decided to ask about it later.

“So the order of events is all messed up, and someone else was able to take control of the Spirit Tortoise. Is that even possible?”

“It should have been impossible. I don’t know what power they used to do it, but it has happened. Someone has taken control of my true body.”

“Hmm . . . But we ripped the Spirit Tortoise’s head clean off.”

“That is not enough to kill the Spirit Tortoise’s true body. Unless it is killed properly, you will not be able to stop it.”

“That reminds me, Mr. Naofumi. Didn’t you read something that the ancient heroes had written on a temple wall?”

“Yeah. Well, there were parts I couldn’t read, so most of it is still a mystery.”

Ost regarded me in silence. She was pretty, and she spoke so sincerely that I wanted to take the conversation seriously. But I couldn’t ignore the possibility that she was lying to us.

“And I’m guessing that you know the proper way to kill it?”

“Actually, that is a mystery even to myself.”

Useless! Was she trying to get us killed by giving us an impossible mission? And besides, the Spirit Tortoise had stopped moving a week ago. We were deep in conversation when someone knocked on the door.

“Excuse me!” the manager of the adventurer’s guild said, ducking into the room. His face was pale.

“What is it?”

“I have an urgent report for the Shield Hero.”

It had been bothering me for a while, so at one point I asked about the system used to convey messages in this world. It was very rare, and limited to only approved organizations, but there was a magic system that made it possible to talk to people who were very far away. It was something like a telephone. But because of the magic and technology involved, it was only possible to leave messages and not have whole conversations. Back in Japan, we probably would have called it a telegraph. Still, if you could only leave messages, then it didn’t have much advantage over just using traditional letters.

“And?”

“The Spirit Tortoise has reawakened! Your immediate presence is requested!”

Damn it. Ost had been telling the truth.

“You must defeat my true body quickly. I will do all I can to assist you.”

“Can you keep the Spirit Tortoise from moving the way you did with that familiar we just fought?”

“Unfortunately no. That would be impossible. Not only am I unable to halt the motion of my true body, but I may not be able to stop any familiars in his immediate vicinity.”

“Then what can you do?” I snapped, irritated. Had she just shown up to make demands of us? I wondered if she might actually be behind all the trouble.

“I can support you with magic, and I can also interfere with the other familiars, perhaps stalling them or dulling their movement. Hero of the holy shield, please help destroy me,” Ost said, bowing deeply.

Well, we were certainly going to need all the help we could get. In truth, my party was sorely in need of someone who could really handle support magic. I wished that I could have my pick of helpers, but her offer was better than nothing.

“It’s going to be tough, but I don’t think we have a choice.”

I sent Ost an invite to join my party’s battle formation ranks, and she quickly accepted.

“So what sort of magic are you good with?”

“Earth magic and support magic, mainly. Furthermore, I can use magic that was long ago forgotten by humans.”

Forgotten magic? This world really was like a game. You always ran into “long forgotten” spells in RPGs.

“Great. But just so you know, don’t think this means I trust you.”

“I understand, but I will do all I can to assist you, the holder of the holy shield, in the coming battle,” she said and casually cast a spell on me. When the spell took effect, I was suddenly able to see all of Ost’s important stats displayed in my field of vision. I was surprised to see how impressive they were. They might have even been better than Raphtalia’s. They were a little lower than Filo’s stats, but they were balanced very well. In general, her stats seemed slightly balanced towards defensive capabilities—that was probably because she was a Spirit Tortoise familiar.

I finished reading through the numbers displayed in the air, only to realize that her current level wasn’t indicated anywhere.

“We should introduce ourselves. I’ll start. I’m Naofumi Iwatani.”

“And I am Raphtalia. Very pleased to meet you.”

“And MY name’s Filo! Nice you meetcha, turtle lady!”

“So there you have it. By the way, I know we’re only going to be fighting together for a little while, but please stop calling me ‘he who holds the holy shield.’ It’s too long and dramatic. Just call me the Shield Hero,” I said. That’s what I was used to being called, so I would respond instinctively in the middle of battle.

“Yes, very well. I suppose I will only be with you a short while, but I’m glad to have met you all, Shield Hero, Ms. Raphtalia, Ms. Filo.”

A short while . . . just until we defeated the Spirit Tortoise, right? That’s what Ost was after, so I guess we would part ways once that happened. But she was a Spirit Tortoise familiar too, so if we defeated the Tortoise, then . . .

I still didn’t completely believe everything she was saying, but I knew that we were about to head into another thorny situation. I sighed and checked through my party inventory, which now included the Spirit Tortoise familiar (human type) who called herself Ost.

“Hey, I’ve got another question.”

“What is it?”

“You’ve been calling me the holder of the ‘holy shield.’ Is that right?”

“Yes. That is what it was called by the older versions of what are now known as the four holy heroes.”

That was exactly the answer I was expecting, but then what was the vassal weapon? “And what’s a vassal weapon?”

“It is the title of someone who holds the power to assist the holy weapons.”

The power to assist? I’d never heard of anyone like that. The only thing I knew of that was even remotely similar was the seven star heroes.

“Are you talking about the people called the seven star heroes?”

“Perhaps . . .”

Maybe she was just using an ancient name for them. But if that were true, was that the connection between the four holy and the seven star legends?

“Regardless, I confess I’m not an expert on the topic.”

“Sure, right. Anyway, that’s enough talking for now. I’m going to open a portal to the place where we defeated the Spirit Tortoise.”

I concentrated on the shield in my hand and used Portal Shield. I could actually activate the skill without saying anything out loud. When the spell activated, a list of saved locations appeared, floating in the air before me. The skill was capable of storing three different locations. If you wanted to add new places to the list, you would have to delete the old locations, starting from the oldest on the list. Managing the list of locations was a bit of a pain, but I had no choice but to keep on top of it.

Anyway, I was about to choose the location of the fallen Spirit Tortoise from the list when a sandstorm appeared in my vision, obscuring that option.

“What the hell?” I yelped.

“What is it?”

“When I tried to choose the last location of the Spirit Tortoise, a cloud of dust—”

Before I could finish explaining, a message appeared over the swirling dust.

Unable to teleport

The words flashed on and off.

Damn.

“You were attempting to use a teleportation spell, yes? There is a good chance that my true body is exerting a powerful influence on that location, thereby rendering teleportation there impossible.”

I supposed I should have expected something like that. Of course we weren’t able to teleport back the Spirit Tortoise. That would be too easy! If we had to travel on foot to where the Spirit Tortoise had fallen, it was going to take a long time to get there from where we were. It might be faster to teleport back to Melromarc and go from there.

“We’re going to head back to Melromarc first. Besides, there’s no reason for us to take on the Spirit Tortoise alone.”

“Understood. This way we can ask the castle soldiers, Rishia, and Ms. Eclair for their assistance.”

“I concur,” Ost nodded. She had a strange way of speaking. She was certainly polite, but she had such an evil look in her eyes. I was never sure how best to respond to her.

She behaved so differently from how she appeared.

“What’s wrong, master?” Filo asked, looking up at me with her head cocked to the side. I turned my eyes away. Sometimes she looked like she was staring right into my soul.

“Alright. Let’s head back to Melromarc.”

I chose the castle courtyard from the displayed list of available locations, and we flew there in an instant. When we arrived, we found the queen and the soldiers, and even Rishia and Eclair, deep in frantic departure preparations.

“Ah, Mr. Iwatani! I trust that you received our correspondence?”

“Yeah, you say the Spirit Tortoise is moving again?”

“That’s correct. Hadn’t you returned from your search, we would have gone to investigate ourselves.”

“I don’t know if my luck is good or bad.”

What if the queen had been there when the Spirit Tortoise had reawakened? She could have been killed!

“What is the coalition army doing?”

“Soldiers that were patrolling the area immediately returned to base. A number of them were not able to make it, however, and we have lost contact with them.”

Things weren’t looking good.

“By the way, that individual with you, isn’t that Ost Horai? Isn’t she some king’s mistress?”

“Yes, we have met a number of times, haven’t we, your majesty?” Ost said, lowering her head to the queen.

For a second, I thought the two wicked women were going to enter a staring contest, but Ost bowed deeper to show her sincerity. She kept her head bowed and showed no sign of moving.

The queen seemed surprised by Ost’s actions. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

What was so surprising about it? Wasn’t it normal to bow to royalty?

“And how have you come to be involved in all this? I never expected you to bow like this to someone like me.”

“You know each other?”

“I met her at the last diplomatic meeting of nations. She was with a king and his servants.”

“To dispense with the formalities, we were political enemies at the time,” Ost said simply. “Our nation is a private, isolated one, though much of the nobility wanted to participate in the talks. To be honest with you, I played the role of a nasty woman.”

Okay, so the wicked woman was actually part of wicked government too? From the way Ost had been acting with us, I never would have guessed that she was involved with such a thing.

“And how did that king’s mistress find herself traveling with Mr. Iwatani?”

“Ah, the wise queen, they call you the fox of Melromarc, you know. Listen, and I will tell you how this came to be. I tell you because you, too, are cooperating with he who holds the holy shield.”

Ost told the queen all about her status as a Spirit Tortoise familiar and about how someone had taken control of the Spirit Tortoise’s true body. And she told her about how the tortoise would no longer be able to fulfill its role. Speaking in public, Ost continued to refer to me as “he who holds the holy shield.”

The queen slapped her folding fan shut and tapped her chin with it while she thought.

“Our goal has always been to stop the Spirit Tortoise from fulfilling its designs. I cannot immediately believe all that you say, but I cannot deny the possibility of truth, either.”

“I feel the same way. So getting back to what we should do about it, it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to teleport to where we defeated the Spirit Tortoise. We’re all going to have to depart together, from Melromarc.”

“Like Mr. Iwatani has said. I also believe that is our only way forward.”

“Before we leave, we should probably call a meeting and get a strategy together. Aside from that, are we all ready to leave?”

“Yes, the preparations are all complete.”

“Then let’s get going!” I shouted to the soldiers gathered in the castle courtyard. They cheered.

Chapter Four: Spirit Tortoise Tyrant

We left the castle and travelled for a day, during which we heard all the details related to the Spirit Tortoise’s reawakening. From what people said, it was focusing its efforts on populated areas. Even worse, people were saying that its attacks were even more powerful than they had been and there were more casualties than the last time.

“The Spirit Tortoise has crossed the border into Melromarc and appears to be heading for the castle.”

“Oh no . . .”

Inside the carriage, the queen unrolled a parchment map and indicated the current location of the Spirit Tortoise as well as its apparent heading. It was very close to our current position and we would probably be able to see it pretty soon.

“There are already reports of mass casualties in Melromarc,” the queen said pensively.

I understood perfectly well what was happening. After all, I’d spent quite a bit of time wandering around the country. I had probably visited a number of the towns the Spirit Tortoise had destroyed.

“So what were you saying about the proper way to defeat the Spirit Tortoise? You said it could only be defeated a certain way.”

“That’s correct.”

“We cut the damn thing’s head clean off last time.”

“As I have already said, that was clearly not sufficient to prevent it from reawakening.”

“Reports from the area indicate that she speaks the truth. They say that a new head grew from the corpse before the Spirit Tortoise awakened.”

Looking at it from a different perspective, at least we knew that blasting its head off would buy us some time before the monster was able to get back on its feet. We could do it again if we needed to. That would give us time to research the way to defeat it for good.

“What have you heard from the seven star heroes?”

The seven star heroes were legendary heroes like the four holy heroes and they had their own legendary weapons. From what I’d heard, they fought for the sake of the world, just like we did, but because they operated in a different part of the world, I’d never had an occasion to meet them.

“Because they were investigating the lands where the Spirit Tortoise was originally imprisoned, it will take them a little while to reach us here.”

“Useless, as always,” I muttered. We had been on our way to meet with them while we searched for the other missing heroes. At one point we’d been relatively close to where they were supposed to be operating. Maybe I should have taken a trip to meet them myself? With Portal Shield at my disposal, it was easy enough to get back to where I needed to be, after all. But I had never met them, so I didn’t know who I was looking for. Coordinating a meeting would have taken a considerable amount of effort on my part. I didn’t know if they were powerful enough to warrant it. At the very least, I hoped they were more powerful than the other three missing heroes were.

“Hey, queen.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“How strong are the seven star heroes?” I asked. The queen frowned and fell into deep thought. I didn’t think I was asking such a difficult question.

“May I be frank with you?”

“Yeah.”

“From what I have seen, they are not as powerful as you are. Naturally, I don’t claim to have witnessed the full extent of their abilities, so I cannot speak with confidence, however . . .”

“I see.”

“But I believe they may well be able to match Ms. Raphtalia or Ms. Filo in battle.”

Well, I suppose that was better than nothing. If they were only as powerful as Filo and Raphtalia, that wasn’t going to do me much good. I already had those two on my side. I wished I had more people standing with me, but if this was all we had to work with, then it probably made more sense for Raphtalia, Filo, and I to go ahead of the others.

“Then, just like last time, we . . .” I tried to explain my thought process to the queen, but Filo interrupted, screaming.

“Master! Master! Look!”

“What is it, Filo?!”

Filo was pointing to something on the horizon. I followed her finger to see something shooting up into the sky. What was it?

At first glance, I thought it looked like a missile, but there weren’t any missiles in this world, were there? This place was like the middle ages, so how could there be . . .

I was thinking it over when I heard a sound and turned to see thousands of birds fleeing the forests around us. It looks like the very clouds themselves were running away.

A sinking feeling gripped my gut, but I didn’t have time to sit around and think about it. I turned back to see enormous spear-like objects raining down from the sky. They fell straight down on the mountains on the horizon, just where we were heading.

And then, just like a scene out of a war movie, a series of loud explosions echoed off the mountains, followed by strong gusts of wind that rattled the carriage. I squinted to see where the objects had fallen and I saw pillars of fire. No, they converged to form giant domes of fire, many of them.

It looked like the end of the world. The trees were all ablaze, and the earth shook with the concussive force of the explosions. What would happen in my own world if someone were to set off a series of massive explosions so powerful they changed the shape of the ground? It was horrifying to imagine—but it was already happening here.

“What the hell was that?”

Raphtalia and Filo were both staring at the explosions, mouths agape, just as aghast as I was.

“Fehhh . . . How scary!”

“Rishia, get it together.”

“He’s right, girl. I gather we’re on our way to meet those explosions,” the old lady said.

“Fehhh!”

The back of the carriage was in a raucous uproar. What a pain.

“Hey. Do you think the Spirit Tortoise did that?”

That couldn’t be it. We’d already battled the Spirit Tortoise, and it hadn’t used any attacks like that. Its strongest attack had been an electric beam that could shoot through a mountain. It was more likely that we were witnessing some kind of ceremonial magic performed by the coalition army against the Spirit Tortoise.

“Perhaps . . . There is a ceremonial spell called ‘Meteorite’ that groups can perform in concert. I suspect that is the source of what we are seeing.”

“Huh?” Filo chirped, turning her head to the side. She seemed suspicious of the queen, who looked nervous and fidgety as she stumbled through an explanation. What was going on? If the explosions weren’t the work of the coalition army, we were in big trouble.

“Hey, master!”

“What?”

“I don’t think that’s it. Something about it doesn’t feel like magic to me!”

“Oh come on, Filo. If that isn’t magic, then what is it? It looks like heavy artillery from my world!”

“Could it be?” Ost muttered to herself while she watched the explosions. “I believe the Shield Hero’s servant is . . . correct.”

What the . . . Did she mean that the explosions really were an attack by the Spirit Tortoise?

The carriage rounded a bend in the road and emerged from it with a much better view of the distant violence. But I wasn’t ready for what I saw.

“Hey. Wasn’t the Spirit Tortoise the size of a mountain? Didn’t he cause horrible destruction just by walking around?”

“My true body has been taken over. Please, Shield Hero. You must defeat me!”

Finally, the Spirit Tortoise stepped into view. It was different than the last time I’d seen it—it even looked like it had rabies. A long web of drool dangled from its gaping mouth, and its eyes appeared to glow red while the beast stomped the ground.

When I’d last seen the tortoise, the remnants of a town had adorned its shell, but the town was so diminished that it was practically invisible. It may have fallen off while the monster walked across the world, or it might have been thrown off as part of the reawakening. It was hard to tell what had happened, but the whole shell looked different. Now it was covered in towering, wicked spike-like thorns. The Spirit Tortoise had changed. Now it looked like an enormous, crazed, wild beast.

Somehow, the monster had accrued even more power for itself. Because it looked so different, I decided to call it Spirit Tortoise Tyrant. The monster was even walking faster than it had before.

This was impossible! I couldn’t imagine us winning a battle against such a beast. Just when I was about to wallow in despair, the Spirit Tortoise stopped in its tracks.

“What’s happening?”

I got my answer before I could finish the question. The towering spikes on its back moved back and forth, and then a number of them shot straight up into the air. I followed them with my eyes as they sailed up through the clouds, slowed, turned, and fell back to the earth.

Then, just like we’d just seen, the area around the Spirit Tortoise was filled with towering pillars of fire and smoke.

So . . . It must have been an area-wide attack, right?

What the hell were we up against? How were we supposed to fight something like that?

A nearby town had been completely obliterated. There was nothing left.

I’d seen an attack like that in a game I played once, a long time ago. In the game, the attack destroyed the whole world. And we were supposed to fight this thing? If this were a game, the Spirit Tortoise would definitely be the final boss. But this wasn’t a game. This was a real world. It wouldn’t end, even if we won the battle.

If what Fitoria said could be trusted, then the waves would stop coming and the Spirit Tortoise would go back to sleep—that is, if we let it do what it wanted. But if what Ost said was true, and someone else had taken control of the Spirit Tortoise, then we had to defeat it to make it stop. And judging by the last attack I’d seen, if we left the tortoise alone, it really might destroy the whole world.

I sighed. Facing a battle like this, who would volunteer to fight if a hero didn’t lead the vanguard?

“Alright! Where’s the coalition army?”

We had to get together and strategize. I scanned the area for signs of the army from our vantage point on the road. Where the hell was it? The landscape was covered in a thick blanket of debris, and it was hard to make anything out.

“There it is!” the queen shouted, pointing.

Following her gaze, I saw the army split into many groups, roughly surrounding the tortoise at a distance. They were on the move, and it was actually a good idea. The Spirit Tortoise chose its targets based on the number of people in the group, and therefore damage resulted in greater loss of life. If the army split up and kept moving, the tortoise would have a hard time focusing on anyone in particular.

“We have to get down there and meet up with them. Come on, Filo!”

“Yeah!”

We set our sights on the fractured coalition army and took off running.

Chapter Five: Mass Destruction

Compared to the last time I had seen it, the coalition army was fractured. Still, I assumed it was successful in drawing the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks—there was plenty of destruction. But I didn’t see many casualties.

We decided to have our strategy meeting inside of a carriage and we kept moving.

The queen, Ost, and I all squeezed into a carriage that was already packed with soldiers from the army.

“My apologies for the venue,” a commander of the army said to me. I recognized him from the last battle with the Spirit Tortoise.

“It’s not your fault. That’s just how it is.”

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to prepare an airship.”

“I didn’t even know that you had one,” I muttered. I should have expected as much—this was another world, after all.

“Faubrey has an airship that it has agreed to lend us. Unfortunately, it did not arrive in time.”

Considering how suddenly this had all happened, it probably hadn’t even made it to Melromarc yet. I wondered if the seven star heroes were on it.

“Waiting for something that may never come will do us no good. What the hell is going on out there?”

“When the Spirit Tortoise reawakened, it had already taken on this new form. I suppose you were not able to make anything out from here, but the town on its shell is still there.”

“Oh.” The spikes must have obscured it from view.

“This is the information our research division was able to obtain,” the man said as he passed me a thick, substantial stack of papers. I flipped through it and quickly found the report that detailed the rediscovery of the town on the beast’s shell.

But we didn’t have time to flip through reports. I’d have to delegate the reading to a smart person. “Read through it and report back to me. I’ll give a copy of this to Rishia as well. It might be the best way for her to contribute to the battle efforts.”

“Understood.”

“Pardon my intrusion, Shield Hero, but who is this woman behind you?”

“She’s a Spirit Tortoise familiar.”

“What?!”

A look of shock swept over the faces of the assembled army generals.

I couldn’t blame them.

“In another country, she is known as Ost Horai. Please see to it that you become acquainted.”

Ost politely bowed to the army officers, who only answered with pointed fingers and gaping mouths. When everyone had calmed down, we explained all that we had learned about the true aim of the Spirit Tortoise, as well as Ost’s claim that it had been taken over by someone with nefarious intentions.

“So the Spirit Tortoise is an even greater threat than we imagined.”

“Yes, but we must destroy it either way, so I don’t see how this new information affects our plans.”

“Yes, well, that’s true . . .”

“I hope to cooperate with you all,” Ost said.

“How presumptuous of you! Do you have any idea how many people have died because of you and the Spirit Tortoise?”

“Burdened with terrible knowledge, I had no choice but to procure the necessary sacrifices. However, what is now happening is no longer within the purview of my goals, and I condemn it. However, I will not apologize for actions I took on behalf of the greater good.”

The queen intervened in the conversation to mediate the growing hostilities between Ost and the army. “While this woman’s goals may not have been in line with our own, she was still trying to save our world. This is no time for squabbles over the past. She has offered her assistance in the coming battle, and we will need it.”

She tried, but it wasn’t convincing. The generals stood with their arms crossed, doubtful expressions on their faces.

“Originally, they were to be a last defense for the world. They were to save it when the heroes were not strong enough to do so. She was only a representative for the Spirit Tortoise, who required sacrifices to fulfill his mission,” I explained.

But the generals were not interested in hearing it.

“Such a woman should be butchered on the spot!”

Ost quietly shut her eyes and closed a fist around the sleeve of her robe as she endured the insults and shouts of the soldiers.

“Sacrifices . . . right.”

I turned to the army generals and muttered quietly. “Who can save the world without requiring sacrifices? Is that how war works? Who can save anything without sacrifices?”

Everyone looked confused. They turned their heads to the side and stared at me, puzzled. The look on their faces made it clear that they had no idea what I was getting at. But I was at the end of my rope—a guy can only put up with insanity for so long.

The last time we’d fought the Spirit Tortoise, I’d done my best to put on a good face and give a rousing speech, but I was quickly running out of patience with the army generals, and I thought it was about time someone put them in the their place.

“You know what? Whenever anything goes bad around here, what do you do? You summon heroes to fight for you. You think that the heroes will save you. Has it ever occurred to you that you are asking for the heroes to sacrifice themselves?”

“Heroes . . . sacrifice?”

“The heroes exist to solve your problems, right?”

I had to correct their misunderstandings, starting with the basics. These idiots clearly didn’t understand that we might not share the same perspective.

“Let me be more blunt. There’s no significant difference between what the Spirit Tortoise does and what you do with the heroes—you both sacrifice others to save the world. Get it?”

“How dare you!”

“Am I wrong? Don’t you summon heroes here to save the world for you? How is that different from sacrificing the heroes to save the world? If heroes have to die to secure your own safety, would you even hesitate?”

“Um . . .”

They must have finally begun to understand what I was saying. Half of the generals fell silent, and the other half stood there with their mouths open, unable to process what they were hearing.

“The heroes have a duty to fight on behalf of the world! What’s so strange about that?”

I sighed. The last time I’d been with the army, I’d given a speech where I said things like “heroes are a matter of the heart” and “heroes never give up in the face of adversity—heroes protect people!” Did I need to recant my whole speech?

“Heroes are courageous, and heroes have the strength necessary to fight on behalf of others. But that doesn’t mean I’m your pawn, does it? No matter how much power a hero commands, they are still a human being, aren’t they? We aren’t sacrificial offerings!”

Many people in the crowd looked uncomfortable when they heard “sacrificial offerings.” This was an army that was forced to rely on external power for their own protection, which must have made them feel weak. If I wanted to hurt them, that was the note to hit.

“How is that different from the rest of you here today? You can all be sacrificed to the Spirit Tortoise to save the world, can’t you? Isn’t that obvious?”

The angry generals appeared to come to their senses.

“If you want to say that the heroes are different from the people of this world, so of course they should be treated differently, or something absurd like that, then I am not going to help fight this battle. When you’re dead and gone, I’ll help the remaining ones, the ones that understand what I’m trying to say, defeat the Spirit Tortoise. How does that sound?”

“Damn you.”

“Shield Hero . . .” Ost said, raising her eyes to meet mine.

The queen stepped in between the army and myself and attempted to mediate. “This is not the time to debate our responsibilities. The Spirit Tortoise was originally a monster that fought on behalf of the world, though not necessarily on behalf of humans. That is no longer the Spirit Tortoise we face. The monster out there is simply out for destruction, for blood. Is there anything left to debate? Isn’t it clear that we must defeat the beast?”

Everyone fell silent as they listened to the queen.

She was right. No matter how the debate proceeded, the answer was going to be the same. We had to defeat the Spirit Tortoise. The option to sacrifice lives to the Spirit Tortoise so that the world might be saved . . . That option didn’t even exist anymore.

“Even if we were not in possession of these new facts, our goals and responsibilities would not change. It is just as Mr. Iwatani has said. There is no problem with Ms. Ost.”

“But what are we supposed to do? We were not able to stand against the Spirit Tortoise during the last battle, and it appears to have become more powerful in the interim.”

“Isn’t there only one thing that we can do? Just like last time, my party and I will lead the charge. We’ll cut the damn thing’s head off and buy ourselves time to find other options.”

“But . . .”

I could understand their hesitation. During the last battle, I had barely managed to protect everyone from the monster’s powerful attacks, and those attacks had grown much more powerful now. What if I wasn’t able to withstand them anymore?

“Ost, you said that you don’t know how to defeat the Spirit Tortoise, right?”

“Correct. My role was simply to pave the way for the Spirit Tortoise’s awakening. I was simply to supply the heroes with hints regarding the method to break the seal on the Spirit Tortoise’s imprisonment.”

She wasn’t going to be much help, but I suppose it was better than not having her on our side at all.

“Isn’t their anything you can tell us? Anything at all?”

“When I was ingratiating myself with the royal family, I did learn about the Spirit Tortoise legends.”

“Great. Go talk with Rishia—she’s the girl wearing the kigurumi back in my carriage. She might be able to figure something out from your stories.”

“Very well,” Ost said, leaving to return to the carriage we’d come in.

Something about the way she moved struck me as odd. She moved lightly, as if she was unaffected by gravity, when she leapt down from the carriage. Something about her seemed . . . inhuman. Was it because she was a Spirit Tortoise familiar (human type)?

I turned to address the queen. “You should probably join in on those talks.”

“Agreed. And I’m quite interested to hear more about the Spirit Tortoise legends. Hopefully we’ll be able to glean a hint from them.”

The queen had apparently made a hobby out of studying various legends of the world. In this case, I hoped that her hobby would lead us to a path forward.

“In the meantime, we have our own things to discuss. What sort of formation should we use in the attack? The monster’s attacks have grown stronger too. How are we to avoid them for long enough to make a counter-attack?”

“Good questions. To begin with, I suggest that, just like last time, we lure the monster to a place that is best suited for battle.”

“How are the evacuations proceeding?”

“The Spirit Tortoise is moving much faster than last time, and the evacuations are a little behind schedule.”

That wasn’t good, but it wasn’t so different from the last time.

“However, compared to the last time, the Spirit Tortoise appears to have taken a greater interest in the movements of the coalition army. I believe we will be able to draw its attention for long enough to allow the evacuations to proceed before the battle begins in earnest.”

“That would be ideal.”

The last time we faced the Spirit Tortoise, it seemed more interested in proceeding on to the next population center than it did with entering a skirmish with the army. If it cared more about the army now, that might give us an advantage.

“The Spirit Tortoise’s attacks have grown very powerful, but there appear to be fewer familiars in the area. The tortoise also stops from time to time, so I believe we are having a fair amount of success in drawing its attention. At the moment, the beast has yet to use the sort of powerful attacks it deployed against the Shield Hero in the last battle. We can only hope . . .”

“True. We’ll be in trouble when the tortoise starts to use those attacks again.”

During the last battle, the Spirit Tortoise familiars had attacked along with the Spirit Tortoise proper. With so many monsters and people in the mix, it had been nearly impossible to distinguish between friend and foe. However, its shooting attack appeared to have a limited range, which was something we could be grateful for.

Huh? Did they say that it stops from time to time?

I turned around to see what they meant, and sure enough, the Spirit Tortoise was standing still, staring off into space.

We stopped the carriage, too.

“When the beast stops moving like this, it tends to stay still for anywhere from thirty minutes up to two hours.”

“Hmm . . .”

That was another thing to be grateful for. If the Spirit Tortoise moved nonstop, then the army would never be able to escape its attacks. Everything had limited stamina—carriages too. Whether horses or filolials pulled them, they had to stop from time to time.

“Make sure you keep your wits about you once we enter close-quarters combat. There’s no telling what that thing might do.”

“We will do as you say, Mr. Iwatani.”

In the end, our only option was to force our way though and try to buy ourselves more time. We spent the rest of the meeting with the coalition army going over the details of the plan. Once we had agreed on a plan, I went back to my own carriage.

“Welcome back. Were you able to agree on a battle strategy?” Raphtalia asked.

Eclair and the old lady were already asking the queen the same questions.

Rishia and Ost were deep in conversation. They referenced a stack of papers while they spoke.

“We’ll arrive at the intended battleground shortly. The battle will start when the Spirit Tortoise begins to move again.”

The Spirit Tortoise had stopped walking, but it was still keeping an eye on its surroundings. It appeared to be cautious. If anyone approached it while it was still, it would immediately start moving again and attack. All of that was well and fine, but I was curious about what seemed to be happening to the landscape around the resting Spirit Tortoise.

As if to answer my private question, Ost stood and spoke. “The Spirit Tortoise is absorbing power from the earth. It is preparing to use that powerful attack you saw. You must be very careful.”

“You mean the attack where it shoots those spikes from its shell.”

“Yes.”

Ost was the only one who could sense the beast accumulating power.

“Should we attack while it is resting like this?”

“The earlier you can attack, the better. But if you are not fully prepared, then you should not attack.”

“Why is that?”

“Further down from here, in the direction the Spirit Tortoise is proceeding, the earth has less power. If we wait until it gets there, it will have a harder time replenishing its energy stores.”

“That’s great information. By the way, what is this energy, this power, that you’re talking about?”

“There are two types. One is what you might call experience. The other is a form of magic that is in the atmosphere.”

Ost seemed to know a lot about how the world worked.

“So we should wait?”

“I believe so, yes. And it will give us all more time to prepare for the battle.”

“Alright then.”

Getting prepared wasn’t too difficult. We’d already done it plenty of times before, so we just needed to go through the motions.

“Soon . . . Soon enough, we’ll be fighting the Spirit Tortoise again,” said Raphtalia.

“Yeah. Just like last time, I think we should try to cut off its head. At the very least, that will buy us time to figure out how to defeat it for good.”

We still didn't know how to defeat it permanently. Of course, it would be better if we had the time to search for a permanent solution, but I had to admit that there was a ball of anxiety in my stomach that wasn’t going away.

For the moment, there was nothing we could do but silently watch the Spirit Tortoise’s giant bulk on the horizon and wait for time to pass.

Chapter Six: Versus the Spirit Tortoise, Opening Stages

An hour passed.

“The Spirit Tortoise is moving!” Filo shouted from her post in front of the carriage. I looked out from the back to see the tortoise. It turned its bloodshot eyes on the coalition army and began to chase after it.

“The battle will begin any moment now. Mr. Iwatani, I wish you luck,” the queen said. She had been speaking with Ost and Rishia, but now she climbed out of the carriage.

I’d spent the hour reading through the stack of reports we’d received. It had taken a long time to work through the documents, because they were filled with obnoxiously ornate sentences and quotations that were written in foreign character sets. I couldn’t say how many different languages the reports had contained, but it was amazing that Rishia and the queen had been able to read them without much trouble. I had to ask them to read each of those parts to me, and the hour had flown by. Once I’d made it halfway through the document, I started skipping over anything written in characters I didn’t understand.

As for the stories Ost had heard about the Spirit Tortoise’s imprisonment, I didn’t understand anything about it that hadn’t been included in the report. Besides, I got tired of hearing the constant refrain of “much knowledge has been lost over the years.” Sure, the beast had been imprisoned a long time ago, but how was that an excuse for forgetting everything you’d once known about it? I asked the queen how that could have happened, and she said that many records had been burned and lost throughout centuries of war.

I suppose that if you lost a nation’s legends and records—especially if the nation itself vanished—there wasn’t any way to recover the information. Even the country on the Spirit Tortoise’s shell had changed names and governments after weathering two wars.

But there was also a legend in the documents that said the seven star heroes’ weapons had been lost for a time, until new heroes arrived and found them. There was even a legend that said, even though the dragon hourglasses hadn’t existed, that the seven star heroes had demanded access to them. I suppose that no matter what world you’re in, each country has its own version of history.

“So? Did you find any information we can work with?”

“Feh . . .” Rishia whimpered, somehow scared.

Had I sounded angry enough to scare her? She was terrified of everything. I guessed that her intimidated response meant that she didn’t have any confidence in what she’d learned or she didn’t know what to say.

“Um, well, about the particular methods needed to defeat the Spirit Tortoise . . . They say that it is possible, if you can get inside of the monster’s body.”

“. . .”

Did she think I could just crawl up onto its back to take a look?

In the distance, the Spirit Tortoise shot a round of the spike-like missiles from its back. Explosions and flashes of light soon followed, and my shadow fell over Rishia. That was all that had happened, but for some reason Rishia thought that I was angry with her, and she started to twitch in fear.

“Feh! And they say that there was information left behind by ancient heroes, inscribed in stone . . .”

Inscribed in stone? That must have been the message I’d found from the old heroes. The messages were often written in Japanese, and there was no one else around that could read it.

But all the heroes came from different worlds, and while those worlds all had a version of Japan in them, they were still different. That meant the grammar and vocabulary could be different too. I wasn’t so sure I was able to fully understand what was written. We’d found another one of these messages in a temple on the Spirit Tortoise’s back, and fortunately I’d understood a lot of it.

“Ost, can you read it?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Did the documents include reproductions or a sketch of the message?”

“Fehhh . . .”

Well, the stones were probably so old and crumbled that any message on them would be illegible by now. I could understand how someone would have trouble making out what was written. I wished they’d finished their research before the damn Spirit Tortoise started moving again!

Rishia continued whimpering as she fumbled through the pages. But then, a moment later, she produced a sheet of paper that included a sketch. I guess she had done her best to look into it.

Luckily, I could understand some of it. The rest of the sentence was impossible to make out, as the stone it had been written on was too old and crumbled, but . . .

Goal is . . . Waves . . . World . . . Prevent.

World . . . Prevent?

What were they preventing? Destruction? Extinction? Didn’t the tortoise make a magic barrier to protect the world?

“Ost, you said the Spirit Tortoise exists to protect the world with a magic force field, right?”

“Yes, as far as I know.”

But the inscription could have meant something else.

What were the waves? I still had no idea what they actually were. The more we looked into the mystery of the Spirit Tortoise, the more we were confronted with the continuing mystery.

“Couldn’t it be saying that it’s trying to prevent something that results from the waves?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand the language.”

I sighed. Oh well, this wasn’t the time to be figuring this stuff out anyway. I decided to save the rest of our investigation until after the battle was over. At the very least, it seemed likely that the rest of the heros’ message was somewhere up on the tortoise’s back.

“Right, got it. Ok then, we’re just going to have to force the Spirit Tortoise to stop moving long enough for us to get up onto its back and find out how to stop it permanently.”

“Understood.”

“Very well.”

From outside the carriage, I heard Filo shout, “Got it Maaaaster!”

Rishia whimpered, and Eclair adjusted her grip on the hilt of her sword. The old lady gave an energetic shout and struck a battle pose.

“Let’s do this! Filo, take us to the Spirit Tortoise! Don’t stop until we are right up under its eyes—and don’t let it hit you!”

We took off running at full speed, straight for the crazed Spirit Tortoise.

“You all better get inside my force field! Shooting Star Shield!”

A transparent, protective barrier appeared around me. It was very powerful, so I hoped it could stop most of the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks.

When the beast noticed our carriage barreling straight for it, it lowered its head to meet us. During the last battle it had fired energy beams from its mouth, and that had been its most powerful attack. At the moment, it didn’t seem like it was preparing to do anything like that.

A shrieking sound filled the air, and the spikes on the beast’s shell shot into the sky.

“Damn!”

Filo turned her eyes to the sky and deftly dodged left and right to avoid the falling spikes. The scenery in my peripheral vision flew by in a flash. We must have been moving very quickly. The wheels of the carriage clattered angrily over the pebbles and rocks in the path. We were borrowing it from the army, so I didn’t care if it broke.

The sense of the massive Spirit Tortoise was slowly growing to fill more and more of my vision as we approached . . . it was a novel thing. It was something you would never see in Japan. If you were to drive on a straight road directly towards the mountains, it might have felt similar.

The carriage shook violently as we ran. I turned back to see Eclair and Raphtalia desperately struggling to hold on. Ost regarded the scene in silence and then stretched out her hands. She appeared to be concentrating, and then she began to chant a magical incantation.

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength, I command you—loosen the hold of gravity on them!”

“Gravity Reversal, Float!”

Raphtalia and the others lightly lifted off from the carriage floor and floated in the air. Floating in the air, they were able to compose themselves without being knocked around by the violent shaking.

“Wow . . .”

“I’ve never seen such magic.”

“While there are still monsters that can use it, humans lost the knowledge of this spell long ago. We are about to enter battle, so I have used my power to levitate your comrades.”

“How convenient.”

I wondered if the spell’s use was somehow restricted. Would Filo be able to learn it? She liked to run carriages ragged, much to the dismay of our passengers. A levitation spell would come in handy for sure.

“This spell uses my own power to produce its effects. The effects vary depending on the medium who casts the spell.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. I am capable of manipulating the gravity fields around myself, so this spell is simply an extension of that ability.”

So that explained why she had looked so strange when she jumped out of the carriage. She really wasn’t . . . human.

“If we ever have the time to talk at our leisure, I would certainly teach you how to use it, Shield Hero.”

“You think I can use it?”

“We will need luck on our side, but I believe I can teach you.”

That sounded like a good deal to me. I wondered if she would be able to teach me some offensive magic spells as well. As things stood at the moment, I could only use support and restorative magic.

“Still, the method must be different. If you were to attempt to use your own power the way I’ve used mine, you could kill yourself. Human magic is quite a bit more powerful than my own.”

“Really?”

“Yes. My magic normally relies on drawing the latent power of the earth, the water, ores, and so on. It has a different effect depending on the medium.”

Listening to Ost, I was reminded of the magic system in a game I’d played once, a long time ago. Though, actually, come to think of it, it sounded a lot like the sort of magic Therese had used. She had used jewels—jewels imbedded in various accessories she wore—as a medium to cast spells. When she used her spells, the jewels she’d equipped flashed in response. It must have been the same thing that Ost was talking about.

“Can you do the same thing with jewels or gemstones?”

“Yes. They are a very suitable medium for casting spells. One of the easier mediums, actually.”

Well, that explained it. It must have been the same type of magic that Therese used. She’d had access to a lot of powerful spells, so it would be great if I could learn to do the same thing. With any luck, I might even be able to manage an offensive spell or two, which would make my life a lot easier. If the root of the power was the medium and not myself, then it shouldn’t matter that my natural aptitude was only for supportive and restorative magic.

“Great. I can’t wait to learn—if we have the time, that is.”

“Yes.”

“I suppose we should thank you for the unsolicited lecture on magic?” Eclair said quietly.

“Ost is the only reason we have made it as far as we have. Please keep your grumblings to yourself,” Raphtalia said, giving Eclair a warning.

Filo kept running as fast as she could, turning quickly to the left, then the right, bouncing and bounding with incredible speed towards the Spirit Tortoise. From time to time, one of the explosions or missiles would rock the carriage, but luckily my Shooting Star Shield force field was strong enough to protect us from any real damage. Still, it was a bumpy ride. You wouldn't want an arm or a leg to stick out from the barrier. That much was sure.

Were it not for Ost’s magic, we would all be nauseous and throwing up by the time we got with striking distance of the beast.

“R . . . Right.”

We brought the conversation to close just in time to see the massive head of the Spirit Tortoise lower down to our level and blink its bloodshot eyes at us.

“Raphtalia, Filo, finish it in one hit. Start preparing now. Eclair, old lady, you two focus on counter-attacks. Rishia, Ost, you’re on support duty!”

They all nodded, and began to prepare for battle.

“ROOAAAAARR!”

The Spirit Tortoise’s powerful attack began in earnest. Huge spikes rained down from the sky all around us!

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

I cast Shield Prison around the carriage and deployed the other three shields in the air over our heads.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

To offer one last layer of protection, I covered the carriage with a Shooting Star Shield barrier. As I set up our defenses, Raphtalia and Filo stepped forward and prepared to use their best attacks. I stood up on the carriage’s driver’s seat, readied my shield, and cast a spell.

“Zweite Aura!”

The spell affected Raphtalia and Filo, raising all of the their stats dramatically.

Behind me, Ost and Rishia began to cast spells.

“Feh . . . Do your best! First Power!”

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength, I command you—grant them strength!”

“Herculean Strength!”

I felt a massive surge of power flow into Raphtalia and Filo.

Rishia’s spell was middling in comparison to the massive boost I’d felt when Ost cast her spell.

One of the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks must have made it through the barrier, because I felt something clatter ineffectually against my shield. I looked up and, sure enough, all three aerial shields were gone, and I could see the sky through a large crack in the Shield Prison.

We were surrounded by explosions. Waves of sizzling air washed over us. Luckily the Shooting Star Shield barrier was still holding, but I wasn’t sure how much longer we could count on it.

Worse yet, I could see that the Spirit Tortoise had already charged up the strongest attack it had used against us last time—the electricity beam it had shot from its mouth.

If we didn’t do something fast, it was going to hit us directly.

I quickly ran to get in front of the others and readied my shield.

The Spirit Tortoise’s mouth yawned open and a bolt of lightning shot straight out of it, like a particle beam.

There was a splintering crack, and the Shooting Star Shield barrier vanished. Instantly, I felt the full force of the beam against my shield. Straining to take the brunt of the attack, I turned back to see Raphtalia and Filo still rushing to prepare their attacks.

“Hengen Muso Secret Knowledge! Whirlwind!”

Suddenly, the old woman was right behind me, holding her hands out towards the beast. A swirling of air or something blew over us and deflected the particle beam—if only just a little. When I say a little, I really mean a little.

The shield was getting very hot in my hands. I could feel my skin burning where I held it.

“Damn. I do not have any skills that can assist Master Iwatani.” Eclair grumbled, clearly upset. I wanted to turn and tell her that I didn’t expect support magic from a swordsman—but I didn’t have the time or the energy.

“. . .”

Suddenly she held her sword out with both hands and shouted a magic incantation.

“Zweite Light Shield!”

For a moment—only a faint moment—I saw a shield of light appear before me. I never knew that she could use light magic!

But that was nothing to get excited about. The shield disappeared as soon as it had formed. It hadn’t helped at all. “I am reasonably proficient with light and supportive magic, although it’s only defensive light magic and agility-enhancing magic,” Eclair said. She sounded like she was cursing herself for not being more useful.

“Your magic will prove very useful!”

Now Ost was behind me as well. She slipped her hands over my own and gripped the top of my shield.

“What are you . . . ?”

Before I could even finish my sentence, Ost was already casting a spell.

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength, I command you—grant power to the holy shield before me!”

The gemstone set in the center of my shield flashed, and the area the shield was capable of defending pulsed and expanded.

The shield was barely able to defend us, but now it seemed to cover and protect a much larger area without any trouble. It must have taken an incredible effort to maintain the spell. I looked at Ost. Sweat poured down her face.

“Ugh . . .”

I wasn’t going to stand there in silence. While I was waiting for my skills’ cool-down time to expire, I could use the time to cast restorative spells on Ost.

“Zweite Heal!”

I couldn’t believe that the Spirit Tortoise could sustain its attack for so long. We weren’t going to be able to hold out much longer. It was clearly longer and more powerful than it had been the last time. Finally, with a deafening crackling sound, the particle beam shrunk and dissipated.

“Now!”

Raphtalia and Filo had been waiting for my signal, and they immediately leapt from the carriage.

“Directional Sword of Heaven!”

“Spiral Strike!”

Raphtalia and Filo flew at the Spirit Tortoise’s head, gripped their weapons tightly, and unleashed their most powerful attacks. There was a great sound of blades digging through flesh, and their attacks connected directly with the monster’s throat.

Filo was first. Her attack dug deep into the throat, unleashing a spray of blood into the air. Then she turned into a flash of light and spiraled around the monster’s throat. Raphtalia was right behind her, swinging a massive sword of light through the beast’s neck. The cleaved flesh turned to light and shone brightly as the deep cuts expanded.

“Hyaaaa!”

“Taaaaaah!”

They shouted as their attacks connected with the beast and kept shouting as they continued to slice through the monster’s neck.

“It’s tougher than it was last time, but we can’t give up now!”

“I’m doing my beeeeeeest!”

They both screamed, and shouted, and spun, and sliced, and appeared to use all the energy they had.

 Keep it up! I thought. You can do it! Ost and I withstood that attack to give you this chance!

“I can’t just stand back in silence!” Eclair shouted and dashed forward, her sword in hand. She charged the sword up with her magic power and thrust with all her might. The blade only stuck a little way into the monster’s cheek, but it did do more damage than she’d been able to do in the last battle.

“Acho!” the old lady shouted. Not to be outdone, she swung her leg around and flew up in the air, forming her crescent moon attack.

“Fehhh . . .” Rishia whimpered. She was trying to contribute, but he hadn’t managed to pull off an attack yet.

Huff . . . Huff . . .

“Are you okay?”

Ost was looking very pale. She must have given too much of her energy to the shield. If she fell over now, it was clear how this would end.

“Don’t worry . . . about me . . .”

“That’s easy to say.”

“I’m alright. You must . . . quickly . . .”

I turned to look at Raphtalia and Filo.

“Raphtalia! Filo! Finish it!”

“Ha! HyaAAAAAAAA!”

“Okay! Taaaahhh!”

They shouted in unison, their voices growing higher and more strained as they expended the last of their energy, spiraling and swinging and slicing with all their might until, with a dramatic spray of blood, the head of the monster fell free from its body.

“Got it!”

“Yes!”

The head flew through the air, leaving the stump of the neck spraying geysers of blood. They landed, easy and light, and ran back to where the rest of us still stood.

“We did it!”

“Knocked its head off!”

“Great job, you two!”

“I wish I could have done more . . .” Eclair lamented.

“There’s always next time!” answered the old lady.

I held Ost on her feet so she wouldn’t collapse and looked at the tortoise’s fallen corpse. It shouldn’t move for a while.

Behind us, the army wizards were furiously casting restorative magic. It seemed to be working. All the exhaustion I’d felt a moment ago seemed to have vanished. There must have been a spell to replenish lost stamina. I think the spell worked by draining the caster of stamina on behalf of the target, or if the target was oneself, then it worked by draining away the user’s magic power.

A little color returned to Ost’s face. I removed a bottle of magic water from my shield and passed it to Ost. It would replenish any lost magic power.

“This will replenish your magic power.”

“No . . . My magic power is fine . . . I just used to much of my own . . . power.”

Weren’t the wizard’s spells replenishing her life force—or her stamina? And it still wasn’t returning? I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bottle of life force water that Rishia had been using in her Hengen Muso training. “Try this.”

I knew there were medicines that could restore a person’s life force, but I feared they might not work. Ost wasn’t human, after all. That’s why I wanted to try the life force water. The old lady had said that would restore lost “energy.”

Huff . . . Huff . . . Ost slowly raised the bottle to her lips and drank its contents. When she finished the bottle, her face slowly started to look healthier and brighter.

“That seems to have helped . . . a little. Thank you very much.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Protecting people was my job. Part of that meant I had to physically protect them, but it also meant that I had to make sure people were capable of protecting themselves. I had to keep an eye on Raphtalia, Filo, and the others. I even needed to keep an eye on Rishia’s condition.

The queen had to do the same thing for her people. Even though we were only cooperating for the time being, I still felt that it was my responsibility to watch out for Ost. Besides, after seeing how she’d filled my shield with an amazing amount of power, she wasn’t someone that I could just ignore. If she hadn’t been there, we might have taken heavy damage.

Raphtalia and Filo had done the bulk of the physical work, but Ost had done so much for us that her role in the battle was at least as important as theirs.

“Anyway, we’d better get going while the Spirit Tortoise is still down.”

We were just about to move on to the next stage of our plan, when the disturbing sound of something large and wriggling came from the direction of the fallen Spirit Tortoise.

Everyone fell silent. They locked their gaze on the corpse.

The torso rose to its feet, and strings of flesh wriggled out from the stump of the neck.

Then, with a thundering thunk, a new head appeared where the old one had been. It was like nothing had happened.

“Wh . . .”

What happened? Just how quickly could this thing regenerate? The last time we knocked the head off, the Spirit Tortoise had stayed down for a whole week. I knew that the tortoise had impressive regenerative abilities, but I never thought it could grow a new head in a matter of minutes. What was this thing, a hydra?

The ancient heroes had stopped the Spirit Tortoise by sealing its heart—was that because of its regenerative abilities too?

“ROAAAARRRR!”

“What?!”

The Spirit Tortoise opened its mouth and roared. Then, without missing a beat, it unleashed a particle beam just like the one we’d just survived. I immediately sent out a series of aerial shields and used Shield Prison, the same defensive system I just used before.

“Ugh . . . Argh!”

“Mr . . . Mr. Naofumi?!”

“Oh no!”

“Fehhh?!”

The prison cage broke on impact, and the force field barrier broke a moment later. I could smell the stench of my own burning skin.

“Shield Hero!”

Ost wavered and nearly stumbled into me. Raphtalia dashed to catch her.

“Don’t force yourself. You need to rest.”

“But . . . But I!”

“It’s fine! Stay back!”

She must have been overwhelmed by her sense of responsibility, because Ost ignored our pleas and reached her hand out towards me.

I could barely withstand the power of the tortoise’s beam—finally, I felt as though my entire body were burning. Time either stood still or sped up. Had it been a moment or an eternity? I thought I was going to go insane from the pain.

Huff . . . Huff . . .

My consciousness was drifting, and just before I lost control completely, I felt the attack abate.

The only other time I’d been hurt so badly was when I’d used Blood Sacrifice in battle with the high priest. This time things might have been worse. I felt burns deep within my skin . . . maybe deeper.

“Master?!”

“Mr. Naofumi?!”

“Shield Hero!”

Damn. I wanted to cast a healing spell on myself, but I couldn’t focus enough to pull it off.

Just then, a warm light fell over me. My wounds began to heal before my eyes, but there wasn’t enough time to heal them completely. Still, I was healed enough that I could finally think clearly. It must have been due to the supportive magic the queen was casting somewhere behind me. Considering how chaotic the situation was, I had to remember to thank her for being so quick to respond.

“Zweite Heal!”

I cast a healing spell on myself just before the tortoise raised its foot to crush us. I was just cognizant enough to block its attack in time. Good. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to block the attack with my Soul Eater Shield without it.

“Filo! Replenish your magic power!”

“Yup!”

I tossed a bottle of magic water to Filo, and she drank it.

“We’re not going to win if we keep attacking from the front. We have to retreat for now. Filo! Get the carriage and get us out of here!”

“Ok! Carriage!”

I kept blocking the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks while I used Shooting Star Shield. Within the force field, we kept moving to dodge the tortoise’s feet.

The ground shook tremendously each time one of the legs came crashing down nearby. Finally, the tortoise locked its eyes on us and raised its leg again to snuff us out, but that was just the chance we needed.

“Everyone, hurry back to the carriage!”

“Okay!”

“Fehhh . . .”

“How regrettable!”

Everyone jumped into the carriage, their faces downcast.

“Ost! Hurry!”

The Spirit Tortoise had its eyes on her now, and it moved to cut her off from the rest of us.

“Your ‘true body’ is a little overpowered, don’t you think?”

“I’m truly sorry.”

When the beast got serious it could really move!

The damn thing had ruined our plans!

“Haikuikku!”

Filo took off at breakneck speed, putting distance between us and the tortoise.

How were we supposed to fight something that was so powerful I couldn’t block its attacks? How were we supposed to defeat something that could regenerate any lost body parts, even its head, within seconds of losing them? It was impossible!

Orthodox methods were not going to work, so we’d have to think of something else. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to mind. We needed to retreat for the moment and sit down with the queen and Rishia. Even if we couldn’t figure out how to decisively defeat the monster, those two might be able to find a way that we could at least hold our ground. At the very least, we’d have better luck if we put our heads together.

“We’re retreating! Filo, get us out of here.”

“Okay!”

Filo sped off across the field, pulling our carriage away from the towering Spirit Tortoise.

Chapter Seven: Buying Time

We arrived at the camp and I made for the carriage where the coalition army was having its strategy meeting. I stepped inside to find all the generals sitting around, their faces pale and sour. It was a pretty desperate situation.

“We had seen the monster demonstrate some of its regenerative abilities from a distance, but I never would have imagined it was capable of what we just saw,” the queen said, her forehead knit with concern.

“I must apologize,” Ost said, bowing deeply.

We didn’t have the time to sit around feeling sad!

“I know. I thought we could at least buy ourselves some time. What options do we have left? If we can’t defeat it, we’ll have to imprison the Spirit Tortoise like the ancient heroes did,” I said. But considering how violent and powerful the monster was, how were we supposed to get to the ruins on its back, much less get inside of its body?

“We have discovered some information related to the imprisonment method,” the queen said as she looked over at Ost.

“Is it something we can pull off?”

“I believe so. According to the investigation, it should be possible.”

“Does it involve magic we can use?”

“Well . . .” the queen sighed. Things weren’t looking good. We were going to need luck.

“Oh . . .”

“The spell is very demanding. If we are lucky, the wizards of the coalition army may be able to perform it if they all work together.”

“I am not sure it will truly fix our problem. It is only intended as a stop gap measure until the proper time for imprisonment arrives.”

“But the seal wasn’t broken correctly, was it? So maybe this spell will be more effective than it would be otherwise, right?” I asked.

According to what Ost had said so far, the seal on the Spirit Tortoise’s prison hadn’t been broken properly. I had no idea what method had been used, but there was a good chance that the seal itself was still intact or still held a considerable power over the tortoise.

“You’re correct that we cannot ignore the possibility. The statues in the underground temples around the world are still intact, after all.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” the queen said, surprised by the new information Ost had provided.

“Yes, well, they represent the true power behind the seal. There are three seals, and as long as they are not broken, the Spirit Tortoise is not supposed to be able to move as it is.”

“Well, that sounds like our best option. What other choice do we have? We should try to use this imprisonment magic and see if we can’t at least stunt the abilities of the tortoise.”

“I concur. However, I cannot guarantee that it will be effective.”

“Well, we still need to find a way to kill this thing—cutting its head off didn’t work. I think the next best option would be if Filo took a small group of us up onto the shell so we could investigate the interior of the temple we found there.”

It might not be enough to sneak up behind it and use sealing magic to blunt its movement, but what other choice did we have? It was better than nothing.

“According to the legends, the Spirit Tortoise can only be imprisoned if we are able to make our way to its physical heart.”

That would be tough, considering the magic we needed was going to require all the coalition army’s wizards. The situation seemed to be getting worse and worse.

“Should we try to investigate the temple ruins beforehand?”

“It’s certainly an option.”

But what if we went up there and made our way through the temple ruins and came back empty-handed? I didn’t even want to think about it.

“Master!”

As we sat around considering our options, Filo came running up beside the carriage and called over to me.

“What? The adults are talking about important stuff, so don’t bother us if it’s not important.”

“But I can see the castle in the distance!”

Shit! We’d covered so much ground running from the tortoise that we were already back within sight of Melromarc castle.

“If the Spirit Tortoise continues on its current path, we will soon arrive at a place where the earth’s energy flows freely,” Ost said, making the bad news even worse.

Was Melromarc castle going to fall? We’d only gotten along for a short time. Now, I’d probably have to move on to another country to get support—once we dealt with the Spirit Tortoise.

“Mr. Iwatani?”

The queen startled me. I wondered if she could tell what I was thinking the way that Raphtalia and Filo could.

“Hey, master! Fitoria is trying to talk to us.”

“She is? What does she want?”

“She says she wants you to stall for a little while longer. She says she’s on her way!”

“Why now? Isn’t it a little late to offer help at this point?”

Was she coming to kill me?

Fitoria was a legendary filolial. She had once said that if the four heroes couldn’t learn to get along, she would have to kill us. When the Spirit Tortoise threat first reared its head, she had decided to sit out on the sidelines. She said it was because we’d proven that we weren’t capable of cooperating.

“She’s saying that things have progressed to the point where she has no choice but to step in and help.”

“So if we can buy enough time for Fitoria to get here, she’s going to take care of the Spirit Tortoise for us?”

Could I really hope for that much? If the great legendary filolial would come and defeat the Spirit Tortoise for us, then we could enter battle with the Spirit Tortoise and try to stay alive long enough for her arrival.

“She’s saying that she’ll do all she can, but that it might be difficult to kill something that can grow new heads.”

“I can’t argue with that.” To be honest, we all faced the same problem. No one knew how to kill the Spirit Tortoise. The way I saw things, we needed all the help we could get.

“But master! If we don’t do something fast, the castle is going to be destroyed!”

I sighed. “I know. How long will it take for her to get here?”

Judging from the speed the tortoise appeared to be moving, we probably only had an hour or so before it reached the castle. And once it did, the castle and town would be in range of the Spirit Tortoise’s missile attack.

If the castle suffered a direct hit from either the missile spikes or the particle beam breath, it wouldn’t stand a chance. Even worse, it could probably hit the castle with a particle beam from a decent distance if we didn’t step in to stop it.

“She says she needs about an hour.”

The castle was as good as gone. Come to think of it, the castle town probably wouldn’t make it either. I turned to the queen. “Are the evacuations completed?”

“Not entirely. And I do not believe they can be completed before the Spirit Tortoise arrives.”

That didn’t sound good, but I bet that anyone still in the town would run away when they noticed the giant Spirit Tortoise stomping toward them. Granted, that didn’t mean they’d escape in time. Things were looking bleak.

“We have no choice. We need to buy ourselves enough time to hold out until Fitoria gets here.” There was another problem though. Who knew if Fitoria would be able to defeat the Spirit Tortoise, anyway?

“Mr. Iwatani, are you going to try and halt the Spirit Tortoise’s progress?”

“Yeah.”

We’d only have to hold out for an hour. But an hour seemed like a really long time.

I’d learned a few things during the last two battles with the tortoise. For one, the monster needed time to recharge after both of its major attacks. But . . . Actually, come to think of it, the beast had been able to use its particle beam two times in a row.

I wondered if the cool-down time between attacks was shortened when the monster took damage. If we were careful about how quickly we attacked it, we might be able to control how quickly it was able to counter-attack. In some ways, the Spirit Tortoise itself was a sort of special attack that needed recharging.

Whatever ended up happening, we were going to need enough time for the coalition army to get us up onto the shell. If Fitoria showed up in time to take over the main battle, that would probably be the window of opportunity we needed.

It was a gamble.

If we were just fighting to stall and buy time, then we didn’t need to make sure we won. Actually, it probably made more sense to think of it as if we were leading the tortoise away from the town.

Alright.

“We’re going into battle to buy ourselves more time,” I said, turning to the queen. “We are going to need your support to survive. Make sure you’ve got restorative ceremonial magic ready when we need it.”

“I will do whatever you ask, Mr. Iwatani.”

“The army should focus on evacuating the area until the people escaping from Melromarc arrive. Form a regiment that always keeps the tortoise in sight.”

“Roger.”

I confirmed that the army had prepared a battalion of flying dragon knights. They would be our best option for getting up onto the shell. Besides, we had Filo—the fastest thing on two legs. We’d find a way up there.

If we could get inside of its body, we could try to find the heart and kill it. But we’d already lopped its head off, and that hadn’t worked. Would killing the heart be effective?

Oh well. Worrying wouldn’t fix anything. I went back to the carriage where Raphtalia and the others were waiting.

“Welcome back. What should we do?”

“Raphtalia, Rishia, Eclair, and old lady—you’re in charge of getting everyone out of Melromarc. There might not be any familiars around the Spirit Tortoise itself, but they could be attacking the town.”

When we’d noticed the castle, I thought I had seen dark clouds of monsters off on the horizon. If my hunch had been right, someone would have to protect the citizens. And if we were only trying to stall the Spirit Tortoise, we weren’t going to need Raphtalia and the others anyway.

“Feh . . .”

“Understood. If I can save even one person, I will.”

“Good answer. Old lady, I’m counting on you, too.”

“I know you are.”

I took a deep breath and turned to Ost and Filo. “You two are coming with me. Filo, if things look bad, you’re in charge of cutting its head off and getting us out of attack range.”

“Okay!”

“Ost, I’ll need your support, just like last time.” If she could dramatically increase the defensive capabilities of my shield, then she was an essential part of our strategy. “But do me a favor and keep an eye on your stamina. I’ll try to stay on top of keeping myself healed. This is going to be a long fight. We need to do all we can to save our strength.”

“Very well. I will do my best to pace myself.”

I looked back and forth between the castle and the Spirit Tortoise and realized that I was about to step into the longest hour of my life.

“Mr. Naofumi, I realize that I may not be of much use, however . . .” Raphtalia said when she noticed me watching the tortoise. “. . . Can’t I help you directly in this battle?”

“We’re just trying to survive its attacks. You all have more important jobs to do.”

“But I . . .”

“I appreciate the concern, but I . . .”

Raphtalia understood that I wasn’t going to change my mind, and she laid her hand over her heart and closed her eyes. I could tell that she was worried about me. The truth is that I didn’t want to fight the Spirit Tortoise either. The last thing I wanted to do was stand there and suffer through an endless series of the beast’s attacks.

Because they’d never really learned how to power up their weapons and stats, the other heroes hadn’t been nearly as powerful as I was. Had the Spirit Tortoise vaporized them instantaneously? If we were in modern Japan, the battle was like humans fighting Godzilla with their bare hands. But this was a tortoise, so it was really more like Gamera, wasn’t it? Ha!

Godzilla didn’t actually exist though, so I suppose I was getting a little ahead of myself.

“Please take care of yourself.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to? I always take care of myself.”

“No, you don’t.”

She shot me down. Was I so untrustworthy? It made me wonder how she thought of me. What was I to Raphtalia? Did she think I was the kind of guy who would sacrifice myself to save others?

Ha! Give me a break!

“I’ll be fine. If things look bad, I’ll run. All we have to do is buy ourselves some time.”

And an hour wasn’t that long. “The most important thing you can do is to get as many people out of that castle as you can. That is the highest priority.”

“But I . . .”

“Raphtalia,” Eclair interrupted. “We have a responsibility to follow Master Iwatani’s orders. If we don’t, what good are we to anyone?”

“Eclair is right. Don’t worry about me. Just do what you can to save as many people as you can.”

“Alright. I understand,” she said, nodding sadly.

Raphtalia and the others climbed into a carriage that was heading for the castle, and she watched Ost and I climb up onto Filo’s back.

“Please. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Raphtalia, get over it already! Are you my mother?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

If anything, I was closer to being a parent than she was. But here she was, worrying about me. Mothers worry about their children, but not the other way around. I wished I didn’t have to worry her.

“Filo, and you too, Ost, please watch over Mr. Naofumi. Don’t let him do anything foolish.”

“Okay!”

“I will protect the Shield Hero with my very life.”

“Hilarious. I’m the Shield Hero, and you’re protecting me?”

Just who did she think I was? Didn’t all this start with her asking me to defeat her?

“Alright! Let’s get going!”

Filo took off running for the Spirit Tortoise. As we pulled away from the others, I saw Raphtalia’s carriage charging toward the castle, along with half of the army.

“Me and master! Master and me!” Filo shouted, oddly chipper, as she shot like a bullet over the fields toward the towering tortoise. She never worried about anything. I was counting my bottles of medicine, and then before I could even blink we had arrived at the feet of the beast.

“ROOOAAAAARRR!”

When it noticed how close we’d gotten, it roared loudly and moved its massive feet in our direction.

“Zweite Aura! Shooting Star Shield!” I shouted, casting a supportive spell along with setting up my protective barrier.

The ground was shaking all around us. I looked up to see a raised foot hovering over us.

I wasn’t going to stand there and get stomped! We ran out of range from the foot before the barrier could break. When it hit the ground, the earth split open.

Enormous clouds of dust shot up all around us, blocking out the sun. I ran over to the foot and threw my whole body around it.

“ROOOAAAAARRR!”

When the tortoise realized it couldn’t raise its foot the way it intended, it seemed surprised.

The thing was stupid.

But even if I had surprised it for a moment, I wasn’t anywhere near heavy or strong enough to stop it from raising its leg when it decided to. We clung to its front leg where, luckily, its head couldn’t reach us. Still, it craned its neck around and tried to find us.

“ROOOAAAAARRR!”

Suddenly, a massive spike fell down in front of us, and a monster’s name appeared before my eyes.

Spirit Tortoise familiar (spike type)

Legs shot out from the spike and it came dashing straight at us.

“If that’s all it’s got . . . ha!” Ost shouted, stretching out her hands towards the charging spike. The familiar’s legs stopped moving.

A gap opened in the battle, and it was immediately filled with fire raining from the sky. It was the queen and her wizards casting magic from a distance. The flames fell down on the now-still spike type, and then . . .

“Taaah!”

Filo shot into view like a bullet and kicked the monster away from me.

The spike type flipped through the air and stuck into the ground where it fell, unable to move.

“Excellent!” Ost shouted, then immediately began to chant a spell. What was she doing?

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength, I command you—grant he who stands before me strength!”

“Herculean Strength!”

She used the immobile spike type as a medium to cast support magic on me?

“These monsters utilize the same type of energy as myself. If I can steal it from them, I can produce powerful magic effects without depleting my own energy.”

Was she connected to them because she was also one of the Spirit Tortoise’s familiars?

“Can you steal the energy of the main body?”

“Sadly, no. I think it is impossible.”

I think I understood her strategy. She could keep the familiar monsters immobile and use them as a source of magic. That way she’d be able to support us in battle without running out of energy herself.

I was impressed. But there was no time for that. I saw the tortoise’s leg muscles begin to contract. Crap! If I stopped paying attention for a split second, I wouldn’t be able to keep my grip on the leg. Still, Ost’s support had definitely made it easier.

The Spirit Tortoise was confused as to why its leg wouldn’t rise like it normally did, and it began to rage. It spent its energy on me, trying to shake me off. Perfect. It had forgotten about the castle.

Yes!

Then I felt a vibrating energy building in the body of the tortoise, which could only mean one thing. It was about to use its special attack.

“Filo!”

“Yup!”

Filo ran around to get behind me.

“I’ve taken a lot of power from the familiar. We should not have much trouble this time,” Ost said, coming to place a hand on my shield.

The spike type was writhing across the field, but before it could get back on its feet Ost absorbed more energy from it, and it immediately stopped moving.

The Spirit Tortoise opened its mouth and was about to shoot a powerful particle beam at its own legs!

I was pretty sure that I’d be able to defend against the attack, but I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. I switched to the Shield of Wrath. Instantly, I felt a flame of rage flicker in the back of my mind.

“Master.”

Filo’s arms and legs were wrapped in black flames.

I could still hold out. I could hold out because Raphtalia and Filo believed in me. Wanting more of a defense, I quickly used a series of shield skills, putting a few more layers between us and the Spirit Tortoise.

Everything filled with blazing light, and a moment passed, before I heard the explosions.

I held the tortoise’s leg with one hand and protected my party with the Shield of Wrath in the other.

And when the attack hit, it didn’t hurt.

The Shield of Wrath was amazing. It withstood the attack without taking any damage.

I held the shield and braced myself for the remainder of the attack when, all of a sudden, a countdown timer appeared in my field of view.

4:37

The numbers fell with each second.

What did it mean?

The tortoise’s attack subsided when the counter read 4:15. Great—we survived the first round of attacks. Furthermore, it had been easy enough. I breathed a sigh of relief, and then I realized that I couldn’t control my body.

“Master?”

“Shield Hero?”

What was happening? I quickly checked my status, only to find that I was completely out of SP!

How? What was going on? Where did it all go?!

Did the Spirit Tortoise’s attack also drain all my SP?

I quickly switched to the Soul Eater Shield, and my SP began to regenerate automatically. I pulled out a bottle of soul-healing water and drank it. Then I used Shooting Star Shield again.

“Shooting Star Shield!”

The strange counter that had appeared, when I had the Shield of Wrath equipped, wasn’t there anymore. I was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.

Could the countdown have been numbering the amount of time that I, or Filo, were free from the control of the Shield of Wrath? If so, what would happen when the counter reached zero?

The Spirit Tortoise quickly regenerated the charred stumps of its legs and once again moved to smash us.

“Not again!”

Just like last time, I rushed over to get a grip on one of the feet to stop it. If I had used the Shield of Wrath when I grabbed the foot, then Dark Curse Burning S would activate and hurt Ost and Filo. I had to wait until the very last second if I was going to try and use it.

Immediately, as if the Spirit Tortoise had been waiting for the chance, it lowered its head and prepared to use its particle beam attack.

How could it be? How could it use the attack again so quickly?! Even worse, there weren’t any familiars that Ost could harvest energy from!

Cold sweat dribbled down my forehead.

If the attack also drained its victims of their SP, then this second attack would use the tortoise’s recovered SP as well as all the SP it had drained away from me. The Shield of Wrath hadn’t been damaged in the attack, but I’d lost all of my SP. If I stuck with the Soul Eater Shield, then I would certainly be hurt in the attack. But the SP draining effect would be nullified, which would mean that the tortoise would need time to replenish its SP stores before it could use another attack like that.

Is that how it worked?

“Dammit! Shield Prison!” I used a skill to form a cage of shields around the tortoise’s head, but it shattered the second it materialized. I should have expected as much. How could any cage form around something so large?

Taking that logic one step further, if I couldn’t use Shield Prison on it, then iron maiden probably wasn’t going to work either.

I’d have to switch to the Shield of Wrath to survive the next particle beam attack.

But if I did, I’d lose all of my SP.

I could switch back to the Soul Eater Shield to counter, and . . .

“Master! Are you okay?”

“Ugh . . .”

Should I jump on Filo and try to escape?

The tortoise’s attack was nothing to laugh at. If it hit the army, none of them would survive.

“Ost! Filo! We have to ride this one out!”

“Okay!”

Both of them ducked behind me and I used all my defensive skills like before, surrounding the three of us with layers and layers of protection.

. . . ?

The light that filled the Spirit Tortoise’s throat was much brighter than it had been.

“Shield Hero! The density is . . .”

“I know!”

Crackling lightning sizzled and snapped over the entire body of the Spirit Tortoise, even its shell. When the whole mass of the monster was crackling with electric energy, it opened its mouth and unleashed its attack.

“Argh!”

The lighting shot at us, around us, through us, for 45 seconds. The burning was far greater than the attack we’d just survived.

Ost was using her magic to increase the power of my shield, but I could tell I was taking an enormous amount of damage. The pain was unlike anything I’d ever experienced back in Japan. It was like being burned and electrocuted at the same time.

For a second, I think I lost consciousness.

Once I realized what was happening, I cast restorative magic on myself. At the same moment, the troops in the distance cast supportive magic on us. My wounds were healed, but the deep exhaustion remained.

“I’m going!” Filo shouted.

“Good luck. If you see any familiars out there, knock them out, but don’t kill them. Ost can use them to replenish her energy.”

“Okay!”

There was no rule that said the Shield Hero couldn’t do other things besides defend against attacks. Filo kicked at the Spirit Tortoise’s head and drew its attention. It opened its huge mouth and tried to bite at her, but she was too fast to get caught.

The tortoise looked irritated as it continued to chase after Filo. While she kept the monster distracted, the rest of us focused on recovering from the last attack.

“Yikes!” Filo shouted as she slipped back into the protection of my Shooting Star Shield barrier. We kept it up for a little while, but soon enough the Spirit Tortoise was ready to use its particle beam attack again. Its mouth opened wide.

“Filo! If this thing tries to stomp us again, you grab Ost and get her out of here.”

“Okay!”

Filo’s magic had finally recovered. She closed her eyes and focused. Her feathers all stood on end. If she was ready to use magic before the Spirit Tortoise could use its particle beam, then her magic power must have recharged faster than its did.

Huff . . . Huff . . .

“Ost, don’t you do anything stupid! I don’t need you yet. I’m using a shield strong enough to survive the attack!”

“But I . . .”

“If we mess up now, it’s all over. We’re going to endure this next one.”

“I . . . very well.”

The attack was ready. The Spirit Tortoise unleashed its particle beam, and I quickly switched to the Shield of Wrath and we made it through the attack mostly unscathed.

Without missing a beat, the tortoise regenerated its charred legs and moved to stomp us again.

“Now!”

“Okaaay!” Filo shouted and dashed across the battlefield to grab Ost. In a flash, they were out of range. I met the rapidly falling foot with my Shield of Wrath. Dark Curse Burning S activated automatically, and I was immediately enveloped in swirling black flames. The flames roared high into the air, searing the beast’s leg and face with cursed flames.

“Like that?!”

The cursed flames that came from the shield took a very long time to heal, so I was hoping that they might help counteract the Spirit Tortoise’s regenerative abilities. If it worked, it would be easier to stall for Fitoria.

The face and legs were so burned they were turning to ash, but then they regenerated as if nothing had happened.

“ROOOAAAAARRR!”

The Spirit Tortoise’s life force was unbelievable!

“Master!”

“Yeah, I know.”

I switched back to the Soul Eater Shield to save time.

The battle was feeling longer and longer.

The air was filled with electric crackling energy. A new set of spikes grew from the beast’s back and launched into the air before raining down around us.

Spirit Tortoise familiar (electric spike type)

Um . . .

“I’m goin’ again!”

“Wait a second!”

She had already shot across the field to kick the familiar. I tried to stop her, but she was too fast. Her claws swung through the air and hit the monster.

“Yaowwie!”

Filo was shocked, literally. Electricity crackled through her feathers.

“That hurt!” she yelled, burping up a cloud of smoke as she ran back to me.

“Why did you do that?”

I didn’t really need to ask. I was pretty sure that if she hadn’t stopped it, it would have attacked us. The Spirit Tortoise must have been irritated that I was down there, constantly holding its feet in place.

I turned to see Ost with her hands outstretched. She had just finished replenishing her energy stores by stealing it from the electric spike type.

“Ugh . . .”

A short while later, we had survived another one of the particle beam attacks. I turned to Filo. “Filo, when you see a chance to get away, go to the queen and find out how things are looking. This battle is harder than I thought. Make sure they get the town and castle evacuated! If we’re not lucky, the Spirit Tortoise is going to make it to the castle before Fitoria can get here.”

“But what about you, master?!” Filo shouted, on the verge of tears.

“I’m okay. Thanks to Ost, I think I can hold out a little longer.”

“Leave it to me, Shield Hero. I realize this is a difficult request, but if you can protect a familiar from the Spirit Tortoise’s attacks, it would help.”

That was a good idea. If we kept a familiar alive, then Ost could use it to power our defense.

“Got it. If we keep one around, we’ll have an easier time surviving the attacks. Get it, Filo? So don’t worry about me.”

“Okay.”

The Spirit Tortoise above us seemed to sigh with disappointment. I was using the Soul Eater Shield, so it hadn’t been able to drain off any of my SP.

With any luck, we’d make it out of the next attack alive.

Filo turned her back on the Spirit Tortoise and took off running.

“Haikuikku!” she shouted, and she shot off like a bullet.

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength, I command you—heal his soul!”

“Soul Light!”

Ost stretched her hands out to me while she cast the spell, and I could feel my SP replenishing. As it came back, I felt more alert than I had.

I didn’t even know that there were spells like that. It was sure to come in handy.

I quickly used the Shooting Star Shield barrier again and grabbed the leg of the tortoise to impair its movement. After all the electric attacks, the ground itself seemed on the verge of giving out. It was littered with deep rifts and craters. And with the constant shaking, it was harder than ever to keep my hold on the Spirit Tortoise’s foot.

Things were looking bad.

Every once and a while, a spike from the monster’s back would fall down nearby and turn into a familiar. The newly conscious monsters then ran to attack us. Their attack power was in another league altogether, compared to the bat types we’d fought before.

There weren’t very many of them though, so even as I tried to use the Soul Eater Shield’s counter effect to replenish my SP, it didn’t go very smoothly. We were only able to survive the powerful attacks because of Ost’s support magic.

The air was filled with clashing and clanging as the Spirit Tortoise familiars threw themselves against the Shooting Star Shield barrier. If I had never had that meeting with the other heroes—if I had never learned how to power up my shields and attacks—then I never would have made it as far as I had. The monsters would have broken through the barrier long ago.

As things were, we were teetering on the verge of defeat for the entire battle. I was getting worn out. I wished there was some way to gain an advantage.

“Here I go!” Ost shouted. She began to cast another spell.

“I, Ost Horai, the source of all strength, command you! Read and comprehend all that is under the sun, and show your power to me!”

“Gravity Field! Extreme Gravity!”

A semi-transparent black sphere shot through the air and slammed into a nearby familiar and crushed the monster into the ground. Well, well, I was growing more and more interested in the unique magic that Ost commanded. But there was no time to stand around feeling impressed.

“Filo, the source of all power commands you. Hear the truth I speak, and destroy them with the angry sky’s fierce tornado!”

“Drifa Tornado!”

Filo’s spell summoned a powerful tornado that ripped the crushed familiar to shreds. Ost’s magic had put cracks all over its surface, so finishing it off had been simple.

“I’m back!”

“What did you find out?”

“She’s on her way, but she needs a little more time!”

“Damn.”

“Oh! And she said to use this medicine for your stamina. She says the restorative magic becomes weaker if you use it too much!”

Filo was carrying a satchel that she hadn’t had when she left. She took some medicine from it and passed it to me. It looked like a cough drop.

I popped it into my mouth to find it tasted like mint. Sure enough, I started to feel as if some of my energy had returned.

“She said that she saved some of these for you!”

“What is it?”

It was rucolu fruit. It was like super-concentrated alcohol. But for some reason alcohol never affected me. Instead of making me drunk, the rucolu restored my magic power and SP.

“Great. Just great,” I said, popping one in my mouth. I felt like it worked better than the medicine. I checked my status to make sure and found that my SP and magic power had been completely restored.

I turned to Ost and said, “We got some great restorative medicine, so you don’t have to worry about my SP anymore. Focus on something else.” Of course, it was also possible to restore SP with a bottle of soul-healing water.

With my ability to concentrate restored, I felt like I had a better shot of making it out of the next round alive.

“Understood.”

The Spirit Tortoise opened its mouth to shoot another particle beam.

What was the best way to defend against it?

“Shield Hero . . . The black shield . . .”

“Huh? Got it!”

We’d survived as long as we had because of Ost’s magic. I decided to do what she said.

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength, I command you—protect them with plundered power!”

“Drain Seal!”

I used the Shield of Wrath to protect us from the particle beam, which meant that the Spirit Tortoise had been able to drain my SP during the attack.

I prepared to eat another rucolu fruit and checked my status, only to find that I still had all of my SP. Ost’s spell must have done something to affect it.

“I have cast a protective spell on you, Shield Hero. I believe this will prevent the Spirit Tortoise from draining your SP with its attack. What do you think?”

There was a spell that could prevent something like that?

The Spirit Tortoise’s throat was filled with crackling electricity, but it wasn’t charged enough to use its attack, which must have been because it wasn’t able to use my SP anymore.

The battle with the Spirit Tortoise continued in this vein for a long while, and for the entire time, I hoped I would never have to do anything like this again. I took turns defending with the Shield of Wrath and the Soul Eater Shield.

The barbarian armor I wore had seen better days. It restored itself automatically, but it wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the incessant onslaught.

It was a rough battle.

Huff . . . Huff . . .

The countdown that appeared when I used the Shield of Wrath had fallen to 00:30. When I switched to the shield, Filo looked like she was doing all she could to control a pestering something in her head. At the same time, the festering rage and hate in the back of my mind was growing stronger.

“Ma . . . Master! I can’t . . . I can’t control it.”

Filo and I were both on the verge of losing ourselves to raging insanity. I wasn’t sure how much longer we could hold out. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to use the Shield of Wrath anymore.

“I know how you feel! I’ll stop using the shield! We’re going to be alright!”

“Please wait a moment,” Ost said. She softly shut her eyes and focused her mind. Then she reached out and touched my shield.

Black flames erupted from the shield and scorched her hand.

“What are you—”

“I, Ost Horai, command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh, strength of this raging shield, rid us of the beasts that best us!”

“Black Dragon Flame!”

Roaring flames burst from Ost’s palms and covered the face of the Spirit Tortoise, turning it into a blazing inferno.

“ROOOAAAAARRRR!”

The insane, rabid Spirit Tortoise suddenly looked confused. It’s face distorted into an expression of agony, barely visible through the wall of searing black flames.

The spell had a cost though. Ost’s hands were covered in horrible burns. Worse, they seemed to be cursed. They were stained black.

“I used the hatred in the shield. I believe I may have bought us a little time.”

“You . . .”

My eyes shot to the countdown. It had risen to read 3:00.

I was amazed. I thought Ost had the best, most convenient spells of anyone I had ever seen. I suppose that we’d be enemies under normal circumstances, but I couldn’t help but be impressed. And it was clear that we were on the same side. She was obviously doing all that she could to limit the damage the Spirit Tortoise was causing.

“Alright! This is still going to take some time!”

“Right. Filo, how long until Fitoria gets here?”

“Um . . . it’s kinda noisy so it’s hard to hear. But I think she’s saying she needs another 30 minutes!”

Seriously? We were only halfway through this?

At least we’d managed to stop the Tortoise’s attacks . . . is what I was thinking when those very attacks began to intensify.

Spikes shot into the air with a loud swoosh. I turned to Ost, and she silently nodded. We’d been holding out for a while, but we had finally arrived at the place where the earth’s energy flowed more freely.

“I guess . . . I guess we still need to keep this up,” I sighed. To be honest, I was ready to give up and get out of there. But when I saw how close we had gotten to the castle, I realized we couldn’t give up. There was a huge town at the foot of the castle, after all.

If the town was in range of the tortoise’s exploding spikes, then it didn’t stand a chance. The whole town would vanish. We had no choice but to keep our heads down and keep on fighting!

“Ugh . . .”

After suffering through a few more of the Tortoise’s special attacks, I was on the verge of losing consciousness. My barbarian armor was battered beyond recognition. And the Spirit Tortoise, having noticed our strategy, had stopped sending familiars after us. Without the monsters around to replenish her energy, Ost could barely keep up with the necessary spells.

We’d already gone through our stock of life force water, and because I was using skill after skill, I’d been forced to eat all of the rucolu fruit, too.

“I hate to say it, but we might have to retreat.”

“But if we do, the destruction will . . .”

“Think of all the time we’ve bought. We can’t help anyone if we die here either. When it comes down to it, we need to cut our losses and get out.”

Under constant barrage from the Spirit Tortoise, I’d completely lost my sense of time. I asked Filo how much more time Fitoria needed, only to find out that she wasn’t able to contact her anymore. The incessant magic and skills must have been so powerful that they were having an effect on the earth’s energy fields.

The support from the queen and her army was slowing down, too.

Every once and a while they would manage to cast a powerful offensive spell, but they were never able to do any significant damage to the tortoise.

What was left for us to do? I promised Raphtalia that I wouldn’t do anything stupid, and I was running out of sane options.

Ost’s hands were stained black from the cursed flames. She had used the rage in the shield to cast spells three times now. The spells she’d cast to limit the SP drain from the tortoise’s attacks were growing less and less effective.

What were we supposed to do?

How many times had I thought, “I can only survive one more attack?”

This was by far the hardest battle I’d ever fought—even harder than the battle with the high priest. I was stronger than I’d ever been, but it wasn’t doing anyone any good.

I was running different escape options through my head when it happened.

A cloud of dust stood over the horizon behind the Spirit Tortoise, and it was moving in our direction.

“Ah!” Filo shouted, jabbing a wing at the cloud.

The ground started to shake, and a furious wind blew over the battlefield. Something sky blue fluttered in the wind. It was . . . It was a filolial queen feather—just like Filo! And it was a color that I’d seen before.

“Sorry it took so long! Good job holding out! Fitoria will make sure your effort was worth it.”

That’s right. It was Fitoria, and she was running full speed for the tortoise.

As if it could sense the gravity of the situation, the Spirit Tortoise immediately ignored us and turned to face the approaching threat.

Fitoria crossed her wings in front of her, and then, twitch, puff! Her whole body started to grow.

A moment later and she was large enough to look the Spirit Tortoise in the eye. Of course, the Spirit Tortoise was still much larger, as it walked on four legs.

“Hyaaaaa!” Fitoria shouted. She leapt high into the air and brought her claws down with force on the beast’s head.

With a sickening crunch, she smashed the head beneath her foot.

Yeah! I was amazed by the show of power. Maybe she really could win?

But then . . .

The head popped back into place with ease. Then it opened its mouth and shot its particle beam straight at Fitoria. It wasn’t fast enough. Fitoria twisted out of the way and let the centrifugal force carry her around for another swift kick that sent the Spirit Tortoise’s head flying.

But the head never tore free of the neck. Instead, the whole neck stretched along with the head, then snapped back into place.

It was the second monster battle I’d seen, and it wasn’t going to disappoint. Last time, it was a dinosaur. This time it was a tortoise. I felt like I was watching a kaiju movie.

But I couldn’t afford to forget where I was. If we didn’t get out of the way, we’d end up trampled. “Filo! Fitoria made it, so let’s get out of here! Retreat! If we don’t, we’ll get pulled into the battle!”

“The support has finally arrived,” Ost said, wavering. I grabbed her before she could completely collapse, and we climbed up onto Filo’s back.

“Let’s go!”

“Okaaay! Haikuikku!”

Filo’s swift legs carried us off like a shot, back to army that had supported us during the fight.

Chapter Eight: The Search

“The legendary filolial… She really does exist.”

Fitoria and the Spirit Tortoise continued their titanic battle in the distance. We had safely made it back to the coalition army line, and let me be blunt: we were looking very worse for the wear. My armor was barely holding together. It was littered with dents and holes.

“Let’s hope she can put an end to all this.”

Fitoria unleashed an amazing series of attacks, one after the other, with impressive speed.

“ROOOAAAAARRR!”

The spike-like missiles on the Spirit Tortoise’s shell shot high into the air, and Fitoria followed them with her eyes. Jumping back to get some distance, she deftly dodged each careening spike and its ensuing explosion.

Again, I was impressed.

“Crash! Charge!” Fitoria shouted as she opened one of her wings. Then the carriage that she had been pulling grew to an enormous size and began to transform!

The carriage became a chariot. Fitoria ran full speed, the chariot in tow, and slammed into the Spirit Tortoise. Then she bounded up over the stunned monster and delivered a crushing blow to its head and front legs.

“. . .”

She strained against its shell but wasn’t able to push it back any further.

Pulling back to get her bearings, the chariot morphed back into a carriage. The moment that it was free from her attack, the Spirit Tortoise regenerated its lost limbs and head, and it immediately opened its mouth to shoot another particle beam.

“Master! I have a message from Fitoria!”

“What is it?”

“She says that she can’t break the shell. She says that she’ll keep it busy, but that we need to find a way to kill it.”

I sort of wished that she would just talk to us normally, though considering her size, her voice would probably be too loud to understand. It probably would have just sounded like some deafening noise.

“Can’t she use a flock of her filolial friends to attack en masse?”

“She says she had to hurry to get here, so she’s all alone!”

Oh well. I guess I couldn’t expect a large flock of filolials to keep up with her. She was really fast. Furthermore, what was I thinking—expecting normal filolials to put up a fight with the Spirit Tortoise?

“Mr. Naofumi!”

Raphtalia and the others came running back from the direction of the castle.

“How are the evacuations going?”

“The castle town itself is mostly evacuated. I heard that the battle was going to move on to the next stage, so I hurried back.”

“Good idea. Looks like we won’t be relaxing for a while.”

Fitoria was going to keep the Spirit Tortoise occupied, but if we didn’t figure out how to kill the tortoise for good, then we’d end up right back where we started.

I was getting tired of looking at that damn turtle!

I turned to face the queen. “You heard what Filo said, right?”

“Yes. And just like we suspected, I suppose our best option is to sneak inside of the Spirit Tortoise’s body and attempt the sealing procedure. The other option, though it is certainly not a sure bet, would be to search out the remainder of the ancient heroes’ message and hope that you, Mr. Iwatani, are able to read it.”

“I guess we’ll just have to do both at the same time.”

As we discussed our options, the battle continued in the distance.

“What the?!” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Spirit Tortoise had more than one head! Worse yet, they were all shooting particle beams at Fitoria.

There was one piece of good news, at least. From where I stood, it looked like the beams themselves were less powerful than they had been. Perhaps it was because they were now shooting more than one at the same time.

“We better get going.”

Ost climbed down from Filo and stood on wobbly legs. She stared at the Spirit Tortoise is disbelief. She had either fallen into despair, or she was upset over what her “true body” was doing.

“Do you think we can get up onto its back?”

“It will be difficult. But, Mr. Iwatani, closely observe the Spirit Tortoise with me.”

“Huh?”

I did what I was told and squinted at the tortoise. When I looked really hard at the new, ragged shell, it was mostly covered in spikes. But I could just make out the remains of mountains still covering the shell, down where the spikes extended from the hard surface.

Maybe, if we climbed up those mountains, we could find a cave that would lead us inside.

I also watched the tortoise’s attack pattern as it grappled with Fitoria. It attacked with its head, its legs, and with the spikes on its back. From what I could tell, it didn’t have any attacks that would hurt a human-sized enemy on its back. Would it be able to hurt us if we got onto its back? We’d be in trouble if it suddenly stood up on its hind legs, or if it spun around, or if it flipped over onto its shell. If Fitoria kept up her attacks to the point where the Spirit Tortoise would try anything, then we might end up getting crushed in the battle.

“Because the Spirit Tortoise is currently distracted by its battle with the legendary filolial, I believe we may be able to get onto its back if we approach from behind.”

“It’ll be dangerous, but I guess we don’t have a choice.” I turned to Filo. “Did you hear that, Fitoria? We’re going to try and climb up onto the shell. We’re going to look for its heart or whatever it is. Can you keep it busy while we’re up there?”

“Um . . . She says she’ll do what she can, but you better hurry.”

Then there was no time to waste. If possible, I wanted to make sure that the battle didn’t get too intense while we were on the shell, but there was no point in mentioning it. “Alright! Everyone, we’re going to climb onto the shell while the tortoise is moving and head for its heart! All of you, stick with me!”

“Everyone! For the sake of the world, let us all do as the Shield Hero, Mr. Iwatani, says!”

The crowd cheered.

“Everyone! You have seen Mr. Iwatani defend us from countless attacks! Did it not rouse your soul to action? Now is our time!”

I had one question for the queen. “Just checking, but are you coming with us?”

“I had thought that I might be needed to distract the Spirit Tortoise, but the current situation no longer calls for it. While the legendary filolial occupies him, I will accompany you in this endeavor.”

“Great,” I said, turning to check on Raphtalia and the others. They were clearly exhausted. Of course they would be. I was exhausted myself, and I wanted to get a few days’ worth of sleep. But there was no time for that.

“Feh . . . Master Itsuki . . .” Whenever Rishia was scared or worried, she couldn’t help herself from whimpering Itsuki’s name. I still found it hard to believe she could see so much good in him.

“Mr. Naofumi, are you feeling alright?”

“It’s nothing I can’t handle, but when all this is over, I’m going to need to get my armor worked on.” It was still holding together, but just barely. If the battle went on for much longer, I’d have to think about changing into something else—not that I wanted to wear one of those kigurumi. Actually, I doubt the kigurumi I had would help much, considering the enemy. Maybe it would make more sense to steal the Filo kigurumi that Rishia was wearing.

“Feh?!” Rishia jumped, somehow intuiting my thoughts, and pulled the kigurumi tighter across her body. Then she held her hand out to Ost, who was still wobbling on unsteady feet.

“It’s alright. We all share the same goal. The battle’s end draws near.”

“Right.”

“If we are climbing up onto the Spirit Tortoise, perhaps the time has come where I can be of assistance,” Eclair said, gazing at the monster battle that raged on the horizon. Her eyes were wide.

“The Spirit Tortoise has changed considerably since the last time we fought it. There’s a chance that the mountain caves leading to the inside of its body have changed too.”

“Good point.”

“And there’s no telling what sort of Spirit Tortoise familiars we are going to find in those tunnels. We’re going to need your help to make it through. Make sure you’re prepared.”

“Right.”

“I’ll be right there with you!” the old lady shouted.

“Yes. It’s time. Mr. Naofumi, let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

The battle with the Spirit Tortoise had reached the point of no return. We had no choice but to sneak around behind it and climb up onto its shell. It was time.

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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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