Chapter Sixteen: The Merits of Invading Other Worlds
Was he a ghost or something? No, he certainly looked alive. Maybe it had been a stand-in that S’yne had killed. He could have used some spell to create a double or something. That would be really troublesome.
“It’s the Shield Hero! Eeehehe! Now I can take revenge on you for killing me!”
“Oh? We heard that there might be a holy hero around here. Looks like we hit the jackpot.”
The friend of the man we killed was a large, tallish man that was carrying what looked like a kusarigama, or chain sickle. Paired with the small man, the two looked like a real odd couple. Judging from what he’d said, they must have been searching for the bandit hideout to find and kill Ren and ended up running into us by coincidence. But what the hell did that dimwit mean by “revenge,” anyway? He’s the one who attacked us!
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Atla yelled out to me with a serious look on her face.
“Are those enemies?!”
Sensing the tense atmosphere, Fohl prepared himself to go to battle, but Atla held her hand out in front of him as a sign that he should stay back.
“No, Brother. They are far too strong! We are no match for them right now!”
“B . . . but—”
“If you don’t stay back you’ll just get in Mr. Naofumi’s way.”
Impressive. It seemed like being blind had given Atla a really strong sixth sense or something. To be honest, even I was probably going to have a tough time fighting these enemies. If that was the case, Atla and Fohl joining the fray would more than likely just drag me down.
“I think our best course of action would be to take the captured bandits away from here so that they don’t get hurt,” Atla said.
“Good call. That’s exactly right. You two stay back. We’ll deal with these creeps.”
“Understood!”
“Rafu!”
Raphtalia drew her katana and Raph-chan jumped up onto my shoulder.
“Are these the enemies you mentioned, Mr. Iwatani?!”
“Fehhh . . .”
Eclair and Rishia prepared themselves to be able to attack at any time.
“We’re not really interested in killing the rest of you, but eeehehe . . . doing so shouldn’t be a problem by the looks of it.”
Right now I had Raphtalia, Filo, Raph-chan, Eclair, Rishia, and S’yne with me. I was genuinely thankful that Atla and Fohl had backed down. That would make things a little bit easier on me. We were only facing two enemies, so the odds seemed to be in our favor. But that man had used some peculiarly powerful magic. He’d also been able to keep up with Raphtalia’s movements . . . and now there were two of them. I would have preferred to be able to take care of them somehow with just me and Raphtalia fighting, but . .
“Your goal is to kill the holy heroes, right?” I asked.
“Eeehehe, more or less.”
“And that has something to do with some legend in your world or something . . . right?”
If they were willing to listen, we might be able to avoid fighting. We could form an alliance of nonintervention to prevent fighting between our worlds, like we had done with Kizuna . . . perhaps.
“Ah, I see. So that’s about the extent of your knowledge, I guess.”
“These———won’t listen!”
S’yne swung her scissors up high into the air and swiped them at the taller man.
“Ha!”
The taller man blocked her scissors and then struck at her hard with his kusarigama. S’yne leapt backward and dodged the attack, but the airborne kusarigama wrapped around her scissors.
“Sorry, but this one’s nonnegotiable. We’re going to kill the holy heroes of this world.”
“To delay the destruction of your world?”
Glass had come from Kizuna’s world to try to kill us because of some legend she had believed. By my analysis, these guys were sure to be after the same thing. I didn’t have a solution, but surely it was still worth trying to talk it out with them. If nothing else, I could get them to share some information that we didn’t already know.
“Delay the destruction? There’s no doubt our world will be the one to survive. Or do you guys not know?”
The small man’s eyes twinkled, and his voice was brimming with confidence, as if what he was saying was completely obvious.
“Eeehehehe! Well, I guess you’re going to die before the next wave comes, anyway, so I might as well tell you. When you destroy another world, you get crazy amounts of experience and all kinds of new abilities. The vassal weapon holders back in our world call them bonuses.”
What a shitty excuse. The hell if I was going to let someone destroy this world for an excuse like that. But it did pique my curiosity.
“And those bonuses are how you’re still here despite us having killed you?”
“Eeehehehe, of course!”
“That’s enough small talk. There’s no point in pretending like we’re going to be friends,” said the taller man.
“You’re right. We’ve seen holy heroes like this guy before. Eeehehe!”
I really doubted that. The pair shouted out in unison with smug looks of confidence on their faces.
“Our world is the strongest world!”
“Wh . . .what?! Strongest world? What are they talking about?”
Eclair was clearly confused. So were Raphtalia and Rishia. But from what these creeps were saying, it was clear that there were people intentionally going around and destroying other worlds. Destroying other worlds could get them huge bonuses. And these creeps weren’t holy heroes or even vassal weapon holders. Now that I thought about it, those bonus abilities were probably the reason Eclair and the others could understand them.
Judging by the determined expression on S’yne’s face, it was safe to assume that these creeps had destroyed her world. In that case, settling things peacefully wasn’t going to be an option. Just like it was easier to kill a person the second time around, if these guys had destroyed another world before, they were probably going to do it again.
But with rewards like resurrection, things were starting to sound exactly like an online game. What kind of impossible game was this?! If we died that would be the end, but if we killed them they could just resurrect! There was a strategy in online games back in my world where people would just keep resurrecting to slowly whittle away at a powerful boss. But the boss didn’t get to resurrect, and right now we were the boss! This wasn’t really a solution, but . . . going off of my knowledge of games and our experience so far, there was probably some kind of save point or something that we needed to destroy. Otherwise they would just keep coming back.
It was undeniable that these guys were even more of a hassle than Kyo had been. Actually, this is probably exactly what Kyo, the other vassal weapon holders, and the supposed genius scientist had been trying to achieve. Destroy another world to get tons of new abilities. That sure sounded nice. It was immoral and not something I wanted to do, but I might have to consider it an option, considering the kind of battles we would be facing in the future. Only while the waves were still occurring, of course.
“. . .”
S’yne was staring at me. I guess the reason she had ended up being a drifter was because someone had destroyed her world for a reason like that. “Look at her! There’s no way you can say that’s acceptable!” I could hear Kizuna saying it now. I had to agree, though.
“Eeehehehe! Here I go!”
The small man pulled out his shamshir and quickly leapt toward me, coming only inches from my chest.
“Die!”
He thrust the shamshir at my throat. But Raphtalia’s katana suddenly blocked the shamshir’s path as Eclair jabbed her short sword at the small man.
“Oh!”
The man dodged the attack by a hair’s breadth and formed a seal with his hands. I grabbed his hands as quickly as I could to thwart him, but he cast the spell immediately.
“Explosive Shot!”
An explosion occurred with the small man at its center. It must have been one of those really convenient spells that didn’t harm the caster.
“Ahhh!”
“Ugh!”
The blast from the explosion sent a heavy shock wave coursing through my body. Raphtalia and Eclair were both sent flying several meters backward from where they had been standing behind me. Luckily they managed to take a defensive stance and soften the blow, but they had still suffered heavy damages. Mere moments into the battle and it was already vividly clear that our enemies were adept fighters.
“Yah!”
“Aiyah! Bound Thrust!”
Meanwhile, Filo and Rishia were helping S’yne fight the large man. Because of the man’s large size, Filo was using her filolial queen form.
“Haikuikku!”
Filo’s movements sped up and she was about to give the man a swift and powerful kick. Nice! I’d help her out with some support magic.
“Zweite Aura!”
I held my hand out toward Filo and boosted her stats. Her speed skyrocketed.
“Rafu!”
Then Raph-chan backed her up with some illusion magic that made it look like Filo had split into multiple copies of herself. Only one of them was the real Filo, but would he be able to tell which?
“Hrm? Hey!”
The large man called out to the small man.
“Nullify this support magic already!”
“Eeehehe! These twits get a power boost if we do that!”
When we first fought the small man, he’d attempted to nullify the support magic I cast on Raphtalia and ended up nullifying the effects of her curse along with it, after which she’d backed him into a corner. He must have been referring to that.
“Oh? So there’s an ability for that? Intriguing! Then how about this?!”
A split second before Filo’s kick made contact, some kind of barrier appeared and blocked the kick, sending ripples across the surface of the barrier.
“H . . . huh? That’s different than Master’s! It felt like kicking the ocean!”
“My attack . . . It should have done some damage. What is that thing?!”
Filo and Rishia both cried out. What was up with that defense? S’yne was trying to attack the man along with her familiars, but none of the attacks were making it through. Were those familiars a redesign of those creepy puppets she’d used at the coliseum? Talk about fancy! The Raph-chan look-alike moved similarly to the real Raph-chan, swiping its tail and scratching at the man, but without success. The Sadeena stuffed doll was swimming around in the air and charging at the man repeatedly.
“Not even knowing what blocked your attacks is just sad. This is Absolute Shield. It absorbed all of your attacks.”
“Huh?!”
Damn it! These creeps sure had some convenient abilities. He was protecting himself with a defensive barrier that absorbed attacks.
“You better pay attention!”
The small man held his shamshir out and came charging at me while spinning around in an attack similar to Filo’s Spiral Strike. Shit! This guy was an annoying little bugger. I tried to grab him with all my might, but he kept spinning away in an attempt to drill through my defense.
“Eeehe! I guess that’s the defensive holy hero for you! Damn you’re tough!”
“Now it’s my turn,” I said.
Like usual, I had my Demon Dragon Shield equipped at the moment. It had a counterattack effect called “demon bullet” that shot magical bullets at the enemy when the shield was attacked. It must have been because the man had made contact with the shield so many times, but a ridiculous number of bullets went flying at him. The barrage of bullets shot out from my shield and straight into the small man while I held him firmly in place.
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Damn! Are you telling me multi-hit attacks work against us?!”
Before I could catch him, the small man skipped the laugh and tried to put some distance between us.
“I won’t let you run! Hiya!”
Raphtalia swung her katana in a diagonal downward cut.
“Eeehe! You again! You’re a bit of a pest, aren’t you?!”
“Don’t forget about me!”
Eclair thrust her sword sharply at the small man and the blade grazed his cheek.
“They’re weak but they have some skill, it seems. We shouldn’t underestimate them. The Shield Hero’s defense seems pretty solid, too. Maybe we should call you-know-who to take care of them.”
“Eeehehe, that’s probably a good idea. Someone with abilities to counter defensive heroes is just what we need.”
“You’re full of holes!”
Eclair caught the small man off guard and . . . hmm? She launched an attack that was far more powerful than any of her previous attacks and plunged her sword into the man.
“Oh! Not too shabby!”
Eclair’s sword stabbed deeply into the small man’s shoulder and he grimaced in pain . . . or at least I expected him to, but the part of his shoulder that had been stabbed began to waver like a mirage and the man stepped to the side. Was that part of being able to resurrect? What a pain in the ass!
“Yah!”
Filo launched a kick with all of her might right smack-dab into the large man’s face.
“Hmph, not bad. But not enough to beat me.”
The man swung his kusarigama in a counterattack, but Filo dodged instinctively.
“Jingle-jangle!”
Filo pulled out the morning star that she’d been keeping hidden in her feathers and flung it at the man. That was Filo’s toy. We’d gotten it while we were in Zeltoble! It made pillars of fire wherever it hit. Where the hell had she been hiding that thing?! Did she not think that would be dangerous?! I figured she’d lost it, since I hadn’t seen it lately. But apparently it had been hidden in her feathers. That said, I couldn’t deny that it was a pretty clever tactic. In fact, it sent a huge wave across the watery surface of the large man’s barrier, causing it to burst open.
“Aiyah!”
“Take this!”
Filo launched a sharp kick and Rishia flung her throwing knife through the opening and straight into the man.
“So you managed to break through my shield, huh? You’re tougher than I thought. It’s been a while since we got to really enjoy ourselves!”
“Right? I said they seemed weak, but I’ll take that back.”
What was with these guys? It was almost like they felt no pain and were coming at us like it was all a game . . . but that wasn’t quite right, either. It was more like they knew this was a real fight to the death, and yet they were still completely relaxed. They were enjoying the fight, and I could tell that they were confident they would win.
“Eeehehehe! Well, things are just slowly going downhill as it is. It looks like we’ll need more people to get the job done properly.”
“I won’t let you es——”
“I’ll be damned if I let you kill me again!”
Thread shot out of S’yne’s ball as she launched a follow-up attack, and the small man began to cast another spell.
“Alright, in that case . . . I guess I might as well cast support magic on everyone,” I said.
It was true that the situation was gradually getting worse. But that didn’t mean that our attacks were completely ineffective. Raphtalia had the most powerful attacks among us. If she used her strongest attack along with my Attack Support, we might be able to finish these creeps off.
“Zweite Aura!”
I cast my support magic on Raphtalia. I needed to concentrate so that I could cast multiple times. Our enemies were getting a good idea of what we could do. We’d be at a disadvantage if we didn’t finish them off before they figured out exactly what we were capable of. There was a world where people wanted to kill holy heroes to get stronger and they couldn’t be negotiated with. It was becoming clear that this was a fact.
“Raphtalia, you know what to do, right? I’m going to use Attack Support.”
“Yes.”
Raphtalia gave a big nod and sheathed her katana. She was preparing to increase her speed and launch a powerful skill at the enemy.
“Filo and Rishia. Sorry to split you two up, but when I give the signal, each of you launch your most powerful attack at one of the enemies. Eclair, you follow up Raphtalia’s attack. S’yne, you know what to do.”
“Okaaay!”
“Understood!”
“Got it.”
“——y.”
With this many people, carefully splitting up our attacks wouldn’t be necessary. The enemy had some really annoying abilities, but it wasn’t like our attacks were ineffective. I didn’t know if they were just impervious to pain or if it was because they were something similar to Glass’s spirit race. But their bodies almost seemed to act like smoke at times. I was impressed that S’yne had managed to kill one of them. I didn’t know what their weak spots were, but we needed to finish them off either way. I didn’t really like the thought of outright killing them, but they were trying to kill us, after all. There was no turning back now.
“Eeehehe! I’ll kill you next time for sure, Shield Hero!”
The small man leapt over next to the large man and began to cast a spell.
“That’s not going to happen!” shouted Raphtalia.
“Eat this!”
I threw my Attack Support dart and it smashed into the rippling barrier protecting the large man.
“Jingle-jaaaangle!”
“Hyah!”
I don’t know when Filo had retrieved her morning star, but she flung it just as Rishia threw her knife and their attacks pierced the rippling barrier.
“Instant Blade! Mist!”
Raphtalia’s katana went straight through the opening toward the small man . . . but just before it hit, the large man reached out to protect him. Blood sprayed out from his arm.
“That’s sharp . . . That must be a vassal weapon!”
“Eeehehe, it would seem so. Your coordination is fitting for a hero’s party, but—”
“You’re not getting away! Four Cross!”
Eclair’s short sword flashed brightly as she struck at the enemy. The rippled barrier had begun to regenerate, but her attack pierced through and hit both men! But they must have realized that they wouldn’t be able to dodge it, because they both took defensive stances to reduce the impact. Damn . . . This was tough.
“Later! Transloca—”
“Not———pen!”
S’yne used her Skill Seal and thread shot out of her ball and wrapped around the men’s bodies.
“Damn, it’s interfering with the skill!”
“It’s just thread! Rip it off!”
“I know that!”
S’yne glanced over at me. She was trying to tell me to finish them off before they got away.
“Attack Support!”
I threw a second dart. Now someone just had to attack! Nice! Attack Support hit the large man!
“Hiya!”
Raphtalia struck out with her dual blades.
“Triple Thrust!”
Raphtalia’s skill generated three successive thrusts instantly, and she had skillfully launched it from both hands. In other words, she’d fired off six rounds straight into the enemy. That is, if things went our way.
“Hmph!”
The large man swung his kusarigama adeptly and formed a large X-shape with the chains while taking a defensive stance. Raphtalia’s attack was thwarted as it crashed into the chains and sparks flew everywhere.
“Harumph!”
S’yne’s thread snapped with a loud pop.
“Eeehe, I guess we were just a little bit too hasty. Translocating Light!”
As soon as the small man uttered the words, the two men disappeared instantly.
“Shit! They got away!”
Damn it! That was not how I wanted things to end! Not to mention, this was not where I wanted to run into them again!
“What was that? Who were those men?” asked Eclair.
“Judging from what S’yne told us and what those creeps said, they’re basically assassins from another world. On top of that, they have ill-willed intentions to destroy this world.”
There were benefits to destroying worlds. Glass and the others hadn’t actually succeeded, so they probably didn’t know that. Destroying a world could give someone powers that included the ability to resurrect . . . It was like the worlds were practically being coerced into fighting with each other.
“It’s a clash between worlds separate from the waves. Basically, the heroes from different worlds can kill each other, and those creeps want to prove that they’re the strongest.”
What a ridiculously lame excuse. Not to mention, they weren’t even vassal weapon holders or holy heroes, so it was like my companions . . . it would have been like Filo and Rishia sneaking into another world to fight, for instance. Considering how strong those creeps were, if their boss—holy heroes couldn’t invade other worlds, so it would probably have to be a vassal weapon holder—showed up, what then? There was no doubt someone like that would probably be strong enough to kill us.
“In any case, we can’t have Ren running around out there with people like that roaming around. We have to get him somewhere safe.”
I was treating everyone’s wounds while I spoke.
“I’d heard about the truth behind the phenomenon of the waves, but to think there were enemies like that, as well . . .” said Eclair.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around. On top of that, they can return from the dead, even if we do kill them.”
“They almost seemed to be fooling around, but they were incredibly strong. And now you’re telling me they’re immortal, too? Mr. Iwatani, we need to formulate a strategy quickly. We must figure out how they’re returning from the dead.”
“I know that. But we need to take care of the other heroes first.”
“He’s right. We need to get the other three holy heroes somewhere safe as soon as possible.”
I had to agree with Raphtalia.
“They were super-duper strong. But I don’t think they had leveled up much yet,” said Filo.
She might have been right. Judging from past experience, I had a feeling they had probably crossed over to this world and been in the middle of leveling up when they confronted us. So it was either smoke them out in a hurry, figure out how their resurrections worked, and finish them off. Or get the heroes to safety first . . . It was a hard decision. It certainly seemed like the longer we waited, the more we’d be at a disadvantage.
Raphtalia, Filo, and I had reduced stats at the moment because of the curse, and we were still a long way from complete recovery. S’yne wasn’t all that strong, and Eclair had learned the Hengen Muso style, but I really didn’t know how much potential she had. Rishia was still developing. It was hard to say before we got her to level 100, but I had big expectations for her.
Even if we figured out how the enemy’s resurrection abilities worked and came up with a plan to kill them for good, it was unclear if we’d actually be able to pull it off. Either way, securing the heroes had to be the priority. I wouldn’t have to worry so much if we got them as strong as I was. And if we could get the seven star heroes together, too, we’d be all set.
“Mr. Naofumi.”
“Oh hey, Atla.”
Atla and Fohl approached, having decided that it was now safe.
“I . . . I’ve become painfully aware of just how weak I am. I want to get stronger.”
“You don’t need to worry about that kind of thing, Atla! Leave the fighting to me!” Fohl interjected.
“Brother, you need to be more realistic.”
Atla furrowed her brow and gave Fohl a stern look, like she was about to lecture him.
“We are far too weak to fight at Mr. Naofumi’s side in our current condition. You say I don’t need to fight, but right now you’re nothing but a hindrance to Mr. Naofumi. You need to think about how you’re going to get stronger.”
“A . . . Atla?! Ugh . . . You’re saying I need to be even stronger?!”
Being told off by Atla seemed to have gotten Fohl fired up. The hakuko were considered to be superior, even among the demi-humans, and had the potential to become incredibly strong. Considering what was coming, I couldn’t deny that I wanted to see them develop quickly.
“Mr. Iwatani, I’ll do my best to be useful, as well. There is no way I’m going to let someone like that destroy our world!”
“Good, that’s the spirit. Anyway, our task for the time being is to get Ren to safety fast. S’yne, go see if you can lure Ren out, just like we originally—”
And then it happened, just as I was giving the order. I felt something rush by at incredible speed. Sheesh . . . It was just one problem after another and it was starting to piss me off.
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