Chapter Eleven: The Shield Hero Now Orders You
“Huh?” I turned back to look at Takt.
“I’m not . . . finished yet.” He had regained consciousness and was standing up. “I’ve not been defeated yet!” Standing on unsteady legs, he turned his hostile intent toward us. Looking around, he sent out a dark aura. I wondered if it was the power of the curse series. We had killed a whole bunch of his women as part of our revenge. It wouldn’t be surprising if he got infected by a curse.
“I’ll never forgive you for today! You’ve killed Ellie, Nelshen, Shate, Leludia, and Ashil! I am the ultimate hero . . . and I swear, I will end you!” Then Takt turned his attention to Ren. He was likely thinking that stealing the holy sword would give him a chance of winning. It might have been thanks to the seven star weapons that he was still capable of standing after taking such a beating. Or maybe there was some element of his own resilience involved. It was almost impressive, but it was also time for him to give up. Time for him to realize that he couldn’t hope to defeat us, no matter how hard he tried.
“You still want to continue this charade? Hero in name only, who can’t even defeat two regular guys. This is the end of the line for you!” I shouted.
“You’re joking! I’m telling you . . . I’m not defeated yet! So long as I have these seven star and this four holy weapon! If I need more power, I’ll just have to steal it!” he shouted.
“Takt! Hang in there!” The women started providing some enthusiastic support. If Takt was the good guy in this situation, things would probably be starting to look bleak for me. Some kind of miracle would happen, like his awakening to some brand-new superpower.
“I see, I see. Your awareness of yourself as the legendary hero is deeply rooted in the motivation for your actions,” I analyzed. This had been expected too. Which was why I was going to steal that final hope from him too. “I hate to say it, but you’re in no shape to defeat Ren at the moment.”
“I won’t know unless I try!” Takt changed to the claws and prepared to unleash Wahnsinn Claw toward Ren.
“Face the truth. The seven stars can’t defeat the four holies. Ren won’t allow it—indeed, I won’t allow it.” I placed my hand where the shield had been and focused my awareness. “The source of your power, a regular guy— and now the Shield Hero again—orders you.” Like the body and the soul were a pair, like the hero and his weapon were a pair, we had once been connected by a thread. I now passed a needle through that broken connection, using a stronger force than the normally impossible separation. This was a soul created for a body and a body created for a soul. “Reconsider the state of all things once more and return my shield to me.”
With a metallic sound, a ball of light left Takt and returned to my hands. A brilliant light enveloped our surroundings, dazzling everyone. Then the “shield” option appeared in my field of vision again. I almost got nostalgic. Just as before, my attack dropped almost to nothing, and all my other stats increased. My defense, in particular, saw an incomparable increase. When I thought about how my attacking abilities were all gone again now, it did get me down a bit. But Atla and Ost were drawing out plenty of additional power. There was no way this guy could beat me now. No way in hell.
“I-impossible!” Takt raged, changing the target of the Wahnsinn Claw to me. I raised my shield in order to take the attack head-on.
“Hah!” My shield deflected his favorite special attack skill, nullifying it completely. My connection with the shield was now even stronger than before, meaning this barely rated as an attack. The return of my shield had also restored my status . . . indeed, to even higher levels than before. All apart from my attacking ability, of course.
“Well? What happened with your stealing ability?” I mocked.
“Impossible! Impossible! Impossible! How can you steal the shield back from me?!” Takt raged.
“Like I already said. You can’t defeat me. You’ve already hit a dead end,” I explained. Takt’s mouth opened and closed like a fish; he was simply unable to believe what he was seeing. And yet . . . he still seemed to want to fight. “I simply have to see your face painted with despair,” I told him.
“Brother, you look incredibly evil right now,” Fohl observed.
“You really like making that face, don’t you, Naofumi?” Ren added.
“That’s the appeal of little Naofumi,” Sadeena said. At her comment, Fohl and Ren looked away. Yeah, I could understand how they were feeling, although I wasn’t sure I really looked that evil.
“You think so? I think brother is more . . .” Fohl struggled to find the words.
“I don’t agree either. He’s actually very caring. Look at the slaves.
Naofumi has such a hard time looking after them,” Ren said. He was still banging that drum, was he? Enough!
“You think? I like this little Naofumi. I really do.” All this noise from the peanut gallery! My good points didn’t matter at that moment.
“Now, the final hope left to you . . . I’m going to take that too.” I placed my hand over the shield and activated the final trump card that Atla and the Shield Spirit had told me about. Everything up until now had just been for my personal enjoyment. If I’d done this from the start, there would have been no need to fight.
“The Shield Hero now orders you. Vassal weapon! Respond to my call, release the foolish binding on your power, and awaken!” The claws on Takt’s hands started to give off a pale light. Confirming that phenomenon, I continued my words. “Now I strip you from your vassal status!” One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—not just the claws but all the seven star weapons started to glow.
“W-what now? What’s going on? M-my strength is fading!” Takt was clearly unable to conceal his shock at this situation. It was a mistake for a single person to have multiple legendary weapons. The four holies and the seven stars weren’t intended to allow that.
“Find new owners and join with them!” I commanded. Seven balls of light flowed out from Takt, rising high into the air, and then scattered apart. Just like certain wish-granting balls from that manga with the dragon.
Ah. One of the lights was flying this way. Of course, Fohl was the hero who had been selected by the gauntlets.
“You’ve . . . even stolen the seven stars from me? Just what’s going on here?!” Takt was trembling in rage, but he looked pretty cheap and pathetic to me.
“What are you doing, stealing Takt’s weapons?! Return them!” one of his remaining retinue demanded.
“Those weapons never belonged to your man, eh,” said the past Heavenly Emperor, extending her hand into the air. “Huh?” She furrowed her brow as she watched the lights flying away. Then she smoothly avoided an attack from the fox woman, who had revealed her true nature.
“Divine Clash of the Five Practices!” the past Heavenly Emperor shouted. The mighty attack with the hammer caused a ying-yang magic circle to appear, which proceeded to entrap the fox woman. She gave a terrible cry as the light from the magic circle flowed forth and bound her in place . . . and then the past Heavenly Emperor crushed her head with her hammer.
“Raph!” Raph-chan adopted a victory pose.
“Tulina!” Takt screamed. Nice. I wanted to hear more of just those kinds of screams. I knew I was being pretty malicious, but I was also sure I could be forgiven for all this.
“I’ve just been toying with you this entire time. What are you getting so worked up about now? You worthless punk,” I spat.
“Die!” he screamed. Still unable to accept reality, Takt came at me with his bare hands. A meaty sound rang out, but the attack didn’t hurt at all. It just left Takt gasping for breath.
“You aren’t a hero anymore. You aren’t anything,” I taunted him.
“Come on. If you can do it, turn this situation around.” What this all meant was now Takt wasn’t a hero anymore. It wouldn’t have any effect on the world if he was executed. There were all sorts of remaining issues, of course, including his relationship with the heroes who had already been killed. “Do you see now?” I continued. “This is the difference between a true hero and a false one. The age of you and your transient power is over. Now you’ll pay with your body for your crimes of toying with this world! Shield Prison! Change Shield (attack)!” A cage made of shields appeared around Takt, and then shields with spikes on them from Change Shield stabbed into him.
He gasped, but he wasn’t dead yet. I was still holding back, making sure not to kill him. I really wanted to, but there were still reasons to hold back. I also needed him to tell us about whoever was pulling his strings. Then there was my desire to catch Witch.
“Right, we’re finished here. Send the flare magic,” I commanded, just as Trash had planned. Sadeena raised her harpoon into the air and unleashed the magic. The staff would have made its way to Trash already, so he probably had a good idea of what was going on.
“Huh? Oh man—” I looked toward the battlefield and was stunned by what I saw. The smoke rising from the city didn’t bother me, especially as the fires looked like they were already out. The issue was closer to the fort.
There were mysterious scratches on the ground, big enough to divide the Faubrey forces in two.
“Naofumi.” Ren pointed beyond the battlefield. Trash’s operation had already wiped the enemy out. The Wisest King of Wisdom was clearly not to be messed around with.
It looked like those left alive were still putting up some resistance. It was likely Takt’s women. That would be over soon too, from the look of it. Half of the Faubrey forces were scattering like insects in this direction, while the others were surrendering. It looked like things were wrapping up. Maybe they could scrounge up a large enough force to take Takt back . . . but I had other things on my mind.
“Witch! You won’t get away from me this time,” I vowed. I needed to take Witch alive in Faubrey and then execute her. An evil smile rose on my face again.
Huh? There was something odd going on with Gaelion. He flew over to me in his baby dragon form. I shrank away a little, because he was still covered in blood and gore—although I had quite a lot of Takt’s blood on me already.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion cast some water magic and cleaned himself off. So he could use water magic. Then he landed on my shoulder and whispered in a small voice.
“I’ve obtained most of the fragments. It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve remembered pretty much everything,” he explained.
“I see. That includes breaking the cap?” I asked.
“Yeah. That’s no problem for me now. But there was something even more important in the Dragon Emperor fragments,” he continued.
“What? Something I don’t know about?” I queried.
“If I unleash the dragon I sealed—I mean, by the Dragon Emperor—and then sacrifice two-thirds of the estimated world’s population, the waves can be—” Gaelion started.
“No. It’s not time for that yet. Keep it to yourself for now,” I told him. It meant Gaelion could now sacrifice himself, like Ost had. I wasn’t going to let him do that.
“Anyway. This means the fighting has finally finished,” I confirmed, looking around.
“That’s right, brother. We can finally take revenge for Atla,” Fohl said.
“Although we need to get quite a lot of information out of him first,” I added. Then I looked over at the past Heavenly Emperor—who was actually Raph-chan II in disguise, in fact—who was standing there with a hammer in his hand. “You’re full of surprises, huh.”
“That’s my line, eh. The soul of this old soldier should have vanished from this world, but to make use of a fragment like this . . .” the past Heavenly Emperor marveled.
“That’s not my fault,” I said. Raph-chan puffed up her chest, looking pleased with herself. She’d certainly helped out . . . but it did feel a bit out of place.
“Oh my.” Shildina had a complex history with the past Heavenly Emperor and was keeping her distance.
“So you’re one of Raphtalia’s ancestors?” I confirmed.
“There are only fragments of my personality, meaning I’m more like a newly born entity. I don’t have many memories either. I can’t provide much aid, eh,” she said.
“Not sure I really understand,” I said.
“Also . . . it consumes a lot of energy to maintain this form, and I’m still not especially comfortable with it.” In that moment, the past Heavenly Emperor started to crackle and shake. “Holder of the Shield Spirit’s implement in this time, be aware, eh. The vassal weapon battle is not yet— dafu!” It looked like her time was up, because the past Heavenly Emperor proceeded to turn back into Raph-chan II in a puff of smoke, then sit down. It looked like it really did consume a lot of energy.
“Sure, sure, I hear you. The battle isn’t over, right?” Looked like I’d need to have a longer chat with her, when I had more time. “Well . . .” I turned to look at Takt and his cronies. “In any case, you’ll find the sin of toying around with this world carries a heavy price.” I proceeded to hold the fort until receiving the report of victory from Trash, spending the time thinking of exactly what I was going to do to Takt.
The fighting finished and we returned to the village.
“You guys all okay?” I called out.
“Yeah! We’re all fine!” Keel energetically replied.
“No problems here, I say!” added Motoyasu. He was joined by an eager shout from his filolials, so they were all in one piece. Then the Raph species started raphing, and it seemed we had all of them too.
Good. It looked like almost no one at all had died in the fighting this time—on our side, anyway. Faubrey had been run almost into the ground.
“Rishia, congratulations on becoming an official seven star hero,” Itsuki said.
“Fehhh! How many times have you congratulated me now, Master Itsuki?” she asked.
“I thought I had better say it in front of everyone,” Itsuki replied. He had been praising her since we came back. She had officially been selected as the Projectile Hero. Her weapons had previously been transparent because the real one had been held by Takt . . . most likely, anyway.
It seemed the seven star weapons were indeed vassal weapons, and when officially recognized by the four holies, they could be summoned along the axis of the four holy weapons. The vassal weapon had perceived desired qualities in Rishia through the bow, but being unable to completely escape from Takt’s control, it had ended up bonding with Rishia in that incomplete form.
“Congratulations, Rishia,” Ren also chimed in.
“Thank you all,” she said.
“Hmmm . . . now Rishia is a hero. Then I have even more I must learn from this battle. I must dedicate myself harder,” Eclair announced. Her rival having received a significant power boost, Eclair also sounded ready to buckle down and apply herself further.
“Rishia, sorry to rush you, but tell me the power-up method,” I said.
“O-okay. The help for my weapon talks about enhanced customization via payment of money!” she said, her voice trembling with excitement. She might have climbed her way up to become a vassal weapon hero, but she was just as excitable as ever.
It did concern me a bit, having her be the one looking after Itsuki. At least he was pretty calm and laid back.
“Which means what?” I asked.
“I’m . . . not really sure myself, but it seemed you have to spend money to enhance yourself. It also only seems to work when combined with other power-up methods,” she explained.
“So it’s a unique and general-purpose means of enhancement?” Itsuki confirmed.
“Hmmm, like a jack-of-all-trades,” I mused. Very much like Rishia herself. That made sense to me.
“That’s right," Itsuki agreed.
“Fehhh . . . why does that make sense to you all?” she asked.
Money, huh. It was true: I’d never put any money into the shield. It had seemed like a waste. I gingerly tried putting a bronze coin in now.
There was a jingling sound and 1G appeared in my field of vision.
“Looks like bronze coins are 1G,” I said. Next, I put in a silver coin. The same sound played and the amount increased to 101G. Then I searched around for what I could do . . . ah.
“Power-up protector? It looks like it cancels out a failure at refinement, another four holy power-up method,” I reported.
“Sounds like something you’d see in an online game,” Ren replied, seemingly breaking into a cold sweat.
“Yeah . . . this is a pretty messed-up power-up method. Feels like a joke or something,” I complained—although the amount of money required was no joke! Seriously? This was one just for the billionaires. I didn’t think this world had microtransactions!
That said, it was also pretty convenient.
“Can I ask something else? What do you think this is?” Rishia said. And with that, Rishia removed something that looked like a strap from the bottom of her projectile and showed it to me.
“Dafu?” Raph-chan II pointed at it. It was some kind of accessory Takt had attached. I touched it to try and check it out, but in that same instant, it made a sound and split apart.
“What just happened?” I’d felt something unpleasant the moment I touched it. I still couldn’t shake off a foreboding feeling. It felt like there was still something unresolved there.
“The staff has also returned to the king. He said he would like to talk with you later,” Eclair said.
“Okay. I’ve got a lot to talk about with Trash too. I’ll head over later,” I replied. We’d driven Faubrey off so completely . . . Takt’s elite warriors were like garbage before us. Just how great was the Wisest King of Wisdom? No wonder the queen had kept him around. I really understood now what Trash was capable of.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login