Chapter Four: Stolen Power
Was the pig-king in here?
With that thought, I looked toward the throne. It was occupied by a youth I’d never seen before. He didn’t fit the description, but he was wearing a crown.
He had a handsome face. Everything in the right place, at least by my estimation. He had blond hair, blue eyes, a textbook Westerner. His eyes, though, were super suspicious. There was . . . something about them that just made me feel really uneasy. Not for the first time that day I recalled Motoyasu from when we first met, that breezy feeling with impure intent mixed in. Combined with that, he was clearly looking down on us. That got my hackles up, and I instantly decided he was an enemy.
He reminded me of Kyo.
He was wearing a rough jacket and jeans. It suited the modern city, perhaps, but something still looked out of place. He was wearing a bandanna below the crown, and it really didn’t suit him.
“Thanks for bringing them in,” the youth said.
“Sir!” the guards who showed us in gave a salute and then closed the doors to the audience chamber behind them. That was all he said, and yet it was the look in the soldiers’ eyes that made me think of Itsuki now.
“Kwaa?” Gaelion looked up from where he was being held in Wyndia’s arms and looked around.
“Huh?” In the same moment, Filo also tilted her head.
“If it isn’t Takt, the Whip Hero. Do you know where we might find the king?” the queen asked. So this guy was called Takt and he was the Whip Hero.
“The king? Ah, that pig. I killed him,” the youth said flippantly, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. In the face of that admission, even the face of the normally composed queen showed a twitch of suspicion.
“Did I hear you correctly? Please say that again,” the queen asked.
“That trash didn’t deserve to live, so I removed him from this world. He was a cunning one though, I’ll give him that. It wasn’t easy to get rid of him,” Takt stated, as blithely as before. Those words put everyone, including me, immediately on guard.
I’d already been considering him as an enemy almost since coming into the chamber. Even if he wasn’t the one, just being one of the seven star heroes was crime enough.
“Is this some kind of civil war? I haven’t heard anything about such troubles,” the queen carefully probed.
“Of course not. I ordered everyone in the castle to keep their mouth shut. Now, onto more pressing matters, vixen of Melromarc. This world doesn’t require you either!” Takt’s hand started to give a suspicious glow even as he talked. He was planning to unleash something!
I immediately leapt in front of the queen and changed to the Sakura Stone of Destiny Shield, a weapon specifically for use against heroes.
“Wahnsinn Claw!” he shouted. He said “claw” even though he was supposed to be the Whip Hero. But around Takt’s hand there was a nasty-looking black claw. He proceeded to fire that same flicker I remembered so well. It crashed onto my shield . . . and bounced off.
In that next moment, I understood everything.
Raphtalia, Fohl, S’yne, and Eclair all moved at once, unleashing their life energy toward our enemy as they rushed forward. Next went Filo and Gaelion. The old lady went in after Fohl, hunched low. The two Raph-chans, Sadeena, and Wyndia finally got moving too, immediately ready for battle.
Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Rishia seemed to completely miss the boat. No, that wasn’t it. They readied for battle at the same time as the old lady . . . but after seeing the weapon in Takt’s hand, they had frozen in place.
“You—! You’re the one who killed Atla!” Fohl roared as he attacked, but Takt easily avoided the strike . . . and in the same moment a blue shadow appeared in front of Fohl. It was a demi-human woman who looked like a classical eastern dragon. She had long blue hair and yellow eyes, a woman like a full moon.
“Hold it. What are you trying to do to Master Takt?” she asked.
“Good question. What do you want with our dear Takt?” said another voice. It belonged to a young-looking girl standing in front of Raphtalia. She had two foxlike tails and was gathering magic in both of her hands. She also had lustrous black hair and clothing like some kind of miko priestess. I recognized that one!
“You . . . from Siltvelt?!” I exclaimed.
“I haven’t forgotten the disgrace you brought upon me! Now I’ll show you what I can really do!” she screeched.
“We’ve done nothing but fight for this world! You dare turn on us like this? Pure cowardice! With me, Raphtalia! This evil must not go unchecked!” Eclair shouted. The pair of them proceeded to slash out like lightning with katana and sword. In the same moment, Fohl and the eastern dragon-like woman were glaring at each other.
“Hakuko brat!” she snarled.
“Aotatsu! Move aside!” he roared. At that same moment, a woman carrying a harpoon appeared to block Sadeena. The newcomer had slanted eyes, sharp teeth, and aquatic ears like fish fins on the side of her head.
“Orca! You must be keen to die up on land like this!” the newcomer sniped.
“Oh my,” Sadeena said. I heard her, but right then, I was focused on the enemy in front of me.
“Huh? You deflected that attack? I guess there’s something to this ‘shield’ business after all!” Takt joked.
“Why you—” I started.
“What was that for?” Ren raged, drawing his sword, while Motoyasu started to incant a skill and Itsuki drew his bow.
Finally coming face-to-face with my hated foe, I was brimming with murderous anger. This was the guy who had killed Atla! Killed so many of our allies! I was going to kill him, this guy. I was going to end his life!
Shield of Wrath IV grow up!
Became Shield of Wrath V!
Shield of Wrath V grow up!
Now Shield of Wrath VI!
The protection of the Shield of Compassion prevented me from switching to it . . . but I was going to anyway! Even if it cost me my own life, I was going to finish this guy off! Let the rage consume me. I had to achieve this!
“Mr. Naofumi! Are you okay?!” Raphtalia asked.
“Don’t worry about me! Our foes are right in front of us! Kill them! Avenge Atla!” I ordered, my voice brimming with pure rage.
His attack, without a doubt, had been the same flicker that had killed the first of the Phoenixes. It had also been pretty powerful, and when I looked at the spot where it had bounced from my shield, there was a hole.
“You’re all trash, so I was hoping to wipe you all out with that Phoenix explosion. Yet here you are. I guess showing your faces here and handing your powers over to me is a better result anyway!” he jibed.
“Enough!” Fohl smashed the aotatsu woman away with a life force impact attack and leapt toward Takt.
“You think that’s enough to defeat me? You really don’t know who I am, do you?” Takt chuckled.
“Hi-yah!” The old lady also punched the ground and sent her life force flying toward Takt. He avoided the attacks with ease and then raised his hand.
Shield of Wrath—but then the system froze for some reason? Like the shield icon was getting . . . further away?
With a high-pitched splitting sound, a crack appeared in my shield, and then the entire shield attached to my arm shattered into flecks of dust.
“What?!” I shouted. I thought surely it was impossible to destroy the legendary shield! Not to mention, I’d been using the sakura stone of destiny one!
Just what was this guy?!
“Huh. The shield? Honestly, I don’t need this, but I guess it’s better than nothing. It did repel my attack,” Takt said.
“What’s going on?” I looked in surprise from where the shield had been and then over at Takt. All of my allies were looking at me in pure shock.
“Fehhh!?” Rishia gave a cry of surprise in that same moment, as new enemies poked their faces out from behind a curtain she had just cut down. The hidden women all pointed long tubes—which looked a lot like assault rifles—in our direction. Hold on! Guns still relied on status, I thought.
“Shooting Star Shield!” I immediately incanted the super-convenient Shooting Star Shield . . . but it didn’t appear. Gah. My damaged shield didn’t respond at all.
“Hundred Swords!” Ren shouted.
“Brionac!” Motoyasu joined him.
“Piercing Shot!” Itsuki was quick behind.
“Air Strike Throw!” Rishia followed up on the attacks from the other three heroes.
“What’s this? Shield . . . Prison?” With another loud sound, a massive shield cage appeared in front of Takt, completely shutting down the attacks from Ren and the others.
“What—”
“Haikuikku!” Filo shouted.
“Haikuikku!” said a large shadow, appearing in that same moment and attacking Filo. The two of them clashed together repeatedly at high speed, metallic sounds ringing out.
“Fire Breath!” Wyndia commanded.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion responded, breathing fire to wipe out the enemies before them. It was like opening up with a literal flamethrower inside the chamber.
“Freeze Breath!” Gaelion’s fire was enveloped in ice, however, and just like Filo’s attack, it was canceled by a new shadow.
“You keep your hands off Takt,” said a griffon, speaking human language as it tussled with Filo. Meanwhile a woman with a dragon tail and wings—not to mention a bosom that rivaled Rat’s—was holding a smoking pipe as she faced off with Gaelion and Wyndia. It looked like she was the one who just breathed that Freeze Breath.
“You said it. I still hate you, but you said it,” the woman agreed with the griffon.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion squawked. The lizard woman who had breathed the ice breath was glaring him down with murderous intent.
“So you’re a Dragon Emperor? Then I really can’t let you escape,” she rasped. Then my hated foe Takt gave further orders to his women.
“Everyone! Don’t harm the women and children. Remember that they’re only being used,” he stated.
“You underestimate us. We know that much. Now to make them see the truth—to make them see who’s right,” stated one of his underlings. I couldn’t focus on which.
“That’s right. Once they know Takt, they’ll understand,” said another. Raphtalia pointed at Takt with a trembling hand.
“M-Mr. Naofumi! Look!” she said, her voice also trembling. I was at a loss for words. There was a shield on Takt’s arm . . . a shield I knew all too well.
“It would suck for you to die with all these mysteries in the air. So I’ll enlighten you before killing you. I have the power to steal legendary weapons,” he revealed.
“What?!” I exclaimed. He said he had the power to steal legendary weapons. I wondered what kind of insane power that could be. This was a world in which the heroes were basically worshipped like gods. So that power was like dragging down a god!
Hold on. The Whip Hero was using a claw. He must have stolen that power too.
“Yeah, the guy calling himself the Claw Hero was a real dipshit. I killed him too,” Takt revealed smoothly, almost as though answering my thoughts. So the Claw Hero was dead. And not only him. The same could likely be said of all the seven star heroes we’d been unable to contact.
In that moment, I finally saw everything that had been going on.
I’d been wondering why the seven star heroes seemed so uncooperative. This guy had been running around stealing their weapons. If he was killing them to hide the evidence, then that explained why none of them had ever shown up.
“You hero types all have such twisted personalities, seriously. All I want is you to praise me and lend me your strength, but none of you pay attention!” Takt bemoaned. No one would ever listen to this dick. For God’s sake! It felt like I was about to go crazy with anger. “So I’m going to save the world,” the psycho continued. “You guys can just die and give me your weapons.”
“Enough bullshit!” I raged.
“Bullshit? That’s your department! Prancing about and pretending to be heroes! I’m the only true hero in this world. Don’t you see that?” he said. Takt took up his claw again and swiped swiftly toward us. It looked like a wide-range attack coming horizontally at us . . . and was almost too fast for any of us to respond.
I moved in front of everyone to protect them. But nothing happened, no pain or anything.
“Huh? Having this shield out removes my attack power? Seems like a pain to use,” Takt said. He vanished the shield and brought out a claw and small dagger.
“Let’s try this again! Wahnsinn Claw!” This attack came faster than any I had ever experienced before. I couldn’t even avoid it.
“Agh—” The bright light passed through my left shoulder and went on to pass through the queen, who was also along its extended arc. Pain immediately raced through my punctured body, accompanied by a spray of blood.
I gave a grunt. It felt like everything was in slow motion as I turned to look at the queen. It appeared as though his attack had only hit the two of us. Given a moment more to think, I realized that had been his intention.
The light had bent to hit just us.
“M-Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan. They dashed over to where I’d been knocked onto the ground.
“What are you doing? Don’t worry about me . . . Take care of him, quickly!” I managed to order through gritted teeth, but Raphtalia—her face pale—didn’t seem able to hear my commands. Trash was holding the collapsed queen, out of his mind.
“Ah . . .” he gasped, looking at the blood on his shaking hands. “Someone! Someone heal my wife!” he shouted. At that call, one of Motoyasu’s three—Green—dashed over and started incanting healing magic toward the queen and me.
“Gah! Let me at him!” Motoyasu shouted.
“Wait!” Raphtalia called him to a stop.
“Why, I say?” he replied.
“If you just rush in, he’ll kill us all! It’s too dangerous to charge in!” she said.
“I don’t care what you think!” he retorted.
“Enough, Motoyasu!” I managed, with some authority. In that same moment, the women in the back all raised their rifles at us.
“Looks like they’re still planning on putting up a fight,” Takt mocked. “Whittle them down a little, ladies!”
“Yes, sir!” the vixens responded. Takt lifted his hand and then dropped it.
“Fire!”
The women pulled their triggers. The sounds of gunfire rang out, mixed with grunts of pain from the recipients of the resulting bullets.
That included me. Pain shafted through my entire body. I couldn’t understand why we were taking so much damage!
“Well? How do you like the taste of lead from my ladies? The lowest level among them is 250!” Takt crowed. What the hell? Did he just say 250?! So he knew how to break the level limit. No wonder he’d defeated the Kirin so easily. Even his goons were double our level . . . No, he’d said “lowest!” Some of them could be triple or even higher.
The queen and Trash hadn’t taken any damage, shielded by Motoyasu’s three filolials. But Ren, Motoyasu himself, and Itsuki had all taken serious damage. Meanwhile, Raphtalia, Rishia, Eclair, S’yne, and Wyndia hadn’t taken a single hit.
This hypocrite! He was clearly planning on playing the main character, killing off the guys and keeping the women for himself. Fohl, Filo, Gaelion, Sadeena, the three filolials, and the old lady had all been shot at.
I’d seen this kind of tactic before from Motoyasu, back before he went insane, when his sex-fueled urges were on full display. He was just trying to make himself look good.
He also reminded me of Kyo.
He had mainly targeted the heroes, but maybe that was for the best. Anyone other than a hero hit by that barrage head-on would be dead. Not to say we could survive them for long either.
Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu were quadruple powered-up. They should be able to shrug off even some pretty hardy attacks!
“Your levels are too low. Just give up and accept defeat at my hands. I’m level 350 after all!” Takt laughed. I could only grunt as he looked down on us, pain wracking all of our bodies.
I’d gone with Sadeena and the others to level up after we defeated the Phoenix, raising myself to level 120, and yet it wasn’t close to enough. I was always on the back foot.
“You talk about saving the world? Don’t make me laugh. You’ve not got the levels,” Takt said, really putting the boot in.
“Most impressive, my lord Takt. Rescue these legendary weapons from these inferior heroes,” said a new voice.
“No!” I exclaimed. My allies made similar noises, stunned. Even Trash was stunned. “Impossible . . . Why are you here?!” The timing just seemed too perfect. With an unsettling smile on her face, Witch appeared from behind a pillar and moved over to Takt, looking down on us as she glided across the chamber.
Witch! The one monster I could not permit to live!
Even after the loss of my shield, anger enough to burn me to ash rose up from inside. This was nothing to do with the curse of rage. I just hated her so much that I wanted to kill her with my bare hands.
“These are the scum who planned to hand you over to that wretched pig, Malty. They’ve caused the deaths of so many, meaning they have to pay with their lives. But I’ll make them suffer first!” Takt enthused.
“Do you see now, mother? You tried to sell me off to the king of pigs. You’ll pay for that with your life! You too, father!”
“M-Malty . . .” Trash was still stunned, holding the queen in his arms. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, as though he was unable to process what he was seeing.
I pushed down the pain and looked at the dagger in Takt’s hand. It looked a lot like the one Rishia used.
Another puzzle piece fell into place.
Rishia’s mysterious weapon—no, the seven star projectile—was semitransparent because its owner had been killed and the weapon stolen. The legendary weapon itself hadn’t accepted Takt as its owner. Maybe it had even chosen Rishia as an act of resistance.
“Air Strike Throw!” With a slashing sound, the dagger thrown by Takt flew past Ren’s shoulder. Ren had acted quickly to prevent his sword from being taken. If the attack had hit, it would have been stolen. Ren grunted.
“No more moving around. Nothing says ‘hero’ more than a sword.
Hurry up and hand it over, pretty boy,” Takt said. We were at a serious disadvantage with all the damage we had already taken. We couldn’t afford to lose Ren and the other heroes’ weapons.
I gathered my life force, the intent to kill rising within me. We weren’t going to lose anything else!
“Enough of this nonsense!” Raphtalia shouted.
“No forgiveness for you—” S’yne joined in, the two of them rushing forward and slashing at Takt.
“Wait! He has the power to steal weapons! Both of you—” Ren tried to stop them both, but a clash of swords had already started.
“Huh? Ah?” Sparks grated out as Takt took a moment to look at Raphtalia and S’yne’s weapons. “A katana and . . . scissors? Are these also seven star weapons? No, you two look different.” Taking it easy against the two girls, Takt repelled their attacks with a relaxed look on his face. With two more shouts, Raphtalia and S’yne both slashed down again with their sakura stone of destiny weapons, but due to the level gap with Takt, their attacks didn’t even hit.
No matter how effective the weapons were against heroes, it was meaningless without the stats to back that up.
“You two are really pretty. I hope you come to see the truth quickly— that all the heroes you believe in are trash!” Takt crowed.
“Enough! You get away from Takt! Ugly raccoon women need to know their place!” said the fox woman. She and the one dressed liked a maid gave a shout and leapt at Raphtalia and S’yne, but I could barely focus on the events in front of me. This attempt to pick up my friends was nothing compared to working with Witch, messing up our fight with the Phoenix, and now ambushing us like this! He had to pay!
“Shut your mouth!” I desperately focused all my magic and life force into my body, focusing my strength and kicking off the ground to leap at Takt. I just needed to distract him for a few moments. Just long enough for everyone else to get away!
“What?” Surprised by this unexpected counterattack, Takt raised the shield he had stolen from me and tightened his defenses. With a thud, my fist hammered into Takt.
“You think this attack—guwah?!” My life force and magic exploded inside Takt’s body. Spewing blood, he was thrown behind the throne.
“Takt!?” All the gun-toting women shouted his name, watching him out of worry for him and creating a massive opening.
An opening that Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu were not going to miss.
“Now! Flashing Sword!” Ren shouted.
“Flash Arrow!” Itsuki joined in.
“Shining Lance!” Motoyasu finished. All three had used skills with a blinding effect, stunning the women as they attempted to open fire again.
Raphtalia and S’yne looked at each other, grabbed me as I collapsed, and ran for it. The two of them, seeing our disadvantage, made the choice to retreat.
“What are you doing? Shoot them all dead!” Witch shouted, but Ren and the others were already kicking down the doors in order to escape.
“Transport Sword . . . It’s no good. It won’t work,” Ren said.
“All Drifa Heal!” I’d been put up on Filo’s back, and in my dazed state . . . I managed to cast healing magic across all of my injured allies, and then my voice gave out.
These wounds—I couldn’t use healing magic on them.
We dashed through the castle, trying to find a way out. Ren and Motoyasu were in the lead, with the old lady and Raphtalia watching the rear. Everyone was injured to some extent. The queen and I had been hit the hardest. Our clothing was dark with blood. Neither of us could last much longer without treatment. The pain made my head swim. It was a miracle I’d been able to stand up back there.
“Mirellia! Just hold on!” Trash called to the queen, carrying her on his back as he ran behind me.
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia said. I was leaning so heavily on Filo’s back I could barely move my body at all . . .
“Naofumi, you understand the situation? I appreciate your anger, but we have to retreat,” Itsuki confirmed with me. He was right. If we stood our ground and fought here, where an ambush could be lying in wait in any corner, any number of the other heroes might lose their weapons.
“Itsuki?” Rishia asked.
“I know. Let’s get out of here as quickly as we can. Ren, is there any chance at all you can at least teleport the queen and Naofumi to a safe place?” he asked.
“No chance at all. Transport Sword won’t work. It’s being blocked somehow,” he replied.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion confidently cast some magic. It was Dragon Sanctuary. It was apparently effective against interference with teleportation. The likely cause of that interference was these new enemies using a barrier of similar magic. When Filo and Gaelion had been fighting over territory a while back, their spells had clashed and nullified each other.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion gave a cry as something flashed past.
“You aren’t getting away!” The voice came from down the corridor behind us. “Dragon Sanctuary!” Gah. That lizard woman was a dragon after all. Considering the conversation I’d heard between Gaelion and her, there was a high probability she was a Dragon Emperor herself.
“Raph . . . talia, use . . . Scroll of Return,” I said.
“O-okay!” she replied. Raphtalia had a teleportation skill from another world. Even with the interference, there was still a good chance she could use it.
And yet . . .
“I can’t use it?! The dragon hourglass is locked!” I thought it was impossible to block skills from other worlds!
“Sakura Destiny Sphere?” I asked.
“It takes all sorts of time and hassle to activate. It also weakens the power of the holy weapons, and seven star weapons—the vassal weapons— and would totally rule out teleportation skills. If they are using your shield, Mr. Naofumi, it will only have the opposite of the desired effect,” she explained.
Gah! It seemed like this was a complete dead-end.
S’yne clicked her tongue. She was touching my hand, and I could tell she was trying to activate a skill. But her weapon did not respond.
“I’m sorry . . . The weapon has degraded too severely,” her doll explained. I shook my head, telling her not to worry about it. Then I looked at Filo.
I desperately managed to speak, giving orders to Filo.
“You can count on me!” she said as she ran along and started to incant magic. “Sanctuary!”
“I won’t allow that. Griffon Sanctuary!” That had to be the griffon-like enemy. Every nullification we tried was in turn nullified—one step forward, one step back.
After we got the portal open, we’d have to choose whom to send through. That alone would cause a minor time lag, and having the magic reversed in that moment made this so difficult. Concerning sounds rang out from both in front and behind. There were soldiers waiting for us up ahead.
“Moto . . . yasu,” I rasped.
“What do you need?” he replied.
“This is an emergency. I give you permission to unleash . . . your love and your jealousy,” I told him. Takt was surrounded by women. This definitely sounded like an applicable situation.
“But Filo forbid me from using that,” Motoyasu replied.
“Fi . . . lo,” I told her.
“Yes, okay,” she said to me. “Spear guy, please do it,” she said to Motoyasu.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan, and “Dafu!” said Raph-chan II, moving to place their paws on those most susceptible to status effects. Motoyasu heard Filo’s request and gave a shout.
“Very well, I say! Temptation and Ressentiment it is!” The curse skills Motoyasu unleashed caused me a jolt of physical pain as he fired them off. I felt the barrier break with a crack . . . but then a similar feeling came right back at us, as though it was mocking our every attempt.
“No mistaking it. More nullification using the same skill!” he informed me.
“Shit . . .” I muttered.
“I can’t try again right away, father-in-law. My apologies for not being of greater aid,” Motoyasu said. Goddammit! I wondered just how many skills Takt was armed up with.
“Gravity Sword!” Ren shouted.
“Brionac!” Motoyasu got back into the fray.
“Piercing Shot!” Itsuki yelled. The efforts of the three other heroes were keeping things under control, for now. The soldiers up ahead also weren’t that strong. Takt probably only had a limited number of underlings who had broken the level cap. It would be dangerous to dismiss the soldiers completely, however. They were still soldiers from a major nation. Likely a similar level to Ren, and good at their job—but still maybe level 100 at best. It had to only be those women in the chamber who had been blessed with breaking the cap. Based on that fact, the bullets flying at us from behind were far more dangerous.
“Hi-yah!” shouted the old lady. Raphtalia and Fohl joined her with similar martial-artist kinds of shouts, smashing our female foes with compressed life force using the Point of Focus technique. It was working but would also be difficult to maintain.
“Again.” Wyndia was up on Gaelion and started to support their incanting.
“I’ll help too,” said Sadeena, lending a hand. They’d need all the backup they could get if Takt unleashed everything he had. The reason he didn’t . . . was either because he was on cooldown or he didn’t want to do any further damage to this castle of his.
“Has the teleportation nullification been removed yet?!” Ren asked.
“I’m still working on it!” Filo said, flustered.
“Ren, don’t worry about us!” Eclair said. “If you can stop these villains from getting their hands on any more of the legendary weapons, just run for it!”
“I can’t do that!” Ren angrily replied. Shit! I’d gotten so used to being able to teleport that it was stifling to have it taken away. In my incapacitated state, I could barely hold onto even that thought.
“If we could only get outside, we could escape on Gaelion,” Wyndia said.
“And probably get shot down,” Ren replied. Even as we fled, soldiers blocked our every turn, pushing us into a dead end.
“Shooting Star Sword!” Ren smashed down the wall in our way, and we proceeded into the corridor beyond. Ren’s quick thinking was worthy of praise.
“We’ll follow up the rear. You heroes hurry and get out of here!” the old lady shouted.
“Mr. Naofumi, you can count on us!” Raphtalia added. Joined by Fohl and Eclair, the four of them moved to stop the enemies closing in from behind. That should have been my role.
However, the aotatsu woman was already one step ahead of us.
“Just like Master Takt said, here you are,” she jibed. We turned to see the whole crowd from the throne room in attendance. We were surrounded.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion deployed a second sanctuary.
“That won’t work.” The enemy dragon blocked it again. We were going to be running in circles forever—and yet the only way out of here was teleportation. The entirety of Faubrey castle was filled with enemies. Even if we got outside the castle gates, we had the army of this nation—and maybe even civilians—waiting to fight us. That’s what I’d do in this situation. I wasn’t sure how they’d frame it, but they would definitely come after us somehow. We were at a major disadvantage due to our injuries.
“Sanctuary!” Filo tried.
“Griffin Sanctuary!” came the response. Filo blew a raspberry and stamped her feet at how nothing was going according to plan.
“As the source . . . of your power . . .” I tried to incant some magic myself, but I was unable to concentrate due to the wounds from Takt. That attack . . . The weapon itself had to be cursed. Magic couldn’t cure the wounds. It was like I was suffering under a status effect, unable to hold my awareness in my body.
“Master!” Filo called to me as my magic failed. Then I heard Takt calling from behind us, where the old lady and the others were fighting.
“Can’t you see it’s time for you to give up? You trash!” he asked.
“No! Give up? Never! Not to you. Buying into Witch’s lies, messing up the battle with the Phoenix, and killing all the seven star heroes!” Ren turned and made this bold declaration.
“Whatever you say, justice will never be on your side. Just give up and die!” Takt prepared his claw to attack again. In that same moment—
“Dafu—!” With a snap, I felt the sanctuary that was preventing us from teleporting get stripped away. Cherry blossoms danced in the air. Maybe they were sakura lumina petals. The Raph-chans had been quiet, but now their tails fluffed up. In the same moment the magic activated, something else passed by; it wasn’t the Sakura Destiny Sphere, but something similar to Filo and the others’ sanctuary magic, canceling out the enemy interference.
“What?!” Our foes were taken aback, which created an opening. Both Gaelion and Filo had used Sanctuary magic, so they had probably thought a double repeat casting would have covered it. However, with the Raph-chans using some unexpected magic, it had created an opening for us to use a teleportation skill.
“Now!” I shouted. Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki each grasped their weapons tightly, then cast teleportation magic.
“Transport Sword!”
“Portal Spear!”
“Transport Bow!”
“You won’t escape!” Takt got his whip out. Then he swung it leisurely at our allies coming up the rear—the old lady, Raphtalia, Fohl, and Eclair.
“Bind Whip!” The weapon rapidly snaked like a living creature, slicing forward to enwrap Fohl and Eclair.
“I won’t allow that!” Raphtalia rushed in.
“Student Raphtalia!” the old lady shouted, even as Raphtalia thrust her sword into the whip and then stamped it onto the ground, preventing the binding attack.
“Big sister—” Fohl called first.
“Raphtalia—” In my semi-conscious state, I managed to call her name myself.
“If anything happens to me, please take care of Mr. Naofumi,” she said to Fohl—as though she knew very well that something was going to happen. Then she gave me, who could do nothing but look on, a warm smile.
“Raph . . . talia . . .” When I spoke, my lungs made a horrible whistling sound. I had to move, or I was about to lose something precious to me again! Quickly! I had to move!
“Get out of there! Student Raphtalia!” the old lady shouted.
“If we miss this chance, we may not get to teleport again . . . but—” Ren wasn’t sure what to do. If we missed this chance, any opening to teleport was quickly going to be blocked again.
“If you don’t escape here . . . we’ll be wiped out!” Raphtalia said.
“But . . .” Ren was still hesitating.
“If you don’t get Mr. Naofumi out of here, more people will die! Ren! Sword Hero! You finally reached an understanding of your purpose, thanks to Eclair. Is that going to end here?” Raphtalia raged.
“Raphtalia! I still can’t just—” Ren stammered.
“Eclair! You understand, right? Move!” Raphtalia changed tactics.
“Ren. I’ll take responsibility. Get out of here!” Eclair said.
“No. This one will rest on my shoulders. Even if Naofumi kills me for this, I don’t think this is the wrong choice! Transport Sword!” Ren completed activation of the skill. Raphtalia was headed in the opposite direction from us.
“Big sister!” Fohl yelled again.
“Raphtalia!” I managed myself, both of our shouts ringing out. Immediately afterward, I felt everything I was seeing shift and change, getting darker and sliding away.
Ren’s teleportation had been successful. The same for Motoyasu and Itsuki. However, it was only after making the jump that we determined that Raphtalia hadn’t been included—that we had left her behind.
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