Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 17 - Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: A Familiar Face 

“Indeed. The information you provided is why things have gone so smoothly. I am grateful for your cooperation,” Miyaji said and gave his own unsettling smile as he moved over to Witch. 
“What are you doing here?! Witch!” I shouted. 
“You still dare call me by that silly nickname?! Hidemasa! Do you see now? That’s the kind of person he is! Going around calling people by silly nicknames!” Witch raged. 
“Nicknames? What are you talking about? That’s your real name, as approved by your own parents!” I told her. Every single thing that she did, that she said, just infuriated me more! 
“Giving people silly nicknames! Is that something a rational person would do?!” she shouted. 
“Let me turn your own logic on you—Outsiders, stay out of this!” I retorted. 
“What did you say?!” she raged back. As we sniped back and forth at each other . . . 
“Mald . . .” Itsuki, brow furrowed, looked at his former underling, a guy in armor who appeared next to Witch. So he had been right when he thought he heard Mald’s voice in the town. 
“Don’t you dare say my name, you imposter! The evil that seeks to impede our true justice shall leave the stage here!” Armor said, arrogantly dismissing Itsuki. 
 
I could just about understand what they were saying. With the shield removed, I was barely making it through the conversation. I still had an issue with something though. 
“Leave the stage?” I repeated. Was this guy kidding?! 
“Still . . . how about this, Bow Imposter. If you slay the shield demon standing there, we will accept you as our true ally once again,” Mald offered. No! That wasn’t good! Itsuki couldn’t really think for himself right now. He was getting better but still had a tendency to do whatever people told him to do. Right now, Itsuki and I were about the same strength. I didn’t want any needless fighting here. 
“Unfortunately for you, I have found something I wish to defend for myself. Mald, I will not obey you,” Itsuki said. Interesting! He rejected the orders! Maybe he was coming back to himself at last. Or perhaps it was Rishia’s teachings working their magic. 
In either case, this was a good—and timely—change. 
“Tell me, Mald! Why are you here?” Itsuki asked. 
“I have no words to bandy with evil! I would be a moron if I told you how we came to be here!” he stated. I mean, I had to agree with the guy. I’d never heard of a self-proclaimed ally of justice explaining how they got somewhere. 
“Let me change the question,” Itsuki said, obviously trying again. “Why do you ally yourself with these kinds of people?” 
“Why do you think? Because we share the same spirit of justice!” 
 
“Mald, that person standing at your side is the very one who took in that megalomaniac Takt and attempted to use him for her own ends. There’s no justice on your side,” Itsuki said. 
“Takt? He was just a sacrifice to form the foundation of our justice. His violence was purely intended to prove that we are just. We had every intention of swinging that justice hammer, but then you stepped in,” Mald replied. 
“How many people suffered for your opportunity to deliver that justice? The world does not exist for your selfish justice,” Itsuki responded. That was the kind of thing a character would say from the kind of story Rishia probably loved. It was a common trope in manga too, a man of justice trying to correct the mistaken path an ally had taken—by force if necessary. Surely it wasn’t actually possible in real life. Armor hadn’t said much yet, but his attitude spoke volumes, and he definitely didn’t seem like the type to listen to what others had to say. 
In any case, it was nice seeing Itsuki being able to hold this kind of conversation. That was definitely progress. Back when we started out, Itsuki himself had been saying things like, “I won’t listen to the words of evil!” 
“Hah. Whatever you may say, I will never listen to your false justice!” Armor replied, as arrogant as ever, and then stared me down. “Brainwashing even the Bow Imposter? Your list of crimes only grows!” 
“You just look like a bully to me! Your victim won’t listen to you anymore, so you’re just lashing out at the one who helped them move past you!” I said. 
 
“The impudence! You shield demon! We shall bring you to a fitting end!” This guy sounded like he’d swallowed the complete works of Shakespeare, seriously. 
“What have I ever done to you, anyway?” I asked, thrusting a finger at Armor. I was far more concerned about Witch in this situation, but I actually didn’t have any idea why Armor would have a problem with me. He certainly seemed to, but probably just because we didn’t really see eye to eye. We’d had very little contact, after all. 
“As if you don’t know! You use your brainwashing power to impede our mighty justice!” he responded. Huh? I had to take a moment. He had jumped so many steps I was having difficulty understanding him. Just what was this guy and his “justice” attempting to achieve? 
“Brainwashing? That’s what Itsuki was trying to pull with his cursed weapons. I’ve never tried that,” I eventually replied. 
“Lies! You, Shield Demon, have taken over the world by brainwashing its people!” Armor ranted. 
“What scum! It was bad enough having an outsider come in and start lecturing me, but now it turns out you have already taken over your own world and so are seeking to do the same here!” Miyaji cut in, jumping more than a few steps himself. I wanted to shout at him to stay silent but managed to maintain what composure I had left. 
“If you call gradually achieving good things, building trust with the people, and then bringing reassurance to a nation by defeating a moron proclaiming world domination ‘brainwashing,’ then sure, that’s what I’ve been doing. However, it’s only someone like yourself who would call it that!” I retorted. This wasn’t brainwashing. It was trust! Acquired by shouldering my role as a hero and doing whatever I could to spill as little blood as possible while carrying it out. If trust was brainwashing, then anything could be brainwashing! Anything at all! 
 
“Which is exactly why our justice shall crush your evil ambitions!” Armor declared. Exactly why . . . what? All they had done was throw in their lot with this coward and come out to crow about it when the tide turned in their favor. 
“Let me ask you this one time. What is your justice?” I asked. I wasn’t expecting much of an answer. 
“Our justice is to create our ideal world of peace in which evil does not exist. Therefore, we will use our strength to end all evil!” Armor replied. I was honestly surprised to discover the existence of someone who actually believed in such textbook-like dictator rhetoric. He had no idea that justice wasn’t even on his side, did he? 
Itsuki’s negative legacy was still here, rooted deep. From Armor’s point of view, Miyaji probably wasn’t a dictator at all. Armor probably blamed the four holy heroes for everything, including the loss of his reputation due to Itsuki’s mistakes, not being able to receive the blessings of being a hero’s companion as a result, and not being able to remake the world as he desired. Not to mention, my promotion of the betterment of Melromarc through trade being evaluated as a good thing was clearly pissing him off. His rage seemed purely based in being unable to obtain authority for himself. 
 
I’d had enough of dealing with these crazy idiots. I just wanted to punch them and keep punching until they fell silent. 
“Shield Demon . . . no, Shield Demon King and your minions, we true heroes will defeat you!” Armor shouted. Looked like I’d been promoted to a demon king. That did seem fitting for the opponent of heroes, but these guys weren’t up the task of defeating such a monster. 
Then, with some appropriate clanking and clacking, Armor pulled out an axe set with a dull gemstone. 
“That axe! I’ve seen that before!” It was identical to the axe that Takt had taken out and attacked me with! Why did this guy have one of the seven star weapons? 
“You seem surprised,” Witch said with a chuckle. “That womanizer was hording all the weapons, so I decided to liberate some of them from him. You’re the foolish demon king who let me get away with it,” she taunted. My conversation with her had been cut short thanks to Armor, but now I returned my focus to her. 
“Witch, what are you doing here?! How did you obtain that axe?” I asked. She belonged to a different world. There should be no way to move between them without a wave—not unless she had some other means, like we had. 
“What good will telling you that do? You can’t expect a woman to give up all her secrets,” Witch replied, smiling as though she had already won this battle. Of course, I recalled that I was dealing with the type of bitch who never, ever told the truth. “That womanizer treated people like property. He was so condescending. The women around him were fawning and annoying. He deserved to die, but we were supposed to be the ones to do it.” This “womanizer” she was talking about had to be Takt, of course. She had somehow learned of his defeat and pulled her own vanishing act. 
 
It also sounded like she had been planning to kill him. From my point of view, she had just looked like another one of his harem members. But she made it sound like she’d been setting a trap for him, just like she had with the other heroes. 
I didn’t think Witch was capable of that, but the background to all this also concerned me. She could move between worlds now. There was something—or someone—behind her, for sure. 
“Seriously . . . you could have just let that excitable womanizer kill you. You made things so inconvenient for me. You are so persistent, so annoyingly persistent! Just seeing you makes me want to throw up,” Witch said. 
“Right back at you . . . In fact, due to my hatred of your very existence, I can comfortably claim to dislike you more than you dislike me. We have to stop meeting like this—and I intend to make this the last time. So be ready to die,” I told her. Her very existence disgusted me to the extent I could be sure my hatred for her face exceeded any malice she bore toward me. I was going to eradicate her from this world as painfully and horribly as possible . . . No, I was going to shred her very soul. 
That was the only way to avenge the queen. 
“Do you know these two?” Glass asked. 
 
“Yeah. This woman is the one who caused the friendly relationships between the four heroes in my world to completely break down, and the armored guy is one of Itsuki’s former allies and a traitor,” I replied. They were both former allies of the four holy heroes, that much was true. “To be honest, they are both so horrible there is no defending anything they have done,” I explained. “They’re just like the companions of the one who stole L’Arc’s scythe. The same as them,” I told Glass. Understanding the situation, her face hardened further. 
“I see. So there’s no need to hold back,” she replied. 
“You’ve lost your precious weapons, and yet you still think you can win? You’re going to be pathetically defeated again, just like last time,” Witch crowed. She really knew how to piss me off, I’d give her that much. Whatever it took, I swore to finish her off! 
I took a moment to think about who we had here and the moves we had available. 
Our allies here were Raphtalia, Glass, and S’yne. Then there was Itsuki and me, now without our weapons. We also couldn’t use any magic or skills. The C’mon Raph that called Raph-chan was also a skill, so we couldn’t use that either. I should have called her sooner! 
Based on what Miyaji had said, it was the weapons belonging to the members of the four heroes from another world—Itsuki and me—that had been eliminated. I had been hoping to remove his weapon from him, but instead we were faced with not having our own weapons! 

“Wonderful, Hidemasa! Let us hurry up and bring an end to these holy heroes and vassal weapon heroes from another world. We have our own mighty ambitions to fulfill, after all!” This came from another woman, speaking as she also came in through the door. She was sounding a lot like Witch already. I felt like putting my head into my hands. No more bitchy women!
 
The newcomer had striking cream-colored hair. She was relatively tall and quite beautiful. A mature woman, but different from Sadeena and Rat . . . and if what she had just said was anything to go by, she was completely ugly and stupid on the inside. 
She looked like a variant on Witch, basically. 
She was wearing highly revealing clothing that had large buttons placed on it in random places. For some reason, she also reminded me of S’yne. Perhaps it was because her clothing was so similar. The weather here wasn’t hot or cold, but while the design was like S’yne’s clothing, she was using some kind of fur material as well. The cool, collected look in her eyes—at odds with her actions and appearance—was also the same as S’yne. 
“You—” As this woman appeared, S’yne’s own gaze became even more intense. It filled her with murderous intent as she rushed forward and attacked the woman with her scissors. 
“Well, well, well! If it isn’t S’yne,” the woman said. The woman stepped forward and took a chain out from . . . somewhere, catching the scissors on it. 
I had a real nasty feeling about that chain. It had a gemstone on it, a characteristic of the weapons—including the four holy ones—and the gemstone looked cloudy. 
 
“You move quickly, S’yne. It’s been so long since we last met,” the woman mocked. 
“I won’t forgive you—for your betrayal!” S’yne replied, even as the woman easily avoided the follow-up attack from S’yne’s familiar. I could tell already that she was skilled in combat. 
“You’re still harping on that old stuff? Wandering the worlds with that broken-down vassal weapon, seeking revenge? That’s why you are stupid. Having such a stupid younger sister is no joke, I can tell you,” the woman replied. 
“Sister?!” I exclaimed, which drew her attention to me. For some reason, she looked surprised for a moment. 
“Well, well, well. I’m so shocked I can hardly speak,” she said. That response only served to further enrage me. What had she seen when she looked at me? “Some things don’t change, S’yne. But nothing good will come from such stubbornness. Why keep wishing for something that can never come true?” she asked. 
“Shut up!” S’yne’s emotions were clear even amid her skipping voice, and she swung her scissors in a wide arc at the woman again. The tip of the chain the woman was holding proceeded to strike S’yne in the stomach, sending her flying away with a grunt. 
“Dammit!” I grabbed her before she crashed into the wall, wondering exactly what power the woman had used to do that. I was lacking the protections of the shield and was low on strength myself. I had almost been sent flying right along with her. 
 
Shit. If we could use healing magic or skills, we could have defended against this! 
“I love to see you on the ground. That’s where you belong,” the woman said, laughing to herself with disgust in her eyes. “Hidemasa, darling! She’s my plaything, so even after you’ve killed these other foolish vassal weapon holders and holy weapon holders from another world, please let her go. Do you understand why I’m asking? She’s so rebellious, but I’m looking forward to the day she realizes her rebellion is pointless and she finally joins me.” 
“I understand completely. It isn’t much fun just having lackeys who obey your every word. Having someone like that among your allies brings a real spice to things,” Miyaji replied. Spice? What was this, a cooking show?! 
With another supremely annoying laugh, the moron woman glanced at the rest of us again. 
“I’m not sure what to say. You seem too pathetic and so helpless it makes me want to spoil the method we used to do this to you,” she said. So she was just like the rest of them—just like Witch, Kyo, and Takt. She wasn’t going to say anything of value! I knew that already! 
“You must have grasped that we have suppressed your holy weapons. But you don’t understand how, do you? To put it plainly, we have captured all of the holy weapons in this world and used a technique to suppress the power of any opposing holy weapons—nullifying the holy weapons and techniques from other worlds,” she patronizingly explained. She had distinctively said “our.” That suggested this wasn’t something Miyaji had come to on his own, but something he had been provided with in order to contain us. 
 
“The medium is the dragon hourglass. It suppresses the holy weapons. This was apparently a defensive mechanism for this world, created by the spirits of the holy weapons. It was to be activated if holy weapons were ever used in an invasion. Of course, it only works on holy weapons, magic, and techniques. It wouldn’t be worth using if it stopped us as well,” she continued. 
I had pegged her as a Witch-type to start with, but now she seemed to be telling us pretty much everything. From everything she was telling us, it seemed fair to also call this approach pretty stupid. There was a chance she was a liar, but the explanation made too much sense to be a lie. 
“The holders of the holy and vassal weapons are basically slaves to the weapons, correct? The weapons won’t lend their strength to anyone who won’t follow their orders. So we have confined those weapons and are forcibly drawing out their power. Don’t make the foolish mistake of comparing those other vassal weapon holders to us, thank you,” she said. So they were suppressing the holy weapons, allowing them to also suppress any vassal weapons resisting them, and then forcibly drawing out their power? Damn, my analysis had been this: even if they knew some power-up methods, they probably weren’t drawing their full power! Holy crap, I had completely underestimated these guys. We could have easily got ourselves killed, walking into this the wrong way. 
“Hey!” Miyaji said. 
 
“What are you telling them all of that for?” Witch said. 
“Right! What value is there in conversing with evil?” Armor added. The three of them seemed quite displeased with the direction this stupid newcomer had chosen to take. 
When I read it another way, however, their displeasure also suggested she was telling the truth. The idiot woman faced her allies with her arms crossed. 
“Well, well, well. It seems the musical instrument hero from this world and our newcomers are feeling the pressure already,” she said, tauntingly, while spreading one hand to the side. 
“What was that?” Miyaji replied. 
“Are you looking for a fight?” Witch responded, glaring at the trash-woman with hate in her eyes. They were having a falling out already, were they? Go ahead, morons, kill each other for me! 
“You agree with my stance here, correct? Rather than killing them without them knowing anything, we should give them the slightest opportunity to win and then rip it away, allowing us to enjoy the despair on their faces even more,” the idiot said, taunting Witch. It was a textbook line from a villain. But I had to presume she didn’t know how many such villains we had defeated already. “Defeating such scum, with all their pathetic efforts and cowardly schemes, like the insignificant insects they are, is the law of the truly powerful, no? If you use your own stingy, cowardly means to defeat your prey, then you are no better than the scum you defeat!” she went on. 
“What?!” Witch flared up. “You have a problem with how we do things?” It looked like Witch and the moron woman were not on the best of terms. They were probably too similar to get along. I couldn’t even work out why they were fighting in the first place. 
 
Not that I was about to stop them. This suited me. 
“You have to bring your enemies low with a correct and just strategy. Otherwise, how are you any different from the cowardly scum who will sink to any means necessary?” the moron woman said. 
“Hah!” Witch didn’t seem to like that either. It was a weird branch of logic, one that seemed to interchangeably weave together “correct” and “cowardly.” The main thrust seemed to be that she considered using a strategy as cowardly as this one and defeating enemies who didn’t know what was happening to make some kind of bad impression. She desired showing some level of respect for the enemy, and yet still defeating them with some kind of display of strength and justice. 
Even if the greatest sage formed a mighty strategy, for the one beaten it was still just a cowardly attack. She was saying that no matter how good it might feel to perpetrate, she was dissatisfied with how cowardly this strategy had been. 
I had trouble understanding it though. If that was her issue, then just come at us head-on—or realize your ambitions through discussion, even. 
“Or what? We’ve set everything up for you, and you’re still going to let them defeat you? Pathetic. You seemed so strong and beautiful, so I came to you with this, but I’m quite disillusioned now,” S’yne’s sister said. 
“Gah, very well! It’s not like we’re letting them leave alive, anyway. 
 
Telling them how to stop this would make things fair and square, right? So go ahead,” Witch spat and turned to look at us. “You’d better be thankful for this!” 
We’d been weakened to this degree and then sat through a condescending lecture that didn’t reveal how to undo it all, and they called that “fair and square?” The only thing I could think of was that we had to get back the holy weapons from this world. I certainly wasn’t going to be thanking anyone for any of this either! 
“If you want to return all weapons back to where they belong, you first need to recover and release the captured holy weapons,” the moron woman said. If what she had just said was true, getting back the captured holy weapons was our only choice. 
It was time to make use of this opening they had presented. I just hoped it would work. 
“What appallingly selfish logic,” I said. 
“Indeed,” Glass chimed in. “I hardly have a response, having suffered all of this and yet also having it called ‘fair and square.’” 
“Don’t be so naive!” Witch fired back. “This is combat. There’s no such thing as cowardice in combat! But we’re telling you this because we aren’t cowards! If you have an issue with that, you can share it—after you turn this situation back to your own advantage!” Crazy people of this type really did love this kind of argument—that the winner got to decide everything. Was there a book somewhere that they learned all these lines from? 

“Well, well, well. You have the technology we’ve provided you with, so you can still use your own magic even under these circumstances,” the moron woman said to Witch, pointing to an armband she was wearing. “Good luck!” Hold on. Did that mean Witch and Armor could use magic from our world? 

“Why do I have to do all the fighting?” Witch whined. “I’m only here to support Hidemasa from the rear!” Even under these conditions, Witch just wanted to have an easy time of it in the back. Her position hadn’t changed at all from when she’d been allied with Motoyasu. 
However, our enemies were still only arguing amongst themselves verbally. It hadn’t created any kind of advantage for us yet. I took a breath, calming myself, and tried to think of an effective move. 
The biggest threats were Miyaji, Armor and his axe, and then the moron woman and her chain vassal weapon from S’yne’s world. The other women were, when compared to what I’d seen Raphtalia and Glass do, not much of a threat. 
We could still win this. 
Not to mention, based on the information that they were suppressing the holy weapons to draw out their power, the capabilities of Armor’s axe had to be reduced. The axe seven star weapon was under our jurisdiction, rather than the four holy weapons of this world. 
That said, with Itsuki and my own weapon now out of action, there was no way to test that assumption. It was better to keep our guard up. It would have been great if we could have used sakura stone of destiny weapons or protections, but they weren’t compatible. If I could have used them, I’d have sent Raphtalia in with a preemptive strike. 
 
“Let’s get this fight started, shall we?” the moron woman said. Weakening an opponent into the ground, splitting them up, and then coming at them full force—this was no different from the approach Takt had taken. It might only be a little better this time because of the hints the moron woman had unleashed so imperiously. “Now, in the name of all that is just and fair, we shall end you!” I didn’t even have the energy for a caustic reply. 
“Our justice shall destroy the ambitions of the shield demon king and his minions!” Armor added. 
“This is where you die! Go! Crush them!” Witch crowed. I was sick of that pair already. I was sick of all of these losers. 
“Mr. Naofumi, please fall back!” Raphtalia said, probably including Itsuki in that. 
“We will deal with this,” Glass said. The two of them raised their weapons and stood in front of Miyaji and his allies. 
I was still holding S’yne, and in that moment, she came around with a moan. 
“S’yne, are you okay?” I asked. 
“I’m—” She staggered to her feet but was clearly still intending to fight. In fact, scissors quivering, she looked ready to leap at the moron woman at any moment. 
Then S’yne unleashed threads toward Itsuki and me. 
“Marionette Assist—” she said. 
“It is a support skill. We will aid you as best as we can!” her familiar explained. I checked to see my stats had been boosted a little. So she had these kinds of skills too. As I’d been using Aura up to this point, it hadn’t really been needed until now. 
 
“Master Hidemasa! We will aid you!” Miyaji’s women were still eager to fight. The situation was bad. I wanted to retreat, but I couldn’t use Portal Shield. If L’Arc’s party could remove the lock on the dragon hourglass and give us access to Scroll of Return, that might turn this situation around . . . But in light of everything that had happened so far, the end of the fighting over there might just allow even more annoying enemies to show up here. 
“Die! This is where our justice seizes victory!” Armor said. Mixed with the shouts of other enemies in the room, he swung his axe into action. 
“I don’t have anything personal against you, but I must fight too,” Miyaji quipped, sending out notes from his musical instrument once more. The moron woman sent her heavy-tipped chain flying like a snake for S’yne, and Miyaji’s women all attacked with each of their own weapons. 
“Stardust Blade!” Raphtalia unleashed sparkling slashes laced with stars. 
“Circle Dance Combination Formation: Formation One, Formation Two, Formation Three, Formation Four!” A quick combination from Glass made short work of the notes from Miyaji and also blocked the attack from Armor. 
“Well, well, well, if you don’t stop me soon, I’ll send you flying again,” the moron woman said with a laugh. 
“I won’t lose to—” S’yne replied, scattering sparks as she deflected the incoming chain. I could tell that her sister’s attacks were too strong for S’yne to resist for long. 

“Now!” S’yne’s familiar appeared behind the moron woman and charged in, but she crossed the chain over her back and stopped the attack. 

“You are naive as ever, little S’yne,” the moron mocked. Dammit. Was there no way to turn this around? Even as I thought that, a familiar-sounding spell rang out. 
“As the source of your power, the next queen commands you. Let the way of all things be revealed once more! Blazing flames of hell! Drifa Hellfire!” Witch was still fixated on being the next queen, clearly! Melty was the queen of our world now! There was no place for Witch! 
I thought for a moment about what I could do . . . and then realized I had heard the incantation, in which case, it had to be worth a go! 
“As the source of your power, the shield hero commands you. Let the way of all things be revealed once more! Scatter that wretch’s blazing flames of hell! Anti Drifa Hellfire!” The magic I unleashed quickly cancelled out the massive ball of flame Witch had summoned up. 
“Magic nullification? And how are you casting it so fast?!” Watch raged. She hadn’t been there in the second battle with Takt, so she didn’t know about that particular trick yet. 
My incantation interference had worked anyway, so it looked like the Way of the Dragon Vein could still be used too. In either case, I couldn’t use attack magic, and there wasn’t much support magic I could offer in this situation. It might be better to have Itsuki cast it. 
I was basically without my shield though, meaning I probably could attack a little. 

“For Master Hidemasa, death to the hero from another world!” Miyaji’s women came at me, swinging a selection of blades. 

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted. 
“Don’t worry about me!” I shouted back. Considering the kinds of enemies I had fought in the past, it was easy to read the attacks of these women. I pushed life force through my body using Hengen Muso Style and danced through the attacks. 
“He dodged them?!” one woman exclaimed. Now that I knew I could use life force, I had at least some hope for fighting back. Even as that thought came to me, Armor charged in. 
“Great Quake III!” he shouted, swinging down his axe and causing an earthquake! 
“You moron! Stop it!” I shouted. This was an underground maze! Was he looking to bury us all alive? 
“I’m not listening to anything you have to say, Demon King!” Armor cackled. Maybe this place was earthquake-proof. The ground still split open, however, making it hard to dodge around. He was definitely stealing my power-up methods! He wasn’t able to use X class, from the look of it, but if he was applying all the power-up methods he was aware of, his attacks would likely hurt me even if I had my shield! 
“Eat this!” shouted one of Miyaji’s women, even as Armor roared again. I grunted as the attack landed, unable to avoid it due to terrible footing. 
“What?!” one of the women reacted. 
“I put all my strength behind that, but it didn’t cause any damage!” the attacker said. A combination of Muso Activation, the capabilities of the armor I was wearing, and the life force technique called Wall that S’yne had taught me, had just about managed to prevent any damage. My level was pretty high too, which was a help. 
 
“Hiyah!” I used Muso Activation, focusing my life force and punching the woman. It felt strange, like hitting a wall of air, almost. Perhaps it was some kind of protection Miyaji had on his allies. 
“You were never taught not to punch women? This is the problem with trash like you,” Miyaji said, giving me a disgusted look and launching more notes in my direction. Raphtalia and Glass intercepted those. 
“Like I care! This is combat! Gender doesn’t matter here!” I retorted. Just more feminist claptrap! Enough! He was happily attacking Raphtalia and Glass himself! 
“Everyone! I’m going to get serious! I need you to pin down the vassal weapon holders. I’ll target the other world holy weapon holders!” Miyaji said. 
“Okay!” his women replied. It sounded like he hadn’t been serious up to this point. That might be a problem. 
“Now! Face the hammer of justice!” Armor was also narrowing his attacks on us . . . more like Itsuki. In that moment, for some reason, Itsuki took out a medicinal herb. I wondered what he was planning on doing. 
Itsuki put the medicinal herb to his mouth and started to play it, like a grass reed. The light of magic immediately sprang up in the vicinity. 
“Magic?! Impossible!” Miyaji looked disproportionately surprised, even though the weapon he was holding in his very own hands was similar. 
 
“Bow Imposter! What trickery is this?!” Armor gave a roar as he swung his axe again. 
“I won’t allow that!” Glass stepped in and blocked the attack. “Hardly what I would call powerful.” 
“You’re weaker than I was expecting. No justice wants someone so pathetic as an ally!” Miyaji mocked, looking down on Armor. 
“Hah! This is how you use real strength!” The axe gave a suspicious glow and then changed shape . . . into a curse series weapon! 
Armor grunted again and was rewarded with a cry from Glass. A large wound appeared in her shoulder. She had been unable to stop his second attack. 
“A penetration attack?” Glass asked. She swept her fan to the side and forced Armor to drop back. She hadn’t taken especially severe damage, but she had a pained expression on her face from the cursed attack. 
“That could be nasty,” Glass said and applied some soul-healing water to the wound, but the curse was slowing the healing. These stolen weapons continued to have some bothersome abilities, from the look of it. It was like a vassal weapon for our holy weapons, so he couldn’t be maximizing its stats, but it was fair to assume that it was still loaded with all the power-up methods from when Takt had owned it. Armor and Witch had probably heard about other power-up methods too. They were probably using them all, including the ones from the holy weapons. That definitely made them a threat. 
Enough molehills could become a mountain. The danger was real. 
 
“Now, eat this!” Armor shouted. 
“Allow me to get in on this performance!” Miyaji’s weapon also changed into what looked like a twisted electric guitar. These guys seemed to have a thing for cursed weapons. They probably weren’t paying the price for them either. 
“Chain Bind III! Chain Needle III!” Chains covered with spikes appeared from the ground and closed in with Itsuki and me. 
“Well, well, well, allow me as well,” The moron woman cackled and unleashed her own chain. 
“No!” S’yne tried to stop the chain, but it wrapped around her own weapon. It looked like she could probably shake it off, but then she wouldn’t be able to stop the chain coming for us. 
“Go!” she commanded. 
“I’ve got it!” her familiar said and flew to our rescue. 
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia turned her focus toward us too. 
“Don’t worry about us! Continue the attack!” I told her. 
“But . . .” Even as she replied, Miyaji’s women attacked her. 
“Raphtalia! Look out!” I shouted. Multiple spears suddenly erupted from the ground at Raphtalia’s feet, trying to skewer her. With a shout, Raphtalia jumped away and chopped the spears down before they could extend too far. But as she was busy with that, the attacks on the rest of us increased in intensity. 
“You won’t hit me!” I shouted as Itsuki and I moved to dodge through the incoming chains. But the playing of Miyaji and his musical instrument seemed to have turned the air around us into water, making it much harder to move around. It felt like a debuff skill or magic. That could be super dangerous too! 
 
With a clinking sound, both Itsuki and I were wrapped up in the chains. 
“The name of the punishment I have decided for these foolish sinners is execution via beheading. Now face the despair of your head parting your body without even the time to scream!” Armor was incanting something, and I’d heard it before. “Guillotine!” Massive guillotine blades suddenly plunged toward my and Itsuki’s necks. 
“Not today!” I stacked Walls all the way above me. But I didn’t have the defense to stop curse skills at the moment, and my walls of life force shattered one after the other. As each one broke apart . . . time seemed to slow down. Dammit, I raged to myself. There was no way Itsuki’s justice-spouting ex-lackey was going to kill me with a curse skill like this! 
S’yne’s familiar was still running to save us. 
“Hold it, little guy! You’re not getting through here!” Miyaji’s women grabbed the familiar and stopped her in her tracks. She didn’t have the strength to fend them off. 
“Naofumi!” Glass shouted. 
“Hey, little lady! You should worry about keeping yourself alive! Take this!” Miyaji swung his electric guitar, attacking Glass head-on. He was fast too! Maybe as fast as Glass . . . maybe a little faster! Glass barely managed to avoid the attack, leaving a few strands of her hair dancing in the air. Hidemasa plucked those strands out of the air and smiled. 
 
“Master Hidemasa! For you!” One of the women pressing the attack on Raphtalia proceeded to pass Miyaji some hair wrapped in paper. 
“Ah! Thank you!” Miyaji said. 
“Anything for you, Master Hidemasa!” the woman replied. I barely had time to wonder what they were planning before Miyaji used a skill. 
“Cursed Song: Woodo-Voodoo!” A clashing sound rang out, and a straw doll appeared in Miyaji’s hand. “Let’s see what we can do with . . . this!” He placed Raphtalia’s and Glass’s hair on the doll, stabbed a nail that had appeared in his other hand into its breast, and then hammered it home with the electric guitar. 
Raphtalia and Glass immediately started to moan and suffer, clutching at their chests . . . in the exact spot the nail had been hammered into the doll— right around their hearts. It looked very much like some kind of unavoidable curse skill! It likely had pretty specific conditions for use . . . The hair looked like the medium for activating it. If it was affecting them both, it had to be pretty powerful too. 
“Mr. . . . Naofumi!” Raphtalia gasped, desperately trying to reach me as she staggered on her feet. Right now, Itsuki and I were pretty tied up, however. My own stack of Walls, created with all the life force I could muster, were being smashed down one after the other. The guillotine blade was only gaining in strength as time passed. I needed to shatter it somehow, but that was hard when I was also wrapped in binding chains. 
It was starting to look like my only choice was to circulate as much life force as I could, then let it hit me . . . and pray it wasn’t enough to kill me. 
 
I wasn’t sure my neck was up to that task, quite honestly. 
With a rage-filled shout, I brought all the life force I had to bear. 
“What an impertinent demon king you are!” Armor chided me, gritting his teeth and letting out another roar. “Take the judgment of justice!” 
“What is this justice?! You’ve got to be kidding me!” My own retort was lost amid my own screams of rage. I finally broke free of the chains, reached out to stop the guillotine blade with my hands . . . and in that moment, two brilliant shining balls of light appeared in front of my eyes.