Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: How to Kill a God

“Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia called, so I turned to look at her. I wondered if she was going to say this was all too dangerous and we should run away, but from the look on her face . . . she was ready to fight too. Fohl, at her side, looked the same. He gave a shout to pump himself up, already in therianthrope form and ready to fight.

“Oh my, you have some interesting little friends. Not that they will do you much good! Attacking a god is the height of foolishness, and you must be made to see this,” Cathead jibed. He quickly shifted back away from us but looked ready to attack.

“Access . . . Sword Illusion . . . actualize,” Cathead said. Countless swords all appeared floating in the air around him. He looked like a float weapon user. I activated my own two float shields and stepped forward. “Ready to rumble? Let’s get this exhibition match started!” Cathead shouted. Before he had even finished, however, Ren and I were running forward. I’d completed my magic ahead of time too.

“My turn!” said the Demon Dragon in my head. The way she could shorten magic casting for me was so convenient, even if I hated the way she sometimes talked inside my head.

“All Liberation Aura!” I shouted. I placed the aura across myself and all of my allies, seeking to boost our stats as much as possible.

“I’m going in! Instant Blade! Mist!” Raphtalia exclaimed, leading the way. She snatched her sword out from its scabbard and unleashed her skill right at the one who assumed the name of god while in haikuikku. She was using life force too, so I had no doubts her attack would smash the same kind of barrier that S’yne’s sworn enemies had used . . . until it didn’t! With a crash, the strange barrier took the attack head-on but just held firm.

“I’ve increased the penetration ratio. You can’t expect to pierce a Dimension Shield like that,” Cathead responded. He was easily keeping up with Raphtalia in haikuikku and used the ridge of one of his floating swords to casually strike her in the stomach. That was all it took to send Raphtalia flying with a grunt.

“Raphtalia!” I shouted, catching her and absorbing the impact. The difference in strength between us was suddenly, starkly clear, however. Even if our power-up methods were being somewhat restricted, this was still extreme. Sending Raphtalia flying like that with a single attack . . . What the hell was going on?!

“We do get complaints about violence against women,” Cathead said. “There’s some demand for such content too, of course, but moderation is the key.” Raphtalia was coughing and spluttering.

“Raphtalia, are you okay?” I asked her, healing her at the same time.

“I’m . . . fine. You’ve taken the pain away. But . . .” she started.

“Interesting. You can still flap those lips, can you?” Suddenly, the one who assumed the name of god was right next to us, swinging a sword in his hand. I barely managed to get my shield and float shields into place in time; both float shields were shattered instantly, and an incredible shock wave hit me. I grunted myself and was then blown maybe ten meters through the air, still holding onto Raphtalia. I couldn’t believe it. This was like no attack I’d ever been hit by before. I’d been sent flying back further than even the Demon Dragon’s attack using the full power of the Shield of Wrath.

“Naofumi!” Ren shouted in shock.

“Brother!” Fohl cried out.

“Try not to get distracted!” Cathead said. “This is still a battlefield! Still, I’d better limit my strength to about half of that last one, or you might expire too soon.” Faster than the eye could see, the one who assumed the name of god moved over to Ren and Fohl and performed the same casual, minor-looking attack that he had done to Raphtalia and me. That was all it took to send them flying away, roaring in pain too. They both managed to recover, however, and land ready for whatever might happen next.

“Oh dear. I think I still used too much strength. If I don’t hold back a little more, this isn’t going to be much fun,” Cathead moaned, looking down on us. This guy really was crazy. He’d nullified one of Raphtalia’s life-force–imbued attacks. If we didn’t even have a way to cause damage, then things weren’t going to go well for us.

“Shooting Star Sword X! Hundred Swords X!” Ren wasn’t giving up, launching his own ranged attacks at the one who assumed the name of god. In response, Cathead didn’t even try to avoid them, just stood there thinking while the attacks came for him. Ren’s skills reached him moments later but vanished completely inside his barrier. I had to do a double take. It was like he had just erased them from existence. When we fought S’yne’s sworn enemies in the past, and they had used similar barriers against us, Filo had said something about it being like “kicking the ocean.” There was a possibility that what we were considering a barrier was actually something like the skill Transport Mirror, sending incoming attacks away somewhere else. That might explain the way that they seemed to just vanish. If he could deploy that in every direction around himself . . . it would be pointless to attack at all. Putting such defenses aside, I had to wonder if there was anything we could really do against someone who could hit me as hard as this.

The strength gap was just too big. What was worse, the terrain here didn’t offer any way to hide or escape. We were inside the wave, meaning portals were off the table. I cursed under my breath; we seemed completely cornered—and faster than ever before. I felt the urge to berate Ren to vent my anger, but complaining about the situation wasn’t going to change it.

I wondered if there was room to talk my way out of this.

“Hey, I bet your audience is getting bored watching you beat on us,” I said, taunting him a little while standing in front of Raphtalia to protect her.

“Some might, but completely one-sided slaughter is pretty popular too. I’m sure primitives like you understand that appeal. I’ve no intention of listening to anything you have to say, anyway, and I don’t need to hear you groveling for your life. It will only make you look more pathetic,” Cathead said, totally showboating for his audience rather than speaking to me. He clearly wasn’t interested in anything I might have to say—or he might pretend to, to build tension, and then change his mind.

Something entertaining, then . . . maybe if I ordered Fohl to kill Ren, make them fight . . . I was sure his audience would like that. They sounded like a bunch who would enjoy seeing the ugly side of humans on display. That might buy us some time, but it wasn’t a definitive answer and it probably wouldn’t go well for Ren or Fohl. All something like that would do is please the one who assumed the name of god, playing right into his hands. Even if I survived, I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on as a hero after pulling something like that. I might have done it in the past, but not now.

As I desperately tried to think of something to do, I realized that the shield was pulsing.

“What’s this?” I said. Raphtalia, Ren, and Fohl were also all looking at their weapons. They were responding to something, but I couldn’t tell what. Then my weapon book opened up, displaying the weapon and skill that was causing the reaction.

—Shield 0

Nope, that really didn’t seem like a good idea . . . but there had to be a reason that name was popping up at this point in time. I thought back. Kizuna, the Hunting Tool Hero, had used a weapon with the same skills as this shield to overcome various hardships and even delay the arrival of the waves. That proved it had some kind of power beyond what the stats showed. I also recalled what had happened at the filolial sanctuary just prior to our little trip to this world—the text Rishia had read there. “This weapon is highly effective against those who possess eternity . . . for defense against those who would take the name of a god.” That sounded like it definitely had some technique for opposing the ones who assumed the name of gods. Considering the hand we had been dealt, I decided it had to be worth a try.

In order to maximize whatever chance this was going to give us, we needed to launch a surprise attack. If he avoided us at the kind of speed he had shown us, it didn’t matter if we had an attack that could defeat him—we’d never even land it.

“Ren, Raphtalia, Fohl!” I called out, signaling them with my eyes to not let on what we had all clearly worked out at the same time. They all nodded in return, waiting for my order. I looked at Fohl first and shouted the name of a skill I could use.

“Beast Transformation Support!” At my shout, Fohl started transforming into his second stage. Then I signaled Raphtalia with my eyes to tell her to stick with Fohl. She nodded her understanding.

“You seem to have obtained some understanding of the strength gap between us, but I still need to put on a good show. We’ve had more people dropping out than expected recently, which is putting everyone on the defensive. That’s not much fun to watch. Now, if you’ll just play along . . .” The one who assumed the name of god moved almost instantly over in front of me, swinging with his floating swords and thrusting with the sword at my chest. He was likely thinking that taking me out, the specialist at defense, would make the others easy pickings—a bold display of force. His attack provided an opening for me, however. “There’s nothing you can do,” Cathead continued. “You need to learn that all of this is pointless!” I quickly lifted my shield and unleashed my own skills.

“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Change Shield!” I shouted. Of course, every shield I deployed was a Shield 0. It was do or die at this point. This Shield 0 had no defense at all. It was basically garbage, but the Hunting Tool 0 Kizuna used had reflected the power of the cursed accessory and the power that had bound the spirits. My shield had to have similar abilities.

My shields blocked all of the attacks from the one who assumed the name of god. He grunted in surprise as they did so. A moment later, a brilliant light illuminated from Shield 0, and power started to swell inside it.

This was it! I celebrated silently. It seemed to be working. I just needed to hold on. I proceeded to also change the shield I was equipped with to Shield 0. This one was completely different from normal too, shining as though it had regained some kind of original power.

“What is this?” Cathead froze for a moment as I stopped his attacks.

“You’re completely exposing yourself!” I replied. I used my shield hand to grab the clothing at the chest of the one who assumed the name of god. He grunted again. His flying blades came in around me, but I caught them on all my refreshed float shields and sent them all flying away. The strength of his attacks was completely different from before I changed to the Shield 0, like feathers brushing my shield.

Ren was closing in at incredible speed, roaring as he came. The swords gripped tightly in his hands were sparkling with the same light as my shield.

“I don’t know what tricks you are using, but you’d better not think you’ve won just because of this,” Cathead said. He took my hand and seemed to be attempting to break it, but it didn’t even tickle. He sent his floating blades after Ren, who was still rapidly closing in. They struck at Ren from every direction, likely to cause death even if a single one of them landed. But Ren used both of his swords, one in each hand, to knock the incoming blades away, and then directed his weapons at the one who assumed the name of god, who I was still holding onto.

“Sword 0! My mastery is much lower than Naofumi, but here we go!” He changed one of his swords to the blade from the Phoenix materials and the other to Sword 0, preparing a skill as he came in. With a highly satisfying sound, Cathead’s barrier was sliced apart. Ren slashed into his back. Then he sliced the arm off of our enemy. I’d been training with Ren in preparation for fighting enemies with floating weapons recently, but I hadn’t expected it to pay off so soon.

Cathead gasped and screamed as he looked down to see the severed arm and spraying blood.

“What’s going on? What? What? How? This is insane! Impossible!” Cathead raged. He was looking around, clearly in shock at the sudden pain. He didn’t seem to have much combat experience, based on this reaction—but if they really did have close to absolute power, it might make sense he’d never been in a real battle.

This sudden pain seemed like a good lesson for him. While he was still shaken, we needed to finish him off.

“No! The god hunters! Is that you?” Cathead asked.

“It does look like these weapons work,” I commented. We’d never encountered anyone calling themselves “god hunters.” I wondered if this was the thing from Fitoria’s wall. The coloring, height, everything looked different, but maybe those were just changes that happened as the description was passed down over time. But I seemed to recall Fitoria also saying the creature on the wall wasn’t our enemy. That didn’t mean Fitoria was on the side of the ones who assumed the name of gods, surely. There were lots of fishy things going on, but Fitoria had also provided the materials for these weapons. It was too soon to say anything definitive.

“Brother!” Fohl shouted.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia was still with him. Fohl had finished his beast transformation and was glowing blue, rushing in with Raphtalia on his back.

“Do it! Give him everything you’ve got!” I shouted. I gathered all the strength I had and hurled the injured Cathead toward them. Ren unleashed a follow-up attack as well, swinging his Sword 0 powerfully.

“If we end you, we end all of this! Phoenix Gale Blade X!” Ren shouted, charging forward like a flaming bird.

“We’re ending this here! Eight Trigrams Blade of Destiny Thrust!” Raphtalia yelled, unleashing a special attack as Heavenly Emperor.

“Shaking Quaking Fist X!” Fohl roared, smashing his fists down with enough force to crack and split the ground beneath us. All of their training was paying off in the unleashing of these skills, and the power of the 0 weapons was surely compounding the effects. All their incoming attacks proceeded to smash into the completely defenseless one who assumed the name of god. He spluttered and cried out, barely legible, something about “murderers,” even as he was mangled by the meeting of the attacks.

“That’s right! We’re doing this to kill you!” I told him. We continued to encounter enemies who considered everything to be a game. I wondered for a moment if they were treating it like a game by sending in the resurrected. All this talk of an audience . . . I could imagine them enjoying these things like different shows or documentaries.

“Eat this!” The massive fist of the beast transformed Fohl came down in full force combined with the Gauntlet 0. The one who assumed the name of god made a final cry and was then squished with a nasty wet sound.

It was too soon to drop our guard though—not like we’d done with Bitch!

“We’re not finished yet! Fohl, Raphtalia, Ren! We have to destroy the soul too!” I shouted. They all shouted back in agreement, activating the 0 skill on weapons that were powerful against soul-type enemies and then attacking again at full strength. All that remained after we were finished was a cracked crater punched into the translucent ground and the pulped corpse of the one who assumed the name of god.

“We got him,” I said. He was dead, dead as a doornail. Even as I muttered these words, the power faded from the Shield 0. That seemed to confirm that it was only effective against specific enemies. Even so, I couldn’t get over how easy this seemed to have been. We’d been in real danger for a moment there, but in the end, we’d won pretty easily. It also told us that we could defeat the ones who assumed the name of gods. That was good news. We’d also learned there was a whole bunch of them. This would be important information going forward.

As I was thinking, the heroes who were fighting to quell the wave itself and their allies all realized what was going on. Shouts like “they won!” along with many wordless roars all filled the air. Some of them were even howling.

In the next moment, the ground vanished below us and we all started to fall.

“Brother! I can help us land! Let me handle this!” Fohl said.

“Okay. Air Strike Shield, Second Shield, Dritte Shield!” I shouted, creating multiple shields to act as platforms for Fohl. He remained in his beast transformation and moved between the platforms, collecting us up before landing back down on the ground. We could hear shouts of celebration coming from each of the floating rings too. The wave crack was also clearly shrinking down on its own. We weren’t going to have to do anything else; it was just closing. The mood was one of complete celebration—so much so that the fighting had basically stopped.

“We can celebrate once the wave has safely ended!” I shouted. That snapped the revelers back to themselves, and they returned to focusing on the battle to prevent more damage from the waves. The Bow Hero from this time and his party, who had been taking part in the event created by the one who assumed the name of god, also seemed to be prioritizing escape. With cracking sounds as the entire space gave way, the Bow Hero and all the others vanished. I guessed that meant they had escaped.

“Mr. Naofumi, we did it!” Raphtalia celebrated.

“I felt that one,” Ren agreed. Both of them looked happy. We’d been in trouble for a moment, but we’d defeated him in the end.