Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Unexpected Visitors from Piensa

“Oh wow, look at that! Yes, there was a funny smell in the air!” Keel said, sniffing around. The one with the staff and dagger was behind the three others, making it hard to see them.

“It doesn’t matter! We were going to fight them either way!” the fox demi-human said and then smashed something down onto the ground. Iron fences erupted from the ground a short distance away, sealing us inside a cage. I recalled this item. It was a magical tool used to cut off means of escape. Motoyasu and his crew had used it during the Church of the Three Heroes incident. This one looked pretty similar to that, but with lightning and fire swirling close to the cage. So they had it in this time too. It looked pretty powerful.

In the same moment, a dragon appeared in the air and unleased some magic with a roar. I felt the tension in the air as the dragon Sanctuary expanded outward. They really didn’t want us running away.

“I recognize them,” Shadow murmured to me.

“Hold on. Isn’t that the one we cut down with these new weapons? That’s odd. He isn’t meant to be able to survive that,” the puma therianthrope said to the fox demi-human as he pointed at Shadow.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s someone else dressed the same,” came the reply.

“That must be it,” the puma responded. “No way anyone could survive what we did to that guy.” I heard Shadow take a few deep breaths to control his anger and then he murmured to me again.

“We zhould keep it quiet that you managed to heal me, Zhield Hero. It would be a great dizadvantage to let them know we can do that,” Shadow said. He was right. No need to make their lives easier.

“How strong are they?” I asked him. “Are they allies of the Bow Hero?”

“They are in the upper rankz in Pienza but not affiliated directly with the Bow Hero. They are ztrong though. Fighting them will not be eazy,” Shadow cautioned. They weren’t quite on hero level then . . . more like Keel, perhaps.

“Let’s chat a little,” the fox said. “You must have heard talk about these new weapons of ours by now.” It sounded like they wanted to negotiate first. It wasn’t a bad idea to play along. There were some selfish people in this time, but they also seemed less inclined to have already made up their minds before we even started talking.

“Yeah, we’ve heard some stuff,” I replied. “So what do you want? I thought you were here to capture the sanctuary?” They didn’t seem to have the numbers for that, unless they simply wanted to get their hands on the carriage vassal weapon. From how it was protected, they would need the Bow Hero for that though.

“That’s part of our orders,” the fox replied, “but our primary target is you, the heroes.” It sounded like Piensa had become interested in us after we took out one of those running the waves. But they couldn’t believe these heavy-handed tactics were going to work. Melty and the others had messed them up once already.

“Bubba?” Keel asked.

“Keel, quiet!” Raphtalia shushed her as Keel looked around. “Don’t cause any trouble for Mr. Naofumi at the moment. Stay silent.”

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“Leave Siltran behind and come join Piensa. Siltran could never have withstood Piensa without your help, even with the Shield and Whip Heroes on their side,” the fox said. It sounded like word of Filolia hadn’t got around yet. It wasn’t especially easy to explain away her coming back to life.

“What about the newly appeared Hammer Hero?” I asked. Word that Natalia the pacifier had been selected by the Hammer and was working with Siltran to quell the turmoil had rapidly spread around the world.

“We know about the pacifier, of course, but she’ll understand. A unified world is vital to overcome the fighting ahead and end the waves,” the fox replied. That almost sounded logical, but also very arrogant. Natalia certainly wouldn’t “understand” either. “Piensa would welcome you. The king has promised it. That has to be appealing!”

“Unfortunately for you guys, no, not really,” I shot back. The two-tailed fox frowned at my quick rejection.

“We’re offering the full support and cooperation of a powerful nation in order to help protect the world from the waves. Isn’t that exactly the kind of environment you want to complete your duties as a hero? We’ve all the people—and the women—you could need. We can definitely offer more than tiny little Siltran,” the fox said, pulling out all the stops to get us on the hook. Back in our time, I was already a Duke in Melromarc, the nation that basically ruled the world. There were no merits for me in joining with this relatively soon-to-be-doomed nation. They had already deployed weapons that caused incurable wounds. Who knew what they would do to us if we joined them?

“Sorry, but I don’t care for you whoring out your women, and I don’t need a fancy bed to sleep in either,” I retorted. “The waves are here. They’re happening. It would hardly be heroic to bow to a dictatorship trying to seize control of the world.”

“Or maybe you could consider the Shield and Whip Heroes to be the ones causing the unnecessary conflict,” the fox countered. “All this fighting is only happening because they aren’t willing to obey Piensa’s orders.”

“And yet you use the word ‘orders.’ I feel sorry for the Bow Hero being stuck with you,” I said. Just this short conversation had already revealed they had no intention to cooperate. They were too accustomed to giving orders from a place of absolute authority. Mamoru and Holn were completely in the right here. I recalled the former queen and her calls for nations to set aside their differences and overcome the waves together. She had been a good ruler. Trash had taken up the same tune since his return to form. Having intelligent people on the throne definitely made a difference in our time. Faubrey could be overbearing and had tried to lure the heroes to them, but they hadn’t demanded a monopoly and hadn’t sent them into warfare either. Those aspects seemed worse in this time. “What are you planning to do about your relationship with our world?” I asked, bluffing them a little.

“Piensa has some thoughts on heroes from outside coming in and causing trouble, of course,” the fox replied. “But such transgressions can be forgiven.”

“Forgiveness, huh. That isn’t something we need from you. I can already see that you try to use force to settle everything. It’s easy to imagine what you will try if you ever do unify this world,” I shot back. The desire for domination was without bounds and the waves were known to fuse worlds together.

“I don’t think it’s a bad proposition to join with mighty Piensa in ruling any number of worlds,” the fox said.

“A selfish proposition, sure,” I shot back. Even the guys from Kizuna’s world weren’t this arrogant. At least they put the threat of the waves first . . . The resurrected were another story, of course.

“Your reaction suggests these negotiations aren’t getting us anywhere,” the fox said. “We would prefer that you accepted our terms.”

“I’m sure you would. What are you going to do next?” I asked. They all looked so hostile I couldn’t see them just backing down and going home.

“The fact that you were able to kill those causing the waves is a thorn in the side of Piensa,” the fox admitted. “If we can’t turn you into our allies, then we just have to remove you from the board.” The others behind the fox took this as the signal to ready their weapons. It seemed like a good point to call in Raph-chan. I focused on the skill C’mon Raph. With a sound like something tearing, Raph-chan appeared. It seemed she was even capable of breaking barriers now.

“Raph! Raph, raph!” said Raph-chan intently. It seemed like our other allies were in trouble too. At the same time, she was pointing up at the dragon in the sky above us. She wanted to say something to do with that.

“Raph Shadow, can you use your magic inside the Sanctuary?” I asked.

“Raph . . .” came the forlorn reply and a shake of the head. This was heading toward tit for tat with sanctuaries, then, but I couldn’t account for interference from the cage. It was probably better to wait and have Raph-chan incant her own Sanctuary magic later.

“Couldn’t we do this after we’ve stopped the ones causing the waves?” I suggested.

“Such a proposition does not suit everyone on our side. If we can defeat you, then we can obtain your technology for ourselves anyway,” the fox replied.

“You seem to think we’re going to be a pushover. I’ve got bad news for you in that regard,” I sniped back.

“Do you think we would show ourselves without some kind of trump card?” the fox countered. Then both the fox demi-human and puma therianthrope threw their weapons toward us.

“Watch out!” Shadow shouted.

“Go! Fragarach Custom!” one of the enemies shouted. With a noise that sounded dangerous, the swords that the fox demi-human and puma therianthrope threw flew up to us and started chopping.

“Shooting Star Shield!” I shouted in reply, putting up a barrier and sending out float shields to block the attacking blades. For a moment it looked like the disembodied weapons were giving up, dropping down to the ground, but then they attacked again, hard and low. They seemed to have some kind of auto tracking.

“Oh! Is this it? They move around so quickly!” Keel said, eyes wide as she watched the blades in the air.

“They will purzue a target until they land a blow. I’m zurprized at you being able to block them, Zhield Hero,” Shadow said.

“They do seem pretty powerful,” I replied. A heavy attack clashed with a float shield in that same moment, pushing it backward but luckily not breaking it.

“Impressive! I didn’t expect them to deal with that!” the puma said.

“Let’s try this next!” the fox replied. The entire Piensa squad rushed toward us. The fox and puma took out fresh weapons. Shooting Star Shield still seemed enough to handle the problem. Then the one with the dagger changed his weapon into an auger and threw it at us.

“Shield Breaker V!” a male voice shouted, and with a shattering noise, my Shooting Star Shield broke apart instantly.

“What?!” I exclaimed. The voice sounded as though it had enhanced the skill . . . which told me exactly who we were facing! I needed to boost everyone’s abilities or we wouldn’t stand a chance! I focused on magic and incanted. “All Liberation Aura!” I placed support magic on all my allies and then caught the swords of the incoming fox and puma on my shields. As power swelled up inside them, Raphtalia, Shadow, Keel, Raph Shadow, and Ruft all gave shouts and launched their own attacks into the opening created by me blocking the incoming attacks.

“Bind Wire!” S’yne shouted, matching the others’ attacks with wires to bind up our attackers. They seemed maybe on equal footing with Keel, but they weren’t ready to fight Raphtalia. Even Shadow could probably hold his own now with the new levels he’d received.

“I, the Staff Hero, command the spirits and command the world. Dragon Vein. Combine your power with my magic and bravery! As the source of your power, the Staff Hero implores you! Let the true way be revealed once more and provide them with everything!” The magician with the staff finished her magic. “All Remove Everything X!” The next instant, the three in the lead sped up! They slashed easily through the threads S’yne created and came right for us. With an assortment of clashes, Raphtalia combated the fox demi-human. Keel, the Shadow, and Raph Shadow attacked the puma therianthrope. Ruft and S’yne fought the eagle therianthrope. The eagle was surrounded with wind and floating skillfully in the air.

“Oh wow! This is amazing. Talk about a rush of power!” the eagle said.

“It can’t be . . . can it?” Raphtalia said, eyeing the two at the back while her katana was locked with the fox in front of her. I was dealing with the flying swords, but who knew how long that would last? They were going to land a hit eventually.

“Thiz iz . . . problematic,” Shadow said.

“Raph!” agreed Raph Shadow.

“They suddenly got a lot faster,” Ruft added.

“Bubba, are we going to be okay?” Keel asked.

“You back there! What are you?” I asked directly, glaring at the two holders of what had to be the staff and projectile vassal weapons.

“The guy with the shield seems to be their leader! Oh, great staff wielder, take him out!” the fox cried out.

“Take them all out, one after the other!” the puma said. The staff holder didn’t look like she wanted to talk. Then she pointed her staff at me and shouted.

“Air Strike Blast V! Second Blast V!” Two beams of light were emitted from the staff toward me. I put my shield up and took them head-on. I was able to stop them, but they were powerful! With a grunt, I deflected the attacks, shifting them away to the side. But then a flurry of axes flew toward me as though waiting for that very moment.

“Air Strike Throw, Second Throw, Torrid Throw! Tornado Throw X!” the male voice shouted.

“Shield Prison!” I read the incoming arcs of the hand axes and other weapons and then used a life-force-enhanced cage of shields to block the rotating tornado. The shield cracked and shattered around me, but the use of life force kept me safe. For now.

There was no mistaking it after all that.

“Where did the Staff and Projectile Heroes come from?! I don’t understand this!” I raged. I checked their faces. It wasn’t Trash and Rishia. Of course not. The one with the staff was wearing a robe. Her face couldn’t be seen, but from the body, I was guessing it was a woman. The one with the projectile was a guy in his twenties with short hair and robber-style clothing. These two had to be the Staff and Projectile Heroes from this time period.

“You’re the ones who popped up out of nowhere!” the fox demi-human said, weapon still locked with Raphtalia.

“You’re innocent in this. We watched your fight. We wanted to support you . . . but that’s why we have to fight now,” the Staff Hero said.

“The only way to protect our own holy weapon hero is for you to die!” the Projectile Hero said.

“Hold on! Both of you! Let’s discuss this!” I shouted.

“We can’t betray what we believe in. Fight us! Fight us or die!” the Staff Hero screamed in desperation and then unleashed more magic toward me. “All Release Flare X!” Blazing flames gathered around me and then exploded. I gritted my teeth and poured life force into my accessory, enhancing the magic-reflect function. If I used it too many times, it would break, but anything was better than being hit by the incoming attack. I felt the accessory crack, but a barrier that reflected magic was also thrown up around me and the explosive magic was automatically reflected away.

“What? Reflection?!” The Staff Hero gave a shout of surprise as the concentrated ball of fire descended on her.

“Watch out!” The Projectile Hero leapt at the Staff Hero and got turned into a fireball instead of her. I had protected Raphtalia and the others while also protecting the opponents they were immediately engaged with. The Projectile Hero was not so lucky. He screamed in pain as his back was burned to a crisp.

“Hold on! I’ll heal you!” the Staff Hero said. “All Release Heal X!”

“Phew . . . thanks,” the Projectile Hero said, recovering. “That Shield Hero can reflect release-class magic? Now I can see why they’re so strong. We could learn something from this.”

“They did defeat one who assumes the name of god. Impressive,” the Staff Hero agreed. It sounded like they were praising us, but their hostility toward us only grew.

“It sounds like we could work this out if we only discuss it,” I said.

“We aren’t allowed. That’s all we can say. We have to fight you at full strength!” the Staff Hero replied.

“If we don’t take your heads . . . you don’t know what’ll happen to our world!” the Projectile Hero added. Even though they “weren’t allowed” to say too much, they almost didn’t seem to want to stop talking about it. I was getting some idea of what was going on. As soon as the mysterious new weapons that inflicted wounds that couldn’t be healed appeared in Piensa, it was easy to imagine who might be behind all this.

“Those scum have taken the holy weapon hero and the people of your world hostage and told you to kill us, correct?” I extrapolated. Their silence told me the rest of what I needed to know. Any resistance, any betrayal, would not be forgiven. They had said too much already. I’d worked the whole thing out.

We were talking about the kind of scum who operated a bizarre game of death from a position of complete safety. They were going to come as hard as possible at anything that could possibly threaten them. At the same time, they also didn’t want to risk their own lives, which led to the use of tactics like this. Working in the shadows, they provided Piensa with these powerful new weapons and sent heroes from other worlds to kill us. They would clearly just keep coming until we were wiped out. Maybe they were calling our bluff. If the God Hunters were here, they wouldn’t be trying something like this. It reeked of desperation. Piensa should be ashamed for having any involvement in it all. I glared at the fox demi-human, who seemed to be the leader and had done most of the talking so far.

“What? Our illustrious heroes have some kind of issue?” the fox asked, seemingly clueless.

“You don’t know?” I replied.

“We’re elite soldiers, but we don’t get that information,” the fox explained. The fox seemed like a commander but was still taking orders. The entire nation was structured for warfare. “I admit that I’m impressed by your handling of our trump card.” The fox offered an honest opinion on my blocking of every attack from the two swords. “One little scratch and we’d get the upper hand at once.”

“These are the famous weapons that inflict incurable wounds,” I confirmed.

“That’s right.” The fox nodded. “Aren’t you scared?”

“Of this? Please,” I said.

“Impressive! Time to get serious!” the fox barked.

“You asked for it!” I replied. Then I performed weapon fusion with the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield and another shield—the Iron Shield Pistol! Then I activated Magic Bullet! I incanted magic again and activated it. This was the only way to respond to the X-class support magic that our opponents were using.

“First . . . All Liberation Aura!” A ball of support magic was released from the gemstone section of the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield. “Raphtalia, you’re up! Everyone else! Just repel their attacks a little longer!” I shouted.

“Okay! Ruft, help me!” Raphtalia replied.

“I’m here!” Ruft said.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, also taking part. The three of them synced up and deployed a magical circle.

“Five Practices Destiny Field Expansion,” Raphtalia intoned. “Sakura Stone of Destiny! In the name of the pacifier, I ask for strength!” Raphtalia changed her weapon to the sakura stone of destiny katana, and Ruft’s axe sparkled with a cherry-pink light as well.

“My strength is draining away!” the puma complained.

“I guessed these were also pacifiers . . . but this timing is too much!” the fox complained. Now the fighting changed in the favor of our side with Raphtalia and the others pushing their opponents back and then moving to smash the flying swords out of the air.

“You’ve been keeping these crazy swords under control all this time?” Ruft said in surprise.

“Uwah! There’s no healing a single cut from these! Stay away from me!” Keel said.

“Take this chance to stop them!” Raphtalia shouted.

“I’ve got thiz!” Shadow replied.

“Shadow! Don’t go too far forward!” Raphtalia called, but it was too late; one of the swords slashed into Shadow as he broke ranks. But Shadow faded and turned into darkness. The sword remained where he had been. Then the actual Shadow and Raph Shadow knocked the sword away.

“Another application of Hide Behind,” Shadow explained.

“Behind . . . Wire,” S’yne said, binding up the swords of death in a bundle of threads. The sword quickly cut through the threads on the blade but was having trouble with the threads on the handle.

“Change Shield!” I shouted, giving up on intercepting their swords with float shields. Instead, I changed the float shields into mirror shields using Change Shield and then used them to reflect the ball of magic fired from the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield. This was like the combination attack I had pulled off with the Demon Dragon when using the mirror vassal weapon. Now I could do it alone. The reflective float shields moved away from my awareness and auto launched a different skill that I had activated when I was using the staff vassal weapon. The name popped up, so I shouted it and activated the skill.

“Magic Prison!” I had no idea how many reflections imbuing life force would make it possible, and no idea how much the enhancement multiplier would increase with each reflection, but this should allow us to compete with the support magic the enemy was using. At my shout, the reflected All Liberation Aura ball shattered apart and was applied to everyone I had designated as allies. It instantly felt like my body had become lighter. I used my float shields to pin down the flying swords again, which assisted Raphtalia and the others in switching back to offense.

“Get ready! Eight Trigrams, Destiny Thrust!” Raphtalia said.

“From me too! Eight Trigrams, Destiny Smash!” Ruft added. Raph-chan was keeping the barrier going while Raphtalia and Ruft unleashed a synced-up special attack directly at the now-weakened Piensa therianthropes and their flying swords.

“You won’t take us out that easily!” the fox shouted. All of our attackers broke off and leapt backward to safety. The attack from Raphtalia and Ruft headed for the swiftly slashing swords. The weapons continued to flail around, but they were smashed left and right by the attack.

“There’s no escape. Deploying Optical Wings,” S’yne said. Rushing after the enemies as they dropped back, she split her scissors into two swords and then deployed the wings of light on her back.

They were indeed wings. They were delicate butterfly-like wings sprouting from her back. They looked a little different from the ones I’d seen R’yne use, but they were visible to the naked eye and moved beautifully. S’yne zipped up to where the eagle therianthrope was flying.

“You dare pollute the skies, outsider Sewing Kit Hero?” the eagle squawked.

“It was a mistake to think you’re the only one who can fly!” S’yne retorted. She flapped her wings and butterfly dust drifted toward the eagle therianthrope, causing small explosions on impact. Then S’yne flowed into a familiar double-sword combination attack. She slashed vertically with the scissor half in her right hand, performed a spinning attack with her wings, then slashed horizontally with her left hand, while her two familiars performed an attack from behind.

“Too many attacks!” the eagle blustered. “Feather Shot!” Trying to escape from being mobbed, the eagle unleashed some attack magic against S’yne’s sister, but she simply dodged back for a moment to avoid it and then closed in again. The eagle swung his scythe wildly, but S’yne confidently intercepted by grabbing its shaft.

“See how you like it!” S’yne shouted, redirecting the weapon and chopping into the eagle with it.

“I know—” S’yne said.

“I know someone much more skilled with a scythe than you. You need to train harder,” her familiar spoke for her. That was the first time I’d seen that in a while.

“They’re too fast for us! Illustrious heroes!” the fox shouted.

“We have to do everything,” the Staff Hero complained and then started to incant some magic again. “I, the Staff Hero, command the spirits and command the world. Dragon Vein. Combine your power with my magic and bravery! As the source of your power, the Staff Hero implores you! Let the true way be revealed once more and strip from them everything! All Release Debuff X!” The Demon Dragon lurking in my mind analyzed the magic and informed me that it was like the All Liberation Down X that Itsuki used. I’d expected a move like this and we were pretty buffed up, so I could just let it through.

But why should I?

“Did you think debuff magic would work so easily? Pathetic!” I shouted, more at the Piensa guys than the Staff Hero herself. I revved up the old Hengen Muso Style Lost Technique: Magic Eradication, which gathered together the magic the Staff Hero unleashed and then wiped it out. Even if I couldn’t block the casting, I could nullify some debuff support magic like this, no problem.

“He repelled the debuff magic? Impossible!” the fox exclaimed.

“You’ve got some moves, I can tell, but we’ve just been through a whole lot more shit than you have,” I said flatly. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.

“These guys are tricky and tough!” the puma said.

“I think you’d have more luck trying to convince Piensa to give up world domination than you would trying to kill us,” I told them. “You must have some idea what’s really going on behind the scenes over there.”

“Maybe. But that’s for the top brass to know. We don’t have the right to question them,” the fox said. It sounded like a military through and through. I would have appreciated it if the knights in our time had retained this ability to keep emotions out of things, at least. But then again, I reasoned that anything passed down from these demi-humans or therianthropes would go to Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden. I looked over at Raphtalia and the others and gave the signal with my eyes. Raphtalia returned her katana to her sheath for a moment and then started to charge her life force.

“My universal collaborators! Respond to my call and materialize your magic power!” Raphtalia called, drawing on the power from the distant Raph species in order to unleash a big attack.

“Raaaaph!” said Raph-chan. Light from the vicinity flowed into her. She became a jacket of light again and Raphtalia put her on. Ruft crouched and fluffed up his tail, preparing for a big attack. S’yne had her wings out and her scissor blades crossed in front of her. Keel’s normal cheerfulness had changed to anger. She was growling. Her pupils were open wide and she was ready to leap into action at any moment like some feral predator—or at least an angry, husky puppy. Shadow and Raph Shadow both had daggers in their hands, hiding in the darkness, waiting for a moment to strike. It was an unconventional party, but not a bad setup.

“No point in keeping our trump cards in the deck!” the fox shouted. The Piensa side started to throw out all the swords they had, not just the first two.

“Shooting Star Shield!” I shouted. The cooldown finished and stopped the four incoming deadly swords. It was important to have Raphtalia and the others attack, but if they got hit by these, then healing them here would be hard. They moved quickly and could leave us totally on the defensive.

“Weapon Prism X!” the Staff Hero shouted, firing what looked like a rainbow-colored gemstone up into the air above us. I wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Zhield Hero!” Shadow shouted. “That’z like the zkill Trash usez!”