Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Gathering the Power of the Raph Species

It was the next day. I decided to practice magic with Raphtalia. She had only been using skills and techniques in our recent battles, and so her magic was falling behind. Raph-chan had various advantages over her in regard to magic already, so she needed some comprehensive training. She was doing all sorts of things to help treat Keel, but I was hoping to up her game when it came to combat. If she could weave in some illusions among her attacks, that would really confuse the enemy. Even if the enemy had some resistance, it would work if she could excel at it.

“Here I come,” Raphtalia said.

“I’m ready,” I replied.

“As the source of your power, we implore you! Let the true way be revealed once more . . .” Raphtalia started to incant some magic. It was the Way of the Dragon Vein, and I started the reverse analysis.

“My time to shine!” said the Demon Dragon in my head, performing the analysis and completing the nullification formula. The magic this time was a failure for Raphtalia. It wouldn’t be this easy to nullify her magic if she was using Liberation class; she was clearly stuck at Drifa.

With the help of the Demon Dragon, Raphtalia had at least learned to use the Way of the Dragon Vein, but she was struggling to actually complete the magic.

“Stop right there,” I said.

“Okay . . .” Raphtalia said forlornly.

“You can use the Way of the Dragon Vein, at least a little, so why isn’t this going well?” I asked.

“I’m so sorry,” Raphtalia replied. She was looking down at the ground, clearly taking it hard.

“No need to worry. Why don’t we try practicing some of the magic from Kizuna’s world?” I suggested.

“You can do that, Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia asked.

“Yeah . . . a little bit. Not any of that music stuff though,” I said. Itsuki knew more about that side of things. Filo could trigger it by singing, but I didn’t understand how that worked either. “You can use the magic the Demon Dragon used, right?” That was magic that involved requesting power from subordinates and then using their strength as magic. The basic structure was close to the Way of the Dragon Vein. It was magic that allowed access to be established to those you trusted and have them cooperate with you from anywhere. It was probably a lot like making a deal with the devil. The copy of the Demon Dragon that infested my own mind had tried to explain the whole thing to me, and I did recall some of it. However, I couldn’t trigger it myself unless I was using the mirror. We needed to work on that.

“Yes, I can use it,” Raphtalia said. This was suited to her, I could tell. The more collaborators one had, the shorter incanting would be, and the more powerful the resulting magic. It was like a fusion of the best parts from cooperative magic and the Way of the Dragon Vein. In Kizuna’s world it was magic that had been sealed away long ago; using it seemed likely to give us a big boost in battle. But it could only be used by those with weapons affiliated with Kizuna’s world and who had also been given the protection of the Demon Dragon.

“Who should I borrow power from? I know you, Mr. Naofumi, and the others will cooperate, but will that be enough?” Raphtalia asked.

“I could lend you mine, sure, but I think your attack power would actually decrease,” I said, conflicted. Raphtalia used illusion magic, meaning we weren’t completely incompatible, but it would also remove any leeway for me to cast magic myself. She wouldn’t get much of a boost just from me either.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, dashing over to me as I discussed the problem with Raphtalia.

“Good idea. Why don’t we have Raph-chan and the other cuties help out?” I suggested.

“Hold on! Mr. Naofumi?” Raphtalia didn’t sound as keen as I was on that idea. Raph-chan had originated from Raphtalia’s own hair. That meant she was likely a great source of magic for Raphtalia. The source of their magic was the same. They might be able to unleash power equivalent to cooperation magic.

“The four heavenly kings of the Demon Dragon were—from one perspective—created from the accumulation of magic provided by those loyal to the Demon Dragon,” I said.

“I remember your comments about Demon King Raph-chan, Mr. Naofumi. But in this case, wouldn’t that make me the Demon Queen?” Raphtalia queried.

“Demon Queen Raphtalia, huh?” I mused. That was fine too. Some people called me the Shield Demon King.

“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia objected.

“No need to worry,” I told her. “If you can gather the power from the Raph species, you’ll have a much easier time in battle. Right?”

“I’ll give it a try. The Demon Dragon taught me all the basics. I’d rather not use them, but very well,” Raphtalia finally conceded. We proceeded swiftly to have Raphtalia try and borrow some power from the Raph species and incant some magic. “I’m ready. Raph-chan, please lend me a hand.”

“Raph!” said Raph-chan brightly.

“I’ll bring in the Raph species from the village! Raph species, come on!” I shouted. Then I explained the situation to the Raph species who were present in the stables. They all voiced their enthusiastic cooperation.

“Okay then . . . here goes,” Raphtalia said, still with some trepidation. She started to focus, lifting her arms and incanting magic. She was wearing her miko priestess outfit, so it was almost like watching Glass dancing. The Demon Dragon magic could use an application of the Way of the Dragon Vein, so the incanting part was easy. All you needed were the basics, and then the Demon Dragon’s protection did the rest. Those you were borrowing the power from were required, but the composition of the magic itself was just cooperation magic. Raphtalia had those here that she could borrow from, so I was sure this was going to work. Pretty sure.

“My universal collaborators! Respond to my call and materialize your magic power!” Raphtalia incanted. The Raph species voiced their agreement again and started to provide power in accordance with Raphtalia’s request. Raphtalia slumped forward at once, almost toppling over.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes . . . just . . . not sure what . . .” Raphtalia stammered. Raph-chan suddenly turned into a ball of light, flew up above Raphtalia, and then became a shimmering ceremonial coat and settled around Raphtalia’s shoulders. At the same time, a brilliantly glowing tail appeared on Raphtalia. “Oh my . . .” Raphtalia said, looking at the coat and her big shining tail. Then she slashed her hand to the side. Some yin-yang-shaped beads appeared, rotated around, and then three of them fired off. Raphtalia narrowed her eyes and took out her katana, obviously keen to continue the experiment.

“Five Practices Destiny Field Expansion,” she said. The magic circle used to launch any of the Heavenly Emperor techniques appeared smoothly at Raphtalia’s feet.

“Eight Trigrams . . .” Raphtalia adopted the pose for a big attack, which had always taken her a while to unleash in the past. Then she swung her katana. “Blade of Destiny!” A pretty deadly-looking arc sliced out to the side of her.

“This isn’t exactly how the Demon Dragon used it,” I commented. “The point is to incant some magic, right? Why are you using techniques?”

“Ah! You’re right. I feel a lot of power flowing into me . . . I’m not even sure how I’m launching the magic,” Raphtalia admitted. That sounded fine to me. She could use magic without having to incant! I pinched the glowing coat she was wearing between my fingers to check it out. Upon further inspection, it was a hoodie, not a coat—and the hood had a design like Raph-chan’s face. I spread the hood out and put it over Raphtalia’s head.

“That you, Raph-chan?” I asked. It felt like my eyes met with those on the hood for a moment. Raph-chan had all sorts of tricks up her little sleeve! I had no idea she could pull off such fashionable garments. As for the tail—it felt a bit weird. It was like the air had hardened. It was a feeling of intensely concentrated magic.

“Try using some magic. You can target me,” I told her. Raphtalia agreed and concentrated again, starting to incant some Demon Dragon-style magic.

“This power is a marker for illusions! True magic that lays waste to all, illusions that confound our foes! The Heavenly Emperor orders you! Sink my enemies into an ocean of illusion! Demon Emperor: Illusory Layers!” Raphtalia’s magic activated fast, creating multiple black shapes wreathed in mist all around me. I sure hoped they were just illusions. I realized this was actually my first time being on the receiving end of Raphtalia’s illusion magic. I’d seen the past Heavenly Emperor fighting with that fox woman, and this felt similar to that, like things from inside my mind were appearing in the mist.

“Raph!” said a horde of Raph-chans, all around me.

“Mr. Naofumi? Are you okay?” There were two Raphtalias too. These were some potent illusions.

“I’m fine. These illusions are powerful, Raphtalia,” I told her.

“Sorry, Mr. Naofumi. I’m not over there,” Raphtalia replied. I was talking to the illusion Raphtalia. I wondered if these were like the illusions produced by Emptiness is Form, magic I incanted with Raph-chan. I hadn’t really given much thought to how I used it, but this could be quite dangerous. “It feels like I can create a large number of illusions with this magic,” Raphtalia reported. The mist cleared away and I saw Raphtalia again.

“That’s powerful illusory magic,” I told her again, this time to her face.

“Yes. Thanks to the power I’m receiving from Raph-chan and the others, I was able to activate some magic at the ritual class with almost no incantation time,” Raphtalia explained. That was impressive, even though this was all still practice. “I also understand something else after using that magic.” She pointed at the large tail behind her. “It seems this tail can absorb magic. If I flick away magic using it, I can turn some of that into my own magical power.”

“Sounds like Motoyasu’s Absorb,” I commented. The hero-exclusive magic Absorb from Motoyasu allowed his spear to absorb magic and turn it into his own magical power. The difficulty there was that moving around nullified the effect, but Raphtalia was moving about without any problems. The conversion rate looked lower than for Absorb, but when considered as a simplified version offering greater mobility, it could be quite a good means of protection.

“Yes, I think that’s close to it. It should have a range of applications. Still, just what do you think this coat and this magic tail are for?” Raphtalia wondered.

“Don’t ask me,” I replied. I hadn’t seen anything like them with the Demon Dragon, but they seemed to be a result of the cooperation of Raph-chan and the others.

“The Raph species were greatly influenced by you, Raphtalia. This is likely a reflection of their power. We should ask Holn and Rat,” I suggested.

“I’m not sure I want to know the answer,” Raphtalia replied.

“But these powers could be useful in our future battles,” I reminded her.

“True enough . . . ah, let me end that magic,” she said. The mist instantly faded, and then her coat and tail of light faded away.

“Raph!” said Raph-chan, returning back to her normal self on Raphtalia’s shoulder. The other members of the Raph species sounded lethargic. They slumped down on the ground around us.

“They look like Shildina after she possessed Glass,” I said.

“This might be a similar thing. It’s like I gathered the strength of the Raph species and forcibly summoned it into myself,” Raphtalia agreed. Although it was being achieved by proxy, this still looked like a decent boosted state for Raphtalia.

“It looks like borrowing their magic really drains the Raph species,” I commented.

“A powerful trump card to play at just the right moment. I’m quite impressed that we found something like this,” Raphtalia said.

“Me too. You definitely need to train harder at your magic. If this is what happens when you use the Raph species, next time Ren or I will lend you some magic and you can train with that,” I told her.

“Okay,” Raphtalia stammered. Then Ruft showed up. I thought he was still with Melty at the castle.

“Did I just hear Raphtalia asking to borrow some of my power?” Ruft said. I’d been expecting this. His connections to the Raph species meant he had heard what we said.

“That’s right. We were conducting an experiment with magic from another world,” Raphtalia explained.

“And the results were even better than expected,” I continued for her. “The Demon Dragon knows about magic. Crappy personality, awesome magic.” I explained to Ruft how Raphtalia had achieved her power-up. He nodded along as he listened for a while and then tilted his head.

“Just from hearing you describe it . . . it sounds like Astral Enchant,” he commented.

“Hey, yeah. You’re right,” I replied. Astral Enchant couldn’t be used without the blessing of the Heavenly Emperor and a sakura stone of destiny barrier, but it allowed for the temporary boost to a single person. We were heroes, so we couldn’t use it, but it was a Q’ten Lo technique that allowed all the levels and strength of allies to be focused on one person. The fact it involved using sakura lumina and the power of the sakura stone of destiny to gather the levels of allies and provide them to one person was very similar to what we were using here.

“Were we able to use this because we’re in the village?” I asked Raph-chan.

“Raph?” said Raph-chan, looking puzzled. That didn’t help.

“Maybe you should test it in other places too,” Ruft suggested.

“Good idea,” I replied.

“I understand that you’re keen to keep experimenting, but . . .” Raphtalia said, her voice trailing off.

“What’s the problem? I doubt anyone else could use it, but it seems like a pretty convenient power for you,” I told her.

“I’m having a hard time admitting that I need the Raph species,” Raphtalia finally said.

“You’re still hung up on that? You do have a stubborn streak, Raphtalia,” I told her.

“Mr. Naofumi, of all people, calling me stubborn . . .” Raphtalia lamented, her shoulders slumping.

“Let’s give it a try outside the village,” Ruft said, keeping things moving along. “Raph species, can we count on you guys?” They replied with general agreement. They seemed to have recovered quite a lot already as they responded favorably to Ruft. We headed out of the village to practice Raphtalia’s new power-up and magic. The results were promising—it seemed she could use it anywhere. The main issue was that she couldn’t do it without Raph-chan; none of the other Raph species seemed able to play that pivotal role.

“I like that big tail Raphtalia gets,” Ruft said.

“Me too,” I agreed. “She looks like she’s wearing a costume, but you can still see her face.”

“I’m not happy about any of this,” Raphtalia commented. Having the hood up or down didn’t seem to make a difference, so she was doggedly keeping it down. If she wore the hood pulled over her face, she could apparently use the Raph-chan eyes on it to target her magic or perform analysis. She could even see souls like that.

So it turned out to be magic exclusive to Raphtalia and Raph-chan, which the two of them could use anywhere so long as they were together.