Chapter Nine: Replica
“That’s a replica?”
It sure looked more powerful than the original.
Or should I say that I was comparing it to Ren’s weapon because it was a sword. It was certainly more powerful than Motoyasu’s spear. It was probably at least fifteen times more powerful. If it was only fifteen times more powerful, then I should be able to use the Shield of Rage to defend against it.
But judging from the strength of its last attack, it must have been more powerful than that.
“But how could…. That was supposed to have been destroyed hundreds of years ago.”
“Not destroyed… stolen. And the organization behind the theft must have been the Church of the Three Heroes.”
It was like the various conspiracy theories about bombs back in my world. They must have been produced in vast quantities, but some are missing. So where did they go?
But more importantly, if that was a replica of the legendary weapon, then did that mean that Ren’s sword would have become something like that?
Granted, I had more reasons to be suspicious than most did, but was it really okay to entrust that much power to a single person? If that thing was just a replica, then who knows what the real thing would be capable of? If they had that, did they really need to bother with summoning new heroes?
But why think about such things? I could just ask the high priest directly.
“If you had something like that, why bother to summon us at all? If you made more of those you could handle the waves on your own.”
Melty shook her head.
“If it were that simple to copy the Legendary Weapons then we would have already done so… To make something like that requires vast resources that we simply don’t have.”
“Really?”
“Yes. To swing it even once requires the accumulation of hundreds of people’s magic over the course of a month. And mass production is out of the question. That thing has been around since ancient times. It’s a legend in and of itself.”
“Wow.”
I’d seen something like it in an anime. It was a story about a giant robot that needed to use all the electricity in Japan to make a single shot. Maybe this sword was like that? If it could scatter-shoot, like buckshot, it would be a real terror.
“Yes, our disciples have risked their very lives, day and night, to imbue this with their magic. I had to use it for the sake of our holy battle. The holy battle we face right this moment!”
Holy battle, huh? Well at least he was prepared.
The Legendary Hero… So this was a copy of his sword or something?
They said it had been stolen hundreds of years ago, and they’d spent a long
time filling it with magic. And he used it right from the get-go?
Damn! That thing could prove to be a real problem.
No, it was proof that he was in a real tough spot. If we could just get over this, there would be ample opportunity to counterattack. We just had to see it through.
“Now that I’ve used it once to get a feel for it, perhaps we should proceed to battle?”
The high priest held the sword out. When he did, it suddenly changed shapes to resemble a spear. The shape changed, but the quality had not. If they said it was a weapon used by the same person, I’d believe it.
“It transforms?!”
“Yes, because it is a Legendary Weapon. Sword, Spear, Bow… We must purify them all.”
Escape was looking like a good option, but would we be able to get away with someone using a weapon like that?
When he’d sent out that shockwave, it had moved so quickly that dodging it would have been difficult.
Apparently he’d been holding back too. But if he had used a bow-like skill with that weapon, I don’t think that Filo would have been able to outrun the attack.
“There is a limit to what my disciples can do, so I’d like to end this as quickly as possible.”
The high priest shouldered the hopes of his disciples and knights as he turned the weapon on us.
The spear-shaped replica weapon began to glow then split into three spears of light.
“High-Skill, Brionac?!”
Motoyasu, the Spear Hero, shouted. It must have been a skill he knew from his game.
If he was screaming, then it must have been a powerful skill.
A simple swing of the sword had been damaging enough. What would its skills be capable of?
We couldn’t run, but could we endure? According to Motoyasu and the other heroes, the shield wouldn’t stand a chance.
No way out… is that what this was? I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Filo!”
“Yup!”
Filo knew what I wanted in an instant. She picked me up and threw me at the high priest.
The second the high priest was within my skill range, I shouted.
“Shield Prison!”
A cage of shields appeared and enclosed the high priest.
If I could use Change Shield (attack) and then Iron Maiden…
“What are you up to?”
He didn’t even have to do anything. The latent energy from his skill alone was enough to shatter the Shield Prison.
What?! No, wait… I had to stay calm.
I wasn’t going to be able to use Iron Maiden. That meant I only had one other attack option.
I had to hit him with Self Curse Burning.
But to do that, I’d have to be in his attack range and get his spear attack to…
No—that wasn’t it. I could still take the initiative.
“Filo! Throw Motoyasu over here!”
“What?!”
“Yup!”
Just as I’d asked, Filo threw Motoyasu in my direction before I’d even hit the ground.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
I could hear Motoyasu’s scream get louder as he flew closer to me.
“Motoyasu, attack me!”
“What?! Ah, okay!”
Motoyasu was an idiot, but at least he figured out what I was after.
I turned to face him, and Motoyasu thrust his spear at me. There was a metallic clash as the tip clattered against my shield.
Yes—that was perfect.
“Shooting Star Spear!”
Immediately after hitting me, Motoyasu turned and sent a skill flying for the high priest.
“Fool.”
Motoyasu’s skill broke in mid air. It failed to penetrate a mysterious force field that the high priest must have had around himself.
“What?!”
“My turn!”
Self curse burning activated, and a huge vortex appeared centered on myself. The cursed flames spread to enclose the high priest.
The force field around him vanished, and the flames…
“That won’t work!”
The high priest’s disciples were all singing…
“Our God is the source of all power. Hear the truth and head it. Miraculously purify the curse!”
“High-level ceremonial magic, Sanctuary!”
The area was suddenly filled with white light, and my self curse burning was blown away.
Was I stupid? Of course, I should have known that “holy” power would have a negative effect on my “curse” power.
Could it be that the holy water I’d bought to cure Raphtalia’s curse had just been a trick? Maybe.
But to heal her, I’d needed the best holy water there was. I thought the curse was powerful, and yet he’d destroyed it in an instant…
“Air Strike Shield! Second Shield!”
Before Motoyasu and I could hit the high priest, I conjured up some shields that we could use to move back.
“Hey, Motoyasu’s friends! Can we get some restorative magic?! If you treat us like enemies, we aren’t going to make it out of this!”
“Oh! Um… Zweite Heal!”
Motoyasu and my wounds healed. That was good and necessary.
Ugh… I had to fight with Motoyasu. I couldn’t think of a worse situation. But if we didn’t do something about the enemy in front of us, we wouldn’t survive.
“Master! I’m coming too!”
“Be careful!”
“Okay!”
Filo turned into her human form and ran for the high priest. So did I, and so did Raphtalia and Motoyasu too.
There was no reason to stand there and let him play with us.
Just because the self curse burning hadn’t worked didn’t mean that we should just stand there twiddling our thumbs.
Luckily enough, and maybe just because the powerful skill took a while to charge, the high priest was still pointing the spear at us. He wasn’t moving.
“Hai….kuikku!”
Filo shouted as she ran, and turned in to a blur. Then she was behind the high priest.
But everything stopped for a minute. Filo was cradling her fist.
“Ugh… It’s so HARD!”
Whatever sort of force field that replica weapon had produced had stopped her punch.
“Shooting Star Spear!”
A thousand lights flew at the high priest, but they didn’t seem to reach him.
“Use Fire Lance or something!”
“Hey, yeah! Myne!”
“I’ll punish you for defying the future queen!”
Bitch was furious as she cast her spell. Her friends were casting too.
“Mr. Motoyasu. This is support magic! Zweite Power!”
Hey, couldn’t they cast that kind of thing on Filo too? Couldn’t they try and be a little more helpful?
“Thanks! Come on!”
Motoyasu flashed a smile at his party and then obnoxiously winked. Then he used a skill, but it was slower than before.
“Fire-Storm Shooting Star Spear!”
It was basically the Shooting Star Spear imbued with wind and fire magic. It took a little longer to activate than his basic skill.
The flames flickered in the wind. The blade blazed like a shooting star. The winds came up, and the fires blazed all the more as the spear accelerated.
There was no snap, no flash. Motoyasu heaved the spear at the high priest.
Had it been me, I wouldn’t have even tried to block it. It was easy enough to dodge.
The attack wouldn’t work on anything but a completely immobile enemy. Unless, that is, it had some kind of effects I didn’t know about.
Besides, they’d just cast support magic on Motoyasu. Maybe that would do something?
And yet… with a disappointing clang, the spear clattered against the high priest’s defensive barrier, accomplishing nothing.
“Ugh…”
Motoyasu moved to put distance between the high priest and himself. Then he held his head in his hands as though he was suddenly dizzy.
“Mr. Motoyasu, are you all right?!”
“Yeah, but… I need SP. And the cool down time…”
Apparently he had to pay a price for using a high-level skill.
It took a while to pull the skill off, and it had been too slow to hit its mark. If it took so long, you’d think it was powerful, but it hadn’t been enough to make it through the barrier. How hard was that thing?
It had rendered my self curse burning useless, and neither Filo nor Motoyasu’s attacks had been able to penetrate it.
“Your Holiness!”
“We’re about to use defensive magic!”
“Our God is the source of all power. Hear the truth and head it. Protect the holy one!”
“High-level ceremonial magic, Castle Wall!”
Three of the disciples standing behind the high priest cast support magic on him, but there was no way for us to interfere before it was effective.
What the hell was a castle wall? A wall of light appeared around the high priest, and it looked a lot like a fort.
“Hiyaaaa!”
Raphtalia and Filo attacked the wall, but it simply repelled them.
“Filo! Raphtalia! I’ll help too!”
Melty used her preferred spell, Aqua Shot, but it was as ineffective as I expected. Nothing made it through the barrier.
I started to think that it might be better to focus on attacking the disciples in the back. But before I could give voice to my concerns…
“Well, I think that’s enough playing around. I’m ready to put an end to this.”
The spear in the high priest’s hands began to spark, perhaps indicating that it was ready to use a skill.
“All right, we have reached the end. Farewell, Demon and false Hero.”
The spear burst into light, and the high priest smiled at us. He looked like a satisfied exorcist.
“Mel!”
In a flash, Filo was protecting Melty. Raphtalia took my hand.
“Is this it…?”
Motoyasu muttered. It sounded like an admission of defeat.
“I…I’m going to be the queen! If you treat me this way then I—”
Bitch was screaming whatever came into her head.
The other girls in Motoyasu’s party had lost their composure entirely and were sobbing hysterically.
The only one of us that might be able to survive the attack was me…
Which meant that all I could do was run to the front and hold up my shield.
Obviously, I wouldn’t do it to protect the likes of these jerks.
But I’d do it to protect Raphtalia. To protect Melty—and Filo. I’d do it to protect the people that believed in me.
I readied my shield and stepped forward.
“I’m with you.”
Raphtalia stepped forward at the same time as me. She held my hand.
She stayed with me this whole time.
Even if she hadn’t been aware of it, she’d been bought as a slave by the Shield Demon and forced into the world of battles and violence.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I brought you into all this.”
“Don’t be, Mr. Naofumi. I believe you can still protect us.”
“You’re right. I don’t know what the past Spear Hero was like, but this is still a skill from the Spear Hero.”
There was still more to do. This couldn’t be the end.
Finally all the conspiracies, and my chance to right them, were standing right before me.
Brionac… It was the name of a spear from Celtic mythology. And I was about to block it.
The high priest raised his spear to the sky…
“Hand Red Sword!”
“Shooting Star Bow!”
A shower of swords appeared directly above the high priest, and one huge arrow. They came streaming down from the sky.
“What’s this?!”
The high priest immediately stopped using the skill and used another one, which I think had been called Windmill Spear, to block the sudden shower of weapons.
I turned to find the source of the voices, and I saw…
“What’s this? I thought that the two of you had been purified by the judgment of God. What are you doing here?”
Ren, Itsuki, and their respective parties were standing there. I thought they were dead! But there they were anyway—alive.
“Don’t just go imagining us dead! Did you bother to check for bodies?”
“Just on the edge of a crisis, glad we made it.”
Ren and Itsuki were standing in their battle poses and calling out to us.
“I’m sure that you wouldn’t even think to check for bodies after using magic on the scale you did But these are the consequences of your oversight.”
I looked at the crater that remained from the high priest’s original attack.
Fair enough… If the attack was powerful enough to leave a crater of this size, you wouldn’t expect there to be anything remaining of its victims. Still —we’d all survived it.
I was looking over at Ren when I suddenly realized how heavy my body felt.
The Shield of Rage was screaming in my head as though it had finally found the enemy worthy of all its hated.
It was just like Fitoria had said. The shield had found the person it hated. Ren was filling the shield with rage.
I had to contain it… This was no time to lose control.
“How did you…”
Motoyasu was talking to them as if he’d seen a ghost.
I didn’t share the same suspicions, but it was a little odd that all of the heroes suddenly found themselves together way out in the middle of nowhere.
“Shadows… or something like that, came out of nowhere and saved us.”
“Yes, it was very close.”
“Huh? Shadows are the ones that told us where we could find Naofumi. I thought they were on the Church’s side?”
I had been wondering if Motoyasu had some way of figuring out where we were going. After he disappeared I wondered if he had only “vanished” to head us off. It was sounding like I was right.
What did it mean? It meant that shadows working for the Church had been slipping Motoyasu information about our whereabouts.
Which reminded me…
“You said that the shadows weren’t a monolithic organization, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. The shadows that helped us said that they were under orders from the queen.”
Okay then. So I guess that meant that there were still shadows looking out for us.
That meant that it was probably safe to assume that the queen and the Church were enemies. At the very least, now that all four of the heroes were enemies of the Church, there wasn’t much of a chance that she would be working with them.
Still… Why did they have to just show up like that? It was so over-dramatic. It reminded me of a weekly, serialized manga or something.
It made me wonder if they had been holding back and watching for the best time to show up and save the day.
If it were a manga, I guess that would make Motoyasu the protagonist, and I’d be… what? Some kind of mini-boss? Give me a break.
Nah, I’d be the kind of character that was chronically misunderstood but actually a good guy at heart. If all this were a manga, I mean.
Not to disappoint, but I couldn’t picture Motoyasu and I embracing in an emotional reconciliation.
“Backup is coming to help us arrest you, High Priest! Give it up!”
Ren pontificated, very authoritative. But the high priest didn’t seem very concerned.
“How many troops arrive is irrelevant. Victory is mine. That simple fact will not be changed. All your efforts are meaningless!”
The high priest slipped back into skill summoning.
“You think?”
“Yeah.”
The two heroes and their parties formed a line and began flinging skills at the high priest.
“Shooting Star Sword!”
“Shooting Star Bow!”
Arcs of light flew from Ren’s sword, lightning arrows from Itsuki’s bow. They flew straight for the high priest.
But they broke against the replica weapon’s force field. The high priest just smiled.
Ren and Itsuki didn’t give up though. They continued casting spells and summoning skills.
But the force field around the high priest expanded, and none of their attacks were able to make it through.
“I should have expected such disappointing efforts from false Heroes.”
“Wha…?”
“This is tough. I didn’t think he had a force field like that!”
“I thought you were going to take him out! You can’t?! Why did you bother coming?!”
Did they just want to make a good entrance?
“You showed up without a plan?”
“Don’t you think you could be a little more polite?”
Ren and Itsuki’s weapons burst into light. But it would take time for them to activate their skills.
“Thunder Sword!”
“Thunder Shoot!”
With a loud clap, the high priest’s force field shattered.
“We were just buying time to activate these skills.”
Whoa. They’d broken through the field that my self curse burning had been useless against. They might have been assholes, but they really were heroes. Nothing at all like Motoyasu. Did we stand a chance?
“I could have done that if only I’d had SP…”
“Oh, get over yourself!”
Or hey—if he had access to such powerful skills, why hadn’t he used them against me?
I guess the skills took a while to activate, and I hadn’t given him a window of opportunity. Although his Shooting Star Spear had been a little sluggish…
Whatever. If we were going to attack, the time had come!
“C’mon everyone. Let’s go!”
Ren shouted, and we all started to attack.
“I’m first!”
Filo had dashed to the front of the line. Judging on speed alone, she was by far the fastest one of us.
“Hiya!”
Motoyasu ran at the high priest and thrust his spear at him.
“Take that!”
Ren followed him, his sword cutting arcs left and right.
“Everyone, I’m right behind you!”
Itsuki drew back the string of his bow and shot an arrow.
“Mr. Naofumi. I’m going too.”
“I am too!”
Raphtalia and Melty both ran to attack.
The high priest held his weapon out and took the brunt of everyone’s attacks. They didn’t seem to faze him at all.
A barrage of attacks from heroes didn’t bother him at all?
“Fools. You think you can defeat me when I have a Legendary Weapon like this? Ha!”
The high priest’s disciples immediately cast restorative magic on him, and the small wounds he had received vanished.
Things weren’t looking good. If we could manage to get a single hit in, the disciples healed it instantly.
“Now then… Let us move into the casting of Judgment.”
The disciples all nodded, and a moment later they all began chanting in unison.
“All those that would pretend to be Heroes are evil.”
This guy was really something. He was obviously a fanatic. Didn’t he notice that?
“This will take care of you all.”
The high priest was really planning to kill everyone.
He was charging up for something, probably for the Brionac attack…
“Naofumi.”
“What?”
Ren was speaking to me.
“Work with me. Let’s take him out.”
“You’re really the last person I want to work with. But, oh well…”
We weren’t going to be able to escape the high priest’s attack. And it looked like he was planning on using the Judgment spell at the same time. Not even I could survive both of them.
“First take out the people in the back. Until they’re taken care of, we don’t stand a chance.”
“Yeah.”
Ren and his party were already running for the group of disciples.
Unfortunately the disciples weren’t mere underlings. They seemed to be pretty damn powerful, actually.
More than any other time, all the heroes, Raphtalia, Filo—all of us were fighting together.
And the high priest was charging up for a major attack. And the disciples were preparing to use Judgment.
“Friends, this is a holy war! Fight for justice! Your deaths will not be forgotten.”
“Yes, Your Holiness!”
The fanatics behind him all responded in unison.
The high priest was taking the attacks of the sword, spear, bow, and all of their party members. He was bleeding, but he didn’t seem to notice or care.
He’d move until he lost his legs. Then he’d use his arms. Then when he lost them, he’d use magic.
His fanatical devotees also seemed ready to fight to the death.
They were positively insane!
“Damn… I can’t get an attack in.”
There were too many of them. It looked like a scene from the Battle of the Three Kingdoms, or from Dynasty Warriors.
Of course the real enemy was the high priest himself, but he was surrounded by so many people it was hard to get a hit in.
It was easy enough to take one or two of them down, but the second a hit connected, another person was there to cast recovery spells on them.
Had this been a game, it would have been enough just to defeat them. But this wasn’t a game.
Of course I didn’t have some moral reason to avoid killing them. I WANTED to kill them, but it took time to do so.
“I’ll run into the crowd. Then one of you needs to attack me. Think of how much you hate me. Then attack. My counterattack will flare up and hit everyone, so make sure you’re not in the area. Keep your distance.”
Self curse burning was my only real chance to attack. I’d have to rush into the crowd and try and interfere with their casting of Judgment.
If I was in a good spot when it happened, I could take a lot of them out with self curse burning.
“Okay.”
“Okay, I’m going in!”
I told everyone that could use magic to focus on support. Anyone else who remained and wasn’t a good melee fighter was supposed to stay back and use magic to protect the supporters.
The heroes were the attackers; the supporters were the magic users, and everyone else was to focus on defense. Yeah… I didn’t have a ton of faith in the plan.
“Here we go!”
I took the lead and ran for the crowd of disciples.
I wasn’t able to attack, so if I wanted to deal any damage, I only had one option.
“Naofumi!”
Motoyasu swung his spear into my shield, and self curse burning activated.
“AAARRRRHHHHHH!”
Any disciples that weren’t summoning Judgment turned to use holy magic to counter my self curse burning. But they weren’t able to nullify it completely, and the dark flames consumed a good number of them.
“AAAARRRRRHHHHHH!”
The cursed flames would also delay any recovery spells they cast. If we got our attacks in before they recovered, we might stand a chance.
I used Air Strike Shield and then Change Shield to call up the Rope Shield. Then I used the grappling hook to swing back to where the other heroes were.
The hook had a special effect that produced a string I could manipulate. I wrapped it around my arm and used it to pull me back to everyone else— and it worked well.
“Thunder Sword!”
“Thunder Shoot!”
At the same time, the other heroes all used their strongest skills against the crowd of disciples.
All the skills looked like they were formed from lightning.
A bolt of lightning shot straight through the high priest before exploding in the midst of the disciples gathered behind him.
“AAARRRRHHHHHHH!”
The disciples went flying like leaves from a tree, but the high priest himself didn’t seem to have suffered any severe damage.
How strong was this guy? How powerful was his weapon?
“That’s enough toying around.”
A smile spread over his face, very victorious, and the high priest leveled his spear at us.
“Everyone get together! Wait! Everyone use Naofumi as a shield!”
In an instant everyone was clumped together behind me. Did they have a meeting about all this beforehand or something?
“That skill he’s about to use covers a very wide area. It splits into thousands of spears and pierces through crowds of enemies. If you want to defend against it, it’s better to gather in one spot.”
“Uh huh…”
“Well, if you really know how to use it, you can set the number of targets…”
It was sounding like the sort of skill that could lock on to its enemies. That could be pretty annoying.
“Brionac!”
The high priest’s skill activated and came flying for us.
A blazing white light filled the area and drew near.
“We can take this!”
“Yes!”
“Everyone, help me!”
“Shooting Star Sword!”
“Shooting Star Bow!”
“Shooting Star Spear!”
Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu all sent out flashing skills.
Their three shining skills converged and merged into a large beam of light.
Their party members all used their attack magic too in an attempt to raise the power of the attack.
“Filo! Melty! You two help too!”
“Okay!”
“Naofumi! You should help too!”
“All I can do is defend! What do you want from me?! What about Raphtalia?!”
“I, um… I still don’t know any attack magic!”
Raphtalia nodded apologetically.
That was the problem with having an unconventional skill set. All I could do was defend. Raphtalia’s magic was only good for manipulating light and shadow. Melty’s face was scrunched up in annoyance, but she added her attack power to the heroes’.
“Here it comes!”
There was a loud crackling sound as the energy forms slammed into each other.
“Here we gooooooooo!”
“ARRRhhhhh!”
“Hiyaaaaaaaa!”
The huge beam formed from the heroes’ skills held against the high priest’s attack.
The support magic started flowing in too, and slowly, slowly, the beam appeared to overpower the high priest’s skill.
“Heh… Is that all you’ve got?”
The high priest was still smiling.
Was he holding back?
“You idiot! We’re not beaten yet!”
“Yeah! We’re still going strong!”
“Yes, everyone—more power!”
The three heroes all focused and gave all their power to the attack beam.
I could barely tell, but it looked like the beam grew a little stronger. Was it pushing back the high priest’s attack?
And yet… What was this feeling I had? I felt something… ominous.
“All right. Here I come.”
The high priest spoke calmly then began to focus.
When he closed his eyes, his weapon turned black, then white, then began to slowly flicker.
It looked like he was ready to use a powerful attack.
“Watch out!”
Shit! If they all died, I’d be in trouble!
Couldn’t we have all teamed up some other time? Did we have to try this now?
I pushed the other heroes to the ground, canceling their skill, and I ran to the front.
A beam of light shot thorough my body. Along with the pain came a roaring, unbelievably loud sound. I thought I’d go crazy.
The beam did not make it through me. I’d protected everyone.
“Huff… Huff…”
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Naofumi…”
Ren looked down at me, speechless. The other heroes and their party members were silent too.
“Ha… I never expected you to survive that. You really are the Shield Demon.”
The high priest pompously spun his spear as he spoke.”
“Are you all… okay?”
My eyes were blurry, but I turned around. I saw a huge “V” cut into the ground around me. If I hadn’t blocked the attack, people would have died. Luckily everyone had been able to get behind me in time.
“Zweite Heal!”
They cast strong restorative magic on me, and my wounds healed before my eyes.
To think he’d been able to use such a powerful skill while taking the brunt of the heroes’ attacks… How powerful was he?
“Ugh… My SP…”
“Me too.”
“And me.”
The three of them had used all their SP and were reaching for bottles of Soul Healing Water to replenish it.
It would take a little while to recover enough SP to use another attack.
I heard shouting. Just as Ren had said, support troops were showing up behind us. A large crowd was forming. With any luck, they’d take care of the high priest’s disciples.
“I suppose I’ll just have to deal with them too.”
“Stay back!!”
Ren shouted, but it was too late. The high priest turned his spear into a sword and stuck it into the ground.
A huge earthquake occurred, and the ground split apart here and there. Behind us, where the support troops were gathering, the ground split and magma came rushing out.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!”
Nearly all of the support troops were on fire, flying through the air.
That must have been most of them. The high priest was too powerful.
“Ahahaha! Well, that was simple. As long as I have this weapon, I’m just like God. If I am God, who needs the Heroes?! I am God! Everyone! Let us judge those who oppose me here and now!”
“YES!”
And I thought that our situation was improving. With the support troops defeated, it seemed like nothing had changed at all.
The blade of the high priest’s sword began to turn and warp before reforming into the shape of a phoenix.
I bet he was about to use a skill even more powerful than Brionac.
This wasn’t good. The surviving support troops probably had no idea that the high priest was so powerful.
If we weren’t careful, he’d kill them all with one shot.
“Are we ready with Judgment? Let’s go together.”
The high priest indicated that he wanted to use his skill at the same time as the Judgment spell.
It seemed like we’d gained a second or two to collect ourselves, but who knew what sort of attack he was preparing?
“Is this it?”
The other heroes were looking very pale. I guess we had a chance at winning, but it was too late… We were too reckless…
Or I should say that if Ren and Itsuki hadn’t shown up, Motoyasu and I would have already died. From that perspective, it was reasonable to say that we’d done our best.
But had I done MY best? Was there anything I could still do?
If I used the Shield of Rage… Wasn’t there still some way out of this?
Fitoria had warned me time and time again… but what choice did I have? If we didn’t make it out of this fight, there was nothing left for us. We’d all die here. If that were true, then why hold back?
“Ren, get over here.”
“What? You have a plan?”
I asked him to come over, and so he did—but he was suspicious.
I felt the shield throbbing. It was shaking.
I’d intentionally sealed it away, but inside the Shield of Rage lay the core of the dragon that Ren killed.
My vision was filled with its memories, with its desires… It had found its enemy, and it begged for slaughter.
That’s it… More. Explode with rage!
I’d been restraining the power of the shield for Raphtalia. Now I tried to draw out all of its power.
“Raphtalia… Your hand…”
“Yes.”
I took Raphtalia’s hand, and then held my shield arm out towards Ren.
Then I looked over at Bitch and Motoyasu and called for all the rage within me that I’d spent these months learning to control.
I hated everything, I forgot everything. My vision tunneled and went black. I was filled with black emotion.
Released emotions have triggered its strength!
Curse Series, Shield of Rage abilities up! Transforming into Wrath Shield!
Wrath Shield III: abilities locked: equip bonus: skill “Change Shield (attack),” “Iron Maiden,” “Blood Sacrifice”: equip effect: dark curse burning: power up: dragon rage: roar: familial violence: magic sharing rage robe (medium)
In an instant, I was filled to the brim with darkness.
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