Chapter 14: In Preperation

Where we last left off, Arthur and his party came across Melty, the second princess and future queen of the country. They headed over towards Erhard's shop and had a conversation with the princess. They talked as Gwen and Arthur warned Melty that her sister is trying to get her killed in order to take the throne and the royal family is being targeted by the Church of the Three Heroes in order to create a theocratic nation. But Arthur adds something else.

"There is also something else." Arthur begins to add to the conversation, "We think that the waves are not just affecting this world, but other worlds as well. The reason being is that there is someone or something trying to absorb all the magical energy in all the worlds. If a hero dies, the Waves of Calamity get stronger and stronger with creatures even more dangerous than before. But I did discover something truly terrifying."

Melty's face went pale. Everyone else, except Gwen, are a little frighten as Arthur continues to talk.

"That person responsible for the waves used a fragment of their soul to create an obstacle for all the heroes here. And that person...is your sister."

Melty gasps at the realization that her own sister is part of a person that is responsible for the Waves of Catastrophe.

Erhard goes, "Please tell me that this is some sick joke." He finds it hard to believe but his face says that there is some truth.

"No." Arthur responds. "Malty contains a soul fragment of the one responsible for the waves and will continue to cause problems."

Then a soldier comes in, "Excuse me, your majesty, but it is time to go."

Melty snaps out of her dread as she looks at the soldier, "Uh, right." She heads out but looks at Arthur, "I hope your wrong." Then looks at Filo, "See you soon, Filo."

Gwen says, "Please tell this to no one as of right now." before Melty heads out.

"Good bye." Filo says as Melty went out the door.

"Is it true?" Raphtalia asks. "About everything that you say?" Raphtalia is a little frighten with her left fist quivering close to her chest.

"Mel looked upset." Filo says with a sad face.

"Afraid so." Arthur nod. "But don't worry." Arthur gives a confident smile while showing his shield, "Long as we have our little ace in here, that person has no chance."

"Glad I can make myself useful...if I had a body." said a disembodied voice.

Everyone got freaked out when they heard the voice.

"Who was that?!" Filo asked as she looked around.

Arthur looks at his shield, "Oh, you can hear it, too? Good thing, but it will take sometime to explain." He lowers his shield, "Right now, we should get ready."

The door opens and Akel with a two human soldiers, a human mage and demi-human mage come in.

"Right on cue." Arthur says. "You want to party up with me, right? You guys are from Lute Village if I'm not mistaken."

Akel and the others are taken by surprise that Arthur knows exactly why they are here. "How did you know?!" asked the surprised Akel.

"I have a hunch about things like that." Arthur just smiles. Yet he check his inventory and pulls out a medium size bag of silver. He throws it at Akel and his group. "Catch!"

Akel catches it and look in the bag and look inside and sees a lot of silver and a few gold pieces. Akel and the others are taken by surprise again. He looks at Arthur, "Are you sure we can have this?!" Everyone takes a look and see the amount of money in the bag and their jaws dropped.

"Yeah." Arthur answers bluntly. "You guys need some upgrades to your equipment in order to fight the Waves. If I'm right, they are getting more and more dangerous with each Wave that comes. Who knows what dangers will come from the next one coming soon." 'Actually, I do know.' He looks at Erhard, "Hey, make sure these guys get the best you got."

"On it."

Gwen says to the others, "The rest of us are gonna leave for a bit. We're gonna get class upgrades at the Dragon Hourglass and do our merchant rounds. We'll catch up and do some strategy later. Meet us here when we get back."

Erhard says, "Hey! My shop isn't a meeting place!"

"Catch ya' later." Arthur says as his group heads out the door.

As they head out the door, Arthur says to Raphtalia and Filo, "Filo? Raph? Can you two wait at the front of the cathedral? Gwen and I need to talk about something."

"Are you sure?" Filo and Raphtalia asks.

Arthur nodded, "Yeah, it will just be a moment."

"Okay." Raphtalia takes one of Filo's hands.

"Hope to see you two soon." Filo waves.

Filo and Raphtalia headed over to the cathedral to wait for Gwen and Arthur as they have a talk.

"Now then." Arthur says in a more serious tone. "Let's talk about the events that happened that was off-script."

"I agree." Gwen agrees with her younger brother. "Things went a little off course."

Both of them headed to an alleyway to talk.

Arthur leans back against the left wall with his arms crossed. "Let's talk about that zombie dragon. From what you told me and jogged some of my memories, there should only be that one undead dragon. There shouldn't have been any undead wyverns."

"I know." Gwen is leaning against the other wall with her arms crossed as well. "I memorized every episode of the series and there should only be that dragon. There shouldn't have been any other wyverns or any other dragon-like beings. Plus when we approached the dragon's hibernating corpse, there wasn't any wyvern corpses. I wonder how they got there. I know that we try to get the other three on our side and that was the only change. Maybe it was that that caused the change."

"Do you think it also has something to do with Melty later when we left the village? Last I check, we should've met her when we were there grinding and healing the sick, not later. Does that also have to do with that?"

"Possibly." Gwen answers with a look of uncertainty. "But maybe it has something to do with you being the main character. Not Naofumi."

"It could be." Arthur is unsure himself, "Yet even if that's the case, there shouldn't have been that much of a huge change. Although..." Arthur thinks about something. "Do you think we will fight different monsters in the upcoming Wave because of these changes?"

"Hard to say." Gwen states. "The only way to find out is when the wave hits."

"Guess we got no choice but to wait then."

The two of them headed out to the cathedral to get class upgrades until they come across Filo and Raphtalia.

Inside the cathedral, Arthur asks about giving class upgrades for Filo and Raphtalia.

"Very well, Shield Hero." the nun says to Arthur, "But that will be fifteen gold for each class upgrade."

Raphtalia is shocked to hear that, "Thirty gold?! That's too much!"

"It's okay, Raphtalia." Arthur assures that it isn't a problem, "I still got a lot." He hands over a small pouch of thirty gold coins to the nun. The nuns is surprised that Arthur fell for the ruse but Arthur knows that it is.

But another nun approaches with a scroll, "Our apologizes, but there has been a mistake." She shows the scroll to Arthur and his party that is a royal decree, "By order of the king, all members of the Shield Hero's party are forbidden from any class upgrades."

Arthur sighs, "Knew that was gonna happen."

"You did?" the nun with the scroll is surprised to know that Arthur knew it was happening.

Arthur takes back the gold and leaves, "Let's go, girls."

They all headed to Beloukas' tent to get some wyvern talons for Filo.

"Hello there!" Beloukas' gives a friendly greeting. "How have you been, Shield Hero?"

"Fine. I'm guessing business is going well." Arthur does feel right about Beloukas' business but has no choice but to accept him for the time being.

Gwen looks around and notice a lot of empty cages, "Guessing business has been booming."

"Indeed!" Beloukas has a large smile on his face. He point his cane and Raphtalia, "Thanks to that demi-human of yours, I sold every last one!" Then looks at Filo who hides behind Gwen, "And thanks to your Filolial, I sold every egg! All the nobles wanted to know how to procure a Filolial Queen. Thanks to your merchant adventures, everyone has come around to my shop. So, what can I help you with?"

Raphtalia says, "We were wondering if you have any weapons for Filolials. Like wyvern talons or something like that."

"Wyvern talons, eh?" Beloukas smells a good deal. "You're in luck. I just so happen to have a pair. But it will cost you. Plus I am willing to give you some information for free for any locations for a Dragon Hourglass for class upgrades."

"Guess word has a way of getting around." Gwen says.

Beloukas gives a laugh, "You bet! I always have an ear to the ground. As a matter of fact, I have ears all around this kingdom and through a few good friends in the merchant business."

"Well I do know where to go." Arthur says to Beloukas, "But I can't head there until the next wave is over."

"Are you thinking about Shieldfreeden or Siltvelt?"

"Shieldfreeden is a place I would like to be since it is a democratic republic." Arthur explains. "Siltvelt still has the slavery practice, but role reversal for humans and demi-humans. Yet has better protection. Faubley is more technologically advance in a fantasy world like this..." His face turns sour, "But I don't think I can handle all the air pollution and gas fumes. But to be honest, Shieldfreeden is the place for me."

Beloukas gives a thumbs up, "Good choice! Now about those wyvern talons?"

Arthur and his party are in the sewers of the Castle Town in order to try out Filo's new weapon. Arthur has a lamp out to light the way as they walk down the sewers with Raphtalia providing light from her hand. Gwen is using her spider powers to cling onto the ceiling.

"Can we talk about the thing in your shield?" Raphtalia asks Arthur but Arthur is busy paying attention to their surroundings.

"You remember the spirit that caused some damage when Arthur revealed the thing's true name?" Gwen tries to remind Raphtalia.

Raphtalia tries to remember until something hit her, "Nephalem? Right?"

"Exactly."

"So that's who's voice we heard. Never thought it would actually talk to us." Raphtalia is a little surprise. Yet she remembers about the spirit asking for a body. "Hold on. That spirit is the reason why you are here, right?"

"Correct."

"You were originally just a figment of Arthur's imagination of his dead sister, yet here you are as real as me and Filo. Since you got an actual body, that means that the spirit in his shield can have a body as well."

"Yeah, but we'll do that later."

"Heads up!" Arthur spots a crocodile-like monster heading straight towards them.

Raphtalia and Filo take the head with Raphtalia drawing her sword. The monster tries to jump but Raphtalia stabbed it in the throat. Two more come from behind but Filo uses High Quick to dispose of them with her new talons. Five more approach yet Gwen sliced and diced them in a flash.

Filo looks at the new weapon on her left foot, "I love this weapon!"

Raphtalia says with confidence, "We are unbeatable!"

"At least you guys are having fun." Arthur sounds ticked-off. When the girls see him, they now know why. It is because he is wet...from sewer water...ew.

The three give an innocent laugh and feel bad.

Afterwards, they all get up on the wagon and head out. Arthur decided to head north for a very good reason. While traveling and doing some merchant dealings, they stop halfway towards their destination. They made it to a forest where Arthur tries out something. The other three watch as Arthur tries something new. Arthur's shield has taken on a new appearance that is round and black with engravings of grails on the edges along with the green gem now gray. This is the [Holy Grail Shield].

"Alright." Arthur says before extending his right arm that has the shield. He reaches out before saying, "Summon!"

A vortex of purple mist appears with a strange magic circle that gives off red light. Everyone can feel the intense magical energy coming from it as if something major is about to happen.

"I call upon you as the servant of the Ruler Class! Lord Qui Custodit Te In Libra Autem Omnes Rerum!"

A column of golden light shoots out into the sky as the vortex spinning intensify along with the flow of magical energy. Nephalem crawls out from the magic circle while laughing. As Nephalem crawls out, all of a sudden, it disappear along with everything else as the clouds are clear.

Arthur stands there with a blank expression as he thinks, 'Is that supposed to happen?'

The three girls are thinking, 'Is that supposed to happen?'

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!?" Nepahlem shouts from Arthur's shield. "THAT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!"

Arthur look at his shield and loads up the status screen. He looks at it and it says, 'Error! Unable to summon new companion due to level requirement! Must be level 88+!' "Well that explains it." Arthur is seriously disappointed. "Guess you are way too OP to be summoned with my current level." Arthur's level is currently 39.

"OP means overpowered, right?" Nephalem speaks in a disappointed tone.

"Yep."

"Fuck."

"Can you undo the level requirements?"

"I could try." Nephalem struggles real hard to getting pass the level requirements but nothing happens. "Sorry. We're screwed. Looks like I'm stuck with nobody for a while longer. Shit."

"EVERYTHING ALRIGHT!?" Gwen shouts from the wagon.

Arthur turns to shout back, "NOT REALLY! I MAY HAVE TO DO SOME SERIOUS GRINDING!"

"Hang on, I got something." Nephalem gives Arthur a little upgrade

EXP Boost: LV 11

EXP Share Boost: LV 9

Scan: LV 15

"That's great!" Arthur appreciates the little boost. "But you realize that Raphtalia and Filo can't get any more levels until they get their class upgrades?"

"Oh yeah. Fuck! Wish I had my full strength back so I can do the class upgrades myself."

"You can do that?" Arthur is surprise to hear that.

"Well I am a god and the Dragon Hourglasses are a gift from gods, so yeah. Or have a connection to them in a certain degree."

"Good to know. But let's head further north first."

Everyone gets on the wagon and continue to head north. They continue to head north until they come across a checkpoint. Arthur shows the merchant pass to the guard but the guard charges them. Raphtalia was about to say that it isn't right but Arthur stops him and pays the toll.

The guard removes the flimsy piece of branch with Arthur saying, "Guess you guys got it rough here."

The guard looks down all gloomy, "Yeah. It's not so bad."

They continue through a town that looks like it got hit pretty hard with some of the buildings having holes in them, some cracked and have broken windows, others just look like they are about half collapsed or about to fall apart at any minute. Not to mention the gloomy atmosphere as many people look depress or having a hard time living.

Filo says, "What a sad looking town."

Arthur looks around and noticed the amount of damage, "This place has hit hard times."

Raphtalia looks worried, "I highly doubt this town will survive the next Wave."

Filo says, "People look really sad."

"Yeah." Gwen nodded.

"But there is a place further up that is having it worse." Arthur says as the sun sets.

Before they head out, they went to the inn to rest while Arthur makes some accessories for Raphtalia and Filo. The next day, they made it to a desolate village that is full of refugees from another country. The place looks like a wasteland with a ruined village, withered and dead trees with ribbons on them to mark graves, and sterile soil. Many of the refugees came to his wagon and try to sell whatever they got in exchange for money or food.

"Hold on everyone!" Arthur says to the poor refugees. He looks at Raphtalia, Gwen and Filo, "Girls! Prep the kitchen!"

"Right!"

Afterward, they set up a soup kitchen to help feed all the refugees. The person in charge told the whole story about the Bow Hero who lead the resistance and left before dealing with the aftermath, leaving a lot of people to die and in poverty. Arthur later pulls out a strange, wheel-shape device out of his inventory.

"What is that?" one of the men asks.

"I'll show it to you." Arthur attaches it to a well that has been dry for a long time. He says to the villagers, "Remember to keep quiet about this. The last thing you guys need is a bunch of invaders coming over and take this away. Especially when it is dry out here. Even worse when they start a war over it." Arthur lowers the bucket to the empty well, but when he pulled it out, it is full of water.

Everyone is in total shock to see water coming out of an empty well.

"It is a miracle!" one of the villagers say.

"Remember." Arthur says with his right index finger over his mouth, "Loose lips sink ships."

Then Arthur try to help out with the farming by using some of the crop seeds he got from cleaning up Motoyasu's mess and even rebuild some of the houses in a single night thanks to some of his abilities. Arthur then created a big chunk of gold by installing 72 protons into oxygen atoms. The next day, the villagers help out with the rebuilding and try to farm other crops while also trying to build a pond when it rains to fill it with water for irrigation. Everyone worked together to make the village prosperous and then left once he believes his job is done.

Sometime later, they return to the capital and get some lunch. While there they noticed Itsuki and Ren.

Raphtalia leans over to ask, "Arthur, are they...?"

"Yeah." Arthur nod and overhears the conversation.

Itsuki looks a little upset as he talks to Ren, "I overthrew this despot to the north, but you know what happened? When I went to the guild to pick-up the reward, they said that they already paid out to somebody else."

Ren says, "Same here." while looking down. "I lost a job request to some guy out of the blue."

"Looks like someone's going around pretending to be us."

One of his female companions (still can't find her name) approach with a guild request. "Itsuki. We just received another guild request to overthrow a town lord to the north. What do you want to do with this?"

Itsuki takes the piece of paper and look it over. "From the guild?"

"Yes. From what I can tell, it seems that the local lord is heavily taxing the citizens way beyond the regular court set limits. And he is using that revenue in a vicious campaign to suppress dissenters of any kind and hired mercenaries."

'Not surprised.' Arthur thinks to himself. He takes a drink from his wooden mug as he waits for the right moment to spit and laugh.

Yet the waiter shows up, "Okay, here's your food."

Filo compliments, "That looks yummy. Time to dig in."

Raphtalia warns Filo, "Chew before you swallow."

"Interesting." Itsuki looks like he is ready to give some justice. "They need to be taught that great power comes great responsibility."

Arthur spits out his drink and is sprayed all over Gwen.

"EW!" she says as she tries to shield herself, "Watch it, Arty!"

Arthur chuckles, "Sorry, Sissy."

"What's so funny?" Itsuki approaches to Arthur's table with Ren in tow.

"Not much, Peter Parker." Arthur smiles at Itsuki for the joke.

"Who?"

"Nevermind. It was a reference to a comic book character from my world."

Itsuki starts to get upset, "So it was you, huh? You're the one who has been impersonating us and taking our rewards." Itsuki falsely accuse Arthur for such a thing.

"No, I did not." Arthur answers. "But there is something you should know, Itsuki. You are trying too hard to be some super cool super hero. Not every problem can be handled with brute force." Arthur got up from his seat and looks stern, "I've heard about you leading a resistance against the despot, but you ran off before resolving the aftermath." He pulls out some sort of VR headset from his shield that is also connected to it. He hands it to Itsuki, "Here. Take a look at my memories."

Itsuki hesitated to take the VR headset but puts it on. Itsuki is shown the result of his action to the kingdom after its king was ousted. It showed the village where Arthur visited and the state it is in. Well, was in before he showed up and make it more tolerable. He was even showed one of the men that talked to Arthur about everything that has happened after the revolution. The man even told that the new leader has issued more taxes and thinks it takes a lot of money to run a kingdom. The man even thought the previous king had the same idea.

Itsuki takes off the headset and looks guilty. "Tell me." Itsuki looks at Arthur, "Are you sure these are memories and not something you thought of?"

"Yeah." Arthur replies, "I even clean-up after your own mess. Next time, think before charging in like an idiot. Think about the consequences that your actions will take once you take on a quest like that. Please clean-up after yourself."

"I see." Itsuki is now a little wiser and gain some insight. He thanks Arthur, "Thanks. And I do apologize."

Ren then asks, "What about my case?"

Itsuki gives the VR headset to Ren and Ren sees the consequences of his actions. He sees the town he saved almost got wiped out by the plague caused by the decaying dragon's corpse. Then he sees Arthur and his party facing the zombie dragon along with undead wyverns that cursed Raphtalia.

Ren takes the headset off and is full of guilt. "I didn't know."

"That's because you are stuck in your gamer mentality." Arthur says to Ren. "In video games, you expect the corpse of an enemy to disappear after some time has gone by. But in reality, a corpse decays and rots. When you leave something like a dragon corpse out to rot, it creates plagues. Something for a mound of dead people if not disposed of properly. I could've sworn I already told you. Although..." Arthur then asks Ren, "Where there actually wyverns when you fought the dragon?"

"No." Ren replies, "There weren't. Guessing that they must've gotten the worst of the plague when they try to eat the dragon's body."

"Make sense." 'But how did they get there in the first place? In the original Rising of the Shield Hero, there weren't any wyverns at all.' Arthur then pulls something out of the inner pocket of his duster and pulled out two scrolls. "Here." he hands each of them a scroll. "Keep this to yourselves after you read it. I wrote it in Japanese so no one else can read it."

Itsuki takes one of them, "What is this about?"

"You'll see."

Around sunset, they headed towards Erhard shop to wait for Akel and his group to show up. Arthur waits until Akel and his group have finally arrived.

"Pardon us." Akel says to Arthur. "We were looking for you."

Arthur smiles, "About time." Arthur then adds them all to his party, "Now lets head inside to discuss our strategy."

All five of them say, "Thank you for having us!"

Erhard pop his head out, "Hey! My shop isn't your meeting room, you know?"

"But at least it has privacy."

In the country of Faubley, the queen is talking to her shadow outside the window.

The shadow reported, "Melty appears to have made contact with the Shield Hero's party, your majesty."

The queen says to the shadow, "If the Shield Hero is a kind of young man that I hear he is, reconciliation will be easier than expected. I feel bad for putting Melty through this. But this too is her duty as future ruler."

"Your majesty?" the shadow looks through the window.

"Continue to keep an eye on them." the queen orders.

"As you wish." The shadow disappears to do her duty.

A moment after the shadow has gone, thunder can be heard throughout the kingdom.

The queen looks worried as she looks out, "The Wave is nearly here. Will the heroes be able to overcome it?"

Somewhere else, the portals of the Wave open over a vast ocean or sea where a decaying pirate ship is at. At the bow of the ship, a woman in a black kimono and long black hair with fans is standing and looking at the Wave. She grins as if she has been waiting for the right time.

AN: Hey guys! Another chapter down. Hope you enjoy.

JGResidentEvil: Hope not. I never read the Reprise of the Spear Hero or read the Rising of the Shield Hero so hope not in the future. Does that happen? Because I've been buried under work lately and only make time for some video games I got for Christmas.

By the way, can you guys help me with something? I've been trying to remember a game I saw on YouTube. I can't remember the name, but I do remember some of the stuff in it. It starts out as you entering some sort of chamber where you get to meet this armored skeletal dude, but is really chill and says that you and him are the same while explaining that your memories form building blocks. It started out with you entering a nice and peaceful forest where you meet a nice woman, a pillow fort until later it gets darker with some Noir-style stuff but gets to become horrible with an electric chair at the end of that one after going up a spiraling staircase and then you come across a battlefield that has these statues comprised of armed men, demons and tanks. You have a choice of ending reincarnation or be reincarnated. If you decide to reincarnate, you fall down into some sort of funnel until you see a bright light and lose your memories. If you decide not to, you become the skeletal guy, clap your hands and everything goes dark. It is a bit like a walking simulator but I'm not sure if it is also part platformer or puzzle solver. That's the best I can remember. Does anyone know the name of that game?

Later!