Chapter 65: An Unlikely Alliance

I was working on an accessory while my clone watched Motoyasu make his approach on the Spirit Tortoise when I felt a couple of familiar presences outside.

"Is something wrong, my god?" Therese was watching me craft, but the rest of my party was out, either checking for monster corpses that need to be burned, keeping watch for familiars, or spending time with the villagers.

I stood up and moved towards the window to check visually. There they were, L'Arc and Glass, taking to someone in the middle of the street. He had silver hair and was dress in what someone trying to cosplay as some sort of alchemist might wear. Granted it was possible that he really was one as I had no idea what they looked like in this world, but something about it just seemed faked. Also Glass was wearing some western style armor rather than her usual kimono. It was probably because gear from her world didn't work here, but still, it did not look good on her. More interesting was that L'Arc and Glass seemed ready to fight this man. I indicated for Therese to be quiet as I listened in on what they were saying.

"Well, well, what are you two doing in a place like this?" (Alchemist)

"How about you answer first?" (L'Arc)

A light came out of a book the alchemist was holding and surrounded L'Arc and Glass. At the same time Therese came over to the window to see what I was looking at and the few villagers that were out on the street backed away from the three of them.

"You!" (Glass)

"Heh. Those vassal weapons of yours won't shut up, will they? What's the big deal—you were going to destroy this world anyway? At least let me use it first!" (Alchemist)

Therese gasped in my ear then whispered, "That's Kyo, he's a vassal wielder from my world that only cares about himself. But what would he be doing here? And Glass and L'Arc too?"

"That's what I'm trying to hear."

"What are you after?!" (Glass)

"Why should I tell you idiots?" Kyo said just before his book shined.

"Oh? I guess it's time then. I was hoping I could laugh at you fools for a little longer, but I guess we are out of time," Kyo said. Then he disappeared, probably a teleport skill.

Hmm… His book shined almost at the exact moment Motoyasu attacked the Spirit Tortoise.

"Glassy. This is not good. That guy had taken control of this world's Spirit Tortoise." (L'Arc)

"Yes. There have to be rules in battle. Fighting does not rid the world of good or evil. And his action has definitely broken the rules." (Glass)

He has control of the Spirit Tortoise? Then he is probably going to take the accumulated energy for himself. That would mean all the deaths so far would be for nothing. This is bad. This is so unbelievably bad.

"L'Arc. Let's go." (Glass)

"Hold on!" I opened the door and called out to stop them. It worked; they were staring at me in disbelief that I was somehow here right when that just went down. Glass readied her fans as I approached. "Calm down, we all know I could take both of you down with ease, especially without a wave to boost your levels."

Glass lowered her fans and scowled at me, probably due to her own powerlessness at the way the Lord treated her in our previous encounters. L'Arc on the other hand was nervous, but put on a smile all the same.

"Kiddo, didn't expect to see you here. And Therese…" His smile was strained as he saw his former comrade was still with me, or maybe it was because he saw that she had a few more accessories that I made and he knew it would be impossible to get her back.

"Let's skip the pleasantries. You just said that Kyo had control of the Spirit Tortoise. What exactly did you mean by that?"

Therese was visibly surprised by the news but kept quiet. Glass and L'Arc looked at each other and Glass spoke. "It means just that. He has somehow managed to take control of one of this world's guardian beasts and plans to use it for his own ends. This is something that the vassal weapons will not allow and so we must stop him. Please do not get in our way."

"So to verify, he is manipulating it and probably stealing the energy that would be used to put up the barrier that is supposed to save the world from the waves. And your weapons are somehow telling you that he can't be allowed to do it, so now you are going to try and stop him by whatever means necessary?"

"That about sums it up, kiddo. Since it's your world that's at stake you should be aiming to stop him too. How about we team up to take him down?"

"L'Arc!" (Glass)

"Do I have your word that you won't try to kill me or the other heroes of this world until this matter is settled?"

"Of course. Come on Glassy, you know it will be a lot easier if we can work together."

"Fine. Only until Kyo is defeated and the status of the Spirit Tortoise is confirmed." (Glass)

"Well at the moment Motoyasu is in combat against it."

""What?!""

"Motoyasu, the spear hero, and most competent of the three idiots, is currently fighting the Spirit Tortoise head on. Based on the timing I wouldn't be surprised if that is why Kyo left."

"I'm not sure which part of that is more surprising, that you can tell the fight is happening right now, that you are here instead of helping fight, or that you refer to your fellow heroes as the three idiots." (L'Arc)

"I was planning on just letting the Spirit Tortoise do its thing so the world would be saved and I could go home, as for my seeing the fight… I have my methods. Also, you've heard me call them idiots before, so it really shouldn't be much of a surprise."

"I have? Oh wait, the spear hero is the same guy from the bath that one time wasn't he?"

"Yup. You were getting along with them pretty well while trying to peep on the girls." Glass shot L'Arc a glare when she heard about his peeping attempt.

"The others were there too?"

"Yes, and between the three of them, the guy the shield was trying to summon, and what Therese said about how three of the holy heroes of your world are ignoring the waves, I am convinced that these weapons love summoning idiots."

"'Guy the shield was trying to summon'? Are you saying that you were summoned by mistake?" (Glass)

"I'd rather not get into the details of that right now, but basically, yes."

"That… shouldn't be possible, kiddo."

"Doesn't matter, it happened. Now, Therese, could you send up the signal for the others to come back?"

Therese did as I asked and used one of her new bangles to create a dark cloud above us. We had previously agreed that darkness would be a signal to meet up when not under attack and a flare would be for when we were under attack. Granted the only ones capable of sending both signals were Talia, Therese and Rishia, with Blake also being able to make darkness and Seb could substitute ice for a flare. A few of the villagers were a bit concerned by it, but I managed to calm them down.

"Looks like Motoyasu's managed to decapitate the Spirit Tortoise."

"What?" (L'Arc)

"So quickly?" (Therese)

"But it isn't actually dead, is it?" (Glass)

"It collapsed and stopped moving, other than that, no change."

"It will take more than just decapitation to defeat a guardian beast." (Glass)

"Yeah, they tend to have special tricks to how then need to be killed." (L'Arc)

"Such as?"

"It usually involves destroying two things at once. At least that's how it was for the turtle, bird and tiger." (L'Arc)

"And the demon dragon?"

"We had to fight it until Kizuna had a chance to shatter its core." (L'Arc)

Glass had a mournful look on her face. Therese said that Kizuna had been missing for some time. It seems they were closer than she had implied.

"The queen said that the heroes of the past went inside the Spirit Tortoise to seal its heart. Adding in what these things were like in your world, I'd say there's a good chance the heart is actually its core or it has two hearts to kill."

"Maybe, if we're lucky then the head is one of the two and there'll only be one heart to deal with. Regardless, stopping Kyo from stealing its energy is the priority. Whether you let it live or kill it is your business, kiddo."

"Of course if killing it is necessary to stop Kyo, we won't hesitate." (Glass)

"Fair enough. Oh right on time." Talia and Keel showed up, shortly followed by Rishia and Elder Sensei.

"What are you doing here?" Talia asked Glass rather accusingly.

"Calm down, we have bigger problems right now and a shared enemy."

"FEHH!" Rishia freaked out in the same way as usual, while Keel just looked at them curiously and Elder Sensei seemed to be inspecting Glass.

"Didn't know you had an old lady in your party. And, uh, I have to ask, why do you make them wear those funny outfits?" I looked at Rishia and Keel in the kigurumi and had to admit that they did look odd.

"Rishia is just tagging along and had that before joining us, as for Keel… well it has good stats and he hasn't complained in a while."

"What?! Are you saying I could have stopped wearing this if I complained more?!" It sounded like Keel was mad.

"To be fair, you were still growing last time we were at Erhard's shop so he couldn't make anything that was sure to fit."

"I stopped growing days ago and you can teleport. We could have gotten me armor that was less embarrassing easily."

"Yes, but trying to get armor as good as that without compromising speed and flexibility is a tall order, even for Erhard. Besides, you said yourself that you feel weaker when you aren't wearing it."

"Well… that is true. And I do like being this strong…"

"Then stop complaining and own it. Now, I need to mark the location near the Spirit Tortoise."

I swapped places with the clone I had watching the queen and Motoyasu, using more than half my mana in the process.

"Sir Endou, what did you just do?" (Queen)

"Don't mind me." I drank a strong magic water and marked the location with my shield. Blake and Seb met up with my party while I was regaining my mana. Once it was high enough to safely return I swapped again. "I can only send six people at a time so Blake, I'm sending you with Keel, Elder Sensei and Rishia. If things go south grab them and get out of there."

"Understood."

"[Portal Shield]!" I sent the four of them to the area I marked by the queen. "It'll be an hour before the rest of us can go and they'll explain things in the meantime."

"That travel skill is a bit different than the ones we have. How's it work?" (L'Arc)

"Marked locations, with a limit on number of people and a long cooldown."

"I doubt they will be able to give a proper explanation of the situation with how little of it they were told. And what was that black mist that appeared around you? For a minute it seemed your shield had disappeared and you were no longer human, then it appeared again and you returned to your current state." Glass was more perceptive than I expected.

"Do you really expect me to explain all of my abilities to people who want to kill me? Temporary alliance or not, it would be a bad move."

"Then why tell us how your other skill worked?" (L'Arc)

"You could figure it out on your own with how we need to go in two groups and are waiting an hour in-between. Plus Therese already told me how your transport skills work, so it's fair."

During the hour-long cooldown I explained to the village chief that we were heading out to deal with issues involving the Spirit Tortoise. Meanwhile my clone waited for Motoyasu to get back before explaining things to him, the queen, and the other members of my group that went ahead. At one point the shadow that had been watching me in the village, showed up to inform the queen of the situation. Based on the time between it leaving the village and showing up there, it would seem that it takes time for them to travel or it was a different shadow and they had to pass the info on before it showed up to talk to the queen. The queen was surprisingly accepting of the idea of L'Arc and Glass teaming up with us to stop Kyo, but Harlot was started saying that they would turn on us and kill Motoyasu. That of course made Motoyasu nervous about the whole thing, even knowing that they weren't as strong outside of the waves.

After the hour wait was up I brought the rest of us over to the camp. The queen then asked for us to explain the situation to the coalition's military commanders, several of whom were anxious to "investigate the Spirt Tortoise," which probably meant looting the country that is supposed to be on its back. First they started yelling at the people from the other world about how it was one of their guys causing problems, some even going so far as to demanding that such people be executed. Then they directed their attention to me and complained about how I didn't do anything sooner. I thought about it for a moment then decided to respond the way Hajime would.

"Why should I care what you think?"

""WHAT!?"" (Everyone that didn't know me well enough)

"You all heard me. I have had to say this several times to a number of different people since being summoned, but I will say it again. I have no duty to this world. I was taken from my home, my friends, and my family, only to find out that the only way back is to save this world from being destroyed. Then I manage to find out that there is something that not only has the same purpose, but also a way to actually make it happen. But here you all are trying to condemn me for choosing not to go against it because you don't like the method."

"That thing has destroyed cities and killed countless people!"

"And that is not my problem. My goal is to get home, which just so happens to require saving the world. Under normal circumstances siding with it would be the obvious choice. But, now that the Spirit Tortoise has been taken over, we all have the goal of stopping whoever is manipulating it. So you can either work with us, or shut the hell up and stay out of the way."

That managed to get them to stay quite long enough for the queen to lay out the plan of investigating the towns on the Spirit Tortoise's back looking for the cave that would lead to its heart. There were also some temples that were said to contain "hero writing" that might provide clues about killing the Spirit Tortoise. Personally I just want to take out whoever is manipulating it and see if it will do what it's supposed to, but things rarely go that smoothly.


AN: Glass and L'Arc running into Kyo right outside the place Endou is staying... Things just tend to happen near him.
I considered Ost, but she doesn't show up again for another week and the timing would be getting a bit stretched at that point.


PCHeintz72: 1) The waves don't happen while the guardian beasts are active, so that wouldn't work. 2) Monsters can't join parties unless they are under the effect of a monster crest and considering how hard it was to put one on Filo at a low level... good luck getting one on the Spirit Tortoise.