Author's Note: Not a hell of a lot to say right now. Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and please stay safe!


Chapter 37: Rage

Luckily this time Setsuna didn't have to take the catapult up the mountain, and though Nero would already have this territory quite secure he wouldn't object to her using the wave here to farm for experience. Hopefully. She'd need a few levels before she could unlock most of her ranged arsenal again, luckily though she had fire magic and Air Strike Javelin still. Not mention three companions who know how to cast magic, one of whom can fly. But while they approaching the Azlack Hourglass a very poignant question was raised.

"Where's Nero?" Yuki was very excited to see her daddy again, and by extension absolutely crushed that he wasn't there to greet them.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Setsuna held up the spear to the hourglass and noted that they would have a few hours before the wave would start. "He likely wasn't expecting us." Setsuna noted that they had a few hours before the wave began. "We have time. If you want to see him again then take the mutts and go look for him."

The two three headed dogs saluted before following Yuki down the mountain. Setsuna in the mean time just looked up into the air as she debated the best way that she could hand the wave. With Nero's griffins providing support they could keep any of the monsters that the wave would produce out of the picture, and with them corralling them Setsuna and company can pick off as many as they like. With only a few minutes left to spare Setsuna heard Yuki's anguished cry and with a couple of jumps crossed the mountain to learn why. A look of horror donned on Setsuna's face at the same time a bolt of dread passed through her in waves. The grip on her weapon tightened to the point where her own finger nails were cutting into the palm of her hand at the same time she loudly ground her teeth. If Setsuna was paying more attention she might have noticed the corners of her vision blurring, even though there was no way of blocking her view of Nero's broken body, left out to be picked at by the bird monsters until the rot made him too unappetising. Then the dong like sound echoed out, and the lot of them were transported away. They landed outside of the farms of the Reichnott estate though the amounts of damns Setsuna had to give right now were... pretty low, the most obvious sign of this being when Setsuna's spear took the form of a sinister red on black war scythe.

"I the Demon of the Spear command the origin of power!" Setsuna's magical and spiritual power started to flood into the weapon. "Sever, Damn, and Reconnect the principle of this world! Oh Cursed Spear of Wrath, consume my power and give birth to a Dragon from the depths of the Underworld!" Everyone knew to back away long before the stream of black flame shot out of the spear. "Sacrifice Dragon Twister!"

"RRRAAAWWWRRR!" The Black dragon certainly roared and snarled like a real monster, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was a real dragon. It ultimately didn't make a difference to monsters that were coming out of the sky, each and everyone of them turned into black ash on the back of the Dragon Twister, growing in intensity as the experience points flooded Setsuna's body. The Black Dragon snapped down on something and like that the wave was over mere moments after it had begun, no annoying other world assassins had come through this time. That just left the other natural disaster about to fall on the Riechnott estate, one with silver hair and a mass of black coming out of her arm like the demon she so often claimed to be. She never hid it, she had made what she was known very, very clear since the moment they met. But seeing this, her full and undiluted wrath ready to come down with no less destructive power, if not vastly more than the wave of Calamity Rifana believed her. Weep Oh King of Melromarc, Weep Oh Church of the Three Heroes, Weep every fool of the world who thinks of the Heroes as their playthings to fling at the waves to wipe them out. You summoned a demon, pushed one of the most powerful weapons this world has ever known into her hands, and enraged her beyond your mortal comprehension by doing so.

"That's a very scary face you're making there miss Setsuna." The more demonic by the second hero turned her attention to face Van Reichnott as he slowly walked towards her, cheerful face lacking in malice, even as the head of the dragon slammed down in front of him stopping his path. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Grr..." Setsuna ground her teeth as she used to spear to point up the mountain. "Who's been on that mountain since the last time I was here?"

"No one I'm afraid, or rather no one from this side." Reichnott took a glance at the mountain, as if making sure they were talking about the same mountain. "Trust me if giving you the answers to your questions was enough to make you calm down I would've by now." Setsuna's teeth gnashing intensified as the Black Dragon looked to Reichnott in a increasingly foul mood. "Perhaps if you would put that away there might be something I could do to help you?" Setsuna looked down at the Spear of Wrath and mass of black coming out of it as if she were just noticing it for the first time.

"So this is what it looks like? I didn't get a good look at it last time."

The wrath spear has a unique talent for stirring Setsuna's emotions. How much of this world's bullshittery has she been made to suffer because of these people's stupidity? Probably no where near as much as Nero has. Setsuna at least has the benefit of occasionally looking like she's human, or failing human the fact that this world classified her as a demi-human. But Nero didn't have that luxury, no he was a legendary monster, a constantly growing baggie of XP waiting for some clever adventurer to pop and drink in the juices. Ungrateful bastards the whole of of them. Just when Setsuna was thinking about using the Dragon Twister to send the lot of them to hell, something suddenly grabbed hold of her around her waist. Setsuna looked down at the tiny figure, and as the thought of using the slave seal to go tell Yuki to Eff off she saw the look on her face, tears, sadness, and rage. Oh there was rage a plenty there. To Setsuna Nero was a friend, someone that she respected, but to Yuki he was her father, and she would not have the people who did that spared one Iota of what was coming to them, not one tiny bit.

"Congratulations, you live, for now." Setsuna put the cursed spear away and the fire disappeared. "Do you know no way that someone could have gotten up the mountain from this side?" Setsuna asked suspiciously, even as exhaustion suddenly hit her.

"Look at it? Do you see a mountain trail? The only way to have gotten up there is on the back of a flying monster." Reichnott pointed out gesturing to the mountain notably lacking any signs of a trail.

"Or if you have wings." Setsuna let out a growl as she thought about the country on the other side of the mountain, and what she was going to do to anyone involved with the death of Nero.

Setsuna stopped on the mountain to pick up Nero's body, she had no way of knowing how long he was dead but there was a slim chance he could be saved if they combined Naofumi's and Tatsuya's respective healing abilities and stored the body inside of her hammer space. More than that though if Nero was beyond the point of recovery then he deserved a respectful funeral, after she had found his killers, there was no way that his spirit would rest peacefully until those butchers were dead.

"Come. We have business in Siltvelt." Setsuna remembered the scent of that blasted turtle all too well, as soon as she was on the other side of the mountain she began looking for him. Apparently she was expected. Smashing down the front door of the church Setsuna immediately locked eyes onto the blasted turtle.

"Where are they!?" Setsuna snarled her eyes glowing a deathly red.

"Who are you talking about?" The old Genmu asked clearly not knowing what she was talking about.

"The bastards who flew up the mountain and killed Nero!" Setsuna snapped again mentally holding back the wrath spear transformation.

"Nero has been...?" The Old man immediately Harumph and straightened his tie as part of a exercise to calm himself down, but when he was done there was a look of tranquil fury on his features. "Lord Nero was the protector of our country. If he is dead I can assure you that we wish to learn the identity of his murderers just as badly as you do."

"Then find them!" Setsuna growled in a blatantly hostile tone as she registered with the dragon hour glass. "If you don't have any leads by the time I get back I will be in a very foul mood!" Setsuna's voice was half snarl and half blatant threat, she was in no mood for anymore of this foolishness.

"I believe you." The old man stated as he walked out of the Church and shouted to several of his subordinates to get to work. Then the wave came, Setsuna debated the merits of simply using the wrath spear to turn them all to ash but relented, these monsters weren't the ones who had earned her wrath.

"Keel Rifana, Area of effect magic, drop as many of them as fast as you can. Yuki turn them around or turn them into ice, you two buff them." Setsuna's strategy was very simple, dump violence, as much as possible, leave them to their own judgement on which direction to do it in, the nearby village, the farming fields, Setsuna wasn't giving enough of a damn today to care. Jumping through the air Setsuna crashed into the falling monster with her spear, a cactus looking creature, so they were up against plants this time. Setsuna still didn't care, every jump she made she killed at least two of them, one in the air and one when she landed. The only thing of concern to her was that she was getting closer to the heart of the wave, only occasionally stopping to dump violence on a group of them. Finally she spotted the enemy she was looking for, before the boss notification even finished passing by her eyes.

"Sod the hell off!" Setsuna landed her three strike combo and the cactus juicing it in the process. Again the wave seemed to end without any otherworldly invaders sticking their noses in their business, which also meant that none of the people whom Setsuna was mad at would be making an appearance today. Setsuna sent a message though the slave contracts, clean up this mess, before making her way back to the town, where she would either have answers or severed heads she wasn't too picky about the subject.

"You'll have to forgive us. We had little time to work with but we do have some solid leads." The old man's thought process was efficient and logical, Nero was not a pushover, it would take someone of a bare minimal amount of power to beat someone like him which created a short list, shorter still when you realise they would've had to fly up the mountain. "The most promising of them stems from a visit by the Hero of the Whip and his companion the Aototsu chief."

"Hero of the Whip?" Setsuna asked cocking a suspicious brow. "How many of us have you people kidnapped from our world's exactly?"

"Ahem. You seem to be confused about something miss." The Genmu cleared his throat about a topic which he thought the Hero of the Spear was familiar with. "The Seven Star Heroes, though similar to you Legendary Heroes, are also quite different."

"Then give me a full explanation." Setsuna stated vaguely recalling mention of this topic before and having been meaning to ask someone about it.

"For one thing there are more of them then the four of you. Their weapons take the form of the Cane and Claws you are familiar with..."

"Wait." Setsuna suddenly felt like she was missing some important information here. "Cane and Claws?"

"Quite." It seems no one really talked to her about this before.

"The Hero of the Cane is the King of Melromarc whom you are already familiar with, the Hero of the Claw was Nero." A loud crunch noise indicated that Setsuna finally managed to break one of her teeth resulting in a short yelp, the old man showed some concern for her before she reached into her mouth and ripped the tooth out and indicated for him to continue. "Aside from them there is also the Hero of the Whip who I suspect is now the target of your scorn as well as the Heroes of the Gauntlets, Hammer, Projectile and Axe. Though technically weaker than the four of you they make up for that with their ability to pass their strength down from one generation to the next. Unlike you who are summoned their weapons are instead left lying around for the next worthy person to find to pick up and use once the previous Hero is... no longer available to use them."

"Nero's claws were missing." Setsuna stated bluntly, the implication obvious. "It's not uncommon for the weapons to jump ship if a more worthy wielder appears. Melromarc's Wise King only became the Hero of the Cane after slaying the previous one in battle." The genmu explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Bloody ungrateful little...!" Setsuna cursed while the Genmu worked to calm her down. "Where's the bloody dragons?" Setsuna stated having loosely translated Aototsu in her brain and deduced their species.

"The Aototsu tribe has long since migrated to Shieldfreeden, I would advise that you start over there." The Genmu stated watching as Setsuna called over her animals. "I have business with your hourglass to take care of first." The Genmu watched as Setsuna bled her finger and dropped the contents on the menu detailing for her the class up process for the two three headed dogs and bore witness, after the shaking, the two of them transformed to resemble silvery three headed hell hounds.

"I was wondering about that, given the hair colour of your companion." Oh he definitely wasn't letting Setsuna anywhere near the Wanui or Nui tribes now, if her monstrously strong genes were mixed in with the general population she risked upsetting the delicate balance of power they were trying to maintain.

"I'm so glad I could clear that up for you." Setsuna stated sarcastically as she got the two dogs outfitted with new harnesses to compliment their subsequent bulk up. The three demi-humans climbed onto Yuki's back while the two dogs were gripped by their harnesses in her claws and the griffin took off. Once in the air Setsuna took out the broken tooth she ripped out earlier and fed it to her weapon.

'Inugami Tooth Spear Level Locked 100.'

"Some how I should've seen that coming." Setsuna muttered as her attention was focused on the enemy ahead of her.

"What is it? Are you feeling okay now?" Rifana had been mostly silent for a while now, the sheer rage Setsuna demonstrated against the waves left a impression, to put it mildly.

"No. I just noticed that my fangs seem to maintain the same properties in this world as they do in mine." Setsuna stated while she quietly made plans for more of the demonic weapons to be manufactured. Between the five of them Setsuna estimated they must have weighed 1000 pounds, even with Growth Bonuses in effect there was a limit to how long that could be maintained so they had to break several times to hunt, drink and rest before resuming with the flight.

Shield Freeden was not Siltvelt, the forests and the jungles were a lot more humid and a lot less desert like.

"We're here. What do we do now?" Rifana asked as the group touched down outside of Shieldfreeden. A familiar looking group consisting mostly of Aototsu came in to greet them before leading them away to the dragon's hourglass. "So what do we do now?" Rifana asked her mind trying to figure out the best way of dealing with the enemy before them.

"I'll deal with the fat one, you five get rid of the rest." Looking confused, the biggest of the Aototsu turned around to face Setsuna just in time for her to gouge out both of his eyes with her fingers.

"AAAIIIYYYEEE!" Keel turned into her new therianthrope form at the same time Yuki took to the air. The two Cerberi's claws were covered in the rot of Decay magic as they pounced on two of the two Aototsu closest to them.

"I call upon the Origin of power!" Rifana clapped her hands together and produced a length lightning appeared between her palms. "Hit my targets with a bolt of electricity! All First lightning!" Under normal circumstances first lightning was a quick little spell that could leave the enemy incapacitated for a few moments for other allies to land the finishing blow, such magic is not normally cast by people several times more powerful then their stats would imply. To Rifana's mild horror several notifications of XP passed by her face while the dogs bit into the rest of the escort.

"Setsuna. Why did we just attack our escorts?" Rifana asked hoping there was a good reason why she just accidentally murdered two people and assisted with a third.

"This is why." Setsuna took out a piece of cloth from her spear and lined it up with a torn edge on her escort's robe. "This bastard was there when Nero was murdered! But he wasn't the one to do it! I couldn't kill that guy let alone this schmuck!" Setsuna grabbed the man by his neck and held him face to face. "Who. Else. Was. There!?" The Dragon man spat something out at Setsuna's face, wiping it off she realised it was his tongue. Suicide was it? "I, the Hero of the Spear, call upon the origin of magic." Setsuna stated as she shoved the tongue back into the dragon man's mouth. "Heal my target with a burst of welding flames. Zweite Phoenix Heal!"

"AAAUUUGGGHHH!" The Aototsu screamed in pain as his tongue forcibly reattached itself to him. "You will never make me talk mutt!" Setsuna's face curled into a snarl as she threw the Dragon man to the ground and switched over her spear to the lightning spear as she pinned him to the ground.

"I'm not a mutt." Setsuna looked through her spear's enchantment options and eventually found the one for healing people and proceeded to dump that into the lightning spear, thereby producing healing lightning in the process. Still hurts like getting zapped by real lightning though. "And you will tell me what I want to know." 10 minutes of screaming and cackling lightning later.

"The Aototsu chief is inside of the Shieldfreeden palace with the Hero of the Whip!" The Aototsu man looked like he had seen hell, the truth of the matter was that he might prefer hell.

"So we'll be taking on two people with the seven star weapons? One of whom is one of the strongest Demi-humans in the world?" As Rifana summarised their day ahead Setsuna noticed that the man she was interrogating was hiding something all of a sudden.

"Spit it out." Setsuna stated prompting the dragon man to smirk a little.

"You'll figure it out eventually." The lizardy man stated though he found himself recoiling a little bit as Setsuna's glare intensified.

"Yes. I will." 20 minute's later the man stopped screaming and a notification of XP entered Setsuna's vision, her response simply being to scoop the man into her spear, luckily for them the Aototsu had led them into a secluded alley way to try and dispose of them.

"Am I the only one to point out that hunting down and killing two of the Seven Stars kind of goes against the whole fighting against the waves of Catastrophe thing we're suppose to be doing?" Keel pointed out as he helped drag over the bodies of the other Aototsu they killed.

"Keel. With all do respect: I've stopped giving a damn about the bloody waves of catastrophe."


Review Section:

RonaldM40196867: True. I believe the situation is progressing, right now we are at the pivot, either things are going to get better, or they will get much, much worst.

MarauderPrime12: Thank you for saying so.

superpierce: Thank you for saying so.

Empyrean Asura: ...good for you.