Author's Note: April Fools is fast approaching, since you guys have all been asking me about holiday chapters then you should know I've managed to put one together to be published on the day in question.
Chapter 46: The God of Destruction and Creation
Tatsuya's fingers flew over his keyboard as Rishia's half naked body laid out on the table in front of him. Finding a place to connect his cables to on the replica weapon was actually pretty difficult, considering whoever built this thing never heard of a computer before. Eventually Tatsuya cobbled together something resembling jumper cables and set to work fine tuning the thing to Rishia. She recently took the Dragon Class up option further enhancing her magical power, so charging and wielding this thing wouldn't be a problem and as of a moment ago Tatsuya fixed it's fuel efficiency problem.
"I tuned it to you, you are the only one able to wield it with a degree of efficiency." The four skill limit this thing had was fail safe enough, at least until Tatsuya could invent the Magi-tech to limit it's use to one person in particular. "Get dressed someone wants a word with us." In addition to the Legendary Replica Rishia also equipped herself with the shield and spear C.A.D.'s Tatsuya developed for his fellow Heroes to copy. They created a sharp contrast with the simple plate and chain mail combo Tatsuya ordered for her. Rishia timidly noted the sound of thunder off in the distance, which meant rain, well they could use some, shame it wasn't a little closer to their fields.
The pair arrived in the living room of Rishia's father and when they saw the purple haired woman waiting for them it took Rishia a minute to process who they were meeting with prompting her loudest and longest 'Fuu!' yet.
"If you're going to be like this the whole meeting then you can wait outside the door." Tatsuya stated his brow twitching in annoyance.
"Th-th-that's the Queen!" Rishia stated as she quickly kowtowed to the queen and her daughter that was not Malty.
"Huu. I apologise for her behaviour your majesty. If you like I can send her out immediately." Tatsuya sighed, the only thing he could do in front of such a pathetic display.
"I would like that. Mostly because the tea of the Ivy-Red territory is simply divine and I would like her to get me some." The Queen seemed more amused by Rishia's wimpy character than anything else.
"At once!" Rishia actually left a dust cloud as she ran out of the room. Tatsuya didn't even know that was possible.
"That aside, it is time to get down to business." The Queen's fan folded up as her face turned serious. "The Whip Hero is dead, and as it turns out three other Seven Star Heroes."
"Should I assume that this is not unrelated to why you're here now?" Tatsuya asked looking at the Queen with Blatant suspicion.
"No. It is not." The Queen stated as her daughter pulled out a folder. "Faubrey has called on us for aid to resolve the situation over there, but that can wait for a moment. Infinitely more concerning though is the implications of the other's deaths." A picture was produced, the mountain range in the foreground resembled the vast desert that Naofumi and company left to cross in order to go help Shield Freeden a few hours ago, and the streaks of light above it.
"Those we believe are four of the Seven Star Weapons, Siltvelt's claws have latched themselves onto the Spear Hero's griffin, but the Axe, Hammer, Whip and Projectile weapons haven't popped up yet. Which you understand puts Faubrey into a difficult political position because they already promised their support, and Hero's, in exchange for hugely favourable trade agreements. That puts them into a bad position so we've been asked to pick up the slack." The Queen explained though her face made a unpleasant look.
"I see. The others?" Tatsuya asked looking at the Queen suspiciously.
"Until the investigation concerning the whip hero is over with the Spear will be in the custody of the Sword Hero, and Shieldfreeden will attempt to delay the shield Hero by as much as possible. That leaves only you free to act as their enforcer. That said I advise... caution when dealing with Faubrey's king." The Queen opened her fan to cover face but her eyes failed to conceal the fear.
"I would ask if I want to know but irregardless this seems like something I should know anyway." Tatsuya explained though he took a seat to listen, in case he needed it.
"Right then, I'll just rip it off then. In compensation for her role in summoning the four of you the King of Faubrey demanded my eldest daughter, in temporary substitute for her we gave him one of these." The Queen directed Tatsuya's attention to a corner where a figure who wasn't there a moment ago could be seen seated on the chair. It was a extremely life like recreation of the Red haired princess, if Tatsuya couldn't see that the primary component of her body was silicone instead of carbon water and other actually fleshy bits he would be led to the conclusion that the real thing was sitting in front of him right now.
"This is impressive, I didn't think you had silicone in this world." Tatsuya commented as he got up to have a closer look, though he also scanned the room for the people who brought it in. "Your personal Shadows should be complimented, I didn't realise they were there until I started looking for them."
"As are your eyes. The people of your world must truly be formidable if that is a common ability. But we've gotten off topic. This was pulled out of a dumpster outside of the royal palace shortly after the last wave you fought in."
Illusion magic was stripped away on the floor revealing the... well, figure wasn't the right word. Arms and legs had been cut off, holes had been made in the stumps as well as one of the eyes being gouged out and all the teeth ripped out, from the holes liquid had been seeping out, Tatsuya's eyes identified all the ingredients of piss and semen though it was too far gone to get a DNA sample. Brands and slashes were carved all over the body including the torso, the hairless head, not shaved, pulled out by the looks of things, and the groin area. Tatsuya's eyes and their ability to see a object down to a molecular level told him every horrific injury that had been inflicted on what he was rapidly realising was a high grade sex toy made in the image of the Queen's daughter. Was. It had seen some use.
"This should tell you everything you need to know about the King of Faubrey."
"I see." Tatsuya had to work to suppress his gag reflex. "This is very uncomfortable could you please remove it?"
"Certainly." The queen's shadows moved in and wrapped the mutilated torso in a cloth before taking it away. "If it is a concern of yours, the King won't have any interest in you, one small comfort to the people of the world is that he is straight. Your companion Rishia on the other hand should strongly consider staying far away from Faubrey's borders, though the current object of his obsession has been my eldest daughter."
"And would you let him do... this to her?" Tatsuya asked indicating the piece of floor where the King's mutilated sex doll was located previously.
"I have been stalling I will admit, the mutilations inflicted on her by your Shield Hero has served as a excellent deterrent, not because it makes her less attractive, but because she might not survive the trip over." That spoke broadly about the king's strike zone. Considering that so-called sex toy Tatsuya reasonably suspected he had a guro fetish. "That said if she did nothing to correct her behaviour by the time I got back the threat of having her tend to him together with a slave seal would be sufficient motive to see her behave herself. Which is part of the reason why I have come to see you."
"Your king already asked me to heal her, I explained both my inability and unwillingness to do so." Tatsuya explained looking at the queen suspiciously.
"Yes. I received that report. However after she is healed, and make no mistake about that the wheels are in motion, in order to maintain a edge over Faubrey in the negotiations to come I will need to keep our chief bargaining chip out of his reach. Thus I would ask that you either take my eldest as your companion: Though you might more readily prefer the term custodian if that makes you feel better."
"What do I get out of it?" Tatsuya questioned looking at the queen suspiciously.
"Journals of past Heroes, specifically the ones who choose the option to live in both this world and in their own. Do you understand what this means?" The Queen stated as if her offer has weight.
"A possible source of information on how to travel between worlds." Tatsuya stated though his bow choose now to intervene. 'The Heroes cannot leave the world until the waves are repelled.' "My apologies. But my weapon has informed me that it won't let me return to my world until such time that the waves are over with." Tatsuya stated as he followed up with a shrug of his shoulders. "Pity too. I would feel better about this entire situation if I could simply return there and resolve the situation."
"Then let me follow up your concerns with a statement of my own: do you really serve as such a impressive game changer that just your presence alone would be enough to turn the tides of war?" The Queen asked, wondering about what precisely her husband managed to bring into her world. "I've received reports about your healing and evaporation abilities but so what? The first is severely limited in it's functionality, with there being both a limit on the number of times a day that you can cast it and the time period where you have to cast it. The latter is but a one hit kill ability functional on only one target at a time. Easily within the capacity of most high leveled mages of our world and I suspect most of the ones of your world as well."
"Then allow me to put it into a demonstration, with all do respect but the sciences and magics both are complex."
Tatsuya pulled a weapon out of his hammer space, the last he'd commission from Erhard and the only one of the four he intended for himself. A sniper rifle shaped C.A.D. a bastardisation of the Third Eye of his home world, a weapon of unparalleled range capable of firing off Psion bursts at an incredibly high speed and range. Tatsuya pointed it at the skies, luckily for his demonstration it was raining out. After his weapon's built in targeting scope confirmed the presence of no living thing within range, or else the bow wouldn't let the weapon be fired, Tatsuya pulled the trigger hitting a singular droplet of water in midair. The explosion was so bright that it was like a miniature sun had appeared in the sky, the clouds parted in it's wake and the shock wave shattered the glass as the equivalent to a metric ton of TNT swept through the area, as if this was expected Tatsuya turned around and allowed the light of the explosion to create a back drop on him as he rested the butt of the weapon on the ground.
"It's called material burst, it possesses the power to convert matter into energy." Tatsuya raised a finger as he indicated the sky outside. "Until a moment ago that ball of fire and light in the sky there was a single droplet of water. The actual energy I need to do this is minimal, if I so wanted to I could de-materialise a chunk of matter oh say the size of your castle and reduce the entire continent it stands on into a smoking crater. The damage wouldn't end there though: the release of evaporated material into the sky would blot out all sunlight leading to your world halting the growth of plant life, the production of oxygen, and eventually leading to the extinction of all life on this planet, that is assuming that it wasn't completely annihilated by the initial explosion."
Both the queen and her daughter were awstruck. Retort? Comment? how do you do that in the aftermath of witnessing a nuclear explosion?
"Had your summoning the courtesy to wait a single day I would've had opportunity to fire that explosion off on the heads of the enemy fleet that was doubtlessly on the way to my home land to make with the pillage, rape, genocide routine therefore terrifying all of our worldly neighbours into rethinking their life choices. Now though? I literally have no idea what is going on over there cut off as I am. It could be no time has passed what so ever, or it could be the situation has resolved itself somewhat safely violently or otherwise, or it could be everyone I ever cared about is already dead, if I'm honestly speaking it would be a short list and they were there when the city was invaded."
Tatsuya's tone of voice turned harsher and blaming.
"But when I initially came here I was hopeful that all I would have to do is deal with the waves and unscrew whatever situation has happened over there. Now though? Within twenty four hours of my arrival here one of my fellow heroes was framed for one of the most horrific crimes known to our collective worlds and what's worst, I was used to do it, therefore slashing our chances of beating the waves. The intense feelings of despair I felt unlocked my own fancy cursed weapon, sloth, and every day I feel it tugging at me my only counter for it to look for reasons to try and salvage this world of which I now have one fewer, thank you for that disturbing and horrifying train of thought by the way. The good news for this is that I cannot use this ability offensively less I risk my own safety because this gun is locked in at 200 and I'm only at 60. The bad news is if the day does ever come where sloth drives me to suicide you can bet your sorry royal behind I will take this world with me into my grave for taking me from my loved ones and dooming them to what I previously thought were the most horrific fates possible, thank you again for that by the way."
It was more of an explanation then what the Queen was hoping for, and about topics that she had not addressed but by the sounds of things probably should have.
"Shadow!" The Queen's face twisted in rage as paintings of the King and his daughter appeared in the corner and the Queen shot straight up silently casting magic to freeze the paintings and shred them with ice spikes, and then did so two more times. As she was about to do it for a fourth more time Tatsuya interrupted her whipping out the Silver Horns and vaporising the paintings, before using regrowth to put them back together again and repeating that cycle five more times.
"I can see why you have them carry those around." Tatsuya stated as he put his not-weapons away in their holsters. "But now that we've finished with the entertainment shall we get on with actual business?"
"Right you are." For the second time in her life the queen knelled to as many Heroes. "I know that it cannot make up for the loss of your home world, but if there is anything I can do to make your stay in mine more bearable then all you must do is say it and I will do all within my power to see to it done."
"I can think of something." Tatsuya stated looking at the pictures that were off to the side of the room.
Even without Tatsuya to help reduce the enemies numbers through brute force the wave boss was only moderately more powerful then the one they fought already. And no blasted other worlders to stick their noses into their business, which was strange. Perhaps they got the message already, or did they expect them to park themselves in only the one country? Or maybe Setsuna left such a huge impression on the one of them that the others decided just to outright back off. The subsequent mop up operation were left to the demi-humans they had recruited to help them, dog people mostly once they all figured out that they all had dog people in their parties. Naofumi was mildly pleased to learn that the Shieldfreeden diplomats actually listened to what he had to say and had people on hand ready to take full advantage of his growth bonuses, though that left the demon in the room to address, or rather using the corpse of a huge cross between a croc, a lion and a hippo as a couch.
"Can we talk about your little rampage for a bit now that everything has stopped trying to kill us?" Naofumi asked looking at Setsuna with blatant suspicion written all over his face.
"The bastard killed my friend and Yuki's father. Those claws on her hand there is proof enough." Yuki was admiring the claws a bit too closely too. She had unlocked her own strengthening method, and again it's rules did not apply to Naofumi and the others which was a pity but ultimately irrelevant. Thus the little griffin girl was left alone to repeatedly fire off skills and magic in the name of making them stronger while the others focused their attention on Setsuna.
"You said that there was something funny about him too didn't you?" The currently human demon woman stated gesturing with a shackled hand that kept her that way.
"The little mad scientist working for him kept using gamer speak, which shouldn't exist in this world." Naofumi explained as he shrugged his shoulders.
"You yourself mentioned how this world resembles a video game. Surely some of the same terms can be..."
"Respawn means people coming back from the dead when they lose so that they can go back and play again. Update is what game developers do when they want to add more to a game or tweak it's game play." Naofumi stated prompting a 'Oh crap' look on Ikki's face.
"Then there's the way that his soul just comes un-stitched from his body whenever he dies." Setsuna pointed out once again. "So you say." The naturally paranoid and suspicious Naofumi stated loosing a glare in the dog girl's general direction.
"It does corroborate the brat's testimony." Ikki pointed out, eyes drifting over to the girl whose features were locked into a state of horror, having been made to observe firstly that all of her friends were dead and secondly that they are much, much stronger than them.
"Sir's, the Shieldfreeden party is here now." They were nice enough to prepare another table and yet another hybrid took the spot of negotiator, cat ears and gills on his neck. The three of them took the opposite end of the table.
"Firstly, for your swift handling of the Shieldfreeden wave boss we owe you all congratulations. That said, considering the damages done to our city and to the Aototsu there is still some need for recompense." Naofumi saw that coming, frankly he couldn't blame them, all the levels and monster bits in the world couldn't replace the destroyed homes and palace. "Do not fret Shield Hero. You honour us with your presence and you helped to resolve the situation that this one caused." The diplomat glared at Setsuna, making his opinion on what he thought of her actions quite clear. "You on the other hand, are going to have to give recompense for your actions here today." And he had just the compensation in mind pulling out a even thicker bundle of papers then what the turtle had given her in Siltvelt.
"Instead of marrying me off to one of your mis-mashed hybrids I would like to propose a more efficient way of spreading my genes around, if I may." Setsuna called Keel over drawing attention to their white hair in the process. "You seem intent to bleed me for all I'm worth, why don't I just give it to you instead?" Catherine had been the name of Ikki's dog type party member, as soon as the Canine growth bonuses the three of them shared had come to light she had been reset and then levelled back up to forty under the three of their's growth bonuses during the wave. The end result? X83% growth bonus! So yes, she took the power by storm. In less than a single level she had rocketed pass the average level forty in raw power, by the time she hit ten she was already at the same level of power as a 100, and everything after that was just pure gravy. At the insistence of Shieldfreeden the wave was drawn out for the full three hours so that they could squeeze it for experience points like a tube of toothpaste. For their troubles there was now a thousand dog people ready to be classed up.
"One drop of blood and..." Catharine glowed under the influence of the hourglass but the end result? She actually looked less dog like than before, doggy lips and floppy ears replaced by a pretty human like face and sharper ears. "Ah ah ah..." She looked down at her stats and for a moment thought she was seeing things, as the stats which were already too high for people to believe had shot up even further, doubled to be more specific. Which made sense in Naofumi's opinion, Setsuna was already closer to a monster then a demi-human.
"Bring in the assessment orb!" The cat-fish man from before ordered and performed a magical assessment on Catherine. "Attack and healing!?" And super rare magical affinities for the win.
"Have I got all of you people's attention yet?" Setsuna asked the look on her face far too smug for someone guilty of attacking the nation's prince.
"...A pint of your blood. Afterwords we would greatly appreciate it if you go and help whatever country is about to be hit by the wave next." Translation, get out of my country and leave your apology tacked to the door. Around the same time a familiar hum filled the air as Tatsuya landed outside.
"Are you all done in here? I've got something all of you are gonna want to see."
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: True. The Queen, for all of her political savvy I intend to highlight several key concerns that were only handled precisely because the King blatantly ignored her wishes in regards to Naofumi and the Demi-humans. I think I highlighted this issue already a while back but I will do so again next chapter.
Xenvic: Takt's specifically? I don't believe they were ever mentioned, they already established "this man needs to die horribly" long before the reincarnator issue had come to light.
MarauderPrime12: Thank you for Saying so.
Necrogod: Your welcome.
Destroyer78901: I appreciate the compliment.
superpierce: Thank you for saying so.
Dcraus: They haven't been sinking any formal training into it, they haven't had to. Putting them together to fight one opponent is like taking four tactical nukes and detonating them in a cluster.