Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad helping me with SPAG edit. Also thanks to Angel Wraith for reading my rough draft and provide important feedbacks.
More author note at the end for people who are interested to see me blabber some more.
Dust and wood splinters pour down on Mein's head like a storm, shaking her awake from her stupor. The princess tightens her arms around Raphtalia and rolls down their shared bed. The sudden squeeze and movement wakes up the girl, she blinks her eyes open and lets out a drowsy 'wah'.
Mein doesn't have any time to waste on explanations. Her survival instinct makes her bolt straight for the door, blowing out its hinges with a shoulder tackle. This action proves to be the right one, as she hears more crashing sounds right behind the door they escaped from.
She flips right over the guard railing and jumps down to the ground level of the inn, letting out a quiet grunt as her knees absorb the shock. The princess looks up, and sees both Iris and her maid running down the stairs. "The beak things are attacking-"
"LOOK OUT!" Mein didn't get to finish her line when Tanya tackled her on the ground with Iris. The front door of the inn blows into a dozen pieces as a Midgardian steel clad raptor crushes through and smashes another hole on the back wall of the inn. Tanya picks Iris up by her hand and runs towards the newly created 'backdoor'. "We have to get out, my lady! The building won't stand much longer!"
The princess leaps up to her feet as well, and follows Amelia heiress and her maid through the hole.
Once outside, Mein sees the inn isn't the only building to be damaged. Almost every wooden shack around the village center has a few holes in them. Some of them have the now familiar chartreuse shaded roots grown out of, with others presumably created by the Whiterun men or their steeds when they are knocked flying.
In the distance to the south, a group of villagers are being escorted away by the Whiterun yellow cloaks. More villagers from all directions join the group as they rush out of the village's gate. Around the street and ruined shacks, Mein witnesses the still crumbled forms of Whiterun men and their raptor steeds. From a first glance, it's hard to tell if they are simply unconscious, or dead.
That's also when the princess belatedly realizes she forgot her sword back in the now smashed room.
"Stay close with me, my lady." Tanya slips her hands into the long dress of her maid uniform. When her hands come out, she's holding four throwing knives in each one of her hands.
Chapter 44: Biohazard
The princess is skeptical how much damage those small pocket knives can do to whatever danger befall them, but she's not going to argue with Tanya. The older woman wears a maid's uniform, but Mein is keenly aware of Tanya also being Iris' body guard and received training from General Anderson... and one of her mother's shadows, if the rumor was correct.
Regardless of Tanya's actual combat skill, there is another thing Mein isn't so sure about.
"Shouldn't we stick to the shadows?!" The princess yells to the maid as she leads Iris towards the village's main road, exposing them to whatever loud noise of shouting and clanking that's happening on the other side of the inn.
"If you want to be crushed, be my guest!" The maid spats right back at Mein.
The princess gives a quick glance at the various wooden shacks that either have massive holes, or roots sprouting out of them. She quickly runs right after Tanya and Iris.
Once the Mein is on the main road, she gives a quick look back to what's causing all the commotion. Right over the now collapsing inn where the large cooking bonfire was, a giant four-legged beast is wreaking havoc amongst the numbers of the Whiterun soldiers. At first glance, it's an adult beak thing not too much different than those Mein saw in her text book.
But on a closer inspection, she notices its body is the same chartreuse color as the thorns' grown roots poking out of the broken earth instead of the brown fur gutter beak usually has.
Regardless of its origin, the beast is effortlessly tossing men and raptors flying while wiping around its long neck, or kicking its legs. There's only about two squads of men fighting alongside Irileth now.
The princess turns around to look at Iris and her maid bodyguard, both have gained a dozen paces ahead of her. She quickly turns around to catch both women. "STOP! We have helped Whiterun men fight that thing!"
"My first duty is protecting my Lady." The maid's steps aren't even slowed, as it's clear she's not impressed with the suggestion.
"They are fighting a gutter beak, there's no way we can outrun it without a ride! It'll come after us, after it makes short work of Balgruuf's men!" Mein skids to a stop and puts Raphtalia down. She hears the sound of Tanya and Iris breaking their run and a sharp ripping of fabric, but pays them no mind. "Go after the villagers, Raphtalia. You'll be safer with them."
"No! I want to help you!" Raphtalia's feet are firmly planted in the dirt as she shakes her head.
"Then go get the potions from our carriage - Master Naofumi left some in a stash!" Mein quickly points her arm towards the southern side of the village gate, where their ironwood wagon lays.
"OKAY!" The girl gives a quick nod and turns away.
The princess herself breaks into a sprint towards the village center where the battle still rages, she sees a shadow zipping over her like a giant bird. "Keep my lady safe."
Mein looks up and sees Tanya swinging onto the roof with a roped grappling hook. Her legs are no longer wrapped in the long maid's dress, but in a pair of form fitting pants with plenty of pouches for throwing knives and other trinkets one will find on the body of a Queen's Shadow. It seems like the rumor is more than correct in this case.
The bodyguard maid pulls a piece of paper off a pouch and swipe them across the knives on her right hand, making the blades instantly catch on fire. She throws them right down towards the head of the beak thing as it pulls its neck up for a whip attack again. Tanya's arrival looks just in time too, as only five men are besides the rabbit Housecarl now.
The throwing knives hit their marks, but don't drop the massive beast. It does have the beast flinch and delay its attack long enough to let the remaining Whiterun soldiers to dodge the attack.
Mein and Iris both stop their feet before they reach the site of battle. The princess and the heiress both open both of their hands over their head as they start their respective chants.
"As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature and come now to my hands..."
"As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature and come now to my hands..."
A red wisp blinks into existence over Mein's hands, and a golden one above Iris. The red spark starts growing into a rumbling sphere the size of a small carriage, while a blade of wind starts to spin around its golden counterpart that seems to tear .
"...O crimson flame piercing the sky; a red comet you are, herald of doom! [Sparksphere +5]"
"...Gale upon the welkin high, send arrow wind to smite my foes! [Deadshot +5]"
Both of them toss their hands forward, shooting the fire comet and wind blade towards the distant gutter beak. Irileth lets out a garbled war cry, letting her remaining men jump out of the way before the beak thing has a chance to pull its neck back. Their spell hitting the target, kicking up a cloud of dust and earth.
Both Mein and Iris drop on the ground, suffering from short term mana thirst with how much their strongest spell drained them. The soldiers begin to loudly cheer for their efforts, thinking the foe that caused heavy casualties to their numbers must be destroyed.
That's when a large shadowed silhouette charges right out of the cloud of dust, easily passing over the Whiterun men towards the princess and the heiress. The beak thing's entire head, and most of its neck is gone, leaving only a short stump hanging over its barn-sized body. Yet, it still stomps its way over to the two combatants who caused it massive damage.
Impossible - no matter how resilient a gutter beak is, it can't survive without its head!
Mein hears the terrified screech of both Raphtalia and Tanya in her ears, but most of her view is covered by the massive green creature as it rears its front legs to stomp down on her. Her legs are still too numb to carry her away, so the only thing she can do is raise one arm over her head.
That's when the very ground underneath her legs crumbles as something equally massive stands up to meet the abominable beast. The princess notices Tanya swinging her way around with her grappling hook to carry Iris away to safety, while someone snatches her waist and pulls her away while she tumbled down from the risen earth.
The princess feels her being plopped on the back of a raptor's smooth scales as the knight's dragon hops its way over from the walls of crumbling wooden shack to roots growing out of the cracked earth. She wraps her arms tightly around the lizard's neck till it finally touches down right before a running and crying Raphtalia. The girl jumps up, and firmly attaches her onto Mein's leg hard enough to squeeze out whatever feeling she's growing back.
"Big sister Mein! I thought, I thought you..." The raccoon girl couldn't even finish whatever she wanted to say before she broke into furious crying.
"It's okay, kid. It's okay... I'm not going anywhere." Mein runs her hand through Raphtalia's hair as she carefully pries the distressed child off her leg. Her savior, who she has yet to see with her own eyes gently sets her on the ground.
"Have you seen my sister, Lady Iris?" A familiar voice carries forward from Mein's back, reminding her of many awkward courtship moments.
She's an idiot - she should have figured out the identity of her savior as soon as the earth split apart: Keith Claes, the adopted younger brother of Katarina. One of the many possible suitors Father arranged for her to get her out of the marriage contract with her pig-like uncle King Egbert of Faubley.
Most single ladies in Melromarc know him as the most charming and desirable young lord of his generation, much like his adopted father Duke Luigi Claes back in the day. But not too many of them remembered before the lord charming of House Claes, he was first known as The Monster.
A bastard son born into one of the cadet branches of House Claes, he almost killed all his half siblings when he first awakened his unusually strong earth magic. Lord Luigi noticed his raw talent, and pulled enough strings with his cadet branch to have Keith adopted as his son and honed his ability. Now, he's one of the best earth mages of his generation, in addition to being the dream of most Melromarc ladies.
"She's with the Spear Hero, Lord Keith." Iris brushes her frazzled hair back behind her ears. "Assist us taking down this undead monster, and we'll lead you to Lady Katarina."
Iris' words break Mein's wandering thoughts and has her sights snap to the headless gutter beak, still flailing and struggling against the giant mud doll the size of a small mansion Keith summoned.
Of course! The beak thing being a reanimated dead creature answers how it's still moving after losing its head.
As for Keith's golem, it may look like dolls made by mud she saw some of the younger children from Lute played with: A dried, undecorated stick of mud with stubby arms and legs. Yet the unremarkable looking construct is resilient enough to easily overpower the headless, undead beak thing.
Now as the princess turned adventurer giving it a closer inspection, she notices the shade of its body is made of the same thorn filled roots as the miracle plant sprout out of Outsider's seed. If she has to take a guess, this creature was probably the very gutter beak the Spear Hero slain shortly before her arrival.
So the Life Root has the ability to reanimate corpses with its vines and turn them into its undead thralls? That's... not good, considering the sheer amount of bodies still rotting inside the abandoned laboratory.
"Will do. Men, with me!" Keith Claes raises his sword and lets out a battle cry, as Mein finally notices he's no longer in a white colored suit he loves to wear, but a set of full silver colored plate armor.
His voice is answered by a cacophony of yells behind them, as a company of red cloaked House Claes sworn swords charges at the now mostly immobilized undead beak thing on the back of their raptors. Their sharp steel lances are on fire, likely thanks to the fire paper Tanya used before.
"Stay here behind us, my lady." Tanya gives Iris a firm shake on her shoulder. She kicks up a spear from the ground and catches it in her hand, applies the fire paper again and joins the Claes men in their assault.
"Did you get the potions, Raphtalia?" Mein finally has a chance to look back at the raccoon child again.
"Yes!" Her ward quickly swings her arm up to dangle the pouch in front of Mein's face. "Drink a mana potion, big sister."
"Thanks. Catch." The princess quickly pulls a vial of the blue liquid out of the pouch, she pops the stopper off it and tosses a second vial to Iris while downing her potion. She gives a quick pat on Raphtalia's shoulder, no longer keeping her attention on the fight or Iris. "Let's go help the wounded soldiers."
The two of them split up and run to guards laying around the ground or ruined buildings till' they run out of healing potions. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, not every soldier can get right back to fighting. Some of them, the potion simply stabilizes the wound they sustained, while the others are simply... beyond helping.
The princess tries not to dwell too much on it, as she just hopes Raphtalia is fine experiencing another village's destruction similar to her own.
Mein picks up one Midgardian steel sword off a guard who will no longer need it. The weapon is too wide and heavy for her preferred style, obviously favored by those who rely on strength rather than finesse. But it's still better than nothing.
The Whiterun soldiers who recovered well enough to go back to their feet quickly returned to battle. They light the tip of their arrows on fire, and shoot the headless beak thing from afar while. But the fire on their arrows quickly extinguishes once it hits the beast - because the Life Root vines that make up most of its body seem to be more resistant to burning than most other wood.
Raphtalia grabs a jar of gutter beak oil against the wall and hangs the rope over her neck. She climbs up the bell tower of the village hall, and smashes the oil jug down on the beast's back. The soldiers, realizing what the raccoon girl is doing, aim their arrows toward the oil drenched back of the undead creature, catching it on fire and slowly turning the headless beak thing into a burning monster.
Mein herself adds to the effort, tossing smaller fireballs onto the creature this time so she doesn't wear herself out.
The beast flails around, kicking its trunk like legs and buckling its back against the giant mud doll, making cracks form around the golem. Keith waves his sword wand as earth moves up his golems legs as if alive, covering over the cracks like newly grown skin. Slowly but surely, the undead monster's movement becomes slower and less violent, until it's nothing more than a burning heap underneath a giant golem.
"You arrived just in time, Lord Keith. We would be lost, if it weren't for you and your men." Iris walks up to the young lord and bows her head. "I am indebted to you."
"And my sister?" The sight of the Claes snaps onto Iris, but he doesn't pay any attention to the life debt from one of the most wealthy and powerful heiresses.
"She was camping with Master Naofumi and the Spear Hero out in the plain, near the giant tree grown from a seed powered by Outsider's magic." Mein carefully observes her former suitor's expression behind her mask while explaining the situation. As expected, the young lord's face turns deathly pale whenever the Outsider's magic is mentioned. "The plant must have turned into a boss monster like we feared."
"I knew planting that damn seed was a bad idea. But these heroes don't listen." Irileth spats on the ground while she returns her sword back to the sheath. "My men suffered heavy losses. We'll have to retreat and gather high-levelled adventurers to deal with this threat."
"A sound plan. You do that. I'll take my own men, link up with my sis ... the heroes and bring them back to safety." The golem master turns his raptor around to look at the rabbit Housecarl. All things considered, it's not a bad plan, but someone decided to voice their objection.
"NO!" Zylden, who was nowhere to be seen during the fight with the undead beak thing manages to crawl out of nowhere. "We have to bring this boss monster down RIGHT NOW!"
"In case you haven't noticed, imp, I lost almost half of my men against this damn monster, which shouldn't even have been a problem if everyone just listened to me." Count Balgruuf's sworn shield is more than a little angry as she points her finger at the burning heap, which was tossing around trained soldiers around like paper a moment ago. "And now you want me to risk even more lives to take on a boss monster that they aren't even in the level range to fight against?!"
"Yes, it's high level is precisely the reason we have to kill it now!" The gnome of House Balveproven stares right back against Irileth. "Remember it blew up my quicksilver gauge? That's a sign its actual mana count was well over 1000 points over its upper measuring limit. Do you have any idea what that means?"
"A plant with a mana count not just over 9,000, but 10,000... That puts it at least on the same level as the Celestial Cherry Tree of Quo'Ten Lo." Iris' words make Mein bite down on her fingers once again. "Emperor Kajirou turned the entire Quo'Ten Lo island into a wasteland, when he detonated the magic stored in the Celestial Cherry Tree in his misguided attempt to repel the Siltvelt force."
Yes, Mein is well aware of the end of the so-called 'Judge of Heroes'. When it was clearly hopeless to repel the King of Rape's invasion, the last emperor of the island nation released all the mana stored within their holy tree as a final act of defiance towards Mikage Mikami. The resulting explosion wiped out all lives on the island and the sea around it, and turned the land into a wasteland where nothing would grow for at least another millennium, and a concentrated mana cloud that'll kill anyone getting close to the area.
Something just as magically powerful is only ten minutes' ride away from Mein, and already turned into a boss monster no less.
"Exactly, a monster with this much magical power within, AND magically connected with the endless ether will grow exponentially strong if we let it be. It'll outmatch any high levelled adventurers we can rally around the land, the other two cardinal heroes, and possibly all the vassal heroes that are still around!" The princess can't help but notice how Zylden isn't taking the moment to gloat about his supposed superior intelligence. "We have two cardinal heroes with us now. This is our best chance to kill it before it becomes a permanent fixture on this land."
"And if we fail?" Irileth narrows her eyes at the imp.
"This plant monster will kill us all before the Wave of Catastrophe." Zylden says it without any flair in his voice, or his body movements. Yet the unusually serious tone makes Mein realize just how severe the situation has already deteriorated. "Maybe it'll wipe out all the lives within the entire Whiterun County, Melromarc, or Medea in the worst case. Depends on if it's territorial, or will continue its expansion."
"Fine, give me ten minutes to prepare. I'll take anyone who won't slow us down." The rabbit demi-human's voice is almost a snarl by this point. She spins on her heels and stomps away. "Those two heroes better fix their own fuckups."
"Stay with the villagers, Raphtalia." The princess turns around as Raphtalia slides down from the belltower. Mein kneels down in front of the raccoon child and gives her a hug. "We are off to fight the big boss monster. It's too dangerous for you."
"No, NO!" Raphtalia's eyes dart around for a while till she looks up at Mein. "What if, what if you don't come back?"
"You'll have to take care of yourself, if worse comes to worst." The princess releases her left arm, and runs her hand through the raccoon girl's hair one more time. "You are already over level 20, higher than some of all the new recruits. You can do that, right?"
"...I can fight... I can..." Raphtalia looks down at her feet, her quiet mumbling sounds more like the kid is trying hard to deceive herself than convincing Mein. After a while, she looks back up at the princess turned adventurer again. "Promise you'll come back with Master Naofumi and everyone else?"
"Yeah, promise." Mein extends her little finger out to the raccoon girl, the incognito princess hopes she sounds more convincing than she actually feels. The two of them hook their fingers, give them a shake and break apart.
Not long after, the combined force of House Claes and House Whiterun assembled together and rode out. Mein doesn't look back, but now a little raccoon girl is definitely watching her depart on top of Balafon's ruined Palisade.
Once again, there's practically no need to search for the heroes, since the Life Root has grown even larger than the last day. All its vines are easily twice as thick, and seem to extend all the way towards the heaven. And from the distance, it looks like the plant is wildly thrashing about while a dark patch seems to writhe at its feet. As they charge closer, Mein realizes the dark patch is a horde of grotesque monsters made of severed flesh pieced back together by roots growing out of them. The monsters shamble forward, before quickly cut down by one of the running filorials, or Farkas.
A circular, blue field covers the battlefield around the Life Root, shimmering in the same lapis shade as the Shield Hero. Speaking of her Naofumi, he's standing in front of the group, summoning his energy shields out to protect everyone from Life Root's violent swings.
As for his spear counterpart, he's wielding his new wooden spear he unlocked from the same plant he's furiously thrusting at. Having about as much success as his female companion Katarina, considering how their weapons bounce off the thick vines while only chipping at the skin.
Despite the heroes' clear lack of progress at taking down the boss monster, Mein can see why Zylden demanded them to engage the Life Root now. The way it fights against the heroes and their companions is completely stupid, to put it bluntly. It doesn't try to vary and mix its attacks, and simply relies on brute strength in an attempt to overpower them.
It's a clear sign that the monster is newly born, and its sentience has barely developed.
"SISTER!" Keith's yell sounds labored, he points his sword wand at the ground and summons another one of his mud golems. This time, it's two times taller with four times the bulk than the one he used to stop the undead beak thing and would tower over the gutter beak. Yet compared to the gigantic Life Root, his golem looks like a toddler compared to an adult. Regardless, his giant construct obediently jogs forward to help engage the boss monster, cracking and shaking earth with each step.
"Men, engage the mob monsters and free the heroes' companion! Let them concentrate on the boss monster!" Irileth focuses on commanding her troops. The surviving Whiterun force immediately follows after her and charges at the mob from the side. House Claes men follow right after them after getting a nod from Keith.
"Switch to a Halberd, Master Motoyasu! Axe skills are more effective against plant monsters!" Tanya coats her weapon with her fire paper again and runs fast to join the battle against the Life Root, while her master stays back and shoots wind blades at the giant plant monster.
Mein is about to join Iris when Zylden pulls her sleeves. She gives an annoyed glance at the imp, but notices him looking up at the top of the Life Root while pointing his finger. "There - you see what's happening in the sky?"
The princess squints her eyes and looks at where the half-man is pointing. Even as the battle rages on, six of the Life Root's core vines don't join their assault on the heroes and their parties. Instead, they seem to be knitting at the empty space in the air, and a small black cloud seems to be forming at its crown.
No... upon a closer inspection, she sees what appears to be twinkling white stars within the 'cloud'. The Life Root seems to be tearing a hole into the void between the worlds itself!
"Six vines, each forming the tip of a six pointed star. The thing's trying to connect to the Endless Ether between worlds!" The imp reaches the same conclusion as the princess turned adventurer. "We have to stop it! Forget about a powerful boss monster, it'll turn into an earthbound demi-god if it succeeds!"
Well... DAMNATIONS!
"Master Motoyasu! Take down one of the six core vines immediately! One of the six not attacking you! Don't let the plant open a portal to the Endless Ether!" Iris immediately shouts it out on top of her lung at the Spear Hero. He looks up at the plant for a brief second to get his bearing, and pulls Katarina back with him. Both of them run a circle behind Keith's mud golem, and start climbing up its limbs as the construct pushes forward and wrestles with the thrashing Life Root.
"You know how to draw the glyph of a [Supernova]?" Mein looks to the side at Zylden.
"Leave the drawing to me, you start channeling." The imp immediately bends over and starts painting the ground with magical ink.
"Are you mad?! You aren't anywhere close to the level to cast [Supernova]!" Iris turns around and brandishes her paper fan like she wants to slap Mein with it. "And that spell will kill everyone here!"
"Either that, or we die to that abomination!" Mein points her finger at the Life Root in the distance. "It's not noon yet, and I don't have an entourage of mages to form the full ritual circle. So I can't cast a complete [Supernova]. That oversized ivy should take the brunt of the damage."
Iris bites her bottom lips, as it's painfully clear the usual graceful heiress isn't convinced.
"You are a better businessman, but my magical tutor was Master Aldrecht the Calamity." Mein pulls her mask down and stares right into the eyes of Iris - she's glad that there are things House Amelia's vast wealth can't buy. "This is my area of expertise."
After a short pause where the only sound near them is the distant fighting and Zylden scribing on the ground, the heiress nods her head. "Very well, I will help you channel the magic. Incomplete or not, there's no way you can cast a [Supernova] on your own."
"Much appreciated." The princess pulls her mask back up and lets out a thanks to her childhood playmate with gritted teeth. The two of them quickly move into the magic circle Zylden drawn on the ground, they both hold their arms up in front of them.
Within the short time between her argument with Iris, Zylden is only able to complete the inner core glyph. That's fine for her purpose, there's not enough casters to put the outer amplification circle to use anyway.
"By my birth right as the descendant of Spear/(Bow) Hero..." The princess starts chanting with the Amelia heiress. She can feel her own magic grow warmer as she invokes her bloodline.
In the distance, both the Spear Hero and Katarina manage to clear over the giant mud golem. One of the thicker Life Root vine strikes the giant construct across the chest, breaking it apart and having it crumble into dust. The Spear Hero locks hands with Katarina, the wooden spear in his hand extends out and turns into a much thinner vine like the monster it's fighting for. The vine rope grabs hold of the giant Life Root and swings the two of them across the outer vines.
"... and the bloodline of Hibernia and Germania..." Mein continues her chant while Iris stays silent with her lack of an old royal bloodline. Her mana becomes more active and seems to boil all blood in her veins. The red, double triangle glyph of fire pointing to the left like an arrow appears over her head.
The six core vines shake down the many fruits grown over, making them drop down at the Spear Hero and Katarina like star shower. The fruits glow bright blue and explode over their heads, but none reach the two of them when a shimmering black barrier seems to distort the space above them.
"No, you won't! [Protective Shade]!" Volumes of black mist bellow out from Bertia's fox scarf and dress, making them flow without wind.
"... I call upon the power of the incandescent sun-sphere to lend its power..." Iris rejoins the chant. Mein doesn't know how she feels, but her own body feels like it's being scorched from the inside as. She concentrates most of her mind in front and continues to chant.
The princess can't see it high over the clouds, but she's well aware of an orange sphere slowly forming in the sky high above everyone, even the Life Root's head. As the act of channeling astral magic slowly burns Mein from inside out, she can also feel the power of the sun is slowly but surely, being collected in her magical orb.
The Life Roots shoots hundreds, possibly even a thousand thorns out at the airborne Spear Hero and his female companion. A green energy shield the size of a small house appears right in front of them, cracking but not breaking under the pressure from the attack.
"Don't mess this one up, Motoyasu!" Naofumi's Shield shines with the same emerald aura.
"Who do you take me for!?" The Spear Hero let go of Katarina's hand as his spear changed shape into a steel halberd. A white, glowing chain seems to form between their wrists.
[Chain Contract], the ability that let a Legendary Hero share both health and magic with his companion and combine their stats together. It was the signature move of the last Spear Hero Makoto Itou from sixty years ago, and now the current Spear Hero also unlocked it in this uphill battle.
"EAT THIS!" Motoyasu and Katarina yell together as their body both spins in the air. The blade of steel halberd and war axe glows under the sun; it turns into two crescents and bites into one of the six core roots like a scissor. [Great Wood Split]!"
Not a very sophisticated name even for the standards of axe abilities, but much like the axe being a crude yet reliable weapon, it's the most effective against plant based enemies. Yet even as their blade buries deep into the inner root, neither the Spear Hero nor the hoe pusher of House Claes finished their assault. They spin on their heel, turning their axes into a two opposite spinning saw of doom. "[Death Spin]!"
While this is happening, the princess turned adventurer feels the magic orb she's constructing with the sun's energy has grown to a level that's about to burst any moment. She can't hold the spell much longer without it exploding all over everyone, neither can her body handle the continuous channeling.
"...Descend from heavens high, and come down to scorch the earth to ash! [Supernova]!" The fire glyph over her head shines with a brilliant ruby light before bursting into nothing. As the magic symbol extinguishes, people who look up from the battlefield can see a rolling orange meteor that seems to descend straight from the sun.
The sun sphere is about the size of Burden's Rest inn back in the town of Trumpet. Impressive at a first glance, but a fully completed [Supernova] should be as big as Melromarc's capital city. Mein simply hopes it's enough to deal some damage to the Life Root.
"WHO CASTED FORBIDDEN MAGIC, DAMN IT!" Irileth quickly tosses her bows and arrow aside to grab her shield over her head. The rabbit Housecarl, who has been busy fighting the horde of undead thralls obviously didn't notice Mein's action to this point."Link shields! NOW!"
The solar meteor does not care about anyone's action. It continues its descent to roll and plunge down towards the crown of the Life Root. With a deafening boom and blinding glow, it crushes right into the portal the Life Root is tearing and releases the scorching energy it's holding inside. The whole world seems to turn sideways and then upside down. When Mein opens her eyes again, she finds out she's looking at the sky, from the earth on her back.
"Well, your plan actually worked, you crazy witch." Mein hears Zylden's voice as she feels someone pushing her up while shoving a vial of mana potion right into her mouth.
Mein blinks her eyes a couple of times and slowly turns her head around, almost like she's still sleeping. Not too far away, Iris is also on the ground. Although she's only crouching, and breathing hard on her knees. Probably thanks to her not being the main caster in this case.
Even further out, most of those who came out to fight against the Life Root are all sprawled all over the ground. As for the monster itself, one of the core roots has snapped and fallen to the ground about twenty paces to their right. The tear to the void is gone, and the tip of its remaining five core roots are scorched black. The small army of undead monster thralls are crumpled on the ground, completely motionless.
Despite the minimum amount of damage her incomplete [Supernova] caused to the Life Root at a first glance, the plant seems to have suffered some unseen harm. It's outer vines are all drooped on the ground, no longer rapidly and furiously thrashing at everyone while they are down. It's hard to tell if the blow comes directly from her forbidden spell, or the interruption of the monster's attempt to connect to the Void between Worlds.
"Yeah, guess I did it." Mein giggles to herself as her head lolls to the side, her eyelids feel heavy and she wants to drift into sleep. She can barely feel her limbs as Zylden and Iris pull her away from the motionless broken vine that's too close to them for comfort.
The Life Root lost one of its six core roots to the Spear Hero, and she interrupted its attempt to empower itself with the Endless Ether... with some help from Iris, of course. The princess feels her part in this fight is done, and she can simply leave everything to the heroes.
"Don't let up, everyone! The monster is stunned, give it everything you got!" In the distance, Naofumi is the first one to crawl back on his feet. He immediately starts launching healing and invigorating spells towards anyone who looks like they need help.
The Claes sworn swords tosses jugs of beak thing oil they brought from Balafon onto the base of the monster, while Gaston Whiterun men light it up with their flaming arrows. Kyubey tosses fireballs at the enormous monster. Farkas, Éclair and Yatsuhashi hacks away with their respective swords.
"Guah!" The Spear Hero's birds all line up behind Yuki as they flap their wings, a small gust of whirlwind slowly forms in front of them.
Firo lowers her neck and kicks her foot on the ground, and dashes forward when a red six point star shimmers into existence in front of her. Her feathers turn into embers as she charges through, making her look like the fabled Guardian beast Houou.
The whirlwind in front of Yuki extends out like a lunging serpent. It envelops Firo and accelerates her forward thrice faster, turning her into a flaming bolt fired out of a ballista. The bird slams full speed into the Life Root's base, blowing a crater out of the base and splitting chunks of wood away.
This seems to be the blow that finally jolts the giant plant monster awake. The thorns over its body shoots out like a full arrow volley, while more fruit turns bright blue and falls down over the soldier's head.
"[Air Strike Shield]!""[Protective Shade]!"
An emerald energy shield the size of a castle wall appears in the front, and a swirling dark cloud hangs over everyone's head, blocking most of the attacks and allowing the soldiers to pull back.
"BEHIND YOU!" A scream makes Mein slowly turn her head back. To her horror, she realizes the tip of the fallen core root has burrowed into the ground, while the snapped base is falling down towards her.
"DODGE LEFT~!" The princess lets out a warped scream as she feels someone pushes into her from behind. The shock wave from the fallen root tosses them into the sky, and then falls down on the ground again in a tangle of limbs.
Mein opens her eyes when feels someone shaking her face. She sees the tear stained face of Raphtalia staring right back at her. "You shouldn't have come, Raphtalia."
"You were almost crushed!" The raccoon girl buries her head right into Mein's chest. The princess runs her hand down the girl's back in an effort to comfort her. She looks over Raphtalia's head, and sees them barely cleared over the collapsed Life Root.
"Err... aren't anyone going to worry about me?" Zylden untangles himself from Mein's legs. He moves his hand up, probably trying to wipe his face. The imp simply blinks his eye instead.
The princess briefly wanders what's on the half-man's hand that's so interesting to distract him from how they are almost pastries on the ground. Her question is answered when she sees the blue liquid on his hand. She briefly wonders if a vial of mana potion has been broken. Then, she notices the small pool that's slowly forming under Iris.
"Being whiny won't bring you sympathy, imp." The Amelia heiress slowly pushes her face and upper body off the ground, blue liquid still dripping down from the gash that runs diagonally across her face.
"Amelia, your face..." Despite the effort of her eloquence teacher, the princess can't help but point at the new cursed wound on her childhood playmate, and biggest rival's face.
"...my face?" Iris looks down at her hands, and sees the slowly collecting pool of shimmering blood in front of her. She stays completely still and quiet for a brief moment, and then she lets out a completely undignified, shrilling scream that sounds like Raphtalia in her worst night terror.
"Forget about your face, you brat! It's rearing up for another slam!" Zylden's yell makes Mein and Raphtalia look up to see the broken Life Root falling down towards them again like a hammer. A spinning emerald disk, and a shooting ruby dart in the shapes of the legendary shield and spear hits the root at the same, knocking the fallen vine back for a brief second before it falls down towards them again.
The princess can hear the Spear Hero and her Naofumi calling Iris and her name respectively. Both heroes charge over them and brandishes their weapons out to meet the fallen vine. Motoyasu stands the end of his spear on the ground, Naofumi crosses both of his arms behind his shield as he holds his shield over his head. With a solid crack, they barely hold the fallen root over everyone's head.
"Run, damn it!" Naofumi lets out a pained grunt as his knee slowly bends down, while the spear in Motoyasu's hand is slowly being pressed into earth. Even with two legendary heroes together, they only barely hold the plant from crushing them.
No, they can't lose two heroes right here. She has to do something.
The princess tries to pull what little mana she manages to recover after casting her incomplete [Supernova]. But only an ember forms out of her hand before it splatters into nothing. She's near empty even after Zylden's potion.
She's all burned out, what more can she do?
The highest goodness is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete. It stays in the lowly places that others despise. Therefore it is near the Eternal.
Words of the Brimir the Founder she's been reading over and over through the last week or so seems to slowly drift into her consciousness. Words that she hasn't truly taken to heart... no, she's been unconsciously fighting against all this time. She inherited Father's old Tristan bloodline, but her own affinity has always been fire. To her, magic has always been like cracking, active plasma.
But now she barely has any mana left, she begins to immerse herself into the Founder's philosophy of Water's Law. She feels the ever present mana all around her, like a gentle wave brushing against her. And the angry torrent within the Life Roots, only a few steps away from her.
The law of magic... it's about flow, like water.
Mein has heard of the special state of mind a few mage out of million has been able to reach. It's described as a mage's consciousness able to connect, even become one with the nature around them. Different nations and cultures have given it many different names: 'Avatar mode', 'Sage mode', 'One with the heavens' to name a few. She wonders if this was how Brimir the Founder sees, hears, and feels the world.
The princess found she herself had stood up without realizing it. She takes one shaky step forward, and then another till she presses her right hand directly onto the skin of the giant plant monster born out of Outsider's magic. Mein ignores the angry, scared, and worried yelling all over her and closes her eyes.
An Outsider God's magic feels foreign, yet it still follows the fundamental law of magic. She can feel the Life Root being heavily wounded, its connection with the Endless Ether partially severed by her [Supernova] attack. Yet, her own presence still feels insignificant compared to the vast deposit of mana the tree has, like a fallen leaf caught in a raging storm.
Connecting consciousnesses has always been the most dangerous thing a mage can do with another magical being, since the action completely exposes their most bare existence with another being. Their mind can be easily crushed by a much stronger opponent.
Fortunately for her, the Life Root as an entity is still too young. It doesn't have enough sentience to mount an effective attack on her. Uncle Aldrecht's lesson is correct after all: One's power is only ever as strong as one's control.
And with her still immense in the Founder's state of mind, she's the one with all the control as she starts chanting. "As the source of thy power, I order thee. Decipher the laws of nature..."
Mein's free hand turns around to face the sky with her palm. She curls her ring and little finger, lines her index and middle finger side by side, presses the face of her thumb against them. "...kindle the blood of the unworthy, and repay stolen pride with fire."
Funny how the Imp of Casterly Rock said one can't simply snap their fingers and have half the world disappear. Because that's exactly what she's going to do to this plant monster.
"[Mana Burn]." Mein snaps her fingers, and feels what little remains of her mana turns into ember again. Not enough to light up even a [Mage Light], but with both her consciousness and magic connected with the strong reserve of the Life Root? She only needs to act as a kindle to ignite the monster's own mana as fuel.
And she feels it - from the Life Root crown's tip, all the way to the end point of its root that's trying to pierce the deepest chasm of earth. The mana inside the plant monster begins to burn itself into ash from inside.
The princess opens her eyes, and sees the tree trunk like roots that's been crushing both Naofumi and Motoyasu a moment ago dissolves into white ash, and falls on them like snow. The world slowly turns red and sideways, her Naofumi turns around to face her. The confusion on his face slowly turns into horror as he runs towards her.
Her world turns dark before he reaches her.
End Note
In case some of you wonder why this chapter's fight at times feel like it comes from a Japanese Super Robot anime than a JRPG fantasy, I was listening to HEATS from Getter Robo Armageddon when I was writing this chapter. Needless to say, it ends up being very different from how I originally planned this fight back in the earlier day of this story (when Comrade Broseph was still around to help catch my many plot holes).
Malty doing a Thanos snap lite at the end was definitely a spur of the moment decision when I was writing this chapter. It just feels fitting when I had Comrade Broseph/Zylden make a Thanos snap joke in one of the earlier chapters.
Also in my original plan, Katarina would have been the one who got a cursed scar, not Iris. An obvious nod to her canonical story. Although I felt it would have been too obvious a choice, so I had Iris being disfigured in this chapter. It feels fitting she's the one who suffers from a scar when she was the one who was advocating for keeping the seed. Plus, I always wanted to take Iris down a peg in my story so she isn't in control of everything all the time like her original story.
And yes, I changed Katarina into an fighter who specializes in two handed battle ax. Feels fitting how she was able to wield a big battleaxe and destroyed Keith's room lock when she's what... six to eight years old?
Guest review time.
To Guest:
While I didn't start out my story planning to have Malty develop a family relationship with the other cast this soon, I definitely embraced this idea sometimes around the wave battle. Glad you enjoyed what I been doing with Malty's developing relationship with others, as that's something I really want to get right.
Well... I don't think I'm fooling anyone into thinking the seed ISN'T going to mutate the moment I had the heroes plant it.
:P
As someone who holds a more revisionist/contentious attitude towards canon RotSH, I definitely think the world has more potential than the story the author told. And yeah, Malty is a more old school feudal politician who has too much faith in the legitimacy and right to rule. So she doesn't realize Iris, a more modern style politician is essentially dancing circles around her. That being said, just because she's going to be more of a figure head doesn't mean she can't play the role well, especially if she has at least one cardinal heroes on her side.
To tell the truth, I haven't decide how far Faubley's industrial revolution has gone for my story. Canon definitely lean more towards fantasy... by which I mean JRPG punk than anything more realistic, and I'm not sure if that's the same route I'll be going with. At least judging by the manga, canonically the world of RotSH has enough industrial power to build WWII era planes. As for parliament, I'm sure at least one of the previous hero has mentioned the idea, even if one of the older civilization in this world hasn't established the system.
Thank you for your vote of confidence. As some people have pointed out, I'm definitely one of those people who gets too serious when writing a fantasy story.
:)
To HeshGerlan:
Yeah, wish fulfillment power fantasy web novels tend to be very trashy if not flat out trash, although it doesn't have to be a bad thing. People need their daily escapism, and novel is one of them. Even if I personally always prefer video game over novel when it comes down to wish fulfillment escapism. I mean, why read about someone else's narcissistic daydream when I can just live through my own? Although I am very much annoyed at the over saturation of wish fulfillment power fantasy currently in the market.
Well... I don't want to give away too much on the political landscape in my story, since I definitely want to lean more on GoT like political drama than the original author. Hope you'll like what I planned later down the road.
;)
I see you figured out why I referenced BioHazard/Resident Evil for these two chapters.
XD
Jokes aside, I actually also stolen this idea from that Chinese Reprisal fanfiction. Where the substitute Sword Hero Aki Tomoya mentioned how in the game from his world, handing the miracle seed into the village would turn it into an 'Resident Evil' style dungeon where people turn into plant zombies.
Yeah, the cut off/censorship for this site is pretty dumb.