Author's Note: Okay so... been a crappy couple of days and they still haven't gotten back to me with my test results so... wish me luck. Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and Staysafe!
Amended Author's Note: Okay so Guess what!? I posted the chapter I intended to post next week today instead! So now I have to post the chapter I intended to post today next week instead! Hurrah! The good news is that there's going to be no real problem with seeing them out of order.
Chapter 54: The Island Nation
Passage through Siltvelt had been... difficult, annoyingly so in fact. Everyone looked like they had been ripped off that it wasn't Naofumi or Setsuna who had come to ask for their help, if not for the letter Setsuna wrote for the old Genmu they would've never made it this far. It was debatable how much they really owed her for that and vice versa, considering the fact that they were caught up in a massive typhoon and being assaulted by whale people.
"FUU!" Rishia was shrieking as she rode the spear C.A.D. through the air dodging shots of water and lightning from the whale people, doing her best to launch hit and run attacks against the whale people.
Tatsuya was not having better luck, more of the mystery pink weapons which Bitch used to seal off their abilities back in Melromarc. They knew that they were coming, if that wasn't readily apparent from the fact that they launched a unprovoked attack on a merchant vessel then there was the fact that there was nothing for him to copy. At one point they resorted to having Ryuteimaru fire bomb the surface of the water. The Whale people responded with some kind of fire proof rope and grappling hooks which they were trying to use to capsize the entire vessel.
"If you have any ideas Tatsuya the rest of us are open to hearing them!" Granny had joined Tatsuya's party via a process of elimination.
Ikki already knew everything she could teach him, Setsuna's knowledge of Ki manipulation outstripped her own, Atla's ability to manipulate Ki matched that of the old lady, with training she would exceed her, thus through the process of elimination Tatsuya was the one to get her for the next month. Not that it was currently helping them very much, not even a master Ki manipulator could punch the storm away, the whale people on the other hand...
"It has been a rough couple of days so I would appreciate it if you all would just settle down and go back to whatever depth of the ocean you came from!" If the way that she was bouncing their heads off of the floor of the deck was any indication it was very effective against them.
Tatsuya was not Naofumi, his weapon didn't have any support type abilities, and even if he did the blasted legendary weapon pacification field that the enemies weapons were spitting out meant he wouldn't be able to use it. The most that he could do was use Regrowth to heal them when they got killed or badly injured enough.
"I have an idea!" Tatsuya whipped out a silver horn, aimed it as high into the sky as he could, zapped a single drop of water, then hit the deck as fast as he could. The subsequent nuclear explosion left everyone on the deck stunned but uninjured. Except for Tatsuya but he just immediately used regrowth on himself. He found what he was looking for among the enemy forces, a spear of pink stone shaped like the wing of a bird and grabbing it from the whale man was as easy as lining up the spear tip with the jewel on his bow. The end result?
'Conditions Met. Sitera Stone of Destiny Spear Bow Unlocked. Equip Bonus Weapon Pacification Exclusion 4Hours. Main Bonus 60 Attack, Destiny Sphere Alteration, Legendary Weapon Pacification Field. Reinforcement 0/100'
Tatsuya whipped out the new weapon and took aim at the nearest whale at point blank range.
"Bam!" Head-shot.
"FFFUUUEEE!" Rishia's suddenly restored stats led her to a out of control crash into one of the whales knocking him out. Ryuteimaru and Granny took out the rest of them.
"Donatello." The Genmu that had joined them for the trip was currently working to transport the humanised corpse of the offending whales else where. "Do you have the means of keeping a therianthrope from transforming on the ship?"
"Yes. Why?" The Genmu had seen Setsuna in action, he was dreading the possibility that the other three might all have some weird power behind them as well.
"I wish to interrogate our prisoners." Tatsuya stated as he checked the condition of his 'healing gun' as Naofumi has been calling it.
"We have prisoners?" Donatello asked looking around him.
A moment after getting the anti-transformation shackle Donatello watched as Tatsuya had the dead whale person he had been carrying shackled and tied to the ship's mast. He gaped in horror as he watched Tatsuya reanimate the corpse in question.
"You get use to it." Rishia stated letting out her signature sigh.
"How are you controlling the storm?" Tatsuya asked as he forced the former whale awake.
"What makes you think I'll tell you?" The whale snapped not denying Tatsuya his theory. Tatsuya subsequently demonstrated to the captive his ability to revive the dead, and did so again, and again, it was around the fifth time Tatsuya was about to make the man die that he decided to start cooperating. "The water dragon is the guardian of Q'Ten Lo. Using it's power a barrier has been put up around the country that we can use to intercept any and all ships heading towards our borders."
"And why are you trying to kill us? Siltvelt is suppose to be your allies?" Tatsuya asked preparing to fire off a particularly nasty arrow.
"Siltvelt? Yes, reluctantly we have taken on a trading partner. But you 'Hero.'" The man spat the word like a curse, as if he rejected the very concept of the word. "Our country was founded specifically to be your enemy."
"Are you a ally of the waves?" As Tatsuya was asking that the storm was picking up in intensity. "We'll come back to that later. The water dragon, how do you tell it to stop the storm?"
"What makes you think I can do that?"
The ship had been caught up in a whirl pool now. Tatsuya began crunching the limited set of options that they had for dealing with this situation. Nuclear strike? No the chances that he'd hit a living thing were too high, meaning not only would his bow not let him do it, but in these conditions the attempt would cost him his Silver Horn. Flight? In this storm he'd be swept away still.
"Everyone grab on!" Tatsuya turned his bow into the rope bow and had the others tie it around them. They were all strapped down to Ryuteimaru, who was tasked with keeping all of them alive, a task that he was left helpless to accomplish as lightning struck him unconscious and they all took a dip into the ocean. Magic lightning Tatsuya briefly noted, fired from a being of great if not immeasurable power to be able to hurt Ryuteimaru. Then they all blacked out.
"Gou! Gou GAh!" Tatsuya awoke to the sound of coughing, his own to be precise, he noted that he should probably acquire a bow that would let him breath underwater. "Huu. I thought I was dead there for a moment."
"You were." Tatsuya immediately switched his bow over to something more offensive as he locked eyes with the blue Eastern dragon that had surrounded them. "If not for the remaining power in your body I was able to tap into you still would be. Very curious." Tatsuya's eyes flew through his H.U.D. Ryuteimaru, Rishia, Granny they were all dead, the Genmu was sitting a corner all by himself, being the amphibian he was but he was low on his list of priorities. "You have a limited amount of time to use that power don't you? I'd think carefully about the how."
The silver horns were sadly water logged, which was a shame because they reduced the stress placed on him by regrowth. Tatsuya ran priorities through his head and picked Rishia first, then Ryuteimaru and finally granny, it was only after he was done with his minor panic attack that he thought to simply use regrowth on the C.A.D.s.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Yes thanks to yo-FFFUUUEEE!" Rishia was only now noticing the other dragon in the cavern. It gave her quite a start.
"Don't worry, she was just about to explain herself." Tatsuya stated, Chimera Dragon Bow out with it's dragon slaying bonus. He imagined meteor shot with this thing would do quite a bit of damage.
"So I was. I require your help Bow hero." The dragon explained in no uncertain terms.
"Drowning us in the ocean seems like a funny way to ask." Tatsuya stated not loosening his trigger finger.
"So it was but I needed to bring you here, and after I saw your power I decided not to waste any time." The dragon stated bluntly.
"And why bring us here?" Tatsuya asked in return, deciding to add arrow rain into the aforementioned combination.
"I see you already have the Hawk's eye skill, see for yourself." And so Tatsuya did so, with no weapon suppressing field in effect he could use his skills again. There was a unusually large number of monsters in the streets, most of them unregistered and unruly, according to his molecular scan the levels of most of the civilians were quite low, and most of the XP in Q'Ten low was concentrated on various, he assumed, nests with powerful seals on them.
"Your country isn't being run very well." Tatsuya drily noted.
"No it is not. The country is under the control of a mad woman, she needs to be removed." The dragon stated bluntly.
"The soldiers we fought on our way here said that Q'Ten Lo was founded to be our enemies." Tatsuya stated finding it counter productive to aid such a country in their time of need.
"A misinterpretation, one that has been abused for the umpteenth time, and one of many things I would see removed. Q'Ten Lo exists because the Curse series are a thing." And how convenient it was that they had Malty's knife back when Naofumi lost his gods be damned mind to the curse series. Of course if not for Malty then they wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with. Speaking of which if they run into anymore reincarnators wielding vassal weapons...
"I will investigate your situation, for now. But I have a time table to uphold in Cal Mira." The Dragon seemed to roll her eyes to Tatsuya's statement, as if disregarding a rare doubled XP event.
"I will let you figure that out for yourselves then. For now my allies have some disguises for you." Tatsuya recognised the armour for archers that was in his size, Rishia and the old lady had been given a kimono a piece, Donatello heavy, bulky samurai armour, Ryuteimaru a length of rice rope typically reserved for shrine guardian animals in Japan. The dragon also did not miss the stone next to the rope and gobbled it up before Tatsuya could stop him. "If any monsters cause you any problems, leave dealing with them to your dragon. I have some influence, and my subordinates are able to countermand that ridiculous law passed by the emperor."
Tatsuya didn't like the sound of that, but the dragon had already left.
"Do what she says for now. Let's get these on." Once dressed in the clothing vaguely resembling his home Tatsuya started to have a look around. The area was impoverish, the people inside hiding from the monsters, and what precisely was a beehive full of giant insects doing in the middle of the street?
"There." Tatsuya pointed and Ryuteimaru took the lead scorching the bees and eating them with a satisfying crunch.
"What are you doing!?" A town guard walked up to them glaring accusingly at the lot of them.
"The question here is what are you doing?" Tatsuya glared contemptuously at the guards wondering how precisely a hive full of bees was able to be here in open sight of the town guard's without them doing anything to remove it.
"Can't you fools see that is a vassal of the water dragon!?" A red feathered bird man stormed over and told the two guards off. They seemed oddly relieved by said chewing out while the bird man led Tatsuya away.
While looking around for any sign of what he came here for Tatsuya couldn't help but notice that there were statues of creatures that could be Tanuki, slightly more raccoon like though but that could just be a matter of weighing less compared to the Tanuki statue that his sister bought while in Kyoto once. The bird man led them into a abandoned building that screamed hide out into the heavens so the group followed him inside.
"Perhaps I should introduce myself..."
"You're a Shusaku, the town guard's deferred to you so you rank higher than normal civilians but your armour's quality is too low to be a nobleman, so you're a head man or a rank equivalent. The callouses on your dominant hand indicates a administrative position though additional callouses and the wear and tear on that blade you're carrying indicates training with swordsmanship as well. There's nothing on your person to indicate your name." Tatsuya directed the thoroughly shocked Shusaku over to the nearby suit, one that he wore as part of his administrative duties that Tatsuya had correctly deduced. "The name on your cuffs is a better indication, a variant of the Demi-human language. Raluva if my translation is correct." Pulling a Sherlock scan had been a lot easier when you could instantly pull a molecular scan on everything you could make eye contact with. "As for the reason why you brought us here: if I'm not mistaken your emperor has passed a decree banning the slaying of monsters, very unfortunate considering the fact that means almost no one can harvest XP. Except for the ones who don't care about the law, and the ones the government gives permission to, among them the vassals of the water dragon. What this means in a nutshell is that powerful monsters are being allowed to roam free with no one being able, allowed or interested in dealing with them. Now I assume that means you want me to do something to un-fuck this situation, remove the idiots in charge, slay all the monsters, arrange for someone more suitable to take over, provide needed resources and man power. How much have I got right?" Tatsuya was getting tired of people expecting the four of them to wave a magical wand and expect all of their problems to evaporate. He did not choose to be here, did not choose to have this restraining bolt everyone worships grafted onto his body, and certainly did not choose to have people praying to him to fix all their problems, and coming from someone who has been trying to kill him that rankle went especially deep.
"It's good that you have such a firm grasp on the situation." Raluva did not miss the under current of anger in Tatsuya's voice, this situation demands delicate attention. "I do not mean to make this offer without giving anything in return. I don't know why they are giving them away but you will have cut off the Sitera destiny stone weapons that have been coming into the main land."
"What do you mean 'why they are giving them away?' Your entire country exists to kill us, putting them into the hands of the people who mean to do so is the most sound thing you people have done in months." Tatsuya stated glaring at the bird suspiciously.
"And if not for said gifts you would never know that we exist and we could kill you at any time. The only thing that the people in charge really care about is the possibility that the rightful heir of the royal family coming back for their birthright." Raluva stated bitterly, it certainly wasn't running the country that anyone gave a fuck about.
"Really?" Tatsuya looked at the bird man suspiciously. He was here because he was looking for the Vassal Hammer but other details sounded interesting. He'd have to discuss them with the others. "The current emperor is not the rightful heir?" Tatsuya asked dreading the answer to come.
"The current 'emperor' is a miserable little diaper squirt spoiled to his core and raised exclusively to be a puppet for the bitch who killed and exiled the rightful family eleven years ago." Clearly Raluva didn't have a high opinion of his ruler.
"Tell me about them. What species were they?" Raluva saw the hint of recognition on Tatsuya's features, the starting realisation of things falling together.
"Tanuki." Tatsuya let out a groan though Raluva continued anyway. "The prince eloped with a commoner, the Bitch used it as a excuse to have him removed from the line of succession and he fled to the main land. Why does this matter?" Tatsuya brought out the Crystal Ball Bow and showed some of the footage from the last team meeting that they held, with Raphtalia getting Naofumi refreshments in between breaks.
"One of my fellow Heroes companions is a Tanuki, ten years old." Raluva's face warped with realisation and horror.
"The Prince's child!?" She was the prince's spitting image, with more than a dash of her mother, she was beauty peasant blood be damned, no one could deny that.
"Possibly, Probably considering your people have been trying to kill us." Tatsuya recognised a situation going down the flusher when he saw one.
"We need to go get her at once!" Raluva snapped standing straight up.
"We need to get off this island before that." Tatsuya looked through his skill list and confirmed that he couldn't use the portal skill for some reason. He'd get to that in a minute. "Has the new hammer hero shown up yet, or failing that their would be weapon?" Because between the revelation about where the anti-hero weapons had been coming from and Raphtalia's sudden noble heritage someone had to remember why he was there in the first place.
"No." Raluva tightened and loosened his fist. "He was killed months ago, his weapon gone. We haven't been able to fend off any of the waves."
"How many have hit you guys?" Because this situation for some reason wasn't bad enough already.
"Three." Of course it wouldn't be easy.
"There's some kind of barrier around the country, how do we take it down? Is the Water Dragon responsible?" Tatsuya asked as he rubbed his temples trying to figure out a way of solving the situation.
"No that would be the Sitera Lumina's." Raluva stated letting out a exhausted sigh as he went to show Tatsuya something.
"Sitera? That's the same name as the destiny stone weapons people have been trying to kill us with, is there a connection?" Tatsuya got up to follow Raluva out, if whatever it was could be seen from here that would reduce the complications of the situation.
"I do not know, only what the source of this madness is." Raluva pointed over at a familiar sight to Tatsuya, a massive cherry tree off in the distance at the edge of the town.
"The Sitera Lumina is a tree?" Tatsuya asked cocking a interested brow.
"Correct." Unknown to Raluva, Tatsuya who was standing behind him took out his Silver Horn and took aim. "There's six more like it dotting the countryside, my town is charged with gathering the resources to help maintain this one. I can get you close enough to launch a surprise-" Tatsuya fired a single psion burst at the tree, after a moment of what looked like static the entire thing was turned into white misty vapour and drifted off into the air.
Tatsuya felled trees before with an axe, therefore they are not monsters, he can destroy the Sitera Lumina with whatever tool that he likes. Raluva's face had been frozen solid like he had stopped processing reality, Donatello was in for a lesser but expected surprise after watching Regrowth in action. Rishia snapped them both back to the present as the town was giving off a similar reaction.
"You get use to it." She replied sympathetically.
Tatsuya sent the bird man a party invite but with his delayed reaction to reality it took a minute for him to accept it, even though his town was thrown into a panic Tatsuya gave zero damns about the enormity of what he had done as he portal back to Melromarc, of course he made sure to register the spot he was standing on as a portal location too before he left with his party.
The group appeared in Melromarc's summoning chamber, the queen had been intelligent enough to station someone outside of it to go get her whenever one of them appeared.
"Where is the princess?" Raluva stated having already deemed Raphtalia the heir of his nation.
"Cal Mira, she and the Shield Hero are hunting a dangerous criminal that we believe wants to make use of the anti-curse hot-springs. We have a hour until we can use my portal skill again so lets discuss our next move with the Queen shall we?" Raluva nodded his head as the guard came in to inform the party the Queen would be seeing them now.
Raluva and the Queen talked at length with each other as they detailed precisely what was going on in Q'Ten Lo. It was worst than he thought over there.
"All life is sacred?" The Queen asked perhaps mishearing Raluva's explanation.
"From the Monsters of the Wave to the animals in the countryside. Non may be harmed." Raluva reiterated, more anger in his voice than the first time he said it. Well that's a bloody disaster waiting to happen.
"And the Capital has been moved?" The Queen once again asked for clarification for a blatantly stupid decision made by Raluva's government.
"Apparently the sun in the old capital was too harsh for the Bitch's skin." That had caused anger, and it wouldn't just be in Raluva.
All of this had a disturbing amount in common with Japanese history, which probably meant that their own warring states period was just around the corner. Setsuna wouldn't be happy about that, she'd sooner see every head in the government severed from their shoulders before she'd let history repeat itself.
"And you think young Miss Raphtalia is the heir of your country?" The Queen had negotiated with Siltvelt concerning the settlement of the Seatto Territory, one of the absolutes that her husband had made and which she conceded to was that no one of demi-human noble blood be there, less the Seatto Territory be merged for a power grab. Besides the Tanuki tribe had been few in numbers in Siltvelt, and rarer still in Shield Freeden. The prince and his wife must have been in one of the poorer territories when Siltvelt started picking through it for colonists to send to Seatto.
"I swear my life to it!" Raluva stated with zeal in his voice.
The Queen closed her eyes as she thought about the situation for a moment.
"The support I can give you is minimal. Q'Ten Lo is half the world away, if it's a army, it has to be Siltvelt. But I've seen them first hand myself. These four heroes are not weak." The Queen stated, the startling sight of the miniature sun in the sky Tatsuya created still vividly in her mind, and watching the four of them unleash their ace abilities to take apart the boat hero.
"This I understood." Raluva also vividly remembered the sight of one of the sacred trees of his home land up and vanishing into thin air. "The four of them intend to meet on Cal Mira. I would be very careful not to kick Q'Ten Lo's hornet's nest while over there."
They could reasonably assume that Raphtalia was being watched, had been since the day she had been born. Naofumi wouldn't be happy to hear that, reluctant as he might be to admit it. Raphtalia was as good as family at the point, and you can bet that if someone had put Miyuki through what these Q'Ten Lo pricks had put Raphtalia through there would be a row of bloody fence posts with heads mounted on them.
"I'll be off then, I have my own ability to communicate with your Raccoon princess." And thus Tatsuya left with his party members for Cal Mira, the time had come to raise some bloody hell.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Takt has appeared already, more will be appearing soon after Cal Mira is dealt with.
superpierce: Getting cooked to death and eaten like a pig seems like one.