I've been rewriting a lot.
I don't like how the first 2 chapters turned out. I want to rewrite them in the future. After the first 2 chapters, I'm also changing my style.
I can see the other side of the rift. The sensors were showing an unstable world before they shut off. I must check it again after I'm there. I'm really worried. I might need to leave as soon as I entered if the situation is too bad.
My feet are crossing through the rift, the ground is far. My parachute is a little ragged, as I did not have any good fabric to repair it in the last realm, but it should be enough.
Crap, I will land on something that looks like a church. They made the roof out of thatch, I hope it won't collapse. I might miss it. Nope, I had to get stuck. My parachute is hanging from the top of its tower, and I'm also a bit tangled up in the ropes. There is no saving it. There are a lot of monsters down there, and it looks like they are being fended off by a guy wearing nothing but iron armor with a familiar-looking yellow jewel sitting below the chest piece, and a girl with a giant pair of scissors. As far as my scanners go, the armor one seems to be a Legendary Hero, and the other one is a Vassal Hero. And yes, this world is as unstable as it gets. Is that the only Legendary hero left? It looks like there is magic here, so I should see which magical material retained its function. Manasteel should work, and It looks like the fire crystal ammo I copied for it should also work as well.
I'm also picking up a strange signal from the girl. It's not like the one that Vassal Heroes give off...
After switching over to the thing that my weapon just dubbed M242-MS3, I unloaded 2 cartridges into some of the monsters near me. My damage output is smaller than expected, but I don't seem to be in danger. I have to start cutting my ropes as well.
" Look! " said the girl with the scissors, pointing at me.
Yeah, I do stick out like a sore thumb, and their expressions are not nice. I can't fight them. If these guys are the only heroes left, then I can't let them die. They are taking up a defensive formation. I hope it's not those guys, murdering heroes again, I'm tired of them. I only have 3 charges left that I can use to kill them without a risk of them coming back, after that I have to return to base. I turned back to my parachute and resumed cutting away at the cords. In under a minute I was almost down. And pretty soon, I was falling.
After landing I immediately start to mow down the next wave of monsters. Those should not be this strong… They started to run. I'll just support them from behind.
"Steady Aim!" I exclaimed, activating a skill that allowed me to lock on my targets.
They don't fall as quickly as they should but I can see that my damage output is rising with every kill. I'll be back at my normal levels soon. The vassal hero seems to be struggling. That is really bad news. I am gaining levels quickly, I'm already level 20.
A giant bee has shown up, some of my sensors are beeping, that must be the boss. Every monster in this wave is some sort of bug. The fire ammo was a good choice.
It releases smaller bees as its attack. Let's see, I got 3 more grenades left. I could use one if I can get it to swallow it. The hero takes up a defensive formation and blocks the attacks from the boss. The girl is using string(?) to tie it down. I run into a nearby building some kind of watchtower, I should be able to get to its head. Jumping down from its top, I can get close to it's screaming mouth. Good, I threw in the grenade, and it swallowed it. 3... 2... 1. That did it. Another 2 levels. I'm already at level 60. That is bad news It's really not supposed to give this much, but at least my strength can be up to the task.
With the boss down now, the girl takes a defensive position in front of the hero as both of them face me.
I throw my rifle to the ground. Luckily it can stay a few meters away from me. I don't know how they will respond to the gemstone under the barrel. My hands are in the air, they can see my every move. They are still on edge.
"I came to help."
"Damnit! Now we have to fight a space marine?"
"A what?" exclaimed the girl.
"I'll try to explain later, just finish him!"- said the armored hero
They are still on the edge, and they clearly think I want to kill them. Not like I didn't expect that.
"Good, so you know what I am. I'd very much like to keep moving, as there are people in this realm who want to destroy your world and take your weapons. As I said. I'm here to help you fight them back."
"Why would we trust you?" the girl holding up her scissors against me.
"Why would you do that? Whatever, let's just get it over with."
"Look. You know what my weapon is. You saw me fight. If I wanted to kill you, how hard it would have been to take out your companion from behind when you started to run for the boss?" I hope it works.
He's looking at my gun, and then at me.
"S'yne, pin him down!"
That's bad, I'm unarmed and they still come after me. No wonder, this world is extremely unstable, multiple legendary heroes must be down. I quickly throw out a flashbang and pick up my gun in the confusion.
"Binding Wire!" Shouted the girl.
Blinded by my flash, she missed... That sounds like a skill I should avoid. I ran behind a building. They should be looking for me. Dang it, I'm not allowed to fight them... My sensors are picking up something. Someone's coming. They're really fast.
"Found you!" shouted the stranger. He should not be here this quickly.
I peek out, they already engaged in with him. He grabbed the girl's weapon, he's taking it now.
"Steady Aim!" I locked on. The handle is heating up.
"Switch to a soul striking weapon!" I shouted at them, before shooting him in the head, switching to Spirit metal ammo. I can't let him reincarnate. Before he dies, I deploy one of my magnetic field projectors, It will prevent me from teleporting away, but I don't have a choice. I did not expect to use it this soon, 2 more left.
"Soul Piercing Shot!" Aim, fire. Unloaded a cartridge in him. Got his soul, now in pieces. I lower my gun. The girl looks confused, as her weapon returns to her.
"That was close."
"He was after the Sewing Kit?"- asked the armor.
"Yes, they can take your weapons. Luckily, I managed to finish him off before he became a threat. Now, will you listen to me? Will you believe me?"
The girl is holding her weapon tightly to her chest.
"Who are you, Stranger? You don't look like you belong here..."
"I know. My name is Gallchobhar, call me Gal."
"And you say you're here to help us?"
"Yes."
He's thinking. I hope I have proven myself. He has seen me kill a guy who was able to take his companion's weapon. He sent out a party invite. His name is Hisato, and the girl is S'yne. I hope I can get them to cooperate.
"It's too noisy here. Come closer, S'yne will take us to our camp."
Light engulfs the area around us, and then we were nowhere to be found.
"You have a lot of explaining to do." - Said Hisato, the Armor Hero.
Let's see. we're in a cave. S'yne is still hugging her weapon. She headed off to an area that's cut off by curtains. The "door" is open, and it's full of... Stuffed toys? Okay. She covers the entrance behind her.
"Are you listening?"
"Oh yeah. Your world is under attack, and that's probably a thing you know."
"I can tell that much, Some of the of the Heroes have been already killed."
That's really bad news… If he's the only one left than our options become very limited.
"Let's sit down." He guides me to a fireplace, with logs as chairs around it.
"You say 'my world?' Like it's not yours?"
"You're picking it up quickly." that's good. "I come from another world, like the guys who invaded you." He has to understand what situation he is in.
"If you are the only Holy Weapon Holder in this world, then our options become extremely limited."
"Can we do anything?"
"I'll be blunt. Our options are: Use one of your guardian beasts to build a barrier that can prevent the waves from happening again killing roughly two-thirds of your population in the process, or you have to die, so new Heroes can be summoned."
His face goes white. "Are you sure those are our only options?"
"As you have probably seen, the waves get harder the more Heroes are missing. Your waves are extremely difficult."
"They were difficult for a while, but we can handle them."
"For how long? Do you have an endgame in mind?"
"This is not a game!" At least he understands that much. This term is something that can be used to judge a hero's character.
S'yne is coming out of her little tent(?) with a plush resembling… Hisato in his armor (?), and a brown piece of fabric.
"Are you alright?" I asked her.
"Yes..." She's a little anxious. I'm not surprised. I did go through what she almost did once. She hands me the fabric. It's a large cape.
"Yeah, my armor does draw too much attention. Thank you." She smiles slightly.
"I'll go out to do some gathering. I'm low on fabric."
"Are you sure you'll be fine alone?" Asked Hisato.
"If anything happens, I'll teleport away as quickly as possible. Besides, I can move faster alone."
She can't go out as is. I remove one of the sensors from my belt.
"Take this. It will make a noise if it detects one of those guys nearby." One of them already assaulted us, I have to know if they show up again. I pick up my gun, pull a switch on the side, a small ball falls out the gem "If you're in trouble, and can't leave, throw it at a wall." My teleport skill is extremely limited as I can only go from one point to another, but at least I can give it to people to put down the endpoint.
"There are more of them?"- She looks a bit afraid
"It will only work until around sunset. It will help you to keep an eye out." There are roughly 2-3 hours until that, I do not know how they measure time here. The battery does not last for too long.
"I'll try to be back before that, then."
Hisato puts his hand on my shoulder.
"We can trust him." After he said that he looked a bit surprised.
"Yes, we can. What is that?"
"Sorry, I think I just copied your armor." Oh. I wasn't thinking about it, but the armor did seem to be his legendary weapon.
"Is it good?" I smile at him
"I'm leaving now." She looks a bit annoyed. Oops.
"Bye. Don't be out for too long!"
"Come back safe!"
I fall back on the log next to the fire.
"Is it safe to let her go out alone?" He asked.
"If something happens, we only lose one weapon. It's cruel, but I don't think we have a choice." I hate doing this… "I hate doing this!" Did I just really yell that out loud? I can't let it fall!… My gun flashes red.
"You've probably seen many worlds fall, why are you still doing it? Not like I'm complaining."
"It's a job that needs to be done." I can't let it happen again. My gun flashes red again. He's looking at my gun.
"Are you waiting for me to shoot you?"
"No, no! It's been a while since I've seen anything similar. Sorry."
"No problem."
"So, you're coming from another world, and you came after these guys who invaded us."
"I'll be brief. These guys are running around, trying to destroy worlds. Their motives are not exactly clear right now. They have people who can steal vassal, and legendary weapons and they seem to want to amass more power."
He places his hand on his forehead. He's thinking.
"Let's get ready to make dinner, we'll discuss it tomorrow. " He looks worried "How is that even possible… I know that there are a few people who seem to be interested in murdering the Holy Heroes, but we know that there are ones who try to kill all of us to be resummoned, hoping that the waves would reset or something. But this is on another level."
"We're still trying to figure it out."
After we prepared the tools for cooking, he changed into my armor, then we started to discuss the abilities of his new weapon.
Around an hour has passed.
"She's taking too long."
"Well, if something happens, I will know it."- My belt started to beep. The familiar icon shows up in my view, displaying the other side of my teleport skill.
"Well, something happened"- I pick up my gun and shoot the other side on the wall.
"RUN!"- we run through my portal, and find S'yne in combat with a fat guy, who seems to be using some pretty strong magic.
Hisato runs in, as he does not seem to be able to take weapons. I raise mine and start firing, he blocks it with some kind of shield. Not a physical weapon, more of a magical barrier. Hisato is taking a lot of hits, but he seems to be able to handle them.
"Is that all you've got?"- Is he laughing at us? - "I wonder what will drop after I'm done with you!" - S'yne is on the ground… No. It can't happen. I did say that it's less of a risk to lose her, but I still can't let that happen! I feel the heat in my gun.
Hisato jumps in, and tries to punch him, he dodges but holding up a shield against me slows him down.
"Binding Wire!" S'yne tries to pin him down. With Hisato and me taking up his attention, she manages to successfully restrict him.
"Seal Punch" Hisato punches the guy, and the shield is gone. My bullets hit him for a few seconds.
What? A ball of fire is coming to the battlefield, it misses but still knocks her out. I see that the doll that resembled Hisato is next to her as well. Was she using it for something?
"This thing is stronger than I expected!" I hear someone laughing. Hisato looks confused than afraid. He picks up S'yne and is running! I follow them while keeping an eye on the fatso, and the unknown element.
"What's going on?"
"That attack. I hope that I'm wrong. From what you said, it might be the Holy Ring."
One of the Legendary weapons is being held against us. That is not good. Well, we can't avoid that confrontation. If we can't kill him then we can't win.
I see a rain of ice heading for us. We can't dodge it. I start to shoot them out of the sky, but I'm not quick enough. I can also see him closing in on us.
"Well well, if it isn't the 'hero' who got lost."
"Hisato, can you teleport out?"
"No, I can't!"
He's messing with us.
"How it feels like to fall victim to your toys? You do seem to be leaving these behind really frequently." He holds one of my disruptors in his hand, power is flowing into it from his hand. More precisely his ring. The gem on it looks familiar. Don't tell me. Do not tell me that they control a Holy Weapon…
"We'll have to look at this little thing later. I would not have expected a world like that to produce something like this. You want to delay the inevitable, don't you?" I'm growing tired of these loonies. They all play high and mighty while waving around strength that was not meant to be theirs. The same game over and over again…
"What do you want to do with the Ring?" Hisato shouts at him while getting ready to fight.
"The power in it is amazing."
"What will you do with it?" The hero questions.
"Some people would have higher goals, aspirations or objectives. But I'm happy as long as I can have some fun with these toys." He just called one of the most powerful objects in this world a toy? He's among the most annoying opponents I've ever faced, and the list of annoying opponents I've ever faced is a quite long one.
I stop running, Hisato runs past me. I notice the doll in his arms alongside S'yne. She fights with those. I aim my gun at him.
"What do you want? You know that we might be able to get it more conveniently, than the one that you've been offered!" I hope it works… It already did a few times, they don't usually have much loyalty.
"Hahahaha" What's so funny? I hate maniacal laughter...
"Look. I don't really care what you say. I don't really care what they say. I'm only it to mess around."
They really found someone like that. They might also have predicted where I'd be next, and they had to know it for a while… That's bad. He really just wants to mess around? No motivation? Not power, not woman, not a specific goal? They usually still have one, it does not matter how bad their personality is.
"You won't make me stop. You can't make me stop. I will take this power for myself."
"Take it and what?" I shout at him while looking for an escape. Hisato is far away enough. I got an alarm. During the next wave, I'll get a package. I have to escape, there is no way I can defeat him.
"Take it and have fun with this power in a different world. I have no other desire. You can't show anything to me that would change that… I already finished off one of m supposed teammates because he refused to hand over the ring." He kills his own team, for things he perceives as toys… Yeah. This guy was chosen explicitly for us. I have to kill him, I can't talk my way out.
I aim at the projector and fire off 1 bullet and hope I hit it. The device explodes in his hand and he's thrown back from the explosion. He definitely was pushing more power into it than intended.
I start running and hope that the explosion disturbs him enough to get me further away. I increase the power going to the motors in my leg and keep running. Let's see if I can contact the unit that Hisato copied.
"Hallo," Yes it connected!
"Hisato, where are you headed?"
"Did you finish him?"
"No I only managed to knock him over, now I'm running. I increased the power in the armor's legs, From what I can tell he already lost me, but I was supposed to catch up with you by now."
"I've headed to a friend of the Ring Hero. I think I see how to send the coordinates over."
He figured it out. We only went through basic controls and that was already a lot. It looks like I went down the wrong path, but I should still be able to get there by sunset.
I did manage to meet up with them on the way to this friend of theirs. My alarm started to ring on the way but seeing no potential enemies around, I put it on silent. I also made sure to wear the cape S'yne gave me.
"They are not after you, right?" Hisato asked.
"I made sure to leave no easy to follow trails behind, we should have at least two days. Also, I'm detecting an enemy nearby, but the signal is weak. Be prepared for an attack."
"I guess we won't relax from now on."
We seem to have headed to a larger town. Hisato told me that this friend is one of the innkeepers. They used her rooms as their base when they were here. The town was in ruins tough. He said that the remaining people moved into the sewers. With him and S'yne showing that they are heroes, we should not have any problems getting in. Apparently, a lot of the tools used to pretend to be heroes were already lost.
The walls are destroyed, clearly won't protect anything. The roofs are burnt and collapsed. Most of the building walls still seem to be standing, but monsters already made nests among the ruins.
When we arrived at the remnants of the gates but we did not enter that way. Instead, we kept on going to the river flowing next to the town. We approached a large pipe, that has been blocked by a wall, and got a small door on it just large enough for one person to go through… They don't seem to use carriages anymore. I can also see a pile of broken bricks nearby.
"Our markers to this town got carried away in a bandit attack." S'yne explained. So that is why we had to walk. Hisato told me that their teleport skill works by placing small marking pins on the places where they want to teleport. If it moves than the point also moves. They can also observe the area around the pin.
As we approached the gate, a window opened with a person pointing a crossbow at us.
"That kind of weapon was really hard to figure out. It can deal large amounts of damage, even if the user's stats would not allow it" Hisato explained. "It's also very hard to make, so we only have a few of them."
"Don't you see who we are!" He shouted at the gatekeeper, arms out, pushing his chest forward to make the gem visible. The woman(? I see long hair I think) signed with her hand to come closer. They opened the gate for us. I have gotten some suspicious looks, but they don't ask any questions. Most likely because I'm with a Hero.
"I think this is what a Legendary Hero would describe as `post-apocalyptic`, right?"
"You must have seen a lot, yeah. That is how I'd describe it." Hisato nervously answered my question.
They are holding up, but I can see a lot of skinny children, who seem to have their makeshift beds aligned around the walls. This is not good. Are there enough souls left to support the barrier? If not, then we're going to be in big trouble. I'll have to ask them about the status of their protective beasts.
After entering the door, I see the remnants of an old sewer pipe. Although, I can also see that it has seen better days. Segments of the pipes are missing, and those parts are being held up by wooden beams. It looks like the mixture of a mineshaft and a sewer pipe.
They lead me to a hole in the wall. It looks like it was meant to be an inn/tavern of some sort. A short guy is greeting us, he has a lot of bottles behind him. Definitely a tavern for sure.
"Hey, A'rula!"
"Greetings, Hisato it's been a long time. Have you finally decided to stay in the city?"
"No, we'd still like to keep a lower profile. Have you seen Tsuyoshi recently?"
"Oh yeah, he left about an hour ago. You might have just missed him"
The signal is stronger now, but I can't get a direction on it.
"Did he find any new rings I should be aware of?" Hisato asks him while keeping a straight face. I doubt that Tsuyoshi would have survived after that guy took the Ring.
"Yeah, he found a rare metal with some interesting properties, here take it."
He pulls out 2 chunks of ore and 2 pieces of metal ingots and hands them over to S'yne and Hisato.
"Do you have more? I'd like to experiment with it."
"Let me go to the back."
After he left our view, I whispered to Hisato.
"The signal is stronger, but I can't get a direction on it. He must be in this city."
"That's gonna be a problem."
He returned with a bag full of rocks.
"This is all I have of it."
"Thank you."
I hope I can get my hands on that ore. It never hurts to have a new weapon.
"And who's this new fella'?" A'rula asks while pointing at me.
"We met him on the way here. He's a strong warrior."
"I see. Can you actually trust him?" I guess he's right.
"He has shown his loyalty time and time again, in a way that I can't deny. He also made us stronger."
"I see. Anyways, what you think, how much his help will contribute to finally stopping the waves?"
"We'll have to see. We're definitely onto something."
"Great! I hope I can get back to my usual business as quickly as possible. I can give you a separate room for the night. On the house of course!"
Hisato looks at me. I nod. We should stay here to find the target.
"Fine, we'll accept your offer."
"Good, good."
So that's settled we took in a small room that was clearly designed for one person but had four beds in it. The walls were raw stone and dirt, and it had a small lantern hanging from the ceiling.
"Let's see what it unlocks, we can look after the invader when we have a location."
We take the ore and let our weapons absorb it. S'yne also takes her doll and starts working on it.
SSMG-375 `Meteoric` (C/empty)
Ability Locked:
Equip bonus:
Skill: Cosmic Shot
Attack +3
Equip effect:
Low Gravity
Mastery level:0
Magazine size: 40
Caliber: 9mm
Range: 2000m
I swap into it. What does "low gravity" even mean? Feeling lighter, I do a light hop and subsequently hit my head on a ceiling beam.
"What was that?" S'yne exclaimed. Hisato is chuckling.
"This weapon has an equip effect called low gravity."
"Now what?" S'yne looks confused, Hisato bursts out laughing. "What's so funny?" She looks really embarrassed.
"That weapon really gives you low gravity?" He's laughing. "It gave me `Starline Shield`, and `Weight Reduction`" He turns over to S'yne "In a nutshell, as you could see, it makes him fall faster, and jump higher. Also possible run faster." She nods, a little confused.
My alarm is showing a direction, the enemy is on the other side of the door. I quickly stand up, leaving a surprised pair of heroes behind me, and I aim my gun at the door.
"The enemy is behind the door!"
They stand up and get ready for battle. The Hisato doll reanimates and gets ready to attack.
"Get behind us, don't show your weapon yet!" Hisato whispers in my ear, I back off.
Someone is knocking on the door.
"Who's there?" S'yne responds.
The door opens, it's A'rula I don't see anyone behind him.
"Greetings, I brought you some dinner!"
Could he be the invader? No. They must be doing some tricks, and I have to figure out what. The sensor looks for a very specific signature that they receive after getting power.
Hisato and S'yne relax.
"What?" The innkeeper asks, slightly confused
"Nah we just had a bad feeling about something," Hisato responds.
"You don't need to worry. We already survived several attacks, without any breaches. Now have at it!" A'rula responds really happily.
He closes the door.
"Well, there was no enemy there," Hisato says to me, disappointed.
"I have a poison detection ability. Can I at least check it?" I have to know if my detection can fail. My hand is smoking. Hisato looks at my hand.
"Okey. Checking won't hurt, but you should calm down."
Without a response, I take a chunk of the food and put it into my weapon.
"Nah?" Hisato is impatient.
"It is poisoned." That is what I see. "If you have a poison detection skill, use it, I want to be proven wrong..." I don't want to be right.
They both check it. Their faces go white. One of the inhabitants of this world turned on a legendary hero. Their friend tried to kill us while pretending to be nice. My gun is smoking. I can't fail like that.
"Calm down!"