Author's Note: Nothing to say right now. Read. Review. Favourite and Enjoy!

Chapter 65: Return to a Far Away Place

Raphtalia and the others were the ones who were predominantly holding off the army of Shadow Kahn as Maple fought against Terrakudo. Currently the two draconian creatures had gotten into a fist fight, Terrakudo was at a slight disadvantage on account of having only the two arms compared to Maple's six. He hadn't even used the Book Weapon the whole fight, then again considering that it couldn't change forms at the moment coupled with it's relatively small size odds were good that unlike Kyo he couldn't even use it. That wasn't to suggest he was short on tricks though, augmenting his punches with gravity, earth, water, wind, fire and lightning to add enough bite necessary to compete with Maple's defences. Just as often, the Demon Dragon Shield would absorb that ludicrous offensive power, weaponize it, and send it back where it came from usually through one of Maple's guns fired at point blank range. If it wasn't for all the ways he could use healing magic Terrakudo would probably be dead right now.

"So much for 'Magic Must defeat Magic!'" Jade commented for some reason switching over to a thick and hoarse Chinese accent. "Well at least she's keeping that thing busy for us." Jade took several items out of her weapon, most notable being a large octopus-like tentacle. "Alright: this should cover symbol of the Chi Wizard who originally defeated Drago." Among the things that was taken from the Great Demon Sorcerers were bits of Drago's flesh, so any spell that can send Drago back to the prison dimension should work on this schmuck at well, in theory anyway. As Jade was about to finish casting the Chi spell Maple suddenly had a conversation with someone else before she rendered the work she was just doing effectively pointless when she football tackled Terrakudo and flew off into the air using her guns to shoot herself forward carrying him as she flew towards the capital. "What just happened?" Jade asked looking deeply confused. Then someone tapped her on the head and she looked up to see Raphtalia and the others standing over her.

"The capital, where the wave is taking place. Now."

"You're crazier then I thought!" Maple pile drove Terrakudo into the ground before transforming back into her human form and flying off again quickly finding who she had been looking for when she did so.

"L'Arc!" Maple shouted as she landed in front of the man in question. "Is everyone here part of one party?" Maple asked as she looked around.

"Maple what's wrong!?" L'Arc however saw the vaguely fearful look on Maple's face and he got a bad feeling that it had to do with something that wasn't the giant demon monster she just tackled into the middle of the wave.

"What's wrong is that we've got less that five minutes to add everyone here to the effect of dedicated affection before Tanya destroys the entire area!" L'Arc did a pretty good impression of fish bobbing it's mouth but they had no time left. Terrakudo was already standing back up so Maple instead had to stack together as much defensive power as possible.

"Shield Wall!" The Equip bonus of one half Leonidas the 1st's Noble Phantasm the Thermopylae Enomotia summons three hundred of Maple's Air Strike Shield's to form a massive defensive wall with which Maple can do as she pleases, like for instance... "Change Shield: Rho Aias!" Oddly enough another Shield half of a Legendary Shield Spear combo: in this case it was the legendary seven layer shield that was capable of stopping any attack dead. Thus each of Maple's Three Hundred Air Strike Shield's each transformed into a pink diamond shaped shield and split into seven individual shields which then formed a tube surrounding Terrakudo. "Tri Force Shield!" Those 2100 shields were reduced to a mere 700 as they were combined into even stronger shields to wrap the demon Chimera's form.

The technical term for what Tanya was trying to recreate was 'Project: Thor' though in truth she only heard about it in passing back in her original life. Imagine if you will a telephone pole made entirely out tungsten weighing approximately 2300 pounds dropped from the international space station onto a target that you would very strongly like to see not only destroyed but annihilated in it's entirety, for those who have no imagination they can instead think up a meteor falling out of the sky and destroying a entire city in a instant. Tanya was close: She had Kuro rig up a balista armed with Tungsten spears that she could weapon copy, followed that up with applying Gravity and mass increasing magic to increase their mass over ten times heavier then what they had been originally and afterwards she fired that over the top contraption directly into the tube shields that Maple had just so generously made for her. The resulting impact slammed directly into Terrakudo, crushed his stolen body, was transmitted through the ground going into and then bouncing off of the leather/bronze shields and struck Terrakudo for a second time further crushing his body. Having pulped the demon like a orange the Spirit Tortoise's energy flowed out of his body and into Maple's Spirit Tortoise core shield while the Vassal book, it's accessory that was binding it having been crushed when it was hit by the equivalent to a nuclear explosion, flew the heck out of dodge while it still could before someone decided to drop the wrath of god on it again. As Maple was about to move again her shoulder was grabbed by L'Arc.

"You have less than two minutes left, you need to get through the portal before the wave finishes or both your world and mine are doomed." L'Arc warned his voice carrying the full gravity of the situation.

"But I don't know where Raphtalia and the others are and I'm not leaving them behind!" Cue Jade portal-ling back with Raphtalia and the others. "Go! We can't afford to keep you waiting!" Maple reluctantly nodded her head as she had the rest of her party climb onto her mech suit and took off through the crack in the sky.

That however left this mess to clean up. Even after being reduced to Hamburger by Tanya's attack Terrakudo was somehow still alive, between Kyo's immortality and his pre-existing status as a disembodied spirit in a physical body Terrakudo's hamburger like form was being pulled back together. If anything being made to shrink back down after losing the Spirit Tortoise energy actually helped him in the process to put him back together again.

"You're looking a little worst for wear there Kyo." L'Arc stated as he prepared his Soul Eater Scythe to take Kyo's head off of his shoulders.

"Don't kill him." Jade stated as she finished the preparations for her ritual. "After the other demons were killed all their chi was pulled back into this guy, which means that he's our only means of sending it off before it contaminates the wildlife."

"Do you have a plan to do that?" L'Arc asked eyes landing on the tentacle Jade had brought out. "Something to do with Octopus bits?"

"Repeat after me." Jade stated clapping her hands together. "Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao!"

"Spirits, Demons, Ghosts, Monsters Quickly Leave!" L'Arc attempted to repeat the chant but Jade just glared at him in response. To be fair the auto-translate function on her weapon threw her through a loop too.

"On second thought just let me do it. Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao!" The tentacle started to glow a bright sea foam green and L'Arc used his scythe and foot to pin the reincarnated demon to the ground as he tried to get up again.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you." Naofumi pointed behind L'Arc, where a cross between a unravelling scroll, a Torii Gate and a sinister green glowing portal appeared and was stretching open.

"Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao!" The gate released green tendrils of energy and grabbed hold of Terrakudo as he was trying to flee, but demonic Chi was being rapidly drained from his body as it's original owners worked to reclaim what they had lost before eventually the reincarnated demon was sucked inside and the portal closed.

On the other side of the wave a bundle consisting of a mech-suit with several people holding onto it for dear life crashed into the ground. No sooner had Maple passed through the portal did Sadeena run her Harpoon through the skull of the boss reaping it's XP and taking it's soul in the process, because why not? She was after all way behind in applying power up methods.

"Maple!" Katarina ran over to the shielder gave her a twirling hug, Kuro put her into a head lock and gave her a noogie, while Tanya on the other hand...

"Do you, have any idea, what has been going on over here since you left us thinking you were dead again!?" Tanya asked accent thick and bow drawn.

"Tanya, let's talk about this!" Maple was slowly backing away as Tanya prepared to release a skill.

"Don't worry, you're pretty sturdy and you have healing magic besides the point, so I can vent a little anger right!?"

Six hours later Tanya was sitting inside of a dark room where a international conference was being held discussing their next approach to dealing with the crisis, crisis-es, threatening the world.

"For the first order of business, there are the things that Maple brought back from the other world, and the matter of the people that will be needing to be relocated as well." Tanya made sure that the subject of 'Things' and 'People' were clearly separated so that she could keep anyone from getting any funny ideas.

"The World is already in the middle of a refugee crisis, we don't need a bunch of otherworldly squatters moving in now do we?" The leader of the Faubrian camp stated somewhat callously.

"Shieldfreeden's people will collect all the relevant information and then make a informed decision on the matter." A person who could best be summarised as 'Goat Fish Person' announced from the Shieldfreeden corner.

"I agree with our counterparts from over the border." Oroko stated tapping fat fingers together. "Surely people from an entirely different world would have something worth knowing yes? We see it all the time with our various legendary heroes."

"There are two major technologies of note they are bringing with them: The Return Dragon Vein and Shikigami's." First thing was first, the Return Dragon Vein. "Using the Dragon Hourglasses as the base, they have successfully built a network capable of transporting a individual from one hourglass to another instantly, as well as creating a accessory capable of transporting normal people to the site of a wave without the need for a hero." The country leaders nodded their heads in understanding. This would massively improve their ability to respond to the waves and strike back at them, not to mention that their ability to do business with one another just skyrocketed. "The difficult part though would be establishing this transportation network with the wild Hourglasses." Tanya would be seeing to it that all the waves are addressed, even for Fitoria who is the one going around smashing all the waves in the wild her ability to do so would be dramatically enhanced with this network.

"It will require some considerable reworking of the area's around the dragon Hourglasses." The Queen stated as she closed her fan. "I suppose we'll have to repurpose the church headquarters." The Queen stated oozing with false reluctance and sympathy.

"Continuing on. This next one also works with the dragon hourglasses. They are called Shikigami." Tanya opened up a video that Maple had captured in the other world, of Syrup and his going to town against the mass produced Spirit Turtle, Ho oh and Byakko copies. "They're a type of controllable monster made using bits and pieces of other monsters as material and brought to life using the soul reservoir power of the dragon hourglasses. As you can see if raised properly..." Tanya of course indicated the miniature Spirit Tortoise that was blasting with energy beams, slashing with vines, taking clusters of enemy forces and turning them into meteors... "They have the potential to be formidable combatants."

"Do they though? This one appears to have been created from Spirit Tortoise material." Oroko noted leaning back into his chair. "Well even though I say that it's not like we're short on that." Last he checked there was a literal mountain of it.

"Moving on to the people that came through." Tanya produced a hologram of Therese. "This is a Jewel. Some of you might have heard information about them before but this is the first time we have anything in depth." Tanya explained as she was about to go into the messy details. "They can be considered a part material type species. The gemstones found sticking out of their person in a variety of different places seem to be the core of their person. In anticipation of reproduction they swallow one of these stones and once the classical reproduction process is complete the child is born with one of these stones sticking out of their body somewhere. According to the information from Maple I received they are a considerably advance race with hands stuck into every field of research and are responsible for many advance technological innovations, such as those we've already discussed. They will fit in well with the smith's of Siltvelt and the weapons builders of Faubrey." Several people made painful faces at that, with the Jewel people being directly compared to the more technically advance of the nations Tanya was effectively telling them to 'take these people in: immediately.'

"Moving on." Next was a picture of Glass. "This is a Spirit. They are a vaguely ghost like people who do not gain power in a conventional sense in comparison to most everyone else. Rather than XP, Health or Magic, they singularly have spirit power."

"Spirit power is the energy that only Heroes can use correct?" The Queen asked as she attempted to get a grasp on the situation.

"Until now it would seem. It does have it's pros and cons, on the one hand is the considerable amount of power they can spit out at a time, but on the other is that their lives would be put into considerable danger if they get into a drawn out battle. The good news is that this vital energy that is a measure of their raw power, health and mana can all be replenished easily via two methods. The first is to be given it by others, since it is something that the rest of you don't use I personally recommend it. The second is to absorb it from the monsters that they kill. We though have a convenient third method." Tanya held up a bottle of something also commonly known as 'useless liquid.' "Spirit Healing Water, something most of you have no use for yet you all keep it in stock anyway because heroes need it." The self proclaimed Merchant Prince of Zeltoble, whom Tanya could swear up and down they bankrupted, was looking at the potion bottle with hungry eyes.

"Moving on." The last two images was of an elf and a dwarf, according to the information from the weapon book they're classified as human subspecies in the same way that the Tanuki is classified as a demi-human subspecies. Then came the other thing that Maple brought back with her. "Sadeena seems to have received a upgrade while she was over there, she is now the Hero of the Harpoon. And also has all of that world's reinforcement methods as well." The leaders had no words, just mouth's which were bobbing like fish. "Some of them are effective on other people. We intend to start taking the slaves that were bought in Zeltoble and other refugees and use them to mass produced enhanced soldiers for when the time comes to capture the Directional beasts and fight the waves again." The senators faces screwed in disbelief.

"Capture?" One of them offered hesitantly.

"Correct. The Directional beasts are pivotal to the continued survival of this world and those who live on it. Rather than be surprised by my statement: it is a simple fact of the matter we have no other option but to capture at least one of the directional beasts and have them put to use for us." Tanya explained her point of view though the people she was talking to were still sceptical.

"Is this even possible?" The closest thing Faubrey currently has to a senator asked hesitatingly.

"Currently? No." Tanya explained prompting a groan even as she got the rest of her information ready. "The countdown in the corner of my vision informs me that we have three month's until the next directional beast awakens. In that amount of time myself and the other three heroes will raid the remaining two dungeons for their divine magics, find the remaining seven star weapons and suitable wielders for them, build a way to efficiently siphon XP for the captive directional beasts in order to restore the barrier protecting this world and eliminate all of the reincarnated on this world. Any questions?" Some of the senators blinked stupidly a couple of times. "Good. As we just discussed I have a considerable amount of work to do in the next few months if there are no other concerns then we will contact you again as we need your assistance." Tanya cut them off before they regained their senses and breathed out a sigh. The room brightened up as the blinds opened letting morning sun into the small room aboard The Kaiser, Tanya's personal airship Rat had made using the Interdimensional Krakken Materials. Their port of choice was the Seatto Territory with quite a few passengers aboard.

"This is a good opportunity to test The Kaiser's hauling capabilities." Eli mentioned, which was another way of saying 'Sir, I don't think the ship can make it back like this.'

"Break as necessary, with luck there won't be need for large scale transports like this in the near future." Besides, the real prize today was the materials taken from the wave, which led to the next subject. "Put a line into the mad doctor." One of the hologram projectors from before opened up to reveal Rat as she was finishing the autopsy on a large mass of black scales. "Status report."

"I've salvaged a good chunk of materials already, sadly though they're all dragon materials." Rat stated making a exaggerated put upon sigh.

"The result of your tests?"

"Aye, it's as we predicted: it looks like a mixture of human and Dragon DNA. It's a Aototsu." And Rat brought up a image of which human specifically it was related to, a certain bubbly shielder.

"So it's part Maple and Part Dinosaur Dragon?" Tanya asked for confirmation.

"Tyrant Dragon. But yes." One of the dragon Emperors, and not a weak one based on the chunk of dragon emperor core that Maple showed them that one time.

"If you're not too picky about which one it should be, then this thing would be a good foundation for a directional beast." Rat explained indicating the monster behind her. "Salvaged a lot of unfertilised eggs from this thing's ovaries, now we just gotta find a suitable dragon to fertilise them." Not to mention the Dragon cores taken from Kuro's one time slave, the Tyrant Dragon, Takt's harem, any number of cores being held in reserve, they should have a awakening of a Dragon Emperor soon enough.

"Send word to Shieldfreeden, specifically any members of the Aototsu tribe willing to talk to us." Tanya replied bluntly.

"Aototsu? Why?" Rat asked prompting Tanya to roll her eyes. "Maple is the Shield Hero, a god to the people of Shieldfreeden, right?" Rat nodded her head. "And the Tyrant Dragon is a Dragon Emperor, who are worshipped by the Aototsu as a god specifically, correct?" Rat nodded her head again. "Which are both things they want to knock up correct?" Rat was suddenly hit by whiplash by the relatively obvious statement.

Maple was sitting on the deck of the airship as it touched down in Seatto, bandages covering injuries that weren't there when she came through the wave. Seatto had been rebuilt since the wave, or more accurately regrown. One of Rat's innovations with the Bio-plants, if she can build a ship out of them she supposed that she can build a village with them. Even if she has never been here before Maple could tell that there had been a recent expansion, Bio plants were dotting all over the place and not just the fruit bearing trees she was familiar with, several of them were also shaped like buildings, a coral reef was off the coast of the village with several blocks sticking out of it in the shape of buildings that people were going in and out of.

"Bio-plant buildings? Coral?" Maple asked looking confused.

"That was Rat's Handiwork." Kuro stated as she walked in behind Maple. "Turns out that the Beast King weapons can combine different materials together that we're keeping inside of the weapons. According to the instructions for the damned thing if we actually owned any land we could convert the materials into buildings and have them grow directly out of the ground." Kuro explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Wait if you guys don't own this place then who does?" Maple asked as she looked around confused.

"You do." Kuro stated bluntly.

"...what?" Maple certainly didn't remember buying a village before.

"We used your stash you had on your carriage." Kuro explained simply.

"The emergency money I left for my party if they needed anything?" Maple asked for the sake of confirmation.

"Well we thought you were dead." Kuro stated bluntly. "That's what happens when you eff off to other worlds and don't tell anyone."

The ship jolted as it landed onto a purpose built rack with the people below looking up at their arrival. In particular Rifana, Keel and Eclair all received a message in advance that four people thought to be dead had returned to the world and were now on their way to see them. They didn't look happy. This building in particular was the tavern/meeting hall of the village, most recently it was the origin point of a loud smack that had echoed out.

"I hope it at least stung!" Keel snapped as they silently mouthed out 'Oww!' and began working the soreness out of their hand from smacking Maple in the face. The thing was it did a little more than sting, Maple head felt like someone used it as bongos. Now probably wasn't a good time to ask about how they did that, what with Eclair, Rifana and Keel all standing looming over her like three angry judgemental tigers. Maple stood up and bowed her head before all three of them individually.

"I'm sorry for making you worry." The deeply apologetic Hero stated miserably.

"We were so pass worrying!" Rifana snapped clearly displeased.

"In a good way?" Maple asked legitimate optimism on her features.

"In a bad way!" Rifana snapped back, justified as in her opinion there is no point in worrying about someone whom you thought was dead. "In a very bad way!" Rifana opened up her shirt to reveal the slave seal that was still there Maple's thought to be dead status be damned. "Do you think we just got these convenient instantaneous communication over long distance tattoo's just to ward off slavers!?" Clearly Maple would be receiving lectures on the daily for several days going forward.

Review Section:

RonaldM40196867: True. Usually. Both options still suck, in one you die and end up as possibly literally anything: We've had people getting reincarnated as orphans, slimes, eggs, VENDING MACHINESSS! Reincarnation is a pot luck, there's a one in a million chance that you're still gonna be human, and then a one in a thousand chance that you end up as someone whose life doesn't objectively suck. If you get summoned then someone summoned you, if they're not a idiot you're going to come over branded with a magical slave brand that makes you obedient, or something to the same effect. What's worst is that assuming you're not the kind of nihilistic shut in with no friends and family then it means that you're going to spend the rest of your existence cut off from everyone and everything you've ever knew or cared about. In Short, Isekai is existential horror, period.

Captain Imaginat: Thank you for saying so.

Galeon82: She'd have to meet him first.

Nightshadegirl: Wish Granted.