Author's Note: So then as one arc closes another one begins, well time to learn how to kill a god.


Chapter 82: The Guardian of the North

Kuro had been practising tracing for a few days now, on the one hand the recent crafting bonuses she had earned had dramatically reduced the cost of Tracing her Noble Phantasms and locked sword transformations but on the other hand she still couldn't use them directly and so instead had to make use of the 1000 sword's skill instead. Still the cost of Mana was pretty high when most of your stat boosting equip bonuses are locked behind an absurd level wall. So she had to make do.

"Is there a single weapon left that increases my mana in this thing?" Kuro let out a sigh as the Weapon sought an answer, and eventually came up with an answer.

'Mana Grass: A Low quality grass typically used in the brewing of Low Grade Mana Potions' Not to mention 'Mana Potion Sword: Mana Regeneration: Extra Large' Kuro let out a sigh, they were a few blades she had left that still worked after twelve rounds of 'Crafting Mini-game.'

"Alright. Let's work with this."

That night Kuro went around the country of Melromarc, buying, plucking, occasionally stealing as much of this Mana Grass material as she could get her hands on. With this in mind she dismantled her Mana Grass Sword and reinforced the Mana Potion sword, then she re-unlocked the Mana Grass sword, dismantled it a second time, and reinforced the Mana Potion sword again. Doing this eight more times Kuro unlocked the 'Mana Sword.' So naturally she did so again, and again, and again. When the pile of Grass disappeared Kuro went to the Bio-plants, their leaves had received special modification so that they could be used in the production of Mana potions. Eventually Kuro reached her limit on the number of 'Mana Swords' she could unlock, Twelve in total, one for every ten levels. Each Blade went through additional reinforcements by the Legendary sword dialling up the amount of mana each one could produce, not nearly satisfied yet Kuro Traced the blades and re-copied them into her legendary sword until she reached the upper limit of what they could do with her current level.

"Well, at least my Mana is back to what it used to be." Kuro stated as she dismissed the sword's transformation and got up to stretch. "With this method I can at least get my stats back up even if the number of hoops I have to go through has gotten stupidly high." Kuro looked down at the sword in question as her brow twitched. "This is all your fault. Use whatever material that is inside of this sword that you have to to fix my stats. Now."

'Understood.' The sword had the common decency to know when it was being threatened at least. The others should be doing something similar right now, Kuro would trace the weapons they unlocked and upgrade them later, so even if they no longer had their skills they would have their stats. Though without her 'Cheat the law of cause and effect' ability their rate of doing so would be a lot slower. "The most that I can do to fix this situation is go grind monster materials." Since she would be going out to collect materials from weak monsters anyway Kuro figured that she might as well take the slaves to go grinding with her and so went to round them up. "They're in Q'Ten Lo?" Kuro asked looking at Tanya confused.

"Raphtalia said she was taking over their training." Tanya replied doing paperwork. "Apparently the Heroes from the other world left quite an impression on her."

"Isn't she really busy?" Kuro seemed to remember hearing Raphtalia complaining about a giant pile of paper work her aides were conspiring to bury her in.

"She also took Elena and Eclair with her." That made more sense.

"Well, I still need materials from low tier monsters to get our stats back up." Kuro stated holding her hand to her chin.

"What kind?" Tanya had a pen in her hand as she reminded her associate what position she holds.

"Porcupine quills for attack, leather for defence, Feathers for speed, Slave ink, monster blood and hair, human blood and hair, demi-human blood and hair for growth bonuses, Mana Grass for Mana recovery, Healing Herbs for health recovery, Fish Bones for Spirit..." In short, lots and lots of junk. This is the kind of stuff people normally throw away they won't have any trouble collecting it all.

"Consider it done." It would be best if they get all of the Slave Growth bonuses out of the way before the slaves start levelling seriously. It would be really good if they could get Growth corrections out of this as well.

"In the mean time Raphtalia explained to us a method to unlock weapons a little more efficiently than what we have been." Tanya put down her pen as she finished with Kuro's list. "You're not gonna like it."

In short, first they find the weapons of the gods, their swords, their shields, their spears and their bows and they copy them, then they use them while throwing themselves into the thick of danger day after day breaking down the seals their weapons have put on their transformations ostentatiously for their own protection. And then they sacrifice a piece of themselves to those weapons, and the monsters trapped inside give a piece of themselves back in trade, or they create a shift in their personalities to achieve the same effect.

"I've got a few weapons of the gods in this thing but..." Kuro didn't have to say it.

"Don't. We'll never be able to unlock it if you do." Tanya stated as she let out a sigh. The Quality would sky rocket then, into the tens of thousands. "In the mean time, do you have any idea where or how we can find these divine armaments?" Kuro shook her head in the negative. "Go talk to Maple for me would you: her party has been getting... concerned."


On a mountain, a purple ball was bouncing it's way down, every time it would connect to a monster of any sort it would release a pulse of purple energy wiping out all the monsters in the nearby area. To Maple's surprise she unlocked yet another familiar skill from the 'Shield of Poison' that she got from reinforcing the Yew Wood Shield: Venom capsule.

'Venom Capsule: a skill which creates a trap. Whoever steps onto the trap is wrapped in a ball of poison continuously dealing damage over time until the capsule is ruptured.'

How Maple uses it: create Venom Capsule, step onto it herself and get wrapped in a ball of poison she's immune to anyway before she rolls down the mountain, bump into monster, use 'Enhance Potion Effect' together with 'Extend Range Small' 'Medium' and 'Large' to create miniature poison bomb and exterminate monsters in the area. Of course Maple's damage was still pitiful even after she reinforced the Poison Shield, but it was long lasting, poisonous, paralytic and acidic in other words, damage over time, immobilising and reduces defences. Maple's party were staying far away from this walking natural disaster, going behind her with the closest approximation to hazardous waste suits as they could to collect the inedible corpses she left behind in her wake and dumping antidote in every river, stream and pond that they could. Eventually they found their hero at the bottom of the mountain, so dizzy that she could puke nearly passed out in a puddle of her own poison.

"Hey guys." Maple was still dizzy when she sat up when she saw Rifana, Keel, and Filo looking down at her in disgust, with buckets of antidote.

Maple was made to sit on the back of the furthest wagon from the front of the Filo led caravan, supposedly to think about what she had done this day. Instead Maple was looking down at her shield in thought. She recalled the lecture about the Sacred Gears Bason had given her, of the god like creatures who sealed other god like creatures into weapons and then beat each other over the head with them. Well, isn't that basically what she had done with Ost? Her flesh, her blood, her bones even her very soul had unlocked weapons inside of this shield, bits of those weapons had been carved off and used to make new weapons. And then a thought occurred and she brought up the Shield of Compassion. To be more precise, the shield Ost had integrated her soul into in order to suppress Maple's curse, formed from a cluster of stories about people who opted to fight fate, sometimes losing, but most of the time winning. Gluttony was no more: dismantled and left in a pile in the corner of whatever Imaginary work shop this thing is running to upgrade her shield transformations. In it's place compassion was allowed to flourish but now Maple was getting ideas, like for instance 'Isn't Ost basically a god?' Few among the shields that Kuro had not the chance to upgrade was the Spirit Turtle Series, with exception that is to the one the blacksmith had made from Ost's shell, nearly two dozen shields with the Spirit Turtle prefix that she got from feeding bits of Ost's body and the abominations Kyo had made from it into her shield. Even if you discount the latter Maple figured that she had enough Spirit Turtle Shields to max out Compassion. And so Maple dismantled the shields she got from Ost's body, reuniting them with Ost's soul one by one until she got a new notification for them.

'Conditions Met. Guardian of the North Unlocked. Main Bonus: Seal Breaker, Illegal Move Triana, Wrath of Nature'

Maple blinked a few times as she observed the new notification. She would have to get an expert to look at it but based on where she was going she had to get scolded again.


The Queen's servant pored a cup of tea for Maple while the Queen herself sat across from her, she was doing that thing she does with her fan again, when she uses it to hide her face and radiate displeasure with her eyes.

"Cream Sugar?" Such blatant displeasure though didn't mean the queen had forgotten her manners.

"No thank-you." It did however remind the young Shield Hero that she had been bad.

"I shall get to the point then." The Queen closed her fan as she opted to get down to business. "I have been waiting for an explanation as to what you were doing in the mountains." The Queen used her free hand to receive a survey from Trash and opened it to read. "Reports have come in over hundreds of dead monsters rendered completely inedible, part of the forest that has died off, and some sort of 'Exploding Death Boulder' rolling down the mountain."

"I have a good reason..." The Queen's face said 'I am waiting' but at the same time she was way too domineering. Every time Maple goes out grinding an environmental disaster ensues. "I was trying to come up with something to try and suppress the Phoenixes."

"Explain." Trash spoke up this time, standing at the Queen's side like a loyal old hound dog ready to sink his teeth in at his mistress's command.

"Well. Basically..." Maple locks herself into a venom capsule again and gets catapulted into the Phoenixes by Tanya while using the same skills as before, the Phoenixes get hit by an attack that renders them paralysed and weakens their defence at the same time so that they can tie them up easy and drag them where they need them to go.

"She's right." Trash replied after shrugging his shoulders. "It is a viable strategy, albeit one that requires refinement." The Queen unfolded her fan and fanned herself as she took her husband's words into consideration before snapping it closed again.

"You're not in trouble." The Queen eventually decided. "My foolish daughter still owes you an apology for everything."

"Melty?" Maple asked genuinely confused. "No." The Queen was about to explain to Maple but saw into her eyes.

"You genuinely don't know who I'm talking about do you?" The Queen debated the possibilities. Was Maple being affected by another cursed weapon? Unlikely seeing as how there's no glow of cursed energy in her eyes. Did she hurt herself when she rolled down the mountain? She didn't look injured, and it was highly unlikely any way given her ludicrous defences. Then a thought occurred. "Do you still remember what happened to you after you were first summoned?" Maple made a sad face at that.

"Please don't mention that again. I've been trying to forget." The young shielder had been more successful than she realised, she had already forgotten one of the ring masters. It helped that as far as Maple was concerned Malty was probably the least memorable part of the whole situation.

"My apologies." The Queen raised up a bell and shook it.

A young red headed maid was made to enter the reception area while carrying a tray of cookies, who then took one look at Maple before she started to get zapped by her slave seal.

"What's her deal?" Maple asked looking at the woman in confusion.

The electrical zap had stopped. The red head looked at Maple in wide eyed shock. The Truth of the matter was that Maple had only ever seen Malty once or twice, neither occasion had anything to do with her trauma. Oh sure Maple understood that it was one of Katarina's former companions that tried to have her killed but she was never told which one, and if she had been neither of them were really worth remembering.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with." The Queen took the tray and put it on the table before shooing the unimportant person away, said unimportant person promptly fainted and two more maids had to drag her off.

"More Tea?" During her Trial Malty had claimed that Maple had been too scared to do even so much as face her, Maple just faced her and couldn't be bothered to remember her face. "Any more plans for the phoenix? If you intend to go dumping poison into the countryside again I must insist on assigning Trash as a temporary party member." The Queen had been amused by her daughter's antics, however briefly, but this was first and foremost a business meeting.

"Actually I wanted to go see Raphtalia in Q'Ten Lo and consult with the ghost there." Maple explained as she ate one of the cookies and drank the tea.

"Yes. I was hoping to speak with him too." The Queen had a clear sparkle in her eyes as she tried to hide her smile with her fan. The Queen was a known fan of the legends of the heroes, now she could bear witness to one of those legends in the flesh, so to speak. "Shall I arrange a diplomatic visit?"


Humans, Tanuki, Sakamata, Wanui, Selwel, Genmu, Lemo, Shukaku, Filolial, Jewel, Elf, Dwarf, Spirit. Between the Slave trader offering his wares and the refugees of the other world a vast and diverse fighting force had been raised, and Raphtalia would raise them the same way she was most recently raised. One extensive combat training including learning advance weapon handling and participating in body mastering exercise, two repeated spars in which the Hengen Musou style is utilised in a high Ki dense environment in the mountains, three training in understanding the Dragon Pulse magic and the methods to make full use of all the energy around you and finally four, a massive diet consisting of food that had been specially prepared for Stat Boosting, Nutrition, Weight Management and keeping you regular. After that it would be off to the monster nests to level up until they hit twenty at which point most of them would be fully grown, and then Tanya would run them through the gauntlet that is basic training. This would be the army that would oppose the Directional Beasts, and the god that they were meant to chase away. Raphtalia could give instructions to them from afar using her illusions, which also freed her up for other work.

The bonus from the Hammer of the Beast King let her see her entire country all at once, and make modifications as necessary. Word was already spread through the cities, towns and villages of Q'Ten Lo about Raphtalia's miraculous power to make the landscape obey her, reshaping mountains, roads and rivers at her convenience while at the same time growing forests and buildings directly from the ground. Her people were actively worshipping her as a God on Earth and thus she was rapidly accumulating the 'Worshipping points' that she requires to fuel this thing's miraculous abilities. In but a few days time you would never know that her country had been ravaged for over ten years by one woman's foolishness as her people were fed, sheltered and happy.

"I might've over done it." Raphtalia commented as she looked at the fortress castle that hadn't been here this morning. It started as a hut but as she kept rapidly adding buildings to the surrounding area, her advisers chirping in her ears with suggestions while work crews constantly dumped materials into her hammer, things sort of just got out of hand.

"Indeed. I have little to complain about in this situation though." But he did have things to complain about was Raphtalia's deduction. "There are still matters of administration that need tending to in the Capital, even with the assistants you brought." Elena and Eclair both had skill in administration, one was raised into the position but Elena was the one who thrived in that position. Why? Because Elena was truly lazy. She could spot the most trust worthy and effective people to manage a given mess, minimise her own work load and still make enough time for herself that she wouldn't go crazy in the process. Good thing too as this was still too much work for someone who was still basically ten years old to do.

"Raphtalia!" The Tanuki in question rapidly turned her head to spot Maple. Yes the barrier that protects the country from people teleporting in and out as they please was still active, but at Raphtalia's request a boat had been parked off shore that the Heroes had set as one of their Portal locations in order to rapid transit into the country itself. In this case Maple had been accompanied by the Queen. "We came to visit you!" Thus Raphtalia summarised what she had been up to these past few days to Maple. "What did that weirdo do to you while we were on the other side?" Maple asked while looking at the people Raphtalia had been training.

"Nothing I didn't need to learn." Raphtalia countered as her administrators kept calling after her.

"Excuse me I have to deal with these people." On a unrelated note, Raphtalia turned her hammer into a giant Poki hammer. "Is there anything else you need your majesty?"

"I merely wished to congratulate Q'Ten Lo's young empress while I was here." The Queen stated snapping her fan shut as she curtsied to Raphtalia.

"Oh? So you don't want to see some of our new tourist spots around Q'Ten Lo?" Raphtalia smirked as the Queen unfolded her fan in front of her face with a wry look on her features. Raphtalia gave the diplomatic party an escort before she went to deal with her own house.

Bason's shrine had been rebuilt into a full temple, and Shildina had been assigned the task of priestess along with several Spirit people.

"Is he here?" The Queen whispered in Maple's ear. "I can't see him." To answer her question, yes Bason was floating in front of the entrance to the temple waiting to greet Maple arms crossed. It was a mystery to say the least, he should have all the same components as the Spirit people, yet normal people could see them but not the ghost. Mysteries never cease.

"The Hero of the shield and the Queen of Melromarc give greetings to the Great Bason!" Maple shouted as she clapped her hands together and bowed, the Queen following suit.

"Save the show for the tourists. You'll probably find a bundle of them wandering around somewhere if you look hard enough." Bason had mixed feelings to Raphtalia opening up the country to the outside world but needs were what they were. "What did you come here for?"

"She is a tourist." Maple stated indicating the Queen while she held up her newest shield transformation. The Guardian of the North was a humble little thing in its current form, taking on a small jade coloured shield spreading outwards from a single crystal where Maple's Legendary Weapon jewel could be seen. Bason blinked in surprise by what he saw but he understood immediately.

"Leave the woman to the priests. Come with me." Maple did so following after Bason. "I certainly didn't expect one of you to turn a directional beast into a Sacred Gear." Bason stated as he led Maple somewhere private.

"It was... unavoidable." Maple replied sadly.

"So it was." Bason didn't dwell on it though. "What is it called?"

"Guardian of the North." Maple replied as Bason thought about it some more.

"In China the Guardian of the North is called Xuanwu, also known as the Black Warrior, a hybrid of Snake and Tortoise who governs the Northern Direction, all things water, and the Season of Winter." Which if things were different about the shield would probably explain a lot, except that this thing held power over nature, not winter.

"But it says it's all about nature, and green stuff." Maple stated voicing her confusion.

"So it does." Bason simply shrugged his shoulders. "The Spirit Tortoise too was strong in the Wood Element, or perhaps you didn't notice the forest on its back?" Well, she can't argue with that. "You have little time before the Phoenix awakens. For the time being you need to work towards unlocking Balance Breaker."

"Balance Breaker?" Maple wasn't sure what that meant but she was familiar with the term.

"Firstly. All of your weapon's sealed transformations will be unlocked as you work towards it." Oh. So that's what Seal Breaker meant. "Secondly a Balance Breaker is just that: The power to upset the balance of the world. Even if the whole world is your enemy it is said that a Balance Breaker will be able to break the stalemate." Bason explained and Maple nodded her head in understanding. "So how do I unlock Balance Breaker?"

"Danger." Bason stated without beating around the bush. "You will have to put yourself into a state where you're in almost constant danger for an entire month, afterwards you'll induce either a Physical, Mental or Emotional change in yourself to break through and obtain the power necessary to achieve Balance Breaker." She knew it wouldn't be that easy.

"What kind of power does Balance Breaker give?" Maple asked as she debated the benefits of doing this to herself.

"There are multiple ways to manifest a Balance Breaker but the long and the short of it is that it's a reflection of the user's desires and will. You could manifest a powerful set of armour." Not unlike the Shield Armour Maple had been wearing during the entire conversation. "Vast offensive power." Like turning into a giant cyborg dragon to rampage and tear through entire armies with stupid amounts of ease. "You could summon the creature inside as an ally in battle." As if he was called Syrup and appeared in their small form and landed on Maple's head. "In short, go where the world takes you, but move quickly. The phoenix will not wait forever and I would rather not see it turned into another Sacred Gear." Bason explained as Maple nodded her head and left, notably not rejoining the Queen's party. No matter. Bason hears that good things happen when she is left alone by herself, who knows, she was the first of the Four Heroes to unlock a Sacred Gear, maybe she'd be the first to find Balance Breaker too.


Review Section:

RonaldM40196867: To an extent. She has more to learn yet. Chapters 81-100 are dedicated to grinding, side missions may be a part of that, they may not.

Nightshadegirl: It is.

Dakota Bruder: I'll take your word for it. There's no reason why it would be different, Roach was only able maintained the link using a weapon stealing accessory after all.

Galeon82: Was implies past tense. True. Kuro might be perverted enough to make it work.