Chapter 36 – Simmering Anger

It was quiet. Peaceful. Unsettlingly so. It didn't feel right.

With a jerk, Dante shot up. His eyes darted around, spotting the familiar decorations of his room in Siltvelt's castle. Something was wrong, he just didn't know what.

"Little Dante?" He heard Sadeena say next to him. She seemed to have woken with a start. If he had to guess, she had been holding his arm during his sleep.

"Sadeena…" Dante seemed to realize what was off. He first noticed that he and Sadeena were clothed, or as clothed as she normally was. He had on shorts and a shirt, what was basically worn under his armor. What else he realized was that they weren't the only ones in the bed. Next to either leg was Dio and JoJo, both in their human forms.

"Are you doing better now?" Sadeena asked, placing a hand against his face.

"Better?" Dante brought his right hand to cover hers. "What do you mean?"

Sadeena made a face at that question. "You don't remember? Yesterday…"

Dante tried to recall what she meant. It was the day of the wave. They fought against…clown monsters, he believed. There wasn't a wave boss, but they ended the wave. On the way back to—

"The village!" It was coming back to him.

The village in was in flames. The people were slaughtered in the streets. The knights, they surrounded a pole in the village. Gloria was tied to it, dead. Eddy and Mary were dead on the ground. Those bastards—

"Hey!" Sadeena's shout brought Dante out of his thoughts. Her other hand held the other side of his face, keeping him focused on her. "Look at me, Dante. It's…I know you aren't okay. But I need you to stay calm."

"Calm!?" Dante yelled. "How can I be calm!? Those murdering little shits killed my…my…" His breathing became heavy all of a sudden. His mind raced, unable to slow down. One thing he realized, however, was that the knights couldn't have killed his family.

They were long dead.

Dante felt arms wrap around him. Sadeena had slid behind him to hold him. "I'm sorry, little Dante. I'm so sorry that happened."

He grit his teeth. Having her hold him…it didn't make him feel any better. He wanted to run out of the room and find those knights.

No, those knights are…

"Dad?" JoJo looked up from his position on the bed. Dio had woken up too.

Dante let out a sigh. "Hey, kids." He said, as calmly as he could. "Sorry if I woke you up."

In response, the two of them moved up and latched onto Dante's sides, intertwining with Sadeena. "We can stay here all day." Dio said quietly.

Dante had a pained expression on his face. He almost wanted to move the pair off of him. "No. We have things to do."

"You can take all the time you need." Sadeena assured him.

"I said no! We need to…" Dante snapped, but cut himself short. He wasn't sure why. True, he was mad—no, furious—about the knights, but he knew the three of them were only trying to help. There was no need to lash out…

Panicked, Dante brought up his shield arm. When he looked at it, he found his shield in the same color variant form he left it in. The different colored shields he got from weapons he copied provided decent stat bonuses and they were easy enough to sleep in.

"…Sorry, I didn't mean to yell." He said, trying to calm down. "It's just…I'm having trouble remembering. Or, I was…"

He let a few more images from the previous day flow into his mind. The burning village, the knights, the fight…Yes, he remembered now. After the commander showed off what they did, Dante ordered everyone…to kill the knights. A battle broke out.

No, wait, that isn't right. When the commander said that, I froze up. Then…Raphtalia. Keel too. They both attacked the knights first, then I ordered to kill the knights.

"You remember then?" Sadeena asked.

"Parts of it." Dante confirmed. "What happened after we fought the knights? How many did we question?"

Sadeena stiffened. "Little Dante…you killed the knights we captured. Even the ones that surrendered…"

At her mentioning, the images returned to him. True enough, everyone but Raphtalia and Keel worked to apprehend the knights. Even Dio and JoJo did their part, held back by Sadeena's words. By the end, over half were dead, including the commander. Then…

"Wait, I killed them?" Dante asked. "What, with a spell?"

Sadeena shook her head. "That spiked shield you got from the last wave boss."

"No way…" Dante murmured, even as those memories returned to him as well. He even recalled gripping a knight by the throat and snapping his neck, something Dante shouldn't have been able to do.

He brought up his status, hoping to find something that explained it. When he did, he found something extremely unexpected.

"My stats shot up. Even my attack stat." Everything was increased, but especially his attack and defense. His defense now was better than when he was fully armored and had his spell cast. His attack was about half of that.

What is this? Why are my stats so much higher now? Did I unlock a bunch of shields or something? I don't see a Rage Shield on my arm or anything. Wait, the Dark Tyrannosaurs Shield itself has a much higher attack now!

"Does that have something to do with what happened?" Sadeena asked.

"Maybe, I'm not sure." Dante said. It was possible he unlocked a curse series shield, but it seemed unlikely. He'd told Sadeena about the shield Naofumi used, though he left out the conditions to unlock it at the time. She didn't say anything about anyone getting cursed, and the three of them looked fine, so that wasn't it. Of course, if those conditions were met, then…

"My arm kind of itches." Dante remarked, looking over at his left arm. He almost sighed when he did. Where his arm should have been was a shriveled up, black rope-looking thing coming from his shoulder. It almost looked like ash, and it looked like parts had broken off in his sleep, if the soot spots on his bed were any indication.

Well, shit, I guess that seals it. I'm cursed. That would explain the general anger I'm feeling, even towards these three. I'll need to try keeping a lid on it.

"Well…let's get this day started." He said, gently ushering the three off of him to get up. There were a number of things he wanted to get done before Zeltoble's wave tomorrow. Even if they couldn't get finished, he wanted to have them started. "Shadow!"

"Yes, Lord Shield?" At his call, the rat therianthrope appeared next to the door of the room.

"I don't know what you have going on, but if it's not urgent, drop it." Dante said, looking around for his armor. He found it next to the bed, the small cacodemon sleeping just inside the breastplate.

"What is it you wish me to do, Lord Shield?" The shadow asked.

"The knights that went with me killed everyone in Korokan village." He told the shadow. "I think the commander mentioned something about Gloria…about Cassia being a witch. It sounds like fanaticism, but I want it looked into anyway."

"At once, Lord Shield." The shadow bowed, disappearing from sight.

He wasn't the only source Dante was going to rely on. Once Dante got dressed, the first thing he planned on doing was seeing Werner about what happened. If the Shusaku didn't know anything, he'd have the man get an investigation going. Depending on who said what, and what was true, Dante could determine who he was able to trust.

"Help me get suited up, will you?" Dante asked Sadeena. Without another word, she rose from the bed and started grabbing parts of his armor.

"Hey, Dad?" JoJo said with trepidation in his voice.

"What is it?" Dante asked, his voice becoming calmer.

JoJo wringed his hands before speaking again. "I'm sorry your friends…" He couldn't seem to finish his sentence.

Dante sighed and shook his head. "They weren't my friends. Not really. They just looked like them."

Sadeena jerked with his breastplate, having already fitted him with the chainmail under-armor.

"What?" He looked over at the orca woman.

"You said that yesterday." Sadeena told him softly. "When I was consoling you…you said those people weren't actually your family, they just wore their faces."

"Oh…" At the very least, during his blackout, he still understood the truth of the situation. He shook it off and turned back to JoJo and Dio. "If anything, I'm sorry to you two. I know you liked to play with the kids there when we visited."

Since it was so close to the capital, Dante hadn't bothered setting up a portal location there. He'd need to replace one of his current locations, or increase the level of his skill, to increase the number of saved places anyway.

"Mm." Dio nodded sadly. By the end of the visits, those two were the ones who wanted to stay longer. Dante's attachment to the family was superficial.

Once he was armored up, Dante took a look at his status.

God, I feel like I could take on the waves by myself now. My spells, plus my current attack power, not to mention my ridiculous defense, I have almost nothing to fear. I'd just need to take out any enemies capable of defense rating and defense ignoring attacks and I'd be good.

While Dante was marveling at his heightened stats, he noticed something. His defense just went down slightly. No, not just once. It continued to slowly decrease.

"The hell…?" Dante stared at his status screen.

"Little Dante?" Sadeena prodded. "Is something wrong?"

"My defense is going down." Dante said.

JoJo turned his head to the side. "What's that smell?"

Dante looked over at his son and took in a whiff. It was faint, but it almost smelled like something was burning.

"Ah! Papa!" Dio yelled, pointing at Dante.

Dante looked down, the source of the smell immediately becoming apparent. His armor started to smoke.

"Shit! Get this off, quick!" Dante called out.

The three with him jumped to action, trying to unbuckle and remove the pieces of armor as quickly as they could. One by one, the armor fell to the ground. The parts removed earlier had little damage on them. The later parts, however, had begun to warp. The chainmail, which had been on him the longest, had fallen apart before it could be removed. The chain links were rusted, breaking at the slightest pull.

"What just happened?" Sadeena asked.

"I don't know." Dante looked over what remained of his gifted armor. The quality of some pieces came up as poor, while most were very poor. Those had the provided bonuses severely reduced. The rest was identified as scrap.

He checked his status and help section, hoping to find an answer. It popped up almost immediately.

Curse of Wrath. Stat increase. Equipment prohibition.

Fuckin'…Yeah, thanks for telling me that now!

"I figured it out." Dante said with a groan, sharing the information with everyone.

"Oh my." Sadeena held his hand. "We should go to the church to have that looked at."

"I suppose it couldn't really hurt." Dante said. "Worst case is they say they can't do anything, which is what I assume they'll say."

"What should we do about the next wave?" Sadeena asked.

"Nothing's really changed." Dante said. "My defense is still higher. I just don't have any other special bonuses, like fire resistance or increased spell power." While his increased magic stat helped, it didn't compare to the full bonus for fire spells he got from the armor. "Wait a moment…"

Dante looked around the floor for something. Shifting a completely bent arm bracer aside, he found it. The circlet that came with the armor had snapped in half. The jewels that were encrusted on it had either dulled or shattered. He was about to question that when he realized he didn't have the accompanying ring on his finger either. At that thought, he checked the bed, since he didn't usually remove it anyway. The once shining golden ring with a ruby gem embedded in it looked to have undergone a similar process as corroded bronze. The ring had changed to a greyish color and crumbled, while the ruby was practically dust.

Okay, so 'equipment' includes accessories too. Good to know!

Of course, it wouldn't exactly be a curse if it didn't have a negative side effect. Dante still didn't understand how it was affecting him in this way, but that was a question for the priests. Donning the boots, they left the room.

"Lord Shield?" A passing maid and the man Dante was looking for—Werner—saw the disheveled and underdressed Shield Hero approach with three of his party members.

"You." Dante pointed at the maid. "Tell the rest of my party to meet us in the throne room." The maid quickly bowed and scurried off. "And you…" Dante looked at the Shusaku leader, only to find he had taken a couple steps back. "What are you doing?"

"Ah, little Dante," Sadeena leaned closer to him, "when we returned to the castle yesterday, you met with him."

"I did?"

"Yes." Sadeena continued. "When you saw him…you held him by his throat and lifted him in the air."

"Oh…" Now that she mentioned it, that memory came back to Dante as well. He recalled Sadeena, Raphtalia, and Rhubaldt had to work together to free Werner, all three in their therianthrope forms.

Werner, for his part, looked ready to flee. Still, he stood his ground and gave a light bow. "H-How may I help you, Lord Shield?"

"Bring whatever leaders you can to the throne room, immediately. I have some questions." Dante said, taking a breath before speaking again. "And, I would like to apologize for yesterday. I wasn't in my right mind."

"Yes, of course." Werner nodded. "Shall I…call for the tailor as well?"

"Maybe later." Dante shook his head, continuing forward. "I'm in no mood for decorum and proced—"

Dante stumbled, barely keeping himself standing. When he looked back, he saw most of the boot's bottom had fallen off. The other boot he wore seemed to be unraveling in the front.

"Are you kidding me!?" Dante yelled. "Even boots aren't allowed? What am I—"

Dante was cut short as Sadeena wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She pressed herself into his back as she lightly caressed his chest. Dante was about to speak out when he noticed a whoosh of wind. Looking at where Werner was, he found the man had flown backwards, likely to keep his distance.

Dante closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and let it out. "Werner, please call for the tailor as well."

~The Wrong Hero~

Various lords had trickled into the throne room while Dante and his party waited. They stood in attendance while Dante sat on the throne. One of the castle tailors came to him, the one who had been making the cloaks to cover his missing arm before. He'd brought one of those cloaks for him as well, hearing that Dante's arm was once again in ruin.

In fact, the tailor had brought a few cloaks for Dante to try on, and it had been quite beneficial. With that, Dante was starting to piece together what counted as 'equipment' for his curse. For starters, anything that altered his stats was equipment, like a few of the now disintegrated cloaks did. The boots he had worn had a small bonus, but it was enough. In the end, Dante received a cloak, a nice looking pair of baggy white pants with a red sash, and red shoes that seemed stylish, but practical.

Honestly, he felt like the clothes made him look like some sort of genie.

"I trust you all have some understanding as to why you've been called here." Dante said to the now assembled lords and ladies of Siltvelt. His party watched on from Dante's sides. "For those that don't, I'll tell you. Knights of Siltvelt, the ones who volunteered to assist me in defending the people against the monsters of the wave, slaughtered a village."

Murmurs sounded out from the leaders. Dante raised his hand to silence them.

"It was the human village of Korokan. I realize that many of you may not care about their deaths, and some may even be happy about it." He cast a quick glance at Jaralis. It was subtle, but he saw the lion therianthrope flinch. Either he had some involvement, or he heard about Dante's treatment of Werner the day before. Dante didn't think he'd be dumb enough to try something like that, given what the man knew about Dante's fondness of the village. Whatever the case, Dante would find out the truth.

"Ignoring the fact that they were citizens of Siltvelt and simple villagers, they were also part of a peace initiative with Melromarc." Dante continued. "Whoever convinced those knights to attack them brought Siltvelt one step closer to war, a war I now have less incentive to participate in."

That got the assembled leaders even more worked up. It didn't particularly matter to Dante, though. If they wanted a war, they could have one by themselves.

"We will investigate the matter thoroughly." Werner said as the voice of the leaders. "We can start by rounding up the knights that went with you."

"They're already dead." Dante said coldly. "Nothing remains of them." The lords fell silent at that.

That was something else Dante recalled from the previous day. After killing the knights, he switched to his Savage Shield and devoured all of them. With their much higher stats and levels, each knight increased a few of his stats at once, not uncommonly more than what he was getting from the weaker knights and slavers in Melromarc. Dante did the same to the villagers, apparently even that family. Sadeena said he was in some sort of trance at the time. Rhubaldt must not have said anything to the leadership, since he was there for the whole thing.

Speaking of the Claw Hero, Rhubaldt wasn't present in the throne room. After coming back to the capital with Dante, he left to continue training. He did promise to return for the next wave, and he gave the location of his training grounds. Dante would need to get that from Sadeena at some point. He didn't appear too put off by what Dante did, so Dante took that as a good thing for the moment.

"What about the guards in the village?" Werner asked.

"They were dead when we got there." Dante told him.

That was another thing Sadeena reminded him of. It wasn't hard to figure out, since there weren't any monster remains in the village. When Dante asked before everyone arrived, Eclair said the village lord was among the dead. She had met with him when they first came to the village, so she was easily able to identify him.

"Then, we shall start with whoever those knights served under, and go from there." Werner offered.

"That's a good start, but it's not enough." Dante said, leaning forward. "I want it known what will happen to anyone who thinks to pull something like this."

Werner stammered at his open ended statement. "What would you have us do?"

"An eye for an eye." Dante gripped his throne. "These knights of Siltvelt snuffed out family after family in their attack. It seems fitting that the punishment be similar. Find out where these knights lived and—"

"Sir MacRory!" Eclair stepped in front of Dante, facing him. She stood less than a foot away from him. She lowered her voice as she spoke next. "What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Dante matched her volume. "I'm going to wipe out any trace of these fanatics."

"It sounds like you plan on killing their families." Eclair whispered. "If you, the Shield Hero, suggests such a thing—"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do." Dante responded. Werner had gone through the trouble of explaining what families these knights were from. It'd be a waste not to use that information.

"Sir MacRory, you don't know what—if anything—these people have done." Eclair argued. "You would wipe out their families over what could have been individual actions?"

"You're a noble, Eclair. Why don't you understand?" Dante asked. "They wouldn't do these things if they didn't have the backing of their houses."

"Maybe, but you don't know that." Eclair said. "You place too great a value on family."

"Family is everything!" Dante practically yelled at her. He felt a pressure on his right shoulder. Sadeena had placed a hand there, keeping him from leaping up. She had a difficult expression on her face, but it ultimately helped to keep him calm. Dante looked around and saw the concerned faces of the rest of his party. It wasn't without reason. Aside from his shout, he realized he was gripping pieces of marble in his hand. He'd broken off part of the throne with his grip.

Sighing, he eased back into the throne. "Then what would you have me do?"

"Let them do their investigations, and then go from there." Eclair said calmly.

"And take no other actions against them?" Dante asked.

"Yes. I know what those people meant to you, and I understand your pain." Eclair said, clearly speaking what everyone else in his party thought. "And, I've come to realize how you view all of us. We're a part of your family, in one way or another. Even me. As a part of that family, and as someone wronged by knights sworn to protect the people they betrayed, I'm asking you not to bring any harm to these families."

Dante held her gaze. He wanted to curse her out for throwing his views on family back at him like that, but deep down he knew she was right. He let the crumbled marble bits fall from his hand.

"Fine." He said with a wave. Eclair gave him a nod and moved back. "Disregard that last bit and proceed with your investigations. Dismissed." He told the leaders in the room.

The men and women of Siltvelt bowed and made their ways out. Before long, Dante was left with his party.

"Did you mean that?" Raphtalia asked, approaching him. "Were you really going to kill their families?"

Dante rest his head on his hand, letting out a long sigh. "Yeah, I was."

"Mister Dante…" Rifana placed her paws on his arm.

"Knights are nobles, and nobles have a lot more power than commoners." Dante explained. "That power comes from their families, be it resources, prestige, training, or something else. If all of them went along with slaughtering that village, that means they thought it was something that would advance their station."

"But they did that, despite what you wanted done." Eclair said. "That couldn't have been good for them."

"Didn't they think Cassia was a witch or something?" Dante asked. "If they thought I was under some sort of spell, it wouldn't matter what I said."

"Then there was no reason to go after their families." Eclair pointed out.

"That's…fine, whatever." Dante dismissed.

"You aren't normally this quick to anger, and you usually think these things out more." Eclair said, concerned. "I understand it couldn't be easy to see that family killed like that. All of us from Lurolona understand."

The party nodded at her words. It was comforting, and irritating, to know she was right.

"If you are in pain, tell us." She continued. "Let us help lighten the load. You've done more than enough for all of us."

"It's not that easy. This isn't something that you can help with." Dante said.

"Then tell us, so we can understand." Eclair pressed on.

Their understanding would be good. Dante was self-aware enough to know that keeping this hidden from them would only be a detriment. If they knew, they could at least try to avoid things that would cause him to lash out. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his family.

"I'm cursed." Dante said, explaining before he convinced himself not to. "Not from my injury, but from the shield. When I saw that family dead, something in me snapped. In response, I unlocked a curse from my shield. The curse of wrath. It's influencing my emotions, increasing my stats, and preventing me from using armor and accessories."

"Then let's go to the church." Eclair reasoned. "If it's this early, maybe they can do something about it."

"We'll try, but I doubt it'll work." Dante said. "I've never heard of it happening like this. I should have a shield from the curse. When I equip it, that's when it should influence me. The consequences only come after using curse skills. However, I don't see the shield in my list."

It was possible it would only show up when he was incredibly angry, and become permanently available after that, but Dante truly didn't know.

"What else should we do?" Sadeena asked.

"Nothing. I don't plan on giving up again." Dante said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Dante had briefly told them about the other heroes falling to curses in the books, but he never really said what the cause was. After all, if it did happen, how could he tell them? How was he supposed to tell them that to unlock a curse…

"The curse is a self-defense mechanism." He said. "It's used to prevent the hero from considering suicide."

"But, that means…" Sadeena brought her hand to his face. He looked up at her, his gaze hard, but a smirk on his face.

"I won't fall into despair so easily again." Dante said confidently. "Marcus, Cassia, and Lucia were villagers, not warriors and not high level. If someone comes after any of you, I'm sure you'd be able to handle them, at least long enough for me to step in and tear them apart. I'll make sure they regret ever being born."

He wasn't afraid anymore. Thinking back, he couldn't really see why he was in the first place. After everything he told them about his past, after everything he did in this world, they still stayed with him, trusted him. Knowing that the curse series was a suicide prevention system wouldn't change that. It was obvious to him. After all, his Trust power up was on all of them now. It wasn't like that yesterday.

"Let's get going." Dante said, rising from the throne. "We still have some things to do before Zeltoble's wave."

Author's Notes:

A bit smaller chapter this time. I wanted to get a bit farther, but I think I have a good stopping point for the next chapter, and here works good for this chapter.

So yeah, another change from canon. This one being the curse series. It seems to be an always active bonus and penalty, plus an emotion alteration. That's putting it mildly.

The enemies from Siltvelt's wave were inspired by some enemies in Mario RPG for the SNES. The Red Robed Jester is Shy Guy, the Blue Robed Jinx is Shaman, and the Yellow Robed Harlequin is Greaper. The boss would have been a pair of 'monsters', being based on Knife Guy and Grate Guy from Booster's Tower. That, of course, ended up not happening.