The finale of the interlude for the three heroes in which Bertia explodes her cosmos, and Motoyasu throws Spirit Bomb (not kidding). I personally listened to JAM Project song [Dragon] (Getter Arc 2021 version) when I was writing this chapter.

Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter.

More author's note at the end for anyone interested to hear me blabber some more.


He blinks his eyes, trying to process what's happening in front of him. Besides him, Motoyasu startles at a sudden burst of violence in front of them, while Itsuki clearly flinches on his feet. Julius was whispering to Itsuki when his almost, but not quite yet friend asked about the rambling noble woman who was being a pain in everyone's ass. He can understand why the woman was throwing her tantrum the way she did. It's still very frustrating, but understandable.

And then another one of the noble women came from the behind, and stabbed Lady Yesold's hand with her dagger. Well.. she's supposed to be a noblewoman, so he guessed. The way she carries herself was different. Her back was slightly hunched, not straight like an arrow with the air of arrogance like Yesold. She looks more like one of the many village women he doesn't pay much attention to as he travels around looking for different challenges.

"Ellie, no. Lady Rabier! Unhand Lady Yesold! This situation did NOT call for violence!" The black haired noble man walks over to the two wrestling noble women. He clearly wants to separate the two. But considering how they are joined together with a short blade, he looks hesitant to do anything other than staring at Ellie with disapproval.

"The monkey fuck wasn't shutting up. So I made her." Ellie, or maybe Lady Rabier pulls her dagger out of Lady Yesold's hand and tosses it on the table. The blade, still drenched in Yesold's blood, digs into the wooden table.

Lady Yesold immediately scampers away from Ellie. She looks back to all the gathered men in the tent with venom in her eyes. "You… all of you! You'd rather support rapists and violent hooligans than someone who has been defending the north loyally for all their lives! FINE! House Ebonheart will not be part of this operation anymore!"

With these last words, Lady Yesold rushes her way out of the tent. Knocking on Motoyasu's shoulder on her way out.

Interlude 15: Roaring of the Three Heroes

He felt useless. Lady Yesold clearly wasn't a reasonable woman, so there wasn't any way for him to convince her of Naofumi's innocence. Yet in the end, he didn't manage to say anything to beat her argument either, and she was only silenced when someone else stabbed a dagger into her hands. In the end, he failed to make a convincing case to the other nobles of Naofumi's innocence. And if he can't do that, what chance does he have to prove Naofumi being innocent on the summoning of that outer goddess?

"That was uncalled for, Ellie… Lady Rabier." The eyes of the black haired lord slowly pull back from the tent exit back to Ellie. "You did not make a friend of Lady Yesold Ebonheart on this day."

"You can still call me Ellie, Count Ascart. Lady Rabier sounds weird." Ellie pulls her dagger out of the table, wipes the blood off her own cloth, and slides it back into her boot. She sits back into her chair, and pulls her feet up into the seat under the scrutiny of the other nobles in the tent. "I'm more bothered about how you want me to make nice and be chummy to the fuck rat in the first place. Seriously, if I have someone like her as a friend, who am I going to have as my enemies? Someone who goes around taking off other people's heads for shits and giggles?"

"You know that's what I meant, Lady Rabier." Count Ascart slowly raises his left hand and places it on his own head. "The newly revived House Rabier under you will be young and fragile. You do not want your fellow nobles as your enemies. Even if Lady Ebonheart won't raise her banners and attack you, there are things she can do like refusing aid, or trade with you to make you and your people suffer."

"Then I shouldn't be named the lady of the Stolen Land in the first place." Ellie doesn't seem bothered by the count's advice. As she simply rolls her eyes and looks away.

"Well, I say the little Lady Rabier had the right idea. She at least has spunk unlike some of the Lords sitting here." A man in a thick suit of armor, and even thicker black beard turns his head to glare at Reichnott. It doesn't take too many guesses to know who he meant by that comment. "About time someone had the gut to push the shit these lazy Norks spew out right back to their shitholes."

"I beg your pardon? Lord Graithos?" A bold man with a long, drooping brown mustache and goatee glares back at the bearded man in heavy armor. "I'm afraid my age is starting to get to me. You want to repeat what you said one more time?"

"You heard what I said the first time, Neverwinter." Graithos sneers right back at the bold lord, he doesn't even bother to hide the contempt aimed at the bold man. "You Norks are lazy, spoiled and arrogant. Always sit on your high chairs crying about how your ancestors were loyal to the kingdom alliances than your animal loving king. And how you are being mistreated by the rest of us. Well, guess what? You Norks aren't the only ones who lost it all! You don't hear me crying about how my family was massacred by the animals back in The Great War over and over! I do my job, and make those animals pay with blood!"

"What the heck was that about?" He turns his focus away from the second piss contest brewing over the gathered aristocrats, and looks at Itsuki's completely dumbfounded face as he asks Julius for clarification.

"'Nork' is a derogatory term aimed at those with Midgardian descent. Lord Othmar Graithos here…" Julius gently nudges his chin at the bearded man in his dark heavy armor. "...is taking a dig at both Lady Yesold Ebonheart, and Lord Nash Neverwinter's Midgardian descent. A lot of people aren't happy how those nobles with Midgardian descent were given preferable treatment in land disputes by the crown. Because their ancestors refused to ally with the beastmen shortly after the first ever Wave of Catastrophe and moved south."

He hears the sound of armor and weapons clanking, turns his attention back to the table. Not surprisingly, both Graithos and Nash have picked up their respective weapons, ready to start beating the stuffing out of each other. The only reason the command tent hasn't turned into a dueling ring is because other people are holding both men back. "Come and get me! You lazy axe-dragging Nork!" "Go back to suckle your wet nurse, you limp Romalian goose!"

"My fellow lords. Please, do not fight among ourselves." Reichnott leaves his chair and walks between the dark armored Lord Graithos and Lord Neverwinter in silver mail. He's bodily thrusted right back into his chair again with a single shove from Graithos, even as the much larger dark armored man is being held back by four guards.

"Sod off and go back to kissing your queen's ass, Reichnott!" Graithos spits in Reichnott's direction. "All of this was your fault! If you hadn't utterly botched all your operations to cull the animals taken over Rabier County, we never would have been in this mess!"

"STOP THIS! We are Lords of the Silver Pass, not rowdy children!" Count Ascart steps in between all of the arguing and puts both of his arms up. "Lord Graithos, Lord Neverwinter. If you want to settle your differences, compete to see who does a better job at clearing the undead scourge! Don't pointlessly drench our land with each other's blood."

"Fine!" The two flailing lords glared at each other for one more time. As they shake off the guards and sit down.

Would Naofumi have jumped into the arguing lords before Count Ascart did, if he was here?

"My ladies, my lords." Another messenger runs into the tent. "Overseer Campbell has arrived with his men from Port Harp."

"Campbell… Port Harp… wasn't he one of the commanding guys from Three Heroes' Church?" Motoyasu's whisper makes both Itsuki, and himself tighten their grasp on their weapon. He looks at Motoyasu himself, and sure enough, even the childish man is holding the shaft of his spear tight. His weapon seems to be affected by his emotion, as it transforms into the dragon-like form with angry, jagged edges and horns Gaelion unlocked for them.

"Get a hold of yourself. Let's wait and see what he says. He wouldn't know what happened in the Wave yet." He leans over and whispers to Motoyasu. Hopefully the idiot doesn't immediately goes into a frenzy and do something stupid just because both that Consevatie scrub and Cromwell were both acting like asses. Motoyasu doesn't say anything back to him, but his spear returns to its much more neutral looking default form. He takes this as a good sign.

Not too long after, a bold man with dour looking gaunt face in a set of red uniform that looks more military than church enters into the tent. Behind him are a much younger, blonde man wearing the same red uniform, and a woman with her eyes covered in blindfolds wearing a robe that looks more church-like. Campbell slightly bows his head at the gathered nobles. "My ladies, my lord. I heard you needed aid with another possible undead scourge. My templars and priests stand ready."

"Overseer Campbell. Your timely aid is much appreciated." Count Ascart walks over and returns Campbell his courtesy. "As you probably saw already, we were prepared to fight bandits, not the undead. We suffered terrible losses because of our lack of preparation."

"Forget about these courtesies and report!" Graithos slams his gauntlet covered hand on the table. "Can your priest banish back the poison misama from those damned undead beak things? I thought the live ones are a pain, but the dead walking ones have them beat! I can't even execute a simple anvil and hammer tactic on them like usual, because my men get taken down by their putrid breath!"

"I brought five hundred men with me, one hundred of them battle priests, or priest knights. The rest are templars and my inquisitors." Campbell runs a finger alongside his chin, clearly thinking over Graithos' question and strategies. "They can also bless your weapons, give them temporary effects to purify the undead and lay them to rest."

"One hundred priests… compared to the thousands of undead, not to mention the zombified ancient thunder lizard itself. That's like pouring a cup of water on a burning wagon." Lord Nash seems to have concluded everyone's thoughts, as all the noble commander's eyes seem to grow dull at their prospect. "Even if we don't lose a single one of them fighting against the undead horde, our priests will be hard pressed to clear enough of the miasma to commit our force at the leviathan class monster."

He feels useless again. He's not strong enough to kill the giant monster just like how he wasn't even able to stand up to the outer goddess summoned by Naofumi's former companion. Even though he is stronger than the rest of the companions in his party, he is still pathetically weak when the chips are down, and power is really needed.

"We might not need Overseer Campbell's priest for that." His fellow heroes and himself both turn to look at Julius standing with them. The red haired man takes the attention focused on him in stride, as he begins his explanation. "I believe the poisoned miasma from the thunder lizard is some kind of corrupted dragon aura due to it being an undead. Which means as the human avatar of Lord Loptus and Lord Naga, my sister Julia and myself can overpower its aura with our own. We can take a small strike team with us, even without the support of powerful priests."

"That's true. Lady Julia was unaffected by the rot of the thunder lizard when it emerged from the mountain. It was also why she stayed behind to cover our retreat." Count Ascart looks down as he nods his head. But then he starts to shake his head again. "No, that won't work. The thunder lizard has thousands of undead humans, and monsters guard. Even if we commit Overseer Campbell's force with you, there's no way your strike force will survive going through the undead, and fight against the leviathan boss monster."

"I have a plan to lure the undead away from the boss monster." A young woman in her early twenties, maybe even younger, stands up from the table. She has light blonde shoulder length hair, tied with two pieces of cloth bows that look almost like a pair of tiny wings around her ears.

"Lady Lancelotte Arc. Second daughter of Archduke Wales Arc, honored heroes."

She walks over to the sandbox, and places the tip of her sword on the large piece of wood. "Our final, and only real target is the leviathan class zombie thunder lizard. The rest of the undead are mindless thralls raised up by the boss monster. Which means they have next to no mind of their own. And they can only repeat very simple actions like golems."

"So? We all know this already, lass." Graithos crosses his arms in front of his chest, clearly not impressed by the analysis of the young girl. "Just because these undeads are dumber than the Norks doesn't mean we have an easier time fighting them."

He himself isn't really a strategist, or even a strategy game player. Unable to help the gathered nobles come with their battle plan, not even able to participate in the conversation they are having with the noble woman. All he can do is lean closer to Itsuki, trying to get his fellow heroes' opinion, not paying attention to another wave of the noble's pissing contest.. "What do you think of her? Her plan, I mean."

"Why are you asking me?" Itsuki looks over to him, one eyebrow raising into his hairline. "I play single player RPG, not strategy games. Didn't Naofumi tell us not to rely too much on our game knowledge anyways, because video games simplify things to make them fun?"

"I thought maybe one of us knew where she's going with her plan. It's not like we can rely on Motoyasu." Both of them turn to look at their oldest otherworld compatriot. Motoyasu's eyes are looking straight forward, but he's clearly not paying attention to the woman explaining her strategy. Because one, he's not looking at the sandbox. And two, his face looks like someone who is in lala land. Did he fall asleep standing still and with his eyes open?

"We can lure the undead horde away from the boss monster, assuming it doesn't chase our decoy together with the rest of the undead." The blonde girl moves the wooden figures with her hand alongside the sandbox board. "Undead gutterbeaks walk much faster than undead raised from men. If our decoy maintained the right speed… we should be able to separate the gutterbeaks and the rest of the undead when they pass the ruin of Flute. We can ambush the gutterbeak with a group of rangers equipped with blessed weapons, kill them off for good, and then hold the rest of the undead horde at Flute, while sending a small group of high leveled strike team in with Lord Julius and Lady Julia."

"A very risky plan." Count Ascart narrows his eyes as his hand slowly runs through his face. "We would be betting our chance of victory on all of our separated forces perfectly executing their objectives. And even then… There are too many ways things could go wrong. If our men can't hold the undead horde down, the strike team will have nowhere to escape. Alternatively, if our strike team isn't strong enough to take down the undead boss monster, our men fighting the undead horde might be overwhelmed and butchered."

"We don't have to do this, if you think it's not worth it. My lor- Count Ascart." Ellie seems to be on better behavior when she talks with the lord of Ascart County. At least, she's not cursing at him. "I don't care about this whole living like a lady business. I'll go back to Samphor, play my guitar and live with Diana. Honestly, I liked being a bard anyway, helps me remember Joel."

"I'm grateful for your willingness to sacrifice your standing and status, Lady Rabier. But this is more than taking back Rabier County now." Count Ascart grabs a scroll resting at the edge of the table and spreads it out, revealing it to be a map.

He belatedly remembers since his summoning, he has never once looked at a map to try and know about the world he has been summoned to. Not even when he realized that this world is in fact, not an afterlife created by his own mind. How can he still be so ignorant after Naofumi showed him the error of his ways, and he decided to be better afterwards? He still has much yet to learn.

"As you can see, Lady Rabier. We are one of the two northernmost provinces of glorious Melromarc. And we as a whole are directly responsible for holding and defending the Griffin's Back mountain range, which keeps our nation safe from raids and invasions." The count's finger runs alongside the sketch of a mountain that runs alongside the north, and east of what he assumes is Melromarc. "Rabier County is at the south border of Silver Pass, directly north of Whiterun County of Crownland. Which means the undead scourge is directly threatening both the Crownland, or the back of Silver Pass. This situation would be a disaster if the realm is at complete peace with no foreign threat. At this time when we are being threatened by the ongoing Wave of Catastrophe and talk of foreign crusade declared against us? Unthinkable. We can not let the threat grow unchallenged."

"How long would it take for the rest of the church to reinforce us, Overseer Campbell?" Reichnott doesn't seem convinced by Lancelotte's battle plan, as he looks over at the bald church man. "I don't like to proceed with this much risk. Perhaps we can hold down the undead threat for a day or two, and wait for the church's reinforcements? If our messenger had already reached the king's host fighting against the Wave of Catastrophe, they should have already passed our call for aid to the main branch of the church, right?"

"Very likely. As for how soon aid can be mobilized from our main cathedral and reach us. I'd say five to seven days." Campbell places both of his hands on the table as his body leans slightly down to look at the sandbox, and the map. He slowly turns his head back. "The time could be cut down drastically, if the heroes are willing to use their teleportation skill to port in the needed personnel."

A glorified taxi service. That's apparently all they are good for. The gathered people didn't say it out loud, but there's clearly no confidence in them actually handling the giant undead monster. After how they fared against Lautrec's goddess and looking at the undead Godzilla from the distance, he can't even blame them. He has no clue on how he'll begin to kill something the size of a mountain either. [Meteor Sword], his current strongest attack would at best crack the monster's knee cap.

"I'm afraid of the church. Neither of them, would consider sending aid as their top priority." Julius' slow drawl makes everyone focus their attention on him. "The Pope of the Three Heroes' Church and our king were both critically wounded at the end of the Third Wave when a former companion of Lord Shield Hero summoned an invading outer goddess. To retaliate, they accused Lord Shield Hero of colluding with said heretic, and they forced him to go on the run. The Three Heroes' Church will be dividing their effort in securing the royal heir and chasing down the Shield Hero. The Four Heroes' Church would likely retaliate. The only reinforcements we might bet on are whatever my dragon Midir could carry on his back. Once he recovers from fighting the outer goddess."

A wave of muffled curses come from the gathered nobles. Overseer Campbell slightly dips his head down, looking thoughtfully into his hands. "If His Eminence was hurt that badly, the cathedral might not be able to sort things out and send aid till the next Wave."

"By then, it would be too late." Count Ascart sets his eyes on a young man with dead fish-like eyes. "Captain Levi, what have your rangers reported on the undead thunder lizard? What is it doing now?"

"Nothing." The ranger captain's reply is cold as the tone of his voice. He adds some explanation once he seems to realize his reply is too short for everyone. "It's staying perfectly still. Not doing anything other than spreading its miasma around. Same goes for its undead horde. They aren't even trying to chase away my rangers, unless they get too close to the undead horde."

"Not doing anything but spreading its miasma and blight." Campbell breaks his contemplation and looks up at the ranger captain. "I wonder if its soul was rotten just like its body. For it to not do anything to provoke our immediate action but to continue to fortify its own position with its rotting miasma. The thing is either dumber than we thought, or much smarter than we realized."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Both Itsuki and he himself turns to look at Motoyasu. "Let's go ahead with the blonde lady's plan and kill it. It can't do anything bad if it's dead… well, dead for real. Right?"

"It's not as simple as saying something like 'let's go kill the undead', Lord Spear Hero." Count Ascart leans a bit more into his chair, he looks exhausted with the situation at hand. "By now, the horde of the undead outnumber us at least three to one. They are by nature much more resilient to damage than our men. And everyone of our fallen join their ranks. Even with Overseer Campbell's church knights and blessed weapons and Lady Lancelotte's plan, our force will be destroyed in a prolonged battle. We will bet the survival of everyone present, and the people of the surrounding area on a small group of our best fighters able to destroy the undead monster without the support of our forces in a battlefield heavily favored by the undead thunder lizard."

"You don't think we can do it." He narrows his eyes and says out loud something clearly in all the minds of the gathered nobles and soldiers' minds. "You don't think we are strong enough to kill the boss monster."

"We have nothing against you honored heroes. All of you have been doing your best since your summon, and already you have achieved better results than what is typical of summoned heroes." Reichnott holds his hands up while waving them up and down, as if he is trying to push back everyone's misgiving. "But historically, summoned heroes usually hit their stride around the middle of the Wave of Catastrophe. At the Fifth Wave or later. This is a great burden to be placed on all of your shoulders-"

"Just come out and say it straight, Reichnott." Graithos barks back at Reichnott before narrowing his eyes and glaring at the three of them. "No. I don't think the three of you kids are up to the task. If killing a leviathan class undead boss monster was this easy, I would have come out and killed it myself. Isn't there any adult left to lead this task force?"

It takes Julius replying to make him realize that Graithos has apparently finished talking down to them. "Father was the only one who could have significantly helped against a Leviathan-class undead with his fire magic. But with so many senior lords incapacitated, he needs to take command of the gathered host and bring them back to the capital. He won't be able to leave his post and help us even when my dragon does recover."

He digs his nail into his palm at being overlooked by these nobles and soldiers. He wants to shout back at everyone who simply treats him like a child who doesn't know what he's doing. It's not the exact words, and they are being spoken by much more experienced professionals rather than someone who is around Naofumi and Motoyasu's age. But what Graithos said mirrors that arrogant Captain Bartfort.

Yet, all he can think back was on how helpless he was against the goddess summoned by the golden armored knight. Can he truly say that he'll do better this time, when he couldn't do anything against the goddess in the wave fight? He didn't even do anything against the Wave boss. All he did was use one of his sword arts to hold it down for a brief moment.

"We don't have any luxury to hesitate and wait for reinforcements. We don't know when, or even if it'll arrive." A woman with slicked back blonde hair a few shades darker than Lancelotte stands up. "Lord Julius' plan hinges on his and his sister's draconic aura overpowering the undead thunder lizard. But if it's been spreading the rotting miasma around the land, they will not have any defense against the poison seeping out of the ground. If we are to strike at the undead, we must make our move before it turns Rabier County into blighted ground."

"The heroes won't be fighting on their own. My siblings and I will join them." Julius straightens his back even more. Despite his moderate height, his presence seems to fill up most of the tent and stands like a giant. "There is no way Lord Loptus and Naga will lose to the corrupted undead form of a lesser dragon. No matter how ancient it is."

"If that's decided, I will take my Albion knights and lure the undead horde away from the undead thunder lizard." The gathered nobles and soldiers, particularly the ranger captain with dead fish like eyes look over at Lancelotte.

"Your raptor knights are better suited at frontal charge, not hit and run." Captain Levi's voice is as dry and no nonsense as before. Yet, he can almost sense something in the rude soldier's voice and the way his body slightly shifts. Is it a sense of begrudging respect to the woman? "You might lose half of your men or more. Let my rangers do it."

"No, we need the rangers at full strength when we spring our trap, and kill the undead gutterbeaks as soon as possible so we can join the rest of our force holding down the undead horde." Lancelotte shakes her head and places her hand over her chest. "We swore an oath to fight, and die for the land. It's time for us to fulfill our duties."

"Take Clarent, my sister." The girl with darker blonde hair stands up from her seat and walks over to Lancelotte. She takes off the saber with a hand guard of her waist and holds it over to Lancelotte. "I will join the group of the heroes and the crusaders and aid them in killing the undead boss monster. May my enchanted blade keep you safe."

"I'd rather you prepare a feast for us when we come back, sister." Lancelotte smiles at her sister, but she takes the saber and hangs it by her waist. "But I'll take what I get from you."

"I will join the Heroes too. If the undead boss monster is already starting to poison the very ground, they might need the protection of our lord's miracles." Campbell pushes his body away from the war table and commands without looking back. "Brother Alistair, you have the command of our brothers and sisters."

"M-me?" The man with short hair stumbles on his feet as his eyes dart to the overseer. "Not that I'm complaining about being able to boss around the others, or fighting the undead, Overseer. But are you sure about this? I mean, I never took command of anything other than doing errands for you…"

"You were the personal protege of Lord Inquisitor Duncan. I'd like to think he has given you leadership lessons." The overseer still doesn't look back to his clearly nervous subordinate. "We all need to fulfill our duties. Right now, I'm entrusting you to lead our brothers and sisters in my absence. May our Lord protect us all."


"I'm sorry, Julia, my sister. You shouldn't be out here facing the undead boss monster in your condition. If I was stronger…" Count Seliph isn't trying to be nasty to him like Bartfort, yet his words still feel like a slap to the face. Because it reminds him how a girl only a few years older than her, who can barely hold herself onto the saddle is now riding into battle with them. Because he wasn't strong, or skilled enough to take control of the situation like he should.

"No… I prefer this way. Lord Seliph, my brother…" He looks back, and sees Julia's unfocused eyes lost in thoughts. She leans closer into the body of her brother, while reaching her hand up and tightly grabs onto Seliph's hand. "I… I don't remember much about our mother. She never recovered, giving birth to Brother Julius and I. But the thing I remembered most… was how much she regretted not being with Lord Singuard in the Battle of Silver Pass. At least this way, we'll be together no matter what happens."

"I'm telling you. There is something between these two supposed siblings." "Haha, you silly. Itsuki. They are just showing how much they care for each other." Itsuki and Motoyasu's muffled bickering makes his head hurt, so he turns around and give his fellow heroes a murder glare. Both of them quieten down while looking away from him.

"You know each of your roles? Lord Heroes, Lord Crusaders." Campbell rides to them from the side on his steed. Out of their group, he's the only one who is riding on his own. Besides Seliph and Julia, Motoyasu and Bertia are sharing one steed, so is Lancelotte's younger sister Mordred and Itsuki. While he is riding with Julius.

"Yeah. Julius and Julia will protect us with their dragon power thingy while we close in on undead Godzilla. Then everyone helps Ren and Seliph take down zombie Godzilla." He tries to fight off the urge as Motoyasu begins to recount their battle plan in the most simplified way possible like an overeager grade school student.

"Yes… that is the plan. Lord Seliph, and Lord Sword Hero will be crucial in this operation as they guide the power of both Loptus and Naga, and use them to destroy the giant undead abomination." The Overseer might be narrowing his eyes in annoyance, but it's hard to tell considering how beady his eyes already are. "That means the two of them must be protected above everyone else aside from Lord Julius and Lady Julia. Everyone else is expendable, the four of them are not."

"Right, message received." Motoyasu nods his head, clearly not bothered, or aware of Campbell's annoyance. "I wish Naofumi was here. He'd be much better at protecting them. But I'll do my best with Bertia."

If the Three Heroes' Church overseer wants to say anything, he is interrupted when the knights under Lancelotte's command charge down the hill in plain view. The knights were clearly trying to get the undead horde's attention, as they kicked up as much dust as they could on top of their raptor steed when they barrels right into the horde of the dead. The army of the undead turns around to fight them, the towering beak-things trample over the much shorter undead monsters while breathing out clouds of poison at the knights.

Lancelotte and her men turn around and make their retreat as fast as their steed allows. Some of the slower ones get enveloped by the poison cloud, fall down, and then slowly jerk back on their feet again. They join the rest of the dead and give chase to their companions mere moments ago.

His hands tightens around the hilt of his sword, fighting back the urge to jump in and help the people who sacrificed their lives to give them the best chance to kill the giant zombie dinosaur. Motoyasu's hands tighten around the reign of his steed, looking like he's about to charge out when Overseer Campbell puts a hand on his arm. "Hold on, the undead horde will turn around and swarm us if we charge out immediately. We must wait till they are engaged by our main force."

So that's what they did following the command of their most experienced veteran. Sitting on the saddles of their steed, he fights back the sense of guilt that everyone else is fighting for their lives against undead monsters but them. He lost his sense of time in the silence of the blighted and decaying forest they are hiding in. Eventually, he began to hear faint, and distant sounds of fighting and possibly shouting.

"Now's the time." Campbell's command reaches his ear when he begins to wonder if he is hallucinating due to anxiousness. He feels his mount move forward, as they charge out of the forest towards the undead dinosaur. It looks even larger at this distance, like they are charging towards a mountain that towers over them.

They are spotted immediately. The giant monster roars at them, the force of its sound alone is enough to shake the ground, but it sounds wrong. Like its voice is not only coming out of its mouth, but leaking out of its ripped open stomach and every other wound. But the ground is not the only thing shaking. At the feet of the giant zombie dino, things begin to crawl up toward them. Scattered, twisted and rotting flesh and bones seem to knit back together wrong and begin to drag their contorted form toward them.

"[South Star Shot]/[South Star Javelin]!" Besides him, both Itsuki and Motoyasu begin to fire their anti-undead long range weapon arts at the cobbled together undead. The monsters didn't last through their full volley. But these things clearly weren't meant to stop their advance on their own, as the giant zombie dinosaur leans back, and then blows forward a purple gust towards them from both its mouth, and the gaping maw running down its stomach.

"[Shadow Mirror]!" Bertia holds her hands forward on Motoyasu's mount. A spinning black vortex forms in front of them, blocking the zombie dinosaur's poisoned breath from immediately reaching them. But the problem with a round shaped shield or barrier against a breath attack, it'll naturally coil around the edge towards them, and they are still riding towards the direction of the attack.

"Damn it! We aren't ready to face this… we aren't ready to fight something like this without Naofumi's defense abilities!" To his left, Itsuki is clearly losing it. He's completely lost on what he can do too when the enemy he faces down is a cloud of poison that kills. Something that can't be overcome with strength, or skill. In fact, he can feel the steed under him begin to panic, and is trying to turn around to run despite Julius' best effort.

And then, a shadow leaps over everyone from his right, lands on his two feet and stands tall on the ground in front of them. It takes him a few moments to realize it's Motoyasu as his red cloak flips in front of them as he spins his spear in front of his body like a fan, almost like he's trying to blow back the monster's breath of death by himself.

"Get back, you idiot! [Cartwheel] can only block physical attack!" He shouts to Motoyasu's back, voice shaking. "Your level isn't high enough to use [Great Cartwheel]!"

"Are we not Heroes ourselves!? Are we going to let Naofumi do all the work, while everyone else takes care of us!?" Motoyasu's voice isn't trembling. Before this point, he has never considered their oldest fellow hero to be an adult considering his childish demeanor. There is something different about him in this moment of desperation. "I'm not smart like Naofumi, but I want everyone to be safe and happy just like him. That's why I know this is the time we give our all to help everyone just like him! That's why I'm not backing down no matter what I'm facing!"

"I'm not smart like Iris, or brave like Katarina. But I will stand with you too, Master Motoyasu!" Bertia also abandons her steed as she runs over to the Spear Hero. The sound of a chime rings in his head, as a chain of light shoots out from both Motoyasu and Bertia's waist. As the glow slowly dims, it starts to resemble less like a chain, and more like a red thread tying their wrists together. The petite girl pushes her hands out, as the black fox on her shoulder starts to cast a long shadow behind her that looks less like a fox, and more like a dragon. "[Darkness Terror Wave]."

A black wave, as dark as the night, blasts out of her hands with the force of a dragon's roar. But Bertia doesn't seem to be done yet, as body tenses up, she somehow seems to extend her arm even longer. "[MAXIMUM CAUTION]!"

As Bertia's attack reaches the poison cloud, countless explosions begin to eat away at the breath of death and decay. Each one so bright, it takes all the lights in the world away and seems to return even the force of entropy itself to oblivion. He has to shield his eyes, as his sense of sight is overwhelmed and he can only hear the sound of the monster roaring in either pain or anger. When he opens his eyes again, he realizes a giant zombie dinosaur is on its knees, and has lost half of its rib cages and one of its arms.

"Now is your chance! Attack it with everything you got!" He can feel a sudden surge of power around him as the world in his eyes seems to turn into gold this time. Count Seliph jumps off his steed and charges at the downed zombie dinosaur on his foot, a dark dragon coiled around his body like a cloak, and he knows a golden dragon is doing much the same around him.

So he follows the lord knight's example, and runs at their target with his strongest sword out. The two of them jump away from the lung from the monster's remaining arm. But even as they are airborne, he can hear the sound of Seliph's warning. "Watch out! Lord Sword Hero!"

From the corner of his eyes, he realizes too late what Lord Seliph is trying to warn him of. While the zombie dinosaur did lose one of its arms, its tail is swiping at him with the force of a collapsing skyscraper. And because of how he was dodging its arm a moment ago, he is full speed heading into a collision course with the tip of its tail.

A beam of shockwave overtakes him and hits the monster's tail. Not enough to stop it, but managing to slow it ever slightly. Realizing it's Itsuki's bow weapon art, it gives him enough time to weapon switch into his recently unlocked Loptus Sword and hold the greatsword in front of him like a shield. The slight change in the tail's angel, and his sudden bulk of muscles allows him to bodily crush on top of the monster's body, rather than get swapped away and splatter on the ground. He holds his sword in a reverse grip, and pushes it deep into the monster's rotting skin and flesh. "[Earth Run - Naga]!"

Normally, his earth based sword art would release a flurry of earth bond shockwave alongside wherever he stabs his blade into. But thanks to the power of Julia's dragon, an almost solid, serpentine golden dragon bursts through the giant monster's skin as it begins to swim its way up its tail towards its body.

"[Golden Dragon Sword - Loptus]!" On the other side, Seliph stabs his sword into the monster's knee. Similarly, a black dragon begins to travel its way upwards the thigh of the giant monster. When the two dragons meet somewhere on the zombie dinosaur's body, their combined power should be able to completely obliterate most if not all of the monster's rotting carcass.

Just as he's about to let out a sigh of relief, something went wrong. Maybe the monster's rotting body isn't enough to hold the power of a dragon lord and a dragon god. Or maybe the monster chooses to hurt itself to expel the foreign forces before it's destroyed by them. But the zombie dino's skin suddenly bursts open as putrid, black liquid spills out. Both Lord Seliph and himself are shaken off the monster's giant body, as well as the dragon aspect they forced into the boss monster's body. The light and dark dragon gives up on destroying the giant monster, and begin to tackle and fight each other in the sky, completely out of control.

He hit the ground with a loud thud. Even with his enhanced body, he feels like most of the bones in his body are broken. He flips around, and sees Seliph lying not far away from him, not moving. It's hard to tell if he is still alive.

They failed… He failed.

The giant monster lets out a vindictive roar towards the rest of their group. It gushes out a flurry of black liquid at them like arrows.

"His mercy is boundless! [Mercy Barrier]!" Overseer Campbell claps his hands together, forming a golden barrier in front of them while Julius doing his best holding back Julia from running directly into the poisoned blood.

"[Black Propaganda]!" Mordred raises her arms above her head, and then lets them fall towards her shoulders. A circle made of dark purple fire opens up above her like a dark vortex.

The undead dinosaur's poisoned blood beats on Campbell's barrier first. It manages to hold back about half of them before shattering. The church overseer falls down, black blood running down his eyes. The rest of them are sucked into Mordred's magical vortex like a black hole. The noble lady lets out an ear piercing painful scream as her dark blonde hair slowly turns gray from the root of her head.

It's clear their group won't survive another wave of onslaught like this.

Just as he lies helplessly on the ground, he sees another figure running up alongside the monster's body. Dodging away ruptures of poisoned blood and black pus as he goes. Motoyasu is clearly trying to do something, as he kicks off the body of the monster and reaches his spear towards the black and golden dragons still fighting each other in the sky.

"Come into the weapon Gaelion unlocked for us!" Motoyasu's voice is halfway between a command and a beg. But it might be the dragon affinity of the spear form he chose, or maybe it's because Julius and Julia's respective dragon patron remembering the name of their supposed sibling. But they actually seem to listen to Motoyasu's voice as they become two bolts of lightning that disappear into his [Dovah Spear]. His weapon slowly begins to change form, growing a second spear head on the end as it leaves his hand and begins to hover and spin above his hands.

The shape it takes is a half black, half golden wheel rather than a light azure sphere. But the way Motoyasu hovering in the sky, holding up his spinning spear charged with the power of light and dark dragon actually reminds him of Goku holding a spirit bomb in his hands. The undead boss monster clearly realizes the threat the Spear Hero possesses, as he blows out another mouthful of poison at Motoyasu. As for the Spear Hero, he tosses his spear down at the giant zombie dinosaur. "[Twin Dragon Strike]!"

The wheel of the twin dragon easily splits apart the poisoned breath and crushes down on the giant zombie dinosaur, bushing its body back through the forest into the body of an actual mountain behind them. And then, the resulting explosion puts Bertia's earlier attack to shame as everything turns white in his eyes.

He wonders if he's dead for real this time. Motoyasu might also not survive his fall as he probably lost his ability to fly, or hover thanks to whatever the dragon spear did for him. And he wonders if Seliph even survived his first fall. But then, vision slowly begins to come back to him, and he sees a young man with short blue hair kneeling over him, healing him with a magical staff. At first, he wonders since when did Seliph begin using a magical staff, but then he realizes the young man looks slightly younger, and his features much softer than the young lord knight.

"Lord Coirpre, Charlot!" Julia stumbles her way over to them, leaning on her brother Julius for support. "How goes Lord Seliph… and Lord Sword Hero?"

Yes, Itsuki was right. There is definitely something going on between these two siblings. And he can't help but be relieved that he can think over pointless things like this after a brutal battle.

"Thank the Chief God! Lord Seliph is still alive! I can save him with my Valkyrie Staff!" He slowly sits up thanks to the support of the blue haired man. He looks over, and sees another young man with short, dirty blonde hair kneeling beside the blue haired knight.

In the young man's hand is another magical staff. Its red crystal ball head is surrounded by a brass colored, oval shaped ring around it, while four long, yellow gilded blue cloth descend from the ring like four banners. The red orb flashes as a warm, orange color runs through Seliph's body. He slowly crawls back up, looking unsure of himself. "Lord Seliph! You need to take better care of yourself!"

"Coirpre… how did you- WOW!" Seliph didn't finish his question as Julia tackled him into the ground. He slowly wraps his arm around his sister, looking even more unsure of himself. "Julia… sister. Please. I am okay now."

"Idiot… you IDIOT! You almost killed yourself, just like your father did!"

"Where, where is Motoyasu?" He stands up, looking around for their oldest member of heroes. He would be very sad if that buffoon gave his life to kill the giant undead dinosaur.

"He's right here, Ren!" A young, familiar voice makes him turn around. Behind him, Wyndia is waving her arm on top of Midir's head. The companions of all three of them on the dragon's back. In the dragon's clawed hand, Motoyasu looks like he is enjoying a light nap.

"Zilla, you FOOL!" In the distance, Gaelion's booming voice can be heard. Is he chastising the giant undead dinosaur? "How dare you give up your pride as a dragon, and become this abomination!?"

"Lord Gaelion… my children… my children were taken by the man of feathers. They will be turned into his tools…" He blinks his eyes, as he looks at what now looks less like a giant, zombie dinosaur and more like a lump of rotten meat sprawled around the crater alongside the mountain. But the voice, the voice definitely sounds like a woman. "I only have one child left… I wanted to protect him…"

Wait, the zombie dino they were fighting was a woman, and a mother?!

Gaelion stays silent for a few moments, before he opens his mouth again. "On my pride as the Lord of Thunder, I shall look after your remaining child."

"...Thank…you…" With one last word of gratitude, what remains of the giant zombie dinosaur slowly melts down into a black puddle of liquid.


End Note:

In case it wasn't clear enough. Zilla meant Towair when she said 'the man of feathers'. He stolen most of her eggs away when he fled Melromarc.

Well, this chapter shows that just because there are fantastical racism in this world, human are still finding reasons to hate each other. Because we humans are petty and stupid like that.

Since the whole zombie Zilla arc is essentially Zombie Gaelion from canon, I decided to go the whole way and give her a child just like Gaelion. Which means yes, the heroes will eventually get their own giant T-Rex, eventually.

For those who are also in Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac fandom. Yes, Bertia did use the technique of Wyvern Rhadamanthys.

Guest review time.

To Halo:

That's Ellie alright, solving problem with violence than words.

To Guest:

Yep. Yesold is such a pleasant woman, she's going to appear in more chapters and I don't meant this one.

:)

For the WN, I can sort of excuse RotSH for not the best written and thought out story. But there's really no excuse for all the bad creative decisions in LN. Since Alenko already had WN as a foundation/template. But instead of actually put thoughts into how to properly connect the different elements, LN is in a way, even worse than WN with how different plot beats are connected, and character basically have no real consistency with the way they are characterized. Probably because Alenko was only interested in hitting the plot beats that gives them a boner, and doesn't give a flying (BEEP) about consistent world building/characterization.

Not too sure who you meant by the 'mad guy'.

Calling Raphtalia a token isn't wrong. Although once again, it's more to the point to say most 'characters' in RotSH are less characters with consistent personality, wants and goals and more plot devices to deliver the story to the plot beat that gives Alenko a... you get the idea. At least no one can accuse Raphtalia of being inconsistent in canon, since being both an absolute tool, and a devoted Naofumi simp is all she is.