A Special Kind Of Magic
Chapter 7
It was as if it never happened, there were no monsters, legendary weapons, waves, just him in his room. He wanted to drown in his bed, the comforting embrace of the covers wrapping around him as his thoughts vacated his mind.
Ren flipped over, gazing out the window to see the house right next to his own. As a child, he always wanted to have a better view of trees or mountains, but this was the best view he could ask for. The gaming system sat next to his desk, countless hours spent living a false life in the digital world. It had collected dust now, lifeless, unused.
Almost every teenager dreamed of being taken to a new world, starting again with envious strength and power. Only now he realizes he was given exactly that, and he would trade it all back to just be given another chance at living his original life.
The one he wasted daydreaming in video games.
His muddled thoughts were halted when an orange light filled the room, sparks flying in a ring until an image formed within. Naofumi stepped into Ren's bedroom, giving the room a look over before awaiting him near the portal.
"The wave will start in a few hours." He mentioned in a calm tone.
"Can't I at least say goodbye?" Ren pleaded in a whisper, glancing over to the one change in his room. A shrine with as single photo of himself being hugged between his family. They loved to tease his unwillingness to participate with them, always inserting themselves into his life as he tried pushing them away.
He had so many regrets.
"They already have." Naofumi sat at the corner of his bed, patiently waiting for Ren. "You've been gone for months, dead in this world. If they see you again they will never be able to accept another loss."
"I just…wish I did more."
The young man sighed, nodding in some form of understanding. "Yeah, I think we all do."
Naofumi stood up abruptly, a call to action surging in him. "That's exactly why we can't ignore our duties to a world that summoned us to help. We're not running away from our old life, we're running towards a chance to do something better with ourselves. It may sound unreal, an imaginary game with no risks, but to the world filled with fantasies and fairy tale creatures there are people who are living real lives. They need protecting."
Ren's body resisted the movement to sit up, the sword on his back feeling heavier and heavier. He still got up though, even if he didn't like it. "Ok."
"Great!" Naofumi smiled, pulling out a bottle of gatorade and holding it out. "You'll need lots of electrolytes for today. Or maybe not, depending on how things go."
"You have a plan?"
"This is the first wave I'll get to see in person." Naofumi took the first steps through the portal. "This is a rare chance to study it, and maybe end it for good this time."
"So, one last battle?" Ren asked with a hint of relief.
"If this turns out right." Naofumi sighed. "Which they hardly ever do."
Standing around the round stone table, the heroic gangs of the reasonable Legendary Heroes began to discuss their plans! Hmmm, yeah, that name was no good.
Naofumi slapped his hands on the granite, his eyes going over all the teams present. Itsuki was at the far end, his party behind him with mostly hesitant expressions. Ren stood at the ready, his own members giving their absolute attention. Well, most of them.
"This is unnecessary." Myne put her hand on the pommel of her sheathed sword. "We all know that taking out the boss as soon as possible will stop the wave."
"Be quiet." Ren almost snapped her. "In fact, just don't say anything."
"H-how rude!" The woman placed a hand over her chest, pushing it out as if it made her words more important. "Ignoring my advice at this meeting will-"
"Silence." Petra held out her hand, a short blue magic circle materializing in her palm. It wasn't as sharp, the texture more resembling Naofumi's own spells.
Myne shouted at her, pointing her sword at the cloaked individual as her lips continued to flap. To her own horror, no noise came out.
"Aw." Naofumi patted Petra's head. "You really have been using my recommendations for altering your casting OW!"
Petra gripped his wrist, pushing it back down to the table. "Now is not the time."
"Wait, so you want me to pat your head later-"
"Not, now." Petra warned, her mask barely restraining her agitation.
"Alright fine." With a huff, Naofumi addressed the group. "Ok, now we just need-"
"The spear hero's group." Raphtalia cut him off, noticing the lack of the man and his party.
"...do we really?"
The spy, while understanding his reluctance, needed Naofumi to put aside his feelings. "We need to coordinate all of our actions. Any confusion would hinder the ability to stop the waves."
"...fine."
His shield shifted into the portal one, and with a wave of his hand Motoyasu stumbled through the portal. Soon, three other girls found themselves barely catching themselves as they were abruptly summoned.
"H-hey!" The spear hero stood up, seeing the man responsible for interrupting his time with the girls. "What's the big idea?!"
"We're planning for the wave." The bow hero quickly explained. "We need to make sure we're on the same page."
Getting off the ground and pushing his annoyance to the side, Motoyasu swiftly took over. "Right, Ren will make some openings with his sword, you'll debuff it with some arrows, Mr. Magic over here can shield us from the boss's attacks, and I'll do the heavy hitting."
"What about us Motoyasu?" One of his companions asked.
"Simple! Our parties will make sure none of the mobs reach us so we can focus on the boss. Sound good everyone?" He smiled, awaiting the praise from his own party and all of those present.
"What about civilians?" Ren asked the 'hero'. "How will we make sure they're safe."
"I talked with the King." Motoyasu waved it off. "He's got a group of knights that will join us, I'm sure they can protect whatever town we show up at."
Naofumi resisted the urge to slap the man, but withholding his urge to throw him out of this meeting they needed to make sure he understood the plan. That didn't mean they had to listen to him.
"Ok!" Naofumi pulled out his tablet shield, holding it in front of himself while pulling up the map. "The radius for potential waves pretty much covers everything within a day's journey by cart within Melromarc's borders. First priority is securing the area, and if there are any settlements nearby our parties will sweep through and evacuate the area. I can use my portal shield to-"
"Who put you in charge?" The spear hero cut Naofumi off, the shield hero denying his inner desire to just put him to sleep.
"Shut up and listen to him." Itsuki shot down the pompous blond, Motoyasu shocked at the sudden change in attitude by the younger one.
"Anyways." Naofumi put a few pins around the towns. "If there are civilians, get them to these points and I'll have portals waiting to take them away temporarily. Once the people are out use the chat function to send a quick message to me. As for you three heroes, find the boss BUT do not kill it. Stall it, bind it, just don't defeat it."
"WHAT?!" A larger knight in Itsuki's party stepped past the hero to yell at Naofumi. "We need to end the waves! Not collect some pets!"
"Agreed." He tried to calm the man down. Was this world just full of idiots or something? Then again, what world wasn't? "We want to end the waves, permanently. So while the boss is occupied and the civilians are safe, I'm going to directly study the waves and see what makes them tick. If something goes wrong, or the wave becomes increasingly harder to the point we're struggling to deal with it, then we kill the boss and end it all. Does that sound ok to everyone?"
"Just one thing." The spear hero leaned forward towards Naofumi. "Are you seriously saying that we are all going to be fighting and you're just going to be watching us?"
Holy shit it was like this guy could not stop looking for reasons for Naofumi to be wrong.
"That's not what he said." Petra informed the hero. "He's going to be going directly to the wave itself, surrounded by monsters, all while trying to have enough focus to learn enough to put these tragedies to an end."
"Seriously?" Motoyasu chuckled while shaking his head. "That's not how things work at all."
"Oh like you actually know how things work." Naofumi grumbled to himself, but the idiot still heard him.
"It's not some complicated plot!" Motoyasu tried to scrounge up his pride. "It's simple, keep killing the bosses for each wave and eventually you reach end game."
"End game? Oh fuck me." Uttering a swear word, Naofumi marched straight up to Motoyasu with his shield in hand. "You know you died, you know we're from different worlds, so why do you keep treating this like a game?!"
"Hey!" The spear hero pushed himself against Naofumi. "In case you haven't noticed, these weapons work by game rules, this world works by game rules, the setting, the characters, all game stuff! So of course it's a game!"
Naofumi didn't say anything, his eyes going wide as he was stumped by what the spear hero just said. That's right, this is just like a game.
Itsuki came forward between the two, angrily looking up to the sorcerer. "Don't tell me after all the stuff you showed us you think we're in a game now!"
"This world isn't a game." The shield hero stuck with that belief, knowing there was more to this world than just some code. "But it might have turned into one."
"...what?"
"Come on!" Naofumi opened up a new portal. "Let's go get those knights!"
Standing over a grassy hill, Raphtalia let the wind blow through her braided hair. Fully equipped in her Asguardian armor, her sword standing in front of her, she prepared her mind for what horrors she might have to witness again. Death, slaughter, cries, most likely they would be present again.
WAVE: 00:00:10
That didn't mean she wouldn't fight her hardest to keep that from happening.
"You doing ok?" Naofumi came up, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Will you be alright on your own?" The girl looked up towards the man, who was draped in his charcoal gray robes lined with emerald runes and his cloak flowing through the air.
WAVE: 00:00:06
"Of course." He smiled confidently, holding up his shield. "I've leveled up a lot, my defense is better than Petra's, and not to brag but I am really good at illusion spells."
WAVE: 00:00:04
"Use them as soon as you can." Petra commanded him from behind. "Never let them know you're even there."
WAVE: 00:00:02
"Alright, be ready for anything you two." Naofumi summoned his portal shield, making sure to have his analysis shield's aspects equipped alongside it.
WAVE: 00:00:00
This wasn't just a game, this was somebody else's.
A teleportation spell rushed over them, bringing them to a forest overlooking a wide grassy plain with mountains surrounding it. The other heroes were here, their parties, and a group of knights sent by the king. While the shield hero wasn't sure if the man had that authority at the moment, it was still help so he'd wait until the bi weekly report with the queen to let her know about it.
The sky began to bleed, a horrible crimson overtaking the light of the planet. Naofumi looked up in horror, seeing the dark whirlpools spread through the flowing blood.
He recognized it, the dimensional energy seeping into this one. They were always warned against it, prepared to combat it, but he wasn't Doctor Strange.
There was no way he could take on the threat of the dark dimension.
"Fuck it." Naofumi shook his head, as if he was just preparing his nerves for a baseball game. Priority one, secure the area.
Pulling up the local map on his shield, he saw that there was a town within the area. Ok, they could focus on that. In a quick switch to his portal shield, he summoned the spiraling orange circle leading straight to the town.
"What are you waiting for?!" Raphtalia called out to the other parties, pointing her blade towards the screams that began to ring out beyond the portal. "The enemy is already making their move! Now CHARGE!"
Her command finally snapped them to action, with her leading the charge they all moved to protect the villagers. Naofumi conjured another portal, an escape route for them to guide the civilians to.
*CLANK*
A skeleton landed next to him, armored in old armor with patches of rust around the edges. He would want to try and find the origins of this person, if they ever were a person or justa crude construct.
*BANG*
It's head shattered, the body going limp and falling to the ground.
"Holy shit!" Itsuki jumped at the noise, the remaining heroes noticing how Petra decimated the skeleton.
"That's a gun!" Motoyasu shouted. "She's got a gun! Where do you even get a gun!"
*ROAR*
The heroes were interrupted as a monster emerged from the largest dimensional rift of them all. An oversized lion with three other heads alongside its own. A dragon on the left, a goat on the right, and a cobra replacing its tail.
"Make sure they don't mess this up please." Naofumi whispered over to his cloaked companion.
"You have too much confidence in my skill." Petra retreated to the shadows, Naofumi fixing his gaze back towards the waves.
He knew where the waves connected to, now all he had to do was find the bridge. Snapping his hands out in front of himself, Naofumi began to draw several symbols in the air each with their own mandalas as they sparked with magic. Throwing out his hands, five of them enlarged to massive proportions, resting upon the waves themselves. The monsters continued to fall through, burning upon contact until they were nothing but ashes when they descended.
This wasn't the main purpose of this spell. No, it was a rather cruel one that disassembled the object casted upon it in order to identify all components of it. Linking this spell to his shield, he could see everything that not only gave him the answers he sought for what was maintaining these, but how it was being done.
"No way." His eyes widened, reading the magic written on his screen. "The source of the waves, is here?"
Raphtalia swung her mighty blade, cleaving the undead monsters in half. Leaping into the air, she summoned her sword by her side as lightning began to gather around her frame. A swarm of oversized wasps charged towards her, and all she had to do was release the energy within.
"HA!" In a short hearty cry, a crack of thunder, the bugs were fried.
Landing on the ground, she turned back to see that nearly everyone was already through the portal with only a few left trying to get through. Good, no one would get hurt from this. Looking over the group of mismatched parties, she was disturbed to see a lack of one particular woman she was warned many times about.
A glimmer in the sky was the only warning she got, as fire rained down from above.
*BOOM*
Fire surrounded Raphtalia, burning homes, destroying shops, and igniting the lovely flowers in the window.
"Good work men!" The captain of the locally employed knights slowly approached the scorched landscape. "We'll eradicate every monster, leave nothing alive! Not even ones that look like they're helping."
"S-sir!" The youngest of the group came forward. "The shield hero's companion was here! We need to-"
"A demi human is still a monster." The captain reminded his less experienced member. "You will be wise to learn that sooner."
"Are you sure you got her?" Myne came out from behind the battalion that served as a convenient shield.
Annoyed by his judgement being called into question, the captain stepped towards the princess. "You are the one who told us where and when to fire. If she is alive it won't be because of my error."
She did not take kindly to that, exploding at him with the contained rage from being forced to work for the sword hero for so long. "I do not make mistakes! It is the fault of others that causes my suffering!"
Seeing the fallen sword stuck within the dirt with the hilt facing up, Myne refocused on her original goal. "A sword such as this has no right being in such filthy hands. Now that such a dirty creature is gone, I can claim what should only be in the hands of nobility."
"I am very much alive."
*CREAK*
Raphtalia pushed the charred beam of wood up with one arm, lifting the remnants of what was left of an entire building. Her scowl landed on the 'princess', who was desperately trying to lift Mjolnir to defend herself with.
With one more push, Raphtalia unharmed by the attack made her way towards her sword. Myne finally saw there was no way to retrieve the weapon, and drew her own.
"D-demon spawn!" Many of the knights raised their sword alongside the princess, others choosing wisely to stay out of the way.
Ignoring their words, Raphtalia shook off the ash and soot covering her frame. Once the loose particles were gone, she held out her hand to let Mjolnir fly towards her open palm.
Glaring towards the woman, Raphtalia leveled her blade towards her direction. "Know this, the next time you try to take my life…you will be relieved of your own."
"G-guards!" Myne called out to the knights, the ones loyal to the crown encircling her in a protective stance. "You have threatened me, the future queen! That is treason and I will have your head for it!"
"Before trying to take mine." Raphtalia spun her blade above herself, hovering off of the ground and looking towards the portals. "Do not lose your own."
Flying away from the front lines now that the town was saved, Myne and the rest of the knights were left all alone as monsters began to flow into the area.
"Meteor, spea-"
"Stop!" Ren smacked Motoyasu's weapon away with his own. "We just need to restrain it for now, not kill it!"
"Oh boy." The older hero rolled his eyes. "You know he's just gonna swoop in and take all the experience points for himself! It's better we get them since we're doing all the work!"
"If anything." Ren pointed towards Itsuki, who continued to roll around the monster while firing arrows with ropes pinning it to the ground. "He's doing all the work, and you just tried to finish it off."
"At least I'm fighting!" The spear hero retorted. "What is the shield user doing besides watching everything?"
"Weren't you listening?!" Ren shouted back at his face. "He's trying to figure out how the waves work to stop them for good!"
"They'll end once we beat the game!"
"This isn't a game!"
"GUYS!" Itsuki screamed out.
"WHAT?!" Both yelled back, seeing that the boss had broken free and was about to swipe them with the claws of its paw.
*THWIP*
A webline stopped the beast, halting its limb before it could strike. Other quick globs of webbing shot out, covering the eyes and the mouths before they could bite down on the heroes. Using the original webline, Petra circled around the wave boss while attaching new line on the trees. Eventually, the monster was tangled in a large web, stuck struggling to free itself.
"Are you boys done arguing?" Petra asked from a branch, the young men dumbly nodding. "Then do your jobs."
Within human form, royalty watched the man work from nearby. The Filolial Queen watched the battle in distaste, seeing such unorgonized chaos within the parties that were supposed to be protecting the planet but could hardly watch over themselves.
Even now, as she stood only six feet away from the shield hero could she see this was a hopeless group. It was clever of him to use his magic to protect the inhabitants of the nearby settlement, but useless in the grand scheme of things. He wasn't fighting in the waves, and instead his instructions were to delay ending it so he could just watch it.
She gave him a chance, for him to prove himself and be able to protect the world against the waves. Even if he used some unique magic to lessen the impact, he still purposely kept them active.
This would not do.
"I GOT IT!" His sudden outburst prevented his instant demise, curiosity of the Queen allowing him to keep breathing a moment longer.
The cloaked spiderling swung in next to him. "Did you find out how to stop the waves?"
"Maybe."
He wasn't even sure of himself.
"But I found out where the spells are being issued from and can insert my own!" His excitement was practically spilling out of every poor. "As much as I hate to admit it, Motoyasu was right, this is a game!"
"...explain." Petra's irritation on hold, she also was invested enough to know what he was talking about.
"These waves, the levels, the monsters, the weapons, even how demi humans age, all of it is being managed by the equivalent of a magical super computer!" The robed sorcerer showed rapid magical symbols the queen didn't recognize to his companion. "This is all of intelligent design, someone made all of this to be exactly like a game! So, all I have to do is find the spells that are controlling the wave system itself, which is easier now that I've analyzed the wave itself, and then-"
He twirled his finger, a small spell being casted into the air. Pushing it against his shield onto the green gem, it shimmered for only a brief moment until-
*CRACK*
The swirling pools of darkness in the sky, the bleeding clouds, it all snapped shut on itself in an instant. The residue magic began to dissipate, the monsters stopped falling, he had stopped the wave with a single spell.
"Yes!" Naofumi punched the air. "THAT is what studying can do!"
"You…did it." Petra looked up in awe, seeing the clear blue above with no signs of danger. "You actually, stopped the waves for good."
"Not quite." He admitted but didn't let it falter his happiness. "But now I can just show up to any of the waves, input the command, and stop it before they release any monsters. That is if I haven't figured out how to erase those spells making the waves altogether-Hmph!"
Petra clasped her arms around his torso, squeezing him tightly as his arms just hung in the air as if strings kept them afloat. "You…really are amazing."
"Excuse me?" He blinked, and in that time she had released him.
"Come on." Petra walked away with a hurried pace. "We can let the heroes kill the boss and return the people to their homes."
"Petra don't pretend like we weren't having a moment!"
*SHOOM*
Raphtalia rocketed from the sky, landing harshly on the ground before them. "Did you do it?! Did you really stop the wave?!"
The sorcerer, the shield hero, smiled down towards the young girl. "Yep, we found a way to cancel the waves."
"HUZZAH!" Raphtalia crushed the man in a bear hug, picking him off the ground and squeezing until his face turned purple.
"R-raphta-*COUGH*-lia!" The man struggled to free himself, until finally he was released to suck in as much air as his lungs could get.
The queen smiled, their joy finding its way into her heart. Never before had she underestimated such a carefree person before. He didn't talk like a hero, act like one, or even have the same priorities as any other hero that came before him. Though heroes are those who protect, who save, and he managed to do exactly that and more than any other person in this world.
Finally, she could rest knowing the world was safe.
[You ruined my game]
Everyone stopped, a line of text appearing in front of every sentient being on the planet.
[YOU CHEATED]
Naofumi glanced down towards his shield, the green gem glowing dangerously with spells never before seen running through it.
[CHEATER CHEATER CHEATER CHEATER]
[RESERVED BOSS ACTIVATED]
[I won't let you ruin my fun]
Ok, I swear I never abandoned this story. Most of the time I was waiting for new information from the spiderman movie and now the doctor strange movie to come out before I took any leaps. Then, after seeing the new movie I decided to revisit some of my plans to make sure they fit in with canon. I'll try to get through this story before the end of summer, because we're just about half way through what I had planned.
One big thing that this story contradicts with canon is how multiversal travel is seen. From what I gathered from the first movie-No Way Home was that interdimensional travel was possible for the scorcerers but it was also dangerous so they protected themselves from it. Only known ones were visited, like the mirror dimension. Then the new movie states that the multiverse is something else entirely and can only be done through dream walking, or if you happen to have a very specific powerset.
I'm going to ignore this, seeing how Naofumi has shown to be able to crossover dimensions at will and that was my understanding of how the portals could be used. A simple explanation could be that because the shield is part of an interdimensional system Naofumi can take advantage of that.
Any grammar mistakes please point out and I will fix them ASAP.
Let me know how well you like it and if you want to see more.
AnimeFan13579: That's what makes the portal shield so good. They can simply place their hand on it, imagine the place, and Naofumi can create the portal to it.
xavex: I always hated video game rules for fantasy shows, it's too overdone and abused to become OP. I basically wrote Naofumi's character to basically say "fuck that I'm doing my own thing."
Calderoneric758: Maybe as a side chapter.
MaxPrime: She won't age with her levels
RedBurningDragon: There wasn't too much time for them to process everything, but with this new threat they may have to get some upgrades.
Jebest4781: I don't plan on bringing celestials into this.
drmcgraw186: I do not plan on making a full avengers set
sandmanwake: They will refuse to leave his side if it means proper plumbing
Marshman101: No DC, it will overcomplicate things
Guest: I don't plan on bringing their party members into the modern world
Xxx: This is crossposted on Ao3, and I don't get as much attention on that site.
edboy4926: I don't plan on having Spiderman involved, or the web of life.
Perseus12: She needs to make sure the other countries don't declare war on hers.
CDBB123: I mean, Naofumi is already a way different character so odds are his new approach will alter Raphtalia from her canon self
scyfly: maybe he doesn't think he should push his own set of morality onto the entire country against their will?
Azizah Putri1: He already brought the queen to lay down the hammer on him, I say that's plenty for now.
