RISING OF THE (POSSIBLY) OMNIPOTENT ZENO
Chapter 3: Backfired
"Show me your moves!" -Captain Falcon
Upon the arrival of the new day, the four heroes plus Zeno left their rooms and went to eat a nice breakfast that the castle staff had already prepared for them. Afterwards, they returned to the throne room and met up with the king.
"MAI BOIS! This peace is what all true warriors strive for! Dinner-HEY! I'm not King Harkinian, you sorry excuse of an author!" The king yelled at nobody, making everyone in the room wonder if he was starting to go either senile or crazy. "Oh come off it already! We both know that I'm perfectly fine! Now gimme a banana!"
A banana suddenly and inexplicably appeared in one of Zeno's hands.
"What?! Him?! Why did you give that banana to the bloody...whatever he is, of all people?! He's not even one of the cardinal heroes!" King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII shouted in outrage.
Oh, that's easy. I did that just to troll you. What isn't easy, however, is coming up with a way to calm down those who are present in the castle once they come out of their shock from seeing a banana appear out of thin air. This should happen right about...now. Have fun with that.
"Wait-"
Just then, everyone in the throne room started screaming in panic. Luckily for our "favorite" king, Medea Pideth Machina chose this moment to rewind time and redo the entire scene.
Upon the arrival of the new day, the four heroes plus Zeno left their rooms and went to eat a nice breakfast that the castle staff had already prepared for them. Afterwards, they returned to the throne room and met up with King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII. He gave each of the heroes their own parties save for Naofumi, though the shielder did get Zeno, much to Aultcray's and his eldest daughter's dismay. Still, Myne Sophia/Malty Melromarc also tagged along. Myne/Malty took Naofumi to a certain blacksmith while Zeno opted to wait outside. When Naofumi and Myne/Malty exited the shop, the two humans and the omni-king headed out for training.
After a day of training for Naofumi and a half day of training for Myne/Malty, they both decided to head to an inn in town for food and rest. Zeno, who had spent the first half of the day chasing a butterfly, also went with them. After eating, Naofumi went to bed, Zeno just sat on his bed for the rest of the night, and Myne/Malty wished to do her treacherous thing guilt-free.
Were it so easy...
FLASHBACK
After training for half the day, Myne/Malty was fed up with Zeno not helping out. Upon confronting him, he simply flew into the air and erased a group of enemies with a wave of his hand. Predictably, she freaked out, but a warning was all it took to put a stop to that. Upon regaining her composure, she thought about how nice it would be to be able to fly. She must have said this out loud, because in the next moment she was flying among the stars, hand-in-hand with the omni-king. While Zeno didn't need oxygen, she did, so a barrier was surrounding them. After showing her the wonders of countless celestial bodies from space, they eventually stopped in front of a star that was in their way. From up close, Myne/Malty realized just how small the world that she lived on was in comparison to that star.
Then Zeno effortlessly erased it.
It was at this point that Myne/Malty realized three things. First, the other heroes probably weren't exaggerating about Zeno's title and capabilities on the day they were summoned, so upsetting him was the last thing she wanted to do. Second, Zeno was the king of all, so becoming queen of a mere country no longer meant anything to her when she could become the queen of everyone and everything by marrying Zeno. Third and finally, she found that the amazing sights in deep space that Zeno had shown her, as well as his sheer power, had caused a spark of genuine attraction towards him to form within her.
Upon returning to her world, it was late into the day, so she decided that they should all find an inn for the night. However, before leaving, she walked up to Zeno and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"That was a 'thank you' for today. I cannot remember the last time I had so much fun while spending time with another," She had said with a blush before going off to find Naofumi.
"Oh?" Zeno had muttered with a tilt of his head once she was out of hearing range.
FLASHBACK END
Malty/Myne felt conflicted because of Zeno, as she didn't want him to get caught up in all of this, but in the end she went through with the plan to desecrate the shield hero. However, she made sure to tell the guards not to upset Zeno.
The next morning, the guards started shouting and banging on the door to Naofumi's and Zeno's room, completely disregarding Myne's/Malty's warning. Needless to say, they were annoying Zeno and they refused to stop, so he erased them and took a distressed Naofumi back to the castle.
King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII and his eldest daughter were both staring at Zeno in helpless disbelief. This trial had all been planned out, and yet with one innocent question from the childlike being calling himself the omni-king, everything had been ruined. Looking back on it, they both wondered how they had overlooked such an obviously damning flaw, but hindsight was twenty/twenty.
"So...if Naofumi is going to be hated, yet you need all four of the Cardinal Heroes to stop the waves, then what's to stop the shield hero from either killing himself or refusing to lift a finger to help?" Zeno had asked while scratching the back of his head in confusion.
While it was just idle curiosity as opposed to a desire to help, Zeno had still just unwittingly given the shield bearer a chance to get out of his predicament, and Naofumi wasn't about to let it go to waste. With a gleam in his eyes and a slasher grin on his face, his neck rocketed toward the spearhead of one of the many guards surrounding him, stopping just inches away.
"You all need me, but I don't need any of you! So here's how things are going to go: Either you all let me go without taking any action against me, or I take my own life and probably doom you all! So what's it going to be?" Naofumi demanded with a smug grin.
Things already looked bad for Aultcray, but then he foolishly threatened to have Zeno executed in a desperate attempt to force Naofumi to submit. Both upset with her father for his unfair treatment of Zeno and terrified of what the omni-king might do in retaliation, Myne/Malty immediately protested but was ultimately ignored. Now surrounded with weapons pointed at him, Zeno was beginning to get annoyed. He stated as much and told the guards to stop or he'd kill them, but his warning fell on deaf ears.
"I warned you. Now disappear," Were the last words the aforementioned guards heard before they knew no more.
TO BE CONTINUED...