Author's Note: Apologies for the late chapter, my two year old laptop decided to have a meltdown on Tuesday and I had to get a replacement. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!

Chapter 28: The Hero of the Cane

Back home the people who are critical of Katarina call her a hedonist, her mother mostly. As soon as she figured out what that is the next question she asked was what's wrong with that?

'b0 yOu W4nT Mo73?'

She likes to read romance novels, eat sweets and work in her vegetable garden.

'Do U w&N+ a1L 0# iT?'

Most of all is that she likes having friends that she can do those things with! What is wrong with that!? Is this why she was summoned to this world?

'A7E yOU n0+ TiR#d?'

So that she can watch her friend be kidnapped and mutilated for some deranged inter-country conflict?

'D0n'T YOu w4n+ & d7EaK?'

Well then fine! If they want a show so badly then they can have one!

'Conditions met! Spear of Greed and Sloth unlocked!'

Kuro already got to set a portal location in Siltvelt in anticipation for the wave, Tanya ended up setting one at the border between the two nations on her way over before she came back to the castle town. Since the summoning room was permanently engraved into the portal function of their weapons they agreed to meet Katarina here and pick up their party members from her. Maple's would simply be sent to the nearby Village of Lute where she was waiting for her since the girl herself still couldn't step foot in the castle town.

"She's late." Kuro stated looking at the countdown clock as she finished her meal for the evening.

"I know. Katarina was concerned about being the weakest of the four of us. You don't think she's done something stupid have you?" Tanya checked her screen for monsters registered to her. "Blitz seems to be okay." Tanya noted putting her screen away. "So's Rishia."

"Fohl and Atla look to be okay too." Kuro stated bringing up and then dismissing the screen in question. "So what's happening?"

As the two of them were wondering that Otto walked into the dining hall where the two girls were dining in the company of the king.

"Am I interrupting anything?" The otter man asked brow cocked.

"No. We were just discussing Katarina's tardiness with the rest of our parties." Tanya explained wiping her face while she took the goblet of juice that had been prepared for her and muttered something about the King being a cheapskate under her breath.

"Then I have good news." The Otter man stated as he turned to leave. "They're outside approaching us at a brisk pace."

The six people that had barely escaped Seatto intact did so by basically grabbing onto Blitz and fleeing as soon as possible. Elena, Rino, Rishia, Blitz, Atla, Fohl and Sadeena all collapsed into a pile in the castle courtyard with Blitz herself being the dead tired cherry on top.

"What happened?" Then Tanya looked at Elena and Rino and cocked a suspicious brow. "Where's your party leader?"

"Chasing after Kyurie." Elena stated pushing Fohl's foot out of her ear. "Some Faubrian pricks attacked us, he took offence to this and tried to blow up their ship, they were offended by his attempts at sabotage and so tore off a arm and threw it at us before taking off with the rest of him. She's gone to visit her displeasure on them."

"Not good." The King stated, and was even less pleased after thinking about it for a moment. "And yet you are here instead of chasing after her or trying to stop her."

"She unlocked a cursed weapon." Elena stated having managed to untangle herself of the mess of hero companions. "Got a look at it before she made the building we were standing in fall apart at the seams. Fox and Bear." The King closed his eyes and breathed a deep sigh.

"Greed and Sloth. Not good." The last cursed weapon let loosed in Melromarc nearly destroyed the castle town, and that was when they only had to worry about one of them. "Both of these weapons, but especially sloth, cause mass destruction around the hero who unlocked them. Greed eats away at the value of what ever it comes into contact with, organic matter rots away while inorganic matter rusts and degrades away. Sloth on the other hand continuously builds up power while it's hero is doing nothing and violently lashes out with cursed energy if someone disturbs it's hero's rest. On their own they're bad enough but if you combine them together..." The King explained letting the others fill in the gaps.

"A time bomb." Tanya stated and the king nodded his head.

"And her effort to track down the Hero of the Whip is the fuse." The King stated nodding his head sagely.

"So we find him first, rescue Kyurie, heal him and-"

"No!" The King cut Kuro off sharply and without compromising. "We are already at risk of loosing one hero to this madness I will not risk another."

"Do you have a better idea?" Kuro asked sending the King a doubtful and scathing glare. The old man seemed to weigh his options for a moment before he came to a decision that he didn't like.

"...I need to go dig something up." Cold Methodical eyes seemed to weigh every person there before settling on Otto. "I'll need the Kushtaka."

Luge Hagumo Faubrey, 20 years old, returned to the manse he shared with his sister after he finished at the office. It was another long day, but with the death of his father his several dozen children were now left to bicker and quarrel with each other, and these days he seemed to have fewer siblings to fight over every day as they find inventive ways to kill each other off. Still he had popular support within the kingdom. But for now he had put that aside as he visited his sister's bedside and excused the half dozen maids hired to look after her. Luge took hold of the crippled girl's hand as she happily smiled at him forcing open blind eyes.

"Your majesty where are we going?" Otto asked as they passed by the armoury.

The King didn't even pause in his pace to indicate the war hammer for Otto to pick up.

Luge Hagumo Faubrey, 25 years old, could only stare in wide eyed horror. His manse was a scene of a bloody massacre with chopped up body parts scattered all over the hallway and the walls and floor painted with blood. Panicking Luge stormed to his sisters room where he discovered that his sister was the only one in one piece, after all her body was the one that was on fire. Enraged he stormed through the neighbourhood and tracked down any witnesses as to what happened and they all said the same thing, a Hakuko was seen sneaking out of their manse in the dead of night.

A month to work with and a army of slaves had managed to clean up the rubble in the dungeons, but the one wall he needed destroyed would still be intact. After all he personally made sure of it's durability.

Rogue, formerly Luge Hagumo Faubrey age 28, was disappointed to put it mildly when he did arrive in Melromarc. For seeing the country that was on the front lines of battle with Siltvelt and it's murderous Hakuko King and finding it's army in this state of disarray there was only one real recourse in settling the affair, and killing a Hero was not a easy task. So firstly he arrived at the school for the Hengen Musou style and made demands to be made a student. He got punched so hard four of his teeth came out.

"There." The King stated indicating one of the few remaining walls that had yet to be destroyed in the dungeon. "Tear it down."

"Is that wise?" Otto asked and the King glared in response.

Rogue, age 32, rubbed his jaw. The damned thing hasn't been right in years ever since his botched healing job after the Hengen Musou school smashed it to pieces. He just finished with his class up ceremony, dragon core, and with it acquired knowledge of the dragon pulse style. Hence he announced his arrival to the royal palace by blowing the door off of it's hinges where he found the... strategy meeting between the Cane Hero and Melromarc's young princess. How casual of them, one in a bath robe and the other in her underwear, she at least was taking things seriously, because she so very clearly did not want to be here. With a tilt of her head she grabbed what modesty she could and ran away. He thought coming in he would need only 20 moves to kill the Cane Hero, turns out he only needed twelve. The weapon seemed impressed if the way it fit into his hand was any indication.

"What did the wall do to him?" Atla asked after she came down the stairs and saw the dent Otto was making in the wall before them.

"It's in the way." The King stated not looking at the child, for in truth this would be the second time he's laid eyes on her. "I need it to come down." The King stated bluntly.

"Well in that case." Atla proceeded to finish the demo work.

Aultcray Melromarc the 34th, formerly known as Rogue age 35, rolled his shoulders inside of his tent. Dear gods the Shield Hero was as monstrous as the Church claimed he was, the young man driven insane by whatever the detestable Demi-humans had done to him, two dozen of the demon women at his as power flowed off of him in waves and around their bodies. No doubt the work of the Lust Series, but he had Wrath on his side. Ten years he worked towards this day, he even went as far as to sleep inside of one of the ruined manses of the Demi-humans just to wait until the anniversary of his sister's death. Her murderer was waiting for him outside of his own manse, already begging him for his life and making excuses and he was having none of it.

"Dragon Twister!" And with the name of the most destructive skill of the Wrath Series, the entire area was reduced to ruin.

Atla made short work of the wall. Four Weapons know how much of this madness might've been avoidable had her mother her vitality. The Cane was right where he left it, sitting in a dried pool of his blood inside of this cell he had the wall built over. Even now the King hesitated to pick the cursed thing back up.

Aultcray Melromarc The 34, King of Melromarc, had finally gotten his revenge and it showed as the wrath series at long last cooled it's effects on his mind. A pair of his wife's shadows emerged from the wreckage, one a woman, though that wasn't uncommon, in one hand a crying infant and the other a Hakuko child. The other, the much rarer male was carrying something in a rug from the manse, and dropped it front of him revealing his sister's body. She had grown in the ten years since he saw her, but it could be no other after all, blinded face smiling even as the cursed burn marks indicated her final fate. The stunned and horrified King dropped to his knees even as the man grasped his shoulder and spoke into his ears.

"Smooth move Trash."

Of all the many names of his life, none have fit so well.

Kuro worked on a piece of cloth while she waited, the exercise helping to keep her mind calm. If Atla was to walk around blind all the time, then perhaps she might prefer to wear a blindfold over her eyes.

"What did you give that girl anyway?" Tanya asked only half paying attention to Kuro, the other half was on Elena as she made frustrated calculations on the nearby stone wall grunting in displeasure all the way along at what she was seeing. "The Slaves that were in the tent at the time went on about how you gave them your divine blood and created a miracle."

"They're half right." Kuro stated black cloth with embroidery of silver and gold in hand. "I did create miracle, but I didn't give her my blood. I gave her water from the Infinite Sword Sea." Tanya narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "The Reality Marble where I create my weapons." That clarified nothing. "It contains micro-tracings of one of the Noble Phantasms of healing, the Avalon."

"Was that wise?" Tanya asked brow cocked suspiciously. "They're one of my tracings, they can't exist outside of my personal range." Tanya replied holding up the cloth she had been using her magic to sow.

"Everyone was talking about Atla's skill with the blade." Tanya's words gave Kuro pause. "They describe her forming pockets of air to jump off of or increasing her speed with small explosive bursts of magic like energy. The sword you gave her caused the bodies of the people they were fighting to rupture like water balloons, I assume that's not an ability that you gave it." The look on Kuro's face of oh damn-it! said it all.

"I need to give Atla an examination now." Kuro stated and others had taken notice.

"What did you do to my sister!?" Fohl snapped having been paying attention to this conversation with rapt attention.

"A question probably best saved until after she figures out the answer to that." Tanya stated as the King returned with Otto and Atla. And with a new cane in hand, a familiar feeling of something hidden passing Kuro's sight as she looked at the Cane but for now there was other matters to attend to.

"I need to speak with Atla in private for a bit." Kuro stated as she took Atla and ran off. "I will deal with miss Claes." The King stated as he sat down in the same chair he ate his dinner in almost no time. "Faubrey has launched a unjustified attack on the Heroes during the waves and as such struck at the entire world as a whole." Otto at some point had taken out a recording crystal and was now using it to take a video of the king as he handed down his bloody verdict. "I hereby declare war, on behalf of the country of Melromarc and the four heroes, on the nation of Faubrey for it's countless crimes of war."

The recording would be delivered later to the four corners of the world, after The King, after Trash for from this day further for he would accept no other designation, got the chance to compile those crimes. Least of all was orchestrating the murder of his sister by his very own hands.

"Should I assume you have a plan to accomplish this?" Tanya asked brow suspiciously looking at the king.

"I will need you to bring young Kaede this." The King stated taking out a potion bottle from the staff. "Tell her to bring it here." A Map with a very prominent X marked on it. "And give it to this woman." Finally a picture, of a very old lady. "Her services will be required for the battle ahead. As will yours." The King stated as his attention turned to face Elena, and the calculations she had finished and the conclusion she had reached making her visibly displeased. "Have you finished your calculations young lady?"

"You're not going to wanna hear this." Elena spat a lie like no other, mind you one born of her ignorance so he allowed it. "At the time of the Shark woman's death Katarina's party consisted of seven people. One over the limit and thus subject to a penalty." Katarina herself, Midori, Blitz, Fohl, Atla, Sadeena and Rishia who was now looking at the board and had already come to the same conclusion. "And yet in spite of that they all leveled way up, with Fohl, Atla, and Sadeena all hitting the cap and Midori, Blitz, Rishia and Katarina climbing up by at least thirty levels." Tanya seemed to understand the conclusion Elena had reached and looked to Rishia for confirmation. "Roughly one tenth of the XP that woman had should have been given to them when she died, 7.5% to be more accurate after you deduct the penalty for going over the party limit." And yet Four people still got jumped up to the eighties while three more hit their caps. Even after the octopus that was still no easy feat there.

"What's she saying is that the woman Sadeena killed should've been way over level 100." Mind you since no one knew just how much experience it would take to go past that limit, not to mention how to perform a second class up ceremony, exact estimates should've been impossible.

"I see." Trash stated closing his eyes for but a moment. "Miss Einsbern you fought against the weapon thief before. Tell me everything you know about him."

He had five weapons at the time, six if you count her sword, which she then scattered with rule breaker. He wielded all seven of the cursed series without consequence, or at least consequences that she could see, and yet used no other weapon other than the Chimerical abomination of seven animals of sin. He had a incredibly potent healing factor and yet his body seemingly dissolved when he was about to be captured, implying that he could either control it remotely or acquire a new one.

"Yes. If what you are saying is true then he likely does have the blessing of a god on his side." Mind you, none of the dozen gods that he knows of, for this creature wearing a human suit could subjoin them to his will though not completely. "If method cannot be found to remove him permanently then he will have to be placed into a indefinite state of incapacitation."

The King turned his eyes on Tanya now. Based on what Elena described about the airship Tanya places their level of technological development at being equivalent to roughly late thirties earth, a little more advance than her own late teens Germania though it was closer to the latter than the former if he's integrated magic into the formula.

"This contraption resembles a air plane. Or a fighter jet." Tanya noted looking at a recording taken of one of Faubrey's war machines. The Armour was mermaid like with wings of blades and a tail of fire, it's manoeuvrability, flight speed, weaknesses, were all carefully picked apart and studied by trained military eyes and vicious calculations. The conclusions they reached were surprising but not out of the ordinary for what she had reached. Speed was their strongest suit but "These ones don't resemble the kind I've seen before." Tanya noted looking at what should be the equivalent of a tank yet in lieu of treads there were legs and in lieu of guns there were arms swinging blades and shooting giant rifles of magic. However just because it doesn't resemble anything she's seen before did not mean that it's not there. "These arms and legs look like they're powered by Hydraulics. If we can freeze those their muscle with shatter." Tanya concluded and Trash took it in. All of it. Pieces fell into place inside of his mind as he weighed all of his options and found nothing wanting.

"My quill." The King instructed as so ink and stationary was sent for.

One by one soldiers were called in, given pieces of parchment and told to read them in private before burning them. Trash had outlined his plan to them, now he needed to gather together his pieces to go slay a empire. The necessary documents were gathered and stored inside of the cane, that wicked old thing laughing in the madness he would unleash, as he reviewed the record one by one and jotted down every crime his brother has committed to judge him for later.

Trash's mobile office, a desk, a chair and a tarp suspended between several trees, had been set up on a road. He calculated and came to understand the route Katarina would take to visit her wrath upon the retreating Whip Hero, for he would be retreating to Faubrey so as to better leverage his own half baked power and she would be chasing him. Indeed looking up in the sky Trash saw the broken airship fly out above him, and looking in the distance he saw the cursed domain running along the road. Greed and Sloth twisting together into a soup of barely contained horror. So thus Trash made himself proper. Standing up he threw off his regalia revealing toned wiry muscle underneath contained inside of a tight black T-Shirt slammed the tip of his weapon into the ground as it changed forms.

It might be that one would think he means to turn it into the staff of Wrath again, for that is the weapon he used to bring down the last hero he fought. But unlike the maddened Shield he needed this one alive, so instead it assumed the form of a wolf gnashing at it's own leash. A short conversation with Miss Honjou was all he needed to upgrade the God Slayer Fenrir to it's full might. And so here he stood, playing a game of chicken against a monster and he did not blink. Before they could run into him the Filolilal King pulling the cart attempted to grind to a halt, swinging the carriage around so that it's momentum could help change his path. The cart ground to a halt in front of Trash, in no small part because held out his staff to block the thing from going any further than it had been. Once Trash removed the cane the door swung open. Katarina's eyes sleepy but filled with steel as she held a mangled spear holding a fox and a bear in each other's grasp like two old enemies bound and determined to take the other down at all costs.

"Sstep asiide~..." Katarina's speech slurred as she spoke, like she was caught in the midst of a drunken stupor, and having tasted the effects of the curse series himself Trash could say with certainty that it wouldn't be wrong to say so.

"Turn around young Claes, what awaits you on the other side is not something the likes of you can fight." Her grip on the spear tightened as it let out a lustrous shine.

Gods above she's been reinforcing that monstrosity hasn't she? As if the cursed weapons are not enough of a danger already she had to go ahead and make one ten times worst.

"Mai... ffriend iss iiin danger!" The last word came through sharp and clear, she was resisting the effects it was having on her mind even as she was battered by it's effects. What had they summoned that she could chase away such madness? "Step! Aside!"

"No." Trash stated looking down on Katarina as he would some unruly child being scolded by her grandfather. "For you see I have been where you are now and I can say with full certainty that the only thing that lies at the end of the road you're on is a corpse, not yours for fate will not be so kind to you but your friend that you so wish to rescue." The old man loomed over her, staff resting on his shoulder as he uttered the most damning words of all. "And you will have been the one who killed him."

The ring of a bell sounded, and so the self proclaimed embodiment of human filth fought his third hero, not his last, but then again there is never any shortage of unruly children needing a firm hand.