Author's Note: Not a lot to say today. Gonna go enjoy season two of shield hero now. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 54: The Spatial Labyrinth
Kaede was starting to get tired of being ambushed, the castle town, inside of the Spirit Tortoise, and now inside of the inter-world dimensional tunnel, which Kyo took advantage of to divide the group dumping them in different locations. Now Maple was in for a second ambush, as she was falling out of the sky and rapidly approaching the ground as she went. Kaede went over options in her mind, she still didn't have any of her flight options from NWO unlocked. She could try going Savage but increasing her mass when she was already in a aggressive free fall seemed somewhat unwise. That left her one option, holding her shield in front of her as she prepared to use it break her fall. Kaede landed shield first sucking the earth into her shield as she went as she forcibly broke her fall with a slow descent through the earth. Kaede pushed herself back out of the hole by refilling it as she caught a idea of where she was. There was wilderness here, and a lake not too far away. If she was in enemy territory then the enemy didn't look like they were here now. Maple looked down at herself as she assessed what she had to work with. The answer's she came to was more of a matter of what she didn't have to work with, for starters she didn't have her Tyrant Rex Kigurumi, tattered and torn in various different places it's performance would be severely reduced even if it was working right, which it wasn't. Under normal circumstances there's a section in her screen that gives her the information about her equipment, normally it says 'Tyrant Rex Kigurumi' but now it said ' (&Y ' so it would seem that it would be something less than useless for now. She also didn't have the full capabilities of her Legendary shield or her level, as thanks to the ride over the ocean after getting cured of her curse at Cal Mira she had raised herself back up to sixty but now her level was saying 1.
"Well. I guess I better get started." Kaede put the Kigurumi away for now and went rummaging around for what Items she had, the closest she had to armour was the gambeson Erhard had made for her, which was still giving gibberish in her H.U.D so it was time to start hunting. "I wonder what kind of enemies I'll run into?" Maple muttered as she started looking around. Of course the young Shield Hero was going to prioritise finding her friends and party members over the wanton slaughter of monsters but at the same time she doubted Kyo would have the common courtesy to drop her friends within walking distance of her so for now she was focusing on level and items. "I hope Raphtalia and the others are doing okay."
Appearances aside, Raphtalia was little over ten years old, and Filo less than three months, she didn't know how old Sadeena was, probably older than Raphtalia if what she said about her being like her older sister was true. Since her level was reset their's should be too, in the best case scenario Sadeena should be a adult, while Raphtalia and Filo should've de-aged. While these facts were going through her mind Maple came across her first enemies, boxes floating through the air similarly to Balloons.
"You have something I need to find my friends." Kaede's voice had not one ounce of mercy in it, nor her eyes that in spite of a lack of curse shield was still glowing ominously. "Give it to me!" The Boxes growled before they went on the offensive, the Shielder used her titular weapon to bat one aside as she went after the next one aiming to grab hold of it with her bare hand. "Ow!" And for her trouble Maple's hand got bitten by the irritable creature, throwing it off of her Maple looked down at her hand where she got bit and saw blood was coming out of it. "You're a lot stronger than a Balloon." Unfortunately for them, Maple was a lot smarter.
By now she had the attention of the entire group of boxes, so sitting on her shield as she pressed it into the ground she once again sunk into the ground as the Balloons swarmed over to the hole their prey had literally dug for herself and dived in. Their mistake. Every box that came into contact with the weapon jewel was sucked inside, with the ones on top pushing more down as they aggressively pursued their prey. Maple came to understand that it wasn't a matter of the boxes being innately stronger than Melromarc's balloons, its just that they're a higher level, she realised this based on the speed by which she hit level five. Unfortunately the boxes eventually got wise to her and backed off. How unfortunate for them that by then Maple already had the instrument of their doom.
"Rope shield, Enchanted with porcupine needles..." A few moments later a razor sharp grappling hook attached to a rope that was coming out of Maple's shield flew out of the hole and ripped through the remaining boxes to shreds. "Huu."
Maple rubbed ointment over her hand as she felt fatigue about to hit her. She had been fighting Kyo's Anti-monsters for most of the past few days, and had capped it off with a long walk. So going back into her hole she turned her shield into the biggest one available, used it to cap the hole, and went to sleep.
Well this was a nasty bind. Thanks to spontaneously de-aging Raphtalia's stats had dropped back to a measly level 1, on top of having the body of a child. That was then paired with being bound with this magic suppressing rope and being locked in a cage with these three.
"Try that again and next time we'll bolt you hands together." The guard stated as he threw L'Arc back into the cage with his compatriots.
"Well that was a abysmal failure." Therese stated bluntly. When they tried to use their skills to escape some pink barrier stopped them. When they tried to use Raphtalia's magic to escape the magic was drained from their bodies. Most recently L'Arc simply tried to brute force his way out, and was stopped with the revelation that the guards seemed to be several times stronger than them. "Anymore ideas?" Therese asked brow cocked suspiciously.
"Would you idiots stop trying to break my prison?" A deeply irritated voice asked as he walked up to the cell that the four of them had been locked in. Raphtalia got a bizarre feeling Deja Vu looking at the man the guard showed difference to. Messy black hair, sharp green eyes and a scowling expression. He wore largely green clothing, white leather was strapped to his legs like knee pads and around his chest underneath a jade coloured chest plate.
"Careful boss. They're a handful. Especially the little one." Sharp green eyes looked down at Raphtalia appraising but only a moment before turning into annoyance and turning to face L'Arc.
"The last time we talked I recall beating the ever loving crap out of you and telling you to stop poking your nose into other worlds. And what did you do?" The man indicated Raphtalia as if it answered his question. "You kidnap a kid and bring her here."
"Kiddo!" L'Arc shouted grabbing hold of wooden bars as he glared at the man who seemed to own the place.
"Don't call me that!" The man snapped clearly annoyed with the whole lot of them.
"Two of their directional beasts are still alive!" L'Arc attempted desperately.
"So you plan on sacrificing two thirds of all life on their planet in order to temporarily save this one?" Naofumi stated glaring at L'Arc angrily.
"We were allies once." Glass stated as she glared back at the prison's owner.
"Once." The man opened the cage, picked Raphtalia up by the scruff of her shirt, and closed it back up. "Not anymore." Raphtalia was untied and given some clothes in her actual size as she was led out of the prison. Afterwards a large meal had been prepared for her much to her confusion and the man added her to his Party. "You plan on going out and level after this aren't you?" The man from the prison stated as Raphtalia looked at the food suspiciously. "I would want to eat first if I was you."
"Who are you?" Raphtalia asked looking at the man with curiosity.
He was about to introduce himself too, but he was interrupted by a message he was receiving on a communication type crystal.
"Yo." The man stated as the crystal projected a illusion of a familiar looking woman, though Raphtalia was not sure of where she saw her before. She had brown hair and pinkesh red eyes not unlike Raphtalia's own and was wearing a white Miko's robe.
"What's the matter?" The man turned the image to face Raphtalia, prompting a sigh from the woman on the screen. "I'll be right over." The clearly exasperated woman stated before her image disappeared.
"Who was that?" Raphtalia asked as she took a bite of her food.
"The Hero of the Katana." The man replied bluntly.
"Isn't there already a Hero of the sword?" Raphtalia asked looking confused.
"On your world maybe." The man replied bluntly. While Raphtalia was coming to terms with the implication of what the man had been saying her fork bent. "Looks like it's starting to kick in." The man stated as Raphtalia checked her stats and discovered that they had started to go up.
"What's going on here?" The young confused raccoon girl asked.
"My reinforcement method, when people in my party eat food their stats go up." The man stated as he fished out a compact mirror from his pocket and showed it to Raphtalia, was he saying he was the make up hero? "The more they eat the stronger they get. Course some food is more potent than others, which is why I've specked your meal for nutrition, stat growth, weight control." A sudden rumble was let out from Raphtalia's stomach, which considering she was half way through a five course meal didn't leave why to the imagination. "And regularity." Raphtalia proceeded to zip off to the bathroom, running by a woman with patches of scaly skin and horns. "Where did the rest of them land?"
"Katana country. Two of them are in the Space Dungeon." The dragon like woman stated as she took some meat off of a platter and ate it.
"We'll let our friend pick them up, since she's coming over anyway and all that." The dragon woman bowed before leaving.
She knew this area like the back of her hand, walking through here every day in order to hunt and gain experience, and look for a way out of this nightmare of a place. Therefore when she sees a shield lying on the ground she tends to get what you call concerned. One of the other prisoners might've sneaked by her defences and was now preparing a ambush for her. Luckily as the Hunting Hero she long since acquired a sonar type skill that lets her see even invisible objects and soon set to work finding the source of the ambush. What she didn't expect was that the new comer was underneath the shield on the ground, or more accurately on top of a hole with the intruder hanging off of it by her hand. What she didn't expect even more was that they were some how even younger than she was.
"Good Morning." Maple stated as she rubbed sleep out of her eyes.
"Wah!" The Hunting Hero on the other hand got spooked and suddenly dropped the hatch like shield putting Maple back into the hole again. Maple took the sudden turn in stride as she simply turned the shield into a smaller one before climbing out of the hole again. The girl was just staring at her while her mind tried to catch up with her.
"What is it?" Maple asked looking concerned. Slowly, the Hunting Hero pulled her tuna knife out of the sheath on her back and changed it into the form of a fishing rod.
"I see. Kaede Honjou Hero of the Shield." Maple stuck her free hand out to shake and the Hunting Hero took it.
"Goll, Hero of the Hunting Tool." The Hero had silvery Illac hair done into a bob cut and was dressed tomboyishly with a coat and skirt. An awkward pause ensued between the two Heroes as they awkwardly glanced at each other's weapons.
"A fishing rod? Really?" Maple asked looking at the weapon confused.
"I got a tool for every kind of monster out there on this thing." Goll proudly stated, which in turn led to... "A shield though? Really?"
"I can counter as good as I get." Maple countered her nose raised into the air.
"We'll see." Goll stated doubtfully. "Well you might as well come over to my house. We're gonna be here a while." As it turns out Goll spoke from experience, for she has already been here for years now.
"This place is a prison?" Maple asked looking around at a very nice lakeside lodge that Goll had apparently been living in all these years.
"Maybe not at first but that's what people use it for." Goll explained as she dismantled some fish for their lunch. "The spatial labyrinth is a giant pile of locations that have been sown together from different places all around this world using spatial magic."
"Spatial magic?" Maple didn't recall that element in any of the books she read, and it sounds kind of powerful so... "One of the Divine magics?"
"Who knows. The Guy was a quack who made a place no one could get out of." Goll clearly had a lot of pent up resentment towards the architect of the spatial labyrinth. Honestly Maple couldn't blame her. "So people just... dump all of their convicted criminals in here?" Maple was still wrapping her head around the fact that Goll had been trapped here for so long.
"Not all of them. Just the ones they never want to see again." So in fewer words 'Yes all of them.' "And now so are you." Goll stated lightly while she popped some sushi into her mouth.
"Well it's a dungeon. It has to have some way out." Maple stated while she crossed her arms in thought, to wit end Goll let out a snort.
"Good luck with that." Goll threw her knife at a nearby board flipping it over to reveal the most chaotic looking map you had ever seen.
If the colour choice it had was of any indication there was a active volcano, a desert, a frozen tundra, a jungle, a ocean, a mountain, ruins of a small city, several buildings dotted around...
"Wow. This architect really managed to get around." Goll nodded her head in agreement with Maple's assessment.
"Tell me about it." Goll stated as she let out a tired sigh.
"Well, at the minimum I need to see if any of my friends are in here with me." Maple stated as she began looking through her list of shields. Slave owner Shield III had a radar like ability to track the locations of all slaves registered to her but she needed more XP racked up to re-unlock it.
"I'll keep an eye out for them." A large bird like monster with wind magic, most likely a chick after being De-leveled, a raccoon type demi-human with illusion magic and a sword, also possibly reduced to a ten year old thanks to levelling down, and finally a orca type Demi-human, most likely fully grown. "I'll have a look around for them in the places the other prisoners haven't taken over yet." Goll stated as she got her supplies for the day ready. "You should take the opportunity to grind for some levels while I'm gone." Maple nodded her head in agreement as Goll took off before turning to the lake.
Oh sure, she can look for monsters in the forest but honestly? It was a waste of time. Maple jumped into the lake, and set the shield to suck, pulling into into it all of the water, sucking towards it all of the fish, and what she wouldn't get by sucking them inside she instead left enough water to keep them alive while she goes after them one by one. That was the plan anyway. But as is usually the case with this cute gluttonous eldritch horror, things rarely go as planned. Case in point.
"Why is there a castle at the bottom of the lake?" Maple asked looking over at the building in question, sticking out of the water like some overly stony eye sore.
Well one of Maple's friends was easy to find anyway, blasting lightning as she fried birds right out of the air would probably have a effect like that on people. It took them a few moments to make sure that the other was trust worthy, though now they were in a heated debate over another topic.
"I refuse to acknowledge anything but the fishing rod!" Goll snapped drawing a hard line in the sand. She was initially happy to meet a fellow fisherman from another world, up until she learned that she was one of 'those' people. "Other types of fishermen have their own validity. There are fish that you can't bag with that rod, and it can't reel in the numbers to sustain large populations." Sadeena fired back not pleased with this little brat's attempts to invalidate her life style choices.
"Pisha! Let's see who can reel in the biggest catch when we get back!" Goll stated nose arrogantly up in the air.
"Somehow I feel like we're both going to loose that bet." Sadeena stated as she saw the place that Goll had been leading her to.
"What are you talking-" Goll looked over to her lakeside home and saw that there wasn't a lake there anymore. "Wha!? How!?" Goll paused as if expecting a answer. "HOW!?"
"Perhaps that has the answers that we are a seeking." Sadeena stated indicating the castle that was in the middle of where the lake use to be.
"Yes. Let's see what kind of information we can dig up." Goll said darkly while Sadeena just shook her head and sighed, already suspecting who would be giving them the answers they're looking for.
One net positive that came from draining the lake was that Maple now had her shield armour back and was back to cranking out unlocks through it, mind you all those unlocks were still at a low level and mostly consists of fish at this point in time.
Of more interesting note though was this castle. All around it the water only went up about a meter, as if glass was protecting the lawn. More important than that while not exactly bone dry the ground also wasn't soaking wet either.
"Kaede!" Goll shouted her tone angered and severely displeased. "What happened to my lake!" Goll walked up to the shield bearing girl hands on her hips as she glared down at her.
"Oh right I forgot to put that back." Saying that Maple held her shield on the other side of the barrier and proceeded to spit out the water that she had been storing until the entire lake had been refilled again, without a single drop hitting the inside of the castle barrier. "Okay now whale woman! Prepare to be proven wrong!" Goll stated finger pointing at Sadeena challenging.
"Goll! We've got more important things to do!" Maple stated with it now being her turn to be the serious one here.
"What can be more important than fishing!?" Goll countered still not letting her previous point go.
"Escaping the spatial labyrinth!?" Maple countered tapping her foot in displeasure.
"Say what?" Goll replied stupidly.
"Goll. In all of this time did you ever think to go into the water?" Maple asked indicating the castle. "Did you know about this when you claimed that you already covered every possible part of the Spatial Labyrinth looking for the exit?"
Goll had just gotten into an argument with Sadeena about Rod fishing vs every other kind of fishing, it was wholly possible that same refusal to acknowledge spear or net fishing meant that she had never tried going into the water before.
"...Let's go have a look inside then." Goll wisely stated as Kaede led the way inside of the castle.
Simply put: everything inside was all twisted up and around, like the entire place was made out of silly puddy that someone had taken to squeezing and twisting around. Furniture was split between the ceiling, walls and even floated in mid air, the hallway looked like some one had taken two mirrors and stuck them in front of each other, and Maple was pretty sure that was a window on the floor there. Some places Maple suspected wasn't even a hallway, rather a section of space that had been grabbed and pulled in one direction like a piece of silly puddy, with everything caught inside along with it.
"Well... this wasn't what I was expecting." Goll stated looking at the situation very confused.
"I don't blame you. I've been in three of these dungeons before getting here and this one is the most messed up one of them all." Towards this end Maple sucked deep and cupped her mouth. "I know about the time travelling messing everything up! Can we just skip to the part where you give me magic now!?"
Silence.
"What do you mean time travel messed everything up?" Goll asked looking at Maple confused. Cue Maple giving a confusing lecture based mostly on her own dubious knowledge and understanding of time travel and what other people have told her as they walked through the castle.
"That isn't what ours is talking about at all." Goll stated bluntly noting how odd it was that they hadn't run into any sort of monster to fight inside of the castle, or it could be that they were lost. "Our dungeons say that tampering with reality is what's causing the waves."
"Reality tampering?" Maple asked looking confused. That didn't sound like what they were talking about back in the world she was protecting.
"Apparently if you're not careful you can cause a situation that makes reality collapse around you." Goll explained and something clicked inside of Maple's mind.
"...like for instance making it so that so you never existed in the first place." Maple stated sensing some overlap.
"Well... yeah that's kind of the big one." Goll stated as at the same time it also seemed kind of a stupid thing to give a warning about. "'Whatever you do, don't erase yourself from existence.' It feels kind of like a stupid thing to give a warning about in all honesty." Who on earth would be stupid enough as to try and erase themselves from existence? "Well this all feels well and good but this mess doesn't look like it's gonna let us go from this sudden revelation." Maple stated so instead she thought about the opposite.
"So if it's not the self-destruction through time travelling or reality altering that's caused the waves...!" Maple shouted and paused as if waiting for a response and received none. "Then is it the opposite? Did the waves cause something that's related to the break down of reality!?" Suddenly the entire twisted, turning interior of the castle straightened itself out leaving behind in it's place a relatively straight forward path that none the less was rather ominous simply for what it represents.
"Well than..." Maple stated gulping as she heard the heavy clunking of boots coming their way. "Let's go say our greetings to the master of the palace shall we?"
Author's Notes:
RonaldM40196867: The Spear, it has reach, range if thrown, offensive and defensive power. If you're talking about the heroes of this story I would say it's a tie between Maple and Katarina.
Nightshadegirl: No but Gluttony just went up another level.
Captain Imaginat: Kyo's plans are far from foiled, merely inconvenienced. I have no doubt that as soon as he processes the Spirit Turtle energy he would be off for the Phoenix and the Tiger, if he lives that long that is. Sadeena, oldest age 23, Eclair oldest age 21, Rifana, Raphtalia and Keel age 10, biologically 20. She isn't the type to sink a whole lot of thought about her own body type. With exception of Filo Maple is currently the shortest of their party. Maple's party doesn't have a solid command structure, everyone knows what they have to do in a fight and then they do it.