Author's Note: Okay family is off from Vacation. Work Place had a little accident so it's gonna be a little stressful for a while yet. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 109: Home of the Heroes
Naofumi looked up to the sky. To the monsters raining down from the sky, only to be intercepted and skewered either by swords, spears, arrows and magic. And all of it felt so... pointless. That was honestly the feeling Naofumi had sitting there scratching the ears of one of the Tanuki he and Raccoon had raised, he shouldn't think that way. This world was all that these people have, the damned power was poisoning his mind again. So as long as it didn't matter anyway...
"Demon." Naofumi called out to the creature lounging to the side of their base, the one built in the exact spot that no wave will ever appear over. "You recall our agreement?"
"That time already?" The draconic woman was looking at her nails. "I thought we were going to wait until the world's fused together before we did that?"
"Then you will wait for a long time. That world has already thrown up its barrier." Naofumi pointed up at the sky. "There's no point in only leaving this one vulnerable."
"And your end of the Agreement?" Demon asked looking at Naofumi while cocking a brow.
"'In exchange for your sacrifice to raise the barrier I will: acquire a new body of your specifications, rebuild the Monster Nation, and protect it for one hundred years.' That I believe were the terms that we discussed."
The Dragon woman stood up and cracked her fingers as if she was now getting to work on something. Above the sky of the Mirror Hero's base a monster emerged, across two world's various heroes who have been imparted with the demon dragon core weapons glowed, and felt power being siphoned from them, watching as their levels dropped like a rock, and in their place the Demon Dragon grew stronger. The final Directional Beast of this world reached up to this sky and roared, taking on the traits of all seven of the animals of sin and mutating into a horrific creature. She chanted in a ancient language older than most civilisations, power came off of her body in waves and soon covered the entire world in a protective barrier sealing it away from other worlds for millions of years. And then like that the massive chimeric dragon dropped like a sack of rocks, dead. Stretching as he stood up Naofumi sucked the monster corpse inside of his shield and then left, he had no shortage of work to do after all.
The others soon arrived at the base that Naofumi had made for himself, or rather what was left of it which at this point basically amounted to a hole in the ground.
"Raphtalia won't be happy about this." Katarina stated letting out a sigh.
"Well Raphtalia isn't here right now." Kuro replied shrugging her shoulders.
"I'm not happy about this." Tanya snapped cutting in on the conversation. "Where exactly did that guy go?" For now the biggest question here was not the absence of the Mirror Hero. No it was the sealed door at the bottom of the hole. "Seven stars. Just like the one in Melromarc." Tanya stated letting out a sigh, before promptly about facing and looking at the four girls. "Everyone Here has the Six divine magics already?" The three girls nodded their heads in unison.
"Space was the last one, after Gol came back we all went there and got it." Sakura explained while shrugging her shoulders.
"If I didn't go I might've been there to keep the library from burning down." Myne explained while letting out a sigh.
"Then that means you four can open this door." Tanya explained while Kuro and Katarina were already sliding down the hole.
"But what's on the other side of that door?" Jade asked while she and her group of heroes scratched their heads.
"If it's the same in the last world we were in? Evolution magic, the magic to add or subtract from magic spells in order to change their effects." That made the girls legitimately surprised by what Tanya had said on the matter.
"That sounds stupidly powerful." Myne stated as she looked legitimately surprised, but a thought occurred. "I can restore the Infinite library!"
"Really! That's what the first thing you thought of was?" Gol just shook her head and used her wings to fly down to the seal. The other three heroes soon joined her down there and held their weapons up to the sealed door, four lights simultaneously came out, hit all four of their weapons, and suddenly the seven Heroes present all disappeared at the same time.
The Country of Monsters, that is what it used to be known as, an entire nation that was built by monsters who had taken humanoid form, thanks to the knowledge of hero weapons and growth bonuses and corrections courtesy of it's long line of Demon Dragon's. Sadly it was no more, it made the mistake of taking the people who invaded the territory in order to kill it's monsters as slaves, and so provoked the other countries into all out war. The Stalemate continued for years, even when the humanoid countries managed to kill the demon dragon she would just transfer her consciousness into a plethora of back up bodies. It wasn't until a Hero was summoned, Gol, that the enemy monsters could be killed in such vast amounts and all the back up bodies eliminated that the land was considered to be conquered. Sadly though the newly conquered lands were subjected to so much infighting, and were faced with vast resistance from the local monsters, not to mention getting hit by the waves with the hero that they summoned locked up, that no one could even take the territory anymore. Naofumi let out a sigh.
"You might have good tastes in Vassals but you suck at controlling them." Filo and Syrup were on another world, Chris was with Gol, the only one of the four lords under Demon's control was Setsuna's mutt Miroku. "Alright you little monsters." Naofumi looked behind him, towards the army of Tanuki type monsters that he had gathered around with him. "We have a lot of work that we need to do to chase these dumbasses out of here!"
"""RAFU!""" Were their collective responses. Among the Demi-Humans of the world on the other side, Tanuki are among the most feared, it's time to show these people why.
"Raphtalia. If you would?" Smirking at her lover, the woman known as Raccoon drew her sword and raised it at the enemy.
"Canis Lykaon: Balance Break."
The Canis Lykaon. To combine the Sacred Gear system with that of the world on the other side, Issei Hyoudou of the Boosted Gear was summoned as the hero of the Gauntlets, to achieve the same result in this world another Longinus wielder was summoned from the same world, Tobio Ikuse also known as the Slash Dog, and his weapon was the Canis Lykaon. Considered mid-rank among the Longinus alongside the Boosted Gear the Canis Lykaon has the former King of Arcadia, Lycaon who was cursed by Zeus with the form of a wolf and the divine blade the Ame-no-ohabari combined into one weapon, the fusion of the two created a second seal, one of opposites trapped in never ending struggle, the holy blade weakened by the cursed king, the cursed king weakened by holy power. Then in Tobio's generation a new power appeared, another Sacred Gear wielder had created an impossible miracle, a blade fusing holy and demonic power. After Tobio became a hero and earned the right to return to his world he took one of these blades and copied it, and the contradictory power sealing away the Canis Lykaon was fully unleashed and suddenly the Canis Lykaon could unleash it's full might instantly jumping up into a high tier longinus. Sacred Gears work with what power they are given to generate miracles, and in this case the power of it's current wielder is not dogs or wolves, but rather Tanuki.
"Tanuki Night Parade!"
The numerous Tanuki disappeared into Raccoon's shadow as she bulked up into a form resembling a cross between a bear and a Tanuki. A massive shadow appeared over the various military encampments of the territory, aside from the soldiers fighting over the territory the other inhabitants of these lands were the numerous congregated wave monsters. At once, soldiers and monster alike were slaughtered by countless blades combining the eliminating power of holy/demonic energy.
"Enemy-ack!"
One of them had been cut down as thousands of Tanuki emerged from the shadows, each of them carrying a blade in their forehead. Three different kinds of cursed power were being shared and exchanged between the shadow monsters, the black energy of Sloth, the pale green of Lust, and the Crimson red of Wrath. Against a army of Tanuki wielding cursed holy swords the various enemies never stood a chance, whether greedy soldier of countries who invaded unprovoked, were captured, and then used that as justification to invade again or wave monster who existed to destroy without discrimination everything had been eliminated. Of course the soldiers called their countries for help, the countries called their heroes, but no one responded, after all with the death of Miagi every Hero on this world had been brought under his command, and the ones they were specifically calling for had already been taken out of the picture.
"Cursed power isn't going to be a problem?" Raccoon asked her voice heavily distorted by the transformation she had assumed.
"This is Demon that we're talking about." Naofumi stated as he pressed a dragon core that he popped out of his shield into a Dragon egg he had Miroku carry over for him. "She'll love it." The egg fully absorbed the Demon Dragon core and was left in the middle of the field of cursed energy. Already they could see the soon to be hatched demon dragon absorbing the cursed power. "In the mean time we need to make preparations for the arrival of the refugees." Saying that Naofumi changed his shield's form to that of a compact mirror, that also doubled as a pocket watch with a dark red ruby in it. "Left Eye of the World: Balance Break."
An Umbran watch is the most important keepsake of the Umbran Witches, a ancient order of Witches tasked with making contracts with powerful demons and using them as weapons in their war with the Lumen Sages and their angels as they compete for the souls of Mankind's dead. Among the two orders are the 'Eyes of the World' the most powerful of their orders are respectively known as the Left and Right Eyes of the world charged with keeping balance, Ironic then that one of them was being used in a Balance Breaker. Bayonetta was the name given to the strongest of the Umbra witches, who was summoned as a hero. As the left eye of the world she could not only summon the strongest demons in hell, but also gamble her own life to unleash their strongest possible forms, ironic then that Naofumi would be unleashing this power to summon a demon born of the Umbra themselves. The entire Clan was destroyed, their restless spirits dragged down to Inferno but they did not go alone, nor quietly, the ancient sacred clock tower where they had made their home was taken with them, and became the vessel into which their souls were formed.
"In the Name of the Mirror Hero! Circle of Blood Open the Secret Wisdom! Ancient Tower of Ruin! Summon Demon of Sin, Vengeful Clock Tower!"
All around the territory where the county of monsters had once stood, the walls of a ancient fortress had formed, first a massive clock tower emerged from the tallest peak of the territory, it's face that was also a eye looked down contemptuously at everything, then around this tower that seemed to stretch to the sky the walls of a massive fortress appeared, easily as tall as small mountains. From within those fortress walls countless weapons emerged such as mechanical arms, docked mech armours sprung to life, missile launchers, laser and gun turrets. But that was not all.
"In the name of the Mirror Hero! Circle of Blood Open the Secret Wisdom! Ferrier of the Damned! Summon Demon of Sin: Wrath-Train Gouon!"
From atop the walls of the fortress a train track had been laid out, on which a massive train strapped with gun turrets you'd only otherwise find on a warship and armed with chain saws large enough to fell redwoods with a single blow, most terrifying of all a hideous white face combining the visage of a sinister clown with a set of crescent moon shaped horns. Wartrain Gouon was originally created on a particularly savage and war like earth, it single handily felled so many on the field of battle that their collective miasma gave birth to a soul, that was then driven insane by all the hate directed towards it and committed suicide by rampaging through a city and having a head on collision with a ammunition dump.
"You two committed a lot of sins. I expect you to work hard to make up for them, or I can just send you back to Inferno to continue being tortured." Naofumi stated as he looked at the two demons suspiciously.
Bayonetta had to use her own heart as a catalyst to summon even one True demon for a few minutes, two for a few seconds was her absolute limit. However this world was different, thanks to Demon's Sacrifice the atmosphere was literally made out of miasma, these two can stay put in their true forms for at least a hundred years, certainly more than enough time to fulfil the agreement with Demon and if not? He can always just come back. The demonic eye of the Clock Tower and the face of the Train both eagerly nodded their heads in the affirmative.
"Good. Let's bring the refugees in then." Gouon was sent off through the air on flaming train tracks, travelling all over the world to every dark forest, every slum town, every dungeon where a monster can hide to collect the former inhabitants of the land of monsters and those related to them. As the demonic train worked Demon's egg was shaking until it eventually cracked open revealing the form of a miniature demon dragon.
"...I admit I am impressed." Demon looked around at the fortress while she stumbled out of the egg. "I knew that you could summon demons that could strike against the gods but this level..."
"Is Nothing." Naofumi interjected. "I am only able to do this here because you contaminated the world with Miasma, for them this world is no different then Inferno." As he explained, he saw Gouon was returning with the first of his passengers. "And you have a nation to rebuild, which means that my business here is currently on the cusp of finishing." Stating that Naofumi waved his arm and a portal appeared that he entered through.
"We've been scammed." Tanya stated looking around at the place the seven of them had been brought to. The seven of them arrived in the middle of a house, not a house made in the general edo period Japanese of the world they had been on, nor the medieval fantasy of the one from the other-side of the wave, no they were dropped into the middle of a modern Japanese domicile. Everything looked to be very clean and tidy. The Food in the fridge was stored inside a number of tupper-ware containers, the living room had a single bookshelf library off to the side and a flat screen TV with a single game console underneath it, the office had a single computer system with several computer monitors. The more that they saw the more that they came to the conclusion that they were in an ordinary home.
"Have we been transferred back to Japan or something?" Sakura asked while she looked around the house.
"We're all from different worlds though." Katarina, Myne, Tanya and Gol all came from fantasy worlds of some kind or another, and Kuro knew every form of magic in her world and she never saw Chi magic or the Clow cards before she met Jade and Sakura. "Why were we all sent to the same planet?"
"I knew it was too good to be true." Tanya stated directly in front of the front door of this mystery house.
"What is it?" Kuro asked looking concerned.
"The door won't open, and considering what's on the other side I don't want it to either." Tanya moved out of the way and let Kuro looked out the window of the door and was greeted by black, a vast infinite black void. Kuro blinked stupidly as she used her magic eyes on the door, and was greeted by the sight of a completely normal suburban street.
"This house is weird."
"Well if we can't go out then we need to keep exploring." Gol explained as she walked up the stairs. The master bedroom was at the end of the hallway, where they finally encountered another living being.
"Kyu!" A bright white Cockatiel that was sitting on a perch on a stand made out of driftwood of some kind in the bedroom.
"Finally something different." Tanya stated as she let out a sigh. "It felt like this place was some kind of show house." While saying that Tanya looked down at the drift wood stand and her eyes went wide in horror.
"Looks like we know where the decorating budget went." While Tanya, Jade, Myne and Sakura went into the master bedroom Katarina, Kuro and Gol took the side path into a rather girly room. There was a large teddy bear resting on the bed and a stuffed turtle plushie besides it, the walls had been painted a light shade of pink but most notable of all was the game console sitting on the desk, with a helmet attached to it with several wires. "We definitely don't have anything like this in my world." Kuro stated as she looked down at the helmet with her magic eyes, and promptly dropped her jaw in shock. "Guys. We may have a problem!" Kuro shouted her eyes wide in shock.
"Way ahead of you!" Tanya, Jade, Myne and Sakura were all slowly, collectively walking away backwards panic strewn all across their features. The individual that had them all backing away was a little shorter than them and were covered in a black aura of rage.
"You shouldn't break into other people's house." The individual in question was slowly approaching them one step at a time and Kuro nearly dropped her jaw in shock.
"Filo!?" Kuro shouted having seen literally the last entity that she expected to see here.
The murderous aura dropped, replaced by the image of a blonde haired little girl in a sundress with angelic wings that the girls were familiar with.
"Oh you're Kaede's friends then." Filo appeared older, not in the way of having aged but rather matured, calmer, as if this was her from years in the future. Filo led the seven girls to the dining room before heading to the kitchen, Kuro turned around the corner and bore witnessed as Filo took one of the larger Tupperware containers from the fridge, put it in the microwave, and let it heat up for a few minutes. After that she brought the container over and divided the contents of the container eight ways, her her portion being the largest.
"This situation is getting more bizarre by the second." Kuro stated as she looked around the dining room. "Why the hell do you know how to use a microwave?"
"I learned how to years ago." Filo stated as she started eating.
"That exponentially increases our number of questions." Kuro stated as she let out a sigh. "When did you get here?"
"Since before Kaede-chan was born." Filo explained while she gestured with her fork.
"You don't recognise us do you?" Tanya asked looking at Filo suspiciously.
"No I don't." Filo stated while she took a bite of her food.
"Tell us everything." Tanya ordered without hyperbole. When Filo was born she was raised by her master, Naofumi the Hero of the Shield, when he first came to that world he was accused of a horrific crime he had not committed, in order to survive he was forced to buy a young Tanuki girl as a slave and later on the Egg of a Filolial.
"Who was the one who framed Naofumi?" Tanya asked looking suspiciously at Filo. "The red haired one, master called her Bitch, I don't remember what her name use to be, she's not worth the effort." Filo stated as she continued to eat.
"So by the sounds of things this Naofumi ended up in the same position we were in." Tanya deduced and then Filo stopped eating.
"When you four were summoned you had each other, and all the preparations master left behind for you. When he was summoned the first time he had nothing and he was alone. Don't compare the two." And then Filo went back to eating, as if she hadn't just chewed the lot of them out.
"The 'first time?' He got summoned as a hero again?" Katarina asked looking at this once in a life time event that happened not once, but twice.
"Master realised his mistake, he made the enemy defeat herself, careless fool that she was, she kept carelessly swinging around reality destroying attacks until master made her destroy herself." And then she was erased from history, the chain of events fell apart yaddy yada.
"We know this part already." Jade stated as she let out a sigh.
"What you don't know is that he also shattered himself, turned his very soul into dust and spread it through out the Omni-verse in order to reach every world that had been affected and try to change what happened." Filo took another bite of her food. "You know that despite that he failed to save each of those worlds." The Fork dipped once more and reentered the girl's mouth. "You know that each of those failures were engraved on his very soul." Again. "You know that despite putting himself through that once already he tried again." Again. "And failed Again." Again. "Over." Again. "And Over..." Katarina had already rounded on the other girl and hugged her.
Filo would complain about being interrupted while eating her food but looking at her plate she saw that she already finished, the only thing she was shovelling into her mouth for the past few minutes had been empty air. She thought that wasn't very filling.
"He went insane, and as a result ironically chose to stop trying to use the same tactics over and over again. He simply let the omniverse end, and then he found himself in the past again. So he instead got to work on making a 'lock.'" A womb of a world where he could recreate the Goddess at the centre of the destruction of the omniverse, and thus save it.
"And we're the key." Entities capable of suppressing that same goddess of destruction and killing her. "What are we going to do next?" Tanya asked looking at Filo suspiciously.
"You? Nothing." That shocked the group. "You're all too weak." Filo raised her arm and pointed to Tanya. "When did you acquire your Sacred Gear? Weeks ago? Days? And let me guess: you've been using the safest method you could find to increase its power, short spars where both sides attack each other with the intent to kill, both sides having roughly the same level of power, both individuals that if they think they'll really hurt their opponent they'll pull their attacks?" Filo looked at the group who pulled back in the negative, Tanya and Katarina looked worse than the others. "Ah my mistake. You found an even 'safer' method haven't you?" Filo just shook her head. "By my estimates the misses with the sword and the club are the only ones following the spirit of the Sacred Gears system and not the letter. Even then by those same estimates the Sword is the only one far enough ahead to consider a fighting power." The Sacred Gears turn danger into power, thoughts like 'this is too dangerous for me, I'm not ready yet' is not a cue to run away, they're a signal for you to go ahead and throw yourself at whatever you're after.
"Kaede is way ahead of Kuro, she should be considered a fighting power too." Filo shot Katarina a flat look.
"Two Heroes out of eight? Well at least we know which ones to keep for the next time." Filo stated as she let out a sigh.
"'Next time?'" Tanya did not like the sound of that one bit.
"Losers who refuse to stand on the front lines aren't even worth considering." This was definitely different than the Filo that they know. "Time will be reset, another round of Cherry picking will ensue." Tanya recalled a training field she turned into a battlefield long ago. What was the explanation she used?
"Ninety percent of anything is shit, ninety percent of the remaining ten percent is merely higher quality shit, the one percent is the only thing that matters." Tanya's exact words thrown back at her. "How many times?" A thought occurred to Tanya. "How many times has your master dragged my sorry arse out here to die?"
"You don't want to know, and you don't have to." Filo stated as she let out a sigh. "You'll have simply never left your world to begin with." Meaning that Tanya will go back to being under Being X's thumb just like before.
"Go to Hell!" Tanya snapped rage glowing her eyes.
"I've been there. It's nice and warm." Filo gave a light shrug to the death threat.
"Send us there then!" Tanya growled eyes glowing with rage.
"Excuse me?" Filo asked head cocking at an angle.
"I refuse to go back under that bloody ass-hole! I will sooner die free then go back to the days where I was constantly looking over my shoulder for that pain in the arse with the next scheme to kill me! Toss me into the darkest most pit in hell that you can find and lock the door until I can blast my way out!" Tanya's entire body was heaving with sheer unimaginable rage, even the other heroes had taken a step back.
"We all had our doubts when he chose to make reincarnated into heroes." Filo stated as she looked at the group with a warm smile on her features. "I'm glad to see that he didn't make the wrong choice after all." Filo stretched as she stood up. With a wave of her hand four heroes received a notification of unlocking Evolution magic. "Go get Kaede back, then I will send you to some place that's suitable for you." The Sound of a lock clicking open sounded out, Tanya stormed over to the front door and the others paid Filo a final glance before they followed after her.
Review Section:
AZ: If you mean that he's going to sit down and tell them the whole thing at once the answer is no, as it stands the final pieces are falling into place, just need a few year long training arc. I don't want to do anymore shield hero fics.
RonaldM40196867: I like the Spatial Labyrinth, a wide variety of different biomes and monsters living inside of it. I like it, and a lot of other people do too.
Dakota Bruder: The Labyrinth was Space, the Library Metamorphosis, Evolution was under Naofumi's base, Spirit was in Glass's country, Creation was in the Jewel country, Gravity was under a mountain and time was hidden inside of a moon, you'd need the Boat to get there.
Nightshadegirl: Yes.
Captain Imaginat: Not intentionally abusive mind you, they didn't have Kaede with the intention of turning her into a hero, nor did they raise her to be one, she's really just shockingly good at the whole unpleasant bussiness behind it.
Guest: More likely lightning but you're not far off from the mark. It was the first thing that came to mind when Kuro compared Kyurie to heroes.
coolkid0806: Your Welcome. I think Therese got the book? Not sure if I mentioned that or not. I recall a line about 'the Girl who loves books got summoned as the jewel hero and the girl or loves Jewels became the Book Hero.'