Chapter 12: A New Power
Arthur and his party are making their way towards a village that has been hit by a plague because of a dragon Ren killed left to rot. They are carrying medicines for the victims that have been hit and making their way there.
Arthur thinks to himself frustratingly while driving, 'Honestly. I'm glad that they managed to see how much of a bitch Malty is but I told them that they shouldn't treat this world like a video game. At least I thought so. I told him so at the bloody party and before that fucking battle between me and the brainwashed womanizer. For fuck sake! Now I have to clean-up this mess. At least this one is a little easier than the mess Itsuki made. A little.'
Filo stops as she looks at Arthur, "Hey, Big Bro?" Filo is pointing at an old woman and a child that are slowly approaching.
Everyone made lunch and invited the two weary refugees leaving the village and told them about the plague.
"A plague has hit your village?" Raphtalia asks.
The old woman responds, "Yes. If I were you, I would turn back. The plague has claimed many lives and my grandchild and I are fleeing from this place." Her grandson finishes the last bit of his soup and gives back the bowl. They both stand up with the old woman saying, "Thank you for the meal. But turn back and leave." Then the two of them leaves.
Raphtalia starts to worry, "Sounds pretty bad."
"Don't worry so much." Arthur says as he cleans the pot. "You may end up with frown wrinkles by the time you hit fifteen."
"Hey!" Raphtalia gets offended.
Filo just laughs.
They approach the village as they see some of the buildings are falling apart and the stench of death upon the land. As they get the wagon close to the storage, a man comes out from the hospital.
The man notices Arthur's party, "Oh hey! Are you guys the ones with the medicines?" He did get their attention but notices the Filolial Monarch. "Hey wait a minute." The man realizes who they are and rushes back inside, "Hey! Doctor! The Savior of the Heavenly Foul is here!"
The doctor comes out along with his nurse as they approach Arthur. "Hello there. You must be the young Shield Hero traveling with a talking Filolial."
Arthur shrugs, "Guess you can say that."
"Oh thank goodness!" the doctor sounds ecstatic as he heard that.
Arthur takes a crate with him with Filo and Raphtalia doing the same with Filo in her human form with Gwen just sitting in the wagon. "Take us inside." he says.
The six went inside as Arthur immediately use his |Potion Enhancement| skill to make the effects of the medicines more potent so that they can cure the people of their disease. Which is a bit of a shock to the doctor and nurse.
"Alright." Arthur says as he wipes the sweat from his forehead. Then he turned his attention to the doctor, "Now then, prepare to cancel the guild request. My party and I will take care of the source that everyone seem to refuse to clean-up. Including the Sword Hero's. Before you say anything, yes, I am aware of what the cause is. The dragon's carcass up in the mountains. Look, I know that the dead body of the dragon may attract a lot of adventurers and people to make a little money. But you should know that decaying flesh attracts plagues, doctor. So tomorrow, my party and I are gonna take care of it."
"That's good to hear." the doctor expresses his gratitude before looking a little ashamed, "But you are right. We should've stopped it before it got out of hand."
"You just made a mistake." Raphtalia tries to cheer-up the doctor. "It's just that the Sword Hero isn't used to reality."
Arthur rolls his eyes, "You can say that again. Bloody game addicts. Oh no wait, I am one. However, with the dead body gone, things should return to normal once it is disposed of and everyone has taken enough meds. Yet might need to be careful though."
"Why is that?" the nurse asks.
"Because it might rise-up as a zombie and attack the town." Arthur says.
"What?!" the doctor said and is just as shocked as the nurse.
"Well, dragons are extremely powerful creatures. Even have enough power to come back from the dead."
Raphtalia is a little scared as well. "I can't believe dragons are that powerful."
"Back in my world, dragons have always a symbol of power, terror, authority, fertility and many other things depending on what side of the world you were living in." Then he tosses Raphtalia a gas mask, "In the meantime, prepare to use that."
Raphtalia examines the gas mask that Arthur has given her. "What is this?" she asks Arthur.
"It's called a gas mask. More effective than some of the other gas masks in this world. It has a special filter which makes it a little easier to breath than a piece of cloth. The glass lens also helps protects your eyes from any toxic fumes."
"Oh." Raphtalia tries to put the gas mask on yet a little difficult for her to keep it on. She tries to tighten it a bit put keeps on falling off.
"Looks like I may need to adjust it." Arthur says as he takes the mask back. "I'll adjust it to make sure it'll fit. Luckily, Filo and I have a high poison resistance so we only need one gas mask. I even have a few more filters in my bag. We may also need to bring the wagon with us since there maybe a lot of monsters hanging around."
Filo overheard that as she shouts, "Yay!"
Gwen thinks, 'Just hope everything is going to go as the anime did. But hopefully, no curse shield.'
The next morning, Arthur and his party head out on the wagon to completely destroy the dragon's corpse that is the source of the plague. Raphtalia's new gas masks is given some extra strings that fit around Raphtalia's ears so they can stay on. Arthur is using a bandana to cover the lower parts of his face with some aromatic herbs to make sure he doesn't have to smell the horrible scent. The herbs are lavender, desert sage and some rose petals. As for Filo, she's already alright as she pulls the wagon as always. The air has a disgusting odor to it because of the rotting carcass being carried out by the wind which causes an almost airborne plague that struck the village.
While driving the wagon, Arthur goes through some of the stuff in his shield to see if he has everything. Pickaxes, hacksaws, some flammable substances, anything that can get rid of a corpse. 'I think that's everything.' Arthur thinks to himself, 'Good thing I managed to remember the show. Although Gwen should tell me the rest of the show. As in more than one season. I can barely remember the rest.'
"Arthur, up ahead!" Raphtalia pointed up ahead on the road.
Ahead of the path are a bunch of monsters in the way and about ready to attack.
"Good thing we brought the wagon then." Arthur says. "Just as I thought. Filo!"
"On it!" Filo understands what to do. "High quick!" Filo's speed increases and barges right through the monsters thanks to her little wind spell.
"Looks like we're in business!" Arthur says while smiling under his bandana.
"Yay!" Gwen cheers.
Not long after that, they get as far as they could with the wagon with the sight of the corpse in sight. However, due to the mountains rocky terrain, they have to leave the wagon behind.
"Man that stinks!" Arthur says in disgust while holding a large hacksaw. "Guess the herbs aren't strong enough to repel this stench."
"I can't smell anything." Raphtalia says with her voice a little muffled and carrying a pickaxe.
"That's because that gas mask is supposed to prevent any form of smells. That and to keep out the poison gases."
They walk up the mountain side with Filo, in her Filolial form, spotted a wagon of a sort with some barrels full of red fruit of a kind. They do see the dragon just being on the mountain with blood leaking everywhere, flesh rotting with some of it being exposed along with some of the bone, and there are dying flies and maggots on the thing that even the carcass of the monster kills these scavengers and pests.
"Now that's disgusting. Almost as bad as the sulfur fields back in Colorado. The smell I mean. A pile of cannighouls has a more pleasant sight than this." Arthur says while comparing things from his world.
"I'm not sure about all the stuff from your world, but I have to agree about the sight. I feel like I'm about to loose my lunch." Raphtalia is also disgusted. "Thank goodness I can't smell it."
"Might wanna tell the whole lunch thing to Filo." Arthur points his right index finger at Filo, who is enjoying her newly found snack. "Filo!" Arthur shouts, "Stop snacking and start helping!"
Filo stops eating with some red stains on her beak, "But I'm hungry!"
"You get to eat after we clean this up! Now come on before it turns into a zombie!"
Filo sighs, "Okay."
They manage to get up to 20 feet close to the dragon. However, Gwen sensed something is wrong and extends her right arm to stop Arthur. Arthur does the same for everyone else. The reason why they stop is because there is something wrong. The pools of evaporating blood started to recede back inside of the dragon's body as its eyes started to give off a purplish glow. Some of its flesh started to regenerate with pieces of it getting back inside.
"Oh shit!" Arthur says as he back away and the undead dragon started to move. "Its becoming a zombie already!"
Filo jumped in front of the party with a fire in her eyes and ready to attack. "A dragon?!" she says, "I hate dragons!" Then she tries to use a tornado kick at the dragon zombie.
However, the dragon used what is left of its tail and sends her flying back in the woods.
"Okay." Arthur says as he sees Filo flying, "I was not expecting that." Arthur then focus his attention on the dragon as he pulls out a katana that isn't made of regular steel. It is made of Valerian steel. A type of steel that can cut through the scales of the dragon.
The dragon unleashes a deadly poisonous breath at Raphtalia and Arthur with Arthur using his |Shield Prison| to conceal both him and Raphtalia.
"New plan then." Arthur says. "Raphtalia, catch!" he tosses the katana to Raphtalia, "That's way better than your average sword!"
The |Shield Prison| fell down with Raphtalia and Arthur charging at the dragon. Raphtalia manages to slice off a piece of hits right claw with Arthur finishing the rest by cutting the last piece of flesh off that cause the claw to fall off. Filo comes running back and delivers a Tornado Kick at high speeds that damaged its jaw.
"This is actually a lot easier than I thought." Arthur says.
The dragon started vomiting, not breathing, toxic fumes onto the ground to create a toxic fog. However, Filo and Arthur have a high poison resistance with Raphtalia having her gas mask.
"Filo!" Arthur shouts, "Do what you need to do!"
"On it!" Filo jumps right inside the dragon's throat and goes right down.
"Once she takes out the gemstone inside of the dragon, we won." Arthur says.
"ARTHUR!" Raphtalia screams out while looking in the opposite direction.
Arthur turned around and sees six undead wyverns that just appeared out of nowhere.
"Zombie wyverns? What the fuck?!" Arthur says out loud. "Where did they come from!? This isn't supposed to happen!"
"What do we do?!" Raphtalia is scared as they are surrounded by the undead dragonkin along with their putrid breath attacks.
'Dammit!' Arthur realizes they are in trouble. 'This isn't supposed to happen! How the hell did this happen?!' Before he know it, his mind is transported back to the dark place with the light shining on him.
"What the-?" Arthur is confuse on what is happening. He looks around and realizes he is in the same place where he gets something happen to him. "Okay, what is it this time, Nephalem?"
The fiery spirit of Nephalem appears before him, "It is finally ready."
New System Added
Pawn System Activated
Assassin Class: Gwenevere van Buren
"The hell?" Arthur read the text before is return back to reality.
As the wyverns and the dragons move in close, a woman started yelling as she comes falling down with twin katanas in hand and slice off a head of one of the wyverns. Then proceed to fire what appears to be spider webs on the second wyvern as she flings herself over to the wyvern and chop off its head with lighting speed then did the same with the other two wyverns. Turns out that it is actually Gwen herself who now has a solid body and able to attack anything that is dangerous. She even has the same type of eyes as Arthur but baby-blue colored. Arthur is completely shocked to see his dead sister alive and in front of him.
'Who is that?' Raphtalia questions in her mind. 'Wait a minute.' she starts to realize who she is as her eyes widen, 'Is that...'
Yet the dragon is about to strike both Arthur and Raphtalia with its left claw.
"BEHIND YOU!" Gwen shouts.
Arthur, still looking at his sister, just moves his shield that has transform into a cannon and fires at the dragon zombie's head. Causing it to drop dead when the head has been reduced to a gory mess. Arthur is still trying to process the fact that his dead older sister is in front of him.
Gwen approach and slaps Arthur on the left cheek, "You can snap out of it now."
"You're...you..." Arthur tries to say something while having a red sore on his cheek. "You're...real now?"
"I know, right!?" Gwen seems excited as she examines herself, "I'm no longer a figment of your imagination. Well, to some degree."
Raphtalia goes, "Um...Arthur..."
However, this little scene is interrupted when Filo comes out by bursting out of the dragon's stomach.
"Whew! It stinks in there." Filo turns around and sees Gwen. "Big Bro, who is that?"
"OW!" Raphtalia says as she drops to her knees and notices that her arms are in pain. She rolls up her sleeves to reveal that she is cursed by the dragon with her arms looking like she has a purplish rash.
Arthur noticed, "Oh crap!" He tends to Raphtalia, "This is not good."
Gwen tends to Raphtalia as well, "Hang on. You'll be taken to the village so you can get treated."
Raphtalia looks at Gwen, "But aren't you...the person that Filo and I saw before? On the mountains close to the hot springs town."
"I'll explain later." Gwen says. She look at Filo, "Filo! Raphtalia needs to see the doctor right away!"
"On it!" Filo runs up and lifts Raphtalia over her before she lands on her back. Then she runs off as fast as she could in order to treat the curse on Raphtalia's arms.
Arthur picks-up a pickaxe and gives it to Gwen, "Well, we have to clean this up."
Arthur and Gwen started to not only chop-up the remains of not just the dragon, but also the wyverns as well. Gwen says that she isn't really the real Gwen van Buren, but a manifestation made real by the pawn system. The pawn system is from a video game called Dragon's Dogma from 2012, which allowed players to create a sort of NPC companion. Thanks to the new system in his shield, Gwen can be as real as an actual person thanks to that particular datapod that has all the data of Dragon's Dogma. However, the system is also using a class system of summoning that is based on the Fate franchise. Classes such as Shielder, Saber, Assassin, Archer, Lancer, Caster, Berserker, Rider, Avenger and Ruler. But Arthur isn't limited to characters from the Fate franchise either. He can summon any fictional character he wants as long as they correspond to the appropriate class. Arthur wonders what the alien god wants with the system but will figure it out later. As for why Gwen is in the Assassin Class, it is because she has some DNA similar to that of different Spider-People. This includes the ability to shoot webs naturally, scale walls and ceilings, able to sense danger; enhanced strength with balance, dexterity, speed and reflexes; night vision, retractable stingers, venom blasts and camouflage. It was part of Dr. Martha van Buren's, their mother's, plan to ensure their survival in the new world. But Arthur didn't get it because his body still needed development.
They have placed all the body parts and placed them in one place while also soaking them in flammable oil. With one snap of his finger, Arthur sets the body parts on fire that slowly roast them into ashes.
While looking over at the burning bodies, Arthur says, "Hey, Gwen."
"Yeah?"
Arthur gives Gwen a hug, "It's good to have you in real-life."
Gwen pets Arthur's head as she says, "You do realize that you are hugging me next to a pile of flaming corpses. Right?"
The corpses later turn into nothing but ashes in a few seconds along with the bones. Nothing is left of the dead dragonoids but ash.
Arthur let's go, "Right. *clears throat* Time to head back. We need to check on Filo and Raphtalia and I got a new system to study." Then he looks at the wagon, "But we have to drag the wagon with us."
Gwen slouches down, "Goddammit." But stands straight up and look at Arthur, "Can we try teleporting the thing?"
"Oh right. But not sure it will work. Yet worth a try."
The teleportation did work on the wagon as the two sibling teleported to the village. Arthur and Gwen immediately rushed inside to check on Raphtalia. Both of them burst through the doors.
"Doctor!" Arthur shouts.
"Is Raphtalia okay?!" Gwen asks loudly.
They see Raphtalia getting her arms bandaged by bandages dipped in holy water by the nurse and Filo sitting next to Raphtalia.
"You're back!" Filo rushed over and gives Arthur a tackle hug.
"Were you successful?" the doctor asks as he enters the room.
Arthur says, "Yeah. The corpse is disposed of. However, turns out that there were zombie wyverns in the area as well. Not to worry though. They are disposed of."
"Even their bones are gone." Gwen says.
The doctor sighed in relief, "That is good to hear."
"Now then." Arthur gets a few medicine bottles out, "Time to heal the sick." He turn his head to look at Raphtalia, "Hey, Raphtalia?"
"Yes?"
Arthur smiles at her, "Get well soon. Okay?"
Raphtalia smiles back and nods, "I will."
Then Arthur looks at Filo, "And Filo, make sure you keep a close eye on Raphtalia while Gwen and I heal the sick. You get to play big sister for a bit, got it?"
Filo lets go, "Okey-doke! Just make sure you get back soon."
"I will."
Sometime later, Arthur and Gwen have healed all the sick with Arthur using his |Potion Enhancement| skill until all his skill points reached to zero. Around dinner time, Filo feeds Raphtalia some soup.
"Come on, Raphtalia, say 'aaa'." Filo has a spoon full of soup close to Raphtalia.
Rpahtalia opens her mouth and eats the soup.
"Good job!"
Then they both hear a knock on the door.
"Come in." Raphtalia says.
The door opens which turns out to be Arthur.
"Hey, girls." he sounds a little exhausted, "Are you two doing alright?"
"Big Bro!" Filo is happy to see him.
"We're doing alright." Raphtalia says. "Besides suffering from a curse from a dragon zombie, I'm doing alright."
"That's good to hear." Arthur is glad to hear that. He walks up as he pulls up a chair and sits next to Raphtalia. "Who knew that healing the sick would take a lot out of a person."
"Is everything alright?" Raphtalia asks.
"Just tired is all." Arthur leans back on his chair while looking straight-up at the ceiling.
"How is Gwen?"
"She is bringing in some blankets to make sure you two stay warm when you go to sleep."
"I see. But can I ask on how she came to being? I mean, your older sister is supposed to be dead, right?"
Gwen comes in the room with extra blankets, "I got the blankets."
"Good." Arthur lowers his head. "If anyone needs me..." Arthur starts to doze off, "I'm just gonna...just gonna... Zzz...Zzz...Zzz..." Arthur fell asleep on his chair.
"Honestly." Gwen says before putting a blanket on her little brother. "He really needs to take better care of himself."
The girls giggle a little.
Gwen then turns her attention towards Raphtalia and Filo, "And for you girls, when you two are done eating dinner, make sure you get ready for bed in an hour. Okay?"
" 'kaa-ay." the younger girls say in unison.
"Oh!" Filo realizes something. She pulls out a purple crystal from her pocket, "I forgot to give this pretty stone to Big Bro."
Gwen close Filo's hand, "Best to wait until tomorrow. Right now, let him rest. Alright, little sister."
"Huh?" Filo is a little confuse, "Wait, does that mean I have to call you, Big Sis? Are you really Big Bro's big sister?"
Gwen chuckles a little, "Right questions but in the wrong order, but yes to all. I am Arthur's big sister. However, I am actually a figment of his imagination made manifest by a new power Arthur has obtained. But it is getting late, why won't you girls get ready for bed. Best to have all questions answered in the morning."
Everyone later gets some sleep to prepare for a big day tomorrow. More adventures. Even more encounters soon.
AN: Hey guys! I know it's late but Happy Halloween! Just to let you know that there won't be any more chapters until mid-January because of work and the holidays. I hope you guys understand. So I will be going dark for a while. With that, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Will come back soon. Plus, I have a little something for you guys at Christmas. Check out the announcement at the end of GATE, Thus a Cyber Empire Fought There in Special Announcement on Christmas. Although not sure it will be done on time or not but I hope you guys will like it.