Chapter 26
Cal Mira Isles
As the ship sails towards Cal Mira, L'Arc introduces himself.
"My name is L'Arc Berg. But you can just call me L'Arc. Oh, and this is Therese." he introduces the woman next to him.
"Therese Alexanderite."
"I know that." Arthur says, "We've met before."
Raphtalia asks, "Is Therese from another country? Because I couldn't understand what she said."
Gwen looks at Raphtalia, "Really? I can understand what she said."
Both L'Arc and Therese realized something when Raphtalia said that.
"We forgot." L'Arc says to Therese.
Therese nods at him. L'Arc turns around to allow Therese to touch a red gem on L'Arc's weapon. A red energy ball comes out, floating above her finger tips and cause to the energy ball to go into her throat.
"I deeply apologize. Do you understand me now?"
"I do!" Raphtalia can now understand what Therese is saying.
"Let's try that again. My name is, Therese Alexanderite."
"I'm Raphtalia."
Filo steps towards the two, "And you can call me, Filo."
"I'm Gwen van Buren. And this guy is my brother, Arthur."
"Nice to meet ya." L'Arc says but looks at Arthur, "Hold on. Arthur van Buren? The Shield Hero?"
"Yep."
L'Arc and Therese look at each other and are surprised.
"Seriously!?" L'Arc went as he points at Arthur. "How old are you?!"
"I'm thirteen right now. Gonna be fourteen real soon."
"And you're the Shield Hero?"
"Yeah." Arthur replies with a straight face.
Therese says, "But...you're so young!"
L'Arc rubs the back of his head, "They said the Shield Hero is young, but I never thought THAT young."
"And what exactly did they say?" Arthur asks.
"You have one hell of a reputation, my friend. You're quite the young hero. Charitable, kind, willing to help others. An angel in human clothing."
"I'm a mutant actually." Arthur corrected L'Arc.
"A...mutant?" L'Arc gets a closer look at Arthur and notice his eyes are different and see his white hair is completely natural. Then he leans back, "Well I'll be damned. What kind of world are you from?"
"An unforgiving one that my parents had to mutate me and my sister in order to survive." Once again, he answers with a straight face.
"Geez, kiddo! Guess it must've been that bad for your parents to do that."
Therese says, "Let's put a pin on that subject for another time. Are you all going to Cal Mira to level up as well?"
"Yes." Raphtalia nods.
"Yep!" Filo raises her left hand.
"We heard about the bonus stuff about it, so, here we are." Gwen replies.
L'Arc asks, "Wanna team up while we're there? It would make it more efficient."
Before Arthur gives a reply, there is a knock at the door.
Arthur is being lead by a crew member as they make their way towards the deck.
"So you want all four of us to greet them together?"
"How did you know that?" the sailor asks.
Arthur just smirks, "Let's just say I have the powers of divination and leave it at that."
"O-...kay? Anyway, the crew is gonna be so excited to see all four legendary heroes together and want to talk to them. I know that it'll mean a lot to them."
"Just hope they don't get sea sick." 'Actually, they probably are knowing how the anime went.' but he realizes, 'Oh yeah! The pieces of the relic I gave them lets them morph their weapons and gain their effects. So maybe they won't get sea sick.'
When they make it to the deck, the other three heroes are there chatting with the sailors and are not sea sick. All three of them have their weapons morphed into the shield form.
"Hey! Arthur!" Motoyasu waves at Arthur, "Come on, man! The guys want to hear the story about our First Wave!"
'Holy shit, they're not puking their guts out. Although, it would've been funnier if they did.' But Arthur shrugs, 'Meh. May as well join.'
As Arthur joins in, Filo is already in the water and tossing up a huge shark-like creature that landed on Motoyasu. Then Filo got another one that she tosses onto the deck and the sailors get out of the way. Arthur, Ren and Itsuki looked over the ship and see Filo.
Filo is in her Filolial form as she waves her left wing, "Hiya, Big Bro! We're having grilled fish tonight!"
"How the hell did Filo- Nevermind, I think I have an idea." Arthur tried to figure out how Filo got out.
Itsuki looks at Arthur, "Filo is definitely a free spirited one, huh?"
Ren covers his mouth and nose with his hand, "Those fish stink."
"HEEEEYY!" L'Arc is now on deck along with Therese, "Shield Kiddo!" But he notices the shark creature on Motoyasu, "Huh? What happened here?"
Arthur looks at the two, "Let me guess: Therese wants me to make a new bracelet for her."
Both of them are shocked that Arthur knew.
"Whoa!" L'Arc is impressed, "How did you know?"
One of the sailors that Arthur was with says, "He has divination powers."
"Oh. Wait a minute." L'Arc remembers that Arthur said his name back at Raphtalia's village, "So that's how he knows my name." 'Wait, does he also know about-'
Therese walks up to Arthur, "Yes. Raphtalia told me how exceptionally skilled you are at jewel-crafting. Would you be able to make an accessory for me?"
"Sure." Arthur agrees.
"Thank you." Therese hands over the materials in the bag she is carrying, "Here are the materials. Obviously I'll pay you for your time."
Arthur takes the bag and opens it up to pull out a crimson gem. He whistles at it while looking at it with one eye, "Now that's quite the gem you got. I'll see what I can do."
"That's wonderful."
L'Arc says to Therese, "Looks like you got what you wanted, Therese."
"Uh-huh."
L'Arc places his hand on Arthur's shoulder, "Shiled Kiddo. I'll be counting on you." But then he notices the sea is getting rougher, "Oh. I guess a storm's brewing. The seas are getting rougher."
"Then it looks like we'll be in for a hard night."
Itsuki holds up his new shield, "Good thing we got these."
Ren looks at his shield, "Thanks to this overpowered shield, I think I'll sleep well tonight without worrying any sea sickness."
"Yeah, but I smell like fish." Motoyasu complains.
After a stormy night, they finally arrived at the archipelago as the ship docks to the port. They all get off with all four heroes able to get plenty of sleep despite the rough waves.
"Wow." Raphtalia says when they are on the docks, "Cal Mira is beautiful."
"It's hot!" Filo says as she looks at the sky, "The sun is blazing."
"I know right? Like the storm last night never happened."
Gwen looks at the three as they chat with their party, "Guess those shields really do come in handy. But they better get their sea legs quick when the next Wave arrive."
Arthur looks down with a sad sigh, "Yeah I know. If my calculations are right, the next Wave is gonna happen on my birthday."
"Now that sucks."
"Welcome to Cal Mira." says the elderly gentlemen in a blue suit and green tie yet almost have like this vampire look about him (without the fangs) while also having two guards behind him. "Please to meet you. I am Count Habenburg and I am the caretaker of our humble archipelago. I'm here to escort you heroes to the inn." He glances over and sees Mald being carried by a stretcher as he groans in pain.
Arthur notices, 'That never happened. Mald was fine in the anime.'
Mald complains, "It feels like I barfed up three stomachs worth and had to bear three headaches."
'What?' Arthur glaces over to the shields the other three are using and sees that they have a sickness and pain transference ability, 'So that explains it. They just dumped their illnesses to anyone they want.'
Despite that, the heroes and the remaining members who aren't sea sick get a grand tour of the town they are in and learned some of the rules while adventuring with Arthur and his party are at some totem pole. Rule one; you can only travel by boat. Rule two; kill as many monsters as possible but try not to barge into another adventurer's battle or stealing the prey from them.
Arthur looks up at the statue, "This looks like a totem pole."
"A totem pole?" Filo asks.
"Back in old shamanism times in the Americans, the natives make large poles like these to symbolize characters and events in their myths. Yet they also convey the experiences of their ancestors and the tribe. This, however, represents the original inhabitants that develop these islands. I can't make out what the two at the bottom are, but I can tell that one is supposed to be some rabbit-like creature while the other is some form of birds. In Native American shamanism, birds are supposed to be at the top to represent the sky or the spirits of the heavens. At least that's what I learned from an old book back home."
Filo approaches the rock with the epigraph on it, "And this thing?"
Gwen answers, "Something left behind by the Cardinal Heroes long before."
Arthur place his hand on it, "As source of thy power, the Shield Hero orders thee; decipher the meaning of this message and energize the target of my choice." The magic writing glows orange as he said the text. He places his right hand over Filo, "Casting |Vites Aura|." His hand glows a swirling green energy around it that is transferred to Filo.
"Oh." Filo feels a strange sensation, "I feel...powerful." The glow fades as she looks at her hands. Then she tested out her new strength and jumped higher than the totem pole, much to Raphtalia's amazement, yet Arthur and Gwen already know that this was gonna happen. And she nails the landing, "Nailed it!"
Gwen pets Filo's head, "Way to go, Filo."
Filo giggles from the praise.
"Hey! Shield Kiddo!" L'Arc shouts as he and Therese approach. "Filo sure did get some good height on that one, that's for sure. It helped us figure out where you were. Y'know, you kinda hurt my feelings when you left the boat without saying goodbye. Unless you already predicted we would meet again like this. Yet you could probably guess why we're here."
"Obviously we just arrived, but we could get our bearings and help each other out." Therese says.
"Sure." Arthur says.
"Yes!" L'Arc is glad, "I knew you were gonna say that! You're not the only one you can predict the future."
Arthur laughs, "Glad to hear it. But we'll catcha later. Take it easy until then."
"That's my line."
In the afternoon, Arthur and his party are already out in a field to grind some levels as they take down Bio Red Blobs. Although, to Arthur, they seem purple and not red. The only thing that is red is the eyes. They easily managed to take down these mobs and gain 190 XP for killing each of them. They even come across magenta toads as Filo manages to uppercut them with ease.
Gwen wipes her forehead, "Man, this is the most easiest thing ever! I'm not even breaking a sweat. This is actually pretty fun."
"Hmm?" Arthur notices something.
"What is it?" Raphtalia asks.
"It seems the other guys are here." he says as he notices they're not getting any more XP.
An arrow is shot and kills one of the slime monsters that Filo was gonna kill with the remaining two slithering away.
"So you're responsible." Itsuki says as he stands on a hill with his party.
Motoyasu approaches, "What happened to my XP?" along with his party
"Hey guys." Ren approaches, "Looks like we have a bit of a problem."
Itsuki asks, "So who was here first?"
"I think we all got here at the same time." Motoyasu replies.
Arthur pulls out a dice from his pocket, "Here."
The dice he is holding has two blue sides, two yellow sides and two red sides that correspond to the other heroes' colors.
"You guys should use this. If you guys can't decide, make it two out of three." he tosses the dice to Motoyasu.
Motoyasu catches it and looks at the dice, "Hey! I'm only seeing three colors. Where's yours?"
"My party and I are gonna go somewhere else instead of bickering with you guys. Later." Arthur and his party left.
As Arthur left, Ren takes the die, "I guess that makes sense. There's only six sides of the die and there are four heroes. Two sides for only three of us."
Itsuki looks at Arthur, "He probably has an eight-sided dice on him whenever he wants to get involved."
Ren says to Itsuki and Motoyasu, "Want me to roll it?"
They both say, "YES!"
Arthur and his party went on boat to another island with Filo swimming in her Filolial form. Even though the sun is setting, they continue to grind levels and fought against tougher monsters such as the Karma Dog. A nasty canine with black fur, black feathered wings, red eyes, demonic horns, and a spiky club tail. It tries to attack Arthur and Raphtalia but Arthur manages to block it with his [Chimera Shield] just before Gwen and Filo attack.
"You ready Filo!?" Gwen draws her katana as she rides on Filo.
"You're going down!"
Gwen lands a quick slash on the creature's neck as Filo kicked it with her wyvern talons. They managed to kill the creature and gained 3250 XP.
"Whew!" Arthur wipes his forehead, "Now that was something else."
Filo smiles, "I like this island a lot better because fighting is more fun!"
"Hang on a sec." Arthur approaches the Karma dog and absorbs the entire thing into his shield.
"What are you doing?" Raphtalia asks while holding her worn-out sword.
"Tada!" Arthur pulls out a Karma Dog Claw gauntlet for Filo and a Karma Rabbit Sword for Raphtalia.
"That's amazing!" Raphtalia walks runs up to Arthur, "You made us some new weapons!" She looks at her new sword, "This is perfect, thank you."
Filo appreciates hers while in her humanoid form, "Yeah, Big Bro. I love it a lot."
Gwen looks at her katanas, "My katanas have morphed somehow."
Gwen's katanas have changed. The hilts are black with red criss-crosses on them and the dragons that were there have taken a more demonic form. The blades themselves now have serrated edges on them.
"I didn't know they can morph." Arthur looks at the katanas.
"Neither did I."
Later that night, they stay on the island as Arthur does some inventory with the items they got from all the monsters they killed.
"I think I can work with these." Arthur examines one of the gemstones.
Raphtalia looks at Arthur, "Arthur, are you alright? Because I don't think the curse has worn off yet and you look a little pale."
Gwen takes a closer look at her brother, "Yeah. Is your healing factor still working?"
Nephalem says to everyone, "It is, but that Blood Sacrifice ability really did a number on him. I'm doing my best to cure it, but it does take some time."
Arthur rubs his left shoulder, "That, and my shoulders are feeling a little stiff. But I can handle it. And our new friends will show up in three, two, one."
They all heard some rustling in the bushes.
"Perfect timing."
L'Arc and Therese emerge from the bushes as L'Arc cuts through with his scythe.
"Oh thank goodness, we found you." L'Arc is glad to find Arthur and his party.
"And you're in the nick of time. I knew you would be looking for us."
"Wait you- Seriously?!" L'Arc sounds a bit upset, "You knew we were coming and just waited for us?!"
"Yep!" Arthur gives a big smile with his eyes closed.
L'Arc just sighs, "Geez, kiddo, just how far can you predict into the future?"
But Therese interrupts, "We should all head back. The ferryman was getting worried, so let's call it a night. I understand that you should grind as fast as possible, but there are limits."
Raphtalia stands up, "She's right, Arthur. It is getting late."
Arthur stands up, "Best idea I ever heard." He claps his hands and the fire dies out, "Okay, let's head back."
After getting back to the island, everyone was over at some pub where the minstrels play their instruments, the guest are feasting and drinking, and the mood is just right.
L'Arc holds out his pint, "To our safe return! Cheers!" and starts guzzling down. Once he finishes, "Hey, barkeeper! Bring me another!"
"Coming!"
During the festivities, Filo decides to sing to the tune the minstrels were playing as the drunken Spear Hero cheers on with fingers full of kabobs. Arthur giggles at Motoyasu for being such a dunce. Raphtalia later gets into an arm wrestling contest against Mald after drinking some wine and she won. While that is happening, L'Arc and Arthur are getting along over at the bar. Arthur then notices some lucor fruit in a basket and started eating them by the handful. L'Arc tries to stop him yet amazed by Arthur's alcohol resistance. Motoyasu tries one, and passes out with foam in his mouth and looking pale.
"Man, Shield Kiddo, for someone so young, you really can hold your liquor." L'Arc is impressed.
Arthur ate some more, "But they are so tasty, I couldn't help it." And thus, Arthur unwittingly unlocked the Gluttony Series...but he's too busy enjoying the lucor fruit to notice.
On the next day, right by the totem pole, Arthur and his party team-up with L'Arc and Therese.
"I've been looking forward to this." Therese has been looking forward to this team-up for a while.
"Me too." Raphtalia agrees.
"Oh, and here you go." Arthur gives the bracelet he made to Therese, "The bracelet you wanted."
Therese gasps with her eyes widen as she is behold by a bracelet that is crafted not only expertly, but beautifully as well.
"It's beautiful." she admires the craftsmanship as she takes the bracelet. Yet tears start to fall from her cheeks, "It is wonderful. This jewel is filled with so much joy. I didn't know you were such a master craftsman."
"Uh, do you have to cry about it?" L'Arc asks.
"Don't you understand, L'Arc!?" she's upset at the guy, "Looking at this masterpiece is opening up a whole new world for me!"
"Um, okay."
"And to honor our new friendship, it is free of charge." Arthur proclaim.
"What?!" Therese is surprised by that, "No way! Craftwork like this deserves to be compensated!" She absolutely refuse to just accept the bracelet for free.
"Come on now." Arthur tries to explain, "Like I said; it is to honor our new friendship. Consider it a gift."
Therese looks at her new bracelet, "But still..."
"How about this?" Raphtalia speaks, "If you agree to give us ten percent of the monsters we killed, we will consider that compensation."
"But Raphtalia!" Arthur is upset that Raphtalia has come up with that idea.
"It's a deal!" Therese agrees.
"You agree so bluntly?!"
L'Arc laughs at the three along with Filo.
So they all ride on the boat and head towards the same island that Arthur and his party were at. In the jungle, they get ambushed by Karma Penguin Familiars yet L'Arc kills a few with an orange energy wave from his scythe. One of the penguins charges at the party, but Arthur uses his shield to protect L'Arc before switching it over to a sword that decapitated the monster.
"That was fast!" L'Arc was surprised, "You protected me and killed the monster at the same time!"
Arthur has his weapon turned into a bow, "Yeah, well, I'm full of surprises."
Arthur than shoots light arrows at the penguins. Yet more show up and L'Arc jumps and kills two of them at once.
"Having fun yet?" Arthur and L'Arc are back-to-back as Arthur asks.
"I am. But I'm getting warmed up."
"Same."
Therese casts her spell from her new bracelet, "Power of jewels far and wide, I beseech thee to hear my call and come to me." The bracelet glows a brilliant red as her hair changes from blue to red, "My name is Therese Alexanderite, I ask my friends to be the force that destroy my targets. Bejeweled: Ruby Blaze!"
Arthur sees the blue flame coming at them, 'Right on time. Wait. This is too early. She's not supposed to heal me until we make it to the boss.'
The blue flame scorches the monsters yet also healing Arthur at the same time.
"Oh no!" Raphtalia panics, "Arthur!"
Gwen stops Raphtalia from charging in, "It's okay, he's fine. That spell is meant to destroy targets yet heal allies' wounds."
"You know that spell?" Raphtalia asks.
"I do, actually."
Therese looks at her starfall bracelet, "I never dreamed it would be so powerful."
Arthur's wounds and ailments started to burn away and his body is all healed up from Blood Sacrifice. With that, Arthur is maneuvering more efficiently and is able to pull off combos while having his weapon morph. He is excited that he can move more freely now that his wounds are all healed and the curse has been lifted. However, he feels like he is super charged by Therese's spell as he feels a huge flow of energy in his body. They all continue to hunt down as many Karma Penguins as they can as they make their way up towards the Karma Penguin itself with its massive and imposing figure, black clawed hands, black wings on its back and a head similar to an emperor penguin.
Arthur switches to a spear, "Ready?" he asks L'Arc.
"Ready." he nods.
"Let's go!"
Both of them charge at the little ones with Raphtalia and Filo behind them. Gwen shoots out some webs to keep Therese safe as she casts her spell. Before long, all four of them manage to kill the massive penguin on all four sides. And in one fell swoop, it dies.
Around sunset, they managed to obtain quite the hull.
"Are you okay, Big Bro?" Filo asks to see if Arthur is doing okay.
"I feel great!" Arthur still feels energized. He does some stretches, "That spell not only healed me, but super charged me."
Gwen thinks about it, "I wonder if your mutant DNA may have reacted to Therese's spell that have given you an increase in energy."
"Huh?" both Filo and Raphtalia went because they have no idea what Gwen is talking about.
Not long after, they returned back to the main island in front of the totem pole.
"With your help, we managed to gain a lot of levels in just one day." Raphtalia appreciated the help.
"And it was fun." Filo had a lot of fun.
"I couldn't agree with you more, Filo." Therese actually had some fun with Arthur and his party.
Arthur smiles at the two with both his hands on the back of his head, "Let's do it again later. It was incredibly fun." He is still feeling the energy surge.
"Sure." L'Arc nods in agreement, "But Therese and I are gonna do it solo tomorrow. Take care, kiddo."
"Thanks for a great day."
Both L'Arc and Therese say their goodbyes as Raphtalia bows, "Thank you too, we worked really well together."
Filo raise both her hands, "See ya later!"
"Bye!" Gwen waves by at the two.
Arthur says to his group, "Alright! Tomorrow, beach time!"
Filo and Gwen raise their arms up as they go, "YEAH!"
Raphtalia says with her tail wagging, "Personally, I don't mind one way or the other. But you could use a break, Arthur."
The next day, Arthur and his party hit the beach. Arthur is sitting in his green swim shorts and looks out at the ocean and doesn't seem happy. He sighs before looking out at the ocean again. Despite the gorgeous, picturesque scenery, he seem to be depressed about something.
Gwen approaches in her black bikini, "Hey? You upset about what's gonna happen two days from now?"
"Yep." he made a popping sound when he said the P at the end.
"The next Wave is gonna happen on your birthday?"
"Yep."
"Yeah, I would be upset too if something greater importance took place on my birthday."
"Yep."
Filo approaches, "Big Bro! I found something!"
"Let me guess; you found a building at the bottom of the ocean that is glowing red?"
"Wait, you know!?"
Arthur stands up, "May as well get it over with."
If you are familiar with the anime, manga or the light novels; there is a Dragon Hourglass in the temple Filo found while also wearing penguin scuba gear with Santa hats. They found a way inside and found the Dragon Hourglass that said they got 48 hours. So that's what Arthur and his party did, much to Arthur's annoyance.
Once Arthur got that, he complains, "Man! The next Wave is gonna happen on my birthday of all days!"
Raphtalia scolds Arthur, "You cannot complain about something that is bigger than the date of your birth. Oh and, happy birthday."
Arthur just groans.
AN: WHEW! Finally finished. Okay, some parts are bit rushed and I hope you don't mind but I'm a bit tired. Anyway, the story is almost done and I have the WH40K story coming soon after. Make sure you guys head over to my forum before than. This will be the last warning. Okay, stay healthy and safe and good luck. Bye!