Author's Note: Not sure how y'all are going to like this chapter, another info dump but we get hints towards the greater threat of things. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 21: The Queen of Filolials
This is not what Maple had been told Zeltoble looked like. Yes she had been warned that there was nothing there that was worth defending but she didn't expect that the first thing they'd see upon actually getting there were buildings that had been falling apart. Then she realised that the nauseous monster dealer and his cargo were no where to be found. Not only that but they should've been in a desert but this was clearly smack dab in the middle of a jungle or forest of some sort. Did they go the wrong way? No more important than that where did the monster dealer go?
"Uhm." Maple had a look around and saw that her companions were immediately on edge. "For now, lets try going back the way we came."
"I cannot allow that, as of yet." The fog started to clear away.
The new girl was astonishingly similar looking to Filo, a young girl with angel like wings sticking out the back. Different in other ways too, for whereas Filo was a mostly white Filolial with some pink feathers this one was a white Filolial, as demonstrated by her wings, dotted by blue feathers, their dresses were also both equally frilly but whereas Filo's was white with blue hers was white with pink. The similarities yet differences continued up the face, for while Filo was a blonde with long hair the other girl had platinum coloured hair with three hairs sticking up like some sort of crown. Filo was full of bright energy and wide eyed wonder the other one's eyes were duller, sapped of energy in a way that was flat out disturbing.
"Um? Hello?" The girl looked at Maple, silent eyes judging. "It should be pretty dangerous here. Are you alone?"
"Huu." It seems that the girl had found something left wanting, as she merely closed her eyes and let out a exasperated sigh. "So it's finally come to this then?"
"Um... is there something wrong?" Maple asked looking concern to which tired exasperated eyes on the girl opened up. "Everything is wrong. Someone made a mistake longer ago than you are capable of comprehending, now he is trying to fit every key he can find into the hole that was left until he finally trips over the one that will fix that. Or so I thought for a while, but now I think he would give anything just to not be the one who made that mistake." The girl stated glaring blearily up at the sky.
"Uhh a mistake...?" Maple waited a few moments for the bird girl to elaborate on what she meant. "What kind of mistake did he make?"
"He trapped himself in a hell of his own making, and unfortunately I am stuck there with him." The girl stated as she cracked her neck.
"Hell? I don't understand." Maple asked as she looked very confused now.
"There lies the trap." The girl stated before it seemed that she had enough of the conversation. Because she suddenly whipped around and slammed her fist straight into Filo's gut make her spew out bile from her throat and sending her flying in the process. "Liberation Wind Barrier X."
That random spew of lines suddenly caused a mass of wind to appear around the girl's body and push the rest of Maple's party away isolating herself and Filo. The other Filolial zoomed straight towards Filo, claws of some kind of energy wrapped around her knuckles and proceeded to go on the offensive taking swipes and stabs at the other girl while she desperately blocked and parried. The Longer the fight went on the more something boiled up from within Filo's core. Here she was struggling, trying her best, avoiding instant death with every passing moment and this other girl didn't seem to even care.
"You're letting your anger cloud your judgement." The white haired girl stated as she literally smacked Filo aside with contemptuous ease.
"Leave her alone!" The white haired attacker turned her attention to the sound of the voice, even as Filo uselessly landed a punch to her cheek, to see Kaede trying to force her way through her wind barrier.
"That is a defensive technique. You don't have the offensive power to break through." The white haired girl stated dismissively as she flicked Filo away.
"I have one that might work." Kaede swore she would never use it. She didn't use it back when the dragon had stomped on her. The thought never even crossed her mind during Melromarc's wave. But this? She wasn't walking away from this without using it. "Gluttony!" Kaede's dark armour became consumed by swirls of cursed markings, coalescing on the shield plates in the image of demonic boars. The eye and teeth markings glowed as the wind was consumed and sucked into the shields. "I told you to leave her alone!"
The Filolial took one look at Kaede, raised her hand, and flicked her wrist. Blood came out of the Hero's mouth as she was treated to the feeling of weightlessness, bounced across the ground and eventually rolling to a stop the cursed armour turning back into it's default form.
"RRRAAAGGGHHH!" Keel's leap attack bounced off of the Filolial girl and sent him sailing off of her without having even touched her.
"HHHYYYAAAHHH!" Rifana's rail gun arrows were trapped in a ball of lightning and Vapour by the Filolial girl who then threw them back and detonated them in Rifana's face.
Raphtalia made no noise as she was intercepted, just the sound of her invisible metal blade bouncing off of steel like skin.
The other Filolial moved to swat her aside but her arm was grabbed by Filo.
"Huu. Huu..." Her cheeks had turned purple from the bruising, there was blood leaking out of her lip and one of her eyes had turned swollen.
"Why did you attack us?" Raphtalia asked looking at the Filolial clearly angered.
"Because I have given up on watching heroes die." The Filolial stated in a defeated tone of voice. Everyone was getting their wounds treated but the beating they had taken was severe. Maple downed healing potions and approached the white haired face frowning.
"You're tired of watching heroes die so you try to kill us." Maple asked having received a rough explanation as to what was happening here.
"Just taking out my frustration on you mostly." The Filolial stated as she looked up, glared up at more accurately, the night sky and was left something wanting.
"Who are you angry at? It can't be me, it certainly can't be Filo, she was born just a month ago you can't have possibly..."
"I have met Filo 9976 times." The Filolial stated prompting Maple's mouth to go agape. "My problem is that every time we come close to victory, all of you just die again."
"...all of..."
"However this is the first time I've met you." The Filolial stated indicating Kaede with her finger.
"I am Fitoria, Queen of the Fiolilals, by the way." The girl added in mocking politeness.
"I don't understand..." Kaede stated as it felt like something had snapped inside of her.
"Nor should you. The Person who should be standing there right now has quit." The Filolial Queen stated as she stretched out her neck.
"Explain it to me in a way that I can understand." Kaede stated as she looked at the Fitoria with a look of quiet steel. "Do you understand what a paradox is?" Fitoria asked brow cocked in the air.
"Umu... Someone goes back in time and does something that keeps them-self from being able to go back in time?" Kaede stated as she wracked her brain for all of her knowledge of science class and science fiction and was left with a bare bones answer.
"Very Good. Now let us speak of Adolf Hitler." The Filolial stated in the same tone used to comment on the weather prompting Kaede to scrunch up her face.
"Why?"
"A pragmatist would argue that the fact that such lunacy exists is proof that time travel is impossible because if someone, somewhere, some-when did invent it the first thing they'd do is go back in time and strangle said lunatics in the crib. Correct?" The white haired girl asked brow cocked in the air.
"Well I would want to go see dinosaurs myself. Real dinosaurs not that thing that tried to eat me." Kaede stated and then corrected herself.
"Perhaps, but back to the original point. What people often like to ignore is that such lunacy also helped to shape their world. Can you say that without the lunacy of one mad man that anyone in your world who exists now would exist if not for that madness?" Kaede had no counter to that point, at least not a good one. "Has anyone ever killed more people, brought more people together, pushed forward your world's technological and social development more than Adolf Hitler?"
"What does he have to do with this?" Kaede asked looking at the Filolial terror creeping in her veins.
"Because your world is not the first to have it's mad men, nor have they been content to limit their madness to one world." The White Haired girl explained pointing at the sky. "Now here is a question for you. Have the waves ever occurred in your world before?" Fitoria asked in a serious tone.
"No... but they're magical right? My world doesn't have..."
"What about the others then?" Fitoria followed one ruthless barb up with another. "Are their worlds not magical in nature? Did they not casually mention how flight, command of the elements, or materialising objects out of thin air all through the use of magic is something they are all easily capable of?"
"...they haven't mentioned..."
"Nor will they, because the battle with the Chimera is the first time half of you experienced that phenomena, the sword got a taste of it in Siltvelt while the Spear ended Shieldfreeden's." Fitoria stated and Maple had no way of being able to counter her statements. "The monsters are soldiers, the bosses generals, but generals still answer to leaders."
"Who does the Monsters answer to?" Kaede asked as she felt they were getting to the cusp of the situation.
"There is one they use to answer before, nearly ten thousand loops ago." Fitoria shook her head lightly. "That person no longer exists, she was, in a word, erased by her own hand no less. I cannot even remember her, only the details I have been given by others." And so they come to the paradox.
"Is this like Back to the Future where all the changes to the time line start happening slowly?" Kaede asked as she felt a tingle of fear going up her spine.
"At first perhaps, but tell me have these changes ever reached the point where the lead character no longer exists, or whatever manner of magic or technology they were using is no longer possible?" Fitoria countered brow raised. "If they are made to disappear before whatever manner of havoc they created can be undone then would that also not take them and everything that they have ever done away with them?"
"Then wouldn't that..."
"Also erase the changes they made, yes I am aware." Fitoria finished her glare grown heavy. "And so we reach a paradox, where the two timelines continuously attempt to assert themselves, and in so doing destroy themselves in the process." Fitoria stated shrugging her shoulders.
"Unless someone can change things back to normal before the two of them have destroyed each other." Kaede stated but Fitoria just shook her head.
"She wasn't just killed but erased, events manipulated so that she would never exist in the first place, everyone who ever knew her or knew how she came to be forgot that she ever existed with no one knowing where she came from and thus how to make her exist once more."
"Why not just do the same things that she did?" Kaede asked looking confused before she winced. "It isn't that easy is it?"
"If no one knew that she existed in the first place how would you recreate the history that she destroyed when she destroyed herself?" Fitoria asked brow cocked in the air. "Even if you succeed how can you say that you would become the replacement for Hitler and not destroy yourself in the process." The sound of something dropping in the back of Kaede's mind echoed out in her head as what Fitoria just said went completely through her. "Thank you for making my point for me." Fitoria stated as she stood up and stretched her back out.
"What are you going to do now?" Kaede asked looking at Fitoria with clear concern on her features.
"What is there to do?" Was the bird's defeated sigh.
"There's another Filolial like Filo with Katarina's party." Maple replied simply.
"I have no obligations to help any other Filolial other than Filo." Was Fitoria's simple reply. "And I am in no mood to do so either. If he's going to send children to help us now then I might as well take some time for my own mental health." Fitoria stated shrugging her shoulders. "He certainly isn't taking this seriously enough to warrant doing the same."
"You might've given up already but this is all these people have." Kaede replied looking at the bird queen directly in the eye.
"They will be back again. Over, and over, and over again." Fitoria stated and with that she reached up and pulled off some of the crown like hairs on her head. "For you." Fitoria dropped one of the hairs into Kaede's shield and a slew of notifications for the Filolial series appeared. "For the Other heroes." Four more hairs were put into the shield's storage. "And for her." Fitoria stated handing the last hair over to Filo, which then sprouted from her head. "There. Now all of my obligations to him is finished. With luck this is the last time we're going to meet with each other." And so the Queen of Birds walked away, fog swarming through the area as she assumed the form of a giant and her silhouette disappeared.
"Umm... how do we get back to where we were?" As Maple said that the fog disappeared, the desert of Zeltoble having reappeared, though not in the same place as they were before, for some reason they were inside of a oversized circus tent.
"No someone roughly 13 years old in appearance, black hair, black armour with a rose painted on the front!" Beloukas snapped into a communication orb and a muffled voice replied into his ear. "No she's not a gladiator slave, she's a Legendary Hero!" Beloukas's exasperation was interrupted by one of his labour slaves placing a serving trey in front of him with some kind of hot liquid steaming out of the mug that sat on it. The Slave took one look at Maple's party, along with Filo's carriage, that had materialised out of thin air behind Beloukas, pointed them out to him, before leaving to tend to other matters. "What are you pointing at? We need to find the Shield Hero." As Beloukas asked that he took a swig of the liquid, to his regret, as while he did so he turned around on his swivel chair and immediately shot the boiling liquid out of his nose upon seeing Maple and company there.
"Are you okay Mr. Beloukas?" Maple's first instinct was to run over to check to see if he was okay.
"Where in Four Weapon's name have you been young lady?" Beloukas snapped pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his face down.
"Have you the slightest concept of how concerned I was for you?" To be more accurate he was more concerned about what Tanya would do to him if she found out that he wasn't even in Zeltoble five minutes before he lost the Shield Hero.
"Sorry for worrying you." By way of apology Maple gave one of her healing salves to the merchant.
"To business then. Or would you rather wait until the others get here?" Maple opted for the latter, in part because she had to process the implications of what Fitoria had said to her.
Kuro was the first to arrive, the fact that she did so being carried in a box by a dragon had left Maple's mouth open in surprise. Katarina's and Tanya's groups arrived later, one with a beautiful older woman and the other with a monstrously ripped green haired man.
"Who are these two?" Tanya, face completely straight, gestured to the two new party members.
"Blitz, Midori." Maple and Kuro both pointed to the two individuals in question and Tanya nearly shot them.
This Gag had long since stopped being funny, if it ever was in the first place. Instead the four Heroes were now having a meeting in the tent. The contents of what Maple stated left them frowning in displeasure at the situation, because clearly they didn't have enough on their plate to deal with, now there was advance quantum physics mixed in too.
"No one in my world have technology or magic advance enough to be bringing up Time Travel in any serious capacity." Tanya stated speaking bluntly.
"I'm a eight year old brat, even if something like that existed why would I know anything about it?" Katarina stated sighing with exasperation.
The three of them turned around to face Kuro, who remained oddly silent and very disturbed about the situation.
"It's called Pandora's box." Kuro stated speaking about something unpleasant.
"As in all the world's evils kept in a tiny compact package Pandora's Box?" Maple asked but Kuro snorted her nose in the negative.
"Oh it's so much worst then that. It contains a giant pile of failures."
"Failures?" Maple asked but she didn't understand.
"They say that for every action there is a equal and yet opposite reaction. For every pivot to decide history that swung one way it also swung another. But the pivot can only swing one way less it be destroyed by the continuous reactions." Kuro stated prompting the others eyes to go wide in realisation.
"So the gods made a box to drop the pivots into before they could swing the other way." And so the answer to alternate timelines were born.
"Do we even have to ask?" Tanya non the less did so, and Kuro had for her news that was both good and bad.
"Yeah. Emiya never caught a glimpse of it but I did on my way out. The mad men in my family found a... use for it." In her own way Pandora was similar to Kuro, in others though she was infinity more horrifying, for while the Unlimited Blade Works and now the Infinite Sword Sea drew power from all that was the Box of Pandora drew it's power from all that could've been yet was now impossible. The latter was infinitely greater in the horrors it spawned, but there lies the problem. "Their deranged fantasy's about remaking the world aside do you have the slightest idea of how much mana that thing would cost to make? It's the literal work of a god, not to mention being about ten times stronger than anything I've got to match it."
"Hmm." Tanya closed her eyes and thought about the situation for the time being. "A subject for another time." For now they had company, a human dressed in gear that looked like it had been loot drops while a single throwing dagger had been sheathed across his chest.
"Presenting the Hero of the Projectile of Zeltoble."
"Really?" Kuro asked looking a might bit suspicious. The last time someone introduced a Hero to her she wound up being ambushed and then tied up in a latex bed waiting for gods know what kind of horrors to be inflicted upon her, so this time she went to confirm that the dagger was actually one of these Seven stars she's been hearing about.
'...help...'
Kuro's brow rose in concern so naturally she checked again.
'...help me...'
Okay. It usually wasn't a good sign when she looked at a weapon's history and saw... something, probably whatever eldritch weapon shaped creatures these things really were, that was actively calling out for her help.
'THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO HIM!'
Kuro's screen glitched like she was going to unlock another cursed weapon just for the sheer indignation that Byakuya felt at looking at the pair, a human shaped horror and his enslaved weapon.
"So the hero of the projectile eh?" Kuro smiled all teeth and malice.
The others understood what that means, her party did too if they were here. That's her 'I'm gonna murder you so hard now' smile. And they understood her power to look at pieces of history and read them like a open book, so they made a reasonable stab at why she was thinking that.
"So in other words you're the one who was responsible for letting Zeltoble's wave monsters run wild." Tanya spat and allowed Otto to intervene when he tried to touch her.
"So what if I did?" The man replied tone condescending and rude. "They make for good sport in the arena, and the extra XP is always good for the country."
"You allow the waves to go unhindered, we do not find this behaviour except-able." Tanya stated even as her hand rested on her bow.
"And while I'm sure that is all very important to remember can we please focus on the task at hand ladies?" Beloukas stated bluntly. "I've personally arranged for over three hundred Shieldfreeden Berserkers to join us on the field of battle in the name of eliminating the monsters of the wave."
"Katarina you fought their wave, how well do Shieldfreeden Berserkers fight?" Tanya asked suspiciously.
"I dunno, I never met their army." Katarina stated bluntly.
"In fear of your absences sir heroes the countries of the world have divided their forces into various units and spread them over their countries to try and cover as many of their bases as possible." Beloukas stated shrugging his shoulders. "They would not be able to recall the armies in time." Katarina bobbed her head as if the statement makes sense. "Provided my humble testimony holds any worth, The berserkers are, put bluntly, complete complete and utter savages, but what they lack in brains they make up for in ability to tear enemies apart limb from limb. Bear, Genmu, lizardman, gorilla, ogre, luka and Minotaur heritage runs thick in their veins, albeit mixed together in a variety of combinations which while it subtracts from their over all mental and physical health it dramatically improves their stats."
"Hence why they're called Berserkers." Tanya commented and Beloukas snapped his fingers in the affirmative.
"I've already partied with the monster takers." The projectile Hero casually mentioned.
"Then you can un-party with them." Kuro stated her legendary sword balancing on the end of her finger while she maintained that smile of malice and teeth. "We weren't summoned to help you people capture monsters for your little dog and pony show, we were brought here to massacre them."
"Yes. I heard about the impromptu redecorating job you did in Siltvelt." The 'Hero' stated playing with his little knife. "Surely you do not plan on doing that here?"
"Of course not." Kuro stated waving away the not too thinly veiled accusation with a wave of her hand. "I'll just cut down the monsters of the wave to the last and anyone who gets in the way in the process."
"That is a very serious statement Sir Hero." The Projectile thrower stated glaring, a cold hatred in his eyes. "You've been in this world for what, little over a month? The four of you may have the potential to become the strongest beings in this world, but you have yet to reach those peaks." The Projectile thrower stopped playing with his knife and gripped it, tightly and ready to stab.
"There are people in this world who are stronger than you." A clap sound brought the meeting's attention to the short creep in a top hat.
"Please keep things civil sir Heroes." Though Beloukas insisted as much, Kuro knew a enemy when she saw one, and she knew how to let others know.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: It refers to the dragon head from the Chimera. I think he is exactly what he is and deserves approximately what people think about him.
Captain Imaginat: Comparing Malty to literally anything would be interpreted as a insult aimed towards her: don't think about it too much. That may be true, but if I don't keep bringing her back how can I make her suffer? It was Elena who did it, you may have not noticed but she and Malty seem to have what you call a grudge.
MadJaeger 00: Glad you like it.
Kisame Hoshigaki: Beloukas just radiates Masochist energy.
drmcgraw186: Unless she already considered it a possibility from Filo, didn't quite expect that she would end up with a hourglass figure though I think. Won't take too long.
Halo: Let's just say for now she will have other things to be concerned about at the time.
Mcstrategist: She reminds me of Starscream, without the cunning and maturity though.
Illya Emiya: Unless I had Rudeus summoned as a hero in the past and the Greyrats are his descendants. When you think about it we aren't even limited to the one world when it comes to vassal Heroes. Not at all. Kuro, Kaede and Katarina all have their own families already, so adoption for them is out of the question. Tanya might be acceptable to the notion though.