Author's Note: Okay so not writing quite as fast as I would like nowadays, hopefully won't turn into a issue down the line. In any case Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 23: The Land of Merchants
Tanya had acquired a specific book upon being informed of a particular situation by Kuro whose power to see history when others see instruments of murder had loaned her some information of significant importance.
"Axe, Cane, Claws, Gauntlets, Hammer, Projectiles and Whip." These were the Seven Star weapons, vassal type weapons that serve as subordinates to the Legendary weapons. Having written out these important items on the stone wall in chalk Tanya then handed said chalk piece over to Viktoriya to add more details. "Who do they belong to?"
"Of the seven six are currently in the possession of heroes. The Axe belongs to Shieldfreeden's hero Caliban Prosperan. The Cane belongs to the Prince Consort Aultcray Melromarc the 34th though there's no record of him wielding it in at least ten years." Which surprised Tanya, since she saw no sign of the weapon on the King's person nor did Kuro mention it when she saw him. Moving on. "The Claws belongs to one Lucas Talbot of Siltvelt. The Gauntlet's currently have no owner and if the hammer does have a wielder it's native country of Q'Ten Lo is too secretive to reveal them. The Projectile is the man that you should've met before the wave started."
"The one Kuro said she killed." Tanya clarified and Viktoria nodded her head in the affirmative.
"The last then is Takt Alsaholn Faubrey, of the titular nation of Faubrey."
"Is he a prince?" Tanya questioned drawing a logical conclusion from his last name.
"A distant relative. His Hero status has him as a front runner for the next heir on account of the current king being without child." Tanya was handed back the chalk and climbed back onto the chair she used to write out the list of weapons in the first place, now with names next to them.
"Until we've met each of these people face to face we have to assume each and every one of them is a impostor." Tanya stated as she began writing out status for each of the Seven Star Heroes.
"Even the Prince Consort?" Viktoriya asked in surprise.
"We weren't looking for a impostor when we met the Prince Consort, or any of the subsequent meetings with him for that matter." Tanya stated as she looked at the status she wrote for each of the weapons. "Kuro saw the impostor wielding The Axe, Claws, Hammer, Projectiles and the Whip. And then subsequently lose those weapons when she ran him through with this... Rule Breaker or whatever it is." Thus for each of these status she wrote a X indicating that they no longer held Hero status, or were no longer alive. The Gauntlets were written as unclaimed and the King was marked down as unknown. "The knuckle head briefly took Kuro's sword, until she reclaimed it, and it flew back to it's rightful owner. If any of these people are still alive then their weapons should have returned to them. I want contact established with each of them as soon as possible." Viktoriya nodded her head and left to attend to that.
"If they're not alive then I want to know where the weapons go when no one is around to claim them." Tanya stated looking at Rishia indicating for her to answer her.
"Umm..." Rishia herself was sitting on a stack of books that she had been reading for some time now. "Every legend about the Vassal heroes I've read states that when they die the weapon either drops down on the spot or goes with whatever worthy was present at the time. Usually the killer."
"These Seven Stars sound to be very fickle to me." Tanya stated tapping her fingers in blatant annoyance.
"If one of their wielders decide to abuse their power instead of sussing out whatever problem plagues their country at the time then yes, jumping ship is the only sane conclusion to come to." Rishia stated but they were getting off track.
"Can one person wield more than one Vassal weapon at a time?" Tanya asked looking at Rishia with blatant suspicion.
"Would there even be any point?" Was Rishia's simple response in the negative.
"Unknown. If their effects stack together then yes." But that left another question open. "Scorpion, Snake, Boar, Fox, Bear, Lion and Dragon." Tanya stated recalling the animals that Kuro was able to make out from the mangled adornments those weapons had.
"The Cursed Series?" Rishia asked looking startled.
"So you do know of them?" Tanya asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Yes. It's said that when a Hero is pushed to their most desperate hour the Weapons will take the form of one of the animals of sin and slowly consume them for a burst of power."
"So if someone unlocks all seven of them at once?" Tanya asked cocking a suspicious brow.
"Exceedingly dangerous but not long for this world." Rishia concluded pointedly. "Lust and Envy will take your sanity. Gluttony will consume your XP and leave you unable to acquire more. Greed will destroy anything you touch of any value. Sloth and Pride will take your will to do anything for yourself. Dragon will eat away at your health."
Each of these were fundamentally unacceptable to continued survival as Tanya was well aware. As she was also aware the man Tanya fought was less than mortal based on the descriptions she gave.
"Which one grants immortality?" Tanya asked brow raised questioningly.
"Um... you do realise what 'cursed' means right?" Rishia asked like she was talking to someone particularly slow.
"So none of them then. That's what I was afraid of." Tanya stated as she looked to the board. "We should assume the Claw and Projectile Heroes are dead, based on Kuro's interactions with their impostors." Rishia used the chalk to cross out the two sections. "Of the three remaining we should be both wary and concerned for the Axe, Hammer and Whip Heroes." Tanya stated before another thought occurred to her. "Cross out Axe too, he didn't even show up to meet with Katarina to defend Shieldfreeden." That was another bit of intel Kuro was able to dig up.
The Axe comes from a different world, according to the history behind the shield she read in Siltvelt, ancient history, they'd have to dig up more ancient weapons for her to read to get further confirmation.
"That leaves the Hammer and the Whip." One of whom was so secretive no one even knew who he is. "Tell me about Takt."
When Tanya told Rishia to dig up everything she knew about these weapons she was very thorough, in no small part because there was so much information to see.
"He's had a hand in helping to push innovation in a number of different fields. Technology, commerce and magic being the big three." Fields that have nothing to do with each other to Tanya's knowledge.
"Show me his technology." Rishia handed Tanya a photo of the man himself, a photo, a freaking photo! Ignoring what she had been handed Tanya focused on what it told her, because to be more accurate it was a photo of Takt in his convertible muscle car. She would think she was looking at a catalogue from her original world were it not for the animal eared women in the shot gun and passenger seats and the slew of otherworldly creatures in the back ground. "Show me the previous generations of cars." Tanya stated noting a section Rishia had kindly written out for her detailing the vehicles features.
"Previous Generations?" Rishia asked brow cocked in the air and with it the second red flag this conversation had spawned.
"Past models of car without some of the innovations seen here." Tanya clarified even as she dreaded the answer she was heading for.
"I don't know what you're talking about. This photo was taken at the show where Takt debuted one of his more recent inventions 'the car.'" And that was all Tanya needed to know to send this situation straight down the crapper.
"Until I receive further evidence to the contrary this 'Takt' is to be treated as a enemy combatant." Tanya stated simply and flatly. "We will hold a meeting with the others as soon as possible, I don't care what they're doing find them and bring them here now!"
Kuro agreed with Tanya on one thing, whatever poor excuse passed for this poor excuse of countries government needed to go. She had proposed and outlined a plan and after debate Kuro was the best suited to pull it off. So here she was at the Colosseum where she and her party were about to strangle this shoddy place to death. Firstly a matter of disguises. Kuro used her Hakuko disguise as the base and then magically bleached her skin white while turning her eyes blue. She was still young enough that she could pass for male after cutting her hair some and wearing masculine clothing. The sword itself was disguised as a belt after changing it into a leather sword which she was now using to hold up her trousers as she entered the signup for the fighting. Her height was a problem though, no one would believe a child or a low level would be able to beat the monster they had locked in the arena, she was a hero and they still had a hard time believing it. She'll have to find one of the competitors and give them a little... boost.
Hakuko were known for two things, the first being dirt poor after they were torn apart by Melromarc's Prince during their last civil war, and having enormously high stats, so seeing a Hakuko orphan walk in had left no one surprised, only shuffling her in with the rest of the monster food as they were degradingly called. Most were children, a few of the Berserkers Beloukas had brought along to fight in the wave were present. They had all been stripped of arms and armour, something that forced her to improvise a little on the spot by imagining some chest wrappings because although nearly flat she was not going to show her tits to a massive crowd like some cheap stripper, and were soon funnelled into the next part of their evening. A boss fight.
"This is starting to get kind of old." Kuro mentioned as the gate opened and they were shuffled out to their deaths. "Maybe I should double check just to make sure that there aren't any other bosses from the first set of waves wandering around that need putting down."
Zeltoble's first boss was sat on a massive throne in the middle of the arena, a slave seal painted on it's stone chest while it's stone limbs had been wrapped in chains. It was struggling to get up, it's arms, legs and massive stone shield and sword all stained with the dried blood of gladiators. After killing the impostor woman in Siltvelt her level had jumped up to the seventies, which might be convenient for her if her damned sword hadn't quietly protested Kuro letting the other impostor take her by maxing out her crafting proficiency and jumping up the level requirements for her Noble Phantasms again. The good news was as a direct result of that all of her stats had jumped up again.
A steady diet of Gladiators over the past month had seen the monster blowing past the first level cap, and was given a special class up bonus that saw it learn quite a few nasty tricks too. By Kuro's estimates it was in the sixties, with it's class up bonus and ridiculous size it's damage output should be closer to a theoretical 110, it's defences and health pool would be in the 130.
Kuro though was higher level by 10, her body reinforced to it's limit pushed her into the nineties, with the bonuses from the legendary sword she'd be looking at a hard 130 if she pressed the speed advantages guaranteed by her smaller size she could push her overall combat effectiveness into the 170's. That wasn't good enough though, so remembering how Katarina mentioned she took apart the crystal lizard that was the boss of the wave in Shieldfreeden she made microcopies of the hoe and Earth crystal ball spear and lined her fists and body with them pushing her vs. stone giant bonus into 200. She soaked up all the knowledge of fist fighting from the various brass knuckles, gauntlets and bucklers inside of the Infinite Sword Sea pushing up her effective combat ability up a tiny bit more.
"First time here?" Kuro turned her attention to another of the children, another Hakuko a boy this one. "I pity you." He said with sad eyes. "First time to work up the courage to come here and you're gonna die." His tone was not mocking only sad. Kuro wondered if he lost friends beneath the foot stomping of that abomination. "A word of advice, keep your distance if you want to stay alive. They'll let us go after a certain period of time." After their monster has gotten a taste of blood.
"Thanks. Same to you." Kuro stated with a smile, lacking the usual scheming malice. The other boy snorted.
"Can't do that, got a put a show on or they'll cut off our medicine supply." The boy had a look on his face of that of a cornered animal. "Sister's sick, it's hard enough for Hakuko to earn a check these days let alone hybrids."
"You don't look like hybrids." Kuro stated the word bringing to mind Chem or the more present Berserkers.
"Mom was a human. Been stunting my growth a bit too." That had Kuro's ears perking straight up, real and fake. "Hybrids don't have the rapid maturing that pure demi-humans do?" Kuro asked questioningly.
"Well sometimes." The boy was forced to admit as Kuro stood straight up and walked passed the berserkers straight to the giant.
"Keep them all back for me big guy." Kuro gave a man who looked like a lizard but had the horns of a bull a pat on the rear. "I got this."
"Hey wait are you-"
Kuro didn't give the informative hybrid the chance to protest, skating on moving earth towards the giant. Of course it noticed her presence and so slammed down it's weapon in her path. Kuro punched a hole in the sword, then jumped up after manufacturing a pillar of earth beneath her feet via ISS to fake more earth magic and go for the monster's abdomen. With a punch and the effects of the earth crystal orb spear she opened a massive hole in the thing's stomach region. It did more damage then Kuro gave it credit for, because it collapsed into something resembling mud a few moments later splattering all over the ground.
"And yet no XP." The mud turned into stone blades as Kuro was attacked from all sides. "Oh that is clever! I am so stealing that!"
Wasn't enough to save it though, unfortunate as that was for it. For you see carving off bits of it just now had reduced it's Health, and Kuro was intent on finishing the job. It wasn't long until the fake Hakuko was wrapped in a ball of mud and spikes. Instead of getting crushed though Kuro tore it apart, with Earth hole, Earth wave, altering the composition using tracing and reinforcing until the thing got the bloody hint to stay the hell away from her. Their mistake.
"Come now folks." Kuro stated all teeth and malice. "I wanna play in the mud some more!"
Kuro had the opportunity to pull out the second blade of dual wielder and with it the chance to copy the shifting weaponized mud, now with green crystal spikes after Kuro did some creative remodelling. Thus with this opening Kuro planted the blade into the ground, and she made the arena's fighting pit close in on itself, growing crystal teeth and like a bear trap crushed the reforming giant, now much smaller than he use to be, and progressively smaller as Kuro used it's own power to kill it.
"Well that's my part finished." There was 1000 people who had been released into here to serve as food for that mud ball. The odds of any of them getting out of here alive had been astronomically low, so that is precisely what Kuro had Welt bet every coin the four Heroes had to their names on happening and Kuro had won that bet. The resulting return of cash had bankrupted the Colosseum so now it was time to cash in.
"The next step in the plan?" Welt asked watching Kuro change her appearance back to normal using her magic and getting dressed with more conventional means.
"Currently the owners of the slave market is at a loss, so how would they work to regain their losses as quickly as possible?" Kuro asked as she finished putting on her red coat and imagining white pinkish hair back into existence.
"Selling off slaves." Welt stated looking confused.
"Precisely!" Kuro stated patting for Welt to get the others and meet her. "So let's lend them a hand!"
Kuro approached Beloukas and instructed him to take her to see the biggest name in the slave market, ironically enough the same man whom she bankrupted earlier. She handed over roughly 5000 gold coins and told him that she was buying every slave, sex, labourer, gladiator all of them, in the country that was currently for sale, along with enough Filolials to haul all of them away. As that 5000 consisted of a small amount of the money he lost he graciously accepted her offer.
"Here are all the slaves you requested to meet Sir Hero." Beloukas stated indicating the people gathered on sick beds, the ones most likely not to make it without proper medical treatment.
"Maple, your area of expertise I believe." Kuro stated smirking at Maple.
"Right!" Maple herself got to her grim task, healing injuries with magic, curing the sick with potions, but there was one case that was a little too far gone for her so she called Kuro for extra help. "It's a genetic disorder, we think." Maple stated as Kuro was met with the familiar Tiger boy from the arena, which made this bundle of bandages his sick sister. "There's nothing to heal, since this is her max health, and theirs no disease to cure since this isn't bacterial or viral." And that was a problem wasn't it?
"Alright. Lemme see if I can do something a little more 'Miraculous.'" Kuro picked up a empty cup and allowed the ISS to open into it. "I, the Hero of the Sword who has quenched 1000 swords call upon the origin of power. Decipher the laws of nature and release the holy power of the fairies into this world. I summon Avalon!"
The Cup was filled with a holier water then this world has ever known before or would ever again, the legendary Scabbard of the ancient king of Camelot Artoria Pendragon that flat out stopped her from ageing and made it that anything less than instant brain death could be flatly walked off.
"Here have some water." Kuro stated holding the girl's head up and feeding her the water through the mouth.
"She doesn't need water she needs healing!" The boy snapped, which Kuro could sympathise with having been in this girl's position and seen how protective both the versions of her brother that she knew of could get.
"Patience." Kuro pulled Maple over for a smooch.
The outline of the golden blade appeared first and soon the legendary Excalibur appeared in Kuro's grasp even as she wordlessly chanted the spell. The Excalibur copy reacted to the copies of it's sheath inside of the girl's body and the two of them soon glowed.
"That should do it." Kuro commented even as a drained Maple passed out on the floor.
The girl sat up as the bandages fell off of her, revealing flawlessly white skin, which made sense as the previously blistered skin beneath the bandages had been nicely healed up.
"At-Atla?" The elder brother said the look on his face that of someone who couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"I think my work here is done." Kuro stated with a satisfactory smile. "Welt, make sure that all of the slaves are accounted for for before we all go."
At that point Rishia popped into the tent looking for them.
"Um. Mis-Warrant Officer Degurechauff wants to see you guys, like immediately."
Katarina was the last to be found, largely because while she was out shopping for more hammers she ran into a very overly enthusiastic black smith. But she like the others were found and brought to the meeting.
"I believe I've identified the man who attacked Kuro during the Wave." Tanya stated as she outlined her theory.
"The projectile Hero?" Katarina asked brow raised in concern.
"The Whip Hero." Tanya clarified while she underlined a rather important word on her makeshift black board. "Takt, a reincarnated."
"You mean like..." Katarina stated but Tanya finished for her.
"Yes like you and me." Tanya stated prompting a bout of confusion from Maple as she looked between Tanya and Katarina. "We were both originally from Japan like you and Kuro. I was originally a forty year old man, Katarina a 17 year old girl." Maple's brain seemed to come crashing to a halt.
Kuro snapped her fingers in front of the other girl's face a couple of times and failed spectacularly to snap her out of it.
"I hit her last time." Kuro stated shrugging her shoulders. Katarina smacked Maple with the back of her Iron spear and waited five seconds for the skill to wear off.
"Wahaha! You guys are what!?" Maple shouted in exasperation.
"Yes. I had a rather unpleasant chat with Being X before he shoved me into this body." Everyone looked at her confused. "I refuse to call him god. He sought to conduct a experiment to make me, an atheist, worship him, and so punted me off to a world at war." Tanya indicated Katarina next.
"The world I landed in was remarkably similar to a video game I played, all the characters are people I know, including me." Katarina stated, though Tanya has her own theory on the matter.
"She was reincarnated with a large amount of pre-programmed information in her mind that would have dictated her life for her. Had she not hit her head several month's ago causing her programming to crash and her newly rebooted reincarnated brain attempted to process the information the only way it could." Tanya stated letting the others fill in the information too.
"By turning it into a video game." Kuro stated and Tanya snapped her fingers in response.
"Using the information from our two existing Reincarnators we can begin to extrapolate information on our theoretical one."
I was chosen by god and put on this world for glorious purpose. For this reason I was placed in a position of power as a minor noble of the strongest country in the world in line to become the next king. Towards that end I was either given or already had a vast amount of knowledge of science and engineering so that I could rapidly build up my forces and military power. I am the true hero, chosen by god, to squash all of the fakes running around and towards that end I was either given the power to steal weapons or the knowledge of how to build a way of doing so, I cannot however make them obey me and they are rebelling through the use of the Curse series which although powerful eats away at my body and soul. Through either my advanced knowledge of science and magic or my god given blessings I've obtained the methods of immortal regeneration and a near unlimited supply of spirit and magical power, including and up to the ability to either remotely manipulate bodies or transfer my soul between them.
"I've assigned Victoriya to bring me all the possible information coming out of Faubrey, if he moves against us again we will nail him." Information is one of the most important parts of warfare, so until they have more they won't move against Takt. "Let's focus on dismantling the rest of this corrupt government before we do the next one."
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: I think it has a lot of things that don't make sense about it, but yes, Legendary Heroes are used way too much.
Captain Imaginat: What a strange and terrifying world Maple must come from. True, Kuro doesn't need a army. Dads, haha. Nothing quite like seeing a psychopathic man child throwing a temper tantrum. They do know that she is female, but like any reasonable person of the modern age chose to respect their life choices as I believe I already explained.
RedBurningDragon: Kuro: "Oh you have my sword? Anyway I started blasting."
drmacgraw186: Takt underestimated the four Heroes when they weren't a collection of small children he needed to do less 'inventing' and more studying his targets. To be fair Maple is still a pretty impressive cook, albeit one who works with some pretty questionable ingredients. That or they'll just fill him with blades, stuff him with earth shards, crush him with stony projectiles, feed him to a hydra, Etc Etc.
xerad: I said she wasn't bitch not that she's not insane, if you've been dealing with this madness as long as she has then you'd be insane too. Both against him and his women. Rule Breaker for the win!
Kisami Hoshigaki: Fitoria doesn't deserve the F then. It's not Siltvelt they need to worry about pissing off.
Illya Emiya: Agreed.
Halo: I was looking forward to it happening in Wandering of a Sword Hero myself, assuming the author ever resumes that one. Medea: "Why do I feel like I've massively screwed myself over?"
reinDank: With Gasoline and cursed fire.