Author's Note: Not a lot to say today. Please Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 24: The End of Zeltoble
Katarina had been given the task of coordinating all the Filolials, well her and Midori, the Fiolial King was proving to be instrumental in getting the logistics of over five hundred Filolials marching all at once across the continent hauling thousands of carriages as they use them to fight off the waves/deposit a variety of refugees.
"I, and her majesty, question the wisdom of what you Heroes are doing." One of the slaves approached Katarina and suddenly started speaking to her.
"Umm... do I know you?" Katarina asked looking at the woman who appeared to have been one of the sex slaves.
"Huu." She seemed simultaneously annoyed and relieved. "Do you know where the sword hero is?"
"Right here." Kuro stated hand raised in the air and wearing a mocking grin.
"Kuro do you know this woman?" Katarina asked looking between the two of them confused.
"I have never seen this woman before in my entire life." Kuro's words sounded like the single biggest lie Katarina had ever heard, probably because she was making fun of the Queen's Shadows.
"Are you quite done yet?" The former sex slave but not really asked sounding exasperated.
"Sure, so what do you want person I've never met before?" Kuro asked her tone of voice showing that she was not done with her mocking barbs yet.
"To know what you're planning." The shadow stated glaring at the demon child.
"For now? I plan on escorting this convoy of slaves back into Melromarc and using most of them as soldiers to fight in the waves, the ones we don't use we'll arrange for safe passage and stay in other countries in exchange for fighting the waves for them." Kuro stated in that same tone of voice she had when she was mocking with lies.
"Weapons tell us why we were given these lunatics for legendary heroes?" The woman seemed to pray before she climbed onto the carriage and then disappeared.
Maple was taking all of her party members over to Zeltoble's dragon hourglass and having their classes upgraded, an expensive process yes but less so than in Melromarc.
"Is there anything that everyone can think they want for their class upgrades?" Maple asked looking at the Dragon's Hourglass.
"Filo wants to spit poison!" The bird girl in question stated raising her hand up.
"Filo? This doesn't have anything to do with Maple talking about how tasty poison is earlier?" Raphtalia asked looking at Filo with visible exasperation on her features.
"Poison~! Poison~!" Filo merrily cheered while she put her hand on the dragon hourglass.
Suddenly the feather given to her by Fitoria tore itself off of her head and entered the menu that appeared in Maple's vision and caused a new class up option to appear and select itself. Suddenly all of Filo's stats doubled surprising Maple in the process.
"Okay." Filo's experienced a special class up using material to provide a additional boost to the process. "Didn't see that coming." Maple was familiar with stat doubling skills from NWO, conditional mind you, only increasing one stat or requiring that whatever you're up against be technically stronger than you. This was a new one.
"Umu... Filo didn't get poison..." Maple patted Filo on her back before leading her away from the hourglass.
"So it seems that we've got a new class up option for everyone." Maple stated summarising the situation. "Unlike some class upgrades it doesn't offer any new or unique abilities but it does double all of your stats." Which was tempting.
"If that's all then I don't need anything else." Keel stepped forward first and put his hand on the hour glass. Maple deposited one of Filo's feathers into the menu for choosing class upgrades and thus Keel's stats were all doubled.
"What about you Raphtalia?" Maple asked as the woman herself was the next one to approach the hourglass.
"What do you think?" Raphtalia knew that while this New World Online Maple keeps talking about wasn't the same as her world it was similar.
So if Maple knew something she didn't it was probably a good idea to get her opinion.
"There seems to be two that really stands out aside from the one from Filo." Maple stated as she read the description from the class up menu. "'Illusion Fencer: a sword fighter who uses illusion magic to disguise their movements and confuse their enemy.' It'll give your magic capacity a huge boost and augment your strength stat." The second one might question where it was coming from, were it not for the amulet and bracelets Raphtalia was carrying. "'Blade Juggler: A skilled and agile fighter who fights while simultaneously wielding more than two blades.' Hence the Juggler I guess." Or has in her possession three amulets that gives her six extra blades to wield that thanks to some enchantments put on them were currently invisible. It also reminded Maple of the strange look the Black Smith Katarina had recommended them gave her, once he got over his original lust and saw Raphtalia with a look on his face that indicated she was someone familiar to him.
"What do you think about them?" Raphtalia asked looking curious.
"Hmm. I have some friend's back home who fights using multiple weapons at once but those are hammers, not swords. It's a difficult enough fighting style to adapt to when you're just using brute strength and blunt instruments." Raphtalia nodded her head agreeing to the assessment.
Knifing people while they were distracted was one thing, blade juggling as it was called was another. It didn't help that it didn't sound like it would help her manage those blades either.
"Illusion Fencer is probably the way to go if we don't choose to double your stats." Raphtalia nodded her head in agreement.
"Sounds like a gimmick though, one people are going to be wary for if they find out. I'd rather not be reliant on it if at all possible." Then stat doubling it is.
Besides Blade Juggler and Illusion Fencer probably couldn't give her anything she couldn't get without training, practice and items. Wasting a class up on them was pointless, so for a third time Filo had a hair plucked from her head. Rifana was next wanting the same class up as Raphtalia, Rishia and finally Midori who got a crown hair sticking out of his head too. The only one who refused Filo's class upgrade was Blitz who instead used some griffin material Tanya had given her causing her to become a royal Griffin.
Now that that was done it was time for Maple to secure her alibi.
That was admittedly a close call, the Colosseum's main attraction, the mud giant has been killed, the majority of the money to their name stripped from them, and all the slaves in Zeltoble bought out of their hands. The only good thing to come out of it was that they had made back some of the funds they loss, most of which would have to be put to use acquiring new merchandise. They needed a new main attraction, they needed warm bodies to feed to it, and they needed to be closed for a prolonged period of time while they sort it all out. Merchants were already leaving their district for the time being.
"Which country is nearest to getting a wave?" The head of the Colosseum snapped to attention glaring at his assistant after he finished outlining in his head what needed doing today starting today.
"Boss!" One of the men under his command came in all in a panic. "Someone's broken into the vault!" And that was the maraschino on the cake that had been this disaster of the past two days.
"What was taken?" The owner of the Colosseum asked slamming his palms down on the desk he had been working at.
"The vault! The entire vault!" The man stated for emphasis. "What? Someone stole everything in the vault? That's-"
"You're not listening!" Madness in his eyes the footman grabbed hold of his employer's collar and shook him. "The entire vault has been stolen!"
"What!?"
And then both men were unconscious.
When they awoke they had been stripped of everything they were wearing but their under pants, because that had been pulled over their heads, and on the nearby rooftops where they had front row seats to the sight of their Colosseum burning to the ground. It was one of three Colosseum's that Zeltoble employed, and one of three fires that had been set, each done by one of the three heroes who had used the skill gained from feeding sand from the dragon's hourglass to their weapons, portal, to sneak back into Zeltoble after establishing alibis leaving the country in question.
"Everyone here?" Tanya asked looking around and making sure the members of her party along with Maple's and Kuro's were all present.
"Um... what did we do again?" Maple asked looking around at their multiple acts of arson that were trailing into the sky.
"Stripped Zeltoble of the majority of it's civilian population through the slave market, took all their money, and convinced the remaining faction leaders to spend what resources that they have left on trying to kill each other." Tanya courtly summarised even as Kuro clapped at her. "Come on, we need to go prove that we weren't in Zeltoble at the time of the arson." Tanya stated as she and the rest of the group all used the preset location Tanya had specified to get themselves and their parties out of there.
Taking the carriage ride back to Melromarc would have taken several days, were it not for the fact that transferring ownership of the Filolials to them had suddenly caused changes of the large and fluffy kind. Katarina prayed to the gods of this world that they would be able to offload them before then. Midori was already enough work on his own. Speaking of the gods the other three appeared from thin air.
"Any complications here since we were gone?" Tanya asked looking at Katarina.
"No but now that you're here I have to go to the little girl's hole." Katarina stated as she ran off to find the hole that some of the Berserkers had dug for them.
There was even a crude outhouse built on top for the sake of privacy, which was probably the reason why Katarina didn't notice the fog that had taken her and Tanya away from the camp ground. "Hello!" Katarina shouted out around after exiting the out house in question while Tanya looked confused.
"What is this?" Tanya asked having distinctly recalled entering her private office.
"Dear gods what was he thinking!?" To that exclamation the two of them turned around to face a young girl who resembled Filo with white hair.
"Um... do we know you?" Katarina asked looking at the girl in question as a large white carriage with a familiar pattern appeared behind her and Tanya immediately concluded 'oh shit!'
"I am Fitoria, Queen of the Filolials, Hero of the Carriage. And you, Reincarnated, are my enemies!" The carriage turned into a beetle shaped tank and was prepared to fire, when it was forcibly stopped, and the familiar blaring sound of a horn echoed in her ears.
"You have a lot to answer for!" Fitoria snarled as time was stopped around her, the man responsible for this madness was leaning over a pot accompanied by the brown haired demi-human woman who has been his companion through this endless hell he had trapped the three of them in.
"Dragon soup. I remember that it was your favourite." The man in green stated, arm that should have a shield attached to it empty.
"Bribing me will not quench my anger!" Fitoria snapped glaring. "You gave the spear and Bow to Reincarnated!"
"Albeit reincarnated that do not have the usual tampering's that make them so annoying." The Shield bearer who was not stated as he tasted the soup. "In one case we have someone who hates the god who reincarnated her, and as part of his experiment did not give her any of the advantages she should be subjected to or brainwashing that would bind her to him. In another we have a person who was subjected to that tampering but then shook it off after a minor bout of Brain damage." The man without a Shield used a ladle to scoop out a mass of the soup with some meaty chunks and handed it over to Fitoria.
"I don't want your soup!" Fitoria slammed the bowl out of his hands. "This is serious! What possible justification can you have for giving up the shield!?"
"Because I am not insane." He stated bluntly. "And therefore I've decided to stop trying the same thing over and over again."
"What are you planning!?" Fitoria snapped again as she glared angrily at the former Shield Bearer. "Whole Myriad of universes, their own problems, trials, tribulations etc etc. Sure they might be suited to solving their world's problems, but can we say the same thing about fixing the ones in this world?" The Shield Bearer who was not smiled in a predatory manner.
"So, I decided, that if I would not simply find what I need I would simply raise them myself." Fitoria's face scrunched in confusion as the Shield Bearer who was not got up with the Katana wielder who would be again and patted the Queen on her shoulder. "Take good care of our kids for us Fitoria. They've got a lot of work to ahead of them." And so the man and woman who were never there left.
Tanya drew her draw string as Katarina switched over to the three headed dog trident.
"We're warning you-"
"RRRAAAGGGHHH!" The God who wasn't could only let out a frustrated scream as she swung her arm out and the fog carried them away again. Thus the two youngest Heroes found themselves back in the camp grounds, deeply confused at the actions of the frustrated Filolial Queen.
"Zeltoble is butchering itself?" Mirellia asked tone of voice calm, even and perhaps a little sad covering up the feeling of maniacal laughter that was welling up from deep within her core.
"It seems that someone made off with it's treasuries." The messenger paused. "All the Treasuries." Another pause. "Including the vaults." Suppressing her mad glee the Queen turned her attention to the Merchant prince who had been leering at her for half of the meeting who was now bobbing his chin like a drowning fish.
"Who is responsible for this!?" The Merchant Prince turned his attention to Mirellia. "You planned this vixen! You sent your Heroes into our lands to ruin us!"
"Not an unreasonable accusation I will admit." Mirellia stated tone even and calm. "The heroes personal pocket dimension is well known, especially after the damage that the Shield did in our capital where she demonstrated the ability to eat entire buildings." With this in mind the Queen Casually turned her attention to the pope of the Four Heroes Church. "The Hero tracking unit, what does it say about where the Heroes are now?"
"The church is not a tool to settle petty disputes between countries." The pope stated stand to attention and slamming his walking stick into the ground. "And I will broke no such accusations towards the Four Legendary Heroes!"
"Withdraw from this council little prince." Mirellia stated as she advised him to do what she herself wished to do. "Withdraw while you still have a country to withdraw." Once Zeltoble was done tearing itself apart it would be, politically speaking, landscaped in her favour.
After loosing all their money and property, and responding to that loss with a gang war, influence should swing away from the slavers and towards the black smiths. Currently Melromarc and Siltvelt were trying to deal with a power block of Faubrey and Zeltoble and thus far failing miserably while Shieldfreeden sat on the wall looking to see which way the negotiations would go. Now Zeltoble had been removed from the table, that just left Faubrey that needed dealing with. They held no delusions about Shieldfreeden joining them because they had more lines on the map, because Faubrey could still take all three of them blindfolded with their monstrosities of metal and leather.
"Um. Which one is after Zeltoble again?" Maple asked as the four of them enjoyed a meal inside of Rishia's families home.
"Siltvelt." Kuro stated slurping her spaghetti.
"Umu... That's the one that turtle told me Shieldfreeden would try to kill me over if I went over to them." Maple stated letting out a sigh. As long as she was inside of Melromarc she was apparently considered a prisoner, but as soon as she threw her lot in with either of them...
"So Maple's staying behind in Melromarc." Kuro concluded coming to a entirely sound decision on the matter.
"Well we need someone for Shieldfreeden anyway." Katarina noted before she corrected herself. "Someone who isn't Maple."
"We need to get a read on the church of the shield if we want Maple to move freely." Tanya concluded as she gave her neck a stretch. "And if necessary, evisceration."
"Are we going to start another civil war again?" Katarina asked very much looking like she did not like the idea of that happening. Tanya was about to retort but she got a notification through the Bow about a message.
"The king wants to see us, he's asking where's good for us?" Tanya stated looking around at the group.
There was apparently a button attached to Portal that would drop them directly inside of the castle, but as that involved going into the castle itself they very much not wanted to do that.
"What about the hot springs we went to before? With Filo we'll definitely make for good time." Maple herself provided the answer.
"Agreed. But not tonight." Tanya stated as she looked at the darkness emerging in the sky. "It's been a long couple of days and we could use the rest."
The banging of a gavel indicated that the meeting of the council of Katarina's had begun.
"Today's meeting will we be about the issue of levelling. Specifically how far behind we all are." Chairman Katarina stated indicating the charts for levels that they had put together.
"Maple is leading with seventy five after she killed that dragon. Kuro has been picking off super high level assassins apparently so she's seventy three. Tanya apparently dropped a mountain on some monster so she's seventy. Compared to them we're only fifty."
They had thought they had been diligently raising her level all this time, going out every day to the area's recommended to her by Rino and Elena, but it seems that they had severely underestimated this world and their allies.
"It's one thing when all four of us were low level, but now we look like the weakest link." Analytical Katarina explained pushing up her glasses.
"What we need to go is to go out and find a legendary monster to kill!" Hotblooded Katarina stated slamming her fist down.
"Do we have any super powered weapons that we can reliably slay a super monster with though?" Timid Katarina asked looking concerned.
"Hmm..." The five Katarina's crossed their arms in thought as they drew up a blank.
Kuro had once again sealed herself in a room while she continued to refine her lingerie and progressively make herself more lewd.
"Hmm. This outfit would go a long way to highlight my curves. If I had any." It seems that further refinement would demand the development of Kuro's body. Well she has magic to help with that.
"My agility will suffer if I inflate myself to Luvia's level. Long legs like Rin would go a long way though. And that butt!" As Kuro was about to go about the process of pleasuring herself.
"I like you the way you are." Kuro did a pretty good scared cat impression when she jumped three feet into the air and landed on her bed on all fours. "Course, I can't really comment on how you look." Kuro looked to see the person who managed to crack the five locks she willed into existence into the door.
"Atla right?" Kuro commented sizing the girl up. She was cute make no mistake, pretty in a way that people their age rarely manage to achieve and she had started to come into her curves unlike Kuro, which was impressive considering she should be a half starved orphan like Tanya, a fact highlighted by the see through Negligee she was wearing. "Oh I'm going to have to try that myself." Kuro commented as she manoeuvred into a seated position. "So what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to thank you for saving me and my brother." Atla stated as she climbed onto the bed.
"Your brother?" Kuro asked brow in the air. "I don't remember giving your brother anything."
"The wave boss would have killed him if you didn't kill it first." Atla stated and something ground to a halt in Kuro's brain. "I don't know why he didn't recognise you. The stories he reads to me about this kind of thing mention the use of disguise but I have never been able to get it."
"Well. A blind person wouldn't be able to understand but the main point-"
"I'm not blind. Not completely." And yet her eyes were closed as if she was sleeping.
"I think I have a easier way to explain." Kuro stated as she materialised a dagger and handed it to Atla. "Hold this." Through the dagger Kuro was able see it's history as it was being written, in other words she could see things from Atla's point of view.
Everything but Kuro and the knife in the room was almost pitch black, everything else had a faint outline to it like whatever energy Kuro had in her body had been lightly dusted all over the room. And she could see through the walls too at the people in the other rooms, the other buildings, and the other heroes.
"That is impressive." Kuro dissolved the knife as she held her chin in her hand.
"So what form of thanks are you thinking of?" If she truly was blind then she probably had no idea how gods-be-damned attractive she looks right now, first rate beauty for her age, innocent allure, and sexy sleepwear was going to make Kuro very hot and bothered when she left.
"I meant to sleep with you." Atla stated a bit of a noticeable blush to her face. "I consider you attractive, and you did save me and my brother earlier. I even asked some of the older slaves for advice on the matter."
"You consider me attractive but from your point of view I'm just a big huge mass of energy." Kuro stated suspiciously.
"You might not realise this but that's all I had to work off of my entire life." Atla stated as she continued to explain. "Personality tends to shape aura more than looks, although that is still a good factor too. Living in the slaver's den has given me the chance to look at a large number of different aura's under different conditions." Atla continued to explain her observations. "You're a good person. You might not think so but you are."
"Even if you say that you should wait a few years yet before you go around saying things like 'seduce you.' Well I'm not one to talk am I?" Kuro stated letting out a chuckle as she remembered what she was doing before Atla came in here.
"Yes I know. But the world isn't like that is it?" Atla stated in no uncertain terms. "I've been struggling with a disease my entire life that could kill me at any time. Even if I wasn't this world is filled with monsters, both in human form and not that wouldn't turn a blind eye to killing me just for the pinch of XP it would give them."
Oh. Oh they were similar in so many ways it wasn't even funny, it was worst for her because she's had years with that guillotine hanging over head instead of months like Kuro. It was the same for both of them though, because for both of them it was the only thing they ever knew and they had no real way of relieving those feelings of despair until hope finally appeared before them.
"I want to experience everything there is. I want to see the world even if it's only through these worthless eyes, I want to taste the fear of death and over come it at long last, I want to eat all the tasty foods in the world, listen to all the great ballads in every tongue, I want to know what it's like to fall in love with someone." Atla stated raising her hand and feeling the side of Kuro's face. "In that at least I know what it's like."
Kuro's heart throbbed. You can't possibly do something like this to her and not expect her to swoon.
"Did you break the locks?" Kuro asked and Atla shook her head in the negative. "Reset them. And prop that chair there against the door." Atla did so as she got some idea of what was happening now. "Take it off." Licking her lips Kuro snapped her fingers and all of the magically created clothes, with exception to her cat ears and tail, she was wearing dissolved into thin air around the same time Atla removed the Negligee revealing nothing underneath other than flawless white skin. With a perverted smile Kuro used her finger to draw Atla over while Kuro altered the room for sound proofing.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: No matter how powerful relying on a dozen people to protect the entire world is pure foolishness. It's why I have them. I don't have any plans for one. I whimsically decided to create a April fools day chapter not expecting that anyone would actually want to read it and it has since then become one of my most popular stories.
Amatsumi: It is a theoretical train of thought about what Tanya thinks Takt tells himself to justify his actions.
drmcgraw186: She's coming have a little patience.
Kisame Hoshigaki: Doesn't look like you're wrong. A interesting chain of thought. No, he won't. No it sounds about right to me.
Halo: True.
Reindank: Also True.
Captain Imaginat: At this point in time I think they're more worried about what Tanya would do them if they did make any trouble.