Author's Note: Okay so massive north easterner on the way so I'm just gonna get this published while I still have the Chance, Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 44: The Castle in the Sky
Hoard of screaming monkey's didn't do Shieldfreeden justice. Over half of the people in attendance of the vote were of a variety of different species, most of them carrying parts from different kinds of animals tacked onto human bodies, along with warped limbs or oxygen tanks for those with breathing problems. An argument that two people were having eventually reached the point where they physically assaulted one another and they had to be restrained.
"Most Shield Heroes end up living in Siltvelt don't they?" Maple asked as she watched a man thrown from the stands and crash into the floor in front of her.
"Yep." Elena stated already regretting coming here. "Can't imagine why."
"Excuse me!" Katarina was trying to get the crowd's attention. "Excuse!" Katarina tried again and failed miserably. "What does Tanya do in these situations again? Oh yah! Meteor Stab!" Katarina's skill blew a hole into the roof of the meeting hall and the room was promptly brought to order. "Thank you! Maple?" The other Hero stepped forward, looking around the room shyly in a way that made everyone think she was just adorable.
"Um. Hello everyone." Maple stated taking a bow. "I'm Maple, or Kaede if you prefer. I've come to ask for your help."
"You are in a strange position to be asking for a favour considering how little you've been doing for us." A fox eared man stated clearly displeased.
"She is the shield Hero our God send! Helping her is a honour you fox eared mutt!" A much larger man with a oxygen tank and bull horns snapped. And soon the room devolved into another round of pointless arguments and insults.
"Is it like this all the time around here?" Katarina asked looking at one of the guards who tiredly nodded his head in the affirmative. Katarina fired off another skill at the room once more came to order.
"There are a few things we would like your help with, and we don't mean for you to work for free either." Maple stated and confirmed the looks of vague interest on their faces. "We found one of the wave sights not attached to any country out in the middle of the ocean: Cal Mira to be precise." There were looks of vague interest across the animal eared crowd. XP was a valuable resource, for demi-humans especially, and particularly these demi-humans. "We know that you can cure a lot of your health problems by going through the class up process." Maple explained as it had been explained to her, class up was a chance to change their species, going from say a dog and cat hybrid with all the negative health implications that had to a pure tiger with none of those health issues. "That requires XP and lots of it, especially if applied to large numbers of people."
"So you wish to use us as shock troops to protect every location in this world but our own!?" A person with fish gils and snake eyes snapped even though he was plugged into a contraption designed to feed him water like how most such things feed people oxygen.
"She's right you know!" A large woman with bear claws and goat horns stated in reply. "We stand more to gain than lose!" Another round of arguments broke out before they could finish what they had been saying. "This has gotten old." Maple summoned the voice gengar shield and tapped on it a few times to see how it was working.
"HEY CAN YOU PEOPLE STOP ARGUING FOR FIVE MINUTES AND LET ME TALK!?" A devastatingly effective attack, especially when you consider how sensitive the hearing of demi-humans really was. "Thank you." Satisfied Maple put the makeshift megaphone down. "In addition to that we've also learned ways of making people's magic and transformations stronger using the legendary weapons. If there's any of you here with a high level we can demonstrate it for you." One of the Demi-humans jumped down from the taller part of the stands and landed in the centre of the area and walked up to Maple. He had only the dog ears and tail, a clear sign that he had already went through the class up process given this crowd, and Maple held his hand. "What kinds of magic would you like to have upgraded?" Maple asked noting the list of magics that were available to be perused.
"Start with the transformation." Maple was at least familiar with the dog type demi-humans so she knew what to expect. Maxing out his transformation she took a step back and watched as in a puff of smoke he had assumed a form very similar to Keel's in that he was a well muscled werewolf, taller and fewer curves though, on account of his natural born gender.
"The transformation is taking far less energy than usual, and my stats have gone up higher." The Wanui reported sounding pleased.
"The wave we want to tackle is taking place in the ocean, we need people who can swim and to a lesser extent people who can fly. Those ones we'll empower before we go." Maple explained and already she saw the people about to start arguing that again. "While you are doing that..." Maple responded by interrupting their interruption. "...I'm also looking for area's within your countries borders that are difficult to navigate and hard to reach, preferably filled to the brim with powerful monsters or with a good deal of historical significance, specifically related to one of the past heroes." The various people turned silent as they looked up at each other before giving their answer.
"There's one place." One of the people who had been arguing before replied hesitantly.
"What's so special about it?" Maple asked wondering why they were beating around the bush about this.
"It's floating." Most of Katarina's party had opted to wait out the meeting, wisely allowing for Elena to throw herself on the grenade that was one of Shieldfreeden's 'civil debates.' That just left the matter of L'Arc and Therise to tend to.
"So Maple just picked you two up in a bar after all of her party members got passed out drunk?" Rino asked looking astonished with the contents of the second meeting between the two adventurers and Maple's group.
"Even Filo?" Kyurie just looked to Midori who could only shrug his shoulders. "I didn't even know Filolial's like alcohol."
"That is not the main problem here!" Rino snapped and making a mental reminder to talk to the girl about talking to strangers when they get back.
"So any idea about the dungeon we're going to raid?" L'Arc asked aware of what they had been talking about and not offended by the implication in the least.
Another red flag, the seven dungeons were suppose to be state secrets, so how does this schmuck know about them? A question for another day, for now the people that they had sacrificed to the fires of Siltvelt's Bureaucracy were returning and soon led them to where the next dungeon was located, or so the Shieldfreeden people believed.
"Where's the dungeon anyway?" Therese asked looking around the area that the escort had led them to and failing to see anything.
Course she wasn't looking up either. The technical term was Gravwalk, a type of stone that has somehow acquired the ability to float through the air as if it weighed nothing, thought it was ill suited to the use of construction and hence only saw any real use as a material mixed with other more durable material in order to make it lighter. Course it's ill-suitability as a construction material apparently didn't stop someone from making a castle out of the stuff, or the two large blimp like things that were using it as a dock yard.
"Oh damn." Was Elena's only response as she slowly realised where the dungeon that they had been looking for was.
"You guys got any idea how the rest of you are going to get up there?" Kyurie asked as he had a look around. "I mean, I can fly but you guys on the other hand..." Maple walked out of the carriage after she finished changing.
"I believe someone has a plan." Katarina stated smiling warmly as she saw that the new kigurumi Maple had put on mostly consisted of red feathers.
"L'Arc, Therese, Katarina, Midori, Elena, Rino. Kyurie can just fly up by himself." Maple stated coming to a fairly scary conclusion.
"Maple, I'm terrified to ask but what are you doing?" Elena asked hearing what Maple was talking about and sounding somewhat scared.
"Well as long as I have a costume then I can use Savagery to assume the corresponding form." Maple explained as she pulled her hood on making her look like a fat red rooster in the process. "So after I turn into a Shukaku I can just fly up but that doesn't help the rest of you much."
"Except for Kyurie." Elena noted bringing context to Maple's earlier mumbling like she was counting them.
"Precisely! If I wear all three of Midori's helping hands accessories that will give me six extra hands that I can use to carry all of you!" Maple stated prompting a look of horror to cross all six of the individuals in question faces. "Any idea what we're going to be up against up there?"
Having been provided a ideal avenue to escape this conversation before it spirals off in horrifying directions Elena seized the moment with ruthless enthusiasm.
"Balloons." Elena stated whipping out a book and flipping through the pages.
"Like the ones outside of the Castle grounds?" Maple questioned brow raised suspiciously. "Huh those things really get around."
"Different balloons." Elena corrected as she raised up the open page she had been looking for. "Balloon snakes. Unlike the balls that you are use to dealing with these ones are much longer like a snake." Maple nodded her head in understanding.
"Is there anything we should look out for?" Maple asked curious.
"Individually they're much weaker than the balloons outside of the castle town, but together though." Elena flipped the page over and revealed the image of what suspiciously looked like a balloon dog. "It's when they get together that we run into problems."
"From balloon animals?" Maple asked deeply confused by this new development. "These things have the ability to combine together to form bigger monsters, combining and stacking together their stats and XP for a nastier end result." Not unlike a clown at a amusement park trained in expertly weaving together balloons to create cheap souvenirs for children, which made the seriousness by which they were treating this all the more ridiculous.
"Because of this they can combine their stats together and form larger and more dangerous monsters." Kyurie, a native of Shieldfreeden and a flyer on top of that, seemed to treat them with a degree of fear as if he was traumatised by them once.
"I got something like this from a carnival once." Maple stated holding up the book and emphasising the picture by pointing at it. "A clown was making them and giving them out to children for pocket change." Which immediately made most of the group wonder what kind of terrifying world that Maple comes from that creatures which are known for haunting their nightmares are treated as children's toys.
"Back to the main topic for now." L'Arc stated as he looked up to the sky and directly at the group of monsters they were going to be dealing with. "What plans do we got to deal with these things?" L'Arc asked looking up at the sky at the creatures that seemed to take notice of them, an entire cloud of the red monsters shifting around the sky.
"Everyone knows AOE magic right?" Maple was given Midori's helping hands accessories and predictably manifested six ghostly hands which she then used to pick up her six companions. Taking on her latest 'Savage Form' Maple assumed the form of a giant red eagle and flew through the air carrying her associates as predictably a mass of balloon monsters soon started flying at them.
"Therse!" L'Arc shouted and so his companion got to work.
"O'magical jewel, your friend Therese Alexandrite beckons you, summon a galling blizzard to blow our targets away! Bejewelled blizzard storm!" Therese's accessory lit up in time with a magical blizzard that shot out of her arm and wrapped itself around L'Arc's scythe.
"First Rondo Stance: Scything pinwheel!" L'Arc swung the blade and loosed the attack the two of them had prepared.
The resulting gale froze, slashed and smashed through the initial flock of snake balloons causing them to form a retreat in time for Maple and the others to land on the floating island that they had come there for causing Maple to shrink back down as they landed outside of the gates of the floating castle. Unfortunately they had also made themselves a threat in the process as well which was now causing the balloons to take measures against them.
"I never thought I would say this: but that pile of balloons over there looks like it's getting ready to murder us." Maple stated indicating the balloons that were biting into each other and combining together. AOE Magic was released on the horde in order to try and kill them but more of the seemingly endless hoard instead swarmed in to block those attacks and when the smoke cleared there was a giant red elephant squeaking as it floated in the air running at them. "Everyone inside!" Maple shouted after having finished eating a hole through the door with her shield.
"Maple we needed that!" Elena snapped unwilling to believe Maple just destroyed the only thing that could've held the balloons back.
"Everyone get through I'll plug the hole up in a moment!" Choosing to trust Maple the group opted to dive through the hole which was then followed up by the girl climbing through the hold and blocking the hole with her shield. The rubber elephant hit the shield so hard that Maple had been forced back through the hole, before the shield proceeded to vacuum up the monster that is.
"...I was wondering how that happened." Rino stated prompting Elena to nod her head in agreement.
"I think we might be in the clear." Maple look outside through a crack between her shield and the wall proper. The Balloons were weary of trying to get through the hole again less they meet a similar fate. Maple sealed said hole with a combination of spider silk and slime lacquer and quietly hoped that it would work. "Okay." Maple looked around at the rest of the group. "What now?"
Elena was the first to notice the writing on the walls and just for good measure produced a ball of fire in her hand.
"Hero letters."
"'Hero Letters?'" Maple asked looking at the wall for the vaguely cool thing Elena just mentioned and was vaguely disappointed by what she found. "Kanji?" Indeed what else would get the label of 'Hero Letters' other than the language of the Hero's worlds?
"Can you read it?" Elena asked brow cocked in interest.
"I can try." Even though it should be very old the lettering looked to be brand new which made Maple wonder when this place was built. "'Once there was a woman who killed people, for her final murder she built a time machine and went backwards in time and killed herself before she could begin her rampage. What happened to her murderer?'"
"...Katarina does any of this make sense to you?" Elena asked wondering what the purpose of this nonsensical question was.
"What about this one? 'A man goes backwards in time to before his own birth and kills his own father. How is he born?'" L'Arc just scratched his head using his scythe to the latest question.
Come to think of it wouldn't it make more sense if they were asked all of these time travel questions back in Cal Mira with the time travelling ruins.
"Let's keep going forward, maybe we'll find something eventually." Maple stood out in front of the group, as a added precaution she had the shield of compassion out so she would be tanking all attacks or traps on the group's behalf. They found more questions on the wall that had permutations on the same: what happens if you go back in time and do something that either makes you not exist or keeps you from going back in time. "I hear about this kind of thing in Sci-fi stories, they call them a paradox here." Maple stated but that lead to more questions. "According the shows I use to watch, that would just create a new timeline with both of them existing at once."
"That doesn't make any sense." Elena stated bluntly. "If neither you nor the method you used to time travel existed in the first place then the original timeline would be destroyed in the process like it never existed, which includes the time traveller."
"Isn't it possible for two timelines to exist at once." Maple asked as she eventually noticed a familiar patch of white, the plug she made in the wall, so they had just gone around in one big circle then.
"No more than it's possible for two separate objects to exist in the same place at once." Elena stated bluntly as she too breathed out an annoyed sigh upon realising that they just went in one big circle.
"What about universes?" Rino asked looking at Elena suspiciously. "The Church's doctrine teaches that the Heroes are meant to come from different worlds, but most of them keep going on about a place called 'Japan.' Case in point?" Rino stated indicating Maple who has been reading off the questions up until now.
"Even if that were true that would be alternate universes not time lines." Elena snapped back glaring in annoyance.
"How do you know all this anyway?" Maple asked wondering why this person from a fantasy world had all this sci-fi knowledge.
"I, like most noble children in the world, went to a school in Faubrey teaching advance sciences from the Heroes worlds." Of course the part that's politely not talked about is how in addition to one of the finest educational facility in the world that same school simultaneously served as a shop window for the King of Faubrey to pick out his 'toys' prior to his death and a not too subtle warning that if they didn't behave themselves their parents were more than inclined to leave them there for him to have his way.
"Well I suppose that you could take people from sci-fi too." Maple stated as the machines she saw in Faubrey suddenly made more sense. "Huh. I wonder if you lot have summoned aliens before."
"What's a alien?" Kyurie asked looking at Maple confusedly.
"That's people from other worlds." Everyone just looked at Maple blankly. "Other species from different worlds." Kyurie and Midori spread their wings for emphasis. "They're suppose to have technology more advance than the world they're visiting." Not unlike someone who regularly plays full dive VR visiting a medieval world. "I'm just going to stop talking about this now if that's all the same with you guys." Maple wisely chose to end this conversation before she got any deeper in the implications it held.
"I think you are getting off topic now." L'Arc stated and Therese nodded.
"More importantly we've just gone in one big circle." L'Arc stated and Maple could not deny the man. "Well all I've learned is that I shouldn't use the time manipulating magic I got from Cal Mira to time travel since it seems that everything would just get destroyed." Maple stated letting out a dejected sigh. And then the wall behind her creaked open, as if confirming what she just stated to be true. "Oh dear. Please tell me there's not a horrible monster waiting for us in there."
"There's not a horrible monster waiting for us in here." Kyurie stated and he even confirmed with a echolocation burst from his mouth. "There's another magic circle, and a projection crystal." That did not bode well for what was about to happen next. Maple went in side the room, the crystal beamed her shield and soon a hologram appeared. "Haven't seen this one before." A man with brown hair, and a shield.
"I am Mamoru Shirono, one of the Heroes of the Shield." Maple gulped audibly at what she had just been told about the man. "An associate of mine created this place as a way to try and teach you all what you need to know in order to beat the one behind the wave. The one who made a mistake and would give anything in order to have not made it." Maple gulped, she heard that one before. "The simple answer is, there was someone who used time manipulation magic offensively in order to destroy her target so thoroughly that they would've never existed in the first place." Then the man stretched out his arms to the entire room, the entire castle that asked over and over again what the answer to that question would be, destruction, of everything, everywhere, every-when. "One of us..." Now the hologram held up his shield, and Maple found her hand going over to it in something resembling fear. "Managed to bounce it back to her." And now everything was getting ready to collapse on them.
"Wait but we're all still here right?" Maple asked looking confused at her own continued existence.
"I don't know when the collapse is coming, only if we believe the mad man smashing worlds together that it's definitely coming, if I am understanding things correctly it's the moment that we're suppose to 'defeat' him." Maple gulped at the implication. "That's it, that's all that I can tell you. Standby for the download." The magic lit up and Maple was hit by another beam of energy entering her body and proceeding with a download of information.
"Gravity magic?" Maple questioned as Mamoru's hologram disappeared ominously. Leaving the girl stunned.
Maple stayed in that oddly stunned state of confusion all the way back to the Shieldfreeden debate hall, and after saying that she wasn't up for another round of the 'debate' and so instead stayed in the courtyard.
"It is a very nice picture." Therese stated looking at the detailed drawing Maple made of a large turtle surrounded by a garden of flowers. Maple missed the look of fear that she gave it though.
"His name's Syrup." Maple stated though Therese was only confused.
"Syrup?" Therese asked looking confused.
"My turtle from back home." Maple stated nostalgic. "Things seem so much simpler riding on his back and watching the world go by." Sighing Maple pulled out a lump of metal and jewel from her shield and began shaping it like clay.
Therese watched her, as Maple with a face full of nostalgia made a statuette of a turtle with jewels for eyes, watched her and a tear slowly fell from her eye. There was love there, pure and unadulterated, a girl who did not know hatred, did not know war just a innocent child yanked out of her depth and handed more responsibility than any being should be able to comprehend. Therese could see the soul at the centre of the jewel, the joy at having been crafted in the way that it had been, under that tender care. The woman of jewels ran away unable to take it anymore: they're going to murder this girl in cold blood just to save themselves. That trip through the temple only served to confirm the reasons why they couldn't leave this world while she and the others still draw breath.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: Aye. None are coming to mind. Well known medieval weapons are well known for a reason: they were created for the purpose of inflicting death and 9 times out of ten were very good at it, I don't believe any of them are underrated. Everyone and Everything were generally a lot worst than what they are now.
Halo: I believe it was during Melromarc's second wave, as I recall Maple made her non-violent intentions clear and Glass responded by nearly killing her, then Maple turned into a heavily armoured Tyrant dragon and savaged her mercilessly before chucking her back through the wave portal.
Captain Imaginat: Shieldfreeden did team up with Faubrey, then they lost and the one who was responsible was killed and now they're just back to their usual level of dysfunction. Also I'm not going to include kingdom hearts into this so can you please not go writing fan-fics in my review box?
Amatsumi: You think so do you?
Reindank: Pretty much.
Moon of Hell: 'Shrugs Shoulders.' Atla probably would like the idea of Kuro copying the Four swords, if for no other reason than she would get to have affection from four Kuro's at the same time.
Nightshadegirl: Aye.