Author's Note: Okay another week down! This would be the ending of... volume six in the light novels I think it was? Food for thought. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 53: The Spirit Turtle Falls
A prayer circle had formed in the lowest depths of Melromarc's high security prison. Here was where the members of the Three Heroes Church, and their pope, was imprisoned since their foolish attempt to kill Maple in the middle of a wave. They had not been executed yet, their noble families/backers were being particularly ornery about their executions. A new prisoner had arrived recently, Malty Quin, formerly of the royal family and was hence previously known as Malty Melromarc, and thrown down there with the rest of the human shaped garbage. Malty had it worst off than them she knew, they were still alive because their families were obstinately negotiating for their release, she was still alive because she hadn't had what information she had given Faubrey tortured out of her yet. She knew there was no one looking out for her here and thus was already looking for opportunity to escape. She didn't have to wait long. The entire prison shook and rumbled down to it's lowest depths, dust fell from the ceiling and vast numbers of the prisoners slave seals spontaneously evaporated. Free to do as they like they started by going to the surface, turns out they didn't have long to travel, on account of everything above the floor they were on having been spontaneously vaporised.
"What kind of crazy range does this thing have!?" Tanya shouted as she watched the aftermath of the turtle's last artillery type magic attack, and with true horror watched as another attack like it was prepared. "Damnit! Kuro!"
"I'm draining magic as fast as I can!" Kuro snapped as she cleaved another of the Anti-monsters. "But I keep getting interrupted!"
"I, The Hero of the Spear, Have read and understood the origin of power! Decipher the laws of nature and burn my targets in a fiery inferno: All Driefach Hell Fire X!" To Katarina's chant the monsters in the immediate vicinity were fried!
"I, The Hero of the Bow, Have read and understood the origin or power! Decipher the laws of Nature and bring my target low under the weight of my power! Driefach Down X!" The Turtle, already up and walking around, suddenly stumbled as it was hit with a burst of weakening magic.
"We've done as much as we can Kuro! Block the next attack!" Tanya shouted as Kuro took her accumulated magic and went on the defensive.
Jumping in front of the Turtle Kuro threw up a stone stand, and a projected shield mounted on top of it. Svalin, if it can block out the sun then it should be able to block this, but just in case.
"I, The Hero of the Sword, Have read and understood the origin of power! Decipher the laws of nature and neutralised and counter my target's attack: Driefach Enchant X!" The Turtle unleashed it's attack against the shield, it's own innate neutralising power weakening the attack, more of it being cancelled by Kuro's magic, it still wouldn't be enough at this rate as while the range and explosive power had been reduced it wouldn't matter at Kuro's point blank range.
"Air Strike Javelin!" Katarina shouted chucking her spear at one of the legs of the spirit Tortoise. "Rose Bind!" The skill taken by feeding the vines of a rose bush to the Spear had few benefits, mostly wrapping the target of her Air Strike Javelin in sharp binds, but Katarina would consider this one of them.
"Foolish Sinner!" Katarina shouted holding up the Spear of Greed/Sloth. "I sentence you to writhe in pain on the Rosary of the Gods you worship! Struggle pointlessly against the nails of god as you cry to the heavens! I cast Stake Cross Funeral X!"
A sound like the ringing of a bell echoed out as something lowered itself from the sky, and one of the legs of the Tortoise wrapped in vines rose to meet it. Once the giant cross was level with the leg several nails appeared from mid-air and were shot into the leg and through the cross proper, then the vines moved and sawed through the leg. Katarina didn't mean to have a lasting effect, but rather her goal was to divert that thing's path of attack away from Kuro and into the air, and she succeeded too.
"Alright." Katarina was panting with exhaustion, this wouldn't be a easy fight even if they were at a hundred percent, and right now she felt about as far from one hundred percent as you could get. "That should buy us at least a few minutes to." The turtle started charging another beam attack. "Oh Come on!" Because of course the monster turtle could fire that beam off consecutively, meanwhile they had spent everything they had on just blocking one shot!
"There is such a thing as a limit on ridiculousness you know!" Tanya shouted out clearly frustrated by the latest acting of soul crushing despair the universe meant to shove onto them.
"Then it seems that I have come at just the right time." Ost reached over and put her hands on Katarina's shoulder as words for new magic appeared in her vision.
""We, The Hero of the Spear and the Spirit Tortoise, have read and understood the origin of power!"" The Turtle Monster was preparing a new attack and there was approximately nothing that Kuro was prepared to do to stop it this time with her barrier already destroyed. Atla furiously rushed over to the head, hacking away trying to gouge out the eyes with her blades. ""Split the heavens and the Earth and spew up blood! Separate and retie the principle of reason. I command you to let the truth of creation be known and give everything unto me! Liberation Absorb!"" The Energy beam of the turtle bent over and flowed over to Katarina's spear, rapidly sucking the magical energy inside and refilling Katarina's exhausted reserves.
Tanya was aiming at the new woman and Katarina knew enough to side with her.
"Why are we pointing our weapons at her?" Katarina asked because she still had no idea what's going on.
"She called herself the Spirit Turtle during your chant earlier." Tanya replied bluntly, gesturing with her head to the giant mountain sized monster they were standing on.
"Ahh. Why haven't we shot her yet?" Katarina asked still not possessing Tanya's advance foresight.
"Because she saved Kuro and refilled your reserves and I wanna know why." Tanya stated by way of reply.
"Because my body has been hijacked and I'd sooner be sealed away again or killed before I let them have control over it for one moment longer." Ost replied hands in the air in surrender.
"Why should we trust you?" Katarina asked by now having some idea as to what they were doing. "In a few minutes your friend Maple is going to open the way to my heart: I need the one who fixed the seal earlier to do so again so that I can walk the three of you through sealing my Core, Heart and Head." Ost explained as she noticed the sky was getting darker.
"Tch. Go get Kuro and bring her up here." Tanya ordered, course someone else was doing that already. With Atla refusing the stop her attempt to cut the turtle's head off until Kuro was safe again Fohl had to take the easy solution and grab the Sword Hero and bring her somewhere safe, namely on the turtle's back.
"You okay?" Tanya asked looking at a still groggy Kuro.
"I will be." Kuro pulled herself up to eye level with Fohl and kissed him, taking a chunk of his mana with her in the process.
"Kuro this is Ost, she's going to walk you through on how to use the seal." As Tanya said that the Turtle was preparing another energy blast, Katarina was going to intercept it but Tanya stopped her. "If going inside this thing's body is part of the plan then we need the one best for close quarters combat inside and the one who specialises in range areal combat to stay outside." Katarina nodded her head while Ost left with Kuro. Tanya flew over and got ready her combination of skills and magic. Multi-shot, Rapid Fire, Arrow Rain, Meteor shot, and enhanced with gravity and mass altering magic. "I hope you choke on it." Tanya released her skills above the Spirit Turtle's head, a golden circle appeared between the two which the projectiles passed through on their way to crashing into the Spirit Turtle's head.
"So when's the path to the heart suppose to appear again?" In response to Katarina's question the ground like flesh beneath her feet started to rumble as a clap of thunder echoed in the sky. From the Swirling mass of clouds a familiar contraption appeared, after all Katarina summoned one not too different from it a few minutes ago, the Iron Maiden, a skill Maple received from the Shield of Gluttony. At the same time another familiar form appeared tearing through the turtle's back from below, a ball of spiked shields with several of Kyo's Anti-Monsters trapped inside of it. "Never mind I found it." Katarina jumped down the hole and broke her fall with Gravity magic, the flesh sealing itself up in the process. Maple wasn't too far away, downing Mana potions having experienced the same phenomena as Katarina had a little while ago.
"Heart." Maple stated indicating a large fleshy mass that was beating ominously, with a large eye in the middle of it. "I have to get back to the Core so that I can cast Ost's seal on it." Maple switched over to the crystal ball shield and projected the image of Ost with a magical seal floating over her hand.
"Record it with your crystal ball to and project it onto the heart in thirty minutes." A blue clock had appeared in their vision, different from the red timer that usually indicated the next wave, presumably something to do with the turtle but it will serve their purposes for now. "Hopefully we can end this without anymore people having to die."
Well there was one person who was going to have to die. He was currently retreating through the bowels of the Spirit turtle while being chased and harassed at every turn chiefly by L'Arc but also Glass, Therese, Raphtalia, Sadeena and Filo. While L'Arc and Filo did most of the chasing the others weren't lazing about doing nothing, taking alternate tunnels to cut off Kyo's attempts to escape one by one.
"Dumb-asses!" Growling that out Kyo activated his weapon.
"""GAHH!""" Everyone's bodies started to throb, their health and mana slowly being drained as various effects went through their bodies, light, wind, fire, lightning. Their own magic was being drained and used to attack them!
"You like it? A little something I came up with after studying the magic of the Spirit Turtle!" Kyo bragged while he watched the assembled group's bodies quake with pain. Not too coincidentally a nearby wall started to shake too. "It makes you attack yourself with your own-!" The wall was torn away as some one emerged who stat wise had no offensive power. "Power?"
"Don't mind me, I'm just passing through." Saying that Maple switched over her shield to the familiar form of tiger like leather. "Paralyzing Shout!" Maple called out the skill and Kyo dropped like a bag of hammers. The young girl walked over to Kyo and held up her shield ominously. "I don't like using this on people." Maple switched her shield over to the form of a grinning fish monster as she looked dead ahead at her enemy. He likewise knew what that was and so immediately took what countermeasures he could. "But for you I think it's necessary that I make a exception." Kyo couldn't even scream as he was sucked inside of the shield. He was out but unfortunately not down. The vassal book weapon turned into a ball of light along with it's pink accessory and together the two of them struggled as they flew away.
"Damn you!" Kyo's voice echoed like a curse. "You've ruined my plans!"
"Kyo?" L'arc asked sounding just a little bit concerned, not for Kyo mind you, of him more accurately. Of the demon that appears to have survived by somehow moving his soul into his vassal weapon.
"I'm pulling the plug!" It was in that moment that Maple had a bad premonition, of a child who would rather break the board than lose the game.
"Don't you dare!" Kyo in Spirit book form was a lot faster than Maple, but he had to take the long way around too. Maple on the other hand had a gluttonous shield with no problems making a path.
"Tanya! The buildings are fixed! Let's take control of this mess before that loser breaks something else!" As she said Kuro had just finished work on repairing the buildings that play such a crucial role in the plan. Tanya and Katarina had moved into position, as soon as the timers in the corner of their vision hit the agreed upon time they would utilise the seals, in theory together with Maple, in order to lock the Spirit Turtle back into a state of dormancy and end this crisis before it has the chance to level anymore villages. Provided that is that Maple is ready on her end. "I'll drain as much of the Spirit Turtle's power as I can." Kuro stated one hand on the turtle's body while raising the other in the air to catch the traced weapons she was about to produce. To drain power Kuro needs to keep her mana levels down, and the most efficient way to do that was to manufacture noble phantasms. However just because she now had to play the role of the most reckless spendthrift in the world didn't mean that she would just be pointlessly wasting the opportunity.
"I'll go back to the core and check on the shield bearer." Ost stated but left no opportunity to reply as she disappeared.
Ost appeared underneath her own core, surrounded by the wreckage of Kyo's accursed machines. Maple wasn't here though, was she still not back from opening the way to the heart of the beast? Suddenly a familiar squelch sounded as Ost turned to a nearby wall.
"Is that really necessary at this point?" While Ost asked that, a far more terrifying thing appeared, the Spirit form of the Book Vassal weapon that Kyo had possessed, being chased by Maple and her group.
"Get back here!" Maple shouted as she ran into the chamber. Looking back on this day, so many things had gone wrong and ifs were left in the air.
If we were faster. If we had stayed behind in the core chamber. If we cast the seal first. Every if that had ever existed didn't change stone cold facts, like how Kyo was able to weave between the blows everyone was so desperate to land on him, how Maple missed the opportunity to cast the seal with the others, how Kyo still had control over the Spirit turtle even as a disembodied spirit. Or the literally soul shattering sound the core made as the Spirit form of the Vassal book collided with it.
Outside of the field of battle, the Spirit turtle let out a death wail and then fell over dead.
"Did we get her?" Tanya asked looking at the situation suspiciously.
"There's not any mana coming off of it." Kuro stated as they confirmed their worst fears.
Inside of the Turtle Kyo's spirit form was absorbing the XP of the Spirit Turtle as a portal between world's opened.
"Oh no you don't!" L'Arc readied his scythe to go on the offensive again but Kyo blasted him with his stolen power and fled.
"Hang on!" Maple immediately moved to support Ost's form.
If Maple supplemented her healing magic with time magic and maybe got Ost's help through the dragon pulse.
"There's no time!" Ost stated indicating the portal. "If you don't get back what he stole then this world is doomed!"
"If we lose you this world is doomed anyway!" Maple stated before she got ready to chant the magic. "I the Hero of-Guh!?" Her chant however was blocked by Ost's fingers in her mouth.
"I am the Spirit Turtle, one of Four Directional Beasts, I Suffer and I Sacrifice myself so that others may live! That task defines my purpose as the saving of life defines yours!" Before Maple could protest more Ost placed her hand on the shield's jewel, and much like the wall Maple had tore down to create this impromptu entrance her very being was sucked inside before Maple could stop her. Tears came down the side of her face as Maple processed this latest development and the realisation hit her: her friend had just died.
"Kaede..." Raphtalia walked over and put her hand on her friend's shoulder, but she found herself pushed back by a invisible force.
"Raphtalia." Kaede's tone of voice was cold, deathly cold as a dark miasma came off of her body. "I understand you better now Raphtalia." Maple's eyes started glowing a ominous brown as she heard someone cackling in the back of her mind. "I understand what it means to want to kill someone now." Kaede got up and put one unsteady foot ahead of another as she walked towards the portal the vassal book spirit had fled through. "Kyo, I will swallow you whole and devour your very soul!" Kaede pressed her gauntlet against the portal but was blocked by some invisible force.
'Warning: Hero's must not invade other worlds.'
"So your Heroes can invade the world under my protection but we can't retaliate?" Maple asked tone filled with something close to rage.
"Kiddo calm..." As L'Arc put his hand on Maple's shoulder the girl herself stopped him, not with any actions just a simple look that she herself didn't know the meaning behind.
"This barrier is in my way: Am I going to have to eat it before I can get through?" The... intelligence behind the barrier seemed to debate the question for a few moments. It was the furthest thing from a question though, it was a threat.
'...Permission Granted.'
Inside of the Church of the Four Heroes, located in the royal capital of Faubrey, a piece of information was dropped on it's loyal clergy that will shake much of the world. The Shield Hero has disappeared. The Church of the Four Heroes has a item, a magical piece of stain glass that tracks the location of each of the four heroes and seven star weapons no matter where in the world they so happen to be. So when it is suddenly no longer able to track one of the Heroes, it can only mean one thing. Of course there was more evidence being collected in order to satisfy the Other Three Heroes who wouldn't take just some hunk of glass at face value. Three of Maple's party members were outside when the turtle collapsed, and now it looked like they were the only ones left as going inside of the turtle's body revealed that not only was Maple flat out gone, but so was Sadeena, Filo, Raphtalia and the four other worlders that were fighting inside of the turtle's body. When consulting their weapons on what could've happened to her they got a notification of 'The Legendary Heroes cannot leave the world while it is still in danger. If the Shield's presence cannot be felt then she is dead.'
Rage and despair filled the three of them to the brim but they literally had no time to mourn. The timer in the corner of their vision for the waves had stopped, but in it's place a new one had started, and this one only had weeks left on it.
"According to the information I picked up in the temple the death of one of the sacred beasts is suppose to trigger the emergence of the next one." A process they assumed was meant to be tracked by the new timer. "It doesn't give much details on where that is suppose to be located but we're currently tracking the most culturally significant heroic landmarks in the world." Kuro explained as she re-created maps, chunks of the stone wall from the spirit Tortoise and it's tomb. "Logic dictates that if the Heroes of the past did seal them away they would leave some kind of reminder about where these things are located."
"With the exception of Rat's whip we still have no idea where the rest of the Seven Star Weapons are located. On top of that we still have four dungeons left to conquer three of which still needs to be located. If the waves are going on break for now we need to take the opportunity to have the old lady take us somewhere and teach us the Hengen Musou Style as quickly as possible, and we need to locate a new teacher in the Dragon Pulse Style of Magic." Tanya stated summarising the tools that they knew of to fend off the oncoming apocalypse.
Katarina on the other hand just looked at them both blankly while she took her spear and left the meeting room.
"Where are you going?" Tanya asked in a accusatory tone of voice.
"My friend is dead and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm going to mourn her." Katarina stated bluntly as she left the room, no one moving to stop her.
From the castle town Katarina road to Seatto village. Perhaps from a political point of view it would have been better to put this in Shieldfreeden or Siltvelt but if you ask Katarina's honest opinion: no where in this world was really suitable for her. Instead Keel, Rifana and Eclair led them back to what was left of their home village Katarina dug. There were so many bodies Tanya had found, Eclair and the others couldn't even recognise most of them as close to a hundred graves were dug, filled with bodies too far gone to rot to identify. And yet four of the headstones stood out from the rest for none of the soil in front or around them were disturbed. They stood there like that, staring for some time before the painful silence was broken.
"Do you three want to come with us?" Katarina asked directing the question towards Maple's three remaining companions.
"I heard talk from the Queen that they're going to reestablish Seatto again." Eclair explained looking around at all the work she had to do. "She's suppose to be taking in the refugees from the mountain nation." Take in the people who might know where the next one of these directional beasts are located. Hopefully they can keep this one alive without having to sacrifice most of the world to it.
"Yeah, we still have a lot of the profits from Maple Tree that we can use." Rifana stated as the others started to nod their heads. They wouldn't be continuing the company now that... the girls had to put what happened behind them now. There were worst things they had to worry about now. More than they realised truth be told, but those were problems to deal with after the mourning was over with.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Aye. They usually have a weapon strapped to them if that's what you mean, but a lot of them haven't been very heroic. Possible. If Tanya and Katarina count then yes. None comes to mind.
Captain Imaginat: If you mean what does Rifana look like then she would pass for a somewhat petite twenty year old. Broadly speaking there are two kinds of Shadows, those who are raised into the business and those who were suppose to be dead but the government decided to recruit them instead. True.
Nightshadegirl: They're not too dissimilar.