Author's Note: Okay so finale of Legendary Heroes was out yesterday, gonna be doing this story come Saturday instead. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 70: The Drunken Priestess
Kuro had a rough trip over to Q'Ten Lo. First her ship was ambushed by whale people in Ninja costumes, likely Shadows, then the entire ship was pulled into a whirl pool, now she's been spat out in a dank dark cave somewhere staring down a dragon. A long azure body like a lung dragon and antler like horns, the fact that she was a water dragon was rather apparent, which also made her the one who pulled them in here to begin with. It was a fact Atla had realised faster than most hence the sequence of events that led to Atla being pinned down below the dragon's paw.
"A dragon Slayer. I will be having none of that." The Water Dragon stated as her attention drifted towards the hero in the room. "A sword Hero." The dragon sniffed Kuro. "Funny. You don't look like a giant pile of treasures, But you smell like one."
"Ya know, the last dragon that I met told me that too." Kuro stated as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
"Perhaps you can put them to work then. An annoying situation has appeared in my country that needs sorting out."
Little over a decade ago the previous government of Q'Ten Lo was overthrown. The main cause, aside from it's chief instigator whom the water dragon describes as a horrid wretch, was an opening that was created when it's prince attempted to break off a political marriage and married a common woman impregnating her in the process. Both the prince, his servant wife, alongside their unborn child and the previous priestess to the Water Dragon whom supported them, violently, were all exiled from the country after receiving level resets. After that, a infant was put on the throne and the horrid wretch known as Makina has been the one left in charge. It is forbidden to hunt monsters, the waves are being ignored, cities are being moved on a whim, the country is not getting supplies that it needs, and it's all the fault of one person.
"I didn't come here to sort out your politics but I can do so while I'm in the neighbourhood." Kuro stated as she cleaned her ear. "I've come for the hammer, and the dungeon."
The dragon cocked a brow.
"Then we have mutual interests. Because Makina has the hammer, and you will need the cooperation of the oracle for the dungeon." The Water Dragon stated having concluded she'd have Kuro's cooperation and hence led her further into the cave.
"The Oracle?" Kuro asked looking confused as she helped Atla to her feet.
"One who communes with spirits. You can enter the dungeon without her help, but without her there you will find nothing of value."
"So the dungeon is empty? Or do I just have to have the ability to see the soul?" Kuro asked scratching the side of her head.
"The dungeon is far from empty, it's simply worthless without the oracle. It's boss will not act without her and thus you will not receive the boons that you desire." The water dragon led the group to a arsenal room, weapons, armours, clothes, accessories. "As you are now, you will stick out like a sore thumb. This makes moving around inconvenient, while you are cleaning up the mess here members of your party must return to the mainland and track down the rightful ruler's of the kingdom, the prince and whatever family he currently has left, and give them these." Two outfits had been prepared. One was a Miko's robes and the other the robes of a Kannushi priest.
"Shinto clothing?" Kuro asked brow cocked in confusion.
"I do not know what meaning these clothes hold in your world. The one of the right is reserved for the emperor of Q'Ten Lo, on the left his wife the Empress." The water Dragon stated assuming a looming position. "In this country these are as good as crowns. Once the Emperor and his wife arrives here Makina and her followers will be truly riled." Well that will cause... something to their benefit Kuro presumed, so for now she stuffed the clothing into her sword. "Unfortunately the Emperor's family will be watched by Makina's spies."
"Why not kill them?" Kuro asked suspiciously brow cocked.
"If this Makina is concerned about the prince reclaiming his throne why not kill both him and his family?" Atla asked after having settled herself.
"My former priestess, the Priestess of Slaughter, an apt moniker. She was tasked as this nation's executioner, meaning that whenever someone dangerous enough to warrant killing appeared it was her who was tasked with doing so." The Dragon was positively beaming with pride.
"Execution? Was she some kind of enforcer?" Kuro asked brow cocked in confusion.
"No like the many nations of this land execution was performed on prisoners after receiving a fair trial." The dragon's face cringed. "At least that's the way it use to be done. But my priestess was quite soft in those days, she had no heart to murder a man in cold blood. So for each execution she would throw them a blade and tell them that if they can kill her then they would be exempted for their crimes."
Kuro had to give credit where do, that's a Ballsy move.
"So she has plenty of combat experience is what I'm interpreting from this?" Kuro asked and the dragon nodded.
"Aye. But only against the most dangerous men in the country." The world has convenient slave magic, and hourglasses that can reset people's levels reducing them to a shadow of their former selves in the process. A death sentence in this world looks like a slave tattoo and a dark dingy mine. So if you're dangerous enough that they don't want to take the risk of you breaking free before you die of cave ins, disease, other prisoners, monsters, etc then that means... "Before she left she declared that should the Prince's bloodline ever come to an end she will return and personally destroy all of Q'Ten Lo." The Water Dragon stated something akin to pride in her voice.
"To be clear this is the same Priestess who was de-leveled and exiled. Right?" Kuro asked looking confused.
"As if loosing a few teeth would make my Priestess into a cripple. I personally taught her Ki, and Dragon's Pulse." Admittedly, those might make her rather strong.
"So as I understand it: your priestess was de-leveled, how old was she when she was exiled?" Kuro asked looking suspicious.
"She was not any older than you are." The Dragon stated amused.
"Which also means that she had the body of child, not to mention was suffering through whatever health complications occur from de-ageing from an adult to a ten year old, with out any levels. And Makina was still so pee your pants scared that she still didn't want to have to fight against her? Is that what I'm suppose to derive from this conversation?" Kuro asked clearly suffering from disbelief.
"Aye!" The water Dragon let out booming laughter.
"I seem to recall being quite powerful at level one too." Atla added in. "Ki is a formidable weapon."
"And you mean to say that this country has yet to raise anyone who can match her in a straight up fight?" Kuro asked for the sake of confirmation.
"Not even her own sister can amount to a pale imitation. No matter how many poor attempts to buff their soldiers they make." The dragon was suddenly not so amused. "Makina has not killed my priestess because she is not capable. And because the Country has not been destroyed yet, the prince and his family still yet live." Sound enough logic, if you're a troll, as this was a dragon though...
"Do you have anything that belonged to this priestess or the prince?" The dragon cocked a confused brow. "It's complicated." Kuro replied as she rolled her hand indicating for them to move on with this conversation. The dragon left, and returned a few moments later a harpoon sticking out from the corner of her mouth like a tooth pick. Kuro picked up the harpoon and examined it, magical eyes causing her to enter the view point of another.
Invisible footsteps walked down the streets of Q'Ten Lo and eventually arrived at a boat, Passage was arranged payment in the form of jewellery changed hands and soon the invisibility dropped.
"It's alright." The now disgraced Prince Leandro of Q'Ten Lo stroke the ears of his pregnant wife. "They won't be able to follow us anymore." Michelle was still wearing her maid uniform, even with her rounded belly from her pregnancy.
"We haven't gotten away yet." The youngest of the three of them, a child who was at first glance a normal human, were it not for the stretches of black rubbery skin paired with smooth human like skin, whispered with her hand to the side of her mouth. "They're following us. Getting ready to kill all three of us." The pregnant woman who use to be a maid huddled to her husband closer.
"We've already left the country can't they just leave us alone?" The Pregnant woman complained but that wasn't the right word for it, they were already leaving behind everything they knew, the opposition has their own country and they still want their blood.
"The simple fact of the matter is that we're never going to be able to hide from them, so we shouldn't bother trying." Saying that the child walked over to the deck as she looked down at the sea. "The only choice is to kill enough of them so that they get the message that we aren't worth the effort."
"A pregnant woman and a child, Leandro is the only one of the three of us who can fight! How are we going to-" Michelle was cut off as the child, Sadeena, swung her harpoon and took the head off of a fully grown assassin in a instant.
"I think we'll manage." That night Sadeena killed two dozen of the assassins, and still had time to go into the water and pick off monster's for food, not to mention eating to manage her growth spurt, and she still found time to exercise in between all of that. Hundreds more had been disposed of on the ride over. By the time the ship docked in Siltvelt the harpoon had been stuck into the massive pile of dead Q'Ten Lo assassins with a message attached.
"I can't protect my friend's and their baby and destroy your country at the same time. I suggest you think carefully about that fact before you do something stupid."
Kuro blinked stupidly as she processed the situation.
"Sadeena is the Priestess of Slaughter!?" Kuro shouted in a disbelieving tone of voice that the drunkard who managed to drink until she passed out in Cal Mira was the one all of these stupid people were scared of?
"So you know her? You Heroes have good tastes." The Dragon wasn't aware of how Kuro acquired this information but she was fairly confident that things would be progressing smoothly up until now.
"Does that mean the prince was someone from Raphtalia's village?" Atla asked cocking a non-functioning eye. "He's probably dead now."
"How many Tanuki were from the village?" There were still some buildings left standing when Kuro arrived at the village, although it didn't have any meaning at the time there were only three of the same race as the prince living in the village at the time, and two of them are dead.
"Oh crud. Raphtalia's the Emperor of Q'Ten Lo!" Kuro had been wondering for a while now why there were so many extra Shadow's following Maple's group around, they didn't have any weapons or armour on them, at least not ones they had for long, so she couldn't determine their point of origin and even if she could they never fought with the Queen's Shadows and even killed monsters that threatened Maple's party and other undesirables. She had just looked at their animal bits and assumed they were from Siltvelt.
"I'm not familiar with anyone named Raphtalia. Is she the prince's daughter?" The Water dragon by now deduced from Kuro's outburst that the emperor and his wife were both dead.
"That would seem to be the case." Kuro stated letting out a sigh. "Fohl You and Chem Portal back to civilisation and do something about this situation before it goes ape on us."
"Are you sure that fighting Q'Ten Lo's forces is a wise idea?" Atla asked cocking a brow suspiciously.
"We need the hammer, and the dungeon. On top of that it sounds like this Makina is a reincarnated which means that letting her run wild is a bad idea. Not to mention that Raphtalia has Maple with her. If they, or worst Sadeena, gets the idea in their heads that Raphtalia doesn't need protection anymore then heads are gonna roll anyway."
"Is there anything else we need to know before we go back?" Fohl asked looking suspicious.
"This is true. Anything we have to worry about?" Kuro asked looking at the dragon brow cocked.
"The Oracle does keep me apprised of the government's foolishness. They've recently managed to reacquire the heir of Q'Ten Lo's top black smithing family. They are attempting to convert a sacred material into a weapon, no doubt to use against you all."
"What makes you say that?" Kuro asked brow cocked suspiciously. "Because the material in question came from a prison that was designed to seal away heroes rampaging from the curse series until they retake their senses, or worst the demons with the power to steal weapons that need to be held for interrogation." The dragon let out a sigh. "Probably a pile of ruins by this point in time, reduced to so much 'raw material.'"
"If this Makina isn't stupid then she'll have destroyed facilities that might be used against her." Kuro nodded her head in agreement.
"With the smith, they should be very capable of weaponizing the fragments of the sacred stone and using them against you. Your skills will not function, neither will your growth bonuses, your weapons will be locked into a default state, and the unique hero given magic you all rely on will not work either." The dragon stated making her opinion known.
"Does that mean whatever their working on can sep-Kyah!"
'The Hero will finish that question at their peril.'
"The stone doesn't have the ability to separate you from your weapons, the weapons made from them shouldn't either." The Water Dragon was more than a little bit confused as to why the weapon suddenly decided to punish it's hero but opted to ignore it for now, hero's after all can develop bad relationships with their weapons.
"What about this oracle. If we need to beat her without killing her to gain access to the dungeon then it would be good to know what kinds of abilities that she has so that we can bring her down without killing her." A rare sound point from Fohl, this must be serious.
"The oracle is tasked with the duty of communicating with and channelling the spirits of the dead, she can extract the intent left behind in the objects equipped by others and give that unto herself, albeit temporarily." The Water Dragon explained, which sadly explained absolutely nothing.
"Intent? Give? What are you talking about?" Kuro asked demonstrating her confusion for the world to see.
"When you wield a weapon you form a bond, and when you separate you leave a piece of yourself behind. Stats, thoughts, memories, ability are recorded within the weapon and with the oracle's training it is possible to extract these and using a card as a medium temporarily give those unto themselves." The Water Dragon explained though there were still points of confusion in her explanation.
"Based on her explanation we have some things in common." Kuro too can look into a weapon and see things like the thoughts, memories and personalities of the people who wielded them. "Why does she have to put the information into a card though? Can't she just absorb the information directly?"
"Constantly taking in the thoughts and memories of others into yourself?" The Water Dragon looked at Kuro like she had gone insane. "The alien influence would drive you mad."
"You were never a normal person Kuro." Atla stated off from the side. Kuro's physical body was modelled after a creature who was designed as the physical embodiment of all the magical knowledge in her world, on top of that her particular brand of magic was designed specifically to read information and alter herself so that she could put it to good use, that's on top of being able to discard the parts that she doesn't want specifically so that she doesn't get overwhelmed by the alien influence the Water Dragon spoke of.
"So she's basically an inferior me then." Kuro stated and Atla and the others could only shrug their shoulders in agreement. "Then it's time that we all went our separate ways."
Chem and Fohl were dropped back into the water and pushed out to sea by the Water Dragon while the rest of Kuro's party disguised themselves using the armours and clothes the dragon provided.
"What are we looking for." Welt asked dressed as a samurai and looking at his much shorter hero.
"Anyone who has been resisting or working against the government." Kuro and Atla were dressed in the robes of Chinese maids, less frill and lace than the kinds they saw at the palace in Melromarc and more low grade silks. Mind you she didn't think they'd find someone like that here: considering the giant bee's nest in the middle of of the town.
"It might be inconvenient. Should we get rid of it?" Atla asked as she was already preparing to draw out her sword.
Kuro was looking around, looking at the history of everything, the blades of the guards, how they used them and on whom, the people to whom they've been talking to and why. She also saw the burners dotting around the village releasing smoke into the air leading to the bees to avoid them and by extension the houses and the people.
"No. As it turns out those bees are very convenient." Kuro stated and Atla kept the blades where they were. "What we really need is the people who are lighting the fires." True to Kuro's predictions a group of men, led by a samurai armour wearing Shukaku, came by and tossed scented wood onto the fires whose smoke was keeping the bees from attacking the towns people. Once their business was finished the armoured bird man returned to a slightly rundown mansion and the over stuffed office inside.
"Howdy!" Kuro was sitting on his desk like she owned the place. "How's the branch leader of the resistance today?" The Shukaku, Raluva his armour informed Kuro, blinked stupidly for a few moments.
"What?"
"Come on now I expected you to be ahead of us after all you have been a part of the resistance for exactly eight years, six month's and twenty eight days." Kuro stated as she walked over to a lamp that had been sticking out of the wall.
"...What!?"
"Come on now keep up. We've got corrupt officials to dethrone, Empresses to crown and monsters to kill." Kuro pulled down on the lever which then clicked as the wall slid open. "Are you going to invite us into your real office or would you rather we keep talking in here?"
"WWWHHHAAATTT!?" After that shout the man became unresponsive, his mind going into shock from a combination of the sheer audacity of the situation and the overwhelming number of implications therein. Kuro stood on the back of a nearby chair as she waved her hand in front of the other man's face a couple of times, snapped her fingers a few times before with a 'Harrumph' she delivered a face slap to him so hard that he was sent flying across the room and into the hidden staircase leading him to fall down said stairs.
"He'll be fine." The rest of the party looked at Kuro doubtfully. "His stats are pretty good, and so is my healing magic." Well, they were talking about a girl who can manufacture literal miracles here.
Fohl and Chem portalled to Siltvelt's church, and from there were informed that Maple had returned to Melromarc, rather it seems that she had exhausted her patience for Siltvelt's antics and now had returned to the village, where both Katarina and Tanya were also waiting after finishing their respective businesses.
"So you're a princess now?" Katarina asked looking at Tanya like she had grown a second head.
"By adoption. But yes." Katarina looked up and down at Tanya who was dressed in masculine clothing, not unlike what George or Nicol wears which in turn led her to ask a question. "Because I identify as male." Tanya however ruthlessly cut Katarina off who in turn quietly started to back away. "Where do you think you're going miss duchess Claes?" Tanya glared directly at Katarina and held out the blue prints she was reading with a clear look of expectation. "You have to have some training in these things too. Even with the cheats from the weapons and the bio-plants we still have so much work we need to do to get this place ready."
Most recently they had to build holding cells for a group of slavers who tried to take the village and it's population for profit. They were sorely disappointed, on account of a whip wielding mad scientist who had experimental weapons that she needed something to test on. They were quite lucky they were being sold in Siltvelt as opposed to fed to Rat's experiments. Well they would be needing dragon food anyway soon, Rat's experimental dragon eggs would be hatching soon. Then the pink light appeared indicating a portal skill and Chem and Fohl appeared.
"Guys we've got a situation." Fohl stated seeing Chem as he went to a nearby weapon rack and began measuring the weight and swing of the weapons in question. "Chem what are you doing?"
"Trying out weapons." The mutated hybrid stated bluntly. "If we're going to get nerfed I want something to rely on other than the usual claws and teeth."
"Why is he going to get nerfed?" Tanya asked her tone blatantly suspicious.
"Because of the lunatics spying on Maple and Raphtalia wielding anti-hero weapons hiding in the village." Fohl stated in no uncertain terms prompting looks of blatant confusion from Tanya and Katarina.
"What?" Tanya seemed to regain her senses first.
"For the love of..." Fohl had a limited amount of time he can spend with his sister, and he's wasting it here. "HEY ALL YOU Q'TEN LO ARSES! WE'RE GONNA PUT RAPHTALIA ON THE THRONE WHY DON'T YOU STOP US!?" A pink field suddenly appeared around the village as one person attempted to slam their hammer into the back of Chem's neck only for the weapon to harmlessly bounce off of him. Fohl on the hand didn't have in built body armour so instead opted to move out of the way of the blow. "Ah, you would be the Q'Ten Lo shadow's that are suppose to be watching us?"
"Die!" Everyone was startled a little bit as they suddenly felt their stats dropping, but loss of stats did not excuse sloppy fighting. Hammer's are not popular weapons for a reason, they're big, they're heavy and they're slow. And why did he drop the invisibility before he attacked? Raphtalia would have three of her floating blades in his back, cast a illusion just so that she could scold him, and he still wouldn't even know where she was.
"Bugger off." The half Hokuto who provoked the ninja in the first place flicked him in his face and forced him to step back in the process.
"Spear formation!" The group had some kind of pink aura covered their bodies and suddenly most of the group dropped, the man whom Fohl flicked revealed himself a Sakamata by turning into his whale form, which together with his rounded shield, strong pinkish aura and pink stone hammer implied his hefty tankiness.
"A weapon to crash all of your allies? No that's not it." Fohl quickly stepped back as the man attempted to smash him with his hammer moving faster than before and shattering the ground with new strength. "No it takes their stats and adds them to yours. You simultaneously buffed yourself and debuffed us, but your strategy is critically flawed." Suddenly a the massive, purple, ethereal, skeletal arm of a dragon emerged from the shadows behind Katarina and slammed down it's claws on top of the prone and helpless bodies of the other shadows who had been incapacitated by their ally's buff crushing them into jelly. Fohl and the now much weaker shadow with a hammer blinked and looked at the puddle of mashed shadow's stupidly. "Honestly: I'm just as confused as you are." When the draconic arm was removed in it's place was a standing group, same as the ones who went down before but changed dramatically. Bare skin had been replaced by the same other worldly purple while their clothes seemed to have been turned into pitch black shadows. "Gotta say though I like it." Fohl stepped forward and threw a fist directly into the back of the still slack jawed shadow. Point was mixed together with the dragon Vein magic and the end result was quite nasty as the Shadow found his body being rapidly frozen over with his own magic. There was a reason why Sadeena can take down triple digit monsters with contemptuous ease, she chose to specialise in the most devastating school of magic within the Dragon vein style, the kind that makes the magical power in your opponent's body run completely wild attacking them from within. Course Sadeena was now teaching this brutal and vicious application of magic to the rest of the village. "Now than why don't we..." Suddenly the make shift ice sculpture was smashed by the corpse of another of the Shadows slamming into it.
"Fohl-Chan~!" Suddenly a overwhelmingly violent pressure was dropped onto Fohl's shoulders along with one of Sadeena's hands. "I need to have a little chat with you about something~!" Fohl learned that day to not kick hornet's nests.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Pun! It affects what kind of dragon vein magic you can spit out, environments that have more magical energy lying around means you can spit out more attacks but no it doesn't affect the power. Yep.
Captain Imaginat: All things I expected Katarina to do. I needed some avenue to introduce another reincarnated with a vassal weapon, if they do have any care for Makina's orders then hunting dragon emperors to prevent Ouryou's revival seemed sound.
Galeon82: Katarina is the kind of person who's dangerous when she gets bored.
Nightshadegirl: If not his soul then his general undead essence.
Dakota Bruder: Pretty much. I thought web novel Itsuki unlocked sloth as his second cursed weapon but I don't think that's the case. I do not know. I know that Naofumi had to acquire specific shields to weapon copy to unlock specific kinds of shields. The only thing I can think of is that since Kizuna's cursed weapon was a fishing rod then the Fishing Rod must be the default. Quanzhi Fashi, a Chinese web novel adapted into a rather excellent Manhua and sub par anime, the latter's up to four seasons last I checked, the dogs start to appear in season 3 though I think. Record of Ragnarok, she's the youngest valkyrie if memory serves. What else would he mean, she comes from a world with a completely unknown system of magic where she regularly gets possessed, transformed or enhanced by demons or chi magic in some way or another.