Author's Note: Okay so, new chapter up, kind of foreshadowed what I'm going to be doing with this arc back in Cal Mira but I'm still pretty satisfied with it. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 73: The Invincible Heavenly Empress
The plan to suppress the Q'Ten Lo government went as follows. To begin with a outfit was prepared which the group has been made to understand is traditionally worn by the empress of Q'Ten Lo, which as Maple was now noting was not too different from a Miko Shrine Maiden's uniform. Raphtalia was now wearing that outfit and thanks to Kuro they were quickly able to find enemy Shadow's who would reliable relay the sight of Raphtalia wearing the vestments of the empress to Makina and the rest of the government. Thus the first phase of what Kuro called 'Hornet's Nest Soccer' was now successfully on it's way.
"So what's the second phase of the plan?" Maple asked looking at Kuro suspiciously.
"Assuming what I've been able to find out about Makina is correct, we should be getting the opportunity to raise up Raphtalia's status in the eyes of the people shortly." Kuro stated as she used a traced pair of binoculars to observe the far off distance. "Ah there they are."
"There what is?" Kuro handed Maple the Binocular's and pointed her in the direction of what she saw. "Oh."
Two monsters had appeared about a mile away, one of them was a giant fifty feet tall with a crown of horns and a belt of sacred rope, in one hand was a massive metal club, in the other a gourd dripping with alcohol. The second, a massive three headed serpent emerged from the river antler like horns decorating each of the heads in question with another length of sacred rope tied around the neck of the middle most head.
"Is there a part three to this plan by any chance?" Now that the monsters had started to be unsealed the next stage of the plan was to have Raphtalia defeat each and every one of them.
"To start, Maple use Aura on her." Maple nodded her head as she chanted the magic for Driefach Aura X. "Get ready with the skills from Gluttony, Sitera Destiny Stone, Compassion and Beast King."
Kuro then followed up as Raphtalia and her partner acted. Raph Chan crawled out of the sleeve of Raphtalia's robes where she had been hiding and assumed the form of another Raphtalia. Each of them wearing three helping hands accessories produced a total of twelve blades between them, which then had illusion magic cast on them, each assuming the form of more Raphtalia clones holding the blade in question, or entirely illusory Raphtalia's.
"We'll be off then."
Enhanced by Maple's magic the Raphtalia and her two Dozen Clones took off in two separate groups, riding on oversized pink stone saber's.
"Save us! Save us!"
Monsters were running wild every where in the country, the appearance of two giant monsters did nothing to alleviate this crisis. Thus one mother having just witnessed her husband armed only with a rake knocked down by a wolf she seemingly could do nothing to protect her child other than hold her close as she waited for them to die. The dog let out a bark that was more of a whimper, when the family had looked a sword had fallen out of the sky piercing the head of the wolf, with one of Raphtalia's illusion clones standing on top of it. She didn't stick around long though, for the blade was ripped out of the corpse, ascended into the sky, and was put to work skewering another monster.
The Second part of Kuro's plan consisted of having Raphtalia kill monsters threatening the people throughout the country on her way to fight the two big ones, the two big monsters obviously had more spectacle to them, but little acts like this is how you garner the people's favour. What no one realised though was that Maple and Kuro were following them from behind using one of Kuro's swords as a floating platform as they manoeuvred for the next part of the attack.
"What am I doing with these again?" Maple asked looking at all the shields Kuro told her to bring out.
"Gluttony, Beast King and Sitera Stone all have support skills to enhance Raphtalia's beast transformation, Compassion just keeps you and her from going nuts."
At some point when she wasn't looking the Shield of Compassion maxed out it's enchantment, how or why she didn't know but it boosted Compassion up to IV so she couldn't complain. Leaving a trail of skewered bodies behind Raphtalia and Raph-chan eventually arrived at the two monsters that she had been set to fight.
"You'll be at an advantage. This is my first time doing this." Raphtalia's body underwent a change. Her empress garments had been made from magic thread, and disappeared into her body as muscle and fur swelled forth, only the apron she had been wearing underneath protected her modesty as she assumed the form of a giant Raccoon. Brown fur was dyed with stripes of white compassion and black with gluttony as a length of sacred rope appeared around her neck, the pink blade crafted for this occasion for her by the top Black Smith mentioned before, and so were all of the clones.
The horned giant roared as he swung his club, narrowly blocked by Raphtalia who used her blade to block and deflect the blow upwards. One of the other Raphtalia's jumped up to deliver a flying chop and was swatted out of existence by the giant, only for the Raphtalia who was charging from below the one above to charge in with one of the real blades and put it directly into the giant's belly button. The giant grunted in pain as it slammed it's free hand into the Tanuki who had stabbed him, which was rather unfortunate for it as it was reward with a burst of Ki going through it's body in response. The damage magic can do can be enhanced by infusing Ki, then what about illusions which aren't suppose to be able to do damage? Raphtalia could use them as a medium to deliver Ki infused attacks.
"RRRAAAWWWRRR!" The Giant pored the contents of his gourd into his mouth and a moment later bent over and released a stream of flame from his mouth engulfing all of the tanuki's in a mighty inferno.
Unfortunately for him he failed to realise that the most important one of all had already returned to normal. Raphtalia's training at Raccoon's hands in the other world was violent and efficient, she was taught how to cut through the most durable materials using much weaker materials, to spot where the material is at it's most rigid and cut through it. Raphtalia's strike took the ankle, cleaving through skin, muscle and sinew and separating the bones in the foot from the bones in the leg and spraying blood all over herself.
"GGGAAAWWW!" The giant stumbled, mostly though he was just pissed. Raising up his bad foot he prepared to stomp Raphtalia again.
"Compared to a dragon you are nothing." Raphtalia's body swelled again to the form of a giant raccoon as she caught the on coming foot. The wound had already healed but by then the area had already been sprayed with blood. Raphtalia the raccoon chattered as her tail puffed with magic, the blood was evaporated and formed a cloud of black curse, firing into the giant's legs. The wounds and blood turned necrotic with the power of gluttony, outside power desperately rushed into the giant's body trying to heal his wounds, and Raphtalia could see where it was coming from. "There you are." Growling that, Raphtalia raised up the largest of her blades, the Sitera Destiny Sabre, and threw it at the focal point of the Ki, shattering the link as the giant's body soon rotted away and disappeared.
"Rafu!" The three headed serpent spewed poison all over the area, but sadly for it Raph Chan was under Maple's protection, so it's main weapon was little more than spice at this point. The defences on the other hand were excellent, hard scales interlocked with one another over a layer of soft and flexible skin, the ultimate in hardiness for resisting all kinds of attacks and softness for absorbing them. Not even the usual illusions would be any good here, for the snake does not see with light but with heat. "Rafu!" So instead Raph-chan set the forest on fire by focusing a beam of light into a heat ray, and suddenly the snake had a lot harder time figuring out where the punches and sword strikes were coming from. Then a opening, for each head Raph-chan moved invisible swords into place while baiting and keeping the snake occupied with Ki infused illusions and when all the blades were in place.
"HHHIIISSSKKK!"
Each of the six blades were stuck firmly into each of the six eyes of the snake, leading to the creature to flail about trying to get the blades out of it's face, but Raph-chan had already put the creature out of it's mind. Instead she focused on the trail of Ki that was trying to heal the snake, and once she had coordinates began to meditate through the Dragon's pulse. Combine the water from the river with the wind in the air to create freezing, combine the freezing with the fire in the forest to create lightning, combine the lightning with Raph-Chan's natural light magic and you get Holy.
"Rafu Raf!" Which loosely translates to 'Judgement X.' A beam of light fired down from the air above Raph-Chan and obliterated the source of the Ki and the snake let out a death rattle as it collapsed to the ground and rotted away. "Rafu!"
The little Tanuki scampered away after retrieving her weapons, locating Raphtalia as she approached the crowd that had gathered to watch her actions and made a show of merging back with her as she disappeared into Raphtalia's robes.
"And that people is how you do propaganda!" Kuro stated indicating Raphtalia with both of her hands.
A loud thunk echoed out as Katarina dropped behind them, carrying a saber that looked like it was fashioned from the tooth of some kind of giant monster and a much more reasonably sized version of the club that the giant from earlier was using.
"What do we do with these?" Kuro should be able to copy the sword after the black smith blesses it, but none of them were the hero of the club, and they were not fond of the idea of giving it to one of their companions to use either.
"We'll have to find a way of sealing it away." Well, that's probably true for all of these things, either seal them or destroy them. "Still Raphtalia looks like she's reeling it in." Kuro looked down as the people surrounded Raphtalia praising her, in all honesty she was looking pretty overwhelmed at the moment from the people's support.
"I better go down and lend her a hand." Sighing Maple brought Syrup out and flew down to the crowd to rescue Raphtalia.
The council of Q'Ten Lo consisted of the most influential figures in Q'Ten Lo, which is to say that it consisted of Makina and her various associated yes men whom were directly responsible for the overwhelming problems that the country faced, except for the monsters running wild, that was mostly the emperor's fault, but the others took advantage of it. The current topic of interest was the chaos that the country had been thrown into as a result of the recent terrorist attacks from the main-landers, which was a not so polite way of saying that the rebels received reinforcements not only from the four legendary heroes, but also the blood heir of the previous emperor. They of course launched a appropriate response to the destruction of one of the bases built around one of their sacred trees, releasing one of the monsters that had been sealed away in days past by one of the previous empresses of Q'Ten Lo, which was wiped out by the Sword Hero who had gotten her hands on the pacification weapon that was loaned to Faubrey's Whip Hero. Thus now they find themselves on the back-foot from the lack of options to deal with this mess.
"Where are the locations of the rest of the sealed monsters?" Makina, an elderly Hakuto woman who was ostentatiously the head of this perpetual train-wreck of a council, spoke first.
"If a may mistress." A Sakamata woman in baggy orange clothing asked raising her hand.
"But clearly the sacred beasts are not enough to deal with these people on their own. We may have to call upon the Dungeon for aid."
"Do you think monsters will obey us with no seals girl?" A bear like man stated in mocking tones.
"My apologies I didn't make myself clear." The Oracle of Q'Ten Lo stared dead ahead at the bear man and narrowed a glare. "If the Spear Hero is in Q'Ten Lo then 'He' will not stay motionless, should he be made aware that is." No one spoke. No one Dared to make a whisper, such was the fear that gripped the room. They refused to so much as to speak it's name, as if they were talking about some kind of omniscient divine entity that would strike them down if offended.
"Go." Makina spat the world like she was spewing bile. "Speak with it. If nothing else it shall make for a decent distraction." The Oracle bowed her head before she left for elsewhere. "Send the brat out to bless the rest of the beasts, if nothing else we have bought time."
Maple awoke to the sound of Syrup's adorable 'Kame' call. On one side Raphtalia in her apron had been using her as a hug pillow, one of her short sword's hidden underneath her pillow. On Maple's other side, the familiar fluff of a sleeping Filo. Hearing Syrup calling to her Maple untangled herself from her companions and found Syrup in the next room over, with a familiar face holding him.
"Ost?" Indeed, someone Maple knew to be very dead was sitting on the couch of the rundown home that they had borrowed holding her turtle into the air like she was playing with her child. "Am I dreaming?"
"In a manner of speaking." Ost stated as she put the turtle down on the table. "You're familiar with the members of your 'chat group' correct?" Several other people was standing in and around the living room.
A tall olive skinned man with no shirt but a red cape exposing hardened muscle all over his body and carrying a rounded shield, a person wearing large silver armour with red cloth carrying a wooden shield painted blue, a blonde spiky haired man carrying a round shield decorated with currents of water, and finally a strawberry blonde man in silver armour carrying a cross shaped shield.
"These are..."
"The Shields miss Kuro has unlocked for you? Yes quite. They're supporting me on this occasion." The first of the two blondes stood up and offered his seat to Maple. "For now we have things to talk about." Maple took the seat left vacant for her and picked up Syrup and hugged him close to her.
"Why were you playing with my turtle?" Maple asked looking around at the group of entities that were looking at her, the group of Heroes from Kuro's world as she understood, not heroes like her though. No they didn't have any video game like cheat system supporting them, just themselves and a couple of weapons against the greatest monsters and warriors of myth and legend, and they won.
"It was created by my flesh, why wouldn't I want to see the next Spirit Turtle?" Ost asked letting out a chuckle.
"Syrup?" Maple looked at her little turtle as she processed the information. "If just being born of your flesh was enough..."
"Then I would be quite grateful for Kyo for mass producing his abominations." Ost stated before giving out a serious glare. "Do you understand what Growth Bonus and Growth corrections are?"
"They're the things that gave Midori and Biltz their better figures, and which makes our companions stronger." Maple stated after giving the question a moment of thought.
"And yet you know nothing." Ost stated letting out a sigh before narrowing her glare. "It is potential, drawn out down from the very DNA of your companions to make them a better conductor of Ki through which the various levels of power in comparison to one another in this world is manipulated." The sound of crickets indicated Maple's level of comprehension of that statement. "Huu." Ost looked like someone who was trying to figure out the correct way to explain something. "Did you know that it's possible to acquire Diabetes?"
"I head about that in health class." Maple stated bluntly. "It's why my parents don't want me to eat too much sugar."
"Diabetes is your bodies response to too much sugar in it, at the same time what you know as growth bonuses is the result of your weapons inducing very specific changes through stimulus in your companions bodies. It's why you unlock growth bonuses through feeding things like blood and hair to your weapons: your weapon receives the information that it needs to correct the flow of miasma into your companions bodies to achieve the best possible result." Ost explained but was interrupted.
"Miasma?" Maple asked tilting her head in confusion.
"You know it as XP. Kyo's abominations was a consequence of trying to force a result he wanted onto my body, just as Syrup here is the result of your shield drawing out the most of me." Maple nodded her head, not in understanding, just to proceed with the conversation prompting a sigh from Ost. "In any case. I've reached a understanding with that glutton over there after I combined my soul with your Shield of Compassion." Ost indicated the silver knight with a wooden shield off to the side. "She won't bother you for the time being. You'll be able to downgrade Gluttony once you have the hammer's reinforcement method."
"Wait you're a girl?" Maple looked in shock at the silver figure with a wooden shield whom face palmed in response. It appears the Shield Hero seemed to have zero in on the wrong part of this conversation prompting Ost to sigh again. "My god it's a good thing you're good at this." Either her tolerance or whatever she was using to have this conversation was at a end.
When Maple woke up she was once again wedged between Filo and Raphtalia, but in addition to that Syrup had crawled over onto her chest and went to sleep. Deciding that whatever Ost was talking about could wait until morning she went back to sleep.
The Oracle was walking a dilapidated path leading to a abandoned shrine. The entire place had been boarded up with paper tags plastering the shrine as if sealing something inside, she passed by three patrols each containing five guard's and even now she could see the shining gleam of no less than four Faubrian magic cannons aimed directly at the shrine and whatever was trapped inside.
"Foolish Oracle..." Shildina collapsed to her knees and gave a full kowtow, bowing out of fear as much as respect. "How dare you appear before me again!" The voice from the shrine was full of blood lust and malice, of someone who knows that the person in front of them have done something unforgivable and would see to it that they paid dearly for their transgressions.
"Lord Bason. The four Heroes have appeared in Q'Ten Lo." The oracle stated and received another spike of murderous intent in response.
"Has your whore master sent you to buy my aide with lies now?" Shildina felt a swell of anger as she rose to a sitting position.
"Makina is not a-!" The oracle spat up blood and felt a overwhelming force crushed her back into place.
"Don't you dare speak that name in front of me again you worthless disgrace to your bloodline do I make myself clear!?"
"Yes." The oracle swallowed the medicine she had cheeked earlier and healed her wounds. "I understand."
"Good. If you ever want to be remembered as something other than a disgrace you will help the current generation heroes to eliminate the filth you serve."
"Lord Bason, the Heroes and the rebels have sown chaos in the country, if they are not stopped soon I fear..." Wind blew out from the shrine as the boards and the tags were ripped off. The body of a heavily armoured Chinese General in Sixteenth century garb emerged and rammed himself face first into Shildina's personal space and roared like a demon.
"You Fear the collapse of your country!?" The oracle nervously gulped in the affirmative. "Your country has collapsed! I was there when the world's were merged together! I fought alongside my master against the empress of these lands! I was there when the Four Heroes and their Vassals made peace for the sake of the future, and left me here so that I could watch over the heroes who would come after! My master left his seed in the womb of your bloodline's founder in the hopes that they would wield power over the dead and expel the wretch's agents from this world! A bloodline you disgrace with your loyalty to the very creature you are meant to destroy!"
The Oracle, Shildina, heard the words and were shaken by them. If Makina's brainwashing of her wasn't so deep, if Shildina did not love her as her mother, if the foul woman's claws were not nearly as deep into the very core of her being as they were. If, if, if. Bason has had this conversation with her a hundred times. He tried explaining things to her, he tried sweet words, he tried logic, he pleaded, he even attempted to possess her once, he wrung his very soul for every answer that he could think of and repeatedly slammed his head against this brick wall of a oracle's stubbornness every time. Hope turned to dread. Dread turned into hatred. The Guards were not wrong to think that a demon was sealed away inside of this shrine but by nothing Makina or Shildina could do to him. Bason again cursed the lost of his living body, were he able to he would ride forth and part the head of the demon from her shoulders and hunt down every last one of the accursed reincarnated that dwell in these lands, but to do so would expose the sacred treasure his master left behind in this shrine to danger and that was flatly unacceptable.
"Begone from here, and do not return until after you have acquired some senses." Bason drifted back into the shrine, no intention of continuing this conversation, and Shildina had no intention of provoking him further. Even without a body Bason wielded power beyond her comprehension, he protested the destruction of the Sitera Destiny temple by levelling three blocks of real estate. Shildina, The oracle, knew that if he truly did not care more for this shrine than the country of Q'Ten Lo in it's current state, he was very easily capable of annihilating the entire island nation so thoroughly that nothing would ever be built here again. The oracle had to act quickly, if she did not find a way of killing the heroes or permanently expelling them from the country then their clashes with the sacred beasts and Makina's other forces could very easily destroy the country in the crossfire.
Review Section:
Captain Imaginat: You're talking to the wrong person, as I have no intention of writing that story.
RonaldM40196867: True. Thank you. 'Shrugs Shoulder' Anime, manga, novels, cartoons, games, anything that I think would fit in my story I use.
Illya Emiya: She's not wrong.
Nightshroudgirl: Pretty Much. I have a couple planned out.
Dakota Bruder: I sort of based Rifana on a Raiju actually, remember that she has lightning magic.