Author's Note: Okay so at some of my readers request I put a little bit of relevant information from Legendary Heroes down at the bottom of the Chapter. I would just read the other story myself but that's just me. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 103: Transfer Between Worlds
Cian's end had come, however long awaited it might've been. The barrier around the world had been restored and the count down for the waves which previously had been halted had now been cancelled altogether, for all intents and purposes the waves were over. And yet no mysterious force had appeared in order to yank them back to their worlds, no option from their weapons on what they wanted going forward, nothing to indicate that the world was any different today than yesterday. Which meant one thing: The mission wasn't over yet. Kuro, Katarina, Trash, Fohl, Midori, Rishia and Rat. No one had seen them since before they went to try and corral the Phoenix. And Tanya was trying to figure out why this was.
"Cian have you found anything yet?" Cian had negotiated with Tanya, and as a result following her death Cian was converted into a Sacred Gear for Tanya 'Bow of The Southern Tiger General.' And her power was simple, complete and total control over all of the earth in this world. It's no wonder that a mere fragment of Byakko's flesh was enough to create the 'Shield of the Beast King' but they were getting off topic.
'The Western General has found the survivors from the air force.' Just to emphasise the point a mass of stone was sprouted out of the ground to indicate where the survivors had made their camp.
"Finally."
Maple on the other hand was waiting back at the base camp where the Phoenix had been slayed, she was holding up a sign saying 'I will not drug my allies again.' Tanya arrived with a group of survivors, one of many groups that had been scattered when the three enemy combatants wrecked their forces.
"Kuro and Katarina aren't on world anymore, alongside most of our vassal weapons and Kyurie and Atla." Tanya looked at Maple and sighed. "Some ass-hats came in and wrecked everything and killed the phoenix, and then apparently Kyurie and Atla as well. I assume we didn't get any because they couldn't find Maple and Cian."
Maple let out a sigh as she put the sign down before immediately snapping to attention.
"Wait what happened next?"
"Kuro lost her shit, spat a rainbow into the sky and then the seven of them disappeared." Tanya stated as she held her chin in thought. "When Kuro first came to this world she was dying? Being brought here created a chance to reconstruct her body and save her life." That in turn warranted the question. "Did she do the same thing to save Kyurie and Atla?"
"Um... can we chase after them?" Maple asked raising her hand. "If someone with a much higher proficiency with the Divine magics than me were to be the one to conduct the whole 'punting between worlds' magic." As one everyone turned their faces towards Maple. Maple has been using Creation magic to spit out crafts one after another, and Metamorphosis to make food and medicines, with her healing magic she had a natural affinity for time magic, she even used a bunch divine magics to create what the System had classified as a world tree. "Oh..."
"The creation of a new bridge can wait until later." Tanya held up her six weapon transformations and had them all transform into six 'Southern Tiger Generals.' "I have some catching up to do."
It was a few days until Tanya had decided that she was sufficiently prepared to invade the other world. The standard she was aiming for was 'Strong enough to use the Sacred Gear at Level one' her reasoning for this being that as soon as she arrives in the other world she'll be back to level one. The Sacred Gear she just got is useless to her if she can't use it, it also carried the benefit that her opponents and fellow sacred gear users Raphtalia, Sadeena, Maple, Yuki and Filo progressed in their own sacred gears as well.
"We can't imagine what kind of state the others are in right now." Kuro, Katarina, Fohl, and Trash. These were the individuals who would be the most strongly affected by witnessing Kyurie's and Atla's deaths, the likelihood that they had developed Balance Breakers were high, as was the possibility of them developing cursed weapons as well. Tanya wasn't fond of that combination. "Maple you know the most about the world on the other side." Tanya stated as she sat across the person in question on their picnic blanket.
"Well yeah. That's why I'm the one who has to go." Maple explained while eating some of the rice and chicken balls she prepared.
"It's why you need you need to tell me everything that you can about that world." Tanya stated letting out a sigh.
"Say what?" Maple asked looking confused.
"Maple, this world is currently at peace, which could mean that we're done here, or it could mean that whoever is responsible for the waves is now desperate enough to stop screwing around." Tanya stated as she hardened her eyes at Maple. "The person who has the highest defensive power and strongest most developed sacred gear needs to stay put in order to protect this world while we deal with the one over there." This world is safe but the one on the other side was on the brink of collapse the last time that they checked, the people who defends need to defend this world and the one who attacks needs to go out and attack.
"We're not going either." Raphtalia stated as she looked up from her meal. "We need to look after Filo as she develops her Sacred Gear, and besides." Raphtalia looked into the air, at some unseen distant foe. "He's going to come here eventually." Raphtalia stated bluntly.
"That's fine, most of our personnel are on that side anyway." Tanya stated bluntly.
"Yuki wants to go with Master!" The bird-like woman in question shouted pumping her fist into the air.
"Sure you can come too." Tanya stated letting out a sigh. "I'll investigate the state of the void while I'm on my way over, should give us some idea of our enemies."
"If you are going, then it's better if we can stay in touch." Maple pulled out a communication crystal from her shield, made several alterations to it using divine magics, before giving it to Tanya to feed to her weapon.
'Conditions Met. Divine Communication Bow unlocked. Equip Bonus: Communication Between Worlds'
Tanya didn't even need to read the weapon's description to know what this one did, just face palm.
"Next you'll be connecting together the Return Dragon Vein Networks of the two worlds." Tanya didn't know whether she wanted to kill Maple or worship her.
"That's actually not a bad idea." Maple stated and Tanya resisted the urge to punch Maple, breaking her fingers would only make her more upset.
The Heroes finished their meal, and then departed to their respective destinations, Maple using the seven divine magics to build a rainbow bridge for Tanya and using a hot air balloon pulled by Yuki she was sent to the other side.
"Alright I'm off to work." Maple turned around to leave but Raphtalia grabbed her by her scruff first and pulled her back. "What?"
"What are you planning on doing?" Raphtalia asked her brows twitching, She's had nightmares about what Maple would do given unlimited resources and enough time alone.
"If we are going to end up in a defensive battle then we need to build up our defences." Maple was the last person anyone wants to hear that from.
Tanya stopped in the middle of the void, all around her there were various bodies floating around her, there was an all out war here, and the victor was the last bird standing.
"I was wondering where you had disappeared off to." Tanya stated to the back of Fitoria who was floating in the void, sitting on the corpse of a giant monster.
"Fitoria had a grudge to settle." Fitoria stated as she cracked her neck. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm just making a detour." Tanya stated as she pulled out a gun from her inventory.
Conceptual Magic, among the items in Faubrey Tanya found was Hajime's guns, and his diary. In order to kill a god named Ehjit a group of heroes attempted to create a weapon in order to put him down, after years of bitter trial and error one day they all got drunk and simply created a gun imbued with the concept of 'Die Ehjit Die!' and although it was long after those heroes time that weapon was eventually driven into his heart and he had bit the dust as it were. Tanya imbued the gun with the same combination of Skills that Katarina used in her Gungnir in order to hit her target with absolute certainty, and a single bullet? As much as she would like to tell Being X where to stuff it she had to put her usual insult besides, because Being X wasn't his real name. No for this to work Tanya had to do the one thing that she had always refused to do, luckily for her Being X had told her her name already, if only indirectly and so imbued that concept on her bullet.
'Die Yahweh! Die!'
Yahweh was the god from the Bible, the entity responsible for the Ten Commandments and the father of Jesus, it was also who Being X claimed to have been when he and Tanya first met one another. Was this true?
"Hey Fitoria. Can a God lie about what their name is?" Tanya asked as she aimed at the void of space.
"No. The name is the core of the identity, it's fine for a mortal to lie about it but there are consequences if a reality warper does it instead." Fitoria explained in simple terms.
"Thank you. That was very helpful." Tanya fired the bullet into the void. Whether or not it would reach its target, whether or not it would kill him when it did, Tanya no longer cared. After over a decade of suffering she had finally acknowledged Being X, Yahweh for what he claimed to be and so in that moment suffered a blow grander than any other. And now, she no longer has to worry about him looking over her shoulder. This was the greatest possible change that Tanya could possibly muster and her body glowed in acknowledgement. "Balance Breaker: Tiger General's Vestments." Tanya's entire body was clad in a armour that was much too big for her but she had no problems wearing, like she was inside of a suit of mech armour, her bow had a mech armour transformation, so it was more than likely. Tanya's new form looked like a woman's body made entirely out of silver steel, stripes of black covering her entire body, leather armour on top of that, the head resembling a metal tiger's mask while a long tail flowed down the back. Tanya held out her hands and a pair of guns flipped out.
"How long will that form last?" Fitoria asked looking at Tanya with curiosity.
"About ten minutes." Tanya stated as she checked the state of her own body.
"Then Fitoria has ten minutes to put you in as much danger as possible." With that Fitoria transformed, not into the giant Filolial form that Tanya is accustomed to, but something much stronger, something that was born to kill gods.
There was a mountain near Seatto, Maple decided to make an experiment to test the limits of her powers with her weapon. To begin with her first Noble Phantasm: The Lord Camelot.
'So it is finally time for Lord Camelot to shine?'
'About time.'
'The Prydwyn can remain silent.'
"That's enough. I'm going to need all of my powers for this and that means that I can't have any of my shields arguing with themselves." Maple snapped speaking in no uncertain terms.
'Understood.'
"Upgrade the Lord Camelot, give it all of the Earth Weapons we got until it reaches the divine level."
'Including the Tiger Weapons?'
"Especially the Tiger weapons!" Maple snapped by way of reply. She was going to do something insane again, if they're lucky she's just going to build up elemental energy like crazy.
'Done.'
With the Spirit Turtle Weapon, Boosted Gear Shield she got from Fohl that she upgraded with the Phoenix Shields, and the Lord Camelot upgraded Tiger Weapon Maple should have Wood, Fire and Earth all covered, now all that she needed was a metal and water shield.
"Prydwyn, you're gonna help too!"
'What do you need the Prydwyn for?'
"You're gonna get all the Water weapons until you reach the level of divine."
'Acknowledged.' Now that Kuro wasn't supporting a higher quality of weapons anymore all of her shields had dramatically reduced level requirements, so something like this wasn't too much. That just left a Metal weapon.
"Achilles!"
'Akhilleus Kosmos.' The weapon in question corrected.
"You're getting all of my divine Magic weapons!" Kuro told her this shield was forged by a god, worked for her.
'Done' Maple put her hands together as she cracked her knuckles. She had some skills to spit.
"Shield Wall!" At once Three hundred shields were all spat out. "Change Shield: Guardian of the North!" Sixty weapons transformed into green turtle shields. "Change Shield: Boosted Gear!" Sixty weapons turned into Red shield Gauntlets with Green Jewels. "Change Shield: Lord Camelot!" Sixty shields turned into stone crosses wrapped in the leather of a tiger. "Change Shield: Prydwyn!" Sixty shields turned into a Wooden Badge Shield with the imagery of Sea monsters painted onto it. "Change Shield: Akhileus Kosmos!" And finally Sixty shields assumed the form of a large round bronze shield. But Maple still wasn't done yet. "Reflect Shield: Rho Aias!" Suddenly all three hundred of the shields turned a pinkish hue and split apart into seven shields each, and with that a new notification appeared in Maple's eyes as if jumping with joy. "Shield Formation...!"
The world hasn't gotten any less difficult since Kyo had died. The barrier was still a hair thin, the monsters were still locked in a constant state of accelerated evolution, and there were still reincarnated rampaging around doing as they please where-ever they go. The Sickle Hero made a desperate pathetic scream as he attempted to pick his way through the Mirror weapon, but sadly every attack he made was returned to him threefold and his own soul was sent careening out of his body. Naturally he attempted to escape, however Naofumi grabbed hold of the weapon spirit, scraped the soul of the parasite who had attached himself to it into his Soul Eater weapon, before raising the spirit to his mouth and biting off the accessory that had been linking the spirit to the soul.
"Don't lose it this time." Naofumi growled as he tossed the sickle back to L'Arc.
"We're gonna need more than just this if we want to stop this mess from careening out of control anymore than it already has." L'Arc stated resting the weapon on his shoulder.
"Go grind your Sacred Gear then." Naofumi stated as he looked up to the sky and let out a sigh.
"What is it?" L'Arc asked as he looked up to try and see what Naofumi had been seeing.
"A sign that I can't keep putting things off forever." "That means you're going to implement whatever plan it is that you keep going on about?" As Naofumi was about to explain himself something like a meteor crashed down and knocked off the top of a nearby mountain.
"Right now I'm going to investigate that." Naofumi stated as he felt another headache coming to him.
Katarina's armour had been damaged in the fall, on top of that her stats were no longer registering and her level was back down to one, if there was a bright side she could still use her Sacred Gear just fine. Katarina began grinding down her blade as she stepped out of the crater, it wasn't long until she encountered a pair of heroes come to investigate her sudden arrival.
"Katarina!?" L'Arc shouted and the young girl in question turned to face him. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh dammit." Naofumi had come to a entirely different conclusion than what L'Arc had and you could see the smallest hint of fear on his features.
"You have something I need." Katarina stated turning to face L'Arc. "Give it to me!"
"What do I-?" Naofumi pushed L'Arc down and out of the way as the little girl before them rocketed forward and nearly skewered L'Arc on her weapon. Reaching down Katarina grabbed hold of L'Arc's scythe and threw him down the mountain.
'Conditions Met: Demon Dragon Scythe Unlocked.' And a massive flood of notifications of various scythes flooded Katarina's perspective.
"Is there anything useful?" Katarina asked as she turned her attention to Naofumi.
'Tonnes. Various weapons to upgrade the Elemental weapons, as well as a Sacred Gear with the affinity for Spirits.'
"Show me." Katarina traded the Phoenix Spear for a Scythe with a long black shaft and a silver blade.
'Grim's Scythe: A Blade containing immense super natural power wielded by the Grim Reaper, able to transport the user through time and space and unleash countless super natural phenomena in order to reap the souls of the deceased.' Holding the Scythe with both hands Katarina brought the blade down like she was swinging a hoe and the earth cracked open around her.
"I wanted to go with the devil sword, but no." Naofumi grumbled while he opted to portal away so that he could get the resources to deal with this. From the cracks countless bony hands emerged and a massive number of skeletal warriors pulled themselves out and surrounded Katarina awaiting orders while kneeling.
"I want the ten of you who are the strongest to step forward at once." At once ten skeletons covered in armour made out of bone stepped forward. "The rest of you spread out! Bring me everyone who is from another world alive and unharmed!" The Skeletons scattered to fulfil their orders. "As for the ten of you, I need you to fight me with the intent to kill."
"Milady. If we kill you our presence here will be cancelled." The Skeleton leader explained in a tone used to talk to a small child, which near as he could tell she was.
"Did it sound like I was giving you a choice?" Katarina pulled out a second spear at this, the Western Witch. "Balance Break! Phoenix Robes!" At once Katarina was covered in flame. That flame separated into two bodies before settling down into two robes, one a crimson colour, and the other a bright red with several colours spread through out, on both faces were identical masquerade masks designed to invoke the imagery of birds.
That day, Katarina learned that bone can melt if you get it hot enough, also the skeletons learned that when someone tells you to come after them with the intention to kill, then you should do so with haste.
In a bar in Mirror territory two people were downing shots like they were having a drinking contest, but the contents of the glasses weren't alcohol, but rather healing potions based on the rapidly vanishing injuries the two of them had suffered at some point. And then Naofumi walked into the bar tapping his foot.
"Would one of you mind explaining to me what exactly happened while you were on the other side that warrants the Spear Hero coming over here?" Naofumi snapped glaring at the two.
"You wanted her to unlock a Balance Breaker." The familiar white haired woman snapped by way of reply.
"So now she's here looking to kill you two morons?" Naofumi asked shaking his head. As Naofumi was thinking that a fourth individual popped into existence, the armoured man. "And as for you, I thought the plan was to kill the directional beasts before they have a chance to throw up a barrier to protect their world from the merge?" Naofumi stated looking like none of the three individuals in question were very far into his good books.
"I'm not the one who shipped off their own daughter to become the Shield Hero." The armoured man stated as he removed his helmet revealing black hair and Japanese features. "She made a bloody party with the Tiger and portalled her around the world, combining that with the literally hundreds of Bonus fields they erected around the planet..." Naofumi started rubbing his eyes with one of his hands.
"So what you're saying is that his daughter is too good of a Hero?" Ikki asked looking at Tatsuya with an incredulous look.
"That would seem to be the case." The white haired woman stated as she let out a sigh. "So what are we throwing this run?"
"...No not yet." Naofumi had to think about it for a moment. "For one this world was designed to be disposable to begin with, so long as things don't get too extreme then everything is within expectations to be handled. The real goal here is to raise up Balance Breakers. How far along are we?"
"Your brat, the brat with the swords, and the little fire ball spewer all have Balance Breakers. As does the axe wielding poison spitter and the pushover with the knives. Trash and the Sis-con should have one too." Setsuna explained as she tapped her chest and winced. "I still have heart burn from that chicken setting off explosions in my heart."
"Raphtalia has one, as does Tanya. I saw it on the way here, she's sparring with Fitoria before she comes over here." Tatsuya explained while cracking his knuckles.
"What happened to her for that to happened?" Ikki asked looking confused.
"We may have to take measures to compensate for the god that she killed." Tatsuya stated as he let out a sigh. "Apparently he's spent an excessive amount of time and resources on tormenting her for her entire current life. I think his name was supposed to be Yahweh?"
"Huu." Naofumi rubbed his eyes with his hand again. "Yahweh was a grossly over inflated fool obsessed with trying to increase his number of followers and then acted surprised when the number got too big for him to handle." Naofumi just shook his head in response. "We'll contact the other deities he offended and clean up the mess he made later. For now we need to focus on dealing with one god like entity at a time."
"Speaking of which how have things been doing here." Naofumi smirked by way of response. "Seriously?" Ikki asked looking surprised.
"I don't have to attack them if that's what you mean. The infestation of reincarnated in this world has been thriving ever since Gol killed the Demon Dragon and got thrown into the labyrinth for her troubles."
"By you." The White Wolf replied.
"I was hoping that she would unlock a Sacred Gear while she was in there, but clearly I didn't fill that pit with enough horrible abominations." Well it's good to know for the next run if nothing else. "It does help that they've had years whereas the Heroes on that side have only had months. Speaking of which you three are going to tell me exactly what has been happening to the heroes that came over to our side so that we can avoid having to reincarnate you lot again after they kill you!" Naofumi felt like a baby sitter, if it wasn't the slaves it was the Heroes, if it's not the heroes it's these three fools.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Training wheels. Little bit. I haven't planned to. They're doing well, they're within satisfactory limits.
ReinDank: Potion Crafting bonus meets enhanced potion effect.
Coolkid0806: Important Q&A Time then. I would like you to read the other story but I'm not going to force you. What's a desperado? The basic idea is borrowed from Chivalry of a Failed Knight, that you can break off the chains of fate and acquire theoretically limitless power at the cost of humanity and self restraint, with it being possible to return to normal if you want to return to normal. Why is Naofumi doing all of this? Web Novel Naofumi Killed Medea by bouncing her own 'F U from Reality' attack back at her which triggered a chain reaction that led to reality to come apart at the seams, leading to him to keep being dragged back in time as reality tried to fix itself. Naofumi's solution, keep in mind this is Naofumi that was driven absolutely insane by the loops, was to revive Medea, restore her place in the timeline and kill her in a way that she won't cause the collapse of reality. Why did he need Desperados? They can kill gods. Why does he set up the girls to get Sacred Gears? They also kill gods, but they usually stay sane, and they come step foot onto a planet without going on a rampage at the drop of a hat. Hope I helped to understand the convoluted mess that I mostly made up on the fly.
Nightshadegirl: Tatsuya.
Nesthor5000: *CACKLES MANIACALLY* So yeah any of you with a TVtropes account could you please start writing that? I don't think I'm allowed to.
Codywhite162: No.
Captain Imaginat: Yeah they're not getting any parents of the year awards. And yeah Maple still snuggles with Filo when she's feeling down.