Chapter 67 – Take Back the Throne

The events from an hour ago still weighed heavily on the party. The two most affected were also the two physically closest to Dante at the moment.

Atla sat on Dante's lap, her arms wrapped around him as he slowly stroked her back. She didn't say much after the meeting, about as much as she said during it. Instead, after the royal meeting with all the heroes, she wanted Dante to comfort her. She handled herself quite well in the throne room. While what he knew of her personality suggested she might be using what happened as an excuse to be near him, this didn't feel like that. Not entirely, at least.

Fohl, on the other hand, hadn't said a word. The older, much taller tiger woman was currently leaned against Dante, backs pushing against each other to stay sitting up. The Vassal Axe was on the floor to allow this. Her arms and legs were crossed as she silently fumed. If nothing else, Dante knew what she heard affected her more than Atla.

After all, why wouldn't it? She knew how much her parents cared about her and Atla. She knew how much Dante cared, despite not sharing their blood at all. And Malty, who helped cause so many issues for the Shield Hero, was not only forgiven by Dante, but offered protection against their uncle. And how did Fohl's other uncle respond? Not with gratitude or understanding, but with threats of violence and death.

The smaller details, while not irrelevant, didn't excuse what was said about them. Not at all.

"Atla, Fohl, I…" Malty tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come.

After meeting with the royal family, most of Dante's party left the throne room. Only he, Sadeena, and Rishia remained. The queen reiterated what she told Dante's group, going into more detail about what was to be done with the church. The other three heroes obviously had questions and the queen answered what she could. It was made clear, in no uncertain terms, that Dante was not to be the target of any attacks by any of the heroes. Armor's sister was livid, yelling about his murder. At this point, Dante didn't really care. He only made sure she understood that, should she come after anyone in his party, she and the rest of her family would join Armor. Not remembering his name set her and Itsuki off.

During the whole thing, whether it was from shock or a kernel of wisdom, Aultcray didn't say a word.

When that meeting concluded, Dante's party, plus Malty and Melty, were situated in Malty's room. There were a few long couches for everyone to sit on, with Dante, Fohl, and Atla taking one of them. Malty sat in a chair she pulled over to be closer. Melty sat on the end near Atla, though she hadn't said anything. What could she say?

"I don't know what I can do, except apologize for my father's words." Malty settled on that.

"Hmph!" Fohl wasn't interested.

"It's not your fault." Atla said, turning her head from Dante's chest.

"Even so, my actions helped bring you here." Malty added. "I knew my father hated Siltvelt, but I didn't think he would lash out like that, especially after everything Sir…I mean, Dante, did for us."

"He has held onto his hate for years." Dante said. "I am not surprised."

Fohl turned her head slightly. "Did you know our uncle would say that?"

Dante shook his head. "I expected him to direct his anger to me alone."

Honestly, that was part of the plan. Fohl wanted to see what Aultcray was like. Dante wanted to show her. He was confident Aultcray would never accept the good Dante did for his family. Ranting about hakukos wasn't part of the plan, but the end result was the same.

"You will never see them again. If you try…As my now-fiancée's father, I will not kill you. However, you do not need your limbs to live."

Dante checked with both sisters beforehand. Atla was fine not seeing Aultcray, but Fohl wanted to at least meet him first. It was cruel, to be sure, but Aultcray attempted to murder Dante's family. The least he could do was deprive Aultcray of his nieces, one of whom did indeed resemble his long-dead sister.

It was a very lenient punishment. Having his arms torn off would be painful, but there were alchemists and healers to fix the old man.

"We will be leaving soon." Dante informed everyone. There was no argument.

"Before that, Dante…" Melty leaned forward. "I don't mean to make this about something else, but…are you still…my sister…"

"You are concerned about the marriage." Dante filled in her line. Melty gave him a short nod. "This changes nothing. When you thought I raped Malty, you were still friends with JoJo…and Dio." He winced before he continued. "You acted reasonably and did what was needed. Just because your father is this way is no reason to let Malty be taken away by that thing."

Melty breathed easier. Malty, however, wasn't as affected. She understood Dante wasn't so vindictive to let her be taken by her uncle. Of course, Dante needed to take care of a different marriage before the one with Malty.

"Your mother will handle the bulk of the preparations." Dante slowly stood from the couch, Atla moving to stay by his side with Fohl just slightly farther away. "For now, we have work to do. And, it would be best if your father stayed out of my sight for a while. I have too much going on and I do not want to do something I might regret."

"I understand." Melty stood up as well. She held her hands in front of her.

"I know what you said to my father," Malty said, rising as well, "but, may we…" She gestured to Fohl.

Dante nodded. "Once Q'ten Lo is dealt with, you two may visit as much as you wish."

~The Wrong Hero~

The party didn't stay in Melromarc a second night. No one really wanted to. With the other three heroes still staying in the castle at night, Malty and Melty would be safe. Besides, they would be leaving for Q'ten Lo next morning. Werner told them everything would be ready for their departure.

Until then, Dante got help from the other heroes. The original plan was to start teleporting in mercenaries the day before. With more people able to use portal skills, they were able to make up for lost time. Itsuki was against helping, but additional power helped convince him. Dante brought them to the village before teleporting the mercenaries. Getting Way of the Dragon Vein was important, and learning from Sadeena while their portal skills were on cooldown was a good use of time.

The magical abilities was only enough to convince Itsuki to help bring over the mercenaries. For the war itself, Mirellia convince him. Since Itsuki helped the church so much, the royal family's standing had fallen. As one of the notable heroes in Melromarc, Itsuki participating would go a long way to ensure peace and stability. At least, that's what Mirellia said to convince him.

During this time, Rishia and Elvira stayed in Melromarc. Rishia needed to speak with the queen about the state of her parents' land, as well as figuring out what to do about the noble who had her parents killed. Dante's offer for personal revenge was considered, but Rishia wanted to go about it the right way. Elvira was there mostly for protection. Rishia's stats had risen quite a bit after the Wave—and finally passing level 70—but more protection didn't hurt. It was also to help watch over Malty and Melty, just in case any church shadows showed up. A fair amount of blood from Dante helped prepare for any conflict, not that any arose.

Without going too far into the night, all the hired mercenaries were brought to Siltvelt. Dante's party spent the night in the village while the other heroes returned to Melromarc.

At daybreak, Dante made a quick trip to Melromarc. With time to prepare a broadcast properly, the queen officially exonerated Dante of all crimes, continuing the story Malty made about working with the crown. As for the wedding, they agreed to wait until after Q'ten Lo was dealt with before setting any dates. Given Dante's idea about a short war, information was already being spread about the upcoming ceremony.

After that, they all met back up in Siltvelt's capital. Raphtalia got her clothes and changed into them, keeping Eclair's ashes fastened to her hip. It was basically what Dante remembered, and quite familiar to the four heroes—including Reiko—from Japan. Reiko made a joke about how Dante and Raphtalia matched now, though the top and bottom colors were inverted. If he was in a joking mood, Dante might have said that first. Overall, it was about as good as Raphtalia's current armor, with the distribution of stats a bit different. It wasn't as easy making armor out of clothing rather than metal and leather. Thanks to its heavy use of magic thread, Raphtalia could still transform in it, which she did soon after donning it.

They all went over the general plan and set sail. Werner, Ushan, Jaralis, Warbaldt, and a few other high-ranking Siltvelt nobles joined them, as well as the two generals for the war. It would be a couple days of traveling to reach Q'ten Lo, which the three heroes used to practice their new spell system. Progress was slow, but it was there.

The voyage was quiet the first day, making port at an island to allow everyone to teleport out and check in with their parties. They helped the queen deal with any church remnants that popped up while their heroes were away. Dante and his party stayed behind, not needing to go anywhere.

On the second day, after a fog rolled in…

"We're under attack!"

"Liberation Firestorm X!"

The call from one of the crewmen was followed by dozens of figures leaping from the water. They came right for the ship the heroes, Siltvelt leadership, and Dante's party were on. Dante's Life Sense picked them up while they were still underwater, allowing him to chant out his spell.

Sadeena still wasn't pleased with Dante casting Liberation spells, but he felt the ends justified it. Besides, once Q'ten Lo was dealt with, he'd have a lot more time and leeway to work on his curses.

Over half of the assailants were dead before they even landed on the ship.

"Shooting Star Bow X!"

"Shooting Star Sword X!"

"Shooting Star Spear X!"

After powering up their main weapons and increasing their skills, the other Holy Heroes made short work of the remaining attackers. There were barely any left for the rest of the party to face, let alone the Siltvelt warriors. Which was quite odd.

"Hmmm." Dante looked at the armor of one of the fallen Q'ten Lo shadows, at least until his body started emitting light. They were promptly thrown overboard before exploding.

"What's up?" Motoyasu asked as he approached. He and the others had gotten a little seasick the day before, but some medicine helped them through it. "See something interesting?"

"Very." Dante turned to him. "Their armor and weapons were good quality."

He'd told them about Q'ten Lo weapons and armor being effective against heroes, but only the old, broken down stuff. The newer, better condition equipment didn't have the same effect.

"So…they sent their best killers after you already?" Motoyasu ventured a guess.

"That is what I believe." Dante nodded, pleased at the Spear Hero's assessment.

On one hand, it made sense. Killing their three main targets while unaware was the best play. The setup for it was good, too. Attacking during the Wave kept them from using portal skills, while simultaneously attacking the village caused panic. The execution was what flopped, due to not enough proper weapons being used.

Of course, that again brought up the question of why they only had old weapons to use against heroes. Even if Erhard's old master didn't return to Q'ten Lo to make more, there surely must have been plenty from the past that were available.

After that attack, there were no others.

It wasn't until a couple hours later that they saw how close they were.

"That's the barrier." Sadeena pointed from the front of the ship.

"Huh." Dante followed her indication. "It is…as big I expected, I suppose."

A translucent wall stretched as far as the eye could see. From Sadeena's recollections, it wouldn't stop them from entering, but it would slow them down a little.

*CRASH*

The sound of wood splintering erupted all around. The ship came to a dead stop, slamming into the barrier. Sailors were thrown to the floor. Even Dante fell, doing his best to catch Sadeena next to him.

"Turn about!" The captain called out. Crewmen started signaling to the ships that followed, telling them to divert course before another collision occurred.

Dante steadily got to his feet, helping Sadeena up with him.

"What happened?" He asked, surveying the damage at the bow.

"Something's wrong." Sadeena looked past the ship to the barrier. "It shouldn't have stopped us like that."

"Hm." Dante approached the bow and, thus, the barrier. The wind in the sails kept the ship pressed against it, letting out loud creaks for the effort. He reached out his hand and placed it against the barrier. It didn't give at all, pushing back with the same force he applied to it.

"What now?" Raphtalia asked, approaching.

"If I remember right…the Water Dragon allowed the Shield Hero into Q'ten Lo." Dante recalled.

That, of course, was contingent on the Water Dragon not liking the state of the country. If he was content, then blasting the barrier away was the only option.

"Gau!" As if to answer his thoughts, a familiar sound came from over the railing of the ship.

Dante walked over and looked down. He spotted a small dragon in the water. It was shaped more like an eel than a normal dragon, but Dante recalled something like that.

"Are you the Water Dragon?" He asked it skeptically. It was far too small, smaller than JoJo. It was possible this was one of its horde members.

"Gau!" The dragon chirped back, but gave no indication either way.

"Hmph. Then leave. If you are not with the Water Dragon, I have no use for you."

At his words, the dragon swam to the front of the ship. It seamlessly passed through the barrier before looking back at him.

"…Okay, you have my attention."

"Gau! Gau!" The small dragon swam back to the ship, making noise all the way.

"Does anyone understand dragons?" Dante asked to everyone around.

"Gau!" Lilith bounded over to him.

Dante stared at her for a moment.

"Why don't you just use your shield to translate?" Itsuki snidely asked.

He was adamant Dante had a shield that not only translated written words, thus allowing him to read spell tomes, but allowed him to understand monsters. It was another thing Malty wanted the heroes to work on, that being learning the language to properly learn spells. If nothing else, at least Motoyasu was trying, even before their first meeting.

Dante ignored the Bow Hero. "…Raphtalia, save this location."

It only took a couple minutes. Dante and Raphtalia returned to the village and brought Gaelion back with them. Wyndia stayed behind, guarded by the rest of Gaelion's children.

With a little back and forth, Gaelion learned that this was indeed a vassal of the Water Dragon. Not only that, but the Water Dragon was absolutely furious with the country. Those in power abused their position in the most heinous of ways, perverting what they stood for. The young dragon didn't elaborate on that.

The gist of the Water Dragon's position was that the current government needed to fall, and a new Heavenly Emperor was needed. Thankfully, they came to do just that.

"The Water Dragon does not want the peasantry killed, only those in power." Gaelion added.

"That is fine." Dante didn't plan on killing everyone in his path. Not that he minded doing so. As they got closer to Q'ten Lo, he could feel his anger growing.

"What now?" Sadeena asked the dragons.

"There is a place the barrier around this nation is maintained." Gaelion said. "A lighthouse. In it is a Sakura Lumina tree. It can be accessed with Way of the Dragon Vein to drop the barrier."

"That sounds familiar." Dante nodded. "Would destroying it work?"

Gaelion shook his head. "It is not advisable, but it should weaken the barrier a little."

"Hm." That at least gave them some options. Dante recalled a big fight from the books, which included the barrier those shadows made in Shieldfreeden. He wanted to avoid dealing with that if at all possible.

"Alright." Dante looked to his party and the heroes. "Let's think up a plan."

~The Wrong Hero~

A simple plan was always preferable to a complicated one. There was less room for complications, provided the simple plan was actually a feasible one.

The young vassal could only bring a few people through the barrier, and no one huge like Gaelion. Not that she needed another reason to come with Dante, but Sadeena would be able to access the tree to open the barrier. Raphtalia would also be present, as she would be the one to help persuade the people to their side.

That, of course, was more for afterwards. Dante had no clue if the people who aided Naofumi and them before were even around. With the fleet waiting, he didn't want to postpone things and lose the element of surprise with something half-remembered from the books. Instead, they opted for a more direct approach.

"Do it. All Liberation Aura X!" Dante cast his spell over the group.

"All Drifa Iron Flesh!" A Siltvelt mage cast a spell of his own on them.

Their group was four people, plus Lilith. They flew in the air on Lilith's back, above the port town, invisible thanks to Raphtalia's spell. Despite her size, Lilith was thankfully small enough to get through the barrier. The plan was simple, like Dante wanted. It really revolved around just one thing: destroy the lighthouse and make a big enough scene to let Sadeena open the barrier.

The lighthouse was more of a wood structure around the large Sakura Lumina tree, so that wouldn't be difficult. It would be even less so with the method Dante chose to go with.

"We are here." Dante adjusted himself on Lilith.

"Lord Shield, are you sure about this?" The mage asked.

Dante's only response was to drop from the dragon's back.

As he fell through the sky, he activated his shield's ability. Thanks to his talks with the other heroes, he was able to improve his more noteworthy shields. One shield in particular was selected for this job.

Titanic Ogre Shield (awakened) (50/50) SR
equip bonus: attack bonus (large), HP bonus (large), skill "Second Shield"
equip effect: Titan Size

While most of the shields he awakened granted extra abilities, in addition to stats, this one only had its effect improved. It was a rather big improvement.

On a related note, not everyone got the same effects after he shared the boss's remains. Only Motoyasu got Titan Size after releasing his spear. Ren had Giant Size from the start with no improved effect after release, and Itsuki only got Giant Size after release. For the Vassal Weapons, Warbaldt was the same as Ren, Reiko got an effect to increase the size of monsters, and Rifana got one to increase the size of other people.

Dante slammed into the large wood structure surrounding the Sakura Lumina tree, bringing half of it down. With little damage from the fall thanks to the spells and his monstrously increased stats, he easily stood. His growth was about double what this shield could previously do, bringing him to around 40 feet tall.

"What's going on?"

"What is that thing?!"

"Sound the alarm!"

Panicked cries sounded all around him as he stomped about, crushing the guards that feebly tried to stop him.

Reiko had come up with this plan. More accurately, he said "grow big and destroy a bunch of buildings!" Dante added to it with dropping from the sky, with more input on how to take things from there.

"I am the god of Siltvelt, friend of the true Heavenly Empress!" Dante's voice boomed. "She has come to reclaim her throne and punish those who have defiled this nation! Lay down your arms and surrender!"

He punctuated his statements with heavy blows to what remained of the lighthouse. Guards began running out of the quickly crumbling structure and attempted to attack. Just like before, their weapons were of good quality, but not meant to deal with spirit implement users like him.

"Kill this foreign false god!" A large frog therianthrope yelled. He seemed to have better looking equipment than the others, and had a more noble air about him.

He was crushed just as easily as everyone else.

Dante continued to stomp around, his next target being the barracks a few dozen feet from the lighthouse. The warriors that had only just begun to run out were caught under the rubble.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few warriors approach on the ground. They looked to be carrying something between them. Dante recognized it immediately.

"Drifa Firestorm X!" He was able to chant his spell faster than they could, igniting them in deadly flames. The Sakura Stone they were carrying was destroyed in the blast.

With his two main targets thoroughly assaulted, he began making his way to another military installation. All the while, he was transferring his MP to SP. Giant Size consumed a large amount of SP, and Titan Size used even more. He only had about 30 seconds before his SP bar depleted normally.

As he continued closer to his target on the other side of the coast, more soldiers poured in. They bombarded him with arrows and throwing stars, with minimal effect. Every so often, he would turn around and stomp on them, forcing them back to regroup and restart the assault. There was only one more attempt to use a Sakura Stone, but they came too close and from the front. They fared no better under Dante's foot than the ones from before.

"What the…" One of the attackers stopped, a bear therianthrope that was leading the charge. "The barrier!"

Sure enough, the barrier in the distance fell. Dante could see the ships beginning to approach once more.

"Q'ten Lo!" With that, the second part of the plan started. Raphtalia stood near the destroyed lighthouse. She was in her demi-human form—which she would stay in for the war, unless it was an emergency—and stood almost as tall as Dante, using her hammer's version of Titan Size. "I am Raphtalia, true Empress of Q'ten Lo. I have come to purge the filth of this country and restore it to its former glory! Together, we can bring down this corrupted government!"

With no guards near her to silence her, Raphtalia was able to speak her message in peace. They didn't really know the condition of the people in the country, since the Water Dragon's vassal didn't say, but they worked off the assumption it wasn't good. Some of the soldiers near Dante started running back, but he was easily able to intercept them. Lower agility didn't mean lower speed, especially when he towered over them.

"Astral Enchant!" The bear yelled out after finishing his chant. In an instant, the guards around them fell limply to the ground. "I will quickly deal with you, false god of Siltvelt! Then, the false empress will die!"

In response, Dante stomped once more. This time, his targets were guards grouped too closely together. XP notifications came into his vision following the sound of crushing bones.

"That was foolish." Dante looked down at the bear.

"Bastard!" The bear leapt up a surprising distance and thrust his spear into Dante's stomach. The blade went fully in, damaging Dante, though not enough to greatly concern him.

Dante swatted the therianthrope down. He was able to land on his feet, but he didn't look too good.

Before the bear could react, Dante crushed half a dozen more soldiers. He'd forgotten about it before, but the ability the bear used pulled power from the soldiers that fell. With fewer people to draw from, the bear wouldn't be able to fight properly. Which was good, since he seemed to have a properly made, if old-looking weapon made to fight heroes.

"How dare you!" The bear roared, attempting to jump up at Dante again. He was noticeably slower than before.

Instead of backing out of the way, Dante ended his shield's effect and quickly shrunk back down. He was starting to run low on MP and had already begun using HP, letting his curse regenerate him. He didn't want to use his curses more than necessary, and he didn't need the extra power.

"Change Shield III!" He swapped back to his Dark Tyrannosaurus Shield and aimed it up. "Titanic Charge V!"

Launching into the air, he impaled the bear on the recently enlarged spikes, curtesy of the shield being awakened. The attack stat had grown considerably on it, and the improved lightning effect was more than enough to char the bear's body to a crisp. The warriors that were linked to him were similarly burned and killed.

When he landed, Dante threw the bear off his shield.

This fight could have gone a lot differently. I am thankful the Sakura Stones were not so easily used like in the books.

With the bulk of the fighting done, Dante made his way back to the lighthouse. Sadeena and Raphtalia—who shrank back down—had fought off the few guards that made it to them. A few stone spikes had guards impaled on them, likely from the mage they brought. Lilith had blood on her face from the ones she ate.

"This worked out well~." Sadeena swung her harpoon, clearing the blood from it.

"I thought it'd be harder." Raphtalia added, storing her hammer on her back.

"A surprise attack works wonders, especially when they have inferior weapons." Dante said.

With that done, their last goal was to hold the tree until the entire fleet made it through. Given how much time had passed already, it wouldn't be long. From there, the invasion could start in full.

If their battles were anything like today, the country would be defeated in a couple weeks.

~The Wrong Hero~

The estimation for the war was off by a gross margin.

After the attack in the port town, the army disembarked and formed up on the other side of it. The mayor came to meet with Raphtalia, paying his respects and saying they would follow her until death. Clearly, the treatment of anyone not powerful in the government was not good if they were willing to side with invaders.

That led to the mayor sending out messengers on the fastest mounts they had to all the other towns and villages, saying the true Heavenly Empress had arrived. During their march, they got reply after reply saying the people would join in, or at least keep the government's troops from moving out to meet them. As it stood, there was only one real battle, and it was a slaughter for Q'ten Lo.

They had made their way to the capital. There were barely any troops visible on the walls, and flying scouts reported no sightings of a large army inside the city. Long-range scouts said they had fled eastward. Soon, they would take the capital and reclaim the throne.

It was only three days after arriving.

"This is incredibly disappointing." Dante sighed as he looked toward the capital.

"Were you hoping for more fighting, little Dante~?" Sadeena asked, her arms around one of his.

"Yeah. I am not the only one." Dante responded.

Admittedly, they were in the minority. It was mostly him and the two generals from Siltvelt, who had literally torn up their plans for the invasion after the second day. Morale was pretty high amongst the Siltvelt troops due to the progress. Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki were glad they didn't have to fight and kill people much. Most of Dante's party was the same. Elvira was more than willing to drain any of Dante's enemies, and Raphtalia wanted more people to vent her frustrations on.

Even the mercenaries were happy, mostly because they were being paid for doing almost nothing. The more battle hungry ones complained here and there, but that was about it. The loudest were two that had charged headfirst into the Q'ten Lo army line and broke their ranks. A rhino and a warthog therianthrope, who were loud, clumsy, rather stupid, and dressed more like bikers than warriors.

Reiko, with his fascination of western media, was thrilled to see the two of them. Dante was amused for a moment.

"It's better this way." Raphtalia stood next to them, her eyes on their goal.

"I agree…" Dante relented. He knew she meant that morally, not personally.

Truthfully, he wanted to vent his frustrations on a large group of enemies, too. The battle for the port helped after a long voyage with little action. But, this type of situation was almost to be expected, given what they learned from the Q'ten Lo revolutionary group.

Ruft, or Ruftmila, was no longer the Heavenly Emperor. He hadn't been for about a year now. The details were murky, but it seemed Shildina, the Priestess of Carnage at the time, killed Makina, Ruft's lead advisor. It was a name Dante remembered after hearing it, the person largely responsible for all that was going wrong in the country from the books. After her death, other leaders wanted to execute Shildina, but Ruft wouldn't allow it. Then, a power struggle ensued.

The end result was both Ruft and Shildina having their levels reset publically, Ruft being labeled a false emperor, and the two of them being exiled from Q'ten Lo. Some other relative was found and put on the throne, another boy a little older than Raphtalia.

After that, things improved in the country. For a short while. After a few months, the emperor started passing laws and raising taxes. Dante figured it was the officials who propped up this boy emperor. That led to a civil war that only ended a couple months ago. Many of the hero-killing weapons were lost or broken—or smelted down for other uses, mostly in failure—and the skill to repair and replace them wasn't readily available. The man who really knew how to, possibly Erhard's former teacher, was killed in the conflict.

The real question was, why did Ruft and Shildina help attack them in the first place? For Shildina, it was more obvious. She hated Sadeena for everything their parents put her through. Ruft, though, was more questionable. The two leading ideas from the party were either Ruft simply wanted to help Shildina—since he stood up for her once before—or Q'ten Lo offered to restore his position as Heavenly Emperor.

It wasn't like they were here to ask them. The two of them would have had to travel nonstop to get there, using fast mounts and switching them out when they got tired. Even then, they wouldn't have had a strong reason to try returning. They failed to kill Sadeena and Raphtalia, being the only survivors, and injured ones at that. Not to mention wanted posters were spread throughout Siltvelt, Shieldfreeden, Zeltoble, Faubrey, and even Melromarc. They had nowhere to go.

Well, once they were found, Dante would get his answers one way or another.

"So, what is the plan?" Dante asked the two generals.

"A frontal assault should be fine." The female mammoth therianthrope general said rather flippantly.

"Seems like the best approach." The elderly male lion therianthrope general added only a touch more respectfully.

Dante couldn't be mad at the attitude. They spent long days going over logistics, sorting the mercenaries into roles, and other military operation things. They planned for a large-scale conflict that would hopefully only last a couple weeks. Instead…

"I will tell them to surrender peacefully first." Dante told them. "If they refuse, I will blow up the front gate. If they still wish to fight…"

He didn't need to finish that sentence. The army was more than ready to begin marching.

Of course, when the army started marching toward the gates, white flags were raised and vigorously waved about.

"…Fine." Dante sighed. His deal with the Water Dragon made it so he was only really allowed to kill the ones in charge, not the common soldier, especially if they surrendered.

~The Wrong Hero~

Part of the Siltvelt army entered the city with Dante and the others, disarming the Q'ten Lo soldiers that surrendered. From what they gathered, the plan told to the city garrison was that their army would leave the city to attack the invading army from the rear, breaking their morale. Given that the Q'ten Lo army was many miles to the east at this point, that was a lie.

However, the Heavenly Emperor was apparently still in the palace. That's where they were headed. Every soldier they passed surrendered their weapons and was taken prisoner. Even after reaching the palace, they faced no resistance. Sadeena felt no heavy magic in the air, JoJo's monster instincts picked up no imminent threats, and Dante's Life sense found no hidden enemies.

It was all deeply unsatisfying. This was not the revenge Dante and Raphtalia wanted.

They continued moving through the palace, their group becoming smaller as soldiers spread out. In the end, it was only Dante's party and few knights that came up to the throne room. The three heroes remained outside, just in case there was any surprise attack. Even the revolutionary leaders were kept back. The guards outside the room surrendered like the rest and were taken away, leaving a pair of Siltvelt knights in their place. As far as Dante could sense, there was only one person inside.

He pushed open the doors, revealing a single child sitting on the ornate, metallic throne. He must have been no older than 12. His outfit resembled Raphtalia's, clearly identifying who he was.

His eyes widened in shock, and fear. "W-Who are you…?" He whimpered.

"The people you have been trying to kill." Dante told him. The doors were closed behind them as they came closer.

"W-We didn't do anything!" The boy cried out.

Dante had a moment of confusion, but realized the kid was likely using the royal 'we'.

"You lie." Dante didn't slow his approach.

"T-They made us do it!" He tried again.

Dante stopped. He stared hard at the boy. "You…lie…"

He could see it in the boy's eyes. What he just said wasn't the truth. He assumed the officials told him he had to order the death of Raphtalia, who was a usurper. But this…

"Why?" Raphtalia stepped forward. "Why did you do it?" She trusted Dante's judgement over her relative's claims.

"We didn't!" The boy yelled.

"We're family." Raphtalia gripped her hammer tightly. "Why would you try to have me killed? Why would you kill the woman I love?"

"We were just doing what everyone told us to!" Tears started falling from his face.

Dante could tell. Those tears were fake. No, not entirely. The boy was afraid, that much Dante knew, but he could still sense the falseness in his words.

"Do you think you can escape your punishment?" Dante did his best to hold back his anger. "Lying to me is pointless, boy. You better explain why you did this."

The boy on the throne shook his head and curled up on himself, trying to look smaller, quivering.

"Little Dante, little Raphtalia." Sadeena stood between the pair. "This boy isn't a tanuki. He's a raccoon."

"What?" Raphtalia asked before Dante could.

"Look, see? The tail, and the ears." Sadeena pointed. The boy's tail was tucked around his front while the ears were pressed on his head.

Now that it was pointed out, Dante saw it too. Sadeena had mentioned at one point that Raphtalia's mother was a raccoon, while her father was a tanuki. While his tail was hidden, Dante recalled seeing Ruft's ears. From what he could recall, they were slightly different from Raphtalia's, but they looked even more different than this boy's.

"You aren't part of the royal family at all." Sadeena concluded.

The raccoon boy stilled.

"I see." Raphtalia nodded. "You were dressed up to look like you were royalty, but you're just some kid they found to act through. Some stupid brat that got to live comfortably and do whatever he was told. Do you want us to believe you didn't benefit from this at all?"

The raccoon straightened out on the throne. "We aren't stupid."

Dante cocked an eyebrow. "No?"

With a defiant look on his face, the fake royal continued. "We knew you would come and try to steal the throne, and throw us back on the streets."

"The streets?" Raphtalia question. "You were homeless?"

The boy stared at her. "That's what you planned to do. Our guardian spirit told us."

"'Guardian spirit'?" Raphtalia lowered her hammer, though only slightly.

"He spoke in our dreams, warning us the foreign god was planning to take everything away from us. We didn't want to believe it, but the next morning, our loyal spies told us a false empress made her claim for the throne. Our advisors said we needed to act fast. That's why we told them to do whatever was necessary, whatever it took to stop you."

Dante felt his eye twitch.

"You told them…" Sadeena murmured.

A frown appeared on the raccoon's face. "But then, when you arrived, our advisors fled. They said they were going to take the army to fight you, but we knew they were lying. They just wanted to save their own lives."

Then, the boy smirked. "So, go ahead. You won. Take the throne and throw us out. Just make sure you kill the cat therianthrope with silver fur. He was the one that put us on the throne, only to abandon us now. We'll survive on the streets, just like we did before, but not him!"

Dante barely heard anything the child emperor said. After hearing the order the child gave, things started to go dark. He ran forward, his fist clenched tightly. The moment he reached the throne, he thrust it forward. A squelching sound echoed around them, followed quickly by crunching metal. A quiet cry was barely heard by the raccoon boy on his ruined throne.

"Dante…" Sadeena's voice was hardly louder than a whisper.

Letting out a heavy breath, Dante pulled back. The body of the raccoon boy hung off his arm before being thrown to the floor as he stepped aside. It landed between Dante and the rest of his party, a massive pool of blood forming under the body. The gaping hole in his chest was the source of it.

"That was…" Sadeena couldn't seem to find the words as her eyes shifted from the corpse up to Dante.

It wasn't difficult. His aura spell was still on them from before, just in case. From the small amount of XP, Dante assumed the raccoon boy was still level one, or close to it.

Killing him wasn't difficult at all.

No one said anything. Only two sets of eyes were on Dante. The rest were on the body.

No sound was heard, except for footsteps.

Raphtalia wordlessly stepped around the body and approached the throne.

She gave Dante a single look before she turned around and sat on it.

Author's Notes:

So, I've started writing a story for the Many World's Project called Forging Legends. It's a one-hero world with its own weapons, power up methods, magic, background, etc. It'll combine with another world from that group at some point. Give it a look see if you're interested. (This is unrelated to me "winding down" this story.)

In case you were wondering, I didn't really skip over anything in this arc. I also didn't have much written for it, at least the invasion. It was always going to be shorter than in the LN, just wasn't sure how. Also, a bit of bad planning on my part with Cal Mira coming up soon.

This turned out darker than I originally planned. I knew it would be an unrelated raccoon on the throne, but I wasn't sure about everything else surrounding it.

So, this is, what? The sixth person to hear voices now? I wonder if that's significant.

And yes, Bebop and Rocksteady participated in the war. Just because they couldn't save the latest movie doesn't mean they weren't helpful here.