It took several minutes for us to come down from the high of that victory, and to be fair, I think we earned it. That thing was several times any of our levels, and we still beat it, because at the end of the day, it was a dumb beast. I had to wonder if the 'Heroes of Old' had thought to try something like this, but that thought faded, as the ladies came up, and hugged Naofumi, Filo nearly toppling him over, before she shifted back to the golden haired form.
When we'd finally collected ourselves, we looked around and found that, for the most part, we'd done a good job of containing the beast. The building that once separated the inner and outer courtyard was destroyed, bits that still stood sagging towards those that didn't. The main building was still mostly standing though, save for a few bits smashed by things thrown, and the whole area was covered with a layer of frost from all the Ice type magic we'd thrown around.
"How'd you know that would work, anyway?" asked Naofumi, as we approached the corpse, which was starting to steam with small clouds of dark mist, showing the 'Wave energy' that had corrupted what had been a majestic creature into this foul form.
"I…didn't really. I just figured we weren't doing enough damage as was, so our best bet was to change the game. Then I remembered beating the Nest Mother on my second day. And you killed some undead by dropping a burning tower on them during the Second Wave, at least Lucia said something like that," I said, and he nodded at that.
"I did. It was a desperate move, but I can't argue with the results. Still, why the shield? Why not just jam it all the way into the brain?" he asked, and I flexed a bit, showing off that I was in no way that strong.
"It needed a push, and I noticed that your shields were acting like repulsors, pushing away anything that touched them, that's why you were letting Filo bounce around on them like a pinball, right?" I countered, and he nodded again.
"We noticed it during one of our fights against some monsters, and it adds a bit of damage to her attacks. I never thought about using it to make something like that happen though," he answered.
"Makes sense you wouldn't, considering I doubt that would work on most of the foes we've fought. Things that big tend to be undead, and they have way less weak points. But living things, even here, need a brain, a heart, and the like," I explained, as we walked with the ladies up to the body, which was starting to look like it was steaming with all the dark mist rising from it.
We didn't even wait, raising our weapons high, the gems facing towards the creature, we let loose the purification process, the waves of light produced from it washing away the darkness. I was honestly surprised it went that easy, as I expected something this strong to be infected worse than most, but instead, it was swept aside, leaving the carcass there, waiting to be exploited.
"So, do you have an autoloot skill, or want me to do the honors?" I asked, and Naofumi looked at me confused, allowing me to smile as I shifted my Bow around, dual wielding a set of bows that worked to increase both my 'Appraisal' and 'Anatomy' stats up a bit, before tapping on the snout of the dead t-rex.
Instantly, there was a chime like noise, something like a loud gong going off, and lines of magical light began to cross and slash at the body before us. Since my 'cache' was out of range this time, the stuff was being simply torn and sorted before us, with me trying to whistle again, and failing miserably, but none of the others noticed as the bits of the monster hovered in the air, and then came to stack into piles.
Bones were neatly arranged, crossing each other until the construct of them looked like scaffolding of some macabre building. The skin, cut into neat squares was put into a nice pile beside that, and the eyeballs beside that, the orbs still shimmering with a dread kind of unlife. Beside those were various organs, and finally a big pile of meat that looked ready to assemble into a terrible golem of some kind.
The important parts though appeared at my feet as we waited. Three crystals, one about the size of my forearm in the shape of a conical spearhead, while two others sat beside it, looking more like plain rocks. Together larger than the other, but smaller apart. They shined with energies most eldritch, and as I reached down, picking them up, I could feel them vibrate slightly in my palms, telling me that they still had a life all their own.
"So, do you want the big one, or the two little ones?" I asked, turning, noticing that he and the rest of the group were looking gobsmacked at what I'd done with the corpse of the big guy. Figuring that meant I had free choice, I tossed the two smaller ones at Naofumi, who on instinct, plucked them from the air, while walking up to me.
"Dude, what the hell was that?" he asked, absently dropping one of the stones into his belt pouch, while touching the other to the gem in the center of his shield, causing it to glow green for a moment, and I saw his eyes start darting around as it unlocked probably quite a few new shields for him.
For myself, I just chuckled as I tapped the larger stone onto my own gem, and watched as it turned into sparkles, causing my interface to fill my screen, showing me quite the list of new bow forms to use. Mostly dragon or dinosaur related, but also some in the general reptile family, most focused on assault types with bonuses for my attack power, so somewhat useless.
However, it seemed that that thing counted as a boss, and a big one, as the meter measuring my progress on 'Stage' forms ticked over to unlock (Stage 4), and got most of the way to (Stage 5). Even with the EXP from this fight, I wasn't quite high enough in the Level department to use the (Stage 4) Bow, but I could at least see what it did now, and wondered idly, what (Stage 5) would have to make it better, considering the trick with its lower brethren turned out to be (Rapid Fire), which seemed like a clear winner in terms of utility, even if it probably burned through SP even faster.
"That was my (Auto Loot) skill in action. I'll admit, been a while since I didn't have (Auto Cache) on as well to send the loot somewhere specific, but since my destination for it is a few dozen kilometers away at least, it wouldn't make it even if I tried," I said, shifting my bow back to its base form, and looking around into the rubble, and finding as I did a good sized slab of stonework, along with a small bit of metal that had been in the walls.
"What are you doing now?" asked Raphtalia, as I walked towards the pile of remains, and set the slab up beside them, setting it flat, and using the metal bit to start working on it.
"Guild stuff. This marker will tell them who killed the thing, and thus who these remains belong to, so we get paid regardless of who comes to collect them later, since I'll assume you guys don't want to stay and face the others without the Queen," I told her, feeling my skin prickle a bit at the scrapping of metal on stone sound, but finding the loose building material just malleable enough to carve the symbol a few centimeters deep, before standing it up beside the pile.
"So you're not gonna grab the Princess and run, then?" asked Naofumi, and I, standing back to admire my handiwork, shook my head.
"I think Idol Rabier just showed us that Melty's sister is serious about this whole 'kill her to take the throne' thing, if he was willing to take her into custody," I began, dusting off my hands as I walked back towards them.
"He wasn't even looking for her at Lord Van's estate, just trying to get rid of a rival, and found us there. Taking me made sense because he was a crazy religious bastard. Taking her only made sense if he wanted to get in her sister's good graces, given I doubt he could have made it into hers after tonight, or her mother or father's for that matter," I explain, and she helpfully nods.
"Idol was known for his…eccentricities, and had little pull at court save what his ancestors left him as the keeper of that sealed beast. If he wanted to raise his status, she was the only one of my family who would ever associate with trash like him," she said, looking across the two courtyards to where the thing had first emerged. His remains were mixed up in there somewhere…probably meaning we'd need to just tear the whole building down and burn it away to remove his taint from the place.
"So, I'm going to accompany you until Melty's mother makes her return into the country, which, given what that shadow woman said back after the cliff, would be a few days, though one could guess that with a few of the clues we've gotten lately, right?" I said, turning to Melty, who looked annoyed at my tone, but nodded.
"She would indeed, though I'm curious what 'clues' you could be referring to," she said, and I actually had to chuckle at that, as I pointed towards the horizon in the direction I was almost certain the capital was.
"Just after the Wave, the Pope asked me to be a patron of the church, and was rather frank with sensitive information that I suspect he'd normally be less free with, meaning he needed me to trust him, right now, and not wait for later on, thus, he's on a time limit," I explained, and then shifted towards the spot where Idol died.
"Meanwhile, our good bastard was very forward in his attempts to get rid of Lord Reichnott, so he felt pressured in the timing department too, and there's only one event the pair of them might find intimidating enough to step up their schedules, the return of a ruler who won't see things their way. And not in some nebulous time in the future, but in the next day or two, forcing him to act now, or not at all," I told her, and she nodded at that, not dumbly either, as it looked like she'd figured that out herself, but hadn't expected me to put the pieces together in that way.
Naofumi opened his mouth, getting out the word pope, before we all stopped, as a sound began to echo over the courtyard, causing us all to go on edge. The sound itself would have been innocuous on its own, not even worth thinking about normally, given it was merely the sound of feet on the ground. The thing that made it odd was that it sounded like it was a hundred or more sets, all heavy and powerful.
Suddenly, as if to make the situation even MORE ominous, a fog came up, one I didn't need (Sense) or (Insight) to know was magical in nature, though the Princess decided to say it anyway. She was quick to point out there was nothing malevolent behind it, no malicious intent that she could feel. That didn't mean it was friendly, however, and Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo gathered around the two of us, with me taking her hand and planning on bailing us out at the first sign of trouble.
"That will not be necessary," said a voice…not a loud one, but like it was standing right by us, and looking around, I realized no one else had heard it, making me immediately start to cast my (Fast Travel) skill, intending on taking us to Sanctuary. Unfortunately, that skill was blocked, according to the interface, and the voice sighed, not in anger, but just exasperation, as the pounding feet got closer.
"It's…" began Melty, watching as forms began to take shape in the fog, large, two legged, and surprisingly fluffy ones that came in two lines, and began to form a circle around us.
"Filolials!" shouted Filo, and I really wished I had more experience with them, as to me, each one looked identical, even as the fog lifted in a dome around us, allowing me to see they had different feathers colors, but otherwise looked like carbon copies, which was weird.
"What in the world are they doing here though? And is Hitchcock directing them?" asked Naofumi, and that, oddly, correlated with something from my own world, so while the ladies were confused, I barked out a nervous laugh, really hoping this would have a better ending then 'The Birds', as we kept huddled, and waited for something.
Luckily, as the filolials got into place, the circle completed, they did not begin to dive bomb us. Instead they began to…I'm charitably going to call it sing, but to me it was just warbles. Still, Filo began to hum with it, so I assumed it sounded much better in the native tongue, as their bodies began to glow, and I felt the oppressive power of magic fill the circle, before the fog began to swirl in one particular spot.
The cloud gathered up, and then rose, becoming something akin to a soft white flower in from as it began to go higher and higher, towering over the walls of the manor, and then, without a noise, the floor bloomed, petals falling away from it like curtains, one after the other, revealing the thing within. What was instead boggled my mind, as it stood there, red eyes opening up, and then looking down at us.
"Filolial-zilla!" I shouted on instinct, and pointed up, wondering idly if I should inform Motoyasu that this setting did INDEED have Kaiju.
