Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading... and picked out a pretty major plot hole in the original draft of this chapter.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
Mein immediately turns around, and extends the end of her staff towards where Yukari's sound last came. Sure enough, she only manages to strike air, and some light, soft vegetation rather than a body. The raccoon demi-human, their guide and the controller of their undead scouts is gone. The monster she witnessed earlier clearly has very high intelligence, when it chooses to take out their eyes before anyone else.
"Damn it! Show yourself, you damn… slender monster! I'll snap your limbs like twigs, and crush your head like a berry!" Nora's angry scream fills the dark forest. This time, her friend didn't bother to scold her for being loud. Of course, nothing answers her back except the shuffling sound of branches against wind. How did they miss it? There's no sound of birds, or bugs in the forest. It's too quiet to be natural! At this moment, the disgraced princess starts to truly regret the decision they made to continue traveling at night.
If they had stayed at the same place. Being surrounded, and subsequently captured by the Three Heroes' Church in the morning was a very real threat after Nora caused a small tremor. But there's always a chance that they wouldn't have been captured since they did move away before the sun sank below the horizon. Plus the unknown of being taken by some abominable monster nobody knows about is much more horrifying than the idea of being captured by the Three Heroes' Church again. Sure, they might all be burnt to death, but is it such a bad end compared to whatever that thing could have done to them?
Chapter 108: Bed of Chaos
"Stand together, back to back!" The Shield Hero quickly gives out a command. Despite everyone panicking due to Yukari's sudden disappearance (or perhaps because of it), they were all quick to follow his instruction. The princess feels slightly emboldened as she can feel someone touching her behind her back, and her sides. "Mein, use one of your light spells."
"We might give our position away to the church search party, Master Naofumi." The disgraced princess feels a bit hesitant about acting on Naofumi's order this time. Yes, she was just thinking that being captured by the church is preferable to being taken by some unknown, possibly eldritch monstrosity. But unsurprisingly, she found that she doesn't have the nerve to truly do something that might even point the Three Heroes' Church to their current location.
"We are practically blind without Yukari. We have to be able to see around us first to do anything!" Naofumi's voice is desperate, dripping with urgency. "We aren't at the edge of the mountain. There's a chance we don't give ourselves away. And even if we lure the church people over, maybe they'll even act as a distraction to the monster while we escape!"
Huh… Mein certainly didn't think about the situation this way. With no good argument against the order, she does what she's told. Although she keeps her [Mage Light] alight at the end of her star staff, rather than shooting it above her head, or sticking it to some surface around her. She's able to control its illumination better this way. With a source of light that's brighter than what they are getting from the moon and stars, they can actually see a short distance around them. The dark forest actually becomes even more terrifying with their limited visibility. Every stray branch looks like a possible limb of the slender monster Yukari supposedly saw earlier, every waving shadow starts to resemble the thing that took their guide in Mein's mind.
"Master Naofumi, you mentioned a name earlier… 'Slenderman', I think?" The princess' sight frantically wanders left and right, both trying to find the possible threat, and dreading the moment when some eldritch being actually does leap out of the shadow at her. "Is it a monster from your world? What's it like? Maybe it'll have similar power to what we are facing?"
"Em… yeah. Slenderman. It's a… urban legend is what we call it. Something people rumor about witnessing, but no concrete evidence of it existed. People can't even agree what power it has." The Shield Hero's voice is higher pitch than usual, not to mention the words leave his lips more rapidly between ragged breathing. He's clearly also feeling the stress of the situation. "Some depict it having tentacles growing out of its back. Some say it can turn people it captured into 'proxy'... it basically means it mind controls the people it captured. Most of the time, it's said to capture children."
The princess thinks over Naofumi's description while her eyes frantically scan through the slightly illuminated, but still very dark forest. A creature that captures children could have multiple meanings. If it's more beastly, it could have gone for younger and smaller prey knowing they are weaker. But the same can be said for older prey if it hunts like a beast. No, this 'slender man' mainly targets children, suggesting it has the ability to plan things like a sentient man. Could that be the reason it targeted Yukari rather than knowing she's their sensor? Because she happened to be the youngest? While the apprentice necromancer is hardly a child, she is still most definitely the most young among them.
"What do you mean, 'depict'? I thought you said there's no 'concrete evidence' if it exists or not?" The highwayman's question makes Mein blinks for a short instance. Now she thought about it, there does seem to be a bit of contradiction to Naofumi's wording, although it could be that he's stressed, and simply made a mistake.
"Oh, I mean… that people made drawings based on what others said about The Slenderman. On what they heard from. Yes." The Shield Hero clearly got caught off guard by Ren's question. However legitimate it was. His voice stuttered. "Did anyone see, or hear static? The Slenderman supposedly also causes static effects."
"Causes status effects? What kind of status effect?" The princess swings her face back to look at the Shield Hero. Remembering what threat they are possibly facing, she quickly tears her gaze back to the patch of dark forest in front of her. "Like poison, or paralysis?"
"No. I said static. It… it looks like a bunch of white and black dots filling your vision. And it sounds like… I guess it sounds like running lightning bolts?" The Shield Hero once again begins to ramble, about this 'static' status effect that apparently exists in his world.
"AH! You talk too much, but you say nothing!" Nora is apparently rather annoyed by the Shield Hero's words, as she interrupts his words with a loud scream that seemed to make the trees wave. "What's actually real? What's that monster like anyway?!"
"We keep our eyes and ears open, and assume all of them can happen. Nora." The hellion's much more rational and collected friend answers her question. Mein can picture him scanning for threats in front of him just like she's doing. "We'll cover each other through the night… and then start looking for Yukari in the morning. At least assume the church hasn't caught up to us by then."
"Actually… I'm not sure we'll be safe once morning comes. There's nothing that says the Slenderman only hunts at night." The Shield Hero successfully obliterated Ren's rather rational plan when he opened his mouth again. "I mean… It's often depicted hunting at night. But I think that's just to make it look scarier since you can't see it clearly."
"Oh, are you fucking shitting me?! You-" Nora explodes into profanity just like the first time they met her, at least till the hellion's voice suddenly cuts off.
"Ms. Nora? Did something happen? Did you see something?" Sir Oersted calls out the ex-bandit this time. Her curiosity and anxiety being teased by the Gallian knight, Mein turns her head towards the direction Nora's voice came from, while still doing her best to keep the corner of her gaze fixed on her direction. It proves to be a rather self-defeating action, as trying to split her eyes apart and look at two ways just leaves her unable to focus on anything. So she quickly looks back towards her own direction once again.
"Yeah. There! Don't you see that thing in the distance?" Nora's voice makes Mein decide to briefly abandon her own vigil, and look at the Hellion fully. And judging from how everyone shifted their position, they did it too. And sure enough, much deeper in the dark forest, there seems to be a faint, blue glow. Not exactly the 'static' effect Naofumi described earlier, but definitely not natural either.
Unless it's some kind of glowing mushroom? The princess is reminded of the shrooms with blue glow she witnessed deep under the caverns of Lute's abandoned mine. The one she fell into with Raphtalia when the Chief God damned Wavehound knocked them down the subterranean river. "It's probably just some mana filled, glowing fungus. You are scaring yourself silly."
"NO! It wasn't there a moment ago!" The hellion holds her hammer high above her head, seemingly enraged by Mein's question, or perhaps she's being double guessed. With a loud yell that sounds almost like desperation, Nora actually breaks away from the group and charges head first deeper into the forest. "You think I'm scared of you, you slender mother fucker? You are MINE!"
"NO! Come back, Nora!" Ren immediately gives chase after his friend. Mein shares a nervous glance with Naofumi and Oersted, briefly wondering if they should stay in this spot, or follow the pair of former refugees turned bandits.
"I know we should have immediately followed them. Strength in numberS and all…" After a short while when neither Nora or Ren returned, the Shield Hero finally broke the cold, dead silence between them. For once, it sounds like Naofumi is actually making excuses for his action, or non-action in this case. "But in many horror movies, that's exactly how you get killed. And if it's really the Slenderman, fighting it is simply out of the question."
"So, what should we do now? Lord Shield Hero? We can't just leave Yukari, Nora and Ren to die, right?" The young knight from Gallia asks the good, but redundant question. Obviously they can't afford to go back to the same place before they were found by Yukari. They are deep in enemy territory, completely lost, and very much not equipt or experienced in navigating the kind of land they are on. Mein also pointedly notices how Nora and Ren definitely haven't returned to them yet, and there's not even the sound of fighting after the hellion blindly charged deeper into the forest. "If you want, I can go ahead and look for them…"
"NO! We are not splitting up any further! Splitting up in a horror medium is bad…" The Shield Hero sounds unsure of himself again. It's clear that the Hero Academy didn't prepare him to deal with this kind of situation. Or perhaps he isn't trained to deal with this monster without a heroic weapon. Considering his world can't even prove the existence of the monster they are supposedly facing, there's a good chance they are dealing with a hero killer.
"We aren't feeling that 'static' effect you mentioned, that's a good thing. Right?" The princess tries to look on the bright side, even if she's not feeling any more optimistic than her two male compatriots.
"Yeah. But like I said. The Slenderman is an urban legend on the net. We don't know if it exists or not. For all I know, everything I just said was rubbish-, any of you heard that?" The Shield Hero suddenly interrupts his own rambling as he frantically looks around. Oersted, and Mein both look around just like Naofumi. The princess doesn't know if the young knight is hearing it, but her ear definitely picked up on something. It sounds like someone, or rather, something trying to speak. But the voice, or the noise sounds all wrong. Almost like there's lightning cracking with each vibration. Something is definitely approaching them.
She feels its presence before seeing it, and it's not black and white dots filling her vision like Naofumi described earlier. It feels like a pool of gelatinous, slimy liquid dripping towards her. And then she starts to see unusual shapes in the forest among the waving branches and shadows. Long, slithering, worm-like tentacles crawling forward exactly as Yukari first described. Its body and head finally pushes through the treeline, shaped like a long series of knots tied together by twisted trunks and roots into a macabre mockery of human's shape. Branches extending out from where a human's limbs connect to their torso, with vines growing out of the thing's back. Yukari, Nora, and Ren all hanging on one such tentacle, it's hard to tell if they are still alive with how they are tangled with limbs.
"NO!" Naofumi lets out a yell, and the reason quickly becomes clear as Sir Oersted rushes forward, sword raised above his head trying to attack the thing. He's unceremoniously hit in the chin when something rises up from the ground, quick as lightning. The Gallian knight immediately crumbles onto the ground, his body picked up by the slender thing on one of its many vine tentacles just like the rest of their companions.
The princess quickly raised her hand and gathered all of the magic she could abruptly muster in an instant into a fireball. It burns much brighter than the little wisp of [Mage Light] at the end of the star staff. She doesn't expect trying to kill the thing with fire would fare better than Oersted's earlier attempt at using his steel, but she has to try something. Before she has a chance to toss the fireball into the thing, she's stopped. But not by the monster itself. No, the Shield Hero abruptly grabbed her hand. Breaking her concentration and making the spell she forced breaking into embers. She's immediately reminded how he said this slender man has the ability to take over its victims mind. Has it already taken the Shield Hero over as its thrall? But Naofumi's next action surprises her. "What are you doing, Mein? She's asking for our help."
The princess is thinly aware that Yukari, and Nora seem to be waving their arms around. Although that could simply be the way they are dangled by their ankles, head down and feet up. It does remind Mein that if her attack on the eldritch being in front of her was successful (the monster looks very arboreal in appearance), all of their previous traveling companions would burn alongside this slender thing. Although if the rumor from Naofumi's world is correct… is being burnt to charcoal such an agonizing fate compared to having their mind taken and their body slowly break down, as they spend the rest of their unlife serving the whims of a creature completely defying any human logic? "Yeah, I think they are telling me they'd rather die than being controlled by this slender … thing."
"What? NO! She is definitely not asking for death!" The Shield Hero's head slowly turns to look at the monster for a brief moment. Confusion seems to cover his face. He quickly whips around to look at Mein once again with a more severe expression. "She's trapped, and asking us to help her escape."
The princess also turns her head to look at the monster. It's being remarkably polite for the moment, simply standing… rooting around? It's not doing anything overly threatening, aside from still dangling all of their companions with their vine tentacleS. As for the person Naofumi is talking about… both Yukari and Nora have their eyes rolled into their skulls. The hellion even has her tongue dangling out of her mouth. The situation would have been remarkably comical, if it isn't so dire in the first place. It doesn't take a learned mage, or master strategist to tell her that indeed, both Yukari and Nora are trapped. "Yes, Master Naofumi. I don't know if you are talking about Yukari, or Nora. But I can see they are both trapped. And no. I can't help them escape. Sir Oersted already tried and failed, and now he's hanging alongside them."
"I'm not talking about Yukari and Nora!" Once again, the Shield Hero looks completely confused for a brief moment. Once again, some weird eldritch whisper mixed with the rumble of lightning echoes in Mein's ears, making her head dizzy. She doubts she can conjure up a proper fire spell even with the help of the star staff now. "Now look at what you just did. You hurt Bed-chan's feelings."
"Who, or what the Wave heck is bed chain?" Both the princess and the Shield Hero end up staring at each other. The giant, slender plant monster once again politely waits for the conclusion of their staring contest. Mein suddenly points her finger at the monster standing (rooting?) over them. "You mean this THING?!"
The giant monster's tree trunk-like body actually recoils back a bit, almost as if she managed to hurt it with her words alone. Well, it'll just have to excuse her for not being careful or polite with her words. Considering it's dangling all of their companions upside down, and most likely have given their position away to the search party of the Three Heroes' Church.
"Be nice to Bed-chan, Mein. I know you guys don't like people with animal features, so a man made of plants is probably more out there. But she just got spooked by us and thought we were with the bad church people looking for her…" Naofumi's voice trailed off as he looked at the slender tree thing once again. And he actually talks to the eldritch-looking monster. "Can you gently put our friends down, Bed-chan? We aren't with the church. They are looking for us too."
Mein's jaw definitely broke from her face when the giant plant monster slowly puts down all four of their companions on the ground. "It understood you?"
"Not 'it'. Bed-chan thinks she's a girl. And why wouldn't I understand her? She's speaking perfect Japanese." The Shield Hero's reply makes the princess blink her eyes in a very, VERY belated realization. In retrospect, it was staring at her face for so long, she feels dumber than when she's tricked by a moron like Consevatie the Younger for not noticing this sooner. "...Bed-chan isn't speaking Japanese, is she?"
"NO! But that's not the important thing. Don't you realize it? Master Naofumi?" Mein briefly forgot about the arboreal abomination that somehow understands them… and is acting more courteous than most of the scions of ladies and lords in Mother's court. She begins to furiously shake the even more confused looking Shield Hero. "You can still understand what I'm telling you, and I can still understand what you are saying to me too."
"Well, yes. Because-"
"The translation ability given to you by your shield. It's still active even after your shield got 'stolen' by Lautrec's goddess. Same like your legendary weapon restriction!" Facing against the verbal barrage of Mein, Naofumi's face starts to change into one of realization too. "I don't know what Lautrec's fucking goddess did to you. But you still have a connection with your shield! I mean… your legendary weapon restriction is one thing, but we know that the translation ability is tied directly to your shield!"
"You… you are right! I guess it's like that time Haru lost his wings. That makes so much more sense. Maybe Lautrec's goddess didn't steal my shield away after all!" The Shield Hero blinks his eyes, clearly convinced by her reasoning. He looks down, and brushes some dust away from his empty arm. "Although it'd be nice if I know how to get it back."
Once again, a wave of strange sound saturates Mein's head, giving her pain that feels like her skull is being split open. She claws her fingers through her hair, clenching at her head. When the pain passes away, she hears Naofumi talking to someone, clearly not to her. "Sorry for ignoring you, Bed-chan."
"Oh, don't tell me-" Another wave of sudden realization hits her. The weird sound coupled with that cracking lightning? Judging from Naofumi's reaction, that happened when the slender tree monster was talking. Which could only be the translation system trying… and failing to do what it's supposed to do. Resulting in a head splitting headache to her instead of recognizable speech. "I don't even have the translation system from this damn broken wand, and it gives me a headache everytime I hear someone talk in a language I don't understand?! Can you at least throw me a bone, you damned broken piece of miserable twig!?"
In a fit of uncontrollable rage, the princess raises the star wand (still in its long staff form) over her head, and then starts furiously, repeatedly slamming the broken hero weapon against the ground. She quickly feels someone restraining her behind her back. "Stop that, Mein! You aren't going to make that cursed weapon better by beating the stuffing out of it!"
"It'll at least make me feel better for all the headache it gives me so far, literally!" Mein flailed a bit more in Naofumi's arms before she finally calmed down. She feels a bit ashamed for losing her control like this, since it's not the star wand's fault for being broken, or cursed (that's solely the fault of her father, for breaking the covenant and summoning all four heroes at once). And no, hitting it wouldn't fix the problem like the Shield Hero said.
But at the same time, it did make her feel a little better to vent her anger on something that can't fight back. And she has a lot of built up anger ever since Cromwell's betrayal… or since she committed her plan to stick with Naofumi. Not that she regretted her decisions and would have taken it back. Even if she's now a bit morbidly curious on how things would have gone if she went with father's scheme and framed Naofumi. She takes a deep breath, and turns to look at the Shield Hero again. "Okay, I'm calm now. Master Naofumi. But everytime this slender tree thing speaks, it gives me a headache because my wand's translation system is broken. Just like its storage space."
"Ouch, that does sound painful. Guess we better limit to Bed-chan speaking to the minimum. Is that okay? Can we mostly stick to asking you yes and no questions for now?" The Shield Hero turns around to look at the huge tree monster. Its, or rather, her bulbous lump of twisted roots actually bends up and down like a man nodding their head.
"If you need her to actually explain something, tell me first. I can probably step away from you two." The princess crosses her arms, knowing the difficulties of getting valuable information when the one asking the question is doing all the talking. "As long as I don't hear her talk, my wand's broken translation system won't kick in and give me a headache. I think. We should probably test it out, once our companions wake up."
"Right, guess that's settled. By the way, she has a name. Sort of." The Shield Hero nods his head along as he nudges his head towards the giant slender tree creature. "Her 'father' named her 'The Bed of Chaos'. Which is why I'm calling her Bed-chan."
"Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all. But at least she's not trying to hurt us… not anymore?" The princess gives a sideways glance to the now named The Bed of Chaos. Once again, the giant creature's body wiggles up and down. Exactly like a fluffy filorial eager to please their owner, even if her form is much more grotesque. "But the Three Heroes' Church must be still hunting for us. We probably already caused too much noise and gave ourselves away. How are we getting away from them now four of our companions all got knocked out by her?"
"Well… I think the problem has already solved itself…" The Shield Hero looks up at the giant tree creature, and Mein has a feeling that she won't like his solution.
"This isn't as bad as I thought." The princess mumbles to herself, as she nudges herself around. Trying to get as comfortable as she can inside the coil of vines. Naofumi's solution to their fallen companions comes down to having The Bed of Chaos picking all of them up with her vine tentacles, and then run like the Wave of Catastrophe is chasing her. Thankfully not hanging them upside down by their feet this time. "Did you mention that she mistook us for Three Heroes' Church earlier, Master Naofumi?"
"Yeah. Something like that. Were the bad church people hunting you, Bed-chan?" On the other side of the tree creature, Naofumi is also being carried by the vines coiling around him. The princess can see the tip of the vine poking up and down, almost like it's nodding to Naofumi's question. The Bed of Chaos could apparently multitask. "I guess it's kind of hard for her to know what's going on when all of the humans she met were trying to hunt her down."
"So the church wasn't hunting for us after all, and we scared ourselves silly for nothing… Well, I can see why they had so many men out trying to corner her. She runs fast." Mein frowns as she sinks her head lower into the surprisingly soft and comfortable wrap of the vines. The giant arboreal creature moves like a multi legged insect, rooting, and uprooting its many branch-like limbs, and vine-like tentacles through the forest and rolling mountains. It easily cleared away the side of the cliff like a spider, which was previously almost unnavigable to their all-human (and demi-human, in Yukari's case) group.
"It's not for nothing. I'm sure the Three Heroes' Church would be more than happy to capture us if they found us." Naofumi's head also seems to be sinking into the grip of The Bed of Chaos. Not too long after, the large plant monster comes to a stop as she drops Mein, Naofumi, and the rest of their unconscious companions down on the ground as they reach the foot of the mountain on the other side. "Okay. Yukari is still unconscious, but I think we are safe for now. Let's go find a place to hide, and get all of this misunderstanding sorted out."
"Yeah. You tell me what 'Bed-Chan' told you so far, Master Naofumi. Maybe ask her some more 'yes and no' questions you can think of to get things cleared up." The princess stands up on her wobbly legs. Climbing a mountain in the afternoon, and trudging their way through crumbling mountain tops over the night without any rest is making her envious of her knocked out companions. Speaking of… "In the meantime, I'll watch over our companions. The last thing we want is for one of them to wake up, see 'Bed-Chan', scream and bring the entire Three Heroes' Church on our heads."
"That's a good plan. Anyways… What's that, Bed-Chan?" Naofumi's question makes Mein looks up. And in a rather comical display, the much larger creature made of plants and having a dozen limbs is now leaning down towards the ground where Naofumi is sitting. It's bulbous tumor of a head, shaped by branches twisting into a mockery of a face pressed close against the side of the Shield Hero's face. Almost as if an eldritch being is trying to whisper some forbidden knowledge that'll drive the young man mad. Is the thing actually trying to whisper to Naofumi?
Once again, the princess' ears pick up some weird, otherworldly sound. But it's more like a murmur behind her mind that barely caused her any physical discomfort. Granted, the experience is still unpleasant, as it reminds Mein of cautions from Uncle Aldrecht about the danger of communing with otherworldly spirit. But at least it's not skull splitting pain. "What's she trying to tell you, Master Naofumi?"
"Oh, Bed-Chan is telling me how she was born." Naofumi's answer causes the princess to blink her eyes. Of all the things this strange, yet sentient, almost human-like creature could be chatting about, her life story isn't one Mein expected. Since most sane people don't walk up to someone they only met last night, and proceed to start a conversation about their first memory in life, much less how they were born. The Shield Hero's next action kind of explains her question. "Really? You were born only two days ago?"
"You are telling me Bed-chan is a newborn? Even younger than Firo? Hell. Younger than the birds raised by the Spear Hero?" Mein's sight immediately shoots up into the 'face' of The Bed of Chaos. With how strange looking this monster is, she kind of half expected her to be some kind of elder, almost ancient creature like that giant thunder lizard. Then again, she supposed there would have been rumors about Bed-chan's sighting around Whiterun County if that was the case.
"Yeah. From what she's saying… It sounds like she used to be one of those trees Balafon grows out of those Life Root fruits. But the church did… something to her. And now she's crawling all over the mountain on all her limbs. More like a giant tree spider than The Slenderman." Naofumi rubs his chin as he stands up, and looks at the creature closer.
"She does look like she's mostly made of trees… and vines. But I didn't think she used to be one of the dryad trees they grow in Balafon." The princess slowly turns her head to look at the creature, and nods her agreement. "But what do you mean by 'the church did something' to her? Did they create her using material from a dryad tree?"
"Dryad trees… is that what they were called? Not mini-life roots?" The Shield Hero gives Mein a sideways gaze before turning to look at their arboreal acquaintance. The two of them nudge together, and seem to start another conversation again with the Shield Hero nodding and giving some grunts to show he's listening to The Bed of Chaos. The niggling whisper behind Mein's mind is quickly taken over by Naofumi's deliberately louder voice. "Bed-chan isn't sure what they did. But when she woke up, she was surrounded by a bunch of robed priests. And they draw some kind of circle under her?"
"Oh for the love of Chief God! You mean those idiots from Three Heroes' Church were attempting some kind of God Crafting ritual? Who was the idiot who thought this was a good idea?" Once again, Mein feels like pulling her own hair. Granted, if this dryad creature is as young as she claimed, then there's a good chance she misinterpreted what really happened. She did mistake Naofumi and Mein's group as Three Heroes' Church, when they aren't wearing or wielding anything that would have associated them with the clergy.
Yes, the life root that The Bed of Chaos traced its origin back to was a highly unstable creature that almost became a minor outer god and tore a hole through the sky directly into the source of magic. But considering none of the many other dryad trees had this change… it's definitely something done by the Three Heroes' Church.
"What?! You mean your people can actually make a god for yourself?!" Naofumi's outburst makes the princess jump to her feet. She has a feeling that the Shield Hero once again misunderstood the term she used. And his next response confirmed her suspicion. "If you can make gods for yourself, what do you need to summon people like me for? Actually, what do you need us summoned heroes for anyway? You guys already have a bunch of strong people around."
"You saw how easily Lautrec's 'goddess' tore through our best warriors, mages and cleric knights, Master Naofumi. We need all the help we can get. And she might not even be a real goddess. Just a very strong being from another world. Heroes like you were the only dimensional interlopers we got from previous waves, and some of them can feel like unbeatable demi-gods, to put things lightly." The Shield Hero slumps on the ground at that particularly unpleasant reminder. "As for your original question, I admit the term 'God Crafting' is misleading…"
"Wait, can you go back to what you were saying before about other dimensional interlopers…"
"MOVING ON!" The princess loudly cut off Naofumi's question, startling him into jumping on his feet again. "Look, I understand you are curious, Master Naofumi. But let's sate your curiosity when we aren't still being surrounded by Three Heroes' Church thugs searching for our new 'friend', and ourselves."
"Right, right… go on." The Shield Hero nods his head, while waving his hand at Mein, asking her to continue her explanation. "What were you saying about 'God Crafting' being misleading again? We can talk about other things in a better time."
"Right, as I was saying. The name of 'God Crafting' is misleading since it doesn't actually make real Gods. It's a method used by clerics to focus their faith and willpower, and imbue creatures and items with power derived from gods and empowered by people's worship. So it's more proper to say it's imbuing celestial power into artifacts, monsters… and humans. Kind of like a mage waving enchantment into a magical item. I guess calling it 'Celestial Imbuing' doesn't have the same ring, or the impact as calling it 'God Crafting'." Mein begins to explain the most powerful, yet also the most unreliable branch of Cleric Miracle magic. Her knowledge of the cleric branch of magic is nowhere near as extensive as her understanding of Brimirian Wizardry magic. But as one of the royal princesses, she at least knows the history behind it. "I guess this technically makes Bed-chan one of Chief God's angels. If she was imbued with Chief God's domain."
Naofumi shares another blank look with the giant tree monster, he blinks his eyes. "She doesn't look like a conventional angel. Although I suppose she does look like something Kazuma Kaneko would make. That dude drew angels in bondage attire, and looked like spaceships."
Once again, Mein has no idea what Naofumi is getting at. So she simply ignores it and continues. "The most successful case of 'God Crafting' done by the church was creating the famed battle sainte Janne D'arc after the Tenth Wave. She was created because the Sword Hero of that cycle fell in battle, and she was able to hold back the Tenth Wave of Catastrophe alongside the rest of the heroes. Went on to live through multiple Wave of Catastrophes in the next five hundred years before finally giving up her celestial power and passed away. Although some sects of the church believe she was raised into heaven as one of Chief God's angels."
"So the church can power someone up as strong as one of the heroes? Going back to my question… Why were we summoned again? Because you know, we kind of have no idea what's going on, or what we are doing most of the time." The Shield Hero points his finger at himself again, being as modest as ever despite him being much more competent than most of the summoned heroes historically. "It sounds like it would be better if you guys save yourselves."
"Because as I was saying, Master Naofumi. God Crafting is fickle and unreliable. Saint Janne was the best example where a righteous man was given the power from the realm of the gods. But in the worst case, the power that's not meant for the mortal could destroy a man. Like how the church tried to create another battle saint after Janne passed away, and they instead made an unthinking monster. It couldn't be reasoned, commanded, or communicated with. And it nearly destroyed Faubley before all the heroes worked together to bring it down." Mein knows that she wasn't the most pious man. But if their recorded history had even a sliver of truth, she wants to stay away from this particular branch of magic as much as possible.
"So this 'God Crafting' can easily make a mindless monster. Sounds about right." The Shield Hero clearly wanted to talk about something more, but his body suddenly froze. He puts his finger in front of his mouth, clearly trying to tell everyone to stay silent as he looks to the side.
The princess' eyes follow his direction, not seeing anything. But considering the foliage obscuring their view, it would most definitely be too late if they did pick out anyone from Three Heroes' Church. She can definitely hear the ruffling sound in the distance. For a brief moment, she is tempted to ask The Bed of Chaos to pick them up, and carry them away once again. But it might already be too late by this point.
Speaking of the arboreal abomination, she moves faster than a flash of lightning as her elongated limbs and tentacles sails over Naofumi, Mein, and the rest of their unconscious companions. The princess can feel its limb holding onto her tighter this time compared to before. The Bed of Chaos even wrapped her vines over her head this time. Thankfully she can still see through the space between its coiled up vines, so she isn't left completely in the dark by the monster. For a brief moment, the princess wonders if the plant monster is holding tight onto her because it's going to attempt to run away from their pursuers. When The Bed of Chaos seems to be rooted onto the ground, she begins to wonder if the monster had betrayed them for some reason. But then figures began to break through the treeline, and any other thoughts were too late to make a difference.
"I could have sworn we heard people talking this way." One of the younger looking men wearing the white tabard of the church over their chest armor complained while he swung his sword around, cutting down branches in their way.
"Just like you clearly heard something on top of the mountain, and saw wisps of light up there?" Mein's eye grows wider as she realizes the speaker is once again, that old knight who she never got the name of. The same one who initially cornered her in her father's listening room. "It's probably just some adventurers camped around here. Well, they are food for The Bed of Chaos now."
"I don't get it. Why did we have to use that God Crafting ritual on that dryad tree anyways?" The younger knight from earlier throws his hand up in the air. "We are getting enough rations from them anyway. Not to mention all the other supplies we got from other crops. There's no point risking making a monster just to make one of them produce more fruit. And now it ran away after it turned into a monster, that Consevatie fool has everyone looking for it like it's his exotic pet."
Consevatie! Of course, the fool who decided to use God Crafting on a dryad tree was him! How did he ever catch Naofumi and herself off guard and capture them? Stamping the mark of slaves on their chests, and turning her into an actual slave in the process The disgraced princess feels like she'll never be able to clear this stain for the rest of her life. But if these church people are looking for The Bed of Chaos, why aren't they saying anything when they just walked straight away from them?
"You don't want to question your noble commander, Logan. Or you'll end up with meddlesome Jackson here." The old knight points his finger to the back of their dozen men group. Sure enough, the former lackey of Consevatie is hanging at the end of them. His head hanging lower than a filorial who lost a match in one of those Zeltoble fighting pits.
For a brief moment, it looks like whatever The Bed of Chaos did had managed to pull the wool over her pursuers eyes. The search party from the Three Heroes' Church is about to disappear from the other side of the small clearing. That's until a shrill scream suddenly comes out from Mein's side, making all of them spin around on their heels, glaring at their direction.
Omake: Dread of the Young Vicar Part 5
Gigantic metal sword clanks against armored fist, beating on everyone's heart like a wardrum. The Lord Commander of the loyal Adeptus Astartes clashes against the fallen Blessed Battle Master of their rebeling army. Everyone stops what they were doing before, as they witness the two strongest fighters of the Romalia Four Heroes' Church fighting against each other to claim who is the most powerful.
The knight commander's movement is disciplined, deliberate and executed in calm silence, like a well practiced actor on stage. Roger of Ajax, on the other hand wildly flails around with every punch he makes, crushing forward like a drunken brute who is barely in control of his own body, yet miraculously managing to not trip him over. His roar accompanies his every movement as he pushes Lord Commander Cloud back. "What's wrong, you buffed up pretty boy?! Don't tell me you are tired already, like that other fuck buddy of your previous cunt boy Vicar?!"
"You talk too much." The knight commander is not intimidated by the size of his opponent, or affected by the taunt thrown his way. Lord Commander Cloud expertly blocks, and parries away every strike from his much bigger enemy. His movement remains as fluid as when their deadly duel started, in spite of what the fallen battle saint claims.
"And you fight like a girl. A girl who has never seen real fights!" Roger of Ajax suddenly lets one of his tree trunk-like legs fly forward, kicking Cloud in the shin and breaking the magic knight's balance. His fist, and shoulder follows right after. Breaching the knight commander's guard to punch him in the face, while pushing Lord Commander Cloud's body back with his massive boulder-like shoulder. Sending the Buster Sword flying away from the knight's falling body. "What's wrong, sissy? Can't take a hit without hiding behind your precious sword?!"
"Go help Lord Commander Cloud, Julio." The Vicar would have tried something himself. But he still hasn't recovered after firing his strongest attack at the rampaging fallen saint. His ever faithful inquisitor nods his head, and shakily gets up onto his feet. But from the way Julio moves, the young Vicar knows that he wouldn't make it in time. Lord Commander is on his own while he weathers through the assault from Roger of Ajax.
"You." The knight commander of Adeptus Astartes' voice is emotionless as always, even as his body sails through air. His trusty blade was far from his reach. He reaches his arms out even as his head falls downward, into a collision course towards the ground.
"Talk." Lord Commander Cloud's legs wrap around the thick neck of the fallen battle saint. Clenching the larger man's vital point like a pair of pincers. But he's not trying to suffocate the man to death. Without any sound of grunting yet clearly still spending a lot of effort, the knight commander flips his, and by extension, Roger of Ajax's body around. Instead of crushing his own head onto the blood soaked ground outside the capital wall, he actually flips the much larger man around, and rams his head down into the soil. "Too much."
For a brief moment. Both of them stay perfectly still. The kick, punch and shoulder charge combo of Roger of Ajax clearly did its share of damage to Lord Commander Cloud. Not to mention him exhausting himself right afterwards, driving the offending party headfirst into the ground. As for the other man, he isn't going anywhere soon if at all when his entire head disappeared below the dirt.
Roger of Ajax pushes his hands against the ground, his body shaking and putting effort into freeing his head from the dirt it's now buried under. He manages to do so, after three tries. His face is now even more filled with wrath now it's covered in dirt. He glares murder towards Lord Commander Cloud, who also slowly gets back to his feet. "You, you… YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO GET ME ALIVE! HAHAHA! So long, assturd~!"
The giant suddenly turned around and ran, just as everyone thought he's going to have a second round with the equally wounded, and likely more exhausted leader of the Adeptus Astartes. The change of his demeanor is so sudden, Vittorio's mind briefly stopped working before he realized what's going on. And the implication of the fallen saint's actions. "Don't let the false saint get away! Kill him!"
"Lord Commander Cloud, catch!" Julio throws his blade towards the downed knight commander. The leader of the Adeptus Astartes looks up at the sword falling down towards him. He flips up from the ground, and kicks the sword towards the fleeing form of Roger of Ajax. The blade shoots forward, like a bolt leaving the firing mechanism of a heavy crossbow. But before it even traveled half the distance, a figure suddenly jumps up from the mounds of bodies, and throws himself between the shooting sword and the fleeing giant. It pierces right through his body, despite the armor still intact on him.
"You IDIOT!" Captain Batista runs towards the fallen man, catching him before his body hits the dirt. The demi-human rat captain also walks to the two of them, his head hanging low. "That fucker isn't worth giving your life to, Sebastian."
"I would have died in, Great War…" The aide of the fallen battle saint speaks through his shortening breath. "I now give… my life. Back to. My lord. Fight on, my brother. And… and…"
"Yeah. I'll fight on for you." The aide's head rolls away. Captain Batista slowly lowers his lifeless body down onto the blood soaked ground broken by heavy fighting and Vittorio's miracles. "I'll fix this mess that fat bastard caused, if that's the last thing I do. I'll make sure Shield Hero lives in the end."
Vittorio wished he was even half as optimistic about their situation as the captains who rebelled against Roger of Ajax. Even after killing and wounding so much of their own man, the culprit who turned the Shield Hero against them got away. The young vicar isn't sure that they can get the Shield Hero on their side now.
End Note:
I hope there's no hard feelings about last chapter's 'The Slenderman' fake out. Yeah, it's always planned (about as far back as I wrote the bioplant arc) that SIOC would create a second, less powerful but more sentient version of bioplant by immitating the witches of Izalith. It's till I was writing the last few chapters that I realized the outer lines/silhouette of the dryad aka Bed-Chan kind of look like The Slenderman. Especially the earlier version where he has big tentacles sticking out of his back. So I decided to do a bit of a fake out.
Also, I want to congradulate everyone who ever made a comment about how Naofumi shouldn't be able to understand what everyone was saying without his shield post 3rd wave. Yes, this was a clue of a future plot point I intentionally left for the more observant readers, not a plot hole oversight. Well... not this time anyways.