Mansion Massacre

Ruins of the Heroes: Three Days Ago

Darius could feel his limit approaching as he looked at the ground, which was currently littered with weapons. A warning of sorts sounded on his HUD, indicating that his magic was at its limit and that some of his abilities were shutting off. With a groan, Darius released his replica ability which caused all of the weapons on the ground to disintegrate as he collapsed to a sitting position, breathing heavily. "It seems you can maintain weapons outside of your inventory for at least a couple of hours so long as they're not used in combat," observed Fitoria as she walked up next to Darius.

"And apparently a day or two if I've got them in my inventory," said Darius, "Though I'm curious when I'll need to replicate this many weapons at once."

"It's possible that you won't need to at all," Said Fitoria, "But it's important for you to know all of your limitations. You may be a cardinal hero with certain protections and advantages, but that does not mean you're the most powerful warrior in the land."

"Yeah our latest session of Fitoria's school of ass-rending made that pretty obvious," said Darius, "I gotta work my way up just like everyone else. One quick question though, am I always gonna have to retrieve my projectile weapons? Because according to you and the help screen, my inventory expands in size with my level and after a long battle, I don't imagine I'll feel like picking up every weapon I used."

"In time, you should be able to gain an ability that will retrieve your weapons for you," replied Fitoria, "But only once certain conditions have been met. The same applies to all of your other unique abilities and skills."

"Unlock as I go," said Darius as he stood up and crossed his arms in a thinking pose, "Well if it saves my bacon in a pinch. I just hope I don't gain an inconvenient ability at a bad time."

"We can only hope," remarked Fitoria as she ended training for that day.

Mansion of Idol Rabier: Now

"A-Armory Hero," spat a confused Rabier, "What sort of nonsense are you blabbering about now?"

"Yeah I figured you wouldn't know," remarked Darius, "The fifth cardinal hero doesn't appear quite as often as the other four. Bad luck for you that you managed to pick up the latest one."

"Well it hardly matters anyway," Said Rabier, "You can't honestly expect to just walk out of here after threatening me, do you?!"

"I can if I walk out with a sword to your throat," Darius pointed out, "I'm certain your guards won't be too happy if I kill their employer and I'm certain you don't want to die choking on your own blood. So here's the deal, you come along quietly to your little dungeon and open up the cells. I take the children and you with me and kick your sorry ass out the back of the wagon the moment we cross the gate. I don't know about you, but that's a damn sight more reasonable than you deserve if you ask me."

"If you think I'm going to stand here and let someone make demands of me in my own mansion," said Rabier as he reached for his whip, "YOU'RE SORELY MISTAKEN!" The noble pulled his whip off of his belt and readied to strike with it. But Darius had activated his Imitator mask the moment he saw movement and charged forward with a slashing maneuver he'd seen earlier that day. The nobleman yelled in pain as his hand was cut across the back, causing him to stumble backwards while losing his hold on his whip.

Darius caught the whip in his left hand, causing it disappear into his inventory as a notification popped up on his HUD. 'Unlocked skill Auto Inventory: grants the ability to automatically store weapons from both defeated or disarmed enemies as well as store weapons which have been used as projectiles without the need for physical contact.' Now there was something he could make use of. "You just made the wrong move," said the Armory Hero as he stepped forward.

"Now wait, just hold on a moment," said Rabier as he staggered backwards, "We can work this out, maybe even make a de-AAAAAAGH!" Amazingly, the clumsy, panicking noble had actually managed to trip over his own cape and fell back hard against the window, his weight breaking through the glass. For a split second, Darius debated on letting him fall before he remembered his current circumstances.

"Phantom Chain Claw!" He called out as a portal appeared in midair and shot out another clawed chain. The weapon wrapped itself around Rabier's arm and went taught right before he hit the ground, causing a sickening pop to ring out through the night as the nobleman yelled in pain. "Well that's a lot quicker than the stairs," Darius quipped as he generated another portal with a chain and grabbed onto it before quickly descending down to the mansion grounds where Rabier was currently struggling to get up with only one working arm.

"You, you bastard," cried Idol, "Your chain pulled my arm out of its socket!"

"I gave you the chance to come quietly," The Armory Hero reminded him, "You should count yourself lucky I still need you alive to get out of here." The sound of commotion and armored feet approaching further reinforced that point as a good number of the mansion's guards arrived at the scene.

"Saxon," said the captain of the guards, a man with a well-trimmed beard and a halberd for a weapon, as they stopped in a loose formation in front of them, "What is the meaning of this? What are you doing?!"

"I'm negotiating at the moment," replied Darius as he put his boot on Rabier's back to hold him down, "Your lord here has found my terms disagreeable."

"This boy has humiliated me and is currently trying to flee," yelled Rabier, "don't le-UFFF." He was silenced by a swift stomp from Darius.

"I am leaving and I'm taking the children in that dungeon down there with me," explained Darius, "I already got a wagon ready, save for the Filolial that needs to be hitched up to it. Would any of you gentleman mind doing that for me and bringing it around?"

"You know we can't let you do that," said the captain as he leveled his weapon, "think about this for a moment. You've already committed bodily harm to our lord and now you're attempting to make off with his property. Both are serious crimes in these lands."

"Unfortunately for all of you, I've already done quite a bit of thinking and this is the result," said Darius as he snapped his fingers, causing all of the weapons the guards were currently holding to disappear.

"W-what, how did he do that, where are our weapons?" Those were just a few of the comments from the guards as the entirety of them realized that only a few of them had any weapons left, and those were daggers.

"Whew, finally," said Darius with a sigh, "It took me all day to replace the weapons in and out of the armory with replicas, but the looks on all of your faces was worth the effort." 'And I'm lucky you bought the explanation about enhanced weapons when you noticed the altered appearance,' he thought as his expression went from pleased to stern then. "These are your weapons." A collection of ten portals opened above his head then as multiple types of weapons he'd pulled from the armory jutted out. "Now this is the last chance I'm giving any of you, either I walk out with the children and the supplies I've already taken or I skewer your lord and the rest of you with every sharp object in my inventory."

The guards all stood there watching, no one bothering to answer as a tense standoff took place. Darius was about to yell at them to make up their minds when he noticed one of the guards was glancing behind him. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening and moved to the side just as another guard rushed him with their dagger, managing to leave a scratch on his left arm below his shoulder armor. 'He climbed out of the damn bottom-floor window,' The Armory Hero cursed as he countered with his Imitator mask, which was still on, by using a quick horizontal slash to cut open the guard's lower stomach before also slashing him across the throat, effectively ending his life.

Despite him taking out the guard, however, the short scuffle still had two unfortunate effects. One, it forced him to step off of Rabier, allowing the wounded bastard to get up and attempt to run away. It also caused a momentary distraction the guards had all apparently been waiting for as the soldiers charged him with daggers and fists raised. Darius instinctively reacted by firing all ten projectiles, downing several of the guards present as he took off after Rabier. Some of the guards managed to get between him and the noblemen, but were quickly dealt with as the Armory Hero moved with the skills he'd picked up in the last several days, ducking around and slashing at their vital points before continuing his pursuit.

'Imitator makes my body move almost on its own,' Darius realized as he tried not to think about the fact that he'd killed or at least wounded over a dozen people in the span of a couple minutes, 'I just have to think of a lethal move I've seen and my body will follow.' He also tried not to think about the fact that he was earning EXP from the ones he'd struck down as he fired off more weapons at some of the guards behind him, managing to take out three more before having to stop and fight off several other arriving guards.

By this point, the commotion had drawn the attention of the remaining soldiers, who were all rushing at him in a vain attempt to restrain the cardinal hero or stab him with a dagger. The delay had also allowed Rabier something of a lead as the fight poured into the courtyard where the obelisk was. 'I don't have time for this,' thought Darius with desperation as he saw another group of guards managing to get between him and the quickly retreating noble. "HIQH QUICK!" The cardinal hero shot forward, slashing through five more guards before stopping right next to Rabier.

The surprised nobleman stumbled and turned, unaware that the steps leading to his own dungeon where right next to him. A series of pained groans and shouts followed as he rolled down the stone steps to the bottom while Darius turned his attention to another group of guards closing in on him. "Phantom Circle," ordered the Armory Hero as he stabbed his blade into the ground, causing a circle of spears, swords, axes and halberds to sprout out of the ground around him, impaling all of the guards who'd been attempting to pile on top of him. The remaining enemies finally stopped upon seeing this bloody spectacle as the makeshift spikes slowly lowered back down into the ground, revealing a bloodstained hero who's pissed off mood was obvious, even with the mask on.

Maybe it was this spectacle or maybe it was the fact that over half of the mansion's soldiers were now dead, but what little brain cells the guards had finally seemed to kick in as it dawned on them that they might be outmatched as the Armory Hero's gaze swept over the crowd. All that was needed then was a simple word. "Run," said Darius as another portal opened above his head. This served to snap the guards out of their daze as they finally retreated, either heading to hide in the mansion or to the gate to escape the grounds.

Darius kept his stance for a moment longer before closing the portal above his head as exhaustion began to eat at him. 'I still can't move anywhere near Fitoria's speed without hurting my body and keeping replica going for that long with so many weapons definitely took a toll,' he thought between breaths as he stood back up to his full height and turned to head down the stairs, 'I was lucky to have planned ahead this time, but I've still got a long way to go.' A groan interrupted his thoughts then as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "What goes around comes around, doesn't it Rabier," he remarked as he stepped past the noble who was struggling to his feet, "If you'd done as I asked, this might've turned out differently."

"I-If you think I-I," Idol started to say before a chain sprouted out of the wall and pulled him against it by his throat.

"Hold that thought," said Darius as he took the keys from the defeated bastard's belt and went down to the last cell first. It was a slow process getting the children to come out of the cells, especially with Rabier struggling over on the wall. But eventually he was able to convince all of them that he meant no harm and to gather by the entrance and wait as he opened the last cell. That, however, was when he encountered a problem.

Rifana came walking out of the cell, but her friend was nowhere to be seen. "Rifana," said Darius as he looked at the now empty cell, "Where's Raphtalia?"

"S-some of the guards came early this morning," said the weasel girl as tears came to her eyes, "They, they took Raphtalia away, said she was being sold off." She choked on her sobs then, unable to say anymore. As for Darius, he whirled around with the noble's saber pointed at his face.

"Where did you send her?" Questioned the Armory Hero with as much venom in his voice as he could muster.

"W-who," Rabier asked back, finding it difficult to speak with a chain around his neck. Darius released the chain holding him before kicking him back against the wall.

"The raccoon girl! She was in here just yesterday so tell me, WHERE IS SHE?!" Yelled the cardinal hero as the mask on his face finally disappeared, revealing a murderous gaze.

"Oh," said Rabier weakly, "that little mongrel. She was never much fun, always kept quiet even despite all of the lashings I gave her. I sent her off to be purchased by some acquaintances of mine. She could be halfway to the capital by now or maybe she's on a ship to a whole other nation, I don't know and I certainly don't care." Darius raised the saber then, intending to cut one of his eyes before he felt a tug at the back of his belt where he'd kept a couple of hidden daggers.

"YOU MONSTER!" yelled Rifana as she ran forward and jabbed the nobleman in the throat with her newly acquired blade. "Give them back! Give back Raphtalia, give back the adults you killed in my village, give back the days you've stolen from all of us, GIVE IT ALL BACK!" She punctuated each word with another vicious stab to the bastard nobleman's throat as he began coughing up blood.

Darius watched the scene with a mixture of relief and sadness as she kept stabbing until she was too exhausted to continue. A piece of human filth had now breathed their last, but it was sad that an innocent girl had dirtied her hands with blood. He waited another moment before placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, startling her for a moment before she looked up at him. "It's okay, it's over now," said Darius as he held out his hand and gently took the dagger before pulling the weasel girl to her feet, "Let's get you out of here."

Rifana simply nodded as she followed next to Darius, her eyes glancing from the dead nobleman to the blood on her hands every so often as they joined the rest of the children. The Armory Hero found he needed to carry one of the children who'd grown too weak to keep walking as they climbed back up the stairs and out into the courtyard. "Try not to stare at the mess out here," said Darius as some of the children seemed to want to stop and view the carnage, "We need to move as quickly as we can." His answer was a series of weak nods as he managed to lead them to the wagon he'd readied where he opened up a barrel of food for them to eat while he hooked up the Filolial.

Unsurprisingly, the children scarfed down the meal like they hadn't eaten properly in days, which was likely right on the mark as Darius sat in the wagon and guided it out of the courtyard towards the gate. It seemed luck had smiled on them at this point as some of the fleeing guards had hastily opened it and ran, not bothering to close it back. "Uh, Mr. Saxon," said Rifana, poking her head out of the back of the wagon, "Where are we going?"

"I heard mention of another noble not far from here," replied Darius as he suddenly realized how tired he felt, "Apparently he has the gall to treat demi-humans well, and if that's true he'll hopefully be willing to offer some shelter to all of you."

"But what about you?" Questioned Rifana, "Aren't you going to stay with us?"

"Only for a little bit," replied Darius, "I need to get to the capital of Melromarc soon, before the next wave hits. But don't worry, I'm gonna make sure you're all taken care of first." Rifana seemed to accept this for the moment as she looked back to see that her friend, a demi-human with dog ears and a tail was keeping watch over the other two children who'd fallen asleep.

"Uh, Sir, Mr. Saxon," said Rifana with a bit of nervousness, "Your name is Saxon right?"

"Call me Darius," he replied, "I'm only twenty and 'Mister' makes me sound like I'm getting old."

"Oh, okay," Rifana said, "Could I sit up here with you, at least for a little bit?"

"I suppose," said Darius, too tired to really try arguing, "Just help keep an eye on the kids back there for me while you're at it."

"I will," said Rifana with a look of slightly renewed determination in her eyes. The Armory Hero nodded in appreciation as the rest of the ride continued in silence.

Sometime Later: Mansion of Van Reichnott

Like the last mansion, the current one they were arriving at was fairly fancy. It differed from Rabier's mansion in that instead of being a large U-shaped structure it was more along the lines of an extra-large three-story house with some pointed spires and a green roof. It was also a lot more inviting with several nicely trimmed hedges decorating the paths around it. The lights were fortunately still on, telling Darius that the house was indeed occupied at the moment as he pulled the wagon up to the front door. "Stay here for a moment," He ordered softly, "I need to make sure this one isn't a complete prick too."

Rifana nodded before backing up a little into the wagon, keeping watch as Darius stepped down and walked over to the door. Taking a deep breath, Darius decided the direct approach was the best in this instance and banged his fist on the door a few times. About a minute passed before the door was opened by a blond-haired maid, wearing the typical uniform. "Can I help you sir?" Asked the maid in a neutral voice.

"Yeah we kind of need a han-," his vision swam as the Armory Hero collapsed through the doorway before blacking out completely.

The Next Day

'Ow, that was sudden,' thought Darius as his eyes fluttered open to take in the room around him. It wasn't overly decorated but it was still the kind of room you'd probably only find in the home of a noble with large windows and ornate wallpaper. The bed he was in was relatively comfortable with red sheets, a fact the cardinal hero was thankful for as he noticed he had a number of bandages on the wounds he'd sustained fighting the guards. Though he also felt a bit more uneasy when he realized he was missing his armor. He was also curious why his right cheek was in pain.

"It's good to see you're finally awake," said a seemingly kind voice, drawing Darius's attention to the middle of the room where a man with purple hair that spilled down the back of his neck was sitting. He was a bit pale and had a small set of spectacles balanced on his nose, but what gave away his status as a noble was the fancy purple button-up shirt and immaculate white cape he was wearing. "It's not every day someone comes collapsing on my doorstep, and it's even rarer for them to be driving a wagon full of children. My maids brought you here after you collapsed, though one of them did slap you when you collapsed on her." 'That explains that,' thought the Armory Hero as he rubbed his cheek. "Tell me, what business do you have here that you'd come so late at night in such an exhausted state?"

"Before I tell you that," said Darius, "can you at least confirm for me who you are?"

"Ah yes, forgive my poor manners," said the man, his kind smile never leaving his face, "You may call me Van Reichnott. I am the lord of this humble house."

"That's good, we're in the right place," Darius said as he sighed in relief, "Are the children okay?"

"My maids have been attending to them since you arrived," replied Reichnott, "Which brings us back to my original question. What exactly are you here for?"

"I needed a safe place to leave those kids," explained Darius, "I've heard you treat the demi-humans around here well, so if anyone could help them it'd be you. I can even pay you if need be."

"I can indeed help them," said Reichnott, "But first I need to know where you found them and how is it they came to be in such terrible condition? I've held off on questioning the children given they've clearly been through so much already, but one fact I have gleaned is that you were not the one responsible for their current state. In fact, given the way they were begging us to help you, I'm more than certain you probably took them away from all of that pain."

"I did more than take them away," said Darius, "the bastard nobleman who had them imprisoned and tortured is no more and the same goes for most of his guards."

"Goodness," said Reichnott, "A nobleman did this to the children?"

"You might know him," Said the Armory Hero, "A sadistic piece of shit by the name of Idol Rabier."

"Rabier did that to the children," said Reichnott as he put a hand to his chin, "I always knew he hated demi-humans, but to stoop to torturing children."

"Well he won't be doing it anymore," said Darius, "So feel free to send some people in to raid that mansion for valuables and whatnot. Consider it a thank you for helping the kids and for patching me up." Reichnott didn't respond to that right away as he seemed to be pondering something.

"What do you think of his story Figneria?" Asked the nobleman to someone out of sight.

"He's telling the truth," said a female voice as a dark-haired woman emerged seemingly from the shadows. To say she stood out a bit was an understatement as her black cloth-made outfit left little to the imagination with lose leggings, robed sleeves that left her shoulders exposed, a blue sash around her waist and a large cape with a furred collar that hung from her shoulders. What was most striking about her outfit, however, was the apparently Egyptian style wings on both the front and on the sash of her attire. "The wounds he sustained are also certainly battle wounds from blades."

"So you managed to save the children and fight your way through Rabier's guards," said Reichnott, "That is impressive. But tell me, what motivated you to commit such an act of valor in the first place?"

"It seemed like something any decent person would do," Said Darius, "And hero or not, somebody had to do something."

"What exactly do you mean by 'hero'," questioned Figneria with a raised eyebrow. Darius, realizing his error too late, attempted to blurt out an excuse but was quickly silenced by her next sentence. "You should know I'm very good at picking out lies, and I can already tell that while you have experience, you are not the most practiced liar out there." The cardinal hero's mind raced as he tried to think of a good explanation that would sound believable, but nothing came.

"I suppose I'll have to start at the beginning," he finally said, "You see, I was brought here from another world."

And so ends Darius's first act of heroism, it was a mess but he made it out. In other news, I'd first like to apologize if I gave anyone a miniature panic attack with Darius meeting Raphtalia. As you all know the first act of heroism does not always go well and I'd hoped everyone would be just as surprised as Darius to find that he was too late to save her. But fear not, she shall reappear. And to anyone wondering about the woman at the end, she is indeed Figneria from the Lord Marksman series, and her inclusion was an idea suggested to me by a fellow reader that made a lot of sense given what I have planned next and because it's an Isekai so why not. As always I encourage everyone to comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you too have a neat idea for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as Darius trains a new traveling companion to go up against the waves. 'Til then.