Virtue of the Shield Hero

by Allen Blaster

According to Newton's Third Law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Unfortunately, Naofumi and co will find this to be especially true after returning from their Otherworld trip. Rest of Summary inside. The third installment is here. Multiple pairings. Covers Season Three Territory and beyond. Arc 10: Chapters Thirteen: Part One: Death Match

151. 86: Turning Point

To answer Bookworm Guest since he asked; yes, some of those companion weapon forms are canon to the Series. Some of them are already in use, while others have very specific conditions for unlocking so they don't appear till later on.

As for why I decided to still use the Slave User Series under the title of Hero Service Crests despite other weapon forms being an option; it's for the same reason Ukrainian soldiers still use Soviet-Era weapons/tech alongside the Western Weapons/Technology they've received to fight off Russian aggression; and no, it isn't just because what Ukraine has been given isn't even close to enough to being able to replace their old arsenals.

It's because it's better to use everything you have at your disposal to survive than to die over the ethics of using something that's considered evil for something that'd be considered good. Besides that, those trust/comrade/friendship series require the individual to be close to the Hero for them to work while the Slave User Series can be used on anyone, regardless of their proximity to the Hero, to become levels of strength stronger than they could ever hope to achieve without it.

In short, while those series have severe limitations on who they can be used on, the Slave User Series can be used on anyone to raise multiple armies to fight off the Waves. That is my answer.

For anyone else who wants to ask me off-topic questions like this, contact me on Discord using (atsign)allenblaster to find me on my Fan Discord Server. I much prefer answering in real-time than doing this.

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Chapter Eighty-Six: Turning Point

---

Alright, I can guess what you're thinking about now.

Naofumi and co did all they needed to do in Kizuna's world.

They'd gone over. They'd leveled up. They'd acquired new power and gear and friends and memories. Most important of all, they'd beaten Kyo and taken back the stolen soul energy of the Spirit Tortoise to make the barrier that'd protect their world from the Waves and the Phoenix's Awakening for a time.

For all intents and purposes, they had completed their task and should have been sent back to their world as soon as possible. Under normal circumstances, the Shield and Bow might have teleported their wielders and friends back as soon as the next day, as time was a precious commodity that Naofumi's world did not have.

…

However, that did not happen.

Naofumi and his friends were eager to return home as well and would have asked the Boat Hero to use his Vassal Weapon to safely deliver them there if the Bow or Shield could not do it for whatever reason. But they didn't do so either. The date of the return trip was unanimously agreed on to be pushed back by everyone in the group.

The reasoning for it came down to what Kizuna had discussed with the Shield Hero at length one night, shortly after their return to Sickle.

And once the topic of that discussion was passed down to everyone else too, no one could say no to the Hunting Tool Hero's truly ambitious and undeniably insane request.

So Naofumi and his friends ended up staying for another week. While they waited for the time to enact Kizuna's ruthless ploy, the heroes of Naofumi's world worked hard for the good of both of their worlds. Whether it was by solidifying relationships with other nations or setting up trade agreements with Lapis for supplying magic crystals from their world at a later date, once Ethnobalt made more progress in his translation work. Everyone operated both together and privately, laying the foundations for their future endeavors.

Naofumi, in particular, was greatly occupied with deciphering the boon that the Book Hero had left him with. The magical page, which turned into a textbook Kyo had written, held secrets of the rogue Hero's alchemical prowess within it. Whether it was Kyo's personal recipes, a list of materials from both worlds that could be absorbed to unlock new weapon forms that had a chance of improving one's compounding abilities, or even detailed instructions on how to manually prepare certain types of ingredients or how to construct superior tools that would allow one to achieve near-perfect purity and quality in one's concoctions.

The book held all of those secrets and more.

The amount of info inside it was so staggering that parts of it were straight-up incomprehensible to the Shield Hero, due to his lack of mastery on the subject. He considered himself pretty skilled at alchemy before, but seeing Kyo's collection of knowledge put into perspective just how much of an amateur he still was.

Yet after studying what Kyo had left for him for only a few days, Naofumi managed to recreate the Book Hero's signature Green Buff Potion.

It was far from perfect. Due to the complexity surrounding its brewing process, the Shield Hero only managed to get an average-quality sample in his first batch. But even that inferior version provided a temporary 33% multiplier to every one of the recipient's stats. And it could be applied to a whole crowd at once since it didn't require being orally ingested. Simply standing inside the vapors that it generated upon contact with air was enough.

It was for all intents and purposes, a lesser version of Naofumi's own Aura spell. But one that didn't require magic power or an incantation to use. Anyone could use it at any time, and the best part of it was that it could stack with all other forms of stat boosts, including the aforementioned Aura spell.

And with how scaling in their worlds worked, if Naofumi could improve his skills to raise the potion's quality to great or even higher, the boost could theoretically go up to effectively double the recipient's stats, like what happened to the Guardian Familiars within the Spirit Tortoise when they fought Kyo there for the first time

Naofumi also discovered a second interesting recipe for something that he would normally be hesitant to utilize. But once Kizuna, then L'Arc, and the other three cardinal heroes caught wind of what it was, they insisted on having a batch of it prepared as well, so he did so.

The Shield Hero would have loved to continue with his experimentations, but there was something very important that he and the others needed to help with. Something that Kyo had pointed out in his journal. And that thing was…

Dealing with the group of individuals who were actively opposing the Heroes in Glass's world.

And Naofumi learning how to brew Kyo's secret concoctions had come just in time, as the day of the next international meeting in Lazuli had finally arrived.

---

The Lazuli Palace's meeting hall was abuzz with activity and noise, as it slowly got filled up with various country's representatives for the second time this year.

The general atmosphere was one of annoyance and displeasure, but it was understandable why this was necessary. With Luvar's loss and the death of its upstart 'demon lord', it was now time to decide the country's fate. For reparations to be assigned, for the territory to be annexed, and for its rich lands to be spread out among those who were more deserving of it.

"Ugh, when are we going to start already? Where is that pathetic excuse for an emperor?"

"Beats me. I have my harem waiting for me back home too."

"What the hell? Why did that stupid guy have to invite all of us back so soon after Kyo's failed attempt to become the Demon King? Couldn't he allow us to gloat over that idiot's death for a few more weeks?"

"Hmph. Let's hope this boring crap won't take as long as last time. At least we'll be getting something out of it today. Since that #$%^$% Kyo killed a bunch of our officials with his #$%%^& 'mimics', we are entitled to a part of the loot."

"'A part of' the loot. What are we, dogs asking for scraps? What a load of bull %^&*. We should be getting all of it. As if Lapis needs even more freaking riches when its streets are already paved with literal diamonds."

"Ugh, I can't wait till we're strong enough to deal with this place."

Curiously, the meeting hall seemed to house a large number of… 'colorful' individuals today. At least, compared to last time.

The majority of them were humans, with several who were elves or dwarves. There were a couple hundred of them, all in all, much less than what the full capacity of the grand room was designed for.

None of them were Gem People. But almost everyone there was in a leadership position of some kind in their nation, whether in their nation's government, a guild, or nobility. All of them seemed to share similar personality traits. They espoused themselves to be geniuses, but if one were to perform even a lazy background check, it became apparent that every single one of them was a horrible person.

Almost all of them had harems of women (or in the rare case of the genius being female, a harem of men) that weren't with them right now. Many of the people here either owned or were heavily involved in trafficking slaves. And just as many openly partook in other criminal activities. Such as the production, sale, and distribution of dangerous and illegal drugs; or the formation and ownership of unlicensed mercenary companies, who would offer their 'protection services' to the local populace to shield them from the waves.

These same mercenary groups were also frequently used to perform hostile takeovers on successful businesses, which would usually be followed by their immediate dismantlement.

There were even cases of these men and women using their official titles to perform something as mundane as theft and laundering of their country's treasuries under questionable reasons with little to no oversight or paper trails.

But despite their great and numerous sins being an open secret, the people present today in the Lazuli Palace's assembly hall were beyond reproach for various reasons. Either because of the noble titles that they held, the political, military, or economic power that they wielded, or simply because of the connections that they had made; because of all this and more, they could not be touched by anyone.

The worst part was that they knew that such was the case. They revered in their apparent invincibility while living above consequences and the law. Mocking all those who would call them out and trampling over the ones who dared to try and do something about it.

But beyond everything mentioned above and more, all of these individuals shared one more important trait among them.

"Wait...what the hell is that loser, Seya, doing here? What gives?" The Harpoon Hero asked skeptically while sipping on some wine from a tall crystal glass. It was customary, provided for all the country representatives while they waited for the meeting to start.

"Hohoho! Surprised?" The individual known as Seya turned around to address the Harpoon Hero from a line of desks further down the assembly hall. He wore a greasy and stained gray apron with a matching chef's hat. "I'll have you know that the Emperor of Lapis has finally recognized my achievements in the culinary arts. I have been granted the title of his personal cook, and as such, I am now entitled to a position of great power in his court and can attend this meeting in full!"

"...Is that how it works?" The Harpoon Hero quirked his eyebrow and glanced at the person sitting next to him.

"Beats me." Miyaji, the Musical Instruments Hero, shrugged. "The royal court here has some really weird traditions, so I wouldn't be surprised. Good for that loser, I guess. Maybe he'll actually achieve something now, besides running a crappy roadside diner."

"Oh, a loser, am I?" Seya sneered as he got up from his seat. "You want to come over here and tell that to my face, you smug snake?"

"Keep barking, mutt." Miyaji sneered back. "We both know that you're even lower on the totem pole than Kazuki was."

"Oh, now that does it!" The cook's expression turned apoplectic and he flipped his desk to the side before starting to make his way up the stairs to the line of desks where the duo of heroes were sitting.

"Oi." The loud sound of a weapon being drawn made Seya stop in his tracks and look down. A bead of sweat ran down his temple as he realized that a sword was now held to his throat.

"Keep it down, will you?" The stranger said calmly in the cook's ear.

The two bastards up top were still in their seats, looking down at Seya with smug pity. So who was-

"Okay, fine, this dog here is the royal chef now or something, whatever." Miyaji drawled while examining the newcomer with obvious disdain. "But why are you here?"

"Special S rank mission from the adventurer's guild." The black-haired young man replied before pulling his sword away and forcibly shoving Seya back into his seat. "I am here to provide additional security for the proceedings. Guess the emperor doesn't want to take any chances, after the #$% show that happened last time."

"Oof!" Seya grunted as he was thrown back down on his chair. He then looked up and finally managed to get a good look at his assailant. "Ohhhh, it's you." The cook's face twisted in disgust. "The Supreme Adventurer." He added in a mocking tone.

"Like you have any ground to stand on when it comes to mocking other people's titles, 'roadside cook'." Miyaji snorted dismissively. "Still, I guess even a dirty mutt's barking can hold a grain of truth to it once in a blue moon."

The Musical Instrument Hero's eyes then shifted toward the lean figure wearing a black coat again. "How is it going, by the way, Rem? Still working on your true pacifist run? How's that working out for ya? It's been… what? A decade now?"

"You are like, one of the oldest players here, yet you still have no hero weapon. Hell, you don't have anything. No royal title, no notable properties, no army, or any other real assets.

"I mean, #$%^, dude. Are you even trying? You could have at least become the head of the adventurer's guild by now, but instead, you just run around doing random fetch quests for peasants in exchange for pennies or fight in the waves, pretending to be an actual hero. And you don't even operate outside of whatever backwater hicksville of a country you were born in. I mean, I get the concept of long cons, grinding levels, and doing advanced prep work, but come on. Seriously, what's your endgame supposed to be?"

Rem patiently listened to the Musical Hero's rant and simply shrugged in response. "My endgame? I dunno. I haven't thought about it. I just play for fun. I do the secret book destruction dailies that the devs give out like I'm supposed to. I even participate in special personal events like hunting down VIPs when I'm given one. But beyond that, we can do whatever we want, right?

"Sure, this might technically be a battle royale where only one of us gets to win at the end. But I don't give a crap about rank or anything like that. I just play to relax, man. If you and the other guys wanna sweat and try hard all the time, be my guest. But I'd much rather partake in the life simulation and PVE content."

"You're wasting your skills, Rem." Miyaji grimaced at the expected response from the laidback man. "I'm telling you if you join me and the Harpoon Hero, the three of us would be able to easily speedrun through all the remaining content. You capped your level years ago. What's even the point of killing the same trash mobs every day, if you're not getting any exp for it?"

"It's fun." Rem shrugged again. "Just because my stats are capped doesn't mean that I can't find other ways to improve. I sometimes like to try to kill certain monsters as quickly as possible, just to see how fast I can do it, and then try to beat my record afterward. Or I take my time to learn their weak points and behavioral patterns to then exploit them. Or I switch to using weapons that I am not proficient with. Both as a handicap and to have an opportunity to learn how to use them.

But my favorite part has to be how the PVE and lifesim aspects can be combined. One of my waifus back home has a high cooking skill and can turn whatever interesting ingredients the monsters drop into tasty dishes. Another one is an alchemist and supplies me with free potions the same way. So even though I can't raise my level anymore, I can indirectly grind their skills by providing them with resources and that's fun too. I've been thinking of finding a blacksmith waifu too, so I can get free gear as well, but haven't had any luck yet. So yeah, even if I am not getting any exp anymore, it's still worth hunting high-level monsters."

...

"Listen, If I ever happen to run into a Hero and there are no witnesses around, then I'll steal their weapon and think about branching out a little more. But until then, please stop bugging me about joining your clan. My answer is still no. As for you..." The lean man turned back towards the cook again.

"Don't go causing trouble again, loser. I wanna get a max score on this quest." Rem pointed his index and middle fingers at his own eyes and then at Seya, in a gesture showing that he was watching him before returning to his seat on a different row of desks.

"Tch, we'll see who the loser is soon, you F-Rank Adventurer." Seya sneered. "With my cheat powers, I'm going to-"

"Shut up, you moron!" The Harpoon Hero, who was staying silent until now, cut the cook off. "Don't you know where we are?"

"Pfft. Who cares? It's just us players here today." Seya snorted and fixed his desk back in place before sitting down again and flipping the duo off without looking back.

"What do you mean, there are other-" Miyaji began to protest but then stopped, as his eyes studied his surroundings more closely. "Wait a second. He's right. What's up with that? Last I checked, our collective influence wasn't that great yet."

The Harpoon hero didn't respond, as he was no longer paying attention. Instead, he was once again fuming at getting reminded of what had happened.

"Urgh." He gripped his fist on his weapon tightly. He was still pissed off about how that whole Luvar fiasco went down! His and the Musical Country's combined fleet had been in the perfect position to annihilate Luvar, Sickle, and part of Lapis's military in one fell swoop during that wave!

But then the Warrior Queen just had to bring the rest of Lapis's army to bear and ruin any chance he might have had if he'd joined the battle!

He'd considered her to be attractive and wanted to bed her at one point. But now, he'd give anything for the chance to wring her neck and to throw her infant to the dogs after the stunt she pulled off.

The Harpoon Hero swore that when his nation became powerful enough, he'd burn Lapis to the ground. Hell, he still couldn't believe that he had to ally himself with the Musical Country and put up with these stupid theatrics, just so he could get Lapis to drop their guard enough for him to invade! And Lapis made things worse with their new state-of-the-art security system for their Dragon Hourglass, which he got to see after teleporting here earlier!

He couldn't even use the idea of warping an army into the center of the Capital anymore with the help of Kazuki's invention!

That guy was beyond useless! The Harpoon Hero wished that Label's wannabe Katana Hero was still alive, just so he could have the chance to kill him personally, and-

The double doors at the back of the grand hall suddenly opened with a loud Bang!

Everyone in the room turned around in surprise at the lone figure that walked through the doors.

"Oh, great! It looks like everyone is here already. Perfect! That means we can finally start." Kizuna said in a cheery tone as she walked down the steps, past numerous lines of desks into the assembly room.

The doors slowly closed with a dull Thud! behind her as she practically skipped to the secretary's desk in the center.

That should have been the first sign that something was wrong. But the group currently present was not known for its vast intelligence or caution.

"What- oh, it's just the Hunting Hero."

"What is it you want now, you stupid chibi bitch?!"

"Do you have any idea what I was going to do today?! I can't believe I left something so important for this!"

"Where's the Emperor?! He's the one who is supposed to be hosting this meeting!"

"Ah, patience, patience, Kizuna giggled while pulling out a stack of papers from her weapon's gem and carefully setting it down on the desk before her. "Geez, Kyo was right when he said that patience was a virtue. You all could use more of it in your lives!

"Now, I can tell how disappointed you all are. But don't you worry!" Kizuna put her hands up placatively while giving everyone there a trustworthy wink. "I wanted to gather you all here for something very important. In fact, it's extremely important. It is something that none of you will want to miss!"

"Oh, and what would that be?" The Harpoon Hero snidely asked.

"Why, your executions, of course!" Kizuna answered cheerily, her voice full of excitement.

…

…

…

A deep, deafening silence began to fill the room.

Kizuna's cheery demeanor didn't fade in the slightest. It only seemed to grow as she picked up the topmost page from the stack of paper that she set on the desk earlier. "Now, let's see here. According to the intel that I received from Kyo, the following individuals here hold the title of 'reincarnators', also known as 'harbingers', who are tasked with destroying my world.

"Orokana, the Harpoon Hero. Cheat power: Unknown.

"Hidemasa Miyaji, the Musical Instruments Hero. Cheat power: Unknown.

"Rem Akami, the Supreme Adventurer. Cheat power: [Appraisal]. Grants the user the ability to see the stats of all living things, including humans. Oooh! Interesting one there! I can see how that'd be useful for adventuring!

"Burick, the General. Cheat Power: [Barrier]. Grants the user the ability to create barriers out of thin air. Kind of a boring one, but hey, I can see the practicality in it."

"Katakuri, The Lord of the Sea. Cheat power: [Water Breathing]. Self-explanatory- Wait, really?! That seems so mundane. How did you get so high on the list?! Oh well, we'll find out why soon enough."

Kizuna continued to read more and more names out loud. The page that Kyo had left her did not only reveal the Vassal Book's strengthening method, but it also held the names of all the other reincarnators in the world that the Book Hero had managed to identify. As well as what some of their cheat powers were.

Some had strange utility powers like the [Search Engine] that Kyo claimed to have possessed in his journal. Others had cheat powers that were more practical for combat, like Trash's chantless casting, or the ability to progress very quickly in all sorts of magic or combat styles. One could even teleport himself and other objects around, with seemingly no limitation in the distance it covered or how frequently it could be used.

The list had been unfinished, as there were hundreds of people in the room right now. But Kyo had been right in that identifying who the other reincarnators in their world were was surprisingly easy. Barely an inconvenience.

The reincarnators looked different, but at their core, they were all like cardboard cutouts of each other personality-wise. It was almost laughable how easy it was to find and gather these espoused geniuses from all corners of the world, even on such short notice. It wouldn't be surprising if there was only one or two missing from the group at most.

It brought to Kizuna's attention just how different Kyo had been from the rest of them. But anyway, she was getting sidetracked thinking about all this.

"Next we have Seya, the 5-Star Cook. Written with a number specifically. Cheat Power: [PED Generation]. Grants the user a pocket dimension to store stuff in, just like the Hero's Inventory. It has a nearly limitless supply of enhancement drugs stored in it that can be used to lace food to hide its taste and make the people who eat it stronger at the cost of their life force slowly withering and becoming physically addicted to it. Ew, glad I never ate at your place. I wondered how people could love your instant noodles so much."

Kizuna finally stopped reading from the list of names and tossed the stack of paper high into the air above her. The pages spread out and floated around the room for a while before gently settling on the floor or the desks of the various dumbfounded reincarnators.

"Of course, I could go on and on, since there is a lot of you #$#$%^& here, but we don't have all day now, do we? Apologies to whoever I didn't bother to name out loud. Kyo mainly listed you in order of how dangerous you would be in direct combat, followed by how much influence you hold in our world.

"So, if I didn't get to read your name out loud, then it means that you are trash that's not even worth mentioning! Sorry!" Kizuna stuck her tongue out while smiling apologetically and rubbing the back of her head.

"Wh-What is this supposed to be?! What are you playing at, you little whore?!" Orokana, the boy finally identified as the Harpoon Hero, was the first one to snap out of his stupor and respond heatedly.

"Oh, didn't you hear me earlier?" Kizuna tilted her head to the side with amusement. "This is the place where you all will be executed for ruining the peace in our world, and the rest of your countless crimes."

"Crimes, what crimes are you talking about?! In case you forgot, we have diplomatic immunity here, so-" Miyaji began to shout next.

"First off, I know that Orokana there murdered the previous Harpoon Wielder and stole the vassal weapon for himself during the final battle against the Demon Dragon," Kizuna said, pointing a finger at the false Hero.

For the first time, some of her cheeriness disappeared, her tone clear as she leveled the accusation on the Harpoon wielder. "He is also responsible for the kidnapping and death of the Emperor's oldest sister: Camilla Malachite. A credible eyewitness has already given her testimony on the event.

"Diplomatic immunity or not, the murder of both a Hero and a Royal alone is punishable around our world by death."

"Second, I looked into some of your dealings in the background. My, you all have done a lot of shady business. Drug dealings in a restaurant. Women being made into widows only to then join your harems at home. The former officials holding your current positions dying under mysterious circumstances. Former officials I knew and got along with quite well, mind you.

"There is a lot of &^%$ that you cockroaches are all responsible for. So much so that I am still struggling to wrap my head around it.

"Then again, what else would one expect from a group of people tasked with acquiring all the power for themselves in our world?" Kizuna finished on an exceptionally sharp note.

…

…

"Heh. Heh."

The Harpoon Hero slowly chuckled as he clapped his hands. "Do you seriously expect us to take all this at face value? Especially when this information 'supposedly' comes from the mouth of a Demon Lord?" Orokana's face twisted into a cruel smile.

"Oh, but there is a precedent," Kizuna replied. "Kenshiro's nephew also could steal hero weapons, since he was a reincarnator. He was classified as a genius for being able to use magic without incantations. Kyo lists these as well as some other common features as perks that all reincarnators share."

"Although, I was honestly surprised to find Miyaji listed by Kyo as well. He seemed pretty adamant about reincarnators being born into the world, but I guess you bastards must have figured out a way to get summoned too, under certain circumstances. I'm honestly surprised he wasn't responsible for Azura's death.

"No matter, he fits the title of an arrogant prick to a T."

"HEY-" Miyaji started to scream, but Orokana held his arm out in front of him before speaking out again.

"Psh, whatever. It was never verified if that piece of trash could steal a weapon or not. He died, after all. And our lives are all the better for that.

"Besides, none of us here even know what you are talking about. 'Reincarnators'? 'Harbingers'? What the $%^& are you saying, kid?

"Are you high?

"You're just blowing hot air out of your tiny #$ and wasting our time with your theatrics."

Orokana smirked as he stood up and began to slowly and demonstratively walk down the lines of desks holding the various country representatives. He finally moved short of Kizuna and pointed at the double doors up top with his thumb. "Now, if that's all you have for us, then I'll just be taking my leave and filing a complaint to Corrin about this and taking full advantage of the diplomatic immunity that the Emperor bestowed on us here and-"

"Dumb Fishman," Kizuna smirked.

…

…

Orokana paused. "What did you just say to me?" He asked with a twitch in his right eye.

"Dumb Fishman." Kizuna shrugged as she smiled. "Orokana Ryoshi. Or as your name would translate from Japanese, Dumb Fishman."

"I'm surprised that after you became the ruler of the Harpoon Country, you changed your name to your old Japanese name. Then again, it seems like a lot of you did that after growing up in this world and venturing out to make a name for yourselves.

"You must have thought it'd make you sound cool and regal to everyone around you. But you forget, I'm also Japanese. I know the actual meaning behind your names. And you live up to yours quite well, Dumb Fishman." Kizuna continued to smile sweetly.

"Executing you and the others is going to be so much fun."

…

…

The Harpoon Hero reached the limit of his patience in an instant. Especially since he finally realized that Kizuna was being serious and was threatening him.

The audacity! Did this chibi bitch actually think he'd allow her to get away with saying such words to him?!

"Air Strike Lance!" He threw the skill through the air at the Hunting Tools Hero.

Before it could land though, a figure appeared from the air in front of her. "PEN!"

With his mighty flipper, Chris's flipper punched the skill into pieces mid-air.

The others in the room rose from their desks in surprise at the shikigami's appearance. Kizuna, however, stayed smiling as she knelt and patted the familiar on the head. "Great job, Chris. Though, I think Naofumi would have been just fine protecting me there."

"Nah, I didn't realize that this idiot would be dumb enough to try attacking you after pretending to be so cool and collected earlier," Naofumi spoke as he appeared out of thin air behind Kizuna.

"Wait, really?" The girl turned her head and asked him in surprise.

"Yeah, guess that's what I get for underestimating his stupidity." In a surprising show of gratitude, the Shield Hero bent over and patted the shikigami on the head as well. "Good job. You really proved yourself there, Chris."

"Pen!" Chris should have been proud, but his cry was one of complaint. He'd been proving himself ever since being reunited with Kizuna! Naofumi seriously needed to give him more credit!

Naofumi, however, stood back up and frowned at everyone else in the room. "So this is all of the world's trash gathered in one place, huh? After all the trouble with Kyo, I expected something more.

"I actually feel bad about such a gross and rampant display of littering in Corrin's palace. These guys have turned this place into a literal dump through their mere presence.

"Oh well, I hope I don't have to give out too many nicknames after this. I'm seeing at least a Ren II and Motoyasu II and III amongst this lot. And maybe at least ten other Trashes as well. That'd be hard to keep track of, not gonna lie."

"Naofumi, is now really the time for this?" Raphtalia sighed under her illusion.

"It's always the time when you're surrounded by idiots," Naofumi responded with a teasing smirk on his face.

"Th-THAT'S A HERO FROM ANOTHER WORLD!" Miyaji finally screamed. Orokana backpedaled away from the two Heroes.

"And not just him." Glass appeared at Kizuna's other side with her fans at the ready.

In front of the exit doors, Therese and L'Arc also appeared together with Yomogi. The King was dressed in his repaired lamellar armor, looking ready for battle. Therese also had her own Adamantium Armor equipped once again. Yomogi held both her Replica Swords out, ready to fight to the death.

By the windows, Rishia and Aksel appeared alongside Raphtalia, Dou-Lon, and Maya.

Raph-Chan cooed as Naofumi summoned her from her ofuda. And he pet her on the head as Yomogi summoned Kaoru from her own summon ofuda as well.

The owl looked extremely annoyed as he landed on his mother's shoulder. However, when his eyes looked over everyone there, a feral glint appeared in them. And then, he looked all too ready to fight.

Finally, Daitan, Akane, and Hoshi walked up from behind Kizuna, joining her, Glass, and Naofumi in the center of the room.

Daitan's armor had been repaired after the last battle, but beyond that, the trio all looked the same as before.

Except now, the three stood with confidence. Waves of power came off their forms just like with Kizuna.

The Blunt Weapons Hero cracked his neck and knuckles with an excited look on his face. "Oh, this is going to be a day to remember. I can already tell."

"Just make sure they don't get a chance to touch your weapon," Akane spoke next to him seriously.

"Sure, sure. I doubt that any of them will get to live long enough to try anyway." Daitan grinned with mad glee. His mace burst into flames as he changed it to a fiery weapon form that he'd acquired from the Red Vermillion Guardian Beast materials.

He'd finally reached the level requirement for equipping it yesterday after spending the last week grinding monsters nonstop. That requirement being Level 110.

It was a useful and powerful weapon form. He couldn't wait to test this baby out here!

As for the current levels of the Cardinal Heroes of Kizuna's world…

Kizuna: Level 125

Daitan: Level 112

Akane: Level 104

Hoshi: Level 101

Yeah, in less than a week, the other three Heroes had gone up by quite a few levels, almost catching up to Kizuna. They'd also made good use of all of their shared power-up methods. Kizuna's core method in dealing double damage to monsters, in particular, had made their grinding a hell of a lot easier.

It was a huge improvement over where they'd been before. They were probably strong enough to destroy mountains with ease now if they wanted.

"W-WHAT IS THIS?!" Orokana screamed.

"Wow, you're really gonna make me repeat myself for the third time, huh?" Kizuna shrugged, smiling as she pepped up again.

"All of you are parasites and invaders. You've been gathered here today to be executed for all the crimes you've committed, and for those which you're yet to commit in the name of acquiring complete control over everyone's lives." Kizuna said while raising her rod over her head and then pointing it forward. "And since you attacked us first, your diplomatic immunity is henceforth nullified.

"From here on out, we will be acting in self-defense as your judge, jury, and executioners on behalf of all those you've robbed, killed, raped, or worse during your stay in this world."

"THAT ISN'T HOW THIS WORKS! YOU CAN'T HAND WAVE OUR DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY AWAY LIKE-"

"I can. Now please die." Kizuna interrupted with a smile.

"&^%$ THAT! AS IF WE'LL JUST LET YOU STOMP ALL OVER US! COME ON!" Orokana roared as he waved his weapon in front of him.

---

Most of the other reincarnators in the room surged forward, throwing their desks over and following Orokana's lead. They attacked all the Heroes and their allies en masse while screaming battle cries that might have sounded cool in the games that they played but only sounded cringe and embarrassing when applied to actual combat.

Only a single one of them, Rem, the guy who bore a surprising resemblance to an older version of Ren, didn't charge forward with the rest of the crowd.

Rather, he stood in place, his expression frozen with terror behind Orokana while the Harpoon Hero moved ahead. The Vassal Harpoon slammed into the center of Naofumi's Blessed Shield while the wielder glared furiously at the Shield Hero.

Even then, the Supreme Adventurer continued to simply stare at the other Heroes in the room in abject horror. He was no coward and no stranger to frequently fighting monsters that were stronger than him. Such fights even made life interesting from time to time.

But not when said gap in power was three digits wide.

Rem's cheat ability, [Appraisal], allowed him to not just see the levels of other people, but also how high their stats were along with everything else that was normally hidden within their personal HUD like spell and skill names along with their descriptions. Even such stats like fertility and intelligence, which couldn't be seen on one's HUD, were visible to his eyes.

He normally used this cheat so he could play around with members of his harem on days when he had no chance of getting them pregnant.

But at this moment, he was THE ONLY ONE because of [Appraisal] who could see just how truly and completely outmatched they were.

His fellow players would only find that out for themselves as the Heroes all lashed out in turn.

"Reverse Four Seasons IV!" Glass slashed forward again and again. Despite not doing the dance that strengthened said skill, the slashes coming out were larger and thicker, splitting the very air and creating mini shockwaves with their mere presence.

"What the hell?! How are her attacks breaking through my barriers?!" A guy dressed in fancy armor yelled in shock. Burick's cheat gave him the ability to make barriers out of thin air, and he had a pretty high level too. Yet the Spirit Woman's toned-down version of her favorite attack was shattering them faster than he could make them!

"Don't talk! Just keep those up so I can get a good hit in on her!" Another reincarnator in front of him, who called himself Zeus, was using chantless magic, just like the cheat that Trash had, to launch a series of lightning bolts and other attacks at the Fan Hero.

However, they were uselessly bouncing off her, and then one of her attacks hit home, slashing into Zeus's gut and dropping him to one knee. His level had been in the high nineties, yet he almost died from that one hit!

"What the f-" As Burick tried to speak, three slashes hit him in the leg, gut, and head.

His body fell to the ground in pieces afterward.

"Oof. Another one bites the-" Glass's fan went through Zeus's skull, killing him before he could say more.

On the other side of the room, Therese flew through the air thanks to her gem armor propelling her. "Bejeweled Ruby Blaze!"

"Flying Circle VI! Combo Skill: Burning Flying Circle!" L'Arc laughed maniacally as Therese's gem spell combined with his much larger skill before he launched it at another group of reincarnators in the room.

"Such a long windup! Too bad, I'll be able to instantly dodge that-" The reincarnator up front, called Sasuke, started to gloat while activating his cheat skill that let him dodge physical attacks as fluidly as a ninja.

KA-BOOM!

However, Burning Flying Circle was turned into an AoE magic skill and not a physical attack, thanks to Therese's great mastery over Gem Magic. With Flying Circle itself being strengthened thanks to [Skill Rank], Sasuke didn't even have a chance to yell as he and his comrades behind him were covered in flames and burned to ashes in an instant.

"Wow!" Dou-Lon taunted as he weaved and parried strikes from three different swordsmen simultaneously. "Is this your first time fighting someone who can fight back, or what? A lady I know back home would be screaming obscenities while kicking your butts over how poor your forms are. You can't even hold your weapons up straight."

"Oh &^%$ off, you stupid tiger! We've got you outnumbered three to one, there's no way you'll win!" One of the reincarnators yelled. These ones had adopted unusual aliases too, but naming all of them would be a waste of time, knowing what would happen to them soon.

"Taste my blade, rah!" Another reincarnator yelled while bringing his arm way back and swinging down with all his might. His cheat drastically increased his attack power. Any target that didn't die outright was guaranteed to be crippled after being hit by him.

Yet Dou-Lon not only sidestepped past that guy, he also effortlessly beheaded him at the same time.

The reincarnator's furious scream of anger was cut short at that moment.

"H-How is a nobody like you not dying already?!" The second guy screamed as he swung again. A slash that was imbued with flames, since the wielder's cheat allowed him to incorporate elemental attacks into his sword, flew at Dou-Lon's face.

Again, Dou-Lon not only easily ducked under the swing, but he also cut his opponent's arm off at the wrist. The burning sword landed on the floor with a clatter with the severed hand still gripping it tightly.

"AAAAAAAHHHH! IT HUUUURTS! IT HUUURTS!"

The reincarnator's suffering was cut short soon after when his head landed next to his weapon.

"I'm not a nobody! I'M A BLOODKIN OF THE GREAT SHIELD HERO!" Dou-Lon roared in bloodlust as he faced his remaining opponent, who was visibly sweating now, whether out of fear or confusion at what the hakuko had just said.

His cheat power was a utility skill that let him make high-quality food and drinks for himself out of thin air, much like how the weapons were able to auto-craft meals for their wielders.

Needless to say, it was useless in a fight against Dou-Lon and as a result, he fell to the Hakuko's blade soon after, just like his comrades.

Had one looked closely at the hakuko and the other nonheroes in the room, they would have seen a faint green glow coming off their skin. Courtesy of the Green Buff Potion Naofumi had thrown on the ground outside the room before entering with Kizuna. They were also being buffed by Zweite Aura, on top of whatever additional bonuses they were indirectly getting from the otherworld Hero's strengthening methods that affected other individuals like [Trust].

That was part of the reason why figures like Dou-Lon were doing so well. Though the other reason…

"Take this, you mongrel!" An angry voice cried out and Maya was suddenly stabbed through by a rain of blades a reincarnator summoned from the air around him.

The cheat skill was supposed to be called [Gate of Babylon], though Kizuna had cheekily dubbed it [Unlimited Blade Works] since the guy, whose name was Gil, only seemed to like summoning swords from the blasted thing.

And not masterwork-level ones, like the cheat's original namesake, either. Naofumi caught sight of some of the swords and his HUD helpfully informed him that they were all classified as [Pig Iron sword] Quality: Low. Which indicated that they were likely crafted cheaply in bulk to arm literal low-level grunts and recruits.

And to think that this Gil guy was supposedly near the top of the list too, being just below that one water-breathing guy.

Oh well, Gil was still laughing in delight at his kill until the raccoon-girl's illusion melted away, and the real Maya slit the invader's throat from behind with both of her kunai.

"Yeesh. These guys are completely clueless. Do they have any combat experience at all?" Maya mouthed as her opponent fell to his knees, holding his hands over his bleeding throat in shock while choking on his blood.

Yeah, the other reason why the nonheroes were doing so well was that their opponents were a bunch of idiots who fell for the simplest of traps. The overreliance on their cheats sealed many of their fates within moments. Maya finished Gil off by stabbing him in the eye before racing towards her next opponent.

Nearby, Yomogi was dueling more nameless sword-wielding reincarnators on her own.

"Air Strike Bash!" The teal-haired girl launched two enemies into the walls of the assembly hall with a skill, and then turned and blocked a strike from a third.

"Such a pretty girl! Too bad that Book idiots probably ran you raw by now. It would have been so much fun to- AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"KAO!" The reincarnator's taunting remark was cut short when the owl familiar dived at him from above with a high-pitched screech and drove his beak into one of the man's eyes.

In a split second, the owl tore it out of the invader's skull along with a length of optic nerve still attached to it.

"GAH! I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T-"

Yomogi slashed diagonally with both of her blades at the same time, cutting the man into pieces. When the deed was done, she smiled as she sheathed one of her swords so she could pet Kaoru's head. "Well done. That nasty guy deserved that."

"Kao!" Kaoru still looked confused about the affection but smiled. Though the blood dripping from his beak made it into a rather morbid sight.

At a different part of the meeting hall, Kizuna was engaging a different group of reincarnators. Sidestepping their sloppy attacks at her while occasionally tapping one or another with the lure of her rod.

"Lure Needle!" A shame that she couldn't use [Skill Rank] to strengthen that skill of hers. It would have been amazing to apply a x3 or even a x4 damage multiplier to her enemies all on her own.

"Earth Hole X!"

Though, she was able to use it to upgrade the rest of her toolkit. And instead of making a hole around knee height, Earth Hole now made a hole that was close to ten feet deep.

Enemies that dropped into them were made super easy pickings for her allies up top, especially those who had damage multipliers applied to them beforehand.

"What the &^%$ is this stupid penguin supposed to do to me? Haha-"

"PEN!" Chris jumped up, headbutting the guy right in the groin.

"AWOOO!" The man crumbled to his knees, holding to the area of his family jewels.

"No, no, Chris! You are doing it wrong!" Glass appeared at Chris's side after drop-kicking another reincarnator out of the way. "You are supposed to aim a little lower, like this!" She then swung her foot directly under the penguin's former target.

CRACK!

Naofumi grimaced nearby where blades clattered against his body uselessly. Every reincarnator who was present felt a chill go down their collective spines.

Even though they were all essentially cardboard cutouts of each other, they still felt a trace of sympathy for their fellow villain of the week at what could only be described as the permanent loss of his chances of ever having any kids, regardless of whether he respawned or not.

Glass's kick had not only crushed the man's testicles but went past them and shattered his pelvic bone and spine into pieces, killing him instantly.

"Man, Chris, you're soooo lucky. Whenever Filo does that, Mommy yells at Filo instead of praising Filo…" The girl complained from up above, where she was singing to buff her allies.

One of the female reincarnators in the room that'd formerly been alive had a cheat that allowed her to charm men with her singing. But it was unable to stand in the face of Filo's sheer raw talent, and Hoshi managed to kill the wicked woman without any issues whatsoever.

But in continuation of what Filo said before: "Um… heheh, Raphtalia, I swear that Glass didn't learn that from me." Naofumi chuckled nervously as he felt his wife friend glaring holes into the side of his head.

She was still glaring at him as her katana slashed to the side, slashing apart a reincarnator who had a cheat ability that allowed him to go invisible. Too bad that he'd tried using it against the worst possible opponent he could have picked. "You're a really bad influence on all of our friends, you know that, Naofumi?"

"I know, I'm sorry. But hey, at least you're a good influence on me." Naofumi winked at her, blocking a strike from another reincarnator with his shield.

"Hmmm… that's true, I guess." Raphtalia smiled.

Her foot kicked backward into another reincarnator who tried attacking her from behind. It was a perfect solid hit to the man's groin that dropped him to the floor in agony. "Just like how you're a good influence on me." She said with an all too sweet smile as she stabbed her Katana through the reincarnator's heart, again, without looking away from her beloved, and put her opponent out of his misery.

… man, Naofumi couldn't wait till they were back in their world.

He literally could not marry the half-tanuki Hero soon enough.

She'd been made a lot stronger after the methods of the other Cardinal Heroes of this world had been shared with her. She was only a Vassal Hero, but with how strong she was now, she could easily stand alongside the Cardinal Heroes of Naofumi's world in terms of sheer power and raw stats, thanks to her knowing more methods than them.

"Take this! Hydro Cannon!" In another part of the room, a reincarnator opened his mouth, spraying out a burst of water in Kizuna's direction.

"Whoa!" Kizuna barely ducked under the surprise attack in time and watched as the hyper-pressurized blast of water bisected several reincarnators behind her. She then looked at the source of it again in confusion.

It was, however, quickly replaced by realization. "Ooooooh, 'water breathing', now I get it!" Kizuna started to laugh. "Self-explanatory, my butt! Damn it, Kyo! Couldn't you have at least been a little more specific about this idiot's cheat making him similar to a Pokemon!?"

"I'm not anything like the creatures from that pissbaby game! I'm far superior! Hydro Cannon!" The man released a burst of water from his mouth at Kizuna again.

This time, however, Chris was ready to protect his mommy.

"Pen!" The water coming out of Katakuri's mouth froze in an instant.

The guy's eyes widened in surprise, and then terror, before turning empty and lifeless.

He crumpled on his knees and then fell over, the water breath attack he'd conjured having been frozen down to his lungs. Spikes of ice impaled outward from all around his chest, thanks to the effectiveness of Chris's ice magic.

"Hehe! Looks like he tried to learn Ice Beam but failed to do so!" Kizuna laughed to herself before smiling at her shikigami and giving him a thumbs up.

"Pen!" Chris smiled happily.

"Rafu!" Nearby, Raph-Chan cooed as she jumped off the mangled body of another reincarnator.

"Good job Raph-Chan! You're getting even more pets after we're done here!" Naofumi called out to the familiar.

"RAFU!" Raph-Chan's sparkled, and she cheered as she charged another pair of reincarnators, murder now written in her eyes.

Kaoru dived down from the air to assist the shikigami in keeping up her kill streak.

"What the-"

"Why are these tiny things so scary!?"

"MOMMY!"

Man, all the shikigamis there were going to be raised to become violent menaces to society, weren't they?

---

Fights continued happening all around. But it was clear that the reincarnators were nowhere near powerful enough to take on Kizuna's allies. Despite there being hundreds of them with all sorts of cheat powers helping them out at the start, they were falling like flies.

Even those without Hero Weapons like Maya and Dou-Lon were able to go toe to toe with the harbingers, with only Orokana and Miyaji being able to stand against the Heroes themselves without dying immediately.

Though the Musical Instruments Hero was struggling a whole lot more than his partner, due to Filo straight up canceling every single one of his skills with her voice.

Filo had not only practiced her Performance Magic in the last week. From a short page that was more like a note Kyo had left for the little girl, she had learned how to perform something called Musical Dissonance.

Naofumi hadn't understood the details of how it worked, due to the way Filo explained it. Kyo hadn't left much of an explanation for it either. But it was basically anti-magic meant specifically for Performance Magic.

It also worked on the Musical Instruments Hero and his skills as well, as the young man had come to find out.

"Damn it, stop interrupting my playing you stupid bird!" Miyaji yelled up at the glass dome that formed the ceiling above the assembly hall. "Hero's Melody!"

"No!" Filo continued to sing, spiting the man as she not only canceled out his next skill which would have drastically raised his stats as well as the stats of all those around him, but then also used wind magic to launch him back into a pair of upturned desks in an explosion of splinters and sawdust.

Once the number of their enemies began to visibly recede, Kizuna took a step back and began to just calmly watch everything that was unfolding before her with grim satisfaction.

She continued to summon the occasional Earth Hole X on the floor to trap more enemies. Or she hit the ones who proved to be more sturdy than the rest with a Lure Needle, so her allies could attack them and deal twice the damage.

One guy she hit with Lure Needle was also hit by Naofumi's Attack Support. The man's cheat turned his skin into metal, and because he was level 100, he was able to change his skin into the hardest metal in Kizuna's world, Adamantium.

However, the next attack, which came from Rishia and Aksel hitting the dude in the same spot at the same time, caused the harbinger to explode into a cloud of gore thanks to the x4 damage multiplier. He never even stood a chance.

Nobody was currently around to guard Kizuna. And so far, none of the reincarnators seemed to be keen about attacking her again.

"You! Your weapon! Give it to me!"

Then, a reincarnator rushed out of the crowd right at the Hunting Tools Hero. One of his arms was missing, as it'd been cut off by one of Hoshi's ofudas. Kizuna gave the rabid-looking harbinger a cheerful smile and then proceeded to sidestep his charge while holding her weapon out to him.

She recognized who he was on the list, so she knew what cheat power he had before doing all this.

The reincarnator's sole remaining hand grasped the Legendary Hunting Tool, and as soon as it did, Kizuna felt her weapon get yanked out of her grasp. Her job class also changed, meaning that she was no longer the Hunting Tools Hero.

Perfect, this had been the last piece of evidence against these &^%$&^%$ that she'd needed. It was about time for the true show to begin.

"Yes! Ahahaha! Now, I'll be able to use this weapon's Return Transcript to get out of this mess and-... and…

"Wait, WHY THE &^%$ IS THIS NOT WORKING!? FIRST MY PERSONAL PORTAL SKILL AND NOW, NOT EVEN A HERO WEAPON!? WHAT KIND OF CHEATING IS THIS?!"

"Well, duh." Kizuna smiled happily. "I made sure to instruct Corrin to lock the Hourglass before coming down here, you know? No one's able to portal anywhere in the city right now." As it turned out, activating an Hourglass's anti-portal measures over an area prevented even those with cheat abilities from being able to portal themselves around at will.

What Kizuna didn't read out loud earlier were Kyo's suggestions on how to tackle his various colleagues and the cheats that they employed. And this particular tidbit of knowledge regarding teleportation-based cheats would surely come in handy down the road.

"You… YOU… YOU CHIBI PIECE OF-" The man, armed with the Hunting Tools Weapon, changed it to one of Kizuna's strongest tuna knife forms and brought it down on the small girl's head. "BLOOD FLOWER STRIKE III!"

Huh, strange. Kizuna thought she'd upgraded that skill to X level. She remembered Kyo also noting in his page to her that illegitimate wielders of Hero Weapons were unable to bring out the full power of the power-up methods without the help of an accessory, but she didn't realize it was to this extent.

If this was any indication, reincarnators could only bring out 30% of a Hero weapon's power, if that. And here she'd thought it'd be around 50% or even 70% at the most.

Oh well, it wasn't like that fact actually mattered right now, especially since…

KA-CLANGGGGGGG!

The loud sound of the guy's attack dealing absolutely no damage whatsoever echoed throughout the whole room.

…

…

"Oh? Is something wrong?" Kizuna asked while a smug, cat-lipped smile formed on her face at the look of shock that appeared on the reincarnator's features. "Was that supposed to do something? I'm not sure I-

"Oh, wait, hold on, I get it now! You must have completely forgotten that my weapon is incapable of harming people in any way! Like, at all!

"Man, talk about bad luck! Out of everyone here, you had to steal the weapon of the most useless Hero! I feel so sorry for you right now! You should see what you look like in a mirror, because the face you're making looks just like mine did when I first learned about my weapon's limitation, back when me and the others got ambushed by a random group of bandits!"

"Y-You think this changes anything?!" The invader screamed crazily. "I don't care what restriction this thing supposedly has or not! I'll just make it submit to my will and then force it to hurt you and-"

"Hey, do you know why I'm always focusing on unlocking weapon forms that increase my agility and dexterity?" Kizuna suddenly interrupted the idiotic rant.

"... what?" The harbinger asked in confusion.

"You know, the stats that increase my speed and reflexes and all that wordy stuff for dodging in combat? Well, anyway, that's also combat-related since, whenever I face other people in combat, those are the only stats I have that won't be treated as if they're zero since they allow me to flee combat encounters or otherwise dodge multiple attacks if fleeing isn't possible."

"What the &^%$ are you going on about? WHAT DOES ANY OF THAT HAVE TO DO WITH-" The man started screaming again.

"You know what, you're right! Why explain it, when I can give you a demonstration instead?!" Kizuna suddenly said, looking excited. "Just keep on standing right there and try to think of something else to scream about again! That should make this perfect for everyone who is watching us right now!"

"What- I don't-" The man tried to respond again, looking even more confused.

And then, Kizuna's fist appeared in front of his face. Looking far more massive than what it should have been.

One could have seen the kanji symbols for DEATH flying right alongside her fist, had they looked at the air close enough.

To explain what was about to happen, the reincarnator had stolen Kizuna's weapon. And with it, he'd stolen all of Kizuna's skills, as well as her weapon's stat build and the like. Kizuna was, at this moment, being treated as if she wasn't the Hunting Tools Hero and was instead an ordinary person with the job class of Adventurer.

However, even with that, Kizuna was still level 125. While her weapon and its powers had been stolen, her levels and the stats she got from those levels had not. On top of that, she was no longer restricted by the inability to harm human opponents.

Meanwhile, the reincarnator was being treated as if he were the Hunting Tools Hero. He had access to all of the power-up methods Kizuna had, though he only had access to about 30% of their power since he wasn't the legitimate wielder of the weapon. He also had access to the weapon forms she'd acquired and upgraded, as well as her skills.

However, he was still at the same level as before. On top of that, in taking the weapon, he had also been saddled with its weapon restriction, that being that he would be treated as less than level one when facing off against human opponents and would thus be unable to harm them or protect himself with anything besides the Cursed Series.

On top of all this, Kizuna had finally revealed one little-known detail about her Weapon Limitation, which was the sole reason why she never engaged human opponents in direct combat.

In combat situations, only her agility and dexterity stats weren't treated as zero against human opponents. This meant both Kizuna's attack stat and her defense stat were utterly nerfed whenever she had to fight against another human.

So in short, when Kizuna's level 100+ fist punched the one-armed Hunting Tools reincarnator directly in the face…

BOOM!

The man's body exploded, showering everyone around Kizuna with blood and visceral gore.

…

All fighting in the room paused nearly instantaneously as blood began to rain down. Heads turned to try and find out what the &^%$ had just happened.

Kizuna, who'd been at the epicenter of it, was now drenched in the dripping crimson fluid from the top of her head and down to the soles of her boots. Her cheerful demeanor from before had completely vanished, having been replaced with a chilling and threatening pressure that was now emanating from her figure in waves.

"What… what did you just…?" Orokana gaped while taking a step back.

Kizuna didn't speak. Instead, she casually pulled a summon ofuda out of her pocket before unceremoniously dropping it in front of her, where the reincarnator's body had formerly been.

A small Soul Eater popped out of the slip of paper and lunged forward. Its teeth sunk into the incorporeal target in front of it, instantly making it visible to everyone. The soul did not match with the body, but that didn't matter.

"AH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The formerly alive man let out a series of horrified, unearthly screams of agony as the monster quickly tore his soul apart piece by piece, swallowing chunks of it whole while letting out a few satisfied growls in the process.

Seconds later, the screams ended, and the layer of red around the room covering everyone rapidly lost its color as the late reincarnator's blood turned to ash, signifying the complete destruction of his existence.

The soul eater, with its feast now concluded, faded away as well.

…

…

…

This scared the reincarnators FAR MORE than anything that the heroes had thrown at them before.

Kizuna's weapon reappeared in her hands in a flash of light. Her job class then changed back to Hunting Tools Hero on her HUD. It was the last bit of proof that the reincarnator who'd stolen her weapon was completely dead in both body and soul.

"Huh. So that's what killing a person feels like? I'm a bit disappointed, honestly." The Hunting Tools Hero remarked. She gave a dead stare at her weapon, before raising her free hand to pat her shoulders and get some dust off of her clothes. "I thought I'd feel more guilty about it, but I guess you fools are no different than monsters on the inside, are you?

"You know, that was one other thing Kyo noted about all of you. How none of you would treat your deaths here seriously, since you can just 'respawn' later, as strong as ever. As if this was all just a game where you're the main character.

"Too bad for you. Your bodies might be immortal, but your souls sure as hell aren't."

Kizuna glared as she raised her weapon and pointed it at Orokana again. "When I said that all of you were going to be executed here, I meant it."

…

Naofumi slowly blinked where he was standing.

Okay, this was possibly raising some red flags. He made a mental note to chat with the Hunting Tools Hero after this was over.

Still, despite how oppressive and suffocating the atmosphere around her had become, he couldn't sense any cursed series presence on the girl. What that meant exactly, he wasn't sure. Even so, the vindictive part of the Shield Hero internally cheered at what he was witnessing.

Kizuna reached for her pocket again, and the reincarnators who stood the closest to her leaped far back, putting as much distance between them and her as possible.

Fortunately for them, instead of another soul eater summoning ofuda, the Hunting Tools Hero pulled a fancy-looking communication ofuda out of her pocket instead. "Hey, Corrin. Did you get all that?"

"Indeed, I have." The emperor's voice spoke from the slip of paper. "In multiple sources from multiple angles. The rest of the representatives seem to be convinced too. Those scrying crystals that Kyo used to spy on us work far better than we could have ever expected." As if on cue, the previously locked armored double doors of the assembly hall were flung open and rows upon rows of gem golems began to march into the room.

Corrin, who was the last to enter, put his communication ofuda away and straightened out. His face was set in stone, just like Kizuna's. These were the individuals that Xander had wanted to take down so badly that he joined the rogue Book Hero to get a chance at it. The ones who were described in the late general's second letter.

The contents of that second letter matched up with what Kyo had written in his journal too. And when the rogue reincarnator's roundabout clues were combined with the forbidden knowledge kept by the empire, a rather grim and unsettling truth became apparent.

These so-called vanguards or harbingers were working for a group of unknown beings from another world referred to as 'them'. Their only goal was the subjugation or destruction of all worlds out there. It was clear that whoever 'they' were, it wasn't just one person pulling the strings behind the Waves in all worlds.

Another thing that the Heroes learned was how these vanguards were inserted into other worlds. And it made Corrin understand why it'd been so long since a high noble or royalty from Lapis had chosen to give birth, instead of adopting an heir.

These vanguards were placed in the mother's womb sometime during conception. Killing the original baby and replacing it with one of these monsters standing in the room right now, so they could be raised directly into positions of power or influence.

Thankfully, because Kana hadn't been killed by the gem golems after being born, it was proof that she wasn't a reincarnator. But this group that was currently polluting Corrin's palace with their continued existence would not share the same luxury.

It was time to ensure his brother's efforts hadn't been in vain.

"As the Emperor of Lapis, I hereby renounce the diplomatic immunity given to you, Orokana Ryoshi, as well as to the Musical Instruments wielder Hidemasa Miyaji, the Supreme Adventurer Rem Akami, and everyone else who has been identified as a reincarnator in this room.

"For your great crimes against not only our world and humanity but for the murders of my family members as well, there is only one punishment I see fit to bestow upon you all. Extermination!" Corrin looked around himself, gazing upon the loyal gem golems that'd helped to take care of, and secretly, protect Lapis since its founding by the first Jewel Hero.

"Caretakers, the time has come!

"Execute Order 66!"

The ground below the palace shook ominously as a deep guttural noise heaved out from below.

The black onyxes bound within the stone constructs. The one type of gem that never seemed to shine when the golems operated before.

Flared to life.

The stone constructs began to shake and convulse, their limbs twitching and bending at weird and unnatural angles with the sound of grinding stone.

The golems who stood upright previously, descended on all fours, driving their limbs into the tiled marble floor and shattering it around them.

The light of other gems embedded in their bodies faded away as all color drained from them, turning them gray and lifeless. At the same time, the onyxes began to glow more intensely and flakes of purple cursed flames began to spill out from the cracks of their bodies.

The heads of the stone creations of the first Jewel hero twisted violently by one hundred and eighty degrees, turning upside down. And what seemed like just another crack running down the middle of their heads tore itself open as a cacophony of horrible bloodchilling and inhuman wails erupted from the golem's throats, revealing rows of crudely cut and glowing shards of obsidian glass shaped like teeth that ran throughout the whole length of their bodies on the inside.

"... right." Kizuna nodded with grim determination before looking over her friends. "Enough messing around. Let's finish this.

"No more holding back. Kill them… for real this time."

The golems lunged forward like rabid dogs that had just broken their chains. Their limbs tore into the stone floor underneath them, ripping it apart like it was soft soil as they charged toward their prey with manic and unrestrained glee.

---

As nightmarish as the scene before them was, the remaining reincarnators had to look away from it for a moment as a sharp sound of metal rending flesh reverberated throughout the room.

Rem Akami, the Supreme Adventurer known for both his experience and unusual preferences in gameplay among his peers, finally snapped out of his stupor and did the most sensible thing he could think of at that moment.

He drove his sword right through his heart, killing himself instantly.

His soul then dived into the floor, disappearing from view. Screw this, he was out of there!

After seeing Akami intentionally fall on his sword, several other reincarnators immediately followed suit as the Gem Golems charged into the first line of souls, devouring the screaming reincarnators in their gaping maws with the efficiency of a wood chipper.

A few of the souls that escaped the initial eating frenzy dived into the floor after Akami, but the other dead souls did not seem to understand the reasoning behind Rem's choice of escape route and instead tried to fly up, towards the ceiling or out the windows, in a desperate attempt to get away from the danger on the ground.

And when they did, the transparent dome above them exploded inwards, raining shards of glass and jewels down on everything as dozens of noblesse commandos holding soul nets and chained soul eaters descended upon the reincarnators like the wrath of god.

Lazuli's elites hovered in the air while their tamed monsters fell upon the reincarnator's souls before they had a chance to scream in terror.

Instead, they screamed in agony as the soul eaters tore their essences apart with their sharp teeth while the noblesse's nets prevented the rest of the reincarnators from escaping through the roof.

Outside the windows of the room, Ethnobalt's ship shimmered into existence as his newly acquired stealth skill deactivated.

"Alright boys, you know what time it is!" A noblesse named Hevy hefted a Gem Lightning Gatling Gun in front of him as he stood up on the deck of Ethnobalt's ship. He had blue accents on his armor, as did the other four noblesses with him.

"Yep, it's time to watch the Dominoes fall." A noblesse named Echo responded, his eyes gleaming behind his helmet.

"Hahaha! They're so screwed." Fives laughed to himself. "EAT LASERS!"

Phoom! Phoom! Phoom! Phoom! Phoom!

The souls that tried to escape through the windows were met by Lazuli's special force Dominos Squad, who were usually in charge of the city's security but had been moved to the palace today due to the special occasion. Their weapons were modified with onyx gems, instead of the usual amethysts that regular troops were used to. This gave the weapons a dark affinity and allowed them to target ghosts and other incorporeal entities.

The fates of these reincarnators were the same as those who tried to escape through the ceiling. They disintegrated under an onslaught of black lightning, bursting one after another. The Dominos Squad didn't let even a single one of them get away.

The floor of the assembly hall turned into chaos.

Besides the horde of golems rampaging through it, the commandos that had descended from the roof earlier were now wildly firing down at the reincarnators with their own modified onyx blasters. All the while, even more gem golems poured into the room through the double doors, ripping apart those who were too stupid to kill themselves and had tried to make a run for the only exit from the room.

Yet none of the Heroes or their allies who were still fighting were harmed by the golems. They were all designated as friendlies and did not even get bumped into by the hulking monstrosities.

The reason for this was all thanks to the past Jewel Hero who'd first created the stone constructs.

She had programmed the magic senses of these creatures with knowledge of how the enemies of their world were born. How they could be identified, and beyond that, eliminated.

Their magic sense didn't have them look at people on the surface, but rather at their souls. That was how Kyo's organic mimic constructs had gotten past them before, as they had no souls. But even with that one flaw, the true value of the gem golems was brought to light here.

This was why no reincarnators were ever born into Lapis. This was why, for centuries, reincarnators hadn't been able to get a foothold in the politics of the nation. It was only recently that they started to dare to show their faces here. After the knowledge that Kyo had disabled the soul scanning function of the golems towards adults became common in their circle.

Reincarnators still couldn't be born into the nation. But at least they could step foot there without the threat of being annihilated.

Too bad Corrin's command had just turned it back on. If they weren't screwed before, then they were absolutely &^%$#$ now!

"W-Wait! Please, I don't want to-" One reincarnator that was still standing dropped his weapon in terror as he tried to run away from the charging gem monstrosities.

Too bad that this just made him run right into Raphtalia's Soul Eater Katana.

"AH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The invader's screams were punctuated as Raphtalia thrust her blade through his chest, before cutting through his neck to ensure his soul was killed.

Yep, that's right; the reincarnators still had their original enemies to worry about on top of everything else.

"Circle Dance Cutting Formation:" Glass danced with her Soul Eater Fans equipped. Her body seemed to fade in and out as her steps quickened. "Instant X!"

A group of five reincarnators had been backing away out of terror and had turned around to run, but Glass appeared directly in front of them.

A slash of light went across all their necks, and their bodies exploded and decomposed instantly as their lives and their souls were cut short in an instant.

"Bane of the Reaper!" L'Arc's Soul Eater Scythe let out a dark black glow as he slammed the blade into the floor. "VIII!"

A wave of darkness expanded outward, enveloping the souls of more reincarnators fleeing before him. One, four, at least ten souls were permanently snuffed out by the attack.

"L-Lightning Harpoon!" Orokana's whole body shook with rage as he launched the skill into the gem golems that tried to leap at him. The skill overwhelmed them, destroying the group entirely.

But Glass followed right behind with a strike of her fans.

Boom!

Orokana barely dodged to the side in time as the fans impacted the ground where he'd been standing.

"YOU RIGHTEOUS SACKS OF $%^&! YOU THINK YOU'LL GET AWAY WITH THIS!? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?" He yelled furiously as he tried to counterattack.

However, even though Glass had been more than capable of deflecting the attack herself, L'Arc still appeared in front of her, hitting Orokana'a Harpoon to the side before slashing at him with his own Soul Eater Scythe.

Orokana had to fall back as two very powerful Heroes focused their attention on him simultaneously.

"Have you finally realized that we're not even taking this fight seriously yet?" L'Arc asked, his tone angering the false hero even more. "None of you are even worthy of me pulling out my War Scythe skill, Bitch."

The situation was turning worse and worse by the second. Between Raphtalia slashing with her Soul Eater Katana or Hoshi summoning a pair of powerful Soul Eaters at his side with an ofuda skill, no one was surviving against the Heroes.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh…"

Amidst all this chaos and panic, a single reincarnator was hiding under one of the desks that had fallen over. Breathing in and out heavily while his pupils contracted wide in terror.

"Damn it, damn it, damn iiiit." Seya intoned in a quiet high-pitched whimper. Tears and snot were running down his face, marring his handsome features as he rocked back and forth with his whole body paralyzed with terror. The horrid sounds of the battle rang all around him, echoing in the hollow space he hid in.

What the hell was wrong with these heroes? Were they stupid? Insane? Did they seriously not realize the fallout that their actions would bring? The heavy consequences that they would have to bear for what they were doing right now? Did they think that the rest of the world would let them get away with this? Did they not care at all?!

Daaaaamn iiiit! What was up with this sudden absurd difficulty spike?! These idiots were supposed to be just mindless sheep constrained by their own stupid morality! This isn't how those moronic NPC's were supposed to act! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!

"AHHHHHHH!" An agonized scream followed by the sound of flesh being torn and bone being broken sounded next to the desk.

A mangled arm landed in front of Seya with a wet splat, spraying him with blood.

"Hiiiiiiiiiii!"

The reincarnator let out of a terrified screech as he tried in vain to push himself further back against the desk that comprised his shelter. How could this happen to him? What did he do to deserve this!? Things were finally supposed to turn around for Seya. The cook reincarnator would have been able to use his new position as the royal chef to enslave the emperor by addicting him to his special drugs.

But now…! Now….?!

The cook's breathing became heavier as he began to hyperventilate. He shakily reached into his apron, pulling a kitchen knife out of its pocket.

No matter how hard Seya gripped it, even as his knuckles turned white and the sinew in his hand groaned from the strain, the blade still shook. Seya grimaced and stared at it with his eyes visibly bulging out, trying to psyche himself up for what he needed to do.

Damn it! How did that F-rank !^%&^%$ make it look so easy!?

Seya knew that this was his only way out. There was no way that he could fight these monstrosities and cheaters that didn't respect the rules of the game. So, he had to killbind and respawn. But…!

The cook shakily pulled the knife back a bit, let out a gasp, and tried to drive the knife into his heart.

"Hiiiiii! It hurts! It hurts! It huuuurts!"

The poke had barely managed to break through skin and draw a few droplets of blood. And the sight of it only made Seya feel even more terrified as he stared at the bloodied tip of the knife in a trance.

However, the sound of stone grinding followed by Seya suddenly finding himself being illuminated snapped him out of it real quick.

Looking up, a golem held the desk that the reincarnator was previously hiding under in its obsidian jaws. With a quick jerk of its head, the construct threw the desk away and it smashed into splinters against the wall of the assembly hall.

With the obstruction cleared, the golem lowered its head and leered at Seya. Gray dust spilled from in-between the guardian's jagged black teeth, forming a purple tinted dark cloud around it. And within the creature's gaping and seemingly bottomless throat, mangled and torn bits and pieces of souls could be seen getting rapidly dissolved.

"Ah- ….ah….AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Seya screamed from the top of his lungs, grasping the knife in his hands again before driving it in between his own ribs.

The sound of flesh being rend was quickly followed by a dull thud as the cook's body fell on the floor, dead. But only a few seconds later, a ghostly corpulent figure with a disproportionately small head and limbs crawled out of the carcass, screaming in triumph.

"AHAHA! I DID IT! I DID IT! I'M FREE!" The soul's beady little eyes shone as it squealed excitedly. "#$%^ YOU ALL! I'M FREEYYYYEEEEAAAAARRRFGHHHH!"

The plus sized soul's triumphant cry quickly devolved into one of pain, as the golem simply lunged forward and bit down on Seya's foot. The guardian violently shook its prey around and, in the process, tore one of the cook's legs off.

The soul continued to scream in agony as the rest of its body was launched away. Guided by panic and a strong desire to survive, Seya managed to crawl into the floor and vanished a split second before several more golems jumped at his previous position.

The constructs wailed angrily, their limbs digging into the floor to try to get at their prey, but when it became apparent that it was gone, the golems quickly shifted their attention to other targets.

Nearby, several reincarnators tried to steal Daitan's mace from him, since he hadn't switched it to a soul eater weapon form yet, but the moment they got close they died when they were incinerated by the fiery weapon, due to the massive difference in their stats. And then with a Onyx Lightning Rifle form equipped, Akane disposed of their souls for the Blunt Hero.

"E-everyone, wait! Please, wait!" Miyaji, the Musical Instrument Hero pleaded as he stumbled and fell backwards on his haunches. He hastily scooted back before running into a wall. "This is just a big misunderstanding! Didn't we get summoned together!? We're practically best friends!"

"Ehhhhh?" Daitan rested his mace on his shoulder and knelt down before the sweating Musical Hero. "Is that so? Then tell me this, 'friend'."

Daitain's eyes narrowed. "What's my name?"

"Ah-" Miyaji froze and his mind raced a million miles an hour. "B-blunt Hero S-s-sama-"

"Not my title. My name." Daitan repeated. Hoshi and Akane closed in too, their faces cast in shadow as they took positions on the Blunt Hero's left and right sides respectively. "I remember you disappearing on us shortly after our summoning, but you can at least remember my name, right?"

"Ah-...I-...It's... it's on the tip of my tongue, I swear!" Miyaji began to shake.

"... Okay, I'll give you another chance, since you are our 'friend'. Name one of my friend's names and you'll be free to go." Daitan hefted his mace from his shoulder and smashed it into the floor next to the Musical Hero, causing a cloud of dust to get kicked up.

"Y-your names, o-o-o-f course. They are...! They are...!" Miyaji gritted his teeth as his eyes bulged out from tension.

…

After a pregnant pause, Daitan stood up and straightened out. "Thought so. Well, if it makes you feel any better."

The Legendary Blunt Instrument burst into flames.

"We have no clue who the hell you are either."

"No! Help! SOMEBODY HELP ME! OROKANA! HELPPPP!" Miyaji screamed.

But no one could help any of them.

Out of the hundreds of reincarnators who'd been there at the start, at least 90% of them were already dead by this point. Only a small handful had managed to escape by diving into the floor before they could be killed.

There were only a few individuals besides Orokana that were still standing. But they were few and far between. It wouldn't take long for them to die as well.

It was a miracle Orokana hadn't died yet. All of his backup was gone now. Yet he still did not attempt to kill himself and try to escape.

Perhaps Orokana thought he could still somehow pull out a win? Or maybe he'd just been that desperate to not lose. To prove that he was the strongest of them all.

However, The Harpoon Hero's stubborn struggle soon came to an unexpected halt.

"What the-" His next attack, which would have slammed into Naofumi's Shield, suddenly stopped. "GAH!" The invader felt his legs grow weak all of a sudden.

His knees shook and then went slack, causing him to crumple down on the tiled marble floor. Orakana managed to drive the tip of his harpoon into the ground and use it for support, preventing him from falling flat on his face, but that didn't last either.

The sudden feeling of weakness spread to the Harpoon wielder's arms and hands next, as well as the rest of his body. Unable to hold himself upright any longer, Orokana fell forward, hitting his forehead against one of the shattered floor tiles. The impact caused his skin to split, drawing blood.

"What- what's going on? My body? Why can't I-" Orokana's eyes shot around frantically as he desperately tried to force himself to move to no avail.

"Finally." Kizuna cut him off and raised her hand. Seeing the signal, Corrin immediately cried out at the back of the room. "Everyone, stand down!"

Stand down? What the hell were they thinking now? Did they change their mind and…

Orokana's train of thought came to a halt as he took note of the ominous silence that'd set in. Even lying down on the floor in an awkward position as he was, the Harpoon Hero was able to look at his surroundings and realize the reason for the order.

It was over. There was no one else left except for him and-

"O-Orakana!"

The Harpoon hero's blood went still as he saw his comrade getting dragged before Kizuna in the corner of his vision. Miyaji's beautiful face was battered and bruised, his elegant clothes were torn and burnt. His broken limbs dangled limply on his body, bent at awkward angles.

A pack of four golems held the Musical Hero's body in their jaws while quietly awaiting further instructions from the Emperor.

Miyaji's eyes were wide with pain and terror while Daitan, Hoshi, and Akane stood proudly beside the gem golems.

"Oh yeaaa! We actually beat another Vassal Hero! We're so freaking awesome! Woohoo!" Daitan yelled happily while performing a little dance and a series of pelvic thrusts.

"Yeah, while fighting him three-on-one," Akane added scathingly, visibly taking some of the wind from Daitan's sails.

"He was pretty strong though; you've got to admit." Hoshi gave his own two cents while keeping a close eye on the incapacitated reincarnator, in case he tried to do anything.

"Okay, yea, I guess." Akane then added awkwardly, conceding the point. Miyaji was at least strong enough that he wasn't instantly incinerated by Daitan's weapon like the others.

However, that just meant that the Musical Hero's current state was all the more agonizing.

"Good job, you three! Way to go!" Kizuna gave the trio a thumbs up, with Daitan returning the gesture while Akane and Hoshi simply nodded in response.

"Orokana! What are you doing!? Get up! Why are you just laying there?" Miyaji desperately cried out while trying to struggle himself free for a moment before the obsidian teeth of the golems sunk deeper into his flesh, making him cry out in agony again.

"Oh, don't be mad at him, he's a bit busy at the moment." Kizuna shrugged and turned back to face the harpoon wielder again. Orokana was still lying helplessly on the floor. His face was red from exertion and trickles of sweat were running down its length.

He gasped and puffed, repeatedly trying to no avail to make his body move.

"You bitch! What did you do to me!? What sort of cheat is this?"

"Oh, it's not a cheat, Orokana." Kizuna crouched down and leaned over the Harpoon Wielder with a harrowing smile and an empty look in her eyes.

"It's just poison."

"Poison-wha-"

"Did you enjoy your complimentary wine by the way?" The Hunting Tools Hero interrupted him. "I'm not a fan of alcohol myself, so I had to ask my big brother L'Arc for advice on what to serve today. It's apparently a special reserve from his favorite vineyard in Lapis, which he is now coincidentally the new owner of, after having inherited it last week from the previous owner. Kyo had his fingers in a lot of pies, didn't he?

"But I digress."

Kizuna leaned forward even closer, her face now an inch away from Orokana's. "So, did you like it?"

"Y-you, bitch. H-how? My weapon should have-" The Harpoon Hero croaked out, suddenly finding it hard to raise his voice.

"Detected it, yea. It's a pretty useful feature, isn't it?" Kizuna nodded. "Unfortunately, that only covers poisons that do direct damage. Not long-acting paralytics with a delayed effect. It's a pretty impressive concoction, from what I was led to believe by the person who brewed this particular batch at my request. Thanks again, Naofumi!"

Kizuna briefly turned her head and waved at the Shield Hero in a friendly manner.

"Any time." The black-haired young man nodded grimly.

"So, yea, I made sure to poison everyone's wine and food here in advance, in case you bastards proved to be tougher than expected. But my other big bro here can't take all the credit here. After all…" Kizuna turned back to face Orokana again and put her index finger into his hair before starting to play with one of the stray locks. "This recipe was made by one of you pieces of $%^&. And it was then used to murder one of my friends.

"Be sure to give your courtesies to Kenshiro's nephew when you meet him again in hell or whatever empty endless void that you go to when your soul gets erased."

"W-what…. him….?" Orokana gasped repeatedly, finding himself short of breath now.

"Well, it's actually a modified recipe, if you want to get reaaaal technical." Kizuna continued to speak in a friendly manner and playfully poked Orokana's cheek. "You see, Kyo stole all of that bastard's notes after capturing him. And that friend of mine always had a knack for improving things that others made.

"So, do you know how Kyo improved the poison, Orokana?"

The Harpoon Hero tried to respond but only a labored wheeze came out from his rapidly and uselessly compressing windpipe.

"That's riiight~! It now paralyzes your lungs too. Isn't that fun?" Kizuna dusted the hem of her dress off and straightened out before taking a few steps back. "With that said, Orokana." The girl turned around and looked down at the reincarnator.

In his rapidly darkening and warping vision, he could only see the girl's dark silhouette and her empty eyes staring down into the depths of his black and wicked soul.

"Do me a favor. Take a nice big breath of fresh air. And make sure to savor it."

"Since it's going to be your last, you know?"

…

There was no sound at all coming in response from the harpoon wielder this time. His body was violently twitching and convulsing on the floor. He desperately yearned for air and yet, he could not take any in.

His vision turned black and red, with Kizuna's dark silhouette and empty eyes engraved forever in the middle of Orokana's psyche. His whole body burned with fire and unspeakable agony as his heartbeat echoed deafeningly in his head, the pauses between each heartbeat becoming longer and longer until…

His body finally went completely still.

---

…

…

…

…

Kizuna tapped her foot impatiently. "We know you're still here. So quit playing hide and seek. We're not done yet."

A pale ghostly figure slowly rose from the corpse of the Harpoon Hero. Its hand gripped the Vassal Weapon tightly and ripped it out of the floor.

Surprisingly, Orokana's true soul form had a herculean build, unlike many of his fellow reincarnators. A large and elaborate tattoo in the shape of a serpent stretched out from his forearm and to his shoulder and back, with the snake design circling his torso in the process.

The Harpoon Hero's long shaggy black hair covered his eyes briefly before he raised his head, revealing two red orbs overflowing with madness, hate, and rage.

"... YOU… YOU!

"YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU'LL GET AWAY WITH THIS!? THAT THIS WILL CHANGE ANYTHING?!

'I'LL KILL YOU ALL, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!

"NONE OF YOU WILL STOP ME FROM BEING ABLE TO RISE TO THE TOP OF THIS WORLD! EVERYTHING THIS WORLD HAS TO OFFER WILL BELONG TO ME! I SWEAR-"

"Hold that thought for a moment, would you?" Kizuna easily interrupted the furious vengeful soul's tirade. "There's a reason why I specifically had you two saved for last."

The girl then turned back to face the Musical Hero who was desperately trying to fade out of existence after seeing what happened to his fellow conspirator.

"I need a messenger, you see." Kizuna crouched by Miyaji.

"W-what? A messenger?" The man swallowed hard.

"Mhmm." Kizuna nodded with a smile. "I'm not exactly sure if they can see what's happening right now or not. My sources were a bit vague in that regard. So in case they can't, I need one of you to crawl back to them and tell them exactly what happened here down to every little nitty gritty detail. And since you two seem to be on the top of the figurative food chain among your peers, I figure one of you would be able to get an audience with them faster."

"T-them…?" Myaji's eyes widened as he felt a deep cold pit open in his stomach.

"Yea, 'them'." Kizuna emphasized. "Your bosses, masters, superiors, whatever the hell you want to call them. The people who really call the shots and put you down here. The people that have you seek out and destroy any information about 'them' left in the worlds. Who are responsible for the waves of destruction in my world and Naofumi's world and every other world out there."

"Them."

…

Even Orokana's vengeful expression faltered at Kizuna's words. The rage in his eyes was quickly replaced with shock.

"Actually…." Kizuna tapped her chin with her index finger. "Since you're here and all, why don't you just answer me in that regard." The girl then leaned over the Musical Instruments Hero.

"Are they watching us right now, Miyaji?"

…

"I-…I can't…I mean, I don't- I-" The reincarnator's body shook and his mouth went dry. And, much more worryingly, he felt something akin to a long strip of rough metal start crawling under his skin and slowly coil around his heart like a python constricting its prey.

"I REFUSE! I REFUSE TO ANSWEEER!" Miyaji finally screeched out in a fit of panic.

…

"Eh, it was worth a shot." Kizuna shrugged. "No worries. I know that you can't actually tell me anything about them.

"You know, that is the other sad thing Kyo noted in that journal of his." Kizuna crossed her arms behind her back and walked past Miyaji and the golems, the others staying back once more. "Most of you don't even realize how 'they' are using you to destroy our world instead of giving it to you."

"It seems like Kyo was one of the only ones who was self-aware in that regard. The rest of you were just too stupid compared to him. Though, you're at least smart enough to know what'd happen if you tried to reveal any information about 'them'."

Orokana had been trying to think of what he should do then, realizing that, as a soul, the chances of him dying permanently were now quite high. Being alone, sans Miyaji hanging from the jaws of the four gem golems, also played a factor in wondering if he should retreat for now or not.

But at Kizuna's words, his thoughts paused, anger coming onto his face as he stared back at her. "W-What did you just say?"

The heroine smiled, but there was no light in it. It was like staring into a cold, dark, empty void.

"In the end, you all weren't the reason I organized this whole parade. You lot are nothing but cannon fodder, meant to slowly whittle down and destroy our worlds through your own purely selfish actions. Even if I were to spend my whole life fighting your influence, after I die, they'll just put more of you &^%$&^$# in my world to ruin it for some future generation.

"I understand now why Kyo said that my accomplishments would result in a net gain of zero. Even if we killed all of you today, it still wouldn't prevent more reincarnators from being born into my world in the future. Even if me and my friends left an abundance of knowledge and descendants and had the threat you posed taught in all our schools, even if we made it absolutely impossible for you to be born anywhere in our world, 'they' would still find a way to work around any failsafes we'd try to implement like Miyaji being summoned alongside the Cardinal Heroes.

"Either that or some new mother out there would decide that she'd rather raise one of you &^%$# even knowing full well what you'd grow up to be since it'd be monstrous to expect all mothers to be okay with their newborns possibly being killed to prevent you guys from trying to take over our world again. And then, soon enough, we'd be back to the same dance as before.

"Maybe it'd take centuries. Maybe it'd take millennia. But it'd still happen.

"So, I am not going to do that. I am not going to play by your or their rules anymore. Instead, I decided that I was going to flip this board over and bash your collective skulls in with it.

"Consider this little event a message for the bosses standing behind you. The ones who are pulling the strings for this whole mess."

"Killing you all here was pretty cathartic, I admit. But it was just a side thing. What I wanted to do with this is to make sure that 'they' know what's coming for them after this."

…

Orokana stared, his eyes steadily refilling with fury again at the notion that he was just an afterthought, rather than the one in the spotlight.

"Ah, I like the look you're giving me right now." Kizuna's smile didn't falter in the slightest. "I've decided. You will be the one to pass my message along, Orokana.

"After all, I only need one person to deliver it for me. And our world could use one of its Hero Weapons back in the right hands."

…

Before the false Harpoon Hero could comprehend the meaning of her words, the Hunting Tools Hero finally gave a nod to the gem golems behind her, and their teeth shined with excitement.

"W-WAIT! I COULD STILL BE OF-" Miyaji tried to scream.

The golems teeth all began to rotate in their mouths like a buzzsaw, blending Miyaji's limbs in their mouths.

"AH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Miyaji screamed as his body and soul got torn up, shredded, and then finally mashed before Orakana's very eyes.

It was over in seconds. The remains of the false Musician Hero's torso flopped uselessly against the ground and then crumbled into dust.

The Vassal Musical Instruments weapon floated up into the air, shining in gratitude. The Vassal Mirror also appeared beside it, looking grateful as well.

Though the Vassal Mirror then flew down near Naofumi's Shield. The gemstone on it flashed over and over again in irritation.

The Shield's gemstone glowed a couple of times in response. And Naofumi could have sworn he heard a voice coming from it saying something along the lines of; "Lol, you should have grabbed him first then, loser."

That was probably the Shield Hero's imagination getting to him after everything he'd witnessed. Either way, the Vassal Mirror flew off right after that, looking furious as it vanished with the Vassal Musical Instruments into the sky.

What a strange interaction between Hero Weapons...

…

"... alright, let's wrap things up." Kizuna put the focus back on herself when she spoke.

"Orokana, I want you to listen to me real close now.

"I want you to remember everything that happened here today. And when I say 'remember', I mean that I want you to burn every single second of it into your soul. Every excruciating detail. Every. Breath."

Kizuna took a single step forward and the Harpoon Hero's soul instinctively took one back.

"From here on out, you will wake up every single night for the rest of your worthless life, screaming, pissing, and $%^&ing yourself in terror, as you relive this day over and over in your worst nightmares as if it was happening again for the first time."

Kizuna took another step forward. Orokana stumbled back and fell.

"And then, you will cry for the rest of the night, overwhelmed in relief that it was only a dream, but be too afraid to go back to sleep in fear of going back to this place, to today."

Orokana crawled back while clawing at his throat, feeling the horrible suffocating sensation again. His vision began to darken as Kizuna's figure seemingly pushed everything else out of the world around him. It was as if darkness was covering her very being.

"You will never rest or have a moment of peace again. Every lucid moment of your life will be spent wondering when I will come back to finish the job. And I assure you that I will. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not next week. But I will be back."

Orokana's soul shook, his eyes widening in terror as the predator bent forward, its hungry eyes staring into his own.

"So tell them aaaaaaalll about this. And then, tell them this:"

"We are coming for you next."

Kizuna's whole presence gave off the kanji symbols of death. "Make sure they get it.

"Alright?" Kizuna smiled playfully at the end.

...

"Hey, what's wrong, buddy? Why the long face." Kizuna took another step forward.

"S-stay away!" Orokana went on all fours and began to crab crawl back.

"Hey, come on. What are you so afraid of all of a sudden? Don't you know who I am?" The darkness in front of Orokana crawled closer, almost reaching his legs. "I'm the Hunting Tools Hero! I can't hurt you! Not even while you're just a soul!"

"NO! NO! GET BACK!"

Two eyes stared at Orokana from the dark suffocating void. His non-existent heart furiously beat in his ears like drums in an overpowering cacophony of noise and static.

"You still have your weapon, don't you? I'll tell you what. You can have one free shot at me!

"With how weak I am, you should still be able to kill me, so go for it!"

"STAY AWAY FROM MMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE!"

For the first time in his life, Orokana's rage from his former life had been overpowered by another emotion. One that he thought he'd never experience in this world, but which had filled his entire being from top to bottom.

Fear.

Orokana screamed as he dove through the floor, vanishing from sight.

But one could still hear his frightened screams as he dove further and further into the ground. Moving as fast as he could.

He escaped under the wall of Lapis before resurfacing, but he was still screeching in terror as he flew all the way to his home country.

A later highway between both countries would acquire the nickname "The Road of Terror" because of people's memories of a ghost flying overhead, screaming as it fled the Capital city of Lapis.

And good riddance to it too.

---

Author's Notes:

I have nothing to say here. Keep on reading ahead, my friend, you're just about done with this arc!

---

Hero Clips!

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What was his Name Again?

---

"Well, if it makes you feel any better."

The Legendary Blunt Instrument burst into flames.

"We have no clue who the hell you are either."

Miyaji was about to scream when Akane suddenly grabbed Daitan's wrist, stopping him from attacking. "Weren't you listening to Kizuna earlier? I could have sworn his name came up on the list."

"Eh? You sure about that?" Daitan responded confusedly.

Other reincarnators were being murdered and quite literally butchered in body and soul in the background. Orokana was screaming like he was a main character in a shonen.

Fake M*ndalorian Blasters were firing. Heads were flying. Heroes were performing epic combos left and right.

But no, instead of all that pure cathartic awesomeness on these villain-of-the-week cardboard cutouts that were being dished out on them, we were about to focus on something completely ridiculous once again.

"Pretty sure. Hoshi, you were listening before, right?" Akane asked their fellow Hero.

"Hmmm…" Hoshi put a hand to his chin in thought. Staring at the guy who'd supposedly been summoned alongside them years ago. "... no, not a clue.

"I don't even recognize him. Are we sure that he was summoned with us?" Hoshi asked, looking at his friends in confusion.

Akane was about to answer but then closed her mouth.

Actually, now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember this guy either. Huh. Funny how that worked.

"A-Are you serious?! I was summoned alongside all of you! How could you possibly forget me?!" Miyaji screamed, looking angry and offended.

"I mean, if you were summoned with us, it's not like we interacted with anybody that day. Anybody who wasn't important, at least." Daitan shrugged.

Miyaji was about to scream all over again, but this time for an entirely different reason.

"Wait, Hoshi, didn't you draw our Hero Summoning?" Daitan then asked. "I thought you could remember everyone's names and faces because of that! Hell, you knew my name before I said it out loud!"

"True, I did know your names and faces." Hoshi pondered some more. "But now that I think about it, I can't remember drawing this guy in that picture at all."

"But I was summoned too! And I even talked to you idio- guys!" Miyaji screamed. "And you!" He pointed at Hoshi. "You have a photographic memory! HOW CAN YOU NOT EVEN REMEMBER ME OR MY NAME!?"

Hoshi tilted his head. "Yeah, I can remember scenes vividly. That doesn't mean I can remember everything that everyone says all the time though. Especially if I didn't think it was important enough to remember.

"As for why I can't remember you being there…" Hoshi shrugged. "I might have been too anxious to pay you any attention."

"Well… WELL THEN LISTEN UP! BECAUSE I'M ONLY GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE!" Miyaji straightened up. "I WAS SUMMONED ALONGSIDE YOU NUMBSKULLS! AND MY FULL NAME IS HI-"

"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Miyaji's scream was interrupted by a Kabuki performance happening on the deck of Ethnobalt's ship behind the Dominos Squad. The sounds of their screams and drum-playing Performance Magic enhanced the stats of all the soldiers there, making them even more powerful than before.

Yeah, that was why they existed in this world. Not a coincidence that they were there to mess with this guy or anything.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The young fake Music Hero began screaming as he pulled at his hair.

"Geez, can we just deal with him already?" Daitan hefted his mace overhead.

"Wait, I found the paper Kizuna threw away earlier!" Akane lifted a torn sheet off the ground, having identified it since Orokana's name and info were at the top.

"Let's see, his name is… … … oh, Unknown. What do you know." Akane said.

Yeah, who was this screaming turd on the ground? Even the author had forgotten who he was by this point.

"*&^% YOU!" The idiot raised his middle finger to the sky. "ONE DAY, I SHALL MAKE EVERYONE FEAR THE NAME OF-"

Whoosh!

Breeze-Kun blew the guy into Daitan, activating his mace's special effect.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The fake Hero screamed as his body was covered by flames.

Whoosh!

Breeze-Kun then blew from another direction, sending the badly burned villain of the week across the room, before throwing him down the room's only garbage chute.

"That is one strange breeze, not gonna lie," Daitan said, a nervous sweatdrop appearing on his forehead.

"Yeah, how about we just move on to the rest of the battle." Akane agreed, looking just as perplexed as her fellow Heroes.

The three went back to the remaining battles.

Meanwhile, our fake Hero was still falling down the trash chute. His face was red from anger.

"HOW DESPICABLE! YOU CAN'T TREAT ME LIKE THAT FOOL KAZUKI! I AM FAR GREATER THAN THAT IDIOT COULD EVER HOPE TO-"

His words were cut off as he fell into the trash area down below.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a dumpster that was waiting for him. But rather, a group of Gem Golems hungry for reincarnator flesh.

"AH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Heh, thanks for taking out the trash again for me Breeze-kun.

Actually, now that I think about it, that guy's perfect for the nickname Trash II since that other Trash guy from before wasn't called Trash II like his canon counterpart.

We shall forever remember the fake Instruments Hero as Trash II.

A guy who wasn't even as important as the original Trash. Man, what a loser, lmao.