Chapter Eighty: Fire and Blood
- ENTRY #85 -
AH! THE PAIN! I CAN BARELY FOCUS ENOUGH TO WRITE WITH MY LEFT HAND AS IT IS! WHY DID THAT FREAKING SWORD BRAT HAVE TO CUT OFF MY DOMINANT ARM!?
Oh well, it is no matter. I have succeeded in my designs in the end. Even… even if I had to kill so many people to accomplish them. And there's so much more death ahead before it's all said and done.
But at last, I am at the endgame.
My mind feels clearer than it has in years.
So why… what is this feeling gnawing through my chest again?
Why has it come back now after all these years?
- ENTRY #86 -
I just read through some of my previous journal entries.
What… what is going on? Destroy this world, what am I thinking?! That would be exactly what 'they' want!
And I remembered more of what happened while in that other world as well.
L'Arc, Glass, Therese, why did you guys have to be there too?
Why was I trying to kill them…!?
- ENTRY #87 -
Kizuna…
Kizuna… she was found… she's alive.
Somehow, that Shield Hero found her while trying to cross over.
She's… she's…
…
G̸̢̖̫͛̽̇͌̌̍͠ǫ̸̦̯͔̲̪͌̆̊̏̓̅̆̇̿̚͝͝i̷̧̛̪̖̰̥̋͐̐́͊̈́͆͂͑̎̌͆̚n̸̨̬̘̻̟̹̭͔̱̣̦̝͔̉͂̆̆ͅǵ̶̛̙̱̪͛́̂̾̆͐̏͜͝ ̶̡̬̹̫̰͙̣̲̀͑̌̅̇̊̓̈̀ͅt̸̞̩͓̻͇̦̭̝͌̇͆̎́̈́͆̈́͆͜͜͝ͅọ̵̈ ̶̛̙̠͊̔̃́͊͌̉̌̎̐̂̚͝r̶̛̰̝̅̅̒̾́͛̅͐̆̈́̽̄͑ũ̵̫̹̤̹̦̘̞̩͎̮͚͙̹̓͒̿̈́͝ǐ̷͉͚̗͓̖̮̩̦̼̃̿̀̊͊͂n̸̛̳̲͕̫͖͓̜̹͎̺͖̦̝̳͆͒́̍ ̵̫̹̲̬̘̋͗̌́̌́̑̊̎́̅̚̚͝͝ͅę̷͓̥̜̪̙͖͉̒͒̃̉͑͐͂̓̇̽͜v̴͕̘̺̣̣͙͍̟̠̮̩͍͍̖͍̈́̃̈̍̽e̷̯̹̳̼͛̉̌̉̈́̇͑̚r̶̨̮̩̦̗͖̩̝̠̻̤̫̝̉̀̎ͅý̴̛̞͓͉͔̳̘̖̳͇̱͙͇̟̓͆̂̎̈͌̅͘̚͜͠ͅt̸̥̓ĥ̸̡̢̻̼̹̣̰͉̏͐̄̑͂i̸̧͎͍͍̣͓̝͓̪̤͍̅̏̄̌̊̔̓̀͝ṋ̴͖̰͓̱͆̾͐̋͑͛́g̶̝̝̗̜̲̩̺̦̼̻̐͊́͂̍͠!̶̢̨̡̜̮̫̹̥̩̱̥̤̗̑
…
What?
What are these words?
Who wrote this in my journal in my handwriting?
This isn't me.
This shouldn't be coming from me!
"Meteor Shield!" Naofumi immediately summoned his strongest skill, protecting himself and his nearby allies as the horde of homunculi charged into them.
At the start of the surprise battle, Naofumi was focused on what was immediately around him first.
"Zweite Down!" Itsuki chanted, causing a yellow aura to appear around their enemies. "Bunker Shot!"
The spell should have definitely weakened them. But right before Itsuki's follow-up skill could make contact…
"An…Anti-Zweite Down."
The yellow aura around them vanished as one of the creatures finished speaking. Itsuki's skill was dodged as another creature had spoken a spell that covered himself and his brethren with a buff that increased their agility stats. The skill arrow exploded uselessly against a barrier that appeared around the throne that Kyo was sitting on.
"W-What the hell?!" Itsuki stumbled back in shock. There was no way, how had his hero-exclusive debuff magic been canceled out?!
"Raghh, RAGHHHH!" The creatures mindlessly charged into Naofumi's skill shield. Purple flaming fireballs began to appear around some of them.
"Air Strike Shield! Second Shield!" Naofumi summoned two additional barriers that pushed the monsters back and visibly frowned as they cracked under the fireball onslaught. Already, he could tell that this wasn't going to be an easy battle like the one they had outside.
"Alright, time to-" Daitan raised his mace as he charged up a skill.
However, his eyes widened in surprise as one of the Demon Dragon Trash hybrids appeared almost directly in front of him within the blink of an eye. "H-Huh-"
The Blunt Hero's body reacted, trying to twist to the side as bright purple fire surrounded the chimera's clawed hands, but while Daitan managed to avoid the first swing, the second clawed hand of the Trash Homunculi impacted against his armored side.
"GAH!" The Blunt Weapons Hero collapsed, his health bar dropping dangerously low from the one attack.
"Daitan!" Hoshi shouted in fear.
Phoom! Phoom! Phoom!
Akane's gem rifle lit up repeatedly as she unleashed round after round at near point-blank range. However, her shots barely left a scratch on the draco-morph's skin. The trash monster's only reaction was to turn towards her and for a series of fireballs to appear around him. Before the hybrid could launch its attack though…
"All Cannon Fire!"
Ethnobalt's new weapon form, brimming to the teeth with cannons, unleashed a volley of large cannonballs at the creature. However, to the Boat Hero's shock and dismay, his opponent batted the cannonballs to the side like they were nothing more than harmless flies.
"Formation One: Gale Tag!" That gave Hoshi the opening he needed to use his own skill.
While the chimera staggered from the hit, Yomogi brought the new Replica Sword Kyo had given her to bear and stabbed it into the creature. "Dragon Buster!"
The homunculi of Trash screamed as the skill incinerated it from the inside out. Ethnobalt sighed in relief. "Thank you."
Yomogi didn't respond though as she threw herself into the next pair of Chimeras. Putting their attention on her while Akane knelt by the Blunt Hero's side.
"Daitan, you ok?!" Akane asked worriedly.
"Ooooh, that really stings!" The young man said through gritted teeth. His hand was gripping his side.
When Akane lifted it off to look at the damage, her eyes widened in shock. The armor on his side had been torn off entirely by the attack. And his skin was bubbling and bleeding from some really bad burns.
"Ruby's Warmth." She put her hands over his side, focusing on healing the injury. She also took several Healing Crystals out of her weapon and forced her fellow Hero to crush them in his hands so they'd be able to heal him.
More of the draco-morphs charged forward at them. And while Hoshi was unable to assist further as that skill of his was on cooldown, Ethnobalt stepped in between the Cardinal heroes and the monsters with his boat. Changing it to a smaller version of the Invincible he normally used.
It still wasn't great for attacking, but as the monsters' claws and fireballs slammed into it. He barely took any damage on his HUD, and thus served as a wall for the Cardinal Heroes he was protecting while Yomogi continued to unleash hell on the monsters around her.
"Meteor Slash!" Boom!
Her skill missed the creatures but hit the ceiling above them. Part of it collapsed, burying some of the monsters and exposing a part of the sky outside. The remaining trash homunculi still charged Yomogi and Ethnobalt, despite that.
Nearby, seeing the trouble they were in, Naofumi acted. "Raph-Chan, Chris, help them out! Glass, Kizuna, will you be ok on your own?"
"Yes." "Certainly." The two girls responded while dodging a volley of purple fireballs.
"Rafu!" "Pen!" The two shikigamis rushed to assist Ethnobalt in protecting the three Cardinal Heroes.
Glass looked like she was trying to do one of her dances which she normally did when launching her skill "Reverse MoonFlower", but for whatever reason, nothing was coming out of it. A look of frustration appeared on her face. Kizuna barely reacted in time to catch one of the creature's claws inches in front of her face with her blade.
"Fishing!" Kizuna's weapon then changed to a fishing pole, and she hooked one of the creatures by the head. Yet as she pulled back to try and throw it up into the air, she seemed surprised at how hard it was to do.
"Kizuna!" It was Glass's turn to cover for her best friend, jumping in the way and tanking several blasts of purple fire with her fans followed by several clawed strikes from different directions.
Kizuna did manage to throw the Trash Homunculi up into the air and then down to the ground with her skill in the end. But neither she nor Glass had an opening to charge forward and kill him while he was down thanks to the other creatures around him.
"So much for Kyo not targeting the Cardinal Heroes or Kizuna," Naofumi muttered to himself.
Raphtalia could only grimace next to him in response.
Naofumi shook his head and decided to not dwell on it. He instead switched to the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield and resummoned his Air Strike Shield and Second Shield skills.
This time, the hybrid's attacks, both their fireballs and their magic-covered clawed fists, didn't even manage to crack-
However, before the Shield Hero could think that they would be safe enough now to attack freely from his barriers…
"F… Fireball of Wrath." Several of the creatures chanted out the same spell, and the massive fireball that appeared before them slammed into Naofumi's skill shields.
The two skill shields in front of him were immediately shattered. And the massive fireball only fizzled out after hitting and cracking his Meteor Shield.
Naofumi was forced to step back along with Raphtalia and the others as the hybrids pounded the area in front of him with more high-powered area-of-effect attacks.
…
No way. Just how the hell were they this powerful?! The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield was supposed to be the strongest shield in his arsenal outside of the Shield of Wrath III!
"D-Daddy!" Filo yelled in a frightened tone above him. "Does Daddy remember how Filo said that Trash Guy's magic would be a lot stronger if Trash Guy chanted?!"
"Is that why he's so freakishly strong right now?" Naofumi asked.
"It isn't just that. Whatever Book Idiot injected Trash Guy with, it's boosting his magic potential to levels Filo didn't think was possible for Trash Guy!"
Filo was attempting to sing as well while talking to her Dad using the second and third set of vocal cords her current monster form granted to her. A magical glow surrounded the others fighting in and around his Meteor Shield for their very survival.
However, soon after this glow appeared, another homunculi creature would join in, singing in some cursed rendition of Filo's voice. And the humming fairy's magic would vanish, removing the buffs it granted. Filo was singing at least three different songs simultaneously to try and counteract the enemy's magic potential, but nothing she tried so far was working.
As well as that, Glass's frustration seemed to be mounting. "Kizuna, I can't get my Performance Magic going! I'm not able to use any of my stronger attacks!"
"Damn it! I'll think of something! Just keep trying!" Kizuna shouted back to her best friend.
"Reverse MoonFlower!" Glass began slashing the air in front of her over and over again. The skill wasn't as fast or as powerful as her usual one though. The attacks only left small injuries on the enemy.
While Filo tried to buff everyone, one of her buffs affecting Maya disappeared right as the girl's illusion surrounding her was dispersed. The raccoon girl had been trying to sneak attack an enemy with her kunai, but her sudden reappearance and visible drop in speed caused her to stumble. The creature she'd been sneaking up on turned on her with a wicked grin on its face as massive purple flames surrounded its clawed hands to strike her.
"Dritte Shield!" Naofumi's skill shield appeared just in time, blocking the brunt of the attack meant for the self-proclaimed kunoichi and it allowed her to jump out of the way before the skill Shield shattered completely from the fierce onslaught.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" Aksel's axe followed up, burying itself into the creature's skull while it was distracted.
To the knight's surprise, the attack landed and the creature fell over, brain matter splattering everywhere from its caved-in skull.
Before Aksel could revel in his victory though, a murky purple essence came out from the dead homunculi. It flew towards another glass container that rose out of the ground and held yet another transformed Trash homunculi that hadn't awoken yet for some reason.
As soon as the murky substance went into it though, the clone's eyes shot open. And the casing around it exploded outwards as it screeched and threw itself into the battle.
"Oh, come on! How the hell does that even work?!" Aksel screamed in annoyance as he adjusted his stance to block an attack from another Trash Homunculi before ducking to avoid being roasted by a barrage of deadly purple fireballs from the homunculi that'd just awakened.
"I… I do not understand what I am seeing," Glass stated worriedly as she managed to outflank and bisect another creature around that time with her fans, before being forced to fall back to avoid being overwhelmed by a group of different attacks.
While the creature she'd killed slumped over and died, the same purple murky thing Aksel had seen before flew out of it before shortly entering another homunculi creature that hadn't awoken yet before it too joined the battle.
And, looking at where Yomogi was fighting, several more chimeras were lying dead on the ground. But the amount she, Raph-Chan, and Chris were fighting to protect Ethnobalt and the others wasn't lessening in the slightest. "Are these… souls?" Glass asked out loud.
Her question went unanswered.
It was a back-and-forth battle with the Heroes and their allies mostly being forced onto the defensive against the enemy's surprisingly powerful magical prowess and ability to tank most of the hits they dealt to them.
"Blood Flower Strike!" Kizuna's skill managed to slash two Trash Homunculi monsters in half simultaneously. She then switched to her fishing pole and used Lure Needle to apply damage multipliers to some of the other opponents they were facing.
"Kizuna! Behind you!" Glass suddenly turned and yelled.
"Bunker Shield!" Naofumi, though he hadn't wanted to pull it out just yet, was forced to use one of the new shield skills he'd acquired to protect Kizuna from the pair of Trash Homunculi that'd appeared from an illusion behind them. Their fists slammed into the shield barrier, but Kizuna remained safe inside.
"Float Katana!" A second katana appeared in Raphtalia's other hand as she showed up behind the two monsters. "Brave Blade: Mist!"
Her two katanas slashed simultaneously, forming a cross that bisected both monsters. The same strange murky substances as before came out of their bodies though, heading towards fresh vessels for them to inhabit that had risen out of the floor.
"Thanks, I owe you one," Kizuna said shakily to the Katana Hero.
Raphtalia nodded and dashed forward again as more Trash Homunculi ran at them. As she did so, she noticed that their attention seemed to focus on her in particular instead of the Hunting Tools Hero.
Kizuna, after looking around and seeing more capsules rising from the ground, as well as seeing how those homunculi that died would just come back to life in a different body, decided that fighting an endless wave of these creatures wouldn't do them any good. So she used her fishing pole to grapple herself up towards the ceiling and throw herself across the battlefield to the remaining capsules popping out of the ground.
A few trash homunculi saw her separate from the group and grew wings from their backs to chase after her. But besides that, the rest stayed focused on Naofumi and those with him.
"Eagle Piercing Shot!" Itsuki pulled the string back on his bow and unleashed his defense-piercing skill into one of the monsters that was battering on Naofumi's Meteor Shield. The Bow Hero watched it fall to the ground, only for a fresh chimera to come out of a nearby capsule to replace it.
"Those spread skills of yours would be a really good idea right about now, I think!" Naofumi shouted at the Bow Hero. He then used Royal Shield in an effort to push the monsters back. Thankfully, it managed to do so before the skill itself shattered under their onslaught.
"Get more space between us and them and I'll try it! Otherwise, I'm just going to kill us all with friendly fire!" Itsuki shouted back as he used Erst Arrow to hit another monster.
"Huah!" Raphtalia slashed through another one of the monsters. Finally, she ducked into Naofumi's skill shield as it became near impossible to handle all the monsters that'd been converging on her.
Naofumi renewed the Meteor Shield surrounding him. But even as he did so, six more of these Trash homunculi creatures threw themselves at Raphtalia, cracking the outside of the skill again.
"RAGGHHHH!" "MYYYYYYY!" "OURRRRRRRRRR!" "WEAPONNNNNNNNN!" They all screeched nearly simultaneously, their multiple voices overlapping each other to form a distinct and disturbing echo.
The shock of it made Raphtalia freeze up. "N… Naofumi." Her body shook with revulsion and horror.
Naofumi didn't verbally respond. Instead, he pulled Raphtalia behind him, placing his body between these creatures and his girlfriend right as his skill shattered.
It'd shattered in less than fifteen seconds too. Meaning his cooldown timer for it hadn't finished yet. Itsuki was forced to back away as well. None went after him, thankfully. Instead, all the chimeras converged on Naofumi, or rather, on Raphtalia, whom he was protecting.
"RAGGHHHH!" "GIVE US!" "OUR!" "WEAPONNNNNNNNNN!" The nightmarish creatures crashed into Naofumi's body and Shield, pushing him back and threatening to overwhelm his defenses.
"Rishia!" Itsuki called out.
"Ha!" Dou-Lon and Rishia, who'd been busy holding the line at their part of the battlefield next to Glass, ran behind the monsters, slicing through them before they could try and bring the Shield Hero down.
Itsuki, for his part, joined as well by ducking under the creature's fireball barrage, closing the distance between them before bashing him in the face with the legendary bow by using it like a knuckle duster.
A little unorthodox, to be sure, but it knocked the creature back and off balance. Making it a simple job for Itsuki to follow up and dispatch it with Second Arrow right afterward.
"You alright, Sir Naofumi?" Dou-Lon asked.
"Yeah, thanks Dou-Lon. Itsuki. Meteor Shield." The blue barrier appeared around the group again, just before the other Trash Homunculi could throw themselves at him again. Dou-Lon nodded before rushing forward again with his katana held at his side.
"Itsuki?" Rishia rushed up to the Bow Hero as well. "Your shoulder."
Confused, the Bow Hero looked down and saw that he hadn't entirely avoided the fireball attack from earlier. His skin was lightly burned, though nowhere near as badly as what Daitan had suffered. Glancing at the accessory Naofumi had given him on his bowstring, the Bow Hero felt grateful for the large defense boost it gave him.
"I'm fine. It's just a scratch, don't worry." Itsuki smiled encouragingly at the green-haired girl. "You're doing great, by the way. Keep it up."
The worry disappeared from the girl's face, and she smiled brightly before turning around to help defend Itsuki and Naofumi from further attacks.
Glass, for her part, was doing well enough on her own now that she had the proper room to dance and maneuver around without worrying about allies getting in the way of her attacks. And thanks to the Trash homunculi all focusing on Raphtalia for that moment of time, a familiar-looking glow had begun to surround her, Naofumi thought she was about to unleash her signature move.
However, her dance looked different than before. And then, much to his surprise, distinct Will-o'-wisp-looking flames began to appear around the spirit woman.
The Trash homunculi refocused on her too late.
"Flame Stance Rondo: Fierce Flutter!"
As she stepped forward, thrusting with her fans, bright fiery feathers appeared all around her. These same feathers then sped forward through the ethereal flames she'd made, catching on fire before they went on to stab into the various creatures over and over again.
The cloned chimera howls, rambles, and chants cut off into screeches of pain and agony as, while the attack didn't kill them, they were left heavily damaged by the feathers. And, as if to rub extra salt into the wound, some of those hit by the feathers also caught on fire, with bright red flames covering their entire bodies and damaging them further.
Glass sagged a little after the attack ended, but afterward, she straightened out again and rushed forward into the mass of burning creatures. She used her fans to dispatch them while they were distracted by their wounds.
Fierce Flutter had been a move that Glass had obtained from the Vermillion Bird Guardian Beast of her world. However, due to how much energy it consumed to use the skill, she hadn't pulled it out in many battles before.
However, the accessory that Naofumi made for the Spirit Woman had increased her own supply of energy to the point where she could use it without collapsing in exhaustion immediately afterward. Drenching herself in a Soul Healing Water also helped to restore the energy she'd lost using that powerful attack.
As for why she couldn't use it sooner… these demon dragon hybrids weren't just canceling out Filo's Singing Performance Magic. They were also somehow canceling out her Dance Performance Magic.
Fierce Flutter's true effectiveness came when it was paired up with Flame Stance Rondo. It'd only been because she finally had an opening where they weren't focused on her that she was able to use the full Flame Stance Rondo: Fierce Flutter combo at that moment.
Either way, the attack helped to make things a lot simpler for the Heroes, as they were finally able to begin pushing back all of the homunculi of Trash. Killing them off at a rate that kept them from being overwhelmed by the new hybrids joining the battle.
With so many of them burning or dealing with wounds simultaneously, Filo's singing was finally able to start buffing the Heroes while debuffing their enemies once again. It also made things easier as Itsuki was finally given enough room to use skills like "Air Strike Spread" and "Saint Arrow's Rain" which worked even in the confines of the underground lab to dish out damage to multiple targets.
The only one of them having a bit of trouble was Dou-Lon because his katana looked very similar to the weapon form that Raphtalia currently had equipped. This made multiple trash homunculi try to attack the tiger man, as they mistook his weapon to be the Vassal Katana.
However, just like he had done when facing the girls of Trash's harem while in the Capital, the hakuko male weaved through various magic and physical attacks. Striking calmly only when the rhythm of battle allowed him to do so. And because of his efforts, the Homunculi were slow to regain their numerical advantage.
Ethnobalt stayed back protecting Akane, Daitan, and Hoshi, who didn't try to participate any further in the battle this time around. And while Raph-Chan and Chris managed to deal with all the Demon Dragon Trash Homunculi that'd been attacking him previously, the real surprise contributor to their side of the battlefield was Yomogi.
The girl charged around like a burning bulldozer, spamming her new replica's skills with wild and reckless abandon while constantly screaming in fury loud enough to even overpower the volume of the roars of their opponents.
While looking at it from the corner of his eye, the Shield Hero couldn't help but wonder once again who the hell this woman was. She was able to keep up with and sometimes even beat Raphtalia and Rishia in terms of the sheer damage that was being dealt. Was she some kind of natural prodigy too, like Rishia? Was that why Kyo kept her around?
Despite these advantages, and despite Kizuna working in the background to fight off the Trash Homunculi chasing her while also destroying the capsules around her, the battle was drawn out for another few minutes. And over that period of time, Naofumi figured out some disturbing details about their opponents.
They were, of course, capable of using chantless magic, just like the original Trash could. But some of them chanted out their spells, and those were the ones he really had to look out for, as those spells were capable of tearing through his various defenses. On top of that, they were able to counter all sorts of magic. It was super annoying as the Aura spell he'd cast on everyone while outside the mansion wore off and when he tried to reapply it, one of the chimeras was able to dispel it and hit them with a debuff spell instead.
That was also around the time when the Homunculi began to press forward again. Slowly putting them back on the defensive.
Filo had to switch from trying to buff everyone to countering the creature's debuff magic again. Which, in all honesty, she had the best shot at doing, since she was super capable of reading magic on the fly. Naofumi, Itsuki, and Raphtalia definitely struggled while holding the line against the main brunt of Trash Homunculi.
Dou-Lon, Rishia, and Glass, on the other hand, were having the most success. Debuff spells did little to affect the spirit woman due to her race, while Dou-Lon and Rishia were very experienced when it came to fighting up close like this.
"Spiral Strike!" Rishia's katana let out a familiar attack that eviscerated the homunculi in front of her over and over repeatedly.
Dou-Lon said nothing as a Trash homunculi tried to grab his weapon. The hakuko merely turned himself sideways, moving beside the enemy who overextended itself before bringing his weapon down and slicing off the homunculi's head. He then spun around again, avoiding another homunculi's claws before his blade stabbed through the creature's chest.
"Arrow Spread!"
Itsuki used another spread skill that peppered the forward homunculi while simultaneously aiming at and disabling other capsules trying to rise up out of the ground, making Kizuna's job in the background easier. That girl was still fighting off two of the flying hybrids while destroying whatever capsules she could.
Yet even with Itsuki managing to use the spread skill without hitting any of their allies, those murky substances went through the floor instead, and more Demon Dragon Trash Homunculi tore themselves out from the ground trying to get at them.
"Is there any way to make these bastards die permanently!?" Naofumi yelled out of frustration. He was taking a moment to down another Soul Healing Water, but he hadn't expected to use so many of them while facing Kyo's 'cannon fodder'.
"I'm… I'm not sure." Glass watched as another one of her opponent's souls flew from the body she'd just killed.
The truly strange thing for her was that it felt like it wasn't multiple souls that they were fighting. But rather, one that was spread out across multiple bodies.
… such a thing should not have been possible. "If we want to stop their resurrection, we will either need to destroy the remaining homunculi, or find a way to prevent these souls from reaching them."
As Rishia killed another Trash Homunculi, she heard Glass's words and an idea came to her mind. When the murky substance came out to fly away, she pulled out a Summon Ofuda and threw it at the next capsule the soul was escaping towards.
A Soul Eater sprang to life from the ofuda. And the murky substance was eaten up by it with a crunch in a satisfying display of brutality.
The other Trash Homunculi instantly turned their attacks on the summon, killing it before it had a chance to do further damage.
But the fact that a new Trash Homunculi didn't join the battle was all the proof that Rishia needed. "Those things are definitely souls! If you destroy them, new enemies won't join the battle!"
Itsuki gave her a proud thumbs up before switching to his Soul Eater Bow. He stopped attacking the monsters at that point and focused on sniping their souls out of the air whenever Glass, Kizuna, Raphtalia, or the others killed one.
"I… I can help too!" Hoshi switched to a different ofuda weapon form behind Ethnobalt's protective ship, where Akane was still hard at work healing Daitan's side. And he threw out two ofuda that also summoned Soul Eaters that joined the fray, devouring the soul wisps emerging from the trail of bodies that Yomogi, Chris, and Raph-Chan were leaving behind them.
Akane and Daitan couldn't do much besides stay back and watch the remainder of the battle play out. But fortunately, it didn't last for much longer.
The Trash Homunculi began to grow fewer and fewer in number between Itsuki sniping them or Hoshi's Soul Eaters devouring them. They were finally nearing the end of it.
And then, when it was down to the last few, as the Heroes prepared to wipe them out once and for all…
The chimeras slumped over and died.
…
Not from wounds, or magic, or anything else. They died on the spot and fell over like puppets that just had their strings cut.
This confused everyone. And then, that same purple murky substance from before came out of their bodies. And it was only then that Glass realized why they'd looked so strange.
She couldn't recognize if it was part of one soul or multiple souls as it looked like the souls were decomposing before her eyes. As these last bits of soul hovered in the air, the demon dragon serum that'd given them such great power finally finished consuming the soul fragments. Making them dissolve fully into fine dust particles that disappeared into the air.
…
…
They all continued to stare. Confused, and maybe even a little disgusted.
The bodies of Trash littered the ground all over. There were many, many different capsules lying in ruin across the floor of the lab. Tables full of research or various projects had been upturned or flat-out obliterated. Nothing on the floor around them had been untouched. Only the area around Kyo inside his barrier had remained unaffected.
Naofumi and the others looked like a mess compared to the Book Hero, who was still sitting on his throne. During the whole fight, his smug smile never left his face as he observed them.
Strangely enough, he didn't seem to be mad or even annoyed in the slightest at the loss of his clone servants. Nor had he moved or done anything since the start of the battle.
Part of it could have been the scientist in him wanting to witness another experiment of his in action. Or, perhaps, he was satisfied to have watched Trash die over and over again in so many different and brutal ways.
Either way, Trash was permanently dead this time. They would never have to deal with him again. And as Kyo stood up, the barrier that'd appeared around his throne at the start of the exchange vanished. He spread his arms out wide as a creepy grin spread across his face.
"Hmmm, fufufufufu, it certainly took you all long enough to deal with such a simple-"
A streak of light tore straight through Kyo's throat and caused a few of the tiles on the wall behind him to shatter loudly, as the glowing magic arrow from the legendary bow impacted against them.
"Itsuki!" Kizuna screamed at the Bow Hero as she rushed back to the group.
"Not this time, you son of a bitch." Itsuki spoke in a dry voice. Completely ignoring the glare Kizuna was giving him. "No more stalling. Get off your &%#$^%& chair and get ready to die!"
Unfortunately, the major injury Itsuki inflicted on the Book Hero had already healed. This caused most of the people there to frown, and Itsuki sighed. "Right, of course, he regained his ability to regenerate. No wonder the bastard just sat there the whole time and watched while looking all smug. I &^%&%$ hate him."
"Fuehhhh! Itsuki!" Rishia looked at her Hero in shock.
However, Kyo was not smiling smugly anymore and was instead scowling at Itsuki. "You know, I'd feel angrier about this cheap shot, but I really should have anticipated that you'd do this again after how you greeted my mimic in Lazuli last time.
"Still, it's good to know that your trigger-happy, opportunistic, violent, and psychopathic tendencies are still as strong as ever, Bow Hero. They will serve you well today. And F.Y.I. Yes, I did figure out how to replicate the Tortoise's regeneration effect outside of it. Wanna learn how?"
"We don't care." Naofumi glared as he stepped forward next, raising his Shield in front of him. "Just stop blabbering and fight us already."
"Wait, Naofumi!" Kizuna yelled at him.
"Fufufufu! So eager to get into the battle then?!" Kyo's vassal book opened by itself on his waist ominously. "Ah, but there's so much more that I have planned! So much left for me to say! But very well, if you're truly going to give me no other choice, then-"
"KYO! STOP!"
The loud voice that rang out then made both sides pause. Kyo especially.
Yomogi pushed herself to the front of the group, even shoving Naofumi out of the way. She glared up at the Book Hero. "Enough of this! What the hell are you doing all this for?!"
"You said we'd be ending the Waves together! That we'd make a peaceful world for everyone to live in! I can't say anything for these Otherworld savages accompanying them, but Kizuna and the other three Cardinal Heroes are here to talk, not fight!" Yomogi continued yelling, heated passion filling her tone.
"So why… why do all this?! Why act like a Demon Lord when we all want to end the Waves?!" Yomogi pleaded, tears falling from her eyes as she looked desperately at her Hero. The man who'd taken her in when they were children so long ago.
…
…
"Hmhm… Hmhmhmhmhmhmhm!" Kyo began to chuckle maliciously and looked away from Yomogi. "Yomogi, you really should learn your place, you annoying tramp."
The green-haired woman stepped back. A look of shock painted itself on her face. "K… Kyo?"
Kyo's chuckling turned into full-on laughter. "Honestly! Since when did you become audacious enough to start talking back to me like that?! I've tolerated your presence so far because you were sort of useful as a human paperweight for me to leave on whatever crap I couldn't be bothered with at the time. But what good are you for now if all it took for you to turn on me was spending a short vacation in Sickle?"
Kyo's face took on a crazed look while his eyes continued to look up at one of the lamps on the ceiling. Kizuna looked just as horrified as Yomogi did, but Glass was already charging up a skill with her fans. She looked ready to attack the Book Hero at any moment.
"You trash! You worthless pile of garbage! Did you actually think that you ever meant anything to me? That I cared about your worthless opinions? No! Not as kids, and certainly not now!
"You were always just an asset! A tool for me to use and discard! Just some damaged goods that I picked off the floor on a whim! You stupid, naive, bullheaded moron!"
"K… No. Why are y-" Yomogi began to stutter. Struggling to hold her sword up while trying not to cry.
"Kyo, stop-" Kizuna tried to speak again.
"No! I've been waiting for years to get this off my chest! So now, I am going to say it for the whole world to hear!" Kyo howled gleefully, his face twisting unnaturally. "Yomogi, you're-"
THUD!
"ENOUGH!" Ethnobalt shouted after slamming the butt of his staff into the tiled floor of the lab with enough force to crack it.
…
The Book Hero didn't finish his sentence and simply turned his head to look at the Boat Hero with an indiscernible expression.
Ethnobalt floated forward until he was beside Yomogi, his hand then reached out and planted itself firmly on the girl's shoulder in a reassuring way. But Ethnobalt's eyes were focused only on the Book Hero in front of them throughout it.
Naofumi and Itsuki were confused. But when Ethnobalt spoke again, his tone was clear, and his voice was hard.
"Kyo, stop this farce.
"You and I both know that you're a terrible liar."
…
…
…
The rabbit-man's challenging words were met with a long drawn-out silence.
Naofumi's shield lowered slightly, as did Itsuki's bow. They weren't sure who to believe right now. Kyo, who'd clearly been showing how evil he was. Or Ethnobalt's cold, hard declaration of what he considered fact.
But then, to their surprise… Kyo began to chuckle again. Only, it was missing the maliciousness it'd held before. "Oh? Are you saying that I'm lying, Ethnobalt, my esteemed colleague? And what, pray tell, makes you so certain of it?"
"The fact that you never look a person in the eye when you're lying to them." The rabbitman continued to defiantly glare at the Book Hero. "At least, not when it's someone whose opinions you value."
"So if you really mean everything that you've said, then repeat it again, but this time look this woman in the eyes when you're doing it, Kyo! She does not deserve to be hurt like this unless you believe what you're saying is the cold absolute truth!"
Yomogi's tear-filled eyes looked up at the librarian rabbit and then up at the Book Hero again.
…
After another tense moment of thoughtful consideration, Kyo looked away and began to chuckle once more. The malicious aura around him fell away entirely as he continued to laugh in a good-natured way.
"My goodness! Is it really that simple? How embarrassing! I truly had no idea, but thinking back on it, you're absolutely right, Ethnobalt!
"Ah, then again, I was never much good at this whole social interaction thing. That's why I always preferred to rely on Yomogi in regard to such matters." The Book Hero shook his head again and smiled as he looked at the girl again.
"Forgive me for my harsh words from earlier, Yomogi. Believe me, the last thing that I wanted was for you to end up here. To see what I was actually working on. To be caught up in this whole mess and risk your life for my sake. But now that you've seen it, I figured it would be better if you thought that I'd always hated you. So that your hands wouldn't tremble and your heart wouldn't hesitate the next time you'd be forced to point your weapon at me."
"Wh… What?" Yomogi asked, still blinking tears out of her eyes. "What do you mean, Kyo? What are you working on?"
Naofumi shook his head and raised his shield again. There was no way that this guy would actually spill anything after all that happened.
"The same thing I've been working towards ever since Kizuna was kidnapped by the Mirror Hero and thrown into the infinite labyrinth. I've been working to end the Waves, Yomogi. As for how…? Well, you've already seen all the cloning vats, the soul manipulations, the various ways that I've harnessed the powers of soul energy, and whatnot.
"The ultimate result of all that research is creating a new immortal and invincible physical vessel for me to inhabit. And then power it up with the soul energy that I took from their world." Kyo pointed a finger at Naofumi and the other Heroes.
…
Itsuki's bow slacked in his grip. He looked stunned, just like most of the others there. Glass, Naofumi, Rishia, and Kizuna were grimacing, however. It appeared that the spirit woman's theory hadn't been too far off the mark after all.
But the most surprising part was how readily Kyo was divulging this important info now all of a sudden.
"But… but how would that work, Kyo? I don't understand." Yomogi sniffled, looking lost. "Why did you not want me to know about it if that's all it is? Is the body you're making the device that'll help to end the Waves? How will that cause worldwide calamities that'll require uniting the whole world to be prepared for them?"
"And what about those girls you sent with me to Sickle?! Why did you give them weapons that turned them into suicide bombers?! Why did the enhancement drugs turn them into monsters that turned them against each other?!
"Please, I want to believe in you! Just like before, but I can't accept everything that you've been doing! Did you really try to murder the other Cardinal Heroes in Lapis?!"
"Shhh, patience, Yomogi. One thing at a time." Kyo said in a surprisingly gentle tone, cutting the girl off from saying any more.
"Regarding the weapons, aside from yours, they were meant to self-destruct, yes. I designed them as expendable single-use things that would fall apart, once they ran out of energy so that no one could reverse-engineer them afterward.
But in my rush to cut corners, I didn't quite fully remove the spike familiar's original programming. So instead of just breaking apart, like intended, they ended up exploding at their full force. I used them as a base for the weapons, due to their unique properties of being able to channel energy from earth veins, and since I had a lot of them leftover."
"Th… Then, had you known about it, would you have called us back so you could fix them?" Yomogi asked hopefully.
…
…
"Kyo?" Yomogi asked, her voice breaking.
"No. In the end, those women were just a bunch of useful idiots. Nothing more, nothing less." Kyo shook his head. "Even if the attack failed, I knew that Kizuna would take you in and that L'Arc would spare you. Either way, this would have put you out of the picture for a while. That's what I cared about more than anything else with that particular plan. Making sure that you'd be out of harm's way for the endgame.
"Though, I guess it'd be hard to fulfill that now unless I were to send you to another world first."
"As for the new body I have developed. Yes, it is the device that I mentioned that will save our world." Kyo continued. "It will do so by granting me the abilities of a physical god. Activating it, however, will have some... notable destructive side effects. Hence the need for a centralized and firm control on the world and its people to minimize the resulting fallout."
"Next, for the women, or rather, the monsters you met outside..." The book hero shrugged. "It was simply the consequence of their own foolishness and hubris. Once they learned that their strongest members had failed in their assault on Sickle and got captured, their desire for revenge overcame their common sense. Instead of continuing to train and joining Luvar's army, they begged me to give them the same drugs that I gave to their strongest members and let them go to Sickle too. I warned them that their levels were too low and their wills too weak to handle the side effects, but they didn't listen. And well... you saw yourself how well that had turned out."
"And lastly, yes, I did try to kill those three fools you have standing in the back there, while I was in Lapis. It was not something I really planned for, but seeing their useless stupid mugs made my blood boil and I figured I might as well punish them for the negligence of their duties while I was there. It's not like their continued survival was necessary for the safety of our world anymore since I had everything ready for my master plan by that point."
"I believe that's all your questions, Yomogi?"
"..." Yomogi's lips trembled. More tears began to fall from her eyes.
"Now, as for you, Kizuna…" Kyo turned away from his retainer, facing Kizuna with a bright smile on his face. "I have to say, you've really grown since the last time I saw you! And I don't mean just physically either! I almost didn't think the image of you I could see through my mimic was real, but after watching you battle today, I can safely say that you are more than worthy of your title of hero now!"
"K… Kyo." Kizuna breathed in deeply. "I… I know you have your idea for saving the world, but I wanted to tell you that-"
"Oh, hold that thought, Kizuna. I actually just remembered something. I have a gift for you!" Kyo suddenly interrupted.
…
"A… a gift?" Kizuna asked, looking uncertain. But as long as it got Kyo to open up. To accept the possibility of what she had to say, then...
"Yes!" Kyo said excitedly as if he was a little kid opening a present at Christmas. "You were imprisoned by Albert Nikuya, the Mirror Hero of Mikakage, correct?"
"I- yes, but Kyo, what does that have to-" Kizuna began to ask frantically.
"Surprise!" Kyo snapped his fingers, and another capsule slowly rose out from the ground next to his throne. The glass first cracked loudly and then shattered, making its murky brownish-red contents spill out on the tiled floor.
…
…
(WARNING: For readers with lesser stomachs, please skip this section. It will not be safe for you to read.)
At first, no one could understand what the ugly gelatinous mass of flesh that they were looking at actually was. The horrible, twisted, bloated lump looked like it was made up entirely of scar tissue. A variety of foul-smelling and looking liquids seemed to be seeping out from under the pile of meat, forming a disgusting brownish-red puddle of the same color.
Was this some kind of mutilated corpse? But of what? There was no trace of fur or eyes or anything else of note to identify the ruined rotten pile of flesh. Not even the white jagged bits and pieces of bone poking out from random parts of it could identify what it was supposed to be.
It stirred.
Once.
Twice.
The abominable mass of flesh was still somehow alive.
Something akin to a gasp came out from it, as one of the numerous holes littering its body sucked in some air before letting out a quiet wail of pure pain and despair. One of the scabs that'd been leaking blood turned out to be its mouth. Or... was it a gaping lung? A part of its throat?
It could not have been its mouth, since upon closer inspection, broken yellow human teeth could be seen growing out of random parts of the creature's body, mixed with ingrown lumps of hair that continuously seeped pus out of them.
It was so bizarre. Even more so since the sound that it had made almost seemed to have come from a human being.
"K… Kyo? What… what is… that?" Kizuna finally asked. Her face was turning green, as was Yomogi's and the faces of the other Cardinal Heroes. The Hunting Tools Hero had also taken a step back in horror. Not even her HUD identified what the creature was, meaning that it wasn't actually a monster.
"Not what. Who." Kyo smiled warmly.
…
Kizuna still did not understand. None of them understood the Book Hero's cryptic response.
But before more questions could be asked, Itsuki's eyes widened, and despite everything he'd seen and done up till then, the Bow Hero had to force down dry heaves as he pointed a shaking finger at the top of the gelatinous mass. "I-Is that the Vassal Mirror?!"
Their eyes moved from the front of the creature to the very top of it. Where, amongst more scars and a lump that could have resembled an eye at one point…
Rested a lone, simple Mirror, with a gemstone embedded into the center of it.
…
It did not take long for them to finally understand what… or rather, who, the creature in front of them was at that point.
Kizuna and Yomogi immediately vomited onto the floor together.
Behind them, Akane and Hoshi also began to vomit as well. And it wasn't long after that when Daitan followed suit. Ethnobalt barely managed to hold the contents of his stomach in by covering his mouth, visibly sickened at the state that one of their world's Vassal Heroes had been reduced to.
Naofumi and almost everyone else just stared in growing horror. They had seen A LOT of things in their time. Soldiers disintegrated before their eyes. Spiked atrocities that gutted everything that moved and exploded when killed. Crazed religious zealots slaughtering innocents, child slavery, murder, rape, and many, many other horrible things besides those.
And yet, somehow, what they were seeing before them exceeded EVERYTHING else they'd thought possible as the worst of the worst. And while no one in their group was vomiting, Maya and Raphtalia both looked like they were choking. Aksel and Dou-Lon both began cussing and turned their faces away in sheer disgust at the display before them. Naofumi moved and covered both Filo and Raph-Chan's eyes. However, by that point, it was already too late as what was left of Albert had been engraved into their memories.
"Tortoise Shell Cracker!"
Out of everyone there, Glass was the only one to act upon the realization of who the creature was. While it could have been seen as her getting revenge on the one who imprisoned her best friend all those years ago… right now, the only thought that was passing through her mind was to stop the truly inhuman suffering that was happening in front of her right now.
The skill went right through the center of the mass of flesh, bones, and organs. Destroying its insides entirely.
A last shuddering sob of relief and gratitude came out from the creature that'd once been Albert. It was his only way to thank them, as the Book Hero had taken his ability of speech as well.
…
(You may resume reading here if you skipped the above)
After a few seconds, all the disgusting sounds coming from it finally ceased. Only the sound of its blood spilling from the massive open wound onto the floor around it could be heard.
That whole while, Kyo's facial expression hadn't changed. He was still looking at Kizuna with a wide and genuinely happy smile. Like he'd just done something worthy of the highest praise.
However, when Albert died, Kyo's smile did briefly falter and he looked at the corpse weirdly. The Vassal Mirror, which had stayed attached to the lump of flesh till that point, hovered in the air above it. Almost as if not being able to believe that it was actually free.
But after another moment, it vanished from the scene in a flash of light.
"Huh… I guess I did more damage to Albert's soul than I thought. If the Vassal Mirror was able to escape, that probably means he isn't controlling it anymore." Kyo scratched the top of his head. "I guess that his physical form was the only thing holding his soul together at that point… oh well." The Book Hero shrugged and his happy grin returned as he looked at the Hunting Tools Hero again.
"So, did you like my gift, Kizuna?"
…
Kizuna was still dry heaving. And at that point, Glass had to move to help her friend to stay standing.
"What… how did you do that to him?" Itsuki responded instead, still looking absolutely horrified.
"Oh, nothing special, just a little spin that I put on the Healing Potions from your world." Kyo shrugged to himself. "Did you know that combining it with your world's version of Decay Magic as well as some alchemical tricks that I learned a while back can heal a person, but in ways they should have never been healed?
"Crazy, huh? It's like bottled cancer, but you can use it over and over again to make sure that the recipient won't die no matter what. It's a really great way to torture someone, actually. I highly recommend it!"
The casual way that the psychopath in front of them dropped even more info about how he'd accomplished his torture of the Mirror Hero somehow made what happened even more disturbing.
Naofumi actually found himself grateful that he was cut off from being able to use Decay Magic. If it could actually be used like this, then he never wanted to even try and touch that branch of magic ever again.
…
Well, unless it was against Bitch. But even that was doubtful. Raphtalia would never be okay with it. And even if she had been, as Naofumi tried to picture himself doing something like this to the runaway princess that had ruined his life… No, he just couldn't.
As much as he might have hated her, he didn't want to put her through something that'd make him feel sorry for her. That'd kind of defeat the whole purpose of getting revenge. Kizuna's reaction right to Albert's fate was clear evidence of that fact.
"Kizuna, surely you can see now that Kyo is beyond reason. There's no saving him from what he's become," Glass told her best friend firmly. "We have to fight him."
…
However, after several seconds, Kizuna was certain that her stomach wasn't tying itself into knots anymore. She shrugged off Glass's supporting arms and turned to face Kyo again.
The spirit woman grimaced and stepped back as Kizuna opened her mouth.
"Kyo… I came here to tell you that I'm going to fight off the Waves. That the other Cardinal Heroes have agreed to help fight off the Waves as well."
"..." Kyo's head slowly tilted to the side in confusion. "What?" Why was the Hunting Tools Hero just brushing off his gift to her? Didn't she appreciate how the scum that had ruined all of their lives with his actions had been punished for his horrible, horrible misdeeds?
"Daitan, Akane, Hoshi, please come behind me." Kizuna beckoned the three Otherworlders to her.
The three looked at each other unsurely, still looking a little sick from earlier. But they showed their trust in Kizuna by walking up until they were behind her in plain view.
"See, all four of us are here now." Kizuna continued, looking at the Book Hero pleadingly as she spoke from the depths of her soul. "You don't have to work to stop the Waves on your own anymore, Kyo. You don't need to become a Demon Lord and force everyone in the world to obey you!
"We're going to stop the Waves ourselves, just like the Cardinal Heroes of the past always did! And we'll make those leaders listen to us this time!"
"We're going to save the world! And make it a place where everyone can smile and laugh together without any conflict!"
"So please, Kyo! Please, stop it, whatever it is you're planning on doing, and help me save the world again! Please!" She extended her hand out to him, looking at her old friend desperately.
…
…
"Kizuna…
"Answer me this." Kyo sighed. "Have the Heroes with you shared their strengthening methods with you yet?"
"How are we supposed to do that when Hoshi, Akane, and I don't even know how sharing your methods is supposed to work?!" Daitan yelled before Kizuna could answer.
…
"I see… so you're still just as useless as before." Kyo shook his head while scoffing at the Blunt Weapons Hero. "Though I guess it's understandable now why you had to keep them at the back, away from the action for most of the battles in reaching here. They would surely die as soon as they took a single step at the site of any Wave."
"K-Kyo, wait! I know they may be weak right now, but once they understand that Heroes can share methods with each other, then-"
"Kizuna, you truly disappoint me with how naive you still are." Kyo sadly shook his head.
"K-Kyo?" Kizuna asked, tears appearing in her eyes.
Kyo turned away from her and walked back and forth in front of his throne while completely ignoring the pile of blood that'd gathered around Albert's corpse. His boots left red imprints of blood on the floor under him. "Even if the other Cardinal Heroes have joined you. And even if they come to believe that you can share methods with the other Heroes. It would still be completely meaningless.
"Did you not give even a single thought to what I told you back in Lazuli?
"How none of this matters? How what your plan entails will result in nothing but a net zero gain for the future of our world?"
"I-I did think about it, Kyo! I thought about what you said every day since then! But I just don't understand! How are my actions meaningless!?" Kizuna screamed desperately at him. Trying to find any foothold in the Book Hero's mind for her argument to cling onto.
"I know things are bad right now! But if I keep on showing the world how peace is the best option forward then the people will eventually listen! I will be able to get it through the thick skulls of their leaders that war is never the right answer!
"That will inspire change! We'll stop warring with each other and learn to get along with one another despite our differences! I know it could work! I've met people from all around the world and-"
"And it'll still mean nothing because the leaders will never change!" Kyo screamed, cutting her off.
…
…
"H… Huh?" Kizuna blinked in confusion.
Kyo continued on though, ranting almost as if he were a madman. "You don't understand- no, you can't understand! Your pure-hearted ideals mean nothing here Kizuna! They might mean something to the average Joe smuck on the side of the road, and maybe they'll mean something to honest and good people like L'Arc and Corrin, but for people like me, it is a reality that will never come to pass!
"Not now! Not in a million years! NEVER!
"Your ideals will die before people like me! People who don't give a &^%$ about the world or its people! People who only want more power and are willing to sacrifice everything around them to get it!
"Just look at that pile of trash on the floor behind you! Even after all the experiments I did on his body and soul, who did he target the most out of all of you?! Who did he converge the most on and launch the majority of his bodies at, all in a desperate attempt to claim a weapon that never belonged to him!?"
Kizuna didn't want to, but Raphtalia and the others looked back. Seeing the bodies of Trash's homunculi still wasting away on the floor. Their skin was sizzling as the Demon Dragon serum ate away at their bodies as it had with his soul. Many of those bodies were around where Naofumi had been.
But the memories of that fight were still vivid. And it didn't take long for them to know who they'd tried to target when Naofumi's skill shields fell, and they looked at Raphtalia; more specifically, at her Katana.
"All the people in charge everywhere are just like him, Kizuna! They are obsessed with greed and power and control over what they cannot have! And they will not go away, nor will they disappear after the Waves are over!"
"They'll just keep on coming back! Hitting at the pillars of this world until it is theirs, or otherwise, until the world they desire so much to rule is destroyed!
"Even if you and the other Cardinal Heroes are united now! Even if you manage to fight off this set of Waves! What about the people in the future who'll have to deal with the next set of Waves along with these degenerates left in charge!? Or the set after that?! Or the ones after those are over?!
"How long can this cycle repeat before we eventually fail!? Before countries like Lapis are breached and turned into ruined lands! For their immense magic and powerful technology to be lost to time, never to be rediscovered again just because those dumb &^%$& wanted to ensure that they'll remain in power for as long as they want without anyone being able to rise up and oppose their unfair rules?!
"Do you truly think Heroes can just fight off the Waves forever when the world's situation grows worse and worse between each set of Waves thanks to them?!"
"Kyo… but… what are you even…" Kizuna couldn't speak.
Kyo continued. "My plan though! It will ensure that our world will never face the Waves again! It will ensure that no one like me is ever sent to disturb our world's peace ever again! It will ensure that nobody ever has to suffer ever again!
"I will be able to completely guarantee that everyone will be able to smile and laugh, just like you want! That good people will be able to live without the bad corrupting everything they touch like they are now! And if that can't happen, then at the very least, I will ensure this endless cycle of greed, debauchery, slovishness, and everything else that has plagued the leaders of our world and what makes the people of our world suffer needlessly will finally stop!"
"Kyo… but how? How are you going to do this?" Kizuna asked. Her last, final hope for this encounter shimmering in her eyes as she looked at the Book Hero pleadingly.
"How? Hmhmhmhmhmhmhm." Kyo's malicious chuckle rumbled in his throat as he adjusted his glasses and looked Kizuna straight in the eyes.
"Why! By destroying this world completely and starting over!" Kyo proclaimed proudly.
…
…
…
…
…
The weight of his words hit everyone there like a runaway train.
"De… Destroy the world…" Yomogi almost fell backward. Words could not express the look on her face right now.
"That… that is…" Glass looked similarly shocked.
"Tell me, are all of you here familiar with the concept of nuclear fission?" Kyo smirked as he shrugged. "Well, for whoever doesn't know about it, go read a book written by a past hero or something, I'm not your physics teacher."
"My point is, soul energy is an incredibly, incredibly densely packed material." The Book Hero raised his hand, revealing a wisp of blue flames dancing in his palm. "You would not believe the sheer amount of power that it truly holds within it! And until now, I was only barely able to harness a fraction of a fraction of the real power stored within it, the lifeblood of our worlds!"
"What all your weapons have been blabbering about, it's all true! To actually harness its full power would completely tear reality itself apart at the seams!" The Book Hero closed his hand by balling it into a fist, reabsorbing the soul energy back into his body.
"But what your weapons failed to tell you is that it would not be the end! Oh no! Not in the slightest! It would be just the beginning! Even if everyone else dies! Even if the whole world gets destroyed, I won't die! With the ultimate perfect body that I have created, I'll be able to endure it all! And then, I would absorb all of the soul energy left behind in the wake of the old world's destruction and become a god!"
"Kizuna! I will use that power to make a new world! Free of corruption, of greed, of malice, of evil! Free of the waves!" Kyo continued to speak, sounding more frantic by the second. "And then I'll revive you and Yomogi and Ethnobalt and all the other good people so you can all inhabit it!
"We'll all be able to live in a world of my design! Free to live happily and smile and laugh without the threat of the Waves coming ever again thanks to me!
"'They'll' never interfere with our world again! I'll make sure of it! We will live in eternal bliss without any problems! It will be a paradise, Kizuna!
"And... even if I fail, it would still mean that we won't have to suffer ourselves anymore or force anyone else to endure this harsh reality either!
"Yet if I succeed, it'll be heaven on earth! For real! You'll even be able to fish to your heart's content all day every day! Time would have no more meaning, space would have no limitations! I'll finally be able to join you on those fishing trips of yours just like you always wanted me to!"
"IT'LL BE THE PERFECT WORLD FOR ALL OF US TO LIVE IN KIZUNA! ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU DESIRE ABOVE ALL ELSE TOO?!"
…
…
No one else was speaking anymore.
There weren't any words any of them could have hoped to say in the face of such insanity.
Naofumi didn't even remember what he'd thought at the time.
"Please, help me Kizuna! Help me to make this world that you always wanted a reality!"
"Help me to destroy everything so we can all live together!"
But if there was one thing Naofumi could recall… it was seeing Kizuna's shoulders fall lower and lower. As her body sagged and visibly aged before his eyes. He hadn't realized it before then, but all the stress Kizuna had been putting on herself before now had resulted in a strand of her brown hair turning gray. And it only became visible to the Shield Hero at that moment, there, on the right side of her head.
The girl who could have passed for a child when they first met… now looked far older than he ever had.
Kyo finally finished his frantic pleading. His open hand was stretched out towards his old friend, and a wide grin of happiness was painted on his face.
It just felt so… so wrong. After everything he'd said to them. After everything they'd seen before this.
What… what the hell happened to the villain they'd faced no more than a few weeks ago?
Who was this man standing in front of them now?
…
Kizuna's face was hidden in shadow.
Kyo was still breathing in and out heavily, his dead gray eyes looking at his friend expectantly…
…
…
…
…
…
"Lure Needle."
The hook of Kizuna's fishing pole slammed into Kyo's chest.
It did absolutely no damage.
But it'd still left an impact as Kyo stumbled back in surprise. Everyone else was surprised too.
"You… you… you…" When Kizuna lifted her head, her eyes were painted a deep orange.
Despite everything that'd happened, from learning about his actions in another world to his actions in this world, Kizuna had never lost faith in her old friend. Believing that, at some level, it was still possible to save him and have Kyo from the days of the Demon Dragon back. To bring him along on one of her fishing trips. To get him and Yomogi to confess to each other and marry and live a happy life.
Her faith in him had been shaken several times, but it'd never broken.
Not when he'd announced his plans to become a Demon Lord in front of every nation.
Nor when she'd helped to take care of the girls of Trash's harem.
Not even when she learned about what he'd done in Naofumi's world to Glass and L'Arc and the people of that world in general.
…
But then she'd had to kill the girls of Trash's harem.
And witness the horrid fate Albert had suffered.
And so many other things in between those things too.
Yet she'd still persevered. Desperately trying to reach out towards the good that she'd thought was still left somewhere inside her old friend.
…
But after hearing what his plans would entail… at hearing how he'd destroy their world even with the chance that he wouldn't be able to rebuild it as he claimed…
Kizuna's fishing pole began to grow more menacing as cursed miasma leaked from it.
It was clear to see by the shaking of her shoulders and the tears falling down the sides of her face how devastated the Hunting Tools Hero was. How seeing her friend fall so far had utterly destroyed her. And beyond those tears… was a face twisted with fury.
"Y̶̛̗̫̗͇͂͗̄͗Ö̸̯́̇́̀̓U̷̢̱̅͐ ̶̟̮̈́B̸̲͔̀̈͛̚Ã̶̮̞͓̂̄̎͠S̵̡̘͉̃͆̍̓͘͜T̸̛͇͐̄͘A̴̙͊̍͛̈̍Ŗ̸̤͚̳̯͆̈́͠D̵͓̗̤̺̓͘!̵̧̛̣̖̗̽̽̋͘"
Her pole turned into a large tuna knife. And Kyo fell back in shock as Kizuna appeared in front of him, slashing her long blade at chest height.
It was clear then. She'd been going for the kill.
"K-Kizuna-" Kyo tried to speak.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kizuna brought her blade up to slash it down, but before she could, Glass and Ethnobalt appeared behind her and restrained her.
"Kizuna, no! Don't use your Cursed Series like this!" Glass screamed in fear.
"You bastard! You bitch! YOU DEVIL! DAMN YOU!" Kizuna howled in complete and utter fury.
Naofumi and Itsuki, as well as the other Cardinal Heroes and everyone else, stepped back as a thick dark burst of cursed miasma came off of Kizuna's form, enveloping the two Vassal Heroes restraining her. Kyo backpedaled back on the floor, still looking down in shock at the young girl being restrained by her closest friends.
"K-Kizuna, please." Ethnobalt coughed. Both he and Glass were struggling to remain upright as Kizuna's Sloth Series seemed to drain them of their will to do anything.
Kizuna though looked anything but slothful at that moment. Her intense emotions were far from being calmed by her own Curse. She screamed as she tried to break free from the grips of her friends to lunge at the book hero.
No, not her Book Hero. The Book Hero she knew was her friend. He was helpful and polite. He could always be counted on to get them all out of a pinch no matter what. To always make the perfect plan to save everyone she held dear. To show that nothing is impossible if you put your heart, soul, and mind into it.
This was not her friend. This was the devil. The devil who had murdered Kyo and was now wearing his skin to mock her.
"YOU AREN'T THE KYO I KNEW! I DON'T KNOW WHO THE HELL YOU ARE!"
"Destroy the world?! Snuff out the lives of everyone I know and love!? YOU'RE INSANE!"
"You're beyond redemption! I'll kill you! I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Kizuna…" Glass choked back a sob as she forced herself to hug her best friend. Knowing that if she let her go, then Kizuna would do something she'd deeply regret.
As much as Glass had wanted to kill Kyo, after everything he'd done… that desire completely left her as she finally came to understand just how much Kizuna had wanted to save him. And how her best friend had broken when she herself realized such a thing was no longer possible.
Ethnobalt did much the same. Looking too lethargic to speak, but forcing his body to move like Glass had. Hugging Kizuna and preventing her from moving forward to attack.
"Pen…" Despite the danger he was placing himself in, Chris, the ever-adorable and expressive penguin child of Kizuna and Glass waded through the miasma as well. He came up to Kizuna's leg and hugged himself to his mommy while tears fell from his eyes.
Kizuna had tears running down the sides of her face too. She was looking more and more destroyed by her sadness and fury with every passing second.
"You're not my friend!
"You're a monster!"
"Damn you! DAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
Kyo calmly looked at the girl, the girl who embodied the concept of the milk of human kindness like nothing else…
The girl who'd always gone above and beyond for her friends. The girl who'd done all in her power to bring peace to their world in the past. The girl who'd always had faith in her friends… who inspired so much good in everyone around her…
To see her finally break, because of him…
…
For just a moment, the gray in Kyo's eyes diminished. Revealing the tint of blue still hiding underneath them.
"I know." He said pathetically. His eyes were unable to meet hers as they filled with pain, guilt, and regret.
"I'm sorry."
His words only made it even more heartbreaking as she briefly stopped struggling to glare at him, her mind filled with not only rage but also confusion. But whether his words or the feelings expressed in them were real or not, it was already too late, as all color then proceeded to leach out from the Book Hero's eyes. Kyo wholly gave into his Despair.
"But enough of this. If you won't listen to reason, then I'm done talking, Kizuna!" Kyo snapped his fingers, and the wall behind him slid down into the floor. Revealing large tanks full of… Soul Healing Water?
"Different world, different reason. Shatter the barrier walls, and summon the great phenomenon!" Kyo began to chant. As he did so, the massive tanks of Soul Healing Water behind him began to drain rapidly.
Naofumi didn't like the horrible chill that was traveling down his spine. He looked to the sides, but because of Kizuna's outburst, no one had a skill ready to attempt to stop what Kyo was about to do.
"Kizuna, get back!" He shouted at the girl as he raised his Shield.
The otherworld Cardinal Heroes immediately fell back behind Naofumi. But Kizuna and those with her stood, transfixed, almost as if only a shell of her was observing her former friend. Glass and Ethnobalt were unmoving with her too. Tears were falling from their eyes as Kizuna finally realized what she'd just done. What she'd tried to do.
But there was no time to process it all. To unequip the Cursed Weapon, to even try and plead for one last chance. At last, Kizuna's fallen friend said the final words that permanently sealed his fate.
"Waves of Destruction!
"Dimension Wave!"
"Are you good to keep walking, my love?"
"I… I believe so, dear."
Mirellia held her husband's hand as they walked together through the newly renovated Four Heroes Church.
Before, they'd only managed to remove symbols and memorabilia that indicated this Church's rather spotty past in regard to the Heroes of legend. But now, the interior had been redone entirely. The walls had been painted over and statues of the four Heroes and their weapons were placed in the central Cathedral beneath the area of the Hourglass and along its halls.
The two monarchs had been able to listen to a sermon from the Four Heroes priest as he gave it out to the people of Melromarc. And Mirellia had watched as her people attentively listened to what the priest had to say about all four of the Heroes individually.
The Spear represented loyalty; to one's nation and one's family. The Sword represented power, earned through one's strength and hard-fought effort. The Shield represented one's desire to protect and the ability to inspire others around them to protect themselves. Finally, the Bow represented justice through fairness, whether young or old, peasant or noble.
These were the tenets that the weapons upheld. And it was these tenets that the people of Melromarc had begun to learn in their purity for the first time in centuries.
It made the Queen feel relieved. There was still no sign of her first daughter, but hopefully, as the Four Heroes Church's core doctrines spread throughout Melromarc, it'd make things easier for Naofumi after his return.
There were still people who argued that he was a devil because of the Three Heroes Church's false doctrine. And those who said he didn't deserve forgiveness since he'd been accused of raping a woman and had never been cleared of that charge. But the Queen could see how the attitudes of the people were slowly changing.
Naofumi's sacrifice in saving the coalition army from the Spirit Tortoise's breath attack and then his subsequent charge to the core of the Spirit Tortoise had not gone unnoticed by the average soldier. And even if most of them hadn't been there, the elites she'd brought with her told the rest of the coalition stories of the Shield's heroism which spread through all the ranks like wildfire.
After returning home, almost every single one of her knights had spread what they'd witnessed and heard of the Heroes in action against the massive Guardian Beast to every part of her nation. And most notable among the stories were the feats of Naofumi.
These stories joined with others that'd been told. About Naofumi and the Heroes beating Balamus. Of them stopping the Wave at Cal Mira. Of them going through Melromarc to save the people from the flocks of familiars from the Spirit Tortoise. And others besides those.
Mirellia hoped that the merit Naofumi was garnering for himself would sway the opinion of her people around soon enough. She'd feel more at peace if Naofumi wasn't hated in this world.
And then, when that happened-
Ksch!
The ground around them shook, almost toppling the Queen and her husband over. "W-What was that!?" Mirellia spoke out fearfully.
"My Lady, the Hourglass!" Shadow appeared next to Mirellia, pointing up at the Hourglass in the back of the room above them.
Mirellia and Aultcray, as well as the priest and everyone else in the room, looked up. Their eyes were wide as they witnessed something truly terrifying.
The next wave in Melromarc was not supposed to arrive for at least a few more weeks. But the sand at the top of the hourglass was forcing itself rapidly into the bottom. Draining the top faster and faster and faster.
"D… Dear…" Aultcray, who tore his eyes from the hourglass, looked out of a nearby window and then pointed something out to the queen.
Cracks were beginning to appear in the sky above their city. Like a glass that was slowly starting to break.
Mirellia looked between the hourglass and the cracks forming overhead. And her face drained of color as her brain tried to go into overdrive. First trying to think why a Wave was happening now, before throwing that out and thinking of how she could possibly mobilize her knights or anyone to help them in time as she didn't know if the Heroes would appear for this Wave because of its sudden appearance and…
The Hourglass behind her hit 0 before she could give it any further thought.
CRACK!
Reality broke above the skies of the Capital, and monsters began to pour out from the seams of Glass's world into the city below.
Naofumi and Itsuki looked up through the gaping hole in the ceiling above them and then at one another in shock. No words were exchanged, but both of them understood each other perfectly.
That spell, or skill… or whatever that Kyo had just used. It had just…!
"A… a wave?" Aksel looked up too and spoke out hoarsely while holding Maya close.
Through the cracked ceiling of the lab, everyone could see that the fog outside had dispersed. And as a result, a part of the sky had become visible. But it did not greet the heroes with its familiar clear blue hue. Instead, the crimson light of blood and fire filled it. In the distance, they could spot countless tears akin to gaping wounds that glowed with an ethereal light.
"That's…! That's impossible! Ethnobalt said that there shouldn't be any waves starting in this world until next week!" Raphtalia yelled, turning to face the Book Hero furiously.
Looking around, there was no sign of Kizuna, Glass, Chris, Ethnobalt, or Yomogi. They'd vanished at the same time the Wave in the distance appeared.
"You son of a bitch! What the hell did you just do!?" Naofumi shouted at the Book Hero who was still calmly standing in front of them.
"Hmhmhm…" Kyo chuckled again with a shrug. "Do I really need to spell it out? A quick glance up would tell you all you need to know about what just happened. Or did you mean to ask this: 'Why did Kizuna and the others vanish?'
"The answer to that is quite simple too. They are all people who were either registered to Luvar's Dragon Hourglass or were partied up with them, as is the case for Chris and Yomogi. You lot must have been in a separate party system, a bit of foresight I must commend you for. My guess is you kept your parties separated since Yomogi trusted Kizuna more than she trusted you.
"But anyway, you should already know what happens to heroes when a wave starts."
…
"So they are-" Naofumi's glare faltered somewhat.
"Fine, yes. They are at the center of the wave that just appeared. Knowing them, it's nothing that they can't handle by now. Hell, their appearance should give L'Arc and the army with him an actual fighting chance against my forces." The Book Hero looked up at the hole in the ceiling as well with a wistful look.
"The wave that you just summoned, you mean!" Itsuki roared and raised his bow, pointing it at the rogue hero. "How the hell did you even do something like that!? That should be impossible since it's a natural phenomenon!"
"Oh? Is that the conclusion that you've come to? An interesting theory, to be sure. Ah, but it really is such a shame that none of you were registered at Luvar's Hourglass. Oh well." Kyo chuckled to himself again but then his face hardened and he lowered his head and turned it to look directly at Naofumi with a more serious expression.
"Shield Hero." The Book Hero began as his gray eyes bore into Naofumi's own green orbs. "I know that you and the rest of your friends are quite eager to tear me to pieces. But please humor me for another moment and hear me out."
"Naofumi! He's just stalling again! Don't listen to him!" Itsuki cried out and tried to fire another life-force-enhanced arrow.
"Itsuki, wait." But before the Bow Hero could let it loose, Naofumi interrupted him by grabbing his hand and then looked back ahead. "What do you want?" He responded to the Book Hero's inquiry.
"Do you see those countless vortexes in the distance?" Kyo spoke up again, looking strangely at the Shield Hero and his allies. "All of those reality cracks lead back to your world.
"Now. You must have also noticed my airship parked next to the mansion's entrance when you arrived. It's fully operational, refueled, and ready to go. The green-haired woman with you should be able to operate it and fly you through the Wave. This will allow you to return back home to your own world."
…
Naofumi narrowed his eyes. "And why should we do that?" He asked while everyone else looked at the Book Hero in confusion.
"Think about it," Kyo replied while making a wide sweeping gesture around him with his hand. "You have nothing to gain here and everything to lose. You should have never even been able to get to this world. And its problems were never any of your concern. You have your own world to save.
"Do you really want to risk its continued safety by possibly dying here fighting me just to satisfy your ego and bring me to 'justice'? There is no wisdom in continuing to pursue me. And you know it."
"Are you feeling so cornered that you've finally decided to start bargaining, Male Bitch?" Naofumi scoffed.
"Cornered…?" Kyo cocked his head to the side in confusion and then began to chuckle. "Hmhmhmhm! Oh, goodness, no! Not in the slightest! I know you must feel quite confident after slaughtering a bunch of mooks and rejects brought about as a side effect of my experiments. But I assure you, I am still very much fully convinced that I will remain the sole victor by the end of this day.
"Though… I am now not entirely sure if my plan will succeed the way I want it to."
Kyo shook his head and then his gray eyes hardened again. "And that is precisely why I am offering you and your allies this one last way out. As well as a small request, should you choose to agree to it.
"What would that be?" Naofumi narrowed his eyes.
"Should you choose to leave, take Yomogi, as well as L'Arc, Corrin, Glass, and as many of their allies as possible with you through the cracks in the skies. Convince them to abandon this world and go through the portal with you. Use their weapons and the Vassal Katana to convince Kizuna's weapon to leave this world too if you must.
"For all of my genius, I do not know for sure if I'll be able to save everyone or not with my plan. So I'd rather you get as many of them out as possible, so that if I fail, then at least only those who deserve the kind of death that I'll be unleashing will pay the price."
"... How generous." The Shield Hero drawled. "And what brought this sudden gesture of goodwill from you, if not desperation?"
"Consider it my gratitude to you for rendering me a great service." Kyo's hand dropped at his side as he looked at the Shield Hero again. "You've performed nothing short of a miracle by locating our world's Messiah. Something that not even I was able to do. And you brought her back here alive and well too.
"You didn't harm Yomogi either. And I can't imagine that she was an easy prisoner to handle. I thank you for your restraint in that regard. For all of my flaws, as many of them as there are, I am not an ungrateful man. Nor am I merciless for those I care about.
"If you choose to take my offer of mercy, and if you do take those I've listed off-world with you, then I will also rescind the promise that I made to you last time. I will not seek vengeance on your world. You'll never see or hear from me or anyone else from this world again. You'll be able to get back to your original task to save your own world like nothing ever happened. And while Kizuna's weapon would die immediately, the Katana, Fans, Boat, and Scythe would survive for long enough to aid you in your world until this set of Waves passes before the Weapon Spirits in them died as well.
"Whatever memories all of you have made here will fade with time. And it will be for the best."
…
"You know. This is definitely a much more tempting offer than what you tried to sell us last time. I'm almost touched that you're giving room for these so-called 'friends' of yours too." Naofumi scowled. "Unfortunately, I have several issues with it. And all of them revolve around you destroying the world Kizuna loves!"
Itsuki scowled as well, charging his Bow up with a more powerful skill. The others around the pair of Cardinal Heroes prepared for battle too. Though some looked more reluctant than others.
Checking his HUD, Naofumi found that this wave was definitely connected to his world, as he and everyone else had the combined levels of both worlds right now. With the left being what they'd gathered in this world and the right being the levels from their original world.
Naofumi: LV: 74 + 83
Raphtalia: LV: 75 + 84
Filo: LV: 72 + 79
Dou-Lon: LV: 76 + 69
Itsuki: LV: 78 + 88
Rishia: LV: 68 + 68
Aksel: LV: 78 + 86
Maya: LV: 79 + 85
"But the most important reason for why we won't be leaving is…" Naofumi looked away from his HUD to glare at the Book Hero standing in front of them. "Because I'm going to take back the souls you stole from all the innocent people of our world and avenge Ost's death while I'm at it! So shove your 'mercy' up your %$# and then get ready to get it kicked, Kyo! We're not leaving!"
…
"Hmhmhmhmhm." Kyo's all too familiar malicious chuckle returned once again and he closed his eyes before reaching up to his face with his hands to take his glasses off.
"[Float Book]"
He spoke out calmly and a second copy of the vassal Book appeared in Kyo's hand.
The remaining heroes and their allies immediately braced themselves, ready for battle.
"I figured that this would be your answer." Kyo slowly and carefully folded his old glasses and then stored them away into the gem of his weapon. "Oh well. Don't say I didn't warn you-"
"Hey, uh… I really hate to be that guy, but you also realize that we're still here too, right?"
…
The threatening atmosphere around Kyo faded somewhat as his eyes narrowed first in confusion, and then in rage. "What?! Those three idiots are still here?!"
Yep, though they'd moved to stand behind Naofumi after Kyo began chanting earlier, Daitan, Akane, and Hoshi were still there. Unlike Kizuna, they had not been teleported to the site of the Wave.
"Well, duh?" Daitan looked confused as well. "Did you forget how we're not registered at any hourglasses for Waves at the moment?"
"Honestly," Akane shook her head. "Even if they accepted your offer, we wouldn't be able to accept it."
"Not… not only are we tied to this world." Hoshi started, his voice small yet still able to be heard. "But we know Kizuna wouldn't want this. No one in our world would want this.
"My weapon is being loud and clear right now." Daitan raised his mace at the Book Hero. "We will rise up and stop you, Kyo! For the sake of all the innocent people that'd be left behind by your plans! We'll do it!"
…
…
…
The only thing the Blunt Hero got in response was a low-spirited chuckle from the Book Hero. The threatening atmosphere around him intensified again.
"Such complete and utter fools." Kyo's tone was dripping with malice. "I will make sure you three especially shall pay for every life you refused to save after you gave up on our world."
"T̵̢͓̯͕̱̰͉̟̫̝̒̈́͜ờ̵̰̓̐̈̈͂̈͛̊̃͝m̵̨̳͔̟̬̭͓͈̙̥̥̭̑̆̄͒͑͌̾̐̓̐͘͘͠e̵̫͕͓̺̻̩̰̫͖̪̻͉̖̒̔͝ ̶͔̼͈́̉͗̏͊͑̕͜ȏ̸͇͓̙̹͎͚͇͈̦͖̒̈́̏͗̄̄͝f̵̨̧̰͎͈̠̩̫̱̱͙̟̼̈͌̕ ̴̡͔͎͉̆̿́̈́̀̑̾̀̈́͘͘P̶̺̘͓͎͔͎͎͓͔̻͇̻͆̎̄͜r̵̢͓̬̲̺̪̤̲̳̔̒͝i̴̜̩̋̈́̑͐d̵̰̲̈̍́͋̄́́ę̵̤̟̻̗͙̯̙̘̇́̓̒̐̊̂̓̾̉̕."
With a burst of purple fire, the first copy of the Vassal Book on his belt transformed into a sinister form with flayed yellowed pages bound in crudely stitched human skin. The ribcage of some small creature protruded from the cover around the murky gray gem.
"Wait, is that…!?" Itsuki's eyes widened in realization.
"%^&*! Everyone, blast him with all you've got!" Naofumi shouted out.
"Both you and her…" Kyo grit his teeth, glaring at Naofumi. "Are just so s̴t̷u̶p̷i̴d̷l̵y̶ ̶s̵t̴u̸b̸b̵o̴r̵n̵. To the point you inspire it in everyone around you!"
"Eagle Piercing Shot!" Itsuki fired a life force-enhanced defense-piercing skill at Kyo, but the barrier from before appeared around him. On top of that, the arrow was absorbed harmlessly into it, just like with Naofumi's Bunker Shield skill, instead of passing through it as it had before.
"What…" Itsuki nearly stepped back in shock. Kyo chuckled from within his barrier.
"Surprised? The same trick won't work on me anymore."
"Spiral Slash!" Rishia yelled.
"Yin Yang Thrust!" Raphtalia, charged with magic power, thrust forward.
"Shooting Star Blow!" "Shooting Star Gem!" "Shooting Star Ofuda!"
The Three Heroes fired off their most powerful skills into Kyo's barrier. Joining alongside Maya, Raph-Chan, and Filo who were all launching ranged magic attacks at it.
"Explosion Shot!" KABOOM!
This time, Itsuki's skill exploded powerfully against Kyo's barrier. The attacks began to destroy other parts of the lab around them, and the barrier finally started to crack from the onslaught of their attacks.
Yet even then, Kyo did not flinch, and held up his Float Book in his other, spasming hand.
"[Switch Book: T̵̢̢̰̪̺͕͍̜̟͑̓̍̂̎̔͌̒̐͜͠͝ö̸͇̦̻́̃̍͋̃̇̉͛̀̂̎̂̕͘m̴̮̹̳̞̓̂͆̀̐̀̈́̽̌̈́͝ͅe̴̛̘͎͚̍̏̽́͗͐̑͘͜ͅ ̷͔̈́̀̃͐̎̒͌̐̋̇́̈́̄͝o̴̳͌̍͒̅̂̃̑̓͛f̸̨̹̬̰̞̹͔̭̘̺̫̋̊̃̈́̎̏̏͑̍͘͝ͅ ̵̫̐̔̄W̴̡̡̻͇͓̜̲̠͉̋͛̄̾̎̒r̵̫̯͖̬̈̓͋̔͠ḁ̴̧̡͙̄̔̃́͛̓̃͋́̕̚̕t̴͖̟̹̯̒̐̆͋̆̀̓̈́̾͒̅̿͘̚h̴̩̠͂̏͐̃̎͊̋̊̋]"
The Float Skill burst into flames too, transforming into a black charred form with a screaming face on the cover.
"What- Another one?!" Raphtalia's eyes widened.
"You will b̷r̵e̸a̴k̶ ̵t̸o̸o̸, just like she did. Ideals and hope can't stand up to the c̷r̵u̸e̴l̶ ̸a̸n̵d̴ ̷b̸r̶u̷t̴a̶l̷ ̴r̷e̶a̶l̷i̴t̶y̵ of human nature!" The Book Hero screamed, his voice gradually starting to sound more and more warped.
More and more skills and spells from everyone rained down at the barrier. It was gradually falling apart but Kyo paid little regard to it.
"Don't say that I never tried to give you a chance to l̷̯͖͋͐̚͝e̸̱̖͛̿̒a̴̺̒͗̕͝v̵̨̦͎́͘è̷͕̮ ̵͚͉̀̂! To s̸̛̖͐͒a̵̟̲̿̉̓v̸̩̥̇ę̵͎͐ everyone in this world who d̸̤͔̒̍̂ệ̶̅̉š̸̲̳è̷͙͉̙̊͝r̸̝̹̗͑v̶͚͝ẻ̵̯̬̺̒s̷̥͍͎͐ such a blessing!" The Book Hero screamed, his skin taking on an unhealthy pale tone and his eyes burning wild with hate and madness.
"Damn it!" Naofumi began to rapidly chant to boost everyone's stats with All Zweite Aura while Itsuki prepared the same for Zweite Down. It looked like they were about to have a real battle on their hands.
But before they could finish, they were interrupted when Filo suddenly stopped attacking and latched onto Naofumi's arm.
"Daddy! Bow Uncle! No! We must-"
"Honey! Not now! I know we promised Kizuna that we-" Naofumi tried to tell her to get back to attacking.
"No! That's not what Filo means! Something bad is about to happen! Daddy, you need to get all your shields out and make everyone hide!" Filo protested with a scared look. The lone golden strand of hair standing above the rest in the middle of her head rapidly swayed back and forth while glowing.
"Huh, what do you-" Naofumi blinked in confusion.
Kyo continued to ignore the barrage of attacks raining down on his rapidly degrading shield as Itsuki's Down spell finished, yet bounced off the barrier in front of them.
The rogue Hero's left hand grabbed the first cursed tome still resting on his belt before spreading his arms out, holding a cursed tome in each hand with a wicked grin.
"Everyone, fall back! METEOR SHIELD!" Naofumi hastily chanted, conjuring a protective dome around himself as everyone retreated under it.
The Book Hero swung both of his arms with the same eerie grin.
And then thrust the cursed tomes into his torso like knives. Right into the spot where Kizuna had planted her Lure Needle skill. The sound of the double damage multiplier being activated played out.
…
Naofumi's eyes, as well as the eyes of everyone else, widened in disbelief at the shower of gore that erupted from Kyo's chest with a disturbing sound of breaking bone and rending flesh. Blood splattered on the floor of the lab that separated them from each other.
Kyo let out a grunt and gurgling gasp, his face was still twisted into a smile that was straight out of a nightmare. His choking mixed with laughter as he straightened out again and lowered his hands, his blood flowing and dripping freely onto the ground. The gems of the two cursed tomes shone faintly from within his own ruined chest cavity.
"What… what the hell….?" Itsuki muttered. Had his Bow not been attached to his body, it would have dropped from his hands and clattered onto the floor.
"Daddy! Hurry! It's not enough! We need all of your shields!" Filo urged Naofumi and shook him with desperation. "One won't be enough! Summon all of them! Even the new ones! Hurry!"
Naofumi was still not certain just what was happening, but he chose to trust his daughter's intuition at that moment.
"[Air Strike Shield!]
"[Second Shield!]
"[Dritte Shield!]
"[Royal Shield!]
"[Hundred Shields!]
"[Bunker Shield!]
"[E Float Shield!]"
More and more layers of defense began to appear in the air around Naofumi as everyone hurried to take cover behind him. He even used the skills that he'd gotten recently, most of which he'd planned on saving for when the battle with Kyo started. Yet whatever Filo had felt in the air earlier was now gradually starting to become more and more apparent to everyone else too. And saving such skills for future plans and gambles did not feel so prudent at the moment.
"H̴̗̄̌͋ͅa̸̦̘̹̍͜h̸͖̃̈́h̸̳͔́̇̄͝h̸̪͓̩̗̐…̶̹͙̓͆͂ͅḫ̶̈̈́͘ḁ̷̪͗̍h̸̡̺͚̹̔ĥ̵̢̪̋̇̊…̶̧̹̺́̂͌͘.̴̛̱̱̼̀̽͐" The Book Hero's heinous wounds were healing over, yet his ruined lungs still gasped as he took something out from one of the tomes in his chest. It was a standard glass test tube. A core element of any chemistry set.
But what it was filled with…
The pitch-black tarlike liquid bubbled and boiled within its container as if trying to escape from it. The aura of malice emanating from it not only matched the two cursed tomes sizzling inside Kyo's body right now but seemed to somehow exceed them.
The Book Hero grinned madly and held the vial up as if making a toast.
"C̴̙̻̾͂͗͆̽̋̈́̒̕ḩ̶̨̧̛̦̦̜̳̘̲̺͔̣͓̣͎̯̈́͌͊͑͗͌̂̈́̐̂͊͐̃̆̒̉̆̓̚͝ȩ̷͔̯̣̘͇̤̻̬̪͆̃̈́͂̈́̇͗̔͘ȩ̷̧̧̢̧̡̛͔͓̮͕̩̫͖͚͕̻͇͔̫̠̺̰͓͙̐̋̃͑̈́́̍́̃͂̇͛͛̍̅͋̇͒͂̌͛̑̚͜r̴̡͓͈̲͆̾̃̄̍̈́͑̾̉̄̐̀͗̈́̍̊̾́͛̅̎́̑͛̿̃̋̆̿̈́́͜s̶̡̨̡̛̫͍̻̰͕͕̺̣͙̤̩̰̏̐̒́͑̓̃̾̅̃̑́͋̐̈͑͂͛̓̒́̑̊̑̿͝͠͝ͅ!"
He let out one last laugh and downed the contents of the vial in one gulp.
…
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen and Naofumi even wondered if the maniac's hubris and insanity finally got the best of him, making his mad ploy backfire somehow.
Such hopes did not last.
...
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...
"Ą̶̢̡̧̺̻̪͚̗̣̜̼̭̮̦͖͙̙̳̭̼̦͉̜̱͈̼̻͙̩̰̟͕̙̬͚͔̳̻̘͂̀̌̈́̅̅̈͆̓̋̏̀̆͗̌̎͊̆̕͜͝͝H̶̨̛̹̠̥̣͔͎̬͇͛̇̈́̾͋̒̚ͅH̴̡̨̛̛̛̘͉̥͓̬̗̱̤̪̜͓̣͖͔̺̦̙̏͐̆̀̏̊̀̍̏̀̊͛̏̀̾̈́́̓̐͗͒̀́͘̕͘̚̚̕͝ͅḨ̵̧̧͍̹͇̗̼͉̤̹̦̹̼͕̤͓̤̠͉̞͎͔̙͓͕̩̮̪̣͈̲̝̳̱̣̭̈́̂͋̏̔͜͝ͅḤ̸̢̢̗̙͎̫̟̰̺̞̘̠̩̪̹̮͎͓͓̲̮̭͔͈̮̮̩̝͕̹̪̮͚̮̹͖̟̙̞̲̀̈́͒̔̾̿̆́̅̿̑͗̿̌̊̋͌͒͂̋̌̆̔̐̄͑̆̓̾̾̽̏͒̊̓̚͘͘͝ͅḨ̴̡̛͖̙̠̩̪̩̬͓͔̝̟͕͍̦̹͔̲͈̣͙̥̝͖͉̻̘̞̦͍̘̭̹͇͎̝̰̽͛͐̈́̔̊̈͂͗̈͂̈́̀̾̈̿̿̿̇͋̽̆̿̊̄̚͘͜͠͝ͅH̷̛̱͓̩͈͇̠̜͙̤̦̮̺̜̣̜̗̪͊̌͌̈͘͝ͅͅḤ̶̡̨̢̲̳̞̭̱̜͖̗̤̰͍̦̟̟̥̞͂͐̀̎̅́͂̂̾̂̃̑͛̃̐̊̒͊͛͒͊͛̍̀͒̑́̋̔͋͘͜͠H̶̨̧̧̛̲̩̮͍̬̜͓̱̥͖̗̰̼̲͕̱̜̰̠̗̪̗̪̠̩̖̬̙̞͈̳̺̃̍̆̑̓̐̀̀͂̇̇̂̋̓̈́͗̆͑̓͐̚̚͜͝͝ͅH̴̢̡̛̰̖͔͚͉̺̗̖̪̗̲̬͈̼̩̻̠̯̩͇̤̜̖̟̊̀͗̿̇̾͊̈́̃̓͑̇̔̉̽͛̀̓͐͗̿̐̈́͆̓͐͘͜͝͝͠͝͝H̵͓̯̬̘̦̋̉H̶̡̨̧̧̩̱̲̫̤͚̭̤̥̠̬̜͉͉͕̪̣̣̮̝̙̗̤͚̲̫̟̝͉̘̝̹͍̹̼͇͚̖̹͙̳̯̺̐̐̿̈̽̓̔̏̔̓̏̑͒̾́͑̚̚͘͜͜ͅH̶̨̢̢̧̢̛̛̛͙̫̣͉̣͇̺̰̙͍͖̺̩̮̱̪͙͚͇̯͍̙͎̩́̈́̈̀̊̂͗͌͋͊̈́̽̿͌͊̽̇̊̀̽̑̉̓̀͗̍̋̀͌̈́͛̽̾́̇̏̿̚͘͜͝ͅͅH̴̛̱̱̣͚̣̭̐̑̋͌͒̾̇̈́͗͊͌̀̆̋͛̎͌͆͗̋̋͊̽̈́̐̊͘͝H̴̢͖͍̖̱̮̲̬̜͍͉̞̞̣̺͖͎̜̥͓͎̯̫̘͚̖̥̲̹̬͎̚͜͜H̸̢̨̧̡̢̛͔͓͇͚̜̪̫̰̺̹̖͚͇͖͔̳͓̰̲̤̱̻̞͙̱̹̱̟̹͉͕̮̫̩̱͈͓̣̯̙̩͎̐̑̇͛̎͂̔͑̉̀̀͌͋̊̂͐̅̂̂͋̓̏̔̍̎̓̽͊̈́͐̽̍̍̾̿͘͘͘̕̕͜͝͝H̷̢̢̡̲̥͎̹͍̯̬̮͕̲̟̝̯̰͔̪͇̦̯̥̥͍̟̰̤͎̯͉̥̦͚̲̠͙̬̫̠̒̊͆̽̏ͅͅH̴̨̢̧̨̢͉̖̼̯͖̺̮̠̝̤͎̣̙̬̼̩͈̞̣̠̭̙̟̠̜̠̗̹̭̯̺̩̲͎̫͙̰̀͌̏͑̀̈́̐͂͐͒̊̽̍͂̾̔̑̌̈̐́͌̑̇̀̍̾̇̀̓̈́͜͝͠͝ͅĤ̸̨̢̛̖̣̱̝̰̫̘̙̜͖̰̝̣̼̹̝͉̠̹͕̪̩̯̃̎̿̿͋͋̈́̾͗͆̔̃̊͊̽͆̐͌̀̌̑̅̈̈́́͐̊́̚͘͠͠Ȟ̷̡̡̧̧̢̢̧̛̛̛̖͕̬̲̺͍̥̱̩̥͔͍̠̝̥͇̭̩̣̥͉̟͔̳̖̞̗͕̬̣̩̮͓̼͎͈̘̞̙̐̑̈́́̃̈́̿́͒͒͑̀̈́͑́́̊̈́̾̊̓̊̿̊̍̂͌͂͒͋̃̿̔̇͐̕̚̕͜͝H̶̨̢̡̨̧̛̜̝̞̝̰̙̥̖͎͇̩͈̱̣̼̣̻͔̬͚̲͈̞̤̜̼͍̻̿̌̆̃̐̂̅̈́̈̇͆͗̔̈́̄͂̑̄̈́̅̑̔͑̄̉̔͗͒͌̓́̇̄̒̉̄̕͘͘͜͠͝͝͝"
...
...
...
A horrible scream of rage and agony escaped Kyo's lips as his entire body burst into dark purple flames. A high-pitched screech began to emanate from it, growing higher and higher in volume and tone, making everyone think back on the sound that the Spirit Turtle's spike familiars would make before they would detonate.
That was the only warning required for everyone to huddle together behind Naofumi.
"[CHANGE SHIELD: SHIELD OF HOPE II!]"
Naofumi barely managed to change his three Air Strike Shields as well as the newly summoned One Hundred Shields and Float Shield to his best Blessed Shield in time as an overwhelming crashing sound and blinding light from an overpowering magic explosion washed over him and the rest of his friends.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
"Hack, hack, cough!" Dou-Lon gasped while rapidly blinking his eyes and shaking his head to get the ringing out of his ears. "What, what just…?"
"Is everyone okay!?" Naofumi raised his voice and quickly looked around both at his HUD and surroundings to confirm that everyone was alive and well.
"Yeah, just a bit startled." Itsuki swallowed hard as he shakily got up.
"I'm, I'm okay!" Rishia raised her voice too while rubbing her eyes.
"Filo? Raphtalia?" Naofumi asked next.
"I'm good, no worries!"
"I'm okay, daddy!"
The Shield Hero glanced around some more. He also drank a Soul Healing Water from his shield. The usage of all those skills had almost entirely drained his much larger pool of SP which he had thanks to his combined levels.
The explosion from before had destroyed every layer of his shield skills right up until the last dozen or so of the One Hundred Shields and the Float Shield that'd been inside his barrier. Bunker Shield and the others had been destroyed as well.
Talk about good timing in unlocking these skills. He would have had to take the brunt of the blast otherwise. Also, it was nice to note that Change Shield could also change all the shield skills he had out. That might come in handy later on…
If they survived the rest of this encounter, that is.
Looking around them, they saw that with the exception of the small island around Naofumi, the area where the mansion had once stood was now completely destroyed, leaving the crater that they were in exposed under the blood-red sky above. A giant purple inferno of cursed flames raged around the area whose ground was left burned pitch black, with the fire eating away at the earth and trees.
The cursed fire slowly melted the surrounding rock too, making the resulting slurry of molten earth drip down from the edges of the giant crater and flow down its walls.
The forest outside was ablaze with the same cursed flames, making colossal pillars of black smoke rise, adding an even darker tone to the already unnatural-looking crimson-painted sky.
A thick smell of sulfur permeated through the scalding hot air as embers and bursts of steam erupted from the burning ground around them at random. Clouds of smoke and ash swirled around the crater, dancing around the lingering pockets of cursed flames.
"Did…did that crazy bastard try to kill us by nuking himself?" Daitan looked around the ruined area with discomfort and fear.
Itsuki scanned the area around them for any signs of the Book Hero but it was hard to tell things apart from the sheer amount of fire that still continued to gradually spread out. And, after looking up, Itsuki shuddered in place.
Daitan's remark was not a hyperbole.
A giant mushroom cloud was expanding out up above. He almost couldn't believe that Naofumi had just managed to protect them all from that kind of attack. And Filo had just saved all their lives with her warning too.
"I can't see anything. Did anyone get an experience notification on his death or something?" Naofumi asked while examining the deepest part of the crater directly in front of them.
"Would we even get one if he committed suicide though?" Rishia swallowed hard as she looked around herself too. "Also, we have multiple Cardinal Heroes here. So we wouldn't get any experience points regardless."
Naofumi scowled and continued to look around the infernal ruins of Kyo's mansion around them.
"Grr..."
The Shield Hero's eyes immediately snapped in the direction of the sound but it turned out to be just Raph-Chan… whose fur was bristling wildly while she glared at the center of the crater with her fangs bared.
And she was not alone either. Maya, Dou-Lon, and Raphtalia had their ears held flat against their heads. The demihumans' tails were firmly tucked in between their legs too.
"S-sir Naofumi! T-this feeling, it's like-" The hakuko managed to speak out through gritted teeth while also staring intently at the bottom of the crater.
"The Spirit Tortoise." Raphtalia finished for him as she raised her Vassal Katana with shaking hands.
"No, it's not like the big turtle at all! It's all wrong!" Filo shook in place behind Naofumi's legs while hugging him from behind. "D-Daddy, Mommy, be careful!"
The earth shook once.
Naofumi hastily raised his shield again and looked ahead at the center of the crater too.
From the center of the purple inferno, a figure began to rise.
And rise.
And rise.
And rise, until the smoke around it finally cleared enough for them to see its head poking out above the edge of the crater and the burning tree line beyond it.
▮̶͖̹͉̟̖̜̪̦̮̞͓͖̲̪̮͔̘͖̮͙̙͓͚͖̘̤͉̞̯̞̃̉̏̈̋̓́̃͗̽̊̏̋̑͂ͅ▮̸̨̢̡̠̥͍̦̪̹͈̤̥̰̳̙͕͚̟͔͙͈̹̪̞̖͍̳̟̻̽͋́́͋̎͌̈́͌̄̓̓̊̌̇͑̆̽̍͘̕͘͝͠͝▮̵̮̮̙͓̖̼͈̉͂̀̂̈̏̇͐́̊̀̎̈͗͆̌͌̂̀͊͆͐̾̊̌̔̈́̊̚̕͘͝͝ͅ▮̴̙̝͖̥̯̻͖̹͇̀̐̓̊̐̓́̅̂̊́̎̎͒̈́̃̓̉͗͂̾̆̕̚͝▮̴̰̺͕̔̄͒̀̃̓̓̈́̓̍͛̓͒͗̾͂̓͘͝▮̵̧̢̻͕̤̲̗͚̤̩̩̤̭͎͔̭̤̯̠͖͎͉̠̻̽͌̄̑̃̍͗̓̉̄͘͘͝͝ ̷̢̨̛̛̹͎̺̠̮̠͚̪͖̣͚̻͈͙̳̮̞̟̼̖̲̖͖̓̀̆́̓͒̅͗̈̓̈̊́̑͘͜ ̴̧̡̘̗͕͔̜̲̩͇͙̗͕̬̞̝̯̤̖̗͎̼͑̎̾̌̑͆̏̊͆̀̓́̑̅͝ ̶̢̢̢̡̛̛̘͍̦͚͓͎͕̯̦͈͙̖̪̙̱͈̖͎̹̯͇̜͍̫̓͒̌̄̎͊̓̓̀̓̑̅̌́̋͂̀̑͠͝͝͝͠ͅ▮̴̬͖̬̼̓́̈́̾̓͂̈́́͗͝͝▮̶̡̢̛͉͕̗̖̖̱͖̻̘̜̜͎̙̠͇̞̯̳͚̦̠̬͖̪͔̝̩͕̉̓͑̆̑̎̓́̿̓͛̇͆̈́̀́̏̉̎̊͆͂͘͜͠ͅ▮̸̡̛̩̠̭͕̦͚̲̤͇͎̣̣͇͚͉͇̑̑͂̈́̿̓̐̀̀̈́͛̆̓̋̿̕͠͝▮̷̧̠͍̞̭̋͂̊̀̆͒̉̀̔̏͐̑̓͌̀̎̓̓̿̀̀̅͊͘͜͝͝͝͝.̵̘̦̦̤̰̣̯̣̀̍̒̅́̈̍͛̿.̸̨̡̛͙̰̩̖̻̣͉̳͍̩̪͙̭̺̲̟̩̙̦̫͓͙̪͓̜̯̇̅̔̽̏̊̿̋.̵̧̛͙͈̻͇͚̙͔̩̥̦̟̫̘̼̙͔̣̫̑́̀͗̈͊͑̆͛̾̀̃͑̾̆̇̀͐̕̚͜͠͝!̶̧̛̲̼̪̥̩̬̭̥̻͚̱̗̖͙̺͇̋̎̍̿͆͌̐̀ͅ
...
...
A deafening unearthly roar rumbled through the air.
Four large purple wings spread out and flapped once, blotting out the dark red skies above them.
The resulting gust of wind briefly flattened all the cursed flames burning in the area and forced everyone's hair and clothes to flutter violently.
THUD!
The creature landed outside of the wall of flames on its hind legs, the intense heat dancing and reflecting off the lustrous armored scales covering its entire body.
THUD!
Its long sinuous tail lashed out, smashing into the ground and kicking up a cloud of scalding ash. Each of the razor-sharp spines covering the tip of the tail looked powerful enough to carve through diamonds like paper.
The rest of the body appeared from the smoke. The horned head set upon a long muscular neck turned sideways. Its mismatched reptilian eyes, one red and the other gray observed the group of heroes with malicious disdain and hatred.
Two gems of matching colors shone in its chest, the two cursed tomes overlapping and fused into the creature's flesh.
Pages from these tomes, their edges burnt, frayed, and twisted with the paper itself darkened beyond charcoal, surrounded the newly formed hybrid dragon like an endless swarm. Eldritch symbols of some ancient language covered each one, drawn in fresh blood instead of ink.
On the bright side, it revealed that Kyo's new wings weren't nearly as massive as they'd first pictured, as most of the reveal earlier had turned out to come from the swarm of pages.
That was the only bright side to their situation.
In total, Kyo's transformation had made him over five meters in length. He was standing as if he was still a human, which somehow made his new transformed state look even more terrifying and unnerving.
A deep cackle escaped from the dragon's throat as he stood up to his full height. The creature towered over the puny ants below it, relishing the looks of fear on everyone's faces.
A text box appeared over the monster in the Shield Hero's vision. Something that'd never happened with Kyo before.
[BOOK DEMON: LV: ? + ?]
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"S̵͎͙̝̰͔̺̥͈̮̤̤̹͓̞̗̮̊̌̈́̿́͜͝H̷̢̟̼͈̪̜̲̺̱̟͚̫̲̲̖̹̮̊͛̄̃͂͆́̈́͜͝I̶̧̢̢̙͇̯̳̠̝̰̭̲͊̄͘Ē̸̡̨̢̢̧̨̛͕͖̯̱̹̮͇͈͖̝̥͔̰͎̘̈̄̍̌͆͒̊̀͊͛͂̓͂̽̐̓̚̚͜͠L̵̨̯̟̺̙̊͜Ḑ̸̙̘̹̙̹̩̘̮͙̞̣͚͍̺̼̖̗̱̗͎͖̼̙͚̹̃̄̔͐̏̈͊̒̏́̉̂̈́̚̚͠ͅͅͅ ̸̡̢̙̯̖̠̝̦̬̖̗͕̺̝̬͖̍̐͑̍̎̉̑̏͋͜ͅH̸̢̧̙͇͔̬̼̰̺̤̖͚͎̲͙̰̗͖͉̯͍̼̲̱̠̯̋͜ͅȆ̶̛̛̪͕͔͈̦̱͚͈̣̳̭͕̪̮͚͍͍͋̿́͛̉̋́͗̀̎̍̋̀̾͂̍̑͗̆̏̎̆̈́̀̈́̕̚͝͠͠Ȑ̵̹͇̣̙̗̗̖̗̦̳̞͕͇̹̻̲̜̰̲͚̳̻̠͓̜̱͕̯̯̟̺̝̭̽̐̊̀̃̑̂̾̎̏̓̇̓͛͛̋͐̉̅͗̚͝͝Ỏ̶͙͉̠͕͎̗̼͉̅͒̉̐̈̃̆̽̈́̌̈́̌͌̓͌͘͜.̷̨̧̛̹͙̙̖̦͍̇͒̽̏̏̉̑̌̔̌̓͌͊͋̔̚͘.̶̰̲̞͚͉̳͇̩̩͍̙̻̣̋́̈̾̾̀̽́̾̐̉̈̂͋̑̆̈́͑͗̍̄̆̄̌̚͝͝͝.̶̧̢̧̦̦̺̩̖̪̝̬̤̙̜͇̘͕͗͝ͅ"
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The creature opened its gaping maw as it spoke in a distorted form of the Book hero's voice, revealing countless dagger-sized teeth in the process. Its breath was so hot that the air in front of it began to distort.
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"D̷̛̛̞͎̖͈͆͛̂̀̋̀̍̓͂͒̓͒̽̊͑̋́͠͠Į̷̨̞̳͇̙̞͇̥̗̤͓͕̻̘̞̥͇̈́͛͗̅͒̓́̃̋͊̀̊̅̄̕͜͝͝Ȩ̷̫̣͇̱̜̞̼̰̥̠͔͇̖̺̫̫̞̬̼̞͋̉͗̍͆́͠!̵̛̘̦̟̗̙̣̼̬̲̟͓̋̾̍͒̈́̍͆͋̒̐̉͋̇͛̅̇̈́̀́̅̈̎́̈̽̿͑̕͜͝͝͝!̸̞̞̭̩̼̜̱͔͎͕̜̿̽͊́͐̇͛̉͐̈́͐͘ͅ!̶̖̰̠̥̲̝̟̰̞̤̘͓̝̝̫̳͙̹̱̯̭̹̬͔̩̈́͗"
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With another roar, an unstoppable surge of cursed flames erupted from the Demon Lord's throat
The group standing forth to oppose him disappeared beneath its onslaught.
Author's Notes:
Man, too bad I'm on a biweekly upload schedule now. This chapter and the following chapters are a lot of fun to read through.
So many things happening. So many moving parts all coming together. I hope you all are ready for what's next. We are fast approaching the final Showdown between the Heroes and Kyo. It's going to be fun.
Hero Clips!
Unorthodox Use of Shields
"So you're able to change all of those shield skills simultaneously, right?"
The group stood in the middle of all the destruction. For all intents and purposes, they should have been preparing for the battle of their lives.
Yet for some reason, Itsuki had just asked that question to Naofumi.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Naofumi asked.
"To be honest, after all that happened this chapter, I'm not really in the mood for a life-and-death battle, so I was thinking…" Itsuki began to whisper the rest into Naofumi's ear, much to everyone else's confusion.
Naofumi grunted and nodded his head a few times. After a moment, he looked at Itsuki again. "Aren't you the one always accusing me of having crazy ideas?"
"Yeah, so are we going to do it or not?" Itsuki asked.
"... fine, might as well." Naofumi shrugged before moving to set things up.
…
Moments later, Kyo rose out of the dust of the crater. His dragon form looked large and imposing. "Finally, puny mortals, your time has-"
"... … … what?" Kyo's voice came out confused.
"YEAHHHHH! WOOOO!" Daitan cheered while dancing cringily amongst a plethora of shields.
You see, Naofumi had used his One Hundred Shields skill again and placed them all around the group. He'd then used Change Shield to change them to a shield that he'd gotten from some random monster in Kizuna's world. The Rainbow Alligator Scale Shield.
It wasn't strong compared to some of the other monsters in this world. But the shield itself held many different colors on it. And thanks to Maya and Raphtalia's light magic bouncing off all the various shields…
Yes, the Heroes had made their own little rave party in the midst of a nuclear blast zone.
Drdrdrdrdr!
Itsuki was duking it out alongside Rishia with an electronic guitar, an electric piano, and several other electronic instruments surrounding him, including the omnipresent electric boogaloo. The Bow Hero was dressed like a punk and had a mohawk, while his girlfriend was similarly dressed in punk style and had a nose ring as well as black eyeliner and lipstick on her face.
"Hmmm, now this is my kind of party." Maya, dressed in a skimpy bodysuit, was dancing close to her favorite knight. Or, rather, she was grinding her backside against him while Aksel had the happiest, horniest look ever on his face.
"I CAN TASTE THE RAINBOW!" Dou-Lon was pulling out a series of epic moves in the center of the entire group that'd move Michael Jackson to tears. Raphtalia, Naofumi, Raph-Chan, and Filo all cheered the tiger man on.
"What… what is even happening right now?" Akane asked, looking very confused and lost.
"Oh, have you never attended a rave party before?" Hoshi asked curiously. "Not that I can claim to have done so either. But I saw them happening quite a lot whenever I went to my night classes on campus. It always looked like the people attending them were having fun while promoting ideas like peace, love, unity, respect, tolerance, and happiness."
"I know what rave parties are… I'm just wondering why the hell everyone is having one now?" Akane pointed out. "Don't we have a battle with a dragon to deal with?"
Well, they did have a battle with a dragon to deal with. However…
"Do you think you can outperform me, hakuko?! I was known as the Demon Lord of Dance back in my day!"
Kyo, despite being a five-meter tall towering dragon, was dressed in a sparkly white and blue tuxedo. A wig of hair was slicked back on his head. And he was pulling out moves like he was the legend himself.
"Fancy moves! But you've got nothing on me!" Dou-Lon yelled back as he got on one hand and spun his entire body around epically.
360, 720, 1080, 1440 degrees; he just kept going and going! It was amazing, absolutely spectacular!
Akane and Hoshi slowly blinked. And then, seeing Daitan attempt to pull off the same move in his corner, only to fall flat on his face, they smiled and decided to join in the fun as well.
Thus, thanks to Naofumi's Unorthodox use of his shield skills, the group ended up throwing an impromptu rave party. And Kyo was soundly beaten by Dou-Lon, the king of dance, in a dance battle. Forcing the Book Hero to give up his plans for world domination.
The end.
Till Next Time
Allen