Virtue of the Shield Hero

by Allen Blaster

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

146. 81: Final Showdown: 1: Equally Matched

Chapter Eighty-One: Final Showdown: Part One: Equally Matched

---

- ENTRY #88 -

I found out how Kizuna disappeared all those years ago.

I paid a visit to Albert while conquering Mikakage to confirm the news.

He is getting the punishment he justly deserves from it.

My mind feels clearer again, but for how long?

Those thoughts won't leave me alone. The feeling in my chest won't go away.

I…

What is happening to me?

Yomogi, please, come back.

I'm scared…

---

"Take them down! Take them down!"

"There's too many of them!"

"Hold the line!"

Therese wished she could say that everything was going well from her vantage point, but this was not the case.

The ground battle down below was going poorly.

It started out simple enough. Ryoma and Corrin had taken charge of all the ground forces, allowing Therese to use a LAAT to try and find L'Arc and other survivors on the snowy, smoke-filled battlefield.

The two Royal Gem Commanders had extended their forces out from underneath the Acclamators in the front. Making a solid semi-circle with their siege and anti-aircraft weapons at the back. Even a few LAATs that'd survived the landings were brought out.

The one Therese was riding on had the most energy, and had been used to evacuate other survivors from around the battlefield, but the remainder of the ships were landed in front of the army to grant them more cover and fortifications.

However, even after hunkering down and returning fire with all of their Gem Lightning Rifles, ballistae, Gem Lightning Gatling Guns, and other ranged weapons, the remainder of L'Arc and Label's soldiers had to move to the forefront to halt Xander's cavalry charge.

While the will of the soldiers hadn't broken after the cavalry charge, it'd still allowed the rest of Xander's forces to close the gap.

The battle had become a disorganized mess from there. There were still the fighters holding the semi-circle line near the Carriers. But the two large armies were intermixed with one another across the whole battlefield.

"Agh!"

An iconic scream accompanied a large boulder crashing into the battlefield below. The LAAT Therese was on swerved to the side, avoiding another rocky projectile launched from Luvar's side of the battlefield.

It hadn't come from a catapult. A group of performance dancers on the enemy side moved as one in perfect sync. As they stepped back and flicked out their hands in front of them, a series of fireballs began to rain from the sky.

"Shining Stones: Falling Rain!" Therese channeled one of the accessories on her body to quickly summon rain clouds. The fireballs flickered and died while passing through her gem spell, saving the lives of some of the soldiers fighting down below. But the rain could do nothing to stop other spells coming from Xander's own gem magic users.

"Watch those gem rockets!"

"Scrap them!"

"Die clankers!"

Lapis's noblesse commandos were the loudest voices on the battlefield. Even up here, she could hear their battle cries over the thick of battle.

Therese saw Corrin in his shining armor. He flew through the air with his sword out as he led several squads of his soldiers into the thickest part of the battle. His shining, diamond-encrusted blade cut down many foes, but then L'Arc's men unleashed another stream of arrows that blotted out the sky, and when the arrow barrage ended, Therese had lost track of her cousin.

Label's samurai stood at the forefront of the battle. The ones up front held katanas while the ones behind wielded naginatas. The front samurai engaged with the riders while the naginata wielders stabbed repeatedly at the horses Xander's men had been riding.

Xander himself was at a different part of the battlefield, still sitting atop his majestic steed. An eerie green glow surrounded his figure. It appeared that Kyo had entrusted the man with the same buff potion he'd used on his minions in the Spirit Tortoise.

The black lance he was holding then glowed as he and his horse surged forward towards a line of L'Arcs knights. The first man would never know he'd died to a replica of the Cardinal Spear when Xander's weapon skewered him through the chest. And while the others tried to stand and fight, they were quickly cut down as well.

A fireball slammed into Xander's chest, but the man was hardly damaged. He merely pulled his lance back before a ring of fire surrounded it.

The noblesse commando who'd launched the fireball raised his Gem Lightning Rifle and began to fire, but it made no difference. Only a few shots later, a pillar of fire came up around the man, engulfing him.

When it faded away, it revealed the charred remains of the former soldier and his destroyed armor. Xander didn't spare his remains so much as a glance as he continued to plow through line after line of soldiers.

Therese's eyes watered at the sight, but the LAAT was already moving on from that part of the battlefield.

It was all a large bloody mess. Men and women on both sides were dying, screaming in rage or fear as they clashed with one another in a bloody and chaotic slaughter.

Therese almost felt sick watching so much death happening all at once. It wasn't just the soldiers dying here.

The armor Corrin's soldiers and noblesses wore gave them plenty of protection. But it didn't make them invincible.

The gems could still be overworked to the point of breaking. And in a battlefield like this, between flying around, feeding energy into their rifles, tanking hits for other soldiers, and a variety of other factors, there were many gems dying for the friends they strove to serve.

It was terrible. There'd already been so much life lost on both sides in this one battle.

CRACK!

But then, things suddenly got worse as the ship that Therese was riding in was shaken by the sound of the sky cracking open above it.

"What the- MY LADY, HOLD ON!" The gem pilot yelled back to her.

Therese opened her mouth to ask what just happened, but her hand held tight as the ship suddenly veered hard to the right, nearly launching her out the side of it.

Hanging on for dear life, her eyes widened in shock as she saw what the Gem Pilot had narrowly avoided.

The sky above had turned from a smoky blue to blood red. Wave cracks began to form all over the sky.

"What… what is…" Therese tried to speak out, only for the LAAT she was on to swerve harshly to the left, planting her back inside the ship once more.

A Luvar ship blazed past. The LAAT's Gem Pilot barely avoided the cannon fire it'd unleashed.

That same ship then began to fly past one of the tears in reality the Gem Pilot had just avoided. As the enemy vessel began to bank around to pursue Therese's LAAT, monsters poured in through the crack, landing directly on the deck of the Luvar ship.

"What the- AH! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Therese heard the screams clear as day as the large creatures tore into the crew on the deck. Some of them then began tearing the hull of the ship apart.

What… how…

This was impossible… how were they suddenly in the middle of a Wave?

"My Lady, was a Wave supposed to happen in Luvar today?!" The Gem Pilot yelled back to her in fear.

"No! Luvar's Wave isn't supposed to be for- VEER RIGHT!" Therese shouted.

Her warning was barely heeded as the Gem Person veered the ship out of the way of a monster that fell from another Wave Crack high in the sky above them.

As it passed by, Therese saw its name appear over its head.

Interdimensional Shadow Drake

The monster itself looked like a large dragon with horns on its head. However, it was completely lacking any sort of wings, and it was made entirely of shadows. It freefell all the way to the ground below.

Its landing crushed both Luvar and Sickle's soldiers alike. The monster then proceeded to let out a loud roar as it settled onto the new battlefield.

"What-" "What the-" "AHHHHHHH!"

More screams came from down below as more monsters landed on the battlefield. Some soldiers kept fighting one another. Others turned on the monsters.

Some forgot formation outright and began to flee in terror for any kind of safety. But on a wide empty battlefield like this, there was none to be found anywhere.

The airships dueling in the sky now found themselves having to battle each other, as well as the swarms of Interdimensional Shadow Wyverns and Interdimensional Shadow Wyrms flying out of the cracks to attack them with claws and magic.

"By the earth…" Therese stared, almost dumbstruck at how things had already gone from worse to worst in a short time.

"My Lady… what are your orders?" The Gem Pilot asked nervously.

Therese stood almost entranced. Unsure what to do. Unsure how to even act.

"My Lady…" The Gem Pilot asked again, still facing ahead so he could focus on flying. His compatriots manning the turrets suddenly found themselves having many more targets to shoot at compared to before.

Therese continued to stand in place, frozen in shock.

Why… why did things keep getting worse?

Therese was trying her hardest, wasn't she? She'd only wanted to find L'Arc and get him to safety. But now she was going to have to find L'Arc in this mess.

At the thought of the redhead, his health bar, which had been gradually recovering earlier, suddenly took a dip on her party HUD.

He'd just been hurt by something. Or someone.

…

Therese fell back into one of the seats inside the LAAT.

"My Lady, I need orders! We are in danger! Should we retreat and try to regroup with the sky or ground forces?!" The Gem Pilot yelled back at her.

"I… I don't…" Therese's voice came out weak.

Was she really capable of doing anything right now? She couldn't even lead any of the coalition's armies because she was so focused on finding her beloved.

Wyndia… how had she managed to operate through this kind of pain? How had she been able to step forward even while fearing that step wouldn't have her reach her beloved Sword Hero in time?

"My Lady!" Boom!

One of the gem people manning the turrets blasted an Interdimensional Wyrm out of the way in front of them. But it was clear that one ship wouldn't last long in this mess on its own.

Therese was frozen in shock and terror. L'Arc was still somewhere down there amidst the miles of bodies and monsters. And here she was, witnessing things taking another turn for the worse. Being unable to do absolutely anything about it on her own and-

"Therese! Therese, are you there!"

The Gem Woman was finally jarred out of her downward spiral of depression as a familiar voice came out of one of the ofuda on her belt.

Pulling it out, she found that it was Glass's ofuda. "G-Glass? Is that you?"

"Yes! I am with Kizuna, Ethnobalt, and Yomogi! We appear to be standing on one of Lapis's Acclamators. But… what the hell is going on here?" Glass's voice trembled as she asked.

"Is… Did L'Arc appear by you, by any chance?" Therese asked, her voice almost choking.

"Huh? No, he is not here. Regardless, I need your help! Kizuna is catatonic and I can't get through to her no matter what I try!" Glass pleaded.

…

Therese's hand almost fell to her side. It felt like a numbing sensation was going through her heart right now.

Oh… she was being called to help out with something else right now? Was that all she was good for?

"Fly us back to the Acclamators." Therese finally ordered the Gem Pilot. "After that, contact General Ryoma to get further instructions."

The man nodded his head, swerving the LAAT around as it passed back over the battlefield.

On the bright side, they no longer had to deal with any ranged attacks from below.

On the downside, some of the monsters wouldn't leave them alone.

The two gem people operating the front turrets dealt with some of the monsters, but Therese still had to assist frequently. She nearly froze up time and time again in her chants.

Her breathing was heavy, and every second that passed made her desire to curl up into a ball and hide away in a random corner somewhere increase all the more.

She remembered what she'd told Wyndia long ago. How she'd been proud of the drive the Dog Girl had when her Hero was missing. How she'd admitted that, had she been in her shoes, she would have just given up and cried.

It'd turned out to be true. It was taking everything she had to stay here in this moment. To push the worry of L'Arc being missing in this large battlefield out of her mind. But that didn't stop the tears from entering her eyes.

It was only thanks to the fact that she knew that L'Arc was still alive out there somewhere that she was able to force herself to stay in the present. To launch one gem spell after another at the monsters that harassed them.

Finally, as the head Acclamator appeared beneath her, Therese jumped out onto the surface of the ship. Allowing the LAAT to fly back towards the battlefield below in search of Ryoma.

Just several dozen feet in front of her, Therese found her friends waiting for her.

Or, rather, Ethnobalt was waiting for her.

Glass had her fans out and was attacking any monsters that came too close alongside Chris. However, she was moving slower for some reason. And she looked very, very tired.

Yomogi held a sword in her hands, but instead of fighting, she stared blankly ahead next to Kizuna. And while Ethnobalt tried to smile at Therese, his face looked pained and fresh tear tracks were visible on his cheeks.

"Where are Master Craftsman and the others?" Therese asked urgently.

Ethnobalt shook his head. He tried his best to speak and answer. But his voice kept breaking, and then he finally turned his head and gestured to Kizuna and Yomogi, both of whom were still blankly staring at the battlefield in front of them.

"Kizuna?" Therese approached the girl at Ethnobalt's urging.

"I… I tried to kill him…" Kizuna muttered darkly. Not looking at her older sister figure.

"I… why…"

"Kyo… why…" Yomogi sniffled, tears falling from her eyes. "Why did it have to be like this?"

After she dealt with another monster nearby, Glass walked up as well. Chris continued dealing with random monsters, eviscerating one with his flippers while the Spirit Woman pulled out a Soul Healing Water and poured it on herself, but it didn't seem to help her that much. This day had been filled with nonstop fighting and her ghostly body was barely keeping up.

"Glass, what the hell is going on!?" Therese asked again.

"Kizuna pulled out her Cursed Series and tried to kill Kyo." The Spirit Woman answered. "I got her to unequip it after being summoned here. But she and Yomogi are still out of it. And me and Ethnobalt are low on energy because of our efforts to snap Kizuna out of her Cursed Series."

…

Therese took a deep breath. Thankfully, she didn't need to hear much more than that. That one answer helped her to understand what'd gone down better than anything else.

After all, there were not many scenarios Therese could picture that'd make the Hunting Tool Hero's resolve break enough to want to murder another person she considered a friend.

However, despite that, that didn't make what Therese was going through any less severe.

"Kizuna, regardless of what happened, you must snap out of it! We're in the middle of a wave!" Therese said as she walked up to the Hunting Tools Hero again.

"..." Kizuna looked in her direction but didn't seem capable of focusing on her.

"I… I tried to murder Kyo…"

"I… I couldn't help him… I couldn't find any good left in him…"

"It… it was all my fault… if I just hadn't-"

SLAP!

"Therese!" Glass cried out in alarm as the gem girl suddenly slapped the Hunting Tools Hero on the face hard enough to make the short girl recoil.

Therese made sure to hold back, but the strike had definitely hurt, seeing as Kizuna raised a hand to rub the fresh bruise on her face. Her brown eyes were still unfocused, but shock registered in them regardless.

"Gods damn it, Kizuna! Get a hold of yourself!" The blue-haired girl then roughly grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her violently.

"I get that everything went to &%$# and that you want to blame yourself for it, but we don't have any time for this!"

After taking a few ragged breaths, Therese moved the girl back to arm's length so she could look her in the eyes. "We need to fight. A Wave is going on, and everyone here is dying and needs our help!"

"H… Huh?" Kizuna's eyes focused a little more. And then they widened as she finally took in what was going on around her.

The battle was growing worse. More monsters were flooding the sky and ground. Screams of pain and terror and the dying were like a constant chorus of the damned.

And yet, for some reason, both armies were still fighting one another on the ground and in the sky while also dealing with the monsters amongst their ranks.

"We're not strong enough to deal with this on our own! I'm not strong enough to be your kind and caring older sister right now!" Therese screamed as she pointed with one hand at the carnage down below. "L'Arc is down there somewhere in that mess, and besides him, members of my family are down there fighting for their lives right now too!

"I want to understand what happened with Kyo and Master Craftsman and the others! I want to coddle you and help you through the pain you're going through, but I just can't! Not when I'm unable to do anything by myself!"

"So please, Kizuna!" Therese yelled in desperation. "Please put what happened aside for now and help us! HELP ME!"

…

…

Kizuna shook her head. There were still tears in her eyes, but a determined glint shined in them again. "I… right. You're right, Therese. Thank you.

"For now, I'll just have to trust Naofumi and Itsuki to deal with Kyo. Even… even if it means he'll die. And…" Kizuna's eyes filled with sadness for just a moment.

Then she slapped herself and faced the battlefield. "Wow, that's a lot of monsters! And they seem to be based on dragons too.

"Darn, almost sounds fitting with what we've had to deal with today. Kyo really didn't skimp on the details, huh?" Kizuna was trying to sound more like her upbeat, normal self.

But it felt so awkward and hollow that no one was fooled.

Yet, Kizuna was setting her own internal turmoil aside for now and when she looked back at her friends, it was with her forced signature smile. "Glass, Chris, help me find the Wave Boss on this battlefield. We need to deal with it ASAP if we want to keep this mess from getting any worse. We'll try our best to separate the armies during that as well.

"Ethnobalt, help Therese find L'Arc. Make sure the two are able to reunite."

"Of… of course." Ethnobalt, despite still looking tired, nodded his head as his boat moved in front of the Acclamator, changing back into its classic Invincible form.

"What… what about me?" Yomogi finally spoke up. While she still looked in great pain herself, Therese's blunt honesty seemed to have sparked some life in the stubborn girl as well.

"Go with Therese. See if you can use your authority as Kyo's retainer to stop as much of the fighting in the air as possible." Kizuna told her, not even hesitating as she spoke. "Don't worry about Yomogi not having an Order Ofuda Therese. She is definitely on our side now. We can fully trust her to help us, I promise."

Therese didn't even pause to question it. She was trying her best not to cry as she bowed to Kizuna, thanking her before running up the ramp onto Ethnobalt's ship.

"I… I'll try." Yomogi nodded her head unsurely, but her grip on the hilt of her sword tightened.

The boarish girl also boarded Ethnobalt's boat. As she did so, Ethnobalt pulled the green-haired girl's original blade out from his Boat's gemstone and wordlessly offered it to her.

Yomogi accepted it and gripped both Legendary Sword replicas in her hands. Staring straight ahead into the mess before her.

Therese looked back at Kizuna with tearful, yet hopeful eyes as Ethnobalt moved to the helm. "I promise. We'll talk again after the battle is over. And I'll make sure to listen to whatever you have to say then."

Kizuna's smile was a bit more genuine. "Don't worry. I can tell a lot's happened while I was gone too.

"Let's fill each other in later after the battle, ok? Hopefully, we'll both be a bit more emotionally stable by then."

Therese sniffled and smiled as Ethnobalt's ship turned around and flew right into the thick of the battle below.

…

Glass walked up to Kizuna's side, still looking exhausted but steadfast. Kizuna's smile faltered as a look of guilt crossed her face when she looked the spirit woman and their familiar over. "I'm sorry, you two must have lost a lot of energy trying to restrain me back there-"

"It is ok, Kizuna." Glass turned her head to look at her best friend. "You promised you'd always be there for me for everything we'd go through together in life.

"I would be a horrible best friend if I could not do the same for you.

"Do not worry, I can still fight."

"Pen!" Chris, who'd looked tired just seconds ago, perked himself up and nodded his head with determination. Giving his two moms a soldier's salute with one of his flippers.

"And it looks like Chris can keep fighting too." Glass laughed, a note of mirth entering her voice as her hand rubbed the top of the shikigami's head. Chris's face became even more happy at the attention.

"... sniff, alright. But if either of you get yourselves hurt, I'll be super mad at you!" Kizuna yelled at the two.

"Same here," Glass smirked tiredly in response.

"Pen!" Chris lifted his flippers up happily.

Kizuna couldn't help but laugh this time, in a more real and genuine manner. "Fair enough. Thank you anyway. I promise I'll wait till after the Wave is over before I break down again."

"And me and Chris will be there to put you back together when that happens." Glass promised with a smile, which was mimicked by the shikigami by her side.

…

The Spirit Woman wanted so badly to apologize then. To apologize for not realizing how much Kizuna had wanted to save Kyo. For not trying harder to help her to do so…

But Kizuna's hand gripped hers before she could voice such thoughts aloud. "Later. Ok?"

…

Looking into the Hunting Tool Hero's vulnerable eyes, Glass nodded her head. "Yes. Later."

Together, the family of three launched themselves off the top of the Acclamator to land somewhere down in the battlefield down below.

Far in the distance beyond the Capital of Luvar, the rise of a mushroom cloud could be seen forming in the sky. However, due to the immediate battle around them, nobody noticed it

Nor did they notice the accompanying boom from the shockwave that followed soon after.

---

When Kyo's breath attack finally stopped, the ground in front of him had been reduced to a bubbling molten puddle. A disappointed grunt rumbled out from the Book hero's new monstrous form. As far as he could tell, there was nothing left of his adversaries.

Was this some kind of jest? After all their big speeches and ultimatums. After showing themselves to be worthy of their titles. After surviving his, quite literally, nuclear transformation; after all that, they were unable to take even one of his new attacks?!

What a disappointment. And here he'd been actually looking forward to a fight against those whom he considered to be worthy opponents…

Looking down beneath his feet, Kyo brushed some of the smoldering ash aside with his tail, revealing a metal blast door beneath where his throne had been. It had gotten somewhat warped from the heat and the force of the explosion, but it was still intact.

This was the only section of the mansion still left that hadn't been incinerated or damaged in the nuclear blast he'd unleashed to wipe out everything around him.

Good. The Book Hero used to feel wasteful about stripping his personal mine bare to build a panic room out of a solid block of adamantium. But in hindsight, it ended up being rather useful.

As for the loss of the rest of his mansion? It did not matter.

There had been nothing of value left in that place. After all what purpose could any material possessions serve for someone who has already given up his humanity?

Now, all he had to do was wait another thirty minutes or so for his new body to finish its long-awaited and complex growth process down below. Then, he could leave this current monstrous form behind, and his soul would be able to enter the newly prepared body, and…

Although, was his current form really that bad? It felt so empowering and fun! If he was already this powerful as a Demon Lord, couldn't he spend some of his time enjoying himself before he ended everything?

After all, it would be far too merciful if all the scum in this world would die in the blink of an eye. No no no. It would be far more appropriate to hunt them down one by one and drag their deaths out as much as possible, like what he had done to the mirror hero. Yes, it was decided then. He would-

Wait.

Kyo's eyes snapped on the area where the other Heroes had disintegrated under his powerful breath attack. There was nothing there, however.

Strange, he could have sworn-

Kyo realized what was going on at that moment, but he was one second too late in reacting.

"HUAH!" Raphtalia burst out of her illusion on Kyo's left, swinging with her blade and cutting cleanly through one of Kyo's four wings. On his right, Rishia appeared simultaneously and did the same thing to another wing with her own weapon.

"GAHHHHHHHH!" Kyo howled in pain as he was forced back. The black pages floating around his form like a swarm of bats moved in to attack the two girls.

"Bunker Shield!" A blue dome appeared around Raphtalia. The pages slammed into it and broke through the barrier after only a few seconds, but by then, Raphtalia had already fallen back.

Rishia, in the meantime, handled the pages sent her way just fine. She avoided each one, or otherwise, shredded them apart with the tip of her blade just like she had while in the Spirit Tortoise.

"Tornado Arrow!" Itsuki entered the fray then as well and a tornado of wind appeared around the area where Naofumi and the others had been.

When it faded away along with the lingering cursed fire and illusion magic Maya and Raphtalia had cast together, it revealed Naofumi and the others still standing there. Naofumi's Meteor Shield skill was cracked, but it'd held under the cursed fire breath attack, especially since he'd equipped the Shield of Hope II onto his arm.

A pair of Air Strike Shields fading behind him revealed how Rishia and Raphtalia had gotten out of the cursed flames to attack.

"I'm sorry, were you thinking that was enough to do us in?" Naofumi taunted as a scowl took over his face. "Because I could have sworn I said you'd be paying for what you've done!"

"That's right! It's the end of the line, you bastard! No more hiding! No more mimics! Get ready to die!" Itsuki yelled as he pulled the string of his bow back again.

...

Kyo's face, which had been twisted into a snarl moments before, slowly turned into a pleased grin. "Hmhmhmhm! Well done, heroes! Splendid! I was hoping that you'd at least survive my first attack. After all," As Kyo spread his clawed arms out, a blast of menacing purple aura came off his form. "It'd be super boring if our fight had just ended then and there, wouldn't it?!"

Huh, he actually wanted to draw the fight out? But why?

Naofumi didn't pause to give it much thought.

"Shield Prison!" He tried to summon the barrier of shields around Kyo's form to buy them time for their next move.

However, as the ball of chains and shields tried to surround Kyo's main body, his remaining two wings flared out, and the ball shattered as it wasn't large enough to contain the Book Hero's new, larger draconic form.

Well, so much for that idea. If Naofumi wanted to use that skill to entrap Kyo, all four of the Book Demon's wings would have to be cut off first.

Fine then, he'd just go with what he wanted to do after that skill. "Itsuki, Aura and Down!" Naofumi barked an order. "The rest of you who can, cast magic alongside us!"

"Got it!" The two Heroes began chanting simultaneously. At the same time, Filo began to sing while Raphtalia and Maya prepared more illusion spells.

"Ahahahaha! That's right! Go all out! Allow me to test out the limits of my new form!" As everyone began to chant out their spells, Kyo's maw opened and magic power began to surround his form like a hazy purple cloud.

"All Zweite Aura!"

"Zweite Down!"

Filo's song began to buff everyone as Raphtalia and Maya finished chanting at the same time as well. "Drifa All Hiding!"

Everyone disappeared from Kyo's vision. But it did not matter as he shouted to the heavens up above right after the last spells had finished.

"P̵̹̤̽͝Ŗ̵͙̈́I̵̩̚M̶͙͘Ạ̵̒L̵̻͎̐̚ ̸̜͓͒R̵͕͝E̷̹̿L̵̩̚E̶̟̙͂͝Ą̸͆̓Ș̸̆Ë̵̻͉́͝!̸̤̅̕"

The surge of power he'd been gathering around himself washed over the whole area.

Simultaneously, everyone was brought back into view. Every buff spell disappeared from their HUDs, and the debuff spell on Kyo vanished as well.

In short, all magic that'd just been cast was canceled out at the same time.

Naofumi scowled.

"Good call with casting all your buff and debuff magic right off the bat! But I have the Demon Dragon's blood running through my veins now! Your magic won't help you here!" As Kyo shouted that, another disturbing detail became visible.

The two wings Raphtalia and Rishia had slashed off with their first attack were growing back. Not instantaneously like Kyo's injuries in the Spirit Tortoise, but the regeneration was still there.

"Tch. I told you we should have ganged up on him as soon we spotted him in that damn basement." Itsuki clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"No use looking back at it now, Itsuki. Keep your head cool and stay in the here and now." Naofumi raised his shield and took a step back. "Besides, don't forget that we got confirmation at the start that he needs to see magic being cast to cancel it out. Our illusion trick earlier wouldn't have worked otherwise.

"We'll just have to cast our buffs and debuffs when he isn't paying attention to us."

"Oh? Have you noticed this detail too? Well done!" Kyo stated smugly. "By all means, then, go ahead! Try it! I am eager to find out how you'll do such a thing without me trying to cancel it out! Just know, that while it might take me a while to charge up that one ability, I am also capable of casting anti-magic chants in this new form. So going at it one chant at a time won't work for you either."

Naofumi looked at his girlfriend, who'd had her blade sheathed since her first attack. He then looked back at Kyo and smirked. "Then we'll just have to cut you up to pieces in melee. Now, are you done yapping yet, or are you going to start attacking us?"

To his surprise, Kyo obliged.

The Book Demon appeared in front of them, and his clawed hand smashed down, right through Naofumi's Meteor Shield like it wasn't even there.

The skill shattered, but unlike the previous times, something different happened.

Some of the shards stayed in the air, and several of them even launched themselves into Kyo's eyes.

It didn't really do any damage, but still, having shards of glass-like substance in one's eyes was not a comfortable experience. "Gah!" Kyo's arms began flailing around in fury.

Heh, good job accessory. Naofumi liked this change to his Meteor Shield skill it provided.

"Are you ready, Raphtalia?!" Naofumi yelled to his girlfriend.

"Just finished!" With one smooth motion, Raphtalia pulled her Vassal Katana from its sheath. Immediately, her form blurred as her mouth began speaking rapidly.

It was far too quick for any of them to pick up any words. Raphtalia's chant finished only a second later while shards from Naofumi's skill still hovered around him. Itsuki and Naofumi had started chanting as well. Kyo rubbed the useless shards from his eyes right as Raphtalia cast her spell.

"Drifa Light!" This time, a burning sun appeared right above Naofumi's head. The light reflected off all the falling shards, causing Kyo to howl as his eyes were burned by the light made even harsher by Naofumi's skill shield being adjusted thanks to the accessory on his Shield.

"All Zweite Aura!" "Zweite Down!" This time, Naofumi and Itsuki successfully got their spells off while Kyo was blinded. Green auras surrounded everyone while a yellow aura mixed with the red and gray aura coming off of Kyo's form.

"That trick will only likely work once," Naofumi warned the others. "We have until that buff wears off to bring him down. If you get hurt, use the healing crystals stored in our Hero weapons to heal up. I doubt that bastard is going to let me cast healing magic anytime soon."

Kyo howled furiously as he stomped his large, scaled hind legs into the ground again. The damage to his eyes had already healed over, and his wings had grown out again. "Filo, since we're connected to our world again, please use your Filolial form. Performance Magic isn't going to be useful here."

"... got it, Daddy." Filo almost reluctantly changed from her humming fairy form to her Filolial Queen form.

It felt like it'd been a long time since she'd last done so. Yet even though she'd listened, she felt like using this form was the wrong choice.

Before Naofumi could give the order to attack, Kyo's furious howling turned into maniacal laughter. "OOH! YES! SUCH A DIRTY UNDERHANDED TRICK! I LOVE IT!"

"You are definitely not the flimsy cockroaches I thought you to be before! You are more than worthy of facing me at my full power! Hahahahahaha! Come at me then, Heroes! Let us enjoy ourselves one last time before the end!"

The Shield Hero felt a chill go down his spine at Kyo's words, but he hardened his resolve regardless. "Go!" Naofumi rushed forward, bringing his shield up while charging Kyo.

"GRAHHHHHHH!" Kyo's palm was covered in purple fire as he brought it down on Naofumi.

---

Yomogi wasn't sure what to think right now.

Actually, if she was being honest, thinking wasn't one of her strong suits.

Kyo would often ask for her insight regarding various topics, explaining that her input was valuable. But she just didn't see it in herself.

As a child, she'd been nothing, worthless. Her parents died before she was old enough to get to know them. And the people at the orphanage always called her stupid and other such names.

Serving Kyo and his parents had helped her to become educated. And it'd also been the first time she ever felt valued by someone else.

She'd strived her whole life to repay him for that.

Yet now…

"Thunderbolt Slash!"

The Interdimensional Shadow Wyrm she slashed into screeched as the first sword skill inflicted a deep wound into its head. With a fierce battle cry, Yomogi then stabbed her second sword through the wyrm's eye socket before twisting it harshly, killing the Wyrm and making it dissipate into a murky puddle of darkness.

Now, Yomogi felt conflicted. She was sad, but she was also furious.

"DAMN IT, KYO! I SWEAR WHEN I'M DONE HERE, I'M GOING TO SLAP SOME SENSE BACK INTO THAT STUPID HEAD OF YOURS AND MAKE YOU APOLOGIZE FOR EVERYTHING! YOU HEAR ME?!" Yomogi yelled at the cracked and bleeding sky.

"Is it alright for her to make so much noise?" Ethnobalt asked unsurely. "She's attracting all the monsters to her."

As if to prove the point, all the Wyverns and Wyrms flying around the ship began to converge on the boarish girl.

"That should be fine." Where Therese stood at the ship's railing, staring hard at the ground below, she spoke up. She looked a bit better than she had earlier. "The fewer monsters me and those below have to deal with, the better."

"Dragon Buster!" Yomogi thrust forward with both swords, unleashing a dual pair of fiery dragons from the blades that bit and clawed into the Wave monsters around her.

While the Replicas could not hold a candle to actual hero weapons, having two copies of Ren's sword in her hands provided Yomogi with a distinct advantage. Something that not even actual heroes could do.

She was able to use two different skills at the same time.

The girl then followed up her earlier attack by charging one of the monsters that survived, stabbing into it with both her blades before throwing herself into the air above it, spinning and slashing into another monster as another skill was ready. "Crimson Blade!"

The wyvern roared as it was burned away. Yomogi landed back onto the back of the first monster, the force of her impact dealing the killing blow to it. She stayed on the deck of the ship and continued fighting with a brutal ferocity that was almost scary.

Yomogi might have believed that she wasn't good at thinking everything through. But her battle instincts were impeccable. It'd been a very good idea on Kizuna's part to have Kyo's retainer help them out. Therese could focus all her attention on the battlefield down below now thanks to the extra backup.

Ethnobalt sagged at the helm, but he forced himself to stay awake.

He really had lost a lot of energy restraining Kizuna back at Kyo's mansion. As a librarian rabbit, he was capable of going multiple days without rest, but now he was starting to wonder if not taking a moment to nap while on the way to Kyo's mansion had been a bad idea after all.

Oh well, he could think more about it later when he had the energy to spare. He swerved his ship over another part of the battlefield. "Any sign of L'Arc's flagship yet?" He asked.

"I… no, come on, where did that idiot crashland at?!" Therese screamed in frustration.

"Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, couldn't you just use an ofuda to-" Ethnobalt began to ask.

"DO YOU THINK THAT THOUGHT DIDN'T CROSS MY MIND?! THE IDIOT NEVER ANSWERED!"

…

Ethnobalt wisely shut up when he saw the scary aura emanating off the Gem Girl from under her armor.

Therese went back to scanning the smoky snow-covered battlefield. Trying desperately to find a sign of her beloved.

Ranged attacks and monsters bounced uselessly off the ship's hull, but she paid them little mind. Ethnobalt's weapon forms were incapable of being damaged or destroyed. As long as his defense stat remained high, the rabbit man himself would be just fine against these types of attacks.

Her breathing came in and out heavily again. But this time, her hands clenched the railing of Ethnobalt's ship with a firm resolve.

L'Arc was still alive on her HUD. He was still alive and down there somewhere.

She just had to keep moving forward. She had to believe that it was possible to extract him from this mess! To find the path that'd make everything work out for them!

She wouldn't give in! She was going to save her Hero just like Wyndia had! If the dog girl could do it, then there was no reason she couldn't do it too!

Just as that thought passed through Therese's mind, the Vassal Boat passed over a particularly smoky part of the battlefield and the Gem girl's eyes widened. "THERE!"

There was a lot of fighting in the area. The majority of soldiers were from Sickle, with little more than a squad of gem commandos helping them out.

There were no Luvar soldiers here. This small army, the remains of L'Arc's reckless charge, was holding the line against waves and waves of monsters. And fighting at their head to get them out of this mess was…

"Deadly Dance!" A heavily injured L'Arc cut through the head of an Interdimensional Shadow Drake, killing it instantly. He continued past the first monster, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead as he cut into the horde; performing what could only be described as a dance against death itself.

The worn-out, badly injured king of Sickle was still fighting with everything he had to reach the Acclamators in the distance. It'd be a cold day in hell before he allowed himself to see Kenshiro early, just because of some stupid wave monster getting the upper hand against him.

"L'Arc! I see him!" Therese said excitedly. "I see-"

Boom! "Ack!" Ethnobalt cried out in pain, heavily veering the ship to the side and nearly causing both Yomogi and Therese to fall overboard.

Therese turned around, wanting to scream at him as the rabbit man began flying away from L'Arc's position.

But then she saw that he wasn't flying away, but was engaging in evasive maneuvers as more volleys of cannon fire ripped through the air around them and exploded midair.

At least half a dozen Luvar ships descended through the air between the wave cracks after Ethnobalt's boat. Their cannons were already alight and firing off more volleys. Some at Ethnobalt's boat, and others at the Wave Monsters around them.

It was then that Therese remembered something important.

There was still an aerial battle going on amidst the Wave cracks.

And it didn't look like there were many of their escort ships left to fight against both the Wave Monsters and Luvar's fleet. The latter of which had reinforcements beginning to pour in from all directions.

"Therese, I'm sorry, but I can't land without drawing their attention to L'Arc!" Ethnobalt wiped the blood away from his mouth. At the very least, that hard hit had been enough to get his adrenaline pumping. "We need to deal with them first before we can save L'Arc and his troops down below!"

"... fine." Therese scowled as she put her helmet back over her head. Her hands glowed with Gem Energy that only needed to be shaped into spells. And more gem energy coalesced on her back.

She'd finally spotted L'Arc. He was still alive and needed her help.

She was not going to cry and curl up into a ball now that she had a goal that was within her grasp.

Yomogi stayed on the deck of the ship, dealing with random monsters while Therese jumped overboard and propelled herself and her wrath at the ships of Luvar's fleet.

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

---

"Rafu!" Raph-Chan launched herself off Naofumi's shoulder and impacted against Kyo's leg.

The large dragon's attack changed course only slightly, but it was enough for the Shield Hero to duck underneath the fiery fist and pull one of Kyo's large, thick legs down by his thigh. "Good job, Raph-Chan!"

"Rafu!" Raph-Chan jumped back onto his shoulder while Kyo howled and tried to throw Naofumi off.

Despite his much higher strength stat, Kyo felt even heavier to Naofumi than the Spirit Tortoise had been. The Shield Hero barely held the large demon in place long enough for Raphtalia to charge in on Filo's back.

"Powder Snow!" Her attack hit Kyo across the face, draining away his magic power. Filo's clawed foot slammed into his chest, allowing her to jump out of range of his winged counterstrike.

While that was happening, pages swarmed around Naofumi, forcing him to let go and jump back before his arms were entrapped by the cursed paper.

He still grimaced though as he held one arm to himself. Just that brief time holding down Kyo had almost pulled his arms out of their sockets. Seriously, between the Waves, the cursed tomes, and his new dragon transformation, just how high were Kyo's stats right now?!

Even if it wasn't his ultimate body, this one alone was probably enough to fight the Waves single-handedly! And if he leveled up even more and incorporated the methods of all the Heroes of his world…

That was almost too scary to consider. Naofumi felt glad that hadn't happened.

"Hmhmhm! Not bad! Not bad at all! But tell me, why pick that particular skill to open up with?" Kyo's large-scaled foot suddenly appeared in front of the Shield Hero's face, and a surprised Naofumi barely reacted with his shield in time.

He took quite a bit of damage, but he managed to protect Raph-Chan on his shoulder. Still, a shock wave came out from the strike, and Naofumi was pushed back at least a dozen meters from the force of the hit. "Aren't you all trying to beat me? Draining my near 'endless' reserves of magic power isn't going to do-"

"Shining Arrow!" Itsuki's light arrow spread skill fell down from the sky over Kyo.

Kyo stopped speaking, but he was smirking maliciously as a group of pages intercepted the attack. Without saying anything, Itsuki jumped to the side as Kyo spat out another large purple fireball where the Bow Hero had been standing, leaving a new crater behind on the ash-covered ground.

Itsuki then fired off another skill, making more of the Book Demon's pages move to deal with him. Naofumi took the time the Bow Hero bought him to crush a Healing Crystal in his hands, healing the damage he'd taken.

Dragon Vein Unlocked! 2500 EXP Acquired!

It was definitely far more convenient than using Health Potions from his world. And he didn't mind the experience he got as a bonus either.

Rishia and Dou-Lon moved around to flank Kyo on the opposite side while Itsuki had him distracted. But as the two closed in, Kyo's head swerved towards them, and a wicked smirk crossed his features as more of the Book Demon's pages converged on them.

The two danced and weaved through the barrage, but as the Book Demon spoke in a low voice, the Performance Magic Dou-Lon had been inadvertently using before to enhance his speed and dexterity was forcibly cut off by Kyo.

The hakuko's movements slowed, and though he cried out in surprise, Dou-Lon managed to escape the swarm with nothing but scratches on his arms and legs thanks to Rishia's quick reaction. "Spiral Strike!"

The pages around Dou-Lon were shredded into pieces. The girl, despite being forced to defend the hakuko, had only suffered a single cut on one of her cheeks as she weaved through the rest of the pages around her. The emerald flower in her hair shone as brightly as she did as waves of life force continuously erupted from her body.

Now that Naofumi had trained in life force, he could see Rishia's full power for himself. And it surprised him as much as it had surprised Itsuki the first time he'd seen it.

The Bow Hero paused in his attacks to smile brightly. "You got this, Rishia! Show him just how much more powerful you are now compared to last time!"

Rishia smiled at her Hero as she continued forward under her own power. She weaved and struck down the last of Kyo's pages in her way before thrusting forward with her katana. "Swords of Ice!" Several blades of ice appeared alongside her to join her attack.

"Yes!" Naofumi cheered. Kyo only had enough time to bring one of his wings in to shield himself before every attack from the girl landed.

Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! Even if the rest of them were struggling to get a proper hit on him, there was no way he'd be able to stand against Rishia's onslaught. The girl was already bringing her katana back to prepare for her next barrage.

"Hmhmhmhmhm."

Rishia's eyes widened, and instead of attacking, she instinctively jumped back from Kyo to put some distance between them. "What-" Itsuki started to say, only for his eyes to widen as well.

Kyo's nearly undamaged wing lowered, revealing Kyo's monstrous visage once again. "How interesting! So I was right in my analysis of our previous battle! You too are using a variation of natural soul energy without realizing it! That's why you were able to hurt me last time!"

"What are you talking about?!" Itsuki yelled at him.

"Hengen Musou, AKA Life force! An appropriate name to be sure! The ability to draw on the power of your own soul! It is a dying style in your world, because of how hard it is to learn. Yet you have not only learned how to use it effectively, you are able to draw on the power of your soul in its entirety, with no apparent ill side effects!

"You are a most interesting specimen, Rishia Ivyred!

"Unfortunately for you though, I learned how to negate your defense-piercing and defense-rating attacks. Such tricks won't damage me anymore." Kyo's smirk grew just a tad bigger.

...

Naofumi's stomach sank.

No, that wasn't possible. Hengen Muso wasn't even that well known in their world. How had Kyo managed to not only figure it out but learn how to counter it too?!

"I must thank you for providing me with such invaluable research material. A variation of your fighting style also exists in this world, but it is not so nearly refined as yours." The Book Demon grinned as he pulled another glass tube out of one of the gems on his chest. A few green strands of hair were stored within.

"By cloning you with that katana-obsessed fool's method and studying your essence, I was able to glean some incredible insights regarding your unique physiology! What a peculiar mutant you are, Rishia Ivyred! Your body is a natural conduit for the world's energy, akin to adamantium ore! If you somehow survive this encounter, I suggest you look into learning your world's human version of dragon vein magic like what that Sword Hero's dog girl wielded! It would be a perfect fit for your type of abilities!

"But now, allow me to return you the favor for what happened last time!"

Kyo balled one of his clawed hands into a fist as he pulled it back. A pulse of dark energy erupted from his body, creating a corona around it just like the one that Rishia had. "Now, what was the name of this skill again? Ah, yes!"

"HENGEN MUSO: G̷̡̃O̴̙̒Ḑ̸̈́'̸͑͜S̷̤̄ ̵̢̚B̶̨̀L̸̳̀O̸͍͆W̶̭̓!"

Rishia was so shocked by what she was seeing, that she was barely able to summon her own life force to negate most of the attack. Yet, the weight behind it was still strong enough to send her flying backward.

"Rishia!" Itsuki jumped high, managing to catch her in time.

The two landed on the ground, and Itsuki had already pulled a Healing Crystal out for his best friend, who crushed it in her hands. She was coughing up blood though, and she struggled to stand on her own two feet.

Nearby, where Naofumi had just handed a Healing Crystal to Dou-Lon to help him with his wounds, Naofumi's eyes widened.

"Bunker Shield!" His skill shield appeared over the Bow Hero and his companion as more pages from Kyo tried to assault the pair. It bought Itsuki enough time to heal his girlfriend and for the two of them to fall back.

Kyo continued to laugh menacingly. "Hahaha! Oh my, that wasn't nearly as impressive as I thought it would be! My apologies, I am still pretty amateurish at this whole thing, since this was my first attempt at using it!"

"How?!" Naofumi yelled at Kyo. "How did you learn about Hengen Musou?!"

"Interested, are you? You see, in our world, there is a similar way of fighting known as the Freegem Style.

"Glass's old master actually used to teach it long ago. Though his practice is dying out, so it took me a while to connect the dots! Not that it matters! This girl's blood that I stole is basically a cheat that allows you to use it with no training whatsoever when mixed with the Demon Dragon's own blood!" The large dragon began to howl with laughter again as if he'd just discovered a good joke.

Naofumi didn't know what to be more surprised by. The fact that a style of fighting based on life force did actually exist in this world. Or that Kyo had freely answered his question.

"Come, let me see what else you have! Don't think I haven't noticed your two allies who have as of yet to participate directly against me." Kyo raised a clawed hand towards Maya and Aksel. "Surely you have a trick that'd also allow them to join in the fun, hmmm?"

Filo and Raphtalia were both grimacing deeply. Naofumi grimaced as well, but he still charged forward and decided to try a different tactic he'd prepared since the Male Bitch was asking for it.

"Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield!" He summoned all three shields around Kyo. And as pages from the swarm moved to swipe them out of the sky, he called out another skill.

"Chain Shield!"

Chains burst from the different shields, wrapping them together and trapping Kyo in place with the three shield skills.

"HUAH!" Aksel and Maya both charged in at that moment. With Raphtalia, Filo, and Dou-Lon joining them as well.

"Rafu!" Raph-Chan also joined them. Charging from behind and jumping onto Kyo's head to use the same trick from earlier in case he tried to physically break through the skills and counterattack using either his body or his pages.

Unfortunately, Raph-Chan's attempt to use illusion magic like she had before failed. Kyo did not react with a physical attack.

"A̸L̶L̵ ̶D̴R̷I̵F̴A̶ ̶P̶U̸S̸H̶!̵"

A large force of gravity came out from him on all sides. All those who'd tried taking advantage of the opening Naofumi gave them were launched back from the Book Demon.

"Hmhmhmhmhmhm." Kyo chuckled deeply. "Nice. Finally, something new. I know I asked you to do it, but I didn't think you'd actually do something to give those two lovebirds a fighting chance.

"You almost did catch me off guard with that brain of yours though, Shield Hero! Bravo!"

Naofumi felt more and more angry at the casual way that Kyo was addressing them.

It was like he was having fun sparring with equals instead of participating in a battle to the death. And it made Naofumi wish he'd go back to calling them cockroaches or cavemen.

That would have been preferable to this.

Kyo shook his head once with a grin, and Raph-Chan was immediately flung off. Naofumi caught her out of the air, but his eyes were focused on Kyo as the dragon stood up to his full height again.

The pages around the Book Demon impacted against the skill shields repeatedly, shattering them and the chains that'd been binding Kyo in place.

"Shooting Star Blow!"

"Shooting Star Gem!"

"Shooting Star Ofuda!"

The three Otherworld Heroes tried attacking at last, while Kyo focused on obliterating the skill shields. However, Kyo didn't even try to move out of the way of their attacks. All three hit against his chest, flying past all his pages.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

…

…

…

The eyes of the Cardinal Heroes widened in fear, and Kyo's chuckle grew even deeper. "Even when buffed by Aura. Even while I'm debuffed by Down. You are still too weak to hurt me.

…

"E̷̘̍V̴̞͊È̸̲R̶̻̂Ỳ̴̗O̷͚̔N̷̨̓É̷̲ ̴̯͠E̸͉̎L̸̫̑Ś̶̤Ë̴͖́ ̵̪̚H̵͚́A̸͖͋S̸̞̓ ̶̭͆É̴̙A̵͖͛R̵̘̂N̶̦͘E̷̜̿D̴̹͘ ̷͔̀T̸͈͑H̸͇̃Ḛ̴̂ ̶͙͊Ŕ̷̰Í̷̞Ģ̴͗Ḫ̸͊T̴̻̓ ̸̜͂T̸͚͆O̴̗̚ ̵͖͠B̴̟̓Ẹ̵̄ ̴̯̎H̶̠͂E̵̬̕R̷͕͛E̶̲͒!̴̙̋ ̶͖̎Y̷̲̌O̸̝͝Ǘ̸̻ ̵̤̍T̴͍͐Ḫ̸͗Ř̵̰Ḙ̸̽E̸̲̍,̶̤͆ ̶̥̈́H̴͍̓Ö̶̖́W̶̟̅E̸͔̓Ṿ̸̌Ė̸̙Ŕ̴̩,̵̛̲ ̶̩̈D̶͚͝O̷̧͑ ̸̛̩N̴͆͜O̶̰͗T̷̯̿ ̷̼̚D̵͓̄Ë̵̟S̴̠̚È̸̞R̵̺̔V̴̩̓E̷̯͌ ̴̫̌S̶͓͆U̷̼͂Ç̸̀H̵̤͋ ̵̮̋A̵̲̎ ̵̺͛G̵̬̽I̴̦͂F̸͕̀T̴̞̊ ̷̳̍F̷̞̉R̷̙̓O̴̳͑M̷̙͒ ̴̢̈́M̴͓͋Ĕ̸̢!̶̭̒ ̸̠̿R̴̗͝À̵̤A̷̮̒A̸̛̬Å̶̻A̷͚͊A̷̹͋A̶̩̐G̷͓̚H̵̼͝H̶̽͜Ḧ̵̖́H̸͈̿Ḧ̷̠́H̵͍̎!̸̲͊" A stream of cursed flames surged out of the Book Demon's open maw to kill the Three Heroes right then and there. He was so quick that the trio couldn't even move to dodge.

Fortunately, Naofumi appeared in front of them before Kyo's attack could land.

"Bunker Shield! Shield Prison!" The two skills surrounded Naofumi. Both broke, but they were able to tank the hit until the cursed flames dissipated.

"Oh? Do you still insist on protecting them? That's fine, I won't mind playing around with you for a little longer! They can always die later! You're much more fun to play with anyway, Shield Hero!"

"Playing?" Naofumi growled. "What are you talking about!? Is this all some kind of damn game to you!?"

The Book Demon turned his head at the Shield Hero and ran his long serpentine tongue over his razor-sharp teeth. "Hmhmhm. A game? Yes, I suppose you could call it that, Shield Hero. But I personally think that this farce we are in is closer to a theatrical play in practice. With all of us here being unwilling and unwitting enforced method actors."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" The Shield Hero spat back.

"Who knows?" The dragon shrugged and shook his head in amusement. "Beat me and maybe you'll find out."

Again, Naofumi grit his teeth, but he and the others moved on Kyo again.

The three fledgling Cardinal Heroes, however, could do nothing but stand back and watch as the next few minutes of battle passed.

Naofumi and Itsuki as well as their friends tried everything they possibly could to fight Kyo and try to end the fight as quickly as possible. From skill combos between Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo to some insane life force combos that Itsuki pulled off together with Rishia. Dou-Lon, Maya, and Aksel also had their openings to assist here and there, but it was clear that the Heroes were having to take the brunt of the work upon themselves.

And yet even with that, nothing they tried worked. The strongest blows that they managed to land on Kyo healed within seconds while their own fatigue continued to slowly build up over time.

Maya and Raphtalia's illusion magic was useless. Raphtalia tried to sheath her blade for long enough to use the massive speed boost it gave her. But that made her open to attacks and after that first Drifa Light spell, Kyo wasn't very keen on taking another hit like that to his eyes.

"Enough with the footsie games! You're bringing shame to your predecessor with such cowardice! Fight me up close and personal, Katana Hero! Fast Pull!" Kyo raised one of his claws at the half-tanuki, and the Book Demon's gravity magic seized her body, causing her to rocket towards him through the air.

However, the dragon was met with a nasty surprise.

"Instant Blade: Swallow Reversal!"

Raphtalia had just received a notification that her sheath's special ability was ready. So she pulled her weapon out as she activated the skill, and her form became a blur as she slashed into Kyo's face, arms, and chest simultaneously.

The power behind the attack was so great that the Book Demon staggered back and was forced to cancel his focused gravity spell. Raphtalia wasted no time to make some distance between them again as she fell back with the remainder of the speed boost she had left.

Kyo didn't try to use this spell anymore after that. But it didn't mean that Raphtalia was ever able to sheath her blade long enough to utilize that speed boost again.

"Raphtalia? Why didn't you follow up on that opening? His guard was completely down when you turned his gravity magic back on him." Naofumi asked his girlfriend after she'd retreated.

Actually, that had been the first time she attacked Kyo's head or chest with a skill besides Powder Snow. She had as of yet to really attack him with one of her other hard-hitting skills.

Raphtalia didn't respond then, as she jumped out of the way of one of Kyo's page swarms. Slashing into it with her blade as she did so.

Naofumi never got an answer to his pointed question at that point in the battle.

Filo charged in at one point without the help of her parents. Switching in and out of her human form to help her avoid the Book Demon's pages.

But even with her Filolial side enhancing her hatred of dragons, Filo looked almost as reluctant to engage in close-quarters fighting as her mother. Or to engage in any kind of fighting in general.

"Filo, why didn't you use your Haikuuiku attack on him? Mommy's version of it worked very well earlier." Naofumi asked his daughter next when she pulled back after landing only a glancing blow that severed off part of one of Kyo's four wings with her clawed hands.

"Filo doesn't want to!" The girl protested in an unexpected way. She hadn't been hit once, yet she looked pained after landing a blow on the Book Demon.

"What?! Filo, honey, if you're worried about me keeping you safe, I know that I can-" Naofumi began to respond, confused about her suddenly acting bratty out of nowhere.

"But Daddy, this is wrong! This is all wrong! Filo... Filo isn't sure if Book Guy is a bad guy anymore!" Filo looked back with a hurt expression.

"Filo couldn't tell before, but even though Book Guy is a nasty dragon now, he only smells angry and prideful, instead of evil! Like how Daddy and Bow Uncle did way back!"

…

…

Naofumi, caught up in having to block another one of Kyo's attacks, was unable to put the amount of time necessary into thinking over her words. Yet they still stung in a way he hadn't thought possible before.

That was around the time when Naofumi finally began to notice a similar pattern that'd been repeating over and over again during this battle.

Raphtalia had the perfect opening to unleash devastating skills on Kyo at least twice thus far. At the start, and definitely after that pull spell of Kyo's, yet… she hadn't.

Itsuki was still going for the kill. He assumed Rishia and Dou-Lon, as well as Aksel and Maya were trying for it too, as they all tried their best under the cover of Naofumi's shield skills to help out. Even Raph-Chan tried to assist as best as she could without being able to use her signature illusion magic.

…

Actually, studying them all over again, besides him and Itsuki… everyone else seemed reluctant to really hurt the Book Demon.

Rishia at least appeared to be trying to incapacitate him. But with Kyo neutralizing Rishia's defense-piercing and defense-rating attacks on himself, all they could do was dish out pure, raw, natural damage the hard way.

The green-haired girl's stats had skyrocketed with the Wave combining her levels from both worlds and put her stat build on par with Dou-Lon right now. But without her being able to really dish out hurt on Kyo with her Hengen Musou abilities, the best she could do was destroy Kyo's pages and prevent the large dragon from hurting their friends.

Things were really beginning to look bleak. Yet the others continued to hold conflicted looks on their faces, matching what Raphtalia and Filo wore during the battle.

Seriously… why were they conflicted?! This monster had murdered so many people in their world, as well as others in this world!

He was the reason that Ost had died!

Naofumi felt his frustration coming to a boil as the timers on his and Itsuki's spells were getting close to running out. Screw it! He didn't care why the others felt conflicted about taking down Kyo! He was just going to make sure that it happened!

Fortunately, when he came to that resolution, Kyo was feeling a little too cocky as he allowed Naofumi to charge him again. "Go ahead, Shield Hero! Just try to hold me in place again! We'll see how well that goes-"

"Attack Support!" Naofumi summoned the dart in his hands and jumped up, slamming it into Kyo's chest between the two glowing cursed tomes embedded in it.

"What the-" Kyo stumbled back, looking surprised. "Is that a [Lure Need-"

"Meteor Shot!" Itsuki's strongest skill flew from his bow. Slamming into the damage multiplier skill Naofumi had just applied to the Book Demon's chest.

KABOOM! "AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Kyo screeched in deep pain and fury as a large chunk of his chest was blown out in a pile of blood, paper, and gore. It briefly revealed the two cursed tomes pulsating inside his body, above his dragon lungs and heart.

"NOW!" Naofumi roared at the others. "EVERYONE! LET'S END THIS BEFORE HE CAN KILL ANY MORE PEOPLE LIKE OST!"

His words finally seemed to spark some resolve from the others. Filo and Raphtalia began to glow as they charged up their most powerful magic attacks. Rishia also began preparing a life force attack by kicking the air in front of her. She was moving faster than Naofumi's eyes could follow, and it looked like she was preparing to use the combo move she'd performed with Granny long ago. This time, all on her own.

Itsuki drank a Soul Healing Water and then charged up his next strongest skill as his bow began to glow a bright orange. Aksel, Maya, and Raph-Chan charged in to attack Kyo's pages so they wouldn't get in the way of the others' strongest attacks.

They were finally going to be able to end the fight…

…

Or at least, they should have been able to.

Itsuki still looked to be going for the kill. But then, the brief resolve he'd sparked in Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia with the mention of Ost's death vanished.

The moment came when their attacks were ready well before Itsuki's skill, yet they didn't unleash them. Naofumi was staring at them expectantly, and when they didn't unleash the attacks, confusion and anger washed over him again.

Why… why were they hesitating against the bloody Male Bitch? Why weren't they striking him down while they had a chance?

If only he could have seen what they were all thinking at that moment.

Their thoughts, though distinct and different from one another, went something like this: Was it really right for them to do this? Had it just been the Kyo they'd known before back in their world, there would have been no hesitation on their part. They'd all rush in to kill him without a second thought to avenge Ost and everyone else that they cared about.

But this wasn't the Kyo they'd known before. Their time with Kizuna had affected their judgment of him. Add in that this Kyo had pulled out two Cursed Series similar to what their Heroes had and their hesitation became all too real.

Unfortunately, their lack of desire to attack and finish the fight gave Kyo the time he needed to recover from the shock of the brutal attack he'd been hit with and retaliate before the Bow Hero could get another good shot in.

"Explosion-" Itsuki began to yell.

"Â̸̪L̶̯̋L̵͕̎ ̷͔͌G̸̯͝R̴̡̉Ȧ̸͖V̸̥͝I̷͇͆T̷͈̽Ÿ̶̢́ ̴̞̇F̵̛̞İ̵̫E̵̼͛L̷̹̂D̴͕̔!̸͇̍"

A wave of energy came off Kyo's form, covering the entire battlefield.

"Ah!" "Rafu!" Maya and Aksel collapsed alongside Raph-Chan, being the ones immediately close to the Book Demon.

Rishia's attack faded away as she was also pulled to the ground. Raphtalia and Filo followed suit right after.

The field of gravity moved over Itsuki and Naofumi last. The pair grunted as they suddenly felt many times heavier. But both of them were still standing.

The three Otherworld Cardinal Heroes fell back almost to the crater walls. But, fortunately, the offensive field of gravity stopped just short of them.

"G-Guys?" Hoshi trembled fearfully.

"C-Come on! We have to be able to help somehow!" Daitan tried to run forward, only to bounce off the wall of gravity before them with an ineffectual Clang!

"We can't help…" Akane had tears in her eyes as her arms huddled in on themselves. "We're still too weak."

"We're always too weak…"

While the three Otherworld Cardinal Heroes stood outside, unable to do anything…

"Urghhhhh!" Raphtalia managed to stand back up again after moving off of her daughter. But she strained with every part of her body to do so. Like this, she could hardly move.

Rishia struggled to get up as well. However, unlike Raphtalia, she was shocked when, unlike before, she wasn't even able to get on her hands and knees.

This Gravity Field… there was something far different about it. One that made all her training in Hengen Musou useless.

"What's wrong! Weren't you all about to do me in here!?" Kyo laughed, his eyes falling on Aksel in particular, as he was still struggling to get back up despite the heavy weight on him.

"A-Aksel, stop-" Maya wheezed next to him.

"URGHHHHHH!" The tank struggled against the gravity coming down on him. If Raphtalia could stand back up, then he should have been able to do so too! He'd gotten one of his hands underneath him and was forcing himself up so he could put his knee beneath him.

He wasn't going to let such a stupid attack take him out like this! He was going to stand up and keep fighting! Even if it killed him to do so!

But his struggles only made Kyo notice him and casually walk closer.

"Stupid. Just stupid. You might have the levels of both worlds, but your stats are still too low. And not only that…" Kyo held a hand up as if counting down to something.

When his last clawed finger fell, Naofumi's Aura and Itsuki's Down spells wore off.

"AGH!" Aksel screamed in frustration as what little progress he'd made vanished and he was forced against the scalding hot ground again.

Raphtalia also fell to one knee, only managing to stay upright as she dug her Katana into the earth. Rishia cried out as the force pressing down against her became even greater.

Naofumi and Itsuki staggered as the weight on them intensified. The latter was forcing himself to step forward while raising his Bow.

"What's wrong?! I remember you being much more energetic before while punching my face over and over again back in that otherworld!" Kyo howled, his monstrous visage coming down closer to the large armored man on the ground. "Are you not as strong as I believed you to be?!"

"URGH, I, YOU-" Aksel tried to yell out.

POW!

Kyo's tail swatted Aksel's face.

Despite the heavy gravity, the knight was launched through the air where he landed on his back next to Rishia. "Urgh…" The man moaned, blood pouring out of his broken nose.

"AKSEL!" Maya screamed.

"AHAHAHAHA!" Kyo laughed deeply in delight. "That's right! Scream, scream in futility as you finally understand that all your hard work amounts to nothing! All your preparations to face me, USELESS!"

"Don't worry though! I'm not so cruel as to tear two lovers apart for long!" Kyo's hind leg slammed into Maya's side next, breaking several of her ribs while launching the raccoon girl rolling across the burning ground, with her body stopping just short of her boyfriend's.

The girl immediately passed out from the pain.

"U… Maya." Aksel's voice weakly came out as one of his hands tried to raise up to touch her hair. But he felt too weak to do even that.

"That was a good fight. I had a lot of fun! But it's time to end this!" Above them, Kyo raised his foot up, preparing to bring it down on Itsuki's three friends.

"NO!" Naofumi tried to move forward but fell to his hands and knees as the gravity around him intensified. "Air Strike Shield!"

The skill shield appeared above the three, only for it to immediately shatter.

Kyo didn't even look back at Naofumi. Instead, a swarm of his pages slammed into the Shield Hero's body over and over again from all directions.

Rishia looked up, her confidence gone, her aura of life force energy dispersed. There was nothing left but sheer terror in the girl's eyes.

Aksel struggled to move. Desperately wanting to protect not only his girlfriend but the Hengen Musou prodigy as well.

Yet it was all in vain.

"You should have taken my offer when you had the chance!

"Now, DIE!"

---

Author's Notes:

Neat. I like how this chapter flowed.

Once I'm caught up posting on AO3, I plan on posting the doc that has the rest of this fight and the Aftermath that I have written thus far to my Discord Server. Thanks again to those who've joined already. And I'll see all you readers again in two weeks.

---

Hero Clips!

---

Kyo's BSery

---

"WHAT THE ACTUAL &^%$?!"

For once, Naofumi's profanity was warranted. He, Itsuki, and their friends found themselves strapped to the chair desks of a very familiar classroom.

And at the front of it…

"Fufufufufu!" The Draconic version of Kyo chuckled to himself. He was arrayed in a teacher's uniform.

It became clear just what kind of omake this was going to be. And Naofumi wanted no part in it whatsoever.

"Come, now. Aren't you at least the littlest bit curious about how I'm pulling off all those sweet moves in our battle?" Kyo asked with a smirk on his monstrous face.

"The only thing I'm curious about is seeing whether or not my arrows are capable of making your brain matter splatter all over the back wall! E Float Bow!" Itsuki, despite being strapped down, summoned his float skill to his side. He then made it begin to fire one stream of arrows after another at the Book Demon.

Yet despite the rain of arrows coming at the speed of a gatling gun, Kyo's form blurred as he moved side to side. His easygoing demeanor didn't change in the slightest. "Now now, we're in a classroom. I haven't even taken roll call yet."

"&^%$ YOU AND YOUR &^%$&^% ROLLCALL!" Itsuki screamed.

"Fuehhhhhhh!" Rishia whimpered in her seat next to him.

"Hmmm, this is going to be a tad strange teaching like this. Then again, that one yellow balloon teacher somehow managed to make this work, so I'll give it a try myself." It looked like Kyo had shrugged, but it was hard to tell since his form was still blurring while dodging all of Itsuki's arrows.

"Let's see, first off, the reason why your defense-piercing and defense-rating attacks haven't worked on me." He began writing on the chalkboard behind him at light speed. "To put it simply, I spent some of my time learning how to negate those kinds of attacks via life force these last few weeks."

"Also, you can't say that's unfair since Naofumi there was learning how to do that very thing during his own training. And he had less time to prepare for it too."

Naofumi, who'd been about to yell how bull crap that was, shut his mouth.

Yeah, to be honest, that was pretty fair. He'd learned how to do it pretty quickly.

"I also learned how to use life force to enhance spells like that All Gravity Field I summoned at the end there. It not only allows me to concentrate gravity on certain individuals as I did with Naofumi, but it also allows me to prevent practitioners like Rishia there from using her own life force to stand and fight like what happened before in the Spirit Tortoise." Kyo continued to lecture, writing notes on the chalkboard as he did so.

Do keep in mind that he was still doing all this while blurring side to side as Itsuki's barrage hadn't abated in the slightest.

"While Rishia does have an absurd amount of life force contained within her, thanks to her being a true prodigy; my serum has transformed me into a dragon. Dragons in general have far more life force compared to even humans like Rishia. That is why they're capable of casting Dragon Vein Magic without using the environment around them to assist in creating the spell. She could not hope to escape my Gravity Field's hold with just life force alone as she has before."

"Ok, that sounds like a load of bull. Is that how it actually works?" Naofumi asked in a deadpan. "If I transformed myself into a dragon, would I suddenly have access to a lot more life force like you?!"

"In all fairness," Kyo answered. "It probably is a load of bull. But then, things can never be that easy for you Heroes, can it?"

...

"Actually, there's something I'm more curious about than that," Raphtalia spoke up at last. "Why don't you just use your wings to fly around since it'd help you maintain a colossal height and distance advantage for attacking us and evading our own attacks? Wouldn't that be a more realistic way of making this fight more fair?"

"Hmmm, Mommy has a good point. Why does Book Guy not fly around like Filo?" Filo asked as well.

Itsuki's float skill finally stopped launching arrows. The thing was glowing red from overheating… actually, was such a thing possible?

Either way, Kyo's form finally stood front and center. The large dragon simply shrugged in response. "The thing is, I never actually learned how to fly before taking the serum."

...

...

"What?" Aksel deadpanned.

"I can flap my wings pretty hard which kind of helps with jumping higher, but without proper training or experience, I would just fail and faceplant repeatedly. Kind of doesn't make for a good final battle then, does it?"

…

Literally, everyone in the room considered that to be super lame, especially since the Book Hero was able to use a move from Hengen Musou without training to use it but was somehow unable to fly.

Only Naofumi groaned in agreement. "Yeah, I guess I can see how the world is lame in that way."

"Right?! I mean, I spent most of my time with my Book being unable to do much of anything by myself! This thing is so stupid!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Itsuki screamed again as his float skill started firing arrows repeatedly once again.

Kyo's form blurred once more. The wall behind him was already destroyed and the wall behind that would soon give way. But at least the chalkboard was still fine.

"I mean, this world can be so stupid at times. Why is it that some things just work while other things actually follow common sense?" Kyo continued to rant. "It's ridiculous!"

"Yeah. I've been dealing with that same issue ever since my summoning." Naofumi boredly rested his face in his hand.

The two wound up having a civil discussion about all the crap they've had to go through after that… while Itsuki still tried his best to assassinate their teacher.

But unlike a certain classroom full of teenagers, the Bow Hero would fail to kill Kyo in the end.

---

Hero Clips!

---

I… What?

---

"By cloning you with that katana-obsessed fool's method and studying your essence, I was able to glean some incredible insights regarding your unique physiology! What a peculiar mutant you are, Rishia-"

"Hang on, you made clones of Rishia for your research?!" Itsuki suddenly asked.

...

The threatening atmosphere of everyone's life-or-death battle there was suddenly toned down by the Bow Hero's interruption.

"Uh… yeah? I think I just admitted that." Kyo said.

"So you're telling me that you had a bunch of naked girls floating in glass tubes at some point, correct?" Itsuki then asked.

...

The threatening atmosphere lessened even more. Naofumi and the others looked between the Book Demon and the Bow Hero confusedly. Rishia in particular looked the most confused of them all.

It wasn't long though before they were all starting to look at the Book Demon in disgust as lines of thought went through their minds.

"Holy- is he actually a pervert on top of everything else?" Akane asked in disgust.

"N-NO! No!" Kyo began to sweat in his monstrous form. "I only made them strictly for research purposes! That's it!"

The others didn't believe him in the slightest. Kyo quickly turned towards the Shield Hero. "You of all people should know how the Wrath Series erases one's libido, even when it's unequipped! Is it even possible to think about sex when all you're filled with is rage and a desire for revenge towards the world and everyone in it?!"

"... It does that?" Naofumi cocked his head in confusion. "Strange, if anything, my libido has only been increasing as of late."

"It… it has?" Kyo's head tilted in confusion as he looked at the Katana Hero.

Raphtalia blushed and didn't comment. Naofumi smirked as he slung an arm over her shoulders.

"Lucky." Kyo's frown cemented itself on his monstrous visage. Not that he'd been too interested in sex to begin with. Guess that was something that really set him apart from other reincarnators.

"All that aside, do you still have any of those clones left?"

SLAP!

Akane slapped the back of Daitan's head hard enough to bury him in the ground. "It's bad enough having one mega pervert here! We don't need you adding to the mess, idiot!" The Jewel Heroine yelled down at him.

"But-" Daitan coughed as he dug himself out of the ground with record speed. "I didn't say anything!"

"Who said that then?" Hoshi asked, looking confused as well.

…

Akane and everyone looked around in confusion. But then...

Itsuki stepped forward, his eyes filled with desperation. "Do you have any more of those clones on hand?" He asked again.

…

And that was the moment the remaining bit of threatening atmosphere went behind one of the burning trees in the background to shoot itself dead.

Rishia stared at her Hero boyfriend in shock. And then, as everyone's eyes fell on her, sharing in her surprise, she sunk into the ground as it burned thanks to the waves of embarrassment coming off her form.

Kyo slowly blinked, trying to process the Bow Hero's words. But he must have understood what the Bow Hero was asking for at a subconscious level as the door to his panic room, which had survived the nuclear blast, wordlessly opened and raised a glass tube out of it.

Its contents were a bit too murky to make out for everyone else. But Itsuki was close enough to see what was inside.

And what he saw could only be described as div-

"NOOOOOOO!" Rishia's katana, covered in energy, blazed past Itsuki's head and blew up the capsule, as well as the naked Rishia clone floating inside.

Rishia then rapidly turned on the Bow Hero and raised him off the ground by his collar. "R-Rishia, wait! I can explain!" Itsuki began to beg frantically, seeing his girlfriend's embarrassment transforming into anger.

"YOU IDIOT! IF YOU WANTED TO SEE ME NAKED, ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS ASK!"

…

The rest of Itsuki's excuse died on his lips.

"Why would you ask to see a cheap copy of myself when you have the real one standing right here?!" Rishia then screamed at the Bow Hero. "I've walked in on several of Maya and Aksel's lewd outings myself! Do you think that I'm not feeling sexually pent up as well?! Do you think I'd settle for a cheap clone of the Bow Hero over you?!"

…

…

…

The two stayed staring into each other's eyes, their bodies frozen and unable to move besides the heaving of their chests.

"You know, this is getting really awkward… I don't feel like fighting anymore." Kyo, as well as everyone else, sweatdropped after what they'd all witnessed. "I think I'll go ransack the Harpoon country for a while, and then we can meet up to finish this fight at a later date. Sound good?"

"Yeah." "Uh-huh." "Sure." The other Heroes and their allies quickly voiced their agreement. Looking just as uncomfortable as the Book Demon.

Kyo, because he couldn't fly, climbed out of the pit and began to run in the direction of the Harpoon Country.

Everyone else left quickly too to give the couple some privacy.

...

Finally, after all this time, the vanilla couple was going to seal the deal with one another.

Unfortunately… or perhaps, fortunately, the weight of Rishia's words in the heat of the moment finally caught up to her brain. The same thing happened to Itsuki too.

Holy... had she actually said that out loud?!

Had he actually asked that out loud?!

Instead of the two of them going off to do something lewd.

"FUEHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Yep, they fell to their knees and began to scream in embarrassment together at what they'd just done.

Ah, young love.

You love to see it.

---

Till Next Time

Allen