Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter and providing feed backs.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
Cross posted on AO3, for anyone who prefer that site.
Four columns of beams of emerald, ruby, sapphire and topaz color sails through the sky and descend at the center of Balafon village. The four cardinal heroes, and five of their companions step out of the pillars of teleportation light. Malty looks around her, the agrarian village has seen better days after the rampage of the life root and enslavement by Fuckboy (and Naofumi's rescue attempt after she set the village on fire). There are burnt, and collapsed buildings everywhere inside the palisade, holes big enough to sink entire carriages can be seen on the village roads, or among the buildings. But there are also people, both in commoner's clothing and armor with House Whiterun's family insignia piling bricks and wood in an attempt to rebuild the village. Malty wonders how many of them came from Count Balgruuf's seat of power, and how many of Balafon's native residents have come back after the fall of the Three Heroes' Church. There are tents everywhere, no doubt serving as the temporary dwelling of the villagers and the guards before the rebuilding process could be completed.
Sadly, not all of their landing was without issue. Motoyasu, and his children happen to land right on a pile of logs. They end up totaling the pile, making them fall on each other in a tangle of limbs, and then covered by piles of wood. They can hear Motoyasu's muffled voice coming from underneath. "...I'm okay..."
"It's Master Spear Hero... and Master Shield Hero!" One of the villagers working near their landing site immediately recognized Motoyasu and Naofumi. He quickly runs away towards a large tent to the north. Malty can't tell if he said those words out of excitement, or fear. Although none of the other villagers acted in any urgent manner. She takes it as a good sign.
"Why do you heroes always cause a scene wherever you go?" The deep voice of a female signs in exasperation. Malty turned her head, and noticed a rabbit demi-human with dark gray fur and wearing leather armor looking at them not far away from the center of the destroyed town. She still had some recollection of this rabbit demi-human warrior. She was the bodyguard of Count Balgruuf who was initially sent with them to help the village of Balafon when it was suffering from starvation.
The princess turned slave looked around her. They have landed at the place where Fuckboy kept the enslaved Balafon villagers. It's a fairly big open field without any building, which means there weren't ruined houses in the way to keep all the building materials. Motoyasu and his party were unlucky enough to land right on top of one as a result. And speaking of the Spear Hero...he's being helped by a young raccoon man who leads them to the dungeon containing the magical seed. The logs on top of them weren't any issue since the ones underneath consist of one Spear Hero (who recently fought against an invading outer goddess), and his five filorial monarch 'children'. The tangled limbs on the other hand... that had required outside aid to sort though, which the former raccoon sheppard was more than happy to provide. "Thanks for the help, Minato."
Chapter 26: Devilish Omen
"You are very welcome, honored hero." The young lanky man pulls the filorials off Motoyasu one after another. By the end, Motoyasu was able to jump back up to his feet on his own. Clearly, he didn't suffer in any way other than his possible pride. "Is there anything I could help you with, Master Spear Hero?"
One of Motoyasu's bird children lets out a growl of her stomach. The one with short, brown hair tied into a single tail behind her head, and wearing baggy, Q'ten Lo style cloth. Malty can't tell, and can't honestly say she cares about what name she has since the Spear Hero has raised more filorial monarchs than she can count at a first glance by this point. "Musabi could use some food?"
"Don't act like an unsophisticated fool, Musabi! You are shaming Master Motoyasu!" One of Motoyasu's children scolded Musubi. This one has long, golden hair split from the middle of her head and then went down all the way to her hip like a cap. Her dark overcoat over white blouse while looking a bit plain, at least fit what a mid to high class Melromarc woman would wear unlike most of her siblings. It seems like her personality is as uptight as her own clothing.
"But Musabi didn't do anything bad! Musabi even protected her decency!" Overeager to prove her decency, Musabi ironically flips her skirt up in front of everyone. Causing most of the men in their group to immediately shield their eyes, or look away. The golden haired woman looked ready to burst a blood vessel or two, but a wave of loud growl coming from her stomach took all the proverbial wind out of her sail. Musabi releases her hand on her skirt, letting it fall down naturally as she points at her sister. "See! You are also hungry, Tsukiumi!"
"We still have a good number of fresh dryad tree fruits leftover from our last harvest. They contain too much mana for people to eat for the long term, but they are fine food for filorials." The easily excited Musabi, and young looking Kusano both jump on their feet with excitement at Minato's announcement, while the other three are more reserved in their reaction. But the twinkle of their eyes, or the curving from the corner of their mouths all show they are just as happy at the news. They are filorials after all, and it's in their nature to eat, and pull carts.
"We don't want to impose too much on you. With the life root and the Three Heroes' Church, you guys suffered twice because of me." Needless to say, the one who is concerned about the people of Balafon is Naofumi. He looks around the (once again) slowly rebuilding farming village and asks. "How are you guys recovering? Enough food, medicine, and everything else? I still owed that Prince Joseph guy a lot of money... I assume anyway. He didn't tell me how much he wanted from me, but I imagine a lot. Sorry, that's not important. The point is I'll do my best to help you guys get back on your feet."
Right... while Naofumi didn't start the whole problem in Graile, he was responsible for the eventual rebellion that happened in the fortress city. Which likely caused a lot of additional death and property damage (those siege ballistas Naofumi destroyed immediately came to Malty's mind) than if the Three Heroes' Church had simply enslaved the whole city without any resistance. Especially considering Prince Joseph likely allowed Cromwell's lackeys to do the deed. And it's probably not easy to fill back the giant sinkhole Streighbour made near the gate. Sitting down with Prince Joseph, and hearing his full demand on how he wants to resolve this issue is probably something they should do sooner than later. Since the later they wait for it, the more likely the mad prince will increase his demand. So Malty immediately leans to Naofumi's ear and whispers her suggestion. "We should sit down with Prince Joseph and get a full written contract on how he wants you to repay the damage caused to Grail, preferably with your fellow heroes and emissaries from the other nations present. We want to be clear what he demands from you, so he can't keep adding more terms when he considers the grudge settled. The presence of your fellow heroes, and the emissaries will make sure Joseph behaves himself and doesn't try to bully, or cheat you with an unfair clause."
The Shield Hero didn't say anything back to Malty. Although he did nod his head to show that he heard, and likely agrees with her suggestion. Minato didn't hear Malty, or choose to ignore her words. He continues to explain the situation of Balafon. "We are doing well, Shield Hero-sama. Thanks to all of you stopping the Three Heroes' Church - we have Lord Balgruuf back and won our freedom. Thankfully, Fuckboy didn't get to rule for too long. So our fields, and orchard didn't suffer too badly from his terrible management. We'll be letting our field rest so we don't turn our land barren by accident, but we have enough food supply to last us through. Especially with the harvest we got from the dryad trees."
"Didn't you just say those fruits are not good for people to eat?" Ren raises one of his eyebrows.
"Fresh dryad fruit can cause addiction if people eat too much of it, because it has too much mana inside. But if we dry it up to store it for longer, most of the mana inside would be gone, and they can be used as a ration." Minato quickly begins to explain the nuance of treating something that's both edible, and also has a high amount of natural mana in them. "If you would like to, I can show you where and how we process these fruits while I take Master Spear Hero's children for something to eat."
"OH! I like that!" Wyndia hops on her feet as she turns around to look at Ren. The small dog girl grabs his hand and begins to furiously swing his arm. "Come on, let's go, Skyguy. It'll be like a little date between us."
Malty would like to point out that it's probably not fun for them to tour around a village that's been badly raided, burnt down (by Malty herself, no less) and in the process of rebuilding. And there are too many people around Ren and Wyndia to make the situation any romantic. But then again, the little dog girl probably didn't know what a real 'date' was. The senior knight in the Sword Hero's group opened his mouth when she chose to remain silent. "Shouldn't we take care of the more urgent duty of stopping that group of bandits, Master Ren? The village of Balafon wouldn't be going anywhere, and we can come back after we stop the bandit raids."
"Actually. I know the bandit group the queen was talking about well. They were displaced refugees forced to resort to banditry to make a living. And the last time we saw them, they were doing fine enough to not rob people. I don't think the queen knows what she was talking about when she appointed me to this task. Unless a different group of bandits moved in when they were hiding from the Three Heroes' Church..." Naofumi's voice trails off at the end when he considers other possibilities. After his brief pause, he continues. "Regardless, I don't think we'll waste any time learning how to properly prepare these fruits, or other magical food. Motoyasu's children need something to eat. And we'll need them to reach the bandit before today ends. Even if we leave without them, they'll just have to catch up to us after they finish eating, and take us the rest of the way."
The knight from the Sword Hero's team nods his head once, and steps back into his group. Nobody else voiced their dispute after them. So they walked with Minato towards the north where the dryad orchard was located. Malty wonders off hand if they store and process the magical fruits inside the village palisade, or build some new warehouse and workshop near the orchard. As they moved, she noticed a somewhat familiar figure due to the thick, dark blue colored robe with hood which covers the wearer's entire body. It was that court mage serving Lord Balgruuf, who Naofumi bribed, no, gifted some of Gaelion's scales. He's standing near some large pitfall on the open ground, directing some of the other wizards as they cast spells. The sinkhole visibly begins to shake and narrow, but not fully close. Some random villagers she doesn't recognize quickly carry over a ladder and slowly begin to send it down. Minato seems to notice Malty's confusion, as he explains without being prompted to. "Master Farengar Secret-Fire, the court wizard of Jarl Balgruuf and his mage apprentices came to help us. We already had these underground tunnels left from that giant plant monster's attack. All they need is some fortification from some earth mages, and they'll make for interconnected cellars to store our food produce, and act as a hideout in case of another attack."
It seems like Naofumi isn't the only one who is learning from older experience. The villagers of Balafon are already using whatever means they have to prepare for the Wave of Catastrophe... or human made catastrophes. And knowing the Burning Legion is a very real threat, that's what they'll need to survive the ongoing crisis.
There isn't enough steed for Princess Melty's entire entourage. Even the wealth of House Amelia is only so much. Especially when a sizable number of the crown princess' personal guards are made of House Amelia sworn swords. Lady Iris Amelia ends up tossing a lot of coins for the natives of Stormwind to buy any beast of burden, and cart they have to spare. They didn't manage to get too many usable steeds out of the act, considering the city went through a full riot that killed their king and army generals not too long ago. But the extra carts the people of Stormwind had lying around does help out a lot. With the extra means of transportation, they are ready to start their journey south.
"Don't run too fast, okay? Most of these carts aren't in good condition. You don't want to pull them apart." Yume brushes her hand at one of her younger filorial siblings as she's fasted in front of the cart. It's clearly designed to transport goods rather than people since all it had was the driver's seat at the front, with no seat at the bed behind it. It'll serve its purpose, as the common-born members of the heroes' retinue jump in and sit down. Making themselves as comfortable as the flat wooden bed can make them.
"Get in position, you lazy bones! Don't blame me when I strike you with my mace if you hold up the line!" Eclair turns her head over to glare at her lieutenant Winchester, who is barking orders and making threats at the Shield Hero's retinue members. From the way he slaps the head of his mace in his own gauntlet wearing hand, Eclair gets the sense that the young noble knight isn't making an empty threat. Not the way a knight should carry himself, but he did manage to get the undisciplined retinue members to act with haste. He passes over Eclair to his own demigryph, probably not realizing Exclair could hear his muttering. "...lazy peasants. Won't pick up their pace if you don't give them a good lashing or two..."
"Do you think Lady Malty will be fine without us?" Eclair's attention is taken elsewhere before she has a chance to give Cardin a reprimand. She looks to the side and sees Flair riding towards her. The two of them aren't exactly friends. Other than trading barbs in front of Malty, Eclair said less things to the pampered little 'princess' of House Consevatie than Weiss of the Schnee family. For Lady Flair to ride up to and talk to her without trading any insult, she must truly be worried about Malty. Eclair could at least respect Flair for this.
"I'm sure Malty will be fine, Lady Flair. She is one of the Star Heroes, even if her weapon is damaged. She has all four Cardinal Heroes, and their companions with her. They are experienced at fighting enemies tougher than them. And they are at the heart of Melromarc fighting a group of badly trained, and equipt bandits." Eclair reaches her hand over, and gently taps Lady Flair on her shoulder. She didn't tell the Lady of Consevatie that the 'bandit' they are going against is likely the group of refugees they encountered earlier in their adventure. If so, they are not under any danger whatsoever. She's probably just being pointlessly paranoid hiding this information from Flair, but she is the younger sister of Fuckboy. Not the most chivalrous thing to do, keeping secret her own allies, but perhaps Malty had passed some of her carefulness over.
Lady Flair's head slowly dips down, her eyes are downcast as her finger begins to play with a curl of her pink lock. Eclair thought maybe this signals the end of their brief conversation and she can go back to things she's more comfortable with. Like maintaining order of Naofumi's retinue. But then the lady of House Consevatie began to murmur, almost like she's talking to herself more than to Eclair. "I don't know... I know I only served Lady Malty- I mean Master Shield Hero for a short time. And my brother was... him. But do you think they are only putting up with me because of my family? Not even my family like me..."
Oh no... she is totally not prepared to deal with conversation like this. It's not like Eclair herself sometimes feels like she falls short of what her family... more specifically her father expects of her. But as the one who Naofumi and Malty put in charge when they are away, she is responsible for all of their retinue members. "I'm sure both Lord Shield Hero, and Malty care about you for who you are, not your family. They are not the types to blindly support a rich, and powerful noble family for favor. Plus with what Fuckboy did to them, don't you think they'd show some anger to you if they cared more for your family than you? As for your fear of not being good enough. None of us are born with competence. We all have to work for them."
"I'm guessing our young captain didn't know the princess well. At least not when she was used to loitering around the palace all day, doing nothing." Eclair casts her sight away from Flair, and moves onto the pair of knights riding towards them. One of them bald underneath his helmet, the other has the most brilliantly blue eyes. The lady (and only remaining member) of House Seaetto doesn't have a very strong memory of them for whatever reason. She vaguely recalls seeing them trailing behind Malty while she was still being fostered, and squired by the royal family, acting more like her servants than proper fighting men. They certainly didn't have much martial excellence to speak about as knights.
"Then again, she did change a lot when we weren't looking. She even thanked us for saving her life." The knight with blue eyes added, as both of them looked at each other with a knowing smile. "The journey with the Shield Hero must be good for her."
"Go back to your rows and don't let me catch you gossiping and lollygagging around. I can still smack you both without my hands." Malty's former maid walks up to her knights. The two of them quickly run away with their heads hanging low.
"Prince Avdol, would you kindly make a prediction on our rightful king's fortune?" Eclair turns her head to look at Kael'thas a short distance to her left. Kael'thas is talking to the dark skinned Siltvelt prince. Prince Avdol takes out a stack of cards from his cloth, and begins shuffling through them. After a while, Kael'thas picks out a card. His pale face instantly darkens. Curiosity pushes Eclair and Flair to move over and look, the card in Kael'thas' hand happens to be the Devil.
"That's... that's just bad luck, right? There's magic, and there's gods' miracles. But divination by us mortals isn't real..." Flair's voice sounds more cracked and nervous than usual. She's clearly trying to convince herself more than anyone else.
"No need to panic! This is Naofumi-sama we are talking about. Didn't he already kill an invading god in the wave we just fought through?" Lady Flair swings her head back to glare at the flippant attitude of the Throwing Weapon Hero. As for Exclair herself... she isn't sure what she thinks about. On the one hand, she hopes the Throwing Weapon Hero is correct that there's nothing to worry about Naofumi... and Malty. On the other hand, he's also clearly an idiot. "Naofumi-sama will easily beat anyone and anything, even if he comes face to face with the devil!"
"You did not fight the Wave with the rest of us. You were nowhere to be seen when those monsters came at us like a tide." Flair crosses her arms and hisses at the Throwing Weapon Hero. The white tiger girl besides him hisses back at her, looking ready to attack if not for her brother holding her back. Eclair dismounted from her demigryph to stand between Flair and the white tiger siblings. She still hasn't got used to the new steed gifted to her by Count Winchester, and she feels more confident fighting on her own legs for now. Cardin, and his fellow demigryph knights from House Winchester move over when they notice the commotion. "You showed up when the Wave was almost over, and you picked a fight with Lady Mordred of House Arc."
"EXACTLY! All of you were wasting time fighting unimportant mooks, while I was doing the important thing of trying to kill an evil noble who dared to hurt Naofumi-sama! Things would have gone better if any of you actually had guts, and helped me kill that evil bitch!" Eclair's face begins to twitch at the Throwing Weapon Hero's nonsense. Not only does he still not understand the problem he caused Naofumi and Malty for opening another grudge with House Arc in their names (therefore give Mordred an excuse to openly come at Naofumi if she wants to, which she DOES), he somehow think fighting each other is more important than fighting back the Wave of Catastrophe that would destroy their world if left unchecked?
"Be quiet, you fools! You are breaking Prince Avdol's concentration!" Kael'thas' voice is harsh as he reprimands them all. The Throwing Weapon Hero looked ready to pick a fight, with the loyal ally of the hero he is trying to help. Thankfully, his mouth is immediately covered by the young white tiger man of his party. As for Prince Avdol himself, he didn't answer Lady Flair or any of them. Although his face looked as grim as Prince Kael'thas. No matter what, it seems like he himself believes in the result of his divination. Similar to how a certain member (such as the white tiger girl who is glaring at everyone) of the Throwing Weapon Hero still believes himself to be some mythical prophet even when he proved himself to be a fool. The dark skinned Siltvelt prince takes what looks like a wooden cylinder container filled with thin bamboo pieces out of his cloth and begins to shake the container. After a while, one of them falls onto the ground. This time, Eclair leaps over and picks up the wooden piece to take a look at what's written on it: 'Low - Low'. One bad divination result is just bad luck, but a repeat is clearly a sign of a bad omen to come. Now she feels regret that she didn't fight for herself to have a spot among the heroes' teleportation.
The storage, and workshop for the dryad fruit happens to be built outside the village's palisade, right besides the orchard. Malty suppose it makes sense in spite of the security risk. Magical, dryad trees produce its fruit fast. Even if it doesn't instantly have their fruit spawn all over its branches like the life roots, they still produce fruit within the week rather than seasons. The advantage of being able to process the produce right at the orchard outweigh whatever disadvantage to post additional guards. And ironically, because it's outside of the village proper, it wasn't destroyed when Malty nearly set the whole village on fire to create her distraction when they were trying to liberate Balafon from Fuckboy.
"Shield boy~! Good to see you again!" A familiar sound makes Malty turn her head to look at the direction of the dryad tree orchard. Sure enough, with the posture of a death row convict going to his execution is none other than the Imp of Casterly Rock walking towards them, a pair of Balafon villagers (none of them are young, nubile women) a few steps behind them, carrying a basket filled with the red magical fruit, and a pot of what Malty assumes to be dryad wood resin. His face is the usual shape of a flippant smile that looks inviting, rather than arrogant like Fuckboy. It seems like with the fall of Three Heroes' Church, the imp is living the good life again.
"Zylden. You look well." Malty calls the imp before Naofumi even has a chance to. For some reason, he actually takes a brief pause. His feet shuffle on the ground, and his face looks away. Malty wonders why he suddenly looks all embarrassed. Is he thinking back on the last time they met face to face. And more specifically, that time when he got beaten and tied up by Three Heroes' Church rebels and thugs of Fuckboy?
"Damn, lass. Have you been possessed, or got kidnapped and impersonated by a shapeshifter? I think I liked you better when you called me 'Imp'." Zylden's words make Malty realize that perhaps she is being too nice with the little half man. As someone who likes to act foolish and deflect serious situations by cracking jokes likely due to the shortcoming of his birth, he probably doesn't know how to react if someone treats with sincerity. The imp points his stubby finger at Malty, and then slowly moves to point at Naofumi. "So, I'm guessing you finally came clean with the shield boy? And you two look even more chummy together than before! What? Did someone push the shield boy to serenade you under the moon?"
"You bet!" Motoyasu jumps forward. He reaches his hands out, grabs both Naofumi and Malty's shoulder to move them close together. Malty looks away, feeling slightly embarrassed, no, indignant at the Spear Hero's foolishness. But then she feels another hand around her. Looking back, she realizes Naofumi has his hand wrapped around her. It seems like after that little night session at Cal Mira Island, Naofumi had stopped worrying about openly showing his affection towards Malty. She wonders if that means they are openly in a courtship.
"It's hard not to have my identity blow out in the open when the Three Heroes' Church knows who I am... and with my mother waiting for us back at the capital. Although she probably didn't count on Master Naofumi being lenient, and accepting of my flaws." Malty smiles, and wraps her arm around Naofumi too. Act of intimacy is easy with someone she wants to manipulate, since she doesn't have any emotion tied to her action, and doesn't have to worry about the possibility of rejection. But now that she knows how much Naofumi cares about her, she realizes she didn't have to worry about it in the first place.
"See. I told you that you were thinking too much, and things would be fine if you would just be honest with the shield boy. So I'm going to do it again, officially: I told you so." Zylden's smile grows wider, almost comically exaggerated. Yet, it also looks more genuine at the same time.
"Yes, you are a great prophet who predicts the rise and fall of nations, and everyone should listen to you." Malty rolls her eyes at Zylden's antics, she waves the dwarf off. "We are getting some food for Motoyasu's children, and then we'll move south to deal with the bandits holed up south of Trumpet city. Do you guys have some carriages, or carts lying around? We have more men than we have filorial birds."
"We do have carts for transporting our harvest. They were actually built by Master Spear Hero when he stayed with us." Minato's explanation makes Malty look over to the oldest Cardinal Hero. She shouldn't be surprised that a fool could have his moment of brilliance. They fell for a trap set by Fuckboy of all people, and he was the mother of all idiots. "Most of them survived the Three Heroes' Church occupation. If you honored heroes and companions do not mind riding on a produce cart, we could fasten them behind your birds."
"We are used to adventuring, and fighting by this point. Comfort is not a concern. Go feed Motoyasu's birds." Ren waves away Minato's concern. The young racoon boy does as he is told, but the Sword Hero's attention seems to be drawn on something else. He looks around their little workshop and asks. "Is it fine for you to work this far from your village? What if you get raided by some bandit, or another army decides to take over? Or if you get hit by monsters?"
The Sword Hero's concern isn't entirely without reason. As the orchard is located even further away from the village of Balafon than their field. It would take a good half an hour's walk for a grown man to go between their village and the orchard. Granted, during a time of crisis they would be running for their lives rather than casually walking. But it would still take too much time for any guards stationed at the village to respond to any threat. Instead of directly answering him, Zylden waves his hand at the heroes, and then he points at a sprout on the ground. For a brief second, Malty didn't know what he's getting at. And then she noticed the little plant is waving unnaturally, and it's definitely not because of some gust of wind. Naofumi is more open about his observations than Malty. "Bed-chan? You survived?!"
The little sprout waves up and down, almost like it's nodding its head. Naofumi's previously passive face slowly morphs into a smile as he goes down on his knees to look at the verdant, tender looking plant closer. The other heroes, who have no idea what he's going at all look confused. Itsuki is the one who asks for an explanation. "Don't keep us in the dark, Naofumi. What's so special about this one little sprouting plant?"
"Not just any sprout. This is Bed-chan. A dryad created by Fuckboy, with the same intelligence level as us humans and plant manipulation ability. She helped me a lot when I was running away from the Three Heroes' Church." Naofumi reaches his hand out and gently runs his finger along Bed-chan's leaf. It bends slightly over, reminding Malty of a purring cat. "She got snapped in half by that Roger of Ajax guy when we were trying to rescue the people of Balafon from Three Heroes' Church, and we got separated. I'm happy she survived."
"The lass did more than simply survive, shield boy. She's thriving now that she's back to where she was born, among her less sentient sisters. And the high concentration of magic around here doesn't hurt either." Zylden proudly strikes his hand at dryad trees around him. "With her taking over this fortified ground, this dryad orchard and our village is no longer defenseless even without any lord's army, or some sellswords. But even better, nothing could escape her senses. Any unsuspecting monster horde, bandit group, or even professional army would get a nasty surprise if they think this village is easy picking."
Malty doubts Bed-chan alone is strong enough to repel a wave considering they seem to come with invading outer gods now. Then again, nothing short of the avatar of Gaia or Alaya would be strong enough to fight back an invading outer god by itself. So she can't fault Bed-chan for that.
"Nothing can escape a little dryad spirit's watch, huh? Dare to make a bet with me?" An unfamiliar male voice comes from Malty's back. It seems like she's not the only one who is cynical about Bed-Chan's ability to defend Balafon by herself. The way Naofumi suddenly leaps to his feet and turns around to face the direction of the sound makes Malty realize it's not just some random villager, or maybe even an adventurer passing by. She spins around on her heel and looks back. There are two men looking to be in their twenties standing about twenty paces away, maybe two paces away from each other. Both of them have short hair, one golden, the other one dark as midnight. The one in the front wears a fiery red colored suit with the newer style from Faubley, favored by the wealthy merchants. An arrogant looking smirk on his face that reminded Malty of someone like Fuckboy. The one standing in the back wears a dark suit matching his hair, styled in the more traditional style for a noble's servant. His face is passive in a serene way, his head slightly bowed down.
On the first glance, they look like a pair of noblemen, or a well off merchant and his trusty servant visiting from Faubley. But Naofumi's guard isn't lowered after seeing them. If anything, his legs further split apart to lower his weight down from the center, hands raised in front of him to take up a fighting stance. His fellows all follow his example. Malty doesn't know who these two are, or how the Shield Hero recognized them. But she takes her own fighting stance just like the rest of the companions of the heroes. Zylden steps back behind them all. The dwarf can fight in a pinch, quite well too for a half man. But obviously he likes to leave the fighting to the experts. He doesn't have anything to be ashamed of, as the two fully grown men from Balafon are doing the same. "New friends of yours, shield boy?"
"Not quite... but I do know him, I think. Wish I had Kael'thas with me." The Shield Hero's feet slowly sliding on the ground, the sound of the sole of his boots grinding against dirt can be heard by everyone. He doesn't dare to take large strides forward, but is clearly trying to put himself in front of everyone else. "Riser Phenex... Are you another Siltvelt noble like Rias, or are you a demon?"
"It seems like my reputation still precedes me. I am a devil, actually. We are aligned with the sphere of order, not chaos. There are orders in the infernal plane too." Their now named opponent didn't take their confrontation seriously, still having his hands in his pocket. The only difference is his smirk growing wider when he answers Naofumi back. Malty can feel the air around her growing cold at Riser's admission. Demon is an all incompass term that could be used to describe entities that do not originate from their world (which technically makes the Three Heroes' Church correct when they called Naofumi the Shield 'Demon'. But that would also apply to all other summoned heroes), and their appearance always comes with mischief on their part. But the worst is always those who originate from any of the infernal planes due to their openly malicious nature. Disasters, and death follow them like their own shadow.
"Why don't you go away and bother Rias? She's in this world too. This village could use a break." The frown on Naofumi's face grows deeper as a golden sphere of miracle gathered in his free, left hand. His shield remains solid on his arm, rather than being dissolved to begin bringing out his saiga. Malty doesn't know how strong this Riser Phenex is, and he's not doing anything particularly threatening with him merely standing around, smirking, and throwing barbs at them. But the Shield Hero clearly takes him as a serious threat if he doesn't dare to leave himself open to bring out his strongest shield.
"But I'd rather talk to you. Those who think you have what it takes to challenge the Burning Legion. Countless worlds, ones similar to this one had already been reduced to cinder by them. What makes you think any of you could make a difference?" A trail of light shoots at Devil Phenex, to which he leisurely raises his hand to snatch an arrow of light in his hand. The smirk he wears on his face doesn't diminish as he squeezes his hand tighter, shattering the light arrow into countless topaz colored wisps. "It's rude interrupting someone's words."
"Don't act rashly, guys! He's a demon, he has strong regeneration ability. A normally lethal wound wouldn't kill, or even hurt someone like him." Naofumi grabs the shoulder of his sworn shield, who looks ready to charge Devil Phenex. The Shield Hero's voice sounds as worried as he is desperate. Malty has no real experience dealing with infernal creatures (unless either goddesses who tried to kill her during the Wave battle counts as one), but she heard stories about them from the church. So she knows Naofumi's concern is well earned. It's nice that he sees fit to inform everyone in their group, in case some of their members who were of humbler birth, or pagan origin missed the preaching session from the church about demons and devils.
Yatsuhashi plants both of his feet firmly back on the ground once again, crossing his two handed, curved red blade in front of him defensively. The others, heroes and their companions alike follow his practice. Malty herself conjured three [Hydro Sphere] spells, and had them hovering in front of her in anticipation of Devil Phenex's attack. The princess turned slave idly thinks to herself on how this would have been a situation where the church's knowledge and experience at dealing with the threat of the infernal plane would have been immensely helpful. Alas, any element from the church was expelled after the Three Heroes' Church's extremely shortsighted decision to dispose of Count Balgruuf. But while all of them carefully staring Devil Phenex down, someone outside of their current group, and outside their perception has already launched their attack.
A wave of fire, thick enough to be liquid, roared towards the self proclaimed devil. Completely swallowing his body in mere seconds. Malty allows her sight to wander away at their opponent, and sees two of Motoyasu's bird children standing outside the dryad fruit processing workshop. One of them being Kazehana, the big sister looking woman wearing a one piece dress with too much cut out (especially considering that she's once again, not even a year old) Motoyasu raised to protect Melty. The other is someone with short gray hair, with a nondescript long, one piece suit, and a mask of the same color covering his lower face... actually, can she even be sure this other filorial is a boy and not a girl? He, or she looks old enough to be a human young adult, and has a very flat chest. But that's not a guarantee of a filorial monarch's gender.
"Not bad, not bad. Your attack is fast and fierce. The fire is hot enough to melt metal or rock. And it's further enhanced by the gusts of strong wind that both give it extra strength, but also contain the fire to make sure it's a concentrated attack that doesn't splash everywhere and catch the whole area on fire." A wave of loud claps makes Malty realize she's thinking complete nonsense, rather than focusing on the fight at hand. She looks straight once again, and sees the devil Phenex standing in the middle of the burning inferno. His body, or his clothes are completely unharmed even as the tongue of fire continues to lick him. "But sadly, it is still only a dead fire without any spirit behind it. And dead fire can't hurt someone who is made of living flame. Here, let me show you how it's done."
The fire devil slowly raises his right arm, till it stays on the same level as his shoulders. He opens his hand, the large bond of fire which has been previously dancing around him is suddenly sucked in front of his palm, slowly reshaping into a ball. Its white, scorching white center looks like the eye of a dangerous predator gazing at the Cardinal Heroes and their companions. Malty's eyes grow wide as she realizes the amount of control the fire devil is exhibiting, as fire is well known as the most volatile of the four prime elements. "His attack is as strong as a forbidden [Super Nova] spell!"
Without pause to think further, Malty immediately directs her own water spells towards the fire nova dancing in front of Phenex' hand. She didn't stop after sending all three of her [Hydro Sphere] forward, as the princess turned slave immediately began to conjure more of them and throw them all at the fire devil one after another. The result didn't change, as all of them dissolved into nothing but a trail of white smoke before they even touched Phenex, or his attack. The smile on Phenex' face didn't diminish, just like his body didn't even make a single twitch at Malty's futile attacks. "Water douse out fire... but a strong enough fire would burn out water. You can't put out a burning cart full of timber with a single cup's water, no matter how many more you throw it out."
Malty is well aware of how overwhelming power can be intoxicating. That's something she seeked herself before she was forced to adopt uncle Aldrecht's viewpoint on focusing on her own control. But the opponent she is facing is someone who displays overwhelming power, and perfect control in equal harmony. As a magic user herself, she truly understands what an unscalable mountain devil Phenex is to her. She didn't have much time to ponder on the hopeless situation when Phenex tosses his attack forward at them, with the uncaring attitude as if he's simply throwing away a worthless pebble.
"[Swords of Revealing Light]!" The Sword Hero immediately activates his dimensional freeze ability, making Phenex' fire nova freeze mid-air for a brief few seconds before shattering his light swords and continuing towards the heroes and their companions. Thankfully, the time Ren brought for everyone wasn't wasted as he wasn't the only one who reacted to the attack. Everyone, who has some kind of defensive ability, be it weapon art, magic, or miracles all throw them in the path of Fenex' nova attack. But none of their efforts were able to stop the fire devil's attack. The fire nova thrown out by Phenex easily breaks through all of their defenses without slowing down for a second.
"[SANTEN KESSHUN]!" A voice calls out, coupled with a loud wave of noise that explodes into drilling pain inside Malty's head. An orange colored, triangular shaped shield appears in the path of Phenex' attack. Unlike the other barrier abilities, this one actually does manage to stop the fire nova even if it doesn't feel any stronger than the other abilities already used by everyone. The princess turned slave looks back, and sees the Balafon shepherd boy Minato holding his hands towards the space where the barrier meets Phenex' attack. It could be her pain induced imagination, but Malty could swear she heard the sounds of shrieking coming from the clash between Phenex and Minato.
"What do we have here? A spirit magic user? Yes, the best way to defend against spirit attack is defense that also employs spirit." The fire devil looks neither surprised, nor angry at his attack being stopped by his opponent, giving the impression that he's merely toying with the heroes and their companions. A figure leaps at him like a blur from the direction of the dryad fruit workshop, he raises his left arm. But instead of protecting himself with his entire arm or even his hand, all he did was extend out his index finger. With a loud crash, the blurring figure is stopped right in front of him, revealing it to be none other than Musabi, the filorial queen wearing Q'ten Lo style cloth (and a deceptively well endowed body considering she is like her siblings, actually less than a year old). Phenex flickers her with his coiled up middle finger, sending her flying back even faster than when she jumped at him. Minato runs a few steps forward, he catches Musabi's body in his arms, spins a few circles while skidding back before laying her on the ground.
The ground around the orchard suddenly parted as a massive wave of roots erupted out like giant beasts. Rather than slamming down on the fire devil, they pour globs of resin onto Phenex. It hardens quickly, completely sealing the devil inside a massive ember. Malty doesn't dare to lower her guard, as she continues to conjure up new water spells around her in anticipation of the next attack. She doubts the self-proclaimed (which is likely true) devil could be this easily defeated by Bed-Chan. And even if he did, his dark haired and dark clothed companion is still standing. Her attention is so focused on her enemies, she didn't even notice the sudden wave of coldness until it feels like countless blade is gnawing at her exposed skin, and all her [Hydro Sphere] spells drop onto and shatter on the ground as lumps and ice.
"There is no 'cold' in the world. The feeling of cold is merely the lack of heat. And as a devil of fire affinity, I control ice as much as fire." The amber prison Bed-Chan created around Phenex shatters, as the fire devil steps out wearing a sharp armor made of pure, white ice. "Let's see how you heroes fare against the Ice Emperor."
End Note:
Not sure if any of you expected Zylden, aka Comrade Broseph (my original co-writer)'s SI character would officially come back to this sequel story. But I wouldn't be leaving him out for the rest of the plot. Because Peter Dinklage played by Tyrion Lannister is the best character in any fanfiction (Crossover or otherwise) he's ever in.
Eclair is struggling with the mantle of leadership here in my story, rather than naturally commanding a group of knights like she did in canon (at least in Reprisal of the Spear Hero), because I imagine she would have some trauma after what she went through. Especially here where I made her backstory even more tragic than canon. But at least she's bonding a little with other people, like Flair.
And of course, Riser Phenex and Big Pineapple (that's the nickname us Chinese players give to Diablo when playing the game [Diablo]) officially 'introduce' themselves to the main cast after the ominous scene when they looked over the heroes during the 4th wave battle. And Riser is showing some abilities he doesn't have from canon. I'll leave you all to theorize how he got it, for now.
Minato from [Sekiri] having Orihime Inoue's 'Shun Shun Rikka' is an idea that I have been playing a LOT in my head but never actually written in any of my officially published fanfictions (no, it would NOT have made it into that Digimon/Sekiri crossover story I wrote). So I'm shamelessly doing it here. For anyone curious, I have no plan to actually have Orihime appear in this story. She would either be Minato's already passed away ancestor, or his future descendant.