Chapter 64

I was honestly a tiny but unsure on how the 'water amulets' would work. I knew, for Clive at least, that he would be breathing actual air. Part of the enchantment was giving him his own air supply, and keeping the salt from his small, mostly unblinking eyes.

So yes, I'll admit to feeling a little nervous at just taking a breath while underwater.

But, honestly, it was just like taking a normal breath. The other difference was that none of us were getting wet. But it wasn't a skin made of 'air' and we were still subjected to the water around us. It made me think of those movies where you were on the moon or something.

Magic is weird.

But the end result was really what mattered. So long as we weren't attacked by something bigger than a shark (something Tetsu had proven she could beat already), we would be fine. And it seemed her antics while we had been resting had scared off just about everything but some small colourful fish.

"This way!" Speaking of... speaking. We had no problem talking underwater either. And speaking of Tetsu, she was already moving more like an underwater creature than a land dragon, her wings and long body letting her slip through the water almost like she were flying.

"Settle down you." Raphtalia said, "Though it is really pretty..."

The waters around the islands were already quite pretty. But now that we were under the waters, we could see all kinds of bright corals, sparkly fish that glittered like gems as they darted around us, and water that was almost crystal clear, even with an excited dragon swimming around in it.

"Ah... This is..." Usa started, tucking his ears under his helmet and coiling up his whip. "I think I should avoid magic..."

"Hopefully we won't need it down here." I said, "Oh... I think I see what Tetsu wanted to show us."

Half swimming, half gliding, I slowly drifted down and landed on a stone, resting on the ocean floor. Not just any stone though. This was a nearly perfect rectangle block of black laced marble. And while the corners and edges had been worn by time and I couldn't see its base, it was obvious this was a manufactured object. Also of note, it did not move when my weight settled atop it. It was not just something that had fallen into the water, it was resting on another flat surface.

"Almost there!" Tetsu encouraged, slipping around us, her dragon sized bulk acting more like a winged amphibian than an aerial predator.

The others drifted to a halt around me, and together we 'jumped' in the direction Tetsu had swam off in. This went on for about ten minutes, before I spotted what looked like a partially collapsed domed roof. Another hop revealed more, and more, until finally we were looking down into what looked like a natural bowl shaped depression on the ocean floor, and an aquatic temple resting neatly in the middle.

Most of it at least. The temple, for it could be no other building, had a similar shape to the one in Melromarc. Big, taking up a 'square' of space, with four grand paths that led into it. But time had worn much of it down, and the doors, probably wood, were gone now.

"I wonder how long it's been here?" Raphtalia asked.

"Long enough to have collapsed in on itself?" Usa guessed.

Clive shook his head with a 'grr', pointing at something, then something else. Then I saw it too.

Battle evidence. The nice domed spire, the first thing we'd all spotted, didn't look like it had collapsed 'in', but 'out', the jade green tiles pushed outwards at the edges, like some explosion had happened inside. One of the paths, railed by little ornate stone pillars, had a trench carved out by a stone (now under some coral) through it. A section of wall, now fallen in, had been hit with fire so hot, the marble had blackened and started to turn to slag. The one door we were facing, a grand archway that could match the grandeur of Melromarc Castle's front door, had partially collapsed, the remains of metal banding glittering on the floor inside the gloomy interior.

This place had clearly been attacked with magic.

"Raphtalia?" I said quietly.

She nodded, reaching into one of her pouches and taking out some little metal Ko-steel tags. With a handful of mumbled words, each of the tags lit up, and she handed one to each of us. "Tetsu! Come back here. We're going inside." She called out, holding up one last slip of glowing metal.

"Aw..." The dragon slipped through the water towards us, and with a weird muted... well it was more like a 'splat' than a 'puff' of smoke, Tetsu was in her dragon-newt form, taking the little metal light and getting a headpat from Usa. "Did I do good?"

"I think so, yes." Usa said, getting a nod of approval from everyone else. "Clever Tetsu." And of course, headpats.

Thus gathered, we went into the temple.

I knew, understood, and had even experienced 'haunted' places. Part of my duty in Kuoh, was to make sure they didn't happen, or if they did, fix it. Not only that, I had made a spirit of my own, to 'haunt' the shrine I had left behind in that little town of mixed destinies.

But this... This was something else. One part battlefield, one part tomb... Even if there were no spirits here it still felt haunted.

The signs of battle were even more pronounced inside, and we even found a few scraps of armour, cloth, and even a few bones. It surprised me that some of it was here at all, considering how ancient the feel of the place was. But now that we had entered, I noticed that not even the little fish (that Tetsu said tasted like happy sparkles) were absent in this place.

Ancient, hastily made barricades, more fallen stone, bits of the door that hadn't totally rusted away, but broke apart when handled, blackened stone...

"Is that..." Usa started, looking further in, following the pointed finger of Clive, "Ma'am!"

I stopped gathering up what I could find of a skeleton, everything under its ribs missing (likely under the nearest fallen stone), and looked over, then at what Usa and Clive were pointing at. "I think it is." I said, feeding more magic into the glowing slip of metal in my hand, then throwing it towards the faintly glittering object just out of sight of our lights.

It came fully into view, the little metal tag dinging of the top of a bit of dull brass coloured metal, and coming to rest on a pile of fine brown sand.

Location registered!

"It was an hourglass." I said, "The Shield just registered the location like the others we've been to." We all got closer, stepping around bits of broken temple, a couple of rusted weapons, someone's femur, and stopped at the base of the platform where the wreckage of the hourglass rested. Then something else happened.

73:20

The timer in the corner of my vision went from just over seven days, to three. "Seriously?" I sighed, "So much for our vacation."

"What happened?" Raphtalia asked, kneeling next to, but not quite touching the sand that seemed to ignore the currents of water around us, and just not move at all.

"Our vacation just got cut short. I don't know why, but the timer dropped from seven days, to a tiny bit over three." I felt my horns itch, and had to resist the urge to punch something.

"Maybe interacting with this hourglass made it change?" Usa guessed.

Clive made a few short signs with his hands, "Yeah, maybe it's because all four heroes are near here. But if that's the case, the Queen is going to be caught on open waters when the wave happens. And if things hold to the pattern so far, we'll be fighting someplace close to here." I kicked the nearest bit of hourglass, "Damn!"

"What are we going to do then? We have to warn the others right? And the Queen too?" Raphtalia caught the bit I had kicked, "Oh, this looks like one of those floating spinning parts..."

"I'll have to sit in town and work on our stuff." I looked at the shattered broken remains of the hourglass, and smiled, "But before that. Time for a treasure hunt. We'll spend about an hour looking around for stuff. Since I'm here, we can give whomever we find a proper burial." I took out my hammer and chisel, "But I'm not leaving this behind."

Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield conditions met!

Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield unlocked: equip bonus: skill: Portal Shield

"Ohhh evil laughter again!" Tetsu said as I started chuckling.

"What happened?" Usa asked, helping Clive move a block of stone (revealing that yes, the rest of that skeleton was under it.

"Fast travel. I can make a portal and go to any of the other hourglass locations we've been to." I said, Putting the Shield of Marius on the floor, standing on the edge, and just shovelling sand, bits of glass, and brassy metal into the inventory like some kind of hoarder. "After this wave, we're going to take an actual break. Help settle Lurolona a little, and work on equipment properly."

"What about the rest of the event? Are we done levelling up?" Raphtalia asked.

I thought for a moment as Tetsu got behind the big pile of sand and pushed it towards me (and into the Shield), "You guys should spend another day fighting I think. I'd like a little more myself, but without proper equipment to match our skill in combat, we'll be less effective."

"Aw... Fighting without you will be weird." Tetsu pouted, even as she bulldozed the rapidly shrinking pile of ancient broken artifact into the Shield.

"You'll do fine, I'm sure." I encouraged.

A little less than an hour later, and we had cleared out the temple of everything that might have been valuable. Old weapons and bits of armour, several skeletons, a donation box, a few of the jade (yes, they were actual jade, not just 'jade coloured') roof tiles, a couple blocks of that nice marble (to be used for tombstones for the dead), and every single bit of the broken hourglass we could find.

"Okay, back to shore." I said, taking out an Occulus and hoping it worked underwater. "Lady Melromarc? Can you hear me?" This swimming, jumping, drifting thing we were doing to get around (except Tetsu, who went back to swimming like a fish) made me think of what it might be like to walk on the moon. "Lady Melromarc? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

There was a dim flash of light from the Occulus, a nice ocean view, then an imperious face that was both marble beauty and living poise personified. "Lady Kodori. You sound... strange."

"We're underwater, and using the enchanted tokens your daughter helped me make. We have a problem, and you might be in more danger than you might think."

"You are getting along with the others, I trust?"

"No worse than before. But no, another Wave is coming in just three days. It's four days ahead of schedule." I shook my head, "Let me explain properly..."

"Do your best to inform the others, and make ready. We will be there soon, hopefully in time to get everyone organized for battle." She said after I had told her everything. "Was the event helpful?"

"We've almost doubled our level in two days." I nodded. "Be careful on the way here."

"Of course." And the Occulus went dark.

I sighed, "Back to work."

Everyone save Tetsu sighed as well, but we nodded to each other, and started to make best speed back to shore.

The burial wasn't much. With a bit of effort, the pickaxes from the mines, and a bit of consideration, we buried the remains we had found on top of the cliff overlooking that little sheltered cove we'd had lunch on before heading into the water.

On the marble block we used for a tombstone, I carved a little epitaph for them. "Friend, or foe, you deserve to rest in the sunlight."

It wasn't much, and to my limited sense for the spiritual, there was nothing attached to these bones. No lingering wishes, curses, or... anything. For the people in my party, we were burying the dead as was proper. For me? It was every adventurer's duty to bring the dead back up, if you could, into the sunlight one last time. They had no Familia, and any family they might have had were either long gone, or from another world if Glass was to be believed. But even this made me feel a little homesick.

"Do we split off now?" Usa asked. "You know... aside from hunting for food, I don't think we've ever been apart."

"You'll all do fine. Don't get careless, and stick to the roles you've been in since we started." I gave Usa a pat on the shoulder, "Try and avoid the others if you can, but don't be afraid to help if you have to."

"Um... Who's in charge then?" Raphtalia asked.

I looked at them all, and Clive pointed to Usa. Raphtalia seemed to like the idea, and voted for him too. Tetsu... was chewing on a coconut and abstained. "Usa? You're captain while I'm taking over a forge in town. If there is any trouble, use the sound crystal and I'll to my best to help."

If Motoyasu was still with L'arc and Therese, I didn't want to give anything away. So on my way back, using the stealth magic I'd copied into the book, I sent him a little 'ping' over the sound stone I'd given him.

Again, it took a moment for him to reply, but that just made me think he was training hard. "Kodori?"

"Indeed." I replied, "Something has come up, and I have to do some emergency equipment repair. I'm going to take over someone's workshop so I can work on our gear with some privacy. I left my party alone to level without me." I hoped that old spy movies were a thing in his version of Earth, because it was the simplest thing I could think of, extending the key words a little.

I could almost hear him squinting at the sound stone, "Okay, thanks for letting me know." He said, "I'll head back soon."

I was glad I'd been cautious, since Therese spoke next, "Oh! This is really clever! How did you make it?! It's not just glass is it? Kodori? Is that you on the other side?"

"Hello Therese." I said, "Yes, I made it, but no, it's not just glass. I'm heading back to town. If you can find me, maybe I can make something for you."

"Oh that would be splendid!" came the reply, the sound stone in my hand threatening to sparkle with her overflowing enthusiasm at the idea. "L'arc! Where are those stones we found?"

"Ah! Back woman! Why are you reaching for my belt like that?!"

Motoyasu came back a second later, "I'll be with them when she visits. Maybe I'll stick around after?"

"Sounds good."

Taking over a workshop was actually... super easy. The Earl, with some kind of super power that the Queen must have taken notice of, and thus put him in charge of the Archipelago, spotted me about three seconds after I stepped into town.

This super power did not, however, give him any hints on why I was back.

"Lady Kodori? Is something wrong? What of your party? Do you need-"

"Peace, peace." I halted him from continuing, "They're fine, and fine without me." I said, "But I need a workshop. Anvil, furnace, that kind of thing. Weapon and armour repair."

His cracking calm smoothed over instantly, "Ah, of course. How urgently?"

"Sooner the better, but don't make any enemies for my sake." I said as he turned, "Also..." I trailed off as I matched pace with him.

"Something of import?"

Quietly, almost like I was about to lean in for a hug or something, I said, "Wave in three days. Queen is on her way already."

I could almost hear his neck muscles grinding together as he turned to look at me. Then, "I see. I will ensure things are set into motion to make ready." Then once again perfectly calm, "Have you told the others?"

"Not yet. But I've let the Spear know something is up. If you could tell the Sword and Bow to visit me when they get back into town? I'll... do my best to inform them."

"Of course." He nodded, "Now, let us find one of the blacksmiths who is... the least busy."

As luck would have it, luck I was either in desperate need of, or luck that would bite me later, one of Hickwaal's merchants was here. I only needed to show him the little metal card I'd been given by Hickwaal himself to get him to vacate his little workshop, but, I needed to trade that easy acquiescence for a bit of coin. Business was still business after all. He would just set up his shop elsewhere, and use the coin I gave him to recover the costs of not making things while waiting for people to come by for custom orders. It was only a little open air workshop, but I would take what I could get.

Now with a nice anvil, hot furnace and a little bit of time to myself, I got to work.

I wasn't sure when I started to gather a crowd. Probably when I'd gone into the minuscule storage space the workshop had, and come out in the same 'it's too bloody hot for a black house robe' Amazon Outfit that I wore in Zeltobe (though, I was using pants made for me, not Raphtalia). With my immunity to fire, I didn't bother with an apron, so it wasn't just my furious working pace that was gathering attention.

Usa... With two working arms, he could use a longer whip. With how weird this world was, I had noticed his nearly atrophied arm was quickly getting up to the same strength as his good one. But that didn't mean he should have a heavier whip, just a longer one. Of course, this gave me all kinds of ideas, but I drew on something that I'd seen already. And because, again, how this world worked, I made my own version of what was the most iconic whip in video game history. And because of my trip back to Earth? Anime history.

Using an alloy of 'siderite' and my own fur for extra magic conductivity, I made my own version of 'The Morning Star'. Funny enough, though I was sure my smile would have looked scary to anyone else by my closest friends, the Siderite Shield gave me the 'Shooting Star Shield' ability. If I ever met a Belmont, I knew they'd be jealous.

Next, Raphtalia. The dragon-steel alloy I'd made was good. But twenty levels later, it was just not good enough. That was fine, I was used to making things for people with super human strength and speed...

"She was over here, right?"

A voice pulled me up from ideas I had forming in my head. It actually impressed me, that L'arc's voice could do that. So, I put a mental finger on the idea of making a 'double reverse twist alloy pattern weld', and peeked into the crucible pot I had, to see if its contents were molten so I could pour arrowheads into my little mould.

The small crowd of onlookers parted to make way for L'arc, Therese, Kuro and Motoyasu. It might have seemed weird, but two armed men, a very pretty lady and an adorable black winged angel girl kind of stole the show, so to speak, from my looks.

"Just a moment." I said, making sure no one was over the 'safety' line I'd drawn in the sand, then grabbed the tongs for the crucible. "Back up!" I called out, "Hot metal!"

The one person who's toe was over my line looked down and backed up a hasty step, then I started to pour molten dragon scales out of the pot into the arrow moulds. "Wow... Those for Clive?" Motoyasu asked.

"Of course. We're good with arrow recovery, but even so..." I finished pouring, then picked up a different set of tongs so I could lift the little clay arrowhead moulds and set them aside to cool. "Now, to business?" I looked to Therese.

She smiled brightly, "I brought you some raw gems we found!" And with a flourish, she handed me five cloth wrapped bundles.

Carefully, I unwrapped each one and set it down on the counter top. "Wow." I said after I'd revealed each of the differently coloured crystals. Each one was close to a golf ball in size, though they were rough and would need a lot of cutting to reveal any kind of shine or clarity. "These are impressive."

Motoyasu's eyes went wide, Kuro looked only a little interested, L'arc sighed dismissively, but Therese was sparkling almost as bright as the gems. "Can you do something with them?" She asked.

"I can. But, for every one I make, I get to keep one for myself. I don't mind extra work, but I do not work for free." I replied.

She pouted a little, but nodded, "That means I can only get two..."

"Women, am I right?" L'arc said to Motoyasu.

"Keeping them happy is less effort than running from them when they're upset." the Spear Hero shrugged.

Oblivious, or ignoring them, Therese picked up a rough looking sapphire. For my payment, I pulled back a topaz. She considered a moment, then took a ruby that I could tell would be almost fun to work with. My payment for this one, was an green gem that I hoped was an emerald, though it might have been peridot, tourmaline or maybe apatite. And with a little sigh, she looked at the last crystal, a pinkish one that wasn't quite right for amethyst, or red enough to be garnet, and gave it back to L'arc.

"These two then?" She said, her pout at not being able to have three vanishing into hopeful sparkles.

"Very well. Tomorrow afternoon." I said, "No sooner! My party's needs have to come first." I looked to L'arc, and he perked up.

"Okay you, let's leave the Fox to work!" And with ease, but care, he took hold of the back of Therese's nice dress and pulled her back away from the workshop.

"No! I wanna watch! I want to see them sparkle!" She flailed at me to try and grab hold of something, but L'arc was immune to her pleas and weak flailing, and dragged her away.

Motoyasu waited until they'd vanished down the street, then stepped forward. By now, most of the onlookers had wandered off, now that I wasn't swinging my hammer (that I knew made me a study in 'physics'). "Are you sure?" He asked, pausing, then picking up the ruby she'd left behind for me to work on, "They might be the enemy..."

"Yet, they delivered unto me, something exceptional." I smiled, "Not used to seeing stuff like this?" I asked.

"Well, last I looked at any kind of gems, well, something this size would let me retire." He held the rough red stone up to the forge light, "Maybe?"

I took it back from him, and very carefully put it in my delicate item's pouch, "Dunno how your economy is. But probably. So, while I cut these, lemme tell you how my day went..."

So, while I cut down the topaz that I was going to set into the end of Usa's new whip, I told the two of them about the temple. While I cut down the emerald (yes, it was an emerald), he replied with a few interesting things of his own...

"Yeah... Back when the rest of us had our heads up our-"

Kuro squinted at him.

"Rears." Motoyasu corrected himself, "We got the sand just by asking. Now that you're level 50, you can fast travel to any other hourglass you've been to. But you found a broken one?"

"My guess, is that it's a 'lose condition'. It was obviously attacked, and somehow destroyed. I'm guessing that if they are all destroyed, the world goes with it. It wouldn't surprise me if there were other, long lost hourglasses with fallen cities or something around them. The bones there were ancient."

Both he and Kuro folded their arms in the exact same way, putting on near identical 'thoughtful frowning faces'.

"It makes sense. I mean, if there is any 'loss' conditions, that one might be as good as any?" He grumbled, "What are you going to do with the pieces?"

"What pieces?" I replied... But wasn't fooling anyone, even him. "I've got ideas. But it will have to wait a little."

"Yeah..." His eyes flicked up and to the right, "Now that you've told me, my timer says just under 70 hours now... Wonder if the other two have noticed? Or if they're coming. I mean, I did tell them, but now that I've stopped treating you like 'the loser'..." He sighed, "So you told the Queen?"

"She'll be on her way very soon, or is on her way now. She did say she was going to pick us up. Now, I don't know if she was coming here to maybe participate in the event too, before the timer got bumped... Poor Melty, she's going to miss out."

"The actual princess?"

"Actual?"

"Ah... Myne was deemed unworthy ages ago... And Melty was 'crown princess'. She told me once." He explained, "Of course, she was also saying it was undeserved and..." He sighed, "She hooked me bad..."

"Wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who killed her brother." I shrugged, "World will never know. So, as soon as I cut this..." I motioned to the last gem, the ruby. "I'll try and teach you how to read that stone pillar. And maybe, while you're trying to do that, the other two will show up. I don't want to skip bath time because I was chasing them down..."

"I almost want to see that. But even I have to agree, a proper hot spring is amazing." He grinned, carefully patting Kuro's head, "Right?"

"Even my master can be correct." She said with a little huff, while leaning into the attention.

Gem cutting is kinda weird, but honestly, it's just a step up from cutting actual stone. Thanks to Erhard, and later finding really good materials to make proper tiny chisels, and yes... even the Shield was helping here (with the 'vision up' skill I learned ages ago), I was able to rapidly make the nearly palm sized raw ruby, into something that would have let me retire had I been living on Earth still. It wasn't the Jewel of Judgment or anything, but I actually had to stop myself from adding in even more facets just because I could.

And because I knew I was probably giving it to an enemy, yet didn't want to give someone a bad gift, I enchanted it with the one thing that would make it amazing, yet useless against my party and I.

I held the pendant I made to the light of the forge, a teardrop (or the fancy word 'briolette') of ruby caged by a thin lattice of dragon-steel wire, and let the 'system' tell me what I already knew.

Amulet of inferno's rejection: Quality excellent: resist fire (perfect)

The sapphire was a little tricky. And again, I didn't want to give her anything useless or sub-par for my skill. Especially since the topaz I'd already set in The Morning Star might make the timid rabbit man capable of our four person ritual casting of 'lightning bolt' that we used on the Tyrant Dragon and the former pope, by himself. (Magic up, Lightning magic up, range up.)

So, for the sapphire, I actually cut it into two, then faceted them to a 'table cut'. The still respectably sized rectangles of sapphire then went into fine silver frames, and were topped with a little ring.

Stones of shared vision: Quality excellent: light emitting, light projecting, shared vision, shared sound, sound dampening

Yes, they were a successful attempt at what we needed Delly for back home. With Raphtalia's 'borrowed' ability through the Book Shield, blatantly stolen Occulus design (later forgiven for stealing), and my own skill at enforcing my will onto something with every tap of my hammer, I'd made small Occulus projectors.

Of course, my pride wouldn't let me make something 'sub par', even for a potential enemy who paid me fair (more than fair) price for the work. But the Emerald...

Well, if they were friends with Glass...

The Emerald, I cut into a cube, with each side 'step cut' once to give the thin dragon bone/steel (as opposed to dragon tooth/steel) wires something to hold on to properly.

-error- : Quality excellent

The almost perfect cube of emerald felt like ice in my palm, and I smiled, wrapping it and putting it in my 'delicate' item's pouch, not trusting it to the Shield's inventory.

"So, why did you call us here? And show up late?" Itsuki grumbled as I rounded the last corner to get to the weird monument. "Motoyasu said you could read this?"

"What Shield did you unlock to be able to read it?" Ren asked.

"Boys." I greeted, ignoring the accusations, "I told you, even showed you the book I used to learn how to read. Still have it if you want to learn as well. And maybe you can borrow Motoyasu's when he's done with his?"

"Still a long way off... but it's kinda fun." He admitted sheepishly.

"I still think you're lying." Itsuki snapped back, "There's no way-"

"I might be the Shield, but if you value your teeth, never call me a liar." I said with a smile. "Do you want to learn how to read this magic brick? Or not?"

The three of them turned their heads to look at Kuro, who had moved behind a nearby tree fast enough to leave an outline where she'd just been standing. Then back to me and my perfectly serious smile.

"Sure." Motoyasu said, recovering his poise first (mostly because he'd already survived my cheerful smile before violence (tm).) "How'd you manage it?"

I dropped the smile, took a breath, then started the lesson. "First. You know how you can see things from the corners of your eye? Your peripherals. You're not focused on them, but your brain still comprehends what's going on, and you can react without really understanding why."

"Like... what? Playing dodge-ball and not getting hit?" Ren asked.

"That's a good example, yeah." I nodded, "Or how you can spot a spider on your wall while reading a book. That's kind of how you read the magic script." I motioned to the rock with the weird glowing squiggles. "Look at the rock, but do not focus on the words."

They all turned to look, and it was Itsuki who gave up first. "How can we read it if we can't focus on it?" He turned around to face me, with Ren doing so a moment later.

"It's an optical illusion." I tried a different angle. "You can draw it, but it seems impossible until you follow the lines with your finger, or cover part of the drawing so your eyes stop being confused." This actually gave me an idea. "Kuro?"

"y-yes?!" She was still hiding behind the tree, but stepped out just as quickly as she'd vanished behind it. "Yes?"

"Can you stand behind the stone? Hide behind it as best you can." She complied, crouching down a little so only part of her shoulders, hips and wings were visible, "Perfect." Then to the three of them, "Look at her shoulders, and just relax your eyes." I put a hand on Ren and Itsuki's shoulders, and gave them a push so they'd turn around.

They grumbled, but turned around.

"I am the source of all power." Motoyasu mumbled, "The Spear hero commands you, he has understood the inscription..." Another pause, then the end of his spear changed, "Longinius." Now the end of his spear terminated in a single thin point, the tip so fine it looked almost like glass. After admiring it for a moment though, Motoyasu suddenly looked exhausted and the spear reverted to the 'default' for his weapon. "W...whoa... It drained my mana super fast, but the stats were insane."

This distracted the other two, but I gave both of their shoulders a pat, "See? It's possible. Relax. This was left behind just for the four of us."

I could feel the Sword and Bow heroes frustration practically radiating off of them, but after a moment...

"I am... the source of all power." Ren started. "The Sword hero commands... you, he has understood the inscription." I could see his back and head quiver a little as he stumbled through the translation.

"Don't look at it. Look through it at Kuro." I said quietly.

"Mirror... strike." He finished after he stopped shaking in place.

And for a moment, there was a second Ren standing beside him. They both had their backs to me, but from where I was standing, they were exactly the same for the 'copy' setting off my magical senses (yes, you are all good tails). His sword had also changed, turning into a wide bladed 'hand and a half' sword that had a mirror shine, like a stainless steel mirror.

But a moment later, Ren suffered the same fate as Motoyasu, the apparition vanishing as his mana depleted.

I started to smile in satisfaction, but Itsuki ducked out from under my hand, "This is stupid!" And just... stormed off.

I sighed, watching him go even as I discarded the idea of just tying him up in front of the stone until he figured it out. "Ren?" I said quietly.

His reply was a little breathless, "Yes?"

"Look at your timer. I found a broken temple, and hourglass, just a little off the coast. When I interacted with it..." I trailed off.

"What... Oh... That means we'll be fighting on the water..." He went pale, and it wasn't just because he was out of mana. "I'll... try and tell him."

"Please." I said, "Good job."

At least he didn't look hostile as he looked back at me, then walked away, "Yeah. Thanks."

"I'm surprised you didn't tie Itsuki to a tree until he got it." Motoyasu said after Ren vanished around a corner in the same direction as Itsuki.

"Can... I move now?" Kuro asked.

NOTES!

Well, three out of four I guess? In the books, only Naofumi figures it out, so I had to make up abilities for the others.

Thank you for reading! And if you want to see any full colour art, join the discord!

aKAQg4bnYu for the discord!

And my actual book, Were Too? is on Inkitt.

And! I'm looking into getting some story themed merchandise made. Join the Discord to find out more!