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.
The ground shakes with each step the mountain takes, sounds of screaming and crying for help can be heard all over Balafon village even if the giant walking mountain is still far away from them. The sense of one's insignificance and fear are driving people mad, even as the retinue members try their best to guide the villagers into a more organized retreat. Ren looks to his side, where Janne quickly runs up to him. "It's at the Griffin's Spine Mountain Range, Lord Shield Hero. Judging from the size and the location, somebody broke the seal on the Spirit Tortoise, one of the four guardian beasts of the world. It would be going towards the biggest collection of people to collect souls. And judging from its location... it'll go towards Stormwind City."
"Why would anyone do that?! Don't they know seals exist for a reason?!" Ren looks up from his smartphone sword, before looking back down at his screen. On it, Naofumi, Motoyasu and Itsuki's faces all look equally grim. "Gather your strongest fighters and send them to Stormwind. I'll meet all of you there!"
Ren didn't wait for his fellow heroes' response as he snapped close his video call. He runs over to the collection of fighters (and Wyndia) gathered around Gaelion with Janne at his back. Raphtalia isn't among them, since she is still just learning how to fight properly with a sword, and her skill set isn't great for going against a kaiju-sized monster. Gaelion for once, isn't complaining about being used to ferry people around. He knows the severity of their situation. "All of you know how strong a guardian beast is more than me, so I won't mince words here. The battle will be very tough, many of us won't survive. But we'll still do our best to stall the Spirit Tortoise before it reaches Stormwind. Hopefully heroes from other places will come to help soon, and we can stop it together. Sir Bektor, I'm leaving you in charge here to evacuate the people. The Spirit Tortoise probably won't come for Balafon with more cities to the north, but people are scared. Take them to that hermit's tower for now."
The seasoned knight nods his head and gives him a fist by chest salute without saying anything. Ren prefers the silent determination of the veteran. He knows the older knight would do his best for this task. The much younger Connor on the other hand looks unsure about the situation at hand. "Do you have to go, Master Ren? I know you are the Sword Hero, but your level isn't that high yet. And you are going against one of the four Guardian Beasts."
"I'm the Sword Hero. This is what I do." Without any more words, Ren runs past them and climbs on Gaelion. His back is filled with people holding onto his boney spikes and scales. Wyndia is the only one who is sitting on Gaelion's head. "You should stay here with Raphtalia, Wyndia. This is too dangerous for you."
"Letting you and father go into danger while I stay behind and watch? I'm not doing that, Skyguy." Wyndia's reply is much more flippant, but there is a clear tremble in her otherwise upbeat voice. Of course she would be scared. For herself, for her father... maybe even a bit for himself. They are going to face one of the strongest giant monsters in their world, and even their strongest fighters are horribly under leveled for the task ahead. In the end... maybe it's for the best. If Gaelion is gone... Wyndia might be sold into slavery again like before.
"Let's go." Ren gives a soft pat on Gaelion's scale. With a loud roar, the dragon lord of raging storm slowly takes to the sky, and then dashes through the air less like he's flying, and more like he's being squeezed through a tube of vacuum. And maybe Ren is being paranoid, but he could swear that he heard Keel screaming Raphtalia's name for some reason.
Chapter 37: Like Ants Trying To Move A Mountain
On the plain outside of the wall of Melromarc Castle, three leviathan sized monsters stood, or lay on the grass field. One of them has the body of a giant serpent, the head of a dragon, and five claws. One of them looks like the ancient thunder lizard released by Towair the Deceiver, only a few sizes smaller. And the last one is a wyvern whose wings look large enough to cover an entire section of the wall of the capital if they fully spread. They are the respective steeds of Queen Mirellia's royal guards. The three Cardinal Heroes each have five additional slots they can bring with them when they port to Stormwind. Fifteen plus the three Cardinal Heroes doesn't sound like a small number, but it would barely be a pebble in front of the Spirit Tortoise. To even attempt to slow down one of the four guardian beasts, they need to bring some leviathan class monsters of their own, in addition to their strongest attackers.
"I can command Lynn and Dynn's steeds in addition to my holy dragon. They wouldn't fight as well as when my sisters were riding them, but we can bring two more power attackers with us this way." Sir Meggie looks over at her fellow royal guards. The two identical twins nod their heads together.
"I know my son. Julius will bring Mider to Stormwind with him, and we can link up with him while we prepare to receive the Spirit Tortoise. But there's still a good chance we won't be strong enough to stop the guardian beasts on our own. They are designed to be the last resort option if the most powerful fighters in our world aren't enough to stop the Wave of Catastrophe." Duke Arvis' face looks dark enough to drip ink, his finger points to where Stormwind is on the map. "We need to fight to stall the Spirit Tortoise, and let Stormwind evacuate. Normally, when guardian beasts get released they would collect the souls of everything around them to construct a barrier around our world. But clearly, we aren't at this desperate stage yet. This means that someone unsealed them for nefarious purposes. We can't rule out the possibility that they are going to use the guardian beasts to collect souls for something malicious."
"Like how the King of Rape supposedly tried to make himself into a god?" Naofumi looks up at Duke Arvis, he didn't say anything to confirm or deny the Shield Hero's rhetorical question. Naofumi slams both hands on top of his skull, and begins to furiously scratch his own hair. "How could something like this happen?! Aren't there any contingency plans to prevent it?!"
"There isn't a contingency for the guardian beasts, because they are supposed to be the last contingency." Malty gives Naofumi a sympathetic look. She places her hand on his shoulder in a vain attempt to comfort him. In the distance, they could hear the rumbling thunder, as what looked like a mist made of bugs were flying around the giant moving mountain. Of course, the enslaved princess knows they are actually griffins, likely led by King Waerjak in their assault on the Spirit Tortoise. It would be more than a bit awkward if they end up meeting face to face with the griffin king again.
"Our situation is sadly very severe." A deep voice comes from Malty's back. She turns around, and sees both Biscas Cain and Raziel, the two remaining four captains of the newly established 'Sons of Biscas' order coming. Raziel's face looks as dark as Duke Arvis. Cain tries to remain neutral, but the way his eyes twitch shows him not quite pulling the act off. "We read Brother Rehab's report. We are having champions of gods outside of our pantheon incarnate into our world. And outer gods and their followers are freely entering our worlds. That means that neither the barriers around our world, or our own pantheon are stopping them."
Malty quickly turns to look at Naofumi, almost afraid he's going to blurt out something about how their Chief God is a god of obsession who doesn't care about them. Granted, the spirit of Shirou Emiya kind of already said it, but it's not a phrase worth repeating. Weakening faith in their own pantheon would only weaken their miracle spells, which happens to be one of the Shield Hero's abilities he relies on even without his shield. Thankfully, Naofumi is either too busy worrying over everything else, or he's gotten smart enough not to say whatever comes to his mind after his ordeal post-Third Wave. Meanwhile, Malty wonders what she could do herself. She is supposed to be one of the seven star heroes after inheriting the Star Wand from her father, but her level is on the low end of Epic Level Range (Level 41-100). With her weakened heart and cursed Star Wand, she's not going to be one of the power attackers, or a versatile support to be considered for the fifteen slots.
If she could only weaken the curse placed on the Star Wand. Even if she only gets access to the teleportation ability. It would mean that she could bring herself along the Cardinal Heroes, and be able to bring five additional members with her. But sadly, she doesn't have the first idea of where to start. She tries to push her own fire magic into the wand, and instantly feels her own hand getting burnt for her trouble. Malty quickly pulls her fire magic back and tries to use water instead. This time, the resistance isn't as strong, and she could even feel like her mind being pulled into what feels like the surface of water itself. Only once her consciousness submerges, it feels very different from when falling headfirst into water. At least compared to that time she fell into the underground river alongside Raphtalia (Hope she's fine right now, she's more closer to the north than them right now). Malty doesn't feel any sense of breathlessness, or some kind of pressure around her. It feels like she's inside a vastly hollowed out space, with a thin sheet of glass separating herself and the outside.
She 'looks' around with her consciousness, and 'sees' countless different veins pulsating with the blue glow of magic itself. She wonders if this is the strange sense of being the other Star Heroes are shared, or perhaps only the Wand Heroes since they are supposed to be great mages? Is this how Saint Brimir, the first Wand Hero and the Founder of Wizardry magic built his foundation of wizardry school of magic? She 'looks up' where the different lines of magic seem to be going, and sees that there is what seems to be an ominous looking gray cloud hanging over her head where the veins of magic disappear into. The curse Father brought to the Star Wand when he used it as the catalyst to conduct his illegal hero summoning, perhaps? She wonders if there is a way for her to remove it, maybe she could further unlock the wand's restriction and give her the perks of a full powered hero weapon? She tries to summon her fire magic first, and her surroundings are immediately lit up with red as a rolling wave of heat begins assaulting her, threatening to melt her consciousness away. She quickly waves away her fire magic. That was obviously the wrong choice.
Malty takes a figuratively (because she doesn't have her actual body with her) long breath and thinks over her situation. Assuming the gray mist above her is the curse that sealed away most of the Star Wand's power, it's not what attacked her when she tried to bring out her fire magic. The curse hanging above her didn't react at all, and it was the void surrounding her that heated up. Perhaps she used the wrong element, or perhaps it's her lack of control over her own magic. Would a different element be the key to begin unraveling the curse? If so, in what order? If Uncle Aldrecht's assumption is bad, earth would have been the most stable element with it embodying solid objects. But she has absolutely no affinity with it (technically she should have it, since her family had a mix of different noble bloodlines in the past, which would have included earth affinity. And its potential would have been unlocked after traveling with Naofumi), and no experience at using it even if she does.
What about water? It's also one of the more stable, and potentially mild elements. Not to mention that she read over a copy of Saint Brimir's Grimoire of Water. Assuming he developed his Wizardry school of magic by studying the Star Wand, his principles of using water magic should be most compatible with her current hero weapon. Well... she would never know the answer until she tries, and right now. She needs to know the answer fast considering the heroes would be leaving soon to fight the Spirit Tortoise. So once again, her consciousness figuratively 'sits' down in the strange place she found herself in, and begins to think over the text of The Founder's philosophy.
The highest goodness is like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete. It stays in the lowly places that others despise. Therefore it is near the Eternal. The Founder's teaching fills Malty's mind as she begins to sway the water magic from her. The dark void around her begins to turn blue, but she doesn't feel any sense of discomfort. Once again, there's no sense of breathlessness, or pressure like she expected as the different lines begin to change color from a more ethereal blue to that which reflects the color of the ocean. To Malty's slight surprise and happiness, the gray mist hanging above her head actually seems to recede, being pushed up by the new wave of blue till her magic begins to feel like they hit a brick wall. She doesn't know if she had managed to lift the curse over the Star Wand even a little bit, but there's definitely no chance that her water magic alone will be able to do much in the situation. She turns her attention back to the thick layer of glass, and feels her mind pulling away from the strange space she found herself in. The next thing she knows, she's back in her own body again while still holding the Star Wand in her hand. She takes another look through its status screen, and sure enough. She had more access to different, and higher leveled forms. The one that has the porting ability being one of them! This is a huge advantage for their situation!
She turns to look around, and sees the three Cardinal Heroes still haven't finished picking out the last of the members they'll bring with them yet. So she quickly takes a few steps over to get their attention. "Master Naofumi! I managed to leave some of the curse over the Star Wand! I can use my teleportation ability like the rest of you know! That means I can go to Stormwind too, alongside five more members I bring along!"
Looking down at the city of Stormwind from the sky, Ren is reminded of seeing two nests of ants fighting. Countless dark dots congeals at the dock in an attempt at getting onto the ships, and at the gate trying to desperately run away from the incoming kaiju on foot. On the other side, the mountain continues to move towards Stormwind at a steady pace. Hundredth of griffins are led by one, single griffin about the size of Gaelion, all launching wind blades, or lightning bolts at it. But the effect seems to be minimal. It's like a swarm of tiny mosquitoes trying to stop a giant sea turtle. "Gaelion, I think we should set our fighters down on the ground. Have them support us from a distance, and maybe help evacuate people while we try to slow it down."
Once again, Gaelion didn't complain about being told of what to do. He descended onto a section of Stormwind's outer wall, as fast as he dared while not flinging anyone off his back. The wall itself seems to be shaking with every step taken by the giant turtle, but the fighters jump off the thunder dragon's back without too much problem. Ren notices most of them look blue in the face aside from a few stern, or nonchalant faces such as Granny or Sadina. The fact that Sadina looks less shaken by this situation than a master martial artist like Granny really doesn't speak well of the situation, or herself.
"All of you hold in front of the city and help with the evacuation, the other heroes will be here soon. We'll see what we can do to slow the guardian best down." Granny commands the fighters they brought along, before turning to look at Ren. "My skills are better at dealing with other people than a leviathan monster. So Lord Gaelion will have to be our heavy hitter here. Don't try to stop the Spirit Tortoise with a frontal assault. Try to find ways to limit its movement and buy time for other heroes to arrive."
"Aim for the legs, get it." Ren nods his head as Gaelion begins to take to the sky once again. Granny, on the other hand, jumps off the wall, seemingly glides her way onto the ground like she's going down an invisible slide, or has a wire on her back. Ren stops thinking about the old martial art master as Gaelion dashes forward in the sky, joining the rest of the griffins.
"Waerjak, you overgrown angry chicken! Didn't figure you and your little 'kingdom' would fight to slow down our father's beast!" Gaelion's voice rumbles out from his stomach as golden lightning seems to boil inside of his closed mouth. He opens his jaw, and releases a wave of surging torrent at the leg of the mountain carrying turtle. Ren was pretty sure this attack would have turned him into ashes if he stood in front of it, but it didn't even leave a burn mark on the Spirit Tortoise's leg.
"A child of our father, joining us?" The griffin's leader turns his eyes to the side to look at them. He is a fairly large animal of his own right, rivaling Gaelion with their size of a small castle. But compared to the turtle in front of them, he looks like nothing. "BAH! I don't care about what happens to these short-lived mortals. They are Alaya's responsibilities. But someone dared to touch our father's seal and released one of his guardian beasts for their own purpose. They must be stopped, and punished!"
The Griffin King's words make Ren think. Someone intentionally released this giant kaiju that's even bigger than that undead dino? How are they planning to benefit from something like this? He suppose there's no time to think about it, since it's moving towards Stormwind city. There's not enough ships to take away everyone, and most of the steed were already taken by their retinue when they began to travel north back to Melromarc. Civilians on foot wouldn't be able to outrun this giant, mountain carrying turtle even if it's on the slow side. He throws away any sense of curiosity and focuses on the battle ahead. As the turtle's frontal legs take another step, he finally gets the chance he's been waiting for. Ren raises his sword and activates his sword art. "[Swords of Revealing Light]!"
Glowing swords of golden light appear right around one of the giant turtle's hind legs. Unlike the famous Yu-Gi-Oh spell cards, he doesn't have a guaranteed 'three turns' when his sword art freezes his opponent's movement. It seems to depend on the power difference of himself and his opponent, their size and their weight. Which means that his sword art would be instantly broken when he uses it on the giant kaiju. But he's not trying to completely freeze the monster in front of him. As he expected, his light swords instantly gave out even if he only focused them around the turtle's left hind leg, but the suddenly unexpected resistence still managed to unbalance the giant kaiju, making one of its leg strain like it's having a seizure, and then giving out with the weight of a literal mountain on its back. His plan had been to trip the giant monster. Surely, the time it now needed to get back up would have bought them much longer. He can immediately hear Wyndia's cheer in his ears. "Good thinking, Skyguy! You did it!"
"Good job, Sky Boy! Waerjak, have your kingdom focus on that leg! Cutting off one appendage is better than wounding all of them!" Even Gaelion manages to find a short moment to compliment his quick thinking. The thunder dragon immediately turns to the griffins, and gives out a command. The large griffin lets out a noise that sounds like a snort, but he lets out a few screeches, and the countless griffins begin to all focus their attack on the leg that had given out under the kaiju turtle. Ren suddenly notices four different beams of light shooting over towards Stormwind city. Emerald, ruby, topaz, and an unrecognized purple one. His friends, and reinforcements have arrived.
"Hang on and don't give up yet, help is on the way!" Ren gives out some encouraging words as he also begins to launch his long range sword arts at the Spirit Tortoise alongside the griffins and Gaelion. What little damage they were able to do to its leg (which is thicker than even the largest tree he had seen in this world) seems to quickly heal. But there are definitely dark, burnt signs appearing on the monster's coarse skin.
The feeling of disorientation only stays for less than a blink of the eyes. Naofumi looks around and sees he is at the town center of Stormwind once again. Although the place is almost entirely empty, and only the continued flow of water at the fountain shows him that time itself hasn't stopped. The others around them fared much worse than he did, as they wobbled on their feet, or fell down on their knees. Malty completely doubles over and starts dry heaving, worse than when she teleported with him. Was it because this is the first time she tried to use a teleportation on her own? Good thing they didn't land on a tangle this time, especially considering they had three kaiju of their own.
"FATHER~!" A familiar voice comes from the side as Naofumi feels something tackles into him like a truck. He falls to the side and feels his head hit the ground hard. It didn't truly hurt him, but the clash still gives him a longer wave of dizziness than his own teleportation spell did. He opens his eyes again, and sees Firo lying on top of him with her limbs wrapped around his body, clearly having no intention of letting go. "I missed you so much! The bad women won't let me go visit you, and it's lonely here!"
"Now's not a good time, Firo. We got a kaiju monster to deal with." Naofumi tries his best to pull at least one of his arms out from Firo's iron grip embrace. Motoyasu notices his predicament, walks over and does his best to pry Firo off him without hurting her. She flails wildly, scratching and snarling at Motoyasu until Naofumi manages to free one of his hands and gives her a headpat to calm her down. "I'll take more time to come over and visit you. But you can not go back south with me to Melromarc. Because legally you are still wanted. And no, I don't want you to start killing everyone. I'll be VERY ANGRY at you if you do. Now, help us deal with that giant mountain turtle outside, okay? Firo?"
"It's not fair. Those two new hatchlings get to spend time with my father." Firo mumbles under her breath, but stops struggling against Motoyasu and he lets her go. For a brief second, Naofumi is afraid that she's going to start randomly attacking people (especially Malty) once again. But thankfully, she stays quiet this time. Two more figures run over to them from rooftops, and kneel in front of him.
"Father, Master Shield Hero, Master Bow Hero. Big Sisters Yume and Karasuba are fighting the Spirit Tortoise. The two of us aren't strong enough to make a difference, so we stayed here to help out evacuating the people." Naofumi isn't sure how he feels to see Benitsubasa being genuinely helpful to people. Consider she was more of an amoral punisher who would use underhanded tactics in her own series. But then he quickly reminds himself that one, he shouldn't use preconceived impressions to judge someone like Tairou, and two, she's not the same Benitsubasa from Sekirei, but a filorial monarch who shares her name, appearance... and probably her abilities.
"Good job, Beni, Haihane. But come with us now. We need everyone to slow down this Spirit Tortoise. Come on, LET'S GO!" Motoyasu gives a quick headpat to his two children like Naofumi did to Firo earlier, and then runs towards the direction of the Spirit Tortoise. Both of his daughters look ecstatically happy for a brief moment before changing into a more determined expression and following after their father. Everyone knows that the fight against the guardian beast will not be easy, but they still have to fight to protect the civilians. For a brief moment, Naofumi was worried how they'll get their own giant rex out of the city without tearing down one of the gates (although that's probably less damage than what the turtle could do if it gets in), But then both the serpent dragon, and the giant wyvern takes into the sky, each of them grab the one of the rex's shoulder and flies him out of the wall.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Malty - you still have your heart problem." Naofumi gives a sideways glance to Malty. He would have considered having her stay on the wall, but it's not safe to leave her behind away from them. Likewise, it's also not safe for her to stay on their three leviathan-class monsters because they will directly go up against the mountain-sized turtle in an attempt to slow them down. He wasn't sure how to feel about Malty suddenly being able to lift part of the curse off her hero weapon. On the one hand, he's glad that they brought five more fighters along thanks to her having access to her own teleportation ability. On the other hand... he really wishes that there's a good excuse for her not to risk herself.
"Don't worry, Master Naofumi. I'm a mage. I know how to keep myself safe." Naofumi wishes that he's as confident in Malty as she is in herself, but there's no time to consider. Everyone else has already left them behind, and he should be at the front of their group. So they quickly run forward to catch up. As they exit the gate, Naofumi realizes that the situation is to his surprise, actually better than he expected. One of the turtle's hind legs had crashed down on the ground, and the mountain on its back seemed to be pressing down against it. Plus, the giant griffin king that tried to kill Malty and himself a few weeks ago is also fighting the turtle with countless griffins. They don't seem to be doing much, but every bit helps in a situation like this. Maybe the continued damage could add up.
"Now's our chance! Let's all aim at its hurt leg! We'll massively cut down its speed even if it can drag itself on three legs!" Naofumi gives an encouraging roar as he holds his shield in front of himself and gets ready to activate his [Shield Charge] skill. It's a bit wasteful to use a weapon art that has a knock off effect when there's no enemy units in front of him. But the dash ability would put himself in the front of their group like the way he should be. To his surprise, Naofumi suddenly sees a lot of much smaller dots fall off the giant turtle onto the ground. For a brief moment, he wonders if the turtle is trying to shred the mountain on its back. But then whatever falls off begins to twitch in a disturbing way on the ground, flip, and then begin to move towards him. His eyes grow wider as the university graduate realizes they are monsters that live around the mountain. Beak things, wild raptors, and of course... wingless demi-gryphs. All of their bodies look wrong in some way, with strange discoloration, and gaping wounds, or limbs bent in unnatural ways. But all of the monsters move towards them. Undead... why does it have to be the undead again?
"Don't let your guards down. The Spirit Tortoise has the ability to command undead creatures!" A familiar voice rains down from the sky. Naofumi looks up, and sees Janne flying across the sky, throwing bolts of lightning with the griffins at the mountain-sized turtle.
"Kyoya, you are up!" Naofumi screams at the champion of a certain 'useless' goddess. Considering dispelling undead was one of the few things she was good at, maybe her worshiper shares some of her abilities? Granted, the guy wasn't given much spotlight in the story and he's been shown as rather inflexible, but holding the same impression of him from the anime would be like his own annoying fanboy refusing to believe his fellow heroes and Malty could genuinely be helpful in the Wave battle. So he brought the (former?) hero alongside them.
The dark armored heavy knight charges over Naofumi, still holding his heavy sword and axe in hands. For a brief moment, Naofumi wonders if he's going to use some water magic to purify the undead creatures like the goddess he still worships. But then a blue gleam washes over both of his weapons, and they are both coated by a heavy layer of blue, solid light that easily doubles their size. And Kyoya, or rather, his incarnate, Sir Graham, charges head first into the horde of undead creatures. His movements are very simple, swing and smash. But everytime he moves his arms, at least one undead creature flies away in a dozen pieces. Turns out... he banishes undead through physical … rather than magical means. But it means that his efficiency isn't very great, and the countless undead creatures would quickly swarm over everyone.
"Tanya - you're up?" Naofumi turns to look at the other incarnate. It's still hard to associate a well groomed young man, or a doll-like young girl (disregard her shark teeth) with a literal pig head midget. But Tanya still has her annoyed-looking down demeanor in spite of the change to her face. She steps forward, the pink colored soul gem hanging in front of her chest on the end of a string necklace. It seems like in spite of knowing what the offending item is, she still chooses to bring it alone. Probably because of knowing how severe the situation was.
"[Banish Undead]." Tanya holds her hands up like she's about making a solute, the magic orb and soul gem in front of her chest both begin to glow, one golden, the other pink. A ray of light falls down from the sky over the horde of undead, and a few hundred of them instantly melt away like snow in the sun. But more keeps falling off the mountain sized turtle and charging towards them. It seems like the turtle had made the decision to bury them in an endless wave of quickly replaceable enemies.
"Use [Circle of Banishment, Miss Tanya." Arch-Vicar Logarius closes his hands together into a prayer gesture, Biscas Cain follows his example. A large circle of white light begins to grow and stretch outward from their feet, easily covering over the ground their group (except their T-Rex) stand on. Tanya nods her head to follow their example, and the two magical items in front of her chest begin to glow their respective light once again. The miracle aura under her own feet ends up stretching much bigger than the two priests, even managing to cover Lynn's T-Rex monster. As undead creatures begin to set foot on them, their bodies begin to be burnt by a white flame that quickly disintegrates them.
Naofumi closes his two hands together, ready to add his own miracle to their group. He feels someone tapping him on the shoulder and looks to the side, finding Malty besides him. "Save your will power, Master Naofumi. We have a large enough anti-undead aura. Save your will power, and bring out your [Crown Shield] for a heavy attack with your miracle."
Watching how the undead creatures the Spirit Turtles send out starts to catch fire as they step onto the [Circle of Banishment] and being easily cut down by everyone, Naofumi knows that Malty is correct. And this is the best time for him to start charging up his saiga. So he cast away the physical form of his shield and began to gather magic to bring out his strongest shield. He might be the Shield Hero, but there's no need for him to take heavy hits for the moment. And he needs to do what's best for the group to stall the giant monster. Although he wonders where that crazy Avatar of Alaya is. Even the griffin king who tried to kill him is fighting the mountain turtle. Surely, the crazy bird girl knew about it already. But why hasn't she come out and tried to stop it yet?
"No! We are too late again!" Tairou lets out a desperate wail as he steps through the foliage of the King's Forest. Fohl squints his eyes to get used to the brilliant sunlight of the plain. In the distance, he can see a camp by the foot of the Melromarc Castle city wall. But with the lack of patrol and sentries, and only some plainly dressed servants taking down wooden barricades and tents, it's also clear that the camp is now empty. And the occupants clearly left in a hurry to not even take away their tents.
They were patrolling around the ironwood forest, protecting the villagers of Lute like every other day when the tremmer happened. The moving giant mountain far to the north, yet still visible to them all, was a good indication that something had gone seriously, catastrophically wrong. Which prompted Tairou to immediately command them to abandon their previous duties, and to get to the capital to find the rest of the heroes. They barely made it back to Lute village proper when they saw the multicolored light beaming through the air, which indicated that the heroes had already used their teleportation ability and are no longer staying at Melromarc Castle. But they still made their way over in an attempt to join their full retinue which they no doubt left behind. But now, even the army is no longer here.
"NO- No, no, no, no, NO! This is the worst route to take! I don't remember it being this HUGE, but that mountain... it must be the Spirit Tortoise!" In front of them all, Tairou begins to furiously scratch his hair while running in circles. "I don't know if it's the three stooges or that stupid other world vassal hero Kyo. But someone must have released the Spirit Tortoise! I should have remembered this plot point and tried to stop it! NO! Naofumi-Sama doesn't know he has to destroy both the turtle's head and heart at the same time to kill it yet!"
"The Spirit Tortoise? Someone released it?! And what do you mean 'other world hero', Lord Throwing Weapon Hero?" Hayate's voice is a bit less polite than his usual standard, but the distance he puts himself from the Throwing Weapon Hero is clear when he doesn't even refer to Tairou with his name. Fohl knows that Hayate was dispatched by the Shield Hero under the explanation of reimbursing Tairou's teammate deficit after he gave Sadina to the Shield Hero. But it's clear that Hayate is here more as the Shield Hero's spy than a genuine companion for Tairou. Not that he can blame the Shield Hero for doing something like this. Tairou's action are very impulsive and self-defeating even at best of the times. He would not have followed the guy if Atla isn't so totally enamored by him. "Do you mean to say a False Hero has entered our world, like the Seven False Heroes? And they are trying to destroy our world with one of our Guardian Beasts?"
"A False Hero invasion? That could be even worse than an invasion from an Outer God! We need to go see the queen, and have her send out messages to other rulers around the world!" Hayate's words make Fohl shake on his feet. He immediately grabs Tairou to stop him from pointlessly wasting his stamina. Based on how the other 'world leaders' acted during the Hero Conference, he doesn't expect them to immediately take this threat seriously. Unfortunately, his worry is immediately proven right when not even his little sister shares his concern.
"GOOD! If that ungrateful Shield De- Hero gets his butt whipped, maybe he'll appreciate Master Tairou more!" Atla grabs the opposite side of Tairou's Shoulder from Fohl. Her cheeks puffed up, mouth shaped into a pout. "Let's wait and see what happens, Master Tairou. Maybe we can go fight something stronger while they all go take care of that invading False Hero. The Shield Hero appointed you to take care of this village, clearly because he's jealous of you and wants to stop you from growing stronger."
"Now is not the time to think about these petty thoughts, Atla! Did you already forget everything our mother taught us?" Now, it's Fohl's turn to pull his hair at how childish Atla is being. He always knew that (even if he doesn't want to admit it) Atla was a bit spoiled by Mother and himself because she was born with ailment. But to see her not caring about the wellbeing of the world due to some minor grudge with the Shield Hero (which Tairou DEFINITELY were at least partially responsible for) is still a really chilly sight. "An Invasion from an Outer God would be stopped by the barrier between worlds, and severely limit how much power an Outer God could bring down into our world. But the barrier's effect only works on those from the divine realm. A False Hero who finds a way to infiltrate, or invade our world can bring the full might of their army upon us! This is the time to work together to defend our world, not to play house politics!"
"And whose fault is it that Master Tairou was stuck at a small village where the monsters are barely level 10? That none of us has reached level 40 yet a week after we left Cal Mira Island? Yeah, that's right! It's the Shield Hero!" Atla glares right at him as she fires back, and even Fohl has to admit, Atla does have somewhat of a point. That all of them are pretty underleveled if they go against one of the four Guardian Beasts. Especially if an invading False Hero is behind it. "If you want to do those ungrateful heroes a favor, go have the queen send the message to them on how to kill that giant turtle. But right now, the most important thing is to have Master Tairou grow stronger!"
"There will be a chance for me to get stronger, Atla. But we need to go help Naofumi-Sama right now." Fohl isn't exactly surprised when Tairou takes to the Shield Hero's side once again. Although he is slightly relieved that he isn't being as petty as Atla, and is doing what's right for everyone in the bigger picture. "The Spirit Tortoise is one of the strongest boss monsters in the early story. And beating it was what allowed Naofumi-Sama to gain the prestige he needed to gather power to stop a lot of the future villains. He'll need this win here even more than canon, now that there's misunderstanding between him and the queen thanks to Bitch."
Atla takes half a step back, the corner of her mouth turns down as her eyebrow also cranks downward into a frown. After a few moments, she seems to think of something as her eyes turn upwards once again. "But how are we even going to get to them? That monster is moving away from Griffin Spine mountain range. There's no way for us to run across another province overnight if we travel by foot! We might as well go find some strong monsters to fight ourselves, and go help out the Shield Hero if the Spirit Tortoise moves south towards us."
"We will help you, Lord Throwing Weapon Hero!" A voice comes from behind them. Atla jumps on her feet, Fohl, Tairou and Hayate all turn around to look back. They see countless villagers from Lute emerging behind them, led by their village elder. They haven't arrived with empty hands. Each of them is holding the reign of a filorial bird. "Lord Shield Hero helped us prepare for the Second Wave, and even protected our village during the Wave battle. We owe him our lives! And you came to help us rebuild our home and get back on our feet after the Wave battle. We'll provide you with all of our filorial birds."
"Oh, no... I didn't really do anything to help you guys. I was only trying to do what Naofumi-Sama told me to. Thanks is not needed... but I really appreciate it! Thank you!" Tairou takes a full step back. A blush creeps up his face as he turns his face away, almost like he doesn't dare to face the helpful people from Lute. It seems that in spite of his more 'impulsive' actions, he is a good person deep down.
"Thank you all for your help, people of Lute Village. However, we will have to ask another favor of you." Hayate takes a few steps forward and catches everyone's attention. "Master Throwing Weapon Hero has revealed that there is a good chance that the Spirit Tortoise was released by a False Hero invading from another world, and the Guardian Beast can only be killed when both its head and heart are destroyed at the same time. Given the severity of the situation, we need to travel immediately north to help take this renegade Guardian Beast down. But we need the Melromarc Queen to spread the news in case it can't be immediately contained."
The people of Lute village exchange some terrified looks at each other, and the elder quickly holds his hand up to stop the fearful whispers between each other. "We will do so immediately. In the meantime, please, take all of our filorials and go help the other heroes. There's a slim chance that maybe one out of ten people will survive if Gaia's Guardian Beasts are all released, but we will all die if this really is an invasion from a False Hero."
"Invasion from a false hero? That sounds very severe." An unfamiliar female voice comes from Fohl's backside. He spins around, and sees a dozen and half people standing behind them. The dark haired young man standing in the front has a demeanor that reminds him of the Sword Hero, but the air around him feels even colder. But one of the young, red-haired woman standing behind him looks almost like-
"BITCH!" An out of tune scream comes from Tairou's mouth as he instinctively pulls his arm back, looking ready to throw his tomahawk at the red haired woman. Atla leaped out before he even had the chance to release his attack, and Fohl had to jump forward right after his sister to stop her from attacking someone.
"STOP STRUGGLING! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, ATLA! That's not Miss Malty! She doesn't have a burn scar on her face!" Atla's flailing slowly stops as she finally realizes Fohl was speaking the truth. And even besides the obvious difference, there's some smaller distinction between the girl and the Shield Hero's companion. Her face is much more soft, with a more innocent expression, although this is changing pretty fast after she was unfairly insulted by Tairou.
"Didn't your mama ever tell you not to call a woman bad names?! You mean brat!" The red haired girl takes a few steps forward, points her finger at Tairou's nose. "If you don't know how to properly behave, don't leave your home!"
"Miss Myne is right. You were being very rude to her. I suggest you apologize." The blonde priestess takes a step forward. Fohl notices aside from her magic staff, one of her hands is settled on what looks like a hilt of some kind of sheathed blade. So she's not a full priestess in spite of wearing robes rather than the armor of a cleric knight. Maybe a templar?
"I'm sorry for that uncalled for insult, young lady. Master Throwing Weapon Hero mistaken you for someone else." Hayate steps forward, holding both his hands in an appeasing manner as he tries to explain away the misunderstanding. Thankfully, Tairou puts his weapon away this time, instead of doing something that further escalates the situation.
"Well. He shouldn't use that bad name on any woman." The red haired girl crosses her arms and gives Tairou a glare. That action alone makes Atla begin to struggle once again under Fohl's restriction.
"Sorry for stepping in uninvited. We missed the majority of the southern reinforcements to join the heroes' retinue because we were busy taking down a bandit nest." The speaker who stepped forward is an elderly gentleman who wears a large, loose green jacket. Aged lines decorate his face, but both his hair and his thick beard are still in a healthy, deep brown color. "I better go to have an audience with our queen myself, in case she brushes away this major concern as baseless rumor again."
"Aiko. You go together with Lord Baldesion." The young man who reminded Fohl of the Sword Hero opens his mouth. His voice doesn't have any more warmth than the way he carries himself. He pulls a ring off his finger and hands it into the hand of a woman standing besides him, Fohl recognizes the woman wears traditional Kyutenrou style cloth on her body. And the ring... it has a sapphire gem encrusted on it. "You will act as my representative. If Queen Mirellia sees fit to ignore the concern of her own nobility, maybe she'll think twice about making light of a request from House Kirigaya."
In the distance, rumbling thunder can suddenly be heard as an ominous looking dark cloud gathers above the head of the Spirit Tortoise.
End Note:
And so we officially starts the Spirit Tortoise arc, which is the last story arc before we start Siltvelt storyline, one of the four planned major storylines for this story.
There are a few constants when it comes to isekai novel characters. Kyoya is like Motoyasu-lite. Even when he is helpful, you can always expect him to screw something up. And of course, Tanya is always the one who you want to be on your side.