Chapter 76

"Raphtalia, with me. Usa, Ragnarok? Herd the people from the farms this way, Tetsu, keep them from getting overrun, do not eat any monsters." I instructed, "Fohl, Atla? Stay here, direct traffic, but do not step onto open ground. Clive? If you see any opportunities, take them."

I got a nod from everyone, and ran towards the path we'd taken into the little town. Before Raphtalia and I met the first of... many... turtle backed yeti monsters, she gave me a fierce grin and drew her sword, "It feels great when all those weird plans you make become useful."

"I agree." I grinned under my mask, "Step, stop, step." I instructed.

"Yes boss!"

She slowed down a little, and I got ahead of her, bringing up the Shield to slam aside the flailing arm of the first monster. From behind, on the opposite side that the Shield was on, Raphtalia's sword swept over my head and cut the yeti's torso in half, from the top of its shoulder to its opposite underarm. I hardly got any blood on me, as I pushed through the tumbling corpse, slammed into the second yeti, and held it still just long enough for Raphtalia to decapitate it.

Step, stop, step, stop...

Using the Shield's other abilities, like 'Hate Reaction' to draw their focus onto me, air strike shield to funnel and slow down the swarm, and very occasionally a blast of magic to finish a still twitching monster, we killed dozens of the turtle yeti in record time. It helped that after the Cal Mira event, we were twice their level (they were 45, not 35 like the bats).

That said... This many level 45 monsters attacking anywhere all at once, that didn't have really good walls, or well trained soldiers...

"Phew." Raphtalia said after... lots and lots of yeti had been put to the sword. "Any more?"

I gave a quick look, a bit of a listen, then double checked with the Shield's status overlay, looking for any of those helpful monster pointing arrows. "All clear." I said, "Status for the others are unhurt. Let's get these burning..."

I paused, my hand gripping a summoned bottle of lantern oil, "Idea?" Then, "Shoo, I'm all bloody." She stepped away from my thinking tails.

"Yeah. Two of them actually." I grinned, my Shield changing to the Soul Eater Shield...

I trusted my party to contact me if there were any problems, but that didn't mean Raphtalia and I were dragging out feet to pile up the corpses. With her, myself, and my summoned 'silver guardian', we got them bodies in a pile. But instead of burning them, I pointed the Soul Eater Shield at the pile, and turned it on.

Being a Familiar, if it were anything like when I had Delly and Sir Skitters as companions, meant that they were getting energy from something. And they'd already shown a symbiotic response to discovery.

Soul energy gained, choose a Shield to empower? Y/N?

The Soul Eater Shield had a weird effect on the bodies. Nothing as comical as them suddenly turning into mummified husks. But each of their turtle shells groaned then cracked sharply.

"Next..." I took out one of my big beakers of acid. "Hello again."

Two little eyes floating in the beaker gave the impression of blinking at me. "I guess it does look kinda cute." Raphtalia mumbled as I upended the beaker at the edge of the pile.

"Come back when your done, please?" I asked it.

The reddish acid blob monster squiggled in awe at the meal before it, then just... engulfed it. Like some kind of amorphous maw opening up, netting out, settling over, then consuming the entire pile in one giant bite. It bubbled and frothed and hissed and steamed, shrinking back to its original size as it off gassed all the excess.

Sixty very busy, somewhat smelly, mildly nose hair curling seconds later, the slime squiggled its way back into the beaker, its rose red colour now a little darker, with the eyes gaining the addition of something that looked like a mouth.

"That was... disturbing to watch." Raphtalia said, "But..."

The results spoke for themselves. "Well done." I said, "I think I will name you..."

I was about to name it, but the status screen 'scanned' it for me, putting one of those helpful little arrows over it.

Rob the Bio Red Blob

"Oh. A much better name than I was going to give I'm sure." I said, "Pleased to meet you Rob."

"Does she talk to monsters all the time?" Glass asked.

Raphtalia leaned a little closer to me, "Only the ones who don't try and eat her."

"Fair."

I gave the side of the beaker a pat, got a weird attempt at a smile from Bob, and put him back in the Shield. He even appeared in the Inventory as 'Bob the Bio Red Blob', while the other blob was still labelled 'Flask of Bio Red Blob'.

"Should we go back an-" I started as an arrow flashed into the air then popped into a blue 'flare'. "Okay, all clear for now."

The villagers and the others of my party were burning bodies when we got back, but thankfully only monsters were on the pyre. I pulled even more soul energy from the burning monsters, but didn't bring out Rob, since people were taking the opportunity to throw garbage on the pile too.

"Injuries?" I asked.

"Couple of scratches, skinned knee or two, sprained ankle." The village headsman said, "But... now what?"

"Now..." I thought, "Good question." I said, looking at my party, "If we leave, and more of them show up..."

"What about the others?" Usa asked.

For a moment, I wondered 'what others', then felt silly for forgetting. "Right." I fished inside my delicate item pouch and found Motoyasu's sound stone. After a moment of no response, I frowned, "That's not good... Either his side is broken, or there's some kind of magical interference."

"The same thing that happened with the pope?" Usa asked.

"Maybe. But Motoyasu wouldn't know how to channel energy into something..." I thought for a moment, "Hey Ragnarok." I called over to the old lady, who was just standing by the pyre with her hands behind her back. "Any idea if Rishia can cast magic?"

"She's not very good at it, but yes." She nodded, coming over. "Your fancy glass bits not working?"

"His side is either broken, or something is blocking the signal." I explained. "So..." I ahem'ed and gave the crystal a tap to turn it on, then fed it a bit of my own magic to boost the signal. "Motoyasu, if you hear this, give the stone to Rishia. Have her say the words, 'I am the source of all power', then speak into it to reply to me."

"Deliberately failing to cast a spell, but not wasting the magic?" Fohl asked, "That's..."

"Crazy, but if it works, it works." Ragnarok shrugged.

"Kodori is very good at making things work when they don't want to." Atla said.

"hardly... you..."

I gave the stone a little more power, and some encouragement, "I'm getting something. You almost have it Rishia."

By now, my party (save Clive, since he was still up on a rooftop) was leaning in to listen.

"Is this working? We could hardly hear you!" Motoyasu was probably yelling into the stone, like anyone else might with a bad connection.

"It's working! Good job Rishia!" I said, "Let me finish before speaking. We have encountered some weird bats, and some yeti monsters too. Bats seem to be laying eggs in other monsters and people. Yeti spawn from the eggs. They seem to be connected to something bigger. Message ends."

There was a pause.

"Message starts. We've encountered them too. All coming from the East. Wiped out several small villages." A pause, then a sudden start, "bodies to the torch. Decided to stop in Mirso. Considering a direct report to Queen. No one willing to give up teleport slot. Message ends."

I kinda wanted to buy him a drink now. He was picking up on things really fast now. Actually thinking on his feet and gasp, adapting!

"Teleport slot?" Raphtalia asked.

I squinted down to my hip where the Book Shield rested innocently, and went to the Shield Almanac. A moment later, I found the Portal Shield, gave it a mental double-click, and opened the help file. "User can register personal locations as well as the fixed locations of the Hourglass. Current limit, three. Next unlock at level 100." I paused, closed my eyes, and sighed. When I opened them though, I saw that one of my 'personal' portal markers was already in use. Even showed me a little 'screenshot' of it.

"Huh." I smiled, "Well, that line in the dirt I drew at Lurolona is apparently one place." I rubbed my chin, "Okay... I'm going to go pick them up. I will leave you guys here to defend this place for a little bit, and when we figure out 'a plan', hopefully, we can all get together..." I sighed, "Oh come on, I'm not leaving you forever."

Yes, everyone but Clive (still on a roof), was giving me the sad eyes. "We'll keep them safe." Usa said.

"Message start. Are you still there? Message ends." Motoyasu asked.

"Oh right." I spoke into the crystal again, "I will be there very soon. I will use one of my markers. Don't die. Message ends."

When no reply came through, I put the crystal away, "Okay. Do your best, keep safe, and if there is any problem you can't put down in good time, call me. I will appear..." I went over to our parked wagon, and drew a line in the dirt with my heel. Since the Portal Shield help file was still open in the status, I saw my second 'personal portal point' appear there. "Here. So don't block this area."

"Should we..." Fohl looked to Atla, then me.

It was clear he knew he wasn't up to the task, but he didn't want to say it.

"Do your best in a support role. Water, potions, food, pulling away wounded. A combat line has two sides." I gave his shoulder a pat, "Someone tell Clive to have a nap. Back soon."

I appeared on the other side of the line shown in my 'screen shot' in Lurolona. There was a surprised farmer, who recovered and waved a moment later, but aside from that, the village was perfectly calm. Work was happening, no one was panicking, and the closest sound to 'combat' I heard was the ringing of a hammer on an anvil.

If the monsters were coming from the East, then it was more a 'line' and not a 'wave'. This was good, and bad. But this poor little village had been kicked around enough and I wasn't going to complain about it being out of the line of fire.

"Could you find Sadeena? Point her towards the tree." I called out to the surprised villager as he started to turn around to go back to what ever it was he was about.

"Sure thing Lady Kodori!" He called over his shoulder with a wave, and sped up to a jog.

It was the best compromise I could get from them. They called me lady, but didn't bow or stop what they were doing to wave like (four of three worlds, not Orario since we didn't have nobility really) most places did with nobility passing by or issuing orders. This wasn't combat, so my word was 'suggestion' not 'law'.

"Thank you!" I called back, then started towards my tree.

"hi hi hello hi hello greet no food hi hello..."

Most people would panic when their head was mostly engulfed by bees the size of your forearm. But with my mask on, the little swarm crawling over my head and shoulders, occasionally brushing my horns just long enough to 'say' a word, I had nothing to fear from them. Oh, except that one who looked in my ear for food and made my ear flick at them.

"You look silly, Boss." Rifana giggled as I got under the shadow of my tree. "Come on you guys, you have work to do, right?"

The buzzing stopped, and one by one, with a little downward pressure from them jumping, the bees on my head... buzzed off.

Oh, except one. I thought it was safe to take my mask off, but as I reached up the one who stayed behind perched on my wrist and watched me reveal my face. Once I had, it twitched/walked up my arm just a little more, leaned forward and wiggled its antenna at my horns, "bye." And flew up to join its siblings.

"What is that look I wonder?" Rifana asked, waiting until I'd hung my mask at my belt before jump/floating at me for a hug. Once settled into my arm, she poked the Emerald around my neck, "Hello again Miss Glass."

"Hello little spirit." Then, "It is odd that I understood all that... noise."

"See? Growing up to be civilized already. Rifana, we have a weird problem, and I need to ask HIDA something."

"Sure. Let me..." The tree groaned a little, the vine/trunk/bark opening a little to reveal the fancy cellphone that was HIDA's body. There was another little groan and creak, revealing most of the 'peripherals'. Solar panel, battery block, induction charger, stand, the beginnings of magical lenses for her camera...

"Hey boss. Getting some unscheduled photons! Something happening?" HIDA's screen finished loading, the cheerful fox/fairy appearing on screen and yawning theatrically. "It's been super busy here the last couple days! Though, by the pollen on your head, you've already met them."

I shook my head, squinting my eyes a little, and yes, there was a little cascade of pollen dust. "You've taken pictures I hope?"

"Of course! Though, they don't really like me. My screen makes their eyes hurt."

I gave her avatar a headpat, "That's a shame. How good is your zoom function?" I entered the 'ground floor' space of the tree's interior, "Tenno!"

"At time of creation, top of the line. Though, at 100x, I would need to take time to smooth out all those nasty pixels." She replied, her screen going dark, and a little blue LED turning on at the top corner. "Better go dark to be a good neighbor."

Tenno's heavy wing-thrum heralded his approach, then a perfect landing as he came down next to me, spear in hand. Like Kunshu, I wondered if he liked hugs, so I gave him one.

He'd gotten a tiny bit larger since I'd been here last, and yes, it was like hugging a fuzzy suit of plate armour. But he didn't complain or back away. "Mother. You called. Problem?" His antenna swished at my horns, that nightmare mandible jaw of his (thankfully) remaining closed as it brushed my nose.

"Yes. I need to get as far up the tree as you can get me. Though, please stop where Kunshu is? I'd like to say hello."

He stepped back, gave me a REALLY good curious head tilt, then stepped forward again, "Very busy where queen is."

"No?"

"A warning. Not denial." He rested his spear against the tree's wall, and made to grab me.

"Let me help a little." I said as his upper for 'hands' found places to grip me securely, "Dritte Aura."

Kushu's... 'throne room'... yeah, we'll call it that. The place where I'd met her the first time coming up here, had 'grown' hundreds more honeycomb holes in the tree's inner wall. Again, if you didn't have to waste effort and time building chambers for your brood, then why not take a magical shortcut?

Kunshu herself was crawling over some of them, peeking in, giving them head tilts, occasionally sticking her face into one, then moving on. The chambers weren't all occupied, not even half way, but it was going to be a VERY busy place soon.

Oh, and...

"hi hello hi hi papa hi no food still hi hello." I had a bunch of bees on my head again.

This time, when Tenno put me down, he only had to thrum his wings meaningfully for them all to fly away, vanishing through the holes in the tree leading outside to the canopy.

I let Kunshu do what ever she was doing without calling to her. With her eyes, I knew she saw me the instant I arrived, but being a mother was hard work! But, she finished tending to what ever was occupying that bit of tree/comb and came over to me. Just like last time, she gave me a hug and greeted me. "Mother." Pause as she held my forearms but kept in contact with my horns, "The hive becomes. Grows." I could have sworn she sounded proud, but it was hard to tell for sure. "Problem?"

"Yes. I've told Tenno some. And will tell him more after I get outside. Please, take care. I have no idea what might come this way."

Her body seemed to expand, then contract, almost like someone taking a deep breath for a sigh. "Understand. Tree home is life. Will protect it. Always."

Her head moved away from mine, and there was a 'buzz'...'buzz'... between her and Tenno. Then she let go, gave me a headpat, and Tenno came over to grip me again.

"Tree exit small. Careful." He said as we got to the highest exit a moment later. "Hold. Exit. Hold. Continue."

He set me against the wall by the hole (that would have maybe been big enough for Kunshu), let me go, waited until I climbed through, followed, and gripped onto me again. The weird amalgamation of tree/vine/flower made for an amazing canopy, filled with riotous colour and impossible seeming twists and branching. But he flew up to one of the highest forks, set me down, waited until I was steady, then asked...

"Higher?"

There was a breeze, and the entire tree swayed just enough for me to notice. A subtle, small earthquake under my feet with a lot of space between me and the ground. And while I had conquered my fear of heights long ago, it still made me a little nervous.

"Let me see." I replied, looking around as Tenno perched on a branch without seeming to disturb it. I had to figure out where north was first, then look a little east of that. "I can climb just a tiny bit higher..."

Tenno let me, but crept up the branches nearby as I ascended just a little more. And yes, one of the little (kinda little?) bees came over to "hi!" at me before wandering off to find another flower.

"Perfect..." I said, looking at the far off summit of Mirso, and most importantly, my other tree. "Now... HIDA?"

"I know I don't need to remind you, but please don't drop me?" She said as the little blue LED flashed in time with her voice. "So... High up, in a tree, what did you want me to zoom in on?"

"Tenno? Keep the children away. I need to look at HIDA." There was heavy BUZZ, and Tenno crawled away from me a little. "Right. Well..." I pointed HIDA's array of camera lenses towards my other tree, "I need you to zoom in as best you can on that..."

"Okay. Keep me steady..." Her screen turned on, and I watched as she 'found' my tree, then started zooming in. Closer, closer, each 'leap' in magnification had a little pause as she cleared up the artifacts of square pixels and the like. It was apparently processor heavy too, since I saw her battery percent tick down every ten seconds or so.

"No need to rush. It's important, but don't overheat." I said.

"I do kinda want to be closer to the ground..." She said, "But a little more..."

Looking at the picture as she had it, the Mirso tree was still 'small'. But I didn't need it to be perfect, I needed it to be 'close enough'. I brought up the Shield Almanac, went to the Portal Shield, and tried to mark the cliff next to the Tree, where the ghost ship from the third wave had been shooting cannonballs at Itsuki.

"Bingo." I said as the location registered. "I hope you're taking other pictures too?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" She replied, just like Welf would, except in Delly's voice. "Though... Are you done? I think you might want to see this."

I blink/clicked the status screen to default, then focused on the cellphone properly. "See what?"

"Just a moment..." The camera screen zoomed back to 1x, then, "Tilt me sideways for the best view."

I did, giving me a nice panoramic view of a great deal of Melromarc and its wildly patchwork terrain. Then she applied some kind of filter...

A river... a river in the sky. It took a moment for me to really process it, but it was flowing from west to east. From someplace well past where I'd left the party in Lerno, to well beyond Mirso. It was a line of flowing swirls in the sky, that came to a point past where I could see with the camera, behind yet another mountain range.

"What... What is that?"

"I don't know. But the energy pattern is just visible to my 'ether' lens. That suggests something spiritual in nature. If I were closer, I could tell for sure, but..."

"Yeah, too soon to attempt moving you around... I really want to. But not yet. Though, I do know someone who would love talking to you. Next time I go there, I'll leave an Occulus with him for you. He's like Welf, except he drinks less."

"Ooooo I like anvil heads!" Pause, "Um, time to go down? Please? My internal gyroscope is picking up an increase in wind..."

"Yeah, let me just..." I carefully put HIDA in my pouch, and paused, "Glass, what do you think of the view?"

"What would you want me to say?" She replied, "A rare sight indeed, but fleeting."

"Just so long as you've taken a look." I replied, summoning the Rope Shield, "Let's see if there is a limit..."

If there was, the tree wasn't tall enough to make the Rope Shield run out of rope. I still had Tenno follow me down as I rappelled down the tree as fast as I could, just for fun. But when we got to the bottom, I gave him some of the stored meat I had in my inventory for a bit of a treat, as well as some of those weird peach/banana/grapefruit things from Lerno.

Sadeena was waiting for me at the bottom as well, one of the new bees on her head while she talked to Rifana. Like me, she seemed totally unconcerned about the giant insect, but when she saw me she gave her head a little shake to dislodge it and send it back to work.

"Kodori." She greeted, "Love the new hair colour."

"I'm glad it doesn't make my nose itch." I nodded, dusting the air in front of my face with a little cascade of pollen. "Anyhow. Got a weird... thing... going on."

She listened and paced while I explained and put HIDA away. Speaking of that, I made sure to rest HIDA in the little secret compartment of the tree, so she could look into an Occulus if she had to.

"So yeah. That's the problem. Have you met..."

"The little pixie box? Yeah." She nodded, "So what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, since it's probably my job? I'm going to head over to the other heroes and deal with it. Hopefully. But, since you're one of the best fighters I know here, I'm going to ask you to keep a look out, just to make sure."

"Well I'm already doing that." She grinned, "Little Raph would be sad if we had to do this," She waved at the village, "Again."

"Figured you'd be on the job already, but these monsters are weird."

"Well aside from a couple of insects I've seen, I've never heard of a monster laying eggs in other monsters, or people, before." Sadeena nodded, "Suppose I'll go tell Ake, have them keep a closer watch on things. Got some real promising people in the village too."

"Good to know. Thanks." She paused, "Oh, that old man at the edge of the village?"

"Aultcray?" I rubbed my chin, "Tell him, and ask his opinion. If he has one, give him this." I handed over a sound stone. "If not, well, make sure he isn't going to die of hunger or something..."

"He's not doing too bad for himself. Has a little hut you can stand in. Someone gave him a bow and a handful of arrows. And he's at every breakfast and dinner soup line." She sighed, "He hasn't given up on himself."

"Just as planned." I nodded, giving her a pat on the shoulder, "Keep up the good work."

"Tug Raph's tail for me." She replied as I opened a portal and stepped through.

"Note to self..." I said as I dangled off the cliff in front of my newest portal. "Fix this portal so the first step doesn't drop you off the cliff."

Sadeena called through the portal, her head appearing in the air over me, "Need a hand?"

"I'll be fine. Just back up so it doesn't close on you."

"This would be so handy for shopping..." She gave me a mock salute and vanished from the air over me.

I closed the portal, then pulled myself up. After a little dusting off, I walked along the ledge, turned, and looked at my first tree. I then took a single step, and felt myself step into my 'territory' again. The gentle yet immovable power that came up from the very mountain I was on, the cooling shade of the tree's canopy above, and the small ball of snarling madness from the cursed dragon shard buried in the heart of the tree itself.

"Now that we are not embattled, I will admit this is a magnificent tree." Glass said as I descended the ramp I'd made. "Though..."

"Hmm?" I paused in front of the tree, putting my hand on the trunk and just feeling the world's pulse.

"I feel a certain unease here. Not born of your initial attempt to shackle me here. But something else."

I looked up, the swaying branches above seeming to twist and writhe, trying to trick my eyes into seeing foxes playing through the canopy. But there was something else too. The air here had a strange taste, a scent that wasn't quite real.

"I think I feel it too. That weird river in the sky HIDA saw would be flowing over, or even through this spot here. Or close enough... I'm going to find the other heroes..."

The other heroes were in Mirso proper, on top of the big walls and looking... grumpy. Now, it might have been because of me, or because of them arguing about 'who put down a marker for a portal', or even 'who was better at killing what'.

"Kodori." Motoyasu was still the only one who'd even attempt to meet my eyes. "Nice hair."

"Did I not get all the dust off?" I sighed, "Got bees in Lurolona now. Friendly, but they have no manners." I made an actual effort to shake the pollen out of my hair, "So. Watching the wall?"

"Yeah, been fighting on and off for a while now. First it was the bats, then heaps of monsters that they infected. We'd be mostly unneeded here, but those bats have already caused casualties..." He explained.

"If you get the egg, or what ever it is, early enough, you can save them." I nodded, "But otherwise... Yeah. So, something you know?"

Ren and Itsuki, from where they were leaning on the crenellations of the wall, looked over suddenly, sharply, at Motoyasu. But he ignored them, "Yeah. Super similar to the game I played. The bats and what they spawn, are pulling energy in for their boss. I don't know why, but their boss was a giant turtle. All the turtle shells on the monsters make me think its the same. So yeah."

"Why give it away? If your version of whatever you played is anything close..." Itsuki frowned.

"It's not about rare loot." Motoyasu said as he looked over his shoulder. When he looked back to me, he had the same look I did when dealing with them. "In my version, killing the monsters only delayed a timer. Of course, being a pro gamer, I never had the timer hit zero."

I rolled my eyes at him, then looked past him, "What about you two?"

Ren shook his head, Itsuki looked away.

"Well, are we going to report to the queen then?" I asked.

Itsuki snapped at me, "You can go if you want. No point in us all going."

Ren shrugged, and Motoyasu and I had another silent rock paper scissor match. "I'll try and keep them from getting killed." He sighed.

"Where's Kuro and Rishia? The rest of your parties?" I asked.

"Hopefully working together to gain a bit of XP. With the three of us sulking here..." He trailed off. "And lemme tell you, what ever you did for poor Rishia... What DID you do? I mean, she's like an entirely new girl!"

Itsuki 'humph'ed just loud enough for me to hear, and I said, "I gave her a better mask. It's like someone who only dances when they're alone."

"Well, thank you." He said, "Anyhow. Go tell the Queen. Maybe try and bring knights back with you or something?"

I arrived in the Church of Four Heroes in Melromarc, made a super quick detour to Erhard's to drop off the Occulus that had HIDA on the other end, and just because, dropped off all the 'roughed out' armour bits I'd made already. Then, with the promise that he'd love his new friend, and a lot of money if he could get to work on it right away, I quick marched to the castle.

A short time later, I alone stood in the Queen's presence. She and Melty were in one of the smaller meeting rooms of the castle, the same one we'd attempted to have a 'four hero gathering' at, and looking over a map of Melromarc.

The Queen was... well, it might have been my imagination, but I think I saw a vein on her forehead twitch just once before she recovered her poise.

"We have been getting reports of all this." She nodded, "And as you say, the flying ones aren't so bad, but there is a decided jump in power between those and the 'yeti'." She explained, "As we are still a somewhat undermanned, I have enlisted the aid of every adventurer we could find to help."

"Frost?" I suggested.

"Once again in my employ." She nodded, "The reports..." She looked to Melty, who, with a hint of pride on her face, used a little magic. All at once, little dots appeared on the map. From east to west, Melromarc was practically cut in half by the line of dots. "Have made it essentially clear there is an origin point for these monsters."

She motioned with her fan to a place that might have been the mountain I saw far far off in the distance from my tree in Lurolona. "That's a good distance away." I said, "Oh wow... I seem to have lost track of time."

"Indeed. The Wave is not very far off, is it?"

"No." I replied, trying to count off the days since Cal Mira, and... "Damn..." I mumbled.

"Your efforts have been for a good cause." She said, "You say the other heroes are here?" She pointed at Mirso with the Fan.

"Yes. From what little they would tell me, they've kept that area safe. Motoyasu told me some of the villages around there were simply wiped out. But having been around there as well, I'm hoping the population was simply 'uprooted', not destroyed."

"I as well." She nodded with a regal sigh, "Very well. What of Lerno?"

"For the moment? Safe. My party is protecting it. The locals are quite tough too, though I would feel better if they had some help before I pulled my party out to fight... what ever this threat is. Motoyasu said it was a giant turtle."

The queen was silent for a moment, thoughtful, then nodded, "Melty. Your Queen needs you."

Melty perked up, "Yes?"

"Take Eclair, and her squad of knights, and hold Lerno. Kodori, bring your party back here, and once you are able, I will send you, and whomever else I can spare, to Mirso. From there, I hope you and the others will be able to defeat this 'giant turtle' Motoyasu spoke of."

"Understood. I still have..." I looked at the Portal Shield's cool-down timer. "A few minutes before I can start on that."

"Very well. In that case, I will speak of something pertinent to the Waves and this war between worlds we are fighting." She said, "The Seven Star Heroes."

"Oh?" I blinked, "Oh! The vassal weapons!"

She almost looked disappointed, but then hid a tiny smile behind the Fan, "Indeed. Our world has seven Vassal weapons, though, due to time and conflict, Melromarc only has access to one."

"The staff." I nodded.

"Indeed. This, I can only surmise, is a similar artifact from your world, is that correct, Glass?" If I didn't know better, I'd say the Queen was looking at my breasts with extreme focus.

"It is as you say." Glass admitted.

The Queen nodded, then looked back up at my eyes, "The one you fought in the Zeltobe arena does have a vassal weapon, but it is not from this world. At least, not by any accounts of the books I could find on the matter. As well, despite the moniker, there are eight vassal weapons in this world so far as I have been able to discover."

"Eight..." I thought for a moment, "I suppose it's hard to call the Vassal Carriage a weapon..."

"Indeed. Though, I do know it is in good hands, and would not think to ask for it from Fitoria." The Queen 'fu-fu'ed behind the fan. "Axe, Hammer, Gauntlet, Claw-"

"Fohl mentioned that one was in Siltvelt." I interrupted, then motioned for her to continue.

"Staff, Projectile and Whip." She finished, "Now, from our invading world, we know of the Scythe, and Fan." Again, that intense look between my breasts.

"I will not speak of them." Glass said firmly.

"We will deal with them as we find them." I said, "Well..." I scratched at an ear, "Keep me informed I suppose. Melty?"

"I will be ready in a few minutes." She said, "May I?" She looked up to her mother.

"Do well, and return to me." She said with a tiny smile.

"I'll go find Eclair." I said, giving Melty a wink and leaving them alone so she could get a hug when no one was watching the Queen.

NOTES!

Yes indeed... We move forward! Onward! Upward! And maybe even backwards... sigh...

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

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