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.
Naofumi uses the chance that the kaiju turtle's spirit bought him to draw in mouthfuls of air to recover, and to look around him at his allies. Most of them look to be in worse condition than himself. A few of his fellow fighters dropped head down into the dirt now that the pressure against them was gone. There are coarse cries for healers, but those who are in priestly robes look to be in the same condition as the exhausted fighters. In short, all the turtle spirit brought them was a short break to recover rather than long term relief. As for the American rich boy, his hammer has now grown another three sizes up from Naofumi's previous glance, but it's still nowhere near large enough to deal a decisive blow to the turtle.
"Don't let up. We still have to buy time for our heavy hitter. Pass these around." Naofumi quickly takes his healing potions out, and starts to pass them to the people standing, or sitting next to him. He was warned of the danger of taking too much magical potion too quickly. On how the harmful substance in these things would hurt one's body long term, or even short term when too much of them build up. But they have no other option unless they simply turn tail and run. Even that would likely not work. He doesn't know what happened to Fitoria, and she's probably in a similar state as them after she used her strange magic to save the Melromarc army from Astaroth. The portal to Yggdrasil is gone, and they would be caught up quickly by the turtle if they run without anything to hold its attention. No, fleeing is a choice that would lead to most people getting killed; they would have to stay and fight for a slim chance of survival.
"Watch out! ABOVE US!" Someone screamed among the people. Naofumi immediately looks up, and sees a few dozen dark tentacles, each as thick as a fully grown tree, arcing over all of their barriers and slamming down at them. The turtle alone is a moving mountain crushing down at everyone, but it also has countless vine tendrils grown out of its body, which are just as deadly to them.
Naofumi opens his hand up and raises his arm upwards. He could still use his miracle magic to make another barrier, but most of his strength has already been expended creating the [Tortoise] to stop the kaiju turtle's advance. He doesn't know if his effort would amount to anything other than an easily torn apart sheet of paper.
But as it turns out, he didn't have to find out as countless bolts of light trail through the sky behind him, shooting at the many vine tendrils that's about to fall on them, but hasn't had the time yet. Individually, they are nothing more than someone trying to shoot a tree down with bullets. But the amount of them makes up for their lack of individual strength, bouncing the many plant tentacles back, even breaking large chunks of them down onto the ground. Naofumi recognizes this, it's the technique Itsuki used when his friends came to help him against the Three Heroes' Church, also on the plain south of Stormwind city.
But this [Arrow Storm] looks completely different from the one Itsuki used from before. He looks behind, and on a small hill overlooking where they stand, Itsuki is crouched on his knees while holding up his bow with his good hand. Rishia stands over his shoulder, pulling the string of his bow for him. In front of them and all around them, countless beastmen with lizard, or other amphibian faces, are shooting their arrows. "Don't let up! We have to help our allies!"
"NU! The CHAMPION OF THE SEA REALM will not let the Shield Hero face this threat alone!" came the shout from a lizardman with a deep blue, almost black scale. The dark cloak he wears below in the wind, a wave of blue aura dancing around him like waves while bubbles flow around him. He also wields a great bow like Itsuki, and every time he releases his arrows, he also releases multiple streams of water around him. He doesn't know what the lizardman is so excited for, but he can still hazard a guess that he came from Siltvelt. Just like Faubley, there are still Siltvelt people willing to do the right thing during a world-ending crisis, political gain and consequences be damned.
"The Faubley Airship is going down!" Hayate's alarmed voice makes Naofumi look up. Sure enough, the battleship with blimp on each side is now billowing black smoke as it's plunging down towards the sea west of Stormwind city. For a brief moment, it violently twitches, almost like it's going to crash right on land, maybe towards the turtle. But manages to correct its course, heading towards the ocean instead.
Chapter 56: Maximilian's Flash
"All systems critical! We aren't generating enough lift, she's going down! Permission to abandon ship, general?" Arthur Weasley turns to look at General Ironwood, and the Faubley general gives the Minister of Technomancy a grim nod. The airship is considered one of the pinnacle of their world's magic technology advancement, and having a flying battleship is the ultimate display of a nation's wealth and power. Of course, it's also the most dangerous form of travel and conducting warfare, since there's no direction to go but down once the vassal sustained enough damage, and the landing is rough even if they have a large body of water to break their fall. As a result, there are enough lifeboats with permanents [Feather Fall] enchanted into them for the crew to make a safe landing.
"All non-essential crew may head for the lifeboats. In the meantime, we'll try to preserve 'Gerard the Golden' as well as possible and make an emergency landing in the ocean." The general gives his command with as neutral a voice as he can manage, but his mind isn't as serene as he outwardly carries himself.
With Gerard the Golden falling, he could use the airship itself as a final attack on the Spirit Tortoise. Its weight, its downward momentum, and the fuel and ammunition inside would no doubt deal a significant amount of damage to the turtle, if not outright obliterate it. All he has to do is order everyone to abandon ship, while he takes it straight down into the turtle. It would be the right thing to do for him in this situation. He is a general. It's expected for him to die on the battlefield against a worthy foe. And there would be none that's more fitting than a Guardian Beast taken over by someone who tried to invade their world from the outside. Yet... the general finds himself unable to override his previous order. Was he afraid of his own demise, or perhaps in the deepest core of his mind, he still wishes to preserve strength for his nation in spite of looking down at the politicians for their self-serving ways.
"Aye, it's brave of you to try saving Gerald the Golden, general. She's the very first air battleship in our fleet. It would strike a major blow to our troops' morale if we lose her here in this battle. Well, I suppose I'll have to stay alongside you in that case. There's no other soul on this ship that knows all of her systems better." Lord Arthur nods his head, clearly misinterpreting Ironwood's thoughts. It's okay. This is a case where he doesn't want to be honest due to the sense of shame he feels. He can make excuses about how the situation isn't bad enough for him to do a suicide run with Gerald the Golden yet, but he wonders if he can do it without hesitation when the situation truly calls for it. Regardless of what he thinks, Gerald the Golden sails over the turtle, plunging down towards the sea west of the abandoned Stormwind city.
The general quickly pushes all of his doubt back to the darkest recess of his mind. The battle is not over yet, and he still needs to help his allies achieve victory even if he's not willing to commit his own life, and Gerald the Golden to it. It would have been immensely useful if he can command certain special field agents, those fleshcrafter warriors from the Unspeakables, alas, as a general his jurisdiction doesn't include special service. Thankfully, he had done his own due diligence for situations like this. He turns to a certain magical thief they comprehended, and 'conscripted' into the army as a special 'consultant'. "Fouquet. You are up. Do your best to hold the turtle down while we adjust."
"Setting me up against a Guardian Beast? If I didn't know better, I would think that you were trying to kill me." The former thief narrows her eyes at him. She might want to show further belligerence, but the inky mark below her neck stops her from being too undisciplined. "I'll do what I can, but I expect you to hold your end of the bargain, Ironwood."
Naofumi sits on the ground with his legs crossed, using every bit of chance to recover his own stamina even with the potion's help as the turtle's spirit pushes against its emptied body. It's smaller, but doesn't appear to be losing, so he can afford a bit of his attention elsewhere. Particularly, at the falling airship. He can see smaller bits breaking off the side, and briefly wonders if the ship is coming apart. But the smaller chunks descend down much slower than the larger ship, so they look like some kind of escape pods? The ship itself finally crashes headfirst into the ocean, sending a large wave and briefly looking like it'll go under. But it rises its head after a few moments of struggle, defiance against its end. The blimps on its side finally shrinks down, and a massive sail fully opens up as it turns around, moving towards the port, probably to pick up the crew that escaped in the many smaller boats.
A stone golem rises up from the ground, and Naofumi has to look back at the standing mages to make sure Katarina's adopted brother hasn't broken away from their ritual. Another mage who can summon giants, stone golems, and from Faubley. If he remembered correctly, one of the regions of that country was Tristan...
"[Tera Starstorm]." The voice of the turtle came out of the energy turtle, as crystal-like shards broke off its translucent body, blowing at its own body like a gust of broken glasses together with the countless arrows. They chip away the turtle's body, making mounds of flesh peeling off, and then further reduce them down to dust. While it recovers from this attack, the many vine tendrils growing from its many wounds lack its regeneration power and gets reduced down to nothing more than harmless stumps where only the thickest part at the base remain, hanging harmlessly off the side of the turtle.
"Damn. I thought you were joking when you said you had tea with Terapagos. Tell us next time when you have a legendary on hand, we wouldn't have to be so worried if we knew." Motoyasu reaches his hand over, and slaps Naofumi on the shoulder. To be honest, he was trying to make light of that particular situation. He didn't even think about how one of the four Guardian Beasts of this world would equal a top tier legendary Pokemon.
"Stop fucking around and take the time to recover. We don't know what else might be waiting for us, and we have to prepare for the worst." Motoyasu turns to him with a puzzled looking face. Like he's genuinely believing the battle is about to be over. Seeing that his friend still has a nonchalant expression, Naofumi further emphasizes. "Don't you remember what happened to the Life Root we fought? Malty dropped a small magic nuke on it, and it still kept going."
A rumbling sound can be heard from overhead. Naofumi turns his attention away from Motoyasu and looks up, straight at the massive body of the kaiju turtle. He sees all the stumps of the mutated red bioplant slowly retracting inside the turtle's body, and immediately knew it was a bad sign. Till' this point, the bioplant born from Bed-chan's seed (which was planted by Raphtalia... he probably shouldn't bring it up to further incriminate her in front of everyone) hasn't shown any sign of higher sentience, acting more like an animal that acts upon instinct just like the turtle's body, which now he knew lacks a proper mind inside.
It burst out of the turtle, violently lashing at anyone who tried to harm its host's body without any sign of tactics. But now, it shows a clear intention to protect itself, letting the turtle take the brunt of the attacks. It still isn't clear, but this shows it at least has potential to think.
Naofumi looks back at the American rich boy once again. The hammer he is holding above his head has stopped growing, but a giant golden field of energy made of golden lightning has been created right on top, making his hammer look like a handle instead. He still isn't showing any intention to slam it down on the turtle, so Naofumi assumes he still hasn't gathered enough energy. Further back, all the magic users who gathered together had created some kind of purple energy sphere above their head. Clearly the thing that's intended as a backup plan if the American rich boy's technique fails. "They still need more time, but things aren't helpless with the turtle's spirit helping us now-"
The loud rumbling coming from the turtle's body becomes even louder, until it's broken by a loud squishing sound as something much larger and thicker than any of the previous vine tendril bursts out. It was a single, elongated red plant that consisted of dozens upon dozens, possibly even a hundred vines all twisted together, taking the form of a giant serpent coming out from the side of the turtle's body. The plant 'serpent' coils around, dodging out of the way of the smaller, energy turtle as its 'head' lunges down at the Hammer Hero, and probably the many mages standing even further back.
"[FORCE]!" Naofumi, who had kept his attention mostly on the threat, reacted immediately, throwing out his strongest miracle attack till this point. He didn't pick the more damaging [Lightning Spear] miracle, choosing the strong repelling, concussive [Force] miracle in an effort to keep his allies safe, and his gambit seemingly paid off. He manages to bounce the plant 'serpent' away, even for a brief moment. But he knew the thing would immediately come back for a second attack as soon as it recovers from its recoil.
"[Meteor Beam]." Multiple translucent, glass like shards gather before the turtle spirit like a solar array, it turns around to the side, aiming for the vine 'serpent' as light gathers in the center. Just as it's about to fire, the leg from the turtle's body suddenly leaps forward, knocking into the turtle spirit, disrupting his aim just enough to have the white beam he fired only scraping by the vine serpent, leaving a burn mark but not destroying it as the vine descent for another attack.
Motoyasu holds his spear over his head and tosses it out, leaving only a trail of golden electricity as it rockets towards the vine serpent. Katarina puts the axe on her back, cups her hand back, and shoots out her ki attack. Kuro the fox stands up on Bertia's shoulder, a wyvern shaped shadow forms behind her as she brings both of her hands up in front, shooting out a dark purple wave. "[THUNDER VOLT[KAMEHAMEHA[DARKNESS TERROR WAVE:MAXIMUM PRECAUTION]!"
All three attacks, golden lightning bolts, white ki balls, and dark purple destructive waves mixed together, taking the form of a dark purple wyvern covered in a cloak of lightning, holding an orb in its mouth as it soars at the base where the vine serpent burst out of the turtle. Naofumi isn't sure who made this move between Motoyasu, Katarina and Bertia, but it's no doubt the smartest one at the moment. As the base where it came out of the turtle will be the hardest, if not impossible spot where it can't easily move its serpentine body. The many vines of the serpent's 'head' untangle itself, opening up like a blossoming flower as it suddenly lowers itself and takes the attack heads on. Sacrificing the 'head' to protect the base, since its core is actually inside the heart of the turtle. With a loud boom, the 'head' of the red bioplant serpent is reduced to a smoking stump, but the vine continues to grow out of the turtle's side, and a new 'head' quickly reforms. Motoyasu, and his two companions on the other hand are both on their knees, sweat dripping down from their head like falling rain. They clearly can't pull off another attack like that.
"We can't destroy it with a single, powerful attack. We just have to distract it, keep it away from our mages and Rich Boy for them to charge their attack!" Naofumi readies another [Force] miracle, but someone acted before he did. In front of everyone's eyes, ten trails of white, thin beams fly into the vine snake. They don't look impressive individually, or collectively compared to the attack launched by Motoyasu and his companions a moment ago, but every single beam begins to cut through the tangled vines, like unraveling a ball of yarn. The sound of a galloping beast can be heard coming their way, and Naofumi sees Seliph and Kyo riding. The Book Hero has a strange looking aura of light surrounding his body as he fires more beams out of his finger tips. Now that they are closer, Naofumi manages to see that the tip of his beam has what seems to be small dragon heads. The Book Hero pushes his spectacles up the bridge of his nose, and slaps Seliph's shoulder between firing off more of his finger beams. "Alright, boy. Show them what I taught you!"
The blue-haired knight pulls out a sword. Naofumi notices it's one of the regular steel blades, and not his fancy looking Tyrfin sword. Seliph leaps up, and runs on the back of the turtle's spirit shell, and then makes another leap towards the vine serpent. He swings his steel sword as he goes, leaving a shower of vines falling behind him. Everyone of his slashes look nonchalant instead of calculated, like he's simply flailing his arms around, but he cuts the bioplant vine down just like Kyo as he fires more of the dragon-shaped beams out of his fingers.
"I see. The knight boy got taught some practical skills by someone who knows what they are doing." Zellus' voice makes Naofumi turn to look at the maverick knight. His eyes seem to be glittering, but Naofumi certainly doesn't know what got him so excited. His attention wasn't on Naofumi though, as he turned to look at the pale haired woman with a ponytail standing beside him. "You figured out what he's doing here, little bird?"
"He's no longer using his foul dragon power, yet he's cutting the bioplant down like he's cutting grass even with less power. Ah, of course! He's letting his blade glide through the weakness of his enemy, attacking them where they are weak, almost like he's merely splitting his enemy apart like a fruit." Karasuba's eyes also slowly lights up, and manages to explain the situation in a way that Naofumi can understand.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go give those two a hand." Karasuba turns back into her bird form with a pop, her beak holding the handle of her blade. Zellus jumps onto her back, and she runs up and leaps at the vine serpent. In the air, her body spins and changes back to her human form, as she and Zellus land on the opposite side from Seliph, and all of them begin to cut it down. They aren't completely destroying the red bioplant, but they are cutting it down fast enough that it could no longer attack anyone, having to spend all of its time and energy to regrow its vines just to stay in proper shape. The vine serpent shakes and waves violently, trying to throw away all three fighters on it unsuccessfully.
"I'm ready - everyone, out the way!" The voice of the American rich boy suddenly comes from behind. Naofumi turns back, and sees the energy field on his hammer has grown to roughly half the size of the kaiju turtle. There is also a white sphere hanging over the head of the gathered mages, looking less impressive compared to the size of the hammer, but probably still packs a serious punch. With that final warning, the Hammer Hero brings his weapon down towards the turtle. Naofumi feels, more than seeing how the air split apart in the path his attack travels. Both Seliph, Zellus and Karasuba jump off the bioplant, Dio and Tact also split apart as the golden hammer crushes into the body of the turtle and everything turns into pure white and pure black. There's no sound of explosion, or anything else in the world, and Naofumi wonders if his sense of hearing has simply been taken away with the impact of the attack. When his vision starts to return, he can see the vine serpent, and the turtle's head and most of its body are gone, with only a lump of red organs with twitching red tendrils pulsating in the ruin.
The mages didn't waste any time, throwing their gathered spirit bomb spell straight at the turtle's heart. The small whiskers of plant tendrils waves, trying to put up some kind of defense, but they are clearly too frail after the Hammer Hero's ultimate attack. The Spirit Bomb hits the mark, and obliterates the pulsating heart with the plant inside. The four legs of the turtle, previously like some kind of pillar that holds up the sky slowly crumbles as it's finally destroyed. Naofumi draws in another deep breath, half expecting something else to come out, because it often feels like something worse pops up whenever they have some advantage. But even after a good few minutes nothing happens. Even the light construct turtle slowly disappears. It seems like... they finally won? Exhausted cheers break out all around him. All Naofumi can think of at the moment is simply: It's so great to be alive.
His eyes slowly cast towards the sky, thinking over the fake Shin Getter summoned by Astaroth. He... doesn't know if the thing was trying to help them, or making things harder for them. On the one hand, it was fighting the body of the kaiju turtle for a while, even leaving more wounds on it than their own giant monsters (and supposedly those two dragons were big deals). On the other hand, all the wounds that it left didn't meaningfully contribute to the turtle, and the new bioplant's defeat. It actually made the battle harder for them. And he did see three rays of light escape after the turtle destroyed its form. It obviously doesn't look like the three transforming planes that would combine into the actual Getter Robo. More like... the porting skill he and his fellow heroes used. He can't help but think whatever the fake Shin Getter was, they haven't seen the last of it. What do you think, Terapagos? Do you recognize them?
Terapagos? Is that my new name? Hmm... I like it. The turtle spirit got his attention taken by pointless trivia rather than his main question. Naofumi takes a pause, and remembers that he's not the actual legendary pokemon he named the turtle after. I can't be sure. My senses are attached to you, and I lost my ability to focus on a specific point in the world. But the feeling they give is familiar... like Alaya's WEAPONs like you. No... that can't be right. Now that I think about it. One of them feels almost exactly like Alaya's RUBY WEAPON standing right beside you.
It takes Naofumi a few seconds more to realize the turtle meant Motoyasu. He turns to look at his friend, and sees Motoyasu jumping around and dancing with his two female companions. Well... it's a good skill to remain happily optimistic regardless of the situation he found himself in. Motoyasu notices his gaze, pulls his hands away from his companions and slaps him on the shoulder. "What's with the long face, Naofumi? We won! This is time for celebration!"
"Yeah... I suppose you are right..." Naofumi turns his head, and sees the three bird princes he sent to fight in the sky coming back. Avdol was being half carried by his two companions, with his arms slung over both of their shoulders. A deep wound on his right side. "What happened? Did the turtle and the plant do this to you?"
"I take full responsibility for failing you, my king." Kael'thas shifts Avdol's full weight onto Cleose, and goes on his knees. "I noticed a strange man, riding on an armor plated flying beast coming out of the portal created by the Mirror Demon, so I went to intercept the man, trying to discover his intentions and origins. He refuses to answer any question and attacks. But I could not detain him and he escaped right back into the dimensional tear opened by the Mirror Demon. Prince Mohammed was wounded saving me from one of his attacks."
"Flying beast... with armored plate, you say?" Naofumi is immediately reminded of the B't from Masami Kurumada's manga/anime series [B't X]. But he also witnessed something that looks exactly like Shin Getter, yet turns out to be something more like himself and his fellow hero friends. He would reserve judgement after he witnessed the thing himself, because he has a feeling it would come back. Naofumi looks up into the sky, more concerned about the other thing Kael'thas brought up. "The dimensional tear, you say?"
Sure enough, he can see something hanging over everyone's head further south in the sky. It's something that's hard to notice at first, a part of the sky that simply looks strange. Like the scene doesn't connect quite right at the seams, almost like looking through a refracting piece of glass. It's easily overlooked so that's probably why nobody has said anything yet. Because the kaiju turtle was the much more apparent threat. Yet now that he noticed it, he can't unsee it either. Kael'thas also looks up, and his eyes narrowed, mouth turning slightly to the side in concern. "Yes. I fear that armored demon that got into a fight with the Spirit Tortoise wasn't the final attack that the Mirror Demon had on us. He clearly created a more permanent tear in the world, and we'll see more things emerge later. That strange interloper riding the armored flying beast is likely only an initial scout, and he almost bested me in battle."
"Come on then. Let's bring your concern to everyone." Naofumi wasn't sure what he should say to Kael'thas. So he sends a healing miracle to Avdol, and then pats Kael'thas on the shoulder as an encouragement. But when he turns his attention back to the other gathered heroes, he suddenly realizes that the situation has turned very bad very quickly. The young soldier Jenkins stands right in front of the American rich boy, with his arms stretched outwards like he's using his body to shield the Hammer Hero. And the reason for this is very clear on the other side, where Tact hits his whip cranked back, ready to attack. The only reason he hasn't is because Dio is blocking the younger hero with his arm.
"I don't know why you won't let me end this mad fool right here and there! All this mess with the Shiltfreeden Civil War, and this fucker with his band of rebel scum could have been avoided if you let me kill him in the Hero Academy!" Tact glares daggers at Dio, looking like he wants to tear apart the white tiger with his teeth. "Do you think the stupid fuck is going to be grateful for you, and stop his plan to kill all the nobility, which include you and your family?!"
"I will not stop this righteous struggle for the good of the common people, till all of them are free from the cruelty and oppression of the nobility, and the slave masters." Even as everyone glaring at him, the American rich boy stands tall. If anything, he seems to look proud in face of all this opposition. "Your intentions are noble, Mr. Dionysia. But you, and your family, still benefit from the exploitation of the common people. That is why you need to face the judgement of the people in the end. However, if you are willing to give up your decadent ways, we will take your aid in consideration."
"You heard him. It doesn't matter if you let him live now, because he's an ungrateful, self-righteous bastard who only cares about what he wants! Not what you did for him. It's best to deal with him right now, so we don't have to worry about his little rebellion on top of the Wave, and whatever otherworld fuckers who are trying to take our world." Tact takes another step forward, but Dio didn't release his hand. If anything, he probably increased his strength since Tact suddenly falls back on the ground.
"He risked his life fighting the Spirit Turtle. We wouldn't have been able to kill it without him. Regardless of what he does in the future, he earned his safe passage today." Dio's glare looms over Tact and gives him a severe warning at the Faubley Prince before slowly looking at everyone else around him. He was only talking to the Whip Hero, but the warning clearly wasn't only aimed at him. Finally, his gaze focuses on the American rich boy. "I have no interest in playing whatever game you are doing with the commoners. Do whatever you want. But knowing that if you dare to harm any of my people, I will end you."
"It's a shame that you refuse to share empathy with your people and liberate them, but I understand why you would not. You are raised in this evil world, and you would think using strength to dominate others is perfectly okay. The same can't be said for some of the other people." The American rich boy slowly moves his eyes from Dio to Tact... and finally sets them on Naofumi. "You, Mr. Iwatani, have no such excuse, because you came from a modern, enlightened world just like me. You should know the kind of cruelty slavery would subject a person to. Yet, you willingly choose to subject the people under you with such cruel oppression. Your usage of slavery can not be forgiven."
Naofumi didn't know how the verbal lashing suddenly fell onto his head, nor was he prepared for the American rich boy to turn on him with the drop of a dime. But both Malty and Sato ended up reacting to his accusation faster than himself. "Silence! you mongrel!" "Shut up! You asshole!"
The two of them look at each other with disgusted expressions, clearly not happy to find out that they actually agreed on something. But after a brief pause, they decided to ignore each other and aim their anger at the American rich boy. Malty is the first one to voice her disagreement. "How dare you compare Master Naofumi to those lowly skin merchants without understanding his actions, you uncultured cur! He only uses it to make sure criminals don't step out of their line when they fight the wavespawn and other monsters, not trading them around like merchants! If anything, I'd say he's been more merciful than most others would be to such criminals by giving them a chance to redeem themselves!"
Naofumi appreciated Malty vehemently defending him from Rich Boy but at the same time couldn't help but feel like that was a cheap excuse to justify what was genuinely an abhorrent moral decision on his part. He did catch out of the corner of his eye Azula rolled her eyes at Malty's words and he had a decent guess as to what she was thinking. Sure, Naofumi gave them a 'second chance' but it doesn't really feel much like a second chance when the only other option at the time was death and he did basically plan to use them as glorified cannon fodder against the Wave.
"YEAH! You are just a blind and stupid moral absolutist who puts down Naofumi-sama to make yourself look better!" Sato immediately jumps in right after Malty, displaying surprising teamwork with the one who he claims to hate. "Naofumi-sama treats his slaves well, he takes care of their needs and makes sure they grow strong so they can take care of themselves!"
"The fact that you haven't started trading other people like they are objects shows that your actions are still redeemable. But your actions are still shortsighted, and ultimately harmful to the people of this world." The American rich boy turns his finger to Naofumi, rather than replying directly back to Malty and Sato. "You might claim your specific use of slavery is for the good of those under you. But your use of the slave seal is still an explicit endorsement for the entire system, which is built to specifically benefit the social elites and have them dominate over the common people. Because in case you forget, the very seal that allows you to keep the criminals in line are torture device, and kill switch for the slave masters to keep the people they control in line. Even if you benefit the people immediate to you for the short term, your action will cause much greater, long term harm to the people. As for you taking criminals and forcing them into the penal legion, it's even worse because you are explicitly using the slave seal's punishment to force people to follow your orders. Those who seek to exploit other, innocent people will use your example to justify their own actions. If you truly wanted to have criminals fight for you, you should not have taken the easy way and forced them with the slave seal. You should either set up a system that would find those among criminals who can still be reformed, and monitor them through other, more proper ways. And if you truly can't trust criminals to fight for you without forcing a torture device and killswitch on them, maybe you ought to punish them properly rather than use slavery to achieve what you wanted."
"Bullshit, AND MORE BULLSHIT! How dare you fault Naofumi-sama for someone else's actions! If some other fuckers mistreat their slaves, that's their own fault and you should talk with them!It has nothing to do with Naofumi-sama! You are just inventing ways to hate on him!" Sato practically stomps on his feet as he points his finger at the Hammer Hero. He gets close enough to them, that the young soldier Jenkins has to slap his hand away. Atla lets out a snarl sound, and lunges out at the young soldier, but she's held back by her brother.
"You may claim that your actions are different from the rest of the slave masters and skin merchants. But, they will always claim that their actions are the same as one of the world's heroes, therefore justified. And as someone who was summoned to this world from a modern society, you should know this, and therefore have no excuses for your actions. The people of this world look up to us modern day heroes and our actions and take it as gospel. Will you keep hiding behind your lackeys, and your excuse of non-involvement? Or will you take responsibility for your own actions?" The American rich boy looks down on Naofumi with disappointed eyes. And the look burns him. It's not like he cares that much about what the rich boy thinks about him. But of all the people in this world, or more specifically, all the other summoned heroes, Naofumi doesn't want to give this particular person who came from his own world a reason to look down on him. Yet, because of his growing sense of complacency, he caused the exact thing he wanted to avoid to happen.
"He has a point. This is exactly the reason why I didn't agree with Naofumi using a slave seal. He just said it better than I did." Itsuki's voice sounds more coarse than his usual as he's being helped over by Rishia.
"WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON, ITSUKI!? I thought you were our friends! Why are you siding with this fucker over Naofumi?!" Motoyasu jumps right in front of him before Malty, or even Sato has the time to react and points an accusatory finger at Itsuki.
"I'm on Naofumi's side! That's why I don't want to see him making mistakes. I thought he made a mistake forcing those pirates into slavery to serve him all the way since we returned from that island! But I couldn't put my thoughts together to say why he was wrong." Itsuki points the finger on his good arm over at the American rich boy. "He said everything I wanted to say, but couldn't! That's why I think Naofumi should stop using slavery to force others to fight for him! Because in the end, people like Raphtalia and her friends are the ones to get hurt!"
"YES, OF COURSE! RAPHTALIA! We should ask Raphtalia for her opinion!" Itsuki's words seem to have inspired Sato, for some reason. He spins on his heel and half runs, half jumps his way over to Raphtalia, puts his hands on her shoulders while glaring at the American rich boy. "For all of your posturing, you never asked the opinion of people who went through slavery first hand! Go on, Raphtalia. Tell the clueless fool how wrong he is. Tell him that Naofumi-sama is in the right, and you support him no matter what!"
Raphtalia doesn't speak up. In fact, she dips her head down, seemingly trying to bury her face in her own chest. From this act alone, Naofumi knew that she agrees with the American rich boy more than himself unlike what his self-proclaimed biggest fan says. He doesn't want all of this pressure to be placed on his surrogate daughter like she needs to agree with him, because it clearly makes her distressed. But he also knows he has to face the consequences of his own actions, and Raphtalia has to speak up at this moment. So with the most gentle voice he can muster, he encourages his surrogate daughter to speak her mind. "Go on, Raphtalia. Tell everyone how you truly feel. Out of everyone here, you have the most say on this subject because you were subjected to slavery. Nobody has any right to tell you how you should think."
Raphtalia's eyes carefully look up, stealing a few glances on Naofumi's face. She didn't even dare to meet him in the eyes as she immediately looked away twice. And on the third attempt, she finally locks eyes with him, and sees his encouraging face. Naofumi gives her another nod, hoping to let her know that he fully supports her even if she would side with the American rich boy over himself. And finally, Raphtalia takes a deep breath and speaks up. "I... I think the Hammer Hero was correct. All the other slave masters, the bad ones. They'll point at Master Naofumi using slavery, and use it to justify their own actions."
Needless to say, Raphtalia's reply surprised a lot of people. Sato immediately releases his hands off Raphtalia's shoulders, almost like he's being burned. Motoyasu looks at Raphtalia with a halfway tipped head, clearly bamboozled at her answer. Malty's mouth moved a couple of times, seemingly unable to speak up before finally letting words come out of her mouth. "Raphtalia... do you- do you blame Master Naofumi for what he did?"
"NO! I would never blame Master Naofumi for what he does. He's been like a father to me, ever since I was taken in by him. If he's going to keep enslaving criminals to fight the Wave, I'll continue to support him." Raphtalia's eyes slowly move away from Malty, to Naofumi, and finally settle on the American rich boy. "But I also know what he said will happen in the future. And more people like Rifana will get hurt. Because the slave owners are greedy. And they will use every excuse to justify their own actions."
"Now do you see it? Even your own allies and underlings, who are clearly mindful of your wants more than theirs, are voicing their concerns. Now, if you truly want everyone to believe you want to do good to this world, you should do the right thing. Release those who are enslaved to you, and denounce the action itself to make up for your past wrongdoings." The American rich boy's words sound like nail scraping through glass to Naofumi. But he will own up to his mistakes. Not because it's what the rich boy said, but because it's the right thing to do.
"Malty. Do you remember what happened back after the first Wave we fought together? Where I was accused of having shirked away from my hero's duty? I told everyone that I would not take the easy way out." Malty's eyebrows slightly untwist themselves as Naofumi asks her to remember the past event, which only happened about a month ago. She has a look on her face that looks like she's trying to remember another lifetime ago, and Naofumi feels much the same. "But now I made a mistake, and I did take the easy way out. Rich- the Hammer Hero is right. Even if I wanted to have criminals fight the Wave over the innocent people, there are ways to do it that would require more effort, but leave less of a problem for the self-serving nobles and rich people who treat other people like animals. This means that I have to own up to it, like he said."
"I don't see any problem with what you have done, Master Naofumi. I think you are being too hard on yourself again, and let someone with nefarious purposes manipulate you again." Malty shoots a scathing glare at the direction of the American rich boy, before she looks at Raphtalia with much softer expression. "But I understand Raphtalia's concern. I will follow you no matter what you choose to do."
"Very well. In that case... you have the holy water needed to remove the seal?" Naofumi slowly turns his face towards Dread Pirate Robert, and all of his subordinates. He turns his attention towards the Sons of Biscas members, and Cain nods back. "All of you have risked your lives fighting Astaroth, his subordinates, and the giant turtle. I consider your past crimes paid. All of you have earned your freedom back. And you may opt to follow me, or whomever you choose, until you break another law, in which case I will hold you responsible for."
Most of the former pirates look at each other, clearly unsure of what they want to do even as the Sons of Biscas knights begin to wash the slave seal off their chests. Azula looks the most astounded as she is freed from the slave seal, the Sons of Biscas washing off the kill switch torture tattoo from her chest as if it was never there.
" That is…actually surprising." Azula said in what seems to be a rare moment of genuine surprise for her." Huh."
She didn't get a chance to say much more as a dark-skinned man pushes through his former companions to stand before the American rich boy. "You. Hammer Hero. Did you speak the truth? That you intend to free all of the people from the oppression of the nobles, and the wealthy slave masters?"
"I understand you know nothing of my past. But I assure you, I wish for nothing but to bring liberty, equality, and happiness to people by taking the rich, and the elites to task for their former offenses. The nation I came from has no aristocrats who rule others simply because of their birth, where people are free to choose who represent and serve them, and everyone has the capacity to achieve their full potential. I aim to bring such a world to Medea, and free the common people who are being oppressed by those who are born into wealth, or social status." Naofumi fights back the urge to roll his eyes at the American rich boy's posturing. His words might carry more meaning, if he himself wasn't someone who was born into wealth in their world.
"If your words are true, I pledge my blade for your goal." The dark-skinned man goes down to a single knee, as do most of the other pirates.
"What? You are leaving, Adewale? Just like that?" The former captain of the pirates raises his arms and gives his dark skinned (soon to be former, if his words imply that he'll be staying) companion a bewildered shrug.
"Aye, Edward. For I've another calling elsewhere. To fight beside a man so driven by personal gain and glory is a hard thing, Edward. And I have come to feel the rebels - and their creed - a more honourable course." The dark skinned former pirate explained with a somewhat sad expression as he seemed to not enjoy doing this.
"You've known this fool for all of five minutes and you're already bending the knee and pledging your blade to him just because he spews pretty words about justice and liberty?" Azula gave a much less kind response as she crossed her arms in disappointment at her former companion. But Naofumi did notice the sad look in her eye as she spoke." I know you've always been the sappy, searching for a higher calling type, but at least spend more than a few minutes with somebody before foolishly pledging your life and blade to their cause."
"Perhaps I am a fool, but I have always been the type of man to follow his own creed and beliefs, come hell or high water." The dark-skinned pirate didn't seem to take offense at Azula's words." When your heart and your head are ready, visit us. I think you'll understand then..." The dark skinned former pirate, Adewale rises his arm and opens his hand at his former captain. With that final gesture, he turns around and leaves with the American rich boy, the young soldier, and most of his former crew members.
Omake: Re-Take of the Sword Hero 3
Thick forests give way to an open plain, a winding river, farming field, and a great tree in the distance. Ren can only assume that after a week, they have finally crossed Death Forest and arrived at the destination Kizuna and the Fan Hero, Glass (to set her apart from Bertia's personal maid) have been traveling towards. The tree wasn't the most impressive he has seen since his summoning, because Bed-chan exists. But its height certainly dwarfs the young dryad.
"That's the central tree of the Great Tree village, Ren! We are finally here! Now we can get help from Honoka-chan, and L'arc-san!" Kizuna hops on her feet, clearly excited. In the distance, Ren can see a horde of something coming straight at them, so he immediately settles into a fighting stance. He doesn't know how well he would do against the enemy with his level suffered from the reduction, but it'll be better than nothing. And as the dark horde gets closer, he realizes it's a group of a dozen dark-maned wolves with thin, sharp, almost lightning shaped horns on their forehead. Just as he's ready to step forward and fight them, Kizuna quickly stands between him and the wolves. "STOP! The Kuros are harmless if we are friendly! They are simply coming to see if we are here to invade them!"
Ren turns to look at Glass. Sure enough, the veteran hero also looks completely relaxed at the coming dark, horned wolves. So he steps, brings his sword back up and relaxes his feet. The wolves seem to recognize Kizuna, as they quickly stop snarling and begin to run into her. Nuzzling against her with their snots like a group of eager puppies. Kizuna laughs, and runs her hand through their fur.
"Don't let their looks fool you, sky kid. These wolves are much stronger than the common bonedog, or even their advanced form mountain dogs." Gaelion suddenly spoke up atop of Wyndia's head. The dragon lord might have been reduced to a baby dragon, but he seems to still have his previous experience. "If you try to fight them head on, you'll quickly find them to be on the same level as the demigriffs.
"Is that so?" Ren looks at the unassumed looking horned wolves again. To be honest, he wants to test himself against this new kind of monster, but probably not at the moment. When he was fighting that 'kobold' (which was more like some kind of yeti), he got easily bested. His level has increased somewhat since then, but he's still far from at his best. He doubts he could fight a single demigriff, nevermind this horde of a dozen horned wolves which are just as strong.
"Can one of you good boys and girls go get L'arc-san, and Honoka-chan? We'll need their help." Kizuna gently taps her finger through the wolves' heads, and they respond immediately. One of them immediately bolts away from the group, running at the village at the foot of the great tree. The others split apart, line up on the side of their small group like some kind of escort. Ren still doesn't know how strong these creatures are individually, or fighting as a group. But they are already showing human-level intelligence and trained discipline even if they don't speak. It's further evidence that he would lose very quickly if he tries to fight them. As they walk through the field, he sees people, and monsters working together in the field. The monsters don't stop at the horned wolves either. There are bees with large, lance-shaped horns growing on their limbs, and small slime-like creatures like the putties that's since been attached to him like Naofumi's balloons.
"The Farming Hero, Honoka, was the luckiest hero to be summoned this time. The nation that summoned her was peaceful, only wanting to grow their field then expanding their influence and invading their neighbours. She's been using her ability to expand their agriculture, and the extra produce has even attracted a lot of monsters to co-exist with the scythe nation." Fan Hero Glass helpfully explains the situation to Ren. "The place you are looking at: The Great Tree Village, was her latest project. With both the Mirror 'Hero' and Katana 'Hero' going to war against each other and everyone else, Scythe Hero L'arc is gathering his people to withdraw from their war path. And Death Forest was the perfect place for them to take shelter in thanks to both the terrain, and the strong monsters living in it. Although with the way those two have been expanding, it's less likely they'll stay out of the conflict for long. Which is why we are coming to see them, and see if we can form some kind of alliance to protect us against the Mirror 'Hero', and the Katana 'Hero'.
"Did I hear my name? And what's this? The ever graceful, ever proud Fan Hero, Lady Glass gracing her presence in front of a dirtbag like me?" The voice is vaguely familiar to Ren, although the focus of the man's tone sounds all wrong. Too cheerful and aloof, rather than dour and impatient. Ren turns his face to look at the speaker, and finds Raruk, or rather, L'arc shares even less similarity as his counterpart than Fan Hero Glass.
The L'arc from Medea always had bags under his dark eyes due to his constant work of making potions and other healing items for Stormwind City. And while he puts in the effort of dressing professionally as a healer, his personal posture and cleanliness suffer because of it. This L'arc on the other hand is dressed in a sleeveless shirt and overall that makes him look more like a farmer, yet his appearance is clean and his spirits are high. Apparently, staying out of the ongoing war of this world and living like a hermit is doing this world's L'arc well.
"Cut the crap, L'arc. This is serious. Katana 'Hero' has forced the Cooking Hero to work for him. And if what this guy said is true, Mirror 'Hero' has invaded the world he was summoned to. Sword Hero of the world of Medea, by the way. He is apparently one of the cardinals of another world similar to Kizuna and Honoka." Fan Hero Glass glanced at Ren from the corner of her eyes. Scythe Hero L'arc's face becomes slightly more serious compared to before. "Go grab Honoka if she's still in the field. We need to talk about what to do with those two over ambitious clowns."
End Note:
For anyone not in Gundam fandom, this chapter's title is meant to be a reference to the novel/animated film [Hathaway's Flash].
So, I have mentioned that I actually liked this new version of how Spirit Tortoise battle is wrapped up over letting (Fake) Shin Getter slain it. And the main reason is not what actually happens in the actual battle (even though Naofumi getting a digimon partner certainly have been an idea I toyed around for a while now), but the verbal conflict that happens after the battle.
The verbal conflict Naofumi has against the Hammer Hero is meant to be a follow up to the verbal conflict with Astaroth before the entire battle, which is a follow up to Naofumi's confrontation with the queen. Just like before, it's meant to show different perspective of moralities (or immoralities in the case of Astaroth) driving conflict. But obviously in this case, the table gets flipped and Naofumi is the one who is being judged for not living up to moral standard.
And just in case me making Hammer Hero too self-righteous might make people think I'm trying to paint the Hammer Hero in a negative light (because he is meant to be an allegory of western society's pride in their own culture... currently represented by you know who), he's actually being my mouth piece here. As a lots of his accusations are what I had against canon Naofumi. Who obviously deserved it a lot more than this version. The part where Naofumi's number 1 fan accusing the Hammer Hero being a moral absolutist? Yeah. That's what one particularly eloquent shield simp accused me of being, because how dare I critic canon Naofumi for slapping killswitches/torture devices on people's chest.
This scene is of course, meant to show Naofumi's inner turmoil about his conflict of wanting to uphold more moral action, vs what would gain the immediate short term advantage because the wave is supposed to conclude within a year. And how different characters react to his actions. Particularly, this version of Raphtalia isn't going to give him unthink support like canon (to be fair, she didn't step up till Naofumi asked her to come out and voice her oppinion. But let's not forget that she's still a traumatized ten years old). And of course, the difference between Motoyasu and Itsuki where Motoyasu would place trust of people above, while Itsuki is more willing to hold up what he consider to be principles.
And of course. This new scene with the Hammer Hero also give me what resembles a future gaming plan about Adewale as a character. To be honest, about half a year ago (geez, time fly) when I was asked what I planned to do with Adewale... I didn't even think about adding him in this story. Because I literally had no idea what to do with him since Assassin's Brotherhood doesn't exist in this world. But then I realized Adewale doesn't have to join Assassin's Brotherhood to begin with. In fact, his ideology would works equally (in my uneducated opinion, would actually work better) with the rebels led by the Hammer Hero. So yeah, this gives a gaming plan about Adewale, and Hammer Hero gains a future, named lieutenant when he eventually goes into war with the main cast (does this count as a spoiler? I'm pretty sure I mentioned somewhere that the plan for this sequel is Cardinal Heroes VS (most) Vassal Heroes). Everyone wins(?).
Some final words about my personal philosophy/ideology. While there are obviously ideologies/philosophies I personally believe in stronger (as I mentioned before, I think the most effective leader for a large organization is someone with real Lawful Evil alignment, not to be mistaken for Stupid Evil pretending to be Lawful Evil like Palpatine or Voldy. More like Tanya from Youjo Senki), I don't think there's any real 'best plan' in left, let alone a 'the only right plan'. Real life and situations are complex, and different philosophies/ideologies all have different trade-offs rather than one being absolutely better than other (although obviously, some philosophy/ideology are better than others) depending on situation.
Obviously, this story is written by me, so how different characters are portrayed have my subjective bias as a result. It is NOT meant to be me explicitly using these characters to denounce the ideology they represent/opinions they hold in the story.