Chapter 20: The Sword Hero, Ren Amaki
Thinking back on that fateful day where he was stabbed and killed in his world, he thought back to his best friend.
He thought about how, despite having Megumi as his best friend, during school he would play the lone wolf.
Even though she's tried to get him to have more friends, he would turn it down.
("Ren! Can I go to your house to play Brave Star?")
("Hmph. Again?" Ren smirked though it went away when more people started to gather behind Megumi.)
("Everyone else wants to come, too! Show them how good you are at it!")
Ren recalls that he felt overwhelmed by that which prompted him to act like a jerk and say that he's busy.
This was something he's come to regret since he probably won't be able to go back after being killed.
It was a bit weird at first thinking back onto the last day he was on his version of Earth though it eventually took him reliving him being stabbed and killed to knock him back into reality.
He was in a dark room, being beaten by a couple of guards that were unhappy that the magician's hypnosis wasn't working on him.
For the past few days since speaking with the priest, they have been trying to brainwash him into believing the lies they've been spreading around the capital.
"The Devil of the Shield must be taken out."
"...N-No...h-he wo—"
Before he could fully respond, he got punched once again by one of the guards.
This stunned Ren for a moment, all of his senses only feeling pain before his vision started to get back to normal.
He coughed up some blood before looking at the guard that was preparing to throw another punch at him.
"...i-is th-that the best...you got..."
"Shut it, Fallen Sword." The guard shouted as he punched Ren's face once again, disliking the taunting.
"You have a lot of energy, for someone who's imprisoned. Do you not know that you are in no position to act out without consequences." The other guard spoke as he crossed his arms, finding it amusing how cocky the Sword hero is despite the situation he's at.
"It's only a matter of time before we can save the Fallen Sword from the influence of the Demon Shield." The magician said as he was preparing another hypnosis spell.
"No matter how much you try, I won't be brainwashed by you or anyone of this twisted church."
SMACK , he received another hit to the face by the aggressive guard.
"Don't disrespect the three heroes church, traitorous bit—!"
"Enough." The magician spoke. "The spell's ready."
As the magician approached the Sword Hero, he pushed the small ball of light in his hands onto the Sword Hero's head which caused him to shake violently.
The hypnosis spell was overwhelming him for a moment as he suddenly felt himself in a blank world.
'Wh-What's going on? Where am I?'
He wasn't sure what was going on at first since he stopped feeling the pain of the hypnosis spell at first since he started to feel that same pain in a different spot on his stomach side.
As he felt this, he looked at the side of his stomach only to see that he was bleeding because of a knife.
'A...knife? When did I...?'
He paused as he took a good look at the knife, remembering that this said knife is the same one from the one that killed him in his world.
'Is that...No way...'
He was left stunned by seeing the same weapon that his weak and foolish self was killed by before looking up to suddenly see a familiar face.
"Wait...Megumi?"
"Ren? Ren!"
Ren collapsed as he was reliving the worst moment of his entire life, his first and hopefully only death.
"Ren!" Megumi shouted as this prompted the killer to try and harm his friend only for Ren to use whatever strength he had in him to grab his leg.
"D-Don't...hurt her...!"
"Let go!" As this killer was about to harm Ren by kicking his face, the world suddenly blurred before he was able to return back into reality where the two guards were waiting to see if the magic had worked this time.
Ren knows that if he tried to fake it, they would see right through him, however his mind was more on what the magic is doing to him.
He's seeing his past, more specifically the few moments of regrets he had during his time on Earth.
'If I could go back, I would apologize to Megumi for all the trouble I put her through...' He halted his thoughts as he began to reflect back on his time in this world.
He started very arrogant, the same arrogance that had made him not have any friends aside from Megumi.
This arrogance had nearly caused the destruction of a village, which Naofumi had to not only knock some sense into him but also show him just how his actions had dire consequences.
His thoughts move onto the second wave where they had encountered the woman with fans as well as when Naofumi had lost control of the curse series.
He feels partially responsible for this due to not being right there to protect Raphtalia from Mai's attack.
He was just too slow to have seen the attack and yet he feels responsible for this since it caused a lot of problems for him.
There's also the situation with Garfiel beating the knights that had attempted to kill princess Melty to near death which caused a lot of problems for all of Naofumi's party members.
All of those thoughts right before the battle that had led to his capture had been snapped out when one of the guards punched him in the gut.
This reminded him of the current situation once again all the while that same guard said,
"That was for not responding. Now tell us, what is your opinion of that devil of the shield?"
Ren looked at this guard before spitting at him, showing that he's still holding strong no matter the torture he's undergoing.
"This one seems to not understand that he'll suffer more and more until he submits to God's wishes." The aggressive guard comments as he lands another punch onto the Sword Hero's face. As he does this, the other guard turns towards the magician:
"What the hell is taking so long to fix his mind?"
"The Demon Shield's influence is much stronger than expected."
"Much stronger? Just what kind of brainwashing spell did he do to the Sword Hero."
"A strong one considering that he's a cardinal hero." The magician responded as he prepared another powerful hypnosis spell. While creating this one, the aggressive guard landed another punch onto before asking,
"Why don't we just kill him? We are just wasting our time here—"
"Killing a cardinal hero that isn't the Demon Shield is a sin no matter the situation."
"It's still a waste of time what we are doing." The aggressive guard said as he prepared to swing his fist again only to feel the other guard's hand grab his shoulder.
"Are you questioning the priest and his wisdom?"
"What?! No, I'm not!"
"Then keep your mouth shut about the task we were given."
While this happened, Ren looked at the ground as his mind started to blank for a bit, barely feeling conscious since he had been taking quite the beating.
"Ren!"
"..."
"Ren!"
Ren could hear someone screaming his name despite how his vision was growing foggier by the second.
"...W-Who..."
There was a pause as he tried to use his mental strength to focus on the voice, trying to figure out who could be calling him.
As he tried to look around, the magician had done another spell in another attempt of brainwashing him to be against Naofumi.
This one was indeed much stronger than the last few, causing Ren to lose consciousness in that moment since he had already taken more of a beating than he was able to keep up.
As everything went pitch black, all he could do was think back on when he fought against Motoyasu and Itsuki in order to buy Naofumi, Melty, and the others time to escape.
He still wished that he was able to get the two to listen since he knows that despite how flawed of heroes they are, the two aren't bad people.
Not like the priest, who is using religion to get people to do things that should be against God.
"Ren! Wake up! Ren!"
Ren continued to hear this in the pitch of darkness, with the voice becoming slightly familiar now.
'That sounds a lot like...Megumi.'
As he listened closely, he could hear his best friend calling out his name, trying to wake him up. This made him reflect back on that last moment before he found himself in this world; he recalled that she was concerned for his sake, not wanting him to die.
'I'm really sorry, Megumi. I hope that you are able to live on without me...I hope that my death doesn't stop you from making more friends. You were always good at that. And you were always fun playing games with. I wish that there was more we could've done, I wish I wasn't taking this loner path out of arrogance. I do wish now that we all could've played Brave Star Online together with the rest.'
Saying all of this in the dark void he was in, he opened his eyes once again, seeing that the magician and the two guards were waiting to see if the stronger hypnosis spell had worked this time.
Without hesitation Ren spit at the magician while saying,
"No matter...how many times...you try, I won't...betray my friend, Naofumi!"
There was something about these words that had an impact on the three torturing him, surprised by the strong conviction he was showing.
"I see. So you continue to reject God's grace and continue to side with a devil." The magician said as he prepared another spell, one that looked different from the last few ones he had been doing. "If you refuse reason, then we shall take things to extreme measures."
The aggressive guard smiled as he knew what was about to happen all the while the other guard stepped back as he didn't want any part of this.
Ren observed the reactions of the two guards, understanding instantly that something's about to happen, something he won't like.
Right as the magician was about to do something, a sudden door broke which caught the two guards and the magician's attention.
"What was that?"
"Not sure, we'll check it out." One of the guards said before he along with the other guard grabbed their weapons and started to make their way towards the door that suddenly broke.
While the two guards had gone to check out the situation, the magician turned towards Ren as he prepared to do something.
"While those two idiots are taking care of that, I'll make sure that you suffer for your insolence."
Right as he was about to do something to Ren, a sudden rock was thrown at the magician which knocked him out all the while the spell had disappeared within the instant his unconscious body had hit the ground.
Ren was confused at first before noticing that the person that had managed to reach him was a familiar girl.
"Filo?"
"Sword guy!" Filo said with a happy tone, happy that she was the first one to find Ren.
"Where's everyone else?"
"Split up."
"Split up?"
"Yes. Mel-chan needed to be protected so I went with her while keeping an eye on Spear guy."
"Spear guy? Wait, Motoyasu is helping Naofumi? How did that happen?"
"Filolial queen."
"...?" Ren turned his head with some confusion as he didn't really know what to do with that information...though for now, he just took it as it is. "Okay, let's move to something else, how did you get here?"
"I was fighting against that bad lady."
"Bad lady?"
"Yes. The one that hurt Raph-chan."
"I see...wait, where did she go?"
"Not sure. We were fighting and then an explosion happened that led me here."
Ren was unsure what that could mean though it didn't really matter since he was happy that at the very least Mai hadn't really harmed Filo.
"Let's free you from there." As Filo said this, she used her strength to break the chains that were holding Ren in place. As she managed to free him, he collapsed to the ground which worried Filo. "Are you okay?!"
"Y-Yeah..." Ren said for a moment as he took himself a second before attempting to get back up on his feet. "...j-just need a...moment..."
Ren was still pretty fatigued from not only the beatings he received for days but also the lack of food.
'I have to get up...I have to help Naofumi!'
Thinking of not only Naofumi but also Garfiel, Raphtalia, Filo, his party members Tersia, Welt, Bakta, and Farrie, and lastly of Megumi.
These thoughts and motivations were enough to help him get back on his feet.
"There...I'm back up."
As he said this, he almost collapsed to the ground only for Filo to assist him in staying up on his feet.
"Need help?"
"...yeah, thanks."
As Filo was giving him some assistance, Ren's first thoughts were to check on his party members to make sure that they are okay.
Right as they were heading towards the cells that have his party members, the two heard a voice of a cocky bitch:
"Do you think you can escape me, foolish girl?"
"Tsk. You are annoying!"
Filo quickly went away as she prepared for round two against Malty.
Ren turned towards Malty's direction, seeing that she's indeed pissed at Filo.
Mai turned her attention towards Ren, a bit annoyed at seeing that he's free.
"And who said you get to leave. You are still a traitor to this country!"
"Says the one who's attempting to kill Melty-sama."
"I didn't do no such thing—"
"Don't lie!" Ren shouted. "We all know you've wanted her gone just so you could become the next in line for the throne."
"Hmph."
Mai gave a serious look at him, preparing to attack him only for Filo to start their fight once again, confident that she can defeat the one person that's harmed her master and Raphtalia.
Ren saw this and wanted to join in, however he needed to first heal himself before getting into any serious fights.
As he looked around for something that could help him in healing up, Filo dodged one of Mai's fireball attacks though that led said attack to head directly towards Ren's position.
Filo noticed this and quickly shouted:
"Sword guy! Watch out!"
"...Shit!"
Ren summoned his sword and attempted to block away the attack as he knew that he didn't have the strength to avoid the attack...though in hindsight it would've been better to just dodge the attack by collapsing to the ground.
This had caused him to be sent flying back onto a wall with Filo being angered by what Mai had just done.
"What a weakling you've become, so-called Sword Hero!"
"Leave him alone!"
Filo moved fast enough to land a punch onto Mai's stomach, nearly knocking her out though she did manage to knock the wind out of her.
"...y-you...brat...!"
As she was struggling to say this, Filo responded in kind by landing a kick on her face, sending her flying onto a wall. This nearly knocked Mai out though her anger at Filo kept her from being fully unconscious.
"D-Damn you...!"
Filo prepared to kick her once again though she noticed that Ren was struggling to get up again, prompting her to assist him in getting on his feet again.
"Thanks..." Ren said, slightly embarrassed that he needed help from what is essentially a child.
Despite this feeling, he appreciated the assistance from Filo.
Once he was back up on his feet, the two of them went to the other room to look for Ren's party members.
As they arrived in the next room, Ren looked around the cells and could see that his allies were also tied up and pretty dehydrated, however each one seemed to vary in how injured they looked.
The main one who took the most beating from the look of it was Farrie, all the while Bakta seemed to be the one that hasn't gotten a beat down like the rest.
"Guys!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
All four had remained silent, barely looking conscious though the only one that seemed to take a moment before responding was Tersia.
"M-Master...Re-en...?"
"Tersia!"
Ren with the assistance of Filo headed over to the cell holding onto Tersia. Filo with a punch was able to break the bars in the prison cell. Once this happened, Ren managed on his own to walk towards Tersia's position to check on her.
"What did they do to you?"
"...I'll be okay...I'm more...worried about you...M-Master Ren..."
"I'm fine, a little beaten up but fine." Ren said with a confident smile, happy that one of his party members is okay. Tersia looked at Ren and was surprised by his confidence though she was worried for his sake since she could see that he's badly wounded.
"What did they do to you?" She says this as she manages to sit up.
She checked up on the injuries Ren had, seeing that they were brutal with the cardinal hero.
Ren continued to smile this off since he doesn't want to show that weakness to Tersia.
"It's fine. They weren't able to break me. That's what matters."
As Ren said this, Filo assisted the two in getting back on their feet before they went to free the others from their prison cells.
Once they were able to free everyone, Bakta being the only one out of the four that has enough energy or strength to fight back.
"We need to get out of here."
"Agreed...where did the filolial girl came from?"
"Over there." Filo said as she pointed towards the direction her and Ren had come from.
Seeing this caused the six of them to start heading towards there in order to escape the prison levels they were in.
While they did this, Ren remembered that they must be careful.
"Mai is in the other room. She's not on our side."
"We figured." Welt commented.
"She was always pretty shady compared to her young sister." Farrie added on.
"Is that so, scumbag?" A very pissed off voice spoke out as the room suddenly increased in temperature.
They all turned towards the direction of this voice to see that it was Malty Melromarc, who had a large fireball ready to be thrown at them.
"Mai."
"Evil lady!"
Filo was preparing herself for round 3 against this Mai only for another voice to speak from behind her.
"I would suggest you surrender if you wish to leave here unharmed."
Mai turned behind her when hearing this, very unhappy that this person who spoke was Melty, her young sister.
"What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing, sister." Melty said as she pointed her hand towards her older sister, preparing to defend herself in case she tries anything. "Now, stand down."
"Oh sister, you know me. I'm not one to stand down."
The second she said this, she threw the fireball spell right at her younger sister, seeing this as the best opportunity to finally get rid of her.
Right as this attack was about to reach her while also at the same time Melty was about to counter this, Ren had suddenly appeared in between the two and blocked away the attack while in the blessed series.
While managing to block away the attack, the two sisters were surprised by this.
"What?! How did you—?"
"I...won't let their effort...go in vain..."
When Ren said this, he thought back to that night when he and his party members stayed behind to buy Naofumi and the others time to get Melty to safety.
This was a risk since it could've been another dead end for him since he was only beaten thanks to two separate factors.
The first being that Mai had brought a large number of knights and magicians to stop him and Naofumi.
The second being that he wasn't fighting at 100 percent since he didn't want to harm Motoyasu or Itsuki.
These two factors had caused him to be beaten, though right now he was able to not hold back despite the handicap he was in thanks to the injuries he was given for the past few days without stop.
"You are quite the nuisance!"
"And you are a bad sister. Now, stand down." Ren spoke with an annoyed tone as he was in his fighting stance.
Mai was very annoyed by this before noticing that behind her was Filo and Bakta were preparing for a fight against her.
"...damn you all."
The second she said this, she pointed her hand up and fired a powerful fire spell to destroy the ceiling in order to cause a distraction long enough for her to escape.
Although she did think of trying another attempt on her sister's life, she realized that with Ren being capable of fighting, she wouldn't want to risk a fight that she would possibly lose.
As the dust from the ceiling collapsing faded away, they all saw that Malty had escaped.
"...well, at least she backed off." Ren said as his sword went to its default version all the while he was beginning to struggle to stay standing.
"Are you okay?" Melty asked as she realized that the Sword Hero was badly wounded. "Who did this to you?"
"...the three heroes church...they aren't happy...that I was on Naofumi's side..." As he said this, he fell onto one knee.
"Master Ren!" Bakta shouted as he quickly started to cast a spell that would heal him. While this was happening, Filo noticed Melty which prompted her to shout:
"Mel-chan!"
"Filo!"
The two smiled as they were happy to see each other again, despite the location they are in.
"Where did the Spear Hero go?"
"Not sure. Spear Guy went to get Master and the others. Don't think he did a good job."
Ren chuckled when hearing this, finding it humorous how Filo's views on Motoyasu are.
"Well, we should get the Sword Hero to safety. After that, we can take care of the three heroes church. They can't get away with this."
"How do you propose we deal with the three heroes church, my lady?" Welt asked as he was being helped by Bakta to be on his feet.
"The better question is what is the plan for the Shield Hero and his other party members? Aren't they trying to enter here to try and save us?" Farrie asked, a bit worried that Naofumi and the others would be trying to save them all the while they would be gone.
"They'll be fine." Melty responded, "Knowing the Shield Hero, he would immediately figure out that all of you are safe before focusing on the three heroes church."
"Sounds reasonable."
Melty nodded at Farrie before turning towards Bakta to answer his question with:
"We must confront the priest. I suspect he's the one behind everything. Is that correct?" Melty turned towards Ren, knowing that he's the best one who can answer that question.
Ren took a moment to get himself back on his feet before turning towards her to give a nod, basically saying that yes, the priest is behind this whole situation.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he was behind your attempted assassination that led to Garfiel beating the hell out of those knights. He just really dislikes Naofumi."
"It's more that this country hates the Shield Hero." Tersia spoke with a serious tone. "Since the Shield Hero is worshiped by the demi humans, this country that has a discrimination against the majority of demi humans hate that."
With this reminder, Ren thought back on the trial the Shield Hero was put in after just a day in the new world.
He was a fool back then since he did believe the accusations Mai and the King had thrown towards Naofumi without even trying to investigate despite how he's usually skeptical of things.
This was the first big mistake he had done, something he's been attempting to rectify.
"We need to clear Naofumi's name." Ren said out of the blue, which caught everyone's attention. "Even if we expose the Priest for all the shady things he's done, there's still the accusations that this country as well as the other three countries believe in a lie that liar had thrown into the world."
Melty and the others agreed with what Ren had said.
"My sister had indeed wronged the Shield Hero, but if we want to help his reputation, we need to first focus on stopping the three heroes church."
"Right. What's the plan?" Welt asked as he managed to find the weapons of his companions as well as his knives.
"We should speak with father first, he should be able to—"
"He won't help..." A voice spoke from a distance. "He's no help at all."
Ren, Melty, Filo, and the others were curious to see who was speaking, prompting them to go towards the prison cell that was speaking from.
Once they were at the right cell, Melty immediately recognized who it was.
"Wait...what are you doing here?"
"Do you know this woman?"
"Yes, she's Eclair Seaetto, the right-hand guard of mother." As she gave this information to Ren and his party members, she turned towards Eclair to ask her, "What are you doing here?"
As she questioned this, Eclair looked up and noticed the younger princess. She knows that Melty is indeed trustworthy, prompting her to respond with:
"I was arrested for punishing some melromarc soldiers that were hunting demi-humans, Melty-sama. They stripped me of my knighthood. So I'm just a commoner now."
"What? Who orchestrated this?" Melty questioned, wanting to know who's the culprit for this.
"The three heroes church. They claimed I was brainwashed by the Shield Hero."
"That's unacceptable!" The younger princess remarked with anger, seeing just how deep this problem goes. "We must get father involved. He can help us—"
"I don't mean to be opposed to your ideas, Melty-sama, however we need the Queen if we want to turn everything around. The King is just too close to the church to do anything."
"Not to mention that the priest might have someone keeping an eye on him. If he were to help us, we would be putting him in danger." Ren added, trying to give a reason for Melty to not get the King involved with what they are trying to do.
Melty looked at the Sword Hero for a moment before thinking to herself on this information.
Once given a minute to think, she nodded and understood what he was telling her.
"Then let's go confront the priest before he does anything else."
Everyone nodded and just as they were leaving the prison cell area and heading towards the stairs leading to the top floors, a sudden bright light was shining from the ceiling.
"What is that?"
Right as one of Ren's party members asked this, the light started to grow brighter within each second before an explosion occurred right where they were at.
Author's note:
Apologies for the late chapter, had a lot of stuff come up in life as well as YouTube stuff (for those curious, it's GreenWarrior291). Planning on covering more Shield Hero content, especially the Spear Hero spin off. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter.