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.
Lightning bolts rain down from the sky all around Ren. He pays it no mind and leaves movement to Gaelion while he focuses on using his sword art to restrict and trip the leg of the Spirit Tortoise. He doesn't get the same success like the first time he used [Swords of Revealing Light] where he brought the giant tortoise down. But he manages to keep the behemoth mostly grounded so far. All around him, the howl of wrathful evil spirits, mixed together with the crackling of storms as the army of griffins fought the evil spirit the Spirit Tortoise released around them.
Much like the horde of undead creatures the Spirit Tortoise dropped onto the ground, it released a swarm of malicious spirits to deal with the griffins that were attacking it in the air. And right now, the aerial battle is taking shape that reminded him of a massive dog fight with gusts of wind blades, lightning, and spirit energy shooting at each other. Making it much harder for Waerjak's griffins to concentrate their attack on the tortoise kaiju. Even worse, while the evil spirits it released are pretty fragile to the point most lightning bolts could destroy them, their number seems to be endless. On the other hand, griffins who are killed by the Spirit Tortoise rejoin the fight as undead creatures under its command, making a war of attrition completely in the tortoise's favor. "We can't keep up like this, Gaelion. We need to find a way to meaningfully damage the tortoise."
"It'll be hard with only King Waerjak, myself, and those three leviathan monsters the Shield Hero brought along. Spirit Tortoise is the most defensive Guardian Beast of my father Gaia. And we still don't know who released it, and what they could do yet." Gaelion's voice sounds as grim as he is stern. His body is wrapped around by a small cyclone, with currents of electricity dancing on the surface. Making the attacks the evil spirits launched at him completely ineffective. And in return, Gaelion doesn't have to do anything other than flying through them to destroy a large swarm of the fragile undead creatures. Same goes for the giant griffin king, and the large serpent dragon that has joined them with the arrival of Ren's friends. "But we aren't out of this fight yet. I can feel more of my fellow Children of Gaia coming to help us. This is a threat to our world we are currently facing. For now, we just have to hold on."
Ren takes a moment to look at their allies fighting on the ground. The situation is actually slightly better for them. He can see some kind of white aura extending from the feet of three figures on the ground, which seems to ignite any undead that steps on its range. And they have a giant T-Rex (slightly smaller than the zombified one he fought after the Third Wave, but still with a respective bulk) that cuts any undead creature down like its mowing down grass simply by trampling into them. Although their advantage would no doubt be nullified once they get into the range of the mountain sized tortoise in front of them. It makes their T-Rex look like a plastic toy by comparison. "I'm not sure how much we can stall, and I don't like it. You said there's someone behind this kaiju tortoise going on a rampage. If we aren't doing anything to it, and we are giving our all to hold it back. What's stopping whoever is hiding behind the tortoise to devise something to sweep us while we are too busy dealing with the tortoise?"
"What are you thinking, Sword Hero?" Ren didn't expect Gaelion to take his suggestion seriously, which is why he's surprised that the thunder dragon actually did listen to what he said. Of course, the black dragon isn't only wasting time as he is talking and strategizing with Ren. Right at the moment, he makes another blitz over the head of their ground team, sweeping through all the wraith that's been raining attacks down on their heads.
"We'll go for a probe attack on the tortoise's fallen leg, see if we can bait out whoever is controlling the tortoise. We'll pull out immediately if we manage to bait them out, if not, we can gauge how much damage we can do to the tortoise if we go on the attack." Gaelion seems to agree with Ren's plan as he suddenly breaks away from the group of their allies, and charges at the tortoise's hind leg. Ren can feel his hair become charged more than he sees the sudden lightning bolt coming down at them from the cloud. He raises his sword skyward to catch it, and brings his now hundredth meter long lightning blade toward the tortoise's leg.
Chapter 38: Mirror Mirror In the Sky
"Damn it. DAMN IT! What did you do this time, Raphtalia!?" Keel can taste iron in her mouth as she bites down on her lips hard. She was feeling somewhat relaxed at first, in spite of the release of the Spirit Tortoise. A super leviathan class monster like that is way above the level range of Raphtalia and herself, so they can safely stay behind with the civilians and retreating refugees while the more powerful fighters in the world go to deal with it. And at first, that looks exactly like what's happening. Raphtalia isn't even together with that hypocrite Shield Hero, and his army of bootlickers, so she doesn't seem to be motivated to follow along with the Sword Hero and whoever is going to fight the Spirit Tortoise on the back of that dragon. "She must have hidden herself and got onto Gaelion's back! Why, oh why doesn't she tell me anything about it!?"
That's until the figure of Raphtalia standing beside her suddenly began to wave around, twist, and then popped like a badly sewn together balloon ball as soon as the dragon took off. Keel feels like slapping herself for being fooled by Raphtalia's illusion. She knew that traveling with the Shield Hero has unlocked her friend's potential as a trickster yokai. Why didn't she be more thorough with her friend, keeping an actual hand on her through the whole thing?
"Please, calm down, Miss Keel. I'm sure Raphtalia would find a way to keep herself safe, she's done it on Cal Mira Island-" Behind Keel, Raki is doing his best to reassure her. But she feels her anger only gets pushed to the breaking point by the man-animal boy's attempt to appease her. The man-animal boy has the thing for Raphtalia. Anyone who isn't blind in the eyes and got dropped on their head can see it. It really annoys Keel that an irritating fly like Raki can think that he's good enough for someone like Raphtalia, but the fact she needs to swat away unworthy admirers for Raphtalia like him away from her speaks just how important and precious her friend is. Which is why she feels enraged that he isn't acting more out of his mind for her disappearance now.
"You shut up and piss off! If you aren't going to help me think of ways to get Raphtalia back, then scram!" Keel turns around and points her finger into Raki's nose. As she expected, the boy steps back like a scared cat. "You think I don't know Raphtalia is careful?! What's that going to do to a giant monster that carries a mountain on its back, and goes around harvesting all living things?! Right now, she needs people who can protect her, not people who say pretty words but don't do anything!"
"And~ I don't see you doing anything other than going off on one of my poor research assistants, young lass." Keel turns around to glare at the shorty. Of course, she knows that she can't do anything to help Raphtalia right now, but does he have to say it out loud? "Anyways, I was just talking with Bed-Chan a bit earlier. She apparently gave some of her seeds to Raphtalia after she saw what young Raki was testing for us. I don't know what she plans to do with them, but I do think she's going to do something interesting. She's been using Shield boy's defective hair cleaning potion both as a stink bomb and a slippery trap after all. For now, let's focus on getting our defense of Balafon ready for the Spirit Tortoise if it turns its way south."
"You don't think the heroes could stop it at Stormwind, Master Zylden? They have killed some very strong beings since they were summoned." Raphtalia's annoying admirer turns his attention over to the shorty. He sounds very concerned, but still with a sliver of cautious optimism in his voice. That hopefulness is what makes him... and most other man-animals so annoying to Keel. They weren't hunted down since youth just because they were born, so they never realize just how hopeless this world is, and how the only one who would not fail them are their own strength. "Didn't they already kill outer gods before? Surely, they are stronger than the Guardian Beast of Gaia?"
"Technically, yes. But the outer god they killed here at Balafon was a very young one. And the little princess nearly killed herself doing it. The Spirit Tortoise they are facing right now on the other hand is both the largest one, and the most tenacious of Gaia's creation. So I'm not betting my money on them winning this first exchange." Zylden shakes his head as he walks away. "The young lass isn't being too nice about it, but she isn't wrong. We are wasting time talking about these things. Our underground shelter wouldn't do any good against the Spirit Tortoise, who can shake the earth with its stomps. Go help organize the civilian retreat, or help me with Bed-Chan here. Even if we over-prepare and do not end up using them, maybe we'll use them in the future if we get hit directly by a Wave of Catastrophe."
Ren was surprised when Gaelion breezed past the Spirit Tortoise's leg and his lightning blade cut through its flesh. Whoever was controlling it either isn't with the giant tortoise, or confident in its ability to take the hit and choose not to expose themselves. The result was for the first time, they left a real gash of wounds on its body rather than simply turning its skin dark with their attack. He didn't do enough damage to fully cripple the leg, but he knew that this attack could at least cut into the tortoise's flesh, if not its bone.
"You did it, Skyguy!" Wyndia's celebratory shout definitely came too soon. As he wasn't sure if he has what it takes to truly slow down the Spirit Tortoise. He looks down and tries to get a better look on the tortoise's back now Gaelion got much closer than before. The mountain isn't only barren rocks, it still has thick foliage and trees grow on it. This, plus the distance and Gaelion's speed makes it hard to spot anything that might be hiding on the tortoise's back.
"No. Things only got worse for us." Ren's eyes squint into a frown. He wishes that he shared Wyndia's optimism, but he can't lie to himself. The wound he left in the Spirit Tortoise's leg is only in the flesh, and a pretty shallow one at that. And as he looks at the giant tortoise, its leg is already healing. And it had also gotten all four of its legs back up now that Ren isn't using his [Swords of Revealing Light] to trip it down. Not that he could keep using the same move and delay the tortoise indefinitely. But without the ability to freeze part of the monster's body, it has managed to get back up and resume its march towards Stormwind. On the other hand, he didn't manage to bait out whoever was behind the Spirit Tortoise's release. "Turn around and make another dive, Gaelion. I'm going to see if I can do some real damage to its leg this time."
"Are you sure about it, Sword Hero? If I fully commit, I wouldn't be able to pull back if there's a trap waiting for us." Gaelion didn't immediately follow Ren's order this time. Ren agrees with Gaelion's concern. He doesn't want to put himself into a potentially dangerous situation either. While he's not as frail as Itsuki especially in close combat, he's nowhere near as sturdy as Naofumi or Motoyasu either. He doesn't know what kind of person released this giant monster, but surely they have some kind of strong, or perhaps strange power that would threaten a hero like himself?
Thinking of his friends, he looks down at his allies fighting on the ground. Instead of moving back or holding their ground, they moved forward towards the advancing Spirit Tortoise instead. They are in much more danger than himself with the giant tortoise able to directly threaten them with nothing but the tremor its steps created, but they are clearly determined to stall the Spirit Tortoise for as long as they can. And speaking of the mountain carrying the tortoise itself, it is clearly aware of everyone who is trying to stop it. There are countless strands of hair poking out from its shell like an enraged cat- wait a minute, these things on its back aren't hairs.
Ren feels his peripheral vision retracts as his sight focuses on the back of the Spirit Tortoise. The smaller, dark lines which he took for something the monster grows naturally on its body are man made instead. More specifically, they are hundreds, no, thousands of canons which are all aimed at his friends on the ground. He doesn't know if any of his friends could survive under a barrage like it. THIS must have been what the people who released the Spirit Tortoise had been planning all along! Not some strange power or magic, but overwhelming firepower from using technological weapons. "Gaelion! STOP THEM!"
Gaelion didn't hesitate this time as he charged down at the back of the Spirit Tortoise with a crack of lightning. Ren doesn't know if they can stop the ensuing barrage. But he can't stay safely in the air and do nothing while his friends take on a full attack from thousands of cannons. The back of the Spirit Tortoise grows larger and larger in Ren's eyes, to the point that he can see the cannons, and the people in some kind of military uniform standing wielding the weapons. Suddenly, something different happened. Ren can't tell what exactly appeared right in front of himself and Gaelion, he wonders if his mind is simply playing tricks due to the sudden worry he had for his friends. But the light seems to shine differently in front of his eyes, like he is suddenly seeing through a thick layer of glass. Gaelion's body freezes in the middle of the sky, and Ren finds out that he can't move even a muscle just like the dragon lord underneath himself. And then, his vision seems to shatter into countless pieces as he feels like every single cell in his body is being pulled to a different direction. The last thing he saw before everything shatters into nothing are the cannons firing down at his friends.
Eve's face turns into a slight frown as she sees the dragon riding hero being torn apart by Lord Astaroth's ability [Shattered Glass, and the rest of the heroes on the ground being drowned in the waves of explosion fired from their cannons. At the same time, her lord lets out a content smirk on his face. She hasn't disagreed with him for a long time, but she still can't shake off the feeling that he is in the wrong this time. "Lord Astaroth. Is it the right move to go against, and kill the heroes of this world? You don't have to fight against them like before. All of us are against The Burning Legion. Wouldn't it make more sense to work together with them?"
"Trying to work with these so-called heroes is a waste of time, Eve. Have you forgotten what they were like in Malach? All of them fight each other rather than fighting against the coming threat of The Burning Legion. They are either too greedy, too arrogant, or too obsessed to work together. Therefore, it makes the most practical sense to kill all of them, and gather their respective hero weapons and grant them to my loyal companions who would never betray me. And I alone shall stop The Burning Legion. I'm not going to waste my time pretending to cooperate with idiots like that hypocrite Ryubi." A derisive snort comes out of Astaroth's nose as he leans back into his throne. The finger on his left hand clicks on the handle of his throne while his right hand plays with a small mirror. The Vassal Mirror, to be exact. He shakes his head slightly. "A shame we can't start at the beginning when these heroes are still at level 1, and killing them is as easy as taking candy from babies. But I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. These newly summoned heroes will be no match against our seasoned army, and the veterans are the only ones we'll have to be careful of."
"Speaking of which, they are surely on their way." Eve metaphorically shakes the feeling of doubt out of her head. The smoke brought up by a thousand explosions had completely covered up the ground, even their own comparatively smaller leviathan class monster. Even in the presence of their heroes into consideration, they could not have survived. So at this point, there's no point fighting over Lord Astaroth's decisions. "Our initial scouting of this world has returned with the information about this world's heroes, their most powerful nations, and other hero level threats. Considering the time we unsealed their Guardian Beasts, the only ones who could come to stop us are the direct Children of their Gaia."
"The Dragon Aspects... A little concerning if all of them appear together at their full power. But there is no need for concern. I already took care of one. And according to rumor, their strongest aspect still hasn't recovered their power from a disaster sixty years ago and the rest had to reincarnate. They should still be fairly weak for the taking. And once the heroes and their dragon aspects are all gone, we can move to fully take over this world, and build it into a fortress world for us to resist The Burning Legion. Leaving us with an escape route in case either one of our worlds are overtaken by the legion." Lord Astaroth closes his eyes, for a few seconds as he looks thoughtful. "The best case scenario is that the rulers of this world would see the hopeless situation, and openly allow me to take over once their most powerful fighters are gone. Allow me to fully take over all the resources of this world and use them to resist the Burning Legion. But there's always the possibility of them being petty and resisting me to the end. In which case, we need to better plan out how we'll have to deal with them. Taking over a world where it's been turned into a barren wasteland would be counter productive towards my go-AH!"
Lamia, the sentient doll they discovered and recruited in Malach, was too late as she jumped in front of Lord Astaroth in an attempt to shield him with her body. Two sudden gushes of blood splash out of Lord Astaroth's head and chest as a bloody hole suddenly appears where his brain and heart are, pouring all over Lamia's body. Eve spins around, and sees a petite woman with flowing golden hair over a fat, pig head, holding a gun in her hand floating not too far in the sky over them. Seeing Lord Astaroth's army scramble to grab their own guns, she quickly flies away. Dodging away an arrow Lamia shot at her. A pair of feathered wings spread out behind Lamia's back as she gives chase after the short pig girl. But another voice, an enraged sounding voice rains down from above their heads. "Bow Art: [MILLION COINS]!"
Eve looks up, and sees the serpent-like body of a divine dragon floating above them. A female knight with graying hair standing on its head, but she's not the only rider. Behind her, a young, teenaged boy is glaring at them with a look of near hatred anger as topaz colored light emits from his bow. The TOPAZ WEAPON of this world! His hands release the bow string, as countless fire arrows fall down like the world's most deadly rain of gold. But instead of targeting Lord Astaroth's throne, it falls straight into the formation of their cannons. Eve can do nothing but look on with dread, as hundreds of their heavy weapons blow into the sky, and their explosion leads to a chain detonation as the rest of their precious cannons get destroyed.
Malty crawls out from the underside of Sir Lynn's thunder lizard. She turns around to look at Naofumi and Motoyasu to find both of them still frozen like statues, a look of shocked dread engraved on their respective faces as their eyes stare at an empty void in the sky. The same place where Ren and Gaelion was ripped apart into nothing by what seems like a giant mirror that suddenly appeared in front of them. A bit dangerous for them, but she's also in disbelief herself and would have probably stood around like them if Iroh didn't push her onto the ground. The former Fifth Diva of Siltvelt might be retired from waging war, but his battlefield instinct is apparently still as sharp as before. The Sword Hero, and one of their world's Dragon Aspects being taken out in an instance, with no trace of their existence left, is something she didn't expect from an invading outer god, let alone whoever was on top of the Spirit Tortoise.
They would have surely followed Ren's fate, especially considering both Naofumi and Motoyasu were too shaken to do anything even at this moment. Thankfully, the companions they brought along with their respective teleportations are the most powerful, and some of the most experienced fighters stationed currently staying at the capital. Multiple defensive miracles were thrown over their heads by Arch Vicar Logarius, 'Little Biscas' Cain, and Vicar Vittorio. Their combined effort protected them from the first few hundred of cannonball bombardment before faltering, but it brought them time when Granny jumped out and conjured up some kind of ethereal construct behind her with a hundred arms and managed to stop another thousand or so explosions. By that time, Sir Lynn's thunder lizard had lied down and used its body as a physical barrier for everyone on the ground, and a triple cast of [Iron Flesh] sorcery from the three Siltvelt princes turned the body of the giant lizard into actual metal, and ensured the leviathan class monster to shake off the rest of the attacks for the rest of them.
Of course, that doesn't mean their barrage of thousands of cannons did nothing to them. Their miracle users all have a pained look on their faces, indicating them hitting a low reserve of will power. Granny's ethereal looking golem thing she conjured up was completely annihilated in the waves of explosion and she herself looks to be out of breath. And even if Sir Lynn's thunder lizard survived the attack with its defensive sorcery, it's likely taken out of the battle since it likely suffered heavy internal damage even with the effect of [Iron Flesh]. And that's not even considering what happened to the Sword Hero and Gaelion. Their unseen enemy had all the cards, and they held it back before releasing them till it would cause massive damage. Malty suppose that they were lucky such an attack didn't happen when they are literally at the Spirit Tortoise's feet, since that would leave them with no time to react and save themselves from thousands of cannon barrage.
Although looking at the back of Spirit Tortoise which is literally caught on fire from a massive wave of explosions, they didn't get away from the exchange with nothing either. She has no idea how the Bow Hero was able to catch their enemy off guard and destroyed their cannon formation. Perhaps it had something to do with the leader of the Shiltfreeden emissaries, Tanya? When she suddenly levitated backwards while the cannonball rained down on them, Malty thought the cowardly Shiltfreeden Shive was trying to turn tail and run. But perhaps she did something else during the chaos. Not that their situation improved with the death of the Sword Hero and Gaelion, but at least their enemy's immediate long range threat was successfully neutralized by the Bow Hero.
"They killed Ren, Gaelion, and Wyndia! I'm going to kill them all!" Motoyasu figuratively blows up as he runs forward. His sudden action also shakes Naofumi out of his stupor as he leaps forward and pins Motoyasu down on the ground.
"Stop going off on your own and THINK! What's stopping them from using the same attack on you! I also want to avenge Ren, but charging out there would only get us killed." The Spear Hero slowly stops struggling underneath the Shield Hero. Naofumi seems to recollect his mental faculties as he looks up and squints his eyes. "Whatever that mirror attack was, it must work similar to my [Air Strike Shield]. It's stationary and can't move around once it's casted. Which was why they waited till Gaelion committed to his dive before using it right in front of him. Because otherwise Gaelion could have dodged it. And it also can't be caused by lying down on the surface, or over terrain with people already on. Or else they would have aimed at us instead."
"We might have to pull back, Master Naofumi. We lost Master Ren and Gaelion, and Sir Lynn's thunder lizard is badly hurt. We don't have anything that could slow down the Spirit Tortoise." Naofumi's face instantly shows signs of pain, and Malty understands why he looks this way. Even counting what happened to them after the Third Wave, this is the biggest loss they suffered so far since the start of the Wave of Catastrophe. Aside from Itsuki taking out the cannon atop of the Spirit Tortoise, they have nothing to show for this battle, and still have a city with civilians who most definitely have NOT finished their retreat yet. But staying behind when they don't have enough resources to even slow down the most tenacious Guardian Beast only risks them losing more heroes. She grabs Naofumi by the shoulders, and gives him a furious shake. "We already lost the Sword Hero. If we lose any of you, it'll really be the end of everyone! You can pin all the blame for the dead on me, but we need to pick the lesser evil and keep you, Master Motoyasu and Master Itsuki safe right now!"
"This isn't about pinning blames! I hate how powerless I am to stop all of this right now!" Naofumi's glowing emerald eyes seem to grow brighter as a shade of blackness covers over his Crown Shield. Malty is a bit afraid that the cursed form that completely took over his mind while he was fighting the Three Heroes' Church would come back. Thankfully, he still manages to control himself, if only barely. He turns to look at the direction of the Spirit Tortoise once again. "And our allies haven't given up the fight yet!"
In the sky, a streak of gold and a ray of pink chases after each other, as they twist, turn, and knock into each other while occasionally firing smaller bolts of same colored light at each other. The griffins stopped attacking the Guardian Beast, and tried to land on its back under the command of King Waerjak. Sound of thunderous fire rains atop of the mountain carrying the tortoise, which results in some of the griffins dropping down to the ground, but some of them, especially the king himself manages to land on the tortoise's back. Malty could see smaller ants like dots falling off the edge of the tortoises back and realizes they are likely human or whatever other things fighting for their mysterious enemy who controlled their world's Guardian Beast. Naofumi is right, the fight isn't fully over yet.
"Then you and Master Motoyasu pull back with Sir Lynn. You two both have healing abilities. Her thunder lizard is hurt, and needs healing and rest. He's one of our few leviathan class monsters on the ground, we'll need him to slow down. The rest of us stay, and do what we can to slow down the Spirit Tortoise. Having you and Master Motoyasu stay on the front is too dangerous until we figure out what the nature mirror ability truly was." Malty turns to look at Naofumi again.
"It occurs to me that you could have simply asked someone with experience with it." A completely unfamiliar voice comes from their back. Malty spins on her heel together with Naofumi, and they see a young looking man around Naofumi's age with light, blonde hair tied into a knotted braid from one side of his face, and a pair of glasses over his nose. His clothes probably were elaborate at one point, custom made by someone. But right now, it's cut into pieces of strands and stained by dirt and mud which makes him look more squalid than most beggars. In spite of his sorry state, the young man's back is still mostly straight, and his head hangs slightly backwards. Clearly showing that he is someone who is used to having all of his words followed without question.
"Have it occurred to you that when it comes to the safety of our heroes, we would not trust the word of a random stranger?" Malty reaches back with her arm at Naofumi, giving him a hint to stay quiet for the moment while she talks with this mysterious newcomer. She turns her nose at the squalid dressed man, which isn't too hard when she focuses on his attire. "Especially not some random beggar, or refugee."
"A beggar?! A REFUGEE?! I'll have you know that I had my own kingdom to rule, before that arrogant prick came along and ruined EVERYTHING!" As Malty expected, the prideful looking man took her bait. She doesn't truly believe he was some random man down on his luck, of course. But she knows the kind of man he is well (she's forced to endure a prolonged courtship with Fuckboy after all). They do not take well when they are being looked down upon. This would allow her to gauge their response, maybe getting some additional information for her to leverage. The man takes a tome of book off his waist, one of the few things that looks completely pristine on his body. It has a thick, hard to describe cover with a piece of purple crystal embedded in the middle. Wait a minute, the crystal looks like- "Not everyone can claim that they are chosen by the Vassal Tome."
Malty isn't sure what reaction the man expected when he brings forth the evidence that he's a false hero, but she immediately brings her wand out and points it at him while shooting out a torrent of fire. Bokhohn the Book Hero isn't one of the physically powerful Seven False Heroes, but he was extremely dangerous in his own right. His most dangerous ability was being able to completely take over someone's body against their own will and pilot them around like a puppet. Normally, one would expect such a powerful and evil ability to only be capable of focusing on a single target (like Kzinssie's ability to steal someone's soul), but apparently that's the limit their world forgot to place on the Book Hero. The only way to stop it was to attack and overwhelm him before he had the time to cast his spells. Which is exactly what she's doing to this Book Hero. He makes a slapping gesture with his hand, somehow putting out her fire without any fanfare. From the side, Raziel swings at him with a two handed claymore, but it's also stopped by what seems to be a completely invisible (invisible, not a transparent barrier as Malty can't see anything) wall.
"RUDE! Is this how this world treats people who are trying to help the natives?! Maybe I should leave you all to that arrogant little shit Astaroth to play around with!" The bespectacled Book Hero snorts out of his nose and shoots Malty a glare from the corner of his eyes. With a wave of his hand, he sends Raziel skids back on the ground as he turns his focus to both Naofumi and Motoyasu. The two Cardinal Heroes have stopped struggling at each other, gotten back on their feet, and settled into fighting stance. The squalid dressed man rolls his eyes at them. "Pfft! All of you simpletons are lucky that I have more bones to pick with that piece of demon refuse than you combined together. So I'll forgive your oh so boorish 'welcome'. I am Lord Kyo, Tome Hero of Malach. And the one you are fighting against is Astaroth, Malach's Mirror Hero, and self-proclaimed Demon King. His mirror gives him the ability to spy on other people, and limited space manipulation. That attack that took away one of your heroes and Dragon Aspect? It's his most powerful ability [Shattered Glass]. It allows him to create a pocket dimension, trap someone, and then collapse the dimension to shatter the trapped target into countless little pieces and spread them across the void."
"You say the victim is spread across the void, does that mean Ren is still alive?" Naofumi takes a step towards the false hero, his voice is desperate, yet also has a slight hint of hopefulness. He's probably thinking about ways to bring the Sword Hero back, also he really should think more about his own well being first.
"Alive in the same way someone braindead is also technically not dead. But good luck getting them put back together. They are split into tiny little pieces of themselves, maybe millions of little fragments in each glass shard? And we aren't talking about them being spread across a single ballroom. I'm talking about how they spread across the void between each world." The squalid dressed false hero points two fingers at his own head as he lets out another snort. "Forget about your pal. He's worse off than if he's dead. Short of a divine intervention at the time of his spreading, I don't see how anyone's supposed to put him back together."
"Hey, pal. Are you here to help, or are you here to make fun of us?!" Motoyasu takes a step forward, and grabs the smaller looking man by his collar and pulls him closer. In spite of being dragged over, the false hero doesn't look flustered. In fact, he lets out a scoff right back at the Spear Hero. "We just lost one of our friends to some fucker trying to destroy this world! If you are here to talk trash, scram!"
"That Fucker happens to be a devil from another world, before he invaded mine and killed a lot of people, stole the Vassal Mirror from the cold hand of its last owner and taken it for his own use. How cute for you to think you are the only one who lost something to him." The false hero of the book swipes his hand, and he actually makes Motoyasu release his collar and tumbles back. This time, Malty feels something thanks to her own closeness to the man. A small gust of cold air blowing over her way. He's using wind magic like it's a hammer made of rock, something normally hard to pick up momentum due to its chaotic nature. That kind of control alone kind of justifies his arrogance. "Let me make it clear. As a hero of Malach, I have no interest in whatever will happen to anyone of you, or your world. I'm here to kill that phony hero and demon king wannabe. And I'm only giving you all a warning because you could help weaken that demon scrub."
"I'm fine with us having a common enemy, but let's stop fighting among ourselves. We need to pull away from our enemy and regroup. They caused too much damage with that cannon barrage, and our defense assets are all spent. I don't want to risk the lives of any other heroes here." Malty quickly steps between the False Hero of The Book and everyone else. Normally, she wouldn't be so trusting of someone who openly claims to be one of the false heroes. But given the circumstances, it's probably best to keep someone who claims to have knowledge of their mysterious enemy at an arm's reach. Of course, he could have been working together with, or for that supposed Mirror Devil who is in control of the Spirit Tortoise. But considering the advantage their enemy has on controlling the Spirit Tortoise and their recent victory of killing the Sword Hero and Gaelion, they'll probably have an easier time forgoing subterfuge and killing them all with overwhelming power. Two shadows fly over Malty's head, making her look up. And she sees a red and a black scaled dragon charging towards the spirit tortoise. Each of them is even larger than Gaelion. A griffin, slightly smaller than King Waerjak flies off the dark dragon's back as they approach the mountain-sized tortoise. "That should be another two dragon aspects, Master Naofumi! They'll cover our retreat. Let's go back to Stormwind and regroup."
"We didn't do anything and we already lost Ren... Let's go!" Naofumi's face looks pained, probably from both the death of the Sword Hero, and their inability to stop the Mirror Devil controlled Spirit Tortoise. But he does give a nod and carries Granny on his back. He turns to look at the self-proclaimed false hero of the book. "We'll help you get your revenge. But you have to tell us everything you know about that fucker."
"Oh, I'm not in the business of deceiving my allies. That's something that fucker would do to anyone who don't bow down to him." The false hero of the book shoots a resentful glare towards the Spirit Tortoise. It's clear that he has a personal and sordid history with the Mirror Devil. His next words make Malty's heart rate instantly rise higher. Repeating his own words like he enjoys listening to his own voice. "As I was saying, his name is Astaroth, and he escaped into my world, Malach. Supposedly because his world was destroyed by this 'Burning Legion'."
"Master Astaroth, are you feeling well? I could take over the command of our troops if you are still unwell..." Eve was stopped in the middle of her fussing when Lord Astaroth held his hand up. The wound on his head, and his chest slowly disappear as his flesh knitting itself back together. In spite of not suffering a fatal wound if he was a mere human, the face of Lord Astaroth is both grim and upset. He was never happy when things did not unravel according to his plans. And considering his caution, not many of his enemies could claim to have drawn blood on him.
"It's merely a minor drawback. Losing most of our cannons is a shame, but not a huge deficit considering how these worlds work. They are here to make use of our low powered recruit, not critical to any of my plans." Lord Astaroth narrows his eyes as he slowly turns his attention from the destroyed battlement to the sky. Right now, the sole pink streak is constantly clashing into two rays of gold. The pig headed midget girl was apparently joined by one of her allies as they both fought Lamia in the air. The newcomer is apparently much more aggressive than the pig girl who wounded Lord Astaroth, as they repeatedly slams into Lamia, knocking her aim off while the pig girl shoots at Lamia from the side. "Call back Lamia. No need to risk her to a couple of small fry who won't do much damage to the Spirit Tortoise."
"As you wish, my lord." Eve beckens one of their subordinates to shoot the flare into the sky. Lord Astaroth's tune might be cold, but he is displaying the same sense of appreciation and care to his trusted companions as the first day he opened his eyes. No doubt, he is feeling a deep sense of animosity towards the pig headed midget who wounded him, and disrupted his strategy to sweep the heroes of this world. But he still placed the value of keeping Lamia safe over repaying the grudge of his attacker. She notices two more dragon aspects, both larger than the one they already took care of, have entered the sky and are flying straight at them. "More heroes of this world are here to fight us. Unlike these newly summoned kids, these will be the powerful and experienced veterans."
"Just in time too. I was afraid they'd be late. Come, let us go meet the heroes." Lord Astaroth's face slowly turns back into that of serene calm as he stands up from his throne and walks towards the edge of the great tortoise's shell. Unlike the first dragon aspect, both of them are fast, but clearly also not putting their all into their air dash. Making another [Shattered Glass] for an instant kill risky. But Eve hasn't been wasting time since Lord Astaroth discovered this world that runs closely parallel to Malach. He has been opening up smaller dimensional rifts, and Eve has been sending agents out to gather information about enemies that have the most potential to threaten them. If she was correct, the ones to come to the younger heroes' aid are likely...
A figure jumps out from each of the Dragon Aspects. One of them extended out a leather whip forward and used it to swing himself over, and the other seemed to glide through the air with his arms spread out like a Roc bird. Eve opens her eyes, and speaks out their names. "Whip Hero Tact, and Gauntlet Hero Dio."
"[Shattered Glass]." Lord Astaroth snaps his finger, conjuring up the dimension shattering mirror right in front of Dio. The Gauntlet Hero brings his first forward and knocks them together. A sphere suddenly bursts into existence right in the middle of Lord Astaroth's mirror, shattering it prematurely before it can trap Dio. The white tiger eared hero continues his trajectory towards Lord Astaroth, even as multiple barriers appear right in his path. "Didn't think it was that easy. AXEL! You are up!"
With Lord Astaroth's command, A red-haired young man jumps forward behind him as he punches towards Dio with his own golden gauntlet-covered fists. Behind him, an ethereal form of a white tiger roars as they both clash in front of both Lord Astaroth and Eve. The shock wave between their clash nearly flips Eve over, even if it only blows Lord Astaroth's clothes up. And by the time she recovered, she realizes that their companion is already brought down to his knees as Dio continues to apply pressure down. While the form of the White Tiger is far from Axle's strongest attack, it's still clear that he is no match for the Gauntlet Hero.
"Damn. I feel like I'm here as an attachment again. Maybe I should have stayed back with my girls." The Whip Hero contrasts the blunt, and no-nonsense aggressiveness of the Gauntlet Hero with his own flippant attitude. Rather than immediately capitalize on the opening created by Dio, he puts both of his arms behind the head of his head and engages in conversation. He even throws Eve a wink. "Hmm... So that's what a demon girl looks like. Can't say I have ever seen one of you in person before. I'm interested in how you managed to control one of the Guardian Beast. Now that you seem to be at a disadvantage against Dio, what do you say you surrender and come to work for me? I think I can find a job for you."
"Tempting, but I have a better idea. Bring out the guest." Lord Astaroth snaps his finger again, and a mirror appears right over their head. On it, a young woman with golden hair is being tied up, gagged, and has her eyes covered. The Whip Hero's eyes instantly grow large at seeing her even with most of her face obscured. "What do you say you work for me instead? Don't worry, I take care of my subordinates."
"AISHA?! You- you dare to!" The Whip Hero's face turns into a monstrous snarl as he raises his arm, looking ready to swing his whip forward at Lord Astaroth. But he snaps his finger again, and Eve turns her eyes away from the screen. She knows that's the signal lord Astaroth gave for his subordinate to stab a needle into the kidnapped girl's finger. As a result, Eve hears a muffled scream of pain as the Whip Hero freezes up in his action.
"The next time you raise a hand at me, I shall take an arm from your precious little sister. But if you follow my instructions, I shall make sure your sister is well taken care of. I might even give you your own little land to rule once we stop the threat of The Burning Legion. As for now... be a good little hero and clear out the vermin." Eve feels her stomach turning into knots. She knew Lord Astaroth meant to carry forward with his threat, and she knew the act of taking over a world against its well-established veteran heroes isn't as easy as killing them when they are at level 1. So some... less 'straightforwardly confrontational' tactics has to be carried out if they don't waste most of their power that could be used to fight The Burning Legion at fighting each other. But it's still against her intention to harm an otherwise innocent, and pretty sweet young girl. "Are you feeling remorse for our actions again, Eve? Remember, we aren't doing what we are doing because we like to be cruel. We commit the most practical action in stopping The Burning Legion."
"Yes, of course. Master Astaroth." Eve quickly gives a bow to Lord Astaroth as she turns to look at the Whip Hero. He looks ready to explode at the moment, but is rooted on his feet to do anything. "Please listen to Master Astaroth, Sir Whip Hero. He would keep his words if you obey his commands. And he truly is very kind to his followers and allies. Please, listen to reason and don't make this hard for all of us."
"SALA! ASHII! Keep everyone away from the Spirit Tortoise!" Eve lets out a relieved sigh as she hears the Whip Hero's command at his Dragon Aspect and griffin queen. As for the young hero himself, he turns around, and charges at the Gauntlet Hero's back.
End Note:
As the saying goes: Well, that happened.
Hope the Spirit Tortoise arc starts out with a bang with Ren and Gaelion (and also Wyndia) gets taken out, rains down canon shots on the main cast, and the main antagonist of this arc's canon timeline Kyo shows up only to reveal that he isn't this arc's big bad here and is here to strike a tentative alliance with the main characters to fight the actual big bad. Oh, and also Whip Boy appears, and immediately gets Yamcha'ed worse than Yamcha ever did when he's blackmailed into working for this arc's big bad.
If anyone is curious, Ashtaroth/Astaroth (his translation kind of varies depends on where you read the source since I assume it doesn't have an official translation) and Eve isn't my own OCs, but are main characters from [The Legendary Rebuilding of a World by a Realist Demon King]. If you never heard of this novel/manga... it's because it's not good. It makes Rising of the Shield Hero, or Redo of the Healer look like Lord of the Rings by comparison.