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.
Lori runs backwards through the road she came from. Once in a while on the way, she sees bodies that've been chopped into bits and bloodstained roads. She wants to stop and help them, but she knows there's no saving them. She wants to at least make graves for them, so their bodies wouldn't be left out in the open, but with the sign of battle, she knew there to be those filthy wolf raiders going around killing people. Stopping and cleaning up the battle would only give more time for their enemy to take away more lives, so she continues running on the road, until she either finds the enemy, or Father's allies.
The red Filorial queen suddenly hears the sound of screaming and clashing weapons in the distance. Her legs were already feeling tired and numb moments before, yet she suddenly found new strength as her speed increases tenfold, and her body turns into a blur as she bolts forward with a loud boom. Just like Lori expected, she sees a group of wolf riders she has become increasingly familiar with spinning around in the middle of the road. Without any words, Lori's body has already reacted as a golden colored sphere emits around her body, turning her into a bomb of explosive concussive energy. Lori jumps into the sky, and then crushes into the ground, sending a dozen of wolf riders scattering into the sky with both the shockwave of her descend, and the power of the miracle [Emit Force].
The wolf riders clearly got shocked by this sudden assault, as they briefly freeze on the spot, rather than immediately react to Lori's attack. After seeing the death they caused on the way, Lori isn't feeling generous, or chivalrous to let them recover. Her body still felt tired after running at top speed, and her mind was starting to feel dizzy. But seeing these despicable scums suddenly gives her enough focus to call for the Chief God's power at her pinnacle state. A golden lightning falls on top of her own body, turning her red feathers golden as sparks dance on top of her feathers, Lori charges at the bloodthirsty enemies. Her body already turned into the most deadly weapon, and she pecks at them with her beak and kicks at them with her clawed feet. Heavy blades, sharp teeth and claws on her, but the pain is nothing compared to seeing all the mutilated bodies, some of them she recognizes as followers of her father. Especially when she sees the wolf riders split up. The majority of them swarmed at her, while a dozen of them remained and continued to cut down those who were still fighting them. How dare these bad people... HOW DARE THEM! With a loud croak, Lori releases all of the Chief God's divine power which she called down and stored into her body. The normally white shockwave turns into a golden aura of lightning, her [Wrath of the Gods] miracle turning all of the enemies surrounding her into charcoal.
Lori's legs give out under her body. Away from her, only a pair of young human children are still standing. The boy holding a sword, trying to desperately fight back the attackers to protect the girl who shares the same face as him. Lori wants to charge forward, to save the lives of these children who trusted her father enough to join his battle. But she had exhausted both her own stamina, and whatever power she borrowed from the gods. Just as the pair of children are about to be cut down. A single, crescent shaped blade made of energy suddenly glides through the air, splitting apart half of the wolf riders who were trying to kill the pair of children. A dark figure sprints at the pair of children right after the attack, his speed fast enough to leave only a blur.
The blur picks up both children right as the remaining blades fall upon them, and whisks them away before a single weapon touches their cloth. Behind him, a group of white-scaled raptors, and white feathered filorials charge down from the road. All of the riders wear a white tabard with a single golden cross on them. All of their helmets are also low enough to cover their eyes, the raptor rider's eyes glow with the blue of mana even behind their metal helmets. The filorial riders hold up their musket and open fire, quickly destroying the remaining enemies with hails of bullets. Finally, the savior of the pair of children puts their trembling forms down on the ground to let them rest. He is a very tall, darkly dressed blonde man with flowing hair that runs down his back. He places his head on the pair of human children's heads. "You are safe now."
"Commander Strife. Clean up the battlefield. Let's see if we can figure out who our enemies are." The human children's savior speaks to his followers. A single, undistinguished person riding atop a white filorial holds his fist up, and hammers his left chest. The tall, blonde man who isn't wearing a helmet turns to look at Lori next. After a few silent paces, he seems to recognize her as he walks closer. "You are a filorial raised by the Master Shield Hero, yes? You don't know me, but I met Master Shield Hero while he was traveling through Gallia. Cloud, Lord Commander of Adeptus Astarte, of the Four Heroes' Church, Romalia branch. Lord General Aultcray has witnessed our enemy's ability to send armies through a magic mirror portal. And he has dispatched my brothers and I to help."
Chapter 44: Untrustworthy Ally
Naofumi feels his blood run cold when he realizes the critical information he somehow overlooked till this point. Ashtaroth is an invader from another world, and his mirror has the ability to imprison someone in a pocket dimension, and then tear them into countless little pieces when it shatters. Of course, it could also open up a portal to somewhere and allow much more troops to go through than his own [Porting Shield] ability. And of course, since the enemy they are facing is an underhanded scum who has no problem using despicable tactics, they would use this advantage on the most vulnerable target. Not the heroes and their followers. But on troops who find themselves out of position. He suddenly notices a red figure blur past him. Looking to the side, Naofumi realizes Motoyasu is running away. "Motoyasu! Where are you going!?"
"I'm going after 'Book Hero'! He's holding out on us! If he told us about this guy able to teleport armies around, we could have done something about it!" Motoyasu didn't bother to stop, or look at him. Earth cracks with every step he takes, and then leaves a small crater of his boots on the ground. Naofumi quickly runs after his friend, more than a bit concerned at what kind of consequence would happen if he actually gets into a fight with the 'hero' from another world. So far, they haven't openly had any conflict with that Kyo guy yet, so it's hard to estimate how strong or weak that guy is. But Malty is treating Motoyasu's coming fight with the Book Hero seriously by having Azula sparring with him, and it wasn't something done in secret either. The fact that Kyo hasn't done anything about it suggests he thinks Motoyasu is so far below him, it's not even worth any response or attention. Not to mention that Ashtaroth guy with the strange and powerful mirror abilities. Who knows if he's peeping at them right now, and what he might do when Motoyasu has an open fight with Kyo.
Tact simply blows a whistle at the situation. Clearly showing no interest to step in and defuse the situation. Naofumi quickly turns to look like Azula. Her fire magic infused fighting style was exotic and powerful. Even as Motoyasu has been training tirelessly with her everyday, he still hasn't managed to make her truly take him with her full power yet. So if his friend gets into a fight with their tentative ally, her help would be invaluable even if she's not a hero. The fire bender scowls back, clearly realizing what Naofumi wants her to do and making her true feelings about it clear with her face, but she didn't make any comment. She's constantly pushing boundaries, resisting his control over her with minor offenses, but not openly rebelling against him to trigger the slave seal's punishment effect. And he's not going to actively punish her unless she truly hurts one of his friends or other innocent people.
He turns to look at his followers. The three Siltvelt princesses are taking turns following and protecting him, and he's glad Avdol is beside him. The Bennu Prince's calm mind would be helpful in this situation. He quickly gives an instruction to Malty. "Go get Itsuki, and that Dio guy. I'm going after Motoyasu."
Naofumi didn't wait around and see if Malty actually did what she's asked to. She's smart enough to know how bad things would get if Motoyasu gets into an actual fight with a hero from another world. It'll keep her away from danger if they do fight each other, and bring in some helpers to calm the situation down, or help fight off whatever assault Astaroth sends them if the worst comes to pass. Without any more delay, he quickly follows after Motoyasu.
It's not hard to find where Motoyasu went, since Kyo didn't change where he's been living the past few days. The same spot near the river where he built himself a little hot spring jacuzzi. Right now, a small building made of stone has appeared right beside the book hero's hot tub. Something also built by his own magic, because he clearly doesn't like the idea of living out in the open. There's a thick cloud of mist surrounding Kyo's personal bath spot, indicating he's enjoying a dip right now. A stone golem shaped like a girl is holding a platter beside it, with glasses of fruit juice made from Bed-chan's magic fruit sitting on it. It looks like a pretty nice vacation spot, if Motoyasu isn't waving his spear in front of the mist surrounding the hot spring while screaming murder. "Come out and die! You lazy, four eyed fucker!"
"This is a private bathing spot. Go find your own, if you want a dip." A gust of wind picks up one of the juice-filled glass, and brings it inside the mist. Kyo's voice sounds lazy, his enunciation slow. Making it very apparent how little he thinks of Motoyasu's challenge.
"Why you little- [Meteor Spear]!" Motoyasu stops aimlessly waving his spear around. He points the tip of his weapon at the mist covered hot spring, and shoots out one of his stronger attacks. The spinning five pointed energy star shoots into the white cloud... and suddenly it shoots back out into the sky. Exploding harmlessly not long after.
"Is that all? Are you trying to bribe me with a dancing, spinning little star? And a firework show? Give up! I'm not going to lend my own little bathing spot to you and have you stink up the whole place! I don't want to be infected by your stupidity" The laughter inside the white mist becomes much louder. The red shade on Motoyasu's face also deepens, and slowly begins to change towards the spectrum of purple.
"Who is that, Naofumi-sama? The Spear Hero is an idiot... but that guy sounds way worse." A curious voice takes Naofumi's attention away from the tense, and likely one-sided staring down Motoyasu is having with Kyo the Book Hero. The Shield Hero is belatedly reminded that his self-proclaimed number one fan, and one of his top headache is right here with him again. He takes a look at Hayate standing not too far away, and wonders if the valet from House Malfoy is able to reel this uncontrollable menace in a little. And then he is struck with a sudden sense of tiresome comedy when he realizes he's relying on the help of someone working for Lucius Malfoy, of all people. This world is changing him much more than he is changing this world.
"He calls himself Kyo, and he's supposedly this Book Hero from another world..." The light of alarmed realization in Sato's eyes gives Naofumi a foreboding realization that he most definitely said the wrong thing to the wrong people. This feeling is immediately proven right, as Sato suddenly shoves him back, while standing protectively in front of him.
"Get back and run, Naofumi-sama! He's the villain controlling the Spirit Tortoise!" The Throwing Weapon Hero's face turns grim as he throws his tomahawk into the mist. The sharp throwing axe flies into the white cloud like a shooting star across the night sky, and then returns back out twice as fast. Naofumi didn't even have time to react, let alone throw up any kind of barrier when Sato's own weapon hit him right in the face. At first, Naofumi thought he's definitely dead, or at least badly wounded. But all Sato did was let out a pained yelp as he fell back on the ground. Naofumi looks down, and sees aside from a red mark across Sato's face and trails of blood running down his nose trails, the Throwing Weapon Hero appears to be unharmed. Were hero weapons unable to hurt their own master, Sato got extremely lucky, or did Kyo actually calculated the trajectory to make sure only the axe's blunt side hit Sato for a painful, but not too permanent wound?
"Master Tairou! You scum!" Atla lets out a scream as she leaps right into the mist, looking like an enraged cougar ready to pounce on her prey. And then she immediately jumps right through the mist from the other side, like she has only glided through empty air. And unfortunately for her, the spot Kyo chose as his private residence was right beside the river going around Balafon village. So she ends up falling head first into the running water. And from the way she is desperately and wildly flailing in the river, it looks like she doesn't know how to swim.
"[Shield Change, [Rope Shield]! CATCH THIS!" Atla's brother immediately runs past everyone and jumps into the river after her. Naofumi changes his shield's force, makes a lasso out of his fully limit break, five stars [Rope Shield] at the white tiger siblings. With all the fortification he did with this shield form, its sturdiness is comparable to metal, but also much less brittle. Fohl catches the end of his lasso, and Naofumi nearly loses his foot and got dragged onto the ground by the current. But Avdol immediately grabs onto him and the two of them pull Fohl and his sister up from the river. Naofumi lets out a sigh of relief when he sees Fohl walking back onto the ground with his sister in hand. He looks to the side, and to his dismay also finds Sato slowly crawling up while holding his face with his spare hand not holding his hero weapon. He quickly stands over his self-proclaimed fan, and tries to stop the situation from further deterioration. "Stop attacking our ally! The one who released, and is controlling the Spirit Tortoise is a demon named Astaroth, who is also the Mirror Hero from Kyo's world. Kyo is our ally fighting against this Astaroth, and he's the one who revealed all this to us!"
"He's lying to you, Naofumi-sama! If he's here, that means we are in the light novel timeline. He is the boss behind the Spirit Tortoise! That Astaroth must be one of his subordinates he's controlling to fool you!" Sato is still waving his weapon around, but he didn't throw it like previously. Either Naofumi had some success to have him act with more caution, or he didn't want to get hit in the face when Kyo sent his attack back.
"I'll be careful with him. But don't try to provoke him further. If he is one of our allies, we could use him against our enemy. If he is our enemy pretending to be our ally, he must have some preparation and contingency plans to come to, and get surrounded by us." Naofumi also slightly turns his face towards the mist-covered hot spring Kyo made for himself. A small amount of suspicion could be healthy, and he does feel Sato has some point this time. The Throwing Weapon Hero seems to be somewhat appeased by his advice being taken seriously this time, as he stops swinging his weapons pointlessly around. He's still holding his amateur-looking fighting stance, and Naofumi can't fault him.
Kyo isn't someone like Malty when she approached him as 'Mein of Samphor'. Both of them have secrets, but Malty was helpful with him from the start. She even repeatedly got hurt while traveling and fighting alongside him. By contrast, all Kyo did so far is give them some news which they couldn't verify. And he didn't even give out the most crucial information to them where Astaroth could send the army out with his mirror weapon, leading to their current, precarious situation because they thought they had time to gather forces and make preparation before fighting Astaroth and try to overwhelm him with numbers. Naofumi takes a step forward, and stares into the cloud of white mist. He can't see Kyo's face, but he can imagine a smirk on his face. "You've been holding out on us. You didn't tell us Astaroth could send an army through his mirror, and now we are hurt because he used it to get around our defenses. That's not how an ally should act."
"I already told you everything you needed to know. Didn't I tell you he has dimension power, and he invaded Malach from another world after escaping The Burning Legion? What? You mean to tell me you can't make the conclusion that when he already has power to breach barriers between worlds, he can't send people through a portal inside a single world? And here I thought some of you weren't hopelessly dense and incompetent!" Naofumi grinds his teeth at Kyo's taunting words, and he begins to understand why Motoyasu is losing any patience he has with this guy. He really is very good at making people angry at him. "As for being my allies. Don't think so highly of yourselves! None of you have proven enough to stand alongside me. I, who had a kingdom to rule. I, who was trained to conquer nations while you were still learning how to spell your name! You are someone who'll fight Astaroth because he invaded you. I'm the one who'll rip his head off his shoulders, and kick it around like a ball. I don't care how many of you die so long as you open up a path directly to Astaroth for me, and I'll take care of the demon fucker. It's not like any of you simpletons can do it."
"How will you do that if everyone here is dead!? Everyone who gets killed by Astaroth and his lackeys you could have prevented with more information is less people who can help us stop Astaroth and the Spirit Tortoise!" Naofumi stomps forward with a single step. He finds himself increasingly difficult to contain his rage at Kyo's flippant attitude. People are dying because of Astaroth, and he seems more interested in making condescending remarks than helping them against this common enemy.
"Hmm... let me think of the correct response to your conundrum. Oh, would you look at that? I believe the perfect thing to say for me in this situation is this: I failed to see how that's part of my problem. I only care about Astaroth's death. If you idiots can't get the job done, I can find someone else." Kyo's schadenfreude comment finally does it for Naofumi. He casts the physical form of his shield away, and begins to gather the power of [Crown Shield] between his hands. Interestingly, his aggressive action seems to finally make the self-proclaimed Book Hero treat the situation with some seriousness. The cloudy mist which surrounded his personal hot spring suddenly begins to wave like they are being blown away by a gust of invisible wind. They then begin to twist like an animal, and then shrink towards the middle. Since Naofumi followed Motoyasu here, he finally sees Kyo's body. Right now, the 'hero' from Malach is standing inside his personal bathing spot. The mist previously surrounded the area gathered around his otherwise naked body like a cloak as the Book Hero regards him with narrowed, calculating eyes. "What is this? You voluntarily casted off your hero weapon's physical form and... you are fortifying your weapon with the world's energy? Some kind of special enhancement method, perhaps? Interesting. I never thought of this. You have my interest now, Shield Hero."
"I'm sure I'll have more than your interest once I finish charging up my saiga." Naofumi snorts at Kyo through gritted teeth as Motoyasu, Avdol and Sato all step in front of him. Hoping this kind of taunt would appease the man's ego into letting him bring out his strongest shield. The time he needs to bring out the [Crown Shield] has always been his vulnerable moment. While he's sure everyone (minus Azula) would protect him, he's still worried that Kyo might do something to interrupt his charge. Especially since he doesn't know how Kyo would actually fight aside from him being a mage, and supposedly has near perfect control of magic based on what Malty said. Thankfully, all Kyo does is stand around, looking at the gathering ball of light between Naofumi's hands. He doesn't know if his taunt worked, or if Kyo would have allowed him to continue regardless. It doesn't matter when his red [Crown Shield] appears in his hands.
"DIE! You villain!" Sato is the first one to act, as he tosses out his throwing ax once again at Kyo. The Book Hero didn't dignify the Throwing Weapon Hero with a response. He simply slaps his left hand to the side, and the spinning tomahawk flies away into the distance without even touching Kyo's body. Sato seems to be shocked at how his weapon didn't immediately return back to him, as he looks down at his hand while his fingers twitch like he's trying to grab something unseen in his hand.
"Restrict his movement! [Variable Shield Prison]!" Naofumi isn't sure his order is the right one, since Kyo isn't moving much to begin with. He's certainly not trying to keep distance from them to avoid damage, since he seems to be able to negate them. And he clearly doesn't need the extra time to chant his spells. So he isn't sure if the Book Hero should be dealt with like a typical pure magic user. But now they are openly fighting, they can't afford to stand around and do nothing. So he immediately activates his shield's capture move as an emerald colored energy shield forms around Kyo's body.
"[Crossfire Hurricane]!" Avdol puts both his hands up, a black-colored, long-necked and long-beaked bird's silhouette appears behind him similar to Bertia's black dragon when she casts her most powerful dark magic. Dark fire shaped like ankh shoots out of his bird illusion, swarming towards Kyo location after Naofumi's own energy shields.
"[Spear Barricade]!" Motoyasu also casts his variation of [Shield Prison, as walls of ruby colored energy spears forms right behind Naofumi's own emerald colored shields, crossing over each other like prison bars in front of a cell, while others pointing right at Kyo like they are battlefield barricades. His ability might be less sturdy than Naofumi's variation, but it's more physically threatening judging by all the pointy ends towards his enemy.
"Is that all?" Kyo doesn't seem to feel threatened even as he's being overwhelmed by attacks. He even makes a derisive snort. Once again, he simply swings his arm down. Naofumi can't tell what he did, but the seams between his energy shields which forms his [Shield Prison] ability suddenly burst open. Same thing happens to Motoyasu's energy spears as they both fizzle out. Avdol's fire attacks wavers for a split second, and then they are all pulled above Kyo's hand, molded like they are clay by what seems to be an invisible hand. Naofumi has no idea how the Book Hero achieved this, since he can't see anything other than their abilities breaking apart. Is Kyo using wind magic, or something more sci-fi like telekinesis? He can't tell. "Get them."
Naofumi can't tell who Kyo is talking to, and for a brief moment he wonders if Sato is actually right this time. That everything Kyo told them were lies, and he's either working together with Astaroth or maybe Astaroth was merely Kyo's subordinate, and right now the Mirror Demon is going to drop an army on top of their head. But the dark flame above the Book Hero's head suddenly changes shape into a coiling black serpent, and its 'mouth' opens up as it lunges at them all.
Blue flame coats over Azura's body as she levitates above ground, making it looks like she's wearing a blue aura around herself. She opens both of her palms in front of her like Avdol, as a blue colored, spinning fireball gathers in front of her hand. At first, it only had the size of a ping pong ball. But then it suddenly enlarged to the size of a basketball, and then the fire around Azula's body disappeared as her attack grew even larger than her like a blue sun. She pushed the blue fireball towards Kyo's attack with both hands. "[Greater Nine Suns Eruption]!"
Azula's blue sun shoots right towards the maw of the black fire serpent. The two attacks collide, and for a brief moment, they both twist like they are about to violently explode. But then the dark fire serpent changes its shape, where its long body grows short, but much thicker till it begins to resemble some kind of fat grub instead, and it seems to devour Azula's attack, holding it inside its stomach. A bright light seeps through its dark body, and then a similar colored fire begins to coil around the black fire as the serpent reforms, and continues to drop towards Naofumi and all of his allies.
"[Meteor Shield]!" "[Cartwheel]!" Naofumi activates his strongest defensive ability at the same time as Motoyasu besides him. His saiga [Crown Shield] allows him to gain attack power equal to his defense power when it's in flail mode, but it also makes him unfathomably bulky in shield form as it draws extra defense power from all the shield forms he unlocked. In spite of this, he's not sure he is able to keep everyone safe due to how powerful Kyo's attack looks. Yet to his surprise, the blue flame wrapped dark serpent suddenly disintegrates in front of them, splitting into thousands different lines as they shoot right over their body but not hitting any of them. Close enough to leave a burning sensation all over, yet not causing any actual damage.
Some of the lines shoot into the shield on his arm. And for a brief moment, they look to be having no effect. But then, the surface of the Crown Shield begins to bubble, and Naofumi's saiga weapon suddenly explodes into a hundredth of red lights. Because this isn't the first time he lost his shield, Naofumi knew that he could get it back, but it's still pretty shocking to see his strongest shield form get taken apart by another hero.
"Did I make all of you wet yourself? Come on, you clowns are still my ticket to getting back Astaroth." Kyo walks out of his bathing spot towards them, a triumphant smirk on his face. He stops in front of Motoyasu, and pats his face a couple of times like he's petting a dog. Naofumi feels like he should be doing something to not let Kyo disrespect his friend without any consequence. With his saiga active, he's currently their strongest fighter besides veteran heroes like Tact or Dio. Yet his limbs feel cold, like they aren't part of him anymore as Kyo continues to talk down to them all. "If you stupidly get killed by that demon king wannabe, that's all on you. But I'm not going to have any of your blood on me. Because frankly... none of you are worth the effort. And for you, Shield Hero. This little elemental form of your weapon is interesting. But you need to be more careful when you use it again. They are made of magic, so they are more volatile than most of the other physical weapon forms. And a skilled mage can disrupt it enough to break it apart. Now that you know how much of a gap between us there is, let us go back to the start where all of you leave me alone, while I wait for you to gather forces to fight Astaroth..."
"NOW!" A voice suddenly screams out like it comes from the edge of the world. Naofumi didn't even recognize the speaker being Zylden till green vines the size of fully grown tree trunks burst out of the ground from right underneath Kyo's feet. Motoyasu gets knocked backwards and falls on his butt, as Kyo's body is wrapped multiple layers tight by what has to be Bed-Chan, leaving only the book hero's head exposed, and his body looks like a giant, bloated watermelon. Naofumi belatedly remembered that the ritual awakened dryad who helped him during his escape from the Three Heroes' Church had fully settled in Balafon. Which means she probably has her roots and vines fully burrowed and expanded underneath the ground around the farming village. Zylden runs down the dirt slope, and stops not too far around him. A small flower bursts out of the ground, and the dwarf slaps its petals like he's having a low five. "Good job, my assistant. Now, I know you went through all the trouble to bring your big, glowing fancy shield out, shield boy. But I hope you don't mind Bed-chan jumping to your help. She still wanted to pay you back for your help getting her away from the church."
"I'm pretty sure I'm the one who is owing her favors. But thanks, Bed-Chan. You saved us again." Naofumi leans down to look at the small flower, wondering if he could see a face in the middle like a certain flower monster from a certain pixel styled game. He didn't see anything resembling facial features, but the flower vein does bend slightly to the back, like someone bending their neck back in satisfaction after being praised. He sees movement from his peripheral vision, so he turns around to look. His self-proclaimed number one fan has recovered his weapon, and his arm is pulled back, looking ready to throw it at Kyo who is helplessly bonded in the air. "Sato! What are you doing!?"
"We can't allow a major villain like him to live, Naofumi-sama! You have Bit-" Sato suddenly notices the dirty look Motoyasu is shooting at him from two steps away, and he quickly changes his tone. "You have Malty enslaved, so she's not going to directly hurt you. But slave punishment isn't perfect. Someone manipulative and cunny could find loopholes to abuse the mechanic. But you can't even use it on a hero like this guy! The safest thing to do right now is to immediately kill him now that he's defeated!"
"Not right now. Now that we have him, I'm going to ask him questions first." Sato looks like he's going to say something, and Naofumi immediately covers his mouth with his hand. Judging by Sato's past record, he's probably going to say something ridiculous in the best case scenario. "Even if Kyo is secretly working with Astaroth, or is that guy's boss. That still means he has important information we can get out about our enemy. And right now, information is the most crucial thing for us. We just made some crucial mistakes in strategy because we didn't know everything about Astaroth and what he can do."
"What makes all of you think I'm defenseless? Just because you surprised me with this hidden dryad doesn't mean she can keep me bonded like this for-" Kyo suddenly stops talking as the normally arrogant look on his face slowly gives way to surprise, and then it slowly changes to something much more negative. It looks more severe than something like mere annoyance, but not quite what Naofumi would consider fear, or panic. The Book Hero turns his focus over to Zylden as for the first time, he asks a question rather than making a rhetorical, sarcastic remark. "This dryad is draining my magic? And she's succeeding? How?"
"You should be able to figure it out if you are so smart, shouldn't you? Lord Book Hero? Needless to say, my assistant Bed-Chan isn't your typical garden variety dryad." Zylden smirks as he tosses the question right back at Kyo. Exactly like how the Book Hero acted when Naofumi was facing him about the mirror technique Astaroth used. "She doesn't like violence, especially killing people. But she's not defenseless or stupid either, especially seeing the action of who made her. Of course, she's going to do something to constrain you, and make sure you don't start another mess around here."
"Hiding such a powerful ally in plain sight for all this time and having her ambush me when I have my guard down... how absolutely devious and despicable. Guess you clowns aren't all talk after all. That demon king wannabe has no sense of honor, integrity. And he follows no rule other than his own: victory and conquest at all costs. To be able to beat him, you have to learn to play a little dirty." Kyo's face slowly turns into a smile once again, and he almost looks... proud. Not the kind of self-satisfied arrogance from before, but more like an elder proudly looking at someone younger who has achieved something great. There's still a sign of his usual smugness, but it's still something much more positive than Kyo's usual attitude. "Fine. I'll answer everything you have about Astaroth this time. No more riddles hiding his information."
"I understand why you want to interrogate this villain, Naofumi-sama. But can you honestly believe anything he says? He just attacked you! If it's someone you can slap a slave seal on, I understand how you can use it to detect lies even if it's not perfect. But he's a 'hero', and you can't slap a slave seal on him. What if he tells you more lies? This is a guy who would brainwash people to do his bidding." Sato jumps to Naofumi's side. To Naofumi's relief, he isn't waving his weapons around like he's about to attack someone but his words did give him pause this time.
On the one hand, Kyo has been incredibly uncooperative even if he supposedly also has a bone to pick with Astaroth. Him omitting crucial information like Astaroth's ability to send an army through his mirror, has no doubt caused a lot of lives and damage by now. And he didn't show any sense of remorse when being confronted by fact, choosing to fight them instead. But on the other hand, he had the chance to kill everyone around him with that fire attack, but pulled back at the last moment instead of going full force. Of course, the reason he didn't is most likely because he was arrogant and thought nobody could actually threaten him. But the possible knowledge about Astaroth could still be helpful.
"Stop faking your death and come out here, Iroh. I know you are following the Shield Hero, and ready to jump in if he's in real danger." Azula's words bring Naofumi out of his contemplation. He looks at the direction the dragon princess is staring at, and all he sees is the river beside the village of Balafon. It's deep, and fast enough to nearly take a young, and petite girl like Atla away, but he doesn't feel like it can hide a grown man. "Come out, and share your 'elderly wisdom' with us. Aren't you supposed to be good at reading people? You decided Zuzu was the good, golden boy of our family while I'm a lost cause after all."
For a brief moment, nothing seems to happen. Until a fish in water slowly rises its head out of the water's surface and it slowly morphed into the skinny former shopkeeper. He doesn't seem to mind how he is fully drenched by river water, as he looks back at Azula. "Stop being so vindictive, Azula. Do you want me to get on my knees and beg for your forgiveness for giving you up too quickly?"
"That would be a start, yes."
Iroh sputters at Azula's affirmation, but he ignores her response. "You are right. I didn't feel any real sense of malice from the Book Hero. Sense of hubris, yes. But not the kind of intent to kill someone in front of him."
"You aren't going to simply believe him just because this old guy tells you to, are you? Naofumi-sama? There needs to be at least some kind of precaution even if you want to interrogate this villain!" Sato looks at Naofumi intently. Naofumi hates how much he actually agrees with his self-proclaimed fan on this topic.
"Naofumi! Are you alright?!" Naofumi turns his face around once again and sees Itsuki running down the dirt slope alongside Malty. Kael'thas is also with them, with hundreds of Siltvelt warriors behind him. He nearly trips over himself near the end, as he half runs and half falls in front of Naofumi. His body bending over, hands resting on his legs. "Sorry... I came as soon... as Malty got me. But I see everything is finished. He hasn't hurt you, has he?"
"I'm fine. Kyo is stronger than we thought, and he overpowered Avdol and Azula's magic. But he held back his attack at the last second, and he got taken by surprise thanks to Zylden and Bed-Chan." Naofumi watches Motoyasu patting down the dirt on Itsuki's body, he looks back at Kyo again. "We are trying to decide what to do with our 'guest' here. He's intentionally omitted information from us, and people died because of it. Not to mention he is being incredibly uncooperative, openly making fun of us and even fighting us when we confronted him. But I still want to get whatever information out of him, especially now Bed-Chan has him captured."
"But you aren't sure if we can trust whatever he says now?" Itsuki looks back at Naofumi, to which he nods his own head. The tip of his younger friend's boot taps on the ground, and Itsuki seems to be biting his lips. "Is there no magic that could detect lies? I mean... if they have this mechanic of built-in slave seals, there has to be ways in which it works independently, right?"
Naofumi opens his mouth, but then he stops and thinks over Itsuki's suggestion. He ponders over his friend's words, and finds it to be reasonable. It seems like his way of thinking has been unconsciously influenced by this world so much. Of course, slapping a slave seal onto someone shouldn't be the only solution when a problem comes along. Not to mention, this world already has elements from a certain other fiction with a very famous truth serum. So he looks at Malty next and asks. "Is there any Veritaserum in this world? The potion that forces people to tell the truth?"
"There are. But we don't have access to Veritaserum right now. They are a highly controlled interrogation tool in the Faubley court. And the Faubley court will mostly work against us, thanks to King Egbert and Lord Regent Dumbledore. Even if we have one of our dragon lords travel there, the bureaucracy alone would slow down the process." Malty turns to look at Kael'thas. The phoenix prince slowly turned his own head to face her with cocked eyebrows, clearly annoyed at her. "The Imperius Seal was created by Mikage Mikami. There has to be some Siltvelt noble families keeping its record in secret, right? Now would be a good time to contribute it to your king.
Kael'thas' body shakes, his lips shiver like he's about to release a string of curses back at Malty. But he gives a quick glance over to Naofumi, and takes a deep breath. He crosses over his arms to show his protest, but speaks back to Malty with a calm voice. "I find it disturbing that the first thought you Melromarc nobility have is accusing us of breaking treaties signed by all the nations."
"For once I agree with the roasted chicken. Such uncouth behavior that all of you uncivilized savages would resort to slavery to solve all your problems." Azula's words make Malty let out some splattering sound. "So what do you suggest we do here, Prince Kael'thas? If you want an interrogator, I can pry open this arrogant ass' mouth and make him sing."
"That would not be needed, Lady Azula. To be frank, I do not trust the daughter of Ozai enough to handle the most crucial information, and neither should my king. Your uncle... however..." Kael'thas looks at Iroh next. "You've been an apothecary for what... at least ten years now? I want a pill of 'Ice Fire Ecstacy'. Don't say you don't have it. I know you would find the ingredient to make something like it, as a contingency if nothing else. Don't let the name fool you, my king. It is not a recreational drug for pleasure. It is actually a kind of poison that would have your body change between having your blood burn from the inside, to having them freeze solid if you aren't given an antidote in time to suppress its effect."
"Bah! You are speaking as if such an act is any less barbaric than the slave seal. At least the punishment mechanic only triggers when the master activates it, or the bearer does something they are restricted for. But if the antidote for Ice Fire Ecstacy isn't given in due time, its effect would slowly torture someone to death." Iroh makes a spat on the ground while Azula scoffs at Kael'thas' suggestion, but he slowly reaches into his clothing and brings out a small bottle. Opening its cover, he pours a single round pill, about the size of one's thumb nail. It's a mesh of red and blue mixed chaotically together like an elastic bouncing ball toy for children. But Naofumi could swear that there's a layer of golden shimmer coming off the poisoned pill. Iroh lets out a sigh, and walks in front of Naofumi with the pill in his hand. "But I suppose it's better than having the Book Hero killed."
"Oh~ what's this? A golden pill? Here in this world? And here I thought this kind of medicine is only popular in the Heavenly Regime." Naofumi turns his head to look at Kyo. Right now, the bond and captured Book Hero is staring at the pill in Iroh's hand like he's looking at a beautiful, naked woman. "I've been curious about them for a long time! I want to see what's its effect, and understand how it causes the effect! Does it actually raise and lower my blood's tempature, or is it merely an illusion? Maybe some kind of stimulation to the brain? Well. Didn't you say something about feeding it to me? What are you waiting for!? Gimme, gimme! I've been curious about its effect for a long time."
"Didn't you hear anything Azula and Iroh said? This is not a recreational drug for pleasure." Naofumi looks up at Kyo's anxious looking face, and then looks back down at the pill in Iroh's hand. He's suddenly struck by a strong sense of irony. Here, he is hesitating about the morality of threatening Kyo into telling the truth about Astaroth and helping them fight this self-proclaimed demon king. And Kyo seems to want to swallow the poison out of his own free will. For what, his curiosity? Does he even realize he would be giving up at least some of his freedom?
And what about himself? Now that he's going down the slippery slope of taking increasingly amoral actions in the name of reaching his goal, was Malty's mother right about him? That perhaps he is no different from her, and all his previous words to her were merely spoken out of hypocrisy?
"You heard the man. What are you waiting for, Iroh?" Azula shoots Iroh another glare. The former shopkeeper shakes his head and lets out a sigh, but he flips the pill into Kyo's open mouth. And Naofumi didn't do, or say anything to stop it.
Omake: Retake of the Sword Hero 2
Ren blinks at the dead monster lying in front of him, the fatal wound comes from an arrow that shoots into its eyes and destroys its brain, not damaging its fur in any way. The monster has a head that resembles a fox, with the body of a large wolf and lion like mane around its head. And it's apparently called a 'lion' in this world. His sword has taken the shape of a dagger in his hand, but he has no idea where he should start skinning the thing to not damage the fur its hunter preserved. He's pretty sure he'll end up turning it into shred before he even finished skinning half of the dead beast.
"I think Glass-nee is being too hard on you, Amaki-Kun. How about this? I'll skin the lion this time, and you observe how I do it? You can have the next one." Ren looks up at the teenage girl kneeling in front of him. Unlike the people from the last world, she wears a set of kimono just like this Glass, and the bow in her hand changes into a hunting knife similar to the dagger in Ren's hand.
Kizuna the Hunting Hero. Her identity, and her appearance really hammers home to Ren that he's not in his last world anymore. Yet... There is something familiar about her. In fact, Kizuna reminds Ren of his home and it's not her traditional Japanese style cloth. Her hair is much longer and curlier. And she isn't always bouncing on her heels like there's a spring in her leg. Yet, Kizuna reminds Ren of his childhood friend Mikoto. He nods his head back to Kizuna. "I think that's for the best. I can help you do the menial tasks, and give you a hand if you find this too strenuous..."
"You are at Level 10, Kizuna is over Level 50. She's much stronger than you, silly boy." Glass' voice nearly makes Ren choke. He wants to argue that his original level wasn't any lower than Kizuna, but he looks at his status screen again and suppose it doesn't matter anymore. As he waves the screen away, he sees a blood stained bunny with saber-like teeth out of its maw being tossed in front of him. "I won't pamper you like Kizuna, because you need to start your hero training from the basics. Skin this killer hare."
Ren decided to not fight against a veteran hero who is well over level 200. He picks up the dead monster, and begins to fuss over it, making a mess over the ground with spilled blood and fallen fur. Not too far from them, Wyndia is shooting glares at both Kizuna and Glass when she thinks they aren't looking at her, while Gaelion on her laps is blowing out a stream of fire to light up the bundles of dry branches in front of them. Kizuna didn't pay much attention to them, as she looked back at Glass. Her hands neatly separated the fur of the dead 'lion' from its flesh even without looking. "Do you think Honoka-Chan is okay, Glass-Nee? I'm worried for her after the Heavenly Regime took Janko and Okonogi-Kun. I hope the two of them are okay."
"It's not your fault Akiyama and Okonogi got captured by the Katana Hero. She could have escaped with us, but she made her decision to work together with the Katana Hero." Glass puts a hand on Kizuna's slumped shoulder, and Ren fights the urge to shake his head. And here, he thought the nobles from the last isekai world were bad. At least they aren't openly warring with each other like the Katana Hero and Mirror Hero of this world. "I'm sure Machio is fine. At least for now. She has the Scythe Hero L'arc protecting her. But they still need to know that both the Katana Hero and the Mirror Hero are hunting down other heroes for their own ambitions, and they aren't safe hiding in the Death Forest anymore."
"Mirror Hero. That's the fucker that sent us to this world, right?" Wyndia suddenly stands up, making Gaelion flip off her legs and rolls a couple times on the ground.
"I haven't seen the one who sent you three to our world. But based on your description, it doesn't sound like the Mirror Hero Astaroth." Glass gives a single nod to Wyndia. "Last I heard, Mirror Hero's forces have stopped their path of conquest and have changed their tactics to consolidate their forces in areas they have taken over. But it only means the expansion of the Katana Hero, and his Heavenly Regime would have no direct competitor. Especially after he subjected the Cooking Hero Janko Akiyama. That's why we need to find Farming Hero Honoka Michio and Scythe Hero L'arc Berg. We can't let him grow his influence unchallenged."
L'arc Berg? Wasn't that the name of Rishia's brother? So him. Or rather, his counterpart is a hero in this world like Glass?
End Note:
Confession time, I actually have no idea what Kyo should be like from canon because I made the decision to never read LN (because I have no intention to ever support a hack like Alenko in any monetary way, and frankly, I think it's even worse dumpster fire than WN based on what little information other people told me about LN). So Kyo in my story is more based off Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood from Yu-Gi-Oh. Particularly, the version from the fanfiction [Butterflies, Ladybugs, Fireflies, and Bumblebees] written by May Never Know on this site. That version of Haga is geuinely a compelling character with both fleshed out strength and flaw, and the writer didn't resort to cheap writting trope like sick family member to make him look sympathetic. So totally recommend everyone to give that short story a check.
Although ironically, based off my pm with lord Martiya, supposedly my version of Kyo was pretty close to his canon self?
And since the feedback I gotten from other people regarding Naofumi's last confrontation with Queen Safespace Simpy McCunt was in his favor... let it goes on record that I didn't intent it to be an one-sided argument where he was in the right. Cunt was meant to be in the right when she calls Naofumi a hypocrite where he aspires to be heroic and judge other people for falling short, but at the end would still resort to amoral actions to get his goal.
Naofumi is one of the main character in this story. And since I'm not going to write a tragedy, he's obviously meant to triumph over others in the story (does this even count as a spoiler?). That being said, I'm NOT going to pull an Alenko where I justify all of his actions. As one of the main characters he is meant to make mistakes, and he is meant to be wrong a lots of times even if he win in the end.