by Aneko Yusagi
Huh? I turned toward the sensation of further magic. Takt’s harem all unleashed magic right at me. I wasn’t going to let them pull a Witch move on me! I maneuvered to get them all along the same line of sight and prepared to wipe them all out together.
“Zweite Wing Blow!” came the attack.
“Fenrir Force X!” Focusing my life force, I lined up the trajectory and unleashed the skill to take out Takt and his women all together. The staff flashed—the part with the wolf decoration opening up. Then it fired a beam from the gemstone. A thick laser appeared in front of me and flew straight for Takt.
“Uwah!” I thought it would hit for a moment, but the kickback knocked it just slightly off course. Takt was closest, and he avoided it. So he had some reflexes after all. It could only have been around three seconds between my lifting the staff and activating the magic. It missed, so I canceled it, but the SP consumption was rapid.
“Bah! Missed!” I shouted. I’d been hoping that wouldn’t happen.
“Naofumi,” said S’yne, speaking through her familiar and casting dispersions in my direction.
“Oh, crap. Sorry.” I’d missed my intended target, perhaps, but I had hit something—the human dressed like a maid whom S’yne had been fighting. There wasn’t anything left of her.
I wondered if that was murder. I didn’t feel bad about it, not at all. She’d been picking a fight with S’yne, and if getting hit by an attack that wasn’t even intended for her was enough to take her out, that was fine with me.
“Ah!” Takt was staring vacantly into the air at a scarf that was dancing there, probably all that was left of the woman whom I’d eradicated.
“I won’t miss next time.” The cooldown time was pretty long for the attack. I gripped the staff and started charging again.
Takt, meanwhile, unleashed a worthless cry of rage and came right at me, swinging all of his weapons left and right. He reminded me of Trash from back when I first met him.
Claws, whip, ax, hammer, projectile, I dodged them all.
“You shit! You killed Ellie! I’ll never forgive you for this! I’m going to rip you limb from limb!” Takt raged. As his harem realized that had happened, they started to scream and rage in confusion too. However, his anger only served to make Takt more predictable. In anime, getting angry often made someone stronger, but in reality, it looked more like this. It made me remember the scene of cursed Ren fighting Eclair. It had probably felt much like this, dodging those angry attacks.
A bit of a contradiction, perhaps, but one really needed to keep one’s head when getting angry. Like I was right now, getting angry while thinking in intricate detail about how to kill your opponent.
“You don’t even understand what you’ve done, do you? Ellie was with me since I was a kid, a childhood friend! She was the first girl I was ever with and someone who accepted me completely. You didn’t have the right to kill her!” Takt thundered.
“Like I care about any of that! Once you set foot on the battlefield you could die at any moment! What about all the people you’ve killed yourself?” I retorted. His logic was about as flawed as it could be. So he could kill whomever he liked, without anyone being allowed to kill his allies, he thought. Ridiculous. If he didn’t want anyone to die, he needed to be ready to protect them with his life.
That was what Atla had told us. They may even die in a place other than the battlefield. If you truly wanted to keep them safe, you had to stay somewhere you could protect them at all times. When I swung my staff, Takt wasn’t there. He hadn’t moved to protect her, far from it. His precious childhood friend had been reduced to ash because he dodged my attack. If she was so important to him, he should have protected her with his own body, his life, without even thinking, if he considered the attack a threat.
“I killed her, so let me say this. It’s your fault for dodging that attack. You need a better awareness of your surroundings. Moron!” I shouted. There was no debate to be held here. This battlefield was a place where people were going to die. If you wanted to prevent as few people from dying as possible, you needed to put your own life on the line. There were all sorts of ways to do it. This guy lacked the conviction to risk being taken out by such attacks alongside his friends.
Gah, this was all such a pain.
“Air Strike Front Mirror, Second Front Mirror,” I incanted, using the staff version of the Front Shield skill and deploying them to rotate around Takt.
“Gah! Stop it! Stop running away!” Takt complained.
“I’m not running from anything. I’m avoiding. Why should I let your attacks hit me? I’m not fighting with a shield now,” I replied. It wasn’t that I didn’t have decent reflexes; I just chose not to avoid things. The guy with the shield wasn’t doing his job if he was dodging things—his job was to hold the enemy in place. “I’m going to fire off some magic. How about you just let it hit you?” I quipped.
“As if I’d allow that!” Takt retorted. In reply, I unleashed some magic with short incantations.
“Zweite Fire! Zweite Water!” These were the only two elemental magic attacks I had learned. I couldn’t use them myself. Borrowing the staff had given me access to them, but there was no need to learn more.
“You won’t hit me like that—” Takt easily avoided the magic, which just traveled in a straight line—but hitting him head on hadn’t been the idea.
Each magic attack struck the mirrors behind Takt.
“What? W-what are you doing?!” he shouted.
“I’m sure you can work it out,” I replied. The ability of Front Mirror was to reflect skills and magic at a stipulated angle. “Or should I give you a demonstration? Air Strike Blast!” I gripped the staff I had been charging and unleashed a skill. The magic was fired off like a beam. Takt tried to avoid it again, but I reflected the blast from the mirrors, over which I had complete control, and sent it flying around Takt.
I had no plans to hit him. I was basically playing around. I’d created a cage using Blast.
Ah, it created a combo. It could even do that. The mirrors were just moving around on their own. This was all pretty convenient. I didn’t know if Trash could control this. I bet he probably could. I could imagine that being pretty dangerous. Each weapon really did have different suitability depending on the user. I bet the recovered Trash could really pull off some crazy stuff with this technique. He’d told me he could use the advanced version of it. Unlike my mirrors, his could create objects with multiple surfaces, allowing skills and magic that hit them to be reflected in multiple directions to cover a wide area. It could even allow enemies hiding behind things to be hit, which sounded very convenient. It had sounded like it might also hit allies, but he’d said that could be covered with careful calculations. I wasn’t going to be pulling moves like that off anytime soon. The best I could do was just move the mirrors around a bit, which came from my experience with Front Shield.
Thinking of mirrors reminded me of that vassal weapon from Kizuna’s world.
“Blast Prison!” In the same moment I shouted it, the prison created from Blast exploded apart. With a roar of pain and anger, Takt was sent flying by the blast. His retinue of women all screamed too. Some of them managed to recover from their confusion and raise their rifles at me.
“Not yet! This doesn’t hurt . . . doesn’t even tickle. Nothing but a scratch,” Takt blustered.
“Yeah, whatever you say,” I retorted. Such hollow pride . . . and even as I thought that, his women started to cast healing magic on him. I wondered if his pride would allow that. I guess he was too angry to worry about it.
“You really don’t want your women to die? Then if I aim for them, all you’ll be able to do is defend,” I suggested. Takt paled and turned to look at the women around him. The women in turn looked at me and started trembling.
I really felt like a bad guy in that moment. It felt really good. I’d never known before how great revenge could feel.
As my weapon had been the shield up until now, I hadn�
��t been able to cause pain in my enemies directly. Who was it, I wondered, who said revenge didn’t achieve anything?
My current feelings would suggest that, if the target of the revenge didn’t show any regret or intent to reform, it would be better to kill them. That was a dangerous path to tread, however. If I got too carried away, I was likely to get cursed again, so I decided to hold back.
“I don’t mind doing that kind of evil,” I continued, “but I don’t want to be a killjoy either, so I won’t take any hostages today. You can thank me for that.” It might make me feel a bit better, but that was for later.
That thought still painted me as quite the bad guy.
In the next moment, some of his retinue—women who obviously couldn’t read the room—went and did something really stupid.
“Don’t move! Twitch another muscle and this woman is dead!” I looked in the direction of the voice to see some of the women, clearly out of their minds . . . bring in a weakened “Raphtalia,” barely able to move, hands in cuffs. They had clearly brought her along because they thought she might be useful as a hostage. Now they thrust a gun at her and threatened to kill her if I moved.
“Raphtalia” was gagged, making muffled noises but unable to speak. She was resisting, pinned down by some of the other women.
“Seriously, I just said I didn’t want to be a killjoy and you go and pull this. Just how low can you get?” I despaired, unable to find any other way to put it. I looked at the women keeping “Raphtalia” hostage with disgust in my eyes, and Takt gave a smile as though he’d just taken the head of a demon.
“Well done, women!” he crowed. I gave a sigh.
“What do you mean ‘well done’? I literally just said I wasn’t going to be a killjoy and take hostages, and then you go and do it! What does that make you?” I said. Then I raised my hands, pretending to obey what they said, and gave a signal for everyone else to stop attacking and focus on just parrying.
“Shut it! I don’t have to play by your rules! The one with the better strategy is the winner!” Takt retorted.
“I’m not sure I’d call this a ‘strategy.’ I say it’s a cowardly act, ignoring all propriety. Hardly the act of a hero,” I replied. I believed that from the bottom of my heart. I knew that those in the right didn’t take hostages and then still try to stand above others.
“She’s cute, so I had planned on taking some time to make her see my appeal, but I’ve changed my mind!” Takt exclaimed. He really seemed to believe he could have allured Raphtalia. If that kind of thing was going to work on her, I would have lost her during our troubles with Motoyasu.
“I owe you for Ellie! Now you’ll feel the same pain!” he raged. He was clearly going to kill the hostage even if I did stop moving. What a total coward.
“I’ve already felt it, you scum! That’s why I’m here taking revenge!” I replied. This was the guy who killed Atla! His woman died, did she? I was going to feel the same pain? “We’re already even for dead women, you hero of the trash heap! You need to take some responsibility for your crimes!” Sure, I’d just killed someone myself, but Takt was the one behind the death of Atla. I thought maybe we’d be able to understand each other, both being murderers . . . but that wasn’t going to happen now. If we could come to an understanding and he took a step back though, I would at least listen to what he had to say. Perhaps reduce the punishment levied upon him after this was all over.
“Ten times this woman of yours wouldn’t be worth a single Ellie! You can’t call us equal!” Takt imbued power into his claws and unleashed a skill. “Wahnsinn Claw!” His target was the “Raphtalia” that the other women had all trussed up. And yet I just quietly watched the slow progress of the skill.
“Raphtalia” continued her muffled protests, even as Takt’s flicker of light flew toward and passed right through her, sending her flying away.
“I did it. I did it!” Takt cackled around his laughter. “I’ve killed your woman! She was a feisty one, I’ll give her that!”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you just did what Master Takt said,” one of his retinue chimed in, laughing as well.
“That’s right! It’s your fault!” said another.
“Poor thing, the only one she has to blame is you!” said a third. All of them were standing around laughing and congratulating themselves at what Takt had done, even though we were still in the middle of the battle.
“Boy. You guys really are nasty,” I said, shaking my head in amazement. Neither Takt nor any of his women had noticed that none of my allies looked the slightest bit panicked.
“Huh?!” One of the retinue, the fox woman, had been standing there to protect the other women. She finally seemed to notice something. “What?” The fox woman swung her claws at one of the other members of the retinue.
“Dafu!” came the cry.
“Impossible! We caught her, I’m sure of it! She can’t possibly have escaped!” With a metallic clang, the targeted woman caught the claws of the fox woman . . . and then that target changed form.
The person who appeared wasn’t who I’d been expecting.
“You! It can’t be?!” the fox woman proclaimed.
“I remembered something, eh. Remembered a foolish little fox who was so focused on tricking others she never considered that she was being tricked herself, eh.” As the now-revealed newcomer spoke, Shildina looked over with a start. This was the woman who had possessed her body, after all.
The past Heavenly Emperor was standing there, as casually as all the world.
“You continue to involve yourself in these futile power struggles, eh. I’m sad to see that your seal broke without you first repenting your deeds,” the past Heavenly Emperor said to the fox woman. She just burst into laughter.
“I’ve found you! I’ve finally found you! You stinking raccoon! So this is where you’ve been hiding!” she cackled. For my part, at the point I cast Liberation Aura X on my allies, I had known pretty much where she was.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan, who had been hidden up until that point. She now dashed toward the past Heavenly Emperor. The past Heavenly Emperor was really Raph-chan II, surely. But I was unsure of whether I had the wrong end of the stick or not.
“I wouldn’t call what I was doing ‘hiding.’ Bringing an old warrior like me, someone long gone from this world, back to life and pressing me into service again . . . I’m half-amazed, half-disappointed. That said . . .” The past Heavenly Emperor raised her hammer. “Last time I chose to just seal you away, hoping you would learn your lesson, but this time I’m going to be sure and take your life.”
“Face my rage at sealing me away! You will pay for all you have done! Die!” The fox woman headed straight for the past Heavenly Emperor.
“Right! Back to the fighting, everyone! Finish off your own targets!” I made a slashing movement across my throat with my thumb. My party all nodded and started fighting again.
“What?! So that woman I just killed—” Takt, stunned, looked toward the body of the woman he had thought was Raphtalia. The smoke parted to reveal what looked like a young girl, dressed in white, clearly deceased.
It looked like the woman Rat had been competing with in her research. So she had been the unlucky one.
“Tell me. How does it feel to have killed one of your own women?” I taunted.
“Your cowardice—” S’yne started.
“We shall ensure that is the end of your cowardly interference,” her familiar translated for her, and then S’yne pointed her scissors at the retinue of women.
“This . . . can’t be . . .” Takt was really having a bad day.
“Come on. Tell me! What does it feel like to have killed one of your own women?” I asked again, really leaning into the role of the bad guy. After all, he’d taken a hostage and then tried to kill her—no, actually killed her—telling those he thought to be her companions just to sit and watch, fully intending to break any promises he made to them.
“You will pay!” His cr
y degenerated into a gargle of rage.
“You killed her. How am I meant to pay for this? I’ll say it again. You killed her.” I shook my head in mock amazement. I wasn’t going to let him push responsibility for this onto me, not after he did the deed. He needed to check his targets more carefully.
I couldn’t believe he really did not suspect anything when I seemed ready to just let the hostage die.
“Right then. I’m going to take some hostages and then attack them myself. Just like you did,” I said. Then I activated Gleipnir Rope, a special effect of the Fenrir Rod. Chains appeared from the ground, which I selected to target the women.
“Stop—” Takt started.
“Hah. As if. I’m not like you,” I said, dropping the act, capturing Takt. He was still suffering from all that earlier damage from the look of it and I captured him easily.
“I can’t . . . move . . .” he grunted.
“I should hope not. You won’t get out of these chains easily,” I told him. The length of the effect of Gleipnir Rope was influenced by the magic of the user. Chains that were famous for being wrapped around a god-killing wolf in my world. They weren’t going to break easily.
“Gah! You’ve forced my hand! See how you like this!” With a pained expression on his face, Takt brought out the shield that he had taken from me.
Based on the shape of the shield, he was using the Shield of Wrath. I guess he was pretty pissed off with me.
“I think you’d have better luck with the Sakura Stone of Destiny Shield,” I commented. That shield could nullify a wide variety of skills and attacks from heroes.
“Bah! I’m not going to follow any advice from you! I can’t even change to it, anyway!” Takt spat a reply. Of course, the sakura stone of destiny was a pacifier’s shield. There was no way he’d be able to change to it without actually having the shield itself.
“This one is far stronger anyway! I’m not paying any attention to your lies!” Takt retorted. I mean, the Shield of Wrath had been super powered up by the Demon Dragon, so it had pretty monstrous stats. It was true that, from a certain perspective, this was the one I wanted him to change to the least.
