by Aneko Yusagi
When I focused, I could see a gravity icon in my field of view. It indicated that the current gravity level was very high. I thought hard about lowering the level, and suddenly, all the people that had lost the ability to move climbed to their feet.
“I feel so light!”
“What’s going on? Did you do this, Kiddo?”
“Yeah. Looks like I can control gravity with this shield.”
“Wow! That’s pretty convenient!”
It was. That would take care of one of Kyo ’s most irritating attacks—the one he’d clearly stolen from the Spirit Tortoise.
“See? What do you think? You better keep on generating that gravity field if you want to keep us down.”
“You fool! Don’t condescend to me!” Kyo screamed, his eyes burning with rage. “How long do I have to entertain you weaklings ?! ”
“Oh, calm down. You’re like a little kid that screams when they don’t get their way.”
He was happy as a clam when everything went according to plan—when he had control over everyone. Otherwise, he threw a temper tantrum. How old was this guy?
Kyo tried to use his ability stat-based skill again. But I found that it was relatively easy to dodge. A quickly deployed Air Strike Shield was all it took to block it.
I ’d found a way to deal with both of his worst attacks, so unless he came up with something more impressive, it looked like victory was becoming more and more likely.
I didn ’t want to overplay my hand here, but I felt like it was time for a taunt or two. “Alright then, do you want to hear about all the ways I’m going to make you pay for your misdeeds?”
I used Attack Support to summon the little dart into my hand, and turned to face Kyo.
“Kizuna and I will hit you with these attack multipliers. Once we confirm that they’ve both hit you, the rest is easy. It doesn’t matter who actually delivers the attack—whoever hits you next and . . . boom! That’s it. Maybe it will be Glass or L’Arc. That would be ideal. They could use a stat-based attack just like you!”
For example, we could deal enough damage that he ’d need to use a lot of magic to heal it, but then, we could make it so that the magic itself would kill him.
“It’s really kind of elegant, the way it punishes you for accumulating all this power.”
“You . . . you bastard!”
“Kyo! If you surrender . . .”
It was Yomogi. What was she going on about now? I didn ’t want him to surrender!
Did she think I ’d let him live if he did? If that’s what she thought, I’d have Kizuna remove her from the battle all together.
“I’ll make your death easy.”
I nearly fell over. I liked where she went with it, but she really was like a wild boar.
Comparing her with Glass and Tsugumi, she really stood out—she was different from the rest.
Kyo went on trying to hit Rishia with his special ability and stat-based attack, but it wasn ’t going well.
Pages from his book flew at her, but she was slicing them all out of the air before they could connect with her , even when they approached from behind.
It was like she ’d gained abilities specifically for destroying Kyo.
Her abilities and his weaknesses fit together so perfectly that it was hard to not see an element of fate in it.
“You think you’re so special! You’re nothing but a pissant!”
“Then you’re getting your ass kicked by a pissant!” I shouted.
Kyo stamped his feet in in anger, “Silence! I’ll kill you! How dare you talk back to me like that! ”
This whole time I ’d thought that he had grown extremely powerful because of the Spirit Tortoise’s energy, but maybe the strength he’d had last time was a temporary thing. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like he was still holding back.
“I’m not finished with you yet!” he shrieked, grabbing a strange, creepy looking object from where it hung at his waist. It looked like a bookmark. The moment his fingers touched it, he smiled.
“You’re so proud of yourself because you found a little accessory that made you stronger. That’s not real strength! I’ll show you what real power is!”
He stuck the bookmark into the book of the vassal weapons. The second it slipped between the pages, I felt a great weight fall over the battlefield.
Damn it . I should be able to control the gravity field with the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield, but . . .
“Not so fast!” Kyo barked, and hundreds of book pages plastered themselves all over the surface of my shield.
That ’s all that happened, but immediately a floating “X” appeared over the gravity field adjustment icon. He locked it !?
Worse yet, I could feel the pages draining energy out of the shield.
Damn it! At this rate I was going to be forced to switch to another shield.
“Eat this!”
“Feh! Not so fast!” Rishia shouted. Her movement was clearly slowed by the increased gravity field. Kyo dodged her attacks and the followed up with a barrage of fluttering book pages that sent her flying.
“Dammit! This creep has so many tricks up his sleeve!”
He seemed to have an endless variety of ways to defend himself .
“Ahaha! Weren’t you going to hit me with your little multiplier skill? I’m over here!” Kyo laughed.
I wanted to throw the attack support dart at him, but I couldn ’t even raise my arm.
“Well, you heroes with your holy weapons, and you creeps with your vassal weapons, have been a bit more trouble than I expected. Time to take care of that!” Kyo laughed, pulling another bookmark from his pocket and thrusting it into his book. “I thought something like this might happen, so it’s a good thing I went ahead and messed with your dragon hourglass in advance.”
“What are you talking about ?! ”
He had already done something to the dragon hourglass? How could that be?
“I wasn’t able to destroy the dragon vein defense barrier, but the effect works outside of this building. How did you think I was able to see what was going on over there?”
He was watching through the dragon hourglass? How many secret technologies did he have ?!
“Unfortunately when I use it, you’ll all get a bit of a power boost too. But if I don’t use it, I can’t steal your power—so I guess I have no choice!”
What was he blathering on about? What was going on?
A liquid-filled tank rose up from the floor behind Kyo.
What was it? What was he doing?
His lips moved quickly, he was whispering some kind of incantation to himself.
What was happening? I had a really bad feeling about this.
The incantation itself was very short. He reached out and brushed the tank with his fingertips, and in response the liquid in the tank swirled and vanished, as if he were absorbing it.
Was it magic water? Or could it be . . . soul-healing water?
It looked like the skill was pretty expensive.
“Different world, different reason. Shatter the barrier walls, and summon the great phenomenon!”
“Waves of Destruction! Dimension Wave!”
Crash!
Immediately after Kyo finished the incantation a terrible sound rang out.
“Wh . . . A skill that causes dimension waves ?! What ?! ”
“How could . . .”
“It can’t be! What are you thinking ?! ”
“Kyo! You’re the one behind the . . .”
Before she could finish shouting in surprise, Kizuna and the others vanished from the room.
Chapter Eleven: Sacrifice Aura
Raphtalia, Filo, Rishia, Raph-chan, and I were the only ones left.
Yomogi had been registered to Kizuna ’s party, so had been summoned to the wave along with Kizuna.
Dammit! He ’d planned to split us up the whole time!
A thudding sound echoed in the recesses of my mind—which made me think that this wave was occu
rring back in the previous world.
“I hope you’re pleased—I used this book to keep your shield from sucking you off to the wave. Hm? The holder of the katana of vassal weapons has nothing to say? I guess it is tied to an idiot from another world, after all.”
So he could even stop the automatic teleport that had tied me to the waves since I found myself in Melromarc.
At least I still had my party members: Filo, Raphtalia, Rishia, and Raph-chan. That was better than nothing.
Kizuna and the others must have found themselves facing down the wave right about now.
“Ahaha! Now I have the stupid Shield Hero to play with! This should be fun!” Kyo giggled. He was acting like everything was going his way, but the gravity field in the room had grown noticeably weaker.
Stats slowly filled my field of view.
Lv 76 + 75?
L ’Arc had said something once about gaining the total levels from both worlds.
Was that the reason I was able to stay on my feet in Kyo ’s gravity field?
Unfortunately, the effect seemed to work on Kyo as well . And he had those stat-based attacks. They had the weakness of not being able to deal a killing blow, but they were still a serious threat.
And we didn’t have Kizuna around to help.
We had no choice but to continue the battle under these new conditions , but I didn’t like the look of things.
At least I could use all the shields I ’d gained in both of the worlds.
But , I still had the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield equipped, with pages from Kyo’s book plastered all over it, so I wasn’t able to switch it out for anything else.
Judging from what he ’d said, I think I was the target of his new plan. Maybe he had set this up so that he could block any of my skills that made use of the Spirit Tortoise’s energy. Then, when I lost, he’d have one hundred percent of the Spirit Tortoise’s energy at his disposal.
He ’d artificially summoned a wave so that he could get his hands on the remaining Spirit Tortoise energy.
What was I supposed to do? How could I fight in circumstances like these?
I couldn ’t use Portal Shield either—the copies of the four holy beasts roaming the grounds made that skill inaccessible.
We ’d have to find some way to defeat him on our own.
“Ahahaha! Look how well it suits me!”
The room was brimming with Spirit Tortoise energy. It spiraled around and into Kyo.
“Ha! Take this!”
Spirit Tortoise familiars (neo-guardian type) rose to their feet and came after us . They were holding weapons that looked just like the holy weapons held by the other three heroes back in the previous world.
This fight was starting to look a lot like the last one, when we ’d met in the Spirit Tortoise’s core chamber.
. . . Except that there were less people on my side now.
“Raphtalia, are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“I’m ready too, master!”
I hadn ’t addressed her, but Filo was in human form now, on her feet, and ready for battle.
She was dressed in pajamas, but I could see the Karma Dog Claws sticking out from the feet. I guess that was the hidden weapon effect.
At least I wasn ’t alone. Time to see what we could do.
The pages stuck all over my shield were draining me of energy somehow. It felt awful . I couldn’t keep using the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield for much longer.
“Uh-oh! Have you started to figure it out? That’s right, I’ll take whatever energy you’ve got in that obnoxious shield of yours! To get the very last drop of it, I’ll have to kill you first! It’s a protective thing, you know, that’s why I needed the wave to break through.”
So this had all been part of Kyo ’s plan. To get at the energy I still had stored in my shield. To get at it he had to summon a wave. If the four holy heroes existed to protect the world from the waves, then he must have found a way to break the rules by intentionally summoning a wave. The heroes were part of the protection, just like the beasts. He’d found a way around it, and now his plan was in motion.
With the wave occurring in the other world, the energy in my shield might be summoned back to the site of the wave, and that was his chance to take it.
That was some plan . How did he even think of it?
The strongest powered-up shield I had at the moment was the Demon Dragon Shield. The world I was in wouldn ’t affect that.
But I had to fight with what I had.
“If you think we’re less capable of battle then you are, you’ll come to regret it!” Raphtalia shouted, switching her katana to the White Tiger Katana.
Exactly. Now we could use weapons that our levels and stats had prevented us from using before.
I didn ’t know what kind of effect to expect from it, but the White Tiger Katana was made from better material than the Demon Dragon Shield, so it was probably a force to be reckoned with. Raphtalia could barely raise it before, but things were different now!
“Here I gooooo!” Filo shouted. She started to gather magic power about her, humming and singing the whole time.
Now that we were connected back to our old world, Filo should be able to use more of her filolial powers. That meant she now had access to an ideal combination of attacks and support abilities.
We ’d lost Kizuna and the others, and Kyo was blocking my use of the Spirit Tortoise energy, but we weren’t going to lose that easily.
“Heh. You idiots! Aren’t you forgetting something?” Kyo shouted, pointing at us.
He was probably going to use his stat-based attack to try and deal some serious damage.
He ’s been powered up just like the rest of us, so it was easy to imagine him having some more deadly tricks up his sleeve.
Once he lowered my defenses, he ’d hit me with a special attack I wouldn’t be able to block . . . . or so I thought. He glanced over at Rishia.
“I guess I’ll deal with the stupid Shield Hero later. I’ll take care of this justice-obsessed wench first!” he said jabbing his finger at Rishia.
But before he could do anything, before he could mutter an incantation, Rishia flew across the room as if she was using haikuikku. She somersaulted and took down a neo-guardian with one hit.
“?! ”
“Why are you so surprised? You seem to think me a fool, and pester me with your little taunts! Now you’ll see how wrong you are!”
Did she know what had happened?
I quickly checked her stats and could hardly believe my eyes.
I expected to find them higher than before, maybe up closer to mine.
I expected to find her abilities improved a bit, but all her stats had risen dramatically—surpassing even Filo’s! They were higher than Filo’s, even when accounting for the growth adjustments from my shield!
If this was what an awakened Rishia looked like, she was a force to be reckoned with!
“What was that? These neo-guardians have the power of both worlds! How did you defeat him so easily ?! You fool!”
“Who’s the fool here?”
Rishia was so powerful now she could probably defeat a hero.
They say that great talents take great time .
Maybe Rishia was the type that grew unbelievably powerful after crossing a certain line. I mean, of course, that ’s what I’d expected this whole time. That’s why I’d spent so much time and energy on her.
Once she hit that line, she was something new, something completely unlike what she ’d been.
The world I ’d been summoned to had a cap at level 100. Apparently, there were similar limitations in place in Kizuna’s world. If Rishia’s power boost came after level 100, then her talents would remain forever inaccessible.
The old hengen muso lady said she had talent, and this must be what she meant. Glass had said the same thing when she saw Rishia in the last battle with Kyo.
But what would Rishia be like when she was fully boosted—when she could
use all of her latent talents?
Kyo ’s attacks were at least as powerful as they had ever been, but now she was more than powerful, more that fast enough, to avoid them.
“ARRGHGH! You’re so annoying! Annoying! Annoying!!!” Kyo wailed, pulling at his hair.
When he summoned the wave, we ’d lost half of our allies, but it was starting to look like we were actually better off as things were now. That’s not to say that victory was guaranteed, but his trick with the wave might have been a miscalculation.
“You’re starting to really bother me!”
“You’re the one that did this, so what are you whining about? Now we just need to finish you off.”
“Yes,” Raphtalia said, sliding the sword into its sheath and storing its power.
I didn ’t know how the sword would react to Raphtalia’s new level, but the gemstone I’d set in the sheath was charging up for a haikuikku very quickly.
“Me toooo!” Filo shouted. She was all charged and ready.
Raph-chan sat on my shoulder, chirping for battle.
“That’s enough. I was going to play with you bit, but I’ve had enough. There’s no point in playing games with the likes of you,” Kyo sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, yeah, you’re all leveled up and all—great. But you keep forgetting this one thing, so I guess I’ll have to tell you myself.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“The holy weapons and the vassal weapons in this world can be powered up in the same ways. You spent all that time with what’s-her-face, so you should know that.”
“. . . True.”
I had already figured out what he was getting at, and I ’ll be honest, I was worried. I felt cold sweat prickle my forehead.
Kizuna and the other s had figured out various ways to power up their vassal and holy weapons, so of course they’d shared all that information. It was an obvious thing to do. I’d even had a meeting with the other three heroes back in my old world to share what we knew about powering up.
But until Raphtalia was chosen to wield the katana, the other s had been more powerful than she was.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve been pretty cautious about those stat-based attacks, so of course, I have ways to deal with them. But what about you ?! ”
