by Aneko Yusagi
“Next, we have a mural that the hero from the past left behind. Please follow me and we can take a look at that,” the scholar revealed.
“Sure,” I said. Hoping for something as enlightening as the one in the town of the Spirit Tortoise, we headed toward the temple—which, as expected, had been transformed into something of a tourist trap.
Chapter Twelve: The Final Seven Star Weapon
“What are so many of the coalition army soldiers doing lining up over there?” I asked. As we proceeded toward the temple with the mural, I noticed a long line in front of what might be called the front gate. It was a building a little distance away.
There were even merchants walking along the line and selling their wares. I was impressed by their guts. They missed no chance for a sale, even with the revival of the Phoenix looming ever closer.
“We will need you to see that later as well, Hero,” the scholar said.
“Hmmm.” No need to ask for details now then.
The key thing at the moment was finding a way to deal with the Phoenix. There was a good possibility that something only I could understand was going to be written in the mural. After all, to the people of this world, it might just look like a fancy pattern, but in our world, it could be writing.
And so we entered the temple.
It had, as I had expected, been converted into a tourist destination, due to its links to the legendary hero. We proceeded through the stone temple. It had a pretty overstated atmosphere. The sound of our footsteps rang out loudly.
Then a priest-looking guy came out to meet us. His clothing looked like that of a clergyman. What was this Chinese-Western mixture?!
He illuminated the dark temple with a candle. There were statues of the Phoenix dotted around the interior. With the darkness as well, it honestly kind of put me on edge.
“So? Where’s this mural left by the hero?” I asked. The walls were covered with what looked like Mayan wall paintings and other stuff that looked like text I couldn’t read. None of the styles were uniform or even seemed to make sense.
It was really starting to feel like some shady guide had tricked us into coming to some cheap tourist trap.
“This way, please,” the monk said and led us to a large mural right at the back of the temple.
It was so dark, though, that I couldn’t make out the whole thing.
“It’s dark, isn’t it? First Glowfire.” The queen illuminated the dark chamber with some magic. What appeared from the gloom was indeed a large mural depicting information on the Phoenix. I couldn’t be sure that the hero had really left this, but it seemed to start with the image of a large bird turning its surroundings into a sea of fire.
So its attacks were fire bombardments caused by flapping its wings and slashing with those nasty claws.
The Phoenix looked like a bird based on a peacock, but with scales. Its tail and wings almost looked aquatic . . . It wasn’t just all red either . . . and then, when I started to look at the coloring, there was a bit of a bombshell—the mural actually showed two birds flying around, one of five different colors and then the other showing the opposing five colors.
However, perhaps due to the length of time since it was created, the mural was also in pretty bad shape.
Still, as I took in the information, I started to see how it might attack.
To start with, one of them used magic and wing flaps to launch a bombardment from high above, while the other flew at low altitude while blowing fire and attacking with its claws. That seemed to be the basic tactic.
Of course, I was just getting all this from a painting that primarily existed to tell a story.
“It looks like a pretty tough battle,” I said. The creatures burned by its flames seemed to be roaming around like burning zombies. Was that a thing?
Yeah, maybe it was. The Spirit Tortoise had done something similar.
Furthermore, the feathers that came free when it flapped its wings seemed not only to attack but also become familiars. Now that sounded like a real pain to deal with.
However, when comparing its size to the houses also depicted there, it didn’t seem as large as the Spirit Tortoise. Still, it was surprisingly big though. Each one was maybe going to be a little bigger than father Gaelion had been prior to his rebirth.
And there were two of them. “Phoenixes” was actually more like it.
“Ren, does this all match with the attacks of the Phoenix in that game?” I inquired.
“Yeah, pretty much. It didn’t have that breath,” he said.
“They’ve got some attacks I haven’t seen before too. Sending people flying by flapping its wings and summoning tornadoes both look new to me,” Itsuki filled in.
“Father-in-law, there’s one I’ve not seen before either,” Motoyasu said. “That’s summoning familiars.” So there was quite a gap between the game and this reality.
Still, and I thought this every time, it was odd how Ren and the others seemed to always be missing key pieces of information almost intentionally. With incomplete information, anyone could get this stuff wrong. If I’d been in the same position, I might well have made the same mistake with the Spirit Tortoise.
The Phoenix had one especially surprising attack.
There was an image of one bird being defeated and the other swelling up. The images continued to show the swollen bird exploding apart, scorching everything with a massive explosion. This attack had caused the hero to retreat the first time he saw it.
The whole scene was up there on the wall.
It almost looked like he defeated it with one dying and the other blowing up. But when I looked more carefully at the pictures, the exploding one was shown splitting into two while blowing up.
This image seemed to suggest that if one of them was defeated, the other would self-destruct while regenerating into two new ones.
When fighting the Spirit Tortoise, Kyo had been involved. So we hadn’t been able to defeat it even when the correct conditions were reached. It looked like this time defeating just one of them meant the other bird would launch a powerful counterattack and also then regenerate the defeated one.
There was even a scattering of stars drawn around the regenerated Phoenix. Perhaps it was visual language from our world to show it as being new.
Beyond that, the wall was cracked, making it hard to see everything, but it was possible to deduce that defeating both of them at once was the way to end the battle.
“Looks like we have to take them both down at the same time. If that fails, the remaining Phoenix launches a powerful self-destruct attack and then regenerates into two more birds.” I spelled it out for everyone.
“As I thought, it’s different from the game. In the game they share HP, and if one is defeated, the other goes down too,” Ren recalled.
“A self-destruct attack, with an option for regeneration. That sounds nasty.” Itsuki was as emotionless as ever, his voice a wooden monotone. He sounded like he completely lacked any kind of enthusiasm for this endeavor. From what he said though, it did sound like a serious analysis.
“Not to mention,” I picked up his thought, “if one of them is always high up, attacks are likely to hit the lower one more often.” That would be really dangerous, taking the whole regeneration thing into account.
“In that case, Itsuki and I will attack the high-altitude one, while father-in-law and Ren deal with the low-altitude one. How about that, I say?” Motoyasu suggested. Itsuki and Motoyasu could target enemies at a distance and I was purely defensive. Ren, meanwhile, was a close-combat fighter, so it wasn’t a bad plan.
“I think that’ll be how this turns out. Taking your weapons into account, Itsuki and Rishia should attack the high one, along with Motoyasu,” I said.
“Okay,” Itsuki replied.
“What about the coalition army?” the queen asked. It would be nice if we could defeat this just using the heroes, but that really wasn’t looking too hopeful.
If the coalition army was going to ta
ke part, we should use them. That meant only one thing, pretty much.
“We need anyone who can attack at long range. If it’s a weapon, then I guess it’d be bows. And then anyone skilled at magic should attack the high target. Everyone else, attack the low one. Your majesty, I’ll let you handle the planning and formations for that,” I said. Still, we had all four heroes as optimized as could be. I really wanted to finish this one as easily as possible.
If there were still any unknown elements, they could cause issues, of course. Still, we had a good idea about its attack patterns now and should be enough to form a suitable plan of action.
Of course, all these records from the past might not be completely accurate, so we’d have to keep our wits about us too.
“Very well. What should we do about training?” the queen asked.
“Good question. Let’s have our fliers play the two birds and sort out formations that way,” I suggested.
“Understood. In that case, let’s perform a coalition army joint training session for the Phoenix battle with the coalition army at once. I hope the heroes will also participate,” she said.
“Sure,” Ren confirmed.
“Leave it to me, I say!” Motoyasu enthused.
“I’ll do my best,” Itsuki said. I mean, that was why we were here. The goal was to keep our losses down as close to zero as possible.
That was the main thing.
“Now then, let’s go and take a look at the other building we passed on the way,” our guide suggested. Having finished looking at the Phoenix mural, the queen and the heads of this nation led the way back outside.
“Just what is that place?” I asked.
“The last of the Seven Star Weapons is housed there. It currently hasn’t selected an owner,” came the reply.
“Hmmm.” Very interesting. “What’s with the massive line of people though?”
“Surely you can work that out, Hero?” That might have sounded condescending, but it was delivered with the utmost respect. He was right too. I could pretty much work it out.
It had been the same kind of thing when Raphtalia was chosen.
The Seven Star Weapons were legendary gear that people from this world could also hold and use. Of course, anyone summoned from another world could apparently use them too. The people were lining up to try and prove that they were the Seven Star Hero, capable of wielding the sealed weapon.
There had to be a way to make some money off such a popular attraction.
One piece of silver to try your luck . . . This world had a whole hero-worshiping thing going on though, so that would probably just piss people off.
We passed alongside the line and entered the building they were queuing up for.
The item everyone was waiting to get a hold of was there in the center of the temple: one of the Seven Star Weapons embedded in a stone tablet on the wall.
The guy at the front of the line touched it and tried to take it for himself. A lot of grunting was involved. He was a coalition army soldier. His face turned bright red with the effort involved.
“That’s it. Next,” said a monk watching over the proceedings. The reddened challenger’s shoulders slumped, and he shuffled off back the way he came.
Would they really be so happy to be chosen?
Having been chosen as the Shield Hero myself, I knew the pain such a fate could inflict. Maybe I was just being arrogant and selfish, standing there thinking that these normies were the lucky ones.
These thoughts going through my head, I checked the Seven Star Weapon.
They were gauntlets.
Based on appearance alone, they were really simply gauntlets. Almost like gloves. Like the Small Shield, they were really simple. In the center of each one, as expected, there were gemstones.
The hero weapons generally had such stones. They looked like fairly basic starting gauntlets.
“So this is the final Seven Star Weapon?” I asked.
“That is correct,” our guide confirmed. Of course, the Seven Star Hero who sealed the Phoenix away last time used the gauntlets, so it makes sense they would be found here. That suggested there might be another Seven Star Weapon in the town where the Spirit Tortoise had been sealed. Might be worth checking out.
“Tell me, queen. What’re these gauntlets doing here? Why doesn’t Faubrey do something with them?” I asked her.
“This country was once very prosperous—according to the legend of the Gauntlet Hero,” she explained.
“What about the Spirit Tortoise?” I asked.
“That one was sealed by a hero from another country,” she answered.
“Okay then,” I said. It sounded like the Phoenix was a relatively new legend. In any case, digging down into all this would just be a pain, so I decided not to bother. “And now they’re waiting here for a new owner?”
“Correct. Most of the visitors to this country are here to see the gauntlets and hopefully claim them,” she told me.
“Well, then . . .” I’d have my slaves try it too. It’d be funny if Atla obtained them. I couldn’t deny she had the potential for it. Then I asked, “How long is this line going to be here?”
“During the daytime, it’s here for as long as this place is open to the public,” came the reply. Wow. Okay, this thing sure was popular.
“It’s the times we live in. There are many adventurers who want to prove themselves too,” the queen explained.
“Okay, I know this is asking a lot, but tonight do you think we could have my guys give it a try as well?” I ventured.
“I’ll see what I can do. Please enjoy a little free time until the mock battle.” Then she took her retainers and headed off back to the castle. As a result, that night my slaves were given first try at obtaining the weapon. It had been worth speaking up about, no doubt.
I brought my slaves from the village with me to the temple housing the Seven Star Gauntlets.
“Wow. These are the Seven Star Gauntlets?!” Keel looked at the gauntlets embedded in the tablet, sounding a little too excited.
“There was a big line of people in the daytime,” Raphtalia commented. So she’d seen them too. The desire to become a hero was something shared in all worlds, from the look of it. Everyone loved the tales of a legendary sword stuck into a stone and stuff like that.
Of course, I loved them too.
Raphtalia herself had just happened to be there at the time and ended up becoming the holder of the katana vassal weapon. So you never knew what might happen.
“I feel the same kind of power that comes from your shield, Master Naofumi.” Atla was also there, alongside Fohl, both facing toward the Seven Star Weapon.
Those were the big two. I reckoned either one had a pretty good chance.
“I see. Sounds like it’s the real thing,” I commented. If this was just a sculpture carved into the stone, a lot of people had wasted their time queuing up and then wasted their time being dejected at not getting chosen.
Of course, there might also be those happy it was proven to be a fake. Of course it was if it didn’t select them! It just depended on the person.
“In any case, you guys get to give it a try now at night, when this place is normally closed up. Everyone is going to get a turn,” I told them. My proclamation was met with general agreement. At least they could do that much.
I wasn’t really expecting anything. A few of these people seemed likely to be chosen.
“What about me?” Filo asked.
“If you want to fight with gauntlets, you can give it a try,” I told her. She also fought in her human form and had recently taken to throwing her morning star around. She might just have what it takes.
However, she’d probably do better with claws than gauntlets. We were meant to find that one in Siltvelt, but that hadn’t worked out.
“I’ll give it a try!” she said. The other slaves also started to line up. Ren, Itsuki, and Rishia were already off resting in their lodgings. Motoyasu was here, of course, because of Fil
o.
“Come on, form an orderly line!” Sadeena ordered. She really was like a substitute parent to the slaves. Shildina was helping out too. They’d proven to be pretty close sisters, in the end.
They both fought with harpoons. What would happen if the gauntlets chose them? Might bring a bit of a gladiator vibe, but I wasn’t really buying it.
“My turn!” Filo stepped up. As I had suspected, the gauntlets didn’t respond at all. She tugged and pulled on them for all she was worth anyway.
“Gah! They won’t come out!” she complained. I had to stop her after she transformed and started grabbing them with her legs. We didn’t need the whole wall coming down.
Luckily, even that had no effect.
“Considering the danger we face at the moment, you didn’t think about summoning a hero?” I asked the queen, just off the cuff, wondering why the gauntlets didn’t have an owner yet. She’d told me before that all four of the holy heroes had been summoned due to the crisis faced by the world. That suggested that the Seven Star Heroes should also be chosen.
Indeed, currently they all had owners, so I was told, apart from the gauntlets. In that case, summoning a hero from another world to use them might be a good idea.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the best situation if someone like the guy from the diary showed up, but it could also be a lot worse than him. Someone like Kyo from Kizuna’s world might show up. He’d been born over there, of course.
“We tried the ritual numerous times but have seen no results,” the queen revealed.
“Hmm.” Fair enough. So it was a Seven Star Weapon that still didn’t respond to a summons.
Thinking about it, these weapons had laxer conditions than the four holy ones. The four holy weapons were restricted to people from other worlds, while both people of this world and from others could use the Seven Star Weapons.
“It’s an extension of fighting barehanded, right? I started out beating on monsters with my bare hands, so I understand a little of that,” I said.
“Indeed you did,” Raphtalia remembered. That had been back when I first got her as a slave, mainly to relieve stress.