The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 09

by Aneko Yusagi

  Yomogi nodded, “Yes, and there are deeper chambers of the mansion. He’s more selective about who gets to go in there.”

  “He sounds like a typical wizard or alchemist. He must get obsessed with his research.”

  “You’re absolutely correct—that’s exactly how he was. I’m confused by why a hero from another world knows so much about Kyo.”

  “It’s just a guess.”

  I had my sources. I often read about these crazy scientist type characters in manga, or ran into them in games. But Kyo didn ’t match up with those characters exactly. There were still things about him I didn’t understand.

  It was like he really thought that his ideas were amazing, and he wanted nothing more than to make sure they became reality.

  “Damn. It’s locked.”

  “Where’s the key?”

  “Right here,” Yomogi said, pulling a key from her pocket and inserting it into the keyhole.

  As expected, it didn’t work.

  “Were you and Kyo friends or what?”

  “What? This key always opened the door!”

  She hadn ’t been right about anything yet.

  I ’d seen this kind of thing before. Yomogi was the only one in that relationship that thought they were friends—for Kyo it had all been an act.

  “Calm down. You know what to do in a situation like this, don’t you L’Arc? Kizuna?”

  “Right on!” L’Arc smiled. He knew what I was hinting at.

  “Puzzle solving!” Kizuna chirped.

  Unfortunately for her, in this case she was wrong.

  “Kizuna, you can go hang out in a game world if that’s what you want. And don’t bother coming back.”

  “Hey!” she scowled.

  I snapped my fingers, and L ’Arc swung his scythe hard, splintering the door.

  At least someone understood what I was saying.

  “This thing is tougher than I thought.”

  “Let’s grab it on our way out. We can probably make a decent weapon out of it.”

  “Kiddo, that’s not what I was trying to say . . .”

  “Ah . . .”

  “Oh come on already . . .” Glass sighed, clearly annoyed.

  Raphtalia was confused by everyone ’s behavior, “Shall I slice up the remains of the door a little more cleanly, so they can be easily collected on our way out?”

  “Raphtalia ?! ” Kizuna jumped, surprised by Raphtalia’s response.

  Raphtalia could be very matter-of-fact about these things.

  “Did I say something strange?”

  “We don’t have time for that. Let’s just knock this place down!” L’Arc shouted.

  He clearly understood the situation.

  And he was right. We didn ’t have time to go snooping around collecting things.

  “You want to solve puzzles, but that would imply that there are puzzles to solve. You think he left behind keys for us to find? I doubt it!”

  Who would do something like that? He ’d have to be crazy to leave clues for invaders to come find him.

  No—we were going to break down all the doors, find Kyo, and make him pay.

  That ’s why Chris and Ethnobalt had stayed behind—to draw the enemy’s attention.

  We just had to smoke him out.

  “Actually, knocking down this mansion isn’t such a bad idea. But Yomogi still wants to believe in him, so we snuck in. Let’s just keep moving.”

  Yomogi didn ’t like that we’d destroyed the door. She muttered, “If Kyo is innocent, you better pay for that.”

  “Sure.”

  If there was any grey area left in how Yomogi saw Kyo, it must have been damn near close to black.

  The time had come.

  “I’m good with this kind of thing.”

  “I bet you are. You like to break things.”

  “Kiddo, if you think that’s my only talent, you’re very wrong.”

  “What else are you good at? You’re not going to pretend to be a strategist now, are you?”

  “Well, now that you mention it, I am pretty good . . .”

  He was getting harder and harder to take seriously.

  “I like adventures, you know?”

  “Oh . . . do you now?”

  What was I supposed to say? Should I say I ’m good at cooking? Did that matter?

  Besides, he didn ’t say he was talented—he just said he liked it. I don’t get it.

  “Hey Therese, don’t I always say that I want to go hunting for ruins?”

  “You do! But isn’t it better to make new treasures, rather than hunting down old ones?”

  “I guess,” he said, looking at me enviously.

  “I guess you get your pick of whatever you want, huh? Why do you always get what you want?”

  “Oh, that’s just the way it is. ”

  I didn ’t understand their relationship at all, but I could tell that they cared for each other.

  Anyway, we went through the mansion, breaking down any locked doors that stood in our way.

  We ran into some holy beast copies along the way, but they weren’t the enemy we were concerned with, and honestly, they didn ’t put up much of a fight.

  With Kizuna on our side, they never stood a chance. She cut them down the moment they appeared. With her tuna knife in hand, she could cut straight through their bones and slice them in half.

  “But why are there so many monsters in here?”

  We were finding monsters in nearly every room. It was like we were stuck in an action RPG or something.

  “Yomogi, where’s Kyo’s laboratory?”

  “That way,” she said, pointing.

  Along the way there were some pitfalls and traps, but they were all easy to avoid, and simple enough that they wouldn ’t be much trouble, even if we did get caught in them.

  I led the way, so any traps that triggered darts or arrows could be blocked with Shooting Star Shield. And if we came across a pitfall, we could use Air Strike Shield to cross it.

  There were rolling balls of iron, and guillotine-like blades too. We avoided or blocked them all with ease. He ’d made a real fun house for us, but it just wasn’t good enough.

  “This will lead us underground soon, and that is where you’ll find his laboratory. But the underground area is far more subdivided and complicated than the areas above ground. There are many rooms that I do not know,” Yomogi said, looking sick.

  I guess I couldn ’t blame her. She believed in Kyo, and now she saw that he was crazy, using copies of the holy beasts to nefarious ends. Furthermore, we were finding plenty of proof that he was behind the twisted beast-human hybrids we’d battled.

  I guess I had to hand it to her—she must have been a loyal friend not to give up hope for him, even after he’d sent her on a suicide mission.

  She reminded me of Motoyasu in that sense—she picked the wrong person to believe in.

  “You . . . You made it this far !?! ”

  We entered the underground laboratory and surprised a group of half-human-half-beast hybrids. They seemed to still be aware of who they were. Were they Yomogi ’s friends?

  I looked over at Yomogi, but she shook her head.

  Then they must have been from Tsugumi ’s group. I didn’t recognize them.

  I looked around at Raphtalia, Glass, and L ’Arc, but they were just as confused as I was.

  “Wait! We didn’t come here to fight you! You’re being used! We’ve come to punish the same person that makes a mockery of your lives!”

  “Silence! If we don’t stop you, Mr. Albert will be killed!”

  Who? Wait a second. Who the hell was that?

  I ’d never even heard the name. I had no idea.

  “Hey Glass, do you know who they’re talking about? Do you think he kidnapped some completely unrelated person just to use them as a hostage to motivate these people?”

  I guess he didn ’t really need to limit himself to people involved with us directly.

  He could make anyone in
to his slaves if he had the mind to do it.

  “Albert . . . I’m pretty sure that’s the name of the person who wields the mirror of the vassal weapons.”

  Ah, right—the guy that Kyo took control of while Trash #2 was chasing Raphtalia and Glass around the countryside. Hadn’t they said he was on bad terms with Glass and the others?

  “Al is still alive! We cannot give up while he still lives! We must defeat you!” they shouted. I was only half-listening, as I couldn’t keep my eyes off the strange parasitic weapons in their hands—the very same ones that Yomogi and Tsugumi had held.

  They attacked!

  “Yikes!”

  I immediately used Shooting Star Shield to block the attack. It slammed against it with a loud clang.

  Yes , the barrier held. It must have been due to the Demon Dragon Shield and the Barbaroi Armor.

  “Those weapons are dangerous! You have to put them down!”

  “I wonder if he would make the weapons explode here?”

  What would happen if they blew up in this confined, underground space?

  If the weapons were at risk of explosion, then it was safe to assume Kyo didn ’t consider this place very important.

  Hey wait—didn’t they say that the wielder of the mirror of the vassal weapons was dead? Had that been a lie? There was no way to know . . . yet.

  “Kizuna, do your thing on them. I want to see if their weapons will explode.”

  “What are you thinking, Kiddo?”

  “If the weapons are set up to explode, and if those explosions are as big as the other weapons, then we can infer that Kyo isn’t too concerned with this area.”

  “Right—because he wouldn’t want to destroy his own place.”

  “Exactly. If Kyo is the kind of person I think he is, then those weapons won’t explode here.”

  He wasn ’t the sort of person that would try to kill us no matter the cost. No—he would try to be smart about it. He’d try to get all he could out of the situation.

  “What do you want to do about the weapons?”

  “You guys should be strong enough to destroy them, no?”

  I concentrated and cast Zweite Aura on all of them in order.

  The enemies ’ weapons hadn’t been powerful enough to break through the Shooting Star Shield barrier. And we were all powered up now, so we’d have a good chance of breaking them.

  “Got it. Let’s do this!”

  Kizuna stepped forward and lined up with Glass, who had just taken a sip of soul-healing water. They readied their weapons and dashed forward.

  The fight was over in a flash.

  Kizuna sliced through their beast halves, and Glass destroyed their weapons.

  Battle fans were . . . well, I’ve read that they were historically made out of iron, and used specifically to break enemy weapons.

  They were sword breakers.

  Yomogi was a skilled fighter, so she ’d been able to parry Glass’s attacks. But, these people weren’t nearly as skilled, and they couldn’t stop her.

  And as for Kizuna, even if she couldn ’t attack people, she could certainly manage to break their weapons. That is, as long as she didn’t have to break a vassal or holy weapon.

  Still, their weapons were tough enough to give her some trouble.

  “Gah ?! ”

  “Ugh ?! ”

  Their weapons shattered, and the women took severe damage.

  The broken weapons fell to the floor. Then disgusting, wiggling tentacles extended from them, reaching out to the women that had held them.

  The fallen halves of the weapons reached out to each other, trying to link back up when . . .

  “I don’t think so!”

  “Hya!”

  “Sorry, but I don’t want you using those things. Naofumi, keep the weapons away from them!”

  L ’Arc and Raphtalia, followed by Yomogi, rushed forward to deal follow-up attacks, and kicked a weapon at me.

  The weapon flew at me and then, as if trying to avoid me, turned in mid-flight before disappearing in a puff of smoke. All that was left behind was the Spirit Tortoise energy.

  The weapons must have been made by imbuing monster elements with Spirit Tortoise energy .

  When Kizuna and L ’Arc killed the monster part of one of them, the remaining part tried to regenerate the lost half, but we blocked it. Then, the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield sucked up the energy that animated it, leaving only a pile of dust.

  “Hey, if you throw them to me they disappear!”

  “What ?! ”

  “Are you implying there is nothing we can do?”

  “We won’t give up!”

  The mirror of the vassal weapons holder ’s group of women howled and ran to attack again.

  “I don’t think so!”

  “Yes, I know that this is not your fault, and that you are not bad people. But you must give up this fight.”

  Filo and Therese cast spells at them.

  “Forgive me. I know that you are fighting to protect someone you love, but we cannot afford to be delayed any longer. Circle Dance Attack Formation: Flower Wind!”

  Glass rushed forward with a final attack that incapacitated them.

  “That’s what I thought. Kyo must be here.”

  “Agreed. Otherwise all these weapons would have exploded.”

  That settled it. He was probably whining and wringing his hands right about now.

  “I’m surprised he even thinks he can hold us off for this long. He’s lucky—I’ll give him that much.”

  Think about it, we ’re talking about two powered-up holy heroes, and three wielders of vassal weapons. Furthermore, Ethnobalt was still holding them off outside. All together that made for six heroes at once.

  Unless he had some genius back-up plan, he ’d probably be thinking of how to escape with his life. And yet, he’d filled the mansion with traps, sent copies of the four holy beasts to meet us, and left behind these human-beast hybrids with their special weapons. What was I supposed to make of that?

  “Hey! You better not go in that room!” one of the women in the group shouted.

  I was about to say that I would do the opposite of whatever they said, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

  I opened the door, then went through a few more doors and found myself standing at the entrance to Kyo ’s laboratory.

  “Wh . . . What is this?”

  “I could see this coming. You could too, couldn’t you, Glass?”

  Everyone gasped.

  The walls of the hallway were lined with glass tanks filled with a liquid.

  Something floated in the tanks, and it was just what I ’d expected.

  They looked like humans, but they weren ’t . . . not exactly. They were the dream of these alchemist-types—homunculus.

  “H omunculus . . .” Rishia whimpered , scared by what she saw. The concept of homunculus must have existed in this world too.

  The tanks were filled with men that looked just like Trash #2.

  There were some other people too, but they all looked mostly the same.

  “This is . . .”

  One of the tanks held a Trash #2 that had been sliced cleanly in half. Was it the same one that we ’d fought and killed?

  “Look . . .” Glass said, pointing to a larger tank at the end of the hall. It seemed more important than the others, like it was a special display.

  The attractive man inside had long black hair, and he clutched a mirror at his chest. He looked like he might be Japanese, and in his mid-twenties.

  “That’s the holder of the mirror vassal weapon!”

  “Looks like he’s being held hostage.”

  I barely had time to finish my sentence when all the homunculi and the real vassal weapon holder opened their eyes and stared at us.

  “Are they capable of reason? Maybe we can talk to them.”

  The tanks shattered, and the homunculi stepped out. I could hardly believe my eyes—real homunculi.

  Then again, I ’d
seen copies of the four holy beasts, so I expected it.

  Maybe they could speak, but had been brainwashed. Or . . .

  “Gahhhhhhhh!”

  They roared, twisted and strained, and . . . turned into the four holy beasts.

  They appeared far more powerful than the hybrid beasts we fought up until now.

  But Trash #2 and the holder of the mirror vassal weapon—I guess his name was Albert—hadn’t changed at all. They looked like they were ready for a fight.

  Trash #2 lurched forward and stumbled toward us like a zombie. His eyes were completely white, and locked on us.

  It was kind of gross.

  “Do you think they can talk?”

  “Ugh . . . Uehhh.”

  It didn’t look like they could to me. He just growled and slobbered like a zombie.

  But, as if to show how ready he was to fight, Albert held up his mirror and flashed it at us.

  “What’s tha . . . ”

  “What ?! ”

  Raphtalia and Kizuna both gasped and looked down at their weapons.

  “What is it?”

  “Mr. Naofumi, the vassal weapon is asking for help. That person holding it has lost more than half of his soul. He’s tied to the weapon by force.”

  I didn ’t really care that he’d lost half of his soul—I was more concerned with how he’d been tied to the weapon. What did that mean?

  “He can continue to fight with the vassal weapon, even though they are supposed to leave their holder upon death,” Kizuna explained. She didn’t have to explain that to me, but I guess she wanted to make sure everyone else understood.

  “These are certain to be Kyo’s most powerful servants.”

  I didn ’t like the look of this one bit. Kyo had another one of the vassal weapons under his control. I guess if they didn’t share what they knew about powering up, then the threat . . .

  “Moon . . . Verse!”

  The mirror flashed, and a shining, moon-like disc of light shot across the hall at us, shattering my Shooting Star Shield barrier easily.

  Damn it. Never mind powering up, it looked like he might have been charged or imbued with Spirit Tortoise energy . . . or something.

  “Well, well, well. I didn’t think you’d actually come all this way . . . ” a voice echoed. I didn’t like the sound of it.

  Behind Albert, the floor shattered and Kyo appeared, standing on a floating platform of light.