by Aneko Yusagi
Still, to be able to collect the emotions remaining in the harpoon that Sadeena had left in Q’ten Lo and turn them to her own advantage . . . Could she do that? So all she needed was relics from other great heroes to get stronger and stronger? If that was the truth of this “oracle” ability, no wonder it was given such importance.
“You might be impressed now, but that’s soon going to change to terror,” Shildina promised. It looked like Shildina’s personality was also being affected, however. She was starting to sound more and more like Sadeena.
Shildina continued to proclaim, “If I combine my own powers with those of the miko still called the strongest of recent times, there’s no opponent I cannot defeat. But just to make sure—” A katana flowing with twisted power suddenly burst up from the ground, and Shildina grabbed it. Wow. That thing was clearly a seriously cursed item. Should she really be handling something like that?
“Guwah! Now! Bring it on!” she shouted. The life force around Shildina was starting to change color. It clearly didn’t look like she was up to any good.
Maybe it was time for us to help out? Even as I had that thought, Sadeena glanced over at us and played the situation down. “Impressive. Being able to capture the awareness held in anything is not something you can do just by getting drunk,” Sadeena commented, voice still casual. “Well then. I’m going to show you the biggest attack I’ve picked up recently.” A deep rumbling sound started to reverberate from around Sadeena.
“You barely deserve this, but I’ll finish you in a single attack!” a voice that didn’t even sound female rang out.
“Uwah!”
“Rafu!” Filo and Raph-chan were looking at Shildina in terror.
“I think you’d better stop her quickly,” Filo offered. “It’s so sad, looking at her.”
“Rafu.”
“Sad?” I wondered. So this was what might have happened to Sadeena if she’d remained here and grown up in such a twisted environment. It really was feeling like we needed to step in—
Sadeena and Shildina were ready to launch their special attacks. Shildina got there first. Her two black katanas, wreathed in lightning and wind, swept down toward Sadeena. That was all it took to send two dragons roaring toward her.
“Eat this! I am the ultimate priestess of carnage!” Shildina yelled. Then she transformed—no, created out of magic—a black and white killer whale, sweeping both of her swords down again to send it chomping toward Sadeena.
The two dragons and killer whale-patterned wave attack headed straight for Sadeena. The target of these attacks, however, just placed her harpoon in front of her and concentrated, repeatedly chanting more magic.
Then the attacks landed.
“Try this! Thunder God!” A rain of lightning flashes descended from the heavens, scattering the dragons and the killer whale.
Hold on! Thunder God? That was magic that had totally looked exclusive to beast transformation support, but now she could use it even without my aid? Or maybe she only had to do it once and then she could do it all the time?
Raphtalia asked, “Can Sadeena use that magic even without your help, Mr. Naofumi?” Lightning continued to crackle around her, like some crazy battle manga.
“Guwaaaaaah!” Shildina got a bottle-nose full of high-density lightning and was sent flying away.
“Those attacks looked strong, but you’ve got a density issue. To put it simply, you diluted them too much, letting me just shrug them off,” Sadeena scoffed.
“Kh-kuwah—”
“Fohl didn’t use any particular special attacks when he was transformed. Maybe she just pulled it off on instinct?” I guessed.
“I wonder,” Raphtalia responded. I looked at Sadeena and she had the audacity to wink. Hilarious!
Still, depending on how we used it, beast transformation support showed the potential for realizing great growth. Shildina stuck her swords into the ground and climbed back to her feet.
Was she just tough, or was this also due to the blessing from the Heavenly Emperor? It didn’t look like she was using Astral Enchant. I narrowed my eyes to check, but—as I expected—I couldn’t tell what was going on. It was support magic with some kind of special criteria, making it impossible to judge using my eyes.
“There’s something else too. You may have recreated my feelings from the past, but surely it goes without saying that the me from right now is stronger than the me from the past. Right? Don’t you understand that?” Sadeena pleaded.
Yeah, I mean, good point.
Maybe she could trace the awareness of Sadeena from the past using an item that she once used, but trying to use that against the current Sadeena clearly wasn’t going to work; that past copy couldn’t match the experience of the current one. As well as the cursed sword, she was also likely doping with other stuff as well, but that only prevented any kind of unification.
She continued. “You’re like one of those people who have multiple elements all patched together. You need to learn to use them more effectively.”
Thinking about it now, Rishia was someone who had multiple elements. Elemental—the all-round element that combined the elements of fire, water, wind, and earth. It was both difficult to control and there were few who could use it, due to issues with its basic nature.
It was magic that suited Rishia’s general “jack-of-all-trades” persona, anyway.
Sadeena continued to lecture her. “I do sense incredible skills and hard work, that’s true. But—indeed, because of that—the more you borrow abilities from other people, the bigger the openings you leave.”
“Borrow from others? You’re joking! This power is mine, plain and simple!”
Sadeena shook her head, sadly responding, “If that’s the power of an oracle, then I’m glad I never had access to it. But it’s placed you in a better position than me, right? So just be happy with that.”
“I won’t—won’t accept that! I have to prove, beyond any doubt, that I’m the true miko!”
Sadeena did not let up. “Not to mention, magic is seriously influenced by your emotions. You won’t defeat me fighting in such a deranged state! You need to find a little more leeway. Get a little more comfortable.”
Shildina plucked another card from her holder and held it up. Her wounds immediately started to heal. So that let her use healing magic too? Pretty convenient. Like an all-around warrior who could handle almost any situation alone.
Sadeena had monster-grade strength, that was true, but her opponent was no slouch either. Shildina took out something that looked a lot like a rucolu fruit, crushed it in her hand, and licked the remains.
“Oh my,” Sadeena exclaimed, looking on enviously. Shildina hiccupped but stayed standing. Oh? She could handle it? So there was someone else capable of eating it—other than me.
“This is no time to be howding bwack, but I really didn’t want to have to use this,” she babbled. She had started to slur her speech. Shildina took out a card and struck a pose. The card showed a hammer and a ying-yang symbol.
“Rafu!” It definitely got Raph-chan excited about something. Though vague, there was something cherry-pink colored emitting from the card. What was it?
“Hmmm. What do you think that is? It looks different from the blessing,” Raphtalia wondered.
“You can see it too, Raphtalia?” I said.
“Yes.”
“Dis my fwinal twump card!” She was almost unintelligible now. “Just you wapch dis!” Appearing to have received some kind of power from the card, Shildina’s pattern started to glow. At the same time, growing—faintly—what looked to be a tail made of magic, Shildina turned into her demi-human form. But due to her far faster movements than before, for a moment I couldn’t even track her with my eyes. Wreathed in highly concentrated wind, I could barely make out more than a vague human shape.
Staggering steps quickly changed to fast ones. She was definitely moving better than she had done up until now. Then, multiple Shildina-like shadows appeared, surroundin
g Sadeena and attacking her. That tail—it reminded me of someone.
I slowly turned to look at Raphtalia.
She and Raph-chan were following one of the shadows with their eyes.
“Oh my! Illusions? You think that’s going to be enough to confuse me?” With that, Sadeena skewered one of the Shildina clones with her harpoon. That wasn’t the shadow Raphtalia was watching though.
“You poor fool. So you’re using sound waves to detect them. Fine, but you can’t even tell that I want you to see through them, eh? You need to be more careful, eh!”
Eh? Her mannerisms had changed again. Was this her trump card?
Shildina grabbed the harpoon sticking into her, turning it into a ball of wind, and sent the weapon flying away. In the same moment the other copies all jumped at Sadeena.
“Oh my. You’ve improved your density already. This is pretty tricky magic too. Almost like—” Sadeena began. Of course, Sadeena avoided the incoming attacks with her lightning magic and physical prowess, but it was starting to look like she could actually be in trouble.
“Sadeena!”
“Rafu!”
Raphtalia and Raph-chan both shouted just in the moment that the demi-human Shildina smashed down with her sword, now transformed into what looked like a giant hammer wreathed in a whole storm of wind.
However, even that was just another wind clone. A ying-yang pattern unleashed by Shildina bounced onto Sadeena and turned into geometrical lettering, binding her.
“Oh my, that’s quite a unique spell. I can sense it slowly scattering my own magic,” Sadeena said, still sparkling with charged lightning. She clearly couldn’t keep up.
Then Shildina, still wreathed in her wind, looked over the battlefield. Spotting Raphtalia and me, she let out a murmur.
“Hmmm—”
With a snap, Sadeena broke free of the bonds and charged at Shildina, of course, in combination with a lightning-charged harpoon attack. Shildina dropped her wind-wreathed hammer to her waist and then stepped in, quick but dangerously deep.
“Five Practices Destiny Split!” A ying-yang appeared on the head of the hammer and then crashed into the charging Sadeena.
Of course, Sadeena avoided that while thrusting with her harpoon—
“O-oh my?” The power of the ying-yang hammered into Sadeena as though guided by an unseen hand, scattered her lightning. A magic trigram appeared, and five balls started to circle around Sadeena.
“Earth Defeats Water, eh!” In the same moment Shildina murmured that, Sadeena collapsed.
“W-what’s going on here? You’re moving—much better than before,” she murmured.
Shildina responded, “Impressive. Being able to take that attack and still speak? That’s a passing grade. Still not sure if I can defeat you, eh!” Sadeena was resisting, but it was like something was binding her down, preventing her from even standing up. “You’ve got some moves, I’ll give you that. Previous miko, in actuality, this victory belongs to you. I’m cheating to win, eh!”
What was this, then? Some kind of transformation with a time limit? It had to be oracle-related. An attack involving possession by a god, perhaps, and having it fight in her stead? So rather than things like Sadeena’s residual thoughts from the past, now she was possessed by far a more powerful awareness.
But then, for some reason, Shildina pointed out from among her wind at Raphtalia.
“Defeating those currently in power could be fun too. I’m not going to let this chance slip by, eh,” she went on. With that, the wind scattered and the demi-human form of Shildina was revealed.
“Huh?” I checked out Shildina again. Yeah, so I’d been right. Coincidence can be a frightening thing.
“I knew it. It was Zodia.” In the moment I said that, Shildina—no, Zodia—looked at me and opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“Nuh! I’m becoming unstable, eh—” Shildina said and her unnatural tail suddenly vanished. She really was messing with some bizarre and dangerous powers. Although the direction was likely different, it felt close to a hero using the Curse Series.
“Oh my,” Sadeena exclaimed, and her therianthrope also ended. Trying to stand, she collapsed again. She continued to try to stand but didn’t appear able to do so. That was a pretty powerful binding spell. However, Shildina was looking only at me, as though the battle with Sadeena meant nothing at all anymore.
“Sweet Naofumi. What are you doing here?”
“Because I’m the Shield Hero, of course. Didn’t you notice me standing right next to Sadeena and Raphtalia?” Maybe not. She’d certainly been concentrating hard. Thinking about it now, the name “Zodia” was also close to the ring name that Sadeena had used in Zeltoble, “Nadia.” That wasn’t the only thing about them that was similar. The noises she made as she got drunk—indeed, just the fact that she loved to drink—and her response when I ate the rucolu fruit, all were exactly the same too.
“You’re kidding.” Zodia was looking at me, sobering up and looking pretty sleepy.
“Do you two know each other?”
“Yeah, this is the girl with no sense of direction who I went drinking with, accompanied by Motoyasu II. She wanted to play with me—and I mean that completely innocently,” I noted.
“Becoming friends with an enemy, without each side realizing? That old chestnut again. Just like when we fought Sadeena,” Raphtalia sighed. Ah, now even Raphtalia was spotting the tropes.
“Please, give me some credit. I’m not that dense. I had plenty of suspicions.”
“Say, Naofumi, if you’ve got a moment—”
“What? If you want to fight, bring it on! I take it Shildina is your real name?” I sneered. If she had the strength to contain Sadeena, she had to be quite a monster. This battle wasn’t settled yet, but she definitely had some nasty attacks at her command.
“You’re lying, aren’t you? You can’t be the spirit implement user who accompanies the revolutionary Heavenly Emperor. You just can’t!”
“Yes, I can. Can’t you see this cursed shield?” It was insane, having to point all this out.
“So you’re Sadeena’s boyfriend?”
“No! Where did that come from?”
“Oh my! What’s going on, exactly?” Sadeena was also puzzled about this interruption to the battle.
“Oh dear.”
“Don’t tell me, Shildina, you’ve taken a shine to Naofumi? Then why don’t we all play together?!” Sadeena shouted.
“What are you talking about?” Tension turned to exasperation. “I thought this was a serious battle!”
“I think we’ve moved a bit beyond that now, haven’t we?” I wasn’t happy about it, but I actually agreed with Sadeena. Shildina was acting really odd.
“Does sweet Naofumi already belong to you, Sadeena?”
“What are you talking about? You must be kidding!” My reply made Shildina’s expression visibly brighten.
“So—” she began, but the next moment her patterns started glowing on her body. Then Shildina gave a cry and wrapped her arms around her chest.
“Guwaaah!”
“What now!”
“Rafu!” Raph-chan pointed at the holder at Shildina’s waist. That was pointless, though, because we couldn’t see anything. Shildina was still breathing heavily.
“Are you okay?” I drew Shildina to me and checked her over. It was instantly clear that those markings were the problem.
“Rafu, rafu, rafu!”
“Let’s seeeee. According to Raph-chan, she has a hole in her soul, which is a really weird shape. She was fighting by putting some kind of power or something into that hole in her soul,” Filo translated for Raph-chan. Raph-chan could see ghosts, after all.
So this was the truth of the oracle power? A technique to create a gap in your soul and then be possessed by spirits of your ancestors?
“And?”
“Rafu, rafu!”
“She had something incredible in her soul back there, but now something nasty has entered from t
hose patterns and is trying to take her over,” Filo went on. Some kind of soul interference?
“Very well. Get back,” Raphtalia said and turned her sword into a spirit blade and adopted a slashing stance. “I’m going to cut the flow now. That should sort this out.”
“Rafu.” Raph-chan jumped onto Raphtalia’s head and pointed. It looked like she knew the spot to cut.
“What are you doing to the water dragon’s miko priestess? You men! Take the life of the imposter Heavenly Emperor!” an enemy soldier shouted. Agitated by our actions, some of them were preparing to fight. It didn’t look like they had any intention of keeping their promise not to get involved. There was only a small group of them, however, with most of the enemy Heavenly Emperor’s forces looking worried and confused.
In any case, the soldiers attacked us with arrows, spears, swords, katanas, magic, everything they had.
“Sakura Destiny Sphere, Shooting Star Shield, Air Strike Shield! You guys! Put anyone who strikes first back in their place!” At my orders the revolutionary forces gave a shout, piling into the enemy charging toward us.
“Right there!” With a downward slash, Raphtalia chopped around Shildina’s shoulder. With a snap, part of the text came off her body. The pattern had started to flash less, but it continued to flash nonetheless.
“Guwaaah! S-stop it! Uwaah!”
“Rafu.”
“We’ve suppressed the encroachment, to some degree, but seriously! Just what is this pattern?” Raphtalia asked.
“It looks like slave markings, but the color is a bit different. Perhaps—yes, like this!” Sadeena said and drank some wine, then touched the pattern while imbuing it with magic. The flashing slowed down even more, but it still didn’t stop.
“Release me!” Shildina knocked Sadeena and me back, unsteady on her feet, and glared at us. Something was really disrupting her calm, but what?
“No one wants me, do they?! I’m not wanted—uuuh—I only have one who accepts me! This is the proof of that! Don’t get in my way!” Shildina shouted and stood up, as though protecting her patterns.
“Someone accepts you? Who?” Sadeena furrowed her brow.