by Aneko Yusagi
“Gyaaaaaah! Curse yoooooooou!”
The shot of holy water Sadeena created landed right on target, and the raging Makina turned into a demon and attacked. However, she was no match for us anymore.
“Selfish creatures like you have no right to exist!” she spat. I stood in front of Raphtalia and the rest of the party and took her attacks on my shield. My Soul Eater Shield’s countereffect was triggered and stole away Makina’s strength.
“Well done! Eh!” Freed from her captivity by our attacks, the hammer girl swung her hammer to the side and smashed it into the ghost of Makina. Then it looked like she cast some kind of spell.
“Guwaah! You’ll pay for this!” But the evil ghost wasn’t giving up yet. “I’ll make you regret getting in my way with some serious pain!”
“There’s no way left for you to survive in this world, eh!” The hammer girl stamped down hard with her foot, the sparkling of her hammer increasing in intensity, and a shockwave flew out.
“Guwaaaaaah!” Makina vanished without a trace, scattering red and black debris in the air. It didn’t look like she was coming back from that.
With a flash, the pattern that had been covering Shildina was completely removed.
“That’s the end of her?” I asked. So this would be our only meeting with the venomous viper Makina. I was still disgusted by the idea of taking over someone else’s body, especially after death.
There had likely been an execution in her future, anyway, so maybe we should just consider this the shortcut to her inevitable fate.
“Killing her was the only way to save Q’ten Lo. I’ve finally done it, eh,” the hammer girl said, sounding very satisfied with the outcome, anyway.
She went on. “Well then. Once this little trip ends, I’m not sure when I’ll get to come out again, eh.” That wasn’t her first comment like this. If she just stayed inside Shildina, that would make her no better than Makina.
“You want a fight? Do you really think you can beat all of us?” I couldn’t be sure, but from our exchanges so far, it seemed like she wasn’t adversarial.
“You’re not a number I couldn’t handle, if I push myself a little, eh. Your spirit implements don’t sound like they’re in the best of shape either. But still . . .” the hammer girl looked at Raphtalia and then thrust a finger at me. “Holder of a spirit implement, you have a card that Shildina gave you, correct?”
“Y-yeah, you mean this?” I said and took out the odd-looking card. Then, for some reason, Shildina pointed at Raphtalia.
“I stipulate the Heavenly Emperor who serves the holder of a spirit implement. If you agree to duel me, one on one, I will free Shildina, eh. Of course, you must also supply aid to the weakened Shildina afterward.”
“What!” I shouted.
“Holder of the shield spirit implement. That is a crystal taken from Shildina’s heart.” It sounded like I’d been given something pretty important without even realizing it. Shildina hadn’t held back with her gifts—this was some heavy stuff! Something was definitely controlling her too.
If it came down to a choice between Makina and this mysterious individual who looked like Raphtalia. I wondered which one we should prefer.
“She’s a strange one, giving something so important to someone she hardly knows. I struggle to understand why she’d do such a thing—I guess maybe, thinking she no longer needed it, she wanted the first person of the opposite sex she ever really liked to have that important part of her, eh?” the hammer girl wondered.
“Oh my—” Sadeena exclaimed.
“Former water dragon’s miko priestess! Stop right there. You may think you see an opening, but I assure you, attacking me will bring only pain,” she shouted at Sadeena. She stopped Sadeena in her tracks, before she even had a chance to move. There were no openings to strike at her.
“What if we refuse?” I said.
“Then Shildina dies, eh.” Gah! A part of me wanted to ask if we really cared? She wasn’t a complete stranger though. She was Sadeena’s sister too, and I couldn’t bring myself to hate her. It was easy to imagine the suffering she had been through, and I also wanted to grill her—maybe just a little—about why she’d give something so important to me.
“You’re starting to sound a lot like Makina,” I said.
“Say whatever you like. This is payback for ever having listened to her venomous tongue, eh.”
“Mr. Naofumi.” Raphtalia looked straight at me. “Let me do this.”
“Hold on—” This was almost like she was trying to kill Raphtalia by holding Shildina hostage. We couldn’t just swallow these ridiculous demands. So what if it might appear cowardly? There was no need for Raphtalia to fight—
“Please. This is all because I was unable to break the curse binding Shildina,” Raphtalia pleaded.
“But still—that curse—” As far as I could see, the patterns had been destroyed.
“Not to mention, if we run for it now, then I’m sure more damage will occur.” Raphtalia continued to make her case.
“You said it. If you were the kind of Heavenly Emperor who’d made a run for it, then as a pacifier I would have to end you here,” the hammer girl announced. Pacifier? That was the name of the weapons the Q’ten Lo lot owned.
“Just who are you?” I inquired. The person, whoever it was, possessing Shildina’s body looked at me and answered.
“You need to understand the meaning of being an oracle to understand who I am. You may consider me a residual thought. Enough talking, anyway. Will you accept or not? That’s the only question here,” she barked.
“Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said, looking at me. If we didn’t accept, both Raphtalia and Shildina could be killed. I wasn’t keen on letting Raphtalia fight alone—but there was no more time to debate this.
“Very well,” I said. If it looked like Raphtalia was about to lose, we’d jump in and save her. I’m pretty despicable, all things considered, so if this person possessing Shildina looked to be getting worn down in the fight with Raphtalia, I’d put an end to things by blindsiding her if I had to.
With my approval, Raphtalia gave a bow.
“Thank you very much,” she said. Meanwhile, the person possessing Shildina pointed at the card.
“If you can place that against my chest, the hole in my heart will be filled and the binding broken. If you see an opening, go ahead, try for it, eh,” she jeered. Indeed, that sounded like it would be effective. It was a fragment of her soul, right? Maybe it would even heal her weakened, unstable emotions?
“Rafu!” Raph-chan nodded multiple times. So that sounded like the truth?
I gave the card to Raphtalia.
“I’m counting on you,” I told her.
“Fear not. I’ll win, I promise. For the sake of everyone who has brought me this far! Especially you, Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia gripped her sword tightly and tucked the card into her top, a position from which she could easily grab it if an opening presented itself.
“That’s an odd wavelength your weapon has. A spirit implement’s vassal weapon? No, even stranger. The vassal weapon of a spirit implement from a different world, eh?” the hammer girl observed. Pretty impressive, being able to accurately account for Raphtalia’s katana like that.
“Here I come,” Raphtalia stated.
“Whenever you’re ready, eh.” Looking at the two of them, hammer girl and Raphtalia, they both felt pretty similar to me.
“Have you worked out who is taking over my sister, Naofumi?” Sadeena asked.
“I think so,” I replied. She’d talked about residual thoughts, and Shildina clearly had the ability to place something into her soul and perform complex magic that she couldn’t execute alone. And it surely didn’t have to be a soul. Then there was the tail formed from magic and big changes to her appearance. Seeing as Raphtalia could see her true form, they had to be some kind of illusion. If the residual thoughts were being gathered and forming a personality, there was a high possibility that those currently controlling Shildina belong
ed to a past Heavenly Emperor. That was why her transformed state looked like Raphtalia.
The person possessing Shildina—the past Heavenly Emperor—looked at me.
“I’m fine with a handicap, holder of the shield spirit implement. Go ahead and cast all the support magic you like, eh,” she told me.
“You mock us, surely,” I stated. Just how much leeway did she have? If it would give us an advantage, anyway, there was no reason to turn her down.
“Sadeena,” I shouted.
“I’m right here, little Naofumi.” We were getting pretty smooth at cooperative magic now, but I wasn’t especially pleased about that, perhaps.
“Descent of the Thunder God!” We cast Descent of the Thunder God on Raphtalia.
“And this is okay with you?” Raphtalia asked.
“It’s fine, eh. I’ll just use my own Heavenly Emperor powers,” she announced and smacked down on the ground with the handle of her hammer. That was all it took to make sakura lumina immediately start to grow in the vicinity, forming sakura stones of destiny and then creating a barrier.
So we’d just have to also use the sakura stone of destiny ourselves to create a barrier and nullify it—
“Ah, you just thought that using spirit implement fixed magic would be pointless, didn’t you? Regrettably, while I did make some settings, I’m not nullifying that, so no need to worry,” she told us.
“As if we’d believe that,” I snorted.
“What a suspicious holder of a spirit implement you are! In either case, your little Heavenly Emperor wouldn’t be able to cancel out a full-on barrier from me,” she replied. Raphtalia nodded, sweat glistening on her cheeks.
“I’m sure you’re right. But it’s still a fact that I don’t like being made to dance on the palm of your hand,” Raphtalia said.
“You think I’ll change the settings if it looks like I’m going to lose? That’s quite an insult directed at a pacifier responsible for the fate of this nation. If that was my only alternative, I would simply choose defeat, eh,” she said.
“Perhaps not to the extent of Mr. Naofumi, but if you are lying I will teach you a painful lesson,” Raphtalia told her. Not sure what I had to do with that, but very well. Point made.
“Well then. Let the fight begin!” The past Heavenly Emperor moved in an instant right up into Raphtalia’s face and swung her massive hammer horizontally.
“Haaaaah!” Rather than block the hammer, Raphtalia leapt forward and—went through it? W-what just happened? Was there something wrong with my eyes?
I looked at the others to see that everyone else also seemed to be questioning their vision.
“Take this!”
“No, you take this!”
The past Heavenly Emperor swung her hammer, and fire, ice, and—my God—meteorites started to fly, not to mention that the Heavenly Emperor herself started multiplying into multiple copies of herself. At the same moment, Raphtalia also did the same thing, intercepting all the incoming attacks.
What was this? Some kind of illusion battle?
These incorporeal illusions started to trick the spectators. This was bad! I really wanted to follow the action, really needed to, but I was starting to have no idea what was actually going on.
“Naofumi, try looking not with your eyes, but your other senses,” Sadeena offered. I narrowed my eyes to view the life force and tried again.
By doing so, I finally saw both Raphtalia and the past Heavenly Emperor striking away at each other.
“Impressive! Keeping up with these tricky illusions. Good, good!”
“You won’t fool me with magic tricks!” Raphtalia drew her katana from its scabbard, entered into her pseudo-accelerated state, and slashed. Her strike missed, so she followed through with the swing and unleased a skill as well.
“Stardust Blade!” Stars scattered from Raphtalia’s blade and slashed into her opponent. This attack not only increased the attack power of her sword itself, but also offered an attack that could hit across a wide area. It also left the user pretty safe, a good all-round skill with effects much like the Shooting Star Sword, the skill Ren really loved. The stars flew toward the past Heavenly Emperor and struck her multiple times. Good! That one was her real body!
“Found you! Brave Blade! Crossing Mists!” Raphtalia drew her other sword and slashed at the past Heavenly Emperor. She was looking to weaken her first, then finish her with the card.
I clenched my fists in support, thinking Raphtalia almost had her—
“I’m not finished yet, eh!” The past Heavenly Emperor that we had both clearly thought was the real one dispersed like a puff of smoke, and then the actual real one appeared behind Raphtalia and attacked with her hammer.
“Guwah!” Raphtalia barely avoided the attack by jumping, landed, and her opponent immediately followed up. She barely got out of the way in time.
“You’ve got some resistance to illusions, eh. But you can’t let a little trick like that catch you. You need to feel out a trap with a trap of your own before actually attacking.”
“I can’t believe I couldn’t see through that,” Raphtalia said.
“You are inexperienced with illusions, that’s for sure. You have some resistance, and some knowledge, but you lack technique, eh,” the past Heavenly Emperor told her. Yeah. That was probably my fault.
There was a time when I had Raphtalia learning magic.
Back then, I’d thought it best that I do as much as I possibly could for her, and so Raphtalia was responsible for raid attacks on the enemy, using magic to conceal herself and then striking at them from behind. However, from around the time we gained the ability to go to Kizuna’s world, she had started to rely more heavily on just the power of the katana vessel weapon, which had led to her magic ability to get left behind. Then they’d said it would be hard for her to learn the Way of the Dragon Vein due to the katana vassal weapon too.
That said, I didn’t consider it a mistake.
Using someone with a tool as powerful as a vassal weapon just for raids was, especially in light of our past battles, simply not the best strategy, although it might have been a failure that I’d let her magic suffer a bit as a result. That was an issue for the future, anyway.
“Oh, I’m not done yet!” Raphtalia’s tail swelled up, and she incanted some magic. “Hide Mirage!” Vanishing in a blink, Raphtalia moved through the illusion-filled surroundings, coming around behind the past Heavenly Emperor and swinging her katana—but the attack was intercepted on the haft of the hammer.
“Just vanishing isn’t enough. If you can confuse your real position and then close in, that’s the way to trick your opponent, eh.” The past Heavenly Emperor continued to school Raphtalia.
“Gah!” It had only been a short battle, and already the strength of her opponent was becoming all too apparent. Just how many monster-level trump cards did hammer girl have?
“If this is going to be a clash of weapons, let me have a turn too,” she said and the tip of her hammer started to glow, and then the past Heavenly Emperor swung it toward Raphtalia.
“Mighty Quake!”
“Ah!” Raphtalia barely avoided that too, and then the hammer crashed into the ground. Earth and dust were immediately thrown up, along with a shockwave from the ground, sending Raphtalia flying away.
“Just how strong is she?!” Raphtalia muttered, landing and falling back a little, shoulders heaving as she breathed heavily.
“You can’t underestimate others just because you have spirit implements and vassal weapons.” The past Heavenly Emperor was taunting in good form, bouncing her hammer on her shoulder as she offered this pearl of wisdom. That hammer—it looked like quite the piece of work.
I couldn’t be sure, but I saw something that looked like a vassal weapon gemstone. Was she also using illusions to display the weapon that she used during her lifetime?
“I can’t even land a single blow,” Raphtalia gasped.
“You show potential though.” This visitor fro
m the past was still completely at ease. Indeed, she was toying with Raphtalia—who, by now, had become pretty strong—like she was nothing more than a baby.
Could Raphtalia really hope to win this fight?
“Hah!” With quick footwork she closed in with the past Heavenly Emperor and then sliced down into a space with no one in it.
“Powder Snow!”
“Aha! You did well to see through that one, eh!” the past Heavenly Emperor complimented. Sparks grated out into the air, and the past Heavenly Emperor appeared from a spot that had appeared to be completely empty.
Huh? She’d used our chat as an opening to trick us again? She could even fool my eyes when watching the life force? What kind of high-level trickery was this?! I was willing to bet that only Raphtalia and Raph-chan were truly keeping up with what was going on.
“Oh? That’s a nasty skill, eh,” she stated. Power scattered like snow from where she had taken the blow, and then it looked like the past Heavenly Emperor placed her hand on the damaged area and healed it.
So that attack had been effective?
“Well then. I think I’m pretty warmed up now. Time for me to show you what the Heavenly Emperor can really do, eh,” she announced. With that, the past Heavenly Emperor swung her sword downward while at the same time her tail swelled up.
The next instant she appeared in front of Raphtalia. Raphtalia tried to dodge the attack, but the past Heavenly Emperor used light footwork to switch to a horizontal strike.
Just the swing alone created a buffeting wind.
“Five Practices Destiny Split!”
“Uwah!” She scarcely avoided the attack—no, it actually hit her, barely—but then Raphtalia unleashed a skill.
“Kagura Dance of the Sakura! First Formation! Blossom!”
“You naïve little girl!” Five types of sphere started to float around her. That was the same attack that took Sadeena down! Just the barest hit was enough to activate it?
“Fire Defeats Metal!” The miko outfit worn by Raphtalia was ripped open, and a red line appeared on her katana.
“A status effect?” I wondered.
“You temporarily can’t use that weapon, eh,” she jeered. Just how versatile were her attacks? Then Raphtalia turned her katana into a different shape, one made with Demon Dragon materials.