by Aneko Yusagi
Ost was our last hope, and she was using me to carry out her plan.
I had to do all I could.
Something appeared in my mind, like a puzzle.
It was fuzzy and hard to make out, but it looked like a series of pieces that could fit together. My intuition told me that different magic spells would result from different arrangements of the pieces.
With what I currently knew, there weren’t very many shapes I could hope to make from the pieces. But Ost was arranging them for me, indicating the pieces and where they needed to go. Each time I placed a piece incorrectly, it faded away and disappeared. Luckily, they reappeared after a moment. In all likelihood, without Ost there to help me, the disappearing pieces would probably be lost for good. When the shape assembled the wrong way, Ost somehow reversed the process. To finish the puzzle, I just had to follow her lead.
Watching the pieces arrange themselves in my mind, I almost felt like laughing. The puzzle was so difficult that I didn’t see how anyone could have possibly figured it out.
If I had to spend this long arranging pieces in my mind during battle, I’d be dead for sure, especially considering how much concentration it required.
As the pieces arranged themselves, I could feel them drawing SP and magic away from me. Ost must have been feeding the spell with her own energy, too. All the spells I’d known about so far just required the user to use a particular phrase or incantation with some of their magic power.
I thought back on the learning curve I’d gone through to learn magic, and I think it was actually harder to learn to read the magic book than it was to actually cast the spells. In some ways, magic was actually pretty easy to use.
But this spell was different. The spells we had already learned were simple enough. Learning them wasn’t so different than learning spelling or vocabulary in school. But this spell felt more like . . . it felt more like math. The pieces were like different numbers, and arranging them in different ways would produce a different result—a different spell. Before I knew what was happening, I was speaking.
“I, the Shield Hero, borrow the strength of the Spirit Tortoise to command the heavens, command the earth, defy all reason, join, and spit up blood. Oh great strength of the dragons—join the power of the heroes with magic. The source of power that is the Shield Hero commands you. Read and comprehend all that is under the sun, and show your power to me! I command you—give them everything!”
“All Liberation Aura!”
The field of effect was . . . all of my allies?!
What was “liberation?” I thought the highest magic level was “drifa!”
The spell activated, and my magic power and SP quickly began to drain away. I felt faint for a second, but it was nothing like what was happening to Ost.
“Are you okay?!”
“Yes . . . I . . . I can stand.” She jumped to her feet. Something about it didn’t seem right. Sure, she was a familiar, and we were close to the heart so she could regenerate faster than normal. But how could she just jump to her feet after using so much of her energy?
The spell she used earlier was strange, too. She had said “Spirit Tortoise” instead of “Ost” when she cast it.
Could Ost really be . . . No—I had to focus on what was happening before my eyes.
“Ha!”
Glass was running around at three times the speed she had been, slicing at Kyo with her fans. L’Arc and Filo leapt to their feet as if nothing had happened. It was a strange sight to see.
“What is . . . ?!”
“What the hell?! You had a move like that up your sleeves? You liars!” Kyo screamed.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. I really want to snap at him. He was calling us liars? Ha!
“Everyone! Hurry and attack! You should be able to move freely within the gravity field now!” Ost shouted. Everyone nodded and took off running.
Rishia was still tottering on unstable legs. She was the last to start moving. “This . . . This magic power . . . It’s . . . unbelievable!”
Therese shot ball after ball of flame at the endlessly replenishing stock of regenerating neo guardians, charring them on the spot. Raphtalia followed the spells with her sword, which slipped through them as if they were made of butter.
The neo guardians were falling like flies, and everyone was pressing towards an increasingly helpless Kyo.
“This is it!”
Glass led the charge, followed by L’Arc, Raphtalia, Filo, and the rest. They all had their weapons out and were moving in for the kill. Was I supposed to join them? It felt strange to sit back and watch.
“Hyaaaaa!”
I couldn’t tell who had shouted first, but someone moved in for the final attack.
Just then, Kyo smiled. In a flash, another barrier—like my Shooting Star Shield—appeared around him. How many tricks did he have up his sleeve?
“I didn’t want to do this until everything was over. But I will show you my true strength. You should be grateful.” He opened his hand, and energy began to swirl around the room and gather at his fingertips. The energy was coming from the Spirit Tortoise core!
“No thanks! Everyone! Charge him together!”
I didn’t want to stand back and watch him fill his hands with whatever that stuff was. At my call, everyone in the room attacked his force field.
But every time they broke it, it reappeared in a flash.
“Ugh.”
And every time it broke, Ost squealed in pain beside me. Everyone noticed the pattern.
“Huh? Oh? You mean you don’t know? Well, now’s a good a time as any to show you!” Kyo shouted. Cords of light immediately appeared and bound Ost’s feet together. They pulled her up into the air and then inside of his barrier.
When she entered it, it grew even thicker!
Desperate to save her, everyone furiously attacked the barrier.
With each attack, Ost twitched and yelped in pain.
“Ost!”
“You idiots! You really don’t know who this is?”
“What are you talking about?” When I asked him, Kyo nodded to himself, pleased.
“Oh, Shield Hero. I know you’re stupid, but you must have some idea—right? Don’t you know who she is?”
I don’t think Ost knew who she actually was until we started getting closer to the heart. The only reason we’d made it as far as we did was because of her help. She was also the only reason we stood a chance in this fight.
“My . . . My real name, my real form . . . I am the Spirit Tortoise itself. I am its very soul, manifest in human form.”
“But then . . . But all this time we’ve spent together!” Raphtalia shouted, unable to hide her surprise.
“If the Spirit Tortoise dies, then so will I. That much hasn’t changed. So do not worry,” Ost said. Seeing the worry on everyone’s faces, she choked down her pain and smiled to tell them it would be alright. They all eased their attacks.
“Well, this is a good time to take the energy she’s absorbed this whole time.”
“U . . . Ugh . . .”
The cords of light around her arms and legs started to drain away Ost’s remaining energy. At the same time, a translucent blue ball appeared in his hand. It almost looked like it was filled with water.
I knew that color. It was the same color as the sand in the blue dragon hourglasses. It started to shine.
“Ain’t it pretty? It’s the energy that the Spirit Tortoise gathered. And now . . .”
The ball flashed and became transparent before melting into his hands.
The air in the chamber began to vibrate.
What was going on? I’d seen something like it in manga and video games. It was the kind of thing that normally happens at the end of a major battle, when the enemy’s power skyrockets.
Chapter Fifteen: The Spirit Tortoise’s Soul
“This makes me so much stronger!” Kyo stepped out from behind his barrier and walked slowly toward us. The magic energy swirled in a vo
rtex around him.
He seemed to vibrate for a second, and then he appeared directly in front of me. There was no time to think—I threw my shield up just in time to block a stream of pages from Kyo’s book.
They slammed against the shield with so much force that I couldn’t absorb all the energy. I dug my heels in, but the pages sent me flying backwards. Luckily, I managed to regain my balance before falling over.
“Whew! The most basic composition form is that powerful? Amazing!” Kyo laughed, pointing his book at everyone in the chamber. “Not bad. Alright! Now, I’ll show you what I can really do!”
He flipped open the book and sent pages flying out in all directions. There were too many of them to dodge, and a lot of people were forced to parry them, getting knocked off balance in the process.
It wasn’t over yet. The enemy had become so powerful that the support magic we’d been relying on until that point had been rendered useless.
“Yes! That’s better. This is the way I like my battles! Let the enemy think they have a chance before wham! You crush them. What could be better? Ahahahaha!”
“Shield Hero!” Ost shouted. “That man is using the energy that the Spirit Tortoise collected. He’s using the core to channel it into himself! Hurry! If we can destroy the core, then we may be able to weaken him.”
That sounded like good idea to me.
“Now, now! Don’t you be naughty! I have some tricks left too, you know?” Kyo said, laughing. “Ahaha! Aren’t you forgetting about my precious hostages? Not that I need them—I’d still be able do whatever I wanted, even if I didn’t have them!” Kyo motioned to the three heroes behind him.
“Ugh.”
“You coward.”
Kyo turned back and frowned at Glass. “Not that you would care about my hostages.”
“. . .”
Glass didn’t move an inch. She glared at Kyo, anger burning in her eyes.
“Oh, please! You’re not so naïve, are you? Were you really not going to kill them, just because it isn’t a fair fight? Ahaha! Lucky me!”
He was so vulgar. I could hardly stand it.
He’d found Glass’s weakness and was mocking her—pointing his finger at her and giggling like a child. I wasn’t friends with any of the other heroes either, but I wouldn’t leave them to die.
“You coward!”
The shout rang out like a shot, echoing through the chamber.
“Huh?” Kyo mumbled, looking for the source.
“I cannot allow you to take these weakened heroes as your hostage! I will not allow it!”
It was . . . Rishia.
“Ahaha! If it isn’t the little girl who’s been standing uselessly on the sidelines! You’re going to tell me what to do now? Ha!”
“That’s right. I might not be the strongest person in the room, but I’m not going to stand by and let you get away with this!” Rishia shouted, flipping back the hood of her kigurumi to glare at Kyo.
Her eyes looked different. They weren’t pathetic or imploring. No—they were filled with passion and anger.
“This weak little girl doesn’t know her place, does she?”
“Have you even thought about how Ost must feel coming here? Don’t you realize that we’ve all come to fight for our futures? For our very lives? Master Itsuki taught me about justice, and . . . and . . . and I cannot allow you to get away with your scheming!”
“Justice? Ha! Give me a break! You’re so weak it’s pathetic—if evil exists, that’s it. You want justice? I am justice.”
The ground around Rishia seemed to squirm and crawl. Filo and the old lady had been gathering energy during Kyo’s speech, and now it was starting to overflow.
“You are getting on my last nerve. I’ll kill you first,” Kyo barked. He turned and sent a page flying at Rishia.
I returned to my senses and ran to protect her, but he was too fast. Damn it! He was going to kill her!
But she didn’t need me. She dodged the attack. She continued to glare at Kyo.
“What?”
“You . . . You cannot be proud of this power you’ve stolen from another! However powerful it may make your attacks, it’s not your power to begin with! You don’t know how to use it!” Rishia shouted, unsheathing her sword.
“Ah, now I’m being lectured by the baby in the room? Ahaha!” Kyo laughed and sent another stream of pages to kill her.
There were a lot more pages this time! There were so many of them, and they were moving so fast, I wasn’t sure if even I could block them—and they were heading straight for Rishia.
But she dodged them, without making any unnecessary moves, and kept walking toward the increasingly furious Kyo. Whenever she couldn’t dodge a page, she skewered it on the point of her sword.
“Your attacks show no consideration. They aren’t anything like Eclair’s, or Raphtalia’s, or Filo’s. They are uninspired shows of force—nothing more.”
“Shut up!” He shouted, suddenly offended. A vein stood out from his forehead, throbbing.
I couldn’t believe it. I could hardly follow his attacks as it was, but Rishia read his every move.
Her stats were very low considering her level. Did that mean that this sudden display of skill was all thanks to the Hengen Muso training? The old lady had said that Rishia had innate potential. Had she finally realized it? It looked like she had gone through some kind of awakening.
“Let’s see you dodge this! Composition of Flame!” Kyo used something resembling a skill, summoning a roaring flame shaped like a demon. The flame creature charged at Rishia.
“Die!”
Her sword flashed, cleaving the demon in two.
A split second later, swords of ice came flying from the back of the room to nail the demon’s body to the floor.
“Wh . . . What!?”
“You might think you’re smart, but you always attack the same way. Your eyes tell me exactly what you’re going to do!”
“Are you making a fool of me? Take this!”
Kyo furiously used another skill. He was so upset that he wasn’t thinking clearly. He could have used his hostages, but he was too focused on trying to kill Rishia, who knocked his skills away with the blade of her sword.
After Kyo powered up, none of us stood a chance against him. But now Rishia, of all people, was holding her own.
Kyo smiled. “You almost had me coming to get you. But I have my hostages over here, so you’d better just stay put. And after the power boost I just got, you’re only delaying the inevitable. You can try to buy yourself time, but I’ll only keep getting stronger.”
“When you realize you can’t win, you turn back to your hostages,” Rishia said, her eyes cold.
She was like a different person. And yet I could tell that the passion she was displaying, this new persona, was who she really was.
“I . . . I don’t have the strong will power that Naofumi does. And I don’t have the excellent sense of purpose that Master Itsuki does. I’m not as kind as Motoyasu, and I’m not as cool-headed as Ren.”
No . . . She was wrong about that.
She selflessly fought for others. After being saved herself, she knew what it meant to save another. In truth, she was more selfless and caring than any of the heroes. At the very least, she was more heroic than I was. And now she was holding her own in battle.
She had thrown herself into battle completely and was ready to sacrifice herself for the chance to defeat Kyo. She’d done it without hesitation, just like Ost.
Maybe she was a simple person, but she had all the passion to back up her decision. Her very soul was shouting its resolve. She was enraged at the evil she’d seen. I had never known there was a lion in her heart, slumbering this whole time. I never would have even suspected it.
Her stats were so low for her level that it had always seemed a little unnatural. And the old lady had insisted on Rishia’s innate talents. She must have been right. Everything unfolding before me at that moment proved it.
“I’m not as strong as Raphtalia, and I don’t have Filo’s pure heart. I’m not talented with a sword like Eclair, and I certainly don’t have the experience of the master.”
“Yeah, I get it already. I’ve heard enough of your whimpering, little girl. Why don’t you just get out of here? If you don’t, I’ll kill your hero friend.”
Rishia’s hand filled with light, which shaped itself into a blade.
“But I . . . I . . . I can beat you. I can beat you!” She shouted. Her conviction rang out through the chamber. Then she turned, aimed, and threw the blade of light at the heroes imprisoned on the far wall.
The blade didn’t hurt them but burst into a warm, enveloping light that settled on their crystal prisons.
The crystals cracked.
“You! Argh! You let them go?!”
“You’re next! Hyaaa!” Rishia raised her sword and charged at Kyo.
Kyo raised his book and used it to block Rishia’s sword. For a moment, their weapons were locked together, neither one overpowering the other. Sparks flew.
“Who the hell are you? Die already!” Kyo yelled, jumping back to get distance from Rishia. The crackling barrier reappeared around him. It must have disappeared while he attacked.
“You’re the one that needs to give it up! You don’t have any hostages left!” L’Arc shouted, standing before the collapsed heroes and brandishing his scythe.
Kyo smirked, ignoring him. “Don’t you get it? This world is dying anyway. At least I’m putting its energy to use! You’re fools for not understanding that!”
“YOU’RE the fool! The vassal weapons decide what we can do and what we can’t do!”
L’Arc screamed, his voice cracking with anger. I’d never heard him sound that way.
“Yeah, well I’m not a slave to the vassal weapons. What does an object have to teach me about anything?”
Damn. There wasn’t much I could do to help.
While Liberation Aura was still in effect, I could use the Shield of Wrath to cast Blood Sacrifice and destroy the core, like Ost had suggested. If it didn’t work, I’d be out of the battle for good. But with how things stood at the moment, I didn’t see another way to win.
There was no way out. I was actually impressed that we’d made it as far as we had.