by Aneko Yusagi
She really did seem to know what she was talking about, and she was certainly powerful enough to command the heroes to cooperate.
There was a cracking, splintering sound, and I raised my shield skyward to protect everyone from what was coming next.
The Shield Prison broke, and light filtered down on us. I could see the light around the edges of my shield, so it was apparently covering a very wide area.
Filo stretched out her wings to cover the pile of people around us.
“Uuuuuuuggghhhhhh!”
I felt my strength being chipped away by the light. I felt like I was being erased.
“Just a little more… There! Done!”
The light vanished as quickly as it had appeared. I kept my shield at the ready.
Filo also hopped to her feet and pulled her wings back, freeing everyone from her stifling feathers.
The entire field around us was black… scorched.
The fort that had originally been built to defend the border had been reduced to a pile of rubble, and we were standing in the middle of a crater. It looked like an asteroid had hit us. There were a few soldiers standing around. They were looking at us and smiling.
Had Motoyasu and Bitch tried to end the fight with some kind of powerful spell? What was going on?
“Could it be…?”
“The Shield Demon remains calm after being hit with the highest ceremonial magic, ‘Judgment.’ Very impressive.”
I looked in the direction of the voice and saw the same high priest that had met with us at the church back in Melromarc castle town. He was smiling. A large crowd of attendants stood behind him. There were knights among them.
“You…!”
The high priest looked over at us all. He stared at Motoyasu.
Were these support troops? No… That attack had definitely included Motoyasu among its targets. But if it wasn’t support troops, then…
We must have only survived the power of that attack because of the Shield of Rage. But hey, Filo… Why did she go out of her way to save Motoyasu and Bitch? We were so close to being free of them. They could have tasted some real pain for once.
The other heroes had apparently already died. So why did I care if we lost one more? He didn’t listen to reason anyway.
She really should have just protected Raphtalia and Melty.
Whatever. Putting that aside for the moment, what was this high priest up to?
“What are you thinking? How could you use an attack that might have killed both the Spear Hero and the princess?”
“The Spear Hero… was it?”
These guys were supposed to worship the Sword, Bow, and Spear. I wouldn’t have expected him to behave in a way that would put one of them in danger. But there he was, still smiling at us.
What was happening? I was starting to get a bad feeling about it. He looked like he’d go right on smiling the same way had his attack left behind a pile of corpses. It was like a half smile. It contained a secret. I don’t know what it was, maybe the color in his cheeks. Anyway, something wasn’t right there.
That made me think. What had happened to Ren and Itsuki? Someone had killed them.
Motoyasu obviously thought that I was responsible, but I wasn’t. That meant that the real criminal was still out there somewhere.
It seemed reasonable to assume that this was the guy behind it all.
“The objects of our devotion are the Heroes that save the world from destruction, from the waves. Heroes that travel the world stirring up trouble are not the true Heroes. They are a mockery of our faith.”
The high priest was speaking casually, as if this were just a normal conversation.
“What was that?!”
Motoyasu was shocked. He stared at the high priest with intensity.
“For the justice of the people, an adjustment must be made regarding the ascendancy of the crown. The princess you see here is already dead—murdered by the Shield Demon. Do not waste your time worrying about a corpse.”
“How could…? Whatever.”
Raphtalia started to voice her disagreement but gave up.
The last time we’d met the high priest, he’d seemed peaceful, equitable, and fair. That must have been a misunderstanding on my part.
“One must be grateful for the mercy and power of the holy water one has received, yet the Shield Demon has continued to behave aggressively. I have come as the representative of God to purify him.”
His logic was something to behold. It sounded like he had given us the Holy Water at the proper price because he hadn’t considered us a threat. But now that he had something to lose, he was going to kill us. So I guess he hadn’t really understood the big picture back then.
Either that, or he’d kept his head down to avoid suspicion.
“Give me a break! I’M the princess here! I haven’t been killed by the Shield!”
“Actually, Princess Malty, all this has already been decided. Do not worry. We have already made preparations for your successor. The country will be in safe hands. Everything proceeds according to the will of God.”
Bitch… She would do anything, anything at all to get what she wanted. Now that the high priest was explaining the conspiracy to everyone, she didn’t see the need to butt in on the conversation. Her face seemed to grow paler by the second.
“You’re… lying, right?”
“Ahahaha! No. If the world is to be saved, it must be cleansed of vulgar people like you.”
“Shut up! Do you mean to say you tricked us?!”
Motoyasu was blubbering. His face streaked with tears, he pointed his spear at the high priest.
“We’ve been fighting to save Princess Melty… to save this very country! Has that been a lie?!”
“Not exactly. All of this has been for the good of the country, for the good of the very world. The Shield Demon has been abducting and leading people, and the other three Heroes have been behaving in a way that leads our countrymen to doubt the truth of our teachings. This has been a fight to correct these injustices. The Crown must be secured.”
“You hypocrite…”
I whispered, but the high priest heard me. He twisted his face up and spoke with apparent consternation.
“Yes… False Heroes causing problems throughout the land has caused people to question their faith. The false Sword Hero caused a virulent disease to break out and spread. It brought chaos to the ecosystem. The false Spear Hero released a powerful, sealed monster, and the false Bow Hero has been hiding his powers, bringing pain and confusion to my disciples.”
I was the one that cleaned up all of those issues.
I wasn’t sure what Itsuki had done, but the governor he’d ousted for fraudulent taxes must have been very wealthy. Maybe he was donating that money to charity?
And besides, the crazy nobleman who’d released the sealed monster had been a fanatical devotee of the Church.
“Furthermore, the false Sword and Bow Heroes had launched unnecessary investigations into these matters. They had to be taken care of, so we did so.”
The high priest was still speaking as if all this were the most obvious thing in the world.
“What?!”
Hey, Motoyasu—what are you so surprised for? If only you’d listened…
“We called the Sword and Bow, and they came to the designated meeting place, whereby they were erased through the same magic you just witnessed, ‘Judgment.’ This, too, is according to the will of God.”
Ren and Itsuki… Just as I’d suspected. They hadn’t been chasing me because they’d found the whole situation suspicious. They’d launched their own investigations.
Itsuki… Well, he’d believed in Ren and listened to what he’d said.
How could they do such a thing? If Itsuki found out about all this, his sense of justice would have compelled him to put a stop to it.
But they’d beat him to it, and killed him without warning.
“You killed them? They were fighting for this world! Ren! Itsuki!”
Motoyasu was furious. He was screaming.
Give me a break. It’s not like they were best friends or anything. Apologies to Ren and Itsuki, but I wasn’t really feeling anything emotional at the news of their deaths.
To be honest, I was remembering what Fitoria had said, about how the waves would get worse if any of the heroes died…
“Please don’t put it that way. I’d rather you said that we purified the world of the demons who were trying to take advantage of us.”
“You…”
“As for the king and queen, we’ll tell them that the country nearly fell into the hands of the false Heroes. We were able to save the world from them, but in the process the princesses…”
Ha! Who would believe that? Or… actually Trash would probably accept it without a second thought—anything to pin his troubles on me.
Actually, back in my world, there were probably plenty of powerful people that looked pathetic after the truth came to the surface—people that had been executed for scheming to instigate wars.
I guess I didn’t know the truth either, but at the very least I could say one thing. They were going to execute us based on their own selfish theories.
“Naofumi. Let’s call a truce. I need your help.”
Motoyasu turned to look me in the eyes.
“How convenient for you. Don’t think I’ll let you forget how you were treating me up until five minutes ago. Do you even understand why you ignored me when I asked you to listen? How many times did I ask?”
I wouldn’t let him off that easily. I asked him to listen to me, and he answered with attacks. I couldn’t let that slide.
Besides, the fool had honestly believed in the stupid Brain Washing Shield.
“Please! I… I have to give them a funeral! I cannot forgive this!”
“Sure, sure. I’m sure you can beat him on your own.”
I wouldn’t let him off the line. Did he understand how miserable he’d made me all these months?
“You won’t help me? Don’t you feel anything for Ren and Itsuki?”
“I feel plenty of things. I plan to end this with a bloodbath. But Motoyasu, I don’t feel any responsibility to help you.”
The cage was broken. If we all jumped on Filo we might be able to escape.
I was sorry for Fitoria, but even if we reconciled, I’d never be able to trust him.
I didn’t plan on fighting him for forever, but I wanted him to know how I felt.
“By the way…”
I extended my index finger and pointed at Motoyasu. Then I lowered it to the ground and smiled.
“Do me a favor and die. All you think about is what’s in your pants.”
“You bastard!”
Motoyasu stumbled, weak on his feet. He made a fist and swung it at me.
“You sure you want to punch me?”
I had the Shield of Rage equipped. That meant that if he punched me, self-curse burning would activate—and that would probably kill him.
“Damn…”
Still, it would have hit Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty—so I’d have to control it.
“What a fight you two have going! I’d expect no less from the false Spear Hero and the Shield Demon.”
“Shut up!”
“Yeah, shut up! I don’t need you anyway. I’ll take him out on my own!”
“Ahaha! You think you can defeat me? How quaint.”
The high priest laughed and called for an underling to bring him a weapon.
What was it? It looked like a giant sword…
It was shining silver and inlaid with complicated designs. Honestly, it was really cool. The center of it held a square-shaped jewel of some kind that gave me a bad feeling. It looked like the sort of weapon that started showing up in the latter half of a game… like the Sword of God?
“Wh… what’s that…?”
Bitch and Melty both went pale.
“Naofumi! Be careful! That thing is…”
“I’ll begin with the Shield Demon. Accept the judgment of God.”
The high priest raised the sword into the air. Despite that he was standing quite a distance from us, he brought it down.
And a powerful shockwave came flying straight at me. I quickly raised my shield and took the hit.
“Ugh!”
It was so powerful that I nearly went flying. It was much, much more powerful than Motoyasu’s Shooting Star Spear, and I was nearly knocked unconscious.
The ground before me split, and the split grew wider.
Hold on a second. I had the Shield of Rage equipped!
I’d used that shield to block the most powerful skills that Motoyasu and the other’s were capable of, and it hadn’t been a problem. If he was able to hurt me that easily… just what was that weapon?
“Naofumi… That’s a relic from the past! It’s a replica of the weapon used by a Legendary Hero…”
Chapter Nine: Replica
“That’s a replica?”
It sure looked more powerful than the original.
Or should I say that I was comparing it to Ren’s weapon because it was a sword. It was certainly more powerful than Motoyasu’s spear. It was probably at least fifteen times more powerful. If it was only fifteen times more powerful, then I should be able to use the Shield of Rage to defend against it.
But judging from the strength of its last attack, it must have been more powerful than that.
“But how could…. That was supposed to have been destroyed hundreds of years ago.”
“Not destroyed… stolen. And the organization behind the theft must have been the Church of the Three Heroes.”
It was like the various conspiracy theories about bombs back in my world. They must have been produced in vast quantities, but some are missing. So where did they go?
But more importantly, if that was a replica of the legendary weapon, then did that mean that Ren’s sword would have become something like that?
Granted, I had more reasons to be suspicious than most did, but was it really okay to entrust that much power to a single person? If that thing was just a replica, then who knows what the real thing would be capable of? If they had that, did they really need to bother with summoning new heroes?
But why think about such things? I could just ask the high priest directly.
“If you had something like that, why bother to summon us at all? If you made more of those you could handle the waves on your own.”
Melty shook her head.
“If it were that simple to copy the Legendary Weapons then we would have already done so… To make something like that requires vast resources that we simply don’t have.”
“Really?”
“Yes. To swing it even once requires the accumulation of hundreds of people’s magic over the course of a month. And mass production is out of the question. That thing has been around since ancient times. It’s a legend in and of itself.”
“Wow.”
I’d seen something like it in an anime. It was a story about a giant robot that needed to use all the electricity in Japan to make a single shot. Maybe this sword was like that? If it could scatter-shoot, like buckshot, it would be a real terror.
“Yes, our disciples have risked their very lives, day and night, to imbue this with their magic. I had to use it for the sake of our holy battle. The holy battle we face right this moment!”
Holy battle, huh? Well at least he was prepared.
The Legendary Hero… So this was a copy of his sword or something? They said it had been stolen hundreds of years ago, and they’d spent a long time filling it with magic. And he used it right from the get-go?
Damn! That thing could prove to be a real problem.
No, it was proof that he was in a real tough spot. If we could just get over this, there would be ample opportunity to counterattack. We just had to see it through.
“Now that I’ve used it once to get a feel for it, perhaps we should proceed to battle?”
The high priest
held the sword out. When he did, it suddenly changed shapes to resemble a spear. The shape changed, but the quality had not. If they said it was a weapon used by the same person, I’d believe it.
“It transforms?!”
“Yes, because it is a Legendary Weapon. Sword, Spear, Bow… We must purify them all.”
Escape was looking like a good option, but would we be able to get away with someone using a weapon like that?
When he’d sent out that shockwave, it had moved so quickly that dodging it would have been difficult.
Apparently he’d been holding back too. But if he had used a bow-like skill with that weapon, I don’t think that Filo would have been able to outrun the attack.
“There is a limit to what my disciples can do, so I’d like to end this as quickly as possible.”
The high priest shouldered the hopes of his disciples and knights as he turned the weapon on us.
The spear-shaped replica weapon began to glow then split into three spears of light.
“High-Skill, Brionac?!”
Motoyasu, the Spear Hero, shouted. It must have been a skill he knew from his game.
If he was screaming, then it must have been a powerful skill.
A simple swing of the sword had been damaging enough. What would its skills be capable of?
We couldn’t run, but could we endure? According to Motoyasu and the other heroes, the shield wouldn’t stand a chance.
No way out… is that what this was? I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Filo!”
“Yup!”
Filo knew what I wanted in an instant. She picked me up and threw me at the high priest.
The second the high priest was within my skill range, I shouted.
“Shield Prison!”
A cage of shields appeared and enclosed the high priest.
If I could use Change Shield (attack) and then Iron Maiden…
“What are you up to?”
He didn’t even have to do anything. The latent energy from his skill alone was enough to shatter the Shield Prison.
What?! No, wait… I had to stay calm.
I wasn’t going to be able to use Iron Maiden. That meant I only had one other attack option.
I had to hit him with Self Curse Burning.
But to do that, I’d have to be in his attack range and get his spear attack to…