Chapter 46 - Mystery Man

Chapter 46 – Mystery Man

Author's Note: None today!

We had won!

Or did we?

Before I could ponder any further, another beam of light emerged from the heart, which had shattered the sealing spell.

Naofumi blocked it before it could hit any troops.

"We've tried everything," I said. "Except destroying the core! Where is it?"

"It is close." Ost said. "I can feel it."

"Alright. Queen Mirellia, cast the spell with the wizards for a third time. Éclair, Rishia, and the non-wizard soldiers, keep the familiars away from the heart. Raphtalia and Indigo, aim for the heart directly, Filo, inform Fitoria about the plan."

"Got it!" Everybody responded.

"Directional Thrust of Heaven!"

"Square Sky Halberd!"

Indigo and Raphtalia did a combo move, exploding the heart and throwing themselves across the room in the process.

"High ceremonial magic: Seal!"

The queen and the wizards desperately tried to seal the heart, which was regenerating very slowly due to the seal.

"I, Ost Horai, command you. Open the oath to my depths!"

A shifting sound emerged from the ground. A square hole opened in the floor in front of the heart, with stairs allowing us to descend into the unknown. That must be where the mastermind of this operation hid.

"Alright. Let's get going!"

My soldiers all stood upright, clearly eager to tag along and help out.

"Mr. President! We wish to follow you!"

"I appreciate your intentions, but whoever down here is so dangerous that even I might perish at his hands. I do not wish for more casualties than necessary. Besides, you all will be extremely crucial in guarding this area to prevent any familiars from attacking our rear."

Besides, they were too lowly leveled to do much against whoever or whatever was down there.

The soldiers sighed.

"We wish you the best of luck, Mr. President. Until then, we'll clean up the mess up here and guard the entrance to the stairs!"

Thus, Rishia, Indigo, Ost, Naofumi, Éclair, Granny, Filo, Raphtalia and I headed down the stairs. It took many minutes to descend, everyone very creeped out by the fleshy hallway. Thank goodness that we had some flashlights of some sort, or not we'd all trip and fall in the ominous darkness.

Eventually, we saw a light at the bottom of the stairs. We all bolted towards it, and I switched over to a crude shotgun for close combat.

We found ourselves in an enormous room, with solid, marble like walls that felt quite odd. A strange object was hovering in the air, most likely the core. It was a giant shining green crystal, that spun slowly. The light it emitted was most likely the souls of those who had been killed in the Spirit Tortoise rampage.

What?

Behind the core, there were two large transparent crystals set in the far wall. Ren and Motoyasu were inside them, and they were unconscious!

"I can't believe my eyes! To think you would make it this far, though it'd only be natural. Good job!"

A man, with silvery white hair and a sharp face, had said those words. He wore a long, scientist like lab coat, and a belt around his chest that was made of test tubes. He looked like a nerdy mad scientist. He also gripped a book in one hand, with a gemstone affixed to the cover.

"Welcome to the deepest part of the Spirit Tortoise. What do you think?"

I stood there on high alert, brandishing my shotgun while thinking over what the man said.

"What are they doing here?" Naofumi asked.

"Take a guess."

"You're taking their power." I calculatedly spoke.

The man laughed maniacally.

"Aha! You're the smartest of the bunch, though you're not saying much. You should have seen the way I caught them. The Sword Hero kept attacking me after his party was wiped out, and the Spear Hero ran away when his support started to fail! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"If I may ask," I interrupted his wheezing laughter. "What do you have to gain from this?"

The man pointed to the wall, where there was a projection of Fitoria kicking the Spirit Tortoise's head.

"Can't you see! I'm stealing this world's energy-God dammit these beasts are stubborn! Why can't you do as you're told!"

The man was ranting as the Spirit Tortoise didn't obey his orders very well.

"You've brought all these pretty ladies with you. I'll keep them, don't worry. Now die!"

Pages flew out of his book, and they came straight at us.

"Shooting Star Shield!"

Naofumi's shield blocked the pages, but they shattered the barrier on impact.

I switched over to the machine gun, relentlessly firing at all the pages to slow down their momentum.

"The rest of you, help me out!"

Indigo was using the good old spinning halberd technique, massively slowing down the pages, while Raphtalia and Filo struck at them with their own attacks.

"Air Strike Shield! Second Shield!"

Naofumi squeezed the man with his shields, positioning one in front of him and one behind him.

"Damn."

The man, too busy cranking out more pages out of his book to defend himself against our attacks and mostly my rapidly firing machine gun, was not expecting such a move.

The man was horribly struggling, having to deal with four powerful attackers and two annoying shields.

"Hya!"

Book pages flew behind him to break the rear Air Strike Shield.

"Too bad. Eat this! Dritte Shield!"

A third shield took the place of the broken shield.

"Can't let Naofumi have all the fun! Rocket Launcher!"

Switching over to my rocket launcher, I fired off a rocket at the flurry of pages, blasting most of them into smithereens.

"Mortar Time!"

Switching to my mortar, I aimed it at a careful angle to land between the shields and the attackers, directly on the man's head.

KABLAM!

The man was knocked over by the intensity of the blast, pinballing him between the two shields.

While he was in shock, I ran around him and fired a Lightning Arrow straight at his face.

"Lightning Arrow!"

The arrow sent shockwaves and electric currents down his spine, while also exploding at the same time.

"Square Sky Halberd!"

Indigo's powerful move definitely didn't make the man's life any easier.

"Heat Beam Shield!"

Heat beams slammed into the man, filling the room with a deafening roar.

Despite all that, he stood up.

"Damn! You forced me to use my barrier! That hurt! Bird of Flame!"

Pages from the book amalgamated in one spot, transforming into a flaming bird that flew straight at Ost. Luckily, Naofumi blocked the attack with his shield.

"He's using the Spirit Tortoise's energy to produce his defensive barrier." Ost told us. "Breaking through it will require an enormously powerful attack."

"You think it will be that easy?" The man said as he spat on the ground.

Seven Spirit Tortoise familiars appeared from the wall, wearing full suits of armors and wielding swords and spears. They each had a single eye, and they looked pretty strong.

They came charging from across the room.

"Let's get them!"

Granny, Éclair and Rishia all charged to attack the approaching familiars. Éclair and Rishia took on one, while Granny took on two.

"This is too easy. Naofumi, let's get the last three."

I fired Lightning Shots and Arrow Rain at the enemies, taking out two of them. Suddenly, Indigo came flying by, stabbing the last one straight through the head.

I rushed to where Rishia and the others were and started helping them fight against their familiars. The fight was actually going pretty well.

"Flying Circle Disk!"

"Circle Dance, Destruction Form. Tortoise Shell Split!"

Sliding on the floor, I did a barrel roll before facing the newcomers. I was astonished.

It was L'Arc, Glass and Therese.

"Ha!" L'Arc swung his scythe, leaping in Naofumi's direction. However, he completely avoided Naofumi, digging his scythe into one of the approaching familiars.

"You alright, kiddo?"

"What?" Naofumi asked.

Glass was approaching us, and Therese fired balls of fire at the enemies.

"Why are you helping us?" I asked, while continuing to fire bullets at the enemies. "Aren't you allied with them?"

"We must join forces with our enemies, Naofumi and Satoshi, to defeat you, Kyo Ethnina, he who holds the book of vassal weapons." Glass said.

Ohhh. So, this guy must have screwed these three over as well.

"If you tell the truth, we shall join forces with you for this fight only." I stated.

"Agreed." Glass replied.

"Could you give me a brief explanation of who the guy is?"

"The man you are currently fighting is from our world, and he holds the book of the vassal weapons. The vassal weapons we hold demand his punishment. Therefore, he is our enemy," Therese explained.

"Long story short, even if one is from another world, they cannot be permitted to take control of the protective beasts. Therefore, we must join forces with you to stop him, despite how unpleasant it may be."

"I thought it would take you longer, but you got here pretty fast." Kyo growled.

"No thanks to you! You even managed to keep us from allying with Naofumi's party earlier on, didn't you?"

"You expect me to answer that? Damn it." Kyo sneered.

"Enough with the chatter," Naofumi interjected. "Let's defeat these guardians!"

"Not so fast."

Kyo summoned even more of these guardians, which I had called familiars earlier.

"Let's go! Hya!" L'Arc swung his scythe, struggling to bring the scythe back around.

"Come on! You're stronger than that!" Naofumi complained.

"I'm only that powerful during waves. Now I'm just a level 75 vassal weapon possessor."

"Impossible! What level are you, Glass?"

"She's level 40."

"Don't tell them that!"

"We need their help if we want to win!"

Naofumi sent an invite to the three, inviting them to join his party as support troops.

"Quick! Accept it!"

"Did you pass by my troops on the way here?"

"We just walked by confidently, and they thought we were coalition army soldiers or something and let us through."

Damn. I really needed to train them on vetting potential enemies.

We were striking down the guardians by the dozens, but they kept getting up. Eventually, though, through our combined efforts, they were mostly taken down. Kyo seemed quite annoyed at this.

"Achoo!" Granny spun like a top, taking out Kyo's barriers one by one. L'Arc was right behind him, slamming his scythe into Kyo.

"Are you ready, Filo?" Indigo exclaimed.

"You bet!"

"Spiral Strike!"

"Spinning Tornado Square Sky Halberd!"

The two filolials moved at unimaginable speeds towards Kyo, blasting two large holes into the man.

"I didn't think anyone could hurt me."

The flesh on his torso regenerated to fill the hole with a gushing sound, like nothing ever happened.

What the hell! How did he do that?

"I'm getting a little bit tired of playing with you all. I can't get any more energy out of this place, so might as well wrap this up."

The air in the room began to vibrate. Everybody fell to the floor, glued down and unable to move. I was barely able to support myself. The weight was crushing me, like a million anvils stacked on top of each other. Somehow, the guardians and Kyo weren't affected at all.

"Let's see what you can do against this!"

A million different thoughts were going through my head. What the heck was going on, and how was this happening?

Chapter 47 out soon!