Chapter 49.

Adrian

Adrian had been enjoying himself while travelling. Studying the new skills he had gained and cheerfully observing his stats that had once again increased. It had been very nice to realize that he'd boosted his power once again and the most apparent effect of this increase was the incredible boost to speed and the ability to maintain that speed for longer.

Of course, his mood was ruined utterly as he observed the small town in front of him. The town itself was quite idyllic, a mansion that was approximately a third the size of Rabier's which was quite modest surrounded by farms and barns, it was a nice place and would have had a simple rustic charm under normal circumstances. The fact that it mostly had demi-humans would have had him applauding the Lord here.

The members of the church that were brazenly walking around town and inside the mansion ruined the view. Adrian shifted his position, moving from the forested region on the outskirts of town to a point far above it, and used Second Step, a new skill of his, to stand on a platform of SP. His sensory skills told him all he needed to know.

The well dressed Lord of the territory was being interrogated, not brutally but quite seriously, by two people, whom he presumed were the leaders of this expedition of the Church. Five men were patrolling outside and keeping the whole town under control, the demi-human corpses he could see attested to their method, brutal but effective, and another three were inside the mansion guarding the servants who had been corralled into a room.

Adrian noted an anomaly among the servants, gauged their strengths by the gear they were wearing, and then felt his fear rise.

He wasn't scared of these people. Ten members of Church, above level 50 but below level 70, were nothing to him, he could kill or cripple them in less than ten seconds. The problem was the implications of their presence here. It would not surprise him if the Church decided to kill everyone in this town. They had committed genocide, in cooperation with Aultcray in the Seaetto Territory, it stood to reason that they could do it again. But these people were far too powerful for that. However, they were just about perfect for a squad to kill the 'Shield Demon'.

Or was it just the result of the different situation compared to canon? After all, in canon, the Church had control over all three heroes. Here and now, they probably only had control over Motoyasu, given that he was completely independent and Itsuki was either dead, missing or something. Perhaps they just wanted to get Naofumi out of the way for something.

Adrian couldn't be certain. Not yet. But it seemed very likely that Naofumi was at risk. Adrian grit his teeth as he realized the consequences of a dead Itsuki and Naofumi and immediately burst into action.

First, he activated his new skill, Double Sword, which did exactly what the name suggested and created a second sword, a sword which could also have a Status Enchantment applied on it. The attack didn't stack but the ability to use two different special abilities and status enchantments were good enough for him. It was something he had received from the Boss of the previous Wave.

Then, he created dozens of Swords and sent them moving towards their targets, this time he didn't make the mistakes he had made with Rabier. He didn't show himself and most importantly he wasn't stupid enough not to feed the sleeping potion to his sword to get a Sleeping Sword.

The blades moved towards their targets with immense speed and quickly pinned them down, some of them screamed but most just tried to react. Their professionalism was quite impressive but a quick dose of his paralyzing sword and poison sword destroyed their resistance. Another moment and he had all of the Seals on their body removed with a Seal Removal and then, he used his Cursed Seal Sword to bind them all to himself. The final step was to send them all to sleep.

He tried to ignore the discomfort the realization of the fact that he was using a Slave Seal bought. It was an irrational impulse. Adrian wasn't enslaving them, just imprisoning them, and they needed to be stopped.

He quickly checked on his targets even as he drew out a disc and sent a small swarm of projected swords towards the invaders. Adrian winced a little when he noticed that the mansion had been damaged quite a bit, he had chosen to send his swords through the walls or windows, wherever was most effective, and the study that was being used to interrogate the lord was badly damaged since there had been two of them who had struggled a little before being paralyzed. Still, none of them were moving, and the Curse Seals weren't activating either.

Adrian had his projected swords cut through all the equipment the members of the church had been wearing and gathered it into a pile. One inside the mansion and another outside. He took the now naked members of Church, observed them through his Blindsight to make sure they had no implants, and then had them placed on a disc.

He considered absorbing the equipment, then dismissed the thought.

Best to just remove the risk.

The people down on the ground screamed as the Golden Beam cut across the sky annihilating the equipment that he had drawn up into the sky with a couple of swords.

The townsfolk who had slowly emerged from their homes and the servants and lord who had walked out of the rooms they had been contained in all watched the bodies float up. Adrian spared a moment for them and once it was clear that none of the townsfolk needed critical medical aid, they were either dead or okay, he moved toward the lord of the domain. He needed answers.

The man and his servants flinched as he appeared in front of them using Dash, but one look at his sword, which he had deliberately kept in its more recognizable base form, had the lord's eye widen.

"Sword Hero," he said, then bowed deeply, "Thank you very much for your aid. I cannot express my gratitude enough."

Adrian had to admit he was a bit surprised to see the lord just accept that he was indeed the Sword Hero and not an imposter but shrugged it off. It was irrelevant for now. Still, it was a surprise to realize that the man wasn't injured at all. It would seem that he had arrived before they had started to torture the man...or maybe it wasn't appropriate to torture a human. Though killing demi-humans was clearly acceptable.

"You're welcome," he stated, still floating half a meter above the floor, "I'd like to speak to you for a moment about some critical matters."

"Of course," he said, seeming to be completely genuine, Adrian had to respect the man's skill at acting, then hesitated, "but would it be possible for me to have a few minutes to reassure my people and start preparing an evacuation."

Adrian felt a surge of respect for the man but crushed it. He had to be objective here...then again he did want to imprison the church members didn't he? Plus, it would help if the man had a positive impression of Adrian.

"Very well," he accepted, "we'll speak again in half an hour. Just confirm two things for me, what your name is and whether or not they were here for Naofumi?"

The man's surprise was all the answer he needed regarding Naofumi, the verbal confirmation afterwards was just icing on the cake and he was indeed Van Reichnott.

"Here," said Adrian before he left, he held out two bags that he had drawn out from his Sword. They took the empty bags after a look at Van Reichnott, who nodded, then Adrian placed around ten potions each in them, "the blue one has stamina potions and the red one has healing ones. There are around ten people in town who are injured please use this."

It had been odd to realize that these potions that he had been using from the start were actually pretty rare. He doubted these people had casual access to high-quality potions. Plus, it wasn't like he didn't have a reserve of literally hundreds of potions.

"Thank you, Sword Hero," he said with a bow, "Not just for this but for defeating the Church's agents...I find it entirely likely they would have burned this town to the ground for heresy had you not intervened."

Adrian said his goodbyes and received thanks again before he moved onto the disc he had floating above the town.

He carefully guided it outside of town, marked a spot for his Portal, absorbed the disc and then triggered his Portal to go to back to his base. He'd have his prisoners deleveled and then contained...they might be useful later.

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Isis

Isis could feel Papa's energy flow through the plants at his command, it was fused and modified by the Sword that he was bound to, but it was still his and she smiled as she felt its' power. The plants also responded growing rapidly to fill the whole clearing until the vines had covered the whole area to the point that it was impossible to see the ground.

Then the plants started to dig as other vines rose up to slowly bind the people her father had bought here. It was amazing to see how the plants were draining, feeding, poisoning and watering the people while at the same time forcing them to stop moving.

"Father," she asked, "who are these people?"

Isis had been practising her magic while her brother and Raphtalia had gone to help train up the weakest member of their party. She didn't understand why Papa thought it was okay to have someone as weak as her in their party but she assumed there was something that he knew about the girl that Isis didn't. Then Papa had arrived using his Portal, she had gone up to him so that she could see him only to find him using the Hourglass to remove the support of the world from some people.

She had not interrupted him while he was working but now they had moved far away from their home and he had started to grow some plants.

Her father turned his attention to her even if he didn't turn to look at her and said, "Do you remember me telling you about a Church in Melromarc?"

She nodded, "Yes! You mean the people who would treat Trystan, Raphtalia and I badly because we aren't human."

Isis remembered them well, Father had told them to fight with full force because they would not be happy with the Sword Hero having non-humans as party members. Which was really stupid because Trystan and Isis were human and filolial.

"These people," he said pointing to the four people who were surrounded in vines, including some that were directly inserted into their bodies, "are from the Church and are hunting down Naofumi, the Shield Hero."

Isis nodded, and then frowned as she noted that Fitoria was trying to listen in, she focused her magic and her life force and crushed the connection. It was very rude of the other Filolial to listen into a conversation with her Papa. He had taught her that eavesdropping was rude and only to do it in case of emergencies.

Then she paused and considered her situation. Was this an emergency? Isis decided to ask her father.

"Father, is this an emergency situation?" she asked, "Should I let Fitoria listen to our conversation?"

Her father turned around so fast she barely even saw him move, "Isis," he said slowly, "are you saying that Fitoria can spy on me using you and that you can block that connection?"

She nodded, wondering why he was surprised, it was obvious that the energy enhancement that her senior had provided needed a connection.

He patted her head, "You never cease to amaze me," he said, his tone wry, "tell her that the Shield Hero is at risk of being killed and that I'd appreciate it if she could give me more precise directions."

Isis nodded and opened the connection, Fitoria eagerly listened, it was funny how the older Filolial liked to talk but didn't want to be seen as wanting to talk. Once she had confirmation from the Filolial she looked to her father who had finished placing all his prisoners in pods and had buried the pods nearly ten meters underground.

Her father pulled out a map and gave it to her, "Please ask her where."

"Father," she said, "Fitoria has agreed to help, but she says that she can't be very precise. She says that there is a hero somewhere here," she made a big circle on the map, "but something is interfering."

"Ask her if she'll be willing to come with us," he said, "It's likely that this will involve the oddity with the Bow."

Isis tilted her head and winced at Fitoria's response, "She said that it is your job as a Hero and that she wishes you the best of luck."

She felt her fathers mana shift in response. He was worried, Isis blocked Fitoria out of spite, it wasn't nice of her to make father worry just because she didn't want to be sad, "Damn it," he said, "we're leaving right away Isis. Are you ready?"

Isis nodded and then felt the world fall away as her father's skill took them far, far away. As they emerged in the outskirts of a small human town Isis couldn't help but feel excited despite the situation and Father's worry.

She was having an adventure with him alone. While Trystan had to get bored leveling with the others. Isis would be sure to remind him of this...when Father wasn't around.

He didn't like it when she mocked her idiotic little brother. Papa was too kind like that, Trystan needed to be reminded not to do stupid things.

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