Author notes at the end~~
Narrator POV
The Queen's private chambers were a testament to wealth and power.
Tapestries depicting legendary heroes adorned the walls, ancient warriors wielding sacred weapons, fighting back the Waves of ages past. Carved wooden furniture, each piece worth more than a common house, stood arranged with deliberate precision. A massive canopy bed dominated one corner, its posts carved from rare blackwood and draped in fabric that shimmered like water.
Near the eastern window sat an ornate vanity, its mirror framed in silver and embedded with precious stones. Before it sat Queen Mirelia Q Melromarc, her posture regal despite the early hour.
Two handmaidens attended her, their movements practised and silent. One carefully worked through Her Majesty's long hair with a jewelled comb. The other arranged a collection of pins and ornaments on the vanity's surface, preparing for the elaborate style the Queen would wear to the upcoming summit.
The Summit of Nations.
Representatives from all major nations, all gathering to discuss the emergence of the Waves and the summoning of Heroes. A delicate situation made worse by her husband's... impulsiveness.
The Queen's gaze remained fixed on the window, though not at the view beyond.
On the narrow stone ledge outside, barely visible in the pre-dawn light, stood a figure cloaked entirely in black. Face obscured. Body still as a statue.
One of her Shadows.
"I see," the Queen said quietly, her voice carrying just enough to reach through the partially open window. "So that is what the King has been occupying himself with."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the Shadow replied, their voice neutral and genderless. "We believe he was convinced by Princess Malty to pursue this course of action. The accusations against the Shield Hero, the public humiliation, all orchestrated with her... encouragement."
The handmaiden working on the Queen's hair paused for a fraction of a second before continuing. Neither servant showed any other reaction to the conversation happening mere feet away.
They were well-trained. They knew when to be deaf.
"And the Shield Hero," Mirelia continued, her expression unchanging as one of the handmaidens began applying subtle cosmetics to her face. "He has allied himself with a demi-human slave, I'm told?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. A young raccoon-type girl from Seaetto territory. He purchased her from a slave trader approximately two weeks ago."
"Yes, Your Majesty. However..." The Shadow hesitated. "Our intelligence suggests he removed her slave crest shortly after the purchase. The girl remains with him by choice."
For the first time, the Queen's expression shifted. A slight raise of one eyebrow.
"Removed it?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. He freed her, yet she chose to stay."
Silence filled the room for a moment, broken only by the quiet clink of jewelry as the handmaiden sorted through pins.
"How... unexpected," Mirelia said softly."She was quiet for a moment. "Well. That is fortunate, at least. The Shield Hero earning goodwill among the demi-humans will help mitigate some of the damage my husband has caused."
"Indeed, Your Majesty."
"And what of the other individual?" the Queen asked, tilting her head slightly to allow the handmaiden better access to arrange her hair. "The one who was summoned alongside the Cardinal Heroes?"
Another pause. Longer this time.
"Forgive us, Your Majesty," the Shadow said, and there was genuine frustration in their tone. "Our intelligence on him remains... limited."
"Limited?"
"The Shadows have been stretched thin, Your Majesty. Monitoring all four Cardinal Heroes, tracking the Church of the Three Heroes' movements, and maintaining surveillance on various noble houses, we are strained. The Church has also been employing its own agents. Crude work, poorly trained, but numerous. We have been eliminating them, when possible, but it diverts our attention."
Mirelia's fingers drummed once against the armrest of her chair. A small gesture. The only sign of her displeasure.
"Tell me what you do know."
"He bears no cardinal weapon that we can observe. Nor does he wield anything that could be classified as a vassal weapon. "
"His abilities?"
"Extraordinary, Your Majesty. He can move objects and people without touching them. We have witnessed him lift multiple individuals simultaneously into the air. He can fly, or float, at will. He does not speak aloud but instead produces glowing text that appears in the air around him, written in a script only the Heroes seem able to read."
"And he remains with the Shield Hero?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. He has been... supporting him. Financially. He purchases the Shield Hero's equipment, pays for his lodging and meals. He has been training the Shield Hero and the demi-human girl in the forests outside the capital."
The Queen absorbed this information in silence as her handmaiden applied a delicate touch of rouge to her lips.
"Why?" Mirelia asked.
"We don't know, Your Majesty."
"Does he pose a threat to the kingdom?"
"We... cannot say for certain, Your Majesty. He has shown no aggression toward civilians or the crown. Only toward those who directly threaten him or the Shield Hero. However..." The Shadow's voice lowered slightly. "During one training session, our agent observed him eliminate a large number of monsters in mere moments. Dozens, perhaps more. All at once. Without physical contact. Whatever power he possesses, it is considerable."
"Can your agents get close to him?"
"No, Your Majesty. The Church's agents have been following both the Shield Hero and his companion. Their surveillance is obvious, poorly executed. He has detected them multiple times. He seems to be... improving at noticing watchers. Each time the Church sends new agents, he identifies them faster. We believe it is only a matter of time before he detects our agents as well."
One of the handmaidens stepped back, her work apparently complete. The Queen's hair was now arranged in an elaborate style befitting her station, adorned with pins of silver and sapphire.
"Do we know his name?" Mirelia asked.
"The Shield Hero refers to him as 'Nihilux,' Your Majesty. We do not know if this is a true name, a title, or something else entirely."
"Nihilux," the Queen repeated, testing the unfamiliar word.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"What are his intentions?"
"Unknown, Your Majesty. He seems focused entirely on supporting the Shield Hero and the demi-human girl. He purchases sweets frequently, particularly from shops in the market district. He trains with them in the forests. Beyond that..." The Shadow spread their hands slightly in a gesture of uncertainty. "We simply do not have enough information. Our surveillance has been too limited."
"There is one more thing, Your Majesty," the Shadow said. "About his intelligence."
"Go on."
"The demi-human girl has been teaching the Shield Hero how to read and write our language. They started lessons just a few days ago. The Shield Hero is... progressing. Slowly but steadily."
"And this Nihilux?"
"We believe he's also learning, Your Majesty. He sits nearby during these lessons, appearing to pay no attention. But our agent has observed him reading shop signs in the market, Street signs, and tavern menus. Things he couldn't have known when he first arrived."
"So, he has been teaching himself," Mirelia said.
"More than that, Your Majesty. He's learning at a considerably faster rate than the Shield Hero. By our estimates, he should be fully literate in our language within two weeks. Perhaps even less."
"He's observing the lessons and extrapolating the rest on his own," the Shadow continued. "Our agent believes he may have already grasped the fundamentals and is now simply... absorbing vocabulary and usage patterns from his environment."
The second handmaiden completed her work, stepping back to admire the result. The Queen looked every bit the regal monarch now, prepared to face the Summit of Nations.
Mirelia stood, her gown flowing elegantly as she moved to the window. She gazed out over her capital, the morning sun just beginning to illuminate the streets below.
"Increase your efforts to learn more about this Nihilux," she said, her voice quiet but firm. "But proceed with caution. If he is improving at detecting surveillance, I do not wish to provoke him by being too invasive."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Continue monitoring the Church's activities as well. They grow bolder in my absence."
"Understood, Your Majesty."
The Queen turned from the window, her expression hardening slightly.
"Very well. We must keep our neighbors from meddling in Melromarc's affairs. The ruckus created by summoning all four Cardinal Heroes has already drawn too much attention not just from our citizens, but from the international community."
She looked back toward the window, though the Shadow had already begun to fade into the morning light.
"I trust you will ensure our affairs remain our own."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The figure disappeared entirely, melting into the shadows cast by the rising sun.
Queen Mirelia Q Melromarc turned back to her chambers, her face serene once more.
There was much work to be done.
And very little time to do it.
One of the handmaidens approached, carrying a ceremonial robe embroidered with the royal crest.
The Queen allowed herself to be dressed, her mind already turning to the political battlefield that awaited her at the Summit.
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Nihilux POV
I was sitting on top of a stack of crates near the south gate.
Piled boxes everywhere. Merchant supplies, probably. Or maybe it belonged to the knights stationed at the gate, who knows.
Nobody seemed to care that I'd claimed this spot as my own. Works out for me, I guess.
From up here, I had a decent view of everyone waiting around.
Twenty meters ahead, Ren and Itsuki were talking. Something serious, from the looks of it. Their party members were standing a few meters away from them, huddled together in their own conversation.
A bit further off, near one of the shop fronts, Motoyasu was holding court with his all-female party.
Still all girls. Every single one.
Seriously, is this guy setting up a brothel or something?
He was gesturing wildly, probably telling some exaggerated story about something. The girls were eating it up. Laughing at every joke. Leaning in closer to him
And right there, pressed against his arm, was Myne.
She was doing that thing again that she did with Naofumi before. Tilting her head just right. Smiling up at him. Playing the part. Getting closer to him and pressing herself against him.
Motoyasu was completely under her control. This guy couldn't handle himself around women at all.
I looked away before I got annoyed.
My gaze shifted left.
Naofumi was leaning against the wall a few meters away, staring down at the ground. He looked... sad. Or maybe just tired. Hard to tell with him sometimes.
He has been acting a bit weird for the past few days. I think maybe he needs some time on his own.
Raphtalia also stood beside him, saying something quietly. Trying to encourage him, probably.
I should let her handle it.
Motivational talks weren't my thing. I'd probably just make it worse.
Yesterday's visit to the Dragon Hourglass had been... interesting.
I'd taken a detour on the way there. Wanted to check out a shop in a different part of the city. So I'd arrived a few minutes late.
By the time I got to the church, Naofumi was already dragging Raphtalia out by the arm. His face was set in that angry, tight expression he got when someone pissed him off.
Motoyasu had tried something. Obviously.
I'd overheard bits and pieces from the other heroes still inside.
Apparently, Motoyasu had tried to flirt with Raphtalia. Because of course he did.
Raphtalia had been polite about it. Maybe even a little charmed, from what I'd gathered. But she'd turned him down, saying she was "Master Naofumi's" companion and couldn't leave him.
Then Naofumi and Motoyasu had a shouting match.
By the time I walked in, Naofumi was already halfway out the door, practically pulling Raphtalia along. She'd looked genuinely confused. Kept asking him what was going on. What was the relationship between him and the other heroes was.
When I'd approached the Dragon Hourglass, nothing happened at first.
One of the priests had told me to sit down next to it. Said it would register me automatically.
So I sat.
Nothing.
I waited a few more seconds.
Still nothing.
Then I reached out and touched the hourglass directly.
That's when my menu lit up.
New notifications, Updates, and instructions.
And all of it was... different compared to what Ren had told me before.
Unlike the four Cardinal Heroes, I wouldn't be teleported to the Wave location.
I'd have to get there manually.
Also, I couldn't join any of their parties during the Wave. The system blocked it. No cheating by tagging along with someone who could teleport.
Instead, I'd get a general location marked on my map one hour before the Wave started.
Then I'd have to fly there myself.
The only upside was that the timeframe varied.
Right now, it is one hour. But next time? Could be two days. A week. Five hours. The system adjusted based on distance, apparently.
At minimum, I'd always get at least one hour's notice. And if the Wave spawned on the other side of the kingdom, the system would give me enough time to reach it.
With how fast I could fly, that should be fine.
Probably.
I pulled a piece of candied fruit out of my inventory and popped it into my mouth.
The clock in my menu read:
1 hour, 5 minutes until Wave.
Five more minutes until I get the location.
So right now, I was just... waiting.
Naofumi was still staring at the ground. Raphtalia was still trying to cheer him up.
Motoyasu was still entertaining his harem.
Ren and Itsuki glanced in my direction now and then. But that was it. No one came over to talk.
A shame, really. I had gotten more comfortable talking around Naofumi and Raphtalia. I mainly use my text, but every now and then I also say a few words.
And I wanted to get to know the other heroes better as well as, as eventually I would have to anyway.
I need to do something about Naofumi, and others not really talking with each other much, well, expect Ren and Itsuki, they seem to be talking just fine currently.
But man, can they be assholes to each other.
I might have to split up from Naofumi after this wave. There are so many things I actually wanted to do that I have been putting off. Mainly, the past week has been almost nothing but helping Raphtalia and Naofumi train in the forest, and plus, because I am lazy, I have been avoiding doing them.
Plus, I need to do something about them being so cut off from one another.
I looked towards Ren and Itsuki to see if maybe any of them waited to approach me or anything, but I got nothing.
Fine by me.
I ate another piece of candied fruit and settled in to wait.
It's kind of funny.
All four heroes ended up at the south gate.
Coincidence, maybe. But it made sense when I thought about it.
If you're leaving from the church and heading out of the city, the south gate's the fastest route.
So yeah. Here we all were.
Waiting for the end of the world to start.
Or at least the first Wave of it.
I pulled out another piece of candy. This one was apple-flavoured. Had little sugar crystals on the outside that crunched when I bit into it.
Behind the line of castle knights blocking off the area, I could see crowds gathering.
Normal citizens and lots of them.
The knights had cordoned off this whole section near the south gate. Created a barrier with their bodies and spears, keeping people back about thirty meters.
Smart move. The last thing anyone needed was civilians getting in the way when the Wave started.
But they weren't leaving.
They were just watching us all.
Some of them looked nervous. Clutching their children close. Whispering prayers.
But most of them looked... excited?
I could hear them from here. Cheering. Calling out to the heroes.
"The Sword Hero will protect us!"
"Long live the Spear Hero!"
"The Bow Hero is so cool!"
A few were even waving. Like this was some kind of festival.
I guess to them, it kind of was.
The legendary heroes, summoned from another world, are about to go fight the apocalypse.
Must seem pretty epic when you're watching from a safe distance.
Nobody was cheering for Naofumi, though.
Or me.
Yeah, shocker, I know.
I scanned the crowd again, this time paying more attention to details.
Almost everyone was wearing a rosary.
The Three Heroes Church rosary, specifically. Three interlocking weapons on a chain. Spear, Sword, and Bow. No Shield tho.
It was everywhere.
Old women clutching them while they prayed. Young men wear them openly over their shirts. Even some of the kids had smaller versions tied around their wrists.
The only people not wearing them were either very young children who probably didn't understand what it meant, really old people who looked too frail to care, or shop workers who were too busy trying to sell their stuff to the people to bother with accessories.
I bit into the candy and let the sweetness dissolve on my tongue.
Honestly, I had mixed feelings about the Three Heroes Church.
Over the past week, I'd heard a lot about them. Mostly from eavesdropping on conversations in the market. Or late at night, after Naofumi and Raphtalia went to bed, when I'd stay down in the common room tasting a drink at the bar.
What a sad reality. I couldn't even get drunk.
Just the taste. That's all I got.
My powers burned through alcohol so fast that I couldn't even feel the slightest buzz. My body broke it down before it could do anything.
So I just sat there, drinking expensive wine, appreciating the flavours like some kind of sober sommelier.
Depressing, really.
Anyway.
The Three Heroes Church.
From what I'd gathered, they were actually pretty well-liked among common people.
Made sense, considering the history of this country.
About twenty years ago, this whole continent had erupted into war. Or around that time, anyway. I wasn't sure exactly when it started or how long it lasted. Multiple nations were involved in the conflict. The main players were Melromarc, Siltvelt, and Zeltoble from what I'd pieced together.
Wait, no.
I'd heard different names. Siltvelt, definitely. And... Shieldfreeden? Or was it just part of Siltvelt?
There is only so much you can get from listening to random people getting drunk.
What I did know: Siltvelt was a demi-human supremacist nation. Humans were treated less than dirt there. Anyways, their religion makes the shield hero as their god, while demonising the other 3 heroes, and somehow, they'd managed to push deep into Melromarc territory.
Which was insane when you thought about it.
From what I can tell, Melromarc and Siltvelt didn't even share a border. There were two countries between them, Zeltoble and Faubrey, if I remembered the names right.
So either Faubrey got involved somehow, or Siltvelt just marched straight through them.
I hadn't been able to confirm that part yet. Just bits and pieces from overheard conversations.
But what I had confirmed was this: the demi-humans were brutal during that war.
At least according to Melromarc's version of events.
Demi-humans eating children.
Massacring entire villages.
Treating humans like they weren't even people.
The demi-human nation didn't see humans as equals. Just like how Melromarc didn't see demi-humans as equals now.
Classic cycle of hatred.
And to make it worse, this was hatred born from a religion. Which means any side can just justify every evil, despicable act they do in the name of a so-called 'God'.
For most of the war, Melromarc had been on the back foot. Losing ground. Losing people.
And that's when the church changed.
Before the war, this country followed the Church of the Four Heroes. All four Cardinal Weapons were equally revered.
But the Shield Hero was basically a god to the demi-humans.
He was their saviour, the one who protected them in their time of need, the one who gave them strength.
So, when Siltvelt started committing what Melromarc called "atrocities", the people here started associating the Shield with the enemy.
The church literally had to change its own beliefs if it wanted to survive in this country.
They went through a radical shift in their beliefs.
Cut the Shield out entirely.
And the people loved it.
Because by that point, after years of war, after losing family and friends to demi-human invasions, the citizens of Melromarc hated Siltvelt; they hated demi-humans. And by extension, they hated the Shield Hero.
The 'god' of the invaders who massacred their people.
So when the church officially became the Church of the Three Heroes, it wasn't even controversial.
It was celebrated by the people.
Even the royalty supported it. The king, especially, from what I'd heard. He'd lost people in that war. Family, maybe. Friends, most definitely. Which explains his extreme dislike for the shield hero.
A lot of the northern and northeastern nobles had lost most of their families to the demi-human invasions.
Hard to blame them for hating the Shield after that.
I pulled out another piece of candy. Popped it in my mouth.
Still.
War crimes.
I couldn't take those stories at face value.
War was war. Both sides committed atrocities. That's how it always worked.
Melromarc probably did horrible shit too. Burned demi-human villages. Killed civilians. The usual war garbage.
I wasn't saying Siltvelt was innocent. They probably weren't, from what I could gather; Siltvelt had been trying to expand their territory for a long time before the war. And they still are to this date.
But I also wasn't naive enough to think Melromarc's hands were clean.
In war, nobody's hands stayed clean.
It's like they say, "War. War never changes."
So yeah. Mixed feelings about the Three Heroes Church.
I could understand why people followed it. Why did they need something to believe in after all that trauma.
But it didn't make it less fucked up that Naofumi was getting blamed for a war he had nothing to do with.
Guy got summoned here, accused of rape, and now had to deal with an entire religion that painted him as the villain.
No wonder he looked miserable.
Raphtalia seems to be making progress with him, finally. He has been like that since yesterday.
I checked my mental timer.
Thirty seconds left.
I finished the candied fruit and looked around one more time.
The crowd was still cheering.
Twenty seconds.
I stretched slightly. Rolled my shoulders.
Fifteen seconds.
Ten seconds.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
A notification flashed in my vision.
[WAVE LOCATION ACQUIRED]
Coordinates appeared on my mental map. Southwest.
It was almost 53 kilometres away from where I was currently.
A forest, it's close to a village south-west of the royal capital.
I hopped down from the crates and walked over to Naofumi.
He looked up when I approached.
Got the location. I'm heading out.
Naofumi straightened up. "Already?"
Yeah. I have to fly there manually.
"Right." He looked uncertain. "Will you be okay?"
I'll be fine. You just focus on your part.
Raphtalia stepped forward, looking worried. "Master Nihilux, please be careful."
I nodded at her.
Don't worry. I'll try to find you guys over there.
Naofumi managed a small smile. "Same to you."
I turned and started walking toward the open space near the gate.
The crowd seemed to have noticed me.
"Is that one leaving already?"
"Where's he going?"
"Doesn't he need to wait for the heroes?"
I ignored them.
Lifted off the ground.
The murmuring turned into gasps and shouts.
I rose higher. Ten feet. Twenty. Thirty.
Then I angled southwest and accelerated.
The city blurred beneath me.
The crowd's voices faded behind me.
I activated my psychic barrier around me and flew even faster.
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Nihilux POV
I landed on top of a cliff.
Well, Cliff might be generous. More like a rocky outcrop on the side of a small mountain.
It was a good vantage point, though.
From here, I could see everything.
To my right, maybe three or four hundred meters away, was the village. Small. Maybe fifty buildings total, wooden structures, thatched roofs, a few dirt roads cutting through the centre, all surrounded by a wall.
The village had a few defences, like a wall all around it, and many watch towers on the perimeter. Plus, one big one at the centre.
In front of me stretched a massive forest. It had dense trees packed together as far as I could see.
And somewhere in there, according to my map, the Wave was going to spawn.
I pulled up my menu and checked the indicator.
The red zone was pulsing in the middle of the forest. Maybe two or three kilometres from where I stood. Hard to tell exactly, but close enough.
I checked the timer.
15 minutes left.
The village was far enough away from the spawn point. At least three or four kilometres between them and the forest's centre.
They'd probably be fine.
The heroes would handle the Wave before it spread that far. And even if things got messy, I could handle anything that got past them
I sat down on a flat rock and waited.
The forest was just, so quiet in front of me.
No birds. No wind rustling through the trees.
Eerie.
Its like the animals and the planets themselves knew what was about to happen very soon.
I kept my eyes on the red zone in my menu.
A few minutes passed.
Then I noticed something.
The red zone was expanding.
Slowly at first. Just a few meters here and there.
Then it got a little faster.
It crept outward from the centre, swallowing more of the forest. Getting closer to me.
I frowned.
That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?
Two more minutes passed.
The expansion continued. The red zone now covered a huge chunk of the forest. And it was still growing.
I stood up and focused my psychic perception outward, trying to get a better sense of what was happening.
Nothing yet.
Then the timer hit 20 seconds.
The sky darkened.
Dark clouds started to materialise high in the sky, and they then started to move in a swirling pattern.
The air around me felt a bit heavier and colder as well.
And then I saw them.
Cracks.
Massive fractures in the sky above the forest, glowing faintly with a sickly purple and yellow light.
They spread like spiderwebs, branching out in all directions.
Beautiful, in a fucked-up kind of way.
If they weren't about to start spawning literal monsters, I might've actually appreciated the view.
Pools of energy formed around the cracks. Swirling, churning masses of purple and yellow. Which began to move around.
And then the monsters started pouring out.
Skeletons, knights first. Dozens of them. Falling from the sky like rain.
They hit the forest floor hard, bones clattering, weapons clanking. Then they stood up and started moving and started attacking anything in sight.
Zombie soldiers followed. Rotting flesh hanging off their bones. Some of them have missing limbs. They shambled forward, groaning, weapons dragging behind them.
Hundreds of them.
It felt like every like moment, more cracks opened. More pools of energy formed. More monsters dropped into the forest.
And then I saw the wasps.
Massive things. Easily the size of a grown man. Their bodies were covered in black chitin, and their eyes glowed a bright, angry red.
They moved fast.
Hundreds of them swarmed out of the cracks, buzzing through the air in tight formations.
I watched them spread out across the forest, some heading deeper in, others circling back toward—.
Toward me.
I looked at my menu again.
The red zone had expanded even more. It was huge now, covering most of the forest.
And it was moving.
The cracks in the sky were drifting. Slowly at first, but picking up speed.
Heading in my direction.
Well, not directly at me. But close enough.
And the village was right in the path.
I should stop them from reac-
A flash of light below caught my attention.
I looked down.
Three figures had appeared at the base of the hill. Teleportation, probably.
Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki.
They were already running toward the forest, weapons drawn.
I guess their menus showed them something mine didn't. Maybe the boss's location. Or some kind of objective marker.
Either way, they were heading straight into the heart of it.
Good luck with that.
Movement at the corner of my vision. To my right.
I turned my head.
Naofumi and Raphtalia.
They'd appeared closer to the village and were running toward it.
Monsters were already dropping between them and the village. Skeletons and zombies were falling from the smaller cracks that had started forming on the outskirts of the main zone.
I could see a few of them landing inside the village itself. Not many. One or two every few seconds.
But enough to be a problem.
The villagers were panicking, running and screaming.
Many of them started to exit the village towards the mines behind them to take shelter.
Some of them were trying to fight back with whatever they had. Pitchforks, axes, swords.
It wasn't going to be enough.
Then I felt something.
A presence.
Multiple presences.
I extended my psychic perception.
Dozens, if not a hundred of those giant wasps were heading straight for me.
I had maybe ten seconds before they reached the cliff.
I stood there, watching them approach.
This was objectively terrifying. Thousands of monsters are spawning from cracks in reality. An actual apocalypse unfolding in front of me. Giant murder-wasps with glowing red eyes coming to kill me specifically.
I should be panicking right now.
Heart racing. Adrenaline pumping. Fight-or-flight response kicking in.
Normal people would be shitting themselves.
But me?
I felt... nothing.
My heart rate was steady. My breathing was even. My hands weren't shaking.
All because my stupid powers wouldn't let me feel it anything properly.
Same thing that burned through alcohol before I could get drunk. The same thing that processed everything too fast for my body to react normally.
Apparently, it also applied to fear.
Can't get drunk. Can't feel proper fear. What else is broken?
I clenched my fists.
This is bullshit.
I wanted to feel something. Anything. The rush of adrenaline. The spike of terror. Even just nervousness would've been nice.
But no.
Just this flat, clinical observation of the situation.
Like I was watching it happen to someone else.
The wasps were closer now. Maybe five seconds out.
I could see the details. The way their wings beat so fast, they blurred. The mandibles were clicking as they approached. The stingers at the end of their abdomens are probably dripping with poison or some other horrific shit.
And I still felt... nothing.
Wait.
Actually, that wasn't quite true.
There was something there. Buried under the emotional dampening.
Not fear.
Excitement.
I felt a small smile tug at the corner of my mouth.
Huh.
Yeah. There it was.
I was excited.
Not in the screaming, jumping-up-and-down way. More like a quiet buzz in the back of my mind.
I'd been babysitting for over a week. Fighting balloons and rabbits. Helping Naofumi and Raphtalia grind levels against low-tier monsters.
But this?
Real monsters. Actual danger. A chance to cut loose and see what I could do.
I once again sensed everything around me. I was alone on this cliff, there was no one around me for at least 300 meters.
No holding back. No worrying about collateral damage.
Just me and a swarm of giant wasps that wanted me dead.
The smile widened slightly.
Maybe my powers dampening my emotions wasn't entirely a bad thing.
At least I could think clearly.
And right now, I was focused on one thing.
Let's see how many of these bastards I can kill.
I sent a mental command to my Parallel Processing.
{Focus on defence. Keep the barrier up. I'll handle the offence.}
The secondary thread of my mind acknowledged and immediately shifted focus.
My psychic barrier flared to life around me.
The wasps closed in. Their red eyes glowed brighter as they spotted me.
Let's see how well they dance.
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Naofumi POV
The teleportation dropped us just outside the forest edge.
The moment my feet hit the ground, Raphtalia gasped.
I looked up.
The sky was wrong.
Massive swirls of energy twisted overhead, purple and yellow mixing together in spirals that looked like they were tearing reality apart.
And pouring out of them were monsters.
Hundreds of them.
Skeleton knights in rusted armour, weapons raised. Zombies with rotting flesh hanging off their bones. Those giant wasps I'd seen from a distance, their red eyes glowing. Even demon dogs, snarling and feral, their bodies wreathed in dark flames.
Most of them were heading toward the forest, but some were scattering in other directions.
Toward the village.
"Master Naofumi!" Raphtalia shouted, pointing to our right.
I turned.
A flare shot up into the sky from the direction of the village. Bright red, burning against the darkened sky.
A distress signal.
Had everyone evacuated? Or were people still trapped there?
No. They wouldn't fire a flare just to let the knights know where they were. They needed help. People were still there.
I looked toward the village and my stomach dropped.
Cracks were opening in the sky above it. Smaller than the ones over the forest, but still big enough.
Skeletons and zombies were dropping through, falling onto the rooftops and into the streets.
I could hear screaming.
People were still in there.
My jaw tightened.
"We're going," I said, turning to Raphtalia. "To the village. Now."
She didn't hesitate. Just nodded and fell in behind me.
We ran.
.
.
.
A skeleton zombie had cornered a villager against the side of a house.
The man was cowering, holding a broken pitchfork in shaking hands. The zombie raised its rusted sword.
I threw myself in front of him.
The sword crashed into my shield with a metallic clang.
The impact jarred my arm, but I held firm.
Behind me, Raphtalia moved.
A flash of steel. The zombie's head separated from its body and hit the ground with a wet thud.
The body collapsed a second later.
Raphtalia turned to the villager immediately. "Sir, are you alright?"
The man nodded, still shaking.
"Go," I told him. "Get to safety. We'll handle this."
He didn't need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and ran.
Raphtalia stepped up beside me, her dagger still drawn. "Master Naofumi, what should we do?"
I looked around.
More monsters were appearing. Dropping from the cracks overhead. Wandering through the streets.
The village was filling up with them fast.
"We need to evacuate the people," I said. "Get them somewhere safe."
"But what about you?" Raphtalia asked, worry clear in her voice. "I'm your companion. I need to stay with you."
"I'll focus on protecting people and keeping the monsters distracted," I said. "But you need to help evacuate them. Fast. Then come back."
She hesitated.
"Raphtalia. Please."
She nodded, gripping her sword tighter. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Then she was gone, running toward a group of villagers who were trying to flee down a side street.
I turned back to the monsters.
More were coming.
Time to get to work.
.
.
.
The monsters kept spawning.
Skeleton knights. Zombies. More of those damn wasps.
I couldn't kill most of them not with just my shield, but I could distract them. Bash them away. Keep them focused on me instead of the villagers.
I ran through the streets, crashing my shield into anything that moved.
A skeleton knight swung at me. I blocked it and shoved back hard, sending it stumbling.
A zombie lunged. I slammed my shield into its chest and knocked it to the ground.
The wasps were harder. Faster. More aggressive.
One dove at me from above. I raised my shield just in time. It bounced off and veered away, but another one immediately took its place.
I swung my shield like a bat and caught it mid-flight. It hit the ground hard but got back up a second later.
Can't kill them. But I can slow them down.
I bashed it again and kept moving.
A scream to my left.
I turned and saw an older man backed into a corner, a zombie shambling toward him.
Too far. I wouldn't make it in time.
I raised my shield toward him.
"Air Strike Shield!"
A shield made of light materialised in front of the man just as the zombie swung.
The blade bounced off harmlessly.
The zombie turned toward me instead, its dead eyes locking onto the source of the shield.
Good.
"Run!" I shouted at the man. "Get out of here!"
He scrambled away, and the zombie started shambling in my direction.
I moved to intercept it.
More screams. This time from a side street.
A mother and her daughter were surrounded by wasps. Three of them, circling, their stingers raised.
I didn't have time to reach them.
"Shield Prison!"
A dome of interlocking shields formed around the mother and daughter, encasing them completely.
The wasps slammed into it, trying to break through.
They buzzed angrily, then turned their attention to me.
I grabbed a burning piece of wood from a nearby house that had caught fire and swung it at them.
One of the wasps pulled back, its wings singed.
The other two kept coming.
I swung again, catching one across the face. It screeched and veered off.
But more were coming.
Too many.
I needed to draw them away from the civilians.
I looked around and spotted a tall watchtower in the centre of the village.
Perfect.
I started running toward it, making as much noise as I could.
"Hey! Over here! Come on!"
The zombies turned. The skeleton knights noticed. Even some of the wasps shifted direction.
They started following.
Good.
I reached the base of the watchtower and started climbing.
The ladder creaked under my weight, but it held.
Behind me, I could hear the monsters gathering below. Groaning. Clattering bones. The buzz of wings.
I climbed faster.
A minute later, I reached the top.
I looked down.
The base of the watchtower was completely surrounded. Dozens of them. Zombies, skeletons, wasps circling overhead.
And more were still coming into the village.
At this rate, there won't be anything left.
I looked around the platform. There was an oil lamp hanging from a hook.
An idea formed.
I grabbed the lamp and poured the oil down the side of the tower, letting it soak into the wood below.
If I lit it on fire, the whole thing would go up. The monsters would scatter, and I could jump to one of the nearby rooftops to escape.
I picked up the burning piece of wood I'd been carrying.
Just as I was about to light the-
A bright light flashed behind me.
Brilliant blue.
I turned toward it.
It was coming from the top of the cliff. The same cliff where we'd teleported in earlier.
What the hell?
The light pulsed once. Twice.
And then the monsters started moving.
Toward the light.
The zombies turned and started shambling toward the cliff. The skeleton knights broke formation and ran. Even the wasps abandoned me, buzzing frantically toward the source of the light.
Within seconds, most of the monsters that had been surrounding the tower were gone.
There were still a few inside houses. Stragglers who hadn't noticed the light yet.
But the main swarm was gone.
I stared at the cliff.
The light was still there, but dimmer now. Just a faint blue glow against the darkened sky.
What was that?
I throw the burning wood away.
No need to burn the tower now.
I started climbing down the side where I hadn't poured the oil.
As I descended, I kept glancing back at the cliff.
My feet hit the ground.
"Master Naofumi!"
I turned.
Raphtalia was running toward me, her sword still drawn.
"Raphtalia," I called back. "Have all the villagers evacuated?"
She nodded, slightly out of breath. "Yes, Master Naofumi. Everyone's in the mines. They should be safe there."
"Good."
A rustling sound came from one of the nearby houses.
We both turned.
A zombie stumbled out of the doorway, followed by two skeleton knights.
Raphtalia immediately raised her sword.
I stepped up beside her and raised my shield.
"Well then, Raphtalia," I said. "Let's clear out this village, shall we?"
She nodded, determination in her eyes.
"Yes, Master Naofumi."
We moved forward together.
.
.
.
.
Nihilux POV
The wasps came for me first.
A swarm of them. Dozens, maybe more. They came in fast, diving from multiple angles, trying to overwhelm me through sheer numbers.
I raised both hands and clenched my fists.
The first wave stopped mid-air. I twisted my wrists inward and crushed them all at once. Their bodies compressed and dropped.
Many more came in low. I swept my arm sideways and slammed them together.
Then the next wave. And the one after that.
The secondary thread of my Parallel Processing was already running, keeping the psychic barrier up. Wasps that hit it hard enough just died outright. The rest got shunted aside and I dealt with them when I had a second.
My main focus stayed on just attacking.
I stepped back and thrust my hand toward the cliff face behind me. A slab of rock groaned and tore free, roughly the size of a door. I span my fingers, and the stone split apart in the air into many jagged shards.
I wave my hand at the incoming enemies all the shards are launched into the swarm. Killing almost all of the incoming monsters,, any that survived I crushed into each other.
More rock. I ripped another section free with a pulling motion. Split it. My arm snapped forward, and the shards flew.
The skeletons and zombies had started climbing the cliff from below while I was dealing with the wasps. They were so many of them trying to get to the top.
A skeleton knight hauled itself over the edge.
I flicked my wrist.
It went flying back off the cliff.
Three more came up right behind it. I grabbed the first by the ribcage with a grasping motion and hurled my arm backwards, using it to knock the other two back down. All three went tumbling into the column of climbers below. The whole thing started collapsing like dominoes on its own.
Another column started on the other side.
I reached up, closed my fist, and pulled down hard.
A huge chunk of rock ripped loose and dropped on top of them.
The wasps were coming in bigger numbers now.
I started pulling stones up from the cliff in bigger pieces. Boulders. Whole sections of the rock face. Both arms moving now, tearing, shaping, launching. One hand ripped rock free and crushed it into smaller parts while the other sent the pieces flying.
A dozen shards of rock the size of a spearhead sailed through a cluster of thirty wasps. None of the monsters could react in time and was shredded into small bits.
The cliff was starting to look noticeably shorter on one side after some time.
The ground was covered in bodies. Skeleton bones scattered across the dirt. Zombie corpses piled on top of each other at the base of the cliff. Dead wasps were everywhere; some had their legs still twitching.
More kept coming to replace them.
It didn't matter.
At some point, I stopped counting. There wasn't much point. Kill ten, and twenty more appeared. Kill fifty, a hundred showed up behind them.
I just kept going.
Rip rock. Shape it. Launch it. My arms began moving in a pattern now, almost like I was conducting an orchestra.
Crush whatever got through. Throw the climbers back down violently into others and repeat.
Dozens of wasps died every few seconds. My hands moved quickly, grabbing clusters out of the air, compressing them, dropping them, moving on. The ones that got within twenty meters found themselves impaled by spinning shards of rock I kept orbiting around me.
I'd set them spinning with a circular motion of both hands, sharp as spear tips, rotating fast enough that they cut through the chitin of the wasps like paper.
The skeleton knights and zombies climbing the cliff got hurled back down violently. I'd grab them with a quick snatching motion and throw them back hard, sending them crashing into the ones still trying to climb up. Whole sections of the column would collapse.
Any that actually made it to the close got impaled. I'd stomp my foot, and spikes would erupt from the ground beneath them.
I kept my focus on the swarm in front of me while tracking it with the edge of my perception. Arms still moving, still throwing, still crushing.
A few seconds later, two demon dogs hauled themselves over the edge of the cliff.
Bigger than normal dogs. Easily twice the size. Rotting flesh hanging off their bodies in strips, some of it glowing with a sickly purple light. Their eyes were hollow, just empty sockets with tiny points of light burning deep inside.
They spotted me and charged.
I let the barrier handle them and kept working.
The spinning rock shards around me continued their orbit. My main focus stayed on the horde of monsters above and below me, hands moving in sweeping gestures, ripping up more stone, throwing it into the undead mass at speeds fast enough to blow holes into their body from the impact.
The demon dogs hit the barrier at full speed.
One of them tried to bite through it. Its teeth shattered against the invisible surface.
It didn't stop or pull back. Just kept trying to bite, kept slamming itself against the barrier, oblivious to the fact that it was hurting itself.
The second one did the same thing.
No sense of self-preservation at all. Most animals would retreat when they got hurt. These things just kept going.
I flicked two fingers downward.
Two of the spinning rock shards shot down from their orbit and punched straight through both demon dog skulls simultaneously.
The dogs dropped.
I pulled the shards back into rotation with a circular motion and kept going.
Then I noticed my hands.
I'd glanced down between throws, and they were glowing.
Bright blue.
Not just my hands, either; at some point, my whole body had started glowing.
I'd stopped suppressing it at some point without realising. Got too focused on the fighting and didn't realise.
Was this attracting more monsters towards me?
Their numbers had roughly doubled since the last time I'd properly looked around.
All of it converging on the light.
I looked at my hands for a second.
Fine then, the faster I kill them, the better.
I spread my arms wide.
The aura flared hard, blue light blasting outward in every direction, bright enough that it probably looked insane from the village. Every monster in few hundred meters locked onto me instantly. The wasps in the air banked toward the cliff. The undead on the ground changed direction towards me.
I held it for two seconds.
Then brought my arms back in, and the glow returned to normal light blue around me.
Now hundreds of them were moving toward me. Wasps swarming from the sky, skeletons and zombies flooding the base of the cliff from every direction, more dropping out of the cracks in the sky overhead every few seconds.
I reached down with both hands, fingers splayed wide toward the cliff face.
A massive section tore free. The biggest piece yet, something the size of a small building. I lifted it above me, arms raised, holding it suspended.
Then hurled both arms forward. It broke into countless small, sharp pieces, and the pieces began to spin.
It launched them straight into the largest cluster of undead below me.
It began to shred the monsters below into tiny bits, before they could reach the top.
And that's when I felt it.
Something dropped into my psychic perception range from above. It was much bigger than the demon dogs and was closing in fast.
Much heavier.
Five seconds out. Landing point somewhere behind me.
I didn't turn around. Just kept throwing rocks into the swarm in front of me while tracking the presence with one corner of my mind.
Four seconds.
Three.
A notification flashed.
[PARALLEL PROCESSING SKILL UPGRADED: Level 1 → Level 2]
I felt it immediately. Like a third pair of hands just appeared out of nowhere. A whole new thread, clean and ready, waiting to be used.
I put it to work before it had even fully settled. Defence on the first thread. The new one also focused on killing.
The difference was immediate. My range expanded. I could hold more objects simultaneously without the mental load climbing. Things that had required active focus a minute ago were now just... handled on there own.
The monsters all around me started to die, without me having to devote my mental focus to them.
Two seconds.
One.
The ground behind me exploded.
The shockwave hit my barrier and spread around me harmlessly. Dust and shattered rock blasted outward in every direction.
I waited for it to settle.
Then turned around.
It was huge.
Body of a lion, or maybe a griffin, somewhere between the two. Dark fur that shimmered like stars in the night sky. Claws easily the length of daggers. Wings folded tight against its sides, each one wide enough to cast a shadow over the whole cliff, deep purple feathers that looked like they had tiny balls of light trapped inside them. A barbed tail on fire dragged behind it, gouging lines into the stone.
And where its head should have been was a…. it was a wendigo skull. Bleached white. Ram-like horns curving from the sides. Hollow eye sockets burning red, deep and hollow.
It looked at me.
Behind me, hundreds of monsters were still converging on the cliff. Wasps buzzing, undead shambling, more dropping from the sky every second. All is being handled by my new parallel mind. Like a new pair of hands, those monsters started to die by the dozens every second.
None could even reach the top of the cliff where I was.
And in front of me, this thing.
It tilted its skull slightly to one side.
I tilted my head back.
Okey sure, why not.
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Author notes~~~
Damn my exams are just a few days away.
so even tho i don't want to, i am making the upload schedule once a week.
no more update every 2 days. sorry~~
Anyways. i wrote the whole boos fight for the next chapter already, but i am probably going to change it, since i have a new idea for it now.
Next chapter will be focus on this new monsters, parts of episode 3 and 4 from the anime. and maybe one of the big changes from canon story(If the chapter doesn't become to long otherwise that will be in the next one after that.).
As always if you have cool power ideas for nihilux comment them for me. and no i won't give nihilux teleportation for now. maybe in the future.
ALSO as you guys can now see, i have picked up my pace with the story a bit as well.