Chapter 9 — If You Think I’m Nothing but a Cute Princess, You’re In for a Rude Awakening!
Vivian’s mind was sent reeling within the pure white that had filled the world in front of her eyes, the unbelievably hot light incinerating her body in an instant. The next thing she knew, she was lying on ground that had been melted down to glass. Though she had been totally annihilated, her power had activated to automatically revive her.
“What the...”
Lifting herself up to a seated position, she looked around. A trench of melted earth stretched out in either direction, indicating where the light had passed. Nothing was left in its path. The ruins, the guardian giants, and even the stone titan were all gone. The light had annihilated absolutely everything in front of it. Of course, this had been caused by the beam of light fired by the Aggressors as a demonstration for Yogiri, but Vivian had no way of knowing that.
“No way...” Two shields lay on the ground beside her. They were the invincible shields capable of blocking any attack, which she had given to Maanu and Matilda. Although they looked worn out, they were still intact. But all that remained were the shields, without a trace of the people they were intended to protect. Even the oblivious Vivian felt rattled upon seeing that.
After sitting in shock for a while, she finally staggered to her feet. She had survived, so she needed to complete their mission: find the World Sword, defeat the Sage, and rebuild their country. She was now the only one left who could accomplish that.
Vivian stumbled over to the opening in the ground. The earth around it had melted away, but the opening was clear of debris. She jumped inside without a moment’s hesitation. The fall was enough to kill an ordinary human, so Vivian created shields under her feet to absorb the shock of the landing.
“Light Shield.” She created a glowing shield to light up the darkness around her. “Ha ha...I can do basically anything, can’t I?”
If she had used her power properly, maybe everyone else would still be alive. But there was no point in wallowing in regret now.
The shield illuminated a stone corridor. Even from where she was standing, she could see a number of places where the path branched off. It seemed like it was a labyrinth of sorts.
“Search Shield.”
A large shield with an arrow drawn on it appeared. She had tried to make a shield that would help her find what she was looking for, but she was surprised when it actually worked.
“Do you know where the World Sword is?”
She held the object level with the ground, and it spun for a while before stopping. That was the direction she would have to go in.
As she stepped forward to follow the path indicated by the arrow, spears shot out from the walls to impale her. Vivian blocked them, and acid poured down from the ceiling as she continued. Then the floor exploded, and a giant iron ball appeared from behind to crush her. She was able to block them all with her shields, but she was starting to get tired of it.
“Auto Shield.”
Numerous shields appeared, floating in the air around her. They would move on their own to protect her. There were plenty of traps set up to stop intruders, but the shields blocked them all.
Following the path indicated by the Search Shield, it didn’t take long for her to reach her destination. There was an altar there, an old pedestal that had a sword embedded in it. It had been plunged so deep into the stone that only the hilt and guard were visible, the entire body of the blade hidden within.
“If I break the seal, I become the owner, right?”
She didn’t know how to go about doing that and decided to try pulling out the sword to start with. Standing on the pedestal, she grabbed the hilt and slowly tried pulling it out. It came free disappointingly easily.
“Huh? That’s it? I guess it’s easy if it recognizes you as its wielder... Wait! Why is it so rusty?!”
The blade was covered in rust. On top of that, she couldn’t feel any power coming from the weapon. It seemed like nothing more than a lump of old metal.
“What?! Come on! What is this?! We came all the way here for this?!”
Thinking there must be some sort of mistake, Vivian inspected the blade from a variety of angles, but no matter how she looked at it, it was just a rusty blade. How could something like this defeat a Sage? She was at a total loss.
“Oh? Looks like someone’s already here. Guess we made it just in time.”
She heard a man’s voice behind her. Turning around, she saw a group of people walk into the chamber. “Who are you?!”
“Heh, come on now. Don’t you recognize your own emperor? What kind of citizen are you?”
“Yoshifumi, you kill most people who see your face. There’s no way she’d recognize you,” one of the women accompanying him sighed.
“Dammit! That makes this way too boring. I wanted her to be scared.”
The speaker was a man with a studded leather jacket, looking like no more than a common street thug. It seemed he was the emperor of Ent, the Sage Yoshifumi.
◇ ◇ ◇
Since the elven village had been destroyed, the hidden passageway was easy to find. With the buildings and ground melted away, the underground route became clearly visible. Following the secret passage from the remains of the village, they arrived in a small chamber. Magical lights were set into the walls, and a large pedestal sat in the middle of the room.
Beside the pedestal was a young girl surrounded by floating shields. Yoshifumi had brought his group here after hearing the royal family was heading into the Elven Forest, so it was possible she was of royal descent. She had a sword in her hand. It must have been the World Sword. Despite holding what should have been a powerful relic, she seemed somehow perplexed but only for an instant. As Yoshifumi entered the room, she turned to face him.
“An emperor introducing himself sounds dumb, but I guess I have to. I’m Yoshifumi, the emperor of Ent. Normally, I execute anyone who sees my face, but since you’re royalty, I’ll give you special permission to look at me.”
His face was unknown to the citizens of the empire. It was considered an act of disrespect by law for ordinary civilians to look at his face and know who he was, so anyone who saw him was given the death penalty. It’s what allowed him to hang around the bars of the city acting like an ordinary gangster.
“You are Yoshifumi?!”
“Yep. And that’s the World Sword? How is that hunk of garbage supposed to beat me?”
The weapon was basically falling apart. The hilt and guard were in good condition, but the blade was in a pathetic state. The entire body was rusted and chipped all over. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if it had snapped in two.
Shigeto, however, was fully aware that the sword had no power in its current state.
“How should I know?” the girl responded. “But it must have some sort of power! It’s called the World Sword, after all!” She was clearly also confused by the state of the sword, but even so, she brandished it at him. “Now, World Sword Omega Blade, reveal your true power and slay this wicked usurper who calls himself a Sage!” she shouted, but the weapon didn’t respond.
“So?” Yoshifumi smirked.
“I have no idea...” She appeared unsure of what to do next.
“Hey, Shigeto, is that really the World Sword?”
“The Book of Prophecy says this is the place.”
“Hm. I guess your book couldn’t tell if something went wrong, right?”
“Correct. It is not omnipotent by any stretch.”
The Book of Prophecy provided information needed to proceed through any sequence of events, but if something were to happen to change the nature of an event later on, the prophecy had no way of updating itself to deal with new developments.
“So someone probably switched it out,” Yoshifumi said. “Well, that’s fine.” Considering his personality, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to lose his temper upon finding out the World Sword wasn’t here after traveling so far to find it. But as if he had lost interest in the weapon entirely, he turned his attention to the girl standing before them.
Things are going well so far. All that’s left is to figure out how to get my hands on it... Shigeto was relieved. He wasn’t being manipulated by Yoshifumi. At most, he was under Rei’s control, so he was capable of hiding information from the Sage. The blade in the stranger’s hands was a vessel needed to recreate the true form of the World Sword Omega Blade.
“By the way, what’s your name?” Yoshifumi asked.
“Why would I tell the likes of you?!”
“It’s probably Vivian,” Rena said offhandedly.
“What?!”
Judging from her shock, the guess had been accurate. She tried to hide it, but Shigeto knew Rena was capable of reading people’s minds. It wasn’t like she could hear everyone’s voices around her, though. She could only read the minds of people she was looking directly at. So Shigeto had done everything in his power to avoid getting involved with her. He had to make sure she didn’t reveal his secret plan. Luckily, she didn’t seem to have any interest whatsoever in him, so they hadn’t even spoken yet.
“I see. Princess Vivian, is it? What a good girl, coming all the way out here thinking you could find a way to beat me!”
“Dammit! Stop mocking me! Fine! I don’t need the World Sword anyway!” She threw aside the old blade.
“Oh, you look pretty fired up! Bring it on, then. But before the last boss, why don’t you see if you can take on the mid-boss?”
“What? You’re going to make me do it?” Rena complained.
“I don’t want to waste my time if it’s gonna be a boring fight.”
“Fine.” Rena reluctantly stepped forward as Yoshifumi stepped back, Rei and Shigeto taking up spots beside him.
“If you think I’m nothing but a cute princess, you’re in for a rude awakening!” Vivian declared.
“I guess she has the power to summon shields?”
“So what if you know?! Take this! Shield Pummeling!” A large number of tiny shields appeared in the air and rushed at Rena, more like bullets than anything else. “Chainsaw Shield! Sword Shield! Spike Shield!” With a roar, shields with chainsaws, swords, and spikes on them followed. “Thunder Shield! Fire Shield! Ice Shield!” The shields around her began to give off sparks of lightning, balls of fire, and waves of cold. It seemed that basically anything was possible for her.
Rena made no effort to defend herself, and they all struck her dead on.
“Take that! After those—”
“Looks like your attack power is pretty low.” Rena was unharmed.
“No way...”
“Okay, it’s my turn.”
Rena leaped forward, throwing a kick at Vivian. The shields hovering around the princess moved of their own accord to intercept the attack.
“Ha! I can block any attack!”
“Then what about this?”
A pop sounded from Vivian’s stomach.
“Huh?”
She looked down to see herself drenched in blood. Her stomach had exploded outwards, spilling her guts on the ground.
“You have high resistance levels, but it doesn’t look like you can defend against everything perfectly.”
“No way... What did you do?” Vivian collapsed, the shields around her following suit.
“What exactly is Rena’s power?” Shigeto muttered.
“She doesn’t have anything special,” Yoshifumi explained. “She’s just really strong.”
Shigeto recalled the time he had lost to her. A single kick from her had left him on death’s doorstep.
“But...I cannot die!” Vivian jumped back to her feet. Not only had her stomach returned to normal, even her clothes were undamaged.
“Yoshifumi, what am I supposed to do about this?” Rena complained. “It’ll go on forever.”
Vivian seemed to have an inexhaustible ability to revive herself. Even if they could kill her, it wouldn’t solve anything for long.
“I guess I got no choice. Looks like the mid-boss battle is a draw.”
As Rena stepped back, Yoshifumi stepped forward, finally ready to join the fight himself.
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