“In the past, the carriage vassal weapon always selected monsters as its hero: a dragon, a griffon, or a pegasus . . . but do you think any of these could handle a carriage?” Holn asked.
“No, of course not,” I replied. “They would be better off dropping the carriage altogether and fighting on their own. But couldn’t you say the same thing about filolials?” I’d never seen Filo use a wagon or carriage to attack, that was for sure. She loved her own special wagon and wouldn’t dream of taking it into battle. Then I recalled that she had run down Motoyasu that one time.
“Let me change the question. Who do you think could make the best use of the carriage, its skills, its magic? Who could effectively use it to defend the hero?” Holn asked.
“No idea about that. I’ve never even seen a carriage skill . . . Oh no, wait, I have,” I corrected myself. Now that I thought about it, Fitoria had used something like that on the Spirit Tortoise during its rampage. Her carriage had increased in size to match Fitoria, turned all spiky, and slammed into the Spirit Tortoise. That had to be a skill. She had even shouted “Crash Charge.”
“I remember seeing her use at least one weapon. A battle wagon covered in spikes for ramming into the enemy,” Melty said, describing the same thing I’d seen. It was a ramming weapon with spikes arranged out in front and was pulled by multiple filolials into battle. The power of them charging together could cause a lot of damage. It had been used to break down doors during sieges.
“That’s the role it plays,” Holn said. “Even without the blessing of a hero, filolials have incredible strength when it comes to pulling things around. They might not handle precision so well, but they can be powerful even without having to be a filolial queen.” I’d seen Filo pulling a wagon loaded down with heavy cargo like it was as light as a feather. I’d been surprised that a single filolial could handle such a load, but she clearly had a bonus there based on her race. “To love all forms of carriage and sometimes use them as weapons is the kind of monster that the carriage vassal weapon desired from the whip vassal weapon.”
“This one sounds like a real narcissist,” I said, looking at the carriage again.
“I’m not denying that,” Holn replied. I kinda wished she had, but if it had asked for the creation of a monster that would love it, I guess she couldn’t. “Now, I want you all to think for a moment about what would have happened if the future Shield Hero and friends didn’t show up here,” Holn continued.
“Can we skip the thought experiment?” I asked.
“You have so little finesse, future Shield Hero. But okay. If Mamoru’s attempts to revive Filolia had been less than successful, what do you think he would have done next?” Holn asked. It still sounded like her quiz was continuing.
“Why don’t you ask Mamoru?” I said, a little testily. Holn took that graciously and looked over at Mamoru. His face clouded over and his eyes went distant.
“If I’d never met Naofumi, and had faced too much difficulty reviving Filolia, I think I might have wanted some consolation . . . a child with her,” Mamoru admitted. “Through further research of her blended soul.”
“I remember what the future Shield Hero and Melty said when they first saw Fitoria,” Holn said.
“Hold on!” I exclaimed, seeing where this was going.
“I think the difference between the future Fitoria and the Fitoria in this time is the volume of soul inside her. The future one includes material from both Mamoru’s and Filolia’s souls and is sent out into the world as their daughter,” Holn explained.
“So what’s Fitoria at the moment?” I asked.
“The most stable of receptacles . . . a soulless puppet. An artificial life-form that responds to only the most basic of questions,” Holn replied.
“The Fitoria at the moment is a familiar, right?” I confirmed.
“She doesn’t yet contain what you would consider self-awareness or a soul. But she’s in a state where she could in the future,” Holn explained.
“What about Raph-chan?” I wondered immediately. She seemed to be aware of herself and she answered any questions put to her.
“Your familiar comes from a different world from this one, doesn’t she?” Holn said.
“I can’t believe it . . . That’s the truth about Fitoria . . .” Melty breathed. Everyone present from my side was stunned by this new piece of information.
“I’m presuming his desire was to have her live as a hero and live the life that her departed mother couldn’t,” Holn guessed. She had been created to use the carriage vassal weapon and in Mamoru’s grief she’d taken on the role of his daughter. If that was Fitoria . . . then what a tragic fate she had. The future Fitoria had possessed the desire to fight for the world. I wondered if that had been implanted inside her too. Her feelings on the subject had been very intense. She had been willing to oppose the four holy heroes themselves for the sake of this world. “I think the reason filolials are in principle so happy and easygoing is because of the desire Mamoru had for his daughter to be that way.”
“But now . . .” Mamoru started, but then his eyes unfocused.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Fitoria is asking to be summoned here,” he replied.
“Does she know what’s going on around you? Like Raph-chan does for me?” I asked.
“Maybe. C’mon Fimonoa!” he said, shouting a skill like C’mon Raph. With that skill, he summoned the prototype Fitoria who suddenly appeared in front of us. She didn’t say anything. She just stared at Mamoru.
“Now that you’ve got Filolia back, Mamoru, you might not need to take things this far,” Holn said. Fitoria looked at her and then at Mamoru and then spoke.
“I’m becoming this because I want to. Because we were created by someone special,” she murmured. Then she spoke more loudly. “We haven’t been born yet.” With that, Fitoria touched the carriage vassal weapon . . . and nothing happened. It just sat there, unchanged, with no sign of accepting her as its holder.
“A large-scale change is required for the carriage vassal weapon to accept me. My proposal . . . Master, make me into your daughter . . .” Fitoria requested. Everyone fell silent at that. She had said “we haven’t been born yet.” When I messed around with Raph-chan’s stats, I had changed her a lot. That had resulted in Raph-chan changing the monsters in the village into the Raph species, which was still producing consequences today.
“I think . . . I might have come too far with this to go back,” Mamoru said, giving a deep sigh as he took in Fitoria’s request. “But I’d like to decide by discussing it with Filolia first. Would that be okay?”
“Answer accepted,” Fitoria replied, moving over close to Mamoru and then stopping.
“I’ve shown you the sanctuary,” Mamoru said, moving on. “In regard to what we need to do next . . .”
“Capture the unit from Piensa coming to infiltrate this place and obtain the carriage vassal weapon to make them give up completely. It also sounds like we might be able to use the carriage vassal weapon to cross over to the world of the sword and spear and get something there to help us get back to the future,” I stated.
“First I’m hearing about this!” Melty said.
“Do you know that shrine that’s a nest of filolials in the future? It’s likely that device Motoyasu activated there has something to do with all this,” I replied.
“Yes, that does sound like a possibility,” Ren agreed. “If it isn’t here in this world, it must be over in the other one.” It was a possibility worth investigating, that was for sure. The possibility of crossing to another world seemed unlikely, but we might be able to connect back to the future from the sword and spear world.
“First things first. We need to drag the ones behind Piensa into the open and take them out,” I said.
“That’s right,” Raphtalia agreed. “I think Mamoru is going to need some time as well. Let’s head back.” Everyone nodded at Raphtalia’s proposal and we left the carriage vassal weapon in its underground lair before returning to our village.