Chapter Fifteen: In the Sanctuary
“What’s this?” Holn said. We had explained the situation to the lizard men in the village close to the sanctuary and were proceeding to complete the ritual to select the holder of the carriage. Holn’s surprise was due to the gemstone on the whip vassal weapon starting to flash. “Something going on?” Holn held the whip in her hand and tilted her head. Maybe it was a warning about some kind of trouble.
In that same moment, a loud noise rumbled out, and smoke rose from the direction of the sanctuary. We all felt the nasty presence at the same time and started running toward the disturbance.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“That’s a trap in the sanctuary,” Holn explained.
“There are traps?” I said, surprised. We hadn’t seen any of them.
“That’s right. That one was set up to be triggered if anyone tries to force open the door to the carriage vassal weapon chamber without permission,” Holn explained. They had some security in place.
“This means Piensa has other infiltration squads here?” I asked.
“It looks that way,” Holn agreed. “But I don’t think the Bow Hero would have triggered the trap on the carriage vassal weapon. I have a bad feeling about this.” I’d be more interested if she had any other kind of feeling, given the situation. We quickly arrived at the source of the smoke.
“You’re here already,” said a voice. A wind whipped up, dispersing the smoke, and from it there emerged one of the ones who assume the name of god—one of the ones causing the waves. It was the one we had seen before, the one with the dog mask on. A barrier was crackling around him, and he somehow had the carriage vassal weapon floating at his side. It was trying to resist him but doing poorly. “I knew that nation was after something like this . . . but I’m surprised at the shoddy security,” dog face said. He looked at us as we arrived, seemingly asking for our agreement. “This place is important too. The ancient heroes left all sorts of little traps to annoy us. No more problems from any of this now.”
“You!” Ren had Sword 0 out purely on reflex, readying it to fight.
“Hold it,” dog face barked. “I’m not here for that. But I can see the helping hand we offered your enemies was not enough to stop you. What crazy little ants you are.” The one who assumes the name of god muttered to himself, using the carriage vassal weapon as a shield and dropping back away from us.
“What do you want? What are you doing with the carriage vassal weapon?” I asked. Dog face looked at me with smoldering anger.
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” he growled. “You will pay for your grievous sin of killing a god.”
“What do you mean by ‘grievous sin’? We were simply punishing a crazy spree killer,” I replied.
“And so you interfere with us, espousing justice,” dog face said. Of course, he thought we had the God Hunters behind us. “Looking at the situation, you’re not so different from us! Using heroes as your pawns and enjoying the confusion you cause us!” He seemed to have got the wrong idea—unless that was how the God Hunters operated. If I tried to correct him, I might give too much away, so I decided it was best to just let him rant. “You’re stronger than before. Look at how angry you are. Such murderous intent! Are you trying to threaten me?” dog face accused, glaring at me. My murderous intent had gone unchecked since the moment we first met this guy, but I wasn’t sure it had increased since then. I didn’t know what he was talking about. We had uncovered the hammer vassal weapon’s power-up method, so we were stronger than before, that was true. “The ones backing you will understand now! I’m taking this carriage to stop them from sending you to attack us! Now they’ll see! This world is overflowing with those who seek nothing but domination! There’s nothing here worth saving!”
“I can’t argue with that last part,” I replied. Every era seemed the same in that regard. In our time, we had Melromarc, Faubrey, and Siltvelt all brimming with the desire for conquest, and the nations here in Mamoru’s time seemed little different. The fact the heroes hadn’t come together to stop the waves was proof enough of that. At least they were trying to avoid conflict between the heroes here—that was one improvement over our time. Back there, Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki had all considered the other heroes nothing more than rivals to defeat, at least in the beginning.
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia said.
“But we fight for those who that doesn’t apply to,” I continued. That was my answer, and I was sure it was the correct one. It was the answer I’d reached after coming to this other world, meeting so many people, and being saved by them. “So we’re going to do everything we can to piss you off and stop you in your tracks. It might sound shitty, but that’s what warfare is.” That was the root of it. “Strategy,” “tactics,” there were all sorts of names for it and ways to wash off the dirt and legitimize it, but that was the root. I’d do whatever it took to protect those who needed my protection. I did have people to protect and people who had treated me kindly here. After I came to another world, my desire to be believed, my desire to protect others, had allowed me to withstand all the obstacles in my way. I felt so strongly that, yes, it was true, I sometimes did feel pleasure at defeating those trying to harm the ones I was protecting. “Just remember this,” I said. “Don’t do anything that you aren’t prepared to have someone else do to you.” That shut him up for a moment. None of these idiots ever considered that possibility. It was a principle of combat to try taking as little damage as possible. But at the same time you needed to prepare for the worst. I was going to treat these naive idealists who only dreamed of victory to a brutal life lesson.
“Hah. Enough bluster from you,” dog face snapped. “Do you really expect the ones observing you to send aid?”
“Maybe they consider you so weak we don’t require any aid from them to defeat you?” I quickly shot back. It seemed worth inflating my bluff a little, making it sound like the God Hunters didn’t even consider this guy worthy of their time. “Should you be carrying on like this? Surrendering now and begging for your life might be the best idea.” I was worried for a moment that I was laying it on too thick. This one who assumes the name of god had been a commentator on the waves, just like the one we killed. I wanted him to start worrying that maybe the God Hunters were taking out his audience, even now. That they could do anything they wanted. The more he feared them, the more power he attributed to them, the better it was for us. If he got worried or scared, he might make a mistake. He might create an opening for us to strike.
“Listen to you! Pond scum from some backwater world running your mouth!” dog face barked. It sounded like my taunts had found a target. I used my eyes to signal Ren, Mamoru, Holn, and the others to be ready to take back the carriage vassal weapon. Ren read my intent and took a small step forward—and just that movement was enough to grab dog face’s attention. The glare he gave me from beneath his dog mask looked deadly enough to kill. Then he lifted the carriage vassal weapon high up into the air. I tried to think of a way to get it back . . . Then I recalled that the carriage was a vassal of the bow.