"Talking"

"Thinking"

[Status Magic or other reference to a system or power]

…

The power that clung to Kyo just a moment before began to peel free of him, his barrier gone.

Ost collapsed, the children running to her side.

Naofumi, Ren, and Glass stared down the weakening Kyo. Hate in their eyes, all four of them.

The Spirit Tortoise fell again. One. Final. Time. Never to rise again.

.

"Ost!" Monti screamed as he flew to her side. He just managed to catch her head before it struck the ground, lowering it softly.

"Are you okay!?" Leon shouted as he ran over.

"Turtle lady!" Filo called as she passed Leon, being the second person to her side.

"M-Maybe there's something we can do to help her?" Teal was trying to think of something, not running, as her mind raced instead.

The kids gathered around her, as Naofumi and Raphtalia watched from a distance with concern. Monti searched for a wound, but there wasn't any. Nothing could be done. As Ost laid on the ground, Monti's eyes and hands searched for some way to help. To quell his worries, Ost took his hand. "It's quite alright." She told them softly.

"I knew this was going to be the outcome, and so did you. Be glad… You won." Her voice was already getting softer. As Ost began to speak, it made Monti flinch, as if he had been somewhere else.

"...How can you call this victory?" Leon asked.

"Yeah!" Filo agreed, a tear forming as she yelled.

"Ost, you remember everything now, right? So you have to know some way to save yourself, right!?" Teal's lack of options left her begging for an answer from someone else.

As the kids began to fall apart, Kyo began to laugh. "Wow. Completely ruined my plans… at least on the surface." He stood and stared down Naofumi, Ren, and Glass. "I bet you think you won, huh?"

"Regardless of who won, you lost. That's all that matters. Now surrender, Kyo." Glass said evenly, still overflowing with power.

Ren stepped forward. "Surrender? Like hell I'm accepting his surrender! He killed my entire party! I'm sending him to hell!" Ren declared.

"Wait-" Glass tried to hold her arms up to block Ren but he went low before leaping under her arm towards Kyo.

Naofumi had the time to block Ren, but frankly, he agreed with him completely. "He's killed thousands. The sick fuck even harvested their souls. Glass can take the book back with her when Ren's is done getting his pound of flesh."

Kyo simply raised his right hand towards Motoyasu and Itsuki, still stuck in the side of the wall of the Spirit Tortoise. At the current rate, they'd be freed soon. The walls began to fall apart due to the Spirit Tortoise's death, Motoyasu's head coming free. "Another step and I'll blow them both to kingdom come!" Kyo threatened.

As pissed as Ren was, he stopped his advance. Kyo wanted to wear his usual smirk but it fell apart as he saw Ren's expression. Though Ren stopped to keep Itsuki and Motoyasu alive, his face was one of raw rage. Kyo nearly stumbled back as Ren's eyes almost seemed to look through him. He likened it to the look a predator gave its prey. Despite this, he forced himself to laugh.

"Haha, now that's more like it… One more step and I'll blast these human batteries into pieces." He threatened.

While this was a dire situation, the kids continued to tend to Ost; their full attention given to her, and her alone. She stared up to them before glancing over to see Naofumi and Raphtalia also sparing her glances even as Kyo threatened the heroes. Ost's eyes began to water and a single stream of tears ran down both sides of her face.

"This… isn't how I thought I was going to die." She said, sounding dazed.

"Y-You're not gonna die!" Monti tried to assure her, but his voice cracked as he started crying too.

"That's right! Dad's an amazing apothecary." Leon couldn't even maintain his proud voice.

"Yeah!" Filo was too emotional to think of much else to say.

"..." Teal alone knew there didn't exist any medicine that could help her. Not even the elixir that regrew limbs.

She kept staring up at them, marveling.

[Air Strike Shield]!

Naofumi placed his green directional barrier between Kyo and his targets. As soon as he did, Ren advanced like a hungry animal.

"Aieeeee!" Kyo squeed as he ran back, trying to regain his clear shot of Itsuki and Motoyasu. Ren was closing in.

[Second Shield]!

Kyo kept running. He could now hear Ren's breathing as he closed in behind him. His heart beat so hard it sounded like it was in his head.

[Dritte Shield]!

"Stay back! I'll blow their fucking heads off!" Kyo screamed. Yet Ren did not hesitate. The moment he got a clear shot, Kyo proceeded to use a skill.

[Folded Formation: Gliding Strike]!

A flat rectangle of energy appeared between Kyo and Ren, forcing Ren to stop in his tracks and prepare to deflect it. The sheet of energy folded several times, forming a paper airplane. It then shot, not at Ren, but at Motoyasu.

"Not happening!" L'arc and Therese both yelled. L'arc lowered his scythe for Therese to get on it, her shoes protecting her from the blade. He then swung his vassal weapon to launch Therese who was already chanting a spell.

[Shining Stone: Ball of Flame]!

The bracelet Naofumi made her bore a bright blue light that shot out and struck the skill, destroying it. Before, when Kyo had the power of the Spirit Tortoise, he was able to pierce Naofumi's skills, but now even Therese could compete with him as an equal. She landed in front of Motoyasu, and L'arc soon joined her. "Don't you dare lay a finger on our friend!" L'arc threatened.

Kyo saw he was cornered and threw his hands up with annoyance. "Fine, fine. You got me." He said casually as if it was all just a joke to him.

"Who said I accepted your surrender?" Ren questioned threateningly.

Kyo's mouth split with a thin cruel smile. "If the Spirit Tortoise did kill your party members, it means I have their souls. You want them back, yeah?" With the question came an answer, and that widened the thin smile further. With a gesture, lime green energy surged around Kyo. Not as much as when the Spirit Tortoise was alive, but that he had any was a surprise.

Ren stopped his advance and lowered his sword. "You still have them?"

"Sure do. You guys screwed me out of a lot of it, but I still have quite a bit of the power she collected. Thanks by the way." He said sarcastically to Ost. She was too far away from him and dying. So his taunt never even reached her.

"...You give me their souls, and I'll let Glass take you." More than revenge, Ren wanted to do something for his party members, for his friends. He had to do… something. As much as he'd love caving in Kyo's face and cutting him in half, that wouldn't help anyone but himself. And he wasn't going to make this about himself. As much as he could.

The ceiling began to swell as small pieces began to crumble. Naofumi looked up with concern. "Would the Spirit Tortoise dying cause this? Shouldn't it just be a corpse now?"

Then the swelling reached a critical mass, bursting open, revealing black flames.

"Eeeehhh!" The caster of the black flames, Wyndia fell immediately afterwards

"Fueeeee!" Shortly followed by Rishia who fell even less gracefully.

"Sorry, Shield Lord, these two insisted on reaching you." Came Werner's voice, having flown down the now large hole that connected to the heart chamber that wouldn't repair itself again.

Kyo frowned further. There were a large number of Naofumi's allies just above this room. Kyo was far too outnumbered to put up any sort of meaningful fight.

"Did we lose anyone?" Naofumi asked Werner. Yet he had no time to respond.

"Ren!" Wyndia called, picking herself up and racing to him.

Ren turned to see her, but a fear welled within him. He remembered the last words she said to him. He didn't know if he could handle whatever she said next.

With his back turned, Kyo decided to go for broke.

[Formation One: Chapter Storm]!

Countless pages flew out of the Vassal Book and shot forward. Ren's eyes went wide as he stepped in front of the approaching Wyndia to shield her. He was struck several times and with the remaining Spirit Tortoise's power, the skill was again quite dangerous. However, the majority of the skill wasn't even aimed at Ren. It flew past him, and L'arc and Therese stood ready to defend Motoyasu, only to see the skill aimed at Itsuki.

Naofumi had shifted his focus to Werner, and with Itsuki in the wall like he was, [Shield Prison] wasn't a viable option either. The kids remained at Ost's side and seemingly no one was going to be able to intercept the attack.

"Dammit!" Naofumi shouted in panic.

"Fuee." Rishia suddenly grabbed everyone's attention as she exuded a pale green energy. Faster than anyone could expect, and faster than some could track, Rishia raced past the incoming attack and landed on the wall Itsuki was stuck to, her feet on either side of him. She looked up to see the skill about to land and, with a confidence she never normally possessed, began intercepting and deflecting each projectile. Dozens of them were scattered, yet just as many landed on her.

Itsuki remained safe as the bleeding Rishia fell to the ground in front of him, her blood now leaving thick streaks on the wall she fell from. Yet she stood, still flowing with that same energy.

"Tsk." Kyo clicked his teeth in annoyance. He was truly low on options now.

"I'll get their souls back from your corpse!" Ren was not willing to risk anything anymore, turning back towards Kyo before Wyndia could utter a single word of apology to him.

Kyo gathered up all the Spirit Tortoise's power he still possessed, roughly two-thirds of the power he had before. He felt it, thinking carefully a moment before acting. It might have been the only time he had done so, so far.

He then used that power to cast multiple supernaturally intense gravitational forces. It wasn't like before, where gravity simply forced things downward. In fact, the forces weren't targeting anyone at all. Instead, these opposing forces targeted an unoccupied area near Kyo and seemed to cause a visual distortion visible to the naked eye before seemingly tearing open space itself, a mostly dark space with countless lights could be seen beyond.

Monti's eyes began to spin, he didn't notice but his siblings did. A nudge from Leon and feeling the boost he only received during a wave tipped him off as to what that portal was and where it led.

"I guess I'll take this home and see what fun I can have with it. Feel free to follow me if you idiots think you can beat me in my own world." Kyo then turned and walked toward the opening.

"Not happening!" Ren lunged for Kyo as he in turn continued his casual pace into the void.

[Meteor Slash]!

Yet Ren's skill and blade stopped on the edge of the void.

[Action not permitted.]

[Holy heroes are not allowed to invade another world.]

"Why can he do so and I can't?" Ren immediately asked himself.

"Sorry, sad boy. What do you think Vassal Heroes are for?" Kyo's voice said mockingly. It already sounded quite distant.

Ren went to look at Naofumi for advice, but he and Raphtalia had already moved to Ost's side. Naofumi saw Ren couldn't pass through it, so he changed priorities to Ost. She stared up at everyone as she began to glow.

"You know… I never imagined this was how I'd die." Ost began to think aloud.

"You aren't going to-" Monti tried correcting her thinking, but she continued.

"I knew my part was to be the villain. I was to steal the happiness and futures of countless people. I knew I was going to be cursed and hated. That the people across the world would shake their fists in anger and grief at me, beg for my death, make it their life's goal to end me." She said with an uneven tone.

"I knew that and had been preparing myself ever since. That was always where I was going to end up… and yet… You cry for me. You feel sad for me… You mourn me… I was…" Ost began to cry a bit more. "I wasn't prepared for this. Not in my wildest dreams…" As she spoke, her body started falling to pieces. Starting from her feet, tiny fragments chipped off and blew away.

"Monti, those words you said. 'We are who we choose to be.' If only I was told those words much earlier…" She looked around at the gathering faces.

"And though I am much too late, I'm choosing now." She reached up and touched Naofumi's shield.

"The Spirit Tortoise requests special approval. Allow the Shield Hero to pass through the portal to another world." She said in as composed a voice as she could muster.

The Holy Shield reacted, and the gem glowed briefly as a message appeared before Naofumi.

[Special request approved]

[The Holy Hero may now conditionally invade other worlds]

"Idiot! You've been choosing!" Teal argued.

"Yeah! Turtle Lady helped us a whole whole lot." Filo added, waving her arms in protest.

"..." Ost did not retort.

Ren heard her words and approached. "You can let us follow Kyo?"

Wyndia raised a hand and went to say something to Ren, but as she opened her mouth, no words came. She couldn't say or do much of anything.

Ost turned to see Ren. His eyes were about what she expected to see from others. Her body had killed his friends, and even if Kyo wasn't controlling her at the time, she'd have done so herself. Yet the current Ost wouldn't.

He hadn't even processed the curse series and what it did to him. That it made him abandon the people and hurt Wyndia. In many ways, it'd be best to not let Ren go. But Ost no longer wanted to take other people's decisions from them.

Wordlessly, she raised her hand, beckoning for him to come near. Ren awkwardly held his Holy Sword out for her fingers to reach the tip. She softly touched it, being careful even now not to be cut by it.

"The Spirit Tortoise requests special approval. Allow the Sword Hero to pass through the portal to another world as well." She issued again.

The Holy Sword reacted much the same as the Holy Shield, the gem growing and the message appearing.

[Special request approved]

[The Holy Hero may now conditionally invade other worlds]

L'arc and Therese had finished freeing Motoyasu. He wasn't in great shape but looked well enough. He wouldn't wake up, but it was probably best that he didn't for now. "We need to entrust Moto to someone else before we follow Kyo." Therese insisted.

"We need to go, now." Glass argued. "There are more than a dozen people just above us that can help him."

"She's right…" Naofumi placed a hand on Monti's shoulder. "We need to go. Now." He urged them all.

Ost's body was already half gone, and nothing could save her, yet they stayed nonetheless.

"He's right… Go… You need to retrieve the energy Kyo stole. That energy is of this world. To mix it with another world could doom both." She warned. "Stopping Kyo… That is what I wish for you all to do… for me."

As Ost's hands faded, there was nothing left to hold onto. They sat there a moment.

Naofumi went to speak. "Will you-"

Then came a series of explosions coming from outside the body and coming closer. Before Naofumi and the others could even panic, the last wall collapsed, revealing Fitoria.

"I saw everything from Filo's crown. Go. I will bring Motoyasu and the other hero to the human queen. " Before he could ask, Fitoria already answered.

She approached the heroes, eyeing L'arc and the other heroes a moment. They moved away from Motoyasu as if threatened by her.

The doorway started shrinking and that was everyone's cue. "Move people!" Naofumi shouted.

"Shield Lord!" Werner shouted.

"We are retrieving that energy! Let everyone know to wait for our return!" Naofumi shouted.

"...Understood." Werner simply agreed.

Naofumi and Raphtalia scooped up the children and went for the gate. When they reached it they didn't hesitate to leap right through. The kids turned back to see Ost one last time. Seeing this, Ren was followed right after them, Glass, L'arc, and Therese also made their way there. They all jumped through the portal as quickly as they could. What surprised Fitoria was that after they all went in, Wyndia started scrambling after them.

"Wait! Ren! There's something I have to tell you!" She said as she entered the same void as everyone else.

Fitoria watched her go then turned to Motoyasu. She checked him over, then glanced at Rishia struggling to free Itsuki. The blood from her fresh wounds caused her to slip and fail to grip much of anything. Fitoria quickly chanted.

[Liberation Heal]

Rishia was not only healed completely with her stamina restored but even her spilled blood was gone.

"Fuee! Thank you." Rishia said without taking her eyes off of Itsuki. She used life force to carve through the wall and free Itsuki, catching him as he fell.

Fitoria saw this and felt compelled to ask. "Human. Are you a member of his party?"

"Y-Yes!" Rishia answered.

"That is good to hear. Then only Motoyasu is in need of worthwhile allies." Rishia understood the insinuation and bowed her head.

Fitoria transformed into her true form, but only to the same size as Filo's. "Place those two on my back." She then turned to Ost, who had nearly faded.

Ost and her glanced at one another, then Ost spoke. "No need. I do not need company as I go. I live in his shield even now."

"They seemed quite fond of you." Fitoria commented.

Ost bore a bright smile. Her last. "It seems so."

Fitoria nodded and the two quickly escaped upward to the heart chamber, Werner followed, trying to keep up. Fitoria went to pass them by, but saw Liviccic. "Ah, the Vassal Staff hero now?"

Liviccic was lying slumped on the ground like everyone else."Heh. I thought I moved up in the world… but here I am, crawling on the ground."

"You did well." Fitoria offered.

"Where is Naofumi and Ren?" Liviccic asked.

"We'll discuss that later, climb on." Fitoria told him.

"...You can't hold us all." Liviccic more observed than complained.

She eyed him with annoyance. "I'm just retrieving heroes." Fitoria countered.

"No. I am not retreating with my woman, knights, and my queen still here." He said, gesturing to Sophia, Silvius, Vasteel, and Mirellia.

Fitoria's eyes narrowed as a carriage appeared before everyone. "Everyone enter. Quickly."

In a surprising turn, Fitoria rescued everyone within the Spirit Tortoise. Slowly, they all either managed to enter the cart or were dragged inside by someone else. She even stopped to pick up Rishia's Hengen Muso teacher after hearing as much from Rishia. She brought everyone to the foot of the now truly dead Spirit Tortoise. As they exited, they were greeted by their comrades.

Aultcray was quick to assist his wife as she struggled to exit the cart. "Casualties?" She asked.

"720, roughly. Of that, roughly 280 were Melromarcian." He answered swiftly. "And with you?"

"...None that I am aware. We have much to discuss." She answered after a long pause.

"Forget it, you must rest." Aultcray advised her. And for once, she was too tired to disagree.

Werner, Renair, and the elephant therianthrope reached the Siltvelt council and the first question they were asked was an obvious one.

"Where is the Shield Lord?" It was Jaralis that asked, though, it sounded a lot more like a demand.

"He defeated the one behind all this, but the coward seemed to escape. He pursued." Werner said, but to the council as a whole, not looking at Jaralis.

"Then we chase after him and assist him." Jaralis immediately demanded.

"Naofumi and the Sword Hero entered another world. There is no bridge for you to chase them by." Fitoria said loud enough for most to hear her.

"..." Everyone present collectively received the news with a mixture of elation for winning and nervousness that Naofumi was somewhere they could not follow. Their concerns and thoughts were of Naofumi. Yet, they didn't care about Ren. Even the Meromarcian soldiers seemed solely focused on Naofumi's safety. Well, they had other thoughts for Ren, but nothing pleasant. Ren abandoning them when they needed him most was not so easily forgotten. For everything Ren was trying to make up for, he had lost much more face now. Internationally, too.

Of course, none of that mattered right now. First, they needed to deal with Kyo and retrieve the souls the Spirit Tortoise harvested.

.

Ost looked up through the massive hole Fitoria created when exiting the Spirit Tortoise's body. She saw the light of day piercing through. She still wore the earlier smile. She couldn't help it.

"I was supposed to be hated. I either saved the world or I failed, but everyone hating me was supposed to be non-negotiable. Yet… they cried for me. They mourn me. I…I never thought there could be any other options. But now that I do, I think I'd have loved to not be their enemy. To have fully been their ally. To have shared smiles and tears alike."

The last thought she spoke aloud. "It's just as Monti said. We are who we choose to be. If I ever get the chance, I'd like to share lives with them foreve-." And with that, the rest of Ost's body blew away. Carried by the upward current into the bright midday sky.

.

Inside the void, there was no up or down. It was pure darkness, save for random spatterings of lights flickering that seemed to move around. It left the whole world a blur. Soon they weren't running or even walking, they were falling. With their sense of direction and equilibrium gone, the only way they even knew they were falling was the strong wind that dulled their ability to hear as it rushed past them.

"What is this!?" Raphtalia asked. No one could see each other but even worse was that they couldn't even pinpoint the direction she spoke from. They each instinctively reached out in every direction, trying to grab someone. However, most were beyond each other's reach it seemed.

"This is… rougher than normal." Therese acknowledged, having crossed worlds 3 times prior to this.

"Naofumi!? Use a shield to stop our fall!" Ren called out.

"Ren, is that you!?" Wyndia responded to his voice.

"Wyndia!?" He heard hers, yet it was so hard to tell.

"I don't need you to tell me." Naofumi grumbled before doing as suggested.

"Air Strike Shield!"

"...What?" The skill didn't even try to activate. It wasn't as if the skill was blocked or suppressed. It was like he didn't have a skill to activate at all!

Only Monti could see things a bit clearer, but as he watched, he wished he was as blind as the rest of them. On either side of this massive black chasm were pearls of wondrous colors. They were more massive than the moon he had seen in the sky of Raphtalia's world. So massive that the sheer size scared his young mind a bit.

"Those are… worlds." He realized. They were falling from one towards the other, and their scale, what else would make sense?

Monti looked out at the dark chasm, the space between. What he saw made his skin crawl. What at first looked like a sea of ants and other tiny creatures clinging everywhere was soon understood to be anything but. Those supposedly tiny bugs were actually creatures that could rival the Spirit Tortoise and Fitoria in size. They were simply so far away and with no horizon to judge by, scale was so hard to understand. Countless creatures, no, monsters, covered whatever the floors of this space were.

"Billions? Trillions?" Monti couldn't begin to know how many monsters existed in this place, even only within view. Just as Monti looked further he saw something so ridiculous he turned away from the sight.

"Dammit! It's not working. Anyone else got any bright ideas!?" Naofumi shouted, gaining Monti's attention.

Monti flew down and grabbed his father's arm. "I got you!" He then looked around for the others.

Leon and Filo were so far away, having been trying to fly the whole time. Glass, L'arc, and Therese stayed together by pre-emptively holding onto each other when they first crossed the threshold. They could also see a bit thanks to Therese's gem magic. This allowed them to see and make a move to grab Raphtalia. Teal spread herself out in every direction and was soon to grab multiple people.

The problem as he saw it was Wyndia. She was further away than anyone from entering so late. Not to mention she lacked any ability to maneuver at all. While still holding onto Naofumi, he began to fly towards Wyndia. He strained as much as he could, his own stamina not feeling nearly as vast as it had always been. Just as he reached her, they began making contact with the other huge pearl, the other world.

Against his own wishes, Monti took one last look at the thing that made him turn away before. It was a sun. Maybe a small star. Either way, it was massive, as big as these worlds, just much further away. The star was yellow, or maybe orange. Why couldn't he tell? Because it was completely covered by a colossal centipede monster. One he was familiar with. Monti had stolen a glance at Merodach's main body.

"That's him, the real him… How many Fitoria's would it take to kill that?" Was his last thought as they all passed into a new world.

.

[Author's Notes]

And that is the big chapter 100. I want to thank everyone that has read my fic so far. When I first started writing this fic I just had an idea for Monti and Teal and had some free time. But the early chapters came out really quick. I wasn't around during the season 1 hype, yet despite that I am in the top 5 SH fanfics by any metric. I'm really surprised.

Originally I wrote this wanting to just gain experience writing. I have some original works I want to make and I wanted to polish up before trying with that. Then I started the Flower Hero story to practice writing a setting, not relying on our shared experience reading the light novel or watching the anime. I plan to finish both of these stories. With my current pace I think Family of the Shield will be done in just over 200 chapters. I plan on more divergence as we go and the ending to be pretty over the top. But I always seem to hold back, so maybe it'll be received well.

For a while, I was reluctant to update my first 10 chapters because I liked seeing the huge difference between where I started and where I am now. But I also know that I have had many would-be readers read the first few chapters and not bother reading further. And I'd like them to read it. While originally written as practice, I have really, REALLY grown to love any comments I get from you all. So I want to fix these chapters to bring in more people, hopefully.

I want to obviously improve the writing quality itself, but other changes should be made as well. I want to remove Naofumi losing his sense of taste (things aren't as bad this time, so it's not reasonable for him to lose his sense of taste). I also just want to make things more canon-compliant. So I am wondering how to accomplish this.

I like the Prophecy Shield. It lead to several jokes and gave Naofumi a reason to avoid Malty enough to not destroy his trust alongside his reputation. But any weapon form is supposed to have a level requirement of at least 2. I've been racking my brain on how to deal with this and nothing seems right.

So I am asking you all for your suggestions. What do you think I should change in these early chapters? Is there a way to become more canon-compliant without losing too much? Please let me know.

You've all been so awesome and I just want to thank you all again.

.

As for the actual recap and author's notes…

The biggest change from canon in this chapter is obviously Ren and Wyndia going with them to Glass' world. I have little arcs for most characters planned. Most separated from one another and returned to level 1. I think I'll only cover 2 groups per chapter so that I am not switching between them so much that no forward progress is felt. Particularly, Ren, Leon, and Wyndia will do a lot of growing this arc, but not just them.

I wonder if I undercut Ost's death too much with the actions happening around her. I can't really tell. But I needed L'arc and Therese saving Motoyasu for obvious character reasons, just as I needed to show Rishia doing something herself.

I think I was juggling too many characters for too long. Making too many characters has always been my vice. Luckily the characters are drastically fewer in the next arc and split up. So, hopefully, it'll feel more refreshing.

If you've read all 100 chapters so far, please leave a review, it really means a lot to me.