User blog:Thrycius/Zheiro and The Moonlight Sculptor: Chapter 20

'''Disclaimer: This is a crossover fanfic between Brave Frontier and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. I don't own either of those; they belong to their respective owners, namely Gumi/Alim and Nam-Hi-Sung (남희성) respectively.'''

'''Disclaimer (extended): This crossover fanfic now also contains some elements from the Type-Moon universe, owned entirely by Kinoku Nasu. I don't own anything from there, either.'''

Is this your first time seeing this story? Go directly to chapter 1 here!

Surprisingly, cutting through magic was a lot easier than Zheiro thought.

Just like with the skeletons, this test was also about his ability to precisely control his prana output while in combat. Depending on the attack, if he put too little prana into the sword the magic would simply explode or activate upon it; put too much, and he would more or less turn his sword into a bat, giving him the ability to forcibly knock away spells.

It also turned out that the amount of prana he had to use did not have to equal the amount of prana the enemy spellcaster used for their spell, so there was no need for him to try and match his prana usage with the opponent’s, which was rather fortunate for Zheiro.

Of course, knocking away spells did not count for this test (not to mention how prana intensive it was!), so Zheiro had to figure out just how much prana it would take for him to cut down the spells. Unfortunately, figuring this out also meant having to experiment in live combat, which also meant that when he failed, there would be consequences.

On the plus side, when he did fail and the spells exploded on his blade, Thrycius was there to minimize the damage to him. But just because the damage was minimized didn’t mean they didn’t hurt, though. Even if the spells didn’t hit him directly, it didn’t change the fact when they hit his sword, they were more or less exploding in his face. After having experienced that countless times for himself first hand, Zheiro was beginning to think that any defense short of an invulnerable barrier would not be able to keep him without a scratch from such things.

Since Zheiro already had practice doing such a thing against the skeletons, all he had to do was apply what he had already learned in a new manner. Hitting a moving target was difficult, and some spells even more so when they were activated where he stood, but it also wasn’t the first time he had fought quickly moving enemies. The harpies in the Magutagal Wetlands had been good practice; for once, Zheiro appreciated being made to fight them so that he could learn how to emulate their lightning quick movements.

Still, despite all these advantages, Zheiro was only able to barely pass the test by the second day.

“Good enough,” Thrycius commented as Zheiro lowered his sword, falling onto his hands and knees in complete exhaustion. “There isn’t a lot of time to rest, but when you’re ready, go on ahead and take out Demon Abaddon.”

“Are you sure he’s ready to help face a demon like Abaddon?” Sarui asked, looking down at Zheiro still on the floor. “I do understand your reason for us splitting up, but considering how little he contributed to the actual battle against the Juggernaut, I don’t know if he’ll be fine.”

“Honestly speaking, if battle with Abaddon was unavoidable then I would rather have all three of us take him on together. But it would be even worse if, while fighting a copy of that demon, the assassins ambushed us from behind. But I also think you two should be okay—based on the stories, I would presume that most, if not all, of his attacks are spells.”

“So that means you’ll be relying on me to cut down those spells and neutralize them,” Zheiro realized, looking up from the ground. “And while the spells are neutralized, Sarui can go in and take out the boss, is that right?”

“Correct,” Thrycius nodded, grinning. “You’re starting to catch on even faster now lately, Zheiro. That’s probably going to be our main plan. Feel free to come up with any other backup plans while I’m gone, though. Since we’re very short on time, I have to get going to stall those assassins before they get here.”

“Oh, just get going already,” Sarui harrumphed, crossing her arms as she turned her head to the side in a prideful motion. “We can take care of ourselves.”

“Ha ha ha!” Thrycius simply laughed in response. “I’ll believe you. When you defeat Abaddon, feel free to go onto the next area, St. Lamia, without me. I’ll catch up, don’t worry. And now, I shall be off.”

And just like that, Thrycius walked off, laughing as he usually did.

“You don’t seem to like him very much, do you?” Zheiro asked once Thrycius disappeared from view.

“Not particularly at the moment,” Sarui acknowledged. “But we don’t have time to talk about that, if that storyteller is right. First we need to deal with Abaddon; then I’ll tell you about it. But for now I’ll tell you this; even if I may not like him very much, I do respect his skill at storytelling.”

“I’m surprised, actually,” Zheiro admitted. “You put so much emphasis on the importance of art, yet you can’t get along with someone whose skills are so great that even you acknowledge him.”

“His skills have nothing to do with how I feel about him,” Sarui said, frowning. “But didn’t I say I’ll tell you about this later? We have more important things to deal with, and not very much time to do so.”

“Right. How shall we deal with this demon that we have to fight? It’s a fake, so that means someone must have defeated it before, right?” Zheiro asked. “If I remember correctly, you were actually the first person to bring the demon’s name up, back when we were at that… village.”

“Don’t remind me of that stupid village and the idiots within it,” Sarui groaned. “I still can’t believe people like them exist. If we have time, I’ll definitely have to come back to educate them in the ways of true art. But anyway, yes, I did mention Abaddon back then. But while I’ve heard the stories of how that certain summoner defeated him, I have no idea how exactly they did so. Besides, it’s not like we can use a similar strategy, since that summoner brought a team of powerful warriors with them while we’re just a team of two artists.”

“Just a team of two artists,” Zheiro parroted sarcastically, giving a meaningful glance at Sarui. “Riiiight.”

A moment of silence passed.

“Just what exactly are you trying to imply?” Sarui asked, tilting her head in confusion. “I’m definitely a painter, as I’m sure you very well know. There was nothing wrong with my statement.”

“No, it’s nothing,” Zheiro said in response. No matter what she said, at this point Zheiro was having difficulty believing that Sarui was only just a painter, and nothing more—but there was no reason for him to stick his neck out prying further into her business. “Anyway, back to defeating Abaddon. Any ideas?”

“Don’t we already have a plan?” Sarui asked. “There’s no need for us to make a backup plan. We should just go in and kill the thing without worrying too much about how to defeat it. The real issue are the assassins behind us, as Thrycius has already mentioned. We don’t want them showing up while we’re fighting that demon, or else we’ll be in trouble.”

“But what happens if that plan fails?” Zheiro asked nervously.

“The only way it can fail is if you fail to cut down those spells.” Sarui said confidently. “But while your failure to do so would only end up being a minor annoyance to me, it may result in your death. So, you have no choice but to succeed.”

“You’re awfully confident about this,” Zheiro observed dourly. “This is a major demon we’ll be fighting, you know?”

“And we have already defeated a mechanical god of all things only weeks prior,” Sarui countered confidently. “I doubt this demon will be any harder.”

“Well, if you say so,” Zheiro replied.

The two of them stood at the base of a massive tower, looking up upon it as they contemplated entering.

“This is going to be just like Mistral, isn’t it?” Zheiro groaned. “Can’t we just skip the tower, avoid the demon, and go straight on to the next area?”

“I wish,” Sarui replied in displeasure. “But I’m getting a gut feeling that the demon won’t let us pass so easily without a fight. It might be better to go in this time.”

“And how accurate has your intuition been in the past?” Zheiro asked, giving Sarui a blank look.

“Accurate enough.” Sarui simply replied. “In any case, let’s just go in.”

And so, the two of them fought their way through up the Tower of Morgan, quickly reaching the top where their foe lay in wait.

Meanwhile, Thrycius was busy having the time of his life.

That is, if dancing and twirling about among the trees while giggling and laughing, all the while slipping in and out of both the shadows and the view of the assassins counted as having the time of his life.

When he first found the assassins, he revealed his presence for only a moment, grinning like a madman—before taking off, leaving behind a single taunt as he disappeared among the trees, out of sight.

“He’s over there!” One of the assassins shouted, firing a bolt from his crossbow—and hitting nothing but the trunk of a tree.

“No, over here!” Another assassin cried out, swinging his blade as he hacked away at the foliage, also completely failing to hit anything close to resembling the storyteller.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that if you want to catch me~” the storyteller sang in a carefree voice as he continued to leap among the trees. “Weren’t you all professional assassins? Surely you shouldn’t be new to the art of stealth.”

The assassins, forced into a tight defensive circle due to the unpredictability of their opponent who could literally be anywhere, were starting to lose their nerves. Their target moved like a wraith as he ran about them, laughing all the while—a laugh that echoed all around and bounced off the trees, making it impossible to locate where he actually was.

And they hadn’t even intended to pursue their original target after learning a knight travelled with them! They were in no way or shape prepared to fight a real knight in direct combat—even if she claimed not to be one. And a knight backed with an illusionist would make it extremely difficult to try and attack regardless of the timing.

“Can’t you do something about him, mage?” the leader of the assassins asked, clearly frustrated as he frantically glanced left and right, trying to locate the enemy.

“I can’t,” The mage grounded out, holding out his staff as if to ward off the target. “I know you said that I was up against an illusionist, but that person is definitely the real thing, not an illusion— Ah.”

The mage suddenly cut himself off. If the enemy was the real thing, then why not just use illusions of his own to counter and confuse the enemy?

“Really though,” The storyteller continued, still laughing, unaware of the mage’s new train of thought. “I hadn’t even intended to fight you back at the beach, so you certainly had a chance to complete your mission. Not my fault you ended up failing anyway.”

“Isn’t that because you were confident we would lose to that knight in the first place?” one of the assassins retorted—only to get a small stone flicked to his forehead. “Ow!”

“On the contrary, you were the ones who were overconfident.” Thrycius laughed, his voice echoing off among the trees, giving the illusion of coming from all directions. “In the first place, you’re all assassins, are you not? Facing your target head on is not something you should be exceptionally skilled at, yet you decided to do so anyway.”

“Okay, I’ll be honest here,” the leader said. “Who’s side are you really on? One moment you arrive to stop us, and the next you completely ignore us, and then here you are, pointing out the flaws in our plans. What exactly is your motive?”

A moment of silence passed before the storyteller broke out in a fit of laughter.

“Ha ha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha ha ha!” The storyteller laughed like a madman who had completely lost his senses—to the assassins, it was a rather chilling laugh considering the situation they were in. “Do you even realize what you are asking? Who in their right mind would tell an untrustworthy man their true agenda? But I don’t mind telling you: Whatever happens between you, your employer, and your target, I don’t mind in the slightest, as long as it will make a good story. How you will deal with an unexpected enigma like me, whether you succeed or fail— I want to see it all, especially now that your target is aware that there are others like you are after him. As for me being here, well, that’s because I believe that the more prepared Zheiro is to face the likes of you, the more interesting this story will get. After all, you will be forced to come up with something clever to fulfil your contract or fail, isn’t that right?”

Thrycius paused then to wait for an answer, but it was at that moment when the mage acted. Casting out a wide, area of effect illusion on their surroundings, affecting all but the assassins in the center—surely, this would be enough to disorient their target, allowing them the opportunity to strike back

“How does it feel, illusionist, to have a taste of your own medicine?” the mage smirked. “Oh, but that’s right. You can no longer hear nor see us, thanks to that illusion you are now experiencing.”

And just like the mage had declared, Thrycius, now entirely visible to them, made no movement or indication that he had heard or seen them as he studied his new surroundings with slight curiosity. In response, the rest of the assassins, feeling visibly relieved at their enemy suddenly becoming visible once more, as well as the enemy being unable to see them, quickly regained their senses and spread out, intending to surround the storyteller.

And with a few hand signals for timing and coordination, they moved in to attack.

“...That’s the Demon Abaddon?” Zheiro asked, looking at the horribly disfigured... thing that lay in wait for them. It looked like some monster had ripped the demon’s chest open, eating away at the flesh until nothing but a massive red organ bigger than any full grown man remained, constantly pulsing and beating away behind a rib cage just barely large enough to contain it.

“...It sure looks like it. I wonder why so many people find it so scary, though.” Sarui commented. “Look, it’s heart is wide open. What kind of demon would leave such an important vital organ out in the open like that, unprotected? This fight will be easier than expected. The only slight annoyance is getting close to it, but we have you to help me do that more efficiently.”

“With such an important role thrusted upon me, I’m feeling a bit nervous, especially if we’re up against that kind of monstrosity.” Zheiro said nervously as he continued to study the demon.

“Now’s not the time to be getting scared, my rival. You will only make an embarrassment out of both you and I if you failed here. So stand up! Acknowledge that you are not shivering with fear, but with excitement! I will not expect less from the one I claimed as my rival!”

Zheiro simply sighed in response, not wishing to put up with Sarui’s excessive overconfidence at a moment like this. “Let’s just go get this over with,” he said gloomily. “The faster we get this over with, the sooner we can get going.”

“That’s the spirit! Let’s go!”

And as the two of them ran into the room, the demon took notice of them and roared, sending out a huge wave of darkness upon them.

“Zheiro!” Sarui shouted, quickly running in without fear, her favored giant paintbrush already in hand. She did not say any more, confident that Zheiro would know what she meant.

“I’m on it!” Zheiro shouted, running next to her as he raised his sword.

In a flash, the blade was swung, and the darkness successfully cut apart, the massive spell dissipating into nothing as the existence of the spell was cut in twain— but it was far more tiring than Zheiro had expected.

“I don’t think I have the energy to keep on doing this for long!” Zheiro shouted as he kept pace with Sarui. Truthfully, Zheiro never would have been able to keep up if it weren’t for all the travelling and combat he had done under Thrycius’ instruction, something he now again was glad for.

While the storyteller had made him do many seemingly unreasonable things, Zheiro thought, they all ended up becoming quite useful for him in the long run.

“That’s fine! Just keep that demon off me long enough and the fight should be over quickly!” Sarui shouted in response, pitching out another container of paint. The demon responded to the attack by launching yet another wave of darkness, swallowing the container of paint and utterly destroying it as it continued to make its way over to the two artists.

“Tch,” Sarui clicked her tongue in annoyance. She would have to get closer if she wanted to make any progress towards even making any damage to the boss. That, or hit it when it least expects it.

Another flash of what minimal light in the area reflected off Zheiro’s blade, and the darkness was cut once more— but this time, it was a little slower than before. And just as the darkness dissipated, a container of paint landed on top of the demon’s head, splattering paint all over as it dripped down its face and onto its exposed heart.

In rage, the demon sent out another blast of dark magic. Wave after wave of magic lashed out upon them, with the intent of covering and destroying the entire area around them with sheer power— but again, it was cut short by Zheiro’s blade, flashing back and forth as he desperately did his best to destroy the magic itself tainted with darkness.

Sarui picked up her speed as she finally got close enough to close in on the demon, leaving Zheiro behind. Zheiro did not complain however—or rather, he didn’t have any time to complain. He didn’t even have time to worry about success or failure, having to expend all of his concentration solely on cutting down wave after wave of magic—a feat that was quickly wearing him down. They both knew that the demon heavily favored bombarding the enemy with wide, area of effect dark magic, and thus if Zheiro failed even once it would be highly likely that they both would get killed, despite Sarui claiming that she would be fine regardless..

This fact did not mean anything to Sarui, however, as she fully entrusted her back to him as she quickly made her way towards the exposed heart, lunging straight at it with her paintbrush with all her strength. The faster they ended this, the less strain she would put on her only ally for this battle. However, to her dismay the heart was made of stronger stuff than she had anticipated, and the paintbrush glanced off to the side, not even making a dent.

In response, the rib cage surrounding the heart moved, the bones leaping towards each other as they seeked to impale the one who attempted to strike at the heart. Sarui simply took a step back, narrowly avoiding the sharp tips of the bone—and with her left hand, brought out a painting knife and stabbed between the gaps of the ribcage, straight into the demon’s heart.

This time the heart gave in, spewing out a deep red color like a fountain as the demon roared and raged in response, releasing the largest wave of darkness yet from its body, literally blowing Sarui away through sheer magical force alone. Sarui flew through the air, tumbling over when she finally landed along the ground for a few moments before she was back on her feet, looking not only quite frazzled, but very displeased.

“This thing is a bit tougher than I expected,” Sarui commented to Zheiro, who was already on his last reserves of strength. “But it’s not over yet. Zheiro, let’s go!”

Zheiro could only nod in response, exhausted as he was. His grip on his blade was already slipping due to all the sweat that covered his palms, not to mention that he was barely able to even hold the sword up as he was now. Cutting down all this magic in one go was extremely exhausting for Zheiro, yet it was a role only he could do to keep them both alive.

Sarui herself was not stupid. She could clearly see that Zheiro was tiring, but there wasn’t much she could do about it; distracting the boss was pointless for it favored smashing everything in the area in one go with its magic, and if they retreated she knew the boss would regenerate from his wounds faster than Zheiro could recover his energy.

Which only left Sarui a single option: Take out the demon as fast as she could, to reduce the number of spells Zheiro had to cut down.

And so, she ran, a painting knife in one hand and a paintbrush in the other as she closed in yet again upon the demon.

The real question was, would she make it in time?

The assassins attacked as one, some running in to swing their blades or thrust their spears while others fired bolts from their crossbows, all at the storyteller who simply stood there. But it was then that the leader of the assassins noticed something was off.

The storyteller was still smiling.

With an exaggerated movement, the storyteller raised his head—and then vanished.

All of the assassins completely missed, their attacks swishing through nothing but empty air.

The mage himself was speechless. Wasn’t the storyteller under an illusion of his? How could he react to the assassins attack if he couldn’t see or hear them? And more importantly, where did he go?

“How boring,” Thrycius’ voice suddenly rang out from directly behind the magic user. The magic user froze, not wanting to confirm that yes, the enemy was standing right behind him and was in a position where the storyteller could kill him at any given moment. “When I first saw your illusion, I was sooo excited, you know? What kind of story would you present for me to live out? Would it be painful? Perhaps distracting? But nooo, all you decided to show me was a boring illusion, of a simple change of landscape. Do you know how utterly disappointing that was? At least try to use something more interesting and tell a story, regardless of whether or not you are in combat.”

The mage could only tremor in fear, his mind turning into a complete mess; while his illusions weren’t master class, he wasn’t exactly inexperienced with them either.

“And to think you had bragged so confidently earlier.  'How does it feel, illusionist, to have a taste of your own medicine?' ” Thrycius repeated with open mockery as he quoted the mage’s own words. “First off, I’m not an illusionist. And that was nothing like the stories I like to present to my audiences, so don’t you even dare compare your illusions with my stories.”

“B-but… how?” The mage asked in confusion.

“Simple,” Thrycius said. “Illusions are useless against me. Oh, don’t get me wrong; I can certainly see them, but they will in no way affect me. In fact, since your illusion is still in effect, I can still see it— but that doesn’t prevent me from seeing or hearing what is going on in the real world at the same time.”

The mage froze at the storyteller’s confession. Able to see both the illusion and the real world at the same time, and still act accordingly without any impairment from the illusion? Just exactly what kind of monster were they fighting?

“Now then!” Thrycius said brightly, taking a few steps back as if nothing had just happened. “It seems that my travelling companions are wrapping things up, so I shall be taking me leave. Have a nice day.” And with a dramatic bow, the storyteller vanished, leaving behind a small explosion in his wake.

The sudden disappearance of their enemy left all the assassins and the mage suddenly collapsing in relief.

It would be a short while before they could move properly again.

Sarui, still running as she desperately closed the distance as quickly as she could, had thrown numerous containers of paint by now at the demon they were fighting.

Some were obliterated, and others reached their mark; covering the demon in a colorful mixture of paint.

Zheiro actually ended up taking a moment to admire the demon’s new look since despite not all the paint making it through, he couldn’t deny that somehow Sarui was still turning the demon into a work of art just by throwing paint. That is, until he was forced to return to his role of cutting apart the demon’s massive, wide area attacks of darkness.

Perhaps fortunately for Zheiro, not all of the demon’s magical attacks covered a wide area, so whenever that happened Zheiro didn’t have to expend so much energy cutting down the spells; but it didn’t change the fact that Abaddon really did favor it’s wide area of effect magic.

Sarui herself had finally reached the demon’s heart once again, but this time instead of attacking, all she did was strike her painting knife against the ferrule of her paintbrush, creating sparks.

Sparks which ignited the paint completely covering the demon abaddon.

In a sudden burst of flames, the demon Abaddon was consumed entirely with fire. With a roar, the demon literally reared it’s ugly head, preparing to launch another massive blast of darkness— before its heart exploded, spewing forth even more blood and flame.

Sarui smirked to herself as the demon finally fell, dead.

Although the demon probably didn’t realize, her initial attack upon the demon’s heart with her painting knife had allowed paint to seep inside the heart itself, and once it was ignited...the rest was history. And with the demon’s death, their battle was finally over.

“See, Zheiro? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Sarui said confidently with a grin, turning around to face her companion, before pausing at the sight before her. “...Zheiro?”

For Zheiro lay collapsed on the floor, clutching his head with a dark miasma seemingly clouding around his head.

''A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but here's the next chapter you all (may) have been waiting for! (probably not orz lol)''

''Sorry for the long wait. To tell the truth, I actually had this chapter done a while back, but decided against uploading it since I've decided to wait for the quality assurance. More explanations later.''

''Anyway, what can I say? We have two fight scenes going on at the same time at vastly different locations, and it's pretty soon after the chapter where they fought against the Juggernaut, too. Battle maniacs can celebrate, I guess lol xD''

''Seems like Thry is a lot more skilled then he has let on so far, though, although I guess most of you probably would have guessed that by now. Now here's the real question: Did he actually reveal his real motives here? You'll have to wait for more updates to find out, I apologize for that.''

''Also, that maniacal laughter of his. I wonder if this is Thry's true personality?''

...it can't be, right?

''Anyway, I also had a lot of fun with deciding how Abaddon would fight. The wiki said he does AoE pretty much every turn, so I decided to reflect that with him spamming all those waves at dark magic at Zheiro and Sarui. The ribcage closing in on Sarui was based on his idle animation, actually. It felt really fitting too, considering how exposed such an important organ was. Bait with a trap! It failed, though, as you've all probably already read. Actually, please read the chapter first before the A/N if you don't already, I put them in this order for a reason you know?''

''Also, ending this chapter with a cliffhanger. I must have made a number of you cry out in despair since this could have been such a great place to stop. xD''

Finally, a note from our proofreader:

''Everyone, please forgive him, we're all very busy people after all. There was no way we were distracted by games and the like, of course not. There is no game.''

Previous Chapter Next Chapter