Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 164

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 164

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Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

…

The Imperial capital brought back a lot of unpleasant memories. While I’d like to say that I looked at the whole place and considered it looking good for future-rubble, I’m not some superhuman that can overcome all his trauma within a few years. The healthy living conditions, caring companions, and many, many victories over the Empire helped. However, wounds were still wounds, and they could throb and ache when memories became too clear.

And, the Empire’s capital made everything too clear.

I’d felt awe, despite myself, when I first saw it.

Despite being summoned and deemed worthless, I had been excited my first few days here, even in shackled. It was a delusional fantasy, thinking that I had some sort of secret power, like perfect control over magic despite having so little. I told myself, while surrounded by towering, crystal buildings, magic on every street corner making life easier, and literal intergalactic enslavers, that I was at the bottom of my adventure, that I would go stronger, and maybe go back home after I got tired of being overpowered.

Then, I fought as a slave and fought desperately for almost half-a-decade, while these bastards lived it up in their crystal spires surrounded by magic.

You know what?

Maybe I’m not feeling trauma and terror at returning to the place where I was marched off to die like a slave.

Maybe, I’m just cringing at my own delusional self.

I thought about it for a bit… and realized that my earlier assessment was true.

I’m not cool enough to overcome trauma that easily, or attribute it wholly to my past self.

Seeing the capital in the distance made my heart race, it my hands tremble, and I didn’t know whether I wanted to scream in frustration or cry out in fear. If I didn’t have a plan going in, if I didn’t have objectives to follow, and if I didn’t have people who looked to me to lead them, I would’ve probably been at a complete loss at what to actually do as we approached it.

But, I did have all those things now, so I buried my unease, my worries about confidence, and stood firm as a leader.

Even if I couldn’t confront my past on my own, I didn’t need to.

Some would say that I’m relying on other people too much, that I should try to do this all myself, and that personal achievements come from within and not without. To them, I encourage them to take the opportunity to go through the same trauma I did, and I’d like for them to do it all without people they care about helping them along. Then, I’d also like to remind them that their horrible past wasn’t just grade-school bullies, but genocidal monsters that stole people from other dimensions and slapped instant death collars on them without a second thought.

Yeah, going to settle your horrible past sounds a lot more terrifying without a bunch of superhuman perverts at your back, doesn’t it?

…

The Empire’s capital looked more and more dilapidated as we came forward. The glittering, golden spires where most of the Empire’s nobility lived looked hollow, while the pristine, white streets were empty and devoid of life. It was still clean and looked terrifying to try and hold, as it was a mess of massive buildings, long stretches of road perfect for magical duels, and chokepoints in the form of alleyways, but it was also empty and dead.

“Well, she doesn’t do anything by half-measures, I’ll give her that much.” We kept our distance, concealed ourselves, and used telescopes to peer into the capital. Even emptied and held by an Eldritch creature, the magics of the Empire prevented their capital from being spied upon with magic. It was a bit irritating, but I had plenty of sharp eyes aboard, and they knew how to coordinate and compound information. “Does anyone see where she’s lounging around?”

“I would say that she’s most likely in the largest building.” Henri offered, but A’Bel spoke up after her.

“It’s likely that she’s waiting for you where your journey here began.” I didn’t like the insinuation in the slightest, but A’Bel never liked mincing words. That thought occurred to me to, and it made sense since the creature peered into my mind. “You gave her entry into this world, so she will meet you where you entered the world, too.”

“So, it looks like we’re heading into the cathedral then.” It was the Church’s main summoning location and it was massive due to the need for bodies that the Empire developed over the centuries. The Empire’s palace was off to the side of the capital, a district in and of itself that was surrounded by walls and fortifications, but the Imperial Cathedral was at the heart of the city. Arguably, it was its most defended location. It made sense, since it could produce bodies for their war nonstop if the capital was in danger. “Anyone have eyes on it?”

A small meeting took place, information was collected, and we all came together to look at the Cathedral after everyone put on their anti-madness equipment.

It was a good thing that we did.

“It’s alive.” The massive structure was the size of several city blocks put together. It was meant to summon whole armies and have them be restrained and shackled within minutes. Industrial-grade, interdimensional conscription. That needed a large building with a façade of fancy things like spires, statues, and archways. That was no longer the case. The Cathedral, now, was a writhing mass of flesh composed of the capital’s citizenry. “And, it seems we’ve found where all the people are.”

Some of my troops looked ready to puke at the sight.

It was a miracle that no one did, because the moment we looked at it, hundreds of eyes on the living structure looked straight at us.

“A’Bel?”

“It does not see what it cannot.”

“I’m guessing that doesn’t help.”

“No. It doesn’t.”

“Evasive!” Henri cried out and the ship lurched forward, abandoning the concealment we covered it with. The lack of heavy armaments and a hold filled with fuel seemed like a bad mix to enter battle with. However, I knew for a fact that fuel wasn’t going to last long. “Enrobe the ship with protections against the Eldritch!”

The protective field that enforced the rules of reality on our surroundings took effect. The hundreds of eyes looking away winced and recoiled, some even popped, as they couldn’t exactly exist. The sloughing flesh that came apart from the mound turned into people. The capital’s citizenry. They lived, screaming in pain and horror from their state as limbless lumps of flesh bereft of skin and protection, before falling and dying upon hitting the ground.

A moment later, at the apparent slight, beams of darkness enrobed with lightning streaked towards us from the remaining eyes in a mad frenzy.

The ship evaded, and the beams that reached the hull came apart, as they were ideas made reality through power and we enrobed ourselves in protections against it.

The same couldn’t said for the Empire’s capital.

Wherever the beams touched, the absolute destruction that levelled a whole mountain range manifested in miniature. The crystal spires that were struck looked as though they were cut, their upper halves sloughing slightly off kilter, while their wounds suddenly came alight, swelled, and burst as heat and force. Building after building broke apart like glass knives struck by bullets, except they were utterly massive in nature, and their shards fell and broke upon the ground and flooded streets with shards the size of fists.

A fine mist, entirely made of glass, began to rise up from the capital as the abomination kept firing in rage, while we kept up our approach.

“Button up. Now.” I gave the command to activate trinkets and artifacts and equip gear that would prevent my troops from breathing in the cloud of glass and crystal, while A’Bel pulled me away from the railing. Everyone else had gone to their stations, with only a partial crew on the deck. That didn’t include me, but everyone knew that I wouldn’t stay safe while everyone else was risking their lives. A’Bel, however, did place me right behind the helm where magical protections were set to protect the steerer of the ship. “Henri, I think we need to play our hand early. This is plenty, right?”

“Indeed it is, my lord.”

Henri concurred and with a few strides made her way to the prow of the ship. She hung off it with one hand, displaying her strength as Kindred with ease, while her other hand held her family’s staff. It was specialized for the maintenance and enrichment of the Undead, but it was still a staff that she could use for great feats of magic. Such as what she was going to do now.

Eldritch creatures were usually powerful against most magics. The reasoning behind it went over my head, since I wasn’t that educated in the arcane arts. However, my people and advisors explained the important parts, and I discussed countermeasures with them until we arrived at a solution. Most forms of magic you could fire against Eldritch creatures experienced the same inability to perform as her own power did against our protections. Arcane flames dissipated, icy bolts of power ceased to be, and even constructs of earth crumbled to dust.

However, the objects affected by magic remained, gravity was something the Eldritch had to acknowledge existed, and mass combined with velocity the same way here as it did in the deepest depths of the cosmos.

So, our plan had been to break one of the crystal spires and use its wreckage against our foe.

It just provided us with the ammo we needed to fight it.

Henri gave out a cry, and a disgusting amount of power surged from her, which gave even A’Bel a moment of shock.

I ignored that in favor of looking at the attack itself.

The flood of glass shards ceased to fall, and those that reached the ground arose at Henri’s command. Moments later, all the fallen glass was turned into a massive pillar held together by will… and it began to spin, spin, and spin in place. The velocity generated by magic decreased once it gained speed, turning into control, and the immense pillar of broken crystal spun and spun at Henri’s behest as our ship flew forth with Henri at the prow, like a living figurehead and weapon combined.

The abomination we were fighting fired at it, but Henri just kept up the spin, and the broken pieces were sucked up into the vortex being created. My Lich kept her attack speeding forward, slowly and meticulously towards what became of the Cathedral, and we found ourselves looking more and more of the destructive beams streaking towards it. It had some of my knowledge from our connection, so it understood what it was looking at, and so it could be controlled through fear.

A great gathering of power surged from the beast, and reality warped around the whole capitol, flowing past our ship. Light sharpened, the darkness deepened, and the temperature dropped into nothing, as the Eldritch creature imposed its realm upon the whole city… and fell right into our trap.  The spinning mass of crystal and power held together by magic came apart without Henri’s control and fell like a tide of whirling destruction towards the creature.

It disappeared beneath the tide of broken crystal, but the scream of agony and rage that came forth from hundreds of thousands of throats told me all I needed to know.

“Hold on and put everything to defense!”

We made the creature force its hand, made it expend power to blow apart our attack landing on it, instead of having it focused on us.

We’ll fight it weakened, with much of its power expended on thousands and thousands of pounds of mass and velocity, instead of us.

As long as we weathered the secondary effect of the blast.

…

I cradled a broken arm, while A’Bel picked me up.

As I thought, I was the weakest of my gathered force, so while I had a non-functional limb as a result of the controlled crash… everyone else in the strike group was badly bruised at best.

In fact, I was almost tempted to get healed, especially as everyone was giving me miserable looks… but there were better uses of power at this moment.

Before I could continue to act tough, A’Bel took me over to Reiser, and I was healed up.

I ignored the fact that they were ignoring what I told them to do in favor of making the situation progress.

“What’s our status?” I tested my arm at Reiser’s glare, and gave her a thumb’s up. A moment later Henri was checking on her work, and the Lich sent a satisfied nod, before A’Bel came up and checked again. Two different opinions for a broken bone getting mended is a little overkill, don’t you all think. “I’m fine now, so I’d like to finish the boss fight, guys.”

“The ship is destroyed, but it is close enough to weaken the foe.” I took a look at my second flagship for barely three months and winced. It was wrecked, its underside all but broken apart with its landing. The Lua’Kona people were great shipwrights and put their skills to use while making the ship. They made it so that once the armor plating was gone, the wood would shatter and crumble against impact to protect the rest of the ship. The bottom half of the ship was gone, but the inner, armored tub that was the hull survived along with its cargo of fuel, and the spell that it was meant to deploy. “We will go into the battle with an advantage.”

“Good.”

A’Bel nodded at my words, before putting down my arm, and once more calling forth her armor. With just a gesture, she made the gathered strike force fan out and form a perimeter around us. A lot of looks were suddenly on me, and I glared back at all of them.

“If you all planned to send me away with the hidden teleportation ritual in the ship… you all did a decent job and I’m proud of you, but I didn’t get this far without knowing what my own troops feel and want.” I looked over our one stowaway’s way, who was doing her best to be inconspicuous despite being a Pharaoh, and the Apophis wilted at all the glares sent her way. It was the price I’d asked of her to stay, and she took it to not be in my debt. “So, let’s get a move on and see if our guest is willing to negotiate. Otherwise, we’re killing her.”

How did the old saying go again?

To fool your enemies, you must first fool your friends?

I thought I did a pretty good job at managing that—

Suddenly, I felt a firm hand on my shoulder, and a smiling face I didn’t expect next to my own.

It was Reiser and her anger at me for endangering my life was something I couldn’t deny in the slightest.

“Hachiman, if you die, I’m bringing you back even if it means I must usurp the Goddess herself.”

Oi, what the hell, I thought you were done being a zealot!?

Making me your target barely changes a damn thing!