"Um...congratulations...? Simos mumbled. He was still peeking at Delica's status but he had been staring blankly at her, from her cold dull-colored arms up to her cheeks that had lost its glow. Whenever she stopped speaking, her looks became more prominently corpse-like.
"Ha...hahahaha, isn't amazing, dear brother! Uwaaaahhh, I'm a lich! The calamity class dreams of all necromancers and undeads...Haha, we should celebrate!" She shouted, full of life, compared to the grey undead color of her skin and her clouded gaze as if light refused to reflect on them.
"Um, right..." Simos weakly agreed.
So he wasn't that unaffected, Aiven thought to himself.
The grave reality of her being an undead crept up to Aiven's consciousness, and watching the two siblings, he felt like someone left a knife to his chest.
When Delica lapsed into silence, Simos quickly pointed at her status, "hey, Delica? What's with the 'incompetent' lich?"
"Who are you calling incompetent!?" Being mindful of her outburst—she hastily glanced at the Yuusha and seeing her idol busy petting Maou-chan, Delica corrected herself, "fu fu fu, are you mocking me dearest brother?"
Cold sweat dripped from Simos' brows as he watched Delica smiling sadistically, and the sound of suffering was heard in the background.
Aiven sighed. At their party's gloomy state, at least one of them was lively.
----------------------------------------
For a while now, Yuusha had been wearing a stern look on her face and after whispering something to the Maou, she ushered the child towards their group, "it is time."
With a louder voice for his other companions to hear, she said, "Adventurers, thank you for listening until the end. With this, you have fulfilled the requirement to venture on to my request. Even if you discard my plea, you still have my gratitude."
At the end of her speech, a window appeared in front of him. He was expecting the same thing to happen like the last time, with Delica and Simos automatically accepting that his vote will not be needed for consensus.
But this time, the two didn’t do anything. They were petrified. Before, he was too preoccupied, and with how lightning fasts the two complied, he wasn’t even able to read the details. It's a miracle they didn't go trigger-happy again. So this time he took his time reading the content. The other two became grim, they kept on reading and rereading and rereading the contents, even refreshing the quest acceptance not knowing how to react at the absurd quest.
Ding!
The Yuusha's Request
You have successfully listened to Lady Yuusha's Tale.
Difficulty: ???
Reward: Higher intimacy with Lady Yuusha.
Ding!
The Quest of the Fallen Hero: Serial Quest
Finding the truth behind the Hero's Summoning, you are now filled with distrust from the higher echelons of man. With the hero's last wish, you are now entrusted to look after the sealed Demon Lord and to assist her in her mission.
Quest Requirements:
o Successfully completing The Yuusha's Request
o Handing of the Demon Lord's guardianship to your party
o Assisting the Demon Lord in destroying the world
Quest Failure:
o Death of the Demon Lord
o Death of one all party members
Difficulty: ???
Reward: ???
Accept Decline
"W-we need to a-assist the Maou in destroying the world?"
Finally realizing something, a smirk work itself up from young Aiven's face.
Then he started laughing, it started as a snicker but gain volume until he was laughing hysterically.
"Aiven. Please stop, you're frightening Maou-chan."
"Kue, painful. My cute Aiven, looking more sinister than a demon lord."
You are one to talk! He sighed.
This has been one agonizing day. He felt like he aged considerably. A crazy hero, a lich, an obssessed assassin? In this room, the demon lord shines like an innocent pure angel.
Aiven then clicked the accept button, shocking all of them except for the Yuusha who expected his reply.
The hero might be crazy and delusional but to think she'll come up with this scheme.
The summoning made her miserable and all the past Heroes and Demon Kings.
And right now, they know nothing about the people chasing the Yuusha and the ones monitoring him. Their party was dragged into all of these chaos. Fuck, they even used Delica.
And that he cannot forgive.
Searching for them would be useless since they are obviously powerful enough that the Yuusha was incapable of finding them and so the only way left was to force them to come to us.
She planned on taking something they hold dear, and that was this world's existence.
Sly, oh, she's good.
If there was a quest of it then that means there's a chance for it to be done. Events, destinies, fates will align in the weave of Threads for the quest's completion. Just accepting it would be a justifiable reason for their enemies to show themselves.
Delica and Simos looked at each other and nodded, "I owe the continuance of my essence and dream to the Maou. For that I humbly accept."
"Your enemies took my sister from me and you have given her back, and if this would put a stop the never-ending war between demons and man then yes, I also accept."
Uh, you don’t have to be all serious about it.
Then he watched as the two stood in pair and kneel before the Maou-chan who backed away, her shoulder was touched by the hero and said, "go to them it'll be alright."
He was still standing, leaning on a pillar with his arms crossed as his mind goes with its usual overthinking mode.
<
<
She touched the statue and the statue glowed heavily, “I cannot senpai. You see, I no longer possess a body.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
What?
A flicker of light and her appearance distorted then come into view again. “I am sorry for deceiving you. It was tragic misfortune but I cannot tell you the whole truth because of the anomaly I first sense when we first encounter.”
Delica was obviously stunned.
"Summoned champions and demon lords do not have physical bodies. What we have is a pure manifestation of mana through an ancient vessel that likens to a soul gem. When I destroyed the Demon Lord's gem, I realized we are the same. But mine was lost. I infiltrated the royal palace in hopes of finding it. Before I could teleport, I knew someone already destroyed my vessel.” Since the Yuusha was sabotaging the way things are, they get rid of her? Just like that? “Thankfully we were flung in this holy ground. I was consuming my very soul just to stay in this world and now I depend on the link of this ground's ephemerae to exist. I cannot go pass the altar. So please take her and leave this place."
Ah, so she is also dead? It'll be a terrible loss of firepower but they can't help it. He thought coldly. He expected Delica and Simos to mourn but they continued listening while murmuring in reverence, "just like a goddess!"
He gave up on understanding the two.
The Yuusha gestured towards the statue and asked for Aiven and Simos to come. “This here, will give you a gift. It’s the least I could do for steering you to this Fate”
Their ears perked up.
By using the goddess, she made it possible to hack into the world’s ManaLine not only to create the quest but also to mess with the blessings. She even granted immunity for Maou-chan to be accepted in the sacred grounds as well as to Delica, a dark creature. Though she can’t go beyond that in fear she might create an irregularity in the flow of the world. The ??? Difficulty Quest already took a lot from her power.
"I could suggest to the goddess to create a contract for a class most befitting to you. However, its alignment has always been that of light. My apologies young Simos, but assassin class was not an option. Would you still accept it, Simos?"
Simos rest his chin to his hand, thinking deeply and answered "I appreciate the offer, but I would like to find my own path."
Aiven raised his brows at Simos' chivalric gesture. With his words and actions, you would think that he was aiming for a knight class.
"Very well then." The Yuusha guided Aiven. “Aiven-senpai, touch the marble plate and think of the power you wish to hold.”
Aiven initially wanted to refuse but then thought against it. Thinking of their future, if they do plan on pursuing with the quest, then he'll be hard pressed to level on any apprenticeship.
His talent and mana were lacking that he doubt any maester would take him in on the road.
With not much to lose and a lot to gain, he reluctantly agreed with the hero.
He went to the template with the runes marking the name of the Goddess of Sola, Soladrir. And when he touched the plate foreign markings expanded to his left arm with a red hue and it overlapped from the gold of the goddess. He felt mana being drained from his body in an unstable burst and unilaterally followed by a sharp pain on his temples.
Then the particles settled to his body, the pain stopped and a window suddenly appeared.
Detecting mana.
Scandown Complete.
Analyzing rare mana blueprint.
Match not found.
Match not found.
Match not found.
Manaflow System Overwrite.
Ding!
Congratulations on your new class.
The Goddess had found the ideal class for you.
Unorthodox Class
A class specially synchronized by the Gods.
By seeking the Goddess of Sola, you have found an unorthodox class. For the Goddess to find pity to your existence, your restriction to gain class was overwritten.
Class Title: Blade Clothier
Description: Combat Craft.
Unable to reject.
W-what is this? Goddess showing pity on him?
Remembering the pain, his brows knitted as he massaged the base of his forehead. Is his existence really that pathetic!? And what was that marking? His eyes shifted to his arm now free from the pattern it just glowed moments ago. He feels like he'd seen it somewhere. Somewhere long ago, even before he was born.
"Hey what did you get?"
His face grimaces and said, "Tailoring."
A difficult expression passed to the siblings.
"I-I didn't know what happened."
He raised his hand to stop the Yuusha and slightly shook his head, saying to her that it's fine. But it’s not.
Crafting profession? Argh! The pain returned with a vengeance, making him grit his teeth.
He didn't expect this drastic change of class choice but just like everything this world throws at him, he calmed himself down and he accepted it as it is. This world seemed to hate him.
But what's with the Blade Clothier? Combat Crafting skills, it was the first time he ever heard of it. There was a blacksmith back at the city that can flatten anyone's skull under a second but a tailor? What would he do? Prick his enemies until they looked like porcupines?
That was if the tiny needle could even bypass the reinforced skin.
Curses, was his talent so low that the Gods needed to create a dubious class for him?
He was just about to open his Skill Sets when Yuusha, materialized beside him with a concerned beguiling look on her face and said "Senpai, I'm sorry. I'm new to this so—"
Don't use me as a guinea pig! "Don't," he said not wanting to deal with the Yuusha right now.
At that very moment, he had lost all trust and hope towards the hero champion.
And even if he could, he had no strength to do so.
Which the Yuusha understood as for her not needing to apologize.
Sempai is really understanding, with that thought the Yuusha went on, "I have another gift for you, this time it's from me, personally," then she smiled so saintly.
No, don’t come near me!
With soothing tone, she commanded, "Open your mouth." And Lady Yuusha stuck her hand inside his mouth, not even waiting for his reply.
She grabbed hold of his tongue and pure mana started cutting it. The edges of his nerves pulsate with the heated laceration that cut through his flesh and hindered the mana in his tongue. He struggled but the Yuusha kept him in place and when it was over, his tongue numbs in pain but he felt his mana differed somehow.
When he sticks his tongue to look, which looks silly and weird, his tongue was healed only it is now split into two.
A slit tongue!? He screamed. What the hell is this hero doing to his body!?
"What is this!?" He screamed, which took him aback.
Checking his mana, he realized he didn’t consume a lot of mana just to use Babel.
It was another backlash from him not being of this world which he noticed when he tried to manually operate the origin language. That was why he tried to talk as little as possible.
"I-I could talk!" Aiven tested his words, his tongue moved in an uncomfortable way as he accustomed himself in this new sensation. Amazingly, he gets caught up with the feel of it in his mouth, especially since the two parts could consciously move in different directions. He checked his mana again and there it was. His mana barely consuming 1/20th of what it normally does whenever he activates [Tongue of Babel].
Yuusha replied with a soft smile, "it is not much, but this could somehow help you integrate more with the language. You are not part nor invited in this world, so your soul is being rejected." You make it sound like I'm a virus. "Don't you think it is now time to fight this world? And so fare thee well, little adventurers."
With those parting words, she faded. The Goddess's statue glowed, and the Yuusha’s voice coming from the image continued, "it is time for you to leave this place. Within a few moments, this place will be a battleground, I hope for you to succeed and put an end to our story." Then the glowing stop.
"Eih? L-Lady Yuusha? I-is she went?" Delica asked panicking.
"She is sleeping, please let her sleep," Maou-chan said.
Then silence. If not for the white-haired red-eyed girl sticking close to the statue as if sheltering for warmth, they would have shoved the whole incident as a dream or a delusion.
The silence was shattered by Simos comments. “I’m the only one who didn’t get a class, huh” and he started smiling wryly.
Aiven shot him a deadly glare and tried to sheath his dagger but was stopped when he can’t even release it to its scabbard.
Unable to equip.
Not compatible mana class.
Crap, he forgot. All weapons are created to enhance the class it was meant to be used for. That's why different classes cannot use the same types of weapons. Being a crafter, his mana was rejected by the steel, he can never equip any melee or magic weapons forever. Cruel! All his hard work training, getting beaten, perfecting his controls over skills…gone. Everything was gone.
“Shut it, Simos! I have to die...twice to get this class!”
Showing an undignified tantrum, he continued lamenting “hey just stating a fact, here. Anyway,” Simos opened the quest window, “what are we to do next?”
“We’re going back to the city,” Delica answered, her grayish complexion made her blue eyes shine.
“While babysitting the Maou!? You might be undead but we are still breathing and want to keep it that way.”
“I’m going to take back half of my soul. My class is an Incomplete Lich Simos, not incompetent." She scoffed at her brother. "We only have until the coming of the morrow before my shadow recedes and I became the same with the mindless undead creatures.”
She went to Maou-chan’s side and with a low voice said, “Maou-chan, this is selfish of me, but we would need to go back to the city. Is it okay?”
The little girl glanced at Delica and her tiny fingers caressed her hair, “you have the same hair as Yuu-neechan.” Delica doesn’t know how to answer, “please don’t look sad. Yuu-neechan said, you are now my minions, so I’ll help you be whole again I promise!” She answered
M-minions? He almost chokes on his spit.
“Maou-chan! You, you really are the cutest! Can I call you master?” And she went on harassing the little girl.
“Now that we have Lady Maou-chan’s permission, we need to get moving.” They’re not even complaining about being branded as a lowly servant! “You know where to find it?”
Delica answered coldly. “It’s with Father.”