The Substitution of the Shield Hero

"Huh." I stared at the hordes of monsters rushing towards me. "This is... unexpected."

I was still on the moon since I was putting finishing touches to Iggy and helping her figure out how to control the atmosphere. I was also busy using Laevatein to revitalize the soil and make a proper water cycle.

And then I noticed that there were things punching up through the atmosphere.

At first, I thought I was seeing things.

But then...

> [My Body as a Shield] has redirected attacks towards you!

> Estimated redirected attacks: ~1000

...I got a delayed pair of notification messages.

I glanced at the messages and flicked my wrist, dismissing them. Then I shifted my gaze back towards the 'redirected' attacks. "Uh... I don't think the attacks are gonna happen..."

There were goblins, lizardmen, a few skeleton soldiers... standard fantasy fare monsters.

Except, you know.

They were being flung through the atmosphere due to my shield... Or I guess it's just an ability at this point.

But while the Status Magic System was definitely a thing...

I watched a few goblins clutch their throats before going limp.

I saw a few lizardmen have their eyes bulge and pop.

And the skeletons literally turned to ash as they were exposed to raw sunlight.

Either way though...

"Oookay. Can confirm. Status Magic System definitely planetary based. Also, redirected attacks are apparently aborted if the attacker dies in transit..."

I curiously watched how some monsters just became space debris, my ability just... leaving them to momentum since it judged they were dead.

"...Well. I guess I have an easy win condition for most battles?"

Since I had marked Iggy as an ally, I could just warp to my terraformed moon whenever I wanted.

So if someone was fighting me or my allies and I felt like shenanigans...

I nodded. "Good to keep in mind- Wait." I stared at the floating monster bodies. Then I looked at Iggy, now a towering tree hundreds of miles tall and impossibly large... like a World Tree should be. "...Should I teach her how to recycle?"

Leaving things to just rot on the moon wouldn't be good.

On the other hand, teaching a nascent world tree that she should repurpose fleshy bits once they stopped moving was ringing all sorts of alarm bells in my head...

"...Nah. Bad idea."

As curious as I was about what would happen, rationale won out.

Like Mom always said, when you have a bad feeling about things, that's when you should leave. Not after you got proof of why it was a bad idea.

That was why she had a spotless success record despite being a freelance mercenary for VERY dubious underworld syndicates and organization for over thirty years... plus still had all her limbs.

Honestly, that was what always impressed me. I kept telling her to quit since the odds of losing a limb or getting disabled was just too high in her field of work...

And then she responded that if, IF, it happened, she would just claim disability and not need to work the rest of her life.

...Which, to be honest, was super smart and fair.

But for now...

"Hm." I stared at the new wall of space debris. Then at the top half of the crimson skies blooming all over the world from the dimensional wave event. "...I'm surprised it hasn't ended yet. Is there really a raid boss or something every wave?"

Everyone was definitely safe. After all, my coded shield worked WAY better than intended.

I had to give myself a medal for that, honestly. To think it would work all the way up in space...

Hm.

I wonder if it'd work across dimensions?

Something to check later. Because if it DID, oh man the shenanigans...

...Aaand I should sleep. I'm starting to let my inner goofball out to play, and that's never good for someone with my resources.

But later.

For now...

A branch reached down to brush my shoulder. Iggy, no doubt reassuring me that she had things handled.

I glanced at the fledgling World Tree and said, "You sure you've got it handled?"

Iggy couldn't talk yet. But she waved a few branches, as if saying 'I've got this!'

Since that was the case, I nodded and said, "Alright. Then I'll leave you to get settled in. I should head back down and see what's taking so long."

Honestly, it had been a few hours already. The Three Stooges- I mean, Three Heroes couldn't STILL be that incapable, right?

===

In the northern territories of Melromarc, the open grasslands where the Three Heroes had been training.

Ren wiped away a sheen of sweat as he cut down a shadowy lizardman only for it to get back up. "What the heck is going on here?"

Welt scanned the surroundings and muttered a quick incantation under his breath. "I am a man of reason who has deciphered the truth of this world, lightning gather and strike my foes, Lightning Dreifach." He flicked his staff, making lightning crash down and turn monsters to ash. But then he paused when he saw the monsters reform. "Odd. I don't see anything that would cause this... It defies reason. Unless there is a rule at play here that I'm unfamiliar with... Fascinating."

Farrie kicked a group of lizardmen into the air for Itsuki to shoot down. Then she said, "Old man, could you stop studying the monsters and work for a way for us to defeat them?!"

"Ah, yes. My apologies. Old habit." Welt chuckled and ran a hand across his light brown bangs, brushing them away from his glasses. When he did that, his eyes flashed gold and he said, "Hm... I don't see any mana flow. But 'something' is undoubtedly collecting and reforming the bodies of these monsters. The fact that I cannot see it means... perhaps something at the soul level?"

Ren jumped back to dodge the lizardman and clicked his tongue as he killed it for the tenth time. "Soul level..." He shifted his gaze to the distance to where Motoyasu and his party were slowly whittling away at monsters. "...That would explain why Motoyasu's kills don't get up. His spear eats monster souls."

Itsuki jogged over and said, "Ren! What should we do?"

Ren glanced at the surroundings. Especially at the monsters that were mysteriously swept up into the sky... where there was now a vividly green moon.

Seeing that, his lips quirked into an amused smile and said, "Well. I would be worried if it was just us. But since Naofumi is clearly playing with real life cheats... I guess this is live training?"

Welt's eyes sparkled. "...Yes. That's quite true, isn't it?" He swept his gaze around and said, "Despite the unfolding of the dimensional crack, no monsters have made it anywhere close to civilization. Even the ones attacking us now are only doing so because we initiated the aggression. As for the others... Well." He watched as a group of skeleton soldiers rushed towards Melromarc. But before they took three steps, they were suddenly wrenched into the air by an unseen force.

Itsuki blinked and said, "Uh. Are... we sure that Aniki- I mean, Naofumi-dono isn't a god...?"

Ren gave Itsuki a blank stare and said, "You're a literal esper with psychic powers. You aren't qualified to talk about it, Itsuki."

Itsuki's ears turned red and said, "I'm only a Level 1! I'm barely better than a normal person! Plus my ability is just accuracy."

Ren rolled his eyes and said, "You are NOT a normal person. In fact, out of all of us... ironically, Motoyasu's probably the most normal."

Welt chuckled as he walked over towards Ren. "I would agree with that sentiment. Mostly because he was an absolute novice at using the spear. Honestly, swinging it around like a-" He suddenly stopped talking and swung his staff, sending out a bolt of lightning at empty space.

Itsuki jumped, his eyes wide with panic. "M-Mister Welt?!"

But before Welt could answer, someone clicked their tongue.

"A genius like me was spotted?"

From the aftermath of Welt's spell, a young man with long silver hair and dull blue eyes emerged. Holding a book in his hands, he reached up to adjust his glasses and stared at Welt with a hint of caution. "You're quite sharp."

Welt tilted his head and said, "...And you are not from this world. Your flow of mana is strange."

Ren quickly raised his sword, taking a proper guard to cover Itsuki. "...One of these days, Welt, you're going to need to explain how you can know that."

"One of these days, Sir Ren." Welt nodded. "But not today."

Itsuki raised his bow, mana arrows already spiraling in his hands and at the ready. "Another otherworldly assassin?"

"Hm?" Kyo tilted his head. "Otherworldly assassin?"

Itsuki nodded. "That's right... Are you from the Army of the Wave too?"

Kyo blinked. Then his eyes widened. "Of course...! There would HAVE to be an organization behind the waves! Yes, that would explain everything! Then, if so..." He quickly trailed off mumbling under his breath as if running a series of calculations.

Ren slowly turned to look at Itsuki.

Itsuki noticed. "W-What?"

Ren facepalmed. "...I give up. Let's just..." He sighed and waved his sword at Kyo. "Let's just beat this guy up before Naofumi decides we're taking too long and-"

A crackle of blue lightning erupted in front of Ren.

The moment it did, a familiar figure emerged.

Messy black hair, kept in a side part from his left to right. Dull brown eyes that were slightly sunken from definitely skipping too many days of sleep. Ambiguous features that made him look Asian in the right light, but enough that he could pass for a Westerner with the right outfit.

And in that outfit of a billowing black robe, a leatherbound book with a pentagram etched on it in crimson, as well as a blue orb slowly drifting around him, he DEFINITELY looked like a mage right out of a dark western fantasy novel.

Naofumi took a quick look around and then leveled Ren with a blank stare. "Ren, buddy. What's taking so long? It can't seriously take you guys three hours to beat one raid boss."

Ren responded by pointing his sword at Kyo. "It's probably that guy's fault."

Ren didn't know for sure. And he was probably wrong.

But Naofumi had the look of a guy who was interrupted in a marathon gaming session, and Ren was NOT going to be the target of his ire.

"Oh. Got it." Naofumi nodded and shifted his attention away from Ren.

Itsuki let out a relieved sigh the moment he did that.

Ren wanted to say something since Naofumi hadn't even been looking at Itsuki...

But honestly, he was just curious to see what Naofumi would do.