[Chapter=10] Brink Of Death

Crack…!!

"THAT'S IT!" Retracting his stick and throwing it on the ground, he then pressed on the jewel with his own hand and sent his own energy inside.

Replacing and remaking the functions of the jewel from the Divine to his own, ancient green magicks kept flowing out, while Naofumi's red energy flowed inside.

"You won't take my power away!" He screamed, ingesting another elixir, and pumped in more energy inside.

The magnitude grew two fold, as the earth was literally shaking. Nobody knew where that earthquake was coming from in the surface, but Naofumi wasn't caring one bit.

[ALERT 🚨]

[Many functions will be prohibited, in the name of the Divine. Interfere with the Divine's contract, and you will suffer the consequences.]

Soon, the jewel emboldened a pure crimson red colour, but now the final and most deadliest phase was in existence.

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Chugging yet another elixir, he began to mend the crack of the jewel with his own power.

He didn't need a spell that would do it, or else it would either counterbalance the jewel on the shield, or simply bounce off.

No, all he needed was pure power, whether it was from his HP, MP or SP.

[DANGER!! ☠️]

[You are risking potential death from altering the functions of the Hero's Shield. You do not know what you are doing.]

Naofumi wasn't paying attention to the warnings. He knew what he was doing, and he knows it's dangerous, but it didn't matter.

He did it once in the Desert Prison, he could do it again, and this time he wasn't going to play by their rules.

A final burst of power shook civilization, as the Melromarc citizens were frightened in terror of the red pillar of light that erupted from nearby their walls.

Motoyasu, who was hanging out with his female party members, looked out the window to see the pillar, and had his jaw drop to the ground.

Ren and Itsuki, who were gathered their own things in the inn, saw the pillar as well. The King stepped back in horror as the pillar of red light made the night sky crimson.

Even Erhart, the blacksmith, could only fall to the ground on his ass from gazing at that pillar, his thoughts lingered to his own customer Naofumi.

And soon, the light died down and the pillar dissipated. Many citizens wondered what that was, with the knights panicking on what exactly that was.

Within the pillar, Naofumi breathed a sigh of relief, smiling at his work. A metal shield, with a crimson jewel, instead of green.

His eyes becoming heavy, he grabbed his shield and lied on the walls of the ruined sanctuary, content with his masterpiece. One singular message popped up on his screen before he passed out, and it made him smirk.

WHAT

HAVE

YOU

DONE

? ? ?

------------

<><><><><><><>(flashback)

One wise hero has said, "The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion." And frankly, rebellion was not uncommon within Melromarc citizens.

Within the years that the XXVIIIth ruled as the domineering queen, most of the subjects viewed her as the supreme queen, capable of subjugating the land due to her immense power, and craved her by following her words and example, using that power to destroy and rule over all.

Even the nations of Q'ten Lo and Zeltoble were willing to bend their knee to the might and awe of the XXVIIIth.

Adding the fact that she's also one of the most gifted mages the world has ever seen, dominion over the entire land seemed inevitable.

So what do we extra few, who do not share the same goals or mindset as the masses, do? We plot and rebel.

With rebellion, awareness is born, and aware we have become, easily witnessing in disbelief what exactly our people have been doing this entire time.

Killing. Pillaging. Spreading terror. All in the name... of a witch. A despot. A tyrantress.

- Introductory Passage of "The Seeds of Rebellion", by Sharliya C. Eos, heretic and co-founder of the Melromarc rebellion, the Wild Rose.

<><><><><><><>(flashback end)

It was now late afternoon. Melromarc just felt an entire shockwave of power, and a red pillar of light shine from above.

The citizens feared for their lives when it struck, almost like the world was undergoing the apocalypse. And just when things got worse, it was over.

The light disappeared without a trace. The quakes ceased. Citizens only looked left and right, before they all breathed out a sigh of relief.

Outside, the covered hole was completely obliterated, the trees that were caught in the blast, possibly atomized by the blast.

Rubble fell onto the stairs, completely blocking the intended entrance and exit, but the hole still remains from the blast that Naofumi's Shield erupted with.

From within, rock and rubble completely covered the sanctuary, destroying the serene and soothing haven.

The place was completely destroyed, saved for a small amount of spring water left on the fountain. From within, said Shield Hero was slowly waking up after the process.

"Ugh… man… My head…" His groans were heard inside the blocked off caverns.

There was only a single source of light on the far roof of the caverns. He didn't really feel so good, and it was so much easier said than done to do that to his own Shield.

Perhaps he was a lot more weaker now compared to when he was in the desert, but he didn't feel as heavy as before. In fact, he felt light, but still sore.

The man attempted to stand, but promptly fell back down on the wall. "Ow... What time is it...?" The man looked upwards, hearing the very quiet, yet distinct whistles of faraway wind... and the many distant chatters of people over top.

He didn't know what they were saying, but it wasn't that they were too far. His ears were ringing quite a bit, but they were slowly going away.

"Wow... that's a huge hole…"

"I wonder what's down there…?"

"That pillar of red light, did it have something to do with this?"

"A new dungeon perhaps?"

"M-Maybe there's treasure down there!"

"I don't think we have rope that long..."

"My Lord, we must train somewhere else. We cannot survive a fall that high."

Slowly, his hearing came back to him. The conversations that were happening up there were still blurry and unclear, but he can manage.

Resting enough, the man tried to get up, only for the Shield Hero to flinch and shudder from the pain that shot up from his stomach.

'Damn… Maybe it was because I overdosed those Elixirs…' The horrid gagging feeling arose from within, and Naofumi, for a lack of better terms, hurled on the floor, just shy away from his shoes.

"W-Was that a monster?"

"Oh God! With that pillar of light, I don't wanna know!"

Most of the chatter disappeared from up above, thinking that the hurling noises Naofumi was making was the roar of a monster.

The man finished vomited out his stomach contents, and spat on the floor to get the excess out. He never felt this way in the longest of times, and it felt horrid.

Thankfully, most of it was past, as he stood up straight, passively healing his stamina up.

Looking at his HUD, it was more or less the same, except he was really really low on HP, MP and SP, along with the Brink of Death status.

[Brink of Death: All stats are lowered by 95% for the next 60 minutes, or unless cured.]

"Wow… that really did a number of me. I guess that it was much easier because I was max level before…" He was able to stand up despite the stomach pains, but now he was basically limping his way through.