#l’arc x naofumi

[shieldherostuffs]

Yes, look at them ✨️

shit look at them

[eli-elien]

7 larc x Naofumi

7) To shut them up...

They sit across from each other, feet both dangling from the balcony, looking upon the intricate brick roads and dotted buildings of L’arc’s people. Everything is quiet except for the sound of bugs and the wilderness surrounding the kingdom, the only light being the warm orange of windows and the moon.

L’arc swirls his glass, wine, for the advisor told him off about doing paperwork drunk again; but its always such a pleasure to have these late night talks with Naofumi.

Maybe it was the drink or perhaps the mood, but he takes delight in the way moonlight shines on the ravenhead’s hair, how the stars reflected in those emerald eyes.

“What are you staring at?” Naofumi looks him in the eyes, curiously.

“The moon’s quite bright tonight, but so are your eyes.” Something playful tugging at L’arc’s lips.

Naofumi blinks from that, “Really? Been told they were dull,” he chuckles, “like a villain’s.”

L’arc frowns slightly at that, the way Naofumi looks away from his view, trying to shrink away.

“Whoever made up that narrative is an idiot. I think emeralds, given enough time and effort, would shine brighter than any diamond. You should know that better than anyone, right jeweler?”

Naofumi’s face reddens from the way L’arc’s brow raised and the smirk he gave, god that smirk was something to be wiped off by a slap to the face. Naofumi laughs again slightly, nodding.

“I mean given your skills, your actions, I’d say you’re the perfect hero.” 

Naofumi purses his lips, breath quickening for just a second after turning back and seeing those ruby eyes. Those ruby eyes that almost took his life that day during the wave.

“And all the rest of those jerks can go fuck right off if they know what’s good for them.”

His face heats up more, feeling the hand that sets down the empty wine glass firmly on his. The foot dangling a feet from Naofumi’s own, touching the them.

Naofumi takes a breath, “I think you’ve drunk enough, I mean I don’t need all this praise and-” He’s taken, back against a column of stone with ever reaching ivy, another’s body heat melding to his own. L’arc’s hand still planted on his, he pulls his lips away from Naofumi’s, which are still parted after the touch.

“No I’m not drunk, and you do deserve this, so shut up and take it kiddo.”

[moontheoretist]

I want mlm RPG game isekai, please 😫

I once again tried to look for isekai with queer protagonist that is not written as BL (don’t take me wrong, I like BL, but what I am looking for is not BL isekai, but rather isekai that has queer male protagonist, because if you google “BL isekai” the results you get are mostly “porn without plot”, while I’m looking for a lot of plot instead - I don’t care how many sex scenes is there as long as there is plot that isn’t short and is intriguing so I can enjoy both the story and the romance that is going on, but sadly “BL isekai” is mostly not that) and like usual I found nothing, because apparently nobody came up with the idea that having a gay protagonist transported into isekai world in which he is surrounded by beautiful women, but has literally 0 interest in any of them and falls in love with that one guy he meets, is a great setting for a comedy. [EDIT: 14.10.2023 Why nobody told me about Kyo Kara Maoh? This is literally a mlm isekai that I looked for!]

Anyway, failing in finding male x male themed isekai that has romance as part of the story instead of the focus of the story, once again made me realize how much more interesting Raising of the Shield Hero would be if Naofumi and L’Arc were the endgame ship. Typical isekai RPG story with side romance that also falls into the drama territory due to the fact that L’Arc and Naofumi are technically enemies due to the fact that their worlds are currently fighting for survival with each other. Isn’t it thrilling when your love has obstacles similar to Romeo and Juliet story? That your love is forbidden or impossible, but you still end up having it in the end, because we are positive and don't want them all to die for the sake of their love, because hell they have to survive to save the world. Also harem just simply doesn’t fit this story.

Anyway, there is also an isekai manga that I was reading Ansatsusha de Aru Ore no Status ga Yuusha yori mo Akiraka ni Tsuyoi nodaga (My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's), and tbh this manga would also greatly benefit from mlm romance, because as far as I noticed the protagonist is treated very well by the Hero in this story, to the point that I got some fruity vibes from the Hero in regard to his Assassin classmate (the MC). Due to the setting in which the MC discovers that the Kingdom that summoned them is not to be trusted and gets driven out by the Royals, the love story between Hero and the Assassin would really complete the picture. Hell, Akira could date both the Hero and Amelia (elven girl he meets) as far as I am concerned. Polyamorous bisexual isekai, let’s go!

(I dunno how you, but this is either very good friendship or gayness).

[iwatanis-bitch]

Matching lovecore Naofumi x L’arc icons!! Free to use with credit!!

[rot-shield-hero]

Hanahaki disease rarufumi

Haven’t posted in a while but I’m now thinking of a Hanahaki disease for Naofumi when he met L’Arc. How long had they been in Cal Mera? I don’t know but it was love at first sight.

So with Naofumi’s advanced healing, it’s making this all the more painful because it does not actually go away.

Maybe during the fight when they betray him, his healing gives out and the flowers come in tenfold. L’Arc talks about having to kill him and Naofumi just smiles with blood on his lips and a petal on his chin and says “You already did.”

Next, the flowers overgrow his lungs and everyone watches as he collapses and blood flowers burst through his chest.

[extreme-technicality]

I’m so sad the second season is paywalled >:/ crunchyroll and I are about to throw down

Idk why I keep being surprised at how much I like rising of the shield hero

[rosesinbloom7love]

Thoughts?

what are ya’ll opinions on giving Naofumi a harem?

Cuz, I have an Au in mind that involves giving him a harem.

Like i’ll be really transparent here, before L’arc & Therese were a thing, I kinda shipped Naofumi with the other three heroes (mostly motoyasu). don’t ask me why cuz i honestly couldn’t tell you.

i think it was just the fanart and fanfic were really good. also they were the only ships i liked at the time as the only other ones were Naofumi x Raphtalia. which i have made VERY clear i only see them as a father-daughter relationship.

and the other one was Naofumi x Myne, which i avoided like the plague for obvious reasons.

anyway, Naofumi in a harem with L’arc, Therese and the three heroes. 

thoughts?

[shieldherostuffs]

I think I came up for a Ship name for Naofumi x L’Arc x Therese... 

TheRuFumi

I don’t know if anyone likes it, or even this Ship, but I do and I wanted to share that with people. 

[serpenttailedangel]

Do you know any good Motofumi fics out there? AllI see is L’arcfumi ones (tbf, L’arc is awesome).

At the risk of crushing your hopes and dreams, most of the Motofumi content seems to be in Japanese. Motoyasu and any ship to do with him are tragically underrated in the English fandom. Like, I’ve been less active in the fandom the past few months with focus on an original story project instead, but last I checked the most popular FFN story about the Spear Hero was still a self-insert that cut Motoyasu out completely. I think there’s maybe ten fics I’ve seen total with some semblance of the pairing, and some of those are Naofumi x Everyone or a physical pairing with no romantic relationship, implied Motofumi down the road but the author stopped updating before that point, etc.

On the flip side, while Raphtalia is certainly the star of a hefty portion of the series Japanese fanart, she’s in like 1% of all the doujins you can find. The Shield Hero doujinshi are overwhelmingly Motofumi. There’s straight up like 100 of them and I can’t read any of it and it’s not fair.

...

So anyway here’s some recs for artists who draw Motofumi, since I don’t have a lot to offer you for fics.

https://twitter.com/hamoru_07/media

https://twitter.com/karashi_Minamin (this one’s my favorite, the art style is really close to the art in the light novels)

https://twitter.com/mokum09

https://twitter.com/segawaseki/media (does more Siltvelt-loop stuff)

https://twitter.com/yamori84

[sindri42]

Oh hey, since Shield Hero is growing in popularity I feel like I should say something.

Don’t lewd Raphtalia. She’s like, twelve years old at the most, more likely 9-10. Judging by the latest episode, she literally does not even know where babies come from. Just don’t.

Same applies to Filo obviously; she looks like she’s about eight and she’s actually less than one so even if you assume monsters mature faster that is absolutely not okay.

Melty, despite being crown princess and one of the most responsible people in the series, is definitely a child. Nope.

Ren is 16 and Itsuki is 17, so smut is not allowed but some light shipping is fine with other characters in the same age range. They’re still in high school at the start of the series, though they might grow up as time progresses.

Rishia is also 17 when we meet her. It’ll take at least a year for her to make her move on Itsuki at this rate tho...

Keel, Atla, Fohl, and all the other kids Naofumi adopts are definitely off limits, no matter how hot they are or how much of a furry you are.

S’yne is a little hard to tell because her personal timeline is messed up and she doesn’t talk much but she looks like a teenager at most so to be on the safe side don’t.

Acceptable targets for lewdness:

Myne/Bitch, though I shudder to think about the contents of fanworks centered on her

Motoyasu is 21 years old and canonically sexy as hell

Naofumi is 20; he’s currently sex-repulsed but whatever

[Motoyasu x Naofumi actually almost happened in canon, so go wild]

Weapon Shop Guy. (he has a name but it isn’t revealed until like book 13 and then forgotten immediately. Point is he’s hot for an older dude.)

Glass is definitely an adult. Be aware that she’s a lesbian though, so no pairing her with men.

Fitoria looks young, but she’s been around for thousands of years and definitely has kids, probably millions of them.

Therese

L’Arc Berg

Eclair

Ost

Kizuna

Nadia/Sadeena

Ratotille

[moontheoretist]

Tate no Yuusha: Last Episode (Anime vs Manga)

Spoilers to the last episode and manga adaptation ahead!

Well, they packed so much in this last episode didn't they. Not that they really had any choice considering it was the one and only good way to close the whole season. Though I feel a little robbed about some stuff, like the relationship L'Arc had with Glass (meaning, she was acting as his superior and he was really good at supporting her during the fight in the manga, a lot of their interactions there were more fleshed out than in the anime). It was shown to some extent, but focus was lost. Probably due to the battle. It looked as if anime focused on showing how “woohoo” battle is instead of focusing more on Glass and how she needed her party during the battle. Anime tried to show her as powerful, but in the same time refused to acknowledge her weakness after Naofumi became stronger and focused only on this one caused by Soul Eater Shield. Manga to the contrary focuses on how much of a pain Naofumi became to Glass for the sake of showing how helpful L'Arc and Therese are to her when Glass is in a pinch or fights someone strong. Well, I can only say it's a price which we pay for translating novel to two different mediums at the same time. 

I feel also robbed from the whole drama with Risha. In the manga it didn't happen as quickly as in the anime. She got whole storyarc, from which we learned a lot about Itsuki, his party, how they treated her, which kind of person Risha is and even her quirk of going around in a costume, because she feels safe inside something. We were robbed of that image of her saving the day in her cute costume just like in the last episode we got robbed from all the drama of L'Arc's betrayal and some of his great texts like "Don't make that face. This hurts my heart, too." (Which by the way is along with Glass comments a confirmation that there is a room for L'Arc x Naofumi in this whole universe). 

We also got robbed from Therese telling everybody that L'Arc sucks when it comes to explaining things clearly to other people, which is... a shame, like it would flesh out his character a little more than anime actually tries. (If anybody wanna see, check chapter 40 of the manga). 

Speaking of which, the whole battle is also shown in a different way in the manga, because Naofumi never splits up from Raphtalia and uses Soul Eater Shield from the very start to nearly the end. The change in the manga to use only this one shield and also to not split up parties was used to give us more informations about Glass and L'Arc due to them being from another world (simply put, there is more team battle in the manga and basically no individual battle, which anime shows instead). In anime this whole scene serves as "wow, it's a cool battle going on", but also as "Glass isn't human" realisation scene, where she alone is more of a thread than when she battles with her team. There is nothing about L'Arc also drinking the vial. Not to mention that in the manga Glass didn't drink the vial, she literally bathed in it, which made her so overpowered that it also strenghtened the sense of abnormality without actually any need to split her from her peers (meaning that bath and power were two weird things which made her abnormal). So I feel kinda robbed of that, simply because it was great reinterpretation of the novel. Sometimes just going along with the text in a book isn't the best choice and it really shows in this scene. Naofumi in the anime doesn't really look as if he was cornered enough to actually use Shield of Wrath, while in the manga the sheer power which Glass shows there (and doesn't in the anime as much as in the manga) was enough to make him instantly switch to using the Shield of Wrath. And it worked better, not only because anime forgot that Naofumi should act violently while using that Shield. (Do I have to add that manga portrays him as going into evil/crazy guy mode and Raphtalia and Filo throw themselves at him to actually stop him from doing anything bad to Glass, and also show that L'Arc makes concerned face when he SAVES Glass from Naofumi, while Naofumi is fighting with his own party yelling that they have to take Glass down now, because it's their chance?)

(He kinda looks like as if he was in pain for seeing Naofumi in such a state).

*sighs* Manga definitely won me over, but I cannot say that anime did bad in portraying the battle. It did fine. I mean anime is a visual medium as much as manga is, but because manga is a comic while anime is a TV series there are of course differences in the way they use visual methods to explain things to the audience. Also anime tend to go into "wooohoo" mode when there are battles during the episode, which rarely happens in the comics, where battles serve as trigger to actually tell audience more about the characters. Here we kinda have the situation where anime was focusing on “wow, battle” while manga was focusing on “look how powerful Glass is after bathing in this vial with potion and look how abnormaly powerful she became”. Manga went nuts to show that Glass is overpowered, while anime tried to show that in the strenght of her attacks, but even though she was strong it still kinda felt a little flat if I am honest. I almost wish animators were reading the manga and tried to borrow some stuff from there to improve the storyline, instead of going along with the novel.

(Simply put, Glass was strong only after she bathed in the vials, and before that she was as much vulnerable as any other character so she needed her party. Anime went with her being still the most powerful and split her up with her peers early on, so she could go nuts at Naofumi, but then when she drank the vial she became just a little more stronger though considering she was already shown as strong before, it didn’t have the same effect as in the scenario when she relied on her team more to fight with Naofumi, cuz he became so much stronger).

Ok, moving on, what I was talking about earlier? Ah, Risha and her fluffy costumes. We were robbed of Risha and her fluffy costumes! And Itsuki being a total jerk! I really wish they didn't pack it into this one episode as "quick summary of what happened to her" and instead went with whole arc, because Risha’s SUICIDE ATTEMPT feels so flat in comparision! But well, they had to close the season and the best way seemed to be with the use of Naofumi's new title and territory as well as semi-romantic scene with Raphtalia (I do not ship them, but I also do not want to rob people who ship them from their joy, I just point out that Risha’s whole storyarc suffered, because of the haste in this last episode and the need to close it with Naofumi’s homebase). Oh, and we also were robbed of the info that Motoyasu cannot handle crying girls as well as him still treating Naofumi as if he was a rapist, instead of a victim of Malty's scheme. Well, there was more stuff with all that. There was a lot of things, including Naofumi getting angry at Motoyasu and Itsuki again, because one is a jerk and the other is an idiot. Whole drama with Risha has much more weight in the manga and I wish it was treated seriously in the anime as well, because it’s just unfair to her as a character to be treated as if her suicide attempt was something unimportant.

(Read chapters 40-48 of the manga, it’s good).

There was though whole recruiting new party members thing mentioned in the manga and I was really excited for that, because when thinking about people who Naofumi can trust, he instinctively thought about L’Arc and Therese. Which so happens to not be adressed at all in the anime. It almost looks like that for the sake of cute ending Naofumi forgot he has trust issues and as a person with trust issues myself I am sure he still has them and would be worried about adding people, whom he cannot trust to his party so lightly.

Actually I was kinda suprised that Naofumi got whole place to run, because I didn't remember that being mentioned in the manga. In the manga Naofumi was in the Castle in Melromarc after the wave, dealing with whole Risha drama. I do not remember there being any village restoration mentioned, so I dunno if anime added that or manga actually skipped whole "Naofumi became the Lord and started building his base of operation in this world" thing. It was probably the latter considering that both anime and manga adapt the same novel. 

For the anime adaptation it probably felt more important to adress Raphtalia's fear of abandonment, considering that anime was hinting at her being afraid of that in a lot of episodes already, while for the manga it was more important to adress issues with other heroes first, so then the whole Spirit Tortoise Arc would make much more sense due to them being idiots who cannot deal with the fact that they are weaker than people in the universe they were summoned to, when they should actually be stronger than them as heroes. It's a matter of interpretation and approach to the source material mostly.

But, boy, how much good stuff we could get...

[iwatanis-bitch]

Lovecore Naofumi x L’arc moodboard because they make my heart go 💓💓💓

[rot-shield-hero]

Can you do L'Arc x Naofumi? It's ok if you can't, I'm just asking.

Colors

It seemed as if everything was going in different speeds.

The colors he saw flashed by his eyes.

Colors full of beauty and melancholy.

Those viridian irises filled with darkness and an untrusting heart underneath.

The sky filled with an array of colors—blues, pinks, oranges, purples, and blacks. There was a red tinge to it as well but that red was more the color of blood and it was revolting.

His eyes and hair—red. It resembled the red in the sky he thoroughly hated.

With the shield hero—the one who he had believed to be a devil at first—he saw an array of colors that were not just a reminder of blood.

L’Arc grinned widely upon seeing the faint smile on the man’s face. “Kiddo! You actually smile?” He pouted when it slipped—he noticed. The flicker of emotion in those beautiful greens. He noticed.

Was he not supposed to?

It wasn’t hard to miss.

A glance to Therese.

She missed.

He didn’t think much. He was probably imagining it.

That wasn’t the only time.

Just the first.

Every time he complemented the man or pointed out an emotion other than bitter hatred or anger, he would see a flicker of emotion.

Fear? Panic?

Why? What was there to fear? To panic?

Disgust? Hate?

Why? Where were those emotions coming from?

L’Arc threw an arm over the man’s shoulders and he earned a flinch. Shattered green stared with hate and disgust, pain and fear.

Colors.

He never knew colors could come in different shades, especially the color of this man’s eyes.

Dark.

Light.

Milky.

It was all there.

All there and filled with negativity.

“Naofumi?” Flinch—not of panic or fear, but of surprise. Naofumi? Not Kiddo? A joke. Strained and forced. “Why do you look disgusted and hateful with every complement I give you?”

Tension. Scared. Fear. Panic.

“I don’t know what you mean, L’Arc.”

A frown. “Nao—“ he reached out to touch him but the man—the colorful man—pulled away. “What is wrong? Why must you pull away?”

“I don’t believe what you say.” A whisper. Breathy and almost inaudible, thrown to the wind for it to be carried away. “No one ever says that—not unless...” Green eyes—dark and cloudy, resembling a hurricane of anger and hate. “...they want something. Why must one complement me if all they use it if for their own gain? No. I wish none of it. Do not make those comments.”

Who had brought such pain to this male? “I don’t—Kiddo, I’m not wanting anything from you but your attention.” Red meet green. Complementary colors. “I want nothing in return but your attention and smiles, you have such beautiful smiles.”

Dark. Negative. “No. You want something else. I’m not going to give you—“ Red—no, pink. Pink on pale cheeks. Beautiful. Colors that were nothing but beautiful.

Pink on pink. Lips locked.

Shock, embarrassment. Unmoving.

“As I said, I wish for nothing but your attention and affection.”

Those colors—vivacious and emotional. They were there and then ripped away.

I’m sorry, Kiddo. If only there was another way.

Betrayal. Hurt. Pain. Pain! Pain! Stop! It hurts!

Red.

Horrible, revolting red.

It sprayed the salty air.

Don’t. No!

Sacrifice. Blood.

Blood.

What have you done?

Naofumi! Why?

What have you—?

“No!”

Glass jumped away, getting out of the way of the jaws of the dragon. The trio vanished.

Colors. They meant nothing.

Everything but red slipped away.

They returned not until meeting the green. Dull and bland, faded green. Unfocused.

“Kiddo?”

“L’Arc.”

“Your eyes—“

“Hideous.”

“Beautiful.”

Colors returned. Brighter green—resembling the grassy fields around. Pink on pale cheeks.

“Why? What do you want? My head on a silver platter?” Anger. Dark and stormy. Hate. Hate. It hurts. No.

“Just your attention and affection.”

[iwatanis-bitch]

Don’t mind me,, jus obsessing over them🥺💞

[rot-shield-hero]

Can I get uhhhhh extreme angst

Yes.

The moment Therese heard about the Shield Hero being held captive, she grew concerned. The Shield Hero was extremely strong, how did anyone manage to get the drop on him?

L’Arc has been adamant in finding the Shield Hero—whether to kill him or not was lost on the Gem Hero.

Glass was helping, but she planned on killing Naofumi.

The location was given to a frightened servant. Underground, a rich aristocrat had bought bounty hunters. Sick and twisted the man was, afraid and manipulated, he set out to purify the Demon of the Shield—if not, torturen him to break him. Glass had no qualms in killing the man. It was on accident to begin with, but she didn’t have any problems or guilt.

Following the path of stairs, the air musty and thick with the scent of copper. They descended into the underground cells and walked around. The cells were empty except for the last cell. Therese was the first one to spot him.

Hanging by his wrists, was a horrific scene. Pale skin bruised and cut open, blood—old and fresh—stained and dripped onto the ground. A puddle was under him. It echoed in the cell, ringing in her ears as the scene burned itself into her mind. Despicable. How could anyone do this? Streaks of dried blood slid down his cheeks coming from the blindfold. Infection had set in on some of the deeper gashes all over his body. His back was the worse. Whipped. He had been whipped. The man was underfed, his ribs and chest poking out. His stomach was basically concave. No muscle or fat anywhere to be seen. It was sickening to see his hips and collarbone jutting out.

“Therese, have you found him?” She heard L’Arc but it sounded as if she was underwater. She was frozen. “Therese?” Footsteps. They were moving closer to her. “Hey, what’s—? Oh kiddo,” he whispered. He sounded sad, horrified. “Glass, can you help me get him down?”

“L’Arc, they—he—“

“It’s okay, Therese. You’ll have to heal him. He will be okay.”

Glass opened her mouth but promptly closed it. She had been going to remind them of their mission, but she knew now was not the time. To be fair, it enraged her to see the only competent hero be treated like such.

The moment L’Arc touched Naofumi, the hero jolted. Even without looking at his eyes, they knew he was awake. His breathing pattern changed and his frail and underfed body was tended. No one said anything, Naofumi kept his mouth closed, not once speaking.

“Kiddo?” That sparked a reaction.

Naofumi seemed to choke, his mouth moving but no words came out. He thrashed, kicking his feet. His voice broke out, choppy and hoarse, signs of dehydration and sore throat leaked out. “N-not ah-again. Please! I know . . . re-eh-al! St-ah-p!” His voice cut out, coughing and clearing his throat. Due to how bad his throat was, he spat out a glob of blood.

“Kiddo, it’s okay! You’re safe. I’m not going to hurt you.” L’Arc attempted to reason with Naofumi—reaching up to remove the blindfold.

“Kill me.” The words—soft and delicate, different from a few moments ago—froze everyone in the room. “Please. Kill me. I can’t—“ His entire body was relaxed, but he was awake. “Can’t—I don’t . . . wanna live.” He was begging for mercy. He was begging for death. What had they done to him?

Glass glanced at L’Arc who nodded. She cut the man’s chains and L’Arc caught the frail man. He let out a grunt in pain, hissing as he fought and struggled against the Scythe Hero. The Shield Hero was set down on the ground, but held down by the king. L’Arc took the blindfold off. “Kiddo, look at me. I promise, im not going to hurt you. Open your eyes please.”

“You’re a fake!” Croaky, raspy. Naofumi winced at talking. “Linus, stop. Please, kill me. You wanted this! You wanted to see me like this! Please, I can’t anymore. Are you happy?” It hurt him to talk and it was apparent with how quiet his voice was.

“I’m not Linus. Naofumi, please. I’m real.”

“The—the re-eh-al L’Arc would—would . . . kill me.” He spat more blood out. “If I can’t see, it’s not real,” he whispered, repeating it as his hands came up and grasped his oily hair.

“L’Arc,” Glass finally spoke. “He’s traumatized. Illusion spells. He’s begging for death. Put him out of his misery.” The Fan Hero wasn’t happy about saying this. She liked honorary battles—having hoped to kill the Shield Hero in battle and not like this.

The man shook his head, hugging the other man to his chest. “I can’t. You know I can’t. Naofumi, please. Please, look at me. Open your eyes for me. We’re going to get you help. They’re not going to hurt you. No one will ever hurt you again. I promise. Please.”

The twenty-year-old opened his eyes to look at them.

Horror. Disgust. Therese wanted to throw up. She hadn’t moved from her spot but now she couldn’t even stomach her food. Silence.

Naofumi stared at them with empty black sockets.

He had no eyes.

[rot-shield-hero]

A little writing suggestion/headcanon thing for you: What if the heros, naofumi & l'arc were all fighting a common enemy that was too strong for all of them to win against, so naofumi had to use blood sacrifice just to make sure it died & everyone else got out alive. What would L'arc's reaction be to such an awful spell, the aftermath & the implication that THIS was how much naofumi had to suffer in order to make up for the incompetence of the other heroes.

Angst. Beautiful angst. Sorry for the late reply.

Warning: blood, gore

It was too strong. Hours on the same monster. L’Arc and Therese had arrived later but they still couldn’t bring the life down. A common enemy to the different heroes. It didn’t matter if they were enemies themselves, this was life or death. They had set aside their differences to fight—Naofumi being able to team up with them without any hardships. He was better in working with them than the other cardinal heroes. It was a sad thought. The three couldn’t help but feel jealous. How could Naofumi work with the enemy better than with them?

Answer, they had trusted each other.

Had.

Filo cut up the monster with her talons, but she went down and took Motoyasu down with her. The monster had landed a blow, sending her flying and she hit Motoyasu along with a wall. A piece of debris fell and bonked her on the head, knocking the poor bird creature out.

Ren and Istuki worked together. Raphtalia helped Ren and L’Arc with close combat. Istuki and Therese worked on long range. Naofumi was in between, he protected them and took blows if needed with his shield. It was apparent that they were getting tired and the monster was getting the upper hand.

“Raphtalia!” he shouted with anguish, watching his sword fall. He activated the Air Strike shield and kept her from getting hurt but it was apparent that she was unconscious as well. The monster blew them away. Everyone hit the debris and rubble. Naofumi got away with little damage due to his advanced protection.

Rage. Use your hate, child! Kill the beast and then slaughter everyone else.

No. He knew he had to use the curse series. I will not kill anyone but the beast. Lend me your power!

Very well.

L’Arc scowled, attempting to get his foot from out of the rubble. He watched red sigils appear on Naofumi’s skin, his armor transforming from a dragon appearance to a demonic appearance. It’s similar to then. He remembered Cal Mira and the fight when they betrayed him. To his left, Raphatalia stirred as did the two conscious heroes. Therese is trapped under rubble, but she could see and breathe. A gasp. “Naofumi-sama, no!”

Too late. Purplish aura starts to form from the shield. “Foolish sinner,” everyone shuddered at the tone of voice Naofumi used, “I sentence you to cast your screams unto the heavens.” Raspy, dualed, echoey. It was not his voice but at the same time it was. “Within the dragon’s jaws born from my flesh, become an offering to the gods as you howl in pain! Blood sacrifice!”

L’Arc watched as everyone’s eyes widened in horror. His did as well. Blood sacrifice? What is he thinking?

The energy traveled from the shield back and enveloped Naofumi. Then it died. A second. Two. Nothing. What? A dud?

“No!” Raphtalia’s scream came a second after blood bursts from her master’s body. The red liquid painted around him, gushing out as he knelt on one knee. It pooled and traveled a good distance away from the twenty-year-old.

Pain etched into the man’s face as he scowled, gripping his shield and glaring up at the monster who stared in confusion. Lacerations appeared on the green-eyed man’s body. Horrifying. It was apparent that this would cause scarring. The man cried blood, his nose dripped with red and he coughed the red liquid.

It was quiet afterward. A second. Then two. Then rumbling.

L’Arc’s red eyes widened in surprise and realization. He’s losing too much blood!

A mechanical dragon burst out of the ground, grabbing the creature in its jaws and crushing it with its teeth. More blood.

Dark in pigmentation—purple and not red. It was clear to see which belonged to the kiddo and to the monster. How? This is apart of the curse series! It shouldn’t be activated unless—no. Kiddo, no. You—? Who would cause you such despair and rage?

Red eyes found the culprits who were getting to their feet. Of course. Of course!

Anger bloomed but quickly smashed down by worry and concern. The sword hero pushed the boulder off and he rushed to the pile of debris. “Therese!” He helped his companion up and they looked over where Raphatalia was screaming and crying over Iwatani’s motionless body.

The two otherworlders glanced at each other then ran over. Therese helped staunch the bleeding while L’Arc comforted the raccoon girl. It was bad. So so bad. Naofumi wasn’t looking at them, but he was looking past them. Green eyes, pale and unseeing, stared up at the sky. Red trickled out from them.

Red. It was everywhere. It painted the ground, the man’s face, and their hands and clothes. L’Arc felt sick. How could all of this happen?

These so-called heroes drove a good man to the curse series. They would soon regret it.

A month passed.

L’Arc regularly visited Naofumi who lied on the bed. Ashy gray skin and sunken face. He had stolen the man from his world—as well as his two daughters. Raphtalia and Filo day at either side of Naofumi and waited for him to wake.

He showed them off to get their food and a quick bath. In that time, green met red. And a promise was made.

/end/

Whelp, that was short and not as gory as I hoped.