Chapter 39: I Can't Leave You Like This!

Harmony used her turn to strike the Iron Ore Warrior as she did before. She tripped it by going for the legs and damaged it once again. It might be repetitive, but so far it was the most effective idea she had.

At least now the creature had been reduced by a quarter of its HP. It was going to take some time to utterly destroy it, but they now had a plan worked out where they could survive. It just meant playing each turn as a combination of healing each other, and having some act as the attacking group.

Gray Dungeon had activated his Meteor Mineral Marathon skill. They were pelted with shiny mineral shards as the creature dashed up, and struck Harmony again. She stood up with difficulty, and shuffled back to her starting position.

“Go ahead, other world boy. I know I am not the one who you claim to be the source of your hatred. This is still her body…Her pain is my pain. Her hardships will be what I overcome.”

In the mental world Felicia looked up from where she was kneeling, and saw through Harmony's eyes. Something resonated within her about what Eunice had just said.

The turn timer started counting down for Vault. “We've already tried reasoning with you over and over. We're left with no choice, but to see this through. If there's some other way for us to remedy this I want to hear it! We will do anything to fix this if you let us!”

Gray Dungeon clutched his head and wailed. “No! You're just trying to confuse me again. You were corrupted by her and tried to use her strange methods of doing things! You are the bad ones here! I have to get rid of you now, so she can never hurt anyone again!”

Vault charged ahead, and struck the metal warrior fighting on his behalf. The flames from his blade sparked against its body and shot embers out. The wolf used his turn to pounce on the creature and slam it against the floor. It smacked its head against the ground with a loud thud and received a small amount of damage.

Even less than it would have using a blade. It seemed their animal companion was trying something different in order to take out its enemy, but this was not helping. The wolf looked a little annoyed at the lack of damage it did. Vault called out to him. “Go back to using a sword, attacks like that aren't going to cut it.”

The wolf let out a disappointed whimper as it returned to its beginning battle position. The bat used her turn to pour a potion on the wolf, and heal the damage it had been taking since the boss fight began. Arret clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“See! I told you they're doing exactly what I said before. You need to take them ALL out! stop holding back and get serious or you will fall!”

Harmony shot the minor deity a dirty look before taking her turn, and using it to deal damage to the Iron Ore Warrior once more. They could hear Gray Dungeon sniffling while holding tears. “I understand…I'm trying…”

He pointed a hand at Vault and made a large earth golem’s hand emerge out of the ground behind him. It closed around him and a system notification emerged.

“Warning! The player has been restrained due to the binding structure holding them!”

Vault was thrashing around in his prison, desperately trying to escape, but to no avail. He could see his turn timer meter depleting right before his eyes. There was nothing he could do to assist any further in the battle. That meant he wouldn't be able to give them any potions, or even help deal damage.

Gray Dungeon had already limited their actions, by making a creature one of their allies could not harm. Capturing another was slowly playing the divide and conquer that they would surely lose.

Vault kept frantically looking around the room trying to think of a way to help his friends. He didn’t want to waste his turn doing nothing. Taking into account how the fight had been escalating, every action they took each round was crucial.

If he used his crafting skill then it would take a while to get out of the restraints. This was a great way to break them up, and make it so he could no longer help.

Time was running out. He repeatedly went through a lot of information in his mind. What did he have on hand? A sword, his old axe, rags, the Burning Haunted Knight armor that he acquired. He still had some potions, but that was pointless if he couldn't move to use them. What could he do to help and make this turn worth it?

Harmony watched him struggling to get out of his prison. “Felicia, do you see what's going on before you? I understand you are going through an inner turmoil right now…We are still fighting. We are fighting for ourselves, and we are fighting for this boy who is suffering. It's going to continue unless we all fight. Vault can't fight anymore, but you can. I know you are capable. You said you wanted to help people, sometimes you have to fight in order to help. I’ll say it again. You might be the bad guy, but at the end of the day are you okay with just leaving things as they are? Do you not want to fix past mistakes?”

Felicia stood up in the mental world and nodded. She took control of Harmony once again and quickly focused her attention on Vault. “Throw me your sword!”

Vault wasted no time hesitating, or even thinking about what she said. The moment he recognized the shift in personality, he knew it was Felicia. The person whose unpredictability had always opened new opportunities for them.

They needed her in order to win and to survive. He threw his best weapon in her direction. It only made it part of the way due to his awkward positioning from his restraints.

He cursed under his breath. She shook her head, and turned to her two remaining allies. The wolf used his turn to bring the blade closer to her, and drop it at her feet. The bat used her turn to attack the stone structure holding Vault.

Harmony grabbed the sword and transferred it to her inventory. Taking an item in and out of the invisible spatial storage did not count as using a turn, but using the item for an action did. She turned her attention to Gray Dungeon.

“Arret is just going to keep controlling everything you do. Do you even actually believe I'm the one who caused everything?! Or was that something she put in your head?! Do you even know how you truly feel anymore?! I know you've gone through a lot of hardships! I've gone through some too! It doesn't matter whose life was more difficult or who went through more! Right now it just matters how you actually feel! Not the feeling someone else has forced you to experience!”

Her chakrams emerged around her wrists and the Burning Haunted Knight sword appeared in her hands while stabbed into the ground. Yellow particles of energy swirled around one of the chakrams, and red particles of energy swirled around the other. The sword radiated blue embers of flames into the air.

“I'm sorry Gary for what happened. If you truly hate me then I’ll make it up to you. I need to hear your real feelings. We won’t know what that is until you’re free from this world. To do that I have to fight you. It's the only way I can help you.”

She grit her teeth. “I take my chakram blades that were crafted by my friend, and the sword of the Burning Haunted Knight. I break them down!”

The yellow and red particles both spun rapidly on their own sides, forming spiraling circles of their respective colors. The blue flames became more intense and created a geyser that shot up into the air. The colors blended together. “Manifest Merge!!!”

A flash of light filled the room, and a new weapon was created. A black sword sheath with round chakram blades connected to it, via a blue flame tether, emerged from the fusion. It was made out of a sharp dark metal and had blue little flaming ghosts radiating from it. A system notification flashed into existence with information about the new weapon.

“Burning Haunted Knight’s Chakram Blade. A fusion of two different weapons. One being a sword wielded by a Burning Haunted Knight and the other being a set of chakrams. They're connected by a flaming tether of burning spirits. It can be used like a whip to deal damage at long range, or be wielded like a blade to deal damage at close range.”

Arret stood up in pure disbelief with her mouth hanging open. “How did you acquire a skill like that?! I thought you were the failure! You must be cheating somehow! You shouldn't even be allowed to participate in this fight! You should be suffering the backlash consequences of interfering!”

Harmony held her weapon off to the side, and glared at the Iron Ore Warrior. “I'm ready for you!”