The Rising of the Scythe Hero

Right before my eyes, a full-fledged dinosaur the size of a three-story building plummeted from the sky to the ground. Compared to the dinosaurs I'd seen in the books of my past world, this one was covered in spikes in all sorts of places, with teeth and claws far more vicious than any tyrannosaurus had a right to be. And unlike the ridiculous stubby limbs of the rex from my world, its forelegs were of a perfectly reasonable length.

I was watching it from an ambush where I had settled in with Night after splitting up with Naofumi. Out of the corner of my eye, of course, I kept track of how our hastily slapped-together plan was playing out, but I had no intention of interfering. The Shield Hero was strong enough to protect both himself and his companions if things went south.

And everything was going according to plan. Rabier had almost managed to croak, but still pulled off his part. I did have to give him a bit of help, hurrying along the mansion's painfully sluggish guards… But that was just the warm-up.

The real fun began the moment the dinosaur hit the ground…

thud

"What the … hell?" I muttered, clutching my chest.

For some reason, the moment I laid eyes on that … dragon, it felt like an explosive impulse went off inside me, tearing through not just my body but my mind. Even so, as that "impulse" first began to swell, I remembered a similar sensation I'd experienced not long ago. Thanks to that, I managed to brace myself and keep my thoughts just as clear as they'd been a moment before.

But as for the other changes …

"Master?" Night looked at me with concern.

"It's … fine. Things are different now."

My hands went up, finding two protrusions on my forehead. And the hands themselves — now in plain view — looked far paler than they had mere seconds ago. All my senses had sharpened, and I felt stronger than before.

Except … there was this stray thought drifting in the back of my mind. Something very faint, almost imperceptible, yet annoyingly persistent, urging me to just let go, to give in to the surge of power, to take out the dragon first — and then deal with all the other extras … Damn it.

I shook my head.

All sorts of nonsense kept creeping into my head. And seriously, what the hell was this? I mean, I did see the Scythe Spirit, and he seemed perfectly sane, didn't he? Yet here, some nasty piece of work was blatantly and openly trying to brainwash me into cutting down everything in sight.

"How hopeless you are…" a now-familiar voice suddenly echoed in my head. "So much time has passed, and you still haven't figured out a thing."

Oh. The inner demon decided to make itself known again. What's with the sudden tantrum?

"That is the nature of your Weapon. It sows death and reaps life. Including yours."

Wait, what? In what sense? I don't feel the least bit like I'm dying.

"Devour one more Emperor Dragon Core and you'll understand. That will be enough to reach the minimum level."

The voice faded. I could feel with every fiber of my being that the one who owned it… had "left," leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I didn't understand what he meant by "devour," or by "one more." Hadn't I fed the previous Core to the Scythe? Or…

Suddenly, a thought struck me.

…or is that exactly why I didn't get any notifications? Because the Core's power — whatever it actually was — went not to the Scythe, but to me? But how… how did I even do that? I can still clearly picture the Core being absorbed into the Scythe, so how the hell did it end up being me who consumed it?

"GUO-O-O-O-O-O!" The Tyranno Dragon roared deafeningly, like a proper dinosaur straight out of some movie about… whatever Jurassic period that was supposed to be.

Something inside me stirred again, itching to leap straight into battle. At first, I forced the urge down, but after a moment's thought, I just shrugged and…

"Better stay out of it, Night. You won't be able to hurt him right now." Tossing that over my shoulder, I vanished from my spot.

[Nott

Specialization: Demonic Hero (Reaper) Level 92

Equipment: Demonic Scythe (Legendary Demonic Weapon), Reaper's Robe

Skills: Life Absorption, Scythe Mastery (Lv. 10 — MAX), Language Comprehension (Lv. 10), Blacksmithing (Lv. 6), Mixing (Lv. 8), Mana Control (Lv. 8), Qi Control (Lv. 7), Camouflage (Lv. 7), Twin Scythes Mastery (Lv. 7), Poison Resistance (Lv. 6), Earth Power (Lv. 1), Elemental Resistance (Lv. 3), Negative Effect Resistance (Lv. 2), Death's Whisper, Psychic Attack Resistance (Lv. 2)

Magic: Hide Mirage, Ice Shards, Ice Spike, Ice Field, Ice Chains]

That was roughly what my current list of skills and level looked like. Time to figure out exactly what I'd achieved during my time in this world. In the canon, Fitoria had no trouble dealing with this monster — just matched it in size and that was that — while Naofumi and his team couldn't do a damn thing. I wonder… could I?

I almost gave in to the inner urge to rush in and clash with the dragon, but…

Already closing the distance, I suddenly threw a foot forward, making an emergency stop. Just a split second to squeeze my eyes shut, shake my head, and then, spotting Naofumi staring tensely at me, I yelled:

"Get to the mansion and save the slaves! I'll lure him away from the city!"

And for me, that really wouldn't be a problem. The moment the Rex more or less regained its senses, its gaze locked straight onto me. Just like mine kept being pulled toward him.

"Lure him away? Are you insane?! That thing will bite you in half!"

Tearing my gaze from the Rex for just a second to raise a skeptical eyebrow at the Shield Guy, I looked back at the monster before me. Alright then…

Gathering power in my legs, I launched myself upward, activating a skill mid-flight.

"Phantom Scythe."

In the air, roughly at Rex's chest height, a phantom scythe formed, serving as my foothold.

"Reaper Stance…" My legs bent with such force that even the scythe beneath me let out a pitiful creak. "Full Moon."

At the very same moment the sound of shattering glass echoed through the area, a glimmer of moonlight flashed. The speed I reached while using the Stances was beyond even my own full comprehension, which was why I only caught, out of the corner of my eye, the Tyranno Dragon leaning its body slightly to the side.

Because of that, its left clawed foreleg hit the ground with a wet squelch, while its flank was marked by a deep, lengthwise gash all the way to the tail — as I, meanwhile, landed softly on the ground.

"GRO-O-O-O-O!!!" With a furious roar, Rex jerked toward me, his bloodshot eyes brimming with primal rage.

"Catch me if you can, lizard." Smirking right in his face, I bolted out of the city, where there were still plenty of people.

Rex, now clearly thinking of nothing but killing me, charged after me blindly, his roar still deafening the surroundings.

"Damn it!" Naofumi grimaced as he watched all this, but didn't rush after me — instead, taking Raphtalia and Filo, he headed for the mansion.

Good. The right choice.

For its size, that behemoth moved fairly fast, so while I did end up demolishing a few houses during my retreat, I led Rex outside the city limits — to where there was nothing but lush green grass and scattered rocks. Perfect.

"Now we can really swing, huh?"

Roaring again, the Tyranno Dragon conjured a crimson magic circle before him, preparing to cast some kind of spell.

I'd overdone the distance a bit, so I switched the Scythe to its Combat form and settled into a stance, bracing on my rear leg. Just a few more moments, and the dragon finished forming his spell, then blasted a concentrated stream of fire straight toward me.

"Reaper Stance: Lunar Glint."

A vertical slash split the sea of fire before me in an instant. The once-green clearing was now a scorched, ash-gray plain, and even the ground had begun to crack and melt under the humming heat hanging in the air.

As soon as the stream of flames died, I swept the Scythe to disperse the remnants and immediately leapt aside, dodging the massive clawed foot aiming to turn me into a bloody smear.

BOOM

The spot I'd occupied just a second earlier exploded into a hail of debris, leaving a crater shaped exactly like that foot.

"Phantom Hands."

Steadying myself, I dashed forward. As I closed the distance, my vision filled with intertwining dark-purple hands reaching for the monster. As long as it didn't require precise, intricate control, I could summon quite a few of them. In the blink of an eye, they wrapped around the dinosaur's legs, crawling further up its body.

Holding down something that massive with a skill that was, at best, only loosely combat-oriented clearly wasn't realistic. But that wasn't what I was using it for.

Constantly torn apart and replaced with new ones, the hands formed a sort of platform around Rex's body — something I could push off from to at least partially negate the monster's height advantage.

My demonic form — if you could call it that — had seriously boosted all my stats. So much so that the only difficulty I still faced in fighting a long-sealed monster like this was its size compared to my weapon. I couldn't take its head with a simple swing of the scythe, but if I mixed in skills or blended energies…

The dinosaur shook violently, trying to throw me off, but failed. When it finally started to dislodge me from its back, I simply jumped, planting my foot vertically against an open phantom hand. And at the end of that improvised carousel, pushing off from the same hand, I once again used a Stance…

"Reaper Stance: Full Moon."

The air was filled once more with a roar of pain as the monster's back was carved with another deep gash running its full length.

The monster simply couldn't reach me. Two serious wounds already had him bleeding heavily, and with each passing second, they were making him weaker. Now, as Rex staggered slightly, I could see the results of that weakening with my own eyes.

His gaze, once brimming with bloodlust, was now slowly clouding over. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, but it was clouding as his strength ebbed away. The life force that had been surging so fiercely just moments ago was starting to slip from him.

Now I could feel it. With every fiber of my being, I sensed how the core I had somehow absorbed was urging me to finish the prey and claim its Core for myself. And this time, I didn't resist the feeling.

Still wielding the Combat Scythe, I crouched low to the ground, watching the dragon-like creature turn toward me. The Tyranno Dragon was… flawed. I could "see" the Core within him. It felt… as if it hadn't taken root. The monster's body had failed to accept it fully, and because of that, he didn't possess the power he could have had under different circumstances.

Locking eyes with him, I began to do what I had only done unconsciously before — use several skills at once.

The foundation was one of the Reaper Stance's attacks — that way, I tapped into the Spirit consumed by skill use, since I didn't have a separate ability for controlling it.

From there, I simultaneously used Mana Control and Qi Control, directing them with a clear purpose toward a specific target.

All the power I could muster began flowing in concentrated streams into my hand, and from my hand — into the Scythe. The plain wooden shaft darkened slightly, pulsing with the emanations of dark violet waves. The blade gleamed as though catching reflections of moonlight.

The dragon grew restless. His snout wrinkled in hesitation. But whether it was some kind of draconic pride or simple stupidity, it didn't allow him to back down. In response, he only roared and charged at me, shaking the earth beneath his steps.

I didn't move an inch. The abilities from the Stances already used a chaotic blend of all the energies available to me, but they did so in a fixed, predetermined pattern. Now, I was trying to modify that existing pattern — to create something entirely different.

And… I think it was working.

"Reaper Stance…" The scorched ground beneath my feet cracked. "Crimson Dawn."

BOOM!

I… didn't really understand what had just happened. One moment, I was still standing exactly where I'd been, and the next — after a deafening explosion under my feet, with the Tyranno Dragon's gaping maw about to snap shut around me — I was suddenly somewhere else, staring toward the city ahead.

In my mind flashed only fleeting images of barely visible crimson crescents, exploding outward from my Scythe in all directions, and rare splatters of blood now staining my clothes.

My arms ached unbearably. I could barely muster the strength to even hold the Scythe, whose weight I'd never noticed before. With some effort, I managed to turn my head toward the monster, frozen mid-lunge with its mouth wide open, fangs poised to close.

And then…

SHLAP

The front half of its jaw fell to the ground with a wet splat. Then, just as easily, a third of its head followed — along with its remaining front leg, a chunk of its tail — and finally, the entire body began to collapse into chunks of flesh of varying size, as if sliced apart by the hands of a deranged butcher.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of tiny lights swirling in the air, like fireflies. In the middle of the day…

The moment of weakness was slowly fading, and I managed to push myself up onto my feet. Step by step, I made my way toward the chunks of flesh that had once been a massive monster. There, among them, lay a small black orb that was practically calling out to me.

The "fireflies" before my eyes flickered more intensely, becoming sharper in detail. Somewhere in the distance came the odd squawking of birds, but I paid it no mind. Bending down, I fished the orb out from the remains. Staring at it for a while, I began to feel like I understood exactly what I needed to do…

"Do not touch that object." Another voice rang out in my head, different from the last. This time it was female… and just faintly childlike. Apparently we were running some kind of dormitory in here. "It could destroy you."

From the treeline nearby, a filolial burst into view. Then another. And another. And another… The ostrich-like birds began to fill the area, one after another, gradually forming into two neat columns, as if marking a path for someone.

"Heh." Smiling wearily, I lifted the Core in front of me. "There are too many things in this world that could destroy me. But that's no reason to back down, right?" Lowering my hand, I tilted my head back, guided by something that felt almost like instinct.

"Stop! You don't understand what you're about to do!" The voice in my head now had a hint of panic.

"Honestly, I don't understand a damn thing anymore. So…" My hand paused at my waist, holding the Core like it was some kind of berry. "I'll just do the same thing I always do…" My hand shot upward, tossing its contents into the air. "Namely, whatever reckless crap comes to mind."

"!!!"

gulp