“That’s when I was summoned into the middle of the crisis,” Raphtalia said. Boy, it sounded like she’d really been called into a shit storm—although, from another perspective, it might have been perfect timing. “I fought while using magical illusions, but the enemy proved most powerful. As the fighting wore on, we were losing more and more ground,” Raphtalia continued. The timelines didn’t line up exactly, but crossing worlds likely caused this kind of discrepancy. “Mr. Naofumi . . . concerning the mysterious forces that Glass was just talking about . . .” Raphtalia looked over at S’yne, who of course had also come along. I instinctively knew what she was trying to say. S’yne seemed to have worked it out too, because she had a stiff and stern look on her face. “From the descriptions of their magic and the gear they were carrying, I believe them to be the same enemies as those S’yne had faced.”

“I see,” I replied. This just made the entire situation even more complicated. “Sounds like you’ve been beset on all sides.” They had really taken a beating, that was for sure. I was quite worried about what might have happened if we hadn’t shown up when we did. We’d done so much to help them during our last visit, and this was the result? I was almost ready to accuse someone of negligence. That said, being attacked by someone like Takt without any prior information could easily lead to this kind of situation. I’d give them that one.

“Luckily, thanks to you, Naofumi, we made it through another crisis. You have my deepest gratitude,” Glass said.

If we were looking at people trying to pull the same thing that Takt had been doing, we should be able to defeat them if we all worked together. I’d been hitting the Liberation Aura X hard recently. No need to stop now. A bit of aggressive muscle should get the job done!

“I’d better tell you something I found out,” I said.

“What’s that?” Glass asked.

“It was when I was badly injured myself,” I continued. “The Shield Spirit told me that Takt was one of the vanguards of the waves. We still don’t know exactly what kind of enemy is behind the waves, but please keep this point in mind. From Takt’s attitude and how similar he was to Kyo, I should think Kyo was too.”

“Are you sure?” Glass responded.

“Most likely. If they have the power to steal vassal weapons, then I’m sure those guys are connected,” I stated. Such a major commonality as stealing weapons meant they had to be related.

“The waves have also been invading us like that. Does that mean they’re more than just a phenomenon caused by the fusing of the worlds?” Glass was having trouble, understandably, grasping the size of the enemy standing against us.

“That, I can’t tell you. Do the waves have intent of their own? Or is there another reason for all this?” I pondered aloud. Now I was just throwing out questions. The very fact that monsters appeared along with a wave was an unexplained mystery. The information we currently had wasn’t enough to reach an answer, anyway.