Author Notes: I'm So happy that we're here. Get ready. This is the climactic half of the second volume. I wish we could get all the art as these chapters come out, but the artist is too busy. Regardless, we'll do our best! For now, here we have the first episode of an exciting half. I hope you enjoy! We're starting off with over 2500 words!]

***

The Twelfth Day in our Hero Hub Calander: January 12th, 0001

So, Kanae was just one hour away from being fully healed. The last eight hours of treatment had her in a forced coma so to say. I watched over her for the first four hours, and Svilran opted to watch over her for the next four.

Elma and Dorth decided to hang around today too. They wanted to be there when Kanae woke up. Since they knew the exact moment she would wake up, they decided to tag along with me to the <Observatory> where Dorthaunzee showed off her amazing telescope-driving skills.

"So, we have yet another world with no missions," I said as I marked down the calibrations.

"That's kind of nice, though, right? The world is at peace," Elma replied.

"Or it just has problems out of our pay grade." I winced. "This might be a world that needs one of our Heroes to reincarnate into it."

"Oh... That's scary."

Dorthaunzee drove the telescope around and found another world with ease.

"Ooo," I sounded. "An ocean! It's beautiful... Damn, we need some kind of <Lake-side Beach> or something... I'm so jealous of you girls getting to go out sometimes."

Elma chuckled and patted my shoulder. "I'll be sure to bring you souvenirs from any beach I go to."

Dorthaunzee scanned for missions, and we were all suddenly startled. A bell went off, and red screens started appearing all over the <Observatory>--

"What the heck?!" I yelled, frantically looking around. "This is so sudden!"

"Fainn! Look!" Elma yelled.

We looked at the main screen. It had switched to a scene showing a mob of monsters crossing the ocean and approaching a small island.

"I don't get it! Why are we getting alarms?!"

Elma was leaning over the console, looking at something Dorthaunzee was pointing out. Then she looked at me, sweating. "Fainn, there's a time limit, and... there are no Heroes in the notes."

"What? You're not helping a Hero--wait, hold on."

Elma looked at me, the look on her face sobering. "It's not an Auxiliary Mission. We're not going in there to help a Hero."

"Holy shit. You girls have to be the Hero?"

***

Urgent Mission, Rank D

Someone, help! Anyone, please! Monsters suddenly raised from the depths when they weren't supposed to. They weren't there before! They came out of nowhere! They're about to attack a very special village! I don't understand why this is happening--that village has the last of the Marrazo Dee! Please, I can't let them disappear! Please, someone! I won't make it in time!

***

"How did this message get generated? And why is it showing up like this?" I asked, alarm bells going off in my own head.

"Fainn, I'm going." Elma pointed at the screen and at a certain monster.

"That's... a squid? With two tentacles made of black flames?"

Elma's expression was grim. "Fainn, I think this is something bigger."

"Yeah... Let's dispatch," I said as I watched the monsters get to the shallows around the island. Already, warriors from the island--islanders wearing bone-like armor, carrying tridents, and slinging water magic--were engaging the early waves of monsters.

Dorthaunzee rose from the chair and showed a confident pose. She and Elma rushed toward me. Elma gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Root for me," Elma said.

"Always."

She ran past me, and then Dorthaunzee came up to me.

"Oh, I guess you can't really kiss my cheek..." Thinking Dorthaunzee wanted to mimic Elma, I kissed her on the forehead. "Save some lives, Dorth--oof!"

Dorthaunzee had grabbed my butt forcefully. She nodded at me, made a biting motion with her hands, and then ran off.

"Did she... just claim me for later?" I mumbled. I swore I could hear someone snickering, but no one else was here. I shook myself out of the shock and focused on the screen. "Karma... has a long tail, huh?"

Something was up with this Mission in more than one way. I couldn't help but feel anxious.

"Here we go..."

 

***

The Imaginal World--Nemo

In the ocean of the watery world, Nemo, sits a certain island named Marrazzo Reef. A certain race of Imaginal call this small island an ancestral home--The Marrazzo Dee. These humanoid Imaginals could manifest bone-like, rune-covered armors, have human-like lungs in addition to gills, and had a high affinity for water magic.

This race--this tribe--was currently locked in battle with the sudden invading force of aquatic monsters. There were hundreds threatening to come ashore, with many more in the depths, just waiting to pounce.

The Marrazzo Dee were not a tribe of cowards, however.

"Monsters on the right!"

"Tear through! No mercy! There are children in the village!"

"Surprise? They'll need more than that!"

The 52 warriors of the village--or in other words, all the adult men and women--wasted no time in countering the enemy.

A tanned and muscular young man with long brown hair--one so chiseled you would not be wrong to think that the gods chiseled him from stone, attacked the amphibious humanoid with the face of a frog that leaped out from the shallows. His fist sank so deep into the creature's face that all that was missing from the attack was the sound of bones cracking. The creature flew into a large, hot air balloon-like fish and popped it. Winds infused with a strange black magic blew out from the fish. The monsters it passed over became more frenzied than before, some growing a size larger. The warriors that it blew over grimaced--a deep pain radiating through their bodies. They had never felt it before.

"Domaz! Watch out!"

The young man who took the brunt of the winds due to being the closest was still wincing when another monster fired a beam of water at him. Another of the Marrazo Dee warriors stepped in and manifested bone-colored armor in the shape of a shark's head around their arm and tanked the beam.

Domaz shook his head and then conjured up his own shark-head-shaped weapon around his arm. The shark's head opened as the green runes decorating it glowed with an ominous intensity. A beam of ferocious water flew from his shark-head cannon and struck the attacking monster. This was the Marrazzo Dee Shark Arm Cannon--a weapon most seasoned Marrazzo Dee could produce.

"Dehlia!" Domaz said. "These monsters are strange! Too many different types are working together!"

The Marrazzo Dee woman that saved Domaz put on a smirk as she scanned the monsters coming for them. Her eyes were purple, and her long brown hair was braided. She had come to this battle in a two-piece swimsuit and had further protected herself with pieces of bone-colored armor she had conjured up. Her appearance was not so out of place--minimal clothing, and reactive use of their armor, was the style of the Marrazo Dee.

All that is to say that Domaz did not scoff nor shy away from her. Before him was someone he implicitly trusted. Her next words would greatly impact him and the tide of this battle. Such was her presence.

"What choice do we have but to tear them apart?" she asked. "Lovely children are cowering within our village."

Domaz grinned behind her.

"What kind of adult neglects to protect the children?"

"Understood... So any excuses we can make--"

"No one will hear them," she said as she conjured up armor in the form of an armband.

A sharp shark fin grew from that armor, and she swung it at the crabman monster that leaped from the knee-high shallows. She relieved it of its head and fixed her eyes on the next targets.

"We need to repel them, Domaz!"

"Understood, Dehlia!"

The monsters were showing no sign of stopping, but not a single one of the Marrazzo Dee had fallen. They were still fighting with fierce flames raging in their hearts.

A giant frilly sea serpent broke through the surface a couple dozen feet from the pair. It opened its mouth and started gathering mana from the air.

Between the pair and the serpent, more monsters of the depths rose, as if protecting the serpent.

"That beam's going to be a problem," Dehlia noted.

"Be the one who will strike first!" Domaz followed.

The two exchanged smirks and charged into the fray, come what may.

"Hit and run, Domaz!"

"I won't linger!"

The bone, rune-inscribed armor grew out from their hands as they ran. The armor took the shape of shark fins as the two leaped high enough that their feet left the water. Then, before landing in the water again, bone armor grew out from the soles of their feet.

Their armor-clad feet made contact with the water, but they did not sink. Instead, they hit the surface and were propelled across it as if they weighted nothing. The water was like an ice rink and they were the skaters.

With incredible speed behind them, the two collided with the group of monsters and sliced through the first few.

Masses of kelp with glowing red eyes rose and tried to ensnare the two with kelpy tendrils. Dehlia ducked and tore the kelp apart while cutting a flying fish monster that had launched at her from the side. Meanwhile, Domaz accelerated straight into his kelp monster and skewered it between the eyes before leaping over it.

Three scaly humanoids with angler fish-like faces and teeth leaped out next as purple oozes chased the two from behind. Dehlia leaped and converted one arm into her shark head cannon. Domaz caught her other hand and spun while she fired her water laser out in all directions.

"Eviscerated!" Dehlia declared.

"With perfect precision!"

Domaz spun again, building up momentum, and sent Dehlia skyward. She took aim and fired multiple shots of water magic down below, throwing the enemies into enough chaos that Domaz could sever the heads of all the ones he crossed.

Dehlia landed right as more water lasers cleared their path of airborne and swimming monsters and gave them a clear shot at the giant serpent.

"Looks like the cavalry is here," Dehlia said.

"We must have the strongest one in our sights!" Domaz followed.

"You certainly do!"

The two looked to their right at the newcomer.

"Rudda!" Domaz called. "How bad is it?"

"Scary," the chiseled old man with wild hair and a braided beard replied.

Two more female Marrazzo Dee warriors skated up alongside Rudda. "Another of those things emerged over yonder and got to fire its beam. The damage to the reef was immense!" said a blue-haired woman with red teeth markings on her cheek and neck.

"It took ten to down it," said the fully armored brunette with a scar across his nose.

Dehlia grew elated. "Barna! Zeer! You taking down tons?"

"You better believe it," replied the scarred Zeer.

"So, I count five," Domaz said.

Rudda smirked as a shark head armor appeared around his own head. "More than enough!"

The other four Marrazzo Dee all showed their own versions of confident grins as Rudda continued.

"Armor up! We'll bite through it with the teeth our Mother gave us!"

The five leaped.

"We'll bite it and stagger it! Then Zeer will take her shot!"

The five fell into the water as their armor formed around them. Within moments, five bone armor dorsal fins were tearing through the water's surface, the forms of five large sharks below the water's surface. The warriors burst out of the water once more and revealed their altered forms--rune-inscribed bone armor in the shape of large sharks. They propelled themselves with jets of water and, with their jaws radiating magic, they collided against the sea serpent with a deafening crash.

Each armor shark clamped down and discharged their jaw magic. The sea serpent cried in agony as the magic it was preparing was disrupted. Scales flew off the monster's body. The Marrazzo Dee's magic was too much for it.

Then, when enough flesh was revealed, one of the sharks glowed. With a resounding boom, a blast of magic exploded from its back. Then, the warrior within burst out and fell back toward the ocean's surface.

"Here we go," Zeer said as she conjured up a rune-inscribed fin blade and the water-crossing feet armor. She trained her eyes on the enemy as her fin blade began radiating raw blue energy.

The shark armor she had left behind had clamped itself to the monster's body, the runes on its surface deactivated and its jaw inert. The armor had no more power. The armor was a shell and all its magic power was in Zeer's arm.

The blade's power reached its peak. Zeer launched herself at the sea serpent with water jets. Her eyes had never shifted from the patch of skin that they had exposed. She crossed the neck and swung her fin blade.

"Consider it over!" she yelled as she tore through the serpent, separating it into two parts. Attack completed, Zeer dived into the ocean with an immaculate form.

The other four Marrazzo Dee disengaged, each falling out from their armor--now a disintegrating shell. They each fell into the ocean and emerged to see the serpent fall.

"Yes!" Domaz cheered.

"Not yet!" Rudda called. "Our enemies are still many! Everyone focus--"

Rudda gasped and looked toward a shadow approaching from the deeper ocean.

"Everyone! Armor up!"

The other four followed their leader's order just in time. They donned their armor right as black flames tore out from the water and enveloped them.

"What is this--"

"It hurts!"

"So deep! It's maddening!"

"Don't give up, everyone!"

"You heard Dehlia! Hold!"

The five warriors were blown backward, each stunned and still reeling from the attack. Meanwhile, far above the battlefield, was someone in a black cloak and blue robes. He, a bespectacled young man with brown hair tied back into a ponytail, lazily moved his finger as if he was swirling the contents of a goblet.

"You have shown real initiative... There is no Sloth here, but please give our experiment a shot at success."

Down below, the surface of the water swelled upward. A giant, watery ball was forming, rising, and growing from the surface of the ocean.

"Please take a break and let our experiments get their footing."

Within the ball were the five Marrazzo Dee warriors, each trying to get their bearings.

"Fly back, and let's start over."

The bespectacled young man snapped his fingers, and black and purple wisps arced along the ball's surface. The ball ruptured and sent the warriors back to their island with extreme force.

The man let out a sigh. "Great. Now we can breathe..."

The shrill cries of monstrous hawks startled the man enough that he flew higher into the air. He looked down and saw many large birds fly past below him, all heading to the island.

"Hey! Dominguez!"

The man, Dominguez, turned around and groaned. "Oh. You're back... I'm guessing you found a suitable subject."

Dominguez looked down past the monstrous hawks flying into the battlefield. More aquatic monsters were surging in below those hawks at greater rates than before.

"That's right! I found a controller-type monster!" said a boy with silver hair and demonic wings growing from his back. He wore scaled armor and had a sadistic grin on his face--one that seemed to annoy Dominguez to no end. He pointed down toward a particular monster tearing across the ocean's surface. It was an upright squid with two tentacles of black flames squirming around it, and one more unusual feature.

Dominguez narrowed his eyes, focusing on something he found strange. "Hold on, is there a woman growing from that squid's mantle?"

His eyes were on the upper body of a slimy woman stuck to the gray squid's veiny body.

The silver-haired child grinned. "It isn't a human. It's just a monster with a humanoid protrusion."

Dominguez studied the creature. He noted how it really did just look like a protrusion. The woman's face lacked detail. It was so smooth, and her eyes were milky white. The hair--it was more like some webby membrane that connected the humanoid to the mantle.

"It... looks like there's a human inside that thing's body trying to get out..." Dominguez crinkled his nose. "She's trying so hard that she's leaving an imprint. Gross."

The silver-haired child chuckled. "I know! Aren't Imaginal monsters interesting? And the other monsters listen to her! This is going to be great! I can't wait to see how well a monster we blessed can lead lesser beasts!"

"Hmm..." Dominguez noted two other giant squid monsters. They had black flame tentacles and black rocks embedded into their bodies, but there were no humanoid protrusions. "So, you only found one controller..."

The child shrugged. "I'm not a miracle worker." He slapped Dominguez's back repeatedly. "This is going to be great! Smile a little! You're going to see something amazing!"

Dominguez sighed. "Well, this is novel... Do you happen to know how it controls the other monsters?"

The child grinned and shrugged. "That's why you're here."

"Slave-driver. I hate that you're the one that I ran into after getting out."

"Love you too, Dominguez <3."