Chapter 19: Wheel of Fate Turns Again

After Raphtalia killed Idol, Arthur says that they have to rescue everyone in the underground dungeon. Before that, Melty heals Van's injuries caused by the rough treatment of Idol's soldiers. Raphtalia leads the way as she remembers where the dungeon is so she and everyone can free her friends. Yet Arthur stops.

"Hey, Raphtalia?" he asks.

Raphtalia stops. Everyone stop as well.

"Are you gonna be alright? I know that-"

"I'll be fine." Raphtalia says while not looking at Arthur. Her voice sounds more stoic than before.

"You sure? Because I know vengeance. I've been down that road for a long time." Arthur refers to what he did when he was known as 'The Rocky Mountain Horror' as he killed thousands of bandits, raiders and slavers. "Listen, if you ever need to talk to someone, someone who has experience of what you may go through, I'll be right there when you need me."

Raphtalia lowers her head a little, "Thank you."

Both Raphtalia and Arthur go off.

Gwen smiles at the two with Van noticing.

"Why are you smiling?" Van asks.

"Because my little brother is now starting to sound like a big brother." Gwen says. He walks forward, "Now come on. We got work to do."

They are all outside as they see a staircase that leads down below the mansion that leads right towards the dungeon.

"Idol imprisoned his demi-human slaves underground..." Raphtalia says as she remembers, "...and torture them."

"How do you know?" Van asks.

"I know because...because I was lucky enough to live."

Van, Melty and Filo were stunned to hear that. Many demi-humans that were taken down to the pig noble's dungeon never saw the light of day again until they became corpses. The only exception is that when he sells them.

Arthur and Gwen head down with Arthur saying, "Let's go." He turns to smile at Raphtalia, "Your friends have been down there long enough."

Raphtalia smiles with a glimmer of hope as she says and nods, "Okay."

Arthur opens the iron bar door where all the slaves are kept as it creaks open. Melty starts to look upset with her right clenched hand on her mouth.

Filo notices, "Mel, are you okay?"

Melty just nods to let Filo know that she is okay. "Mm-hm."

They enter in and pass by a few empty cells with chains and collars/shackles hanging from the ceiling as they look for anyone from Raphtalia's village.

Arthur's fingers of his left hand is twitching in anger, 'Seeing something like this again is making me sick. I have the sudden urge to kill again.'

Gwen places her left hand on his shoulder, "You okay?"

"I'll be alright." Arthur is trying to remain calm as he keeps his rage suppressed, "Let's hurry up. The less time we're here, the better."

Everyone stops as Raphtalia looks at one of the cells where she and her friends were tortured. She remembered all the horrible things that she witnessed and experience. Especially to her dear friend, Rifana. A cat demi-human she has been friends with for a long time. She remembers the little flag she made for her before she was taken away. Raphtalia squats down as she remembers the pain she felt when she was taken away. Before Arthur can say anything to her, Van shouts from one of the cells.

"There's a survivor!"

They head towards where Van is and Arthur unlocks the door with his |Unlocking| spell and opens the door.

Van runs up and helps the demi-human, "You'll be alright now."

Melty shouts from another cell, "Arthur! Over here!"

Arthur, Raphtalia and Gwen head over towards the cell where Melty is at, unlocked it, and Melty uses her healing magic to help the poor demi-human.

Another cell, Filo shouts, "There's someone over here too!"

Arthur and Raphtalia head over where Filo is and found Keel, a dog demi-human and one of Raphtalia's closest friends from the village. Keel looks up as she (yes, Keel is a girl despite dressing and acting like a boy. Don't believe me, check the wiki.) as she groans in pain.

Raphtalia is shocked to see her alive as she whispers to herself, "You're alive... Keel..."

Arthur unlocks the door and Raphtalia opens it.

Raphtalia runs up to her, "Oh, Keel! I can't believe you're here!"

Despite feeling weak, Keel can see Raphtalia but doesn't recognize her. "Who are...you..."

Raphtalia is glad to see Keel alive, "I can't believe I found you after all this time. I'm so glad. So glad you're alive." Raphtalia looks like she was gonna burst into tears. She stands up and uses her sword to break the chains Keel is shacked to.

Keel is confuse. Raphtalia seems to know her but Keel doesn't. "Who are you? I don't..."

Raphtalia sheaves her sword, "Have you forgotten already? It's me, Raphtalia."

"You can't be her. Raphtalia?" Keel doesn't believe her, "No way. That's impossible."

"It is." Arthur steps in. "Except leveling up causes her body to mature quickly. Which I'm pretty sure you are aware of."

Keel sees Arthur and has no idea who he is. But when she sees the shield on his left arm, "Are you...the Shield Hero?"

"You guessed it." Arthur gives her the thumbs-up. "And the person before you is the upgraded form of Raphtalia."

Keel looks back at Raphtalia, "Then...can it be...?"

Raphtalia tries to jog Keel's memory as Melty comes in, "Listen to me, Keel. Remember that one time you went diving and nearly drown? And then we had to find Sadina so she can come rescue you? And there was another time when you ate a poisonous mushroom and ended-up with an upset stomach. In pain, you begged me not to tell anyone. You remember that, don't you? After the Wave, I said we should rebuild the village, and you were the very first person to lend to speak up and agree with me." She places her right hand on the center of her chest and tears swelling, "You don't know how happy that made me."

Keel remembers everything and realizes that the grown woman standing before her is Raphtalia. "It is you. You're really here after all?"

Raphtalia hugs Keel, "Thank goodness! I'm still grateful that you're still alive." Raphtalia is about ready to cry for joy.

Melty wipes a tear from her face after seeing two friends reunited after all this time.

Keel looked over, "And I can't believe the Shield Hero actually showed. I can't believe you really exist." she looks at Raphtalia, "And you're traveling with him."

"That's right. He has come here to save all of us."

Arthur approaches, "Now let's heal those wounds, shall we?"

He gets to work on healing Keel's wounds she had to endure. He does this by simply touching Keel's wrist that still has a shackle on it just like the anime with a green glowing light along with the green gem glowing as well and her wounds disappearing.

Keel smiles at Arthur, "So the legends are true. I can't believe you're here but you are." Keel started to cough.

"Are you okay?" Raphtalia asks.

"Yeah. I was just thinking. Rifana would love to see him."

"Wait a minute. Where is Rifana? She's in here, right?!"

Keel looks at Raphtalia. "Yeah." she replies with a nod and gives her a big smile.

Arthur stops healing Keel as he raises his left eyebrow. 'Why is she smiling?' he seems puzzled, 'I thought she was supposed to look gloomy because Rifana is dead. Wait a minute.' Arthur realizes that Rifana may not be dead, 'Is she still alive?!'

Raphtalia dashes off to find Rifana's cell with Arthur following her. Raphtalia searches the cells for her to find her best friend.

Arthur tries to catch up, 'Things have gone outta hand again! But this might be a good thing. Raphtalia gets to meet her best friend again, Rifana is alive and everything will turn out okay. Right? Oh wait, Rifana wants to marry the Shield Hero, which is me. And that might create an underage love triangle. Why can't I get someone around my age? I'm not a loli-pedo-what the fuck ever! Can't I get someone around my age or at least a little older?'

Raphtalia stops and sees a catgirl sleeping with a little makeshift flag in her hands despite having a blanket over her. She slams against the iron bars and shouts, "Rifana!"

The cat demi-human girl wakes up and does a few coughs. She sits straight up despite being weak. Looking at Raphtalia, she asks in a weak and sleepy voice, "Raphtalia? Is that...you?"

Arthur runs up and sees and much to his surprise, she's alive. 'What the fuck?! She's still alive! Hope this won't come back to bite me.'

Arthur unlocks the door right before Raphtalia force it open. She runs in and gives her a huge hug.

"Rifana! I'm so happy you're alive!" Raphtalia is overcome with joy as she not only found her best friend, but is also alive.

Arthur is a bit more puzzled by these recent turn of events. Gwen approaches and sees Rifana alive, much to her surprise.

Gwen taps on Arthur's shoulder to get his attention as her mouth moves without speaking as she speaks without saying, 'How is she still alive?!'

Arthur replies and shrugs, 'I don't know!' He speaks without saying a word. Arthur then uses sign language, 'But I'm gonna heal her anyway.' He approaches Rifana as Raphtalia lets go and use |Fast Heal|.

Rifana looks at Arthur while her wounds are being healed. Her eyes widen when she realizes that Arthur is the Shield Hero. "Are you...the Shield Hero?"

Arthur sighs, "Yes, I am."

Tears start to form as she hugs him after being healed.

Arthur gets Rifana off him, "Okay, that's enough. You're still a little weak so let's get you outta here. Ready to head home?"

Rifana wipes her tears and nods, "Mmm-hmm."

Melty, Van and Filo arrive along with Keel and some of the others that they rescued. They see Arthur coming out with Raphtalia carrying Rifana on her back.

"Rifana!" Keel says as she tries to run, but falls over. Despite that, she is glad to see her again.

Filo helps Keel up. "Hey! You should be more careful."

Melty did pass by a few cells that were open and had bones of the slaves that died. She looked at Rifana and smiles her, Raphtalia and Keel being reunited. "I'm so happy that you three are together now." But she starts to look sad as she looks at one of the cells with bones in them, "But...I can't see how...such monstrous deeds could exist here."

Van says to Melty, "Melty, as much as I hate to say it; similar things happen all across this country."

Melty is horrified by that fact, "It can't be."

"That is why we needed Seyaette. But now..."

Melty flashes back to when she and her mother, when Melty was given a mission.

"Melty my dear," the queen says, "I need you to do something important for me. Return to the capital and admonish the king for his injust treatment of the Shield Hero."

Melty also flashes back to everything that had happen such as her sister's manipulation of their father, the attempted assassination on her life, and here and now when Idol tried to attempted to violate her.

"Ordinarily I would go myself but as you know..."

After that flashback, everyone head out of the dungeon to get out of all the horrible things there.

While being carried, Rifana looks at Arthur as she notices that he is not human.

"Yes?" Arthur notices that Rifana keeps on staring at him.

"Are you a demi-human? Like us?"

Arthur gives a light chuckle, "Close, but no. I am a mutant. I was once human many years ago, but my mother mutated me in order to survive the world where Gwen and I came from. The world we left behind were in complete shambles when we left. And places like these were common and the cruelty was far worse than you can ever imagine."

"Was your world really that bad?" Melty asks.

"To an extent." Gwen replies, "We actually found a place where there are people that aren't super barbaric run by a friend of our father. So not everything is as bleak as Arty says."

"Yeah and- Hey!" Arthur is upset with Gwen, "I told you not to call me Arty!"

Gwen and everyone laughs before Arthur groans.

Arthur looked at one of the cells with a skeleton, "Remind me to come back here so we can give these people a proper burial. I don't think they'll ever rest in peace here." He speaks to Van, "Oh, and Van?"

"Yes?"

"Lord Seyeatte has a daughter name Eclair, right? Knight of Melromarc and the queen's right-hand guard?"

"You know Eclair?"

"Not personally, no. But do you think she can take up her father's torch and protect the demi-humans?"

Van smiles, "Yes. I will see to that."

"Good. Maybe we can find more allies to fight against these injustices towards the demi-humans." Arthur remembers the people that he saved, especially the ones that give their thanks, "Like what I used to do. But I was an angry person that wanted to kill every single asshole, but I'm better now."

Rifana asks, "Can I come with you, Shield Hero? Because I want to become stronger. Like Raphtalia! Raphtalia has become a great lady that came and save us. I want to be like her, too."

Keel says in a loud tone, "I want to travel with you, too! I want to be strong and able to protect the people that I care about! The home that we had! If I travel with you, Shield Hero, then maybe I can be strong enough to protect!"

"Let me think about that." Arthur speaks.

He retreats to his thoughts for a moment to think about everything that happened and what is happening now compared to the anime. He weighs the idea of Keel and Rifana traveling with him in his mind. Arthur thinks carefully of the impact that will cause if he does take the girls with him and they mature like Raphtalia.

'Wondering if you can take them with you? Thinking of the consequences of the butterfly effect?' Nephalem asks via telepathy.

'Yeah.' Arthur replies via telepathy as well, 'I'm worried that things will get out of hand again. Like with the undead wyverns, the timing of everything.'

'You do realize that you did do things off script since you got here, right?'

'I know.'

'Then what's the problem? You're living in someone else's story yet you've managed to make it your own in your own way, even if you don't realize it. Telling the other three heroes about Malty's little game, exposing the king's true identity, you didn't put a slave crest on Raphtalia, inspiring the villagers to defend themselves, then my existence. Not to mention helping a poverty and famine driven village full of refugees from Itsuki's mistakes.'

'You know what; you're right. I shouldn't be over thinking things. I just need to move forward and face the consequences head on.'

'That's my boy! Face your fears, fuck the negatives and think of the positives! You already made those positives. Rifana is alive, Raphtalia is reunited with her friends and the three heroes aren't as incompetent as before. ...well, a bit less incompetent. So march forward and seize tomorrow!'

Everyone made it out of the dungeon as they notice the smoke.

"What is going on?" Van asks.

"The demi-humans are rioting. They came to bring you home with them. So you might wanna let them know that you're okay and help settle things down."

"Indeed."

An earthquake shook the ground that everyone noticed.

"The hell?!" Gwen and Arthur says.

Filo spots something, "Big bro, over there. What is that?"

The obelisk in front of the manor started to irradiate a purplish glow and sparks of energy are flying about. At the base of the obelisk, they see Idol, undead and still decapitated. He makes a prayer with his head on his arms while holding the Three Heroes rosary in his hands.

Arthur is shocked by what he sees, "WHAT THE FUCK!? HOW THE HELL IS HE ALIVE!?"

Raphtalia is horrified, "But I...I killed him. He should be dead."

A golden seal is formed around the ground as the obelisk glows purple.

Van realizes what it is, "I don't- It can't be!"

"Oh shit!" Gwen realized that they're in trouble. She yells at everyone, "EVERYBODY RUUUUUUNN!"

The obelisk was built by the heroes in order to seal a monster that they couldn't defeat. This is the Tyrant Dragon Rex. A formidable creature that looked like a mix between a Tyrannosaurus-Rex and a dragon that once try to destroy everything in its path. But the undead Idol is now releasing it. Everyone run away from it as the creature is unleashed as the brick ground crash and the monster burst forth. Idol then drops dead, as in actually dead, right before he was stomp into a bloody mess. It lets out a fearsome roar that causes a gust of wind to blow right behind everyone running away from it.

Arthur looks back as he ponders, 'WHAT THE FUCK IS ACTUALLY GOING ON!?'

AN: WOO! Another chapter down! Hey everyone, hope you guys are doing alright despite how fucked up things are. And no, Skull Flame, the dino-dragon has appeared. Now for a bit of news. The company I work for is planning to outsource in two months, so I'm gonna have to find a new job. To me, outsourcing should be illegal. To me, it is one of the reasons why there is unemployment here in the USA. Speaking of idiocy, you guys should avoid people who won't wear masks out of protest. If you guys want to stay healthy, avoid them and keep up with the social distancing.

I upload this early because I'm going to help out my relatives at the campgrounds again. See you guys later!