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———
I have lost again.
I have certainly gotten stronger than before, and this time I even had location advantage.
Everyone had become stronger with the equipment obtained at Tsige.
The way of thinking and fighting style of the adventurers that came with us from Limia have also been a good influence to the Kingdom’s army.
It was for me too.
It isn’t to the level of Mio-san and Beren-san who I met at the remote region, but there were a lot of things I learned.
It wasn’t just skill at hand-to-hand combat.
I also began acting towards breaking down the fetters of the nobles that have been clotted, the discomforting politics.
It would be one thing if it were after bringing down Stella Fort, but in the current state, the position of the capital is quite dangerous, and I thought that each noble held way too much power in military affairs.
In that aspect, I have shown a relative amount of results.
Repeating careful talk with the heirs of the next generation, I was able to focus their attention in the view that the Kingdom’s current way is wrong.
It wasn’t like the objective was a rebellion against the royal family, and I can’t just create a big civil war in the middle of our war against the demon race, so right now I am just stopping it at only awareness in reformation.
The second son of the Hopelace who are high nobles and yet are very close to the royal family.
The fact that Ilum-kun approved this proposal of mine in an early stage allowed me to move smoothly and it was also a big help.
I think that in the future I will be asking for his cooperation too.
Facing the plan to bring down Stella, I felt like I was doing everything I could.
And yet…
Not only were we unable to defend against Io’s surprise attack, we were pushed back. We let them reach till the audience room.
I intended to run away, but after coming this far, it was difficult.
I honestly can tell that it would be hard to leave the castle and escape the town with Io chasing after us.
And I don’t know how much damage our surroundings would take because of this.
In the end, I chose to settle this in an early stage with the support barrier of the audience room.
Using the Minotaurus and the Centaurus that Io said he brought from the border’s wasteland, Bredda was completely shut out, and I was forced to fight with him in a one on one.
With Wudi’s support attacks, Chiya’s healing support, and also the support barrier of the audience room, furthermore, the silver band which Horn dwells in, and the sword Beren-san made for me.
Even if it’s against Io who has already turned black and going at full-power, I thought I would be able to confront him.
Right now, in front of my eyes, there’s a white guy that suddenly bursted in and joined the fight.
I felt like shouting: what kind of joke is this?!
That guy had an attire like one of those daily special effect heroes. He stopped an attack of Io right from the front, and while receiving two of those attacks, he made Io step back and gave one attack to him.
I felt like an idiot for warning him to not compete with Io in strength.
He is strong.
And quite strong at that.
His moves are not that good, but the white guy has already deployed a pretty high-ranked enhancing magic and fighting in close quarter combat against Io.
For me who knows about special effect heroes, his appearance is quite embarrassing, but he is defending against the attacks of Io precisely.
Physical strength and speed; in my eyes, it looks like the basic specs of him are higher than Io’s.
And in another aspect, the body movements and technique are higher in Io.
… Well, in terms of attires, I don’t have the right to say much about others.
I take a look at my own body.
There’s no wound that can be considered a wound.
I have already used my own healing magic and I had Chiya heal me as well.
I have quite the amount of physical and mental fatigue, but I will have to hold it down with willpower.
I am practically naked, so I can tell that I don’t have any sort of scars.
It’s embarrassing, but this is necessary to display my best performance so… I can’t just not do it.
In the resonance with my guardian spirit Horn, I always end up in this appearance so it can’t be helped.
A strenuous skill that lets me clad the silver band and Horn at the same time.
Different from possession, my will doesn’t get inhibited in any way. It is uncomfortable that I end up in a state as if wearing a risque fur-made string swimsuit. The defensive field that it creates is slightly superior to the equipment the dwarf Beren-san made for me.
To fight against the blackened Io, it was necessary to have the power and speed of this form.
It wasn’t the moment to say that gravure would be a lot better.
That’s why I had to do it.
He is not an opponent that a normal bluff would work on, so I perform the weakness I showed in the past and tried to lure some sort of opening.
It was practically useless though.
I was somehow able to do some effective attacks in my starting dash, but with his usual regeneration, it was all made into zero again.
That’s right, this sword.
As expected, Mio-san and Beren-san are incredible.
The moment they made this sword for me, I could tell that those two had already seen through my specialty.
A great sword that had its wind power sealed, in the past.
In Io’s battle, I finally realized the power of this.
With an inhuman voice, the sword called me.
Just like how it asked me, I forcefully controlled the power that the sword emitted.
I didn’t unify with the sword like I did with Horn, it was as if I was doing a competition of power with the sword.
An ear-piercing metallic sound rang in my ears several times, and the great sword compressed into the size of the bastard sword I used in the past.
The originally transparent emerald green sword blade became more pronounced and the degree of transparency decreased.
In exchange, the power of the wind was felt even stronger.
It’s not to understand the weapon; the condition for activation is to thirst for power and make the power obey. I felt like it was a latent disposition with bad specifications and I felt grudge welling up.
But its power was tremendous.
Just by holding it, my power increased by several times and my senses became sharper.
The sharpness also increased remarkably and I was able to cut even the blackened Io.
If I used my specialty attacks that harbor the fire element, the wind element increased its power by even more. If I endowed an element in the sword, the fire would not be red but became an emerald green that looked as if it gushed out from the blade of the sword.
In the past I wasn’t blessed with a good weapon, but now I was being brandished by the weapon itself, is what I felt like bantering about. It had such a high efficiency that I even felt uncomfortable.
The wind element boosts the fire element.
Beren-san must have thought that, going by my style of fighting, instead of a fire weapon, it would be better to use a wind element one.
Io was unable to catch up with my speed and I was able to continuously attack him. ‘With this, I have won’, is what I thought at that moment.
And yet…
Becoming black wasn’t his trump card.
Those big gauntlets that were equipped on his arms that served as weapons as well as armor… those were his trump card.
That he didn’t use them last time, was it because at that time they still weren’t made?
Each one of the 4 gauntlets had one of the 4 main elements: fire, water, earth and wind. Even when it is simple, he cladded elements in his attacks.
Wind with earth; my movements were restricted.
Water with fire; my attacks were weakened.
If he didn’t have those, I would have been able to decide the battle before he got ‘used’ to my attacks.
It was only a single pattern he read from me.
From there, I received a counter, and Io, without defending against the follow-ups of Wudi and Chiya-chan’s spells, he received those attacks with his body while approaching me, and I received a combo attack that felt as if my body was being torn to shreds.
Counting the kick, I received a combo of probably 7 attacks.
The rapid fire of Wudi that disregarded his remaining magic, created a smokescreen, and I had Chiya-chan heal me.
When I reached the state where I can make arias myself, I added my own regeneration spell.
In the moment Wudi’s magic power was sacrificed by quite a lot and our force had diminished, the situation showed a change.
A black mass with slight golden light clad on it, plunged onto the audience room from the sky.
In front of us, a sinister skeleton and a white guy that looked like a special effect hero appeared.
He ignored the words of Io and drew closer and the skeleton easily took care of the ambush troops that we didn’t even notice.
After saying something vague that I couldn’t understand if he was an enemy or an ally, the skeleton led me and my comrades to lean on a wall.
It is probably a subordinate of that white guy, but I was silently looking at the fight between the white guy and Io.
The skeleton didn’t show any signs of entering to help.
It seems like he affixed a field of some sort around us, but it doesn’t look like he is doing anything aside from that.
It is certainly true that the white guy is fighting Io in a more than advantageous way, but I have to question that skeleton’s action of not even providing support.
“He is… not your master? Is it okay to stay here without going to help him?” (Hibiki)
“… No problem. If it’s only at that level, supporting him would only serve as an hindrance. Hero… Hibiki, was it? That weapon, is it something you obtained in Tsige?” (Shiki)
“What’s with that so suddenly?” (Hibiki)
“I just thought that it is most likely a weapon from Kuzunoha Company” (Shiki)
“You know them?!” (Hibiki)
“Only slightly. It is more like, I have have a past connection with that material” (Shiki)
“Material?” (Hibiki)
“Yeah, there was an experimental subject that I had it eat a wind spirit. It resembles the sickle of it” (Shiki)
“… T-That was a mamono you made?! Or more like, it was used as a raw material for this?!” (Hibiki)
“Well, that doesn’t matter right now. That just means it was an individual that served only as a mere material after all” (Shiki)
“… So you say. Just who in the world are you?” (Hibiki)
“Larva. Experiment loving and former Lich. Hey, that magician and knight over there. Don’t move. Stay there” (Shiki)
The skeleton that named himself Larva stopped Bredda and Wudi who were trying to stand up, while he talked to me.
Wudi still hasn’t recovered his magic power properly.
I do think that it is still impossible for him to resume his actions.
But…
I knew the reason why.
At the line of sight of those two, there’s two enemies.
The Centaurus and the Minotaurus.
As expected from enemies native of the wasteland, they are strong.
At this situation, I should be the one going.
I can already move my body after all.
“Hero, you as well. Stay there” (Shiki)
“Can’t you see the enemy? Against that level of enemy, I wouldn’t even take 3 minutes. Just leave it to me” (Hibiki)
“… Don’t misunderstand. I am not giving advice nor am I asking for an opinion. I am ordering you” (Shiki)
“Quite the words there. I am grateful for your help, but this is also something that benefits you too, right?” (Hibiki)
I take my sword in hand and stand up.
It’s not at the quality of that white guy, but even so, to use standard enhancing magic exhausts quite a lot of magic power.
Slightly feeling that my strength was giving away, I place the spell again.
The weakness is that it is easy to cancel if I lower my concentration.
But its effect is balanced, so for someone like me who has a lot of magic power, this is a magic that fits me.
“If there’s even a slight chance that you will be wounded, there will only be disadvantages for me. Sit down. Be silent and don’t move” (Shiki)
A tone of voice from the former Lich that didn’t forgive any objection.
It seems like these guys are not enemies but they are not our allies either.
“I will finish it quickly” (Hibiki)
“If you leave the field, I will kill your companions” (Shiki)
“?!”
“In the agreement we exchanged with the Goddess, there was nothing mentioning the safety of your companions. As long as you are okay, I don’t care about what happens to the other hyumans” (Shiki)
What a thing he is saying.
Just what was the Goddess thinking when he brought this kind of people to the capital?
I can’t feel any sort of joke in his words.
At the very least, I could tell that he doesn’t feel anything for the life of hyumans.
“… In that case, what are we going to do? See, they are coming!” (Hibiki)
“I will do it. You guys should just silently wait here” (Shiki)
“You bastard, there’s a limit to rudeness—” (Bredda)
“Bredda-dono, let’s leave things here to this personage. Increasing our enemies in this state is a bad move” (Wudi)
Wudi holds back Bredda who couldn’t endure it anymore and was going to complain to Larva.
It’s certainly true. This is not the time to be increasing our enemies.
As long as we have decided to fight Io, we have to speedily drive out the demons attacking the capital.
For that sake, I would have to steal the march on Larva somehow, but…
“Then, I will be seeing what you got. The power of Larva-dono, please show it to me” (Hibiki)
I decided to send slight sarcasm to him.
It’s true that this Larva is strong.
That instantaneous movement and the speed of his spell activation, the weapon he holds is not normal either.
In terms of magic power, Wudi is lower than Chiya-chan and me, but just like in levels, the magic power doesn’t completely decide the skills of a magician.
That Centaurus and Minotaurus are not normal enemies.
If it’s me, I would be able to push them back with overwhelming speed, but just how will the most likely-magician Larva fight?
Let me see it.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
A big frame ox faced warrior swings down his battle axe.
Fumu, is this a demi-human, or a mamono?
It is kinda… interesting.
If I meet another one in the future, let’s check it up.
Because I stepped back and avoided it, the axe hits the floor and it left slight damage on it.
What an excellent support barrier.
If it were average, fragments would have scattered and the floor would have been splendidly gouged.
“And you use a bow huh” (Shiki)
I slap down the shot arrow with my staff.
The Centaurus is a demi-human and quite the prideful race.
It seems there’s many who choose bows and spears, and it seems this one has chosen the bow.
A vanguard and a rear guard; their roles are properly set.
As expected, these two are stronger than the ambush troops from before huh.
“Io-sama is fighting. We can’t just stand and do nothing. Move aside, Lich”
“You have shown us your power, but that level won’t work against us”
“… I don’t like showing more power than necessary after all. Sorry for that. Master said that he would be giving me my turn later. In that case, I will be using you guys as warm up” (Shiki)
Fufu.
Those so called warriors are really easy to utilize by using their pride.
Their temperament clearly changed.
“Very well. You are without doubt an obstacle that has defeated our brethren as well”
“I already know your power to a certain extent. In our home, you would be treated as a troublesome livestock” (Shiki)
“!!”
“Fool. Just what benefit would it bring you to anger us?”
“Who knows Horses would be too frail for us to mount after all. I don’t know much about you. Sorry” (Shiki)
“!!!”
The Minotaurus and the Centaurus heat up in an amusing manner.
Well then, let’s begin.
“I was a former Lich you see. Why I am ‘former’, I will show you here” (Shiki)
I finish my aria. I release the spell that is suited for me from within me.
“How long will you accompany me for? I am looking forward to knowing. ‘Thirteen stepping-stones’” (Shiki)
The moment I became a servant of Waka-sama, I was embedded an uncontrollable amount of power inside of me.
I assimilated it, but it is a power that is not mine.
I have finally been able to change, not everything, into my power.
You guys are my first prey.
Inside of me, it has been sleeping, changing, and has awakened.
… the power of Waka-sama’s rings that is.
“From the first step to the fourth, release. ‘Wand’, ‘Sword’, ‘Cup’, ‘Coin’” (Shiki)
“Gugh!!”
“This is?!”
I won’t say 4 times, but I can tell that a magic power close to that is sprung out to the surroundings.
I can tell there’s a different nature of magic power raging about in my body.
This sensation that enlarges my maximum amount of magic power is peculiar.
I look at my left hand.
There, I see 4 rings dyed in crimson red in all the fingers aside from the pinky finger.
Power wells up as well.
Until the fourth step there’s: magic empowerment, body enhancement, magic power enhancement, equipment enhancement.
Until this level, I am able to utilize it without any risks.
Depending on the situation, I would want to release higher steps, but that is slightly harsh.
“You guys are also stirred up because your superior is there right? Try to struggle a bit, okay?” (Shiki)
I prepare my staff.
The two instantly take defensive stances.
Directly below them, several floor-turned-spears thrust upwards.
I have to properly utilize the support barrier after all.
“Hoh~, the horse evaded it huh. The ox… it seems he has endured it” (Shiki)
The Centaurus shoots an arrow towards me.
In the middle of its way, it splitted up and rained down.
The Forest Oni Akua does something similar to this.
“Burn” (Shiki)
Instead of magic, I used a special soul language to forcibly activate a spell.
I changed all the arrows into dust.
“This magiciaaan!!”
This time is the Minotaurus.
Yareyare.
Can’t see the difference in power yet?
At the battle axe that was swung down obliquely, I purposely don’t take a defensive position and decide to take it.
“Impossible”
The axe stops at the tip of my shoulder.
My magic power, equipment and even my physical body has increased in power.
I don’t even need to defend against this kind of attack.
“Well then, it is my turn now, right?” (Shiki)
I prepare my black staff and begin an aria.
While looking at the expression of despair from both of them, I finished the remainder of my spell.
“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. That life, offer it up” (Shiki)
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View Comments
thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter!
"That guy had an attire like one of those daily special effect heroes"
It shouldn't be daily, but rather "Sunday morning" where those shows are normally shown (日曜日の朝にやっている特撮ヒーロー)
It's great to see some action by Shiki. Thanks for the chapter.
The next one is really long, looking forward to it. =]
Good.
Thank you very much for the chapter
Tnx for the chap😘
Why in the hell Hibiki is trying to change the political affair of the kindom??? Even if she is carefull to not cause a civil war meanwhile she is fighting the demon, she thinks is good if it happens after???.....
After Tomoshit now we have Hibidumb?!?
yeah, it's good if a civil war break out because it can lead to a revolution and change the government that is currently beyond corrupt.
yeah it would be better to do it with peace rather than war, but things aren't always that easy, and hibiki showed some character development since the stella fort battle and the death of her friend
Hey, take it easy. What Hubiki wants is reform, not a civil war. Everyone's been complaining about how the hyumans behaved until now, so the idea of someone trying to fix it is pleasant to me.
Hibiki mentions civil war because corrupt people in power want to stay in power.
Reform that she want is akin to freeing of the slaves during Lincoln years. See how that turn up. (Civil war) . and that is not freeing them 100 percent.
Yes, the American Civil War did happen because someone wanted reform. But that's not the same as wanting a civil war. That's just wanting a reform in an age that resists it.
Hibiki is from a world where the reform has basically already happened, so it's easier for her to picture changing this world than not. She acknowledges that this isn't the time or place for infighting, but it's on her mind as something she has to deal with after the invading demons. She doesn't want more war, but she knows it will probably have to happen if she wants hyumans to change.
There's no foolishness in any of that. She somewhat lacks a full perspective of the world. My point was that comparing her to Tomoki just because of that doesn't seem fair to me.
Guys the concept of reforming the political power of a nation (even if it's only for eradicate corruption) means that at least the king will have to abdicate, or worst it will be something like France's revolution...9/10 changing a monarchy means sh*t shower for the royal family....
Hibiki is instigating doubt in the very concept of the structure of the kingdom....even Rooth said that it was a stupid thing to do...
I'm not comparing her character with Tomoshit...but her idea of changing the power structure of a nation in a Middle Age like world...it won't end nicely...
the best type of reform might be to just be like Britain. i don't know their politics, but they must be doing something right after all these years?
Thanks for the translation!
thank
Thanks 4 the chapter!
Now I can't help imagining one of those hentai games where the heroine get stripped slowly with every hit until she's naked.
So...
The Audience Room has a Support Barrier? Funny how no one mentioned it before. WTF does it support anyways? And how do Hibiki and Shiki "use" it?
Why is Hibiki's fight done as a recap? Telling the audience how her fight went AFTER we know the outcome completely robs it of any tension and is a missed opportunity to build up to the climactic fight between Makoto and Io.
When someone descends from the sky surrounded by golden light, it's pretty obvious at this point that they're sent by the Goddess. Io and Hibiki shouldn't be wondering if the Goddess sent them, they should be wondering who the hell these minions of the Goddess are.
Hibiki says that Io attacks her with elemental damage, but wtf does that even mean? Did he punch her or something? Use Hadouken? How can you recall a fight scene without talking about how the fighters move?!
Speaking of fight scenes, fights in many LNs resemble JRPGs where "damage" is taken, not wounds, "HP" lost instead of blood and "debuffs" gained rather than crippling injuries sustained. They come across as a game rather than the life and death struggle that they should be. There's no tension; pain and fear are mere inconveniences. Healing is stupidly underrated, depicted as a simple HP restoration effect, rather than the awesome blood-restoring, flesh-knitting, bone-setting Awesome that it is.
The Minotaur and Centaur apparently were involved in the fight with Hibiki, but the author doesn't mention them until now? They're kinda easy to notice. We also have no idea that Bredda got his arse kicked by the duo until we're told he's flat on his back. Oh, hai gais!
The two taurus' also saw Shiki murder 4 of their comrades like trash mobs in an MMO. Yet they don't even mention that nor do they take precautions against him. And here I thought daemons were all tactical and shit.
Lots of pointless observations to go with the missing details. Oh, look - the Support Barrier prevents damage to the Audience Room floor :P Hibiki's levelled-up sword is filled with RAEG.
WTF are LN editors doing? Japan is a country that holds literature in high esteem. Surely the editors and readers would have spotted the problems.
In the order asked:
Support Barrier? How do Hibiki and Shiki “use” it?
Hyumans, probably; the hero party specifically. I'm not sure Shiki is using it so much as he put down his own protective field, put the hero party in it, and told them to stay there, like a good escort quest target.
Why is Hibiki’s fight done as a recap?
Presumably to add a frame of reference for the fight between Io and Makoto. Also, this servers as the payoff for all of those chapters we spent on Hibiki's growth. We see she met her goal of becoming strong enough to face the Io of the previous battle, but she's not quite strong enough to face the Io of this battle. Unless you're asking about why is it stuck in part 5 of Asora's movements, and not while Raidou was in the Academy? Wouldn't that feel disjointed, to go from Academy cleanup, to a battlefield in Limia, back to Raidou's mopup operation?
When someone descends from the sky surrounded by golden light, it’s pretty obvious at this point that they’re sent by the Goddess.
The Devil and Larva were dumped out at 10,000 feet and they quickly wrapped themselves up in a bubble of darkness before hitting the ground, so the order of events sounds like: pillar of light -> nothing -> bubble of darkness -> Devil & Friend. So you have a pair that may or may not have arrived by light pillar, claiming to be sent by the Goddess, but professing to side with the demons' cause. That's some mixed messaging right there.
WTF does elemental damage even mean?
I'm assuming standard RPG elemental damage/effects mechanics here. It's a lot to give the author and honestly I'm with you on this one, but we DO need to get to the main attraction, so all we really need to know about the gauntlets is that they put Io out of reach of Hibiki, but probably won't impact the Devil's fight.
What about other LNs?
It's hard to comment on other LNs without knowing which LNs you're talking about. The only general statement I can give is if the setting's JRPG, you should probably expect JRPG.
The author doesn't mention Minotaurs and Centaurs until now?
They're part of the mixed race troop force of Io, apparently. Hibiki didn't mention them in the battle recap because she's not worried and they probably weren't actively interfering with her fight with Io.
The two taurus’ also saw Shiki murder 4 of their comrades like trash mobs in an MMO. Yet they don’t even mention that nor do they take precautions against him.
Accept their existence in showing Shiki's growth, and move on. That said, Larva did feel the need to use four of his rings, so it's quite possible they did take precautions against no ring Larva. Failing that observation, Larva was attacking them through their pride so they were angry enough to lash out without thinking.
WTF are LN editors doing?
Not editing WN's, that's for sure.
On a completely unrelated note, "Devil and Friend" sounds like a sitcom I could totally get into.
I'm pretty sure the ambushers Shiki killed were much weaker than the duo, so their perception of Shiki's power was accounted for, but flawed.
Thanks for the reply. Something you'll probably notice is that the reader is often asked to fill in the blanks for no good reason. "Probably", "maybe", "I think" are not things either of us should be saying when explaining what happened.
Having Hibiki enter the Audience Room for the first showdown, then have Makoto enter AFTER her fight, then have her recap the fight is not good narrative flow. A simpler and more intuitive approach would be to have Hibiki and Co. enter, fight Io, show Io kicking her arse despite her levelup in class and gear, THEN have Makoto enter and make a mockery of both Io's and Hibki's strength. Enhance this effect by depicting the Hibiki vs. Io fight as painful for the Hibiki party as possible (e.g. smashed furniture, broken bones, flying bodies, gushing blood, screams, shouts and groans). "Show, don't tell".
The LN made it very clear that the golden light is associated with the Goddess' power. It's why Sofia and Lancer immediately attacked Makoto/Raidou. If it didn't, I'd agree with you there. So instead of wondering if they're working for the Goddess, they should be wondering why the Goddess sent such weirdos.
The thing about the elemental damage attacks is that there's no connection between them and their effects, let alone how Io applies them. "Wind with earth; my movements were restricted.
Water with fire; my attacks were weakened." What? He's supposed to be smacking her around with his fists clad in elemental power, right?
Regarding the TaurBros I went back and checked; Makoto does notice them, but that's it. Moreover, the TaurBros teamed up on Bredda while everyone else focused on Io. But if Bredda is down, the party's flank is exposed and that's kind of a big deal. But again, nothing; things keep getting mentioned without context. It's like playing a computer game with serious pop-in issues.
Again, if the LN didn't already make such a big deal about how tactically savvy the daemons were, I could ignore it. If the TaurBros were are smart as the author made them out to be, they should have realized by the time Makoto engaged Io that the only thing they could do to Shiki is deny him victory with their lives, an all-out suicidal attack on Hibiki. But they aren't written that way.
Yeah, I think it's this author's style to leave the fine descriptions up to the readers and leave gaps for events to be filled in by POV though. For better or for worse, it seems to be intentional. When I reread the story, sometimes I get a whole new picture with knowledge of future events.
Personally, I'm fine with it because I prefer works forcing me to think more than to think less. But I can see it being kind of tiring to read for some people. Take the elemental thing, for example. I didn't find any problem at all, because I automatically filled in the blanks and assumed it meant Io could use those gauntlets as catalysts to cast magic, with Earth magic sealing Hibiki's Wind augmented speed and Water magic weakening her Fire magic specialization.
Again, I can see the problem with not saying things explicitly and considering me having to say "assumed" a bad thing.
Look, I know half of my previous response boils down to "unimportant details are unimportant," but I do love these types of discussions.
Hibiki lured Io to the Audience Room because she thought it gave her a tactical advantage. What's the advantage? It . . . has a supporting magic field! Now we established more growth between old Hibiki and this one. Before, she was ambushed by Io and stood her ground on a battlefield of his choosing. Now she's drawing him in to a battlefield she picked. The major theme of growth is reinforced. Does knowing how the supporting field works help progress the narrative? If you found out the field lifts and supports to reduce shoulder fatigue, would that enrich your reading?
The biggest problem I have with your light pillar argument is there is an unspecified passage of time between the pillar and the pair. Skydivers take roughly 30 seconds to travel from 10,000 feet to 5,500 feet, where they deploy their chutes. Most of that time is spent at terminal velocity. Assuming Earth standard gravity, Earth standard atmosphere, having the Goddess teleport them to 10,000 feet above the ground, Makoto and Shiki taking no measures to slow their decent, and no horizontal drift, (all a lot to assume, but it gives the shortest interval and strongest connection between the pillar and sphere,) that's almost a full minute between the pillar of light and the ball of darkness. It possibly took longer than that, since Makoto had time enough to talk to Shiki, order an invasion, make the ball of darkness, and get a working disguise going. All while he's in the air.
Second problem is that the Goddess isn't the only major power in this world. Tomoe says Root can pull off the same light pillar teleportation. The Devil is seen traveling by light pillar, but he's is obviously not aligned with the Goddess what with that whole wanton slaughter of everyone thing.
Third problem is both of our arguments assume Io or Hibiki saw the light pillar. There's no indication that actually happened. Rona has conflicting reports about it, but she's not present. Sofia saw the pillar, but she's in a different country. The only thing we get is Hibiki being confused over a Power Ranger and a skeleton walking around like they were going to a Halloween party. Io's wondering why a white golem and a lich are walking up to him in the middle of a battle.
The gauntlets. I've already agreed it would be nice to get an explanation of what they're doing, but the details ultimately don't matter to the narrative. Hibiki could have won if Io didn't have the gauntlets, but he did, so here comes the Devil to save the day.
Finally with the 'taurus guys, I think it's unfair to say they should have known Larva would suddenly power up before them just because he's in the protagonist's party. Even if they were expected to be that genre savvy, you're just going to have to accept that not every army grunt is going to be a chess master.
Honestly, I'm mostly interested in how to best rearrange the events of these chapters. Do you remove the Mio and Tomoe section from ③, and add it back in sometime after the Devil's battle? That seems like the easiest solution, but it delays the conclusion of that story offshoot. Do you move the whole Hibiki part to just before Makoto interacts with the Goddess? It makes the most sense from a timeline perspective, but you'd have to move Tomoki's section along with it to prevent things from feeling disjointed. Do you push back Makoto's landing to have a chapter dedicated to Hibiki and Io squaring off against each other? I don't see any significant character growth for either character. Hibiki has her new goal (Io + gauntlets), and hasn't encountered any major loss, which is all we really need to know about someone not directly connected to Makoto/Raidou/Devil. I look forward to her losing to Io + gauntlets + shin guards in the future. The battle might give a nice opportunity to flesh out the other members of her party, but these updates are called "Participation of the Devil," and he's spent more updates being in the air than on the ground.
To be honest, I think I have the exact opposite complaint as you do when it comes to this pacing. We went from the student tournament, directly to the variant incident, headlong into a dick waving competition with the Goddess, straight into the struggle of the heroes, intermingled with Asora's invasion, and I'm already getting battle fatigued. I'm battle fatigued and we have yet to get to the Devil punching out Io and Sofia. I know the latter half of the variant updates were to act as the buffer between both sets of fights, but none of the plot threads have been resolved since the tournament arc. So I'm fatigued, and you're fatigued reading this. Let's move on to what's really important:
@Psychronia well, someone's going to have to come up with a theme song now. Not me though, I'm terrible at those kind of things.
A sitcom theme or a Waka White Ranger theme? I asked for some henshin themes last chapter and got some, but I haven't had a chance to go through them yet.
I'm not that good at creating lyrics either, so half-hoping someone will take it up before I stop procrastinating.
A "Support Barrier" is by definition a barrier (something that prevents things from moving across it) that grants the user some sort of advantage. Shiki's observation of the barrier reinforcing the floor implies that the entire Audience Chamber is surrounded by the barrier. But if that's true then it's already useless - Io is already inside it. So this part needs a bit of explanation, especially since both Hibiki and Shiki make use of it somehow.
"Does knowing how the supporting field works help progress the narrative?" It had better. Otherwise, the author is wasting our time with half-assed writing. Again, it's yet another subversion of the "Chekov's Gun" trope. Let me give you an example. Hibiki using the Support Barrier can showcase her cunning in using her familiarity with the place to full effect. Shiki using the Support Barrier demonstrates how much more of a badass he is; a complete newcomer reading the battlefield in an instant.
The golden light business is more a matter of public knowledge. There are exceptions, but there is no reason for either Io or Hibiki to know such matters or assume as such. But then again, there are too many holes in the whole (lol) narrative to know what was going on in their heads. Too many times the reader has to rely only on what is said to know wtf is going on.
Black Io + Gauntlets + Powerup is one of those pointless details that make me wonder what the author is trying to achieve. So many important details are missed and stuff just pops up, yet the author saw fit to go into detail about something so trivial. Look, either just say Io kicked Hibiki's arse and be done with it, or go into more detail about wtf was happening. Unintentional "Red Herrings" like this are bad writing.
Huh? Chekov's Gun is a literary concept, yes. But it doesn't have to be followed like some sort of law. The reason the concept exists is in itself not a technique for foreshadowing, but the address of an inherent limitation in writing. Something that's mentioned early on in a story almost must be important, because if it isn't, the author could have written about something else more relevant. Otherwise, they end up either making a future situation that involves a previously unmentioned item that seems to appear out of nowhere, or filling the novel up with unnecessary information.
I'm personally fine with the latter and it seems the author is doing this so far, but let's continue with the concept first. Because of this, the problem becomes that anything the author mentions ends up having some relevance just because it was mentioned. The story becomes one of those kid drawing guides where readers just have to draw from hint-dot to hint-dot and it becomes more predictable. Example: That one kid in Jurassic Park knows Gymnastics, so she *must* use it to help out the situation in some way because why else would that skill be mentioned?
I don't really care if authors don't demonstrate Chekov's Gun-in fact, I think I might prefer they don't do more than drop some minor details that draw subtle connections in the world they build. In this one, it's not like the story is some mystery novel for us to decipher, it's a journey by Makoto as he interacts with a whole other world in ways we can both hate and love. Events are always happening, especially around wherever Kuzunoha treads, but we don't have to know about all of them, even if they'll come up in time. We didn't need to hear about Makoto finding some thought transmission blocker before Rona's variant incident or about his ability to use a hit-all un-jamming spell before he's asked to do it. It's fine if we're along for the ride.
Also, what do you mean by red herring? Do you mean descriptions that don't lead to anywhere? Because I interpret it as briefly mentioning "this happened, this exists" without needing to go into additional detail.
It is kinda problematic when you have three separate narratives in the same arc. It's hard to do and you'd better know what you're doing or the audience will start to feel fatigue. George Lucas tried it in the Phantom Menace, with predictable results. Keep the perspective on Makoto and keep the other fights in the background.
Chekov's Gun, like most literary tropes, are tried and true guidelines for good storytelling, like the Hero's Journey. Sure, you can try something completely different, but you'd better be good enough to make it work. That's not the case here; this is bunch of odds and ends thrown in a box that the reader has to sort out, effectively doing the writer's work for him. If you like that sort of thing, that's great. But that's not good writing.
The bit about the girl from Jurassic Park demonstrating gymnastic skills that she used later is actually a good example of foreshadowing. The problem was that its application was so improbable that it becomes a parody of itself. Making the mundane into something awesome and/or funny can and does work, but if the delivery is bad, the whole thing backfires and just looks stupid.
Which brings me to the Red Herring. It's normally used as a literary device to achieve a specific effect. The important part is that it's a deliberate decision on the part of the author to produce a specific payoff on the part of the reader. The haphazard details thrown at the reader demonstrate a lack of deliberation, winding paths that keep on going nowhere. Again, this is a common (and annoying) trait for LNs in general.