Y/n's pov

After getting the Dragon Hourglass in the large tree registered, we sat outside and started getting things ready. Since we planned on fighting against the heroes, we needed equipment that was more suitable against them, as well as outfits that wouldn't get in the way. I used metals from my previous world to create armor, since nothing they had available here would be able to damage it much. I made clothes using magic threads and any flexible but durable materials I had in my inventory. Fitoria stood above me and dictated how I made her clothes, she wanted to look threatening and have her clothes suit her looks but they still had to hide her wings or change how they looked. Both outfits had hoods so we would have the option to hide our identity while we go against them. After adding the finishing details to the outfits, I used a type on enhancement skill on the different parts of the outfits to give extra benefits to wearing them. The boots increased speed and muffled sound, the leg wear would absorb damage from falls and kicks, the shirts had elemental nullification, and the coats had temperature regulation with a bonus of presence masking while the hood was up.

Fitoria complained a bit about the enhancements before discovering their usefulness, by kicking me hard. I managed to land on my feet, which reduced most of the damage, but my arms were left sore from blocking the kick. After that I made sure that i only enhanced my armor set just in case she planned to do something like that again. My armor had basic damage dampening and reinforcing enchantments, making it durable and useful. After finishing with armor, I decided to try a skill that I had never been able to use in my previous world, [Replication]. The skill allowed me to recreate any weapon that I have seen or know about as long as I have materials that are of equal or greater value to the weapon, and if I used something of greater value the product would be better than the original. Theoretically I would be able to create a weapon like Excalibur, however I would need something equal to the power in the sword and I wouldn't be able to wield it due to the restrictions on it as well as my inability to use anything that isn't a cursed weapon. Despite the disappointment of not being able to make the legendary sword Excalibur, I would still be able to use it to recreate any cursed weapon I knew of. The first thing that came to mind was the hero weapons replica that the Pope used. The weapon was made out of gold, however the ability to store mana inside of it would be tricky to figure out. There were many materials that could store mana inside them, but to the scale that weapon could would require a large amount that would triple the size of the weapon and make it unusable. If only I had a small object that could store a lot of energy and be as valuable as a heroes weapon......

I slammed my head against a tree and laughed mentally about my stupidity. After a while of mentally reprimanding myself, I took some items out of my inventory and laid them out in front of me. I used dragon bones and scales for the main material since dragon materials were more valuable than gold and typically cursed, I had a star meteor gem included since they generate a lot of mana by themselves meaning I wouldn't need to pull mana from anyone else, and I prepared to do the stupidest test with my skill possible. I looked down at the gem on the bracelet that seemed to be permanently attached to my wrist and held it above the materials on the ground, activationg the [Replicate] skill. A bright light surrounded all of the materials I planned to use, included the chain and bracelet on my arm. The light became brighter and brighter until it suddenly died down. The materials on the ground were gone, but the chain and bracelet were still there. I thought that nothing had happened, and I had just wasted valuable materials, but a message appeared in front of me. [New Cursed Weapon Form Unlocked: Cardinal Blight, the Bane of Heroes].

I blinked my eyes a bit and rubbed them before confirming that the message in front of me was actually real. I opened my stat window and looked at it, seeing a new icon called 'weapons'. I opened the icon and saw 2 names in the new menu. [Cardinal Blight, the Bane of Heroes] and [Accursed Chain, the Bindings of the Cursed One]. I stared at the menu for a while, thinking about how switching the weapons would work, until I felt something hit me across the back of the head. I looked back and saw a very grumpy looking Fitoria. "What the hell was that light for!? Why didn't you warn me before you attempted to blind me!" I stared at her blankly for a bit before responding "I was trying out a skill of mine and got something very useful" She crossed her arms and glared "A blinding light is not useful, It affects everyone not just your enemies." I shook my head "The blinding light was not the useful thing that I got" She continued to give me stink eye "then what was this 'useful thing' that you got from that" I selected [Cardinal Blight] and my chains began faintly glowing as the retracted into the gem along with the bracelet and began forming a shield. The shield was in the form of Naofumi's Rage shield, and was attached to a dragon scale gauntlet the seemed to blend to my armor.

The moment Fitoria saw the shield, her eyes widened and she grabbed onto the shield tightly, attempting to pull it off my arm "Master I told you to stop using this shield!" She was pulling at it desperately, tears pouring from her eyes. Slowly her grip loosened and she fell to her knees, sobbing as she stared down at the ground. I lowered onto one knee and gently grabbed Fitoria by her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. She cried and sobbed, slowly gripping onto me and crying into my shoulder. I slowly pet the back of her head as she cried and held onto me. While she was crying, I looked though my menu to see if I could change the appearance of the shield. There was a menu displaying a bunch of shield options, most of which were locked. However, there were a few that I could use that the moment;[Rage (Default)] [Wrath], [Pride], [Filolial king], [Dragon], and [Fairy King]. I changed the default to Fairy King, and the shield changed into a silver, gold, and green shield with a design similar to [The Fairy Crown]. The gauntlet also changed into a Silver and gold colored gauntlet that had thorn like prongs sticking out of it.

Soon Fitoria stopped crying and slowly pulled away from the hug. She wiped the remaining tears from her face but still continued to look at the ground. "i'm sorry for freaking out like that Y/n. I don't know what came over me" I pat the top of her head "It's Fine Fitoria, I'm sorry for activating some hidden trauma in your mind." She shook her head and looked up at me "I know you didn't mean too... but please, don't use that shield ever again" I nodded "Don't worry, unless I absolutely have to, I won't use that shield around you." She grabbed onto the collar of my outfit and stared deeply into my eyes "i said. Don't use that Shield. EVER. Okay?" I nodded quickly and she let go of me. I sighed and fixed my outfit before looking at Fitoria again "aright, we should only use these outfits when we plan to go against the heroes, when we are fighting the waves we should use our regular outfits. So, I'll give you an item that will let you swap outfits instantly" She nodded a bit. "okay, we need to get going to the next hourglass. There should be a wave happening in a few days." I nodded and took out a necklace from my inventory and handed to her "here, this should let you change outfits instantly, try it out while I look away and change my weapon back"

After our outfits, and my weapon, were back to their normal appearance, Fitoria took us to the place the next hourglass should be. We ended up at another island, however this one seemed to be inhabited by people. The people seemed to be getting ready for some kind of event, setting up signs and temporary stalls. I looked over at Fitoria "do you know what's going on here?" She stared blankly at the people for a bit before speaking "They might be getting ready for the Cal Mira thingy" I stared at her "the what?" she shrugged and looked at me "Every decade there is some double exp event that happens in this area. A lot of adventurers come here to level up, and the heroes normally show up for it to power level." I nodded and frowned "So there is a high chance we are going to run into the heroes while we are here?" Fitoria nodded "This will be a good time to see if they are properly getting along. The timing couldn't be better. We wont have to wear disguises while we are here." I nodded and sighed "I guess it's better to confront them sooner rather than later..." She stared at me "Is there someone that you don't want to see?" I sighed and nodded "yeah.... Rifana." Fitoria tilted her head "You mean the weasel girl?" I nodded "yeah, I almost killed her the last time I saw her..." FItoria grabbed my arm tightly "Did you mean to hurt her?" "No.." Her grip tightened "Did she blame you for it?" I looked away, not responding. She then gripped even harder "Is she still alive?" I nodded "Then quit being a bitch and apologize to her!" I looked at her "What if she doesn't forgive me?" She smacked my across my head "Then take it like a hero and suck it up, stop being a baby!"

I groaned and rubbed my head "Did you have to hit me that hard?" she nodded "You are being stupid, so it was absolutely necessary" I sighed and shook my head "well, since we are already here, lets take advantage of the double exp thing while we are here" She nodded and grabbed my hand "Come on then. we'll have to find a place to stay." I nodded and she started walking, pulling me along by my hand. She lead me into the town and asked a few people if there were any hotels that weren't booked. Soon she got us to a hotel that wasn't bad looking that still had rooms open. After dealing with the reception person, we got a room for the week. Since we were last minute bookers, the room we got only had one bed. I was going to ask for another bed to be brought later, but Fitoria stopped me by covering my mouth and dragging me to the room. Once she finally let go of me I looked at her, only to see her giving me a glare "we don't need another bed. We can share it." I stared at her for a bit before nodding "fine, I wont ask them for another bed" She gripped onto my shoulder and gripped it tight "No pulling a bed out of your inventory either." I groaned a bit as a bit of my hp is lost "why not?" She huffed "Because I want to share a bed with you. You are warm and I like holding onto you" I sighed and nodded "okay, we can share the bed, just let go of my shoulder. you are causing a surprising amount of damage."

After Fitoria let go of me, and I healed the damage she did to my hp, we set up the room for what we would be doing during out time here. Once that was done, we headed out to check out the area. We got a map of the island from a shop and spoke to a few locals to gather a bit of extra information about the area. The double exp event would be activating later today, and the heroes were supposed to be arriving by ship soon. The town was currently getting ready for the arrival of the heroes and adventurers, setting up a welcoming environment. Fitoria was getting bored so we left to go check out all the area the monsters spawn at to get an understanding of the environments. Since all of the boats were currently being examined and maintained, there wasn't anyone that could take us over to the other islands. Not wanting to wait, Fitoria just transformed into her smaller bird form and had me ride on her back as she swam to one of the monster spawning islands. We spent a lot of the morning scouting out the areas, seeing what monsters there were and the habits they had.

While we were scouting, we spoke about how we were going to be dealing with the heroes. When we aren't in disguise we would act as I normally would, not exactly friends but not their enemies. When in disguise we would have to act in complete disregard of all effects on them and the people around them. We had to be villains to them, so we would acting like Fitoria's persona, we would care about the world, not the people in it. As long as it got the heroes to work together, Fitoria didn't mind acting either way. Fitoria would also be limited to her human form while we are acting as villains, since her filolial form was easily recognizable, something she also didn't mind since she had found new ways to attack in her human form. Once the conversation hit a dead end, we headed back to the main island to take a break and eat before the event activates.

Once we arrived, there were noticeably more people around, mostly people heading to hotels or checking out stores to get stuff. We walked through the crowd, Fitoria holding onto my hand claiming it was to keep us from being separated. We got to the central area and looked around for a place to get food. It was difficult to find anything since adventurers were gathering into groups to talk, blocking the paths everywhere. After a long time of searching, we finally saw a place to get food that wasn't too packed. Just before we could walk over, a hand grabbed onto my other arm and stopped up. I turned and saw a very familiar white haired weasel girl standing there. I stood silently, staring at her until she spoke up "Y/n-sama...."