Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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As soon as August, Hestia, and Artemis stepped through the portal, they found themselves floating above an immense void.

"Oh."

"Looks pretty safe to me," Hestia noted.

She held tightly onto August and looked out at the horizon. In the distance, she could just make out the faint shape of a city by the sea.

"Safe my ass," Artemis snapped.

Artemis gripped her Arrow of Orion and glared at everything around them. Both goddesses had sensed it as soon as they arrived. A voice had resounded in their minds, almost screaming for help.

'Kill them.'

'Please, kill them.'

It was the Voice of the World. August also heard the fervent appeal loud and clear.

"What is that?" August rubbed his temples.

The voice begged them to destroy its enemies. It was filled with a powerful hatred for whatever threatened it.

"The Voice of the World," Artemis answered grimly, keeping her weapon drawn. "But it doesn't feel like it belongs to the present."

Her Divine instincts picked up on the signal. It was a cry for help coming from the future.

Suddenly, the air pressure shifted—

"Something is coming for us." Artemis quickly let her Arcanum flare, surrounding Hestia and August with a shield of moonlight.

"..." August frowned. He had never heard a planet ask for help before. Before he could say a word, Hestia acted.

"Something is trying to force-teleport us."

Feeling the strange force trying to grab them, Hestia knew they couldn't stay. She held onto August, grabbed Artemis's arm, and jumped into the dimensional void.

"Looks like this world doesn't want us hanging around," Artemis said as they moved through the strange space.

A moment later, the two goddesses and August landed somewhere new. Instead of floating over the void, they found themselves in the middle of a busy city full of concrete and people.

"Well." August looked around.

The buildings, the crowds, and the layout all looked like a modern American city. It felt instantly familiar.

"Where the hell did we end up?"

August stood frozen in the middle of the sidewalk. Just moments ago, they were above the void. Now, they stood in the heart of a huge city.

"Who knows," Hestia shrugged helplessly.

"But I can tell you one thing. Whatever Gods or entities rule this world, they're definitely watching us right now," Artemis warned.

She lifted her Arrow of Orion and aimed it straight at the empty sky.

Her piercing gaze focused on the hidden beings spying on them from the shadows.

"KEEP STARING, AND I'LL TAKE YOUR EYES." As soon as Artemis drew her bow, the unseen watchers panicked.

Their magic links and scrying spells broke right away. They all knew one thing: if she fired, the arrow would hit, and someone would die instantly.

Artemis's famous temper was rising. She really was about to shoot at the sky just to prove her point.

"Whoa, easy! Don't shoot! Let's not start a war just yet." Hestia grabbed Artemis's arm and quickly pulled her back. She pointed at a nearby street sign. "Look, there's text. Let's figure out where we are first."

"..." Artemis slowly lowered her bow but kept watching the cars passing by. They looked a lot like the military vehicles she had seen in August's world.

August read the sign.

[CITY OF SNOWFIELD.]

"Hahaha, I know exactly where we are now!!" August rubbed his chin, a grin spreading across his face. He recognized this place. The vast American landscape and Snowfield City's unmistakable landmark left no room for doubt.

"Eh?" Hestia and Artemis looked at him, surprised that he actually knew this place.

"Combine that apocalyptic cry for help with this specific city..." August pointed at the landmark.

"This is the TYPE-MOON universe!!"

When he first heard the planet begging for help, he thought he was imagining it. Now, everything made perfect sense.

They had literally heard Gaia's cry.

"TYPE-MOON... FATE?" Hestia stroked her chin, her otaku knowledge kicking in.

"Oho! So this is that world."

"This is going to be entertaining!" Hestia cheered.

This was Hestia's first time in such a famously chaotic universe. Its stories were based on myths and history—but everything was dramatic and twisted.

The setting was amazing, but it was also known for its darkness and tragedy.

"If that was the Voice of the World we heard earlier, everything makes perfect sense now," Hestia noted. She had wondered why the cry for help seemed to come from the future. But with the Fate universe's tangled timelines and constant threats, it all made sense now.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Artemis crossed her arms, completely lost.

"Hold still."

Hestia hopped over to Artemis and pressed two fingers against the Huntress's forehead.

"WOOOSH!"

Hestia used her Arcanum to send a huge amount of anime knowledge straight into Artemis's mind. Artemis understood it all right away.

She lowered her bow, her eyes widening in realization.

"Oh. I didn't expect a story like this."

"Heroic Spirits, Grail Wars... this sounds like a lot of fun." Artemis quickly understood what the Fate universe was about. As she sorted through all the new information, something clicked.

"WAIT A SECOND!" She glared at August. "You've read my story."

Her instincts put it all together. August had warned her about her journey. He said he couldn't see the future, but his warnings were too detailed. With the new information from Hestia, it was clear: he knew her story.

Artemis turned her glare on Hestia.

"You knew too! And you hid it from me!"

"I thought we were sisters! You plotted behind my back!" Artemis was furious. Now she understood. Hestia and August had been so secretive because they were trying to stop her from meeting her tragic fate.

"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, there's no point hiding it," Hestia said with a carefree laugh. She had always known Artemis would discover the truth sooner or later.

"In August's world, our lives and histories are just entertainment, like epic poems or plays. That's the truth," Hestia said, tapping her chest proudly.

Artemis still wasn't sure until she checked the 'Movie' data in her mind. She saw the plot, the romance, and the tragedy. She glanced at August, then at Hestia.

"Are you telling me I'm the tragic heroine of my own story?" Artemis demanded, her expression turning dead serious.

Then she turned to August.

"You sneaky little brat... You knew exactly what kind of Goddess Hestia was."

"You knew she would take you in no matter what, so you made sure to end up with her. I always wondered why anyone would want to join her when she had nothing to offer. You used what you knew perfectly." Artemis scoffed as she thought about his plan.

The kid had used what he knew to get the best Patron Goddess he could.

"Indeed." August didn't look embarrassed in the slightest. He admitted it freely.

"Hestia is gentle, kind, and loves her Familia unconditionally."

"Anyone would be drawn to a person like that." August listed her good qualities without hesitation.

Hestia might have seemed lazy back in Orario, but her desire to build a Familia came from genuine love. She had always treated him sincerely. She really deserved her title as the Goddess of the Hearth.

"You really..." Artemis could see he wasn't faking it. He didn't bother lying. His affection for Hestia was real.

"Fine. I'll let you two sort out your own romance."

"But I want to see my story." Artemis crossed her arms, adopting an imposing stance.

She wanted to see exactly how her story ended. If her official ending was bad, someone was going to get hit by Divine lightning.

"No problem."

August reached into his spatial backpack and pulled out his smartphone. He tossed the newly purchased device to the Moon Goddess.

Artemis caught it effortlessly.

"Though, reading it out in the open like this might draw unwanted attention," August noted, glancing at the surrounding crowd.

They stood out. Two beautiful Goddesses and a handsome man on a city sidewalk drew plenty of attention.

None of them had tried to hide their sudden arrival. They had simply appeared out of nowhere.

"Let's find a place to sit."

"There's an open-air cafe over there. Let's go," Hestia pointed down the block.

"Alright." Artemis nodded. She already had a basic grasp of this 'Snowfield City' from the data dump.

The city was currently hosting a False Holy Grail War. Summoning Heroic Spirits as Servants to battle alongside Masters for an omnipotent wish-granting device. It was a frenzied, blood-soaked battle royale.

It sounded entertaining. But first, she needed to review her own story.

The three of them sat down at the cafe. August ordered coffee while the two Goddesses leaned in over the smartphone.

Even so, their sudden arrival in this timeline was something no one could ignore.

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Somewhere beyond time, in a dimension that sparkled like a kaleidoscope.

Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg—the Kaleidoscope, master of the Second Magic—sat in his chair, observing the infinite branching possibilities of the multiverse.

He stroked his chin, confirming the data flowing into his mind.

"What is going on here?"

"Why are there two Divine spirits?"

He was casually monitoring the timelines when a massive flood of anomalous data hit his records.

Zelretch watched the readings spike out of control. An alert came straight from the Counter Force.

"They manifested in the normal timeline."

"But..." As the master of the Kaleidoscope, he knew exactly what he was seeing.

These were not native Gods. These were interdimensional travelers.

According to the data provided by Alaya—the collective unconscious Will of Mankind—these two Goddesses and the human accompanying them had responded to a distress call from Gaia, the will of the planet itself.

That specific detail was terrifying.

"It seems Gaia cried out, and something responded."

"This is a massive headache."

"The Gods are one thing. But that human... he is the real danger."

Zelretch wasn't particularly afraid of the two Goddesses. It was the human standing beside them that set off his internal alarms. He could tell the man was an absolute menace.

If Zelretch intervened personally, he might actually get captured or killed by the anomaly.

Otherworldly entities were always a massive pain to deal with.

The ambient mana of the Fate universe wouldn't restrict the two Goddesses because they operated on entirely different dimensional laws. Unless they chose to adapt to this world's system, nothing could bind them.

Two free Goddesses arriving in Snowfield—armed with Divine weapons and short tempers—was a recipe for chaos.

Gods weren't supposed to casually descend into the mortal realm and interfere in human wars.

If this world's Dead Apostle Ancestors or True Ancestors tried to pick a fight with them, they would likely be incinerated to ashes within seconds.

"Should I get involved?" Zelretch tapped his fingers against his chair. He debated whether he needed to step in and offer support to the timeline.

But getting involved with that human felt like a death sentence.

"Never mind. Better to stay out of it."

"The Ultimate One from the Oort Cloud—ORT—is eventually going to wake up in that timeline. Let them clash. If it escalates, the timeline will just be pruned anyway."

"Since the Counter Force already made its move, I have no reason to interfere."

Zelretch dropped the idea. Even if they fought until the bitter end, ORT was still lurking in the background. The anomalies would likely just teleport away when things got too apocalyptic.

He quickly deduced the Counter Force's actual strategy: it had purposefully guided them to this specific timeline to use them as a weapon against ORT.

Pitting two monsters against each other.

Zelretch closed the book and turned his attention elsewhere.

Meanwhile, back in Snowfield, this world's Gods and powerful beings who had sensed the arrival of the Goddesses turned their sights toward the cafe in confusion.

But the moment they peeked, they saw Artemis aiming a lethal, sky-piercing arrow directly at them. The watchers hastened to sever their connections in terror.

Who let a tyrannical, violent Goddess loose in the city?

Even worse, she was an otherworldly Goddess who didn't care about this world's politics and was ready to punish anyone with Divine power for just a glance.

It was complete madness.

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