Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

We're officially starting the Fate/strange Fake Arc!

I took extra care to improve the writing quality for this arc, so I hope you enjoy what's coming!

The support for this fanfic isn't what it used to be, and every bit of support helps keep the story moving forward. So, if you're enjoying the story, I'd really appreciate it if you could drop some Power Stones!

Thank you for reading, and enjoy!

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

An unmanned airship was moored to the roof of a certain building in Snowfield.

Calling it an airship was generous—it was more of a mobile workshop, packed with magical artifacts Francesca had gathered over the years.

Inside the building beneath it, a woman lounged across an enormous, extravagantly soft bed.

"So that man has appeared again??"

Francesca Prelati loved nothing more than listening to people scream and watching them reveal the ugliest parts of themselves. She was also the greatest troublemaker operating behind the scenes in Snowfield, so naturally, she had noticed the new arrivals.

Since one of the Goddesses blinded her during their last meeting, Francesca had been desperate to learn more about them. But there was almost nothing to discover.

A strange man had appeared alongside two fully armed Goddesses. Francesca had barely glanced at them from a distance before her eyeballs were crushed inside her skull. She had only recently finished repairing them.

Now all she could sense was the familiar presence of that otherworldly man, along with several new human signatures that did not belong in Snowfield.

"It seems he brought even more strangers this time..." Francesca rubbed her chin.

That encounter had killed Francesca's playful mood. Something dangerous had entered Snowfield, and she had no intention of provoking it again. One of them had been a goddess. A single brush with her power was more than enough.

Instead, Francesca ordered her subordinate—Faldeus Dioland—to investigate through remote surveillance.

What they found seemed normal at first: a vehicle parked outside a newly bought factory. But Francesca could tell right away it was a ghost vehicle—assembled from scrubbed parts, stripped of identifying marks, and connected to no official records.

"You people are far too cautious..." Francesca stared at the screen, surprised.

Who would bring a custom, untraceable vehicle just to buy some property??

Even worse, the vehicle seemed to have some kind of magical countermeasure. If she tried to inspect it with mana, the spell would probably lead right back to her.

Still, Francesca believed she had stayed hidden.

"Hmmm?"

A high-pitched ringing reached her ears. Francesca felt something racing through the sky toward her, a pilotless machine similar to her airship.

"They found me? That was fast." Francesca jumped out of bed and turned on the defensive Magecraft in her workshop.

Unfortunately, the approaching weapon relied on something far more basic.

Gunpowder.

A sharp whistle cut through the air.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The whole room shook as the drone exploded against the building. Stone, glass, and expensive furniture flew out, leaving a huge hole in the wall.

Francesca stared at the destruction.

"Well... that was impressive!"

It was the first time anyone had attacked her with such a purely physical weapon. And that attack had been aimed straight at her—

"My defensive magecraft couldn't stop it... What kind of weapon was that?" Francesca looked around at the shattered room.

Those outsiders were remarkably short-tempered. More importantly, her workshop's defensive magecraft had failed to stop a single unmanned flying machine from tearing the place apart.

"Damn. There's nothing I can do with people like that." Francesca gave up on the idea of fighting back. "This was a warning. If I actually went over there, they'd probably blow my head off before I finished saying hello."

She lived for entertainment, but she could recognize danger when it stood in front of her. The people inside that factory possessed the means to kill her, and they seemed ready to do it.

"Forget it. I'll stay away and let them play among themselves." She sighed.

"I'll go bother my little champions of justice instead~"

Francesca hadn't found an easy target among the outsiders, but she still had plenty of subordinates to mess with.

For example, Snowfield's Chief of Police—Orlando Reeve.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

The explosion quickly caught the attention of the authorities.

"Chief Orlando. An unidentified explosion has occurred at this location. Investigators are already on the way." A female secretary hurried into the office and delivered her report.

Most people in the Snowfield Police Department were just regular humans. Only the higher-ups and a few specialists knew the city's secrets, and the secretary was one of them.

The department kept a close watch on mana levels in Snowfield and tracked any suspicious activity from the magi gathering there. An unexpected explosion was sure to get noticed, especially now.

The summoning period had started—and from tomorrow, every moment would bring the city closer to the ritual known as the Holy Grail War.

The secretary set the report on Orlando's desk and showed him where the blast had happened.

Orlando stopped as soon as he saw the address.

He immediately recognized who lived there.

'Someone attacked that damned old monster.'

'It seems this situation is already moving in a direction no one can reverse.'

Orlando's face grew tense.

This was serious. Everyone in Snowfield's secret world knew who lived in that building. If Francesca was attacked, it meant a new group had shown up, bold enough to challenge the woman who acted like she ran things from behind the scenes.

The only question left was who did it.

"Did the weapon contain mana?" Orlando asked.

"No. Our current assessment is that the attack was carried out by a suicide drone." The secretary placed the collected information in front of him.

A weapon like that shouldn't exist in this era, at least not in such a small and effective form.

"I see."

Orlando immediately lost interest. If there was no Magecraft involved, it wasn't his problem.

"Apparently the old woman has more enemies than I thought." Orlando laughed under his breath.

Hearing that Francesca had been attacked did not worry him in the slightest. He was more inclined to celebrate than look into it.

"Leave it alone. That incident has nothing to do with our objective. There are already enough magi entering Snowfield. The Holy Grail War is about to begin. Focus on that."

Orlando put the matter out of his mind.

"Yes, sir." The secretary bowed.

The department would call the explosion a gang attack and move on. There was no point in wasting resources on something that didn't threaten their plans.

The other magi in Snowfield thought the same way. Once they saw there was no mana from the explosion, they ignored it too.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

August didn't care about their suspicions. He and the military had already started clearing out the factory.

Three hundred soldiers from the advance force now occupied the cannery.

Commander James stood with the first group of troops, looking very pleased with himself. He wasn't the only senior officer there. The Chief of Logistics and several other high-ranking staff had come along too.

The soldiers moved through the factory, taking apart old machines, clearing out storage, and running new cables. It was just a temporary base, but everyone already had a job to do.

"REPORTING!" A soldier ran over and saluted. "We've acquired computers manufactured in this world."

A few more soldiers followed behind him, carrying desktop towers, monitors, routers, and boxes of local computer parts. They had bought every kind they could get.

"Good." The Chief of Logistics turned toward his technical team.

"Set up the local systems."

"Yes, sir."

The technicians got started right away. Their job was to put together computers from this world and hook them up to the city's network. Once those machines made a real local Wi-Fi signal, the soldiers could connect their own hidden hardware and work from a distance. The local computers would act as a bridge—letting them slip into Snowfield's communication networks and slowly take control of the signals around them.

Nearby, a few researchers in white coats checked out the factory and took environmental samples. They were there to study the conditions of this world, look for any biological or physical differences, and gather intelligence on the surrounding region.

Everyone had something to do!

"Looks like everything's going smoothly."

August glanced around at everyone hard at work, then sighed.

They all had something to do. He was the only one left standing around, and the boredom was starting to wear on him.

"It's almost time for you to show up anyway." Commander James saw August standing around and laughed. "If you're that bored, go for a walk."

He put both hands on August's back and nudged him toward the warehouse exit.

The soldiers had already set up a defensive perimeter around the factory. Anyone who tried to get close would be spotted and stopped long before reaching the buildings.

The two men had barely stepped outside when a familiar figure floated into view.

Hestia came down toward them, almost bouncing with excitement. Behind her was Liliruca Arde, and in Lili's hands was someone she seemed to have caught somewhere in the city.

Hestia spread her arms, grinning like she had already won.

"TA-DA!"

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

NEW EVENT!!

BULK UPLOAD OF 6 CHAPTERS IF WE HIT 800 POWERSTONES THIS WEEK!!

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

~ Every 300 Power Stones = Bonus chapter!

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