Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

New week, let's push!!

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Artemis's attempt to slip away did not escape Demeter's notice.

"What does this have to do with you?" Demeter shot the Moon Goddess an irritated glance. If anyone were going to answer that summons, it would be her—

Artemis immediately turned the accusation back on her. "As if you weren't planning to go yourself."

There was only one place available. The male Heroic Spirits had already begun fighting over it, and the women had no intention of letting them claim it uncontested.

Within moments, the crowd around the summoning gate burst into chaos.

Amid the confusion, one person slipped through unnoticed. The gate slammed shut behind her.

"WHAT?"

"WHO WAS THAT?"

"WHO GOT THROUGH?"

The Throne of Heroes erupted. Everyone had been fighting openly for the right to descend, yet someone had taken advantage of the confusion and stolen the position.

SHAMELESS! DESPICABLE!

The Servant vessel created by the ritual was just an extension of the Heroic Spirit behind it. To find out who had answered the summons, they needed to identify the original mind connected to the vessel.

"..." Gilgamesh stayed seated above the chaos. The King of Heroes looked toward a far corner of the Throne, and everyone else followed his gaze.

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A rainbow light flashed across the factory grounds. A woman slowly appeared in the center of the summoning circle, her coat floating around her as the light faded.

"Servant, Caster. Olga Marie Animusphere." Her violet eyes settled on August. "Are you my Master?"

August stared at her. "Uh... why are you here?"

Of all the possible Heroic Spirits, why had he summoned the Beast wearing the identity of a magus? Considering the information sent through the ritual, he had expected Tiamat or one of the Goddesses connected to Greek mythology.

Instead, Olga Marie had taken the slot.

She raised one eyebrow. "Why shouldn't I be here?"

Her appearance still resembled the director of Chaldea: a white coat over her formal uniform, red tights and white heels completing the unmistakable outfit.

"And call me Director."

Olga tried to steady herself after arriving, but Hestia was already standing next to August.

"The original consciousness?" The Goddess looked closely at the body made from mana. Even though it was a Servant vessel, this was not a copied personality from the Throne. The real Olga Marie was in control.

August scratched his cheek. "I should probably clarify something. I'm not Fujimaru Ritsuka."

"In this World, you are Fujimaru Ritsuka," Olga replied.

"But Fujimaru Ritsuka is not you."

August stared at her. It sounded like something people said before refusing to explain further. There were many possible versions of Fujimaru Ritsuka in different histories, interpretations, and parallel worlds.

August, however, was unique.

"Right..." August chose not to question her answer.

"My name is August." He pointed to Hestia. "This is Hestia, the Goddess of my Familia and the person I trust most. Lili is my companion. The people in the factory are soldiers and researchers from my country—"

Olga looked at the humans working nearby, and her expression shifted.

"These humans are absurdly powerful."

Even humans from the Age of Gods would have struggled to match them. August had contracts with several Goddesses from other worlds, and his personal strength was already close to a Servant's. That much she could understand.

The soldiers were harder to explain...

Everyone in the factory had a body far beyond normal humans. Even the weakest-looking researchers were as strong as demigods from the Age of Gods, and their bodies seemed to have some strange resistance to Mystery. Olga had never met humans like this before.

And the factory contained hundreds.

'Did they come here to invade this World?'

They had a real Goddess, an otherworlder as strong as a Servant, and an army of humans built like demigods... That was already enough power to change the world.

Summoning a Servant as well almost seemed unfair.

"I only wanted a Heroic Spirit who was willing to fight," August said. "Servant against Servant should make for a good show."

He still didn't understand Olga's attitude. She stood next to him with a familiarity that felt almost like a wife returning to her husband after a long time apart. But August wasn't Fujimaru Ritsuka.

At best, he was just a player who had watched her story from another world. Why was she being so warm toward him?

Hestia watched Olga quietly. The Caster looked calm, but it was clear she was a little hostile.

She was jealous.

"August, the Servant has been summoned," Hestia said. "What do we do next?"

She left the decision to him since he was in charge of the operation. As she spoke, she leaned against him naturally, and the familiar scent of her perfume helped him focus.

"Most of our personnel are ready. We should bring the rest of them over before doing anything else."

"Alright." Hestia and Lili agreed.

The researchers who set up the summoning display were still confused by Olga Marie's appearance, but they had done their job. They had hoped for Tiamat, Ereshkigal, or Jeanne Alter. Getting Olga Marie instead was already more than they expected. Satisfied, they went back to work.

The excitement about the summoning faded quickly, and Olga was left standing alone in the middle of the factory grounds.

"..." She was the Beast... a Beast had answered their summoning, but these humans just went back to assembling computers and unloading equipment like nothing strange had happened.

Wasn't anyone going to admire her? Not even a little??

'Damn these otherworlders.'

Olga glanced at August, but he was already helping the soldiers move equipment. Then she saw the slight smile on Hestia's face. The Goddess clearly wasn't going to let her get any closer to him.

This was nothing like what Olga had imagined. She clenched her teeth but kept her face cold as she followed August into the factory.

For now, she was still his Caster—

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Commander James noticed the unfamiliar woman walking beside August.

"Oh, so this is a Servant?" He looked more closely.

A body made from mana was still unusual, but he saw no reason to reject her for it.

"By the way, Lancer has already been summoned," Commander James said.

"Enkidu." He handed August a freshly prepared surveillance report. "These are the images."

The photographs came from satellites in this timeline. The local satellites gave unusually clear images, and taking control of them was easy.

Even the hackers and magi responsible for protecting the American networks had failed to stop the intrusion—the country's electronic systems seemed to contain traces of Magecraft, but those defenses fell quickly once the military's specialists started breaking in.

August examined the photographs. A pale figure could be seen within the blurred images.

Enkidu. The final Servant summoned for the six positions of Snowfield's False Holy Grail War.

The living weapon created by the Gods of Mesopotamia possessed abilities designed to restrain Divine beings. That made Enkidu a valuable subject, but nobody in the factory seemed particularly worried.

"That isn't our immediate concern," August said.

"Correct." Commander James folded his arms. "Our objective is straightforward. We're here to test our newest weapons."

They had not crossed into this world for sightseeing. Whether Snowfield existed in a parallel history or a timeline already abandoned by its proper course, it was still another world, one that remained under the influence of the Counter Force.

This made it the perfect place to test their weapons. The new weapons were built to suppress beings that did not follow normal physical laws, so they needed unusual targets to see if the weapons worked.

"Yes, sir." The personnel nearby understood the order. The next phase of the operation was about to begin.

August did not stay long. He had his own tasks to take care of, and there were still more groups that needed to come through the dimensional gate.

After he left, only two important people stayed near the summoning area:

Hestia, the unquestioned heroine at the center of August's life, and Olga Marie Animusphere, the Servant whose original consciousness controlled her vessel directly.

Hestia rested her chin against one hand. "So what are you planning?"

She looked at the Caster with open curiosity. Olga was not a normal Servant. Her real self was in control, which meant she had come here with a clear goal.

"I don't know." Olga hesitated. Her thoughts were already moving through several possible plans, all of them centered on August, but she had no intention of admitting that.

"Forget it. You wouldn't tell me even if I kept asking." Hestia had already recognized that Olga Marie was an unusual existence. What interested her was why Olga had chosen to answer August personally.

'Scheme all you like.' Hestia stayed confident.

Olga's body was controlled by her real self, but it was still just a Servant vessel made from mana. That was nothing compared to Hestia, who stood beside August in her true form.

If Olga wanted a fair chance, she would have to come here in person. Even then, Hestia did not plan to lose. She was a Goddess. She could beat Olga if she had to, and when August left this world, he would still take Hestia with him.

Hestia had entered his life and claimed the position of its central heroine. She had already won. Olga was only a late-arriving losing heroine.

Olga could feel Hestia's smug satisfaction. 'This Goddess is sharper than I expected. She uncovered most of my intentions from almost nothing.'

Hestia's reputation as a wise Goddess was not undeserved—even an alternate version of her remained difficult to deceive. Olga decided to avoid confronting her directly.

'I'll need allies. Ordinary allies won't be enough against her. Where am I supposed to find people capable of helping me?'

There was a reason Olga understood so much about August and why she had been able to answer his summons. She was not only a Servant or a Heroic Spirit controlling her own vessel. She possessed another identity.

U-Olga Marie.

Someone like U-Olga Marie had never been part of the Throne of Heroes. She came from a Lostbelt and lived outside the usual history the Throne kept. For her to leave a lasting record, she had to be preserved or remembered strongly enough for her existence to take hold.

But the information on August's phone showed a disturbing truth.

In Fate/Grand Order, Fujimaru Ritsuka could be male or female, yet neither version had truly carried Olga's existence with them. The only Fujimaru capable of allowing her to remain was the man standing in this factory.

August.

'I exist because you remember me. Without you, there would be no record of me on the Throne.'

The Fujimaru Ritsuka in the story only existed within that story's limits. Olga and the others were not supposed to have real records outside of it.

August had observed their stories from outside the World—and his memories had acknowledged them as real. By using August as an anchor, the Throne of Heroes had gained a place to record their existences.

Their names, stories, and souls had been engraved there because August remembered them.

Within the Throne, they no longer needed to eat, sleep, or fear death. Their records would endure for eternity, and with enough fortune, traces of them might even spread into other parallel Worlds.

But in this timeline, August was the key. His memory let Olga Marie Animusphere become a real spiritual record, and now her true spirit had answered his call and come as his Servant.

"..." Olga watched August moving crates with the soldiers and helping them clear the factory. He never stopped working. More importantly, he possessed the ability to open a doorway between two different worlds.

As soon as Olga saw the dimensional gate, she understood more about her own origin. That door was probably one reason she could exist here. The world's systems had used August as an anchor, pulling scattered information together and making it stable.

'I may have taken one small lead, but defeating Hestia completely will be much harder.'

Winning August's affection wasn't just about beating the Goddess next to him.

August had his own duties, relationships, and problems to deal with, and if things went wrong, it could end badly. If the women around him started fighting, August could be the one who got hurt most.

Olga would not let that happen. She needed a new plan that gave her a chance without putting him at risk.

Hestia watched her fall silent, clearly calculating something. 'She has plenty of little schemes. I'd like to see how someone with supposedly no connection to my August managed to form such a strong bond with him.'

Hestia was not foolish. She could sense that Olga Marie's existence was connected to August in a strange way. She just did not know how that bond started. Even August could not explain how he had summoned her.

Still, out of every Heroic Spirit he might have called, Olga Marie was the one who answered.

August glanced back at his newly summoned Caster.

'Looks like I'm a Gacha king after all.'

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