Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

"What the hell? What just happened? Why are we running?"

August stared at the scenery racing past them, looking more than a little confused. Weren't they supposed to welcome the newcomers?

"Are you an idiot?" Hestia knocked him on the head without slowing down. "Didn't you see them? They descended in their real bodies. They aren't normal Servants!!"

Normally, a Servant would be limited by the contract and Command Spells. But those six had brought their real selves down from the Throne of Heroes—so nothing could stop them from doing whatever they wanted. Even without jealousy, that was enough reason to run.

"If you don't want them pinning you to the ground the moment they catch us, then running is the smart choice!"

"Wait... That can happen?" August was stunned. He thought anyone he summoned would still be a Servant and follow his Command Spells. But Olga Marie's reverse summoning had let a group of women loose with no restrictions.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Halfway back to the factory, two daggers tore through the air—

Hestia twisted aside, avoiding both blades without breaking stride.

"A Servant from this World?" Her brows rose. "That's brave."

Hestia was a real Goddess from another universe. Even if her Divinity wasn't from this world, no ordinary Servant could take her on. Only a top Heroic Spirit with strong powers and many upgrades might get her attention.

The attacker was Snowfield's No Name Assassin—a fanatic known as the Zealot. She refused to believe in any God except her own, so she didn't see Hestia's true nature and thought she was just a careless magus showing off in public.

To the Zealot, such a heretic had to die.

August slipped out of Hestia's arms and landed on the ground.

"Oh... An Assassin?" Excitement replaced his confusion. "If you're looking for a fight, I'll be your opponent."

Usually, artillery wiped out his enemies before he got close. Meeting a Servant who specialized in assassination and was bold enough to attack first was a rare chance.

"Ma—" The Zealot had barely opened her mouth when August charged. A massive steel greatsword appeared in his hands.

"Talk later!" He brought the blade down.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The Zealot vanished a split second before the greatsword struck, leaving a crater where she had been standing.

"A heavy weapon..." She hadn't expected the human to attack so quickly. She was a Servant, but was he even human? August had mana and faint Command Spells on his hand, but that didn't explain why he was rushing a Heroic Spirit with just a steel sword.

"Don't underestimate me!"

Mana burst from the Zealot's body. The moment it flared, her Noble Phantasm was already complete.

Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat.

A ghostly arm reached toward August's chest, attempting to seize and crush the reflection of his heart.

August didn't even look at it. He shifted just enough to protect his vital organs and took the attack with his body.

The phantom hand pierced straight through his arm.

"He redirected it...?"

The Zealot had grasped for his heart, yet he had deliberately steered the attack into his limb.

"So that's a Servant's Noble Phantasm?" August looked down at the hole punched through his arm.

"Not bad."

August began his chant.

"Sacred flame, heed the suffering of the wounded—[Healing Fire]!"

Warm flames wrapped around his injured arm. Torn muscle, shattered bone, and severed blood vessels reconnected before the Zealot's eyes, and within a few breaths, the wound had disappeared.

August was already Level 3—and his healing was far faster than before.

"Magecraft...?" The Zealot stared at him. "No. That is not normal Magecraft."

The spell didn't care how bad the injury was and fixed his body right away. It was more like a miracle than anything a modern magus could do. To her, August seemed almost immortal.

"..."

He tightened his grip on the greatsword and charged again.

Something strange happened when August started running, different from Orario or his own world. He moved much faster than he should have, as if this world made him stronger with every step. With his Adventurer's body, he got quicker and more flexible, and attacks that should have been impossible with such a heavy weapon came easily.

The Zealot could only retreat. If that greatsword struck her cleanly, she had no doubt it would tear straight through her body.

August was a monster wearing a human face.

She relied on her speed as an Assassin, constantly widening the distance between them. Whenever he forced his way into close range, she crossed her two daggers and fought him directly.

Steel crashed against steel.

The Zealot dodged another heavy swing and cut August's side, but healing fire closed the wound before it could bleed. August swung back with a horizontal slash, making her jump over the blade.

He was getting faster.

More importantly, he was learning.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

From a hidden location, Jester Karture watched his Servant display what he considered her most beautiful form.

But even he noticed something was off. The power August used wasn't Magecraft. It was real Magic, a true miracle that could rebuild a body.

"Where did this freak come from...?"

Jester had finally found a Servant who caught his interest, but now she was up against something even worse. That human was unsettling, even when he wasn't moving.

The huge sword he carried wasn't an ancient Noble Phantasm, just a chunk of modern steel made into a brutal weapon. One good hit could destroy Jester's body.

Being a Dead Apostle did not make him invincible.

Jester realized he couldn't take on the man below. He wanted to step in, but he was too afraid to move.

Another presence stood nearby.

Jester couldn't see it, but he could feel something watching the fight next to the Zealot. He guessed that if he tried to look, his eyes would be ruined before he saw anything.

"No... I finally found something entertaining. I can't let it disappear so soon." Jester refused to allow his amusement to end here. He reached for his Command Spells.

Suddenly—

A bullet tore through his heart. Two more shattered his skull. Three additional rounds followed to make sure.

Jester's head burst like a melon, and his body collapsed.

Another life gone.

"How...?" His ruined body lay motionless, but his consciousness remained.

"When did the bullets reach me?"

He had sensed nothing until the first round passed through his chest.

Several buildings away, two soldiers in camouflage lay side by side near an open window.

"Target down. One shot through the heart and two through the head."

"Dead Apostles don't look that impressive." The masked spotter lowered his binoculars.

"A Dead Apostle is still a Dead Apostle. Someone with abilities like his probably has more than one way to survive. Put three more armor-piercing rounds into him."

Dead Apostles were much like the vampires. The rule was simple: keep shooting until it stayed down for good.

"Yes, sir." The sniper adjusted his sights and fired at the body again.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Jester had only been pretending to be dead. The next armor-piercing shot tore through another of his hearts.

'Damn it! They're checking whether I'm really dead!!'

Weren't assassins supposed to eliminate their target and retreat? Why were they still firing?

"Did they identify what I am?" Jester couldn't stay still any longer. If he kept lying there, they would keep firing until he ran out of lives.

He jumped to his feet, but another heart burst before he could finish moving.

"Three hearts..." Jester's head spun. He had just restored all six hearts, and now half of them were gone in seconds.

Losing those hearts gave him a short window to escape. Jester turned and ran.

He ran fast.

But... not faster than a rocket.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Jester threw himself toward an open sewer entrance. The rocket struck before he reached it.

The explosion made his body disappear. Without hesitating, Jester gave up a fourth life, replacing his destroyed body with a new one as his remains scattered across the street.

That death was especially gruesome.

"What kind of military has weapons like that??" Jester ran into the sewer, rattled by the fact that an organized group was after him. Some top officials in the country were secretly Dead Apostles.

Why would one of them send soldiers to kill him? It didn't add up. Even worse—these weapons were much stronger than anything he'd faced before.

Jester ran through the dirty tunnels, not caring where they went as long as he got away.

Another pair of concealed soldiers tracked his movements from a different position.

"The rocket struck the target. He can replace his body after fatal damage and has escaped underground using a new vessel. Report complete."

One soldier kept the thermal scanner trained on the sewer system until Jester vanished beyond its range.

"END THE OPERATION," Commander James ordered through their headsets.

"Yes, sir."

Both teams pulled back. The military had already taken over the cameras and communication systems nearby, watching every move from the start.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Back on the battlefield, the Zealot's heart pounded. She could feel the mana in her body starting to fade.

"Looks like someone attacked your Master." August caught her as she tried to retreat and kicked her in the stomach. The Zealot flew back, and before she could get up, the edge of his greatsword was at her throat.

"Your mana is weakening."

"What do you mean?"

The Zealot froze. Her Master? Hadn't she already killed him?

"Your Master is a Dead Apostle," August explained. "Using a Noble Phantasm consumes a large amount of mana. With your reserves, there's no way you could use that many techniques so freely without someone supplying you."

He lowered his blade a little, pretending he had just figured it all out.

The Zealot stared at him.

"You said my Master is a Dead Apostle?"

The person she believed she had killed had survived by deceiving her. Worse, he had continued supplying her with mana from the shadows.

Anger burned in her chest, but being in this position was just as humiliating.

"That's what I said..." August was ready to keep up the fight.

"LORD AUGUST." Lili's voice made him pause. Police lights appeared in the distance, and several patrol cars were coming as dawn started to light up the streets of Snowfield.

"We're out of time." August glanced toward them. "Besides, I've seen enough."

He lifted the sword from the Zealot's throat.

"You should leave."

"Tch."

The Zealot had no choice but to retreat. She had assumed she had found an easy target. Instead, she had challenged a human who could fight her head-on, survive her Noble Phantasm, and heal every wound she inflicted.

She dematerialized and vanished.

August turned toward the arriving police.

The patrol cars screeched to a stop nearby, some almost losing control. Officers jumped out and surrounded the damaged street. They were clearly unhappy. The place looked like a war zone.

August gave them one glance and ignored the encirclement.

A cheap-looking sports car with a V10 engine appeared from his [Spatial Backpack]. He climbed into the driver's seat, Hestia and Lili got in with him, and August drove away without acknowledging a single officer.

The Snowfield officers watched him drive away. He had torn up the street, ignored every order they gave him, and fled the scene. There was no chance they were letting him go.

August thought a line of police cars would make a good wedding convoy.

The patrol units were about to move when an order came through the radio.

The sergeant commanding the first response team had already been furious. The target had ignored him and driven off as if the police did not exist.

Then he heard the order...

"WHAT? CHIEF, YOU'RE ORDERING US NOT TO PURSUE?"

The sergeant stared at the crater and broken pavement. The man had caused all this, then escaped right in front of them, and now they were supposed to let him go? For a junior officer who still believed in the department's authority, it felt like his whole world had fallen apart.

A strange tune began playing in his head.

'You've wandered into the royal court... Better lower your weapon and walk away...'

He didn't know why that dramatic tune popped into his head, but its meaning was clear. Even Orlando Reeve, the Police Chief he respected most, had told them to stand down.

Whoever was in that sports car had some serious backing.

Just who was that man?

Orlando watched everything remotely from his office.

He had seen Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight, which was shocking enough. Now he'd watched a human go toe-to-toe with a Servant, beat her in close combat, and stay in control the whole time. The man swung that greatsword hard enough to rip up the street.

Was he really human?

Even more surprising, the weapon wasn't a Noble Phantasm. It was just a regular blade made from modern steel. In fact, it looked like a piece of ribbed construction steel hammered into a sword shape.

Sending regular officers after someone like that would be suicide.

"Gilgamesh and Enkidu are already enough of a problem," Orlando muttered. "How many more monsters are hiding in this city?"

He thought the fight between the two Servants would be the worst thing Snowfield faced that night. Instead, a new group had shown up, full of people who could fight Heroic Spirits and send out military teams able to hunt Dead Apostles.

"What a mess..."

The officers on the street didn't know any of this. All they knew was that their respected Chief had told them to let a criminal go.

"Chief, why? Why can't we chase him?" The sergeant demanded an explanation.

"You cannot defeat him," Orlando replied.

His subordinate needed to hear the truth. "That man could jump out of the car and wipe out your entire unit before any of you fired a shot."

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

BULK UPLOAD OF 5 CHAPTERS IF WE HIT 900 POWERSTONES THIS WEEK!!

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

~ Every 300 Power Stones = Bonus chapter!

~ 40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!

https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)