Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

Let's keep pushing.

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As soon as Snowfield's leylines started to surge, every Goddess in the underground base felt it.

"Someone's about to summon a Servant," Artemis said. The feeling was almost the same as when August performed his ritual, but this time, the energy was building up somewhere past the factory.

Hestia nodded. "No doubt about it."

"It should be Saber," Olga Marie added. As the former Director of Chaldea, she understood Heroic Spirit summoning rituals well enough to recognize which Class was forming. "The formation is already active."

Commander James leaned forward at once.

"So—are we going?"

He hadn't come all this way to sit in a factory while history unfolded elsewhere. If a Servant was about to be summoned, they should see it for themselves—ideally close enough to step in if needed.

"We're going!" Rethusa answered before anyone else could.

The Artemis Familia erupted with excitement. This was Saber—the Class most closely associated with Holy swords and Legendary kings. Any number of famous heroes could emerge from that ritual, and none of the girls intended to miss it.

Olga Marie rose from her seat. "I'll come too. I can conceal the convoy and handle any Magecraft we encounter along the way."

A trip like this needed more than just a few onlookers. If things got dangerous, they would need enough soldiers to keep control.

"Appreciated." Commander James immediately began issuing orders.

The troops who had been sitting around the base came alive the moment they heard they were deploying. They had spent an entire day underground with nothing to shoot, chase, or investigate. Another few hours of waiting might have driven them mad.

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Within minutes, everyone was ready.

Several civilian vehicles left the factory, while Olga Marie hid the real deployment and moved it to a spot outside the city's surveillance. Under her concealment magecraft, a line of military transports carrying five hundred soldiers appeared, along with armored vehicles and equipment trucks.

Seven helicopters rose into the sky behind Space Ishtar, using her presence and Olga's concealment to mask their approach.

For a mission that was supposed to be just reconnaissance, the military had put together quite an impressive group.

The convoy made its way toward an opera house where the leyline activity was focused. August led the way on a motorcycle with Hestia behind him, weaving through traffic to clear a path for the others.

One of the Amazons watched the bike lean through a turn and pressed her face against the van window.

"That looks amazing. I want one."

"Not happening," Lante called from the driver's seat. "You can't even ride a horse."

"I could learn!"

"You're a disaster on foot. I'm not putting you on a machine that can throw you through a wall."

Lante was one of the few in the Artemis Familia who had learned to drive during earlier visits to August's world. The controls were easy enough once you got used to them, but she wasn't about to give a motorcycle to someone who acted like every road was a battlefield.

Artemis overheard them from the next seat.

"Learn how to drive properly, and I'll ask August to get you one."

"Really??"

"LADY ARTEMIS, YOU'RE THE BEST!"

Several girls cheered at once.

Artemis had already made up her mind that she wanted one too. Since Hestia had a motorcycle, she felt she should have one as well. Seeing her friend race through the streets with August looked way too fun to pass up.

....

In the second van, Rethusa was having the same problem.

"Captain, we want motorcycles too!"

"No."

"Come on! You can't keep all the fun to yourself."

"Learn how to drive first, then bother me." Rethusa kept both hands on the wheel and refused to look back. "Until then, none of you are touching anything faster than a bicycle."

The Artemis Familia stayed cheerful even after being scolded. They knew she was right. No one wanted to be the first Adventurer to survive the Dungeon only to die because a friend hit the gas instead of the brake.

A military vehicle traveled alongside them with Commander James behind the wheel. The Logistics Chief sat beside him, monitoring the data transmitted from the base.

"The leyline convergence point has been confirmed," a researcher reported through the radio. "The source is inside the opera house. A large quantity of spiritual energy is being drawn into a summoning circle."

Another voice joined the channel from the underground command center.

"We've also detected secondary disturbances toward Las Vegas. The pattern fits the early stages of additional Servant summonings."

The Holy Grail War had finally reached its real stage.

August listened through his headset as the researchers compared the readings.

"Then the seven True Servants can finally be summoned," he said. "The first six Servants were used to fill the False Grail with the necessary information. Now that the foundation is complete, the real ritual can begin."

The factions behind the Holy Grail War had been preparing for this stage from the beginning. Their chosen Masters were already in position, and the officials supporting the ritual had spent years arranging the political cover needed to keep the conflict hidden.

They thought they had everything under control.

"..." Commander James grinned.

"They might think they rule everything under the sky, but they never expected an enemy from outside it."

After coming to this universe, even he had physical abilities like a low-tier Servant. In his own world, Commander James was just an aging officer who spent most days at a desk.

Here, he was a real superhuman!

The same applied to every soldier in the convoy. Magecraft designed to influence ordinary humans had little effect on them, and offensive spells required dozens—sometimes hundreds—of times their expected energy just to break through the soldiers' bodies.

With so many advantages, the idea of losing to a group of modern magi was too embarrassing to even think about.

"I wonder how badly we'll embarrass them," Commander James said. "Magi, Executors, the Burial Agency... I'd like to see how any of them compare."

August glanced behind the vehicle beside him.

"Don't get careless... On paper, their abilities still outclass ours."

If a soldier died in this world, it wouldn't be a small problem. August would have to recover the soul before the World claimed it, then rebuild whatever was left of the body.

Without both, there would be no resurrection.

"Relax," Commander James said. The officers with him looked excited, but none of them were foolish enough to rush into a Servant's Noble Phantasm without a plan. "We didn't make it this far by risking our lives needlessly."

Caution had always been the military's first rule.

August smiled and let the matter drop. With Hestia holding on tight, he twisted the throttle and sped the motorcycle forward.

As they got closer to the opera house, signs of Magecraft started to show up in the nearby streets. Magical barriers covered rooftops, familiars watched from windows, and hidden observers tracked the convoy from different directions.

August's expression changed.

"There's something else nearby."

He had felt that presence before.

A Dead Apostle.

His senses had become much sharper since coming to this universe. Even from far away, Jester Karture's corrupted aura was as obvious as blood in clear water.

"That vampire came here too??" Commander James asked over the radio.

Then he understood.

"If we sensed the summoning, Assassin did too. And wherever the Zealot goes, her Master won't be far behind."

Jester was almost certainly somewhere near the opera house, using the Assassin contract to keep track of his Servant while remaining safely hidden.

The convoy had attracted a lot of attention, but Olga Marie's magic kept the local magi from figuring out what they were seeing. To their familiars, the vehicles just looked like a blurry group carrying some unknown, strange life-forms.

Was it an army?

A Dead Apostle faction?

Some new species joining the Holy Grail War?

The observers could only speculate.

Whenever a familiar tried to approach for a closer look, the Artemis Familia dealt with it.

One of the Adventurers leaned out of the van and flicked a small pellet toward a bird circling above the convoy. The object burst near its wings, and the familiar dropped onto the roof of a parked car without so much as a chirp.

Another artificial rat crept from an alley.

A second pellet rolled beneath it.

The creature immediately collapsed.

The girls had brought tools made just for hunting and stopping familiars. Against the simple surveillance creatures used by modern magi, one pellet was all it took.

One after another, the invisible eyes watching the convoy went dark.

Ahead of them, the opera house came into view.

The leylines beneath it surged once more.

Saber's summoning had begun.

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