Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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"It's you."

Saber's eyes settled on August. The light of the summoning had blinded him to everything beyond the two Goddesses at first, but now that he could see the man standing beside Hestia clearly, something buried inside his Saint Graph stirred.

"So you're the one who broke the rules."

August blinked.

Saber remembered that some unusual Heroic Spirits had used a summoning ritual in reverse, breaking free from the Throne and entering the world in their real bodies. Six had escaped together, and the man in front of him had the same strange connection from that event.

But what mattered most was the title Saber recognized.

"The Master of Chaldea." His hand closed around his sword. "Humanity's Last Master."

Saber's memories contained some unusual, mixed-up information, including the heroic persona of Ritsuka Fujimaru. This information had apparently entered the summoning through the data on August's phone.

The details were unclear. The person in front of Saber looked different, but the connection was obvious.

"I didn't expect to find you here."

Saber lifted his weapon and stepped between Ayaka and August.

August stared at him, completely lost. Why was this man calling him by a title from a mobile game? He hadn't saved Human Order. He hadn't led Chaldea. He hadn't done anything remotely close to what Ritsuka Fujimaru had accomplished.

"How exactly do you know me?"

Olga Marie and the others had escaped from the Throne of Heroes. Normally, something that wild would have caught the attention of Human Order, a Grand Servant, or one of the World's enforcers.

August knew trouble would come sooner or later. He just didn't think the first to confront him would be Saber, or that Saber would mistake him for Chaldea's Master.

"..." Saber didn't lower his sword.

August shrugged.

"Fine. We can talk after we fight."

A greatsword appeared in his hand. He let the tip rest on the floor.

Clang.

The opera house tiles cracked beneath its weight.

"A greatsword?" Saber's eyes brightened.

He thought the mysterious Master of Chaldea would use Magecraft, Command Spells, or some secret trick. But August had brought out a giant sword and faced him directly. That was much more exciting. Anyone known by the Throne as someone who could fight alongside Heracles and battle Goetia had to be strong.

Saber drew his own sword.

At first glance, it looked almost like a decorative toy—too plain and light to belong to a Heroic Spirit of his stature. Then a trace of holy radiance gathered along its edge, and the air inside the opera house changed.

August grinned.

"LET'S GO." Both men charged.

August's greatsword and Saber's blade crashed together in the middle of the stage.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The floor gave way under their feet. Rows of chairs broke free and flew back, tumbling through the auditorium as the shockwave swept across the room.

Neither blade gave way.

The force condensed within Saber's weapon carried a trace of Excalibur's legend—yet August had stopped it with raw strength and a brutal piece of modern steel.

Rethusa and the Artemis Familia stared.

"So strong..."

The girls couldn't watch for long. The Zealot rushed past them, her daggers aiming for gaps in their formation. Lante blocked the first attack, while two other huntresses came in from the sides and pushed Assassin back toward the balcony.

The Artemis Familia had hunted monsters together for years. Their teamwork was sharp, and everyone knew when to move, fall back, or cover a teammate. But the Zealot was faster than any monster they'd fought, and even with all of them working together, the fight still favored Assassin.

Rethusa clenched her teeth.

"Don't let her break the formation!"

The girls closed ranks and attacked again. The Zealot slid between two blades and hit back with the flat of her dagger, knocking one huntress across the floor.

She wasn't fighting to kill.

These women had challenged her as warriors, not heretical magi. Their eyes held no corruption, and the Blessing on their backs came from Artemis—a Goddess of chastity and the hunt.

Compared to the foul aura around most magi, the Artemis Familia's sense of justice felt almost too pure.

'They're using me to measure themselves.'

The Zealot understood what they wanted. She limited herself to roughly seventy percent of her strength, conserving Jester's mana and avoiding lethal attacks. Even so, the girls could barely keep pace.

'Their teamwork is impressive. They're young, but they really know how to fight.'

The Zealot flipped over a swinging blade and landed by the wall. She didn't want to waste her strength on Artemis's followers. The real targets in the Holy Grail War mattered much more.

Ayaka Sajyou was one.

Saber was another.

If she could take out either of them, it would serve her faith much better than defeating a group of virtuous huntresses.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

August and Saber fought harder as their battle intensified across the room.

Hestia and Artemis glanced at each other.

"This place is too cramped," Artemis said.

"Agreed."

Neither Goddess wanted to stand between two men swinging weapons with enough force to destroy the opera house.

Commander James had reached the same conclusion.

"ALL UNITS, WITHDRAW FROM THE BUILDING!"

The soldiers left through the entrances. Hestia and Artemis followed, making sure there was enough space for the fights to continue without risking the ceiling's collapse.

They could watch safely from outside using a Divine Mirror.

Saber blocked another downward strike. The impact made both his arms tremble.

His Strength ranked at B—more than enough to overpower most Servants in direct combat—yet every collision with August's greatsword sent a numbing shock through his hands.

'What kind of strength is this?' If one of those swings hit Ayaka, she would be hurt beyond healing.

Saber pushed the greatsword aside and sprang backward.

"Incredible! So this is your strength, Master of Chaldea?"

August rested the sword against his shoulder.

"You're not bad either, Lionheart."

"..." Saber's smile faded.

August knew him...

Richard I—The Lionheart—King of England and one of the most famous rulers to emerge from the Crusades.

His boyish face and light manner made him seem younger than the legend, but August didn't care what the real Richard looked like. The man in front of him was the Heroic Spirit shaped by history, faith, rumor, and myth.

That was the version he wanted to fight.

'So this is a first-rate Servant.'

August tightened his grip. Richard's physical strength alone felt comparable to a Level 6 Adventurer—possibly Level 7 once every parameter and combat skill was taken into account, and his Noble Phantasm would reach higher still. The comparison wasn't exact, but it gave August a rough scale.

More importantly, August could match him.

'My stats really did rise after entering this World.' The difference was impossible to miss.

Back in Orario, the pressure from someone at this level would have crushed him. Here, the World treated him like a foreign life-form and strengthened his existence to compensate.

Commander James called it the—Outsider Bonus.

The name was silly, and so was the effect.

At least now August knew he could fight a top Heroic Spirit without being overpowered.

The Zealot was another story. On her own, she shouldn't have been able to defeat the Artemis Familia so easily. She was using Jester Karture's vast reserves and treating powerful techniques as normal attacks.

August was fighting with basic swings.

The Zealot was treating her Noble Phantasms like basic swings.

That difference mattered.

Gilgamesh would be worse. A battle against the King of Heroes wouldn't be decided by strength alone—not when the Gate of Babylon could bury an entire battlefield beneath Noble Phantasms.

Still, August wasn't afraid of him. That fight could wait.

But for now, something else was more important.

"You called me the Master of Chaldea." August lowered his blade slightly. "I'm not."

"You aren't?" Richard stared at him.

August sounded honest when he denied it, but that went against everything Saber had learned during the summoning.

Then there was the more important question.

"If you aren't Chaldea's Master..." Richard's expression grew serious. "How did your summons connect directly to the Throne?"

The opera house quieted. Even the Zealot's movements slowed.

Richard pointed his sword toward August.

"The Hassans answered. My own companions answered. Even the legendary King Arthur answered." He laughed, but there was disbelief in his voice. "When your call reached the Throne, Heroic Spirits began fighting over who would receive the summoning slot."

August said nothing.

Richard continued. "Some challenged one another openly. Others tried to force their way into the connection. The disturbance spread so far that even Heroic Spirits with no connection to this Holy Grail War noticed it."

The Zealot missed Rethusa's next swing by a fraction.

"THE HASSANS... FOUGHT OVER HIS SUMMONS?" Her faith wouldn't let her ignore that.

If other holders of the title Hassan-i-Sabbah had answered August's call—and competed for the chance to descend—then the man before her was connected to the Old Men of the Mountain in a way she couldn't understand.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

"Heroic Spirits fought over him?" Rethusa and the others were equally stunned.

"On the Throne itself?"

They had thought August was just an unusual rookie who could travel between worlds. Apparently, that wasn't enough.

Even legendary heroes wanted him.

"Mr. August knows heroes from this world too?" Lante stared at August as though seeing him for the first time.

He had already caught the attention of—Goddesses, Adventurers, Xenos, and women from different worlds. Now even legendary heroes from beyond time wanted to answer his call.

How much more popular could one man get?

"He's becoming more impressive by the day," Rethusa said.

If this news ever reached Orario, the women around August would go crazy. Hestia already watched over him like a dragon with its treasure. If she found out that even the Throne of Heroes was fighting over him...

Rethusa could already imagine the disaster.

....

Richard lifted his sword again, excitement returning to his face.

"So tell me, August. If you truly aren't Humanity's Last Master..." His grin widened.

"...Then what exactly are you??"

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