Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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—•——•——•——•——•——•—

What happened inside the opera house did not remain secret for long.

Familiars observed from the shadows, and some groups had already hacked into the nearby cameras.

News of Richard's summoning, his fight with August, and Artemis's appearance spread through Snowfield's supernatural underworld in less than an hour.

.....

Snowfield Police Department

Orlando Reeve put down the phone and leaned back in his chair, tapping his finger on the desk.

"Artemis... Goddess of the Moon." Not a Divine Spirit possessing a human vessel. Not a Pseudo-Servant.

A True Goddess In The Flesh...

Alexandre Dumas had confirmed it himself. The cameras couldn't capture her Divine Presence clearly, but Saber recognized her right away, and the women fighting Assassin called themselves the Artemis Familia.

That explained why Dumas refused to approach the factory. There was a Goddess inside. Possibly more than one.

Spying on a magus could get someone killed. Spying on a true Goddess could bring down a punishment no modern magus could even understand.

"What the hell are they hiding in that factory?"

Reports showed that far more people were connected to the factory than anyone had guessed. There were soldiers, vehicles, aircraft, Heroic Spirits—and now a Goddess with her whole Familia.

The situation was growing worse by the hour.

"Is this part of your plan too, you old monster?" Orlando couldn't help but think of Francesca Prelati.

Whenever chaos broke out in Snowfield, she was usually behind it, smiling. But this time, even Orlando doubted she was the cause.

There was also the more immediate issue.

Saber and his new Master had been arrested by Snowfield police. A regular interrogation team couldn't handle them, and one careless officer might upset the Heroic Spirit who had just destroyed an opera house roof with a sword.

Orlando rubbed his forehead.

He would have to question them himself.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Colesman Special Correctional Center

"That's impossible!"

Faldeus Dioland stared at the recording.

"There's no way a Goddess could exist in this era!!"

Unlike Orlando, Faldeus had graduated from the Clock Tower. He knew what the end of the Age of Gods meant. The modern world couldn't support Gods walking the earth in their true forms. Divine Spirits needed vessels, weaker forms, or special conditions just to appear.

"How'd she even show up here?"

The Holy Grail War was meant to follow a strict order. First, the False Servants would appear and fill the Grail with the necessary information. Then, the seven True Servants would be summoned, initiating the true ritual.

False Servants. True Servants. Those were the two factions built into the plan.

Now a third force had entered Snowfield—an unidentified army protected by a true Goddess.

Faldeus stared at the ruined opera house.

How could they fight something like that? If Artemis saw them as enemies, she wouldn't need to sneak into the correctional center or outsmart their agents. She could destroy the whole place with one attack and leave the survivors as nothing.

"No... we just don't know enough yet." Faldeus looked at August.

The man had fought Richard the Lionheart directly and matched a top Saber in strength. He didn't have any known Mystic Code and didn't use the reinforcement techniques a modern magus would need for that.

Who was he? Why were true Goddesses following him? And why had Heroic Spirits on the Throne apparently fought for the right to answer his summons?

"We're still missing pieces." Faldeus picked up the phone.

"Contact our affiliated magi. Have them manage the damage around the opera house and keep the public explanation under control."

"What about Saber and his Master?" his secretary asked.

"Leave them with Orlando for now. The police caught them, so let him deal with the first interrogation."

Faldeus paused. "Continue investigating the man called August—but no one approaches the factory without my direct permission."

"Yes, Director."

The plan was already falling apart. He wanted to find out why before the Holy Grail War got completely out of control.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Francesca Prelati had watched everything from beginning to end.

The moment Richard identified Artemis, she understood exactly what had appeared inside the opera house.

But Artemis wasn't the only one.

"He's got another Goddess with him," Francesca remembered the smaller woman who stood near August.

Last time, she had tried to watch the group from afar. That woman looked straight through her surveillance spell—and the backlash almost destroyed Francesca's newly healed eyes.

She couldn't mistake that presence. It was the same Goddess.

"So there are two!" Francesca gazed at the screen, feeling peculiarly numb.

Having one true Goddess was already hard to believe. Two felt like an uneven match.

"COME ON! This was supposed to be a battle between Masters and Servants!" She threw herself backward onto the bed. "Since when did Gods start personally joining Holy Grail Wars? Aren't you supposed to stay on the Reverse Side of the World and leave mortals alone?"

Were they trying to bring back the Age of Gods??

More importantly, they had brought much more than just two Goddesses. Francesca sensed strange equipment moving through the city, along with people who had arrived without any sign of normal travel. A whole military force was now in the city she had spent years preparing as her stage.

And she had no idea how many soldiers there were.

Francesca had seen some of them attack Jester Karture. A few ordinary-looking men used modern weapons to cut through several of the Dead Apostle's lives before he escaped underground. If Jester had had one or two fewer hearts, he would have died without ever seeing who attacked him.

Those same weapons could probably kill Francesca too. One bullet in the wrong place, then an explosion to scatter what was left...

Even her immortality had limits.

"Absolutely not." She had no intention of walking into the factory and discovering whether those soldiers could kill her permanently.

All three groups controlling Snowfield were now on the defensive. Orlando refused to get close. Faldeus kept his distance with remote investigations. Francesca had given up on trying to provoke August directly.

And there wasn't anyone they could complain to.

Still...

"They haven't stopped the war." Francesca sat up again.

The False Servants were still active. The True Servants were being summoned. Richard's arrival showed the ritual was still going as planned. August's group watched, interfered a bit, and then stepped back.

If they had no intention of destroying the Holy Grail War, Francesca could continue with her original script.

"Fine. Let them do what they want—I'll do my thing."

She smiled again, though her usual recklessness had faded.

It was time for her to summon her own Servant. She planned to call the version of herself recorded on the Throne of Heroes. If anyone could give her useful information about August's link to the Throne, it would be another Prelati.

Everyone in the ritual had their own plan.

Francesca just needed to make sure hers stayed interesting and didn't end with a Goddess crushing her like an insect.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

A Casino in Snowfield

"My King..." Tiné Chelc gazed at the distant opera house.

For a moment, an unmistakable Divine Presence swept across Snowfield. It wasn't the weakened Divinity of a Heroic Spirit or a God using a human body.

It was a true deity.

"How did something like that enter the city?" Gilgamesh had sensed it as well.

"Hmph." He leaned back in his seat, looking more annoyed than worried. "I already knew something in this city was hiding from me. I just didn't expect it to be a God."

Gilgamesh had lived during the Age of Gods and knew its decline better than most. The modern world couldn't support a deity's true body. If a God appeared as they once did, the world itself should start shifting back to the Age of Gods.

But nothing had changed. Humanity kept moving forward, and the world showed no sign of rejecting the present era.

"What exactly are those Gods trying to accomplish?"

For a moment, genuine curiosity crossed the King of Heroes' face. Then it disappeared.

Whatever they wanted, they were still just Gods. He possessed Ea!

Enkidu was somewhere in the city. Gilgamesh saw no reason to fear two deities who had wandered onto his stage.

"Don't worry about them, Tiné. If they get out of line, I'll handle it."

"Yes, my King." Tiné lowered her head, though her unease remained.

Gilgamesh turned back to the gaming table. Thanks to his Golden Rule A—wealth always followed him wherever he went. Money was never a problem for the King of Heroes.

That didn't mean he couldn't enjoy winning more of it.

The dealer spun the roulette wheel. Gilgamesh casually pushed another towering stack of chips forward.

"One more spin."

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

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