Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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—•——•——•——•——•——•—

A flare streaked into the distant sky.

FWOOSH!

It burst overhead, flooding the night with red.

Orlando Reeve turned to look and stopped in his tracks. The city never talked about having a permanent garrison, but there were two bases nearby. One was near Las Vegas, and the other was set up just to handle emergencies in Snowfield.

Now, that second base was signaling defeat.

"Looks like they took it," August said.

Now that they controlled the garrison, his forces had enough military power to take over this world's United States.

"What did you do?" Orlando turned toward him, the pressure in his chest mounting.

August ignored the hostile stare and straightened.

"Let me introduce myself properly."

"My name is August. I'm a human from another world, one completely separate from this universe."

The intersection went quiet. Hansa gave a tense laugh, but he was already ready to fight or run if needed. "That isn't the kind of thing you should joke about, young man."

"I'm not joking."

"HE ISN'T." A proud voice came from above.

A figure suddenly appeared above the street and landed in high heels, perfectly balanced. She wore a formal outfit with bright red stockings and moved with the confidence of someone who had consistently believed in her own superiority. Every Master there felt her presence.

A Servant.

"Caster. Olga Marie." She lifted her chin.

"Although, at this point in your timeline, my younger self should still be known by her full name: Olga Marie Animusphere, heir to the Department of Astromancy within the Mage's Association."

The magi watching felt the weight of that introduction more than any spell.

The Animusphere heir—from the Department of Astromancy.

A Servant with the name of a girl who should still be alive and young in this time.

Olga Marie folded her arms and looked over the crowd. "He really comes from another world, a separate universe beyond even the reach of Zelretch the Wizard Marshall."

Now that someone with the Animusphere name had backed up his story, the magi nearby couldn't brush off August's claim as nonsense anymore.

Orlando recovered first. He cared less about her titles than about the army that had just captured a United States military base. "Then why are you here? What do you want from this world?"

Hestia's eyes sparkled. She had just thought of something terrible.

"Why? We answered this World's call, of course." She clasped her hands behind her back and smiled sweetly. "We came to exterminate every living creature on the planet's surface."

The street went dead silent.

"WHAT?"

"YOU CAME TO DO WHAT??"

"WHY WOULD THE WORLD SUMMON YOU TO DESTROY HUMANITY??"

Since the words came straight from a Goddess, no one had the courage to think it was just a threat. The police officers broke out in cold sweat, and even the magi watching from a distance felt a shudder run through them.

Hestia raised one finger, adopting the tone of a teacher explaining something obvious to a slow class. "This planet called us here to eliminate the life on its surface. The problem is, we arrived too early."

She pointed toward the ground beneath them. "Someone decided troublesome outsiders like us were too dangerous, so we were pushed into a parallel timeline and abandoned here."

August glanced at her. She was clearly having too much fun with this.

"We don't have alternate selves in this timeline," Hestia continued, her smile widening. "No projections, spare bodies, or copies waiting for us in the proper era. This entire branch was turned into a cage meant to keep us contained. And all of you were left inside it with us."

Hansa slowly shut his eyes. The people in this timeline weren't picked to fight off the invaders.

They had been offered up to them.

"So congratulations!" Hestia announced cheerfully. "You've all been sold out completely!"

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

"Unbelievable..." Hansa rubbed a hand down his face.

The Holy Grail War had somehow turned into a fight for the whole planet against invaders from another universe. Who would design a Grail War like this?

"I surrender."

Orlando raised one hand without hesitation.

Hansa stared at him. "Hey! That was fast!"

"What else do you want me to do?" Orlando looked at Clan Calatin, then at the regular police officers around the intersection.

Most of them didn't have any mana and barely knew what was happening.

"I'm not going to lead my people into a war against two Goddesses and an army from another universe just because surrender would bruise my pride." Orlando knew enough about Hestia's myths to see her as one of the kinder Goddesses.

Artemis was a different story.

The Goddess of the Hunt was known for killing monsters, punishing insults, and shooting down threats with divine arrows. Orlando wasn't about to risk his officers' lives hoping she'd stay patient forever.

Never test how personally a Goddess might take an insult.

Whether his surrender was honest remained unclear, but staying alive came first. Orlando lowered his hand slightly. "What do you intend to do with us?"

That was the real question now. Would they enslave everyone? Change the planet? Start mass executions? Orlando looked at August. The Artemis Familia, Olga Marie, and both Goddesses were powerful, but everyone still seemed to see August as the leader.

"Keep the city running normally," August replied.

"That's all?" Orlando blinked.

"We came because this world interests us." August glanced toward Jester's containment capsule.

"Your civilization and supernatural systems have produced all kinds of strange life-forms: magi, Servants, Dead Apostles. I want to understand how they function and how they've survived this long."

"Simply put, I'm here to observe you." He made no attempt to hide his objective.

"..." Orlando stared at him. This so-called invader from another world didn't want land, worshippers, or slaves.

He wanted research material...

"And you?" Hansa asked Hestia.

The Goddess beamed, making no attempt to hide her excitement. "I want to see this world's heroes! Your Holy Grail War summons famous heroes from the past and lets them fight each other. How could I miss something like that?"

Hestia loved seeing strong people fight—and Heroic Spirits with ancient legends were exactly the kind of show she wanted. She looked at Hansa.

"You there."

The priest stiffened. "Me?"

"Yes, you. The little priest."

Hansa reluctantly stepped forward. "Yes, Lady Hestia. What do you require?"

By now, resisting seemed pointless. The Goddess said their whole timeline had been abandoned, Orlando had already given up, and Hansa knew he couldn't beat either deity in front of him. Even dying for his faith wasn't simple anymore—if he made a real Goddess angry, who could say his soul would reach Heaven before she destroyed it?

Hestia pointed toward Snowfield.

"Hurry up and start the Holy Grail War." Then she threw both arms into the air.

"MAKE IT LIVELY!"

Hansa stared at her for a moment before bowing his head.

"...Understood."

He would make sure the ritual went on. Whether the rest of the world fought back or gave up after learning the truth wasn't his concern anymore.

They had already been sold out.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

At the military base outside Snowfield, the battle had already ended.

"Tch. What a waste." Commander James pulled his boot out of what was left of a major general.

The officer had been a magus too, but that didn't help him. One kick broke through his magical defenses and sent blood, flesh, and bone flying.

The whole garrison fell in under fifteen minutes. One squad broke through the outer defenses, and by the time the main force arrived, there was almost nothing left to fight. Nearly a thousand soldiers were beaten before most even knew what was attacking them.

Calling it a blitzkrieg would have been generous.

The battle had ended before the defenders realized a war had begun.

The Chief of Logistics walked over and looked at the remains.

"I still can't believe it... People from our world really do become superhuman after coming here."

He knew what Commander James could do back on Earth. The man was getting old enough for people to call him an old geezer, but here, he had kicked a magically reinforced general so hard the man burst apart.

"I didn't think he'd be that fragile," Commander James said.

"Compared to the people in Orario, these guys don't even come close."

He had expected real resistance from officers trained by this world's government and backed by Magecraft. Instead, one kick killed his opponent before he could even start questioning him, and now he just looked like a bloodthirsty lunatic.

Commander James wiped his boot on the ground. "So this is what happens when people from our world come to this universe..."

The Chief of Logistics looked across the captured base. The local soldiers had possessed guns, armored vehicles, fortified positions, and Magecraft.

None of it made a difference.

Their arrival from another universe had turned regular soldiers into the monsters everyone else was afraid of—

Commander James gave the wreckage one last look and broke into a grin.

"And we were worried about aliens..." He put a hand on his hip.

"Turns out that's us!"

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

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