Danmachi: The Multiverse Portal

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August watched as the girl tried to speak, but she kept stopping, unsure of what to say.

"I'm not going to lecture you. Your parents are scum, and I'm not sending you back to them," he said.

"If nothing else works, I'll set up a Divine Contract for you."

"A contract?" Tsubaki looked confused.

She didn't understand what he meant or why he wanted her to have one.

"That's right, though my Familia probably isn't the best fit for you." August thought for a moment, then suggested another idea.

"The Artemis Familia is waiting outside. You could make a contract with their Goddess and let them take you away from here."

August had always liked kindhearted children. Tsubaki had already suffered because of choices adults made for her, so he didn't mind letting her think of herself for once.

If she chose the Artemis Familia, he was sure the Goddess of the Hunt would accept her.

As soon as he spoke, the black presence in the false city moved. Pale Rider was not pleased. Tsubaki was its chosen Master, and August was clearly trying to take her away and give her to another Goddess.

When did everyone start trying to steal someone else's Master? Didn't they have their own contracts to worry about?

"Of course, you could also let Pale Rider take you to the underworld," August went on.

"With everything that's happened, the underworld would probably welcome someone like you."

He could feel the Reality Marble shifting around them, with Pale Rider's power building up in the false Snowfield, ready to strike at him again.

August lifted his hand.

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

Warm flames spread from his palm and moved through the streets, healing everything they touched. The spell went beyond fixing wounds or curing infections—it wiped out the plague itself, destroying the very concept of disease inside the Reality Marble.

Pale Rider pulled back. How had this human gotten healing magic powerful enough to erase a disease at its core?

Was this really something a human should be able to use?

August turned to Tsubaki. "But first, you need to wake up. This place might be a Reality Marble your Servant created, but none of it is real. It's just a dream."

He pointed to the city around them.

"Your real choices are outside."

After listening to August explain everything, Tsubaki finally nodded.

"I understand, Big Brother." Her voice was soft, but there was more certainty in it now.

She turned toward the cloud of black mist nearby. There was no face within it, nothing human at all, yet she knew it was the Servant who had stayed by her side throughout the dream.

"LET'S GO BACK TO THE REAL WORLD." This time, she didn't hesitate. The soldiers outside had already told her what Pale Rider had done.

Tsubaki's wish had been simple: she wanted someone to stay with her. Pale Rider had answered that wish by killing living creatures and drawing their consciousness into the dream so they could keep her company.

None of it was real...

The happiness Pale Rider gave her came at the cost of other people's lives. It wasn't a miracle. It was a tragedy born from a lonely child's wish.

Tsubaki had never wanted anyone to die, but she was kind enough to understand that the lives Pale Rider had taken were still tied to her wish. She couldn't simply pretend otherwise.

Pale Rider lingered for a moment before finally yielding to its Master.

The false Snowfield began to come apart. Streets faded first, followed by buildings and the lights in the distance as the Reality Marble folded in on itself. When it finally collapsed, a sharp pain tore through Tsubaki's mind and soul, then vanished almost as quickly as it came.

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A different voice reached her from somewhere beyond the dream.

"General anesthesia administered."

"The patient's pain response has been suppressed."

"Physical reconstruction has reached seventy percent."

Tsubaki only heard those few words before exhaustion pulled her back into a deep sleep.

August opened his eyes. The Zealot was still beside him, exactly where she had been, while Tsubaki lay motionless on the hospital bed...

"We're back," August murmured.

He put his hand over Tsubaki and started casting [Healing Fire] again. Sacred flames surrounded her as the healing continued, working quickly.

Modern insect Magecraft couldn't compare to healing magic that worked like a miracle. The same spell could reattach or regrow a lost limb, so fixing the damage inside one child was easy. Her organs healed first, then her damaged tissue, and finally her blood vessels, nerves, and everything else the magical bacteria had harmed.

"Looks like it worked."

Several military doctors stood by the bed, watching Tsubaki and discussing what they had just seen. They had no real way to deal with a being like Pale Rider.

Science made sense because it followed rules they could test and measure, but Pale Rider was a concept made real, and normal treatments didn't work. Maybe a ritual or weapon based on the biblical system could have stopped one of the Four Horsemen, but they didn't have anything like that prepared.

When the display hit 100%, August stopped his healing magic. "She's recovered. Her body is now like any normal magus in this world."

He checked her one more time. "The changes from the bacterial insect Magecraft are gone."

Tsubaki had gone back to being an ordinary young girl.

But that didn't mean she was safe. Pale Rider was still linked to her, and now that the bacteria were gone, she barely had enough magical energy for a magus.

Pale Rider would weaken along with Tsubaki. Without anything left to sustain it, its power and reach would shrink considerably. If Tsubaki ventured into Snowfield without protection, neither she nor her Servant would last long against the monsters roaming the city.

The other doctors still came by to check on her. Her condition had changed, but their concern for her hadn't.

One fixed her IV, another checked her vitals, and someone else set out what she'd need when she woke up.

Seeing they would look after her, August nodded and left her in their care.

"Next—"

Before he could finish, the Zealot turned toward the window. "A Servant is approaching."

She sensed a strong presence coming toward the hospital. Someone was interested enough in one of the Four Horsemen to come after Tsubaki in person, and that could only mean trouble.

"They're here to destroy her," the Zealot said. "A Servant is trying to break through."

"Go stop them." August had expected this. "If I'm right, only a handful of Servants would be confident enough to attack this place directly. Whether a Hassan is among them is another matter."

He smiled a little. Tsubaki's parents weren't the only ones trying to control her, and there were plenty of others waiting for a chance.

If its ritual finished, everyone in the city could die. No Master or Servant wanted to trust their lives to a ten-year-old girl and just hope for the best.

"Leave it to me." The Zealot accepted the order confidently.

She was now drawing magical energy from August and knew he had plenty to spare. The quality was just as good as the amount. With his support, she could use her Noble Phantasms as much as she needed without worrying about running out.

She vanished.

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As soon as she appeared outside, she saw a military unit firing at a Servant running toward the hospital. Gunfire swept across the grounds from several spots—August's soldiers had set up overlapping fields of fire, and their weapons broke through the Servant's defensive armor.

"Alcides." The Zealot recognized him.

She hadn't thought he would be the first to act. She expected another group, maybe one of the other False Servant teams, to come for the hospital. But the intruder was the same Heroic Spirit she had seen earlier that day—the great hero once called Heracles, now known as Alcides.

The Zealot sprang into the air and charged straight at him. "If you've come here to cause trouble, I'll kill you first."

She spoke without any caution. She didn't care that her opponent had once been a demigod. Fear had never really influenced her choices.

Alcides hadn't expected the Assassin who normally hid in the shadows to leap into his path and challenge him head-on.

"You have betrayed your faith," he said.

The Assassin he had met before had refused to serve any foreign god. Now, however, she served August, Hestia's favored child, and protected a Master connected to an apocalyptic being from another faith.

The Zealot answered without hesitation. "He is a Master protected by the Evening Bell. As his Servant, I am bound to honor that protection as well."

Her faith had not changed. After becoming August's Servant, she had learned of his connection to the First Hassan. The Old Man of the Mountain had chosen to protect him, and as one who followed the path of Hassan-i-Sabbah, she could not disregard that judgment.

If the First Hassan had accepted August under his protection, then protecting him was part of her duty as well.

"..." Alcides frowned. The Zealot was already in the striking zone.

She thrust out her hand.

"Zabaniya: Delusional Heartbeat!"

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