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Volume 2, Chapter 3: Reality Invading Heal Queen

Part 1

It was only a slight difference, but Armelina of course knew that delayed information could produce devastating results.

“Sorry. I’ll listen to your criticism later. Tell me what’s happening!”

“Chief!!”

She left through the Gate to Sign Out. When she returned to a corner of the city, she was a beautiful woman in glasses with her black hair tied back and wearing a tight skirt suit with the tie removed and the first few buttons undone.

This was not a specially cleared area in an expensive part of the city like the Detached Magic Palace in Roppongi or the Ushigashira Shrine in Akasaka. Nor was it a secret facility deep below the Metropolitan Police Department or the National Police Agency. After all, she and her coworkers did not work in public security or foreign affairs. They were an external sector that performed the investigation that could not be done through the official channels. They were officially known as a private detective agency staffed by retired police officers and JSDF officers.

She was below a rundown elevated railroad in Shinjuku.

She was inside a cold storage truck stopped there. Its refrigeration was of course turned off and it was stuffed full of steel racks, flat screen monitors, and computers with their internal power sources bypassed. A slight space was left cleared in the center. There was nothing physically there, but it was a crystallization of cutting-edge technology that qualified as a national secret. That was the fruit of their research and they could not let it reach even their allied nations. It was still in development, but it was a mobile Gate that was not reliant on a specific location.

As the incident with the Religious Society showed, moving between Earth and Ground’s Nir introduced a large informational risk. Ground’s Nir had been known as spy heaven ever since the Cold War when the Americans and the Soviets were pointing nuclear missiles at each other. That risk could be somewhat reduced by monitoring the Gates on the Earth side, but the existence of mobile Gates would entirely overturn that assumption.

The other workers waiting in the truck began to speak.

“The situation could not be worse. You can call it unprecedented if you want. I imagine you already know since you performed an emergency unplanned Sign Out, but...something has come out.”

“So the information I got in Ground’s Nir was right.”

The woman in the tight suit just about bit her thumbnail out of habit, but then she remembered she was in front of her subordinates.

Even so, she could not restrain her panic and irritation.

She was not entirely unconnected to this incident. While she had not caused it, she had helped lay out the fuse leading to the bomb.

She looked to one of the many flat screen monitors.

They showed the scene outside using the security cameras set up around the city. Black smoke was rising from multi-tenant buildings in Tokyo and innocent residents were fleeing along the sidewalk and roads alike.

“Despite the panic, order has been maintained. It is highly unlikely that this will lead to any moral hazards such as looting or rioting.”

“That isn’t what I was worried about.”

Yes, that was a concern, but it was secondary.

The real problem lay elsewhere.

“Gruagach...”

The tight skirt woman muttered the name of the woman who had been at the center of the Religious Society.

That alone would be completely normal. Just as this glasses woman went by the name of Armelina, everyone had a second identity when exploring the Labyrinth. There was nothing odd about the woman named Gruagach walking around Tokyo.

But the woman’s eyes narrowed sharply as she viewed the many monitors lining the wall.

“So your appearance really is the same as in Ground’s Nir.”

People’s appearance changed between the 2 worlds because of the Percentage-style Magic that formed their clothing.

In other words, they could not maintain their Ground’s Nir appearance when no longer in an environment that allowed for Magic. Or it should have meant that. But that was not what surprised the tight skirt woman the most. Another fact was so shocking that even that paled in comparison.

And that other fact was the primary problem.

“The Succubus...”

She had once worn a white habit.

But now that demon unnaturally embraced Gruagach from behind, pressed her cheek against the woman, and smiled thinly.

“So my information was right! She really has appeared here! But how!?”

What was going on?

The answer was found a bit earlier and in another world.

Part 2

It began in the inn town when the scars of destruction were still fresh.

Since most of the humans were unconscious, Boo Boo had visited despite normally being feared. He and Armelina were strong, so they moved the rubble to search for anyone buried alive. Filinion used a recovery potion on anyone they found.

Beatrice did not have much to do there, but she had another important job: tie up the unconscious members of the Religious Society and confiscate their Shining Weapons.

“You have no idea what you have done,” hoarsely said a woman in mourning clothes and a veil. “You let the witch escape. You assisted her. So whatever she might do now, what happens next is your responsibility. Are you prepared to go down in history as one of those who destroyed the world?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m asking if you are prepared. You will come to regret choosing to act based on your own spoiled emotions.”

She thought this was only the ravings of a lunatic.

She decided to ignore the woman and forget it all.

But when she looked up again, a slight – ever so slight – question occurred to her.

Yes.

“Where did the Nun go?”

Fairy Queen Sutriona stabbed something into the nutrient-rich garden next to Boo Boo’s leaf house near a mountain river.

“Hmph.”

“Ghah!!”

It was Ileana, the plant Break News and the greatest Mandragora who wore a dress made of grape leaves and vines. Technically, it was just one of her.

“Out of respect for what Boo Boo and the others accomplished, I’ll end this here. Heal your wounds there, perverted carrot.”

“Oh, what’s this? Now that I look at it, this land isn’t bad. To think that cursed Iberian Orc has a talent for preparing soil. It might not look nice, but I appreciate his love for the flowers. It’s so much nicer than some insects I could mention.”

“You can’t have him.”

“He doesn’t belong to you. Ahhhhh! Th-this is perrrrrrfect...”

Ileana cried out like she was soaking up to the shoulders in a hot spring that soothed ones weariness.

Her face grew flushed as she said more.

“But you truly are a troublesome insect. Thanks to your interference, the Religious Society has retreated. Now I won’t get my reward.”

“I’m sure it had to do with women, so I really don’t care.”

“You understand, don’t you?” Ileana giggled. “All I ask for a job is a virgin. But I don’t take her and devour her. I essentially call dibs to ensure no one else can touch her. I enjoy freeing them from the many bonds humans place on each other.

In this case, that was the Religious Society.

When someone said they could only live one way, she would show them there were other options. She would show them that they could get by just fine once they took that first step. That was how Ileana found her purpose in life.

Sutriona understood all that, but she still spat out the same thing.

“I don’t care. When you kill someone and save someone, are you cancelling out the death? That’s only your interpretation. Don’t be so naïve, mercenary. Don’t play the predator if you aren’t prepared to be eaten. At the very least, you could have followed a path of nonviolence and yet not lost anything at all, making you the envy of every pacifist.”

“Perhaps so. But at least let me wallow in regret. Gruagach was a truly unfortunate girl. The Religious Society alone would have been bad enough, but even her mental escape route was dyed in evil.”

“?”

By the time Sutriona tilted her head, a clear change had already begun.

The Nun in a white habit was gone.

When Boo Boo, Filinion, and Armelina heard that, they discovered another concern.

“One is missing,” said Beatrice. “I remember how many enemies I defeated and one of those women in mourning clothes is missing.”

“So the Nun and one of the Religious Society who were pursuing her are missing?”

“Squeal. Could this be really bad?”

“Wait, wait, wait. Don’t tell me she was taken away after all that.”

They had already been searching for anyone buried in the rubble, so they split up and resumed the search.

As Boo Boo moved the rubble out of the way, they eventually came to the ruins of the church.

“What is this?”

The roof was gone, most of the walls had collapsed, and nearly the entire building was only rubble, but a small area had survived.

It had likely been a tiny storage space hidden inside the pipe organ by the wall. It had broken apart, the lock was now useless, and its contents were exposed to Boo Boo.

There were several pieces of parchment inside.

Boo Boo did not know if they were valuable, so he showed them to Beatrice who looked shocked and began reading through them.

“It’s a lot like the notes used by a phone scam group... They follow these arrows to know what to say depending on what the other person says. It’s a flowchart for controlling someone’s heart.”

“Boo?”

Boo Boo did not seem to get it, but Beatrice decided it would be best for him if she did not explain it in more detail. Someone who had mastered a guide like this would not need it anymore. They would only keep it around if they had a plain form with fields to be filled in. They would investigate an individual and write down what they found to more effectively grasp their heart.

“But this is pretty complex and detailed. They must have had a specific target in mind from pretty early on. Boo Boo, you said you found this in the church? That would mean the Nun was manipulating some specific person.”

But who?

After some thought, she ran into an assumption they had made earlier.

“It’s possible the Religious Society woman didn’t abduct the Nun.”

“Beatrice, are you saying the Nun took the Religious Society woman away?”

The Holy Swordswoman thought for a moment.

She used her fire illusion Magic to draw out some frames and red lines and she felt faint at the great change she saw.

The overall structure was falling apart. It was being remade. What if the Nun and the Religious Society had been secretly connected even as they caused this entire incident? Had the Nun known about the attack in advance? No, had she intentionally made herself the source of conflict to pull the trigger? That would mean she had planned for the Religious Society to bring in Ileana and to greatly damage the inn town.

But if so, what for?

What about the current situation helped her in any way?

“...”

“Beatrice?”

“No, it can’t be...”

A thought started to rise in the back of her mind, but she rejected it herself.

“She can’t. She just can’t. Even if it’s left wide open, it’s simply impossible...”

At that very moment, Beatrice turned toward Boo Boo with a look of utter disbelief in her eyes. Her eyes were opened as wide as they would go and the shock that raced through them was just like running into a field of unimaginable despair.

“What is it, Beatrice? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it isn’t that...”

Technically, Beatrice was not looking at Boo Boo.

She was looking at what hung from his waist.

That giant Shining Weapon could be mistaken for a log or a steel beam.

And...

“Yes. That’s right. If a great number of Iberian Orc souls can be sealed inside a Shining Weapon...”

“?”

“Humans can pass through the Gates, but Nonhumans can’t. That’s an undeniable fact, but if those Nonhumans can change form, that assumption falls apart...”

Out of all the myriad possibilities, why had her thoughts jumped to that one?

There were two reasons.

First, it led to the greatest risk if accomplished.

Second, it explained why the Succubus would use the Religious Society woman to take out everyone in the inn town.

“If the Succubus was planning something this big, someone would have stopped her under normal circumstances. Every human in Ground’s Nir would have dropped whatever they were doing and rushed her. She wouldn’t be able to accomplish her goal if that happened. The Sign Out process takes several minutes, so if we held every Gate, we could strike back while she was defenseless.”

The reality of this theoretical risk gradually grew inside Beatrice.

“But things are different now. The power of a Break News attacked the inn town and most of the humans in Ground’s Nir are unconscious, so she can do anything now! Yes, like a final experiment for sending a demon to Earth!!”

The Holy Swordswoman dug through the pile of rubble some more.

She found plenty of documents and evidence.

Controlling a star student was quite easy.

The purity of their heart would lead them to eliminate any discrepancies between their ideal self and their actual self. It could be anything: looks, academics, athletics, income, job title, behavior, etc. As long as you discovered the source of their insecurities, you could drive them to a state of inextricable dependence.

“Uuh...”

The woman wore bluish-black mourning clothes and a veil.

She had a modest chest and her extremely long and whitish-blonde hair still reached her waist despite being braided and bent into a U shape.

She was known as Gruagach.

She had once been a hound of the Religious Society who was entirely pure and fulfilled her missions like a machine, but once her fall began, it would not stop. The white Succubus clung to her back, wrapped her arms around the woman’s neck, and rubbed her cheek against the woman’s cheek, but the poor woman could only groan.

“I...I really was wrong. I shouldn’t have done this. But...but I... Ahh! I should have immediately cast aside this power!!”

“But you cannot get rid of me now.”

It was like a gentle whisper.

The pure white demon had an angel’s halo and she licked the woman’s cheek with her long tongue as she sweetly whispered into her ear.

She had already revealed her identity and the habit was gone. With the clothes stripped away, her sexy body was only covered by a swimsuit-like garment made from reptilian scales and the thick white snake wrapped around her body like a hagoromo.

Her goat horns and bodylines had also grown larger and fuller. The Succubus intended to influence the earth, but she could not cross the boundary between worlds even if she did seal her soul inside a Shining Weapon. She would be blocked by the boundary between Ground’s Nir and Earth, so she could only influence the other side as if through a thin layer of rubber.

But it did not matter either way.

If you knocked on a wall, it would make a noise. If you heated a glass panel with a burner, the other side could burn you. If you pressed a magnet against the underside of a thin film, you could control the metal nails on the other side. As long as she could influence the other side like that, the demon might as well exist on the other side. Something would stand there in a form that people’s senses would detect.

And the group on the Ground’s Nir side of the thin layer would never be able to capture the demon.

She would become something like a being that pressed against the outer edge of the ever-expanding universe. They would know she existed in the same world, but no one would be able to observe or reach her.

As long as this poor woman named Gruagach acted as the Succubus’s anchor, anyway.

“After all, everyone will be after you now. You need more power than ever. So you have no choice but to follow my plan. If you don’t, you’ll be pecked at from every direction. You’ll be left in an even sorrier state than a sugar cube dropped in front of an anthill. You don’t want to turn out like that, do you?”

“...”

The president had grown beautiful.

She had shined each time she challenged the Labyrinth. The words of envy had echoed through her mind.

“Orrrr will you return to your former self? Would you prefer to be powerless, unable to even walk through the Labyrinth, and just one of the pitiful workers whose name no one remembers?”

“No!! Anything but that! I can’t go back to what I was like back then!!”

Gruagach shook her head half-madly.

It was not that she had no talent.

She was a Summon Hunter. That was a rare Job that let her bind contracts with the Nonhumans on the surface of Ground’s Nir and either fill her blade with their power or directly summon them to fight within the Labyrinth. That Job was on the same level as a Holy Swordswoman, White Witch, or Fighter Priest.

But she had not had anywhere to use that talent.

In exchange for being able to summon any Nonhuman, she could not summon anything without binding a contract first. But strict Gruagach had been very poor at negotiating. And she had lacked the initial power needed to make a Nonhuman bind a contract by force. She had long been trapped in a state that was much like locking her keys in the car.

Once the Succubus had realized that, it had been easy to manipulate her.

She had lent Gruagach the use of a Succubus’s special Skill: Charm. Gruagach had used that Charm to win over and bind contracts with more and more of the Nonhumans in Ground’s Nir.

Yes, by covering her entire body with a light pink oil flavored by multiple herbs and the blood from the Succubus’s wrist. And just as perfume bonded with the oils and moisture of the skin, the unclean blood had mixed in with the sacrifice. And that was one of the powers that would pull at the demon through the thin layer.

“This is just like the illness recovery tours. Even if objects and life forms can’t be directly passed back and forth, the fact that your ailing body was healed will remain back in your world, right?”

Gruagach had quickly risen to the top of the Religious Society’s ranks.

But that had all been based on the Succubus’s assistance.

If the Succubus cut off her Skill, all of the Nonhumans trapped by her Charm would return to their senses. They would abandon their contract and leave Gruagach. If that happened, she would lose her power once more. She would be ruined. Gruagach’s glory was entirely reliant on the Succubus.

She had soared high with that power, but that only increased the shock of the inevitable fall.

That led her fear to grow without end.

“Sob, hic. What are you trying to do?”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?”

“Answer me!! Why have you ruined...absolutely ruined my life!?”

“Because you had talent.”

The Succubus faintly smiled, embraced the woman from behind, and ran her hands along the bodylines that showed through the mourning clothes.

No.

“You had talent for corruption. I mean, a normal person would have been overwhelmed by this point and made a mistake. They would have roused the others’ suspicions, had their identity revealed, and dropped out of the running.”

“Uuh.”

“Buuuut. You managed to deceive them all until now. No one suspected you were wearing something like this under those pretty clothes. This secret looks perfect on you, don’t you think?☆”

“Uuuuhh...!!”

The Succubus moved slowly.

There should have been more than enough time to resist, but Gruagach could not.

The mourning clothes were stripped from the fully tamed woman’s body. So was the veil from her face. That clothing was technically Percentage-type Magic, so it dissolved into the air. And that left...

“My, my. This was originally a full set of armor and a man’s Shining Weapon, but as I gradually made the necessary modifications, the design dramatically changed. Well, this may just be a reflection of my own tastes. It makes it hard for the wearer to go out in public, doesn’t it?”

It was a blue and black set of light armor with something like a swimsuit’s pareo added on. That was not too rare in Ground’s Nir, but it also had something like leather belts binding her body in places.

A red, glowing, and venomous needle was installed on the end of the tail that curved upwards from the back of her hips. Insect legs grasped her hips from behind and two giant pincers with red tips pushed up on her modest chest from below.

Overall, it was reminiscent of a scorpion.

But the most ominous features were the keyholes at the points where the belts intersected. That suggested that the wearer could never remove it of her own free will.

It was a modified Shining Weapon. It ignored its wielder’s will.

If she was wearing that Shining Weapon armor and had the Succubus’s soul sealed inside her thanks to the herbal oil soaked into her soft skin, she would intentionally catch on the barrier between worlds. That would separate the demon from her sacrifice. And it would bring the large-horned Succubus as close as possible to the filter between worlds.

“Now, let us begin. You return through your Gate and my power will bind to your body through the thin layer. That will mean success and give us cause to celebrate.”

“Khahh!?”

The star student had no choice but to fall, but when she tried to put up a futile resistance regardless, her entire body gave a violent jerk.

Just as the long scorpion’s tail rose behind her hips, it mercilessly stabbed into the sacrifice’s back.

It was like a plug and an earphone jack. The armor already had several coin-sized holes, and it stabbed into one of those.

Sparks burst before her eyes.

Her mouth flapped wordlessly, her eyes opened as wide as they could, and she took desperate and deep breaths. None of this changed anything. Just like someone growing accustomed to the heat or the cold, the star student’s mind adapted to this new state.

“Ahn.”

The translucent demon cried out like some kind of joke, but she was not teasing the victim.

She now shared her senses with Gruagach and she was able to enjoy the scorching pain.

“If you want to give up, just tell me. I have an intimate understanding of your suffering. Pleasure and anesthesia are two sides of the same coin, so a little help from a demon can solve this right away.”

“Kh.”

Finally, the tail plug slowly pulled out.

It had not simply been a toxin. As soon as the signal left, the pain receded. She could speak again, but the marionette had to gasp for breath as she asked her question.

“What...uuh...what are you...planning...planning to do on...Earth?”

“Do you know how the only man I ever loved ultimately lost his life?”

Her previous calm had vanished.

All emotion vanished from the Succubus’s voice as she whispered.

“He was assassinated. He was thrown to the bottom of a seldom-visited canyon and his legs were trapped between boulders so he could not approach the Gate and Sign Out. Then his mind and body were both slowly, slowly, slowly worn away.”

Gruagach was trembling now.

This was no comparison to before. What had once been a star student was trembling intensely from the core of the core of the core of her being. She trembled in hopeless fear and regret as if she had thoughtlessly opened Pandora’s Box.

“At the time, it still wasn’t known that objects and life forms other than the data contained in the Shining Weapons could not be directly brought back to your world, so they tried a great many things. They tried swallowing bags of herbs to fill their stomach and intestines, they tried slicing open their arms and legs to fill them with the gears used as currency, and they tried injecting potions into their blood with syringes and IVs. Those methods were proved ineffective by the experimenters’ deaths. Ultimately, they learned that only a few grams was the limit even if they sliced open their body. ...Well, it was partially to put a stop to those demonic experiments, but it ultimately comes down to interests. There were simply a lot of people who found it more convenient if only data could be brought back. They were afraid of allowing humankind to step outside the theories proposed by that person you call the Sage.”

What was this demon trying to do?

What was she hoping to do on a planet teeming with humans!?

“Now is the time to sharpen our souls and bring back those evil deeds.”

But there was nothing Gruagach could do.

The heavy lid had already been removed.

The great hole connecting worlds had already been opened.

“My name is Tselika. Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier. As I hold a single corpse in my arms, I shall fulfill my goal even if it means making an enemy of every universal law and crossing the barrier between worlds.”

Part 3

And now time returns to the present.

The location moves to the Ushigashira Shrine in Akasaka, Tokyo.

“Grandmother!!”

After passing through the Gate to Sign Out, the coke bottle glasses shrine maiden with fluffy blonde hair tied in a long tube shape ignored her own exhaustion and shouted toward the ceiling.

“Do you know what’s going on outside? What happened with that Succubus!?”

“No need to yell. They’re showing it on TV.”

“TV?”

The humans from Earth had always unilaterally passed through the Gates, learned as much Magic as they wanted, and returned without anyone interfering. They had never considered the possibility of the Nonhumans interfering with Earth. That was why society had been able to accept something as extremely irregular as Ground’s Nir.

If that stronghold crumbled, it could easily lead to a worldwide panic.

This was blatantly not something that the mass media should be thoughtlessly reporting on.

“It was a real tragedy that it happened during the day,” explained her “grandmother”. “In other words, while the Diet was in session. It’s a legal issue, but the current system doesn’t allow for a Diet meeting to be canceled even in an emergency.”

The fluffy blonde glasses shrine maiden quickly looked down to her smartphone. The internet was down across the board, but she could still use the full seg broadcast app that picked up the signal directly from the station instead of through a browser. She tuned into a nationally-run station and found a question and answer session being held in a storm of heckling, angry shouting, and camera flashes.

“It seems the JSDF was deployed across the entire city, but was that your decision!? I do not recall a defense deployment request being submitted to those of us in the Diet. Nor was there a vote. So should I take this to mean the JSDF has become your personal army!?”

“As this is a rescue operation and not a defense deployment, everything I have done is perfectly legal under current law.”

The next thing she heard forced the shrine maiden to focus on a definite invasion.

“This is the very first time that a Break News – a paradox brought about by extreme environmental change – has reached our land in this world, so I would like you to think of my decision as the will of all the people of our nation.”

She felt faint.

Her exhaustion likely helped. The core of her body wavered and she collapsed to the tatami mats.

“Grand...mother...”

“It’s just as you’ve heard. I don’t know what she was originally, but now that she’s been confirmed inside the city, her rank has been increased. So whatever she might be, she will apparently be treated like a Break News.”

The shrine maiden checked the other channels and saw all the daytime variety shows and talk shows for housewives had been preempted. Inside a swiftly-prepared broadcast studio, employees scrambled around in the background as a woman announcer read the same script over and over. Now that the information had leaked out from the nationally-run broadcast, the local commercial broadcasts had likely decided any attempt at information control would fail to eliminate the chaos.

“We have just received further information on the Break News. All public transportation in the city has been stopped and the normal roads will also be sequentially shut down to prevent chaos. If you live in the affected area – especially if you cannot evacuate immediately – you should take shelter inside a sturdy building. Sheltering inside a car would only increase the danger, so please shelter inside a building. I repeat...”

(They need to evacuate? Shelter inside a sturdy building? That will remove the people from the streets. But what are they trying to get them away from?)

“Grandmother! Don’t tell me...!!”

It happened just as the shrine maiden yelled up at the ceiling.

The tranquil atmosphere of the Ushigashira Shrine was shredded by a great roar passing by overhead.

The entire large wooden building shook.

The fluffy blonde tearfully covered her ears and realized what was happening even without looking outside.

“Did they send fighters out!?”

“You haven’t seen it yet, but tanks and armored trucks are driving around the streets like they own the place. I have no idea how effective they’ll be, though. A good half of the military is all about appearances. When they have so much destructive power, they can’t just let an invader trample the city underfoot without fighting back.”

The attic voice paused there.

And then she spat out a much lower and more frightening voice than the shrine maiden had ever heard before.

“...They know it’s hopeless, but they’re still going to waste those innocent young lives.”

Part 4

An out-of-place figure unsteadily appeared from a giant reinforced concrete box in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. It was Gruagach, the woman with long, long blonde hair and an outfit that looked like light armor, a pareo, and leather belts. Her looped braid had unraveled and spread out behind her. The long tail on the back of her hips and the pincers pushing up on her modest breasts provided a scorpion-esque look. And Tselika, the sexy and translucent demon, gently embraced that poor puppet from behind.

The demon technically did not exist on Earth. She could not directly interact with this world, but even while beyond the barrier between worlds, she was bound here by a great power. In the end, that difference mattered little. As long as she continued manipulating Gruagach through that barrier, she could see and touch everything on this side.

Haloed Tselika had not passed through a Gate. In fact, she had turned that idea on its head.

(There had to have been sporadic travel between the worlds before the very first Gate was built. That would explain mysterious disappearances and cryptid sightings. ...And that means it isn’t the Gates that connect the worlds. If anything, they’re safety devices that restrict travel. So if I destroy a few of them while the humans are down, they would malfunction and the “mysterious disappearances” would begin anew.)

The barrier between worlds was thin and pliable. It was the Gates that had remade it into something more solid.

Tselika had gone to such great lengths to interfere with this other world, but she was still not satisfied.

(A gray city that reeks of smoke and soot. How boring. Was “he” targeted and killed in another world just to protect people’s control over something like this?)

With that emotion in her heart, she spoke with only wickedness in her voice.

It was not that one side or the other was her true self. This demon could process both conflicting sides without contradiction.

“Hmm. A public shared Gate, huh? Did the Religious Society decide that securing their own Gate would stand out too much for a secret organization?”

Her tone had entirely changed.

She laughed and spoke in her combination of a scale swimsuit and a snake hagoromo.

“It might be a religious one, but your base was a school? So the Religious Society’s elites were nothing but the kids in the student council? I know you can’t rely on people’s appearances in Ground’s Nir, but no one would ever think the fearsome Religious Society was an afterschool adventure. Would they, Miss President?”

School, religious, student council, afterschool, president. Tselika toyed with the contents of the star student’s mind to gather the information she lacked and immediately mocked her for it.

This was why the Summon Hunter had wanted power badly enough to make a deal with a demon.

She was so talented in academics and athletics in her own world, but...no, thus it had damaged her pride something awful when she was branded incompetent for the first time in the other world. Especially when she was treated like a genius by everyone around her and had never experienced any setbacks or defeat.

The president had become beautiful. She had seemed to shine every time she challenged the Labyrinth. The praise had become the norm. And it was all thanks to what she did every time she visited Ground’s Nir: took a special oil made from multiple herbs and Tselika’s blood and rubbed it across every inch of her soft skin for a much crueler transformation than at a beauty salon.

But Gruagach did not resist.

In fact...

“Ha ha...”

She laughed weakly.

Her head tilted limply to the side, her eyes were not focused on reality, and a few tufts of her blonde hair got in her mouth. She only continued to laugh as her face grew so slack that drool dripped freely out.

Tselika frowned and stuck the red plug needle into the star student’s back a few times.

But none of the jacks on the girl’s back produced the desired result.

Her shoulders, hips, and modest chest reflexively jerked irregularly, but it was not quite what the demon wanted.

The girl only laughed eerily flatly with her head tilted limply.

And with no concern for the pain of the plug or the long hair covering her face.

“Ah ha ha, ah ha ah ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha.”

“Hm, maybe my Charm was too powerful when I hijacked her through the armor. Well, as long as she can move her arms and legs. If I don’t control her autonomic nervous system, a variety of things would probably start spilling out.”

She made sure to double-check on something.

Not on Gruagach who was now a puppet, but on the scorpion armor she wore.

When returning to Earth from Ground’s Nir, the Shining Weapon would take the form of a small USB key smaller than a keychain, but Tselika’s armor had been specially modified in Ground’s Nir after being built on Earth. So even when it passed from Earth to Ground’s Nir or vice versa, its power would fill the parts in both worlds. Like a Mobius strip, both sides were the same side, so it manifested itself in its full form on either side.

The star student had too much dopamine in her brain, so the demon took control of her arms and legs to lightly twist her body around.

“Looks like there won’t be a problem using Magic.”

At that very moment, metal could be heard tearing into the asphalt as the intersection 300 meters away was blockaded. Great masses of metal awaited them. Tselika would never have seen a tank before, but she did not seem surprised.

Thanks to the armor and thanks to the blood and herb mixture soaked into her soft skin, the drool-soaked star student’s body and brain were under the demon’s control. The demon could pull out whatever information she needed.

And Tselika had to snicker when she judged her opponent’s specs.

A man sticking out from the top of the tank aimed a heavy machinegun at her and shouted through a loudspeaker.

“Attention Break News! Disarm yourself and surrender before I count to 3! We will only give you this one chance! Waste it for any reason and we will view it as a hostile action and immediately open fire!”

“Is this a joke?” spat out the translucent demon as she pressed up against the poor doll. “I have no interest in pacifism. It means straying from my primary objective, but I am irritated by the way you make a living on a foundation of corpses. I will take that irritation out on you. My name is Tselika! My weapons are the horns on my head and my shields are the wings on my back. If you wish to disarm me, then come tear those from me, human!!”

The man was true to his warning.

Since Tselika had done “something else”, the camouflaged group did not bother counting to three. The line of tanks fired one after another and launched shells at more than 5 times the speed of sound. Anti-personnel canisters scattered more than 2000 bearing balls like fireworks and APFSDSs used infrared to accurately locate their target even within all the dust. Those spears of death opened holes in the target by melting the armor instead of breaking it and they mercilessly bared their fangs against that round, soft flesh.

There should have been nothing recognizable as human left.

“Didn’t I tell you, human?”

The atmosphere was entirely taken away.

While possessed by Tselika through the thin barrier between worlds, blonde Gruagach now stood on top of one of the tanks. She stood back to back with the heavy machinegun soldier. When? How? Before the shells had been fired? After? It was all so baffling that only the hands of the clock continued moving.

“Kh!”

So as not to hit their fellow soldier, the heavy machinegun soldiers sticking up from the tanks on either side pulled out their sidearms and aimed at Tselika’s alluring body.

Nevertheless, the translucent horned demon whispered.

“I asked if this was a joke. All of this, including your reaction here are far too slow.”

“?”

With an explosive noise, something cut by overhead.

It was a domestic stealth fighter from the JASDF passing between the buildings. The weapons bay was open for some reason and it had already launched an extra-large aerial bomb.

It was targeting Tselika in her scaled clothing and thick snake hagoromo and the pilot did not seem to notice anything else that was there.

“Wait...”

One of the soldiers looked up and shouted at the unfairness of it all.

And when he looked down, he saw further absurdity.

Tselika and Gruagach were nowhere to be found.

He could only see the bomb dropping toward them.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait!?”

The bomber in the back seat gave a report while viewing a monitor that had reversed polarity so it would not grow entirely white from the explosive flames

“All bombs hit. Repeat, all bombs hit!”

“This is urban warfare and in the capital of Japan at that. It’d be a major problem if we missed. If we’re sure of that, then let’s get out of here.”

They did not notice they had blown away the ground unit with their bombs.

In fact, they could not see the ground unit. Or anything else besides Tselika.

So after finishing the bombing and beginning to rise to a safe altitude, their reaction upon seeing “that” may not have been surprising.

They saw “that” deep, deep, deep inside the window of a building several hundred meters ahead.

Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier.

And the star student she had hijacked.

However, they should not have been able to see her so deep inside that window as it reflected the sunlight.

“...Target spotted...”

The fighter changed heading and accelerated.

Similar warnings arrived over the radio.

“J-Wolf 02 to J-Wolf 01. We’ve spotted the target too.”

“J-Wolf 03 here. Awaiting instructions.”

“J-Wolf 04, we can target her. Let’s end this.”

The pilot breathed in and out. Several hundred meters was the blink of an eye for a fighter, so he did not hesitate to speak as the building wall spread out before his eyes.

“J-Wolf 01 to all fighters. Change formation from diamond to boomerang. Engage. Begin attack.”

A moment later, 4 spears pierced the building wall and blossomed into large flowers.

“You dumbass! Switch off the monitors!!”

A woman in glasses and a tight skirt shouted while traveling inside a mobile base disguised as a cold storage truck.

As her subordinate was gradually swallowed up by the “effects”, she tightened his tie with one hand to knock him unconscious and she used a lithe leg contained in black panty hose to kick out the power cable and forcibly shut off the machines.

“Bhah!! Pant, pant! Ch-chief, you saved me.”

“You can thank me after taking a psychological test with a counsellor, Inoue. It’s too soon to say whether you’ve really escaped her influence. Tanaka, you watch over him!”

“...What was that?” hesitantly asked the young man.

Everyone silently focused on the woman in a tight skirt. She cleared her throat and answered.

“I don’t know any of the details. There haven’t been any experiments proving that something in the other world can influence ours through the thin barrier between them. But that Break News is a Succubus. That means this must be based on a Charm-style Skill. For example...she might take control of anyone whose heart is taken in by her aura.”

If it was simply something biological like her voice or pheromones, her influence would not reach inside a tank or fighter. But if it had to do with a vague “atmosphere” or “aura”, then she could bind someone’s heart even over the phone or internet. Everyone had experienced that on some level, such as getting excited watching a live soccer match or feeling disgusted by a post on a message board. People’s emotions could be controlled even when the other person was not physically in front of them.

But in that case...

“This isn’t good... We easily outdo do them on the information gathering front, but that’s exactly why her Charm can spread without end. Her contamination will spread throughout the military.”

If only they could use Magic.

But that was not possible at the moment.

“...can...hear me? Someone respond!!”

The tight skirt woman clenched her teeth and listened to a radio transmission separate from the dead monitors.

“This is the Shinjuku Station PB! We’re full up! The trains aren’t running and we’re already over capacity for evacuees! Sending any more here would be dangerous!! Send the evacuees elsewhere! And more importantly, she’s...goddammit, what the hell is that huge-ass squid monster!? It’s more than 10 stories tall! Can someone with Ground’s Nir experience explain this!?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding...”

Soon thereafter, a violent tremor shook the truck. The tight skirt glasses woman made up her mind and brought the monitors back to life.

She saw countless bizarrely shaped creatures crawling on the buildings and elevated train tracks or highways.

“Tselika took in someone with a summoning Job!? Dammit!!”

Part 5

“Boo Boo.”

“...”

Beatrice called out that name in the rubble-strewn inn town.

Boo Boo was hanging his head.

He had wanted to save the Nun who was having stones thrown at her for no good reason. He had wanted to stop the Religious Society because they were being mean to the Succubus and had even sent in a Break News. He had wanted to rescue a girl who was having her life taken for a purge of Nonhumans instead of to live or to eat. But all those feelings had been betrayed, trampled on, and used against him. He likely felt responsible.

“It’s okay, Boo Boo. There’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“But I can’t go to your world. I can’t help at all.”

He stopped speaking there.

And then he started up again.

“I can’t even stop the Nun.”

Technically, Tselika had not gone to Earth. She was still in Ground’s Nir and only influencing Earth through the thin barrier between worlds, but there was nothing they could do on this side. Just as you could not observe or reach the edge of the ever-expanding universe, the demon would not fall back down anywhere visible as long as Gruagach continued to pull her toward Tokyo through the thin barrier.

“We’ll deal with our own world’s problem on our own. So don’t look so sad, Boo Boo.”

Beatrice gave him a baseless smile but then stopped speaking.

Boo Boo had hugged the slender girl.

He was not calm enough to do it like a pretentious gentleman. The giant Iberian Orc was trembling like a child lost in a strange city. He was afraid.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“...”

“I can’t go with you. I won’t be able to go save you even if you ask for help. I can’t do anything, so someone else has to stop the Nun. I know that, but I’m dumb, so I can’t stop myself from wanting you to stay here.”

What would Beatrice even be able to do?

If she did leave Ground’s Nir and return to Tokyo, she would become a powerless girl. She would be unable to use any Magic at all. Her slender arms could not break a walnut, much less a boulder. She had never used a normal sword or gun. And on top of those physical issues were the political ones. Back in the real world, she was like a bird in a cage and could not take one step outside Roppongi’s Detached Magic Palace.

If there was nothing she could do, it would be best if she did not return.

It would be safer to remain in Ground’s Nir until the commotion had died down.

The more she thought about it, the more hopeless any kind of attempt seemed.

But.

He had said nothing bad would happen if they all got along. That Nun would have been a part of that.

Beatrice nearly fell into self-loathing when she found herself thinking about her own safety while Boo Boo looked on the verge of tears.

So she threw out all of those boring assumptions before she started hating herself.

“Boo Boo.”

She threw out the vague smile.

That was not what she needed to calm his trembling.

“Don’t worry, Boo Boo. There’s still something you can do.”

“?”

“Surface level niceties don’t matter. I trust that we truly understand each other’s hearts. So let’s speak frankly here. That way we can eliminate the weight hanging between us.”

“Right. I trust you too.”

Boo Boo rubbed his eyes and nodded several times.

Beatrice wished he was not 4 meters tall so she could reach his head.

“Boo Boo, it is true that we are partially responsible for this. I won’t say all responsibility lies with us, but we did lay out the fuse leading to the bomb. But make no mistake. There is still something we can do instead of letting that responsibility crush us.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I’ll be returning to the other side. You were right that you can’t go to Tokyo, but there is something you can do here in Ground’s Nir. Are you willing to hear me out?”

This went beyond just protecting Tokyo or Japan.

It was about Boo Boo.

She would protect that kind Iberian Orcs’ soul. She would save him.

This would come with its own risks. And these risks filled her gut with far more tension than the formless ideas of the world or humankind.

She would bet her life on this fight. For his sake.

“Okay, are you listening, Boo Boo?”

In the Detached Magic Palace of Roppongi, Tokyo, a girl in a red dress Signed Out through her exclusive Gate and saw several thin contrails cutting across the blue sky. That was probably a formation of JSDF fighters. She prayed it was not some missiles fired into the city from an American submarine.

She then spotted a small maid waiting near the gazebo in the large garden. If she could see the maid, the maid could see her, so this was no time to be sneaking around. She walked boldly up to the maid and placed her hands on the small girl’s shoulders.

And she asked a question at extreme close range.

“Haruka, we’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Uuh, I really don’t want to be friends with someone who starts a conversation like that...”

“Don’t worry. I won’t ask you to do anything dangerous. In fact, you don’t have to do anything at all. I want you to overlook something.”

“?”

The maid tilted her head in confusion, so the twintail girl inhaled and exhaled.

Her heart was pounding.

But she still said it.

“I’m about to break out of the Detached Magic Palace, but I want you to keep quiet about-...”

“Ugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

The maid screamed before she could even finish making her request.

This maid was not worthy of friendship. The girl pouted her lips as the oldest sister Iroka and second sister Misoka arrived to see what was going on.

The smallest maid’s mouth flapped open and closed as she pointed at her master’s face and did her best to make a report and share her information.

“U-u-umm! Milady is...try...trying to...she said she’s trying to leave the Detached Magic Palace on her own!!”

As the small one’s voice jumped all over the place, the medium and large ones rubbed their finger against their temple.

Iroka, the glasses tutor and the maid with the biggest chest, winked and asked a question.

“Does this have anything to do with the contrails overhead?”

“Exactly. It couldn’t have more to do with it.”

Misoka, the sporty second sister who handled the heavy lifting during the cleaning and garden work, spoke next.

“Is there any reason you have to deal with this yourself, lady?”

“It is true that I don’t have a grand reason such as stopping a world war fought over the Pieces. But I want to do whatever I can to protect someone important to me who is feeling depressed back in Ground’s Nir because of how responsible he feels about all this. He wanted to save the Nun from having her life lost in a purge that was entirely unnecessary to live or to eat. He wanted to get along with everyone. But his feelings were trampled on and he can’t save her since he can’t leave that world. There might be 7 billion other people in this world, but I’m the only one that can save his soul here.”

“I see.”

The maids looked at their master’s face with an appraising look.

They were charged with taking care of the dress girl and keeping her in top condition, but the Information Broker also had them report on any hint of coming danger and use force if necessary to swiftly stop any attempted “jailbreak”.

...Officially, anyway.

“Very well, we will accept this job.”

“A sheltered girl like you wouldn’t know, lady, but Tokyo is a dangerous city. Especially for pretty girls like you. You will need some bodyguards.”

The red dress girl’s eyes widened.

Even Haruka, who had loudly betrayed her, clenched her small fists and gave a snort.

“That’s right! You mustn’t even think about going out on your own!! If you’re leaving, you need to take us with you!!”

“...”

The black twintail girl was utterly shocked.

She and the 3 maids had been having different arguments the whole time.

“U-um, are you sure about that? Given your position and all...”

“Miss, no one stands in a more dangerous position than you. So we must also accept some risk.”

Iroka, the biggest maid, crossed her arms and lifted her ample breasts from below.

“And I liked that you mentioned someone important to you. Yes, I liked it very much. You have been imprisoned in this birdcage for the convenience of the nation...no, the world. You could have held a grudge against the entire world for that, but you still managed to find someone important to you. I won’t let the Information Broker crush that underfoot.”

Part 6

The report reached the Ushigashira Shrine in Akasaka, Tokyo, almost immediately.

The coke bottle glasses shrine maiden with fluffy blonde hair tied in a long tube shape went pale, but she did not have time to feel faint. She scrambled out of the Dragon Palace Chamber.

The voice in the attic spoke to her like normal.

“Where are you going, stupid girl?”

“We can give the title of ‘stupid’ to Beatrice. She’s...that complete idiot! I don’t know if this is for Boo Boo or what, but why doesn’t she know this will only place the noose around her own neck? She might never be able to go back to Ground’s Nir!!”

“The same goes for you. Do not forget your Ushigashira duty. Your job is to-...”

“Oh, shut up, you old hag!! A good friend I’m willing to entrust my life to is prepared to throw out her entire life here! How can I just follow the rules and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!?”

“...”

Silence followed.

But it lacked the tension of a silent elevator. It was a somehow soft and gentle atmosphere.

“Then head outside and stop by the 4th storeroom. The key to the basement is inside one of the temari balls in the kid’s room. The one that rattles when you shake it.”

“?”

She did as instructed and felt like she had wandered outside of Japan.

It was like a collection in a movie. Every wall was covered in cutting-edge firearms. There were also plenty of bulletproof vests, gasmasks, and grenades of various types. It was a major problem that a historical shrine had this hidden below it. It could easily turn into a scandal.

“Wh-why is all this here?”

Weapons had originally been stored below the shrine after the end of World War Two so they could put up a thorough resistance if the American military tried to pillage the shrine’s valuable cultural assets and that collection had been continually updated as time passed, but the old lady’s voice gave an immediate answer that elided all of that lengthy tradition.

“It must have been prepared for this very day.”

Part 7

The fallen star student – or rather, translucent Tselika who indirectly controlled her through the armor binding her – had known her destination from the beginning.

“Ebisu 1-3 Sakuradai Kubancho Minamigasaki 8-4. Hmm, as I thought, it isn’t in this girl’s knowledge. I’ll just have to hope for a general idea...”

Black smoke and dust blew from the frontline where Tselika spoke in an almost carefree tone with her angel halo, devil horns, scale swimsuit, and thick snake hagoromo.

The area was a complete disaster zone.

An explosion had blasted a tank’s turret straight up. An armored truck had broken through the ground and fallen into the subway station. An attack helicopter had pierced a building wall while its rotor continued to spin fruitlessly. After the pilot ejected, a fighter pinwheeled through the sky while spewing explosive flames.

The foot soldiers had fared no better.

Just like a losing army, a look in the alleyways would likely find men who had frantically stripped off their camouflage uniforms. Needless to say, they were trying to escape harm by blending in with the civilians.

And if they were doing that, there was no need to deal with them.

They were not even worth taking in with her Charm.

She was using the Summon Hunter’s power to send out a variety of creatures, but once they lost sight of their target, the started fighting each other for control of this territory. A one-eyed giant known as a Cyclops and a slithering multi-headed dragon known as a Typhon were clashing between 5-story buildings that matched their height. They were the same as Tselika. They were interfering in Tokyo because Gruagach allowed them to push their power against the other side of the thin layer between worlds.

Tselika thought to herself as she sent Gruagach below the arch created by fighting monsters.

(It would probably be about 50/50 if they sent in fully program-controlled drones, but it looks like they want to have a human cushion in place to avoid malfunctions. That makes it easy to control them. My Charm can contaminate hearts even through relayed messages and letters. It doesn’t matter if I am actually there or not.)

Goat-horned Tselika’s modern knowledge was based on that of star student Gruagach, so it was biased in certain directions. She did not find much about the military, but she was surprised to find a lot of reference material in entertainment movies when it came to unmanned weapons. It took guts to rely on that when one’s life was on the line. Tselika had to grimace.

“Cars, trains... They seem to have a lot of convenient systems built up, but it looks like both of those have been stopped. I suppose walking will be my best option.”

Tselika was using a borrowed body, so she only cared that it lasted long enough to achieve her goal. Muscular exhaustion was of no concern to her. When a three-headed guard dog known as a Cerberus and a fertility snake woman known as an Echidna bared their fangs against Gruagach, Tselika used the sacrifice’s fists to beat them down before continuing her march.

More and more creatures were summoned everywhere within 200 meters around them: behind vending machines, below cars, inside manholes, etc. Some of them ignored the road altogether and appeared inside the buildings and behind barricades. Some even surrounded Tselika as if to curse her.

But the demon did not care.

The Ground’s Nir monsters were indeed powerful, but they were still no match for Tselika.

That was just how powerful the cultural fire known as Magic was.

Meanwhile...

“?”

With a loud screech of tires on asphalt (a noise Tselika was quickly growing accustomed to), a cold storage truck came to a rapid stop a short distance away. The rear door opened and someone stepped out. It was a glasses woman with her long hair tied back whose tight suit had the necktie removed. She looked different, but Tselika still recognized her. Translucent Tselika scoffed and named the woman while embracing the drooling and unfocused star student.

“Armelina, huh?”

“You have good eyes. So you know what kind of fighting style I prefer, right?”

A heavy sound followed.

A metal ball the size of a balance ball was attached to a thick chain. It should have been far too heavy for the woman’s slender arms to support, but she lightly tossed it up with a single arm and caught it like it was made of rubber.

“I’m a Fighter Priest. I might rely on Magic, but the basic element is physical force. ...So if I can use other means to reproduce the physical support the Magic provides, it isn’t hard to recreate my Ground’s Nir fighting style back here in the real world.”

In this case, she wore a reinforcing suit that was expected to assist in construction, nursing, agriculture, and the military.

It was primarily located around her hips, but robot arms seemed to crawl out onto her bare arms and legs. This representative smart tool was rumored to allow someone to carry several times or even several dozen times as much weight as a normal person.

She would also sometimes summon a Magic metal ball that absorbed the destroyed rubble to increase its attack power with each swing, but that was easily recreated with a metal ball and a tank of instant glue.

“That’s why I was known as a bizarre level cap adventurer, but it looks like that title’s been stolen from me. Now that I’ve been robbed of the belt, I’ve got to take it back.”

Several men and women in suits left the cold storage truck.

They all held identical metal balls and thick chains to the glasses woman known as Armelina.

“I’ll be taking it back with me and they’ll show what the mass-produced model can do. What would we do without the Ministry of Defense’s tech lab? This is human strength. If we monopolize the technology, its value rises. If we release it, everyone can do the same thing. It all comes down to how you use it.”

“Heh heh.”

Translucent Tselika traced her fingers across the star student’s bodylines as she laughed.

She ignored the monsters fighting each other nearby and she kept Armelina in the center of her vision.

“That is impressive. It is an approach not found in this girl’s knowledge. You could even say the atmosphere here belongs to you. ...But have you forgotten? Gruagach the fallen student is still wearing this Shining Weapon armor. And it is still armor rather than a USB key. That means she has truly brought Magic here. So she can use Command-type attack Magic of any Element she wants.”

A sticky sound came from Gruagach’s feet.

Several tentacles thicker than anacondas stretched out from her shadow. They crawled up her bare legs, wrapped around her thighs, and attempted to violate her entire body.

All of a sudden, she held a Western-style bow with a stabilizer and with a knife on either end.

Yes, this was a 2nd Shining Weapon.

The armor and bow made 2. The translucent demon ignored all of the rules as she controlled her puppet and pierced the crawling tentacles with the bow’s lower knife. The thick, thick tentacles left some stickiness on Gruagach’s thighs as they were absorbed by the manmade object. The bowstring wriggled creepily and was drawn.

If she nocked an arrow, the wriggling tentacles would be transferred to that like an infection.

The bizarre monster would be contained inside the arrowhead as if sealing a poison or an explosive inside.

Gruagach was a Summon Hunter.

That rare Job allowed her to call up any Ground’s Nir Nonhuman she had made a contract with and either make it fight for her or seal it in her blade to transform the weapon’s effects.

Tselika laughed as she viewed the eerily pulsating arrowhead and the tentacle tips that occasionally jutted out.

“A Scylla, hm? Not bad. This arrowhead will swim freely through the air upon its release, its 12 legs will entangle the target, and their viselike grip can crush even a steel pillar. But you are about to discover that firsthand, Armelina.”

“...That Shining Weapon.”

“The armor is the one in control. The arrow is a slave device, or maybe more like an extra option. But as you can plainly see, these are not built to show any concern for the bearer’s personality.”

As the translucent demon embraced the star student from behind, she buried her face in the girl’s nape. When the demon’s lips touched her neck, a glowing emblem of unknown effect spread across her skin.

Gruagach had already shown no sign of resistance, but now the last shreds of her will vanished from her fingers.

Now that she had become a true puppet, the mass of soft skin raised the bow.

The stabilizer-equipped bow accurately targeted its prey.

“Now, I will reclaim the atmosphere here in an instant. And you will become yet another puppet. Think carefully about what it is you wanted to protect enough to stand in my way like this. That is the list of what you are about to lose.”

“Hah.”

The tight suit and black panty hose woman laughed quietly with the metal ball in hand.

She belonged to an external sector that left no official records by acting as a private detective agency that gathered retired police officers and JSDF officers. She understood the value of information, so she did not speak her actual thoughts in front of her enemy.

There was never a 100% chance of victory in battle. But she had accepted that risk. She had received a report from Roppongi’s Detached Magic Palace. She knew a certain girl was plotting something, so she needed nothing more. This was worth it if she could buy some time and increase that girl’s odds of success.

That was valuable information, so the glasses woman smiled and spoke to hide it.

“Let’s go, little girl. I just wish you could lend me that Charm Skill of yours.”

“?”

She swung the metal ball around by its thick chain.

This was an undeniable hostile act. The heavy metal ball dully and gradually picked up speed like it was rolling down a hill.

“I have a pretty rough job, so I haven’t exactly been blessed in the romance department. I thought I might still have a faint chance left in Ground’s Nir, but then this trouble had to crop up. I’ll teach you not to underestimate a human woman’s grudge!!”

Part 8

“Boo Boo, this is like a Mobius strip,” began Beatrice. “We can return to Earth, but we probably won’t have any way of defeating Tselika. You can beat up Gruagach and Tselika, but you probably don’t have any way of going to Earth. So neither case gives us what we need. At this rate, there is no resolving this no matter how hard we try.”

“Hm? What’s a Mobius strip?”

“It’s this.”

Beatrice cut off a short piece of first aid bandage, twisted it, and had Boo Boo trace his finger along the surface of the loop a few times.

“Both sides are the same side! What is this!?”

“Yeah, it’s strange, but we can talk about it later. ...What matters is that the only way for us to defeat Tselika is to do something about this twisted loop. Let me tell you what you need to do, Boo Boo.”

She left the Detached Magic Palace and entered the public roads of Roppongi.

She took another first step.

This was the beginning of a resistance against a powerful current.

“...”

The red dress girl slowly breathed in and out. Once she left the Detached Magic Palace’s garden, she found herself in a gray city of concrete and asphalt that seemed to sap her of her stamina. Her throat felt strange. The depths of her eyes hurt. Tokyo apparently had one of the highest population densities in the world, but it seemed like humans had a tendency to submerge themselves in mud in their search for livelihood.

The city was frighteningly still.

The girl had expected to find the JSDF and riot police putting up a reckless fight, but she found nothing of the sort.

Nothing was certain.

But based on what she saw and the habits of the VIPs who would visit the Detached Magic Palace, she quickly found an answer.

“They’ve abandoned Tokyo, haven’t they?”

“Eh? Eh?”

Haruka, the small animal of a maid and the youngest of the sisters, nervously tried to ask what she meant. She was clearly trapped between a fear of asking and a fear of not asking.

“After putting up a bit of a fight, they realized it was hopeless and readily changed tack. There’s a summit meeting in Yokohama right now, isn’t there? They’ve probably had the JSDF set up a defensive line there on the pretext of protecting the different national leaders gathered there. But once they surreptitiously get our own government VIPs there, the preparations will be complete and they’ll have their safe zone. Makes a pretty good argument for the decentralization of power if you ask me.”

The only forces remaining would be a JSDF suicide unit tasked with buying time as a rear guard.

And perhaps some powerless but righteous police officers.

“I have intercepted the police radio,” said Iroka, the oldest of the maid sisters who was a tutor, wore glasses, and had a mole under her eye. She connected her tablet to a boxy device she held. “The hostile target is moving south from Ikebukuro and passing through Shinjuku. That means she has ignored the administrative agencies and continued moving. She made a slight eastward adjustment near Yoyogi, but she is still headed south.”

That could not have been as easy as she made it sound since modern radio transmissions were digitally encrypted, but they could still be decoded if you knew how. And Iroka’s skill was not restricted to this. A single swipe of a finger on her tablet and she could remotely take control of any smartphone she wanted.

The red dress girl had seen this enough times to not be surprised, so she focused on the task at hand.

Her usual habits led her to check for a Shining Weapon rapier at her hip, but in Tokyo she could not use her 14,000 kinds of Magic or summon even the most basic map. She only reminded herself that her wings had been clipped.

She lacked Parameter buffs and Recovery Magic.

She also lacked the Iberian Orc who was always by her side. ...She had never thought she would feel so helpless without that giant form next to her.

Reality had different rules, so a single hit would be deadly in this battle.

She knew that, but the twintail girl immediately turned around.

“So she’s headed for Shibuya? No, maybe Ebisu.”

Their opponent had ignored important buildings like the Meiji Shrine and the foreign embassies as she continued south. She was merciless in her elimination of and counterattack against the JSDF, but she showed no sign of indiscriminately attacking the civilians in this densely populated city. Her objective was something of a mystery, but the red dress girl started by thinking of the landmarks in that area.

Ebisu was primarily known for its beer, but there were some more impressive facilities nearby.

“The Ministry of Defense Technology Laboratory. Isn’t that where they carry out experiments related to Shining Weapons and the Gates?”

“Th-then is the monster after that?”

“...”

The red dress girl had suggested it herself, but the idea seemed somehow off to her. Tselika already had the ability to interfere with one world from the other, so what would she want from the humans now?

From there, she pulled out more information from her mind.

Was there anything else important at that laboratory besides the Shining Weapons and the Gates?

“...The Sage.”

That mysterious person or group of people had anonymously proposed the existence of Ground’s Nir, the possibility of Magic, and the possibility of the technological revolutions brought by the Pieces. It was still not known if that was an individual or an organization and it was entirely unknown where in the world they were hiding. But weren’t there rumors that the Sage or someone who could directly contact them could be found at the Ministry of Defense Technology Laboratory?

Rumors were no more than rumors. Information found on the internet was only so credible. She was well aware of that.

But she also could not overlook it.

“Iroka. You see it a lot in dramas and movies, but how long would it take to fully delete data from a computer? And I mean so it can’t be recovered.”

“First of all, there is no such thing as deleting beyond all recovery. But if you would accept odds of recovery as close to zero as possible, it would probably take 12 hours with a commercial laptop. It would be faster to soak it in powerful acid, but that too depends on the scope. A single hard disk would not take long, but a supercomputer or server system larger than a gym would be another story entirely.”

“...”

A laboratory would of course be the latter. So even if the workers and VIPs began a frantic evacuation operation, there was still a risk of data leading to the Sage remaining. That was the most likely location. It would probably be best to plan for making contact with the enemy in Ebisu and move north to Shibuya if that did not work out.

Haruka, the smallest maid, clenched her fists and spoke.

“B-but this might be our chance. We’re closer.”

(The real question is whether or not we can defeat her, not whether or not we can catch up to her.)

The red dress girl decided to leave that part unsaid.

There was no point in showing off her knowledge if it would only needlessly worry the girl.

Misoka spoke up next while holding a mop that was likely a tool to open doors from a distance instead of a weapon.

“The question is if we can get there when we have to risk our lives the entire way. Well, we just have to do what we can.”

Japan’s capital was no longer functioning as the red dress girl led the 3 maids through it. Destroyed and abandoned cars had produced seemingly endless traffic jams and broken windows were everywhere. It was not uncommon to find pillars of black smoke or tilted hunks of concrete. The roads had collapsed in places, exposing the subway tracks below. Some chunks of road larger than vending machines had fallen on the tracks, so the subway would not be functioning at the moment.

“Wh-where did all the normal people go?”

“They’re either sheltering indoors or they Signed In if they were near a Gate registered with their smartphone. They can escape the threat in Tokyo by going to Ground’s Nir and they also receive a variety of buffs from magic.”

It was ironic that fleeing to fantasy-filled Ground’s Nir was the safest way to escape this limited number of monsters.

“B-b-but what if they don’t make it in time? And what about the ones who weren’t registered to go to Ground’s Nir?”

“...”

The red dress girl knew that question had an unpleasant answer.

At that very moment, she heard a loud metallic clattering approach them. It sounded a lot like a convertible leaving the wedding chapel for the honeymoon. It was actually a pizza shop scooter. It was dragging around a bunch of empty cans tied to the back by strings.

A boy was yelling into a megaphone so as not to be drowned out by the racket.

“Hey, hey, hey!! I’ll draw the monsters’ attention, so get your asses to the nearest Gate! If that won’t work, head to a police station! The cops are still with us!! I doubt those squids and octopuses can understand me, so I’ll cuss them out all I want. Hey, ugly! ********!!”

“Looks like they’re doing surprisingly well,” muttered the red dress girl as she watched the noisy pizza shop scooter drive past. But then the second maid sister seemed to remember something.

“Hey, but wait. If he’s drawing them to him, doesn’t that mean those...extreme problem children will be on their way!?”

And.

A giant form appeared almost too easily.

“Wah! This isn’t good! It’s one of those 10-story ones! What is it? A giant squid!?”

“It’s a Kraken and don’t even think about trying to defeat it. Iroka, Misoka, please secure us a route.”

“We can’t escape something that huge on foot. And the cars and motorcycles aren’t much use with all this congestion.”

“Let’s head down below the collapsed asphalt. Miss, this way.”

Even now, a few mountain bikes could be seen jumping from rooftop to rooftop atop the buildings around the Kraken. The lights on their handlebars were probably smartphones. The video producers were as crazy as ever.

Those people had not been killed yet because the summoned creatures were not very well controlled. The giant Kraken was clashing with a fusion of animals known as a Chimera. The decision to work together, butt heads, or eliminate each other was entirely up to the creatures. That both created openings and also made their next action harder to predict.

(These aren’t mechanical Gimmicks. They’re residents of Ground’s Nir just like Boo Boo.)

She felt bitter about that, but she did not have time to focus on that now. If they were more powerful than the JSDF, she did not have to worry about them being hunted down right away. The red dress girl had to trust in the strength of human and Nonhuman alike instead of just standing there. She and the maids made their way underground.

She could not float down like she could in Ground’s Nir, so she struggled to climb down the several meter drop while pure white tentacles arrived much too close for comfort.

She found a subway tunnel down below, but concrete blocks larger than refrigerators had fallen and pillars had collapsed to block the track. No trains were going to be running anytime soon.

The 4 of them relied on the almost uselessly sparse fluorescent lighting to walk down the tunnel.

Misoka used her mop to search along the dark ground ahead of them, but it was not all smooth sailing.

“Hm? I hear flapping wings.”

“Shh. That silhouette looks like a Harpy. They’re strong in the Wind element and react to vibrations in the air, so don’t speak too loudly.”

“You know a lot about this, miss.”

“Unlike the Gimmicks and Traps in the Labyrinth, these ones walk around out in the open. Boo Boo might know more about them than me.”

A Harpy was a Nonhuman that looked like a human woman with large bird wings for arms, and they did not stand out much compared to Dragons or Griffons. But that was only when you were protected by Magic. This was like running across a bird of prey more than 10 times as strong as a large eagle. A handgun bullet would not reach it and the talons of its legs could tear through a steel door like wet paper.

And...

“This will be especially bad if they’re working together. Look at the damage to the walls.”

“Ugh...are these fist marks? That’s concrete...”

“It looks just like the marks a Minotaur puts on a stone to mark its territory. I’m not sure if they’re coexisting or competing, but let’s give up on being optimistic. If the others gather when the Harpy gives a cry, it would be best to avoid the Harpy.”

Fortunately, the intense fighting on the surface seemed to be placing a burden on the subway tunnel as well. Cracks were running through the walls and pillars. It was simple enough for the girls to slip through those large cracks and escape to another underground structure.

They passed through a labyrinthine underground mall.

They passed through a largescale drain meant to prevent flooding.

They passed through a strange storage base.

Small Haruka hesitantly spoke as she looked around the new scenery after passing through another wall.

“A-are we really going the right way? There aren’t any landmarks, so I feel like we’ve been going around in circles...”

“Not to worry,” assured eldest Iroka.

“Ebisu is this way,” whispered the red dress girl as she faced forward. “I would never lose my bearings while underground.”

The situation could hardly be worse.

If they ran into one of the Harpies or Minotaurs wandering the narrow and complex underground passageways, they would be wiped out on the spot. But the red dress girl seemed more alive down in this dark subterranean space than among the gray buildings on the surface.

Was that because it reminded her of the Labyrinth?

Or was it because having people walking alongside her reminded her of someone important to her?

“This feels like seeing my father at work. Lady, your eyes are shining in this deadly labyrinth below Tokyo.”

Territorial signs, shed fur, bite marks in fruit, droppings, scrapes on the walls and floor. She identified the Nonhumans from the various tracks they left and worked to avoid them.

“This was a Centaur and...a Lamia. The snake woman follows the residual heat on the ground...in other words, footprints. Cover our shoes with a towel or something and we can slip past her.”

She used her knowledge of whether they used their sight, hearing, smell, or other senses to detect prey and found a way around that. They continued on and on when any encounter meant instant death.

Their intense focus seemed to wear down their lifespans, but their march finally came to an end.

They looked straight up within a narrow subway cable inspection corridor and focused on the manhole at the top of the ladder.

“This is the place, miss. This should be the center of Ebisu, by the giant complex near the subway station.”

“Let’s pray we don’t find ourselves right next to a Kraken that can grab and crush entire buildings.”

They returned to the surface through the manhole.

Due to the part of the city this was, there were signs for beer companies all over. They heard a familiar advertisement jingle coming from the empty station. After the high voltage lines had been severed, the trains had likely used their battery power to automatically evacuate to the closest station. It looked like some roadwork had been underway near the large complex that was something of a landmark. The asphalt had been cut into and the heavy machinery had been abandoned there.

“Where’s the closest Gate?”

“Um, there is a public model in the gym on the first floor of the complex.”

Haruka had not hacked into the system like Iroka would. Unlike the exclusive models in shrines, cathedrals, and JSDF facilities, the location of general-use Gates was public knowledge. They were located in schools, parks, and gyms. Their locations were marked with red circles on the guide maps at subway stations.

The red dress girl picked up a metal measuring tape fallen to the side of the roadwork and glanced at the train tracks running parallel across an elevated pathway.

“Iroka, I’m going to write down some important chemical numbers, so you check the contents of those freight trains. Misoka, I doubt they had any explosives or fuses prepared for this roadwork, but if I’m right, there should be some acetylene and oxygen tanks. Haruka, you gather gasoline from the abandoned cars. We each have to do whatever we can. Also, if you have the time, head to the back of the buildings. It would help if we could get our hands on some propane.”

“W-wait, wait. That will leave you without a single bodyguard.”

“I don’t need one.”

The red dress girl was looking at something other than the maids.

No, glaring at.

“I’ve already found her. And silencing the evil demon lord is a Holy Swordswoman’s job.”

Part 9

Gruagach, the fallen star student, was manipulated by her blue scorpion armor to carry translucent Tselika calmly across Japan’s capital.

Most of the JSDF and riot police had already retreated, the stubborn remaining volunteers had been taken in by Tselika’s Charm, and a Kraken or Scylla could be sent in to directly eliminate them if they were in the way while attacking each other.

This world likely had plenty of weapons with extraordinary destructive power, but they never chose that option because this was the capital of a nation. Nevertheless, the situation only worsened as they waited around. As people were taken in by Tselika’s aura and her Charm worked its way in through any gap, she quickly had complete control of the situation. And that control would eventually spread beyond just the one country.

But she felt no pride in that.

She was only fighting to eliminate those who would get in her way. It was not directly connected to her objective.

“Ebisu 1-3 Sakuradai Kubancho Minamigasaki 8-4. Ebisu 1-3 Sakuradai Kubancho Minamigasaki 8-4.”

The invader muttered something below her breath as she advanced through empty streets filled with black smoke.

There was only one thing on her mind.

“Hey, baby. I’ll show you that humans aren’t completely worthless.”

She had met a certain human.

They were from different worlds and would normally have never met.

When they had first met, his thoughts and actions had utterly baffled her, but that was why the short-haired man had attracted her interest. She had been unable to stop the part of her that wanted to understand him so very badly.

“It’s not like I have any real reason. Life is finite and I want to have fun and enjoy every minute and every second of it, so what good is worrying over the same things over and over? So even if it’s a bit of a pain, I’ve gotta solve all the trouble I happen across.”

The woman had been called a Succubus.

The humans visiting Ground’s Nir had called her that. They had said there were similar legends in their world. But when she had asked about those legends, the man had only given her a troubled look. She had done everything she could to ask as many humans as possible and then she had laughed. The humans were very observant. But it was not enough. That word was woefully insufficient to describe a demon like Tselika.

But one man had tried not to hurt the feelings of even an evil woman like her.

Just how much had that small effort helped fill her dried-up heart?

Not even the man in the bulky armor and giant axe could know that.

“Basically, it’s about getting a good night’s sleep. A drink of victory tastes so much better than one meant to distract you from a loss. I’m an honest person, so I want my drink to taste the best it can.”

They had spent a long, long time together.

She had even accompanied him into the Labyrinth that Nonhumans never approached.

She had wanted to walk with that human even if it meant throwing out everything: her life, her style, her taboos, and her rules. That desire had grown in her heart.

“I know it can never happen, but I can’t help but think about it. I wish I could show it to you.”

However, it had all been torn to pieces.

That man was no more.

The fact that it was an assassination did not matter. She could not be bothered with something as trivial as revenge. Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier’s soul craved only one thing. To anyone else it would have seemed meaningless, but it was more valuable than the entire planet to her.

“My home is small, but it’s got this huge cherry tree outside. Every year during flower viewing season, a bunch of old guys I’ve never seen before gather in the yard with bottles of sake in hand. I guess you wouldn’t know what cherry blossoms are, would you? If only they grew here in Ground’s Nir too.”

She did not care what anyone else thought.

She had no reason whatsoever to visit the Ministry of Defense Technology Laboratory which was rumored to contain the Sage or someone who could contact them.

She would simply visit that house.

She would see what that armored man had wanted her to see.

“...”

Ebisu 1-3 Sakuradai Kubancho Minamigasaki 8-4.

That address had not been on the guide map near the subway station.

She had made general guesses, wandered back and forth along the same roads several times, and finally found it.

Tselika found that location.

It really was tiny.

It was only a rundown apartment that looked left behind by time between two buildings.

It was far from cherry blossom season.

And with the sunlight blocked by the surrounding buildings, was the soil even alive any longer? Had the tree withered away? Those were the questions she felt herself asking.

“...”

Even so, Tselika took a step forward with her angel halo and devil horns.

She walked unsteadily.

“Oh?”

That carefree voice came from near the landlord’s room on the first floor of the apartment. An old woman sat on the small veranda sticking out into the damp yard that did not receive much sun.

“Not often someone stops by here. Surely you aren’t hoping to rent a room. Are you lost?”

“Who...are you?”

Tselika voiced her confusion.

She was the demon who had shaken Tokyo suing the armor binding the star student, but the old woman did not look remotely concerned.

The old woman explained why.

“Sorry, but I can barely see anymore. Well, I only travel between here and my home, so I can manage with just my cane.”

“...”

“But there are some things I can tell. So why the tearful atmosphere? Did something happen?”

This person might know.

She might know things Tselika did not about the man who had met his end in Ground’s Nir.

“I came to visit someone who lived here...”

She just about added, “Even though I know that isn’t possible.”

But the old woman smiled even wider.

“Well, why didn’t you say so sooner? That can only mean ‘him’. After all, all the other residents have moved out and there has been talk of rebuilding this old place, but I can’t bring myself to tear it down when there’s still one person continuing to pay his rent.”

“You mean...?”

Could it be?

“He was a strange person. I can’t tell if he’s poor or rich. He lives in such a run-down apartment, but then he paid me 100 years’ worth of rent in advance. So now I feel like I have to keep the place around even though he’s disappeared. I couldn’t imagine why he would stay here if he had that kind of money, but I feel like that mystery has finally been solved.”

She wanted to know as much as possible.

This old woman claimed to be nearly blind and yet able to read people’s emotions, so she spoke the answer before Tselika could ask the question.

“I mean, he would always say the view of the cherry blossoms from his window here was the best. He always said he wanted to bring his future wife to see them.”

She was speechless.

She could not help herself.

Tselika collapsed to the ground, rubbed her forehead against the damp dirt, and wept. The action was done through the star student, so it may have been the greatest desecration, but she still felt that coming here had been worth it.

That man had kept his promise.

It had only been a verbal promise and he had decayed away in another world, but he had still kept it.

If he had not lost his life, Tselika would not have been so dead set on crossing between worlds.

“Are the cherry blossoms out?” asked the old lady. “I can’t tell with my bad eyes, but they sometimes bloom out of season. Are they doing that today?”

Tselika raised her tear and dirt-stained face.

Her vision was too blurry with tears to tell.

And.

She had her own objective.

“...Finally.”

No matter how tightly she shut her lips, she could not stop that word from escaping.

She hid her expression behind her bangs and spoke it even more clearly.

“Finally.”

The blue scorpion armor binding Gruagach began to glow with a pale light. The red pincers pushing up on her modest breasts opened. And something small spilled out.

It was just a few hairs.

She had brought them here by directly building them into the Shining Weapon that would travel between worlds. Those few grams could accomplish the miracle that Tselika herself could not. This was the result of the experiment that person had risked his life for.

“I’ve finally come to see the cherry blossoms with you. Isn’t that right, you great fool?”

Humans could freely travel between Earth and Ground’s Nir, but what they could bring back was limited.

Once they became a corpse, humans too became a “thing”, so they could not use the Gate.

So the white nun had wanted to fulfill his final regret no matter what it took.

She had wanted to see the cherry blossoms with him.

That dream required ignoring the most basic assumptions about traveling between the 2 worlds.

It did not matter how twisted it had to be or how little anyone else would understand.

Yes, she had arrived with a few hairs from his head using the special trait of the Shining Weapon built into the other Shining Weapon that was created from his armor and could travel between the 2 worlds.

She had questioned herself time and again.

Was there really nothing she could do for the dead and was this nothing more than self-satisfaction? What would it actually change to see some plant with her own eyes? What meaning was there in a few hairs?

When the Religious Society and the Break News had attacked her church, she had been willing to accept her fate if she lost control of the situation and was killed there. She would go to be with him either way, so she would be happy regardless.

But Tselika had come this far.

She had the skill needed to execute all the necessary plans and she had devilish luck to back it up.

All of that had come together in this result.

“Would you...?”

“Yes?”

“Would you give me permission to bury this below the cherry tree?”

This was an unnecessary process. She could have simply kept the hairs with her to remember him.

But she did not. She would only indulge herself this far.

She alone had committed this sin.

So she had never planned to have him with her to the end.

She had known she needed to cut him away from her evil at some point.

And the old woman who had more or less been a grave keeper smiled and nodded.

“Of course. I don’t know your circumstances, but I can tell you put a lot of work into this.”

This time, Tselika really did bawl like a small child despite her alluring body.

She had been given permission to complete every last selfish part of her plan.

She had not had permission for everything she had done and the title of sinner would remain on her head, but she felt like she had reached the summit of one mountain.

(It will all be okay now.)

In human units, the blue scorpion armor had only been able to hide a few grams.

That meant only a few hairs she could hold between her fingers. This demon had brought chaos to 2 worlds and accepted any and all blasphemies for nothing more than that. And she had successfully made that wish come true.

She looked to the cherry blossoms.

With him, she viewed the flowers he had spoken of with such delight to the very, very end. She shared them with him.

She would accept all the sin from here. So she would cut him away as they shared this happy memory.

This was a farewell ritual.

(It’s over. It’s all over. So become one with the cherry blossoms in my heart, my beloved.)

No matter what happened now, no one would be able to trample over him. Still on her knees, she used Gruagach’s arms to dig a shallow hole in the soil dirt below the old tree, place the few hairs inside, and pile the soil back over them. She then gently patted the top like she was soothing a small child.

“One thing.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Can you promise me one thing? You are going to hear some loud noises, but do not worry about anything. The noises might surprise you, but please do not leave this place.”

The ritual she had been so desperate to carry out was complete.

The sexy demon wiped the tears from her eyes and turned around along with the star student she had hijacked.

“I must thank you for waiting until I was done.”

“——————”

A twintail girl in a red dress was waiting for her.

Her appearance might have changed, but Tselika immediately saw through it. This was one of the level cap adventurers who represented the strongest of the humans. It was Holy Swordswoman Beatrice.

She understood that, but the demon still sneered.

She no longer needed a kind expression.

Tselika removed her focus from the old woman in the space behind her and she faced her enemy.

“You’ve done what you came here for. Are you willing to obediently return to Ground’s Nir?”

“It’s true I have done my duty, but after causing this much chaos, the humans will hunt me down through pure numbers even if I do return. Ground’s Nir is a small place. Running back there will only place the noose around my own neck.”

“Meaning?”

“I will remain here. I will remain and go into hiding. Can you leave me be now that I have kept true to my promise?”

“Do you realize your life won’t last long either way?”

When humans stayed in another world for too long, the slight differences in gravity and the atmosphere had grave mental and physical effects, especially in relation to their internal clock. But Tselika was too accustomed to Ground’s Nir, so the same problems would occur if she remained on Earth. Even if she was technically not on Earth and only interfering through the thin layer between Earth and Ground’s Nir, her eyes and ears perceived Tokyo. That meant she would be affected the same as if she were actually in Tokyo.

But translucent Tselika embraced Gruagach’s neck all the same.

The red plug on the long tail stabbed into the poor victim’s back.

The demon then buried her face in the nape of Gruagach’s neck, a glowing emblem passed across her flesh, and the last vestiges of resistance entirely vanished.

She had been remade into a killer puppet.

“That is none of your concern, human.”

“Is that so?”

The girl could not use Magic.

Unless she was armed with a sword or an arrow, she was no more than a slender young girl.

“Then I won’t hold back.”

But Tselika nearly looked away from her eyes.

That was just how much pressure was contained in those eyes.

“I don’t know what kind of life plan you’ve put together. It doesn’t matter if you’re greedily looking for luxury or if you’re only hoping to find some small happiness.”

They seemed to burn with flames.

It felt like they would scorch Tselika’s skin if the girl approached. Not to mention if she touched them.

“Boo Boo said he wanted everyone to get along. Nun, you were part of that. But you used those feelings, deceived him, and betrayed him. If this is what you call a success, then I definitely need to fight you.”

“...”

“Just as you made an enemy of the world for someone important to you, I’ve come here and made an enemy of the world for someone important to me. So there’s no rejecting this duel now.”

Tselika laughed.

It was an extremely calm laugh that seemed mismatched for a demon with large horns.

“Honestly. It seems we’ve both gone through a lot for our hopeless men.”

“No.” The red dress girl immediately cut her off. “He’s the greatest guy I’ve ever met in either world.”

Part 10

No matter what her reasons were and no matter how much willpower she mustered, there was nothing the red dress girl could do.

She could not use Magic and she was not skilled in sword fighting. She was up against a full-powered Summon Hunter and the Succubus fully controlling her. She was entirely powerless against a paranormal being like Tselika with her angel halo and demon horns.

“Filinion and Armelina.”

Several sticky tentacle-like objects shot out from the shadow at Gruagach’s feet. She stabbed them with the lower blade attached to the bow, the monster was stored within the bow, and it was absorbed into the arrowhead of the arrow she pulled from the quiver at her hip. Then she raised the stabilizer-equipped bow.

Definite power resided within it as she took aim.

As the tentacle creature awaited orders, its killer intent pierced the red dress girl right between the eyes.

“Why do you think I mentioned those names? And why do you think you arrived in time? What do you think happened to them in exchange for the time they bought you?”

“!!”

The long black twintail girl did not hesitate.

Instead of rushing at her foe, she moved back. She tried to put distance between them.

“You fawn. Did you think you could escape the hunter’s bow by leaping across the mountain!?”

Tselika mercilessly activated the Magic and tentacles surged out from the arrowhead.

The arrow targeted the girl with movements more akin to swimming than flying. No arrow could fly like this. The arrowhead would accurately pierce her flesh and the many tentacles would burst out inside her to crush her organs in their grasp. There was no escaping this attack which could crush even a mass of steel just as thick.

Or it would have turned out that way.

Assuming, that is, frightening scarlet flames had not burst out when the red dress girl swung her hand.

The flames struck the tentacle arrow.

Its path was slightly diverted and it flew right past the girl’s face.

“What...?”

Tselika’s eyes widened as she had her puppet nock another arrow.

“What was that? You shouldn’t be able to use Magic!!”

As if trying to correct some kind of mistake, she stabbed the bow’s blade into the monsters growing at her feet and released them. This time it was a Harpy, an incarnation of the wind who snatched people’s souls away. It split into 10 partway through and moved to accurately pierce the red dress girl’s vitals from 10 different angles.

But even that failed to reach her.

The girl took a small step and swung her right hand both vertically and horizontally. With each swing, red flames filled that space. The explosions diverted the killer arrows, sending them every which way but toward her.

This was no time for Tselika to avoid the reality before her eyes by deeming it “impossible”.

And no matter how much she worked Gruagach’s mind, she could find no way for a mere human to use Magic here on Earth. That was something only Tselika could do. That was why she should have been unstoppable. Nothing else made sense, and yet this red dress girl had torn down those assumptions.

Tselika heard a whistling sound.

She finally started observing her surroundings. The twintail girl was holding what seemed to be a metal measuring tape. She had it extended to a few meters and she had swung it around like a whip.

And once Tselika stepped outside of the dirt yard, she sensed an odd smell.

Gruagach’s knowledge told her it could be flammable.

“Don’t tell me...”

“It’s true I can’t use Magic,” said the girl while raising the metal measuring tape she used to produce fire-starting sparks. “But I know more about the traits and nature of fire than anyone. And if I have a way of creating flames without Magic, then I can control it even more easily than my own fingers.”

Invisible flammable gas.

Different such gases had different traits. Some were heavier than air, others lighter. Some dissolved into water, others did not. Some burned, others exploded. By understanding all that and combining them, what looked like empty space could become a labyrinth of flames.

Yes.

“If you can see inside her head, are you familiar with Hollywood movies?”

“...”

“Using CG for everything looks too fake, so real stunts and explosions are coming back into style. And by controlling the direction of the blast with metal panels and air compressors, they can make a clear division between flames and a safe zone down to a few dozen centimeters. As long as you know each of the individual traits, you can cause an explosion in a public square and yet leave everyone but your target entirely unharmed.”

The metal measuring tape danced around the girl like a living creature once more.

And this time it was not for defense.

“It’s almost like magic.”

Explosion after explosion erupted out.

It was now Tselika’s turn to use Magic for defense while controlling the star student. A circular shield of light appeared in front of the raised bow, but the dress girl pushed forward nonetheless. She pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed.

(Dammit! There’s no knowledge on this inside Gruagach! You useless girl!!)

“Kh.”

The star student bound by blue scorpion armor was lifted a bit from the ground.

As if to cut in, the red dress girl swung the metal measuring tape down like a whip.

“Nitric acid is an oxidant and alcohol is a flammable liquid. We found both in the freight train’s tanks.”

The slightest spark would blow away the world around them.

Meaning...

“Combining the two gives you rocket fuel. Is that enough for your feeble brain to catch up?”

Blinding flashes of light danced around them.

Tselika clenched her teeth, manipulated Gruagach through the blue scorpion armor, and tried to use Magic to somehow pin her feet to the ground.

But it was too late.

The long black twintail girl swung the metal measuring tape once more, a nearby fire hydrant was blown away in the explosion, and a great torrent of water erupted out.

“The white cloud you see in the footage of a rocket launch isn’t smoke,” said the girl who was calm enough to smile a little by this point. “It’s the steam created by the coolant water used to ensure the engine and launch equipment aren’t destroyed by the great heat. Although that’s known as a steam explosion and is quite dangerous in its own way.”

She used that to be extra certain.

The pressure quickly grew and crossed a certain line. Gruagach in her blue scorpion armor and translucent Tselika in her scale swimsuit were pushed back by the incredible force and sent flying like a meteor. They flew from the outdoor road and into a nearby complex building that acted as a landmark. They shattered the glass door and rolled on inside.

“Ghah! Gbhahh!! Heh heh heh, ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

The star student’s pain reached translucent Tselika, but she overwrote it as pleasure as a form of anesthesia and then forced Gruagach to her feet.

No matter what tricks she used, that red dress girl was not the same as the monstrous level cap Holy Swordswoman. She was no more than a slender, frail, and defenseless human. If Tselika faced her directly without being deceived, she would win. She only had to use Gruagach as a Summon Hunter and summon a Kraken or a Scylla. Then she could crush that girl like wringing juice from a fruit.

But what happened next was something else unexpected.

Something slid along the well-polished floor. Tselika looked cautiously over in that direction and saw a card-sized electronic device. Gruagach’s knowledge told her what it was.

(A smartphone? They insert their Shining Weapon into that to convert their Experience Points.)

A moment later, she heard a mechanical beeping noise and red light appeared in the space around her. The light formed a perfect 2 meter square around Tselika and extended upwards as a pillar.

“I sent a signal to the other side.”

Tselika suddenly realized where this was.

“When a Sign In or Sign Out fails, the Gate produces a warning signal both on Earth and in Ground’s Nir. This signal will have reached the other side. And Boo Boo just has to notice that.”

“You...can’t mean...”

If you carelessly used a wireless hotspot disguising itself as a public wireless LAN, you could allow access to your smartphone despite its security settings and that would allow someone to mess with your Experience Points. So it was best to turn off the feature that automatically searched for hotspots. Everyone received frequent warning emails about that.

And Iroka, the eldest of the 3 maid sisters, could easily decode digitally encrypted police radio signals or remotely control normal smartphones.

She could control Tselika’s device whether she liked it or not.

The Shining Weapon armor was not shaped like a USB key, but no one – not even Tselika – knew what would happen if the mobile device it worked through was destroyed. This was unsurprising when they were working in entirely unexplored territory. And this was not something to test out on the fly. It was not just Gruagach on the chopping block here. The same was true of Tselika as she clung to the girl through the thin barrier between worlds.

“The Sign In process takes 2 to 3 minutes to complete.”

The red dress girl stepped forward and swung the metal measuring tape through the air like a whip.

And she recalled Boo Boo’s face when he had happily said the Nun had not run from him after seeing him in the forest.

“I will hold you here until then. I will send Gruagach and you back to Ground’s Nir. You can apologize to Boo Boo there. It’s time you saw the face of the one who’s crying more than anyone else, Tselika!!”

Part 11

“Tch.”

Translucent Tselika clicked her tongue with both an angel’s halo and a demon’s horns on her head.

That Iberian Orc was nothing but direct physical strength, so it was especially devastating for him to be waiting beyond the Gate. Once Gruagach was sent back to Ground’s Nir, Tselika would lose her anchor and she would return from the edge of the ever-expanding universe. Once that happened, she could easily be taken out with a single blow.

“Tchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

And that was why the radiant white demon cast everything aside.

She would stab the scorpion tail’s red plug into Gruagach’s back, kiss her nape, and use the Summon Hunter’s Magic to summon a giant Kraken or Scylla. She could seal them into an arrow or have them rampage through the giant complex to bring the entire building down from within. Either way, the destruction would reach the red dress girl with the force of a surging tidal wave. And that would sweep everything away.

But the girl did not take a single step back. The 3 maids in charge of distributing the flammable gasses supported her as she swung the metal measuring tape in every direction to slice through the air and strike the walls or floor, creating sparks. More and more explosions were triggered and the surging dance of flames cut off the radiant white demon’s escape.

She did not need to defeat the great monster.

The red dress girl’s role was not to get an attack in on Tselika.

She only had to keep her here for 2 to 3 minutes. She only had to hold her own position for 120 to 180 seconds. As long as she held firm for that long, the Gate would swiftly send Gruagach and Tselika back to Ground’s Nir.

The rest was Boo Boo’s job.

That way he could rid himself of his regret, make up for everything, and smile freely once more.

She would endure these fierce attacks, block the way like a thick slab of stone, and push back as hard as it took!!

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

They both shouted and their frightening power clashed head on.

But Tselika gradually pushed forward. She made progress toward escaping the Gate’s circle.

The horned translucent demon sneered.

The Sign In process was far from complete. She would escape at this rate.

But that thought was interrupted by a series of dry bursting sounds.

They came from behind the red dress girl as if to support her. The girl kept her attacks going as she looked back at the source of the gunfire and widened her eyes.

She saw a shrine maiden with fluffy blonde hair and coke bottle glasses. That appearance was a complete mismatch with what the newcomer awkwardly held: a full-auto submachinegun that looked like it would fit in a business bag if it was folded up.

The sinister drum magazine probably held 100-150 rounds. With the exception of the swirly glasses, there was no change to her appearance before and after, so the red dress girl muttered a name.

“Filinion...?”

“It’s not just me!!”

A heavy metal ball on a chain slammed into the radiant white demon.

This attack came from someone else: an adult woman wearing glasses and a tight skirt suit whose long hair was worn up. Her appearance had changed quite a bit, but the weapon she used was enough to recognize her.

“Are you Armelina!?”

“You didn’t come that conclusion after looking at my chest, did you? Anyway, she comes first. You’re sending her to Ground’s Nir with a forced Sign In, right!? Let’s get on with it and end this!!”

Those 2 were far from unscathed.

The unnatural way they supported their body weight suggested they were injured and Tselika had hinted as much earlier. They had likely lost once already.

Nevertheless, they had stood back up. They had come this far to assist the twintail girl. Even if it meant clenching their teeth, dragging their heavy bodies along, and hiding the blood below their clothing.

They had made it at the very end.

So the red dress girl only had to accept it.

She only had to accept their feelings.

The help from those 2 friends changed the momentum of the clash.

And the red dress girl had not been fighting alone in the first place. She was supported by the 3 maids who would accurately carry out whatever instructions they were given.

And with everyone’s help, she once more pushed back against the isolated dictator!!

“Does it hurt?” The red dress girl whispered while explosive flames and arrows of light flew back and forth. “This might be a hackneyed and useless line, but I’ll use it on you regardless: That person who died before your eyes wouldn’t have wanted you to do this.”

“Don’t you dare act like you understand him!!”

“Did that clichéd argument sting? Is it hard hearing that kind of idealism? But that’s as good as a confession that you’ve strayed far enough from the straight and narrow for it to hurt you!!”

This twintail girl had almost done the same once.

She had almost turned everything to ashes in order to kill the leader of Elkiad, a collection of delinquent soldiers who had tried to make a mess of Boo Boo’s past and future.

It was Boo Boo who had confronted her at the very end then.

Nothing could have been more painful than finding him standing in her way, but not because of his great strength as an Iberian Orc.

Somewhere in her heart, she had known. She had known that she had no argument that would defeat his as he stood directly in her path.

“He never would have wanted you to dirty your hands! He never would have wanted you to bring chaos to both worlds! He definitely would have wanted you to be happy!! Now, if you know a greater truth than that, then out with it, Tselika!! Don’t look down! Look me in the eye and tell me!! This isn’t a vote where majority rules and we aren’t obeying a passage in some ancient text. Search your heart and tell me what you find there! Can you tell me he was someone who would have wanted to accomplish his goal even if it meant you had to dirty your hands!? Can you tell me he was someone who would have said there was no sight in your Ground’s Nir prettier than those cherry blossoms!?”

“...!?”

“I know you can’t tell me that! You might be able to spit on the entire world, but you can never say anything that would insult that man you wanted to protect! And if you can’t find a truth inside you that can turn aside these cheap and hackneyed words, if you feel pain when confronted with this obvious truth, and if you feel so much pain and suffering that you can’t speak and have to rely on brute force, then the entire tear jerking story supporting what you’re doing is nothing but a sham. There is no reason to let both worlds be tossed around by something like that!! Not one!!”

“Gh.”

A quiet beep sounded.

120 seconds had passed. The Gate had completed its preparations for a Sign In.

“I won’t let you get away. You will be judged by the standards of Ground’s Nir, your home,” announced the red dress girl as she wielded the metal measuring tape like a whip. “Go back home and apologize to that man and to Boo Boo, Tselika!!!!!”

“Gwoooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Part 12

Meanwhile, Boo Boo was inside the forest in Ground’s Nir.

He sat on some exposed dirt and lined up a few small wooden panels.

He flipped them over or turned them to the side according to some kind of system.

Up in the trees, the palm-sized Fairy named Meridiana watched on curiously.

“Lady Sutriona, what is Boo Boo doing?”

“Across Ground’s Nir, there is a nearly limitless supply of those Gates the humans use. He is likely determining where to wait for the enemy.”

“Oh, so it’s a kind of fortunetelling? That’s surprisingly romantic for Boo Boo.”

That was how the Fairy interpreted it, but Sutriona saw things differently as she stood on a tree branch.

(A slide rule, hm? But it doesn’t look like it’s made for simple function calculations. It is quite irregular.)

The inn town humans had lamented the lack of calculators and computers beyond primitive resistors that used gears and ugly keys, but she had occasionally seen them using these instead of Magic or Shining Weapons. Some of them chose not to use Magic outside of the Labyrinth as a matter of principle. And she had heard that people had made calculations for astronomy, pharmaceuticals, steam engine cruise ships, and dams that held massive water pressure with only a slide rule back in a pre-computer age.

Boo Boo would not be relying entirely on the slide rule he held.

He would be making thousands or even millions of calculations in his head before moving one of the wooden panels. By repeating the process, he could complete a large job in pieces.

So what was he going to all this trouble to calculate?

With this much calculation power, he could likely accurately locate a ring thrown into the ocean.

Once he had the answer, he stood up and muttered something to no one in particular.

“Beatrice should come from there.”

He had calculated out the truth.

That just left the color of the gate to prove him right.

Part 13

It was truly over in an instant.

Everything danced before her eyes. The scenery changed. The atmosphere changed to something quite familiar. That almost biologically forced calm upon her, but this was no time for that.

She heard a heavy noise from straight ahead.

The star student’s vision was filled by a thick round mass.

That round mass was the last of the Iberian Orcs carrying a giant Shining Weapon that could be mistaken for a log or steel beam.

“Ah.”

She did not have time to say anything.

As previously established, it was over in an instant.

So...

Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!

It was a full horizontal swing.

The blue scorpion armor was smashed to pieces as he scored a grand slam.

Tselika’s Parchment Negotiation Material She Never Got to Use!

1: How to Overcome the Mental and Physical Changes of Another World

The slight differences in the planetary rotation, gravity, and atmosphere between Earth and Ground’s Nir have serious mental and physical effects on visitors who stay for long periods of time. But I am a Succubus, one who leads people astray. If I Charm myself with the appropriately tuned values in advance, I can readjust my physiological rhythm and resolve this problem.

This method is only possible for a Succubus and only understood by me because I spent so much time only able to watch as he wasted away in Ground’s Nir, unable to Sign Out. I tried everything I could and failed, so I believe I know the structure of the human body better than anyone.

2: How to Create a Shining Weapon That Has Been Twisted Like a Mobius Strip

I gradually modified his armor. I did so in order to place his hairs inside it, contact it through the thin barrier between worlds, and see the cherry blossoms with him. As a secondary effect, the Shining Weapon’s full power can be used in both Earth and Ground’s Nir and the human I have hijacked as a slave device can summon other Nonhumans just like me. But this armor uses techniques and laws unique to Ground’s Nir. Only someone who had spent as much time and agony on the issue as me would be able to reach this answer, but since a normal human would wither away both mentally and physically after only a few days, I doubt anyone else will ever reach this level.

However, the method found in #1 could solve that problem.

(This would generally only increase the risk of an invasion of Earth from Ground’s Nir, so I doubt anyone would even try, but it would not surprise me if someone tried to tear off biological parts of the Nonhumans as a stepping stone to technological advancement on the same level as the Pieces.)

3: How to Control My Own Soul Using the Scorpion Armor and the Blood Oil.

I will avoid putting this section to writing. I only need that knowledge in my own head.

This is a contract to buy back a soul.

Simply unrolling the parchment is the same as admitting defeat and letting a mere human defang me.

I would rather bite my own tongue than spill my blood to rely on this.

Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier