Ch 182: We can use each other, right?

"I really needed this." sighed Chisato as she sat down on the sofa near the fireplace. She looked tired and her eyes were still red, but a happy smile was plastered on her face. The result of the long conversation she just had with her lost friends and Noah.

"Yes, some good news for a change." nodded Sakura, sitting at the table with Darkness and Saika as Medusa was pouring boiling water in the tea pot. They were hiding in a small house on the periphery of a relatively modest city named Colrac. The previous occupants had agreed to leave for a few weeks, in exchange of Sakura healing their kid from a life-threatening disease, and a fat purse full of gold coins.

With Item Creation, money and food would never be an issue for them. Even is only Sakura, Darkness and Medusa could use it.

"We need to decide on what to do next. I'm tired of being pushed around by the Church." said Sakura.

"Maybe we can split up and…" suggested Darkness.

"NO!" instantly yelled both Chisato and Sakura.

"Sorry, Darkness." said Chisato. "But when you are in a horror movie, you never split up! That's a huge death flag!"

"We aren't in a horror movie, though." countered Darkness. After two years of living as a student in the magus association, she had become well acclimated to modern life and watched a lot of movies.

"We may as well be." shrugged Sakura. "Just because we got reinforcements doesn't mean we should start underestimating the Inquisition. They sent two hundred paladins after us last time. What will it be next?"

"Yeah." said Chisato, joining them at the table and sending a grateful smile at Medusa as she received a cup. "I hate this. I'm killing too many people. If it continues, I'll eventually break and stop caring."

"Well, we can't stay there for long anyway. Let's wait for us all to be here before we make a decision."

The others nodded, and they enjoyed their tea quietly until the door opened.

Nero and Saika entered.

"We've got news!" proclaimed Nero with a bright smile.

"Yes, important news, I think." nodded Saika.

They both took their places around the table.

"We didn't see any sign of us being found out, or of any abnormal movement from the local garrison. But we heard some interesting rumors. According to them, a Hero has been summoned at the Saint Sanriel Cathedral. A group of high-ranked demons has attacked the place, but failed to interrupt the ritual. The Hero killed every demon, captured the demonic sword o the demon lord leading the raid, and was recognized by the holy sword. The Church is sending a detachment to meet him."

"We… aren't very far from that cathedral, right?" asked Chisato.

"I'd say about 80 kilometers. But maps do not seem really consistently accurate in this world." said Saika after taking a map from one of her coat's inner pockets and unfolding it.

"Sakura, you remember that Noah could tell us a few things about your own world, like how he knew in advance about your situation, right?"

"Yes? Are you saying that Noah-sama gave you information about this world?"

Sakura had only spoken a few times to Noah. They didn't have much opportunity, when most of her time in London had been in class or under Sanctuary's time dilation effect. But she viewed him as the one who had sent Akeno to save her, and for that, Noah was her fourth favorite person, behind Akeno herself, Rin, and Medusa.

"He did." nodded Chisato. "First, the Hero being summoned, John Barton, isn't actually the one the Church was aiming for. Instead of taking the boy, leaving behind a family that would be tormented by his disappearance, they took the father. A father who is well aware that they tried to kidnap his kid. And he is angry."

"Oh my." gasped Sakura. "They really messed up, did they?"

"Yeah. The Church is soon going to realize its mistake and go after him as well. And there is a traitor among the women following him, someone named Viridia. She will get most of them killed when they go train in the dungeon under Colrac."

"And we just happen to be in Colrac right now. Umu, it must be divine providence!" said Nero. "We should meet up on the road to befriend him and deal with the traitor!"

"That's my intention." said Chisato. "Noah suggested we help him for two reasons. First, he has the potential to be a valuable ally against the Church. And possibly the Aquecian heroes as well. Second, If we deal with some of the top evildoers before we return to Chaldea, we will leave behind a power vacuum. Killing tyrants is nice, but it is even better if we make sure good people replace them. John Barton would be a decent ruler. He probably won't want to, but he also won't leave before finding some decent people for the job."

"Umu, I like this plan." nodded Nero with a grin.

"Realistically speaking, That and uprooting the Church are just about the best things we can do to better this world in the limited time we have." said Sakura.

"Noah also told me about the four Aquecian heroes. One young man and three girls. The man is a sex-obsessed fool. A stupid harem protagonist who doesn't even realize that two of the three girls in his harem, the healer and the witch, are plotting to murder their rivals. The only one who is actually decent is called Hitomi, and is sort of a ninja girl. Noah would like for us to save her and bring her with us to Chaldea."

"She won't agree if she's part of that man's harem." frowned Sakura.

"We'll have to convince her. And there's something you need to know about those four. Aside from the Witch who is aware, but pretends not to, they think that they currently are inside a video game. That the people they interact with aren't really real. And that explains a lot about their willingness to do some really terrible things.

"What nonsense!" blurted out Darkness. "How could they reach such a ludicrous conclusion?"

"In fairness, we already knew before landing here that other worlds exist." shrugged Chisato. "I can understand how they reached that conclusion, even if their logic has some huge glaring holes in it. Like why the hell would a company expose itself to lawsuits by abducting some random people to force them to play their game?"

"Wait, the witch is aware that the locals are real. Why is she pretending?" asked Sakura.

"Because she's a complete sociopath. They're using methods straight from the Nazi handbook, and she is the one who convinced the other three to turn Aquecia into another Third Reich. Noah thinks she's trying to rule over the world as a tyrant, with the male hero as her boy toy and her two rivals dead. And the witch is smart. Hitomi has cultivated a network of informants all over the human dominated territories, but the witch has gone behind her back and suborned them. They answer to her now, and Hitomi doesn't have a clue."

"What the name of the witch?" asked Nero.

"Noah doesn't remember." said Chisato as she sipped her tea.

"It's already good that he could tell us this much." nodded Saika.

"The four heroes are introducing firearms to this world. They don't have the most optimized recipe for gunpowder, but what they have is already good enough for them to make functional muskets." added Chisato.

"So, I guess we should meet this John Barton, forge a good relationship with him, and then deal with the four heroes before they finish turning Aquecia into a giant war machine and march on Tourin and the other nations?" asked Sakura.

"Yes." nodded Chisato. "All while making sure not to offer the demon an opportunity to invade. And we need to do something about the Church as well. Does anyone have a better suggestion?"

"I have." said Sakura. "Joking about horror movies aside, Darkness does have a point, and maybe we can afford to split up for a while. We do not need to all go to meet this John Barton, and I do not want to leave the initiative to our enemies. We should give the Church a bloody nose, burn their warehouses and put them on the defensive."

"There's some risk of things escalating even more, if they start demanding from the Tourinese king that they mobilize against us." frowned Darkness.

"That is coming eventually, whether we want it or not. I'd say the king will be less inclined to follow those orders if the Church is weakened. He has to resent their influence over his country, whatever public image he projects. And if we openly kill a few high-ranked members of the Church on their own turf and get away with it, the king and the nobles will hesitate to make themselves our enemies."

"Hum, you have a point…" nodded Chisato. She looked around, and concluded that everyone was in agreement.

"We will leave tonight. I'll go meet John Barton with Darkness and Nero. Sakura, Saika, Medusa, you girls give the Church as big of a bloody nose as you can while not taking unreasonable risks, and we meet up in Stormgarde academy within two months before we do something about Aquecia." said Chisato as she pointed a spot on the open map. Stormgarde was about 300 kilometers west of Colrac.

"I agree, but why here?" asked Sakura.

"That place is where John Barton will go for some time after recovering from the betrayal, and it has some clues about the summoning ritual they used to summon him. Plus, Noah mentioned that there is a bunch of rapists among the professors and local nobles, and some people in need of healing. One of them is a princess from a big nation in another continent where they practice cultivation, like in all those Chinese fantasy novels."

"If we can bring her to Chaldea as well, me may all obtain a new way to become stronger. Although Noah advised us not to start Cultivation."

"Why not?" frowned Sakura.

"Lilith-sama told him that the next world he will explore will have cultivators, too, and will actually be a cluster of many different planets. This implies that cultivators over there are so powerful that they can travel between worlds. If we start cultivating using the method available in the world we are currently in, we may be unable to ever reach the level of the cultivators over there."

"That's very interesting. Umu, if we can fly among the stars…" grinned Nero, speaking for them all.

Sakura nodded and showed a cold smile.

"I am now eager to start. Let us make this world a better place, one kill at a time."

…

It only took one day and two nights for Chisato, Darkness and Nero to travel along the road leading to the Saint Sanriel Cathedral. Between their body enhancement giving them great speed and stamina, and Nero who could carry one of them on her back when they tired, they could cross long distances faster than people on horses. They met a handful of travelers stopping for the night, and asked each time about the new hero, but were told that he was still camping around the Cathedral.

The sun was rising when they reached a large military camp and walked to the sentries.

"Who goes there!" shouted one of the six guards.

"Hi hi!" cheerfully called out Chisato with a wave of her hand. "We are here to meet the Hero. Is he here?"

"The Beast? Who are you?"

"I'm Chisato Nishikigi! And my friends are…"

"The Heretics! Sound the alarm!" shouted the guard in a sudden panic, and a bell was rung frantically.

"…So much for diplomacy." sighed a crestfallen Chisato, suddenly bending forward to avoid the first arrow.

"Umu. It's not your fault, you gave it your best." shrugged Nero as she materialized her jagged red sword.

"Let's not kill or seriously injure anyone. They are regular soldiers, not the Church's inquisition."

"Umu!"

In moments, the camp turned into a beehive.

Darkness planted her sword in the ground and used one of the many spells she had learned in the Mage Association. A translucent bubble with a radius of five meters formed around her, protecting her as well as Nero and Chisato from projectiles. Chisato had her gun out and shot non-lethal projectiles one after another, taking the soldiers down almost as fast as they appeared. Nero destroyed the weapons of any soldier brave enough to charge them and lucky enough not to attract Chisato's attention, and kicked them away.

After maybe two minutes of this circus, Chisato spotted two organized groups coming at the gate. The first was led by a grizzled veteran, with a slender officer wearing a monocle on his side, a flagbearer behind him, a pretty woman with neck-length red hair wearing sword and armor, and six armored soldiers escorting them.

The second group, that seemed more interested in observing than taking part, was made of six women of various races and centered around one young man with a very fit body, and two swords hanging from his waist.

"Hey, can you guys stop this silly fight? We only came to talk!" shouted Chisato.

The grizzled officer, noticing that his soldiers were being toyed with by that girl with a strange black weapon, lifted a hand, and the flagbearer blew a horn. The soldiers reluctantly stopped fighting and retreated.

"Thank you." breathed Chisato in relief. "Your soldiers have only been knocked out. They'll recover after a few hours of sleep."

The grizzled veteran looked at the dozens of fallen soldiers and nodded, not seeing any injury, and spoke to some of the nearby soldiers.

"Have them brought to the healers."

The soldiers saluted and started taking away their fallen comrades. Most were still warily watching the three intruders.

"Why did you come here?"

"We wish to speak with the Hero, John Barton! We have information he wants."

The hero in question blinked. His last name wasn't Barton, and it was just a fake identity he had created for himself only a few minutes before the attack. He had been on his way to meet the Lord General when the alarm sounded.

"I'm John Barton." he said, slowly moving forward to go into easy talking distance. "How do you know my name?"

"It's a bit complicated, but we have a friend who could predict some of your future, to an extent. The good news is, you will manage to reunite with your son and wife. Although instead of returning home, you will bring them with you and go explore yet another world, a far better one than this dung pit. You will also bring your harem with you, and that conversation with your wife will be most interesting." chuckled Chisato.

"The bad news is that long before all this happens, you'll be ambushed in the Colrac Dungeon by hundreds of Inquisitors and Church soldiers. That ambush will severely injure you, and only you and Avalina will survive it. And I'm sorry to say, but they will have been guided by a traitor in your group, a woman named Viridia. She will…"

Chisato didn't have time to continue before five of the six women surrounding John suddenly swung their weapons at the sixth one, with cries of absolute rage. Viridia didn't make a move to defend herself and died instantly.

"…Wow. I didn't expect that." said Chisato with wide eyes.

"You said she was going to betray us?" frowned John. He didn't have a strong emotional attachment to those women yet, and a zero-tolerance policy for betrayal, but that didn't mean he was prepared to just believe a stranger's words.

"Something about her child suffering in the hands of the Church, and her feeling so guilty about it that she wanted to punish herself by destroying every bit of good in her life. Too far gone for therapy to work, sadly. I feel sorry about her, but she had to be stopped."

"Are you gals some of the Aquecian heroes? You clearly came from another world."

"Yes, we are from another world. But we weren't summoned by one of the local gods like you were. You didn't hear about us? The Church sort of made us Public Enemy Number One after we started killing some priests. They enslave and mutilate children and women simply because they were born as demon kin, and we kind of object to that, to put it mildly." shrugged Chisato.

"Ava, is she telling the truth?" asked John with a frown, turning to Avalina.

"That…" she started, but stopped as she glanced at the soldiers listening.

Her lack of immediate denial was an answer in itself.

"I think we should introduce ourselves properly and take this discussion to a more appropriate place." declared the commander, tired of being ignored. "I am Lord General Lianlaf Huguet. This is my advisor, Count Petrus Werclair."

The man with the monocle nodded to them.

"And Dame Edelys Gilend."

The pretty redhead bowed, looking curiously at Chisato and her companion.

"Please to meet you. I am Chisato Nishikigi" grinned Chisato. "This is Nero Claudius, and Dame Lalatina Dustiness, though she prefers being called Darkness."

Darkness had visibly shuddered and glared at Chisato when she heard her name, her expression looking like she had bitten into something very bitter.

"Follow us to my tent. We can talk about sensitive matters then."

Darkness deactivated her barrier at last and sheathed her sword, and they followed the general inside the camp. As they walked, they were still surrounded by soldiers ready to act in an instant, but the Lord General was already aware, after seeing the incident at the gate, that if they wanted to kill him, only the hero might be strong enough to protect him, so talking in the command tent or in front of the gate made no difference.

"I heard there were more of you. One young woman named Sakura Tohsaka, with purple hair. Is she coming here as well?" bluntly asked the Lord General once they were all inside.

"No." shrugged Chisato. "Sakura and more of us are on a different mission. We are out of patience with the Church's repeated attempts to kill us, and they are going to do something to express our displeasure."

"What are your intentions?"

"We are here to save our own world, and this one as well. This isn't something you can help with, so all we ask of you is that you leave us alone. But while we are here, we will use the opportunity to make this world a little better. Did you know that the four Aquecian heroes are planning to take over the world? They are buying slaves, training them to become soldiers, and are trying to recreate a ranged weapon from their world that will revolutionize the way war is done."

"They are making firearms?" asked John.

"Yes."

"Well, good for them. I don't mind if they take over. They can hardly do worse."

"They're using Nazi Germany as their template, with purge of the minorities, gestapo and so on..." said Chisato with a flat voice.

"…I take it back. They are making things worse... So, why did you come to meet me, if you want to be left alone? And why is our world threatened?"

"John, when I said 'our' world, I referred to the one me, Nero and Darkness comes from, not yours. There's an almost infinite number of Earths in parallel timelines. The issue that brought us here is that a group of evildoers has blown up my world, and a big chunk of it is headed straight to this one."

She proceeded to explain in detail about the existence of the Root, source of all timelines, the sabotage attempt in Chaldea, and the world fragments being pulled by some unknown entities, one of them hiding somewhere in this world. When she was done, she could see that everyone was skeptical, but that couldn't be helped.

"Okay? Let's assume you're telling the truth. What do you want from me?" asked John.

"We decided to give you a hand because the Church wants all of us dead, and the Aquecian heroes eventually will, too. I don't think you would believe me if I said I want us to be friends, but we can at least use each other, right?" grinned Chisato.

"Eh, it's refreshing that someone is honest about it." snorted John.

"Sure. And as a proof of goodwill, I can tell you a few more things. Like how you need to go to Stormgarde if you want to study the summoning ritual they used to kidnap you. Saint Sanriel was an otherworlder too, who spent decades trying to return home. She failed, but her research is something you need. And some of what I can tell you will have to be in private."

Leaning back on his chair, the Lord General sighed. He was being ignored again, and he wasn't used to it.

He didn't intend to believe Chisato’s tale without some concrete evidence. But there were things he just couldn't ignore. The three heroes turned heretics had started creating their own faction without the Church noticing, or at least, they hadn't informed the kingdom. The new members he knew of, Nero and Darkness, had proven to be very powerful. They seemed to know things they had no business knowing, judging by John Barton's reaction to some of their claims.

And there was that saying, about keeping friends close, and enemies closer still. Offering them some surface help would allow him to keep a closer eye on them, and if the heretics truly managed to break the Church's chokehold on the Royal family and free the country of their influence…

If he helped them, the Church would likely try to get him into an Inquisition’s torture chamber.

His head would be on the line, but his instincts told him that he should bet on them over the Church.