Ch 382: Mikoto about to be bullied again?

"And so, what should we do with Legion?" asked Akeno.

Noah, holding his phone in front of him, thought about it for a moment, then shrugged.

"…Assuming it truly respects the conditions you gave, you should proceed with the Bad Girl Protocol. However, if it acted in self-defense, that is a massive extenuating circumstance, so use a special collar to make Legion like it. As for Corruption… You can still use it, right?"

"I can." smiled Akeno. "Lilith-sama took pity on me and transformed it into a dildo, but I can also fix it on my chastity belt's front plate. I even feel it like before when I fuck one of the girls. However, no matter how much pleasure I get from it, I won't be able to go over the edge, so it is quite torturous for me, too. I only end up edging myself."

"It is so very frustrating!" grinned Akeno.

"I'm sure it is." nodded Noah. "So you still have access to Corruption's curses."

"I do." replied Akeno. "I assume you have something in mind for Legion."

"Making it into a masochist and giving it a drone fetish would be quite apt, don't you think?" grinned Noah. "And since I'm feeling generous today, please tell every member of the Spearhead Squadron that I'll revive their fallen comrades."

"That should go a long way to appease them." nodded Akeno before grinning. "And who knows, surely there will be a bunch of cute girls among them."

"I will take them as compensation for the cost of reviving everyone." smiled Noah.

"Ufufu, of course... Now if you'll excuse me, I need to spend some time with the Sirins to get to know them better, and tonight, I think Anju and I will get started on scamming, I mean convincing Kurena to join the harem."

"Yes. I wish you a lot of fun, Akeno." nodded Noah. "I'm logging back to Mystic Moon myself. I still have a lot of Orbs to find. Let's see each other in your Soul Space."

"I look forward to it, my dear Master." replied Akeno as she blew him a kiss before ending the call.

Noah put his smartphone back in his pocket, and Qi Yue appeared beside him.

"Who is Seifuku? You do not treat her like the rest of your girls. And she mentioned a mother who ascended? What did she mean?"

"My relationship with Seifuku is hard to define." smiled Noah. "The mother she mentioned is Lilith. Some time ago, Lilith gave me a very special sword, one that would form its own item-spirit by imprinting on my soul. That's Seifuku."

"To some extent, you could say that Seifuku is a bit of my daughter, and you could also say that she is somewhat of a female version of myself. At the same time, Lilith infused a very small fragment of herself in Seifuku, and sometimes used her body as an Avatar to interact with other people without having to leave her divine plane."

"But something even Lilith didn't see coming happened, and Lilith decided to change Seifuku so that she would become fully independent, neither an item-spirit, nor an Avatar. By the way, try to imagine Seifuku with red eyes and silver hair, and exuding an aura of sacredness and unfathomable power. That is what Lilith looks like."

"…I see. So you will treat Seifuku as a daughter?" nodded Qi Yue.

"More like a partner and advisor. I'm not going to try to dominate Seifuku because she's a dominant like me, and she knows all my tricks. And I need more platonic relationships in my life anyway. I'm about to leave the Sanctuary with the girls. Is there anything else you wish to speak about?"

"…nothing in particular." nodded Qi Yue before disappearing.

Noah left the living room and walked to his bedroom where Su'er and Xiao Qi were both peacefully sleeping. The mana powering the time compression had run out, allowing him to give Akeno a call, but it had allowed Noah and the girls to get a full night's sleep while only a short time flowed outside. That was a trick that Noah used more often than not these days.

On a whim, he decided to bring them breakfast to the bed. he created and put the food on trays held by Light Hands, then gently shook them awake.

…

"Please hurry, I want us to be gone as soon as possible." urged Mikoto to her companions.

"Onee-sama, you can rely on me!" declared Kuroko. "Even if this devil shows up, I will put my body on the line to defend you!"

"Who is this person you are calling in such a manner?" asked Artoria with a raised eyebrow, but she agreed to walk faster down the hallway.

"It's Misaki. Who else?" bitterly replied Mikoto as she glanced back to make sure she wasn't following them. "She's trying to make me lose another bet so she can treat me as her maid again."

"Why don't you just tell her no, then?"

"Because she's damn persistent!" replied Mikoto, looking like she had bitten into a lemon. "She knows exactly how to get under my skin, and if I don't get away for a while, I will end up giving in to her provocation!"

The girls entered the Rayshift room. Romani, Olga-Marie and Gaia were waiting for them. The green-haired world-spirit was still looking sick, but enough of the world fragments had already been recovered and put back in place to allow Gaia to regain consciousness.

"Then, why do you not demand a stake that Misaki would not be willing to risk, to act as a deterrent?" asked Artoria. "How about making her your maid if she loses?"

"I tried that already, but she's willing to risk it." complained Mikoto. "Even if I must say that I'd love to get an opportunity for some payback!"

She turned to Olga-Marie.

"Hello, Gaia, Director, Romani. We're ready, so let's go. The sooner we start, the faster we'll be done with the mission."

"Alright, good luck, Mikoto, Artoria, Kuroko." replied Olga-Marie, slightly taken aback.

"Thank you, everyone." nodded Gaia. "You have done a lot for my sake already."

Gaia was still somewhat fearful of humans, after all the damage humanity had done, but she had warmed up to the people of Chaldea. It was still difficult for her to face them like this, and the girls appreciated her efforts to show her gratitude.

"Our world is also our home, Lady Gaia." smiled Artoria. "You do not need to thank us for doing what it takes to protect it."

"Yes." nodded Mikoto. "We're going to save everyone. And then we'll…"

She turned toward the door with dread on her face as she heard the approaching steps of someone running, and seconds later, her fated foe appeared!

"Everyone, don't leave without me!" exclaimed Misaki before slowing down and stopping near Mikoto, a victorious smile on her face.

"Begone, you thieving cat! I won't let you put your hands on my Onee-sama!" hissed Kuroko as she put herself between Misaki and Mikoto.

Misaki, still smiling, rubbed her jawline with a dainty finger. "Now what are you imagining, I wonder… And it isn't like Mikasa-san didn't enjoy at least some of what we did when she was my devoted maid…"

Mikoto shivered.

"Your chances of success will significantly increase with the addition of Misaki Shokuhou." declared Alaya as she appeared near them, cutting off Mikoto's objection before she could voice it.

"Indeed." grinned Misaki while Mikoto sighed in defeat.

Olga-Marie shook her head, deciding to ignore the younger women's antics. She didn't doubt that no matter how much they squabbled now, they would immediately put their differences aside when it mattered. And a third person would be available to supply Artoria with mana.

"I wish you good fortune. And remember to inform us immediately if your quests mention Martian Kataphracts or Princess Asseylum. It looks like Akeno and her team are about done over there, so the Finality will soon be ready to reinforce you."

"Yes, Director." nodded Artoria.

Olga-Marie and Romani left the room to reach the control room, who could be seen on the upper level. Gaia and Alaya both disappeared, leaving Artoria, Mikoto, Kuroko and Misaki alone.

"Why are you even coming? Don't you have to take care of your clique already?" grumbled Mikoto.

"I wouldn't call them my clique anymore." shrugged Misaki. "Their loyalty is now to Noah-sama. But there will surely be some cute girls in the next timeline, and I will better my position in the harem by gifting them to Noah-sama."

Misaki grinned as she started shifting her weight from one foot to another, her imagination running wild.

"Ah, I wonder how he will reward me for my efforts…"

Artoria smiled as she heard the sounds of the Rayshift machine starting to ramp up. She, too, met Noah in her dreams every night, and he was everything she hoped and more.

He already promised her that her would revive her former companions, the Knights of the Round Table, in the future.

She felt a fleeting sensation of losing her balance as her vision when dark, then she saw the kaleidoscope-like effect of the Rayshift transition, ending in a white flash.

A second later, her senses were under assault.

She and her companions were standing near a beach, with no other humans in sight. The sun had just set over the horizon.

They didn't have much time to observe their surroundings, however, as massive shapes were emerging from the water.

The huge beings, over fifteen meters tall and wide, were advancing on six stout legs covered with pale, pink skin. They had no visible arms or heads, but their front was almost entirely covered by a tough-looking, dark gray, wedge-shaped carapace.

The ground was vibrating under their massive steps, and the beings accelerated as they left the water, charging straight at them like a herd of angry buffaloes.

"What are those things?" exclaimed Misaki with revulsion.

"Hell if I know, but they don't look like they're going to stop for us." replied Mikoto. "Let's take some altitude."

The girls jumped several times, only stopping until they stood on Light footholds a hundred meters above ground.

The beings kept charging forward, ignoring them, and the girls saw that only the front halves of the beings were protected by the carapace. Their backs and sides were just covered by pink flesh and looked vulnerable.

There were already hundreds of them on land or getting out of the waters, and the churning sea suggested that many more were behind them.

"Do we attack those things?" asked Kuroko.

"We should first make sure they are enemies, but…" started Mikoto before she saw something from the corner of her eyes. She looked toward the East and saw a large salvo of missiles in the distance.

"Missiles incoming!" called out Mikoto.

"I think that answers our question." nodded Artoria as they focused their attention on the missiles.

The missiles were clearly targeting the large beings on the ground. However, two of them adjusted their trajectories toward the girls, possibly confused in their targeting, and they had to use Flicker to get well away before triggering a potential proximity fuse.

The missiles slammed into the herd below, killing or crippling dozens of them, but the beings kept mindlessly charging forward. For all their massive bodies and stout legs, they were rather fast, reaching over a hundred kilometers per hour.

Artoria was the first to create a huge sword of hardened light and launch it at one of the huge monsters that had passed under them. The sword pierced the pink flesh all the way through and stuck the ground before stopping.

As Artoria had deliberately angled the sword so that its edges were aligned with the monster's running direction, sheer inertia caused the monster to keep going. When the monster collapsed, almost half of its body had been cut apart.

Misaki, Kuroko and Mikoto decided to use the same method to kill other monsters.

The monsters below still didn't pay attention to them or their mounting losses and continued charging out of the water and toward the hills. They rammed through the bodies of their brethren to get them out of their way, easily throwing aside bodies that had to weight at least twenty tons.

It was downright chilling. And more monsters kept breaking through the sea's surface.

Another salvo of missiles came, then several heavy artillery salvoes.

"Look, there's a drone." called out Kuroko as she pointed to the north. A reconnaissance drone was circling some distance away, keeping close to the ground. Whoever was operating it had surely noticed the glowing swords slamming into the beast's herd, and who was creating them.

The girls didn't pay it much attention and kept creating more Light Swords and skewering more monsters.

Before long, the corpses had piled up to the point that the beasts couldn't just ram through anymore, and forced the beasts to slow down. Some of them started trying to climb over the pile, with limited success, while most others turned to the sides with clumsy moves. The beasts seemed to have a hard time doing anything but moving in a straight line.

The shell bombardment stopped, and a minute later, they heard the sounds of engines coming from between two hills. A group of eight mechs, most of them painted dark blue, appeared, flying just above ground using two swiveling thrusters fixed to the sides of their waists.

They were about twenty meters tall, with relatively slim silhouettes making them more suited to flight than to withstand hits, and were armed with large rifles on each hand.

More weapons could be seen fixed on their backs.

The mechs flew over the beasts that were already deeper into the land, turning and targeting their backs with short burst of rifle fire.

Artoria and the others kept creating and firing giant light swords, and hoped that the herd's emergence would soon stop. They could keep going for a few more minutes at this rate.

One of the mechs, painted white, left the others and flew in the girls' direction.

"You!" came a male's voice from the mech's external speakers, clearly audible despite the roar of the mech's thrusters and the constant gunfire.

"I don't know how you manage to stay up there, but you're too high! Get down before their lasers slaughter you!"

The girls exchanged a quick, alarmed glance before jumping down to just 30 meters above ground. The mech's pilot seemed satisfied with that.

Still more monsters were emerging from the sea, but those were of a different type. They were just as big as the previous ones, but moved on four legs, and had two arms ending in massive, slightly curved cones made of a material that seemed similar to the first type's carapace. Artoria suspected that this beast attacked by trying to spear its opponents with the tips of its arms, and they also were wide enough to be used as shields.

The rest of their body was covered with the same pale pink flesh.

The most revolting part of their anatomy stood at the end of their back, in the form of a raised, elongated neck supporting a round head covered by shriveled pink skin. The head had no ears, eyes or nose, only a wide lipless mouth revealing a full row of blunt teeth.

"Follow me if you can! The army is ready to deliver more artillery strikes. Remain close to the ground!" instructed the white mecha.

The girls nodded and used their flight magic, remaining about 30 meters above ground and killing still more of the charging beasts as they moved.

The white mech joined the blue ones.

The mechs were adopting a simple but effective strategy.

Half of them would land, and the beasts would ponderously veer toward them, crushing trees and the occasional house on their path, and showing their backs to the flying mechas. The mechs on the ground would then fly just high enough that the beasts couldn't reach them and reposition, while the others would land, attracting the beasts' attention.

Each mech was armed with three rifles, one in each hand, and on their backs was a spare rifle as well as a thin, curved sword vaguely shaped like a katana. Interestingly, the mounts securing the weapons on their backs were articulated on short mechanical arms, and the girls saw some of the mechs fire will all three rifles simultaneously.

Each mech also had several ammo clips fixed on their thighs, but they soon ran out of ammunition.

"Please follow us to our base. We need to resupply, and our superior wishes to speak with you." said the white mech's pilot.

Artoria saw in the distance two more mech squads joining the battle, and when she looked back toward the sea, still more monsters were emerging from the water, but on a much narrower front. It seemed like it would soon end.

As they flew, a system notification appeared in their field of view, and the girls opened their quest tabs.

"Quest n°1: Learn how to pilot Tactical Surface Fighters and use them to win three Beta engagements, in Japan or elsewhere. Reward: +10 to all attributes."

"Quest n°2: Help Japan, and possibly other nations, by improving their TSFs and/or Weapons. Reward: The Knight of the Rounds Gareth will be revived in Chaldea."

"Quest n°3: Recruit at least ten TSF pilots, including Yui Takamura, Cryska Barchenowa, and Lise Hohenstein. Reward: +5% completion towards the Grand Quest. Current rate: 85%."

When she read the text of the second quest, Artoria almost crashed on the ground as tears of happiness welled in her eyes. Mikoto, Misaki and Kuroko turned to her with bright smiles, Mikoto gave her a thumbs up, and Artoria nodded to them before rubbing her face.

The girls followed the eight mechs over a distance of about fifteen kilometers, to a tall hill whose inside had been turned into a military installation. A short runway emerged from a metal cave easily large enough to let two or three mechs pass through.

Artoria could see many people around the entrance, manipulating various machines and equipment. She also spotted a group of a half-dozen people standing still, three of them seemingly being high-ranking officers.

The eight mechs landed on the runway, then walked to some of the machines that were lifting ammo clips high enough for the mechs to grab without having to kneel, Artoria, Mikoto, Kuroko and Misaki landed gracefully a few meters in front of the officers and their guards.

The most decorated officer, a tall man with short black hair and purple eyes, made a step forward and cautiously nodded to them.

"I am Lieutenant-General Shuukaku Ayamine, of the Imperial Japanese Army. Who do I have the honor of speaking to?"

Artoria exchanged a quick glance with her companions, and they seemed content with giving her the role of leader during the talks, as the one with the most experience.

"I am Artoria Pendragon, a representative of an inter-dimensional organization named Valhalla." nodded Artoria with a polite smile. "My companions are Mikoto Misaka, Misaki Shokuhou, and Kuroko Shirai. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"An inter-dimensional organization, you say?" asked the Lieutenant-General with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. Are you perhaps familiar with the parallel worlds theory? We come from a different version of Earth, where another Japan exists." shrugged Artoria. "We came to your world to chase after a malevolent creature originating from my own Earth, but we emerged on the shore, right on the path of those large… things, whatever you call them. As we are completely ignorant of the situation here, I hope you can enlighten us."

Artoria paused, hoping that her charisma would overcome the obvious doubts anyone hearing about their story should feel. The mechs were done reloading their rifles and took off to rejoin the battle.

Shuukaku Ayamine decided there was no harm telling them about things everyone knew.

"We call those monsters 'Beta', as an acronym for Beings of Extra-Terrestrial origin which are Adversaries of the human race." sighed the Lieutenant-General. "We met the first of them on Mars about forty years ago. The whole planet was crawling with them. Ten years later, they invaded the moon and destroyed our research and mining outposts, then established a landing point on the western part of China. For the last thirty years now, humanity has been as war with the Beta, and every year, we have lost ground."

He sighed before continuing. "The Beta have killed every human in Europe save from the United Kingdom, in the Middle-East up to the Suez Canal, in most of Russia and China, all the way down to Vietnam. They now control almost half of Earth's emerged lands. And tonight is their first attempt to get a foothold in Japan."

"I understand." nodded Artoria before glancing in the direction of the beach, where the sounds of battle were ongoing. "My companions should have fully recovered in about ten minutes. We can help you kill more of those Betas, then. If things go wrong, we can return to help immediately, but only for a few minutes before we'll need to find a place to rest."

"We are grateful for your willingness to assist us." smiled the Lieutenant-General. "You must have some very advanced technology to be able to fly without any visible device and manifest those golden projectiles."

Artoria smiled. Now was time to troll out the bait.

"Valhalla does have access to technologies more advanced than what we have seen you use, but what we did a few minutes ago is not based on technology, but rather on some special abilities that Valhalla members receive in exchange for their service."

"Teaching some of those abilities to select members of the Imperial Japanese Army and sharing some of our technologies like plasma-based weapons is not necessarily impossible, but this is something that will need to be negotiated with representatives of your government."

"Of course." nodded the Lieutenant-General, hiding his relief. The worst-case scenario in his mind had been that the four strange, but powerful women would leave without the IJA having any chance to obtain benefits from them. "I will inform my government of your coming. They may already have started to hear about it by now. Please follow me to the Command Center, so I can get an update on the current situation."

Artoria nodded, and the girls followed the Lieutenant-General and his men. As they walked, Artoria thought of something.

"The pilot of that white mecha told us that being too high in the air would expose us to laser fire. Do the Betas use a lot of ranged weapons?"

"In a typical Beta incursion, about one percent of the Betas are three meters-high, two-legged creatures with a pair of enormous eyes taking up most of their head. We simply call them Lasers. Their eyes double as laser emitters and they are fiendishly accurate, with an effective range of over thirty kilometers. Those lasers are also powerful enough to go through a Tactical Surface Fighter's torso, that's the name of our mechs, instantly."

"The Lasers' only weakness, aside from not being able to take a lot of damage, is that they won't open fire if their target is close to other Betas. That is why we always fight them while sticking close to the ground."

"I understand." nodded Artoria.

On their way to the Command Center, they met quite a few soldiers and technicians who stared with a mix and curiousness and wariness at the four young and beautiful women dressed in strange black and gold uniforms.

"There is a lot of soldiers in this base, armed with what looks like small caliber firearms." frowned Misaki. "I assume that a lot of Betas are not the size of a small house?"

"That is correct." nodded the Lieutenant-General. The big ones you saw are sent first to crush their enemy's resistance, but most of the civilians who couldn't be evacuated and pilots of downed TSFs actually die from the waves of smaller ones that follow them. I will give you an information sheet showing all the different strains of Betas we encountered."

They entered a large room where many officers were sitting in front of consoles. The Lieutenant-General as well as the two other officers who had welcomed them sat on their assigned seats.

"Report." ordered the Lieutenant-General, and one of the officers turned to him.

"Sir, it seems we have successfully killed every Destroyer, Laser and Grappler. The enemy is contained, and down to about two hundred Tanks and Soldiers. It should be over in about two minutes. Squad Tengu lost two pilots from a flank attack they didn't see coming, and a Laser strike."

"I see." sighed the Lieutenant-General as he closed his eyes for an instant.

"Thank you. Once we obtain confirmation that we destroyed them all, secure the four best rooms of the best hotel in the area for our guests. I don't care who you have to dislodge."

"Thank you, Lieutenant-General." smiled Artoria.

"It's the least we can do." sighed Shuukaku. "You killed hundreds of Destroyers and Grapplers. Our losses would likely have been much heavier without you, and we might have failed to contain them before they reached large cities. Urban warfare is always a pain with the Betas… Can you tell me more about that malevolent being you're seeking?"

"It looks like a 150-meter-tall tentacle or fleshy pillar covered with dozens of red eyes. It hides itself using an optical camouflage field, and can dish out a lot of firepower. We have allies back home who will locate it in a matter of months. We will destroy it, then go to the next world on our list. Until then, we intend to help you with this Beta problem."

"Those Beta Lasers might become a problem, though, if our target is deep into Beta territory." frowned Mikoto.

"We'll have to come up with counter-measures by the time we locate it. Our allies will figure something out." nodded Artoria.

…

It was early morning when four soldiers escorted them to an interview with the Japanese Prime minister and the Army's Chief of Staff, one Masataka Takamura, who just happened to have a daughter named Yui.

With Misaki being more than willing to use her remote and communicate her wishes to the politicians, the girls easily got what they wanted. Since Yui Takamura was a college senior, following a curriculum geared towards TSF pilots, Artoria, Mikoto, Kuroko and Misaki would join her class until the end of the semester, just a few weeks away, then an elite squadron of the IJA, officially to gain some experience on the TSFs and give their feedback to Valhalla.

Valhalla would give the Imperial Japanese Army schematics for improved ballistic firearms and plasma rifles suited for their size, as well as schematics for hydrogen pellet factories.

Even Artoria, far from being an engineer or gun enthusiast, could see ways some of the rifles used by the TSFs could be improved. Their most glaring flaw was about the position of the ammo clip, a whole two thirds forward, severely limiting the barrel length, and thus the velocity of each bullet. Redesigning the rifle with the ammo clip near the back would improve its performance significantly.

Those new weapons would go a long way to convince the rest of the Japanese government and army to share more technologies with Valhalla, and the next step would be to improve their TSFs.

In addition, the girls would be allowed to pick and choose a number of students, soldiers or officers and teach them some of their abilities.