"As long as you agree" Yuuji said, hesitating a little when he saw her state.
"I want to! I want to! Let's go quickly!" Lala said as she grabbed his hand and ran off as if she were escaping from something.
'Maybe it really was a sad movie?' Yuuji thought when he saw her happy again, but then he shook his head. 'No, not even a romantic comedy protagonist would believe that.'
"Wait, where are we going?" he asked while following Lala.
Hearing his question, Lala stopped abruptly and looked around.
"Ah! I... actually just ran without thinking. Where do we need to go?" Lala replied, embarrassed.
"Just keep touching me and we'll appear automatically. We don't need to go anywhere" Yuuji explained.
"Understood" Lala nodded while looking at their intertwined hands. "This is a little embarrassing."
Yuuji didn't pay attention to that, since he was focused on his own thoughts.
'Good, when I saw Lala's state I thought it was your fault and that you had found a way to stop Lala from coming, but now it looks like I worried for nothing.' Yuuji sighed in relief.
[Host, I remind you that Chaos and I are not the same entity, and defeating Chaos is impossible, I recommend not celebrating victory too soon.]
'I'm actually a little curious about what your Chaos will do' Yuuji said.
He wasn't lying when he said he was curious. With a Chaos bearer by his side capable of completing missions easily, how exactly could Chaos cause him trouble?
Even so, his curiosity did not overcome his common sense and he obviously preferred that nothing happened.
"Lala, something might happen in the next..." Yuuji checked the countdown. "7 seconds, so be careful."
"Something like what?"
"Something like... this!"
Yuuji saw a huge blade approaching him at high speed trying to cut off his arm, which he caught using the Third Arm Sash.
Although the Third Arm Sash was cut almost instantly, it gave him a second to dodge the attack.
Before he could see the one responsible, the three of them disappeared from the place, with the blade finishing cutting through the sash and the attacker separating from them.
The sudden light that appeared the moment they separated forced Yuuji to close his eyes, and when he opened them there was no one there anymore, leaving him unable to see the attacker's identity.
Once again, it was only Lala and him in a wasteland destroyed by a supernatural war.
'System, what just happened? Where is the one who attacked us?'
[I believe she might be in the past.]
"What?"
[Actually, the missions on this side are further ahead in time this time, so I brought you a little further into the future. She fell while we were moving, so she probably ended up here a few years or months before you.]
'Incredible, Chaos is really trying hard' Yuuji said. "And who is 'she'?" he asked, catching the system's words.
[I cannot reveal that.]
"I expected that."
"Yuuji, what happened?" Lala asked beside him, confused when she saw him finish murmuring to the air.
"It seems we are not in the same time as when we left last time. Also, whoever attacked us earlier ended up here before us."
"So will that be a problem?" Lala asked.
'Probably, since Chaos went out of its way to create this situation' Yuuji thought, but he did not say it out loud.
"No, this world is enormous and the chances of running into her are very low. And even if we did, we could defeat her together. For now, let's complete the mission and go back" Yuuji replied.
"Understood" Lala nodded.
'System.'
[You have just entered a major event, The Great War.
Due to the global context, the Main Mission - Power Route has been automatically activated.]
[Main Mission - Power Route (2)
On the battlefield of the Biblical faction, a legend spread, a few years ago a pair of mysterious individuals appeared and brought chaos to the battlefield before disappearing completely.
With the end of the war approaching, many are watching carefully in case this pair appears again and disrupts their plans to end the conflict.
Show them that you are worse than they think by wiping out a high level army from one side.
Demons (0/1)
Angels (0/1)
Fallen Angels (0/1)
Dragons (0/1)
Humans (0/1)]
'What do you consider a high level army?' Yuuji asked, doubting the specifications of the system's missions.
[Just below the main force.
From lowest to highest it would be like this:
Cannon fodder: Those not even worth naming. Example: Ordinary humans.
Weak armies: Those below average.
Example: Low class demons.
Mid level armies: The average and most numerous force. Example: Middle and high class demons.
High level armies: Armies under the command of the main force. Example: Demons at the peak of high class, Supremes, and weak Maous (strength).
Main force: The true heavyweights.
Example: God, Michael, Gabriel, Lucifer, the four original Maous (position), Ddraig, Albion.]
'And you expect me to directly kill the army right below those heavyweights? Do you realize there's no way to do that without them noticing and forcing us to fight?'
[I'm sorry, I do not set the missions.]
'Then what about the human faction? Why does it exist as an option when last time it wasn't even listed among the options?'
[The human faction was not relevant the last time you were here. It became relevant recently.]
'Then it's almost certainly because of the girl who attacked us, right?
How strong would she have to be to raise the status of the human faction in the war?' Yuuji thought.
"No, strength isn't everything. During the Great War there were already some famous human heroes, but even so none of them made the difference. So we're not talking about someone just strong but someone dangerous to other races...
What type would be dangerous? Probably the type that is hard to kill, a troublesome cockroach, someone who can kill thousands and escape as if nothing happened...
Then... an assassin. A lethal and agile one...
A girl with giant blades, assassin, lethal and agile, and at least in appearance human...
Golden Darkness!"
While Yuuji murmured until he reached an answer, Lala simply watched him while wondering if he had gone crazy.
Knowing the attacker's identity, a plan quickly formed in Yuuji's mind.
"I got it!" he said, turning to look at Lala. "Do you have a way to find a specific person?"
"I do, but it uses data from people in our universe. If I wanted to find someone from this one I would need their data first before I could find them."
"Don't worry, she's from our universe" Yuuji smiled.
"Then I can" she nodded. "Who is it?"
"Golden Darkness."
"The assassin?" Lala asked in surprise.
Yuuji simply nodded in response.
"She is here!" Lala exclaimed in surprise when her D-Dial vibrated after searching for her in an application. "And she's actually quite close, only a few kilometers to the north."
"Then let's go" Yuuji said as he began following Lala's directions.
...
"That's strange, she should be here" Lala murmured while looking at the ruined wasteland in front of her where there was nothing but debris.
"Here?"
"Yes, right where we are" Lala nodded.
"Then just in case..." Knowing the cliche, Yuuji grabbed Lala and rose into the air, away from the ground.
Just as he expected, the moment they left the ground two huge blades burst out of it directly toward them.
Yuuji caught one with the Third Arm Sash, but it was only a distraction for the other, which pierced completely through his chest.
"Yuuji!" Lala shouted in worry when she saw this, but Yuuji quickly reassured her.
"Don't worry, I'm fine" Yuuji replied while pointing to the part where the blade had pierced him.
His chest, instead of spilling red blood, looked like a kind of light blue plasma, since Yuuji had turned part of his body into slime the moment he saw the attack, avoiding any damage or pain.
After failing, both blades quickly retreated, transforming into golden hair and then becoming shorter and shorter as they withdrew.
Below them, on the ground, a girl looked up at them with curiosity.
With an apparent age of only around twelve years old, she wore a completely black dress that was cut at the height of her thighs in the front showing her legs while it fell to her feet in the back, and with a cross shaped opening in the chest.
What stood out the most about her was her golden hair, long enough to reach the ground, along with two additional twin tails at the sides.
Without changing her expression the girl stared at them with her red eyes for a second before recognition flashed within them.
Immediately her hair rose again, this time separating into several parts and turning into different bladed weapons.
Without giving her the chance to attack, Yuuji shouted at her.
"I'm not Yuuki Rito!"
Barely a millimeter from Yuuji's face all the weapons stopped.
"You are not?" she asked while looking at Lala, who immediately shook her head fervently despite not understanding much of the situation.
"Then who are you?"
"I am Yuuji Rito, a friend" Yuuji replied while slowly descending to the ground, landing right in front of her with Lala.
"Did you bring me to this place?" the girl asked.
"More or less. However, this is not the place to talk. Do you have some kind of base?"
"No, I just move around" the girl denied.
"Then I'll make one" Yuuji said.
After a few seconds, something similar to a crystal cabin appeared in the wasteland. From the outside it was not visible because the crystals on one side showed what was happening on the opposite side, creating visual invisibility, while inside he created two simple benches on both sides of an even simpler table.
"So... let's begin" Yuuji said as he started sharing information. "First of all, I did not bring you here on purpose, it just happened that you touched me right when I activated my ability, so you were dragged along with me."
"Unfortunately it's not as simple as activating the ability again and returning. If we want to leave this place I will need your help, so I hope we can collaborate."
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)