???

  ***

  Mana sighed as she looked at the wonders in front of her. A universe on the brink of collapse, and she got to see it from aboard an abandoned spaceship. All the stars around her had long gone dark, and she was orbiting one of the few places that still showed a modicum of activity. Right in front of her, in the infinite darkness, was a black hole, its accretion disk supplying light to the surrounding space stations as humanity, whatever shape it may take in this universe, dragged out its existence even without any livable planets, even without suns. Living on past the life of the stars themselves, they stubbornly clung to life, no matter how many millions, or maybe billions of years they would have to live in the near complete darkness until even the black holes died. It was melancholically beautiful, but Mana found herself unable to enjoy the thrill of this excursion. After all, someone special was missing, who would be by her side, offering her commentary, maybe even begging for Mana to leave this place because it made her sad.

  Mana missed Marisa. She could visit her in the containment facility of Thirram whenever she wanted, but playing pretend, acting like the two were twin sisters was not nearly as fulfilling as going on adventures in strange, beautiful and dangerous places with the person Mana loved. Arisu’s rare visits from the future didn’t help much to tide her over, either, as she only stayed for four hours every other month, resulting in perpetual boredom in-between. At this point she was solely entertaining herself with writing ‘A Lifetime of Adventure at Sea’, of which she recently finished writing the second volume and submitted it to her publisher, MagiColle.

  Come to think of it, it should release today.

  Mana contemplated the almost blinding sight in front of her, the swirling, glowing gases surrounding the gaping maw in reality – and then she decided that right now, her mundane life back on Earth would be a little more interesting.

  July 2025

  ***

  Mana stood in a bookstore near her house, dressed in her school uniform as she kept a close eye on the table with the new releases. People came and went and inspected the new releases, opening the books and absentmindedly inspecting both the writing as well as the novels’ illustrations. She herself tried to pretend that she was sampling the store’s manga selection, but her eyes darted over the top of the pages to peek at the stack of volumes depicting Bonnie standing at the helm of her pirate ship.

  Now that the story was original content, Mana found it much harder to keep writing, but with the guidance of Hitoishi and a few visits to Bonnie’s home world she was struck by enough inspiration to keep the adventure going. She didn’t intend to drag the novel out for longer than necessary, maybe four or five volumes would be enough to bring things to a satisfying closure. Bonnie’s quest for the dimensional fault in her own world, which bore a strange resemblance to the Bermuda Triangle, was certainly not a quest for the One Piece. Mana only intended to write this series to give the part of her soul which remembered being Bonnie some closure, after all. It would be unfair to drag it out unnecessarily.

  Still, she couldn’t deny the thrill of seeing people who picked up her book and bought it, either because they were fans of the first volume and came to pick up the sequel, or because they wanted to experience the story from the beginning, or because they were browsing the new releases and it caught their eye. Mana could barely hide her wide grin and hid her face behind the manga she flipped through without reading.

  “Ah, such a green novice! Feels nice, doesn’t it?” she suddenly heard a voice behind her. She turned around and blinked as she saw a woman wearing sunglasses and a surgical mask. She may have thought she was completely incognito, but Mana only knew one woman with black hair with teal strands, whom she met at Madame Bille’s place and even at MagiColle.

  “Eh? Miss Ebiko?”

  “Shush, now! I’m incognito, young Mana!” the woman quickly said, placing a finger against her lips. Mana furrowed her brow – they were anonymous authors, so she didn’t really see any need to hide her identity further than that. In fact, Miss Ebiko looked way more conspicuous, and a few heads turned her way whenever people passed her by.

  “See that right there? That is volume 4 of my work, right next to volume 2 of yours! Want to see which one gets more sales, hmmm?” Miss Ebiko pointed towards the stack of new releases and Mana couldn’t help but furrow her brow at the woman’s eccentric nature.

  “I’m not sure I want to make it a competition… I’m just happy people read my story!” Mana announced – but then she caught from the corner of her eye how someone who previously flipped through ‘A Lifetime of Adventure at Sea’ put it down and picked up ‘The Starfaring Maiden’ to take it to the cashier.

  “Oh, you…!” Mana growled under her breath.

  “Ohoho! I see the fire of competition has been lit in your heart, young author!” Miss Ebiko exclaimed as she held the back of her hand to her masked mouth, evoking the image of a typical highborn anime lady mocking her lesser.

  “Now, what do you say to a friendly competition between fellow yuri authors?”

  “You’re on…” Mana grumbled in a low tone.

  ***

  Hifumi led by four sales when they started. Both of them clung to a bookshelf partition and peeked around the corner as customers inspected the new releases and idly flipped through the pages. They quietly encouraged the customers to buy their books and got audibly agitated when they grabbed something wrong, like yet another isekai power fantasy, or even Mashima’s ‘Little Sisters Ought to be Worshipped!’, which was their in-house rival from MagiColle, though it wasn’t in direct competition due to the difference in genre. Still, Mana secretly kept track of the sales for that one as well.

  Currently it stood three sales for Mana, seven for Ebiko, and five for Mashima. People poured into the store and had a look at the display, and soon the two authors came to a head-to-head race, with ten books for Ebiko and nine for Mana.

  “Buy my book! Buy my book! Buy my book!” Mana whispered and Ebiko did the same, all while casting intense gazes towards the customers. However, she soon saw people avoiding the new releases section entirely. She wondered why.

  “…you again, miss?” she heard an exasperated voice from behind, and as she turned around, she saw one of the store employees. A young woman looking at Ebiko, letting out a long sigh.

  “I told you before, this behavior creeps out the customers and puts your identity at risk. And now you’re even getting a child involved,” she chastised the author who removed her ‘disguise’ and gave the woman an awkward grin.

  “Aww, don’t be like that. We’re just having some fun here as fellow authors.”

  “Fellow…?” the clerk looked at Mana with a raised eyebrow, then she looked at the new releases, obviously trying to piece together which of the works she wrote. It clicked for her soon after, it appeared.

  “My, I’m a lucky girl! Now I know not only one, but two of my favorite authors, one of whom is even an idol!” She grabbed a copy of Mana’s book from the display and fished a permanent marker out of her apron’s breast pocket, all while Ebiko cringed a little at the latter remark.

  “Would you mind signing my copy? And I’ll have autographs for your other volumes some other day, Miss,” she addressed them both.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll sign your books another time as a heartfelt apology!” Ebiko said with a big grin as Mana was busy signing her novel – the clerk happily grabbed it and put money into the register to pay for her brand-new copy.

  “You two know each other… so you do this a lot, Miss Ebiko?” Mana asked while playfully prodding the older author’s side with her elbow.

  “Ugh… I guess so. But she has a point, we played around enough. Let’s leave, young Mana!” Ebiko declared and grabbed Mana by the wrist to pull her along as she left the store.

  ***

  Mana lazily licked the soft serve which Ebiko bought her. The two sat on a park bench, staring at the greenery in front of them.

  “Well, with the lady at the store buying your tenth copy, I guess no one’s taking this win home today. A valiant effort, young up-and-coming star author!” Ebiko declared before she licked her own ice cream.

  “Actually, there was a winner, and it wasn’t us.” Mana commented.

  “Huh? I wasn’t aware we had a third person in the race!” Ebiko looked at Mana skeptically and was only met with a little grin from the witch. “Both of us sold ten books, Mashima sold twelve.”

  “Ugh! That damned siscon demographic!” Ebiko exclaimed, shaking her fist at the sky and the two shared a laugh.

  “Anyway, this is the first time we both have a proper one on one talk, isn’t it, young Mana?” Ebiko asked and Mana nodded.

  “I believe it is, Miss Ebiko.”

  “Just call me Hifumi.”

  “Alright, Hifumi.” Mana nodded. Hifumi reached out and gently ruffled her hair, even as Mana let out a sound of protest.

  “You’re such a cute girl! I’ll have to lecture Nicola a little for endangering you with her missions once I’m at her place again!” Hifumi said with a wide grin, but Mana shook her head.

  “I enjoyed them. Even with all the danger, her missions allowed me to see all sorts of strange places. Come to think of it, I wanted to visit her again, soon, and see if she has something for me.”

  Hifumi smiled and got up from the bench, looking at Mana.

  “Well, I was going to go there myself today, so why don’t we go together?”

  Mana nodded and got up from the bench, looking around and simply opening a portal right into Madame Bille’s castle. Hifumi’s eyes widened at the sight, and she jumped a small distance back from the portal as its appearance startled her.

  “Oh! I thought we were going to go to my place, through the place with all the doors!” Hifumi declared.

  “Place with all the doors?” Mana asked with a raised brow. The two stared at each other for an awkward amount of time before Hifumi let out a little chuckle. “There are a lot of methods to travel between worlds, huh?”

  “There sure are.”

  Moon of the Light Elves, 1068 AR

  ***

  Mana stepped right into the workshop of Madame Bille’s castle, and Hifumi followed. To her surprise, the villainess was not here. Mana opened a few more portals; one to the hovel on the outskirts on the other side of the river, another in her theater, yet another in the guest room, but Nicola was in none of these locations. Mana furrowed her brow and stepped to the large carving table, inspecting the tools. As expected, there were wood shavings, woodworking tools and a half-finished marionette that was in the process of emerging from a block of wood. The window behind the table, however, gave Mana a better clue where the aristocrat might be.

  “I think you should stay in the castle, Hifumi.” Mana said to her companion, who raised an eyebrow.

  “What do you mean?”

  Mana grimaced as she looked at the light show outside again. Magic projectiles, be they made from fire, ice or even lightning, crashed against barriers erected around the fort on the other side of the river. It looked like a small force of mages was harassing the city.

  “Well, it looks like this city is under attack.”

  ***

  Just a few moments later Mana entered the fort through one of her portals. It opened slower than usual, probably owed to mages working hard to counter any foreign magic targeting that place, but as soon as the people on the other side saw her face, they let her expand her portal without issue. Madame Bille stood on the city wall, looking over the battlements at the invaders with a ponderous expression. Mana had to tug on her sleeve to make her notice her guest.

  “Hm? Ah, young Mana!” the aristocrat gave her a tired smile. “Apologies for the circumstances. Did you come just to visit, or…?”

  “I wanted to know if you had any tasks for me, but you look busy. And Miss Eb- Hifumi is in your castle.”

  Those last words elicited a long sigh from Madame Bille, who wistfully looked towards the castle up on the mountain, at the tallest tower where her workshop was located.

  “I wish she wouldn’t have to see these annoying little incursions,” she commented with a bitter smile.

  “So they happen often?” Mana furrowed her brow.

  “Once a month or so. It’s like these attackers are probing my defenses. I can’t deal with them as fast as I would like to, either, because the attackers aren’t doing this out of their own free will.”

  This confused Mana a good bit. She looked over the battlements, at the black-robed wizards. “They’re not?”

  “No. They are enslaved by the High Enchantress, using poison needles embedded in their helmets. Just like it used to be with your Enraged in Tokyo.”

  Mana furrowed her brow and looked back down at the attackers, nodding.

  “So you have to remove the needles to free them.”

  “Exactly. And there’s one more thing: I need to know why they are doing this, or this will never come to an end.”

  “Why not invade them back? You do it in Tokyo all the time.” Mana suggested, and Nicola sighed.

  “War isn’t just about armies clashing and whoever kills the most enemies wins, young Witch Queen. I can’t just strike blindly, especially not when I don’t want to hurt her subjects.

  Mana nodded and looked at the figures in black, then she looked at Nicola with a little grin. “You know who commands them? Then you know where she’s from, as well? I can go and check.”

  ***

  Nicola and Mana entered the workshop through the girl’s portal – the garrison’s mages had the situation well under control, so their leader could be away for a few minutes.

  “Nicola!” Hifumi called out happily and embraced her, giving her a quick kiss. “You look good in that outfit!” she commented with a little grin, looking at the black-and-red uniform with silver embroidery and the black cape draped over Nicola’s shoulder.

  Nicola gave her a little smile and ran her hand through Hifumi’s hair before they separated, and she walked over to her bookshelf. “Wait a moment, I’m just giving Mana some coordinates. I’ll fill you in afterwards,” she assured her girlfriend as she pulled a book from her shelf. She turned towards Mana, but she didn’t hand the book over just yet, keeping it close as she made eye contact, intense enough that Mana shrunk a little bit under it.

  “Coordinates to the High Enchantresses’ world, Cala an t-solais. I will only hand these to you under one condition, and I will hold on to it until you can prove to me that you can fulfill it.”

  Mana blinked, looking first at the book, then at Nicola. “What is the condition?”

  “That you won’t go alone. It is much too dangerous for that. In fact, I’d prefer if you brought a small army with you that could distract from your presence, as I can’t use my marionettes, or it would be seen as an act of escalation. You probably have a contact or two from all the visits to other worlds, don’t you?” Madame Bille gave Mana a little wink as she spoke those words, and Mana started to mull over her options. She indeed had options, powerful ones at that.

  ???

  ***

  It had been more than a year since Mana last visited Yggdrasil. She stepped out of her portal, wearing her witch robes as she looked at the large wall with the singular gate and the few crooked stones forming its only weakness. The sun was still being chased across the sky in a chariot by wolves, and as she approached the large banquet hall, she was eagerly greeted by two large wolves ready to slobber her all over and ruin her witch robes.

  Luckily for her, she was able to brace herself this time – with a well-timed barrier behind herself she withstood the onslaught of overbearing love from her two canine friends and let them lick her cheeks while she ruffled their fur.

  “Yes... yes, I missed you, too, Geri, Freki...”

  They settled down after she scratched them extensively behind their ears, eagerly walking by her side with wagging tails as she approached the feast hall. She already heard merry shouting from behind the doors, which grew to a deafening cacophony the moment she pushed the doors open with both hands.

  It was more or less just the way she remembered: warriors were feasting and drinking, armored and helmeted as they were, but now there were not only humans, there were child-sized humanoid rodents as well, giddily mingling with the legendary warriors of the afterlife. She saw one rat warrior passed out drunk on a table, another was playing dice with three of the Einherjar, yet another stood on the table and downed a horn of mead while a crowd chered him on. She saw the capybara, the standard bearer of the Rodent Regiment, conversing with what looked like valkyries and she saw a circle, formed by both Einherjar and rodents around a duel, at least she assumed it to be one, as she could hear the ringing of steel and the constand chanting of “Rotta! Rotta! Rotta!”, as if they were cheering someone on.

  Mana ignored the merriment inside the hall for now and walked straight towards the large throne, where she last received a copy of both Gungnir and Mj?lnir. The lord of the halls of Valhalla was thankfully present, though he hadn’t noticed her yet, as he was in deep conversation with someone else. A strange man in purple robes, wearing a wizard hat that barely hid the purple glow emitting from his hair. The two appeared to share a fun conversation as Odin let out boisterous laughs from time to time, right up until he noticed her and dropped everything, jumping up from his throne and throwing his arms wide in greeting.

  “Young seidrkona! Welcome! We haven’t seen each other in so long!”

  He stomped towards her quickly, and before she could even voice a refusal he had already picked her up and squeezed her in a bear hug, and yet again the Witch Queen of the Infinite Library let out a sound resembling a dog’s squeaky toy.

  She stumbled as he put her back down and continued as if he didn’t notice her slight discomfort. “I assume I have you to thank for these mighty warriors who suddenly appeared in the fields of Valhalla a year ago? They are fierce and immortal, despite not being of the Einherjar! We have come to call them kin of Ratatoskr, given their teeth.”

  Mana gave him an awkward smile. “I hope they didn’t cause too much trouble. They didn’t know they caused suffering in my world, so I sent them to the first place with immortal sparring partners I could think of.”

  “Ah, nonsense!” Odin answered. “They fit right in, and have won the hearts of my warriors. But... where are my manners.” He walked back towards his throne, showing his guest a wide grin as he pointed towards Mana.

  “This is Mana Kanno, a young seidrkona, who walks many worlds, many more than the nine I am confined to!”

  He then introduced the other man, whose androgynous face showed Mana a friendly smile as he gave her a little wave.

  “And this right here is my friend, Jove. A wanderer from another world, just like you are. He is a god of thunder, just like my son.”

  Mana gave him a little wave in return.

  “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, young Witch Queen. Don’t be shy to bring up your business, I can wait a little while,” he assured her and Mana took the invitation as she turned towards Odin.

  “I need to scout a place for Madame Bille,” she simply said the Broker’s name, and Odin nodded.

  “Ah, the Broker, whose location I revealed to you!” he responded with a chuckle. “Do you need something from me for this excursion, young seidrkona?”

  “Warriors,” Mana responded without hesitation and the giant man raised an eyebrow. Jove let out a laugh in response, pointing at Odin.

  “You made some interesting friends since the last time we met, old friend! I don’t think I’ve ever met a mortal who asked so brazenly to command your Einherjar!”

  “You see now that there’s a reason why I took such a liking to her!” Odin declared with a wide grin, but turned back towards Mana with a serious expression.

  “However, I cannot give you the Einherjar, young seidrkona. They cannot leave the nine worlds, for their presence is needed for the final battle.”

  Mana looked at him with clear disappointment in her eyes but he grinned, getting down on one knee to pat her shoulder before he pointed into the hall.

  “You, however, have other mighty warriors at your disposal in these halls, young seidrkona. Or did you already forget?”

  ***

  She left Odin and Jove to their talk as she walked back into the hall. True, the Rodent Regiment were immortal warriors as well, but she didn’t know if she could count on them. To her knowledge they were simply people playing a video game in another world, unaware that the game projected their player avatars as real, tangible objects into other worlds.

  She walked up to a mouse warrior who was currently staring into his cup and cleared her throat. He turned around and tilted his head, before his eyes went wide and he pointed at her.

  “The witch who brought us here! What’s this about? Do you want to fight?! Huh?”

  Mana rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I want to talk to your leader. I have business with him.”

  The mouse shrugged and pointed to the big circle of men and rodents. “Ka’zarr is over there and enjoying himself.”

  “Thank you!” Mana said quickly and hurried towards the circle. The men were still chanting “Rotta! Rotta! Rotta!”, and Mana got curious enough to see what’s happening. She squeezed between tall men and past anthropomorphic rodents her size until she could finally see what all the commition was about. She saw a rat, wielding a sword and a round wooden shield, circling one of the warriors of the feasting hall who was wielding an axe and a shield. Both warriors were inspecting each other without even the slightest lapse in concentration, looking for an opening. Sometimes one of them stepped forward and faked an attack, probing his opponent’s reactions.

  The rat guy can only aim at the warrior’s lower body, right? I think he’s at a disadvantage here.

  Despite Mana’s thoughts, the rat warrior fought aggressively – he abused the fact that the taller man could only aim for his upper body and easily deflected a first blow that came for his head. He quickly sidestepped another strike aimed to split him vertically in two and slammed his shield down on the taller warrior’s wrist, eliciting a pained grunt. The follow-up, however, was what left Mana speechless.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  The anthropomorphic rat wrapped his tail around the taller warrior’s arm, using it as leverage to propel himself upwards. He soon landed on the warrior’s shoulders and didn’t hesitate in the slightest to ram his sword into the Norse warrior’s throat; a gurgling could be heard as loud cheers and boos erupted at the same time, while the rat warrior rode his opponent all the way to the floor as he collapsed. He quickly stepped off the corpse and spread his arms wide, basking in the cheers of those who rooted for him.

  “Olaf is going to be quite angry once Odin resurrects him tomorrow,” one of the warriors next to Mana commented with a laugh, and another one joined in.

  “He will not let his pride as a warrior be stained like this for long. The rat man is in for a rematch!”

  “Let him come!” the rat warrior, who Mana strongly suspected to be ‘Ka’zarr’, exclaimed with his sword raised towards the ceiling. “I’ll just beat him again!”

  Mana cleared her throat and stepped into the circle. She immediately felt an uncomfortable number of eyes on her, accompanied by whispering.

  “It’s the seidrkona.”

  “It’s Odin’s friend.”

  “The one he almost fought with Thor over.”

  Mana felt a cold sweat break out from all this strange attention she got, so she quickly addressed the rat man in front of her.

  “Are you the leader of the Rodent Regiment, Ka’zarr?”

  “Indeed! Come to marvel at my martial prowess, have you?” the rat responded, then he looked around in confusion as he didn’t get the usual hollering response from the crowd and focused Mana.

  “Err… what do you want?”

  ***

  “Hmm, a quest? Infiltration and diversion, you say? And we’re not allowed to kill anyone?” Ka’zarr asked as he and Mana sat down on one of the many chairs lining the feasting hall’s tables. Mana found them a little uncomfortable, owed to the fact that they were made from metal breastplates.

  “That about sums it up. One more thing: don’t invade those world coordinates afterwards. Don’t share them with anyone. This is a one-time thing, reconnaissance for someone else,” she quickly added.

  “Hmph… well, alright. You brought us to this wonderful world, so I won’t complain about doing a few tasks for you and… abiding by your terms. We need a little bit of variety anyway.”

  Mana grinned, getting out of her chair and reaching out a hand, which the rodent quickly grabbed and shook.

  Glory of the Moon Matron, 6310

  ***

  The world of elves was a grotesque display of opposites. A shimmering white city radiating abundance and wealth sat in the middle of famine-stricken fields. Peasants sifted through the ruined remains of their fields to try and salvage something, though it didn’t look like they would succeed anytime soon, all while the white walls oppressively towered above them, easily thirty meters in height, with even taller towers lining them. Mana could see white-robed soldiers walking along the walls with almost robotic motions, wearing conical helmets while they kept a watchful eye on the fields below.

  Mana retreated back into the thick underbrush from which she had observed the city, turning around and looking at the assembled Rodent Regiment. Fifty anthropomorphic rodents, the size of children, looked at her expectantly. They wore armor provided to them by their new friends in Valhalla yet still brought their usual guns with them. Apparently, those had a stun function, to allow them to fulfill Mana’s request for no casualties, or so they told her.

  “Guards on the walls, archers in the towers,” Ka’zarr relayed their observations to the rest, who nodded enthusiastically.

  “If we put up a barrier that intercepts their missiles, they might bring in mages, or they will sortie to engage us in melee if they think they have the numbers advantage on us… which they most certainly do.”

  The group of rodents received the report and visibly mulled over the information – a mouse lifted its hand to pose a question.

  “It resurrection allowed this time?”

  “We are severely outnumbered, and this is for a serious quest, so of course! Today, we fight to win.” Ka’zarr replied and a murmur went through the group, with no few rodent paws being balled into fists and pumped in excitement.

  “However, no killing! Only use stun modes!” Again, there were nods of acknowledgement before Ka’zarr turned towards Mana.

  “Well, we’re ready on your signal, Witch Queen. My boys and girls will start the diversion, and I will accompany you on your scouting trip.”

  Mana gave him a short nod and made her way through the underbrush, followed by the rodent leader. The rest of the regiment emerged from the forest they hid in and announced their presence by beating their drums. Mana could hear their giddy shouts grow fainter and fainter behind her as she repositioned and looked at a different section of the city’s wall to search for an opening. Just as she had envisioned, the guards on the walls ran towards the front gate, where their sharp-toothed visitors waited for them. It didn’t take long until Mana heard the bangs of the Rodent Regiment’s guns and the crashing sounds of their magic projectiles impacting the walls. It was all part of the plan to make the city think it was truly under attack, of course.

  “So, where do we go from here?” Ka’zarr asked, and Mana pointed towards a part of the wall that was now empty, without any of the brainwashed soldiers in sight.

  “We’ll get on the ramparts and try to find their seat of government. From there we’ll have to adapt as the situation demands it.”

  “Sounds like you didn’t think much about it beforehand,” Ka’zarr commented dryly and Mana’s head slowly turned red.

  “Listen, no plan survives first contact, so I don’t plan too much into detail beforehand, alright?”

  “You’re either very powerful or incredibly lucky that you survived this long,” her rat companion commented as Mana opened a portal on top of the walls, connected to one right in front of her. She poked her head through the opening and quickly had a look around, then she stepped through and waited for Ka’zarr to follow.

  The top of the wall was almost as wide as a road, with a slanted roof pointing into the city, hinting at houses built directly into the city’s protective outer wall. She could have a proper look at the city, now. White marble dominated the construction as far as the eye could see, with large arches carrying aqueducts or even a majestic staircase from the lower city to the upper district. A secondary wall separated the somewhat well-off populace from the obscenely rich, indicated by the use of gold in the construction the further towards the city center she looked.

  “At least it won’t be hard to find where their governing body sits.” Ka’zarr commented and Mana let out a dry chuckle.

  “Let’s keep going, then,” she spoke quietly, letting the distant sound of battle drown out their conversation. She eyed the inner wall and watched for any sort of movement, be it brainwashed soldiers or otherwise. She couldn’t see anything, and come to think of it, it was eerily quiet around them, in general. No chattering from people, no sound of playing children, no merchants or craftsmen hawking their business. It was a great contrast to Mana’s experience with Romystedt.

  She saw people in the streets, however, and a white or black-robed soldier stood on basically every street corner, eyeing their surroundings, while hooded figures walked soundlessly through the streets to conduct their business, even as their steps were hurried due to the commotion outside of the walls. There were no market stalls in the street or plazas, only storefronts, with doors that opened and closed soundlessly. Mana was unsettled by this strange display of elven grace. Whatever she could see of the people’s faces under their hoods looked gaunt, like the famine-stricken fields outside of the city had an undeniable effect on the residents.

  “Never seen anyone move as quietly as… everyone in this town.” her rat companion whispered. “Will make stealth significantly harder if there’s not a sound around us.”

  Mana furrowed her brow and aimed her hand at the inner city for now. A second later the odd pair was on top of the inner wall, and she looked down at the elevated inner city below, seeing houses with golden decorations. The elves here showed their heads openly, wearing pompous expressions as they discussed matters of politics with each other. They obviously were used enough to looking down on people that no one ever raised their head, otherwise Mana would be rather exposed on her elevated position.

  “So far, so good… now to find the…” Ka’zarr went quiet as he looked to the other side of town, where a palace of marble and gold arose. It appeared like it emitted its own glow, casting golden light on the surrounding buildings.

  It was circular, with a shimmering dome sitting on top of the construction, and marble columns surrounding the actual wall of the tall building which more resembled a tower. Whoever lived there would have an excellent view from the balcony which pointed towards the city from the dome.

  “Guess we found it,” the rat warrior concluded.

  Mana nodded and pointed at the building, but nothing happened. “Looks like it’s warded against teleportation and similar magic, too.”

  “That’s not good. How are we going to flee if we’re caught?” Ka’zarr demanded to know, looking at Mana with a serious expression.

  Mana furrowed her brow and pointed to a row of windows on the side of the building’s third floor. While there were magical countermeasures, physical security wasn’t taken as seriously, it appeared. There were multiple guards stationed in the street right in front of the palace, but they all had the same vacant eyes as the rest of the city guard.

  And speaking of which, Mana turned around and approached the battlements, looking towards the city gate. She saw flashes of colorful light and some explosions, furrowing her brow.

  “They’re letting loose… are they really going to be able to prevent any unnecessary deaths?” she asked her furry companion, who grinned.

  “They know just how much force they have to use, don’t you worry.”

  With that they walked along the wall in the direction of the opulent palace building, to a section of the wall which was close to the open and unsecured windows.

  “So, why did you attack Tokyo that often?” Mana asked to quell the silence.

  “Hm? Why do you want to know?” the rat looked at her suspiciously.

  “Well, for starters: I’m from there. If I had encountered your regiment before I got my magic powers, I might have died.”

  “Hmm,” was the only response she got for the next minute.

  “Originally, we were just aiming to have a look and interact with people. But when we saw those Magical Girls, we couldn’t help ourselves.”

  Mana furrowed her brow. “Elaborate.”

  “Strong entities like that make for a great challenge, you know? We invaded to fight them specifically, not to invade your world.”

  “Do you ever feel sorry for the ‘entities’ that you kill that way?” Mana asked, and the rat warrior stopped.

  “…recently, in other worlds, it has become… hard. For starters, some start to beg for their lives, and it puts a damper on the mood of everyone involved. Then there’s the looks on the faces of the survivors. We were promised that everything is in good fun, but…” he let out a long sigh. “A lot of us started to have second thoughts and were about to quit. You bringing us to Valhalla was just the break we needed! Which is why I was so open to helping you out.”

  Mana listened intently. He felt remorse for the ‘NPCs’ in the ‘game’ he played, unaware that they were real people, and, in fact, she was certain he saw her as a very smart NPC as well, and still he acted like he owed her a debt. She regretted a little that she couldn’t just tell him about the nature of his game; the colorfully clothed woman called Annette warned her of doing that. Alerting the players that the game was reality would get them banned, and who knows what the people running the game would do to the snitching players afterwards.

  The rat warrior rummaged through a bag he carried on his hip. It was an ordinary little coin pouch at first glance, but soon Mana saw that it was a bottomless bag just like the chest she received from Madame Bille last year. He grinned wide as he pulled out a hook and rope, presenting it to Mana with a rather proud expression.

  “I knew I still had one on me. Should come in handy, yes?” he declared.

  “You know that I can just get us over there with magic platforms, yes?”

  “You don’t know that. It could block you from using other magic, as well.”

  Mana opened her mouth, but she had to concede that he was right. They finally arrived at the segment of the protective wall which was the closest to the unguarded windows. Ka’zarr showed a big incisor-dominated grin as he made the hook spin on its rope in the air and tossed it over to an opened window. With a loud clink it hooked to the frame, and the rat warrior tested how firmly it sat by tugging on it a few times before showing Mana another big grin.

  “Well, there’s our ticket inside!” he declared as he walked to the battlements to fasten the rope to them – once it was taut, he looked satisfied and walked back to Mana’s side.

  “I… I think I’ll try it with my magic first.” Mana said doubtfully. The rope looked sturdy enough, but she didn’t know about her own physical ability to traverse it towards the window. Ka’zarr didn’t care much, as he simply grabbed the rope with both hands and shimmied along at surprising speed. Mana followed, summoning a magic platform in the air, stepping on top of it and repeating the process. She was able to keep pace with the rat until they reached the window, and she climbed inside.

  “See? Other than portals, my magic works!” she exclaimed with a grin after they found themselves in what looked like a servants’ quarter. Bunk beds lined the wall and simple furniture, like wooden tables and chairs filled the space in-between, turning it into a common area. As of now, no one was present, and it didn’t look all that well maintained, either. In fact, Mana could see a thin layer of dust on the furniture.

  “It’s too quiet here,” she whispered, and her companion nodded as they approached the door and opened it. Outside they found a large corridor, lined with marble statues depicting elves in expensive-looking gowns with serious expressions on one side. They all wore crowns, so Mana assumed that all of them were past kings and queens of this city. The statues faintly glowed, giving off an almost godlike aura as Mana inspected them. The other side of the hallway opened as a galleria above a central hall – and Mana ducked down immediately as she saw multiple figures standing in the middle. She could now hear a discussion between the participants.

  “High Enchantress!” a voice announced itself with almost robotic cadence. Mana put her hat aside and peeked over the edge between the railing’s balusters to have a look at the scene below, and Ka’zarr followed. As she assumed, the person who spoke earlier was one of the strange, brainwashed soldiers.

  “What is it? We’re in the middle of a discussion,” an angelic voice responded – yet despite its inherent melodic nature, there was venom in it, like an angel succumbed to feelings of hatred and spite. The person that voice belonged to was an elven woman, wearing a white dress with a sleeved wine-red cape. Gold trims and decorations covered both of these clothing articles, and a similarly golden and jeweled crown sat on top of her head, extending in a hollow, decorated ring above, making it look like a halo. Hair in a literal golden color flowed over her shoulders, and pointy ears pierced through it. Her eyes were sharp but looked tired.

  “The outer city wall is under attack by strange creatures. Large rats and other rodents in armor, who use some kind of firearms.”

  “And?” the woman in the crown hissed the soldier’s way.

  “We outnumber them. They aren’t doing serious damage to our walls, but when we engage them and inflict losses, it appears like they receive reinforcements from their home world after a time.”

  “Ugh, just take a ward with you and prevent them from entering the area! I’m busy!” the woman tossed an amulet his way and the soldier bowed, quickly walking out of the hall.

  “Well, our distraction won’t last long if they can block us from appearing again…” Ka’zarr whispered, and Mana grimaced.

  “I wish Earth had that a few years back,” she replied in a sarcastic tone before she focused her attention on the group of people assembled in the hall. There was the woman with the crown, naturally, then there was another woman, dressed entirely in red, with a big gaudy hat and wearing a mask. She held a black scythe by her side and was facing the High Enchantress. Right next to her stood another elf. This one had black hair and wore a green outfit with many protective leather parts, and an untold number of knives tucked away in various parts of her clothing.

  “Now, where were we?” the elven woman continued, and the strange person in red stepped forwards.

  “Your attacks against the puppet mistress. Are they sufficient to keep her occupied and too busy to interfere?”

  “They are. And you ought to be grateful: whoever I send to attack her that way is lost to me, you know,” the High Enchantress responded, thought she didn’t appear that bothered by it, at least to Mana’s eyes.

  “We did learn valuable information from our assaults on the oath breaker’s world, at the very least.” The woman who spoke now was the black-haired elf in leather armor. She stepped forward and produced a vial filled with some kind of white liquid.

  “You learned how to kill Deogemma,” a new voice said.

  Mana turned her head to the side and saw a strange figure which the voice belonged to. A woman, by the looks of it, wearing a simple black dress. She was incredibly thin, like she had been starving for a while, yet she moved with as much energy as any person. Her gray skin made her look sickly on top of her gaunt figure, and her white hair swayed in a nonexistent breeze as it emitted its own light. Mana gritted her teeth as she looked at her – she was immediately reminded of either Minerva, or worse, Mnemosyne.

  “So, is she ready?” the thin woman asked the black-haired elf. The woman in red with the mask clenched her free hand into a fist as she observed the two, and the black-haired woman shrugged.

  “As ready as she’ll ever be.”

  “Hmm…” the grey woman looked directly at the masked one, now, clicking her tongue. She was soon approached by the woman with the crown, who looked uncharacteristically timid around her.

  “Emissary… let her do it today. It would bring me peace of mind if the greatest obstacles to our plan were removed months ahead of schedule.”

  The grey woman addressed as the ‘emissary’ looked to the High Enchantress and scratched her chin before she made eye contact with the woman in red. She quickly stepped towards her and came to a stop in front of her, running a finger over the blade of the black scythe she was wielding.

  “My mother gave this to you, you know? This scythe separated the sky from the earth, and when the sky’s son was overthrown himself, we hid it and now, centuries later, handed it over to you with a purpose in mind.”

  “Spare me the lesson in mythology. What do you want?” the red woman asked with a hiss.

  “I’m telling you this: should you attempt it today, you need to be successful. My family will not suffer another failure from you.”

  “If you want me to be successful, Taenya will have to come with me.” The red woman responded and turned towards the High Enchantress, who was visibly narrowing her eyes in response as the red woman continued.

  “If it were just the two targets, I could make it work. However, we all know that there’s two more nuisances now.”

  “Oh, Maria… did you really think I would let you have all the fun?” the black-haired elf laughed now, stepping to her side and patting her shoulder.

  “I’ve been looking for an opportunity to put those failures in their place and restore honor to the High Enchantresses’ name,” she said with a wide, manic grin.

  “Trash needs to know when it’s been discarded and stay on the ground, after all.”

  The red woman nodded. “Then it is settled. We lure the Celestial Sisters out and you kill them, while I pick off Minerva and Bellona on their own.”

  Mana let out a gasp as she heard the names and quickly found Ka’zarr’s hand on her mouth to shush her. She took a few deeper breaths and calmed herself down, even as her thoughts were racing.

  I have to go back and warn them!

  “Let’s go, then,” the red woman raised her scythe and slashed at the air, opening a rift, not unlike Mana’s portals.

  “Oh, one more thing before you go!” the grey woman exclaimed and stepped closer with a wide grin.

  “Make it quick,” the red woman replied impatiently, turning around to face her.

  “The blonde woman. Bellona’s host… this is a silly request because you’re going to kill her anyway, but… strike her womb with the scythe, if you get the opportunity!”

  There was a long pause after the grey woman’s words before the red one spoke again.

  “What for? Dead is dead.”

  “My trust in you is… very limited. If you fail to kill her, you can at least prevent her from conceiving the abomination.”

  Abomination? They can’t possibly mean…?

  “Hmph… if you insist. One strike to the womb with the scythe. I won’t promise more than that,” The red woman replied, and the grey one gave her a wide grin.

  “Excellent… here! Take this with you as a gift!” She extended a hand and placed a ring in the red-robed woman’s hand, who looked at it for a moment before she asked, “What is this?”

  “It’s a small aspect of my dearest great-uncle and consort of my grandmother! You should be vaguely familiar with it. It will prove very efficient in luring Minerva’s host into your trap. Do not worry, I have marked you as an ally, so it won’t bite.”

  “This is a…?! So those were your doing all along…” the red woman looked uncomfortable holding the ring but pocketed it after some deliberation.

  Mana was still being hushed by Ka’zarr’s hand, preventing her from letting out any more noises. She watched as the red woman and the black-haired elf vanished in the strange portal before the grey woman addressed the High Enchantress.

  “I will be returning home for now. As for you…”

  Suddenly, the woman’s head snapped around and she stared directly into Mana’s eyes. Mana froze, unable to move or make a sound as she felt an unnatural dread, as if the mere act of making eye contact with this being was a bad omen in of itself.

  “You appear to have a rat problem, High Enchantress. Please deal with that unsightly mess while I’m gone.”

  Mana hastily erected barriers, barely deflecting multiple fireballs that came for her. Ka’zarr next to her brought out his rifle and fired magical shots into the crowd of black and white-robed guards who poured into the hall below from the shadows after the grey woman’s declaration. Multiple magical explosions flung the guards around while two of them hastily escorted the High Enchantress out of the room. The grey woman remained for now, giving Mana a mocking smile as she observed the advance of the guards on the young girl and her rodent companion.

  “They’re on the second floor above! Corner them and kill them!” she declared coldly, before she simply appeared to vanish into thin air. The guards obeyed: some of the white-robed ones summoned spears to their sides and leapt into the air, tips pointed towards Mana. She blew them back with a Blast spell and watched them fall back down into the hall with a loud crash. Mana could only hope that the enslaved people who were forced to fight were alright after that. Others landed on the galleria and surrounded Ka’zarr and Mana from either side, but they were prepared. On one side, they were blasted back by magical beams which stunned them, while Mana hit them with paralysis spells on the other, making them fall over, unable to move.

  “There’s a lot of them coming, I think we should retreat!” Ka’zarr shouted her way and Mana nodded.

  “Where to?” Mana asked as she deflected another fireball to the side and blasted a spear-wielding assailant away from her.

  “Down the stairs!” he shouted, then he pulled something round from his endless little bag. “Close your eyes!”

  “Huh?” Mana responded, and as she saw him toss the spherical object, she instinctively closed her eyes. A loud bang filled the galleria and judging by the pained yelps around them, it blinded their assailants, painfully at that.

  She felt his hand close around her wrist, and he pulled her along to evade their pursuers.

  ***

  “This is not the stairs,” Mana observed as he let go of her wrist. They were back in the servants’ quarters, kicking up some of the dust. Ka’zarr responded simply by putting a finger in front of his mouth, and Mana could hear muffled voices behind the door. “Where did they go? Catch them!”

  “They said they’ll take the stairs down! After them!”

  After the trample of a dozen pairs of boots was gone, the rat warrior let out a little sigh. “Would have taken them on. But I agreed to avoid killing, and I have to think about your safety, so instead I faked out an escape. My little diversion should give us time to get out of here, Witch Queen.”

  Mana nodded and approached the window, looking outside. So far, it didn’t look like anyone noticed the length of rope which connected the inner wall’s battlements to the room’s window.

  “Let’s not use the rope. If someone spotted us, we’d be in trouble. I can create platforms for us to walk on,” Mana declared, and the rat warrior nodded.

  “I agree this time. Well, on your sign then, Witch Queen.”

  Mana nodded and extended a hand, but just as she was about to cast her magic, something happened. At first it was a little bit of disorientation, which soon grew into a strange, blinding pain, radiating through her entire head; it was all she could do not to scream and give away their position.

  “What? What is it, Witch Queen?” the rat warrior asked in a panicked voice as Mana clutched her head, and her vision faded into a white void. She felt herself collapsing on the ground and kicking her legs as pain shot through her skull and her spine. And to her horror, as she held her head, she felt her skull opening new holes at the top below the skin while building cartilage which raised up in small triangles.

  No… not now!

  Her hair and eye color changing were simple, cosmetic changes that happened without her even noticing; but right now her head’s entire anatomy transformed. Her spine grew longer, painfully stretching the skin covering her tailbone. Mana wanted to scream. Tears welled up in her eyes as she recalled her talk with her future self.

  ‘When does it happen?’

  ‘Sooner than you might think.’

  Why didn’t she tell me that it would happen during such an important moment? Minerva… Bellona… the Celestial Sisters… they’re all in danger!

  “Hey! Hey, what’s going on?! Talk to me!” she heard Ka’zarr ask in a hushed voice, but she couldn’t answer. She was afraid that the moment she opened her mouth she would scream and get them both killed. Luckily, her old friend was there with her.

  “She is mutating,” Portal quietly told the rat warrior. “She’s in a lot of pain. She can’t move. She can’t use magic… I can’t get her out of here thanks to the enchantment on this place.”

  Ka’zarr took a step back in surprise as the book in Mana’s sleeve talked to him, then he looked around nervously.

  “What… who’s talking?”

  “I’m Portal. Her spell book of the same name.”

  “Portal? Then you can get her out of here when she’s out of the castle?”

  “I assume so…”

  The rat warrior paced up and down, visibly nervous. Mana now felt the skin on her scalp stretching to accommodate her future ears, and let out a strained, pained sound, still trying to keep as quiet as possible as her vision remained blurry from her tears.

  “Could I toss her out the window to ger her out of the barrier and you can get her away before she hits the ground?” Mana appreciated his concern, but she didn’t care in the slightest for this proposal, even with how dire her situation was.

  “No. The barrier against portal and teleportation magic extends all the way to the inner wall,” Portal responded calmly.

  “Damn it!” Ka’zarr exclaimed before he shushed himself. He grimaced and looked down at Mana, then back to the rope.

  “I can go out and remove the rope so that they won’t find you easily, but then I have no way back…” he ruffled his hair. “What am I gonna do?!”

  Mana groaned and forced herself to sit up, looking at the strange rat man through her tear-clouded eyes as he despaired on her behalf. She could still feel the growth of that new extra pair of ears in excruciating detail.

  In that moment, Ka’zarr apparently got an idea. He moved closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “I can revive when I die, and I can choose one of the locations I know to come back. I can go out there and get help!” he announced. Mana didn’t respond – she couldn’t, paralyzed as she was from the pain.

  “I’ll go back to Valhalla. Wait here for me! I’ll be back, or someone else is coming for you. I promise!” he announced, moving to the window. Mana wanted to say something, to beg him not to leave her alone, but she couldn’t get a single word out in her state. She uselessly fell on her side trying to reach out for him.

  With a quick jump, her companion was gone, shimmying along the rope to the other side. A little later the hook on the doorframe came loose and was pulled over. Mana wanted to scream and to cry for him to wait, but she was a prisoner in her changing body; her spine, in the process of changing, didn’t want to let her move too much, and neither did her head follow her commands. She heard the rat man’s voice somewhere further in the distance, shouting a taunt.

  “Hey! You there! Are you looking for me, huh?! Come on! I’m right here!”

  His voice grew ever more distant, and judging by the sound of metallic rattling, he lured a good number of guards away. Mana would be grateful, but she still felt utterly betrayed. Betrayed by her future self, who willfully let her end up in this situation. And even with all those feelings, there was nothing she could do.

  She didn’t know how long she was lying on the floor now. Her change had finally concluded, but she didn’t feel any more able to move on her own than before. Her new ears twitched on the top of her head, and she heard strange humming sounds around her which she never noticed before. Her tail awkwardly grew out of her pants which she wore under her witch robes, with no holes to accommodate it. It involuntarily moved around as she tried to collect her wits. She had to pay attention to it as she sat back up, to avoid sitting on it, while staring at the door to the servants’ quarters. She could hear muffled voices on the other side and the clatter of armored boots as people obviously ran around in the palace.

  “Mana.”

  Portal spoke softly to her, and she looked to her companion.

  “What is it, Portal?”

  “Do you hold your allies in contempt right now?”

  “You’re asking that while I’m stranded in another world? With people who want me dead? All because I didn’t tell myself what was going to happen? Because my one ally over here abandoned me?”

  There was a short pause before Portal continued.

  “You’re alive and well in a year. And you didn’t see it necessary to tell your past self about this experience. I’m getting the feeling that this needed to happen, Mana.”

  “So what?” Mana grimaced as she heard louder voices approaching the door.

  “The rat was a diversion! She must still be in here!” she heard someone shout. No one replied. Mana got the feeling that the command structure of the brainwashed soldiers of this world saw several normal people in command of their zombified countrymen.

  “Why would this need to happen?” Mana groaned as she leaned against the wall, weakly pointing her arm towards the door. If she was going to get swarmed by strange elf soldiers, she would go down fighting.

  “Maybe because the future she came from needs whatever happens to happen. Minerva and Bellona might be destined to deal with whatever is coming their way on their own.”

  Mana considered Portal’s words and looked at the ground, grimacing.

  “That’s not very reassuring.”

  The noise on the other side of the door grew louder, and she was now more than certain that at least five soldiers were ready to open the door and she would be in for a fight once they found her. She calmed her ragged breath as well as she could manage and waited for the first one to open the door to meet her defiant use of magic.

  Instead of an opening door she heard thunder and screams. People were audibly tossed around on the other side of the door, and soon after things got eerily quiet. Mana’s hand was shaking as she waited for whatever was happening to pass, and as the door opened, she immediately shot a Blast spell at whoever was entering. She saw a wizard hat flying, while the purple-haired and purple-robed wizard who stood in the door braced himself against the force of her spell.

  “Oh-ho! Is that how you greet your savior, young ‘seidrkona’?”

  Mana’s eyes widened, and she let her hand sink back to her side. The man who stood in the door was the one who shared a drink with Odin earlier that day. He nonchalantly approached her and pulled out a handkerchief to dab away the numerous beads of sweat on Mana’s face.

  “Mutated, did you? In the middle of a secret mission, too. Your companion let himself get killed by the elves in this city and returned to Odin’s feast hall, terribly out of breath and shouting about how we need to save you, how you uncovered a plot by the elves to hurt people you know.”

  He stopped his work for a moment and let Mana answer by simply nodding.

  “Now tell me, young ‘seidrkona’… I heard the names Minerva and Bellona during the rat man’s report.”

  He made uncomfortably intense eye contact, and his purple glowing eyes almost burned like fire.

  “What’s going to happen to my daughters? Where are they? Lead me to them!”