Hold over Myriad of Worlds

Moving onto the palisade of the camp, I saw Knights engaged in combat with samurai. Thanks to the rigorous training of our army, they were able to easily defend against their opponents.

They were unable to strike them down, though every time one of them was to be killed, he was saved by a bullet shot by their leader. I moved my focus to the said leader, and there stood a young girl with silver hair.

Aside from the knights, a few of our elites were also fighting. Nobunaga was commanding the army when Jing Yuan was dueling with a man in blue body tights. Even more eye-catching was his blood-red spear.

Next to him, Yanqing was confronting a katana-wielding woman with short pink hair. The last battle that was taking place was that of Yelan and Ninja. They were in a cloud of smoke appearing and disappearing from view.

Because of our advantage, the enemy soon started a retreat. Nobunaga didn't order the pursuit, as from their side, two women appeared. One carried a giant shield, while the other banner. They stood and waited until the samurai returned to the city before returning themself.

As the battle came to a close, I approached Nobunaga to ask for details.

-"Hello, Nobunaga. What's going on?"

-"Yue, It's good to see you. As you can see, I met unexpected resistance when I started the attack on the city."

-"Strange, there should not be so many powerful people there, and yet someone can fight Jing Yuan head-on."

-"That's why I called for you. Something is off, and I don't want to be caught off guard."

-"I'll stick around then. Do you have any idea who the opponents are?"

-"Nothing solid. Most of the samurai belong to nobles in the city, but I don't recognize elites of the opposing side."

-"Hmm... The situation becomes troublesome. Let me try to gather some information with divination."

-"Please do so. Right now, we are in the light while they are in shadow. If this continues, we will start accumulating casualties."

I at first tried using my personal Omniscia, but couldn't find anything. Deciding to try again with the Matrix of Timeless Divinity, I returned to Hold temporarily and started the reading.

This time, even stranger situations occurred. Our opponents were shielded by some powerful being that restricted my power. No divination could affect them directly.

I returned to Nobunaga And explained what had happened. She decided to hold a war council, and soon Jing Yuan, Yelan, Finn, and Fu Xuan joined us.

-"All are here? Good, let's start then. I already passed on to you what Yue found. Any thoughts?"

-"Powerful being... None of those who appeared had enough strength to block divinations like that."

-"General is right. Normally, only Aeons can outright block divination. While here, different circumstances may apply, we should consider that they have at least a divine being as assistance."

-"I agree with Fu Xuan. We should be careful."

-"Finn, you had some conflicts with people backed by gods. Any things we should be careful about?"

-"Gods are fickle. There is no sure way to make sure that they will not act. As Yue is here with us, he will be a deterrent for anyone behind our enemy."

-"Yelan, how are our spies in the city?"

-"Safe, but can't do much. I ordered them to gather information on the opponents. I'll go there and support them later."

-"I advise against it. Danger inside the city is too great, and with something that can limit my power, I may not be able to save you in time."

-"Yue is right. Yelan, you will assist me directly this time. Keep spies in hiding. Their assistance can't help us much now."

-"Sigh. Leave that Ninja to me then."

-"Good. Jing Yuan, how's the army?"

-"Few casualties, but all injuries, no deaths. A total of 126 Knights are out of combat for now. 76 from Ember, 36 from Lapis, 14 from Cloud."

-"More than I thought."

-"Most were injured by those two. Only after we blocked them, our soldiers could return to formation."

-"I'll take care of the soldiers. You guys focus on the elites."

-"Fu Xuan will be in charge of keeping soldier formations. Jing Yuan, you will be responsible for intercepting any stronger opponent."

-"Just give me some more people."

-"On Ningguang's side, most matters are already done. Call some people from there."

-"Will do so. Domination can't be the only one working. Duty has to pick up the slack."

-"If that is all, now go and rest. We don't know when the enemy will attack again."

-"Yes, let's end this meeting."

I decided to help in the hospital. No one had life-threatening injuries. My help there was limited to simply closing some wounds and changing dressings. One in charge of the hospital here was Bailu. She is friendly to me, and we, from time to time, exchange formulas for some medicine.

As night arrived, the whole camp became tense. I moved onto ramparts and decided to keep a watch throughout the night. As the morning drew near, Fu Xuan sat next to me.

-"More people arrived just now. Some new faces even."

-"Good, it's better to not leave anything to chance."

-"What do you think of this whole situation?"

-"I hope that this is only some god playing with mortal lives to amuse themself. If we truly ran into some hostile force against Hold, it would get messy."

-"Sometimes I wonder if, as head of Progress, your place should truly be on the front. You seem to spend more time in action than even members of Domination."

-"Progress is not something that should happen only in the lab. While most of the members would not want to go into battle, I think that only when pushed to an extreme will you break your limits."

-"Principle of Fianlity."

-"Yes. Fu Xuan, what about you? You are also a member of Progress, but you follow me into battle often."

-"To be honest, I don't know. I simply feel that following you is the right thing to do, and as a diviner, I believe in my instinct."

-"That's so much like you. Time to go. Our enemy is moving."

We joined the rest of the Hold's forces. This time, more people joined to assist in battle. Fu Hua, Hua, Mei, Kiana, Bronya, Wendy, Sakura, Shenhe, and even Jingliu were there. The new faces that Fu Xuan was referring to are Durandal and Rita, who joined us after transferring from Schicksal.

Nobunaga commanded the army while they were under Jing Yuan. Fu Xuan joined Nobunaga and started focusing on Knights. I meanwhile simply stood behind them all, making sure no one beyond their strength showed up.

Soon, two armies stood before each other. Jing Yuan moved forward to meet representatives of the opponents. From the enemy side, the woman with the banner walked out of their formation.

They exchanged some words but evidently couldn't come to an agreement, as they soon returned. From what Jing Yuan said, they want us to stop destroying this world.

This request was out of the blue, and he thought that they simply found some justification for continuing to oppose us. This also somewhat confirmed that gods were simply playing, goading mortals with the glory of saving the world.

The first to start the fight were soldiers. Our Knights were once again proving better. The addition of Fu Xuan led to our side pushing back opponents at a speed where, not even 30 minutes in, opponents sent their elites to fight.

Jing Yuan sent Herrsher girls to intercept, as this was thier first war they took part in. Sakura moved with them to step in when needed. They quickly started fighting, but having not much experience, they were unable to dominate the battlefield despite the overwhelming power they possessed.

The battle quickly moved into a stalemate. Even our advantage in general forces was stopped when the woman with the banner started helping samurais with some enchantment.

This time, it was Jing Yuan who sent more people into combat. Yanqing with Durandal, Rita moved to the other side of the battlefield to start their fights. Now, both flanks of armies were engaged in combat. Overall situation was in our favor, but the enemies still had trump cards. 

Suddenly, a woman with white hair kicked Mei high into the air, only to manifest a great bow surrounded by flames. Drawing the string with full force, she fired a fire arrow into the still-recovering in-the-air Mei.

Sakura quickly stepped in and, with one cut, detonated the arrow before it could reach. Her entering the combat prompted another opponent to turn into a giant white serpent and attack.

One by one, battles started escalating, and soon, many spells were flying everywhere around, being barely stopped by Fu Xuan and Banner Woman from hitting the soldiers. 

As this went on, I detected some uninvited guests arriving in the camp. Teleporting there, I meet Purple Oni from my trip on the reverse side.

-"We meet again, Yōkai friend. I advise you to leave quickly. You don't want to get involved in the fighting, do you?"

-"Ah Yue, you are here too. Sadly, this time, I have to support this human here. It seems that you brought some kind of danger into this world."

-"We did? Interesting. Why would you say this?"

-"Let her explain, Gudako, please."

-"Ehem. I'm Ritsuka Fujimaru, Master of Chaldea. Because of certain incidents, history has deviated from normal flow, and we are here to correct it."

-"Correct the history? Then, who decided what 'correct history' is?"

-"What?"

-"You see. From my point of view, suddenly someone appeared here shouting about saving the world. At first, I believed some god was simply playing with you for his amusement, but it seems something more is going on. So please, explain."

-"Allow me to do so."-A male voice sounded from somewhere.-"I'm Romani Archaman, acting director of Chaldea. We detected singularity that would change how the future is, and as such, we moved to solve it."

-"Then you, people from the far future, intervene in the past to make sure your future is real. That is outright impossible."

-"What do you mean?"

-"If you change something in your past, you change your own Karma. This is against the most fundamental Laws of existence. Either what you are changing are parallel words or the world itself here is somewhat helping you."

-"You have great knowledge of how time works."-This time, a female voice sounded from someplace.-"I'm da Vinci, by the way."

-"I do. But I'd like to focus on the current situation, as while there is no death in the combat yet, the situation can change at any time."

-"Yes, excuse her. We in Chaldea use something called CHALDEAS, which possesses part of counterforce. Will of Humanity to survive."

-"Humanity's will, is it? And that gives you the mandate to act? I'm surprised that Onis didn't throw you out of the mountain."

-"Eh?"

-"Don't be so surprised, Chaldea Master. Humans are not exactly a peaceful race. The current situation of many mystical creatures is their workings after all."

-"But if not humanity, the era of gods would still continue."

-"Oh, I hate gods more than any of you, but what does this change?"

-"Let me give you a piece of information, members of Chaldea. Yue is not human. Don't even try to pull that stunt with us being better here. He is right that humanity is not exactly liked by magical beings that are left."

-"Human or not, in the end, we are here to save the world."

-"From whom?"

-"Ehh..."

-"Blind fools. From what I see, you are not saving, just enforcing the status quo. No matter how people will suffer later, you make sure it happens as this is 'right history'."

-"And we are not wrong in doing that. Our future is dependant on history going the way it did."

-"Yes. It would seem that negotiations have broken. As you leave think if your future is truly worth preventing someone from trying to create a better one."

I forcefully teleported them to where they came from. Returning to my previous spot, I continued watching the battle. It mostly continues as before. From time to time, some more powerful attacks would be unleashed, only to be quashed by the strongest on either side.

The skillful command of Nobunaga finally allowed us to make a breakthrough in enemy lines, forcing samurais to retreat almost to the gate of the city. Many enemies were captured by us and transported back for medical attention.

Around one-fourth of the enemy were now prisoners in our camp. This has given us an overwhelming advantage. Nobunaga was not one to pass on such occasions and ordered a full attack on the city. To clean the flanks of the elites, both Jing Yuan and Jingliu entered the combat.

Now, enemies were pushed on all sides, with little to no chance for a breakthrough. But when you are at your best, accidents tend to happen, this time being no different.

The same man in blue tights started unleashing his own powerful move. Jumping in the air, he gathered power in his spear and threw it with full force forward.

The spear flew and started homing on the target, changing trajectories every now and then. It was strange, as if I was not observing an attack but rather something that had already taken place before.

It flew by our elites, and when everybody on our side was surprised, thinking that the attack had failed, I noticed who was the true target. Jumping into action, I started using the path of Preservation to block the spear, but it could ignore my every barrier.

I started using other paths. Enigmata and Elation to make it miss, but it did not work. Hunt and Destruction to destroy it, but it was too strong. I even used Nihility to the point of creating holes in existence, but the spear continued.

The spear was affected by the same force that restricted my divination, the Will of Humanity. While not as powerful as Aeon, its strength was not what mattered here. It was the nature of this strike as a 'sure hit' enforced by the power beyond this world that made me powerless.

Using everything I have in my power as an emanator of Finality, I tried to change time, allowing me to prepare countermeasures in the form of some formation, but to no avail.

I grabbed the sword and mobilized the world to use five elements to contend with that strike head-on, but another power, similar to the Will of Humanity, restricted my ability to control nature.

In the end, I could only watch as the spear continued until finally impaling Fu Xuan, who stood further behind me with shock on her face. Before I could even arrive, she was already lying lifeless.

Grasping the spear, now void of powers that opposed me, I erased it from existence with a fusion of Destruction and Nihility. Kneeling next to Fu Xuan, I mobilized the path of Abundance to try and save her, but for naught. She was already gone, her soul shattered by the impact.

The whole world stood still. Both allies and enemies stopped everything and looked at the first death of this war. Even the person throwing the spear was shocked, not expecting such an outcome.

The silence continued until a voice sounded from everywhere

~"Heh, how is it to become another fool, Yue?"