Extra 16: Gate (21)

Zufmuut growled angrily as he watched his companions give him different kinds of looks.

"I only did it because it was best for the Kingdom of Eden" - Zufmuut replied as he narrowed his eyes.

"Sacrificing an innocent girl for the sake of gaining power?" - Emroy asked with disdain - "And I'm the sick one?"

"Well, at least you admit it, you fucking psycho" - Hardy replied with a grim smile.

"Says the witch who gains followers with my madness" - said Emroy as he shook his head - "That aside, what do the others think?"

"They seek revenge" - muttered Palapon, the god of vengeance, with a gloomy voice.

"Yes, and a well-founded one" - replied Emroy with disdain - "I can smell the delicious scent of war approaching, one that is filled with death."

"I wonder what the souls of those invaders will be like, if they will at least fall into my domain" - muttered Hardy with interest.

"I think we're getting off-topic" - said Kurama with a frown - "What do you think, Miritta?"

"Honestly, I couldn't care less what those invaders do, my domains are not affected by their intervention" - replied an elderly woman with a rather young and seductive voice.

"As you would expect from the bitch of the group" - Emroy said disdainfully.

"Don't call me a bitch, Emroy" - growled Miritta, the goddess of fertility, as she looked in the direction of the priest of the god of death.

"Oh, come on, your devotees have to prostitute themselves before marriage, as one would expect from the goddess of prostitutes" - said Hardy with disdain - "What's worse is that she keeps showing herself as a pure and loving woman."

"Those are customs that mortals created, I have not approved them" - snarled Miritta angrily.

"But you haven't eliminated them either, and it's been centuries since mortals have started these practices" - said Wareharun as she joined the conversation - "I have even seen how a group of mortals has the unwritten rule that it is not necessary for women to prostitute themselves if they pay the necessary money, what hypocrites!"

Miritta was about to reply, when she noticed Kurama frowning.

"As much as I would like to keep listening to you kill each other, I think it's time we get back to the main topic, what do we do about the invaders?" - Kurama said as he looked around.

There were more gods, but these were unimportant, or little known, in other words, they didn't have the right to stand next to them because of the huge difference in powers.

"Complete annihilation, my opinion hasn't changed" - Emroy replied while frowning - "Although I might change my mind if I see their interaction with my apostle, she has a better ability to judge people."

"I reckon that's a good idea, sending our apostles to give us their judgement, we haven't been too focused on the mortal world to be able to give them a fair judgement" - Deldort said as he nodded.

"Hmm, not a bad plan" - muttered Hardy as she pondered - "I think this is the best consensus that we can come to without the end result of a holy war."

"I share the same thought" - nodded Flare as the others began to accept this proposal.

"Ok, I think the next thing would be to send a messenger to inform the invaders about our decision, so at least they will have the possibility to be able to try to trick us" - said Emroy with disdain.

"Or to show us their true colors, they are not necessarily evil" - muttered Elange as his sister nodded at his words.

"Hmm, I guess you're right, we can see them from our dimensions, so there's not much of a problem with them lying to us" - nodded Flare as his companions smiled slightly.

"Ok, we have the plan, now all that's left to do is wait" - said Kurama as he watched the priests fall to their knees with a pained and tired expression - "Are you guys ok?"

"Yes, just a little tired" - muttered the Emroy priest wearily as he spat out some blood - "I'm sorry for staining your office with my blood, Kurama-sama"

"No worries, rest for now" - said Kurama with a small smile as he saw how all the priests were in a similar situation.

When they withdrew, Tyuule and the others came in with a curious expression.

"Can we know what's going on?" - Tyuule asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it's not like it's a secret" - Kurama replied as he shrugged and explained the general situation, obviously leaving the personal issues of his peers.

* * * * *

"Well, this is just as we thought" - said a soldier as he shook his head while trying to do damage control because the hostages they had rescued were furious, because Kurama had been the nicest person they had ever met.

"We can worry about that later, now we have to send them back to Japan, and start our recon mission" - Hazama replied as he looked around, concentrating on one of his subordinates - "Itami, you will be the assigned leader for the recon mission, I want your team to be sending me weekly reports."

"Ok" - nodded Itami as he started to think - "What about the location of [Samsara]?"

"We have a general location, though for now we'll just stay at a safe distance and gather intel from nearby villages" - Hazama replied as Itami nodded - "You leave first thing tomorrow morning."

* * * * *

"Emperor, we have received important information about [Alnus] hill" - said a minister as he walked in front of his emperor.

"Speak" - said Molt as he narrowed his eyes.

"We have detected the presence of an unknown military force on [Alnus] hill" - replied the minister with a frown - "We don't know if they are responsible for the disappearance of Zorzal-sama"

"It doesn't matter, their presence is worrying, but I don't want to do something that I will regret later, so I would like you to call my daughter to come immediately, the mission I assigned to her doesn't matter anymore" - answered Molt seriously - "I want everything to be as fast as possible"

"Yes!" - exclaimed the minister as he withdrew.

Molt was silent before shaking his head.

"Maybe this is for the best, it doesn't matter anymore if Zorzal is alive or not, the only thing that matters is that the empire stands firm, and from what I see, Piña is the right one to become the succession to the throne" - Molt muttered as he pondered over the general situation of the empire.

* * * * *

A day later, Piña was looking at the letter his father had sent him.

"Piña-sama?" - Bozes asked as she looked at her best friend. She had matured not only physically, but also mentally during these three years, the inexperienced girl had been left in the past, and now she was a beautiful 18-year-old woman.

"Father wants us to return" - replied Piña with a frown - "It seems that an unknown force appeared in [Alnus] hill, possibly that was what my brother wanted to do."

Bozes and the other knights serving as his escorts looked at each other.

The girls shook their heads because this place was heaven for them, not only were stores for all tastes and hobbies, and they didn't have to worry about their parents trying to marry them off to other noble families, Bozes and Beefeater being the most upset.

"You guys can stay if you wish," - Piña replied with a smile.

"No, we are your escorts, your direct subordinates" - Bozes replied firmly.

"Right, besides, it's not like we can't come back" - Beefeater added as she shrugged - "Remember that we have a meeting with Kurama-sama in a week"

"Oh, that's right" - nodded Piña as she pondered - "I wonder why my father is telling me to return?"

"Maybe to announce your succession to the throne?" - Bozes asked as she raised an eyebrow - "Let's face it, you've done for the empire, much more than your brothers."

"Well, it's not like they've done anything in all these years" - Beefeater replied sarcastically as the others nodded - "The only one who had done something for the throne, is Zorzal, and even though he was a bastard, he knew what he was doing"

"Right" - Panache felt as she started to think - "So, when do we leave?"

"First thing tomorrow, it's already too late to leave, not to mention that this way we'll at least explain why we're leaving" - replied Piña as she shook her head - "I don't think it's a good idea to just disappear like that."

"True, our disappearance could create misunderstandings" - replied Bozes with a frown.

Grey smiled when he saw how the girls had grown up, while Norma was shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, let's say goodbye with our neighbors" - said Piña with a small smile on her lips before leaving the room together with her subordinates.

"Well, at least they are aware of the situation" - said a female silhouette as she appeared in the now empty room - "I guess this information won't be handed over to Kurama-sama because they will do it themselves."