Vendetta of the Otherworlders

Unlike the horde of monsters that he let loose onto the surface world, the bomb that hit Miyazono Keiji's mountain bunker wasn't a mere neutron bomb, but instead, a bunker-busting hydrogen bomb.

Made with a casing of ultra-dense metal and a high-speed rocket engine for its propulsion system, the three hydrogen bombs nicknamed as "Amaterasu", successfully burrowed into the hardened bedrock of the mountain face and in its cave system, detonated with absolute impunity.

That day, one sentiment was ingrained in the thoughts of each and every person who heard of the absolutely neutral reports about it by independent radio broadcasters. News people that everyone expected to criticize the government very strongly, instead spoke about it with a gentle tone and a choice of words that expressed a sense of worry towards not only the present… but also the future.

["We must not use these weapons again unless the safety of our nation and people are at stake."]

In order to calm the public, Kiko's Provincial government, as the only ones with the know-how and means to harness nuclear power, said that they empathize with the public's concerns and promised not to use these weapons once again unless situations truly become dire in the future not only for Kiko but the entirety of Japan that has now entered into the fold of the Alliance.

["Unless our country, our people and our laws are not in grave harm, these weapons of mass destruction will remain sheathed… for it is not only terrible towards our enemies, but also towards our people who shall bear the infamy of possessing such a terrible weapon at the expense of every other creed and kin's fears."]

The same went to the Allied Forces who has been rumored to still be holding several nuclear warheads that are ready to sortie in any given minute. They were hounded by the media to give their words and being told by Nobisuke to calm the public, they gave their statement later on that no unannounced bombings will be done anymore. Some of the reporters would've questioned how that response was worded if not for an announcement that was attached at the end of the statement.

"We believe that the enemy is now alone and at the brink of unconditional surrender. If any force is going to be set there, it would be the last force to be sent and will subsequently end this war."

Being hit by three nuclear bombs and having his supposedly innumerable and undefeatable horde of monsters eradicated from the face of this planet, the alliance was sure that their enemy, Miyazono Keiji, is on his last legs.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

My flesh has become bloated… my senses has been robbed from me…

My body yearns for death… my soul desires respite…

I have again and again, petitioned for my demise, wishing to be freed from this fate that I have so foolishly chosen in my time of absolute frustration and madness…

And yet… there is no turning back for me anymore… there is…

"…nothing awaiting me than damnation and misery."

Where have I gone wrong?

When did I make the mistake of taking on this destiny?

Was it because I truly hated mankind? Was it because I cannot find any other reason for me to exist beyond the poignant memories of those that I held dear in the past?

Perhaps, it isn't… If memory serves me right, I wasn't a madman nor a stubborn psychopath when I first opened my eyes.

I knew how to be happy, how to be sad, how to feel anger as well as feel love… I was one of the masterpieces of my dear father and the maker of my very flesh and being. Alongside my precious elder sister and younger sister, we followed the wishes of our father and again and again, did all that we can to bring his dreams to fruition.

But all of that changed… when we accepted the hand of a monster who fed off our souls and fattened itself with the countless lives that we so willingly offered to it.

"Babel… Cursed Spirit of Chaos and Void."

My younger sister fell to the depths of unfettered degeneracy. The one child among us three who once was seen as the unblemished jewel of our family became an unabashed woman who saw no harm nor shame in the deplorable things that she partook in.

For me, the monster drove me to madness. As a being of Chaos, feeding off the souls of those that desire to go against all of reality's code of order, I was made into someone who does not only seek depravity and disorder… I was made to thirst for it to the point that if I am not seeking the next source of temporary happiness, I would lose my mind more and more.

Of us three, it was my elder sister who seemed to have been unaffected by the monster's temptations… and if only… if only I listened to her back then… I could've freed myself from the grip of this monster before I lost it all…

Alas… it was far too late when I realized that I could've awoken from that terrible nightmare masquerading as a sweet dream and in due time, I was found and could've been killed by our great enemy… but this monster has bound itself to not only my flesh, but my very soul and being.

Brought to this world which it forced me to despoil and turn into its nest, I was powerless to stop it… but perhaps, it is not yet late for everything to end as how it should've ended.

"Stand up, Keiji! We are not done yet! We may have been pushed back, but we will surely be victorious!"

I can do nothing anymore about this monster who has took over my body and mind. Even as I speak, I can feel it wriggling towards what's left of me, finally able to completely take over my body and use it for its purposes.

"Damn you, fools of Caelestia! If only…! If only I could've claimed the world back then! I could've used it to enrich myself! To claim more worlds and spread my being!"

{"Did you really think that I would allow that, Babel?"}

"WAAAAHHHH!!!"

All of a sudden, a voice that I have feared from the very bottom of my heart and soul echoed in the dark and desolate cave where my body twisted by the weapons of those who opposed me is clinging to the edge of its life.

{"Invalids like you and my people have all etched our borders in the Sea of Stars, the Great Infinitudes and the Matrix of Reality… However, unlike my people and I, an Invalid like you whose ceaseless desire is to fatten yourself with the vices and lives of these innocent people is not worthy of remaining alive… nay, you don't even deserve to be known to have ever existed at all."}

"YOU… YOU!!!"

{"I've destroyed your body, Caelestia have demolished your soul… and yet, by your stubbornness and inability accept defeat when it is calling for you to pay the dues that you have incurred, you run with your barbed tail between your legs and licking your wounds like the mongrel dog of a demonic Invalid that you are."}

"HOW DARE YOU STOP ME BACK THEN!!! AND EVEN NOW! EVEN NOW THAT I COULD'VE TAKEN WHAT SHOULD'VE BELONGED TO ME ALL THIS TIME!"

{"…"}

"EPHRAIM!!! I WILL TURN THIS WORLD THAT YOU AND CAELESTIA HAVE SO STUBBORNLY SAVED AND RENEWED INTO THE HELL THAT YOU STOPPED ME FROM MAKING! MANKIND WILL SUFFER! THIS WORLD WILL BE MY NEST!"

Just like how this monster declared back then, there was really only one way that it could reach out to its desired dreams.

"I WILL BE THE HIGHEST BEING IN THIS WORLD AND ALL OF REALITY! AND YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT ANYMORE-"

{"And who decided that?"}

"-!!!"

His voice that has haunted Babel ceaselessly to the point of unfathomable insanity was enough to not only stop the fake bravado of this monster but remind him of his fate if he once again fails to reach towards his goal of taking over this world.

{"Did you really think that I would leave this reality and be barred from stepping into it once again… when I know that you will appear and retake it from the now powerless people of this world, unprotected by anyone owning enough power to go against you?"}

"I-it can't be… then the technological advancements… the resistance against my plans to despoil humanity and ruin the order of this world…!"

{"It's amusing that you who once held the loom of destiny and weaved into the lives of my ancestors and I the worst of fates, would be so ignorant of what would happen after I have retaken it from you back then… Did you really think that between you and I, you will be the one who'd be sided by this reality that you so blatantly bastardized?"}

"No… it's impossible! How can humans…! MERE MORTALS!!!"

{"Mere mortals? You seem to forget that it was my comrades and I, humans who simply wanted to protect all that we loved, who went against you, a being whose vulnerability to fall into demise is unsure, and in the end, won and broke you to the point you are in right now?"}

"YOU-!!!"

{"Fragile… Volatile…"}

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY-"

{"Weak."}

As soon as it heard itself being called a weakling, my body bloated and twisted by radiation reformed itself and charged towards the darkness ahead of me where the voice is coming from. Once I saw a shadow moving along the walls, I slammed my fists onto it.

"Weak? Weak?!?!?! I am Babel! Cursed Spirit of Chaos and Void! Humanity cannot go against me! Mankind will never be able to defeat me! Especially when it doesn't have you anymore! I will plant terror in their hearts and sow hatred and misery on their minds!"

{"If I have anything to tell you before you learn what I have left in this world to end what I have started, it would be this…"}

"-!!!"

From behind me, that voice continued to speak and at the end, spoke as if it was so near to my ears.

{"Your days are numbered, O malicious chaotic spirit… there is nothing left for you to do than fear for your very existence and accept your demise."}

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

As soon as the luxury airliner used exclusively by the Shogun and his family have landed at the new airfield just outside Nadeshiko city of the Shogunate Capital of Yamato, various media companies and groups flocked to take photos of the Shogun and his entourage and some even hoped to hear what kind of excuse they would give about leaving the mainland while the war that will end all wars in the nation is going on… but much to their disappointment, there was only the Shogun's family who stepped out from the plane and they all refused to give any words to the journalists.

The Shogun, Amanogawa Sora, was nowhere to be seen… at least, for the common folk and those who are keen on finding him.

"It is a terrible weapon… but if they didn't chose to do this, we'd have a greater problem on our hands."

"Right. Those monsters, I believe you talked about them before as the by-product of the failed "Perfected Mankind" project done by the Miyazono corporation… Humans that are already perfectly imperfect… tempted to take on modifications that only twisted them into mindless monsters."

At the plains where the neutron bombs were detonated, a lone train being ridden by two men, smaller than the standard locomotives used by private companies and modern armies are rolling down the mostly undamaged rail lines heading to the mountain which has been sealed off with siege defenses until the residual radiation has dispersed.

"Speaking of which, did your men find the last two members of Vega?"

"Indeed they did… The reason why this train, formerly owned by that half-blood, can be used to secretly ferry you to the mountain, is because its original owner is no longer in this world."

"Care to tell me about the details?"

"…Alright. According to the information dug up by my men, that man named Luke became the errand boy of the Coalition because he's the only one with a train that doesn't break down after about three or four long trips. It seems like your own spies were good at sabotaging the Coalition's locomotives as soon as they turned on you."

"I have Endou-kun to thank about that. His men were quick to cut off any attempt on having the insurrection travel to either Niijima or Yamato, effectively containing their activities for a while up north, only trickling down later on to the Central Plains."

"Is that so? Well, going back to this Luke guy, during the past winter, he was the one who brought men and supplies to the frontlines which they used to mount an offensive against us… however, the strike on their flanks and the fall of Kisaragi province undermined all of his effort and in the end, the fall of the Coalition and the death of its leaders brought him and his other accomplice to instead, head towards the only other person still left on their side."

"How did he die?"

"While they are begging for Keiji to take them in, the madman told them to prove their loyalty to him and said that they should bring him an "offering"."

"And this offering is?"

"The heart of someone important to them, dried with salt and burned to ashes in front of him."

"I see… then this Taka did "that"?"

"Right… his accomplice, Taka, drew his dagger, dug out Luke's heart while he is still alive and prepared it casually while the half-blood is still clinging to life. The spy that Endou-dono sent there said that it all happened like that."

"What of Taka, then?"

"His death is worse that you can ever imagine… although he did accept Taka after he willingly killed his own accomplice in front of him, being so paranoid of traitors and further failures on his plans, he turned Taka into a monster that he then tasked to guard the mountain from any trespassers. Thankfully, three nuclear bombs did him in… but we believe that what killed him was the radiation left behind by the explosions."

"I see… a long and painful death fitting for a deplorable being such as him."

As the train trudged on, a brief silence came between the two men before the one who has been answering questions all this time now became the asker.

"Now then, if I may ask, Shogun Amanogawa… what is the reason why you secretly snuck out of your capital and went here at the frontmost frontlines of this soon-to-end-war? Are you looking for some last sparks of a glorious contribution so that you can boast around later?"

"Hehe… No, no. The answer is simple, Akizuki Minori-kun… it's because I have a promise to fulfill and a fate to take upon myself."

"What… do you mean?"

From his bag, he took out a locket and opened it to reveal not a small photograph, but instead, an engraving written in a language spoken or understood by no one else other than he and Hiroshi.

"I must end what I started… as the one who allowed the rebels of the past world's new world order to topple that order and be freed from their hold, there is only one way for all of this to end."

As the first among the Otherworlders to have an agenda against their great enemy, Amanogawa Sora is taking the lead position in the conclusion of this conflict.

"When will you be making your moves, my fellow Otherworlders?"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

At the skies above, a small plane, used during the war as a spotter plane for artillery, bears in its two seats a pilot and a woman dressed in a simplified shrine priestess uniform.

"I know I've asked this a lot of times and it would make me sound like a broken record… but are you really sure that you want to get involved in this again, Maya-chan?"

"It's not only that I want to… I need to."

At the passenger seat of the plane sat a young woman who seem to have a lot on her mind judging from the expression on her face. She seems to be carrying a heavy burden that she has carried for so long that it cannot easily elude her attention anymore. Like a mistake on the engraving on a stone that cannot be undone anymore.

"I need to, huh? You make it sound like this is something that shouldn't be question at all anymore. Something that I find hard to understand…"

"You were not there and not aware of the sacrifices that was done in order to free our past world from the horrors that came for it… I didn't expect you to understand that at all."

"I see… I'm not part of that club, huh?"

"Heh… calling it a club makes it sound like it's something that you can willingly join when in truth, we were all forced into it."

"Still, mind enlightening me about all of this? I don't expect much, but I at least want to know why you're going to such extremes like parachuting right at a restricted warzone like this."

"Well… It's a long story, but since it seems like we're still far from the mountain, I don't mind telling a bit about what happened back there and why I have to be involved in how all of this will end."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When Miyazaki Hiro and Arata Chikako departed from the old world, I, Azusagawa Maya, was the last non-complacent witness in the entire world to know the secret of the Miyazono conglomerate's many evils towards humanity and its core values as moral beings.

As Hiro's childhood friend, I wanted to save him too… but as if possessed by an unnatural sense of foolhardy courage, Hiro told me to take the corpse of his beloved, have her buried at a place where she will never be found and to run away… run away and hide as our enemy is the merciless Miyazono corporation whom none can ever defeat…

Or at least, until "that man" came into the picture and brought with him what is probably the greatest threat against the new world order of the Miyazonos.

For years, I hid like a rat from abandoned building after abandoned building in the old city of Japan. When their bounty hunters learned of my hideouts in Old Tokyo, I made the dangerous and arduous escape from the walled city and trekked for weeks towards Old Kyoto where I found solace with a group of people with the same circumstances as me.

In my heart, a desire to avenge my friends who was subjected to all kinds of debauchery, abuse and eventually, death still burned solemnly. Though I was forced to leave them, I never forgotten that desire and always tried to seek comrades who would help me in my pursuit for revenge… However, I found no comrades with the people I stayed with in Old Kyoto.

"It's futile, Maya-chan… The Miyazonos have it all. Riches, power and even influence over the people to make them question and eventually believe that the sky isn't blue."

These people are like me. They lost everything to the Miyazonos… and yet, unlike me, they no longer have the heart to continue on and seek revenge for those that they lost.

"Give up already. Let the die to rest and just live what's left of your life."

They have given up… In their hearts, there is no longer even just a kindling fire that I can ignite back in order to gather them to my cause. They told me to give up, give in, listen to reason and just understand that this is how things should be…

My answer?

"What an utter load of rubbish."

My bright future, my sweet memories, my burning aspirations, my precious friends and my beloved childhood friend whom I have treated as my very sibling since we were hapless children.

All of these… they have taken every single one of these from me.

Do they really think that I wouldn't make them pay for all of it?

Though I found no help amongst the disheartened ones whose loses I shared with, I found it after news of the Miyazonos repeatedly being defeated by a certain group back in Old Tokyo reached my ears and against all odds, I went back to that accursed city.

"That guy is-!"

I found my hope… right at the moment when the world was shaken to its very core as a great tragedy struck not only Japan but what is left of the populated countries that dots the world.

"Ephraim… Chronia."

That name carried by that strange foreigner who befriended Hiro a year before his death and subsequently took his siblings under his care as his children, echoed in my mind as I saw him hold his ground and eventually defeat one of the Miyazono masterminds of that tragedy years ago.

"Etch this in your very soul, you monster."

"EEEK-!"

"The underworld is real, and it beckons for your sinful soul very dearly."

Ephraim… held a power that is otherworldly. Just like the Miyazonos back at that day who seem to be able to do all kinds of superhuman abilities, Ephraim matched- No, it was clear to even me that he surpassed them.

And so, from that day, I watched from the backlines how things would progress for him and the other people who rebelled against the Miyazono corporation. Once I have attained enough prestige at the settlement which holds their families and those other people who denied the tempting yet snaring hands of the Miyazonos, I pulled strings in order to open up more opportunities for them to fight and eventually overpower the Miyazonos.

However, before I can set the stage for the grand finale which would decide the true ending for our world and its people, I was made to realize that I wasn't alone in pulling the strings for my own ends. There was someone else who have pulled the right strings and set up encounters that seemingly looked coincidental for those who are on the ground, but to puppeteers like me and they, are clearly done intentionally.

"For someone who has a vendetta against those monsters, you certainly don't seem to me like the kind to not care about the damage you'd end up causing to innocent people."

"You are…"

"Higuchi Sora… a sworn enemy of the Miyazonos."

That is where he and I first met. Against a common enemy, using a common faction to our ends and all hoping that these people would be the ones who will win against the Miyazonos… the only difference between he and I was our reason for going against them and using Ephraim and his fellows as our means to that end.

"Given what you went through, I won't give you an earful of my opinions about it…"

"…"

"And yet, I want you to at least know that you've went through so much for so little satisfaction to take from your vengeance against them."

"-!"

Sora-san told me the story that he learned from Ephraim. How all of these powers they wield and its mechanics are several layers deeper that I initially believed, how it involves the very foundations of reality and how these strange higher beings represent and manipulate them in order to hold onto reality's laws and orders whilst the Miyazonos are trying to tear all of it down and lastly, how this grand finale of a fight that I set up would eventually destroy the last figments of order that are keeping our world together.

I unknowingly led all of us to our deaths… or so, that is what it would've been if Ephraim wasn't the one who was destined to win that fight.

"You may already feel it, young one… the foreboding sense that all of this… the things we have done in order to reach this ending where we will be the victors isn't the end, but just the beginning."

"I do… As soon as Ephraim disappeared from beyond that distorted space, I already felt weakened… as if somewhere, my body and consciousness are being beckoned to come forth."

"As the ones responsible for forcing the natural order of things to move forward and towards an end that it shouldn't have been able to reach, we will surely be called to be one of the integral individuals needed to settle this mess in the world beyond our present one."

"Then this is…"

"Right. Just like he promised… as the ones who were naturally born into this world, and unlike him and his people who have rebelled against this world and must now be exiled from it forever more, we have a responsibility to carry and a future to secure for those who would be left behind."

As Ephraim and his fellows, who cannot step into the new world that he gave us, disappeared into the unfathomably enormous sea of other realities awaiting them, we who were left behind was able to start again from square one.

From how history in this new world went, Sora-san was reincarnated a couple of decades before I was summoned as I am to the Sanctum that I eventually served in and succeeded to be its Shrine Priestess.

We retained our plan to find who was brought here as well from the side of the Miyazonos, where they might be hiding and what is the best way to dispose of them before they spread chaos and terror just like they did in our old world.

Years passed and we finally found out who among the three heirs escaped death and brought with them the fragment of Chaos that are still vying to take over the world and use it as its nest.

But before we can confirm who it was and talk about how to stop them, we learned that it wasn't only we, Otherworlders, who retained information from the past world. Cultists were also brought here and continued to await the arrival of their master who will give them the end they envisioned.

"There's no doubt… they are here."

"How… how could they have been able to learn something that Ephraim and the others have so carefully removed from this world already?"

"…Maybe we are facing off against someone who saw beyond what we saw back then. Ephraim said that there were a number of enemies who felt too confident about their safety whilst fighting him… he suspected that there is a reason, and if you ask me, this might be it once and for all."

And so, that brings me to the present… where all of the messy things had to be settled by Hiroshi and his comrades, and I simply needed to finish it in order to not just break the thread of karma binding me with the death of that monster named Miyazono Ryuichi, but also to his son and last carrier of Cursed Spirit Babel named Miyazono Keiji.

"We're nearing the drop point. I suggest you secure everything and double-check if your parachute is good to go."

"It is…"

As Maya opened the door of the plane and stared down at the billowing clouds beneath their plane, she sensed that this is indeed the place where their final enemy is stuck holding his ground and stubbornly believing that he still has a chance to claim any semblance of victory.

"One last thing before you leave, Maya-san."

"…Yeah?"

"Thank you… not just for your sacrifices from our past world… but also the ones you did in this new world."

Hearing her actions being appreciated, Maya's lips curled into a curt smile as she drew in a breath and put on her goggles to protect her eyes from the chilly air outside.

"Wish me luck. Once this is finished…"

…I can finally face Hiro-kun and Chi-chan again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Iwasawa-sama! You must stop! This is-"

"Stop already, Nobisuke… I will finish this my own way."

True to his words that he will personally see this entire thing through, Hiroshi took weapons and supplies and loaded them into an armored car.

"Iwasawa-sama! At least bring your personal guards or-"

"Not needed."

"Then an airwing to protect you from above-"

"I said already, I don't need it."

"I-Iwasawa-sama…"

Nobisuke, Kotori and Mitsuhide all pleaded for him to not leave, to bring men with him or even a group of planes to watch over and protect him. However, with eyes carrying a burning resolve and an immovable will, Hiroshi declined all of it and started the engine of the vehicle, showing no signs of stopping at all.

"Iwasawa-sama… at least… at least tell us what this is all about…"

"…"

"I… No, we are all worried about you. Why… just what is pushing you to go after an enemy that is already on his last breaths with this much bloodlust and wrath?"

"…You will never understand it… none of you will."

As the armored car left Camp Shirou and sped down the highway leading to the north, the three loyal subordinates of Hiroshi all looked down in both frustration and worry about Hiroshi's erratic behavior ever since the monstrosities appeared weeks ago.

Although those monsters are no more, it is still as if their master still has something or someone to go after so fervently that he does not have any intention of stopping.

"The least we can do…"

"K-Kotori-san?"

"The least we can do for Iwasawa-sama is to pray that whatever he would be facing off at wherever he is going…"

Barely holding back her tears, Kotori wished from the bottom of her heart the following things.

"This will be the end… and we will not lose him."

At the armored car heading to the mountain where his great enemy is now trapped, Hiroshi's reddish and swollen eyes not only from lack of sleep but also a bloodshot hatred against said enemy is fixated on a single goal.

"That monster and I cannot exist in the same place… until that "thing" is here, I… no, this entire world will never know peace."

Pure hatred courses in his vessels and his mind have nothing in it other than a desire to bring his enemy down no matter what it takes.

"Ephraim and the other rebels destroyed you back then…"

Such was the truth that he found from all of the clues and stories left to them by those who was there when the old world was destroyed and in its place was left a clean slate of a world where they could've known peace and safety if not for the remnants of that old world to come and seep into the earth once again.

"…but I…"

To Hiroshi, there is only one solution… and he will make sure that it will come to pass.

"…I will end you, Keiji!"