Chapter 57

Chapter 59

Salem's Pov 

I was currently flying across the sunny skies of Tenkyou city in my sparrow but I was the size of a regular sparrow instead of its usual bigger size. 

The place was extremely beautiful despite the damages from the battle. I couldn't help but take a few pictures and would have loved to visit during better circumstances. Maybe I could come back some day to get a real experience of the place.

After I found a good conditiones building to land on I went back to my regular form and began sensing, sniffing and looking for anyone nearby and found it was all clear. 

Bringing out my new updated phone I texted Morpheus I was ready to go and in the blink of an eye I was in a galaxy location.

"Damn nice place." I mumbled while looking around a little bit. 

"I'm glad you're enjoying the scenery." I heard Morpheus's voice and I turned towards it, spotting him wearing a red suit, hat and glasses instead of his leather outfit. "Hello Salem it's good to see you again. I can see you're having a good time adventuring here in Earthland." He waved his hand taking care of all my injuries.

"Thanks for that.. And I wouldn't say it's an all around good time." Scratching my head a bit remembering the. "So what did you tell me and also what was that burst of light from my phone after the Orochi disappeared?" 

"Well…" He tapped his cane on the ground and projection of Earthland appeared but some areas had some tears which I guess represented the tears in the dimensional barrier where anomalies appeared. The ones which had the most anomalies had bigger tears with Pergenda having the biggest. I didn't see any in Taiyo so I guess the phone closed it up after the Orochi was taken care off

"Take a good look at the tear in Fiore right now." He enhanced the view on the tear in Fiore.

The tear in Fiore was a bit darker than the rest of them and it also seemed more chaotic than the others, with it constantly glitching. 

"What's going on with it?" 

"Well as you know these tears in the dimensional barrier cause anomalies to drop into Fiore." I nodded at that. "Well this specific one seems to have started interacting with Earthland more than the others as it's more unstable. When I did more investigating I found out the the anomalies which will descend from it will also go through changes."

 "So are the anomalies coming out going to be more super charged or just a huge number of them will just drop in it all at once?"

"So far what I've discovered is that some of the anomalies have seemingly merged with each to create a singular entity making them more unstable blood-lusted so it's best you take care of them sooner before it gets too far. "

"So fusion their fusion monsters now." With the Ethernano mutation the anomalies already go through when entering the Earthland already being a problem who knows. "Speaking of my phone, just what did you do with it and what's with the headsets?"

"Oh I just upgraded it to a sum-sung galaxy s24, it will give more details on the anomalies to help you out and some games to keep you entertained also a little present in the a notification with a gift icon will appear soon. As for the headsets they contain your old play list and have an special command to a make a playlist of the songs according to your command."

"Cool so what's in it? Don't leave me hanging here." 

"Hm. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. Best of luck to you Salem." 

 Morpheus said his goodbyes and in the blink of an eye I was back on the roof and let out a deep sigh looking at my hand.

"So fusion anomalies now." I brought out my phone and focused on Fiore and it handled two more anomalies but the map seemed to be glitching a little bit just like how it did with Morpheus's presentation. 

This screws up my plans a little bit to go to Preganda and fully take care of anomalies their but maybe I could still make this work somehow. I just need to calculate the amount of time new anomalies are appearing in Pergenda with the amount of minimal time I need to spend in Fiore before it becomes overwhelming. 

Damn I hate doing calculus. It was always my worst module. 

'Man I need a notebook and calculator. Wait, this thing has a calculator on it.' 

But before I could check I felt something poke my left cheek and I saw Morrigan smiling cheekily at me.

"Hey Morrigan. Mind getting your finger off my face." Her smile just grew when I asked that and she just began repeatedly poking at it.

"How many times have I told you to be alert Junior, you never know who might sneak up on you~." She then began to pinch it a little bit. "Now tell me where you were. You just disappeared out of nowhere. Bloody hell I could sense you anywhere and… who finished healing you up?"

"Oh so miss I could sense continents away couldn't find me~." This led her to start pinching and stretching both my cheeks.

 "Don't change the subject my little changeling now tell you beautiful mentor where you were." 

"That's for me to know and you to find out." I lightly morphed my cheeks to Zeraora fur and shocked her hands off them.

"Fine, keep your little secrets and I can only guess you with that mysterious boss of yours. So did he give you a little reward for a job well done?"

"Well you can say something like that." I hummed transforming into my cat form and rested on her shoulder. "So when are we supposed to live? Cause I still need to visit Kagura."

"We…"

"Ara~ Ara~. There you are little Salem-chan. You had me worried about vanishing off like that and now you just want to leave without a goodbye." 

Inari gracefully descended from the air, tails swaying and she seemed to be glowing a little bit. She was obviously showing off a bit but when her eyes landed on Morrigan and the atmosphere got a little tense.

"Well~ Well~." Inari mused, hovering just slightly above the ground and looked like she was sizing up Morrigan. "Your relationship with the infamous Umbra witch runs deeper than I thought… or do you prefer Phantom Queen." 

Morrigan's smile tightened, not backing down. "Neither. Morrigan will do, dear."

"I see so should I be worried about that 'mother' of yours invading this realm while you're here." Inari glared at her a bit.

"I don't answer for that thing and she isn't my mother." Morrigan replied smoothly but there was a lot of edge in there. "You don't have to worry about her but I could make a special arrangement for you~." 

" 'Cough' S-So Inari what brings you here to us." I got between the two to ease the tension just a little bit while lightly bopping Morrigan's nose to get to chill out and she just looked a bit annoyed. 

"Right to let's jump into business. I came here for two things actually but since you're both a bit secretive let's take it someplace private." She spoke a little bit seriously and we were teleported into a familiar shrine room and I was back to my human form. 

"Now that we have absolute privacy. First I want to know just what that lacrima of yours did after it burst into that light which engulfed the whole continent."

I scratched my ear a bit and began to explain. "Well like I said that the Anomalies were here because of a dimensional tear. What my lacrima basically stitched up so you don't have to expect other worldly horrors infecting the country anytime soon."

"You have quite the surreal device with you Salem-chan even for me but that brings me to my other question about the calamity deities ?" She asked seriously.

"Hm?" I tilted the question making Inari look Morrigan in both confusion and disappointment. 

"You honestly did not tell him." 

Morrigan took out a cigarette but was smacked away by one of Inari's tails and gave the fox goddess an annoyed look. "I didn't think it was important for him and do you mind returning that back to me vixen?"

 "I will not have such human poison in my temple." She made a fancy pipe appear on her hands and it floated to Morrigan's hand. "Here this is much better~."

"Cheers vixen~." She took a good puff from the pipe letting out an erotic moan. "Now junior you remember hearing or reading about the great Eclipse war about thousands of years ago?"

"Just the gist of it. I just know it was a great war which led to the banishment of the whole demon race."

"Well it wasn't just the demon race Junior but to make things short there was another party involved called the calamities deities. Now normally deities were all from specific pantheons and each pantheon was stationed in specific parts of Earthland all with their own religions, still sort of are in a way. But the calamity deities on the other hand neither come from or lingering themselves with a pantheon or even abandon them. Also having control to some pretty malicious authorities. 

During the war they allied with the demons and some others in an attempt to destroy all the established territories and pantheons for whatever reason. You can even say their contributions to war was the reason god slayer magic was invented but that's a story for another day. Anyway they were extremely powerful so they were killed during battles so the surviving deities made a last ditch effort and sealed them in different realms to act as their prisons." She finished and blew out more smoke.

"Wait, so your saying that these guys have a chance of breaking out of their jails because of the dimensional tears." Morrigan kept quiet at that and went back to smoking the pipe probably thinking of what I just said.

"Well I can't say anything on that right now since I don't sense any strong presence from them yet in this realm at least more than initially. So I can say there still where we imprisoned them but there is still a I fear they might use them to their advantage."

"So are you going to tell the surviving deities about this?" I asked.

Morrigan rolled her eyes "They won't care, trust me." 

"Well it will be wise to be alert for anything." Inari ears perked up and let out a small sigh "Shame looks like our time has come to an end. So until we meet again~." She gave us a small wave.

"Okay Byeii~" I waved back and Morrigan just waved lazily. 

In the blink of an eye we seemed to be outside back in my cat form on Morrigan's shoulder. Looking in front I saw all the main players who took part in the battle with the Oni-Dragons along with the full armoured knight but I noticed that Kazuki, Ritsu and the spatial mage were not here. They looked at us in a bit of surprise, appearing out of nowhere. I looked at the armoured guy from the Crystal Scale but couldn't remember his name. I looked at his armour and it looked to be patching itself up with light which was pretty cool.

"Oh there you two are, I was starting to think you both left the country already." Akira called out, crossing her arms.

I shrugged my shoulders. "My guy, when did you get here and should you be walking around with those injuries?" I asked Tekashi and he waved it off.

"I came back before the dragon's heads were cut off to help with the Oni-Dragons" He said grinning though obviously still in pain. "I'm not the type of person to leave a job unfinished."

Akira didn't look impressed and glared at him a bit. "You know I appreciate your tenacity, Tekashi. But showing up on that condition was incredibly reckless." I guess she really is a mom.

Seraphina clapped a firm hand onto Tekashi's shoulder making the poor guy flinch. She just laughed it off while lightning her hand on fire that seeped into his injuries

"Can you be a little less aggressive if you're going to heal me?"

"If your wounds aren't a big deal, then don't whine you big baby." Seraphine teased then turned to us. "But seriously where are the two of you? You both just disappeared all morning."

Morrigan and I looked at each other "That's a secret darling~" Morrigan sang.

"Top secret~." I lazily flicked my tail.

"Secretive huh like we don't get enough off those at the guild." Seraphina she fake pouted a bit but the armoured guy stomped towards us and began staring us down. "Um something wrong Kane." Bingo that was his name.

Out of nowhere he picked me but I transformed into a snake slithering out of his grasp. 

"Learn to handssss to yoursssself my guy." I hissed and transformed I went back to cat form and jumped on the ground next to Morri.

Kane straightens his visor slowly, hiding whatever expression the weird knight had. "

"Well it's good to see you again too Mr. Paladdin." She tapped his armor and I saw her flinch a little bit. 

"Oh don't mind Kane over here. He's a little socially awkward but trust me he's actually a big teddy bear under all that steel." Seraphina patted on his shoulders. "So what's the story? how do you guys know him?"

"We met him and some of his guild-mates when we visited Bellum." I answered while wagging my tail at the dazed Morrigan and Seraphina gave me a serious look.

"Really you met the Crystal scale do you know my brother Lorenzo. He has hair and eyes like mine and if his magic there is sort of similar magic to mine. " I nodded and her face lit up a bit like literary, embers puffed out of her face when she smiled. "Well isn't that interesting? I can see the two of you travel around a lot."

"Speaking of interesting, I've been meaning to ask just what are those Amaterasu towers for, do they control them and distribute power to the whole country or something?" I asked, eyeing the large towers.

"Close but that's only one of them though it powers the city." Akira jumped in. "Though each of them have different uses. Like the tower of the east is responsible for the defenses and the tower of the north is responsible for increasing fertility to the country greatly helping in our harvests. "

Morrigan then began patting my head. "Interesting it is. So this is why they say that to control the towers is to control the country but why didn't this great defence happen when I don't know a giant eight headed dragon attacked."

But Akira shook her head "I don't really know exactly how it works but the emperor is supposed to manually for the time being so I can guess the Oni-dragons had a plan to prevent it's activation. "

"Manual? Wouldn't automatically activating the system be better?" I questioned while scratching my ears.

 "Well it used to be automatic but after the converging incident its systems were changed with fail-safes in order to prevent complications." answered Tekashi.

'Huh someone must have hacked into it during that incident.' 

"Alright it's been lovely but we have to go." Morrigan formed her wings.

"Wait, Ritsu-san has been looking for both of you. He said that he wanted to ask for some information on Professor Quill so maybe you should wait for him and Sato-san with Sergeant ." informed Akira.

I put my paw on my chin"Quill? I didn't see him on that island. What about you Morrigan?" She also shook her head.

"I didn't see him either. I scanned and searched the whole temple for anyone or anything and the only thing I found was a lab which I assume was used to make the stones and had mechanical bodies."

Mechanical bodies? Guess they were more of his back ups just in case.

"Anyway toodles~." Morrigan sang, before spreading her wings and took off in a hurry.

"Aw so I guess you've got to go." asked Serapina and I nodded while transforming into an owl. "Well that's disappointing. I was hoping to get to know the two of you better and have a good Phoenix vs dragon match."

"Maybe next time red but it was nice meeting you all. Byeii~." I hooted and flew away with a gust of wind.

After a few seconds I finally caught up with my mentor.

"Jeez, what's the hurry?" I asked.

"Nothing really, I just didn't want to deal with any higher ups. Plus I'm very excited for that bonus Harumi promised. I've been wanting to visit this country's best markets. I need to buy some things for Shirukus and that ice queen of mine so it looks like we're staying here a bit longer, about four so pick up the pace." She sped off and I followed after her.

A little while later

It didn't take us long to reach Harumi's place but we had but she wasn't around as according to one of the maidens she was in a special meeting with some of the top guns of the country about the whole incident including the emperor. She flashed in like thirty minutes later.

"Here are your bonuses as promised." Harumi finished paying us.

Morrigan waved it off. "Pleasure doing business with you darling but you look a little irradiated when you come back the higher ups giving you headaches." 

The purple haired woman. "Some, not all but it's nothing you both do not have to worry about." 

"So how's Kagura doing?" I decided to ask after finishing counting my pay ignoring the teasing expression on my mentor's face.

"She's stable but the demonic essence leeched itself to her soul. Normally my maidens and I would have at least gotten it out of her but it quickly bonded with her at an abnormally fast rate. We think it has something to do with her sword Archenemy."

That got me confused "So Archenemy is an actual demon blade. So was there like a powerful demon inside it which was having a subtle parasite relationship with her?"

"Well yes and no. There was no demon inside it but it was still a demonically forged blade which was feeding off her buried negative emotions in all the years she had it resonating and merging with her very soul. Though it was still a blade and since it wasn't fully possessed the demon in the mask just slipped into her soul like a missing piece. Removing it now will be like tearing out her heart or soul." She finished explaining with a heavy sigh.

Morrigan then placed her hand on my head. "Right Junior you go meet your little winter girlfriend. Your mentor has some business to take care of."

"Business you here?" 

"Yep grown up business~." She flicked my forehead and literally sank into my shadow.

With a sigh I followed Harumi to the medical wing which was empty. One of the maidens told us that she went to the training grounds. When we got there, Kagura was floating in the air in a meditative position with her sword resting on her thighs. 

"H…" I barely got the word out, she slashed her sword at me hard and fast at me but I quickly grabbed it with my ankylosaur arm causing the ground to shake and crack. Her eyes were a different colour as they were red instead of brown.

"Whoa chill Kagura it's just me!" Her eyes turned back to normal and quickly brought her sword back and good thing it was still sheathed because damn she's gotten a bit stronger.

"Salem-san I'm so sorry I-…" She flinched as her eyes turned red a bit, making her fall, causing me to catch her before she face-planted.

"You cool?" She meekly nodded and put her distance between us and I rubbed my hand a bit. "Hey don't worry about it. I was in a somewhat similar spot not too long ago. Heck still sort of am. It happens to the best of us so chin up I'm sure you'll get through it." 

"Thanks."

Harumi then stepped forward. "Um Kagura-san, I have an offer for you." This caused Kagura to straighten.

"I contacted Meralla about this issue and we concluded that it will be best that you stay here for a little bit so I can help tame what's inside of you." She continued. "You're not being forced though you can…"

"I'll accept." Kagura answered, her voice trembling but firm. "Raiden-sama, I'm not naive to my current situation. When I was unconscious before Morrigan chained it. The demon dragged me down further into darkness yelling at me to give into it and who can help me give me power for my revenge " She held herself and I brought out my Kitsune tail. "E-Even now I can still somewhat hear its whispers."

Harumi then placed her arms on her shoulders. "Kagura-san I am aware it was not my business but I know about your village, the death of your brother against the wizard saint. Anyone is faulting you for feeling this way. In fact I've been through this a few times as well."

"H-How did you deal with it?" Kagura asked .

Harumi had a conflicted expression but sighed and sat on the ground and patted the spot beside her which Kagura sat down.

That was my cue to leave so I transformed into my owl form flying off to give the two some privacy for the talk. After finding a good spot in the estate I sat on a strong tree branch and took out my updated phone and sets, skimming through them.

Morpheus was telling the truth there were songs from my new headsets in my past life and before I could click on the notification I uttered a small sigh as I sensed someone familiar close by. 

"Someone already did this to me today so don't bother with that man." I looked at the side and saw Kazuki come while putting my headsets away. "I get you're a ninja and dramatic entrances and exits is sort of your thing and all, but don't you think you'll trip some defenses with all that sneaking around?" 

"Harumi-san is already aware that I am here." Kazuki said smoothly.

"You're not the type of guy I peg who would come all this way for a social visit so what's up." I leaned back on the tree.

"You're right, this isn't a social visit." He said smoothly while walking over. "I wanted to know is the crisis of those anomalies truly over?"

"Well all the anomalies are taken care off so 'THAT' crisis is gone but you guys will still have to deal with your regular monster, dark guilds who might enter a turf war to fill the power vacuum or a Neo Oni-Dragon." He gave me a strange look from behind his mask. "I've watched a lot of movies and cartoons."

"Well despite your tad bit overactive imagination you're not wrong about what you said there is still a lot of work to be done. It never truly is." He muttered the part. "Salem-san I have no idea what path you're walking but I urge you to increase your guard as it will only be a matter of time before your presence fully attracts the wrong type of attention from dangerous individuals to greater forces."

"Thanks for the shinobi wisdom my guy. Oh before you dramatically disappear, can I ask you something?" He nodded and I brought out my notebook and pen. "Do you mind telling me anything you can about the Converging incident?"

Elsewhere

Up on a tall hill sat close to the city stood Blaksely leaning on a tree basking in the sun. She then touched it with the tip of her dark glowing finger causing it to become crooked with its leaves becoming purple.

"Despite the failure of their operation I would have thought that the dragon would have destroyed a good chunk of the city or the country." She commented while opening her palm to which the tree made a purple juicy apple dropping it onto her hand. "Though I'm mostly surprised you of all people decided to lend your aid in slaying it sister."

With that Morrigan came out to the tree's shadow.

"While I for one am surprised you're still here I thought you would have gone to your new boy or girl toy." She smirked and her voice full of malice. "When you invited me here the least you could do was have some tea and cookies ready for this family reunion~." 

"Forgive me sister I must have been so excited to see you again that I forgot how high maintenance and childish you can be so I hope this will do." Blakesely's voice was both smooth yet matching Morrigan's malice and the tree made another purple juicy apple dangling in front of her. 

Morrigan looked at the apple with a raised eyebrow and laughed in amusement. "Oh dear~. At least be more subtle than this little sister. I can practically see the curse and poison in this thing" She made her nails extremely cut the apple into really small pieces then aimed them at her fellow woman. "Now let's skip the family greetings and to the real discussion shall we~."

"Yes let's shall."

Four days later

Salem's pov

In the past five days since we finished with our mission Morrigan and I have just been chilling here in Taiyo just being tourists. We visited some of the luxury places she wanted to visit specifically in Earthland's Tokyo. She came second to Tenkyou and visited some of their famous tourist attraction sites like Tokyo tower, their gardens, took pictures, visited some restaurants, and went to their market sites where she bought a LOT of stuff.

Mount Fuji was visible from the city and while I did have a good time I got curious about the dojo Kazuki talked about and so I wanted to see if I could get a little training but Morrigan didn't let me out of her sight for whatever reason.

The Phoenix Talon guild was also located there and we passed it one time. And damn it was whoever built that place must have had a huge pay day. I don't think I could even call it a guild building, and I saw a lot of different types of people enter it. I swear some of them looked like some characters from games or that was just some homesickness talking.

Right now we are just back at Raiden estate getting ready to leave for Fiore with Harumi and Kagura seeing us off.

"Aright Junior, are you sure you got everything you need?" 

I straighten my tinted goggles. "For the last time, yes but how come we're flying there instead of taking the Submarine now that I think about it. Why didn't we just fly here the first time?"

She tilted her glasses downwards and gave a 'Are you stupid'. "There was a chance Achnologia might have still been lurking around the skies of Fiore that time. I wasn't going to take the chance of running into that monster." 

"The black dragon briefly resurfacing in Fiore was an act to take in caution but are sure its skies are now safe?" asked Harumi while handing Morrigan an envelope.

Morrigan waved it off and the envelope disappeared probably to her pocket dimension. "Don't worry dear I made sure it was clear when I flew from Ishgar."

I turned to Kagura who looked bashful. "Hey you a…" I didn't finish my sentence as she gave me a hug. "Wow I see you're becoming more of a hugger." I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her but she surprised me by kissing my cheek causing me to blush a bit.

"H-Have safe t-travels I-I'll see you back at Fiore soon." She stammered a bit while looking away.

'Well that come out of nowhere.' I thought I was still taken back a little bit and Morrigan nudged me a bit with a teasing smirk on her face.

"Well it's fun. Twoddles~."

"Byeii~." 

 The both of us spread our wings and took off to Fiore.

Author's note:

Phew finally done with this arc, I learned my lesson of not making arcs unnecessarily long and keeping things simple. Anyway, the next arc will take place in Fiore and expect to see a lot of canon characters in it. Minor heads up, Morrigan and Ultear kind of know each other so expect a lot of Crime Sorcière.

I've neglected my other two stories MHA: HIGH VOLTAGE AND DXD: TERRIBLE TORNADO, long enough so I won't be updating this one as much as I want to focus on them.

But like always, don't be afraid to leave comments on the story. Tell me what you thought about the arc, what you liked, what you thought was poorly done, where I could have expanded or improved. Heading your honest thoughts helps me improve in areas in writing these fics.