The Crossover

This crossover is a work between me and 3 other authors, all of whom are in my discord. We each have isekai stories, though they’re all wildly different from each other. We thought it’d be a fun project to mash the main characters from each of our stories together into a special crossover, and this is the result!

Each author is listed alongside the chapter they wrote. As you can see, I wrote chapter 1. The final chapter, we all wrote together, which you will understand why when you get there. Anyway! I hope you enjoy this little crossover

• Chapter 1: Michael Plymel
• Chapter 2: Ninmast
• Chapter 3: KCUF
• Chapter 4: Boron
• Chapter 5: Lutz, Laya

Chapter 1

Michael Plymel

Within the vast darkness of nothingness, two people are floating.

A voice speaks to them, but neither can decipher the words. But of the two, one of those people is fully aware of their situation. Though there’s nothing he can do about it.

After an exceptionally long trip through the void, the world finally comes into focus.

Standing in a strange land of both life and machine is a human male, accompanied by his small, elven companion, a girl who looks no older than ten.

Although the two have grown used to exceptional circumstances, even they can only stare in confusion at the land that stretches out before their eyes.

Without a word, they take in their surroundings, searching first for signs of danger. When they fail to find an immediate threat, they turn their attention to the smaller details, looking for any clues that may reveal the truth of this world to them.

However, the strange land is reluctant to give up its secrets so easily. The two come to the same conclusion on their own: this is no mere dream or illusion.

“Hey Laya,” Lutz says. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Going to sleep.”

“Yeah, me too.” Lutz twists his head, taking in the strange terrain. “So how exactly did we end up in an entirely different world?”

“Don’t know.” The little elf’s voice is as monotone as ever.

Unlike the world they came from, this new one is an amalgamation of various fantastical universes, each seemingly pulled from the mind of a crazed author.

Lush ground filled with both plants and animals meshes with construction that seems to be plucked straight from Earth. Even more strange is the machinery that looks to be a thousand years more advanced than even Earth.

The different eras contradict each other, as if mashed together with little thought or reason.

“There’s no way a place like this could exist on your world or mine,” Lutz says. “That means…”

“Summoned to another world?”

“Looks like it. Man, isn’t one summoning enough for a lifetime?” Lutz releases a sigh.

“Might be fun.” Laya seems completely unperturbed about the whole affair.

“Well, I certainly had my share of good times after my first summoning. I just hope we can skip the whole dark beginning part.”

After their back-and-forth, the two decide to take their first steps in this new world. Although there are many strange things to explore, one in particular stands out among them all.

“I wonder who we’re going to meet up ahead,” Lutz says with an eager smile.

“Strong.”

“You got that right. Even I’m a little nervous, but all our magic and items are here with us, so I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Lutz’s mithril-orichalcum spear appears in his hands. After giving it a little twirl, it vanishes back into his [Inventory].

The people they’re referring to are a couple mana signatures within range of their [Sense Mana] spell. As mentioned, they’re powerful enough to threaten even Lutz and Laya. But that’s not going to stop the two from investigating it. Rather, that’s precisely why they choose it as their first destination.

The land beneath their feet swiftly changes from grass to concrete, as if they had just stepped onto a parking lot of sorts. But after a few more strides, it becomes solid metal. The two don’t know this, but they’re now walking on what’s known as Plasteel.

The ground isn’t the only thing that’s shifting. One moment they pass a tree, the next a light post. After that, strange contraptions that would fit right in on many of the futuristic sci-fi shows from Earth.

However, as they walk, the world quickly becomes dominated by one of the three—the natural. Cement and metal become less common, while the stretches of grass grow wider. Soon, the modern and futuristic elements of the world take a backseat, though bits and pieces of them remain.

“Now this is looking more familiar.” Lutz eyes the now lush landscape, marred only by the occasional modern or futuristic elements.

“Comfortable.”

“Even though I grew up in the modern world, I’ve already come to accept the natural state of yours as home.”

“Getting close.”

“Yep. Guess we should look for some cover.”

The two of them are hiding their mana, so they can’t feel the mana presences of the other two that they’re moving toward. But with Lutz’s [Minimap], he can track them with ease.

Their targets are moving, as well. But they seem to be scouting the area, rather than moving toward any specific destination. Thanks to that, they continue to close the distance between them over time.

With plenty of trees to use as cover, the two duck into a sparse forest. Soon after, they make visual contact with the ones they’re hoping can provide some answers as to why they were summoned to this world.

“Is that … a robot?” Lutz peers at one of the people.

“Robot? Like those moving objects from Earth you told me about?”

“Yeah, except this one looks far more advanced. And it’s with a human girl—its owner?”

The distance is still far, so Lutz hasn’t realized it yet, but the one he’s referring to isn’t actually a robot. But that fact soon becomes clear as they draw closer.

“No, it’s not a robot,” Lutz says. “It’s someone wearing a suit. Wow, it looks awesome.”

“That thing?” Laya doesn’t see the appeal.

“Yeah, like one of those futuristic battle suits you see in sci-fi movies. Okay, now I have to know who they are.”

Unable to put a lid on his excitement, Lutz leads Laya out of the forest, straight toward the two strangers.

It may be dangerous to confront them directly, but until they know whether they’re friend or foe, they can’t exactly attack. And neither want to spend the time to stalk them for who knows how long.

So with confident steps, they enter the two mysterious individuals’ perception area.

“Stop right there!” the man in the suit yells.

In his hands is a gun, which the two call The Ravager. It’s a sleek, black and red revolver that holds huge bullets.

The very human girl beside him is no innocent bystander. In fact, she was aware of Lutz and Laya’s presence even before the man in the suit. That girl has an assault rifle aimed right at them, her eyes perfectly lined with the sights.

“Hey.” Lutz gives a simple greeting. “I’ve got a couple questions, and I was hoping you had some answers.”

“A kid and a shrimp…?” The man relaxes his hands, lowering his revolver.

“Don’t be an idiot, Xeriko! This could be any number of things, including a trap! Hell, our logic could have just been flung out the window!” The human girl is far less willing to drop her guard.

“You’re right Akari, but still…” Xeriko has a conflicted look. “Hey, why are you holding shields … at least, I think it’s a shield?”

“Oh, these?” Lutz answers from behind his mithril shield. “Don’t really want to take a bullet. It might hurt.”

“What’s something like that going to do against a tungsteel overpressured bullet?” The human girl named Akari asked.

“I have no idea what that is,” Lutz replies. “But you’d be surprised what this shield can do. I don’t really want to put it to the test, though.”

“Then tell us everything you know about how we ended up here.”

“Uh…” Lutz sneaks a peek at Laya.

“We were going to ask you the same thing.” Laya answers for him.

The two parties end up staring at each other for several, long seconds. Unfortunately for all four of them, the answers they seek won’t simply fall in their lap.

After the lingering silence, Akari lowers her assault rifle.

“Guess they might not be our enemies after all.” Akari can’t hide the relief in her voice.

“Maybe next time, give people a chance, Malware.”

“Hey! You lowered your weapon so easily, Meatbag!”

“They’re not holding weapons, are they?”

“They could have them in hammerspace for all you know!”

Lutz and Laya can only stare as the two bicker back and forth. They couldn’t help but pick up on a few interesting insults, but one of them in particular stood out to Lutz.

“Malware? You talking about … Akari, was it?” Lutz eyes the human-looking girl.

“I am not Malware. I am a human consciousness layered over a mass of code. Big difference!”

“Uh, right. I’ll take your word for it. But does that mean you’re not human?”

“Well, what’s your definition of human?”

“Ignore her,” Xeriko says.

Akari looks at Xeriko with a glare before winding up to clock him one. But she stops, knowing that won’t get them anywhere.

“Fine,” Akari says. “I was a human before I died. Then I was reborn as an AI of sorts. In this man’s suit, of all things.”

“It’s not a suit. It’s powered body armor!”

“Woah! So that’s some kind of super-advanced combat suit!? Hey, do you have to strike a pose or something to transform into it!?” Lutz suddenly goes off the deep end.

“A pose? Why would I do something like that?”

“So it’s not like that, huh? It would be pretty cool though, right? Transforming from a normal human into a combat-suit wearing crime fighter. I wonder if we’ll meet anyone like that here.”

Lutz doesn’t know it, but there are in fact people here with a power similar to what he’s imagining. But it’s not time for their entrance quite yet.

“Monsters.” Laya points out the simple fact that monsters are headed their way.

“Yeah, but they’re weak, aren’t they?” Lutz looks to his left, where a small pack of monstrous wolves crests a nearby hill.

“Robots?” Laya points to the shiny, metallic creatures walking alongside the wolves.

“Woah! They are robots!”

The robotic creatures walk on two legs, their arms ending in large drill bits, as if they were made to mine rock. All of the approaching monsters are heading toward the four people, intent on shedding blood.

“No mana.” Laya points out another simple fact.

“That’s going to make things a bit more difficult. But at least they show up on my [Minimap].”

Xeriko and Akari raise their weapons toward the creatures, but neither fire.

“Get behind me, idiots!” Xeriko yells to Lutz and Laya.

“Huh? And miss the chance to fight some robots? No way.”

“Just do it, moron! They aren’t anything to mess with!”

“Yeah, well neither are we.”

At that moment, Laya releases her [Wind Blade]. Five massive blades erupt from her extended palm, tracing a path toward the oncoming monsters.

Five blades and five deaths. Even the robots hit by her magic are cut in half with ease.

“What…?” Xeriko looks to the little elf girl.

“Magic.”

“Like I said, Xeriko,” Akari says. “Logic goes out the window.”

After her words, the two of them open fire.

Nearly without fail, Xeriko’s bullets find the heads of each of his targets. The distance between them and the oncoming enemies is wide enough that there’s no pressure to exterminate them quickly. He uses that to his advantage, showcasing his expert skill with deadly accuracy.

On the other hand, Akari takes a different approach. She sprays the area with her fully automatic weapon, spreading out the damage amongst the group. Many fall to the ground before Xeriko even needs to target them.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Lutz eyes the two guns, still held in a battle-ready position.

“Well of course it was,” Akari says with pride. “I made them.”

“You made them?” Lutz looks to Laya, and she nods back. “I think we’re going to have a lot of interesting conversations on our journey together.”

“Wait,” Xeriko says. “We’re journeying together with the kid and shrimp?”

“Elf,” Laya says flatly.

“You want to find a way home, right?” Lutz asks. “Well I’ve got another lead, and I thought you might want to join us.”

This time, it’s Xeriko and Akari who look at each other.

“I’m fine with it,” Akari says. “Nothing else to go on.”

“Same here,” Xeriko agrees. “But where are we going?”

Lutz points in the direction the monsters were coming from. “There are four more interesting sources of mana over there. One of them might have some answers.”

With that, the two groups decide to combine forces in hopes of finding a clue that can lead them back to their respective homes.

Chapter 2

Ninmast

The world spins like a kaleidoscope with a drain at the center where once there had been a fractured lens. First, it sucks the color out, then the lines, and finally all of the remaining amorphous shapes. They all blend together in a singular, meaningless dot at the very core, and then …

The two girls stand in the middle of the road. There had been no sudden shift of location, they hadn’t been dropped onto its surface, they weren’t dramatically spat out into the spring air. They simply were. As if it had always been.

The brunette taps her toes experimentally against the bricks that form the road underneath them while the blonde peers about at their surroundings with a lost, bewildered expression.

She steps toward her darker-haired friend and latches onto her arm as if she fears she might disappear on her. “Riko,” she asks timidly, “what was that?”

Nariko Kelly raises her gaze to the surrounding structures, built with strong Asiatic influences and an abundance of wood, frilled overhangs and paper doors. “If I had to put a name to it on the spot, I’d call it Dorothy’s Tornado.”

Add another one of her best friend’s - or the person in the form of her best friend, it’s a long story - analogies that went right over Haru Chiaki’s twintailed head. “But where does that mean we are now?”

“About four or five blocks from my house.”

The blonde girl wheels on her friend in shock. “You can’t be serious! This looks nothing like our neighborhood!”

“It looks exactly like our neighborhood,” the brunette counters, and begins pointing toward several buildings and other markers in order. “Look, there’s the apartment complex, that’s the intersection that heads for the river bank, I can see the florist at the top of the hill, and there’s the privacy wall Dakunaito kicked me into on my first day.”

“But it’s all different!”

“It’s all the wrong era,” Riko agrees. But without elaborating further, she turns and heads down the intersection she mentioned.

“Wait! Riko! Where are you going?!”

“The convenience store is by the river,” she explains as if absolutely nothing is wrong. “I’m still hungry. That didn’t change because we got dumped in a parallel world. Again.”

The blonde hurries after her, running to catch up before matching her pace. “Riko, aren’t you taking this way too lightly?! And what do you mean, again?!”

The girl with the butt-length brown hair turns and frowns at her friend. “This may be your first time finding yourself in a weird new world, Haru, but I’m starting to be an old hat at it at this rate.”

“Oh, right …”

Yeah, that long story? That was what Nariko referred to. Some other being mentally nearly identical to the girl known as Nariko Kelly had found itself inhabiting her body, and its own memories reduced to scattered nonsense. Wherever the being had come from, the world seemingly had no magic, no Witches and no demons.

Of course, the girls have no idea what special rules this world might play by.

---

Kelly turns out to be right in her assessment. Whatever they are in is, in fact, a medieval reproduction of their neighborhood. This makes it truly bizarre to see the convenience store’s modern structures reproduced in the fanciful fantasy style.

“Thank you! Come again!”

The odd “greeting” comes immediately when Riko opens the sliding paper door that had replaced the automatic glass door, and the girls look over to see the proprietor working the till. When they walk over to get a better look, they see he is dressed in the same era as the building is designed, but his gaze doesn’t follow them. He just stands there with his signature customer interaction grin on his features.

He also wavers visibly as if he were formed of smoke, and every so often, static like a bad signal flickers up or down his body.

Haru steps closer. “Uh, are you alright?”

“Thank you! Come again!”

“Are you telling me to leave?”

“Thank you! Come again!”

“Can we … buy something?”

“Thank you! Come again!”

”… Riko, something’s wrong with him …”

“You don’t say.” Nariko had stepped away while Haru was distracted with the proprietor, and now she comes back with a couple paper bags and a pair of small, capped gourds, all with suspiciously modern branding on them. Ignoring the blonde’s bewildered stare, she sets them on the counter.

As if this were perfectly normal, the proprietor immediately begins punching the values into the now-clockwork till. When the final total pops up, he holds out a hand as he informs her, “Thank you! Come again!”

Experimentally, Kelly offers him her plastic debit card.

Without hesitation, he slides it right into the clockwork till. There’s a grinding, the sound of several springs, and finally a bell, and he hands her it back, writes a ticket on a paper beside him, tears it off and hands it to her before waving. “Thank you! Come again!”

Nariko takes her food, gives a short bow, and then guides her utterly confused companion back out the door by her shoulders.

Haru has no response until several long moments after they shut the door behind them. “Riko, what the heck was that?!”

“A convenience store,” her friend glibly replies as she passes her one of the sandwiches and a drink. “And more importantly, we confirmed things seem to work as they should even if they look like they shouldn’t.”

The blonde doesn’t even open the bag. “Riko! Please, can’t you at least act like this isn’t normal?! That … thing back in there didn’t even have any emotions!”

Haru is an empath, with the ability to literally see the emotional state of others. Her friend possesses a similar ability called Analysis, which lets her pick up on little details and assess them quickly.

Nariko merely nods at that revelation. “It wasn’t really him. It was more like some snapshot of him.”

“Do you think everyone’s like that?!”

“If so, that’s one more reason I don’t want to go home before we figure this out.”

Haru goes silent at that and takes a look at Kelly’s emotional state for a change. The eternal stormclouds she associates with her friend are violent and roiling, thunder growling at every sound.

Despite the calm, rational facade, her friend is scared.

Before she can contemplate it further, Nariko suddenly stops ahead of Haru, a hand out for her to do the same.

“Trouble,” the brunette replies in response to her questioning gaze, despite not even turning back to see it.

In a three-way cobblestone intersection some ways ahead are a boy and girl about their age. The boy wears a light assortment of European style medieval armor, while the olive-skinned blonde girl looks like a gyaru in a sun dress.

Surrounding them is a dozen wooden robots dressed like wuxia bandits, but their armaments are anything but era appropriate. Their forearms end in built-in weapon systems like five-barrel miniguns and gasoline chainsaws. Several have deceptively festive-looking missile pods on their hips.

One distinct figure stands out among them, a construct of much higher quality with a woman’s serene face carved into its head instead of the faceless lights of the others. Rather than clothes, this one’s plates are far more ornate, decorated in sloping designs to imply some sort of armored kimono. It bears no visible weapons, but seems content to let the others surround and threaten the two humans without stepping in.

“Stinks like a demon attack,” Haru observes from where the two girls are concealed around a corner a block away from the exchange.

“Then let’s treat it like one.”

The girls pull back to fully conceal themselves with the building and hold their hands diagonally toward their hips. Light flickers at the end of Haru’s index and middle finger, while sparks of electricity dance at the end of Nariko’s. Simultaneously, both throw their hands skyward.

“TRANSFORM!”

---

In the cobblestone crossway, Tanaka holds his sword up before him with one hand while his other guides Akari to stay behind him. With careful steps, he moves them toward the far edge of the wooden automata without turning away from them. He wants to put their back as much to a building as possible.

“What’s the deal with these things?” he fumes as he watches their erratic movements for some sign of an attack. “Mechanical bandits? And why are they dressed like it’s a shrine festival?”

He hesitates to make the first attack, if only because it might set them all off before he was in the best position to protect the daughter of the goddess of light behind him.

Without preamble, a beam of yellow plasma crashes down into the robots’ forces, blowing its target to rubble that flies in every direction. The next heartbeat, it’s followed by a beam of light that tags another, knocking its scrapped body onto its back as the lights on its head short out. It doesn’t move again.

The source of the beams is easy to trace, and robots and humans alike turn to look in the direction of the surprise attack. On the roof of a two-story building down the street stand two girls, one a blonde with elaborate pigtails and a short dress that seems decorated with far too many ribbons, the other a brunette with her hip-length hair pulled back in a ponytail, clad in a half-jacket and skirt.

In the latter’s hand seems to be a pistol that she still has pointed at the battlefield, while the blonde seems to have fired something from her outstretched hands.

Behind Tanaka, Akari gasps loudly as she claps her hands to her cheeks as if struck by divine revelation. “That’s what’s going on, Tanaka! We got sucked into an anime! It all makes sense!”

He doesn’t bother looking back at her, preferring to focus on the developing situation ahead of them. “I have a feeling it’s a little more complicated than that, Akari.”

The girl huffs at his out of hand rejection of her brilliant conclusion. “How would you know? How many times have you gotten sucked into an anime plot?!”

Now, that makes him turn around in disbelief. “Really?!” he restrains himself from shouting back as he gestures between the two of them repeatedly. “Are you kidding me right now?!”

The girl was literally describing the last fifteen years of their lives.

The girls from the rooftop simultaneously make an inhuman leap, launching themselves all the way across to land in the middle of the battle with their backs to Tanaka and Akari. On closer observation, the brunette has a choker and bracers in the same design as her weapon, but now the pistol is nowhere to be seen and instead a sword is in her hand.

“About Dretch level,” the golden one says to her ribboned associate.

“Which would make the one in back something like a proto-demon.”

The brunette nods in agreement with the blonde. Then, without looking back to the boy and girl, she raises her voice from conversation to command. “If you two can fight, speak up. If you can’t, run and we’ll cover you.”

In response, Tanaka raises a hand toward the nearest robot as a bolt of fire rips from his palm to explode against the thing’s chest, sending its arms, legs and head, now on fire, spinning away from it.

“We can fight just fine.”

Of course, it turns out this snaps the robots out of their own disorientation, and the sound of chainsaws and miniguns spinning up fill the air in reply to his attack.

The brunette lunges to intercept a chainsaw and slices up, her golden sword cutting right through the chain and through the robot wielding it. Without a moment’s pause, she swirls her free hand about to conjure a softball-sized orb of fire she turns and fastballs at another. The magic blasts the machine apart with a similar result to Tanaka’s Firebolt.

Behind her, the twintailed blonde puts both of her hands forward as a barrier intercepts a hailstorm of bullets from a pair of miniguns. As soon as there’s a break in the fire, she pulls the barrier’s energy back in and sweeps her arms wide, scattering it into a strobing field of light.

The robots’ glowing eyes begin flickering erratically as if to reflect sensor errors and their firing stances open wide. The next instant, she’s lunging in to grab them by the skulls and smashes them together with what could only be superhuman force as their bodies crumple under the impact.

One of the chainsaw robots nearest Tanaka lunges at him, bringing its weapon down in an overhead swing. Reflexively, he goes to parry with his sword, but it has a notably less impressive outcome compared to whatever the brunette chick was swinging around. The steel promptly gets caught by the chainsaw’s teeth and is yanked down, leaving the chainsaw an open path to bite into his shoulder.

He bites back the scream of sheer agony as his body yells at him about all of the very not supposed to be happening things going on around his clavicle and instead grabs the thing’s face with his other hand. The next moment, its head is gone and its body drops, its burning shoulders following.

“Akari!”

“I’m on it!”

He releases his clenched teeth as her soothing light begins pulling his shoulder back together. Two other robots that think to take advantage of the opening each eat one of twincast flaming spears that go off on them like rockets in their own right, accompanied by the incantation of, “Fuck off!”

The magical girls engage in jumping pirouettes to avoid matching barrages of wooden missiles, only to make short work of their users. In a quick flurry of strikes, the brunette smoothly and completely dismembers one robot, while the blonde uses an overdramatic flying kick.

The blonde is about to brag, but the pistol snaps back to her partner’s hand to quickly fire two shots past her. She spins to follow the trajectory, only to see two other robots that had been coming up on her blasted to scrap. Embarrassment floods her face and puts a big expression there that proclaims, Oops!

She is quick to regather her wits, however, and Tanaka’s shoulder finishes mending as, with the grunt robots down, the four find themselves faced with just the leader.

“You two good?” the sword-wielding brunette asks as the boy and girl approach behind them.

“Peachy,” Tanaka growls back as he flexes his sword arm to get the last of the tingles out.

Ahead of them, an angry hum builds from the feminine construct as various parts of its body spin about and arcane energy begins to gather around it. The energy moves to concentrate between its palms into bright orbs of light.

“Shields up!” the boy shouts, and immediately, Akari and Haru throw up barriers.

No sooner do they go up than the orbs discharge against them, but the machine’s lasers seem to have a difficult time penetrating the light-elemented shields.

Behind the defensive screens, Tanaka raises his hand toward the sky, and first one, then three, then five bolts of fire leap from his hand. Instead of flying away from him, they only go a couple feet up as they rotate and twist together, spinning faster and faster until they seem more like a massive, flaming drill.

“You two had your fun, this one’s mine!”

As soon as the laser attack ends and the shields drop, he thrusts his hand forward, gripping it with his sword arm to stabilize it, and fires all of the twisting bolts at once, connected back to his hand by a thick molten beam.

The robot has its own barriers that the drill slams against, but he pours more energy into it to drill faster and harder until the barriers shatter like glass. The fiery energy charges headlong into the creature’s body. The robot tries to brace itself, but skids back further and further until its back is slammed into a building.

There is a brief metallic sound as if its body is screaming, and then the drill breaks through, ripping a hole through it wide enough to separate its entire body and still pass through the building behind it.

“Phew,” the brunette notes as she rubs the side of her nose. “Wish Flame Witch could’ve seen that. Not bad, kid!”

Tanaka had been breathing deeply to regather himself after that, but at the brunette’s words, he turns toward her. “Kid?! You aren’t any older than I am!”

She steps back and gives an embarrassed laugh. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it, honest!”

With the battle over, Akari takes the opportunity to step forward, as well, stars almost literally dancing in her eyes. “So what are you two called?! Panty and Stocking? Cure Sword and Cure Light? Sailors Sun and Moon?”

The two girls looked at each other for a moment before looking back at her. “Uh, Sword Witch and Flare Witch,” the brunette answers, motioning to herself for the former and the blonde, who gives a little finger wave, for the latter.

“And you mentioned a Flame Witch,” Tanaka notes, ignoring Akari’s outburst. “So there’s more of you?”

“Three others,” Flare Witch provided, “but as far as we know, we’re the only two that got pulled here.”

“So you aren’t from this place, either,” he concludes, rubbing his chin. “I suppose it’d be too much to hope for if you knew something more about it than we do?”

“Parts of it seem to echo the world we’re from, but different,” Sword Witch provided. “We don’t have wooden murderbots, though.”

“Right, dretches and proto-demons,” the boy recalls.

“Wow! That’s a big hole! Check it out, Laya!”

“Mmm. Could’ve made one bigger.”

The sudden noise distracts the group in their discussion as they turn to see four newcomers, a guy in a long, silver coat, a little girl with pigtails even longer than Flare Witch’s, a young woman with an assault rifle, and a man in powered armor.

“More robots here, too,” that last guy notes as he kicks some of the remains. “Different design, though.”

It’s the young woman that calls out to them, though. “You guys good, or should we start pointing weapons?”

“We’re good, unless you’re with the robots,” Sword Witch replies. “But you look like you’ve got a lack of pistons and gears.”

The two groups move toward each other and the young woman offers her hand to Sword Witch, who shakes it. “Akari. The sourpuss is Xeriko, the Kaiba wannabe is Lutz, and the fun-sized one’s Laya.”

The “fun-sized” girl turns toward the woman with a deadpan stare on her face.

“Akari, huh?” Tanaka speaks up, and pulls the light demigoddess forward with an arm. “That’s gonna get confusing, having two of you. I’m Tanaka.”

“I’m Flare Witch,” the blonde provides sunnily.

“Sword Witch,” the brunette who shook Akari’s hand adds.

“Flare Witch and Sword Witch?” Lutz asks. Unbeknownst to them, he had already confirmed their names with Scry. The spell did, in fact, list the two girls’ names as that. “I don’t suppose those are pseudonyms of some sort?”

The two girls look to each other and seem to share some sort of exchange between them, then nod. They each raise their right hand above their heads and snap, magical energy blowing off of them like a cloud of dust.

Before Lutz’s eyes, the very names on their sheets change.

“Nariko Kelly,” the brunette provides, “and Haru Chiaki.”

He can’t help but notice that, unlike the Witches, Kelly’s name is followed by a set of parentheses much like his own, but whatever is inside of them is garbled, similarly to Laya’s unique skill. And speaking of unique skills, whoa, this group has some impressive ones.

“So, same question,” Tanaka offers, “anyone know what the heck is going on?”

Chapter 3

KCUF

“Alright, before it gets too deep in here, we have to deal with the Akari situation,” Tanaka says.

“What Akari situation?,” both girls say on cue.

“You can’t be serious, Malware you walked right into that,” Xeriko says, almost cracking a smile.

“Well at least the girl has taste,” his Akari replies.

“Ohh, are we doing nicknames? I like flashbang,” the other Akari says.

“Flashbang?” Laya says confused.

“Just watch,” Akari says as she disappears and reappears in a blinding flash of light.

“Flashbang,” she repeats with an understanding tone.

“You know nicknames aren’t as cool if you give them to yourself, right?” Tanaka says with a chuckle.

“Shut up,” the Flashbang Akari replies, drawing out the word ‘up’.

A deep, gravelly voice interrupts our hero’s identity crisis. “I can tell you what is going on; however, it is not something your simple minds will comprehend.”

“OK, buddy, seems pretty easy. We are trapped in some wild anime crossover episode,” Akari says as she adjusts her grip on the Killmonger.

“You may think that is what it is. It goes much deeper than just a ‘wild anime crossover episode.’ Boss has arranged for a few little tests for his little lab rats,” the voice quips, entertaining the girl’s reply.

“Come, I will be waiting in the Main Street well to the north of here just before sunset,” it continues.

“What the hell, man? Now we have to deal with our chain-smoking neighbor, on top of these robots and monsters,” Tanaka quips.

“Time to get to work. There are some monsters over that way.” Lutz points to the north.

“Well, that’s the direction we have to head anyway. Let’s get a move on,” Xeriko grunts.

The group slowly makes its way deeper into the city. They rely on the power of Lutz’s [Sense Mana], which only covers half the threat. The robots are tracked by the [Minimap], but the large number of buildings makes the group have to keep their eyes and ears peeled, watching seemingly every window and rooftop.

A loud crack fills the air, and everyone turns to Xeriko, then to the metallic clatter on the street, then back to Xeriko “what? It was only the one, and he was aimed down the sights at one of us.”

“You could have warned us at least,” Akari says, rubbing her ear closest to Xeriko.

“And it would have gotten one of us shot, Malware. Maybe you should work on some hearing protection for situations like these”

“Alright, I’ll get right on that. I’ll prepare for every freak fourth-wall-breaking wild anime crossover event that these people could ever possibly think of,”

“I like this one,” the other Akari says, looking at her counterpart.

“Don’t get any ideas.” Tanaka says, “I don’t need things any more complicated than they already are. You girls run me ragged sometimes,”

“How bad could it be?” Lutz chuckles to himself. “Haven’t you seen any anime? Just pretend like you don’t know they’re after you, and the situation will basically resolve itself.”

“It may work in anime, but how long can we ignore tropes before someone realizes we follow all of them” Tanaka replies.

“How bad could it be for you as far as tropes.” Malware chuckles.

Akari slaps Tanaka on the arm hard enough to leave a bit of redness. “why do you have to say it like that?.”

“We have a similar group as well, strangely enough. Minus the harem drama,” Riko pipes in.

This causes Lutz and Tanaka to reply simultaneously, “IT’S NOT A HAREM!”

Haru giggles at the comment made by the boys, “Have you actually asked them, or are you just assuming?”

Lutz rolls his eyes.”One of them certainly likes to call it a harem, but it is most definitely not.”

Tanaka thinks about Haru’s remark but doesn’t have an answer. He is just hoping that the ship sails.

“We have a ravager, a Killmonger, a Perforator, a Ria, a bitchy cop, and Malware,” Xeriko says, trying to keep up with the group causing everyone to chuckle a bit.

“You know half of those were guns, right meatbag?” Malware replies.

“They mentioned six things I’m not about to be left behind,” Xeriko replies.

“Well, isn’t this just a wonderful testosterone-filled pissing contest,” Akari says, smiling.

“Shut it, Malware.”

“Enemies,” Laya says, pointing ahead of the group.

From the alley to the group’s left stumbles a large group of Hari, their lion-like bodies covered in dark purple fur and jagged teeth, snarling and snapping at the alleyway across them, causing everyone to freeze instantly. The relative silence was quickly broken by the whine of spooling plasma casters.

The largest of the Hari is the first off the draw, latching onto the spinning arm of the blender caster. Trying to keep it from shredding the rest of the Hari. At that moment, all hell breaks loose; plasma fills the air, Hari screech, and the group watches on as the enemies practically do their job for them.

With the enemy numbers quickly dwindling, the first to fire is Xeriko, as the rest of his companions get to work in relatively short order. Fireballs, Wind blades, light lances, and various other spells and skills fill the air adding to the carnage until all that remains is our group and the corpses of enemies.

“Well, onward and upward, I suppose,” Tanaka says, stepping over the body of a blender bot.

“Only way we will figure out what’s going on around here,” Lutz remarks as he steps over the corpse a Hari.

“Mmm,” is all Laya manages to get out as the group moves on.

Conversations continue as the group makes its way toward the center of town and gains a better understanding of their predicament.

“So if you’re not the head of a harem, what are you?” Riko turns to Tanaka.

“An idiot,” Akari replies, blushing and trying to hide her face behind her wide-brimmed hat.

“And you?” She looks to Lutz due to Tanka’s stunned silence.

“Boss,” In true Laya fashion, only a single word is uttered, and Lutz just nods in agreement.

“What’s your story?” Tanaka asks, turning to Xeriko.

“Well, long story short, she hacked my suit and saved my life. Now we work together.”

“And all you could do was complain about how I ruined your perfectly maintained suit,” Akari replies, looking smug.

“Who knew you could repair it all at the time, Malware.” Xeriko replies with a bit of snap to his voice.

“What about you two?” Akari says as she turns to Riko and Haru, Killmonger slung across her back.

“Well, as stories go, ours is a bit complicated,” Haru says, remembering their first meeting with a blush.

“It’s not THAT complicated. Just your standard, Dropped into the existing life of someone with a suspiciously similar mental makeup as you and made to fight demons without any of her powers. All while waiting to find out if you’re going to cease to exist spontaneously. Totally standard stuff. I’m sure you’ve all run into it a thousand times. Oh, yeah, and we’re magical girls that fight monsters under the direction of our magic cat mentor. Shocking. I know.”

Haru glares flatly over at Riko as the latter finishes talking. A million thoughts filled her head at nearly the same moment; the most glaring being, is it sarcasm, or did the brunette just say some really crazy stuff? Haru can’t help but wonder why she had to say it so mockingly.

“I mean, at least you weren’t told to be a hero or be soul wiped,” Tanaka smiles, causing everyone to look at him funny.

“True, but at least when you got to your world, you weren’t tortured just short of death for being a bad omen,” Lutz says, trying to gloss over his dark origin.

“Nah, just nearly turned into sashimi by a demon that wanted the other me dead,” Nariko commented.

“And I thought we had it bad fighting al-ndroids. Do all characters that get pulled into this stuff have shit starts, or is it just you all got the short end of the stick” Xeriko says, reflecting on the stories of his companions.

As the sun starts to set over the town, the group arrives along Main Street to find a single man standing with his arms at his side, patiently waiting on the group.

“Welcome, players. I am Saiko. How have you been enjoying the bosses game” the deep, gravelly voice booms through the air, and the man bows.

Our group continues to get closer. They notice the man isn’t as much a man as a twisted figure. His face deformed to that resembling a demon. His deep-red eyes pierced the twilight before sunset. Horns protruded from the sides of his head and his mouth was filled with thick canine teeth look like they belong to a dog, rather than a man.

“What are we even doing here?” Akari is the first to reply as she unslings her assault rifle.

“Well, you’re nothing more than toys.” Saiko says “If you wish to find your true purpose here, you’ll have to speak to the boss.”

“Us ‘toys’ are about to show you a good time,” Tanaka replies as he pulls his sword.

“Good. Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you. That will only empower the boss,” Saiko says with a terrifying smile.

Malware immediately responds, “Who’s your boss, Emperor Palpatine?” causing Saiko to look around bewildered.

The group prepares for battle. Saiko smiles and says, “I don’t know who this Emperor Palpatine is, but if you can defeat me, then I will direct you to the boss, but know you won’t come away unscathed.”

With that comment, gunshots ring out, filling the air.

Tanaka starts casting more significant spells trying to occupy the remaining space with his own magic.

Lutz and Laya immediately cast [Air Step], trying to get air superiority over their foe only to watch him seemingly blink away, avoiding most of their damage.

Saiko reappears between Tanaka and Xeriko just as Haru and Akari work to establish barriers around the group. His claws slash at both but only collide with the barriers, sparks erupting from the stroke.

“Silly children, do you not know your place within this world?” Saiko says, straining against the barriers. “You were to fall here to me!”

“You do realize you’re going up against 4 protagonists right now, right?” Tanaka laughs.

“True, but with the power lent to me, I was told I would be able to defeat you,” Saiko says, now unsure of himself.

Lutz’s silent attack from the sky connects with a barrier of its own. Unsure how long the battle would last due to the wild words of Saiko the group launches a series of brazen attacks attempting to fell what is believed to be a mighty foe. Riko and Laya work in concert to find an opening on the deadly enemy.

Layas’ [Wind Blades] and rounds from Rikos’ pistol fill the air where the demon was pushed from the force of Lutz’s spear skill, throwing Saiko off-balance.

“Accuracy by volume, i wholehartedly approve” is heard from a certain deepened voice between the cracks of automatic gunfire that fill the air aimed squarely at Saikos’ chest.

Tanaka further immobilizes the opponent with various elemental spikes aimed vital areas of Saiko’s body. Lightning crackles from saikos groin, under his arms pillars of flames errupt. The barrier enveloping Saiko to shatter with the force of a small explosion as a needle of pure darkness draws a trickle of blood from his throat.

Now bloodied and realizing he doesn’t have long to live, Saiko shouts, “WAIT!”

This causes everyone to freeze while keeping their weapons trained on the half-demon man,

“I told you I would tell you what I know. However, I can tell I don’t have long left now.”

“We are waiting,” Riko says a bit impatiently.

“If you wish to defeat the boss, you must work together as you have here. However, they are no pushovers. They will find your weaknesses and exploit them handily,” Saiko says, starting to gasp for breath.

“They are located upon the mountain to the west. There will be more battles for you between here and there and more danger as well as certain peril. Still, if you wish to escape, you must defeat him,” Saiko continues, choking on his own blood.

“Good luck, heroes,” Saiko says with his last breath escaping his lips, His body soon returning to that of a human.

“Probably a good idea to purify his remains,” Nariko says flatly.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it if no one else does,” Tanaka replies as the rest of the group gathers themselves together once again.

“I don’t mind either,” Lutz says.

Chapter 4

Boron

After the group gathered, Lutz decided to use his [Scry] spell to figure out the strength of his allies. He was in for quite the shock when he saw the gun-toting Akari’s stats.

Name: Akari.OS

Age: 1 month AR [after reincarnation]

Race: Soulbound AI

Level: 38 [level calculated based on damage potential and kill count]

Buffs: none

Debuffs: none

Unique Skills: Body Soul Dysmorphia

Her status was like nothing Lutz had ever seen before, and he just had to say something.

“You seeing this Laya?” he asked her through their telepathic network spell [Mind Link].

“Mmm, she’s interesting, but her weapon is loud.” The elf commented before rubbing her ears to probably dispel the ringing sensation.

Lutz sighed and rubbed her head gently. Sure, she didn’t melt into a pile of pudding like his catgirl tank did after headpats, but the serene look on her face let him know the sentiment was appreciated nonetheless. He smiled at her then focused his attention back on the group. The gun-toting Akari was discussing things with the other Isekai protagonists, so he walked up to the group to check in.

“…Are we thinking this is a demon lord situation?” Akari asked the others.

“It’s possible. That guy was a proto-demon after all, and I did sense a sort of borrowed power from him before he turned into a corpse.” The girl named Haru observed.

“Wouldn’t that be, I don’t know, cliche?” Lutz asked the group, looking dubious.

“Hey anything can happen, especially since this space works on all of our universes rules put in a blender set to smoothie.” Tanaka retorted, pondering something.

“With that cheery thought let’s head north, at least we can figure out something along the way for what to do regarding our situation.” the other Akari noted, looking north…or at least what she thought was north.

Lutz decided to pin everyone in the group just in case they managed to get separated, and lead the way pulling his shield out of his inventory. Then everyone started moving behind him with Laya on his right and Xeriko on his left taking wide sweeps with his gun. Upon closer inspection, Lutz noticed that Xeriko also had a sword on his back that is probably attached to it with magnets. He tried using [Scry] on the weaponry attached to the mercenary.

Allumasteel Killmonger .75 caliber Ammunition

+85 Atk

Durability Up

Piercing Up

Android Shredder

Beta-Titanium steel Tachi

+65 Atk

Durability Up

Slashing Up

Tungsteel Ravager

.60 caliber Ammunition

+50 Atk

Durability Up

Piercing Up

Lutz whistled at the equipment; even without them having magical enchantments, the system still considered them to have minor ones. Most likely because of their futuristic metals and construction. He shuddered to think about what kinda damage they would do back home. He also wondered if they would even accept enchantments. That was something for another time however, as they had to stay sharp for the fights ahead.

Xeriko looked ahead and noted, “We got company, and it’s not the friendly kind.”

Xeriko was right of course, as there was a massive mecha-hari-magical…thing that was charging at them.

“Damn, it’s got [Gale] [Accel] [Empower] and [Stone Skin]!” Lutz shouted.

“Holy nuts that’s ugly!” Future Akari yelled right after.

The magical girl, Riko, materialized her sword and magi-magi pistol, holding the sword in a one handed grip, likely so she could shift grips to a two handed grip after dismissing her magi-magi gun. Flashbang readied her hands for casting magic, and Lutz took his spear from his inventory, glaring at the…whatever it was. Laya drew her chain sickle, keeping a neutral expression on her face. Tanaka drew his shortsword and held it in a relaxed but firm grip, while Xeriko drew his pistol.

“Why do I feel outnumbered?” Lutz observed.

“We’re surrounded by chicks, obviously.” Xeriko countered.

“Isn’t that just how our lives are anyway?.” Tanaka retorted.

“Gossip later, fight now!” Future Akari shouted.

The woman punctuated the point by burst firing her Killmonger into the mechanical daemonic monstrosity. Even with the buff spells attached to the monster, the digital woman still scoured some flesh from the thing. She grimaced as she looked at the limited impact her bullets had beyond making it mad.

“Ok, looks like magic is our way to go!” Akari shouted.

Riko ran ahead to fire a few magical blasts from her magi-magi gun that detonated on the monster’s flesh, causing some actual damage.

“Dammit! I wish I had magic!” Future Akari shouted as she held concentrated fire on the monstrosity. It still barely did anything but she was not about to stop firing anyway.

Lutz grunted as he sent a [Crescent Wave] at the monster before running towards a building.

“Cover me! I got a plan!” Lutz shouted before jumping towards the aforementioned building.

“Oh dang…I know where this is going.” the gunslinger Akari commented as she peaked at Lutz in her periphery before turning her attention back on the monster.

“Mmm” Laya the elf agreed as she used [Dimension Cutter] to slash at the monster with her extremely magical weapon.

While the isekai squad carried out their Alpha strike, the monster was going around roaring with rage at the puny insects that were trying to harm it. It then held out its mechanical arm and it started humming with magic before it conjured a huge ball of compacted earth magic, and just because the monster was a total dick, it launched it at the gunslinger.

“Oh SUGAR HONEY ICED TEA!” She shouted before joining the Prometheus School of Running Away from Things.

Such actions were the reason why the boulder hit her in the back of head causing her to be knocked unconscious.

“Malware down!” Xeriko shouted.

Suddenly, Lutz came falling out of the sky as the other Akari used a flash spell to blind the monster, causing it to flail around. Lutz then impaled it through the head using [Gale Stab] to pierce its magical defenses. The beast then slumped over as Lutz hopped off of the monstrosity, landing back on the ground with a smug grin on his face.

That smug grin is immediately wiped off his face when a treasure chest dropped from the sky and bashed him over the head causing him to fall over. Laya quietly chuckled a little as Lutz got his Karma and Riko unsummoned her weapons.

“Ok, we definitely need to coordinate better.” Xeriko points out.

“Well it’s kinda hard to do that when we’re such a big group.” Riko commented as she walked back to the Isekai Squad.

“Let’s look at the treasure!” Haru piped up as she ran over to it.

“Hold it you.” Tanaka rebuked, grabbing the living pile of cocaine.

“Check the wounded, and we’ll reconvene in ten minutes.” Xeriko advised before everyone sat down and took a break.

Akari started looking over her name thief that got hit with the magical boulder.

“The other me is fine, she’s just got some head trauma, I’m surprised she could take that hit.” She held up the other woman who only had a slight trickle of blood going down her face, the only difference was her blood was blue for some reason.

“Huh…” Lutz commented.

“Different.” Laya observed.

“Of course she’s different.” Xeriko retorted.

Akari then casted a healing spell on the other one’s head, and the blood dried flaked off before her gash sealed up and she opened her eyes.

“I’m not as think as you drunk I am…” She groaned before she shook her head.

“You with us Malware?”

“Yeah I’m here Meatbag … go away…” Future Akari groaned before standing back up.

She then looked around the battlefield, noticing the dead monster.

“Darn, I missed Lutz’s Dragoon Jump.” She pouted.

Akari had a private chuckle before looking at the treasure chest

“Hmm…I wonder if this place hands out rewards for big achievements?” Flashbang pondered while looking at the chest.

“Always wanted to do this.” Future Akari commented with a grin on her face as she reeled her foot back and kicked the chest.

What followed after that kick was a string of expletives that would make any sailor blush and apologize to their mother for ever swearing in the first place. Even Xeriko looked ashamed for a second before smirking at Malware.

Akari looked inside the chest as Malware was nursing her bruised foot from doing something completely illogical and stupid.

“Hmm … a blue glowing tome with zeroes and ones in it, that’s probably the other me…” She noted as she tossed it behind her to the other Akari where it promptly bashed her in the head.

“Is it bully Akari day…?” Malware griped before looking at the tome.

She then read the tome as the others looked at the chest which held gold coins and bullets which was an odd juxtaposition.

“Strange.” Laya observed picking up a box of killmonger bullets.

“Yes, it would appear even the loot has conflated our worlds as well.” Tanaka observed holding up the gold coins.

Lutz then looked northward as his mana sense went bonkers.

“Guys, there’s a big swell of mana due north of us.” He noted furrowing his brow.

The Isekai bunch decided to find the source of the mana that was big enough to concern the cheating hero. What they found…concerned them.

“It looks like a combination of a teleportation circle, a warp pad, and a portal ring.” F. Akari noted.

“It doesn’t appear to be insidious to my [Scry] spell, but you never know.” Lutz offered.

“Eh its probably fine!” Haru exclaimed with a stupid grin on her face.

Before anyone could stop the personified cocaine, she dove into the portal with a swan dive.

“Gods dammit…” Kelly groaned.

“And you thought I was crazy Meatbag.” F. Akari sniped

“Shut up Malware.” Xeriko rebuffed

“Make me!”

Chapter 5

Lutz, Laya

“Woah.” Lutz looks at their new surroundings. “I think someone forgot to finish this part of the dungeon.”

“Either that,” Riko says, “or it’s glitched like an old video game that couldn’t decide which tile set to load.”

The ground beneath their feet changes drastically every couple steps, from grass to concrete, then grated metal. Spreading out all around them are patches of mismatched ground, as if ripped from different time periods in history.

The same can be said for any objects in this strange place. A tree might grow from a patch of dirt, while right next to it, a light pole sits on a tile of concrete.

“I think…” Haru looks around. “I think this is where all our worlds meet.”

“Meet?” Riko asks. “You mean something happened to our worlds?”

“No, this is more like a reflection of our worlds?” Haru shakes their head. “I’m not too sure.”

“I don’t know anything about those reflections,” Xeriko says. “But I know a battleground when I see it.”

All eyes turn to the middle of this chaotic dimension, where the land is stretched, as if it were being pulled into the center by a powerful force.

There in the middle is a warped figure, as if it were having trouble maintaining its form. But even if it’s unstable, those who can sense its energy know just how powerful the creature is.

“Don’t be rash, Meatbag.” Future Akari inspects her Killmonger. “This one’s no joke.”

“You don’t have to tell me that when the land itself is stretched like that.”

“So much mana,” Lutz says. “But whoever’s at the center of that distortion isn’t in full control. It won’t be able to use all of this mana against us.”

“Not yet,” Laya adds.

“You think it’s trying to break through? If so, I don’t want to be here when it does.”

“Then that makes it simple.” Tanaka steps forward. “We take it down before it breaks through.”

“We will have to end this in a flash,” Akari says, causing the group to groan.

“You’re really trying to make the whole flash thing stick aren’t you” Tanaka groans

With no other objectives in sight, the group heads toward the center. As they walk, the very land beneath their feet becomes more stretched.

The pull could even be felt now, making the group feel like they’re being tugged toward it. The effect was weak on them compared to the land, as they weren’t a mere reflection.

The group wasn’t just walking toward the creature. The ones who can cast magic are preparing their spells, and those versed in tactics are discussing battle plans.

In the end, they decide to work as four independent pairs working together as best they can. That would give them the flexibility to move quickly and the confidence to trust the partner they’ve been fighting alongside until now.

“WARRIORS FROM OTHER WORLDS.” A voice echoes directly in our minds. “COME FACE DEFEAT, AND SURRENDER YOUR WORLD TO ME.”

“Surrender?” Lutz asks back. “You want to conquer our worlds?”

“IT IS ONLY NATURAL FOR ME TO ENGULF THE WEAK.”

“Then boy howdy, did you pick the wrong worlds,” Riko says.

Haru wrinkles her nose and looks to her friend like she’d let loose something noxious. ”…Boy Howdy…?”

The brunette just arches an eyebrow back at her. “Too much?”

“That would’ve been too much if your costume came with a cowboy hat.”

“COMPLACENCY WILL ONLY LEAD TO YOUR DESTRUCTION.”

“This guy,” Lutz says. “Does he think he’s the only world-destroying threat in the universe?”

“Must be he doesn’t realize who all he called up at this point” Tanaka says shaking his head

“Why don’t we show this thing how we welcome world destroyers.” Akari raises her Killmonger.

“THEN COME TO YOUR DEMISE.”

The talking was over. Now, it was time for action.

Sword Witch, Flare Witch

Sword Witch and Flare Witch share a knowing look with one another that is nearly telepathy and nod, then both step toward the glitched out abomination in the middle of existence together.

“Fine, then we’ll go first,” the golden-armed brunette declares as her sword appears in her grip in a flash of light.  “No complaints if it ends up being last, too!”

Both girls dash in at fifty times the speed of an Olympic sprinter, the figure’s form coalescing as they close with it.

It stands up from the cross-influx of world mana, lean and red-eyed in a form-fitting bodysuit that leaves its obsidian chest exposed, white hair lashing about in the wind produced by the chaos around it.

“FIRST TO THE SLAUGHTER,” the creature declares as it raises one hand toward them, mana flickering to life amid its long-nailed fingers.  “I SHALL DRINK YOUR REALM DRY!”

Rather than attempt to dodge the attack, Sword Witch jumps right into its path, holding up her blade as a literal lightning rod to draw the arcing bolts away from her ally.  At the same time, Flare Witch takes the opening to release a Shining Lance right into the creature’s face.

“You want our mana?!” the blonde shouts at it as it reels with one hand clamped over its eyes.  “We’ll give it to you one bruise at a time!”

In the wake of the lightning attack, Sword Witch takes in their surroundings with new eyes as Haru’s words spark an idea in her mind.  Mana …  That’s right, it’s everywhere.  Maybe her body can only handle releasing so much, but if she can supplement that with everything that’s around her …

She closes her eyes to try to focus, doing her best to block out the battlefield for only a moment.  An experimental tug.  Yes, she can do it.  But all of the mana in the area was still being drawn to the creature.  It’s doubtful she could hold onto it against the drain for more than one attack.

Sword Witch sprints for Flare Witch, who, predictably, is already trying to engage in blows with the entity.  “Haru, give me a boost!”

Without hesitation and with full trust, the blonde immediately jumps back and cups her hands together.  The moment Nariko’s foot lands in the makeshift stirrup, she hurls upwards at the same time as Sword Witch kicks off.  “Upsy-daisy!”

The combined superhuman launch sends Sword Witch high, high up into the air, trails of world-mana stretching up after her as her evangelium and hordestadt begin to glow, a light that moves to her eyes and even up into the roots of her hair.  And then she begins pushing that energy into the blade, itself.

“DARKNESS CRUSHER!!!”

The demonic spell uses dark mana to rapidly increase the weight of a blow for a single strike according to the amount of mana put into it, and even as she pulls her body back like a bow, it begins to pull her back down, back toward the entity.

Weight, momentum and sheer magical energy come together to create a massive, towering explosion as she brings that golden blade down on the entity’s forehead.

As the dust settles, however, the creature stands once more.  Even the rubble that partially buried it breaks apart into world-mana at its touch.  The gravitational pull on the mana is so much stronger here it’s even beginning to get pulled out of their own bodies.

It begins to reach for the Witch that had so audaciously assaulted it even as molten blood runs freely down the side of its face.

“YOU SHALL DIE FIRST, MISSHAPEN LITTLE GIRL!  SPEAK YOUR FINAL WORDS!”

But Nariko just grins.  “Pass!”

The next instant, as if they’d planned it, both girls leap backwards with all of their enhanced strength, sailing back out of reach.

Tanaka, Flashbang Akari

“Don’t tell me you are referencing that anime with the hundred floors and edgy swordsman all in black to pass the attack to me” Tanaka groans as barbs of ice flow from his hand and a bright flash appears next to the boss.

Nariko still grinning says “I would never reference Sword World Online i have some class, alright.”

“You win this round” Tanaka says as he dodges a bolt of dark energy darting straight for his head.

“IF YOU HAVE TIME TO SPEAK YOU HAVE TIME TO DIE” 

Akari appears at Tanaka’s side and says in the quietest voice possible “I’m glad I am able to take this fight with you”

“Thats a flag you know” Tanaka says as Akari points her wand to the creature and releases light lances of her own.

As they reach their target they are shattered by the dark miasma that the creature is emitting.

“Well i guess this isnt going to work attacking on our own any ideas?” Akari asks as miasmatic snakes erupt from the ground slowly slithering their way toward the duo.

“Remember the cleaning job how about some holy fire” Tanaka says matter of factly as akari grabs his arm 

A brilliant white flame slowly erupts from the spot Tanaka and Akari stand.

Tanaka strains with all his might trying to will the fire foreward and urges it to engulf their enemies.

The world seems to slow around Tanaka and Akari as the flames reach the miasmatic snakes and transforms into a small being of light holding a flaming sword.

“Kaki what are you doing here?” Akari smiles weakly as energy starts to leave her body being drawn into Tanaka

“That isnt Kaki that is your energies bound together now please rest” Tanaka as he looks back to Xeriko and gives him a nod

The being cross slashes the snakes and seemingly drives them into the ground and slowly pushes forward seemingly pushing the weight of the world with it. As it reaches the boss it calls out in a booming voice. 

“THOSE PALTRY NOTHINGS ARE ALL YOU CAN DELIVER BOY YOUR WORLD MAY NOT EVEN BE WORTH MY TIME” 

As the being utters its last word the female light being slashes across the bosses obsidian chest a bright fiery X is carved into it causing it to squeal in pain.

“Time for us to call in the big guns” Tanaka says as he hobbles backward Akari in his arms weakened nearly to the point of magical exhaustion.

Future Akari, Xeriko

“DID SOMEBODY SAY GUNS?!?!” The older, not so wiser Akari jumps forward, dramatically chambering the Killmonger and ignoring the shell that bounces out of the ejection port.

Xeriko raises the Ravager. “Be careful with this one, Malware. You saw how much the others struggled. It’s even more of an outcast to this world than you are to mine.”

“Stuff your caution, Meatbag! They didn’t have FIREPOWER!” As if not even listening to Xeriko’s entire sentence, she charges forward with Killmonger raises and gives her best 80s action hero shout. She holds down the trigger even as the figure morphs into a digital monstrosity.

“Dammit, Malware!” Blasting as he runs, Xeriko’s high caliber bullets each hit their mark without fail.

Turns out mag-dumping is a famously bad idea. Akari finds herself right in front of the looming, blue giant just as the Killmonger starts going click click click.

“Uh …” she fidgets as she fumbles with the magazine release. “Time out?”

“FILTHY ARTIFICIAL LIFEFORM! YOUR DATA ISN’T WORTH ABSORPTION!” The massive hand comes down and backhands her away with the force of a truck.

“Move it!” Xeriko knocks away Akari’s body as it flies by him.

“At least catch me!” Her voice gets smaller and easier to ignore.

After blasting a few more into the blue giant, the Ravager clicks empty. Basic tactics says reloading is always slower than pulling a sidearm, a fact Xeriko knows well.

Said sidearm, Android Shredder, is released from the magnetic pull that keeps it on Xeriko’s back, the blade appearing in his vision a blink later.

The same hand that backhanded his companion comes down for another strike, completely disrespecting the blade Xeriko held in his grip.

“That won’t work on me!” Enhanced by the body armor, Xeriko does what Akari failed to do. He dodges the attack.

The Android Shredder falls on the blue giant’s wrist, a perfect strike against an opponent with no defense.

“What the hell is this!?” Android Shredder vibrates violently, the edge fighting to break through a powerful force protecting the giant’s body.

Meanwhile, Akari’s body has come in for a landing into a wall. Her vision blurs and flickers between normal colors and shades of blue. “Oh, frack, did I break something?” she slurs.

When her eyes fall on Xeriko, each flash of blue almost seems to highlight his suit, familiar readouts and displays flickering into existence before vanishing again as the normal colors come back.

“Shit, I did break something …”

It takes a moment to realize what’s happening with Xeriko’s struggle, but what can she do from so far away? The display … She focuses on it again, willing the blue to stay longer, the data feed to stabilize. There’s a long, stretchy feeling like being made of taffy.

The power armor’s regulation settings flash into her mind, and she wills the gauges to turn until overload signs begin to flash in warning. “KICK HIS ASS, MEATBAG!” she screams from her hole in the plasteel.

The Android Shredder vibrates more violently than before. In his helmet, a light flashes, one that no power armor user ever wants to see.

“Overload!? Why the hell did you do that!?” Xeriko pushes on the blade harder, the barrier giving way to his sudden surge in strength.

Like an outlet shorting out, light flashes at the point where his sword meets wrist. At the same time, his suit finally goes past the limit, activating its full power.

“I’m taking this hand with me!” Light and noise fill his senses as the suit releases its power all at once.

Akari watches on as Xeriko’s sword slices clean through the giant’s arm. Unfortunately, she didn’t get to see much before everything went up in one, huge bang.

“Woah!” She eyes Xeriko as he skids across the ground. “Talk about an explosive finish!”

Xeriko’s power armor slides to a stop on his back conveniently five feet off to her side. There’s a moment of silence as steam and electric smoke rises off of his suit, then-

“Goddammit, Malware! Every fucking time!”

Lutz, Laya

“That looks like it hurt.” Lutz shakes his head in pity as Xeriko’s body comes to a stop.

“But it was worth the pain.” Laya moves her eyes from the power suit to the giant, blue creature that seems to be made of pure energy.

“True. It’s a lot weaker after losing that hand. But…”

“Mmm. Already regenerating.”

Lutz does a bit of calculations in his head. “From how much weaker it got after that attack, I’d say the two of us will need some help to take it down.”

“Then?”

“Then we put the lid on this battle.”

Laya understands from just that, despite not getting a direct answer.

“Alright.” Lutz raises a hand, and his spear appears. “It’s time for us to make an appearance.”

Laya’s chain sickle, Arc of the Crescent Moon, has long since been in her grip. “I’ll explain it to the others.”

Two pairs of feet kick the ground as Lutz and Laya charge toward the regenerating boss. They pass Akari and Xeriko, the former of which is dragging the latter back, the power armor damaged too much for him to even move on his own.

“It’s changing.” Lutz watches the otherworldly boss as its form shifts.

It shrinks from a blue giant buzzing with energy, getting smaller and smaller with each step Lutz takes. Unfortunately, there’s a limit to how much it shrinks, the monster ending up even taller than an elephant from Earth.

But the new form doesn’t stand on four legs.

“An angel?” Lutz thinks back to several video games whose final bosses had a similar form. “Guess I should have expected this.”

“YOU HAVE NO CHANCE AGAINST ME!” The boss’ voice is as booming as ever, despite his smaller frame. “GIVE UP, AND ACCEPT A QUICK DEATH!”

“I didn’t die after my first summoning.” Lutz’s spear begins glowing. “And I’m not changing that streak today!”

The [Crescent Wave] flies from the spear tip, hitting the angel with little effect.

Laya’s [Wind Blade] strikes it at the same time. Normally, her blades can slice clean through most enemies. But this boss is anything but normal.

With an audible grunt, the angel takes their assault without giving ground. With their charge halted by the immovable boss, Lutz and Laya move to the next phase of the battle.

The two take to the skies, climbing until their faces are equal to the angel’s own. With Lutz on one side and Laya on the other, their combined assault can begin.

Or, that was the plan.

“NO MORE!” The angel regains a buzz of energy, like he had when he was a blue giant.

“Already?” Lutz makes a motion with his hand, and Laya begins to retreat.

He does the same, leaping back just as the angel explodes with energy. Even his body can’t outrun it, getting caught up in the radiating explosion as he retreats.

Landing on an [Air Step], he looks beside him. Laya nods back, which is all the confirmation he needs.

“Here he comes.” Lutz readies his spear as the fallen angel’s mana reaches a climax.

He wasn’t sure what to expect. Another explosive attack, perhaps. But the entity’s spell wasn’t quite so simple.

“Gravity magic?” Lutz stuck his spear into the ground, gripping it with one hand.

Laya’s hand also wraps around the spear, her twintails whipping around wildly as the gravitational force fluctuates around the entity.

“It’s trying to get us close to that tear in space.” Lutz eyed the strange crack floating in mid-air just behind the fallen angel entity. “Something tells me we don’t want to let it have its way.”

Just as he decides that staying away is the better option, the ground between them and the entity begins to shrink. Neither he nor the fallen angel are moving even a little, yet the distance between them becomes shorter and shorter with each passing second.

“The magic is bending space itself? It’s getting more control over this dimension.”

“They’re ready.” Laya informs me just as the others get into position.

“Then let’s follow the others’ examples and actually fight the boss.” Lutz pulls out an expendable spear with his free hand. “I’m still not getting close to that tear, though.”

“Mmm.” Laya’s Arc of the Crescent Moon vanishes, replaced by a single mithril sickle attached to a chain.

“[Gale Stab]!” The spear tip begins glowing.

“[Dominion].” The sickle releases a red aura.

Spear and sickle are released simultaneously, thrown toward the fallen angel that continues to draw closer, despite not moving.

The pull of gravity only accelerates the thrown weapons, pulling them directly toward the entity with incredible speed.

Both blades sink into flesh, the fallen angel not even putting up a defense. The Weapon Skills activate at the same time, the spear punching a hole right in the entity’s chest, while the sickle goes for the neck.

Two critical hits, completely unguarded. Lutz can feel the entity’s energy drop, as it always does when it takes damage. But like every time before, the energy flowing through the tear quickly regenerates the fallen angel.

And he knows from experience that it will only come back stronger.

“YOUR ATTACKS ARE FUTILE!” The entity’s booming voice doesn’t contain a hint of fear or urgency. “NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, I WILL ALWAYS RETURN!”

“Not this time, you won’t.” A voice comes from beside him.

Lutz arches an eyebrow at the girl named Nariko. “Sword Witch doesn’t sound like a class that comes with a lot of ranged options.”

“For some reason plasma is an option in her book” Tanaka comes up on the other side, rolling his shoulder, nodding in her direction. “Don’t ask me what it has to do with swords, but it blasted one of those wooden robots all to pieces.”

“And you drilled a hole in that building. Still not sure it’s going to be–”

“Damn it, Malware!” A gruff voice shouts from a bit further away. “Couldn’t you fix more than just my arms!?”

“They’re guns,” Future Akari scolds him. “Arms are all you need! You even have one for each weapon!”

Looking to the side, Lutz spots Xeriko pointing his Ravager and Akari’s Killmonger at the entity. His power suit is still damaged, so he can only lay on his back, his head tilted up to see the battlefield.

Unlike the rest of him, his arms are fully operational, and they’re carrying some heavy hitters.

“Well,” Lutz says. “All of you should get the idea, so all we can do is go for it.”

Tanaka nods. “Overwhelming force.”

“That’s it. So give it everything you have left.”

Lutz, Laya, Tanaka, Nariko, and Xeriko all focus in on the regenerating entity spawning from the dimensional tear.

A loud bang signals the start of the all-out assault, the large caliber rounds from Ravager and Killmonger hitting the fallen angel in center mass.

As Xeriko fires with his back still on the ground, Tanaka begins rapid fire casting spells in every known element and combination he can think of, shard-like bits of light, darkness, wind, water, fire, earth and everything in between pepper the angel almost as if being blasted by a magical shotgun.

While Tanaka continues to blast the angel with every bit of magic he can think of, Sword Witch holds out her left hand, and in a flash of light, the bracelet on that wrist is gone and there is a pistol in her grip. She sets her feet and inhales a deep breath. She turns sideways and points her feet forward, then raises the gun into the sky above her head before slowly lowering it down as she stares at the being’s center of mass.

“With pure focus and dedication,” she recites as if in mantra, “it cannot miss.”

She focuses all of her attention, all of her will on that single point of the enemy, and pulls the trigger.

The beam flashes out at near-light speed, the surroundings going silent as its heat and force repel the air.

And then it slams into the Sephiroth rip-off and all of the air comes back in an explosion of sound and light. So much energy pours out from Sword Witch that it can’t even all be absorbed at the point of impact, the energy flowing back and over the monstrosity in a cone of electromagnetic aurora.

“Nice attacks. The energy is retreating back through the tear in space. With just a little more…” Lutz raises a single arm.

“We can win.” Laya’s hand rises beside Lutz’s.

“Let him have it.” A massive amount of energy bursts to life. “Twin dual-casting!”

Despite there being only two hands, four spells explode into existence. The first two form a streak of light in an X-formation, the center being the fallen angel’s physical body. The [Lightning] spells pierce right through the boss, disappearing into the distance beyond.

Although Lutz knows the two bolts hit home, he can’t confirm it with his eyes. That’s because two [Flame Pillar] spells have completely engulfed the entity from bottom to top. The flames rage around it, sapping what little energy remains within its physical body.

“It’s vanishing back into the dimensional tear!” Lutz gives the short version to everyone around him.

Soon, the fires fade, revealing an empty spot of space where the fallen angel once stood. However…

“IT IS OF NO USE!” The voice booms again, more distant than before. “I CANNOT BE STOPPED!”

As always, the energy begins leaking from the tear. Within moments, the entity will be back, stronger than ever.

“I’ve had enough of this guy’s annoying voice!” Future Akari steps between the fighters and the tear. “If he takes on the properties from each of our worlds, then this will be easy! Because there’s nothing in my world that can stop me when I decide to hack it!”

The tear in space shifts, reminding Lutz of an old video game that’s starting to glitch.

“I’ll help, too!” Flare Witch, the blonde girl with the twintails and too many ribbons, steps forward and places herself behind and off to the side of Future Akari.

The big, ugly bird thing is scary. Its emotions are all a black pit of hunger and avarice. Everywhere it’s allowed to go will be eaten. Everywhere, eaten.

But she pushes it out of her mind and reaches out her senses to feel the energy passing from Future Akari into the hole the bird wants to crawl back out of. She links onto it and focuses her own power into the line.

She can’t learn new spells like Riko can, but only one comes to mind when thinking of purifying that dark hole. Haru begins to pirouette on the spot as sunbeams pierce the sky, circling in on her like spotlights. As she comes to a stop with her arms held out wide as if to wrap the darkness within her embrace, Future Akari’s electromagnetic waves spike through the roof.

“SWEET SUNBEAM ALLEVIATION!”

A gentle glow starts to emanate from Flashbang Akari as she reaches toward Future Akari, purifying holy light gathering upon her fingertips.

She gently grasps Future Akari’s shoulder, a warming light floods her soul and an overwhelming calm washes over her.

“IT’S LIGHTS OUT FOR YOU, YOU SCUM SUCKING FOOL!” Future Akari exclaims as their energy flows through her.

She turns that energy into computational power, closing sectors of the dimensional tear like a hacker deleting chunks of database information after breaching the firewall.

Whatever force is keeping the tear growing can’t keep up in its weakened state, the energy leaking from it unable to rip the fabric of space open faster than Akari is closing it.

The three girls are expending a tremendous amount of their power to fight the otherworldly being, quickly draining them. But as the tear shrinks, so too does its influence on the strangely mixed dimension all of them had been summoned to.

“I HAVE NOT…!” The voice echoes distantly as the dimensional tear closes. “I HAVE NOT BEEN DEFEATED! I WILL RETURN ONE DAY! AND I WILL FINISH WHAT I BEGAN HERE!”

With a crackling of power, the spatial tear closes. The world stabilizes at the same time, finally bringing silence.

“Okay, then.” Lutz plucks his spear from the ground and brushes off his silver overcoat. “That was an interesting battle. I wonder if–”

Just as he’s about to start a casual conversation, the world begins to rumble once more.

Looking at the distance, he can see trees, modern electrical towers, and futuristic constructions all vanishing into nothingness. With each second, more of the distant land disappears, the devastation heading toward them at tremendous speed.

“Uh, oh.” Lutz watches the horizon draw closer. “Looks like we’re on a time limit.”

“Goodbyes, then,” Sword Witch says as she lets her transformation drop, leaving Nariko Kelly standing before them one last time. “Good thing I’m not into long ones.”

She gives a quick, short wave of her hand to the rest of them. “Thanks for the trip. Next time you all go on an interreality adventure, give White Cat Transport a call, and let’s do it again!”

Flare Witch returns to Haru Chiaki beside her, but looks at her best friend with confusion. “White Cat Transport?”

But the other girl just gives a shrug. “Dunno where that came from, honestly. Just felt like the right thing to say. You gotta admit, if we started up some sort of interdimensional security business, we’d have to name it after Sarasa.”

Haru’s gaze is piercing. “Did you start one?”

The brunette just laughs and rubs the back of her head. “Maybe in another reality?”

The twintailed blonde just gives a tired sigh, then turns back to the group with a brighter smile. “Really, though, if you’re ever in our neighborhood, look us up! We’ve got a soda shoppe we can treat you to!”

Lutz shakes his head. “Just how many realities do you plan to visit?”

“All of them!” Nariko places a finger under her chin. “Well, I’d like to avoid the ones filled with fire and brimstone.”

“Yeah, leave those to Natsumi!” Haru sticks her tongue out in a disgusted face. “Bleh!”

“The Flame Witch you mentioned before, right?” Lutz asks. “Considering her title, I can see why a fiery reality would suit her. But aren’t you the Flare Witch? Don’t you love fire too, or something?”

“No way! Flare’s for Light!” She starts counting off on her fingers. “Then there’s Flame Witch, like we mentioned, and Shield Witch and Sacred Witch! That last one’s our leader! If she came, she would’ve cleaned everything’s clock!”

“And it’s not THE Flame Witch or THE Flare Witch,” the brunette puts in, then crosses her arms. “In fact, why do I feel like you’ve been The’ing us like titles this entire time?”

Lutz considers the way he’s been referring to them in his head. “No comment.”

Looking at the horizon, he sees that it’s roughly a third of the way to them. Even now, Lutz can feel something tugging at him, something outside the multidimensional reality where he met this colorful cast of characters.

“Everyone else feel that?” Future Akari asks. “We’re getting pulled back to our own realities.”

Xeriko turns away from the approaching horizon, one of his legs straight and rigid, like he can barely move it. “If you have time to go on and on about whatever place this is, then you have time to fix my other leg.”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby. One leg’s good enough for now. Look! You’re even standing!”

Xeriko looks to Akari, struggling to keep his balance with his power armor in such bad shape. “When we get back, I’m going to have Ria examine your head. Something’s definitely wrong with it.”

“Ria’s a medic, silly. She can’t help people after their head has gone funny.”

“For your sake, we better hope she can learn.”

The back and forth between the two warriors from a futuristic world reminds Lutz of Belle when she’s in one of her playful moods. There’s no real animosity, just two people looking to enjoy some banter in their unique way.

“Wish I could see you two’s world most of all,” Lutz says. “I bet I’d have a lot of fun with all the sci-fi elements.”

“It is fun,” Future Akari says. “Especially when a group of droids is chasing you through a wrecked ship, with your only escape blocked by a room filled with sentries who already have their guns aimed at the door they know you’re about to walk through.”

“Sounds like a dangerous and hectic spot to be in. Sign me up!”

“No.” With a single word, Laya pulls him back to his own reality.

“Hah. Well, maybe I can just hope that I’ll get a chance to visit a space station themed dungeon in my world sometime. That’d be really cool, at least.”

Another glance to the horizon shows that it’s moved nearly another third of the total distance. The pull of Lutz’s world grows even stronger as the current reality crumbles away.

As Tanaka looks to the edge of the world seeing it ever shrinking he says “I never was good at goodbyes, so I’ll leave y’all with an until next time.”

Flashbang Akari smiles wistfully. “There will be a next time, right y’all? I’d love to meet the witch sisters, the not harem…” Tanaka and Lutz glare at her as she continues “and even the good doctor, and you would all love my sisters”

The roar of wind is so loud that it wouldn’t be strange to look up and see a tornado. But the truth is that what Lutz hears isn’t wind at all. It’s the very fabric of reality being torn apart as the dimensions split.

Each pair of warriors is pulled back to their respective world, unable to fight against the powerful force. With a final glance at the other three pairs, Lutz catches a glimpse of their worlds.

A futuristic and cataclysmic world in need of Akari and Xeriko to bring back from the brink of collapse.

A deceptively docile world of school and family life, with a war between demons and witches waging in the shadows.

A medieval European landscape filled with typical fantasy beasts and a castle dotting the horizon.

Three different worlds, each filled with dangerous enemies, exotic locations, and powerful heroes.

How interesting.

With that final thought, Lutz’s vision vanishes, along with his consciousness.