Chapter 12

Yeah, the monsters in DanMachi were stupid as fuck, but my other stats grew nicely. I will let those Free Points sit for a bit though.

Anyway, back to the discussion. Yao seemed to have broken, so I used her as a target for my snacks. After the 13th Oreo that hit her, she snapped out of it.

"You there? Because it's quite annoying to have a statue staring at me, you know?"

"Oh, sure… Ugh, know what? I'm done, I don't get paid enough." She has a wage?! "Look, just try not to destroy this planet. I don't have enough power to face you, that much is obvious, so I can only appeal to your conscience."

At that moment, I felt something brush against my mind. Is she… Trying to control me?

[Correct. That bitch tried to use some compulsion magic on you, Jules.]

"Oi, you wench, did you think that you could use magic on Jules just like that?!" shouted Jeanne. She made a fireball appear on her palm and was basically snarling at Yao. Ishtar just made a magic arrow and had it rest right in front of the Ancient One's eye, while Artoria just pointed her finger at the woman. Just one wrong syllable from her, and she's gone.

"Yao, Yao, Yao… Did you seriously think that controlling me would be a good idea? In which Universe, I wonder, did you get this wildly suicidal strategy?" I released a bit of my aura at her. The Mirror Dimension started creaking and was de-stabilizing. "Let's go back to my initial question: why should I not just kill every single sorcerer, take the Time Stone for myself, and train Strange myself?"

"I-I… I am the Sorcerer Supreme. My job is to protect Earth-"

"Yeah, not what I wanted to hear." I marked her, then Jeanne let go of her fireball, Ishtar had the arrow fire through her brain, while Artoria fired a magic beam that vaporized Yao.

"Twilight, mind summoning another Yao? This time we will brainwash her into doing what we want."

[I've already done so while you were busy blasting the woman to pieces. She's already in Kamar Taj.]

"Such efficiency! Just what would I do without you, my dear Twilight?"

[You would probably waste a few seconds every time you want something from the system.]

Fair enough.

We continued lazing around in another dimension while observing the SHIELD agents working and preparing to intercept Loki in whatever way. We were too lazy to care about another Universe's problems, so we will step in only during the actual invasion.

It was honestly fun watching the Avengers play into Loki's hands like fucking idiots, but it was also quite frustrating to see how such a foolish Asgardian can actually play with the 'world's strongest heroes'. I mean, the guy was promised something from fucking Thanos aka Purple Ballsack! How could he even entertain the thought that this would all go his way?!

Luckily, things were quite quick: almost half a day after we arrived on the carrier, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner arrived. Looking at the redhead spy and Maria Hill again, I am somewhat tempted to brainwash them and take them under my wing. I am surely a better boss than Fury and I also provide better benefits aka a shit-ton of skills through the Soul Corridor, including semi-immortality and the possibility to become something more than human.

Anyway, we were in a corner of the command room that I enlarged through magic, so we had a spot in first-class to see Hawkeye's assault on the carrier and all the drama surrounding Coulson's 'death'. I got some popcorn for that. Don't misunderstand, Coulson was surely a great man and someone I would have been friends with before my transmigration, but this is too much like the movie! Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that we are now in the MCU, not some random Parallel Universe. Well, in reality it is a Parallel Universe because Mutants exist here.

When Captain America and co. decided to get off their asses and steal a Quinjet, we followed them while keeping up our illusion and the Kamui rip-off. But, the flight was too damn long.

Change in POV: Steve Rogers

I am seriously too old for this stuff… So, there's this alien with a God-complex that is trying to invade Earth with some alien army called the Chitauri or something similar. And I somehow got involved in this since this Loki guy's plan revolves around the Tesseract.

We found Loki in Germany, but that ended up being his trap for us, to break the Avengers apart. However, he failed. Coulson's death united us and we got ready to deal with this invasion. Unfortunately, Banner and Thor are 'unreachable' at the moment, so it's just me, Stark, Romanoff, and Burton. Four people against an alien army… Seems doable.

We, meaning those that could not fly, stole a Quinjet and flew over to New York. En route, we suddenly heard a female voice shouting at us.

"Hey! Can't this damn pile of junk go any faster?!"

Now, I was certain that only the three of us boarded the Quinjet, and I know for sure that Romanoff's voice is different. I turned around ready to repel an attack, though I didn't actively antagonize the speaker. If they haven't attacked us already, I doubt they would now.

I saw four… Teenagers? Young adults? What would be the correct term, I wonder?

"I must agree, this thing is way too slow. By the time you arrive in New York, the invasion will have begun." said the only male in the group of 'stowaways'. He was patting the girl's head to calm her down. Judging by their clothes, I doubt that they are ready for a battle. I mean, the guy barely even has a leather jacket as protection, while the girls had casual clothes.

"Who are you?" They can't be civilians, they would have been discovered long ago on the helicarrier and I doubt they could stay there unnoticed until now.

"I wonder… Friends? Support, maybe? Or maybe we are with Loki? Well, for now you are alive, aren't you?"

Oh God, this is getting very dangerous and confusing. They know of Loki, so they are either enemies or allies. I need more information.

"And where did you come from?"

"What should I say? Orario? Or maybe Earth but in another Universe? We are missing the point here: Bow-guy, can't you speed this thing up?" Ooh, they are Humans, though I don't know and don't want to know what they mean by 'another Universe'.

"This is already the top speed, Ghost-guy." responded Clint. Goddammit, don't fucking antagonize them! Ahem… I got a little heated there.

"I like him, he's got spunk!" said a girl looking awfully similar to the first speaker. Maybe they are related?

"So, let's ignore the part about another Universe for now. I already have my brain running overtime trying to understand aliens and now Parallel Universes is too much. Can I summarise it as you being a neutral party from a version of Earth?" I can't take it anymore.

"No no, not neutral." Oh, shit. "I have a certain little personal business with Thanos, the guy behind this invasion, so you can say that I do have a side. For now, our interests align, so I am your ally." Hell yeah! Ahem… Again a little too heated.

"Cap… You can't seriously be thinking about working with perfectly unknown people that come from a 'Parallel Universe', could you?" said Romanoff.

"We are not enough to face Loki-"

"Correct, you're weak." Great, that means that he is at least stronger than us. Already valuable assistance.

"- so we need all the help we can get."

Right, I didn't present myself and I doubt that two secret agents like Burton and Romanoff would take the initiative.

"I am Steve Rogers, these are Clint Burton and Natasha Romanoff."

"Yes, I am familiar: Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow. I am Jules Dumont, these are-"

"Ishtar! Consider yourselves blessed by my presence, Humans!"

"She's a Goddess, so bear with it. She is Jeanne d'Arc Alter and she is Artoria Pendragon Alter."

For fuck's sake! Another Loki under the guise of a cute girl!

"No, not those false Gods like Thor and Loki, but a real Goddess of Beauty and a bunch of other things."

Still not good! Wait, this guy is acting awfully familiar with this 'Goddess'... Is he like her? A bunch of super aliens?

"I know only one God and he doesn't dress like that."

"Wrong! God doesn't exist, you miscreant! God is dead! Yours is just foolish thinking!" shouted the first girl.

She honestly scared me. Her pure rage and hate... Damn, what must have happened to her?

"Don't ever mention that faker in front of us again, Captain, or the consequences might be 'fiery'. Ever heard of the historical figure Joan of Arc?"

Who wouldn't in middle school?

"Well, I present to you Joan of Arc."

The girl? The hell?

"W-wait. Isn't she supposed to be- you know…"

"Dead? Yes and no. There are so many Universes where death is just another state of living for some individuals. Don't get too surprised about stuff like this. Example: what is the common consequence of bathing in fire?"

"Death? Burns? You choose." said Romanoff.

"Wrong. For us, there is no consequence." His arm caught on fire out of nowhere, then he waved his hand and the flames extinguished themselves.

"Ugh… I wish I was still in the ice…"

Change in POV: Jules

I stopped talking with them while using Orario's language to speak with my adorable companions. I wanted to make sure that Jeanne was fine, since we've been away from anything remotely close to religion for the past two years. Obviously, Orario has the Familia, but Gods aren't seen as a religious figure, for the most part. Then there's that loli aka Hestia that fucking lives in an abandoned Church…

As in canon, the Quinjet arrived, fired at some big fugly aliens, then crashed to the ground. What a shitty transportation method. I used Fourth Magic to manipulate the acceleration vectors affecting us, so we didn't get thrown aside.

When we emerged, New York was already panicking and shrieking and being overall too stupid to face the situation decently. Ok, there's a hole in the sky, so what? If the enemy is coming from the sky, get to the underground and as far as possible from ground zero! Goddammit, some common sense is needed.

"So, are we hunting a little?" asked Artoria.

"That we will, my dear. However, we should make sure that there is just enough destruction to make the people realize that aliens are a serious threat." I ignored the bewildered Captain America. I did say that our interests align, but I didn't say which interests.

My companions smirked and we changed to our battle attire. Jeanne summoned an army of Storm Dragons aka Veldora and started taking down the aircrafts. Artoria made a bunch of knight-golems and marched forwards to the area where the alien infantry will land. Ishtar was laying on her Maanna besides me. We are ranged fighters, so there is no need to get our hands dirty in the midst of battle. Plus, one of us alone is enough to wipe the Solar System, so why should we all fight?

"Twilight, be a dear and mark all of the enemies."

[I've already done so, dear~.]

God, I'm getting Yandere vibes from her.

[You will never know…]

I shuddered a little, then brought out the Whisper of the Worm. It is basically a weapon from a Hive God, so it's already pretty good in terms of materials. I just applied some quick runes to boost its power and started shooting down those fugly aliens. Ishtar soon started raining arrows from the sky.

"Twilight, fetch me the Phoebus Catastrophe and Antares Snipe skills. Ishtar will love them." I said while reloading. While fighting in the Dungeon, there wasn't really an opportunity for us to test the actual limits of our skills. Now I see that Phoebus Catastrophe would be absolutely fearsome when paired with Ishtar's arrows.

I saw Ishtar stopping for a millisecond before smirking and shooting two arrows in the sky. I also heard the Captain behind me asking what she was doing. Soon, a literal shower of arrows came crashing down on the portal. It was fun because you can't see it from the top, but it's there, so the arrows impact the enemies the very moment they come on this side of the spatial distortion.

I then heard a *thump* behind me, so I turned around. I found motherfucking Iron Man aiming at me. He actually charged his repulsors.

"Cap, mind explaining who our friend here is?" Stark said through his helmet.

"Uh… An ally? It's complicated, so don't shoot him and continue getting rid of the Chitauri." said America's Ass. Oh, sorry: I meant to say Captain America.

"There are no Chitauri to kill. There's this fiery woman with an army of Dragons hunting down the aircrafts and this other cold woman hunting the infantry. Plus that flying woman that is somehow raining down arrows and hitting every single enemy. Honestly, I am afraid that they are much more dangerous than any army." said the newly arrived Thor.

"Yeah, those would be my girls. Hello there, by the way, fake God." I said with a smile, though they couldn't see it through my helmet.

"Oh, well met, man with a strange armor! Am I correct in considering you an ally today?"

"I like the way this guy reasons." I said to the Avengers while pointing at him. He understands the battlefield, that much is obvious. When fighting in intergalactic wars, you gain and lose allies every day, so he is very 'in the moment' regarding this stuff.

"Yes, I am an ally today and probably for some more time after this. I can even repair the Bifrost in Asgard, for a price. We will talk about that later." I returned to shooting down the aliens while they were still in space. What? It's fun, kinda like shooting targets!

I then casually swept a glance to the Stark Tower. I saw a fuming Loki pointing his scepter in my general direction.

"Hey, Thor. Your brother wants to play with me. Mind if I rough him up? Actually, don't answer, I was going to do it either way." I stored my rifle and teleported behind Loki.

The man was confused as fuck when I disappeared, but couldn't even begin to imagine that I was behind him.

I leaned in and whispered: "Enjoying the view?"

Loki turned around while swinging his scepter, so I ducked then gave him an uppercut while controlling my strength.

"Who are you?!"

"I've answered that question too many times already. You don't have to know." I punched his face at a speed he couldn't react to. "This scepter is pretty nice. Do you know how it works?"

"Be damned, Human!"

"I will take it as a no. It has an Infinity Stone inside, you know?" He was stunned for a second, so I gave him a kick on the left knee, forcing him to kneel. "It's the Mind Stone. Something that an uncivilized monkey such as you should never be allowed to even see." I took his scepter and stored it.

"Now that that is done, do you think that you can still win?"

"You have no idea who is behind me."

"Thanos, I'm familiar. He is my prey, but there's still a few years before our meeting." I punched him again, breaking his nose. "I will accept your surrender if it is within five seconds, otherwise prepare for a whole lot of pain and possibly even death. 5, 4, 3-"

"I surrender!"

"Always nice to see… Seriously, an illusion?" He tried layering an illusion of himself to escape, but that is obviously not going to work on me. I grabbed his neck and started twisting his legs in ways that should never be attempted. I could hear his fantastic, delicious screaming and his disgusting, pathetic begging for mercy. "Weakness disgusts me, Loki. And you are very weak." I threw him inside the 'lobby' in the Stark Tower and casted a binding spell on him.

I then teleported to the roof and knocked out Eric Selvig. Putting my arm through the portal generator's shield was pretty easy, considering that I can literally put parts of my body in separate dimensions and can also manipulate reality to a certain extent. I took the Tesseract out of the portal machine and stored it, then destroyed the machine. I have no doubt that Fury would do something stupid like reopening the portal with it. Well, not that he could without the Tesseract, but he might try some other thing which would result in an even bigger mess.

Soon, the portal closed and my girls finished off the last of the aliens. They then joined me on the Stark Tower's rooftop.

"So~… 'My girls', huh~?" said Artoria with a teasing grin.

"What? You were mine the moment I summoned you and started trusting you. And I've long since trusted you three more than anyone in the Omniverse. Moreover…" I trailed off, since it was clear what I meant. Also, this isn't the place I had in mind for such a talk.

"Hm~, right! We are your girls indeed~!" said Ishtar. Did… Did I just skip the confession part? That's no good, but I guess that I can deal with it later. Well, at least I didn't get rejected. That would have sucked, in particular for this damn planet. I would have also brainwashed them, so I am glad that I didn't have to resort to that.

"You know… The Infinity Stones would make for some pretty nice rings for you three. Space for Ishtar, Power for Artoria, and Mind for Jeanne. No, Soul for Jeanne. Hm…" The girls perked up when I mentioned rings, how cute.