Chapter 85: A Fox Familiar

While Ray and Artoria had stayed in a hotel and booked an expensive suite to stay for the night and indulge in pleasures. They were rudely interrupted by the sound of a car crash, an explosion and a panicking crowd fleeing for their lives.

"What the hell happened?" Ray questioned calmly while Artoria had her expression darkened that their night was interrupted.

Walking over to the window and opening the curtain, he saw the city was in shambles and people fighting against what he saw as zombies.

"Seriously, what the heck? Didn't I already avert the Outer God? Did the Outer God-dess strike the city?" He asked but couldn't obtain his answer with mere observation as it requires investigation.

Ray sighed and cleaned himself and Artoria with magic before putting on proper clothes. Looking at Artoria, she nods wordlessly and don her armor and Rhongomyniad before they make their way to the ground floor, killing any zombies that tried to halt them.

"Odd. This outbreak isn't a biological epidemic." Ray concluded as people turned not by spread of virus but a particular energy, the pinkish energy that he saw the Valkyries wield.

Artoria didn't bother to stain the sacred lance and instead commanded the wind and befitting the King of Storm to exterminate the zombies in the vicinity. Ray did the same by borrowing Venti's power.

Looking at the distance, he felt a great amount of this pinkish energy congregate, clashing against each other as if it were a battle. He makes his way there with flight to seek the answer.

———

"This is cheating! How is she this strong!" Kyuusyou complained as the power the Herrscher displayed is way stronger than she supposed to be and even able to actively resist Higyokumaru's brainwashing.

She jumps away as the purple halo behind Mei sends another barrage of thunderbolts to smite Kyuusyou.

"I can't use my power on her either because I want to subdue her…" Kyuusyou wrecks her brain while Higyokumaru tells her about the next incoming attack in the form of sword slashes which she blocks using the Key of Castigation.

Suddenly, golden chains shoot out the ground and bind themselves on Mei and wake Kyuusyou from her brainstorming.

"Interesting, she manages to transform the Gnosis." A man appeared with a knight wearing dark armor and wielding a sinister looking lance.

"Hmn? Greetings." The man suddenly turned his head to Kyuusyou to greet her nonchalantly.

Kyuusyou's face instantly brightens up with zealotry upon seeing Ray, which confuses him as they have never met before. But Ray put it aside and focused on Mei for now.

The golden chain is none other than Enkidu, recreated by him made to suppress power and not just divinity and as expected. She was severely weakened since the Herrscher was recently awakened. More chains appeared to bind her into a roll while she was helplessly trashing to free herself but incapable of breaking the chain with her physical strength.

Nodding as he incapacitated the enemy, he turned to Kyuusyou who was already kneeling on one knee and presenting the black katana in her hands.

"I present to you, my lord. My humble offering."

"Huh?" Ray was petrified by her words and tried his hardest to remember if he ever met this person but failed to recall.

"Ah, of course. I almost forgot to introduce myself." She understood the confusion and stood back up. "I am Houraiji Kyuusyou, the Saviour and your prophet of the new age." She exclaimed grandly.

Ray secretly said in his mind this girl could have a few loose screws in her head. Prophet? Is she some sort of religious fanatic? He asked himself as he remembered that he never re-establishing the religion after the reset since it's a hassle to manage.

He isn't sure how to reply with her expectant gaze looking at me. She is still lifting the katana up to offer to me. I took it since it looked special to inspect it but didn't expect something within it to suddenly invade my mind.

Of course it's futile since I am immune to mental debuffs thanks to Heaven's Feel which include brainwashing. With a quick swipe over the assailant, I caught the spiritual being inside the katana and it turned out to be a fairy? Not sure but she has four flame-like tails and a pair of fox ears.

"Release me you fiend! Release me!"

Her plea didn't go into my ears as I curiously felt the cute and fluffy appendages in bliss.

"Can I keep her?" I muttered.

"Of course, my lord. She is the offering from this world to your appeasement. Hopefully she is up to your liking." Kyuusyou is brimming with joy as she is a step closer to bringing salvation to the world.

Meanwhile, Higyokumaru who is untouchable for as long as she knew due to the nature of her existence without a physical body, finds herself incapable of escaping no matter what she does and she also couldn't corrupt the man with her power as his own is much stronger. Tears came to her eyes as she recalled her sister in her moment of distress.

"Aneki…" She whimpered.

"You have a sister?" Ray tried to be gentle as he rubbed and scratched the fox fairy in his hand.

Perhaps in her distress and acknowledging her helplessness to escape, she resigned herself to her fate and nodded.

"Aneki died 50,000 years ago…" Memories of her sister trying to bring her back to senses but died in her own hand flashes back to her mind as she winces. "Aneki died trying to save me."

Ray was surprised by the fox girl's age but hearing she simply died, he could easily bring her back. He wonders if the elder sister has a fluffier tail.

'Oi oi, Ray. What would your lovers say about you, picking up girls left and right without their consent.'

Quickly I realized my blunder and took a peek at Artoria but she didn't look like she minded. From her body language at least. Since her face is covered with a helmet, I couldn't gauge her expression.

Seemingly understanding my thoughts, Artoria said. "You like you would with a cute cat right?" Which I nodded since I like this fox girl because she is cute and small too.

Now that I think of it, maybe she is a shikigami or something from Shinto's Omyodou branch. Something that I wanted before but never really managed to obtain.

At the side, Kyuusyou chuckles creepily and mutters something about herrscher and pet.

"Ahem, anyway. I can bring your sister back to life. Though, does resurrection work on shikigami? I never tried resurrecting non-humans."

Higyokumaru becomes petrified and looks back at Kyuusyou who smiled back and then Ray. "She isn't lying? You can really bring Aneki back?" She asked while trying to keep her emotions from gushing out. The excitement and anticipation she felt.

"Yes. Though, I need some description to find her soul though." I nodded and searched for the soul as followed the description she was currently giving me.

SAKURA, a MANTIS soldier from approximately 52,000 years ago, died trying to save her sister who turned into Herrscher. What, Higyokumaru is a Herrscher? Anyway, I found the soul and summoned it using Heroic Spirit summoning which works well because she has sufficient deeds that qualify as one.

A bluish white magic circle appeared on the ground and I fed my mana to it before a person appeared.

"Servant Saber answering your summon. Are you my Master?" A long pink haired girl with a long pair of ears. Wearing a white shirt under a blue jacket and a black shorts while holding a katana, ready to draw at any moment.

However, instead of getting an answer. A small fur ball launched herself on SAKURA and tried to hug her as best as she could with her tiny body.

"Aneki! It's really you, Aneki!"

"RIN?"

Leaving the two to reunite, I return to Kyuusyou who still creepily stares at us, mumbling 'according to keikaku' and then looking at Mei which I did too and noticed that the Herrscher had already become dormant.

The surrounding also became silent already as most people would have already turned or fled by this point especially at this epicenter. Oddly, I could see several monsters not zombies but white and pink constructs moving around. Some have wings, some look like a knight etc.

"Those are honkai beasts." Kyuusyou said after noticing what I was looking at. "They are the enemy of humanity, our destroyer that was sent out by the Will of Honkai to cull out civilization."

So, basically enemies right. I turn to Artoria and give her the green light if she wants to fight them. She nodded and gladly accepted it since she needed to still vent her anger.

"There's that…" I said while looking at Artoria going ham on those honkai beasts and zombies, blasting tornadoes at them and leveled the entire block into pieces of masonry.

"Houraiji Kyuusyou was it. Can you elaborate why you call me lord and yourself as prophet?"

Her smile faltered as she looked at me confusedly but she still gave her explanation.

Apparently, she has some sort of clairvoyance that allows her to randomly get a vision from different times. There she saw my involvement with this world, either saving it or destroying it. So, she, as the saviour she claimed, wanted to use this knowledge to guide the present towards me saving the world and preventing this world's destruction in the hand of the Herrscher by literally bribing me as she did with Higyokumaru.

I was speechless of what she had done and also worried about this entity she called the Will of Honkai and dedicated a portion of my mind to searching for it in the Imaginary Tree since it sounded like the Counter Force but on a multiversal scale that encompasses the Imaginary Tree.

"Uhm… Don't worry, I accept your offering and will not destroy the world." But I also didn't say I would try to save this world either. But what she said about the vision does interest me. She said I will lead this civilization to prosper and conquer the stars beyond the solar system.

Our conversation was cut short however. When fleets of warships arrived in the air and sent out mechs, planes and Valkyries. One of them floated close to us and the hangar opened up to a red Valkyrie with a greatsword on her back.

———

"Major, your task is to stall for time until the Immortal Blades arrive." The voice sounded childish and worried.

After all, who wouldn't when they are suddenly alerted by the surveillance that three Herrscher suddenly appeared at the same location. Schicksal, Anti Entropy and the hidden World Serpent are scrambling their personnel to be fielded immediately and fearing for the worst. This is undoubtedly a global crisis.

Himeko, the Valkyrie in red, steeled her mind as this is what she wanted to do. It will cost her life but she must hold the Herrschers back from destroying the world.

"Murata Himeko, deploying." She made up her mind and leaped off the hatch of the Hyperion. Then get close to the group of people which is the Herrschers and a few unknown individuals.

———

"She is coming for us right?" I asked Kyuusyou who nodded.

"Don't worry, we can talk this out and clear the misunderstanding as she and her organization think we are Herrschers that want to destroy the world." Kyuusyou reassured me.

"Higyokumaru, can you hack her battlesuit and disable it when she gets close?" Kyuusyou added.

"Sure, Aneki!" Higyokumaru replied cheerfully as she is currently in a happy mood, able to meet her elder sister again. She had removed all the previous grievances with Kyuusyou from her mind as she helped her to meet her sister.

SAKURA does not know what to do as she is still speechless and baffled by what just happened according to RIN's or Higyokumaru's explanation. However, seeing the destruction brought by Honkai. She knows she must do something and yet the strange knowledge she received from her summoning stated that she should obey her summoner or at least obtain his permission before acting.

—————