Revelations

As I approached the base of the mountain, I stopped dive-bombing around a hundred meters away from the ground to slowly glide over to Katherine's side.

"Well?" The scarred man asked immediately after I touched the ground.

He seemed like the no-nonsense type, so I just as abruptly responded, "If you're looking to raid the Fortress, I'd give you sixty-forty odds in your favor of successfully killing all the Orcs in there."

"What if I told you we've all been rated as Greater B Ranked for years, now?" Tebolt asked.

"It wouldn't change my assessment," I bluntly said. "After all, since I recently evolved, even when I can't accurately appraise the strength of most entities higher than B Rank, I've gained this quirk in my vision that more or less lets me visually perceive the Rank of any object I come across."

"Not to dismiss you guys and your strength, but..." I concentrated on the overwhelming pressure cascading off their bodies and compared it to 'the' most threatening energy signature I'd caught while scouting, "The Devil Orcs have something somewhere around your level."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the black-cloaked man literally gestured for a timeout. "You want to maybe run that back again? Did you say 'Devil Orcs?!'" He and all the others, Katherine included, reacted rather intensely.

"Yeah," I nodded not knowing what all the fuss was about. "I counted no less than twelve Devil Orc Elites of various different Classes before descending."

"...Is there a chance you were mistaken?" Tebolt nervously swallowed.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" I said before fumbling for a couple seconds to put together a Tier 3 Relay Spell.

Once it was fully functional, I wasted around a fifth of my Magic Reserves sharing a small recording of my flight over the Orc Fortress with Tebolt and Katherine; the former, because he had been the one to teach me the method of establishing the mental link required for the Spell to work, and the later, because she had the highest chance for my Spell to be successful on.

"This… this is terribly, horribly, disastrously bad," Tebolt grimaced as he spoke lower and lower in tone.

While his niece started quaking in her boots in a literal sense of the phrase, he continued on to look at his fellow male comrades and said, "Nova's Relaying Spell fragmented, but from what I could garner of the pieces in his recording, there most certainly are Devil Orcs hidden within the fortress. Even from nearly ten kilometers away, I could clearly make out sheathed wings and nascent horns forming on the twelve Orcs he mentioned."

"Well at least we figured out the mystery of how and why they were able to cross hundreds of kilometers to wipe out those villages," the black-cloaked man half-heartedly said in a terrible attempt at uplifting the suddenly dreary atmosphere.

"Armond! Now is not the time to play around, you imbecile!" The scarred man hissed. "Do you not understand the gravity of the situation?! If the bird and Tebolt are right, we've just come across the first piece of evidence suggesting that a new Greater A Rank Devil has ascended somewhere in the world!"

"Would you relax for just a second?" The now-named Armond shot the scarred man a queer look. "I mean, it's not like that Greater A Rank Devil is anywhere near us. It would have killed the lot of us within the hour of us approaching a ten kilometers distance to its lair."

"What part of that is supposed to make me relax?! That just means it's been intelligently biding its time, setting up multiple bases around the world if all's been quiet until just now!"

"Both of you, quiet down for a second," Tebolt grimly said as he started casting the most advanced Spell I'd seen so far.

Three… Four… no, five layers of Communication-type Magic Circles were inscribed in under a second before the Spell stabilized and started glowing dimly.

"Tebolt? I really wasn't expecting a call at this time, but I could go for a break," the voice of a man came through the Spell Seal.

"Grizwald..." Tebolt solemnly said before pausing for a second, "Apologies in advance for ruining your break, but I'm going to have to ask you to immediately report to the Guild that my party has found evidence of an emergent Devil of at least Greater A Rank. Our mission has led us right into a Devil Orc Fortress way out to the Gendrant Mountain Range near the southern edge of the continent."

For a time, the man connected to the Communication Seal remained completely silent. So silent was he, that I could actually pick up on the muffled sounds of an active city — what I assumed to be his current setting — coming through the seal.

"I guess it has been quite a while since we last had a Great War," Grizwald eventually said. "Damn… We were just starting to recover our reserves of A Ranks since the last one, too," he sighed.

"But, I digress," Grizwald said. "Anyways, see to it that you destroy the Fortress as soon as possible. I assume it is within your capability considering the nonurgency in your report. You have the element of surprise, right?"

"That's right. Your daughter was a vital part in getting us the information as it was her Tamed Beast that scouted the Fortress from above and confirmed to us the existence of Devil Orc Elites," Tebolt said.

"Is that so? Well, praise her for me before you go take out the Fortress," Grizwald begrudgingly said, "I'd ask you to send her back before you went on to complete the mission, but I'm afraid we might lose what little advantage we currently have if you waste so much as a second. If only we still had an A Ranked Space Mage," he sighed.

"Anyway, just keep her nearby until you finish your mission. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the many B Rank and C Rank danger zones along the path back to Violeteast City. If you fail in your mission..."

"I know, brother-in-law. I know..." Tebolt grimly said.

"Well, I've got that urgent report to fill out and news to spread. Be well on your way, and good luck... To all who may be listening," Grizwald said before the communication seal cut off.

"You heard the Guild Leader," the scarred man said. He turned to Katherine and withdrew his meters-long claymore as he said, "Stay here until we return."

"Wait," I said, stopping them as they started to turn away. When they did and gave me their attention, I flinched subconsciously as my instincts practically screamed at me to fly away. I tried to ignore the feeling as I said, "Before you go, let me try to send Tebolt some more images."

"The reason I gave you sixty-forty odds of successfully raiding the Fortress is because of various things that my vision rated as high-Ranking which I couldn't identify. But maybe you could tell what they are and exactly how much of a threat they might pose in the hands of the Devil Orcs," I said as I finished stabilizing another Tier 3 Relaying Spell.

When Tebolt nodded, I used the spell on him and only sent images instead of a recording. I imagine the reason my earlier attempt at sending a recording failed was because of my lacking proficiency with the Spell. I mean, even if it was just a visual recording with none of my other senses included, it was the qualitative difference between a picture and a video.

"Hmm," Tebolt closed his eyes to ponder for a moment before he said, "The objects in question are the ones faintly glowing, right?" When I nodded, he said, "In that case, we should be completely fine. From what I saw, most are just raw natural treasures; spiritually enriched ores, hundred or thousand-year-old herbs, some of which, I'll admit, would be quite useful for people of our level."

"Oh, uh… Ok then. Just, keep in mind that I couldn't get a read on some of the high-Ranked entities hidden inside the Fortress' core buildings," I said.

"Don't worry. We should be fine," He said as he waved his hands and summoned a literal army of Wyverns. Like, no less than a dozen B Ranked land dragons with hundreds of C Rank minions, each of which probably possessing the firepower to give me a run for my money.

Next to him, Armond's hands grew fuzzy for a second even with my ridiculous eyesight as he did 'something' which suddenly made his already-intimidating aura seemingly physically manifest into death incarnate. A visible pressure of darkness washed over him as the world around him started to distort.

Lastly, the scarred man shot Tebolt a look as he raised his hand over to the edge of his claymore. When Tebolt nodded, he ran his hand down the length of the blade, spilling his blood all over it before Tebolt casted a Healing Spell to cure the 'surface wound.'

In all honesty, despite Tebolt's army and Armond's horrifyingly concentrated pressure, it was actually the scarred man and his unassumingly bloodied sword that instilled in me a most primordial sense of existential fear. As if against the three of them, his otherwise bland preparations made him the most dangerous of the three.

'Is this what Greater B Ranked people are like?' I thought to myself as I watched the three of them quickly disappear up the mountain. Tebolt atop of a wingless dragon, the one that had spoken to me earlier, kept pace with the other two men who moved about as quickly as I did while dive-bombing; yet they were all almost offensively casual about it.

Accelerating to levels of g-force no normal human back on Earth could have possibly survived, after calling on various powers that I imagine were capable of eradicating entire cities… each. And they were only B Rank?

I really had my work cut out for me, didn't I?

Welp, that only served to hype me up. So, I turned to Katherine and said, "So uh, you need me for anything else?"

She seemed lost in her thoughts as she didn't react to my question. When I asked her again, she remained almost catatonic, so I poke at her with my wings until she woke up.

"Huh? Nova?"

"Are you good?"

"No..."

"Er, Why?" Her honesty surprised me, considering that the culture in my previous life dictated that it was rude for people to respond like that even if they weren't "fine."

"I just never imagined I'd have to live through a Great War. But now that I know for sure that there is a Greater A Rank Devil somewhere out there..."

"I don't really get why this would upset you. I mean, aren't you already working for a guild to fight monsters for a living? What difference does it make if now you just have to fight against some devils?"

"There are no remaining Greater A Rank humans," Katherine frowned. "There are a couple of Lesser and Standard A Rank humans, but they're scattered across the various continents, allied to the different governments. If a Great War were to break out… I just hope it doesn't end like the last one where all the world's powers waited until they were on their last legs before they got together to perform the Summoned Heroes Ritual."

Summoned Heroes… Ritual?!

What!

Wasn't I supposed to be the Otherworldly Protagonist to Munich's story? Why the hell were others allowed to…

Actually, now that I think about it, Munich never mentioned anything about there 'not' being others like me in this world. I was just his representative, specifically.

I can't believe I never considered the possibility of there being others like me!

Though… Can there even be multiple Otherworldly 'Protagonists?' Could it be that I'm the only legitimate one, seeing as I'd be the only one with the identity of being a vassal to a literal god? The rest coming from the paltry magic of, at best, some A Rank Mages.

There was always the possibility that I'd die along my journey before becoming the strongest thing alive in this world. So, now I was at a loss as to what I should believe.

I mean, if these 'Summoned Heroes' are anything like the trope I'd been obsessed with in my past life — and Katherine's thoughts towards them heavily suggested as much — they would come into this world with a bunch of cheats!

I'm just a rapidly evolving and self-aware, if otherwise completely normal, Tamed Beast!

How the hell am I going to compete with people brought into this world with cheats?!