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Chapter 18

Colbert POV

The Valliere family was incredibly surprised at them turning up; it appears news of the academy vanishing had spread far and wide, the Duke and Duchess nearly had a panic attack from seeing them. The mansion was in frenzy as servants helped bring the tired students to a room where they could rest, Colbert was invited by the entire Valliere family to tell them everything that had happened.

"…So, after weeks of waiting, were finally able to come back to this world, but I'm afraid I was unable to stop young Louise and young Siesta from being taken by those people." Colbert said, it was difficult telling this family that their daughter is still missing after giving them a tiny bit of hope. The second eldest Valliere sister seemed like she was going to faint, while the Duchess was furious at those who took her daughter.

"It must be hard for you Professor Colbert; we would report this to the Queen immediately." The Duke tried to comfort Colbert, but he could see that the Duke is deeply worried himself, in fact the bags under his eyes shows that he had not been sleeping well for a long time.

"I take it many things must have happened while we were gone." Colbert asked, he wanted to know what happened after the academy was gone, how did all the nobles react.

"Many indeed, far too many, but now may not be the best time. You should rest professor; there is much we need to do." The Duke was interrupted when a maid opened the door in a hurry.

"My lord! My lady! Mistress Louise is back!"

"What!" The Duke shouted as the entire Valliere family and Colbert rushed towards the front door of the mansion. From a distance, he could already hear Louise's voice, as they reached the front door they saw the young Valliere and Miss Siesta. The two of them appears to have ran (or flew) in a panic as their hair was a mess and they were sweating greatly.

"Louise!" The Valliere family ran forwarded and hugged their daughter; Louise was also in tears as she rejoiced at the reunion.

"Mother, father, big sis Eleonore, big sis Cattleye! I missed you all so much, I was so afraid I might never see you all again." Louise said as she cryed.

"There is something more! We need to speak to the Queen as soon as possible, the world is in danger!" the reunion was broke off as Siesta shouted in a panic, Louise seems to realize that there is something much more urgent stopped her tears and hug. The tone of Siesta's words frightened Colbert, deep in his mind; he could feel that this entire thing was far from over.

"We saw Yumemi build a giant device in our world! She is going to turn our world into a replicate of Gensokyo! We have to everyone right now before it is too late!" Those words chilled Colbert hearts, visions of when they ran through the forest being chased by the monsters of night came back full force. From the slightly confused face of the Duke and Duchess Colbert could see that they do not understand the horrifying implication of this news. Colbert could not blame them, as only those who being there knows what it is like.

"Lord Valliere we must get this news to the queen immediately! There is no time to lose!" Colbert shouted in a panic, Louise seemed a bit relieved that someone else understands the graveness of the situation. Seeing this panic reaction, the Duke commanded the servants to prepare the horse and carriage.

"We would accompany you, I do not know what our daughter had seen, but if it is a threat to our country we must prepare for it." The Duchess said to Colbert.

"I fear what is to come might be too great for us all." Colbert said pessimistically, it appears that there would be many sleepless nights to come.

Henrietta POV

"Princess Henrietta, are you sure that this was everything you know? It is vital that you tell us what have happened at Albion so we can sort this problem out." General Gramont is the fourteenth person that has came to Henrietta's room since her imprisonment. Henrietta just looked at the general with sincere eyes and repeated the same lie she had been repeating ever since she got back.

"I don't know general, I said it already, a giant light appeared and destroyed the Reconquista. I have no idea where it is from, but I took the chance to scare the Reconquista in to surrendering. All this goddess story is just rumors spread by the soldiers." Henrietta wasn't sure whether General Gramont buys into this story or is he knid of suspicious just like all those before him. After all, if only one person is calling Henrietta "The goddess of Albion" then it might be just a rumor or superstition, but if all the survivors of the army are calling her "The goddess of Albion" it become way harder to convince people that nothing happened.

This had been a headache for Henrietta ever since she got back. With the power to fly, the journey had been quite swift; she took care of her hair and cloth to look more natural and hid the mill on her body. When she first returned, people were worried sick and thrilled to find her, they bombarded her with questions on where she went and what she did. Wanting to bury the past, Henrietta told the half truth that she went to Albion to help prince Wales against the Reconquista, and through divine intervention of the Founder Brimir they prevailed. There were a couple parts like the giant ball of light that came out of nowhere and wiped out the enemy ships that were hard to explain, but by pretending that she doesn't know where it come from and that it might be the founder responding to their prayer, the her mother and the other subjects did not press further. For the next few days, everything went on normally, as if nothing had ever happened, until today.

This morning messengers from Romalia came saying that they wish to speak to the Queen regarding a great matter. When Henrietta heard the news, she felt puzzled since Romalia usually don't meddle in a lot of things unless it involved the Founder Brimir. Despite this Henrietta had a bit of bad feeling about this, when she saw the person that came, she realized how severe it is. The person was no other than Vittorio Serevare, the current pope of Romalia, and accompanying him are a blonde boy and some elite looking guards.

"Sorry for our sudden appearance, Queen Marianne, but there is some great matter that needs to be discussed." Vittorio looked slightly distressed, which doesn't seem to fit his youthful look.

"It's okay, Romalia is our friend, there is no reason we would not welcome you. What is it that you need?" The Queen asked.

"The first thing is the prayer book of Brimir, I'm sorry that I can't tell you what I need it for, but I swear it is necessary for the good of Halkeginia." The pope said, his voice does sound like he is telling the truth, but there is just something suspicious about him. Henrietta can't tell what, but her heightened senses tell her that the man is not completely trustworthy. Really, she felt she had changed a lot, when she was still normal she wouldn't be able to sense something like this, but now it was as though the world change, so much more information is forcing themselves into her head.

"If it is the decision of the church, then it is fine, is that all?" The queen asked, the expression on the pope's face seemed to soften a bit, at least according to Henrietta's eyes; the man seemed to have achieved his main objective.

"No, there is one more thing; on my way here I have heard a wide range of rumors coming from Albion regarding Princess Henrietta." At that moment Henrietta's heart nearly stopped, time itself seemed to have moved slower. All the Tristain nobles seemed surprised, but not Henrietta, she knew what was coming it was what she feared the most.

"The soldiers of Albion say that Princess Henrietta single-handily destroyed the Reconquista, some are even proclaiming that Princess Henrietta is a true goddess while others are saying the Princess used powerful elf magic." The pope's words sent all the nobles and even the Queen in to quite a shock, this utterly destroyed Henrietta's ideal world. She should blast the pope into a puddle, for his damn…No, wait! What was she thinking! For a moment rage overtook her mind and placed dark thoughts in her mind, she need to get a better control of her emotions, or with her current power something terrible might happen.

"Is this true, Henrietta?!" Her mother's word brought her back to reality and she answered almost on reflex.

"No, that is impossible, it was just a misunderstanding, a miracle happened that wiped out the Reconquista's main force, so I pretend to have done it to get the Reconquista to surrender." Henrietta explained, while trying to keep her face blank, Vittorio was staring intensely at her and Henrietta was certain that if she shows even a trace of lie this man could sniff it out. The staring felt forever to Henrietta, but finally the pope broke eye contact, uncertain whether the man felt anything, Henrietta kept staring at the man.

"Regardless, it is indeed a big problem if such a cult spread all over Albion, so for now Princess Henrietta should stay put. We will stay at Tristain for a few days, perhaps we will figure out how to solve this problem later." After saying that the Pope left, but the seed of doubt had already been spread amongst the nobles of Tristain. Seeing this is not a good time to speak with others, Henrietta left for her room and that's where she had been for the rest of the day. Occasionally someone like General Gramont come and ask whether that is everything she knows, and her reply is always the same. It had been a quite tiring day mentally, the thought that she must deal with a religion dedicated to her made her wish she didn't do it overboard when she was fighting the Reconquista. Really this is a bad day for Henrietta.

Vittorio POV

"What do you think the princess is hiding, Julio?" Vittorio asked his familiar, from earlier eye contact with the princess, Vittorio could see she was lying. But his information on the Albion rebellion isn't enough, since his main objective this time was the prayer book, so he is working off of rumors and regular spies.

"Perhaps the rumors of her knowing elf magic is true, she is more tense than any other lady I met. But even so I never heard of elf magic that is this potent being cast by one elf, let alone a human." Julio answered with his opinion, Vittorio felt for a moment tired that there is even more things to worry about. They would have to arrange someone to spy on the princess to find out everything she is hiding and whether she is a threat to the church. On the bright side they finally were able to get their hand on the prayer book of Brimir, one of the four items related to void magic.

"Vittorio, this is way too risky, perhaps we should find the other two unknown void magic users before attempting this." Julio warned Vittorio in a manner that is uncommon for him, his carefree mask nearly never fall off, but this time the danger is greater than ever before.

"I have to, something terrible came to Halkeginia from another world, and I must know what it is." And for this they needed the four items of the void to boost Vittorio's void magic, scrying.

Romalia had a secret that is kept by the top of the church, they know that another world exist, kept within the vaults of Romalia lies weapons that came from that world. It was kept in hope that the Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God, would one day wield them. With the void magic scrying, Vittorio had looked many times into this other world, towers of glass taller than any in Halkeginia, weirdly dressed people taking horseless carriages. At least that was all he could see before a couple weeks ago…

That day he was observing using scrying once again to look into the other world, everything was normal until suddenly the scenery wavered. At first he thought he made a mistake in the magic, but suddenly the scenery exploded shifting rapidly between multiple scenes, scenes that he never saw before. One was a city similar to the one he saw before but also so much more different, the towers are even higher and interconnected like a spider's web, cold steel replaced the beautiful glass, and giant metal behemoth replaced the horseless wagons. Another scene was what could be described as hell, the entire world was filled with flames, tormented man and woman walked on a grass field with grass as sharp as a knife, blood seeped from their bodies coloring everything red, screams of agony and despair rang loud and far. More and more world were rapidly shifting through Vittorio's scrying as he try to keep the spell under control, it was like wrestling with a sail in a rainstorm. Finally the scrying was under control, showing only one scene, it was one of the steel behemoth like the one in the first scene, but this time below it lays a field of grass and despite being far Vittorio could recognize the building below it, it was the Academy of magic in Tristain. Feeling tired from wrestling with the magic, Vittorio could not continue, and the scene faded with the magic.

That last sight deeply disturbed Vittorio, in fact the only thing that disturbed him more than that was when he learned of the wind stones that lay beneath Halkeginia. His mind was in a storm of confusion, what were those scenes from before, other worlds? Illusions caused by magic? And the last one, did something come to Halkeginia from another world?!

He wasted no time, as soon as he recovered, he cast scrying to try to see what he saw before. However, things didn't go as planned at first, as all he saw was the regular glass towers, feeling distressed he try to remember the feeling of wrestling with the out of control magic. After a couple tries he felt his magic was 'bending' as it reached out, reaching deeper until finally he hit something. It was one of the scenes that rapidly speed past the out of control magic from before, the giant metal behemoth from before laying within a forest, one that felt more sinister and creepy than any other he seen before. But no matter how hard he tries he could not make show the inside of the behemoth, it was as though an invisible wall is blocking him.

It became common for him to try to observe this strange world, the metal behemoth stayed on the forest ground for a few days, then one day he saw the thing lift up and then disappeared into thin air, immediately he felt the same out of control feeling as before. The scenery once again rapidly shifting between many sights, one of which was the metal thing appearing once again in a part that appears to be a mountain in their world, before violently dying out again. After that, Vittorio sent out many people to listen to rumors about such a thing, but what he got was beyond what he was imagining. First there was the disappearance of the Academy of magic in Tristain, then there was the disappearance of the Lagdorian Lake, with the timing matching the times he saw the giant metal thing enter their world. At that point, he knew he have to take action right now and forget about the other two unknown void users right now. Something terrible is happening in Halkeginia and that thing could be the harbinger of it all.

He made journey towards the place of the only other void item he could access was kept, and on the way here he heard the rumors of the Reconquista defeated by the goddess of Albion, Princess Henrietta. Which adds another strange thing that had happened to the list, Vittorio felt he must do what he can as soon as possible.

So now with the prayer book before him, Vittorio opened it, and before him words appeared in the prayer book detailing another spell.

"The world gate, record, and perceive."

Sheffield POV

Sheffield kneeled before Joseph, deeply ashamed of her failures. With Cromwell's death, their plan had been postponed, she couldn't even retrieve the ring as it was buried under god knows how much trash and water. She cursed Princess Henrietta for making her look bad in front of her master, but she has no way to get her revenge. She saw the Princess's power on the ground herself, the only thing that might rival it was perhaps a mix of Firstborn magic and Void magic, both require a lot of preparation.

Sheffield expected Joseph to be angry at her, but his expression was the same as before, just a blank emptiness. He told her to find someone who can monitor the princess and that was that. Sheffield wasn't sure she should feel relieved or sad that her master's heart remains an empty void. She hoped that their next plan would bring back Joseph's heart, but deep down she doubt it herself.

Luctiana POV

"Let's go now, Ari." Luctiana told her Fiancee, Ari is still packing supplies and weapons, he seemed a lot nervous than before, but Luctiana wouldn't blame him. Nephthys is sending out every elf that is willing towards the direction of the human kingdoms.

It began weeks ago, when some of their magic began to falter or go out of control, it was occasional and temporary, so despite some worries nothing serious seem to go wrong. Then a few days later, the spirits of the land that they contracted screamed of something truly terrible, they screamed of a destruction of a spirit. The after that the spirits seem to tell news more and more horrible, they tell the tale of something alien and wicked striking deep into the land, alien things that are out of this world. The council immediately gathered all they could to try to find the source of this disturbance, and according to the spirits the disturbance came from the direction of the kingdom of man.

Luctiana and Ari of course volunteered to participate, partly because of Luctiana's curiosity of humans. Luctiana was very excited for this journey, but Ari seemed worried.

"Luctiana, I'm not sure that you should go, this is potentially extremely dangerous. You seen how the spirits are reacting, the best of our people are being sent out to seek out this disturbance." Typical of Ari, Luctiana thought to herself, Ari is sometimes over-protective of her.

"I'm no weaker than you Ari, its fine, and besides such a chance might not come again, a chance to venture into the kingdom of humans. I can research about them like never before, and perhaps come to understand them better."

"Understand the savages? There isn't much to understand." Lucitana signed at this typical response, this is one of the things she wishes her society could change a bit.

"Maybe you'll understand during this journey, come on, let's go." With that the two elves left their home and joined on the elf armies journey westward, uncertain of what's to come.

Yumemi POV

The sky had gotten dark, by the time Yumemi had finished rearranging the scraps of her ship.

"Yep, sorry folks, took a while to salvage the main research chamber, control chamber and the quantum jump drive, thank goodness I reinforced those three things since last time Reimu kicked my ass." Yumemi said to her audiences, who have finished dusting themselves after coming out of the craters. Other than Marisa who went back to Gensokyo, everyone else is here, Yumemi should thank her for bringing a couple of additional guests if it wasn't the fact she need to have her ship fixed again. A couple of the guests such as Seija seemed so bored of waiting that they fell asleep, can't blame them, since everything would have been down hours ago if they didn't fall from the sky.

"Get on with it; I need to be back at Mugenri before midnight!"

"Alright, alright! Wearehereonthisgloriousdaytowitnessagreatfeatdoneandtoengravemynameintothehistoryofdevelopement, now then, START THE MACHINE!" Yumemi rushed the short speech as Chiyuri inputted the start code into the control panel. And like the loud bellow of a monster, the giant machine began sucking the rich magic mineral beneath them. The ground surrounding the machine lit up as magic energy pulsed through the ground, like a bloodstream, towards the machine. Then with a massive whoosh, a massive dark blue cloud came out from the top and side of the machine.

Storm clouds formed in the sky, blocking out the stars and the two moons, thunders filled with magic power rang in the clouds. On the ground, the massive magic cloud was dense like a sand storm ravaging through the ground, instantly consuming where the spot that Yumemi and the others are at.

"Yep, kind of feels like home alright." One of her Guests remarked, well that means I succeeded, Yumemi thought to herself.

"Well, thank you all for coming, I have Chiyuri hook our video feed to your TV, if you have one; If you don't, we'll have the Tengu Delivery Express send one to your place. Thank you again for funding Okazaki research foundation, have a nice day." Saying the standard words, the Guests began leaving in whatever way they came. Soon only Chiyuri and Yumemi are left standing there.

"I guess we need to have the remaining robots carry the chambers and the drive onto the machine right?" Chiyuri asked, getting ready for the next work that's coming.

"Yeah, good thing we had the machine built with all the necessary rooms, so with the ship gone, everything could still continue as planned." Yumemi said, she was thankful for Chiyuri's foresight, without her, Yumemi might be forced to postpone everything until her ship is fixed.

"Now then all that's left is to wait." Yumemi said, while shooting a newborn fairy appearing from in front of her.

"And guard." Said Chiyuri as she prepared her weapon as well.

Author's words:The storm comes, it sure took long. The elves are moving towards the kingdom of man, Gallia is continuing their canon plan, Albion is starting their own religion, Germania I have no idea, Tristain is getting caught in the middle of it, Marisa is off to get help for Louise, Yumemi is just doing what she want and showing the middle finger to everyone else and Otohime just wants to see the clusterfuck. Sounds like a recipe for chaos and destruction, hooray. Once again sorry for my horrible writing, and uncertain update.