"Of course, sir Kazuma! If Lady Dustiness wishes for me to teach you the way of the bow-" one of the envoys started.

"And more besides," another interjected, "we could hardly refuse!"

Tanya continued his pacing while Kazuma learned to use the bow he'd bought in the Crimson Demon Village. Tanya had spent some time grilling Lord Dustiness's envoys on the information they knew about the enemies surrounding Axel, and everyone was working together to pitch some ideas.

The envoys insisted that Lord Ignis had everything in hand, but Tanya asserted that if they had the capability to throw out the vile abominations besides Axel, they should as soon as possible.

He wanted this over quickly to celebrate Viktoriya's birthday tomorrow and before conclusions about his possibly suspect loyalty were drawn.

He wanted to destroy any proof If there was any proof of anything that might implicate him in having colluded with the Demon King.

And, as always, he wanted to ensure they achieved victory with the minimal amount of lost resources and life.

The picture painted by the information they had – pooled from Lord Dustiness's envoys, the Kingdom's general knowledge, and the information Verdia had provided thanks to their deal so many months ago – was surprisingly favorable to the completion of his objectives.

Wolbach is famed for her Explosion and Teleportation magic. Tanya had explained that a demon called Hoost had tried to kidnap Chomusuke because he thought it was her other half, and while Tanya had been growing suspicious of Megumin's lack of challenge to a supposed goddess who used her most famous spell, Kazuma had initiated the questioning that revealed, when the envoys were out of hearing range, that she was the person responsible for Wolbach's release from where she'd been sealed in the Crimson Demon Village.

Regardless of everyone's annoyance and Megumin's sheepishness, Tanya laid out that Wolbach had probably heard about Chomusuke from some minion of Hoost or the Demon King that they had missed. He didn't offer any other reason for why she had come, and besides an invective-filled tirade from Aqua about trying to prove herself to be a real goddess and not some lying evil goddess, no one questioned his assertion.

With Wolbach's motive established and separated from him, they'd gone over the army. The envoys didn't know a lot about it, besides that it was filled with strong monsters who could probably kill any one of them.

While Axel was full of surprisingly strong adventurers, the army outnumbered them several times. Fighting them head on wasn't a viable option. Resurrection, which was supposed to drain the Archpriest using it of mana and be a one time deal, could be abused by Aqua due to her unlimited mana supply and her ability to bully Eris into doing what she wanted. Unfortunately, Tanya felt it wouldn't tip the scales too much, considering it left one feeling weakened for several days.

Besides, Aqua was probably the only person who could stand toe-to-toe with the second obstacle to Tanya's objectives.

Vanir, a Duke of hell. Aqua claimed that meant he ruled a large portion of hell, but she wasn't sure how much the title or 'a large portion' meant. Regardless of the meaning of the title, his power was feared throughout Belzerg and beyond. The envoys claimed that not even twenty Hero Candiddates working together could defeat him, and that was when he was holding back, because he also didn't kill mortals.

That… was lucky, because Verdia's information had claimed he could easily defeat the Demon King and all of his Generals if he felt like it.

As Kazuma finished learning Snipe from one of Lord Dustiness's envoys, Tanya turned to them and bowed his head. "Thank you all for your aid. Continue on your quest, just in case our plan to free Axel fails."

They nodded as Tanya began to walk away with the others – though Kazuma grumbled about not getting to rest for as long as he'd like. Tanya ignored him as secured the hat with his Circlet on his head.

"Do we have a plan?" Megumin asked.

"I'm working on it," Tanya replied as he activated the Circlet, bracing himself for the wave of euphoria…

Only for it not to come. He blinked owlishly and looked down at the ring on his finger and smirked. It seemed it was also blocking out the effects of activating the Circlet! He hadn't even thought about that.

He took out his Adventurer Card and confirmed that, yes, his Luck was still his lowest stat and that the Circlet still sent it shooting straight through the Earth's crust and into the mantle.

"Are you sure we can't just leave? Or wait for Lalatina's Dad to figure things out?" Kazuma asked. Lalatina began to berate him and her friends as they all took turns ribbing her over her name.

Tanya just rolled his eyes. "Summon," he said while holding Alderp's other relic in his hand-

Only for an Orc to appear.

They all stared at each other for five seconds until Tanya shot the thing through both its eyes… only to have to do so a second time when it continued to live.

The others quietly discussed how, exactly, they were supposed to take on two of the strongest of the Demon King's Generals and the army supporting them. Tanya tried to ignore them, only noting that Megumin was quieter than she usually was. Perhaps something had happened when she'd released Wolbach?

It hardly mattered. His first step in the conflict would be to determine whether the Demon King could ensure Being X would leave him alone. If he could offer a better chance than his contract… someone in his position would gladly sacrifice a cat.

He doubted it, but he wouldn't assume anything.

"Kazuma," he snapped, breaking him and his friends out of their banter, "The first thing you four need to do when we get into Axel is to find Chomusuke and protect it."

Kazuma stopped in his tracks. "You're asking me to sit at home and do nothing?"

"Not precisely… you know what? Sure, for a bit," he said. He agreed happily, though the other three disagreed, and Tanya shook his head at their antics as he returned to planning.

If the Demon King could offer a better deal, or he needed to give up the cat for whatever reason, he now knew exactly where to go to get it. Megumin wouldn't be able to fight him since she only knew one spell, and Darkness couldn't hit him if she tried. Aqua's attacks weren't that effective on Tanya, which meant that Kazuma was the only one he'd need to worry about.

He… was a tricky opponent, he would readily admit to that much, especially considering the comical effect the disparity between their respective Lucks had, but if his attempt to convince Kazuma using logic failed, then he'd tag him with a Sleep spell. He might not hit the first few, but Kazuma wasn't known for his fitness and wouldn't be able to dodge forever, especially if he got creative with the spells from his second life.

He looked at the group of four bumble around and argue about the need to help the town…

He turned back to looking at the road ahead of them, burying the twinge he'd felt at the thought of betraying them.

If it was the town and his own life versus the cat, or even the cat versus safety from Being X, he'd sacrifice the cat any day of the week.

Of course, that was all a contingency plan. It was far more likely that the Demon King didn't have the slightest ability to protect him from Being X. In which case…

Well, the picture did look surprisingly good, despite the opponents they were up against. Tanya felt that the main question was how Wolbach would react to being denied Chomusuke.

Getting her to give up or switch sides or just to promise not to harm Chomusuke seemed unlikely if she'd already thrown in her lot with the Demon King. Equally, if Wolbach had decided that the only way to obtain Chomusuke was by sieging the town, then she'd clearly determined that obtaining the cat through subterfuge or less extreme means was impractical.

The thought occurred to him to try and bluff as he had with Hoost… but if it was her other half, was it possible she'd be able to sense it somehow?

Then, if conflict between them was inevitable, could Tanya win?

The army… Mitsurugi was good in a fight, the adventurers of Axel were nothing to sneeze at, and all seven of them were powerful… even if those four could be moronic. More importantly, however, they were here because Wolbach was looking for her other half. If Wolbach died, killing Chomusuke or massacring the adventurers of Axel wouldn't bring her back.

Considering how that fight between Mitsurugi and Verdia had gone at the capital, taking out the Demon King's strongest fighters might send them packing.

As for the other two… Vanir wouldn't kill any mortals, and Aqua claimed she could exorcize him. As long as there were some fresh bodies between her and him, he wouldn't be able to kill her… though, if Vanir learned about Aqua's prowess, he'd undoubtedly avoid her. If he knew why he was attacking…

He shook his head and moved on. For Wolbach…

Tanya was proud of his abilities, but he certainly didn't have the raw power on his own to take on an Explosion-slinging goddess, self-proclaimed or not.

Raw power was not how this battle was likely to be determined, though. Tanya had almost a decade of experience with his own world's magic, as well as several months adapting to this world. If he knew where Wolbach was, putting a bullet through her head would kill her, bullshit RPG logic or not…

Although, the Orc he'd just killed had survived two bullets into its eye sockets.

Then if worse came to worst, he had IMPEDANCE and the Type 95 as trump cards. He sighed internally at the thought of his newest weapon crumbling to ash without being able to figure out how it worked, and using the Type 95 to win would exchange his problems with Vanir and Wolbach for problems with Johanna.

And, if Wolbach gave him the chance, a surprise attack with no chance to fight back sounded like a wonderful way to win to Tanya.

Tanya continued to mull over the facts swimming through his head while the others bantered… though Viktoriya was as silent as the grave, waiting for orders. Who to put where, what strategies to employ, similarities to fights from the history of his first two worlds and his own past.

Slowly, a plan and a smile began to take shape.

-OxOxO-

The question of how to breach the encirclement of Axel was easily solved… technically.

Tanya could fly in, but he and Viktoriya would need to fly everyone else in, and while not impossible, remaining unseen in the middle of the afternoon would be difficult. His Illusion spells wouldn't help against any undead amongst Wolbach's forces, and trying to simply speed by when no one was looking relied on Luck Tanya didn't have and skill with carrying two or three people when traveling very fast that couldn't be developed in a short amount of time.

They also lacked information about other ways to sneak in – they didn't know where undead who could sense them through Lurk or his Illusion spells would be, and they didn't know when the guards would be rotated for a break.

Luckily, Tanya's plan didn't rely on them getting into Axel without anyone being the wiser. Quite the opposite, in fact.

They didn't assault the closest outpost to the trail they were taking – Wolbach's main base was on that road as well – but instead looped around the entire city, as well as the perimeter Wolbach had set up. It took a few hours, but it did give them time to polish the plan to perfection, and for Tanya to spend half of the thirty skill points he had earned yesterday.

"Hello, travelers! What brings you to Axel today? Our apologies for the heightened security, but we're trying to catch a known terrorist."

Tanya beamed up at the armor, not quite sure if it was an undead or some kind of monster he was talking to, but perfectly aware that it was probably sweating at the sight of him. "Did you know that you need to have a permit to build so far outside of town?"

The suit of armor tilted its head, and Tanya grinned widely. "I'm afraid that as Governor of Axel, I'll have to enforce those laws and demolish these buildings. You and your… compatriots have five minutes to leave before it's destroyed."

The thing wearing the armor blubbered for a full ten seconds before jumping into the door behind it and slamming it shut. Tanya shrugged and retreated back outside where the others were waiting.

"We really should have just attacked before they were ready," Kazuma muttered. Tanya shook his head.

"Of course we could have killed them easily. We're trying to send a message," he said as he picked at her nails. He rolled his eyes and Tanya tried not to raise an eyebrow at him.

First Megumin, and now him? Why were they acting so weird?

Probably nerves about going into battle. They weren't exactly soldiers.

The seven of them were silent and tense, waiting for the monsters to come out and face them. In the end, Tanya shook his head at the oddity of his teammates as the enemy group formed in front of them. A few hulking demons were behind the group, and a pair of undead soldiers flanked the suit of armor, whose arms were crossed.

It looked like they wanted to make a speech.

Aqua jumped forward. "Expensive bubbly, here I come! Sacred Exorcism!" she should as her staff fell into her hands.

The group screamed as one, until the light faded and left only the armor. It raised a meek hand-

And Tanya leveled his rifle at the building behind the armor. "Time's up! Enchant bullet: Artillery Shot!"

KABOOM!

She smiled at the burning building and watched as the monster in the armor beat a hasty retreat. Tanya nodded happily and they began to jog towards Axel.

"Add another five milliliters to the tally in your head for your work, Aqua," Tanya said. Aqua smiled while Kazuma jogged a bit faster to catch up to him and whisper in his ear.

"She's not going to kill enough to get a whole bottle," he muttered. Tanya just shrugged. "Then I'll round up. Whatever motivates her to focus on winning instead of waiting to be told what to do."

Kazuma just shook his head. "You sure she's not going to find some way to wreck your plan by being overzealous?"

Tanya shrugged back as a larger group of monsters – the one that had set up a 'training camp' all around the city – came into view, along with the walls of Axel. "No, but there's plenty of room for error in the plan."

He looked, for a moment, like he was going to say something-

"EXPLOSION!"

Only for Megumin to cut off his thoughts with her spell. Kazuma picked her up off the ground and they all continued running forward. Tanya and Viktoriya took a few shots, Aqua cast an Exorcism, and Darkness used Decoy to draw the return fire from the enemies that weren't currently trying to recover from the attack.

They were all panting heavily, but they had made it into Axel.

The guards at the gate were gaping at them, and Tanya merely raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

They scrambled out of the way of the open entrance and Tanya nodded his head in thanks. "Send word to Walter, Gerrard, and Aloerina. Have them meet me at the police station," he ordered one of the soldiers. They gave him a stiff salute and ran off, while their own group also split – Kazuma and his party were headed to their mansion, while Lorelei and Viktoriya would head to the adventurers guild to relay the role they would play in the coming battle and begin setting up defenses.

-OxOxO-

He stared around the room and ignored just how skeptical the looks being sent towards him were.

"Tanya, are you… quite sure you've thought this through?" asked Max. He wasn't actually sure why Walter had brought the child in charge of the Mithril Foundations assembly lines. He didn't have to know the child well to know that that was probably the tamest criticism his plan was likely to receive… and he marveled for a moment about being on the other side of being told a plan he didn't like, which he had quite a bit of experience with during his second life.

"Tanya, are you insane?!" Gerrard was not nearly so diplomatic. "Wolbach is a dark Goddess, and Vanir is stronger than the Demon King himself! Bringing her into the city-"

He ignored his concerns for the moment. "Walter, I've already received the items that were protected from the blast in my Mithril box," he began. Walter nodded along as he began to describe the artillery gun, asking if anything from it had been salvaged.

"Ah, you mean the Biggun?"

Tanya resisted the urge to groan as he sent a withering look at Max. "'Biggun?'"

He nodded, seemingly oblivious to the venom in Tanya's voice. "Yes! It was used in the fight against the Mobile Fortress Destroyer. The adventurers noticed its similarity to your own 'guns' and named it Biggun."

Tanya resisted the urge to sigh and looked at Walter. "It's usable?"

Walter shook his head. "Theoretically… however, we no longer have any ammunition."

Tanya swore. He hadn't known it had even survived the destruction of the Governor's mansion, but it would have been nice to add some more redundancy to his plans.

So caught up in lamenting the loss of that potential resource was he that he almost missed the look sent between Max and Walter.

When had they met, and what for…

He narrowed his eyes as he glared at Walter's. "Walter. You do remember I told you not to tamper with it, yes? And I certainly recall putting instructions in the front of its maintenance manual that it wasn't to be replicated. Do you?"

He opened his mouth, but Tanya dismissed whatever he was about to say. "We will be talking about this later. For now-"

"ATTENTION, AXEL!"

Tanya stilled, as did the others. Luna was using the guild's announcement system.

"WOLBACH HAS DEMANDED THAT GOVERNESS DEGURECHAFF MEET WITH HER. IF SHE DOES NOT, RUINATION WILL BEFALL AXEL, UP- UP TO AND INCLUDING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TOWN."

The others looked to him, and Tanya sighed. "I doubt she would dare to break the treaty… but that army outside could kill quite a few adventurers."

He looked around the room. "Gather your subordinates, and bring them to the entrance facing Wolbach's camp. Work with the adventurers to construct what defensive structures you can within the walls," he ordered Aloerina.

She nodded and left at once, and he turned to Gerrard. "Have your men keep the peace as best they can. Keep people from panicking as best as you can. If the task doesn't require all of your men, send some to back up the adventurers and the guard."

He nodded and left as well, muttering, "It's good to have you back," as he left. He smiled fondly and turned to Walter. "Keep the aristocracy from panicking. Don't let them hoard any of their personal guards if they can spare them. Keep Lord Dustiness appraised of the situation."

He left, but he called out for Max to stay in the room. He seemed incredibly nervous, and Tanya almost forgot that was because they hadn't actually met… and he was happy to keep it that way.

For now, anyway.

"You… I presume Walter has you working on the artil- the Biggun," he corrected himself.

He nodded slowly. "Well, if things go the right way, I'll have you working on quite a bit more than that. We're entering a new era."

"Yes ma'am," he replied.

Twitch.

"It's sir."

He blinked. "Uh-"

Tanya kept his face carefully neutral and raised a single eyebrow. He shut his mouth and muttered, "Sure, sir."

Tanya smiled, feeling oddly… vindicated. "Good. If you have any skills in battle, assist. If you don't, wait it out. Victory will be ours."

They both got up and quickly left the building. Tanya had a meeting to get to.

-OxOxO-

The monster sent to the gates of Axel with the ultimatum from Wolbach at first insisted that Tanya come into Wolbach's camp, which he was completely unwilling to do. He suggested the police station in response, which made the undead's rotting visage twist in what might have been scary to someone not intimately familiar with dead bodies.

It took some haggling – especially because this was just a messenger who was using a Voice-Amp item to communicate through a very long line of a game of telephone – but Wolbach eventually agreed to meet at the largest mansion in town, since it had been for sale for a few years, meaning no one had had any reason to go in and boobytrap it, and even if there was some kind of trap, she could Teleport away.

Tanya had agreed to all of that and was waiting in front of the largest window in the mansion, sipping on some coffee. The stuff he could make wasn't ever as good as the stuff Viktoriya could make, but…

He sighed happily. Despite the stress of the upcoming encounter, a part of him was still thinking about Viktoriya's birthday tomorrow. Just how badly would delaying getting back into the swing of things set them back? Surely not that far.

He heard a noise in her ear and turned his attention to the window to see Wolbach marching down the street, being escorted by police who were keeping most people away from her. Most people shrank away from her, but she saw more than a few brave fools jeer at her. Tanya scowled at the reminder of his first meeting with Being X.

She soon disappeared from Tanya's view through the window, and Tanya scowled as another noise sounded in her ear. That… would complicate things.

Still, things were broadly on track.

It was not long before knocking sounded on the door to the room. Tanya told her to come in, and he smiled widely as he appraised the woman.

She was tall – not taller than Lorelei, of course, but she was taller than Darkness. The goat-horns, the black oval on her forehead, the red hair, and her strikingly colored eyes with the slit pupils told Tanya that this at least appeared to be Wolbach. It wasn't impossible that this was a fake, which would complicate things.

The gray coat she wore seemed similar in design to Wiz's, though the black clothing she had on underneath was much more nondescript.

"Lady Wolbach. Please, take a seat. How… interesting to come back to my city and find it being sieged by the forces of the Demon King. Was he not content with our relationship?" he asked.

Wolbach simply raised an eyebrow as she continued to stand. "I am here on my own mission."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Well, if I'd known you would do… this, and nearly blown the cover of someone in my position, I don't think I would have included that information."

Wolbach's expression grew clouded as she closed her eyes. "It wouldn't have mattered. I didn't even know Hoost was here. The Demon King can be quite the conniving bastard," she spat, and Tanya added another weight on the scale against joining up with him.

She shook her head and opened her eyes. "I am curious about that. Why go through all of this effort, to reach out to the Demon King? Verdia is convinced we need you on our side," she continued.

Tanya sipped his coffee as he considered how to answer. "Part of it was that I wanted to know who would win. The nature of this war and my place in it has meant I have the chance to pick which side I want to join instead of being forced onto one side," he explained. Wolbach hummed noncommittally as Tanya lowered his cup of coffee.

"Mostly, however, I wanted to know if the Demon King could offer me what I wanted. Could you answer the questions I had hoped to ask him?"

She shrugged and went back to closing her eyes. "I suppose."

Tanua smiled again. "I want… safety, from a specific self-proclaimed god."

"'God?'" Wolbach clarified as she raised an eyebrow and opened her eyes, and Tanya nodded. "Yes. I have it on good authority that he's your… former boss?" he said, not entirely sure if being a 'dark' goddess meant she wasn't working for Being X anymore. Wolbach's expression became very confused. "What? But-"

"He claims to be the god in control of the Abrahamic faiths?" he tried again, and Wolbach's expression grew more confused, though a kernel of fear seemed to be growing as well.

Tanya tried not to smile. This was good.

"How- he doesn't have any followers here. This isn't-" she sputtered, until she grew quiet again, staring at Tanya in a new light. "You're not from here."

Tanya tilted his head. "Yes? You didn't know? All Hero Candidates-"

"That lying bastard! Is that-"

Wolbach was fuming, and Tanya couldn't help the glee from the stroke of good fortune. Keeping valuable, relevant information from your subordinates was always a recipe for disaster.

Tanya scowled to himself as he remembered the end of the war. If the general staff had told him about that monster…

Well, it probably wouldn't have changed anything, but-

"Fine, whatever!" Wolbach shouted, and Tanya snapped out of his remembrance. "I'll tell you if you answer some questions of my own."

Tanya nodded absently, while Wolbach… sighed tiredly. "It's very hard to hide from the Divine and Demonic, even on a good day, but… him? There's no way to hide from him. There's a bunch of rules and shit, like how he's not supposed to talk through people who aren't his followers, but if he wants to get to you he'll just… break the rules," Wolbach finished tiredly.

Tanya tried to fight the disappointment building within him from showing on his face. "Nothing?"

"Nothing… well, I suppose you could go to Hell. We don't have influence in Hell, and he won't make deals with Demons," she admitted. Tanya nodded to himself.

Then the Demon King was out.

He almost missed Wolbach's next question. "Where is my other half?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "You mean Chomusuke? To the best of my knowledge, Chomusuke is in the city. Somewhere."

Wolbach closed her eyes and scowled, muttering, "Don't call it that," under her breath.

Wolbach spoke again before Tanya could ask another question. "If you're looking for protection from him… why side with Belzerg? They can't protect you anymore than the Demon King. At least he's taking a stand against Heaven, right?"

Tanya weighed whether to answer the question… but he needed one last bit of information. "Well, how do you think I got here? I have a contract with heaven. If I kill the Demon King, I get one rule free wish."

He chuckled. "I can get a lot of mileage out of a wish if it doesn't have any rules."

Wolbach shivered… and her eyes were still closed. Tanya raised an eyebrow. She was supposedly the goddess of sloth and violence. Was a simple conversation tiring her out?

Tanya asked his question. "Why is Vanir helping you?"

Wolbach's expression became troubled, though her eyes still didn't open. "I… honestly don't know. He still doesn't want to kill mortals. He was turning Keele's dungeon into his own when Wiz found him. He was betraying their promise."

Tanya resisted the urge to growl at how little that cleared things up.

"Besides that," Wolbach continued, "I… think he saw something in that knight's head? He- I suppose he isn't from around here either," she said with a sigh.

Tanya, meanwhile, furrowed his brow. From her conversation with those envoys, she was probably talking about Mitsurugi. What did he know-

Tanya's eyes widened.

Vanir didn't kill mortals, though he did feast on emotions like all other demons. For him to assist Wolbach because of something he saw in Mitsurugi's head…

He was helping Wolbach because of Aqua.

His precise reason for wanting to attack Aqua wasn't exactly clear, but it could be just as simple as the fact that she was a 'goddess' and he was a demon. Tanya would have to hunt down Mitsurugi-

"Where, specifically, is Chomusuke?" Wolbach asked, her eyes flying open.

"What will you do to it?" Tanya asked in return.

Wolbach held Tanya's gaze for a moment, and then she shrugged. "I have to attain my old power. If I don't… I'll eventually fade away and have my existence devoured by my other half."

Wolbach stared expectantly at Tanya, who nodded thoughtfully.

He rose from his chair. "I'm afraid," Tanya began, "that I can't let that happen. You're a general of the Demon King," he said.

"I'll blow up-"

"Oh, you won't. I might have confirmed that Chomusuke is indeed in the city for you, but if you thought you could get what you wanted by blowing up the city, you would have Teleported back to your camp and done it already. Either you aren't confident about destroying wherever in the city it is, or you don't think you could win against Wiz with your full power."

Wolbach frowned and paced towards the window. "You weren't ever going to tell me, were you?"

Tanya shrugged. "Well, if the Demon King had some way of protecting me from that windbag, sure! I'd want you to win, after all. But I didn't think he would, and I really did need to know why Vanir was helping you."

Wolbach… smirked and pointed over her shoulder at the window. "Fine. I have what I came for-"

WOOSH!

The Type 97 burst into life, and Tanya slammed a fist into Wolbach's side before she could finish her words. She flew into the unadorned stone wall and bounced off, and Tanya flew after her. "Now!" she ordered.

Wolbach dodged around Tanya, going through the motions for a spell. Tanya activated his circlet and powered up his strongest Active Barrier.

Wolbach's hand kept going through the motions for her spell, but her eyes widened at the sight of Tanya's spell. "Wha-"

The window shattered, and Viktoriya's Artillery Shot flew through the window and detonated the room.

Tanya didn't like the drain on his Active Barrier, but it held. Smoke billowed through the room for a few moments…

And when it cleared, Wolbach was nowhere to be seen.

Tanya almost let himself believe that meant she'd been killed, but past experience told him not to believe that without something to prove she was gone for good-

"AHHH!"

His head snapped to the window as people began to scream.

"Wolbach finished her Teleportation. She's running through the crowd."

Tanya snarled and stepped towards the window. She'd taken the time to set up a Teleportation anchor right outside the door to the mansion, but why not go back to her-

Her words replayed in Tanya's mind, and she sent out an Observation spell.

Only for his eyes to bulge as he saw Wolbach sprinting towards-

-OxOxO-

Kazuma had really, really liked the plan. What wasn't to like about being able to laze around while things happened that he didn't care about?

Sure, they'd need to go out and fight eventually, but they could finally take a break and didn't even have to think about how to beat people up! All he had to do was listen to Degurechaff. He didn't have to be the ideas guy this time. It was, in all honest, a nice change of pace.

Which was why it hurt something deep in his soul to think – just think – about going against Tanya's plan.

It had started when she'd told those guys who worked for Darkness's father that they had a plan when she didn't, and it reminded him that she- no, he, lied. A lot.

His lies about where he was from had caused Darkness to get the wrong idea when they'd first met, he'd lied to Megumin's parents about who 'Sanzai Ektsu' was, and he'd also lied to the town about the Mage Killer weapon.

Kazuma… had let her do all of that, and hadn't exactly been truthful about his own origins either, and everyone was entitled to their secrets and all that…

But he also remembered her mentioning something about joining the Demon King when she'd first threatened to kill Aqua back when he had first met her- him and Viktoriya.

So. The thought had occurred to him.

If she thought it was for their own good… or even just for her own benefit and not theirs, would she lie to them about their plan?

He got up from the couch in front of the fireplace – and it really was nice to have somewhere permanent to stay – and looked at the other three, sitting at the table and tense.

"Hey. Do you think that if she thought it was for our own good, Tanya would lie about her plan to us?" he asked them.

"Undoubtedly," replied Darkness.

"Without a thought," Megumin concurred.

"Without apology gifts," Aqua grumbled.

They had to head for the adventurers guild anyway, where they were supposed to stay until the fighting inevitably started, so did it really matter if they left early?

And they stood in the crowd watching Tanya and Wolbach debate in that window in that giant-ass mansion?

And Kazuma also just so happened to pick up the Lip-Reading skill so he could tell what they were saying?

…Yeah, it probably mattered. "Farsight," he muttered to himself as they began to converse.

At first, he thought that Tanya was actually going to switch sides because… if he was honest, she terrified the shit out of him and was not someone Kazuma wanted to fight if he could avoid it.

"Kazuma, what are they saying?"

But then, she revealed just why she might switch sides, and Kazuma breathed a sigh of relief when Wolbach said that the Demon King couldn't help her. "Uh, she- he's saying they're not just going to hand over Chomusuke without a fight," he lied, ignoring any other questions they had as he watched the two of them continue to speak.

They kept asking each other questions, and when Tanya refused to answer where Chomusuke was, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, let's go back to the adventurer's guild before-"

Then the two of them started fighting, and the crowd started to scream, and-

KABOOM!

Everyone ducked down in terror at the sudden explosion, besides him and Megumin. They watched as light formed in front of the mansion.

Kazuma's eyes widened as Wolbach appeared, bloodied and panting, but still alive.

And she was running straight towards them.

Then people started running away. Darkness and Aqua got up off the ground as the dark Goddess charged towards them.

Darkness charged forward. "Don't-"

"Hah, as a Crusader of the Eris Cult, it is my duty to protect the people of-"

"Fireball."

A huge ball of fire barreled into Darkness and sent her skipping down the road. Kazuma fumbled with his bad and managed to grab his rope while she sprinted closer-

"Bind!"

"Fireball."

It burned through the rope and they all had to dodge to the side. Wolbach leveled her staff at them… but she froze as she looked at Megumin-

BWWWWWWWWWOOOM!

When an ear-shatteringly loud noise sent her and everyone else still standing to the ground.

Kazuma writhed around and managed to catch a glimpse of both Tanya and Viktoriya floating in the air, wearing ear protection and holding a Voice-Amp. S- he…

He was glaring furiously down at him, which was all the more terrifying because her eyes were also glowing.

The noise stopped, and Kazuma still couldn't hear anything. He managed to look around to find the others were all groaning, while Wolbach was still writing around. He tilted his head- there was some sort of glowing white blob sitting over her eyes. It hurt to look at, so he guessed-

"TELEPORT!"

And then she was gone, and Tanya flew down and began to cuss them out.

-OxOxO-

She couldn't see. She'd gotten away thanks to her Teleport scroll, but she still couldn't see.

Her hearing wasn't much better, but she did manage to scream the names of her lieutenants. They were probably concerned. She was stumbling around, trying to steady herself by gripping onto the table of her command tent.

But she didn't care.

She had sensed it. Her plan to sense where her other half had worked better than she'd expected.

She'd even seen the mangey fleabag her other half had been reduced to.

And she'd also seen that girl.

She shook her head at whatever her minions were probably trying to say. "Being the assault. Have that doll brought to me."

She was furious. It had been right there, so close-

But… that glowing wall… it must have been some kind of shield, and whatever she'd done to her hearing and her vision…

Wolbach wasn't much smarter than the average Goddess, but she'd thought that shield, that kind of magic, was supposed to be impossible.

It- it didn't matter. If she threw Vanir at the problem, he could at least keep her distracted until she got that cat.

She felt something earthy being pressed gently against her arm, and she ripped what had better be Vanir's doll and shouted at it. "Vanir, I need your help."

She didn't hear anything for a moment, and then something made of glass was pressed against her arm. She took it and chugged it down, her stance becoming less shaky as she regained her vision and hearing from the potion.

"…bach? Wolbach? Have thou lost half thy senses for being a Half-a-Goddess for too long?"

She bit back a reply. "Have you? I said I need your help!"

"Verily! Answer mine question: didst thou see a woman wearing blue whose beauty might be said to be incomparable?"

She blinked. She… had, hadn't she? Standing next to that girl-

"Yes, but-"

"Wonderful! Thou shall have mine full might in thee's battle!"

And with that, the doll turned back into dirt, covering the table she had been using for planning.

Even when he was helping her, he was infuriating.

She shook her head and took up her staff once again. "Whatever. Fetch the manatite- I'm blowing a hole through their goddamn wall for starters!"

Soon, very soon, she'd be whole again…

No matter who she had to beat to get there.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

A/N 2: Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, and Blackeagle91 for supporting this story and everything else I write.